Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s Psychic Researches

Videos YouTube, 2011 for Walter Falk:

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt7qpNbMehE

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeHY5sP314I

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtUQNMbIl4s

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMLvgWSQSs

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTT5vTv0Sgs

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9phnFh1I4pw

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiveZYXaMu4

Dr. T. G. Hamilton’s psychic researches

- Part 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oOMt4sMqyw

Web: www.thehamiltonfiles.info

2

Contents

Part 1 4

Part 2 10

Part 3 18

Part 4 26

Part 5 35

Part 6 44

Part 7 61

Part 8 68

La presentación e imágenes añadidas por: www.survivalafterdeath.blogspot.com

(Noviembre 2016)

3

Part 1

Dr. Hamilton’s work did not begin with attempting to prove thatconsciousness continues after death. He had heard of the PatienceWorth Ouija board writings from his friend Dr. Allison. Dr. Allison hadspoken in his home church after himself visiting with Mrs. Curranand seeing first-hand how the writings were being produced.

In October and November of 1918, Dr. Hamilton and his friendand pastor Dr. McLachlan decided to investigate the possibilityof telepathic communication, and were soon convinced that suchcommunication did in fact exist.

During those experiments a prophecy came in the form of a voicethat seemed to come from within Dr. Hamilton’s mind that predictedthat he would do work that would echo around the world and provethe continuation of consciousness beyond death.

He was so shocked by this phenomenon, being a devout Presby-terian, that he and his friend decided that somehow wicked forceshad entered their work and that this work must be stopped imme-diately to preserve both their sanity and the future destination oftheir souls. He spent the next three days in bed, incapacitated byworry and doubting his own sanity, while his wife Lillian, a registerednurse, plied him with sedatives.

He stopped all work for the time being. He was determined thatthis was to be the end of his investigations into the psychic realms.

However, early on the evening of October 20, 1923, some peopleunexpectedly dropped into the Hamilton home for a chat. Theywere Mr. Ernest Court, a well read English assistant secretary ofthe Manitoba medical Society and his school-age daughter. Therewas also their little Scots friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Poole, who hadlong been regarded as a member of the Hamilton family, but whoknew nothing of psychical research or spiritualism; and who hadhad very little education, in fact just enough to allow her to do alittle ciphering, read books of the adolescent type, and write legibleletters, although often the words were misspelled and punctuation

4

marks were absent.

Elizabeth Poole

During the evening quite by chance Mr. Court introducedthe subject of psychical research, regarding which he knew theHamiltons had some interest. He asked if they had ever tried tabletipping, an old parlor game which he had seen done in the oldcountry, and which he had himself experienced once, and whichnow and then, he said, brought to light various mind products noteasily explained along any known normal orthodox lines, and insome cases even gave out communications evidential of certaindead people.

Intrigued by Mr. Court’s description of the results sometimes

5

obtained by this simple experiment, they brought a small woodentable, about the size of an ordinary piano bench, into the room.

To their utter astonishment, as they sat on the four sides of thesmall table with their fingertips lightly touching its surface, the tablebecame agitated as if in the hand of a giant. Soon it began to poundup and down and tilt on two legs in a most aggressive and decidedmanner.

Mr. Court suggested that Dr. Hamilton repeat the alphabet. Thishe did, calling out the alphabet over and over, with the table tiltingto indicate the appropriate letter. Lillian’s mother, Mrs. John Forster,took down the indicated letters as the process was repeated. It wasa laborious and time-consuming way to receive messages.

After a few minutes the table stopped. Lights were turned, upand the message studied. The table had tipped out a messagepurportedly from Myers, who claimed to be the chief spokesman.

“Plato ... book 10 ... allegory very true. Read Lodge ... trust hisreligious sense ... Myers. Myers and Stead here ... Stead answersdoctor’s questions ...”

The Hamiltons had no acquaintance with the works of Plato. Theydid not know at the time of this sitting that ‘The Republic’ had10 books; but they had read Myers’ “Human Personality and theSurvival of Bodily Death.”

They were the only sitters who realized the significance of thename, mentally asking “Can this be the Myers?”

Myers appear to be saying that in his new state at this time hefound these teachings to be very true. He also added that he wasbeing helped to communicate by the famous journalist W. T. Stead,who had died as one of the passengers when the Titanic went downin 1912.

6

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge William Thomas Stead

Silvia Constance Myers, Frederic William Henry Myers, Harold Hawthorn Myers

7

The Hamiltons knew about Lodge and his belief in life after deathand the possibility of communication between the two states undercertain rather particular circumstances. They also knew aboutMyers. But of Plato they knew nothing.

Myers had written in the 1890s about dreams, hallucinations,creativity and genius, hysteria, multiple personality, apparitions,trance-mediumship, automatic writing, telepathy, and hypnosis.

All of these phenomena involved what Myers called automatisms:that is, the coming into consciousness of latent supplementalmaterials or motor processes, that were allowed to emerge becausethe normal waking consciousness barriers were more unstable andpermeable. Myers produced a theory of the subliminal self; and histheory said that normal waking consciousness is but a small subsetof the larger individuality or self. It is the environment that calls forthe specific aspects of the unconscious that will emerge to respondto the circumstances of ordinary life.

This interpretation was very different from the conceptions ofFreud’s model of repression. Freud and others viewed the subliminalphenomena as abnormal or unhealthy. Myers believe that all thesephenomena are the outworking of the basic psychological process:namely the loosening of the barriers between the unconscious andconscious areas of mind.

Encouraged by the evidentiality of the so-called Myers message,Dr. Hamilton and Lillian occasionally held table sittings with thesame little group, the theory being that as this group had functionedonce successfully as a sort of composite medium, perhaps otherimportant results might be obtained.

There the matter stood in early 19 21. Lillian had foundtime to read W. J. Crawford’s book dealing with the phenomenaof materialization. She wondered if possibly little Mrs. Poolemight have a potential similar to that demonstrated by Crawford’smedium, Kathleen Goligher.

8

Kathleen Goligher

As Mrs. Poole was a most obliging and dear soul, she readilyagreed to sit occasionally with Lillian. About once a month, startingin February of 1921, the two ladies met and sat quietly in a darkenedroom on the second floor of the Hamilton home. Again the tablebehaved in that same strange manner, tilting away from Mrs. Poole,striking the floor in a regular rhythm, up, down, tilt, bang!

At this time, in spite of the demands of a large private practiceand much committee work, Dr. Hamilton’s interest in psychicphenomena was again growing. Fully aware of the general public’sattitude of scorn and derision directed towards anyone showinginterest in such matters, and rightly fearful lest his professionalreputation be tarnished if his own interest were to become known,Dr. Hamilton kept his interest a closely guarded confidence betweenvery close friends.

9

Part 2

In May of 1921 the Hamiltons accidentally discovered that it wasMrs. Poole who possessed the marked incipient powers for theproduction of psychical phenomena.

She was at this time forty-nine years of age and previouslyunaware that she possessed mediumistic faculties of any kind. TheHamiltons welcomed the opportunity for first-hand investigation,and prevailed upon her to allow these faculties to be developed. Sheconsented, and in August of 1921 they commenced their first seriesof experiments in telekinetic phenomena. A few months furtherexperimentation revealed the fact that she also possessed mentalmediumistic faculties; and from that time on these two phasesdeveloped collaterally, eventually giving brilliant manifestations inboth fields.

In the physical phase they obtained conversational rappings, verypowerful contact phenomena, various forms of telekinesis and waximpressions of small materialized forms.

In the telekinesis experiments Dr. Hamilton fastened a hook intohis living room ceiling and suspended a small pulley system with aspring scales in such a way that the change in weight of a small tenor twelve pound table could be determined.

