Reverend Edwards December 2002 (click for larger image) Reverend Edwards Ordination to Hope Memorial 1972 Welcome! HMSC BLACK RAVEN Rev. Edwards' Spirit Guide	Reverend Florence Edwards was the Assistant Pastor at Hope Memorial Spiritual Church, from the date of her ordination in 1972 until 1982. At which time, her mother, Reverend Gertrude Leivers became Pastor Emeritus--Reverend Edwards took over as Head Pastor and still holds the honor of that position today. The church was originally founded by Reverend Edwards parents, Mr. Leslie Leivers & Reverend Gertrude Leivers. The church was formed and its' Charter was granted in March of 1949--at which time, Mr. Leslie Leivers and Mr. William Richardson, put up their houses as collateral to purchase the building in which the church still resides. This entire site was designed for Reverend Edwards as a gift for all of the wonderful things she has done. In her typical, gracious generosity & caring, as the rightful owner, she allows the church to use it, so all would be able to benefit from it. Reverend Edwards was interviewed as part of this site's design to give people a better understanding of who she is and the real purpose of what she does. Reverend Florence Edwards - Interview - December 28, 2002 Interview Material Copyright © 2002-2003 Reverend Florence Edwards. This material may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, without the express written consent of Reverend Florence Edwards. Where were you born? Toronto at 7 Cosburn Ave at a midwife's house in 1931, April 14th. Is your family still around? No, my oldest sister, who was Milliscent, she passed away at 34, due to child birth. There are still five of us remaining. Do you ever follow astrology? Once in awhile and I found that it sort of ties in with all of this. During times that my life was on a roller coaster ride, sometimes I would just pick up the paper and read the horoscope and it would just tie in so positive with what was happening in my life and other times it didn't, but you know--it is all a part of it, we have quite a few people that do numerology as well and it is all part of the spiritual fields. What's your astrological sign? Aries, the ram, which is very headstrong--the leader. It has shown up a lot in my life, I can be very headstrong. At what age did you first know that you had your gift? When I was about 13 years of age I started having things that I thought were weird at that time. I was very much aware of entities being around me, didn't understand that's what it was, but I was very much aware of that. During the Second World War my mom and dad had become interested in a Ouija board and we used to sit with a Ouija board and we found that it didn't bring in the best of vibes. What we used to use then was just a table and we all gathered around the table and we had it so that it would knock twice for no or three times for yes. But when I sat with them it always used to wrap on the back of my chair instead of on the table, so of course everybody would say, she is going to be the psychic one. Ouija boards, do they bring in negative/positive energy? The thing about a Ouija board is you don't always have everyone that is spiritually inclined, so it can draw in lower forces. We had some wonderful proofs from it then it got so foolish--things were coming in from it and my mother said, "that is enough of that". You can attract lower entities with a Ouija board. An experience that I had in recent years, I was working with a young couple that had a daughter that was seven years of age. They were playing with a Ouija board and they were living a very old house. There had been a lady that had committed suicide and they got playing with this Ouija board and they used to have to lock the girl in her room at night because she was always trying to get into the basement to commit suicide and she was only 7. And that was all related to the Ouija board. I worked with them for quite some time and they burnt the Ouija board and it eventually stopped. When you have negative spiritual entities that come in, are you capable of getting rid of them yourself? Oh yes, you just say "if you are not pure of spirit and not of Christ, then leave". The law is; Light Attracts Light, so if you are not evil within yourself, then you do not draw them. Sometimes out of curiosity, a negative spirit will come and if you are of weak nature then it can infringe upon you. I've heard of salt being placed? I had an experience a number of years ago where we had somebody that came to our church, when she saw what we had and the energies that I had, and we wouldn't allow her to take over, she played havoc. I actually had to put salt two inches out from my house, without a break, all the way around my house. I would be sitting here doing a reading and the rats would come under my door and run around the baseboards, they were so real that I could see them and it was her energies that were sending them. I used many boxes and I didn't let a space, it was a complete line around and it did stop it. I would even get in my car and they would run across my car window and it was all this negative energy that she was sending out. She was a very strong person she had some wonderful energies but when she couldn't control, she went on the negative side. Which people are inclined to do, so you have