An English medium and healer, living in Denmark, has stabbed his four-year-old twin daughters multiple times and then stabbed himself, in a locked hospital room in Copenhagen. He then thrown himself from a window. Bishop was based in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK, before moving to Denmark in 2000.
Graham Bishop, 58, says he has provided spiritual guidance to thousands of people and claims to have been a tutor at the Arthur Findlay College in Essex. During healing sessions and seances to “clear” property of “spiritual disturbances”, he says the spirit of a German doctor, Dr Karl, controls him. According to the Copenhagen Post, Bishop – who has appeared on reality shows on Danish TV – is being held in Rigshospitalet, the same hospital where his daughters are being treated.
Police say he stabbed himself in the stomach with a kitchen knife after the attack on his daughters, on Sunday afternoon. The twin girls were in a critical condition in intensive care but are said to be improving. Bishop survived his self-inflicted wound and the fall from a window at Denmark’s largest hospital.
He and his daughters are all on respirators at Rigshospitalet. Because of his condition, Bishop was not present at a hearing on Monday when a court ordered him to be held for at least 24 days.
On his website, ironically called “Spirit of Life”, Bishop says he developed his spiritual powers in 1989 and resulted in him giving up his job in computing six years later to focus on mediumship and spiritual work. He adds:
“It has been many years now that I have been honoured with sharing a very deep personal connection with Spirit Dr Karl, and work in the state of ‘deep trance’ (from my viewpoint a totally unconscious state). This particular spiritual ability is rare and so I am one, of only a few, able to offer this unique service of providing such strong and direct access to those in the Spirit world. In simple terms, I give Spirit temporary use of my physical body.”
He says that Dr Karl was born in 1848 into a family of doctors in Prussia (now part of Germany) and showed an early interest in medical matters, performing his first unofficial “operation” at the age of 12. But he does not provide further information about his “spirit guide” that would confirm his previous existence. In a filmed “house clearing” seance for Danish TV, showing Bishop going into trance in 2003, the spirit doctor is identified as “Dr Carl Stromberg”. One wonders why Dr Karl does not have a European accent. The TV show is largely in Danish, but because Bishop’s knowledge of the language is apparently limited – as is his spirit doctor’s – his extensive contribution to the programme is conducted in English, with Danish subtitles.
One of the injured twins, Natalie, was found to have a massive aneurism on her aorta on the day after her first birthday was celebrated in June 2009. Doctors in Denmark said it was too dangerous to treat and referred her to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which agreed to treat her.
The aneurism was removed and successfully replaced with a plastic pipe but the operation required the removal of her right kidney and after a few days her left kidney stopped working. On his website, Bishop tells what happened next:
“It was soon discovered that she had suffered brain damage, totally losing her sight and being paralysed on her left side. After no improvement with these, I asked Spirit for help, even though it was a risk to my own life (I was in a very bad state of health myself), but what father would not do that for his child? I went into trance and Spirit Dr Karl was able to restore her sight and correct the paralysis, unfortunately he was not able to repair the kidney.
“Initially she needed continuous dialysis. From October the frequency was reduced and ever since, she has had to have dialysis every other day. Then another shock: doctors tested in preparation for a kidney transplant and they found problems which excluded her from a normal transplant.”
The only hope of saving his daughter’s life was finding a suitable “living donor”. Neither he nor his wife were compatible but a suitably matching volunteer came forward and the last news on the website was that the family was waiting for a date to take Natalie to London for final checks before a kidney transplant could be given.
Bishop also reveals that he had to stop work in September 2008, three months after his twin daughters were born, due to overwork and exhaustion. “I loved my work so much and had such a deep desire to use my abilities in helping as many people as possible, that I forgot about my own body,” he explained a few months ago. This resulted in three years of “wasted possibilities” but he was now “able to begin the slow process of building my work back up” though it would be “more difficult this time, as I do not have help of those who used to assist me so competently”.
It is too early to say whether his daughter’s health problems or his work difficulties were in any way involved in the attacks. One Danish newspaper speculated that his wife, who is in her 20s, had told him she wanted to leave him and take the children with her. Mrs Bishop alerted the police after her husband locked himself in the hospital room with his daughters. They had to kick the door down to gain access.
