Table Tipping
For Beginners
Daniel Miot, GreenCastle Video Productions
About the Author Teresa Lally maintains a private acupuncture and healing practice in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. For years, she has explored her interest in the metaphysical, and is a founding member of Reaching Beyond with Love & Light, a group that conducts Spirit investigations and facilitates clearings by use of both scientific and psychic/ medium techniques, including Table Tipping. She lives on the south shore with her husband, two busy teenagers, and three rescue dogs.
To Write to the Author If you wish to contact the author or would like more information about this book, please write to the author in care of Llewellyn Worldwide, and we will forward your request. Both the author and publisher appreciate hearing from you and learning of your enjoyment of this book and how it has helped you. Llewellyn Worldwide cannot guarantee that every letter written to the author can be answered, but all will be forwarded. Please write to: Teresa Lally â „o Llewellyn Worldwide 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 Please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope for reply, or $1.00 to cover costs. If outside the USA, enclose an international postal reply coupon. c
Table Tipping s r e n n i g e B For A Time-Honored Way to Talk to Spirits
T e r e sa L ally
Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota
Table Tipping for Beginners: A Time-Honored Way to Talk to Spirits © 2012 by Teresa Lally. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. First Edition First Printing, 2012 Book Format by Bob Gaul Cover art: Gentleman photograph © iStockphoto.com/Duncan Walker Background image © iStockphoto.com/Bill Noll Family photograph © iStockphoto.com/Mark Wragg Candle with candlestick © iStockphoto.com/Roman Sigaev Table © iStockphoto.com/Scott Williams Cover design by Kevin R. Brown Editing by Laura Graves Interior table illustration © Wen Hsu Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lally, Teresa, 1965Table tipping for beginners: a time honored way to talk to spirits/by Teresa Lally.—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 978-0-7387-3111-7 1. Table-moving (Spiritualism) I. Title. BF1375.L35 2012 133.9'2—dc23 2011051064 Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public. All mail addressed to the author is forwarded, but the publisher cannot, unless specifically instructed by the author, give out an address or phone number. Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific location will continue to be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to authors’ websites and other sources. Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 www.llewellyn.com Printed in the United States of America
contents
acknowledgements xi introduction 1 part I: History 13 part II: How to Table Tip 29 one—Preparation 31 two—At the Table 43 three—Tools to Help the Process 67
part III: Spirits that Visit 81 four—Guides 83 five—People 103
viii • Contents
six—Pets 117 seven—Archangels & Angels/ Religious Figures/Ascended Masters 123 eight—Higher Selves/Subconscious Mind 133
part IV: Purposes of Table Tipping Communications 137 nine—Visits 139 ten—Advice and Warnings 143 eleven—Predictions 155 twelve—Problem Solving/Explanations 157 thirteen—Crime Solving 165 fourteen—Crossing Spirits Over 171 fifteen—Paranormal Investigations 179 sixteen—Healing: Physical/Emotional/Spiritual 185 seventeen—Psychic Development 197 eighteen—Soul/Spiritual Development/ Meditation/Prayer/Love 203 nineteen—Blessings 211
conclusion 215 glossary 219 bibliography 223 recommended reading 225
Dedication To my husband, Scott, who supports all my endeavors, though he doesn’t always understand them, and my children, Michael and Diane.
Acknowledgments
A
heartfelt thank you to all of those who helped make this book a reality: those who attended my workshops and were willing to share their stories, those who held their own sessions and graciously shared their experiences, and, of course, all those in the world of spirit who have shared— and continue to share—their love and knowledge with us. To my colleagues and friends in Reaching Beyond with Love & Light—Jan, Mel, Tricia, Karla, Eileen, Sharon, Alison, Jen, Kim, and Kate. To my sister Maryellen, I am filled with gratitude that the forces that be saw fit to have our paths intersect with one another’s, and consider myself blessed to be sharing this journey with you. It wouldn’t be the same and certainly not as much fun otherwise! I need to acknowledge some of the other very special people I have met along the way. Kathy, former client, business partner, friend, and sister from another mother; how blessed I am to share with you life’s ups and downs and in-betweens. Here’s to many more long lunches on Friday afternoons! Ginny, Nina, Deb, and Rhonda—though we haven’t known each other long, I recognize kindred spirits when I see them and look forward to working (and talking over coffee) with you for a long time to come. Anna, how fortunate xi
xii • Acknowledgements
I am to be able to co-host table workshops with someone so special. Denise and Ken, thank you for creating such beautiful, nurturing space in which people can find the healing and comfort they seek. Liam, thank you for sharing your gifts in your teaching and inspiring me to keep striving to expand my mind and spirit!
