Jim on the old joanna at Hullbridge
Music at Hullbridge
When I first came to Hullbridge Christian Spiritualist Church in January 2002 there was already a friendly, welcoming atmosphere, and I felt very at home, even though I hadn’t been to a spiritualist church since I was a teenager, about 20 years previously.
Geoff Angus, who is still our president, shook me by the hand and said ‘You are very welcome at our church, its nice to see you’, and I immediately thought, ‘what a great place to be’.
I returned to the church each week, as I found myself, like many others do, at a time in my life where I needed answers, I needed direction, understanding. I needed to re-discover some firm values on which to base my life and on which to make decisions, as the ones I had used up until then hadn’t worked for me.
Well I certainly got this and much more. The wisdom, compassion and understanding that comes from the teaching and philosophy from the spirit world is hugely uplifting. Spirit, of course, know exactly what troubles we are facing and often come with words of wisdom which help you put your particular troubles into perspective, and help you realise what to do to move forward.
Now, at those early services, we sang two or three hymns, which Geoff liked to vary each week. The only trouble was, we had no music to accompany us. People, embarrassed with their own voices, and often not knowing the tune, would often move their lips, but not very much would come out (it reminds me of an episode of Mr Bean where he finds himself in the same predicament.) Now Geoff has a powerful voice so we all used to follow him, but heaven help us if Geoff wasn’t there. All we could muster was a murmer.
That was one of the first times I felt ‘Spirit’ guiding and influencing me. Although my brain was saying “No Jim! Don’t do it, don’t do it. You’ll only make a fool of yourself in front of all those people”, I found myself uncontrollably blurting out the words to Geoff, “Well, I play the keyboard, I’m sure I can knock out a few hymns”.
I expected Geoff to back up my own feelings of inadequacy and say , “thanks but no thanks”. However, no sooner had I spoken than Geoff got all excited, and said “ Oh would you?! HEY EVERYBODY, JIM’S GOING TO PLAY THE KEYBOARD FOR US! (Gulp!)
Well the rest is history, I started a bit shakily, but I’ve now been playing for the church for the last four years. Over the years, my repertoire has increased, and I have been able to spend more time developing the specific sounds for each hymn or song.
Now, myself, Geoff and the other members of the committee have had overwhelming feedback about how nice the atmosphere is at Hullbridge, and also how the music really brings upliftment and helps raise the vibration, enabling mediums to relax and connect more strongly.
From my perspective, the church and ‘Spirit’ have given me so much upliftment and inspiration, I’m just glad that I can give something back, and contribute in some way.
We always say, and its true, that you come away from our church feeling much better than when you walked in, and this is what we aim to bring people, friendship, upliftment and the knowledge of ‘Spirit’.
Are you aware of how Spirit guide you? Do you notice all those ‘co-incidences’ which are not really co-incidences at all? Well spirit have certainly been involved in guiding me to progress with my music and bring my music to Hullbridge and to other spiritual gatherings. They certainly seemed to want me working for them in this way.
I started learning keyboard when I was 23 (so don’t listen when people say you have to start as a child!). I progressed onto Organ, and completed all seven stages of the organ course over about 8 years. At that time I worked in the City, and work had become so busy, as well as the fact that I was starting my own family, that I gave up playing the keyboard completely. I didn’t touch it for 8 years. All the time though, I felt a yearning to get back to it, almost like it was calling me. I used to get very frustrated that all my time was spent working and I had no time for things (or people) I loved.
Well, year after year, promotion after promotion, things got busier and busier, and the frustration grew and grew, and finally something had to give. You know, sometimes if you don’t know how to make changes in your life, then changes are forced upon you. I had overload, burn-out, breakdown, whatever you want to call it. All I knew was, I couldn’t keep working and working when it never brought me love, joy or upliftment. So after being signed off by the doctor for my headaches, lack of energy and concentration, I found myself with lots of time to think about what my life had been and what I wanted it to do in the future. Changes were definitely needed, but what were they? That’s when I first went to Hullbridge Church and started putting the peaces back together. Now, my priorities have changed. My family come first, and I have become passionate about bring healing of the mind to as many people as I can, through my music, through passing on the knowledge and evidence of spirit, and through talking to people about the techniques and ways I have overcome my difficulties. I do believe that we all can help people who are experiencing now, what we once experienced. Show them the way, give them encouragement, let them know they are safe. I now believe that this breakdown was the best thing that happened to me and was Spirit’s way of helping me make the change from a life I loathed, to one I love.
