More on Flint

I figured that before ordering another book about Leslie Flint, I would check my own fairly large collection of paranormal literature to see if he was covered in any of the books I already own. Admittedly, many of these books are too specialized to touch on Flint's mediumship; I wouldn't expect a book devoted to near-death experiences, for instance, to talk about a direct-voice medium. Even so, I was surprised to find Flint mentioned in the index of only one book (other than the Neville Randall book I discussed in my last post).

It would appear that Flint does not occupy a particularly prominent position in parapsychological studies, despite his own claim of being the most tested medium in history.

The one book I did find was Is There an Afterlife? by the late David Fontana. As the subtitle (A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence) suggests, the book is a compendium of cases relevant to the question of life after death. Pages 233 through 237 cover Leslie Flint. Here are some excerpts:

So strong and consistent were the voices that Flint soon attracted the attention of researchers, and three of the experiments set up by them to test him deserve mention. In the first of these, organized by the Reverend Drayton Thomas in 1948, Thomas closed Flint's mouth with adhesive surgical tape over which he secured a scarf, then tied Flint's hands to the arms of his chair. Another cord was tied at his forehead so that he could not bend his head an attempt to remove scarf and tape by rubbing his mouth against his shoulders. The sitting proceeded as normal, and Drayton Thomas reported that independent voices were heard with all their usual clarity, sometimes even shouting loudly. At the close of the sitting, it was found that everything securing Flint* was still firmly in place.

[*The text reads "Ford," an obvious typo.]

This appeared to dispose of the theory held by some researchers, that although Flint might perhaps receive genuine spirit communications, the supposed independent voices were not independent at all but came from his own lips. A few weeks later Drayton Thomas arranged for the Research Officer of the SPR, Dr. Donald West (subsequently Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and twice President of the SPR) and other SPR members to attend a sitting of Flint's circle. Donald West was invited to secure Flint's arms to his chair and to seal his mouth with both horizontal and vertical strips of adhesive tape, and to trace around each strip with indelible pencil to ensure that any movement of the tapes during the sitting would be readily apparent. Flint, entranced on this occasion, sat in the darkness of a cabinet as it was agreed that the lights would remain on in the room. Again voices were heard, and Dr. West was given permission by the communicators to raise the curtain of the cabinet briefly during the sitting, with the lights still on, to check that everything securing Flint was still intact. All seemed well, but on checking at the end of the sitting Donald West discovered that one of the pieces of tape was no longer in line with his pencil markings. Although no suggestion was made that this was Flint's doing (one of the tapes may have moved slightly with Flint's labored breathing) this invalidated the test .…

There was no claim that Flint himself was responsible, and no explanation as to how, bound as he was, he could have displaced the tape deliberately or of how, with only a small displacement, he would have been able to fake independent voices. Nevertheless, Donald West's concern was to close every loophole that might permit critics to argue a normal explanation for the voices, the matter how unlikely this normal explanation might be. He was also doubtful that the cords binding Flint were fully secure owing to the thick coat that Flint insisted on wearing even though the cabinet was hot and stuffy, and would have preferred that the medium's hands were held throughout the sitting by disinterested observers.

Donald West attended two other sittings of the Flint circle, both of which took place in darkness and both of which left him unable to reach conclusions as to the genuineness or otherwise of the phenomena; he then invited Flint to participate in a more thorough investigation at the SPR offices. The conditions he suggested for the test were that the sitters would include "a majority of sympathetic spiritualists," that the medium should have his lips sealed and his hands held by sitters on either side, and that he should wear a throat microphone. The sitting could take place in complete darkness if Flint preferred, but in this case he should be under observation through an infrared viewer. Disappointed that he had not already satisfied Dr. West that the voices were genuine, Flint tells us in his autobiography that he refused.

It is a pity that Flint did not agree to be tested under Dr. West's conditions, none of which was in any sense unreasonable (a decision that he tells us in his book that he subsequently regretted) .…

However, two years later Leslie Flint again agreed to be put to the scientific test, this time under the supervision of Professor Bennett, an electrical engineer from Columbia University, and under the aegis of Drayton Thomas and Brigadier Firebrace, another prominent researcher. This time, in addition to the usual taping and trussing, Flint was fastened to a throat microphone wired to an amplifier that would detect even the slightest attempt to use his voice; his hands were held by investigators, and an infrared viewer that detects movement even in the dark was trained upon him throughout. Once again independent voices were heard, though more faintly than usual, and Professor Bennett was able to confirm that Flint's vocal cords were not involved in their production. Very near the end of the sitting the infrared viewer failed, and immediately the voice heard speaking at the time increased in volume. Flint tells us that Brigadier Firebrace confirmed these facts in writing to him, and testified that the medium could have had no knowledge that the viewer had failed, yet the independent voice "immediately doubled in volume." Firebrace concluded from this that infrared may weaken mediumship in some way .…

Flint worked at a time when it was possible to tape record independent voice settings, and two of Flint's regular sitters, George Woods and Betty Greene, were able to put on record over 500 of their conversations with communicators. These were later transcribed, and a selection published by Neville Randall (Randall 1975). George Woods and Betty Greene were concerned primarily to investigate the experience of dying and the nature of the afterlife (Betty Greene's opening question to communicators was "Can you describe your reactions when you found yourself alive?"), and although this material carries its own interest, it is regrettable that once again no consistent attempt was made by investigators to obtain the kind of personal details from communicators that could be verified later. It also seems odd that communicators did not themselves offer these details, and request that contact be made with their surviving relatives and friends. As many of the communicators were what is now generally called drop-ins (i.e. unknown to anyone present, and thus immune to the charge that their details came telepathically from the sitters,), this failure to collect verifiable information is doubly disappointing.

