Victor Zammit Claims Alan Crossley
Return. But Where Is
The Evidence?
By Simon Forsyth
Modern day physical mediumship is at something
of a crossroads. From the halcyon days of Helen Duncan and Alex
Harris where evidence was the 'golden fruit' of the Spiritualist
tree, the intervening years have brought something of a famine
to the soil of modern, public, physical mediumship. Many
explanations for this have been offered and discussed through
the psychic press and public chat forums over the years.
It is not my intention in this article to
offer my own views on the mechanics of why this has happened.
Suffice it to say that unless the standard of evidence is
improved in public seances the future of physical mediumship is
under threat of extinction.
Victor Zammit has long been one of physical
mediumship's most vociferous supporters. For several years now
he has championed the Australian based medium, David Thompson.
Through his weekly Afterlife Report, Zammit updates his readers
on the latest seances given by Thompson; seances which regularly
witness the alleged communications from personalities such as
Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill.
While I applaud Victor's passion and wholehearted support of
physical mediumship, I question his investigative methodology
and his stated qualifications as an unbiased judge of physical
mediumship.
On his website Victor describes himself as "a
full time writer and researcher on empirical evidence for the
afterlife." This is rather an ambiguous description since
'empirical' can mean 'relying on experience or observation
alone often without due regard for system and theory'. A central
concept in science and the scientific method is that all
evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is,
dependent on evidence or consequences that are
observable by the senses. And since most, if not all, of
David Thompson's phenomena is produced in the dark then the
primary sense Victor is relying upon during these seances is his
hearing. Hardly scientific, is it? Moreover, in the cases of
Houdini, Churchill and Doyle the voices sound nothing like they
did on earth and do not provide any audible evidence whatsoever
in order to substantiate their validity.
So, upon what exact evidence is Victor
basing his assumptions upon? A voice in the dark claiming to be
Harry Houdini or Conan Doyle? As 'evidence', this is totally
unscientific and can only be dismissed as ridiculous.
As a lawyer, Victor claims he is "an expert in
the admissibility of evidence" and I also has "qualifications in
scientific method". Then Victor should know that only
relevant evidence is admissible. Admissible evidence, in a
court of law, is any testimonial, documentary, or tangible
evidence that may be introduced to a judge or jury in order to
establish or to bolster a point put forth by a party to the
proceeding. In order for evidence to be admissible, it must be
relevant, without being prejudicial, and it must have some
indicia of reliability. It must also tend to prove or disprove
some fact that is at issue in the proceeding.
Non of the recordings of alleged deceased
personalities 'prove or disprove' anything.
As to Victor's reference to the scientific
method, let us look firstly at what the scientific method is:
The scientific method is the process by which
scientists, collectively and over time, endeavour to construct
an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary)
representation of the world. It has 4 steps:
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon
or group of phenomena. 2. Formulation of an hypothesis to
explain the phenomena. 3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the
existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the
results of new observations. 4. Performance of experimental
tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters
and properly performed experiments.
Victor Zammit has not produced any evidence
whatsoever by means of the full scientific method.
Now let me focus upon a recent claim of
Victor's that the well known Spiritualist Alan Crossley
communicated through the mediumship of David Thompson. I was
fortunate to be a close friend of Alan's. I was a member of his
home circle and he was the Features Editor of Psychic World
while I was editor. I knew him intimately. In the
April 4th Afterlife Report -
Afterlife Report
- Victor states:
Last Sunday night we had a most fantastic materialization
session with medium David Thompson. The Circle of the Silver
Cord has been working quietly to build the energy and it was one
of the very best we’ve ever had. Three brilliant British
mediums, Gordon Higginson, and for a very short time Helen
Duncan, and one dedicated investigator of physical mediumship
Allan Crossley materialized to pass information on to us.
A link
is given to a short recording of 'Allan':
Alan Crossley
(Page opens in new window so please disable any pop up
blockers.)
Once you have listened to this recording,
watch the following video of Alan and compare the two voices:
Upon comparing the two voices it will be clear
to the objective observer that there is not the slightest
similarity between them. They do not sound alike in any way. The
intonation, tone, accent, rhythm, stress and pitch contour of
the two voices are completely different. Another important
consideration
is that at one point in the seance recording 'Alan' addresses Victor by his
surname only - something Alan never did when talking to people.
This is completely out of character.
The argument could be given that it is not
always possible for the voice of the communicator to exactly
match the voice as it was on earth. This may indeed be the case,
and this is why in such instances it is extremely important that
the evidence provided by 'non matching' voices is credible and
verifiable.
So, let us examine the actual evidence that
'Alan' proffers as to his authenticity. Well, in the short clip
we have heard 'Alan' provides no corroborative evidence
whatsoever! Moreover, Victor Zammit or any of the other circle
members present did not know Alan and are therefore unqualified
to state (as Victor does) that it is Alan Crossley.
To recap: Victor Zammit claims that the voice
heard in the seance recording is that of the deceased
Spiritualist, Alan Crossley. The communicator does not sound
like Alan Crossley, nor does the communicator provide one iota
of evidence to support his contention. Yet Victor Zammit is
quite happy to offer up this seance recording as 'evidence' of
life after death! Remember, this is the man who states he is a
"researcher on empirical evidence for the afterlife" and has
"qualifications in scientific method"! There is nothing
scientific about the 'evidence' Victor offers in support of his
contention that the communicator is Alan Crossley for the simple
reason that there is NO supporting evidence offered whatsoever!
Remember, this is the man who claims to be "an expert in the
admissibility of evidence". Hmmm....
At the beginning of this article I stated that
unless the standard of evidence provided in seances was improved
physical mediumship was under threat. By providing the above
example of contemporary 'evidence', I hope the reader now
understands what I mean and can appreciate the situation. To put
this bluntly, Victor Zammit - despite his good intentions -
is making a complete mockery of physical mediumship. We are
expected to believe that voices recorded in the dark are of
deceased people merely because Victor Zammit says they
are. He provides no scientific research or scientific evidence
in support of these claims.
I will now make the following request of
Victor in order to give him the chance to substantiate his
claims and provide actual evidence to support his contention
that the voice in the seance recording is Alan Crossley.
One Thousand Pounds Challenge
To Victor Zammit!
I request Victor Zammit to ask the personality
claiming to be Alan Crossley 5 questions which I will provide.
These questions will be posted on this website before the
seance. I will then record a YouTube video detailing the answers
to these questions but will not disclose its web address until
Victor has uploaded a YouTube video which provide the answers.
At a prearranged time, we will email each other the web address
of each video - both of which will be posted immediately on this
site at a given time.
Will Victor accede to this request? Maybe.
More importantly, however, will the alleged spirit of Alan
Crossley provide the correct answers to the questions? I do not
think so. In fact, I will give one thousand English pounds to the charity of Victor's
choice if this alleged communicator gives just three
correct answers out of the five.
It is now time for Victor Zammit to
demonstrate to the world that there is substance behind his
rhetoric. He makes outstanding claims for David Thompson's
mediumship. Well, let us see if he can provide some credible
evidence - for without evidence his words are but sails without
wind....
Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted on Victor's
response.
Modern day physical mediumship is at something
of a crossroads. From the halcyon days of Helen Duncan and Alex
Harris where evidence was the 'golden fruit' of the Spiritualist
tree, the intervening years have brought something of a famine
to the soil of modern, public, physical mediumship. Many
explanations for this have been offered and discussed through
the psychic press and public chat forums over the years.