This Life as a Precursor to the Next

In the Old World, the adherence to doctrine was to help prepare one’s self for entering the gates of Heaven and receiving eternal life.  To not follow the dogma as prescribed by the hierarchy was tantamount to turning one’s back on God and committing the soul to everlasting torture and pain.

In our modern society, the purely materialistic members of the populace will tell you there is “No such thing as an afterlife.  When you die, you’re as good as worm food.”

Yet afterlife spirit research contradicts both these assertions.  Over more than one hundred years ago, the scientists and academics who headed up the Society for Psychical Research in both England and America laid the groundwork and brought forth incredible evidence suggestive of spirit return through such mediums as Leonora Piper, Mrs. Chenoweth, Mrs. Gladys Osborne Leonard, as well as others.  The “cross- correspondences” convinced many in the organization that they had obtained scientific proof of survival and communication.  This history unfortunately got dismissed, mostly forgotten, and it wasn’t until the late 1990’s that mediumship once again was taken seriously – at least by a minority few in academia, starting with Dr. Gary Schwarz.

In addition to the research done with mediums, modern technology has given us unprecedented tools for reaching out to those in spirit, most notably through Electronic Voice Phenomena (recording spirit voices on recorders).  Though both these techniques (EVPs and Mediumship) have their detractors and skeptics, the overall data and results from skilled researchers along with asking the right questions still point in the same direction as the earlier Society for Psychical Research archives – consciousness survives.

The next question is: what does that survival of consciousness look like?  Staying with the theme of this article, for centuries we were told that if we follow the rules of a particular theology, it would grant us a hoped-for peace and everlasting life (and consequently, those who didn’t …) Well … it just doesn’t work that way.  There isn’t any Hell and no one is blocking you at the gate for not following a particular brand of theism.  However, the idea of how you live your life on earth does still hold some truth as to how one might acclimate to the Other Side.

When original Society for Psychical Research members passed away and began communicating through mediums in an effort to prove their identity to their earth-bound colleagues, many of them stated how their lives – both on earth and the afterlife – would have been much better had they known eternal life was a matter of natural existence and paid attention to what that meant (and not in the way it had been traditionally taught).   They were all adamant about the joys of the next life, yet they stated how they still had much more to learn.  Indeed, they were saying that had they approached things a bit differently on the earthly side of life, it would have made them less ignorant when it came to their own existence in the afterlife, and consequently they would be getting "more" out of it.

In a way, this makes some sense.  Think of it like stages in earthly life.  We now know that events in our childhood can still have irrevocable influence and outcome on who we are and what we do when we are adults.  In this way, we can also see how our lives on earth might also have an effect on our existence in the next life as well.  How could it not?  This is not to say we must always be on-guard, or give our earthly thoughts away and think only of the next world …. That would be akin to saying “forget childhood and jump straight into adult life.”  No, no, no.  One is needed to inform and shape the other.  And this is not out fear either.  Just like our journey through childhood we learn what is needed as we move into adulthood and society, so too is this life preparing us in ways for the Other Side.

To me, this is how we must view our relationship between our existence here and our future existence over there.  They are intertwined; one informs the other.  When we reach the Other Side, we are told that we exist beyond Time and Space and that we cannot die – yet the nature of our experience (what we are capable of accomplishing) falls upon the simple axiom of knowledge over ignorance – in this case, I gather it is “spiritual” knowledge over “spiritual” ignorance.  Wherever one falls on such a spectrum plays a unique role on what one is capable of accomplishing or where they can go right out in the afterlife.  All are granted eternal life – that is not an issue – but just what one can experience or do in the afterlife is correlated with what one knows or doesn’t know spiritually.  This is not so different from earth – knowledge opens doors to possibilities, whereas without proper knowledge, a door will oftentimes remain shut until the deficit in wisdom is corrected.  In all cases, spirits coming through speak of the afterlife in joyous and loving terms, but also acknowledge there is so much more, and that access to this “more” is somehow related to knowledge, and that our earthly experience can help with that foundation.

