Last year, just before her release from a short prison sentence, American starlet Paris Hilton described feeling like spiritual forces had sent her to jail (contrary to what any tabloids may have said otherwise). She reported feeling that her “spirit or soul did not like the way I was being seen and that is why I was sent to jail. God has released me.”
Whether or not you can take this statement seriously, on a personal level at least Hilton seemed to describe what she felt to be “divine intervention”, instances of which may not appear to be a blessing of any sort at the onset, only to reveal later that there was a hidden meaning behind the hardship.
In one form or another, We all get “moved” by the spirit from time to time. My father is an Episcopal Priest, and growing up I’ve known a few people over the years who have come to me and personally described having “interventions” in their lives that seem to stem from someplace other than their inner consciousness. No doubt, my father has witnessed a lot more of this than I have, but I’ve still heard my fair share of bizarre instances of synchronicity from time to time in this regard, and of the amazing way that the spirit world, when it has something to say to us, will seem to communicate directly if necessary.
This seems to have been just the case in Leeds, England on the 12th of June when a 61 year old man was convicted and sent to prison on five charges of indecently assaulting three young girls between 1997 and 2001. As reported by paranormalreview.com, the whistle-blower had been the grandmother of one of the girls; it’s not unusual to have a family member speak-out against such action when circumstances like this arise, especially when the victim is a young child or otherwise feels insecure about discussing their plight. What IS unusual in this instance is that granny was deceased, having passed away years ago!
In a bizarre turn of events, her spirit had appeared before psychic/medium Patrick Hutchinson at a demonstration he was giving at an area pub, and insisted that he convey the message, “otherwise it might be swept under the carpet.” Against his better judgment, Hutchinson approached a 20 year old woman in the audience, which the spirit now pressing him had identified as her granddaughter. The mother of the girl, also present, was clearly shocked by the revelation, who watched her daughter break down as Hutchinson carefully approached her with the sensitive information. Later, the girl indeed confided to a 19 year old friend that what Hutchinson had conveyed was correct, and that she had been abused as a child. Since the revelation, two other women have come forward stating they were abused by the 61 year-old father of eight, Terrence Dunstan.
From time to time, spirits might opt for more conventional means of communication. One bizarre instance of spirit communication by more modern means involved well known British medium James Byrne, who has since described becoming “used to spirits interfering with technology associated with him.”
In August of 2007, Byrne had recently returned from a vacation, and found a single, mysterious message left for him on his telephone answering machine. Once the message had begun to record, a ghostly voice could be heard asking “is this switched on”? The message was dated August 7, and though no number had been recorded by the answering machine, by using the redial function on the phone itself he was able to return the call to its source.
James, living in the Mansell Close area at the time, said “a woman in Bolton answered, and when explained who I was, she said I’d done a reading for her 14 years earlier.” Still, she denied having made the strange call Byrne had received. Byrne then played the message for the woman, who was shocked at the similarity the voice had to that of her deceased partner, who had passed away only two months earlier! The woman followed up with her telephone service provider, who confirmed that no call had been made from her line to James’ number on August 7. Though Byrne was hesitant to say the deceased partner had called his phone, he did acknowledge the bizarre nature of the event, saying that “we can’t explain it, but it is very strange.”
Did Byrne receive a telephone call from the dead? If so, how might spiritual energies interfere with and manipulate technolgy in this way? Furthermore, if the call “was never made” according to the phone company, yet a spirit did indeed use Byrne’s telephone to make a distance call from beyond the grave, what kind of rates did he have to pay in order to do so? I’d imagine they were “out of this world”…