Richard

I have read your book and I have to admit I found it difficult because you were insulting my work and myself; you rehashed so many old stories, that to be honest your book contained nothing new. I am well known for two things the accuracy of my work and my honesty I am a firm believer in not being Politically Correct as I loath any form of Politics whether it is central government, local or office. My belief is simple it is my God given and incontrovertible right to think as I wish and feel as I speak the need, so here goes.

• I wish to say thank you for including the Randi experiment and myself in your book, but I must correct you on two things. Ankhara is not my Guide she is me and I am her. I am in fact her reincarnated from some 3,000 years ago. Yes we did meet via a regression and I found it fascinating. A few years after I told my family about the place in which Ankhara had lived there was a programme on BBC 2 about El Armenia and to our astonishment it exactly as I had described the place in which Ankhara had lived and died. . As to my Guide he is a Hebrew who says he comes from the Land of Judah and is from the 1st century AD. You are given your Guide at birth not something that comes to you via hypnosis.
• I am starting with your rather silly drawings and quizzes. As I mentioned in an earlier email to you the square in which I am supposed to see some kind of hidden treasure to me was a very neat bit of geometry on a blank piece of paper. Your staring at dots did nothing for me either and on page 72, please tell me what a stoat working either hard or being lazy has to do with my work as a Medium.
• The faces on page 43 were to me just blank and uninteresting.
• Page 73 why on earth would I want to be a desk Not being made of wood I have never really considered this as a career option.
• I’ll try to skip through your little mind games, the cards with a variety of figures I played once with friends and do you know I lost.
• The face I saw was a rabbit not a duck. And, lastly I saw both 13 and B again it has no bearing at all on my work.
• I found you wasted far too much time on table moving and Ouija boards. Firstly, Spirit has no need to move tables or bend spoons to prove their existence.
• Thomas Hardy believing that God was dead is really no surprise as that man lived the saddest of lives and having had to read a couple of his books I don’t need to be a Psychiatrist to know that the man suffered greatly from depression, hence his funeral of God.
• Darwin, said that man and animals were similar, he was so wrong. The animal kingdom takes care of its own and the environment. Man however, cares for no one but himself and will happily sacrifice everything and everyone to the great god finance.
• You mention Religion vs. Rationality. It might have been so in the Victorian era but certainly not now, though we have Politicians who would love to destroy all Christian beliefs and are really not succeeding. With the political world in the disarray it is in now causing people to be generally unhappy and depressed more and more are turning to Faith and Church.
• In my Readings I have never once flattered any one, they are told what they need to hear not want to hear. I do not read people’s expressions as most of my work is done with my eyes closed. I make mistakes; I never lie.
• 31st of March 1848 was not the dawn of Spiritualism I am surprised at you Richard an intellectual – who does not know your history of mankind. If you go back as far as man has been on the earth lets start with 7000 BC (not BCE) the Neolithic period it is known that they would have believed in talking to the dead as often the bodies of women and children would be buried under sleeping areas so that they could communicate with them in a sleep state, this was certainly true of the Ubaids who would have lived near or around the Black Sea when it was a freshwater lake. What about the Aboriginals of Australia, the Native Americans with whom I would love to sit and talk listening to their Spiritual stories, Buddhists the list goes on and on.
• I won’t waste too much time on the Fox sisters, talking tables etc, because to my surprise you had wasted enough time on them already and as to Gef the talking mongoose having been born in India and seen numerous of these animals I know they don’t talk and the though of one living from 1916 to past 1970 is quite frankly laughable. I find it difficult to believe that so many intelligent people with spent so much time investigating “Cashen’s Gap.” Any one with common sense would know with so much wood in the house and a windy area any sounds would be heard and a person who is finding life very difficult was quite clearly clever enough to take the establishment for a ride and make money at the same time – who were the fools?
• On Page 162 my comment on this is very simple more of a question than a comment: “What kind of planet do Psychologists inhabit?” I wouldn’t think of white bears at the best of times and I collect teddy bears but they are not uppermost in my mind, so why would I consider white bears?
• Oh! Dear! We are now going to mind control and the childish game of thinking about a number etc. Again, just what has this got to do with my work?
• Hampton Court, Richard that is where we first met – remember. And you very nicely invited me onto the Gloria Hunniford show on Channel 5. At the time I clearly remember saying that I did not think that Spirit could be photographed but with the amount of amazing steps forward in photography I now think they can. Going back to Hampton Court, I can’t remember what I said to you but I clearly remember having no feeling of poor Katherine Howard. However, I remember sitting in the room in which you gave us your briefing and I also remember the young American wife and mother of two boys sitting on my left who must have thought I had an incontrollable muscle illness, as from the moment I sat down my right foot started moving up and down then my right hand started to twitch, after you had given us our pieces of paper and gave us our tasks that you revealed that we were in fact sitting in the room that was used by the Nurse to Edward Henry VIII’s only son Edward and in her quiet time she would use a spinning wheel, remember me telling you this via Fax?
• I notice you don’t mention Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a greater believer in Spiritualism, though I must admit some of his work is questionable. However, the greatest of those born at the end of the 19th century has to be Hannen Swaffer (Swaff. to his contempories a man of the press born 1879 who started work at the Daily Mail then went on to build up the Daily Mirror as a popular paper he had one of the greatest Guides, Silver Birch and the honesty of “Swaff” could not be denied. He did not go in for tricks etc. You should get a copy of his teachings. After all it is Silver Birch who said and I paraphrase “It is impossible for Intellectuals to believe in god and Spirit but not impossible for those who are intelligent.”
• An Incubus? Really Richard that aberration is as real as me climbing Mt Kailash at the weekend.
• As to the destruction of numerous insects and other small animals in the vain effort of trying to weigh the soul at birth, I find this the most unbelievable of all your stories. How can you possibly weigh something that does not contain any form of matter the soul is ethereal, your conscience if you like there is no substance I suppose it would be like trying to weigh the breath that comes out of your mouth – impossible. An intellectual what a waste of lives, time and money carried out this experiment.
• I feel sorriest for the woman who could only connect with Spirit by being high on LSD.
• As to Out of Body Experiences only a complete fool tries to make themselves have one, there is nothing special to it and it is not very clever to try and force one. I had one at the age of ten but never knew what it was till many years later.

