Sloan, John C. (1870-1951)

British physical medium of Glasgow, Scotland. He worked as a packer in a warehouse and later operated a small shop. Unlike many professional mediums, he accepted no remuneration for his séances, and worked without the use of a cabinet. He had as a spirit control "White Feather," a Native American, a genial personality who preferred to be called "Whitey." He spoke both through the medium's vocal organs and provided direct voice phenomena through a trumpet.

To have the medium at the disposal of the British College of Psychic Science, James Hewat McKenzie found employment for Sloan in a London garage and made him accessible to various experimenters. After his return to Glasgow, Sloan cooperated in experiments with J. Arthur Findlay.

In 1924, Findlay published a small book on his findings: An Investigation of Psychic Phenomena, with a preface by Sir William Barrett. This was followed by a larger volume: On the Edge of the Etheric (1931), in which Findlay graded his evidential cases A1 and A2, according to the quality of the evidence.

Examining three of the 180 A1 communications, he stated: "An eminent mathematician on calculating the chances of correctly guessing all the facts recorded, answers that to have reached such accuracy, represented the equivalent of 1 to 5,000,000,000,000 in other words the odds were 5,000,000,000,000 to 1 against chance being the explanation."

Sources:

Findlay, J. Arthur. An Investigation of Psychic Phenomena. N.p., 1924.

——. On the Edge of the Etheric. London: Rider, 1931.