My Life As a Medium (8 page)

I was enjoying a relaxed, cosy chat with a friend one afternoon, when I felt a presence behind me. I was not at all pleased, as this was supposed to be my day off. I told my friend about the presence.

‘If you don’t accept that it is there,’ she said, ‘it will go away.’

Unfortunately, it did not. I could feel the pressure as it came closer, and could feel my facial muscles being pulled around; I had no control over them at all. The last thing I remember was being overwhelmed by a feeling of lethargy, and a total inability to communicate. I awoke to find my friend staring at me.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked, her eyes anxiously scanning my face. ‘Betty, you turned into a Chinaman!’

‘You must be joking,’ I replied.

‘No, really!’ she exclaimed. ‘Your features changed completely, even the shape of your eyes.’ Still looking at me intently, she said, ‘Surely you must know what happened to you?’ When I told her that I couldn’t remember anything, she said that a man with a Chinese accent had spoken to her, through me, giving
her survival evidence from a friend, who had died two years previously. She was so happy that I was delighted for her, but as I had no recollection I was somewhat concerned by this new and unwanted talent.

I did not mind the doctors helping me whilst I was healing because, most of the time, I was in control. But to have someone else taking over completely was not something I appreciated. Trying to make sense of this phenomenon, I asked my friend to describe the transformation.

‘At first,’ she said, ‘I noticed a change in your features, but it was so fleeting that I convinced myself it was my imagination. Your head sank onto your chest for a few minutes, then you sat upright, and your face had changed into that of a Chinaman. I was shocked at first, but when he spoke, his voice was so compassionate that I lost all fear.’

When I asked her to describe the voice she told me that the man had had a very noticeable Chinese accent, and had even spoken a few words in Chinese.

My friend was still overwhelmed by her experience and said repeatedly that she couldn’t believe it had happened to her. She told me that she thought she would have been frightened to death, but instead had found it absolutely fascinating. Then she paused, and said, ‘You never knew my friend Clara, did you? She died before we met, which is even more convincing.’

We talked for about an hour, and she told me that when the evidence had come to an end my head had
dropped again, as before, and when I straightened up my face had returned to normal.

I was absolutely stunned. Over the past three years I felt I had dealt stoically with everything that had happened to me, but this was different, I had not been in control. I did not like that at all.

I asked my friend to keep this episode confidential. I felt that I had enough to deal with without this becoming common knowledge, and I suppose, in a way, that I was ashamed at having allowed someone to take me over to that extent. I saw it as a sign of weakness. Later, for some unknown reason, I made an appointment to have a sitting with a well-known London medium. I had no idea why I chose her or, to be truthful, why I was going in the first place.

We sat quietly for a few moments and then she said, ‘I have a Chinese man coming through, and he is saying that it is he who taught you about the meridian lines and chakras. That he has been helping you to understand the elements of life-force and how it works. Now you are on your own.’ The medium looked at me, and said, ‘What on earth is he talking about? Meridian lines and chakras? I’ve never heard of them!’

I had to hide my smile, because it was obvious that she was completely out of her depth. But the message was more convincing for that reason, and the pleasure it brought me was immense, as the realization dawned that when my tutor had taken me over it was to say goodbye. I found this very touching. I never felt his presence again, but I hope he received my message of
thanks, for without his tuition my diagnosis would not have been so successful.

I had another reason to be grateful to him. He had shown me that we do have a consciousness outside the physical body, and that it was possible for one mind to overshadow another. The evidence in support of the mind energy factor was immense, and I longed to share my experiences with the world. But I knew that I had to wait until my theories were foolproof.

On another occasion, my daughter Janet and I were invited to sit with a group of people to meditate and give absent healing. Again, I felt the pressure of a presence as it stood behind me, and then the familiar lethargy and facial contortions. This time, it was a Norwegian doctor. When I awoke, the group was discussing the evidence that the doctor had given them, but one look at Janet’s face told me that she was furious. The group told me that the doctor had given them a spiritual lecture, before turning to one person in particular to offer advice, which was sorely needed at that time. They were even more impressed when they found that he had left an apport, a spirit offering, in my lap. It was not a valuable item, but it was a very unusual stone.

On our way home Janet said, ‘Don’t you ever do that to me again, it was horrible.’

I tried to tell her that I had no control over the situation, but she argued that I could have stopped it happening if I had so wished. ‘You frightened me to death. Don’t ever ask me to go anywhere with you again.’

