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    Marian meditated while her mother and their friend Mary Ellen went up front. As often happens when she meditates, her mind filled with vivid colors, she said. They swirled with such energy that she sometimes felt as if a cool breeze were being stirredup, but unlike previous times, when Marian opened her eyes, the colors didn’t go away. They were everywhere, she said. Because this was her first visit to Lily Dale, Marian thought everyone saw them.
    â€œWhat’s with the colors?” she asked Mary Ellen.
    As they walked toward the Good Vibrations Cafe, passing men eyed Marian, as they always did. With long brown hair, blue eyes, and plenty of curve, Marian had attracted male attention for so long she didn’t know any other reality. She didn’t look back. Marian had the man she wanted. She had the perfect husband. Everyone acknowledged that. Her mind was on spiritual matters.
    Mary Ellen explained that she’d never seen the colors, and she didn’t know anyone who had. As they settled at a picnic bench, Mary Ellen spotted a woman she knew, a surgeon from Cleveland, and motioned her over. The woman’s husband had cancer, and, although she was not a medium, she often came to Lily Dale to take classes. They were chatting in a casual, companionable way when the woman abruptly leaned toward Marian and began talking in a stern voice, like a teacher lecturing a poor pupil. Her timbre was low, as though she had suddenly developed a cold or gotten a shot of testosterone.
    â€œYou’re going to have to give up everything you know,” she said, her eyes boring into Marian’s. “You’re going to have to jump into the void. It’s not going to be easy. What you’ve done before has worked, but it’s not going to work anymore.”
    Ominous words? Not to Marian. She was thrilled.
    â€œI thought she was telling me that the wonderful life I was living would lead me into a new spiritual richness. I thought I’d already begun,” Marian told me.
    The next day she went home—to her lovely house that so many people envied, and she told her husband, whom so many women admired. She bragged almost. He listened sympathetically,as he always did. Everything she said interested him, her perfect husband, so handsome, so successful, so thoughtful.
    Marian and Jack had met at work. Both were high-powered, ambitious, and successful. They fell in love. Both were married to other people, but that hadn’t mattered. Although Marian’s husband took the divorce hard, he was a good guy, and they’d been able to stay friends. Anyone could see how much happier Marian was.
    She and Jack were a Barbie and Ken couple, in love with power and money and their own wonderful lives. Jack’s divorce took years. He told Marian that his wife accused him of things, things Marian thought were absurd, like hiding money. But eventually they won their freedom and everything was perfect, until one day when Marian was in a business meeting and a ringing began in her ears.
    â€œDo you hear that?” she asked the people next to her.
    They didn’t. It was a high-pitched piercing sound, something like what a dog whistle must sound like to a dog. Marian could hardly concentrate. When she left the meeting, the sound ceased. But the next day, when she sat down at the conference table ready to deal, the ringing began again. Again no one else heard it.
    Inexplicably, her interest in work began to flag. Once eager to start the day early, she now came in late. She began giving tasks to her assistant. She started missing meetings, closing the door to her office. Instead of working, she read magazines and listened to music.
    She quit her job with Jack’s support and began renovating a house for them. She painted and gardened, and her life became wonderful again. Once, when working on her house, she dropped a tool, and as she bent to pick it up she muttered, “Fuck it.”
    As she