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Spiritualist Church Medium

PeteS said:
After my experiences, nobody can convince me that there aren't some individuals who are able to read the future and the past, by whatever means (deceased relatives or not). Dismissing the entire subject, as with most Fortean narratives, as nonsense trivialises why we are here.
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Charlatans abound. No doubt about it. But there are also some individuals "able to read the future and the past" who do not call themselves mediums; nor do they take money for what they do.

I knew such a woman in Munich. We both lived in the same dormitory of about 20 residents. The woman with the gift was Turkish. She often turned down requests for a reading (she used Turkish coffee grounds as her means of concentrating).

One day she agreed to a reading for me, wherein she told me she saw me, crying, on a plane going home. I told her that couldn't be possible, since I was studying on a grant from an international cultural association, and their rule was we were not to travel back to the US during our year of study. She calmly said, "This will happen soon."

In a few days my boyfriend from home came to visit me, as it was Christmas time and we wanted to celebrate together. The day after Christmas I received a phone call for him. He was told his father had just died suddenly at home of an unexpected heart attack. They were my "second family," and I had known them well for many years. I got on the phone with the commission overseeing the grant, and they kindly waived the rule so I could attend the funeral.

We were on the next flight home. Needless to say, we both had occasion to cry during the flight, as my boyfriend's father had been a very dear soul, and I shared my boyfriend's grief.

My Turkish friend gave readings only occasionally, and she never would take money for a reading. I believe she had the ability to see some events in the future.

It's my belief that, apart from the charlatans, there are quiet, modest people with paranormal abilities.
 
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I remember watching the movie Red Lights which is about debunking a world famous psychic. It stars Robert de Niro as the psychic and Sigourney Weaver as the skeptical reporter determined to expose him. I thought it was very good and certainly made you think about the underhand methods used to make the psychic appear to have supernatural powers. And there is a very clever twist at the end that I certainly didn't see coming.
 
I went to a spiritulist church as mum wanted to go, we sat a couple of rows back from the front, she pointed at a few people then she got to my mum, she said some things and my mum just shrugged, then she said she had a wonderful man here and he was singing Show me the way to go home, she said he was wonderful, my mum went red and said it was her husbands dad, he had gotten drunk and was singing that all the way home after the wedding, also that there was a significant date in September, yup, I was the first grandchild on my dads side, and my grandad ruined me, unfortunately i cannot remember him :(
 
I have had numerous dealings with mediums and on the whole they have been spot on. This is just one account:
One I saw when I was 21 (and in a relationship and a real home bird), said I would marry an Ian, who would have connections to the lakes in Canada, move across the country, teach girls and study for years with piles of books. She also said ‘I see a baby in the womb in October’ then she paused and then said ‘but you will have another baby, and then your third will have an issue with its legs but it will be ok’.
I did get pregnant that October after trying for a while and my baby Emily died 6 months into the pregnancy. I did then go on to have a son. Then I married an Ian and had a daughter who had talipes, an issue with her feet turning in but it resolved with physio, we moved from East Sussex to Cornwall for me to study and ended up teaching girls for 20 years, studying all the time surrounded by piles of books. I still have the tape recording and often listen to it for updates!
As I say that is one example of my experiences. My baby Emily often comes through in readings ( as recently as last week when my daughter now 26, had a reading where the medium had her number just one minute before an half hour call and started off by saying that Emily was there) which is comforting.
 
I’ve only ever once had an organised reading by a psychic medium, it was back in 2009 and she was uncannily accurate with certain things but way off on the odd other thing. She kept insisting I didn’t give her any clues or prompts and would stop me if I started to say something which was information she could use. I don’t believe I am easily fooled by somebody and I got the impression she was absolutely genuine, no cold-reading techniques or trickery.
I’m not sure if this is common practice amongst mediums or just something the one I saw employed, but she would give me certain words after telling me something which she called ‘proofs’. She said it was important not to tell anybody these words, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to use them as proofs. These words would then naturally feature in my life somehow following the reading over the next few weeks, which would prove to me what she said was correct and not just fabricated regards that particular part of the reading. An example of this was she gave me some information and said my proof word for this was ‘Antigua‘. I remember thinking at the time, however would a word like Antigua feature in my life, until around five days later when I was gifted a fridge magnet (amongst other things) from a Caribbean cruise holiday and it had the word ‘Antigua’ emblazoned on it. Could just be a strange coincidence of course but it sure did leave me a little gobsmacked.
The medium picked up on my mum passing when I was young and tapped at her chest saying that’s where the problem was. My mum died of breast cancer, her obituary had been in the local paper but no mention of the cause of her death. She went on to give me messages from my mum, things the medium couldn't possibly have know about, including mentioning things I’d been doing recently and a description of our newly decorated living room (apparently my mum liked it!). A recently deceased friend came through, again she told me things she couldn’t have known about, including how he died which was not public knowledge. One of my grandparents sent messages too and she gave me a lot of information most of which made sense to me, some that didn’t.
Now the one thing which she was way off with was this, she said I would have a baby in 2011. I said, no, that won’t be happening, unless she meant a baby animal! She said, no definitely human, a baby boy. I insisted so much that it wouldn‘t happen, causing her to ask if I‘d been told I couldn't have children. I informed her as far as I knew I could but it’s just that I didn’t want them and didn’t think it would happen. And I was right, I have never had children. It‘s always puzzled me how she could get so many things right yet be way off on that one, and why she was so insistent I was going to have a baby?
Husband and I are still waiting for the old farmhouse we were supposed to be renovating too, I’d like to think it’s still in our future, but I hope it hurries up as we’re getting a bit too old for all that!
 
