2022 November Oak Cliff Advocate

Running on recycled parts.

Mike was an avid runner, but his severe liver disease kept him away from his beloved races. The specialists at The Liver Institute at Methodist Dallas Medical Center diagnosed him with two chronic inflammatory diseases. Mike needed a liver transplant. Luckily, he was in the right place to get one.

Today, Mike is proudly back in the race, “running on recycled parts” in honor of the organ donor who gave him a second chance at life. Trust Methodist.

Visit us at MethodistHealthSystem.org or call 214-947-1800.

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES

This highly regarded author says he’s solved the JFK assassination case ›

Interview by RACHEL STONE Photography by ROLAND LANE

The Mafia did it.

That conspiracy theory around the JFK assassination is nothing new. But a book by the author of I Heard You Paint Houses claims to prove it.

Former homicide detective and medical malpractice lawyer Charles Brandt says he has solved the JFK assassination case and a subsequent coverup conspiracy, and he lays it all out in a book released Sept. 27, Suppressing the Truth in Dallas: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and International Complications in the JFK Assassination Case

Brandt’s 2004 book about Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran “closed the case” on the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and was turned into a 2019 Netflix movie directed by Martin Scorsese.

The JFK book all started with the Hoffa book.

The author served as chief of homicide for the state of Delaware in the ’70s. He met Sheeran in a subsequent career as the founder of a malpractice law firm. Brandt was asked to represent the Pennsylvania-based mafioso, who wanted early release from prison on medical grounds. Sheeran wound up getting out of prison with 30 years left on his sentence because of spinal stenosis.

“He was really in no condition to be a gangster anymore,” Brandt says.

At a celebratory lunch “at a known Mafia establishment,” Brandt picked up some unique phrases of dialog that he squirreled away for future use, and he thought that would be the end of his association with Sheeran.

But then Sheeran asked to meet with him.

“He said, ‘I read your book in jail. I want to tell my story, and I want you to write it,’” Brandt says.

Interrogation techniques Brandt learned as a homicide investigator came into play.

“It’s a journey from establishing a rapport to them unburdening themselves,” Brandt says.

When Sheeran said two Sicilians, “lone cowboys,” killed Hoffa, Brandt knew he was lying but played along, he says.

“I said, ‘You mean a lone cowboy like Lee Harvey Oswald? The lone wolf?’” Brandt says.

“And he froze. He waved his hand and said, ‘I’m not going anywhere near Dallas.’ I said, ‘Jesus Christ, neither am I!’”

That insinuation was not what Brandt had bargained for, and they were both a little spooked, he says. It was after midnight, so Brandt left, and when he recounted the conversation to his wife, she told him to stay away from Sheeran. And for many years, he did.

Then, one of Sheeran’s daughters contacted Brandt to try again because her father was at the end of his life. As a Catholic and former altar boy whose two aunts were nuns, he had been meeting with the monsignor and was ready to spill it.

Brandt interviewed Sheeran over the course of five years, mostly by phone from his home in Idaho.

“I’ll never forget where I was when he told me he killed Hoffa and he was involved in the JFK killing,” he says. “I was walking out of a restaurant here in Ketchum, Cristina’s.”

The book lays out a conspiracy in Dallas by Oswald assassin Jack Ruby, his lawyer Melvin Velli, Oswald and “certain members of the Dallas Police Department, including Sergeant Patrick Dean, a known Mafia associate; and crime boss Carlos Marcello, a long-time enemy of JFK, and his New Orleans and Dallas Mafia,” according to a media release about the book.

“Tony Provenzano had given Frank a duffel bag with four rifles in it to drive to Maryland,” Brandt says.

Hoffa later informed Sheeran those rifles were to be used in the JFK assassination, Brandt says.

Brandt says he approached the case like a homicide investigator, and it only took him about four months to crack the case.

Earlene Roberts, who was the housekeeper of the Oak Cliff rooming house where Oswald stayed at the time of the assassination, “plays a pivotal role.”

The book also makes a case that the Warren Commission Report, released in September 1964, covered up the truth of the assassination, and that the slain president’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, assisted in that cover-up.

“Earl Warren was put in charge of that by LBJ and RFK for the sole purpose of hiding some deep, dark secrets,” Brandt says.

