Present:
Leslie Flint, Ida Cook, Louise Cook.

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Communicator:

Estelle Roberts.

Roberts:

Estelle…

Cook:

I knew you were here…

Roberts:

Hello…

Cook:

Hello.

Roberts:

Ida…

Cook:

Yes dear.

Roberts:

Louise…

Cook:

Yes dear…

Roberts:

I’m so much calmer now.

Cook:

Are you?

Roberts:

I think I can speak to you much better than I did a long time back.

Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

There’s such a crowd of us here today. Many of the old workers - and guides…

You know I sometimes come to your little circle.

Cook:

Yes, I thought so.

Roberts:

It means a great deal to us.

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Cook:

I’m so pleased to hear that.

Roberts:

I only wish there were more circles such as yours. You know, it’s the circle - the home circle - that is the backbone of this work.

Cook:

Of course.

Roberts:

I only wish people would realise this. We all sat - most of us - for many years in home circles. It’s only in the home circle that you can find the peace and the harmony and the tranquility that makes communication a reality.

Cook:

Yes. That’s true.

Roberts:

Mediums may be born - invariably there are - but it takes time to develop and you must supply the right atmosphere and condition. And yet I do know of course, in my own case, at times in the early years, it wasn’t always possible to get the ideal conditions, but nevertheless, we ‘stuck it out’ and we developed. You know, there is such a tendency today for people to take the platform before they’re ready, before they’re developed. And so few of them nowadays seem to have the patience to sit in a good circle - or even to find perhaps a good circle is more difficult than it used to be. But it’s such a tragedy.

Over here we are so anxious, if we can, to do something about this. I only wish there was some organisation like there used to be, that would encourage people to sit in circles and gather together occasionally, to meet and discuss this whole subject intelligently.

You know, all the great mediums of the past who were so dedicated, sat for years to develop their powers. They didn’t suddenly happen you know. And it’s the guides that develop them - no one else can do it. If I hadn’t have had Red Cloud and if other mediums hadn’t had their particular guide or helper, to guide them and instruct them and develop them, there would not have been the mediumship that we used to know.

Sometimes I wonder what the future holds for Spiritualism. I know there are, here and there, some good mediums, but there’s so many mediocre ones…

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Cook:

Yes there are.

Roberts:

…which does such a lot of harm to the movement.

Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

I don’t know why, in a sense, I am talking to you like this because you understand it. You know. But I feel as if I would like to reach out to the movement, and I do want everyone in the movement to know that I haven’t ‘shut the door’. I’m still, at times, very much around and about...

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iCook:

How marvellous.

Roberts:

…trying to help as far as I can. I shall never really ever lose, I suppose, my hold. What I mean of course by this, is that I shall always be anxious to help wherever I can. I would like very much to help young mediums, to encourage them. But I do feel that there’s a sad lack today of good mediumship and I think this is often due to the fact that there are not many people, unfortunately, who have the dedication that we had. And we had to fight such battles you know. I don’t think people today realise what we had to put up with, what we had to go through. People today, I suppose since mediumship has become a little more respectable - accepted, you know - people have no idea what some of the pioneers had to contend with.

But you know, the basis, the basis of true Spiritualism is the home circle. I would like to see more interest aroused in the development of mediumship in the privacy of the home circle. You know, there’s no doubt about it, that Spiritualism came to the fore through the agency of people who sat and developed their powers in their homes. I know that times are different and perhaps more difficult, but I think there must be a return to the home circle, where people have faith and trust in souls who come to them from our side of life, who will develop them and use them and make it possible for them, after a period of training in the right environment, for them later to go out and ‘spread the gospel’.

But you know, the tendency today seems to me, that people sit for a few months in some circle or other, not necessarily a private home circle where love exists and harmony, but in these promiscuous groups of people where all sorts of entities can come, and do come. You know not necessarily always good ones, I regret to say. Because you know, unless you are protected and you are creating the right conditions then you are opening up the door to trouble.

Cook:

Yes indeed.

Roberts:

I’m very perturbed about this and I know a lot of the guides on this side are very concerned.

You know, in the old days, we may not have been very well educated, but when we took the platform it wasn’t us who spoke - the mediums - it was the guides who took us over and used us and spoke through us, and this was the impact that we had upon the audience, this was the thing that mattered. People may have heard someone perhaps give an invocation in not very good English, in their normal state, but after they had sat down and perhaps a hymn was sung and they stood up again in the trance state, some wonderful soul would give a great oration.