It was found that if the table were asked to become heavier iteventually increased up to forty pounds in weight, and if it wereasked to decrease it could easily lose all its weight. This was trueeven when no one was touching the table. This clearly was incontradiction to the debunkers who tend to claim that someonemust be touching an item in order for it to levitate. This allows themto claim that some sort of unconscious force is being applied by themediums or others touching the table.

It was soon discovered that the force, whatever it was, issued fromMrs. Poole’s abdomen in the form of invisible arms, which grippedthe table from beneath and held it steady for an appreciable lengthof time against pressure.

10

This was in line with Crawford’s findings. He had named theseinvisible streams of energy pseudopods.

Mrs. Poole often felt pain in the abdominal area when the forceswere struggling with each other; often this pain became so greatthat the experiment had to be terminated.

After several months work and many experiments of this sort Dr.Hamilton concluded that the results of his experiments agreed verywell with the experiments of Dr. Crawford. He had thus confirmedthe Goligher experiments. There was no room for doubt that asuitable medium could produce kinesthetic effects. Eventually thetable, quite on its own after initial charging by Elizabeth Poole, couldlevitate several feet off the floor and do somersaults in the air, quitewithout anyone touching it.

Forty planned experiments convinced Dr. Hamilton of thefollowing: telekinetic energy was a fact; this energy was probablycarried or released by ectoplasm, the two phenomena beingimmediately related and perhaps one and the same. The apparatusthat made the raps and moved the table issued from the lower part

11

of Mrs. Poole’s body spontaneously: that is, without her consciousvolition playing any part.

Back of it all stood a supernormal intelligence. The tableresponded to instructions exactly as if there was some intelligenceguiding it. It seemed unlikely that this intelligence originated withMrs. Poole, at any rate not at the level of her consciousness. Whatthat intelligence was he was not prepared to say: the evidence thatthe dead were present was still insufficient for him to advance sucha tremendous hypothesis. It was possible that the dead were theoperators, but it was not proven.

Dr. Hamilton was satisfied with these experiments and decidedto end his studies at this point. He had proved what he had setout to prove to himself alone. Very few people were privy tothis information; but Lillian Hamilton continued the table tippingexperiments for a time without Dr. Hamilton’s help until he againbegan to enter into the experiments and new phenomena appeared.

After a year or two of experimenting the Hamiltons were ableto build a wax apparatus, and purported discarnates were able to

12

produce wax fingertips complete with fingerprints inside the tips.

For these experiments Dr. Hamilton took two containers, oneinside the other, with a heating element in the outer one to heatthe wax in the inner one to melting.

Then a purported discarnate would come by and dip a finger ortoe into the melted wax, and immediately dip the same finger intosome cold water in a separate container, and the wax would harden.

Then the ectoplasmic finger was withdrawn and the wax shell wasfilled with dental cement by Dr. Hamilton to preserve the fingertips.

The other psychic manifestations with Elizabeth Poole in the men-tal phase gave many arresting phenomena: veridical clairvoyance,prevision, trance automatisms, both motor and sensory, the latteralso being of a highly veridical nature. These all developed underDr. Hamilton’s guidance over the next years.

13

Elizabeth Poole and Dr. Hamilton

For all these experiments Elizabeth neither asked nor receivedany payment whatever. Her time and talents were given simplyas a good friend of the Hamiltons, and she was willing to cooperatein any manner they desired. In the eventual disclosure of theseexperiments she was known as Elizabeth M.

As already stated, she attended the séances held for herdevelopment more to please the Hamiltons, her friends, thanbecause of any particular desire to do so on her own part.

Apart from that obtained through some elementary schoolingreceived when a young child, Elizabeth was entirely withouteducation in the academic sense. This, added to the fact that therehad been no attempts at self- education, gave rise to a mentalitysingularly limited and childlike.

In Elizabeth the Hamiltons recognized from the first that they

14

had stumbled upon a potential medium of an extremely rare type,one entirely free from all preconceived notions as to the natureof psychic phenomena or the manner in which they should bedeveloped and observed; and it seemed desirable that this datavacuity, so to speak, should remain unchanged. To this enda general policy of action was gradually determined: that sherefrain from reading psychic literature, from attending meetings ofa psychic nature, whether public or private, apart from the sittingsheld for own development under the Hamiltons’ direction, and thatshe refrain from discussing these things with others.

Elizabeth, her personality and life habits being what they were,added to the fact that she regarded the Hamiltons with feelings ofsincere friendship, cheerfully complied.

But the work proved difficult at times, and in a moment ofreflection upon the work Dr. Hamilton was, after his death, foundto have written the following: the scientific features make this classof work very tedious and often boring to the experimenters. Resultshave to be extremely slow, and consequently repeated experimentstried, which often fail. The factors being so uninteresting makes itpractically impossible for some to endure with patience. Many whowish to be entertained give up in disgust.

Nature keeps her secrets well guarded and it does not requirethe permission or the effort of official science to discover nor topronounce upon them. They are free to all, but the experimentersmust be discerning to check well what they think they have found.But always let us use to the uttermost our discretionary powers, notalone to fully examine skeptically and critically what is disclosed,but also not obtusely refusing to see or consider what others mayconsider apparent to them.

At this point, concluding that Mrs. Poole had revealed allthe phenomena of which her mediumship was capable, and hisprofessional duties still being very heavy, for some time no moreresearches were carried out by Dr. Hamilton, the work nowsubsiding again for a while to impromptu sittings under Lillian

15

Hamilton’s guidance.

This might be a good place to remark upon the work of LillianHamilton. She kept steadily at work, again and again reignitingDr. Hamilton’s interest. It is possible to imagine that withouther consistent efforts the experiments would have ceased, and Dr.Hamilton would not have proceeded. Her very hard work at verifyingthe mental products of Elizabeth Poole, and purporting to come fromRobert Louis Stevenson and others, right up to her death in 1956,deserve formal recognition and the highest praise. She was indeedthe dynamo that made the work a reality.

And soon a new phenomena appeared along with the telekinesisand wax fingertips and the bell ringing. Mrs. Poole began showingsigns of incipient trance, and out of this incipient trance state thereappeared now and again visions and pictures which at first consistedof what she described as still life items. Some of these visions wereof a most veridical character: veridical, that is, in regard to the pastof one of those present, and therefore open to be explained solelyon the basis of telepathy between the mind of the sitter and thesubject.

Lillian Hamilton

16

Curiously enough, a progressive movement could be seen here.Visions, first of flowers, then of faces: then of wayside scenes; thenof panoramic scenes, showing within them human action. Some ofthese, as already stated, reminiscent of certain past events knownto the sitters. These began as visions of stills, of scenes in which allobjects were at rest. Then, in the next stage, visions in which someof the objects showed motion. Then visions in which human beingsappeared. But it was clear that they were more like cutouts ratherthan flesh and blood. And finally, visions in which the human beingstook on the appearance and characteristics of life.

In an April, 1922 message by non-contact raps came themessage: “Helping in amity ... prepare ... Myers and Stead ...”

1926, Elizabeth Poole

17

Part 3

In April, 1923, new work was started when, through Elizabeth,the Robert Louis Stevenson trance personality suddenly begancommunicating by means of deep trance scripts and simultaneousillustrative visions.

As Lillian recorded: “Never had I seen TGH so impressed as hewas by this seemingly simple yet highly mysterious phenomenon. Iremember he said to me with an almost boylike grin, ‘Well, Lillian, Iguess there is more to this than I’ve been willing to admit. Get mea small group, and we will see what we can do with following theseinstructions.’”

Robert Louis Stevenson David Livingstone

18

And with that, Dr. Hamilton embarked upon the most importantwork of his life.

On April 15, 1923, during the second trance of the séance,Elizabeth’s hand slaps spelled “R. L. Stevenson ... Margaret ...”

