By Grant Solomon & Jane Solomon
Curator Post Reference: DIA-280
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Archive file
Scole-06-DIA-1997-02-21-280.txt [Drive]
Document content
Below is the plaintext HTML extraction of the Session 280 Diary Entry.
Features the participation of SPR members, Rupert Sheldrake and Montague Keen, the 8-inch "Superman" crystal Sustained Visible Object (SVO), and the observation of clothed spirit hands.
FILE ID: Scole-06-DIA-1997-02-21-280.txt
LOCATION: 06-DIA-Diary/Session-280-1997-02-21/
ARCHIVE-ID: Scole-06-DIA-280
PURPOSE: Personal diary entry regarding Scole Session 280.
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ARCHIVE-ID: Scole-06-DIA-280
LOCATION: 06-DIA-Diary/Session-280-1997-02-21/
SESSION-ID: S-280
DATE: 21/02/1997
SUBJECT: Diary Entry for Session 280
SOURCE: Witnessing the Impossible (Foy, 2008 and 2023) / Original Diary
TAGS: #RupertSheldrake #MontagueKeen #SVO #SpiritLights #SpiritHands #SupermanCrystals
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VENUE:
Scole Experimental Room (SER); the converted cellar of Street Farmhouse, Scole, Norfolk, England.
GROUP PARTICIPANTS (ALPHABETICAL BY SURNAME):
1. Bennett, Alan
2. Bennett, Diana
3. Foy, Robin
4. Foy, Sandra
GUEST PARTICIPANTS (ALPHABETICAL BY SURNAME):
1. Keen, Montague
2. Sheldrake, Rupert
COMMUNICATORS (ALPHABETICAL BY NAME):
1. Bradshaw, Emily (Trance Voice)
2. Edwin (Trance Voice)
3. Manu (Trance Voice)
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DIARY TEXT:
Session 280.
Monday 21st February 1997.
When we finally met Rupert Sheldrake (as he arrived with Monty), he felt like an old friend - as our spirit team had been referring to him for such a long time. Manu welcomed him as the session started. The atmosphere took a while to build up as the spirit team took some time to get used to Rupert's energies. However, as the phenomena did get under way, we first of all began to hear movements around the room and on the central table. Immediately afterwards, the luminous tabs on the central table were regularly obscured by either energy structures or materialised spirit people. Next, we witnessed a superb display of aerobatics by a whole series of different spirit lights. The rapid movements of these lights covered every part of the room. A spirit light touched Dr Sheldrake a few times too.
Emily Bradshaw and Edwin spoke through the two mediums and continued to regularly chat to us all during the sitting. At an early stage, Emily confirmed that there were two spirit people present in "dense" (or teleported) form. Rupert was then touched by a spirit hand. He noticed at the time that the spirit visitor had a sleeve - which surprised him.
There followed a very interesting SVO (Sustained Visible Object), which built up on the central table. This seemed initially like our four-inch-long quartz compass crystal points but was much longer - about eight inches or so. It was sustained for some time and was illuminated within by a small spirit light at one end. This very fascinating object was then gently levitated and moved around the group for everybody to see at close range. Most of the time, this object was sitting in a vertical position and somewhat resembled the large crystals in the Superman movie. It had paper-like material hanging underneath it, which brushed over the sitters' hands, including those of Rupert Sheldrake. We noticed a rustling/crackling noise from this material when it came into contact with the table.
A "hooded" light was also demonstrated for all to see as it moved round the group, being visible to only one or two of the sitters at the same time.
Then the compass crystals and crystal clusters were frequently moved around the table. Often these were self-luminous as spirit lights sat within them and a spirit hand could be seen silhouetted against them. Two crystals were placed in the Pyrex bowl, where they were found after the session. The Pyrex bowl was lit up a few times by a spirit light.
Although Rupert was quiet to start with, he soon got into the swing of things; asking many questions of Emily and Edwin after the normal phenomena had finished. The session continued for almost two-and-a-half hours. Rupert was told that the spirit team had waited a long time for his visit. He was invited by the team to come again.
Afterwards, we showed him some of the quite amazing psychic photographic slides we had received earlier at Scole. Monty Keen was told that he could share with Rupert the information he knew about the germanium device, which Monty later did. Apparently, they were both extremely interested in what they had witnessed and consequently stayed up - talking about it - till 2 a.m. the next morning.
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ARCHIVAL NOTES:
This diary entry was recorded shortly after the conclusion of the session to preserve the most accurate immediate recollections of the phenomena and communications received. It was Sitting 21 for SPR Guest Participants and Sitting 27 in The Scole Report (Keen, Ellison, and Fontana, 1999). There is no audio recording available for this sitting. However, two pages of the transcript are in the archive (see Scole-03-TRX-1997-02-21-280-P10-11.txt). These two pages are taken from Scole Session 280, which was Sitting 21 for the SPR guest participants and Sitting 27 in The Scole Report. This extract consists of pages 10 and 11 of the session transcript published in The Scole Report (pp. 195-197), which was the title of a Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) [Vol. 58, Part 220, November 1999].
Session 280 is scientifically significant due to the participation of Dr Rupert Sheldrake, whose presence had been anticipated by the Communicator Team for several months. The physical phenomena recorded—specifically the 8-inch "Superman" SVO—demonstrates a high degree of materialisation stability. Sheldrake's observation of a "sleeve" on a spirit hand is a key archival detail, suggesting that the materialisations during this session included complex textures (clothing) rather than just anatomical forms.
The comparison of the SVO to crystals from the "Superman" film provides a clear cultural reference point for the visual appearance of the phenomena. The mention of the germanium device indicates that by early 1997, the technical transition toward electronic communication was already a core point of discussion between the Scole Group and SPR investigators.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
- TRANSCRIPT: Scole-03-TRX-1997-02-21-280-P10-11.txt
- SESSION LOG: Scole-08-SES-1997-02-21-280.txt
- LITERATURE: Scole-12-LIT-0002-The-Scole-Report-1999.txt (pp. 195-197)
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REVISION HISTORY:
v1.3 - 24/10/2026 - Consolidated Analysis and Commentary sections into Archival Notes per new SANS taxonomy, corrected British English punctuation (e.g., removing period from Dr), applied flowing text, and ensured strict Title Case for internal references.
v1.2 - 24/10/2026 - Applied 5-character and 3-character divider lines.
v1.1 - 10/10/2026 - Updated Curator Analysis and Taxonomy to utilise modern DHI/NHI and anomalous phenomena terminology.
v1.0 - 11/04/2026 - Initial creation in SANS Plaintext following agreed archival rules.
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Cross-references
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