They Live and Speak: A Reaping

Winifred Adair-Roberts is best known, if that is the right word for such an obscure figure, as a member of the suffragette movement. But that is not our concern here, rather we are interested in her writings on the subject of Spiritualism, in particular her book from 1934, They Live and Speak: A Reaping. We'll also take a look at her first book, A Spiritual Interpretation of Some Psychic Happenings (1932), and her last Now We See as Through a Dark Glass (1965). Along the way there'll be a lot of blood, famous musicians pulling souls out of hell, and speculation about life on other planets. 

Nights in White Muslin: A Spiritual Interpretation of Some Psychic Happenings

This was published by The Greater World, a Christian Spiritualist organisation. One suspects that The Greater World had a very light touch when it came to the practice of book publication, as it reads very much like a self-published work, rambling and quirky. 

The basic premise of the book is that apparently psychic manifestations such as telepathy, visions of the future and the like are actually the result of intercessions in this world by those who have passed over. The deceased are kept busy by the powers that be, given jobs, hobbies and such, and as part of this eternal busywork they are on the alert for the opportunity to assist the living. Unfortunately it seems that they can only communicate with us through the agency of those such as Adair-Roberts who have The Gift. 

For those who do possess mediumistic powers, being in touch with those who have Passed Over can be very handy when First Aid is urgently needed:

When I was about fifteen years old a sister made a very deep cut in her hand between the thumb and first finger with a bicycle spanner. [...] I vaguely called for "help"’ (though in those days I did not fully understand how it came), and then one after the other, impressions seemed to float into my mind as to what to do. All the time I seemed conscious that someone was standing at the back of me, though there was no definite shape or form, just the sensation of a "solid shadow". We washed the garden dirt from the wound, and after what seemed like a thousand years succeeded in stopping the flow of blood, and I padded and bandaged the hand and arm, put it in a sling and made my sister lie down and rest, and gave her a hot drink. 

More dramatically, the shades also came to the aid of a drunken bumpkin (one who quite literally fell off the wagon):

Another time about ten years later in a little country village a man fell off a waggon and the wheel went over his hand and arm. The thumb was torn nearly off and the four fingers were cut right through and hanging against the back of his hand. His two companions were not very sober, and no one else seemed to be about. Between us we carried him to the back-yard of the public house, and got him on a chair, and presently we were joined by the butcher! No one seemed to know what to do, so I took command. Again I had no experience with accidents, but seemed to get "impressed" with what to do, and the butcher made a splendid assistant. The man looked so ghastly we all thought he would die, and his tipsy friends kept saying "Goodbye" to him!

We put a tourniquet on, and the butcher held that while I obeyed the impression to put one hand on the man’s heart and one on his head. When I did this I seemed to float up to the sky myself, as though the only thing that kept me on the earth was my contact with the "patient." (I know now of course that I was being used for the healing rays to be passed through me).

After some time we put the man on a bed of hay and some sacks in the waggon and found a sober driver to drive him into hospital five miles away, where also was the nearest doctor.

A few days later a message was sent to the village to enquire who it was who had attended to the man, because had it not been for this attention he would have had to have the hand and possibly the arm amputated. By that time, I am thankful to record that I was no longer in ignorance as to the source of my healing gifts, and had learnt to follow directions even when they were only dimly received as "impressions."

I was wearing a white muslin dress, ankle length and rather voluminous, as was the fashion at that time. The roadway where the accident had occurred, and the back-yard where we had attended to the man, were very messy with blood and mud, and the men who had helped me had all been bespattered somewhat, but I arrived home without a spot of blood or mud upon my frock, which I think goes to show that the Spirits who use us to help our fellow men are also able to throw a "cloak of protection" round us while we are being used—by way of return for our services?

