what's going on?

is the forum defunct - or just a lot quieter than usual?

Especially quiet unfortunately last 9 weeks have been disrupted with a detached retina which will take a while to recover. Lots of material but the bit before the detachment was busy with a client launching a new erp system.

Admin wrote:Especially quiet unfortunately last 9 weeks have been disrupted with a detached retina which will take a while to recover. Lots of material but the bit before the detachment was busy with a client launching a new erp system.

Sorry to hear that, Jim. Hope the repair is sound and your recovery goes well.

Slatewriter wrote:is the forum defunct - or just a lot quieter than usual?

This website is about as quiet as I remember it being for a long time - kinda like the Modern Spiritualism scene! I usually call in several times each week just in case anyone's been active but I think it was around June when I last 'spoke' to anyone here.

I expect 'my' regular website to be quiet during the summer months (northern hemisphere) and this past summer it's been exactly that. New members regularly registering accounts but then nothing, or little, seen of them again. Established members only occasionally around.

Two very different websites but similarly quiet. Why?

Not sure Mac, frustratingly I have a mass of material but until the oil comes out of my eye I think my time is linited.

In honesty I think our biggest problem is that the linkage between mediumship and Spiritualism is almost non existent. Many people try and learn from outside the movement and even the tutors within the movement have little effective knowledge of the philosopy and the history. Only that they need to pass the exams, which still, I believe; teach Mr Splitfoot and the miraculous appearance of the 7 Prininciples at Cleveland Hall; so you need to repeat this in your answers. Add to that the SNU seems more interested in selling itself as a conventional religion its probably no womder its drifting away.

I also believe the next generation are rightly sceptical of a large number of psychics, mediumship is not great and all to often the type of talks you get are hardly going to feed minds (neither is much of the tutoring going to improve these issues).

Hey ho we do what we can some new mediums in teh mentoring Lis is doing and they have an interest. Maybe over time we may see a return to the deeper end of the pool rather than the shallow end too many like to stay in. I detect a slight increase in interest in this rather than the lightweoght new age ascension type material.

HHmm got some great stuff too and it beholds us to get it together, somehow. At last I kave Crookes full report on the investigation of Kate Jencken Fox's mediumship , also a copy of her letter to the UK rejecting Maggie's confession of fraud whilst admitting she did nothing to counter it.

Thats us historians, also gave an interesting talk at last Sunday's meeting and some good mediumship in company with a newbie who did really well.

I wish I understood what folk are looking for, Jim.  

Perhaps many/most are looking for something not found in (Modern) Spiritualism and maybe the very name means nothing or, worse still, turn them off. Sometimes a new one is needed - look how The Spastics Society and the RNID in the UK changed their names.

I realise you're a historian but the history of Spiritualism is - I'm guessing - of very little interest to most, if any, seekers or even adherents.  I have read about its history but after three and a half decades 'in the spooks' that history isn't important to what I try to do in 2019.  

In my online work I do mention Spiritualism and when it began in the USA as a backdrop for stuff I'm presenting mostly to American members but it's exceedingly rare for anyone to ask a single question about the movement and philosophy, let alone its history.  Those who make it to a Spiritualist church may have a different approach but how interested they are in history I have no idea.  What most if not all attendees will be interested in, though, is the delivery of the message of survival through sound evidential mediumship.  That and perhaps an interest in healing when they've learned how it's also part of Spiritualism's message.

As for the SNU I think it needs re-imagining and re-branding to bring it into the new century and the new millennium.  To me the name sounds more like a trade union for Spiritualists and what I see of its operation doesn't appeal to this 35 year Spiritualist.  

I would pay a subscription to join an association for teachers, mediums and healers right through to ordinary individuals wanting to be part of the movement. Or folk like me who are dyed-in-the-wool Spiritualists but have never had anything to do with the SNU.  A Spiritualist who rarely visits a church yet totally supports their function and promotes them.  

I've been a trades unionist all my working life but I wouldn't dream of joining a prescriptive union meant for members matching its definition of Spiritualist!