So many people do not seem to have time, even if they have the opportunity.

Ah!

And so many people have no opportunity and plenty of time.

Laughter

And so many people have no time nor opportunity - and the vast majority have no inclination.

That's it.

The tragedy of your world is, that so few people are concerned with the things that really matter. Everyone finds time and makes opportunity, if possible, for the most mundane, most miserable of material things.

[ectoplasm]

Things which to them seem on the surface so important, so vital, so necessary. One appreciates, of course, the problems of your life and the difficulties, the struggle of making a living in the ordinary way.

The average person I quite understand has many problems to contend with. Yours is a complicated and difficult life. Your world gives many... [pause] problems and the average person no matter who he or she may be will devote all their effort and time to striving to overcome obstacles. Indeed, man has a nature that enables him no matter what the setbacks to keep on striving and struggling. But all this is invariably of the material and there are so few who are prepared to make any effort whatsoever in regard to the things that are of the spirit.

[audio distortion]

[audio fades]

[ectoplasm]

[audio distortion]

Even when a key, as it were, is put in the door and turned for them, very few would in a spiritual sense make any attempt, even when the door is opened, to walk through and see what is on the other side. You know, when I was on your side, I was so often distressed. So often concerned with people who even though opportunity was presented to them, they took little advantage of it and if they did, even in spite of their pause nature, they would not pause willingly accept the truth, the evidence of Spiritualism.

[ectoplasm]

Even some of those who took the trouble to read books or perhaps attend meetings quite often, in spite sharp exhale? of the fact that they themselves presented obstacles from within themselves, who were presented with evidence Traffic 3:30-43 which would satisfy any ordinary, intelligent person - they would refute it, or if they did not refute it, they would find an explanation for it. Quite often more wonderful than the actual thing itself. Pause There is such a lot that distresses one.

When one strives to assist and to help people find truth, the extraordinary thing is, that even those who profess to be searchers after truth, invariably by their very nature, build up barriers, so the truth has even more difficulty in making itself known and understood.

[ectoplasm]

Even those who profess to be truly seeking spiritually, particularly those of varying religions...religious organisations where you would expect they would welcome truth with open arms, where you would anticipate that they would be more than delighted... have substantial evidence to support their own beliefs - even among men of high intelligence and foresight, you find that they build obstacles, barriers. Their minds are quite often are so closed that you just cannot pierce the wall that they build up.

Yet, many of them in themselves are sincere and honest, well meaning. When I was on your side, in my work to bring Spiritualism to the forefront, to interest people and arouse their curiosity, if you like, so that they might find something of real value, something that would be helpful to them, something that would comfort them - quite often you would find, over and over again, these individuals who having received pause by one means or another, proof of survival, that they would quite often dispute it, try to tear it to pieces, try to make excuses and find other explanations.

[ectoplasm]

When I went on my tours, when I lectured as I did so often pause and I expounded my beliefs, pause occasionally someone would ask an intelligent question from the audience. But more often than not, I think they came more out of curiosity to see the man who had written Sherlock Holmes. They were more concerned with seeing me, to meet the person, as it were, who’d aroused so much interest with his books, rather than come and listen to my pause deep-founded beliefs. There were those who said that I was a fool. That I was ruining my reputation, that I was building up for myself pause complications which would affect the sales of my books... that would affect pause not only the sales of my books but my integrity as a human being!

[audio distortion]

But you know it's an extraordinary thing, whenever a man of some substance, a man in a position, whether it is such as myself or whether it be someone like Hannen Swaffer or whether it be someone like Lord Dowding or Sir Oliver Lodge - the more respected you are, the more you are as it were put on the pedestal...

[??]

[ectoplasm]

[??]

...of public opinion and affection, the more they think you must be something of a crank. Laughter If you happen to say that you are interested in Spiritualism or that you’re convinced of survival, they say 'oh yes, such a clever brain you know, such a remarkable man, but you know of course he’s gone a little bit off his head coughing in his old age.'

[laughter]

[laughter] [coughing]

[coughing]

A number of people who have never said it to my face but implied it in various ways, in magazines and in papers and indeed, on a few odd occasions in my audience, who suggested that perhaps I’d been writing so much fiction for so long that I’d created something from my own brain in regard to this subject.

