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When the Extraordinary Hits Home
as an observer of my own experience, I have to accept that his pres-
ence was very real to me, quite as real as happenings that are verifi-
able by conventional means.
Moreover, participating in the closed group led me to understand
that mediumship need not involve strictly individual phenomena. The
same things can sometimes be seen and felt by others at the same time.
To my surprise, I found that what I initially thought was the exalted
experience of the rare gifted individual often involves a common level
of perception, a kind of intersubjectivity. Furthermore, I have discov-
ered for myself the complex role of the body in healing and clairvoy-
ance. The exercises in the closed group allow one to become attuned
to what Csordas elegantly terms “somatic modes of attention” ( 1997 ,
67 – 70 ), because “seeing” clairvoyantly often involves the senses. Be-
fore going further into these matters, I turn to another kind of Spiri-
tualist experience in which the body often serves as a vehicle: trans-
mitting healing.
Spiritualist Healing
Influences such as Reiki, healing touch in nursing, and various New
Age approaches have made Spiritualist healing appear less strange
than it must have seemed when the Spiritual Church of Healing was
first established in 1967 in Montreal. As mentioned earlier, healing
in the sch involves passing the hands over the body of the one seek-
ing healing; this is done in silence while those waiting hear a guided
meditation and soft New Age music. Initially, transmitting healing
was not an activity I ever expected to perform. By the time I was in-
vited to become an apprentice healer, about three years after I began
to attend the closed group, I had received healing a number of times
from Michel and others. Spiritualist healing seemed to help many
of those who requested it, and I had certainly felt an enhanced well-
being on the occasions when I received it.
Healing in the sch is never presented as an alternative to medical
treatment or psychotherapy. In fact, clairvoyant messages often en-
courage individuals to see a physician. Healing is seen as a support
for dealing with physical malaise and trauma (illness, surgery, che-