Janet was only in her teens at this time, and through my own experiences had been thrown in at the deep end. Her reaction troubled me. Was I asking too much of my family to back me in my pursuit of mediumship and healing? After all, our family home had been turned into a sanctuary for others, with people coming and going all the time and the telephone ringing continually. I decided to have a family conference, and the outcome was that they agreed to back me all the way.

The strange thing was that, unbeknown to any of us, Janet was herself in the first stages of becoming a medium. When this eventually grew obvious, she made it quite clear that she had no intention of involving herself with the paranormal. But, like her mother before her, she gradually became involved through her work as a yoga teacher. Later, as an experienced medium, she was to find out that when a powerful personality takes over there is very little one can do about it.

There have been many times that Janet, when she has been speaking on the telephone with a friend, has taken on the features and speech of a relative when giving survival evidence.

Whilst giving healing I have been entranced by many personalities. One of these was a young girl of about sixteen years of age. Several people told me that I looked very young when healing, but it was an artist who gave me the most detailed description of this young person. Apparently, she had fair hair falling over her shoulders, high cheekbones and full lips.

I thought she sounded rather familiar, and mentioned this to my artist friend.

‘As a matter of fact, she looks rather like you,’ he said, ‘but that may be because her face manifests over your own.’ We were both intrigued, and wondered who this young lady could be. And why should a person as young as that entrance me whilst healing? My friend’s wife was so curious when he told her about this episode that she phoned immediately to make an appointment for herself. I explained that it was not a regular happening, and that the young girl had only been seen by a dozen people at the most, but she still insisted on visiting me.

‘The healing will do me good, anyway,’ she said. When she arrived for her appointment I went straight into my healing mode, as I call it. I immediately felt spaced out, as I always did when a spirit entity was around, and then – nothing. It must have been thirty minutes later when I opened my eyes and found my patient looking at me as though she had also been entranced.

‘Betty, it was marvellous. This girl is so young, my husband’s description was absolutely spot-on.’ She spoke excitedly for about ten minutes.

‘What I do not understand,’ I said, ‘is why a girl as young as that should be here whilst I am healing. Surely, she can’t have the experience needed to help in the healing process.’

‘Well, the room was positively vibrating whilst she was here, so she must have a lot of power of some kind,’ she replied.

It was a complete mystery to me, and as there is no memory recall when one is taken over by an entity I had to rely on the information given to me. I did not mention this young lady to anyone else, so each person thought their observation was unique. And as those who saw her were not known to each other – apart from the artist and his wife – the information could not have been passed on. I also asked each individual a specific question about the young lady’s appearance and I was satisfied, in every case, that they had actually seen her.

She was to appear intermittently over the next twelve years, until I had lunch with the medium who had first forecast my mediumship and healing career. We had not met for many years. We chatted during our lunch, and when we reached the coffee stage, he suddenly said, ‘I have a young girl here,’ and went on to describe the young lady. ‘She is telling me that she is your daughter. Have you lost a child?’

‘No, I haven’t,’ I replied, shaken by his words.

‘Well, my dear,’ he said, ‘we must get to the bottom of this.’

He sat with his eyes closed, and then he said, ‘She is telling me that she was one of two, twins in fact.’

I was completely stunned by this information, as I had, in fact, miscarried twins at three months, much too early to have known what sex they were. When I told him this he simply said, ‘Well, there you are then. I knew I couldn’t be wrong because I could see and hear her so clearly.’

‘Will you ask her if she has been with me for some time?’ I said.

‘I don’t have to ask her,’ he replied. ‘I know she has. She has just told me.’

Once my daughter had identified herself, she was not seen again. I only wish that I had been able to see her but, so far, this has never happened.

I hope this story will give help to those who have grieved over losing babies in the early months of pregnancy. Even though the babies have moved on into another dimension, they still regard themselves as our children. They chose us in the first place, after all, and one day we will all meet again.

It is amazing how, when one mind overshadows another, the features change. Sometimes it is only gestures, but they are immediately recognized by the person receiving the survival evidence. It may be that I brush my hair back from my face, not a habit of mine, and I am told that it is identical to the gesture used by the communicator when they were alive. It can be a touch, a look, a mannerism, or an irritating habit, but there will be no doubt on the part of the sitter that it is someone whom they have known, even if they have not identified themselves.

In my book
Mind Waves
I told the story of how one very sceptical man saw my features change into that of a Red Indian, my blonde hair disappearing under a mane of long black hair. Michael Bentine also saw the same transfiguration when I was giving him healing. It did not bother Michael at all as he
has been involved with the paranormal since he was a child, but it can be a shock if one is simply sitting in on a treatment.