Elizabeth awakened from trance and said she had seen alighthouse while in trance. A new phenomenon of importance hadmade its entry into the experiments. On this day thus began andcontinued side-by-side with powerful movements of material objectsby psychic force, the so-called Stevenson communications.

These communications were to go on for some six years, andalways to conform to this one pattern: manually delivered messageby slaps, or later on by writing and channeling, and the companionvision.

Eventually Stevenson gave details of his early conflicts with hisfather, of his marriage to a divorced woman, of his illnesses, and hisdeath. He also gave a great number of references to his writings.None of these facts Elizabeth Poole had any knowledge of, nor didany of the sitters, and these facts were painstakingly verified byLillian Hamilton.

Then another entity came in, identifying himself as DavidLivingstone, the African explorer. Again a large number of verifiablefacts were given.

Slowly the table tipping gave way to arm slaps on the table by themedium, and eventually she saw and heard visions, and then beganto channel Stevenson or Livingstone, and eventually also CharlesHaddon Spurgeon and others, including W. T. Stead.

Unfortunately the abridged treatment of this part of the work dueto the immense amount of material put in evidence, is not trulyindicative of the planned, unique, and complex evidence movingslowly from point to point, conclusively revealing cumulative growthfrom the simple to the more complex, with intelligence and literaryacumen ruling overall.

Suffice to say that there are more than a thousand pages of

19

verifiable information given by Stevenson and Livingstone over theyears of the Hamilton experiments. It became impossible to ignorethe claims by these communicators that they were indeed stillconscious and thinking beings. Stead was so very right when hehad said to them there was indeed much more ahead.

During the time that the deep trance phenomena were beginning,the telekinetic phenomena were also becoming more powerful. OnJuly 4, 1923, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made a visit to Winnipeg.Doyle later wrote: “On our first night in Winnipeg we attendeda circle for psychical research which has been conducted for twoyears by a group of scientific men who have obtained remarkableresults. The medium is a small, pleasant-faced woman from thewestern highlands of Scotland. Her psychic gifts are both mental

20

and physical. The circle, which contained ten persons includingmy wife and myself, placed their hands, or one hand each, upona small table, part of which was illuminated by a phosphorus sourceto give some light. It was violently agitated, and this process wasdescribed as charging it. It was then pushed into a small cabinetwith an opening in front. Out of the cabinet the table came clatteringagain and again, entirely on its own with no sitter touching it. Istood by the slit in the curtain in subdued red light, and I watchedthe table within. One moment it was quiescent, a moment later itwas like a restless dog in a kennel, springing, tossing, beating upagainst the supports, and finally bounding out with a velocity whichcaused me to get quickly out of the way. Many of Crawford’s Belfastexperiments have been duplicated by this group of scientists.”

Dr. William Jackson Crawford

Dr. Hamilton now wrote: “So far the visions presented are thosewhich brought to mind only facts of the distant past. Now we areto encounter one that the recipients believed had to do with factstrue at the time. It will be apparent that these examples of psychicpicturization of past scenes, as revealed to the medium, Elizabeth,disclosed a number of interesting and informative facts. First, thatthe memories aroused by an Elizabeth vision might belong to a

21

regular sitter, to an occasional sitter, or to a guest. Second, thatthe memories thus invoked might belong to a past near at hand,or to a past in time quite distant. Third, that the memories thusrepresented might be based on the sitter’s own experiences, or onfacts which the sitter knows about through hearsay only. Fourth,and finally, that where the fact to be recalled could be representedby a symbol, there that symbol was sometimes used.”

Arthur Conan Doyle

“All of this being so, it will be evident that we were bound to askourselves a number of important questions. How did the medium’ssupernormal faculties reach out and lay hold of these, tonight,tomorrow night, the next night, and so on? Who or what decidedthat this or that fact or event would be represented by a still picture,certain other images by means of moving pictures, and still othersby way of a symbol? Who was this intelligence, selecting andarranging these programs with such skill and attention to detail?To say that through the thoughts of the medium alone came thesephenomena, and that her subconscious mind arranged these inso challenging a manner, was a far from adequate explanation to

22

our queries. On the other hand, to suggest that the minds ofthe dead were perhaps back of these events, and the evidencein many cases pointed in that direction, was also far from beinga satisfactory explanation, for the very good reason that this waslargely speculative, not positive. By themselves these phenomenaappear to be satisfied by one explanation: they apparently weredue to the functioning of the medium’s own crypt-aesthetic powers,operating on a plane of consciousness and knowledge as yet closedto us.

However, when we met the vision phenomena of the deep trance,the opposite hypothesis offered the more logical explanation:namely, that outside autonomous personalities were engaged inpurposive action by way of trance script and trance vision. For now,the communicator was telling us that he was the director of thevisions, which contained puppets of Stevenson’s past. As director,he might place in the scene a puppet which was the image of himselfas a young boy or as a child. For example, we find the mediumstating that she saw Stevenson as a child and playing in the pool ofwater, or helping a lamplighter, both ideas being taken from a bookhe had written in life with the title ‘A Child’s Garden of Verse’; or shesaw Stevenson as a young man on board the ship with a number ofruffians. In this case the puppet Stevenson was identified with JimHawkins, the hero of ‘Treasure Island’. Thus the director might showStevenson in puppet form as a boy, a young man, as a student, awriter, in France, in America, or as an ailing man in Samoa.

A medium could not distinguish between the puppet whichrepresented Stevenson in relation to his past and the puppet whichmerely represented one of the characters in his novels. Long JohnSilver, of treasure Island, was as real to her as any Stevensonpuppet actor, but there are clues in her speech which show thedistinction between the Stevenson director and the Stevensonpuppet. She might say “Stevenson was there but he stood off a bit”,thus showing that he appeared to the medium as someone who wasbringing about the performance.

23

Treasure Island, Bobby Driscoll: Jim Hawkins, Robert Newton: Long John Silver

One should note here that to Elizabeth there were always twoStevensons and two Livingstones: there was the one who was inthe picture, and one she recognized as a picture only, that is, ahallucination; then there was the one who was real, the spiritualentity who had a form like a man, whom she saw at times enter the

24

room, come near her, smile at her; and she would remark “This isthe real Stevenson, the real Livingstone.”

Elizabeth maintained this attitude throughout; and gradually, onfair evidence, we came to believe that her distinction rested onmore than only a hallucination which was passed on to her by hercommunicators. This opens up a vast field for original study

25

Part 4

After Dr. Hamilton made his transition he came back to reportsimilar experiences on the other side.

He also reported on his work in the physical.

Now and again a violin, contacted by the medium, left her handsand was carried up into the air above our heads. Elizabeth, inthe meantime with her hands held, was sitting in the chair besideme. While in the air the violin was repeatedly heard to thrum.These pluckings of the strings occurred both spontaneously and onrequest, thus giving evidence that the materialized form possessedsomething in the shape of fingers, able to perform this task, and theability to interpret verbal requests and respond to them.

Again, the responses might originate with Elizabeth, but that stilldid not explain how the violin strings could be plucked with no onetouching them. Sometimes Dr. Hamilton, acting as spokesman,asked questions of the intelligences operating the raps, which theyendeavored to answer. The following are some examples of the kindof question asked.

“Are the sitters in proper position now?” Answer “Yes” three raps.

“Are there other forms of mediumistic phenomena that we mayhope to get?” “Yes”.

“Can we get the direct voice? “No”.

“Can we get materialization so that all may see it? “No”

“Can we get bigger and better molds yet? “Doubtful” Two raps.“Can we get them like they obtained them in France?” “No.” Onerap.

“Is that because that medium is particularly adapted to that work?“Yes.” Three raps.

“Can we hope to get photographs?” “Yes.”

“Do you wish us to use flashlight? “No.”

26

“Shall we use daylight?” “No.”

