To prove their realness, the dead often share details they otherwise wouldn’t have known
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| Sólvallagata 3. This house has a long history of spiritism, mediums and otherworldly phenomenon. |
The house on Sólvallagata 3 is a stone throw away west of Hólavalla Cemetery. It has been the place of countless séances and otherworldly visitations. In the 1930’s, it was the home of the spiritist, Einar H. Kvaran. Other stories about this house in my blog can be found here, here and here
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| Einar H. Kvaran (1859-1938), the original founder of the Experimental Society, later called Icelandic Society for Psychical Research |
In some of my previous posts, you can become more familiar with Einar and the role he played in the lives of other spiritists and mediums.
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| Photo of Guðrún while she lived in Westman Islands. Guðrún is the lady on the bottom row. To her right is her husband, Sveinbjörn. Top left: Kristján Guðmundsson, Ólöf Friðfinnsdóttir, Rut Friðfinnsdóttir, ? and Olgeir Friðfinnsson. Bottom left: Sveinbjörn Friðfinnsson, Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir, Friðfinnur Kristjánsson and Kristján Friðfinnsson. Kjartan Guðmundsson |
When Guðrún acted as the medium, she never entered the séance room until everyone had sat down and the lights were turned off. This way, she never knew who was present at the séance, making it harder for her to be compromised. The only people she knew would be there, where the regular attendees.
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| Photo taken from Hallgrímskirkja (Hallgrím’s Church) and looking down towards Leifsgata. When Guðrún moved to Reykjavik, she lived on Leifsgata 7. Matthew Thompson |
Sometimes, Ísleifur Jónsson (1885-1948), the medium from my previous blogs here, would attend her séances. In order to hide his presence from Guðrún, he would stand in the back. He never made a sound as not to reveal his presence. Even when the sitters joined in song, Ísleifur would stay quiet.
Somehow, every time he attended, Guðrún’s otherworldly control, I.K., always knew when he was there and would greet him. An otherworldly control is the spirit-being conducting/controlling the meeting through the medium.
The otherworldly control, I.K., had been one of Ísleifur’s best friends. He wasn’t the first medium to speak of otherworldly spirits as his best friends. His very best friend was the otherworldly control, Svendsen, who had been with him since 1914.
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| Ísleifur Jónsson (1885-1948) and his wife Hólmfríður Þorláksdóttir (1874-1959). Sarpur.is |
Guðrún was about to hold another séance at the Kvaran home. There were five people attending and Ísleifur decided to join them.
Guðrún’s main otherworldly control, the young boy Jakob, greeted everybody through Guðrún. Then after he had talked for a short while, he turned his attention towards Ísleifur and said, Now I´m going to talk to you, my dear Ísleifur.
Jakob then began describing several personages standing next to Ísleifur. Among them were Ísleifur’s father, his sister and the young Niels Jónsson (1888-1907) from Álftanes. Níels had contracted the measles and died on December 8th, the day before his 20th birthday from the disease.
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| Álftanes is where Ísleifur grew up and where his friends and family lived. Hansueli Krapf |
Jakob began describing a young man. Ísleifur, being a clairvoyant himself, was looking right at the young man while Jakob described him.
You guys spent a lot of time together, but you’re not brothers. said Jakob. You guys were so well connected that whatever one of you were thinking, the other one knew and what one of you owned, the other one owned also. Jakob continued, …it is like your lives overlap…
The young man Jakob was describing was Þorsteinn. They had been the same age and grew up on farms next to each other. Ísleifur’s parents who lived at Siggusel in Mýrum and Þorsteinn’s grandparents were driven crazy by it. The boys were always together, but were needed at the farms. There was work to do beginning very early on in the day and there was much poverty in both homes.
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| Siggusel was the name of the farm that Ísleifur grew up on. It is located north of Reykjavík and can be seen in orange on both photos. Left: Borgarfjörður Right: Map.is |
Ísleifur and Þorsteinn had been extremely close friends, in so much that they told each other their most sensitive thoughts. It seemed like there was nothing they didn’t know about each other.
