The best explanation that I have read as to how trance mediumship works came from Rolf Little (below) as communicated through the trance mediumship of Gladys Osborne Leonard to his mother, Nelly Little, after his death during World War I.
As psychical researchers came to understand, very few spirits have the ability to communicate directly through a trance medium. Thus, a medium, called a “control,” is required on their side as well in order to facilitate the communication. Mrs. Leonard’s control was called “Feda” for short, said to be Leonard’s great-great grandmother, who had died around 1800. She would take over Leonard’s entranced body and relay the message from the spirit communicator to the sitter, in this case, Nelly. In effect, there were four parties to the communication – Rolf and Feda in the spirit world and Gladys Osborne Leonard (below) and Nelly Little on this side. Rolf would telepathically communicate a message to Feda, who would interpret what he had to say, then relay it through Leonard’s vocal cords to Nelly Little. Rolf likened the control to a typist and the brain of the medium to a keyboard.
“Now, you’ll ask, ‘In what way is the brain like a keyboard for the control?’ Rolf continued. “It’s different in this way. Instead of representing separate letters, it represents words – whole words – ideas – different emotions – in fact, you can run the whole gamut of human experience and sensation upon it…Here we have the medium’s brain and we have the control hovering over the medium, the communicating spirit adjacent. Now, the control knows that there is a spirit there, wishing to send messages through her. She thereupon brings her power to take control over the medium’s consciousness – the medium having prepared herself by becoming as passive as possible.”
When Nelly asked for further clarification, Rolf told her that it might take five minutes or 20 minutes for the medium to achieve trance and for the control’s spirit to be drawn into the physical organism of the medium. When it is drawn in, the medium’s spirit is temporarily ejected, although still connected by the vital cord. “Her spirit may travel and have some wonderful experiences of its own on the spirit planes, or it may hover two or three yards away from her body,” Rolf explained. “This medium’s spirit, I have noticed, is usually close, about two or three yards roughly…It looks very much like her own body, only not so solid, because it is still connected by the vital cord, and a certain amount of the power is running away from the spirit through the cord into the body. If the spirit were disconnected by death, it would become more solid, that is, more tangible, because it would not need to put the life force into the body but would keep it with itself.”
Leonard was able to achieve the trance state within a matter of minutes on most occasions, but there were times when she failed completely and no phenomena resulted. Her failures were apparently the result of her not feeling well, having too much stress, or antagonistic forces being present. Complete harmony and passivity were required for good results.
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