SPIRITUALISM By Rev. Patricia Bertucci (c)  

Spiritualism has been a part of earth's properties since the beginning of time. It is an inherent part of the universe, based on the universal laws of nature. As one of the cogs on the continuum of the wheel of life, it proves that there is no death, that life does go on beyond the grave and the shedding of the physical body.

In this modern contemporary time, Spiritualism is a religion. At the beginning of time it was a way of life. It was natural for the earthly beings to communicate with the spirit realm for advice and healing-- the key word being "natural". Universal law/natural law is the operational force and the connecting link between the worlds of the carnate and the incarnate.

As society advanced, -("progressed") -naturalistic way retreated; not by choice, but by force and peer pressure, to use the current vernacular. Infants and young children still commune naturally, but most are soon silenced by their families and society. The amount of mediumistic ability that remains is directly related to the degree of enforced suppression, and the strength of the initial ability of the individual. We all have basic gifts of healing and communication, the amount and type varies with each person. What once was a part of the persona, must, in the majority of cases, be brought forth by sitting in a development circle.

Modern Spiritualism, as it is now called, was introduced to the world by the United States. The Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York, in the 1840's developed a code for the rappings they heard at their home, which proved to be from a peddler who had been murdered in their house some years before. The movement flourished and was espoused by people from all stations of life, to the extent in this country, that President Abraham Lincoln had the Red Room in the White House designated as the seance room, and meetings were regularly held there.

Once again, through lack of understanding, and fear of loss of control, more pressure was exerted and Spiritualism began to lose favor. However, word had spead to England, where it was greatly received; an organization with membership from around the world is situated there. Canada has a wonderful Healing League. The United States has several Spiritualist groups. Brazil has the largest number of adherents.

Spiritualism has two aspects: Spiritual Healing and Spirit Communication. Spiritual Healing has three factions; Laying-on-of-Hands, Absent, and Self Healing. The Spiritualist Healing Medium allows his/her physical body to be used by the God and Healing Guide energies, as a conduit of those energies, when help is needed for restoring the health of body, mind, or spirit. Quite often, when a person who is suffering from a disease that physicians declare "hopeless", receives Spirit Healing, or the name is placed on an absent healing list, the person recovers. The medical community usually labels it a "spontaneous remission" with no known reasonable explaination. This mind-set is beginning to change as more people are seeking self-help and alternative methods to improve health. Spirit Communication has only one mode; communication is always initiated by the Spirit entity, never by the Message Medium. Mediumship delivery is different with each Medium, as there are a variety of ways in which they can be impressed. All Message Mediums are in a form of trance; light, medium, or deep. Catergories include clairvoyance (clear seeing), clairaudience (clear hearing), and clairsensience (clear sensing), all done in a state of light to medium trance; the variation may range from no change noted, to perhaps a change of manner and/or tone of voice and geographical language accent. Deep trance, what the New Agers refer to as channeling, occurs when a Medium allows an entity to use the physical body to communicate to people on the earth plane. Another type of deep trance is transfiguration, when a Spirit's features are built up over the Medium's, and the voice is that of the entity.

Art, music, literature, ideas, automatic writing, solutions to problems, are a few of the manifestations of Spirit contact with us. Hunches, intuition, feelings/knowing, all come from the same source.

Spiritual Healing is to improve the health and quality of life. Spirit Communication is to prove the continuity of life, that there is no death; to help remove the fear of death; to assure us that our departed loved ones are not in the ground, but, rather, in another form in another dimension, around us to help if we need them, waiting to re-unite with us when we arrive.

The Rev. Patricia A. Bertucci
can be reached at 617 469-2568