Voices: A Doris Stokes Collection

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Doris May Fisher Stokes (6 January 1920 – 8 May 1987), born Doris Sutton, was a British spiritualist, professional medium, and author. Her professed ability to communicate with the dead, public performances, television appearances, and memoirs made her a household name in Britain. [1] During her lifetime she was a controversial figure, with some believing her to possess psychic abilities, but investigations published after her death demonstrated that she used techniques including cold reading, hot reading, and planting accomplices in her audience, giving the appearance of having paranormal abilities. [2] Early life [ edit ]

I was not surprised in the least when Doris Stokes came through to me on Ellen's show because she had already made an astounding prediction about my own life. I went to see Doris in 1982 when my first marriage had broken up. She told me I would meet a woman called Jane Wallis on March 6th who would become my wife and we would have a child. Stokes was accused of using various forms of deception to achieve the effect of communicating with the dead. These included cold reading, [12] [13] eavesdropping, and planting accomplices in the audience. [14] [15] Evidence of audience plants [ edit ] We talked about a dancing clown musical box I've had since I was a child that plays the tune Send In The Clowns. Mum was trying to cheer me up, and over the years the music box has started up several times of its own accord whenever I've been feeling tearful. Doris Stokes Death Doris died before our actual wedding, but I blurted out at the church, "Derek, we didn't invite Doris" because I was so used to having her around. He smiled and said, "She'll be here, she wouldn't miss this for the world". He was right about Doris - I felt her come through to me on my wedding day and she was very close. Stokes was condemned by the Church of England and other Christian denominations, which objected to spirit communication as an offence to God. She countered that her work was done for God, [4] and in accordance with the Bible's injunction to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4.:1).

References

JUST weeks away from the centenary of the birth of famous medium Doris Stokes, a new book is being released this month about her life and achievements. Voices in My Ear: Autobiography of a Medium (1985). Publisher: TBS The Book Service Ltd; New edition. Whispering Voices, Doris Stokes with Linda Dearsley (1985). Publisher: FUTURA PUBLICATIONS; 1st edition. Without seeking to find them, I met a man who was told by Doris that he would become a medium, meet the woman who’d become his wife on March 6 and even gave her name. All these details were correct. Once they were dismissed as cranks and charlatans but now psychics are gaining credibility, particularly with the famous. We talk to the Celebrity Psychics and people who rely on spiritual help in their lives.

Winton, Dale (1 September 2002). "We broke down the door ... my beautiful mother was lying dead on the bed". The Mail on Sunday. p.49. Another participant was Marilyn Stenning, whose daughter Kerry had recently died in a car accident. She received a personal phone call from Stokes, offering her front-row seats for the Palladium performance. Other participants included "camp followers", who regularly attended the shows and repeatedly received messages from the same people. During the second half of the performance, members of the audience were chosen apparently at random. Wilson described this post-interval performance as "much less convincing... [relying] on intelligent guesswork and 'fishing '". [2] Disputed memoirs and testimony [ edit ] That happens a lot - in fact, as I'm telling this story I can feel her putting her arm around my shoulder and it's making me feel very emotional. Doris was the titular author of a number of successful “Voices” books, ghost-written with journalist Linda Dearsley. In December 2019, a new book title – “Voices Everywhere” – detailing Linda’s time working with Doris will be published, and how echoes from Doris continued to resonate across Linda’s life, following the death of Doris. Stories about the mystery of her missing millions kept appearing in papers. There were dark hints about secret Swiss bank accounts and offshore companies.They simply could not believe that she gave most of her earnings away. Knowing Doris, she would much sooner have had a Swiss roll than a Swiss bank account any day!” Stokes co-wrote seven volumes of autobiography, but some of the events she describes in them have been questioned. As explained, people with unusual abilities – little echoes of Doris – kept crossing my path like beads on a string, each one unknowingly revealing another strand of the mystery.