Festival Time
By Debbie Summers
Festival Time
Adele Penn of the Brighthelm Healing Trust runs a mind, body and spirit fair called the Spirit of the Millennium Festival, every February and September at Hove Town Hall, East Sussex. This is a very popular fair, even before you reach the main hall, you come across stands for second hand books, Aura-Soma, Iridology and some stalls selling fairy and angel ornaments and jewellery. The ground floor is buzzing with all kinds of people, all ages, classes and creeds. Some have come to find out what is available in the healing realm, others come for readings, and still more come to soak up the atmosphere, listen to the free talks and buy crystals, herbal and flower remedies at a reasonable price.
There are several large stands selling everything you could possibly need, particularly crystals, of which there is a large variety of type, colour and size; tarot cards and books. All the stallholders are very helpful, and they go out of their way to find exactly what you are looking for. If you need help with a particular health problem they will suggest crystals that may help and will tell you how to use them
All kinds of therapies and healers are at the fair, including reflexology, spiritual healing, Reiki healing, flower remedies and Ayurvedic natural beauty and Aromatherapy products. Asmita Jani was there running the Ayurvedic stand, which is a traditional Indian medicine, which has been practised in India for around 5000 years. Asmita explained, “Ayurvedic offers a true holistic approach. It gives you information on how to live a happy and healthy life. The philosophy is based on the 5 elements or ki energies, which we call kapha. The idea behind it is to help to keep your energies in the right balance, for example, when there is an imbalance, such as, there is too much of one element, it creates illness. It is based on prevention rather than cure. It is something that can be practised in your own kitchen as all the herbs and spices which we use in Indian cooking have healing properties, for example, ginger is very good for digestion and cumin is good for a general detox. Everything has healing power, you just need to know how to use it.
"My husband, Dr Milind Jani, is a local GP and we know that there are good things in modern medicine that we can’t do without, for example, for conditions like heart problems. But often patients have tension, anxiety, worry, pain, aches, those kinds of things. What we do can complement modern medicine so we use traditional medicine to complement these conditions, ie, digestive problems, IBS, chronic conditions that modern medicine find hard to treat.”
Marion Grey Foss is a Bach and Bush Flower Practitioner, Reiki Master and Louise Hay Advanced Teacher. Marion said, “I suppose I got involved about 9 or 10 years ago. My partner died and I had rheumatoid arthritis so everything in my life was really awful. I decided at that point I had to do something about it. I discovered flower remedies and started taking them and then from there I started doing the practitioner exams, which was about 4 years ago and I now do it full time if I can.
"Dr Bach invented the flower remedies. He was a Harley Street specialist and a homeopath but he was disillusioned with how hospitals treated people. For instance, they would have a whole ward of people with cancer and give them the same cancer treatment and he noticed that some people got better and some didn’t. But he came to the conclusion that it was the person that needed to be treated, not what was wrong with them so that is why he started to create the flower remedies. It works on emotional and mental conditions and on the person themselves, so we treat the person, not what is wrong with them.
"It hit a real cord with me because I felt even though I was being treated for a physical condition, that the roots of the physical condition went way back to long term depression and deep unhappiness, so that’s when I started on the flower remedies. I then started to study Bach Flowers and did the practitioner’s exam and while I was doing that I started to find out about other flower remedy makers. All over the world there’s about 200 now. I decided to specialise in Bush from Australia because they are very modern. Ian White, who makes the Bush flower remedies, is very dynamic. They (Bush) are much more likely to say they heal conditions because Ian White has had a lot of success, especially in South American countries where they can't afford modern medicine. He claims to have even cured Elephantitius! I have read some fantastic studies with the Bush, regarding fertility – with women who want to get pregnant. I believe there is a practice in Sydney, Australia, where they have something like a 90% success rate just using the Bush Remedies. So they are very dynamic and very powerful and I didn’t feel I was contradicting doing both of them because the Bush are so different from Bach and they treat different conditions and when someone comes to a consultation, I know pretty quickly which I am going to give them.