His first book, You Have the Right to Remain Silent , came out in 1988 and documented how U.S. Supreme Court Cases like Miranda v. Arizona had changed criminal justice.

After a lifetime in that field, Brandt says he wanted to make sure this JFK book was open-andshut, giving readers no other option besides “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“The JFK book is bigger than the Hoffa book,” he says.

“I’ll never forget where I was when he told me he killed Hoffa and he was involved in the JFK killing.”

Charles Brandt calls Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorcese “Bob” and “Marty” and claims to have solved the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, a story laid out in the 2019 Netflix movie The Irishman. These are some of the claims of his new JFK book.

• U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren covered up the “triple homicide” of JFK, Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald in order to protect his friends.

• Namely, he suppressed the testimony of Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper of Oswald’s rooming house in Oak Cliff. Roberts reported seeing two Dallas police officers in uniform, beeping their car horn in front of the residence on Beckley at Zang to summon Oswald for his getaway.

• WFAA reporter Victor Robertson witnessed Jack Ruby making an early attempt to barge into Oswald’s interrogation on the third floor of the Dallas Police Department, armed and ready to silence JFK’s killer.

• Sgt. Patrick Dean, a Mafia associate, allowed Ruby into the secured basement of the Dallas Police Department to kill Oswald, which Ruby then did in front of the televised world.

• As attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy was in charge of the Department of Justice’s robust Organized Crime Division, which he immediately disbanded out of fear of being implicated in plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.

• RFK refused to testify before the Warren Commission to help solve his brother’s murder. Instead, he withheld wiretap evidence.

• By allowing Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante to hold assassination conspiracy meetings with the CIA in public places like the Plaza Hotel in New York City and the Brown Derby in Los Angeles, the authorities handed the Mafia extortion material, which it then used to silence the DOJ’s Organized Crime Division.

ART LEGACY DALLAS

Frank

Octavio Medellín and the

of

by RACHEL STONE Photography by JULIA CARTWRIGHT

PULL A THREAD on the Creative Arts Center of Dallas, and it unravels a history of local fine art in our city dating back to the turn of the 20th century and the Monet of Texas, Frank Reaugh.

Octavio Medellín started what would become the Creative Arts Center in 1966 at El Sibíl, Frank Reaugh’s home and studio near Lake Cliff Park.

“He started the school at the urging of Reaugh’s “disciples”,” says Diana Pollack, the center’s executive director.

“They were fans of his, like a fan club that kept the studio going after Reaugh’s death in 1945,” Pollack says.

For years, Medellín taught at the Dallas Museum of Art, when it was at Fair Park, which made him a great candidate to start the school.

Medellín died in 1999, and the Dallas Museum of Art is showing a retrospective of his art through February. It took about two-and-ahalf years to put the show together.

The Creative Arts Center he founded,

now located near White Rock Lake, still operates on the same educational foundation on which Medellín built it Pollack says.

creativity.

The center is celebrating 56 years with a newly renovated building and a planned expansion, just as its executive director is retiring after 25 years at the helm.

PLAY IN THE CLAY

Demand for classes at the Creative Arts Center is higher than ever Pollack says. The center offers about 500 classes a year. More than 300 students are currently enrolled, and about a third are in pottery classes.

There are 11 pottery classes a week, each with 10 students, and they’re all full through October.

“We abide by his teaching methods here,” she says. “We continue his philosophy of providing a nurturing space for students to learn.”

There’s no in-your-face curriculum, and students are encouraged to experiment and explore their

“We saw it really blow up during the pandemic,” Pollack says. “If you’ve got your hands in mud, you can’t look at your phone. There’s a desire to disengage with technology and engage with other people creating art.”

Medellín required students to make their own pottery clay, but the Creative Arts Center now buys it from Trinity Clay.

They were fans of his, like a fan club that kept the studio going after Reaugh’s death in 1945.

Besides pottery, there are classes in welding, woodworking, painting, drawing, glass, jewelry and stone carving.

It’s easy for our neighborhood to take the center for granted, but this serious yet non-academic art school is rare. “There’s only one other in Texas that’s comparable,” Pollack says.

But no other place in Texas offers the depth of instruction.

