George Woods:

Now this is a direct voice spirit communicator who came through on July 16th 1966.

His name is Terry Smith, he was a sailor who went down on the Hood and we've had this verified by the Admiralty.

 

Woods:

Good morning.

 

Greene:

Good morning friend.

 

Woods:

How are you?

 

Smith:

Oh I'm very well thank you.

 

Woods:

Well it's very nice you've come through....and, uh...

 

Smith:

I don't think I know you.

 

Woods:

You don't?

 

Smith:

Well, I don't remember. No, I'm...

 

Woods:

Who is it speaking?

 

You don't remember me? You sound very familiar. I don't know...

 

Greene:

He does sound to me too, mmm...

 

Woods:

[unintelligible]

 

Greene:

Friend, can you come along and give us your name, please?

 

Smith:

Extraordinary...

 

Greene:

Yes?

​

Smith:

You know, I really haven't quite got the habit of this business.

 

Woods:

No?

 

Smith:

It's all very different and strange to...

 

Woods:

Oh well, could you give us...

 

Smith:

[unintelligible] ...you know.

 

Woods:

...a talk about your side of life or something? Friend, we should be very pleased if you would.

 

Smith:

I've heard so much about Spiritualism and Spiritualists and communication and all that sort of thing, but, um, huh...seems still very strange to me. I did once try to get through at a meeting and...and I couldn't do very much about it. I suppose it was partly my fault really. I still find it all very strange and very puzzling. My name is Terry.

 

Woods:

Terry?

 

Smith:

Yes. My name is Terry. I'm in no way, um, [unintelligible] you know, or anything like that but...(sighs)

 

Greene:

Is that your Christian name or your surname?

 

Smith:

No, that's my Christian name. I came...I came over here during the war. I was on the Hood.

 

Greene:

Oh dear...

 

Woods:

On the Hood?

 

Smith:

Yeah...

 

Greene:

Can you give us your surname Terry?

 

Smith:

It's so weird this, isn't it?

​

Woods:

Well give us a talk. I wonder what...

 

Smith:

How odd you look, sitting there.

 

Woods / Greene:

[Laugh]

 

Smith:

You look strange, you know. I mean, I suppose it's strange for you in a way too, listening to somebody, you know, sort of, um, speaking, huh, like this. It must be very odd, very strange. Oh I'm here with a crowd of chaps.

 

Greene:

Yes?

 

Woods:

Who is, um...

 

Smith:

As a matter of fact, um, when I first came over I...I was so, sort of, bewildered. I suppose, like a good many more of the chaps do for that matter, you know. I mean it all happened so sudden. It was every man for himself. I mean, those left...well, matter of fact, none of us really had a chance you know. We sort of got, well...it was hopeless.

 

Greene:

Terry, um...

 

Smith:

It's very puzzling all of this isn't it? I mean, I suppose people...there are people who...well, I remember years ago - donkey's years ago now, it must be - there was an Aunt of mine, she was interested in Spiritualism, but, um, I was a bit young anyway I suppose. I didn't take it in.

 

It's an odd business altogether when you come to think about it, that, you know, people think we're dead you know? I mean, it's fantastic really because, really I'm more alive now than I ever was and, I sometimes come back you know...but I lost interest in coming back you see?

 

Well, it's a pointless business when you think about it. After all, there's not much to come back for and I didn't have any, sort of, uh, well I don't know...I suppose I just didn't feel the urge after the first few weeks or...you know?

 

It seems strange this business though, to me. You're Spiritualists I suppose? You've been at it for donkey's years haven't you? You look old enough to have been at it...you know I suppose you have been...a long time anyway.

 

Greene:

[Laughing]

 

Woods:

Well, we've been in research in this sort of thing, you see?

 

Smith:

Oh.

​

Greene:

Terry, can you describe your reactions when you found yourself still alive? I mean, what happened to you...?

 

Smith:

Well...

 

Greene:

...if that's possible for you?

 

Smith:

Well, it's not impossible, but, um...oh I think that the first thing I remember was going up a street.

 

Greene:

Oh yes?

 

Smith:

It was a street I'd never seen before and, uh, as a matter of fact, I couldn't realise at first that it wasn't a real street. Although it was a real street, in a sense, but not the kind of street that, you know, that I'd been used to, but...

 

Oh it was all very attractive, you know. Lovely trees on either side of the road and lovely houses, ever such nice houses, you know. There were little bungalows dotted about here and there and there were bigger houses and, yeah it was ever so attractive.