Mooka said:
I’ve only ever once had an organised reading by a psychic medium, it was back in 2009 and she was uncannily accurate with certain things but way off on the odd other thing. She kept insisting I didn’t give her any clues or prompts and would stop me if I started to say something which was information she could use. I don’t believe I am easily fooled by somebody and I got the impression she was absolutely genuine, no cold-reading techniques or trickery.
I’m not sure if this is common practice amongst mediums or just something the one I saw employed, but she would give me certain words after telling me something which she called ‘proofs’. She said it was important not to tell anybody these words, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to use them as proofs. These words would then naturally feature in my life somehow following the reading over the next few weeks, which would prove to me what she said was correct and not just fabricated regards that particular part of the reading. An example of this was she gave me some information and said my proof word for this was ‘Antigua‘. I remember thinking at the time, however would a word like Antigua feature in my life, until around five days later when I was gifted a fridge magnet (amongst other things) from a Caribbean cruise holiday and it had the word ‘Antigua’ emblazoned on it. Could just be a strange coincidence of course but it sure did leave me a little gobsmacked.
The medium picked up on my mum passing when I was young and tapped at her chest saying that’s where the problem was. My mum died of breast cancer, her obituary had been in the local paper but no mention of the cause of her death. She went on to give me messages from my mum, things the medium couldn't possibly have know about, including mentioning things I’d been doing recently and a description of our newly decorated living room (apparently my mum liked it!). A recently deceased friend came through, again she told me things she couldn’t have known about, including how he died which was not public knowledge. One of my grandparents sent messages too and she gave me a lot of information most of which made sense to me, some that didn’t.
Now the one thing which she was way off with was this, she said I would have a baby in 2011. I said, no, that won’t be happening, unless she meant a baby animal! She said, no definitely human, a baby boy. I insisted so much that it wouldn‘t happen, causing her to ask if I‘d been told I couldn't have children. I informed her as far as I knew I could but it’s just that I didn’t want them and didn’t think it would happen. And I was right, I have never had children. It‘s always puzzled me how she could get so many things right yet be way off on that one, and why she was so insistent I was going to have a baby?
Husband and I are still waiting for the old farmhouse we were supposed to be renovating too, I’d like to think it’s still in our future, but I hope it hurries up as we’re getting a bit too old for all that!
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I think anyone who is good at "reading" people in general can cold read. I always laugh at the tv shows featuring mediums and their work. I can easily do what they do. You have random 20-50 people, mostly middle class, white and you ask them if the name Ted or Ed rings a bell. These mediums, if you watch, never state anything, they just ask questions.

The person answering their questions is already willing to give them more information eg. "Ooh I have an uncle Ted", and away we go.

I'm not saying that your medium only did this. It is an icebreaker anyway. Once you are comfortable, the easier it is to do a reading.

Would you have remembered some of the details if they were wrong such as your mom's cause of death? You do state that some things were way off.

Not saying that I don't believe that some people are psychic, only saying that it is easier to do if you understand people.

I can read people in the general sense, and I'm sure that if I stated some of my understanding to friends and family, they would be surprised. I don't as this would be very uncomfortable to both parties.

Much of what mediums read, in my experience and observations, is human nature. People are just not aware of what human nature can really be.

I had two mediums, when I was in my twenties, both tell me that I would be furthering my education later in life. This was definitely not a common practise at that time, but when I did do that, it had become common practise. So I consider them both right, but I have the niggling thought as to whether this was a prediction or a suggestion. Did I lead or did I follow?
 
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Oh some of them are ridiculous and it’s obvious they are employing cold reading techniques. I went along to a performance (as that was what I felt it was - entertainment) with my dad and three of his friends when I was about 19 or 20. At this point in my life I didn’t know much about mediums, but I started questioning things straight away. It was a packed venue and shouting out a common name was obviously going to get a response from somebody, when there wasn’t there was the obligatory slight change to the name… Ah it’s not Den it’s Ben or is it Ken…
All five of us felt hugely disappointed and cheated, we’d all lost somebody very close and were looking for that bit of comfort, something to make us believe it wasn’t the end when we die.

I know there are tricksters out there pretending they are blessed with the gift of foresight and/or being able to converse with spirit - and there are far too many - but I also believe there are genuine ones. I’m in two minds what to believe regards the organised reading I had. I can’t possibly work out how she would have known certain things, it definitely wasn’t from social media I know that - if the information isn’t there they can’t read it. Some of the things she said were very precise not in the least bit vague, but some either didn’t make much sense or I knew were very unlikely to be or come true.