“Do you wish the camera to be focused and left open during aseance?” “Yes” Very emphatic.

“Is this the W. T. S. control rapping?” “Yes.”

“Can we make any instrument along the radio line that will set upcommunication? “No.”

“Is the human brain, then, the only mechanism through whichcommunication can be set up?” “Yes.”

“Will you rap out the number on your side who are helping us?”Raps given seven times in succession.

“Is there any mechanical means that can be used? “No.” One rap.

After the raps ceased a tambourine hanging suspended in thecabinet was heard to jingle several times in the most unmistakablemanner.

January 12, 1925, the notes report that there was an eventapproaching of major importance to the Hamilton sittings.

The three sisters of Mr. Broad, William Oliver Hamilton’s lawpartner, were giving an evening party for some of their friends, andby way of entertainment had invited a Mrs. Mary Marshall, whogave readings by cards merely as an amusement and for which hereceived a very small fee, usually a couple of dollars.

When the elder Miss. Broad came to have her fortune told, Mrs.Marshall suddenly said “There is a short fair man who comes to thishouse. His name is Oliver”, and Miss. Broad replied, “Yes, that iscorrect. He is my brother’s law partner, William Oliver Hamilton, avery fine gentleman.”

William Hamilton was an older brother of Dr. Glen Hamilton. Mrs.Marshall went on “Well, his days are numbered. He will die verysuddenly, either in his office or in his home. He will die so suddenlythat he may have no relatives or friends with him. I see it all.”

27

Mary Marshall

Next day, around noon, William Oliver Hamilton died of a heartattack in his home, a boarding house, in his room, and nearlyalone. Someone heard him groaning, went to him, and phoned Dr.Hamilton, who was with him about three minutes before he passedon.

The forecast had been fulfilled almost 100%.

All this, of course, made a deep impression on the Broads,who later phoned Dr. Hamilton and informed him about theprognostication and followed this up with the full signed statementby Miss. Lena Broad, the lady who had been the recipient of thepre-vision.

Their attention thus directed, for the first time, to Mrs. Marshall,the Hamiltons took steps to meet her. They learned that she wasaware that she possessed unusual faculties, which she tried tosuppress for fear of people’s ridicule and criticism. She was not

28

a spiritualist, although she had attended a few meetings of this sortin the old country, and in Winnipeg now and again. But she hadrefrained from allowing her gifts to develop because some sort ofinner fear kept her from doing so.

However, they asked her to join the Elizabeth group as a sitter inhopes that they might see her precognitive faculty at work, recordher utterances verbatim, and watch for the fulfillment, if such shouldcome to pass. They had no idea at this time of the staggering impactMrs. Marshall was to have on their work.

On January 25, 1925, Elizabeth saw Arthur Hamilton clairvoyantly.He had died in 1919 at age three. She said he was larger than histwin, Jimmy.

This seems to be the first time that Arthur appeared and hecontinued to contact his family through the next few years.

By October 8, 1925, W. T. Stead gave instructions for tryingto get photographs by influencing a photo-plate in darkness bysupernormal means. These experiments, which had worked forStead during his lifetime, did not work after his death, possiblybecause Elizabeth was not the right kind of a medium. Stead gaveup the attempt after about six months.

There were also occasions when events occurred that promptedDr. Hamilton to consider the possibility that normal sleep wasthe gateway to trance. He thought the apparitions seen werehallucinations, subjective experiences; but it suggested to him thatdreams, all through the ages, might at times be based on externalstimuli. He concluded that people may well have been correct inassuming that their deceased friends live on in consciousness andcould communicate with them in this way.

Stead had already begun to predict the coming of materializa-tions, the discovery of a second medium, and the photographingof these materializations by the camera in light. At the séance onMay 5, 1927, Mrs. Mary Marshall was present as a guest. Strongperfume filled the room. She went into trance and spoke in Parsi, a

29

Hindu dialect, to W. B. Cooper, who had grown up in India.

She had no knowledge of this language.

W. B. Cooper

At Harvard, in the early 1920s, Dr. Hamilton had met and becomefriends with Dr. Leroy G. Crandon. Mina Stinson and her mother hadmoved to Boston, where Mina found a position as a secretary in alarge church. She was most attractive, witty and charming, and shemet and married Dr. Crandon, then an outstanding surgeon on thestaff of the Harvard Medical School.

In late December of 1926, Dr. and Mina Crandon had visitedWinnipeg, giving three séances there. Mina was by now knownas the Boston medium, Margery. Walter became Mina’s control, orguide when her mediumship developed in the early 1920s.

30

Dr. Leroy G. Crandon y Margery Walter Stewart Stinson

Walter Stewart Stinson was born in Canada about 1885. Likemany young men of his time he traveled from the eastern part ofCanada to the western prairies and for a time worked as a farm handthresher at harvest time on a farm near Minnedosa, in Manitoba.Then he got a job as a helper, or stoker, on a steam locomotive.When he was about twenty-seven he was injured in a collision,scalded with live steam, and lived only a few hours. His death dateis August 8, 1912.

Walter was five years older than his sister Mina, but there was aclose bond of affection linking them, which was to manifest in thisunusual way some eleven years after his death.

Around 1927, Walter began to to appear clairvoyantly to ElizabethPoole and to Mary Marshall. He began to hint that they wouldsoon be able to photograph what he called pictures, by which hemeant ectoplasmic masses shaped so as to resemble the faces ofdiscarnates that could be identified.

31

The transference of their main interest to the new phenomenaseemed in no way to inhibit or prevent the appearances of theirolder friends from before, Stead, Stevenson, Livingstone andothers. Spurgeon, who had also repeatedly manifested throughthe Elizabeth mediumship, still spoke and wrote through her onoccasion; and Myers, who now appeared for the first time since1921, wrote in conjunction with Stead that on no account must theyeliminate Mrs. Poole from their sittings. Her great powers were stillneeded for the new phenomenon of pictures.

White light was excluded as effectively as possible from theséance room, as it was found by experiment, in the case of the Poolemediumship, that its presence hindered the collecting and amassingof the psychic energy necessary to produce results.

Mrs. Poole, who was quite plump, but short, around four foot eightinches, was strapped to the chair and her legs tied to the two frontlegs, and she wore luminous arm and ankle bands and buttons onher sweater.

Dr. Hamilton found that the state of Elizabeth Poole’s health,physical and emotional, had a bearing on the trance depth and thequality of the trance products. The deep trance was found to bean attunement process. It was noted that too much expectancycreated a block; however, pleasant music provided a diversion.Mental quietude on the part of all the sitters was important. Thismental quietude was a state of relaxed openness of mind, evenwhile the séance room at times was noisy with talk between theparticipants on both sides of the veil and the mediums.

Flammarion became the fourth regular communicator to utilizethe Elizabeth Poole trance. Elizabeth complained that she could notunderstand him. He appeared to be speaking twisted, and that hewas badly pockmarked, so much so that she called and spotty. Someyears later they found that his face had been disfigured by smallpox,although at the time of his manifestation this fact was unknown toany of them.

32

Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) Charles H. Spurgeon

On October 23, 1927, Elizabeth had a vision. She describedthe wreck of a grain train east of Winnipeg, forty minutes beforeit actually happened. All main points were later verified. Manywitnesses heard her report.

On October 30, 1927, Stead came by and stated: “I was withmy little friend when she was in the train wreck. It was before ithappened on your side. It was well done.”

Mary Marshall had become a regular member of Dr. Hamilton’sgroup.

On February 12, 1928, Mary Marshall, after returning to normalstate, told the sitters that just before she became entranced she hadseen a young man come into the room. He had laughing blue eyesand a girlish complexion. He was playing on a tin whistle. It washer first clairvoyant experience of the young man in the Hamiltonséance room. She described him as handsome. She said he wasfunny and he made her laugh.

