Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Free Press interview for Allison Dubois event
By PAIGE AARHUS, SUN MEDIA
They don’t worship Jesus and their Sunday services are far from the typical hymn-and-sermon formula.
Skeptics may scoff at their belief in communication with souls who have “crossed over” after death, but London’s spiritualist community is a legitimate and thriving part of the community, said one believer.
“Spiritualism is a religion. It’s not a cult, it’s not a sect and we do believe in God . . . There are a lot of people who don’t know that this is available,” said Rev. Carol Burrows, a member of London’s spiritualist community.
Spiritualism is a religion that began in the United States and flourished from the 1840s to the 1920s.
The distinguishing feature of the religion is the belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted by “mediums” and provide information about the afterlife.
“The soul is eternal, people don't die, there is life after death and we do talk to dead people,” said Burrows.
Burrows was ordained at one of North America’s few exclusively spiritualist community in Lily Dale, New York.
She said she’s always been attracted to new-age healing, and spiritualism was a natural fit.
After her father died in 1995, Burrows and her cousin made their first trip to Lily Dale after hearing about its reputation for healing.
Burrows said she met with a medium who delivered a very special message when she got there.
“I had a message that my father made it over, and who met him at the gate and it was so peaceful and warming. It brought a great deal of relief and compassion into the process of grieving,” she said.
Burrows began her studies at Lily Dale in 2005, and became an ordained minister two years later.
She described a typical spiritualist service as being similar to church, but with several fundamental differences.
At the start of the Sunday service, worshippers will participate in “hands on healing” to channel the “unseen healing forces of the universe.”
Members will then listen to a reading, sometimes from the Bible, and traditional Christian hymns are sung.
A guest speaker, usually a medium from outside London, then delivers a message to the congregation.
Sometimes mediums will channel spirits to deliver their message, said Burrows, but sometimes they simply speak about the seven principles of spiritualism, which include the fatherhood of God and the communion of spirits and ministry of angels.
“There’s a number of people who come to the 2 p.m. service who were elsewhere at 10 a.m.,” said Burrows.
“They maybe don’t want their churches to know that they’ve come here, but they get something from the spiritualist church that they don't get elsewhere.”
Burrows said she is aware that many people are skeptical about contacting departed souls, but insisted that its possible.
“Anybody can do it if they choose to do it. All it takes is some training to learn to quiet yourself, and to have faith that God is with you,” she said.
This weekend the church is hosting an event with guest speaker Allison DuBois.
DuBois is a famous American medium whose life was inspiration for the television series Medium, starring Patricia Arquette.
Burrows’ friend, fellow spiritualist Tania Thomas said it was serendipity that DuBois wound up coming to London.
Church member Bob Masschelein, a spiritualist for 35 years, recently died.
Thomas said she had been working for years to get DuBois to come to town, and after Masschelein died, she suddenly got a phone call from DuBois’ publicist announcing a visit planned for July 20.
“I almost fell off the chair. It’s almost as if it was just handed off to me . . . I’m going to take off my hat to Bob for some of that occurrence,” she said.
Tania Thomas Spiritual Medium
I am a Spiritual/Psychic Medium residing in London Ontario Canada. I have been blessed over the years to have known and worked alongside some of the finest and most respected mediums in Ontario. I am also the booking secretary for the London Spiritualist Church in London and most recently was lucky enough to be able to secure a booking with Allison DuBois - the driving force behind the hit tv show "Medium". The church was thrilled to be able to host a seminar with her just this past July 2008. She is truly a gifted medium and a warm, gracious person. It was an honour to work with her and her team of Mark, Andrea, and Jaena!
My first psychic experience is forever etched in my memory. I was no more than 12 years old when I woke during the night and was pulled to walk over to my bedroom window. On the opposite side of the highway I saw my beautiful pet Collie "Shane" standing just off to the side of the road. He and I had been inseperable since he first arrived at our home. I panicked thinking that he would surely be run over if I did not get to him and flew down the stairs of the old house. I was stopped short at the bottom by my mother. I told her that the dog needed to be brought over the road and she looked at me.....and quietly informed me that my dear friend had been struck down by a vehicle at least an hour before.
I knew then that I had been touched in the most spiritual of ways. He had allowed me to see him in his spirit form to assist me with my grief.
The years that followed found me extremely busy with school, marriage and three children before the age of 28. I had many, many experiences both at home and at the hospitals where I worked as a nurse. However I simply did not have the time to look at taking this gift as seriously as I should have done. The more I ignored the less I received in a spiritual sense. My gift began to fall to the wayside. Until spirit decided that I was going to pay attention. They did it with all the grace of a freight train derailment.
An experience affected my life back in November of 2005 in the most unimaginable of ways. My life as I knew it literally turned upside down. I was unable to work and quickly became despondent and fell out of life. I sat at home living my "new normal" and quietly made the decision to allow it to destroy me.
