From the man who recently brought us a message from England's Stately Homo Quentin Crisp- Australian lawyer Victor Zammit who spends his time debunking the debunkers like weirdo magician James Randi and God denier Richard Dawkins, comes some new messages from the ether. (you can hear Quentin here)
This time it's the osteopath Stephen Ward who topped himself in the middle of the infamous Profumo scandal in 1963.
Stephen Ward
Ward introduced a British cabinet minister John Profumo MP from the ruling Conservative Party to a couple of good time gels Christine Keller and Mandy Rice Davies at a house party at Lord Astor's country estate Cliveden. When the scandal broke in the media it was discovered Keller was also knocking off a Russian Naval Attache. Resignations were demanded and Ward was charged with living of immoral earnings but committed suicide during his trial.
These days of course they would all be signed up for a reality programme on BBC Two.
Mandy & Christine
Zammit has uncovered a series of recorded seances where Stephen Ward describes his life on the other side, most recorded four months after his death. Apparently he was having trouble adjusting and wasn't yet hanging out with the "bigwigs'-whoever they are-but does get to wear comfy jumpers and loafers, ride horses, swim and well basically it's life as usual, hunting, fishing and shooting.
Sadly it's all rather disappointing. Ward says he could "tell you things about some people (still on earth) that would make your hair stand on end" but then doesn't. However he does reveal there's no coffee up there and Tutankhamen's discoverer Howard Carter is going to introduce him to the Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaton which is rather nice of him.
Stephen has also met Oscar Wilde who he says he could never have met if he hadn't, well kicked the bucket like Oscar!. Helpfully, he tells us Oscar has a marvelous wit ( apparently Oscar has also hit it off with George Bernard Shaw).
And the man who brought us the message from Quentin Crisp, medium David Thompson has come in for a bit of flack from a 'Sceptical Believer' Roy Stemmen on his Paranormal Review who sounds a bit peeved Crisp didn't sound much like his stage show. It's all turned into right barney which you can plow through on Stemmen's website..
If that doesn't whet your appetite we have uncovered a series of pod casts with Princess Diana recorded by Andrew Russell-Davis.
Unfortunately the Shuttle only made it through 2 messages as Diana really does witter on endlessly not saying much apart form how nice Wills and Harry are. Nothing about Dodi and not a word about Charles and Camilla.
Victor Zammit (left) is an Australian lawyer who is also a Spiritualist who attends regular seances and publishes a website AfterLife Evidence with news direct from the other side.
Zammit gets into regular biffo with the sceptic magician James Randi. Both offer million dollar prizes-Randi's for anyone who can produce definitive proof of an afterlife while Victor offers likewise for anyone who can prove there is no afterlife. No-one has yet claimed either prize.
Now Zammit has published an extraordinary story-a tale of a seance he recently attended where the Stately Homo Quentin Crisp speaks during the seance with some comforting words for gays & lesbians (and presumably trans genders) just in time for today's Equal Love march and demonstration in Sydney to support Same Sex Marriage.
In Quentin's own words:
"One of the reasons that I come through is to prove that even homosexuals live beyond death... It proves that the Catholics are speaking out from where the sun doesn't shine. Why, pray, would you not live beyond death because you're homosexual. There's lots of ignoramuses ..."
Quentin sounds slightly odd in this recording from the seance. But so would you if you passed away in Chorley-cum-Hardy in Manchester and woke in a suburban Sydney living room to find yourself chatting via a gentleman with a taped mouth and roped to a chair ..listen for yourself :
Perhaps pop impresario Simon Napier-Bell can put these words to music as he did with this 2008 recording (9 years after Crisp died)- Quentin's disco song Velvet Summer Nights:
Professional sceptic James Randi has issued a press release telling all another of the world's worst keep secrets. At 81 Randi has announced he is gay.
And because no-one picked it up, or at least commented on it before now,
therefore, according to Randi this proves that the paranormal
doesn't exist in any form. There is an interview with Randi here.