33

This new control refused to give his name, so that during this time,and for some weeks after his appearance, he was referred to as‘the fair young man.’ He appeared at both regular and impromptusittings, and spontaneously at times to Mary. During this period,he appeared eighteen times, dividing his attention almost equallybetween Elizabeth Poole and Mary Marshall.

In these appearances he used the various psychic faculties of bothmediums, clairvoyance, clairaudience, trance visions, trance script,and trance speech.

On March 4, 1928, following the sitting, Mr. Cooper informed Dr.and Lillian Hamilton that just at the close of the sitting, he had hearda voice whisper near his right ear “Goodbye, you old rascal. It’s asecret. It’s Walter. A hell of a looking bunch you are.”

In this way Walter introduced himself to the group.

34

Part 5

Mary Marshall also heard and reported that Walter was asking Dr.Hamilton to make a bell-box similar to the scientific American bell-box used in the Crandon test experiments in Boston in 1923.

By April, Dr. Hamilton had made a bell-box. The bell-box used wassimilar in construction to the scientific American bell-box used in theMargery experiments of Dr. Crandon.

It is sufficient to say that it was an ordinary wooden container, sixinches deep, holding an electric bell with one or more drive batteriesto ring it. The bell circuit could only be closed by depressing anoverlid, hinged at one end to the lid proper and supported by aspring. It required a pressure of ten grams to depress the overlid.

This bell-box was placed on the séance room table. The bell-box rang combinations of long and short on request. There againappeared to be an intelligence behind these phenomena, but thisintelligence could again be ascribed to Elizabeth Poole. But how shecould ring the bell without touching any part of the apparatus wasnot clear.

Bell-box

On April 1, 1929, Mary came out of trance and told the group thatshe seemed to have been on a train, a kind of switchback. She saidshe was up at the front where the coal was, looking out of a window

35

on the engine. She saw fair young man. He was singing somethingabout ‘when I get there I’ll see my girl.’ She saw him wave to thepeople beside the gate, shouting to two girls, calling to someonenamed Matilda. Mary, entranced, gave the numbers 78 and 16,twice.

On April 2, 1928, Mary was home in bed. The young manappeared to her, standing by the bed. He told her that he wasbrother to Mrs. Crandon, the Margery of Boston. He showed hera picture of Dr. Crandon’s séance room. It appeared larger than Dr.Hamilton’s, and had a bigger and stronger cabinet. She felt that itwas a still picture.

Walter said again and again that Stead, Stevenson, Livingstone,and Myers were the architects and designers of all that the Hamiltongroup would obtain with Mary Marshall. Back of them, he said, weregreat scientists: Crookes, Geley, Schrenk-Notzing and later, Lodge,studying the laws of intercommunication, of which there were manytypes.

He said he acted only as their servant, their messenger. Heclaimed, in fact, to be their main medium, and to act for the mostpart under their mental control.

April 15, 1928. Dr. Hamilton was at a church meeting when Maryclairaudiently heard Walter say that unless the box was placed onthe cabinet wall on a shelf, as he had suggested, he would not comeback. He became very angry and shouted his message out in a veryloud voice.

“They won’t believe you. They say my sister spoke with her ears!”

When Dr. Hamilton heard this he was very impressed by thenew control’s awareness of the criticism which had been directedat Margery by Prof. William McDougall, who said of the directvoice in the Crandon group that Margery did it with her ears, at atime when the Richardson voice cut-out machine was being used todemonstrate the independence of the direct voice.

36

Sir William Crookes Albert von Schrenk-Notzing

Gustave Geley

This incident had been told to Dr. Hamilton in a privateconversation with the Crandon’s in Boston, and was not knownto Mary or any of the sitters except Lillian. Prior to hearing thisvery meaningful comment from Walter, Dr. Hamilton at first hadbeen disinclined to take Walter seriously, but now he had heard the

37

one thing which clinched it for him. It broke down Dr. Hamiltonskepticism and he began to take Walter seriously; and it marked achange in his attitude towards the experiments. From this time onhe became Walter’s full partner in this joint effort.

He now placed and securely fastened the bell-box to a woodenshelf on the inside of the cabinet wall to the left of the seatedmedium. It was approximately six feet from the floor to thedepression lid.

On June 6, 1928, Mrs. Marshall was in trance. There was awhistling sound and a curious voice. When asked if more sitterswere wanted, the voice said “No.” Asked if the voice was thebeginning of an ectoplasmic voice, it replied in the affirmative.When Walter’s direct voice developed, it was at first indistinct, butlater became fairly strong.

At other times he spoke considerably by automatism through themedium, using the medium’s voice; and also he was in part heardclairaudiently by Mary and others in the circle.

On August 2, 1928, Walter said he could not expend his energyusing the direct voice if they wished a picture. He gave them theirchoice. They decided in favor of the picture and Walter said hewould try.

About the picture that resulted from his first attempt, Walter saidthat the two portions of the mass came from the two nostrils, andthat he had twisted these together. He said that the cord from themedium to the bell-box was a teleplasmic cord by which he madethe bell ring. He claimed that he did not use the teleplasmic cordas a pull string on the bell-box, but as a conductor for the nerveenergy from the medium up to the box. He said this energy wasnot electricity but somewhat like it, and that it was in reality ‘nerveforce’.

This bell ringing was a great puzzle to Dr. Hamilton. Where wasthe circuit left open between the batteries and the bell so that thebell would not ring unless the ectoplasm was used to complete the

38

circuit, somehow. Was there an opening in the circuit somewhatlike a synapse between nerves which was somehow bridged by thenerve energy of the ectoplasm when the bell was to be rung? If so,why was an overlid needed that had to close the circuit? Or did theenergy somehow actually depress the overlid without the use of apulling action on the ectoplasmic cords?

That Dr. Hamilton was puzzled by this phenomenon is clear. Hehad built the box and knew all the details of its construction, andhis questions over time showed that he remained puzzled as to theexact nature of the force or energy that rang the bell.

Walter insisted that in the production of this phenomenon ofteleplasm Elizabeth was absolutely essential. He said he got thepower from Elizabeth and put it through Mary. Elizabeth was ratherbadly affected by this experiment. She reported to the groupsubsequently that she had been very nervous and wakeful afterreturning home and that she had vomited up some froth about twohours after the flash.

Walter could be acerbic when Dr. Hamilton required too much

39

detail.

Dr. Hamilton: “Could you tell me where you get the ectoplasm?”

Walter: “I will tell you if you will tell me where you get life.”

After a pause. “It is produced by certain special brain and bodycells. The science is only in its infancy. The day is coming when allscientists and doctors will be able to handle and analyze it. I onlymake the links which hold it here. As far as the actual objects areconcerned, they are not my production.”

On September 12, 1928, Walter added: “The higher you progressin the spirit world, the greater your knowledge. You grow as in thematerial world. You take on another form. It is just like looking intoa mirror. It is a reflection. This is known as the etherial body.”

Was this reference to mirrors a subtle hint as to the nature of thefaces to come? Other workers in this field, who have photographedectoplasmic faces, had already noticed that the faces appeared tobe mirror images, as of images reflected in a mirror, of the originalfaces.

On September 17, 1928, Walter spoke of the effects of thought onhis work. On numerous occasions it was stressed that the mentalattitudes and thoughts of the mediums and sitters could be helpfulor detrimental to the work.

Elizabeth said: “Stead has a good circle of his own; this roomwouldn’t hold his. He sits in the center of his people. They are roundin robes, bluish-white, like a cloud. I saw Spurgeon but he could notget near.

Over time there were numerous references to a circle on theother side that mirrored the circle in the physical in the Hamiltonexperiments.

40

41

Walter expressed the frustration of the spirit controls when tryingto spread the message of life beyond physical death. “It is very hardto convince orthodox members of the old school”, he said.