Well, going back to when I first came out of the city, I thought, ‘right, I’m going to start playing the organ again’. I went to the local music shops in search of an instrument. Now this is where spirit were influencing me again. Everywhere I went, I started talking about organs, but ended up talking about keyboards. I really knew organs, so was adamant I wanted another one, but something inside me was saying, ‘no, you need an instrument that you can easily move around’. Until then, I had only ever played for my own enjoyment at home, so my feelings seemed illogical. Why would I need to take an instrument around? Amazingly, my strong feelings over-rode my brain and I ended up buying a Technics Keyboard. It was only about two weeks later that I first went to Hullbridge Church, and only two weeks after that, that I found myself offering to play the hymns. So THAT’S why I needed an instrument that I could carry around!
Well since then, Spirit often use the music to convey some message, or to bring more evidence. There was a time when a lady called Margaret, asked me to play ‘We Are Sailing’ as one of the hymns, in memory of the anniversary of her husband’s passing, and I naturally obliged. Almost immediately after the hymn had been played, the medium started her clairvoyance. Now she didn’t know Margaret, or know that she had requested that hymn, but she went straight to Margaret with the first message and proceeded to give information and evidence about her husband, and his links to the Sea. What were the chances of that?
Then there was the time that the medium said, “I’ve got a lovely lady called Rose, who loves the music and was dancing a waltz to that last hymn”. What the medium didn’t know, was that Rose used to be a member of our church who helped run it for many years. She had asked me to learn a hymn called ‘Softly and Tenderly’, which I did. Rose later passed to spirit, but it did not surprise us one bit that she would often return to us via the medium, to let us know she’s still keeping an eye on what was going on. However, the best evidence of this came on that day, when the medium, who did not know Rose, said she was dancing to that last hymn, because the last hymn was ‘Softly and Tenderly’, the same hymn that Rose loved and had asked me to learn!
Then there was the time that I wasn’t at the church one week, and when I came back the following week, Geoff said, “last week we only sang ‘Let There Be Peace On Earth’ once round, because without the music our voices were struggling (normally we sing it twice through). So I started playing Let There Be Peace (as we sing it every week), and before I could play it twice through, all the electricity went off, so my keyboard had no power. The congregation struggled on a second time without the music. Now you could say, oh that’s just a co-incidence, but when you think that the electric has never gone off in 4 years and stopped me playing, only at that precise moment, we therefore believe that Spirit were having a laugh with us.
Then there was a time that the service was over, and everyone was relaxing with a cup of tea, and I played a few background songs, then I moved away from my keyboard to chat to a few people. John Morrow, one of our own mediums and organiser (with wife Debbie) of our annual Psychic Fayre, said to me, he could see a young spirit girl sitting at my keyboard, and he told me she keeps saying she is your sister. I acknowledged politely, but secretly thought, oh that can’t be right, my sister is alive and well and living in New\Zealand, and I have no other sisters. Then, a few weeks later, I found that my organ teacher from years gone by, had passed into spirit about that time, and she always said to me that I was like a brother to her!
Here’s another interesting phenomena. Orbs are thought to be the first stage of physical manifestation of spirit energy. They appear as globes of light, often detected by digital cameras. On this particular day, my Mum and I had received a reading from the medium, and the spirit communicating was my Grandfather, my Mum’s Dad. After the service, my Mum came over to the keyboard to chat to me, and this photo was taken. The group of lights right above us is a group of two or three orbs of white, yellow and green. Although not too clear in this copy of the photo, I can clearly see a face in exact proportions in the white orb, not unlike my Grandfather. Note that there is no other light source in this position in the church and nothing on the wall at that position that could have produced this light phenomena! (See picture below)
Here’s another picture. I like to think the music helps draw so many spirits close to us at Hullbridge, but I’m sure they would come close anyway. Maybe it helps, who knows. Anyway, check out these orbs!
No, it wasn’t raining inside! These orbs were everywhere just after the church service.
Anyway, I hope you found these interesting. We would love to see you at Hullbridge Church, but in the meantime, please let me know if my music can help bring upliftment to any of your events.
Warmest wishes
Jim Thornton
View Hullbridge Church Info
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