Interview with a Medium : Tom Coulton

Tom Colton is one of Ireland's best known Spiritualist Mediums.
Here he is talking about mediumship and what a medium does:

What is a Medium?

Mediums are ordinary people who have, through training, developed their natural abilities to enable them to communicate with the world of spirit.

There are three main types of mediumship, mental, physical and healing. The reason for so many forms of mediumship is because our friends in the spirit world will use whatever means they can to get through and help us to understand the truth of everlasting life.

Evidential Mediumship (Mental Mediumship)

Mental mediumship is by far the most common and falls into two categories, perception and control. First perception, in this the spirit communicator works through the medium’s mind and he is able to see, hear or sense, pictures, sounds or feelings. They will perceive them either subjectively or objectively. In the controlled state the medium will go into a trance, this will enable the spirit to speak through the medium or to do automatic writing.

Physical Mediumship

Physical mediumship is now quite rare, possibly because it takes many years to develop. This is a more direct form of mediumship as everyone present will witness the same phenomena. Spirits can speak directly with their own voice or even materialise for all to see, objects can also be levitated and moved around the room with no visible means of support.

Healing Mediumship

Many people have been successfully treated. Although no healer can guarantee results, it will usually alleviate suffering, ease a passing, and possibly effect a cure. Healing is not faith healing. If you think about it, babies or our pets cannot have faith, yet they can all benefit from healing.

The Process

There are many ways for a spirit to validate who they are to you, you being the person that is recieving the reading and desiring the contact. While some information may require validation after the reading with friends or other family members who are privy to the information given.  Here are some examples of ways in which a spirit may try to validate who they are:

• Sometimes the medium will get the names very clearly or just the initial. Also the spirit’s personality traits may be described.
     
  
• Most spirits are willing to show how they passed to the medium .
     
  
• Often spirits will give important dates of reference to further validate themselves.
     
  
• They have been known to mention other family members. Sometimes calling them by name .
     
  
• They have also been known to mention a recent event, even possibly a small one, in your current life or other family members lives, to show awareness of the here and now and their spiritual presence at the event.
     
  
• They have been known to show past events.
     
  
• They have even been known show their favorite flower, book, song or any favorite objectg from their life or even yours.
  

Evidential Mediumship (Mental Mediumship)

Why would someone wish to communicate with their spirit loved ones?  What does this accomplish, for them as well as for the loved ones in Spirit?  Why would a spirit wish to “come back” and communicate to their earthly loved ones?  What type of information does a spirit seek to impart to those of us on the Earth plane?

These are just a few of the questions which people ask when they consider mediumship and spirit communication. It all boils down to one basic question: Why should spirit in the body seek to establish communication with spirit out of the body, and vice versa? Let’s examine some of these questions.

Why seek spirit communication through a medium? Spirit communication helps bring together that which seems to have become separated and lost, through death, namely, love and interaction with our loved ones. We seek spirit communication because we want to know if our loved ones survived death. If so, where are they? And, are they the same people that we knew and loved while together on earth?

Mediumship answers all these concerns with a resounding YES. YES, our loved ones survive death. They go to a place not separated by distance, but by dimension. And YES, they survive, as we knew them on earth. The only thing they leave behind, through death, is the physical body and earthly treasures; everything else goes with them.

This, alone, gives tremendous comfort to the grieving. And, as wonderful as this revelation is, there is one even more wonderful: we, too, shall survive this elusive experience that we call death.

Our work with mediumship has shown us, clearly, that communicating with spirit loved ones can be a tremendous source of resolve, closure, and, especially, healing. How often have we seen loved ones, reaching across the doorway of life, in order to express how sorry they are for the errors of the past. This applies not only to those in the body, but in spirit as well. The opportunity to say “I’m sorry” can bring with it an amazing healing for all concerned.

Although death does not suddenly give us insight into all of life’s wonders and mysteries, it does change things. Spirit’s perceive things from a different perspective. The very fact that an individual awakens in spirit, alive and well, can be a most amazing revelation in itself. Thus, spirit’s are anxious to relate to their earthly loved ones what they have come to see and how they have changed since their passing.

In many ways, death can be likened to a journey. If you take a trip to a foreign land, or move away from those whom you love, what would be your first order of business, when arriving at your destination? Most of us would want to call home and let our loved ones know that we arrived safely. Thus it is the same with death. Spirit’s simply wishes to convey to us that they have made the journey and are OK. Mediumship can be the telephone line through which this communication takes place.

