Mrs Creet:

Hello?

 

David:

I don't know if you hear now what I'm saying?

 

Mrs Creet:

Oh, uh... David?

 

David:

Aye.

 

Mrs Creet:

Oh David!

 

David:

I thought it was about time I put in an appearance.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes!

 

David:

I understand now that I've got a rival?

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

 

Flint: [Laughing]

 

Mrs Creet:

No one can rival you dear...

 

David:

Alright, that's only my way of speaking...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

I couldn't care less. I'm only too happy you've got someone else occasionally that comes and gives you some information and can talk well.

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

He's very much like you.

 

David:

In what way do you mean?

​

Mrs Creet:

Oh well, he's not very reticent about speaking.

 

David:

Oh what's... what's the good of coming to speak to someone if you're not going to open your mouth and talk?

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

 

David:

There's a lot of people that come to this sort of thing and then when it gets to the chance to speak they've nothing to say. Seems a waste of effort to me.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, that's quite true.

 

David:

Aye, but I guess some of them find it very much more difficult. I did at first, but I'm alright now.

 

Mrs Creet:

No...

 

David:

I take it in my stride. I could not care less. I just open and shut my mouth.

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

Oh, you are a caution.*

*A caution = an amusing character

David:

Actually that's not technically quite true, but it sounds all right. Because you don't have to open and shut your mouth to be able to talk.

 

Mrs Creet:

You don't? How...? Now David, David... please explain to me how you're doing it and how you can...

 

David:

Well I think the answer to that is, that all communication is by thought.

 

Mrs Creet:

I know.

 

David:

And it's the transmission of thought and personality combined, through the mechanism - which is, after all, only an artificially reproduced replica of the voice-box - which is essential for speech.

 

Mrs Creet:

Are you uh, uh... absolutely in this room, and you're thinking and, uh...

 

David:

Of course I'm in the room. I'm in the room right here beside you.

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

But it's my concentration of thought that makes the sound. The sound is artificially reproduced, and that which you hear as sound, is merely our thought being transmitted via the artificial voice-box. And that, of course, I think, is 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...

 

Mrs Creet:

Ectoplasm you mean?

 

David:

Well, the ectoplasmic voice-box...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...or ectoplasmic...uh, vocal organs that are built up...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...artificially.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

They can stay only as long as the power makes it possible and, of course...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...that's always, in a way, fluctuating and changing and, in consequence, that's where you get the gaps. Sometimes we're still transmitting thought and you're not receiving it...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...because we're not, even at the time, sometimes, conscious of the fact that the voice-box is not, as it were, working... and then again, of course, you have to bear in mind, that if thought, as we know it, is... is the basis of communication...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...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...

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...and get in the way. And unless you have a clear channel, you can not expect to get a clear reception, you cannot get a clear...uh, hundred percent, you might say, of what is being transmitted from the communicator in question. That's why we work in harmony, that is, as a group - we have to.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

Apart from the fact that 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, so often, 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 I am trying to transmit something to you...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...owing to, sometimes, to difficulties of transmission, someone else will feed me, if you like, put it like that...with thoughts that, um, don't always come easy when you're trying to concentrate on working this thing or communicating. You find that the things that you've often prepared to say, uh...

 

Mrs Creet:

Are lost?

 

David:

...in some strange way, not 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'll automatically transfer it through. And that's why, sometimes, in communication, you get, um... a second-hand communication.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

Someone may be purporting to speak in the first person... and someone else may be doing the transmission on the wavelength, you see.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

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 vibration... vibration that's essential for this kind of work, then they transmit it to someone that is used to communicating.

 

And there again, it depends on how good the communicator is; the person that's 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, uh, 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, and that was very like his sort of way, but it was not him.'

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, yes...

 

David:

Not in the sense that they could recognise his personality.

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes. Oh, that's a very good explanation and 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. Thank you.

 

David:

I think that it's very important... that people should realise in your world, that owing to the many complications and difficulties of communication and that thought in itself is the predominant thing that matters. It is thought that is transmitted to you, artificially. But in the transmission of thought there may be discrepancies, there may be things 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, uh, it may be through experience that you have that strong preconceived expe... uh, knowledge and the firm idea.

 

I mean, for instance, if you’ve known someone perhaps for forty or fifty years on Earth and you know their personality and you know the way of their speech and their little idiosyncrasies, and what have you, that help to contribute towards that particular 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's where you get this bugbear* in your world among Spiritualists and people that don't accept... and they are puzzled, because they wonder how much is a hundred percent and how much is really that person... and how much, uh, is impersonation.

​

*bugbear = apprehension / stumbling block

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

You see, a lot of things have to be, uh, looked into, a lot of things have to be accepted and understood and you have to realise that there's no such thing, fundamentally, or really...or very rare, that you can expect to get a hundred percent, uh, communication. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's rare and it's difficult.

 

Only a person with a very great knowledge of communication and a very strong personality at that... can hope to get through a great deal of themselves... or what they want to say or convey.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, well...

