9th – 17th of June both Isabel
and I were guests of the Belfast Spiritualist Church SNU we thank committee and
members for making our time there so enjoyable...I am always impressed by the
great enthusiasm the people of Northern Ireland have for Spiritualism. Whether
it is taking a divine service, an evening of clairvoyance, sittings, or taking
part in any of the circles this enthusiasm is always evident. The church has its own premises and uses
these to the full with something or other taking place in the building 5-6
nights a week. A lot of pressure on the committee and I am sure those who have
got a lot of benefit from the church in recent years appreciate this. One thing
I did notice in the church was a suggestion box and maybe more of our churches
should consider having such a box, so to get feedback from the congregation.
Continuing with David’s “What individuals over the past few years have you admired for acting in
a spiritual or selfless way, yet they were not part of the spiritualist
movement?”
My second choice although in no particular order is
Ann Frank... Anne had a short life of only thirteen years but the words from
her diary will live on forever. A
couple of years ago we visited the Anne Frank’s house which is now a
museum. It was a very moving
experience. I find Anne Frank’s diary so important because it depicts
her experience of the Holocaust - from a child's point of view. Representing
the face of innocence, Anne Frank's story is so heartfelt and sincere that it
appeals to the world. A book that all
mankind should read…
Almost everyone has a fear of one kind or
another. Fear of lifts, snakes, spiders,
failure, the future, loneliness and dying are only a few. Hopefully the fear of dying will become less,
although never be eradicated as our of Spiritual beliefs becoming more widely
known. But instead of making life that
little bit easier – it can result in a new fear – equally as great as the fear
of dying. Once becoming aware of our
spiritual beliefs many want to know more about the after-life. Instead of
attending our churches they go on-line to spirit/psychic forums, magazines,
take part in ghost hunts, or listen to the wrong people. This can cause a lot of suffering and
heartache as I constantly find out.
In many cases this takes the fear of dying
away and replaces it with a living hell here in this life. I am horrified to find people in a terrible
state because they have maybe become aware of spirit presence and then been
told all manner of scary things to really upset them. Upset them so much that
they are off work and their whole life is chaos. Twice this week I’ve had
contact from a lady and a gentleman who were both in a terrible state because
of what they were told. One from a contact on an Internet spiritual/psychic
forum and the other by a so-called medium/psychic taking part in a ghost hunt.
If any medium/psychic tells you something that
sounds like it comes from the script of a cheap budget horror movie, then that
is probably where it has come from.
Never believe anything any medium tells you – and that includes myself –
unless it makes sense to you. You are
the person that has come through the experience or whatever... The medium/psychic can do their best to
explain or interpret what has happened - but you are the final judge.
If you have a spiritual experience or think
you have some form of spiritual experience, go along to your local spiritualist
church and ask for help. Or check out
the Spiritualist National Unions‘s (SNU) website for help.
Churches must also have someone responsible to
give advice at short notice. Mediums
must also play their part by. Part of a
Spiritual Medium’s responsibility is helping out in such circumstances, not
just taking services, sittings, clairvoyant evenings, psychic parties and ghost
hunts.
Becoming aware of Spirit our beliefs should be
a joy. a change in the direction of our thinking, not the start of hell here on
earth for us...
A quote from the well loved Spiritualist
medium Maureen Brown. “Spiritualism is love in action. Spiritualism gives proof that we survive
bodily death and gives us some love and comfort – not the opposite”.
Run till they drop.... DEAD... All the pomp of the recent Royal
Ascot portrayed in the British media but one incident only received brief
mention. Thomas Chippendale a 4-year-old colt collapsed and died following a
suspected heart attack after winning the Hardwicke Stakes. Of the sixty-eight
horses ending their lives on British race courses so far in 2013 – 10 have
collapsed and died during or immediately after a race... And this is called a
sport? More has to be done to protect
the racehorse.
John sent this email...
“I have been attending a Spiritualist church
for a few years now but the other day when I was at the reception desk of the
local A&E Unit I took cold feet, when I was asked my religion, I gave the
religion I was born into, not Spiritualism in case the receptionist queried it
or laughed”.
John you are not
the only person to have been in this position I assure you. These days the receptionist would not have
batted an eyelid because she would have heard Spiritualism mentioned many a
time.
Chapter. 2 1975 -- A move to a New Home
During the summer of 1975 we had
decided to move from our pleasant suburban home in Bramhall, North Cheshire, to
a bungalow on the edge of Green Belt, located on a hillside and backing onto
countryside in the small settlement of Higher Poynton. Out there, there was a
canal and beyond that, a deer park and the Peak District National Park. Our rear garden, however, was bounded by an
old railway cutting. Access to that was provided by a small gate in the
hawthorn hedge. The ground out there, at the top of the embankment, was covered
with long grass, rosebay willow herb and nettles.
