Psychic News

Hi all,
I have been hearing very strong rumours that the SNU are about to close down Psychic News.
They are blaming the recession for doing so. I have also heard that the SNU have been offered quite large sums of money to support PN but have turned down the offers. If this is true it is difficult to understand their motives. PN has been the voice of Spiritualism for more than eighty years and one would hope that it would continue to be so for another eighty. Sometimes I wonder what the present leaders of the SNU are trying to do. As far as I am concerned they seem more interested in making money than in showing firm guidance to all those interested in Spiritualism in its truest sense.
I will repeat that it is only rumours at present and I wonder if anyone else has heard anything along similar lines.

Bill

Thanks Bill, I just hope that this rumour is just that to close down such a paper, that crosses the international divides, would be terrible.

I just thought, with PN's list of subscribers and writers alone I am sure enough cash could be raised to put things right. Then their are all the fund raisers PN have put on in their own right.

I really hope this is just a rumour.

The JV Trust have millions at their disposal and could easily finance PN if they wished, Eric Hatton, a former President of the SNU and a current columnist for PN, is one of the trustees of the JV Trust.

From a non-spiritualist perspective, I have to say that having subscribed for 12 months I don't see the point in it . There seems to be a dearth of people who can actually perform mediumship in a truly evidential way and thus nothing to report.

Sadly I have to agree with my duck friend, obiwan...

I used to be a dedicated reader for many years but after a subscription a short while back I found there simply wasn't anything new on the Spiritualist scene. And if Psychic News ain't carrying news about Spiritualism, then I see little future for it.

I'd hate to see it go but all good things eventually come to an end and, like my beloved Spiritualism itself, PN may well be reaching the final chapter.

As obi suggests, without news of high quality evidential mediumship then the tragically mis-named newspaper has nothing to contribute to Spiritualism. And without evidential mediumship, what remains may be little more than psychism.

And I've said my piece on that many times....

Hi Mac and obi, I must agree with you. The 'ism' is certainly changing, if not in serious decline.
The reason(s) must lie with us: can we no longer attract the noble folk who once visited, bringing superb mediumship with them? Or, is it simply a lack of suitable instruments, with real dedication? Or a change of focus from Spiritual to Material thinking? Or maybe, though unlikely, the Spirit folk of those times are more fruitfully occupied elsewhere?
Perhaps the path of Christianity will be mimicked - splintering groups all pursuing the unobtainable - do not the answers lie within?
Arthur Findlay provided money, premises and ideas, together with a good foundation to build upon. The money and the premises were quickly seized and it has been generally downhill for the SNU ever since. Cause & Effect or ease and neglect?
Another 20 or 30 years may be needed to 'see' and analyse the bigger picture, but their change of focus from mediumship to mercenary matters seems irreversible.

So, what are the new outlets for Spiritual expression to be? Has 'Spirituality,' as was understood in our time, evolved with new minds to better and fuller than before?
Spiritualism was a half-way house for those increasing thousands that rejected the now redundant Christian understandings, complete with gimicks and ritual, but who still needecd their comfort blanket of 'churchy' things
Perhaps a higher, wider view of Divinity, both in itself and it being the basis of our understanding of Life - spiritual as opposed to the increasing everyday rejection of anything and everything non-material?
Worth discussing?

Hi Hiorta
I'd settle for some reliable personal evidence for a start.

almera wrote:Go to dunfermlineask.co.uk at Dunfermliine you will get all the evidence you need the medium this evening is Ilene Winkworth who is excellent and has written a novel 30yrs ago. This lady is well known for running the dolls hospital in Edinburgh High St. Al

Good try, Jock, in promoting Dunfermline ASK.

Eileen Winkworth is well known for her book "More Truth" which was allegedly communicated by Arthur Findlay. There is not a scrap of evidence to support that assertion.

