Remembering
HELEN DUNCAN, Materialisation Medium:
A Modern-Day Martyr to the Truth

Left: An astonishing flashlight photograph of a self-luminous materialised ectoplasmic spirit-form of an old man, taken after having gained special permission from the medium's spirit guide, known as Albert Stewart. Note that there's a clearly-visible umbilical link at the side of this form's head, which joins it to the body of the Scottish Physical Medium, Mrs Helen Duncan. The density and also the transparency of the ectoplasmic form is captured quite well in this photograph.

Helen Victoria Duncan was born on November 25th 1898, and passed into the spirit world on December 6th 1956, five weeks after the police injured her when she was arrested in a state of deep trance during one of her materialisation seances. When in trance, a medium's body is often in a highly-sensitive, vulnerable condition.

Helen Duncan was a genuine and exceptionally-gifted materialisation medium in whose presence the so-called 'dead'   reappeared to their love ones temporary physical forms; and spoke with them and embraced them.

SOME AMAZING SURVIVAL EVIDENCE, AND A FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
In the Second World War, Helen Duncan's mediumship provided irrefutable evidence of the survival of the soul after death. In one of her seances a 'dead' sailor fully materialised wearing his naval cap on which was written the name of his ship HMS Barham. He stated that this vessel had been sunk in enemy action, a fact which the British government categorically denied - but the 'dead' man had spoken  the truth: HMS Barham had indeed been sunk, and not even the British War Office had yet received this official news.

Modern Spiritualist activists uphold that Helen Duncan was then arrested as a spy, on the authority of none other than Winston Churchill, Britain's war-time Prime Minister. The government of the day feared that her brilliant mediumship could be a threat to national security, especially as they were then planning the  D-Day landings and didn't want these secret details to be released by 'dead' servicemen, who regularly appeared at Helen's seances.

In 1944, Helen Duncan was tried at the Old Bailey in London under the antiquated 1735 Witchcraft Act. Millions of people have come to believe that she was found guilty through a miscarriage of justice. In any intelligent person's estimation her conviction was a ridiculous verdict, especially as 40 witnesses testified to her genuine abilities, and at least 300 others were prepared to take the stand and vouch for her genuine mediumistic ability. Helen even offered to hold a seance in the courtroom under strict test conditions, which would have proved that her abilities were indeed genuine, but this request was denied by the Judge. It's easy to see why conspiracy theories abound regarding this legal 'judgement'. Helen Duncan served a term of  nine months in prison.

Later, in 1951, the grossly outdated, and some would say insulting, Witchcraft Act was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which at least recognised the existence of genuine mediumship. Following this, in 1954 by a British Act of Parliament, Spiritualism was officially recognised as a religion.

To this day, there is an active campaign to clear Helen Duncan's name.
Click to visit The Official Helen Duncan Website.
There's also an excellent book about Mrs Duncan's mediumship and life, written by Alan Crossley. Click the title to buy it from amazon.co.uk. It's called The Story of Helen Duncan.                                    back to top of page

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Another British Phenomenon:
Stephen O'Brien

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