“Spiritualist churches?” Ted replied, aghast. “Don’t tell me they’ve gone and made a whole religion out of this fortune-telling gig?”
Jobran nodded, and responded, “Spiritualists—who firmly repudiate ‘fortunetelling,’ by the way, and distinguish themselves from ‘spiritists’ who have no religious orientation—have organized churches since about the turn of the 20th century. The famous medium Arthur Ford became the original pastor of the First Spiritualist Church in New York in the 1920s, for example. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches is the largest organization of such churches in this country. They have member churches, ordain ministers, hold camp meet-ings—especially in a little town called Lily Dale—publish literature, manage websites, hold church services, and everything else, just like more traditional churches. Some Spiritualist churches consider themselves ‘Christian,’ even calling Jesus himself ‘the Greatest Medium,’ whereas others don’t have a Christian focus. They all pretty much believe in an ‘Infinite Intelligence’—God, in other words— and that Nature is an expression of this Intelligence. By and large, they reject the notion of reincarnation, believing instead that we can correct our life mistakes in the spiritual world, without needing to return to earthly life again. They almost universally reject the notion of Hell and eternal damnation, and do not think of the next life as like ‘Heaven’; rather, they believe that the afterlife is whatever a spirit chooses to make of it, and that we can all continue to progress for all of eternity.” He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then concluded, “Of course, their key belief is that there is no such thing as death, and that communication with the departed is a fact.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve actually visited one of these so-called ‘churches’?” Ted said, sarcastically.
“Sure; they’re listed in the telephone directories and on the Internet, just like any other churches. They also publish Church manuals, Sunday School-type lessons, hymnals, and everything else. I quickly found one not too far away, and Abraham let me borrow his car to drive to it,” Jobran replied. “It was kind of genteel and traditional: hymns, prayers, announcements, a sermon, a collection, and a benediction—as well as several purported communications with departed spirits throughout the service. Kind of a small and older-age congregation, though, except for one younger man who had AIDS, and received lots of prayers for healing from the congregation.”
Facetiously, Ted made the sign of the cross over himself, and said solemnly, “Almost makes me glad for the Baptist church that I was raised in.” Still with tongue in cheek, he added, “So if all of this has been ‘scientifically proven,’ then why are you still busily engaged in your ‘Quest’?”
Jobran looked troubled, and said, “Actually, to me, the fact that there has been so little ‘proved’ evidence is a telling point. If Spiritualism is true, then every person that ever lived is still alive, and potentially can communicate with us. I have difficulty in believing that spiritistic communication with the dead wouldn’t actually be rather commonplace, if it were indeed possible; wouldn’t there be many millions of departed persons—parents, children, spouses—that would do anything in order to communicate with their loved ones left behind, if it could be done? Not even Houdini—who believed in an afterlife, even though he thought almost all mediums were frauds—and his wife, who made a solemn pact to try and communicate with each other after death with a secret codeword and code of their own devising, seem to have succeeded in bridging the gap. After his death, however, his wife evidently thought for a time that medium Arthur Ford had discerned their pre-arranged codeword ‘forgive,’ and that Ford at a subsequent séance gave a message that utilized their secret code. However, it turns out that Houdini’s wife may have inadvertently told others of this code and codeword, and she eventually decided that Ford’s message at the séance hadn’t been from Houdini. Thus, she continued to hold séances each year on Halloween, in hopes of hearing a word from her husband, which never came.”
“Well, hell, then,” Ted said, making a gesture of dismissal. “If even Houdini couldn’t communicate with his own wife, what good is this Candara person? What’s the point of seeing her, besides wasting your money and mine?”
Jobran paused, then said quietly, “The point is that she claims to be able to communicate with departed persons—which means that she says that she can communicate with my wife, Sophia.”
Ted was silent for a moment, then said, in a chastened voice, “Oh—right; I plumb forgot.” They continued walking in silence, then Ted asked, in a voice with genuine curiosity, “Say, Jobe; if you think there might really be something to all this séance crap, why didn’t you try this avenue first?”
Jobran thought hard before answering, “Well, at first I never even gave anything ‘occult’ or ‘metaphysical’ a thought; I was just interested in what the various Christian traditions had to say about life after death. Besides, all of the orthodox Christian traditions—from the Catholics to the Jehovah’s Witnesses—strongly condemn any sort of ‘spiritistic’ practice. And I…well, I was afraid of doing anything sinful, right?” He gave a hollow laugh, then continued, “But I discovered that the orthodox religions all had a common problem: they expected you to take what they had to say about life after death on faith. Sure, they would give you Bible verses that they said ‘proved’ their position, or tell you to pray with sincerity for God to ‘comfort the wounded heart,’ but they couldn’t give you anything concrete.” His voice starting to betray his emotion, he added, “I mean…all I ever really wanted…all that anyone ever really wants is ‘one last chance’; one last conversation, one last embrace, one last kiss. One last time to tell them how much you love them, how much they’ve meant to you, how their love filled your life with joy and meaning.” He wiped tears from his eyes, then continued in a quavering voice, “One last time to beg their forgiveness for all the times that you were impatient, inconsiderate, and unloving. One last time to…“ but he couldn’t continue. Even the normally impassive Ted seemed moved by the obvious sincerity of Jobran’s words.
