WEBVTT - 2: No Proof is Necessary, No Proof is Sufficient 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.600 I don't try and get anybody to believe any you know, 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:09.200 I don't care what it's your business. For those that believe, 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.320 no proof is necessary. For those that don't know, proof 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.000 is sufficient. I can't make you believe something you don't 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.360 want to believe. I can only tell you my experience. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:26.160 This is my uncle Dennis, the medium. My experiences in 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.600 reading came about because through the course of having normal 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.159 jobs working in a warehouse, drivn't know for what drop 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:37.400 whenever I was doing every job I had, you didn't 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.920 last they closed or I was fired, and it's thought 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.120 that I wasn't a good worker. It was just that's 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.680 the way it happened. The last job I had, which 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.199 I plan on staying are they closed. And at that 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.960 point in time, I thought to myself, you're either gonna 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.880 do something you enjoy or something you can do, or 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.520 you're going to start at the bottom wrong again. And 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.320 I just didn't want to do that. So I picked 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.200 up the Tarot deck, which I had used it a 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.399 long time, and I began to realize that, you know, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.280 people were interesting. He learned to read tarot from his mom, 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.800 who learned from her mom, who learned from her mom 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.720 on the face they were averaged, low income New Englanders, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.400 but in private, the family had been working as mediums, readers, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.920 and psychics everywhere from New Age shops to tea rooms. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.280 Sort of an old, tiny undercover way of saying New 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:32.280 Age shops and at one point where the Boston Police 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:38.560 Department cops suck, don't do that for generations. I got 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.640 to speak with my uncle Dennis a few weeks ago 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.160 while my mom was visiting him and my auntie Karen 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.559 in South Carolina. Mom's dad, my grandfather, just passed away, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.240 and she's down there to be with them and remember 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.400 and hang out. They retired there a couple of years ago. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:58.560 But Uncle Dennis Dennis Callahan, fourth generation hereditary, which according 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.080 to his website, still does do readings. He grew up 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.720 in what used to be a funeral parlor in Massachusetts, 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:09.000 sorry funeral Paula in Massachusetts. That was mean, and he 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.720 tells me that he became sensitive to spirits, seeing, hearing, 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.280 smelling beginning around middle school age. He's carried on the 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.480 family tradition as a professional medium for decades now and 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.520 was my first connection to spiritual ideas when I was 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.280 really young. Well him in a distant aunt named Susie 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.480 who said I was cursed with negativity and wouldn't start 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.480 living until I turned thirty, which on the first point 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.120 kind of true. Second point to be determined. I'm so 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.840 fucking young and virile. But you know, my parents were 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.000 a little upset. You know, you probably shouldn't tell a 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.640 ten year old that they're cursed. I don't think it's 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:52.639 affected me though, Just kidding anyways, Uncle Dennis, he's a medium, 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.239 except he doesn't like that word because it comes with 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:01.040 all this baggage when you people's talk about being a 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.000 medium in a psychic I mean, I'm not trying to 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:06.720 be mean here, and I'm not saying I'm any better 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:08.680 than them. I'm not because there are true people out 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.480 there to do that, but very shut These people are 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.760 sort of playing on people's emotions, and that's what they do. Somebody, 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.200 you know, they lose a son because of addiction. They 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.520 want to talk to this son. They'll believe anything. Well, 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.480 you know what, you don't choose who you've talked. When 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.440 spirit comes through, you don't know who it's gonna be. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.040 And if you don't know what you're doing, don't play 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.360 with it. It is not a game by any search 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.160 of the imagination. His current reading room has amazing light, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.920 these green walls, a pentagram area, rug, a small table, 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.880 and his tarot cards and ruins. In a separate room 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.760 is a table full of crystal skulls in a painting 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.840 that needs to be seen to be believed. It was 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.119 made by one of his long time clients. I will 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.680 try to do it justice. It is a painting made 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.240 of my uncle looking very serious, holding a black cat 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.640 and a sword. Below him are the phases of the moon. 