[ectoplasm]

[coughing]

You know people are extraordinary. If you give them what they want they like you very much. But if you give them something that they don’t want or think they don’t want or something which is... ...foreign [coughing] to their nature or to their upbringing and background or if you tell them something that is against the accepted beliefs, whether it is in religion or in politic or whatever it is that goes against the grain, they think, 'oh well poor old thing. He’s a dear old thing he’s contributed a great deal in his own way, but now, of course, he is getting on a bit, and he has gone a little bit soft.'

[coughing]

Have you ever spoken to any of these people on the Earth since you’ve been over?

Oh, I’ve been through and spoken at different times.

And what do they think now?

Well of course now, some think I’m still a bit potty.

[laughter]

But they still think it’s not me. You know that if I were to come through, if it were possible and write a new book or perhaps some new adventures of Sherlock Holmes and though they were published, people wouldn’t believe that I had come through and I had given them out.

[laughter]

They would say, 'oh no, no.' No matter how brilliant the book may be or even if they were better... if the book was better than anything I had written before, they would still say, 'oh no, it couldn’t be, it couldn’t possibly be. It must be some old manuscript that they’ve discovered and brought up that he wrote when he was on Earth' or they would make some excuse of course, in some shape or form. You know, evidence of survival is something so personal to the individual that, in a sense, you cannot really lay down any fast, hard rules concerning it.

What is evidence to one person cannot be evidence to another. And of course, we have to accept this. But what amazes me is, that the number of intelligent, intellectual people, men of repute who sacrifice, indeed their good name you might say and a source of income, and indeed have given up so much of their personal life to expounding this truth, are invariably looked upon as cranks.

[ectoplasm]

As if we are a sort of breed of people who have all gone a little bit 'off the mark' you know. I often have talks to Lodge and I often speak to Crookes and many of the other friends of mine over here, and of course we all suffered from this. And in a sense, I suppose, we're still talked about and we’re still criticised.

Indeed, I understand that there are still many people in your world who, though they respect and admire us with our particular work in our particular field, whether it is science or literature, they still think the other aspect of our lives, which became the main interest in our lives, our interest in this great subject, this subject which should and certainly does affect every human being, this universal subject, this universal truth - they still won’t... won't accept that aspect of our interest, of our belief and our great crusade - because it was a crusade.

When Doy...when I and when Lodge and all the other...Crookes...when all we who endeavoured to, to, to expound this truth, expound this knowledge, when we tried to break down the barriers of criticism, we would be set upon by all manner of people in all walks of life, from those of religious persuasion to those who had little or none

And then of course, in a sense, we expected it. In a sense perhaps, you might say we didn’t mind. Of course, we did, but at the same time, in this great crusade, and it is a crusade to bring truth to mankind, we must expect to be placed in the pillory of public opinion. And I know full well as I look into your world and I see today, although Spiritualism is advanced and has now become respectable, which possibly in a way is the worst thing that could happen to it - because anything that becomes respectable becomes perhaps a little bit, um, boring and perhaps it isn’t..

[ectoplasm]

[laughter]

...as particularly as interesting as it might be. When something isn’t particularly accepted, people's curiosity gets the better of them and they start prying and peeping and wanting to know about it and tittle-tattle about it. But you know when a thing becomes respectable, it no longer has the same interest for the vast majority of people, although of course in a sense, there is interest and this I, I do know, but what I feel is the tragedy, what I feel is a great pity, that so very few Spiritualists are concerned with spirituality

[??}

So very few are concerned with discovering the possibility that, that is within each and every one. They’re, they're all concerned, well the vast majority are concerned, and not only...which of course is natural that they should be interested in personal evidence, this must come before one can have conviction - but so many of them are more concerned with material things; that their dear ones and relations and friends and so on, should be able to solve all their little material problems and worries and anxieties. And always they are saying to their friends on this side, 'now what should I do about this' and 'can you advise me about that' and always it's to do with their mundane material existences.

In a...in a sense, I have sympathy for this. But at the same time, it seems to me the tragedy of Spiritualism that there are so few who are...who are concerned with spiritual truth, who are concerned with spiritual knowledge, who are concerned with allowing this tremendous truth to revitalise them and make them new again.

