"Shh, They're Talking..."

I might say I first found Sharon Renae quite by accident -- I might, except Sharon would quickly remind me that nothing happens 'by accident' in this world.

One evening late Fall 2001 my daughter-in-law Loreli came home from work all excited on a Friday night, and it wasn't because it was Friday, but rather because she was going to see a woman she had heard about who could communicate with 'the spirits'. And that woman lives right here in our own little beach community -- Navarre Beach, Florida -- and she lives literally right around the corner from us. She had heard about this lady from someone at work, and since she had been interested in this 'kind of thing' for a long time she was excited about being able to see this close up so close to home.

She said it would only cost her $10, actually asked as 'a donation', and the girl from work was going too, so off she went.

I was concerned. Who was this woman? Was she 'for real'? Was this a scam? Would she offer bigger and better 'connections' with the afterlife for bigger and better amounts of money? Or even worse, since our family operates from a foundation of faith and dependence on a daily walking/ talking relationship with God, could this be someone who draws people away from God?  Did she indulge in any kind of witchcraft? Or maybe she uses seances, or even hypnosis?

Loreli was very happy with her experience, and over the next week or so we discussed what had happened, and she assured me through her reports of the evening that none of my concerns had basis for worry. But I did decide that if Loreli ever went back, I would certainly go along just to see for myself.

So a few weeks later, when Loreli popped through the door on a Friday night and said, "I think I'm going to see Sharon Renae again tonight", I made a snap decision . . . I was going too. She looked surprised, said OK, but I'd have to hurry . . . we had to leave within 15 minutes.

Racing to the bedroom and bath, I brushed and scrubbed and grabbed and changed . . ..and combed on the way out the door.

And I will have to admit -- I was surprised at who met us at the door. A smiling, non-threatening, soccer-Mom-looking lady I guessed to be about 40 gave us a hug and a smile and said "Hi, I'm Sharon-- everybody gets a hug".

No one had called ahead to tell her we were coming, she didn't know I was Loreli's mother-in-law. I was introduced simply as "Pam". I knew no one there. And I was skeptical, which I knew she could tell. I watched everything, and everybody -- as my many years as a reporter had taught me to do well. I was really surprised to discover that most everyone there was like me, a first-timer who had never met Sharon. But your mind searches for possibilities, like is someone in this group of 12 a plant -- or two?? Is she reading minds? Did she use the internet to find some of these people's backgrounds, and then just 'reads' them, maybe?

But by the end of the evening even I had to admit, I was amazed. MORE than amazed. And I had to admit, I knew Sharon was 'for real'.

It's difficult NOT to believe when you are sitting there, listening to all the other 'messages' from 'the other side' come through, and all of a sudden she's standing in front of you talking about your Grandmother who has passed, even using her name! That was the last thing I expected to happen, since I was so skeptical to begin with. But Grandma it was . . . things that no one else would know but Grandma and me. And some things Grandma 'told' me that night that I didn't even know, until a day or two after when I had them verified.  I was speechless . . . which my family will tell you they thought was an impossiblity.

Of course, the next few days you begin to wonder if it was all in your imagination, maybe you read into what she said because you wanted it to be true,  and so you think 'someday I should go back'. And several weeks later my daughter-in-law and I went again. Sure enough, another relative and another amazing experience.

After attending a couple more sessions over the next couple months, the reporter in me took over and all kinds of questions started surfacing, like HOW does she do this, and WHY does she do this. I wanted to sit down for a one-on-one interview with her for a newspaper article. She hesitantly agreed, wanting guarantees of reading it before it went to print  and that nothing would be changed between her home and the pages of print. She kept saying, with a grin, that she didn't want anyone to make her sound like a 'hotline psychic babe'.

And to stress her point she told me how she had recently turned down a couple different larger newspapers' requests for interviews because they refused to give her such assurances, and she had also refused to allow a local television station to bring cameras and a reporter into one of her Friday night sessions. She said she wanted to be able to assure people coming to her channeling sessions that it was a safe, confidential place. Since I was the editor at the paper, and this was being done as a feature story, not expose,  I was in a position to give her the guarantees she needed, so she agreed to sit down and talk. By this time I trusted her, and she said she trusted me. But, of course, we also voiced the mutual understanding that if we couldn't come to agreement on any important points in the article, I wouldn't run it. (Turned out she only changed one sentence, so I guess we were on the same page, so to speak.)

But after doing the interview I discovered it only opened even more avenues of this amazing field for investigation -- far too much to fit into one article. We did do the article, and  the response was demanding . . . for more . . . we had only scratched the bare surface.

That's how this book was born!

Inside these pages hopefully you will find answers to many of the questions I get asked about Sharon by just about everybody I tell about my experiences at her channeling  sessions. Through several more hours of sit-down interviews with Sharon, we have now talked about the HOW of it, The WHY of it, and she even explains who your Spirit Guides, or Guardian Angels  really are (and no, they aren't your Grandmas and Moms) and how to meet your own Guide, if you want to.

Then I went in search of people who had been to channeling sessions or private readings, to see if they were as skeptical as I the first time they went, and if their experiences had in any way changed their outlook on life -- or afterlife -- in any way. I really enjoyed those interviews, and found everyone I met eager to talk. You may find some surprises in that chapter called, "Readings and Validations from people on THIS side". I even talk about some of my own personal experiences with Sharon's Friday night sessions.

Hope you enjoy the book. We enjoyed the journey of putting it together. And if som