Roy Stemman - Medium Rare

the psychic life of Ena Twigg

Roy Stemman

Copyright: Roy Stemman

First impression: 1971

Second impression: 1972

Third impression: 2012

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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(first published by Spiritualist Association of GreatBritain, London, SWI)

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Preface Dr. Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop ofSouthwark

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Misty People

Chapter 2 Novelist in Need

Chapter 3 A New Horizon

Chapter 4 The Quick and the Dead

Chapter 5 Future Revealed

Chapter 6 Haunted Vicarage

Chapter 7 Fact and Theory

Chapter 8 Divided Church

Chapter 9 When the Clocks Stopped

Chapter 10 Death in the Desert

Chapter 11 Television Medium

Chapter 12 Love is Eternal

Chapter 13 Was She Born Again?

Chapter 14 Philosophy for Tomorrow

I wrote Medium Rare 40 years ago, workingclosely with its subject the remarkable Ena Twigg and a few ofthe high profile individuals who were eager to testify to the helpand comfort they had received from her psychic gifts.

Ena Twigg passed away in 1984 at the age of70. In the meantime, other mediums have appeared whose abilitieshave hit the headlines, and demonstrations of mediumship are nowregularly broadcast on television.

But what was unique about Ena Twigg, inparticular, was that her mediumship served as a very positivebridge between Christianity and Spiritualism, as well as extendinginto many other walks of life. Church of England and Episcopaleanbishops had sittings with her, and clergymen took bereavedparishioners to see her in the hope usually realised that theywould hear from their dead loved ones.

There are still those, within orthodoxChristianity, who dismiss the relevance of Spiritualism and thegood that mediums like Ena Twigg can do, not only in comfortingthose who grieve but also in helping put the Christian message ofresurrection into perspective in a way that has relevance for usall. The testimonies in this book are the perfect antidote to thosesceptics.

It is for these reasons that I feltMedium Rare deserved to be back in print, in its originalform, after a long absence. Its subject may have left the earthplane, but the story of her life and work deserves to live on andreach out to a new audience.

Roy Stemman

June 2012

Click for a list of my other books

I am glad to commend this book to the attention ofthose who are interested in psychical research and life afterdeath. Even if we have no experience of extra- sensory perception,we cannot be indifferent to the grave. Sooner or later we shallreach it; inevitably we wonder whether it is a terminus or ajunction.

Roy Stemman helps us to view the question ina wider setting by introducing us to Ena Twigg, one of the foremostmediums of the day. He tells us of the development of her psychicgifts, of her strange encounters in the parapsychological field andof her alleged conversations with the dead.

Knowing Ena Twigg as I do I am not surprisedby Roy Stemmans accounts. Not only have I complete confidence inher integrity, but I have also been present on many occasions whenthings have happened which cannot be explained, so it would seem,by the ordinary means of perception.

In some countries money, time and effort aredevoted to this study, whereas in Britain psychical phenomena istoo easily dismissed as spooks and treated as material for aChristmas game. This is sad because if we are to have a balancedview of life we should treat seriously the spiritual dimension. Thefact is, materialism and much that parades under the name ofreligion have lost their appeal, as they no longer satisfy theneeds of hungry people. Ena Twigg has been more successful thanmost in pointing people to the source from which the answerscome.

As a Bishop I would not want to subscribe toall the views expressed in this book, but I am in wholeheartedagreement with its main purpose, which is to invite readers toexamine the possibility of a realm of existence which is greaterthan that to which we are normally accustomed, an existence whichincludes but transcends the grave.

MERVYN STOCKWOOD

Bishop of Southwark

1971

Bishops and scholars, record breakers and makers,novelists and princesses have all, in turn, made their way to thedoor of a modest West London semi-detached house. With mixedmotives but undoubted sincerity they crossed the threshold insearch of a missing factor in their lives. Frequently they emergedtransformed. A new purpose and vitality had been injected intotheir existence.

The person responsible for this new outlookis a small, radiantly attractive housewife whose eyes are darkpools of warmth and compassion. Their glow and the ever-presentsmile on her lips do not reflect the procession of grief anddespair she encounters daily.

The unique possession which attracts hercallers is not a physical palliative. It is not a drug nor anelixir of life. It bestows no earthly wealth upon her visitors. Yetshe and the callers regard it as priceless.

Ena Twigg is a medium. She is never alone.In an empty room there are people she can see and hear: the dead.Friends, helpers and strangers from another world, they plead formessages of love to be conveyed to mourners. These etherealintruders into her life have not always been welcome, though shecan never remember a time when she was not aware of theirpresence.

Ena Twigg was a reluctant medium. She triedto ignore what she saw and heard. It could not be done. She triedto fight against these unsought manifestations. They were stronger.Some people hide their fear of the subject with the statement,Its wrong to disturb the dead. Frequently, as with Ena Twigg, itis a case of the dead disturbing the living.

The time eventually came when she stoppedfighting and began co-operating. The reason, which is unfolded inthese pages, involved a debt of gratitude to the next world. Fromthe day she became a professional medium Ena Twigg has been the hubof remarkable psychic activity. No longer did the invisible peopleshe saw and heard relate only to her or her family. Strangers, inthis world and the next, sought her in their desperate attempts toreceive and give comfort.

It would be easy to dismiss Ena Twiggsclairvoyant powers as unfounded claims by a self-deluded woman.Easy to do, but only those too ignorant or afraid to face theimplications of their reality would dare to make such an assertion.Bishops and canons are among clergymen who have had sances withthis petite housewife, and they have sent their own parishioners toher for comfort. Their interpretations of her curious talentdiffer, but they respect it as a God-given gift to comfort thebereaved.

A man whose attempts to break land and waterspeed records ended in tragedy was one of her regular sitters. Thejoy of his sances was the opportunity to speak with his deadfather whose speed-king career he was emulating. His mother, too,has received evidence of survival after death from Mrs. Twigg.There is the novelist and the president of a famous psychicsociety; both value her mediumship enormously. There are manyothers, not famous but just as much in need of the psychic help EnaTwigg, and others similarly gifted, can give. The evidence theyhave received, often of a startling nature, is sufficiently variedin the ways conveyed and satisfyingly accurate in the personalidiosyncrasies referred to, as to apply to only one person: thesitter; and to derive from only one person: the dead communicator.These are the sances which confound sceptics attempts to providealternative theories to the spirit-world explanation.