In a sense, there is so much that we would like to discuss, so much that we would like to talk about. So much that we feel is vital and important is held back, because of these souls who are brought onto a low level of consciousness - or should I say a low level of communication - because of the thought forces and the conditions which are built up with the sitters and even the mediums themselves fall onto that low level, of merely being there to answer the material problems and questions of the average, so called, enquirer.

You know when I envisaged this subject, when I saw it for its true worth on your side, after I received the evidence and the comfort that was to be derived from it, I saw the immensity of it, the possibilities of it. I saw it as pause a great truth that would bring the whole of mankind together; that it would break down the barriers of creeds and dogmas and politics that have built over the centuries.

[ectoplasm]

That it would bring men to an understanding, a real realisation of the purpose of life. And the possibility of a life to come and how that reality of life to come could be brought, in a sense, even nearer by living it, to some extent, while yet on Earth.

You know, the vast majority of people, even even though they have some knowledge of this truth, do not or seldom allow it to become too important in their lives. There is no balance. We don’t expect of course, that people in a world such as yours, which of course has changed so much since my day, and which is a much more difficult a life to live and the complexities are many and vast - but nevertheless, one would have thought that those who truly have this knowledge would have some balance in their lives where they would, sort of, have this realisation and they would put it into practice. That they would allow it to be the dynamic force behind all their thoughts and their actions.

That they would truly be, as it were, a light, you might say, in the darkness of your world. But we are constantly, constantly being disillusioned, constantly being, I won’t say disheartened, but nevertheless, we are still human enough to feel the sense of frustration with those who we love so much on your side of life, who we feel should be doing so much that is vital, so much that is good

When we go into the churches and the societies, and we hear the repetition of the mundane and the material, where it should be so vitalising and so full of vitality and life of the spirit - how few churches now, it seems, have mediums or instruments who, as it were, can be taken over by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be controlled and used and speak the words of the spirit.

So many seem to be on the low vibration. A vibration not very far removed from their own. There is so much astral communication. There is so much communication of a low order. There is so much that is said and done which is at variance with the truths of spirit, as we understand and we know it.

I think back to my own life and I realise of course there were and must be difficulties. I know there is much to contend with, but I know this - that if a man or a woman is prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice themselves to truth, they will not allow any obstacle or barrier to stand in their way. They will go out and they will say unto the world, 'this is true, this is truly truth - for I have proved it, I have found it, and I know it to so be.'

And this is something which you could find and prove for yourself. This is not something that depends on a book or series or group of books written centuries ago, which has been changed and altered by man oft times for their own end

Though the books of which we speak may have some truth - for in all things, there is truth, but often it is obscured by time and ignorance and indeed by the very thoughts and deeds of men - but behind all this is the seed of truth which, if you give it time and opportunity, will germinate and will flower.

You know, the sad thing is when we see your world, when we see the unhappiness and when we see the misery of your world, when we see innumerable peoples who suffer, often unnecessarily - because much of your sickness and illness and disease is brought about by man himself by his wrong thinking, by his wrong living.

[coughing]

You know there are many things which cause us a great deal of unhappiness and I think one of the things that causes us most unhappiness is, that man is so intolerant. That man himself is so inclined to be self-seeking and concerned so rarely with others. Until you can sink yourself in true service and in love, you cannot hope to make any change within yourself. You cannot hope to rise above the ordinary and mundane and material conditions of life in which you find yourself.

Until man sees within himself, the possibilities and every man has great possibility. For every man is a spirit and every man has the opportunity to develop the spiritual powers that lie dormant within him.

Everyone has the same opportunity. I know there are many people who will say, 'oh well this man has a much better background or this man has a better opportunity, because of this or that. Or this man has so much more money and so on', but all these things when analysed, all fall back to the mundane and the material. And I would go so far as to say that those who seem to have oft times the biggest obstacles, are the ones who oft times, have the biggest opportunities.

Because until you have suffered, until you have sometimes at least felt the need for the things of the spirit, you cannot understand nor appreciate them. And it is true to say that oft times, those whose tasks are many and whose path is harder, oft times they have, through their very sufferings, greater opportunity to reach through the sensitivity of things to the realities of the spirit. Because these things of which I speak are invariably revealed more to those who, by suffering and complication and difficulty of life, have become sensitised to truth.

