The subject of spirit mediums, séances and spirit manifestations are among what are considered some of the more dubious claims out there these days pertaining to the unexplained, especially in the realms of serious psychic research. All too often we’ve been made privy to tricks and treachery used to fool the gullible and unsuspecting into believing they had witnessed manifestations of strange beings from beyond the grave, or sometimes even from other worlds. However, not all mediums throughout history–specifically the last hundred years or so–have had reputations for being hucksters. With this in mind, it’s interesting to note that there are at least a few instances where mediums and others present at séances, table-tappings and conjurings have claimed to have witnessed more tangible and utterly strange phenomena that, while incredible and wholly inexplicable, may also have been somehow legitimate. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the use of séances and channeling had been considered one of the more reliable methods used to contact not only the deceased, but also beings from other dimensions… or even other planets. Mediums like the Reverend Bertie Lilly Candler, referred to prolifically in the spiritualist writings of William Dudley Pelley and several others, were said to have managed to evoke strange, credible apparitions with frightening consistency. Candler, described frequently as “the greatest physical medium of the world,” was the medium behind the alleged conjuring of an entity called “Diane,” which I described in my book Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule as “a very beautiful, eight-foot tall Venusian woman first encountered by contactee Dana Howard beginning in 1939.” Sixteen years later, Howard would meet Candler at the Church of Divine Light on South Parkview Street in Los Angeles, California, where Howard claimed that “a rising glow of phosphorescence” began to manifest during the session. “It was very tall at first, but out of this phosphorescent substance a form began to manifest itself. She was definitely different from the other ‘spirit’ manifestations, a solid, fleshly being, delicate in charm and manner.” To the amazement of Howard and those present, the being began to speak to them
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