December 17th 2011

Witnesses: Chris. Jon. Jerry. Lee. Richard. Lucy. Attia. Rich B. Margaret (these having sat with Warren previously). Rachel. Steve. Julie (these three had not sat with Warren previously, although they have sat in the lodge setting with other Physical mediums). Sehall (he had never sat in a seance previously).

Warren was restrained.  On this occasion two heavy duty cable ties were slid through holes drilled in the wooden chair and secured around his wrists.  A cotton cord was used to tie his legs together.  A gag was placed within his mouth and secured behind his head.  A pillow case then covered his head.  the cabinet curtains were then closed.  Blackout conditions applied throughout the seance, unless red light requested by the spirit team.

The music was this evening directed away from Chris, who cannot hear the spirit team speaking when it is directed beside and towards her.  Unfortunately the music volume then affected the sensitive digital recording device.  These things are sent to try us!
The evening began quietly, with little to be heard for the first couple of pieces of music.  Then a sudden very loud crash broke the silence, which caused Rachael to react as might be expected!

Further knocks and other sounds followed.  Luminous toy balls slid across the room and the trumpet rose and swayed before knocking the ceiling. A tambourine was then manipulated by the spirit team in time with a Christmas carol, giving the impression of sleigh bells.
Tom then comes through:

Yellow Feather moves the small table that had been placed beside Jon and proceeds to lift it to ceiling height before bashing it around and apparently breaking it! 
Note: After the seance the table was found neatly folded within the cabinet.
 

Tom plays the harmonica.  Luther flattens the seance trumpet!  Luther speaks to Lee.

Luthor speaks to Lucy and calls Cleona (sitting in  the house).
 

The plaque is introduced and Sehall is asked to feel Luthers hand:

The CD player is manipulated by Tom (Richard holds Christine's hands as she is the person seated beside the music player)
 

Yellow Feather performs a dance and then he and Tom discuss offering an apport.
NOTE: After the seance this was found to be as described.  Jon verifies that no marble was there before the seance (it is in a very prominant position) and that neither Warren nor Lucy, nor anyone else, went into the downstairs loo after he did. 

Sir W sings along to Reggae and Louis follows!
 

Sir W chats with Rachael...

Brenda, Warren's mother, speaks to Lucy.  A second spirit visitor came through for Lucy and was recognised also.
 

Sitters have been asked by the spirit team to sit quietly to chat amongst themselves:

The chair that Warren had been secured within was examined by Richard and found to be empty.  The two cable ties however, remained secured through the holes in the chair arms and were unbroken.

At close of seance Warren was found secured in the same chair with one cable tie securing his right wrist (which had to be cut to be removed).  The remaining cable tie was fastened round the cotton cord which was tied in knots around his neck with one end up on the cabinet curtain rail.

NOTE:  During this seance Yellow Feather spoke with Lucy and together they discussed the progress of filming.  Other things were mentioned within the seance that, at the request of the spirit team, have not been published.

As always we thank Warren and the spirit team for all that they have achieved.

FEEDBACK

Saturday 17th December 2011
An evening as a guest sitter at Bristol Spirit Lodge
Warren caylor

A Warren Caylor Séance : Cold, sweaty terror and tearful joy all in one night. A fantastic evening!

I resolved to keep an open mind about the evening. I have total trust in the people of BSL and believe them to be dedicated and honest in their work with spirit. I have sat with them on several occasions and Lynne, a regular sitter has been a friend of mine for a few years now. On the other hand I do not know Warren Caylor and have a media induced mistrust of mediums that charge for their work. Although we all have to make a living. With this in mind I’ve chosen to list my experiences and offer an opinion based on facts as to the reality of the events experienced.

NOISES:

Firstly, the loud bangs..and I mean LOUD bangs that emanated from the cabinet –

The whole of the side of the lodge vibrated when these noises were produced at the beginning of the séance. It sounded as if a lump hammer were being swung with violent force at the walls and ceiling. Could Warren have been doing this? I had personally checked his cable ties were secure around his wrists and through the chair arms and that Jon had tied the cord around his feet using a reef knot. I had checked behind the chair in the cabinet and watched Sehall, another visiting sitter, search Warren whilst in the lodge. I am quite sure that we would have seen a tool such as lump hammer secreted on his person. So, was he using the chair? Maybe, but how did he do this whilst being tied into it? Unless he has the skills of Houdini, in which case he would be making more money as an escapologist.

Secondly, the stamping of the feet of the ‘spirits’.

Many of the ‘spirits’ present made quite a din as they stomped about the wooden floor of the lodge. Luther sounded as if he was wearing hob nailed boots. If Warren was doing this himself, consciously to deceive us, or unknowingly whilst in trance he would not only need to be loose from the ties but also have acquired different sorts of footwear. Warren was wearing only his socks whilst tied into the chair and no other footwear was in the cabinet. By the end of the night Warren’s and Jon’s socks were on the other side of the room.