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.640 Beside him are a honk in crystal and a goblet. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.200 Above him is saturned the stars, a glowing candle, and 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:22.039 a massive, massive ghostly angel over his left shoulder, just 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.520 arms outstretched with these big old wings and no face 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:31.800 at all. It's it's terrifying, it's magnificent. You gotta see 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:36.920 this painting anyways. Uncle Dennis was a practicing medium and 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.960 reader in Massachusetts. Could you tell that from the accent. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.440 I've spent years getting rid of that, But he's practiced 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.400 forever there, and I'm biased in obvious ways, but I 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.320 can say with certainty that he does not abide by 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.479 anyone's rules on how living a spiritual life works other 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.920 than his own. That is to say, he talks to 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.680 ghosts but is not a member of ghost Church. And 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.400 of the mediums that I've spoken to, he's the most 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.720 openly skeptical of a lot of readers working today. Let 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.839 me show you what I mean. You know, it's like 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:17.240 the fake psychics. I'm I'm sensing the letter and okay, 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:22.760 I agree, you're a moron. Is your employment? Okay? Easily 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.760 most basic tricks that they use, and it's like that's 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:29.839 I used to get very amy because it's like, that's 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.320 not what I do. Okay, I'm I'm reading a story. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.760 I'm looking at these things and putting these things together 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.280 because people because they're gonna hear this and they gonna 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.760 think of terrible people are cheaping the more they don't 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.120 know how to ask a question. I would have people 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.280 coming me and go, what colored drash? Sho? I wait 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.239 to the promp. You're gonna sucking ask spiritus what colored drash? 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.400 Get away to the prom Yeah, the archangel Michael is 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.520 sitting there, going, I go with a baby blue. I 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.960 come to us. Intellectual split in the road. Pretty often, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.400 you can believe in talking to spirit and think a 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.760 lot of people who claim to speak with spirits are 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:14.640 opportunistic assholes. Members of Cassadega, the spiritualist camp that I 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.040 visited this year, expressed similar views on mediumship. Part of 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:23.440 why the training at Cassadega is so thorough without shutting 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.919 the door to the possibility of communication. Two things have 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.640 to be true here. At best. I cannot, in good 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.000 conscience tell you that there hasn't been a shipload of 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.760 fraud in this profession. Just as and I'll keep reminding 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.720 you of this, every religion in existence is burdened with 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.560 varying degrees of frauds who are happy to exploit the 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:50.960 belief or vulnerability of somebody else. One thing that's very 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.520 interesting about American spiritualism to me is that it's a 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.040 religion that has existed entirely in a time of mass media. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.480 To some degree, unlike most of the big religions, it's 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.200 a little harder to gloss over any incidents of fraud 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.200 or dubiousness because they're so well documented. It's not really 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.760 possible to say, well, yeah, everyone was on board right away, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.880 and anyone who wasn't was probably wrong. But in spite 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.440 of the history of spiritualism, being available in the public sense. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.160 Most of it is associated with sensation and scandal, but 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.200 it's a little harder to nail down the specifics of 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.840 what spiritualists actually believe. Yes, death is merely a transformation 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.680 of energy, but there's more than that. There's moving tables 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.560 and spirit teams and divination tools and things that aren't 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.600 immediately obvious in neat cliffs notes of their story. So 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.600 today we return to Cassadega for a gala day and 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.240 for my first spirit message service, and we check in 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.520 with the founding Fox Sisters, first brush with modern celebrity, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.320 all before hitting the eighth grade. All right, let's get 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.880 the theme going. Actually, you know what, one more word 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.320 from my uncle Dennis. And I always tell people if 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.120 somebody was an asshole in life, they were an asshole 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.480 when they're a spirit. Okay, I'm not going to suddenly 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:18.720 die and be a nice person. Oh I'm dead, I'd 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:37.800 better be nice, Thank you, Uncle Dennis. Okay. Theme Songka. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.960 The day I arrive at Cassadega, I am fresh off 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.480 a sleepless night spent at a Super eight on the 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:30.000 outskirts of Orlando that was wedged between this mini golf 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.520 course that had live baby Gators. Is that legal? I 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.280 guess it's legal. And an outlet mall where you can 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.360 buy an absolute goblin of a knockoff Mickey Mouse toy. 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.760 That's another thing about the Cassadega community that has a 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.360 clear bearing on the sorts of people who come to visit. 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.280 It's only a half hour from one of the most 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.200 synthetic tourist capitals on the planet, just an uber ride 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.640 from disney World, the kind of place that crops up 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.680 in books with ridiculous fonts that say weird floor and 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.360 attract curious families on a budget between draining financially punishing 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.760 days at corporate theme parks. Now, Cassadega pre dates all 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.840 of this Floridian excess. It was first founded in eighteen 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.720 ninety four to disney Worlds seventy one, but there's no 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.440 denying that in the current sense it exists in the 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.000 same financial ecosystem as the cursed mini mall you can 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.760 buy a t shirt at that says tinker Bell is 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.960 My Home girl. Oh my God. And this is one 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.839 of the main differences between Cassadega and their sister camp 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.440 in lily Dale, New York, which was founded in the 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.920 eighteen seventies in the Rochester and Buffalo area and the 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.520 same camp where the Fox House was relocated as a 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.080 historical monument for a time before, like most spiritualist landmarks do, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:51.560 for some reason, it burned down under mysterious circumstances. The 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.480 lily Dale Camp is its own organization, but is very 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.840 close to Cassadega and how it operates. Mediums live on site, 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.480 they provide session ends and hold services. They often attract 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:06.040 upstate New Yorkers on weekend trips, but not quite the 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:11.040 tourist ilk that their southern sister camp does. Cassadega exists 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.680 in an area of infinity tourists in an area where 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:20.160 there's pretty low oversight as it pertains to uh COVID safety. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.880 Remember this is the land of Governor Ron De Santis 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.800 and an environmental climate where they can be open year 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.559 round where they often called lily Dale can't. On the 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.240 Sunday I get to Cassadega. The mediums are exhausted. The 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.240 previous day was their quarterly Gala Day, a fundraising event 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.320 where camp mediums and community members give talks on their 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.760 area of expertise and provide quick readings on the sidelines 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.680 to raise money and keep the camp open. When I 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.640 tell you this is not a religion of means, I'm 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.800 not kidding. This event raised them about six thousand dollars 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.360 and they're over the moon about it. I mean they're 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.960 struggling to keep their post office open. It all feel 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:02.560 very Mickey Rooney, let's go in a barn and save 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.360 the local whatever kind of vibe. I wasn't able to attend, 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.840 but I do watch all of these Gala Day talks 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.360 on Zoom on the bus from Tallahassee, and two mediums 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.839 talks stand out to me in particular, in part because 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.400 they have kind of the same old man boomer haircut, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.120 but also because the ideas that they're expressing are completely 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.959 abstract and yet important to spiritualism. I want to tell 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.880 you about them. The first is by Reverend Dr Don Zangi, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:37.240 presenting a talk called Being Awareness. Reverend Dr Don is 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.080 another long time cassadegga convert sharing more than a name 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.320 with a main cast member of the show Oz. Yes, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.079 I did pick that up, Like what but anyways, Reverend 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.679 Doctor Don Zanki approaches the podium in a dan flash 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.800 is great print, just an absolute dizzying vomit of patterns, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.760 and he also wears this Indiana Jones hat, reminding everyone 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.280 that he'll be preaching tomorrow as well. A lot of 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.880 his students are there. Don's students seem more fervent and 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.400 loyal than any other group that I see on the campgrounds, 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.440 and he's got one of the nicer houses that a 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.640 medium lives into. That's something that I come to know. 