Evan John Powell

On a level with Miss Besinnet is Mr. Evan Powell, with the same variety but not always the same type of powers. Powell's luminous phenomena are equally good. His voice production is better. The author has heard the spirit voices as loud as those of ordinary human talk, and recalls one occasion when three of them were talking simultaneously, one to Lady Cowan, one to Sir James Marchant, and one to Sir


Robert McAlpine. Movements of objects are common in the Powell seances, and on one occasion a stand weighing 60 lb. was suspended for some time over the author's head. Evan Powell always insists upon being very securely tied during his seances, which is done, he claims, for his own protection, since he cannot be responsible for his own movements when he is in a trance. This throws an interesting sidelight upon the possible nature of some exposures. There is a good deal of evidence, not only that the medium may unconsciously, or under the influence of suggestion from the audience, put himself into a false position, but that evil forces which are either mischievous or are actively opposed to the good work done by Spiritualism, may obsess the entranced body and cause it to do suspicious things so as to discredit the medium. Some sensible remarks upon this subject, founded upon personal experience, have been made by Professor Haraldur Nielsson, of Iceland, when commenting upon a case where one of the circle committed a perfectly senseless fraud, and a spirit afterwards admitted that it was done by its agency and instigation.* On the whole, Evan Powell may be said to have the widest endowment of spiritual gifts of any medium at present in England. He preaches the doctrines of Spiritualism both in his own person and while under control, and he can in himself exhibit nearly the whole range of phenomena. It is a pity that his business as a coal merchant in Devonshire prevents his constant presence in London.

* PSYCHIC SCIENCE, July, 1925.

British physical medium of Paignton, South Devon. Powell was originally a coal miner and later a tradesman in Wales. Powell usually sat tied to a chair before a cabinet with drawn curtains. His chief control was "Black Hawk," a Native American. Movements of objects, psychic lights (see luminous phenomena), and direct voice phenomena were supposedly witnessed at his séances. He gave many sittings at the British College of Psychic Science.

"Black Hawk" claimed that a book had been published about him in the United States. A friend of Powell's commissioned a book agent to locate it and present it to the medium. The title was: Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk, dictated by himself (Boston, 1834). "Black Hawk" also maintained there was a memorial to him in Illinois, a fact subsequently proven wrong. For a discussion of Powell's mediumship, see Revue Métapsychique (1924, p. 326) and Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (vol. 44, p. 161).