But this event in 1993 is no ordinary middle-class night of good red wine and a warming casserole. The Bennetts and the Foys are engaged in a project that would make most people shiver. For they have found irrefutable evidence for the existence of life after death.
Eventually the four decide to get.down to ‘work’ and, understandably, it’s the kind of work they are nervous of telling others about for fear of ridicule.
With the exception of three other close friends, Ken, Bernette and Mimi, none of whom have been able to make tonight’s meeting, they prefer to keep their discreet gatherings secret.
Their activities have a distinctly sinister air. For they are dabbling in what could be seen by some as nearing the realms of black magic -- the conjuring up of spirits.
However, there is one crucial difference. The work undertaken by these friends has since been held by some scientlsts from Europe and the U.S. to be scientific proof of the survival after death of human consciousness.
But in 1993 they were still at the beginning of a series of breakthroughs that were to span five years.
It was to result in their receiving gifts of gold and precious jewellery apparently materialized out of thin air, and spirit voices recorded on tape machines. As their powers increased, they were sent startling images, placed directly on to unopened rolls of films and video footage that gave a glimpse of another dimension.
Experts, including a former member of the parapsychology unit at Edinburgh University versed in detecting trickery and deception, came to examine the Scole group’s activities and many were convinced that they were genuine.
That October evening, the Foys and the Bennetts make their way along a narrow passage and down a winding staircase to a dimly-lit cellar It measures five yards by ten, and its walls, floors and ceiling are painted a deep midnight blue. The only way in and out is through a solid oak door, which creaks noisily when opened.
A round table sits in the middle of the room. Seven chairs surround it, three will remain empty this evening.
Robin Foy hands out luminous armbands to ensure everyone’s movements can be monitored and Diana Bennett places a tape recorder containing a blank cassette on the table. Finally, the lights are turned off.
The group has been meeting for months, waiting for something 'tangible and evidential' to occur.
These four normal people -- Robin is a former RAF pilot turned manager of a large paper company and Sandra a housewife. Alan is a carpenter, Diana an alternative healer -- are all too aware that their home-grown experiments would be subject to great skepticism.
Yet they truly believe that it is possible to communicate with people who, according to the phrase, have passed to the other side. Tonight is to prove the turning point.
Soon, Diana Bennett finds herself drifting into a trance. An androgynous voice starts to speak through her to the group for the very first time.
He tells them that his name is Manu and that he is the gate-keeper between Earth and the other side. He explains that he represents thousands of minds from the many other realms of existence.
He goes on to say that their plan is to pioneer methods of communication between the two dimensions using ‘creative energy’. A combination of spiritual, human and earth-bound energy forces. And that this small group in Norfolk has been chosen to help them.
As Manu continues to speak through Diana, her husband Alan Bennett also enters into a trance. Manu explains to them that it is important that two of the group are able to work as mediums.
The visiting spirit, whose ‘voice’ is being recorded on the tape recorder on the table, concludes with the words: ‘What you are about to witness is a sign of greater things to come. We have brought you a gift from our team to your group.’
Suddenly, shortly after Manu stops speaking to them, there is a loud thud on the table. A short while later, the session is over, and Diana and Alan have regained consciousness. The lights are switched on.
There, on the table, is a mint condition coin, the rate and sought-after Churchill Crown. They all examine the coin, hardly able to believe what has happened. They place it in a locked cabinet so that it may be examIned by experts. It later transpires that it is completely genuine.
As the months passed, the group achieved more and more breakthroughs with what they believed was the spirit realm.
‘Manu’ explained that he was being instructed by a team of spirit scientists and technicians. These were personalities who’d had an interest In technology and scientific experiments while alive on Earth.
The spirits knew that convincing proof had to include physical evidence which could be tested and scrutinised. And that they were going to do everything in their power to provide this proof.
They could influence atoms and molecules using the power of their thoughts and this in turn would help them produce actual, physical acts and objects from thin air.
Within six months of receiving the coin, the group recorded that they had witnessed dancing lights, the ringing of bells hung on the roof of the cellar, levitation of objects placed on the table, noisy cracklings and loud thumps.
Then one night, when the Foys and Bennetts were joined by their three other friends, they received another important ‘message from Manu’: ‘We are going to bring you a collection of gifts which have been carefully chosen by us to be relevant to those present and are brought with a tremendous amount of love and goodwill.’
At the end of the session, when the lights in the cellar had been turned on, there were seven objects lying on the table — a silver thimble, two small silver lockets, a silver chain bracelet, a St Christopher medallion, an ornate miniature spoon, a decorated bowl with an inscription in French on the reverse and a tlny gold medallion with hieroglyphics.
Four gifts for women and three for men, exactly corresponding to the group’s make-up. These too were locked in the cupboard with the first gift, the Churchill Crown.
The sessions became even more fantastic. The dancing lights that would appear in the cellar started to touch the group members. And whenever the lights appeared, words were spoken from mid-air.