[ectoplasm]

Because you cannot find truth if you live and only expect from life all that is good as the world sees it - for if you are to see the good as the spirit sees it, then truly you must have learnt through suffering and have become so sensitised to other people's sufferings and have such feelings within yourself, that you yourself have made yourself more ready to receive.

In other words, if one wants to be an instrument or a medium if you should like to use the term medium, you can only hope to be able to accept and understand and appreciate spiritual things when you yourself have become sensitised sufficiently.

Those who go through life, or so it seems, without any undue concern or worry, who...those to whom life seems to present all the plums - these people are the ones to find it most difficult to understand the things that are of the mind and of the spirit.

All the great teachers, all the great prophets, all the great great seers, all the men of great wisdom, spiritual wisdom - were men who suffered. No one who wants to do the work of the spirit must ever think that the road and the path is going to be easy.

It will not be. In the material sense often, it will be most difficult, most complex and indeed truth, although in fundamental aspect is, by its very nature, simple - nevertheless it has its complexities, because the human mind cannot necessarily grasp things too well, too easily.

There are many things, of course, appertaining to the spirit and the realms of the spirit that cannot be fully understood any more than we can fully explain them.

But I do say this, that any man or woman who sincerely seeks truth ... [pause] will find it. [pause] I know there will be some who will criticise when they listen to this. There will be some who will make excuses. There will be some that will say, 'oh well, how do we know it is him?' There will be some who will say, 'oh of course you know he had a cleft mouth, and that does not sound like his voice' - but, if they are intelligent they will know damn well I haven't got a cleft mouth over here.

Anyway, carry on the good work and...

I'm delighted to be here.

Well I'm so glad.

I'm not quite sure if you can hear me.

We hear you quite well.

Very nicely thank you.

Pause, static, electricity, warbling?

Come along friend you're doing very well. muffled

Quite...quite clear. We can hear you.

Since I'm precisely doing nothing at the moment, I can't see how you can consider that I'm doing extremely well.

Laughter

I thought perhaps you were saying something and we hadn't heard you? Laughing

Yes

I've never been known to say nothing.

Please, may we have your name? You sound awfully...

If I couldn't say something of value, then I'd much rather say nothing.

Who is it speaking please?

This is most extraordinary.

Yes friends?

Then again...being dead is an extraordinary business! Especially when you are talking to people on Earth who are supposed to be alive and are very much dull and dim; and dead in consequence. What an extraordinary business this is.

Yes

There seems to have been a great deal of interest in...my works lately.

I didn't quite catch what he said there...

...a great deal of interest in his work.

Oh I see. Yes, yes.

Long pause, rumbling/car sounds (as with ACD audio)

He's quite clear.

Mmm. I wish he'd give his name.

Long pause, background noises

Many people from this side, invariably try to say a great deal and, in consequence, say very little. For the simple reason that we are having to utilise this extraordinary method of communication. Why they cannot invent something more congenial and more suitable and more successful than this, I can't imagine.

I suppose one must be grateful for Mediums. It's a pity that Mediums have to be human beings, because they are so difficult, so complex. Take this Medium for instance; if you could see this Medium as I do from this side of life, you'd realise what we have to contend with.

Yes, well we can hear you quite well friend.

Friend, may we have your name?

Why are you so concerned with my name? Surely, what I say is far more important than my name?

Yes but you'd be surprised...

My name got me into a great deal of trouble when I was on your side.

Well never mind.

Thing is...is, uh...when we play this tape to other people you see, they ask who it is and we...sometimes we can't tell, you see?

You can tell them it's Colonel Bogey.

Laughing

Laughing I don't think they'd quite relish that...I don't know.

But, um, anyway friend, we're very pleased to have you through anyway.

And I'm sure you are much more pleased to have me through than I am to come.

Oh?

At least perhaps it'd be more correct to say, that I'm quite happy to come; but I certainly wish that it were much more congenial in trying to converse - to pass through to you my thoughts - through this particular method of communication; which may or may not be successful, according to whatever way you happen to view it.

