A Fortean who heard voices.
Raymond Cass was born 1921 in Yorkshire, England, and educated at Riley High School. This information comes from his official biography at the Raymond Crass Foundation. I have no reason to doubt this information, but also have not found independent corroboration. All the tidbits about Cass on the internet ultimately seem to come from this source. According to this same source, Cass was interested in paranormal phenomena from an early age—the onus coming from the horrid destruction wrought by the Great War. When he was seven, a voice called out his name through a turned-off radio, which prompted him to do further research, supposedly finding that there was a history of mediumship in his family and a fortune-teller who foretold his developing his own mediumistic powers. He was involved with the Hull Psychic Society, which seems to have been a local spiritualistic group.
Raymond Cass was born 1921 in Yorkshire, England, and educated at Riley High School. This information comes from his official biography at the Raymond Crass Foundation. I have no reason to doubt this information, but also have not found independent corroboration. All the tidbits about Cass on the internet ultimately seem to come from this source. According to this same source, Cass was interested in paranormal phenomena from an early age—the onus coming from the horrid destruction wrought by the Great War. When he was seven, a voice called out his name through a turned-off radio, which prompted him to do further research, supposedly finding that there was a history of mediumship in his family and a fortune-teller who foretold his developing his own mediumistic powers. He was involved with the Hull Psychic Society, which seems to have been a local spiritualistic group.
What I know of Hull’s life from his youth until his rise to prominence in the 1970s comes (almost) entirely from his relations to the Fortean Society. Otherwise, he seems to have been professionally associated with hearing aids. In 1968, Konstantin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist in Sweden, published a book on what would come to be known as EVP: Electronic Voice Phenomena. There had been a long history of paranormal research into the subject, dating back at least to spiritualism, with researchers trying to tune-in voices from the ether through various technological means. (One thinks of Olive Oltcher’s clipping about the radio man who wanted a set to receive Plato’s and Christ’s disembodied thoughts.) The scholar Jeffrey Sconce has chronicled the phenomena from a slightly different angle in his book “Haunted Media,” showing how popular representations of new communication technologies—from telegraphy to television—often figured these machines as haunted. Raudive’s book was published in English in 1971 as “Breakthrough,” and it renewed interest in the phenomenon generally, and specifically by Cass.
Cass—by now in his fifties—spent hundreds of hours during the last six years of his life recording disembodied voices. The quality and the clarity impressed, and soon enough he was among the leaders in the British EVP field, according to standard accounts. (I imageine the field must have been quite small.) According to Mark Poysden’s review of EVP for “Anomalist” magazine, Cass hypothesized an extra-terrestrial origin for the voices, “suggesting that fragmented communications might be being directed at selected individuals over a long period of time, possibly from extraterrestrial monitoring and relay stations positioned somewhere in our solar system. The fragmented nature of these messages keeps the recipients finely tuned and simultaneously ensures that they conduct their own continuous research in order to corroborate their observations and conclusions. He also suggests, however, that ‘the voices may be a mutant development of the subconscious mind, or a transient by-product of the electromagnetic pollution which now rings our planet.’”
It seems widely reported—on the internet, so grain of salt and all that—Cass died in 1977. However, there is a newspaper clipping at his online archive site from 1979 that has him as alive. And Poysden article, from 1999, treats him as still alive. For all I know, he still may be: he’d be in his 90s now.
Case comes up in Fortean discussions first in a letter between Thayer and Eric Frank Russell, dated 21 April 1947. It was, as usual, a business-y letter, with only a sentence or two devoted to each topic. The germane portion reads, “F’eavenzake--Cass! Well, he’s a good boy. Treat him kind.” It is not clear what Cass did to rate the praise from Thayer, but likely he sent in a lot of material. Likely, too, it was not his first contribution.
That last surmise comes from his first mention in the Fortean Society’s magazine, Doubt 18 (July 1947). Under the title “British Report,” Thayer wrote, inter alia, “Also cause for celebration is the finding of MFS Raymond Cass (missing this good while), an early contributor of much good data.” Nothing in the rest of the column mentions Cass, which does leave open the possibility that he didn’t actually contribute anything but merely made contact with Russell, after a long absence from the Fortean Society. What Thayer meant by “early contributor” is not clear. He reconstituted the Society in 1937, at which time Cass was about sixteen, and so he could have been contributing since then. It also could have been a few years later, after Russell started really developing the Society in Britain.
