Mediums

jura2, I've come across charlatans and they should be hounded out and not be able to prey on vulnerable people.

However, the medium I saw definitely was not. How has he been able to teach at London Psychic School for 18 years if he was.

I'm a very down to earth skeptical woman,but I was amazed at the facts and validation he gave me. I also found it very comforting, so don't knock it. How can you prove there's a God? You just believe,and that can be enough.

Definitely charlatans. You hear what you want to hear when you visit these people.
If I told people I could hear voices talking to me I would be classed as mentally ill, perhaps these mediums are.

Intuition can be amazing if you pay attention to it. Our unconscious mind picks up all kinds of information and stores and processes it. I believe there is a kind of survival after death, but I can't explain why or what. I think some kind of energy can persist after death and that we are able to receive messages, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. No, I am not a nutter: I've just had too many experiences that have forced me to adopt this view. Doris Stokes was a proven charlatan: I don't think psychics should charge either.

Really OldMeg ? I disagree with you and will keep an open mind

And there was I, thinking OldMeg was Mystic Meg's mother!

There are more things in heaven and earth etc. I was sceptical too and think there are a lot of fraudulent people around. I did visit one man though who gave me pause for thought. He said he would just talk and if it didn't make any sense I was free to leave without payment. He told me small things about relatives and friends that were only known to the immediate family. He didn't discuss anything with me so no clues picked up. Other people who consulted him had the same experience.

Having always felt strongly that I didn't want to 'poke' any of the areas of Tarot cards, Ouija board or mediums , I was persuaded/bullied by a cousin to go to a medium with her. I told the woman literally nothing about myself; she could discern I was married by my ring I suppose, and she told me several things about my children (how did she know what family I had?) that were spot on, and then asked a question about my mother's death. She then told me something that only my OH and I knew, and I went cold. I wasn't afraid but thoroughly shaken that she must have had 'something' to be able to tell me what she had. I have never visited another, nor will I, and have heard of some real charlatans at work who are despicable, but it has to be said that .I have had a rather different experience .

It can happen among Family members or someone extremely close, yes I believe, but not with total strangers.
I knew when my Gran was about to die , and travelled more than 100 miles by bus and train to see her, arriving at the exact time she died . My mum and uncle arrived a couple of hours later ,and were shocked to see me , but we were extremely close .

A month after my father died, his sister (my aunt) asked my mum to accompany her to see a medium. Reluctantly, she went and took me and my brother with her. We were 17 and 15. Auntie went in alone and came out looking shaken but said nothing. When it was her turn, Mum took me in with her. She wasn't wearing mourning clothes or an arm band. I clearly remember the medium looking anxious and telling Mum that she had nothing to tell her, there was nothing that she could see in the future, all blank.
Mum wasn't perturbed by this pronouncement but she never had a life after dad died. She and he were both 45 and she always said that when you've had the best, nothing else will do. For the next 31 years she led a lonely blank life. Such sadness. To my knowledge, auntie never told mum what was said to her. I'm a real sceptic. Derek Acorah is just an amusing 'turn'.

In 1964 James Randi offered $1 million prize to any medium who could prove they were genuine. That $1 million dollars remained safe and unclaimed until the offer was terminated in 2015. Nuff said.

My friend's mother was in an air raid shelter during the Blitz. To pass the time a woman there was giving people readings, she told my friend's mum that she would marry twice, be widowed young, and travel half way around the world and have 3 daughters, one of whom would have her gift and that hers would be the last fortune she ever told.

The shelter as hit and the medium killed.

My friend's mum married a young Canadian air man, he was killed within a month of their marriage. When she remarried, they emigrated to Australia and had 3 daughters. My friend has the gift.

When I was having a passionate affair my friend read my hand and said, K has moved over in your palm and there is new man there, dark haired, very handsome, you will have 2 children with him. I was far too in love with K to believe this.

A few months later my friend and I went on a 'start your own business course' and during the coffee break she said' there he is, your new man'. He was much younger than me and very handsome.

My friend said to him, come and meet C you are going to end up with her and have some kids'...................which of course, we did.

I have no idea how it works. I know that several of my friends have similar gifts as I do myself.

That's an amazing story radio. Tragic and romantic at the same time. Theres definately food for thought

There are definitely some people who are charlatans and out for money. I myself joined a group of folk who put on a psychic fayre, and heard awful readings, cringeingly horrible stuff, from other readers. Fairies-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden type stuff. However, I did join a psychic development circle at the Spiritualist' Assoc of G.B. many years ago and had some amazing experiences as a result. My problem with it was that I couldn't turn whatever-it-was on and off like a light switch and sometimes it would either not happen when someone asked for a reading, or it would happen at inconvenient and inapropriate times such as at work or on a train etc. The medium who led this circle told me that this was normal. As I had no control over it I stopped attending the circle. I was only willing for it to happen when I told it to. As an adoptee I originally had no contact with my natural parents, but when I did eventually meet my birth mother and recounted my so-called psychic episodes, she told me that my grandmother had this gift. My mother herself did not, and was frightened of it. So - I believe strongly that everyone has the possibility of this gift, and it is up to each individual to develop or forget it. I have no idea how or why it works. I have no idea, really, what it is. I could theorize about it until the cows come home, but it wouldn't make any difference, would it? Derren Brown? I've seen him live and he is truly amazing and I love to watch him at work. We have been to his live shows and his memory is a marvel equal to the 7 wonders. But what genuine mediums do is something completely different.

Anniebach

All religion is a man-made effort to control us and make us feel guilty. Manipulation and fakery. Prayer and faith never has and never will, alter any outcome. It's a crutch for people to fall back on. Science tells us the truth.

