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The Call - Fifteen lesson and was shortly working through the material that would prepare him to be licensed as a medium by the National Spiritualists Association. When Marie felt that he was ready, they traveled together to the Association headquarters in Cassadaga, Florida. Part of the licensing process required Ted to speak before the board members and also to deliver psychic messages to a large audience. This allowed the board to assess his competence as a medium. He also took six hours of required written tests, covering the Association’s history and development, and he passed with a practically flawless performance. Ted received a license from the group, and with that in hand he and Marie were able to appeal for a charter, which was readily granted. After obtaining approval from Georgia officials, they then started the first Spiritualist church in the state. By that time, there was a sizable group in the Atlanta area interested in psychic work, and the new congregation flourished. Ted had come quite a distance from his first fear and reluctance to deal with the paranormal. He was gratified by his association with other people who understood his talent and appreciated the work he could do. He found that it was great fun to work with other psychics in the training sessions, sharing a common vision and language and supporting one another’s efforts. Sometimes he did see visions or receive information that disturbed, and there were frequently messages that saddened him, just has he had been moved by the dreams of deaths and disasters he’d had in Tuscaloosa. But he also got messages that elated him and the people for whom they were intended. Occasionally he foresaw seri- ous illnesses, for example, and was able to alert his clients to seek medical help that proved to be life-saving. He was shown new job possibilities that often led to more rewarding careers, and many times he assured people about their future romantic happiness, relaying these communications from the spirits with a rewarding sense of accomplishment as he watched the visions come true. Such happy predictions occurred time and again, all of which convinced him that his Masquerade of Angels 142 The Call - Fifteen work was important. As Marie had taught him, Ted came to see that in psychic work one had to accept the sad messages just as completely as the happy ones. Both the positive and negative would come to the open psychic mind, and there was no choice but to deal with this material and to maintain an even balance. Ted had found the existence of the spirit world, from which such material originated, and he felt that it was a benevolent source stemming from a loving, caring God. By getting in touch with his spirit guides and delivering their communications, Ted believed he was helping this unseen world. Its efforts, he learned through his studies, were to teach humanity that death is not the end of existence, that there is truly an afterlife, and that God is in charge of it all. Ted had several spirit guides who worked through him. One was known as Raphael, who claimed to be a Spanish entity. Another much more vivacious and entertaining guide was the spirit of a young girl named Sharon. In life, she had been a dear friend of Ted’s, but she died at age sixteen. In her spirit form, Sharon was a delight and an entertainer, just as Ted had known her to be in life, and it was proof to him that the individual continued on after the death of the earthly body. During this training time, Ted discussed with the others his visitation from the Aunt Jemima figure. He gave a detailed account of the event, including the vivid, almost three-dimensional purple and emerald outfit she wore. None of his colleagues, however, were able to get a clear message about her purpose in coming to Ted. But they reasoned that since Ted had grown up in the backwoods farm country of Alabama, the black mammy must have been a spirit asso- ciated with his grandmother’s farm. Perhaps, they thought, she had come to him in order to open his eyes to the existence of the spirit world and propel him toward a study of such things. This now made sense to Ted, and he accepted that explanation, even though no definite communication was ever delivered concerning her purpose. And when he looked back on the experience with Miss Masquerade of Angels 143