50th Anniversary of my First Mediumistic Reading

Have you ever had an experience that changed the course of your life? That happened to me on October 11, 1975, when I had my first mediumistic reading with Carl R. Hewitt.

The story began when a close college friend, Bonnie, landed a teaching position in the Waterford Public Schools in Waterford, Connecticut. A colleague of hers began discussing a psychic medium who could not only communicate with deceased loved ones but also describe past events and predict the future. Bonnie was highly skeptical of these claims, and after continued discussions with her colleague, she decided to prove him wrong by booking a reading with Mr. Hewitt. To disguise her identity, she gave Carl’s secretary a false name and her neighbor’s telephone number. She theorized that all psychic mediums hired private investigators to unearth information on their clients. This false information would prevent Carl from researching her. (What Bonnie did not consider was that it would cost Carl far more to have a private investigator research her than the $15.00 fee he was charging at the time.)

About two days later, Bonnie’s neighbor arrived at her door. Carl had called the neighbor’s phone, demanding to speak to Bonnie. Bonnie rushed next door to talk to a furious Carl. He yelled at her for providing a false name and phone number and informed her he was canceling the appointment. This shook Bonnie up because Carl had no way of knowing she had lied to him, unless he was a genuine psychic medium. Bonnie did some fast talking and somehow managed to convince Carl not to cancel the appointment. 

Bonnie was utterly astounded by the information Carl shared with her during her reading. He was highly accurate in describing past events in her life, and the details provided by her deceased relatives were remarkably accurate. Also, the future events that Carl explained to her eventually came to pass.

I happened to call Bonnie a day or two after her reading. She told me she had to tell me something. Then, with much hesitancy in her voice (very unusual for Bonnie), she began telling me about her reading. She hadn’t gotten too far into her story when I interrupted her and asked, “Is this guy genuine?”

Bonnie responded, “Yes, he is.”

“Then, book me a reading as fast as you can,” was my response.

I’ve always been fascinated by psychics and psychic phenomena. In 10th-grade biology class, we were assigned to do a report. I started researching psychic phenomena, but felt overwhelmed and decided to switch my topic to the eyes. Meanwhile, I often thought I had a bit of psychic ability because I would get inner feelings to do something. Usually, when I ignored that feeling, I regretted it, as it would have been helpful if I had followed my intuition.

My appointment was scheduled on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, October 11, 1975. It turned out to be a bright, crisp autumn day. Crimson and gold leaves shimmered in the sunlight, and an invigorating chill filled the air. As I left my New Jersey apartment, I was overcome with conflicting thoughts: Could Carl truly see into my future? What might he see? I hoped he wouldn’t glimpse things I didn’t want him to see! Would I be changing jobs? Would I find the love of my life soon? What’s a nice Jewish boy doing visiting a psychic medium?

As this list of thoughts flowed through my mind, I completely lost track of time. When I finally snapped out of my wanderings, I realized I was about twenty minutes from Bonnie’s apartment. I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I couldn’t remember where I had been during the last two hours of driving. Thank God I hadn’t had an accident.

Shortly after I arrived at Bonnie’s place, it was time to leave for my appointment. As we drove to Carl’s office in Chesterfield, Connecticut, I told Bonnie about the questions that were racing through my mind. I had no idea that the experience I was about to have would change my life. A new door was about to open, leading me down a path I had never dreamed of traveling.

We arrived at Carl Hewitt’s office. After Bonnie introduced us, Carl directed her on where to wait. Then he and I went into his private “reading room.” He pointed to a chair, then sat across from me on the other side of his desk. After a few seconds, he said, “I think you need a glass of water.” He stood up and left his office. 