Whatever the case, at some point Cass did contribute a great deal of material. That was made clear in April 1948. On the 14th—almost a year after their first exchange about Cass—Thayer wrote to Russell again and this letter, too, mentioned Raymond, very appreciatively. The Secretary wrote, “We made Cass an Honorary Life because of reams of good data from books, not wypers [Thayer’s word for newspapers, borrowed from Ezra Pound], which he sent in before the year 7. I look at it today and wish DOUBT were big enogh [sic] to print it all. We are sending him a card now, but keep his dough. There’s no reason why Honorables shouldn’t cough up. Sussman sent $25 for the FU.” The letter clarifies, a bit, Cass’s history with the the Society. Year 7 would have been 1937—meaning that Cass would have been associated with the Fortean Society from the beginning, and longer than Russell himself. Clearly, then, he did have an interest in—if not paranormal—fringe scientific ideas from a young age.
His interest in Forteanism, though, does not seem to have been very deep, at least judging on his subsequent involvement with the Society. His name appeared only twice more in the magazine, associated with clippings he sent in. The first was in Doubt 23 (December 1948), a few months after Thayer’s letter. His name was listed with more than a dozen others, all contributors of data on “sky objects,” what were ineluctably being called flying saucers, despite Thayer gnashing his teeth and rending his breast at the reduction of a multifaceted phenomena to a single identity.
The other entry was meatier, a three-quarter excerpt from a letter. It dealt with a new cure for Parkinson’s Disease proposed by a German physician. The British Medical Journal dismissed the claim was without foundation. But Cass suggested something else was afoot. One reason the BMJ had dismissed the cure was that it reasoned the doctor was mistaking patient’s temporary remissions; yet definitions of the disease held it to be progressive. Why, then, was the British establishment so opposed? Case did not come right out and says, but his implication was politics: the cure had been promoted by a notorious Nazi doctor—the reader was therefore to infer that the British did not want a Fascist to be right.
The letter then shifted gears—or perhaps Thayer edited it. At any rate, Cass went on to move discuss recent unusual aerial phenomena near Yorkshire, meteors or distress signals or what have you. He noted that the area seemed to be a hotspot, and as evidence pointed out she material from the books (pages 514-5), which showed, if nothing else, that he was very familiar with Fort’s works. He also referred to one of his own letters, which apparently touched on the topic. He cited page 26 (!) of material he sent in. According to his notation, the reports he sent were dated 6-29 January of 1938, which indeed puts him as among the earliest of contributors, and certainly contributors not recruited by Thayer. Again, he definitely had an early interest in anomalous and paranormal phenomena. Case ended his letter with a promise to continue monitoring the weird lights and report. But then he never wrote again.
Cass’s lack of appearance in the Fortean Society magazine and Doubt is a bit hard to puzzle out. Thayer had long wanted Fortean reports from books and, apparently, here was someone offering them. He claimed to Russell that the problem was lack of room, but every issue of the magazine had plenty of filler that could have been pushed aside, so that doesn’t seem the whole of it. Perhaps Cass’s reports were so long and complicated that they really did need a lot of space. It is also odd that the connection was so short-lived in the late 1940s after Cass returned to the fold, given that Thayer seems excited to have had him back and gave, gave him an honorary membership, and printed a long excerpt from his letter. Did Cass stop sending in material? Did Thayer not bother revisiting the material Cass had already sent in when he expanded the magazine?
What was Cass’s relationship to other Forteans in Britain? He must have corresponded some with Eric Frank Russell, but seemingly not to any great extent? What, indeed, was he doing through the 1950s, as the Fortean Society continued on? Did work and family life take up all his time?
I need a voice to tell me these secrets.
Cass—by now in his fifties—spent hundreds of hours during the last six years of his life recording disembodied voices. The quality and the clarity impressed, and soon enough he was among the leaders in the British EVP field, according to standard accounts. (I imageine the field must have been quite small.) According to Mark Poysden’s review of EVP for “Anomalist” magazine, Cass hypothesized an extra-terrestrial origin for the voices, “suggesting that fragmented communications might be being directed at selected individuals over a long period of time, possibly from extraterrestrial monitoring and relay stations positioned somewhere in our solar system. The fragmented nature of these messages keeps the recipients finely tuned and simultaneously ensures that they conduct their own continuous research in order to corroborate their observations and conclusions. He also suggests, however, that ‘the voices may be a mutant development of the subconscious mind, or a transient by-product of the electromagnetic pollution which now rings our planet.’”
It seems widely reported—on the internet, so grain of salt and all that—Cass died in 1977. However, there is a newspaper clipping at his online archive site from 1979 that has him as alive. And Poysden article, from 1999, treats him as still alive. For all I know, he still may be: he’d be in his 90s now.