Suddenly, to break the mood, Ted pulled out his hip flask and took a large swallow of it, then said in an indignant voice, “I understand that, Jobe, I really do; you’ve lost the one thing in the world that meant the most to you. And that’s the thing that really pisses me off about these supposed ‘mediums’—they’re taking advantage of people that are hurting, people that are emotionally fragile, people that are desperate to believe in something.”
They were now in front of Candara’s office, and Jobran wiped his eyes and hissed, in a low voice, “Now remember—you’re taking Abraham’s place, so you have to go along with this, and not let on to her that you’re a skeptic.”
With an innocent look on his face, Ted said, “Hey, don’t worry: I’m not religious, so I have no problem with lying and therefore breaking one of the Ten Commandments, when it suits my purposes.”
Looking satisfied, Jobran led the way up the walkway to the building (Candara had her office in an older, but greatly renovated house, on the edge of downtown). Reaching the porch, he knocked gently on the door. Looking at his watch, he said to Ted, “We’re seven minutes early.”
The door opened, and a young woman with long, wavy hair and a long, flowing dress opened the door.
“Hello, Candara; my name is Jobran Winter and this is…”
“We know who you are,” the young woman said, interrupting. “Please enter; Candara awaits inside.” Jobran blushed, realizing that this must be an assistant of Candara.
She ushered them into the first room, which had several comfortable chairs lined against the wall, and a large desk with three chairs arranged in front of it.
Taking a seat behind the desk, she motioned them to sit in front of her. “First, we must remove the financial affairs from our consciousness.”
Jobran said, “Oh, right; that’s $300, right?” and removed his checkbook from
his pocket, and started to open it up. The young woman nodded gently in the direction of a sign that said, “No Personal Checks.” Jobran said, in a mixture of frustration and dismay, “You didn’t tell me that when I called for an appointment. I didn’t bring that much cash with me.” Jobran glanced at Ted, who assiduously avoided eye contact and seemed like he was trying to blend into the background.
“We accept all major credit cards,” she replied, in a completely businesslike, “unspiritual” tone.
Genuinely concerned that he didn’t have that much available credit on his card, Jobran handed it over, watching anxiously out of the corner of his eye as she ran it through for authorization, and breathed a sigh of relief as she handed the receipt over for him to sign.
Her voice back to its normal “transcendental” tone, the young woman said, “You may wait in the next room; Candara will call upon you once she has finished her spiritual preparations,” and she opened the door to a small adjoining room, and motioned for them to sit in the chairs against the wall, facing a door on the opposite side of the room. “You should begin to pray, or meditate, or whatever spiritual practice you follow, in order to make yourselves ready,” she said, and then left the room, silently closing the door behind her.
The room was mostly dark, except for some indirect subdued lighting coming from the corners of the room. Jobran noticed that there was some vague synthesized music playing softly in the background. Neither he nor Ted said anything, so he was left with his nervous thoughts. God, is it possible that this might really work? That I might really be able to contact Sophia this way? Or am I doing something that you have forbidden, and that is considered sinful by you? His eyes filling with tears, he prayed, Please understand…I’m not trying to contact any sort of evil spirits, or seeking any sort of “powers” for myself; I…I just need to be able to talk with Sophia, again…even if it’s just for one last time…
The door across from them opened softly and slowly, revealing a dark silhouette of a woman surrounded by a bright light from behind. It was very impressive, and even a bit scary.
“I am Candara,” came a measured voice from the silhouette, as it entered the room, closing the door behind it. They could now see that the voice belonged to a woman in her thirties, in a long white silken dress, with her long hair tied up behind her head. She came and stood in front of them, motioning for them to remain sitting. “The séance will be conducted in the next room; however, I must first cover the rules for your participation.”
“First,” she said in a commanding voice, “You must not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the séance; we will be contacting spiritual forces, and it could be dangerous for any of us to be in a diminished state of consciousness during the session.”
Jobran nodded his assent, wondering whether he should indicate Ted’s lack of sobriety, when Ted said solemnly, “Absolutely; we’re both stone cold sober.” (Jobran was amazed that Ted could keep such a straight face as he said this. He was glad that odorless vodka was Ted’s drink of preference.)
“Second, you must not touch me during the session,” Candara intoned, solemnly. “If you touched me during the session, you could break my contact with the other realm. It might also be difficult for me to return to this realm, if I were interrupted in mid-communication.” Both Ted and Jobran nodded their assent.
“Third, and most important, you must not be harboring any doubts, or unbelief, during the session.”
Before Jobran could say anything, Ted said in a quiet voice, with a very pious expression on his face, “Candara, you may depend absolutely upon our faith in you, and in our utmost honesty.” His eyes radiated sincerity, and Candara smiled and looked pleased.
Geez, thought Jobran, I didn’t realize that Ted was such a good actor.
