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Stainton Moses, William - Spirit Identity – THE MAN WHO WAS CRUSHED BY A STEAM ROLLER
Identifier
015716
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
So the communicating person was alive, greatly distressed at the event and both the Baron and Stainton Moses picked up the high emotion. From the automatic writing, a medium had witnessed the event and it was this medium who was actually sending out the thoughts – not the dead person.
And I think that medium was Stainton-Moses himself. I think he knew of the event and it had shocked him. It also means he might have been practising deception.
But what is interesting is that the Baron picked up on Stainton-Moses’s thoughts and was far more accurate about the event than Moses was. He knew the medium was living.
A description of the experience
Spirit Identity – William Stainton Moses
From the Spiritualist March 27th 1874
On the evening of Saturday February 21st, a few friends met together at the house of Mrs Makdougall Gregory, 21 Green Street, Grosvenor Square.
The party numbered six in all and included the Baron du Potet and the Reverend Stainton –Moses……….. suddenly, in the middle of dinner, the Reverend-Stainton Moses surprised us by saying he felt a spirit standing near him between himself and the Baron – who sat on his right. Whether good or bad he could not tell, but the influence was by no means pleasant.
The spirit was also perceived by the Baron, to whom it conveyed the impression that it was in a state of great distress and that it was the spirit of a person who was then alive.
Nothing more was said at the time, but the medium continued to feel a disagreeable influence near him and spoke of it to me when dinner was over.
As soon as we reached the drawing room, he was impelled to sit down and write; ad when a pencil and paper had been brought, his hand was moved backwards and forwards with great rapidity and an object was roughly drawn on the paper which resembled a horse fastened to a kind of cart or truck. Several attempts were made to depict it more clearly, and then the following sentences were written
‘I killed myself – I killed myself today – Baker Street – medium passed’
Here the writing became unintelligible as [Stainton Moses] grew more and more agitated, until at length he rose from his seat in a state of trance and exclaimed in broken sentences:
‘Yes! Yes! Killed myself today, under a steam roller. Yes! Yes! Killed myself – blood, blood, blood’.
The control then ceased, but the medium felt the same unpleasant influence for some hours afterwards and could not entirely shake it off for several days.
In reference to the communication, I may state that [Stainton-Moses] had passed through Baker Street in the afternoon, but neither he nor anyone present was aware that a man had committed suicide there in the morning by throwing himself under a steam roller.
A brief notice of the occurrence appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette in the evening, but none of the party had seen that paper.
It is worth remarking that on the front of the steam roller which was used in Baker Steet a horse is represented in brass and this perhaps may serve to account for its appearance in the medium’s drawing, where we should certainly not expect to find it.