Stewart Alexander is a British physical medium who has given his life to physical mediumship for close to fifty years1, since developing an interest in the subject in 1968 at the age of twenty-two2. He has always lived as a part-time medium, running a business with his wife seven days a week while raising two children3, and today spends much of his time with his two grandchildren4. He kept his mediumship separate from his home and business life to such an extent that his two sons did not know of his involvement until he gave them copies of his 2010 memoir, An Extraordinary Journey5. Despite publishing that book, he has remained a private person who prefers to avoid publicity6.
At the time of his first sitting with White Feather, Stewart Alexander worked as a design engineer at a large international engineering company7. He had not set out to become a medium himself, but hoped only to help create the conditions in which phenomena might occur8. During Stewart Alexander’s first paranormal experience with White Feather at his brother’s home circle, attended only by his brother and sister-in-law after he had sat in the group for months without any phenomena occurring9, Stewart Alexander was entranced without warning by an entity calling himself White Feather, who became his principal spirit guide10 and went on to be his longtime spirit guide, the first spirit control to make himself known to him11. When his brother switched off the red light, Stewart Alexander felt every nerve and muscle in his body twitch and jump, and experienced something entering his body while he found himself outside it12; he then heard himself speaking the words “I come, speak, brother, sister” from a distance13. Whenever White Feather controls him, his left hand becomes almost deformed, curling in on itself as if from severe arthritis, though without pain14.
White Feather gradually developed the ability to speak through Stewart Alexander while he was in trance15, and it took over ten years before he could speak independently through a levitated trumpet16. A second guide, Christopher (Stewart Alexander’s spirit guide), arrived saying he had died as a young boy17, with the job of relaxing sitters and making them laugh18. Walter Stinson joined the team in 1992 and took charge of developing the physical phenomena19; he had worked with his sister Margery Crandon in her séance room after his death and intended to continue that work through Stewart Alexander20. Freda completed the team in 199621, and Dr. Barnett has served as a physical healer for many sitters, able to speak independently of the medium and materialise fully during séances22. Stewart Alexander describes this team as close friends who became part of weekly sittings23. His current home circle was formed in 198824, and he has sat with the same small group for almost thirty years25. He gave his first public séance in 199226, and during larger public sittings, sitters were invited to test him in the light to confirm he was genuinely in a deep trance27. The physical manifestations in his séances rest on an energy substance referred to as ectoplasm, which the spirit team use to manipulate objects and to partially or fully materialise28.
Persistent doubts about the authenticity of the voices speaking through him were relieved when Stewart Alexander attended a séance with the English medium Leslie Flint in the early 1970s29, then internationally celebrated as one of the finest direct-voice mediums in the world30 and a virtual stranger who knew nothing of Stewart Alexander’s own mediumistic development31. Stewart Alexander’s grandmother had raised him and his siblings after their parents’ marriage collapsed32, and he had sat alone with her at her hospital bedside on the day she died, holding her hand, in a moment known to no one else33. During Stewart Alexander’s séance with Leslie Flint where his grandmother’s voice was heard, held two or three weeks after her death34, a voice identified as hers mentioned that same private moment at her bedside35. During Stewart Alexander’s séance with Leslie Flint where White Feather confirmed his own left-hand deformity, Stewart Alexander asked White Feather, speaking independently through Flint, whether he had had any physical deformity during his earthly life36; White Feather replied “Do you mean my left hand?”, confirming the same deformity Stewart Alexander experiences when controlled by him37.
Leslie Kean attended two séances with Stewart Alexander’s circle in April 2015 and returned for two more in August 201538, part of Leslie Kean’s séances with Stewart Alexander (2015-04 - 2015-08). At her first sitting, Stewart Alexander was secured to his chair with cable ties threaded through the wooden arms, removable only with a wire cutter39, and Kean confirmed they were locked tightly enough that neither hand could slide free40. Directed by Walter Stinson, Kean held Stewart Alexander’s hand and felt the locked cable tie against his wrist41; his arm then suddenly moved upward, carrying her hand with it and producing a snapping sound42, and she found the tie remained locked and unbroken on the chair arm even though her hand had been inside it a moment before43 - Walter Stinson then passed the still-closed tie through the solid arm of the chair and told her it was hers to keep44. Kean also watched the materialisation of Walter Stinson’s hand, describing ectoplasm forming a greyish-black cloud that took the shape of a hand with fingers and a thumb before becoming solid enough to bang three times on the table45, while Stewart Alexander’s arms remained locked to the chair and he was too far from the centre of the table to reach it himself46. During a fourth sitting on 2015-08-20, with nine other sitters present, Kean witnessed the full materialisation of Dr. Barnett47. As part of Leslie Kean’s 2015 request to videotape Walter’s materialized hand, Kean also asked whether she could film the materialisation of Walter Stinson’s hand48; Stewart Alexander said he seriously considered the request but decided against it, judging that it would throw his life and circle into destructive turmoil and be problematic for his family49.
Novelist Whitley Strieber personally witnessed the levitation of spirit trumpets during the 1988 (era) private weekly séance of Stewart Alexander witnessed by Whitley Strieber50; a trumpet came up to his face and rubbed against his nose51, and he examined both the room and the trumpet before and after the séance, seeing it clearly in the dim red light52, noting that the trumpet - made of paper and unconnected to any wires - could not have been manipulated by magnets53. Strieber said the séances involved no trickery, since there was no motive for it54. While sitting as medium in a circle at Alan Crossley’s home, part of Alan Crossley’s dry-carpet incident, Stewart Alexander and others watched a vase of flowers topple onto the floor, spilling water onto the carpet55; when Crossley tried to wipe up the water, the carpet was found totally dry56. In 2014, Reville Mohr, a sceptic who did not believe in mediumship or the afterlife, flew from Australia with his sister Leone Holdsworth to attend a sitting with Stewart Alexander57. In 2016, Kevin Kussow emailed Stewart Alexander for advice58, as part of Kevin Kussow’s book test through Stewart Alexander (2016-03); Stewart Alexander had never met Kussow and knew nothing about his home59. During Sitting where a grieving woman told Stewart Alexander “Thank you for saving my life”, a woman travelled over 320 kilometres to attend a séance at the home of Stewart Alexander’s circle leader60; she came into communication with her deceased partner about two hours into the sitting61, and afterwards embraced Stewart Alexander, telling him “Thank you for saving my life."62 Stewart Alexander has interviewed countless people who sat with mediums Alec Harris, Minnie Harrison, and Helen Duncan63, and Kath Matthews was a medium who became his first mentor64. Writing in 2010, David Fontana said that, aside from a few unconvincing accusations by ill-informed individuals, Stewart Alexander’s long career had been free from attempts to cast doubt on the genuine nature of the phenomena associated with his mediumship65.