introduction
W
hat if someone told you that there was a way to connect and communicate with your loved ones who have passed on; to contact and receive guidance from your spirit guides and guardian angels; and to help yourself and others heal physically, emotionally, or spiritually? What’s more, what if it was in a way that was accessible to everyone? Table tipping is the way to all of this, and so much more. Table tipping is a form of mediumship. It is a doorway between this world, this level of embodied physical existence, and the world of spirit, as well as a way to connect and communicate with those residing in it. You may have seen mediums on television or in person who talk to those 1
2 • Introduction
on the other side. Table tipping is a technique that gives this ability of communication to anyone. During a table tipping session, participants are seated around a circular, three-legged, pedestal table. After a clearing of both the space and themselves (which is done by the table leader or leaders), a short meditation is done to help relax and center everybody and a protection prayer is said. The spirits are then invited to come to the table. They use energy to make the table lift on one or two legs up and down, or tip. In this manner, they can answer questions (one tap for yes, two for no) and spell out messages (one tap for “a,” two for “b,” etc.). Because it involves the use of a physical object, everybody present is able to see and experience the communication for themselves rather than relying on a third party to interpret what a spirit is showing them and then relay the information. It is an interactive experience.
Examples of tables.
Introduction • 3
I was first introduced to table tipping by a friend who has a healing practice on Cape Cod. She had previously accompanied someone to someone else’s group, took from it certain things she liked, changed some others, and started to hold her own workshops in which I was fortunate to participate. From there I read all I could find about it and started to hold sessions both on my own and with others, practicing and fine-tuning techniques that were comfortable for me. I was immediately drawn to and taken with table tipping. I had always been a firm believer in reincarnation, life after death, and the idea that our souls live on and spirits are around us at all times. It was through an experience with past life regression that led me to become a certified hypnotherapist, adding this modality to my acupuncture practice. I was continually impressed by the healing that often occurred as a result of past life exploration. Being interested in all things metaphysical, I had sought out numerous card and psychic readings over the years, and on several occasions, had been to see mediums who would connect with people who had crossed to the other side. It always fascinated and slightly awed me that people doing this could tap into this other realm so readily. While I always thought that I was often guided in the work I do by otherworldly help and have a certain degree of intuitive ability (as is often the case with those in the healing fields, I believe), I always had a desire to be able to connect more easily and deeply to this spirit realm. Then I was led to the table. Here was the opportunity to directly communicate with the spirit realm! I was excited about it, and I wanted to share it with everyone. It
4 • Introduction
was so wonderful to hear from family and friends I loved and missed, to hear that they were okay and happy and still aware of everything going on in our lives. But what started out as something fun and entertaining quickly turned out to be so much more. Some of you may be familiar with the chakra system— the seven energy centers in the body that run from the base of our spine to above our heads. Each has a certain vibrational frequency, giving off the colors in our auras. This manifestation can actually be seen by means of a specialized camera called a Kirlian camera. Frequently these are available at psychic fairs where you can have your aura photographed and receive an explanation about what the various colors mean. Besides influencing and being influenced by different physical areas of the body, each chakra has its own emotional and spiritual correspondences as well. In the movement from the lowest to the highest chakras, there is an evolution from tribal energy, to relationships, to sense of self, to love for others, then to the loftier idea that each and every thing we say has the power and the ability to manifest changes and influence reality. From there, we enter the idea that reality is not only what we see with our eyes and what we can’t see physically, but what we perceive psychically as well. We then reach the seventh chakra and the idea that all is connected, all is one. The soul has evolved. I think of table tipping like this as well. At its most basic level, it is entertaining. It is fun to hear from your grandmother who passed when you were a child and whom you dearly miss. Table work rises to a whole new level when time after time it brings such comfort, solace, and healing
Introduction • 5
