My Life As a Medium

by Betty Shine

  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.

  CHAPTER SIX

  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 exi
stence, 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.’

  This is a typical example of what I mean by quality and not quantity. A lot of thought had been given to those few words, and the outcome had given someone back their faith.

  I was to receive thousands of examples of how true spiritual communicators get to the point with just a few simple words, provoking thoughts in the recipient which, in most cases, would lead to a decision that transformed their lives.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  So much had happened to me over the past few years that I thought I had reached a state where nothing would surprise me. I was wrong. A young lady arrived for a sitting one day, and asked whether I would mind if she recorded it. I did not mind at all but warned her that the energies around me usually blocked out the voices. This did not deter her, and she went ahead with the recording. She received survival evidence of an intimate nature relating to her marriage. She was advised by her late mother to ‘stop telling lies about her husband’ and to have the courage to own up and ask his forgiveness. Needless to say she was furious and accused me of making it all up. I pointed out that she was a total stranger to me so I could not possibly have done that. She was
so angry that her hands shook when she replayed the tape. There was nothing on it. When she continued to abuse me, I suggested that she left. I have to say that her presence made me feel uneasy, and I was pleased to see her go.

  Six months later I was invited to a party and there, with her husband, was this obnoxious lady. I was shocked when I realized that she was married to an extremely nice ex-patient of mine. I tried to avoid her, but she waylaid me and said, ‘You won’t tell my husband about my visit to you, will you?’ I assured her that all of my work was confidential. She smiled, and said, cynically, ‘You are so good.’ I knew from the survival evidence I had received, that she had been unfaithful to her husband for many years, but stayed with him so that she could still benefit from the lavish lifestyle he gave her. I also knew that I could never betray a confidence, but fervently hoped that, one day, he would be rid of her.

  Emotional relationships are so diverse that one would be well advised not to stand in judgement, but with healing and mediumship it is very difficult to stand aside when one is deliberately drawn into the fray.

  The following story is a typical example.

  A young lady had asked me for clairvoyance. She sat looking at me with a rapt expression, as though I was going to pull a rabbit out of a hat. I felt uneasy, and decided to tape the conversation I had with her.

  ‘Why are you doing that?’ she asked.

  ‘I usually take recordings whilst healing or giving messages. It is for my library,’ I replied.

  ‘Can I have a copy?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, if you wish,’ I answered. ‘Now if you sit quietly I will try to help.’

  I saw immediately that she was heading for trouble, and that it was going to be brought about by her own actions. I advised her to change so that when the time came, it would lessen the impact. She assured me that she was doing nothing untoward and that she had not visited me to hear a lot of nonsense. I decided to end the session. When I listened to the tape later that day, I found that it was completely blank, no interference, nothing! A sign that I should put the matter behind me.