to Kilmarnock Spiritualist Church (SNU) for an evening of clairvoyance. This church has its own premises and is a
stalwart in promoting spiritualism with its excellent workshops etc. Anyone interested in learning more about
spiritualism and their own psychic abilities should keep an eye on this
church’s website for forthcoming events.
Arbroath Spiritualist Centre. (SNU)
the sanctuary only opened its doors a few weeks ago it is already a firm
favourite with the local community. This
new spiritual venture has its Divine Service on a Sunday afternoon, like Largs
Spiritualist Church (SNU). These are the only two Spiritual services I know
which take place on Sunday afternoons and as both are well attended, so it may
be worthwhile other churches thinking of a Sunday afternoon service.
prayer. In its place it has five minutes
of contemplation which gives us our own personal space to link with God, our
loved ones in Spirit, or just to reflect on our week. Not something I would
have done if I had a church of my own but I must say that I was impressed as each minute of the ‘time for reflection
passed’ I could feel the atmosphere getting stronger and spirit drawing close.
But not only that – this Sanctuary has taken another bold step which I will
comment on later in the blog.
1st October I was heading north to the well supported
Inverneness Spiritualist Church, Smithton Halls. (SNU)
The interest in spiritualism has been growing for many years now and I
am impressed by the enthusiasm for our religion in this area. I have another comment to make about this
enthusiasm later in the blog…
Spiritualists. (SNU) There was a big
turnout at the Awareness Group on the Friday evening and all four services were
well attended.
SPIRITUALIST OF THE YEAR GOES AGAINST OUR RELIGION….
The new Psychic News will
receive many letters and it will be impossible to print them all. I sent in a letter a few weeks ago and it was
not printed, maybe because of the limited space or because I was criticising the
magazine.
Here is the letter: –
of the Year.
No disrespect to this year’s winner, Mr. Eric Hatton,
but surely by reviving such a thing, goes against all that Spiritualism stands
for? I thought that we were all equal in
the eyes of God and Spirit? That we are
all going along our own spiritual path as best we can. To pick one in front of another is not what
we preach from the platform, so why do we not practice what we preach?
these days is that many look on it as entertainment. Look how the entertainment industry has an
award for almost everything. Well, we
certainly are going down the entertainment path with this award.
How long before we have a televised “Spiritual Medium
of the Year” and if we are going to go down that trail we cannot leave out our
Healers and have a televised “Spiritual Healer of the Year” also. The next step would be the “X- Factor” for
fledgling mediums to show their talents to the viewers.
as more and more mediums names go up in lights outside of theatres. We are only shooting ourselves in the foot
with this award. What other religion has
such an award? If we continue in this
direction we will be leaving religion behind and entering the world of
entertainment.
SPIRITUALISM AND REMBERANCE DAY SERVICES AT THE CENOTHAPH…
Since I have come into
spiritualism I have constantly heard the comments “We are never part of the official parade on Rembrance Day”.
on Remembrance Sunday in Whitehall has for a long time been an issue between
the SNU and the British Government, considering that other major UK religious
denominations are represented at the annual national service of remembrance. More about this in my next blog…
But I have often wondered at a
local level why our churches do not take part in remembrance Day Services. Stirling Spiritualist Church has taken part
in the local Remembrance Service for many years now and on asking Stirling’s
President how this came about, I was told the church was invited to take
part. There will be other Spiritualist
churches scattered about the country which also take part. But if we are not invited then we should we
not ask to be part of this service? I know of one church who asked to be involved
and were turned down, the reason for that being they were late in applying or
permission for that particular year. I
don’t know if they asked to be part of the ceremony the following year.
But this year the Milngavie and Bearsden
Spiritualist Sanctuary which has only had its doors open for a few
weeks will be laying a wreath at the Milngavie Precinct
at the Remembrance Ceremony. Maybe at local level we Spiritualist have
been complaining rather than asking?
Maybe we have lacked the determination of the pioneers of modern-day.
