MONTAGUE — Dan Frank didn’t plan on wearing his cremation cross — the small crucifix that holds ashes from three of his deceased dogs — when he was getting ready to go to the psychic fair Saturday.
But before he headed out the door, he heard something coming from the small pendant resting on the counter.
“You’re going to need us today,” he heard.
Hours later, Frank sat down at a table in the basement of The National Spiritual Alliance Church at Lake Pleasant to give his first “reading” of the day. He clutched the necklace and was able to communicate with the deceased dog of the woman sitting across from him, he said.
This past weekend, one of the “psychic fairs” held on the last Saturday of each month happened at The National Spiritual Alliance Church, 2 Montague Ave. For $20, visitors had the opportunity to sit down for 20 minutes with one of several “mediums,” who claimed to be able to contact the visitors’ dead relatives, friends or other spirits.
“The one thing every religion has in common is a belief in the afterlife,” said Frank, 68, of Adams. “But, for us, we know there is an afterlife. When someone dead comes to you, you know it.”
Frank is in his 11th year as a member of The National Spiritual Alliance — known as TNSA. He said he has unlocked the power to communicate with and see the dead, as well as become a certified healer and practitioner of Reiki, an alternative medicine based on the idea of a “universal energy” purported to heal a person’s mind and body.
“I was searching all over the place, and I came here and it’s like you are home,” Frank said with a smile. “I hear things and I see dead people.”
The spiritualist organization TNSA, based out of Lake Pleasant, was founded by the Rev. G. Tabor Thompson in 1913, having grown out of the prominent Lake Pleasant spiritualist campground that had existed since the 1870s. It claims to be the oldest continuously running spiritualist church in the U.S., and its members believe in reincarnation, in addition to communication with the dead.
According to Frank, he was drawn to spiritualism after several religious phases, including Buddhism, Catholicism and “born-again Christianity.” To him, there is nothing “crazy” about spiritualism, because many other religions believe in the afterlife and spirits, too. Spiritualists just differ by claiming they “know,” rather than have faith in, the afterlife, he explained.
Frank said he was drawn to the Lake Pleasant spiritualist community, specifically, because it accepted people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. While he became a spiritualist at the age of 58, Frank said he knew he had the ability of mediumship since a young age, when he would pick up the phone to call his mother, only to find out she was already dialing him. During one of the formative readings he underwent as a spiritualist, the medium described seeing a 5-foot-1-inch woman dancing in a field with a bouquet of flowers. Frank said he knew the woman was his mother, and felt comforted. He’s gone on to become a medium himself, and uses a variety of crystals and tarot cards during his readings, and claims to see both “orb” spirits and spirits that look like a person, plain as day.
Linda Kinney of Sunderland similarly found the spiritualist community at Lake Pleasant “like home,” when she attended a psychic fair with a friend in 2012.
“Even traveling the short distance here, from Sunderland, I traveled down the road and there was the lake and the Bridge (of names), and I thought, ‘This is otherworldly,’” she described her first time going to the church.
Kinney, who was raised as a Christian, said spiritualism offers something for all people — an affirmation that there is life after death.
“This is spiritualism, which is a religion, a philosophy and a science,” Kinney said. “We call it scientific, because we get proof.”
Kinney said she has also enjoyed the church’s services. Each Sunday at 10:30 a.m., a different speaker is brought to give the sermon, and as many people undergo a reading as possible.
“A reading I got was very specific about a lot of things I was considering in my life,” Kinney said. “I was trying to decide if I was following my spiritual path.”
Furthermore, Kinney said TNSA spiritualists learn mediumship themselves, and that “circles” will start meeting in April at the church on the first and third Monday of each month at 7 p.m.
The circles, taught by Bridie Pearce, require a $10 donation to the church, and are two hours long. Pearce said the circles involve meditation, creating an energy ball and spiritual healing, and that attendees will sometimes see or hear spirits.
“With mediumship, everyone is different. Some people hear, some people see, feel or taste,” said Pearce, of Winchester, N.H. “The point is to help all grow with their abilities. We believe every person has the ability, innately. We are open to any person.”
Attendees to the circles must be at least 12 years old, and those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent, Pearce said.
For more information about TNSA, visit www.spiritualallianceusa.org.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.