In knowing this ahead of time, it forces us to examine ourselves (and primarily our relationships) in the Here and Now.  If we can master unconditional love, compassion, joy, then when we arrive into the next world we will not feel so much like a fish out of water – at least so I’ve been told.  We won’t have as many regrets, we will spare ourselves a sense of possible embarrassment or exposure as the Life Review reveals our most nonsensical and ignorant moments, and we won’t feel that we have sold ourselves short for what is possible in the spiritual environments.  We are not asked to be perfect, but we are asked to pay attention.

In other words, we can come into our spiritual life with a rich foundation gathered from our earthly experiences.  We will acclimate better; find ourselves capable; and will be more at the ready to become true citizens in the communities built for the spiritual realms of eternity. 

Enjoy and learn from our earthly journey - as it's all Spiritual.

-- Jeffrey

A Welcome to Your Spirit this Spring

Spring in the Pacific Northwest is just right around the corner for us.  Already, some of the trees are starting to flower and I am seeing new flowers sprout from the soil.  If you’re like me, you are getting excited.  It’s time to wake up from the cold dark winter and welcome back the light!

This time of year always harkens to a sense of rejuvenation.  In a way, it is not much different than what happens to our loved ones when they leave their body to transition into the afterlife.  One could easily make the case that while we are alive on planet earth, our senses become dull to the fullness of our multidimensional selves and we have entered into a type of focus that mimics a sense of hibernation inside the vastness of our souls.  Indeed, those in spirit report back that when they look at us from their vantage point, we oftentimes appear asleep in terms of our awareness.  Some spirits report that we look “dark and shadowy” – not much different than nature looking dark and barren during the winter.   

This changes when we leave this environment at death.  It is not so much because we are leaving the limited body behind (that is part of it), but also because we are stepping out of the entire space/time framework the world works in.  This departure gives the newfound spirit an entirely new perspective on the life and world just left behind.  It’s as if we have been living like a two-dimensional painting on canvass, then suddenly peeling ourselves off and seeing not only the canvass, but that we are really three-dimensional with properties and aspects of being we never knew we had!    

This has got to feel like waking up from a cold winter and finding yourself being greeted by a warm and luscious new Spring.  The Other Side has oftentimes affectionately been referred to as “the Summer Land.”  No doubt, at the moment of earthly departure, we move into the Spring time of new spiritual life and then dance into the Summer.

As we begin to re-awaken from our winter slumber, take some time to go within and re-awaken your spirit.  If you have spent much of the winter indoors, head out to welcome the new life growing all around you.  Reconnect with it.  Feel its vibrancy re-emerging and allow it to inspire a re-emergence within you.   You are a vital, beautiful, loving spirit!  Let your light shine with the new light of Spring!  Stretch out your arms, take in a big gulp of air, then feel your energy skyrocket to every corner of creation.  Know that our loved ones in spirit see this, feel it, and send it back to us.

It’s all about the cycle of life and its eternal nature.  Let’s embrace the coming seasons … or rather, let the coming seasons embrace us. 

Remember, you were born a perfect spirit.  So be sure to have a spirited day!

What Unconditional Love from the Other Side Reveals ...

I oftentimes compare and contrast what we learn from direct spirit communication and interaction (whether it be in readings or spirit research with the Washington State Ghost Society) to what was written in ancient biblical texts, and to what organized religion says about the nature of man and how it equates to the notion of God's love for us (FYI, I prefer the term "Great Creative Force" over the term "God").  I find myself often at odds with the notion that the Great Creative Force perceives us as "fallen," or "broken" or "off-the-mark."  Indeed, those in the spirit world tell us how much we are loved, that judgment is nothing like what has been told to us, and that we were actually born perfect.  

"Perfect?  Really?"  I can hear you saying.   

Actually, yes.  

Those in spirit are telling us that we were born perfect, for the simple fact that we have the ability to express and experience all outcomes (good and bad) so that we may have access to all roads of learning and expression.  "Perfection" is not an "end state" of static being, but rather the functionality inherent within our design.  Only love would grant the ability to potentially experience all possible states, positive or negative.  Those on the Other Side tell us that If we did not have access to all these different avenues, then we would be stunted; we would not fully learn; we would be held back in whatever was needed for us to become the greatest expression and reflection of the Great Spirit that we can be.  Without this perfection of experiencing all probabilities and states, spirituality would be more like a prison, rather than the unconditional love that is given us to experience All There Is. 

