It was just before 11 p.m. on Sunday, when suddenly the most intense smell of rosemary permeated through the lounge room.
As rosemary signifies remembering, and is traditionally used on Anzac Day to remember our dearly departeds who fought in the wars, I had to ask myself if Spirit was trying to invoke my memory of the message with the fragrance?
Then I saw a monk walk from my kitchen, and even as a write this I’m getting goosebumps again. He seemed so real. He was dressed in a brown habit with a hood covering his head. He positioned himself at the dining room table, behind the chair I occupy when having the evening meal. I just knew I had to write to the brother with the message—obviously the monk wasn’t going to go away until I had accomplished the task he was there to oversee.
I didn’t own a computer back then, so with a pen and a piece of paper in hand, I wrote the message—with Andrew’s photo coming off the wall twice, the fragrance and the monk standing behind me. If my son or I were going to be excommunicated from the college culture, we may as well go out in style!
The next morning, I relayed the event to the staff in the office where I worked, all five of whom were Catholic. They begged me to send the letter, although I never divulged the message, just the circumstances. They had learnt over the years never to doubt my experiences.
Some six weeks passed and I received a letter from the brother.
He apologised for his lateness. In fact, he wrote that when I had the dream it was Vocation Sunday in his order. It’s the day set aside for the brothers and priests to reflect upon their commitment to the church and the order, and how they saw themselves being of service in the coming years. The scriptures I had given him were ones he’d been studying.
He explained that his reason for taking time off from the college was to attend a retreat, to pray and contemplate whether he should take the next step in his spiritual life from a brother to a priest. He thanked me for this message and asked me to keep him in my prayers.
I hoped perhaps I’d given him some comfort or confirmation of his direction in life. I’m not a Catholic; I was raised as a Methodist and eventually become a Sunday school teacher. So I
was totally unaware of the doctrine for brothers and priests in the Catholic faith. I felt reassured and happy when I read the official announcement in the college newsletter that he was leaving to become a priest.
My gift as a medium that day was truly tested. Was I bold enough and confident enough to move beyond my fear and deliver an important message? I’m so pleased I did—this man had been praying and asking his Heavenly Father for guidance and confirmation as to his vocation in the church. Heavenly wisdom that Sunday was delivered to a medium—me—to give to one chosen to lead and shepherd His flock. I smile as I sense the intertwining of two very different messengers—a Christian brother and me, working in the supernatural world. You could say we are divinely linked; the common thread is that we both work to deliver messages from above, that there is life after death—it’s just open to interpretation!
33
Keeping an open mind Keeping an open mind
The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.
Colin Wilson
Your own belief system may start to be challenged by the shock of losing someone special. You may cling to the religion of your childhood, you may build on these beliefs, or you may pull away from structured philosophies and start looking for alternatives; and if you have never been to church before, you may now start to question whether there really is a God or Heaven. This is the gift you’ve been given through loss.
If you haven’t already, you may start to question your own principles and those of your family, friends and culture. This is part of the evolution of your own soul’s development. How fortunate you are to be able to now question your own mortality, your own purpose and direction. You may never have thought about spiritual things until your visit to a psychic medium puts you on a spiritual quest to find the answers.
Not all mediums conduct private readings. Some internationally acclaimed mediums, such as renowned psychic medium James Van Praagh, travel the world giving live performances to stadiums packed with thousands of people. This is a daunting task. Imagine all those people jammed in next to each other, sitting in the dark, while he’s under a beacon of intense stage lighting, tuning into communications from the other side. This task takes great skill and experience to deliver accurately what he’s receiving. No wonder at times there can be crossed lines as he channels his senses to receive.
A more informal demonstration of proof of the existence of communication from the dearly departed can be experienced at a Spiritualist church, which believes that after we die we go back into Spirit until we make the choice to return to earth. Each Sunday there’s a visiting psychic medium doing ‘platform work’, where the medium uses their unique style and gifts to deliver messages from one’s past to members of the audience, usually in a small group setting.
During the time my parents were investigating the Spiritualist movement, Mum would make meticulous notes from any messages that were received by any mediums working the platform.
She would sit down when she returned home in the evening and write down everything she could remember, and still to this day she has boxes of her carefully hand-written notes with their incredible detail.
On quizzing her for suitable stories for this book regarding demonstrations from the platform to support the belief in the afterlife, one story in particular stood out in her mind—Jack’s story.
‘I’ll have to search through the huge boxes in the back room for the story—it may take me some time to work my way through the stories, but I’ll find it, and next time you visit you can take it away with you,’ she said.
‘Gina, you won’t believe this, the first one I clapped my eyes on was Jack’s story.’ It was as though it had mysteriously plotted itself in a position that would be discovered immediately. The once-white foolscap paper was now a shade of coffee, and felt limp to touch in the hands. The blue biro writing had faded on the outer edges, but was still very readable.