to protect yourself. I always make sure there is a white light around me even when I do readings because I deal with all kinds of people. I ask that whatever comes into my contact that if it isn't of good, that it is turned away and then it is not allowed to infringe on me. How did you first know that you had your gift? I was seeing things, first I thought I was imagining things because I would hear voices and so I questioned a lot of it, didn't understand a lot of it, so I put it out of my life because it was interfering with my life. When one of my best girlfriends mothers found out I was a spiritualist, she was no longer allowed to go to school with me anymore. She used to have to go one way and I had to go the other way but we would meet. So I thought, if this is so wonderful, why is this causing conflict in my life. People would sort of shy away from me when they knew that I could pick up these vibrations. So I sort of pushed it out of my life. Then my sister that died at 34, she was a very kind person, a very spiritual person and she never taught her children to look at material things or gather material things. She would teach them to be of good character and to be kind and do their best and so when she passed away that young, I thought what would be the point of living if all you did is live and die? So that's when I set my mind to prove that what my mother and father was teaching and believing in was true, or I didn't want to be bothered living anymore. I thought what would be the purpose. You struggle through this world, because it is a struggle and that was the purpose to die, then what was the point of going on. I would be awoken in the night with visitations, some of them I would recognize, and some of them I didn't. Every time I started to doubt, I would have another experience. I was given so much proof that nobody can take it away from me now. Maybe I had to experience that to be able to do the work what I do, because I became so positive about it. I remember I went through some crucial times in my own life and spirit was able to bring me through that. I promised spirit if they could bring me through that devastation and show me some light at the end of that tunnel and help me to come through all those ordeals, then I would work for spirit the rest of my life. And they keep me to that promise. There's times that I feel, oh well, I'll just give this up, it takes up so much of my time. Then they sort of remind me and it's always when I sort of have a low ebb and I begin to think negative about it, then I'll have a wonderful experience or somebody will come to me and they will say how I've helped them so much and the proof that I've given them and I say, okay I'll keep doing this. I would never do private readings before, because I felt that this was part of our religion giving messages. I had the attitude that if people couldn't come to a spiritualist church to hear from their loved ones then they didn't deserve it. It wasn't until I had a very serious illness and I was recuperating from the illness and spirit was visiting in the night calling my name. I'd wake up and I'd hear the voice and they would keep saying to me, "Flo you have to read". I would actually cover up my head and say, "no I'm not going to read, if they can't come to church then they don't deserve it". They constantly kept waking me up, they said, "you will touch more people and open more avenues if you do privates readings than what you will ever do waiting for them to come to church". So that's when I set out to do the private readings. Did your mother do private readings? No, my mother was a healer and she was a lecturer. She did inspirational writing. She wrote all of the lessons for the 3-year course that we teach at the church and also when the UCSCO was in existence, they adopted those lessons to teach. She never truly had the gift? She did, but she had it in a different way. When she lectured, it was all from spirit. She taught to develop your spiritual gifts, the same as I do. She taught for many, many years at the church. It was strange, because in her later years it sort of didn't interest her to do the clairvoyant as far as the message work, because my father and her were a team. When my father was alive, my father used to get the clairvoyance and my mother used to do the lectures. So when they would serve churches my mother would do the lecture, my father would do the clairvoyance. Then when my father passed away, my next oldest sister Helen, who is a medium as well, worked with my mom and they were a team. So my mother never really had the desire to develop the message work. Then when I started working with people doing the clairvoyance, I had no desire to lecture. I didn't think I had the ability to lecture. So my mother did the lecture and I did the clairvoyance, so we worked as a team. Then I was asked to serve the Cambridge church, do the lecture and everything and I said to my mother "I can't do that". My mother said, "Spirit wants you to do this; you'll have to do it. Even if you write it out". So I spent weeks, writing this lecture that I was going to give. And I said, "I'll never be able to do it, I don't have the ability of the other people". My mother said, "If spirit wants you to do it you'll do it". Anyhow, I went to do this lecture and I had it all written out. I