Dearly Departed (7 page)

The interview was to last eight minutes, and I’d be given the last two minutes to quickly get my message across. Walking into John’s room, we all shook hands, and as I gazed into his piercing blue eyes, I had the distinct impression that he was reading me!

One team member held eight fingers in the air, signalling the number of minutes we had to conduct the interview. As the time slipped by, the fingers decreased.

It was scripted that when Kyle asked John what his favourite movie was, he would reply ‘
Grease
’, but instead John looked to me and said: ‘
Phenomenon
. Not that I want to die, but I would like to live my life that way.’ I knew from the film’s content that John was indeed psychic.

We were almost out of time but I was able to tell him, ‘Due to your early years of suffering [he had been deeply in love with Diana Hyland who was eighteen years his senior and who died of breast cancer] you have been granted fame and fortune as you have a mission to accomplish. Someone close to you, very close, has a male child—I see the movie
Lorenzo’s Oil
. Are you aware of this movie?’

John nodded to indicate that he knew of the movie.

‘Well, like the movie, this child will be diagnosed with an incurable disease. You will invest much money and eventually find a cure for this disease that in time will save thousands and thousands of people.’

As I pitched the reading, I knew that John would be able to pick up the clue that it was his child, and, yes, he did just that. As I concluded he threw his hands up in the air and said, ‘Yes, yes, I knew that was my purpose’. His eyes were shining, and those beautiful white teeth of his exposed an amazing warm smile.

In 2003, it became common knowledge in the media that his son Jett had been diagnosed with Kawasaki syndrome, and at this stage there is no cure. I am convinced this is the mission that the prediction talked about. John is a silent achiever and we may never be told of the amount of money he might personally invest in helping others.

8
Dialling heaven Dialling heaven

We are all blessed ones. Heaven is no longer in the clouds. It is right here, all around us, everywhere; we must only open our eyes to see it.

Kim Chestney

J
ackie O loves the idea that I can speak to dead people. It is something my regular clients experience as part of their face-to-face readings. We didn’t know how or even if we could be successful using this format on live radio. One thing I have always stood firm on is honesty, integrity and saying it how it is. My mother had taught me to give facts and information first, then ask questions—that way you would not be soliciting information and making it fit in. So many people who work in the psychic realm are not naturally gifted, yet the simple act of looking at someone’s facial features and listening to their voice would be enough to give generalised predictions. I wanted my gift to be accurate and to give honest information so listeners could judge for themselves.

Speaking to the other side is not like having a conversation with your best friend. I liken it to speaking on a mobile phone. One minute you have clear reception, the next it fades out. The energies can be strong then soften, as though Spirit is building up their strength to get the messages through. There is truth in the saying ‘a picture speaks a thousands words’. Often the energies will hold up a sign—I’ll hear a song in my head, see the name of a movie or be reminded of an event I experienced as though that is the example they are trying to show for me to correlate their message.

Sometimes more than one energy will come through at a time. This can be frustrating to the client and to me. I liken it to talking to someone on the phone while someone else is also talking to you in the background.

Spirit is just as eager to get messages through as we are to receive them, and when they see a psychic medium working they want to jump in on the party line and give a message to a loved one. It may even be the client’s next-door neighbour.

The information comes through so quickly, and in different ways.

I can feel—this is called ‘clairsentience’, or clear feeling—pains in parts of my body that may show where that person had a health condition or how they died, and until I get the information correctly the pain will stay. Sometimes I will taste something—perhaps a particular brand of chocolate, only to find out it was the deceased person’s favourite. I may smell a fragrance or a perfume—it could be rose, their favourite flower. I may hear—this is called ‘clairau-dience’, or clear hearing—words, songs and names. And I may also see—clairvoyance, or clear seeing—pictures, photos or names and numbers in my head. Sometimes they are coloured, sometimes they’re black and white.

It can be difficult interpreting the signs and signals—it’s like asking you to remember what you saw in your favourite television show last night, or recalling a special photo. Those who can remember photo negatives will recall that a seemingly blonde person would be shown as a person with dark hair. This can be a trick the brain plays when interpreting events. Always ask a psychic how they see things. What you see may not be what they see, especially if you are colourblind.

For radio we mapped out a format that to this day is still used for my other segments. The production crew solicited listeners to enrol via telephone. I’d be in a silent studio while they were phoned back. I’d be given their first name only. They’d be telephoned and I’d only ask the name of the deceased they wished me to contact and how old they were when they died.

I would then ask them to think, feel or remember a happy moment or experience involving their beloved. Unknowingly for the client, this small exercise instantly appears to remove the veil of tension, apprehension and fear that they might have originally brought to the consultation. Their barriers are dropped, opening a more positive channel for Spirit to manifest. You know yourself when you’re trying to think of a name that has just slipped your mind, the more you force your memory recall, the more it eludes you until finally you relax and the name suddenly pops into your head. The more tense and restrictive the client is, the more energy I need to draw from my own field to break down the barriers they have unconsciously put in place. This then depletes my own energy reserves, leaving me more exhausted after a session.

When they felt they could recall that memory, they were to say aloud their loved one’s name three times—three being the very mystical and spiritual numeral that represents Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the western world and in ancient times represented heaven, earth and the abyss. Then I would hang up and write down as much information as Spirit gave me. It’s not unusual to start receiving information from the dearly departed while the listener is thinking of a happy moment. It’s truly as if they have travelled into the future and knew that their moment was to come, waiting, just waiting for the invisible link from the living world to the afterlife.

