Alexandre Dumas
July 1802 - December 1870
The Cook Sisters Collection:
The Alexandre Dumas séance
Recorded: Thursday, April 30th 1970
He refers to his books and discusses the inherent
creative power that we all possess,
and explains that nothing that is created with good intentions
can ever really be destroyed...
Note: This recording has been enhanced from a 50 year old original and is not to modern standards.
Please read the full transcript below as you listen...
Communicators: Mickey, Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and Alexandre Dumas.
Flint:
This
séance was recorded on the 30th of April 1970. Medium Leslie
Flint.
Cook:
Hello, Mickey dear.
Mickey:
He don't 'alf talk.
Flint:
Well I'm sorry Mickey. It fills in the gap while we're
waiting.
[Laughing]
Cook:
We've
been trying to get you...[Unintelligible]
Mickey:
And
how are you Ida and Louise?
Cook:
We're very well.
Very well thank you.
Mickey:
Good. Do you carry on the good work?
Cook:
Yes...we're doing our best.
Mickey:
I have been to your circle several times, you know.
Cook:
Oh, I'm so glad.
Mickey:
I'm very interested in your little family.
Flint:
Family?
Mickey:
Well,
it is like a little family, ain't it?
Cook:
It
is like a little family...
Mickey:
...if
every circle was like a little family of goodwill and good...good
fellowship, it would be better, wouldn't it?
Cook:
It
would.
Mickey:
I
mean, I think that's why circles bust up, don't you? Because people
fall out and don't hit it off and don't see eye to eye. Well that's
human, but at the same time you've got to sink yourselves, ain't you,
into the common good as it was, you know.
Cook:
Oh
definitely.
Mickey:
And that's why I think you've
got to be like a happy little family. And I think your circle is
going to make marvellous progress because you've got a lovely, happy
family atmosphere.
Cook:
Well
we always try to have in like that. We feel the harmony.
Mickey:
And
you've got some nice people and ever such a lot of power.
Cook:
Good. Very good.
Mickey:
Oh
well, I suppose I'll have to try and see who's coming to talk to you,
won't I?
Cook:
Yes.
Flint:
[Coughing]
[Short silence]
Chopin:
[Speaks faintly in
French?]
[Louder] I listen to the conversation, you
know, between you and the, uh...the boy, as you say, uh?
Cook:
Yes.
Chopin:
I am very interested, you know, in everything that, uh, transpire
with you, uh? Because it is, to me, a great...um...how you
say?...um...interest...great...for me to be able to speak...means a
great deal for me.
Cook:
We're
delighted to have you here.
Flint:
[Loud
coughing]
Chopin:
[To
Flint] What is the matter with you?
Flint:
Huh? (Loud coughing) Sorry...
Chopin:
You
have got a cold, huh?
Flint:
Well,
I don't know. I hope not, no.
Chopin:
You
have to take the great care of yourself, huh?
Flint:
Huh!
Well, I try.
Chopin:
You
know, these mediums are very peculiar people.
Flint:
Huh!
Well I am nothing peculiar having a cold.
Chopin:
Well,
don't get cross with me.
Flint:
I'm
not getting cross with you. [Laughing]
[Coughing]
Chopin:
Temperamental,
huh!
Flint:
Temper...what?
Cook:
Temperamental.
Chopin:
You
know these mediums are like artists, you know, musician...Everything,
always temperamental, huh? They are always up in the air!
Cook:
[Laughing]
Flint:
Huh!
Chopin:
You know you are.
[Uh, what is it now? Go away. I am
talking to someone please.]
Flint:
Huh.
Female
Voice:
[I want to talk too.]
Chopin:
[No, no, please, if you don't mind Madame.]
Cook:
Who
is this speaking?
Flint:
[Laughing]
Oh dear! Who is that!?
[Sniffing]
Cook:
Who
are you?
Chopin:
The
trouble, you try to come and talk with people and there's always this
pushing and this, uh, business.
[Please, wait your turn, huh?]
Flint:
Oh dear!
Cook:
Do
tell me, what is your name?
Female
Voice:
[It is you who should stop.]
Chopin:
[Go away please. Un moment Madame...it is not moment for you.]
Flint:
[Laughing] Dear, oh dear!
Chopin:
What do you laugh at?
Flint:
I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing...I was...[sniffing]...listening
to...[cough]
Cook:
Please will you tell us your name?
Flint:
[Loud coughing] Please excuse my coughing, I can't
help it.
Cook:
[Unintelligible
whisper]
Mickey:
Hold on. There's some temperamental ones here, I'll tell you.
