(Doris, David, Vi, Marian, Anabela and Craig)

The following was received from Alex after the Bristol 2005 Seminar - The Wonder of Spirit:

A Credit to Spiritualism

From 17th - 20th June Westbury Park Spiritualist Church in Bristol was the venue for the most amazing seminar I have attended since joining the Spiritualist Movement some years ago. There is a very special atmosphere at Westbury Park and when I met the President, Minister Marian Bishop, and other members of the committee it was easy to see why. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming and nothing was too much trouble. Without the aid of air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year so far, they even managed to keep the temperature in a church packed out with people at a bearable level. (Perhaps they can give some advice to those working on the Kyoto Agreement.)

The Seminar itself was organised and presented by Rainbows End which is an organistion established by Vi Kipling (FSNU) and Minister Doris Smith whose mission is three fold I think. To encourage people to develop their spiritual and psychic abilities including mediumship, to raise money for the Spiritualist movement (all the proceeds of their seminars are donated to Spiritualist churches and causes); and I think most importantly to bring some magic and fun into peoples lives, which they certainly achieved at Westbury Park.

They were joined by tutors of exceptional calibre namely, Professor David Fontana, Dr Anabela Cardoso, Ron Jordan and Craig Hamilton-Parker and I still have to pinch myself occasionally as it seems too good to be true that I was sat in a church in Bristol listening to an internationally renowned psychic researcher and past president of the SPR and to Dr Anabela Cardoso one of the the world's leading experts and exponents of EVP and ITC. Having read David Fontana's recently published book "Is there an Afterlife?" which I am sure as Professor Archie Roy states in the foreword will become a classic, it is obvious that he holds Doris Smith and Vi Kipling in very high esteem, devoting two pages to the outstanding mediumship of Doris and I think it is because of this that I had to good fortune to sit in such an intimate venue where everyone had the opportunity to listen and ask questions. I don't think I will get this opportunity again to speak with people which such a wide knowledge of the scientific evidence and research into survival. Although you never know with Rainbows End because each time I have attended one of their events I think I will never again have such an outstanding experience but somehow the next one is always more outstanding than the last (I don't know how they do it.)

There is not enough space to describe how much I learned from listening to David and Anabela. It was fascinating listening to David's talk about his experiences as a psychic researcher and also his talk upon the purpose of dreams and the various theories surrounding this subject. I was particularly impressed with David's gentle manner and the way in which he explained theories such as the Super-Psi theory using simple concepts and terms so that it was put forward in a way that everyone could understand when it came to mentioning quantum physics.

I have to confess to sitting in awe listening to Anabela Cardoso as she casually mentioned friends in Interpol and friends working with the FBI who she occasionally calls on for help in order that her tapes can be submitted to the latest voice pattern recognition technology. However, in addition to being a leading exponent of ITC she is also Portugal's Senior Woman Diplomat. Its not often you get to chat with someone who has friends in Interpol over a cup of tea but, if you go to Rainbows End seminars you get used to these little magical moments. Seriously though aside from having connections which she puts to good use to help her experiments her work is phenomenal and we were very lucky that we were able to sit in such close proximity listening to some of the voices which Anabela has recorded using EVP and ITC which were clear and unmistakeable human voices. The EVP voices in particular had such a lovely gentle quality to them. Apparently the UK is like a desert when it comes to EVP and ITC research and Anabela is doing everything she can to promote such research in our country. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject is phenomenal and I know she motivated most of the people at the seminar to try out their own experiments at home, giving clear and simple instructions of how we could do this using a simple radio or other source of white noise such as the trickling of a stream or the sound of the waves and a tape recorder. The outstanding thing to me about this is that anyone can experiment with EVP, you do not need to be a medium, which opens up so many possibilities in terms of proof of survival and spirit communication.

In addition to gainig knowledge of the scientific aspect of Spiritualism we enjoyed workshops on psychic awareness, mediumship both in terms of communication and healing and the religion of Spiritualism, the latter being a particularly fun workshop on the Seven Principles which because of the humour and laughter involved those who were new to Spiritualism will understand in a very practical sense which is how we all need to understand them. Ron Jordan in particular brought a lot of fun to the weekend and to the mediumship workshops and I was very impressed with his no nonsense and down to earth approach.

I know from attending other Rainbows End events and talking to other students there is always one moment, if not more than one, during the seminar that just seems to be pure magic and this time for me it happened in one of Ron's workshops. At 2 pm on the Saturday of the seminar I should have been 300 miles away releasing a balloon in memory of my son at a special day, which is organised annually by the Teenage Cancer Unit where my son was treated. Because I knew the seminar would be something really special I had made the difficult decision to go to Bristol instead and at 2 pm was sitting in Ron's mediumship workshop following a visualisation to some beautiful music. It was during this that I experienced a moment of pure bliss as I brought my son to mind and together, from the top of a mountain, we both held a white balloon and let it go. I cannot describe the depth of emotion that came with this but it was beautiful and I sat with tears of love streaming down my face. In a sense this was far more meaningful than if I had gone to the service and is just one example of the magic of a Rainbow's End Seminar.

I know from looking at other people's faces and seeing the amount of tears that were shed both during the day and at the special evening services organised by Rainbow's End that everyone at the seminar has their own particular magic moment to share too. I know that Westbury Park is putting on another Rainbows End Seminar in June 2006. If you can make it I would suggest you contact the church for details as people from this seminar have already booked their place including a lady from the USA who flew to Bristol just for the 4 days because she had heard how spectacular these seminars are. I know from speaking to her that it exceeded all her expectations not just in terms of the knowledge she gained but also because of the special and spiritual atmosphere that was created by Rainbows End and Westbury Park Church, which was a credit to and a beautiful example of Spiritualism in the UK.