Smoking and drinking and mediumship

I just finished reading Boddington's University of Spiritualism, and he mentioned several times that spirits and spirit guides are strongly deterred by tobacco and alcohol usage by mediums.

Has anyone heard this to be true?

Jim

Silver Birch said much the same thing.

I've also heard this from several sources. I also believe that as you 'open' up and work more closely with spirit, certain things change (or are perhaps are changed?) - such as becoming vegetarian, stopping smoking etc... Even to some degree, the circle of friends you associate with.

Sadly despite spirits best efforts I'm still partial to a drop of red wine.

This is probably true, Leslie.

Personally I don't smoke, and drink only an occasional beer: or shot of rum or brandy, when I'm cold.

I was just wondering whether there was anything to this, or was it just one of Boddington's pet peeves.


Jim

I think it would have more of a detrimental effect on physical mediumship rather than mental mediumship.

I recall listening to a recording of Gordon Higginson's.

I hope this is close to how I remember it, if not apologies. I'm sure someone can direct me - hello Z- if I have it wrong or have missed something out.

Gordon was explaining how a manifested spirit of his father came through Helen Duncan. Helen liked to have a guiness or two before sitting, so I'm led to believe. When his father spoke, his mother asked how he was. He replied with something like; I'm OK, but I do feel rather odd. Apparently Gordon's father was not a drinker, but Helen's drinking affected the conditions of the seance as well as the manifesting spirits.

Gordon admired Helen and he said she was a very good medium and it was sad she drank before sitting as the results of the seance would be be greatly improved.

If this post offends in any way please feel free to delete it.

Left Behind wrote:I just finished reading Boddington's University of Spiritualism, and he mentioned several times that spirits and spirit guides are strongly deterred by tobacco and alcohol usage by mediums.

Has anyone heard this to be true?

Jim

From the mediumship of George Spriggs:

"George Spriggs (1850-1912) is rightly designated as a 'powerful English materialisation medium' by Fodor. The first records made of his mediumship began in the 1870s, being witnessed at 'the Circle of Light' in Cardiff.

"George worked as a non-professional medium at the circle, this having been formed by Rees Lewis in 1875. The circle enjoyed spectacular results and may have possibly been linked to the arduous routine adopted by its members; this included a vegetarian diet, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, and fasting on the day of the seance: a special room was also set aside for the seances. Possibly more relevant was that the circle was, according to Lewis, 'physically, intellectually and morally good'; the members saw their activity more as a sacred service than an attempt to simply commune with 'the other side'."

Interesting that many good and even great mediums smoke regularly so I doubt that smoking has much impact. Rememeber it has only been since the 80's that smoking became frowned upon.

Now drinking, no never before anyone I know works, although I have heard of a few Mediums in the past who used a stiffener before going on. Alchohol is the original mind altering substance of chice so to take that or any form of hard or soft drugs would mean that your work would be unreliable at best.

I try to suggest to all of my groups that ebfore a group they avoid alchohol (I never mention drugs). In honesty if I am going to work on platform or run a group I hate even eating beforehand but as its often a necesity because of timing I keep it light.

Now a whisky in the evening afterwards to help re ground me is a different matter.

Admin wrote:Interesting that many good and even great mediums smoke regularly so I doubt that smoking has much impact. Rememeber it has only been since the 80's that smoking became frowned upon.

Now drinking, no never before anyone I know works, although I have heard of a few Mediums in the past who used a stiffener before going on. Alchohol is the original mind altering substance of chice so to take that or any form of hard or soft drugs would mean that your work would be unreliable at best.

I try to suggest to all of my groups that ebfore a group they avoid alchohol (I never mention drugs). In honesty if I am going to work on platform or run a group I hate even eating beforehand but as its often a necesity because of timing I keep it light.

Now a whisky in the evening afterwards to help re ground me is a different matter.

I have known a number of guides complain about their medium's smoking habits. I recall Helen Duncan's guide, Albert saying that if she didn't drink they could have achieved so much more.

In the final analysis it's down to the medium's personal choice - they have personal responsibility for their actions.

I have heard of this before and that smoking clouds mediumship.

Arf

Mark74 wrote:I have heard of this before and that smoking clouds mediumship.