In 1977, as I moved into my fourth year as a medium and healer, this process was all still a mystery to me, but it later became obvious that the brain is the computer and the mind the power that motivates it. Without the power, the brain is dead. Therefore, when another mind moves in and takes over, the input from that mind transfers itself to the brain, and the physical body will then take on the features and mannerisms of that person. The mind also holds the records of past and present lives, and from it we can extract past talents and make them work for us in this life.

The whole thing turned around on me when I visited another medium in London. We did not know each other at the time, so, after a brief handshake, I sat down with her. Immediately, I saw her head drop to her chest; when she sat up straight her face had changed and she spoke to me in a deep, masculine voice. She was in trance. I was given the most wonderful survival evidence and advice. When she returned to normal I thanked her, and she said, ‘You must be very powerful. I would normally need the help of several friends before going into trance.’ I asked her the reason for this.

‘Well, you see, my dear, the spirits have to draw their strength from us to be able to stay here.’ I was learning all the time. As I was about to leave, she placed her hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘You have
a beautiful soul.’ It was the nicest thing that anyone had ever said to me; in times of despair, I have often thought about that statement, and it has given me hope.

If only people would look at the whole concept scientifically then they would find it easier to understand, and most of their unnecessary fear would diminish.

I am often asked if I was ever frightened in those early years.

The answer is yes, and when you read the following chapter you will understand my momentary fears. But the fear soon evaporated when I felt the protective presence of my spirit friends.

I was giving healing to a woman in her fifties when I saw that she was being overshadowed by an unpleasant spirit entity. She began to cry.

‘I feel dreadful,’ she said. I tried to calm her, but to no avail. Then I heard a voice saying, ‘I will never leave her, she is mine.’ The voice sounded so vindictive that I became afraid of the intruder, but knew instinctively what I had to do. I began by silently repeating the Lord’s Prayer, an action that had helped to calm me in the early days. As I did so, I saw the entity surrounded by a bright white light, and at this point I could see that it was a man. He began to scream, and the woman put her hands over her ears. I felt a protective wall of energy form around me, then I asked the entity to leave and told him that he would be looked after and could eventually be happy. I visualized him surrounded by blue healing energy, but he still tried to hang on to the woman. I had the impression, from the angle of his spirit body, that someone was trying to pull him away, and that was why he was screaming. I was still asking him to leave
peacefully – though I had nearly given up – when he disappeared.

Although I was feeling decidedly shaky, my first thought was to calm the woman, and as I did so, she told me a remarkable story.

When she was twenty, she had married a man ten years older than herself. He had persuaded her to leave England and emigrate to South Africa, to settle down in the outback. Although she had a beautiful home and servants, she was very unhappy, for as the months went by she realized that not only was her husband a sadist, but he also enjoyed sexual parties where everyone paired off with someone else’s partner.

‘Car keys were left on a table when the guests arrived,’ she told me. ‘Then when everyone was in an alcoholic stupor at the end of the evening, the ladies picked up the keys and went off into the night with the owner.’ She absolutely refused to have anything to do with this practice.

Her life became increasingly miserable, and finally, aided by a man friend, she returned to England. Unfortunately, no matter where she went her husband tracked her down, and because of this she had two nervous breakdowns. Although she had remarried it seemed that nothing could be done to stop him pestering her, until one fateful day he had a heart attack on her doorstep and died.

‘I know this might sound dreadful,’ she said,
‘but I was glad he was dead, and he couldn’t abuse me any more.’ She put her hands over her face, and continued, ‘I was wrong. He’s been haunting me ever since. I have even seen him. It’s horrible.’

At this point I described what had happened during the healing session and asked her whether she had been aware that something unusual was going on.

‘No!’ she answered. ‘I just felt terrible, and thought it was because of the healing.’

‘But you put your hands over your ears when he screamed,’ I said, ‘I assumed that you had heard him.’

‘I can’t tell you why I did that,’ she replied. ‘Perhaps my body felt the vibration.’

I suggested that she should have further healing, and made an appointment for her to visit me the following week.

This had been my first experience of exorcism and I felt totally shattered. I believe I was being guided when I said the Lord’s Prayer, and by subsequent actions that I took. They were entirely spontaneous, so someone must have been with me, helping me.

I was understandably rather nervous when her next appointment was due. However, I was pleasantly surprised when, on opening the door, I came face to face with a totally different human being. Her face was radiant, and she pushed a huge bouquet of flowers into my arms.

