Spiritualist church

[Laceup]

Hi,what would a spiritualist belive in?i suppose they think the dead can contact us? ..so would they belive in the bible? Celebrate Easter and Christmas? Belive in god? Is it a religion as such...anything like Catholics?thankyou ,sorry to ask.

[Caulk]

I was brought up in a spiritualist church. It was more like a cult than a church and definitely wasn’t Christian. I don’t remember anything about Easter or Christmas but there might have been.

[Laceup]

Oh ,what sort of things did you do during service

[Laceup]

I'm guessing no communion

[Laceup]

Any confession?

[Caulk]

Sing some songs and then the medium would get messages from dead people. Then sing some more songs.

[Laceup]

So what do they belive in please

[Laceup]

Did you feel scared

[Caulk]

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/spiritualism/worship/worship_1.shtml

That might help. I didn’t feel scared.

[Laceup]

Thankyou....I'm thinking of going tomorrow

[Laceup]

Hi,are you still there,I noticed you said definitely wasn't Christian,in what way?

[Caulk]

They consider themselves a separate religion and therefore not Christian.

[Caulk]

Plus I don’t think you will have any Christians who don’t believe in the bible or God, and want to commune with the dead...

[Laceup]

So it's not seen as messages from angels

[ZippyCameBack]

I've asked a few Spiritualists what they believe in and never got a clear answer apart from "we contact the dead" or words to that effect. It could be that I've only met the dodgy ones, but the leaders (not sure if that's the correct word) all seemed to get quite a lot of work from the meetings- they didn't charge at the time, but would get people to contact them to arrange to "find out more" at a later date.

[Laceup]

Looking a bit up ,and having read that BBC thing you posted me,I'm not sure it should actually be called a religion

[Laceup]

So I suppose ,good people die,and bad people die..so either could send a message.

[Caulk]

There’s a lot of other stuff you can read about it, I just chose that as it gave facts rather than opinion

[Laceup]

Sorry if I've asked to many questions,and I've made you feel uncomfortable

[Laceup]

I think I will probably scare myself silly if I go....I'd love the thought of my nan sending me a message,but I freak at the thought of a murder or really bad person getting in touch....

[thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts]

Spiritualist churches are all about demonstrating that the dead can be contacted. They sing a few songs and then there is the main event which is a medium making contact with the spirit world. As the organisation is focused on proving that mediumship is possible, it is not involved generally with charitable work as the major religions are. It becomes quite inward looking.

At one level it is harmless and people will get comfort from it. At another it is profoundly damaging as it can keep people locked into grief for years and years. It can make it much harder to process a death of a loved one if the potential to speak to them every second Tuesday of the month is offered.

[ZippyCameBack]

OP, if you do go, be aware that the internet and mobile technology has made cold reading much easier. Within a couple of minutes of hearing your name someone can know an awful lot about you. It's then easy to use that to manipulate you, or to convince you that they know far more than they really do.

[Laceup]

Cheers zippy.i hadn't thought of that