Here Today, Here Tomorrow: A Memoir of Spirit Communication

Here Today,

Here Tomorrow

A Memoir of Spirit Communication

Charlotte Hennessy

iUniverse LLC

Bloomington

Here Today, Here Tomorrow

A Memoir of Spirit Communication

Copyright © 2013 Charlotte Hennessy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Author Photo by Giselle Jiles

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0418-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0419-6 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 08/15/2013

CONTENTS

Prologue

Part 1 Supernormal, but Not Supernatural

Uncle Jack: My Muse

Grandpa: My Copilot

Mr. S. and His Dachshund

Uncle Roupen and the Occult

Stanislaus River: Let It Flow

My Father: Lost and Found

My Mother: Doing Her Best

Santa Lucia, the Song

One Sunday in July with John and Margaret

Grandma and the Four Coffins

The First Coffin: Spats

The Second Coffin: Slim

The Third Coffin: Aunt Elizabeth

The Fourth Coffin: Brian

Ryan: An Artist of the Natural World

Mrs. Alegria: An Artist of Crochet

Janet: Another Mother

The Spiritualist Church in Chicago

Jerry R: Another Nature Lover

Clairaudience (or, The Voices I’ve Heard)

Faye: Amongst Friends

The Dentist’s Chair: A Wonderful Mother

Tempur-Pedic Mattress

Don’t Rock the Boat

Turning the Tables

Too Woo-Woo, but True

Isa and the Candelabra

The Disappearing Strawberries (No Relation to Mutiny on the Bounty)

Part 2 Fleshing Them Out

My Father, Gerald

Grandpa and Grandma (Haigazun and Satenig)

My Mother, Angela

My Partner, Slim (Lamar)

Aunt Elizabeth and Arthur

Chimera (Brian)

Part 3 Other Points to Ponder

Why Meditate?

Reincarnation?

Fleshing Out Frizzy’s (and How the Night Really Does Have A Thousand Eyes)

Touting Tutoring (and How I Learned to Love My Age Spots)

Letting Go, Moving On

And Finally

An Appendix of Poems

On Nature

Green

Waterlogged

Gratitude

Backyard Webs

An Ant

The Barbed-Wire Blossom as Told to the Pinecone Candle

The Little Green Worm

The Big Dog

Tulips

Owed to the Little Spider

Suffering Sins

I Love a Rose

The Tiny, Identified Flying Object

Out My Window

Sweet Things

An Understanding

A Conversation in the Flower Garden

Some Poems Hinting at Reincarnation

Aged

Hung Up

A Karma Bond

A Raised Hand over Pakistan

Taunting Tatiana

And Something for Everyone

Windows

This book is dedicated to my sister, Betty, who has always appreciated my writing… but who has traditionally been resistant to listening to my verbal attempts to relate my experiences of spirit communication.

Recently, when I tried to share one, she rattled off, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t believe it. I don’t want to hear it!

But when I said, Does that mean you’re not going to read my book?

She answered, Of course I’m going to read your book; you’re my sister.

And in a later conversation, she said, "Well, send me a copy when it’s published."

To which I queried, "You mean you’re not going to buy a copy?"

She then asked, How much will it be?

(I wish I could say she was kidding.)

PROLOGUE

When I started writing this narrative, I had no thought of publishing it. It started as a collection of various spiritual experiences I’ve had over the years that I thought I should start writing down. I wanted to be able to hand over a printed enumeration of examples whenever I was asked why I believe in an afterlife. I was done with more repeating the stories again and again, as I’ve been doing over the years.

Then, the opportunity arose: a silent auction item to support a magazine that I love, The Intelligent Optimist (formerly called Ode). It’s a wonderfully positive magazine that emphasizes what we can do to make the world a better place. It highlights people who are actually making a difference and covers subjects from sustainability to spirit, to name just two of many. It’s a practical publication, suggesting real solutions to real problems. Action for change is so often slow to manifest in this complex world, but it’s one of our earthly challenges, and we applaud those who try.

So, I bid on this item—publish your book—and I was the high bidder. Now I had to buckle down and do it. I felt that it was all meant to be. Of course, anything that happens is obviously meant to be, but I had clues that spirit wanted me to write about it and share it with more than just a few friends. You might say that I have several ghostwriters who are egging me on and reminding me of a few forgotten events that are helping to fill these pages.

In part 1, I talk a bit about spiritualism and the messages I’ve received from those in spirit, delivered by mediums. I enumerate some of my own clairaudient experiences, give examples of soul flight while asleep, and describe some of my experiences with the movement and/or disappearance of material objects (this is also called apports).

In part 2, I flesh out some of the spirits, so you’ll get to know them as I did. I describe who they were when they were on earth—being human. Here is also where I recount their endearing antics and wit.

