Transcript from a Leslie Flint direct voice communication
Courtesy of Ann Harrison - Alicante, Spain
The audio recording in wma format
 
The book by Neville Randall whets the appetite, giving one, in many cases partial descriptions of how an individual passed or what they are doing in the World of Spirit. The tapes are wonderful to listen to in full. The philosophical and educational talks receive only a brief mention in the book and it is one of these, recorded on 4th April 1960, that I transcribe here.
When I heard this I felt that it was of particular interest. The emphasis which is placed on harmony between the sitters is very instructive. Too often we voice the need but fail to live up to it. If we want the results we need to put in the effort! (Ann Harrison).

The conversation is between David, a regular communicator at the Flint Circle who has progressed since his early communications, and Betty Greene who with George Woods sat with Leslie Flint for over 15 years.

David - Speaking about The Voice Box (recorded 4th April 1960)

D : What's the good of coming to speak to someone if you're not going to open your mouth and talk. A lot of people come to this sort of thing and then when they get the chance to speak they've nothing to say. It's a waste of effort to me. I guess some of them find it much more difficult. I did at first but I'm all right now, I just take it in my stride. I could not care less. I just open and shut my mouth.

B :  You are a caution.

D : Actually it's not technically quite true but it sounds all right. You don't have to open and shut your mouth to be able to talk.

B :  David slowly, slowly. Please explain to me how you're doing it. How you can....

D : Well I think the answer to that is that communication is by thoughts and it is the transmission of thought and personality combined, through the mechanism, which after all is only an artificially reproduced replica of a voice box which is essential for speech.

B :  Are you absolutely in this room, speaking..?
D : Of course I'm in the room. I'm in the room right here beside you but it is concentration of thought that makes the sound : The sound is artificially reproduced and that which you hear as sound is merely a thought being transmitted via the artificial voice box. And that of course is, I think, where a lot of the trouble lies that some people cannot do that. They never seem to be able to get hold of the thing in the ....

B :  Ectoplasm you mean?

D : Well the ectoplasmic voice box.... the ectoplasmic vocal organs that are built up. They can stay only as long as the power makes it possible and of course that's always, in a way, fluctuating and changing and in consequence that's where you get the gaps. Sometimes we're still transmitting thoughts and you're not receiving it because we're not, even at the time sometimes, conscious of the fact that the voice box is not, as it were, working. Then of course you have to bear in mind if thought, as we know it, is the basis of communication, then not only the thought of the predominant influence, which may be me; as it is now, but the thought, sometimes, of someone else standing around can, in some strange way, impinge and get in the way. Unless you have a clear channel you can no expect to get a clear reception. You cannot get a clear 100%, you might say, of what is being transmitted from the communicator in question. That is why we work in harmony, that is as a group. We have to, and we naturally want to but the point is that you do find that fundamentally a great deal that is said by one is very much what is thought or said by another. In other words we are all on the same wavelength or vibration.

We are all working in harmony and close co-operation and therefore if 1 am trying to transmit something to you, owing to sometimes the difficulties in transmission, someone else will feed me, if you like, put it like that, with thoughts that don't always come easily when you are trying to concentrate on working this thing or communicating. You find the things that you've often prepared to say, in a strange way, no come so easy when you are trying to get through and other people standing around will act in a kind of way that they will transmit that thought to you and you automatically transfer it through. That's why some times in communication you get 'second-hand' communication. Someone may be purporting to speak in the first person and someone else may be doing the transmission on the wavelength.

For instance, if you have a soul coming from a higher sphere and they can not manipulate the mechanism, they can not get down on to the lower wave of vibration that is essential for this kind of work, then they transmit it to someone who is used to communicating. And there again it depends on how good the communicator is, the person that is manipulating the voice box, or transmitting for the other person, it depends on how good they are, as to whether you get the personality. You may get the subject matter, you may get the things they want to convey, but you may not get the personality with it and that's why some people say - 'I don't know, but what so and so said was pretty good, that was very good evidence, that was very like his sort of way but it was not him,' - not in the sense that it was his personality.

