I had a very enjoyable evening on Wednesday 20^th, taking Maureen Land’s development circle.  Maureen, one of the old school is bringing on her group slowly, knowing that the development of mediumship requires, time and above all, patience.  It was a pleasure to work with the group and they excelled in the tasks I put to them.

On Thursday I was travelling north and east to the Arbroath Spiritualist Centre.  George and Margaret Faulkner have put a lot of hard work into the centre and have been stalwarts in the SNU for many years.   Margaret is President of the Scottish and Irish District Council, an excellent medium, and tutor, who spends a lot of her time furthering our religion in Germany.  George is now Vice President of the S&IDC after being treasurer for many years.  The Centre’s address is 20-22 Commerce Street, Arbroath

On Saturday it was again north and east but not so far this time, to ASK, Dunfermline for their ‘open day’.  The rain did not stop a good turn out and I hope a pleasant time was had by all who attended.  Jock McArthur, Kerry McLeod medium and tutor, and a very enthusiastic committee provide varied workshops and special events throughout the year.

Norm sent me an email asking to explain the SNU’s 2^nd Principle: -

The Brotherhood of Man

All human beings are members of one divine family because they spring from the same creative force.

Each person should understand the needs of other individuals in order to assist them

Spiritualists must look not only to the material necessities of their fellow creatures but also to their spiritual needs............

I take my ‘psychic research’ seriously and keep it completely separate from my church work.  Last week a letter gave a big boost to our small team who work hard in this area.  For sixteen years I have worked a lot with “psychometry” (The ability or art of divining information about people or events associated with an object solely by touching or being near to it.)   Our small dedicated group try to be as professional as we can and in 90% of our research we never know anything about what we are working with. 

This sort of thing is not an exact science and as well as a lot of success we have had our failures as well. Four years ago we appeared not to have got a single thing right about a small vase that had been sent to us from abroad.  Not valuable, but we got nothing at all that could connect with the person who had been the owner of the vase for half a century.  That has to be accepted in this sort of work, so the results were filed away and forgotten about.  Then one day last week a letter arrived from the curator of the small museum that sent us the vase.  On its return the item was then wrongly labelled, so it now turns out that the information we collected was much better that was first thought.  

I left last week free of church services to have a few days away and to catch up on my research and other interests.  Devon was meant to be my destination and I was looking forward to meeting a friend whom I have been involved with in psychic research for many years. So I was disappointed as I had to change my plans at the last moment. We were based in Folkestone and went on trips to Dover, Canterbury, and through the Channel Tunnel for a day in Bruges, one of my favourite European cities.  There I managed to meet up with Lars, a Belgium friend. 

Lars has been involved in psychic research for many years and is so disillusioned with British psychics, who he claims have got to find a spirit in every corner of every old building.  We first got in contact several years ago when I was asked to visit a 250-year-old farmhouse. 

A newly married couple had moved into what they considered to be their dream home only to be told by a guest at their house warming party, “The building is infested with spirits and they will have to be re moved.”     What an expression to use and to come out with it in the middle of such a happy event  The new owners were shattered to say the least,  their religion could not accept this sort of thing, and they were soon expecting their first baby.  I was asked to go out to the house without having any knowledge of what had been said. Apart from a real nice comfortable feeling I did not experience anything else.  I then spent two hours trying to explain to the couple that ‘spirits’ have their new lives to lead elsewhere and just because the house was 250-years-old did not automatically mean that there had to be ‘spirits’ attached to the building.  They said that they felt I was only trying to give them a bit of comfort and not being entirely honest with them, even though they knew I had been told nothing about the situation before I went to the house.  I suggested that they contact another spiritualist medium, someone not from the area, someone who would not know me so I could not pass information on to them.  They contacted Lars who was working in the UK at that time and he arranged for a spiritual medium who had worked with him in the past, to visit the farm house.  She was also kept in the dark as to what was said at the house warming party and her report was roughly the same as mine.  She felt a nice cosy feeling and was not aware of any ‘spirit’.

There is not a happy ending to this story as the new parents were never comfortable in the house, even though they never once sensed spirit themselves.  The new addition to the family slept all night and was content during the day and their r two dogs and a cat never seemed to be disturbed in any way.  When the little girl was four-months they sold the house

Did the lady at the house warming really sense spirit?  Was the sense so strong that she had to mention it to her hosts and make such a song and dance about it?    Or had she been watching too much TV and the wrong type of programmes?