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.240 You need to be a member of the community to 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.240 own a house in the area, which requires not only 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.439 the training, but approval from the board. There's a lot 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.679 of things that involve approval from the board, including uh me. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.000 Some of the houses in Cassadega are in pretty bad 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.880 shape because mediums don't make a ton of money for 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.800 people who are consistently labeled as capitalist frauds. But the 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.040 Reverend Doctor Don's house is tall, it's bright purple, It's 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.800 got this golden metallic sun hanging on the side. It's 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.560 bigger than most of the houses, more inviting, and again 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:54.839 constantly open to and brimming with students. He's also extremely 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.920 influenced by Eastern specifically Indian spiritual teachings, and has increa 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.640 recently tied this into his own curriculum. Yes, he is 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.240 an old white guy and today he is talking to 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:12.520 us about being awareness. He is a character. Today we're 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:17.280 talking about what awareness and consciousness is. Awareness or consciousness 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.120 is everything seen or unseen, he tells us, gesturing to 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.880 the crowd and telling us how to access the divine 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.000 within us, spirit that exists in us. You know, spiritualists 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.880 believe in God sort of, but not that judgmental, punitive 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.800 God that most of them grew up with. They believe 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.040 in a loving and forgiving God who moves the energy 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.200 of spirit around the earth and through us all. So 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.320 how do we access it? It strays into a combination 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.760 of Eastern, Western and Gwyneth Paltrow e philosophy. It's about 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.960 ditching the ego of the lower self and accessing the 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.240 egoists present higher self. Reverend Dr Don says, your lower 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.200 consciousness ego personality is living in the three dimen sational 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.920 world and has nothing to do with the divine within you. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.720 He's extremely charismatic, and I had to know who he 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.240 was before he came to Cassadega. He's got a weird 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.720 journey and not saying something here. Don ZENI first learned 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.360 about Spiritualism at the lily Dale Camp. Zangi is from 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.760 the Buffalo area himself, and he had worked locally at 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.640 the Zoo in the Museum of Science before starting a 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:29.120 longer career at the Eric County Juvenile Detention Center. Being 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.880 around troubled youth motivated Zenki to found a martial arts 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.480 and self defense school, with the idea being that kids 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.080 needed a way to get out physical anger and aggression 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.720 in a controlled space with discipline and structure. This was 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.760 a huge success and he had two schools with hundreds 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.360 of students and to this day is in the Black 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.600 Belt Hall of Fame of Filipino Martial Arts in Manila 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:56.320 in the Philippines. Just a quick aside, yes, this reverend 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.480 doctor is also a sense and we just need to 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.560 accept that. Okay. Let that in since a dawn and 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.720 become reverend doctor down And on one night in he 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.640 went to a Spiritualist message service in lily Dale, the 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.720 same kind of service that I would be attending in Cassadega. 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:19.800 At each message service, mediums approached the podium, point at 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.440 someone in the crowd and give them a message from 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.400 spirit right on the spot. It's pretty incredible, especially when 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.440 it's done by someone as charismatic as Reverend Doctor down 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.400 when really since dawn, Like many in his generation, he'd 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.000 been raised Roman Catholic, but spiritualism spoke to him and 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.400 he found himself in Cassadega by and never laughed up 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:46.200 until recently. The Reverend Doctor has run Sunday lyceums in Cassadega, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.880 essentially an adult Sunday school for spiritualists that he curated 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.560 guest speakers for anyone can attend for free, and all 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.960 of the lessons and talks are on YouTube, and the 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:01.280 curation reflected Don zaying Ki's journey as well. Topics included spiritualism, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:07.240 comparative religions, natural law, and parapsychology, and touched on Zangi's 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:13.040 transformative experiences meeting in Indian guru named Satpaul G. Maharaj 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.120 who visited Cassadega in two thousand and eight and profoundly 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.600 affected the sense A. Reverend Doctor zank You went on 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.000 to become a devotee of the Guru and has visited Egypt, 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.600 India and Machu Picchu since, and he still remains a 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.520 major proponent of incorporating more Eastern ideas into spiritualism as 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.360 it exists today. When he took a step back from 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.679 lyceum in to focus on his classes, he told a 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:43.600 local paper this our group is not a religion again, 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.439 it's the teachings and experiences from what all religions have risen. