Those spiritualists who claim that they make the spirits appear and can cure people by them are nothing but liars; and the “spirits” are nothing but devils. Sometimes Satan even leaves such people and disgraces and humiliates them. In al-Qabas, a Kuwaiti newspaper (06/12/1978) there was an article about a medium in England by the name of Peter Goodwin. He had come into spiritual powers by which he was able to perform many miracles, such as cure those it was difficult to cure, find lost items and so forth. And he had mastery over the spirits to have them help mankind.
Peter Goodwin, by his unique powers, was able to be in many places at one time. For example, his friends saw him in London, while, at the same time, some others saw him in Liverpool and still others saw him in Manchester. And during the whole time yet another group stated that he was not in any of those places but he was actually sitting at home with his family.
Sometimes his body would appear at different times in one and the same place. For example, he would be sitting among his friends, then he would enter upon them again and sit with them. Then again for a third and fourth time, sitting and talking with them. So there would be five Peter Goodwins at one meeting and he would be talking to them or some of them.
But then Peter lost all of that and became like a normal person, without the ability to cure, find lost items, predict the future or control the spirits to serve mankind.
His downfall began last year when he began to use his spiritual powers that Allah had granted him for material gain. He now looks to his near past and says, “What happened to me was not in the reckoning. The spirits became angry with me and have afflicted me by leaving me.”
The beginning of his plight
Last year, he decided that he would open centers for spiritual healing throughout all of Britain. He wanted to open a center in every big city in Britain. For that purpose, he placed advertisements in the evening newspapers. He was looking for trainees for spiritual research in a full-time or part-time course. The cost would be between 40 to 50 British pounds.
He received some applicants for the position. One of the applicants he received was a twenty-nine year old writer, Rubin Lacy, a sixty-five year old woman, Jean Bartlett, and man in his thirties named Arthur Jeffrey. Peter Goodwin began holding interviews until he began to tire. Rubin Lacy stated,
We found Goodwin when w was not came to the appointment that Peter there. Instead, the one who conducted the interview was a woman in her fifties who was assisted by a young man and woman, very beautiful. They distributed a questionnaire to us and asked us to fill it out. Among the questions it included were, “Have you ever witnessed a spirit before?” “Do you believe in spiritual remedies?” “Do you take drugs?” “Have you ever been in a mental hospital?” The woman told us that Peter Goodwin was planning on opening up a medical center in every city in England and that he would train us in spiritual healing so we would be able to work in those centers. Then he would send us clients. We would charge five sterling pounds for one session. And we would cure approximately forty per week- on the condition that we would give Peter Goodwin half of the first five thousand sterling pounds we make and we would be able to keep the rest. Most of the people began to debate this issue. Some of the people did not like what they heard so they left the room without completing the remainder of the questionnaire.
What did an eyewitness say?
After all of that, some of the respondents were selected and they were allowed to meet Peter Goodwin in another room. He met with the first person for twenty minutes. Successively his interviews grew shorter until he saw the last one for only about five minutes. Then he chose some of them for him to train.
One of the persons he chose was Jean Bartlett who was a retired interior decorator. Her husband was Arthur Bartlett. Jean stated, I could not comprehend anything that Peter was trying to teach me. He would always start to get confused during the training. At the end of the training, he had stopped giving lectures in person but would just record what he had intended to say and give them the cassettes to listen to. He talked about the limits that humans can reach in life. One time, he asked us to make a figure out of clay that resembled a human. And he taught us to recite some incantations to it. But all of that did not result in anything.. Peter Goodwin gave us some more comments but we did not understand anything from him.
Peter had also chosen Arthur Jeffrey and his wife Angela. Angela narrated their experience?
At the beginning, we got the feeling that there was a scientific atmosphere prevailing in his lectures. But Goodwin was always confused. He began to lose his powers little by little. After some days, he became like a normal person, like us. He did not have any miraculous abilities. We felt that since he no longer did anything amazing in front of us. In fact, he began to record his lectures and we would listen to the tapes without seeing him. For that reason, we all stopped attending his lectures and paying the fees we used to pay, which were ten sterling pounds for each lecture.
From his office, Peter Goodwin, the one who lost the trust of the spirits, stated,
I was planning on developing the spiritual powers of my students. Then I was going to give them a diploma for that so they could go and work. They would benefit from it and would benefit others and I would benefit. And although I received many spiritual messages telling me that I must not use my great spiritual gift from God for the purposes of gaining economic rewards, I did not listen. The result was that I began to lose my spiritual powers until they left me completely. How did that happen? Until now I do not know.
Our Comments to this Event
1.This man claimed that he brought forth the spirits but he has no proof for this claim. But there is proof that they were simply devils who were playing with him as he asked the people to make a statue and read some specific incantations. These are things that are pleasing to Satan and angering to Allah.
2. If it were the case that Satan was helping him, then it is very possible that he may have been seen at many places at one time since the devils have been given the ability to resemble humans. That happened in the past and it continues to happen. We have already related that Satan came to the polytheists in the form of Maalik ibn Suraaqa during the battle of Badr. Ibn Taimiya narrated many such incidents.
3. The devils of Peter Goodwin abandoned him in the same way that the devils who appeared like shaikhs abandon the people they promise to defend and help. The same was true for Satan who abandon the monk after he promised to help him. This is to disgrace and humiliate the person who was just previously honored and respected by everybody.
4. Peter was under the impression that this power had come from God, but this is a lie that has no proof for it
Source : The world of Jinn and Devils – Umar S. Ashqar, Al-Basheer Publications
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