Or as he would say: channels the other side.
I was always very visceral , very creative . But I never holler it a phantasmal endowment in my younger old age ; I could n’t order you where it was hail from . When I came to Cassadaga in 1997 from Rochester , New York , my biography had turned upside down . I lost a 30 - twelvemonth marriage and all my companies . It was a wakeup call that something had to change .
I ’d been in the tangible estate industry and worked as a New York mortgage banker . I had 150 employees and 100 existent land agent solve for me . I did that for 30 years and I was burnt out . I had the rascal brain , I could n’t concentrate . I was always reply living ’s question through my ego brain and analytic side . I thought I had control of life , but I learned we are n’t really in dominance of anything .
In 1996 , I went to a mystic Christian church in New Jersey and heard a reference to Cassadaga . That ’s how I first learn about this shabby town in Florida . So I amount down toFloridafor vacation the next year and arrived in Cassadaga on a Sunday morning , consider I would get fix and leave . It ’s 25 years later , and I ’m still here .
Photo by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
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We do n’t talk about dead people here . We think some of the spirit are more alive than we are .
I number as a Reiki passe-partout , thinking I would be a outstanding healer . But they told me it ’s spiritual healing they do here . I was interested . So I bug out taking classes at the Spiritualist Camp and study for six geezerhood . I met a wad of great multitude who directed me . They were healer and teachers and medium . By August of 2006 , I was attest to be a spiritual therapist ; and by December , I was certified to be a spectral medium .
Spiritual healing is very different . It ’s not part of the energy modalities , like reiki . I do n’t take anything aside from energy mode — I’ve understand a lot of good affair happen . The difference with spiritual healing is that , the more you’re able to exclude down your ego brain , the more you’re able to be a conduit for Spirit to work out through you .
Spiritualist souvenirs sold here.|Photo by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
We do n’t sing about dead the great unwashed here . We think some of the spirits are more alive than we are . The spiritual vitality put into a baby when it ’s pay does n’t just dissolve into nothing . It goes into what we call the other side of life . And those on the other side of living are who we channel as mediums .
Being a metier is almost like bring forth a Seth of spiritual eyes and auricle that are unlike from your forcible ears and optic .
Mediums are unlike from psychic . They reek , taste , sense , and experience loved one on the other side of life , whereas a psychical is picking up information from your vim aura . There ’s a connection between those left in spirit and those left behind . And that ’s what a average taps into when doing a spiritual contact with someone sitting in front of us .
When we come into this man we are like a piece of the puzzle of life , and our walk through life is to answer that direction . And being a medium is almost like getting a set of spiritual eyes and ears that are unlike from your physical pinna and middle — you begin to see the signs in life , and you set out to connect the superman .
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These days , I usually see around 200 people each year . I used to see a lot more , but I ’m 77 now and I have other things I am doing . Some days I do n’t do readings at all , and some 24-hour interval I ’ll take three or four mass . I ’ve met people from all over the public here looking for healing — from all 50 DoS , Central and South America , Eastern Europe , and beyond . Most people who do to me are looking for spiritual spirit guidance .
About 20 percent of those who come to me are looking for closedown for lost loved ones . And the legal age of the stay on 80 percentage are look for relationship answers about not only important others , but also parents , children , work associates , and the like . What I secern them is not come from me , it ’s coming from Spirit . It ’s hail through me from Spirit , whether that ’s the Holy Spirit , loved ones on the other side of life , or a intent usher .
I know I ’m providing a service , because I get people retrovert . Some have almost become like friends . And I offer anyone who ’s been in my home a 15 - minute , costless reference at any meter after the session , in case they require to talk thing over or ask for advice .
Spiritualist and Mediumship are two different paths in life.|Photo by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
A lot of people would care to twist us here in Cassadaga into a spiritual Disneyland .
I used to be a better spirit communicator 10 old age ago . But one thousand of reading have turn me more toward ghostlike intuitive counseling these day . I ’ve had masses come back to me after 10 or 15 years mean I recollect our last conversation . But you have to shift thing off for lead a normal life , you ca n’t have all that going on .
I lead a fairly normal life outside of my home plate where I do my readings . And as I ’ve gotten older , I ’ve develop other interest . I wish to go camping in my camper van . I ’m spell a book , too , about normal hoi polloi doing extraordinary things for the major planet . I do pick things up sometimes when I ’m just standing in a memory or somewhere — it ’s part of being a medium ; but I try not to step in in peoples ’ lives , so I do n’t say anything .
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The decimal point is : we do n’t desire to have to go through those brickwall experience in life if we line up to the way of life . That , to me , is spiritual enlightenment . And the single freehanded intellect I ’m still here in Cassadaga is that I ’ve rule a peace of mind here I have n’t ground anywhere else . And peacefulness , you see , is dissimilar from being happy . you could be happy when you get a new car . But pacification is being in the heart of a tornado , and you just have a feeling that everything is o.k. and everything is okay .
A passel of people would wish to turn us here in Cassadaga into a spiritual Disneyland . But we ’re just practice a faith that ’s been here for over 100 year . And the community of interests has endure all these years because it does supply a specific function that ’s valued by the populace .
Love last here , there ’s no room for hatred .
Glad you can still take a Florida golf cart to get a reading.|Photo by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
Richard Russell has a normal life outside of hearing from spirits.|Photo by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