 

And I just couldn't make this out at all, you know. I thought, well...I didn't recognise the place and yet it seemed as if it could have been somewhere, oh I don't know, perhaps in California or something, because it was like I'd seen pictures of, you know?

 

Greene:

Mmm...

 

Smith:

A wide, sort of, boulevard with trees and sloping lawns and pretty little village...houses and things, you know. It was like a sort of well made up village really, but I couldn't make head or tail of it. But, uh, I'd found that, uh, there was nobody else about. It was just as if I was all there on me own, you know. I thought, 'this is odd', you know.

 

I didn't even realise fully I was dead, I suppose. I thought I was probably dreaming I suppose. I don't know, it was odd. But the road was not a bit familiar, yet there was something about it that, I don't know, gave me some sort of a peculiar inner confidence I suppose.

 

But anyway, I just walked along and there were all these very pretty houses and it seemed as dead as a dodo. Not a sound, you know. Nothing. Then I come further along I saw a very sweet lady, a very pretty woman she was. I thought anyway. She couldn't have looked more than about twenty-eight / thirty, standing at a little gate. It was the first house that I'd seen with a gate, by the way. All the others seemed to have no entrances, no gates, you just walked up the little path to the front door, sort of thing.

 

Greene:

Yes.

 

Smith:

But this one had got, sort of, um...it was on the end of a...ooh, after I'd walked quite a while...and there was this, sort of, fence round it and I thought, 'well, it seems a bit odd', you know, after all the other houses being free of fences and that.

 

Anyway, this little old lady...this little woman, you know, she was standing there - funny thing about her was she looked young and yet, I felt she was old. It sounds stupid I know, but there you are. But, um, she was leaning over this gate and as I came to her she sort of smiled, you know. I thought, 'well, I don't know'. She seemed to be only when I...

I stopped and she said,“You looking for something, sonny?”

I thought, 'blimey'.

 

I said, “Yes. Well, sort of,” you know, “...I don't know quite what's happening or where I am.”

“Oh,” she says, “that's all right sonny, I've been waiting for you. Come in.”

So I thought, 'well, I've got nothing to lose,' you know, so I thought, 'I'll go in. So at least it's someone to talk to.'

And she took me into the front - well, I suppose you'd call it a parlour, you know...

​

Greene:

Yes.

 

Smith:

...nice little room it was, very nice, with chintzy curtains and chairs and it all looked very homely. And there was a cat sitting in one chair - a beautiful black cat - and, I don't know, I thought, 'well I don't know - cats? Can't be dead with cats.'

She says, “Come on sonny, sit down.”

So I sat down in the other chair with no cat in it, you see.

So she said, “Would you like a drink?”

 

I thought, 'well, this is something like,' you know. Would I like a drink? I thought she was going to offer me a cup of tea or something.

So I said, “Yes, I would, if you...please,” you know.

So she said, “What would you like?”

So I thought, 'well, I must go cagey here, you know. I don't want to look as if I drink', you know. So I said, “Oh, I'd like a lemon please.”

She says, “Would you?” She says, “All right.”

 

So she goes out and comes back with a glass of lemon and I thought, 'well I don't know'.

So she says, “You know, you've nothing to worry about sonny. I've been waiting for you.”

So I says, “Waiting for me?”

So she says, “Yes.”

So, I didn't know what to say. I sort of sat there, and, uh, she says, “you know you're dead?”

 

So I says, “What?”

So she says, “You're dead.”

I says, “Come off it. I, um...I can't be dead sitting in a room here, with a cat over there and drinking a glass of lemonade. And you're solid and real enough. How can I be dead?” I said, “I admit it's all a bit strange.” I says, “At first I thought I was, sort of, having a dream or something.

So she says, “Well, it's no dream sonny,” she says. “You're dead.”

 

So I says, “Well, if you say I'm dead, how did I get here?”

So she says, “Oh that's all right,” she says. “I was thinking and praying for you, and I've been given charge of you.”

So I says, “What do you mean you've been given charge of me?”

So she says, “Well,” she says, “when your ship went down...”

 

And it suddenly came to me. When the ship went down. Last thing I remember, you know, was in the water holding on to a part of wood. I don't know what part of the ship it was. Anyway, it was a part of wood I was clinging to, sort of thought it might hold me up, you know, but of course I realise it was hopeless now.

 

Anyway, she says, “You was drowned.”

So I says, “Oh.”

And she says, “There's hundreds and hundreds of lads,” she says, “have come over.”

So I says, “Oh.”