Her words actually frightened the couple out of their new home.  There could have been spirit there that night, but why that night and that night alone?   Maybe the loved-ones of the family who have passed-over were joining in the celebrations.  This would be a common occurrence and nothing sinister in that.  Both Lars and I have spoken to two families who had owned the house before the young couple and also the present owners, neither having been aware of spirit in the house. We have also checked out the history of the farm and the land surrounding it with nothing appearing to explain why that young lady came out with such an outburst that led a young family to move on.    

Psychic research is about getting answers to why there might be a ‘spirit presence’, why spirit is making themselves known at a particular time and place.  We have come up with no answers as to why on the night of the house warming, apart from spirit family members that may have been joining in the celebrations, spirit should have upset the guest in the way that she said they did 

Like mediumship, these days psychic research can lean towards entertainment instead of religion and true research.  No genuine spiritual medium or psychic researcher would go to such a party and come out with such a statement.

Now to a more upbeat story; -

I received an email from a gentleman who had been getting treatment from his GP for a few months   half way through the treatment the patient mentioned to his doctor “I am also going for spiritualist healing”.  The GP smiled and said nothing.  When the medication was stopped the GP said to the patient “be sure to continue with your spiritual healing”.  Jim thought the doctor was being sarcastic and said this to him.  The GP replied “The medication has stopped but you are not back to full health, I have seen the benefits of spiritual healing and I genuinely ask you to continue with this.”  A little different from spiritual healers telling patients that have to keep on with the doctor’s treatment.

My time away has meant that I have not got my letters of complaint away on what happened in last week’s Grand National. But that will be rectified in the next few days .  The Scottish Grand National which was run on Saturday saw the death of two horses, not as the result of falls; but being pushed beyond what their bodies could take. So that will mean as well as contacting the British Horse Racing Authority also contacting the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to a different organization from the RSPCA, which only deals with matters in England and Wales.

Sunday 3^rd April saw me heading towards a church with a long

history...   Bathgate Christian Spiritualist Church was founded in 1946 by Mr & Mrs Henry Thomson, Mrs McDonald and Mrs Charlotte Fairie.  The church was passed to the descendants of Mrs Fairie, Mary and the Rev Brian Pitt in 1977 and has been in their care and keeping ever since.  Brian and Mary’s daughter the Rev Mhairi Derby-Pitt is very active with church work and in the Community

Monday evening I was at the Cumnock Spiritualist church and received the usual warm welcome.  It is good to see Spiritualism being so successful in this area, as at one time there was a gap between the Ayr and Dumfries as far as Spiritualist Churches were concerned.  Now we have Cumnock, Catrine and Stranraer which are all well attended.

Thursday getting to Scottish Progressive Spiritualist Church at Langside Halls in Glasgow was a nightmare, because of a long diversion that crawled along at a snail’s pace. Then when arriving it took over twenty minutes to get the car parked in the Shawlands Cross area.  There was a good turn out and maybe that was the reason for no parking place for me, the congregation had taken them all.  I hope a good night was had by all.  President Anne McCucheon was looking well after her recent operation.

Two campaigns that I have been involved with for many years are the plight of the Tibetan people and the suffering of racehorses.  It is the latter that took up my full attention this week, and especially the Aintree’s Grand National meeting.  This a meeting where there have been THIRTY-THREE tragedies in the past ELEVEN YEARS   

This year one horse perished on the course on the first day, two in the Grand National its self.  But the finish of this race this year was where the real horror was witnessed.  The winning horse was constantly given hefty cracks of the whip from the last fence to the winning post.  So bad was this that the winning rider was handed a five-day ban for excessive use of the whip.   Worse was to come when the jockey immediately had to dismount the exhausted horse, for it to be given oxygen and doused with water.  These scenes were barbaric to say the least and surely must be Britain’s equivalent to Spain’s bull fighting.

A more sickening spectacle was to follow as we saw on our television screens the back-slapping and jubilation of connections of the horse and others of the racing fraternity.  These scenes were beyond belief of an industry that says it loves the horse.  They have a strange way of showing it.

It is unbelievable that such a thing is allowed to happen in Britain in 2011.  Surely excessive use of the whip on a horse should mean that the connections of the animal do not make any gain whatsoever from that win, that the horse is disqualified and placed last.  . The rider of the second gave his hose a few cracks in keeping to the rules and he loses the race, is that fair?    I don’t think it is fair for racehorses to be whipped at all unless it is to straighten them out to avoid an accident.

