Published in the Winter 2012 ATransC NewsJournal
While we were in England, we had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the Silver Fox Circle in Newcastle on Halloween night. We were fortunate to be introduced to the group, as this home circle is not yet demonstrating publicly. Good friends, and fellow Socrates Circle members, Jannet Caywood and Steve Atkins were with us.
The circle began in November 2007 as friends sitting together in harmony. Spontaneous physical phenomena had already been apparent around Fay Wright, the medium, for a number of years, and so they started as a cabinet circle. From the very beginning, small knocks were audible in the room during the séances.
We were in for a great time and some amazing phenomena along with the most amazing feeling of harmony and love from both members of the circle and their spirit team. Fay Wright graciously picked us up from the train station and brought us to her home.
Our first surprise was that the group was all female. If you read books about circles, you will find that it is traditional to “balance the energy” by having an equal number of male and female sitters. That has been difficult for our circle and so we were delighted to see a group of women developing and getting physical phenomena!
We sat and talked with Fay and her husband as we waited for the rest of the circle members to arrive. After everyone had arrived, as part of the preparation, they nearly covered the dinner table with toys that would be used during the séance. Each toy had glow-in-the-dark tabs strategically placed so that sitters would be able to see the toy’s movement in the completely dark room. Circle members held them up to the light to “charge” the glow tabs. They were then placed in a plastic roll-around file cabinet, which was placed in the small séance room where Jenny, the circle leader, could reach it. Some of the larger items were placed behind a black curtain which was situated behind Jenny. We were invited into the room and were seated between regular members of the circle. I was seated next to Jenny and Fay was seated in a closet with a black curtain drawn across the front.
Jenny said an opening prayer and then there was silence for about a minute. No music was played and you could hear Fay breathing in the cabinet. Just that quickly, a male voice came from the cabinet saying, “Good evening friends and welcome to our visitors.” This was the voice of Silver Fox, the group’s main guide and gatekeeper. (A gatekeeper protects the medium and decides who is allowed to come into the circle via her mediumship.) Everyone greeted Silver Fox and then the music was turned on for us to sing a few songs.
One member said that the trumpet was making noise and then we all saw it moving. About the same time, a child’s voice was heard coming from the cabinet. It was Michael, a child in spirit who played a major part in the séance that evening. He greeted each of us who were visiting.
I was asked to hold my two hands flat, palms up so that they were next to Jenny’s hands. The two trumpets, one inside the other, were laid across our four hands. The trumpets felt quite heavy and I asked if one wouldn’t fall out of the other. I was told they might but that the children would do with them as they wished. During all of the preparation, Michael could be heard humming nonchalantly in the cabinet. The trumpets lifted off my hand and Jenny told us that they are balancing only on her finger, and then they made a crashing noise on the floor. Michael announced from the cabinet that he would like “a go at lifting them up.” I said again that they are heavy together like that.
Again the trumpets were placed on my hands, but this time, with the wide end resting on my arm. Jenny asked us to sing again, and as we did, I actually felt the trumpets lift off my arm and hands. It was up in the air with only two of my fingers in contact! That little contact could not possibly have been holding the trumpets steady!
It is a very interesting sensation to feel levitation like that. The trumpets actually lifted on and off of my fingers, as if tapping my fingers, and then amid a bunch of “Wows” from the other sitters, they lifted from my hands to Jenny’s.
I should point out that, with everything that happened during the séance, the sitters encouraged and praised Michael with great enthusiasm. We understood that this was to keep the energy up so as to enable more communication. The singing was another means of bringing energy to the circle.
Next, Michael asked for an airplane and he wanted to play with Tom. In the dark, we heard the circle leader digging in the file cabinet to find the airplane. She gave it to Tom and told him to hold it flat in his hands while asking Michael to move the plane left or right or to produce “turbulence” which was to be answered with Michael shaking the plane. Tom asked for turbulence. He later explained that he felt the plane shake with a slight vibration.
About then, a strong, clear male voice could be heard from the cabinet instructing us to say “left” and “right” as a way to “warm them up.” It was the voice of spirit team member, Dr. Brown. Tom announced to the sitters that he could feel the plane tilting left and then right, and then completely lift off his hand.
Michael next asked to play with Steve, and Jenny asked him to stand and hold one hand out in front of him. The circle member next to him was also asked to stand with one of her hands held out near Steve’s. The plane was placed on both of their hands and then Steve asked Michael to make the plane make a big turn left. Steve told the sitters that he felt it go totally off his left hand and then he felt it go the other way.
A new voice came from the cabinet; that of a little girl named Melly who asked that the hoops be given to Jannet and Margaret. Jannet and Margaret were asked to stand and hold their hands flat with the hoops resting on their upturned palms. They were told to encourage the girls to move the hoops one and then the other. Each hoop had many very bright glow tabs. Margaret’s hoop was immediately seen moving as if it were a swing, and then we saw it move in a figure eight pattern.