On Randi's website (where you can
apply for a special Randi visa card and donate $50 to Randi's
'non-profit' organisation) you can book for something called the
Amazing Meeting, a seminar to be held, suitably, in a casino in Las Vegas in July.
Featured guests include the world's most humourless man Richard
Dawkins , author of the world's most unreadable book The God Delusion,
and the crude and misogynistic illusionists Penn
& Teller amongst a host of others who will get together and discuss
all the things they don't believe in. Religiously. And do a lot of
magic tricks.
Some forums you may not want to miss: Feminist Scepticism – Rebecca Watson hosts an interactive panel
discussion with several activists and experts, covering topics such as
the lack of women at sceptical events and how feminism is compatible
with scepticism.
and one perhaps the former closeted Randi may be at : Scepticism
and Sexuality – Join JREF Challenge Coordinator Alison Smith and a
panel of guests on a journey through the myths of sex that will take
you through misconceptions about STDs, homosexuality, pregnancy, and
even basic anatomy.
If that doesn't grab your fancy try this Learn
to Juggle! – Do you want to learn to juggle? Join famous juggler
Michael Goudeau in a hands-on training session that will leave you
juggling like a pro.
The only person missing in the stellar
line-up is Christopher Hitchens. He'll be at the Sydney Writer's Festival
next month where he plans to tell us how he is going to
arrest Pope Benedict XVI.
Randi has kept some strange
bedfellows, so to speak, over the years. He's a fellow of the Committee
for Sceptical Inquiry, an assorted collection of academics and stage
illusionists along with a host of well known names like science fiction
master Isaac Asimov, Dawkins (has this man ever laughed in his life?) and
Carl Sagan (always suspected of being an Alien). You can even book for lunch with Dawkins and Randi. Or you could stick pins in your eyes. tSS once visited the
late writer Arthur C.Clarke in Sri Lanka when Randi had just departed
after staying with Clarke for 2 weeks. Clarke was considered a sceptic in public but in private
he said he didn't know what to believe in. Although he did say he was
glad to get rid of Randi who had landed on him and kept ogling the
house boys whose warm smiles he mistook for invitations.
The
local version, The Australian Septics boasts the superb writer Phillip
Adams as a member. Adams was head of the Australian Film
Corporation for decades and helped get off the ground the careers of
thespians like Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. He writes a
weekly column for Rupert Murdoch's personal favourite publication the Australian. Adams is also fascinated, in a strange schizophrenic
fashion, with ancient Egyptian culture and in particular their beliefs in the
afterlife. His house and country farm are packed with precious Egyptian
antiquities including a sarcophagus.
charming bender
But back to the old and
gay Randi . He's spent a lot of time attacking spoon bender Uri Geller
over the years. Geller sued Randi once and lost but as part of the
evidence introduced by Geller's lawyers were some phone tapes of some
young lads discussing with Randi various payments they were demanding
in a purported blackmail attempt .The boys claimed they had had sex with Randi. Randi says he was never charged, others say differently but it was in 1968 so who knows ?.
Lady Mary: 'stick it next to the Rodin'
tSS once attended a dinner at
Lady Mary Fairfax's house where Geller was a guest. Lady Mary asked her
butler to fetch the "best family silver" which Geller held aloft and
bent within seconds. He announced that people should check their
pockets and watches. Some watches had stopped, one guest who brought along a watch that had ceased ticking years ago found it had started again and 2 people found their house
keys twisted in strange shapes. If it was a trick we couldn't see it from 3 feet away. Lady Mary had the bent silver with the Fairfax crest, framed and hung next to her Rodin statue.
Later we buttonholed Geller
over drinks. As we pointed out who were the richest people in the
room at his request, we asked the extremely charming bender about his contact with his critic
Randi and he replied-"I'm so sick of that old queen-he never shuts up
about me".
Sorry Mr Randi-everyone's known for decades.It isn't news to us.
A funny little film : the late TV host Don Lane was a believer in
Spiritualism and put the famous British medium Doris Stokes on the
map-he throws a tantrum and tells James Randi to get off the set of his show.
