| Subject: ALFRED VOUT PETERS 1867 - 1934 |
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Maryse
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Date Posted: 19:07:24 03/16/08 Sun
I share this document because I have a séance transcript with the same phenomena (I have to find it) where the spirit visitor was already incarnated on this Earth in the body of a baby. This spirit was visiting the séance and was discussing with the sitters as an adult well known spirit, while his "new baby body was sleeping in his cradle". And at on moment of the discussion, he told to the sitters with great sense of humour :
"I have to leave you now, because it is time for "my mum" to feed me...". Each time his baby body was asleep, he was coming to visit the spiritist group, and this took place for a very long time.
I am a great fan of Paul J. Gaunt, even if I have never met him. He is making such a good job of documentation in pioneers' history !
If you have not yet subscribed for his free newsletter, here an article about Alfred VOUT PETERS found in the Volume 4, Nr2 - February 2008 issue.
ALFRED VOUT PETERS
1867 - 1934
Alfred Vout Peters was credited for outstanding trance mediumship, clairvoyance and psychometry, and he was the first spiritualist medium in 1903 to demonstrate ‘Public Clairvoyance’ in Holland. He traveled extensively, promoting Spiritualism in most European countries until his death on Saturday, March 31st 1934 at Longton, Staffordshire, aged 67.
His first séance and the emergence of his trance mediumship took place on Sunday 17th March 1895; his public mediumship was to begin three years later in 1898 with his guide/control Moonstone.
However we shall see below that his beginnings in the psychic field began much earlier.
Whilst giving a lecture at the ‘British College of Psychic Science’ on Wednesday 15th March 1922 under the chairmanship of Mrs. Hewat McKenzie, Peters, on speaking on his beginnings, spoke of:-
« ……. extraordinary powers of hearing, seeing and “sensing” as a child, which were quite normal to him, but which he speedily found were foreign to others. These powers seemed to leave him for a time, but later returned in the form of clairvoyance which manifested first during attendance at a Friends' meeting, and was often repeated. Only later did he touch what was called Spiritualism, and connected his own experiences with it. »
Later in the same lecture [ 2] he made this interesting remark: -
"Many questions followed, one extremely interesting one being in what country Mr. Peters thought that he obtained the best results. The answer was Scotland, where it was comparatively easy both for himself and other clairvoyants to get first and second names in public meetings. The reason for this Mr. Peters could not give, although various theories have been suggested. Denmark and Russia also gave excellent conditions."
At some point before 1923, Vout Peters became a member of the Theosophical Society.
In 1898, while in London, Peters was controlled by another medium who was in Paris; this occurrence happening on five separate occasions! He also witnessed evidence of this with the physical medium Cecil Husk, whereby a friend of Peters materialised at a Husk séance but was still very much alive. These experiences may well have directed Peters towards Theosophy!
He was also strongly featured with the medium Mrs. Leonard in Sir Oliver J. Lodge’s famous book « Raymond or Life and Death » first published 2nd November 1916. It is here on September 27th 1915, that Peters first sat anonymously [3 ] with Lady Lodge and it was on this first sitting the famous ‘Group Photograph’ [4 ] came to light.
Later in 1927 Peters participated in another historic event ‘Joanna Southcott’s Box’5 as managed by Harry Price. Peters was one of the psychometrists (others included Mrs Cannock, Mrs. Eileen Garrett and Mrs Cantlon) who tried to discern its contents before the contents were known. On the morning of May 5th 1927 at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, the box was X-rayed and the results were published in the London Times May 6th 1927.
