A Link to Heaven: Chats with the Other Side

Joanne Wotypka is a sessional lecturer in the Religious Studies program
of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Alberta.

Robbie Thomas claims to be a medium of sorts. In the same vein as John
Edwards and his wildly successful TV show Crossing Over, Thomas offers
messages from the deceased via the chat room on his website.

A Link to Heaven presents pages of transcripts detailing Thomas’s
seeming ability to connect many of the chat-room denizens with deceased
family and friends. Some spirits have only recently passed over, while
others have apparently waited for decades for a chance to reconnect with
the living.

A close reading of some of the transcripts indicates that a great deal
of fishing goes on. A name or general description will be thrown out,
with more vague details added, until a member identifies the spirit as
being connected to him or her. In some cases, specific details are
disowned by the member, and SOULMAN (Thomas’s chat-room persona)
either goes off on a different thread or says that the meaning will
become clear later.

That said, it seems clear that Thomas is providing a great deal of
comfort to many. He delivers messages of comfort and love from deceased
relatives, providing recipients with a sense of closure. In some cases,
he alleviates feelings of guilt. These are all good and valuable things.


The pages and pages of unedited chat-room transcripts are not easy
reading, but taken as a whole, A Link to Heaven is a rather intriguing
look at the ancient art of spirit communication combined with the modern
technology of the Internet.