Curious, I examined his office from my seat. A beautiful hand-painted portrait of Carl hung on a wall, while several large bookcases filled with books lined three walls of his office. Being a trained librarian, I was compelled to check out the titles of his books! A familiar book caught my eye—Yigael Yadin’s Masada. Masada was a fortress in ancient Israel where a group of zealous Jews had committed suicide rather than surrender to the Roman army. It surprised me to see this book in Carl’s library. Was he interested in Jewish history? There were books on many different topics, including ancient Egypt. My curiosity grew when I saw a variety of Bibles in his bookcase. I wondered why Carl had so many different Bibles. 

Carl returned with a glass of water. He was a friendly man. I examined his face. His complexion was fair, and he had golden blonde hair. His eyes were captivating. Not only were they a rare ice-blue, but they also seemed to show wisdom. I was intrigued.

“Do you have any knowledge of the work I do?” Carl asked me.

“Well, I was told that you can see into people’s futures,” I responded.

“That is part of what I do. I sense you’re quite familiar with the Bible. I consider the Bible a book of mediumistic or psychic history. All the significant figures in the Bible, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others, were mediums, as they communicated with Spirit, had visions, and prophesied.”

“Wait a minute, Carl. Those people were prophets, not mediums.” I said.

Carl responded, “That is a matter of semantics. The word prophet was used in biblical times. However, since 1851, a person who conveys messages from Spirits has been called a medium. In effect, you can use the words prophet and medium interchangeably, although most people use the term medium today. “

You shouldn’t get hung up on labels. The Bible has many names for people with my abilities: soothsayer, seer, prophet, sorcerer, wizard, and witch. In primitive societies, I would be called a shaman; in ancient Greece, an oracle. Today, the three most common terms are psychic, medium, and instrument. I don’t like to refer to myself as psychic. Everyone has some psychic ability. 

“You must realize,” Carl continued, “that the word psychic comes from the word psychikos, which is a Greek word meaning soul, mind, and Spirit. Since everyone has a soul and everyone has a mind, everyone is psychic. Therefore, anytime we use psychic phenomena, we are referring to the phenomena of the soul. Some people are more psychic than others, just as some people have a talent for painting but not for playing the piano.

“A medium is more unique than a psychic. A medium communicates with entities that are invisible to most people. When the word medium describes a psychic person, it indicates that the person acts as an intermediary between people living in the physical world and those living in the Spirit World. Most people refer to the Spirit World as heaven. “

Spirit people often call their medium an instrument. A violin has the potential to produce beautiful music, but it takes an outside force —the musician —to make the music. The musician can create beautiful music, but he cannot do it without the violin. Music can only be made through the combined effort of the instrument and the musician. By using a medium, Spirit can transmit messages from the Spirit World to someone on the earth plane. The medium can’t receive the message without Spirit’s help, just as Spirit can’t send the message without a medium. Both are needed for communication.

It doesn’t really matter what word you use—prophet, seer, psychic, medium, instrument, man of God, oracle—they all mean the same. As Shakespeare said: ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’

What matters is not what I call myself, but that I am connected with the Spirit World; that I offer guidance to help you make decisions in your life.

“How do you communicate with this unseen Spirit World?” I asked.

There are two main ways that Spirit communicates with a medium. The first is clairaudience, which occurs when Spirit communicates with the medium, who hears its voice coming from the Spirit World. The second is clairvoyance, where the medium has a vision projected by Spirit.

Different people use different names for Spirit. I refer to them as Spirit, Spirit controls, or guides. The American Indians spoke of the Great White Spirit. Religious people often mention saints, angels, comforters, and paracletes. Many ancient civilizations, like the Greeks and Romans, worshipped gods and goddesses. In Biblical times, a person who could hear the voice of Spirit always called that Spirit the Lord. There are also other terms for the Spirit, such as ghosts and poltergeists. Regardless of the name, all guides from the Spirit World are actually the souls of people who once lived here on earth.

