Book: "Raymond or Life and Death"

Author: Sir Oliver Lodge FRS

Availability: Out of Print

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- (Part 2) Chapter 19 - Supernormal Portion -

A Few More Records, with Some Unverifiable Matter


          AFTER Christmas I had proposed to drop the historical order and make selections as convenient, but I find that sequence must to some extent be maintained ' because of the interlocking of sittings with different mediums and development generally. I shall, however, only preserve historical order so far as it turns out useful or relevant, and will content myself with reporting that on 3 January 1916 Raymond's eldest sister, Violet (the one married to the 'Rowland' that he mentioned through Feda), had a good sitting with him, and was not only recognised easily, but knowledge was shown of much that she had been doing, and of what she was immediately planning to do. Reference was also made by Raymond to what he called his special room in her house (P. 45); and, later, he said that that room was bare of furniture, which it was.

And at some of the sittings now, deceased friends, not relatives, were brought by Raymond, and gave notable evidence both to us and to other people; especially to parents in some cases, to widows in others; some of which may perhaps be partially reported hereafter.

I propose now to pass on to some unverifiable matter (see Chapters XII and DEVI), and especially to a strange and striking sitting which Lady Lodge had with Mrs. Leonard on 4 February 1916.

This may as well be reported almost in full, in spite of unimportant and introductory portions, since it seems fairer to give the context, especially of unverifiable matter. But I feel bound to say that there is divergence of opinion as to whether this particular record ought to be published or not. I can only say that I recognise the responsibility, and hope that I am right in partially accepting it.

Non-Evidential Sitting of M. F. A. L. with Mrs. Leonard at her House on Friday, 4 February 1916, from 8.30 p.m. to 11:10p.m.

(M F.A. L. alone.)

Feda.- Oh, it's Miss Olive!

M.F.A.L.- So glad to meet you, Feda!

Feda love you and Soliver best of all. SLionel and SAlec too she love very much.

Yaymond is here. He has been all over the place with Paulie, to all sorts of places to the mediums, to try and get poor boys into touch with their mothers. Some are very jealous of those who succeed. They try to get to their mothers, and they can't-they are shut out. They make me feel as though I could cry to see them. We explain that their mothers and fathers don't know about communicating. They say, why don't they all go to mediums?

Yaymond say, it makes me wonder too.

He say, he was telling Feda, it was awful funny the things some of them did-it has a funny side, going to see the mediums. You see, Paul and he couldn't help having a joke; they are boys themselves, laughing over funny things.

He says he was listening to Paul, and he was describing the drawing-room at home. (A good description was now given of the drawing-room at Mariemont, which the medium had never seen.)

Feda sees flowers; they're Feda's, not Gladys's.

[M.F.A.L. had brought flowers for Mrs. Leonard.]

M.F.A.L.- Don't you have flowers, then?

Yes, lots of flowers. But Feda like to have them in Gladys's room. [Apparently this must be Mrs. Leonard's name.]

There's a lot in prayer. Prayer keeps out evil things, and keeps nice clean conditions. Raymond says, keeps out devils.

Mother, I don't want to talk about material things, but to satisfy anxiety. I was very uneasy on Monday night. I tried to come near, but there was a band round me. We were all there.

M.F.A.L.- The Zeppelins did come on Monday night, but they did not touch us. [We went to bed and didn't worry about them.]

He says, they worked in a circular way, east and south of you. Awful! He hoped it wouldn't upset you; he didn't want them to come too close. I know you're not nervous, but I fear for you. if he'd been on the earth plane, he'd have been flying home. He says New Street was the mark.

Some one called 'M.' sent you a message through Mrs. F. ( ?), and wanted her dearest love given. She's had to be away rather from the earth plane for some time, but he actually has seen M. several times. Conditions of war have brought her back. She had progressed a good way. She wondered if you realised it was not her will to leave you so long, but progression. She belongs to a higher plane.

M. knew something about this before she passed on, though perhaps it makes it easier to be always communicating.

[Some friends will know for whom this is intended - a great friend of our and many other children. She had had one sitting with Mrs. Piper at Mariemont, not a good one. OJL.]

Her life on the earth plane made it easier for her to go on quickly after she passed out.

(Feda, sotto voce.- What you say?)

M. says, it will be a test, that she was with his father at a medium's, where she saw a control named Alice Anne, a little girl control; she didn't speak to Soliver, but was with him at the medium's. "The old Scotch girl" what Paulie calls her; old Scotch lady-same thing.

[This is correct about a sitting with Miss McCreadie, when this 'M.' had unmistakably sent messages through Miss McC.'s usual control. - OJL.]

(Added later.)

Some friends will be interested in this lady,-a really beautiful character, with initials M. N. W.,- so I record something that came through from Feda on a much later occasion - in July 1916:-

Raymond's got rather a young lady with him. Not the sister who passed away a little baby. But she's young-she looks twenty-four or twenty-five. She's rather slender, rather pretty. Brown hair, oval face. Not awful handsome, but got a nice expression. She's very nice, and comes from a high sphere. She's able to come close to-night, but can't always come. Name begins with an M. And she says, "Don't think that because she didn't come, she didn't want to come. She had to keep away for so long. It was necessary for her to stay away from the earth for a while, because she had work in high spheres for three years, and it's difficult for her to come through.

