There have been those from the earliest times who have held a special status within their cultures and societies who professed to predict the future through their psychic abilities and whose skills and knowledge in doing so led them to become advisors to kings and rulers, as well as practitioners to the ordinary people, who would consult them about their fate. Throughout the course of the generations spanning the millennia, two essential questions have emerged about this: ‘how is this possible and, assuming it is, how does mediumship or the ability to communicate with the spirits of the deceased actually work?’
Ciaran Farrell, who is the Forum's coordinator, will be your main host, and our very own Prof Bernard Carr will be the chairperson for the evening. To help us explore these questions within the psychical research of mediumship, we will have an expert guest medium, Penny Hayward, who has completed many courses in mediumship and is an approved mediumship tutor and course organiser at the Arthur Findley College. The Arthur Findley College is one of the leading centres in the UK for the teaching and learning of mediumship. Penny has run workshops & seminars on various aspects of Mediumship and Psychic development in the UK and abroad, including research into Altered States of Consciousness, Soul Connections, Philosophy, and Ethics when working as a Psychic or Medium.
The itinerary for the evening will be for our chairperson/host to welcome SPR members to the meeting and to introduce Penny as our guest expert. A short introduction to the subject will be given, which will draw upon some relevant topical themes from the research papers provided as background reading. Then the floor will be opened to SPR members to share their thoughts, experiences, theories and views in an open discussion which will be guided by both Penny and Bernard as well as Ciaran.
There are several background research papers for those who would like to read them, but this is not essential. The first of these sets the scene in relation to the survival versus psi debate about the way in which mediumship may work, and addresses this aspect of the question for the evening. The second paper looks at mediumship and the ability of mediums to communicate with the spirits of the deceased. The third and final paper sets out a possibly unique case of psychic detection through mediumship. Taken together, these research papers should hopefully cover the essential aspects of the question for the evening, which we hope will be an interesting and informative one.
United Kingdom