From Skeptic To Believer In One Night!

As a child, I often eavesdropped on my parents’ heated arguments. Late one Saturday night, during one of these usual “ear-to-the-door” sessions, things seemed surprisingly less intense than usual. Instead of the customary shouting, I heard what sounded more like a lighthearted debate.

I could clearly hear my mother daring my father to “go with her” that Sunday night.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned the true nature of the dare. My mother had managed to persuade my father to accompany her to a spiritualist service in a London church.

To this day I am not sure how she managed to persuade him to go, but it turned out to be a life-changing experience for my father. I imagine it was also a great relief for my mother, who finally had a partner who shared her faith and passion.

Raised a Catholic and later a devout spiritualist, my mother often endured the ridicule of my father, who made fun of her faith in God and her beliefs about heaven and the afterlife.

But her dare marked the beginning of a significant change for him. While my father had never embraced organized religion or spirituality, he was about to have a profound spiritual awakening.

So, off they went. As “luck” would have it, Joseph Benjamin, a well-known spiritualist medium at the time, was one of the guest speakers at the church that weekend. My father later admitted that as he bundled up in his winter coat and scarf, he secretly hoped that he could make a quick getaway after the service and perhaps stop for a beer or two at his favorite local pub! Continue reading →