ROLL UP! VOICES FROM BEYOND?

Her publicity blurbs announce that Sally Morgan is ‘Britain’s Best Loved Psychic’ that may be more information than we require or just some extra Barnum and Bailey billboard bluster to baffle the paying public. By her own admission Sally is not a Spiritualist, though she has attended at Wimbledon Church on previous occasions. Sally Morgan is actually a professional psychic working within the rules and regulations of show business.  That is accepting, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s one born every minute. The great showman also said his job was to attract, entertain and please the public. Having seen the ‘Sold Out’ notices at Sally’s theatre tour dates she undoubtedly does exactly that. The question seems to be whether or not the messages Sally passes to the audience are received by her from beyond the veil or beyond the back curtain. Previous reports about Sally’s theatrical presentations include accounts of her team placing a box or bowl in the foyer of theatres suggesting that the public attending can drop in notes and details about the loved ones in spirit that they wish to hear from. Now that is about as obvious a way of gathering information to be fed back later as I have ever heard of. It isn’t trickery, it is though a very dubious and unethical practice but then this is a show she is putting on in an entertainment venue. The public are a part of this show and want to hear the name of their dear departed loved ones mentioned by Mrs. Morgan, it’s surely part of the act, part of the entertainment.

The serious questioning of Sally Morgan’s spirit communications started in the city of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, which is a country where Roman Catholicism is the vastly predominant religion. At the Grand Canal Theatre on the 11th September 2011 certain members of the audience claimed to have heard voices coming from the rear projection room right at the back of the auditorium. The voices were saying things like “David, pain in the back, passed quickly” and moments later those same words were spoken on stage by Sally Morgan who presented them as if she were actually receiving communication from spirit. The ladies that stated they heard this subsequently telephoned in to a local radio chat show, RTE Radio 1 on Monday 12th Sept. and made a statement on air that suggested Sally was being fed information possibly through an ear-piece. They further stated that when a member of the theatre staff observed them paying close attention to the sounds from the projection box unit they closed the open shutter so nothing further could be heard.  When the theatre was contacted the General Manager Mr. Stephen Fallon stated that the voices the ladies had heard from the projection box were those of two lighting engineers who were not associated in any way with the producers of the show Sally Morgan Enterprises.  When the producers of Morgan were contacted they too denied all knowledge of the reported transmission of information to Sally. I have listened to a recording of the radio show in which the callers in to a chat style programme make the statements concerning the passing of information. They sound genuine. These are not fanatical individuals with a hidden agenda. They appear to be what they say they are, former followers and ex-believers in the stage psychic Sally Morgan. They sound disappointed more than angry.

http://youtu.be/QiQF-NR6h8M    Go have a look and listen.

The national press have been rather quick to leap on the back of this somewhat shaky bandwagon with The Guardian running an unequivocal  headline: ‘Psychic Sally hears voices from the other side (via a hidden earpiece)’ with a feature from the well respected psychologist and editor of ‘The Skeptic’ Professor Chris French who provided readers with a potted history of fake and self delusional psychics effectively tarring Sally Morgan with the same brush.  In part French’s article compares the alleged earpiece of Morgan with that used by the notorious fake faith-healer  Peter Popoff whose wife would pass him information via an adapted hearing aid. Popoff was exposed by The Amazing James Randi, he of the million dollar Psychic Proof Challenge. The Daily Mail featured a reasonable and well researched article about Sally Morgan on 9th April 2011 written by Jan Moir in which Morgan is quoted as saying: When I tell people things about themselves and their passed loved ones that I couldn’t possibly know, they realise there is a greater power at work. It gives them a belief in life after death’ Then on the 21st September The Daily Mail ran a feature mocking Morgan with the headline: ‘Didn’t See That Coming’ reporting on the supposed expose of the use of an earpiece at the Dublin Theatre. Then on the 22nd September The Daily Mail again featured Morgan only this time with the healdine: ‘What A Load Of Crystal Balls’ written by ex stage psychic and now professional magician Paul Zenon who explains how he used to manipulate audiences, suggesting that Morgan is doing exactly the same thing. 

