The Scole Experimental Group was a small group of sitters in Scole, Norfolk, England, who became known for a series of unusual physical mediumship experiments between 1994 and 1998. The group claimed to produce a wide range of phenomena, including lights, sounds, apports, images on film, direct voices, and other physical effects connected to spirit communication.

The case became one of the most discussed modern investigations in psychical research because it was studied for two years by three senior members of the Society for Psychical Research: Montague Keen, Arthur Ellison, and David Fontana. Although they acted on their own behalf rather than officially for the SPR, their investigation led to the publication of what became known as The Scole Report.

Origins of the Group

The group was initiated by Robin and Sandra Foy, who were already experienced in physical mediumship circles and well known within the Spiritualist community. Robin Foy was especially interested in direct voice mediumship, particularly the work of Leslie Flint.

In 1991, the Foys moved to Scole, where they converted a basement room into a completely dark séance space. This room became known as “the Scole Hole.”

The purpose of the sittings was ambitious: the group wanted to obtain evidence for survival after death and to explore whether repeatable physical phenomena could be produced under controlled conditions.

The Spirit Team

The Scole group believed it had been brought together to work with a “spirit team.” According to the communicators, the aim was to develop a new form of creative energy for communication between dimensions — different from traditional ectoplasm.

A spirit guide named Manu acted as the main control, or “gatekeeper,” for other spirits. Another communicator, John Paxton, who claimed to be from the thirteenth century, said the group would be working with a safer form of energy made from a blend of earth, human, and spirit forces.

Other alleged spirit communicators included:

Mrs Emily Bradshaw, a charity worker from Oxford

Edward Matthews, said to have died in the First World War

Patrick McKenna, an Irish priest who loved Guinness and cigars

Raji, an Indian prince

A group of scientists

Reported Phenomena

The phenomena reported by the Scole group were varied and often dramatic. They included:

Dancing lights
Touches
Splashes of water
Strange noises
Movement of objects
Raps
Direct voices
Ringing bells
Luminous pillars of light
Levitations
Apports
Materialised walking forms

The most striking phenomena were the lights. Witnesses described single lights moving at great speed around the darkened cellar, entering crystals, illuminating objects from within, changing shape, activating Ping-Pong balls, striking the table, and levitating or irradiating crystals and Perspex bowls.

Photographic Experiments

The Scole group also became known for unusual photographic experiments.

The spirits allegedly instructed the sitters to take photographs on command while lights moved around the séance room. At times, the camera was said to take pictures by itself. Images reportedly produced included St Paul’s Cathedral during the bombing of London in the Second World War and the front page of a pre-war Daily Mirror.

Even more controversially, the spirit team was said to impress images directly onto factory-sealed film that had not been loaded into a camera.

Among the results were:

Alchemical symbols

Latin phrases

Mirror-image script

German script

Fragments connected with William Wordsworth’s poem “Ruth”

Material linked to F. W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the SPR

A message reading “Can you see behind the Moon,” followed by the name Louis Daguerre, the pioneer of photography

One famous apport was a pristine copy of the Daily Mail dated 1 April 1944. Later analysis indicated that the paper was wartime newsprint and had been printed by letterpress, an obsolete printing method.

The Investigation

Between October 1995 and August 1997, Montague Keen, Arthur Ellison, and David Fontana attended eighteen sittings, each lasting about two and a half hours.

Other witnesses also attended some sessions, including well-known names in psychical research such as Rupert Sheldrake, Robert Morris, Hans Schaer, Alan Gauld, Bernard Carr, John Beloff, Ralph Noyes, Donald West, and others.

The spirits placed restrictions on the experiments. They refused external light and infrared equipment. This became one of the main sources of later criticism, because it meant the sittings took place in darkness. To help monitor movement, sitters wore luminous wristbands, and luminous markers were sometimes placed on the table or equipment.

The investigators reported that they found no direct evidence of fraud, but they also acknowledged that the conditions were not “watertight.” Some experiments worked, others did not, and the photographic protocols were not always consistent.

Controversy

The Scole case quickly became controversial.

Supporters argued that the range of phenomena was too broad and complex to dismiss easily. The investigators stated that they had not detected fraud and believed the phenomena suggested intelligent forces, whether discarnate or originating from the human psyche, capable of influencing matter and producing visual and auditory messages.

Critics objected that many conditions were not strict enough. They questioned the refusal of infrared equipment, the use of darkness, the constant background music, the removable Velcro wristbands, and the fact that some film experiments did not remain fully under investigator control.

Some sceptics argued that the film images could have been produced normally. Supporters replied that fraud would have been extremely difficult in pitch darkness without visible suspicious movement.

The investigators ultimately concluded that they had obtained evidence for genuine phenomena, while admitting that absolute proof under fraud-proof conditions had not been achieved.

The End of the Sittings

In November 1998, the group stopped sitting together. According to new communicators, contact with the regular spirit team had been lost.

The reason given was unusual: the experiments had allegedly created “space-time problems” involving an interdimensional doorway. The group was told that interference from future experiments, including a “crystalline time-probe,” had disrupted the work.

After this, the Scole Experimental Group disbanded, though Robin Foy later continued experimenting with messages received through his computer. Other physical mediumship circles around the world also claimed similar phenomena.

The Scole Report and Later Review

The Scole Report was published in 1999 in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In 2003, Montague Keen and David Fontana began preparing an updated review of the case. Keen died suddenly in March 2004 during a public debate on Scole in London. Fontana later completed the update, which was published in 2006.

The later review noted that no major new criticisms had emerged. A challenge was reportedly offered to stage magicians to demonstrate how the phenomena could be reproduced, but no one accepted. Professional magician James Webster, who had attended three sittings, stated that the phenomena he witnessed could not be duplicated by magicians.

Richard Wiseman, a magician and sceptic of psychical research who had not attended sittings but had read the report, called it “very impressive,” though this did not mean he accepted the phenomena as paranormal.

Legacy

The Scole Experimental Group remains one of the most important and controversial modern cases in physical mediumship.

For believers, it represents evidence that communication with the dead may be possible through new forms of energy, light, sound, images, and physical effects.

For sceptics, it remains an example of why strict controls are essential in paranormal investigation.

For students of mediumship and occult history, Scole is important because it combined trance communication, physical phenomena, photographic experiments, apports, spirit voices, and claims of interdimensional contact in one sustained case.

Whether interpreted as spirit communication, subconscious psychic activity, experimental mediumship, or unresolved mystery, the Scole case continues to raise serious questions about consciousness, survival after death, and the possible relationship between mind and matter.

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