A Paranormal Suspense Novel as Life Imitating Art
When I decided I wanted to write a book about a hospice
nurse who could see the spirits of those who come for the dying, I did what any
former journalist turned novelist would—I began my quest with research. I used
what I knew from personal experience, interviews and articles I’d read to craft
the story and character of Indriel Luce—a woman with the first name of an angel
and a last name meaning light. After I wrote, Lead Me From Temptation—a work of fiction that is tagged at
booksellers as paranormal suspense—I felt the need to take a deeper look into
the world around me that I didn’t see,
but my main character could.
I contacted a Psychic Medium—a person who has the
ability to sense and communicate with beings and energies in other dimensions
including those who have died––and asked for an interview. It occurred to me
after I’d fired off the email that 1) someone with this type of ability might
not be interested in speaking with a fiction writer and, 2) I should consent to
a mediumship reading myself. How else could I validate the answers to my
questions?
Psychic medium, Kathryn Kauffman in Lexington,
Kentucky graciously consented to my interview not knowing anything about me
other than what I’d told her in my email or what she could’ve read online. What
I discovered after meeting her was that the universe is uniquely designed to
bring people together as Ms. Kauffman was not only a psychic medium, but also a
nurse—just like the heroine in my book.
Kauffman has the ability to speak with those who’ve
crossed over as well as those who’ve stayed behind on this dimension. I asked
her to “read” me and connect with anyone that might want to contact me. I won’t
share that very personal experience, but I will say that from the moment I
walked into her office and she said she had messages for me, I was astonished
to say the least.
I’d read up on minimal encouragers or clues someone
could use to read my reaction to information in order to skew it in the right
direction (the look on my face or a tiny nod to show the person they were on
the right track with their reading) and went into our meeting prepared to be
stone-faced and unaffected. I didn’t matter.
Kauffman had a page of messages written down and
waiting for me before I arrived. And her messages were spot on.
She conveyed things she couldn’t have possibly known—things
I’d never shared with anyone except for the person who’d died. I was floored
and honestly had a hard time pulling myself together to conduct the interview
on the heels of the reading.
That being said, the experience did allow me to pose
questions I might not have otherwise asked.
As a psychic, Kauffman can foretell the future. As a
medium she can connect with those who’ve passed.
We’re all on an energy path in life according to
Kauffman and it’s created out of positive and negative decisions. For the most
part, it’s a predictable journey. To look into someone’s future, she deals with
the person’s living energy and can see a predictability based on the way they
make their decisions.
I wondered if that meant we all had a predestined
life and according to her, the answer is, no. “Eighty percent of everything in
a psychic reading can change simply by a person changing their predictability
pattern,” explained Kauffman. “When someone makes a conscious decision to change
the course of their life a whole new energy path starts to develop.”
This was a reaffirmation of what I always believed to
be true. You are the captain of your own ship in life, even though the rough
seas. But what about looking into the past and connecting with people no longer
living?
Kauffman has been dealing with the otherworldly her
entire life, discovering her abilities at an early age while living on Midway
Island in the South Pacific.
“My first recollection is at the age of four. I
remember I was alone in my room and I could hear heavy breathing. So I held my own
breath and that someone or something continued to breathe.”
Kaufman, who has two aunts who perform professional
readings, spent the next twenty years opening herself up to her abilities. From
age 20 to 40 she practiced nursing and was a highly accommodated ICU nurse with
experience in seven different specialty areas. “All through nursing school and
being an ICU nurse I always did readings on the side for my friends and family.
If a friend of a friend needed help they would send them to me. Then I got involved
in some paranormal groups and volunteered my time with them. In 2004, I joined Kentucky
Paranormal Investigations until they dissolved in 2013.”
Donating her time to helping those with paranormal
problems, Kauffman has assisted numerous families deep in the throws of a
haunting. “I’ve seen a lot of paranormal activity and I’ve seen a lot of
paranormal activity in the hospital. It’s not all––good.”
