Time to write my story… how did I find my way to Spirit to become the Medium and Spiritual teacher I am today…

A lot of mediums will tell you they have been seeing Spirit since they were small children, and although that may be true in my case, I don’t recall much more than being convinced my grandmother was still “right here” after she passed.  I remember being confused that my mother was upset, why was she crying that her mother was gone when I could see my Grammy standing right there.  I was 4 when she died.  I couldn’t understand my mothers grief because I felt and saw my Grandmother right there with me.  I was 4, my memories are few.  I do remember spending many days with her before she got sick.  I remember sugar cubes and bubbles and her always leaving me a new toy on the garage window sill.  She and I were very close and I recall feeling confused by this thing called death, by my mother’s desperate crying, because for me, Grammy was right there with me still.  I was only 4.  My memories are faint.

So my story of discovering Spirit and my gifts begins as an adult.  2008 is when I sat in my first development circle.  I would have turned 39 that year.  

Let me start by saying, I was adopted as an infant and often found myself searching for belonging, feeling like an outsider, that I didn’t fit in.  I struggled as long as I can remember to feel at home anywhere.  My Grammy was probably the one person who really gave me that sense of true acceptance and belonging.  I often wonder if she had lived, would I have still had all the drama, would my insecurities still have been so much in the forefront of my life?  Would she have stood up for me and protected me when I was vulnerable and needed protection?  What would have become of my life if she remained in it on the physical plane? Would I have felt loved?

My fucked up life is another story for another time, this is about my finding Spirit and discovering I am a medium.

By 2008 I was 18 years into an abusive and unhappy marriage, still trying to find that place I could fit in and feel at home.  I had spent a year or so going to various churches in my area but nothing really clicked.  

My best friend at the time (also adopted) had lost her biological sister and then 7 or 8 months later her biological mother also passed tragically.  After losing her family she found herself at a mediumship demonstration with Maria Halvorsen at the local YMCA.  Maria was spot on and gave her beautiful messages from her family.  She also gave out her business card which stated she was the assistant pastor at the Swampscott Church of Spiritualism. 

I remember my friend coming and telling me all about the event and how wonderful the message work was.  I recall us talking about this “church of spiritualism” and being very curious what that meant, so we looked it up online and then rather quickly and excitedly decided we would love to go to a service.  

At this point in my life I had been to many services at many churches with Christ at the heart of the religion.  I was raised Protestant, lived with a Born Again Christian family, my husbands family were mostly practicing Catholic and I had Greek Orthodox family.  I had lots of church experiences, but never heard of Spiritualism.  

My friend and I used to go to shops in Salem for readings and other magical affairs for fun but this was somehow intimidating to me, this Spiritualist church. For a few reasons, mostly feelings I adapted when I was 17 and pregnant and living with a born again christian family.  When I first arrived at the families farm and became part of their church community, I thought I may have found that sense of peace, that home,  I had always been searching for.  That is until I began to look pregnant.  Then they were no longer as welcoming, I was a bad influence on the local teenagers…yada yada yada

Anyway, I digress, the point is that during my time living on the farm I believed in the idea of Jesus they introduced me to...follow that up with my Catholic in laws and suddenly the experience of mediumship, connecting with the dead, reading cards or doing anything mystical or magical was completely wrong and unacceptable.  Going for a reading to a fun mystical shop was one thing but going to a church founded on the beliefs of mediumship was another.   Even though I wasn’t a devoted practicing Christian I had adapted enough of the fear based thought processes to feel this Spiritualist church was scary or that I was opening the door to something I shouldn’t.  

So on March 23, 2008, Easter morning, I had planned on going with my friend to the church.  She had already been and loved it and I thought I’d check it out.  But on that morning I had an absolute melt down about going to a spiritualist church on Easter sunday.  It had to be against all rules and I would surely burn in hell for it.  A church without Jesus on Easter Sunday had to be wrong.  I didn’t go.  And again on Monday my friend told me all about how much she loved it.  She said they didn’t ignore Jesus at all, she told me the Eckhart Tolle book I was reading was on flyers in the pews and everyone was so friendly...she thought I’d really appreciate the vibe there.

The following week, on Sunday March 30, 2008 I went to the scary spiritualist church for the first time. The Swampscott Church of Spiritualism.  I pretty much instantly fell in love with everything there, The energy, the singing, the hands on healing.  It was warm and inviting and I had that sense of belonging and acceptance I craved from that very first day when one member quickly introduced herself and invited me back for the coffee/lunch hour after service.  I went back every Sunday and I have been an active member ever since.