‘He’s gone, Betty,’ she shouted. ‘The bastard has gone!’ I put my arms around her and we walked into the healing room.

‘I don’t think I need healing any more,’ she said, ‘but perhaps you should lay your hands on me for luck.’ She went on to tell me that the black cloud she had always felt around her had gone, and for the first time in thirty years she felt that she had a wonderful life ahead.

Before she left I warned her not to think of her husband ever again as this would encourage him to return. ‘Don’t worry,’ she replied. ‘I will never do anything to encourage him to return.’

A year later she bought a villa in Portugal. We kept in touch and I was delighted to hear, years later, that she was still very happy in her second marriage.

The next exorcism took place when I visited an old inn with a friend.

We were sitting having a quiet drink when I noticed that the bartender was being overshadowed by an entity. It is an entirely different sensation than that experienced when one sees an ordinary apparition. There is a sense, and even a smell, of evil. At first, I tried to ignore it, but decided to tell my friend about it when he noticed my interest in the barman. We spent a few minutes discussing the situation.

‘If the man is in trouble and you can help,’ he said, ‘perhaps you should.’

I laughed. ‘What am I supposed to say? “Hallo! Did you know that you have an undesirable spirit around you?” I don’t think he’d be very pleased.’

‘Well, can’t you do it quietly,’ he suggested. ‘Does he have to know?’

‘I suppose not,’ I replied, then I closed my eyes and silently recited the Lord’s Prayer, asking that the intruder be banished. Once again, I saw the bright light around the entity. Eventually, I saw it being pulled away from the man, and he was free.

Some time later we heard this man’s story. We were having a relaxed break in the same pub when my friend entered into a conversation with the barman. He told my companion that he had been a heavy drinker but on pouring himself a drink one night he found that he had lost the desire to drink, so he poured it away and had not indulged since.

‘It was really odd,’ he said, ‘because as a rule I couldn’t wait for the first sip of the night.’

‘How long ago was this?’ my friend asked.

The barman thought for a moment, then he said, ‘It was about three months ago.’ When my friend joined me and repeated the conversation I looked at my diary. It was exactly three months since we had last visited the inn.

I was to find out much later that alcoholics
who pass into the next dimension often attach themselves to other drinkers so that they can still enjoy the sensation.

Although effecting an exorcism can be a blessed relief for the person concerned, the aftermath for me was traumatic. When I was alone again I could feel my whole body trembling, and I felt as though I had lost every ounce of energy. I could not sleep, and could only digest liquids. I prayed that it would never happen again – but of course it did. Someone, somewhere, was determined to teach me every aspect of mediumship. Although I was glad of the help from spiritual advisers and spirit doctors, I still did not want this particular gift. I would have been extremely happy just being a healer. While I was in this mood I received a particularly helpful message from my guru.

‘In the dimension in which you live,’ he told me, ‘one has to deal with unpleasant situations. Sometimes the appearance of uninvited guests can be irritating, especially if you do not admire them. But usually, with a lot of charm and even more insistence, we can send them on their way in the hope that they can, in retrospect, understand your actions. If a visitor is charming and a joy to be with, then we welcome them with open arms, invite them in and delight in the conversation.

‘The same applies when you see the deterioration of someone’s health, affected by the action of another. A protective barrier is created around that person
until a solution is found, or, preferably, the negative personality is removed.

‘What you are experiencing is everyday life in the spiritual dimension that mirrors your own. That is all.

‘AH unpleasant people thrive on attention. If a person is affected by an unwanted visitor then they should totally ignore their existence, and turn their minds to matters of a spiritual nature. Recognizing negative influences weakens the life force and makes one vulnerable. This must never be allowed to happen.’

As the message came to an end I opened my eyes and there, in the corner of the room, was a bright white light, rather like a large illuminated snowball. It hovered for a moment, and then simply melted away. A warmth enveloped me, as though I had been wrapped in a cosy blanket, and as my eyes closed, I remember thinking how natural and simple it all seemed once it had been explained.

The following day I felt rejuvenated and, with the knowledge that one could, quite simply, show unpleasant spirits the door, I looked forward to greeting the first patient of the day.

There were times when the negative spirit had no form, but enveloped the unfortunate victim in a black cloud. In these cases my usual ritual generally worked, but on the occasions when it did not work, I added a postscript. The following story was one such case.

The patient was a woman named Marjorie, who was in her fifties. She had suffered the most
dreadful depression for several years and had tried psychiatrists, drugs, and most of the alternative therapies, all to no avail. I asked her why she thought healing would work.