“If you want to do stone carving, you’ve got to come here,” she says.

In March 2020, the nonprofit Creative Arts Center’s board of directors had been expected to approve a feasibility study to launch a campaign to raise $5 million for an expansion. That would’ve added a second building to the 2-acre campus, doubled its capacity for classes and added gallery space for art exhibitions.

“Then the pandemic hit, and everything came to a halt,” Pollock says. “We’re now in a holding pattern.”

Renovations of the offices and gallery, totaling about $500,000, were recently completed. That included updating Americans with Disabilities Act compliance to the original building, the old Works Progress Administration-built Bayles Elementary.

The center has been a stop on the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour for decades, showing one piece from every artist on the tour. The new gallery means the center can expand on that and offer more shows to new artists and those who have been affiliated in the past.

Since the center is a nonprofit, it receives grants to provide free classes and camps to the community. Camp Metal Head, for example, teaches welding and jewelry to underserved kids. Run with the Pack offers creative classes to older adults.

THE LEGACY OF OCTAVIO MEDELLÍN

The Dallas Museum of Art’s Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form is the first museum retrospective of his work.

Medellín “was obsessed with materials,” Pollack says. He dabbled in many media, but he was best known as a sculptor.

“Medellín’s grand legacy can be attributed to both his incredible talent and his enormous influence in our community as a mentor to so many,” says Agustín Arteaga, the museum’s Eugene McDermott director. “We hope this exhibition cements his place among the most important

Medellín’s grand legacy can be attributed to both his incredible talent and his enormous influence in our community as a mentor to so many.

artists working in Texas in the 20th century.”

Dallas-based artists Edith Baker and Marty Ray were among Medellín’s students. Artists influenced by Medellín have returned to teach at the Creative Arts Center.

“We like to say that he influenced generations of Dallas artists,” Pollack says.

The indigenous art of Mexico was Medellín’s main influence.

He was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, the same year as Frida Kahlo, 1907. His family immigrated to San Antonio in the wake of the Mexican Civil War in 1920. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago but left to travel in Mexico.

“He journeyed to Mexico City, where he explored Mexican Modernism, encountering important artists such as José Clemente Orozco and Carlos Mérida, but also traveled on foot through the rural countryside of the Gulf Coast,” according to the Dallas Museum of Art.

Mexico is where his point of view blossomed.

The retrospective includes 30 sculptures Medellín produced from 1926 to 1995.

Pollack says she’s seen the retrospective six times. “I see something new every time I go.”

Medellín also produced a ton of public art in San Antonio and Dallas. The museum also put together a driving tour of his public art in Dallas, as part of the retrospective.

The Creative Arts Center is on the map, along with St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church, where Medellín created the altar wall and stations of the cross. His work can also be seen at the Latino Cultural Center in Deep Ellum, Southern Methodist University, Calvary Hill Cemetery, Temple Emanu-El and Love Field Airport.

Learn more about Octavio Medellín at medellin.dma.org.

Staging is not “just decorating” – it’s applied market research on what makes

Staged homes sell for more, and

as a consistent,

part of our

That’s how much

believe in the power of presentation.

Victor Felix-Diaz

Story by RACHEL STONE

by KATHY TRAN

WHO MAKES THE BEST sandwich in Oak Cliff?

Anyone who wants to find out has to consider Báhn Mi Station.

Duck confit and pork spend 24 hours marinating before they’re slow-roasted for eight or nine hours, cooled and pulled by hand for the sandwiches here.

Chicken-liver pâté is also made from scratch, before it’s slathered onto a toasted baguette, which is filled and topped with house-made pickled carrots and daikon.

The bread comes from a Vietnamese bakery in Carrollton. Six mornings a week, Báhn Mi Station owner Kevin Vivorakij drives from his home in Denton to pick up the bread before heading into his restaurant at Sylvan Thirty.

Vivorakij doesn’t eat duck, pork or chicken, because he is vegan. This sandwich shop also has some of the best vegan options around, such as jackfruit “crab cake” báhn mi and edamame falafel bao buns.

The Bowllery, Vivorakij’s previous restaurant, opened in Denton in 2012; it was profitable during the academic year, but summers and breaks were slow.