Flint:
Oh dear, oh dear! [Laughing]
[Sniffing]
Cook:
I'd
rather they would stop that...
[Short silence]
Cook:
Hello?
Flint:
I wonder who that was?
Cook:
Mmm....[Unintelligible]
[Short
silence]
[Sound of street traffic outside]
[Short
silence]
Chopin:
I
listen to the conversations...
Cook:
Yes.
Chopin:
[Unintelligible]
[Short
silence]
Flint:
Well
I wonder who that was?
Mickey:
[To Flint] Oh
shut up!
Flint:
Tut!
Mickey:
[Whispering
to other communicators]
Cook:
[Whispering]
Female
Voice:
[Unintelligible whispering]...this is most
peculiar.
Flint:
Mmm?
Cook:
Can
you speak louder dear?
Chopin:
[I don't
know...they are very interested in music]
Cook:
Yes. [Unintelligible]
Chopin:
Frédéric Chopin.
Flint:
Mmm?
Cook:
Frédéric?
Frédéric Chopin?
Flint:
Is
that what he said?
Cook:
[Unintelligible]
Flint:
[Sniffing]
Cook:
Could
you repeat your name please?
Chopin:
[Unintelligible]
Cook:
I
know it's not...[Felice?]
Sand:
I don't know if it is possible, but I will try
to...uhh...speak with you.
Cook:
Bless
you!
Yes...?
Sand:
[Louder] You must be
very patient, you know...I am not very good at this sort of thing. It
is very complicated, non? To manifest, to come and speak in this
fashion. You know, it is very difficult for me. Ahh!
Cook:
But you are very good. We hear you...
Sand:
I am here with Frédéric. I am George Sand.
[Sound
of street traffic outside]
Cook:
Could you repeat
that?
Sand:
You know me as George Sand.
Cook:
George Sand! Oh, how wonderful!
Sand:
I am here with Frédéric Chopin and several of my
contemporaries. Ah, it is a very interesting thing to be able to come
and speak to you. Mmm...you must forgive me if I am not very good for
me, yet, at this, ah? My English is not good, non? Ah! It is
complicate, you know. You are very interested in music.
Cook:
Yes,
all music.
Sand:
And also, I understand you write...the book. You are a writer,
Madame?
Cook:
I
am a writer. Yes.
Sand:
Ah. Oui. Ah. You have I believe made [how you say?] many books,
ah?
Cook:
Yes, many books I've written...
Sand:
I have been before, but it was a long time ago.
Cook:
Yes.
Sand:
It is for me very difficult to speak very clearly. You must be
very patient with me, if you please.
Chopin:
Oh, it is not possible. No.
Sand:
[Alright. Wait a moment. I've not finished.] What you have in
your...I don't know how you say in English...
Cook:
Say it in French.
[Short silence]
Female
voice:
[Speaking unknown language]
Male
voice:
[Speaking unknown language]
Female
voice:
[Sings in unknown language]
Male voice:
[Speaking
unknown language]
Mickey:
[Whispering
to another communicator: I asked
you not to do that. Oh
blimey!]
Flint:
Huh!
Cook:
[Unintelligible]
Mickey:
You're
bringing some funny people aren't you today?
Flint:
Oh dear Mickey! [Laughing]
Cook:
We're very interested.
Mickey, who was the first...
Mickey:
There seems to be a group of people here to do with music
and...I don't know. There's different people who've been here
donkey's years. They're not good at speaking, some of them. Oh dear.
Cook:
Mickey who was the first man?
The very first speaker...
Mickey:
Oh, that was that pianist bloke, Chopin...Mr. Frédéric
Chopin...Chopin.
Cook:
Yes, we thought it was.
Mickey:
And then there was a lady who tried to speak...
Cook:
George Sand.
Mickey:
...she
says she used to write books.
Cook:
That's right.
Mickey:
And
then there's several other people been trying. And there's some
foreigners that are trying to get over and, oh, I think some of them
are speaking languages...I don't know what they are.
Flint:
[Sniffing]
Cook:
I
see. Never mind. [Unintelligible]
[Short
silence]
Dumas:
Well, well, well. Of course,
there will always be people who will not accept and will not
understand; who will stand, as you say, on the sidewalk and watch
everything go by. But when it comes to the point of saying anything
definite, they will not admit themselves.
Cook:
No.
Flint:
[Coughing]
Dumas:
Never mind them.
Cook:
That's
so true.
Flint:
[Coughing]
Dumas:
They will be good observers but they will not make any
comment.
