The Mercury Circle was formed at the end of 1999.

The medium was Joan Avison and she had been sitting with another physical medium but it soon became apparent that she too was ripe for development and on the 24th November 1999 was in the cabinet at John Austin’s house in Hove, Sussex. John’s séance room was full of energy having been used for the development of physical mediums over many years giving an initial boost to the circle. Wendy, Brenda and John sat with Joan joined on that first evening by Tob, Sparrow and William from spirit.

At the 4th sitting Daisy and Travis joined the group as sitters and in March 2000 a new communicator made himself known….. Freddie Mercury. Joan had trouble accepting that this was indeed the lead singer of the group Queen but he was able to give conclusive evidence one month later. John left the circle which then moved to Colin Fry’s Spirit Lodge in Haywards Heath. Colin sat with the group initially and when Freddie came through Colin was able to reminisce with him as they had known each other well. Not only did Freddie recall where they had first met, he also remembered who’s party they ended up at and what Colin was drinking...

Here's part of the transcript from April 2000

Colin... 'Freddie can you remember where I first met you? It was a long time ago'

Freddie... 'Palais...'

Colin... 'That's right... Freddie when we met can you remember who's party we ended up at?'

Freddie... 'Victor'

Colin... 'Well Victor was there but can you remember who's party it was? She’s your side of life as well, big lady'

Freddie... 'Ah, Diana'

Colin... 'Diana, that's right... Freddie I don't suppose you'd remember but can you remember what we all got drunk on that night?'

Freddie... 'Vodka'

Colin... 'Vodka that's right and I've never been able to touch it since...'

Colin later explained he'd been standing in a crowd outside Hammersmith Palais in the early 80s when a black Bentley turned up with black windows one rolled down and Freddie shouted 'Do you want to come to a party' Colin jumped in and they ended up at Diana Dors' party.

At the end of the sitting Freddie said something else to Colin which was brilliant evidence but if I wrote it here Colin would kill me!!!

Freddie became a regular communicator bringing much fun and laughter to the circle as well as serious talks about how he was now helping those who had passed with Aids and drug related illnesses.

After this it was decided the circle should be called ‘The Mercury Circle’ and then someone realised that the 24th November, when the circle had first sat, was actually the anniversary of Freddie’s passing in 1991, one of many coincidences noticed over the years and they’re still happening.

Joan, Brenda and Wendy left to right at the back with Daisy and Travis in front at Colin Fry's Spirit Lodge in 2000

The circle sat every other week sometimes in red light for trance communications and at other times full blackout conditions were utilised for the development of direct voice. The communicators were getting stronger and Tob, a Native American Indian would usually open proceedings followed by Sparrow, a young cockney boy who would raise the vibrations with his childish humour. Freddie would always make an appearance during the evening and sometimes William, an academic from the 18th century, would talk philosophy.

July 2000 saw Scott Milligan join the circle adding some strong energy but it was soon realised that he was developing as a physical medium himself and in March 2001 he left to form a new circle with John Austin in Hove. Then in April, Wendy and Brenda left leaving just Joan, Travis and Daisy. This nearly ended the circle but the three of them carried on hoping for new sitters and were rewarded in June when Dave and Caroline joined followed by me in July. Dave became circle leader and from now on we only sat in full blackout conditions.

Scott with Wendy

So it was now Joan, Dave, Caroline, Travis, Daisy and me. We still only sat once a fortnight as Dave was also sitting for his wife, another physical medium, every other week and didn’t want to sit in séance conditions more than once a week. Music wasn’t played at this stage, instead we would sing songs like, ‘What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor’, ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘She’ll be coming round the Mountain’, ‘Pack up ya troubles’, ‘My Bonny lies over the Ocean’ and one of my favourites ‘Two little Boys’, the Rolf Harris hit!!! Freddie would normally complain about our awful singing but it certainly raised the energies. In between songs we would chat and joke and would be quiet when communicators attempted to come through as Dave encouraged them to speak. We also found energies could be raised by doing ‘Ohms’ where each sitter would hum and hold onto a different note for as long as possible resulting in an interesting mix of resonating sounds.

Another new sitter joined at the beginning of 2002, Les, and she soon blended in with the energies. Later in the year we experimented by playing music while talking amongst ourselves and this would often bring communicators through who would join in the discussion with their own views on the subject which was always interesting, also some of the regular communicators were experimenting more with direct voice with good results. Things were looking up but then suddenly took a nose dive when at the end of 2002 Dave announced he would be leaving the circle. He had been told by spirit that it would affect his health if he continued sitting in two physical circles plus all the other activities he was involved in. He had initially joined our circle to help it back on it’s feet after nearly breaking up and we all thanked him for his hard work. Joan was feeling a bit despondent but when Daisy and Travis visited Scott Milligan’s circle at Christmas Helen Duncan came through with a message for Joan saying ‘people will come and go and a lot of things can happen in a short period, spirit had made a promise to work with her and that promise they will fulfill’ suddenly Joan was feeling a lot more positive!!!

