The Scole Experiment Session on 01 July 1996
Invisible, intelligent beings played a trumpet and rapped non-existent drum sticks in the presence of independent witness, Dr Hans Schaer.
LOCATION:
Finca of Dr Hans Schaer, Ibiza, Spain.
RESEARCHERS PRESENT:
Robin Foy, Sandra Foy, Alan Bennett, Diana Bennett, Dr Hans Schaer.
COMMUNICATORS INCLUDED:
Manu, Joseph, Mrs Emily Bradshaw, Anonymous Musicians.
EVIDENCE:
At the Ibiza finca of Swiss lawyer, Dr Hans Schaer, invisible, intelligent beings played his trumpet and rapped non-existent drum sticks.
DIARY EXTRACT
1996-07-01-DIARY:
Monday 1 July 1996 in Ibiza
Five sitters: the Scole Group plus Dr Hans Schaer
The second and last Ibiza sitting of this visit proved to be just as fascinating. The crystals had been left in exactly the same configuration on the central table and, once again, the four members of the Scole Group wore our luminous armbands secured with Velcro fastenings. The remaining Polaroid 35 mm Polachrome film (with twelve exposures) was put on the table in its lightproof container. Additionally, the remainder of the previous film and the two slides received were also placed on the table for the spirit team to examine, because we had not previously used any colour films in this latest series of spirit photography.
Manu opened enthusiastically as usual; telling us that the evening was to be given over to experiments with sound. The phenomena built up slowly after we started; the first thing we heard being footsteps on the quarry tiled floor, walking about the room. These started as faint noises which gradually grew in intensity until it was obvious that a spirit being with weight and substance was moving amongst us - travelling backwards and forwards in the room, towards and away from the central table.
Mrs Bradshaw then popped in to tell us it was building up very nicely, and that a second experiment would be running in parallel with the musical one - but she wouldn’t give us any details. A little later, we heard from Joseph. Apart from Manu, he and Emily Bradshaw were the only two members of the spirit team to speak to us via the trance state of the two mediums.
Their words to us were followed by tapping sounds on the trumpet (which was yet again sitting on the central table in such a way that none of us group members could access it) and blowing sounds in the air. After this, a small but bright spirit light travelled along the trumpet to show us that it was still there, whilst the sound of a trumpet being blown loudly came from mid-air immediately afterwards. Then we heard drumming (this sounded like wooden or metal drumsticks although there were none physically in the room) on the central wooden table, on the trumpet, and on another wooden table further away. This built to an amazing crescendo, with the spirit drummer demonstrating his drumming skills well. Loud raps also occurred on the back and the bottom of Sandra’s chair. A low, rich, gravelly voice spoke to us in the form of an energy voice, but we were unable to hear most of the words clearly enough, with the exception of his addressing Hans with, ‘Hello, Boy!’
A trumpet was blown loudly several times, apparently in mid-air, and with many differing sequences of notes. At one time, it was moved right to the other end of the room before sounding. Hans was of the opinion that the player could have been a military bugler, as some of the sequences sounded like known bugle calls. Whilst the trumpet was being blown, the three of us who were conscious made a point of all speaking together at the same time, in order to prove that it could not be any of us blowing the trumpet. At one stage, I was informed by an energy voice that a trumpet was pointing directly at me and, shortly afterwards, it blew a loud note in my direction.
Another instrument sounded a little later on. This time - from its tone - the instrument sounded like a trombone, according to Hans, and yet (as we already knew) there was no physical trombone in the room. Then we were told by Mrs Bradshaw that the instruments which were being played were only the spiritual counterparts of physical instruments.
Materialised spirit visitors touched Hans, Sandra, and me on several occasions. Hans once again had his thumb pulled gently by three spirit fingers and received a comradely pat from a spirit arm across his shoulder. Occasionally all three of us who were conscious were touched separately but simultaneously to emphasise the fact that there were at least three teleported spirit visitors present. When Hans asked later if it was Fernando touching him, he was told by Joseph that, ‘It may well have been, as Fernando was definitely present at the session all evening’. Joseph did go on to say however, that the team were not always aware of the exact identity of the corporeal spirit visitors at any particular time.
