5.00p.m., Sunday 22 August 1976, proved the start of what will go down in Spiritualist history as a milestone broadcast. For the first time, listeners heard voices from spirit life communicating with the “living”.
The programme was entitled in The Listener “The Other side”. Disappointingly, no further description of the programme was given. Readers were, therefore, not expecting anything sensational and many probably thought it was a fill-in record programme featuring the “flip” side of popular hits. If that was the case, many individuals, especially younger ones, were treated to a surprisingly interesting half hour.
Māori broadcaster, Marama Martin, introduced the programme as ‘A look at some aspects of the Spiritualist Church’. It commenced immediately with the voice of actress Ellen Terry, coming through at an English séance. Her diction, vocabulary and clarity must have astounded listeners unfamiliar with the Spiritualists way of life. It was an appropriate opening to a programme sympathetically and seriously put together by host Errol Pike, Radio New Zealand’s Director of Religious Broadcasts. The two guest speakers were the SCNZ’s National Secretary, Elizabeth Kennedy and Auckland Minister Ron Gibbs.
Ron Gibbs explained the beginnings of Modern Spiritualism. In some detail he gave listeners a verbal picture of the events at Hydesville in 1848 and how the Fox sisters reacted. Ron’s fascinating tale would have had the previously uninformed listener in a state of almost total disbelief. Elizabeth Kennedy when asked how she had become a Spiritualist said that she could not deny its simple truths after witnessing the successful healing of a member of her family. She spoke of the many reasons why an individual becomes a Spiritualist including of course dissatisfaction with orthodoxy, sudden motivation to find solace following a bereavement and the making of a personal decision following study of comparative religion. She added that although long established churches do not give official backing to Spiritualism and its objects, many persons with an orthodox background, some in an official capacity, are constantly confirming what the Spiritualist Church has proclaimed as fact since its formation. Again, many individuals seek help from Spiritualists, their Church, Mediums and Officers, which they know their own churches cannot give them. Mrs Kennedy completed her opening remarks by explaining that the Spiritualist Church was one of the few churches in New Zealand to be incorporated by the laws of the land in the terms of an empowering act. She explained that the Church operates under a democratic constitution and holds triennial conferences at which national policy is formulated and ratified.
Ron Gibbs then explained the seven principles of Spiritualism; listed them all, and spoke of their introduction through the mediumship of Emma Hardinge Britten.
At this point Errol Pike played a short excerpt of licensed S.C.N.Z. medium Mona Stillman demonstrating clairvoyance at a regular Sunday service at the Auckland Church. Whilst she was obviously helping the recipients of her spirit communications, listeners would have learnt little. They would need to attend a service to fully appreciate clairvoyance and clairaudience and the reaction of a recipient. Ron Gibbs went on to elaborate on mediumship, clairvoyance and clairaudience both objective and subjective.
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Asked if spirits could be of help to historians, Ron Gibbs confirmed that they could be. He cited the case of Geraldine Cummins through whom many stories had been written by way of automatic writing. The Scripts of Cleophas’ is one. Although stories, they have proved historically correct and cannot be disputed or disproved. Ron Gibbs has always taken the view that spirit life must prove from whence it came for the historian.
After explaining the physical process of death and the separation of the spirit force a recording of the voice of Leslie Flint’s spirit companion Mickey was played. This was causing some hilarity in the séance room and probably inspired a measure of disbelief in many a casual listener. Errol Pike, whilst no doubt surprised at the cacophony of Mickey’s gatherings, nevertheless asked Ron if the next world is dull and mundane because of the rather pedestrian messages given to sitters by mediums. Ron said that a minor mundane detail can prove priceless to a recipient. Not all communications are mundane however. Astounding and humorous contributions are also manifest from the world of spirit.
Progressing further, Ron Gibbs explained that the orthodox view of an easily definable immortality, in heaven or hell, is not held by the Spiritualist. The spirit has in fact many stages and evolutions to proceed and progress through before it reaches spiritual maturity. He related his personal reactions when he first spoke to his dead father, 8 years after his death.
Elizabeth Kennedy asked that everyone realise that the purpose of communication was the proof of personal survival, and it must imply that we must change our attitudes to many of the material problems of today.
In concluding Errol Pike asked Ron Gibbs if his belief was merely wishful thinking (a question that could be more accurately levelled at any other religion). Ron replied that life after death has been proved by contact, by direct voice. He owns a letter written in his father’s handwriting some years after his father died. Nobody was holding the pen at the time. Sheer weight of evidence has proved to him over the years that life after death is certain – and he was a sceptic and disbeliever when he first looked at what Spiritualists were doing and saying.
Errol Pike’s handling of the programme was a joy to all Spiritualists listening. So many programmes both here and in the U.K., no doubt elsewhere too, have been ruined by hosts who have a preconceived, ill advised, view of Spiritualism. Radio New Zealand did an excellent job on this historic occasion.
Source: The New Zealand Spiritualist July-December 1976