noticed that somebody was in the congregation that I had very negative vibes with and I said, "I'll never be able to do a lecture now" and my mother said, "You are here to do it, you will do it". So I went out to the Kitchen and I talked to the President who was the chairperson that day and said, "I'm not going to be able to do the lecture" and she said, "Why not?" And I said, "There is just a vibration there I don't like". She said, "You will do the lecture, you will get a glass of water, you will ask spirit to block them out". So I did this, I got on the rostrum and I started reading over my lecture and my vision was so blurred I couldn't read a word that I had written so I started to panic. We started singing the Lord is My Shepherd and I never got to the second verse and they zapped me right out. So I gave the lecture and when I was done the lecture and they brought me back, I was bewildered because I thought I wasn't in control and I was worried. So many people came to me afterwards; one young man came to me in particular and said to me, "You have a gentleman that works with you. He is very, very strong, he's got a walrus moustache and his eyes are very, very knowledgeable and all the time you lectured, he stood at your left side". So I said to him, "Oh you must have been in my reading room, that's Dr. Horvath, he hangs over my left shoulder". He said, "Lady, I've never seen you before in my life". So that gave me, a lot of proof. Then I was a little bit timid about giving the message work, because I thought what if I had said something in the lecture, and then I gained confidence and control and finished the service. That was my first experience of doing a lecture under trance to a congregation. What's it like doing a lecture under trance, where do you go? I'm sort of suspended, I feel as if I'm drawn right up through the top of my head and I'm suspended from the ceiling and I know that the voice is speaking and I can't make out the words. I always describe it as being under anesthetic and coming out--you can hear them saying your name, that's the best way to describe it. I can't tell you what was said, but I'm aware. I'm totally blurred out and I'm just suspended. When I come back into the body again I know it's over. Do you find during the trance lectures that there are more specific entities coming through than Dr. Horvath or Dr. Moxon? At one time, Dr. Horvath was the only entity that spoke through me. Then as I was teaching class, different entities were coming through, and then I found that there was several. They're not all medical doctors, but they're called doctors. There's a doctor Campbell that sometimes speaks through me and Dr. Moxon, who was a speaker that used to speak at our church when he was in the living, he actually was a doctor from Toronto. Dr. Nelson is another entity that speaks through me, and Dr. Patterson as well. Sometimes it will be previous mediums that will come and do the lecture. So I never know who is going to come, because different people have different needs. Even if I was to prepare a lecture, when I stand to do the lecture, and I come through and I hear the tape, it is totally different than what I had thought I would speak on that day. It's the need of the people there. My mother had always said, "You're never going to touch everybody in the church, so long as you touch someone, even if it's one person, then it has served it's purpose". It took me sort of a long time to get faith and know that they wouldn't fail me. I would think sometimes what if I got up there and nothing comes and my mother used to say, "Trust your guides and know that they will always be there for you". So far, they have never failed me. Always people say what part of the lecture has touched them and of course I don't know what they're talking about until I've heard it. There's always a message that they stick to through the entire process that is valuable and simple, it's not as complicated as everybody thinks? In many of my lectures I have noticed that they will say, "man complicates it". They are looking for something supernatural, rather than the natural law of life. We are inclined to look for something more complicated or supernatural rather than the natural law of life. Communicating with spirit is the natural law of life anybody can do it. We are born with it. Because we fear, I guess, and lack of understanding of it all, we don't teach our children to follow through with it. Do you find when you're doing readings that it physically drains you? No, it used to. It used to when I first started doing readings, it used to drain me because I would hold the contents. Some of the experiences and situations that people were in--when I was done, I would be holding this and I would be worrying. For instance, I had a young girl that was 14, pregnant and her mother threw her out. I went out at midnight driving up and down the streets looking for her, thinking she was in a doorway somewhere. I had a very difficult time dealing with thinking where was she, and what was happening. I've had a few experiences like that. So finally I said to my mother, "I don't want any part of this". My mother said, "You are supposed to protect yourself, you have to allow that shield so you don't take on their conditions". So now when I do a reading, I can't even tell you what