‘Someone told me that you could see the aura,’ she said, ‘and I wondered if you could see what I can feel.’

‘What can you feel?’ I asked.

‘Well,’ she replied, ‘I know this may sound as if I’m quite barmy, but I think someone is trying to get into my mind.’

I suggested that she lie down on the couch so that I could proceed with the healing. The moment I touched her, a black cloud appeared and covered the upper half of her body, and I knew then that I had to perform an exorcism. However, thirty minutes later, it became obvious that it was not going to work. I looked at my patient. She appeared to be in a deep sleep and it was then that I remembered the message I had received from my guru. Negative spirits dislike being ignored and to get rid of them one should turn to spiritual matters. So I told the entity that he or she was so pathetic that I was not going to waste any more of my valuable time on them – and that I was going to strengthen Marjorie’s mind so she would be strong enough to ignore them. The cloud swirled around as though showing anger.

‘Wherever you look you will only see light,’ I continued. ‘This light will overshadow you and
will eventually conquer you.’ I repeated this over and over, using my hypnotherapy technique. I had no idea whether it was going to work but, at the time, I felt so powerful that I thought it might. Then I closed my eyes and continued with the healing.

About fifteen minutes later Marjorie sat bolt upright and said, ‘Crikey! You’ve just given me an electric shock.’ I looked at her and, to my surprise, the black cloud had vanished. I decided that it would not be in Marjorie’s best interest to tell her the full story. But I did ask her whether she had ever been obsessed by an image of someone, and she admitted feeling terrible hatred for her late husband when she had found out that he had been having an affair for ten years before he died. I urged her to forget him as it would only draw him nearer to her. She promised that she would try. Later, she told me that every time she tried to think of him her mind went blank.

‘It’s almost as though he never existed,’ she said. Marjorie made a full recovery.

Unfortunately, not all my attempts at exorcism were successful because some people were as negative as the entity that surrounded them. Nothing I did or said affected either of them, and one could only surmise that they deserved each other. I hesitate to call people evil because I do not think one should judge. I prayed for them, and hoped that someone or something
would change them so that the attraction of like to like could be severed.

My clairvoyant vision of energies was fascinating, and had opened up a whole new world to me. In retrospect, I could honestly say that the last four years had been the most exciting time of my life. But one always has to pay a price, and mine was the total loss of privacy. Having always been a very private person, this affected me a great deal. I believe that everyone is entitled to seclusion if they wish, when only trusted friends are invited to share the ups and downs.

This was how I viewed the lives of my clients. The information given to me through survival evidence was sacred to them and for them alone, and I honoured this.

There was, however, one aspect of my mediumship that worried me, and that was the quality of the survival evidence. The majority of the messages I received were mundane, and appeared to have no spiritual value. Although the recipients were delighted with the messages, I nevertheless decided to ask, through meditation, for quality and not quantity. I must have upset someone, for it was to be three months before I received any more survival evidence – although at the time this did not worry me at all. In fact I was grateful, hoping that I could now ignore this side of my psychic life. Alas, it was not to be. But something had changed and when the evidence came through once again, it was of a more spiritual nature. Of course, there were the usual family recollections and small talk which are a normal part of our conversations
between this world and the next, but added to this were spiritual truths which gave the recipients something to think about in their solitary moments.

A typical example of this was with a woman named Debbie.

Debbie had been sitting with me for about an hour, listening to her late grandmother talking about family matters, when a spirit voice interrupted the conversation and said, ‘Do not turn your back on God.’

Debbie looked startled when I passed on this message. ‘Was that my grandmother saying that?’ she asked.

‘No,’ I replied, ‘it was a man’s voice, but he did not give me his name.’

Looking at me intently, she asked, ‘Are you religious?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I was a confirmed member of the Church of England, but left because of the hypocrisy I encountered. Now I have found a spiritual path I am happy with.’

‘I know why I’ve been given that message,’ Debbie told me. ‘It’s because I have decided to give up going to church.’ She hesitated, then continued, ‘Some of the people there are not religious at all, they are just do-gooders who love interfering in other people’s lives.’

I suggested that as she had received such an important message she should go home and think about it.

When she came to see me again nine months later, she was looking happy and contented. She told me that she had stayed away from her church for some time, but had thought a great deal about the message she had received. Then one night, while she was praying, she knew what she had to do. She spent a fortnight visiting three different churches and liked one of them so much that she decided to become a permanent part of the congregation.

Debbie looked delighted. ‘If it hadn’t been for that message I would never have visited another church,’ she said. ‘I have you to thank for that.’