So she says, “Yes and everyone of those lads has got someone, somewhere to look after them. Some have got their own people; relations or friends. Some have got other souls and I'm one [who's] in charge of you.” She says, “You didn't realise,” she says, “but you were directed. You thought you were walking on your own up the road.” she says. “But you wasn't.” She says, “You were being helped by inspiration from a soul whose job it is to help people when they come over suddenly, like you did.”

 

So I says, “Oh yeah?” You know, sort of listening, like, not quite taking it all in, you know. So I says, “Well I don't understand this at all.”

So she says, “Well don't you worry,” she says. “You stay with me. I'll look after you. I'll be like your Mum.”

So I thought, 'well that's something,' you know.

And, uh...then she started talking about my people - and it rather shook me, because she seemed to know all about my people - about my Mum and Dad and how they, sort of, separated and about my sister who was in...in the WRENS* you know, and all that.

​

*WRENS = Women's Royal Naval Service

And I thought, 'well, I don't know, she seems to know everything about us.'

So I says, “Well are you in any way related to us?”

So she says, “Well, not really,” she says. “But, um, it was part of my job to know something about your people, being as how I've to look after you.” And so I says, “Well, that's funny,” I says. “Since you say I've only just come over, how do you know about my lot?” You know.

​

So she says, “Oh well, that's not difficult. It's only a matter of tuning in,” she says. “Tuning in?” I says. “Sounds like the wireless.”

 

So she says, “Oh well we can.” she says. “If we have any special reason for wanting to know about a particular person or persons,” she says, “and it's a special work that we have to do, and we've got some sort of connection there that's necessary for us to know things, then we tune in.” She says, “a little later on,” she says, “not yet,” she says, “we'll go to see your people.” So I says, “Oh that'll be nice.” So she says, “Of course,” she says, “you know they won't know you're dead.

I mean, they won't know that, um, you're there. They'll know that you're dead, but they won't know that, um, you're still alive, you know - that you can, sort of, watch them or go and see them, you know. You mustn't be too upset if no one takes any notice of you.”

 

So I says, “Oh. Well,” I says, “I did have an Aunt who was a Spiritualist.”

So she says, “Well that's good,” she says. “Perhaps we can get something through in that direction. You never know. We'll have to try her.” She says, “Well, um, for the time being,” she says, “you must try and be content to be here.”

She says, “I've got a son on Earth,” she says, “...and I'm hoping one day when he comes over here that we shall be together again. I expect we shall,” she says. “But, um, in the meantime,” she says, “I'm going to look upon you as if you're my own son.”

 

And she says, “I'm going to do all I can for you and try and make you happy. And you're not to worry and you're not to, sort of, feel...you know, sort of alone or anything like that.” She says, “A little later on,” she says, “when you've rested,” she says, “...I think you should rest,” she says, “this has all been a bit of a shock for you...” she says, “I'll take you out and you'll be introduced to all sorts of interesting people in our community.”

So I says, “Oh yes, that's very interesting.”

 

Then all of a sudden, during the middle of the conversation this cat did the most funny thing, I thought. It may sound silly, but it jumped off this chair and it came up to me and it sat on it's hind legs and it looked up at me. And it sort of cocked its ears up and - it didn't miaow, it didn't make that noise like a cat - but it was just as if the thing spoke! Do you know I nearly dropped...I was so shaken.

 

She says, “Oh, hmm,” she says, “don't worry,” she says, “you'll get used to that.” She says, “The animals,” she says, “over here have developed, to a great extent, their ability to make themselves understood. Of course, on Earth in a way they can do that, but we don't hear them speak because they haven't language as we understand it. But over here their thoughts are such that they can, sort of, vibrate...” she says, “...the atmosphere and you can hear the sounds. And it's merely their thoughts being transmitted to you so that you can hear them.”

 

Then she says...hmm, this cat says, “How are you?” You know, and I thought, 'by cripes, this is quite mad,' you know. Cats don't say 'how are you?' and, hah, I didn't know what to do, what to say.

She says, “Don't worry,” she says, “you'll get used to that.” She says, “Animals,” she says, “are much more sensitive than people realise and they have their own knowledge of things. They can transmit thoughts and they pick up thoughts and you'll get used to the fact that animals can convey a great deal more from this side than they can on Earth.”

 

Anyway I got, sort of, adjusted to the idea and I said, “Very well thanks.” And then the cat...it seemed as if the cat said - I don't say the cat said this, but it seemed as if it said, “Well, I hope you'll be happy here.”

And I thought, 'well this is most peculiar.' Then the cat went back and sat on the chair and curled up and as far as I was concerned it went to sleep.'

