New Lincolnshire Spiritualist Centre

Hello

I hope it's OK to post this here. I thought someone may be interested to know that there is a new spiritualist centre in North Lincolnshire, in the village of Scotter, close to Scunthorpe and Gainsborough. We had our opening night on the 7th April, with over 60 attendees - from now onwards we will be holding weekly mediumship demonstrations/services, open circle, healing and development group, and we have also organised a wide variety of spiritual events and workshops for the coming year, plus some very special events such as a physical mediumship seance with Chris Howarth.

Full details are on the website at http://northlincsspiritualists.weebly.com/

Webpage says you perform astology. why? I will come when I go back to UK when later.

Its fine to post this here

Jim

Thank you, Jim.

Lars, I'm not sure I understand the question? There are three aspects to what the centre is trying to do:

a) spiritualist services each week, with a mediumship demonstration and philosophy as you would expect from a spiritualist church
b) mediumship training and development
c) workshops and courses on other spiritual topics, including astrology, tarot, dowsing, meditation, healing, angelic communication etc.

The idea is to offer traditional spiritualism *and* a range of other spiritual growth and learning opportunities. People will, of course, pick and choose which areas of learning appeal to them and which don't. Hope that clarifies

Astrology often is of disclaim is why I say "astrology, why"? Moon, planets lining up, so..? Fun? Value? Woo?

I wish your centre the best of fortune and hope you attract good audiences for your demonstrations and courses.

Unusually I'm in agreement with new member Lars in wondering why astrology is offered in a Spiritualist centre. It's not something I personally see as part of Spiritualism any more than ''Past Life Regression', a course offered on another day.

I don't think either does any harm but visitors might initially get the impression that Modern Spiritualism embraces them although I feel sure in your course introductions you'll stress that it doesn't.

There are in fact many similarities between astrology and mediumship/psychic readings, and many of the methods of astrology are used in mediumship readings, although more psychic readings

Thank you for your good wishes, Mac.

The new centre's motto is "open hearts, open minds" - we feel that there are many ways to develop within spirit in addition to traditional mediumship.

I can't agree with the "woo" comment, having been a professional astrologer for over 20 years.... unfortunately the same "woo" comment is directed at mediumship by those who seek to ridicule it, so I'm surprised to see such attitudes within spiritualism. Some of the top spiritualists in the country have highly developed skills in other areas - for instance, Mavis Patilla is an expert in tarot and numerology, and several tutors at AFC are astrologers, and I *think* they've even offered astrology courses every now and then. They also offer courses in hypnosis, past life regression, shamanism, native american history and all kinds of other things which may have nothing directly to do with spiritualism or mediumship but certainly have much to offer anyone interested in spiritual growth.

The reaction so far locally has been that people are pleasantly surprised to find a wide range of topics on offer, and there has been a lot of interest from lifelong spiritualists in the other workshops we're offering. Of course, if someone is not interested in any of the above and only wishes to attend the mediumship services themselves and the mediumship development circles, that's absolutely fine. Each to their own.

I'm not a medium; my husband is a working medium of many years experience. I run the centre administration and the non-spiritualist events, he takes care of the mediumship development courses, the circles, the healing and the services themselves. It seems to be working pretty well so far, and I think people appreciate the balance and the different opportunities. I can assure you there is no confusion at this end over "what is spiritualism" versus "other spiritual interests", as visitors can see from our "what is spiritualism" booklet (which is on the website). However, thank you for your comments and wishes.

NLincsSpirit wrote:Thank you, Jim.

Lars, I'm not sure I understand the question? There are three aspects to what the centre is trying to do:

a) spiritualist services each week, with a mediumship demonstration and philosophy as you would expect from a spiritualist church
b) mediumship training and development
c) workshops and courses on other spiritual topics, including astrology, tarot, dowsing, meditation, healing, angelic communication etc.

The idea is to offer traditional spiritualism *and* a range of other spiritual growth and learning opportunities. People will, of course, pick and choose which areas of learning appeal to them and which don't. Hope that clarifies

How will the people, prior to picking and choosing a course, know that dowsing, pendulum and tarot,

are all basic level tools and probably decrease the chances of reaching a higher level if someone truly wants to learn psychic/mediumship

development.