Your opinion only exalted one

hiorta wrote:Hi Mac and obi, I must agree with you. The 'ism' is certainly changing, if not in serious decline.
The reason(s) must lie with us: can we no longer attract the noble folk who once visited, bringing superb mediumship with them? Or, is it simply a lack of suitable instruments, with real dedication? Or a change of focus from Spiritual to Material thinking? Or maybe, though unlikely, the Spirit folk of those times are more fruitfully occupied elsewhere?
Perhaps the path of Christianity will be mimicked - splintering groups all pursuing the unobtainable - do not the answers lie within?
Arthur Findlay provided money, premises and ideas, together with a good foundation to build upon. The money and the premises were quickly seized and it has been generally downhill for the SNU ever since. Cause & Effect or ease and neglect?
Another 20 or 30 years may be needed to 'see' and analyse the bigger picture, but their change of focus from mediumship to mercenary matters seems irreversible.

So, what are the new outlets for Spiritual expression to be? Has 'Spirituality,' as was understood in our time, evolved with new minds to better and fuller than before?
Spiritualism was a half-way house for those increasing thousands that rejected the now redundant Christian understandings, complete with gimicks and ritual, but who still needecd their comfort blanket of 'churchy' things
Perhaps a higher, wider view of Divinity, both in itself and it being the basis of our understanding of Life - spiritual as opposed to the increasing everyday rejection of anything and everything non-material?
Worth discussing?

quote: "The reason(s) must lie with us: can we no longer attract the noble folk who once visited, bringing superb mediumship with them? Or, is it simply a lack of suitable instruments, with real dedication? Or a change of focus from Spiritual to Material thinking? Or maybe, though unlikely, the Spirit folk of those times are more fruitfully occupied elsewhere? "

Why must the reasons lie with us? As far as I'm aware we don't know why events kicked off as they did back in the 1880's eventually becoming Modern Spiritualism..... Did we attract the "noble folk" or was there something at that time altogether more potent than simply attraction? An almost-irresistible something which changed those who were latent mediums into active ones? Something now missing from our times?

We could debate that material vs. spiritual thinking of contemporary sensitives is what might be preventing the emergence of quality mediums and mediumship but is it? Would we ever reach any satisfactory conclusions with only side of the equation on display?

Mostly I suspect we'd simply be speculating because without an equivalent input from spirit-side communicators we have only one part of a complex story. We know only the human side of the story but what of the spiritual side, just as vital to achieve communication through mediumship?

What have do our spiritual counterparts have to say on this matter...? The answer, of course, is that we don't know because we don't have reliable communications with trusted teachers any longer - unless anyone knows different?

So are we simply looking at the cessation of the once-close relationship between 'spirit' and ourselves and, like children who struggle to comprehend their parents' messy divorce, blaming ourselves for something we can not understand?

almera wrote:
Your opinion only exalted one

Thanks Jock but many Spiritualists agreed as did PN.

I think I have done enough travelling up and down the country for the time-being to see mediums and come away with zero personal evidence.

obiwan wrote:I think I have done enough travelling up and down the country for the time-being to see mediums and come away with zero personal evidence.

Mediumship may work wonderfully well when it's successful but has absolutely nothing to offer about why it's not, when it's not....

I wonder if mediums ever ask their spirit-side helper(s) the reason when mediumship is not satisfactory? Are they afraid to find out or don't feel they should ask? There has to be a reason, or reasons, when mediumship is less than satisfactory. Three immediately spring to mind.

Firstly friends and relatives are unaware that the sitter is hoping to hear from them, to learn they are still alive. Secondly a particular sitter may have no friends or relatives interested or prepared to offer evidence of their survival. Thirdly the individuals are there and trying to reach out but unable to link with the medium, one possible reason being that the medium simply is not skilled/practised enough to achieve what's needed.

Clearly a medium would be unable to bring evidence where individuals are unaware or unprepared to co-operate. But when it has become a regular occurrence for a particular seeker, surely the medium could be asked to find out why? One might also ask if mediums ought to be doing this routinely of themselves when sittings are less than satisfactory It might be their wake-up call.

Is all this too simplistic? Is there a reason why a competent, experienced medium should not be expected to seek an explanation when a sitting is unsuccessful?

True mediumship has always been rare in spite of what Jock says.

In over fifty years I have received exceptional survival evidence but the number of mediums involved I can probably count on the fingers of one hand.

