MY JV Trust Experience
MY JV Trust Experience
By Ross Collins
20th Aug – 27th Aug 2022
A small disclaimer to start, I’ve written this about a year and a half after it happened, as such it was hard to remember precise details of when things happened. Which is why I went for a more general overview.
The JV Trust was set up by Roy and Christine Wandless. The J.V. Trust week is a free week set up for invitees from spiritualist churches around the country.
I first arrived on Saturday 20th August.
My First impressions of the building was that it was large and intimidating. It reminded me of similar feelings such as when you start a new school or university. Throughout my stay this was a recurring theme, either from current lecturers recounting their first experiences of the college, or from students. I feel this is somewhat natural while you are settling in and a reflection of confidence. In my case while I was driving into the ground. I heard a voice that said “give it a chance”.
This group with the AV trust were quite unique in that we waited serval years to come down thanks to Covid, Personally I also could have went a year previously but I had already had plans to visit my uncle and his family in Australia. I requested for my visit to be postponed a year. Obviously not knowing that we would get hit by a pandemic. So everyone was extra keen due to how long it took to get everyone there.
After signing in and settling in to my room we went into the Sanctuary for the welcome and introduction.
After Dinner we went back into the Sanctuary where we got introduced to The lecturers for the week.
There was a social in the Gallery at 9 with free drinks.
Throughout the week there was slots to book Readings in the “Blue Room”
At one point during the weekend we had a form to fill in specifying our preferences as to what group we would like to join. Each tutor gave a pitch explaining their group. There was two mediumship groups, a healing group a public speaking group, and Art group and a Self Awareness group, which was the group that I chose. I made this choice because I hadn’t been in regular development circles recently. I felt that I might have been a bit rusty, also I liked and agreed with the concept with working on myself to help you to develop further. My intuition is normally quite good with these things and it just felt right at the time. This group was
taken by Vanessa Larson. Each group was to give a presentation on Friday.
Breakfast was every Morning at 8. After the meditation and Morning session there was tea and coffee at 11. Lunch was at 1, there was Coffee again at four after the afternoon session with dinner again at 6pm. They fed you well during meals, there was not many opportunity for snacks in between times with the exception of after the evening demonstration where you could get crisps at the bar. In the shop they also kept chocolate in the fridge. Someone told me that one, felt like a bit of a cheat code. The food was of a pretty high standard. It reminds you a little bit of school dinners but it was ok. The one thing that impressed me was the amount of staff that they had running the place.
During breakfast they liked to play “oh what a Beautiful Morning” (Okahoma!) and Always look on the bright side of life (Monty python) and you were encouraged to sign along, you kinda have to be there to appreciate that part!
There was classes and events scheduled throughout the day and it was very difficult to go to everything nor did you have to the only thing you definitely had to attend was your own class at 11:30 each day.
Every morning at 9:30 there is a morning meditation or contemplation after breakfast. This will vary from tutor to tutor. This is followed by a class at 10.
11:30 am was time for group work with your own group.
During the 11:30 class we did things like visualisation and colour (imagining an object and it’s shape etc), Oracle cards and we also did some things on energy (pushing and pulling people away) Also standing behind someone and having identify who the think it is.
There was also a session Where Vanessa played youtube music videos and we wrote down how we felt. We also had to work out what we were going to do for our presentation on Friday. (more on that later!) The group served as either as a way to build confidence or rebuilding confidence.
There is another session at 2:30.
At 4:30 there is a choice between receiving healing or a session where you work on your mediumship.
On Sunday Evening at 7:30 there was a public service, Monday and Tuesday were Demos there was another public service on Wednesday On Friday there was Final Group work preparing for the presentation on Sunday they had the Concert.
Two of the Sessions that stood out to me was one taken by Margaret, which was one on ribbons, We paired off into groups and we were each given a bunch of ribbons which were made of strips of several different colours. You were to lie them over your knee then give a reading based on how they fell. I’m colour-blind so I had to go by shades and it’s general shape, despite this I seemed to get pretty good feedback which I found interesting.
Another Session that I went to was a class were people could work on things for their presentation a lady from the art group got up (who just so happen to be in the room next to mine). She showed us some drawings that she had previously done. I am usually difficult when it comes to receiving messages but this one I absolutely had to take, it looked very close to if not identical to a service user I used to support. (I work as a care at home assistant.) Some of the messaging made sense as so as I put it into a context I understood. There was writing on the back of the picture for me to reference later, it mentioned a change around December time which funnily enough there was.
For The Presentation on Friday The group decided after much deliberation to share our experiences interspersed in between the Greatest showman song “this is me”
For example we would play and sing the song, (with varied ability but that wasn’t the point.) But every time or at least sometimes when it got to “this is me” we would stop the recording and someone would walk up to speak. We all stood as a group and not everyone spoke which was their decision but the key thing was that everyone was there together. With some groups because there was so many in the group not everyone participated. Also the point of the bit was to express yourself unashamedly.
For my part I dug out quotes from various places and ending in a joke.
This is what I put :-
“The expectations of life depend upon diligence, the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” – Confucius
“No healing can be effective until the cause which has created the trouble is overcome” – Harry Edwards
“ when I understand myself I understand you and out of that understanding comes love” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
“Ive decided to stop being self aware, what I do is none of my business.”
My joke got a laugh and everyone got through it so mission accomplished.
On Friday evening we had the concert, this was made up of students that agreed to contribute and it was put together by the Twins Geoff and Al.
You could contribute in any way at all. Wether it was Poetry, a reading singing, or any performance art at all. I didn’t pick that up at the time. If I did I would have done something, by “concert” I thought it was just singing. But it was quite impressive what they managed to put together. There was poetry, a Charleston, Someone that used to be on broadway and a play. If nothing else it showed the diversity of people that get involved with the spiritualists movement.
There was a shop open throughout every day which was fairly popular during opening times, you could normally jump in in-between classes and eating. It has what you normally expect in spiritual shops, it had books, crystals and cards. It also may have things that tutors referenced in classes. For example I brought a Mastery of Mediumship deck Created by Eileen Davis. They are a nice deck of cards that give you something to focus on. For example, *shuffles deck* there is one card which says “I am grateful” on the front (along with a picture of a Mandala) On the back it says.
“Clairsentience” – “Clairsentience is the ability to sense or feel the presence of a spirit person. This ability enables the medium to experience the spirit communicator in a very real Manner.”
“Intent, focus, perceive” – “Through the language of feeling, perceive the funeral. Were any special songs played or was there a particular poem read? Did a loved one give a special tribute or eulogy?”
They are good cards for a daily focus.
I also brought a book by Harry Edwards, who was a well known spiritual healer. The reason I did that was because when I had my reading with Leah Bond she mentioned him because as typical with my readings a lot of it was about how I should get into healing.
Speaking of readings I had a reading done on Wednesday, it was quite useful and gave me things to think about.
One final thing I should definitely mention is the grounds/garden. There is 36 acres of landscaped grounds. Rescue horses also reside on the grounds. There is a lot to walk around and see including a “peace garden” a ‘Tulip Tree’ and a lake. It’s definitely worth a walk round, the only issue being finding time. So you will either have to take some time out of classes or go early in the morning before breakfast if you are an early bird.
On the final day on Sunday we had to check out of our rooms before 9:30am which felt rushed but you were still allowed to stay on the grounds afterwards.
On the whole it was a really good experience. It wasn’t until I typed it all out I realised how much happened and was crammed into the week. Aside from any learning experience you may have, it’s a great experience overall and I recommend any spiritualist to come visit Arthur Findlay College at least once.
