Gordon Higginson Medium
Gordon Higginson
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Biography of Gordon Higginson (source)
Gordon Higginson was one of the finest mediums of the last century and an excellent medium, speaker and teacher. He was known as “Mr Mediumship” since his gifts of mediumship were wide-ranging and he was a man of great charisma. Gordon said that “Spiritual giants have always moved among the nations of the world” and Gordon himself can rightly be called a ‘spiritual giant’ owing to his accomplishments, his influence and his dedicated work for Spirit.
Birth and Early Life
Gordon’s birth was preordained by Spirit when his mother was just 14 years old and she was given a remarkable message at Longton Spiritualist Church. The medium told Fanny Higginson that since leaving home and coming to the church, her mother had passed to spirit and that Fanny would herself serve as a medium, as would her son, and together their name would be linked with Longton church for over 100 years. On returning home, Fanny found that her mother had indeed tragically passed and Fanny went on to develop as a medium. Fanny remained a medium at Longton church for 70 years until her passing in 1978.
Her son, Gordon Mons Higginson was born on 17th November 1918 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. He began developing his spiritual gifts at a very early age under the careful supervision of his mother Fanny, who was herself an excellent medium. Gordon began sitting in his mother’s circle from the tender age of 3 but was only permitted to pass on spirit communications to other members of the circle when he was 10 years old. He first publicly demonstrated his mediumship at Longton Spiritualist Church on his 12th birthday at which point he embarked on his career as a medium known as “the boy wonder”.
Evidential Mediumship
Gordon Higginson is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest mediums of the last century and he was known as “Mr Mediumship”. Gordon referred to Estelle Roberts as the “perfect medium” due to the variety of different types of mediumship she demonstrated to the highest standards. Gordon gifts of mediumship paralleled those of Estelle’s and were equally as wide-ranging in nature as well as being of the highest quality. They comprised mental mediumship, trance control, physical mediumship and spiritual healing.
Gordon was trained from a very early age to be a platform medium and to demonstrate at large venues in front of capacity crowds. His mother paid for him to have elocution lessons and he commenced working in public at the youthful age of 12. He was known as the “the boy wonder” in his early years and he continued to demonstrate his gift of mental mediumship on the platform for another 63 years until the day before he passed to spirit. He was a highly sought after medium and often did over a hundred demonstrations in a year.
Gordon was renowned for the accuracy of his platform mediumship and his evidence often included full names, addresses and telephone numbers. Gordon was a master of his craft and would often set up several links amongst a large audience and work the links simultaneously. Gordon worked with many of the well known mediums from yesteryear including Estelle Roberts, Helen Hughes, Bertha Harris and Nan Mackenzie and he demonstrated at many of the largest venues in the UK including the Royal Albert Hall on many occasions. Some videos of Gordon demonstrating can be found on the Videos page.
Gordon was also a fine and eloquent speaker and his addresses contained his trademark style and charisma. His addresses also demonstrated his love and passion for the spirit and videos of him speaking can be found on the Videos page.
Trance and Physical Mediumship
Gordon was a fine trance medium and many have witnessed the various guides and mentors who worked with Gordon. His main guide Choo Chow provided spiritual words of wisdom, whilst his childhood friend Cuckoo and his Irish guide Paddy provided gentle fun and humour, as well as Paddy providing clairvoyance in the trance state. Gordon also had another guide called Light who would make predictions and who only come through once per year usually during the trance address at the Christmas morning service at Longton church. Recordings of his guides Choo Chow, Paddy, Cuckoo and Light speaking during trance are available on the Trance Demonstrations audio page.
Gordon was also an excellent physical medium and produced a wide range of physical phenomena including materialisation, transfiguration, independent voice and apports. He regularly demonstrated his physical mediumship in the Library at the Arthur Findlay College to large audiences of 90 or so people. Despite receiving several injuries over the years due to inappropriate acts from sitters, he was not deterred and continued to demonstrate in public. Because of his desire that this remarkable form of mediumship be shared with the public, perhaps more people have been able to witness physical mediumship with Gordon than with any other medium. Gordon is also one of the few physical mediums to demonstrate physical mediumship publicly to an audience of 300 people at the Glasgow Association of Spiritualists. Despite good results, this was one area of his mediumship where Gordon felt there was room for improvement since he felt that he could have achieved better results were he able to sit more regularly.
