Australia’s Greatest Medium: Stan Walsh

Book Overview: The Certainty of Eternity by L.C. Danby

Extraordinary Gifts of an Ordinary Man

In my on-going search for interesting Spiritual stories, I recently came across an article and a book about “Australia’s greatest medium,” Stan Walsh. His story is profiled in a book titled The Certainty of Eternity, authored by his close friend, L.C. Danby; published in 1974.

As stated by Mr. Danby’s daughter, Jo Buchanan, “In the 1920s and 1930s my father, and later my mother, belonged to an extraordinary circle of people who met several times a week in Melbourne, Australia. The medium of the group was Stan Walsh, a deep trance physical medium who became unconscious in order to allow highly evolved spiritual entities to possess his physical body.”

Mr. Danby’s daughter, Jo Buchanan was a witness to much of the story and has in her possession many artifacts that provide what is known in this field of study as “evidential material.” The artifacts were manifested out of thin air during group sessions where Mr. Walsh was completely unconscious.

Stan Walsh is said to have discovered his mediumistic ability in 1919, at age 20, when he reluctantly accompanied a friend to several séances with a Port Melbourne medium. Impressed by the information that came through at his first sitting, Walsh returned the next week and was told by the medium that he also had mediumistic ability. She told him to hold a pad and pencil on this lap. “The séance was almost half over when suddenly his right hand began to write on the paper; writing furiously as if controlled by some invisible hand,” Danby explained. “Later when the lights were turned up he found himself possessor of a sheaf of written messages for every member of the circle.”

“During the third week Stan went into meditation, pen poised and ready, but instead, experienced a total blackout. When he regained consciousness he was informed that after ‘fainting’, a hoarse cry was emitted from his throat, He tossed the pad and pencil thrown into the air and a deep guttural voice began to address the gathering. The owner of the voice introduced himself as Malocca, Stan’s Red Indian guide. He was the first of many teachers in spirit to address my father’s healing and meditation circle.” At first Malocca began speaking in Malocca’s native tongue, until a Mrs. Beames asked Malocca to attempt to speak in English, after which he spoke in broken English. He said he had been sent by God to be the chief guide and doorkeeper for Walsh. Then Malocca allowed other spirit entities to speak through Mr. Walsh and many evidential messages were given to others in the room.

Bert Jones, one of Walsh’s best friends, was a “doubting Thomas” until his father communicated. As further evidence that it was his father, Jones asked him to speak in Welsh, as he used to do. The father obliged. Jones then asked him to sing his favorite song in Welsh. The father complied and further revealed a number of intimate family secrets, fully satisfying the son that he was hearing from his father.

Soon a number of seemingly advanced spiritual personalities began communicating through Walsh, the first being Angus Du Font, a former Frenchman who said that he had died 47 years earlier.

Mr.Du Font lectured the Inner Circle that had developed around Walsh about the presence of a group of so-called “low-level spirits,” which had started to gather around their sessions, informing them that they should not call them “evil spirits,” but rather “unprogressed spirits.” He pointed out that many of them are drawn towards séances as they long for the company of human beings and need help. He added that they dwell in darkness created by themselves. When asked why angels or more progressed spirits do not help them out of the darkness, he explained that it takes time – as it is measured there – for them to understand Higher Beings. Initially, they understand only human beings in the flesh.

Both advanced and low-level spirits visited the circle. Danby further stated, “Unprogressed spirits who were lost, were continually brought to our meetings by the guides to be encouraged and helped on the road to progression and peace. Whenever a lost soul’s name was ascertained – each member of the circle would promise to pray for them – and also in the silence of their own homes.”