GIVE MEDIUMS FROM THE HIGHLANDS A CHANCE…
In the past and even today, churches
in the north of the country have had to rely on mediums from the central belt
of Scotland to take many of their services.
That means on most occasions an overnight stay at cost to the church and
there is also travelling expenses. With
the enthusiasm in that area for several years many excellent mediums are coming
on the scene in our northern regions. But
they seldom seemed to get asked to take services in the central belt. That may be because in the central and
southern areas Scotland we’ve always had a plentiful supply of mediums on our doorstep
and the churches have not thought of looking north. Yes, it will add to the expenses with the
medium travelling further and could entail a night in a B&B, but the
churches in the north have coped with this on a regular basis for years so it
should not be beyond the purse strings of many churches further south. After all we have visiting mediums from
England and Northern Ireland.
“It seems as if everyone wants to be
mediums these days. Soon the platforms
will be full with only one or two sitting in the pews”.
Hi Bernard, I
can see where you are coming from but let’s look at it another way. More and more people are becoming aware of spiritualism
these days and realizing that we all have some degree of psychic ability. They are drawn to open-circles and workshops
to try to understand and develop these abilities. That I find encouraging.
But… many of
these open-circles and workshops are geared to platform work and sittings
instead of starting off with the basics.
First we have to understand what
these abilities are and slowly building on this, as we do with any learning
process. But at the moment a great many
of these development circles and workshop seem to start at primary 7 instead of
in the infant class.
is not uncommon for anyone showing any ability to be pushed on to the platform
of a church or at a charity night at a very early stage in their
development. This is usually detrimental
to the pupil’s development and on many occasions to the person getting the
message.
To give you a
few examples of this to try and explain it from all angles;
A mother was
happy that her daughter decided to join a group at a small church because she
knew from an early age her daughter had psychic abilities. All went well for six months; the young lady
was developing well and becoming much more confident in her everyday life. Instead of feeling different from others around
her she was slowly starting to understand why she had felt this way. Then one night the medium’s car broke down
and he could not get to the church on time.
The young lady and another circle member of limited circle experience
were told they were taking the service and were pushed on the platform. According to the mother the night was
disastrous in every way for the two young ladies. Neither has gone back to the church or any
church since. This should not have
happened and would not have happened if those in charge of the church had acted
as they should have and shown a little common sense.
where a young gentleman is very talented and sensible. He realises he has a lot to learn as he goes quietly
along his spiritual path having no plans for the platform. In fact no plans to stand on the platform for
many years yet, as in the next two years he is expecting promotion at work and hoping
to start a family. He is happy to sit in
what many would call an old fashioned church circle where development takes at
a slow pace. Yet some are to trying to
‘poach’ him away from his circle to take part in charity nights or church work. Luckily this young man has his head screwed
on the right way and is standing his ground, refusing to give way to the
pressure.
But there are
two sides to this as there are also many who want after a few months the
glamour of being on the platform, taking part in a charity nights or the
lucrative side of private sittings and psychic parties.
it take for a medium to be the finished article? How long is a piece of string? It depends on the training and the time the
person has to give to his or her development.
Some mediums have said that they sat in circle for sixteen years before
they were asked to take the platform.
Many will say this is far too long and in most cases I will agree with
them. In the past there were fewer
opportunities so one may have had to wait till a medium retired from the
circuit or passed over before a place became vacant.
more responsibility should be taken by those taking development circles and
workshops. There should be many more opportunities
for those who just want to understand their psychic abilities and how they can
affect their everyday lives. This to be
before and separate from platform training.
Whoever is
taking the workshop has a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. As ‘psychic’ means sensitive and there will
be a lot of sensitive people relying on them to put them gently on the right
path, not to force march them into areas they are not ready for.
those as I have said earlier who see a lucrative market in jumping on the
‘spiritualist bandwagon’. This is where
spiritualist churches, centres etc that are true to their religion should be
strong and make sure that those who take their services look on spiritualism as
a religion first and foremost.