The sealed box was opened by the ‘National Laboratory of Psychical Research’6 on Monday July 11th 1927, at 8.00pm. This story is very well covered in the ‘Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research’ (JASPR) Volume XXI 1927. I shall only print what is said in relation to Peters’ psychometric results published in the JASPR page 704:-
"Mr. Vout Peters did much better (referring to the previous psychometrist Florence Kingstone: Psypioneer). His impressions of “bound books” (Right); “3 different kinds of writings” (annotations and notes in various books); “long piece of poetry” (Ovid); “curious drawings” (in Riders Merlin); “torn paper” (there was a crumpled up fly leaf torn from one of the books); “legible writings” (Right); “the box lining” (in the lid: right); “the name Jehovah” (in the Discourses); “1812 is mentioned” (on the coins); “writing blue or red” (Merlin is printed throughout in black and red ); and MS. 8vo. Size” (several of the books are octavo size)."
Suprisingly, there is little readily available historic information pertaining to Alfred Vout Peters. The Psychic News article 2nd July 1932 by Maurice Barbanell, printed below, was to be my principal reference to Alfred Vout Peters. However I have now used this as a template and have further researched some of the points featured by Barbanell.
Much of this will be continued into the March issue.
MEDIUM WHO WAS CONTROLLED BY A LIVING BEING
HAS THE GIFT OF TONGUES
Alfred Vout Peters is our most widely travelled medium. He is also one of the old school. He is sixty-three years old and has been in the Spiritualist movement for thirty-seven years.
When he was quite a child, he was conscious of the presence of two other children, and he used to remark to his mother, “I suppose they are God's angels who come and play with me after you leave me?’’
His mother, obviously a very sensible woman, allowed him to think they were angels, and thus there was in his mind no sense of fear. The word "ghost” had no terrors for him, for it was never mentioned to him.
Peters' troubles started when other people heard of his “curious ideas,” and he was nicknamed “Fossil.” He began to dream dreams that came true, but he kept this to himself, as he knew he would be laughed at. Then he had visions and heard voices other than his own. Later he was drawn towards the Society of Friends (Quakers), but he found that the visions increased in intensity.
He went to his sister-in-law's house on a Sunday early in 1895 for a table-sitting. He took his place at the table and waited to hear the raps and knocks he had been led to expect.
Suddenly he felt as if he was being drawn up towards the ceiling, and he had to bend his head down to look at the people below. He was then thrown violently back from his chair, and while he was sprawling on the floor he heard voices coming through his mouth that were not his own.
At that time he knew nothing of Spiritualism, but he continued to sit at home until his people became frightened. Then he went to a woman to “learn” about mediumship. He soon discovered that he was doing all the work while she was taking all the money, so he decided to take up mediumship under his own name.
It was in 1898 that he actually launched out on his own, and since then he has given seances in all parts of Europe. His guide is Moonstone, a Hindoo, who has materialised at the sittings of Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner), Husk, and Williams.
SPREADING THE GOSPEL
Moonstone has told Peters practically nothing about himself. He discourages personal questions. Peters has a picture of him, but he regards this as sacred, and will not let it out of his sight. The thought that it should be reproduced in the Psychic News and that thousands of people should look at it is positively distasteful to him – it is almost sacrilege.
Peters started a propaganda tour lasting ten years in 1903, and he visited every country in Europe with the exception of Spain, Portugal, and the Balkan States. He has also been to Iceland and Africa.
He was the first medium to give public clairvoyance in Holland, Belgium, Germany and several other countries, and while he was in Denmark he twice addressed audiences of over two thousand people. He concluded this tour just prior to the War, and after the Armistice had been declared he again travelled to Europe, spreading the teaching of Spiritualism and giving demonstrations of clairvoyance. He has visited Holland every year since, and is making another journey to that country this week-end.
Peters has written extensively for newspapers in England and in other countries, and was for some time the English correspondent of “Het Toekomsty Leven” (meaning "The Future Life ") of Denmark. He was also the English representative at several Spiritualist congresses on the Continent.
LODGE AND THE MEDIUM
He figures largely in Sir Oliver Lodge's book, “Raymond, which is mostly written round the seances of Mrs. Osborne Leonard and Peters, and his work has been quoted in various other books.
Peters has the strange experience of being controlled by a living person.