Interestingly in the early 80's when the overall standard of mental mediumship was very high a very large number of the better mediums smoked. Indeed given the wind up before stepping onto platform to some it calmed them and helped them get ready. I really believe that our view of smoking is now heavily clouded by the modern view of smoking.

Admin wrote:

Mark74 wrote:I have heard of this before and that smoking clouds mediumship.

Interestingly in the early 80's when the overall standard of mental mediumship was very high a very large number of the better mediums smoked. Indeed given the wind up before stepping onto platform to some it calmed them and helped them get ready. I really believe that our view of smoking is now heavily clouded by the modern view of smoking.

Yes, and I've always found it interesting how things of the spirit in general so frequently follow the political and social trends of the material world.

Jim

I dont recall any spirits recommending smoking?

I was thinking in terms of how whatever the churches are denouncing as the biggest sins seem to track the social and political trends.

Smoking in general, is not a giood idea for anyone at any time and whether a potential medium smokes or not will have only a small impact on their work, though it might be detrimental in the early stages of development. Other factors have the major influence.

But, the cigarettes of earlier times had a fair proportion of tobacco in them - not so today. Cigarettes are purely another sly way of spendthrift, terrorist Governments raising the cash from their herd that they apparently think they should have. A sort of reverse democracy.

I came across a wee article on the 'net some time ago, detaling the constituent parts of a cigarette. It claimed that there were over 7000 trace chemicals in ONE cigarette that reacted differently when lit. The tobacco percentage was listed as miniscule, I forget the actual figure.

I would not be at all surprised to learn that Governments have their scientists attempting to configure 'tobacco' in order to have folk pop off after some 3 months retiral. There certainly is a major financial incentive to do so - a lifetime amassing the non-bankers pension then dying to order, leaving it quietly in the hands of public servants. No government has ever mentioned including in in the deceased's Will.
From the health point of view alone, smoking is a bad idea, but it surely must have a negative effect on the aspiring medium.
Albert Best smoked incessantly prior to demonstrating, going between toilet and a fag. I once asked him about this and his reply was illuminating. Apparently the energies in his solar plexus mounted to almost 'boiling point', causing him to be utterly agitated and restless, but the moment he stepped onto the platform they seemed to 'leave' him. I asked whether this sensation subsided over the years and he said 'No, in fact it gets worse'. Then he said 'If I didn't get this, I knew I would not work at my best on that occasion'.

Left Behind wrote:I was thinking in terms of how whatever the churches are denouncing as the biggest sins seem to track the social and political trends.

Ah - understood

Resubmitted because of errors

Admin wrote:Interesting that many good and even great mediums smoke regularly so I doubt that smoking has much impact. Rememeber it has only been since the 80's that smoking became frowned upon.

Now drinking, no never before anyone I know works, although I have heard of a few Mediums in the past who used a stiffener before going on. Alchohol is the original mind altering substance of chice so to take that or any form of hard or soft drugs would mean that your work would be unreliable at best.

I try to suggest to all of my groups that ebfore a group they avoid alchohol (I never mention drugs). In honesty if I am going to work on platform or run a group I hate even eating beforehand but as its often a necesity because of timing I keep it light.

Now a whisky in the evening afterwards to help re ground me is a different matter.

Nicotine is a mood altering drug and one of the most highly addictive legal substances. The health consequences are clearly understood today and smoking related illnesses are one of the greatest causes of death in the city where I live. I suspect it's pretty much the same world wide.

People didn't realise the full extent of the health consequences until the 1960s and 70s but the health promotion campaigns around nicotine didn't come into force until the 1980s. It's completely understandable that many mediums smoked way back then because smoking was promoted and acceptable. Many people smoked.

Governments intervene now because the medical and other costs associated with smoking/nicotine are a major drain on the economy: cancer and cardio-pulmonary diseases amongst the most prominent in this regard. Diabetes is also increasing in the urban cultures and smoking can cause circulation problems leading to amputation in diabetics. There are SO many health issues associated with smoking and passive smoking.

I'm far from expert but I think that Spirit would want us to all to be much more aware of what is required for good health, and that doesn't just apply to mediums. There are various references to the way the human race exploits and mistreats animals for food, clothing and medical research in Silver Birch and Ranadahn, for example. Ramadahn exhorts us to lead simple lives and follow natural diets including vegetables, fruit and grains.

