From the desk of Lisette Coly:
I hope you are all enjoying a summer holiday in some respect. I have just returned from a visit to my husband’s family to the island of Chios, Greece in the Northeast Aegean. While in Athens I did seize the opportunity to visit Delphi, the home of the oracles most notably the famous Pythia. Many forms of fortune telling were practiced at Delphi but the most important one was the Greek gods’ oracle delivering information via the enigmatic words of the Pythia. While immersing myself in the ambiance of the ancient ruins and with the knowledge that my grandmother, Eileen J. Garrett, had scrambled around this same sacred ground I could not help but ponder about the source and mechanics of visioning. I recalled a passage from her book, Awareness, in which she attempted to describe and get to the meaning of them which I would like to share with you:
“In my earliest years no one realized that what they saw fit to call my ‘wild imaginings’ were solidly true for me—a world I had to live with. People shook their heads somberly over my condition. My glowing, dancing world, which interlaced itself with another world that seemed to be its own reflection, was never taken seriously by those around me.
It was easy for me, later, to believe that I might become a capable sensitive, since I saw much that to others was unseen. And in my vision of the alleged dead there were people who came and went with apparent ease, walking in harmony with the living as though some intangible, tenuous bond held the two worlds together. It was later that I began to understand that man carries within him a comprehensive map of his real self and the vast network of his relationships—a map which, could he but see it, would make him king of vision, instead of being crippled in his understanding.
My next step forward—to the controls—was taken as I was ready to believe the assurances of those who claimed to know, that the dead wanted to speak and they should be enabled to do so. Later I came to know that I was not certain of these things “in my own mind” and a conflict developed within me, as a consequence.
Before I became a sensitive, I had given much time to reflection on the fact of immortality induced by the mysterious manner in which men thought of the hereafter. In all my youth I had heard the different churches and congregations proclaim God and the Spirit on Sundays, and then act, throughout the rest of the week, as though these did not exist. I often talked with the Catholic priest, Father Ryan about “visions.” He never doubted that visions were possible, but before the visions could be accepted as true, the Church had to legitimize them, in which case the visionary became a saint. The good Father never showed any signs of belief in my own eventual sainthood, for he admonished me to pray for release from the temptations of the devil which made me see them.
For me, the visions were genuine, realistic and true. The conflict that later developed in my consciousness was not concerned with the visioning itself, but with the significance of it and with the uses I was making of it.”
As I have been musing about visioning and mediumship, it is fortuitous that I just received word from the Windbridge Research Center, a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt nonprofit founded by Mark Boccuzzi and Dr. Julie Beischel, that it is offering a free 3 minute video entitled “What is a medium?” which describes the difference between a medium and a psychic as well as examines the purpose of mediumship, while exploring some commonly held assumptions about how mediumship works.
From ancient times with the Pythia, past Garrett and a multitude of sensitives up to present day, please join our continued efforts attempting to understand the mechanics and ultimate meaning of these manifestations.
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To read more from Awareness click here!