In 1899 he conducted a circle at his house in Brompton. There were three lady sitters, and one of them was herself a well-known medium. She went to Paris, but before going she promised the other sitters that she would try to control Peters. In Paris she went into trance, and Peters went into trance at Brompton. The spirit of this woman medium controlled Peters and gave evidential messages. Peters was controlled by her on five separate occasions.
Another similar experience, some time later, was rather embarrassing to a young woman sitter. While Peters was at Leicester, the daughter of another medium joined the circle, and Moonstone, who was in control, promised that, as no spirit had come through for her, he would make a test.
She then heard the voice of her fiancé, who was alive and then on the West Coast of Africa, calling her by a pet name. He also told her that he had had her name tattooed on his left arm.
Princess Karadja, of Sweden was a frequent sitter of Peters early in the present century. She has since published a volume of Spiritualistic phenomena in which she gives accounts of her sittings with Peters and Husk.
She got into touch with Peters through an advertisement in a psychic newspaper that had been left behind in a restaurant. She went, a stranger, to Peters’ house for a sitting, and during the seance a message was given her in Swedish. The evidential details given her included the fact the husband's coffin had caught fire while it was lying in state in the castle of Bovigny. Peters went to Sweden in 1901, and she had several sittings with him.
When he first went to Russia, in 1906, he gave what was probably the first public clairvoyance in that country. The special permission of the police had first to be obtained – with the aid of a little bribery – and after that he gave clairvoyance to a number of groups.
SAVING HER FORTUNE
At one meeting the Spirit told a woman, through Peters, that she should put her papers in order, for her husband would not be much longer on the earth, and if he died suddenly she would be a poor woman. She replied that she had not lived with her husband for many years, and, anyway, their estates were separate.
The warning was repeated, however and the woman did have her papers examined. A fortnight later the woman's husband died, and it was found that the woman's estate was involved with that of her husband. Had she not had her papers put in order she would have been a poor woman, as was predicted.
On another occasion Peters had finished his usual clairvoyance when he felt impelled to tell a man to be careful of the following January 14, about two months off.
The man asked the reason, and Peters replied that he could see that date written over his head, in black. Peters later learned that the man committed suicide on 14th January at Monte Carlo, after he had lost heavily at gambling.
Peters opened a campaign with Miss Stead in 1925. They, by the way, are the only two surviving members of Julia’s Bureau, which was instituted by W. T. Stead and is now known as the Stead Bureau. The campaign was started in a remarkable way.
Miss Stead received a message from her father, telling her to go out into the highways and the byways and spread the teaching. She was to take Peters with her, and they were to concentrate on those places where there was not a Spiritualist society in existence. Miss Stead was at that time in London, and Peters was in Edinburgh.
Twice while he was in Edinburgh and once while he was in Glasgow Peters had similar messages from Stead. When they compared notes later, they found that the messages had come through almost on the same day. Peters knew Stead very well, and sat with him a great deal.
REVIVING AN OLD TRADE
Peters was once the means of reviving the manufacture of old gold tissue. He went to Canterbury and saw two women who were searching for the secret.
The information that Moonstone was able to give them enabled them to present to Queen Alexandra the first piece of gold tissue that had been made since the eighteenth century.
Through psychometry, Peters was able to trace an important paper, on which depended the result of a law suit.
A Dr. Hansen once came over from Copenhagen with some letters from a man named George Larsen to be psychometrised. Neither Peters nor Dr. Hansen knew what the letters contained, but when the doctor returned to Copenhagen he ascertained that all that Peters had said was correct.
__________________________________
Due to space, this current issue only allows me to pick up on Princess Karadja, of Sweden. There is little in historic works that gives an early detailed progression of Modern Spiritualism in this county, so the two following articles gives us some insight to the work and affect of Alfred Vout Peters’ work.
It will be remembered also that Sweden was the birthplace of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772).
Below is taken from Light October 27th 1900 - page 513
WORKS BY THE PRINCESS KARADJA
The literature of Spiritualism has just been enriched by translation into German of three little books by the princess Mary Karadja, a well-known Swedish writer who is a convert to Spiritualism.
