My boss at the journal, Phil, jokingly said during a meeting about my Angels story—“these people talk to Angels, the question is do the Angels talk back?” Sure enough, this is exactly the question I was pursuing when I went on a “serious” interview to “Angel Whispers Rhode Island,” a holistic healing center in Warwick.
I was given this lead by the thrive editor of the Journal, Pam — and when I set off on this expedition I had no idea what to expect— I was fully bracing myself to encounter a woman like the Harry Potter character Professor Trelawney, and I whole-heartedly was wondering whether I was putting myself in a dangerous situation, by being alone with a, more than likely, certifiably insane woman—was this a smart move on my part? Probably not, but sometimes reporters have to take a risk and just pray that everything works out ok. Well, at least I had my cell phone with me, and I fully thought I might be calling 911 before long.
I parked my car and walked towards the office– passing a ramshackle house with an obese woman sitting on the front steps; her children were playing on a small, square patch of grass– around a dead kitten sprawled on the lawn. There were flies starting to surround it, but the children didn’t seem to notice. If there’s one thing that can make my heart break it’s a dead kitten (or any type of animal for that matter).
I walked into a building where I had to go up some narrow stairs with some shady characters lurking in the doorways, talking to each other. I made my way past some men, who quieted as I passed and stared at me as if to say “what are you doing here darlin’?”
Finally I made it to the office and I never expected to encounter a nicely dressed and groomed, college educated woman, who had worked in medical administration for a number of years; she is also a mother and a wife. She seemed perfectly normal and very friendly—I would never have suspected what she does for a living if I encountered her on the street.
I talked to her for a good hour and surprisingly I never let on that I thought the whole “talking to angels thing” was insane. My goal as a reporter is to be objective, I don’t judge or give my opinion–just deliver the facts and findings.
From here I wrote up my story—but Pam and I decided that it would be good to find a few other angel communicators to interview. I had never researched Angel communicators in Rhode Island before and made a list of interesting calls before getting a few responses.
Surprisingly both people who responded to my inquiries not only think that communicating with angels is a holistic healing practice, but also practice energy therapies like Reiki. One woman was extremely down to earth, and she had served in the military and had many different professions before settling into the profession of holistic healing. She said that she evokes the angels to draw in more energy, but does she believe the angels talk back to her? Absolutely not.
Interviewing the third woman was more challenging for me because she was insistent that I should experience “her skills” myself. Now, I’m open minded, but I feel that there is only so far a person can take a story like this and still feel comfortable. Having a woman try and contact my guardian angels and deliver messages to me is not something I ever plan to do.
When you do a bakery story, often the bakers give you cupcakes and you would be rude to say “I don’t want your cupcakes,” so you don’t. It is harmless to take cupcakes. In this story, the Angel reading was like an offering of cupcakes, a taste of the woman’s trade. I felt terrible refusing, but there is only so far one needs to go to get necessary information for a story, and submitting myself to something like that is not only personally uncomfortable for me, but I believe could sway my objectivity—by having a reading, I would form an opinion of whether she is credible or not. And that’s not what the story was about. This story was a learning experience for me because I had to figure out how to interview objectively on a fairly subjective subject, “angel communication.”
