From 1826 to 1830, Drummond hosted the annual Albury Conferences, held in Albury for the Union of the Students of Prophecy moderated by M‘Neile. Each of the Albury Conferences involved days full of close and laborious study of the prophetical books of the Bible; attempting to seek out as-yet-unfulfilled prophecies within them. As they progressed, "prophetic speculations became more and more extreme". It was at Albury that M‘Neile first met Edward Irving (1792–1834). Irving was a strong believer in the "gifts" of "speaking in tongues" ("glossolalia") and spiritual healing. It was through Irving that M‘Neile first encountered the Irish-born Okey Sisters. His experience of the deception of Okey Sisters' reputed speaking in tongues with Irving, and his knowledge of their later association with Elliotson and his mesmerism, and their well-attested fraudulent deception of Elliotson, must have strongly informed his later views of the activities of magnetists such as Lafontaine.