So back to me and mediumship… by June of that year I signed up to sit in a mediumship development circle.  I will be honest though, I wanted to hear from my Grammy and didn’t think I was there to personally develop as a medium.  The pastor at the church, Rev. Fatima Heath, had brought through such a clear and evidential message from my Gram on the same day that she announced she would be starting a development circle.  I signed up for her class hoping that my Grandmother would show up more and I’d get more messages.  What happened at that class was the beginning even though I didn’t yet recognize it as such.

I don’t remember how far into the 6 weeks it happened but there was one class where we went into meditation and invited Spirit to come to us.  I was relatively new to meditation but really loved the feeling and was always eager to go “there”.  This particular meditation I began to feel anxious, I felt myself riding a motorcycle in the sand, I felt I was being chased, I suddenly felt myself being impaled, I absolutely felt the pain of something going through my chest and I gasped. At that very moment I felt someone hold onto my hand, it was so real I opened my eyes thinking someone in the circle heard me gasp and was offering me comfort, but no hand was in mine.  

I closed my eyes and my experience continued as I felt and saw and heard a young man saying over and over again “tell my mom I’m ok, I just need my mom to know I’m okay, Tell my Mom I’m ok” I heard names and saw the colors and type of motorcycle and was very overwhelmed with emotion, I felt the accident and the feelings of this young man and the fear inside him as he rode through the sand dunes thinking it was all supposed to be fun and not understanding why the cops were chasing him...I could feel his hand in mine so vividly...I began to cry.  

When the circle was open and it was time to share our experiences I did, and no one could take any of it.  Fatima who was teaching the class had a possible motorcycle accident in her family but the name and details didn’t fit.  She was very kind and she knew I had a real experience (even if I was still unsure) and she told me that I should keep it in mind, write it down (I never did) and she told me she felt that somehow the day would come when I’d be able to share this message with his mother,  I just hadn’t found her yet.  

I was skeptical.  I will admit I was very skeptical.  It all felt so surreal.  My feelings were so vivid and the images and physical touch felt so very real but since no one recognized it, no one validated it,  I felt like I had just been on a good trip.  I listened to the teacher and after that if I met a person who mentioned losing someone in a motorcycle accident I would (somewhat flippantly) ask “was his name Richie, or Mikey or something with an ee sounding ending” incase maybe it wasn’t just a weird mediation trip.  

Time passed.  I continued sitting in circles at the church and getting small hits from Spirit, some not so small but still felt more called to the healing energy I was receiving each week during the healing part of church service.  I was really interested in learning how to speak to the congregation, learning how to be a healer. I wasn’t convinced at all that mediumship was my path but the energy of circles was wonderful and my teacher at that point said all of us were batteries so I continued.  

In March 2009 I had the opportunity to take level 1 Reiki.  It was a last minute invitation to attend a class, free of charge, the teacher was a church friend who knew how much I wanted to take the class and also knew the likelihood of my then husband giving me the money to do so.  She explained it would be doing her a favor as she only had one student for that class and teaching two was easier and she asked only that I pay it forward somehow.  This class changed everything for me.

This was when Spirit announced I would be a medium.  During my attunement I saw Dr. Usui very clearly, I saw mountains and felt a calmness I’d never known before. Apeace inside my heart I’d always craved.   I remember having my palms open on my lap and saying to myself “yes, yes,  thank you Spirit, I want to be the best healer I can be and provide….” I got interrupted and clearly heard a voice (in my head) say “You're going to be a medium.”... I argued, I tend to argue with Spirit and said “No, No I’m going to be a clear channel for healing…” interrupted again “You are going to be a medium” and of course I argued stronger and started saying again “NOPE I want to be a healer and…” this final interruption was loud and clear as Spirit said “Haven’t you learned yet?  Mediumship is the highest form of healing you can offer; you will be a medium and you will heal many” and then I saw a weird symbol.  It was weird and still familiar so I tried to write it down when we had our moment of reflection after our attunements.  It wasn’t until I got home later that day I realized I had also seen the same symbol during a meditation earlier in the week and jotted it down on a paper then too.  Years later I found it resembled the symbol for light but again that’s another story.

So after my Reiki 1 attunement I began to look at my connection to Spirit more closely and I let go of that feeling I had inside that insisted I was a speaker and healer but not a medium.  I was devoted to learning mediumship.  Circles went great, I had more and more evidence validated.  It felt right, even though I wasn’t yet 100% convinced.  I had lingering feelings like maybe my classmates were humoring me or I’d find ways to dismiss the really great pieces of evidence Spirit provided.  I just wasn’t sure what I was feeling.  All my classes at that point were only circles to develop through meditation with no real information about the processes, the hows and whys and all the details to help understand what I was experiencing.  None of it.  Just meditate, share and hope for validation.

