Spirit Odyssey

Last month I was fortunate to attend a trance and physical mediumship course at Cober Hill, Cloughton. The course was organised by the wonderful Judith Seaman, although Judith, a former President of the SNU, was unable to take an active part in the course due to ill health. Steven Upton filled in for Judith. I had heard a lot about Steven, as he is a tutor at the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted, and also a publisher of many previously hard to find old books on the subject of physical mediumship.

Cober Hill plays host to many spiritual and mediumship courses throughout the year, and I have visited a fair few times now – at just two hours from my home, it makes a highly realistic alternative to the distant Stansted, the Mecca of spiritualism.

Physical mediumship, as seen during the Victorian era, has long been a passion of mine, although sadly I have never been present during a materialisation, apport, independent or direct voice episode, a flying trumpet nor even a tilting table. The way things are going, it seems like I never will be fortunate enough to be present during these phenomena, because the number of mediums willing and able to demonstrate this way is seriously dwindling. To hear and read skilled mediums talk or write on the subject is fascinating, but of course it’s one of those things that you must see with your own eyes, and most mediums steer well clear of it for fear or ridicule or fraud accusations.

Physical mediums today say that the spirit world has moved on from these “parlour tricks” to more advanced energy work. Bugger that, I say – show me an apport! I have a serious problem with being told that spirit has moved on. First of all – who says? Who thinks that they can speak for spirit in this way? There’s a touch of arrogance there. And secondly, why would they have moved on? It depends, I suppose, on what one thinks spirit wants to achieve by contact with our world. I’m repeatedly told that spirit would rather cure cancer than make flowers appear. Again, I take issue with that – firstly with the being told it, and secondly with wondering why, if spirit is capable of both, they cannot do both. If spirit’s purpose in its contact with our world is to increase awareness of life after death and to bring more people into the fold where they may learn of spirit evolution, then physical mediumship would be the best way to do that. When someone is “miraculously” cured, we are invariably told by doctors and scientists that it would have happened anyway, remission, blah, blah, nothing to do with spirit – so whilst wonderful for the individual concerned, this kind of spirit work does very little to raise human awareness. Reliable, demonstrable, evidence-offering, investigate-able physical mediumship, on the other hand, could be a world wide sensation and could truly make a difference.

Mental mediumship rarely provides a “wow” factor these days, as the standards of mediumship are often too low and the information provided too generic or vague – and even if you’re very specific and accurate, you face the “Derren Brown factor” – because he can do something similar purely by trickery, that – of course – means that every medium working their socks off for nothing in churches up and down the country has a) learnt the same tricks it took Derren a lifetime to achieve, b) is not cashing in on those talents and c) is nothing but a fraud. Sigh. Exactly what feeds the misguided Barnum Project and other similar all-mediums-are-frauds campaigns.

Much of the work on my physical mediumship course was carried out in Judith’s portable seance cabinet – the purpose of the cabinet itself, however, remains unclear other than its historical interest. Sadly, there as no red light and, to be honest, next to no phenomena to be witnessed. What evidence there was took the form of gazing at someone’s face in the half light and identifying moustaches, glasses etc by way of transfiguration. Not exactly evidence of proof, I’m afraid – if you gaze at anything for long enough in near darkness, your eyes will play tricks on you. Is it spirit, or is it just a physical, bodily reaction? Or both? Who knows, but one thing’s for certain, it would not have convinced a skeptic.

We also took part in two seances during the course, although again with very limited or non-existent phenomena. Perhaps there was a smell or two, a possible draught. The second seance was the opportunity for Steven to demonstrate his skills as a trance healer, with Judith as the patient in the cabinet. She felt the healing of Steven’s control Dr Robert Koch, a former nobel prize winner and the first to discover tuberculosis bacterium. She did look in better shape afterwards.

The highlight of the week for me personally was the opportunity to develop a  trance state under the watchful eye of Steven, and his advice was invaluable to me. On the final morning, Steven developed a trance state and brought forward another control, who goes by the name of John – apparently not his real name, since he does not want his identity to be known. John claims to be a member of Parliament from the Victorian era who is not proud of his actions on the earth plane.

On the whole, it was a highly enjoyable week, and a chance to meet some of the best tutors around, make some new friends and meet up with old ones. I did learn a technique to assist me in pushing my conscious mind aside, but I’m left with the feeling that I may never see true physical mediumship. Rumour has it that the traditional phenomena does still go on behind closed doors in invitation only circles, but in secret it seems it will remain. The Scole Report produced some of the most amazing evidence I have ever seen, but I hope that it is not an end to materialisations and physical mediumship, which for so many of us would provide the impetus for even greater involvement with the spirit world. What a shame that this fascinating branch of mediumship is being pushed aside, in favour of mediocre mental mediumship training, leading to mediums up and down the country able to do little more than to bring forth the ubiquitous “little white haired old lady”.

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