An amusing energy voice joked that another spirit person had crawled into the trumpet and got stuck there! As if to prove a point, a faint energy voice kept on shouting, ‘Oi, get me out of here!’. In the end, the jokey voice told us he was going, ‘to blow the other chap out of the trumpet’, and the trumpet was then duly blown. One loud energy voice spoke impressively out of the bell of the trumpet!
There was not enough time for Hans to ask all of his intended questions, as the energy was getting low, but the team did say that if he wrote his questions down and gave them to us, they would answer them for him in the near future and we could then send Hans the answers. One question prominent in Hans’ mind was however, anticipated by Mrs Bradshaw, who said that the melodic sounds and musical phenomena started in Ibiza at these two sittings and witnessed by us was only a beginning and - if Hans gave the spirit team further opportunities - they would be able to build on the phenomena they had produced thus far.
Joseph told us that once again, the spirit team felt that the film on the table had been influenced, and we should find some symbols on it relating to Ibiza and its inherent energies. He was right! When we developed it, it was found to be full of brilliant green images from end to end.
The ‘gravelly’ energy voice had earlier told us that ‘the temperature was just right’. Joseph went on to confirm to us that different temperatures helped in the production of different types of phenomena; adding the fact that different phases of the moon also influenced the phenomena (the previous night had been a full moon). Mrs Bradshaw commented that the new ‘musical phenomena department’ of the spirit team had enjoyed their experience immensely, and that the ‘drummer’ just couldn’t wait to ‘get his hands on a real drum kit’! She also asked that when I did my report of the sitting for the bulletin (the quarterly publication of the New Spiritual Science Foundation), I should not be tempted to use a play on words to describe ‘trumpet phenomena’ in any way that could be confused with the old way of working (using ectoplasm - which was not the way we worked in the Scole Group). It is very important, when studying the unique Scole phenomena, not to confuse séance trumpets (aluminium megaphone-like pieces of séance room equipment traditionally associated and used with ectoplasmic phenomena) with the real thing (standard musical trumpets). In order to prevent this from happening, Mrs Bradshaw asked me to entitle my report ‘Experimental Musical Soirées in Ibiza’, and I was happy to oblige.
When the lights were turned on at the end of the sitting, we discovered that the slides and films we had put on the central table at the beginning of the sitting had been neatly and silently stacked on top of one another - something none of us could possibly have achieved by normal means in total darkness.
END OF DIARY EXTRACT
1996-07-01-DIARY:
Monday 1 July 1996 in Ibiza
Five sitters: the Scole Group plus Dr Hans Schaer
The second and last Ibiza sitting of this visit proved to be just as fascinating. The crystals had been left in exactly the same configuration on the central table and, once again, the four members of the Scole Group wore our luminous armbands secured with Velcro fastenings. The remaining Polaroid 35 mm Polachrome film (with twelve exposures) was put on the table in its lightproof container. Additionally, the remainder of the previous film and the two slides received were also placed on the table for the spirit team to examine, because we had not previously used any colour films in this latest series of spirit photography.
Manu opened enthusiastically as usual; telling us that the evening was to be given over to experiments with sound. The phenomena built up slowly after we started; the first thing we heard being footsteps on the quarry tiled floor, walking about the room. These started as faint noises which gradually grew in intensity until it was obvious that a spirit being with weight and substance was moving amongst us - travelling backwards and forwards in the room, towards and away from the central table.
Mrs Bradshaw then popped in to tell us it was building up very nicely, and that a second experiment would be running in parallel with the musical one - but she wouldn’t give us any details. A little later, we heard from Joseph. Apart from Manu, he and Emily Bradshaw were the only two members of the spirit team to speak to us via the trance state of the two mediums.
Their words to us were followed by tapping sounds on the trumpet (which was yet again sitting on the central table in such a way that none of us group members could access it) and blowing sounds in the air. After this, a small but bright spirit light travelled along the trumpet to show us that it was still there, whilst the sound of a trumpet being blown loudly came from mid-air immediately afterwards. Then we heard drumming (this sounded like wooden or metal drumsticks although there were none physically in the room) on the central wooden table, on the trumpet, and on another wooden table further away. This built to an amazing crescendo, with the spirit drummer demonstrating his drumming skills well. Loud raps also occurred on the back and the bottom of Sandra’s chair. A low, rich, gravelly voice spoke to us in the form of an energy voice, but we were unable to hear most of the words clearly enough, with the exception of his addressing Hans with, ‘Hello, Boy!’
