the other side
Death Is Never Final
Most of us have lost someone dear to us, whether it be a grandparent, parent, child, friend or co-worker. And when this happens, many of us wonder why, and what happens next? Know this: death is never final.
Death is simply the spiritual essence leaving the physical body. Each one of us is born with this spiritual nature, our soul energy or spiritual essence. We are given a physical body to carry us through this journey on Earth, and throughout this life journey our physical bodies change. However, our spiritual essence remains constant from before our birth, and carries us forward to many other realms and new incarnations, beyond the physical death at the end of this lifetime.
My clients are often concerned about their departed loved ones. Is my mother in pain? Is my family okay? Is my child still suffering? Is my husband safe? Is my friend stuck in between worlds because she took her own life?
The simple answer to all these questions is: yes. When we pass, our physical body is no longer needed and our spirit simply returns to the Highest, or Heaven, or Universal Love, or Source. There is no ‘hell’ or ‘bad place’ after this life. It is all good for all of us. It is a place of peace and simplicity. A plane of existence or realm of the utmost, purest, highest state of unconditional love.
When we lose someone close to us, the essence of their spirit returns to us at different times after their passing. You may see, hear, sense, or even smell them, and sometimes even feel them touch you. All these experiences are real. If you feel them around you, they are there. If you feel a feather like touch on your cheek, they are there. If a scent reminds you of someone, they are there. If you swear someone just sat on your bed, but no one is in your room, they are there.
The Halloween Ghost In The Art Gallery
A couple of decades ago, I was opening a new location in downtown Santa Fe for the owner of a chain of art galleries. As a gallery director by profession at the time, I was excited for this opportunity. Furthermore, it was an interesting location from a metaphysical perspective, due to its previous occupants. Once upon a time, it had been a part of the local bus station, and it was directly across a former burro alley from one of Santa Fe’s oldest hotels.
I noticed a subtle, yet potent energy in the gallery space from the beginning of the endeavor. Clearly, some spiritual entity was attempting to direct the gallery through me, and had other ideas about what kind of art should be displayed here! Of course, it did not match the kind of work the absentee owner had in mind. But I was being pushed psychically to consider more traditional pieces, as opposed to the contemporary focus that the living owner required.
An interesting event happened when I hired a contractor to build some art storage, which was also to serve as a divider between the showroom space of the gallery and the office area. Every time the contractor would work on the new art storage bins, there would be a kind of rustling noise after he left. It was unmistakable, yet every time I would try to locate the source of the noise it would stop, as if by magic.
The Mediumship Messages That Matter The Most
After the passing of a loved one, many people turn to psychic mediums for confirmation that their deceased loved ones have transitioned safely into the Spirit realm.
Typically, during a mediumship reading our deceased loved ones will relay evidence through the psychic medium to prove that they are the ones communicating from the Other Side. This may include references to jewelry, or other personal possessions, they have left behind; mentions of the things they enjoyed while in the living; places they used to love going to; shared family memories; as well as very specific personal information, like their first or last name, date of birth and passing, and so on.
It’s always very rewarding to create this psychic link to connect with a deceased loved, because much information can flow through in such a short amount of time. Sometimes our loved ones offer guidance and advice to better our lives, and even predictions about forthcoming events in our lives.
Some mediumship clients are concerned that they did not get the opportunity to say goodbye, or show their love and gratitude to a loved one while they were still in this life. Some clients are also curious about opinions their deceased loved ones may have regarding current issues in their life.
For example, if there is family conflict about an inheritance, they may want to know how the deceased loved one feels about it, and what advice they may have to offer on the matter. Most of the time the departed loved one will encourage the family to strive for peace, compassion and forgiveness, but the rest of the decisions are usually left up to those in the living.
The material things we are so attached to in this life, are typically of no interest to our deceased loved ones. They have moved on from this material world, and have more important matters to address when they communicate during a mediumship reading. Our deceased loved one want us to know they’re okay, but in my experience what seems to be most important to them is our spiritual growth while we are here. I can’t be sure of why this is, but it seems to have to do with lineage work.
The Unseen Spirit World Around Us
While traveling this summer, I stayed at in a vacation rental home on the coast of Oregon. It is an older house which has been completely gutted and redone from floor to ceiling. It has every finishing touch you could imagine and is across the street from the beach.
