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Speaker 1: I don't try and get anybody to believe any you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't care what it's your business. For those that believe,

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Speaker 1: no proof is necessary. For those that don't know, proof

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Speaker 1: is sufficient. I can't make you believe something you don't

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Speaker 1: want to believe. I can only tell you my experience.

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Speaker 1: This is my uncle Dennis, the medium. My experiences in

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Speaker 1: reading came about because through the course of having normal

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Speaker 1: jobs working in a warehouse, drivn't know for what drop

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Speaker 1: whenever I was doing every job I had, you didn't

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Speaker 1: last they closed or I was fired, and it's thought

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Speaker 1: that I wasn't a good worker. It was just that's

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Speaker 1: the way it happened. The last job I had, which

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Speaker 1: I plan on staying are they closed. And at that

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Speaker 1: point in time, I thought to myself, you're either gonna

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Speaker 1: do something you enjoy or something you can do, or

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Speaker 1: you're going to start at the bottom wrong again. And

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Speaker 1: I just didn't want to do that. So I picked

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Speaker 1: up the Tarot deck, which I had used it a

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Speaker 1: long time, and I began to realize that, you know,

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Speaker 1: people were interesting. He learned to read tarot from his mom,

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Speaker 1: who learned from her mom, who learned from her mom

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Speaker 1: on the face they were averaged, low income New Englanders,

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Speaker 1: but in private, the family had been working as mediums, readers,

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Speaker 1: and psychics everywhere from New Age shops to tea rooms.

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Speaker 1: Sort of an old, tiny undercover way of saying New

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Speaker 1: Age shops and at one point where the Boston Police

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Speaker 1: Department cops suck, don't do that for generations. I got

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Speaker 1: to speak with my uncle Dennis a few weeks ago

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Speaker 1: while my mom was visiting him and my auntie Karen

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Speaker 1: in South Carolina. Mom's dad, my grandfather, just passed away,

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Speaker 1: and she's down there to be with them and remember

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Speaker 1: and hang out. They retired there a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 1: But Uncle Dennis Dennis Callahan, fourth generation hereditary, which according

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Speaker 1: to his website, still does do readings. He grew up

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Speaker 1: in what used to be a funeral parlor in Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: sorry funeral Paula in Massachusetts. That was mean, and he

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Speaker 1: tells me that he became sensitive to spirits, seeing, hearing,

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Speaker 1: smelling beginning around middle school age. He's carried on the

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Speaker 1: family tradition as a professional medium for decades now and

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Speaker 1: was my first connection to spiritual ideas when I was

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Speaker 1: really young. Well him in a distant aunt named Susie

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Speaker 1: who said I was cursed with negativity and wouldn't start

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Speaker 1: living until I turned thirty, which on the first point

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Speaker 1: kind of true. Second point to be determined. I'm so

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Speaker 1: fucking young and virile. But you know, my parents were

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Speaker 1: a little upset. You know, you probably shouldn't tell a

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Speaker 1: ten year old that they're cursed. I don't think it's

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Speaker 1: affected me though, Just kidding anyways, Uncle Dennis, he's a medium,

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Speaker 1: except he doesn't like that word because it comes with

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Speaker 1: all this baggage when you people's talk about being a

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Speaker 1: medium in a psychic I mean, I'm not trying to

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Speaker 1: be mean here, and I'm not saying I'm any better

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Speaker 1: than them. I'm not because there are true people out

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Speaker 1: there to do that, but very shut These people are

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Speaker 1: sort of playing on people's emotions, and that's what they do. Somebody,

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Speaker 1: you know, they lose a son because of addiction. They

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Speaker 1: want to talk to this son. They'll believe anything. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know what, you don't choose who you've talked. When

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Speaker 1: spirit comes through, you don't know who it's gonna be.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't know what you're doing, don't play

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Speaker 1: with it. It is not a game by any search

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Speaker 1: of the imagination. His current reading room has amazing light,

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Speaker 1: these green walls, a pentagram area, rug, a small table,

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Speaker 1: and his tarot cards and ruins. In a separate room

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Speaker 1: is a table full of crystal skulls in a painting

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Speaker 1: that needs to be seen to be believed. It was

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Speaker 1: made by one of his long time clients. I will

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Speaker 1: try to do it justice. It is a painting made

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Speaker 1: of my uncle looking very serious, holding a black cat

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Speaker 1: and a sword. Below him are the phases of the moon.

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Speaker 1: Beside him are a honk in crystal and a goblet.

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Speaker 1: Above him is saturned the stars, a glowing candle, and

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Speaker 1: a massive, massive ghostly angel over his left shoulder, just

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Speaker 1: arms outstretched with these big old wings and no face

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Speaker 1: at all. It's it's terrifying, it's magnificent. You gotta see

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Speaker 1: this painting anyways. Uncle Dennis was a practicing medium and

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Speaker 1: reader in Massachusetts. Could you tell that from the accent.

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Speaker 1: I've spent years getting rid of that, But he's practiced

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Speaker 1: forever there, and I'm biased in obvious ways, but I

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Speaker 1: can say with certainty that he does not abide by

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Speaker 1: anyone's rules on how living a spiritual life works other

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Speaker 1: than his own. That is to say, he talks to

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Speaker 1: ghosts but is not a member of ghost Church. And

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Speaker 1: of the mediums that I've spoken to, he's the most

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Speaker 1: openly skeptical of a lot of readers working today. Let

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Speaker 1: me show you what I mean. You know, it's like

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Speaker 1: the fake psychics. I'm I'm sensing the letter and okay,

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Speaker 1: I agree, you're a moron. Is your employment? Okay? Easily

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Speaker 1: most basic tricks that they use, and it's like that's

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Speaker 1: I used to get very amy because it's like, that's

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Speaker 1: not what I do. Okay, I'm I'm reading a story.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at these things and putting these things together

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Speaker 1: because people because they're gonna hear this and they gonna

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Speaker 1: think of terrible people are cheaping the more they don't

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Speaker 1: know how to ask a question. I would have people

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Speaker 1: coming me and go, what colored drash? Sho? I wait

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Speaker 1: to the promp. You're gonna sucking ask spiritus what colored drash?

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Speaker 1: Get away to the prom Yeah, the archangel Michael is

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Speaker 1: sitting there, going, I go with a baby blue. I

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Speaker 1: come to us. Intellectual split in the road. Pretty often,

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Speaker 1: you can believe in talking to spirit and think a

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Speaker 1: lot of people who claim to speak with spirits are

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Speaker 1: opportunistic assholes. Members of Cassadega, the spiritualist camp that I

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Speaker 1: visited this year, expressed similar views on mediumship. Part of

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Speaker 1: why the training at Cassadega is so thorough without shutting

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Speaker 1: the door to the possibility of communication. Two things have

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Speaker 1: to be true here. At best. I cannot, in good

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Speaker 1: conscience tell you that there hasn't been a shipload of

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Speaker 1: fraud in this profession. Just as and I'll keep reminding

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Speaker 1: you of this, every religion in existence is burdened with

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Speaker 1: varying degrees of frauds who are happy to exploit the

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Speaker 1: belief or vulnerability of somebody else. One thing that's very

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Speaker 1: interesting about American spiritualism to me is that it's a

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Speaker 1: religion that has existed entirely in a time of mass media.

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Speaker 1: To some degree, unlike most of the big religions, it's

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Speaker 1: a little harder to gloss over any incidents of fraud

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Speaker 1: or dubiousness because they're so well documented. It's not really

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Speaker 1: possible to say, well, yeah, everyone was on board right away,

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Speaker 1: and anyone who wasn't was probably wrong. But in spite

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Speaker 1: of the history of spiritualism, being available in the public sense.

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Speaker 1: Most of it is associated with sensation and scandal, but

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Speaker 1: it's a little harder to nail down the specifics of

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Speaker 1: what spiritualists actually believe. Yes, death is merely a transformation

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Speaker 1: of energy, but there's more than that. There's moving tables

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Speaker 1: and spirit teams and divination tools and things that aren't

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Speaker 1: immediately obvious in neat cliffs notes of their story. So

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Speaker 1: today we return to Cassadega for a gala day and

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Speaker 1: for my first spirit message service, and we check in

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Speaker 1: with the founding Fox Sisters, first brush with modern celebrity,

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Speaker 1: all before hitting the eighth grade. All right, let's get

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Speaker 1: the theme going. Actually, you know what, one more word

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Speaker 1: from my uncle Dennis. And I always tell people if

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Speaker 1: somebody was an asshole in life, they were an asshole

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Speaker 1: when they're a spirit. Okay, I'm not going to suddenly

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Speaker 1: die and be a nice person. Oh I'm dead, I'd

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Speaker 1: better be nice, Thank you, Uncle Dennis. Okay. Theme Songka.