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.920 I find that the teachings of spiritualism and the teachings 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.159 of the Guru are not incompatible to me. They are 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.399 part of greater whole. His students, both in Cassadega and 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.639 at a nearby ashram where they could sit for a 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.960 weekend sat song where one listens to truth teachings, are 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.920 all about Reverend Dr Don. This man is so fast, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.679 like does he ever wear his black belt during class? 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:13.919 I have so many questions, but Don Zangy is too 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.800 busy telling me about being awareness. His advice is rooted 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.360 in spiritualism, but it's basically a rehash of that billion 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.760 dollar piece of advice, be fucking present for once in 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.000 your life and develop a deeper understanding of consciousness. Man 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.720 Zangy expands on this by using a Hindu philosophical term 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:41.639 called turia, a phrase which here means pure consciousness. He 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:46.000 closes by saying, all right, you're awake, well, maybe I 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.000 put you to sleep, but you're awake, and that is 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.480 the cult of Reverend Doctor Sense don ZANGI. Another talk 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.719 I heard at Gala Day was their keynote speaker, another 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:03.439 Reverend Doctor Philip DeLong. I'll encounter Reverend Dr Phil again 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.320 during my stay at Cassadega in a class called Healing 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.119 one oh one that he was kind enough to let 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.280 me drop in on at Pastor Debs suggestion. But the 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.040 first time I hear him speak, he's talking about my 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.560 spirit team. This is a concept that has actually gone 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.480 kind of mainstream. You can find it in those YouTube 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.159 videos I love watching. But it's also a little weird 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.280 and a little abstract. Your spirit guides are well, I 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.960 had no idea. There's certainly plenty of groundwork that's been 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.560 laid here for the concept throughout centuries of religion, but 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.840 the notion is actually kind of specific here. It reminds 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.760 me a little of how in scientology you eventually learned 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.920 that there's aliens. Except this is spiritualism, and so they're 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.040 not keeping anything from you. Your spirit team is just 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.959 as normal a concept to them as standing and singing 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.639 him on a Sunday. Reverend Dr Phil doesn't have the 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.000 huge personality that Reverend Dr Don does. He's a little shyer, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.119 more soft oaken, still with an old man hat, but 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.080 has a low gray ponytail and a soft voice. He 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.800 has a full hour to talk to us and wants 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.200 to use us to tell us how to meet our 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.800 spirit guides. He shares a little bit about his journey 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.320 to spiritualism. He had a near death experience that pulled 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.320 him into the religion. He is something called a crystal 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.520 skull caretaker. He grew up Catholic. He was formally ordained 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.639 by the International Association of Metaphysics. This is all very 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.439 interesting to me, but what I'm more curious about is 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.000 what people did before they became spiritualists, something that he 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.399 is a little less worthcoming about than others I talked to. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.320 Reverend Doctor Phil tells us that there are extremely specific 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.919 categories of spirit guides to learn from. Our guides are 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.280 with us all the time, but the Reverend Doctor tells 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.680 us that they do not interfere with our free will. 