B :  That was a very good explanation that will be very useful for me when people come and ask the reason of so and so. That's why I deliberately asked you.

D : I think that it is very important that people should realise in your world that owing to the many complications and difficulties of communication that thought in its self is the predominant thing that matters. It is thought that is transmitted to you artificially; and that in transmission of thought there may be discrepancies which don't quite fit in with your way of thinking or your way of accepting. I mean, for instance, you may have a strong preconceived idea about the person and it may be through experience that you have you have that strong preconceived knowledge and firm idea.

I mean for instance, if you've known someone for perhaps 40 or 50 years and you know that personality and you know way of their speech and their little idiosyncrasies, what have you, that helps to contribute towards the personality of the person as you knew them on earth, naturally if someone comes and gives you a message, no matter if the context is excellent, if the voice and the personality does not match up you'll say 'Well I don't know whether it was really that person or whether it was someone impersonating that person and that is where you get this bugbear amongst spiritualists and people which exists, because they get puzzled and you get them wondering how much is 1000% ; how much is really that person and how much impersonation.

You see a lot of things have to be looked into; a lot of things have to be accepted and understood and you have to realise that there is no such thing, fundamentally, or very rare, that you can expect to get 100% communication. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, it's rare, it's difficult. Only a person with a very great knowledge of communication and a very strong personality that can hope to get through a great deal of themselves or what they want to say or convey.

There perhaps have been times when I have been speaking to you and because I am pretty good at it now, I got so focused or so sure in myself about it, that I can do it quite well but there have been times when perhaps I've been speaking about 20 minutes or so of your time that I feel the weakening there. I feel that I'm not holding on as strong as I was at first, which is only to be expected : Someone else comes in and takes over, gradually. Sometimes it is so subtle you hardly notice it. The point is that it does happen. You see, this merging if you like, this merging of communication or this merging of personality that happens at séances is overly understandable because you have to realise that the voice box or instrument, that we use is on a certain wavelength of vibration. That person (the medium) has been attuned over years of development, no doubt, to become an instrument on a certain wavelength-of vibration. In consequence we have to tune in and we have to be in harmony with that person, that is why harmony is another very important thing at a séance.

You have a group of people who are in perfect harmony, that are used to sitting for a long period of time together, they know each other and understand each other and trust each other and have a great affection; in other words, if you've got a perfect combination and condition why then it makes our task much easier because we have got, not only the power which is derived from the various sitters as power in the physical sense, but we have the mental harmony too and the co-operative spirit and we have a great deal there that we can work upon and use and in consequence we can often hold on quite a long time; much more so than in a promiscuous group of people who are gathered together, each one having their own strong personality, each one having their own desires, wanting this and wanting that and each one is pulling, as it were, for themselves, having no interest in the other people present. In other words they have perhaps quite unconsciously a selfish motive and that's where I think mediumship feels a strain. You see a medium is a highly sensitised individual, not necessarily only from a point of view of personality and temperament but also from the psychic sense that they have this quality which has been developed which over a period of time has become so sensitised that under certain conditions they can be used as instruments in a very highly successful manner. But the whole point is that like all sensitive things, all sensitive instruments, even in mechanical and technical sense on your side, if they are abused or if they are used without knowledge, if they are hamfisted as it were by people... In other words if someone doesn't know how to take care of a delicate piece of machinery and see that it is running in a proper manner and it is cared for, then gradually it will breakdown.

That is were the problem of our professional mediums is, I think that as rule it is their job, to spread truth and that's the job that we have, of course.

