22nd
April I was at the Love & Friendship Spiritualist Church, Langside Halls, Glasgow. This is always a well attended church and the
22nd was no exception.
25th saw me return to the Langside Halls
to take the development circle at the Love & Friendship Spiritualist Church. This circle has great talent and is being
slowly nurtured by President Maureen Land.
26th I travelled again to Glasgow to The
White Dove Spiritualist Church, Toryglen,. Although I have served this church for many
years I was entering new territory as the church has moved from the hall they
have been in for many years to the Toryglen Community Halls which is only a
short distance away. Since the move
numbers attending the church has increased 3/4 fold.29th We enjoyed the pleasant drive to Dunfermline Spiritualist Church, (SNU) 3 Lady Campbell’s Walk, Dunfermline…
3rd May it was a visit to the coast to Gourock in fact and to the Gourock Lighthouse Spiritualist Church…
5th… I was taking a workshop at the Glasgow Association and I hope those attending enjoyed it as much as I did.
6th I was taking the service at Falkirk Spiritualist Church, (SNU) Burnhead Lane.
…Katrina Murphy – Spiritualist Medium…
The
announcement of Spiritual Medium Katrina’s Murphy’s passing shocked all who
knew her.
I have known
Katrina since she was a small girl as my sister and Katrina’s sister were
friends. Yet when Katrina and I met as
ASK in Stewarton all those years later we did not instantly recognize each
other although we both thought “each other seemed familiar”. Believe it or not months after we first met
at Stewarton it dawned on us both at the same time who each other was.
Katrina’s
nature never changes from the first time I met her all those years ago. Always such a bubbly person Katrina had time
for everyone, never making more of one person than another.
The turnout at
Ayr crematorium showed just how much Katrina was loved and respected. In this day and age when it is difficult to
get off work for the funeral of a family member, many did take the time off to pay
their respects to Katrina. Many of the
spiritualist churches in Scotland were represented from as far afield as
Stirling and Perth. I apologies to
anyone who came from further afield.
Where there was
Katrina, Stephen her husband was always close.
They were such a well suited couple, soul mates. I am sure all out thoughts will be with
Stephen at this time and in the coming months.
So many amazing
tributes to Katrina and I will just use one at the moment
I've just been blown out of my low mood by the sudden shock of
some news. One of my Mentors & Circle leader passed away yesterday. Katrina
Murphy was a brilliant Medium, a fantastic woman & a friend. Her words of
wisdom would keep you going strong however down you were. The knowledge she
passed on was better than any book. The world of Mediumship has lost a BIG
personality; the spirit world has gained a new leader. RIP Katrina. You will be missed by many. But we know we can talk
soon. Xx ......Emz Fish Fullagar
The music
played at the service was The Indigo Girls “Fare Thee Well”
Fare Thee Well"
Fare thee well my bright star
I watched your taillights blaze into nothingness
but you were long gone before I ever got to you before you blazed past this address
and now I think of having loved and having lost you never know what it's like to never love
who can say what's better and my heart's become the cost
a mere token of a brighter jewel sent from above
fare thee well my bright star
the vanity of youth the color of your eyes
maybe if I'd fanned the blazing fire of your day to day
or if I'd been older I'd been wise
too thick the heat of those long summer evenings
for a cool evening I began to yearn
but you could only feed upon the things which feed a fire
waiting to see if I would burn
fare thee well my bright star
it was a brief brilliant miracle dive
that which I looked up to and I clung to for dear life
had to burn itself up just to make itself alive
I caught you then in your moment of glory
your last dramatic scene against a night sky stage
with a memory so clear it's as if you're still before me
my once in a lifetime star of an age
so fare thee well my bright star
last night the tongues of fire circled me around
this strange season of pain will come to pass
when the healing hands of autumn cool me down
I watched your taillights blaze into nothingness
but you were long gone before I ever got to you before you blazed past this address
and now I think of having loved and having lost you never know what it's like to never love
who can say what's better and my heart's become the cost
a mere token of a brighter jewel sent from above
fare thee well my bright star
the vanity of youth the color of your eyes
maybe if I'd fanned the blazing fire of your day to day
or if I'd been older I'd been wise
too thick the heat of those long summer evenings
for a cool evening I began to yearn
but you could only feed upon the things which feed a fire
waiting to see if I would burn
fare thee well my bright star
it was a brief brilliant miracle dive
that which I looked up to and I clung to for dear life
had to burn itself up just to make itself alive
I caught you then in your moment of glory
your last dramatic scene against a night sky stage
with a memory so clear it's as if you're still before me
my once in a lifetime star of an age
so fare thee well my bright star
last night the tongues of fire circled me around
this strange season of pain will come to pass
when the healing hands of autumn cool me down
When spirit
makes themselves known there is always a reason. The first aim for anyone
investigating such an incident is to discover WHY.