I've said. I've heard that people with your gift don't have the ability to read themselves? That's right. It's very, very difficult to read my own because you are so involved in your life. It is a thin, thin line between imagination and what spirit shows you, you have to learn. Even when I hear the voice actually say, "do this," I question and I used to go to another reader to have it confirmed. Is it me saying "do this" or is it really spirit. My father visits me a lot, when my father visits me, I always know that he is taking charge. Is there significance to the number 3 in the spirit world, there are a lot of things that seem to happen in 3's? Seven is the most prominent to spirit, but I feel that 3 because of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. When you're giving messages, you receive pain sometimes; do you physically feel this pain? Yes, just for that minute. Mainly because I have clairaudience, clairvoyance and clairsentience. Usually you develop one or the other, but I think because I work with it every day of my life, I'm fortunate that I have them all. So sometimes I will actually feel it. The one thing that I noticed and this was probably my first experience, I brought in somebody that had drowned and I felt like I had been plunged into ice-cold water. That's when I really first recognized it. When I gave this off to the person I was working with, I said, "Did you know somebody that drowned?" right away they said "yes". I've been working on the rostrum and almost lost my balance because somebody has come through that had lost their leg. It doesn't damage me in any way. When I first developed the clairaudience, I would be sitting there and I would hear the voice and I would say to my mother "Did you hear that?" and she would say "Hear what?". I said it was clear as a bell and she said she didn't hear a thing. Then I realized when I hear it, it's in the inner ear but it's so strong that I think that everybody should be able to hear it. Then when I see the vision, it's like a television screen rolling, that's why I have to talk very quickly because I have to keep up with it. Not every message that is delivered from spirit has a major significance or impact on one's life, some of the information seems quite irrelevant or general, why is that? I think they do it to make us trust, to make us realize that spirit is a part of our lives. I've had many times people say to me, "I didn't understand what you were saying, --this has happened, now I know what it was all about". I had a lady come to me and I did a reading for her and I said "Oh, there is going to be a new baby, is somebody around you going to be expecting a new baby?" and she said "no". I said, "This is strange, they placed this baby right in your lap, you're going to have a baby". She said, "Not on your life am I going to have a baby". I said, "I can't take it away because it was placed right in your lap, you're going to receive it". I then said "Wait a minute, they're wrapping this baby in a pink blanket it is going to be a girl", because usually that's what spirit shows me. She delivered a baby and I was the first one she phoned to let me know. She was laughing, she said, "When I was to you, I was six weeks pregnant and didn't even know it". Her youngest one was 10 and she said we did not plan on having a baby. "Guess what, you told me it was going to be a girl and they just brought my son in and they apologized, he's in a pink blanket, they ran out of blue blankets". That was good proof to me! When were you ordained into the church? 1972 for Hope Memorial You were ordained in the United States as well? Yes, 1978 in New York at the Church of Divine Science Is it the same ordination as Canada? Yes Why do you have two ordinations? The Buffalo church is our sister church and they bestowed that on me as an honor. That is so I can perform things in the United States. Do you have a vision where you would like to see the church go? Oh yes, I would like to see it grow. I would like to see more people be able to learn about it, to let people know what spirit can do and how it benefits our lives. We're growing now, I think because people are realizing that it is real and people are on a search. My mother always said that our religion is a continuation of all religions because all religions teach that there is life after death, but they won't prove it to us. We prove it by the communication of spirit and the laying on of hands of the healing. So we are proving it to people. When the world gets in chaos, that's when you find that a lot of people will come into the spiritualist churches and the unfortunate part is that when their need is filled they sort of drift away again. I would like to see it as a universal religion, so that we would be able to prove it in all denominations--because it is of value to us. The essential message of the trance lectures is, "yes, all the other religions are there". The other analogy I have is this free trade. When you look back at the creation of everything, was that not what the master was teaching us? Think about it--Alaska, you can't grow tomatoes in Alaska; you can't grow pineapples up there. The fish that live in the Arctic don't live in Hawaii. If you really look at it everything has it's very special place, I think this was to make man realize that we all need