1847-1920
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Cecil Husk was one of the
many Mediums who worked in Victorian England, and provided excellent
evidence of survival through physical mediumship. Cecil
was aware of his mediumistic abilities from his early childhood,
experiencing clairvoyance and being accompanied by the unexplained movement
of objects. Fortunately, Cecil's father was a Spiritualist, and Cecil
therefore did not suffer the fate of other mediumistic children who were
victimized by unthinking parents. It was in his teen years that his
abilities appeared to develop: he recorded how, at this time, 'On several
occasions persons that I did not recognise would open the door, walk into
the room where I happened to be sitting, and without a word would just walk
out again'.(1) added that although no speech occurred, he gained
an impression of what they wished to convey to him.
Cecil sought to develop his
mediumship, sitting two or three times a week, and through this,
table-turning was achieved. His father, a professional singer, participated
in these activities, although his mother was somewhat unenthusiastic. Cecil
followed his father into the musical profession, eventually becoming a
member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and while travelling on tour, gave
sittings to those who wanted evidence of survival: he conducted séances on a
regular basis from 1870, and from 1875, was able to facilitate
materializations. When he experienced diminishing eyesight, he abandoned his
career and embarked upon a lifetime of professional mediumship. Cecil had
five guides, the primary one being 'John King', who was often involved in
the work of other physical mediums in the nineteenth century.
Under the guides' control, Cecils seances would be
accompanied by 'the weird music of fairy bells which used to fly around the
room playing tunes...[and] the heavy musical box which used to be wound up
and lifted on to the table by unseen hands, and which then played its
familiar melodies'. Moreover, the appearance of 'those Spirit beings...who
were recognised by their friends and relatives'.(2) A
considerable amount of information concerning Cecil's mediumship was
supplied by Florence Marryat when she detailed what was witnessed during the
different séances attended from 1892. She described how, at the beginning of
the séance, the sitters would hear Cecil's controls talking among themselves
in their endeavour to begin the phenomena. In the case of the apparel used
by the materialized forms, she noticed that 'when the full form
dematerialises in sight, and goes down through the floor, the drapery
invariably is left behind for a few seconds till it follows suit'.
On one
occasion when she attended a seance, John King explained how the process of
materialization was a concerted effort and there was often difficulty in
producing an exact replication of the person's physical body; this was,
according to the guide, invariably because the spirits 'are in such haste
that they render my task very difficult. That is why very often a spirit
appears to his friends and they cannot recognise any likenesses. She
relates one amusing incident when John Powles, a friend who had died,
refused to use white apparel when he materialized. This led to an
informative conversation between Marryat and John King: she asked him why
white was preferred by most materializations and King replied that it was
wholly unrelated to spiritual standing, as was often believed by sitters,
but it helped to preserve the borrowed material form for a longer period of
time. Marryat also reported how King refused to inform the sitters of who
was about to materialize as he believed they should be recognized, and if
this did not occur, it simply meant they had failed to attain sufficient
strength and should make another attempt on a later occasion.
When Powles materialized, Marryat noted that he was
dressed in tweed and 'looked exactly like himself and spoke quite
distinctly'. One instance of quality evidence was when a young man
materialized and walked up to a friend of Marryat, who was sitting next to
her; however, the materialization was not recognized and was therefore asked
what his relationship was to the sitter and he replied 'brother'.
On then being asked his name, he replied, Willy. After the séance ended, Marryat,
who had noticed some physical similarity between the visitor and sitter,
asked the sitter whether he knew of any brothers who had died and he replied
that he had. He acknowledged that he had almost forgotten that before he was
born, his mother had given birth to twins who had died shortly afterwards.
One had been named William. Supplying a
further example of excellent evidence, Marryat went on to detail the reunion
with her own mother who had died on 13 February, 1883. Very shortly before
her death, the mother had asked Marryat to sing the hymn Rock of Ages, and also made it
very clear that she did not want flowers at her funeral, but Marryat decided
that she could not comply with the request and placed violets on her body as
it lay in its coffin: she told no one of this. Years later, at a seance with
Cecil, the room became filled with the scent of violets, so much so that the
different sitters began asking which one was wearing violet scent or powder.
Not long afterwards, Rock of Ages began to be heard.
This was followed by a bunch of violets, still covered in dew, being
thrust in Marryats face and the voice of her mother saying, You were very
naughty to put flowers on me when I told you not to do so. Marryat seized
the opportunity to ask her mother about her new life to which she replied
that she was happy, but 'added that it is all so very different from what I
imagined'.
