thoughts on Spiritualist churches

Strengths The only evidence-based religion. A proven link with Spirit, keeping the message and inspiration relevant No reliance on outdated and legend-based theology Universalist and non-sectarian outlook Modern, inclusive and socially-progressive philosophy with no anti-women or anti-gay teachings National network of over 500 churches: SNU 336, GW 52, US 28, Corinthians ?, Unaffiliated ? Large population of enthusiastic, skilled and talented volunteers

Weaknesses Movement is stuck in ‘messages’ groove General standards of mediumship not what joiners have been led (unrealistically?) to expect Failure to promote philosophy as interestingly and accessibly as it should be Larger number of leavers than joiners over past 21 years(4) Inability to retain joiners for very long. Untrained leadership at church level Church network erratically spaced, based on serendipity rather than strategic planning Small size of congregations and churches,  making it difficult to offer an interesting and comprehensive range of activities, or to minister to the whole person Lack of in-depth leadership at all levels (too many ‘elected unopposed’) Too much bureaucracy – too little creativity

Opportunities Retain many more from the large numbers we attract Create a new model of Spiritualist church or centre Retain the large number of joiners we attract with the natural mediums that are out there Appeal to family audience with Lyceums alongside Sunday morning services Multi-media advertising, using small press ads to direct prospects to website articles, setting out our stall more fully and cheaply than ever before. To replace declining Christianity as the natural religion for modern humankind

Threats Exposure of a ‘super medium’, bringing our easy recruitment advantage to a halt, whilst accelerating the leavers’ rate Possibility of bad publicity and unfair media coverage Our own exponents’ limitations being spread by word of mouth Legislation (unlikely at present) Our own inaction due to failure to recognise our present vulnerability SNU’s bureaucratic culture could kill the creativity necessary to transform it

Spiritualist medium Jeff Jones

Spiritualist medium Jeff Jones from South-Wales/England..Spiritualist medium and Healer. Jeff was born 1954 in South-Wales/England. And he had his first contact with the spiritual world when he was 10 years old . . . He met and had a conversation with his "dead grandmother It was the most natural and beautiful experience anyone could wish to have. He was not frightened! But more pleased to see her! As a child he was told that grandmother had died and gone to heaven! So his first thought after saying good bye to her was: if grandmother is in heaven then heaven must be on earth?

continue Jeff's story here.

The Psychic Joann Spurrier Show

Welcome to "The Psychic Joann Spurrier Show" I’m going to be your spiritual guidance counselor and show host every Friday afternoon here on MCSSRADIO from 5-7 pm (CT). I will be here with you to connect with your past loved ones from the other side and help you to cherish and understand “The Spiritual Journey” you have chosen to experience in this life. I'm looking forward to working with you. The Call in number for the show: 917-889-3705 Love and Light,Joann Music and songs provided by Jacinta and Chunky Music Label (www.chunkymusic.com)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mcssradio/2011/03/25/the-psychic-joann-spurrier-show

Princess Diana's psychic answers critics

A psychic who was regularly consulted by the late princess Diana has hit back at allegations she was assisted when giving readings during a public demonstration of clairvoyance by a man feeding her information from outside a hall.

Sally Morgan said : ‘I totally respect cynics and sceptics, as if we don’t ask questions we don’t get answers,’

Sally Morgan

‘However, I will not stand by and be accused of fraudulent behaviour, from inaccurate sources of information. It’s completely and utterly balderdash"

Following a presentation at Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre an audience member named 'Sue' claimed to have heard a man’s voice from the back of the auditorium relaying information to the psychic superstar on stage.

When the second half started we could clearly hear a man’s voice coming from the window behind us,’ she told RTE radio station in Dublin.

She claimed the voice would, for example, say ‘David, pain in the back, passed quickly’ and a few seconds later Sally would claim to have the spirit of a ‘David’ .

Read more at The Daily Mail

unexplained mystery...

Medium Michael Bagan

Evidence, evidence, evidence!