But from my point of view it's the most irritating business. Here am I trying to talk intelligently to you and I find this fluctuating thing that I have to use, makes it practically an impossibility.

When one writes, though one has the medium of the pen, there is nothing to bar you from clearly putting down on paper, your thoughts. But when you have to use another human being to demonstrate that which you feel intensely within yourself, I find it extremely irritating. Because how can another person be responsible for that which I want to convey to you with clarity and intelligence? No individual can ever act as an instrument in the true sense. I remember way back, centuries ago now it must seem, if not to you to me...that I used to try to get people to portray characters that I had created and to say lines that I had given them. It used to sound, often, so strange to me. As if they were not my lines at all and yet they were. But the people very seldom seemed to have the proper intonation, very seldom seemed to be able to put the weight behind the right word to convey the meaning behind the sentence, to give it authority and tone and colour. Invariably people were, with all due respect, very poor mediums. The same applies here using a Medium to communicate with you from this side of life. It's like using an actor on your side to try and use that person to impersonate, to give through, as it were, oneself - or that which one has written, in the case of my plays. All very confusing.

Oh, 'my plays'...?

Oh you might as well know. My name is Wilde.

Oscar Wilde?

Oh, I've read your books.

Oh how lovely.

Yes. I'm so pleased...

How fortunate you are.

Pardon?

I say, how fortunate you are to have read my books.

Yes, I have

Good heavens!

Yes. Oh good grief. Yes, I've got some of your books...had some at least. A lot of your books.

How nice of you to come through.

I suppose I should be highly flattered to know that you've read my books and you've actually got one or two. Which means or rather suggests that you bought them, which is very nice to know. But not that I'm getting any of the royalties. No doubt you belong to a very good library.

Laughing

Mr. Wilde, can you tell us some of you life on the other side now if you please - what you're doing?

Well I must admit, it's a relief to be asked to discuss one's life over here, in preference to one's life when on Earth. Because in any case my life when on Earth is pretty well-known among the gossip-mongers.

Both laughing

Very interesting...

If I were to say to you that my life here is not un...unlike my life on Earth you would probably be very horrified. But it happens to be perfectly true and I've no regrets about it whatsoever. I'm perfectly happy and perfectly contended and I live a life of delicious sin!

Laughing

Unintelligible

But only as the world sees sin. Because as the world sees sin, it is no longer sin here to be human and to be natural. But on Earth, to be natural is to be sinful. But over here one can be sinful because it is natural. But the world has strange ideas of sin. I live a natural...natural existence here and I'm perfectly happy.

I have my friendships and I have my friends, because you can't have friendships without friends, obviously. What an extraordinary couple you are...

Why?

Well I've heard about you; how you strive to reach people on your side, to enlighten them and to uplift them. But do you think they are going to any happier for that? Having seen so many people, I think they are much happier in their miseries and in their darkness, than ever they are in light.

You show illumination to a person, they'd start screaming like mad and run like mad to escape from the illumination.

Laughing

Well I wouldn't say that in every case Mr. Wilde.

I know! I'm being facetious.

Laughing

But then of course, I do realise that there are many people in your world whom could be helped by this truth. Because it is truth. But at the same time, there are many to whom it might even be a bad thing. Look how happy some of them are with their saints. What a pity to take them away from their saints. They would be lost. They would be like children in the wilderness.

They are to be pitied you mean really?

Oh I wouldn't say that. It gives them great happiness. Why take away something from a child that amuses it and keeps it quiet? After all, do you want the child screaming because it's lost its toy?

Knowledge comes with adult life, so we are told. That's why so many adults are like children. They haven't really grown at all have they? What an extraordinary pair you are...

Laughing

Laughing Well I quite agree with you really. I look upon, really, the people like children, in the way of the knowledge and the...how they express their knowledge.

So many of those on your side who profess, evidently, to know this knowledge, to know this truth, to know about communication, to know about life after death - so many of them seem to me rather like overgrown children. They haven't really benefitted from their knowledge.

Sighs

Indeed, it seems to me that some would have been better without it.

Yes. There is a point there, that some would be better without it, in the way they use it.

You know, you don't want to attack this subject as if you were some missionary going out into darkest Africa. You might end up in the cooking pot you know.

Laughing

I think we've ended up in more than one cooking pot really...

