Douglas's Early Years

On the surface, Douglas James Cottrell appears to be an ordinary, uncomplicated, good-natured and friendly family man. He enjoys the simple things of life: driving in the countryside, grooming horses, walking the dogs or playing hockey with his friends. He and his wife, Karen, have been happily married since 1968. They live in an average, quiet, suburban neighborhood in Canada. To the casual observer, he is an unremarkable man. But as the saying goes, still waters run deep. For beneath the plain and ordinary surface lies an intuitive ability so powerful and accurate that it staggers the imagination and challenges our very notion of what it is to be human.

Douglas was born in Toronto, Canada in December 1949 to Thomas and Elinor Cottrell, an average, not overly religious working-class couple who struggled to make ends meet. The eldest of four children, Douglas split his youth between work at the family wood-yard and football games at Central Technical High School. In 1965 he fell in love with Karen Paquet, and they were married in February of 1968. Douglas had taken a job as an apprentice, and was soon working as a full-fledged pressman for the nation's largest daily newspaper, the Toronto Star. In July of 1968, Douglas and Karen became parents and their lives were forever changed. The birth of a child, especially the first child, should be a blessed event. But for the young couple, the arrival of daughter Cheri-Anne was little short of traumatic. Delivered weeks overdue, Cheri-Anne collapsed shortly after being born. She was resuscitated by medical staff several times. Over the weeks and months that followed, Cheri-Anne was in and out of hospitals. She was prone to convulsions. Doctors put her on medications to sedate her. By age two and a half, Cheri-Anne was diagnosed as severely mentally and physically retarded. Douglas and Karen finally acquiesced to the medical advice to place her into an institution, resigned to the medical opinion that she had only a few months to live and that nothing could be done.

Douglas and Karen refused to give up hope for Cheri-Anne, however, and they continued to pray to God that their daughter's life could be saved. Little did they know that their prayers were about to be answered, but in a most unusual way. In 1975, a co-worker at the Toronto Star daily newspaper, where Douglas worked as a pressman, gave Douglas a book about Edgar Cayce, an American deep trance psychic from the 1930s, known mainly for his so-called health "readings". Douglas was a skeptic, and although he was highly critical of tea-cup readers, palmists, and tarot card readers, he found Cayce's ability to be credible. Fascinated with the information contained in the Cayce material, Douglas began to wonder what information could be revealed about his daughter, were Cayce still alive.

While he was working in his basement, Douglas had a strong urging to leave what he was doing, go upstairs and turn on the television. As he did, the screen filled with the image of a man who appeared to be talking in his sleep. He was describing in great detail the health problems of someone else, and - more importantly - he was explaining what was to be done to remedy them. The program in progress was "World of the Unexplained" with Allen Spraggett, a paranormal researcher. Spraggett's guest was Ross Peterson, a medical intuitive from the United States who demonstrated Cayce-like clairvoyant abilities in trance.

At that moment, Douglas knew there was hope for his daughter, and he and Karen determined that they had to see this man. Now, Douglas, being a pragmatic, down-to-earth, "blue-collar" type of man, had always been skeptical and dismissive of psychics. Karen's staunch Catholic upbringing had taught her that fortune telling was sinister and false. Needless to say, their optimism was tempered with fear about meeting Peterson. The young couple eventually arranged to meet with Peterson in Toronto. As they approached his hotel room, they did not know what to expect, and they were extremely anxious and apprehensive.

Their fears were soon laid to rest, however. Even though Cheri-Anne was hundreds of kilometers away in the Plainfield Children's Home in Belleville, Ontario, Peterson was able to discuss her condition as if reading her medical chart. For the first time in seven years, someone was able to intelligently articulate how Cheri-Anne came to develop in the way that she did. Moreover, Peterson was able to explain what steps could be taken in order to bring Cheri-Anne back to health. The accuracy and amount of detail he provided was mind-blowing. Peterson recommended natural treatments that were foreign to Douglas and Karen, such as chiropractic and massage. He also suggested various foods and herbs to be given to Cheri-Anne that would act as medicine for her traumatized body. Peterson's recommendations saved Cheri-Anne's life and opened Douglas and Karen's minds to a larger world. He had revealed to Douglas that he had an aptitude for deep meditation as well, and he encouraged him to explore his own intuitive abilities.

"I have to find out if I can do this too," Douglas said. "If only one child is helped, it will be worth it!"