There has been much written and documented about Leslie Flint. For example, how he was the most tested medium of his day by researchers and found to be 100% genuine. But this account is about our experience with him and I feel no need to go into other areas, as they can easily researched if needed.

Leslie Flint’s Direct Voice séances were wonderful and we learned so much. One very interesting point is that the voice actually moved around the room. As Mickey, or whoever was talking at the time, went to someone else, you could hear that the voice was further down the room. This does not come through on the audio recordings, unfortunately.

Some are going to ask, did anyone famous come through? Well yes, a few did. Elizabeth Garret Anderson (1836-1917), who started the first hospital for women. Nellie Wallace (1870-1948), the old Music Hall star known as ‘The Essence of Eccentricity’.

How we discovered Leslie Flint

It is hard to know exactly where to start, as not only was it so long ago, but things happened in a certain manner before we actually went to Leslie Flint’s séance for the first time.

Early in 1981, my wife Wendy and I opened the back room of our flat as a healing sanctuary. We were the first ones to actually do this outside of the Spiritualist churches, in our area of Great Yarmouth, anyway. It was a great success and every Thursday evening we would work until nearly midnight on some occasions.

A widower called John that we got to know at our local church became so interested in what we were doing that we offered to train him as a healer. Not long after that, we began to work with a new patient, a lady from Lowestoft in East Suffolk whose name was Jo. After our first healing session, she asked if she could come again the following week. We said of course, that is why we are here, you don’t need to ask.

Jo told us that she moved down to Lowestoft after losing her husband Les, who had himself been a healer. She went on to say that she was thinking of moving back to where she had come from as she found the local people not to be very friendly and was feeling a bit disillusioned. But she said that we were like a warm breath of fresh air as we were so friendly in welcoming her. She started to come and see us each week and also got to know John, who lost his wife Jean about a year earlier. They became friends and later married.

During this time, Jo regaled us with stories of Leslie Flint and lent us her signed copy of his autobiography Voices in the Dark. She naturally treasured her book but entrusted us with it and said, “I must have it back, but will buy you a copy for Christmas.” True to her word, her gifted book is now one of our valued possessions.

Leslie Flint

One day she said, “Would you all like to go to Leslie Flint’s for a Direct Voice séance”? We jumped at the idea. She said that Leslie, by that time, was actually retired and only did séances occasionally for people he knew or who had previously attended. As Jo had been before, Leslie knew he could trust her if she wanted to bring a group to see him.

She told us that Leslie only asked for a nominal charge of £6 per head which we could manage okay. But we would have to go by train from Great Yarmouth to Paddington which was a bit expensive for us. At that time we existed on a basic benefit, which was barely enough to keep soul and body together.

Then I had a thought. A couple of years previously I had bought an acoustic guitar, which I was vainly trying to learn to play. I had actually given up on that a while ago as I knew it was never going to happen. A friend’s daughter had expressed interest in buying it from me and I said she could have it for £25 which was half of what I had paid for it. She readily agreed, and the sale covered our train fare and a meal.

Jo arranged things with Leslie, and our séance was booked for 2nd June 1982. It was a three hour journey to Paddington and we had to get up very early on the day. We piled out of bed at 5am to get ready to catch the train. Our little flat was full of the atmosphere of expectancy. It was as though our spirit friends already knew of our visit and what was awaiting us.

As I walked into our front room, all of Wendy’s ornaments were pinging like crazy. We both stopped in our tracks and listened as they went ping, ping, ping for a few minutes, or so it seemed. We were so enthralled by it all that time seemed to stand still for awhile.

We went into the kitchen to make a pot of tea, where Wendy had an indoor washing line set up. She gets a bit embarrassed when I tell folk about this next bit. There was only one item of clothing on the washing line and it was part of Wendy’s underwear. Well, the washing line was going crazy, pinging up and down with quite a force, and there was the item belonging to Wendy going up and down with it. Once again we were truly amazed. When all was still again, I tried to emulate it by pinging the line myself but it just wasn’t the same. When spirit does something, it can’t be imitated

Meeting Leslie Flint

We set off on our journey full of excitement and expectancy at what we were, hopefully, going to experience that day. Jo told us that Leslie had managed to fit us in with another group who were also booked that day. It didn’t matter. We were just excited at the prospect of going at all.

He had to leave the room for a while and when he was gone, Wendy thought she would looke under the cinema seats to see if there was anything untoward there. Leslie came back while she was still looking! He wasn’t offended in the least. In fact he said: “Go on look everywhere; satisfy yourself that everything is as it should be.”                                                                                                                                                                           

Leslie Flint was waiting for us when we entered the room. Being polite, I said, “My name is Robin and this is…” That’s when Leslie said, “NO, don’t tell me names. It won’t be evidential if I know all your names.”

He had to leave the room for a while and when he was gone, Wendy looked under the cinema seats to see if there was anything untoward there, and Leslie returned while she was still looking! He wasn’t offended in the least. In fact he said: “Go on look everywhere; satisfy yourself that everything is as it should be.”                                                                                                                                                                                     

He even told her to go and look in the projector room where the film machinery was. So she did and found nothing wrong there, either.

Most of our group and the other guests sat themselves in the cinema seats. For some reason, I had spied a piano near the corner of the room and Wendy and I sat down beside that so we were a bit separate from the others. Then the lights went out and we were sitting in total blackness. Leslie told us to just to talk normally amongst ourselves, and to him, of course. Keep it light hearted and laughter will help. I can’t recall exactly how long it was we chatted away; it may have been around half an hour or maybe a bit more.

Then Mickey started to speak. It is almost impossible to say what happened in detail as it was so long ago but here is a link to that séance so you can all hear it for yourselves. But I can tell you this, it was truly wonderful.

Our first séance

After our first séance, Leslie knew we could be trusted and agreed that we could bring a group to see him on our own.

Our next séance was arranged for 10th November 1983. This time, we travelled to Paddington by road. We had made friends with a chap called Brian through a local charity that we were both helping with at the time. When we told him of our first séance with Leslie Flint, he was interested in coming along to the next one. Brian had a large Mercedes van that he used to take disabled people around in and offered to take us all in that to see Leslie. So we took our circle members with us for our second visit.

Our second séance

Everyone enjoyed it so much we all decided that would love to go again, so we arranged once more to go on 11th July 1984. Once again, Brian took us all in his vehicle.

Our third séance

We went to Leslie’s for a fourth time, but I can’t recall the date. The reason may be that it was a dud. Nothing happened at all. We must have sat there in the darkness for around two hours when Leslie called it a day. He was so sorry, full of apologies that nothing had happened, what with us coming all that way. But you see, dear Leslie was getting on a bit and he couldn’t guarantee a result. He said it was happening more often and that his own energies weren’t sufficient on that day. Of course we were disappointed but we had a lovely talk with him while we were waiting for the séance that was never destined to start that day.

We were all of good cheer though, and made an appointment for another visit which would take place on 1st October 1985. I have labelled this as our fourth séance because it was our fourth and final successful visit.

Our fourth séance

May I just add that for all these and other wonderful séances to be heard on YouTube, has been made possible by my good friend Jack Terrence Andrews who has so diligently uploaded them to his channel The Leslie Flint Trust. There you will hear many more recordings of the unique and wonderful Direct Voice mediumship of Leslie Flint.

Note: This article was originally published in the Afterlife Magazine by The Otherside Press which has since joined the PDN group.