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:57.119 There is the master Guide, the spiritual Guide, the emotional guide, 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.639 and the mental guide. Reverend Doctor Phil says this we 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.040 appoint them, but it is all toward our spiritual development 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.480 how we treat our guides, and it is very powerful 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:13.040 how you treat your guide. So okay, it's most important 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.280 to meet your master guide first. I default to what 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:18.399 I think of as a master which is a woman 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.600 who is a little taller than me and clothes that 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.000 fit her really well, and she has like this spine 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.720 that looks good from every angle. When I think of 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:27.680 master guide, I think of a woman who can really 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.280 really pull off a hat, a woman who would not 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.320 have spoken to me in high school. But Reverend Dr 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.840 Phil says that the master guide is actually a very 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.919 specific vision. Your master guide, he says, will appear to 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:46.040 you in a cape. A cape, but okay, a spirit 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:48.560 in a cape without exception. They got to be wearing 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.600 a cape and they're your master guide. Reverend Doctor Phil 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.359 says this, some of you will be scared when you 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.600 first see this guide, but remember, fear is the opposite 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:02.199 of love. I promise myself I will not fear the 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.879 spirit in the cape when he comes. No way, everyone 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.560 has a master teacher, and every master teacher has mastered 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.240 life and death. The next guide that we're introduced to 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.320 is our doctor guide. When he refers to as the physician. 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.720 This is the spirit guide that looks over your physical health. 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:26.040 This guide is counterbalanced by the material doctor or the philosopher. 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.560 This guide oversees our career and finances, and we call 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.680 upon them to direct our decision making and blending our 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:36.720 spiritual and personal lives. Essentially the vibes doctor. I would 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:38.760 love to get in touch with the vibes doctor because 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.120 my life is so funked up right now. The material 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.119 doctor is the guy who handles all the law of 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.760 attraction stuff the secret. But Reverend Dr Phil warns us, 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:54.080 don't be too specific in your manifestations or you'll always 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.320 be disappointed and get your material doctor's ass. And a 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:02.560 little twist, and he mentioned a karma teacher. I'm paraphrasing 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.840 here because the spiritualists in CASCADEGA were not able to 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:09.719 export this zoom call like they said they could because 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.480 they are old and they live in Florida. But Reverend 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:17.680 Dr Phil says something like this instant karma does not exist. 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.080 Forgiveness plays a part in the lesson the Karma teacher gives, 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.280 and it's here that he moves to an element of 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:27.399 spiritualism and the spirit team that I take the most 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:31.439 issue with the concept of the Native American or a 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:35.399 Native protector guide. This is one of the most major 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.000 red flags of spiritualist rhetoric that hasn't changed at all 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:41.439 in the over century and a half that the religion 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.080 has existed, and it's a topic that I'll be getting 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.119 into in much further detail in future episodes. In short, 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:52.959 this majority white religion frequently invokes images of a blend 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:57.000 of tropes that are levied against Indigenous Americans as guides 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:02.280 and magical beings intended to guide them a white colonizer 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.320 and assumed protagonist. Given that there is a notable lack 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:10.320 of Indigenous members of the religion and that Cassadega itself 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:14.520 exists on seminal ground, this is tone deafness at best, 0:24:14.840 --> 0:24:18.199 an act of perpetuation of stereotypes at the expense of 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:22.199 the Indigenous community. At worst, It's worth mentioning that the 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:26.800 volume of Indigenous imagery that American spiritualism invokes at Cassadega 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:31.600 never references the violence committed toward that same community on 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:35.399 the ground where spiritualism now struggles to survive. And we 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:37.600 will be circling back to this in more depth and 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:42.639 future episodes. But I mean my God. Reverend Dr Phil 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:45.560 does expand the idea of a native teacher to be 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:49.520 a spirit from anyone's country of origin. He said that 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:51.919 if you are from England, this could be a druid 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:54.880 spirit or a Viking, and on and on, and it's 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:58.720 this guide's duty to be a protective guide or to 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.240 give you strength and quote courage to speak the spoken 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:07.000 truth unquote, as well as healing. More indigenous tropes pop 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:10.040 up here. He says that quote, they are close to nature. 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:13.399 They work with the plant, animal, and mineral kingdom, and 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:18.160 they use animal guides and totems unquote. He arbitrarily says 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:20.080 that you can have as many as nine spirits with 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:22.360