The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Can messages be received from beyond the grave? Are there people that can communicate with the dead? Many people hope so; others feel it goes against their religious beliefs.

One Orange family was taken by surprise last year at the Texas Ghost Show when a son was determined to get a message to his mother.

Medium Ericka Boussarhane came to Beaumont from Pensacola, Fla. to participate in the Ghost Show. Psychic ability runs in her family, especially in the women. She was uncomfortable with psychic phenomena when she was young. Not understanding her abilities, she tried to stay away from it.

While in college, studying psychology, she was watching an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries.” Her mind started filling with flashes of information about the case portrayed on the show. “I started researching cold cases because I figured it was something I was supposed to help,” said Boussarhane. She started training to develop her ‘psychic muscles.’ “I studied from Sandy Anastasi.” Ericka said Anastasi is the main person John Edwards credits with helping him hone his capabilities. Edwards is a very famous psychic medium that hosted “Crossing Over.”

Boussarhane started volunteering with findme2.com which is an agency that uses law enforcement and psychics to help locate missing persons.

These days, she attends various conventions and conferences holding “gallery” readings.

That is where Cammie Vincent from Orange found Boussarhane last year in Beaumont.

Vincent had not gone to the Texas Ghost Show to get a reading; she didn’t know they were even available. “I had never been to anything even close to this. We didn’t know they were having speakers; we just wanted to go see the people that were on “Ghost Hunters” and these shows that we had watched,” she said.

When they arrived at the Civic Center, they were asked who they wanted to listen to. Someone at the ticket booth suggested there was room in Ericka’s audience. “Would you like to go see her?” they asked.

“We didn’t know who Ericka was. We said sure.”

While walking down the hall, a bird swooped in above their heads. Their guide asked them if they knew what that meant. He told them it was a good sign.

Sitting in the back of the room, they realized Boussarhane was a medium. “She was actually giving readings to people there in the audience. We were amazed at the response of the people. She was telling them things about people they have lost and actually about medical conditions. I was just really interested, because I had just lost a son and my sister-in-law had lost her son in the war.”

Vincent decided she wanted to go to Boussarhane’s next gallery reading, scheduled for that afternoon.

“I have mixed feelings about it because I’m Baptist and you know I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be delving into something that I shouldn’t be doing, but I just had this pull to go back and see her.”

“It was myself, my daughter and one of her best friends,” said Vincent. “Well, we sit in the back again, because this time it was totally packed. We were listening and I was hoping, ‘Oh man, I wish she could get back here to us.’

“Sure enough, it came to me and she asked was there anything I would like to know, be it my health or you know, anything like that.” Vincent told her there was a family member that passed that she would like to ask if they have anything to say and find out what happened when they passed.

“She said ‘okay’ and she kinda walked around a little bit. She said ‘just a minute, can you tell me their name?’ ‘I said yes mam, Jason.’ She said ‘okay.’ She walked around and said ‘I’ll be back to you in a second.’ She comes back and she says ‘I’m not getting that name, Jason from anyone, but I have someone that is showing me something that calls you auntie, are you called auntie?”

Vincent was a little puzzled at the question, but her daughter said, “Mom, aunt.”

“Oh yes, I’m aunt to several people,” said Vincent.

“Well, he calls you auntie.”

Vincent couldn’t think of who it could be.

“’He’s showing me’ and [Ericka] took her hands and started doing like your picking something out, throwing it out of a bucket or throwing it into the air and stuff.” Ericka also said she had the taste of blood. “When she said that, I started to have this feeling it must be Shane and I kinda perked up and started listening,” said Vincent.

Boussarhane said [the spirit] had a message for his mother and he wanted [Vincent] to promise him she would give the message to her. “Tell her it was no one’s fault.”

Ericka then told Vincent the hand motion she was doing was an explosion. She said that was how he died and he was overseas for the second time.

“And Shane was, he got killed the second time he went to Iraq. She never said his name, but I knew who it was. I said ‘thank you’ and ‘I’ll definitely tell my sister-in-law.’”

Boussarhane moved on to the next person, but came right back. “He won’t leave me alone. He keeps patting me on the shoulder. He wants me to make sure that you tell his mother.”

“I promise, Shane, I promise, I’ll let your mother know.”

Boussarhane said he was also showing her a little blue sports car, but wasn’t telling her anything about it. Even though it didn’t mean anything to Vincent, Ericka said it might mean something to someone else.

“When I went home I had a feeling, should I or shouldn’t I tell Jan because I didn’t know how well she would appreciate me talking to somebody; but I didn’t go with the intention to talk about Shane. So I called her up and said “I just want to tell you what happened to me today.’

When she was told about the car, Shane’s mother verified he had talked his sister into letting him drive her brand new blue car and he scratched it. It was an important piece of information because his mother said nobody but the immediate family knew that.

“It was a shock to me,” said Vincent. “But it made me very happy that I was able to let her know that he was fine. It was amazing to me that someone can do this. A complete stranger, I never even said his name, never said he was in the war or anything.

“I didn’t intentionally go to get a reading, but that’s where it led me to, so I think God’s hand was in it, absolutely,” said Vincent. “I’m a little skeptic when it comes to people saying they can do that and really can’t, but after going to her, I know for certain she definitly is the real deal.”

Boussarhane said, “If you can tell someone how someone died or some specific message about something I would have no clue about, it really shows them that love never dies. I love doing gallery readings and using my psychic intuition to help people in their grief.”

Boussarhane will again be at The Texas Ghost Show scheduled 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., this Saturday at the Beaumont Civic Center. For more information on other speakers and activities at the event go to txparanormal.com

General admission tickets to the Ghost Show are $20. There is an additional charge of $10 for Boussarhane’s gallery readings.

Texas Ghost Show set for March 19

The 2nd annual Texas Ghost Show, hosted by the Texas Society of Paranormal Investigators is scheduled 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., March 19 at the Beaumont Civic Center, 701 Main St., Beaumont.

Guests include the entire cast of Ghost Lab, led by brothers Barry and Brad Kling; David Rountree, a leading paranormal researcher and author of “Paranormal Technology, Understanding the Science of Ghost Hunting;” author of 10 books on the paranormal and ghost researcher, Antonio R. Garcez; world-renowned psychic, medium and healer, Tiffany Smith Johnson; and escape artist, Aron Houdini.

Also returning will be: Father Andrew Calder from “Paranormal State;” Cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard from “Monster Quest;” “Oprah of the Paranormal” Ericka Boussarhane; author and psychic healer, Dr. Rita Louise; Chris Walden, host of the “Shadow Hour” radio show and more.

Radio personalities Brian and Anna Marie of “Ghostology,” will return as emcees.

The “Ghost Lab” will be on display, along with “Museum of the Weird.”

Several paranormal groups are scheduled to attend. They will be available to answer questions and distribute information at their various booths. Those scheduled to attend are:

• Everyday Paranormal

• Graveyard Shift Paranormal

• S.P.I.R.E. Southern Paranormal Investigative Research and Exploration

• T.E.X.P.A.R.T. Texas Paranormal Advanced Research Team

• The Texas Society of Paranormal Investigators

• Wide Awake Paranormal

Equipment will also be available for sale at the event.

Tickets are $20 general admission. VIP tickets are available. For more information or to purchase tickets go to http://www.TexasGhostShow.eventbrite.com.

The MCM Elegante Hotel is offering a discount on rooms with group code TXSP.

To rent booth space, call Don Dennis at 409-553-4456.