"Trance Seances Given at United Nations HQ"

Though Alexander Murray has "an awesome pedigree, he was far from intimidating when we met. He is a Positive Thinker who exudes bonhamie and a quiet confidence born of knowing exactly who he is and where he is going.

As a journalist I appreciated his professional approach to our interview. He sent along beforehand a folder containing useful data and notes on his lecture programmes that give a clear idea of his work.

Alexander told me his main object now is teaching and provate clairvoyant consultation. He covers a wide variety of subjects appertaining to a wide variety of subjects. These include: Psychic Self-Defense, Healing Through Sound, Divination, Tarot, Numerology, and other devices, and "Practical White Magic," in which he shows how techniques of primitive forms of magic can be adapted to positive and useful uses such as healing.

Alexander teaches candle rituals for focusing psychic energy and "causing effects to manifest in your life." But he is careful to insure these techniques are not "negatively manipulative." They are not to be used to make a killing on the stock market," he emphasized.

"We have to bring some of these metaphysical truths into physical manufestation or reality," he said. "That is basically what magic means. We work with those things which we have to manifest the half of the bottle that is full not empty. You take whatever you have and increase it," he explained, adding this included talents as well as money.

"One of the first things people have to learn," Alexander added, "is that they have to make an investment in themselves of time and commitment…"

Alexander’s clients often seek career advice and self-fulfillment. He receives psychic impressions about each one. Sometimes messages are relayed from personal spirit guides, teachers or loved ones.

"If I see a problem, I inevitably see a means to avoid it," he added, "I have one cardinal rule: I never make up people’s minds. The future is not absolute. What you do changes it. We live in a very large NOW. The past and the future are at its edges. All the things we need to know and experience, the things we want, exist somewhere in that NOW. We are able to contact the spirit world because spirit has never left the NOW; it has gone into another part of it."

When a sitter wants to contact a "dead" relative or friend, said Alexander, "we have to find where that consciousness is in the Universe." He sees himself as a psychic telephone.

His UN sittings resulted in trance material of scientific value. Alexander said some had been used by several countries. One African nation had a pressing problem. Locusts were eating its grain crop. With drawings and descriptive matter, Alexander’s guide, Enoch, was able to convey a remedy, a kind of "sound gun" that broadcast a frequency making life impossible for these pests, it proved highly successful.

Many historical personages have communicated via Alexander’s trance mediumship, using "a remembered persona that reconstructs their personalities," he explained. One sitter had a fifty-page communication said to come from Sir Isaac Newton, who passed in 1727 and is regarded as the world’s greatest man of science. Alexander confesses he is unable to understand some scientific messages transmitted through him. Another communicator, saying he was Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, discussed his theories with a respected New York psychoanalyst.

The medium, listening to his recorded trance sittings, finds his physical body has been used to transmit messages from authors like George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Mark Twain. Other communications come from stage personalities such as opera star Nellie Melba, David Garrick, the actor-manager who passed in 1779; Mrs. Sarah Siddons, of the famous portrait, the greatest tragic actress of the early nineteenth century; and Sarah Bernhardt, who trod the dramatic boards a century later.

Alexander was a bass player at one time, working in opera, symphony, and ballet, and has received messages from composers Liszt, Shubert, Handel, Beethoven and pianist Clara Schumann.

"Francis Bacon speaks often about politics and material things," added Alexander. He recalled one epithet the Elizabethan writer transmitted, "the secret of prosperity is not in turning things of value into gold but of turning gold into things of value."

Disreali, Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister conveyed this message, "inflation is the bloat of economic starvation." This foxed me until Alexander reminded me starving children become bloated.

The medium believes he has received automatic writing from Charles I, the British king beheaded by order of Parliament. These writings, said Alexander are "profound political observations on the state of the world." Maria Theresa, eighteenth century ruler of Austria and mother of Marie Antionette, could be expected to have forthright views. One communication said to be from her is "a woman who does not speak her mind will soon lose it." She talked about women’s place in politics.

Other famous names tumbled from Alexander’s lips; the painter Turner, even Dante, the great thirteenth century Italian poet and his great love Beatrice.