This communication technique became known as ‘extended voice’. These voices seemed to come from all around the room and even from within the walls.
Then, apparently at the spirits’ request, the Scole group bought a new 35mm camera without a built-in flashgun, and loaded it with conventional 24-frame, 35mm color film. The camera was placed on a wooden chair beside Sandra Foy who was briefed by the spirit team to take photographs in the total darkness whenever she was asked to do so.
There was no normal source of light in the room; hence it would not be expected that the film could be ‘exposed’.
As the strange lights started to fly and dance around the cellar, the ‘spirits’ explained that they would try to communicate by projecting images on to the film.
Sandra was told to pick up the camera and wait for the spirits to give the word before taking a picture. For a brief moment, one of the small, bright lights stopped its rapid rotation around the room, hovered and ‘posed’ in front of the camera. On command, Sandra pressed the button.
A little later, she was told that she could take pictures as she wished, at her own pace. After taking a few snaps, she put the camera down on the seat next to her, where it continued taking its own snapshots without her pressing the button. The camera wound itself on after every frame. The last five frames were used in this way.
The next day the film was developed and the results were startling. The group's first reaction was that they must have been given the wrong film by mistake. But It was their film because the first shot was the view from one of the farmhouse windows, taken when the camera was first loaded.
The rest of the photographs left them speechless. There had been no fewer than 11 definite attempts by the 'spirit team' to put images on the film.
Another two seemed to show a wrecked bus after a night of wartime bombing in Coventry or London. The fifth image showed the front cover of a newspaper from 1936 and a sixth showed a group of soldiers from World War I, two officers and seven men.
Pictures eight, nine, ten and 11 were much fainter, but represented groups of people. The group were told that these images all held some significance for other members of the ‘spirit team’.
A ‘spirit’ called Patrick said that he had known the men in uniform, and another called Edward had actually taken the photographs of the Blitz before his death.
Having achieved such success with the camera, the spirit scientists felt that they needed to provide further proof of their existence before the group could go publlc with their findings.
To this end, they were told that from now on they would receive only original images, transmitted directly on to film left in the centre of the table. There would be no need for a camera.
They placed a 35mm film, still in it's factory-sealed tub, on the centre of the table. They also put out’ two instant Polaroid films.
TIe Polaroids, when processed by feeding back through a camera, revealed a variety of pictures, star clusters and, on one occasion, a very clear portrait of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a paranormal investigator during his life.
In another instance, the signature of the composer Ivor Novello was printed on to Polaroid film.
The 35mm film was initially more difficult to process. Eventually they gathered their own processing machinery but at first they had to take them to the processing shop where they were greeted with very strange looks as they handed over unopened film for development. They received even stranger looks when the film came out with various images on them.
The images grew more and more sophisticated and started to include ancient scripts and hieroglyphics as well as excerpts from poems and pieces of literature.
The ‘spirits team’, conveying their wishes through the ghostly voice of Manu, now felt It was time that the Scole group invited the scrutiny of scientists.
Through their friend Montague Keen, himself a member of the Society for Psychical Research, they contacted the wider scientific community.
The investigations involved individuals from organisations such as Nasa, the Scientific And Medical Network, various European universities including Britain’s Open University and privately-funded research bodies.
Investigators from Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S. assessed and reviewed the Scole group’s techniques and physical evidence, including the photographs.
Some investigators came to believe that the Scole group’s work constituted ground-breaking evidence for the existence and survival after death of the human consciousness.
To ensure that the tests were undertaken under rigorous scientific conditions, a special wooden box was built to house the unopened, factory-sealed film. The box was then padlocked and held by one of the visiting investigators.
Before the box was used in any of the experiments, it was sent away for careful examination to ensure that it wasn’t possible to open it in the dark in the cellar without breaking its seals.
Walter Schinneger, a highly respected German engineer interested in the paranormal, was invited to attend a session. None of the group knew him, but they believed he had a logical, detached mind.
Schinneger was handed the wooden box, just big enough to contain one roll of film in its plastic tub. He placed his own roll of 12-frame film in the box, locked it and took the keys, together with the box, out to his car.
He left the padlock keys in the car and handed his car keys over to another investigator, Swiss lawyer and businessman Dr Hans Schaer, a member of the Society for Psychical Research who had been present at several previous sessions and was going to sit in on this one.
Shinneger explained what happened: ‘From the moment of locking the box until the time the film was processed immediately after the sitting, the box was solely in my hands. It was never allowed to stand alone and was not even touched by anyone else.
'In the cellar I held the box on my lap with my right hand, in such a way that my forefinger was on the lid and the lower part of the finger touching the locking mechanism.
'During the several minutes that followed, with my hand in this position, the table vibrated several times, sometimes so strongly that crystals we had placed on the top started to rattle.
'On one occasion the pullover and shirt on my right arm were pulled up and a finger circled my wrist; then the clothes were pulled down again.