I took over as circle leader in January 2003 and we all decided to sit every week from now onwards after checking with the spirit team who agreed it would help the circle’s progress. As the weeks went by we were all seeing and feeling more activity in the room, blobs of colour, pin prick lights, light touches, vibrating chairs and cool breezes. We now played songs which we sung along to including The Beatles, Dave Bowie, Blur and of course some of Queen’s hits which pleased Freddie as he would comment… ‘impeccable taste darlings…’ one song which always seemed to raise the vibrations was Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman’s ‘Time To Say Goodbye’.

At a sitting in May, Freddie asked us all to hold hands as they wanted to try something. A new communicator spoke asking us to listen to his voice as he was speaking ‘in a capacity of a direct connection’. The voice grew stronger and higher up well above where the medium was seated. During the next week we heard from Scott who sat on the same evening as us. One of his communicators had said that the ‘Mercury Circle’ had had a breakthrough that evening!!!

We were also starting to get a few extra noises on the recordings like something scraping across the mike and whistles which we hadn’t heard during the séance. Joan was being taken into spirit during the evening and experiencing wonderful sights and sounds sometimes she found herself in a kind of waiting room where she saw some of the communicators as if waiting for their turn to speak. Things continued to improve throughout 2003 and into 2004…. but another blow for the circle was looming.

In April Colin phoned Joan to say we could no longer use his Spirit Lodge as due to his ever increasing TV work he was going to turn it into an office…. Suddenly we had nowhere to sit!!!

After a frantic phone round it was Dave once again to the rescue. He was using a cellar under a Health Food Shop in Shoreham called ‘The Healing Light’ for psychic development classes. He suggested we contact the owner of the shop, Celia Stuart, to see if we could use it. Celia was very much into physical mediumship and was more than happy for us to sit there so Joan went down to Shoreham to check it out but didn’t feel happy with the energies when she walked into the cellar. Celia also had some rooms upstairs which were used for healing and took Joan up there and as soon as she walked into the first room she felt her stomach do a somersault and knew this was the place. Some years previously Joan had often had an old song in her head ‘Sussex by the Sea’ and now that’s where we were!!…

On 22nd April 2004 we had our first sitting at ‘The Healing Light’. After the luxury of a fully fitted out séance room we were soon brought down to earth and learnt how difficult it was to get a normal room blacked out and ready for physical mediumship. We put blankets over the window and the door frame which didn’t totally eliminate the light but we felt it was good enough for our first sit. For a cabinet we stretched a curtain wire across the corner of the room, draped a curtain over it, sat Joan in a fold up camping chair and we were ready for action. The communicators were not as strong as usual, Tob came through to say… 

‘new house, we can fill with love and warmth, become home……no longer house, become home’…. 

Freddie liked it, especially the yellow walls, and said... 

‘we’ll be very happy here, we’ll be like the dog’s dinner’….

Before the next sitting Dave, who was a dab hand at DIY, had made up a blackout board for the window and a cabinet frame which attached to the wall with our curtains on rings. Joan’s daughter Cathryn had embroidered the curtains with ‘Mercury Circle’ and we got a comfy chair with head support for Joan. The energies built up fast, we all saw colours and flashes in the room and the communicators came through stronger each week. Sparrow would come through and sing ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’…  

We sat every Tuesday and every other week we would have an extra meet-up on Wednesday which was a free-for-all. Daisy would do healing as would Les unless she brought along her tarot cards. Joan would practice her clairvoyance and I would sit for trance. Travis and Caroline were not interested in developing themselves but were happy to sit as batteries.

During one of our sittings in June I noticed a small light between and behind Caroline and Daisy. I sat next to the cabinet with Caroline on my right, then Daisy, then Travis and then Les who was the other side of the cabinet. Caroline could see it when she looked behind to her right and Daisy could see it when she looked behind to her left. Les and Travis couldn’t see it but thought it was misty in the area. It looked stationary to me but both Caroline and Daisy saw it move up then sideways, Caroline said it looked about the size of a 5p with a glow around it then appeared to become two lights. Daisy could now only see it behind to her right, but I still thought it looked stationary? We all shut our eyes and couldn’t then see it confirming it was something physical and at the end of the sitting we noticed the saucer of salt we had in the same area had two perfectly formed indentations, about the size of a 5p with a circle round each one! Needless to say we were all on a high after this, surely this was physical phenomena??? No natural causes could have produced it???.....or could they???

