The Barbanell Report 1987 / 204 pages. 

Maurice Barbanell, the founder editor of Psychic News and the medium for the discarnate teacher Silver Birch, arranged with Paul Beard that the first to depart this life would attempt to convey what he found. The Barbanell Report, the result of this pact, is based on some thirty sessions, held over four years, by Paul Beard with Marie Cherrie at London's College of Psychic Studies. It is a feat of mediumship the more valuable and difficult since she had never met Barbanell and indeed had not felt over friendly towards him. Although a number of evidential facts appear, the main thrust is towards the very difficult task of depicting the change in growth of consciousness which Maurice Barbanell has gradually undergone, and which he found hard both to understand and bring about. It pictures a work load altogether more intense than comfortably promised in popular Spiritualism. His altered relationship to Silver Birch is surprising, though logical, and leads Barbanell in a more taxing search than he had expected to find the meaning of the outer and inner realities now around him. This fascinating record also shows the growth of a rapport between Barbanell and Mrs Cherrie, which allows Paul Beard to probe deeply, and to receive some remarkable answers. This is a book, however, that is bound to make some enemies, and will be disturbing to those who have easier expectations of what awaits them after death. The Report, although of deep sincerity, is a seminal volume that will, when assessed by thinking Spiritualists, have far-reaching effects upon the future of their Movement. About the author Paul Beard's lifetime study of the psychical field has, as might be expected, given him an exceptionally wide experience of its many aspects. His capacity for in-depth and lucid appraisal is as evident in this book as in the other volumes of his trilogy. The past President of the College of Psychic Studies, London - he was president for sixteen years - he has also been a member of the Society for Psychical Research for thirty years. The author has lectured to both these bodies as well to the Scientific and Medical Network, the Wrekin Trust, the Centre for Psychological and Spiritual Studies, and many other organisations.