UPDATE: There is a Psychic Fair Saturday in Bremerton.
The item on our calender
states, “This event features a day of enlightenment and healing
provided by the area’s most gifted psychics and
healers.”
This may not surprise you. Not once in my life did I ever think my
dead relatives would communicate with me while I was sitting in a
trailer in a South Kitsap neighborhood.
This story began with a walk I made in downtown Bremerton last
week, where on a utility pole I saw advertised a woman from
Scotland was offering a class in beginning mediumship. That flyer
seemed to have the ingredients to an interesting story. Who among
you knew there might be that kind of interest here? Seattle, sure,
but Kitsap?
Catherine Mccafferty, known professionally in her role as
clairvoyant and spiritualist as Cathy Mac, is here from Arrochar,
Scotland until Oct. 14. She came at the invitation of her sister,
Port Orchard resident Margaret Boosinger, who Thursday was
appropriately dressed in a “Ghostbusters” T-shirt. Boosinger came
to the U.S. years ago as a Navy wife.
The class was supposed to be all day Friday for $150 at
Bremerton’s Quality Inn & Suites. It turned out there were no
takers. Mccafferty now attributes that to the price, one that was
recommended to her by a California spiritualist. People will
apparently pay that kind of money there, she said, but not
here.
That doesn’t mean there is no interest in that brand of
spiritualism here. On a visit to a farmer’s market Mccafferty said
she visited with a woman reading Tarot cards and has heard of
others in the county. In the phone book there is one “Spiritual
Consultant” in the Yellow Pages, between “Spices” and “Sporting
Goods-Repair.” There are also psychics in the book and online.
The abilities Cathy Mac says she has of receiving messages from
spirits passed is one her sister shares and is trying to improve.
The two had tried to get those improvements made over the phone,
but it wasn’t working. So Boosinger put up the $700 for
Mccafferty’s round trip to Washington.
Our European guest received her certification in February
following three years of study at the UK arm of the International
Spiritualist Federation. The organization’s chief
aim, according to its Web site is to advance
spiritualism as a “science and philosophy.”
Mccafferty herself got into the practice after years of having
enough experiences to finally convince herself she had the gift.
She didn’t always believe it. “You think yourself crazy sometimes,”
she said. The catalyst for her was when a family member died. The
man’s wife was wanting a message from her late husband, so the
group of them went to a spiritualist church. Mccafferty said the
message came through her.
The money she earns, she said, she gives to charities looking
for a cure for multiple sclerosis, an ailment that has her
26-year-old daughter wheelchair bound. Although the Bremerton class
fizzled, she said she’s stilling willing to offer readings for,
say, a small group of people for a smaller donation.
When I contacted her and found out the class was canceled, she
said she was willing to do a demonstration. I arranged a time and a
photographer. It didn’t dawn at me at the time that the
demonstration would be a reading specifically for me. As the hour
came closer, though, I did realize this thing was likely to be
personal. I went in nervous.
Mccafferty carries a comforting air about her, though, as does
Boosinger. Neither asked me anything about myself, which was
reassuring. Mccafferty explained that legitimate spiritualists
operate under the instructions, “Don’t feed the medium.” My
instructions were to answer “yes” or “no.”
Mccafferty pulled out a pack of “Messages from the Angels” cards
and began shuffling. Laying down cards on the table she picked up
one at a time and gave me messages she said were from deceased
ancestors and those of my wife. Boosinger also helped point out
some of the things she saw on the cards.
I won’t bother trying to determine here in this blog entry
whether what the Scottish woman visiting her sister told me was
true. I went in a skeptic and came out no more convinced. Some
things didn’t make any sense, but might later, Mccafferty said. The
ideas were vague enough to believe that a skilled huckster could
perhaps pull off what looks like spiritual connection. I don’t
think Mccafferty is a con, because I believe that at least she
believed what she was telling me.
True or not, some of what she said was nice to hear.
This next bit is where it will go off the rails for many of you.
Mccafferty said she had her only celebrity experience before coming
over here. Marilyn Monroe told her, she said, “I didn’t O.D.” When
asked what happened, Monroe was reported to have said, “Happy
Birthday, Mr. President.”
I doubt that closes any books on that conspiracy. I found a
psychic website that said Monroe visited a lot of psychics when she
was alive, but also said she mostly haunts sites around Los Angeles
and that other psychics have said her death was an accident, not a
suicide. There are other psychics who side with Cathy Mac.
Another psychic says Monroe wants Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
to
buy her old house.
OK then. More important than that to me, though, is the good
fortune coming my way, a kind of a windfall, Mac said.
You want some of that kind of news? Cathy Mac can be reached at
(360) 434-4542 or at SpiritualistCathyMac@wavecable.com.
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