El Paso Herald-Post : September 8th 1970
Transcribed below...
Visiting Spiritualist Speaks On Research
By Betty Pierce
Spiritualists
try to demonstrate and to prove what other religions teach about life
after death, according to Rev. Leslie Flint, London, in El Paso this
week. Rev. Flint is visiting his cousin, Rev. Lena Halstead, and will
speak on “Psychic Research” tomorrow at 7.30pm, at Bassett Centre
Community Hall.
“We have seen the failure of man in many
different ways,” says Rev. Flint. “Spiritualism, properly
understood, could be the salvation of man, from the chaos, strife and
uncertainty. In Ireland, we now see a religious war. There are
terrible barriers linked with religion.”
He believes that
through Spiritualism man may eventually realise the brotherhood of
all men. “Christianity is based on the same thing all religions are
based on, and the idea of the virgin birth is common to many
religions,” he says.
“But life after death is something that the
average man who goes to church believes in, because he's told to
believe it - while deep down every person wants to know, for sure. In
other religions, if a man asks for proof, he's told he's delving into
something he shouldn't be, and if you mention spirit communication,
many people are quick to say positively that it's of the Devil.
Modern science, with our new technology, has more opportunity to
prove the validity of life after death,” Rev. Flint says. “I
have sat, on an off, for the scientifically minded people, using
throat microphones, and other means to prove the existence of the
voices.
“At this time in my life, I am more interested in the
psychical research than in the religious aspects, regarding seances.
At tomorrow's lecture, I will play a part from the tapes made during
seances. People who have never seen a séance, and who would like
some idea of what goes on during a séance, will have the opportunity
to hear part of what led three publishers to ask me to write the
story of my life.”
Rev. Flint decided on MacMillan of London
as his publisher and estimates that his book, ‘From Where I
Sit’* will be made available in the U.S. In late summer next
year. He is on a tour of the U.S. “Really it is vacation, not a
working tour,” he says. He will make public appearances only in El
Paso and in New York.
Rev. Flint has been the medium for such
voices as Lord Birkenhead, Ellen Terry, Rudolph Valentino, as well as
ordinary people which have been recorded, and he explains that the
voices come out of space, and he is not in trance.
It has been
more than 20 years since Rev. Flint was last in the U.S., and he says
that he came here at the strong urging of Rev. Halstead, minister of
El Paso’s First Spiritualist Church, and because he suddenly knew,
one morning, that he was finally going to return to the United
States.
“I had wanted to make the trip, but there was the
matter of my two dogs and two cats, and the little old lady upstairs
that I don't like to leave alone – it means finding someone to come
into my apartment and stay while I was gone. Then, suddenly, right
after I knew I was coming, that someone appeared – a former
newspaper woman and her husband offered to close up their apartment
and move into mine while I was gone.”
“People nearing the
end of the their lives become more interested in Spiritualism,” he
says, “however, in England, many young people are attracted
to the religion.
“Life is eternal. This world is a testing
ground and the power of the spirit can remove mountains. With
evidence to support one's beliefs, one need have no doubts or
fears.”
*
‘From Where I Sit’ was published as ‘Voices in the
Dark’