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Gladys Osborne Leonard. England. UK
Born May 28, 1882-1968
A GREAT MEDIUM is a rare phenomenon, rarer than a great painter or piano
virtuoso. The world has produced only a few Mediums whose powers were so
outstanding that they could be called great. Gladys Osborne Leonard is one of
these.
A lady to whom Mrs. Leonard was once introduced as a famous Medium said with
surprise, But you look quite sensible. It is true that some well-known
sensitives have been bizarre characters. It is not easy for them to live
normally for numerous reasons: they are often revered inordinately by uncritical
followers; many psychiatrists consider them hysterics; the public tends to class
them as frauds. Some Mediums, however, have managed to live wholesome, fruitful
lives, and such a one is Mrs. Leonard. She is a quiet woman of common sense and
integrity, now over eighty years of age.
Many persons who came for sittings with her during her long period of activity
became convinced they had communicated with their deceased relatives and
friends and this was enough to satisfy them. Certain other sitters had more
objective goals in mind. Most of these hoped to receive material so veridical
that it would stand up to scientific analysis as survival evidence. Therefore,
they wished to work within the framework of carefully controlled supervision and
to keep exact records of everything that was said. They welcomed discussion and
suggestions from other researchers.
It is with this band of patient workers that this book will be primarily
concerned. They, with their determination and perseverance, their willingness to
sit for many hours taking notes in stuffy, semi-darkened seance rooms, have made
Mrs. Osborne Leonard the most carefully researched and documented medium in
history. For over fifty years she was studied by some of the best investigators
of the British and American Societies for Psychical Research.
Sir Oliver Lodge, the famous physicist, gave considerable time to Mrs. Leonard s
mediumship. The Reverend Charles Drayton Thomas had over 500 sittings with her,
all fully recorded. Radclyffe-Hall (the author) and Una, Lady Troubridge, had
weekly sittings with her for eight years, and carefully preserved every word
that was spoken. The Reverend W. S. Irving sat two or three times a year for
more than 22 years. Mrs. Lydia W. Allison of the United States made frequent
trips to England from 1921 to 1927 in order to sit with Mrs. Leonard and other
mediums. Mrs. W. H. Salter, a prominent member of the Society for Psychical
Research, gave countless hours to sittings with Mrs. Leonard. Miss Nea Walker,
Sir Oliver Lodge's Psychical secretary, made regular visits for nineteen years
as a "proxy sitter" on behalf of other people.
Lodge was already well known as a Psychical researcher when he first met Mrs.
Leonard. He can be credited with discovering her outstanding talents. In 1916 he
had just lost his son Raymond in the war. He and his wife visited Mrs. Leonard,
anonymously at first, and received information which impressed them. Continuing
his sittings with her, Sir Oliver came to believe that his son was actually
communicating with him. In his book Raymond he reported the messages he had
received and the evidential material' which had convinced him.
As one of several episodes seeming to establish the survival of his son's
personality and memory, Sir Oliver relates in Raymond the story of a certain
group photograph. He knew nothing about its existence until he was told of it by
two mediums, Mrs. Leonard and A. Vout Peters.
Raymond was killed September 14, 1915. On September 27 Lady Lodge attended a
sitting with Peters, during which the following message was received:
You have several portraits of this boy. Before he went away you had a good
portrait of him-two-no, three. Two where he is alone and one where he is in a
group with other men. He is particular that I should tell you of this. In one
you see his walking-stick. [Sir Oliver Lodge, Raymond, New York, George H. Doran
Co., 1916.]
"We had single photographs of Raymond, of course," Sir Oliver writes, "and in
uniform, but we did not know of the existence of any photograph in which he was
one of a group; and Lady Lodge was skeptical about it, thinking that it might
well be only a shot or guess on the part of the medium as something probable. I
was myself, however, rather impressed with the emphasis laid on it-'he is
particular I should tell you of this'-and accordingly made a half-hearted
inquiry or two; but nothing more was heard on the subject for two months. On
Monday, November 29, however, a letter came from Mrs. Cheves, a stranger to us,
mother of Captain Cheves of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who had known Raymond
and had reported to us concerning the nature of his wound. " Mrs. Cheves'
letter, dated November 28, 1915, ran as follows:
My son, who is Medical Officer to the Second South Lancers has sent us a group
of officers taken in August, and I wondered whether you knew of this photo and
had a copy. If not, may I send you one, for we have half a dozen and also a key.
