I went to see a psychic medium and here’s what she told me about my father

*Ticks one more item off her bucket list*

Have you ever been to see a medium? What has been your experience?

For me it happened last Friday, 2 days before Halloween, a very apt time to flirt with the paranormal.

But did I get anything out of it? That is the question.

As someone who’s been brought up as an agnostic all her life, therein lies the conundrum.

You can ask me what I think about all that and each time I’ll give you the same answer.

I DON’T KNOW.

Does God exist? I don’t know.

Do you believe in the afterlife? I don’t know.

Do you believe in spirits? I don’t know.

Do you think mediums can talk to spirits? I don’t know.

I don’t know but I like to keep an open mind which is why as soon as I was given the opportunity to attend a medium demonstration, I took it with no remorse.

Mediumship is a grey area though, because those who DO believe, the Christians, think it’s pure devilry, whereas those who don’t, the atheists, think it’s a load of cowpat.

So, what can you do? You have to be a special kind of crazy to want to get involved with those things.

Now a bit about those medium demonstrations.

Mediums are not expensive con artists, as many people may think, meaning if you are curious to find out what it is that they do, you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to attend a demonstration. In the UK, Spiritualism is a recognised religion and there are Spiritualist churches everywhere. There’s probably one near where you live too.

Their services are open to everyone who wants to find out more about the faith (as every church should be) and free to attend or there might be the occasional £2 donation if there’s tea and sandwiches. Even better, most of these services are now taking place on Zoom which means you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home to attend.

There’s always one medium involved who starts and ends the service with a prayer. This is the easiest and most accessible way to acquaint yourself with spiritualism. The only drawback to this, however, is that there might not be enough time for the medium to relay messages for everyone present, so you may attend and not get a message at all.

But are these messages real? That’s what you are here to find out, isn’t it?

Well, let me tell you what happened to me then.

We were 10 in the Zoom call, which proved to be enough time for the medium, let’s call her Angela, to relay messages to all of us.

And so, when my turn came, here’s what she told me:

She told me there was a gentleman who wanted to talk to me. At that point I thought this could have gone either way. She had a 50/50 chance to get it right (or wrong) and thankfully for her, she got it right, because I was there for one person only. My dad!

She started by saying that this gentleman comes from a different part to mine of the country. In other words, he didn’t live his entire life in my city. This is true as we were born in different cities.

She also said that we never spoke about his disease, there were never any talks about it. That was also true as this all happened very fast. And if I couldn’t go and see him before he died, there wasn’t anything we could do about it. Also true. I didn’t have the time to go and see him because of Covid and travel restrictions.

She said that he really loved the conversations we had before he passed. We really had the chance to talk and pour our hearts open.

Angela also asked me what I understood by “Education”. I was stumped for a minute because I am way past my college years but then I thought she might be referring to my present activities. I am currently training as a copywriter and that’s definitely a form of education.

Apparently, this gentleman knew about this and was very proud about what I did because what I do is not easy. My dad had always said he felt very proud of me.

Finally, Angela said this gentleman has a soft spot for me. My mum always said that my dad had a soft spot for me.

So what do you think about all this? At this point, I’ll just say that everyone who had gone before me seemed to be convinced that their messages were true. Some even had tears in their eyes…

My message seemed pretty plausible too. On a superficial level, it seemed like she had hit the nail on the head…

But then, I thought about it a bit more…

I also thought about the “conversation” we had while she was relaying the message.

You see, these messages never happen alone. The medium always asks you whether you understand what you hear and based on what you tell them, they steer the conversation the way they want.

That’s something that most people don’t even notice, as they are often overwhelmed by emotion, but a lot of times you are the one giving the answers.

So, here’s how this reading went with my own input.

She called my name off the Zoom list…she even struggled to pronounce it clearly, so already she knew she was probably dealing with someone foreign. (Message to myself: if you ever do that again, make sure only your first name is visible)

She told me that a gentleman had a message for me. Touché, she got that right! Like I said, it could have gone either way.

And that gentleman was from a different part to mine of the country. At that point I got a bit confused. Did she mean from two different cities or did she mean he is from a different country to the one I currently live in (the UK)?

So I said: “Yes, but this was in a different country.”

To which she replied: “Oh yes, this is definitely not this country, it’s somewhere else in Europe, probably Eastern Europe.”

Wrong Angela! I am not from Eastern Europe but I can see how this is a fair assumption to make when my last name “Lekka” looks and sounds like a Polish word.

I didn’t say anything to this.

She then said, I sense there was a loss in the family to which I almost replied…. “D’oh! I wouldn’t be here listening to you now, if there hadn’t been a loss”.

She then said we never spoke about his disease and asked me…Is that true? Is that what happened?

And I said: “To be honest, I don’t even think he knew he had it”, to which she replied:

“He didn’t talk about his disease, he couldn’t, he didn’t even know he had it.”

But the truth is I don’t know if this is true or not. That was just my assumption.

She then said, “he says he loved the conversations you had before he passed. You really had the chance to talk and pour your hearts open.” Is that what happened? Did you talk before he passed?

Did I talk? What kind of generic question is that? Yes, most people talk to people they care about and by being there, Angela knew that I cared about that person.

I replied: “Well…on Skype, yes.”

“Oh, that’s definitely a conversation, then, isn’t it?”, she said.

She did get wrong the fact that we poured our hearts open though. My dad was never one to express his feelings.

“Skype” was definitely the word she was looking for, because as soon as she heard it she said:

“This gentleman says there wasn’t anything you could do, if you couldn’t go to see him before he died, so don’t worry.”

And then, the coup de grâce:

“Hmmm… was there a funeral on Skype?”

Nice try Angela but no….but I can see how this could be a thing…with Covid, and Skype, and travel restrictions and me being foreign and funerals….

I said no but imagine what I might have thought about her, if she had got it right.

“No, no, there was definitely not a funeral on Skype,” she said.

Next, Angela asked me what I understood by “Education.” As the youngest person on Zoom (are you surprised?), education could very well be a thing. I told her I don’t quite understand as university was over 20 years ago.

So, Angela said: “maybe it is about your education or it could be that you are the one teaching other young people.” At my age, it would make perfect sense to have a young family and act all pastoral with them, but wrong again. I don’t have a family and I don’t teach.

So I told her that it might refer to the training I am doing right now, to which she replied that this person is proud of me for what I do and also has a soft spot for me. Both true but also very plausible and easy to guess.

Fun moment!

I thanked her for her time and she ended my session by saying: Dziękuję

There we go again with the Polish…. but if you are a foreigner living in the UK, and your last name is Lekka, chances are you are Polish, right Angela?

Wrong!

I told her I am not from Poland to which she replied: “Yes, but you understood what I said.”

You can’t catch her anywhere!

So, what do I think about this experience? It was a let-down for sure.

A let-down and a disappointment because I was secretly hoping to get a message that would prove my dad is still “alive” somewhere.

I don’t know if mediums can really talk to the spirits of the dead.

My one and only experience says they can’t.

But maybe that was just my bad luck and I just happened to interact with a faker, who knows?

Have you ever been to see a medium? What has been your experience?