The Great Beyond's special emergency services are not limited to first aid but are also equipped for fires, as Adair-Roberts attests, recalling an even more alarming incident which took place while she was "in the country, taking charge of the house while my friends were on holiday", when a cooking stove caught fire:

The flames were now ceiling high, the whole kitchen black, and the stove burning away merrily. I remember wondering how many minutes it would take to burn the house down——then I sat down on a chair and prayed, a ludicrous (?) prayer: "Dear Lord, I am supposed to be taking care of my friends’ house, not rendering them homeless. The place is now on fire and I am all alone, and I just don’t know what to do to save it, please send me help; Amen." Almost instantly I felt the presence of two "angels," but I did not see them. All fear of the fire left me, and I had the curious sensation of being much taller and broader than my usual stature. I had a white muslin frock on but I felt much more like a big burly man than a five-foot-nothing woman! With the Angels’ assistance I achieved the impossible. I pulled the whole stove out of its recess, carried it flaming across he kitchen, through a door and down a step into a coal shed (where stood a big drum of kerosene oil!). Inch by inch I edged and pushed the stove till I got it at right angles to the first door, and then heaved it through another door and down a step, and carried it some little way way from the house, and threw it over on its back in the field, where it burnt itself out. I then threw myself on my back on the sofa, and trembled like an aspen for hours: one of the angels stayed with me till I recovered. I thanked them for coming and thanked God for sending them to my help. 

When not coming to the aid of unfortunate persons wearing white muslin frocks, the departed do not waste their "eternal years in idleness among damp clouds, futilely playing a harp regardless of their qualification to do so". No, indeed, the heavenly estate ensures everyone is kept properly occupied, at least according to those "friends" she has heard from during seances:

A friend who had been somewhat selfish in his earth life and rather inclined to grouse and grumble at his own sicknesses and misfortunes, was given work on that side to help people who were very ill before they died. He helps them to forget their suffering; and interests them in other things so that they forget how ill they were and feel lovely and well now, and so then they are able to progress.

Another friend found a wonderful library “over there,” and was able to indulge his craving for reading which his busy earth life precluded. This friend also studied astronomy and told us to expect the announcement of the discovery of a new star (?). Shortly after this the newspapers reported that a new planet had been identified, which has since been named “Pluto.” 

(Not very advanced astronomy, if he hadn't yet learned the difference between a star and a planet. But presumably if you have all eternity to do your lessons in, you will want to take things verrrrry sloooooow.)

The Wolfgang Gang: They Live and Speak: A Reaping

Adair-Roberts' second book concerns the special relationship between a medium and their spirit guides, a relationship which can be a troubled one, as in the earthly realm, being fallible, we cannot always get attuned to the vibrations of the unearthly. Adair-Roberts would mainly use music as a help in this regard, though she would sometimes need to fall back on another trusty tool :

My singing voice often "gives out,” and it is not is easy to arrange for music at my Sittings, as I move from place to place. So I bought an electric "Vibrator", as that had been recommended to me for keeping up an even vibration which helped the conditions. I asked the Spirit friends how they liked it, and whether it was helpful or otherwise.

They replied: "Yes, we think so; but try to do without it sometimes so that you are not dependent on it, and can sit just wherever you happen to be. We are anxious for you to be able to carry on your messages no matter where you are, so that you must not get yourself too tied down to places and things. You will always have a Cross with you wherever you go, and your prayers from your heart are most helpful."

Indeed, when using a vibrator you may find that your Sittings move from place to place. She does not say whether it was this same electric device that drew a particular celebrity Guide to her, though whatever the attraction, it was certainly not her acuity of perception nor musical erudition:

In the course of the development of my mediumship, various Guides from the Spirit World were allotted to me to help me. One day the name "Wolfgang" was given, and for many moons I believed him to be a Red Indian Guide, until it was dramatically announced that Wolfgang was Mozart. [...]

Knowing nothing of his Earth life or his musical work, I have learnt to associate him with the violin (which, I believe, he only played in his early youth or boyhood). Sometimes at night, after a distressful day, I ask him to play to me to soothe me when I go over to the Spirit World in my sleep state, and I never bring back the memory of his playing any other instrument than the violin. 

Yes, that is definitely the real Mozart, that violin-playing chap who could easily be mistaken for a Native American. But, for the removal of doubt, she gives us actual evidence of his musical genius:

I spent the day with [friend and fellow-medium] Violet, and during the afternoon we sat to receive messages from Mozart. Much to our enthralment, he managed to convey through my hand on music manuscript paper a few bars of music or notes. He then instructed Violet to take it to the piano and "try it out."

Not knowing a crotchet from a quaver, I held my breath in tense anticipation! Violet played it over note by note, then both hands together, eking it out a little where my notes were sparse. Then she played it a little quicker—then again. At last she turned to me in breathless excitement and gasped: "Well, Win, it’s not nothing! "—by which, of course, she meant that there was some sort of a tune in it—it was music, not rubbish. We christened that little effort "The Not Nothing, by W.A.M., Violet and Win.” Mozart said he would try again and do better another time. 