You know, I remember those wonderful days when some of the mediums were, to some extent - I think I should say rather like myself - not particularly well educated and indeed, life was a great struggle, trying to bring up a family, trying to, sort of, do the things that one had to do in the daily routine of life. And yet, the point was, that when we had developed, we could go on the platform knowing that it would not be us, it would be the guides. And it didn’t matter perhaps, if someone gave not a very good prayer or in not very good English, if afterwards the guide who spoke gave wonderful oration and wonderful power, and also gave through the medium wonderful clairvoyance.

You know, perhaps this sounds like nostalgia, but you know, it’s so true.

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Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

The world has changed I know, but there is this tendency today for people to take the platform before they are ready, before the guides have had an opportunity to, really, to know them. And indeed, often the guides are not even given the opportunity to develop them. I find all this very distressing. I’m very concerned about the movement today. I feel that although we’ve gained respectability to some extent, and it’s all become very lawful, a great deal of the true spirit has gone out of it. Certainly, when I think back to those struggling years of my own, and I know this applies to many of the old mediums, it’s very sad to us you know.

Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

I hope you won’t mind my coming to talk to you … but I feel I have a message for Spiritualism. I feel that I want to imbue the old spirit. I want to talk to the young people. I want them to realise the great responsibility that will be placed upon their shoulders to carry on the great work that we created - that we ‘sowed the seed’ long ago. And there are so many of us that sowed wonderful seeds which brought forth great blessings. But you know, there must always be new ‘gardeners’, there must always be new ‘planters’.

And I want the young people to realise that if they want to develop, if they want to be mediums, there is only one place, in my opinion, where they can hope to develop in the way in which they should - and that is in the privacy, in the quietude, in the peace and the tranquility and the harmony of a small group of people of like mind in the home. It can’t be done in any other way - I don’t think so. We sat for years. All the good mediums who did so much sterling work in the past, sat for years, patiently. They didn’t rush onto the platform.

I know that some people may think that I’m being nostalgic. In a kind of way, this is true. But I feel the love that we all have for the work - knowing the struggles that must be and the disillusionment and the disappointments and the heartbreaks - these are part of the work. They are necessary to us, we have to learn our lessons, we have to have our disappointments.

You know, you can’t have instant success. It seems to me as if everybody today who wants to be, more or less, mediums of a kind, well it seems as if - it’s like instant coffee - they haven’t got the time and the patience to brew it, to make it properly and serve it. It must all be done quickly. But this doesn’t do anyone any good, it only gets the movement a bad name.

There’s so many of the old-timers here with me and my old acquaintances and my old friends - my old associates, you know. And many of us do come and see you. I feel your circle is an example and I feel that if only people would have the patience and the realisation that it is the only way in which you can hope to serve and develop and be really worthwhile in this work. It’s in a way as I - like yourselves - as you know, I started your circle and my message is not just for your circle. It’s for all circles. I want you to get this to others. I want you to try and get it published, because I feel, I feel that we have a duty to perform.

I love the work, I love to feel that in some measure I can still serve, that I can still give of myself, of my love, of my sincerity of purpose. You know, we were dedicated. I remember those early years of mine, the struggling years and when I went to Marylebone.* I remember those early formative years. It was not easy, but I learned my ‘trade’, if I can use such a word, the hard way. I had to learn it the hard way and I had to develop and I had to be used in the proper way. I could tell you about so many things, about many people that we all have known. Some, of course, that you would only know by hearsay. But when I think of the dedication of some of those souls and now, when we sometimes look into your work today, the movement - I am not saying there are not dedicated people, of course there are and I know that a great deal of good is done - but we must not forget that the work must go on, in the way in which it was intended.

It is a great thing to heal the sick and the suffering. It is a great thing to be a healer and to be dedicated and this is a wonderful work in itself. In the old days, in the House of Red Cloud, all manner of manifestations of the power of the holy spirit were demonstrated. At the old Marylebone, where I really more or less started, I remember those wonderful years. I remember all those wonderful people that were associated - how dedicated, how we worked together and I know that the work continues in varying degree and in varying ways, in the SAGB and other organisations. [They’re] all doing sterling work, sometimes under great difficulty. But what I feel so anxious to get over is the need for the home circle.