Posted on 16/08/2011 by spiritofpn| 18 Comments

Sue Farrow introduces a report on some exceptional survival evidence given recently to ‘Valerie’ by London-based medium Michael Bagan.       
Few Spiritualists – even those who do their utmost to look on the bright side – can have failed to notice that first class survival evidence has been increasingly thin on the ground in recent years.
Much has been written about the possible reasons for this – poor training, rushed or insufficient development, lack of home circles, etc – and it’s obvious that these could be contributing factors.

read the full article at Spirit of PN

What Is a Spiritualist service like ?

this video gives an example of a typical service and reading in a Spiritualist church:

Conference On After Death Communications

Friday - Sunday in Phoenix April 13-15, 2012 PLUS exclusive events on Thursday, April 12 Pim van Lommel, M.D. Larry Dossey M.D. A three-day conference at the Embassy Suites with top speakers, authors and mediums in the field of survival of consciousness after death including near death experiences (NDE), after death communications (ADC), grief counseling, healing, intuition and mediumship.   http://www.afterdeathconference.org/

The Dalai Lama on Karma

The Dalai Lama on Karma and How To Get Some Of The Good Stuff

Here's a quote on the importance of action from His Holiness:

Some people misunderstand the concept of karma. They take the Buddha's doctrine of the law of causality to mean that all is predetermined, that there is nothing the individual can do. This is a total misunderstanding. The very term karma or action is a term of active force, which indicates that future events are within your hands. Since action is a phenomenon that is committed by a person, a living being, it is within your own hands whether or not you engage in actions.

The Dalai Lama's "Instructions For Life" lists out 20 ways to "get good karma":

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. 

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. 

3. Follow the three R’s:

- Respect for self

- Respect for others

- Responsibility for all your actions

 http://www.shamanswell.org/shaman/dalai-lama-karma-and-how-get-some-good-stuff

TV documentary about Spiritualism

radio show about Spiritualism and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Now available to listen to and download on Richard Glover's Drive show on 702 ABC Radio

Although the speaker sounds sceptical, there is  some good historical information about Arthur's visit to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

"Let's get physical ... or did we?" & Arthur Conan Doyle

## Important : Today at approx 5pm onwards on 702 ABC Sydney is a radio program about the great Spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his visit in 1920/21 to Australia to give talks on Spiritualism .

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"Let's get physical ... or did we?"

 Last night, I either witnessed a remarkable display of physical mediumship by David Thompson, a Brit who now resides in Australia and who claims to produce full-form materialisations, or a blatant deception that is succeeding in fooling many otherwise sensible people. So which was it?

The only way to make up one's mind in such a situation – in which the 40-plus people attending this séance at Jenny's Sanctuary in Oxfordshire were literally in the dark – is to examine both scenarios and ask which, logically, makes the most sense. That's what I'm about to do, in the hope that the views of visitors to this Blog may also contribute some useful insight

READ THE FULL STORY AT ROY STEMMAN'S PARANORMAL REVIEW.

Scientists who investigated the paranormal

2. Respected scientists who investigated

“I am absolutely convinced of the fact that those who once lived on earth can and do communicate with us. It is hardly possible to convey to the inexperienced an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence.”
Sir William Barrett F.R.S.

Sir Oliver Lodge

“I tell you we do persist. Communication is possible. I have proved that the people who communicate are who and what they say they are. The conclusion is that survival is scientifically proved by scientific investigation.”
Sir Oliver Lodge F.R.S.

“It is quite true that a connection has been set up between this world and the next.”
Sir William Crookes F.R.S.

“I have been talking with my (dead) father, my brother, my uncles... Whatever supernormal powers we may be pleased to attribute to (the medium) Mrs. Piper's secondary personalities, it would be difficult to make me believe that these secondary personalities could have thus completely reconstituted the mental personality of my dead relatives...”
Professor Hyslop Professor of Logic at Columbia University.

“I am absolutely convinced of the fact that those who once lived on earth can and do communicate with us. It is hardly possible to convey to the inexperienced an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence.”
Sir William Barrett F.R.S.

“I tell you we do persist. Communication is possible. I have proved that the people who communicate are who and what they say they are. The conclusion is that survival is scientifically proved by scientific investigation.”
Sir Oliver Lodge F.R.S.

“It is quite true that a connection has been set up between this world and the next.”
Sir William Crookes F.R.S.

“I have been talking with my (dead) father, my brother, my uncles... Whatever supernormal powers we may be pleased to attribute to (the medium) Mrs. Piper's secondary personalities, it would be difficult to make me believe that these secondary personalities could have thus completely reconstituted the mental personality of my dead relatives...”
Professor Hyslop Professor of Logic at Columbia University. 

 read more at VICTOR ZAMMIT

Not to be Missed : Radio Show with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Conan Doyle

Richard Glover (702 ABC Sydney)

Listeners to the 702 ABC Sydney will have an opportunity to hear a program next Wednesday 17th August about Arthur Conan Doyle and his visit to Australia in 1920/21 and his involvement in Spiritualism whilst here.

