and reassurance from ‘beyond the veil’.
Those seven years were, by this particular evening, a distant memory. As I chatted with her around her cosy fireside I had already worked professionally as a medium, nationally and internationally (via postal readings requested from all over the world), for a number of years. I regarded Joan as one of my closest friends, closer even than family, a member of my soul group, and a dedicated guide and teacher who had always been there for me in challenging times. On this evening, however, it was she who seemed troubled as she recalled a series of events that obviously still caused her pain and which, despite having discussed all aspects of her past with me, she had never once mentioned until now.
Joan had had a close friend, now departed, with whom she had sat for spirit trance communication privately over a considerable period of time. Betty had conscientiously written down the communications that Joan brought through during these sessions in long hand, with Joan remembering little or nothing of what she had said once they were over, relying totally on Betty to record communications that she hoped would one day be made available to a much wider audience. Whilst Joan was in trance a spirit guide, a soul who always appeared to her dressed in a red robe, would speak through my teacher and give the two ladies all manner of information of vital importance to humankind – information concerning who and what we really are and why we are here; information that answered the fundamental spiritual questions each of us asks at some stage during our lives.
It therefore came as a severe blow to Joan when Betty died suddenly. She had lost one of her closest friends and there could not, of course, be any further trance sessions between the two ladies. Thank God Betty had written down the words of the ‘Man In Red’ with such diligence! Betty might have moved on, but her legacy was still here – a unique and precious record that needed to be preserved and made available at all costs.
Following the service on the day of Betty’s funeral Joan politely asked her friend’s daughter if she might have the volume she had produced in conjunction with her mother as it was of considerable importance to her. Betty’s daughter, a zealous member of a certain religious group, replied that she had read her mother’s book, that it was obviously the work of the devil, and that she had, therefore, flung it into the back of the fire where it belonged, happy to have delivered an appropriate fate to such an evil object.
Joan had grieved over the loss of the book and the information it contained ever since that day. As she told me her story for the first time, however, an idea slowly formed in my mind and I began to wonder whether the information the book had contained was truly lost forever. I was an experienced medium, after all, and it had always been my wish to provide mankind with something other than clairvoyant messages from family members; something lasting that could be accessed by future generations, which is why I had insisted on incorporating workshops and lectures into a work quota that had for many years heavily featured the intimate clairvoyant readings and public ‘message’ demonstrations people inevitably wished me to provide for them.
What if I could sit to re-contact and record communications from ‘The Man In Red’? …Why not? I wasn’t a trance medium at that time (that ability would develop later, and was destined to play a major part in the transmission of further books in the series) but I saw no reason why the communications could not be accessed clairvoyantly – that is, with me listening to what the spirit had to say and passing on his message to someone else whilst in conscious control of my mental faculties. It was as though an unseen someone was prompting me to consider this at that moment, and there and then I suggested to Joan that I was willing to put in the time to see if I could make it happen. Joan was most enthusiastic and said we should begin sitting together soon. I, however, had a definite feeling that instead of working with her on this project, as I would usually have done without question, I should this time sit with my close friend, business partner and fellow spiritual seeker David, who had expressed a desire to join me in a meaningful spiritual endeavour for some time.
David was as enthusiastic about the possibility of bringing through something of real worth to people as I was and, despite our hectic individual work schedules at that time, schedules which would become ever more demanding as the months and years went by, we set aside an initial afternoon to see what would happen.
At the time David worked from home in an attic room, which contained the computers and related equipment he was expert at programming and operating. We climbed the little ladder into the roof space, set up a cassette tape recorder (how times have changed!), switched off the lights and withdrew from this world into the peace of a spiritual meditation. I instantly became aware of someone drawing very close to me from the spiritual dimensions, a gentleman surrounded by a glowing aura of red energy who wished to speak to me, and so, having first prayed that all communication that might come to us that afternoon would arrive via Divine will and approval, I surrendered my senses to this spirit as much as I was able to and began to bring through a stream of information.
Twenty minutes later, exhausted, disorientated, but also exhilarated, I slowly returned my senses to this physical world and David and I found we had successfully taped a first short ‘bulletin from beyond’, which David immediately copied to his computer, also burning it onto a couple of CDs so that we each had a copy. No way would the information be lost or destroyed this time around!
In subsequent months and years we met as regularly as time allowed to communicate with ‘The Man In Red’ as we called him. We tried to adhere to a pre-arranged schedule, we really did, but the communications, which gradually became lengthier, needed, of necessity, to fall in with our heavy workloads, and there were inevitably times when either or both of us couldn’t make our other-worldly appointments. We did succeed in meeting on a number of occasions, however, each time gathering more astounding information from ‘The Man In Red’. We knew that this should eventually be collected into a book, but could not imagine how this was ever going to happen as neither of us had the time to transcribe our discarnate visitor’s words… and a book is an expensive undertaking. We were advised from the spiritual dimensions, however, that we needn’t worry and that we should keep the faith and continue to bring through the information. A way would be found, we were assured.
Some three years after we had made that initial link with ‘The Man In Red’ there came a pivotal point which changed things forever, and which can be summed up in three little words.
I met Jane.
Jane is, quite literally, my ‘other half’, a term I do not use lightly or flippantly, and one which has become increasingly significant and relevant as the years since we first became a couple physically have unfolded. Jane had also been a long-time seeker of spiritual enlightenment, and almost from the moment we got together our individual goals fused into one. We attended demonstrations and held workshops together. We sat together to help people visiting our home, Jane giving me additional energy to aid the delivery of accurate one-to-one clairvoyant communication. Further, Jane now also began to sit with David and myself for subsequent communication sessions, the addition of her energies to our little group allowing ‘The Man In Red’ to deliver even longer addresses whenever the three of us met, with myself as the mediumistic channel for his words.
At this point, and after all this time, we were finally given a name… ‘The Man In Red’ introduced himself, and would henceforth be known as…
Joseph.
Furthermore, this elevated and enthusiastic spirit who, to my psychic eyes, had previously only been visible as an indistinct red glow on the periphery of my vision, suddenly coalesced into sharp focus, taking on the far more aesthetically pleasing form of a not-too-tall, finely-boned man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties, and who sported a neatly trimmed little beard, twinkling eyes and a nifty choice in tunics. We subsequently learned that Joseph was not, in fact, the same communicator from those original sessions Joan
