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!

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

Tips for a Happier Holiday Season

December has arrived!  Though many talk about the joy that comes with the holidays (and indeed, there is), I feel it is also important to acknowledge that for many, it is also one of the most stressful times of year.   The American Psychological Association Holiday stress statistics show that up to 69 percent of people are stressed about having a “lack of time,” 69 percent also are stressed by feeling a “lack of money” and 51% are stressed out about the “pressure to give and get gifts.”  

According to allonehealth.com, the stress and anxiety of the holiday season can manifest in symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances, fatigue, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, short temper, upset stomach, low job satisfaction and morale, aching muscles (including lower back pain), loss of appetite, changes in behavior while at work, and a decline in productivity and work performance.  

We are also facing the “end time” of the year – a sense of finality for which we look back on the last 12 months and critique the outcome.  Since we are usually our own worst critics, guess which way that observation goes?   It can be an incredibly “heavy” and “burdensome” time of year to many.   Also, we witness nature going into hibernation, we reference the trees and plants “dying” which can also affect us psychologically.

What can we do spiritually to help us get through?  Here’s a few simple things.  

First, try to stay grounded and remember to cleanse yourself energetically.  With all the stress, along with the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers, our auras (as well as our minds) are being bombarded with frenetic and tense energy not normally displayed by most people at other times of the year.  We may observing with our eyes, but we typically ABSORB things into our energies and emotions, so it becomes imperative that we do things that will help cleanse ourselves of this abnormal energy we are diving into and swimming around in.  

If you shower in the morning, use the power of visualization to allow the water its energetic capacity to take hold of that unwanted energy and send it right down the drain.  Additionally, wash your hands a few more times throughout the day (this is not meant to become an OCD thing).  This will not only protect you from potential germs on your hands and keeping you from getting physically sick, when you wash your hands under the faucet for more than 45 seconds, that extra time can again help to draw out negative energy collecting within your field (which might later transmute into physical maladies).

Another way to combat stress – and this works anytime throughout the year – is to meditate.  Sit down for about 15 minutes minimum and just let go.  Focus on nothing but your breath and allow that focus to realign your system and clear you.  Release your need to do anything or be anything, and just be STILL.  Meditation will clear both your energy systems as well as your mind.  The monkey mind goes extra crazy this time of year, so it’s important to do what we can to calm it.  

Conversely, instead of calming yourself, go out and do something that makes you crazy with happiness!  Whatever the activity is – a few hours gathering with friends, solitude with a paintbrush, turning up the music full blast and dancing – whatever it is that can interrupt the state of holiday frenzies.   Call it a “time out” if you will … and schedule as many of them as you need in order to get through the season.  Heck, be an inspiration for others to create their own seasonal “time outs.”  Sweat-inducing exercise can also help here - as well as assisting in keeping off those extra pounds from the yummy holidays feasts!

Keep in mind, as energetic beings we not only absorb, we transmit.  If we can find that stillness or ability to wash ourselves clean of the holiday stress, we can then help others do the same.  How much more joyful would that make this time of year?

So know that in closing, I most sincerely wish you –

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

The Thermostat of Self

The long dark days of winter are at last receding as the sun climbs back toward the northern hemisphere.  Like most people, the march into autumn and the journey through winter is an opportunity to travel within and perhaps discover roads that you might otherwise miss were it not for the chance to hibernate with the season.  For me, I used it as an opportunity to learn more about myself, to understand better who I am and why I do what I do; a type of self-inventory.  It wasn’t my intention to cover more ideas or learn new ways of linking and connecting with spirit and my intuition – I wanted instead to address my “normal” everyday existence. 

 

However, what I discovered is that we cannot parcel ourselves out.  Let’s face it, we are holistic beings -- and everything we do is somehow interconnected with everything else about us.  As I worked to better understand myself, I ended up gaining a greater insight to that side of me which engages in spirit communication and the nature of myself as a multidimensional expression.  And as anybody who follows this blog knows, I am always looking to better understand that process.

When I set out to do this inner work, my goal was to understand my fears and limitations – why do I have them?  What are they?  What are the limiting beliefs behind them?  Though my work as a medium included some of the things I was examining, it wasn’t the full breadth or reason behind my inquiry.  You see, I view each of us like an iceberg – what we are seeing is really only the tip; what is below (or inside) may be huge, massive, and incredible, but we cannot engage it without first understanding the part of us we are already familiar with, which holds the keys to unlock the doors of the inner sanctum. 

