TOP PSYCHIC MEDIUM QUITS: 'I WAS DELUDED'

TOP PSYCHIC MEDIUM QUITS: 'I WAS DELUDED'


Top medium quits saying, ‘I was deluded’

EXCLUSIVE REPORT by ROY STEMMAN

ENGLAND. James Byrne’s style of mediumship ensured “sold out” notices outside all the large venues at which he regularly demonstrated for almost 30 years. He even filled the London Palladium – following in the psychic footsteps of the late Doris Stokes. He made TV appearances, was a regular on radio phone-in shows, and wrote a book with John Sutton about his life and work: The Psychic World of James Byrne.

He has shared the platform in Spiritualist churches and public halls with other mediums and has even been dubbed “the medium’s medium”.

But those days are over. Incredibly, Byrne has not only turned his back on Spiritualism, claiming that he has been deluding himself and others, but intends exposing other psychics and their “tricks”.

Does that mean that he no longer believes in the existence of spirits?

Not exactly. In fact, it was a voice on a tape recording made during one of his readings for a regular sitter which apparently prompted the astonishing about-face. He told his local newspaper, The Chorley Citizen (Lancashire), that when the woman played the tape back they were both stunned to hear what came out:

“There was this most disgusting, foul-mouthed abusive voice on the tape. It sounded like, if you have a record slightly slowed down. It was such a horrendous voice, it was threatening and I just thought this was enough and I have never ever done a reading since. My personal belief is that it was a bad spirit.”

What Byrne has described is typical of electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and many researchers around the world have been experimenting for years with different types of receiving equipment in an attempt to record such voices. Some claim to be able to produce them consistently (see our story What happened to EVP challenge?). Yet the Lancashire medium, who was sometimes called in to deal with hauntings and poltergeists, has apparently “flipped” after hearing just one recording.

Byrne, 52, a former British Rail driver, says he had been contemplating Christianity for several years after having doubts that Spiritualism was for him. He has now established the Kings Christian Healing Church operating out of Wheelton Village Hall.

His website’s invitation to its Sunday services says: “Come and join us in glorious worship and discover what God can do for you.” It also says that he was inspired to pray for the sick back in the 1970s and found that “some people were receiving healing from the Lord very quickly”. He adds:

“These wonderful events gave me a deep desire to go on praying for people but most of all made me feel much closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, the giver of all blessings, and the Ministry grew from that point.”

Ironically, Byrne made headlines in 1997 when a group of clergymen tried unsuccessfully to get a local council to ban his demonstration of mediumship at Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre.

As part of his change of heart, James Byrne is apparently now eager to dismiss Spiritualism and psychics – apparently not differentiating between psychics (those who read auras, tarot cards, etc) and mediums (those who contact the spirit world).

more:

[link to paranormalreview.com]