Flint was never identified in fraud, and his mediumship further supports the survivalist argument that communications through at least certain mediums do not appear to be due to any psychic abilities in the living so far identified in laboratory experiments.

Fontana's references include Flint's autobiography Voices in the Dark and Randall's Life After Death.  It's not clear if he used any other sources, or if Flint's claims about the independent validation of these tests were confirmed by the other people involved. 

Comments

[Matt Rouge]

Michael wrote,

||We'd still have to deal with the tests that were carried out, which (if reported accurately) would indicate that the voices were sometimes heard even when Flint's mouth was sealed with sticking plaster or filled with colored water.||

Yes, we do. But it's not all or nothing. Flint may have generated genuine paranormal phenomena at some times but not at others. Or it could be bad content generated with a paranormal component.

||Occam's Razor is fine, but it requires the simplest answer that's consistent with *all* the facts.||

Each instance, however, can be separately judged. Perhaps I should have referenced the "c'mon, guys" principle. As in, "C'mon guys, extensive and rigorous testing notwithstanding, this sounds like a dude imitating a woman and not saying much of substance!"

[Paul]

I don't think Occam's razor is tainted, but it deals with probability not actuality as I am sure you'd agree. When applied properly it points to the most likely answer 'all things being equal'.

The problem scoftics have is that they don't accept a non-materialist answer as a possibility and therefore arbitrarily exclude non-physical explanations which in themselves are no more complex than their preferred answer, but which are simply unpalatable to them perhaps. Not very logical really.

[Julie Baxter]

"C'mon guys, extensive and rigorous testing notwithstanding, this sounds like a dude imitating a woman and not saying much of substance."

I has hitherto imagined that only Trump could make a comment such as the above.

[Matt Rouge]

Paul wrote,

||The problem scoftics have is that they don't accept a non-materialist answer as a possibility and therefore arbitrarily exclude non-physical explanations which in themselves are no more complex than their preferred answer, but which are simply unpalatable to them perhaps. Not very logical really.||

Well said. "We know that nothing paranormal is possible, so by Occam's Razor I declare it invalid!" That kind of reasoning.

[Matt Rouge]

Julie wrote,

||I has hitherto imagined that only Trump could make a comment such as the above.||

Trump has been listening to the Flint tapes?!

Also, I thought only Trump used grammar as bad as "I has hitherto"!!!

[Michael Rogge]

Michael Rogge (again):
I wonder in the correspondence I mentioned experiences of sitters. George Woods reported being lifted up with chair and all in the air. I received a cassette recording of a sitter who stayed a night in Flint's bedroom during an air attack at the Blitzkrieg bombardment of London and heard when Flint was asleep voices. He also had a feeling during a sitting that his nose was bleeding. Whyen the lights went on no blood was found. He ascribed it to ectoplasm being drawn from him, a phenomenon often reported by sitters.
(https://wichm.home.xs4all.nl/dirvoic3.html)

[Robin Hard]

Thank you for your interesting article on Flint, and for provoking an interesting discussion. With regard to Rogge's Dutch book, an article on it can be downloaded here:
https://netwerknde.nl/wp-content/uploads/Directestemfenomeen-Leslie-Flint-min.pdf
It is in Dutch, but may be of some interest even to those who do not read that language because it reproduces photographs showing tests that were conducted on Flint. In one he can be seen with heavily taped mouth, and people holding his hands, in the presence of Charles Drayton Thomas, who was overseeing the test. The voices were still produced under these conditions.

Drayton Thomas (who was a critically minded man who would not put up with nonsense) also presided at least one public meeting in the Kingsway Hall in which he was enclosed in a cabinet -

"Previously, the direct voice had always been held in private circumstances with usually only a dozen or so people present. The idea on this occasion was to construct a soundproof and lightproof cabinet, placed in full view of the audience. Instead of the seance being held in total darkness, normally essential in the case of direct voice, the house lights would remain on. The medium would then be isolated in the cabinet during the meeting.

Immediately outside and in front of the cabinet, three microphones were placed to pick up the voices emanating from within the soundproof wall of the cabinet. The sound system was arranged, checked and tested by qualified technicians on the staff of the Kingsway Hall. I understood that during testing of the equipment, they had turned the amplifier up to its capacity and with a colleague inside the cabinet, shouting at the top of his voice, failed to pick up hardly a sound."

