Spiritual Life

The Spiritual Side of My Life

Many people over the years have asked me how I knew I was psychic and how I developed my gifts of clairvoyance and healing.

It is not something, in my experience, that suddenly happens, it sort of crept up on me and I found myself experiencing strange coincidences, intuitions and thoughts which made me starting questioning.

carolmartinI remember one day, when I was in my teens still living at home, a gypsy came to the door selling heather, as they do.  I could not resist wanting to hear what she had to say so paid her for a bunch of heather. One thing that sticks out in my mind is, she told me I would buy a little blue car (couldn´t drive at the time) and I would drive all over the country working.  It was some years later, having forgotten all about this gypsy, that I bought my first car, a blue mini and drove all over the UK working as an actress.

Another incident happened.  I went to see a psychic tarot reader called Isis for a sitting.  During the sitting she told me that I would be an actress and would get a part in something which was successful.  I would take over a part from a girl that was leaving and the public would accept.  I really thought she was making all this up as I was working as a shorthand typist at the time and had no thoughts about acting.  It came true.  I took over from Penny Spencer as the new Sharon in the film “Please Sir” going on to make many episodes of “The Fenn Street Gang” and the public did accept me as Sharon.

With various other experiences I started to ask myself questions, “What am I doing here?”  “Why am I here?” “What is this life all about?”  I just couldn´t accept that we are born, go through all experiences of learning, relationships, pain, working and so on, just to die and that is the end of it.  “What is the point” I thought.

I used to gaze at the stars and planets and wonder what else what out there.  Surely man cannot be so arrogant to think he is the only living being or form of life on a planet, when there are so many many out there, some not even discovered yet.  So why could there not be another kind of existence when we die?

Through a series of events I was led to a group of people who believed in life after death and thought it possible to develop an awareness of the life unseen to the naked eye and in turn, tune into this life force for knowledge, guidance, healing and understanding of ourselves and life.

martynI have sat with many groups over the years developing my awareness and trying to get some sort of understanding of life, in its many forms as we know it, humans, animals, plants and planet earth, let alone anything else we are unaware of.  Along with my acting career I have worked for many years as a healer/counsellor and clairvoyant medium, holding group meetings with my husband Martyn Padbury, who is a healer, medium and trance medium.

I have found, over the years, that with using these gifts it has brought so much comfort and healing of the mind, body and Spirit to people. There are many forms of healing and little did I know that I had been involved with one aspect of healing without knowing, the healing with laughter with all the comedy shows I have worked in.  For people to laugh and forget their worries for a short period of time, takes them away for a while and healing can take place.

I remember that whilst filming an episode of El Cid in Spain I was used for healing.  Trevor Byefield and Kenneth Cranham and I went to a local bar for supper after filming.  Trevor had a really bad back and the production company had called in a doctor to help him but he was still in a lot of pain.  Whilst in the bar I told Trevor what I did and I suggested I just put my hands on his back and see if any help could be given.  Within minutes he said he felt my hands were like an electric fire, heat is often experienced with healing.  They were not really the right conditions for healing to take place but it worked and relief was given.  It must have been reported in a newspaper, I cannot remember now, but we were both invited to go on Richard and Judy show to talk of the incident.

I know there are many people who do not believe in an afterlife but there are thousands of people who flock to demonstrations of mediumship, buy thousands of books on the subject including self help, visit mediums, tarot card readers, visit healers, go to retreats for some sort of help with their daily lives or bereavement.  There is a need for a more open way of thinking about life.

carolandmartynThere are a lot of centres and mediums out there now and people are opening up their minds to the possibility that when we die it is not the end.  OK some are grieving so much for a loved one, they want to believe they still exist, but there has been so much evidence of survival and comfort derived from this.

The healing that is taking place is wonderful and who cares how this healing comes about if it helps the person in whatever way.

Each person has their own belief systems, there are many roads home so to speak.  Just because we cannot see something tangible, does not mean it is not there.  Think of the new planets discovered, think of the universes we are still unaware of, what are they doing there, what reason are they there.

Think of your senses and how they operate, your intuition, insights, thoughts, actions, knowing something is going to happen, why do we have these senses, must be a reason.  I could go on and on about all this.

I feel this earth plane is rather a horrible place to be living, although our Spirit Guides have suggested it is the best learning school in life.  When you think of what man is doing with greed to each other, the animal kingdom, plant life and the planet is appalling.

I feel man should try to live their lives as best they can with their circumstances, bearing others and other life forms in mind, learning by so called mistakes and thought forms and try to make improvements within oneself.   It is so easy to judge others but first we need to look at ourselves.  An old Indian proverb “ Never judge another man, until you have walked a mile in his moccasins”.

These are some of my thoughts on this vast subject, I have seen the help a different way of thinking has changed and helped peoples lives.  I no longer work in this field unless a situation arises.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF MEDIUMSHIP

I was slowly learning about the different forms of mediumship and I found I could see pictures or people and be able to describe what I was seeing and give information. When I say I could see, it was not with my own eyes, as it were, but a mental picture in my mind’s eye, rather like if I said to you, imagine your mothers face, you would immediately picture her. Some mediums can actually see with their own eyes a soul standing solid, which I think would frighten the life out me! So I was using Clairvoyance, clear sight. I also found out that I could do the same with just sensing which is called Clairsentience. Basically, sensing someone or something and again expressing what I was feeling to give a message or information.

