Although
no longer studied much these days, cross correspondences were used
predominantly between 1901 and 1932 as a way to test and validate the
powers of mediums who were being studied by psychical researchers
of the time. Although largely forgotten now, these
compelling experiments may have actually offered worthwhile proof
of paranormal powers. The correspondences were made up of
information that was purportedly delivered to mediums by discarnate
entities while the mediums were either in a trance state or through
automatic writing.
There were three types of Cross Correspondences: simple,
complex and ideal. In simple correspondences, two or
more mediums produced the same word, words, phrases or similar phrases
that were connected or related. In complex cross correspondences,
messages are indirect and must be deciphered. Ideal
correspondences involved messages that were incomplete and which had to
be put together like a puzzle. Obviously, this opened these types
of the messages to criticism however, there remains no real
logical explanation for how these messages could occur. Some
psychical researchers believed they provided strong evidence in support
of survival after death but others believed that the mediums
obtained the information from their own unconsciousness, from each
other or from other living persons using telepathy or clairvoyance.
Cross Correspondences were studied intently for years and the most
important communicators were the founders of the Society for
Psychical Research (SPR), all of whom were interested
in the question of survival after death. They
included Frederic W.H. Myers, Edmund Gurney,
and Henry Sidgwick. Of the three men, Myers was most
interested in proving that spirits survive after physical death and
stated that the influence of science on modern thought might be
continued after death, and that the dead would know what constituted
good evidence of survival and how the living might go about
discovering this evidence. He believed that producing this
evidence would require a group effort on the part of several
spirits rather than just by contact with one ethereal individual.
Myers died in 1901 but the first cross correspondences were produced by
several mediums prior to his death. The messages were simple, showing
similarities among the words spoken by mediums in trances and also by
their automatic writings. The mediums were organized to be engaged in
sittings at the same time, but in separate locations from one another.
Eventually, the SPR would accumulate some 3,000 scripts.
After Myers' death, cross correspondences became more frequent and
much more complicated. The complex and ideal cross correspondences in
many of the cases that came along over the next three decades seemed to
show an intelligent purpose behind the masses of fragments and symbolic
communications. The messages were always unintelligible to the
individual mediums involved and only made sense after they were
analyzed and compared. Clues to links between messages were found in
classical literature, poetry, events that had occurred to the dead
while living and even their interests while still alive. Sometimes, the
discovery of these obscure clues proved difficult and years were
sometimes spent making sense of the communications. By 1918, the
various mediums and investigators working through the SPR concluded
that the cross correspondences formed a large, linked network.
Perhaps the most notable and convincing case for the validity of cross
correspondences came from what was dubbed the "Palm Sunday Case". This
unique case spanned more than 30 years and takes its name from the
death of one of the communicators, Mary Catherine Lyttleton, known as
May, who was born in 1850. As a vivacious and beautiful young woman,
she attracted the interest of Arthur James Balfour, also from a
prestigious family, at their first meeting in 1870. They eventually
fell in love and in 1875, Balfour told her of his intentions to propose
marriage. Unfortunately though, after this meeting, he never saw her
again. Lyttleton fell ill from typhus fever and died on 21st March 1875
- Palm Sunday.
The first apparent communications in the Palm Sunday case occurred
after the death of Frederic Myers. A short time after, Margaret
Verrall, a friend of Myers and a classical lecturer at Newnham College,
began receiving communications that seemed to come from Myers. They
were veiled in symbolic references and laced with Latin and Greek terms
and classical material.
In 1903, automatic writing began to come through to Alice Kipling
Fleming, sister of Rudyard Kipling, and to Helen Verrall, Margaret
Verrall's daughter, who was married to psychical researcher W.H.
Salter. In 1980, Winifred Coombe-Tennant (later Willett) began to
receive automatic writing scripts, also purportedly from Myers. She was
related by marriage to Myers' wife. And while these ladies were the
principal receivers of the material, a few messages were received by
other individuals as well. All of the scripts were like those received
by Margaret Verrall and were fragmentary and filled with obscure and
classical references. All of them had mediumistic abilities of varying
degrees but none of them knew the story of the Balfour-Lyttleton
romance that had been cut short by death. Winifred Willett's scripts
were later determined to have provided "introductory material" to what
would emerge later during trances.
