Rita Berkowitz - Communicating with Spirits

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just up to the white say to myself again & again(while not quite awake):all the mystery of life being(as I now feel) between the darkness of a pencil & the tone of a paper;you dont need to seek anywhere else,everything which God intends for you is findable within these from-darkness-to- lightness gradationsare they not,after all,infinite?

E. E. Cummings

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Introduction

Regardless of whether we are awake to the knowledge, all of us are surrounded by Spiritall of the time, we touch the Divine. As a medium, Spiritualist minister, and Spirit artist, Rita encounters many people who have a desire to connect to the Spirit world. We have many reasons for wanting to communicate with loved ones who have passed to the Higher side. Perhaps circumstances didnt allow you to be with your loved one at the time of passing to say good-bye or I love you. You may want to know that your loved one is okay on the Higher side or to let your loved one whos passed on know that you are okay. Perhaps there were unresolved issues or concerns between you. Or, perhaps the relationship was difficult, even one of estrangement.

Maybe you simply feel a need to maintain a connection to Spirit; you want to know your beloved or your dear family is there for you, nurturing you from the Higher side. Perhaps, as well, you are eager to establish evidence you can trust, proof through Spirit of the continuity of life.

The Awakened Life: Communicating with Spirits provides a foundation for you to explore how to work with a medium and also how to discover and develop your own mediumistic abilities. Connecting to Spirit is a powerful way to bring your being into harmony with the Universe. When you understand the continuity of life, you gain confidence and faith in the Divine love that links all living thingswhether on the Earth plane or in Spiritgiving your life strength and purpose. Those you love are with you yet, and all lives on in Spirit.

Rita Straus Berkowitz is an Ordained Minister of the Spiritualist Church and pastor of the First Spiritualist Church of Quincy, located at 40 West Street, Quincy, Massachusetts. A Certified Medium herself, she holds a Master of Science in Psychological Counseling. As a Spirit artist, Rita has impressed large audiences throughout the world by drawing portraits during readings that are likenesses communicated to her by clients loved ones who have passed on to the Higher side. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, and has attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Rita has taught both drawing and painting at the college level and has shown her own work in galleries throughout New York and New England; her current fine art paintings explore Spirit in landscape. Rita offers private sittings and classes and has trained many professional mediums; she is featured on BBC television UK and in bestpsychicmediums.com. Her Spirit Portraits are tangible evidence and validation of the continuity of life. Learn more about Ritas remarkable Spirit art at RitaBerkowitzArt.com, or find her on Facebook or Instagram. Rita lives in her quiet home in Scituate, Massachusetts.

Deb Baker has co-authored many books on health and wellness. She lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest.

Rita, as an ordained Spiritualist minister, certified medium, and commissioned healer, shares her gift as a fine artist for drawing portraits from Spirit of loved ones who have passed to the Higher side. Throughout this book, The Awakened Life: Communicating with Spirits, we use original art, stories, and examples from Ritas experiences. To protect the privacy of others, weve changed the namesbut the stories are real.

What comes through for Rita as a medium, she can draw or paint for her clients during readings. Although the veracity of the information she conveys during a reading is compelling enough by itself, seeing the image of a loved one arise from Ritas pencil and paper is irrefutable evidence of the continuity of life beyond physical boundaries. Often there are many spirits surrounding someone at the start of a reading. Usually, the spirits work it out among themselves to decide who has the most compelling need to connect and to be drawn, and that spirit will step forward for Rita. This does not mean the other spirits fade away. It just means that one spirit will generally come forward as the dominant spirit for the reading.

Often the spirits portrayed in Spirit drawings consult with Rita, giving her specific instructions on how exactly they want to be drawn. This includes receiving details of setting (Make it a blue sky overhead.), age and dress (Show me as a young man in my uniformas I appear to you now.), accessories (Im wearing the pearl bracelet he gave me.), accompaniment (Picture me holding our beloved white cat with a gray smudge right where Im showing you.), and even hairstyle (Make sure my hair has that wash and go feel to the style.). Working together with the spirits, Rita is able to create striking and uncanny portraits that capture both the likeness and the character of loved ones essential natures. You see who they are at their core of being.

Ritas spirit drawings appear throughout the book, along with photographs of the person from physical life, where possible. (In some readings, a spirit will ask to be drawn because there is no existing photograph or artwork to document their appearance for loved ones.) The stories of these peopleand the spirits attending themare real, and we thank them for being willing to share their amazing experiences of communicating with Spirit with usand with you.

There are six parts to this book:

Part 1, The Spirit World, looks at different perspectives on life, physical death, and the continuation of the spirits existence. The four chapters in this part e xplore burial customs, the connection with the Divine, the Spiritualist religion, and the answers we look to spirit communication to provide.

Part 2, Whats on the Higher Side? explores the differences between the Earth plane and the Spirit world. The four chapters in this part e xamine the various ways contact with Spirit happens and many reasons we welcome and seek it, look at why spirits choose to come through in communication, and why some spirits find it difficult to leave the Earth plane.

Part 3, Calling Out to Spirit, investigates the validation and symbolism of communication with spirits. The five chapters in this part p rovide information about and exercises to develop the psychic and psychical skills that facilitate spirit contact, including learning about what a medium does and how to understand messages you receive from Spirit.