The Boy Who Saw True: The Time-Honoured Classic of the Paranormal

By Anonymous!

The Boy Who Saw True is based on the diary entries of a young English clairvoyant boy raised during the mid-1880’s Victorian period, whose extraordinary supernatural talent slowly develops and reveals itself over time. I found the book, charming, funny and extremely engaging as we follow the development of this young clairvoyant boy who is approximately the age of 10 – 12. His diary is an extremely convincing account of a

precocious paranormal talent, and all the more persuasive because the young diarist never tries to convince his readers. Born with extraordinary clairvoyant powers, the anonymous author can see auras and see and dialogue with spirits of many levels, yet he fails to realize that other people are not similarly gifted.

This remarkable book has become a paranormal classic. It was published in 1953, many years after the author’s death. In the Introduction by Cyril Scott, he provides this overview, “With regard to the diarist himself: he was born in the North of England, his father being a business man, but with a taste for reading. His son seems to have inherited this taste, and already when quite young had literary aspirations, which account for some of the comicalities to be found in the script. He would steal into his father’s library and read books which, as his mother remarked when taking them away from him, were “not at all suitable for little boys.” And doubtless she was quite right; though as it so happens the results of the precocious lad’s “naughtiness” have proved highly diverting (humorous) in the end . . . at least so I have found.” It is soon revealed that the boy is up against the limitations of the age imposed by the teachings of the Church as well as his church-going protestant parents who believe such insights are ‘of the Devil’ or are simply fantasies to be quashed at every opportunity.

Lucky for the boy, at some point he is home tutored by a sympathetic man who is interested in what the boy has to offer and is able to guide and counsel him as well as to participate in many of his mediumship sessions by putting questions to the Spirits the boy encounters and taking down the answers in shorthand for him to later copy into his diary. Thus we are fortunate to be able to ‘sit in’ so to speak on many of the actual spirit encounters as well as the reactions of his tutor and the boy himself to what has come through. Additionally, the boy has the ability to see auras and is always comparing what he sees to the countenance and attitudes of the people he encounters.

His descriptions provide enlightening and entertaining reading especially when filtered through the immature language of a young boy who can barely spell and many times gets his language fouled up! Charming great fun! The Diarist also has the ability to see and describe fairies, gnomes, deceased persons, earthbound ghosts, as well as what he describes as the Elder Brothers, who as far as we can tell are basically Ascended Master teachers, some of whom communicate while he is asleep or while they are asleep in India! One of my very favorite parts came early in the book when he decides to ask his then current tutor, Miss Griffen the meaning of the word adultery which he had heard mentioned in the Bible. …

”I thought I’d ask her about adultery, as ma wouldn’t tell me, but she only blushed and said we’d understand when we were grown up, and then she blew her nose. “Well, you might at least tell us this much,” said Mildred (his sister); “Have you ever committed adultery?” “Good gracious! dear, of course not,” said she, and got as red as a turkey cock. “Then I think you might tell us what it means,’ said Mildred, “’cause if you won’t, I shall look it up in the (dictionary).” “I forbid you to do any such thing,” said Miss Griffin. “If you must know I would rather tell you myself. When a man is so wicked that he wants to marry someone who is married already, that’s called committing adultery.” “Oh, is that all,” said Mildred, “then why didn’t you tell us before?’ “You didn’t mind telling us about Cain and Abel the other day,” said I, “and it’d be much wickeder if I killed Mildred, than if I wanted to marry Antie Maude who’s married to Uncle John.” “No one ever marries their Antie,” said Miss Griffin, getting quite tight. Miss Griffin always gets tight when she’s vexed. (Poor repressed spinster, without a grain of humour! Her attempts to get out of the predicament in which we had involved her were only to lead to a worse one in the end). When Miss Griffin had gone, Mildred was very disobedient and went straight to the (dictionary) to look for adultery, but she didn’t know what any of the words meant, neither did I . . . .

Beyond the charm exuded by this curious young lad growing up in Victorian England, there is much to be revealed and learned about Life, Death and the Beyond in the Spirit World. In the latter section of the book, which dramatically skips forward a few decades to describe the Diarist’s clairvoyant perceptions while living his adult life. (These were mainly preserved in the form of letters sent to his first wife while traveling.) There is much more that can be divulged, and in my opinion much of what he reveals can be corroborated in the countless other books I have read on similar subjects. But if you want to learn as well as be charmed by the perceptions of a young clairvoyant, you should get this book and have some fun! Available from Amazon in Kindle format, it gets mostly five star reviews and is highly recommended.