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Speaker 1: The day I arrive at Cassadega, I am fresh off

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Speaker 1: a sleepless night spent at a Super eight on the

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Speaker 1: outskirts of Orlando that was wedged between this mini golf

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Speaker 1: course that had live baby Gators. Is that legal? I

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Speaker 1: guess it's legal. And an outlet mall where you can

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Speaker 1: buy an absolute goblin of a knockoff Mickey Mouse toy.

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Speaker 1: That's another thing about the Cassadega community that has a

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Speaker 1: clear bearing on the sorts of people who come to visit.

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Speaker 1: It's only a half hour from one of the most

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Speaker 1: synthetic tourist capitals on the planet, just an uber ride

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Speaker 1: from disney World, the kind of place that crops up

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Speaker 1: in books with ridiculous fonts that say weird floor and

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Speaker 1: attract curious families on a budget between draining financially punishing

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Speaker 1: days at corporate theme parks. Now, Cassadega pre dates all

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Speaker 1: of this Floridian excess. It was first founded in eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety four to disney Worlds seventy one, but there's no

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Speaker 1: denying that in the current sense it exists in the

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Speaker 1: same financial ecosystem as the cursed mini mall you can

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Speaker 1: buy a t shirt at that says tinker Bell is

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Speaker 1: My Home girl. Oh my God. And this is one

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Speaker 1: of the main differences between Cassadega and their sister camp

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Speaker 1: in lily Dale, New York, which was founded in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventies in the Rochester and Buffalo area and the

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Speaker 1: same camp where the Fox House was relocated as a

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Speaker 1: historical monument for a time before, like most spiritualist landmarks do,

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Speaker 1: for some reason, it burned down under mysterious circumstances. The

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Speaker 1: lily Dale Camp is its own organization, but is very

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Speaker 1: close to Cassadega and how it operates. Mediums live on site,

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Speaker 1: they provide session ends and hold services. They often attract

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Speaker 1: upstate New Yorkers on weekend trips, but not quite the

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Speaker 1: tourist ilk that their southern sister camp does. Cassadega exists

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Speaker 1: in an area of infinity tourists in an area where

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Speaker 1: there's pretty low oversight as it pertains to uh COVID safety.

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Speaker 1: Remember this is the land of Governor Ron De Santis

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Speaker 1: and an environmental climate where they can be open year

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Speaker 1: round where they often called lily Dale can't. On the

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Speaker 1: Sunday I get to Cassadega. The mediums are exhausted. The

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Speaker 1: previous day was their quarterly Gala Day, a fundraising event

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Speaker 1: where camp mediums and community members give talks on their

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Speaker 1: area of expertise and provide quick readings on the sidelines

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Speaker 1: to raise money and keep the camp open. When I

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Speaker 1: tell you this is not a religion of means, I'm

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Speaker 1: not kidding. This event raised them about six thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: and they're over the moon about it. I mean they're

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Speaker 1: struggling to keep their post office open. It all feel

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Speaker 1: very Mickey Rooney, let's go in a barn and save

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Speaker 1: the local whatever kind of vibe. I wasn't able to attend,

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Speaker 1: but I do watch all of these Gala Day talks

185
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Speaker 1: on Zoom on the bus from Tallahassee, and two mediums

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Speaker 1: talks stand out to me in particular, in part because

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Speaker 1: they have kind of the same old man boomer haircut,

188
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Speaker 1: but also because the ideas that they're expressing are completely

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Speaker 1: abstract and yet important to spiritualism. I want to tell

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Speaker 1: you about them. The first is by Reverend Dr Don Zangi,

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Speaker 1: presenting a talk called Being Awareness. Reverend Dr Don is

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Speaker 1: another long time cassadegga convert sharing more than a name

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Speaker 1: with a main cast member of the show Oz. Yes,

194
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Speaker 1: I did pick that up, Like what but anyways, Reverend

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Speaker 1: Doctor Don Zanki approaches the podium in a dan flash

196
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Speaker 1: is great print, just an absolute dizzying vomit of patterns,

197
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Speaker 1: and he also wears this Indiana Jones hat, reminding everyone

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Speaker 1: that he'll be preaching tomorrow as well. A lot of

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Speaker 1: his students are there. Don's students seem more fervent and

200
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Speaker 1: loyal than any other group that I see on the campgrounds,

201
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Speaker 1: and he's got one of the nicer houses that a

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Speaker 1: medium lives into. That's something that I come to know.

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Speaker 1: You need to be a member of the community to

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Speaker 1: own a house in the area, which requires not only

205
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Speaker 1: the training, but approval from the board. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of things that involve approval from the board, including uh me.

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Speaker 1: Some of the houses in Cassadega are in pretty bad

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Speaker 1: shape because mediums don't make a ton of money for

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Speaker 1: people who are consistently labeled as capitalist frauds. But the

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Speaker 1: Reverend Doctor Don's house is tall, it's bright purple, It's

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Speaker 1: got this golden metallic sun hanging on the side. It's

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Speaker 1: bigger than most of the houses, more inviting, and again

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Speaker 1: constantly open to and brimming with students. He's also extremely

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Speaker 1: influenced by Eastern specifically Indian spiritual teachings, and has increa

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Speaker 1: recently tied this into his own curriculum. Yes, he is

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Speaker 1: an old white guy and today he is talking to

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Speaker 1: us about being awareness. He is a character. Today we're

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Speaker 1: talking about what awareness and consciousness is. Awareness or consciousness

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Speaker 1: is everything seen or unseen, he tells us, gesturing to

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Speaker 1: the crowd and telling us how to access the divine

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Speaker 1: within us, spirit that exists in us. You know, spiritualists

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Speaker 1: believe in God sort of, but not that judgmental, punitive

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Speaker 1: God that most of them grew up with. They believe

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Speaker 1: in a loving and forgiving God who moves the energy

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Speaker 1: of spirit around the earth and through us all. So

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Speaker 1: how do we access it? It strays into a combination

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Speaker 1: of Eastern, Western and Gwyneth Paltrow e philosophy. It's about

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Speaker 1: ditching the ego of the lower self and accessing the

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Speaker 1: egoists present higher self. Reverend Dr Don says, your lower

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Speaker 1: consciousness ego personality is living in the three dimen sational

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Speaker 1: world and has nothing to do with the divine within you.

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Speaker 1: He's extremely charismatic, and I had to know who he

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Speaker 1: was before he came to Cassadega. He's got a weird

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Speaker 1: journey and not saying something here. Don ZENI first learned

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Speaker 1: about Spiritualism at the lily Dale Camp. Zangi is from

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Speaker 1: the Buffalo area himself, and he had worked locally at

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Speaker 1: the Zoo in the Museum of Science before starting a

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Speaker 1: longer career at the Eric County Juvenile Detention Center. Being

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Speaker 1: around troubled youth motivated Zenki to found a martial arts

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Speaker 1: and self defense school, with the idea being that kids

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Speaker 1: needed a way to get out physical anger and aggression

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Speaker 1: in a controlled space with discipline and structure. This was

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Speaker 1: a huge success and he had two schools with hundreds

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Speaker 1: of students and to this day is in the Black

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Speaker 1: Belt Hall of Fame of Filipino Martial Arts in Manila

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Speaker 1: in the Philippines. Just a quick aside, yes, this reverend

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Speaker 1: doctor is also a sense and we just need to

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Speaker 1: accept that. Okay. Let that in since a dawn and

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Speaker 1: become reverend doctor down And on one night in he

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Speaker 1: went to a Spiritualist message service in lily Dale, the

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Speaker 1: same kind of service that I would be attending in Cassadega.

