Medium Frederick Craddock
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Frederick Craddock Medium
The story of a materialized seal is printed in detail in Light (April 22, 1900), on the basis of Gambier Bolton's account before the London Spiritualist Alliance. The story goes as follows:
Being well known as a zoologist, Bolton received a note from an auctioneer asking if he would come to see a large seal that had been sent from abroad. "The poor thing is suffering; come round and see what you can do," wrote the seal's temporary owner, and being deeply interested in the welfare of animals of all kinds, Bolton at once obeyed. The poor creature had been harpooned, and was languishing in a large basket. He saw at once that it could not live, but wishing to do what he could to prolong its life, he dispatched it to the Zoological Gardens. Later in the day he called to see how it was faring, and found that it had been put into the seal tank. When Bolton visited the tank the seal rose from the water and gave him a long look, which, as he humorously suggested, seemed to indicate that the animal recognized him and was grateful for its treatment.
The seal died that night, and ten days later Bolton was at a seance at which Frederick Craddock was the Medium. A number of people of social and scientific repute were present. Suddenly someone called out from the cabinet: "Take this great brute away, it is suffocating me." It was the seal! It came slowly from the cabinet, flopping and dragging itself as do seals, which (unlike sea-lions) cannot walk. It stayed close to Bolton for some moments and then returned to the cabinet and disappeared. "There is no doubt in my mind," said Bolton, "that it was the identical seal."
Asking about the modus vivendi of animal materializations, Bolton obtained the following answer from the spirit controls: "Their actions are altogether independent of us. Whilst we are busily engaged in conducting our experiments with human entities who wish to materialise in your midst, the animals get into the room in some way which we do not understand, and which we cannot prevent; obtain, from somewhere, sufficient matter with which to build up temporary bodies; coming just when they choose; roaming about the room just as they please; and disappearing just when it suits them, and not before; and we have no power to prevent this so long as the affection existing between them and their late owners is so strong as it was in the instances which have come under our notice."