A rare photograph taken during one of his physical seances during Physical Week at the Arthur Findlay College is shown below and ectoplasm can clearly be seen flowing from his mouth, building up on the floor. The photograph was taken in the Library at Stansted Hall on 15th November 1974 using infra-red photography and the medium Ronald Baker is holding back the curtain.
For more on this séance click here
Healing
Although well known for his platform work and physical séances, Gordon was also an accomplished spiritual healer. Together with his healing guide Dr John, Gordon was able to diagnose and provide healing for a wide range of ailments. Up until the time of his passing in 1993, queues regularly formed outside Longton Spiritualist Church when he was holding spiritual healing sessions. In addition, Gordon practised spiritual healing on animals and vets supported claims of a number of miracle cures with cases where all hope appeared lost
Longton Church
Gordon and his mother Fanny had a long association with Longton Spiritualist Church. Gordon was appointed President of the church in 1946 at the young age of 28 and he continued to hold this position for the next 47 years until his passing. Longton remained his spiritual home throughout his life and, together with his mother, the prophecy of 100 years of combined service to the church as mediums came true.
SNU President
Gordon became President of the Spiritualist’s National Union (SNU) in 1970 at a time when the Union was in severe financial difficulties and had been given less than two years to survive. In addition, the crippling debt owing on Stansted Hall meant that the Union had no option but to sell it unless a miracle could be performed. Gordon did not want the job at first and had turned it down as he recognised the impossible challenge.
All of this changed with a chance encounter with a monk at the Arthur Findlay College. Returning home from working on the south coast, Gordon became sleepy and found he had gotten lost but was close to the College. He rang and was able to be put up for the night. The next morning, he was told there was a man who wanted to talk with him. Gordon entered the Library and was shocked to find a monk complete with the archetypal habit. The monk told him that he must take the job of Union President. Gordon left the Library to speak to the General Manager who was waiting outside and when they both entered the room, the monk had disappeared. There was no way out except past Gordon so it became clear that the monk was a spirit messenger.
After the visitation, Gordon accepted the role of President and threw himself fully into the challenge of saving the Union. He organised many demonstrations to raise funds for the Union and he set up the Friends of Stansted Hall to help save the College. Under Gordon’s energetic and determined Presidency, the Union was saved from bankruptcy and the debt owed by Stansted Hall was cleared. We have so much to thank Gordon for in saving the both SNU and the Arthur Findlay College and preserving them for future generations.
Gordon remains the longest-serving President of the Spiritualists National Union, serving for an exceptional 23 years from 1970 until his passing in 1993. He was also a Minister of the SNU and officiated at many namings, weddings and funerals.
Teaching and the Arthur Findlay College
Gordon had a detailed understanding of mediumship and he was a fine teacher, much in demand across the country. He taught on the very first Summer School at the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall in 1965 and continued to teach there for a period of 28 years. He was the Principal of the College from 1979 to 1993. Stansted Hall was always very dear to his heart and a place where many came from far and wide to hear his lectures and see his demonstrations, and for a special few to witness his demonstrations of physical mediumship in the college Library.
Passing and Legacy
Gordon suffered a couple of strokes during 1990 following the SNU Centenary celebrations at Wembley. Following his strokes, he feared he had lost his remarkable gift of mediumship but he did recover and continued his unrelenting work for spirit until the day before his passing. He took his transition to spirit at his home on 18th January 1993 after returning home from serving Blackpool Spiritualist Church, one of his favourite churches.
Gordon left behind a tremendous legacy. Above all else, Gordon was a dedicated spiritualist, an outstanding servant of the Spirit and devoted his entire life to the movement. He routinely travelled the length and breadth of the country demonstrating his wonderful gifts of mediumship as well as undertaking presidential engagements. He gave so much of himself and expected such little in return since he did not even charge fees for his spiritual work. His unrelenting workload often affected his health and in one year he undertook some 300 large publicity meetings. Few have worked so tirelessly in promoting Spiritualism.
Gordon Higginson was not only an exceptional medium and teacher, but a man of great warmth, humour and charisma and he is still very much missed by many today despite it being over 25 years since his passing. Men of his spiritual stature and charisma are few and far between and we are only graced with a few every century. Gordon truly was a remarkable man and a ‘spiritual giant’.
I only hope that this website can give an insight into his abilities, his teachings, his personality, his love of the spirit and all that makes him special.