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Speaker 1: At each message service, mediums approached the podium, point at

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Speaker 1: someone in the crowd and give them a message from

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Speaker 1: spirit right on the spot. It's pretty incredible, especially when

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Speaker 1: it's done by someone as charismatic as Reverend Doctor down

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Speaker 1: when really since dawn, Like many in his generation, he'd

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Speaker 1: been raised Roman Catholic, but spiritualism spoke to him and

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Speaker 1: he found himself in Cassadega by and never laughed up

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Speaker 1: until recently. The Reverend Doctor has run Sunday lyceums in Cassadega,

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Speaker 1: essentially an adult Sunday school for spiritualists that he curated

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Speaker 1: guest speakers for anyone can attend for free, and all

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Speaker 1: of the lessons and talks are on YouTube, and the

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Speaker 1: curation reflected Don zaying Ki's journey as well. Topics included spiritualism,

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Speaker 1: comparative religions, natural law, and parapsychology, and touched on Zangi's

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Speaker 1: transformative experiences meeting in Indian guru named Satpaul G. Maharaj

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Speaker 1: who visited Cassadega in two thousand and eight and profoundly

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Speaker 1: affected the sense A. Reverend Doctor zank You went on

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Speaker 1: to become a devotee of the Guru and has visited Egypt,

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Speaker 1: India and Machu Picchu since, and he still remains a

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Speaker 1: major proponent of incorporating more Eastern ideas into spiritualism as

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Speaker 1: it exists today. When he took a step back from

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Speaker 1: lyceum in to focus on his classes, he told a

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Speaker 1: local paper this our group is not a religion again,

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Speaker 1: it's the teachings and experiences from what all religions have risen.

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Speaker 1: I find that the teachings of spiritualism and the teachings

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Speaker 1: of the Guru are not incompatible to me. They are

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Speaker 1: part of greater whole. His students, both in Cassadega and

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Speaker 1: at a nearby ashram where they could sit for a

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Speaker 1: weekend sat song where one listens to truth teachings, are

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Speaker 1: all about Reverend Dr Don. This man is so fast,

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Speaker 1: like does he ever wear his black belt during class?

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Speaker 1: I have so many questions, but Don Zangy is too

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Speaker 1: busy telling me about being awareness. His advice is rooted

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Speaker 1: in spiritualism, but it's basically a rehash of that billion

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Speaker 1: dollar piece of advice, be fucking present for once in

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Speaker 1: your life and develop a deeper understanding of consciousness. Man

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Speaker 1: Zangy expands on this by using a Hindu philosophical term

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Speaker 1: called turia, a phrase which here means pure consciousness. He

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Speaker 1: closes by saying, all right, you're awake, well, maybe I

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Speaker 1: put you to sleep, but you're awake, and that is

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Speaker 1: the cult of Reverend Doctor Sense don ZANGI. Another talk

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Speaker 1: I heard at Gala Day was their keynote speaker, another

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Speaker 1: Reverend Doctor Philip DeLong. I'll encounter Reverend Dr Phil again

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Speaker 1: during my stay at Cassadega in a class called Healing

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Speaker 1: one oh one that he was kind enough to let

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Speaker 1: me drop in on at Pastor Debs suggestion. But the

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Speaker 1: first time I hear him speak, he's talking about my

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Speaker 1: spirit team. This is a concept that has actually gone

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Speaker 1: kind of mainstream. You can find it in those YouTube

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Speaker 1: videos I love watching. But it's also a little weird

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Speaker 1: and a little abstract. Your spirit guides are well, I

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Speaker 1: had no idea. There's certainly plenty of groundwork that's been

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Speaker 1: laid here for the concept throughout centuries of religion, but

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Speaker 1: the notion is actually kind of specific here. It reminds

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Speaker 1: me a little of how in scientology you eventually learned

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Speaker 1: that there's aliens. Except this is spiritualism, and so they're

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Speaker 1: not keeping anything from you. Your spirit team is just

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Speaker 1: as normal a concept to them as standing and singing

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Speaker 1: him on a Sunday. Reverend Dr Phil doesn't have the

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Speaker 1: huge personality that Reverend Dr Don does. He's a little shyer,

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Speaker 1: more soft oaken, still with an old man hat, but

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Speaker 1: has a low gray ponytail and a soft voice. He

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Speaker 1: has a full hour to talk to us and wants

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Speaker 1: to use us to tell us how to meet our

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Speaker 1: spirit guides. He shares a little bit about his journey

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Speaker 1: to spiritualism. He had a near death experience that pulled

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Speaker 1: him into the religion. He is something called a crystal

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Speaker 1: skull caretaker. He grew up Catholic. He was formally ordained

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Speaker 1: by the International Association of Metaphysics. This is all very

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Speaker 1: interesting to me, but what I'm more curious about is

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Speaker 1: what people did before they became spiritualists, something that he

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Speaker 1: is a little less worthcoming about than others I talked to.

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Speaker 1: Reverend Doctor Phil tells us that there are extremely specific

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Speaker 1: categories of spirit guides to learn from. Our guides are

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Speaker 1: with us all the time, but the Reverend Doctor tells

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Speaker 1: us that they do not interfere with our free will.

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Speaker 1: There is the master Guide, the spiritual Guide, the emotional guide,

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Speaker 1: and the mental guide. Reverend Doctor Phil says this we

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Speaker 1: appoint them, but it is all toward our spiritual development

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Speaker 1: how we treat our guides, and it is very powerful

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Speaker 1: how you treat your guide. So okay, it's most important

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Speaker 1: to meet your master guide first. I default to what

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Speaker 1: I think of as a master which is a woman

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Speaker 1: who is a little taller than me and clothes that

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Speaker 1: fit her really well, and she has like this spine

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Speaker 1: that looks good from every angle. When I think of

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Speaker 1: master guide, I think of a woman who can really

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Speaker 1: really pull off a hat, a woman who would not

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Speaker 1: have spoken to me in high school. But Reverend Dr

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Speaker 1: Phil says that the master guide is actually a very

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Speaker 1: specific vision. Your master guide, he says, will appear to

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Speaker 1: you in a cape. A cape, but okay, a spirit

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Speaker 1: in a cape without exception. They got to be wearing

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Speaker 1: a cape and they're your master guide. Reverend Doctor Phil

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Speaker 1: says this, some of you will be scared when you

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Speaker 1: first see this guide, but remember, fear is the opposite

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Speaker 1: of love. I promise myself I will not fear the

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Speaker 1: spirit in the cape when he comes. No way, everyone

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Speaker 1: has a master teacher, and every master teacher has mastered

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Speaker 1: life and death. The next guide that we're introduced to

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Speaker 1: is our doctor guide. When he refers to as the physician.

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Speaker 1: This is the spirit guide that looks over your physical health.

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Speaker 1: This guide is counterbalanced by the material doctor or the philosopher.

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Speaker 1: This guide oversees our career and finances, and we call

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Speaker 1: upon them to direct our decision making and blending our

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Speaker 1: spiritual and personal lives. Essentially the vibes doctor. I would

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Speaker 1: love to get in touch with the vibes doctor because

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Speaker 1: my life is so funked up right now. The material

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Speaker 1: doctor is the guy who handles all the law of

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Speaker 1: attraction stuff the secret. But Reverend Dr Phil warns us,

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Speaker 1: don't be too specific in your manifestations or you'll always

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Speaker 1: be disappointed and get your material doctor's ass. And a

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Speaker 1: little twist, and he mentioned a karma teacher. I'm paraphrasing

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Speaker 1: here because the spiritualists in CASCADEGA were not able to

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Speaker 1: export this zoom call like they said they could because

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Speaker 1: they are old and they live in Florida. But Reverend

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Speaker 1: Dr Phil says something like this instant karma does not exist.