“It was almost like a seasonal business,” Vivorakij says.

He wanted to leave The Bowllery’s outdated shopping center and find a place with foot traffic. When he saw the space at Sylvan Thirty, he thought it was the restaurant of his dreams.

“I thought it looked like a train station, and that’s what gave me the idea for the name,” he says.

But business was slow for the first year after Báhn Mi Station opened, in February 2019. And

it was not foot traffic that buoyed the business but Uber Eats.

Inside the restaurant, which takes up a corner of the development’s southernmost building, the dining room is immaculate and empty. High ceilings, walls of windows and professional design touches (such as an oversized menu and inviting banquettes) embody Vivorakij’s vision for his ideal restaurant after 20 years in the business. There is self-serve water and contactless ordering via two points of sale. No detail is missed.

Grilled lemongrass chicken, brisket in coconut curry and buffalo un-chicken are among the creative báhn mi fillings. The bao bun menu includes five-spice pork belly, soft-shell crab, “vietucky” fried chicken and smoked salmon.

Sides like red curry mac & cheese or smothered Viet fries are worth the indulgence, along with vegan mozzarella sticks. Besides that, greenery — raw pad thai, avocado and chickpea on kale or a báhn mi salad.

For dessert, there’s vegan soft serve in flavors like matcha or black charcoal.

Vivorakij has a wife and son. He grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States for college and wound up working in restaurants. He was working part time at a Chinese restaurant when the owner asked if Vivorakij wanted to buy it. He had some savings, so he went for it. Vivorakij has also owned a seafood restaurant and a burger place.

“Every day, I look at everything I can improve,” Vivorakij says.

Terminals chime with Uber Eats orders, and drivers pop in to pick up orders. Vivorakij says signing an exclusive contract with one delivery service saved him some money. And delivery services are what pulled his place into the black, starting with pandemicrelated stay-at-home orders in March 2020.

The restaurant went from losing money in 2019 to being overwhelmed with orders. Báhn Mi Station is now among the top restaurants of Uber Eats’ in Dallas/Fort Worth region.

“Restaurants are very hard work,” he says. “You can’t depend on a manager or staff. You have to be there every day.”

One thing Báhn Mi Station is not going to have is soup. Every time the weather turns colder, people ask why he doesn’t serve pho Vivorakij says.

This is not a Vietnamese restaurant he says. It’s a sandwich shop inspired by báhn mi.

“I want to focus on one thing that’s good and not have too many items,” he says.

Báhn Mi Station, 1818 Sylvan Ave., 972.629.9908, bahnmistationdallas.com

This is not a Vietnamese restaurant. It’s a sandwich shop inspired by báhn mi.

in a pickle

THE KINGS & QUEENS OF LOW-KEY ATHLETICS

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by KAHTY TRAN

They call Cynthia Paine-Drennan the pickleball pusher.

She’s brought at least a dozen people into the fast-growing sport, described as a cross be tween tennis and pingpong, and she plays every day, including 8 a.m. Saturdays at Kiest Park. Paine-Drennan packs paddles and balls and plays pickleball on vacation. She uses tournaments for fundraising, and although she has a career and volunteers at her kid’s school, she generally or ganizes her life around playing pickleball.

“I didn’t say I was good at it,” she says after whiffing a shot. “But I love it.”

With its ridiculous name and cult-like status, it’s easy to make fun of pickleball. But the sport is addictive and rewarding, players say. It’s a cardio workout and a social outing that can seriously shake the blues away.

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the world, with an estimated increase of 40% to 4.8 million players last year, according to a 2022 re port from the Sports & Fitness Industry Associ ation.

Interviews with about 15 people in Dallas who play pickleball daily turned up no one who played before 2017; most took it up in 2019 or later. Pick leball is taking over rec centers and tennis courts all over town due to high demand.

The City of Dallas Park and Recreation Depart ment has reconfigured at least five public tennis courts to the 50% smaller pickleball courts in the past year, says Assistant Director M. Renee John son, who has also taken up the sport and plays every Wednesday at Thurgood Marshall Rec Cen ter in Red Bird.

Indoor pickleball courts can be found at about 20 rec centers around Dallas, and there is a game somewhere every day.

Players say more courts are needed in Oak Cliff and South Dallas.