So as we march forward to that day of love this month, take a moment to reflect on just how much you are loved from those on the Other Side -- it is truly unconditional.  All paths to learning, to spirituality, to the Great Creative Force are already being lived by you and through you.  If you weren't loved, then such capabilities would not even exist.

New Year and Resolutions

The New Year has arrived, and in typical fashion each of us sit down to take advantage of the sense of being able to "start over" for the next round of 12 months.  Our hopes are always the same: Initiate change so the chains we felt were binding us in the previous year somehow dissolve into dust this next year.  Isn't that what resolutions are all about?  To make drastic change?

As the year progresses, we usually find ourselves caught in life's quagmires and either forget our New Year's resolutions entirely, or we just simply give up on them -- usually because we've lost the will or fortitude to make them happen.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  Just as we say goodbye every December 31st to the year behind us, we can do this with what has come even the day before, or an hour ago.  It's called "letting go" in order to make space for what we want to come.

Yes, the power of "letting go" ... Accepting what has happened, but no longer attaching to it in such a way that it continues to hold its power over you and robbing you of what is possible in the present and in the future -- because the truth is, the past never equals the future.  Those in the spirit world tell us, when they first reach the Other Side and have their Life Review, they are astonished to see just how many possibilities were available to them during the course of their earthly journey, to which they refused to acknowledge at the time because they couldn't "let go" of what they were holding on to.  Nevertheless, these possibilities are there, and we need only to acknowledge them and "let go" of what we are grasping inside our consciousness to begin moving in these new directions.

The other thing those in spirit tell us -- and to which many of us have experienced at some point in our lives -- is the power of our own minds (and by extension, our consciousness) in the ability to create the change we so desperately seek.  This is one of the reasons we make New Year's resolutions -- because deep down, we trust that we do have the power to make them happen.  

It's also because we understand on a deep level, the power of the Now moment.  Within the Now moment is the gateway to the nature of Eternity -- where past, present, and future blend together and collide.  It's within this nexus that when we truly make a decision (decide, intend, put the foot down) that change really begins.  How does that change take root?  The energy and blueprint of our intentions are embraced by the power of that Now moment, and that power not only moves forward in time to start orchestrating events, it even sends the information backward into the past.

What?  That sounds preposterous.  But yet, this is really the case.  Several Psi researchers utilizing such tools as random number generators, remote viewing, and methods of intuitive forecasting have concluded that it's not so much as the Mind being able to leap into the future as it is for the future to leap backward into the past.

Here's a small example of your enormous power at initiating instant change:  Divine parking.  You know, when you're five minutes away from the parking lot at a shopping center and you put out the intention to have that "perfect parking spot" and it magically appears?  And the more times you do it you realize it is happening at a level beyond chance?  That's because your intention in that Now moment is not only moving forward into the future, it's zooming backward into the past!

How so?  Because even though you're five minutes away from the parking lot, the orchestration has to take into account not only your position in space and time (including all the time you spent at stop lights as soon as you left the house, pedestrians, and perhaps even a slow down due to bad weather -- before you put out the "divine parking" intention), the intention also has to take into account the person who currently holds the parking space you will eventually get.  What time they arrived at the shopping center, how long they've been in the store, how long they have to stand in line at the check-out counter, exit into the parking lot, get into their vehicle and leave -- with just enough time for you to pull in before someone else steals the spot.  

Now that's some orchestration!  So much, that to make the intention five minutes away from the parking lot requires that power to inform reality both in the past as well as the future.  It begs the question, did your intention inform you and the other person what time was best to leave your respective homes to make the shopping trip?  

As much as we'd like to say this is coincidence, fantasy, or way-out-there wishful thinking, many parapsychologists and consciousness researchers (as well a few people in the realm of Quantum Mechanics) are suggesting this is really what is happening.  When information travels backward into the past to initiate a course, it's termed "retrocausation."  Those in the spirit world agree, as they say the point of power is always the Present Moment, and our thoughts inform the past as well as the present and into the future.  How's that for a holistic reality?

So when you go about making your New Year's resolution, know that the power behind your intention is awesome.  So much so, that you could harness it every day of the New Year and not simply January 1st.  Perhaps your New Year's resolution could be: Every day is a new day, my intentions are eternal, and I embrace the power of my eternal spirit for health, abundance, and joy.  Now that's a New Year's resolution!I