 

The discovery I made was that the doors we keep locked to this greater self … are doors we built up throughout our lives.  In fact, I am starting to believe that when we were birthed into the world, there were very few (if any) doors we had to deal with.  But as we grew up – through indoctrinated training in childhood, to peer pressures and societal culturalism in adolescence and adulthood – we created our own closed doors and a hallway from which we remain pacing back-and-forth through most of our existence.  We see the closed doors we’ve built up and ASSUME they were put before us by someone else and we are powerless to open them, or lack the key to unlock what may be hiding behind them.  This corridor, this architecture, we allow to define our strengths and weaknesses, our joys and sorrows. 

 

It takes time and a willingness to face the Gatekeeper. 

 

When I encountered my own “closed door” I asked myself “Why can I not open this?”  The answer startled me.  It wasn’t that a voice came back and said “You can’t.”  Instead, that voice came back and said “You aren’t worth it.”  In fact, at each closed door I placed myself in front of, I heard the same rhetoric -- even to the point of this negative voice saying “Even if you were to open it, someday you will be gone and forgotten.  It won’t have made a difference or even mattered.”  To reflect back on this inner voice is indeed saddening, but it has been – in the end – a gift.  Because I knew on some level I created it; I instilled the demon; and if I created him, I could also excommunicate him and replace him. 

 

As anyone who has seen a hypnotist or studied hypnotherapy knows, the mind is malleable and thoughts – if given enough permission by an individual – can be altered and changed very very quickly, which inevitably creates new ways of thinking and being.  This has been my journey these last several months.  Though I have not seen a hypnotist, I have been working with similar tools – relaxation to calm the monkey mind, visualizations, affirmations, in combination with constant reminders of my own past successes.  Psychologists know that changing a habit takes anywhere from 21 to 30 days of repeating the newfound behavior, as it will also create new neural pathways. 

 

So where am I going with all of this? 

 

Well, if we are constantly telling ourselves such negative thoughts about who we are – why we cannot open closed doors – then we must admit that this same voice is going to sabotage us when it comes to our ultimate success.  This negative voice we have allowed to DEFINE our SELF-IMAGE.  And one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my journey is that the self-image acts like a thermostat – if things go too well and you have a negative voice like mine used to be, sabotage is certain to return things to status-quo normal.  In all areas.

 

Including one’s innate psychic or mediumship abilities. 

 

Think about it.  If you are always second-guessing yourself or knocking yourself down in other areas of your life, why would it be any different in something you are trying to excel at?  It wouldn’t.  The beliefs heralded by the Self-Image would not allow it, for it would force the Self-Image to be something it really can’t perceive itself as being … In other words – you cannot become what deep down you do not believe you can be, because you lack the Self-Image capable of making it happen. 

 

It is vitally important to examine your inner demons, face them, and understand where you are limiting yourself.  Then understand you are dealing with habits of thought … and begin to change them.  Start visualizing, affirming, and believing you can be the person you wish to be.  Try it for at least 21 to 30 days, taking only 5 to 10 minutes a day to do the visualizations and affirmations (try it as an experiment).  And really put your heart into it.  This isn’t about getting material stuff – like using the law of attraction in order to buy a new car – this is much greater: it’s about breaking an erroneous Self-Image which will only allow you to go so far in life, no matter what you do. 

 

Our negative messages we instilled in this exact way: one day, we started to tell ourselves something bad … then we repeated it … added some visualization to back it up … and then let it grow naturally into the door we keep locked before us. 

 

The same thing can happen in reverse.     

 

Now, you might be asking: how does this apply to intuition, psychic functioning, or mediumship?

 

Simply put, it’s one thing to believe the ability exists, it’s another to believe whether it exists or will work FOR YOU, based on your Self-Image.  And then you have to ask if you believe it can work PROPERLY and CLEARLY for you, as dictated by that same perception of Self.  Do you feel on some level you are CAPABLE?  WORTHY?  DESERVING?  Until this last winter, I believed in the ability and that I had it to a certain degree and could help others with it.  However, my Self-Image kept me from accepting that I was worthy or deserving of it fully.  Despite thousands of readings demonstrating a clarity to link with spirits, it has always been an inner battle if I could do it each and every time I sat with a client or stood in front of an audience.  Why this inner struggle with myself? 

 

Because a deep inner voice – without my real inspection – was getting away with the message “You can’t do it.  You’re not worthy.”

 

Since discovering and since ALTERING that, not only has my Self-Image changed, virtually everything else has, too.  My days are bright, I accept “fun” into my existence (I didn’t even give myself permission to have FUN), and my mediumship … I now trust.