In part 3, I’m all over the map, with Other Points to Ponder that both spiritual seekers and those otherwise inclined may appreciate. I discuss

• meditation, citing two examples of how it’s been a practical practice for me;

• reincarnation, describing what I consider an evidential example of a personal past life;

• how the universe reveals things one would not expect to be otherwise discovered (in Fleshing Out Frizzy’s) and how karma may have played a helpful role, just in the nick of time;

• what I get out of giving back;

• information about letting go and moving on—without fear—when it’s your time; and

• a concluding thought and a final message, because I have to stop somewhere.

In the Appendix, you’ll find a sampling of nature poems and a few poems hinting at reincarnation. I’m taking this opportunity to present them here, as this is most likely their best chance of being freed from the binder they’ve occupied for the last fifty-five years, to see the light of day or lamp or whatever technologically advanced light source you have. Even if you don’t care for poetry, mine are simple and, I hope, not too excruciating to read.

I’m glad I did the bidding on this silent auction item, as this has been a healing exercise for me. I hope you also get something out of it, if only a laugh or two along the way and maybe an insight that you may not have previously considered.

Please know that I’m honored to share my experiences with you, whether they ring true for you or not. And I thank you in advance for keeping an open mind, which is always a helpful tool in this mysterious life that we did not invent.

Throughout the text, I sometimes describe the concept of death using the word die, but because it sounds so final, I prefer the word pass, which seems more descriptive if you believe in the continuation of life. It’s all semantics anyway. The spirits don’t consider themselves dead, so I don’t use that word to describe their condition. You might say they’ve relocated to a reality that is as tangible as ours and that provides what they need to exist and experience in that environment. But they can also be here, whenever they desire and when they’re ready.

*     *     *

Blaise Pascal wrote: Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

Robert Browning observed: "Life is probation and the Earth no goal

But the starting point of man."

Shakespeare had Hamlet tell Horatio: There are stranger things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Allow me just one more, although there are plenty of other quotes along these lines from plenty of other brilliant minds. This next one best describes my goal.

Mark Twain wrote (in an essay entitled How to Cure a Cold): It is a good thing, perhaps, to write for the amusement of the public, but it is a far higher and nobler thing to write for their instruction—their profit—their actual and tangible benefit.

Of course, if you read Twain’s essay, you’ll see that he is, as always, entertaining you. And if you read my pages, you might find something entertaining in them too, so your time won’t be completely wasted, even if you have trouble agreeing with or believing anything here. Because occurrences and phenomena continue, this is a work in progress, but at least now I think I have enough examples, or evidence, to at least intrigue even the most skeptical among us. When I consider the phenomena I have witnessed, it inspires me to wonder just how much is going on around us that we don’t witness—the coincidences that occur, the synchronicities, the mystery that surrounds us and makes things happen or not happen—all of what makes life so interesting. I believe that we are not aware of a lot that is happening all the time around us and within us; paying more attention may help us see, hear, and understand more. I hope that we do become thoroughly aware eventually, and I’m convinced that we will all have the opportunity to understand everything, at some point.

Something to keep in mind is that what I am recounting may be supernormal, but it’s not supernatural.

I’m not a gullible person, but I am open-minded, so I don’t rule out any possibilities. I like empirical evidence, and I’m not interested in engaging in arguments about what I’m presenting, as we can’t prove anything from our current vantage point. Some of the opinions and alternative explanations of the phenomena that I’ve heard from various acquaintances, with whom I’ve shared these examples, have left me cold and are not in any way convincing. Just because they haven’t experienced what I’ve experienced, some want to discount it. Of course, those who have also experienced exceedingly convincing evidence of the afterlife do definitely know what I’m talking about. They don’t argue about it, because they, like I, believe that we know the truth, at least as far as we are concerned. But the bottom line is: who really knows?

I have no idea how any of it works, although there are many books and writings about spiritualism and all things paranormal. I’ve read several of them, and, while they are quite convincing of the continuity of life, we can’t prove anything either way until we leave this planet. The one argument that I have to laugh at is when people say, Well, if it’s true, why don’t they tell us which numbers to play in the lottery? The purpose of our lives is not acquiring money. In fact, it seems to me that money is here to teach us lessons. I will leave it to your imagination, as there are so many examples that support this theory and the various ways humans deal with money. It’s a giant challenge to us as humans to see how we react to having or not having money: Are we charitable? Are we greedy? Selfish? Do we steal? Do we exploit? Do we kill for it? Do we in any way harm anyone for the love or the need of it? What is our relationship, basically, to money? And how does it affect our relationships with other people? Does it tear apart families and friendships? You can see the examples every day in so many ways. And remember: there is no money in the spirit world.

You’ll probably agree that greed and a lack of love are responsible for most of this world’s ills.

I have a muse that is nagging me to write this, to tell my story, as humanity has gotten off balance. The muse has urged me to share what I’ve experienced, and maybe some will believe it. In any case, it’ll make letting go of the temporal world easier for them and perhaps also make it easier to accept the loss of loved ones, feeling, as I’ve come to feel, that they’re not lost at all. They’ve simply transitioned. There are more and more people who’ve lived a long life and just can’t seem to let it go, because no matter what they say, they don’t really believe in things unseen. Of course most people probably want to believe, and they’ve been told that heaven is real, but why should they believe it? I wouldn’t (and didn’t), without having some evidence that has convinced me that the best is yet to come, and now death no longer frightens me.