'It felt as though at least five hands were touching my right arm at the same time, some of them quite powerful, as if they were seeking to pull my fingers away from the container (which I did not allow) or to apply force to the container, so that some effort was needed to keep the container in place.
'I held on to the box until after the sitting had finished. Then I retrieved my car keys from Hans, took the box to the car to pick up the padlock keys and returned to make a close inspection of the processing machine to ensure that it was empty.
'I then inserted the film into the processing maching and started the clearly audible processing mechanism, which took about two minutes. I removed the film myself and we all inspected it. It showed text, symbols and lines over the whole length of the film, together with some German words and handwriting and some strang mirror text.'
The investigators present were convinced; there was no way that the film could have been tampered with by humans. Yet there was still an element of doubt which visiting investigators insisted on removing.
Dr Richard Wiseman of the Society for Psychical Research, and a former member of the parapsychology unit at Edinburgh University, is a specialist in the psychology, methods and practice of deception. He was brought in to ensure no tricks were being played.
Dr Wiseman provided a fraud-proof security bag made of opaque triple-layered polythene. At the next Scole meeting, Professor Arthur J. Ellison, also of the SPR, took a 35mm Polaroid film which he brought with him, and placed it in the Wiseman security bag.
Although the Scole group were now being supplied with films direct from Polaroid so that they could continue their experiments without incurring high costs, the investigators always insisted on bringing their own films.
Professor Ellison kept hold of the bag at all times. After the session, the investigators opened the bag, removed the film, and put it through the developer upstairs. The results, projected by the Foys on to their large screen in the library, showed mainly star-like scatterings. And, in one section, there was a small cog-like shaped light with a shadowy substance behind it.
The investigators considered that the outcome 'indicated paranormality' since the image was certainly not random but rather a recognizable shape.They could find no way in which the procedure could be faulted. The security bag and the film had been in the possession of the investigators throughout. Soon, however, the imaging was to become sophisticated.
Some four years after the Scole group were first introduced to Manu and his 'spirit scientists', they were asked to switch some of their experiments to video. This presented a new and exciting set of breakthroughs. The hand-held video camera mounted on a tripod and often angled according to the spirits' instructions, captured images that ranged from dramatic surges of color to men's faces poking through the bubble-like spheres.
Then a year after video was first introduced, the group saw a creature on film they were to name Blue. They described it thus: 'There was a very clear, animated creature whose features, to say the least, were not exactly as our own.'
Doctor Hans Schaer, who had undertaken tests with the group on numerous occasions, came back to witness the video camera operation. There was perfect light in the cellar and only he and the Foys and Bennetts were present.
Schaer personally loaded a brand new tape into the video camera, making sure that no one else touched it. After five minutes of meditation music they each in turn sat in front of a mirror placed opposite the video camera. When the last of them had returned to their seats, Robin Foy closed a set of curtains that had been placed directly in front of the camera and turned out the light.
Alan and Diana Bennett went into a trance and Manu spoke to them. He explained that the work that they had all produced in the past would not be continued, the energy would now be used for other unspecified purposes. It was 1998, five years after the Scole group began their work.
At the end of the session, when the light was switched on again, Dr Schaer removed the video tape from the camera, checked his dated signature and carried the tape upstairs where he inserted it in the video player.
At the very beginning of the tape, they all saw in the lower right part of the television screen the clearly recognizable profile of a man aged between 50 and 60, slightly balding in front, with dark hair and possibly a black moustache, wearing metal-rimmed glasses.
The portrait appeared as if inside a water bubble. It lasted for about six seconds. Then the image moved slightly and another face appeared behind the first one, but still easily recognizable. The second man wore something like a Russian fur hat. His face remained for about three seconds and then both portraits vanished.
Dr Schaer later concluded in his report that there was no explanation for what had happened.
The Scole Experiment
Late October and in the little Norfolk village of Scole autumn-tinged trees guarding a 17th century farmhouse rustle in the chilly early evening breeze. A car crunches slowly along the gravel drive to the house. Alan and Diana Bennett get out and wait patiently for their friends, friends, Robin and Sandra Foy, to open the door for another get-together.We're all fascinated by the question: Is there really life after death? Some people believe it is possible despite all the seemingly overwhelming evidence. For five years, a group of middle-class friends held experiments in a cellar in Norfolk determined to find conclusive proof. What makes their story so remarkable is that scientists from Europe and America were invited to subject their findings to the most rigorous scrutiny. And, remarkably, as a new book reveals, some independent investigators concluded they had indeed discovered tangible evidence of the unknown. Whether you believe them or not, the story of their paranormal journey makes fascinating reading.
The subjects of the photographs varied greatly and appeared totally unconnected. The first was an image of St Paul’s Cathedral during the Blitz. A second was a similar but sideways view.
[The German inscription on the right of this film reads: 'Like dust in the wind']
* Extracted from THE SCOLE EXPERIMENT by Grant and Jane Solomon,
published by Piatkus at £16.99. To order a copy, telephone 01476-541-001