Sir Oliver wrote to her at once. The picture was not received until the
afternoon of December 7. On December 6 Lady Lodge found an entry in Raymond's
diary, which had been returned from the front, that a photo had been taken on
August 24. The exposure was thus made only twenty-one days before his death, and
some time may have elapsed before he saw a print, if indeed he ever saw one; he
had never mentioned it in his letters.
On December 3, before the picture was received, Lodge visited Mrs. Leonard,
whose trance control, Feda, also described it in some detail. For the sake of
possible later evidence, he put this information into a letter which he mailed
to another researcher on December 6, the day before the picture arrived from
Mrs. Cheves. This letter ran:
Concerning that photograph which Raymond mentioned through the medium A. Vout
Peters (saying this: One where he is in a group of other men. He is particular
that I should tell you this. In one you will see his walking stick.), he has
said some more about it through Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard. But he is doubtful
about the stick. What he says is that there is a considerable number of men in
the photograph; that the front row is sitting, and that there is a back row, or
some of the people grouped and set up at the back; also that there are a dozen
or more people in the photograph, and that some of them he hardly knew; that a
man whose name begins with B is prominent in the photograph, and that there is
also a C; that he himself is sitting down, and that there are people behind him,
one of whom either leaned on his shoulder, or tried to. The photograph may come
any day now, so I send this off before I get it.
Sir Oliver writes later:
The photograph was delivered at Mariemont between three and four p.m. on the
afternoon of December 7. Considered as a photograph of Raymond it is bad, but
considered as evidence it is good. For on examining the photograph, we found
that every peculiarity mentioned by Raymond, unaided by the medium, was
strikingly correct. The walking stick is there, but Peters had put the stick
under his arm (which is not correct), and in connection with the background,
Mrs. Leonard's control had, by gesture, emphasized vertical lines. There are six
prominent vertical lines on the roof of the shed, but the horizontal lines in
the background generally are equally conspicuous.
By a "mixed lot," we understood members of different companies -not all
belonging to Raymond's company, but a collection from the several. This must be
correct, as they are too numerous for one company. As to "prominence," I have
asked several people which member of the group seemed to them the most
prominent, and except as regards central position, a well-lighted standing
figure on the right has usually been pointed to as most prominent. This one is
'B' as stated.
There is also an officer whose name began with C. Some of the group are sitting
while others are standing behind. Raymond is one of the sitting, and his walking
stick or regulation cane is lying across his feet. The background is dark, and
is conspicuously lined. It is out of doors, close in front of a shed or military
hut, pretty much as suggested to me by the statements made in the Leonard
sitting-what I called a "shelter."
But by far the most striking piece of evidence is the fact that someone sitting
behind Raymond is leaning or resting a hand on his shoulder. The photograph
fortunately shows the actual occurrence, and almost indicates that Raymond was
rather annoyed with it; for his face is a little screwed up, and his head has
been slightly bent to one side out of the way of the man's arm. It is the only
case in the photograph where one man is leaning or resting his hand on the
shoulder of another, and I judge that it is a thing not unlikely to be
remembered by the one to whom it occurred.
Through information supplied by Mrs. Cheves I obtained prints of all the
accessible photographs which had been taken at the same time. I found that the
group had been repeated, with slight variations, three times-the officers all in
the same relative positions but not in identically the same attitudes. One of
them is the same as the one we had seen, with his hand resting on Raymond's
shoulder, and Raymond's head leaning a little on one side, as if rather annoyed.
In another the hand had been removed, being supported by a stick, and in that
one Raymond's head is upright. This corresponds to his uncertainty as to whether
he was actually taken with this man leaning on him or not. In a third variation,
however, Captain S.'s leg rests on or touches Raymond's shoulder, and the slant
of the head and slight look of annoyance have returned.
As to the evidential value of the whole communication, it will be observed that
there is something of the nature of cross-correspondence, of a simple kind, in
the fact that a reference to the photograph was made by one medium, and details
given by another in answer to a quest ' ion which I had asked about it; the
communicator showing awareness that previous reference was made through another
channel.
