Recently, at Footlights Theatre in Falmouth, Maine—a theater I dearly love and proudly champion—I attended a one-night-only gathering of people either actively interested in or newly arrived to the world of psychic phenomena.
I was one of the quietly curious initiates at the theater that night, which was more fully packed than I’d ever seen it in all of the nearly three years I’ve been frequenting the place. So large was the audience that they spilled over onto stage left and stage right of the facility, in true Shakespearean fashion—and in a space which is nearly always delightfully and advantageously intimate in size.
The Star of the Show that night was one Christopher Brown, a “renowned psychic medium, Spiritualist Minister, and Reiki Master Teacher,” who promised “to connect attendees with their loved ones in spirit” and “deliver healing words of love.”
After attending this “spirited” event, I went online to learn more about Mr. Brown’s training as a psychic medium (and all the rest of the things he’s obviously trained for).
I learned from Wikipedia—yes, I dearly love that source of information and contribute to it each year—that Brown is apparently a “graduate” of Arthur Findlay College, “a college of Spiritualism and Psychic Sciences at Stansted Hall in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England.” Whether he actually earned a degree there was not made clear in the article, but he did matriculate there.
On its—some would say—“modest” Homepage, Arthur Findlay College describes itself as “The World's Foremost College for the Advancement of Spiritualism and Psychic Sciences.”
Unfortunately, according to the school’s Homepage—in a section called “Residential Guidelines and Helpful Information”—AFC assures incoming students that it “does not provide any form of accreditation in respect of students attending any of its Courses.”
OK, then! Since we really have no choice in the matter, we’ll work from there.
AFC teaches many specialties within the world of psychic phenomena, including “Mental Mediumship.” You can of course consult their Homepage for a list of additional specialties. They also offer courses in “Physical Mediumship,” but sorry: I’ll not be exploring that discipline in this article. So back to the AFC Homepage you may merrily go.
“Mental Mediumship,” as taught at Arthur Findlay College, "occurs through the medium’s own consciousness, without the use of the five physical senses. The medium relays what they feel, sense, see, or hear to the recipient. The faculties used by mediums are Clairvoyance (clear-seeing), Clairsentience (clear-sensing or feeling) and Clairaudience (clear-hearing)."
[Come to think of it, I could use the last course they mentioned here; even my state-of-the-art hearing aids haven’t solved all of my hearing problems.]
“Mediums,” say the AFC faculty, “can see (clairvoyantly), hear (clairaudiently), feel or sense clairsentiently) in their own mind’s eye (subjectively) or outside of themselves (objectively).” I’ll have to trust them in this matter. I’m not in a position to verify their claims; I’m just too darn busy!
So just what was it, I wondered, that got Mr. Brown so pumped up about psychic phenomena, and only a mere handful of years ago? After all, from my perspective at least, he’s still a pretty young fellow—a man relatively "new to the trade.”
According to Brown—we’re talking “straight from one psychic’s real-world consciousness" here—it was “living for many years in ‘an extremely haunted house’ ”—location undisclosed, so it must have been pretty damn scary—"that sparked his interest in and love for the paranormal. It was also “spending time in an old Seminary in Maine” that, to his great surprise, catapulted him into the paranormal universe.
Brown says that at one time he was—or perhaps is now—“working on a book called ‘| F@cking knew it!’ ” (Between you and me, if the book is already on the market, and I’d “F@cking known about it, I might have read it before penning this *#%*ing commentary!)
I won’t attempt to convince anyone in the audience that night—including myself—that Christopher Brown’s claims that he actually connected with the deceased relatives of the attendees are scientifically verifiable.
Nor will I attempt to poo-poo them in any concrete, unassailable way.
All I will say is that anyone—including Yours Truly—who has read books like Bertrand Russell’s Why I am Not a Christian and Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great—and enjoyed many things about them—is clearly not the best choice for either wholesale condemnation or enthusiastic endorsement of Brown’s claims to have connected with “The Other World” while in Falmouth. Some people are born "easy believers"; I was clearly a born skeptic (and more often than not) proud of it.
And what I will also say is that several people in the audience that night cautiously—and then finally, and with quiet enthusiasm—appeared to be convinced that, thanks to Mr. Brown’s trained “mediumship,” they really were reconnected with the loved ones they so obviously loved and miss.
I found every incident of their apparent reconnection to be very touching and thought-provoking.
Of course, I’m only one little Voice in the Wilderness! My opinions about something as controversial as psychic phenomena are no less potentially evanescent than a late-winter snowflake. So please do your research, reach your own conclusions, and be richly rewarded, one way or another, for the work it took to make your enquiries.
And keep coming to Footlights Theatre! Things--really GOOD things--really do happen there, all year around!
— Ross Alan Bachelder, www.artsaplenty.me — June 16, 2023