Leslie Flint

Leslie Flint (1911 – 16 April 1994) was a British self-proclaimed medium who is credited as having been one of the last psychics to use direct-voice mediumship. He has been described by spiritualists as the most renowned psychic of the 20th century.

Biography Flint was born in London in 1911 and reached the peak of his fame from the 1930s to the 1960s. He conducted his first séance at the age of 17. Flint was a conscientious objector in World War II, serving in the Non-Combatant Corps before being seconded to coal-mining.

During pre-production for the 1973 film Don't Look Now, director Nicolas Roeg and actress Julie Christie were invited by Flint to a séance he was holding for some American parapsychologists who were coming to observe him. Roeg and Christie attended and sat in a circle in the pitch dark and joined hands. Flint instructed his guests to "uncross" their legs, which Roeg subsequently incorporated into the film.

Style of mediumship When taking part in séances with Flint, participants would report hearing the voices of the dead surrounding them in the room. Flint would perform bound and gagged in an attempt to prove that he was not throwing his voice. He claimed that he was able to conjure ectoplasm from which he could then reconstruct vocal cords.

Archimedes Helena Blavatsky Frédéric Chopin Winston Churchill Arthur Conan Doyle Elizabeth Fry Mahatma Gandhi Marilyn Monroe Harry Price George Bernard Shaw Bessie Smith Ellen Terry Rudolph Valentino Oscar Wilde Sir Oliver Lodge

The recordings of Flint's séances are now stored at the University of Manitoba.

On 7 May 1948 the psychologist Donald J. West attended a séance at Flint's home. West examined the cabinet before the séance and personally attached a tape to Flint's mouth. After the séance he examined the tape covering Flint's mouth and it was no longer in line with the indelible marking that he had made. West asked Flint for further testing but Flint refused.

Gladys Lorrimore who attended a séance denied that the supposed "spirit voice" from Flint's direct-voice mediumship was her husband as the voice did not sound anything like her husband. Another of Flint's spirit voices was supposed to be from Helena Blavatsky, however the voice had no Russian accent.

Flint once gave an interview live for the BBC radio. He was asked by the interviewer to try to get in contact with spirits but failed the test.