The locations for Psychic activity in Christchurch were many, but a particular locus of Psychic Life was no. 5, Chancery Lane, a discreet alley between Cathedral Square and Gloucester Street.听Some newspaper notices and letters refer to 鈥榥o. 3鈥. It is difficult to tell whether the alternative address reflects a shift in location, an additional s茅ance room, or simple error. However, the address is, in a way, symbolic of New 九州影院spiritualism; hidden, yet in the very centre of the city, just below the surface of public life.
One Friday night, at 8 p.m., the spirits of a cultured nun and a Native American girl materialised for a rapt audience on Chancery Lane. Mrs. Lily Hope, the听Psychic News听had asserted in 1937, was a woman of 鈥榯he highest integrity鈥, unassuming and earnest in her sacred work. This could easily be attested by the undersigned on the account, including Edgar McLeod Lovell-Smith, head of the Canterbury Psychic Research Society.
As was usual, the s茅ance room was entirely dark, except for a red light. Mrs. Hope was sewn into a chair in her 鈥榗abinet鈥, curtains across the northwest corner of the room, held up with safety pins. Indeed, black cloth covered the walls and ceiling. The especially dim light would not 鈥榙isturb鈥 any of spirits, who were notoriously shy. Mediums in the early twentieth century described their work as a 鈥榮cience鈥, yet complained that efforts to validate the apparitions empirically disturbed the spiritual atmosphere and made the materialisations feeble. Yet the spiritualists also framed their work in explicitly Christian terms; many s茅ances began with the Lord鈥檚 Prayer and copious Signs of the Cross, and Lovell-Smith鈥檚 papers included a list of biblical references supposedly supporting spiritualism in the modern sense, probably to counteract religious opposition.听鈥極ne should start with 鈥榓 prayer through Christ for protection and guidance鈥f it is his will鈥.听This kind of spiritualism operated on the border of science and religion, not entirely at ease with either, yet appropriating strains of both. Within these conditions, the ritual of the s茅ance unfolded.
Mrs. Hope was sewn into a wicker chair in the cabinet, lengths of ribbon holding down her arms and legs to the closest part of each chair. These guards against natural explanation set in place, others sat in a circle, and 鈥榯wo or three鈥 verses of听Abide with Me听and the Lord鈥檚 Prayer. Two greetings were heard in the darkness, requesting that the safety-pins be undone, but asking the gathered to continue singing. Puled by this request, Mrs Edles stalled, asked to feel the medium鈥檚 hands, felt head and face, sliding hand from neck and shoulders down arms to fingers. The medium was warm, but her hands were cold. The wrists strapped in, no room to lift hands. The curtains were pinned again, and the assembled began singing 鈥楬oly, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty鈥.
Subsequently, two personalities, Sister Monica and Sunrise, appeared.