I'm quite sure you have. And I'm quite sure the people who have stirred the cooking pot for you have been the Spiritualists.

Yes.

Laughing

You would be much safer among the wildlife.

Yes, I agree with you.

These Spiritualists...you know, I've to many of their so-called meetings and séances. Do you know, if it were not rather sad, it would be highly amusing. I've been to some of these séances, these meetings and really, it's so...so pathetic.

I've seen dear little old women in Bayswater, standing up, orating - or at least so they thought – thinking, no doubt, they were being controlled by some great entity or soul from this side. Their imaginations run riot in Bayswater!

Mmm.

Yes. I quite agree with you.

So much harm is done by these strange creatures. Why is it that the women of sixty turn to this sort of thing and become most extraordinary characters in consequence? They would have been much happier pushing a bassinet up Bayswater Road!

Loud laughter

Perhaps that's why they've done it, because they've had no bassinet to push.

Possibly.

Yes.

Though they certainly haven't given birth to children, but they've given birth to some very weird creations purporting to come from our side of life.

Laughing

What are you doing on that side of life now, uh...

Why should I tell you what I'm doing?

Well, we're very, very interested. We'd like...it would be interesting.

Actually...seriously...I am still writing.

Oh good.

Oh good.

And I am still having my plays performed. And I am often called upon to go down into the lower spheres - to help. Strange no doubt you may think, that I should be called to lower spheres to help...

No, no.

Possibly, you might even interpret as well, probably I am more suitable to help people on lower spheres, because I haven't progressed very much myself - but actually, I'm very much in tune with all peoples. My mind, I trust, gives me the entrée, even if my reputation does not.

Oh I don't know. Your books were...

My reputation does not worry me.

Good.

But it seems to worry a hell of a lot of people on your side.

Your books are very valuable in knowledge.

Unintelligible

Evidently, more money has been made out of my reputation since my death, than ever I was able to make out of my plays; which goes to say that sin is very successful!

Laughing

Laughing

You said Mr. Wilde, you always had a very open mind, didn't you?

My mind was always wide open.

It was above the average, you see.

My mind was always very wide open and as you say, above the average. Can you tell me what the average is and how open a mind should be? I was always ready to receive inspiration. Indeed, I might say that my most successful works were due to the fact that I had an open mind and in consequence, much was poured through it of inspiration, which was highly successful and I feel sure that if it were not for the fact that I was 'high-minded' we wouldn't have had perhaps some of the successful works that I was able to perform.

Mmm.

But of course this is a matter of dispute among many people. One man's rat poison is another man's meat.

Oh no, I think...I think every writer is inspired from somewhere to a certain extent.

Oh well don't take away our own personality and our own originality my dear, please.

Oh no, no...

But, um, I'm quite prepared to admit I was inspired. I was always an inspiring figure.

Laughing

In fact, now I've become almost awe-inspiring, possibly because I'm dead!

Laughing

Coughing

Mr. Wilde, um...

You wish me to drop the flippancy and be serious?

No, no...it's typically you.

But to be serious is often to be boring.

...don't drop it.

So many people when on Earth were so serious that they couldn't fail to be utterly boring and I refuse to join such a gathering.

No please don't drop it, because it wouldn't be you weren't like that.

This I do deliberately, because there will always be people who say 'how do we know that this is Oscar Wilde?' And so I am expected to come back very much the same, with the same...attitude towards life and towards people and to say the same sort of things that would be expected of me. So for your sakes I do this, because I know, poor dears, you're struggling so desperately hard to convince. And if I can assist you to convince, then I shall be doing some good work that may wipe out some of my blots. Oh!

Mr. Wilde? Since you've been on the other side have you... have you learned anything?

I'd be a most strange person if I hadn't learned something after being here so long.

Mmm...

We all learn, whether we like it or not. Whether we are apt pupils or not, we all learn, no matter how bad the teacher.

Were you surprised when you found yourself on...

Nothing has ever surprised me. And certainly nothing could possibly surprise me in regard to God, because he was a person who was always doing the most surprising things - if one was to believe all that one read in the Bible. In fact, he seemed such an extraordinary character, that he became interesting in consequence.

Yes...

Laughing

But...

