I admit I entered into my first reading with a genuine psychic medium on January 15, 1999, a bit skeptically. Though open-minded enough to try a medium, I really didn’t believe that people could see, hear, and talk with spirits. In my late 30s at the time, I had never witnessed anything that led me to believe in such “nonsense.” I went to see the medium because my brother-in-law, Derek, told me she gave him a reading full of details—including names, dates, and information a stranger could never know about him. Despite my skepticism, Derek’s story intrigued me enough to risk the money it cost for the reading.

I ended up with much more than I expected that day. Rather than the normal one-hour reading, I had a three-hour reading that left me sobbing like a lost child for at least half of that time. I lost my psychic virginity and my manhood all in the same day! The names, dates, and secret details of my life came through exactly as Derek said his had. By the end of my reading, the medium had given me so much evidence, my skepticism shattered.

This single event altered the course of my life. I had recently had a book published about depression and bipolar disorder, and I had no idea what I would write about next. But after these three hours of spirit communication through a psychic medium with my deceased father and grandmother, I knew immediately that my next book had to be about spirit communication. So I began my research for Medium Rare.

The funny result, though, of being a skeptic for more than 30 years is that it doesn’t prepare you for writing a book about spirit communication!

So I spent the next three years reading every book, magazine article, and website I could find on the subject. Because the reading material never satisfied my craving for a well-rounded education on spirit communication, I also immersed myself in three years of frequent readings with extraordinarily gifted mediums from around the world. Additionally, I interviewed these spirit messengers about their life, their gift, and the wisdom they had gained from their communication with spirits. And finally, I interviewed masses of people who had readings from psychic mediums.

A short time after I wrote Medium Rare, I learned about the impending publication of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Communicating with Spirits: the one book that could have saved me years of reading, interviews, and investigation. Well, thank you very much Idiot’s Guide people! You couldn’t have thought of this book a little sooner? I forgive the publishers, of course, because the author they chose to write this book, Rita Berkowitz, is both a dear friend and an incredible medium who helped me along my journey. In fact, the publisher discovered Rita by reading an article I had written about her on my holistic online magazine, OfSpirit.com.

In my spirit explorations, I kept hearing about this incredible psychic medium who could also draw the spirits she sees. The day I met Rita, my mind exploded into pieces when I saw her portfolio of spirit drawings. Each spirit drawing had a photo next to it of that person when he or she was still here on the earth plane. I found myself dumbfounded at Rita’s ability to capture each spirit’s distinct features: the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears, the hair—even the style of clothing or jewelry he or she normally wore. I knew immediately I had to have a reading from Rita and one of these stupefying spirit drawings.

Now a pro at getting psychic readings (or so I thought), I no longer got emotional during my readings. But when Rita drew my grandmother, seeing such a tangible display of evidence that Gram had survived death and was still around me caused some tears to leak out and run down my cheek. (I faked a yawn and wiped them off very quickly ….)

Elated with my spirit drawing and reading, I wrote about Rita on OfSpirit.com. Since that article became public, people from around the world have thanked me for introducing them to Rita Berkowitz. Rita is much more than a gifted medium and spirit artist; she is also a gifted teacher. This truth was never more obvious to me than when I received an advance copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Communicating with Spirits. Even with all I learned from my own research and experiences writing Medium Rare, Rita’s book taught me insights about spirit communication, spiritualism, and activating my own spirit senses of which I was unaware.

Anyone interested in understanding the how and why of spirit communication or desiring to communicate with spirits on their own will gain a depth of insight from Rita’s wonderful book that is invaluable for spiritual growth. If there is one thing I have learned in my three years of studying some of the most gifted mediums in the world, it is that we all have a unique potential for communicating with spirits—and we don’t need a psychic medium to do it for us. I highly recommend you use the wisdom within this book to discover your own potential for spirit communication and enhance the wonder and amazement of your own, very personal, spiritual adventure.

Warmly,
Bob Olson

Bob Olson, editor of OfSpirit.com Magazine, is the author of Medium Rare: A Skeptic’s Journey into the World of Spirit Communication and the Afterlife and Win the Battle: The Three-Step Lifesaving Formula to Conquer Depression and Bipolar Disorder. Bob writes and lectures on the subjects of spirit communication, life after death, and the spiritual principles of success and overcoming life’s obstacles. Contact Bob through the OfSpirit.com website at www.ofspirit.com.