VOICES:

There were many voices. Most noticeably those of Winston Churchill and Louis Armstrong. Chosen I presume because of their distinctive and well known qualities. Easy to emulate? Perhaps so, my nephew can do both particularly well but I doubt whether many people, even impersonators could sustain the voices and retain a speech pattern particular to those characters for any length of time and in unrehearsed conversation.

‘Winston’ spoke to me. Our conversation is recorded and afterwards I played the blog clip back and then listened to an actual recording of one of Winston Churchill’s speeches on ‘You Tube’. To my untrained ear I would say that the voices are identical. The similarity, in fact, made my hair stand on end to witness.

Louis Armstrong also sounded much like he does on recordings and sang along with the CD to Bony M and then he sang Wonderful World which made my eyes water as I do love that song!

The voices moved around the room. No two voices spoke at the same time and it could be argued that this was because Warren Caylor cannot speak with two voices. It could be that they had only formed one voice box to use or it could be that as they have to work through one medium that the natural laws apply in spirit as they do here.

Luther’s voice was exceptionally loud and deep and Yellow Feather’s voice was soft and ancient. Tom sounded like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings! My precioussss.

PERSONALITIES:

‘Winston Churchill’ whether ‘actual’or not was very much a gentleman. It was this fact that made his presence seem very real. He had noticed that I was feeling very worried. Of course I had made no pretence prior to entering the lodge that I felt like I was waiting to see the dentist. It’s easy to guess I would have been feeling afraid. I was in fact terrified. The blackout was total - the noises were so loud and the illuminated objects (that I’ll go into later) were whizzing around the room whilst ‘spirit’ hands were reaching out from the darkness and scaring unsuspecting sitters. It was the thought of an unseen hand touching mine in the blackout that was causing me some concern. ..and somehow, Winston, or whoever he was, had seen this or guessed it.

He gently asked if he could place his hand on me to which I consented (my curiosity overcoming any fear). He made it known he was aware that I was worried which helped me a great deal. Fake or not, I felt better and when he held my hand in both his and then touched my head, I felt his compassion somehow easing my concerns and I was no longer afraid. I don’t know if this was because of a healing spirit energy or just that someone had bothered to be kind and help me.

He gave me a couple of personal messages. One that there would be a good change in my life and it was ‘about time’ ...and the other, that a spirit called Ann sits with me in my bathroom! which caused much hilarity. Also that I would meet a ‘Gregory’.  He also told me I was a ‘joyful soul’. Nice messages but no content which would make me sit up and think ‘wow! how did he know that?’ but then Winston Churchill wasn’t (or isn’t) the sort of man to do things for effect.

And then there’s Yellow Feather. If he wasn’t real then I’ve fallen in love with a man that doesn’t exist. (But then most women have done that at some point! Although they are normally still alive..) He was funny, kind, wise and performed a very enjoyable song and dance (heard by loud stamping) which to me sounded like an authentic Native American man singing an authentic Native American song and wouldn’t be easy to fake with such difficult twists in the tuning of the melody, voice vibrato and lyrics in a different language.

Again, there was such compassion when Yellow Feather asked Lee, whose energy had been used, Lucy, who was pregnant and had become a little emotional and me, who was clearly peeing my pants – if we were OK?

It would be difficult to fake the presence of such characters but not impossible. To do this Warren would have to be an actor of exceptional talent.

HANDS

Winston’s hands felt very real. So real that I still have trouble believing they were spirit hands. The hands felt about the same size as Warren’s so it was hard to be convinced. Other sitters, however, experienced the touches of huge hands and small hands that could not have been Warren’s. Something that did make the experience convincing though, was the fact that in a complete blackout you cannot see your own hand in front of your face. How then did ‘Winston’, whose voice and footfall travelled across the room to me, reach out a hand and touch mine that was on my lap with no fumbles or tripping or patting about to find me? Also I did not feel any legs against mine as he placed his hands on my head. I did not feel him breathing or the warmth of him next to me as you would a man of Warren’s size and I could still see the luminous balls on the floor opposite whilst he was apparently stood in front of me with his voice above me and his hands on my head and shoulders. I have no explanation for this.

Other hands were seen  moving around the room as they rested on a luminous plaque. Yellow Feather invited us to gently touch his fingers, which I did and it felt like any earthly male hand.

ICY CHILL

At one point in the evening an icy cold blast rushed past me and by the exclamations of the others in the circle the wind had circled us all starting with Christine and ending with Jon at the other end. The room had a sealed door and no windows and the chill had apparently started from the cabinet end of the room and finished there. The wind was accompanied by a musty, sweaty smell. True to the humour that had pervaded the evening, Luther, laughing, told us it was his fart!

