Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 7, 6/16 by Estelle Roberts

I opened the meeting with a flat denial of Red Cloud’s “vindication” rumour. Red Cloud, I reminded my audience, was a spiritual teacher and unconcerned with my material affairs, however distasteful they may be to me. In saying this, however, I was not entirely right. At this meeting Red Cloud delivered one of his lectures, speaking, as always, through me after I had been entranced.

The trance address lasted some thirty minutes and when it was over he turned briefly to the subject of my recent sufferings. Speaking of the mental stress through which I had just passed, he thanked all those present for “the love and sympathy shown to our little instrument during her hour of trial.”

For hundred’s of years witchcraft was the subject of dire punishment according to English law. The story is told of King James I sailing to meet his bride, Ann of Denmark, in 1589. The sea was rough and His Majesty was very seasick. The King believed firmly in demonology and declared that his discomfort was brought about by evil spirits invoked by witches working in league with his enemies.

Determined to outlaw any recurrence of such misfortune, he set about the Passing of an Act making witchcraft a punishable offense. By 1735, however, public opinion in the efficacy of witchcraft had become considerably modified so that a new Act was drafted changing the offense to “pretending to conjure up spirits.”

In 1824 the Vagrancy Act became the law of the land. This was designed to protect gullible people from “rogues and vagabonds” like itinerant gypsies who told fortunes. Although the Vagrancy and Witchcraft Acts became law before modern Spiritualism began, they were successfully used to prosecute mediums.

Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister, spoke strongly against this practice when, in the midst of the war, the Witchcraft Act was invoked to prosecute a medium who was imprisoned.