 

Of course I still couldn't get this at all. She says, “Don't worry,” she says, “you'll understand, that animals have a great, uh, capacity of understanding and over here they can transmit their thoughts, the same as I can transmit mine to yours, without even the effort of speaking if I want to.” She says, “You can read my thoughts and I can read yours. Thought is a real thing to us and it's very tangible and that's why animals can communicate by thought-force,” she said.

 

And all this was very good, you know...sort of got me...oh, well I don't know...this is something this is, you know.

​

Woods:

Very interesting.

 

Greene:

Go on Terry.

 

Woods:

Go on Terry. That's so interesting.

 

Smith:

Of course, gradually as I got, sort of, familiar with everything and...and a little later (I suppose it was a little later) uh, she took me out and what appeared to be, I suppose, the sun.

 

Although she told me later there was no sun, that it was illumination, uh, from which, uh, all of us, you know, all life was, uh, able to draw some sort of, I don't know, I suppose some sort of power. But the illumination was...the funny thing about the illumination - this may sound odd - but it didn't seem to cast shadows. Although she said that in some places, uh, the light did cast shadows.

 

But it seemed to me as if everything was pleasantly bright without being harsh, and there didn't seem to be any shadows and it didn't seem it was necessary to withdraw, as it were, from the light, because the light was so pleasing and pleasant. And it wasn't over...what you'd say, hot, you know. You didn't feel as if it was burning you, yet it was a pleasant warmth. A sort of...it's very difficult...a sort of radiance I suppose.

 

Anyway we went out...I went out with her. She says, well...and she just pulled the door and I says, “Are you going to lock your door?” “Oh,” she says, “there's no need for that here you know.”

 

And much to my surprise, as we went out, the cat got up and walked out and followed us. And it was walking along just as if it was - well, like you'd expect a dog more than a cat, I suppose. So, she's talking away to this cat and she says, “All right, come along,” sort of thing, you know and she kept calling it Nelly.

 

And I thought, 'well Nelly's a funny name for a cat. I never heard a cat called Nelly before.' And she must have sensed my thoughts, because I found, after a very short time, that I didn't have to speak to her. She knew what I was thinking.

“Oh,” she says, “you think it's an odd name for a cat, don't you?”

 

So I said, “Well, Nelly. I've never heard a cat called Nelly. I suppose there's no reason why a cat shouldn't be called Nelly as well as...as Tiddles or something,” you know. And she said, “Well Nelly's the name that my mother gave this cat.”

I said, “Your mother?” I said, “How old's that cat then?”

“Oh,” she says, “this cat must be now, judging by material age,” she says, “about, oh, sixty-odd years old.”

 

So I said, “Sixty years old?” I said, “I don't know; I've heard cats having nine lives,” you know, trying to make her laugh, you know.

She says, “Well,” she says, “actually, of course everybody has many lives.” She says, “You're having an extension of your life. But you'll find you'll have an extension of this life and so on, ad infinitum,” as she put it, like, you know.

 

I thought, 'well, I don't know.' “All this is a bit too much for me.”

She says, “You'll grasp it later.” She says, “You mustn't think that just because you're dead, so-called, um, that you won't have an extension of life, to a degree, whereby you'll eventually be able to extend it into another condition of life.”

So I said, “But I don't quite get that,” you know.

She says, “Well, for the time being don't let it worry you, son,” she says, you know. She says, “You'll find that...that all life is really an extension of a previous life. In other words,” she says, “you go on and on, ad infinit...finitum,” as she says it, you know.

 

And she says, “You'll exhaust this plane or this sphere or this condition of life in which you are now. Eventually,” she says, “you'll realise that there's nothing more that you can learn here, or nothing more that's necessary to you here, and you'll feel the urge and the need to extend your experience. And you'll pass into a different existence of a higher sphere or plane,” as she called it, “where you'll be able to appreciate and learn and experience all sorts of things that you couldn't possibly experience on this.”

 

She says, “But that may be a long time yet.” She says, “There's so much that you've got to experience, so much you've got to learn.” And she says, “You'll have every opportunity given you to study and to take an interest in so many different things.” And she says, “You, if you want to, you can do almost anything. Whatever you would like to do or be,” you know. She said, “When you were on Earth you were very keen, weren't you, on music?”

 

So I says, “Well, how did you know that?”

So she says, “Well you were, weren't you?”

So I said, “Well, yes. I used to be very keen on the piano, but I never really was any good at it.”

So she says, “Well you'll have every opportunity here, if that's what you'd like to do and to be a really first-class pianist,” you know.

And I says, “Well I can't imagine myself being a great pianist.” I says, “I like good music and I used to...you know...try, like.”

