Barry Duke
Editor The Freethinker
PO Box 234
Brighton BN1 4XD

Dear Barry,

Anne Shaw's report on witchcraft hysteria was first class, especially the fiasco concerning Helen Duncan, the last person to be prosecuted under the outrageous 1735 Witchcraft Act that was still on the Statute Book in 1944!

However, my fellow atheists should watch out for the Christian propaganda that scientists who are making a careful study of mediumship are "dabbling in the religion of Spiritualism". I have taken part in repeatable experiments (not seances) with a materialisation medium like Helen Duncan. Please refer to the report on my website:

www.cfpf.org.uk

International teams of scientists from England, France, Germany, Canada and Ireland have also taken part in the same experiments and witnessed the same phenomena which we now know is nothing whatsoever to do with having to believe in priestcraft. We are dealing with subatomic physics - the study of the invisible part of the universe.

Because of the power of the Church on media and educational outlets, hardly anybody knows that we have a rational explanation to account for what takes place when mediums like Helen Duncan give a demonstration. Before the Internet, the published reports and conclusions of scientists who experimented with materialisation mediums were successfully kept from public attention - for obvious reasons. Now that we have this rational explanation for so-called paranormal happenings, that the mind and brain are separate, nobody is ever again going to take any notice of the priests. There is no need for a faith or a belief system when there is scientific proof. The priests have a monopoly on the vast and lucrative life after death industry and they are not going to give it up without a fight.

The reason why Christian fanatics got so worked up about mediums in the Renaissance is because they were a threat to their power structures. Mediums, then as now, give far more hope and comfort to grieving people than the doctrines and dogmas that the priests are stuck with. That we all have to rest in peace in the ground waiting for their god to return and judge us!

Anne Shaw has put forward the case for the mind and brain being the same, that death is the end of everything. I am putting forward the secular case for a separate mind and brain, that we all survive the death of our physical bodies. We are both atheists but one of us is desperately wrong. Readers can only find out which one if they make a careful study of the atheists' case for survival that has been censored until now. This is because the priests have joined forces with their most deadly enemies - the materialists. Orthodox scientific teaching across every discipline, including psychology and philosophy, starts from the base that Anne Shaw is correct. This makes the priests the only alternative.

When uncomfortable discoveries in physics eventually hit millions throughout the world, the orthodox scientific model of the universe will be shown to be just as false as the idea of a book having divine authority or dead bodies leaping out of graves on a mythical Judgement Day.

Yours sincerely

Michael Roll

A First-Hand Account of Materialisation Mediumship - Michael Roll describes an experiment he attended with the materialisation medium Rita Goold. This account was written in 1983, but was not accepted for publication until 1992.

Killing Mediums is a Heinous Crime Against Humanity - Michael Roll

Scientific Proof and the Media - Letter from Michael Roll to Prof. B D Josephson (December 1, 2002)

No priest believes in what they are selling! - E-mail from Michael Roll to Dene Jones (August 13, 2002)

The Freethinker - The monthly secular magazine for those who have escaped from the clutches of priestcraft - as well as those wanting to ditch religion. The Freethinker Website offers a selection of articles and information about the National Secular Society.