By Travis Sanders
Those who know me know that one of the places dear to my heart, is this historical Spiritualist community, Camp Chesterfield. One thing I admire about camp, is how they uphold, and still remember their mediums of yesterday.
One such medium, Clifford Bias, has always fascinated me. Not much is written about Clifford Bias, although Bias himself was a prolific writer on spirituality, metaphysics, ceremonial magic, and mediumship.
His many books include: Trumpet Mediumship and it’s Development, The Art of Astrological Synthesis, The AMOS Path of Light, The Ritual Book of Magic, The Way Back, Qabalah, Tarot and the Western Mystery Tradition and more.
Born in West Virginia in 1910, Clifford had psychic experiences from the age of 5. Around such times family members were experimenting with table tipping. When young Clifford placed his hand on the table, energized, it danced about. Clifford also had a play-mate that only he could see. “Pepper” as it turns out, grew up with Clifford, and he would later come to understand that he was a spirit control, along with others, as his mediumship developed, including Sylvia, his joy guide, and Dr Lasceles.
At age 14, while still in Huntington, he attended his first development circle, ran by Mrs. Effie Fulton, for a fee of 25 cents. He decided not to go back because he thought he slept through the events, but in actuality he fell into deep trance, and vocally channeled spirit without knowing.
Clifford Bias was ordained in 1937, and helped create and/or serve in numerous churches in the U.S. including Michigan, Ohio, New York and Florida. He even helped organize the Universal Spiritualist Association, and formed A.M.O.S or the Ancient Mystics Order of Seekers. This wasn’t what a young clifford would have expected for his life. He was passionate about analytical chemistry and also had a love of collecting circus programs. He even tried to be an actor on a riverboat cruise in Ohio, and yet, he couldn’t escape being a medium and spiritual teacher.
Bias also held residency, as well as the presidency of Camp Chesterfield with the Indiana Association of Spiritualists, and served as the educational director. His mediumistic talents included blindfold billets, trance, independent voice, partial materialization, and his direct-voice via the trumpet developed quite strongly after sitting with trumpet medium, John W. Bunker, which he believed helped “activate” this potential for physical voice-based phenomena within him.
As a teacher, Clifford believed strongly in laying a firm foundation of understanding Natural Law. In his development circles he work partially in light, and partially in darkened conditions, developing the mental and physical side of his students mediumship simultaneously.
In 1985 he retired to Anderson, Indiana, and passed into Spirit in 1987. A portrait of him can be gained from the part-biography, part-fiction work, The Hierophant of 100th Street, by Cullen Dorn.
Sources:
wikipedia: Clifford Bias
Trumpet Mediumship & It’s Development: Bias
Mediums & The Development of Mediumship: Chaney
Chesterfield Lives: Indiana Association of Spiritualist
The Hierophant of 100th Street: Dorn
My Truth 