Just recently Mr Zerdin’s wife came to us. She was a sweet soul and I knew her quite well and of course, I knew Noah** very well and Sceptre his guide. And I remember those early years when he started The Link. Now The Link was a wonderful organisation. This was an organisation started to encourage people to sit in their homes to develop their mediumship. And they would be given the opportunity to correspond with other circles and pass on the information, so that they’d learn for each other and meet occasionally in London at big mass-meetings, and they would have big demonstrations of mediumship and help also budding mediums to ‘find their feet’. Now this was a wonderful thing. I think it’s very sad there’s no such organisation today.

[Audio degrades here]

I feel so strongly about this. I helped them start many things, as you probably know, in the past. I always tried my utmost to help and encourage mediums. But I realised then and I realise now, there is only one way in which a medium can be developed, and that is the right way - in the quietude and the privacy and the tranquility and peace and harmony, of a dedicated group of people in a home circle. I want this message to go out. I want people to know that I’m still working for the good of the cause, but I want to see more effort made that would help mediums in the right way, because this is the only way. When you sit together as a group, as a circle, you are sitting there for the common good, not for a personal reason.

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Cook:

Of course.

Roberts:

You are sitting there to help each other, to unfold the powers of the spirit, whatever they may be…

Cook:

Whatever they are.

Roberts:

…whatever way they may manifest. And I feel so strongly that if only people would sit together, in harmony and in love, with their minds open to receive. If only they would understand that, here and there, some soul will be developed and they will develop naturally, you cannot force this. No one, really, can develop a medium - a medium can only be developed by his or her guide. No one on Earth can do this.

It’s true that an individual who has some knowledge or experience can help you, to a certain extent. But it still remains for the guides, for the workers on this side who are dedicated, who know what they are doing, who know their instrument, the possibilities of that instrument, the power that that particular person may possess, how best it can be used, how best that power can be developed and how it can be directed into what channel. It’s in the home circle, my dears, where real mediumship is developed. It was true of the past and it is true of the present. I want you to put this message out. I don’t want you to keep it to yourselves.

You are good souls and you sit in harmony and in love for the common good. Your whole idea is to serve and it is in that circle, which I founded, that service will come, it will develop. You will receive what we have long promised you, what the guides have long promised you - manifestations of the power of the spirit, working in various ways; in direct voice, in clairvoyance, in clairaudience, in other manifestations. It does take time, patience is necessary. You understand this.

Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

I want you to give my message, so that others may listen, that others may be encouraged. That they shall see in the past, the present - and see the right way in which the movement shall go, towards an expansion of the work, in the highest and best possible sense. Through gradual evolution and development of mediumship in the quietude and peace of the home circle, where good mediumship can be brought into being. It cannot be hurried, it cannot be rushed, it cannot be taught. It can only come through development over a period of time, in complete love and cooperation with others of like mind, on both sides.

Put my message out. This is a time when it is needed. I shall continue to serve and to help wherever possible. I have not come today to give an evidential message, that is not necessary. Although I shall, no doubt, from time to time, because I love both of you very much and because we have known each other over a period of time. And I took to you, as I often did to people, and I knew that you were sincere and dedicated and because I founded your circle and opened your circle and, in a sense, because I feel that I am the mother of your circle...

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Cook:

You are.

Roberts:

…that I speak to you. I know there will be some who cannot accept fully what I say, but this cannot be helped. One cannot speak the truth without sometimes hurting somebody or other. Truth must be served, whatever the cost.

Cook:

Yes darling.

Roberts:

You know, I look back on my life and I see I could have done even more perhaps. But I did all that I could. To me, to comfort those who mourn, to strengthen those who are weak, to comfort those whose needs are many and to succour the sick and the suffering, to do the work that I was given to do - and to know that to serve is the greatest thing that a man or woman can do, to give oneself in loving service - this is the thing that is all important.

Cook:

Yes.

Roberts:

To forget self, in loving service, to work for the common good, to do the work that you are called upon to do by the power of the spirit. I wish I could tell you so much more … I only want both of you to know that I still serve.

Give my love to Sylvia and to Barbie*** and to all my dear, dear friends and co-workers. Carry on the work of the spirit. Carry the banner of truth aloft and know that behind you is a battalion of souls, whose one desire is loving service. Bless you dear friends.

Cook:

Bless you.

Roberts:

Bless you. Goodbye.

Cook:

Thank you Estelle. Goodbye.

Flint:

Wasn’t that lovely?

Cook:

It was a wonderful address.

RECORDING ENDS