The Spirit World is timeless—time, as we understand it, does not exist. This allows Spirit to see our future, past, and present all at once. During a psychic or mediumistic reading, concepts of time can be confusing. Unless Spirit is very specific, the medium doesn’t know exactly when something will happen. For instance, if a medium sees you selling your house, he or she might say, I see the sale of your home when the apples are red. That doesn’t specify whether it will happen this fall, next fall, or two falls from now.

Another example might be seeing a new job within a three-period span. That could be three days, weeks, months, or years. To the medium, it all appears the same. It is unusual for a medium to be more specific than that regarding time.

Carl explained that everyone has guardian angels or spirit controls watching over them. My spirit control communicates with Carl and shows him images clairvoyantly. This is how Carl learns about my past, present, and future. He said his spirit control was a Tuscarora Native American chief named Lone Eagle. This chief lived nearly 400 years ago in the same area of North Carolina where Carl grew up. Carl called this Native Spirit his control because it managed which spirits could access him. Just as there are good and bad people on earth, there are good and bad spirits in the Spirit World. It’s the chief’s job to protect Carl from negative spirits. 

Now that I had some understanding of the mediumship process, it was time for my reading. Carl asked me to give him either the watch or the ring I was wearing. I gave him the ring I received on the day of my Bar Mitzvah. It belonged to my grandfather, and I had worn it for twelve years. Carl explained that he needed to hold the ring to stay attuned to my vibration and avoid wandering to another. People are like radio stations. Just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, each person’s vibrational rate, or frequency, is unique. As a medium, Carl can adjust himself to tune into another’s vibration. Just as you can lose a station on a radio, a medium can drift from the frequency of the person he or she is reading. Holding a piece of jewelry that has already recorded its owner’s vibration anchors the medium so he or she won’t drift off to another frequency.

My counseling session started. Here are excerpts from the tape of my reading.

Carl:	I don’t know what you do. …This is confusing; I see electronics around you, yet I don’t see them around you. This is not what you do in your field. Are you in teaching or instructing?
Sid:	Yes.

Carl only knew my first name. Despite having no prior knowledge of me, he was able to figure out my profession. I held two different roles at my teaching job. In the mornings, I was a media specialist, assisting other teachers with audio-visual equipment, such as cassette recorders, overhead projectors, movie projectors, and film strip projectors. So I definitely worked with electronics. In the afternoons, I taught social studies to 6^th graders.

Carl:	I see a tremendous amount of changes around you. I connect you with Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. All three of them at one time? Do you have any relatives here in Connecticut?
Sid:	No, I went to college in Bridgeport, and have friends who live in Connecticut. My relatives are in New York, and I live in New Jersey.
Carl:	Tell me, have you been having dreams that are quite startling?
Sid:	Not that I can remember.
Carl:	You know, you are quite psychic yourself, but it was only recently that you could begin to take this kind of work seriously. Am I right? There was quite a long time during which you never paid attention. While talking to someone, doors suddenly opened to you. Things have happened in your life that have left you wondering whether Spirit was involved in the events or if it was just your imagination. You’re going to have some startling experiences, nothing you should fear—you draw Spirit very strongly. I see a man who looks like a rabbi next to you. Do you know a rabbi, or was there a rabbi in the family somewhere? In the distant past? A relative way back?
Sid:	Yes, my great-grandfather and generations before him were all Hassidic people. (They would look like rabbis, with long beards, black hats, and coats).
Carl:	I want to go to that era. There is a rabbi who comes from the Spirit World, who seems to stand by you, the way Lone Eagle stands by me. He is waiting for you to develop. A medium develops his mediumistic abilities over time. As a rose bud opens—petal by petal in its own sweet time, so does the medium blossom when he’s ready. No one can hurry the process.
	I do not know why I want to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I wanted to count them up this way for some reason. What does six weeks, months, or years have to do with you? Six years from now, will you be thirty or thirty-one?
Sid:	Thirty-one.

Carl correctly stated my age.

