To recap Part 1: A rural fire department (that I call “Hosting Fire Department” ) held this fundraiser: a fire hall dinner with a medium who contacts the dead. I am skeptical of mediums and psychics. I attended the dinner anyway.
Here’s Part 2:
In order to reach Hosting Fire Department’s hall from my town, I turned off of the main highway at a cemetery.
Then I drove past “Witch Way.”
I drove into a heavily wooded area as the sun disappeared behind dark clouds. The rain pounded my windshield as I pulled into Hosting Fire Department’s parking lot.
The volunteers at Hosting Fire Department were very friendly and helpful. I left a voice mail message the night before the event to ask if I could still buy a ticket. The organizer called me back Friday morning to let me know that she could reserve a ticket for me. She asked me if I was meeting up with anyone else there, and I told her that I would be alone because I didn’t have friends. (Snark doesn’t translate well over the phone.)
Since I didn’t need to sit with anyone else, the organizer seated me at a table that was reserved but still had extra seats. That’s how I ended up sitting at the middle table directly in front of the “stage.”
The volunteers prepared a fantastic chicken and pasta dinner. (At the end of the event, the volunteers thanked us all for supporting their fire department.)
But you didn’t actually want to hear about a fire hall chicken dinner, right? You wanted to hear about the medium. I shall call her “Fire Hall Medium” since she traveled from the heart of Pittsburgh to the little fire hall in these woods in Western PA. So here goes:
During dessert (cake), Fire Hall Medium introduced herself to each person in attendance as she handed us her business card.
Per the card, we can schedule Fire Hall Medium for individual sessions as well as for group events. We can hire Fire Hall Medium to remove ghosts. We can book her for weddings and funerals.
The organizers introduced Fire Hall Medium to the room. She showed off her heavily tattooed arms. She explained her journey from corporate employee to self-employed medium. We learned about her Native American heritage. About her experiences as a young child talking to her dead grandmother. About her spiritual training in Lily Dale, New York.
Fire Hall Medium asked us to concentrate on thoughts of our departed loved ones.
At the same time, she warned us that when she is working a large room such as ours (the event advertised 150 tickets available), she is bombarded with many departed souls trying to get her attention at the same time. She can only speak to a few of these beloved dead within the 90 minutes allotted for this show.
She told us not to be mad at her if she doesn’t make contact with our individual loved ones tonight.
To be clear, I entered the dinner a skeptic. However, I still thought of all the people that I lost. Just in case.
She then initiated her first “contact.”
Fire Hall Medium said that the soul trying to contact her was a woman. She named a characteristic of this woman that was very general and frankly could be applied to almost every woman I knew. Then she named a characteristic that was a little bit more specific, but still pretty general. Then she named a third characteristic that was slightly more specific than the first two characteristics.
Fire Hall Medium said to the room, “Does anybody know this woman?”
Fire Hall Medium continued to name characteristics until a very nice lady in the back of the room took the bait. The nice lady announced that the soul was either her mom or her grandma or her Aunt Jane or something. The nice lady shared with all of us additional details about her loved one. Fire Hall Medium built on these details about the “soul” who contacted her. Fire Hall Medium gave the nice lady a vague message from the other side as the nice lady cried.
Fire Hall Medium then told a long story about something medium-related that happened in Fire Hall Medium’s own life.
Fire Hall Medium then started the next “contact.” The pattern pretty much matched the first. Fire Hall Medium announced clues that started out general and became more and more specific until an audience participant claimed the “soul” as “their loved one.” The audience participant discussed their newly-found loved soul with the Fire Hall Medium. More tears.
Then Fire Hall Lady told another long story about her own life.
This pattern basically described the entire 90 minute-long presentation.
A few times, Fire Hall Medium did get pretty far into describing the “soul” without having any “takers” from the audience. Whenever this happened, Fire Hall Medium backtracked and told the audience that she misread some of the details. She noted that she sometimes had trouble hearing the soul correctly because so many other voices of dearly departed shouted out to her at the same time. Then she would switch up the details until an audience member finally claimed the “soul” as their loved one.
Fire Hall Medium ended the evening by announcing that the ghost of the former fire chief of Hosting Fire Department stood in the back of the fire hall. She told us all that the dead former fire chief had a message for one of the firefighters in the kitchen. She gave that firefighter a hug and thanked him on behalf of the dead chief’s ghost. Everybody clapped. The end.
Several people cried during the 90 minute event. I feel that they truly believe that their loved ones contacted them through Fire Hall Medium. I hope that they found peace through this. I also hope that nobody exploits them financially or emotionally due to this belief.
I personally arrived a skeptic and I left a skeptic. But I already explained this.
Do you believe that you have a chance to make contact with your loved ones in the afterlife?