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Here is link to the history of Stantead Hall, the world’s foremost college for the advancement of spiritual and psychic sciences.

The College

Built in 1871, was gifted to the Spiritualists’ National Union by J. Arthur Findlay, MBE, JP, a former Honorary President of the Union, and in accordance with his wishes is administered by the Union as a College for the advancement of Psychic Science.

Mr Findlay bought the estate in 1923 upon his retirement from business and first mooted the idea of a Spiritualist College at Stansted to the Union in 1945. After personal contacts with three successive Union Presidents a will was drawn up and in 1954 the National Council accepted the proposed bequest of Stansted Hall with an endowment. This was followed by a later gift in the form of stock to be used for furnishing and decorating, and in 1964, a year after the death of his wife, Mr Findlay transferred the Hall, grounds and endowment to the Union. Mr Findlay passed to the higher life in July 1964.

The Arthur Findlay College offers facilities unequalled anywhere in the world in the Spiritualist movement as a residential centre where students can study Spiritualist philosophy and religious practice, Spiritualist healing and awareness, spiritual and psychic unfolding and kindred disciplines. Courses, lectures and demonstrations are all offered by leading exponents, together with the additional features of a library, museum, lake, magnificent grounds, recreational facilities and full board accommodation.

Quoted from arthurfindlaycollege.org

Gordon Higginson was one of the finest mediums of the last century and a great medium, speaker and teacher. His gifts of mediumship were wide-ranging and comprised mental mediumship, trance, physical mediumship and healing. Gordon was also a man of great charisma and an outstanding servant of the Spirit.

Gordon’s birth was pre-ordained by Spirit and he began developing his spiritual gifts at a very early age under the careful supervision of his mother, Fanny Higginson, who was also an excellent medium. He first publicly demonstrated his mediumship on his twelfth birthday and he continued to work the platform for another 63 years until the day before he passed to spirit. He was renowned for the accuracy of his platform mediumship and his evidence often included full names, addresses and telephone numbers.

Gordon was also an excellent physical medium and produced the rare phenomena of materialisation and independent voice. He was one of the few physical mediums to demonstrate these unique and precious gifts publicly to audiences of up to 300 people.

Gordon was a dedicated Spiritualist and is the longest-serving President of the Spiritualists National Union (SNU), serving for an exceptional 23 years from 1970 until his passing in 1993. He was also the Principal of the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall from 1979 to 1993, as well as being a Minister of the SNU . Stansted Hall was very dear to his heart and a place where many came from far and wide to hear his lectures and see his demonstrations.

Quoted from gordonhigginson.co.uk

Only a few months after Gordon Higginson’s death in January 1993, I had my first session with a medium in London, at SAGB. The medium gave me great evidence of survival of my loved ones in Spirit and gave me a pamphlet from the Arthur Findlay College, announcing that, starting in August 1994, the College would organize the “Italian Week”, a full week devoted to teaching mediumship to Italian people.

I took part in the Italian Week in 1994 and worked as an interpreter for the whole week. The medium I worked with was amazing: she was called Mavis Pitilla. After working with her for several dozens of private mediumistic sessions, she asked to speak to me privately and predicted to me that I would meet my to-be husband in two years’ time. This is exactly what happened.

I need to point out that prediction is NOT the goal of mediumship. In my case, my loved ones in spirit, who could see my life further on in the future, decided to share the information with me.

Here is a quote from the official website of the Spiritualist National Union about mediumship:

Mediumship

What is Mediumship?

The main aim of mediumship is to provide evidence of survival of the human personality beyond physical death. Mediumship is a transfer of information from the spirit of a deceased person via a 'medium' to a 'recipient'. A medium has the ability to receive information from a communicating spirit and pass on that information. In many respects this will be personal to the recipient of the communication.

What is its purpose?

The main purpose of mediumship is to provide evidence that can be proof of survival to the recipient, not to predict the future, not to give advice and not to counsel. Mediumship is a means of enabling people in the spirit world, to communicate with us, thus enabling us to gain an understanding that the spirit of every person survives physical death.

Spirit Contact

The spirit of a person retains their personality, character, mind, memories, emotions, etc just as we knew them during their life on earth. People in the spirit world have opportunities to continue to learn and develop similarly to the personal growth experienced during earth life. Mediums cannot call up a particular person in the spirit world; it is they who choose to communicate with us. A medium’s primary purpose is to identify the spirit person who is communicating with them. It is expected that the communicator will provide a combination of personal information about themselves so that the recipient can identify them.

I also took part in the 1995 and 1996 Italian weeks.

Those three years working with professional mediums both in England and in Italy are a really memorable experience, which taught me very much about mediumship, its history and how it works.

Giulia, I have a few questions. How does a medium know that the spirit he or she is communicating with is who it claims to be? Is there some way for a medium to positively identify the spirit? Has there ever been an occasion when a spirit has been deceitful about its identity or anything else? What determines whether or not a spirit is willing to communicate? I assume that they still have free will in the spirit realm and are not obligated to communicate with anyone they don't wish to. Why are mediums able to communicate with spirits when the majority of people cannot?

DTR1975 wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 3:41 am Giulia, I have a few questions. How does a medium know that the spirit he or she is communicating with is who it claims to be? Is there some way for a medium to positively identify the spirit? Has there ever been an occasion when a spirit has been deceitful about its identity or anything else? What determines whether or not a spirit is willing to communicate? I assume that they still have free will in the spirit realm and are not obligated to communicate with anyone they don't wish to. Why are mediums able to communicate with spirits when the majority of people cannot?

Hello, Derek.

These are all very interesting questions.

There are verious types of mediumship. The type I am acquainted with is mental mediumship, which takes place in a quiet state of mind. The medium can perceive information from the Spirit World through different channels called “clairs”: through pictures in their mind (clairvoyance), through words they hear (clairaudience), through feelings (clairsentience) or knowings (claircognizance). Each medium has one or two stronger clairs and maybe one weaker clair.

Professional mediums have to study many years and train as part of a circle. When they graduate they can use their skill to give readings.

Both in public demonstrations of mediumship and in private sittings, mediums need to work together with a sitter. It is recommended that the medium knows nothing about the sitter beforehand. The identification of a spirit is the result of the combined work of medium and sitter. The medium shares the information she or he gets with the sitter and asks the sitter whether the information is meaningful. The sitter should only reply with yes, no or I don’t know. As the information builds, the sitter recognizes the spirit.

I have never known of spirits deceiving professional mediums. I understand that when we cross over we realize the importance of unconditional love and truth and that, anyway, we are only allowed to comunicate through a professional medium if we deserve to. Stories about deceitful spirits may have to do with people who have fun pretending to have a real mediumistic session.

In the many mediumistic sessions that I have witnessed as an interpreter, the medium starts by saying they cannot guarantee that the spirit the sitter is hoping to hear from will be there to communicate. The medium opens up to the Spirit World and describes the spirits that show up.

Unlike the majority of people, professional mediums have studied and trained for many years. They may have had an innate talent or a special passion to start with, but they still need to study and train until they are ready.

In addition to this, the mediums I have met over the years were not allowed to give more than a certain number of readings a day, because stress and fatigue would hinder their work.

A friend of mine who is 65 has taken part in a circle for years, under the guidance of a professional medium, and now tells me she has objective clairaudience (she actually hears voices speaking in her ear and the things the voices say are meaningful for the sitter). So I think it is never too late to learn, if a person is really keen about it and willing to persevere.

Thank you for answering my questions.