How did Warren Caylor do that? Did he have a silent wind machine tucked away in his jumper? Was Lucy, his girlfriend, not pregnant at all? The ‘bump’ was actually a wind machine, a lump hammer and hob nailed boots stuffed up her dress that she passed to Warren on the opposite side of the room (who was tied into a chair) by moving silently across the pitch black shed with boxes, toys and instruments all over the floor and where 12 other people lined the walls?

I have felt sudden drops of temperature before during circles but never to such a dramatic extreme. It was like a small hurricane moving around us.

LUCY’S VISITORS

Lucy had a visit from Warren’s mother. Her voice could be heard, thinly at first but growing in strength as she spoke, to Lucy about her son. Following the lady came a man who was eager to communicate with Lucy which caused her to become slightly upset. The emotion in her voice was evident during the visit from both Warren’s mother and then the man who only stayed briefly. What possible gain would there be for either Warren or Lucy to make personal  matters  part of a public display? At the end of the séance, as Tom (a spirit) was leaving and closing the evening, Lucy asked quickly if the man who came after Warren’s mother had been who she thought he was. Tom confirmed this was so. It was no big demonstration but was something that obviously meant a great deal to Lucy. The emotion seemed genuine to me and I would not say this was staged.

MOVING OBJECTS

Tom, was asked by Christine the circle leader to undertake an apport. This is the movement by spirit of an object from one place to another. Or the introduction into a room of an item that was not previously there. Tom gave us a commentary, through Yellow Feather who remained in the lodge, of his movement through walls, into Christine’s downstairs toilet where he left a marble in an ornament over the toilet. We all rushed in at the end of the séance to check and were pleased to note that there was indeed a marble there. I wondered if Warren or Lucy had put it there prior to leaving the house but Jon, a regular and trusted medium and reliable seance witness at the lodge, has verified that he was the last person to use the toilet and it wasn’t there then.

Objects had been placed on the floor of the lodge for the spirit people to play with. Many of which were noticed to be tied to things or placed on top of the cabinet when the light was put on at the end.

A trumpet decorated with luminous tape danced furiously around the room, hit the ceiling and crashed to the floor. Similarly a luminous tambourine was shaken and danced about before being gently offered to Jon by hovering over his lap. A small table was levitated to the roof. I wondered if it was Warren moving them about, either with an extendable fishing rod (that was hidden up Lucy's jumper along with the shoes, lump hammer and wind machine) or by dancing about with the objects. Both notions, I quickly realised were unlikely as the room was pitch black and there were objects all over the floor. Warren is no gymnast. He is a sizable chap and I do not feel he could skip about in a dark room without huffing and puffing and falling over. I have a sizeable chap of my own at home and you can hear him breathing and creaking from the other side of the house when he is just sitting at a computer, let alone tangoing with a trumpet in the dark.

Also, how did he expertly not clunk anybody on the head with the objects and knew exactly where Jon was to offer him the tambourine?

Jonathan Creek might know the answer but I am at a loss.

DEMATERIALISATION

Yellow feather asked us if we would like them to ‘dematerialise’ Warren. We all mumbled something inaudible, I think because no one wanted to feel responsible for something which, frankly, sounds horrific. He explained that using the same technique that they use to enable themselves to move through solid matter they would make Warren disappear. When they had apparently done this, Richard volunteered to check out the chair. It was dark, as explained before, and Richard did not make such a good job of getting to and from the other side of the room as the spirits/Warren.

Richard told us that the chair was empty and then he sat in the chair as instructed by Yellow Feather. Yellow Feather was talking to Richard the whole time explaining what he was going to do and Richard told us that the chair was rocking on its legs. For some reason this bit is a little foggy in my memory, which is annoying as it’s an important part of any evidence. Maybe they had to use our energy to do the materialisation or maybe I’d just gone into shock….
NOTE:  Richard found the two cable ties, that had secured Warren's wrists, to be intact and still threaded through the drilled holes within the wooden chair. Chris Di Nucci

All in all it was a very enjoyable seance that I can’t wait to witness again. I’d like to think that I did actually meet Winston Churchill. If Warren is faking this then he is a clever man – a gymnast, an impersonator, an actor, an illusionist, an escapologist, a man who can see in the dark, a linguist and a ventriloquist. In that case he’ll be winning ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ next year for sure, which would be a lot less exhausting and far more lucrative.
Rachael

The Bristol Spirit Lodge was founded with the intention to support the development and demonstration of evidential Physical Mediumship.  Three developing mediums, with supporting circles are, at the time of this report, sitting regularly within the lodge each week.  Others are currently receiving support when further time allows.  Compatible and dedicated supporting sitters are always required.  No experience is necessary.  An open mind and genuine interest are essential requirements.