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WHAT'S IN A NAME? - by Emma Gee
Has Derek Acorah told the truth
about the origins of his name? Judge for yourselves
What's in a name? It's how we identify ourselves, and how others
identify us. Names are man-made, but originate in nature, or work,
and are handed down the generations, linking us with our history.
What follows is based on statements made by Derek Johnson (Acorah) himself, and Information from The General Register Office of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
ACORAH
The Psychic World of Derek Acorah, by John Sutton and Derek Acorah
"My family name is actually Johnson but I always felt my name should be Acorah, the name of Gran's first husband (a sailor born in the Netherlands)."
by Jacky Newcomb
Last February I received information that caused me to question what I had seen reported; I was told that his grandmother's first husband had been a sailor, but was not Dutch.
As a matter of principle, I will never make anything public unless I am absolutely certain of my facts, so I searched for anyone or anything other than Derek Johnson that had a connection to 'Acorah'.
Apart from a greyhound and a bald-headed eagle in Devon, I found nothing.
To understand the story, we need to go back to 1902 with the birth of Mary Ellen Kilroy in West Derby, Liverpool. Her father's name was John.
In 1924 she married Richard Courtney in West Derby, Liverpool, but he died in 1939.
A daughter of that marriage is the mother of Derek Francis Johnson, but I will not name her as she is an elderly lady.
In 1944 Mary Ellen Courtney (née Kilroy) married for a second time; this time to Willem/William Verbaan, an Able Seaman on the 'Christiaan Huygens', a liner operated by the Orient Line, which was used as a troopship during the second world war. He was the son of Arie Verbaan.
Willem Verbaan died at the family home in Bootle in 1965, his death was registered by Derek Johnson's mother, yet he is never mentioned by Derek Johnson.
FIRST SIGHTING
Derek Acorah (Johnson) often talks about his first sighting.
"I was six. We lived in my grandmother's house, as my dad used to work away. On the landing I saw a man walk towards me. He ruffled my hair and asked me to tell gran that Richard had come to say hello. When I told her, she took out a tin box, put a handful of photos on the table and asked me if I recognised the person. I said he was in two. It turned out it was my grandfather, who was killed two years before I was born." to James Ellis of METRO CAFÉ
1st April 2003
So Derek Acorah (Johnson) says that Richard Courtney died two years before he was born, which would have been 1948. He actually died in 1939, eleven years before his birth. Just in case Richard was also the name of his father's father, that was checked, but his was James Albert.
"I was about 6 when it first started , it had been passed through my family . My grandmother was a medium , then I was upstairs playing with my toy soldiers when in the doorway I saw a man and this man was my grandfather ( Richard Acorah ) who passed on to the lovely world of spirit a few years before I was born . So I ran down the stairs as fast as I could and told my mother and grandmother about what I saw , and then they said to each other , Derek acorah is the next medium in our family!" Paul O'Grady Show, ITV 29 October 2004
"MM:
When did you know you had abilities and how did you know? ISPR interview
Now he's saying that Richard Courtney died in 1952, two years AFTER he was born, instead of eleven years before he was born. Why? Is it to hide something?
"When I was 13 I got called into the headmaster's office. I was worried that I might have done something wrong but sitting in the heads office was my mother. She was crying and had come to tell me that my beloved Gran had died. I insisted on going to see her and was taken to Walton General Hospital where I held her hand one last time." It's Fate Magazine
by Jacky Newcomb
Mary Ellen Verbaan [formerly Courtney, née Kilroy] died in 1959, when Acorah (Johnson) was nine, not when he was thirteen.
Is he trying to hide the fact that her name was never Acorah?
DEREK COURTNEY'?
If Derek Johnson felt a genuine need to take his grandfather's name, why didn't he? Derek Courtney is distinctive, has a ring to it, and would look good on billboards, so what was wrong with it?
'DEREK VERBAAN'?
Agreed, that doesn't have the same ring to it, though 'Verbaan' alone would have given an air of mystery that could have been useful in his career, but Derek Johnson obviously rejected that as well, despite growing up with Willem Verbaan as his step-grandfather.