The broadcast will be on Richard Glover's Drive program at around 5.30pm and promises to be fascinating.

The segment is called Self Improvement Wednesdays and the audio is usually available on their website the following day.

Go to the radio station's website here.

The History of Spiritualism by Arthur Conan Doyle

In 1921 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the famous Sherlock Holmes books , toured Australia giving talks on Spiritualism of which he was a devotee.

He gave his farewell speech at the Enmore Spiritualist Church after attending a service there.

The Gutenberg Project has a free e-book by Sir Arthur :

The History of Spiritualism Vol II (1926)

which can be downloaded for free here:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301061.txt 

"THE CAREER OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO The mediumship of Eusapia Palladino marks an important stage in the history of psychical research, because she was the first medium for physical phenomena to be examined by a large number of eminent men of science. The chief manifestations that occurred with her were the movement of objects without contact, the levitation of a table and other objects, the levitation of the medium, the appearance of materialized hands and faces, lights, and the playing of musical instruments without human contact. All these phenomena took place, as we have seen, at a much earlier date with the medium D. D. Home, but when Sir William Crookes invited his scientific brethren to come and examine them they declined. Now for the first time these strange facts were the subject of prolonged investigation by men of European reputation. Needless to say, these experimenters were at first sceptical in the highest degree, and so-called "tests" (those often silly precautions which may defeat the very object aimed at) were the order of the day. No medium in the whole world has been more rigidly tested than this one, and since she was able to convince the vast majority of her sitters, it is clear that her mediumship was of no ordinary type. It is little use pointing out that no psychic researcher should be admitted to the seance room without at least some elementary knowledge of the complexities of mediumship and the right conditions for its unfoldment, or without, for instance, an understanding of the basic truth that it is not the medium alone, but the sitters equally, who are factors in the success of the experiment. Not one scientific man in a thousand recognizes this, and the fact that Eusapia triumphed in spite of such a tremendous handicap is an eloquent tribute to her powers."

Journey Through the Light and Back

After suffering from a terminal illness, in 1982 Mellen-Thomas Benedict ‘died’ and for an hour and a half he was monitored showing no vital signs. Miraculously he returned to his body with a complete remission of the disease – and what may be the most inspirational near-death experience story known to date.

Read more and listen here

Near Death Experiences

NDE Light from Near Death Experiences

Rene Jorgensen on the Call the Doctor Show

NDE expert and researcher Rene Jorgensen appeared on the TV show Call the Doctor along with Dr. Jeffrey Long and David Benneth to discuss the scientific evidence for near-death experiences, research and insights from the experience. Jorgensen also shared his research from his book "The Light Behind God," which investigates the parallels to religion.

Enmore Spiritualist Church medium in Falconio murder mystery

Caterina Ligato, (left) a medium who attended development and meditation classes at Enmore Spiritualist Church has said in an interview in the Daily Telegraph that she has contacted the murdered back packer Peter Falconio and that he has given her a message that the wrong man has been jailed over his murder:

 

Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio

Psychic: I know what happened to Peter Falconio

Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of English backpacker Peter Falconio, Australia’s leading psychic medium, Caterina Ligato believes she can shed some new light on the case, including the revelation that John Murdoch, the man convicted of Falconio’s murder, is innocent.

“I contacted Peter through my guides to attempt to ascertain exactly what happened. I was asked by a media agency to see if I could speak with him and I have” said Ligato who is famous for her ability to talk with the spirit world and perform exorcisms.

“He told me he got involved with some bad people and agreed to be a part of a deal which involved drugs. However, he did not keep his part of the deal and fled the UK with Joanne as he was worried that the people involved might go after her.”

read the rest of the interview here.

An interview with Alison DuBois

Patricia Arquette (left) with Alison DuBois

The popular TV series Medium was based upon the life of medium Alison DuBois. The series starred Patricia Arquette as the Medium.

To read an interview with Alison click here.

Brittany The Book Slayer also has a good review of Allison's book Don't Kiss Them Goodbye here.

'The One' is a TV show about mediums that investigates people's pyschic abilities.. It is not about Spiritualism.
However it can be interesting and fun to attend and the producers are seeking potential audience members

theaudience@seven.com.au or Telephone 02 9877 7226