(Too few notes, my dear Mozart.) Disappointingly, Adair-Roberts does not reproduce The Not-Nothing in her book, so it cannot be allocated a Köchel number. There is another passage in which, somewhat mysteriously, his "Sonata in E Flat" (presumably the Op. 33, which does have a Köchel number, K. 481) is transmitted to the two mediums independently, though as it had been on the radio a few days earlier the mystery may not be very deep.

One famous composer would surely be enough for the average medium to handle, but it would seem that like stray cats, once you let one in a whole band turns up. Mozart was followed by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven and Rossini, not forgetting a somewhat grudging Wagner:

"I know you do not care for my music; but I had to add my voice".

 You might think that the ideal occupation for such a distinguished group of musicians would be creating music, but no: they were employed in "rescue work", a form of labour not described in detail but which had the laudable aim of helping souls escape from hell. An earthly medium was needed for the work to proceed, but to perform this role was exhausting, and it seems like it nearly killed Violet, who was about 80 years old at the time. As Mozart wrote:

"We think Violet is a splendid person, but she is not as strong as we had hoped. Please pray very hard that her physical strength may hold out so that we can use her in this wonderful new work more often."

Get well soon, so you can get back to work. We've all had employers like this, haven't we?

On July 2nd, 1933, Mozart made a prediction which Adair-Roberts felt should be made public, via the correspondence column of Light magazine: 

He tells me that there is to be a great outpouring of music which is to sweep over the Earth from the Sphere where music is the controlling force, and it will be a great influence for the redemption of the people of the Earth world. Music will permeate the atmosphere so that people can hear it as easily as they now smell the perfume of flowers. When the people of the Earth are so bathed in the sound of music and harmony, it will be repellent to them to be at discord with themselves or one another, and so by degrees peace will come, peace such as has never been known upon the Earth, though in the spiritual realms it is the way of God.

The music is to be "manufactured" in the spiritual realms, and then passed through people who are finely attuned, and in some way their bodies will vibrate to one or more notes, or in special cases to a whole tune perhaps, Passers-by will be able to hear the note to which each individual vibrates. Those with a spiritual soul will produce melodious notes; those less developed will in time find that their own discordant note is so jarring that they will endeavour to tune in, or tune up to some note that brings them more comfort.

It's all thanks to the Great Buzz of 1934 that we now have world peace. Who knew?

Questions, questions: Now We See as Through a Dark Glass

Ms. Adair-Roberts' final book was published when she was 80. It is a collection of short letters she wrote to answer questions posed by her many correspondents, ranging, seemingly at random, from the question of girls wearing headgear when being confirmed — veils are OK, but military service caps not, because when the confirming bishop lays his hands on a candidate's head he is transmitting the Holy Spirit to their pineal gland, and a cap would get in the way — through that of contraception within marriage — "a wise and sane endeavour to keep harmony and balance on the three sexual planes", (physical, mental and spiritual) — to "Is there life on Mars?" — probably yes, and in the case of Venus, definitely so:

I feel I know more about Venus and the Venusians than I do about Mars and the Martians, but I find no difficulty in believing that their Planets are inhabited by LIVING BEINGS of a different form from that of Earth humanity, and appropriately "clothed-upon" to suit the lesser density and different vibrations and rhythms of their Planets.

From Maeterlinck we learn that wheat, bees, and I think robins (?) are not indigenous to Earth, but came from Venus. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that Venus has long been inhabited by LIFE in some form.

As, when we die we leave our physical bodies behind (earth to earth) and thereafter we can only be seen (by clairvoyant vision) "clothed" in our etheric bodies, so it is understandable that our physical eyes are blind to the existence of Venusians because they are functioning in a different dimension. 

This one has the same earnest tone as her earlier works but, not being primarily concerned with Spiritualism, has fewer of those sudden sharp turns into nuttiness that make them particularly entertaining, so one for the hardcore fans only, I'm afraid, though it is heartening to see her still determinedly trying to make the world a better place as she entered her ninth decade. (She died in 1974, aged about 89).

Footnote: Many online sources give Adair-Roberts a birthdate of 1910, due to a misreading of this page where her dates are given as fl. 1910-1974. In actuality she must have been born around 1885,