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From Nothing so Strange - Arthur Ford

One day in1924 when I was in trance an invisible personality announced himself as Fletcher and said that hence- forth he would be my permanent assistant on the unseen plane. Just that simply our partnership began. Fletcher said he was able to work efficiently with me because he had the right energy pitch or frequency for establishing and maintaining contact. It was years before I had anything like a consistent notion of what he was talking about, but I was delighted that I was to have a dependable colleague who would appear whenever I went into trance and act as interlocutor between the invisible and visible visitors who came to talk together through my intermediary. Such a partner is commonly called a "control." Of course it was not I to whom Fletcher spoke directly; he announced himself to a friend of mine who was having the sitting-"Tell Ford that I am to be his control and that I go by the name of Fletcher." At the next sitting my friend asked him, for me, who he was and for what personal reason he had attached himself to me in this helpful manner. Fletcher then explained that he was one of the French Canadian boys who had lived across the river from my home in Fort Pierce. He wished to use his middle name, Fletcher, he said, in order to save his family possible embarrassment because they were Roman Catholics and had certain ideas of the hereafter which did not exactly fit with what he had found. They might even be disturbed, he said, to know that he had not found heaven to be inhabited exclusively by persons of his own faith; indeed, he himself had at first been very much surprised. He said further that after the family left Fort Pierce he had grown up in Canada, had enlisted in the World War and had been killed in action. He named his company and the place of his death; also he gave the address of his family.

 I wrote to the family, asking after various members, including this boy, but not mentioning of course that I had heard from him directly. One of the boys answered telling me of his brother's death, corroborating Fletcher's statement as to time and place. So I accepted Fletcher at his (invisible) face value. At times, however, I do see him and always as a young man. Sometimes when I am giving a public demonstration and am not actually in trance, his face appears vividly before me. We soon had a fine working partnership. When I wish to go into trance I lie down on a couch or lean back in a comfortable chair and breathe slowly and rhythmically until I feel an in-drawing of energy at the solar plexus. Then I focus my attention on Fletcher's face as I have come to know it, until gradually I feel as if his face presses into my own at which instant there is a sense of shock somewhat as if I were passing out. Then I lose consciousness, appearing to be asleep. My body is in a state of sleep and when I waken at the end of a session I feel as if I had had a good nap.