A clock which hadn’t been there before was on a shelf at the back of the room exactly where I had seen the light, and yes you guessed it, it had luminous hands!!! But that didn’t explain why Caroline and Daisy saw it move??? Then we noticed the salt had been placed directly under the tap of the water dispenser. A quick experiment showed us that a drop of water landing in the salt produced exactly the marks we had got!!! But why were there two marks two inches apart??? Surely water from a dripping tap would land in the same place??? So we had disappointments and conundrums along with a bunch of questions for spirit next time we sat…  

The following week we kept the clock in the room and sure enough when the lights went off the hands could be seen, but after about half an hour they had become dim and only just about visible, whereas before at this time the light was still bright. The energies felt low and the voices weak and Freddie explained this was because we’d given the medium too much to think about. He later came back to talk to us…

‘now dears, I do believe you’re in a quandary… we have given you a momentum and you have been picking holes in it darlings, haven’t you heard of chain reaction?... You know you have to strike the match before you get the flame dears, and if we have had to use things to gain momentum then that is the way it is dears, we understand that you have to question us, but there has to be a spark in order to light the light, I hope you understand, this isn’t coming from my mind, I’m being spoon fed, because the energy is low, just think rationally with a little twist and this is how we get a chain reaction’….

After this the energies continued to grow each week as we settled in to our new home by the sea. The communicators were getting stronger again. Some weeks would be filled with trance communications and others would be quiet as they were developing phenomena and direct voice. 2004 ended with our Christmas séance, the trumpet was decorated like a Christmas tree and Daisy had put a picture of Freddie on the top as the fairy!!!

Joan was being taken deeper into trance during 2005, at first she was uncomfortable with it, as if she didn’t want to let go and sometimes felt like they were putting her in a box which she didn’t like at all but what she did enjoy was some great sparkly light shows in the cabinet at the end of the sittings when I called her back, she sometimes described it as being in a blizzard of white lights!!! During a sitting in August a communicator asked us to open the cabinet but leave the lights off and we all saw sparkly white lights inside and we also felt the cold like opening a fridge door.

Another time just before we ended, Tob asked Les and me to feel Joan’s arms. Les’s side felt warm while my side was cold. A few seconds later we were asked to do it again and this time Les’s side was cold and my side warm!!!

Often when Freddie started talking his voice would change and another communicator would take over as if they were using Freddie’s voice to get started. Freddie told us he didn’t like it and was thinking of joining another group!!!

We were starting to get personal communicators come through. Someone connected with Caroline’s Dad gave some good evidential messages and Joan’s mum would sometimes speak to us. Also an old friend of ours Magnus attempted to speak. We had all talked to him through Colin Fry and Magnus explained to us that it was a different aspect of himself communicating through Joan. Each sitting was recorded with a cassette recorder and we were often getting static, like radio interference on playback as they experimented with the energies.

At a sitting in April 2006 Joan announced she was back just before the end of the sitting. She told us she was getting icy blasts round her neck and shoulders. I put the red light on and opened the curtains, then Joan went back into trance and a communicator said...

‘Icy cold, icy cold, my breath in my mouth is icy cold, put your hand in front of my mouth’ 

I did this followed by Caroline and we both confirmed the breath was icy cold, then Freddie broke through... 

‘just proving a point dears…’

During a sitting in June 2006 Caroline was unwrapping the cellophane of a sweet which lit up as she did so. We weren’t sure if this was phenomena or just static electricity, so we all experimented at home unwrapping sweets in the dark, I did mine in the airing cupboard! Results were no lights except for Caroline who’s sweet did light up but it was a sweet she had had in her pocket during the last séance so we figured it may have been charged up then. To further test this conundrum we all had sweets at the next séance and first opened them in the dark before we started and none lit up. We all did it again half way through the séance and this time they all lit up!

Each week the energies in the room were getting stronger. Daisy was getting very light headed and felt like she was being taken out of it. She was told by the communicators to stay grounded, Freddie said ‘if you go floating off you may end up in another séance room and we don’t want that!!!’ We were asked to open the cabinet for a while during the sittings and all of us could see a mist building up inside and coming out. Sometimes we would be asked to put the red light on and with the cabinet open could see changes in Joan’s face, also her hands would appear to change getting bigger or smaller and her skin would seem to be moving like a liquid.