 

David:

That's why you get difficulties; for instance, there are times, for instance, when perhaps I have been speaking to you and, uh...because I'm pretty good at it now, I got so...uh, focused or so, sort of, um, uh... sure in myself about it, that I can do it quite well. But there are times when, perhaps, if I've been speaking perhaps twenty minutes or so, of your time... that I feel the... the weakening there. I feel that I'm not holding on as strong as I was at first, which is only to be expected.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

Then someone else...

​

Mrs Creet:

Comes in...

 

David:

...comes in...

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

...and takes over, gradually. Sometimes it's so subtle that, probably, you hardly notice it.

 

Mrs Creet:

Oh yes, yes. I've had experiences of that.

 

David:

But the point is, it does happen. You see, this merging, if you like, this merging of communication or this merging of personality, which happens at séances and so on... is... is overly understandable, because you have to realise that the voice-box or the instrument, if you like, that we use... is on a certain wavelength of vibration. That person has been attuned over years of development, no doubt, to become an instrument on a certain wavelength or vibration...and, in consequence, we have to tune in and we have to be in harmony with that person - that's why harmony is another very important thing at séances.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

If you have a group of people that 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, then it makes our task much easier because we've 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 we have 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 for quite a long time - much more so than in a promiscuous group of people that gather together; each one having their own strong personality and each one having their own desires and wanting this and wanting that - and each one is bulling*, as it were, for themselves... and have no interest in the other people present. In other words, they have, quite perhaps unconsciously, but a selfish motive... and that's where I think mediumship, uh, feels a strain.

 

*bulling = pushing forward

​

You see, a medium is a highly sensitised individual, not necessarily only from the point of view of personality...uh, 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 in... under certain conditions, they can be used as instruments in a very highly successful manner.

 

But, the whole point is, that if, like all sensitive things, all sensitive instruments, even in a mechanical and technical sense on your side, if they are abused or if they are used without, uh...knowledge, if they are ham-fisted* 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's running in the proper manner and that it's cared for, then gradually it will break down.

*ham-fisted = unskillful / used clumsily

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

And that's where the problem of all professional mediums is, I think, that, um... although 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 and they must be nurtured and they must not be allowed to do this and do that.

 

I mean, I am 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. But the point is, there must be the co-operative... co-operative spirit with the medium and realise his responsibilities to others and to the work that he has to do.

 

It's a tremendous undertaking and I realise that there are very few people that really can fulfil the demand that's 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 and they have...not only a right, of course, to their own personal life, but they have an obligation - they have an obligation to fulfil to themselves and the people that they help and work for and, of course, to those who have done so much for them from this side.

 

You see, if you've 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 the things that matter, then we have got an instrument that we can really work with and through and do great things - and we have so much hope here.

 

I mean, I know that there's been disappointments and there's been setbacks and all the rest of it. But I'm not blaming anyone for that, because I'd be the last person... because I know that you... one must be human and must... one must, to some extent, when in a material world, consider material things.

 

You can not live in your world and be on this side at the same time. Or be the sort of person you may even like to be or would want to be, because sometimes it's not quite possible. But the point is, that where there is complete co-operation, as far as it's humanly possible...

 

Mrs Creet: [Coughing]

 

David:

...there are no limits to what can be achieved. I mean, I've heard what they have promised to you. I've heard the things that they've said and 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 co-operative spirit and the 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's all that we ask, no more and no less.

 

Mrs Creet:

Oh, yes we all realise that. It's not that we don't...

 

David:

I know from my own experience, since I've been a-coming here, that...uh, the people that come are...are really quite (I know they probably are annoyed if they hear me say it) but they are quite wonderful people. They really are extremely fine people with high motives and...and they have got so much that they want to achieve and so much they want to...to bring through.

 

You know, when I first came here I was vastly different to what I am now. I've learned a great deal by coming here and listening and getting to know these people and beginning to appreciate, gradually, what they are trying to do and 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 it's in the normal way, apart from the ordinary group that you sit in and your little sittings yourself...

 

But the people that come here; I've been here, many a time, when people have come and they've 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 help to give them a new way of life - it's been a great revelation to me, because really they give up so much. I don't think anyone realises quite what. They'd be the last to tell you that.

 

It's true that the time they spend on Earth is insignificant, in time itself. That's all very true and they often say that. And I would not be right to... to deny that, but it seems to me that it's not an easy thing. I know from my own experience, it's not an easy thing.

 

When 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... so much finer and so much nobler and so much more lovely... to... to enter in to the old Earth ways of thought and living is... we do, in a sense, for a time when we come here. It's not easy.

​

Mrs Creet:

No. I know. You have... you have changed a great deal, David and...

 

David:

Oh, at first I took things much more lightly than I take them now. I had...I still have got a sense of humour.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, yes, yes...