everybody and we need to trade. And here they are trying to grow tomatoes and pineapples in Alaska, to cut out these people that are growing them. To me that doesn't make sense, to me the message in that is "we need one another". We need to be in tune with one another, we need to share, every purpose and everything that is grown, we can share if we really, truly believe that we are walking in God's light. All the things are put on the physical plane for our use. It doesn't say, you get this and you hold it as power over someone. It's all there for us to share and to use and to benefit, not become mighty or controlling. This is where man is losing the message. Yes, because spirit says you will always be provided for? Exactly. It amazes me, spirit has always provided for me. You will never want, so long as you work for spirit freely. So long as you give back to spirit what spirit has given to you. This is why I find it very difficult to accept some of the jealousy in some of the churches, because if you are giving back what you have received, how could there be jealousy? Each medium and each person that develops, they're a different make-up so they have different ways of using their gifts. One is not better than the other. If we would realize that we're all sort of like cogs in a wheel because we touch on all kinds of personalities, so therefore we need the different guides and teachers. This is why we work differently because our guides and teachers lived on the physical plane at one time, so they have a personality, so you are going to attract to those people that have the same personalities. A soul carries on through many generations and has many different incarnations. You would physically see a spirit, which may be related to somebody, but in previous lives there are other people who may be related to that same spirit but with a different vision of that same spirit, how do you explain this? Well, the best way for me to describe this is; when a mother has a child, does she cease to exist? No, so when that child is born, that's a molecule of that mother and that father. There can be six children or ten children or whatever on this physical plane at this time, so is the spirit, the main spirit remains. It will come on to the physical plane in many different forms for many different experiences. What are Apports? An apport is an item that spirit can liquefy and bring through the walls and then it materializes again. They are not of great value, but they are to people who receive them. We've had a wedding band come once to one of the sitters, we have had a rose quartz and blue granite, tigers eye and 2 "fools gold" nuggets. My mother received one many years ago; we were down in Chesterfield Indiana at the largest Spiritualist camp in the world. My mother received a dark navy blue stone. I took it all over to get it mounted in a ring for her and the jewelers wouldn't touch it. I finally found a jeweler in Simcoe that said he had never seen anything like it, but he said he would do it for me. I had it mounted and my mother wore that until about 2 months before she died. Why does spirit deliver Apports? Just again, proving the power of spirit and bringing a gift. I had one that was a funny shape; it was very, very narrow at the top and fanned out at the bottom. It was a green, clear crystal. I had it for years. I was speaking at a church in Hamilton and I had taken a couple of my students. We stopped off for coffee and we were talking and somebody had mentioned Apports, so I took it out of my wallet and showed it to them and I left it on the table there, never thinking. Three years later it showed up in my house again. I don't believe that there is a hell and a devil; I believe we're in it--this is hell? No, this is my firm belief that hell is here on the physical plane. You know the black balls that we used to have in the olden days that had the seed in the middle and all of these rings-if you were to cut that, and lay it out; you would realize that this seed is the earth. Each color is a different plane and we all go to that first realm or plane, whatever you want to call it, where everybody goes; liars, cheats, murders whatever--and you can stay there if you want or you can move forward to the light and go beyond that, because it is your own free will. That cannot be taken away from you. Is that the area right before you walk through the tunnel? That's right, that's right. This is why we have what is called "possession" because there are souls that go over and they don't want to let go of the material plane. They will infringe on people on the physical plane trying to hold themselves there because they have no desire, they fear that light. This is why when somebody is passing I always tell them "go to the light, go to the light". They will find their loved ones and it is safe to go. I experienced that, I was in a near death--well, I did actually cross over and I went through that tunnel and my father greeted me. I walked and I talked with my father. It was like floating. There used to be an ad on TV where there was a lady that floated through daisies, and that's the best way to describe it. That's how it was. I was with my father, he held my hand and he walked with me and we talked and then all of a sudden he stopped dead and took a few steps ahead of me. He said, "Flo, you've