"I also work with Louise Hay purely because she also talks about healing on the emotional level and her first book called “You Can Heal Your Body” has a list of physical conditions and possible emotional causes and I have been able to use this list to help with the flower remedies.”
There are also many readers at the Festival, including mediums, clairvoyants, astrologers, tarot, runes and colour aura photography. Paul Burrows is an astrologer who has been working at the Festival for some time. He is also a medium and he teaches astrology at his home. At the Festival he concentrates on giving astrology readings. Paul said, “astrology readings gives a client an idea of what their basic energy patterns are at the time of birth and then from that I can deduce what is likely to happen over the next 12 months or so in the areas of health, money, relationships, home environment, spiritual aspects, a variety of different areas of life that most people actually encounter or are actually involved in on a day to day basis. What I am able to do is give them an idea of which one will be most prominent over the 12 month period. In most cases, people tend to come when they have issues around relationships, or home or health; there is usually some kind of problem. Once I have done the general reading for the year, I ask if there is anything else they want to ask me about, and if there is, then we work on that.”
Mercedes is a Tarot and Palm Reader from Spain. She works at Planet Janet in Hove. She explained how she goes about reading for someone. “I do palmistry, the Tarot, Spanish cards and Flower Wisdom, which are American cards. My experience in England is something magical. I can’t explain it, but it is very magical in England. I have learnt a lot and seen a lot of spiritual things. For example, I have seen more ghosts in England than in Spain. For me, England is very important. I have learnt a lot and I have a lot of experience, but I hear my guides more here than in Spain. It is something I didn’t expect in England and it is why I stay here.”
Alec Summers explained that he uses the tarot and runes to help him to contact his guides. “Every reading is different, just as every person is. People come to me looking for answers to problems in their lives and to find out what is going to happen to them in the future. I do my best to get that information for them.”
Maria Margaret is a psychic clairvoyant Tarot Reader and she explained how she works. “I’m a medium and sometimes I hold something that belongs to the person, just to give me a vibe between them. Spirit comes through with a lot of love to let that person know they are there, and then I enhance that by doing the Tarot cards. Afterwards I do the Angel cards, which I don’t know psychically, but I just think they finish it nicely, and they are normally, exactly what that person needs. I always ask my guides and my angels that whatever I do is from the highest good and which is the light from God. I have the ability to be used as a healer by my guides, but I don’t advertise it and I don’t charge for healing at all. If someone came for a reading and they needed healing I would give it to them. Again from the highest good.”
All proceeds go to the Brighthelm Healing Trust, which is a charitable organisation, which gives and teaches spiritual healing in Brighton. It is a voluntary, non-profit organisation, which aims to raise the awareness of spiritual healing by working with the public, medical professionals, etc. They provide a referral service through its Healer Register, putting the general public in touch with hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, etc. and they work hard to teach the healers of the future.
The Spirit of the Millennium Festival has something for everyone who is interested in all things spiritual and is well worth the £2.50 entrance fee for the many free talks which can include, Ayurvedic Medicine, Reiki Healing, Colour Therapy and mediumship demonstrations, that go on throughout the day. The dates for next year are 27th February and 11 September 2005. I look forward to seeing you there!
Contact Details
Brighthelm Healing Trust, Flat 4, 6 Somerhill Road, Hove BN3 1RN
Asmita Jani, Tel: 01273 7774488
Marian Grey Foss, Tel: 01372-386338 or 07980 096456
Paul Burrows, Tel: 01342 714707
Mercedes, Planet Janet, 07891 349303
Maria Margaret, 01903 505386
Alec Summers, 01273 562495 or 07814 145363
Debbie Summers is a Tarot and Palm Reader, Reiki Master and a writer on all things psychic and complementary therapies.
This article was posted by Debbie Summers