The premium outdoor courts at Camp bell-Green rec center in Far North Dallas can draw 50-60 players at a time, who mark their place in line by shoving the handles of their pad dles into the chain-link fence.

At the Lake Highlands North Rec Center, about 30 players take turns, two to a side, on four pick leball courts painted into the floor of the basket ball gym. Most of them are here every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but they also see each other at Cole Park, Samuell-Grand and Walnut Hill Rec Center.

There is a no-nonsense urgency to turn-tak ing — Who’s next? Whose turn is it? Who’s play ing? Cheers and congratulatory paddle taps are mixed with light-hearted trash talk. But it’s not

like things get heated.

“We call it chuckleball,” says MerriLee Ander son, who started playing after the start of the pandemic.

“That was my lifesaver. That’s the only time I was seeing people.”

Pickleball has since become a thing at her church, Northridge Presbyterian, and it’s a grow ing trend among neighborhood churches that have gyms they can convert to courts.

Joleen Decle of East Dallas started playing about two years ago when a friend who works for a pickleball company took her out to Cole Park. This was before the tennis courts were convert ed, and they used tape to mark out pickleball courts.

Now she plays at rec centers all over town, and she organizes the Lake Highlands group, sending out a group email and overseeing the system of play — paddles are stacked on the bleachers to mark players’ places in line. She recently cele brated her birthday with rec center pals at Chick en N Pickle, a restaurant and bar in Grand Prairie that has multiple indoor and outdoor courts.

“The nicest thing about pickleball is that it’s a social event,” she says.

Decle used to play racquetball, and lots of for mer tennis players take up pickleball, but plenty of players have no prior experience with racket sports.

“Most of the people we play with are older and retired,” Decle says. “Some locations have repu tations for being very competitive.”

Getting into pickleball is inexpensive. There are start-up sets with two paddles and balls costing less than $20. A good paddle can be had for $30$70, and a set of balls costs less than $10. Tennis fashions are part of the fun for some, however, and opportunities abound to spend money on pickleball gear.

On Cloud tennis shoes and Lululemon (or knockoff) skirts are trendy among the pickleball set in Oak Cliff.

Paine-Drennan raised funds for Oak Cliff non profit Mammogram Poster Girls with a pickleball tournament she organized at Chicken N Pickle in October.

Oak Cliff resident Joseph Gerke recently orga nized an informal pickleball tournament, among his family members and coworkers, at Kiest Park to raise money for the family of a sick child.

“I’m so glad the City of Dallas made these courts,” he says. “Because in North Dallas, there are so many. Every time I come here, there are people using the courts.”

Barbie Walker, left, and Cynthia Paine-Drennan trade dinks on the pickleball court at Kidd Springs Park.

What is pickleball?

Pickleball is a professional sport with televised matches that are played around the world. But it’s also accessible for many people of all ages and easy to pick up. The game was invented for children in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washing ton. It was named the official sport of the state of Washington this year.

Basics

A pickleball court is 20 feet by 44 feet, about half the size of a regulation tennis court, with doubles or singles using the same lines.

It is played with paddles, not rackets, and light plastic balls with holes.

A pickleball net is a couple of inches lower than a tennis net in the center.

A 7-foot box directly in front of the net on both sides is known as “the kitchen,” or non-volley zone. Players cannot hit the ball from this box unless it has bounced once.

Rules

Games are usually played to 11 and won by two, with only the serving side winning points. Serves alternate between the right and left sides of the court.

A ball that hits the baseline or sideline line is in. A server faults if the ball lands inside the kitch en or on its line.

Unlike tennis, there’s only one shot at the serve, which must hit the diagonal crosscourt. Underhand serves only in pickleball, and they must be from the waist, with contact on the up swing. Drop serves are also allowed.

The “two-bounce rule” means a serve must bounce once before it is returned, and the re turn must also bounce once before the opposite player can hit. After that, “volleys” are allowed. That is, hitting the ball before it has bounced.

Terms

Dink : This is an onomatopoeia for a soft shot that usually lands in the opponent’s kitchen.