Good, good-something about the lady, lady-two people, she says. Lady and good man. Feda ought to remember its lady and good man.

Between them Soliver and her, Soliver and Miss Olive, and her. Lady and good man and M. She must have been very good on the earth plane, she wasn't ordinary at all. Quite unusual and very very good. You can tell that by what she looks like now.

She brings a lot of flowers-pansies, not quite pansies, flower like a pansy, and not quite a pansy. Heartsease, that's what it is. She brings lots of those to you. She brought a lot of them when Raymond wented over there. But not for very long, she didn't they wasn't wanted very long.

M.F.A.L. Record of February 4 - continued

He said about some one, that she'd gone right on to a very high sphere indeed, as near celestial as could possibly be. His sister, he says-can't get her name. [He means Lily, presumably.] He says William had gone on too, a good way, but not too far to come to him. [His brother.]

Those who are fond of you never go too far to come back to you-sometimes too far to communicate, never too far to meet you when you pass over.

M.F.A. L.- That's so comforting, darling. I don't want to hold you back.

You gravitate here to the ones you're fond of. Those you're not fond of, if you meet them in the street, you don't bother yourself to say 'how-do-you-do.'

M.F.A L.-There are streets, then?

Yes. He was pleased to see streets and houses.

At one time, I thought it might be created by one's own thoughts. You gravitate to a place you are fitted for. Mother, there's no judge and jury, you just gravitate, like to like.

I've seen some boys pass on who had nasty ideas and vices. They go to a place I'm very glad I didn't have to go to, but it's not hell exactly. More like a reformatory-it's a place where you're given a chance, and when you want to look for something better, you're given a chance to have it. They gravitate together, but get so bored. Learn to help yourself, and immediately you'll be helped. Very like your world; only no unfairness, no injustice a common law operating for each and every one.

M.F.A.L.- Are all of the same rank and grade?

Rank doesn't count as a virtue. High rank comes by being virtuous. Those who have been virtuous have to pass through lower rank to understand things. All go on to the astral first, just for a little.

He doesn't remember being on the astral himself. He thinks where he is now, he's about third. Summerland - Homeland, some call it. It is a very happy medium. The very highest can come to visit you. It is just sufficiently near the earth plane to be able to get to those on earth. He thinks you have the best of it there, so far as he can see

Mother, I went to a gorgeous place the other day.

M.F.A.L.- Where was it?

Goodness knows!

I was permitted, so that I might see what was going on in the Highest Sphere. Generally the High Spirits come to us.

I wonder if I can tell you what it looked like!

[Until the case for survival is considered established, it is thought improper and unwise to relate an experience of a kind which may be imagined, in a book dealing for the most part with evidential matter. So I have omitted the description here, and the brief reported utterance which followed. I think it fair, however, to quote the record so far as it refers to the youth's own feelings, because otherwise the picture would be incomplete and one- sided, and he might appear occupied only with comparatively frivolous concerns.]

I felt exalted, purified, lifted up. I was kneeling. I couldn't stand up, I wanted to kneel.

Mother, I thrilled from head to foot. He didn't come near me, and I didn't feel I wanted to go near him. Didn't feel I ought. The Voice was like a bell. I can't tell you what he was dressed or robed in. All seemed a mixture of shining colours.

No good; can you imagine what I felt like when he put those beautiful rays on to me? I don't know what I've ever done that I should have been given that wonderful experience. I never thought of such a thing being possible, not at any rate for years, and years, and years. No one could tell what I felt, I can't explain it.

Will they understand it?

I know father and you will, but I want the others to try. I can't put it into words.

I didn't walk, I had to be taken back to Summerland, I don't know what happened to me. If you could faint with delight! Weren't those beautiful words?

I've asked if Christ will go and be seen by everybody; but was told, "Not quite in the same sense as you saw Him." I was told Christ was always in spirit on earth-a sort of projection, something like those rays, something of him in every one.

People think he is a Spirit, walking about in a particular place. Christ is everywhere, not as a personality. There is a Christ, and He lives on the higher plane, and that is the one I was permitted to see.

There was more given me in that beautiful message; I can't remember it all. He said the whole of it, nearly and word for word, of what I've given you. You see from that I'm given a mission to do, helping near the earth plane. . . .

Shall I tell you why I'm so glad that is my work, given me by the Highest Authority of all!

First of all, I'm proud to do His work, no matter what it is; but the great thing is, I can be near you and father.

M.F.A.L.- If we can only be worthy!

You are both doing it, every bit you can.

M.F.A.L.- Well, I'm getting to love people more than I used to do.

I have learnt over here, that every one is not for you. If not in affinity, let them go, and be with those you do like.

Mother, will they think I'm kind of puffing myself up or humbugging? It's so wonderful, will they be able to understand that it's just Raymond that's been through this? No Sunday school.

