The Dunedin Spiritual Expo

Hamish Dickson - 8 July 2024

I managed to attend the Spiritual Expo in Dunedin last month. A week later, I also went along to a two hour long medium session at the Dunedin Spiritualist Church. I will be talking about the medium experience later in this article but, first, the Expo.

Most of the stalls at the Expo had a spiritual theme, including crystals, tarot readers, clairvoyants, and “healers” of sorts. Below are some pendulums that are meant to detect vitamin deficiencies.

I approached one lady at the event who had a bed set up in the hall. She claimed to use a technique known as Craniosacral Therapy. She said she gently massages the cranial bones, with the idea of changing or aligning any dysfunction of the spinal fluid and the fluid surrounding the brain. This supposedly works by moving the bones that are claimed to articulate at the cranial sutures. This, of course, is absolute hogwash, as anyone knows these bones do not articulate anywhere as they are fused together about two years after birth. She gave me a pamphlet with a list of things Craniosacral Therapy can supposedly help with. These included colic, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, Occupational Overuse Syndrome, and even learning disabilities. I asked her if that means curing my dyslexia, but she said no. I asked where she sees the place of modern medicine, for example delivered by a GP. She gave the tired old reply of “it only treats the symptoms, not the cause”. I then asked her if she sees her treatments as complementary to conventional medicine, or as a replacement. She said that it was very much complementary. At this, I wished her a good day.

Next was another healer. I was unsure what sort of healing he offered, as it was not obvious, but he had a crystal on his table. I had seen him at the Spiritualist Church a fortnight earlier. I asked him about his treatment, and how it matches up with modern medicine. He said modern medicine has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical companies. He gave an example of the COVID vaccine not working, and of it being forced on people. He also mentioned court cases against drug companies around the vaccine, and how it was deliberately designed to spread the disease. This conversation quickly became nauseating, and I did not want to blow my cover as I was to attend the Spiritualist church the week after. So, in the end I didn’t ask him if he sees his treatments as complementary to conventional medicine or a replacement - but I can guess his likely answer!

I had an intention of talking with a few mediums, but they were all busy except for one who charged $40 for 15 mins. This was a wee bit steep for a 15 minute reading, when I could wait a week and watch four of them for two hours for a five dollar entry fee! I asked her when she first discovered her gift of being able to talk with dead people. She said that it was after the Christchurch earthquake. She went on to say she located a person who said they were in an elevator of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building. She said that the person was found not far from an elevator. I asked her if she makes a living out of doing readings, as she charges $80 for a full session - but she said that she doesn’t. She added that she was not like the lady on Sensing Murder in Australia. I asked her if she was aware that not a single murder was ever solved on that show as a result of the Clairvoyants. She said no, and that she hadn’t seen the Australian version.

There were about 100 people at the event, and even a room out the back with beds for healers offering treatments such as Reiki, reflexology and Manual Lymphatic Drainage, along with other reality-denying crocks of garbage. But, there were more crazy happenings to be seen later that month when I attended a two hour long mediumship at the spiritualist church…

The last Sunday of every month the Spiritualist Church in Dunedin has a mediumship session. This is an event where several people who claim they can talk to dead people get together and give readings to individual members of the audience. I am not sure there was much hot reading going on, as there were so few hits.

One medium said, “I am getting a korowai (maori clock). It has been passed down. I sense it is coming from this side of the room”. This just happened to be where two Maori women were sitting - one with a moko kauae (traditional chin tattoo). And what do you know? - a hit. One medium picked a person in the audience and asked about a crystal decanter, but there was no hit. She kept trying to describe where the decanter was, and asking if that “resonated”. She then said the decanter had fallen over. There were still no hits, so it then turned into a metaphor. The medium said that the spirits were conveying for her not to let people knock her down.

Another medium picked a person, and said someone they knew had died who wore blue. This was a hit, to no surprise. The medium then asked if the reason for their passing was a heart attack, as she was getting a sensation in her chest area. This one was not a hit. “How about lungs, cancer”. No hits here either. So “someone that wore blue” worked, but nothing else landed. People pay for this garbage!

Another medium, after a series of misses and no hits, began to talk in ‘Light Language”. See this video for an example of light language:

The whole thing was tragic, and cringeworthy to watch. None of the mediums appeared to use the hot reading method, owing to the overwhelming misses with hardly any hits. What hits there were, were often a result of broad questions to the whole audience, such as “I’m getting an older man who worked on cars. Does that resonate with anyone?”, or “I’m getting the colour blue”. Cold reading could have been used, but it is hard to tell as it could also be that some of these mediums actually believe they are contacting the dead, but are in reality just projecting their own thoughts. For example, one medium said she could sense vanilla, and there was a vanilla scented candle burning in the room!

Interestingly, one of the mediums used automatic writing to contact dead people. Automatic writing works in a similar way to dowsing, Ouija boards and facilitated communication, in that it unintentionally incorporates the Ideomotor Effect. I talked with her after the mediumship, faking an interest in automatic writing. I suggested she look up the Ideomotor Effect, without explaining it further. I figured there’s nothing wrong with planting a seed.

My overall experiences with the Spiritualist Church in Dunedin and the Expo were positive from the perspective of their warm and welcoming attitude. These events were friendly, but not overly friendly like the Jehovah’s Witness Church I once attended where I was asked over for dinner twice by members of the congregation on my first visit. Finally, the spiritualist church has finally had their heat pumps installed, so it’s now physically warm as well.

There is another Expo due in September, but I don’t think I’ll be attending. I’ve had my fill for now!