Love Always Finds A Way
Way back in 1974, I had my very first psychic reading. I had been given Thomas Sugrue's There Is A River, which is a biography of the late Edgar Cayce, acclaimed modern prophet of the the 1930s and 1940s. There Is A River recounts Cayce's outstanding ability to correctly describe health conditions and to give remedies for seemingly hopeless cases.
All from his intuitive mind.
A good friend of mine from the O'Shea clan, with whom I worked at the Toronto Star, leant Sugrue's book to me, thinking that it might help me understand how God works. At the time, my six-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Cheri-Anne, was living in a home for retarded and handicapped children in Belleville, Ontario. She had been there for four years. As any parent who has suffered institutionalizing a child to a sort of "living death" will tell you, your mind never forgets, and always questions why.
I had been working in my basement one day, when I felt an overwhelming urge to go upstairs and turn on the TV. What was about to take place was one of those cosmic coincidences or connections that changed my life. I switched on the TV, and there on the screen before me was a man laying in a hypnotic state, speaking the dialect of someone from the 17th century. His diction was like that of the King James version of the Bible: he used words like "thee," "ye," and "thine." The man spoke in a monotone, yet authoritative voice. He was describing in considerable detail a person's medical condition, who incidentally was several hundred miles away.
I was mesmerized.
I proclaimed in a loud and emotional voice to my wife, "We've got to see this guy!" You see, instantly I recognized that this man was performing a psychic phenomenon, just like the famous deep trance clairvoyant, Edgar Cayce. Hope was given to me, in that instant. Looking back upon that time, I now know someone or something guided me to turn on the television at the exact time Mr. Peterson was demonstrating this intense spiritual phenomenon. In that state, Peterson was an open door to information that was not only accurate and credible, but beyond the limits of modern physicians.
Soon after, my wife, Karen, and I met with Mr. and Mrs. Peterson. It was a cold January day. The snow made a crunching sound, as we walked on it. We didn't know what to expect. Our families had chastised us, believing we were being conned. While we understood their concern, we couldn't understand why they wouldn't support our last-ditch attempt to help our seriously handicapped daughter. We were only spending money; no harm could possibly come to any of us. Truly no other medical entity that any of us knew was offering any solution (other than continued institutional care). "At least we'll know if something can be done." I said. The plight of my daughter rested in the outcome of this psychic reading. So, apparently, did the rest of my life.
Taking this risk resulted not only in Cheri-Anne returning home to the family, but it sent my life and the lives of my family on a spiritual pilgrimage that continues even to this day. Cheri-Anne's growth had been severely impeded while in the institution--from the harsh drugs that were toxifying her body, to the impatience or wilful neglect of staff to feed Cheri-Anne properly. At six-and-a-half years of age, she weighed twenty-two pounds the day we brought her home. She could not speak, walk, or even feed herself.
Cheri-Anne, for whatever reason, came into this world as a special person. She has been an inspiration to many people. She has suffered greatly, but always remains cheerful. Through this journey of self-discovery, I found a spiritual path that has indeed helped other children avoid the circumstances that Cheri-Anne endured. The entire family has gained spiritually. All the members of Cheri-Anne's family have developed some degree of their own intuitive gifts. Most importantly, the family takes our spiritual understandings in stride.
For all intents and purposes, the family is ordinary. Cheri-Anne remains somewhat crippled, but her sacrifice was not in vain. For all the thousands of people that have been helped through my readings, Cheri-Anne has always been the instigator of my spiritual work. She truly is an extra-special soul.
(article date: April 1998)