So, in many ways how we treat ourselves, animals and the narural environment is aligned to some extent with our spiritual state and the 'law' as Silver Birch describes it.

I know one trance medium who is an extremely heavy smoker but the smoking doesn't seem to affect her mediumship. She breathes differently and doesn't cough when in trance. On occasion I've heard her guide refer ruefully but tolerantly to her smoking. Most of those mediums you refer to in the 1980s would have been well and truly addicted to nicotine before their mediumship reached full bloom .

I suspect that more mediums over here are smokers than national average of English population. Of ten in our church five are smokers including me [pipe not cigarettes]. More drinkers these days too. When I was a kid spiritualism and teetotalism were joint movements almost.
That said one or two old time mediums were overly fond of a tippple.
Christine Wicker tells of one famous Lily Dale medium who went on benders for days at a time then returned 'suitably chastened'.
I worked with one well known lady medium in the late 70s chairing stage shows. Folk may have thought it was a jug of water she topped her glass from whilst demming but it was vodka and tonic [not very much tonic either].
'I need my spirits to hear the spirits mi duck*' she maintained, and she was good too. Slightly squiffy sometimes but always came up with sound evidence.
*Mi duck = 'My dear' in Midlands/ Black Country dialect.

Interesting that you sometimes have to translate English idioms, even on a primarily English forum!

On another forum (nothing to do with Spiritualism), I asked if anyone aboard was a Spiritualist, or had any interest in the topic. No one was, but one of the members was married to a Spiritualist. An interesting discussion ensued. One poster stated that there was a Spiritualist church down the street from him, and he noted that many of the attendees looked as though they drank the spirits, rather than talked to them!

What are your fave pipe tobacco blends, Peter?

Also, I've heard recently that cigars are sometimes made from pipe tobaccos. Are you familiar with this?

Jim

I no longer smoke, but did enjoy the odd whisky and rum flavoured tobacco.
Some years ago we visited Cuba bought a load of cigars home - then I gave up smoking... still, they were appreciated gifts by those who still enjoyed them

I smoke Condor Ready Rubbed. Ten pounds fifty pence for fifty grammes but that lasts all week. To be able to buy it you have to be an old geezer wearing a flat cap and preferably with a racing whippet in tow. Minimum age for pipe smokers has to be fifty or so.
Couple of years back they began printing health warnngs on pipe tobacco packets.
One such on Condor warns that........
'Smoking whilst pregnant harms your baby'

So, obviously; I cut down.
You can't smoke Condor as a rolled cigartte Les it is too wet. Needs a good hot pipe to stay lit. Some of the lighter pipe tobaccos can be rolled and you can smoke any rolling tobacco in a pipe but it won't last long. Just swales away after two puffs.
Since we moved here I miss Llandudno. It was a regular weekend away for us when we lived in Lancs. I love it there. Bit too far for a short break from here though. There's the best tobacconist ever in Llandudno just round the corner from the Mariner's Club who blends his own mixtures. Superb.

I know that shop in Llandudno, apart from visiting the theatre, we also visit one of my Wife's Brothers who lives there also. Beautiful place!!!
There used to be a similar shop in Chester many years ago - specialised in tobaccos, just walking down the road, smelling the wonderful aromas used to bring a smile to my face

Glad you heeded the advice about not smoking whilst pregnant LOL

I've aways been to tight to smoke cigarettes but did enjoy a good cigar when anyone brought me some back from Spain. Too expensive over here.
I was raised in a teetotal house. Started drinking in my teens. Drank my entire lifetime allowance whilst in Army [plus some of yours too] and re-signed the pledge when I was 27. Wouldn't thank you for even a sniff of the barmaid's apron since then.
Mrs K was a social drinker up to us courting seriously but when she saw how much I saved she gave up too.
I think its still kind of expected amongst some of the older members that mediums who serve churches don't partake of booze even though we may be the exception rather than the norm these days.
Also maybe it was a Lancashire thing as teetotal Movement was born in Preston.

Peter... If you ever venture back to Llandudno, then don't drive past without 'saying hello' - you'll be more than welcome