{"id":1275,"date":"2014-02-07T10:39:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T10:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2014-02-07T10:39:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T10:39:41","slug":"lionel-fanthorpe-priest-author-and-exorcist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/07\/lionel-fanthorpe-priest-author-and-exorcist\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Fanthorpe: Priest, author and exorcist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_1276\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1276\" style=\"width: 827px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/LionelFinal.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1276\" alt=\"Lionel Fanthorpe\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/LionelFinal.jpg\" width=\"827\" height=\"712\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1276\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1276\" alt=\"Lionel Fanthorpe\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/LionelFinal.jpg\" width=\"827\" height=\"712\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Rev Fanthorpe on his motorbike. Photo: Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>Cardiff-based Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe is a priest, biker, author, investigator into the mysterious and paranormal, and exorcist.<\/strong><br \/>\nHe has written more than 250 books on a variety of subjects, and conducted 20 book-length investigations into unexplained mysteries.<br \/>\nDuring the mid \u201890s he fronted the popular Channel 4 television series <i>Fortean TV<\/i>, based on the magazine of the same name and with a focus on the weird and wonderful.<br \/>\nThese days, he investigates the unexplained with his wife Patricia and still travels the world looking for answers to many of our greatest enigmas.<br \/>\nBut Rev Fanthorpe, 78, says his unusual interests started when he first left school.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It really began, I think, for me, with reading the mystery stories of HG Wells and Edgar Allan Poe and the early science fiction writers.<br \/>\nAnd then it dawned on me gradually, in my teens, that these wonderful adventure stories about psychic phenomena and anomalous things, mysteries of all kinds \u2013 what if they had a genuine place in the real world?<br \/>\nAnd so I started investigating. I think I was still in my teens when I became a serious investigator and joined those societies, The Psychical Research Society and other groups, that took a serious interest in these things.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lionel is particularly interested in those mysteries with potentially rational solutions, though he doesn\u2019t disregard the possibility of the paranormal.<br \/>\n\u201cI certainly believe there is a paranormal universe out there,\u201d he adds.<br \/>\nAs well as investigating the unexplained, Lionel is occasionally called on to perform exorcisms in his role as a priest.<br \/>\nPerhaps the most traumatic of these was at a cinema in Bristol, where a young usher was being tormented by an evil presence.<br \/>\n<iframe class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load\" title=\"Lionel Fanthorpe and the Bristol exorcism\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"about:blank\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wbxkrDvB-kk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noscript><iframe title=\"Lionel Fanthorpe and the Bristol exorcism\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wbxkrDvB-kk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><br \/>\nWith the help of a medium, Lionel managed to rid the young man of the spirits possessing him, which the medium described as being like \u201cpsychic piranha fish.\u201d<br \/>\nBut, as in all things, Lionel is open-minded about the effects of exorcism.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are occasions when I think there\u2019s a possibility there are dark, evil psychic forces and the power of God and the power of goodness exceeds them to an infinite extent.<br \/>\n\u201cTherefore the exorcism, in which we call upon God\u2019s help to get rid of them, works because the powers of good exceed the powers of evil.<br \/>\n\u201cOn the other hand, you know how a doctor will sometimes use a placebo when a patient believes there\u2019s something wrong with him and in fact there isn\u2019t, other than in the poor chap\u2019s very worried mind, then, what you are doing is setting the patient\u2019s mind at rest.\u201d<br \/>\nWhatever the truth, Lionel Fanthorpe is certainly a man unafraid to confront the unknown and forge his own path through life.<br \/>\nAs he himself explains: \u201cMy wife and I perhaps just have more than our fair share of curiosity, and we like to keep open-minded and we like to look.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardiff-based Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe is a priest, biker, author, investigator into the mysterious and paranormal, and exorcist. He has written more than 250 books on a variety of subjects, and conducted 20 book-length investigations into unexplained mysteries. During the mid \u201890s he fronted the popular Channel 4 television series Fortean TV, based on the magazine of the same name and with a focus on the weird and wonderful. These days, he investigates the unexplained with his wife Patricia and still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":1276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1291,1819,1820,1821,1822,1823,1824,1825,1826],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-longer-reads","tag-cardiff-2","tag-exorcism","tag-exorcist","tag-fanthorpe","tag-fortean-tv","tag-lionel","tag-lionel-fanthorpe","tag-mystery","tag-paranormal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Fanthorpe: Priest, author and exorcist - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/07\/lionel-fanthorpe-priest-author-and-exorcist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Fanthorpe: Priest, author and exorcist - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cardiff-based Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe is a priest, biker, author, investigator into the mysterious and paranormal, and exorcist. 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