A trumpet was blown loudly several times, apparently in mid-air, and with many differing sequences of notes. At one time, it was moved right to the other end of the room before sounding. Hans was of the opinion that the player could have been a military bugler, as some of the sequences sounded like known bugle calls. Whilst the trumpet was being blown, the three of us who were conscious made a point of all speaking together at the same time, in order to prove that it could not be any of us blowing the trumpet. At one stage, I was informed by an energy voice that a trumpet was pointing directly at me and, shortly afterwards, it blew a loud note in my direction.
Another instrument sounded a little later on. This time - from its tone - the instrument sounded like a trombone, according to Hans, and yet (as we already knew) there was no physical trombone in the room. Then we were told by Mrs Bradshaw that the instruments which were being played were only the spiritual counterparts of physical instruments.
Materialised spirit visitors touched Hans, Sandra, and me on several occasions. Hans once again had his thumb pulled gently by three spirit fingers and received a comradely pat from a spirit arm across his shoulder. Occasionally all three of us who were conscious were touched separately but simultaneously to emphasise the fact that there were at least three teleported spirit visitors present. When Hans asked later if it was Fernando touching him, he was told by Joseph that, ‘It may well have been, as Fernando was definitely present at the session all evening’. Joseph did go on to say however, that the team were not always aware of the exact identity of the corporeal spirit visitors at any particular time.
An amusing energy voice joked that another spirit person had crawled into the trumpet and got stuck there! As if to prove a point, a faint energy voice kept on shouting, ‘Oi, get me out of here!’. In the end, the jokey voice told us he was going, ‘to blow the other chap out of the trumpet’, and the trumpet was then duly blown. One loud energy voice spoke impressively out of the bell of the trumpet!
There was not enough time for Hans to ask all of his intended questions, as the energy was getting low, but the team did say that if he wrote his questions down and gave them to us, they would answer them for him in the near future and we could then send Hans the answers. One question prominent in Hans’ mind was however, anticipated by Mrs Bradshaw, who said that the melodic sounds and musical phenomena started in Ibiza at these two sittings and witnessed by us was only a beginning and - if Hans gave the spirit team further opportunities - they would be able to build on the phenomena they had produced thus far.
Joseph told us that once again, the spirit team felt that the film on the table had been influenced, and we should find some symbols on it relating to Ibiza and its inherent energies. He was right! When we developed it, it was found to be full of brilliant green images from end to end.
The ‘gravelly’ energy voice had earlier told us that ‘the temperature was just right’. Joseph went on to confirm to us that different temperatures helped in the production of different types of phenomena; adding the fact that different phases of the moon also influenced the phenomena (the previous night had been a full moon). Mrs Bradshaw commented that the new ‘musical phenomena department’ of the spirit team had enjoyed their experience immensely, and that the ‘drummer’ just couldn’t wait to ‘get his hands on a real drum kit’! She also asked that when I did my report of the sitting for the bulletin (the quarterly publication of the New Spiritual Science Foundation), I should not be tempted to use a play on words to describe ‘trumpet phenomena’ in any way that could be confused with the old way of working (using ectoplasm - which was not the way we worked in the Scole Group). It is very important, when studying the unique Scole phenomena, not to confuse séance trumpets (aluminium megaphone-like pieces of séance room equipment traditionally associated and used with ectoplasmic phenomena) with the real thing (standard musical trumpets). In order to prevent this from happening, Mrs Bradshaw asked me to entitle my report ‘Experimental Musical Soirées in Ibiza’, and I was happy to oblige.
When the lights were turned on at the end of the sitting, we discovered that the slides and films we had put on the central table at the beginning of the sitting had been neatly and silently stacked on top of one another - something none of us could possibly have achieved by normal means in total darkness.
END OF DIARY EXTRACT
SCOLE FILE NOTES:
The Scole Experiment Afterlife Research Files (The Scole Files) are curated by Grant Solomon and Jane Solomon, authors of The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death.
For more diary extracts, read Witnessing The Impossible: The Diary of The Scole Experiment by Robin Foy.
For the scholarly, scientific analysis of The Scole Experiment, read The Scole Report: An Account of an Investigation into the Genuineness of a Range of Physical Phenomena Associated with a Mediumistic Group in Norfolk, England by Montague Keen, David Fontana & Arthur Ellison