Kitchen: This 7-foot zone is essential to the game, and strategies are built around it. If a player’s foot or even part of their clothing is on or over the line while re turning a volley, it is a fault. Players’ feet cannot land in the kitchen in execution of a shot, even after the ball is dead. It’s sim ilar to an offsides rule and best to stay out of the kitchen.

Rally: Volleying, or hitting the ball before it bounces, is not allowed until the third shot. A rally is the continuous play before a fault.

We

We

trancing queen

OAK CLIFF HYPNOTHERAPIST BELIEVES CLIENTS CAN LEARN FROM THEIR PAST SELVES

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB Photography by JULIA CARTWRIGHT

P lease do not confuse what hypnotherapist Katie T. Larson does with comedy club theatrics or mind control portrayed in cartoons, she asks.

Inside her dimly lit office at Our Wellness Community on Tyler Street in Oak Cliff, Larson helps clients retrieve memories of their previous lives. Some, even reincarnation doubters, say the experience has helped them live a fuller life this time around.

“Though skeptical of religion and the journey of the soul, I do believe that there’s a lot to uncover in my subconscious,” Larson’s client, Oak Cliff resident Jessi Hall, says. “I was interested to find out what past-life regression might help me uncover.” Wearing business attire, colorful sneakers and an easy smile, Larson settles into the therapist seat beside a sofa and says, “I’m not crazy.”

She holds two graduate degrees — master’s in the art of teaching and a doctorate in leadership with a focus on

transformative learning — she did a TEDx talk in Hong Kong, published a book and is working on a second. She taught science in New Zealand and traveled the world.

Now she has two children and a business in Oak Cliff where, among other things, she is a wellness coach, holds group sessions for women and offers forms of hypnotherapy. As a child, she says, she was sensitive and started remembering odd things — such as skinning a rabbit or having a drinking problem — that might signify a past life.

“I tried to tell my parents I hoped I wouldn’t be an alcoholic again,” she says. “They didn’t know what to think.”

When she underwent past life regression therapy a few years ago, she says, she had clear memories of another time and place and she emerged more empathetic, connected to a higher power, less afraid of death and longing for more self-knowledge.

She knew she wanted to use this in her practice.

“It is powerful knowledge — life changing,” she says.

According to research by Pew, belief in reincarnation is “on par” with beliefs in other forms of afterlife, and about 75% of people report a belief in something beyond this life.

Past life regression can be beneficial no matter where you stand, Larson says.

“Even if what you see is metaphorical, it is still going to provide valuable insight,” she says.

Larson’s client Sarah Duncan, who is a practitioner in Garland, says a session with a skilled hypnotherapist is a worthwhile experience in a number of ways.

“Therapy is overall such a relaxing experience,” she says. “And Katie is an incredible practitioner who makes you feel safe and grounded and asks amazing questions. She prompts the discovery and exploration of the subconscious mind.”

During the first few minutes of a session — offered on a sliding scale — Larson tells the client what to expect. She uses imagery, suggestion, relaxation techniques and counting down to get to the trance state.

As Katie’s client, Duncan says she has opened doors to vivid memories in great detail.

“For me, it’s a really visual experience, like a movie where I’m the main character playing out before me,” Duncan says.

Jessi Hall says her session with Larson was her

first experience with hypnosis, and it worked. She felt as if in a “conscious version of a dream state,” she says.

“I was guided through the experience, but I had a say in what I saw and what I expressed about it to Katie,” she says.

Hall saw a seaside cliff in the Netherlands, felt cold wind on her face and peripherally observed a wedding in her hypnosis state, she says. “What I saw wasn’t a replay of my memories,” she says. “In my case, there are a few images that I saw clearly, and some were felt more than seen.”

In the 1980s, a prominent psychiatrist, Brian Weiss, popularized the PLR idea with his book called Many Lives, Many Masters , which described how he became a believer when, while working with a patient under hypnosis, he stumbled upon her past lives. Exploring that realm cured the patient of phobias and neurosis and revealed otherworldly knowledge.

Some critics have said that while the bestselling book is beautiful, it too closely resembles a religious text to be real. Others disapprove of the therapy, saying it encourages fantasy or can create false memories.

However, as critic Gabriel Andrade, a skeptical researcher who has written about Weiss, points out, “few medical associations have actually condemned it as unethical.”