Finally, what would a spirit wish to communicate to us? Obviously, no one can make categorical statements, here, but just think about it for a while. If you were to die and were suddenly given an opportunity – perhaps the only one – to communicate to your earthly loved ones, what do you think you would want to say to them? Would you really want to give them your old address or telephone number? Would you really want to talk about money and romance? Would you not rather wish to convey who you REALLY are: the nature of your personality; your likes and dislikes; what motivated you in life; memories of things you did with your loved ones while on earth? In other words, would you not prefer to convey: “It’s really me; I am here with you; I am OK”?

This is precisely the difference between a medium and a psychic. A psychic can give names and addresses. But, only a medium – one who has touched and linked with the spirit of your loved one – can convey the true essence, love, and spirit of that person. It is this ability that bears witness to the greatest of evidence and comfort to someone who is grieving.

Thus, we have one of the most profound reasons why people seek genuine spirit communication. We also have one of the greatest sources of disappointment for people who visit mediums. It’s the difference between looking at a picture of your loved one and actually having your loved one there, sharing the experience of that picture with you. Mediums learn to understand this and also learn how to nurture sensitivity, not only to the vibrations of those in spirit, but to the reasons why a spirit seeks to communicate. This is the essence of mediumship.

mac wrote:Further to my earlier posting, I took a look at Tom Colton's website and found that the latest 'News' there was dated 2013!  It doesn't invalidate the general information about mediumship etc. but leaves me wondering why the website has been abandoned, whether the medium is still working.

THIS is the Irish medium and spiritualist who is accused of stealing more than €300,000 from a man and woman nearly nine years ago.

Tom Colton (38), is facing trial at the Circuit Court, which has greater sentencing powers on conviction. The case against him was adjourned for four weeks for the preparation of a Book of Evidence.

The accused, of The Park, Woolstan's Abbey, Celbridge, Co Kildare, appeared before Blanchardstown District Court charged with a single count of theft.

Colton has not yet indicated how he will plead. The crime allegedly took place at an unknown location within the State on July 15, 2005.

It is alleged that Colton stole the sum of €322,070 from Hugh and Mary McNally.

The matter was before the court for the service of the Book of Evidence after the DPP directed trial on indictment but State Solicitor Domhnall Forde said the book was not yet ready.

Mr Forde said the Garda investigation was “somewhat complicated”, and involved a bank and the Revenue Commissioners.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Jackson said Colton was very anxious to progress the matter, and she asked for the matter to be marked peremptory for the Book of Evidence.

SPIRIT

Judge David McHugh said he accepted the case file was “rather large” and while he noted time was running on the allegation, he said he would not mark it peremptory for the Book of Evidence on the next court date.

According to his website, Colton is a medium and spiritualist. He claims he communicated and interacted with the spirit world as a child.

[Only admins are allowed to see this link], but it was not until his uncle died in 2001 that he started reconnecting with the spirits as an adult.

Colton says he has completed many courses on spirituality, has become a reiki master, runs development circles and does private and public sittings.

He also performs civil partnerships, celebration ceremonies, naming ceremonies and funerals services.

Colton is due to publish his first book, Will We Ever Meet Again – A Bridge Between This World & the Next, this year.

Candlelight.kk wrote:
Bear in mind, the original opening post in this thread was made back in 2011. I am at present in the process of going through the whole forum making sure stuff is up to date and working properly - some links no longer work and there are videos and images, for example, which are now no longer available. I am cleaning and updating these as and when I come across them. This is how I discovered that the interview video there was no longer available, and the reason why I brought the old post back to life in the first place. Otherwise, would not have known ....
Just as well, as it turns out!

mac wrote:[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

A BENT accountant turned psychic medium has been jailed for stealing a €300,000 retirement nest egg from elderly clients.

Tom Colton was led away in handcuffs this week after admitting to theft and sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars.

He pocketed the cash in 2005 at the same time he had been involved in the launch of a US$600 million Caribbean island development.

    Football star Damien Duff had been recruited for the razzmatazz launch of Sapphire Cove at the Radisson Hotel in Dublin, but later washed his hands of the organisers.