It seems all across the wide spectrum of the media critics of psychics are taking the opportunity offered by this supposed expose of Sally Morgan to ridicule the belief in spirit communication. This is the very root of Spiritualism being dragged down by what appears to be carefully planned fraud albeit one that the subjects are willingly taking part in.

In my personal experience, having worked with many professional psychics, including James Byrne at The London Palladium and Derek Acorah at The Liverpool Empire Theatre, there need be no trickery. There certainly was no deceit used by Byrne in the countless hundreds of theatres he toured in the early 1990s. There would be an incentive, I can see that, in producing excellent evidence such as given by the incredible clairvoyant and medium Gordon Higginson, but using fraudulent means would not be acceptable. Unfortunately there have been numerous high profile exposures of psychics over the years and this brings the entire practice of spirit communication into disrepute.  Quite recently the risible TV show ‘Most Haunted’ featured Acorah faking trance and blatantly accepting phony information fed to him by the programme’s resident parapsychologist O’Keefe who planted the name Kreed Kafer with Acorah at a supposedly haunted jail. Acorah then pretended to go into a form of light trance and communicated the name in a ridiculously overacted voice groaning out ‘Krrrreeed KKKaaaafer’ which as O’Keefe intended was an anagram of Derek Faker. Such nonsense reduces the credibility of all concerned and is an insult to the religious beliefs of Spiritualism.

http://youtu.be/ZbF_l5nwmGs  Have a look at Derek Acorah faking trance and doing his Kreed Kafer routine.

So what dear reader are we to make of this latest supposed expose of yet another celebrity psychic?  This is what Morgan has to say in her own defence: ‘The recent performance at the Grand Canal Theatre, I felt, was a fantastic show, an amazing audience and over 700 people waited behind to meet me at the end. I was completely unaware that two young lads, who are employed by the theatre as technicians had been accused of feeding me information. Apparently, during the second half of the show, a window from the production room was open and audience members with their back to them could hear them talking. An usherette quickly diffused the situation and asked them to close the window, however someone construed that these two people were telling me what to say. I would like to state that I have never met these two boys before in my life and more importantly, they have nothing to do with my show. I have no communication with them and there is no way they would have been able to talk to me while I was on stage.’

But if we accept Morgan’s explanation we must ask ourselves what possible motive could there then be for the ladies that made these accusations to do so? As I said at the start of this feature the Republic of Ireland is predominantly of the Roman Catholic religion and many of that persuasion believe that communication with spirits is the work of the devil. Some, in my experience, are fanatical enough to set about deliberately creating troubles for any effective medium or psychic in the belief that they are doing God’s work. In the mid 1990s I featured Terry Stokes (now deceased) the son of Doris Stokes in a stage presentation which was seriously disrupted by obviously prepared elements of the audience. The accusations then were that Stokes was drunk. Well Terry did take a drink, but I feel it was to calm his nerves. Though his personal performance was obviously not faked as he opened his spot with the following message: ‘I have a lightbulb here, can anyone take a lightbulb’ not surprisingly no one answered but all looked on astounded as Terry, wearing a heavy duffle coat fastened to the top, stumbled about the stage. Having had no takers for his illumination aid he then stood motionless and pointed at the now rather restless audience uttering these immortal words: ‘I have a settee coming through here, does that mean anything to anyone?’ At that point the disruption began.  The Sun daily newspaper printed headlines saying: Son Of Doris Stokes Booed Off Stage’. The media went to town on poor Terry who was, I feel, the victim of an orchestrated attack by certain misguided individuals who set about ruining his spiritual presentation albeit one that involved a lightbulb and a comfortable chair.

Sally Morgan

In conclusion I seriously feel that one should give the rather mumsy lady that is Sally Morgan the benefit of the doubt. She is involved in what has degenerated into a sort of psychic circus show and, metaphorically, has to pull rabbits out of the hat each time she walks on stage. Derek Robinson the long serving president of Wimbledon Spiritualist Church has met with Sally and states that she is the real deal. If anyone knows then it has to be THE Derek Robinson the man that worked with Doris Stokes at the start and knew Gordon Higginson’s abilities better than most.  The only caveat I would have is that Morgan is not involved in the Spiritualist religion and is presenting her performances purely for financial gain in show business venues.  Roll Up! Roll Up!  and talk to your dear departed Granny!