An individual or
family becoming ‘aware’ of spirit, especially for the first, time, it can be
frightening. When I am asked to go out
in such situations I don’t go with the sole intention of moving spirit on but
trying to find out why spirit has made themselves known. It may be family members who have passed over
and are concerned or even happy at what is going on in the family at the
present time. It could also be a
previous owner/tenant of the building who has not moved on or there are many
more reasons as to why spirit is active.
It is up to the
investigator to get to the root of the situation and this done by examining the
area at first hand and questioning those who have had the experience. It can be like a police investigation. Question after question to see if the
‘experiences’ fits a regular pattern of spirit activity. If not I have to look in other directions,
even that what had been experienced had not been a spiritual nature but
someone’s overactive mind.
One case which I
was asked to investigate three years ago is only now beginning to make
sense. It shows how close spirit can be
to us at times and how the bond between us need never be broken. I
have changed the names of those involved
In 2009 I was
contacted by Denise a psychic whom I have known for several years. She
told me that Sarah had contacted her with the following story...
Sarah, her
husband John and their two children had been perfectly happy living in a house
that they had moved into just after they were married ten years before. Then one morning their son, 8-year-old Aaron
came down to breakfast and told his mum an unusual story. He said that there had been a lady in his
room during the night and she just sat in a chair at the side of his bed
looking at him and saying nothing.
This was an unusual
comment from Aaron as he is a quiet young lad who his mum said in the past
never seemed to have any imagination. To
humour him Sarah asked what the lady looked like. To her surprise he gave a full description,
even the colours of a scarf the lady had been wearing. As his mum had just
finished doing a crossword and was doodling in the crossword book, she wrote
down the description her son was giving and then forgot all about it.
The following morning Sarah’s five-year-old daughter Louise came down saying the same thing and when her mother asked what the lady looked like she got roughly the same description. Sarah thought that her daughter must have heard her brother talking about the lady in his room the morning before and was just repeating what she had heard.
But over the
next few days Sarah said that it started to get scary around the house. She felt there was someone in the house when
she was there alone and she also said that it was as if she saw a shadow moving
around. This all cumulated in Sarah
seeing the figure of a lady for a few seconds.
The lady seemed to be in her early fifties, slim, dark hair, dressed in
dark attire with blue/grey silk scarf around her neck. When Sarah overcame her shock she suddenly
thought it was the same vision as the children had seen.
She panicked. “THE HOUSE IS HAUNTED!”... “THE HOUSE IS HAUNTED!”she
screamed. For the next week Sarah and
the children stayed with her parents.
John the husband/father had sensed nothing but was concerned that his
wife would not stay in the house alone so he confided in a friend who gave
Denise’s telephone number.
This psychic investigator
was immediately convinced that this was a genuine spiritual experience. And
because of the state of the mother she suggested that she contact a
spiritualist church. Sarah would not do
this, although came half way and got a preacher from one of the orthodox
churches in the area to bless the house.
The family moved
back in and although John, Aaron and Louise carried on as normal, Sarah was
unhappy. The house was not the same as
it had been before the ‘sightings’ and she wanted to move.
This is where I
was asked to help and as this was happening 300 miles away, contact had to be
made by phone instead of the usual visit.
