I love receiving new things from friends in the scene. Be it a gift from a follower or a team, or a researcher sending me a team shirt or their latest book to read. Hell, I’ve even had home baking sent to me!
One thing I love about this field is the diversity. The various personalities, good and bad, that ebb and flow through the multi-faceted layers of this world of the intriguing and interesting. I also like to talk to and even hang out with people who exist in my chosen field and have similar interests, yet come at it all from a totally different angle. From the more spiritual to the more scientific. From the more believing to the more sceptical in the scene. I prefer to listen to and observe others, rather than blindly dismiss and label negatively due to a lack of context or back story.
Whether I follow a way of thinking doesn’t matter. Whether I agree or believe in what I’m told doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m listening, observing, and forming my own thoughts, theories and opinions based on what I see, hear, experience and choose to relate to. We all have choices, and we all have the freedom to believe whatever we want and react to that belief in whatever way we choose, as long as it doesn’t affect those around us negatively.
Having laid down that small disclaimer, I have to say that when it comes to mediums and psychics, I’ve met only a small few that I might stretch to say that I feel they might have something going on there. I’ve met many people who like the idea and desire the need to feel special, so they act out on it. I’ve also met a small few that I can connect with. Those I can call friends. Those I can trust and those that I feel aren’t con-artists, to say it bluntly. I often use my gut feelings with people, and they’ve hardly ever been proven wrong. *knocks on wood*
This new, fresh-off-the-press book arrived in my box, and I got quite excited.
Walking Between Worlds: The Life of a New Zealand Psychic Medium – by Mel Orr.
I love reading biographies on how a person lived their life and how they came to be the person they are today.
The influences, inspirations, and significant moments in their lives that shaped their future actions and direction. I enjoy learning about the naive and unknowing child, learning and growing with each experience. Learning by doing and moving in whichever direction those experiences and teachings might lead them. I have much respect for anyone who has carried on with childhood dreams and been patient, tolerant and perseverant enough to see it all play out into their older years. I can relate, and I know many others who can, too.
I’ve known Mel for a few years now. Mel’s a psychic medium, living down in Christchurch, in New Zealand’s South Island. I did an interview chat with her during all the COVID lockdowns on July 6, 2020, on a little thing I threw together to fill the boredom, called Outside the Box. My little effort to keep people in the field connected while forced to be disconnected. It was a great conversation, and I learned a lot about something I admit I know very little about.
Mel’s new book, Walking between Worlds, was a very enlightening read, and I’ll straight up admit I quite enjoyed immersing myself in her journey.
My favourite part of any biographical-type- type book is usually that first chapter, or the introduction.
This part often tells me a bullet-point rundown of the hows and whys to them being the person they are. I find the intro chapter more interesting a lot of the time. With Mel’s book, the formula works and does actually hold the reader. Well, it held me, so that’s one. She doesn’t hold back on a few personal details, and in parts, the book feels a little too raw and maybe even too honest. (Is there such a thing?)
I also appreciate how the information is laid out in a grounded and balanced fashion, with personal anecdotes and thoughts interspersed with how-to tips and approaches for anyone curious or wanting to enter the world of mediumship.
The book, I’m sure, will be a huge help to others out there struggling with inner issues. Mental health, physical health, and spiritual issues; Mel takes on each with compassion and empathy.
She’s lived much of it herself, and so you know the sharing is from the heart and soul. I may have never had a spiritual experience (or maybe I have and just wasn’t aware of it?), but I could relate at moments. In some ways, people like Mel and people like me are similar. It’s not until one connects a few dots that one starts to see this.
As I read this book, I realised probably around three-quarters in, that I was actually quite engaged, and even with my sceptical and somewhat agnostic mindset, could see things from her angle. An understanding and (dare I say it) acceptance that these people exist, and do have something to offer, whether we fully understand it or not.
Maybe it’s her style of writing, I’m not sure, but each page felt relaxed and calm, if that makes sense. In my mind, I was reading it in a slow-paced and hushed whisper. Calming and reflective. Hell, it was almost a meditative experience!
In my time working within the paranormal field, I’ve learned to question everything. Not everything is black and white, and the grey areas are aplenty. Human arrogance states that there is nothing unknown and that there is a scientific and verified explanation for everything, no matter how incredible the initial claims might be.
But, what if we, as humans, are wrong? What if there are things we don’t yet understand?
What if we are ”pigeon-holing” convenient cut-and-paste explanations onto things, as a dismissive quick fix? What if the spiritual realm is real and only a few can see or experience it? In my research, I’m always considering the what-ifs. We are told that there are many possible rational and natural explanations for seemingly paranormal experiences, but without being the one experiencing things first hand and not being there at the time, isn’t this a little presumptuous? Ignorant even?
I’ll admit I’ve learned a lot from investigating, or even just sitting and chatting, with other people of a differing ilk in this field. I have a new appreciation and acceptance, and have found a new sense of balance in my work, thanks to people who do things differently from me. I may still not follow their path and will (possibly stubbornly) carry on doing things my way. But I now have a better understanding of others around me. How they think and how their life experiences have affected and shaped them. I, for one, can certainly appreciate and relate to that.
Walking Between Worlds: The Life of a New Zealand Psychic Medium, by Mel Orr, is a good book.
If you are curious, intrigued or are looking for a little guidance within your own spiritual journey, I recommend giving this one a read.
