chotki
Member
So I thought I would share my story of a kind of personal, participant-observer ethnography. This past Sunday I attended a Spiritualist church and received an alleged message.
I was in another city for a friend's wedding and I saw that such a church was in the community. My curiosity piqued, I decided to attend the Sunday morning service. I walked in as they were concluding the half-hour healing service. People would sit in chairs up front facing the congregation while the healers placed hands on their shoulders. Stereotypical New-Age relaxation music played over the speakers.
The sanctuary is rather small and would perhaps seat 50 people at most. It is arranged very typically: rows of chairs facing the elevated chancel with a pulpit/lectern and seating for worship leaders. About 23 people were in attendance. All but four were women; all but myself and one woman who seemed to be in her early twenties were middle-aged and older.
The order of worship also largely coincided with the general pattern of Protestant services: interspersed hymns, prayers, announcements, a creed (reciting the National Spiritualist Association's Declaration of Principles), an offering, a benediction. There is usually a sermon as well but the minister was out sick. This was replaced by a time for persons to honor their fathers.
The big difference, of course, is the messages portion. Four mediums (all female) sat on the chancel and the congregation was asked to "call in" their spirits. A couple of them may be in training because persons are asked to complete affidavits for evidential readings or apparent healings. These forms support the medium's certification process with the Association.
When the messages time began, we were told that we could refuse to receive a message or notify the leadership if we were uncomfortable. When a medium felt ready to deliver a message, she would stand at the pulpit, find the intended recipient, and say something like. "I have a message for you. Would you like to hear it?"
The medium with an English accent came to the pulpit, briefly glanced around, then fixed her eyes on me. After several seconds of looking at me intently, she asked if I would like to receive a message. I said sure.
She told me that she saw me surrounded by several persons, because I had experienced a lot of deaths. One person "came forward" to speak. She described him as a medium-sized man with gray hair and a well-trimmed white beard. I do not recognize this figure, but she gets the impression that he is related to me on my father's side. His message for me is rather cryptic and metaphorical. If you have watched the sci-fi show Babylon 5, then you will recognize the thought I had in reaction: "Oh great, so I'm related to a Vorlon." The message offered advice but it was fundamentally a statement of reassurance.
A few other persons' readings, delivered for members of the church, were received as very supportive, as evidential, and even as fully expected in one case. The first person who received a message nodded her head and cried. Another said she knew this is what she needed to hear.
How do I evaluate my own reading? It is hard to say. The alleged communicator is unknown to me, unless perhaps, in an exercise of super-psi, his image was constructed from my memory of another person or persons who are not relatives. I suppose it is accurate to say death is very familiar to me. Several of my relatives and those of my wife have passed away. Apart from these, I spent six years as an associate pastor at a church and I had good relationships with many congregants who died during my tenure. As for the message...it makes sense and it doesn't at the same time. I would say that its metaphorical description of where I am in my life is accurate, although not particularly evidential. The advice, though, is not clear to discern. I will be pondering this experience for some time to come.
I was in another city for a friend's wedding and I saw that such a church was in the community. My curiosity piqued, I decided to attend the Sunday morning service. I walked in as they were concluding the half-hour healing service. People would sit in chairs up front facing the congregation while the healers placed hands on their shoulders. Stereotypical New-Age relaxation music played over the speakers.
The sanctuary is rather small and would perhaps seat 50 people at most. It is arranged very typically: rows of chairs facing the elevated chancel with a pulpit/lectern and seating for worship leaders. About 23 people were in attendance. All but four were women; all but myself and one woman who seemed to be in her early twenties were middle-aged and older.
The order of worship also largely coincided with the general pattern of Protestant services: interspersed hymns, prayers, announcements, a creed (reciting the National Spiritualist Association's Declaration of Principles), an offering, a benediction. There is usually a sermon as well but the minister was out sick. This was replaced by a time for persons to honor their fathers.
The big difference, of course, is the messages portion. Four mediums (all female) sat on the chancel and the congregation was asked to "call in" their spirits. A couple of them may be in training because persons are asked to complete affidavits for evidential readings or apparent healings. These forms support the medium's certification process with the Association.
When the messages time began, we were told that we could refuse to receive a message or notify the leadership if we were uncomfortable. When a medium felt ready to deliver a message, she would stand at the pulpit, find the intended recipient, and say something like. "I have a message for you. Would you like to hear it?"
The medium with an English accent came to the pulpit, briefly glanced around, then fixed her eyes on me. After several seconds of looking at me intently, she asked if I would like to receive a message. I said sure.
She told me that she saw me surrounded by several persons, because I had experienced a lot of deaths. One person "came forward" to speak. She described him as a medium-sized man with gray hair and a well-trimmed white beard. I do not recognize this figure, but she gets the impression that he is related to me on my father's side. His message for me is rather cryptic and metaphorical. If you have watched the sci-fi show Babylon 5, then you will recognize the thought I had in reaction: "Oh great, so I'm related to a Vorlon." The message offered advice but it was fundamentally a statement of reassurance.
A few other persons' readings, delivered for members of the church, were received as very supportive, as evidential, and even as fully expected in one case. The first person who received a message nodded her head and cried. Another said she knew this is what she needed to hear.
How do I evaluate my own reading? It is hard to say. The alleged communicator is unknown to me, unless perhaps, in an exercise of super-psi, his image was constructed from my memory of another person or persons who are not relatives. I suppose it is accurate to say death is very familiar to me. Several of my relatives and those of my wife have passed away. Apart from these, I spent six years as an associate pastor at a church and I had good relationships with many congregants who died during my tenure. As for the message...it makes sense and it doesn't at the same time. I would say that its metaphorical description of where I am in my life is accurate, although not particularly evidential. The advice, though, is not clear to discern. I will be pondering this experience for some time to come.