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Spiritualist Church Medium

Mooka

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Oct 28, 2022
Messages
172
Location
In the shadow of the ash trees, Derbyshire
In the early to mid 1990s I had my first (and so far only) visit to a spiritualist church. I’d called with a friend to see one of his elderly friends and she said she was going to the church that evening as there was a guest medium appearing who she wanted to see. Somehow we got persuaded to go along too. So off we went and on arriving I was disappointed to see the only seats left spare were right at the front (I always hate sitting at the front, I much prefer to grab a back row seat and go unnoticed). The guest medium came on to the stage and all I kept thinking was, please don’t talk to me, please don’t talk to me (I’ve always hated all eyes and attention on me). Well guess who was the very first person the medium singled out of that very busy church hall? Yes, apparently he had a message for me - from a Jim. I looked at him puzzled as I didn’t know a deceased Jim. He carried on, “You may know him as Little Jim.” I shook my head. He insisted Little Jim was definitely coming through for me, but I just sat there looking confused. The medium then went on to give a description of Jim and I just carried on looking puzzled and shaking my head. He nevertheless persisted saying, “He says you’ve got a blocked sink.” I replied that I didn’t have a blocked sink and didn’t know a Little Jim, so he finally gave up and moved on. Later when I got home, I walked into the kitchen and my kitchen sink was full of water - I remembered I’d put the plug in and added bleach to the water before leaving that morning. Did it look like a blocked sink??? Just a coincidence I thought as I didn’t know a Jim who had died.

I rang my auntie the next day to tell her about the spiritualist church visit and what the medium said. She said, don’t you know your grandad had two uncles who lived with him when he was growing up, one was tall the other short, both called James but went by their nicknames Big Jim and Little Jim. She described Little Jim to me and the description matched exactly what the medium had said!

Was this just a big coincidence? The medium was so persistent that this Little Jim was coming through for me but I kept shaking my head and saying I didn’t know anybody by that name. I still don’t know what to think about it!
 
Well, I'd be inclined to believe it WAS Little Jim, probably quite excited to think he'd made contact with a young member of his family.
The sink bit of the story was just to give you proof that you could check up on.
He wasn't frightening you, or giving you warnings or nasty messages, was he?

I occasionally still go to the Spiritualist church in Bournemouth (though I prefer my regular role of 'tea lady' at the Friday morning healing session).
I started going to such churches back in about the year 2000.
I've had quite a few 'messages'over the years, some more convincing than others!
Mediums can make things up /get the wrong end of the stick just like the rest of us.
But sometimes a 'message' really does seem genuine.

I've come to the conclusion that some 'souls' in the spirit world are delighted to find they can still communicate with us here still on earth -the messages don't have to be staggeringly important.
And if they loved us when they were here on earth, I'm sure they still love us from wherever they've moved on to.
 
I visited our local spiritualist church with a friend probably 35 years ago and can only say I was completely underwhelmed by the whole experience. I don’t remember if there was more than 1 medium on that evening, but the one I recall did a lot of cold reading. She (?) only made contact with the elderly and I think mentioned “someone wearing” a military overcoat or greatcoat with everyone.
I have never stepped foot in a spiritualist church since.
 
Now that's quite convincing; if they can tell you something which you didn't know, but which you're able to confirm afterwards, then it can't be down to cold reading techniques. (Only "rational" explanation I can think of: it was all set up by your friend, his friend and your aunt! But hardly likely. )

I just hope Little Jim wasn't upset that you'd never heard of him. Perhaps the medium would say that the message was really for your aunt.
 
Without giving the game away completely, this interaction is completely understandable when you know the secrets. I'm sorry to say that you weren't in touch with Little Jim but that the guest medium was just reading old poetry.
 
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.
 
Well, I'd be inclined to believe it WAS Little Jim, probably quite excited to think he'd made contact with a young member of his family.
The sink bit of the story was just to give you proof that you could check up on.
He wasn't frightening you, or giving you warnings or nasty messages, was he?