Then there is Clairaudience, hearing, again not always with the physical ear (although some mediums do) but like a thought just coming into the mind, rather like talking to yourself in your head. I think we all do that, but with a medium they can differentiate between what is their thought and what is being given to them by another source. So I found out I could also work in this way.

These forms of mediumship I call Mental Mediumship as it is coming mostly through the mind and it can be very difficult to not let your own mind interfere with what you are receiving, so sitting in a circle can help you understand what could be your imagination or thoughts and learn to know the difference when a Spirit Guide is working with you.

Another form of mediumship, which I did find a bit scary, is what I call Inspirational talking or sometimes called channelling, meaning that a medium will start talking, having no idea what they are going to say, as the information seems to bypass the conscious mind and they just talk, which in my case is very rapid giving no time to think. I quite liked working in this way.

HEALING

Healing has been practised throughout the ages and one of the greatest healers that we know of was Jesus healing the sick both in mind and body. A person who has the gift of spiritual healing is used as a channel by the spirit world for the healing power or energy to be passed through them to a patient, so they may receive whatever help is necessary, as Jesus did with the laying on of hands.

This healing power does not depend on knowledge by the channel or faith by the sufferer, it is just passed through the channel to the recipient. Rather like a TV station that sends a signal of a programme to our TV sets and once we have switched it on, we receive a picture. All a healer need do is have the desire to help and ask that healing be given, to put it simply. They do not have any control over whether the healing will work or not, as with our TV sets there can be all sorts of reasons why a signal is not be received, weather conditions, mechanical breakdown and so forth. The same applies to healing, it is either possible or not.

In the Spirit World (I later found out) there are many souls who have passed over, who whilst on earth spent their lives healing the sick, doctors, surgeons and physicians of all kinds, whether believers or not in life after death when on earth, find they can continue their healing work, if they so desire but in a different way. By using their knowledge and now having at their disposal other forms of powers and energies they can learn to transmit healing energies for easement or cure. I really don´t think anyone knows for sure how it all works but it is apparent it can be is very effective.

TRANCE

Trance is a more direct form of communication, as instead of the medium’s mind being impressed with information and pictures in the mind, as with Clairvoyance (meaning clear sight) the guides can get close enough to the auric field (the aura) to take a certain amount of control over the medium’s body and mind and therefore speak through them using their vocal cords. Usually a medium that is being used for trance starts to get a little drowsy, closes their eyes, their breathing will alter and look as if they are going to sleep, at which point the guide will take over and speak. There are many levels of this type of communication whereby a spirit guide can use a channel.

A medium in a deep trance is usually totally out of it, in as much as they are totally unaware of, the change in their physical appearance, voice, speech pattern of the soul speaking and have no idea of what is being said. It is like a different person sitting there. I later found out that there are many ways a medium can be used by spirit to communicate.

AURA

The Aura is a vibration of energy emanating from a life form and is seen as a form of light, made up of colours from the spectrum. A person who is able to see or sense an aura can tell from the colours surrounding the life form, say a human being, what frame of mind that person is in and what their state of health is. The purist form is white and holds all the colours. We see many pictures of Christ with a light around his head which some call a Halo. There are now machines that can photograph this energy field, one called Kirlian photography invented by an electrician called Semyon Kirlian who started his research into this in 1939 which can help diagnos any imbalances in a person´s mind and physical state.

As the Aura is a vibration we can still sense it even though we may not able to see it. Take for example when we meet someone for the first time, leaving aside the visual aspect of, they are pretty, handsome, ugly etc., we usually sense quite quickly if we feel we like them, dislike them or are indifferent to them. Some we might think “I don´t like them” others “ I feel comfortable with this person” or “I feel as if I have known them all my life. What we are doing, though consciously unaware of it, is tuning into the vibration of the aura around that person and the level of that persons mind and thinking. So to put it simply “Like seeks like” meaning from my understanding, that if we meet someone with a similar way of thinking we are more than likely to get on.

DIRECT VOICE LESLIE

When I had first met Martyn he introduced me to a medium called Maisie Langford and we used to sit in her circle when I was not working. We were going to the Psychic News dinner and dance (in those days they held one every year, not sure now but there was always an award for medium of the year.) and she arranged for us to meet a Direct Voice medium called Leslie Flint, very well known in the spiritualist movement.

A direct voice medium is someone who has the gift to be used by spirit to talk independently of the medium, through the air as it were, talking through a spirit made voice box moulded by a substance called Ectoplasm which comes from the medium, while the medium is fully awake and the medium can converse with the spirits speaking, not like in trance. It is an amazing gift and to hear the voices of spirit and people who have lived on the earth plane, moving around the room is unbelievable. We sat with Leslie at his home in London for many years and became good friends. He used to love coming to my first nights in the theatre. I have some amazing recordings of different souls that came to speak. You can read about this amazing man in his book “Voices in the Dark” first published in 1971 and there is a website dedicated to his work called, “The Leslie Flint Educational Trust”

Leslie was put under many test conditions so it could be proved, by some of the investigators that he was a fraud!! On one particular occasion, they tied him to a chair, measured some water and made him keep it in his mouth, taped plaster over his mouth and the sitting began. The voices came through the air and some good confirmation was given to one of the investigators. Sitting over, tape off his mouth, water spat into a container and measured, practically the same amount and the conclusion was he was talking through his stomach!!

