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Chapter 2 Need

Mia

I woke the next morning with a very clear idea of where we needed to go next. I telephoned Roz.

‘The local spiritualist church will be a good place for our next lesson. Before I even begin teaching you to develop your sixth sense, I want you to get an idea of what this work is all about.’

Roz

As Mia drove to the spiritualist church in Bath, I sat beside her, imagining a room full of people speaking in tongues.

‘What sort of people go to spiritualist churches?’

Mia

‘I remember feeling worried the first time I went, but you’ll be surprised. I want to show you the diversity of people in need.’

Roz

Bath First Spiritualist Centre was behind a plain door in a back street in the centre of the city. The only sign of activity was a man smoking a cigarette in the doorway. We paid £1.50 for entrance and were given a hymn book and raffle ticket and were told, ‘The raffle will be drawn at the end of the service.’

We walked into the small hall. There were about 30 people in the congregation, sitting on wooden chairs in rows. The front of the hall was dominated by a modern-looking pulpit on a stage. Behind it were two ornately carved chairs on which sat a middle-aged woman and a dapper-looking older man in a suit.

People were clutching their hymn books and talking in hushed voices. I looked around. There was a girl in ripped jeans and a T-shirt; she had lots of piercings and her mobile phone kept going off. There was a woman in a tweed skirt, a twin-set and pearls. An old lady came in slowly with the aid of two sticks. Behind her, was a young man with a beard. He looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Many appeared troubled. Others looked as if they were fitting the meeting in with their shopping trip. On the stage, the man stood up. He had blue eyes and a gentle, continual smile.

‘I’m Stan – as most of you know. Thank you all for coming. I’d like to ask you to turn your mobile phones off. We’re happy to have Isla to take the service today. But let’s start with the opening hymn.’

As we sang Amazing Grace to taped background music, I felt uncomfortable. I had a sense that most of us just wanted to get on with the mediumship and were putting up with the hymn singing to get to that.

The woman on the stage, introduced as ‘today’s medium’, stood up. She was in her mid-fifties and was wearing a neat blue skirt and matching cardigan. She gave the address, reading a passage of Native American spiritual philosophy. Half way through the words about the higher self and the power of thought, she lost me. By the looks on their faces, I could see that most people in the room had similarly lost the thread. Isla seemed nervous and poured herself a drink of water.

‘If I come to talk to you, please acknowledge me verbally to make the connection. If you don’t understand the information I’m giving you, don’t disregard it, your understanding of it may come later.’

The atmosphere changed. I could feel the charge of expectation; the excitement in the room was contagious.

She pointed at the old woman with walking sticks, wearing a red cardigan.

‘I’d like to come to the lady in red,’ Isla said.

The woman had obviously been to quite a few of these meetings as she smiled and said ‘Thank you,’ quite comfortably. Isla went on to tell her that she could see a man in spirit standing near her, who loved to garden and was worried about her spending too much time on her own.

‘The man just wants to say that he visits often and is looking over you.’

In this vein, Isla continued to go to different members of the audience. At least three people received the same message: that they were worried or had been under stress, but there was a lot of love around them from spirit and it was going to get better. The only difference was in the flowers given as loving symbols at the end of each mini reading. Some got carnations, others lilies or roses ‘in a spray’.

After about an hour, the medium asked us to join her for the closing prayer. I realized suddenly that this was all we were going to get. I felt dissatisfied, and wondered how many other people there felt the same. I was amazed when I saw people queuing up to thank her.

Gathering my bag and coat, I was stopped by the announcement that the raffle was about to be drawn. A woman won a picture frame. A man got a tin of sweets. For the final prize, Stan thrust the bowl of raffle tickets in my face.

‘Would you like to pick out the last ticket?’ he asked.

As I looked at the folded slips of paper, I knew which one I wanted to choose. I pulled it out and looked at the number. I was instantly embarrassed.

‘It’s my number.’

I tried to put it back, but Stan was insistent.

‘You take the prize,’ he said, handing me a photograph album adorned with kittens. ‘You’re obviously psychic.’

Outside the church Mia, still chuckling, lit up a cigarette.

Mia

‘Well, you used your instincts well there, Roz, choosing the winning ticket.’

Roz

‘It was just a coincidence.’

Mia

‘Coincidences are more than they seem. They are doorways to the bigger picture. Everything is interconnected and coincidences show you that you are in tune with the invisible web.’

‘If you could look through a special lens, you would see millions of strands of energy connecting everyone. These strands also link action and consequence. Something you do today will affect someone, somewhere, at some time. Coincidences are part of the web. They remind you to be in tune with the consequences of your actions. Coincidences are the helping hand of destiny – nudges to keep you on your path.’

‘Anyway, what did you think of the session?’

Roz

‘I wasn’t very impressed by the medium.’

Mia

‘For some of the people there, maybe it was enough that she was acknowledging their loss.’

Roz

‘She didn’t go far enough. If she’d spent a bit longer with each person, maybe she would have given them something more tangible. Her messages seemed pretty superficial to me. I wanted to be wowed.’

Mia

‘That wasn’t the reason I took you.’

Roz

We wandered into Abbey Square and sat on a bench, looking up at the old, stone walls.

Mia

‘What was your first impression when you went in the spiritualist church? Do you remember the atmosphere?’

Roz

‘I remember feeling awkward.’

Mia

‘Do you think anyone else felt like that?’

Roz

‘A few did. I remember looking round. I felt a bit uncomfortable about singing the hymn, too.’

Mia

‘So did a lot of other people there. And the talk seemed to go over most people’s heads – including mine. But when the medium started to say, “If I come to you acknowledge me”, and we knew she was about to start the mediumship, did you feel the change in the atmosphere?’

Roz

‘Yes, there was an undercurrent of expectation, excitement and need.’

Mia

‘That’s what I wanted to show you. It didn’t matter what the medium said, or how good her information was, it was the need that I wanted you to be aware of.’

Roz

We sat in silence, watching the pigeons and a busker with a guitar. I’d thought Mia might start our lessons by dazzling me with visions. Instead, she was showing me the human face of her work: people’s vulnerability and loss, feelings that are usually covered up.

Mia

‘The need you saw is universal. It is my hope that, at the end of our time together, when you’re faced with this need in someone, you’ll know what to do.’

Roz

In the spiritualist church – as with Robert and Louise – I’d been moved by people’s need for information about their dead loved ones, their longing for the comfort of knowing that death is not the end. Their need for reassurance was huge, and yet Mia was telling me that in six months time I was actually going to be of benefit.

‘I’m not sure I’ll ever have the skills to be useful to people in that much pain and need.’

Mia

‘I’ve shown you the end result, but when I come next time we’ll go back to the very beginning. There’s more in the world than your eyes can see – sights and colours that you have never experienced. It’s as if all your life you have been seeing in black and white and I am going to give you colour vision. I’m going to take you on a journey. I’m going to change the way you see forever.’