In a more normal tone of voice, Candara now said, “As you probably know, I am a psychic intuitive, a ‘mental’ medium—that is to say, I do not manifest spirits directly, and I remain conscious throughout the trance. My contacts with the spirit world are facilitated and assisted by my Spirit Guide, Djónè; she has been my spirit mentor for more than twenty-two years, and she may be relied upon unequivocally. Together, we are able to peer beyond the veil, to bring you the contact that you crave.”
Alternating between looking at Jobran, then Ted, directly in the eye, she continued, “All of us are psychic, to some degree; for example, you often develop ‘first impressions’ of people that you don’t know, because you are psychically perceiving something about them—probably their aura. Another common example is so-called ‘women’s intuition’—which men can also have, by the way; if they are in tune with the feminine side of their psychical feelings. I do not utilize any sort of tools in my sessions, such as Ouija boards—which are dangerous, and should not be used by nonprofessionals—as a psychic intuitive, I rely upon my innate intuition, assisted by my Spirit Guide, to understand the messages I am receiving. However, I am able to achieve better contact, sometimes, if I have one or two tokens that belonged to the deceased; particularly if there was a strong emotional attachment to these tokens by the deceased. Did you bring any such tokens?”
Jobran said, “I did,” and he opened the small bag he was carrying, and handed her a locket. “I gave that to Sophia on our first anniversary of being together; she always wore it before we were married.”
Candara took the locket and turned it over in her hand gently, then closed her eyes, as if divining some deep truth about it. “Yes…” she said, quietly. “The feelings associated with this token are indeed strong. This will be most helpful in establishing contact.”
She thought for a moment, then said, “The actual reception of the messages I receive can be compared to a television set, that is having difficulty in its reception due to a storm. I do not see pictures, or images; as a clairaudient, I hear audible sounds, which may be single letters or syllables, fractions of words, and such. Only rarely do I hear complete words, or phrases; consequently, I will often have to ask you to confirm many items of information I receive, to verify that I am correctly interpreting them.” In a warmer voice, she added, “However, I am able to sympathetically feel the emotions of the deceased person, which are beyond mere words, so that I can very accurately describe them.”
Looking sharply at them, she said, “You must realize that we will be contacting departed spirits. There are several kinds of such spirits; there are some, particularly those who died unexpectedly, who have not yet grasped the fact that they are dead—such spirits are commonly called ‘ghosts.’ Some of these departed spirits are restless, disturbed, unhappy; they may manifest themselves in ways that are frightening, or dangerous, and such spirits are commonly called ‘poltergeists.’ Both types of spirits are in the minority, and there are many more spirits that fully accept their new modes of existence; realizing, perhaps, that they are actually much more ‘real’ in the spiritual realm, than any of us in the physical realm are. They realize that all spirits—even those of infants, and young children; animals, even—can continue to grow and progress in the afterlife. For the most part, although they may have certain regrets about things they left undone in their earthly lives, they are quite happy and content in the spirit world.”
In a solemn tone, Candara now said, “You must also understand that in performing this séance, I am not trying to ‘prove’ anything to you; I will simply be reporting to you that which I actually hear and experience, but it is verified in terms of my own experience. Mistakes are also possible, particularly as it concerns the interpretation of the material that I receive psychically. Consequently, you have to utilize your own free will and judgment as it concerns what I tell you. You aren’t required to ‘believe’ anything that I report to you; and what—if anything—you actually do with it, is entirely up to you. If what I tell you accords with your own experience, your own beliefs—in short, if it ‘works’ for you, and makes it easier for you to understand an
d interpret things—then take it, and do with it what you will.”
Although he nodded his head as if agreeing with this, Jobran found himself thinking, But if what she says is true, then it shouldn’t just be up to me as to whether I accept it or not; you should believe it, if it’s true. The truth isn’t something that’s up to us, or a simple matter of personal belief; truth is objective.
Candara smiled, and continued, “You can rest assured that I have hundreds of clients that have found my information to be true, and in agreement with their own beliefs. In fact, one of my clients is a detective on the local Police force, and he often consults with me about puzzling cases.” Ted and Jobran looked at each other, and Jobran thought he saw Ted wink slyly at him.
Candara looked from one to the other, then said, “Do either of you have any questions before we begin?” Hearing no response, she smiled and said, “Some people feel reassured if they sing a hymn or other spiritual song before beginning; do either of you feel such a desire?” They both shook their heads, and she went on, “Any time before I open myself up to the spiritual world, I always like to pray the Lord’s Prayer with my sittees; but in this case,” and she looked directly at Ted (perhaps sensing his skepticism? Jobran wondered), “Would you have any objections to that? You don’t have to recite it yourself, if you don’t want to.”
Ted shook his head, and said, “I don’t mind reciting that prayer; I know it well.” Candara looked satisfied, then pulled up a chair, and had them arrange their chairs so that they were all sitting in a triangle, facing the center. Then she had them all hold hands, and they all recited the prayer together—well, “together” except that Candara substituted “Mother” for “Father” in the opening line, and Jobran said “forgive us our debts,” whereas Ted said “trespasses.” (Wonder if he was raised Catholic? Jobran wondered.)
Beyond Heaven and Earth Page 62