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Speaker 1: Forgiveness plays a part in the lesson the Karma teacher gives,

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Speaker 1: and it's here that he moves to an element of

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Speaker 1: spiritualism and the spirit team that I take the most

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Speaker 1: issue with the concept of the Native American or a

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Speaker 1: Native protector guide. This is one of the most major

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Speaker 1: red flags of spiritualist rhetoric that hasn't changed at all

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Speaker 1: in the over century and a half that the religion

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Speaker 1: has existed, and it's a topic that I'll be getting

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Speaker 1: into in much further detail in future episodes. In short,

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Speaker 1: this majority white religion frequently invokes images of a blend

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Speaker 1: of tropes that are levied against Indigenous Americans as guides

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Speaker 1: and magical beings intended to guide them a white colonizer

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Speaker 1: and assumed protagonist. Given that there is a notable lack

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Speaker 1: of Indigenous members of the religion and that Cassadega itself

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Speaker 1: exists on seminal ground, this is tone deafness at best,

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Speaker 1: an act of perpetuation of stereotypes at the expense of

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Speaker 1: the Indigenous community. At worst, It's worth mentioning that the

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Speaker 1: volume of Indigenous imagery that American spiritualism invokes at Cassadega

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Speaker 1: never references the violence committed toward that same community on

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Speaker 1: the ground where spiritualism now struggles to survive. And we

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Speaker 1: will be circling back to this in more depth and

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Speaker 1: future episodes. But I mean my God. Reverend Dr Phil

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Speaker 1: does expand the idea of a native teacher to be

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Speaker 1: a spirit from anyone's country of origin. He said that

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Speaker 1: if you are from England, this could be a druid

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Speaker 1: spirit or a Viking, and on and on, and it's

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Speaker 1: this guide's duty to be a protective guide or to

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Speaker 1: give you strength and quote courage to speak the spoken

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Speaker 1: truth unquote, as well as healing. More indigenous tropes pop

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Speaker 1: up here. He says that quote, they are close to nature.

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Speaker 1: They work with the plant, animal, and mineral kingdom, and

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Speaker 1: they use animal guides and totems unquote. He arbitrarily says

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Speaker 1: that you can have as many as nine spirits with

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Speaker 1: you at a time, and I'm starting to honestly get

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Speaker 1: claustrophobic to think of this many ghosts in a room

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Speaker 1: with me at any given time. He takes a moment

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Speaker 1: here to address the idea of spirit guides conceptually and

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Speaker 1: how they might chafe with tenets of other religions, especially

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Speaker 1: the Catholicism he grew up with. He said that he

407
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Speaker 1: grew up with an imaginary friend who he later learned

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Speaker 1: was a spirit guide, a little boy named and plays

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Speaker 1: bear with me here Tommy Tommy chustle Fire, who immigrated

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Speaker 1: from England to the United States and the mid eighteen

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Speaker 1: hundreds and was both kidnapped and raised by an indigenous tribe.

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Speaker 1: I just so Tommy, Tommy chessel Fire returned to Phil

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Speaker 1: as a crystal guide. And my head is about to

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Speaker 1: explode hearing this weird racist story. When Reverend Dr Phil

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Speaker 1: drops another bomb and says that one of his spirit

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Speaker 1: guides is JP Morgan. Like the something interesting is that

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Speaker 1: the more I get used to spending time with spiritualists,

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Speaker 1: I hear one hundred things like this a day that

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Speaker 1: removed my brain from my spinal cord. He said that

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Speaker 1: his spirit guide was JP Morgan and doesn't give anyone

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to ask a single question and to round

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Speaker 1: them off. You've got your nurse guide and your joy guide,

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Speaker 1: and mercifully, that's the whole team. That's a that's a

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Speaker 1: lot of guys. The Master and the physician are your

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Speaker 1: most important guides. But holy sh it, that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of guides. But the Reverend Doctor isn't just there to

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00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: tell us who these guides are. His speech is on

428
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: how to work with them. He guides us through this

429
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: fifteen minute guided meditation to meet someone. Taking us through

430
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: a pretty standard meditation, You're filled with divine light and

431
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 1: close your eyes and walk down to a dune beach

432
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: where you're joined by your spirit animal. You walk to

433
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,159
Speaker 1: the beach and your spirit guide pops out of a fire.

434
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: You ask them a question, they give you an answer,

435
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 1: and I'm happy to play along with this. I close

436
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: my eyes, I go down to the beach and I

437
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 1: see my grandma and the fire. I asked her how

438
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: she is, and in my mind she looks so happy

439
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 1: and very beautiful. She asks me how my dad is,

440
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: and I say he's good. And then Reverend Dr Phil

441
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: instructs the spirit guide to go back into the flame

442
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 1: on the beach that doesn't exist, and so she does.

443
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: The meditation has you walk away from the beach, back

444
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: up the stairs and into the temple. You open your

445
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: eyes and Reverend Dr Phil says to keep talking to

446
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:06,199
Speaker 1: our spirit guides. Ask them questions and be patient and

447
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: observant as they answer them over the course of weeks

448
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: and months. He says, to ask them for what you want.

449
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,479
Speaker 1: He says, to ask them what their names are, and

450
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,520
Speaker 1: for all of the freaky, weird stuff and the Tommy

451
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 1: Tommy Chestil fire and the JP Morgan of it all.

452
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 1: That night I put my feet on the ground and

453
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: ask my freaky caped master spirit what their name is

454
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 1: before going to sleep in the chlorine stained sheets of

455
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,159
Speaker 1: a Super eight in Orlando. I'm going to drink the

456
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:49,480
Speaker 1: kool aid. All right, We are vaulting back in time.

457
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 1: We're getting into our little hot tub time machine, people,

458
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 1: and we're going back to where the first spiritualists, as

459
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: it were. The Fox sisters are two mediums. Kate Fox

460
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: middle schooler and Maggie Fox high schooler, are met with

461
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: their eldest thirtysomething sister, Leah Fox, who's just arrived at

462
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: the family home where her siblings are said to be

463
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: speaking with spirits. By April of eighteen forty eight, things

464
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: had really started to pop off in Hydesville, New York.

465
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,080
Speaker 1: Every day Maggie and Kate would bring through new information

466
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: from the spirit doing the wrappings. It claimed to be

467
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: the spirit of a shoe peddler killed over the five

468
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: dollars to his name, and these answers started to yield

469
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 1: day after day information that reflected the house's previous tenant.

470
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: So there had been a renter of the Fox Home

471
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: named John Bell, just as the spirit had said, The

472
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: spirit revealed that his name was either Charles b Rosna

473
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: or Rosma, depending on the source, and for the record,

474
00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: Charles b Rosna or Rosma has never been confirmed as

475
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: e sting at least by this name. It said that

476
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: John Bell had once hired a shoe peddler, but for

477
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: your reference, a Rosma never materialized in official records, But

478
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: locals were captivated by him, and it's not surprising why

479
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 1: the majority of people assembled at the Fox Home would

480
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 1: have had a lot in common with Charles Rosna Rosma.

481
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: They were working class people themselves, often subjected to the

482
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: John Bell's of the world, getting fucked over by those

483
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 1: with more money than they had. What was unfortunate, and

484
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: would become one of spiritualism's first real ethical knots, was

485
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: that John Bell was a real person who was being

486
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: accused of murder by a spirit whose name no one

487
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: could verify as a person who would ever existed. Later

488
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 1: in her life, Maggie Fox reflected on this in a

489
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: book written by Harry Houdini. Did I mention that Harry Houdini,

490
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: the world most famous magician, would later develop a vested

491
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: interest in disproving spiritual is um did I mention that

492
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 1: he did that because he had an even more vested

493
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: interest in undercutting the work of his former best friend,

494
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,959
Speaker 1: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, before you start banging your

495
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: head against the table, is indeed the author of Sherlock Holmes,

496
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 1: because yeah, man, spiritualism is real. Weird. We haven't even

497
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: gotten to the part where Frederick Douglas shows up. But

498
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,959
Speaker 1: Maggie Fox describes this first week of visits later in life,

499
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: deflecting a little bit and saying that the discovery of

500
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: John Bell was completely a notion of her neighbors. The

501
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: firsthand accounts at the time chafed with this a little bit,

502
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: but as you'll continue to learn, everyone's got their own story. Here,

503
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: Maggie says, quote, they the neighbors, were convinced that someone

504
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: had been murdered in the house. They asked the spirits

505
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: through us about it, and we would wrap one for

506
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,720
Speaker 1: the spirit answer yes, not three, as we did. Afterward.

507
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,120
Speaker 1: The murder, they concluded, must have been committed in the house.

508
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: They went over the whole surrounding country trying to get

509
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 1: the names of people who had formerly lived in the house.

510
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: Finally they found a man by the name of Bell,

511
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: and they said that this poor innocent man had committed

512
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 1: a murder in the house, and that the noises had

513
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: come from a spirit of the murdered person. Poor Bell

514
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 1: was shunned and looked upon by the whole community as

515
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: a murderer unquote. Tough break for John Bell, but there

516
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: were many in the community that discredited the Fox sisters

517
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: from the start for this reason alone. But the draw

518
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: of spirit was too much for most people to ignore.