I occasionally still go to the Spiritualist church in Bournemouth (though I prefer my regular role of 'tea lady' at the Friday morning healing session).
I started going to such churches back in about the year 2000.
I've had quite a few 'messages'over the years, some more convincing than others!
Mediums can make things up /get the wrong end of the stick just like the rest of us.
But sometimes a 'message' really does seem genuine.

I've come to the conclusion that some 'souls' in the spirit world are delighted to find they can still communicate with us here still on earth -the messages don't have to be staggeringly important.
And if they loved us when they were here on earth, I'm sure they still love us from wherever they've moved on to.
No it didn't frighten me at all and there were no nasty messages, no messages at all really as I just kept shaking my head and saying no to the medium so in the end he had to move on. I’d love to think it was my great-granduncle reaching out.
Now that's quite convincing; if they can tell you something which you didn't know, but which you're able to confirm afterwards, then it can't be down to cold reading techniques. (Only "rational" explanation I can think of: it was all set up by your friend, his friend and your aunt! But hardly likely. )

I just hope Little Jim wasn't upset that you'd never heard of him. Perhaps the medium would say that the message was really for your aunt.
He died when I was very young and as far as I know I never met him. That’s one way of looking at it - that the message was for my auntie!
I visited our local spiritualist church with a friend probably 35 years ago and can only say I was completely underwhelmed by the whole experience. I don’t remember if there was more than 1 medium on that evening, but the one I recall did a lot of cold reading. She (?) only made contact with the elderly and I think mentioned “someone wearing” a military overcoat or greatcoat with everyone.
I have never stepped foot in a spiritualist church since.
I believe there are a lot of charlatans out there so this doesn’t surprise me at all. What’s worse is when these charlatans prey on vulnerable people and take money from them for readings.
Without giving the game away completely, this interaction is completely understandable when you know the secrets. I'm sorry to say that you weren't in touch with Little Jim but that the guest medium was just reading old poetry.
Come on Ringo don’t just put me on the horse and leave me there, at least give me some clues on how the game works!
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.
My belief is that there are a lot of people out there who are pretending they have the gift of being able to converse with spirit and/or see the future, but they are simply using the cold reading technique and other under-handed tactics. I know magicians/illusionists like Derren Brown have shown just how convincing these techniques can be. However I do think some people are genuine in their abilities and not just making up a load of crap, how it works I have no idea - mind-reading or being in touch with spirits, definitely something paranormal. I have had some strange experiences over the years which cannot be rationally explained, try as I might. These experiences force me to keep an open mind.
 
No it didn't frighten me at all and there were no nasty messages, no messages at all really as I just kept shaking my head and saying no to the medium so in the end he had to move on. I’d love to think it was my great-granduncle reaching out.

He died when I was very young and as far as I know I never met him. That’s one way of looking at it - that the message was for my auntie!

I believe there are a lot of charlatans out there so this doesn’t surprise me at all. What’s worse is when these charlatans prey on vulnerable people and take money from them for readings.

Come on Ringo don’t just put me on the horse and leave me there, at least give me some clues on how the game works!

My belief is that there are a lot of people out there who are pretending they have the gift of being able to converse with spirit and/or see the future, but they are simply using the cold reading technique and other under-handed tactics. I know magicians/illusionists like Derren Brown have shown just how convincing these techniques can be. However I do think some people are genuine in their abilities and not just making up a load of crap, how it works I have no idea - mind-reading or being in touch with spirits, definitely something paranormal. I have had some strange experiences over the years which cannot be rationally explained, try as I might. These experiences force me to keep an open mind.
Again, I believe that there are some who can have flashes of 'knowing' but insufficient to be of much use to anyone and possibly linked to a low-level telepathic ability - I've had similar 'flashes' myself, but they've always been something like 'where's the cat' or strongly linking a person with the colour grey or a name or something. Not messages from the dead, just a 'thing;.