Jannet was then asked to ask Susie to move her hoop; Susie, another child communicator, is said to be a bit shyer than Melly. Jannet’s hoop finally began moving and she excitedly exclaimed, “Look at that!” The hoops began moving in unison, and we could tell that the girls were having kind of little battle with the hoops, trying to hit each other amid our shouts of encouragement.
Michael’s voice interrupted to say that he thought it should be his turn now in a true children’s sort of way. He asked for the pole to be brought out, which resulted in one of the sitters searching around behind her in the “toy box.” After a minute or so, we heard Michael giggling from the cabinet and we were told by the regular sitters that he loved to have people searching around for something when it was not there.
Michael then asked Anna to hold “the flower.” The flower was one of those yellow yard toys that spins in the wind. It was about a foot across and had glow tabs on each petal which were numbered like a clock. We could see the glow tabs being covered, one by one, as requested by the circle members. “Cover nine,” they shouted, and then “Now! Cover eleven!” They also enjoyed covering the tabs in a clockwise or in the reverse order. We watched in amazement. The flower was so large there was no way that someone could hold it and also cover the tabs. Tom was sitting next to Anna, who was holding the flower, and when I asked him about this possibility he said, “Absolutely no way.” All of the phenomena were evidential but this to us seemed one of the most evidential.
While we were singing “Rockin’ Rollin’ Ridin’” with the flower demonstration, we could hear a female child’s voice singing. We all became quiet as Susie treated us to a solo performance with her sweet child voice.
Next, Michael asked for a football and Jenny found it in the toy box. I was asked to hold my hands flat next to Jenny’s and a little lower. On the recording of the séance, you can hear me gasp as the football not only comes into my hands but rolls up to my elbows. I later learned this is called a “hug.” I moved the football back onto my hands and held my hands next to Joan who was on my left. I felt the football levitate off of my hands and then heard Joan say they are hugging her with the ball. The ball, like the other toys, had glow tabs and I could see them literally hugging Joan with the ball. In this way, the ball moved around the circle to Jannet who told Michael how excited she was to be about to have the football placed in her hands. She, too, was greeted with the ball rolling up her arms for a hug. Jannet told Michael how much fun that was and that “She never gets to do this at home!” We all are really having a great time!
Dr. Brown spoke next. (The voices are so very different from each other.) He said that he believed they wanted to “fish fight.” Jannet handed the ball back to Jenny and then Michael’s voice was heard saying, “Can you put the car on there as well?” Jenny found the two fish toys and the car toys and put them on the drumhead she held as a stage for the “fight.” We could clearly make them out by their luminous tabs.
With a little encouragement from the sitters, one fish began to move, seeming to take aim at the other fish. There was a “battle” and one fish knocked the other off before going after the car. The crazy movements were just amazing. It looked like the car was hanging off the edge of the drum when the fish finally gave it a real shot, knocking it noisily to the floor. This was very evidential and there was no way that these movements could have been made by a human.
Michael next asked for a hula-hoop and the football, and said that he wanted to play with Tom again. Tom was asked to stand in the center of the circle and hold the hula-hoop. After a moment, the ball was levitated off Jenny’s hands through the hoop and onto the floor. Then Michael asked to do it again, only with me holding the ball. It took him a little longer, but after a moment or two, I was actually able to feel the ball levitate off my hands and then see it fly through the hoop.
Jenny was asked to put the trumpet on the drum. Still standing, Tom was asked to step back a little. Michael’s favorite music, Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” was playing and was turned up. We watched the trumpet fly off of the drumhead and through the hoop.
Tommy, another little boy in spirit, asked for the football to be put on the drum. It was as if they wanted to make sure that we knew they were moving the ball and that there was no human involvement. The ball flew off of the drumhead and through the hoop.
We were told that they liked to finish with a flourish and that Tommy was going to swing the hula-hoops that Tom was holding while Michael and Tommy used the trumpet to knock the football through the hoop, and then they would throw the trumpets through the hoop. They did this to everyone’s amazement and as we all cheered.
Michael then said he was finished and we all expressed our great gratitude for a true night of great fun and play. Each one in spirit who had been involved in the evening came to say goodbye, ending with Silver Fox.
What a wonderful evening. We had not expected a lot because we had been told it was a new circle. We came away with our hearts touched by those wonderful people and their spirit team, and amazed at the level of phenomena that the group is producing. They were able to show us that what we think is real is very limited, and that there is so much more to our world than 99% of the population knows. We thank them for trusting us enough to allow us into their circle and hope that we will sit with them again.
