Arthur Findlay College is a college of

Spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

and psychic sciences at Stansted Hall in

Stansted Mountfitchet Stansted Mountfitchet is an England, English village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Uttlesford district, Essex, near the Hertfordshire border, north of London. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,533, increasi ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. Stansted Hall was built in 1871, and the college was founded there in 1964. In accordance with Arthur Findlay's wishes, the college building and grounds are administered by the

Spiritualists' National Union The Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) is a Spiritualism (movement), Spiritualist organisation, founded in the United Kingdom in 1901, and is one of the largest Spiritualist groups in the world. Its motto is ''Light, Nature, Truth''. Over its hi ...

(SNU). The head offices of SNU at Redwoods are within the college grounds.

History of Stansted Hall

Stansted Hall, built in 1871, was given to the Spiritualists' National Union in by J. Arthur Findlay, MBE, JP, a former honorary president of the SNU, and in accordance with his wishes is administered by the Union as a college for the advancement of psychic science.Richmond, Simon. ''How to be a ghostbuster'',

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, 27 February 1996 Findlay bought the estate in 1923 upon his retirement from business and first mooted the idea of a spiritualist college at Stansted to the union in 1945. After personal contacts with three successive SNU presidents, a will was drawn up, and in 1954 the National Council accepted the proposed bequest of Stansted Hall with an endowment. This was followed by a later gift in the form of stock to be used for furnishing and decorating, and in 1964, a year after the death of his wife, Findlay transferred the hall, grounds and endowment to the union. Findlay died in July 1964.

Description

The internal arrangements include the library (with a portrait of

Gordon Higginson Sir Gordon Robert Higginson (8 November 1929 – 5 November 2011) was an English engineer and academic who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton from 1985 to 1994. He was co-author of the standard text on hydrodynamic lubricati ...

), the lecture room, the Britten Memorial Museum and several other rooms for general use, as well as facilities for guest accommodation. The college's teaching includes mediumship, Spiritualist healing,

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

, spiritual development, working with sound and colour,

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, psychic art and auragraphs, and

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

Alumnus

* John Holland

References

External links

College website

Spiritualists' National Union website
Spiritualist organizations Educational institutions established in 1964 Religious organisations based in the United Kingdom 1964 establishments in England Stansted Mountfitchet {{Essex-school-stub