On Mothers day (the May after my Reiki 1 attunement) my daughter got me a gift certificate for a massage.  It was at a woman's home office in my hometown, not a shop or chain store and it was easy to get an appointment scheduled within a week or so.  I had never had a massage before and I will admit I was nervous so I showed up for my appointment a few minutes early to help combat those nerves.  There was a nice little waiting room when you entered but we’re clearly in her apartment and she was on the phone just outside the waiting room in her kitchen.  She waved at me to welcome me but she stayed on the phone.  I was nervous, first massage, strangers home, I’m not used to doing things like this.  She left me sitting there for like 10-15 minutes checking in with an apologetic wave a few times while she stayed on the phone.  It actually helped my nerves calm down and I didn’t mind so much. I used the time to be silent in that place I had grown to love (that meditative space).  When she finally appeared she said she was sorry and explained she was on the phone with her friend who was upset because it was the 1 year anniversary of her son dying. I said it was fine and then asked if it was a motorcycle accident, she replied “yes” and looked at me kinda funny.  I laughed, feeling a little freaked out and so I continued… was his name Richie (or Mikey)? (I forget which name honestly)  And she was like woah wait how did you know that?  So then I asked if his bike was red and white and a few other questions that she couldn’t answer for sure.  While I had my massage I explained to her that I was a student in a mediumship development circle and was honing in on the gifts connecting me to Spirit. She asked if she could have my number and get back to me after she talked to her friend. Within an hour or 2 of my leaving the appointment I got a call from her asking if her friend could call me because everything I had said was accurate.  Within 4 hours of leaving my appointment I was on the phone with the Mom.

I wish I had taken my teacher's advice and written this all down back when it happened.  Maybe I did and one day I’ll come across the notes but for now it’s only my memory.  I just recently reached out to try to connect with that massage therapist again and possibly the Mom to see if she would share her part of this, at this point I can’t even find the massage therapist.

I recall on that day speaking with this mom and I could feel her skepticism, she wanted to know exactly what I experienced.  I told her all I could remember.  That he was on a motorcycle, a red and white motorcycle, that he felt like he was in the sand and being chased by the cops.  That he was with other friends on bikes and they were just having a great time and that the cops chasing him was weird and unacceptable to him.  Unnecessary.  I explained gently that I felt he was impaled during the accident and that I kept hearing the name Mikey or Richie or something like that.  I then explained how he held my hand so tightly and how real it felt, so real that it made me open my eyes during the connection.  And I told her that as he held my hand so tightly he just kept repeating over and over again “tell my Mom I’m ok, Please tell my Mom I’m ok”  “My mom needs to know I’m ok, tell my Mom I’m ok”.  That is when she gasped and said that’s him, that’s it I know it’s him.   She verified that his name was similar, it was actually his middle name I think and they used it to not confuse him with his father who he was named after, the bike was a red and white dirt bike, he was with his friends riding on the streets when the cops started chasing them (evidently they weren’t supposed to ride that type bike on the streets) so they went into the sand dunes and the cop continued to chase them and that’s where the accident happened and yes he was impaled.  But what had really got her attention was the hand holding.  She said by the time she got to the hospital she had very few, if any, moments with him before he passed and she held his hand and wouldn’t let go.  She said she broke down and wouldn’t let go of his hand and cried and screamed that she needed to know that he was ok… “NO he has to be ok… tell me he’s ok”… she said they had to pull her hand out of his after a while because she wouldn’t leave him… she just cried while holding his hand and begged to know he was ok.

Even though so much of the details matched she still thought maybe I saw it on the news or something (I guess it was on the news, on the cape, I never saw it) but when I told her about the hand holding and “tell my mom I’m ok, she has to know I’m ok”… that was what touched her heart and made her know it was him.  She wept and thanked me.  Over and over again thanked me.

I remember hanging up the phone and feeling overwhelmed with the reality that Spirit really did come to me… this was real.  It wasn’t about coincidence or close enough, this was more than detailed and real.  Almost a year later and Spirit made sure I’d find the way to deliver this message to this Mom who needed it.

After that I never looked back.  I was born to do this, to bring through evidence that life continues after the change called death, to bring healing and light to those stuck in the darkness of grief that death leaves us in.  

With every Reiki attunement my gifts got stronger and clearer.  I continued studying and found teachers who could really help me understand the ins and outs of energy and how to really work within the power of Spirit.  Even though I was certified by the church I continue to this day taking classes.  I am always looking for ways to deepen my connection and grow this gift to its fullest potential.  I am grateful.  I am a healer.  I am a medium.  I am in service of Spirit.

I am Laura Dominick.