As the golden glow of a mid-August sunset filled Wainwright House’s music room, 40 or so people, all women except for one man, sat in rows of wooden chairs, waiting to see if they would receive messages from people who’ve passed on.
Some, like Julie Heyel, 53, from Rye and Heather Cayanan, 42, from White Plains came because they believe it’s possible to connect with the spirits of deceased loved ones.
Others, like Noelle and Tom DiNome from Mamaroneck were not so sure but willing to keep an open mind.
All paid between $30 and $35 for a ticket to see mediums Daisy Farrell and Arlene Mains, who brought their gallery-style event, “An Evening with Spirit,” to Rye. The two have connected with audiences in Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, and New York.
“This is something we had heard people were interested in exploring,” said Katherine Berthold, head of programming at Wainwright House. Additionally, she said the event fit with Wainwright House’s mission to provide a place where people of different backgrounds and beliefs could deepen their understanding of themselves and each other.
Once the mediums took center stage, the crowd quieted.
Farrell, 32, and Mains, 45, with warmth and self-deprecating humor, urged the audience to approach the evening with an attitude of levity.
“Your loved ones want you to laugh,” said Mains. “They want you to have a good time.”
They gave a rundown of the evening’s proceedings along with the challenges they face when communicating with the spirit world.
“Imagine standing in front of people, talking to someone you can’t see, to someone you don’t know, about something you know nothing about,” said Mains.
She likened the experience to playing charades. She said that both she and Farrell perceive images in their minds and sense emotions elicited from a spirit communicator. They then try to translate them in a way that makes sense to the receiver.
“Sometimes when I see a man in a suit, that isn’t always literal,” said Farrell. “That’s kind of my symbol for someone that’s connected to their job.”
“We all generally have a particular person that we’d really like to hear from,” said Mains, “And sometimes your weird Uncle Jerry comes through.”
Farrell, who lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, and Mains, who is in Saint Michaels, Md., met 10 years ago through a Facebook group for mediums, felt instant connection, and have been working together ever since.
Both Farrell and Mains say they have been attuned to the spirit world since they were children. But it wasn’t until they experienced personal difficulties and loss as young adults did their abilities surface.
For Farrell it was after she got sober at age 22.
“All of a sudden I started getting all these visitation dreams that were very different from anything that I had had before,” she said. “It was very clear, like, this is a message for someone else.”
A car accident took the life of Mains’s brother, Sean, when she was 2, spurring her to connect with his spirit. It inspired her ongoing work with Helping Parents Heal, an organization that supports families that have lost children.
“It’s our way of helping to understand that life continues,” she said.
Between them they have trained for over a decade at the Inner Spiritual Center in Fairfield, N.J., and practice what is known as “evidential mediumship.” Its aim is to offer concrete details about the deceased person versus general statements that could apply to anyone.
“I have to identify, ‘this is your biological father.’ Or ‘this is your uncle on your father’s side.’ ‘This is, you know, a husband,’” said Farrell.
Their joined spiritualistic forces are known in the mediumship world as double-linking. One medium initiates a connection with a spirit communicator and then the other taps into that connection.
“It allows people to get even a more well-rounded reading because you’re getting two perspectives of a person and spirit,” said Farrell.
For two hours, their energy unflagging, Farrell and Mains put their sixth senses to work. They began each reading by scanning the audience and then moving toward a particular person.
“I may connect with someone in spirit first and then in my mind, ask, okay, who are you with?” said Farrell. “Or I’ll just be drawn to someone in the audience.”
During a reading with Louise Fortino, 77, from Thornwood, Farrell said, “He’s playing music. He’s showing me that the two of you enjoyed music together.”
To Marisa Inzucchi, 62, from Mamaroneck, Mains said the spirit she was connecting with, “feels like a younger man that would have passed.” She pinpointed his age at 22 and added about his death, “I get this idea of shock and almost, like, a phone call.”
More often than not there was a message for the recipient. A father wanted his daughter to know he didn’t feel any pain when he died. A husband wanted his wife to know that he appreciated the way she cared for him when he was sick. Mains relayed to a receiver that her cousin wanted her to know, “You take care of everyone, but you’re not good at letting them take care of you.”
Throughout the night there was laughter–and tears. A box of tissues made the rounds.
While there is no scientific evidence that mediums can communicate with those who have died, that didn’t sway the beliefs of many who came to Wainwright House.
“I felt that she was very specific with me,” said Inzucchi, saying the younger man that Mains described was her brother, who died in his college dorm room of meningitis at age 22.
“So many things were right,” said Fortino, wife of the music-loving man Farrell connected with. “I used to have to hold him back when we went somewhere because he’d want to get up and sing to everyone.”
Before the evening ended, Farrell and Mains encouraged the audience to rely on their own intuitive abilities to connect with loved ones who’ve passed.
“Sit for a second. Get still. Ask them to give you a picture or a song or something. And look for it,” said Mains. “You’ll be shocked at how much information you’re actually getting.”
The signs, Farrell and Mains said, are everywhere.