My first comment would have been to contact a spiritualist church in the
area, but as this had already been refused. So I spent a lengthy time on the phone
questioning Sarah over the incident but no real pattern was emerging. No matter how much I tried to assure Sarah
that the situation had calmed down she was still stressed out. The sighting of the lady had stopped three
days before the preacher blessed the house and had not returned. But it was
only natural that this mother was still concerned for the safety of her family
and was expecting the lady to appear again at any second. Sarah felt she would never be happy in the
house again and wanted to move. But with
the slump in the housing market that was not an option at that time.
A week after I
got involved Isobel and I were looking at coach holidays, and as |I saw one was
close to Denise and Sarah’s area I felt that this was too good an opportunity
to miss.
Both Denise and
I spent about three hours in the house and like Denise in her many visits
before, I did not sense spirit. But the
visit did a lot of good as I managed to convince Sarah that when there had been
no spirit activity for several weeks and it would probably stays that way. Whatever the reason for the lady in spirit showing
herself was gone and even while the making herself known there was never any
threat to the family. The children had
not been distressed and the pet dog and cat had acted as normal... Sarah slowly accepted this and as the months
passed the memories of the ‘sightings’ slowly faded away...
Although the
situation had died down and Sarah was slowly getting back to normal, the
investigation as far as Denise and myself was concerned was not over. I did an extensive check on the internet and Denise
did her best to check up on former owners of the house but nothing of note came
to light. So we filed this away as what
some might refer to as a ‘cold case’ a case that we could not find any answers
as to why there was spirit
One should never
say a case is closed where spirit is concerned.
At the beginning of this year John contacted Denise and myself with an
amazing story -and the answer to who spirit was and why they were making
themselves known to his wife and children.
Sarah had a
happy childhood, good parents with strong religious values. She met John when she was eighteen and they
got married two years later. What Sarah
did not know was that she was adopted. On
the day she came to her adopted parents they decided that they would not tell
her that she was adopted till she was twenty-one. When Sarah was told she took it well and
after talking the whole situation over with her adopted parents and John she
decided not to seek out her natural mother, well, at that time but not ruling
it out in the future.
Then last autumn
she thought about tracing her natural mother for the sake of her children. she
felt that they had a right to know who their natural grandmother was. Sarah did trace her natural mother but the
sad fact was that she had passed over two years before. She made slight contact with two of her
mother’s brothers but it was only by brief emails. Then a letter arrived from New Zealand, Sarah
had a third uncle which the other two had not mentioned. This third uncle showed much more interest in
his niece and he had sent several photographs of his sister. All but one was taken when Sarah’s mum was
little. The only one of her natural
mother was dated 2005 and Sarah was stunned when she looked at this
photograph. There was a strong
resemblance to the lady she and the children saw in the house and the scarf in
the photo was a grey/blue pattern....
The so-called
‘cold-case’ was reopened and the first question we set to John was “Please check out the time of your
mother-in-law’s passing and the time Sarah and the children were being aware of
spirit. As we expected the dates
corresponded. The mother passed on the
13th and the ‘experiences started from the 15th to the 19th
of the same month.
Should Sarah
have told us of the adopting? She did
not think it was relevant and only once before did I ever come across something
similar so it is not a question Denise or I would normally ask.
If it really was
Sarah’s mother coming forward to her daughter after she passed why did she give
up so easily? I don’t think she gave up easily as it takes a
lot of energy and determination for spirit to show themselves as the
mother/grandmother did. If she was as
caring and loving she would have stepped back when seeing the state her
daughter, Sarah was getting into. Maybe
not giving up but waiting for the right moment to try again if the right moment
presented its self.
I asked Sarah
why she decided to trace her natural mother when she did and her words were “I was washing the dishes one evening and the
thought just came into my head that the children had a right to meet their
natural grandmother”. So..........
could this have been Sarah’s mother guiding her daughter in that
direction?
Now Denise and I
can put the file of this case in the ‘solved drawer’
In my
last blog I mentioned that the Culmodden Drive Spiritualist Church has not only
moved premises but also changed its name. You will now find Angela at
Lambhill Stables
Canal bank north
Lambhill bridge
Balmore rd
Lambhill
G22 6RD
Well
there is another change – an extra service that will take place at the same
venue every Sunday at 6.30 pm starting 20th May 2012.