In her introduction to ‘Spiritistic Phenomena and Spiritualistic Communications,’ the Princess tells us that the first spiritualistic séance at which she was ever present, took place in Stockholm, on April 2nd, 1899, with a clairvoyant medium. Up to that time she had never taken any interest in occult subjects; but she was so impressed by what then occurred that she determined, when on a visit to London the same spring, to devote her whole time to this interesting study. She goes on to say that she had no acquaintance among Spiritualists in London and it was only though seeing an advertisement in ‘LIGHT’ that she resolved tend a séance with the well-known clairvoyant and psychometrist, Alfred Peters. The description of this first séance, which was a turning point in her life, is extremely interesting. She tells us that she went to him as a perfect stranger and found herself one of ten persons, all of whom were utterly unknown to her, as she was to them, and says that, as she speaks English like a native, Mr. Peters was not even acquainted with her nationality. What occurred at this séance is – I think – worth giving in her own words. Premising that no one spoke to her and that she took her place without uttering a word, she writes:-
« After the medium had psychometrised several persons with good results he turned to me and said: “I see a spirit close to you” (there followed a description which I recognised the minutest details as that of my deceased husband). “I hear him call, Mary! Mary! His name is John; he wishes to say something to you.” Thereupon followed a long communication of a private nature, concerning facts about which no one except my late husband could possibly have knowledge. Among other things, he reminded me of a fire which broke out at Castle Bovigny while his body was in the coffin. He was conscious of seeing his coffin burning and myself falling fainting beside it. This remarkable and terrible event was, of course, unknown to anyone present, nor was I thinking of it at the time. After a short pause the medium continued: “I see a female figure near you,” which he described minutely. I said I had never known such a person. Mr. Peters said: “She gives her name as Bremer.” I said he must be mistaken for I had never known anyone of that name. After a long pause and with great effort, he added, « Fred-rika Bre-mer. » [7] To my astonishment, the voice of the medium changed and he said slowly in Swedish, “Hjälp den svenska kvinnan” (help the Swedish lady). »
Princess Karadja seems to have attended many of Mr. Peters' séances, and she partly attributes the unusual success she met with to the fact that she discovered that she herself possessed strong medial powers. With another medium she likewise on several occasions saw the materialised face of her husband, who was also able to speak to her, and she gives the names and addresses of persons who were present, among whom was Dr. George Wyld. She seems to have highly enjoyed her visit to London and writes:
« I had the great happiness during my stay in London of making the acquaintance of many eminent men of science, among whom were Sir William Crookes, Mr. Myers, Mr. Sinnett, Mr. Douglas Murray and Dr. George Wyld, from whom I obtained much information. »
The Princess's stay in London was terminated rather abruptly by a command from her husband – on the seventh occasion of his appearing to her (June 18th, 1899) – that she should immediately leave London and proceed to the Chapel of Schloss Bovigny. She accordingly set out on her travels on the following day, without any idea of why she was required to do so. What occurred on her arrival at Schloss Bovigny a few days after, I will tell later on.
The remainder of this little book, as well as another called ‘The Gospel of Hope,’ is principally devoted to the facts and philosophy of Spiritualism. Princess Karadja, though very earnest and even enthusiastic in her endeavours to proclaim what she justly calls ‘the evangel of hope,' writes with great moderation and without exaggeration; her diction is clear, and her style marked by great good sense; and Sweden may be congratulated on possessing among her daughters a lady of such rare gifts and talents, who is not afraid of devoting them to an unpopular cause. She says but little of her own medial gifts, but it appears that she is not only impressionably endowed and possessed of the power of automatic writing, but she has likewise that of automatic drawing, a rare gift and one requiring great physical power. Two of her ‘spirit’ drawings appear as frontispieces to ‘Spiritistic Phenomena’ and ‘The Gospel of Hope.’ The first represents the soul body immediately after the decease of the physical, with the eyes closed, still unconscious, and the cord connecting it with the mortal body not yet dissevered. The second is a symbolical drawing, executed in the presence of two Swedish ladies – whose names are given – on January 16th, 1900; an explanation of this was given in writing later on and appears opposite it. Both drawings are beautifully executed.