Dr. Hamilton then asked: “Is it making progress?”

Walter, through Mary: “Oh, yes; and it will make greater progressyears from now; and your pictures will be in the front row, believe itor not, in the front row of confirmation.”

Soon Walter began talking and ringing the bell. Then he suddenlyordered the red light on, as he said “they” were crowding in on him.He could not keep “them” back. “They” were silly spirits on his sidewho wanted to dance.

Walter seemed to be very much alarmed and afraid his work withthe ectoplasm would be undone. He said the sitting must be closedat once.

He used the word “damn” quite freely in speech. He said he wouldput a guard around the next time.

Then he spoke of Spurgeon’s reason for coming into the circle.Spurgeon had been a hellfire Baptist preacher in England. He mustteach a different damnation, not the old fire and brimstone one. Hedid not believe it. He preached it day in and day out, but he neverbelieved it. He always believed that there was a love without fear.He was not true to his convictions. That applies to preachers asmuch as to anyone else. Apparently it was not the preaching ofhellfire that was the problem: it was preaching something that hedid not actually believe.

Walter went on to say: “There are many who have been onthe mental plane for years and years and have not made muchprogress. I cannot tell you why. I do not know these people. Thereare vast multitudes. But the little children here have the best time.If you on the material plane, who have lost little children, could onlyknow how happy they are here!

An interesting comment came from Walter, made on October 21,1928. He and Dr. Hamilton were discussing evidence. Walter said:

42

“Even on this plane there are many who do not believe that they cancome back.” He was referring to the ability to influence a mediumand communicate in this way.

43

Part 6

On November 9, 1928. Dr. Hamilton was speaking at the RoyalAlexandra Hotel under the caption: “The Scientific Approach ofPsychic Research.”

He said: “Psychic phenomena come under the ordinary laws ofresearch and the subject lends itself to a definite practical line ofprocedure and tabulation of attending developments in the sameway as a study of botany or any other science. The skeptical andsometimes jeering attitude of the public toward this branch of studyhas been a great handicap”, he emphasized.

“Nevertheless, research carried out on a strict scientific basishas reached the stage where it might be definitely asserted thata guiding and directing intelligence is behind the demonstrations ofphenomena.”

Such phenomena existed no matter what skeptics said. Furnituremoved under conditions which were not explainable in ordinaryways, ectoplasm could not be explained away when it registered itsown form in plasticene or melted wax, and could be photographed.

These were manifestations which could not be disputed. “Justthe fact that such phenomena exist, which do not come under theordinary terms of knowledge, and that they follow certain laws oftheir own, ought to act as an incentive to mankind to explore them,rather than to scoff”, he said.

At this point Dr. Hamilton felt he was justified in drawing somegeneral conclusions.

These conclusions were: that the materializing substance waslargely the product of Elizabeth and Mary Marshall’s organisms;that these supernormal products occurred more readily when themediums showed loss of normal consciousness; that the substancehad cohesion, stability and density, and could assume differentaspects; that the presence of the face forms appeared to havebeen brought by the action of unknown psycho-biological laws

44

operating upon them, and within the substance after it hadmanifested objectively; that a face form might appear in either twoor three dimensions; that the teleplasmic face appeared to be arepresentation of, or better, to be as reflection of, the face of apersonality living at the time in a super-sensible state of existence;that back of each phenomenon supernormal intelligences appearedto be at work, independent of the medium’s will or desires; thatthere appeared to be a group, analogous to the group in the physicalplane, that sat with each other on the other side of the veil for thepurpose of using one or another of their number as a medium, tocommunicate with the physical group through one or another of themediums in the physical group.

When Dr. Hamilton’s photographs were published there was nofurther doubt as to the reality of the physical phenomena obtainedin the Hamilton circle; and it became hard to deny that the originof the photographs, their planning and production in the materialknown as teleplasm, could be ascribed to anything but the strongand continued efforts of living, conscious entities.

They claimed to have lived on earth and passed from that stateinto a finer state. From this finer state they were insisting that theystill lived.

During the same séance, Walter, through Mary, spoke: “I wantthis medium to be called ‘Dawn’.

Dr. Hamilton: “That is to be the name of Mary Marshall?”

Walter, through Mary: “Yes, it is the beginning of a new light, anew day, and now she will be called ‘Dawn’. Mrs. Susan Marshall, anauxiliary medium, who was also the sister-in-law of Mary Marshall,stood up and said: “Good evening, my friends.” At this point shewas given the name ‘Mercedes’.

This was the beginning of a process that Walter went through witheach of the mediums who were in the Hamilton circle. Each receiveda new name at some point in their work with the group.

45

Susan Marshall (Mercedes)

On September 22, 1929, the Gladstone face materialized andwas photographed. W. E. Gladstone was Prime Minister of Englandduring the reign of Queen Victoria.

Mary M. W. E. Gladstone en vida

46

Dr. Hamilton then asked about the beads which had appeared inthe photograph. To this Walter replied: “They are not ectoplasmic;they are real beads. They were brought by the little black girl whosometimes controls this medium. She wanted to put them on for theoccasion. They are hers. She took him away again.”

During the same sitting, Walter, through Dawn, also announced“I’m going to try to build a material body in the cabinet, independentof the body of the medium. Possibly it may take twenty-onesittings.”

The following sittings were devoted to collecting and storing theteleplasm, probably in the wood of the cabinet, for this comingmaterialization.

After about five months of sittings, on March 10, 1930, Lucymaterialized, and they obtained photos of Lucy, head on, as well

47

as of her torso. The prophecies about this materialization, mademonths earlier, were all fulfilled.

Lucy

48

For these photographs the usual precautions against fraud hadbeen taken: the mediums were searched just before the sitting,as well as the sitters. Dr. William Creighton also examined thewalls, floor, and ceiling of the rooms adjoining the séance room,to satisfy himself that no means of access to the latter, other thanthe main door, existed. These and other measures were generallytaken before any séance that was likely to produce ectoplasm.

Every effort was made to prevent any possibility of fraud byeither the mediums or the other sitters. These and other measureswere generally taken before any séance that was likely to produceectoplasm. Every effort was made to prevent any possibility offraud, by either the mediums, or the other sitters.

On March 23, 1930, the captain’s daughter, Katie, announcedherself, and the group was informed that a ship would be built outof ectoplasm, and it would be photographed.

The building of this ship began. The group worked at producingthe ectoplasm for this project during many sittings over a period ofa little over two months.

On June 4, 1930, the ship came into port, and it was badlydamaged because of a misunderstanding about the exact time thatthe flash was to be fired. Walter said that it was impossible to holdthe ectoplasm in place firmly, even during the short time interval.

On June 8, 1930, John King, Katie, and Walter, began working on asecond boat. They were not satisfied with what had happened withthe first one. This time the preparations for the second boat tookjust about exactly two months. It was a different boat, with no sails.

On August 3, 1930, the second ship materialized and wasphotographed.

49

First

Second

From August 26-29, 1930, the British medical Association held its98th annual meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, under the auspices ofthe Canadian medical Association.

Dr. Hamilton was asked to address the convention on the topicof his psychic researches; and on August 27, 1930, he spoke at aluncheon meeting at the Fort Garry Hotel. More than five hundreddoctors heard his lecture and saw photographs of the teleplasmicstructures.

There was much excitement about the researches, and since thedoctors had come from all over the Commonwealth, they took thenews of his work back home and spread his fame around the world.

The prophecy that had frightened Dr. Hamilton so much, so longago, had come to pass. He had lost his fear in the meantime.

50

Soon after this, on September 7, 1930, Katie King began her greatwork. Her face and veil were to be photographed, and the sittingsnow focused on collecting the teleplasm and storing it.

Many sittings were again devoted to this project, and almostexactly two months later, on November 12, 1930, the Katie Kingface and veil were photographed.

