Gordon Higginson

Gordon Higginson was one of the finest mediums of the last century and an excellent medium, speaker and teacher. He was known as "Mr Mediumship" since his gifts of mediumship were wide ranging and he was a man of great charisma. Gordon said that "Spiritual giants have always moved among the nations of the world" and Gordon himself can rightly be called a "Spiritual Giant" owing to his accomplishments, his influence and his dedicated work for Spirit.

Gordon's birth was pre-ordained by Spirit when his mother was just 14 years old and she was given a remarkable message at Longton Spiriualist Church. The medium told Fanny Higginson that since leaving home and coming to the church, her mother had passed to spirit and that Fanny would herself serve as a medium, as would her son, and together their name would be linked with Longton church for over 100 years. Fanny remained a medium at Longton church for 70 years until her passing in 1978.
Her son, Gordon Mons Higginson was born on 17th November 1918 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. He began developing his spiritual gifts at a very early age under the careful supervision of his mother Fanny, who was also an excellent medium. Gordon began sitting in his mother's circle from the tender age of 3 but was only permitted to pass on spirit communications to other members of the circle when he was 10 years old. He first publicly demonstrated his mediumship at Longton Spiritualist Church on his twelfth birthday at which point he embarked on his career as a medium known as the "the boy wonder". He continued to work the platform for another 63 years until the day before he passed to spirit.

Gordon was renowned for the accuracy of his platform mediumship and his evidence often included full names, addresses and telephone numbers. Gordon was also an excellent physical medium and produced the rare phenomena of materialization and direct voice. He was one of the few physical mediums to demonstrate these unique and precious gifts publicly to audiences of up to 300 people.

Gordon was appointed as the President of Longton Spiritualist Church in 1946 at the young age of 28 and he continued to hold this position for the next 47 years until his passing. Longton remained his spiritual home throughout his life and, together with his mother, the prophecy of 100 years of combined service to the church as mediums came true.

Gordon became President of the Spiritualist's National Union (SNU) in 1970 at a time when the Union was in severe financial difficulties and had been given less than two years to survive. In addition, the crippling debt owing on Stansted Hall meant that the Union had no option but to sell it unless a miracle could be performed. Under Gordon's energetic and determined Presidency, the Union was saved from bankruptcy and the debt owed by Stansted Hall was cleared. We have so much to thank Gordon for in saving the SNU and the Arthur Findlay College and preserving them for future generations.

Gordon remains the longest serving President of the Spiritualists National Union, serving for an exceptional 23 years from 1970 until his passing in 1993. He was also a Minister of the SNU and officiated at many namings, weddings and funerals.

Gordon had a detailed understanding of mediumship and he was a fine teacher, much in demand across the country. He taught on the very first Summer School at the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall in 1965 and continued to teach there for a period of 28 years. Gordon was the Principal of the College from 1979 to 1993. Stansted Hall was always very dear to his heart and a place where many came from far and wide to hear his lectures and see his demonstrations, and for a special few to witness his demonstrations of physical mediumship in the college Library.

Above all else, Gordon was a dedicated spiritualist, an outstanding servant of the Spirit and devoted his entire life to the movement. He routinely traveled the length and breadth of the country demonstrating his wonderful gifts of mediumship as well as undertaking presidential engagements. He gave so much of himself and expected such little in return since he did not even charge fees for his spiritual work. His unrelenting workload often affected his health and in one year he undertook some 300 large publicity meetings. Few have worked so tirelessly in promoting Spiritualism.

Gordon suffered a couple of strokes during 1990 following the SNU Centenary celebrations at Wembley. Following his strokes, he feared he had lost his remarkable gift of mediumship but he did recover and continued his unrelenting work for spirit until the day before his passing. He took his transition to spirit at his home on 18th January 1993 after returning home from serving Blackpool Spiritualist Church, one of his favourite churches.

Gordon Higginson was not only an exceptional medium and teacher, but a man of great warmth, humour and charisma and he is still very much missed by many today despite it being some 16 years since his passing. Men of his spiritual stature and charisma are few and far between and we are only graced with a few every century.