Extracts taken from Arthur Findlays' Book: "On the Edge of the Etheric"

"All his life he has been aware that supernormal occurrences took place in his immediate surroundings.  In his youth he was often disturbed by rappings and strange voices which he could not understand, and, during the past thirty years, these have developed into manifestations of  a general and varied nature.  His mediumship during these years has embraced trance, telekinesis, apports, direct voice, materialisation, clairvoyance and clairaudience.  These have varied in degree year by year, but his friends generally agree that fifteen years ago his mediumship was at its best."

When Sloan is in this state be speaks, but it would be more correct to say that his vocal organs vibrate the atmosphere, as no one can be with him long, while this is taking place, and think that his own personality is responsible for what is said.  The voice is different and the accent is different, and much of  what is said is quite outside his range of  knowledge.

My first introduction to John C. Sloan and the Direct Voice.  After the séance was over I asked him if  I could come back again, as I was anxious to know more about this subject.  'Certainly any time you care to come I shall pleased to see you,'  was his reply, and I turned to someone standing near and asked how much I should pay Mr. Sloan.  I have always remembered the reply.  'If you suggest such a thing as paying him he will be deeply offended;  he does this as a duty, not to make money out of  his mediumship.'  That did not impress me as the method adopted by a fraud. How could a working man earning a few pounds a week, I wondered, afford the time and the money to gather all the information I heard given to the people present that evening?  I was so impressed with my strange experience that I went home that night, and wrote till the small hours of  the next morning a careful account of  all that occurred at this my first seance, and this practice I have constantly adopted unless I had a stenographer present.

After twelve years' intimate experience of  Mr. John C. Sloan, and having sat with most of  the other leading mediums in this country and America, I can say with conviction that he is the best Trance, Direct Voice, Clairvoyant and Clairaudient medium with whom I have ever sat.  Though trance utterances never appeal to me as does the Direct Voice, yet his powers in this direction are remarkable.  His power of  hearing clairaudiently is extraordinary, especially his faculty of  getting the names and addresses of  those speaking, a task which most mediums find difficult to do.

If he had been willing to give his gifts to the public, he would have been known as one of this country's most famous mediums. Instead of this he has preferred having his friends to his house for an evening, once a week or so, and giving them the pleasure of meeting again those of their acquaintances who have passed beyond the veil. He is retiring to a degree and modest in the extreme. He cares nothing for the praise which so often comes at the end of such an evening. He always gives me the impression that he dislikes these séances and only holds them as a duty. I know that, if left to himself, he would never exercise his mediumistic faculties. His sense of duty and kindness of heart are the reasons why his friends have been so specially privileged.

Such is John C. Sloan, quixotic, yes;  stubborn, yes;  but only in what to him is a matter of  conscience.  No one need ask him for permission to be present at a séance and fear refusal;  no one need fear that he will be made to feel that a favour is being granted.  To Sloan, his duty is to give his gift to those who need it, but no money need be offered, as it would not be accepted.

It may be considered extraordinary that a man with such gifts should be so little known, but this is entirely due to his modesty and retiring disposition.  He hates publicity of  any kind;  he is so shy that on occasions, when I have asked him to give my own friends a sitting in the séance room at the offices of  the Glasgow Society for Psychical Research, he has asked me not to introduce him, just to let him come in, take his seat and then have the lights put out.  He is at his ease only when in his own house, his own friends gathered round him, and the séance takes the form of  a religious meeting, as to him it is a holy communion with the unseen.  His reward, he says, is in sending away some sorrowing one with the knowledge that life continues beyond this world, and that he has the means of  bringing together a bereaved mother or widow and a son or husband who has passed into the beyond.  To see their happiness, after he comes out of  trance at the end of a séance, is to him ample reward for all his trouble. 

Had Sloan been made in a different mould, he could have made an easy living by his gift and become known as one of our most famous mediums, but he has been content to live simply by the labour of  his hands, earning a few pounds a week.  He has brought up a large family in a small, but comfortable house in one of  the working class districts of  Glasgow, and often he has had a hard struggle to make ends meet.  He performs his daily work conscientiously and well, and his employer, who often was present at his meetings, considered him one of  his best and most trustworthy workmen.

Such is the man I met that evening, now over twelve years ago. I was then ushered into a small room, in which were gathered over a dozen people, and, after some preliminary conversation, we sat down in a circle, Sloan on the music stool beside a small harmonium.  The lights were put out, and the room was in complete darkness. After a preliminary prayer, Sloan turned round and played several hymns in which we all joined, but before the last was finished he became controlled by an entity who goes under the picturesque name of  'Whitefeather'.  He was usually addressed by us as  'Whitie',  a most amusing personality, who says that when on earth he was a Red Indian Chief, that he lived in the Rockies and consequently thinks our Scottish scenery tame in comparison.

During the sitting Sloan, so far as I could judge, remained seated on the stool. Voices of  all degrees of strength and culture spoke, from what appeared to be all parts of  the room, but it was difficult to say where they actually originated, as in the centre of  the circle were two megaphones, or trumpets, each about two and a half feet long, and from the metallic ring of  the voice it was evident that they were occasionally being used to speak through.  All the time the two trumpets, when not being used to speak through, went round the circle touching each one gently. Someone would be lightly touched on the point of  the nose, another on the top of the head, anther's hand would be touched, and so on - never a hard knock.  At request, any part of  the body would be touched without a mistake, without any fumbling, a clean, gentle touch, an impossible feat for any human being to do in pitch darkness, as I have proved on various occasions.  At times they moved so fast over our heads that they caused a swishing sound.  Lights, about the size of  half  crowns, of  a phosphorescent appearance, were moreover continually moving about the room at all angles.

I have notes of  thirty nine different séances with Sloan;  eighty three separate voices have spoken to me, or to personal friends I have brought with me, and two hundred and eighty two separate communications have been given to me or them.  One hundred and eighty of  these I class  'A1',  as it was impossible for the medium or any other person present to have known the facts then given.  One hundred I class as  'A2',  as by means of  the newspaper or reference books the medium could have found them out.  One item of  information given me I have not had the opportunity of  verifying, and only one I have found to be incorrect. This latter was right up to a point, but, as it was a message given me by a voice on behalf  of  another, it is possible it was wrongly delivered.  If  it had been delivered in a slightly altered form it would have been correct, so I think that this one exception need not invalidate in any way the other items I have had correctly given.

I look back on the night we first met, and feel that I was there in the position of  one who was looking for something which lack of  knowledge had prevented me from finding.  That night he gave me the chance of  discovering what I had been seeking, the proof  positive that we still live beyond this narrow vale called life, and that, when the end of  earth life comes, we not only enter a larger and fuller one but also join again those we once loved here.  For this, my life-long gratitude will be felt towards John C. Sloan.

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