 

And that’s what it’s all about.  Trust.  The Self-Image determines your magnitude of Trust.  When it comes to working with Spirit, the axiom is to Trust Spirit.  However, the foundation also has to be “Trust Thyself.”  If you cannot trust yourself, you will have an even harder time trusting spirit … And your development – as well as other parts of your life – will suffer for it. 

 

It’s only habits of thought … Give it 21 to 30 days, and habits can change.  Along with your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communicating with Spirits, Part 2

The Greater Picture, The Larger Act of Awareness

Two weeks ago I talked about how, when we take into account 7 billion people on the planet, and how many of those people right now are receiving information from the deceased friends and relatives in spirit, as well as spirit guides, demonstrates that spirit communication is a natural and normal part of our existence in the physical world.

So what does this all mean in the bigger picture?

By the very nature of these interactions, spirits are demonstrating that they desire to communicate with us; that we are not alone and we do not need to fall prey to the limited visions of material existence.  Their messages, unanimously, all speak to the same meaning:  we as spirits are here, we love you, and we can help you – provided that it doesn’t derail you from your own purposes being alive on the earth.  This is in sharp contrast to what we have been told traditionally from fearful ideologies.

The point to all this is simple:  Spirits are co-existing with us.  Granted, while our focus is here in the material world, theirs is focused in the spiritual.  Nevertheless, they interpenetrate this realm all the time, based on the statistics of people interacting and encountering them.  And chances are likely, we interpenetrate their realm, too, if given the proper belief system, knowledge, and conditions.  It is not “foreign” nor is it “wrong” or “against nature.”  It is actually part of nature’s design.  We co-exist with many dimensions – this is a scientific fact. 

Are we supposed to be communicating between the “veils”?  Actually … Yes.  In fact, it’s vitally important that we do.  We are here to experience the breadth of our souls, and part of that magnificence is our ability to transcend the physicality of what we are experiencing in the material world.  In order to learn our lessons, as well as help others learn theirs, we are given the capabilities to engage in this communication to bring forth the guidance and information we sometimes cannot get from the observable, material world.  Especially in a world where love is in lack – it is spirit’s greatest goal to show us that no such lack exists; that the universe is primarily a loving universe, and through love – positivity – we will prevail through our lessons and continue to heighten our souls to our greatest possibilities and potentials.  After all, we were spirit first, and then human … Not the other way around.

The spirits will not harm us; nor will they take over our lives.  On the contrary, they are wanting to help us live better, happier lives ourselves, fulfilled in the knowledge that the greater we become at being a loving, creative spiritual expression, the more it benefits others and combines to create healing and success to so many people, transforming the earthly experience to be a grand state of livelihood in comparison to what it has been in the past.

Historically, such communication was seen to have dire consequences by various superstitious ideologies – repudiation, ridicule, and ultimate death as a “witch.”  So long as the facts remain of people’s own personal experiences with receiving communications (no matter how sparse) from deceased loved ones or angels, then it cannot be denied that such forces are indeed interacting with us, and that we have the ability to receive and understand their communications, given proper conditions.  In addition, so long as traditional books refer to “prophets” or other types of religious people receiving “inspiration” or other angelic visitations (and many of these people were considered “normal” people having a divine experience), then the notion of conversing with “the devil” must be tossed aside as rickety architecture of fear.  Again, spirit isn’t trying to control us or our reality (that would take up too much time and energy and deny the purpose of their own existence), they simply want to help us – as no doubt, we would want to help our loved ones once we have traversed the bridge of death and realized communication back to earth was possible. 

It is time to wash away those belief systems and ways of thinking that deny this.  It is time to ignore and toss out belief systems that say “It isn’t natural.”  Nonsense -- utter nonsense.  It is natural; it is normal -- It was meant-to-be.

Tell yourself – remind yourself often – that you communicate easily with spirit; that it was meant to be from the beginning of humanity’s emergence into the physical realm; it is a part of our core being and heritage.  Don’t ask of yourself “Why cannot I communicate?”  Instead you should be asking “How could I not communicate?  It was meant to be!”  Again we are spirit first and then human.  It’s all about where we choose to place our focus, and hence our energy, creating an environment that makes communication conducive and expectant. 

When it comes to linking with spirit, all you have to do is ask and then BE AWARE.  Trust your senses (which is sometimes easier said than done, I know).  When the time is RIGHT, when the energy and conditions are appropriate, spirit will be there with the messages they wish to convey.  It is what they have been doing for centuries.  No doubt, we will be doing the same thing when we hit the Other Side – reaching back and sending messages to our loved ones still on earth.  It’s going on all over the place RIGHT NOW across this planet.  Accept it and embrace it.  Become a part of it.