The problem with the newspaper every editor is over-lorded by the NEC and any president in office. The paper cannot fail because it is the voice of the NEC and it will be propped up at any cost.

zerdini wrote:

almera wrote:Go to dunfermlineask.co.uk at Dunfermliine you will get all the evidence you need the medium this evening is Ilene Winkworth who is excellent and has written a novel 30yrs ago. This lady is well known for running the dolls hospital in Edinburgh High St. Al

Good try, Jock, in promoting Dunfermline ASK.

Eileen Winkworth is well known for her book "More Truth" which was allegedly communicated by Arthur Findlay. There is not a scrap of evidence to support that assertion.

Must have worked Dunfermline Ask site had 680 hits in three hours and that is only one of them there are three all linked thank you for you help Al ITS THE BOTS that do it

You got it wrong in the past, Jock and you've got it wrong again!

229 web views

last 9 hours
Calmed down again to only around 20 hits an hour thank you mr Zerdini for the publicity it all helps to premote our movement Al

Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey.

In addition to their uses outlined above, bots may also be implemented where a response speed faster than that of humans is required (e.g., gaming bots and auction-site robots) or less commonly in situations where the emulation of human activity is required, for example chat bots.

Yes, Jock, I note that you can quote from Wikipedia!

At least they can spell and are grammatically correct unlike your posts which give you away. lol

Hmm this one went well off topic one way or another and into another very complex area.

Actually PN has been trying to promote good Mediumship by arranging special events with the best available evidential Mediums. It appears these have been very succesful. Certainly it has made an effort to be more relevant to push Mediumship and to discuss philosophy.

However, as a Newspaper it has always had a broader ambit than that and parts of this may not appeal to some. It has one role of vital importance and that it is a Spiritualist Newspaper not aligned to any one body so can report on all. I disagree with Almeera that

The problem with the newspaper every editor is over-lorded by the NEC and any president in office

the paper has covered many articles which go well beyond teh SNU philosophy and published things which disagree with it. I must say Almeera does sound like Jock when they write this or does everyone in Scotland, even when an SNU member, have a chip on their shoulder about the NEC. Really if SNU members do not like it then its time to do something about it.

I do not believe that Spirit has stopped trying to communicate and that there are a very complex reason why we have got into the state we are today. However, there are probably more decent Mediums out there than we know and a number of good centres. Sadly unless you live in an area you will never get to know. As an example if you ask people in England about Scottish Mediums they fall in a hole after Gordon Smith, Eileen Douglas and Mary Armour.

The whole subject deserves its own area, lets be honest Mediumship came mainly from the home circles or the exceptional church development circles. There were closed circles comprised of platform mediums continuing their development under a very experienced medium. The vast majority of these people were doing it to work voluntarily for the churches.

Volunteers are an endangered species now, churches often have to few to even run a half decent circle so no development. To many never learn to differentiate psychic from mediumship and understand what this means, too few by far can teach this. How many who join circles really want to work on platform for nothing, it is one of the most nerve jangling things to do as I well know.

Then how many really immerse themselves in the philosophy and history so they can share it. Phenomenal Spiritualism alone is almost certainly going to be just that Mediumship to no purpose and without a reason. It can be bagged up and tacked onto any belief system.

The world never hears of Spiritualism, if it does so many centres look just like a normal church with religous services proscribed by national standards. No wonder the charismatics have many thousands and we like traditional religion tread the path to extinction.

Anyway Lis did a fabulous demonstration of proof of survival last Sunday with some pretty unique proof. Don't come on a Sunday to get the detailed description of everything in the life of the deceased as proof but get the startling items, the how on earth did the Medium know that ones, when it is some absolutely unique item. It uplifted me to see more than a few like that on Sunday, then be told I pulled two out the week before.

Those are the moments I work for and I know that it is what PN is trying to remind people of.

Couldn't agree more Jim. Unfortunately, as you have said, we seem to have got right away from my original thread re Psychic News.

Bill

Bill wrote:Couldn't agree more Jim. Unfortunately, as you have said, we seem to have got right away from my original thread re Psychic News.

Bill

hear, hear - and I've been guilty too

Any further news on PN's situation?

Mac, you are forgiven. lol

Bill