Tuesday 10^th I was at Airdrie Spiritualist Church     .  This church has been running for 21-years and after meeting in Airdrie Town Hall for many years this church has settled in well to the Beech Bank Community Centre, Whinnhall, Airdrie.  The church is in the capable hands of Nan, Geraldine, Shona and Colin.  Geraldine is also an excellent medium

Wednesday evening it was a short trip to the Kilwinning Spiritualist Church       .  This church opened its doors 43-years ago and is always well attended.  Margaret Jamieson a medium / psychic researcher and Jean make everyone welcome. In the congregation on Wednesday evening were John Edgar and his wife Janette.  John is a well known medium who entered a Spiritualist Church for the first time half-a-century ago and has been taking services at our churches for over 45-years.   The Kilwinning Temple of Light Spiritualist Church Nethermains Community Centre Kilwinning Ayrshire

Even though there were heavy showers throughout most of Thursday there was a good turnout at the Langside Halls Spiritualist Church.  It is good to see President Anne Mccutcheon looking so well so soon after her operation.

It was a pleasure to be asked to be one of the mediums taking part in Kilmarnock Spiritualist Church’s Open Day, which raised £1315.55p for McMillan Nurses - Breast Cancer.  A lot of work goes into such days and we must not forget the hard work by the committee and those who did the baking.

Marie asks “Would you like to be involved in all this much earlier in your life?”

At one time I would have said “yes” but now I feel that I became aware of Spirit and Spiritualism at the right time in my life.  Most of the interests I had at that time all seemed to come to a sudden end so as several doors seemed to slam shut in my life, the light coming though a new open door beaconed me.    As I have mentioned in other parts of this web-site I went towards a Spiritualist Church for answers as to why I was able to see our little whippet Sherry a few hours after she had passed.  If I still had those other interests at that time I would have left with an explanation and not bothered to return. 

Alexander Graham Bell wrote; --

“When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open up for us”

Looking back on my life I now can see that when so many doors closed, others opened, but on many occasions I was not aware of them.   Probably I was too attached to the past, comfortable and cosy with what I was used too, and that I was too busy moaning about what had gone, turning a blind eye to new opportunities. That gladly has passed and now I am hopefully aware of most opportunities that present themselves to me.  But with any opportunity one has the free-will whether to take it up or not.   I like to think that these days I ‘go with the flow’ in life.  Not forcing issues but sizing up what appears in front of me and take time to think if it for me or not.

Angies asked,
“In a few simple words tell me the difference between a Medium and a Psychic”.

All Mediums are psychic - but not all Psychics are mediumistic. Psychics, whether conscious of it or not, receive their information from the living vibrations of energy around them at earthly levels.  Where Mediums will unconsciously at first and later deliberately, link in too energies not of this vibration what we would call the Spirit World.

With talk of opening the case of Madeline McCann who went missing in Portugal in 2007 I hope the authorities decide to have a fresh look at the cases of Ben Needam, Genette Tate and all the other missing children that have not been found.  It is unthinkable to lose a child through illness or an accident but to have one’s child disappear and parents not know where they are, and what has happened to them, must be the worst thing that could happen to any parent. Also the other week there was the sad news that mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett has revealed she may have just months to find out where her son is buried after she was diagnosed with cancer.  This poor soul has spent the best part of her life hoping that her son’s body will be found.   Lest hope that Mrs Winnie Johnson , Keith’s mother’s  prayers are answered, and soon.

Memories.............

Sunday 1^st May saw me taking the service of Coatbridge Spiritualist Church.  This church first opened its doors just after the war and has services on a Sunday at 6.30pm and Tuesdays at 7.30pm.  Their address is 135 Sunnyside Road, Coatbridge.

On Tuesday evening I had a very enjoyable time with the development group at the Larkfield Spiritualist Church in Blantyre.  There is a lot of talent in that group.

Then on Wednesday it was The Eternal Light Spiritualist Centre.  Francis and Patricia-Anne Murphy run this church and the services are on a Wednesday evening at 7.30pm in The Citadel, Ayr.