And the elimination of ordinary telepathy from the living, except under the
far-fetched hypothesis of the unconscious influence of complete strangers, was
exceptionally complete; inasmuch as all of the information was recorded before
any of us had seen the photograph.
The publication of Raymond gave great impetus to Mrs. Leonard's career, which
had begun shortly before she met Sir Oliver Lodge. She was born May 28, 1882 at
Lytham, on the coast of Lancashire, England, the eldest of the four children of
Isabel and William Jocelyn Osborne. Her father was a wealthy yachting
enthusiast, and the family spent much of its time on his yacht. For this reason
the children had little formal schooling. Gladys had a governess until she was
eleven years old.
From her earliest childhood she exhibited capabilities which would some day set
her apart from others as a medium. She had frequent visions of what she called
her "Happy Valleys" until her family learned about them. She tells us that she
saw the most beautiful places-valleys, gentle slopes, lovely trees and banks
covered with flowers. [Gladys Osborne Leonard, My Life in Two Worlds, London,
Cassell, 1931.] Walking about in couples or in groups were people who looked
radiantly happy. They were dressed in graceful flowing draperies, and every
movement, gesture and expression suggested a state of quiet ecstasy.
She did not look upon these visions as anything abnormal or unusual. "Some
instinct bade me keep silent about them," she writes, "but I thought everybody
else around me must see these views, or similar ones. . . ."
One morning when her father was about to go on a trip, she was having her
breakfast with him as a special treat. As her favorite view of the Happy Valley
unfolded before her on the dining room wall, she felt a desire to share it with
her father, and said:
"Isn't that a specially beautiful place we are seeing this morning?"
"What place?" he asked.
"That place," she answered, pointing to a wall which to him was bare except for
two guns hanging on it. "What are you talking about?" her father asked. Her
explanation brought the whole family around her in a state of anxiety and
annoyance.
"At first they thought I was making it up," she says, "but as I was so
persistent, and described many of the visions so minutely, they were forced to
the conclusion that there was something in it-something not in line with their
conventional way of looking at things. I was sternly forbidden to look at the
Happy Valley again."
With an effort she was able to suppress her visions, and they gradually stopped
coming. But because of her extreme sensitivity, life was not easy for her.
"Childhood to me was a time of pain and torture rather than the carefree, merry
time it is usually supposed to be," she writes. Then her family came upon a
period of great financial trouble as she was entering her teens. Through her own
efforts she managed to train herself to be a professional singer, but when she
was to go into opera an attack of diphtheria affected her voice. She later went
on the stage with touring theatrical companies, singing and dancing juvenile
leads and comedy parts. At about this time she began singing on Sunday at a
Spiritualist Church. There she was told by a medium that "your guides are
preparing you for an important spiritual work."
Her mother had not been well, but no one suspected she was seriously ill. One
night Gladys went to visit friends in a neighbouring town. At 2 a.m. she was
awakened with the sudden feeling that something unusual was happening:
I looked up and saw in front of me, but about five feet above the level of my
body, a large, circular patch of light about four feet in diameter. In this
light I saw my mother quite distinctly. Her face looked several years younger
than I had seen it a few hours before. A pink flush of health was on her checks,
her eyes were clear and shining, and a smile of utter happiness was on her lips.
She gazed down on me for a moment, seeming to convey to me an intense feeling of
relief and a sense of safety and well-being. Then the vision faded. I was wide
awake all the time, quite conscious of my surroundings.
The next morning she learned that her mother had died at 2 a.m.
Not long after Gladys Osborne met an actor named Frederick Leonard, whom she
soon married. Busy learning to be a good housewife, while continuing her acting
career, she hardly expected that she would soon be spending time developing her
mediumship. But during "waits" between their performances, she and two other
actresses began to play at table-tipping in their dressing room.
One day after they had been sitting for some time with no results, she says, The
table began to move. [Mrs. Leonard's Account of her Meeting with Feda P.