Your question ‘did I lead or did I follow’, is an excellent one. One of the things I was told in my reading was that if my fiancé and I didn’t get married that following year, it would never happen. We’d been engaged for a good number of years and we did get married that following year - but I think it was mainly because of the nudge from the medium!
 
I always wondered what would happen if an English speaking medium was brought on stage and the audience were all, say, Polish, or Ukrainian, etc. Would they still be saying "I have a Bill/Fred/Harry here"? And how would the dead ancestors communicate in English?
 
eziofan said:
I always wondered what would happen if an English speaking medium was brought on stage and the audience were all, say, Polish, or Ukrainian, etc. Would they still be saying "I have a Bill/Fred/Harry here"? And how would the dead ancestors communicate in English?
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Isn't there an incident with the Conan-Doyles and Houdini? Involving the chanelling of Houdini's mother who spoke no english but was fluent in it at seances. That and suddenly starting to reverence the cross as a symbol...
 
Frideswide said:
Isn't there an incident with the Conan-Doyles and Houdini? Involving the chanelling of Houdini's mother who spoke no english but was fluent in it at seances. That and suddenly starting to reverence the cross as a symbol...
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The incident involving Conan Doyle and Houdini was concerning automatic writing channeled by Conan Doyles wife. Houdini's mother could speak English, but poorly, while the automatic writing was grammatically correct.
 
eziofan said:
The incident involving Conan Doyle and Houdini was concerning automatic writing channeled by Conan Doyles wife. Houdini's mother could speak English, but poorly, while the automatic writing was grammatically correct.
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that's the badger! :twothumbs:
 
brownmane said:
Frides, could you explain the meaning of the phrase. It sounds like one I might want to adopt to confound people here. Expanding everyone's horizons and such:)
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I... er... um... It means that the thing in question is the absolute thing that is wanted, appropriate, praiseworthy. It's rather like Practchett's the thing and the whole of the thing.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Scone_of_Stone

I have no idea of a derivation, and I'm now wondering if it's just a family thing! Which, given the amount I use it is rather embarrasing :doh:

R
 
Frideswide said:
I... er... um... It means that the thing in question is the absolute thing that is wanted, appropriate, praiseworthy. It's rather like Practchett's the thing and the whole of the thing.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Scone_of_Stone

I have no idea of a derivation, and I'm now wondering if it's just a family thing! Which, given the amount I use it is rather embarrasing :doh:

R
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Even if it is a family colloquialism, I did understand it as you used it. I just wanted to know that I had the right context.

I love it.
 
I've definitely heard and used the expression. I suppose it's much the same as Archimedes shouting "Eureka!" but the average yokel would be more familiar with badgers than with Archimedes.
 
Erinaceus said:
I've definitely heard and used the expression. I suppose it's much the same as Archimedes shouting "Eureka!" but the average yokel would be more familiar with badgers than with Archimedes.
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hang on, who are you calling an average yokel? :pitch:

Although waving a pitchfork about doesn't help my case!
 
Frideswide said:
I... er... um... It means that the thing in question is the absolute thing that is wanted, appropriate, praiseworthy. It's rather like Practchett's the thing and the whole of the thing.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Scone_of_Stone

I have no idea of a derivation, and I'm now wondering if it's just a family thing! Which, given the amount I use it is rather embarrasing :doh:

R
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I've just Googled the phrase and apparently it's a West Country thing!
 
Frideswide said:
Isn't there an incident with the Conan-Doyles and Houdini? Involving the chanelling of Houdini's mother who spoke no english but was fluent in it at seances. That and suddenly starting to reverence the cross as a symbol...
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The cross at the end of the channeled writing was a signing off that Lady Jean Conan Doyle did, so it was an affectation of hers on all of her mediumistic writings. As for the perfect English...
 
These chaps -

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My hypothesis is that the yokel probably said "That's the bugger" but the Victorians bowdlerized it into "That's the badger" to safeguard the ears of women and children from such profanities.
 
eziofan said:
I always wondered what would happen if an English speaking medium was brought on stage and the audience were all, say, Polish, or Ukrainian, etc. Would they still be saying "I have a Bill/Fred/Harry here"? And how would the dead ancestors communicate in English?
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Maybe they would pronounce the names as well as they could and then spirit would communicate by giving the medium images and emotions, anything not involving spoken language. This would be the genuine mediums, it would certainly be interesting to see how the charlatans coped with the scenario.

I’ve never come across “That’s the badger” before, must drop it into conversation some time! Reminds me of my husband’s brother and a few of my husband‘s friends who, to show appreciation for something exclaim, “Nice fish!” One once commented with the phrase on a picture on social media, which got the woman underneath off on a tirade, “What the f**** is the guy above on about, what f***ing fish”.
 
An old friend of my late mum once claimed to have been sung to by Freddie Mercury during a Spiritualist gathering. In case anyone is interested, it was "I want to ride my bicycle".
Wish I'd been there!
 
I went to a spiritualist church a few times when I was younger, but was deeply unimpressed, the greatest mystery we have and all we are getting is "I've got Jim/Betty/Harry here and they are handing you a bunch of flowers" I believe there are some people who are genuine but they don't attend Church gatherings on a wet Wednesday afternoon in Bognor Regis
 
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