HELEN VERRALL
aka : MRS. W. H. SALTER
MRS. ALICE KIPLING-FLEMING
aka : MRS. HOLLAND
MRS. WILLETT
aka : MRS. WINIFRED MARGARET COOMBE-TENNANT
Alice Kipling Fleming's first script inscribed a purported message from
Myers that contained the words "Ah starry hope that didst arrive / But
to be overcast." The lines were from Edgar Allan Poe's "To One in
Paradise". Investigators would later find significance in the
references to stars and hope and in the allusion to the moon - the
light that overshadows the starry hope in Poe's poem. On the 4th December
Alice, who was living in India at the time, received another message
and this one contained quotations in which the word "hope" appeared
twice.
Four of the mediums directly involved in the Palm Sunday case : Alice Kipling Fleming, Margaret Verrall, Helen Verrall
and Leonora Piper
MRS. LEONORA PIPER
On January 16, 1907, thousands of miles away, the American medium
Leonora Piper was in England conducting a séance for the SPR. While she
was in a trance state, she was asked to give some sign when a cross
correspondence was being attempted and one of the investigators
suggested a triangle within a circle. A message attributed to Myers,
suggested a "star" instead. Another "star" message came to Margaret
Verrall a short time later and this theme was repeated in many of the
communications that followed. On the 3rd February Helen Verrall also
received a script that contained a number of drawings, including a star
and a crescent moon, and were accompanied by an admonition that read:
"The crescent moon, remember that and the star".
On the 11th February the spirit communications were back with Leonora Piper
and Myers wanted to make clear his knowledge of the messages given to
the other mediums. Through Piper, he discussed an earlier message given
to Margaret Verrall: "I referred to Hope and Browning," the script
through Piper asserted. "I also said star... look out for Hope, Star
and Browning." On the 17th February the Browning theme resurfaced in
messages received by Helen Verrall. The spirit drew a star (through
automatic writing) and then wrote: "That was the sign she will
understand when she sees it.... no arts avail.... and a star above it
all.... rats everywhere in Hamelin town...." The "Hamelin Town" Myers was
apparently referring to the Browning poem about the Pied Piper of
Hamelin. The reference made have also been a pun on the medium Leonora
Piper's name. (During life, Myers loved puns and anagrams and the early
cross correspondences are filled with them).
The scripts were analyzed by the SPR and it became apparent over a
period of years that they were being produced by a group of discarnate
beings were producing them. Some sense could be made by piecing them
all together, yet the overall meaning and purpose of the messages
remained a puzzle. A committee of investigators was formed to delve
into the matter and included Gerald William Balfour (Arthur's younger
brother); John George Piddington; Alice Johnson; Sir Oliver Lodge; and
Eleanor Milfred Balfour Sidgwick. Their research seemed to reveal that
the apparent purpose of the earlier communications was to announcing
the continuing personalities of Mary Lyttleton and Francis Balfour, one
of Arthur's brothers who had been killed in the Alps in 1882. In
addition to Myers, Balfour and Lyttleton, other spirits allegedly
included Henry Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney, both friends of Myers and
founders of the SPR.
All of the messages that came through though seemed to be directed at
Arthur Balfour, even though this was not immediately realized. Many of
the symbolic references had personal meaning only to him and concerned
Lyttleton and the circumstances surrounding her death. In the messages,
Mary was referred to as the "palm maiden" and Arthur, the "faithful
knight". Lyttleton was also identified by mentions of cockleshells or
scallop shells, apparently in reference to the nursery rhyme, Mary,
Mary Quite Contrary. The use of the symbols was apparently the
preference for the spirits, who would not explain why. To make matters
more frustrating, they were not in any hurry to reveal much of anything
either - until Arthur Balfour got involved in the case.
