Simon and I always try to do something different for our birthdays. Over the years amongst other things, I’ve been whisked away for a romantic break to a luxury hotel, we’ve been on the London Eye and Simon has been a racing driver, etc. You get the gist. The whole idea is that our birthdays are memorable events, a special day to mark the beginning of our next year. So, when friends of mine mentioned a Psychic & Spiritual Festival that started on my birthday I thought it would be a unique way to enjoy a get-away and experience the work of mediums that I hadn’t seen before.
As the event was being held right by the coast “Sceptic Simon” agreed to come along, not to attend any workshops or lectures, but to go out and about with his beloved camera taking some landscape shots with his new filters. So, we were two very happy bunnies, full of excitement looking forward to the weekend.
I rang the venue to ask if there was a program as my friends and I wondered if we had to book any of the workshops, but I was told that no-one knows the events until the day they arrive. Goodness, I thought, they must be mega organised! We where aiming to arrive at about 3:30pm and our timing was spot on. We were given the keys to our ‘chalet’ and directions, but as we walked through the car park my heart began to sink when I saw the rows and rows of ‘chalets’ – Hi di Hi couldn’t help but come to mind. Our room was a double …. just … it was so small, and the bathroom was something out of the ark, it was what I would call VERY basic! It was not what I had expected, but then it’s not what you expect that makes life richer!
I was keen to look at the programme and we couldn’t help but laugh when the saw the evening entertainment billed as Scott Paige and his High Octaine Show-Team. Seriously, I felt like we were in a time warp and we had unknowingly been time travelling back to the mid 60’s!
After the disappointment with our chalet we really didn’t expect much of the food, but have to say that it exceeded expectations. The service was great and the food, although plain, was well cooked and we certainly weren’t going to be starving. We were given a table number and had to sit at the same table for the whole time. We were sat opposite two women, Julie and her aunt Sylvia. Julie was a florist by trade, with a very dry sense of humour and a houseful of assorted rescued pets with rather strange names. Sylvia had a very fast mind, was great company and relayed some very amusing spiritually based stories. They were both real characters with great personalities and we felt we were so lucky to sit opposite them.
The first evening there was a medley of mediums demonstrating until 10pm. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I gather they are quite well-known. I must say that the evidence that was brought through by Philip Solomon was amazing. He was giving people not just names and memorable dates but addresses as well. I can’t say I agreed with everything he said about his beliefs on spiritual matters, but he did say that we all have our own views and that we must respect that. I was really pleased because even Sceptic Simon was marginally impressed, and that is quite something!
Simon toddled off on the first morning to go and take some pics and I stayed with my friend Annette as we were working out which lectures or workshops to attend. The problem seemed to be that there were never enough chairs in the rooms and they kept moving who was working where, which is quite confusing when there are about five hundred people all trying to find their way about. I wasn’t too worried about missing any of the workshops as I hadn’t heard of the tutors before, but one person I particularly wanted to see was Jay Love.
I had met Jay several years before, when as students at the Arthur Findlay College in Stanstead we had discussed our spiritual development. So many of our experiences had been shared it was quite uncanny. He struck me then as a real down to earth kind of chap. He was a gentle soul with kind eyes and had a wicked sense of humour. He didn’t take himself too seriously, although it was obvious how much he respected spirit. I had never forgotten him and a few months ago had found him on the internet and we had been in contact via Facebook, where I had learnt that his development had led him to physical mediumship and he was now able to bring through spirit using transfiguration.
For those who don’t know about this form of mediumship, it is when the medium goes into trance and spirits communicate and also temporarily materialise, usually over the mediums face, by utilising a form of energy that it is believed the medium manufactures within themselves. It is rare to be able to see this first hand.
I had desperately wanted to see Jay demonstrate his physical mediumship, but as we arrived at the designated room we were told we would need to bring our own chairs and bluntly told by the lady on the door that she would be locking the door in one minute. This didn’t give us enough time to go and get the chairs so we ended up in another room seeing a lecture about ghost pictures!
