HUNTER SELKIRK - “A GREAT CLAIRVOYANT”

Admin has been able to reinstate this piece because the wife of a deceased Spiritulist gave me this wonderful book.
HUNTER SELKIRK - “A GREAT CLAIRVOYANT” by Harry Emerson (this is an extract from Chapter 19 of Listen my son)

I have not attended many of these meetings, but in each one where I have been present wonderful evidence has been given to people who were complete strangers to the medium. So accurate were the descriptions and so convincing was the evidence produced that the recipients at times literally gasped.

I have no record of my own of these meetings and I would not attempt to tell you of them from memory, but I have some newspaper cuttings describing some of the meetings I have attended. Here is an account of one meeting, from the “Two Worlds” of October 14, 1938, headed “A Great Clairvoyant”:

“One of the best displays of evidential clairvoyance and clairaudience that I have witnessed for a long time was given by Mr. Hunter Selkirk at West Stanley last week. The West Stanley Church, which is doing useful work in a busy mining area of Durham, held its largest propaganda meeting when over 500 people were present.

“Mr. Hunter Selkirk, of Craghead, is a collier, a man in the prime of life, a fine example of muscular manhood, and I particularly liked the naturalness with which he did his work.

“There was no desire to create a great impression, no attempt to pose before his audience, no theatrical display. He was a working man who talked on the platform as he would talk amongst a company of friends. He was evidently under a strong measure of spirit control, for here and there the broken English of his inspirer obtruded itself. In every case he indicated the individual for whom his description was intended. In the course 45 minutes he gave evidence to 18 different people, and his descriptions were accompanied by names and particulars which made identity sure.

“Mr. Selkirk started by saying: ‘There’s a friend here upon the platform who says she is Mrs Coxon and that she comes for Mr and Mrs Jack, who are in the audience. She also brings a friend by the name of Rutherford.’
Speaking to a lady at the side of Mrs Jack he said: ‘Your Auntie is here and your husband, too; he wants you to stop fretting, to buck up and catch the sunshine.’

There’s a young girl here who wants her mother; it is for you, madam,” indicating a lady in the audience. “She says she’s your daughter, Janie. She tells me that the person sitting next to you is her Granny; her Grandad comes with her and brings his love. They also bring a woman here who wants her husband; she says she’s Mrs. Cook. Her husband is not here hut you know him, and she wants you to convey the message to him. ‘Tell him not to bother to take flowers to my grave every week, but to put the flowers before my photograph in the home.’

“Pointing to another lady he said: ‘There’s a man here who says he is William Young, and that he passed away at Bumopfield. He brings a bad condition of the chest, which had much to do with his passing. He is brought by Jack and Robert, both of whom belong to you. They also bring with them Mrs Curry and Mr Croft. Mr Croft evidently belonged to some society or something, for when his name is mentioned he wants to shout “present.” They tell me you have visited the hospital today. You have no need to worry; the patient will recover.’

“Speaking to another lady and gentleman, he said: ‘With you there’s Mrs Miller and Jane Ann Oliver; she died at Blackhill, and you are to tell Tom that she’s been. They tell me that you are both investigators who are just starting your interest in the subject. You are both going to be successful.

“‘Then there’s Mrs Walton who passed away near where you live. She wants to speak to Tom. She was an elderly lady, over 70, and she says that she passed away in the Old Miners’ Home. There’s someone with her who says his name is Thomas, and he tells me to tell you that William has arrived safely.’

“Speaking to another lady, he said: ‘There’s a young girl for you, called Ivy, closely related to you. She’s about 18 or 19 and had long golden hair. She must have passed away some time ago, as she evidently died before permanent waves were in vogue.

“To another member of the audience, Mr Selkirk described an old lady of 89 years of age whose name was Nellie Blatchford. There was also a Mrs Barde there, who said she wanted her son. Mrs Bartle said that she wished she could stay a week and tell her son all he wanted to know, but at any rate she could assure him that ‘Spiritualism is the key to the house of perfect happiness.’ The son was advised to keep working and to dig hard and he would presently get all his difficulties and doubts explained.

“There was not a single point made by Mr. Selkirk in connection with any of the descriptions which was not clearly acknowledged as correct.

“The meeting at West Stanley created a tremendous impression on an interested audience, and the evidence produced by this fine clairvoyant left no doubts in the minds of his hearers.”

I think you will agree that this is outstanding for a man who knows nothing of what he is going to say when he mounts the platform before an audience of 500 people.

Just think of the many traps he could fall into did he attempt to foist upon these people something of his own manufacture. All these people are not Spiritualists. Many are there to see if it is really true. Some who attend, hoping it is not true, get a shock sometimes when they get evidence that they cannot deny from their dead friends.

I know of an instance where a man denied everything the medium gave him concerning his wife who had passed on. The medium gave her name and told the man that his wife was asking him to forgive her for something she had done. On being asked if he recognised the description, he replied that he did not know the woman.

Afterwards it was found that everything the medium had told him was correct, but he refused to recognise his wife because he would never forgive her for what she had done to him. It was hardly fair to the medium and certainly not very kind to his wife, who had pleaded for forgiveness from beyond the grave.

I remember a meeting, held in a large hall capable of accommodating 6oo people, where many latecomers had to be provided with forms on the stair-head landing. In one case a name was claimed by a person in the hall, but the medium said it was not for her, it was for someone of the same name on the landing to whom he wished to speak. This proved to be correct.

At a meeting held in the City Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in April 1944, over 2,000 people attended. This meeting was addressed by Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding and Hunter Selkirk was the demonstrator.

Many evidential messages were given by the medium, from young men of the Services who had recently passed on and who gave their names, all of which were claimed and recognised.

One outstanding example was a message from a young airman to a lady in the audience. He asked the lady to tell his wife that he had been, and to prove his identity he gave his wife’s christian name, which was the extremely uncommon name of Ethne. The lady acknowledged that this was correct. This could not be guesswork.

I have never heard of the name before, and I know that Hunter Selkirk had never seen the lady before; also, it is very unlikely that he would be able to see her clearly enough to be able to identify her again. So again it seems that the most intelligent explanation is that the young airman was not dead, but alive and active enough to come to that meeting and take advantage of what must have seemed to him a heaven-sent opportunity to let his wife know that he still loved her.

At a meeting held in our own church at Craghead, a lady, unknown to Hunter Selkirk, was given a message from her husband. She acknowledged the name given, but the husband, to make certain that she would know that it was indeed he, gave the number, containing seven figures, of a silver watch that had belonged to him and which the lady had with her in her handbag.

Four hundred people heard that message given. This lady came to the meeting to see if there was anything in Spiritualism. Like many more she found all she needed.

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Certainly beats "I have a female energy here whose name starts with a B, or maybe D or V, does anyone recognise it"

"obiwan"]Certainly beats "I have a female energy here whose name starts with a B, or maybe D or V, does anyone recognise it"

Doesn't it just.

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obiwan wrote:Certainly beats "I have a female energy here whose name starts with a B, or maybe D or V, does anyone recognise it"

Lol Quiet, especially when they address the whole room and the message vampires hook on to take the message for themselves...... however bad it is. Seen it done where the real recipients stayed silent and the medium dug a real hole, when I directed them to the right recipient ( I could see the person trying to communicate standig beside their loved one and could not understand why on earth the "medium" could not see them) suddenly the message made much more sense

The book, Listen My Son: An Epistle to My Soldier Son, Bearing an Account of the Mediumship of Hunter Selkirk is available to buy from Craghead Spiritualist Church.