By this time I knew for a fact that there were no Acorahs in Derek Johnson's family tree, but the questions of why he should choose it for a stage name, and why he should feel that it should be his real name still needed answering.
Googling anagrams brought no suggestions until one letter 'a' was removed. That was when I found two diametrically opposed references to Achor.
ACHOR
1) Biblical - the book of Isaiah - where there is reference to the valley of Achor, a place where Israelites saw defeat, death and destruction. However, God promised he would make the valley a place of rest for those who sought Him.
2) Demonic - Achor is another name for Beelzebub, Chief of Devils, Lord of the Flies, and a synonym for Satan or the Devil. He was the bringer of disease and destruction, and the name can be found in ancient medical texts, referring to 'a disease of infants, in which the head, face and breast become encrusted with thin, yellowish or greenish scabs'.
Remember all the 'evil entities' that Derek Acorah has claimed to 'channel', on television, in 2004/5 alone, and the second explanation is considerably more likely than the first - possibly to bring him more in touch with the darker side.
So if Derek Acorah's explanation of the name's origin is so patently untrue, can we accept his explanation for 'Sam', his '2,000-year-old Ethiopian spirit guide'? From the evidence available, I doubt it.
He often describes how Sam made himself known:
"The physical rigours of the game were also beginning to take their toll on me. Ultimately, we made the decision to return to England. By 1982 my footballing days were over.
"With my return to English shores came the time for me to start working for spirit.
"Now living on my own, I began to do private readings for people in my home, but soon the demand became so great that I had to find office space. Although I was working as a full-time spirit medium, I had not yet developed the gift of clairvoyance. This was about to change
"One evening I was at home alone. I had just completed my evening meditation and was sitting listening to some music. Suddenly I heard a voice saying, 'Hello, Derek.' This was repeated four times. Then the voice said, 'I'm Sam.'
" Realization dawned — at last my spirit guide had spoken to me! The words my grandmother had uttered all those years ago had come true."
The Psychic
Adventures of Derek Acorah
"My gran told
me about my guide when I was a youngster but said he wasn't ready to step
forward and be known to me in this life until my late teens.
Read those last two quotations again...
Born in 1950, Derek Acorah was thirty-two years of age in 1982 when 'Sam' contacted him according to his own book.
However, he told The Sun newspaper he was in his 'late teens'.
By 1982 his marriage had broken up, and he
was "living alone" when 'Sam' said "Hello, Derek." four times, again
according to his own book.
But he was sitting in the lounge of his mum and dad's house, chatting
to the family when 'Sam' said "Derek, Derek, it's Sam." according to
his own words in the Sun newspaper online 'chat'.
MASUMAI - SAM
"But why "Sam" and not "Masumai" you ask yourself. The reason is simple. It is Sam's wish that he be known by that name and not by the ancient name of "Masumai" of those long ago days in Ethiopia."
The name 'Masumai' must have an origin; no matter how old it should survive in some form. There are three references to it on the web:
1) The most entries is the name of a river and hotel in Indonesia, an Islamic country.
2) Next comes a negative Japanese word ending.
3) Four references to a surname with Islamic connections in Tanzania.
Is it likely that any of these could have a connection with Masumai's name? Or could it possibly be more obvious than that?
We all know that MASUMAI, when reversed, becomes IAMUSAM, or 'I am u Sam'. Has Derek Johnson been as untruthful over the origin of Sam's name as he is over 'Acorah'?
And if he has been untruthful about Sam's name, can we really believe that Sam exists?
Perhaps when he was sitting on the loo at the age of seventeen he should have looked at the label inside his underpants, and called his spirit guide 'St Michael'. It might even have been more believable than 'Sam'.
One more possibility for 'Sam' comes from the world of stage magic. The logo of the Society of American Magicians, has SAM spelled out in the centre, and appears on Houdini's tomb among other places.
Can we now accept anything that Derek Acorah does or says as being true? After two months of research I know what I believe, but you must judge for yourself.
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