At this point, around 1910, the case began to change. Alice Kipling
Fleming stopped receiving messages and in 1911, Willett's mediumship
changed dramatically. Initially, Gurney seemed to be in control and
then he was succeeded by Francis Balfour. In a short time, she seemed
to be able to communicate directly to the various entities, without
assistance from a control, to remain aware of what she said during a
trance and to recall details of the séance afterward. That same year,
she met Arthur Balfour for the first time and shaking his hands, she
stated that she suddenly felt "very queer". Within months, the case
took a dramatic turn and Lyttleton began to communicate directly
through Willett during the medium's trance states. It became clear that
the purpose behind all of the communications were from her efforts to
reach Balfour and to tell him how much she loved him.
When given this information, Balfour at first refused to believe it,
despite his desire to believe in survival after death. By this time, he
was 64 years old and 37 years had passed since Mary had died. He was
stunned at the messages he was given and eventually agreed to sit with
Willett while she tried to receive messages. Like the automatic writing
scripts though, the information that came was cryptic and often
indirect but started to make more sense as it was interpreted with the
information that was known about Mary Lyttleton. The trance sessions
became the focus of the case although Helen Verrall Salter and Margaret
Verrall continued to receive messages via automatic writing until
Margaret's death in 1916.
As the years passed, Balfour eventually accepted the idea that Mary was
still communicating with him, although he never sought out a sitting on
his own or volunteered to comment on anything that came out of the
séances. It was not until late in life, when his health deteriorated,
did the messages visibly excite him. In 1926, Balfour contracted
pneumonia and his health began an irreversible decline. During one
sitting that year, he saw the apparition of a young woman with thick,
beautiful hair appear to him. She communicated to Balfour that he was
never alone, that her spirit was always with him and that she was
"absolutely alive, and herself unchanged" on the other side.
In October 1929, six months before Balfour died, Mary communicated
that
she was finished with trying to provide evidence of after-death
survival and was now only interested in the companionship of
Balfour. She told the medium to "tell him that he gives me
joy", which made
Balfour quite happy. Friends later reported that spiritually, he
seemed
renewed, although his body continued to deteriorate. On the
19th March 1930,
he died and his death brought the compelling case to a close.
What do we make of it though? Despite the dramatic and romantic nature
of the case and the fact that the mediums involved received material
that they had no personal knowledge of, the final analysis revealed
nothing that was not known to someone who was still among the living.
For this reason, the possibility that the case amounted to nothing more
than clairvoyance could not be ruled out. The participants certainly
believed that they were communicating with spirits but there was no
actual proof of this. Some of the material that did come about come
have come from the minds of the mediums. I believe that it could be
especially telling that most of the references that had to be decoded
were classical in nature - since Margaret Verrall was a classical
lecturer and familiar with Greek and Latin.
However, the messages do seem to reveal the work of a network of
personalities and it was certainly the first case of its kind in the
history of psychical research. There seemed to be a purpose to it and
the symbols did seem to point to the "Palm Sunday" communications of
Mary Lyttleton.
Can love survive death? If this case is authentic, it would apparently
seem so. Mary devoted years to trying to communicate with Balfour and
her family later speculated that perhaps she never realized how much
she loved him until after death - when it was too late. We can only
hope that perhaps their love was realized again when he too reached the
other side.
After the conclusion of the Palm Sunday case, interest waned in cross
correspondences and they fell out of fashion by the late 1930's. They
have not been the subject of much study since, despite the fact the
details of the Palm Sunday case were not released until 1960, long
after the deaths of all of the participants.
Proof that such messages were from the same spirits could be deduced by
cross references that could be found inside the various, independent
messages. Usually these references were not clear and direct, but
needed to be deciphered and put together like in a puzzle. Obviously
this procedure opened the experiment to serious criticism; however,
many at the SPR believed that absolute proof in support of survival
after death had been obtained.
Since Cross Correspondences have long ago been abandoned by psychic
researchers and no longer studied, one might wonder what Salter had put
in his papers, what was so important that it had to remain secret for
ninety years after the end of the original experiments.