My brother told me that his wife's daughter recently went to a medium where our mother allegedly 'came through'. Didn't have anything to say, it was just a 'does anyone here know a Betty, she's here...' Yet my mother would be the LAST person I can imagine having anything to do with a medium. So, does the 'other side' have any bearing on whether or not they want to come through...?
 
No it didn't frighten me at all and there were no nasty messages, no messages at all really as I just kept shaking my head and saying no to the medium so in the end he had to move on. I’d love to think it was my great-granduncle reaching out.

He died when I was very young and as far as I know I never met him. That’s one way of looking at it - that the message was for my auntie!

I believe there are a lot of charlatans out there so this doesn’t surprise me at all. What’s worse is when these charlatans prey on vulnerable people and take money from them for readings.

Come on Ringo don’t just put me on the horse and leave me there, at least give me some clues on how the game works!

My belief is that there are a lot of people out there who are pretending they have the gift of being able to converse with spirit and/or see the future, but they are simply using the cold reading technique and other under-handed tactics. I know magicians/illusionists like Derren Brown have shown just how convincing these techniques can be. However I do think some people are genuine in their abilities and not just making up a load of crap, how it works I have no idea - mind-reading or being in touch with spirits, definitely something paranormal. I have had some strange experiences over the years which cannot be rationally explained, try as I might. These experiences force me to keep an open mind.
A thoughtful and well-reasoned response. My experiences and views are similar. To explain everything based on some instances of charlatans makes as much sense as accepting everything based on some instances of non-charlatans. A very bimodal model - all or nothing.
 
A thoughtful and well-reasoned response. My experiences and views are similar. To explain everything based on some instances of charlatans makes as much sense as accepting everything based on some instances of non-charlatans. A very bimodal model - all or nothing.

Yes, on a fortean board I'm not comfortable with absolutist views about a phenomenon. I can definitely see myself saying that a particular example is a shed-load of woo or maybe a load of old bobbins though! :twothumbs:
 
Well I can't really give the whole game away i.e. collection methods, networks and modus operandi as I use some of them in my line of work and would be shooting myself in the foot.

I don't work as a Spiritualist Medium nor have I met them all. Yet I do have inside knowledge of how they share, disseminate, curate and update information about individuals, families, communities, towns etc. This information is referred to as poems. Visiting mediums are asked by the guest church if they would like to read poems about the local area. If these poems haven't been updated then they will receive information which is out dated or even unknown to the receiver. Hence the - "check when you get home" or "It'll become clear to you later" stuff.

NEVER underestimate the lengths which people will go to in order to conduct their business and don't forget that the bit of the iceberg you see does not reflect the size of the goings on below.

Saying all that, I have had communication here with one person whose experience seems unexplainable with my knowledge of the system.
 
Well I can't really give the whole game away i.e. collection methods, networks and modus operandi as I use some of them in my line of work and would be shooting myself in the foot.

I don't work as a Spiritualist Medium nor have I met them all. Yet I do have inside knowledge of how they share, disseminate, curate and update information about individuals, families, communities, towns etc. This information is referred to as poems. Visiting mediums are asked by the guest church if they would like to read poems about the local area. If these poems haven't been updated then they will receive information which is out dated or even unknown to the receiver. Hence the - "check when you get home" or "It'll become clear to you later" stuff.

NEVER underestimate the lengths which people will go to in order to conduct their business and don't forget that the bit of the iceberg you see does not reflect the size of the goings on below.

Saying all that, I have had communication here with one person whose experience seems unexplainable with my knowledge of the system.
I think the thing that makes me feel that it was 'mostly bobbins' is the fact that the medium at my brother's stepdaughter's reading (sorry, ridiculously convoluted connection) didn't have anything to say about our mother. Just 'Betty is here'. Well, that's not much good is it? If she's 'come through' then why can't she communicate something?

My mother always had a LOT to say when alive. The chances of her 'coming through' and just sitting there in the background having been acknowledged, would be remote. She'd have taken over the medium, got her to order tea and cake all round and wanted a chat about all the things she'd missed since she'd been gone, with OPINIONS.

