My Life As a Medium (20 page)

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Authors: Betty Shine

BOOK: My Life As a Medium
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The past ten years had been the happiest of my life, and the presence of my spiritual mentors was a constant reminder of just how much I had changed in those years. I no longer questioned the whys and wherefores of the situation in which I found myself; I saw the results, and they were good enough for me. My spiritual medics could have done no more, because through me they had fought for the lives of so many, and won. Those who could not be cured were given peace and harmony, enabling them to make the transition to the spirit world in a dignified manner. My mediumship had evolved beyond all recognition, and the finest minds were able to communicate their thoughts and diagnoses. I knew at some time that the book I had been told I would write would have to be written, but not yet. There was another unexpected development, one that changed my life completely.

I had been living with a new partner for about four months when he told me that we would have to move from Sutton to Sussex. I was horrified at first, but
soon realized that it was too far for him to commute for any length of time.

I knew nothing about Sussex. Apart from the years spent in Spain, I had always lived in Surrey, where the countryside and the hills had always been a favourite with my family. I thought of the wonderful walks we used to take through the beech woods, with the crackling leaves underfoot, and the smell of damp peat as the children and dogs trampled around in the undergrowth. Unfortunately, reminiscing did not help. It just reduced me to tears.

I was going to have to leave my lovely home, which was filled with so many memories – especially of the phenomena that still filled me with a childlike wonder, and which had made me realize there is so much more to life than the trivia which often surround our existence.

I felt guilty about having to leave my local clientele, who had all become friends. Although I had taught them self-healing, many were too set in their ways to be able to put this into practice, and inevitably needed to talk to me from time to time.

I thought of the hundreds of children I had seen, and the many animals that had received healing. They had all left a part of themselves in the ether of my home. The physical parting would be heartbreaking enough, but how could I leave behind the very soul of my present existence, namely, the spirit world?

I agonized for weeks, hoping that I might receive some guidance from my spirit friends, but nothing came. For the first time in all these years, I was alone.

It was a desolate feeling. I had also suggested to my partner that we meet at weekends, but he would not agree. It was not one of my most brilliant ideas, but I was clutching at straws. I needed to make a decision, and it became obvious that I had to move to Sussex.

I contacted all my clients and told them of my decision. It was the most difficult task I have ever performed, because it made so many people miserable. They all insisted that they would try and make the journey to my new home, but I knew that for the majority, this would be impossible. Most of them booked a last appointment just to say goodbye, and as they left the tears flowed. The emotion of those moments left us all speechless. I cried more during those weeks than I have ever done in my life. I never wish to go through such an experience again.

When the time finally came for me to leave, I walked around the rooms, placing my hands upon the walls where I had seen so many faces. I walked to and fro in the large hall, where the funnel of energy had appeared. I sat on the couch in my healing room and remembered all the magical moments I had shared with so many thousands of people. I remembered the survival evidence which had produced so many tears of happiness and hope, and which had given the terminally ill the courage to make the most of the rest of their lives – in the knowledge that they were going to survive in another dimension.

When I left my home, I was too distressed to look back. I wondered whether my spirit friends would
make themselves known to me again in the new house, but at the time I doubted it.

If it had not been for my newly acquired bitch Tessa, and my cat Sally, I think I could have quite willingly drowned in my grief.

When we arrived at the small cottage at the foot of the South Downs, with its far-reaching views and large garden, I tried to imagine our lives in this environment, and conjured up all kinds of wonderful images of days lounging about in the sun, watching Tessa revel in the freedom of her new surroundings. So much for the dreams! It was October when we moved in, and on the day we arrived the weather changed for the worse. Not a good sign. Because it had been necessary to make a quick move, there had been no time to arrange for a cooker, telephone, coal – as there was no central heating – and, too late, we discovered that the front and back doors were so flimsy that they barely stopped the wind that was howling around the house. Sitting in front of the window, with a blanket around my shoulders, it became obvious that without secondary glazing, I would probably die.

My friends would have been horrified had they been able to see me, knowing as they did my love of a warm and comfortable home. No wonder my spirit friends had been silent. They probably thought I was out of my tiny mind and no longer worthy of their attention. And I would have agreed with them!

Worse was to come. When we tried to fit both sets of belongings into the rooms, it became obvious that
even if we could have reduced the furniture to a third of its size, it was not going to fit. In all fairness, I have to say that my partner had very little, and even though I had given away the largest pieces of furniture, I had still brought too much with me. We spent the first night miserable, cold and hungry. My cat didn’t like it there, either. Okay, I know I had been spoiled, but this was ridiculous!

Eventually, over a period of six months, we modernized our new home, but not before I was carted off to the local hospital where it was found that I was suffering from patches on both lungs because of a viral infection. I knew then that the cottage would not be a part of my future life.

The worst part of all this was the feeling that I had lost touch with my spirit friends. I was now embroiled, through my partner, in a materialistic world, and every day it seemed to be taking away more and more of my soul. Losing touch with the spirit world made me realize what a comfort they had all been and, the more I thought about the move, the more I realized that I had made a terrible mistake. Why had they not warned me? It could have been that with so many personal problems I simply had not been listening.

So I sold my home in Sutton, and this meant that we were able to move to a larger house nestling at the foot of the Downs. As it was only half a mile from the cottage, it did not take us long to move, and as it was now April, and the sun was shining, my hopes of a happy future were raised.

Within a few months Tessa and Sally had a new friend, a Yorkshire terrier named Flossie.

I made friends with one of our neighbours. Everything seemed to be going well, until she found out that I was a medium. We never spoke again. I felt as though I had been transported back to the middle ages.