As I was early for the church I took a look around Ayr harbour and the magical memories I had of this place when I was young, do not correspond with the area around Ayr harbour these days.  I have memories of the smell of the fish as the fishing boats unloaded their catch and then the chanting of the auctioneers selling the fish.  Now the fishing fleet has moved a few miles north to Troon.  I used to enjoy walking around the harbour basin, looking to see what parts of the world the cargo ships had come from.  Now one cannot get into the basin because of security and health and safety rules.  Probably the most exciting memory was going with my grandfather and uncle to fish out at the end of the harbour near the lighthouse.  I am not sure if one gets out as far as that these days.  Nothing ever stays the same and to progress we have to move on but we can still have the memories of the past to look back on.    

“How long should I wait before a private sitting with a medium - a week – a month?” is a question, constantly asked. 
There is no set time but I believe a general rule of thumb is to wait around six months after the passing of a loved-one.  Wait till at least part of the pain has gone and your grief is less severe before making that appointment.  But that in no way means that you should not visit a Spiritualist Church during that time.  Attend our services and get an insight into our religion and how mediumship works.  . 
“Hymns sung in Spiritualist churches, are they the same as those sung in orthodox churches?  This question was asked by both Adam and Marie
We do have hymns that are specially written for the Spiritualist movement but Spiritualism also uses hymns of the Christian faith.  In some instances there have been adaptations of the words.  The SNU has a hymn book containing over 400 hymns and also a mini hymn book containg 60 hymns in large print - and can be ordered from their web site. 

Only one church service last week and it was the first time I had attended Stranraer Spiritualist Church.  Not only a great welcome from Marie and Linda but a wonderful relaxing and cosy atmosphere in the church. This church is way out on a limb as far as Spiritualist churches in Scotland are concerned as our nearest churches to this town are Dumfries 73-miles east and Cumnock  64-miles to the north.  So it is great to see the Stranraer church shining so brightly in the SE of Scotland.

A big part of the rest of the week was taken up by taking time for those who have contacted myself or a Spiritualist church for help, answers, information etc.  What maybe should be termed as ‘pastoral work’, maybe something that is a bit overlooked in spiritualism as not all are looking for ‘sittings’ etc

A few weeks ago I overheard a conversation by a group of people waiting for a healing service to start and they rhymed off the mediums they had seen in the past year.  It left me wondering if they could name the spiritualist healers they had attended in the past twelve months?  Our healers should not be taken for granted because they work as hard as mediums

Now to answer some of your questions; -

Joe asks, “If there was a league table of religions in Britain where would Spiritualism be?

Hi Joe – The last article I saw on this was that Spiritualism was said to be the 8^th largest religion in the UK and that I believe was taken from the results from the 2001 National census.  So within the next year new data will come to light from the 2011 census.  I have no doubt our numbers will be up in the past ten years but will that be enough to move us up a position or two? We will have to wait and see.

Angela’s question is – “What is mental mediumship

Mental mediumship occurs when a spirit sends messages through the mind of the medium. This can produce phenomena such as:

Clairvoyance: Seeing spirits

Clairaudience: Hearing spirits

Clairsentience: Sensing spirits in some other way

What are “Spirit beings?” asks Leslie

Spirit beings are people who have physically died and moved to the spirit world.

Spiritualists believe that people do this regardless of their allegiance to a particular faith or even their lack of faith.

Spiritualists believe that spirit beings can 'show' themselves (or in some way make themselves known) to people in the material world.

James comments “When I attended Spiritual services in the late 80s and early 90s at times I was the only male in the congregation, is it still the same, mostly females attend your services?”

I know where you are coming from James.  My first Spiritualist church was ASK in Stewarton and there were a good few male members of our church, but when I went out taking services at other churches in Ayrshire it was often 100%  female congregations.  When I stepped on the platform of my first Glasgow church, Jocelyn Square at the Saltmarket, I was surprised to see so many men in the congregation.  I remember counting them to try and forget how nervous I was and the male attence that night was 40%.  Now in Ayrshire and in other parts of Scotland the difference between male and female is far less pronounced

.

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.