Cook:
No.
[Laughing]
Dumas:
They will say, 'Yes...this and that' but they will not say
definitely.
Cook:
No.
Dumas:
I have been here many years.
Cook:
Have
you?
Have you?
Flint:
[Coughing]
Cook:
What
is your...
Dumas:
There are quite a number
of my friends here: people that I have known, people that I have
admired, people for their artistic and creative ability. Writers,
artists, musicians. People that I knew personally and some of them,
of course, that I did not know but I have met since I've been here.
My name probably will convey little or nothing to you...my name is
Dumas.
Cook:
Dumas?
Older or younger?
Dumas:
You know?
When I was on your side I write and have many things
that I wish to convey in my books. Sometimes I could not get down
fast enough. You know, I know now that in many instances I was
inspired. There were souls from this side, who had been dead, as you
say, for centuries some of them, who would impress me. I used to
sometimes have the ability to write at great length and speed. Then
sometimes it would not come, I could not get anything.
I
realise now that all great souls, you know - not that I consider
myself a great soul - but what I mean by this is, that if you have
this 'something' within yourself of the spirit, it is possible for
souls on this side, highly advanced souls, to use you, in a sense, as
an instrument. I didn't realise I was an instrument. This is
something which is not easy to explain.
But, uh, you know
each one of you has the power within yourselves to be used by the
spirit. In different ways the spirit moves. To some it is in their
music, in their composition; others it is by the pen and the writing
of the thoughts that are impregnated, you know, into them by the
souls. Many of the stories, many of the incidents, many of the
people, that one is impressed to write about, one thinks, when you
are on your side, they are fictitious characters, but not necessarily
so.
Sometimes they are invested with truth, they are invested
with the life of souls over here that experience many of the things
that the author puts into the book, but which are not of himself as
oft-times he thinks, but are facts rather than fiction.
You
know, it is a great joy for me to be able to come here with my
friends. We were a very wonderful - how you say?...uh...how you say?
- happy
people. We had our quarrels and our differences. Sometimes we would
not speak for weeks to each other, but, uh, we always have in our
heart great affection, one for the other. And always after the
quarrel there was great happiness. We rejoice and we - how you say? -
'pat on the back' and we drink and we are very happy.
Paris you know,
when I was on your side, was so different. Of course times will
change, people will change, everything changes with time and
experience. But, ah, I cannot tell you how marvellous it is to know
that this is possible; to come here with my friends, some of them, to
speak to you Madame.
Cook:
Wonderful,
wonderful!
We love your books.
Dumas:
Ah,
which one?
Cook:
All of them.
Dumas:
Ah,
thank you very much.
Cook:
We
like The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Three Musketeers.
Dumas:
Ah!
There was great fact in The Count of Monte Cristo.
Cook:
Yes?
Dumas:
A lot of people don't know, but it
is true.
Cook:
Yes.
The Queen's Necklace.
Dumas:
Ah! I have learned the truth of that.
Cook:
Really?
Dumas:
Aha! And poor Marie Antoinette. Huh!
Cook:
Yes.
Dumas:
She was a victim of other people's...
Cook:
Intrigue?
Dumas:
There
is so much that one cannot speak of...but she was a very foolish
woman. She was very vain and very stupid perhaps, but in her heart
she meant well. She was good, but she had many people around her that
were not good. But there is much to be said for all the people of
that period, good and bad.
Cook:
Yes,
yes. Definitely.
Do you have with you some of the singers of your
period?
Dumas:
Oh
I have met...I have met, of course, these, but, huh, they continue to
delight in their artistry. That is one of the great things, you know,
that people don't necessarily realise on your side, that art is the
only thing that really, in a sense, lives as a living reality. You
know, people in your world, they have their lives; many of them, in a
sense, are very dull - how you say? - very uninteresting and make
little or no contribution.
But there are the great souls that have
this wonderful power to create; whether it is to sing like the angel
or whether it is to compose like Chopin or all the various arts.
These are the things that are of the spirit. These are everlasting.
These are things which cannot die. Nothing can kill the spirit. The
things of the material, of the body, the physical things of the
flesh; they change, they go, they cease to be, in time, uh? But the
things of the mind and the spirit, the reality of the spirit, the
creative power which every true artist has - this lives. This is the
great joy, the great beauty, the great frissons.
In your world, apart from the music and the creative power of painting or writing, whatever it may be, you take the architecture; the glorious façade, the buildings and all these things that give great joy and happiness and delight for the eye, you know, which must pass away with time on your side. Here they are created again, but more beautiful still.
