For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare themselves for the battle? 1 Corinthians Chapter 14 Verse 8.
Persecuted medium Helen Duncan’s trumpet is on the move again!
Helen Duncan was infamously prosecuted and jailed under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. The powers that be were attempting to prosecute her again under the then 1951 newly instituted Fraudulent Mediums Act, but Helen passed to the other side before they could do it in 1956.
How could their charges be truly justified considering the fact that Helen voluntarily subjected herself to the rigours of scientific testing to promote the fact of spirit influence in our everyday lives. (Interestingly some tests took place in May 1931). Because of the publicity surrounding her prosecution, Helen Duncan is most well known for the kind of physical mediumship that produces ectoplasmic material from bodily orifices, but she was also a trance medium whose guides and helpers moved solid tables, produced raps, and moved trumpets around séance rooms.
Veteran medium Alan Law, who earned his living as a chemist before he retired, is the proud owner of two of Helen Duncan’s trumpets. He now spends six months in the USA and six months in England and is a member of the ISF.
When he met Sue Willison, the General Secretary of the International Spiritualists Federation, and her partner Graham Solly, they decided on a wonderful plan. Medium and healer Sue has a spiritual artefact shop and therapy centre in Kent, and Graham was to make a template to the exact specification of one of those trumpets, which once made up were to be available from the shop.
One of their first customers for the Helen Duncan trumpet was Robin Hodson of the Eastbourne Centre, also President of Seaford Independent Spiritualist Church, East Sussex who runs the Seaford spirit group. He reports that the trumpet has moved across their table, and that the luminous strips actually blink in the dark, (This of course would be light frequency interference caused by spirit side activity).
President Hodson says that they are looking forward to further development as the group continues to sit together.
Sue and Graham also utilise a copy of Helen Duncan’s trumpet in their circle and have observed smoke coming out of it – and movement on their table that then ‘shot across the room’!
The Doris Stokes Memorial Church (that meets on the second Thursday of the month at the Southwick Community Centre, Southwick in East Sussex at 7.30 pm) is run by its circle who have also begun to use the trumpet.
At their last circle meeting, Church vice president and Scottish born Cathy Gibb was asked to lend her presence, as they had received their ordered Helen Duncan trumpet from Equilibrium.
As usual the circle gathered; This time a small wooden table 14 inches wide by 19 inches long, by 27 inches high, was placed in front of the medium. The aluminium trumpet that measures 20 inches long – 12˝ in circumference at the top end and 2˝ at the other, was laid on top.
After the opening invocation, the leader talked about physical mediumship and the problems that beset Helen Duncan virtually throughout her life. There was much laughter as they were told that one detractor of her materialisation work, a Miss Maule, said that women in “Female Lunatic Asylums were known to secrete up to three bath towels in their pelvic cavities”!
In Helen Duncan’s case sceptics talked about yards of muslin or cheesecloth.
The circle then settled down to see what would happen… Hymns were sung – and then a few Scottish and war time songs. The favourites seemed to be Gracious Spirit and Amazing Grace. The table shaking violently to both
The table rocked and hovered over the shag pile carpet – moving over it as though it were a polished surface, and the trumpet stayed still as tho’ stuck to the table top – when the table stopped, the trumpet rolled around. The trumpet seemed to throw itself off the table at one point when the table was not moving. Then as Cathy’s finger tips were on the side of the table, the front of the trumpet lifted up and hovered at a 45° angle!
Smoke billowed out from the interior of the trumpet that then became transparent. The sitters complained that the smoke was affecting their eyes as it filled the room.
The luminous strips at either end blinked on and off. The crystal centre light which had been dimmed to its fullest extent actually got darker and then lighter by turns for a period of five minutes.
Cathy was transfigured during the session, with sitters describing her as large with a fuller figure, dark short hair and bigger hands.
A strange sound seemed to gurgle up from the trumpet – and the spirit control with Cathy gave a brief message to the circle, who’d also felt “hands touching” them, and seen “someone standing beside” her, “A miracle can take a long time”.
Afterwards Cathy told the stunned circle leader that she’d felt the table lifting up – so she’d had to use all her strength to press down on it to stop it flying off!
