Over a decade ago, Clevelander Susan Averre was searching for something to tell her that there was more to life than what we could see, hear and experience; she felt contacting the spirit of her dead father would prove that.
Today, Averre helps others connect with loved ones who have passed on.
?I'm not like the medium on (the television show) ?Medium,' who seems to get information mostly while asleep,? Averre says from her Lakewood home. ?And as to ?The Ghost Whisperer,' who is shown getting very clear images and having clear conversations with those who have died but have not crossed over - well, I've never found a spirit who has died and not crossed over. People who have been mediums for decades insist that this isn't even possible. These are Hollywood's versions of the experiences of being a medium, not mine.?
Averre also says she has never had those thunderous doom-and-gloom messages that make for good TV. ?I've had suicides, accident victims, just about every kind of passing, and they all know they're dead. They just want to tell their loved ones that they're okay and then talk about mundane issues - like the house or the kids or something the loved one here is going through. They identify themselves pretty clearly - circumstances of passing, some names, personal interests - and then they give messages. But I also haven't had murdered people come through and talk about their murderers. Yet.?
Averre thinks back to her childhood, when Judaism was absent from her house. Her parents, Charlotte and Rudy Waxman, were Holocaust survivors; their parents (Averre's grandparents) either died in the camps or in the Lodz ghetto.
?My parents didn't have a lot of faith, and religion wasn't discussed,? Averre says. ?Some people came out of the Holocaust with their faith deepened, others with their faith obliterated. My parents were in the second group.?
But in the mid-1990s, when Averre was in her forties, she began feeling spiritual yearnings. Divorced and a single mother, she contemplated her faith and wanted to connect with her father, who had died in 1974. She sought a medium on the Internet and discovered Lilydale, a spiritualist community in western New York. Spiritualism is a philosophy that believes in the continuation of the soul after death. It also posits that loved ones and friends who have passed into spirit are available to help and support a person through life, if that person requests it.
At a weekend spiritual development workshop in 2000 in Lilydale, Averre met a medium who astounded her.
?He gave a very good description of my father and picked up other family names,? she remembers. ?I thought, ?My God, I think he just made a connection!' And I realized later that connection was to a power greater than me.?
Averre also learned at that workshop that she might have mediumistic abilities. She studied with others and honed her skills and now gives readings and works at area psychic fairs. She is a member of the International Mediums League; her website is www.medium-at-large. com.
Averre believes she's one of the few Jewish mediums in the area.
?I try to relieve pain and fear from people's lives by helping them connect with a loved one who has passed on,? she says. ?I think Rabbi Hillel, who said something like ?Love God, love life, do good deeds,' would be comfortable with that.?
Interestingly, she has contacted her dad - several times.
?When I ask him if he likes what I'm doing, his response is, ?Ehhh,'? she says, laughing and making the so-so sign with her hand. ?He says, ?If it makes you happy, it's my pleasure to help.' Sometimes when I'm working, I feel him nearby. And I'll hear his commentary, with a little joke in his voice.?
http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/arti ... re1215.txt
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