 

David:

But the point is, that I realise that I never used to think very deeply. It was... not that I was 'on the surface' exactly, because I don't think by my nature that I was ever unkind, not really unkind or that I thought badly of other people.

 

I was... as a matter of fact, I was probably rather simple-minded, but at the same time I rather lived the way I wanted to live and I had no thought of the morrow. I was pretty easy-going, but now I think much more deeply and I realise that life is a serious business and not something that you can just flit through from day to day. And I don't mean only life on your side, but life on this. Life is a... is an experience. It is a precious gift...

 

Mrs Creet:

It is and it's an extension of this one.

 

David:

Aye... and there's so much to assimilate and so much to learn and so much to know about, and so much to experience in so many different ways. And 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 perhaps, when everything goes well. Those things are natural, that we like the most, it's only human, but...

 

Mrs Creet:

Ah! Ah!

 

David:

...but it is the reversals of fortune... and the disappointments in life and the realisation that comes 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 though they are at the time, pall* 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.

*Pall = spoil, become dull.

​

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

 

Mrs Creet:

That's quite true. It's through bad that you learn...

 

David:

Aye... there's an old saying, 'out of evil cometh good' and we don't really know what evil is. Evil has sometimes been misinterpreted.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, yes.

 

David:

I think... I think 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 there are some things that are downright evil; from the point of view of being wicked and wrong, but at the same time, many of the things that we look down upon and we are distressed about and the things that we try to avoid if we can - strangely enough, they are the things that teach us most. I've learned quite a bit.

 

Mrs Creet:

Good David! I'm so glad to hear that.

 

David:

Oh, I'm not quite the same person.

 

Mrs Creet:

Are you content? You're not... are you content now where you are?

 

David:

I suppose in a kind of way you could say I was content.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

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

 

Mrs Creet:

Ah, yes. That's right, that's the way. That's the way to... to... to...

 

David:

You know, it's rather like, uh... living in a very nice house and you love it 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.

​

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

And you think, 'Oh, I wonder what's round there, behind that door. I wish I could get a key for that door,'and you don't realise that you cannot go through that door, you cannot open that door until you've made it possible to have the key to do that.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes. Yes, that's true.

 

David:

I think life is like that - that you...that you sometimes seem to have everything. At the same time there are some things that you...you haven't got, because you don't see them, you're not conscious of them. It's only when your eyes are gradually opened you might realise that there are things there all the time, that you never realised existed. You do not open your eyes until you, yourself, have made it worthwhile and possible.

 

In other words, you have within yourself the key to open all the doors; and there is sincerity and purpose and the realisation that you are part of a great plan and that you cannot live [for] self alone, but you must share that which you have with others. And you must realise that whatever you may have is not really yours, it's only lent to you for a time - and that from it you can gain experience. But whatever experience you have, it can not fully satisfy you, because of the simple reason, there are always other things that 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 - though you know you are on the right path - you feel you must rest a while and 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.

 

Mrs Creet:

Oh, that's the beauty of it.

 

David:

It's a great adventure and I think that's the whole secret; is to look upon life from every aspect, from whatever sphere you may be on - whether it's on Earth or over here. Whatever, uh... uh, degree you may be in, is to appreciate it and to...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.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

You know, you learn more from... through others and by helping others, than ever you do by sitting [and] twiddling your thumbs.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes, that's quite right. Quite right David. What a lovely speech you've given today!

 

David:

Quite a bit. Quite a bit, I can assure you. Quite a bit. But I do not put it so well perhaps, but... I feel very strongly, nevertheless.

​

Mrs Creet:

You've put it very well. I'm very, very pleased.

 

David:

I always look forward to your meetings, you know that.

 

Mrs Creet:

Yes.

 

David:

Because I know that, uh...with you, I can be myself, I can talk naturally... and I can open up. And, as a matter of fact, to be quite honest about this, I get a tremendous kick out of coming to talk to you and also I feel all the time, that in some strange kind of way, that I'm learning too.

 

Mrs Creet:

You're learning?

 

David:

It's strange.

 

Mrs Creet:

Well I'm very, very glad that you found your way here.

 

David:

But you've no need to worry.

 

Mrs Creet:

No.

 

David:

I know... I know you've been told this many a time and you must get sick and tired of it, but it's true; although your life is not always easy and the pattern doesn't fall in, perhaps, in the way you'd like it, at the same time I know, I know that you have no cause to be unduly concerned about the future.

 

Mrs Creet:

No. That's alright David. I hope so... [from both of us].

 

David:

I know that when you come here, there'll be such a reception for you.

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

 

David:

I'll be there.

 

Mrs Creet:

And I shall be very glad.

 

David:

Anyway, I must go now because the power is weakening. But 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.

 

Mrs Creet:

Thank you!

 

David:

And I'm sure you'll have your boyfriend back soon.

 

Mrs Creet: [Laughing]

 

David:

Bye-bye.

 

Mrs Creet:

Bye-bye David...

 

Mickey:

Goodbye.

 

Mrs Creet:

...thank you...