Estelle Roberts

Estelle Roberts (May 10, 1889 - May 30, 1970) was a British Spiritualist medium.

Estelle Roberts
BornMay 10, 1889
DiedMay 30, 1970(1970-05-30) (aged 81)
OccupationSpiritualist medium

Biography

Roberts is regarded by the British Spiritualist Movement as one of its finest exponents of mediumship in the 20th Century but skeptics have not been convinced by her alleged powers. She claimed both physical and mental mediumship, and the teachings of her guide, a Native American Indian, known as Red Cloud, have been published. She toured the UK giving mediumship demonstrations for money.

On 13 July 1930 thousands of people attended the Royal Albert Hall for Arthur Conan Doyle's memorial service. During the service Roberts gave a mediumship demonstration to the audience and claimed to witnessed Doyle's spirit in a chair.[1][2]

Roberts wrote the book Forty Years a Medium (1959). The book was described in a review by journalist Tom Greenwell as non-scientific and was questioned how anyone apart from the author could take it seriously.[3] The spirit guide of Roberts known as Red Cloud made false predictions. He predicted that World War II was not going to break out and that there was going to be peace.[4] Roberts refused for her mediumship to be tested or observed by any scientist or psychical researcher. The Society for Psychical Research offered to test her abilities but she declined to be tested.[5]

Roberts claimed to materialize an Indian spirit guide called "Red Cloud". Researcher Melvin Harris who examined some photographs of Red Cloud suggested that the face was the same as Roberts and she had dressed up in a feathered war bonnet.[6]

Publications
  • Red Cloud Speaks (1938)
  • Forty Years a Medium (1959)
  • Fifty Years a Medium (1972)

References
  1. Jones, Kelvin. (1989). Conan Doyle and the Spirits: The Spiritualist Career of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Aquarian Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-0850308372
  2. Stashower, Daniel. "The Empty Chair". The New York Times.
  3. Greenwell, Tom. (November 12, 1959). A Medium's Story. John O'London's: For Books and the Arts. Volume 1. p. 179
  4. Nelson, Geoffrey K. (1969). Spiritualism and Society. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 162. ISBN 978-0710062529
  5. Estelle Roberts (1889-1970). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology.
  6. Harris, Melvin. (2003). Investigating the Unexplained: Psychic Detectives, the Amityville Horror-mongers, Jack the Ripper, and Other Mysteries of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-0879753580
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