got an awful lot of work to do, you've got to go back". I said, "I'm not going back". He kept drifting and drifting and I kept trying to reach for him and I couldn't, he kept drifting. When I come out of it, I actually was shouting, "I don't want to go back, I don't want to go back". That was when my spiritual work all fell into place. They say the light comes right out of your body? Oh yeah, the vibrant light and the colors and the peace, I saw flowers that I've never seen on this physical plane. I did not want to come back. I can't describe your whole spiritual being and the vibration and the serenity and the peace is so great that you cannot visualize ever coming back into that physical body again. I will never forget it. That happened in 1970 and I have never forgotten it. When I think about it, I almost re-enact the whole thing and it was an experience I will never forget. Where is the spirit world? I don't define it, all I know is that we're surrounded by it. It can't be that far away when you have photographs that spirit shows up on. It's like a curtain, another dimension, another space? Yes, yes. Before you leave the other side to come back on the physical plane, you chart yourself for your spiritual journey. If you prematurely end that with suicide, are you sent back to complete that initial mission? Oh yes. You chose to come back or you can lie in that dormant state. But if you so desire to come back, then you are permitted to come back. You will have to finish. Sometimes you choose to try to fulfill it from the other side--without a physical body, how can you do that. Who is your main Spirit Guide? Tall Pine, he has been with me and he's the one that helps me with my messages. Rosebud was my first guide and she helped me with my healing, now she very seldom ever comes in. Black Raven joined my band last year. Is there anything that you want to say or a message that you want to deliver to everybody? I think basically it is for people to be aware of what spirit can bring into their lives, what an asset it can be. It's not something supernatural, it's not something that can destroy your life or mix up your life. It's something that can open a whole new vision of life for you and realizing that it doesn't have to interfere with material things. You don't have to be holier than thou to be in touch with spirit. It can enlighten your path so that you will find that instead of having a negative thought that all of a sudden, it is turned into a positive. I used to hold a lot of negative thoughts because of the things that had happened in my life, it wasn't until I was able to say, "Okay god bless you, I forgive you and you know not what you do but what you sow, so shall you reap". I was very much aware then that when I would feel anger towards somebody that had hurt me, I was able to turn it around. My whole life turned around after that. People think, oh well, they don't want to be involved with it because you have to give up this, give up that. It's in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and he lived a normal life. He wasn't protected from the ordeals in life. He had to go through all the things that man and woman have to suffer through. But by his belief and closeness with spirit, he was able to overcome all of those things. I think if people get the message, realizing that he was a blueprint, he had nothing to follow when he came on to the physical plane. His mission was to prove to man the abilities of spirit and therefore he had to come in a human form to make us realize that it wasn't supernatural, it was the natural Law of Life. Whatever we experienced with our belief and understanding of spirit that they would take us through it, they would show us the way. This is really the message that people have to realize. His life upon the physical plane was no different from ours. In his teachings he says, "All these things you shall do and even greater". So he was showing us, he was leaving us a blueprint. I get a little upset-and this is my belief--not somebody else's, I get annoyed when people say he died on the cross for our sins-I don't believe he did that. If he died on the cross for my sins, then I'm free to do whatever I want--he already paid for it. My belief is that he died to show us the way, to show us that there is life after death, that we are reborn in a spiritual form. That death is not the finish. I can accept that, but I can't accept that he died for our sins. I have a very deep lecture that spoke of the Old Testament. That was written to fear, because the only way they could control man was to put the fear of god into them, this is why Christ had to come to teach us that God was not angry, God was not hell and damnation, he had to come to teach us that he is love. This is why there are so many things that I cannot accept. When somebody says "God is going to punish you for that", I cannot see that because he is a loving god. If we were to be born onto this physical plane in perfection, what would be the purpose, we'd have nothing to learn. So, he knows that we will make mistakes and he has given us the free will to recognize that and to correct it. This is what the message is. We learn through many of these experiences. - The End -
Material Copyright © Legal & Copyright • This site requires a Java-enabled browser best viewed 800x600