At the same time they must be used in the right way. They must be cared for, they must be nurtured, they must not be allowed to do this and do that. I mean I'm not suggesting that anyone has the right to try and control another person as to their thoughts and their actions. A person must be allowed to develop their own personality and character and they must be given free will. The point is, there must be the co-operative spirit within the medium and he must realise his responsibilities to others and to the work that he has to do. It is a tremendous undertaking and there are very few people that can fulfil the demand that is placed upon them and when a person has developed and been developed, after a great deal of effort by our side, then they have a right not only to their own personal life but they have an obligation to fulfil to themselves and the people that they help and of course to those who have done so much for them on this side. You see if you have got the right kind mentality, if you have the medium who's prepared to give his life in service to humanity and prepared to co-operate in every possible way then we have a channel and the higher their thought, the more, as it were, they think on the lines of spiritual things, and put the true values on things that matter, then we got an instrument that we can really work with and through and do great things. And we've so much hope here.

Only, I know that there's been disappointments and there's been setbacks and all the rest of it. I'm not blaming anyone for that because I'd be the last person-because I know one must be human and one must to some extent live in the material world and consider material things. You couldn't be in your world and be at this side at the same time. Or be the sort of person you may like to be, or would want to be because sometimes it is not quite possible. But the point is we want complete co-operation as far as it is humanly possible. I don't know if it can be achieved : I know I've heard what they have promised to you. I've heard the things that they've said : I've no doubt in my mind that there's no limits that can be reached if only there is this continuation of love and harmony and cooperative spirit and a realisation of what can be done by the power of spirit. Because there is no limit really when there is complete harmony and complete co-operation between our world and yours. It is all that we ask no more and no less.

B :  Oh, yes we all realise that.

D : I know from my own experience since I've been coming here. The people that come are really quite wonderful people. They really are extremely fine people with high motives. They have so much that they want to achieve so much they want to bring through. You know when I first came here I was vastly different to how I am now. I've learned a great deal be coming here and listening and getting to know these people. I'm beginning to appreciate actually what they are trying to do, what they are aiming for.

I realise that they are really so unselfish and they give out so much to come down to earth and to do this work and to give all that they can give in helping, not only you but whoever comes here whether its in the normal way, apart from the ordinary group that you sit in and your sittings, but the people who come here. I've been here, many a time, when the people have come and they have been in great sorrow and they've been in great need : And the way that they've worked from this side to help those people, to bring their dear ones through and help to comfort them and to give them a new way of life. It's been a bit of a revelation to me because really they give up so much. I don't think anyone realises quite what. They would be the last to tell you that. It is true that the time they spend on that is insignificant, in time itself. That's all very true. They often say that. And I would not be right to deny that but it seems to me that it is not an easy thing. I know from all experience, it's not an easy thing. All you have seen and experienced and you have lived in a world which is so far removed in so many different ways from earth; where everything is so much finer, so much nobler and so much more lovely.... to enter in to the old earth ways and thoughts and living. We do sense them for a time when we come here, It is not easy.

B :  I know. You have changed a great deal, David :

D : I took things much more lightly then but I still have got a sense of humour. But the point is that I realise that I never used to think very deeply. Not that I was on the surface exactly because I don't think by my nature that I was unkind or I thought badly of other people. In fact I was probably rather simple minded, At the same time I rather lived the way I wanted to live and I had no thought of the morrow and I was rather easy going but now I realise that life is a serious business and not something that you can just flit through from day to day. I don't mean only life on your side but life on this.

Life is an experience that is a precious gift and there is so much to assimilate and so much to learn and so much to know about, so much to experience in so many different ways. I realise now more than I ever did that it is often many of the difficult things that are most important not the things that are simple and easy, not the happier moments when everything goes well. Those things are natural and we like them most, it is only human, but it is the reversals of fortune, the disappointments in life and the realisation that from the sorrow and suffering you do learn. You learn much more than you can ever through having your own way and getting everything you want, because even those things, important thought they are at the time pail very quickly because you find after all you didn't want this, or you didn't want that as bad you thought you did and it didn't turn out quite as you expected it might have done.

