Since she was young, Anna Raimondi of Wilton said she has known she has a gift: the ability to communicate with the dead.

“I’ve had it forever and I grew up in a family that didn’t discount it,” said Ms. Raimondi, a 10-year resident, in a recent interview about her gift. Now, the former corporate executive has authored a book, Talking to the Dead in Suburbia, in which she wants to spread the word to others that “love goes on” after death.

Ms. Raimondi said her family had been active in the Catholic Charismatic movement, and that had helped her to open up to her gift. She said that growing up, she had always assumed that others had the same gift as she, but eventually the obviousness of this not being the case scared her into no longer using her talents. But when she became older her friends pushed her towards embracing her gift, and now, as a spiritual counselor, she does so with a large variety of clients.

“I’m just the messenger, the vehicle,” said Ms. Raimondi, adding that what she does is a form of prayer and that she is a Christian. She does both individual and group readings. She said when she first begins to communicate with the dead, she can sometimes feel pains in her body that can correlate to the way in which the person died.

“These wonderful, beautiful souls enter my consciousness and speak to my heart. I hear them, feel them and allow them to spend time with me in the hope that I can somehow relate their messages to their loved ones. The purity of their actions is outstanding and incomprehensible,” writes Ms. Raimondi in her book.

As to what the dead tell her to tell the person she’s doing the reading for, “sometimes it’s about their path and where they’re going in life. They come through to talk about their legacy, about what they should do.” As an example, she said a dead grandmother who was a sculptor might encourage her grandchild to pursue sculpting.

With clients in the Middle East and Europe, Ms. Raimondi said her business mostly comes from word-of-mouth. She said she always asks her clients to tell her as little as possible in order to protect the integrity of the exercise. She sometimes gets names, she sometimes gets letters in her communications.

In addition to being a spiritual counselor, Ms. Raimondi is also a Reiki master and hypnotherapist. She also has a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology and a master of business administration degree. Reiki is an art where healing is performed by balancing the energy in one’s body. As part of her hypnotherapy work she does past life regressions and some work with phobias.

She said while she does encounter skeptics, once she’s shown them her ability they can be won over. For instance, during a group reading she did she knew that the man next to her was a skeptic; upon hearing the name Edna and asking him about it, he was no longer so skeptical.

“People are pretty open minded nowadays,” said Ms. Raimondi.

Another key activity in her life is meditation. She said she meditates while cooking or cleaning, and the name of her book came to her while in meditation. She said that she encourages others to also learn to meditate.

The most enduring lesson she tries to impart to those who come to see her is that life, even after death, goes on.

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, and we are made of energy. So the soul goes on,” said Ms. Raimondi. The dead “hear us, and they try to help us.”

The Wilton Open Book Shop will carry Ms. Raimondi’s book, and is available on amazon.com. 

Wiltonian writes book about speaking to the dead

April 10, 2009

WILTON -- Anna Raimondi lives a very typical life. She once managed the business side of a large law firm, but a decade ago, when she and her husband Vince moved to Wilton with their two sons, she gave up her job and became a stay-at-home mother and PTO president.

Raimondi herself will tell you that she is like anyone else in town, but there is one thing that sets her apart: Raimondi says she can speak to the dead.

"What I do is a little different than being a medium," said Raimondi, 48, who recently wrote a book, "Talking to the Dead in Suburbia," published with Infinity this year. Raimondi is a licensed hypnotherapist, a Reiki master and a Chios master. Because she is a healer, she said, the spirits who come through her in readings usually emerge to heal something in her clients.

"I read for a man yesterday whose father came through. The father told me he was alcoholic and abusive (and because of that) his son was arrested in his development," said Raimondi. "He came through and said how proud he was of his son. That was healing for this man because he finally had the approval of his father."

Such experiences inspired Raimondi to start writing her book two years ago. Since its release in February, Raimondi has sold 1,000 copies.

"It's about how the extraordinary can exist in everyday life," said Raimondi. "Love never dies. People we loved, they come back to really help us and heal us so we're never alone."

That feeling of enduring love makes talking to Raimondi a comfortable experience, says Wiltonian Nancy Pantoliano, who has worked with Raimondi for a few years.

"She is very intuitive, very positive in the way she works," said Pantoliano, who recounted a reading with Raimondi in which Raimondi saw a woman, sitting on a swing. The woman said she missed sitting on the swing with Pantoliano.

"One of my dearest friends passed away 10 years ago," said Pantoliano, who noted her friend had been battling breast cancer. Pantoliano used to visit her friend in Wisconsin and they would sit on the porch swing and talk. The spirit told Raimondi that a third friend who is currently struggling with breast cancer would be fine. In another reading, a man came through with a message for Pantoliano and her husband, actor Joe Pantoliano. In another, a group reading held at the Pantoliano home, a friend's recently departed dog came to visit.

"There are probably people who think this is a little whacky, but that's not been my experience," said Pantoliano.

Raimondi has known about her gift since she was a little girl growing up on Long Island.

"I was raised in a very Catholic family. My father was a deacon, ultimately," she said. The family, part of a group called the Catholic Charismatics, believed in healing through the laying-on of hands.

"When I would touch people I would see things," said Raimondi.

When she was as young as 9, people would come over to her family's home to have the little girl put her hands on them and relay what she saw. But at the age of 12, when she began to realize that not everyone had her talent, Raimondi stopped giving readings.

She did not start again until about 10 years ago when she became ill and started learning Reiki, a Japanese energy therapy, as part of her treatment.

She later became a Reiki master, and found that as soon as she put her hands on her clients, she was once again able to see things.

As soon as she put her hands on her clients, Raimondi was once again able to see things.

"I think the Reiki brought it out," she said.

Since then, she has found herself surrounded by spirits. Usually they come to her seeking to make contact with someone, and, once she meets the spirit, the person they wish to speak with appears in her life shortly thereafter.

"I talk to the spirit world while I'm cooking, while I'm driving," she said.

The dead, she said, surround her constantly, but she does not allow them to interfere with her when she is living her own life. She sees three to four clients a day for readings, Reiki, hypnotherapy and past life regressions. She also has a large Internet practice and, of course, has her husband and two children to think about.

"I can't have them in front of me all the time," she said, of the spirits. "I have a life."

And, she said, it is a very good, typical life.

"I have a lot to be thankful for," she said.


Anna Raimondi will be hosting a spiritual group reading on Thursday, April 23 from 12 to 2 p.m. at Bernard's Restaurant in Ridgefield. For more information or to RSVP, call 486-8282. For more information, visit http://www.annaraimondi.com.