But spirit was at work. Now with little to fill my days I began to notice unusual things happening around me. I began to meditate and soon found myself in a mediumship development circle with like minded people. The gift that I had shut the door on for so long was coming out in amazing ways. I found myself pulled under the wing of a well respected London medium by the name of Bob Masschelein. For over two years we worked side by side as he presented his gifts to the Spiritualist Churches. I watched and listened and learned. And the gift that spirit had bestowed upon me as a child slowly began to flourish. In March of 2008 my mentor and friend suffered a heart attack during one of our services together. Despite our best attempts to keep him in the physical world he passed 6 days later. Again I shut out spirit and decided that I could not go alone on this without his presence. He felt differently however. Bob was a computer wizard and loved nothing more than fiddling around on his office computer at home. I suddenly found my computer doing some extremely odd things. I received a MSN friend request from Bob Masschelein. The very same day I booked three readings that simply fell into my lap. Since this event I will often come online to find a picture of Bob has replaced my screensaver. The minute I see it I know that something good is going to take place that day......and he has not failed me yet. The last two times that Bob saw my face I was literally hanging over top of him. The first being the day of his heart attack as I feverishly worked over him performing breaths in CPR. The second time he saw me was in the ICU. Climbing over the life support apparatus I leaned over towards his face and said "Bob its Tania". His eyes opened and I received the smallest little smile. He passed two days later. I woke on night to see Bob literally hanging over top of me.......turnabout is fair play I guess huh? lol. His face was no more than 2 inches from my own and atop his head sat a baseball cap. I fell back to sleep and the next morning wondered if it indeed was Bob that I had seen. Bob never wore a baseball cap! I logged onto my computer and a picture appeared that had been taken some years back. Bob doing psychometry in a baseball cap no less!!
I work now to bring some comfort to grieving families. My gift is for sharing. It was never my gift in the first place to simply ignore.
My first psychic experience is forever etched in my memory. I was no more than 12 years old when I woke during the night and was pulled to walk over to my bedroom window. On the opposite side of the highway I saw my beautiful pet Collie "Shane" standing just off to the side of the road. He and I had been inseperable since he first arrived at our home. I panicked thinking that he would surely be run over if I did not get to him and flew down the stairs of the old house. I was stopped short at the bottom by my mother. I told her that the dog needed to be brought over the road and she looked at me.....and quietly informed me that my dear friend had been struck down by a vehicle at least an hour before.
I knew then that I had been touched in the most spiritual of ways. He had allowed me to see him in his spirit form to assist me with my grief.
The years that followed found me extremely busy with school, marriage and three children before the age of 28. I had many, many experiences both at home and at the hospitals where I worked as a nurse. However I simply did not have the time to look at taking this gift as seriously as I should have done. The more I ignored the less I received in a spiritual sense. My gift began to fall to the wayside. Until spirit decided that I was going to pay attention. They did it with all the grace of a freight train derailment.
An experience affected my life back in November of 2005 in the most unimaginable of ways. My life as I knew it literally turned upside down. I was unable to work and quickly became despondent and fell out of life. I sat at home living my "new normal" and quietly made the decision to allow it to destroy me.
But spirit was at work. Now with little to fill my days I began to notice unusual things happening around me. I began to meditate and soon found myself in a mediumship development circle with like minded people. The gift that I had shut the door on for so long was coming out in amazing ways. I found myself pulled under the wing of a well respected London medium by the name of Bob Masschelein. For over two years we worked side by side as he presented his gifts to the Spiritualist Churches. I watched and listened and learned. And the gift that spirit had bestowed upon me as a child slowly began to flourish. In March of 2008 my mentor and friend suffered a heart attack during one of our services together. Despite our best attempts to keep him in the physical world he passed 6 days later. Again I shut out spirit and decided that I could not go alone on this without his presence. He felt differently however. Bob was a computer wizard and loved nothing more than fiddling around on his office computer at home. I suddenly found my computer doing some extremely odd things. I received a MSN friend request from Bob Masschelein. The very same day I booked three readings that simply fell into my lap. Since this event I will often come online to find a picture of Bob has replaced my screensaver. The minute I see it I know that something good is going to take place that day......and he has not failed me yet. The last two times that Bob saw my face I was literally hanging over top of him. The first being the day of his heart attack as I feverishly worked over him performing breaths in CPR. The second time he saw me was in the ICU. Climbing over the life support apparatus I leaned over towards his face and said "Bob its Tania". His eyes opened and I received the smallest little smile. He passed two days later. I woke on night to see Bob literally hanging over top of me.......turnabout is fair play I guess huh? lol. His face was no more than 2 inches from my own and atop his head sat a baseball cap. I fell back to sleep and the next morning wondered if it indeed was Bob that I had seen. Bob never wore a baseball cap! I logged onto my computer and a picture appeared that had been taken some years back. Bob doing psychometry in a baseball cap no less!!
I work now to bring some comfort to grieving families. My gift is for sharing. It was never my gift in the first place to simply ignore.
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