141, Pamela Gicnconner, The Earthen Vessel, London, John Land, the Bodley Head,
1921.] We received messages from several friends, spelled out by means of
tilting the table; my mother communicated, and several others, then a long name
was spelled out beginning with F. We could not pronounce it, so we asked if we
might select a few of the letters, and make use of those as a name. The answer
yes was given, so we picked Out FEDA and this is how my acquaintance with Feda
originated.
Feda told them that she was to be Gladys' spirit control. She also said she was
Gladys' great-great-grandmother, a Hindu by birth, who had been raised by a
Scottish family until the age of thirteen. At that time she had married an
Englishman, William Hamilton, and died a year later giving birth to a son. (Mrs.
Leonard recalled that her mother had told her about this Hindu ancestress, but
she had paid little attention to the details.) Feda then told them that she was
in a hurry to learn to control Gladys because she had work to do through her,
that something very important was going to happen on earth and their services
would be wanted.
The question of Feda s real nature has been discussed for many years. Is she a
dramatization by Mrs. Leonard's subconscious self. Is she what she purports to
be-the spirit of a young girl who once lived on earth? Or is she a secondary
personality, able to take possession only in the trance state. For the present,
it suffices to say that Mrs. Leonard herself has always firmly believed that
Feda is just what she says she is-her Hindu ancestor.
The idea of losing her identity in trance was repugnant to Gladys, and she
fought it for months. Then one night as the table-tipping seance was being held
under the stage of the newly-built Palladium Theatre in London (the only quiet
spot to be found), she took a little nap. When she awoke she learned that she
had been in a state of trance, and that Feda had spoken through her.
Thus began a long "association" of a most unusual nature. The Feda personality
and Gladys were friends; sometimes they seemed almost rivals, sparring for the
use of the body known as Gladys Osborne Leonard. But they were never able to
communicate with each other except with the assistance of a sitter who would
relay their messages.
Feda asked the sitters to tell Gladys that it was her destiny to be a great
medium, and that she must sit regularly to develop her powers. After that Gladys
made it a practice to sit often, trying to improve her psychic ability. Eighteen
months later Feda said they now were proficient, and Gladys must take up
mediumship professionally.
I was very diffident about it, Mrs. Leonard tells us, as I did not think I could
do this work to order; but Feda promised she would look after me. Feda insisted
that something big and terrible was going to happen to the world. Feda must help
many people through you, she said.
So Gladys Osborne the actress became Mrs. Osborne Leonard the medium. She
embarked on a series of public sittings in London. Even from the first these
meetings paid her expenses. After the outbreak of World War 1, crowds came
seeking messages from those who had been killed in action. Then Feda sent word
to her medium that she should give up her public meetings where conditions were
less than ideal, and start holding private sittings only.
From then on business was always almost too good. Because she was eager to give
the solace of her messages to as many as possible, Mrs. Leonard often allowed
more sittings a day that was good for her health. When Sir Oliver Lodge became
interested in her work, he insisted that for the sake of preserving her
mediumship, she should not have more than two or three sittings a day. To insure
that she did not overwork, he reserved part of her time for the use of carefully
screened sitters only. The publication of Raymond made Mrs. Leonard a celebrity.
From then on she led a rich and full life as one of the most prominent people in
her field.
A description of her during this era shows us a tall woman who carried herself
well. She was of fair complexion, with light brown hair worn in a bun on the
back of her neck. She had extremely blue eyes. Having a green thumb, she spent
much time in the garden with her flowers. She had numerous pets, loved all
animals, and has always been active in movements for their protection. Her first
interests were her husband and her home; and her husband's career was more
important to her than her own while he was on the stage. When he had ' his final
illness in his sixties, she gave up everything to nurse him.
As to disposition, Mrs. Leonard is quiet and tranquil, forthright, simple and
direct. She is gracious, with a native dignity and kindliness. Now in her early
eighties, she looks about sixty, and has the erect and energetic bearing of an
even younger woman. Still a vital and interesting person, poised, wise, and
serene, she is truly a great lady.
There was never once any question of fraud or dishonesty during her entire
career. Those who knew her well were convinced of her complete veracity and of
her interest in trying to acquire for her sitters the most accurate evidence
possible.