At the end of 2006 Joan visited another trance medium who’s control told her our circle needed some changes. We were to sit in different places and were to have tiger eye and rose quartz crystals in the circle with a rose quartz crystal in the cabinet. Les was to do a short meditation followed by opening Joan’s chakras before we started, then close them at the end. I wasn’t particularly happy about the changes but agreed to go along with them till the end of the year, anything for a happy medium!!! One week we got into a discussion as to whether we should all open our chakras as well to help the energies. Freddie quickly answered us with a no, saying...

‘you only open them to do your own work, leave us to take the energies that we need’ 

Tob also added...

‘you have horses in enclosure and you want to ride one horse, you take one horse out and leave others in enclosure’ 

Joan had also been told by the entranced medium that her energies were back to front and had been given an exercise to correct them. This seemed to be upsetting the energies of the group and by the start of 2007 we had gone back to how we used to sit and things settled down again.

We had asked the spirit team if it was ok to allow visitors to sometimes sit with us but they told us no, not at this time. They also said we would be having some new permanent sitters in the group soon. A friend of mine, Dan had been showing an interest in the group and after asking the team they welcomed him to sit with us in January 2007 for a trial period. Dan settled in well and was soon feeling and seeing the energies and getting his share of light touches as our friends checked him out. Freddie was pleased and commented… 

‘Oh it is a shot in the arm dears, we’re all together and a new little friend, what more could any ghost ask for, yes I’m no longer dead from my toe nails up, I’m alive and kicking and raring to go…’ 

Things were looking up but we were in for a shock…

Just a few weeks later Les left the group. So we’d gained one sitter but lost one. More bad news was looming as in May Daisy had to leave as she was moving to Africa. Then to make matters worse Caroline left in July!!! Things were not looking good for the Mercury Circle in 2007.

Travis, Dan and me continued to sit for Joan and we were surprised and pleased that the energies still felt strong despite so few sitters. We always left a pencil and pad out and in August when the lights went on we noticed the pencil had moved and there was a 1 inch line drawn on the pad.

Sometimes Joan would have messages for the sitters after she was called back and in October she asked Dan if his wife was pregnant and expecting a baby in the spring as this is what she had been told by spirit. It was true and Dan was very impressed as he’d so far only told me about it.

2008 started with a bit of a boost. There was an advert in the Zerdin magazine by two sitters in East Sussex who were looking for a circle. I made contact and arranged for them to sit with us on a trial basis. Before they arrived we asked Freddie what he thought and he said…

’nothing is left to chance and nothing has not been planned..... one I believe will stay with you, you see darlings we are not a peep show…’

Laurie and Diana sat with us for the first time on January 29th. Laurie really enjoyed the evening but Diana was unsure and we didn’t see her again…. So we now had four sitters, all male which didn’t seem right but the energies were still strong and at least Freddie was enjoying himself…

‘all the boys are here hip hip hooray….Eenie, Meenie, Miney Mo…’

Laurie was feeling something cold running out the sides of his mouth and down his neck, he’d never experience anything like this before and Tob reassured him…

’I think you are aware that we have taken energy from you tonight yes, and it is for us to develop our intention to become physical beings again and it is of very big importance to us who is in our group for we have been intending these days for many years, we gather all the people that we need and you are very welcome and we very happy that you come and you join us…’

After our initial boost things took a dive again when the Healing Light was taken over by a new owner who was not at all happy about PM séances being held in her room and we all had to be out by March!!! Also Dan had to leave us for a while as his wife was about to give birth. So we were back out on the streets again!!! Laurie very kindly offered us the use of one of the rooms in his house near Heathfield as a temporary place to sit while we looked for somewhere else. It was far from ideal as Joan now had an hour’s drive to get there but Laurie had blacked it out well and had a shower rail across one end with a curtain to make a cabinet. We sat there until June 3rd 2008 which turned out to be the last sitting for the Mercury Circle.

Joan became very ill and later passed to spirit with cancer. It was a very sad end to nine years of ups and downs, laughter and tears with the spirit team who had become our best friends. I often wondered what had become of all that energy developed over those years, but the spirit team hadn’t finished with us yet… and neither had Joan!!!...

After the last sitting Laurie decided to concentrate on healing while Dan and I started to meet at my house where we both took it in turns to sit for trance development.

The Mercury Light Circle was formed in May 2012. I sit as the medium with Liz in her converted garage in Eastbourne and we were joined by Dan for a while but he had to leave due to work hours. We are still joined some weeks by other guest sitters.

Joan and Freddie have both communicated and it would seem that the Mercury Circle spirit team continue to work alongside our new team in 'Sussex by the Sea...'

Nick Pettitt


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