I have had many readings over the years and depending on the circumstances at the time of the reading, my answers to your questions would be different on each occasion.
Talking about one particular reading that I had many years ago (long before anyone close to me had died). I was in my mid 20's and this is how it goes.
mac wrote:When you made your request for a reading, were you looking for something particular?
I was not looking for anything particular. Where I worked at the time, everyone was talking about this brilliant "fortune-teller" who was giving the most amazing accurate information. Various accounts from people in other departments who had been to this "fortune-teller" and all seemed very impressed. He was apparently so good and popular, that he was fully booked up for something like 6 months in advance.
Myself and two others that I worked with telephoned the number and made an appointment to go see him for a date 8 months away.
mac wrote:Did the reading provide it?
The reading provided far more than I ever could have expected.
mac wrote:Were you given any help over what the reading contained, how it could be used or should be interpreted?
Yes, at the very end.
mac wrote:Do you know what kind of reading it was? Was that explained to you before or after the reading was given?
I did not know beforehand. Hadn't a clue. Only when the reading was over, he asked me if I had any questions. I had one question.
This reading had been amazingly detailed in a totally uncannily precise way. The three of us went together to this person's home address (all I remember was that it was in Rayners Lane), where we were greeted by his wife, who made us tea and biscuits in the kitchen while one of us went in to the sitting room to have what I thought then was to have our "fortune" told. His wife told us that she did healing for animals, pets - dogs and cats etc.
When it came to my turn, he met me at the door of the sitting room and before I sat down, just inside the door he asked that I put my hands together and he placed his hands over mine for a few seconds. (I remember his hands were warm, very warm). When he released them he said straight away "there were 2 rings on that finger once". (I had been married very young (19) and divorced 2 years previous and had not worn my engagement ring & wedding ring since that time.
He sat down in one armchair by the fire and I sat opposite him in the other one , probably about 10-12 feet between us.
He started off by telling me that I was one of 3 children (correct) and that my mother was a few years older than my father (correct) and then he went through a thoroughly detailed account of my younger life, detailing with precise accuracy my friends, my home, my interests, how I and my best friend loved going to the dances regularly to a town about 10 miles away (it was 11 miles actually) various specific events that had happened through my life, the boyfriends that I had had, then telling me that I had travelled over deep water and within a year had met my future husband who had travelled even deeper water (I came to England - by boat - when I was 17, began working at the BBC (my first job) and sure enough had met my husband within a year, who had indeed travelled "deeper water", being Moroccan). He said my husband had been 10 years my senior (correct) and that when we first married we had gone to live in another country - and that I was not happy there, I had felt as though I was "a prisoner in my own home". (While still engaged, my fiance's employment had transferred him to their office in France. I went with him and we lived in Rouen for about a year (getting married during that time on a trip back to the UK) and then back to Rouen. I hated it there, stuck in a tiny little flat, and missed my friends and family terribly and we eventually managed a re-transfer back to the UK.
Another thing he said was - he told me that I was a Catholic and that although I no longer went to church, that I did say my own form of "prayers" each night before I went to sleep - that I didn't believe in repeating the mindless prayers taught at school, but that I said my own words to "somewhere and someone" and not sure who that "somewhere/someone" was. (Incredibly true!)
At times during the reading, he would nod off every now and then. In fact, at one time it seemed to me that he had fallen asleep sitting in the chair(!) and what seemed like quite a long time - I was just beginning to think ok, must be over now, perhaps I should get up and go - when he suddenly jerked into wakefulness and started rubbing his leg. He said to me "Your dad has had an operation, the leg still gives him trouble from time to time". I told him this was incorrect. My dad had never had any ops. He replied "Yes, he has" ...
then he started rubbing his leg again and said "I feel I can't walk any further, just got to stop and rest for a bit". I repeated to him that this wasn't right (it was the only thing that he had said that didn't make sense to me). Told him my mother had been in and out of hospital, had operations and stuff, but no, he insisted that it was my dad. He told me then that I would be with my parents in the Fall. (I had no intention at that stage of being back home in Ireland at Autumn time, but as it turned out, I did find myself back home at that time). Sitting in the kitchen with my mum - my dad was out in the garden, pulling up vegetables for the dinner (a large garden - my mum's bit was the flowers, dad built the shed and planted every vegetable you can think of; potatoes, cabbages, onions, peas - strawberries ... and much more. We never had to go to the shops for veg. Everything was grown with my dad's own hands.
My mother said to me "he's never happier than when he's out on the land" .. Then she said "It's so good to see him happy and healthy now, wasn't so a few months ago." (My dad never moaned about anything and I had never known him to be sick at any time.) Then my mum went on to say "I knew he was bad when one day, walking in to the village together, he started to rub his leg (where he had the operation!) and said - the very words that the "fortune-teller" had come out with - about not being able to walk any further and needed to stop for a while, all the time rubbing his leg". I simply could not believe it listening to the words my mother was coming out with. I told her then about my reading, and how I had thought that had been the only thing the man had got wrong. She said that he had indeed had an operation (triple by-pass) where veins had been taken from his leg or something, and that's why the pain and tiredness came in the leg. She said they hadn't want to worry us "children" being far from home - and probably would never have even told me had I not told her about my reading.
mac wrote:Do you have any other thoughts you'd like to share?
At one stage, the man said to me "Okay, we've gone through your past and your present. Before we go on to the future (and I will say to you right now that I am not a fortune-teller and cannot predict what your future will be. No-one can. All I can tell you is that there are certain paths already laid out for you and it is totally up to you which paths you take) ... He said "Before we proceed any further, do you have any questions you would like to ask?"
I said yes, I do have a question. (At this stage, I was just so amazed at how this complete stranger had gone through such detail about my whole life - there had been loads of other things that he covered in such minute detail ... that I haven't gone into here) - I wanted to know how he got this information. I asked him that very question, "How are you receiving all this information? Do you get pictures in your mind? or what? He replied that I had a grandmother on my father's side who I never knew - Ihad just been a tiny baby when I met her. (True)
He said that "she is watching over and guiding you through your life - and she wants you to know that there is a place you will remember where you have felt great happiness, a place with chickens and cows and fields. She wants you to know that you are always welcome there."
My dad's home place! A farm - in the countryside in Co. Monaghan, Ireland - with chickens in the yard and their own cows - where every chance I could get I would visit often. I absolutely loved it there and spent long holidays up there, where my uncle (my dad's brother) and auntie still lived with their large family (9 cousins). I loved feeding the chickens, and going down the meadow early in the mornings with my cousin to bring the cows up to the barn to be milked and then going on the tractor up to the crossroads to leave the milk churns where they would be collected and taken to the creamery. It was a whole different way of life for me to where I was brought up - and I had said many's the time that I felt so very happy there. I remember one day sitting with some of my cousins on the grass at top of the meadow hill and saying that I felt this place was the nearest thing to heaven I could think of.
I now know, of course, that this was my first introduction to Mediumship. My "fortune-teller" was a true medium.
Over the years there have since been many many passings to Spirit amongst my family and friends. I have since had many different kinds of readings from different people, times and places - and my answer to the questions above would be different on each occasion(i.e. "why" I would go for a reading, what I would expect from it, etc.)
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