Experiments
Continue
I
ventured through the gate and began dowsing for old metal objects. Very quickly
I found a few small items at the top level before moving down the embankment to
a worn-down grassy path near to its base. That path had been created by dog walkers
and occasional hikers to avoid the often-flooded track below, from which the
rails and ballast had been removed. As I walked this path with my rods extended
before me, a powerful cross-over occurred. This caused me to explore the size
of the item I had detected, by going backwards and forwards over that area
several times. I got the impression that the object was probably a steel rod,
about 2 ft (60 cm) long. Its length spanned the path and its ends were defined
by the sudden loss of the rods crossover responses as my lateral exploration
progressed. A depth-in exploration
followed and indicated the rod was only about 3 ins. (8 cm) below the
surface. This resulted in a hurried walk
to my garden shed from which I returned with a spade. Digging steeply into
middle of the path to a shallow depth, just to one side of the dowsed position
of the object, when the spade was levered beneath the object, the left-hand end
of a rod sprang from the ground and revealed that the dowsed indications had
been correct. Further digging across the path to the right completely validated
the entire dowsed image of this substantial object. The dimensions were then
established to be 21.6 ins. (54.9cm) long and 0.5 ins. (1.27cm) in
diameter. It is still in my possession
and it has proved itself to be a useful tool from time to time.
1986 ---
Archaeological Investigations
During the early 1970s, colleagues at HSA, Ltd.
were clearing obsolete declassified materials from a cupboard when they
came across good black and white aerial photographs of the area in which I
lived. These items, destined for the incinerator, were offered to me and I
accepted them gladly. The photographs had been taken from a high flying
aircraft sometime during the past. The partially-cut crop fields revealed the
time of year to have been during a hot and dry summer. One excellent photograph
was of an area bordering Higher Poynton, called Adlington. Scanning the surface
features with a magnifying glass revealed that there were old buildings and
other bits of masonry under the grassy surfaces, their presence being betrayed
by pale discoloration of the overlying grass. One relatively large feature
seemed to deserve special attention. Its cruciform shape gave the impression
that an old church had once stood there and that its foundations were still
lying underground in that uninhabited area of pastureland.
Enquiries made to local experts
revealed there were no records to indicate that such a building had ever
existed in that area, so there the matter had to rest, until in the mid-1980s,
the newspapers told of plans to develop the Adlington area for new housing.
That news spurred me to try to locate the owner of that interesting field with
a view to getting permission to use my rods over that area. So, I set out on a
fine summer evening to make enquiries at the few residences adjacent to the
area of interest. One of them turned out to be a large old brick-built house,
standing in its own walled enclosure, with an attractive iron gate entrance. A
stone plaque on the front of the house told me that it dated back to the 1700s.
As I could hear the sound of voices coming from the hidden garden, I called out
to attract attention. A pleasant shirt-sleeved man responded from the other
side of the gate and asked my business. No, he did not own the field in
question, but why did I want to know who owned it? After showing him the aerial photograph, his
next question was about how I proposed to find the unseen underground object.
Not unexpectedly, he said that he was skeptical about the claims of dowsers.
When I persisted and told him that I knew otherwise and, also, had my rods in
the boot of my car, he decided to test my claims. Stepping outside his front
gate, he told me that a culvert ran under the entrance to the gate and asked me
if I could find it. After several passes to and fro, very confidently, I
indicated the course of it. He was truly amazed by that result, because he knew
where it ran and I and my rods had discovered it under his scrutiny. He then
asked if I could find a hidden well under a front lawn, because, for various
reasons, he was convinced there was one, but no one had, so far, been able to
find its location. I entered that sheltered garden and began progressive
scanning of the finely cut lawn, under his constant gaze. Towards the far end
of the lawn, several cross-overs occurred. Further investigations of that area
defined a square outline, from memory, about 4ft. x 4ft. (1.2m x 1.2m). I suggested I had probably defined the size
of the capping stone. He was so excited by this discovery he hurried into the
house and returned with two teenage children, a boy and a girl. He explained
what he had just witnessed. I offered them the rods to try for themselves,
which they did in turn and confirmed my findings. Their father did not seem to
have the right technique when he tried and failed, but he was very impressed
and then decided to tell me where I could find the owner of that field.
Some months later I called him on the
telephone to ask if they had excavated for that well and whether I had placed
it correctly. He answered affirmatively
to both questions and thanked me for my assistance.
Back on track with the field
investigations
There were other marks besides the
cruciform shape, but they were less well defined as artificial structures.