Being the curious person I am, I wanted to know how I
could be in touch with the universe like my character, Indie Luce. According to
Kauffman it has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with Quantum
Physics and Mechanics—the study of the behavior of matter and energy at the molecular,
atomic, nuclear and even smaller microscopic levels––but in particular, brain
waves.
Our brains are comprised of a tight network of nerve
cells, all interacting with one another and creating an electrical field—your
nervous system. Anywhere there’s a nerve cell there’s electricity. And since
the biggest concentration of nerves are around our heads, that’s where most of
the action is.
All our thoughts are formed in this electrical field
and the measurable happenings in our brain’s overall electric field are our actual
thoughts racing through the mind. In fact, as you read this article, you are
creating energy because your thoughts are energy—just like everything else.
This brings me back to brain waves. Kauffman gave me
an interesting lesson during the interview. These are the basics:
There are a few types of brain waves and based on
what we are doing, these waves operate at different frequencies. Most of us work throughout the day with Beta
Waves flowing. At 14-40 HZ this means you are awake, alert and have focal
awareness. This is where we are able to complete tasks.
Alpha wave 9-13 HZ is a relaxed, calm state where we
are in a light meditation. This can happen when we are reading or into a movie,
daydreaming or for me as a writer, when I’m in the zone. “Alpha is also where the Schumann Resonance resides,”
explained Kauffman.
Schumann Resonance is the global electromagnetic
resonance phenomenon of the earth. Which means, when we daydream or in my case write,
we are in perfect harmony with the earth. “The vibration of the planet is
identical to your brain wave state and this is where psychic communication can take place.”
Theta wave, 4-8 HZ is a trance like state. This
according to Kauffman is where the dead communicate. “It is a deep, meditative
state and I have to prepare for it. I do an hour of meditation before I see a
client for mediumship.”
According to Kauffman, Theta is also your sleep
state—where the dead communicate in your dreams. “If you’ve had a dream of
someone who has passed, that is an actual communication. They wait until you
get into Theta wave and dial you up. Theta wave is like the dead’s cell phone
signal.”
But according to Kauffman the way the dead
communicate through dreams isn’t always literal. “Unless it’s really obvious,
you have to look at the whole concept of the dream to interpret what they’re trying
to convey.”
Finally, there is Delta wave, 1-3 HZ, which is deep
unconscious sleep. Delta is involved in triggering the release of hormones that
help the body heal and recuperate and also plays a role in transferring new
learning into long-term memory storage. It is the brain wave of most babies.
Because it’s all energy and brainwaves, Kauffman
believes that everyone has the ability to be in touch with the other side. “I
hate it when people say, ‘it’s a gift.’ It’s an ability. Just like going to someone to fix your car, they have the
ability to do that. You could learn to fix your own car but you probably don’t
want to. Everyone has the ability,
but most people shut it down, block it and say it doesn’t exist. There’s
nothing mystical about it. It’s all energy.”
If anyone can reach that level after years of
practice and meditation, how would one ever tell the difference between the
messages they are receiving from the dead and their own thoughts? According to
Kauffman, it simply sounds different.
“Your intrinsic thought has a different tone. The
message you receive has another amplitude than the thought. It’s louder and it
impresses upon you more.”
Kauffman explains that she can do psychic readings all
day, but mediumship or speaking to the dead is different. “I limit the
mediumship because if someone was sick or hurt badly, I feel what they feel.
One of the ways they communicate is to show you the pain because it’s an
identifier of who they are and what happened. I have to be careful how many I
do and I try to limit it.”
In fact, Kauffman restricts the amount of
communication and will only do one mediumship a day, three days a week. “When it starts to become too much, I have to
push back. It’s an energy exchange. I push them away and I stay in charge.”
When I asked about spirit guides, she laughed. “I
hate the cliché spirit guide and I
wish there was something else to call them. They’re here to help us and it
cheapens it to me to try to put a face on them. It’s just the mental image you
make up.”
Kauffman was straight forward in her reading with me
and does this with all her clients. “When I do a mediumship, I’m going to give
you exactly what I get. I want to use my abilities to help or clarify a
situation.” She intentionally leaves out accidents and deaths. “If there’s
nothing a person can do to change what’s going to happen then I’m not helping.