In her book Past Life Therapy , Rabia Clark, found that clients’ and therapists’ belief in reincarnation or lack thereof has no impact on the outcome of the therapy.

“The key is understanding the perspectives of those who claim these experiences, and working with them to help them live successful, integrated present lives,” she says.

Larson communicates with clients for up to a month at no charge after their session to continue processing.

Hall says that has helped her to understand behavioral patterns confronted in the session.

“These were (habits) I was well aware of but didn’t necessarily expect from my session,” Hall says. “I’m not convinced I experienced a past life, but I’m certainly open to it. All in all, even if the session gave me a safe space to confront my past without reintroducing trauma, it was very worthwhile.”

By ERIC FOLKERTH

Giving without the ‘thanks’

We servants deserve no special praise

As we enter our yearly national celebration of Thanksgiving, you might expect me to talk about how we can increase gratitude in our lives.

But I’d like to turn your attention to a related question: What do we do when others are *not* thankful for what we do?

Sometimes you do your best — in fact, sometimes you work very hard, suffer long, and sweat much — only to find everyone is ungrateful for your efforts, and maybe even hostile toward them.

I’ve been reading some hard lessons from the Gospels that point us toward a radical answer to how Jesus wants us to approach ingratitude.

In Luke17, Jesus tells an odd story about a servant. Nobody would ever expect a servant to expect to be served first, Jesus says. Quite the opposite. Servants should expect to serve their superiors.

Jesus goes on to say that, at the end of the day, his followers should do the same. And when they are done, they should say: “We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.”

In the very next verse, Jesus is walking through a “no man’s land,” between Galilee and Samaria. He comes upon a village and is approached by 10 people with leprosy (known today as Hansen’s disease). Jesus heals all 10. But only one of them, a foreign Samaritan, returns later to thank Jesus for being healed.

It’s an illustration of what Jesus has just told them: Don’t expect to be lauded and praised for doing good. Perhaps as few as one-in-10 people who receive good things from us will ever be grateful for them.

All of this flies in the faces of how we typically give gifts. We typically give expecting the gifts will be gladly received and wisely used. If they’re not, we can feel cheated or that we’ve been taken advantage of.

But Jesus’ view of giving is that we ought to give with, no expectations. Jesus says our expectations of reward — heavenly or earthly — are actually part of our problem.

“When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt,” Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, “let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you.”

Crazy as it sounds, expect to be cheated. Expect receivers of your gifts to be ungrateful and ask for more anyway.

None of these are easy words to hear. Again, because we like to be thanked. We like to be liked. We don’t like the feeling of being cheated or taken advantage of.

Our world lives according to “quid pro quo.”

But Jesus says a radical thing. He said that we ought to intentionally give to those who can never repay us: “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you.”

All of this is foreign to our normal way of living. And I know that some of you are reading this and saying, “Ok, preacher, you go first; you give away all your possessions!”

I cannot personally claim to live out these hard sayings well. I am as big a hypocrite as anyone.

But I do know that when I do cheerfully, and freely, give to others, without expectation of reward or return, it feels good.

It feels good to give free gifts. It’s the life Jesus led, of course. Everywhere he traveled in his earthly ministry, he gave to others, eventually even giving his life. And although it was a difficult path, it is very clear he found a joyful bliss in giving without expectation.

And as we move through a season of grati tude this month, I will offer this final thought: The more you can give without expectations, the more joy you will find too.

ERIC FOLKERTH is Senior Pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church. Email sales@ advocatemag.com for advertising information.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

GRACE TEMPLE BAPTIST Come to a Place of Grace! Sunday Worship: English Service 9:30am / Spanish Service 11:00am 831 W. Tenth St. / 214.948.7587 / gracetempledallas.org

CATHOLIC

ST. CECILIA CATHOLIC PARISH / StCeciliaDallas.org / 1809 W Davis St. Saturday - Bilingual Mass 5PM; Sunday – English Masses 7:30AM & 11AM; Spanish Masses 9AM & 1PM

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185 Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel 10:50 am - Sanctuary / Interim Senior Minister, Rev. Dr. Larry Ross. / edcc.org

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CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH / ChristChurchDallas.org Sunday School: 11:15am /Mass: 9am & 10am English, 12:30pm Español Wednesday Mass: 6pm English, 8pm Español / 534 W. Tenth Street

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TYLER STREET CHURCH / Join us @tylerstreet.church / 927 W.10th St. / 214-946-8106 / Study of God’s Word Contemporary / Anderson Hall Sat 5 pm / Traditional & Worship Sunday 10 am Tylerstreet.com

KESSLER PARK UMC / 1215 Turner Ave./ 214.942.0098 I kpumc.org 10:30am Sunday School/11:00 Worship /All are welcome regardless or r ace, creed, culture, gender or sexual identity.