After the messages were delivered, I’d be called into the main studio with Jackie and Kyle. Sometimes there’d be ten pages or more of information given and I had to pick the best pieces because I had only two minutes of air time to relay this to the listeners. I liken it to trying to put pieces of a puzzle together, moving them around, seeing how they fit, what fits in where and how to respond to the emotional feelings of the dearly departed trying to convey a message to their loved one—all in a two-minute time frame. Hard going? Yes.

People wonder why I speak so quickly when delivering readings.

I’m trying to process all the information given by my six senses.

When the information is received from Spirit, it comes through in clairaudient, clairsentient and clairvoyant senses—it’s unusual for a psychic to have mastered all three senses, that’s why I used the term ‘psychic’ rather than clairvoyant. I’m trying to process all the information that’s being received through these senses at one time, hence speaking rapidly as I interpret the flashes, flickers and feelings before me.

Sometimes listeners can’t place a relevant message on air because they lose focus due to the nerves of knowing they’re on the radio, and then later the station gets an excited telephone call saying they’ve just spoken to someone who remembered the information. What a bonus—just a pity we didn’t get the feedback on air at the time of the reading.

The messages may sometimes seem disjointed. This is because I have pages and pages of information in front of me, and have to choose what I feel is the best evidence of life after death, being mindful that the DJ needs to insert advertisement and music breaks.

When I’m not reading my notes, I close my eyes and ‘feel’ Spirit, their energies and their messages, often opening my eyes to see Kyle waving his hand around in a clockwise direction indicating he wants me to wind down for a scheduled break or I have gone beyond my designated time frame.

Radio loves emotion—the station buzzes when an on-air listener shows excitement, screams or, better still, bursts into tears. ‘Dearly Departed’ left many listeners driving to work in tears as they tapped into the raw emotion of the person having the reading, allowing them to share a private moment with a stranger or an intimate experience that they could perhaps relate to. Often Kyle would hand Jackie and I tissues as tears were rolling down our faces in response to the listener’s feedback. It’s what makes great radio.

The messages can be very cryptic, and it takes years and years of practice to get the facts interpreted quickly and accurately so the client can glean some sense of what’s being given. If the listener’s primary sense of relating to the world is through sight, or visual stimuli, then listening to me rapidly passing on information through their auditory senses can be quite difficult for them to absorb there and then.

Liken this to someone who prefers to hear a story being told compared with someone who enjoys reading the story. On radio, we try to paint a picture using visual cues to stimulate the auditory senses with music, dialogue and tonal changes in our voices in anyway we can, so everyone can enjoy and relate to being part of a link to the cosmos—the universal truth that there is life after death.

9
Spirit-inspired synchronicity Spirit-inspired synchronicity

Do not assume that divine guidance flows only when you are in need of help. Guidance continues to flow whether or not you have problems. It transcends problems, heartbreaks and traumas, flowing through dreams and illuminations. Whether guidance comes during times of tranquillity or trauma, however, it is up to you to have the courage to acknowledge it.

Caroline Myss

I
know there’s a divine plan for each soul—we all have a purpose, and sometimes it’s only when we’ve reached our destination that we can look back and see the miracle of the wonderfully woven story of our life’s purpose going this way and that way until the plan has come to maturation. Such was the case with Susie, an Australian media icon, journalist, author and TV identity.

I’ve watched Susie’s progress in the media over the years with interest, as we share some common ground. When I met Susie, she was gracious and charming, with a charismatic glow about her and an infectious smile.

‘Susie—do you realise how much we have in common? We both went to the same high school, and your parents eventually bought the same Caltex service station in the northern beaches that my parents used to own.’

We were both amazed with the coincidences.

Susie had a radio gig that was winding down for Christmas and invited me along as her guest psychic for the very last show. She admitted she was not overly sold on psychics, but she knew listeners loved that kind of thing.

As I fielded live questions from the listeners, and the phones ran hot, Susie seemed more and more surprised at the degree of accuracy; she then asked what I saw for her. I remember quite clearly I saw her in front of a television camera with her own national TV show. When we went into an ad break, Susie turned to me, smiling, and told me she was working on a project around a TV show, and if it came off she would be calling me. Months passed, and I had forgotten all about this prediction when Susie rang, asking me to join the show as the psychic!

A week earlier, I had been visiting Brendan and Latoya, and I was telling them about a series of books about miracles that I just love, written by two Jewish women, that seem to be focused on stories mostly of Jewish families and wonderful synchronicities and events in their lives.

When I returned to Sydney, I kept thinking about my dear friend Simon, who had passed over. His face and name would pop into my head at various times during the day, and I wondered whether he had a message for me. But nothing eventuated . . . until I hopped into bed one Wednesday evening and looked at my diary.

It was June 13 and it was a cold night. I pulled the doona up to my neck, then I heard the song ‘Hava Nagilla’ as loud as can be!

I knew Simon loved this song, coming from the Jewish faith, and I had accompanied him to several functions where it had been played. I started to think, okay, now he’s going to give me the message I’ve been expecting. But no, it wasn’t to be the case.

Suddenly a man and a woman appeared in my room—the man stood at the back of my bedroom, in the corner, very still and quiet.

As I focused my attention on him, the song changed to a hit from the 1980s called ‘Shaddap You Face’ by Joe Dolce. I started thinking perhaps this man was an immigrant. My mind kept wandering back to Susie for some reason. I knew her parents were immigrants, but was unsure from where—perhaps Lebanon.

Suddenly it hit me—Simon’s birthday was June 21, and that was the day for the filming of the first show, and the show was going to be aired for the first time on June 25, the date Simon died. I wondered if Susie was Jewish. This had to be a message for her. Once I realised this, the visions and messages became more direct. A woman appeared by my bed. She was so excited! She was rather pushy in personality—she came right up to my pillow— then covered my bed with reams and large bolts of dress fabric.