The Reverend Charles Drayton Thomas, one of her most constant investigators, had
no doubt of her personal sincerity, candor, and caution. Mrs. Leonard, he said,
freely entered into the spirit of investigation in a way which would meet all
the standards of the Society for Psychical Research. He found both Mrs. Leonard
and Feda always cooperative, even to the point of sometimes themselves proposing
crucial tests of evidence.
At the beginning of Dr. Walter Franklin Prince's third sitting with Mrs. Leonard
in 1927, she asked, Are you Dr. Walter Prince. On my acknowledgment," he has
written, she remarked that as she had heard, since the last sitting, that Dr.
Prince was in England, it occurred to her that I might be he, so she thought she
had better tell me.
Mrs. Lydia W. Allison attests that: Mrs. Leonard's reliability and scrupulous
honesty are vouched for by all her regular sitters whom I have met. [Lydia W.
Allison, Leonard and Soule Experiments in Psychical Research, Boston Society for
Psychic Research, Boston, 1929.] Mrs. Allison was an ardent Psychical researcher
for over a third of a century, active in both the British and American Societies
for Psychical Research. After receiving from the medium some information about
the American Society which was correct in every detail, she wrote to Sir Oliver
Lodge, asking if he thought the medium might possibly be passing on information
acquired in a normal, not supernormal, manner. She quotes his reply:
July 2, 1924
DEAR MRS. ALLISON,
... You ask my opinion concerning Mrs. Leonard's trustworthiness in disclosing
any normal information which she may have acquired. I write therefore to say
that I have absolute confidence in her complete and transparent honesty; and if
she definitely says that she has not read a book or a publication, her statement
may be depend ed upon. Whenever any leakage has occurred through a previous
sitter or otherwise, she has been careful to tell me of the fact whenever it had
come to her conscious knowledge. She is very careful about her reading and
abstains from reading a good deal of what might interest her, for fear of
thereby spoiling evidence. She is quite alive to the importance of her
statements in this respect; and I regard her as an exceedingly honest and
straightforward woman . . .
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) OLIVER LODGE
Now that Mrs. Leonard has been introduced, we will hear from her personally very
little in this book. It is the sitters, the Feda control, and the alleged spirit
communicators who will take up the rest of our time. From now on, whenever we
deal with Mrs. Leonard she will almost always be in trance.
Extracts from
The Mediumship of Mrs. Leonard by Suzy Smith
University Books:. 1964. (ISBN: 0-8117-2341-0) Many persons who attended Mrs.
Leonard s sittings became convinced they had communicated with the dead: this
was enough to satisfy them. But others sought to receive material so veridical
it would stand up to scientific analysis as survival evidence. Therefore, they
established a framework of painstaking supervision and kept exact records of
everything said. For over fifty years, Mrs. Leonard was studied by the best
investigators of the British and American Societies of Psychical Research.
To read the full book click on link below
http://www.enformy.com/LeonardTOC.htm
Books and extracts taken that touch on the Medium Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard.
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.
Books and Reports on Leonard Mediumship.Psychic Science 16, no. 4 (January 1938).
Broad, C. D. Lectures on Psychical Research. New York: Humanities Press, 1962.
Carington, W. W. Telepathy. London: 1945.
Hall, Radcliffe, and (Una) Lady Troubridge. On a series of Sittings with Mrs. Osborne Leonard. Proceedings of the Society for Psychic Research 30.
Heywood, Rosallind. Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard: A Biographical Tribute. Journal of the Society for Psychic Research 45 (1969).
Leonard, Gladys Osborne. My Life In Two Worlds. London: Cassell, 1931.
Lodge, Sir Oliver J. Raymond or Life and Death. London: Metheun; New York: George H. Doran, 1916.
Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.
Salter, W. H. Trance Mediumship: An Introductory Study of Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Leonard. London: Society for Psychical Research, 1962.
Smith, Susy. The Mediumship of Mrs. Leonard. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1964.
Thomas, C. Drayton. Life beyond Death with Evidence. N.p., 1928.
——. Some New Evidence for Human Survival. London: Collins, 1922.
Thomas, John F. Beyond Normal Cognition: An Evaluative and Methodological Study of the Mental Content of Certain Trance Phenomena. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1937. Reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, n.d.