Rita Goold - The First Modern Pioneer of Energy-Based Physical Mediumship (Pt 2)
There is much more to Rita Goold than just her unique and – to many people in the 1980’s – strange new style of ‘materialization’ within Physical Mediumship. Rita was extremely interested in the (then popular) phenomenon of ‘crop circles’, together with theories of how these might be produced by, or in conjunction with, UFO’s and ‘Beings from Other Dimensions’.
I find it fascinating that Rita had this particular interest in addition to her mediumship because just as there were remarkable similarities between Rita’s energy-based solid spirit ‘materializations’ in the séance room, and our own energy-based ‘teleported’ solid spirit visitors during the ‘Scole Experiment’ in the 1990’s, Sandra and I also shared Rita’s interest in UFOs and ‘Beings from Other Dimensions’.
Furthermore, all three of us have had similar practical experiences with UFOs and ‘Stellar Friends’ from other dimensions. For Rita, these mainly occurred outside the séance room while we experienced the actual presence of UFOs both inside and outside the séance room, as well as the teleported solid presence of ‘Stellar Friends’ inside the experimental room on a number of occasions.
David Rogers: How we met Rita Goold
There is a very interesting account by David Rogers of the unusual and ‘spooky’ way in which he and Joan came to meet Rita Goold and became good friends, sharing outings and sittings with her. David explains:
“I think it worthwhile to explain how we met Rita Goold – who is a ‘materialization medium’ – and the day’s event that led up to an amazing materialization experience after we had investigated a crop-circle in Wiltshire UK. The experience described below took place in good ambient light with the living room curtains open and a lamp light on the street right outside Rita’s house shining enough light into the room allowing both Joan and myself to see quite clearly what took place.
We first met Rita Goold through very strange circumstances; receiving contact details for Rita which happened during our usual get together at Joan’s home in Coventry. Present was Joan, Pam and myself and as we sat talking about different psychic subjects, Joan’s phone began ringing. When Joan answered the phone, both Pam and I became amused at the expressions of surprise and puzzlement on her face. The phone call ended and Joan began to explain what had just taken place. A man with a slight Italian accent had introduced himself as John and then asked if he was speaking to someone called Joan – which Joan confirmed he was.”
John went on to explain that he belonged to a small group of psychic and paranormal researchers and that his group was using an Ouija board through which various spirits were communicating. He stated that the spirits asked his group to contact someone called Joan and to tell her that she needs to contact a woman by the name of Rita Goold (materialization medium). John told the spirits that they didn’t know anyone called Joan and in response, the board spelled out a telephone number for the group to reach Joan. When Joan explained to John that she had heard of Rita Goold in the Psychic News but didn’t personally know her and that she had no way in contacting her, John said he would try to find out more information and would phone back in a short while. They waited for about ten minutes and the phone rang again. John said they explained the situation to the spirits and they gave another telephone number to pass to Joan saying it was Rita’s home number. Joan thanked John and his group and they never heard from him again.
“We decided that we had nothing to lose in ringing the number and nominated Joan to be the spokesperson. Joan dialed the number and a woman answered introducing herself as Rita Goold. Well – the look on Joan’s face was a picture! Anyway, Joan went on to explain the whole strange incident and Rita said we should meet up. She invited us over to her cottage and from there we went on many exciting excursions with Rita over a period of about 14 years – witnessing all sorts of phenomena”.
David Rogers also spoke of a particular outing they enjoyed with Rita Goold”
“Rita was also an accomplished psychic and UFO researcher and had a great interest in crop circles. An interesting crop-circle appeared in Wiltshire and Rita invited Joan and myself to go with her to investigate the phenomena. We packed the car with lunch and set on our way, driving through the picturesque villages of the Cotswolds which happened to be where my mother was born. As usual, we talked about our favorite subjects - psychic and UFOs, and Rita told us about the large triangular UFO that she and others saw which stopped and hovered about 50 feet above their heads.
We began driving through a village and as we stopped at some red traffic lights, all of a sudden Rita called out saying, ‘My God what’s that?’ She explained that she had just seen a small UFO pass right in front of the car! We decided Rita’s experience must have taken place on some sort of psychic level because Joan and I didn’t witness anything. However, we drove on and Rita suggested we stop for lunch at a picnic park about 10 minutes away”.
Rita checked her watch which showed 1 pm. We started to discuss Rita’s UFO experience and what it meant but we couldn’t reason why it took place. We saw the sign for the park and Rita again checked her watch.’ This can’t be right,’ Rita said and asked Joan to check her own watch. The time read 2.30pm. We pulled into the park grounds, confused about the time it took to get to the park. Somehow, 1 hour and 30 minutes were missing because it should have taken only 10 minutes to arrive at the park! Rita suggested it must be missing time, which was often linked to UFO sightings. A strange experience for us all – to say the least!
