The Infinite Mind: The Mind/Brain Phenomenon. Betty Shine
We were later to find out that the vicar, from whom we had rented the flat, had previously had it exorcised. His method had obviously not worked.
Although I was happier in our new abode, my health was causing some concern. I had been suffering from a restriction in my throat which had not eased, and the medical profession were unable to give a diagnosis. Furthermore, my rail journey to work in London every day was becoming increasingly claustrophobic as I battled with the early morning rush.
Then one morning I noticed that someone had left a strange-looking magazine on the seat. I picked it up, and as I was idly leafing through it I realised that it was some kind of psychic journal. I thought of my paternal grandmother and of her psychic abilities, and this inspired me to look again at the classified ads. Mediums, healers, clairvoyants, tarot readers – there were so many names and telephone numbers, yet I wasn’t drawn to any of them as I toyed with the idea of visiting a medium. However, on the last page of the magazine there was a notice advertising a forthcoming psychic event which was to take place at the College of Psychic Studies in London, and I felt comfortable with the idea of contacting them to ask for the name of a reputable medium. They were very helpful, and made an appointment for me to meet Charles Horrey, whom they assured me was an excellent medium.
Much later, I came to realise that it was no coincidence that I picked up the magazine left on the train – when the spirit world wants to tell you something, it will find a way.
When the day of my appointment arrived I was extremely nervous, but the sitting changed the course of my life. Though this encounter is fully explained in my book Mind to Mind, it is appropriate for what comes later for me to give a brief recap of the visit.
Charles Horrey told me that my choking was a result of excessive energy, and that I would continue to be ill if I did not release this energy by healing others. At the time I was perturbed by this information – who wouldn’t be?
Although my mother had always asked the great healer Harry Edwards to cure all our ills, I knew nothing about the psychic world, and indeed – apart from my hand analysis studies, which I considered to be scientific – I was not in the least bit interested. To be quite honest, being an opera fanatic filled my fantasy life quite adequately. I had never given the paranormal world a single thought, not even when my mother appeared to me. For me that was just something that ‘happened’ rather than part of a larger world.
As for being a healer, I had always wanted to be a vet, to heal the suffering of animals. Human beings were something else altogether. Their emotions change with the tides, and I did not feel physically capable of taking on such a daunting task.
To confuse me even further, I was told that I was already a fully-fledged medium, and that eventually my name would become a household word throughout the world. I must admit that I had to contain my laughter. I asked myself what kind of kooky world I was getting into. Then, to cap it all, the medium gave me the name of a deceased surgeon who had apparently worked at the London Hospital and who now wished to work through me.
By the time Charles Horrey had taken me through the whole of my life, giving me my mother’s name and the names of other members of my family, as well as messages that no one would understand but me, I had to admit that this man had something. I would have to go home and think about it.
Quietly contemplating the information I had been given, my thoughts returned to the question of the mind. How could this medium possibly know all these things about me, or map out my life for the future? Was this the same force that enabled me to practise ‘remote travelling’? Could he somehow project his mind in the same way? And how had he been able to communicate with my mother, who had died several years ago? It could not be because of brainpower; if it was, then we would all have this gift. It had to be something else. Of course, I had seen my grandmother passing on messages to the family from her deceased sons, but I was very young and really hadn’t thought much about it as I was growing up. Questions invaded my mind so much now that I became more confused every moment.
There were a few hilarious moments when I returned home. Whilst explaining what had occurred during the sitting, I held up my hands and said mockingly, ‘Heal, heal, I’m going to heal the world!’ Suddenly, furniture began to move and loud bangs filled the house. Needless to say I stopped immediately. Something very odd indeed was happening.
Still worried about my health, I decided to test the medium’s advice. If my symptoms disappeared, then I would take into account everything he had told me. If they didn’t, then I would dismiss the whole episode. I was not looking forward to spending my life treating sick people. My children were grown up and I was just beginning to enjoy my own life again.
My various friends were happy to take part in the healing experiment, probably because they had so many things wrong with them. The results were amazing. One by one they were all cured of their ills, and the word soon got around that I had some kind of gift.
At the time I was working as a secretary in a local office, so the healing had to wait until the evening, but the queues of people waiting for healing (as forecast by the medium) became so long I had to give up my daytime occupation and heal full-time. I had no idea that it would lead me into the very strange world of miracles, phenomena and energy.
One of the first things I did was to buy a proper consultant’s couch, covered in red leather. I had found that standing behind a patient or bending over holding their hands was extremely uncomfortable, and I can still remember the joy of the first session I spent sitting upright and relaxed. From that time on I could feel the energies flowing freely through my body and could feel the patient absorbing them.
As the weeks and months passed, all my symptoms disappeared, and I became elated by the success of the healing. It was such a joy simply looking at the people walking out of my healing room who had been so crippled on entering it that I had completely forgotten that I had only wanted to heal animals. Perhaps I was being taught a lesson? We may have our dreams, but we are not always equipped to realise them in a particular way. I know now that I would have made a lousy vet, because I am always so heartbroken when an animal has to be put to sleep. But I have found over the years that helping animals through the healing process is just as valuable – and certainly more peaceful. So perhaps my dream was realised after all.
During those early months, whilst I was still trying to come to terms with the dramatic changes in my lifestyle, questions continually invaded my mind. I felt strangely inept, out of control, dependent on the spirit world. I did not feel that I could continue with just blind faith. There had to be explanations, some sort of order – I wanted to know how it all worked.
At first I thought the healing was caused by my own magnetic energy, but that could not explain the voices that diagnosed each patient. In every case they proved to be correct. I had to admit that I was probably being helped by the surgeon who had spoken to Charles Horrey, as I could not possibly be curing these people on my own. In any event, I had never studied the physical body as I find medical journals totally unengaging.
If it was the spirit surgeon, then how was he able to pass the information to me? It was certainly not a brain-to-brain contact, because his had died along with the rest of his physical body. The questions never ceased.
Then one day something happened that would change my life for ever.
IT HAD BEEN A VERY ORDINARY DAY, but from the moment I opened the door to my next patient it became extraordinary. Around this lady’s head was an energy I had never seen before. It most definitely was not the aura one encounters surrounding the physical body, and which displays varying colours reflecting the health of the patient. This energy was pure white. But even as I ushered the lady into my healing room I sensed that the shape was wrong – it had caved in, in the middle of the head.
Whilst I was healing her, my spirit doctor gave me a diagnosis of severe depression. This was totally at odds with the symptoms she had described