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REPAY £180,000 CILLA BLACK SOUGHT ‘DEAD’ TAKE A SPIRITUAL HUSBAND’S ADVICE WALK IN NATURE WIN A 6-CD AUDIO BOOK OF 09> VENUS: A DIARY OF A PUPPY AND HER ANGEL 9 770033 280014 FEATURE 18 PSYCHIC NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2015 FEATURE INTERVIEW from tarot to trance HOW TO BE AN EVIDENTIAL MEDIUM JOHN HOLLAND, one of the world’s top exponents of spirit communication, reveals the secrets of his mediumistic development GROWING up on the streets of Boston, what was happening.” Massachusetts, one of five children from a John started reading books about spirit working class Irish-Italian Catholic family, communication avidly and, in particular, John Holland realised he was different. accounts by and about well-known “I used to see spirit people in my mediums, healers and spirit guides, such as bedroom when I was young,” he explains, Ena Twigg, Estelle Roberts, Harry Edwards “and I knew what was going to happen or and Silver Birch. what people would say before they said it. “I was particularly interested in their life I thought at that time that everyone could stories: how these people developed and do that.” When he realised this was not the lived with their abilities and managed them. case, John did his best to hide his psychic I needed to understand what was involved if ability. I was going to follow in their footsteps.” It took an automobile accident at the age of 30, in the early 1990s, to change his life TEST CONDITIONS completely. Though he was not seriously injured, the trauma of the crash had A decade later, John Holland had joined suddenly intensified his psychic ability. the ranks of America’s top mediums, “It was instantaneous. It was so fast. And confidently filling large halls with his public I felt an energy surging straight through me. demonstrations, bringing comfort to the My psychic abilities seemed to become 100 bereaved and appearing on prime time TV times stronger.” shows about psychic powers. He is so sure John, who was living in Los Angeles, of his ability to communicate with the spirit California, decided to embark on a psychic world or to tune into past events psychically career. He was prepared to give up his job at that he even agreed to work under strict a hotel, but first he needed to start using his test conditions for TV documentaries. abilities and developing them to help people Viewers of Mediums: We See Dead People in some way. He did so by giving tarot which was broadcast in 2005 on A&E readings in an aromatherapy shop. Biography channel, saw John in a New York “I never really read the deck – I believe taxi being taken to an unknown destination. the images, colours and words on them Although not familiar with the city, he was are wonderful teaching tools to access and blindfolded throughout the journey and at develop your intuitive abilities. I wasn’t the start of the experiment. going by what the book said, but images Escorted into a nondescript building, he would pop into my mind that pertained to was taken up in a lift to the ninth floor. Once the client in front of me.” the blindfold was removed John walked After two years of doing part-time tarot around, followed by a film crew, as he readings, something strange and totally described the feelings he was getting. unexpected happened. As he approached a stairwell he spoke “I’d be giving someone a reading about of “feeling female” and then went on to say their career and in would come their Uncle there had been a fire which he thought, Joe or their Aunt Charlotte, and I said, judging by the clothes the women were ‘What’s happening? What’s this all about?’ wearing, would have been in the 1910s or I quickly realised I needed to understand 1920s. “I feel they can’t get out,” he added. PSYCHIC NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2015 19 INTERVIEW “It’s like a giant fireball and the heat is overwhelming. I feel trapped. There’s no way out... ” He was then taken to the ninth floor where National Historic Landmark and part of Spiritualist churches. He lived in Bristol and the feelings became even more intense. New York University. For the next 90 years, told me there were 10 churches in the area. “It’s like a giant fireball and the heat is it remained New York’s worst workplace I was amazed. overwhelming,” he said, trying to control disaster until the events of 9/11. “His name is Simon Steel and we got to his emotions, adding that he could hear the The same degree of accuracy was know each other, and he invited me over to women’s screams as they attempted to flee displayed when John was filmed by the England.” the inferno. Chronicle newsmagazine TV series, first It was a tempting offer but not one that “I feel trapped. There’s no way out... I feel during a public demonstration and then seemed likely to materialise since John had the tightness of how many people they must giving spirit messages to individuals, one of a job and a rented apartment in Los Angeles. have put in this area. A lot more people than whom was a Channel 5 employee, in private When his job suddenly came to an end a this place should have held. I was hearing sittings. The impressive results, together visit to the UK became more achievable, sewing machines. Hard-working women. with the documentary on the Triangle fire but he didn’t want to lose his apartment. Textiles. Factory. They’re all lined up. It’s hot disaster, can be viewed on YouTube.com: However, a solution soon presented itself. anyway, before the fire. It must have been a see links in panel. “An American friend of mine called me sweat shop... I felt I wanted to go out of the and said, ‘I’d love to come to California and windows. It was overwhelming.” HEADED FOR BRITAIN study writing. I know you want to go to The documentary’s voice-over England. How about if you were to go to said John’s psychic impressions were So how did a part-time Los Angeles tarot England, I’d pay your rent and live at your “extraordinarily accurate” as was his reader develop and hone his skills to the place while you’re gone?’” observation: “This would have been big level seen in these TV films and in his public Everything had effortlessly fallen into history when it happened.” John Holland and private demonstrations? place to enable John to realise his ambition. had been taken to a building in New York’s The answer, surprisingly, is that he left “Doors had opened. I’m a big advocate of Greenwich Village that once housed the the United States and headed for Britain. synchronicity. If Spirit want you to go in that Triangle Shirtwaist Factory which made Why? direction they’ll make it happen.” ladies’ blouses. On 25 March, 1911, fire “What struck me, when I devoured those He had never been to the UK before but, broke out on the eighth floor and quickly books on spirit communication and leading even though he loved its history and the spread to the three floors above. mediums, was that they were all from the architecture, sightseeing was not high on Some escape routes and exits were UK. And I said to myself, ‘If I could only go to John’s agenda. “I was there to develop and locked and the final death toll was 146 England and study with these people how understand my mediumship,” he emphasises. garment workers of whom 123 were young great would that be?’ Staying with Simon in Bristol enabled Italian or Jewish women, most under “Well, two weeks after that I stepped on him to get to know the local churches. the age of 22. Of those who perished, 69 someone’s foot at a party and we chatted “Being an American, I sort of stood out a either jumped or fell to their deaths from and I discovered he was from England. little. But wherever I went they welcomed the burning building, which today is a Although not a Spiritualist he knew about me in and gave me wonderful help and 20 PSYCHIC NEWS | SEPTEMBER 2015 INTERVIEW advice. And one person led discipline,” John observes, Square. “I was in my element. I can’t tell you to another. “because they really work how excited I was. I went to a Christmas “Early on I was introduced you and that’s exactly what Cavalcade and there were Gordon Smith to Joan Lambert, a Welsh I needed. They taught me and Tony Stockwell, who were then young medium, so I went to Wales what it really meant to men in their 20s and are now Britain’s top to have a private reading link with Spirit: how to do evidential mediums.” Both have since played with her. She then made it in front of people, what important roles in his life. contact with Margaret colours mean, your aura. He first saw Gordon demonstrating at Stanley, president of The Bristol circle was Melksham Spiritualist Church. “Gordon was Melksham Spiritualist wonderful for practice; it kind enough to take me under his wing as a Church in Devizes, Wiltshire, was Stansted that gave me mentor.