The Beatles, Brian Epstein's death and mediumship

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I'm recently posting a lot about mediumship, it's just happening that way, and then I go back to a Beatles book I'm reading ("The Beatles Off the Record") as I'm getting ready to go to bed , and the first thing to hit me is this section (which makes me get out of bed and back in front of the computer), after their manager Brian Epstein's sudden death in 1967.

George: "When Brian died, I had so many spiritualists calling me up, saying, Brian wants to talk to you. In fact, I think I talked to him more after he died than I did when he was alive."

Paul: "George and John got a call from a medium who said that Brian was trying to contact us and that he had something to say to us. We didn't want to pass up any channels, so John and George went along to the seance. But, they didn't believe it at all. There was nothing in it."

Mr. Maurice Barbanell, editor of the magazine Psychic News: "They have succeeeded. I have no doubt the person they spoke to was Brian Epstein. The medium they saw was a friend of mine, but I cannot reveal his name, as it is not our policy. The Beatles had to gone to a seance shortly after Mr. Epstein died... I know they were impressed by the sittings."

George, interviewed for Psychic News after the séance: "We have to to know if there is no such thing as death. We know that wherever Brian is, he's OK. He will return, because he was striving for happiness and desired bliss so much." (p. 306-307).

I'm recently posting a lot about mediumship, it's just happening that way, and then I go back to a Beatles book I'm reading ("The Beatles Off the Record"), and the first thing hit as I'm getting to ready body is this section (which makes me get out of bed and back in front of the coputer), after their manager Brian Epstein's sudden death in 1967.

George: "When Brian died, I had so many spiritualists calling me up, saying, Brian wants to talk to you. In fact, I think I talked to him more after the died than I did when he was alive."

Paul: "George and John got a call from a medium who said that Brian was trying to contact us and that he had something to say to us. We didn't want to pass up any channels, so John and George went along to the seance. But, they didn't believe it at all. There was nothing in it."

Mr. Maurice Barbanell, editor of the magazine Psychic News: "They have succeeeded. I have no doubt the person they spoke to was Brian Epstein. The medium they saw was a friend of mine, but I cannot reveal his name, as it is not our policy. The Beatles had to gone to a seance shortly after Mr. Epstein died... I know they were impressed by the sittings."

George, interviewed for Psychic News after the séance: "We have to to know if there is no such thing as death. We know that wherever Brian is, he's OK. He will return, because he was striving for happiness and desired bliss so much." (p. 306-307).

John Lennon often comes is spirit and Michael Jackson is beginning to make appearances. Neither are very accomplished at 'speaking' from spirit at this point, it is learned not a natural capability.

We know of Lennon's admissions re: seeing UFOs so the so-called 'unknown' is right up his spirit alley.

A story.

We are in a Warren Caylor seance, 2016, w/ a woman-friend and I when the CD player skips to "Imagine". My friend is called to the front of the cabinet, sits, and immediately Lennon comes through singing the first few verses. Her favorite Beatle, her fav song, it was a Boing! moment for everyone.

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Not that my opinion is worth much, but I'm a little skeptical about this kind of celebrity thing. I saw a while back there's quite a few channeled books out there on Lennon, + there's Erik, and then there's mediums using spirit photography that replicates published photographs of Lennon, etc. I don't dismiss the possibility that famous people have been channelled or contacted mediumistically (Leslie Flint, etc.), but I'd need some pretty solid evidence to make me a believer here.

Not that my opinion is worth much, but I'm a little skeptical about this kind of celebrity thing. I saw a while back there's quite a few channeled books out there on Lennon, + there's Erik, and then there's mediums using spirit photography that replicates published photographs of Lennon, etc. I don't dismiss the possibility that famous people have been channelled or contacted mediumistically (Leslie Flint, etc.), but I'd need some pretty solid evidence to make me a believer here.

Why would a celebrity be of more curiosity than, say, an discarnate mother addressing her incarnate son?

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I've been on a Beatles kick lately and read this lovely out-of-print memoir by John Lennon's school-age best friend, Pete Shotton, who remained his close(st) friend and associate all through the Beatles years. Through the mid-60s, he was a very frequent presence at John's home (Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey). There's a part in that book (p. 143) where he talks about this moment:

At the same time, John continued to believe that Brian (Epstein) was dead only in the physical sense, and that it might still be possible to commune with his spirit. To this end, he actually hired a professional medium to preside over a seance at Kenwood. I happened to be visiting with John a few hours prior to the event, and was so fascinated when he told me about it that I begged to let me attend.

'No, Pete, sorry', John replied. 'This has got to be just the four of us.' To the best of my recollection, this was the only occasion on which I'd ever been excluded from any of the group's activities, though of course I realized at once that it would have indeed been inappropriate for anyone but the four Beatles to take part.

Even so, I could hardly wait to ring John the following day. 'How did it go?' I demanded breathlessly

'Oh, it was just a load of bullshit', he said. 'The medium started putting on a weird voice, pretending it was Brian speaking to us through him. But none of it made any sense, and when we tried to ask Brian questions, he didn't know anything about anything. It was a complete waste of time.'

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...but Paul thinks it may be John's spirit causing a strange blue light on the tape when he's being interviewed and talking about him:

I've been on a Beatles kick lately

Lately? There is rumor going about that you sleep with your Beatles cap on.

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Yeah, you got me.

[Ninshub]

I've been on a Beatles kick lately and read this lovely out-of-print memoir by John Lennon's school-age best friend, Pete Shotton, who remained his close(st) friend and associate all through the Beatles years. Through the mid-60s, he was a very frequent presence at John's home (Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey). There's a part in that book (p. 143) where he talks about this moment:

"At the same time, John continued to believe that Brian (Epstein) was dead only in the physical sense, and that it might still be possible to commune with his spirit. To this end, he actually hired a professional medium to preside over a seance at Kenwood. I happened to be visiting with John a few hours prior to the event, and was so fascinated when he told me about it that I begged to let me attend.

'No, Pete, sorry', John replied. 'This has got to be just the four of us.' To the best of my recollection, this was the only occasion on which I'd ever been excluded from any of the group's activities, though of course I realized at once that it would have indeed been inappropriate for anyone but the four Beatles to take part.

Even so, I could hardly wait to ring John the following day. 'How did it go?' I demanded breathlessly

'Oh, it was just a load of bullshit', he said. 'The medium started putting on a weird voice, pretending it was Brian speaking to us through him. But none of it made any sense, and when we tried to ask Brian questions, he didn't know anything about anything. It was a complete waste of time.'"

Just came across a funny development to this story. In a 2009 postcript to a revised edition of his 1968 authorized biography of the Beatles, author Hunter Davies talks about what this same Pete Shotton has been up to.

The last time I met Pete, in 2007 when he visited me in London, he seemed to be living mainly in Cyprus. He'd come in contact again with John, so he maintained, through an American medium. This didn't sound like Pete, who had always appeared a no-nonsense skeptic, but he swore that John was now communicating with him, talking about the old days, and they were making music together.

Hunter Davies, The Beatles, 50th anniversary edition, Ebury Press, p. 536.