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KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd. “Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.” 10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

TRINITY CHURCH OAK CLIFF / Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples. Sundays 10:00 am / Worship & children’s Sunday School 1139 Turner Ave. / trinitychurchoakcliff.org

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PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 4124 Oak Lawn Ave Sunday Worship 9:00 & 11:00 A.M. To all this church opens wide her doors - pcpc.org

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By RACHEL STONE

Air disasters

Asmall plane made an emergency landing in the middle of Kiest Boulevard recently.

Some power lines were knocked down, along with a speed-limit sign, but there were no injuries and no fire or leaked fuel.

That October incident was the second emergency landing of a plane near Dallas Executive Airport in Oak Cliff this year. A small plane landed at Boulder Park in July.

Neither of the recent incidents resulted in serious injury, but our neighborhood has a crazy history of deadly small plane crashes.

There were at least eight fatal plane crashes in our neighborhood between 1935 and 1950, according to a search of newspaper archives.

In the earliest report, a police officer and his friend died while stunting in an outdated plane in 1935 at Hampton Airport. The pilot couldn’t pull the plane out of a downward spin, and it crashed while his wife looked on.

A similar incident occurred the following year, when a brother and sister died in a “joyride” at Hampton Airport while their family members were watching.

A few years later, in 1942, a Braniff Airlines pilot crashed into a field in South Oak Cliff; he and his passenger both died.

Several times, planes crashed onto the bygone Russell family farm on Red Bird Lane and what is now Polk Road.

It wasn’t just the old Hampton Airport. There was also Hensley Field.

In 1945, a bomber crashed on Eagle Ford Road, killing all 14 U.S. Air Force members on board. Hundreds of people in West Oak Cliff witnessed the “spectacular” crash of the “huge bomber,” which was still a military secret at the time, and pieces of it fell onto people’s homes. The crash just missed a Texaco warehouse with massive gasoline tanks.

On Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964, The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show , launching “Beatlemania.” At the same time, a single-engine Piper Comanche attempting to land at the former Red Bird Airport got caught in some power lines and crashed in the Brettonwoods neighborhood. The pilot, traveling alone, was killed.

It crashed about a foot from Steve Pollard’s parents’ bedroom window on Jeffaline Lane.

“Luckily, the plane fell away from the house,” he says.

Jonnie England lived nearby in Kiestwood at the time.

“It was memorable because of the rarity of a plane crashing in our neighborhood and because it happened during The Beatles first U.S. TV appearance,” she says.

Twenty-seven years later, in 1990, a Dallas lawyer tried to land his Bellanca plane at Marsalis and Ann

Arbor during the middle of rush hour. He and his passenger both died, and miraculously, no one on the ground was injured.

The pilot had trouble with his landing gear and engine, according to news reports from the time.

“As the plane came down, investigators said, it hit several trees and a telephone pole, then flew into a power line and crashed,” a Dallas Morning News story from June 27, 1990 states.

Here’s more from that story: Witnesses said the plane was flying about 20 feet above morning traffic before it crashed. Drivers frantically tried to get out of its way, backing up or stopping their cars in the middle of the two-lane street. They told investigators that the plane burst into flames immediately after hitting the ground.

Dannatta Catatham, 18, was driving east on Ann Arbor when she noticed the plane flying west only a few feet above her van.

“It was so close,” she said. “If I had not sped ahead, it would have crashed into me.”

Moments later, Ms. Catatham said, she looked back and saw the plane snag the power line and fall to the ground. It then spun around three times before skidding 200 yards along a cement embankment and exploding.

Clip via the Dallas Morning News Historical Archives.

A brief history of plane crashes in our neighborhood