Anna Raimondi is not your typical Wilton soccer mom. Sure, she’s raising a family in suburbia, but she’s also raising an interest in others in connecting to lost loved ones. As a medium, spiritual counselor and healer, she’s bringing her gift of being able to hear messages from “the other side” to those still here.
She’s appearing at the Ridgefield Playhouse this Thursday, Oct. 17, an event that has almost sold out all 500 seats. Raimondi says while she’s never done a reading in a venue so large, she knows that it’s going to be exciting to see it happen.
“I feel the connection, and the spirits coming in. I will usually be able to feel what side of the room it’s on, or where it is, and I just start talking. And hopefully someone will say, ‘I think that’s me.’ And I can tell whether it’s them or not. The [spirit’s] personality starts to come through, there’s an acceptance of, ‘Yes I know who that is.’ The personality really starts to come forward, and I’ll be able to zone in on it, and make the connection, and hear what needs to be said. Anything that needs to be said, typically, has to do with how much that spirit loves that person, and healing and moving forward. They might have very specific messages as well.”
Raimondi says the spirits communicate to her through every sense—“I feel it, I see it, I hear it, I just know. A lot of times, I open my mouth and out come the words. I’m not channeling it, nothing is occupying my body, it’s me. But I’m saying what I’m feeling and it comes out organically without any thoughts.”
The ability to communicate with spirits is something she said she’s been able to do her whole life.
“It wasn’t that I realized I could do this, it’s when I realized that other people weren’t doing this. When I was 12 or 13 I realized, at least the people I knew, weren’t doing this, I’m it. I was very young talking to angels and spirits, and my parents—who were extremely Catholic, my father was a deacon—were very open to what I was saying because there was no way a child would have known the things that were coming out of my mouth.”
Other people likely have the same kind of ability, but just have to be open to understanding and accepting it, but Raimondi believes it’s something many people can’t do because they are afraid of things they don’t necessarily understand.
“We’re all gifted, some in other ways. I’m really bad at math, but yet my husband is a mathematician. I also think it’s a matter of fear. Intuition is something we all have as individuals. We may not have it the way I have it, or other mediums have it, but I’m not afraid. So many people say, ‘I’m afraid of seeing, I’m afraid of feeling, I’m afraid of what goes bump in the night.’ If you can get beyond the fear, you can move into the place where it’s really nice, it’s not scary and the spirits are communicating love.”
But do they ever send something that isn’t love?
“That doesn’t exist in heaven,” she said. “Heaven is a place of pure love. There is no hate. There is no anxiety. There’s compassion and love and kindness. Sometimes they’ll come through apologizing, sometimes they’ll come through explaining things. It’s not all, ‘I love you.’ Sometimes it’s ‘I’m sorry,’ and they’re specific about what they’re referring to. But there’s no animosity or negative emotion. It doesn’t exist in the divine world.”
Raimondi is in a field that sometimes, however, invites skepticism. “When people are skeptical I don’t say anything because it’s not my path, it’s their path. I’m not out to convert anybody. Sometimes it’s from fear. Sometimes it’s from religious upbringing that says, ‘I can’t go near this.’ Sometimes it’s ego. I get skeptics all the time, and hopefully people can take something away. I don’t try to talk anybody into this. I know what I feel, and I stand on what I feel.”
The search for spirituality has lately captured a wider audience, one that has seen more and more people embrace alternative explanations and practices, including yoga, meditation, talismans and the like. Raimondi embraces this as something that’s very positive.
“The generation before us was spoon-fed a lot stuff, and they weren’t all educated. Our generation is probably the first over-educated generation, and we are not easily spoon-fed; we look at things from a different perspective. It’s not about going to church or temple and just reciting prayers; I think people want to feel what they’re saying. It’s not just rote. ‘If I’m going to do this, I want to touch God. I want to touch that realm.’ And they’re searching for it in all different ways. Whether it’s yoga, meditation, shamanism, mediums.”
Plus, Raimondi said, the turbulent economic and political environment can also make people more eager to find explanation and reassurance.
“People are so fed up with the state of the world. They’re saying, ‘There’s got to be more than just what I own. It’s got to more than just that nice car or this big house, because in then end you can take that away from me.’ Because in a lot of cases recently it has been taken away. People are questioning because it can’t be this empty and this stuff can be ripped away from us. ‘What do I hold on to? Why am I here?’ They’re searching in a lot of different realms. Some people are coupling it with religion; some people are looking outside their religion. They’re looking for a more substantial place. They’re looking for the soul.
Raimondi does private readings and counseling in her office in Wilton, and has a website where people can learn more about her and schedule appointments directly. She also teaches several classes, including a meditation class based on the Mystics and other seminars. She also has a newsletter that people can sign up for via her website at www.annaraimondi.com.