to a grieving parent who has lost a child, or to someone who receives a heartfelt apology from someone who has wronged them, enabling forgiveness and allowing the closure to move forward in both peoples’ spiritual growth. This capacity for healing is not only at an emotional level but a physical one as well. There have been many instances of spirit guides sending healing energy through the table to someone. Often, that person feels immediate relief from any pain they have been suffering. People have told me that the death of a loved one made them question the existence of a higher power, and that it was their experience at table more than anything else that brought them back into the fold of a spiritual belief system. As people feel better physically and emotionally, they can then channel their energy into becoming whole spiritually. They are more open to receive and listen to guidance about what their life purpose ism what path they are supposed to be following, and what they are here on this Earth at this time for. The channeling of energy is also an idea propounded in Chinese medicine. Some believe that acupuncture was historically used to help people find their way back to their correct spiritual path (and should still be used thus). Through the table, spirit guides can play a big role in helping us to understand our soul plan and to follow it. They can let us know if we’re veering off of our spiritual path and advise us as to what we can do to find our way again. As you practice table work more frequently, you will find that your psychic ability is blossoming and your ability to connect with the spirit realm is coming more easily to you. You find that oftentimes you won’t need to wait for
6 • Introduction
the table to spell out a message and will get the message as a flash inside your head. These may be in words, pictures, or symbols, and they become clearer and more numerous the more you practice tipping. The table becomes a conduit for messages the spirit realm is trying to give you. When you sit down to table, a channel is opened, and this happens more easily and more quickly the more you practice. As you connect with the spirit realm more frequently, table work becomes more of a spiritual practice. You may have various religious figures visit, often as guides. Jesus or Mary, the Blessed Mother (yes, I’m serious!), may make an appearance, and when they are on table, you have entered the realm of the sacred. There is not a more powerful, beautiful, peaceful feeling. You have entered the higher soul levels—the highest is using table work to help others. This may be done indirectly by bettering and developing yourself and then spreading this outwardly in your work and/ or life. You can also directly use the table, the energy raised, and its connection to the spirit realm to send healing to other people. You may be in the higher soul levels to help those who have not fully crossed over to the light and are stuck between realms finally find their way home. Ultimately, table tipping can be a focused intention or prayer; a way to send healing to the Earth and all mankind. The energy raised during table work is substantial and this should be sent out to do good. After years of practicing it, there are still times when something entirely new transpires during a table session, or I am drawn or directed to use it in a new and different way. It continually surprises and astounds me.
Introduction • 7
You are about to enter a new, wonderful, magical world—the world of spirits. For some, the ideas, maybe even the method, may be familiar to you already. For others, it may be a whole new world you never knew existed. Whichever it is, you were drawn to this book for a reason. If you don’t yet know what this is, perhaps it will be clear when you finish reading, perhaps not. Perhaps it is meant to be the first step in a journey and will only explain itself to you as you move forward in it. For me, table work has become another healing tool I can offer to people, and I feel blessed that I can. I am continually humbled and amazed by what happens on table and people’s reactions to it. To watch the awe and wonder on the face of someone who is experiencing the phenomenon for the first time never gets repetitive, and the fulfillment I get from sharing in their joy and healing is a gift I treasure. It is an honor to share in the healing process that this form of communication often brings. Several friends and I hold table workshops every month, as well as private sessions in people’s homes, which continue to become more and more popular. There is a resurgence of interest in this physical mediumship technique that has not been seen in many years. The openness to the idea of the spirit world and the belief that we can communicate with those on the other side is demonstrated in television shows such as Ghost Whisperer and Medium, which bring these ideas as stories into people’s living rooms every week. Shows such as Lisa Williams’s and John Edward’s enable viewers to see real life communication with loved ones who have passed over. Locally and nationally, live appearances by these and other gifted mediums continually sell out. People seem
8 • Introduction