Danby met Stan Walsh in 1927, a year or so after his wife Winnie died during childbirth, when friends persuaded him to attend a séance with Walsh. He recalled that it began with a hymn, followed by a prayer, and then a lecture by a spirit guide called Vashti. Several other spirit visitors spoke to other people in attendance, either through the direct voice trumpet or through the medium directly. “This went on for about an hour, and then a woman’s voice was heard coming from the lips of the medium under deep-trance,” Danby wrote. “She called me by name, and when I answered she said it was ‘Win’! She spoke to me, and I to her. It was an eager, emotionally-charged conversation in which she talked to me of many intimate incidents in our past life, of her care and guidance for Ron, her son by her first marriage, and many other personal matters known only to ourselves. I was convinced beyond all doubt. I left this house of strangers with my head in a whirl. Life, it seemed, did have some meaning. The dull, grey cloud of loneliness and desolation that had enveloped me for more than a year, since Win died, seemed to have lifted…”

Danby befriended Walsh and became a regular member of the circle. Over the years, he observed various forms of mediumship with Walsh, including direct voice, trance voice, automatic writing, clairvoyance, clairaudience, transfiguration, apports, and “materialized painting.” He heard spirits speak to their friends and relatives in various languages, including French, Italian, Greek, German, Hindustani, and Yiddish.

During one especially intriguing sitting, in 1930, a “visitor” from Belgium began speaking through the entranced Walsh in his own language. When asked if he could speak English, there was a pause, after which the speech then came in broken English, saying, “I come from Dietrich in Belgium. I am – what you say – a deep trance medium. I come from a circle of eight people. Your medium – he is now in MY body bringing greetings to them, my countrymen. And I bring greetings from my people in Dietrich.” As Danby explained it, the two deep-trance mediums had exchanged bodies. When Walsh returned to consciousness, he said he remembered sitting in a small dimly lit room and when he began to speak, those present did not understand him. He was shown by a spirit guide, hovering just above and in front of him, how to translate the message, so that the Belgian sitters could understand him.

TRANCE PAINTING Although Walsh apparently had no artistic ability of any kind in his conscious state, he displayed considerable talent in the deep trance state, said to be controlled by a spirit called Professor Jenkinson. While on earth, the professor had been a great art lover and dabbled with paints on an amateur level. Professor Jenkinson, in his previous earth incarnation had been the son of an Earl of between 1811 and 1854. The good Professor brought to the group an amazing method of painting pictures. Initially, (controlling Stan) he drew the outline of the subject with a fountain pen or pencil, then he’d shake Stan’s hands over the sketch and paint would materialize through the tips of Stan’s fingers.

The first experiments were rather crude but, as the professor was able to work through Stan more efficiently, the quality of the paintings improved. The materialization of paint in this manner was likened to the way flowers emit vibrations that draw colors from the atmosphere.

On one occasion, a member of the circle, a Mrs. McIntosh, brought a black and white photograph of herself encased in a frame under glass. “As the color stained fingers shook just above the framed photograph, we saw, appearing through the glass, the pink coming on to the cheeks, the red on the lips, golden yellow tint her hair, and blue slowly appear in the eyes,” Mr. Danby reported. “When he had finished, there before our astonished eyes, was this perfectly colored photograph of Mrs. McIntosh, painted through the glass.”

One large painting of Jesus Christ was created in this way. Intricate and very beautiful, it took less than thirty minutes to complete.

APPORTS The materialization of apports began in 1921. Apports are defined in the dictionary as ‘objects transported by supernormal means from a distance into a definite enclosed space.’ The first apports to be materialized were feathers. Halfway through a meeting, a sudden fluttering sound was heard and the group members saw tiny black feathers floating from the ceiling.

Mr. Danby’s daughter, Jo Buchannan goes on to say, “After that, apports appeared regularly. [As an example] My father received a finely carved crucifix which had been recovered from the ruins of a Belgian cathedral destroyed during World War I.

SILK SHAWL And, one night, an actress who had been in silent films during her previous incarnation spoke to the group through Stan. Her name was Olive Thomas and she promised to give one of the sitters, also an actress, a blue silk shawl that had belonged to her on earth.”