This week Colton (39), was branded as cold and calculating in the way he went about fooling a woman into handing over a blank cheque to be used to settle a tax bill.

Instead he transferred €321,000 to the account of a firm based in New Jersey, paying just €78,000 to Revenue.

Monaghan couple Hugh and Mary McNally had approached their accountant of 30 years, Niall Brophy, in 2005 to sort out a settlement over an offshore account.

He handed the case over to Colton, who had qualified as a chartered accounted while working for Brophy in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

It emerged in court this week that Mr McNally had begun showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and his wife Mary, as a mother of seven, had never been part of the day-to-day running of their business.

A cheque was written for an initial sum of cash, but Colton later called Mary McNally to say he had good news that a lower sum would settle the case.

She agreed to his request for a blank signed cheque, which Colton then made out for over €400,000 and lodged to a bank account he controlled.

The bulk of the cash, €321,000, was transferred to an American firm based in New Jersey, Walton Management Services.

According to the single charge against Colton, the theft occurred on 15 July, 2005, just a month after a grandiose property scheme was launched in Dublin.

    Investors were encouraged to buy up plots in the Sapphire Cove project on the sun-kissed island of St Lucia, with promises of big returns on their cash.

Those who attended included the Prime Minister of St Lucia Kenny Anthony and soccer star Duff.

Colton had run a limousine business, which folded when the recession hit. He reinvented himself as a psychic medium, helping people to contact dead relatives and officiating at weddings where the spirits of the dead were invited. Colton previously told the Sunday World that he doesn’t use his paranormal skills to look into the future.

“I’m a medium more so than a psychic. I communicate with spirits, there’s a difference between those who do Tarot readings and those who communicate with spirits.

    “There’s a big difference, I don’t do fortunes, I don’t do predictions, I don’t do anything like that,” he said.

No explanation was given in court this week as to why Colton paid over the cash to Walton Management Services.

The theft came to light when Mary McNally realised in 2009 that only €78,000 had been paid to Revenue. One of her sons then challenged Colton, who admitted filling out the blank cheque and using the funds for his own purpose.

Mrs McNally successfully brought a civil case against Brophy and Colton’s firm and was awarded €240,000, paid out by an insurance company. She was still at a loss of €83,000 which has not been recovered.

Garda Stephanie McDaniels said in court that the theft had a big impact on the McNallys.

“She’s an old woman and her husband is in full-time residential care. She found the whole investigation very stressful,” she said.

In court this week it was claimed that Colton committed the theft at a time when he was “under enormous pressure” as the economy crashed. He claimed that debts were being demanded from him “in a menacing way” and that he feared for the safety of his family.

A garda witness agreed that Colton had reported the threats in 2006.

Judge Michael O’Shea said an accountant is in “the higher echelons of trust” and that Colton’s theft was “coldly calculated”.

    “His behaviour was extraordinarily dishonest and fraudulent in respect of Mrs McNally and the manner of obtaining the cheque,” he said.

The judge acknowledged Colton’s guilty plea, that he was repaying the insurance company over 20 years and had promised to repay the balance to Mrs Nally. He imposed a sentence of four years with 18 months suspended.

The purpose of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland is to promote spiritualism in Ireland and facilitate both the personal and spiritual development of it’s members in Spirituality in general, Mediumship, Spiritual Healing and all other aspects of holistic and spiritual enlightenment.

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland holds Mediumship development workshops, courses and circles as well as spiritual retreats and other related events both at the Sanctuary and selected locations around Ireland. We also hold a weekly Spiritual Service at the Sanctuary

Psychic medium jailed for stealing €320,000 can legally solemnise marriages, but atheists can not

by Michael Nugent on March 17, 2015

I have been writing since 2012 about Tom Colton, who last week was was jailed for two and a half years for stealing €320,000 from an elderly couple, one of whom has Alzheimer’s disease. Colton is legally allowed to solemnise marriages in Ireland, because his Spiritual Union of Ireland is considered a religion, despite Atheist Ireland not being allowed to nominate solemnisers under the same law.

Judge Michael O’Shea said that Colton, who was acting as an accountant at the time, was in “the higher echelons of trust”, that his theft was “coldly calculated”, and that “his behaviour was extraordinarily dishonest and fraudulent”.