The owner of
the field turned out to be a local builder. After arranging a visit to his home
by telephone, I went there one evening to discuss the photograph with him and
his adult son. He commented that it was a very badly drained field and that he
had thought about installing land drains. He was intrigued by the photograph
and curious about my proposed method for locating the feature. After being
persuaded further, he agreed that we should meet on site at a mutually convenient
time.
We met up again a few days later, when
he escorted me past storage sheds to the gateway of the field. It looked very
expansive from there and I found it difficult to get my bearings. The field
fell away downhill from the gateway. The best visual markers I had were a few
large trees in the boundary fences that I could recognise by reference to the
photograph. Eventually, I set off for the centre of the distant target area,
rods extended before me to detect any other hidden features that had not shown
up in the photograph (Fig. 3) having ‘old masonry’ fixed in my mind. Very soon, I discovered a cluster, quite
close to the gateway, and inserted pegs into the ground to mark the locations.
However, I was determined not to be distracted from the main area of interest
and just continued to walk downhill at a steady pace, rods still at the ready.
As I entered the target area, the rods crossed for the first time. After
inserting a peg in the ground, I straightened the rods and continued walking.
As I walked to and fro over that large area, many more pegs were stuck into the
ground. Soon it became clear to me that I had detected the site of that
photographic image. It seemed that the long feature was about 170ft. (52 m) in
length and 30 ft. (9m). wide and was outlined by ‘walls’ of about 2ft. (0.6 m)
wide. The top end of the central long feature was curved, not squared off. The ‘cross-member’ of the cruciform, was
about 100 ft. long (30.5m) and had a width of about 25 ft.(7.6m). As the entire structure lay beneath a sloping
field, I carried out traverses with the rods to determine the depths of the
outlining ‘walls’ at the top and bottom of the outline. The end near the
cross-piece was dowsed to be about 6 ft. (1.8m) beneath the surface there. At
the other end, depths of 2 to 3 ft. were signaled. These two measurements
indicated that the outlining structure was level and that, at the upper end, it
had perhaps been covered by a large and extensive mound of earth, which
extended to the gateway. This was very puzzling, so when the landowner
suggested asking his son the dig down at the lower end, I was eager to see that
done. The young man came with a spade
and began removing the turf before creating a slot trench as wide as the dowsed
width of the ‘wall’ at the lower left-hand end of the feature. When he had
cleared soil to the dowsed depth he struck solid objects. These turned out to
be very large and compacted cobbles. When I suggested that perhaps they were
part of an old river bed, the landowner (a builder) responded that those
cobbles had been laid deliberately. The trench was extended to reveal that this
outlining ‘wall’ was truly following the dowsed outline.
The young man then went over to the
other corner at the lower end of the outlined structure and began digging
there. In a relatively short time he established that the dowsing had also been
accurate over there, the location, width and depth of the ‘wall’ being
confirmed. My dowsing had been shown to be accurate and I had proved to two
more skeptics that the human mind has more capabilities than it is generally
given credit for.
Before we left the field, the
landowner wanted to show me a feature in the eroded bank of the bordering,
fast-flowing, brook (Poynton Brook) some distance downhill from the dowsed
site. When we stood on the other side of the brook, he pointed out to me a very
old piece of blackened wood projecting from the base of the opposite eroded
embankment, about 3 ft. (0.9m) from the grassy surface above it. As he
suggested to me, it looked like the remains of an ancient flume, perhaps
linking to a settlement in the direction of the cruciform shape, which was at a
higher level in the opposite field. A V-shaped cross-section of infill,
relating to the wooden projection was visible, further substantiating the
ancient flume idea. My dowsing and probing of the land above the flume
suggested that there were stony foundations of an ancient settlement lying
below the grassy surface there.
I asked the owner’s permission to
report this find to the County Archaeological Office at Chester. He replied
that he did not mind the Office being told about the finds, but he did not want
me to identify the site accurately. He would not want his pasture field turned
into an archaeological site. In my letter to Chester, I was careful not to
betray his trust, but told only of the circumstances that had led to the
discovery of this unknown feature, which was described, and that it was located
in Adlington, quite close to Poynton Brook.
A letter showing interest in the site
was received from Mr. R. C. Turner of the County Planning Department. He wanted
to survey the site and wanted me to assure the landowner that a Compulsory
Purchase Order would not be imposed and that any measures would be discussed with
him and approved by him before any action was taken. Even with these assurances
and despite the fact that this would be the only archaeological site to be
found in that area of Cheshire, the landowner did not want to co-operate
further. My information, to date, is
that the nature of this significant site is still a mystery.