I won’t carry on going chapter to chapter as from Mind Control, Ouija Boards, Table Rapping you only talked about the sensational rubbish that so many people chuck at me every year and frankly it is very boring. Now let me fill you in about the real reason for our work

I am now only talking about the good and honest Mediums of which I pride myself on being we have a very real place in life apart from what you think.

Our task is very simple we - give proof of life after what is known as “Death.” I have always said life does not end with a box and lid, six feet of earth or flames. There is a very real life and things I have said to people I could not guess at or know previously. We also help people to understand themselves better than they do. In fact I get to know more about people in 45mins than any Psychiatrist, Psychologist or Psychotherapist would learn in numerous sessions. In fact this brings me very nicely to one of the reasons – not mentioned by you at the Randi Challenge. I had agreed to all the protocols that is true because as I do telephone Readings not seeing the girls would in any way hamper the Readings. However, when you hit me with the last Protocol not one I was aware of that I knew I was on a loser. The “Ethics Committee” Oh! My how was I ever going to surmount this barrier? I now wish that I had kept some of the Readings as proof of that famous committee, but I am sure some of your young ladies who took part will remember not being able to make sense of anything I had written down as the black marker taken over the pages in question made my Readings look like a letter from the Front in the 1913-1918 war. It would start with Dear Mother and then for the next five lines or so black and censored, then a couple of more words and more black lines this was done because I was getting too personal, (this piece of information was left out in your book) but Richard that is what my is all about we do get personal with our clients we reach the heart of the person. Sometimes our messages are very emotional, often a parent will tell a child to start growing up and much more besides, you have no idea how wonderful it is to give a man/woman proof that the person they loved most in all the world is still very much a part of their lives. During a Reading I give proof of life with information that I would not know there is nothing disingenuous in my work though you did take up a lot of paper in trying to prove this. .

Being a Medium is not just standing on a platform and entertaining people, doing Readings, Ghost Hunting (something I do as I love carrying out investigations and Rescue work) it is a way of life for us but it does not rule our lives. When I hear some so called Mediums saying “I work with Spirit all day” they are either lying or badly in need of therapy. I also have to agree that we are at the moment plagued with people who call themselves Clairvoyants and Psychics and are as Psychic as the tables you mention in your book. I had no idea what cold/hot readings were till I met yourself and Chris French.

Because of recent TV shows it has become rather fashionable to be a “Medium” but we are born not made for £5 per session at a Development Circle.

One last thing the use of a Ouija board is the most dangerous thing ever as I had it explained to me. Spirit comes in three levels - the top is shall we say the Directors Board room where the Guides etc., are the middle level is where we will be and yes Richard you will join me there in the fullness of time, the lowest level is where the horrible Spirits go and when you play the board that is what you attract. Of course they will say they are your mother, father etc. but as they were liars on the earth plain believe me they have not changed. These are the destructive ones both physically and mentally not something to be taken lightly.

Your book gave me great entertainment as it hit my wardrobe door twice and bounced, I had fits of uncontrollable giggling disturbing my husband’s reading of Bernard Cornwall and in many ways I have to admit feeling sorry for you, Chris and others who think like you, life must appear very drab.

Good luck with your new book, I will read it as I have enjoyed this one very much, it touched all my emotions.

Richard, on more than one occasion I have suggested you getting someone to set up an independent test and you have never agreed. Don’t you think it is time you did?

We are living in what is now supposed to be an enlightened society where anything appears to be permitted, why then do you Scientists find it so difficult to work with people such as myself surely this is the time to prove that science and faith can and should work together to help mankind as the Politicians obviously don’t care. My dream is to work with Historians is that such a difficult request?

Patricia Putt