Carl:	That’s right, by the time you get to your thirty-first birthday, you will have achieved a great deal in this work. And, believe it or not, I see you in front of a lot of people lecturing about psychic phenomena. You might push this aside now, but you might not want to accept it. However, this man, who comes from the Spirit World, will be using you, and you will have no control, just as I have no control over it.
Sid:	I had an interesting experience while in Israel, and I’d like to know if my grandfather had any connection to it.
Carl:	Is your grandfather in Spirit?
Sid:	Yes.
Carl:	I’m seeing the Star of David with him. Was he Jewish?
Sid	Yes.
Carl:	I don’t know what happened, but your grandfather was involved in this. The incident happened to you when you were in Jerusalem, was it Jerusalem?
Sid:	Yes.

Jerusalem! I intentionally asked my question without revealing the specific location. I wanted to see if Carl knew where this event took place. I had only shared this experience with one other person, the mother of a college friend. Carl was telling me information that no one else knew! He was right again.

Carl:	Was it very dry and hot when you were there? Is this why I feel like I’m in sweltering heat?
Sid:	Yes.
Carl:	They’re not showing me what happened, but they are showing me the weather conditions. This event has caused you to think a great deal about psychic matters, right?
Sid:	Yes.

In the summer of 1972, I traveled to Israel. At that time in my life, my feelings towards Judaism fluctuated. Sometimes, I thought God did not exist, but other times, I felt quite religious. My visit to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site in Jerusalem, was a mystical experience. My emotions were running high. The tradition when visiting the wall is to write a request to God on a small piece of paper and insert it into a crack between the stones. It is believed that God will receive these requests and respond. I couldn’t accept this as possible. Still, as I stood before the wall, I saw hundreds of pieces of paper stuffed into the cracks. I felt a strong desire to pray, but I didn’t have a prayer book. I also wanted to put on phylacteries. After my Bar Mitzvah at age 13, I recited morning prayers while wearing phylacteries—two small boxes containing specific Bible verses. One box sits on the forehead, secured with a leather strap around the head, then rests on the shoulders. The other is strapped to the left arm, touching the pectoral muscle near the heart, with the leather strap wound in a particular pattern around the arm. Jewish men wear phylacteries each morning before prayer, except on Saturday mornings.

I had stopped this practice when I went to college. Now I felt a need to perform this ritual. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a voice. “Would you like to put on phylacteries?” I turned, and there was a Hassidic Jew with a long beard and a dark black coat. A bit shaken, I said, “Yes.” It seemed he had read my mind. He escorted me, helped me put on the phylacteries, and handed me a prayer book. I said my prayers, still wondering how this had happened. 

Carl:	There is someone else who comes to you, a male from the Spirit World who gives you thoughts. It is part of the training you have to go through. I feel very good about this, very good. This ring belongs to you, or does it belong to someone else? I’m getting vibrations from another person.
Sid:	It was my grandfather’s ring.

Not even Bonnie knew that my ring had belonged to my grandfather. Carl had to be a genuine medium to give methis much accurate information.

Carl:	Is this the one who is in Spirit?
Sid:	Yes.
Carl:	This person feels good. He was a smart man, but he had a few mishaps. He thought a lot of you. Did he pass about 4-5 years ago?
Sid:	No, he passed 15 years ago.
Carl:	What happened four years ago with your grandfather? Did you have an experience? Did you have a dream about him?
Sid:	Every once in a while, I dream about him.
Carl:	Were you struggling at that particular time in college, and did you have a dream one night?
Sid:	Not that I remember.
Carl:	This is what I see. Were you in college four years ago?
Sid:	Yes.
Carl:	Were you struggling? Was there something you were having a problem with? This man came to you in a dream, whether you remember the dream or not. Many people do not remember their dreams. He came to you in a dream to give you courage to go on. Because you rode that storm out, you came out on top.
Sid:	I wonder if that had anything to do with student teaching?
Carl:	It was teaching. Remember, I asked you if you were in college at the time? I saw you not as a student, sitting with the rest of the students, but up in the front of a room. It was college, but you were teaching. It was definitely during that time. There was a time when you thought of going in another direction, because you were discouraged. You finally decided to hold on to what was good. That was a good choice. You will be stepping in on the ground floor of something new. This person will be of great assistance to you. This man was not only good but also shrewd. It’s as if he could see around the bend before he got there. That’s what he’s showing me about this new venture you’ll be involved with.

