Sue Clements:

It’s a very special evening, this evening and we are greatly privileged to be able to be in the company of, and to listen to the life and experiences of a man who I think is a legend in his own time. I’d like to introduce you tonight to Mr Leslie Flint.

 

Flint:

Thank you vey much…

 

[Audience applause]

 

Flint:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, thank you very much for your warm welcome. I think I should explain that there may be some things that I say which may not be acceptable in some quarters.

 

I’ve been in Spiritualism since, well… since I was 15 years of age, I’m now 80. I’ve done over 60 years of mediumship, which if I may so say, is in itself unique, because I don’t have to, sort of, mentally, as it were, tune in, and I know that many, many mediums do do that and they’re, in some instances, highly successful.

 

All I have to do is go into a room, switch the lights out, and the voices come and everybody can hear those voices. Sometimes they are voices of people’s relations, sometimes they are people who, when on Earth, were very famous and, uh, we get a great deal - or did when I worked, I’ve now had to retire - we had a lot of information from the other side about life in the other world of spirit, and some of the things that we have received have been so extraordinary...

 

And we have made, over the years, thousands of recordings which have been sent all over the world. And some of these recordings, in themselves, have certainly helped and uplifted people - even if they didn’t fully understand or fully believe.

 

And I can quite understand why people are sceptical and because of scepticism over my lifetime I have subjected myself - or been subjected - too all manner and kind of tests. And it’s quite understandable that people, normally, would say, ‘well, look I don’t believe a word of it; that a man can sit in a room and [you] can get voices, and everybody can hear those voices and they can be taped.’

 

And so, in consequence, I subjected myself to all manner and kind of experiment, with scientifically-minded people, members of the Psychical Research, in this country and in New York. And when I first went to New York I stayed with a professor of Columbia University, who was a member of the Psychical Research in New York, and I stayed in his apartment on Riverside Drive for many, many weeks, and I subjected or was subjected to all manner and kind of test.

 

I had throat microphones, which were attached so that the slightest ‘tizz’ in my throat came through a loudspeaker. It was impossible for me to speak unless, of course, it came through a speaker. In spite of all these experiments, and there were many, of different kinds with different people, we still got the voices.

 

But of course, as one would expect, in a kind of strange way, there are some people - no matter what they receive or whatthey hear - will be sceptical… uh, this is understandable. I think the whole subject of psychism or spiritualism is open to honest scepticism. And I think anyone who investigates or comes into the subject of psychics has every right to be sceptical.

 

Honest scepticism is a good thing, not a bad thing, and I think there’s a lot of things that take place that are referred to as being psychic, which, quite frankly, have got little or nothing whatever to do with the other side of life or spirit people.

 

I wouldn’t have said, perhaps, some of the things I now say, at 80… I wouldn’t have said some of the things, obviously, when I was 20, because I’ve learned a great deal. You see, I came into Spiritualism in the earlier years - in the gay, so called, 1920s, when, quite frankly, the mediums of that time… with all due respect, I’m not being unkind… were very ordinary working-class people and some of them couldn’t speak the King’s English to save their life!

 

I mean, the first meeting I ever went to, when I was 16 years of age, sitting at the back of the hall, the medium came onto the platform and, quite frankly - which one shouldn’t have done - I thought, ‘my god, she looks as if the cat’s been dragged in!’

 

She had no idea of how to dress for the platform and - I suppose, being young and also having been persuaded by my grandmother, who brought me up, to go to Sunday school in St John’s Church, that I should have a proper background - I couldn’t help but notice the difference between the Spiritualistic Minister and the Church Minister - where, at least, in the church everything was properly organised, properly run and there was a great sense of dignity.

 

But here was this woman, who came onto the platform, looking like I don’t know what - no sense of appearance whatsoever, looking bedraggled - and then she had to give the opening prayer. Well, I couldn’t believe my ears! With all due respect, she really couldn’t speak the King’s English to save her life! She was a real ‘gor blimey’; she dropped her H’s and picked them up en route! And I thought, ‘what the hell have I come into?’

 

But I had read a book which fascinated me, to do with life after ‘so-called’ death, and I thought there might be something in all this, because I’d had some strange experiences as a child. Anyway, I sat at the back of the hall, there were women all around and about, hardly a man in sight and I was the only bloke at the end…at the back.

 

And, uh… anyway, eventually the woman - the medium - sat down in the chair and then we had hymns and then we had notices of what was happening in the future and I looked at this woman sitting in this big old chair and I thought, ‘my god, the woman’s gone to sleep!’

 

She sat there, like this, with her eyes closed and I thought, ‘whatever’s going on? That woman’s gone to sleep!’ Anyway, the president, presumably, of the church said, ‘we’ll now have a talk from the guide of our beloved medium.’

 

Well, the woman got up and (this is not a lie, this the absolute honest to god truth) I’d never heard anything like it - this woman was completely and absolutely transformed. From her came this deep, booming, masculine, cultured voice, which gave a talk for about 20 minutes, which really would have been considered an excellent speech from some person in high office.

 

I was absolutely astounded, and then eventually she walked back to her chair and sat down. Then we had another hymn, then the president said, ‘we’ll now have clairvoyance from our beloved medium.’ Well, I’d never, obviously, been to anything of the kind, where they had clairvoyance, and she got up and went to a couple sitting in the front row.

 

She said, ‘there’s a young boy here, he wants to talk to you. He says he’s your son. He was killed in an accident, wasn’t he?’

The old couple sat there, ‘yes, yes, that’s true.’

 

And she relayed this message which was… well, I’m sure most people in that hall were really, sort of, feeling pretty grim - you know, emotional. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, [she said] ‘I want to talk to you! You, sitting at the back, there. You. Put your hand up!’

 

Well, of course, I was absolutely… I didn’t think it was anything to do with me at all! And the woman next to me, she said, ‘oh come on, put your hand up - you’ll get a message!’ So, I put my hand up and this woman [the medium] said, ‘Here, there’s a man standing behind you.’ And she described him. She said, ’he says his name is Lewis. And he says something about being a teacher.’…

 

[Break in the recording]

 

…some of these people never get anything.

So she said, ‘You know what you should do? Join a circle.’

I didn’t even know what a... I knew what a circle was, of the psychic sense.

 

So I said, ‘oh, well, I don’t know about that.’ And of course, I was mad keen to become a professional dancer and I was taking lessons and I’d got a partner and I thought, ‘oh no, I’m getting too involved in this Spiritualistic business.’

 

Anyway, to cut a long-winded story short, these different mediums always, without exception, said, ‘there’s a young-looking Arab with you.’ And one medium said, ‘I don’t know if he really was an Arab or whether he dressed up like an Arab...’

 

But every medium, one after the other - week in and week out - always referred to this young Arab...