Sniffing

Um, how actually did you find yourself when you passed over? Can you, sort of, describe your actual passing?

Oh, I just died like everybody else.

Mmm...but you must have found yourself somewhere; in a garden or a room or...

Why should I necessarily find myself in a garden? Or why, for that matter, should I necessarily find myself in a room? How embarrassing it would be, for instance, to wake up and find that you were in Lady Cynthia's boudoir at a very inconvenient moment.

Laughing

No but, I mean, people met you didn't they? Somebody must have met you and helped you over?

Well it's a natural thing I suppose to assume, that if you're going on a long train journey somewhere, that your friends at the other end will be at the station to meet you. But I do remember taking some extraordinarily long journeys and having a wearisome trip in consequence, and arriving in the middle of the night and no one there, no one with a brougham**, no one with anything. Just stuck there with one's...with...with one's luggage, wondering whether to go to the nearest hotel or to get the train and go straight back. But of course, unfortunately one can't get the train and come back to your side of life or fortunately, whichever way you happen to look at it.

But actually, seriously, I was met by my mother.

Yes...

And how did you find things there, you know? Did you find it much about the same, as things on Earth or did you find things vastly different?

Well naturally. You can't go to a strange country without finding things vastly different. But the extraordinary and interesting thing is that the people were the same. Situations may be different, the country may be different, habits may be different, one's attitude towards life and everything may be different. The people, thank God, are the same. They still look the same and they still are the same - and, in consequence, one felt at home.

I met many, many people that I had admired and many that I didn't admire and since have learned to admire. For different reasons of course. And I've travelled a great deal; to many places, many spheres - many countries - if you like to call them such. Because in a sense, they are.

There are no barriers, only barriers in oneself...within oneself, in one's own mind. The barriers between human relationships and peoples are within oneself; they are man-made and one learns to discard them.

One learns gradually to avoid many of the pitfalls, but when one has been here, even for a short time, one realises how very much we are all part of the other.

We are all entwined and in tune. Though sometimes at first it seems that we are very much out of tune. We are all very much in tune and all very much of one mind and of one spirit.

It's all very intriguing, because all God's children eventually begin to merge. Although they retain their individuality and separate personality, we all begin to merge until we are harmonious. And in consequence, we live in a condition of peace and quietude and harmony, where all and each can have his or her interests, such as they may be.

Some feel the urge...the need to work in various ways. Others do not. I prefer to continue to write because writing was, to a great extent, my life. And I am hoping to find a suitable instrument on your side - if I can - whose mind will be sufficiently open that I might be able to transmit new plays, new works, new things of interest, which will help humanity and enlighten humanity.

But always remember, that the best way to reach a man's heart is not...is not through his stomach. But to reach his heart is to realise that one must give to him, something which is far removed from material things; something of the mind and of the spirit, which will last through time itself.

I feel that I could do a great deal, but I have yet to find a suitable instrument to do this work.

Mmm...

Well, we hope you will find one because the...your books, I admire them very, very much...

Sniffs

...unintelligible

I won't embarrass you by asking you the name of one of them.

But, uh, and I also read about the...your...the trial, your trial too, you know...unintelligible...and I thought you didn't have a very fair trial.

Thank you very much.

I thought it was very unfair and unjust.

Your trial has been enacted several times...

Yes I know. It has been the most highly successful part of my career.

Laughing

Mr. Wilde, have you any...oh I suppose you...everybody has...

I find this so complicated speaking to you. Most irritating in a way.

Oh.

It's as if I can't get my mind clear; all the time there are stumbling blocks and hindrances. But no doubt I shall improve. Carry on, what was it you wished to ask me?

I expect everybody has when they pass over, you had some regrets I suppose? I mean, perhaps something you didn't do while you were over on this side?

Well my first regret was that I didn't stay longer on your side.

Oh really?

Well of course. I still had desires. I still wanted to write further. I still wanted to reinstate myself, strange as it may seem, in human society. Not that I ever felt completely I was out of it. But I was sufficiently vain to assume that I could recapture my old place in the world. But that's a long time ago. Since then I've changed.

Mmm...yes. Is there anybody you would like to give a message to? It will go down on the tape you see?

I don't think there's anyone left on your side that I have any particular desire to send a message to.

