The Other Side
On tonight's program ...
By Hill Cox

When you talk or write about 'spirit,' popular network TV shows invariably become part of the discussion. Two spring to mind. One is Ghost Whisperer and the other is Medium, which relates fictional accounts of medium Allison Dubois's experiences.

I watch Whisperer because it is entertaining but any medium I know would go insane if spirits or ghosts kept popping into their awareness as happens on the show. If a real medium encountered such events, it would indicate that he or she was out of control with respect to their abilities.

These programs show possibilities not necessarily probabilities and are cooked up by writers who read the same books you do. Usually, they are meant to entertain, not educate, and they do that very well. However, in real life, if you were to eavesdrop on a sitting with a medium it would be quite boring. The information is personal stuff, not very earth-shattering or dramatic to others.

There have been a number of movies involving spiritual communication I have found entertaining and useful in demonstrating such things. Some are not far off the mark in their depictions of what it's like when someone on the other side attempts communication with someone here. The movie Ghost is one of them.

In Ghost, Whoopie Goldberg portrays a con-artist posing as a medium with all the trappings such people use to reel in the customers. In this case, however, she is shocked to discover that she really is a medium. There are a lot of laughs and some touching moments as she deals with her new found ability. In a subway scene the deceased husband is taught how to do something physical even though he is no longer operating in the physical world. He uses this training from someone else like him to good advantage. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex at hand for the ending.

Access to the "other side" is available to anyone wishing to rekindle inherent abilities. However, many folks prefer to engage someone who has already done so such as a medium or a psychic. I'll take a look at both in the next column.

Hill Cox is a member in good standing of The Spiritualists National Union of England. He has taught classes in Toronto and Brampton.