Suddenly the young Jakob shouts, socks! socks! Some of the séance sitters thought he was talking about a dead horse that had been called Sokki in its earthly life.
Jakob interrupts the sitters, No no, they are socks, they are socks…Þorsteinn is bringing large grey socks and is putting them on your shoulders. he told Ísleifur. These are his socks, but it’s like there is a string coming out of the socks and into you, there are single threads between you and the socks.
Jakob is very confused about what he is seeing. Distraught, he continues, This is all so strange, I don’t understand it, but this is how I see it.
Jakob felt really bad about this. He just couldn’t figure out what was going on with the socks.
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| The church in Álftanes. Postcard |
Ísleifur was not at all confused and told Jakob that he couldn’t have described it any better. This calmed Jakob down. He was relieved that Ísleifur knew what he was talking about, although he himself was still clueless.
Ísleifur’s memories brought him back into his childhood. He could feel the joy welling up in his eyes. His childhood friend still remembered him and the incident regarding the grey socks.
There was no doubt in his mind that Jakob was truly Þorsteinn. No one other than Þorsteinn himself could have shared this proof of existence as no one else knew the story of the socks. There was no way that Guðrún could have made this up.
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| Three separate images, all with an orange dot to show the location of Sólvallagata 3. This house has an interesting otherworldly history. Top: Jimmy Kirkus-Lamont; Bottom: Bjørn Giesenbauer |
Back at the farms where they grew up, the winter after Þorsteinn and Ísleifur were confirmed, Þorsteinn was going south to Hafnarfjörður to go to sea.
Right before he left he went to Ísleifur to say bye. Earlier that day Ísleifur had received new thick snow socks that reached up to his knees. He was wearing them for the first time and was very happy.
The conversation between the boys was a depressing one because they both had anxiety about separating for such a long period of time.
Ísleifur could tell his friend envied his socks and had a feeling he was thinking it would be nice to have such socks under the boots while at sea. Due to poverty at his home, this just wasn’t an option.
Then all of a sudden Ísleifur got the idea of giving his friend his socks as a goodbye present.
He ran to his mom and asked her permission to give him the socks. She said it was fine, but not to expect that he would get new ones. Ísleifur took his socks off and gave them to his friend. He would never forget the smile on his face. A little later they said their goodbyes.
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| Snow socks. It has braided laces fastened at the top. These laces are then wrapped around the foot and tied so the socks don´t sag. Sarpur.is |
Ísleifur couldn’t thank Jakob enough and his friend for appearing to him. Þorsteinn had died the winter of 1910.
This appearance meant so much to Ísleifur, because after Þorsteinn had moved away and was living in Reykjavík, they had a disagreement which didn’t end well. Their broken friendship had bothered Ísleifur all this time.
One night Ísleifur dreamt that he was walking with his late friend, Níels from Álftanes. This was the same Níels as Jakob saw next to Ísleifur during the séance. He dreamt they were walking on a dirt road and talking, like they had done so many times before.
But in his dream, Níels started talking about the fallout Ísleifur had with Þorsteinn. Ísleifur told Níels that he was in his full right to feel this way. Níels disagreed and told Ísleifur how meaningless and unremarkable this was and to remember all the wonderful moments they had had together.
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| Mýrasýsla. The county where all three boys: Ísleifur, Þorsteinn and Níels grew up. Bybyk |
Níels was a pretty quite guy in his earthly life, but in the dream, Níels pressed the matter urgently. In the end, he had convinced Ísleifur to promise him to let the matter go. At that instance, Níels was gone and Ísleifur woke up.
Ísleifur now saw the dispute in a completely different light. That which had been a big deal earlier was now just nonsense. Even though Níels had entered another realm of existence, he had managed to reconcile the two friends. In his earthly life, Níels was just as good of a friend as he was in the next.
Ísleifur often thanked Níels for his kindness and hoped his appreciation reached him.
He also hoped that he would meet his friend Þorsteinn in the next realm of existence. He hoped Níels would be by his side and would never again have to be a peace keeper between them.
Ísleifur felt great peace in knowing that our friends who have left this life, continue to watch over us and do everything in their power to help us.
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