Just mentioning a name (which, after all, would have been in the local Obituaries column) wasn't going to convince me.
 
Again, I believe that there are some who can have flashes of 'knowing' but insufficient to be of much use to anyone and possibly linked to a low-level telepathic ability - I've had similar 'flashes' myself, but they've always been something like 'where's the cat' or strongly linking a person with the colour grey or a name or something. Not messages from the dead, just a 'thing;.

My brother told me that his wife's daughter recently went to a medium where our mother allegedly 'came through'. Didn't have anything to say, it was just a 'does anyone here know a Betty, she's here...' Yet my mother would be the LAST person I can imagine having anything to do with a medium. So, does the 'other side' have any bearing on whether or not they want to come through...?
I’ve experienced this kind of low-level telepathic ability with my cousins, as did my mum and auntie with each other. I put it down to them being twins.

That‘s a good question!
Well I can't really give the whole game away i.e. collection methods, networks and modus operandi as I use some of them in my line of work and would be shooting myself in the foot.

I don't work as a Spiritualist Medium nor have I met them all. Yet I do have inside knowledge of how they share, disseminate, curate and update information about individuals, families, communities, towns etc. This information is referred to as poems. Visiting mediums are asked by the guest church if they would like to read poems about the local area. If these poems haven't been updated then they will receive information which is out dated or even unknown to the receiver. Hence the - "check when you get home" or "It'll become clear to you later" stuff.

NEVER underestimate the lengths which people will go to in order to conduct their business and don't forget that the bit of the iceberg you see does not reflect the size of the goings on below.

Saying all that, I have had communication here with one person whose experience seems unexplainable with my knowledge of the system.
Thanks for explaining as much as you can. I’ve no doubt some of these charlatans are extremely talented at what they do and manage to fool countless people. Your last sentence is interesting, to those of us who keep an open mind or are believers we’d say it could well point to a genuine paranormal experience, although others I guess would say there’s a rational explanation it just involves some sort of trickery they don't know/can’t think of.
For me it's when I see someone, on any forum on any subject, express their opinion as "unarguably" correct.
It’s just a conceited attitude isn’t it when people aren’t willing to listen to the other side of the argument and just instantly dismiss it without any thought.
 
I’ve experienced this kind of low-level telepathic ability with my cousins, as did my mum and auntie with each other. I put it down to them being twins.
I've had similar moments of transitory low-level telepathy where I'll get a random little flash of useless information from or about someone on the bus or a passerby; never anything deep, just "he's thinking about his kid" or "they're skipping school" or "she thinks she's pregnant" or something similarly trivial that I cetainly wouldn't ask anyone about, them being strangers and all.
 
I've had similar moments of transitory low-level telepathy where I'll get a random little flash of useless information from or about someone on the bus or a passerby; never anything deep, just "he's thinking about his kid" or "they're skipping school" or "she thinks she's pregnant" or something similarly trivial that I cetainly wouldn't ask anyone about, them being strangers and all.
This is the sort of thing I mean. The urge to go up to someone sometimes and say 'she'll be all right' or 'it's in your pocket' is almost overwhelming, but I never do. And anyway, what if I'm wrong and they're thinking about something completely different?
 
I've had similar moments of transitory low-level telepathy where I'll get a random little flash of useless information from or about someone on the bus or a passerby; never anything deep, just "he's thinking about his kid" or "they're skipping school" or "she thinks she's pregnant" or something similarly trivial that I cetainly wouldn't ask anyone about, them being strangers and all.
I’ve only ever experienced it with my cousins now and again and once or twice with my husband, so not strangers like you have. My mum and auntie even used to - I say used to as my mum died a long time ago - feel when each other was in pain. My auntie told me only the other year how she knew exactly when my mum had gone into labour with me, despite living miles apart, as she physically felt sone of what my mum was going through!
 
This is the sort of thing I mean. The urge to go up to someone sometimes and say 'she'll be all right' or 'it's in your pocket' is almost overwhelming, but I never do. And anyway, what if I'm wrong and they're thinking about something completely different?
And if you were right I think it would freak a lot of people out!
 