519
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 1: By the time their sister Leah arrived in the first

520
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: week of April, hundreds were coming to the Fox home

521
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: every day to witness the wrappings, in a move that

522
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 1: was foreshadow where American spiritualism was headed. The neighbors wanted

523
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: to know more from the spirit than what had happened

524
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 1: to the deceased. They wanted to know about themselves or

525
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 1: confirmed things about the great beyond that they already knew

526
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 1: or wished was true. This would eventually evolved into people

527
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 1: seeking out they're dead in particular, but in these first weeks,

528
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 1: Hidesville neighbors were happy to quiz Charles Rosna Rosma on

529
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: the specifics of their own lives. Communicating with the Spirit

530
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: became a bizarrow community building activity. Neighbors would quiz the

531
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: Spirit on how many children, they had, how old they were,

532
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: their full names. They were almost definitely learning about each

533
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,080
Speaker 1: other as the Spirit relaid the information. The questions were

534
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: yes or no at first, but the girls quickly developed

535
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: a somewhat more sophisticated system, with the Spirit having it wrap.

536
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 1: When certain letters were called, the Spirit attempted to lead

537
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: a neighbor with a candle to the seller where they

538
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: were buried, but digging hadn't begun before Margaret took the

539
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 1: girls from the house for good, going to their neighbor's

540
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 1: house for their own protection. During this time, the Spirit

541
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: also made its religious leanings known. It made no noise

542
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: when asked if it believed in the Universalist doctrine, then

543
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: made a strong noise when asked about Methodism. It may

544
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: not be a coincidence that Maggie and Kate's father, John,

545
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: was a devoted Methodist. A week after the girls first

546
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,839
Speaker 1: called their mom to their room, half the population of

547
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,839
Speaker 1: Arcadia County, a few hundred people came to the Hydesville

548
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: house one night. It was the Fox sister's first big crowd,

549
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: but definitely not their last. The immediate community tried to

550
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: guard the house and its spiritual integrity, all of a

551
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 1: week old, from the masses that wanted to go inside

552
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 1: and ask the spirit questions. At this time, Maggie and

553
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,880
Speaker 1: Kate were surrounded by the spectrum of what it could

554
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 1: mean to be a woman in a time where the

555
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: definition of women in society was changing. In one sense,

556
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:48,800
Speaker 1: they were about to bear witness to the Seneca Falls

557
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 1: Convention and the fight for women's right going mainstream. On

558
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: the other end, there was still the reality of day

559
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: to day. Their options were to get married like their

560
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 1: sisters Elizabeth than Maria had. They could work in one

561
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: of these new fangled factories, or they could become a

562
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 1: teacher in the way that their oldest sister Leah had

563
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: to support herself and her daughter. Back at the house,

564
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: Maggie and Kid's older brother David took charge of continuing

565
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: the investigation of where Charles Rosma's spirit claimed his body

566
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,800
Speaker 1: was buried. After digging three feet, he hit an underground stream,

567
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: stalling progress and tried for days to get further, but

568
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 1: weren't really able to. Even as the crowds of hundreds

569
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: continued to show up, and show up, and show up.

570
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: Mary Redford, the neighbor, now convinced of the spirit's authenticity,

571
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: started asking it bigger questions. Still, She told the local

572
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: reporter that she quote asked if there was a heaven

573
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 1: to attain and got three raps unquote, an affirmative from

574
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,839
Speaker 1: the spirit and an interesting one, as this would be

575
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 1: significantly course corrected in the years to come, as it's

576
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 1: understood now spiritualists fully in they continuity of life and

577
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: not a Christian heaven or hell. Still, the neighbor received

578
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: a different answer and pressed the spirit on what had

579
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: become of a child who she'd lost. Almost right away,

580
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: the locals were more invested in their own stories than

581
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,239
Speaker 1: what happened to some random shoe peddler who may or

582
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,279
Speaker 1: may not have existed five years ago, and the shoe

583
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: peddler spirit was happy to oblige. The community continued to

584
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 1: attempt to identify where the wrappings were coming from, and

585
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 1: many suspected fraud. By April twelve, local papers were fully

586
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: engaged in the sensation. A paper called The Western Argus reported, quote,

587
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,919
Speaker 1: the good people of Arcadia, we learn, are in quite

588
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 1: a fever in consequence of the discovery of an underground

589
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,879
Speaker 1: ghost or some unaccountable noise. Picks and bats were at

590
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 1: once brought into requisition, and on digging down about four feet,

591
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 1: a stream of pure water gushed forth and filled the

592
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 1: ghost hole unquote, not the ghost hole. The room where

593
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: the spirits were wrapping in the Fox house remained dark,

594
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,319
Speaker 1: and Maggie and Kate remained on the bed where they

595
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,760
Speaker 1: had first called their mother. Their family physician was summoned

596
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:13,839
Speaker 1: to the house by their father when Kate was said

597
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: to have gotten sick, at which point the doctor reported

598
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: that there had been quote great commotion in the room

599
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,879
Speaker 1: of his patient, snapping, cracking noises all about the bed.

600
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: As fast as he changed places, the raps would do

601
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: the same unquote. He also mentions that he thought that

602
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 1: Kate maybe quote, in some way manipulating the joints or

603
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 1: muscles of the fingers, toes and knees unquote, put a

604
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:41,800
Speaker 1: pin in that or a bone crack. Manifesting spirit wraps

605
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: by dislocating their joints and muscles is a charge that

606
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,880
Speaker 1: will haunt the Fox sisters, unbeknownst to them now, for

607
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: the next forty years of their life, and will haunt

608
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: the religion until right now. But even with light pushback

609
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,880
Speaker 1: from local residents and press, the local interest in the

610
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: sisters and their spirit rappings steadily increased and gained credibility.

611
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: When the family who had lived in the house before

612
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: the Fox family came forward with similar charges, they told

613
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 1: the press they had also heard the raps. Local reporter E. E.

614
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 1: Lewis writes, quote, hundreds have been there. Skeptics have first

615
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: carefully examined the premises, have gone into the ghostly presence,

616
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: still incredulous and disposed to treat the affair with levity,

617
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 1: have held converse with the unknown one until the cold

618
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,720
Speaker 1: sweat oozing from every poor has coursed down their limbs,

619
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: and they have been compelled to acknowledge that they felt

620
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,959
Speaker 1: themselves in the presence of one from the spirit country unquote.

621
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: For good measure, he included a petition signed by more

622
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: than forty of the real life John Bell's supporters, who

623
00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: insisted that he was not a murderer. But for all

624
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 1: his thorough work, one thing Lewis never did was interview

625
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 1: Maggie or Kate Fox. Barbara Weisberg in her biography, it

626
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: mentions an interesting through line about the Fox women, that

627
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: being that they suffered from intense migraines their whole lives.

628
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:09,320
Speaker 1: Some suggest this led to an increased sensitivity to the supernatural,

629
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 1: and others had other opinions, but Wiseberg says that this

630
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 1: manifests as a quote pain that can create a sense

631
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,760
Speaker 1: of standing outside oneself, of not being oneself but another

632
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 1: person altogether unquote. Leah arrived and witnessed her youngest siblings

633
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 1: working with spirit and saw how terrified her parents were

634
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,280
Speaker 1: and how her brother David was struggling to hold everything together.

635
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 1: She suggested that the girls be separated. She would take

636
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: Kate back to Rochester and Maggie would remain in Hydesville,

637
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 1: and they would see if the spirit followed. It did

638
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:49,360
Speaker 1: follow them both. By the end of summer eight, the

639
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:52,359
Speaker 1: Fox sisters were notorious and had already left their father

640
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 1: back in Hydesville, beginning to entangle with the progressive literati

641
00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 1: of Rochester. They were considered extraordinary, potentially leaders of science

642
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: or religion, or both, and they were young women forging

643
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: their own weird path in a way that may not

644
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: have been possible even ten or fifteen years before. And

645
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: Leah kind or fifteen years older saw her younger sisters,

646
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: saw the changing times, and saw an opportunity. All it

647
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: was going to take was one little white lie to

648
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,279
Speaker 1: get the girls on board, and that lie was that

649
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:41,240
Speaker 1: everything was going to be okay, okay. Back to the present,

650
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:46,719
Speaker 1: or I guess the recent post past services in Cassadega

651
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 1: take place at Colby Temple, named for the camp's founder.

