SWEDEN.  The president of the International Spiritualist Federation (ISF), Mervyn Johnson, 60, is being held in a Swedish jail on a charge of raping a 14-year-old girl, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday (12 November). He was to be held until 23 November pending further investigations. Federation colleagues, however, believe that no charges have yet been made, while investigations continue. There have been no further media reports since 23 November. A prosecutor in the southern Swedish town of Carlstad is reported to have said after his arrest: “He is denying rape but admits some of the acts which have been going on since 2003”. The ISF executive committee immediately issued a statement explaining that, in view of the serious allegations made against him [these are not spelt out], “they have no other alternative at this time than to suspend Mervyn’s position as president, until this matter has been resolved”. Garth Willey, vice president, has taken over as acting president. Johnson had been acting president following the death of the ISF’s previous president, Marjory Kite. The international Spiritualist organisation elected him president this summer at its 29th World Congress, held in Eastbourne, on England’s Sussex coast, and attended by members from 18 countries. According to the Mail on Sunday report, which claims he “used hypnosis to carry out a string of sexual assaults”, his real name is Mervyn Wright but he uses the name Mervyn Johnson for his mediumistic and healing work. It says he was originally from Essex but left his wife for a Swedish woman and moved to that country in 1996. His website declares: “I have developed a remarkable gift as a trance healer. A wonderful Chinese doctor from the spirit world, Dr Lu, treats patients through me. When I work with trance healing, I put myself in an altered state of consciousness so the doctor can come very close to the auric field, and in that way he can take over my subconscious and nervous system which enables me to become Dr Lu’s personality. “My doctor works very much with body energies and the patients who have got their physical, emotional, psychological and mental energies balanced tell me that they felt a great difference afterwards and a good feeling of well being.” But he also issues this warning: “There are many people claiming to be trance healers. Beware of imitations. Trance healing takes many years to perfect, because of the bonding of the spirit controller to themselves. There should only be one controller working direct with the medium. Look for spirit control, energy and also you should be able to ask the control questions.” He held regular healing sessions in Sweden and Switzerland.

Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 Category: Spiritualism

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