Colton claims to bring people back from the dead to attend their loved ones’ weddings. As an added bonus, he is both a ‘ghost whisperer’ and a ‘ghost buster’ who cleanses houses of spirits. Colton remains today on the current official register of State-approved marriage solemnisers in Ireland (you can download the register here).

You can also legally solemnise marriages if you oversee a culture of covering up child sex abuse, or lie to and positively mislead a state inquiry into child sex abuse, or swear victims of child sex abuse to silence (Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church); or if you default on six-figure debts, or fail to file income tax returns (Pastors of the Abundant Life Christian Centre and Victory Christian Church).

What I wrote in 2014

In 2014 I wrote the following about Tom Colton:

Irish psychic medium Tom Colton is facing trial at the Dublin Circuit Court, where he is accused of stealing more than €300,000 nearly nine years ago. He has not yet indicated how he will plead. Colton is one of the people who is legally allowed to solemnise marriages in Ireland, because his Spiritual Union of Ireland is considered a religion.

Any religious body can nominate its members to legally solemnise marriages in Ireland, but Atheist Ireland can not, because the law discriminates on the ground of religion. Secular bodies must be on the charitable tax exemption list for five years, must have aims that are humanist and ethical, and must not promote a political cause. However, the only criteria for religious bodies is that they meet regularly for common religious worship. They do not have to be ethical, and they are allowed to promote a political cause.

When passing the law, Government Minister Joan Burton told the Dail that the reason why secular bodies are required to fulfill more criteria than religious bodies is “to ensure the institution of marriage is protected by applying a rigorous set of rules regarding the type of body that can be deemed eligible. In this regard, it is important that the criteria should be robust so that the authority to solemnise marriage would be granted only to stable, long-standing and reputable organisations.”

What I wrote in 2012

In 2012 I wrote the following about Tom Colton:

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland has five solemnisers on the list, including two Ministers and three Officiants. The two Ministers are Tom Colton, ‘one of Ireland’s leading Psychic Mediums’, and Mary Murphy Losty, ‘Psychic Medium, Tarot Cards, Facilitator.’ Tom Colton also has a personal website and Twitter account (Irelands Medium Tom @irishmedium), both of which he uses to promote his spiritual services and the sale of a pseudoscientific water ionizing machine.

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland advertises ‘Spiritual Weddings – Married by a Medium’ in which dead relatives are invited to attend the ceremony. They say that “As part of the spiritual ceremony we can invite those from spirit world to be present with us to share your special day and remember those who have passed to spirit world in a special way not traditionally seen at a wedding ceremony.”

On the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, Tom Colton explained how the Spiritualist Union of Ireland started doing spiritualist weddings, and he described it as being a nondenominational service that is not primarily about spiritualism but more about avoiding family disputes where people have different religions.

    “I got a phone call from a lady who wanted to have a spiritualist wedding, and the issue was that she was of one religion and her partner was of another, so they wanted to go for a nondenominational service, and that is essentially what as spiritualists we do. We don’t look at religion or what backgrounds people come from, be it a Jew, a Protestant, a Catholic or whatever religion, or Buddhist, we don’t recognise a religion as such, we just believe that we can communicate with spirit, with those who have passed on to spirit world, and people see this as a way of getting over the issue of having one religious wedding over another, because it can cause a lot of tension in the family, so people would look to a nondenominational service. And that was the first inquiry we got, it was from a lady who wanted a nondenominational service.”

At the time of the first wedding enquiry, Tom Colton did not know that spiritualists could conduct marriages. As he told the Irish Sun in April 2010:

    “We had a couple of enquiries about having spiritual marriages. I didn’t think we could do them until I did a bit of research and found out that since 2006 the whole law has been relaxed in relation to marriages in Ireland. Before that, it had to be in an established church and the only place you could have a civil marriage was the Registrar’s Office. But now we can actually do the full civil legally binding marriage here.”

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland, and Colton personally, also advertise paid private and public spiritualist sittings, including a completed 50-date nationwide tour with tickets at €20 each, and mediumship development workshops. A European Union directive insists that charging for medium-type services must be legally described as ‘for entertainment purposes only’, yet these ‘psychic mediums’ and ‘tarot card readers’ can legally solemnise marriages in Ireland simply because they describe Spiritualism a religion.