652
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 1: Colby Temple is the five billionth thing to be named

653
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: for the formal founder of Spiritualism. A big beige cement

654
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 1: in wood church with the same wooden cabin interior that

655
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: defines every camp building. It was first built shortly after

656
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 1: the camp was established, at first an octagonal building where

657
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:14,319
Speaker 1: Colby himself, a well known trans medium, would conduct services

658
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: and seances. This was later rebuilt into the pale sand

659
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 1: brick structure it is today not too pretty from the outside,

660
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,400
Speaker 1: but has a cozy congregational church vibe on the inside.

661
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:29,239
Speaker 1: There are about forty people at the service on the

662
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: morning I attend, and we're handed the same Xerox programs,

663
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:36,960
Speaker 1: blue hardcover hymnals and sit in the same creaky pews

664
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,439
Speaker 1: as boomers talk too loudly that I associate the church

665
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 1: I went to as a kid, but of course there

666
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,399
Speaker 1: are differences. Healing is already taking place in the back

667
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,759
Speaker 1: of the church when I sit alone with my program

668
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 1: and my hymnal. There are a number of students from

669
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 1: the community who will be evaluated on their healing performance,

670
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,439
Speaker 1: and they're all lined up as those attending service sit

671
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: with their eyes closed. A healing looks like someone slowly

672
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 1: waving their hands methodically energy healing while the recipient reacts

673
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 1: everywhere from nervous twitching, not being sold on it, or

674
00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 1: appearing deeply meditative and healed. Depending on what they write

675
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: on the little yellow slips they'll be handed for the

676
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 1: complimentary service afterward, a student could get one step closer

677
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:32,800
Speaker 1: or further from being recognized as a Cassadega healer, the

678
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: process that takes about three years. I flipped through the

679
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: program and I'm shocked at how familiar it is to

680
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: the services I grew up attending. There is an invocation.

681
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 1: There are candle slit for mind, body, and Spirit. Instead

682
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I mean health. The

683
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:54,920
Speaker 1: ceremony opens with a singing of Amazing Grace, a moment

684
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: for the spiritualist hymnel. It is this fascinating blend of

685
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:00,799
Speaker 1: Christian hymns that do not reference have for nor health,

686
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,440
Speaker 1: the two things spiritualism does not recognize. But you'd be

687
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,359
Speaker 1: surprised there's a lot of diet Christianity at play here.

688
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 1: The service frequently invokes Jesus in the context of being

689
00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:14,680
Speaker 1: a great spiritual healer. It does not shy away from

690
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 1: the Christian hits, but it also sprinkles in a number

691
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: of Spiritualist hymn originals that lean more heavily on the

692
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: idea of the religion, specifically lines like y oh boy,

693
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: the singing is the singing is running the service today.

694
00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,920
Speaker 1: Is the first person I spoke with connected with Cassadaga,

695
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 1: Pastor Debt, who encouraged me to visit the camp in

696
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: spite of my not being quite cleared by the press

697
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 1: board yet, and whose kindness extends through my trip and

698
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:15,280
Speaker 1: into the present. She is very, very familiar and kind

699
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,239
Speaker 1: in person. She wears a cross around her neck, she

700
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: has these gold bauble earrings, short haircut, long blue navy sleeves.

701
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,480
Speaker 1: Very pastoral. You know, you can tell she grew up

702
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: Christian and you can tell that she very, very firmly

703
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 1: believes in spiritualism. At the front of the room. She

704
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: leads us in a hallmark of a spiritualist church ritual,

705
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:41,319
Speaker 1: a moment in which the congregation recites the tenets of

706
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,800
Speaker 1: the church, which explains the core ideas of the religion

707
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 1: more clearly than I ever could on my own. So

708
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: let's let them explain themselves. We recite in unison. We

709
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:56,720
Speaker 1: believe in intelligence. We believe that the phenomenon of nature,

710
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 1: both physical and spiritual, or the expression non infinite intelligence.

711
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:06,719
Speaker 1: We affirm that a correct understanding of such expression, and

712
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 1: living in importance therewith, constitutes true religion. We affirm that

713
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:18,080
Speaker 1: the existence and personal identity of the individual continue to change.

714
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 1: Called death, we affirm that communication with the so called

715
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 1: dead is capt scientifically proven by the phenomena of spiritualism.

716
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 1: We believe that the highest morality is contained in the

717
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 1: Golden Room. Whatsoever he would that others should do unto you,

718
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 1: do you also unto them. We affirm the moral responsibility

719
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,839
Speaker 1: of the individual, and that he makes his own happiness

720
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 1: or unhappiness as he obeys or disobeys nature's physical and spirituals.

721
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,759
Speaker 1: We affirmed that the doorway in a reformation is never

722
00:45:55,840 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: closed against any human soul. Here or hereafter we have

723
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 1: for recepts of prophecy and healing, invading the Bible our

724
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 1: divine attributes through mediumship. Then we read the prayer of

725
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 1: spiritual healing from the back of our hymnal because, in

726
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 1: another nod to Christianity, spiritualists do remote healing for congregation

727
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:23,640
Speaker 1: members who expressed interest, in the same way that Christians

728
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:29,120
Speaker 1: often pray remotely, especially during COVID times. I request healing

729
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: from my immediate family who I love, and for my

730
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:36,760
Speaker 1: haters who are very lost. Healers sanitize their hands between

731
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,800
Speaker 1: healings while the rest of us are guided by Pastor

732
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: Dub in a guided meditation. Her voice is calming, assured,

733
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:47,680
Speaker 1: bringing energy in and out as a body. As a

734
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 1: dull music plays in the background, the vague humming of

735
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:57,320
Speaker 1: something spiritual happening. We sing another hymn and it's rough

736
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 1: spiritualists or not singers or organists, but it brings us

737
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: to the speaker of the day. It's your boy, Reverend

738
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,719
Speaker 1: Dr don Zangi. He has Pastor deb drop into his

739
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 1: intro that yes, he's been to Machu Picchu, okay, And

740
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,560
Speaker 1: he takes the podium and yet another incredible outfit. My

741
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: man's wearing a black sweat band around his bald head.

742
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,399
Speaker 1: My son says, got a cross around his neck. He's

743
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 1: wearing a purple button down. He's got a burgundeed pastor

744
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: quote whatever this is called the draping thing unquote. I'll

745
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: let him explain himself. So we talked about spiritualism. That's

746
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:40,080
Speaker 1: such a big subject. The characteristics of spiritualism go back

747
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:46,240
Speaker 1: way before when consciousness first dawned on humans. They starting

748
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:49,719
Speaker 1: to realize themselves as humans. They realized that there were

749
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: something bigger than themselves, and today we call it spiritualism.

750
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 1: So yes, I've been here a long time. As long

751
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: as Jerry and I came here. I'd like to say

752
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:04,120
Speaker 1: it was a blame slate. I'm not even sure I

753
00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,879
Speaker 1: wasn't a slate and know nothing about anhing. We're all

754
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: seeking something higher and better than ourselves, and for many

755
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 1: of us, it starts with what spiritualism is about. And

756
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,760
Speaker 1: so yes, I've traveled, have done some things that involved

757
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:26,839
Speaker 1: in many other spiritual endeavors, but it starts with we

758
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 1: don't die. That is basically to all auso teric and

759
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:37,160
Speaker 1: metaphysical teachings. It starts with that and the only place

760
00:48:37,320 --> 00:48:43,200
Speaker 1: I know they can prove that. The spiritualism in this place,

761
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:47,640
Speaker 1: I hear because we're you're to be here before the

762
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:53,839
Speaker 1: truth of what I'm talking about becomes evident. I've seen it,

763
00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: I've heard it. I don't believe it, I know it

764
00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:02,799
Speaker 1: to be true. The spirit comes through. Well, there's still

765
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:07,880
Speaker 1: a message you're reading, and you can't deny with spirit

766
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: manifest in physical ways that you can't deny with spiritual

767
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:17,520
Speaker 1: healing helps you and perhaps no one else and nothing

768
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:22,319
Speaker 1: else can. Your consciousness begins to open up heels like.

769
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 1: It's pretty anti capitalist. Mr. King of the Dojo. He

770
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 1: criticizes other religions Pensiant for taking taking taking money from

771
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 1: its congregation instead of enriching their lives. Cradle Rave got

772
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:39,160
Speaker 1: cost of something. But again, there's this element of Christianity

773
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 1: included this. I don't love Christianity, but I'm not a

774
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: big Bible thumper, but there's wonderful teachings in there, if

775
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:49,880
Speaker 1: you know how to look. I kind of love Reverend

776
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: Dr Don honestly. He has these phrases. He'll use stuff

777
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:56,400
Speaker 1: like I've got three thousand books and another one coming

778
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,360
Speaker 1: in the mail, and he describes the feeling of true

779
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 1: faith in spirit of certainty, you know what I mean.

