Lynn Kent, 58, is a certified medium (Wikipedia definition: A person who acts as an intermediary between the physical world and what is believed to be a spiritual world) with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches.
She has operated her business at the Kent Spiritual Center in Warren for five years, and has lived in town for 10, moving from Bristol. She has been interested in things beyond the physical realm for more than 20 years, and she and her husband Brian, her third husband, met at a spiritualist church.
Early interest: "In 1986 I got divorced from my second husband and I was very interested in dreams. I looked for a dream interpreter. I got involved in stones, crystals and scrying, the interpretation of the future through a mirror or a bowl of water. I don't do that now. I went to any teacher, any class I could possibly find."
Changing focus: "I find that when I communicate with people's loved ones and friends of a client the information I get is more accurate than any tools I've used in the past. This didn't happen overnight. By 1990 I was already leaving a lot of that behind. I did a lot of meditating and I started communicating with my maternal grandmother I was close to."
We believe: "My husband and I are both ordained ministers with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. We believe in almost everything everyone else believes in, except we take responsibility for our own sins, or wrongdoings, and we believe in the continuity of life, that life continues after death of the body, here on this earth plane. The spirit lives in an in-between world."
Died three times: "A lot of the way I get information is by feeling. I have felt pounding in my heart; died from a heart attack. I have felt like my head got slammed into the wall; a gunshot wound."
Lunch with anyone: "I think I'd like to have lunch with my father one more time. He's in spirit now, he's been driving me crazy. My father used to love scallops and now I get cravings for scallops all the time. I didn't like scallops before my father died."
Close by: "Many times you will crave something your deceased loved one enjoyed, and that way they get to enjoy it again. They're close to you at that time."
Famous communication: "The only one I can really think of is Princess Diana, because someone asked for her. I don't contact famous people, but for some reason they wanted to find out about her. The only thing I remember is she (the client) was worried about how her children would react to her (Princess Diana's) death. It was probably about a year after she died. She said she was relaxed and learning to enjoy a different type of working condition."
Written word: "I don't read anymore. I don't like the news, it feeds me too much negative information and I try to stay as positive as I can because if I'm in a negative place I can't do a good job for my clients, I can't get into that plane I need to be which is kind of like a semi-altered state to communicate with spirit."
Semi-altered state: It's when I can communicate with spirit and still know what I'm doing here, almost like a day dream state. I do trance, but not every time I get into communication."
Mundane stuff: "I'm a regular person, I have to do grocery shopping and laundry, and my husband does help with the housework, and I get angry just like other people do. I have my habits; I'm addicted to fruit pops, Edy's fruit pops, although I'm staying away from them because I'm trying to lose weight."
By Cindy VanSchalkwyk
cindyv@eastbaynewspapers.com