The third of these little books, ‘Into the Light,’ is an inspirational poem, translated into German by Alfred Wocher von Trauchburg from the Swedish original, and the remarkable manner of its production may be best given in the authoress's own words from the preface. I will just say that I feel scarcely competent
to judge of its merits as a poem, being, as it is, a translation from one foreign language into another; but it appears to me to be full of beauties, while the interest is so sustained I could not lay it down till I had read the last line. Princess Karadja writes:-
« When I was in London last spring I received a series of spiritistic communications from my deceased husband… In the last one he requested me to leave London immediately in order to receive a communication from the spirit world in the chapel of Schloss Bovigny. I obeyed, and on St. John's Eve I was told to provide myself there with paper and writing materials. My hand then automatically drew a sun and wrote the words “Mot Ljuset” (Into the Light); and then was written “In memoria oeterna erit justus.” I have never studied Latin and am ignorant if this is a quotation.
What followed was not written automatically but through inspiration. When I took the pen in my hand I had no idea of what was going to be written, in spite of which I wrote hundreds of verses without once pausing for a word. It seemed to me at the time as though the temperature perceptibly became lower and I was freezing in spite of the oppressive heat of summer. My soul was wrapt and all my senses sharpened to an extraordinary degree. I seemed to perceive the whispers of spirits so clearly, it was as though I was being dictated to. »
The poem itself is addressed to the medium in the first person by the supposed spirit of one who says his name has long been forgotten on earth. In his earth life he was a materialist, and wholly given up to selfish and sensual pleasures; when he had exhausted all that earth could give him and was tired of life, he thought to ensure eternal rest, or annihilation, by putting an end to it, which he did by committing suicide by shooting himself. The horror be experienced when, after a short period of unconsciousness, he awoke to find that, although his body lay dead before him weltering in the blood he himself had shed, he himself was as much alive as ever, but in total darkness and despair, is very graphically depicted, as are the events which follow, through which he was finally led ‘into the Light.’ The poem contains many instructive passages, and throughout the gospel of Hope is proclaimed, in that it sets forth that there is hope for the greatest sinner who ever lived when he can once be brought to send forth a cry of penitence and a prayer, however feeble and despairing, to that Heavenly Father whom in life he had ignored and denied.
The German editions of these three little books are entitled respectively ‘Spiritistische Phænomene,’ ‘Das Evangelium der Hoffnung,’ and ‘Zum Licht.’ They are very daintily got up, are printed in large clear type on very fine paper, and published by Max Spohr at Leipzig, at the price of one mark and a half each. M. T.[8]
Printed below is by Alfred Vout Peters, published in LIGHT March 29th 1902- page 149: -
SPIRITUALISM IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN
_________________
« As many of my friends have asked me to write about my experiences in Scandinavia, permit me to say that Spiritualism in Sweden and Norway is of long standing, and some of the best English and American mediums have visited both countries. I met many people who knew Mr. Eglinton, Dr. Slade, Mrs. Fay, and last, but not least, Madame d'Esperance, who is loved and honoured for her self-sacrificing work on the Continent. But, although the climate and conditions generally are good, yet in the whole of Norway and Sweden, so far as I am aware, there is not a clairvoyant who can give a test. I think I am correct in saying that I was the first clairvoyant who visited Sweden to work for Spiritualism.