As an added bonus, Tom Colton is both a ‘ghost whisperer’ and a ‘ghost buster’. He has published on his website articles from national newspapers describing him using both terms. The Irish Sun article above, titled ‘Married by a Medium’, said:

    “A psychic is bringing people back from the dead – to attend their loved ones’ weddings. Ghost whisperer Tom Colton, of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland, has just been granted a full licence to perform marriages. And he says he can use his spiritual knowledge to form a link between this world and the afterlife – then call on the deceased to be present during the ceremony.”

And in October 2011, an Irish Times article titled ‘Meet the Ghostbusters‘ described Colton as ‘a medium and minister of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland, who cleanses houses of spirits.’ The article said:

    Some houses have been built in places where tragedy occurred, says Tom Colton, a former accountant and father of four who is now a medium and minister of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland. He has cleansed some 120 houses including some that weren’t selling. One was a property that had been built on a field where a teenager had died by suicide and disturbances were troubling the occupants. He encourages househunters to follow their instincts when viewing properties for sale. “Use your sixth sense to connect with that internal radar, that feeling or sense of things not being quite right. It is your body telling you something.”

Candlelight.kk wrote:I seem to remember that Tom Colton had been a prominent, active member of the Irish Spiritualist Union - Irish equivalent to SNU - but an orgainsation only relatively recently founded, some maybe 10 years ago, if even that).

The purpose of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland is to promote spiritualism in Ireland and facilitate both the personal and spiritual development of it’s members in Spirituality in general, Mediumship, Spiritual Healing and all other aspects of holistic and spiritual enlightenment.

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland holds Mediumship development workshops, courses and circles as well as spiritual retreats and other related events both at the Sanctuary and selected locations around Ireland. We also hold a weekly Spiritual Service at the Sanctuary

Certainly, when I first listened to that [now no longer available] interview in the OP here, he was at the time involved with tutoring & courses there.
Seems to be no mention of him whatsoever now on their website, so obviously following his criminal outage, he has now become persona non grata).

evergreen wrote:

Candlelight.kk wrote:
I seem to remember that Tom Colton had been a prominent, active member of the Irish Spiritualist Union - Irish equivalent to SNU - but an orgainsation only relatively recently founded, some maybe 10 years ago, if even that).

The purpose of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland is to promote spiritualism in Ireland and facilitate both the personal and spiritual development of it’s members in Spirituality in general, Mediumship, Spiritual Healing and all other aspects of holistic and spiritual enlightenment.

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland holds Mediumship development workshops, courses and circles as well as spiritual retreats and other related events both at the Sanctuary and selected locations around Ireland. We also hold a weekly Spiritual Service at the Sanctuary

Certainly, when I first listened to that [now no longer available] interview in the OP here, he was at the time involved with tutoring & courses there.
Seems to be no mention of him whatsoever now on their website, so obviously following his criminal outage, he has now become persona non grata).

His facebook is up to date, with a fair few mentions of courses and events at the Spiritualist Union of Ireland. [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Gives the impression he's still pretty much involved there.

mac wrote:

evergreen wrote:

Candlelight.kk wrote:
I seem to remember that Tom Colton had been a prominent, active member of the Irish Spiritualist Union - Irish equivalent to SNU - but an orgainsation only relatively recently founded, some maybe 10 years ago, if even that).

The purpose of the Spiritualist Union of Ireland is to promote spiritualism in Ireland and facilitate both the personal and spiritual development of it’s members in Spirituality in general, Mediumship, Spiritual Healing and all other aspects of holistic and spiritual enlightenment.

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland holds Mediumship development workshops, courses and circles as well as spiritual retreats and other related events both at the Sanctuary and selected locations around Ireland. We also hold a weekly Spiritual Service at the Sanctuary

Certainly, when I first listened to that [now no longer available] interview in the OP here, he was at the time involved with tutoring & courses there.
Seems to be no mention of him whatsoever now on their website, so obviously following his criminal outage, he has now become persona non grata).

His facebook is up to date, with a fair few mentions of courses and events at the Spiritualist Union of Ireland. [Only admins are allowed to see this link]

Gives the impression he's still pretty much involved there.

How long did he serve?

One of the comments appended to that above article states on March 15, 2016: "Just saw at the shops so didn’t even serve a year!"

mac wrote:Yes I read the reference but wondered if anyone knew exactly how long he did actually serve and why.  Either way it seems he's been accepted back by the Irish organisation and I suppose that's fair now he's served his time.  It is fair isn't it?