We finished our picnic lunch and set off for Wiltshire – wondering if anything else was in store for us. Making good time from there, it wasn’t long before Rita pointed out a winding road up the side of a hill and told us we would be able to see the crop-circle from the hilltop overlooking the valley of cornfields. The view was indeed majestic; Rita slowed the car down to a crawling pace so we would get a better view when – all of a sudden – the whole of the car’s electric system shut down. Concerned that we might cause an accident, Rita frantically tried to start the car with no response – the car was totally dead! We sat wondering whether to get out and push the car over to the side when – exactly at that moment the car’s electrics just simply came back on again. It was just another one of those strange happenings when Rita was around!
We arrived at the crop-circle and spent quite some time at the circle, meeting some very interesting people with out of this world explanations as to how such crop-circles were made. Some suggested that UFOs, aliens and even people who fraudulently make the circles – but who really knows?
After an eventful day investigating the crop-circle, we started our trip back home. I don’t why but it really seemed that we arrived back quicker than when we journeyed down. We soon pulled into Rita’s driveway and quickly unloaded the car. Rita made a nice hot cuppa and we sat together, going over the day’s events.
A short while later, we began to hear what sounded like ‘scratching’ coming from the skirting board down by Rita’s side. Rita looked down to see if she could make sense of the noise and first suggested it might be mice! We carried on talking and I noticed that Rita seemed to become tired, but I just put it down to the long drive there and back from Wiltshire. I glanced over to Joan who was sitting at the other end of Rita’s oblong living room to see if she also had noticed how tired Rita had become. Without our realizing it, Rita was starting to go into trance. The ‘penny dropped’ with us only due to the fact that Rita’s head was starting to slump forward. We both sat quietly as Rita seemed to go even deeper into a somnambulistic state. Then her head started to rise and her body became upright. We waited in anticipation and then a voice in a clear broad Scottish accent introduced itself as Helen Duncan.
The exact details of what Helen spoke about on that occasion are now, regrettably, fragmented after so many years, but after Helen had spoken for awhile, she said there were others who also wished to speak to us. Rita gently started to lie backward and within minutes, another voice was heard but this time it was a distinctly male voice who introduced himself as Raymond Lodge.
Raymond spoke about materialization phenomena and stated that this type of mediumship should be nurtured more and it’s great benefits emphasized in its value as emphatic proof of survival after death. After Raymond finished talking, Rita’s body became relaxed. Then a different voice was heard but this time I realized immediately that it was little Russell Byrne. I recognized his voice from the tapes that a friend Linda Holroy had sent some time ago that had been recorded during one of Rita’s materialization séances. Russell came through with exactly the same character that he has become well known for; noted by his high pitched voice and giggles.
Russell said that although Rita didn’t sit much for phenomena by that time, Spirit still watched over her. He gave a few giggles and then asked us if was there anything we wanted Spirit to do. Of all the things I could have asked for at the time, I could only think of asking if Spirit were able to move the heavy brass coffee table which sat in the middle of the living room. Russell said to give him a minute and he would go and ask. Rita’s head fell forward while we waited.
When I look back at my silly request now I become frustrated with myself! Why on earth didn’t I ask for direct voice so that Joan and I could have requested to speak to our mothers? Russell was soon back and told us that Spirit would try. He said it was good to have met us and then Rita began to lean back with her head tilted to the right. The room seemed strangely quiet. We both began to watch the coffee table and glanced over to Rita who was by now breathing very heavily. All of a sudden, without warning, the coffee table took a stride forward in the direction of Joan! Our mouths dropped open with excitement and again the table took another long stride and continued doing this until it was moved to the other end of the room and positioned itself right in front of Joan’s chair. Joan pulled up her feet onto the chair as the table still tried to move in even closer, and then stopped.
By now, our hearts were beating faster! We both looked at Rita, who was still breathing heavily. I then noticed some white mist pouring from the side of Rita’s body. When I asked Joan if she could see anything by Rita, she said yes, that she could see what looked like mist rising into the air. I was closer to Rita, so Joan came over and sat next to me in order to see more clearly.
The mist oozed from the right-hand side of Rita’s body. We both began talking – describing exactly what we were seeing in order to confirm the phenomena to each other. The mist, (looking very much like steam from a kettle) began to suspend itself in mid-air and as more mist joined, it started to become very dense.
In the meantime, Rita remained very still in her chair and was now breathing very quietly. The mist, however, had become very dense and so thick that we were not able to see through it at all. The ‘cloud’ seemed alive and began undulating. Slowly but surely we could see a figure starting to form from it. I turned to Joan and asked, ‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ at which Joan confirmed she could see a man with a tall top hat. This was also exactly what I was seeing, although I hadn’t yet described it to Joan. For me, it was a definite confirmation that we were both seeing the same thing.
This figure in spirit form reminded us of the Victorian or Edwardian times when top hats were the fashion; clearly his clothing was from the same era with a three quarter length coat, which reminded me a little of a psychic experience I had myself when I was 16 years old. The spirit form turned his head – first looking at me and then Joan. At this point, we saw a white pillar of light appear on the spirit’s left-hand side, whereupon he turned his head to the light and we could see he was talking to someone but couldn’t see or hear who it was.