When doing some research to see if they still had these psychic news dinner and dances I came across someone reminiscing about a particular occasion and couldn´t resist putting it in. Quote: I remember an occasion at a Psychic News Dinner/dance when a celebrated elderly medium dropped dead during the Gay Gordon’s which she was enthusiastically participating. For some reason this inspired outrage by other mediums and groans of horror. It seemed to me an enviable end. The late Maurice Barbanell, then editor of the Psychic News, brought things back to an even keel in the paper with the headline “Medium Dances into the Spirit World” I thought this was hilarious.

As with a lot of religions which can be a bit holier than thou and very serious, Spiritualism can be very funny, down to earth and natural. After all we are dealing with people and characters that lived on the earth plane and are no different than you and me, retaining their human traits.

PSYCHIC ART.

Martyn´s mother developed into a psychic artist and could draw people from the spirit world that had passed over and wished to make themselves known. This ability is even harder for sceptics to explain away. Some of these psychic artists cannot even draw but find their hands being guided to draw a face and often get impressions and characteristics of the person they are drawing.

When I had been living alone after the breakup of my relationship, John my first husband invited me to a fancy dress party. Oh God, what was I going to be? I decided to dress up as a clown and use whatever I had in my wardrobe to make do. I put on a sort of flimsy jumpsuit, a red woollen hat on my head, stuck in some plastic daffodils and painted my face as a clown, bright red nose, big red lips and two red circles on my cheeks. At that time I had no idea why I chose to dress up as a clown but I was to later find out.

Years later when I had met Martyn and his parents, Jeanne his mother was being used for psychic art, she produced a rather childlike/crude picture of a clown for me. I had been told earlier by one of Martyn´s guides I had someone helping me who was a clown in one life and the make-up was exactly the same as I’d painted on my face for the party. I still have the photo of John and me as a clown and Jeanne’s drawing.

I remember one incident of a photographer called Peter Cook, who came to take my picture for some publicity shots for a show I was in and speaking of his experience with a psychic artist. He worked for the Sunday Mirror at the time and had been sent out with a journalist to do a story on Coral Polge, a well known psychic artist. Being a complete sceptic he thought it a load of rubbish but he got more than he bargained for. During the interview Coral was busy drawing trying to demonstrate what she did, while he was taking pictures. He barely spoke to her beyond asking her to turn this way or that for the photos, and didn´t take what she did seriously. Until she showed him the three pictures she had drawn. He was absolutely flabbergasted, as there in front of him were portraits of some dead relatives. She described certain personality traits and information about these people which he knew to be correct.

When he got home he immediately searched through his old photo albums and found pictures of the three people she had drawn. Not only were there a disturbing likeness but also the same clothes, hairstyles and jewellery. The story and pictures were published in the newspaper. It was the start of his search into this subject and the possibility that life goes on.

Ivor James was another very prolific psychic artist, similar to Coral Polge, very well known within the spiritualist movement. He was a charming man and his wife Margery was always at his side. He used to come down from Cambridge on many occasions to demonstrate to our circle in West Sussex. From what I can remember he used to draw the pictures and then go back home and paint them in oils which must have been very time consuming, he later just gave the pencil drawings. I still to this day have those paintings and various other pencil portraits.

PHYSICAL MEDIUMSHIP

A physical medium is somebody who has a very special gift. They have the ability to be used by spirit for a spirit soul to manifest in a physical sense, a materialization, rather than through the mind of the medium as in clairvoyance or trance The medium usually has regular sitters in his circle for the development of this and invite guests to experience this phenomenon. These seances are usually held in the dark, which does give rise to suspicion of what is actually going on. I understand that it is being worked on to hold seances like these in some form of light, so there is no room for doubt but the substance used which comes from the medium, ectoplasm, is very sensitive to the intense vibration of light.

These séances are held under strict conditions to protect the medium. This substance can come out of any orifice like through the nose, mouth or naval. it is white in form and sensitive to light therefore most séances are held in the dark. They can mould this into an artificial voice box for spirit to speak through. It is also used to connect to a trumpet, a cone-shaped object with luminous tape at the top and bottom, so spirit can move it around the room and souls can speak through it and the sitters can see the movement. It is also used to form a cloak of protection around a soul who wishes to materialise a face or part of their body and in some cases although not common now, as far as I know, materialise fully.

There are many books with photographs of ectoplasm and manifestations taken years ago, when this form of mediumship was very advanced whereby they could introduce some light into the room to allow photographs to be taken. Helen Duncan, Minnie Harrison, Jack Webber, Alec Harris, Estelle Roberts to name but a few, had this wonderful ability.