I have always said that Spiritualism is the quiet religion, but if we are going to mention animals in our prayers is it not time we protested about the treatment of the racehorse in racing?  It is not just the Grand National that horses are fatally injured on the racecourse it has been reported by one animal organization that  676 animals have perished on British racecourses in the past 1490 racing days.  That does not include injury to horses that can walk from the course but will never race again.  Also there is the horse that falls during a race, there has to be a lot of pain for the animal as usually the fall takes place when the animal is jumping a fence at racing speed.  The commentator may say that the horse has got up and if OK as if there is no pain involved.

We all have our causes where we think there is injustice, I feel strongly about this cause and as a committed Spiritualist I feel that once again I have to bombard all and sundry with my complaints of what happened on Aintree racecourse on 9/4/11 and on British racecourses on a regular basis.

Anyone who feels as strongly on this issue as I do, I ask you to consider writing a letter/email of complaint to the British Horseracing Authority, RSPCA and your MP.  If you are not happy with the reply then keep writing and writing until they do take notice.

There is a young jockey in a critical condition after a heavy fall at Aintree of Friday.

I have included a couple of drawings by Kerry New – Psychic Artist on the ‘photo’s page’ this week.

Last week saw me in Inverness for three days. 

On Monday I took the service at the Inverness Spiritualist Church (SNU) at the Smithton Hall.  This church is always well supported with a very active committee which has done a lot over the years to promote spiritualism in the North of Scotland. But Monday night was the end of an era for this church, as husband and wife Rupert and Niki    Baxter-Smith stepped down from the committee.  Niki as president for almost a decade Rupert, treasurer for the same length of time. The church will still be in good hands as Karen Collesso, an excellent medium and tutor, has taken over as president.    With Karen and her committee, and mixture of old and new, the church will continue going from strength to strength like it has done for more than a decade.  Rupert and Niki will not be disappearing from the church as spiritualism is a big part of their lives and they will still be attending on a regular basis as they have done for so many years.

On Tuesday it was  private-sittings for the Smithston Church in the morning, a look around Inverness in the afternoon, spending most of my time in Waterstone’s book shop and then another service at night.  This time Dalneigh Spiritualist Church which again is a long running and well supported church with dedicated committee members.

On Wednesday it was twenty miles further north to the Spiritual Haven Spiritualist Church in Alness in the Perrins Centre.  Nina Stevens and a small group has worked hard to get this church up and running.  Alness is an interesting town with some interesting shops. This is a new church which is been going for just over a year with Nina  

A friend told me this week that a comment from an individual left him speechless, “I did not think you lot (Spiritualists) believed in a God”. Just like a lady once said to me “I am surprised you say prayers at your little get-togethers, why do you do that?”  I suppose that is to be expected and I cannot laugh or shake my head in horror as there is so much I don’t know about other religions. 

Since I came into Spiritualism I have on occasions went to services of other denominations, never saying I was a Spiritualist or a medium unless I was asked and when I did say, the look and comments from those who asked the questions ranged from very interested to downright shocked and angry.  I am happy to say that the latter was only on an odd occasion>  One lady really surprised me with her first comment, and it was the same with another comment to me many years later.  The first time she said to me “I am really angry at your so-called church/religion – it gives people false hope”.  I got the wrong end of the stick so to speak, as this lady was not referring to the clairvoyance as I had thought, but to “spiritual healing”.  A good few years later I noticed that he own church was promoting “healing services” so I mentioned this to her and her reply was “We only have qualified healers”.    

Now let me quote from the SNU Healing Committee’s web-page; -

“The Healing Committee aims to promote and encourage the practice, study, and investigation into the art and science of spiritual healing and is responsible for the registration and administration of SNU Spiritualist healers. Aims to promote and encourage the practice, study, and investigation into the art and science of spiritual healing and is responsible for the registration and administration of SNU Spiritualist healers.”    

Other spiritual healing organizations have their own procedures and training.

I am not criticising the lady above as she is a very caring person who does so much to help others that are less fortunate than herself but maybe she should not be so critical till she knows the facts..

For many years I have had concerns for the treatment of racehorses, This coming week sees the Grand National Meeting at Aintree and in the past four years this meeting has claimed the deaths of 15 horses on the track, then there are the horses that are injured but mange to walk off the track which I have no figures for..

2010 – FIVE fatalities.

2009 – FIVE fatalities.

2008 – THREE fatalities

2007 – TWO fatalities.

Maybe think twice before you put on a bet or take part in an office sweepstake?

Later in the week I will be displaying some drawings of Kerry New, psychic artist on my photo’s page.