Katie King

51

Very soon there were predictions of another materialization thatwould also be photographed.

Work began on this materialization, and then, after much work,on February 25, 1931, the shining garment materialized and wasphotographed.

In regards to this shining garment, the predictions that had beenmade about it earlier were again fulfilled.

These various materializations, coming after predictions of theirappearance, and following so precisely what had been predictedabout them, allowed no other explanation than that they weredesigned and created by intelligences other than the sitters on theEarth side.

52

Mercedes

53

The best explanation, Hamilton believed, was that they were whatthey claimed to be: people who had lived and died, and were nowworking to convince the people still on the material plane of thetruth of continued full consciousness after so-called death.

Now, automatic writings began to appear from Flammarion, thefamous French astronomer.

On June 10, 1931, came the teleplasmic manifestation, consistingof the name Flammarion seemingly hanging in the air. There werealso a few scripts on the nature of the spirit world.

54

Then on November 29, 1931, the long-awaited materializationappeared: the second Lucy.

The second Lucy, a standing figure, was a materialization uniquein the annals of psychic research.

55

More materializations appeared.

On April 27, 1932, the hand simulacrum materialized and wasparagraphed.

56

Then on May 1, 1932, the first Doyle face materialized and wasphotographed. He had died on July 7, 1930, nearly two years earlier.

During the sitting of May 18, 1932, the so-called ‘cone teleplasm’materialized and was photographed.

During the sitting held on June 27, 1932, the second Doyle facewas materialized and also photographed.

57

And on January 3, 1933, the third Katie face and veil materializedand was photographed.

58

Then, on April 23, 1933, the Katie shell materialized and it wasphotographed. It was apparently lifeless and said to be the shell, orform, used to make Katie and Lucy visible in our world.

59

Later the group was informed that it had been produced byWilliam Crookes and other discarnate scientists.

From a letter on February 19, 1935, from Lillian to her daughterMargaret, now married and living in Ontario, the following letter:

“Daddy is still not very well, so very, very tired. This low bloodpressure seems hard to combat. He is at work, but I feel that hemay have to take a holiday. Glen (the son who was training to be adoctor) will soon be on-the-job, and that is a comfort.”

Then, in late March, 1935, Dr. Hamilton was admitted to hospital,suffering from a serious heart condition

60

Part 7

Dr. Hamilton died of an acute angina attack at about 1:45pm, April7, 1935. It was a Sunday afternoon.

On April 12, 1935, Margaret wrote a letter to her husband, whohad stayed back in Ontario when Margaret came out for her father’sfuneral.

It said in part: “I must tell you of the wonderful sitting I had withHarold and Jack out at the Allison’s last night. It was a lovely groupof dad’s oldest friends. We met in the library, where dad and all ofus have had so many happy hours, chewing the fat with Dr. Allison.Hence the atmosphere was very conducive to dad’s coming. Haroldwent into trance at once and took on his control, David, who told usof dad’s passing.

David described it as being one of the easiest and most beautifulhe had ever been privileged to witness. He said dad knew whatwas happening and just took a deep breath, closed his eyes on thisworld, and opened them on the next. Isn’t that a lovely thought!

I was so happy to hear this because it would have been so horribleif dad had suffered. Well, the point of all this is: David said the veryfirst thing dad did was to meet Walter and come back here to seewhat the séance room looked like from the other side. Isn’t that likedad?

A most amazing and interesting thing happened Sunday after-noon. While mother was lying on dad’s bed, waiting for Glen tophone back from the hospital, this was between 2:00 pm and 2:30pm, she suddenly heard voices coming through the amplifier, whichJim had turned on. She said her heart just thumped, because sheknew the voices meant something. She glanced at the clock. 2:20pm; but at that time she had not been told dad had passed over.

He did at 1:45 pm, so she got up and tried the séance room doorto make sure it was locked, as it was, of course.

She couldn’t make out what the voices said, but she could

61

distinguish that there were two, and they sounded very eager, andthey continued to be heard for three or four minutes.

Isn’t that simply amazing? And it fits in with what David, throughHarold, told us last night about daddy and Walter hiking overhere, and Walter showing pop all his apparatus, including the voicemachine, and dad asking all sorts of pertinent questions.

Another point is this: that only mother and Jim knew of thesevoices, and she didn’t tell me about hearing them Sunday afternoonuntil last night, after I told her all about our wonderful sitting.

Five days later, at a séance at the Hamilton home on April 17,1935, the group had sung “Unto the Hills”, and barely started thesitting, when Mercedes exclaimed “Here is the doctor.” She passedinto trance, and Dr. Hamilton controlled her.

“You carry on”, he said “I’m watching you. Don’t move that chair”,he continued, as he placed his vacant chair back into the circle. “It’snothing at all. Nothing at all. Just like in the bedroom, and you here.Just like in another room. I can see you, and it’s just as we were toldby all the controls, just as I told you. There is nothing strange.”

62

Mrs. Elizabeth Poole had stopped attending two years earlier forhealth reasons. She died a few months after Dr. Hamilton’s death.

Mercedes, one of their great auxiliary mediums, died in January,1941, following a stroke. Soon messages began appearing byautomatic writing from Dr. Hamilton through Mary Marshall, whowas the only medium still alive from the old days of 1927, nowalmost fourteen years later.

Dr. Thomas Glendinning Hamilton

Dr. Hamilton wrote many messages from the other side, a fewof which are remarked here. He said, in November, 1943: “Manypersons here enter a sort of subjective bliss, which makes themindifferent to what is going on upon the earth. This is a great placein which to grow, if one really wishes to grow, though few peopletake advantage of its possibilities.

“I want to tell you of a large organization of souls who callthemselves the teachers. Their special work is to take hold of thosewho have just come over, helping them find themselves and adjustthemselves to the new conditions. There are many women in thisorganization, and they do good work.

63

January, 1944.

“When I first came here I was so interested in what I saw that Idid not question much as to the manner of seeing; but since beingwith the teacher, and helping in these writings, I have begun tonotice a difference between the objects that at a superficial glanceseem to have much the same substance. I can see a differencebetween those things which have existed on earth unquestionably,such as the forms of men and women, and those things, which whilevisible and seemingly palpable, may be, and probably are, thoughtcreations.

This thought came to me while looking on at the changing lightI told you of, of the heavenly country; and it has been forced uponme with greater power while making new explorations, that, I maybe able to distinguish at a glance between these classes of seemingobjects.

For example, if I met the famous characters in Treasure Island,I would have reason to believe that I had seen a thought form of

64

sufficient vitality to stand as a quasi-entity in this world of tenuousmatter. So far, I have not encountered any such characters.”

T. G.’s reference to characters from Stevenson’s Treasure Islandis strikingly evidential: for it was through his prolonged andpainstaking study of the Poole trance visions, in which she sawJohn Silver and other characters from that book as apparently livingbeings, that Dr. Hamilton came to hold the opinion that suggestionby the communicator probably accounted for the greater bulk ofvisions, symbolical settings and so on, that crowd the pages ofpsychical and occult literature.

He believed that this imagination of the living dead, backed bystrong will, produced many of the puzzling phenomena in this areaof mental activity.

As had been suggested by the poet Blake and later Walt Whitman,imagination may indeed actually be a powerful creative force, andprobably evidenced more directly in the new state than here onearth.

March, 1944, A few weeks later.

“Lillian, I want to tell you about a different kind of people inwhom I have been interested. They are people who, when on theearth plane, denied the immortality of the soul. My teacher tellsme that thousands upon thousands of them have been asleep forgenerations.”

“I feel that this is a chance for me to try to awaken some of them.They have not been wicked. I wish I could describe these souls toyou.”

