MacDonald-Bayne news articles in Psychic News

The variety of apports received by Charles Bailey, the Australian medium, is astonishing. Some of them are trinkets that have little value, while others are rare and precious.

We publish a photograph of one of the apports, which, according to Mr. MacDonald-Bayne, who is now in this country arranging for Charles Bailey's visit in November, is a fragment of ancient vellum with Greek writing, said to be part of an ancient classic.

Through the direct-voice machine called the Chastaphone, to which we have already referred in the Psychic News, the sitters were told to submit it to Mr. Bell, one of the leading authorities on skins at the British Museum. This Mr. MacDonald-Bayne is arranging to do.

When the vellum arrived a portion was blank. Years afterwards this was filled in by spirit writing which claimed to be a deed of sale written in Roman cursive.

Mr. MacDonald-Bayne showed the Psychic News many of Bailey's apports. One of them is said to be an ancient Chaldean tablet, before Babylonian times, with an inscription. This inscription was translated through the machine, by a spirit calling himself Dr. Robinson, who said he was an archeologist, and is as follows:

"In the month of Nisan, the great god commanding, we built the outer court of the temple of the great god Marduk. Length of days and prosperity hath he given to the mighy king, joy and peace to his people, confusion to the enemies of the mighty kings and the great lords.

"Hear, Oh Bel, the prayer of thy servant, the mighty king Hasadan."

Another apport, they were told, was an ancient one, a funeral cone of an Egyptian king who lived about 700 B.C. The spirits claim that it was taken from his tomb and brought into the seance room the same night.

We were shown a collection of numerous ancient coins, one of them being a shekel, for which a Rabbi in Sydney had offered ten pounds, but strict instructions were given that the apports were not for sale.

A large number of Bailey's apports are now housed in California in what is known as the Stanford Museum. Mr. Stanford, who has now passed on, held a circle regularly in Melbourne with Bailey as the medium. This circle was made up of scientists, doctors, and many leading men of the day of Melbourne, and apports were obtained regularly.

Mr. Stanford was a wealthy man who, before he passed on, left the valuable collection and sufficient money for a museum to be built in which to house it.

It was this collection that caused a fuss to be made by the Customs authorities in Melbourne. They said these articles had been brought into the country and no tax had been paid on them.

The Minister of Customs was invited to a seance, and he witnessed these apports being brought through. After that the collection was released.

The Customs had found that there were more ways than one of bringing articles into the country.

Many of the apports that came in the Standord seance were extraordinary.

One of their live apports was a fish, two feet long, which was brought into the seance room one evening, with seaweed and dripping water, full of small marine life.

Once, they say, there was a live flying fish in a net. On another occasion a leopard skin, six feet long, which was still warm and wet. For this, it was claimed, that the leopard had only been shot an hour ago in India.

Often large objects were brought into the seance room and then dematerialised and taken away again under the eyes of the sitters.

They were told that these apports were brought by Eastern spirits who said that they made a special study of this kind of phenomena.

When asked how the phenomena was produced they said it was akin to raising vibrations of ice to steam.

The vibrations of the apports were accelerated and conveyed with great speed through the ether and then lowered to their physical vibrations again. One of the difficulties was that great care had to be exercised to prevent the vibrations being accelerated too far, as this might destroy the article.

Many of these apport seances are recorded by Harvey in his book, "Science and the Soul," a book which is now almost out of print.

Mr. MacDonald-Bayne says that Bailey's powers are still at their height, and we are looking forward to his arrival in November.

The spirits responsible for bringing the apports have promised that when Bailey comes to London they are going to try and bring as an apport a medal which is the only one of its kind in the world. It is at present buried deep down in the sand.