Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 14, 3/8 by Estelle Roberts

Among the various minor points that are deemed requisite for a good sitting is a gramophone record. A little tune from Rose Marie, played with a specially soft needle, has been found the best. The voices that manifest can thus be heard easily. After Red Cloud has greeted the sitters and conversed for a short time, he will exclaim, “Hold on!” This means that he is going to get someone else to speak through the trumpet.

Another voice is soon heard, usually calling a name. Sitters are warned before the séance not to give away evidence, so the voice is encouraged to give further particulars until recognition is possible by the friend or relative he or she has come for. Often, however, especially if they have manifested before, the voices require no such encouragement, and they greet their friends without delay.

The voices are of all kinds, ranging from the ones capable of a loud whisper and a few fragmentary phrases, to others full of tone and character and able to converse quite readily.
Now as to my personal experiences:

At some of the direct-voice circles various relatives manifested of whose existence, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the medium could not possibly have been aware, and in various little ways they have proved their identity to me.

At a trance sitting, a sister, deceased over twenty years ago, was brought to me by Red Cloud. She gave her full name and many other particulars, and referred to a living sister in a certain way that was quite peculiar to herself. She mentioned a book of hers that she said was in my possession, the existence of which I had no conscious knowledge. Coming home after the sitting I found the book as described after a long search.

My own belief in the actuality of the direct voice is founded not only on my own personal experiences, but on the cumulative evidence provided by the other sitters, often newcomers and strangers to everyone, including the medium, who come to the circle and with whom one afterwards compares notes.

Their relatives and friends manifest, often giving evidence of their identity in the most remarkable and particular way. I have listened to all sorts of voices – some speaking in the tone and manner of well-educated folk, and others who disregarded their aspirates and the rules of grammar. Others, again, possessed wellmarked Scots or Irish accents.

I have heard a Scots sitter swapping reminiscences of the war with his erstwhile comrades in the trenches, the comrade reminding him of “what happened to old Ginger, the man with the long neck” and “how they greased the General’s boots!” All this in broad Scots.