You
see, these things which come from the spirit, these things which man
create by mind, by spirit, these things are the reality that live.
And all that is good exists and all that is not good - gradually it
pass away in the changes that take place within man in himself, in
his soul. These things which are truly artistic, these things which
are truly of the mind and of the spirit: these are the things, the
realities, the living realities which nothing can destroy.
Man
may create in a material way and it will pass away materially. But if
it has a basis of truth, if it has the power of the spirit, if it has
the beauty and the loveliness of the things that are eternal, then we
rejoice because it continue. Nothing is lost that is good. Nothing is
lost that is beautiful. Nothing is lost that is truly of the spirit
and of the mind in its highest elevated state of being. Ah, this is
wonderful!
You
know, here around you, you don't see them, but there are souls, many,
many souls. Some of them you have known: you have touched their
lives, perhaps only on the fringe, but nevertheless they are around
here. They are grateful for the opportunity to be able to come and
manifest to speak, if possible, and to give conviction where they can
to the people of the Earth who dwell in the darkness of material
thought, that the reality of the spirit is a living thing which
nothing can destroy. And
all that is good in man will rise to the power of the holy spirit and
be manifest in a greater sense, in a greater way, in a greater form,
eternally. And all men shall rejoice in these things which are truly
eternal and nothing can pass away that is of God.
Ah! If only we
could explain these things, but words, words, words, words, words:
these are things which I used to play with like the children play
with the toys and build the castles. But now, words do not convey.
How can they convey the reality of the spirit which is ever living,
in which we exist and have our being? But you my friends, you have
seen a glimmer of light in the darkness of your world. And we will
help you, that that glimmer shall become a flame and a torch that you
will carry in the darkness of your world. And others shall see and
follow and know the reality of truth. Oh, it is a great joy for me.
And
you know, your friends that you have for so long...have been
associated with you, you know, the, uh, people that you have met in
your Earthly existence, people that you have this strong affection
for, people who give you such beauty and such realisation of truth -
these souls have brought us to you, that we might in some measure be
able to help not only you, but through the agency of this...machine,
be able to reach many people, to speak to many people in your world,
to give them the realisation and the truth and the knowledge and the
loveliness and the beauty of the power of the holy spirit.
Oh, so
much we have to do with you my friends. You are very blessed. [Slight
radio interference] But next time, perhaps, if not...soon,
anyway, I hope I can come again and bring many of my friends for you,
because many of my friends wish to come. Oh, here today there are so
many, so many people. I wish it were possible for you to understand.
I know you do understand. But I wish it were possible for you
to see.
Cook:
Yes.
Dumas:
Ah...
Cook:
We're
so grateful.
Dumas:
But carry on your good
work.
Cook:
Oh,
we will...
Dumas:
And
know that in that little group, as you call it - this 'little
family', as our little friend has said for you - there is so much
joy, there is so much happiness, there is so much promise, there is
so much strength and power and love and brotherhood. And the power of
the holy spirit shall manifest itself to such an extent that you will
have such cause to rejoice and in that rejoicing, find the way to
serve even more fully.
Ah,
it is good for us to communicate with you. My dear friends, it is a
great happiness in my heart that I speak for you...with you, uh? But
all here who cannot now speak, I know, wish me to convey to you their
love and their blessing and wish you the power of the spirit always:
as I know it will be around you, to uplift you and to guide you and
to give you that inspiration which makes all things possible. The
path is there. You will be shown the way. You have already been shown
the way, but there is much more yet to tread and much more to see.
And you will not stand by the wayside, but you will walk the paths of
illumination. Ah, it is great happiness for me. Au revoir and God
bless you. Au revoir from us all.
Cook:
Au
revoir. Our love and blessings.
Bless you all.
Mickey:
I
have to go. I'm afraid the power's gone. Some of them couldn't make
it but, anyway, he was good. He was quite good wasn't he? He is quite
a character I'll tell you.
Cook:
Yes,
I'm sure.
Mickey:
Ooh,
I'll say. He's one of those 'bonhomie' sorts, you know.
Cook:
Is
he?
Mickey:
French
like, you know. Bye bye.
Cook:
Bye-bye,
dear.
Bye-bye.
Flint:
One of those what, did he say!?
[Laughing]
Cook:
[Laughing]
He said bonhomie...
Flint:
Bonhomie!?
RECORDING ENDS
This transcript was supplied by a good friend of the Leslie Flint Trust, Mr Simon Lovelock.
With Thanks to Joëlle Cerfoglia.