More about Alec Harris

More Reports About Alec Harris

From a Two Worlds reporter. May 16, 1959:

"A university graduate, who has done four years in medical school, describes in a South African newspaper how he examined materialised spirit forms and even felt their heartbeats.

"He is Douglas Baker, B.A., of the University of Cape Town . . .
"Louie Harris recalled, as Baker stated, how he was brought to the seance by a Johannesburg doctor, a convinced Spiritualist who is one of their friends. Baker said that a score of other sitters were present when he witnessed these materialisations. ...
"Baker testified that the materialisations had 'weight', could be embraced, had pulse beats, breathed, had intelligence of their own and personalities.

"Several, he says, occupied the room at the same time. In three hours, thirty different forms materialised and disappeared. 'Some stayed as long as twenty minutes, answered questions and submitted to examination.' Their bones could be felt. They appeared normal in most ways except that they lacked colouring ...

"They were all draped in what Baker calls 'Arabian garments'".

This, however, was the usual ectoplasmic covering. He says their bare feet were visible.

"They did not object to my examination. I felt the pulse of several. Their hearts were beating at about seventy-two to the minute. There was hair on the backs of their hands. One old woman had hardened veins on the backs of her hands."

Psychic News, August 20, 1960, tells us:

"Hearing a medical man testify in a public lecture to the reality of materialisations
was too much for a retired colonel, who was heard to say: 'What rubbish! Charlatan! The man should be horse-whipped!'"

"The lecturer was Douglas Baker, a medical graduate, who edits 'Aquarius Rising', which spreads a knowledge of psychic and allied subjects in South Africa.

"Baker reminds his readers that he has been trained scientifically in the rationale of what a human body is composed of and how it works. As quickly as these forms solidified from 'nothingness', they disintegrated while they spoke. Here, he says, was a challenge to the physiology he was taught in medical schools, that the human skeleton takes 22 years to materialise more or less completely."

Donald Maclean gives the following account in Psychic News,
February 13, 1965:

"A small seance room in Johannesburg provided its sitters with one of the most instructive demonstrations of Survival ever produced. The curtains of the cabinet were drawn back to show Alee Harris in trance, with ectoplasm flowing from him.

"Out of this ectoplasm, on each side of him, a spirit child began to materialise. Watching the fascinating spectacle in the light of three red bulbs, sitters saw the children grow in size and then diminish, as ectoplasm flowed to and from the medium. . . .

"Equally startling at the Harris materialisation circle was a healing guide who walked into the circle with a bright green-yellow sphere shining in front of him. This was a 'healometer'.

The guide held sitters hands, and their potential healing power was measured by the intensity of the light.


This last and most interesting account was in Psychic News,
June 5, 1965: as told to one of the reporters.

"To see his guide materialise was 'the finest sight I have ever witnessed,' Douglas
Johnson, the famous medium, told me last week.

"It was the unforgettable climax of his South African tour. As he volunteered to Alec Harris at the end of a two-and-a-half-hourmaterialisation seance, 'It was worth coming all these thousands of miles for this evening alone.'

"For Johnson that memorable evening was the personal highlight of a triumphal three-month tour of South Africa's major cities. It fulfilled two long-cherished dreams: a sitting with the world-famed, Welsh-born medium, and the joy of shaking hands and talking face-to-face with his own Chinese guide, Chang.

"Not normally fond of superlatives, Johnson, fit and deeply sun-tanned, told me: "It was really terrific. There must have been at least a dozen materialisations. Some materialised twice."

" 'I sat in the centre of the circle, within three feet of the medium. He could be seen entranced in the cabinet as each spirit entity walked out of it to greet members of the circle in the small room well lit by red light. They held up their faces towards the light to allow us to see them clearly.. .."

" 'Then the curtains parted and there was the enormous figure of a North American Indian guide. He was magnificent."

"This guide materialised in Indian robes and full feathered headdress. Johnson could hardly believe his eyes as the majestic figure walked forward from the cabinet to shake hands and chat with members of the circle.
" 'It was really terrific,' he repeated, 'as one materialisation followed almost on the heels of the previous one.' He counted at least twelve full materialisations ranging in size from men of over six feet to a young Cockney boy. ...

"His first surprise came when a woman sitting next to him was kissed and held in the arms of her 'dead' doctor-husband. Then he turned to Johnson, greeted him with a 'How do you do?' shook hands and thanked him for having helped his wife when she had earlier sittings in England. Johnson told me, 'His handshake was warm and living."

"Another poignant episode occurred when the more than six-foot son of a Jewish couple materialised. He greeted, embracedand chatted to his parents. Later they told Johnson that this sonhad been killed in his early twenties in an accident in Switzerland. . . .

"Next came Johnson's supreme seance experience. After an announcement that there was 'somebody for the guest visitor from England', the cabinet curtains again parted.

" 'There was a small, smiling Chinese figure. He asked me to stand up and I held his hands. Then he talked to me, telling meI was doing very good work out there. He knew I was very tired.

He assured me he would not let me become ill, but would see I was able to finish the tour.'

"Johnson easily recognised his guide because he has clairvoyantly 'seen' Chang from time to time... .

"Johnson, who has attended materialisation sittings with other mediums, said his South African seance with Harris was quite the best.

"He awards South African sitters top marks for their keenness and sincerity. 'They are genuinely interested in Survival. . . ."

"He was also pleasantly surprised to find that interest was equally keen among the young people' a higher percentage than in England. Their numbers include medical students."

tmmw wrote:Hello Z,

Those are remarkable accounts of Allec Harris's mediumship and thank you for that. I have a few of questions though. First why did some of the materialized forms feel warm to the touch, as in Reg Britten's accounts, and others feel cold as with Sir Shane Leslie's accounts? Were there any other observations of materializations during his or others seances that are non-consistent?

My other question was asked by Sir Shane Leslie “ ‘Only one question remained unanswered—were they the actual spirits of departed men and women or were they manufactured by the fantastic power of the subconscious utilising a principle we know nothing about?’

“ ‘There seems no sure way of determining which. The evidence they gave was very impressive. One of them knew details of my life to which no one in the room could have had access, but it was still possible that these details originated in my own sub-conscious mind. . . .’”

Although he was given validation through the mediums demilitarization, I still wonder about Leslie's question concerning the "fantastic power of the subconscious".

Thanks again Z,
Lynn