I treasured it up to give you to-night. I put it off because I didn't know if I could give it in the right words that would make them feel like I feel -or something like. Isn't it a comfort? You and father think it well over. I didn't ask for work to be near the earth plane! I thought that things would be made right. But think of it being given me, the work I should have prayed for!

M.F.A.L.- Then you're nearer?

Much nearer! I was bound to be drawn

So beautiful to think, now I can honestly stay near the earth plane. Eventually, instead of going up by degrees, I shall take, as Feda has been promised, a jump. And when you and father come, you will be on one side, and father on the other. We shall be a while in Summerland, just to get used to conditions. He says very likely we shall be wanted to keep an eye on the others. He means brothers and sisters. I can't tell you how pleased I feel - 'pleased' is a poor word!

M.F.A.L.- About what, my dear?

About being very near the earth plane.

I've pressed on, getting used to conditions here, and yet when I went into the Presence I was overawed.

How can people . . .

It made me wish, in the few seconds I was able to think of anything, that I had led one of the purest lives imaginable. If there's any little tiny thing I've ever done, it would stand out like a mountain. I didn't have much time to think, but I did feel in that few seconds . . .

I felt when I found myself back in Summerland that I was charged with something-some wonderful power. As if I could stop rivers, move mountains; and so wonderfully glad.

He says, don't bother yourself about trying to like people you've got an antipathy for, it's waste of you. Keep love for those who want it, don't throw it away on those who don't; it's like giving things to over-fed people when hungry chaps are standing by.

Do you know that I can feel my ideas altering, somehow.

I feel more naturally in tune with conditions very far removed from the earth plane; yet I like to go round with Paul, and have fun, and enjoy myself.

After that wonderful experience, I asked some one if it wasn't stupid to like to have fun and go with the others. But they said that if you've got a work to do on the earth plane, you're not to have all the black side, you are allowed to have the lighter side too, sunshine and shadow. One throws the other up, and makes you better able to judge the value of each. There are places on my sphere where they can listen to beautiful music when they choose. Everybody, even here, doesn't care for music, so it's not in my sphere compulsory.

He likes music and singing, but wouldn't like to live in the middle of it always, he can go and hear it if he wants to, he is getting more fond of it than he was.

Mr. Myers was very pleased. He says, you know it isn't always the parsons, not always the parsons, that go highest first. It isn't what you professed, it's what you've done. If you have not believed definitely in life after death, but have tried to do as much as you could, and led a decent life, and have left alone things you don't understand, that's all that's required of you. Considering how simple it is, you'd think everybody would have done it, but very few do.

On our side, we expect a few years will make a great difference in the conditions of people on the earth plane.

In five years, ever so many more will be wanting to know about the life to come, and how they shall live on the earth plane so that they shall have a pretty good life when they pass on. They'll do it, if only as a wise precaution. But the more they know, the higher lines people will be going on.

M.F.A.L.- Did you see me reading the sitting to your father?

I'm going to stop father from feeling tired. Chap with red feather helping. Isn't it wonderful that I can be near you and father?

Some people ask me, are you pleased with where your body lies? I tell them I don't care a bit, I've no curiosity about my body now. It's like an old coat that I've done with, and hope some one will dispose of it. I don't want flowers on my body. Flowers in house, in Raymond's home.

M.F.A.L.- Can he tell the kind of flowers I put for him on his birthday?

(Feda, sotto voce.- Try and tell Feda.)

Doesn't seem able to get it.

Don't think he knew. I can't get it through. Don't think I don't appreciate them. Sees some yellow and some white.

He thinks it is some power be takes from the medium which makes for him a certain amount of physical sight. He can't see properly.

A.F.A.L.- Can he tell me where I got the flowers from for his birthday?

(Feda, sotto voce.-Flowers doesn't grow now. Winter here!)

Yes, they do. Thinks they came from home.

(Feda, sotto voce.-Try and tell me any little thing.)

He means they came from his own garden.

[Yes, they did. It was yellow jasmine, cut from the garden at Mariemont.- M.F.A.L.]

Paul's worried 'cos medium talk like book. Paul calls Feda 'Imp. Raymond sometimes calls Feda 'Illustrious One. I think Yaymond laughing! Always pretending Feda very little, and that they've lost Feda, afraid of walking on her, but Feda pinches them sometimes, pretend they've trodden on Feda. But Feda just as tall as lots of Englishes.

M.F.A.L.- Isn't Feda tired now?


M.F.A.L.- I think Raymond must be.

Well, power is going.

M.F.A.L.- Anyhow, I must go. Some one perhaps of your brothers will come soon.

I want no heralds or flourish of trumpets, let them come and see if I can get through to them.

M.F.A.L.- (I here said something about myself, I forget; I think it was about being proud.)

If I see any signs, I'll take you in hand at once it shall be nipped in the bud!

Good night.

M.F.A.L.- Do you sleep?

Well, I doze.

M.F.A.L.- Do you have rain?

Well, you can go to a place where rain is.

M.F.A.L.- Do you know that your father is having all the sittings bound together in a book?

It will be very interesting to see how I change as I go on.

Good night.


It must be remembered that all this, though reported in the first person, really comes through Feda; and though her style and grammar improve in the more serious portions, due allowance must be made for this fact.




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