Who's George? More on the problem with names
metgat
Last weekend, I happened to be watching Lisa Williams, a TV medium who appears on the Lifetime channel ("Talking with the Dead"). She had given a very evidential reading to two brothers and a sister with their mother's spirit supposedly communicating. The three siblings were all in tears, but at the end of the session, one of the sisters asked if her mother had given her name. When Williams said that she had not, an immediate look of surprise, perhaps skepticism, came over the young woman's face. It was as if she were wondering how Williams could get so many "hits" and not get a simple name.
Concerning my comment in my last blog post that John Edward struggles with names but still gets them well beyond chance or coincidence, someone suggested that I wasn't taking the editing of the TV show into account. It's true that there is no way of telling how much of the good stuff has been used and how much of the non-evidential material has not been used, but I have seen Edward and other mediums get very unusual names - names seemingly far beyond chance of coincidence.
As stated in the last post, it is difficult for most mediums to get names because most names can't be projected in thought images. As one spirit communicator explained, if he wanted to communicate the name of someone named Meadows, he would attempt to show a picture of a green field.
"This is so absolutely true...we have to find the words in order to express the message that is relayed to us in one instant as pure thought," Yvonne Limoges, a Spiritist medium living in Florida, responded to the blog post by e-mail. "...Pure thought projections without words is a faster and easier way for [spirits] to send their messages."
"Many, many [good] mediums never or rarely get names," Miriam Bostwick, a California medium and author of "What Goes on Beyond the Pearly Gates," told me by e-mail. "They may be able to describe a spirit sufficiently to make the message evidential, however." Bostwick feels that the problem is that the spirit is unable to impress the medium with his or her name.
I vaguely recall John Edward explaining at one time that he could get the name "George" easier than most names because he would be shown a Catholic "holy picture" of St. George that he had as a child. That reminds me of my "George story."
In 1999, my wife and I were vacationing in England, beginning and ending in London. On our first or second day in London, we left our hotel for a walk around the Belgravia district and soon came upon the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (SAGB) at Belgrave Square. We decided to go in and see what the place was all about. We found out that they had clairvoyant readings every day at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and since it was around 2:30, we decided to take in the 3 o'clock reading. The charge was six British pounds each, about US $10. Approximately a dozen other people were present for the reading, which took place in the Conan Doyle Room. The clairvoyant was a middle-aged woman named Julie Johnson. She seemed to be scoring quite well with others in the room, identifying deceased loved ones and passing on messages. One young woman was told that "David" was there and giving her his love. Johnson said that David was telling her that he was killed in a "motor smash" about six months earlier. The young woman confirmed this to be the case. She also told the young woman that David was with her on her recent visit to Paris. Chocking back tears, the woman confirmed that she had been in Paris a few weeks earlier.
After reading six or seven other people, Johnson came to me and said there was a "George" standing behind me and offering greetings. Although I had several friends named George, I could not think of any George in the spirit world. She was unable to get further identification from him and went on to my wife, who received a very evidential reading with her grandmother and uncle communicating. I seemed to be the only "failure" the medium had that day.
After driving around England for 10 days, we returned to London, and I returned to the SAGB for a second try while my wife shopped at Harrod's, about a mile away. This reading was in the Oliver Lodge Room and the clairvoyant was an elderly woman named Vickie Hindhaugh. She was doing even better than Julie Johnson with the 15 or so people in the room. There were three young men there together. She told them that their friend, Philip, who had been a member of their band and had been recently killed in an accident, was present. Wide-eyed, they confirmed this to be the case. Philip then suggested that the three men replace him with another friend. The three men acknowledge the name given as someone they were considering to replace Philip.
When Ms. Hindhaugh came to me, she said she was getting the name "George." I was surprised at the "coincidence," but I could still not think of anyone named George in the spirit world, except for a great uncle. She said that she did not think it was him, that this George seemed to be a contemporary of mine. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and said that George was telling her that he was a former colleague of mine who had passed into spirit about 20 years earlier of a blood-related disease. She also mentioned that George told her that he had been around me in my office recently and was glad to know that things were going well on the job. Still, nothing registered.
It was not until I was on the underground train back to my hotel that it dawned on me who George was, or is. Between 1974 and 1977, I worked for an insurance company in downtown Honolulu. George was a fellow supervisor. Although we were not friends outside of the office, we often took coffee breaks together and discussed the job, including my dislike for my job. A year or two after leaving the company in 1977, I heard that George had died. If he knew at the time, George had never let on to me that he had a terminal illness. And I could not remember what George died of.
Upon returning home from England, I called another employee of the same company and asked him what George had died of. I was told it was leukemia. It all fit - George, a former colleague who had passed into spirit about 20 years earlier from some blood-related disease, and who apparently knew that I had a job that I disliked.
Why couldn't I think of George during either of the two readings? Probably because I was hoping that a deceased brother or friend who had recently died would communicate. I was not thinking back 20 years to a person who took coffee breaks with me now and then.
Why couldn't the mediums simply say his surname? Probably because there was no picture or symbol for the name that George could impress upon the minds of the mediums.
Some skeptical friends to whom I have told this story have suggested that the SAGB investigated me beforehand. As I told them, however, I didn't even know I was going there until 30 minutes or so before the first reading and had no definite plans about going back. Moreover, nobody ever asked for my name. And how much of a background check can one do for $10? That was before Google, but no Google search under my name would have turned up George.
Mind reading? If so, the mediums must have gone very deep into my mind since I didn't know what George they were talking about.
Cold reading or lucky guesses? Give me a break. Only a pseudo-skeptic would accept that explanation.
Why was George there with me in London? All I can say is that the spirit world seems to work in strange ways.
For information of Miriam Bostwick's latest book, click on:
For information on the book produced by Yvonne Limoges' Spiritist group, click on
Access: Public
john edward
July 2008