Every month - that is the plan, anyway - I will review a book selected
randomly from my Paranormal Library. This month, I will review Divine Intervention by Hazel Courtney.
Divine Intervention by Hazel Courtney
Hazel Courtney was the alternative health writer who had her own column in the Sunday Times. She would answer readers' questions regarding alternative health - such as what supplements to take for particular health conditions - until out of the blue, she began having a collection of most unusual experiences. This is what Divine Intervention is all about, and the reader is taken on a journey of the author's spiritual awakening...
In the first chapter, 'The Beginning', the reader is introduced to the author, and how the author could be receptive to the "psychic" energies. Hazel explains how she was inspired to take up a career involving writing, through the word 'write' "popping into" her head one day. This led to her subsequent decision to start writing articles in newspapers, which eventually led onto her having a comlumn in the Sunday Times in March 1994. She had a passion for writing about anything to do with alternative health from nutrition to the effects of pesticide residues in farmed foods, and even won the Health Journalist of the Year Award in June 1997.
Although in the first chapter, Hazel appeared to have a relatively mundane, but interesting life, the reader learns that this is challenged by a sudden set of unexpected experiences in the second chapter, The Madness. I personally was thirsty to find out the reason for the title, so I continued to read on, eager to start drinking in the more unusual details of the experiences that were to be related. Life as an alternative health writer was at this point still functioning, as indeed she relates how she moved her alternative health column from the Sunday Times to The Daily Mail. I didn't have very long to wait to find out that her life at this point in time - 8th April 1998 - was going to become strange rather dramatically. I got comfortable and continued reading - ready for the ride that was to come.
Hazel has a rather uncanny experience whilst out shopping in London, and feels "stuck" and "cannot move". This is obviously quite an unexpected experience when you are in a shop, and yet it became weirder, as a "searing pain shot down through my head and into the centre of my chest" , which was as if she'd been "struck" with a long blunt hammer and made her gasp. She, not surprisingly, began to panic, and noticed when she glimpsed her reflection in a mirror that she "looked grey".
Although something most profound had clearly happened, when Hazel went to her GP to be examined, she got the all-clear - her heartbeat was normal, perhaps she'd just had a nervous breakdown due to stress. Despite the immense shock that she experienced as a result, she felt strangely calm. The situation became even more bizarre, because she also saw that her eyes looked bigger in the mirror - "bigger, rounder and bluer".
Whilst resting in bed, her impulse was to phone a friend, yet her hand seemed to have other ideas - as if she was possessed by an entity that was not allowing her to use the phone! Then she began to have strange thoughts, that involved her "knowing" new things - complemented by a little voice that told her "listen to the silence". As the reader, all these strange events seemed like they might be suggesting that something much more profound and eyebrow-raising was to come. I felt like I was a fish caught on a fishing pole - I was, quite literally, hooked to reading more, as the events were becoming more and more intriguing. She seemed to "know" the answers to the most profound questions, such as "Do we have a destiny?", although I couldn't help wondering if these "answers" were the result of prior knowledge that she'd gained from background reading in spiritual matters - and that the experience of such answers presenting themselves now was due to cryptomnesia. I gently put my scepticism to one side and read on.
The author then describes seeing a white mist fill the room, and the experience of her body floating - a rather wonderful out-of-body experience, which felt "blissful". For some inexplicable reason, she greets her husband with explaining her earlier experience whilst out shopping, and that she felt "different" and "like a super being", explaining the various psychic abilities that she could now achieve. She also, later that day, feels like she has a fever, with the earlier discomfort returning to her head and chest. Several days later, her appetite changed - although she forces herself to eat some food, she doesn't feel hungry. Speaking on the phone only seemed to hinder the strange feelings she was experiencing.
The author consults friends about what to do - and uses various techniques to try and "ground" herself, with everything from sugar to Rescue Remedy (a combination of Bach flower remedies that is believed to be ideal for dealing with sudden trauma and shock). She continued to feel unwell, and even told a spiritual friend to look into her eyes in order to "know" who she was. Another friend comes over to check that the cause of all the unusual experiences is not possession by an evil spirit, and quickly her appearance became unkempt. After being told by the "voice" to 'Wait until the death', the apparent climax seemed to approach, after Hazel has a peculiar taste in her mouth, being soaked in sweat, amongst other unusual sensations. She felt as if she was in a coffin that was in a car which was being driven very fast. Inside her head, she screamed, 'Help me' multiple times, and it was then that she realised whose eyes it was that she was seeing through - Princess Diana.
In The Death, chapter 3, the author describes the various resulting feelings that were felt by millions of people when the death of Princess Diana was featured at length in the news. Hazel expresses her opinion regarding who Diana was in a fair, balanced way, and she describes her meeting in October 1997 with Queen Noor. It is at this point that Hazel identifies the "voice" in her head as that of Diana's, and this gives her many different - and often spiritual - insights into what really happened to Diana on the fateful day of 31st August 1997. She expresses the anger of Princess Diana's death, yet whilst she types up her thoughts about it all for the newspaper, she hears Diana's voice saying, 'They have crucified me - I hope they are satisfied' which is supplemented with an image of her on a cross. The various insights given by this "voice" that are included in this chapter, as well as following ones, make for interesting reading, although they all seem similar in some respects to the nature of other "channelled" messages (not quite referring to the sort given by professional mediums however). Hazel's experience of channelling Diana's energy causes her to experience huge surges of emotion and unexpected times of re-energising. The chapter is coupled with reflections of past experiences, such as meeting a grieving mother, and situations involving family members, but these merely add some background to the telling of the story. Diana gives personal information regarding her true feelings about what had happened to her when she'd died, her reflections now regarding the situation, as well as her feelings about Dodi, Prince Charles and their two sons. Not many books with channelled writing that I have previously read add such a personal, human element to their messages.
As I approached the middle of the book, I noticed (to my immense delight) that there was a collection of various pictures of people, including Princess Diana and, towards the end, of Serena Roney-Dougal. Not surprisingly, Hazel is seeking more answers for her unusual experiences that seem to be linked with channelling Princess Diana. Amongst the individuals consulted in Serena Roney-Dougal who offers her insight and knowledge of spiritual and shamanic experiences to answer Hazel's barrage of questions. These I found rather deep but also intriguingly interesting.
It would make this review too long to say any more. Without a doubt, the messages Hazel received from Diana were rather inspirational, as she called for the need to change our thoughts into more positive ones in order to help the planet, and they related how she felt about the media constantly intruding on her life and her true feelings about her situation with Prince Charles. Whether or not Hazel was really channelling Diana's spirit, I found the book both interesting and compelling. For those familiar with Serena Roney-Dougal, and those interested in mediumship or simply having a good read, this book is certainly recommended - and for those whose appetite has merely been whetted.
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