The catalogue obtained by Rinaldi specified that in the deposit there
were 6,438 pages of seance transcripts and analysis of such
transcripts; 4,446 printed pages of further analysis and comments; a
few other thousands pages of manuscripts, diaries, notes, indexes and
letters all related to the Cross Correspondences experiments and the
manuscript of Salter's Reminiscences of the Society for Psychical
Research, written in 1955/56.
It was quite a lot of material to go through, even for the most
dedicated historian. However, this is exactly what Rinaldi set up to
do, requesting time and again copies of material from Trinity College.
THE TROUBLE WITH HENRY
It was in a second bundle of photocopies he received, however, that
Rinaldi found something far more interesting. It appears that one of
the main reasons for not divulging the content of the documents was to
avoid any risk of compromising "the Plan."
The Plan? What Plan? Well, Salter had hinted to it here and there in
his published writings, but had never explained it properly. It turns
out that the "spirits" of Myers, Gurney, and Sidgwick had communicated
through Mrs. Willett (a pseudonym for Winifred Margaret Coombe-Tennant)
that they had devised a plan to bring a "New World Order" on earth. A
Messiah would have been born and he would have brought peace and
justice to the world.
In one of the papers from Salter's deposit it is said that the spirits
"asked Mrs. Willett to bear another child." The woman had no desire or
intention of this kind, but after further requests of the spirits she
agreed. The spirits were quite happy with the decision and "maintained
that the event had long been planned, planned in the highest quarters,
to an extent which it was difficult to exaggerate, and that the child
would possess a remarkable personality - A genius, in fact, of high
order - and would prove to be the greatest of his psychic works, to
which all else had been leading up."
Nobody in the SPR had ever said anything about this for fear of
interfering with the plan, and when the last of the researchers of this
group died in 1952, only Salter remained. That's why he decided to
deposit the documents at Trinity College and give thirty more years for
the New World Order to develop. After that, he probably thought, there
was no reason for the documents to stay secret any longer, both in the
case of success or failure of the Plan.
The scheme of the entities was to give the Messiah birth through some
sort of "psychical genetics": the spirit of Francis Balfour, who in his
life had been a biologist, was to act as a supervisor for the event.
The new Messiah was destined to become what Augustus had been for the
Roman Empire.
The identity of this Messiah hasn't been publicly unveiled until now:
it was the last son of Mrs. Willett, born in 1913, who was given the
same name of the emperor he was hopefully going to become: Augustus.
His complete name was then Augustus Henry Serocold Coombe-Tennant, but
in his adult life he always referred to himself as Henry.
He studied at Cambridge and then entered the military and went to war.
He was captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in a German camp. After the
end of the war he entered the Secret Service and worked mainly in the
Middle East. After the death of his mother in 1956 he was probably
informed of his expected role and entered a spiritual crisis. He thus
asked the Secret Service to send him to Holland, were he lived for a
couple of years and then decided to become a Roman Catholic and was
ordained a Benedictine monk. In 1971 he wrote a brief note on the death
of professor C. D. Broad, a parapsychologist and one of his teachers at
Cambridge, in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. After
this date, nothing more was known of Henry for a long time.
The fact that Henry did not publicly manifest the "remarkable
personality" and genius that the spirits had planned for him did not
worry the SPR group. In 1956 Salter was a bit troubled by the delay and
wrote: "If Henry is really going to inaugurate a new Golden Age.... the
sooner he gets going on the better!" However a few years later, in
1964, when Henry had already retired as a monk in a monastery, Salter
still thought that the prophecy could become true and wrote that the
progress of the Plan "should be given a fair chance."
It would certainly have been interesting to discuss with Henry about
the whole Messiah story and to hear what he thought about it. Rinaldi
recently found that the Benedictine monastery where Henry had retired
was that of Downside, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Bath County. Remembering
that Susan Blackmore lived nearby, I gave her their phone number,
hoping that he was still alive. However, when she called she was told
that Henry had died in 1989.