I’ve experienced this kind of low-level telepathic ability with my cousins, as did my mum and auntie with each other. I put it down to them being twins.
Back in the 70’s I was out one Saturday afternoon playing football with my mates on the green between the blocks of flats, jumpers for posts etc., when I had a strong sense of foreboding. Something was horribly wrong enough for me to leave the game and go home. I suppose I was aged about 12 at the time.
When I got there my mum and dad were getting into a neighbours car to be driven to a hospital in Luton. My elder brother, 5 years older than me had been stabbed in the back at a football match. Initial reports that he had suffered kidney damage proved unfounded and he had what was effectively a flesh wound.
Me, older brother and younger brother shared a bedroom for most of our formative years and we were very close. I can’t explain how I knew something was wrong other than some possible form of low level telepathic link, either with my older brother, or my mum who, at the time, was frantic with worry.
We have all had our ups and downs since and I don’t recall having experienced anything similar, so if there is some form of childhood telepathic link, I think you lose it when you grow up or discover wine, women and song.
 
I'm on another thread where I talked about being certain that my daughter (who is under a lot of stress at the moment and quite unhappy, which may have a bearing on things) had texted me with bad news. When I checked my phone, she had texted, although it was a picture of a spider she saw, rather than bad news. But I knew she had been in touch to the extent that I checked my phone on the shop floor, which is strictly not allowed.
 
I do think some people do have small bits of telepathic moments. I believe I do, and like others here, the info is not really a make or break kind of info. To me it is only a knowing. Empathy? Sure. And definitely more common amongst close relatives and friends.

When I was about 11-12, I had a close school friend with whom we would do experiments such as seances together, tape recording empty rooms etc. Some things were interesting, but an actual experience of telepathy or esp? Can't prove.

One really interesting event that involved one of my brothers, (though I don't know if he'd remember it as it really was an unimportant event for him), a summer day, my friend were high up in the haymow in the barn. This is when the barn was filled to the rafters with hay, so high, but I don't know how high. Also, noise in this space is very deadened because of the bales of hay.

We saw my brother walk into the barn. He did not know that we were there. My friend and I decided to see if we could telepathically call him to us. We both, in our minds, called to him. About five minutes of this, he climbed up the elevator to where we were and said "Did you call me?"

I didn't ask any further questions of him other than he said he thought he heard us calling him. As a twelve year old, this was amazing enough, so we just continued hanging out or whatever.

Course now, I wish I had asked more questions.
 
I had another experience close to 20 years ago. Me and my ex wife had separated, her choice not mine. I had moved back to South London but she wasn’t comfortable with the kids being left on their own each night whilst she was at work so she asked me to move back in (separate rooms) whilst I was looking for a local property to buy.
Waiting for the train one morning to go into London I realised I’d left my phone at home. I really needed it that day but had to get on the next train to get to an appointment on time. The phone boxes outside the station were both vandalised so I couldn’t phone the ex and ask her to bring the phone to me, and I was torn between getting a cab home to get the phone and boarding a later train, or getting on the first train and making my appointment on time.
I chose to get the train and only a minute or so before it pulled in my wife, as she was at the time, turned up next to me and handed me the phone. She had been getting ready for bed after her night shift and something was troubling her. She went into the kitchen, saw my phone on the charger and, realising I needed it, jumped into the car to find me at the station.
We joked about telepathy and I asked her, tongue in cheek, whether she still thought the separation was a good idea.
We did end up divorced, I remarried, she never did, and she has since said her decision to end the marriage was a mistake. We are still friends, she still comes for Sunday dinner with the rest of the family and is good friends with the current Mrs T63.

Low level telepathy?
 
I think low level telepathy definitely exists for a lot of us, particularly - as brownmane said - amongst close relatives and friends. If not there’s been some extremely uncanny coincidences, not in just what I’ve read and heard about, but have personally experienced too.

Thanks for sharing your stories all who have.
 
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