Marryat also referred to a
seance when a young boy, who had died of food poisoning, materialized for
his father who was present. She details how she saw the boy and 'heard him
speak to his father of his home, mentioning everybody there by name,
enumerating the playthings and books he had left behind, and saying to whom
he wished them given'. This was one example of the many occasions when
parents were reunited with their children through Cecil's mediumship: 'I
have seen mothers and fathers at these sittings, with the tears pouring down
their cheeks, as they spoke with their children again'.(3)
One phenomenon that was often produced through Cecil's mediumship,
was the passing of matter through matter; one of the more unusual features
of this activity was the placing of a ring around his wrist. Dr George Wyld
provided an oval ring that was so designed that it was too small to be
fitted on the wrist by passing it over the medium's hand. Wyld held Cecil's
hand and then found the ring had been placed on Cecil wrist; he
subsequently produced a yet smaller ring of solid iron, and once again,
while Cecil's left hand was held, the ring was found to have been placed on
his wrist.
Cecil was examined by William Crookes, and three others, on 17
April 1885; after careful measurements were taken, it was noted that the
internal circumference of the ring was 182.5mm, while the widest part of
Cecil's hand, even after 'troughing', was 194mm. However, their conclusion
was only that, 'we do not consider these conditions to be those best
adapted', and 'we cannot infer that it is impossible that the ring should
have come into the position in which we found it by known natural forces'.(4)
In sum, this particular exercise did not produce any definite judgement.
In old age, Cecil
recorded how, when the feat was accomplished, he 'felt a shock go through my
arm, and immediately felt the coldness of the ring encircling my wrist'. He
went on to relate how 'I suppose I must have had my arm tugged and pulled at
by hundreds of people...who tried to take the ring off, but there was no way
of moving it. I am very much thinner now than I was, but it still cannot be
taken off'.(5) Cecil wore the ring until he died and indeed,
according to Boddington, the ring, 'remained to his dying day a puzzle to
conjurers and scientists alike'.(6)
When Cecil was interviewed
about his mediumship, he revealed how the behaviour of some sitters had
caused him ill-health and physical injury, e.g. they had pressed pins into
him while in trance and turned on the light during a materialization seance.
He had also suffered annoyance by mischievous Spirits although his Guides
protected him from any harm in this respect. As so
often happened in the era of Victorian physical mediumship, a cloud was cast
over Cecil when, in 1890, some claimed that he had resorted to fraud at a
public séance. Again, as so often happened, there were claims and
counter-claims, but the reality of the overall situation is surely
demonstrated by the testimonials of those who sat with Cecil.
In the Annals of Psychic
Science (July 1906), Henry Fotherby described the occasion when the
materializations developed from a type of phosphorescent vapour in the air,
and they were seen to have flecks of bright light, and made visible by the
levitating luminous slates 'which rose by themselves from the table'.(7)
Other witnesses testified to further paranormal activity, e.g. Gambier
Bolton who saw, in his own house along with fourteen other investigators,
Cecil levitated in his chair. When Admiral Moore attended seances conducted
by Cecil in 1904, there was the movement of objects about the seance room,
followed by the materialization of some fifteen persons.
Meads described an
occasion when the Maharaja of Nepal visited this country in 1908 and had
sittings with Cecil and Robert Boursnell, a medium through whom Spirit
photographs were facilitated. Through the agency of both Mediums, those
persons who appeared in the spirit photographs could be recognized when they
also materialized through Cecil. Meads also attended a sitting with Cecil
when materialized persons 'clearly showed their faces, but each gave her or
his name'.(8)
Fodor relates an
amusing incident when a sitter, during a period when communicators were
speaking, asked whether they were using the medium's throat. Suddenly, a
bellowing voice boomed close to him: 'Do you think that this is the Medium's
throat? If so, he must have a long neck'.(9) It was also noted
that communicators spoke in various different languages. Furthermore, the
seances were sometimes accompanied by communicators singing in the different
tones, and with considerable volume; this occurred even when Cecil was
suffering illness. The extent of Cecil's mediumship is demonstrated by the
letters written by those who attended his seances: George Davis, writing to
Two Worlds, described how he had sat with Cecil during the previous four
years.
He related how in one seance, a woman whose husband had died only
recently was greeted firstly by her only son who had also died, and then her
husband: 'Both forms were instantly recognized by several in the Circle'. He
went on to report that, 'Three other forms appeared' accompanied by music
being played. During all this time, Cecil sat with the other Circle members.(10)
One witness to Cecil's mediumship was Sir William Barrett, a prominent figure in the SPR, and a person whose testimony carries significant weight. When he reviewed his years of research, he referred to having had only one experience of witnessing a materialization: this was with Cecil. He recounted how he and others met in a 'almost bare room', that had been lent for the occasion. Cecil's legs were tied to the table and his hands were held by the sitter on either side. He went into trance, whereupon lights appeared and began to dart about the room, accompanied by object movement. A voice was then heard that said he was John King; Barrett recorded: 'suddenly right in front of me appeared a clothed human figure...The face was undoubtedly a living one, for I saw its eyes open and close and its lips move...[It was] quite unlike that of the medium'. Of this occasion, Barrett said it: 'seemed to be inexplicable by fraud'.(11) Sadly, Cecil's final years were spent in considerable discomfort. By 1917, he was bed-ridden, paralysed, and blind: however, he was given support by Spiritualists and well-wishers; through the setting-up of the Husk Fund, it was possible to support him financially and assist in the nursing that he needed.
