Melbourne author says everyone can connect with the other side
Ask John Rogers to define the term "medium," and he'll tell you it's what lies between "small" and "large."
Rogers himself is a medium -- not in clothes size, but rather in vocation -- and while he might joke about semantics, he is serious about his role as liaison between the living and the dead.
Humans have always been intrigued by what lies beyond life's journey and the possibility of communication with those who have gone before us.
Abraham Lincoln employed medium Nettie Colborne Maynard. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of that most skeptical of detectives, Sherlock Holmes, was a medium.
In recent months, the television show "Medium," based on real-life medium Allison DuBois, has put the spotlight on how some people seemingly have a direct line to the Great Beyond.
According to Melbourne medium Rogers, that's balderdash.
There's an inner medium living within us, and in Rogers' book, "The Medium Within," he explains how we can channel it to live a better, more peaceful existence.
"Everybody has the gift to connect," he said.
Rogers never set out to become a medium. In fact, as a would-be Catholic priest, he wanted to debunk the concept. Instead, he found himself drawn by its possibilities.
That was 20 years ago. Since then, Rogers has gone on to lecture on television and radio and has served as guest medium at Florida's Cassadega Spiritual Camp, as well as in other parts of the United States and in England.
But back to the definition. What is a medium?
"A medium is a receiver," Rogers wrote in "The Medium Within." "It is much like a radio, and you turn to the station that you want. That is what a medium does -- he or she tunes to the right frequency and tunes into his or her spirit guide."
In Rogers' case, the guide is the Reverend Gladys Custance, a former teacher.
Custance was a no-nonsense lady in life and still remains a pull-no-punches individual even after death, he says.
"She tells it like it is," Rogers said. "She's the one who gives me the information. If you don't like what you hear, blame it on her."
Rogers first met Custance for a reading and was so impressed by her accuracy that he eventually joined her "development" classes.
Now departed, Custance, says Rogers, is sort of an instant-messenger between the living and the dead.
People seek Rogers for a reading to help them with unresolved issues regarding mortality or perhaps to find how loved ones are faring in their new plane of existence.
Kathy Bean met Rogers when she attended a Palm Bay psychic fair years ago at a tough time in her life. Her father had died after a long battle with cancer and her sister unexpectedly died a few months later.
She asked Rogers for a reading.
"I never mentioned any of this to John," Bean said. "I was as blue as could be, and really lost."
According to Bean, Rogers' reading was on target.
"His reading was uncanny," she said.
Rogers explained that she soon would be filling someone's shoes.
"A few weeks later, someone I knew walked into where I was currently working and asked if I wanted her job," Bean said.
The woman was quitting and thought Bean the ideal candidate to replace her.
"That was more than eight years ago, and I'm still happily there," Bean said.
Parapsychology is particularly hot these days, Rogers says.
"The public is trying to seek that inner part of themselves," he said.
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