After a short while the spirit form once again looked in our direction, then all of a sudden, the dense vapor began once again to undulate and disperse. Within about 30 seconds, it had disappeared altogether. I looked at Joan in disbelief at what we had just witnessed and then Rita began moving her head and was back to normal. We both started to tell Rita what had just taken place and she saw the coffee table still in the same place where spirit had moved it. The materialization had taken place in good ambient light, with a light source shining through the window from a street lamp allowing us to see Rita and each other quite clearly.
What a wonderful witness statement from somebody who knew Rita Goold well! Her materialization mediumship was indeed of an amazing pioneering nature (perceived at the time as ‘very different’ and somewhat controversial), as it was energy-based – just like ours during the Scole Experiment many years later in the 1990’s. Her ‘materialization’ sittings (where teleported solid spirit people walked amongst the sitters) provided some wonderful and impressive ‘evidence’ of post-mortem survival. Helen Duncan’s daughter sat with Rita Goold on many occasions, and – without a shadow of a doubt – was able to identify the solid spirit person she met and interacted with during materialization séances at Rita’s, as 100% as her mother, in solid ‘teleported’ form.”
Despite her impressive results, Rita never considered herself to be a professional medium. She NEVER charged for her services and was consequently frequently out of pocket’ as she was always an excellent host to those who attended her séances, and they never left without being fed!
A bereaved mother reunites with her son at Rita’s séance
How much more ‘evidential’ can it get than for a bereaved mother to meet and fully identify her young son, who had passed to spirit, and now presented himself in Rita’s séances as a loving, playful, cheeky and fully animated, quite solid spirit child, who she had no problem in immediately identifying as her ‘dead’ son. Gwen Byrne wrote a book ‘Russell’ (published by ‘Janus Publishing’) about her experiences, and her joy at meeting her son again in such happy circumstances during Rita’s séances. I can personally thoroughly recommend the book to anybody interested in reading the full story.
Here, in an excerpt from Gwen’s book which tells of the first time she had the opportunity to meet Russell again in fully solid and animated form after his ‘death’, during the first of Rita’s sittings to which she was invited:
“Earlier I spoke of Russell waving a torch about, which had a red sock over the lit end. This was no game, although it would seem so to some of my readers. As the medium did not use a cabinet, it was the torch plus the energy that enabled me to see Russell fully materialize. I do not intend to explain the ‘energy’, for this explanation is beyond my capacity. Suffice it to say that that ‘energy’ and Russell, plus his torch, achieved this. ‘Watch Mum. I will show you all of me!’ And he did. The torch was just an ordinary torch, believe me. He started by showing his feet, which were bare–the familiar knees. So familiar to me as I remembered–like any other mother would–the number of times I had scrubbed them.
He wore little shorts and a T-shirt. His dear familiar hands with their square nails, just like his daddy. Then up to his face. So beautiful! A spirit child is so lovely that one’s mind or voice finds it hard to convey a description. I can only say that it was just as I had known him. There he stood in all his glory! Hair–spiky as always. Eyes–so, so blue–which looked into mine with the love that only a son can share with his mother. How can I explain further? He then took my hand and I was allowed to feel his hair with its familiar cowlick flopping over his dear sweet face. Freckles too, all over his nose. As I have already said, I cannot explain this ‘energy’, but will leave it to the experts in that particular field. Also, I will not try and describe my feelings at that moment as they are mine only, and now a very precious memory.
As I have said, I had previously seen parts of Russell at various times, but was now given the wonder of the sight of the whole of him. No amount of words can fully explain my feelings and emotions then–or now when I remember it–so I will leave it there”.
Over my two-part article series, I have attempted to show exactly what a wonderful Physical Medium Rita Goold was. It was an honour for me to meet her just once, and it is to my regret that I did not have the opportunity to sit with her. Also to my regret is the fact that I never had the opportunity to meet Rita after the end of our project ‘The Scole Experiment’, because I would then have had a much greater understanding of the ‘Modus Operandi’ and Spirit World mechanics behind the (as I now know) energy-based phenomena of Rita’s mediumship, which was years before its time.
The way Rita was treated by many sceptics and ‘supposedly spiritual’ people alike was shameful and disgusting. If we consider just how great and rare Rita’s physical mediumship actually was – just imagine how great it could have become if treated properly at the time, so that it had been allowed to grow and develop naturally into what it should have been!
Editor’s Note: In 2014, 20 years after publishing her first book Russell, Gwen Byrne wrote a sequel: The Russell Connection: Reuniting Parents with their Children in the Spirit World through Physical & Trance Mediumship
“Read how, through the rare Physical Mediumship of Rita Goold, Russell was able to walk and talk again - and for the first time in print, Gwen shares transcripts from some of the original audio recordings from these regular reunions - where Russell’s unique humour, love of music and personality shine through.
The work of other Mediums, like Stewart Alexander, Helen Duncan and Tony Stockwell are also highlighted as we learn much more about the process of Spirit communication.
Finally, the evolving soul of Russell Byrne inspires us all with his wisdom and knowledge, gained from many years in the Spirit World. He talks about what he’s learned, his hopes for the future and how we can all communicate with our loved ones.”
Read Part 1: Why Rita Goold’s Energy-Based Physical Mediumship Caused a Furore