Our meeting at The Pig in Paradise attracted a good attendance, including four first-timers, who were most welcome. We began with an outline of spiritualism, as detailed below, but our following discussions ranged more widely, and mainly followed the questions of two of our new contributors, one of whom admitted to being a christian. We were also asked to give some definition of humanism. The new venue proved to be too noisy, even though we were in a back room, so we will continue to look for a more congenial home.
The topic of the night was Spiritualism, a subject prompted by the promotion of "An Evening of Clairvoyance" by the local newspaper group, featuring Stephen Holbrook who claims to be able to connect with spirits of the dead. This event has an expensive half-page size advert in this week's Hastings Observer and on page 39 an article about Holbrook which admits that "Stephen is being promoted all over the country by the UK's two largest newspaper groups". One of these is Johnston Press which owns the local T. R. Beckett company. Ownership of local papers in the UK is now in the hands of just a few Regional newspaper groups. I'm not sure which is the other group referred to, possibly Newsquest (which in turn is owned by a US corporation, Gannett).
The following article from another regional newspaper on Why a Spiritual Church gives an introduction to what spiritualists believe, and even describes hot and cold reading, which are the methods mainly used by fraudulent mediums to produce their effects, but of course they then claim that "real" mediums don't do this.
An indication of what Holbrook does at his shows is given in this article from another regional paper. There is also a video interview available on the Grantham Journal pages. I have not determined why these newspaper groups are promoting spiritualism. Presumably either some directors of these companies are spiritualists, or it is just a commercial venture.
I became a Clairvoyant Medium through losing two Daughters and a Son, I did not pick it....it picked me. Have any of you been to a Spiritual Church, why don't you invite me to one of your meetings where I can be blind folded, placed by anyone , so it can be made sure to be tight and I unable to see, this taking away any chance of cold reading as I would not be able to see. Also select someone from the audience to answer for the person who is putting their hand up, so I do not hear the voice of the recipient. I have had 100% evidence of the survival of my Son and after 15 years in the British Army and 10 years as a store detective I needed cold hard evidence. Are you up to this challenge. The thing I have found though, when you partake in this type of experiment, there are those who may not wish to receive any communication, there for no matter what I say, there's will be a resounding NO, so as long as people have an open mind. Are you up to this.
ReplyDeleteLove and Light
Dennis Binks