Most of Saturday I saw various people do various things, nothing that I found totally astounding, it was ok, but I was deeply disappointed not to have seen Jay. Having said all that though there was certainly a good mixture of differing disciplines for you to take a look at, everything from pure spiritual communication to paranormal investigation to tarot, to sand box readings. The choice was quite amazing.
In the late afternoon Annette and I found ourselves at a bit of a loose end and, almost by accident, found ourselves in a lecture about animal communication, which we weren’t planning to attend. As we walked in there were two pictures on a board. One was a very nice looking cat and the other looked like my old dog Sam. I even said to Annette “goodness, that looks just like Sam”. We sat down and began listening and much to my surprise the lady, who was actually a medium, explained that she had only just drawn the pictures and these two animals wanted to communicate with their owners. It wasn’t at all what I had expected. Several people tried to accept information about the cat, who was a tabby called Tigger, but eventually the information given narrowed it down to one particular lady in the audience and she was given the picture.
Then the medium, Raye Edwina Brown, started to talk about the dog. She said that his name was Sam! My hand shot up immediately. She explained that in his old age his back legs had given way and he had to be put to sleep, but that this happened at home. That was exactly what had happened to Sam. She said it was literally only a few days before he died that this had started, which was true, as Sam’s back legs gave out on a Friday and I called the vet on Monday as he couldn’t stand up. She even gave the date of the year he was born. I was so chuffed. He sent me his love and told me that he was pleased that I had so much freedom in my life now. I was called to the front to collect my picture. I waited until everyone had left and went over to thank Raye and she took a photo of me with the picture of Sam and said she is going to put it in her magazine!
This had made my weekend, I didn’t really expect very much more. I had loved Sam so much and felt so lucky that he had come through. I had given communication from animals to people in readings in the past and had seen their delight, and now I knew exactly how they felt.
The evening was not so good. To me, the mediums were more interested in being entertainers than mediums and I did feel on a few occasions that they were not respectful to either the spirits or the audience. I watched three of them and decided I would rather go back to the cold chalet than sit and watch anymore. I was so annoyed that it was typical that Simon was there, and this did nothing to improve his belief in anything spiritual!
On Sunday I had already decided that I wanted to go home. I was cold, uncomfortable, fed up with all the last-minute changes and to be honest the mediumship the night before had really made me question so much that I felt quite unsettled. I did though want to have the opportunity to see Jay give a demonstration and on the program it stated that he would be in the Lounge giving a mental mediumship and spirit guides talk at 11:30am, so I thought we’d go home after that. Annette and I were heading for the lounge when I saw Jay walking away from there, I stopped him and asked where his lecture was going to be. He told me it was going to be in the Games Room and that there should be enough chairs. So, we headed off there, found Jay, but again no chairs! Annette went out and found some patio chairs to sit on and we sat expecting a mental mediumship talk. We were so lucky as Jay was planning to give another demonstration of his transfiguration gifts. The whole experience was nothing short of phenomenal. Jay gave a really good talk beforehand, quite thought-provoking, and then his trance guide arrived and introduced himself. He was nothing at all like Jay, although he did share a sense of humour. The transfiguration was just mind-blowing. Grown men and women were obviously emotional at communicating with their loved ones in spirit and being able to see their faces materialise over Jay’s face. What an amazing gift he has!
We left just after lunch and were home in the light, turned the heating up and enjoyed sitting on a comfy sofa!
Annette told me that the last night had been the best evening and it had been a shame I had missed it. Jay had demonstrated his mediumship abilities and she said his evidence was brilliant. An Irish medium, Sharon Neill, had given evidence that a member of the audience had waited over fifty years to hear and Annette said everyone in the audience had felt extremely emotional. She told me that Sharon had then finished by singing The Power of Love which she said was sung beautifully. It did seem like I missed out, but then I was needed by a friend first thing this morning, so I was pleased I was at home and able to help her.
It was an interesting weekend with mega highs and too many lows. Am I pleased I went? Yes. Sam coming through and Jay’s demonstration were the highlights of my weekend. Two fantastic experiences that I know I will never forget. Just such a shame that it hadn’t been a little more comfortable and a little more organised!
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Hand in Hand with Spirit 