Doris Stokes

Doris Fisher Stokes (January 6, 1920 - May 8, 1987) was a British psychic medium. Her memoirs, public demonstrations of mediumship, and television appearances helped to raise the profile of Spiritualism and promoted a resurgence of interest in psychic phenomena in the late twentieth century. Image File history File links Dorisstokes. ... Image File history File links Dorisstokes. ... January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. ... Look up medium in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Spiritualism may refer to a variety of modern religious ideologies , primarily active in the United States and Europe. ... Spiritualism is a religious movement, prominent from the 1840s to the 1920s, found primarily in English-speaking countries. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. ...

Stokes was born in Grantham. In her memoirs she claims that she started seeing spirits and hearing disembodied voices in childhood, and developed these abilities further once she joined a local spiritualist church. Grantham aka G-Town is a small market town in Lincolnshire, England with about 38,000 inhabitants. ...

Critics accused Stokes of fraud, such as using cold-reading and eavesdropping to glean information about those who sat for readings with her. Repeated attempts to discredit her, including by British tabloids which offered financial incentives to her friends and associates to expose her after her death never produced evidence to support such charges. Eavesdropping is the intercepting of conversations by unintended recipients. ... A tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. ...

When challenged, Stokes was observed to defend herself against critics with messages claimed as containing accurate information by her sitters. Her seven volumes of autobiography document the various tests she underwent to determine the source of her information. One examination involved her subject to a lie detector, another required her to undergo hypnosis and be questioned about her methods. An autobiography (from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write) is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ... Hypnotic Seance, by Richard Bergh Hypnosis is understood to be a psychological condition in which an individual may be induced to exhibit apparent changes in behavior and thought. ...

In 1978 she undertook a series of live tests on US television, which increased her public profile as well as that of Spiritualism. She received much condemnation from the Church of England, which objected to spirit communication as an offence to God, as indicated in several Old Testament texts (i.e 1 Samuel 28) which forbid using the services of what are now called psychics. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... This article is about the Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. ...

At the end of her last memoir, completed before she underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour, which she had not predicted, she reported a disembodied voice telling her "Your life on earth is over, your life in spirit has begun." She died a few days later during surgery in May 1987. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• Voices: a Doris Stokes Collection, Doris Stokes
• A Host of Voices: The Second Doris Stokes Collection, Doris Stokes
• A Tribute to Doris Stokes, edited by Linda Dearsley

External links

• Spiritualist's National Union of the United Kingdom