Yesterday I had my first reading with a medium. This is something I have been thinking about for several months but decided to do it in hopes I could get some guidance on my mother's situation.

It was an amazing experience. She explained before we started that it was like pictionary, she gets pictures or symbols or words, along with the presence of someone who comes through to communicate.

I had no reason to think it would or would not be successful. I did not have a preconceived idea that such experiences were "real" or "fake." I selected her from the mediums registered at Lily Dale, since I had seen a movie and read a book on it after someone suggested that I go to Lily Dale, since she had done so and had and very accurate reading, with details that no one could have known.

So I hoped it would yield something but I was pretty neutral going in.

She quickly honed in on my dad, and gave me messages from him, and that was a wonderful experience, and she said he wanted to talk about my mother, which was what I wanted, too, so it was very comforting.

So we did that, and he was very reassuring about what is going on with her, and not to worry so much about her.

The medium identified my grandmother and my uncle by name. "Is there someone named ____?" Both times she was right. She identified two aunts, one by first initial, and one with a message for me, and came through with a message from my other grandmother. She did not name that grandmother but gave a very interesting message that made sense in light of our shared history, and the same from my maternal aunt.

She had a message from my last dog, which was extremely wonderful to hear. It was also very strange, since we normally don't "hear" what our dogs are thinking and want to tell us.

Finally, we talked about more generalized messages for me, in some depth about one of my granddaughters and one of my sons. She was spot on in perceiving their individual personalities, and was also accurate in describing the personalities of my father, my grandmother, another of my sons, and another of my granddaughters.

She also mentioned three names I did not recognize immediately, and one she said was a friend of my father's, that in heaven you hang out with friends as well as family. I still don't know who the other name was.

Anyway, that was my experience. It was very powerful and healing. It was like getting confirmation of all the things you hope for.

It was also not what I expected--I definitely recognized Dad but he was rather transformed, it was kind of communicating with essence of Dad, if that makes sense. And the things she was talking about that they were communicating were not the things I would have thought, exactly. They definitely felt there were coming from other consciousnesses.

One other thing that was funny is that I told her my dad did not believe in an afterlife and did not think he would get to see his brother again. She started laughing and said, "Well, they are standing right there together, very happy to be together again, so I guess he was wrong." He was also estranged (in his own mind) from his dead mother, and was rather bitter about her, but she was the first person the medium identified by name and standing there with him. So that was really interesting.

Just wanted to share the experience. It left me reeling, and felt very out of time--I have no idea how long we talked. It also felt very healing.