Have you met Bernard Shaw on your side?

Oh I have met Shaw. Of course I've met Shaw...what a man!

Laughing

That's true, yeah...

Extraordinary character. Brilliant, if rather...well I perhaps better not say these things. I'm supposed to be, to some extent, developed.

Laughing

What's it like on your side; the plane you're on? Can you tell us something about that?

Electric, rumbling/revving

You mean pictorially?

Yes. I thought...you have theatres and things like that. You've got theatres haven't you? Are you able to...you're still acting on...still have plays on that side and that sort of thing?

Oh, one still writes and one still continues. Our world is, in some senses - as I've no doubt you've heard - is very similar to your Earth. And we have all the manner of scenery that you are accustomed to. Even more beautiful.

Nature, as you know nature, exists here. But the worser aspects and the more irritating aspects of nature are non...non-existent to us. For instance, we don't have the pests; such as flies, earwigs and all the irritating things that nature concocts to annoy man. Those things seem to have disappeared fortunately. We seem to have all the beauty and all the loveliness of nature, without all the petty irritants.

Mmm.

No more swatting flies. Oh, I used to know a woman once, who used to love sitting all the afternoon in a chair with a swatter! And she had a swatting afternoon...

Laughing

I often wonder what she must be doing here without a swatter, without her flies to swat.

Oh a long time ago. Things have changed. I look at London and I hardly recognise it. Thank God I lived before my time!

Yes it has changed.

Yes. You won't recognise all the terrific tall buildings that are going up.

I don't recognise hardly anything of London. And I am so happy that I came as I did and I departed as I did. I wouldn't want to live in your London today.

What are your buildings like in...on your side?

We have all manner of buildings. But on the sphere in which I live they are all elegant - great beauty.

What, towns and cities and...?

Yes, you could call them cities. They are cities in which untold thousands of people live and have their habitat. But it's so different and yet, in some ways, so like the old.

But you don't have cars and things like that, have you?

No. Thank goodness. We do not have those machines. Horses we still have; animals, pets - much that meant so much to humanity and humanity, to some extent, gave to in return. Such as one's pet dog, one's pet horse. Animals are very near to humans. Unfortunately humans are very often near to animals. I sometimes think the animals are more advanced than humans.

Yes

At least they follow their natural instincts and they are not, in consequence, considered to be doing anything morally or otherwise wrong. Human beings are always in trouble, because they are trying desperately, often, to fight their true selves. Man should be allowed to be his true self, because only by that can he hope to develop. I do not mean by that, that crime, as such, should be recognised or in any way assisted. But there should be some curb it is true, by the law. But the law itself has such strange ways of working. It cannot understand the frailties or if it can understand the frailties of the human, it often punishes unnecessarily. We must help each other, we must learn to be more kind, more tolerant. We must try always to put ourselves in the other person's place, try to realise that we have a duty to others. And that the only way we can hope to find our salvation is to be merciful and to be considerate and to give love.

Do you have a house yourself where you can write in?

Yes I do. A very beautiful house. A house after my own heart. But then again, in a sense, I suppose it is because I myself created it, without even realising it. I was creating before I ever came here, by my thoughts, my better thoughts.

And with a garden and all that outside?

I have a garden. Not too large, but sufficient.

Yes.

But I was never one for the outdoor life. I appreciated nature, but I preferred to watch nature from a distance, rather than to be always be underneath her glaring light. One perceives often more clearly, more distinctly, from a distance. I must go. I will come and talk to you again if I may?

Thank you Mr. Wilde, very much.

It's very nice of you to come through. Thank you very much.

It's been very nice speaking to you and if I sometimes I've seemed...seemed a little acid, I've done as much for your benefit...

Oh yes, we know you have.

You've done very well.

...so that you might, in some measure, be of help to others. Because otherwise if I am not, to some extent, my old self, people will say 'that cannot be'. So for your sakes, I do this. But I can and will talk on the things that you wish me to speak about, uh, in due course.

May God bless you' - that is the common thing to say I believe, when you say goodbye at Spiritualist séances... 'May God bless you my friends' - I'll say it with the rest and be one of them. Goodbye.

Thank you Mr. Wilde.

Thank you very much.