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1. ‘Does anyone here know a Dr.
Hamilton’? Marie’s eyes we-
re closed and her blonde head was
slightly tilted back. Several people
sitting around a table in a darke-
ned room shifted in their chairs as
they tried to recall someone in their
lives by that name. No one could
recall a Dr. Hamilton. A thought
struck me. I had heard that a Dr.
Hamilton had held séances in Win-
nipeg, many years ago, less than
a dozen blocks from where we we-
re sitting. ‘Is this the Dr. Hamil-
ton that used to hold sittings he-
re in Winnipeg long ago’? I asked.
Marie’s head bobbed affirmatively:
‘He wants to talk to you - he sounds
very determined’. This first com-
munication from Dr. Hamilton hap-
pened while a few of us were sitting
in a circle, sometime between May
2000 and May 2002. I had not ma-
de a note of the date of the sitting
on which Dr. Hamilton first introdu-
ced himself, and so I am paraphra-
sing from memory.
1

2. I had met Marie at a class in The-
rapeutic Touch that I was giving
with Hannah (Ann) Venchuk (1922-
2011). After the topic turned to
séances, Marie expressed an in-
terest in having a sitting to con-
tact her recently-deceased father,
who seemed to be turning her be-
droom lights on and off. When we
began sitting together in January
2000, Marie rapidly developed into
a good medium.
Now it appeared that a man who
had worked with mediums many
years previously was contacting
us. I was immediately interested.
‘He is pleased to be recognized’,
said Marie. ‘He would like you to
write about your experiences’.
I had heard that the records of Dr.
Hamilton’s séances were deposi-
ted at the University of Manitoba.
When I asked about this, Marie re-
ported: ‘He would be pleased if you
would take some time to look at his
notes’. I promised in a half-hearted
way to take a look sometime.
On 15 May, 2002, Dr. Hamilton ca-
me again into the circle. ‘Dr. Ha-
milton says he will keep after you’,
said Marie ‘He still wants you to
look at his notes’. I promised again
to do so. ‘He wants us also to go
back to the house on Henderson’,
continued Marie. I explained to the
group that this is Hamilton House
on Henderson Highway. I recorded
this seance in my diaries.
‘That writing better get going!
When back on the farm’, Marie
went on, speaking for Dr. Hamil-
ton, ‘he will fill your head full of
thoughts. Sometimes you just got
to relax and not think of nothing -
you concentrate an awful lot’. ‘He
says he has lots of valuable things
to write down, with you doing the
writing. He says that is all for now
- but he will keep a close eye on
you’, Marie finished.
On 10 July, 2002, Dr. Hamilton ca-
me into the circle again. He repea-
ted that he wanted me to begin
working on a book from his notes
at the university; he also wanted
us to go to the house where he
used to hold the sittings.
Then for the first time Ann Venchuk
also began to hear Dr. Hamilton.
She told me the same thing, that
he wanted me to write a book on
his research.
I had met Ann in January 1990;
she had been a medium for many
years. ‘He is telling you that you
have the aptitude to write, he
wants you to do the research on
his work by the time of October
or November. He tells you not to
worry, that he will be by your side
writing.’
In November 2002, I took the bus
to the university archives whe-
re I requested the boxes contai-
ning material detailing how Robert
Louis Stevenson came into the Ha-
milton circle in the 1920s through
the medium Elizabeth Poole. After
only half an hour I was convin-
ced that the notes were important
material that should be published,
but I also knew that it would take
months to read them all, let alone
make notes.
By March 2004, I had made a card-
board easel and took my Canon G5
digital camera and tripod to the
university library. I went upstairs
to the Archives and obtained per-
mission to photograph the Hamil-
ton files. I set up my tripod, opened
the first box, and began to photo-
graph.
One day, Dr. Shelley Sweeney ca-
me by and asked me the purpo-
se of my taking photos. I told her
that Dr. Hamilton had asked me to
look at his notes. She seemed to
understand and gave me some in-
formation. I put my head down and
continued taking pictures.
By April 2004, after seven trips to
the University, I had photograp-
hed all the notes. It then took over
four years to transcribe them into a
WordPerfect file. The files had ori-
ginally been arranged by topic and
I rearranged them in chronological
order and deleted duplicated sec-
tions by February 2009.
Dr. Hamilton communicated with
the séance group at least twenty
times during the seven years that
I was working on the records. He
insisted that he wanted a ‘popular
format’ version of his work presen-
ted to the public.
I began creating a website and
launched the Hamilton materials,
including photographs, on 19 Ja-
nuary, 2011. The website [1] I
also uploaded the complete co-
llection of photographs to Flikr.[2]
By this time I had also uploa-
ded eight short Youtube videos [3],
and seven expanded documenta-
ries to Vimeo [4] A Spanish trans-
lation of the Hamilton files websi-
te was coordinated by Francisco Pi-
cón, beginning in July 2011[5] I had
no idea that day when Marie asked
‘does anyone here know a Dr. Ha-
milton?’ where this question would
lead. Had I known I probably would
have quailed.
Maybe sometimes ignorance is
bliss
Notes:
[1] thehamiltonfiles.info.
[2] flickr.com/photos/tghamilton
[3] youtube.com/user/Falcon1296/videos
[4] vimeo.com/user11489024/collections
[5] survivalafterdeath.blogspot.ca
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