SPIRITUALISM RIDICULED

By

John G. Sutton

There are a number of television programmes currently broadcast on both terrestrial and SKY TV that have psychic/mediumship as a central theme. One such is ITV’s Channel 5 ‘Britain’s Psychic Challenge’ which features a number of individuals claiming paranormal powers who have to undertake a series of so called tests. These tests involve such things as locating a man hidden in a car boot within a car park, pairing married couples from a mixed group, practicing psychometry on a sealed envelope etc. The judges include a magician and a former police officer, they act as the Simon Cowell and Sharon Osborne characters on Pop Idol, criticizing and making pointed comments.  Entertainment it may be, involving the general public by getting them to vote off the ‘psychic’ of their choice, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with Spiritualism. And there have been certain aspects of this programme that have purported to include the participants communicating impressions of deceased individuals. In one scene the death of a young airman was described in detail and presented as part of the family friendly fun.

The main culprits in using spirit-communication as cheap, thrill a minute, exploitative television are screened on SKY’s Living TV Channel. ‘Most Haunted’, with former ‘Blue Peter’ presenter Yvette Fielding and a team of ‘experts’ including a ‘spirit medium’ and other ‘psychics’ purporting to investigate various locations seeking out paranormal activity. I have watched a number of episodes of this programme and the formula repeats itself from location to location. First the presenters talk about the wide range of supernatural events that have previously been reported, this is obviously to build the atmosphere.  Then we are shown dramatic images, close ups, out of focus shots, black and white fade outs etc. Eventually, in green tinted night-vision, the ‘investigation’ commences.  The results are usually hilarious with Yvette Fielding shouting obscenities into thin air as she plays with a Ouija board, I quote ‘Come on you bitch, show yourself’. This kind of juvenile nonsense is frequently followed by one of the camera crew screaming that they have been ‘pushed….hit….poked…etc.’ by some invisible being.  Then, when Derek Acorah was the resident ‘spirit-medium’ there came the ‘possession’ or ‘channeling’ of an evil discarnate spirit.  This frequently involved Acorah pulling a stupid face, twisting his lips, screwing up his eyes and gibbering nonsensical rubbish as he lurched about like Boris Karloff  playing The Mummy. There was, believe this or not, one scene in which the ‘psychic-astrologer’ David Wells head-butted a mirror that he had wisely covered with a cloth beforehand. We were invited to accept that he too was possessed by some demonic spirit  that just made him do it. I mean really!

The Real Boris Karloff & David Wells

The resident and very genuine, parapsychologist on ‘Most Haunted’ the erudite Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe, eventually blew the whistle on the fraudulent mediumship of Derek Acorah. O’Keeffe invented names which were given to Acorah. At Bodmin Jail the name O’Keeffe planted for Acorah was Kreed Kafer. This invented character was supposedly a South African jailer with an aggressive disposition. Acorah was given the name of this fictitious individual and told that it would not be used in the programme as the researchers had been unable to confirm it.  But when the moment came for his ‘possession’ spot the evil discarnate spirit that supposedly entered the body of Acorah was none other than O’Keeffe’s invention, the man who never was, Kreed Kafer. Which is, as all crossword addicts will know, an anagram of Derek Faker.   Yet there are people watching ‘Most Haunted’ who actually believe that Acorah’s mediumship is genuine. They are being systematically deceived with the full knowledge of Living TV and the production company who have had this fact spelt out for them by Dr. O’Keeffe.

  Click the image to see Acorah's  'possesion'  by the imaginary Kreed Kafer. (Copyright of this video clip is owned by Living TV and is included in this article for critical purpose)

The newest insult to Spiritualism, again involving Derek Acorah, is Living TVs ‘Ghost Towns’. The formula is quite similar to ‘Most Haunted’ with various locations selected within a given town. The presenters are Daniella Westbrook, she of the humungous cocaine habit, and Angus (Cash in The Attic) Purdon. These two act as sycophantic sidekicks to Acorah, simpering ‘Amazing…Incredible etc.’ and gazing in seemingly fascinated admiration as he repeats his ‘possession by evil spirits’ act time after time after time. People watching this twaddle may, unfortunately for Spiritualism, actually think that the man is really channeling a spirit entity through trance-mediumship. The way he fakes it makes the very idea appear ridiculous. As Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe said ‘In my professional opinion, we’re not dealing with a genuine medium. When Derek is possessed he is doing it consciously – all we are seeing is showmanship and dramatics’. Nor have I ever seen any evidence from Derek Acorah that he can channel spirit. What I have seen amounts to a ludicrous charade played out for the benefit of the cameras in the name of making a TV show. It is funny, it even makes me laugh, but for all the wrong reasons and the religion of Spiritualism is seriously damaged by this kind of phony-baloney, flim flam.  Who believes it? Well as Phineas T. Barnum (1810-91) once famously said ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’.

Freak Show Or Another Faker? Click The Image To View In Depth Article About Acorah's Fakes.

I once knew Derek Acorah and he did, at the time, seem to me to be a compassionate and caring man with a real gift. I wrote his book ‘The Psychic World of Derek Acorah’ commissioned in 1998 by Piatkus Books Ltd. He was not then a trance-medium and was making no such claims in 1998/99 when I worked with him. At that time he was a psychic with an office in Paradise Street, Liverpool charging a set fee for a twenty minute consultation. To the best of my knowledge he had no connections with the Spiritualist Church and was never a member in the accepted use of that term. Yet in various press interviews Acorah  makes the false claim that he trained in Spiritualist Churches and is indeed a  Spiritualist Medium, which is something he most certainly has never been.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-91) 

Click the image to see more of Derek doing his Kreed Kafer act.

I am informed that there has been a formal complaint concerning ‘Most Haunted’ made to Ofcom the Broadcasting Code enforcement agency. They replied that in their opinion ‘Most Haunted’ was ‘not a legitimate investigation’ and the programme was quite clearly ‘just entertainment’. I doubt they would have decided that had it been Islam on the receiving end of the ridiculous nonsense. But then no one appears to be too concerned that Spiritualism is being ridiculed and reduced to the level of a Barnum and Bailey sideshow with Acorah as the Elephant Man.

Click the above image to see a video clip of Derek Acorah faking possession by the spirit of 'Dick Turpin' the highwayman. This is an insult to anyone's intelligence and was obviously done as joke to amuse the camera crew.

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