Eight years later, in 1983, Apple introduced its first personal computer, the Apple IIe. Later that year, the Superintendent of Schools called me into his office. He told me that, as a Media Specialist responsible for audio-visual equipment in the school district, he was sending me to school to learn how to operate the Apple IIe computers because he wanted the students to learn how to use computers. I was part of the early days of the computer age. This directly confirmed Carl’s prediction.

After this mediumistic reading, I developed an insatiable desire for more knowledge. I started reading every book I could find on the subject. Many focused on reincarnation, and it made sense to me. The idea that the soul reincarnates multiple times to gain knowledge and settle karmic debts seemed logical. For instance, Sebastian was a priest in the 1500s who burned witches at the stake. He might reincarnate in the 1970s as a firefighter and die in a burning building. There appeared to be a sense of balance with this theory—if you were bad in this life, you’d pay for it in another; if you were poor in one life, you might be rich in the next. I was captivated by this concept. Three months later, I was facing some issues at work and decided to ask Carl for advice. Most of this reading focused on my job and questions about my past lives.

Three months later, I had a third reading. This time, I learned more about the Spirits surrounding me. At the end of this reading, the following conversation took place:

Carl:	Too bad you live so far away, because I would like to invite you to be part of my psychic development class.
Sid:	Well, don’t let that stop you. I would drive up for your classes.

A look of disbelief crossed Carl’s face. I lived two and a half hours away. I wasn’t aware of any real mediums in the metropolitan New York City area. I knew Carl was genuine. It was worth the long drive to learn more about the Gifts of the Spirit, and perhaps to develop my own psychic abilities.

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My first reading with Carl Hewitt opened the door to many important milestones in my life, none of which were even a glimmer in my mind on October 11, 1975. Carl and I formed a wonderful friendship. In 1978, I started attending the Gifts of the Spirit Church, which Carl founded. The following year, we began a seven-and-a-half-year project to write the script for The Golden Thread, a 10-hour overview of mediumship in the Bible. It was produced and premiered as a slide presentation in the fall of 1984. 

Carl then asked me to speak to the members of the Gifts of the Spirit Church, during church services, about the research we were doing. This actually fulfilled the prophecy Carl made during my first reading, “And, believe it or not, I see you in front of a lot of people lecturing about psychic phenomena.” 

In the mid-1990s, Carl called me to his reading room because an ascended master, who labeled himself the Angel Without A Name (AWAN), wanted to speak with me. That eventually led me to write four books about AWAN’s teachings. I had never felt the urge to write a book; I thought writing was boring and not enjoyable. Carl had to persuade and encourage me to write the first book. Over time, with help from Spirit, I overcame that mental block, and now I have written six more books.

Carl and I traveled the world, often visiting cities important to the history of mediumship. Frequently, while at these key sites, Carl experienced clairvoyant visions of what had happened there centuries ago. He would describe these visions to me and then, upon returning, share them with the church members. 

In 2001, Spirit told Carl to ordain me as a minister. About a year later, Carl asked me to lead the Church after he transitioned to the World of Spirit. Carl made his transition to the Spirit World on January 26, 2005. In 2006, I began developing my own mediumship and took on Carl’s role of leading the Church. Since then, I have improved my trance mediumship skills, and Carl speaks to the church members monthly.

I would have lived a completely different life if I had not met Carl on October 11, 1975, and experienced mediumship firsthand. The study of mediumship has enriched my life, and it has been my honor to serve Spirit for the past five decades.