When interviewed in 1917, he
remained cheerful and spoke of the continuing contact with John King; he
also mentioned that his control had become involved in ministering to the
soldiers slaughtered on the bloodied fields of Europe in the Great War and
were passing into the next world (N.B. in this war, up to sixty thousand
soldiers could die in a single day). Cecil observed that due to this
situation, John King 'always seems so full of business, and simply calls as
he is passing through'.(12)
NB. With minor adjustments and additions This article
appeared in the March 1998 NAS Newsletter,
British professional singer and member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. Because of failing eyesight, Husk abandoned his vocation and, having been strongly psychic from early childhood, replaced it with professional mediumship.
Husk's materialization seances began about 1875 and were well known for the number and varied nature of the phenomena. John King was claimed as his chief control and had five subordinates: Uncle, Christopher, Ebenezer, Tom Hall, and Joey, (the latter apparently the same control as manifesting through Medium William Eglinton). Their voices, according to Florence Marryat, were heard as soon as the medium entered the cabinet. The subordinates prepared the manifestations for "John King."
One of Kings favorite phenomena was the demonstration of matter passing through matter. The threading of chairs or iron rings on the Medium's arms while the sitters held his hands was a frequently observed manifestation.
One experiment was carried out by George Wyld of Edinburgh and is described in his book Theosophy, or Spiritual Dynamics and the Divine and Miraculous Man (1884). For four years, Wyld had carried with him a specially made oval-shaped iron ring of five to six inches in diameter. Wyld hoped that it would be placed on his arm or on a Mediums while he held the Mediums hand. The size of the ring did not allow its passage over the hand. Wylds wish was finally satisfied by Cecil Husk in 1884. While Wyld held the left hand of the Medium, the ring was taken from his right; the Medium cried out in pain, and when the light was turned on it was found on Husk's left wrist. An hour later it fell onto the floor.
Encouraged by this success, Wyld had a smaller ring made. This was also put on Husks wrist while his hand was held by a friend. The ring was identified by microscopic markings. The Society for Psychical Research examined the ring and undertook to force it off if the Medium permitted himself to be chloroformed. When he refused they brought the verdict: We cannot infer that it is impossible that the ring should have come into the position in which we found it by known natural means. This verdict was based on experiments conducted on three other men by etherizing them and compressing their hands with metallic tape. The ring could not be passed over. Still the investigators concluded that they might have been successful in the case of Husk.
In 1890, through Cecil Husk's mediumship, Stanley de Brath made his first acquaintance with psychic phenomena. During the following year, at a public seance with about 20 sitters, Husk was exposed. In the light of an electric tie-pin he was seen leaning over the table and illuminating his face with a phosphorized slate. The spirit drapery that enveloped his head did not disappear. The attempt at an apology by Spiritualists who suggested that a case of transfiguration was taking place and that the drapery was apported instead of being materialized proved unacceptable.
In an article in the July 1906 issue of the Annals of Psychic Science, Henry A Fotherby describes an interesting materialization seance with Husk in which the phantasms appeared to develop from a sort of phosphorescent vapor in the air, dotted all over with countless minute points of bright light, like little glow lamps. They were rendered visible by luminous slates that rose by themselves from the table and cast a weird bluish light on the phantom faces.
Gambier Bolton recounted an instance when, in his own house in the presence of 14 investigators, the medium, while tightly held, was levitated in his chair onto the top of the table. When Admiral Usborne Moore sat in an initial seance with Husk in 1904 a zither rose from the table and soared above the Circle. Its movements could be seen by the phosphorescent spots on its underside. After two or three swirls it dashed onto the floor and apparently went through, for faint music could be heard from underneath.
In the light of illuminated cards Moore witnessed the materialization of about 15 spirits. He later recounted that the faces were about two-thirds life size. John King always spoke in an extremely loud voice. This was not exceptional. When a sitter asked the control Uncle, Are you using the Medium's throat? the answer came in a bellowing voice close to him: Do you think that this is the medium's throat? If so, he must have a long neck. The voices spoke in many languages. The singing—tenor, bass, and all the shades between—went on in astonishing volume even when Husk had a cold.
Moore sat more than 40 times with Husk and only once suspected fraud. On that occasion conditions were poor and he was by no means sure that his doubts were reasonable.
Sources:
Bolton, Gambier. Psychic Force. N.p., 1904. Moore, Usborne. Glimpses of the Next State. London: Watts, 1911.
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