So she says, “Oh, well we shall see won't we?” She said, “Then later on, when you're more settled,” she says, “and you're more at home, perhaps we'll see what we can do about it,” you know.

​

Anyway, she took me up to this...and there again, she's...you know, another thing: I told you when I came up the road, in the first instance, it seemed as if the place was empty. It was like a place where - oh, like a dead city, a place, you know, with no one at all. And yet everything looked trim and nice and clean and fresh and everything - as if everybody had gone off for an afternoon siesta when I arrived, sort of thing, you know.

 

Anyway, this time going up the road, it was as if everyone was out, standing at the door, or was coming down to the pathway, you know. And, uh, goodness me, I hadn't got very far up the road, as if...before, as if...well, I was surrounded by people, all sorts of people; young and - mostly young people - one or two seemed to be elderly and yet, looking back on it I realise they weren't old, but there was something about them suggested that there was age and yet, they didn't look old. I can't explain that.

 

But anyway they were all, sort of, shaking me by the hand and calling me by name and I thought, 'well that's odd,' everybody knows my name, everyone's calling me Terry as if they'd known me all their lives. And it's...I realised afterwards of course, that there's very little escapes them if a new person's coming into the community, or a number of people coming from Earth into that community - which, as I found afterwards, was a special community really, of souls whose task it was to help newcomers and to guide them and...especially young people and with the war on, you know, there was loads of youngsters coming over.

 

Anyway they were all around me and making me feel welcome, and I really felt as if I was among old friends. It was extraordinary, yet I didn't know a soul and they all seemed to know me and I felt quite at home with them. And I thought, 'well, this is extraordinary.' Here was I arriving in a place where everybody seemed, you know, dead or away and no one bothered. And now it's as if they're all coming out to greet me. I thought this was a bit puzzling, so I asked my friend.

 

I says, “Why is it that, um, when I arrived, no one came to visit me...I mean, no one came to meet me or anything?”

“Oh,” she says, “that was deliberate.”

I says, “But why deliberate?”

“Oh,” she says, “that was very necessary, really. It was partly that you had to, in a subconscious way, if you like,” she says, “had to...although you were being helped you couldn't see the person or persons that was helping you...it was very necessary for you to come direct to me as I was the one who was chosen to take care of you.

 

The others knew, of course, of your arrival. And every house you passed, though you didn't see anyone, their love was so strong that it was helping you. And their thoughts were very real and very tangible. And really, quite frankly,” she said, “they knew that the right moment would come a little later, once you had adjusted yourself and you'd been helped by me,” she says, “to see and to understand a little. Then you'd be more ready to,” you know, sort of, “be received by a lot of people.

 

If we'd all been there it would have been too much for you. You just wouldn't have been able to grasp things. It was better that it should be as it was. Now,” she says, “you're settling in, you're getting to know people and people are getting to know you, and the next thing will be to, once you really settle down a bit, to find the kind of thing - work - you'd like to do. But,” she says, “before that it may be a very good idea if we go back to Earth and see how your people are and see if there's anything we can do.”

 

She says, “It may be very depressing for you, very sad for you, because they don't realise that you're alive and, uh, because...therefore it will make you unhappy that you can't make contact with them. But you did say that you had an Aunt who was interested, so we might be able to do something there, but we'll have to wait and see.”

 

Anyway, another time when I come I'll tell you more about that because I...I don't think I can make it now. But, you know, there's a lot of things that I feel that would be of interest - and someone said to me, he said, “Why don't you go and talk to them,” you know, “and see if you can help them.” So I thought, 'well, yeah.'

​

Woods:

Yes.

 

Greene:

Terry, can you give us your surname, love, before you...please?

 

Smith:

Yeah, my...my...my...my surname is - I know it sounds common, I mean - it's Smith.

 

Greene:

Smith? Terry Smith?

 

Smith:

Yeah.

 

Woods:

And were you on the Hood?

 

Greene:

On the Hood he went down, yes.

 

Woods:

On the Hood...

 

Smith:

I'll have to wait until another time. I'm sorry.

 

Woods / Greene:

Well it's very nice of you...

 

Smith:

Well, I...I hope it's been of interest for you. But I really don't quite under...I don't remember you and yet I do remember you. It's funny. It's as if I've met you before and yet I haven't.

 

Greene:

Perhaps you've been in the room when somebody else has been...

 

Smith:

Maybe, yeah. Anyway, perhaps another time, eh?

 

Greene:

Yes. We'd like to hear you...

 

Smith:

I can't hold on.

 

Woods:

Rather Terry, I do hope you'll come through again...

 

Smith:

The power...power seems to be going...