Albert Best

Albert Best embraced his materialised wife and three children

I heard last week the fascinating psychic story of a medium who has held his fully-materialised “dead” wife and children in his arms and shaken hands with his guides.

He is the well-known non-professional Glasgow medium, Albert Best who, for 28 of his 53 years, has served Spiritualism with dedicated devotion.

The result is a well-deserved splendid reputation for his versatile mediumship.

Ever since his London debut at Acacia House, Acton, in 1968, I have tried without success to interview him for a profile article.

I finally tied down this most diffident medium to a lunch- hour appointment during his visit last week to the College of Psychic Studies.

Albert became aware of his psychic gifts at the age of nine. Several times he “saw” an elderly man’s spirit form around the house.

He told his grandmother, who reared Albert, that this strange visitor scared him. Now he realises she too must have been clairvoyant and recognised the entity.

During one “appearance” he heard her say: “Go away, father. You are frightening the boy.” So it was his great grandfather young Albert saw!

A psychic window-cleaner introduced the teenage potential medium to his local Spiritualist church.

He sat in a developing circle for five years, constantly fighting what was obviously impending trance. “It felt as though I had been chloroformed, but I always resisted losing consciousness.”

When he finally succumbed he was told his guide had spoken through him for over an hour.

Belfast-born, brought up a Protestant, Albert married a Roman Catholic local girl when he was19. Their three children included twins.

While he was serving abroad tragedy struck. His wife Rose and the children were killed in the second German air raid on Belfast.

Albert told me he went on a ‘mammoth bender” trying to forget his shattering bereavement. He could not face returning to his native Belfast.

As he had many friends there, Albert decided to settle in Glasgow. The double-Celt psychic, who reminds me of a benign gnome, has spent more time there than in his native Ireland. “I would not choose to live anywhere else,” he said.

In Ayr and Glasgow he experienced memorable physical phenomena at private home circles. The first was with Alec Martin of Ayr, who passed on several years ago.

Albert had the joy of holding in his arms the fully-materialised forms of Rose and his three children.

I thought it strange he has never contacted them through his own mediumship. “I don’t wish to,” said Albert.

His spirit guides have also materialised and shaken hands with him.

Albert showed me bullet scars in his neck and left arm resulting from an injury for which he has a small army disability pension. He also draws a Civil Service pension.

After watching Albert demonstrate first-class clairvoyance at Acacia House last Saturday, I deplore his reticence. He regards this gift as secondary to his healing for which he holds three weekly sessions in Glasgow.

One outstanding message was for Jim Webster of Goldsmith Avenue, Acton. It was the first time he had seen Albert. The medium asked if he knew a Wilson, giving a 72 Grange Road address.

Webster became emotional when Albert said this communicator always wore a flower in his buttonhole.

He told me later that his “dead” brother Wilson had lived at the address given and was never without a rose in his buttonhole.

Albert said correctly that the man sitting next to Webster was his son.

Geoffrey Webster, 27, told me it was his first visit to a Spiritualist meeting. He was deeply impressed by Albert’s clairvoyance.

The medium next got a connection with Holborn, and asked Webster if he was a boxer. “Who is Rafferty?” asked Albert. “Did he break your nose? “ Webster accepted this message as accurate.

He later showed me his broken nose, not immediately apparent, received in a boxing bout with Johnnie Rafferty at a Holhorn boxing match.

Israeli Meir Hed, 24, is working on a film project, a documentary on the London Spiritualist scene. His Dutch fiancée had a message from Albert at Acacia House.

Here are Albert’s answers to some of Hed’s questions: “I go through tortures before every demonstration. But once on the platform I become icy cool. I am not afraid of the ‘dead’ — only of Spiritualists!”

From "Psychic News" 1972.

Thanks Z

I was a near neighbour of Albert's in Mount Florida, Glasgow.
We often spoke of Spiritualist matters and his small house was festooned with photos of Albert with many 'famous' folk from many lands.
I remember an occasion he mentioned a trip to South Africa.
He said he was up very early one morning and decided to take a stroll in 'the bush' as he put it.
After about a mile he saw a Black man sitting at the side of the road, who beckoned to him. He told Albert that he had been waiting three days for him, which puzzled Albert no end as he had gone at fairly short notice.

A little further on, thery came to a 'straw hut' that the man was using as accommodation while he awaited his visitor. A fire was smouldering on the floor and after motioning him to sit, the Black man went into trance and to Albert's surprise and delight his entire family materialised in that wee straw house. 'I was completely overcome by it all - a most wonderful experience' he told me. 'And how it was known that I would be there at that time and just pick that track to walk along, I'll never know'.

We were discussing re-incarnation one day - I dont think he believed in it too deeply - and he mentioned that he had lost count of the number of times various ladies would confide that they were Cleopatra in a previous incarnation, yet surprisingly he had never met one who claimed to have been a lavatory attendant

Excellent article about an amazing and very humble medium. Albert Best is another deserving of research. If I get the time, perhaps it would be nice to pull together some information about Albert.

Once again Z, thanks for this and keep them coming!

All the best

Martin

hiorta wrote:I was a near neighbour of Albert's in Mount Florida, Glasgow.
We often spoke of Spiritualist matters and his small house was festooned with photos of Albert with many 'famous' folk from many lands.
I remember an occasion he mentioned a trip to South Africa.
He said he was up very early one morning and decided to take a stroll in 'the bush' as he put it.
After about a mile he saw a Black man sitting at the side of the road, who beckoned to him. He told Albert that he had been waiting three days for him, which puzzled Albert no end as he had gone at fairly short notice.

A little further on, thery came to a 'straw hut' that the man was using as accommodation while he awaited his visitor. A fire was smouldering on the floor and after motioning him to sit, the Black man went into trance and to Albert's surprise and delight his entire family materialised in that wee straw house. 'I was completely overcome by it all - a most wonderful experience' he told me. 'And how it was known that I would be there at that time and just pick that track to walk along, I'll never know'.

We were discussing re-incarnation one day - I dont think he believed in it too deeply - and he mentioned that he had lost count of the number of times various ladies would confide that they were Cleopatra in a previous incarnation, yet surprisingly he had never met one who claimed to have been a lavatory attendant

I was in South Africa attending a funeral in Johannesburg when I decided on a whim to fly down to Cape Town to visit some old friends. Walking along the beachfront at Muizenberg I bumped into none other than Albert Best!

What are you doing here? he said. We chatted and he told me he was due to give a demonstration of mediumship that evening and invited me along. It was up to his usual standard except that some of the Afrikaans-speaking members of the audience were baffled by his accent.

Lovely how this one came back and developed