Spiritual Truth & Life Journeys: Biography of Don Kemp

By Jeff Roby

This is the true life story of Indianapolis resident Don Kemp, spiritualist teacher and medium, who served thousands of clients local and worldwide. His colorful life began in poverty during the Great Depression and led him through army training at the onset of World War II, adult experiences working in factories, beauty salons and hospital administration, ending as independent psychic consultant of renown. He experienced "passing to the other side," astral travel, physical translocation, spontaneous healing, and spirit visitations numerous times. His popularity kept him busy speaking to numerous congregations around the midwest where his charismatic channeled teachings of the tenets of Spiritualism drew throngs of students seeking universal truth.
This book includes stories of his life and the spiritualist teachings he learned and shared. (See the Don Kemp FB page or website for photos and more.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeff Roby
• Release date: Feb 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9780984778300

Jeff Roby

Trained as a journalist, he has worked in newspaper, magazine and television news environments, interspersed with careers in advertising, promotions, retail, entertainment and project management. In community theatre he sits on the board of a not-for-profit stage, along with being a contracted set builder, and occasional designer, actor and promoter (along with having written a few scripts and thinking about some future ones). As a hoosier, was influenced by Vonnegut, Porter and Tarkington; thoroughly enjoys the "Toms" (Robbins, Wolfe & Tryon); and has consumed Barth, Irving, Rice, Capote, Crisp, Gallico and Fitzgerald; yet remains fascinated by the brief John Kennedy Toole. Goal: to retire from everything except writing and traveling.

Book preview

Spiritual Truth

and

Life Journeys:

Biography of Don Kemp

by Jeff Roby

Copyright 2011

All Rights Reserved

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ebook version published by

Jeffrey A. Roby at Smashwords

email: [e-mail]

Photographs have been removed from this edition to comply with website file size restrictions.

To view all photographs printed in the original book, please visit the gallery page at:

http://donkemp.yolasite.com

Printed version by Western Newspaper Publishing Co.,

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

ISBN: 978-0-9847783-0-0

First Edition, November 2011

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the memory of Don Kemp, the most unusual and profound being encountered on this planet by myself and numerous others. It was his desire to publish the tenets of Spiritualism as he learned them through teachers both living and in spirit. It was my desire to transcribe these ideas and combine them with the fascinating story of his colorful life. May we all enjoy the adventure, love each other, and grow to higher evolvement allowing us the collective opportunity to return to the center of our original creator.

FOREWORD

I have always been a healthy skeptic on metaphysical topics in general…that was until I met the medium Don Kemp.

I was seventeen when I read my first spiritual/metaphysical book and have been educating myself on the subject ever since. Even though I had read many such books by the time I was thirty, I had no real firsthand personal experience with the subject. Most religions tell us about our eternal soul (or spirit) and an afterlife in one form or another, but I was looking for evidence, a real personal experience that would prove to me beyond a doubt, the reality of our true spiritual nature.

They say you should be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. And getting it is exactly what began to happen to me on a Sunday morning, twenty-some years ago, when I saw a small ad for a psychic development class that met at a local church in Broad Ripple. On the following rainy Wednesday evening I was on the road to this mysterious church which I knew absolutely nothing about. As I slowly drove by the address, I found that it was not the type of church I was expecting but instead just a two-story, 1940’s house with a modest porch off the front and a sign on the railing that read ‘Progressive Spiritualist Church’. I could see some activity going on inside so I parked across the street and walked up to the front door where I was immediately greeted by a man who introduced himself as Don Kemp.

He asked if I had ever been there before and I told him I had seen the ad in the Sunday paper and was interested in spiritual/metaphysical things and thought I would check it out. He smiled warmly and started telling me about the Wednesday night group and asked if I had ever had a psychic reading before? Before I could answer he also asked me Have you ever heard of psychometry? I told him that I had and he asked to hold my watch to pick up on my energy. He held it between his hands, slowly rubbing it between his fingers, and he looked up at the ceiling, nodding his head as if listening to someone talking. Within seconds he started telling me I see flashing bulbs going off all around you, and he moved his hands around with his fingers exploding from closed fists mimicking flash bulbs going off. Are you a photographer or do you have something to do with photography? And I also have an Orie and Clay and Hank and Henry with me. Do you know who these people are, because they know you?

Flabbergasted, my mind raced to comprehend exactly what was going on here––how was it possible that a complete stranger could know exact, detailed information about me and my family? I was still standing there with my mouth hanging open as he continued, I have Bill here too. Is this your grandfather on your father’s side? Bewildered, I answered Yes, Bill is my grandfather. What I didn’t tell him was that the other four names were my grandfather’s four brothers––all deceased! And, yes, for the past 13 years I had been a professional photographer.

