| Sitting
with Patricia Mischell, practicing psychic and Director of the Positive
Living Center in Hartwell, discussing the recent reports that she has
become a "channel" for another being, one gets the impression
that she is, first and foremost, in deep wonder at it all.
At the same time, it is just
the most recent of many remarkable events in the life of this unusual
woman. She discusses these events matter-of-factly. Here, in
a nutshell, is her story:
"I had my first Sunday
School attendance certificate at three; I'd go to church with anyone and
everyone - any church. This was the hills of West Virginia, and I
can remember the Holy Rollers handling snakes. I was baptized into
many churches while still a child."
"At five, when I still
lived on the mountain I tried to carry a full bucket of water from the
spring, spilled too much of it and was spanked by my uncle.
Afterwards, as I lay in bed, crying, I opened my eyes and saw a
beautiful man sitting at the foot of my bed. I thought to myself,
"This is what Jesus must look like, and the man said to me,
"Stop crying. You will never be alone; I will always be with
you."
"I saw him again when, at
age eleven, while having my tonsils and adenoids removed, I left my body
and he was there. At fifteen, desperately lonely, as I had been
working since I was ten, had no father, and my mother was distant, I
tried to commit suicide. Coming out of un- consciousness, the man came
to me again. It seemed like he pushed my head toward a container
of water, and when I saw my reflection, it had on a nun's habit.
He said to me, "you will not need to attend school; we will teach
you all you need to know."
"I became a Catholic and
entered a convent. Since then, I've studied many subjects, but had
no formal schooling. In the 70's I developed rheumatoid arthritis,
from which I gradually recovered. During this period I was part of
a meditation group which included my new husband. In one session,
I lost consciousness and a voice came through me which he identified as
that of his now-dead wife. When I came to, I felt very
uncomfortable and decided I didn't want to be used as a medium.
However, at another meditation a new woman had joined our group, and
another voice came following the death of my husband. I was asked
to set down some goals, and I wrote 'I would like to have a
ministry'. |
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The
next day I heard a voice through me, which turned out to be that
of her son, who had recently been killed in a crash, saying, 'Mom,
it wasn't me driving the car!' I had to take steps to deter these
uninvited spirits."
I found a school, the Arthur Ford School For Mediumship, that actually taught me ways to recognize this sort of thing
coming on, and how to avoid being overtaken by it. For some time,
nothing of the kind occurred."
"The following year, 1976,
we had a prayer group for world peace and bible study, called The Table
of the Lord. At the end of each session we would hold hands and
meditate. In one meditation I became very sleepy and pictured
myself in a beautiful garden, heading toward a white bench. That
was all I remembered when I came out of what I thought was a meditation
and was told I had been unconscious and that a voice had come from me,
saying it was that of a Sister Theresa De Lisieux, a Catholic Saint who
had been a French nun in the last century. My friends had it on
tape."
"The voice was very
different from my own and lightly accented. She had come, she
said, to bring a message of hope to a troubled world, and she had
assured the others that I would not be harmed by the experience.
She added that it was of no importance that others knew of it, but to
feel free to record the messages. She also said that whenever she
came, I would always cry out of one eye, as a symbol."
"I investigated Saint
Theresé and found she had been know as "The little Flower",
and had inhabited a Carmelite nunnery until her death in 1987, at
the age 24, after a lingering case of tuberculosis. In her last
days she had spoken of her desire to influence 'from the other side',
She had shown good cheer throughout her agony, and had wished to strew
roses throughout the world."
"She came through me,
spontaneously, on occasions over the next year, and I was directed to
take the McGrane's
Adventures in Attitudes course, to get help with planning my life
my life following the death of my husband. I was asked to set down
some goals, and I wrote 'I would like to have a ministry'.
The next day I heard from a woman who had gotten a certificate of ordination from
Columbus. So, I drove up to the Town Hall in Columbus,
walked in, and said, 'I want to open a church.' |
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- The clerk handed me a
form on which I wrote the names of my then nonexistent board of
directors, and put the ministry together on the spot."
-
- "The Sister named my
ministry "The House of Hope," and she has been deeply
involved in the development of the project. Her messages were
kept private by our group until she stopped coming through in
1985.
I had assumed her mission was
accomplished until this summer, when I was sitting typing and I heard
her voice, very loud, saying 'I'm coming through tonight'. This
was a Friday, when I held a session and gave readings to large
groups. That night I warned the group not to be alarmed if they
suddenly heard a strange voice coming from me, and I told them something
about the Sister. She didn't come through that night, but waited
until the following Friday, explaining that I wasn't ready yet. If
my body is out of balance she will wait until it's better."
"Since she's been part of
my life, I've been experiencing a gradual and marked growth of energy,
at times enabling me to work seventeen hours a day. People say I
actually seem to be growing younger, and I have married a man fifteen
years younger than myself. he says I carry on conversations with
the Sister at night in which she speaks in her language and I speak in
English. All I remember is that I've been with her in
dreams."
"Sister
has said I am not to
capitalize on her financially, so her part of the program is
on a donation basis, allowing anyone to hear her. The fee for the
entire Friday evening is $10 and she comes through about 10 o'clock each
time. There have been healing's and some have been relieved of the
desire to smoke. She will prophesieze events and ask our
intervention through prayer when she foresees crises. So far, all
the prophecies have been correct."
"Although Sister talks of
God and Jesus, she says that mankind created religions and that none is
better than another. She often has us recite a prayer containing
these words: 'Dear God, I believe in you, I adore you, I have hope
and I love you."
"One night a member of the
audience asked for a miracle as a sign of her authenticity. Soon
after, some of the children came in from the Sunday School room saying
there was an unusual smell in there. It was the strong scent of
roses, coming from the tropical plants." |