The voices were still produced under these cirumstances. Account here:
https://www.the-voicebox.com/aleslieflintexperienc.htm

There is a partial recording a public sitting conducted at a spritualist church in Reading in 1971, in which he was presumably enclosed in a cabinet in the same way within a lighted room. The 'Ellen Terry' voice comes out loud and clear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHatQy-n37Y

He later produced the voices under rigorous test conditions for Bennet as noted above, and also did so at an improvised seance at his house in America.

My take on the matter is this. Flint either produced the voices from his own throat, or through 'direct voice' without him uttering any sound from his own throat; and that he could produce the voices with his face bound and under restraint - and with microphone too under the American tests- on even a few occasions suffices to show that he was capable of the latter. And there is then the further point that many of his 'voices' are women's voices that it would be extremely difficult - and probably impossible - for even a highly accomplished male actor to reproduce under the most favourable conditions. E.g. 'Ellen Terry', 'Amy Johnson','Lillian Bayliss', 'Gertude Lawrence' voices, and others with varied and very convincing Scottish accents.

Taking these two factors into account, one must conclude that if Flint was faking the voices, he could only have done so with the aid of confederates; and even in his own flat, he could hardly have done that for years without anyone noticing that something strange was going on (actors and actresses being smuggled up the stairs etc. etc.), especially because many sittings were conducted in the presence of George Woods and Betty Green, and indeed of his landlady Rose Creet; and the fact that he produced the voices at public meetings and seances abroad in America seems to entirely rule out the use of confederates.

Although the communicators are inclined to pontificate at length, a fraud of the latter kind couldn't have been done through tape-recordings alone because the speakers interact with people attending the seances; so there would need to be a combination of scripts and improvization, and in view of the fact that there are literally thousands of recordings and a huge cast of often very distinctive characters, the idea that this was a massive fraud comes close to being insane on these grounds alone. And after all, what would anyone have gained from it? Flint made only a modest income form his activities as a medium and he couldn't have afforded to pay assistants much if at all.

There is of course quite plenty of bosh in the tapes, one speaker professes for instance to be an ancient Roman who had been in Atlantis in a previous incarnation, and one may perhaps doubt that Chopin had previously been incarnated as Akenhaten!; but this kind of thing is charcateristic of even the better sort of mediumistic ommunication. And when it comes to the communications from famous people, it is rare for them to be obviously absurd (even if it would be disappointing to suppose that Charlotte Bronte was really such a bore as she appears to be when talking from the other side). Many of them are in fact quite fun to listen to merely as a sort of dramatic performance. Flint had only an elementary education and one would expect many incongruities and historical errors if he was inventing the material, and they are notably lacking in the tapes that I have listened to. There are also few stylistic tics; I have noted a perhaps over-frequent use of 'oftimes' for 'often', and of the unattractive word 'picturize'.

In the final resort I find it very hard to know what to make of all of this, but it does at least seem unreasonable to write it off the voices as being produced by Flint or a party of confederates through any kind of fraud. And direct voice does in fact seem to be a genuine phenomenon in some cases. The way in which Etta Wriedt's voices could speak in many languages unknown to her in seances conducted off her own turf in England surely suffices on its own to show that to be overwhelmingly probable. The example that sticks in my mind is that of a Dutch woman who was married to an Englishman and had multingual children; her supposed daughter spoke in English to her, but in Dutch to Dutch visitors who accompanied her - and not merely in Dutch, but in Dutch just just as she had spoken it with a foreign accent (presumably an English accent because that was the main language used in the family in everyday life)! Emily Frech and John Sloan also seem hard to write off as frauds. If direct voice can be a genuine phenomenon, it does seem worthwhile to pay some attention to it because the medium is less directly involved in the production of the message.

With Flint's more famous visitors, there were incidentally good reasons in many cases why they should have appeared. Quite a lot had been interested in spiritualism or indeed mediums during their lifetime, and quite a few of Flint's clients, e.g. the Cook sisters who seem to have known just about everyone in the operatic world, had musical and artistic interests, and were happy to chat away to people like Caruso, Beecham and a still crusty Sir Henry Wood, with even a brief guest appearance from Chaliapin. (This kind of thing is fun if nothing else.)

It struck me at first as particular warning sign that Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra should have been presented as coming along, but both of them were apparently interested in spiritualism, and Edward VII is known to have spoken to Alexandra through John Sloan after a member of her household had initially attended a seance with him on her behalf. He also spoke to the Countess of Warwick (a former mistress) through Etta Wriedt! According to Flint's autobiography, members of the royal household attended some of his seances, initially incognito, before the war, and two of them jumped to their feet when the late George V began to address them! One of them was a servant of George's sister Princess Louise, who used to communicate with her dead husband through various mediums, and Flint was taken to meet her. So the two Queens were merely continuing the family tradition if they came along to speak through Flint! Victoria's servant John Brown also speaks in Flint tapes, and it is indicated that he acted as a medium in enabling her to keep to supposedly keep in contact with her dead husband; if this is true, it would explain why he held such a hold over her. It is claimed that she consulted the medium Robert James Lees after Albert's death, and that he pointed her to Brown.