Mum started telling me that Albert Best, the Scottish medium, was said to be the best in the UK at that time. Albert had received a number of visits from Anne, the deceased wife of a retired Church of England minister. Anne had given Albert such accurate and detailed information that he was able to track down her husband and give him the messages. Anne was concerned that he was depressed, sad and drinking too much. She even told the medium where she had placed his clean clerical collar—a simple message, but understandably natural for a wife. Her continued appearances would eventually convince this retired minister of life after death. He went on to write a book, A Venture in Immortality.
The demonstration
We went to a demonstration at a nearby Town Hall, a good hour’s drive away. There were hundreds present. Dad was lucky enough to have some messages via Albert Best as well.
During the evening Albert pointed to Dad in the audience. ‘I am coming to you—the man with his hand under his chin. I have a man here with a strong accent, he’s Geordie. His name is Jack.
I am reminded of the times when Jack and you had a few drinks.’
Dad didn’t drink, but when he visited Jack they’d have a cup of coffee.
‘I get County Durham and also a connection with Newcastle.
Does that mean anything to you?’ Albert asked.
‘Possibly,’ Dad replied. Mum and Dad didn’t believe in feeding the medium too much detail—they were there to receive, not to divulge!
Albert continued, ‘He was a singer and he’s singing a song for you—‘The Bladen Races’. [This was a song particular to that region of Newcastle in England.]
‘I look at you and I hear Burslem and Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and names like that. [All these towns were from the pottery area where Dad grew up.]
‘With you, sir, I get the phrase: “Go kick a bow against a wa.”
‘Go kick a ball against a wall.’]
‘Could you say that for me now, sir?’
‘I couldn’t speak like that now,’ Dad replied.
‘Never mind, we’ll go back to Jack, your friend,’ Albert went on. ‘Well sir, your friend is happy to make this link, and he thinks of you all the time. He can tell you could accept everything, and he indicates how happy it made him feel.’
Mum had written a summary of the day’s demonstration: ‘This story was told for two reasons: 1. To share a healing story with you all, to encourage you. 2. To comfort you, for times of loss of loved ones. This man proved to me that he still lives. Life goes on, in the Spirit world.’
In due course, my mum would work on the platform for many years, delivering messages of hope and proof of the existence of life after death.
Searching for the Truth
Investigating ‘the truth’ can be rewarding. You may refer to yourself as a Christian, Muslim or Jew, or align yourself with another faith.
If you attend a Spiritualist or New Age demonstration, you’ll come across a varied group of individuals with varying gifts, talents and philosophies.
Go with an open mind—treat it like a smorgasbord at a restaurant, where you have choices. You can sample the entrees, indulge in many courses and feast on the desserts. How much you eat and digest is up to you. So too, choose with discernment what you see, hear and observe that day. If your intuition is tugging at you, and saying, ‘All is not right here’, be on guard! Not everyone works to the glory of the most high.
In the early days of my parents’ investigation into the Spiritualist movement, they withdrew from a church they had started visiting when they heard the male clairvoyant had been arrested for theft. While the clients were waiting in the church for their readings, he was off robbing their homes!
The quality and content of communication can differ greatly from service to service and from group to group. Are there highly trained teachers who can guide and instruct you? Ask yourself, is this a place of comfort and peace? Is my spiritual journey developing, unfolding? Am I developing my spiritual path? Be on guard if you hear people making promises, guarantees of communicating with the afterlife.
Some of you may investigate and join a development circle where like-minded people meet to develop their natural psychic abilities and learn how to expand their energy and access the spirit realms. Usually, these circles meet once a week in the same location with a leader who is experienced in mediumship development.
Through loss, we are often placed on our true soul’s purpose, and I have known people who have become excellent mediums through their own personal tragedy of loss of a loved one.
I can guarantee one thing, your beloved will be excited that you are searching for the truth, that you seeking to have some understanding or even now have achieved some belief that they have made the transition to the other side. They will be eagerly waiting to communicate with you—and it just may be through a psychic medium!
34
Signs and messages Signs and messages
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung
Working as a psychic medium is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects of my gift. To communicate and relay messages from the other side is my reward. It hasn’t been easy though. Just imagine trying to understand someone speaking to you in a foreign language—one you’re not familiar with. Sometimes the expressions on their face and the way they use their hands can be more valuable in comprehending the message than the actual words they’re using. You know how draining this can be. So when a psychic medium contacts someone who has passed over, both will find the exchange of information energetically draining.
Messages are not fluid like earthly communications. They often stop and start. As Spirit becomes depleted of strength, they pull back to gather more momentum, then rally to continue with the session. Have patience with the medium, as they too will expend much of their own energy trying to tap into this field.
Clients are sometimes frustrated with the messages relayed from the other side, believing them trivial. Remember, your loved one’s personality doesn’t become angelic just because they’re in heaven.