780
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:07,279
Speaker 1: He's a proponent of continual learning, of looking at other

781
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,360
Speaker 1: religions to see what is valuable about them to add

782
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,920
Speaker 1: to your own spiritual journey. He describes his spirit guides

783
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 1: and how they change over time because people grow and

784
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 1: change over time. Several times he puts God in quotation

785
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 1: marks when talking about it. The service ends and we're

786
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 1: encouraged to go to the message service down at the

787
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson Davis Building, the bookshop meeting hall hybrid and

788
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 1: I trickle down with the crowd. It's a solid half tourist,

789
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: half regular crowd that heads back down the street and

790
00:50:39,600 --> 00:50:41,960
Speaker 1: into the gift shop, where I flipped through a copy

791
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: of a book called Is Mother Nature Mad? Before heading

792
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:49,720
Speaker 1: through the double doors to my first spiritualist message service.

793
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,920
Speaker 1: Here's how it works. There are five mediums and forty people,

794
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:57,400
Speaker 1: all of us sitting in the hall at a long,

795
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: wooden cafeteria style table. It's kind of summer camp meets

796
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:04,040
Speaker 1: night class at twelve thirty in the afternoon, and we're

797
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 1: surrounded by cassadaga paraphernalia. It wouldn't sign declaring where we

798
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:12,879
Speaker 1: are a framed copy of the Spiritualist Principles, framed black

799
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 1: and white prints of their founders, photos from the one

800
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:18,560
Speaker 1: hundred twenty five year celebration that took place a couple

801
00:51:18,560 --> 00:51:21,360
Speaker 1: of years ago. A few paltry cups of coffee that

802
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 1: were room temperature long before we got here. How are

803
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 1: you going to have a thriving religion without halfway decent coffee?

804
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 1: I mean, guys, get it together. The room hushes as

805
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:35,359
Speaker 1: the events organizer introduces the service. This is the time

806
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 1: where mediums come to the front podium like auctioneers, point

807
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 1: at one of us and say, yes, Spirit has a

808
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:45,880
Speaker 1: message for you. Then spends the next two minutes describing

809
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,279
Speaker 1: what the spirit looks like, what their relationship to you is,

810
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 1: what their messages, all while tacitly confirming that it is

811
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 1: resonating through nods of yes or no from the person listening.

812
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:00,400
Speaker 1: The yes and no is important. We'll get there and

813
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:03,840
Speaker 1: each medium gets a turn. The room hushes as the

814
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 1: first pastor takes the podium and begins. It's here where

815
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:11,960
Speaker 1: I start to put some general observations on how different

816
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:15,319
Speaker 1: mediums read differently. It has just as much to do

817
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 1: with personal style as any other public speaking or art

818
00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:22,880
Speaker 1: form does this. First Pastor is gentle but direct in

819
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 1: her delivery. Pastor deb comes up and her voice is musical,

820
00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,680
Speaker 1: and she's very descriptive. It's kind of great how much

821
00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: description she gives. Oh, there's an old woman standing behind

822
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:34,799
Speaker 1: you with her hand on her shoulder. Do you know

823
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,920
Speaker 1: who I'm talking about. There's a lot of older women

824
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:41,720
Speaker 1: who show up in these readings of spirit because statistically

825
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:45,480
Speaker 1: it's who you're most likely to be looking for. Grandmothers.

826
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:47,840
Speaker 1: For the younger set, of which there are not many.

827
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 1: The only people are in their twenties, have come with

828
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:55,080
Speaker 1: her parents, or they're me, and old women appear as

829
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:58,279
Speaker 1: deceased mothers. For the more middle aged people who are

830
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 1: trying to make contact and send of the people who

831
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 1: raised them and then disappeared one day, it's during this

832
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: session that if you made it through the ghost church

833
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: service proper, your belief in what the spiritualists do is

834
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:16,439
Speaker 1: truly tested. Sure, you can say the tenants, but when

835
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:19,480
Speaker 1: someone comes to you with a spirit message, do you

836
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: believe it or not? The reaction in the room about

837
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:26,640
Speaker 1: forty people, again mostly but not all white and middle aged,

838
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:31,680
Speaker 1: About half tourists and half regulars. Is generally positive, but

839
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 1: definitely mixed. You can tell when someone wants to be

840
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:37,800
Speaker 1: there to receive a message. They kind of lean forward

841
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,000
Speaker 1: in their seat a little. They're quick to answer the

842
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:43,120
Speaker 1: yes or no questions of whether it's resonating. They usually

843
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,319
Speaker 1: seem to have some sort of idea of who they

844
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 1: want to contact. You can also tell when a skeptic

845
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 1: is a believer's plus one, whether it's their friend, their spouse,

846
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: their kids, their friend from college that is maybe curious

847
00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 1: but sits back legs crossed, takes a little more time

848
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: to answer, or questions show me what you fucking got

849
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:07,320
Speaker 1: kind of energy. Sometimes they seem impressed with the specificity

850
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 1: of who or what comes through, and other times their

851
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 1: eyebrows rise a little if the message isn't resonating or

852
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 1: appears too vague for their liking. Here are some of

853
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:21,000
Speaker 1: the spirits that come through at the message service. One says,

854
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:24,680
Speaker 1: I'm seeing an old woman behind you. She's a little sexy.

855
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:27,839
Speaker 1: One says, I'm seeing an older woman behind you. She's

856
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:31,720
Speaker 1: tall and looks all about business. Someone says, I'm seeing

857
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: a man behind you and he's a soldier. He came

858
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:36,239
Speaker 1: up in the military and was served well by his

859
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 1: experience in the military. Another says, I'm seeing a medium

860
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:43,680
Speaker 1: sized dog running around and this makes someone burst into

861
00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:46,759
Speaker 1: tears right away. Someone else says he looks kind of

862
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:50,880
Speaker 1: like gill Again, does everyone know who Gilligan is? And

863
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:54,279
Speaker 1: the spirits aren't just described either. When you receive a

864
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:57,200
Speaker 1: standard message like this, the recipient will first get a

865
00:54:57,239 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 1: description of the person in question, and then a mess

866
00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:04,480
Speaker 1: from them directly, stuff like this. One says, he's saying,

867
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:07,000
Speaker 1: you're all play and no work. Do you have a

868
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,760
Speaker 1: job because you live for pleasure And it's not pleasure

869
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:12,879
Speaker 1: that's hurting anyone, it's bringing joy, So keep doing it.

870
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:16,960
Speaker 1: Another message I liked. They're telling me that you're not finished.

871
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:19,560
Speaker 1: There's a new venture and you need a big open

872
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: sky and space, maybe some sort of trip. Some people

873
00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:27,799
Speaker 1: cry at least one really really wants to understand but

874
00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 1: can't quite get there. How tall was the man standing there?

875
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:35,760
Speaker 1: She asks? How old was he? Who's a child with him?

876
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:38,400
Speaker 1: Well it could be this guy, but well, no, that

877
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: doesn't match up with the height you described. And no,

878
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:43,720
Speaker 1: I don't have any kids and haven't lost any kids

879
00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 1: close to me. There are people who want to connect

880
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: the can't, and the earnestness with which one medium tries

881
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,320
Speaker 1: to meet her in the middle is interesting. When a

882
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:55,280
Speaker 1: message hits it's exciting, and when it doesn't, it pings

883
00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 1: a little skeptic in my own brain. We were told

884
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the service to switch our phones

885
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 1: off so as not to introduce whatever cell phone waves

886
00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:08,799
Speaker 1: into the air and interrupt spirit. But the mediums don't

887
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 1: turn their phones off at all. They're on their phones

888
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:13,160
Speaker 1: while their peers are at the podium the whole time,

889
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,919
Speaker 1: like their stand ups waiting to go on stage. Two

890
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:17,920
Speaker 1: of them show each other memes on their phones and

891
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 1: giggle softly while a woman who came with her college

892
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:23,440
Speaker 1: friends receives the spirit message from a dead brother across

893
00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 1: the room. It's interesting there's this contradiction going on right

894
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:30,480
Speaker 1: in front of us. But at the same time, it's

895
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:33,480
Speaker 1: kind of fun to watch mediums be friends and show

896
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:36,320
Speaker 1: each other memes while someone else talks to a ghost

897
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 1: right next to them. And you know who is one

898
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:41,280
Speaker 1: of the seven people who does not get a reading

899
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:45,799
Speaker 1: in the entire room, listener, It was me, And it's

900
00:56:45,840 --> 00:56:48,600
Speaker 1: hard not to feel self conscious. About it. I'm sitting

901
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:50,480
Speaker 1: right in the front, and I can't tell if I'm

902
00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:53,719
Speaker 1: being overly cautious by feeling that the mediums already know

903
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:57,880
Speaker 1: who I am, given my status of being under consideration

904
00:56:58,000 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 1: by the PR committee, that very well could be in

905
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,520
Speaker 1: the room with me right now. And I learned moments later.