ready and anxious to believe in something other than what has been accepted for so long as the only reality. I have seen firsthand how comforting it is for people to come to the realization that death is not an ending but simply a phase in our life cycle. Laws of physics say that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only changed or recycled. As we are energetic beings, it follows that even if the body dies, the energy that was held inside it is still there. It cannot be destroyed, it just takes a different form. Death does not have to be something to be feared because our souls live on. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. The fact that we are able to communicate with the spirits of those who have passed proves that energy is still there. When we pass, we are able to be with our loved ones who have gone on before us as well as watch over and communicate with those still here on the physical plane. My father always had a fear of death and had often wondered what happens to us—if we just ceased to be “when they put you in the ground.” Fortunately, he is openminded. My sister, mother, and I had been to see a local medium, Maureen Hancock, who is known as the comedienne medium, and were blown away by her accuracy and ability to keep a lightness to the proceedings while at the same time giving due respect to something that can be an extremely emotional experience. We told my father about it and asked him to go with us to one of her shows. The show was held in a large function room at a nearby restaurant, and around two hundred people were in attendance. While Maureen goes pretty much non-stop for hours, in a crowd of that size Maureen couldn’t possibly read for everyone there. As she went from one end of
Introduction • 9
the room to the other, my father would say things like “do you think she’s really talking to spirits?” and “do you think there are microphones hidden in the room?” Time after time, Maureen would be right on the mark with information about how someone had died—a helicopter crash, a hanging, a heart attack—and he would wonder “how does she know that?” He then stated that the only way he would believe she was really talking to people who had died was if she came up to him and said “your sister Peggy who died of cancer is here” and tell him something only she would have known. The evening went on and it was getting late, almost the end of the show. Maureen had taken a quick bathroom break. When she came back, she walked directly over to us, saying that the whole time she had been in the bathroom she was being spoken to loudly (and yes, that’s just how my aunt was) by a woman telling her to get out there and talk to her brother. She said the woman’s name was Margaret (my father often called her by her proper name). As my father’s face filled with a look of awe, she relayed that she had died of cancer, saying “it came back,” which it did— for years she had struggled with various metastases. Peggy told him that she was with their dad. Maureen then asked him why Peggy kept saying something about fighting city hall. This was the clincher for him—he had helped her do just that when the town was giving her a hard time about a new septic system she was having installed. Having fulfilled all of my dad’s imposed requirements for belief, she then moved on to deliver a message to someone else. This was a pivotal experience for him. He no longer had to fear what happened to us when we died. It was
10 • Introduction 10
reassuring for him to know that we were simply in another form of being. He became a full-fledged believer in life after death and in mediumship, and not only has he since participated in many table sessions, he thinks nothing of excitedly sharing his stories with others, urging them to try it as well. I think his experiences parallel that of many people. People want to know and embrace the idea that their loved ones are still there and that they will be, too, when they pass on. Whether mental or physical, mediumship gives people this hope and reassurance, and table tipping is something everyone can do—it is accessible to all. Of course, there are always some who find the idea unbelievable, if not downright preposterous. Even after experiencing it themselves, some try their best to determine if there is something contrived to the process like strings attached to the table in some way or people moving the table themselves. Time after time, spirits come through with information that is unknown to all at the table and only verified after the fact, validating the experience. At one home party we were facilitating, one of the participants told us that a friend had asked her to conduct a sort of double-blind study. He requested that once on table, she ask to speak to his grandfather and ask what was the last gift he had given to him. She agreed and sure enough, that evening the grandfather complied and made an appearance. She posed the question to him and he tapped out the letters spelling “pocket watch.” She had no idea if this was correct or not, and, as it was a Friday, told everyone we would have to wait to see if it was right. The next Monday morning at work, she quickly sought out her
Introduction • 11
co-worker and gave him a piece of paper with the answer to his question written on it. A look of incredulity came over his face as he opened it up and read what was there. Sure enough, it was correct! I realize that a lot of what follows may sound unbelievable to some of you. All I can say is that everything I’m sharing with you is true accounts of table tipping and all it entails, to the best of my knowledge. In many cases, the names used are real. In some, they have been changed by request to maintain privacy and confidentiality. While you certainly don’t need to embrace everything presented here wholeheartedly, I invite you to refrain from any outright negativity—keep an open mind. Take what you like, leave the rest, and in whatever way you decide to use the information, I wish you all the healing and spiritual growth of which you are capable and to which you are entitled.