In fact there are so many disappointments in the things that one thinks that one wants and loves and likes and so on that I find in the reversals of fortune, in the sadness and setbacks we become kinder, we become more human, more understanding, more tolerant, more patient. In fact we learn all the good qualities through strength in all the bad events.

B :  It's quite true. It's through bad that you learn.

D : There's an old saying out of evil cometh good : We don't really know what evil is. Evil has sometimes been misinterpreted : We are inclined to put the word evil to all sorts of things that are against what we want or are against what we think. Of course we know that there are some things that are downright evil from the point of view of being wicked and wrong, but at the same time many are things that we look down upon and we are distressed about the things that we try to avoid' if we can, strangely enough....they are the things which teach us most. I've learned quite a bit.

B :  Good David, I'm so glad to hear that.

D : Oh, I'm no quite the same person.

B :  Are you content now?

D : I suppose in a kind of way I'm content. Contentment's a strange word to use. At one time when on earth I would have thought of contentment as being able to do what I wanted when I felt inclined and could afford to and all that sort of thing but that's not really contentment it's actually the reverse in a sense. What I think is that I am contented at the same time I realise that there is so much more yet to experience and learn and I'm anxious to know or anxious to find out. In a kind of strange way I suppose I'm contented yet I'm discontented :

It's rather like living in a very nice house that you love very much and it gives you great joy and happiness you seem to have everything there that you want but there are several doors that are locked up and you haven't got the key. And you wonder what's round there or I wonder what's behind that door. I wish I could get a key for that door and you do not realise that you can't go through that door; you cannot open that door until you've made it possible to have the key to do that.

I think life is like that, that sometimes you seem to have everything at the same time. Some things that you haven't got because you don't see them, you're not conscious of them. It is only when your eyes are gradually opened that you realise that there are things there all the time that you never realised existed and you don't open your eyes until you yourself are leading a worthwhile and possible.... In other words you have in yourself the key to all the doors. And that is sincerity of purpose and the realisation that you are part of the great plan and that you for self alone but you must share that which you have with others and you must realise what you may have is not really yours it is only lent to you for a time and from it you can learn experience but what ever experience you have will no fully satisfy you because there are always other things which you know somewhere exist and you've got to find the way.

In other words it's an eternal struggle within oneself for expression, a struggle for realisation and the way to find the path and when you've found that path, you trudge that path and sometimes although you know you are on the right path you feel you must rest a while to gather more strength to go further on. And you know life is full of interest. It never ceases to interest no matter what aspect of it is that you have in mind there's always something fresh and new. There's always strange things that can happen.

B :  Ah, that's the beauty of it.

D : It's a great adventure and I think that's the whole secret- to look upon life from every aspect from whatever sphere you may be on, whether it's on earth or over here, whatever degree you may be in, is to appreciate it and to make your effort a little more each day to gain more knowledge and experience and to make that possible by thinking not only for self but for others. You will learn more through others and by helping others than ever you do by sitting and twiddling your thumbs.

B :  Yes that's quite right, quite right David : What a lovely speech.

D : Quite a bit, quite a bit I can assure you. But I do not put it so well perhaps but nevertheless.

B :  You put it very well I'm very, very pleased :

D : I always look forward to your meetings. You know that' cos I know that with you I can be myself I can talk naturally and open up. As a matter of fact to be quite open about this I get a tremendous kick out of coming to talk to you and also I feel at the time, in some strange kind of way, that I'm learning too.

B :  You're learning, really. I'm very glad that you found your way here.

D : But you've no need to worry. I know you've been told this many a time and you must be getting sick and tired of it but I know you have no cause to be unduly concerned about the future. I know that here there will be such a reception for you. I'll be there.

B :  I shall be very glad.

D : I must go now cos the power is weakening. It's been nice to speak to you and I know that everyone here and that includes all the dear ones that you associate with your personal life, they all send their love and their blessing to you and I'm sure you'll have your boy friend back soon. Bye bye.

B :  Bye bye , David :

Mickey : G'bye.

See also: http://survivalebooks.org/