If they were a grumbly old man in this life, the messages may come through in the same tone. You’re dealing with real-life characters who have made a transition to another place, another tomorrow, continuing with their own unique identities. Some may refer to high points in their life, events and circumstances you were not aware of, for example, winning the Country Cricket Cup or making ginger beer stored under their grandmother’s house. You may well need to become an investigator to track down the relevance of this information.
I just love it when I receive an email or a telephone call from a client who can’t place some of the information relayed at their reading only to do research and have accurate feedback from associates that the information was indeed factual after all.
When conducting a psychic reading, I see symbols and receive information in a variety of forms. I have learnt to say what I see, hear and feel. This doesn’t mean that my interpretation of the images will always be correct. Mediums can misinterpret the pictures, symbols and signs.
I recall a woman in Spirit pointing to her eye, then she touched her heart and then she showed me a sheep with a lamb. So my interpretation was maybe someone was connected to a rural setting and she had a vision and heart problem. But the young man having the reading saw it completely differently. He told me his grandmother, when alive, had a particular loving way of communicating with him using her type of ‘sign language’. She would point to her eye, then her heart and then point to him. In fact what she was trying to convey was ‘I love you’. The sheep was an ewe. He knew exactly what she was trying to say.
Let’s take another example. I felt great pain in my right breast while communicating with a woman on the other side, and she kept pointing to her breast and then pointing to the woman having the reading. I felt she must have passed over with breast cancer. Later I was to learn that the woman having the reading had just been diagnosed with breast cancer in the same breast. It was her sister in spirit wanting her to know she was aware of her current health diagnosis.
Having a misinterpretation doesn’t mean we are off course and not communicating thoroughly with the other side, it’s just that we need loads of patience and determination to work through the newly formed ‘spirit language’.
Spirit communicates through thought, called ‘telepathy’, and I read these thoughts. This is called ‘mental mediumship’. The thoughts may be in a picture, a song or a movie, feelings in my body, a taste sensation in my mouth, a particular fragrance, smell or sometimes a sound. The information comes through very quickly—sometimes simultaneously—and I pick up speed with my own talking as I try to disseminate the symbols to my client.
Being able to draw on my own life experience allows me to have a deeper understanding and interpretation of what is being given.
In touch with loved ones
By now you must be asking yourself: ‘How will I know when my dearly departed is communicating with me?’ Many clients are so disappointed not to have had some sign from their loved one.
Upon questioning their expectations, they often refer to scenes from movies such as the The Sixth Sense or Dragonfly. Wanting an experience so vivid and out of this world, they won’t be able to discard the signs of a supernatural experience. Take the pressure off yourself. It’s highly unlikely your bedclothes will be pulled from you, snow fall in your lounge room during summer, or the furniture will rearrange itself overnight—Spirit is subtle!
You would be wise in asking yourself: ‘How do I know that what I am experiencing is genuine, real and not wishful thinking or imagination?’ I receive hundreds of letters and emails weekly from all over the wo
rld from people looking for answers to explain unusual experiences or events they believe could be from their dearly departed. Philippa wrote to me after she and her daughter had some unusual experiences of this kind. She was puzzled and seeking an explanation for the happenings that had occurred in two different households:
My husband Ian passed on four years ago. I began hearing a loud yelling voice in my right ear saying, ‘No, no, no, Philippa’ and ‘I love you’ at various quiet times. One night I awoke at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the dot, followed by swirling grey clouds behind my eyes, vanishing into a woman in an oval frame. The woman had straight hair and a thin mouth, and was wearing a Dutch hat and a high neckline.
The next morning my daughter arrived from country Victoria to spend two days here. She told me she had awakened at precisely the same times as I had the previous night. She had brought her husband’s family album with her. It started in the 1700s, and in it was pictured the woman I’d seen that morning. She was born in the early 1800s.
Several weeks ago I awoke from a fifteen-minute catnap and Ian was standing near my chair, looking thin and tall, wearing a blue checked shirt (he never actually owned one), and long pants, with swirling clouds moving around his lower legs. I stared at him without blinking for approximately seven seconds before he vanished. I’m perplexed. Is there an explanation for these happenings?
I sense Philippa may have doubted these signs from Spirit if it wasn’t for the fact that her daughter awoke at the same times. So what was happening for Philippa? I believe the woman in the family album was a bonus. It would be immediate proof of the afterlife when she flicked through the pages of the family photo album to find the woman’s photo. Spirit, too, wants to validate their existence in the afterlife. I would suggest next time Philippa sees a spirit vanish into a frame, she should investigate other photo albums or pictures as this is the ‘Language of Spirit’ trying to use photos as subtle clues that grab her attention; giving her a message that she and her family are being guided, looked after, thought about.
Dearly Departed Page 17
