Leslie Flint (1911–1994)[1] was a British medium who is credited as having been one of the last psychics to use direct-voice mediumship.[1][2] He has been described as the most renowned psychic of the 20th century.[3][4]
Flint was born in London in 1911 and reached the peak of his fame from the 1930s to the 1960s.[1] He was famous for contacting the spirits of dead celebrities, and would often record his sessions.[1] He claimed his familiar, Mickey, was the ghost of a child who had been killed in 1910.[1] Flint claimed to have seen his first spirit at the age of seven when his dead uncle appeared to him in his home.[4] He conducted his first séance at the age of 17.[4]
In his early life, he worked in as a cinema usher and a cemetery gardener.[5] Flint was a conscientious objector, serving in a non-military capacity in World War II.[1] He never charged for his services as a medium.[1]
The first public séance performed by Flint was in 1955, just after he formed an association called the Temple of Light.[4]
Flint was an avid fan of Rudolph Valentino and acquired the only known copy of footage from The Young Rajah.[5]
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When taking part in séances with Flint, participants would report hearing the voices of the dead surrounding them in the room.[6] Flint would perform bound and gagged in an attempt to prove that he was not throwing his voice.[3][6] He claimed that he was able to conjure ectoplasm from which he could then reconstruct vocal cords.[3] However, Flint always insisted on performing in the dark, so séance-goers were unable to see him during the performances.[4] He would sometimes even perform in a cupboard.[4]
Amongst those who Flint claimed to have contacted were:[2][7][8]
The recordings of Flint's séances are now stored at the University of Manitoba.[8] The collection contains around 2,000 audiotapes and 300 books.[2]
The Society for Psychical Research investigated Flint and concluded that the voices heard at his séances were auditory hallucinations brought on by hypnosis.[4] Another experiment conducted by Dr. Louis Young involved roping Flint to a chair and putting colored water to hold in his mouth during the séance. After the ceremony, the researchers found that the water that was stored in Flint’s mouth was only fractionally less, which implies that his throat did not open in an attempt to speak. Other studies conducted by The Society for Psychical Research as well as other researchers of Flint involved conducting séances with plaster-sealed lips, microphones wired to amplifiers placed over his larynx to magnify noises, and the fixation of an infrared telescope on Flint to focus on his every movement in the dark.[9] Flint was also investigated by Professor William Bennett of Columbia University, who after extensive testing concluded that Flint was genuine.[4] Despite these studies failing to disprove that Flint was producing the noises through his throat, it is believed that he may have produced voices from his stomach. He has also been accused of using prerecorded tapes to produce voices, as well as live accomplices providing a two-way voice channels. [9]