Profile: Alan Seymour

About This Author

Alan Seymour was born in Northolt, West London and was educated at Walford Secondary Modern School. He was always inquisitive and often asked ‘awkward’ questions during Religious Education lessons and at Sunday school where he was taught according to the doctrines of the Church of England. He moved to Croydon in 1973, and about ten years later, became more and more interested in Spiritual healing and mediumship after receiving some wonderful evidence of life after death from a medium and decided to attend Croydon Spiritualist Church out of curiosity. It is often said by many who visit the church for the first time that they feel they have ‘come home’ and this is due to the lovely atmosphere in the church and the warm welcome from the stewards and members. After a couple of years, Alan accepted an invitation to become a member of the Church Development Circle during which he gradually learned about Spiritual healing, mediumship and the philosophy of Spiritualism based on the Seven Principles. Alan was invited to stand for election to the church committee in 1994 and eventually became the Vice President of the church in 1997 under the President, Mollie McManus. Alan met his wife Pat in 2001 after she attended the church following the passing of her first husband. By then Alan was working regularly on the church platform as a medium and was often inspired to pass on messages to Pat from her husband in Spirit. They married in 2005 and worked together on the committee of the church and as mediums and healers until 2021. With encouragement from his wife Pat, Mollie McManus and Pat Deverell, Alan progressed as a trance medium and began giving trance demonstrations in public in 2001. With encouragement from other church members he collated all the transcripts of the trance communications over nearly twenty five years and the result was his first book, A Wonderful Spiritual Journey. Alan's second book, 'Religious Tyranny, Spiritual Truths' was inspired by the anonymous delivery of four CD's to the church from a man claiming to have been a trainee priest but had been disillusioned by the Catholic teachings and requested that the content of the CD's be published. This was followed by 'Kaleidoscope of Living Thoughts', a popular book of readings which was out of print and Alan felt it deserved another 'airing' for future generations to enjoy. In 2018 Alan became President of the church but decided to leave Croydon in 2021 to begin a new life in Devon. Prior to his departure Alan discovered the minutes of all committee meetings and AGM's in the church and in 2018, created a board listing all past Presidents which now has pride of place inside the church. This was followed by the creation of a new book using the same source of information to create his fourth book, 'The History of Croydon Spiritualist Church 1906 - 2021', comprising 750 pages and including a foreword written by Minister David Bruton, President of the Spiritualists' National Union. It reads like a who's who of Spiritualism and is a unique and important publication for anyone with an interest in the history of Spiritualism.