"I have one problem listening to tapes," the medium told me. "It puts me in trance again!"  Though he was unaware of it in his childhood, he later discovered his mother was a natural psychic. She revealed this side of herself only when Alexander became interested in development classes, telling her son: "I always hoped you would see the light, I’ve been talking to spirits for years." Reticence about psychic matters was a family trait. Alexander added that as a child "I used to see and talk to spirits, but wouldn’t talk about it."

For years Alexander walked in his sleep and later discovered he talked as well. He used to travel a great deal as a musician; once a trumpeter with whom he happened to share a room told him, "You talk in your sleep – and what’s more, you give sermons!"

…His mediumship developed quickly when Alexander joined a class. His first teacher was Agatha Wojiechowsky, a psychic artist. Her paintings, Alexander explained, hang in museums all over the world – yet she had never taken an art lesson in her life.One look at the young man sufficed to convince Agatha of his potential. "You’re a medium," she told him at once. "She was a great help to me," said Alexander. Agatha began to arrange sittings for him.  Satisfied clients then recommended him. But the young medium was doubtful about relinquishing his work in the music profession for the even more uncertain career of a full-time medium.

"I don’t think this is anything you can count on," he told Agatha. Sometimes a medium has a good day, and sometimes contact is poor.

Alexander still remembers his teacher’s reply: "If you are there for it, it’s there for you. If you make that commitment, it will be there for you."

"You have to trust it is not you but something bigger than you. You have to sit down, get out of the way and let it happen."

Alexander was a physical medium for four years. Apports such as flowers, jewellery, and even cakes arrived spontaneously. Then spirit visitors began to draw pictures and cut and paste Valentines, Alexander revealed. He began to feel drained, and asked for his mediumship to be used in different ways.

"Most of the physical phenomenon ceased six years ago. But, says Alexander, "I still get  pops of light in the room occasionally, and apports."

Alexander was ordained in the Spiritualist Church. "We were required to be familiar with Spiritualist tradition," he told me. The curriculum included the teachings of Silver Birch, guide of PN’s founder and former editor, Maurice Barbanell.

Alexander said of his teachings, "It was one of the first times I came in contact with a really useful channel."  He discovered PN, which "was a wonderful help. It made me feel a little more mainstream, less eccentric."

"The medium is now "looking forward to doing some writing; writing for my own personal growth is the next thing to happen for me."

His work has led him into the world of fashion and perfume houses. With two partners he has formed "Ideology," a company engaged in "corporate creativity sessions for the creative staff of corporations on a given problem such as creating a new product, launching it, naming and marketing it."

"My expertise is getting people in an industry who have their own intuitions to allow themselves to be opened psychically through exercises I have developed, to have group intuitions, a group psyche." "Ideology" creates a structured programme so that none of the energy is wasted.

Alexander finds that infinitely more psychic energy is generated when the group pools its unsuspected gifts. "Finally the desired answers are realized," he said. "The ingredients are mixed in the pot. Power and energy is released. It is a quantum leap.

"All the people go away much more creative and open. It is a total, thinking experience." This method has worked successfully for a number of companies, he said. The French are very interested, hence his Paris trip. Alexander concentrates mainly on teaching. He has three regular groups each week, as well as several classes.

"You need to stimulate people a bit," he said. "We have games with prizes; it makes it  fun. When people stop trying to tune in, and concentrate on giving someone useful advice, the psyche is often most evident."

He hopes to teach and lecture abroad, and build up a nucleus of mediums to work in the New York area. I did not have the joy of listening to a trance demonstration, but one psychic who has been a researcher for 20 years wrote an impressive tribute to Alexander’s work.

This is part of what Joyce Keller said: "He asked me to write my name on a piece of paper, which he folded without seeing, and to allow him to hold a piece of jewellery. "He spoke briefly, saying, ‘" have an Indian here. . .White Cloud. Is he yours?’

"I answered, ‘No, he belongs to my husband’." Alex then became entranced. Ms. Keller continued:

"A very powerful voice began speaking to me. . .with profound wisdom, and mentioned extremely private and esoteric matters, about which only my husband knew.

"My personal Indian guide identified himself and began to speak. I know him very well. His name is Eagle Feather. We chatted like old friends. He answered many of my questions clearly and without reservation.

"He told me about the automatic writing he and I are doing together. He exuded such loving, caring, and tenderness for me, that I almost cried. . .

"It was a sad parting, even though I know he’s always with me, particularly in the healing work that I do."