906
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:08,279
Speaker 1: Absolutely is when the service ends. I approached Pastor Deb

907
00:57:08,360 --> 00:57:11,360
Speaker 1: to introduce myself. As she texts someone, She's got a

908
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:13,640
Speaker 1: lot on her plate. She's got an elderly parent, she's

909
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 1: got a day job over an hour outside of Cassadega.

910
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,360
Speaker 1: She's a pastor, she's a girl friend, she's the head

911
00:57:19,400 --> 00:57:23,360
Speaker 1: of PR. She's tired, but she's incredibly nice to me

912
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:27,280
Speaker 1: and is enthusiastic when I shyly introduced myself. This is

913
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:30,600
Speaker 1: not my strength in this world. I love people and

914
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:34,320
Speaker 1: I love learning about them, but the approach is not

915
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,880
Speaker 1: my strength. Dev tells me that everyone is exhausted from

916
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:41,960
Speaker 1: gala day, and those within earshot agree, but they raised

917
00:57:41,960 --> 00:57:45,480
Speaker 1: over six thousand dollars. It was a success, and it

918
00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:47,320
Speaker 1: ties into what she told me on the phone a

919
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 1: couple of days before. There is an uptick and interest

920
00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:54,160
Speaker 1: in the Spiritualist camp and in the last year, potentially

921
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 1: due to the mass loss of life with COVID. I

922
00:57:57,200 --> 00:57:59,520
Speaker 1: want you to keep in mind that six thousand dollars

923
00:57:59,680 --> 00:58:03,000
Speaker 1: is a big deal for this religion, all but an

924
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 1: endangered species. We're standing in a hall that hasn't been

925
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 1: updated in nearly fifty years, and there's not enough coffee

926
00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:13,360
Speaker 1: and styrophone cups or snacks to go around scientology. This

927
00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:16,880
Speaker 1: is not a religion that can really afford to court

928
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:21,800
Speaker 1: new members. This is not I have significant PTSD with

929
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 1: moms who have pastor Deb's haircut due to my time

930
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:27,480
Speaker 1: in MENSA. You can reflect on that on your own time,

931
00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:31,560
Speaker 1: thank you very much. But Deb is extraordinarily nice and

932
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: eager to introduce me to other members of the pr

933
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:37,920
Speaker 1: committee who are present a list that is not publicly available.

934
00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:41,800
Speaker 1: But not everyone here seems to share her enthusiasm for

935
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:45,200
Speaker 1: meeting me. There's one volunteer who isn't a medium, that

936
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:48,080
Speaker 1: is extremely kind, kind of an alpha type, who is

937
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,840
Speaker 1: in the middle of sweet talking someone else saying he

938
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:53,880
Speaker 1: can talk to me when it's approved, And one who

939
00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:56,880
Speaker 1: is so nervous about my intentions that she crosses her

940
00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: arm and doesn't shake my hand when I reach out

941
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:03,080
Speaker 1: to her. The whole flurry is very quick, and Pastor

942
00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:05,160
Speaker 1: Dab is on her phone for most of it, and

943
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:06,800
Speaker 1: so I try not to let it sink into my

944
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:11,120
Speaker 1: bones as the rejection by mediums that it feels like.

945
00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:14,200
Speaker 1: It's one thing to feel rejected by someone and it

946
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:17,400
Speaker 1: doesn't feel good, But it's another thing to be rejected

947
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:19,560
Speaker 1: by someone who believes that they are connected with a

948
00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:23,280
Speaker 1: higher power and know whether your intentions are good or bad.

949
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:25,920
Speaker 1: This is an anxiety that will follow me through the

950
00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 1: entire week. If you're anything but completely skeptical. It's not

951
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:33,240
Speaker 1: just a rejection from a Floridian. It's a rejection from

952
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:37,360
Speaker 1: a Floridian and the entire fucking ghost realm, ghosts that

953
00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:41,240
Speaker 1: have their own opinions and ties to infinite intelligence. Over

954
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:43,360
Speaker 1: the course of the week, I see a number of

955
00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:45,880
Speaker 1: mediums donate to Cassadega on their way out of their

956
00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 1: services where they've just been volunteering. This is a clear

957
00:59:49,280 --> 00:59:52,360
Speaker 1: community effort. It's the coffee hours of my youth with

958
00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:56,240
Speaker 1: even less resources, no Dungan, don'tus budget, plus a light

959
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:59,160
Speaker 1: smattering of talking to the debt. So now you have

960
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 1: a better feel for what Ghost Church is about there

961
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:07,560
Speaker 1: are some elements of diet Christianity. Then they hit you

962
01:00:07,600 --> 01:00:10,480
Speaker 1: with the spirit messages and the spirit teams and all

963
01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:14,800
Speaker 1: the elements of the religion that are considered to be unusual.

964
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:19,320
Speaker 1: But these elements don't come from nowhere. Both the Fox

965
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 1: Sisters in the mid nineteenth century and people in Cassadega

966
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 1: and other spiritualist sites right now formed their religious practices

967
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:32,240
Speaker 1: by pulling from elements of other religions and traditions, and

968
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 1: especially from the concept of the seance. So next week

969
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 1: we're going to look at what that history is, how

970
01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:44,720
Speaker 1: the spiritualists interpreted it to make it their own. And yes,

971
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:47,960
Speaker 1: I am going to have a full on conversation with

972
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: a table in Florida. All that, plus I walk forty

973
01:00:52,040 --> 01:00:54,959
Speaker 1: minutes to a gas station to get some pringles. Next

974
01:00:55,000 --> 01:00:58,960
Speaker 1: week on Ghost Church. Oh wait, and thank you to

975
01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 1: my uncle. Then, as Callahan, we will be hearing from

976
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:03,840
Speaker 1: him one more time. And I'm not saying that there's

977
01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: a heaven or hell. What I'm saying is there is

978
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 1: something more than we are certainly aware. It just doesn't

979
01:01:12,280 --> 01:01:14,240
Speaker 1: make sense to me that all we have is life.

980
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,240
Speaker 1: And you know, I love atheist because those are the

981
01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:19,360
Speaker 1: people that are really screwed because you don't believe in heaven,

982
01:01:19,440 --> 01:01:21,440
Speaker 1: you don't believe in hell, and when you die, you

983
01:01:21,520 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 1: ain't a fucking no place to go. You know, Well, Mormons,

984
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:28,800
Speaker 1: That's that's my biggest feed My biggest fear is that

985
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:31,440
Speaker 1: Mormans had it right, because I'll be like standing at

986
01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:33,480
Speaker 1: the gates of Heaven with an extra large coffee, going,

987
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:37,720
Speaker 1: all right, that's enough, see you next week. Ghost Church

988
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:41,200
Speaker 1: is a Cool Zone Media production created, written, and hosted

989
01:01:41,240 --> 01:01:45,000
Speaker 1: by me Jamie Loftus. Guest voices in this episode came

990
01:01:45,040 --> 01:01:48,760
Speaker 1: from the wonderful Miles Gray and Daniel Goodman. The show

991
01:01:48,800 --> 01:01:52,560
Speaker 1: is produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Ian Johnson. Our

992
01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:56,320
Speaker 1: theme song is by Speedy Ortiz, That's c DG Clee,

993
01:01:56,680 --> 01:02:01,120
Speaker 1: Andy Moholt, Ardres Whiteside and Joey Dubeck. The music is

994
01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: by Zoe Blade h