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Travellers were superstitious; psychic powers; Stanley Rober...

Date 1979
Track ID 65232
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1979.11.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1979.011

Summary

Travellers were superstitious; psychic powers; Stanley Robertson foresaw a child's death.

Because Travellers were very superstitious there were certain things they would not do at certain seasons. For instance at the New Year they would not look at the moon through a horse's ears, as they believed they would see the Devil.

Stanley Robertson's mother and Granny Beck were psychic. Stanley had his first experience of 'Indian death' when he was five. He was in bed with his siblings in a big room with an empty grate and a big bow window. It was at the end of the [Second World] War, and times were hard. He awoke on a moonlit night to see a tall man wearing a lum hat [top hat] come in through the window carrying a little white coffin. Stanley's mother told him that she and her mother and granny had had experiences like this, and called it 'Indian death'. Some people call it the 'astral plane'. Years later there was in fact a child in a white coffin in the room where Stanley had the vision. His Aunt Bella, who then lived in that house, had a child who died aged only eighteen months. Stanley has had many similar experiences since then, and swears that they really happened.

Item Subject/Person

Robertson, Stanley

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good