I’m only causing undo stress and anxiety.”
When I asked if that was a heavy burden to bear she
confirmed for me that it was.
In fact, she gets messages she can’t do anything with. “I’ll be in Theta wave
at two in the morning and there are those who are like, Hey Kathryn. Let’s talk! If I have a mediumship the next day, sometimes
they’ll (the dead) show up the night before.”
Kauffman also feels as if what we see on television
isn’t necessarily true and reality TV is not all real. “I think people come here
and expect the Long Island Medium and
as you can tell by looking around you, it’s not really that way. I don’t doubt
the readings, but the set up is probably a little more than real. I do think
people are more open to this type of communication because of what they’ve seen
on TV.”
And she’s right. People are flocking to psychic
mediums for answers. According to the American Federation of Certified Psychics
and Mediums, Inc. More than 670,000 people paid to consult a psychic medium in
2012. Sixty percent of those clients were women as opposed to men.
But what are some good reasons to seek psychic
counsel?
“On a psychic level, I would say that 80% of the
people who walk through the door to see me already know the answer to their own
question because their subconscious is already connected to everything. I pull
messages from the subconscious and interpret them for the client. What I do is
give them clarification and verification that what they are feeling is
correct—because most of the time they already know the answer to their
question.”
Others come to connect with those they’ve lost.
Kauffman makes no guarantees that a loved one will come through in a mediumship
or that the person you want to connect with will show up. In fact, you could
come looking to connect to a brother or sister and end up hearing from a long
lost uncle or an old neighbor.
Before I ended our interview, I asked her if she
could give one piece of advice or information to the world what would it be.
“What happens after you pass is determined by your
own consciousness,” Kauffman explained.
Then she asked me a question of her own.
“Kris, what do you think happens to you when you
die?”
I explained that I felt like I’ve always strived to
be a positive force in the world. I like to think of myself as most people do,
full of light and love and I hoped when I died I would move toward the poetic white
light I’d always read about.
Her reply?
“You’re not moving
toward the light, Kris. You are the
light.”
*NOTE: While
interviewing Ms. Kauffman, I used a digital recorder. She encouraged me to do so
during my reading as it’s easy to forget messages that come through. It did not
capture the first part of my meeting with her, which was my reading. But when I
began to ask her questions strictly for the interview, it did record (cue the
creepy music).
About Kathryn Kauffman
Kathryn provides private readings,
mediumship and paranormal services for the communities of Lexington and
Louisville Kentucky. She has published works in meditation, poetry and
paranormal subjects on Kindle. She is an active teacher and offers
seminars, private lessons and weekend intensives on Beginner and Advanced
Psychic Abilities.
To read more about Kathryn or to schedule
an appointment or phone reading go to:
www.kathrynkauffman.com
or email at kkauffman309@gmail.com
 |
| Lead Me From Temptation by Kris Calvert |
LEAD ME FROM TEMPTATION
Indie Luce is burnt out, broke
and Divinely Marked. A hospice nurse acutely aware of the Spirit World around
her, she tries desperately to piece her life together after the suicide of her
twin brother just one year ago. Taking a position to provide end-of-life care
for one of the most powerful men in the world, she finds herself unknowingly in
a battle for her sanity and more importantly her soul.
As a
spiritual war rages silently onward, descendants of those like Indie are
systematically tempted and taken and the momentum to tip the scale into
depravity becomes impossible to stop. What Indie Luce doesn’t know about her
past could place her future in the hands of Darkness.
Can the
light of one selfless young woman hold the key to the delicate balance of good
and evil? She is only one. But what if one is all that is needed?
LEAD ME FROM TEMPTATION BOOK TRAILER
Alexandra’s quotes are by innovators, leaders, igniters—the kind of folks who speak their mind—that’s why they’re leading. You can
easily be a woman and be the boss. In fact there are more of us out there today
than there were when I was twenty-two and took my first grown-up job. Now,
twenty-some years later, I’m very aware of the women who came before me in the
world of business and I am ever grateful that they made it easier for me to do my thing. Hopefully women like me are
making it easier for future generations of working women.
