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A look at the role and meaning of spiritualist meetings.

Emma-Louise Rhodes © 2008.

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For those who do not necessarily want to attend a Spiritualist church, there is, in most towns, a chance to go to a psychic evening, where mediums will attempt to bring back the dead for as little as £3.50 a head admission.

Such occasions typically take place in a ‘hall for hire’ and are advertised in the local press and via posters and handbills as ‘An Evening of Clairvoyance’. There is generally no reference to religion or faith of any kind, and usually the only other thing that accompanies the title is the organisation who has arranged it and name of the medium or mediums present. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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Physical mediumship is about connecting to the spirit world. The medium channels ethereal energy and focuses it so that it can influence physical objects. The spirits manifest themselves through the medium’s body, often producing ectoplasm as they do so.

Séances are either held in the dark or in a very dim red light. For some reason, spirits are averse to white light or conditions that allow participants in the séance any chance of normal vision.

Many physical manifestations occur. They may be genuine, but of course there may also be more earthly explanations for the phenomena produced. Here we will consider some of these phenomena and give some possible explanations for them: (more…)

Last Wednesday (26^th Nov, 2008), UK-Skeptics were contacted by Shannonside Northern Sound Radio in Longford, Ireland to see if we could supply a skeptic to take part in a live debate about psychics and Cold Reading: the techniques psychics use to convince people they are passing messages from the dead or that they are telling them things they couldn’t possibly know and such like.

We don’t normally take part in these ’skeptics versus believer’ debates as they usually turn out to be of little value – skeptics often being included simply to provide some token opposition. UKS forum member Richard Sutherland decided that he would, however, represent the skeptics’ side of the debate; and this conversation turned out to quite different to the usual: (more…)

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Chillzero © 2007

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“What goes around, comes around.”

I looked at the man telling me this – a phrase he had used often before, and noticed a change in his eyes as he spoke. The tone of his voice was altered subtly as well. At the time I was unable to place the change, or the significance, but years later I see that this was when I lost my support network of new-age healers; people I called friends.

All because of karma. (more…)

It is now almost 18 months since Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal. As is usual with high profile cases of missing persons, there’s a plethora of ‘gifted’ psychics and mediums eager to involve themselves with the case so that if it is ever solved they can claim to have ‘helped’. It is taking advantage of others’ misfortune in a most despicable way yet it seems to help their profile – amongst believers at least.

We saw many interventions and predictions about this case from many psychics last year and two things stand out: none of them came up with a story that matched any other psychic’s (wouldn’t they all be the same if their ability was real?); and none of them came up with anything that was of the least bit of use. (more…)

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Chillzero © 2006

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Catherine (Chillzero) writes from the perspective of scepticism, with an established background of belief in the paranormal. Having examined how psychics arrive at their predictions – from both sides of the fence – Catherine reveals here how they perform. It may be worth highlighting here that any psychic who appears on the media is granted permission to do so only under the laws that govern entertainment, and so the word perform is most appropriate.

I used to believe I had psychic abilities. I gave tarot readings, I consulted my spirit guide, and believed in the spirit of nature as being a force in all things. I would not consider the old me to be a con artist – I was not intentionally deceiving people. I honestly believed I was given the ability to interpret signs, and that I was using it for good. So I believed I was genuine, as did plenty of other people. I could read the traffic around me uncannily well, knowing when a driver was about to turn suddenly, or not turn where they signalled to. I was good at reading tarot cards and at helping people come to decisions about events in their lives. I would spook people by telling them who was calling when the phone rang, or that someone we were waiting for had just come into the bar although my back was turned to the door – that sort of thing. (more…)

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THE MURDER DETECTIVES AND THE MEDIUM: A TRUE STORY.

Emma-Louise Rhodes © 2008. (See: www.emmalouiserhodes.com)

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On February 26, 1980, the body of twenty year old Elizabeth McCabe was found in a clearing at Templeton Woods outside Dundee. Twenty-seven years later, in October 2007, Vincent Simpson went on trial, charged with her murder. On November 7, 2007, the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh heard that during the initial investigation, detectives took part in a séance at the house of a local medium, in order to try and find out who had killed Miss McCabe.

Although police forces across Britain generally deny using psychic mediums, this incident illustrates the motivation behind such rare involvement (from a police point of view), as well as with the obvious outcome. (more…)