Can a Séance be Healing?
The séance is probably the most misunderstood and thus abused and debased of all spiritual practices. The very word immediately brings to mind what most of us consider the unreal and therefore absurd notion of “conjuring up spirits.” The séance stereotype certainly was the foundation for that outrageous scene in the film, “The Changling.” A more recent séance-related movie even has that word in the title: “The Conjuring.”
Brian Dunning, who writes the Skeptoid blog, sums up the skeptic’s view of séances. “Contacting the dead has never passed any kind of controlled test, has no plausible theory, and is a fraud committed upon susceptible consumers,” he asserts. Members of some religious communities share the same attitude, although for different reasons. Texas resident Jeanne M. Perdue cited Ecclesiastes 9:5–6 in the Bible as her caution against contacting the dead:
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.”
Séances Evoke Fear
The S-word also evokes a good deal of fear. “Trying to contact the departed through Ouija boards, séances, etc., is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do,” warns Phyllis Sloan, PhD, an author and spiritual science minister based in Maryland. “It is playing Russian Roulette trying to contact spirits. God does not like it and the punishment is severe.”
We all have our own understanding about what God does or does not like or allow. And we, the authors, would argue that negative events are more about experiencing the consequences of our beliefs and actions than about divine punishment. We agree, however, that there has been a great deal of fraud involving séances. We also are well-aware of the potential for hazards.
The good news is these dangers can be avoided, and one reason this book exists is to teach readers how to do just that.
Life as a Continuum
Here’s the bottom line: The afterlife healing circle is simply one means by which those in physical bodies may communicate with those who are not. It makes no difference whether those who do not have physical bodies are considered dead or not yet born. We use what we call the afterlife healing circle to experience the reality of being (life) as a continuum—after physical death and before physical birth.
Personal experience then enables us to decide for ourselves what we believe. We need to experience this for ourselves because that is the most compelling way we grow.
A Chinese proverb sums this up best. It states, “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.” Only direct personal experience enables us to even begin to comprehend a subject that seems at first unfathomable or bizarre.
Séances Can be Healing
Can a séance be healing? Conducted correctly, our version of the afterlife healing circle is one of the most powerful spiritual and emotional experiences available in a group setting. Moreover, learning to conduct the afterlife healing circle and participating in it is grassroots spirituality at its purest: under the direction of those involved, acting as their own connections to spirit and not relying on intermediaries’ interpretations or dogmas.
Knowing for ourselves more about what happens after the physical body dies, or before it is born, is empowering and freeing in ways too numerous to count or even understand without having had the actual experience.
Copyright © 2015 Candace L. Talmadge and Jana L. Simons from The Afterlife Healing Circle published by New Page Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser
Read more from Candace and Jana: https://www.opentohope.com/soul-senses-can-help-with-grief/