At the very least, I wish that people would stop fearing eternal damnation. That concept was just devised to control people, and it’s a ridiculous concept. If someone were to say to me, "But what if there is a hell?" I would say, Then all the more incentive to be a good person, to be good to other people. Some people might say, Yes, there is a hell; it’s called earth.

But there are lessons to be learned, and, while no one can say for sure how it all works, the disembodied spirits tell of a life review, where we have to experience and understand the pain we’ve caused others, which involves self-judgment only. The level of consciousness you attain in the spirit world reflects the level you occupied while on earth. Redemption is achieved by efforts one makes while on the earth plane or in the spirit world. It’s a natural law. Does this mean we reincarnate? Experiencing various lives until we get it right? So we would learn empathy? It seems reasonable to me to allow for this possibility. But reincarnating to earth probably isn’t the only option, when you consider infinite space. We just can’t conceive of it all with our limited awareness at this young (human) stage of our development.

My analogy is that we are like ants crawling on a television set, trying to figure out how it works. We have our limitations, and all of our theories are only theories. But while we’re here on earth, it could be more like heaven if we actually did practice the Golden Rule: to treat others as we want to be treated. Too simple? It does seem like a never-ending battle on this planet, and maybe that’s part of the plan. Maybe these problems have to exist in order for us to learn what we have to learn here, before we can progress to another level. They say it’s all about spiritual progress, that our soul experiences growth that we can’t imagine right now.

All we need to be is good to each other, to put ourselves in others’ shoes. I think we all understand that it’s our tribal mentality that has the need to break off into groups, to have an enemy, to bond together in a group against that enemy. It’s all part of the animal instinct for survival, but we have taken it to a perverse degree. We are complex creatures, and because there are so many challenges on this planet, it’s a perfect place to practice.

And what I consider a most logical question is: Why this and not that?

There are scientific discoveries that discuss multiverses, quantum physics, dark matter (that which is not visible to us from earth), parallel universes, and of course the concept of infinity, which is the most intriguing of all to me. It’s said that we are privy to observing only about 3 percent of our universe. There could be civilizations out there that are billions of years ahead of us in technology. Our perspective is limited. If there are civilizations out there that are far more advanced than ours, perhaps they can read our minds and perhaps they are amused by all of our speculation. I wish not to deny them entertainment, so I’m failing to catch myself before echoing another possibility that has been suggested in various writings over the years: that they (the Aliens) are the ones who have created us, as an experiment, somehow manipulating the evolutionary process, perhaps combining their genes with the ape closest to us. As I write this in 2013, I don’t think we’ve yet discovered the missing link. And when I think of how unsuited we are to this planet in so many ways, I wonder if this theory isn’t correct. And then there is our quest to get into space. But as much as our genes are similar to a chimpanzee’s (and every other living thing on the planet, as it’s been recently discovered), we are significantly different creatures in so many ways. It really is anybody’s guess, and that’s why I dislike dogma of any kind—scientific or religious. This theory, of course, doesn’t deny the existence of a universal creator (or God), so relax, those of you who have beliefs that are set in stone about God, for even if we’re descended from ancient astronauts, something had to put it all in motion. There is a creative force behind it all. But I don’t think it was a human being with a white beard.

*     *     *

I first attended a Spiritualist church in1967, when I was just nineteen years old and in my second year at Cal (UC Berkeley), majoring in political science, which I mention so you can see that I do have a practical, serious, mundane side to me, which might lend me more credibility in your eyes. But anything related to the spiritual has always resonated with me. My mother (who was not a believer in any of this) had a friend who took us to the church, and I was fortunate enough to see a most gifted medium, Reverend Florence Becker, who founded the Golden Gate Spiritualist Church in San Francisco in 1924. She was so respected as a medium, that President Franklin Roosevelt flew her out, at least five times, on a private plane that left from Travis Air Force Base in northern California, to the White House during WWII to conduct séances with cabinet members in attendance. The only compensation she would accept, when she gave particularly informative messages to people (privately, not in the church setting), was in the form of an elephant figurine, hundreds of which adorn the chapel of the church. There is one that was given by FDR, about which he joked, It’s the wrong animal. Those were the days, though, when things like this didn’t make their way into the press.

The National Spiritualist Association of Churches’ manual defines a medium as one whose organism is sensitive to vibrations from the spirit world and through whose instrumentality, intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and produce the phenomena of Spiritualism.

FDR wasn’t the first president to conduct séances in the White House. Maybe the idea occurred to him from reading that Lincoln, too, had some exposure to otherworldly insights. It is documented that a young medium by the name of Nettie Colburn, under trance, channeled a strong, masculine spirit, as she says in her writings, with great clearness and force, upon matters of State. She was not conscious of her surroundings, and for more than an hour, the spirit counseled Abraham Lincoln to "stand firm in his convictions and fearlessly perform the work and