Now, you have to understand that I had never met this man before, no one knew I was going to attend this class, and I didn’t come in carrying a camera or anything else that would have clued him in on how I made my living. I didn’t even look like a photographer. I could have been a salesman or office worker for all he knew. Plus, how could he have known five of my relative’s names (two of which are old, uncommon names that you really don’t hear anymore), that all five were brothers, and how could he have singled out Bill as my grandfather? What made the experience even more bizarre was that Don kept looking over at an empty space next to him as if he were talking to somebody who I couldn’t see. To the empty space he said, Hold on now, I’ll tell him––just give me a minute. You’re going to have to back up now, you’re getting too close. Then he turned to me and told me some more personal and family information that no one except my family would have possibly known. We were still in the entry way of the church with other people coming in around us but I was only aware of what Don was telling me.

The last thing Don said to me was The car you’re driving has some kind of problem with the front, right tire. No, it isn’t the tire, it has something to do with the gearing. The gearing on the front right wheel is grinding, like gears grinding, and if you don’t take it in to get it fixed you could have an accident! Your grandfather says he loves you and to get that car fixed! Then, just like a candle blown out, Don stopped talking and motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen where everyone was already sitting around the table ready to start the meeting.

The rest of that night was just a blur for me. As I sat there trying to pay attention to the topic being discussed, my mind was busy trying to wrap itself around the reality of what had just transpired. After much contemplation on the way home and over the next few days, I came to the only possible conclusion: Don Kemp was absolutely able to pass through the veil that separates this life and the afterlife and he was able to communicate with the spirits of my deceased family members.

The real topper happened three days later when I drove my car home from the grocery store. I noticed a grinding sound coming out of the front, right wheel, just as Don had described it! The following morning I took it to my mechanic; he told me the gearing on my front, right wheel would have to be re-packed, re-lubricated and re-sealed.

How Don was able to know what he did, I have no idea. But what I began to learn that night, and what I’ve come to understand since, is that there is much more to this life and our true beings, than we will ever know or ever hope to comprehend. After that night, it was if a heavy weight had been lifted off of me. I was free in a way that I had never been free before. I no longer feared my own death and the feeling that came with that realization was amazing.

Think about it: we all live our lives in the shadow of our fears. The fear of what other people might think or say about us, the fear of losing our family, our job, or all of our personal possessions (which we think somehow represents who and what we truly are). The fear list goes on and on. When you take the time to really think about it, though, there is only one ultimate fear which is the root of all fears. That is the fear of our own mortality––the fear of our own physical death.

But when you have a real, authentic spiritual experience, when you truly come to the realization that your soul self is independent of your physical body, then the idea of death suddenly loses its power, from that point forward. When you realize, and truly know, that you are an eternal spiritual being having a very brief human experience, your life can never be the same. When you no longer fear physical death, then what else can you really be afraid of? Your life suddenly opens up and becomes a totally different experience.

Don Kemp, without knowing it, gave me a great gift that night which profoundly changed my life experience, from that moment forward. I only visited with Don on two other occasions over the years before I found out that he had passed away in 1999. This special book that Jeff has so skillfully woven together, pulls back the curtain, and lets us see into and experience a mystic’s life story with all the color, mystery and joy that you would expect from such a spiritual life lived.

Kevin Carmean, President

Carmean Productions Inc., Indianapolis IN

A still & video production company

PROLOGUE

"In 1938 I was twelve years old and living with my foster parents on a farm in northern Ohio. It was a desolate area so far back 'Tobacco Road' that cars couldn't get there unless they were pulled through the mud by workhorses. Our biggest dream was to have an electric light bulb in the kitchen but we knew it wasn't gonna happen anytime soon. An indoor bathroom wasn't even in the realm of possibilities. But we'd almost saved enough money to have a telephone installed.

"On a cold January night I was in bed on the second floor of the farm house. Besides having no electricity, the only heat was produced by an iron potbelly stove in the kitchen and not much warmth ever managed to drift all the way upstairs to my straw tick bed where I buried myself under a pile of patchwork quilts. The windows were so drafty you could feel the icy winter air blowing into the house along with flurries of snow.

"At some point in the middle of this night, my dead brother Cecil appeared in a bright flash of light at the foot of my bed. He was wearing a marching band uniform and stood in a circle of white light