One day, while sitting in the master bedroom with the door partially open, I thought I saw a white, sheepdog push the door open with his nose to come in and greet me. He looked quite happy with his tail wagging. He was adorable and filled with loving energy. I blinked my eyes and looked again, but he was gone? I then realized I had just seen a dog in spirit, who used to live in that house.
Many people have this type of occurrence happen on a daily basis, but do not understand or trust what they see. Often we glimpse things out of the corner of our eye, or peripheral vision, but most of us interpret this as simply being due to our imagination. We thought we saw something, but there was nothing there when we looked again. Unfortunately, our modern culture encourages us to trust only our logical, linear mind over our intuition.
When Spirit shows up in the form of our deceased loved ones from the Other Side, and this includes our departed pets, we can become aware of them through our psychic senses. People who are more sensitive tend to be able to pick up on the subtle presence of Spirits who come to visit.
Our Spiritual Contracts
Before we come into this lifetime, we design a soul contract. We choose a family that we want to be born to and we plan specific things that we want to accomplish, such as career, relationships, children, and so on. The contract is about our spiritual self and therefore also includes those things that we need to overcome and learn from.
Some of the more important things in your contract may come as a surprise, because often they are those things you do not want to do! This is usually a sure way of knowing that something is contractual. The things we prefer to do, or have done, we’ve already mastered, but the challenges and obstacles offer us opportunity to overcome our fears and anxieties, to step forward and learn more, to grow spiritually.
Some contracts are also much longer than others. Some of us remain here for a long time, while others do not. I doubt anyone knows for sure, but for the time that we are here, we must make every effort to learn and grow from every life experience.
This is also why some of us attract the wrong people, and constantly get into the wrong relationships? In these cases it is often your soul contract trying to teach you to speak up for yourself and claim your self-worth.
When old souls come in, usually nothing bothers them. They tend to take things with a grain of salt. However, when new souls come in, they are often very excited about so many things and can’t seem to get enough done.
Apologies From The Other Side
Departed loved ones have come through to me many times over the years with a message of apology for how they treated me, or one of my clients. There is typically a common thread in these spirit messages: they didn’t know better at the time, but they do now, and they now see things differently. With the apology usually also comes great regret and remorse, acknowledging the pain they caused us.
For anyone who has been on the receiving end of abuse, I have come to believe that there is also a lesson in this. For me, the lesson has been learning to love myself. I was a people-pleaser for most of my life, and to some extent this is probably still the case, but there is a lesson in this too, in learning about self-love and learning to put my own needs first. My experience has been instrumental in enabling me to identify with others, and, in turn, I have become more able to help others the best I can.
I love the teachings of the spirit guide Emmanuel, as channeled by the late Pat Rhodegast. Emmanuel says, “If we were not meant to have done something, we would not have, but that it was all appropriate at the time.” I seem to recall his teachings stating that this does not mean that we should condone the harsh treatment of others.
As adults, we have more choices, but when family and loved ones treat us harshly, we often hope that things would get better, or that perhaps they were just having a bad day. I personally would do just about anything to please them, desperate to get their approval. Others often commented on and in hindsight they were right, but I would continue to hope.
Spirit Visits From The Other Side
We all have the ability to ‘tune in’ to spirit messages from our loved ones on the other side, without being a psychic or medium. Often spirit tries to get in touch, but we miss the moment. Or we get scared, because we don’t understand what is happening and then tend to dismiss it. Also, after losing a loved one we can be so overwhelmed with grief, that we do not notice the signs and messages that are meant to comfort us.
There are many creative ways in which spirit reaches out to us. One of the most common are dreams. Loved ones who have passed very often choose to either talk to us, or appear in our dreams. This is the easiest way for them to get through to us, and also the least scary way for us.
In dreams your loved one may appear more dazzling than when they were alive. For example, they may look younger, healthier, refreshed. This is because the veil that existed between their human self and what they are now, no longer exists.
If you have such a visitation dream, try to write down everything you can remember as soon as you wake up. This is real communication from the other side containing valuable information, which can be very helpful in your daily life.