A little he continued: “As I told you, I was expecting to begin anew word among a group of people who, when on the earth, deniedthe immortality of the soul. Many of them have been asleep forcenturies, perhaps ages.” “When I rejoined my teacher I asked himif he had ever tried to awaken one of these sleepers. He made noanswer for a time, and then he said that he had, but that he hadfailed.”

65

Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver

“He told me that one had to go through various stages before onehad enough power for this purpose. It was very hard to believe thatone has to go through all the other stages of progression before onecan accomplish such in this connection”; but he came back again

66

and continued: “Lillian, I regret that I’m not strong enough yet torecall one of these sleeping ones. However, I have seen one whohas been called back by one of the higher teachers; and I realize asnever before the personal power of these teachers. What he said Icannot repeat at this time; but after repeated commands the manstood up; but I could see that his efforts were almost too much forhim. My teacher tells me that I must learn more about the one whomI desire to awaken, for after he is awakened I must teach him fromthe first. Many have been brought out of the sleep when they comeout from under the spell which they have worked upon themselves.”

67

Part 8

In February, 1944, he wrote:

“There are always teachers standing ready to help anyone whoshows the least sign that they desire to make a real study ofthe mysteries of this life. Some persons may think that themere dropping of the veil of matter should free the soul from allobscurations; but as on earth, so here; things are not thus andso because they ought to be, but because they are. We draw toourselves the experiences for which we are ready and which aredemanded by us. Most souls here do not demand enough, any morethan they did in life.

I hope this is not going to shock you, Lillian; but most of the menand women here have lived in the flesh before. I was very startledwhen my teacher told me that they had walked the earth before asmaterial people, some of them several times. They remember theirlatest life, the others seem like a dream. That is why one shouldkeep the memory of the past as clear as possible. There is a noteat the bottom of the page. “The theory of reincarnation repugnantto both Lillian Hamilton and TGH, and for it, so far, there’s beenproduced no satisfying evidence. This notation was made by LillianHamilton.

This is the only mention of the possible reality of reincarnationin the Hamilton notes. There are several indications that theyhad inquired of their friends on the other side, and none of thesefriends had shown any interest or knowledge of this phenomenon.Hamilton had read some of the Blavatsky materials, which were verymuch on the minds of many educated people during the time of hisexperiments. He had apparently rejected reincarnation, a commonposition taken by most spititualists at this time. Maybe he was moreof a spiritualist than he realized.

It is interesting to see Hamilton coming back after his transitionwith a new perspective. How is it that the earlier workers on theother side during the lifetime of Hamilton should have been so

68

unaware of reincarnation, but Hamilton himself is made aware ofthis phenomenon after his own death, by one of his teachers. Didthe other individuals with whom he worked on the other side nothave similar teachers? Did he now, after death, discuss any of thiswith his former coworkers in spirit? There is no indication in thenotes.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

It does show, however, that it is possible to change one’s mindeven after the transition of death. This seems to be clear evidencefor a living and responsive consciousness even without the physicalbody.

in April ,1944, Dr. Hamilton wrote:

“My object in writing these notes is primarily to convince a fewpeople, to strengthen their certainty in the fact of immortality andthe survival of the soul after the body changes which are calleddeath. Many think they believe; many are not certain whether they

69

believe or not. If I can make my presence felt as a living entity inthese writings, it will have the effect of strengthening the belief ofcertain persons in the doctrine of immortality.

How long will it be before everyone realizes that the world isnot governed by the caprices of a demon being, speculating onhuman anguish, but is governed by a just, patient, benevolent lawof evolution on earth as well as on the higher planes of existence.

On October 1, 1929, Walter had transmitted a poem to the group.

A Curve in the RoadThe way has been made more clear to us,

It isn’t so clear to you,

For we’re just a wee bit ahead on the road,

And the curve cuts off your view.

Each day give some help to your fellow man,

Life gives you a chance to serve,

In that way you become a part of the plan,

With a glimpse of the road round the curve

And he would be chiefest among you all,

The server who carries the load,

For he sees in his heart,

From the very start,

The view down the curve in the road.

And we think that this knowledge will help you on

Will help you to carry the load,

To know in your heart,

From the very start,

There’s a view round the curve in the road.

70

Dr. Hamilton had moved just a bit ahead and could see aroundthe next curve in the road, and he wanted to share his new vision.

And finally, Lodge quotes from Tennyson’s poem, The Ring:

The veil is rending and the voices of the day,

Are heard across the voices of the dark.

The Hamilton home, in which the most exhaustive experiments inthe world were done in the various aspects of psychic phenomena,and the most complete records of these experiments kept, stilloverlooks Hespeler along which the depression dust storms of thetwenties swept so long ago; and the very small séance roomupstairs is, as of August, 2010, still there; although now it is a smalloffice. The hot water register from the heating system still has itsplace between the two large windows facing east.

71

Séance room 2010

Her brothers, Glenn and James, predeceased her. Margaret diedin 1986. She and her brothers and parents and the rest of her familyare buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Winnipeg, Manitoba, just alittle more than a stone’s throw from where old 185 still looks outover old Kelvin street, now renamed Henderson Highway.

Hamilton Family Tomb

Through the years of working with the various phenomena, theHamilton’s had faced many challenges and difficult times, as wellas times of renewal and encouragement.

At times his sitters became impatient for new developments andat others they lost interest. Some were always leaving and otherswere joining the circle. For good work, stability of the group was

72

required; but there were only a few times when things were stableover any length of time.

There were many curiosity seekers. At various times Dr. Hamiltonwas encouraged by his friends beyond the veil to limit the numberof onlookers; but he simply did not follow their suggestions.

There were times when it seemed as if it became almostimpossible to sing as enthusiastically as was often asked for, andthe sittings suffered from lack of the energy needed to producephenomena.

At times Walter became impatient, at others angry and shorttempered; but always someone would come from the other side andsmooth over the waters of the relationships, and the sittings wouldcontinue.

Mary Marshall appears to have had problems with her husband,although she clearly loved him very much. Little is said about thisin the notes, but he seems to have discouraged her from attendingthe Hamilton work. They also appear to have had difficulty at timesmaking financial ends meet; the income from the readings that Marycould give was cut back by the desire of the Hamilton group to stayaway from any financial involvement with the psychic work. Fromthe spirit side she was often encouraged to give up the outside work;this brought times of friction and discontent.

There were also times when Mary, and even Susan Marshall,thought the experiments verged on the sacrilegious; and for reasonsof faith they withdrew for a time.

It is amazing that in spite of all manner of practical difficulties: theoften bitter cold of winter travel after the work of the day, and thetorrid heat of summer, icy autumn and spring streets, and the grimeof the early 1930s depression years, when great clouds of dustrolled down from the west and blanketed the city, and gathered onwindow ledges and seeped into every crevice, they still continued togather, year after year, to amass proof of the continuing life beyondthe grave.

73

From left to right, top: Glen y James, down: Margaret, T. Glen y Lillian

Houses before the 1950s were built with no insulation in the walls,and the little séance room was often cold in winter and very hot insummer.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, is almost exactly in the center of a largecontinent. The weather patterns follow the usual mid-continentextremes of heat and cold and relative humidity. Strong winds andheavy rains, and sometimes hail in summer and sleet and winterblizzards are common; and there is no dearth of strong summerthunderstorms.

Having spent seventy-four years in and around Winnipeg, I canstate what every former resident of Winnipeg will attest to, thatthere is plenty of weather in Winnipeg.

74

And then there were the times when experiences broughtrenewed hope and vigor and energy, such as when the Hamiltonswent to England in the summer of 1932 and had a sitting withMrs. Singleton. There they saw some wonderful materializationphenomena, and the Hamiltons went home very impressed andencouraged to continue on the arduous task that had been offeredto them.

Hamilton House 2010

75

Dr. T. Glen Hamilton and Lillian

76