Some of the readers of ‘LIGHT,’ I find, are under the impression that my reception in Stockholm was not a good one, because, in her kindly letter in `LIGHT,' of March 15th, the Princess Karadja pointed out some of the difficulties [9] I had to contend with; but I am pleased to say that every one I met in Sweden and Norway was most kind and sympathetic, and both Spiritualists and non-Spiritualists put themselves out of the way to make me happy and comfortable, and the only rudeness I received was from an Englishman. The representatives of the Press of Stockholm interviewed me and were very much kinder to me than those of London papers; but I regret that I cannot say the same regarding their treatment of the Princess Karadja, whose recent nervous breakdown was due to her great efforts to correct and counteract the misstatements and misrepresentations of the newspapers all over Sweden. There is, however, another side to the picture. The people are tired of the State Church; at the same time materialism does not satisfy them; and Princess Karadja's book, ‘Towards the Light,’ which has been translated into well-nigh every other language but English, has made many a heart hungry for the truths of Spiritualism. The Spiritualists meet at each other's houses and hold seances at which they get a little automatic writing, and read and translate ‘LIGHT’ (which, by the way, is light to the struggling ones there), and in Norway there are many Spiritualists who are the converts of a gentleman who was brought to Spiritualism in South America. There is a spiritualist paper edited by Mr. Torstenton, of Skien, and the faithful few struggle on, endeavouring to help their countrymen to realise that [9] there is no death. The good work of Mr. Matthews Fidler is not forgotten; and how truly his memory is loved both in Sweden and Norway eternity alone can reveal! I feel sure that the readers of ‘LIGHT’ will extend their deep sympathy to the Princess Karadja in the sufferings which have resulted from her noble endeavours to spread the knowledge of truth in her country, against the opposition of clergy, doctors, college professors, and an unchivalrous public Press, and wish her a speedy restoration to health and strength.
As an illustration of the eagerness of the people to know the truth, I may mention that I met a lady in Christiania who had travelled two hundred miles to attend the séance during the rigour of a Norwegian winter – and those only who have experienced it can understand what that means. At Stockholm, too, there was an old peasant woman who came twenty-five miles over an ice-bound sea to Princess Karadja, to get proof of her son's death (and entrance into life), for he had left home in a, boat and was never heard of again. Spiritualism has brought light to many, and ‘the tears have thereby been wiped from many eyes.’ May God bless the workers and brave upholders of truth in the lovely lands of Sweden and Norway, is the wish of
ALFRED VOUT PETERS. »
To be continued in the next issue…………..
[2]LIGHT March 25, 1922 page 187)
[3] The anonymous sitting did not take place at the Lodge residence, but at Mrs. Kennedy’s house who kept a written record of the s Séance for Lodge.
[4] See: - The New York Times Magazine January 14th 1917. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B00E4D6163AE433A25757C1A9679C946696D6CF&oref=slogin
See also: -
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:32t3Vvlg59QJ:people.clarkson.edu/~ekatz/scientists/lodge.html+raymond+or+life+and+death.+sir+oliver+lodge&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=uk
[5] Harry Price website http://www.harryprice.co.uk/Famous%20Cases/southcottbyharryprice.htm
[6] Opened at Church House, Westminster, under the auspices of the ‘National Laboratory of Psychical Research’.
[7] This was a well-known Swedish authoress and philanthropist, who flourished in the early part of the century and whose works, translated into English, I was very fond of in my youth, but which are rarely met with now. M.T.
[8] I do not know who M. T. was, at this time Light was edited by E. Dawson Rogers – Assisted by a staff of able contributors.
A significant part of Mary Karadja letter: - Your English readers cannot form any conception of the intense hatred which the progress of our Cause has provoked in certain classes of this country. Some people (who had obtained admission under false pretences) came to the seances with the deliberate purpose of preventing success, and afterwards published in the papers distorted reports of the phenomena we obtained.
One man of science, for instance, conceived the neat little trick of giving the medium, to psychometrise, a piece of paper enclosed in four envelopes, which he had got from different people, and which consequently was impregnated with uncongenial fluids. In another case a piece of waste paper was handed to the medium, enclosed in a mourning envelope fastened with a black seal, by a sad-faced gentleman, who afterwards begged Mr. Peters to psychometrise a locket, containing ‘hair of a dear relative.’ Later on the public were informed that the hair had been taken from the tail of a dog. (taken from Mr. Peters in Sweden by Princess Karadja Light 1902)
__________________________________
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Paul J. Gaunt
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