Briefly as I have commented at some length on this subject here before- I had occasion in late 1960s-early 1970s to visit a lot of mediums etc. as I worked for a publication where they advertised.
In the main they were rubbish but every now & then I came across someone who was amazing & I could not explain it. Really impressive.
My mother left family home in SE when was 16 & went to live in the Midlands where we know no-one. She visited a Spiritualist church one evening as she was lonely & was told a tall distinguished man with a waxed moustache in army uniform was standing behind her & he was looking after her- almost as an after thought the Medium said he had no left leg. This was such an accurate description of her father that it left her stunned & very comforted.
If it comforts & helps you- great but it is rare to find a really good person.

This is nothing about mediums but is strange.
I once bought a TV cable in a Dixon's store and, when I got outside in the mall, was minded to look at the receipt, something I wouldn't normally do. It showed the name of the assistant as JESPER...spelled just like that.
Just that morning before setting out, I had been reading a book and the very last sentence I read contained the name JESPER. I went back into the store to see if the young man had any name tag on - he didn't, nor did any other staff member speak to him whilst he was serving me.
I checked in the book when I got home and yes, the name was the same although it was only mentioned that one time in the whole book.

The florist who 'did' the flowers for my daughters funeral told me and others that she has a gift, and told us bits and bobs, whilst we were at her shop. She offered us free 'readings' but it was quite obvious she was sweet, but nutty as a fruitcake. One of my daughters friends was moved to tears and comforted by the snippets she had been told: the rest of us found that nothing she had said made us think she had any kind of gift. She even changed the colour I'd chosen for my flowers, as my daughter had apparently told her what colours she wanted.

I think they construct a system of belief, tangential to reality, which they, and their clients, WANT to believe. Like religion and 'alternative' therapies. There's a big market for it.

DD has been to see a Medium a few times. After DH died she went to see one, she was told she would be moving house within the year, I laughed & said no it's me that'll be moving. I did move to be nearer DD within the year, DD is still in the same house

DD was also told she would have another child, DGS1 was about 4 at the time, as DD is in a same sex relationship this was unlikely, however DGS2 arrived in May last year.

I don't dismiss the fact that some people have the gift but I would never go to see a Medium. Why is it that when the though "oh I must ring so & so" pops into your head your phone will ring & it's that person on the phone, coincidence ?

Each to there own but I think many of us get "feelings" & may alter what we do. Open mind.

I met two mediums years ago on different occasions. Neither wanted anything from me. The first one I happened to sit next to on a flight to Paris from Moscow, and the things he told me about my family were spot on, and there is no way he could have known from any other source. He was also very easy to talk to.
The second psychic/medium scared me stiff. She came to look at my Mum's artwork, and I remember feeling very uneasy. I actually didn't want to know anything she told, but my Mum asked. Some things she said about my future did happen.

Amelia James Randi was first mentioned last night by esspee at 19:12. Nuff said.

MissA I don't think I would have been pleased about that at all.

The Vedic tradition says that we all have the ability to see into the past and into the future but most of us have forgotten how to do it. Those that haven't are the mediums.

Somebody fell down a ravine in the Himalayas and nobody knew where he was. They looked everywhere they thought he might be. In desperation they went to the holy man who told them exactly where he was, way off where they had been searching.

Police searching for people lost on Dartmoor call in mediums - why not, it sometimes works.

I truly believe some people have a gift, as we like to call it. I also believe that a lot of people who don't have the gift cash in on people's vulnerabilities anyway.

I have seen a couple of mediums in the past who have both told me things that only having their gift could have given such detailed information to me. The first one was a member of a London school of Mediums I think it was called and used tarot cards to start of the session, told me I had a psychic ability which I should develop to help other people. The second medium was years later, and my daughter had been to see her, and suggested to me that I should go, however have to book at least several weeks in advance as she was so popular. The first thing she told me after asking me to shuffle a pack of ordinary playing cards was that my late father was there with us and she said his name correctly. She told me the name of a town that we were hoping to move to but said it won't be as soon as you are hoping. It proved to be true. She also said you have the same gift as me., When I told her that another medium had said something similar years ago she got really cross with me when she asked me if I had developed my ability and I said no. Then told me what path I should take to help people...otherwise you will have wasted a gift you are blessed with. I have,nt still done anything to "develop" this gift or skill, but am known as the mind reader among family and friends as I can say something to them, and they often are surprised that it was something they were going to tell me first. There are are lot of fakes out there who see it as easy money to take from vulnerable people, but also genuine" spiritual mediums " who can give real information of names, dates, places, situations without any pumping the client or being very vague on the information they give. A sceptic is harder to convince generally than people with a more open mind I guess.

All religion is a man-made effort to control us and make us feel guilty. Manipulation and fakery. Prayer and faith never has and never will, alter any outcome. It's a crutch for people to fall back on. Science tells us the truth

How can we so easily dismiss a person's faith in God?

From Richard Feynman, renowned theoretical physicist.

*I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realise that we do not know the answers to different questions."

He suggests that faith and science can co-exist and I am with him on that. Feynman says we have to recognise the limits of science.

I do not believe that science can disprove the existence of God; I think that is impossible. And if it is impossible, is not a belief in science and in a God - an ordinary God of religion - a consistent possibility?

I cannot and won't dismiss the faith of others or their belief in God. Scientists like Einstein are willing to believe there may be more out there than we'll ever comprehend.

'Uncertainty' is the scientists answer to a legitimate belief in God. It pays to have an open mind.