If you start using tarot cards, etc, chances are that you will stay at that level.

The site looks good, all the best!

How does Past Life Regression fit in with Spiritualism?

It doesn't but try and tell that to some people who say they are Spiritualists

By the way welcome Canuckian

Admin wrote:It doesn't but try and tell that to some people who say they are Spiritualists

or, more likely, spiritualists

"How will the people, prior to picking and choosing a course, know that dowsing, pendulum and tarot, are all basic level tools and probably decrease the chances of reaching a higher level if someone truly wants to learn psychic/mediumship development.

If you start using tarot cards, etc, chances are that you will stay at that level. "

really? Has all/any of this been shown to be the case? If so, where are the data?

Admin wrote:It doesn't but try and tell that to some people who say they are Spiritualists

Thanks for the welcome, Admin. I hope all goes well for the Church in discussion but the workshops are a head scratcher.

"I can't agree with the "woo" comment, having been a professional astrologer for over 20 years.... unfortunately the same "woo" comment is directed at mediumship by those who seek to ridicule it, so I'm surprised to see such attitudes within spiritualism."

I think it's important to point out that the 'woo' comment (woo being a word I've only become acquainted with in the past fortnight ) comes from a new member who's not representative of Spiritualist members of this website. Indeed there's no certainty that the new member is a Spiritualist at all and hence may not reflect the attitude within Spiritualism so much as his own.

Nonetheless as a traditional (some say curmudgeonly!) Modern Spiritualist for me there's nothing in the Spiritualist teachings I've been exposed to which embraces astrology, or past life regression etc.

I'm not decrying astrology's value because I don't know whether, or not, it has one but both that and past lives (for me) drop into the psychic rather than the spiritual field.

I hope you'll drop in from time to time to let us know how things are going in your new centre. I'm always pleased to see a new location where the message of survival may be heard and experienced in action.

Well said Mac. I couldn't agree more

It is interesting, when I met up with the movement none of these things would have been taught at the AFC or seen in a Spiritualist Centre.

However, there were many attendees who would have had interests in these other areas including some mediums.

I am aware that many centres now include these elements as part of what they do partly to try and attract new members from the broader new age group.

The difficulty is then to maintain the core of Spiritualism within the centre to focus upon what mediumship is (and what it is not) and what Modern Spiritualism's history is and what its philosophy represents. It is a balancing act which quite often falls on its face because of divisions between the two groups. I wish you luck on the balance beam North Lincs. Yes in a real sense I do know how frustrating it can be if numbers drop but conversely I have also experienced new age people wanting power and seeking to remove the 7 Principles and Spiritualism. The place is still Spiritualist though although there may be some scars.

In honestyI note the mention about the variety of courses the AFC now runs tarot numerology etc. However, since the 80's mediumship has fallen away and we see poor mediums too often giving bad talks.

Maybe that suggests the AFC should re focus on our core need good evidential medium's who can talk in a way that benefits Spiritualism

Completely agree with admin here,
Good Mediums put bums on seats, Personally I think there are just to many churches / centers, Just where I live there are 8 churches within a 15 min drive, so every sunday there are 8 mediums needed, they all hold 2 services a week so thats 16 mediums a week needed, in total churches open 50 weeks a year as most close 2 weeks for christmas, thats 800 services a year. I wouldnt like to try and work out how many mediums are needed just within 15 mins drive, But its easy to see the core of the problem where I live.
Fact is, are there good mediums, YES, but they are outnumbered by the ones that shouldnt be on the platform

I agree with you Bravo, yes its a lot of mediums to find. When I met Lis first she was on the East London circuit of churches, 28 of them like Manor Park, Ilford Romford Woodford etc. Sometimes 2 bookings on a Sunday and one mid week. Interestingly at the time circa 1983 the rotations were nearly decent mediums at the least, very few poor ones and they did not keep bookings.

Indeed Lis was one of the many platform workers who attended closed groups purely to continue to develop and improve their work. Hers was with a martinet who would tell them to sit down and shut up if she decided they did not have a link to Spirit or were not connecting properly.

In your area it must be very hard to find enough mediums. Its hard in Aus because we have to rely on only those available in our own cities because of distance.