Case comes up in Fortean discussions first in a letter between Thayer and Eric Frank Russell, dated 21 April 1947. It was, as usual, a business-y letter, with only a sentence or two devoted to each topic. The germane portion reads, “F’eavenzake--Cass! Well, he’s a good boy. Treat him kind.” It is not clear what Cass did to rate the praise from Thayer, but likely he sent in a lot of material. Likely, too, it was not his first contribution.
That last surmise comes from his first mention in the Fortean Society’s magazine, Doubt 18 (July 1947). Under the title “British Report,” Thayer wrote, inter alia, “Also cause for celebration is the finding of MFS Raymond Cass (missing this good while), an early contributor of much good data.” Nothing in the rest of the column mentions Cass, which does leave open the possibility that he didn’t actually contribute anything but merely made contact with Russell, after a long absence from the Fortean Society. What Thayer meant by “early contributor” is not clear. He reconstituted the Society in 1937, at which time Cass was about sixteen, and so he could have been contributing since then. It also could have been a few years later, after Russell started really developing the Society in Britain.
Whatever the case, at some point Cass did contribute a great deal of material. That was made clear in April 1948. On the 14th—almost a year after their first exchange about Cass—Thayer wrote to Russell again and this letter, too, mentioned Raymond, very appreciatively. The Secretary wrote, “We made Cass an Honorary Life because of reams of good data from books, not wypers [Thayer’s word for newspapers, borrowed from Ezra Pound], which he sent in before the year 7. I look at it today and wish DOUBT were big enogh [sic] to print it all. We are sending him a card now, but keep his dough. There’s no reason why Honorables shouldn’t cough up. Sussman sent $25 for the FU.” The letter clarifies, a bit, Cass’s history with the the Society. Year 7 would have been 1937—meaning that Cass would have been associated with the Fortean Society from the beginning, and longer than Russell himself. Clearly, then, he did have an interest in—if not paranormal—fringe scientific ideas from a young age.
His interest in Forteanism, though, does not seem to have been very deep, at least judging on his subsequent involvement with the Society. His name appeared only twice more in the magazine, associated with clippings he sent in. The first was in Doubt 23 (December 1948), a few months after Thayer’s letter. His name was listed with more than a dozen others, all contributors of data on “sky objects,” what were ineluctably being called flying saucers, despite Thayer gnashing his teeth and rending his breast at the reduction of a multifaceted phenomena to a single identity.
The other entry was meatier, a three-quarter excerpt from a letter. It dealt with a new cure for Parkinson’s Disease proposed by a German physician. The British Medical Journal dismissed the claim was without foundation. But Cass suggested something else was afoot. One reason the BMJ had dismissed the cure was that it reasoned the doctor was mistaking patient’s temporary remissions; yet definitions of the disease held it to be progressive. Why, then, was the British establishment so opposed? Case did not come right out and says, but his implication was politics: the cure had been promoted by a notorious Nazi doctor—the reader was therefore to infer that the British did not want a Fascist to be right.
The letter then shifted gears—or perhaps Thayer edited it. At any rate, Cass went on to move discuss recent unusual aerial phenomena near Yorkshire, meteors or distress signals or what have you. He noted that the area seemed to be a hotspot, and as evidence pointed out she material from the books (pages 514-5), which showed, if nothing else, that he was very familiar with Fort’s works. He also referred to one of his own letters, which apparently touched on the topic. He cited page 26 (!) of material he sent in. According to his notation, the reports he sent were dated 6-29 January of 1938, which indeed puts him as among the earliest of contributors, and certainly contributors not recruited by Thayer. Again, he definitely had an early interest in anomalous and paranormal phenomena. Case ended his letter with a promise to continue monitoring the weird lights and report. But then he never wrote again.
Cass’s lack of appearance in the Fortean Society magazine and Doubt is a bit hard to puzzle out. Thayer had long wanted Fortean reports from books and, apparently, here was someone offering them. He claimed to Russell that the problem was lack of room, but every issue of the magazine had plenty of filler that could have been pushed aside, so that doesn’t seem the whole of it. Perhaps Cass’s reports were so long and complicated that they really did need a lot of space. It is also odd that the connection was so short-lived in the late 1940s after Cass returned to the fold, given that Thayer seems excited to have had him back and gave, gave him an honorary membership, and printed a long excerpt from his letter. Did Cass stop sending in material? Did Thayer not bother revisiting the material Cass had already sent in when he expanded the magazine?
What was Cass’s relationship to other Forteans in Britain? He must have corresponded some with Eric Frank Russell, but seemingly not to any great extent? What, indeed, was he doing through the 1950s, as the Fortean Society continued on? Did work and family life take up all his time?
I need a voice to tell me these secrets.