How was this accomplished? “On Malocca’s return, he walked Stan’s body around the room on tip-toe, both hands stretched high above his head. My father told me a vaguely formed cloud appeared to be just out of reach of his fingers. Malocca urged the group to sing, as the vibration would help it to materialize. And after some “off-key singing,”… it slowly began to descend until, with a loud cry of triumph from Malocca, Stan’s hands touched the filmy substance and it instantly turned into a blue silk shawl.’ ’’

COLORED FANS “On another occasion, following a lecture by a Chinese Mandarin, brightly colored fans materialized at the feet of everyone present.

RED ROBE One Saturday afternoon, while spending a weekend at a country farm house, the group went for a walk. They noticed in the distance, a clump of gum trees growing in a circle. Suddenly Stan was controlled by his guide, Malocca and he began to run like the wind. Dad raced after him. ‘We’ve got to stop him!’ he cried, ‘Stan’s legs can’t possibly keep up the pace!’ And as the group watched, open mouthed, a red robe began to flare behind him.”

“Finally, re-joining Stan in the middle of the circle of gum trees, they discovered that a Hindu seer, had taken Malocca’s place and a scarlet robe was now draped neatly around his body. It had been materialized while he was running.”

INDIAN LEATHER BONNET Jo Buchannan goes on to say, “I have many apports in my home from those days but my personal favorite is a fringed Red Indian leather bonnet. It was materialized when White Bird, Malocca’s Squaw, came through singing a lullaby in her native tongue. As she sang, she stretched Stan’s arms above his head until suddenly she pulled it down with great force. As a child, I wore this leather bonnet everywhere, claiming it as my own.”

LUMINOSITY LESSON Jo Buchannan: “The most amazing lesson of all in the education of the group was luminosity. For some time, the members had been informed that the guides had been working on Stan’s physical body, to prepare him for this phenomenon. They were told that Light was to come down from the highest spiritual planes but would be too blinding to be revealed in its true state. So Stan’s body was to be adjusted in such a manner that he would become a ‘transformer’, breaking down the intensity when it materialized, so it could be seen without too much strain on human eyesight.”

“Then one night, as John, the Most Beloved spoke through Stan, my parents and their friends noticed something begin to shine in the center of the floor. As they watched, it gradually formed a Cross of Light about six inches long, dazzling in its radiance. The second time Light was manifested, it appeared in the form of tiny crosses on the right side of the white robes worn by the sitters.

NOT JUST CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS On the third occasion, an Egyptian priest who was controlling Stan at the time, took hold of my father’s right hand and that of another sitter, raising them until the medium’s fingers were held together as if in prayer. Then, without warning, a thin bright Light like a laser beam shone from between their palms. As they pointed their fingers, it radiated from every tip.”

“Another night, Malocca jumped Stan to his feet, opened his mouth wide and a long sliver of white fire darted from it. It wasn’t long before the Light would now spread all over Stan’s body, often outlining the earthly appearance of the sitters’ spiritual guides, completely superceding the density of Stan’s physical form.”

“It was explained that each time the Light appeared, it was able to reach out not only on the earthly plane to heal, guide and comfort, but also into the astral plane where many lost souls were trapped between worlds.”

“On one unforgettable evening, a Great Red Light shone from Stan’s chest. Peering inside, the group members could see his heart quite clearly, contracting and expanding in a steady beat. My parents told me it was like looking into a brightly illumined X-ray picture in vivid red, every artery and muscle around the heart clearly visible.”

The twenty years of healings, materializations and spiritual growth came to an end with Stan’s passing. Jo Bachannan stated, “Although my parents continued to hold weekly meetings, the ‘lessons’ of the previous two decades were never repeated. The extraordinary phenomena which changed the lives of my parents and sparked an inherent, uncomfortable quest for truth within me, ceased with the passing of an extraordinary human being.”

That ends the story of Australia’s Greatest Medium!

For more interesting details, you might consider the purchase of the book by L.C. Danby, The Certainty of Eternity. It contains many more mind boggling observations and was originally published in Australia in 1974 and recently republished by White Crow Books. For more about the book see http://certaintyofeternity.com/wp/