I was able to put one room aside for healing, and started to work again. I was delighted when my spirit friends returned in force. I had missed them.

Our lives were such that it was necessary to entertain visitors from abroad, and it was on these occasions that my mediumship came to the fore. It seemed that everybody had family and friends who wanted to communicate. I did not mind passing on the messages, but did they have to come through during dinner? Having delivered the survival evidence, I found that my food had gone cold and I was left hungry. Not good timing at all. But, on the positive side, I had made some people very happy.

In particular, I remember one Greek agent. A family member made it known to me that he wanted to communicate. I asked the agent if he would be interested, and he said he would be delighted, as he had never had any experience with mediums before. He confirmed all the messages that I gave him. Then he was told that he was going to lose his right-hand man within two months, and the real reason for the visit from his spirit friend was to allow him to make suitable arrangements so that his business would not suffer. He could not believe this. He told me that the person in question had been working for him for
twenty or more years, and that he was totally loyal. Before he left I asked him to think seriously about the message.

Six weeks later he called to tell me that the man had just given notice, and that he was going to leave in two weeks. Exactly two months to the day. Because he had not believed the message, he had not prepared himself; inevitably, for a little while the business did suffer.

Because these sessions only filled a little of the gaping hole that had been left by the absence of my close friends and ex-patients, my thoughts turned more and more to the book I had wanted to write. I decided that I should delay no longer and – spurred on by the mediumistic message telling me that I would be healing through the written word – I picked up a cheap notebook and began to write. First I had to choose a title. Thinking about the minds that attached themselves to me, when giving survival evidence, I decided to call it
Mind to Mind.

I remember that first day. I sat for hours, writing like a lunatic – mainly because I was returning, if only in spirit, to my home in Sutton. As I relived those happy years, I felt that I had been born again.

After that first day, I allotted so many hours a day to my writing. On the fifth day I heard a voice say, ‘Your voice will be heard.’ This gave me tremendous incentive, because I knew by that simple message that the book was going to be a success.

It was also the beginning of a new cycle of phenomena. My old friend Father Time reappeared and
spoke about the danger of more diseases from outer space descending on this planet because of the earth’s sheath. I must admit that I had no idea what he was talking about, but it became clear when the whole world was made aware of the holes that were appearing in the ozone layer.

Whilst I was writing
Mind to Mind
I was able to shut out the materialistic side of my life for a while, and this enabled me to return to my regular meditation periods. I had felt so desolate without them.

Our first spring and summer in the new house had been pleasant but, as autumn approached, and the winds howled along the foot of the Downs, my heart sank. Remembering my first nightmarish winter, I had a sense of foreboding, which was realized, only too soon. The house was at the end of a long run of the Downs, and as the wind raged from the Steyning Gap, along this particular range, it hit us at full pelt. We discovered that our windows were inadequate, and once again, we had to consider double glazing. To go through this hell twice in eighteen months was just appalling. When the workmen arrived, they took all the windows out at the same time, assuring us that they would be replaced by evening. Unfortunately, some of them were the wrong fit, so we were left with tarpaulins that crumpled under the onslaught of the gales. This, coupled with the fact that we were faced with a morass of cement outside the house, where the builders had started on the new hard standing for cars, left me in a state of total despair.

As the winter wore on, and the back door of the
house was practically torn off its hinges every time it was opened, I made a decision. Come hell or high water, we were going to move.

So it was, that in snow three feet deep, I saw the seventy-foot-long bungalow nestling in its own grounds, the surrounding village protecting it from the fearsome gales. It was love at first sight. In a dreamlike state I wandered in and out of the rooms. The discovery of a complete one-bedroom flat, at the far end of the bungalow, filled me with ecstasy. This was going to be my new healing sanctuary!

Apparently, the previous owner of the property had been a well-known artist, and although she was in her nineties and had lost her sight, she had insisted on living there with her housekeeper until her demise. This information helped me a great deal when the phenomenon of the buzzers began. I was alone one day when the monotonous tone of a buzzer came from the flat. On investigation, I found the contraption high up on the wall of the small hall. A few seconds later the noise stopped and all was peaceful again. I set about trying to find out how this buzzer was activated, and decided to start with the lounge as this was the room in which the artist had spent a great deal of her time during her last years. There, beside the fireplace, was a bell pull. Fascinated, I decided to leave everything intact; after all, I was not about to upset the lady, as it was obvious that she still felt that it was her domain.

While the cat roamed the protected garden, marking her territory, the dogs ran up and down the long
corridor, revelling in the freedom of so much space. I understood how they felt.

It was not long before another strange thing happened. I was cleaning the lounge one day, and felt a cat brushing against my legs. Thinking that it was Sally, I bent down to stroke her only to find that, apart from myself, the room was empty. I looked for Sally, and found her asleep under a hedge in the garden. So we not only had a lady spirit, but also a cat. I asked my new neighbours whether the artist had had a cat, and was told that she had befriended a stray that had never left her side. When she died, a friend gave it a home, but it had pined away. I asked for a description of the cat, and was told that it had been an ordinary tabby.

As soon as my healing room was complete, I was invaded by groups of my patients from Sutton. On one particularly busy day, I had to ask a group of three women to sit in the waiting room for fifteen minutes. When it was their turn to have healing, one of them said, ‘I didn’t know you had two cats, Betty.’

‘I haven’t. Sally’s my only cat,’ I replied.

They looked at each other in astonishment. ‘But we’ve just been making friends with a lovely tabby. It climbed onto our laps in turn demanding attention, and we’ve spent all this time stroking it.’

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