| We all tend to by fascinated by questions about the | | | | them. The daily activities and noises of the family from |
| afterlife – what happens to people after they die, | | | | over the decades were simply imprinted in some way |
| for example, or what we will experience after we | | | | on the house and its atmosphere. |
| transition. Connected to these questions is the issue of | | | | The articles being moved, on the other hand, did seem |
| ghosts and apparitions. What do these phenomena | | | | to have volition behind them, as if someone had willfully |
| say about the afterlife and our universe? | | | | and deliberately – if not mischievously – moved |
| I have pondered these questions myself over the | | | | them. |
| years, in addition to having some direct experiences | | | | What this means is that not all apparitions or |
| that have given me information, and would like to offer | | | | manifestations are caused intentionally or that there is |
| some insight that may shed more light on these topics | | | | an intentional haunting. |
| and give more than the usual explanations. | | | | There are often hauntings and apparitions in locations |
| The Afterlife | | | | where there was tragedy, massive death, or great |
| I’ve been privileged to tap into the Other Side over | | | | pain and suffering or stress. Take the battlefield at |
| and over again in my intuitive work with clients over | | | | Gettysburg, for example, which has been reported to |
| the years and have somewhat of an outsider’s | | | | be haunted, or a house where there’s been a |
| glimpse into it as a result. (As I write “outsider,” I | | | | sudden, violent, or tragic death. I feel that a place that |
| have one of those “not quite true” gut feelings | | | | has seen intense or consistent suffering is imprinted |
| that denies what one has stated – probably | | | | with the emotional intensity – the emotional residue |
| because since birth I’ve felt more comfortable | | | | – of those involved, without any volition or intent to |
| There than here on Earth.) At any rate, I’ve been | | | | haunt. After all, emotions are energy, and intense |
| able to get a glimmer of the Other Side over and over | | | | emotions are intensified energy which can imprint on a |
| again. | | | | physical location. |
| Most of us have witnessed mediums communicating | | | | A friend recently visited an old battleship and felt the |
| with departed loved ones, one of the ways that many | | | | presence of the spirits of the men who had served on |
| people have gotten a sense of the afterlife. What has | | | | the ship still there. She questioned the haunting nature |
| struck me about mediumship is that every medium I | | | | of this experience. Yet it may not be a true haunting in |
| have thus far seen appears to be communicating with | | | | the sense of someone departed trying to haunt a |
| the personality of the person who died. But that’s | | | | place. The ship certainly saw a lot of emotional |
| not what I get when I tap into the transitioned loved | | | | intensity during its service – fear, intense focus |
| ones of my clients – and frankly this has puzzled | | | | during battles, painful death – and that emotionality |
| me. | | | | very well may have been imprinted on the ship. And, |
| When I tune into someone who has died, I often have | | | | additionally, some spirits may still be there, haunting it. |
| to do two things: first, tune into the person in life (when | | | | A few years ago, I visited a courthouse in a small |
| he/she was still alive) to verify that I’ve got the right | | | | town in Arkansas widely reputed to be haunted. I was |
| person, and, secondly, to then tune into the person at | | | | told by the guide that people who attempted to spend |
| the present time. However, when I tune into the | | | | the night in the courtroom were usually spooked (pun |
| present, I don’t usually get the personality of that | | | | intended) by what they saw, sensed, and heard – |
| last lifetime. Instead, I get the higher soul awareness, | | | | and often flee from the building. In the courtroom |
| rather than the Sue or Tom that my client would | | | | myself, I could feel a sense of all the people who had |
| recognize or know. | | | | been in there over the years and I could sense their |
| What I’ve come to learn is that we have a | | | | anxiety as they waited for their cases to be heard. |
| different persona (or personality) from one lifetime to | | | | Whether that was a residue or there were presences |
| another. Just as we will change gender, race, | | | | still there, I failed to try to determine. In one of the |
| nationality (planet), etc. in different lifetimes, so too will | | | | stairwells, the guide asked if I could feel anything and I |
| we have different personalities. | | | | replied that I had the sense of someone’s death, |
| At some point after we transition, we drop the | | | | perhaps a rope. It turned out that someone had been |
| persona of that lifetime and get into our higher soul | | | | lynched and hung there. The intensity of that fear and |
| awareness, the awareness that transcends and | | | | pain, I feel, was imprinted on the place, even though it |
| incorporates all the personas we’ve adopted from | | | | didn’t feel that the victim was truly haunting the |
| lifetime to lifetime. Whereas in life we may have been | | | | spot intentionally. |
| American, for example, our higher soul awareness is | | | | That said, there can also be intentional haunting, by |
| that of a child of the universe, not identified with any | | | | those who have died and haven’t acclimated to |
| one country or culture. (Yet we can always remember | | | | where they are and haven’t moved on. In this case, |
| who we were in any lifetime.) I’ve seen some | | | | I would say that they haven’t dropped their |
| people who were able to get into their higher soul | | | | personalities from the lifetime and are clinging to |
| awareness almost immediately upon transitioning | | | | aspects of that life and unresolved issues. It is this type |
| (perhaps because they had a deeper or more | | | | of case in which people – ghost whisperers, if you |
| conscious spirituality during their previous life), and | | | | will – will attempt to assist them by getting them to |
| I’ve seen others who took much longer to do so | | | | “go to the light” or helping them to resolve their |
| (and were actually struggling to acclimate to where | | | | unresolved issues. For all I know, in situations like these |
| they were for any of a variety of reasons). The length | | | | it’s also possible that the person did indeed get into |
| of time it takes to acclimate will vary from person to | | | | his/her higher soul awareness after transitioning and |
| person (bearing in mind, of course, that time as it may | | | | the haunting may be an imprinted residue due to the |
| exist on the Other Side, has no direct correlation to our | | | | intensity of the situation or a projection from the higher |
| experience of time here). Yes, it does get complicated! | | | | soul awareness, due to something being unresolved. (It |
| Insofar as what people are doing on the Other Side is | | | | gets even more complicated!) |
| concerned, I’ve gotten quite diverse things – | | | | Here’s yet another cause of an apparition: one |
| things that have given me an even better sense of the | | | | presenter at the Mensa Gathering mentioned a |
| afterlife. (Because I’ve covered that in my book | | | | Tibetan priest who had intentionally physically |
| Invisible Blueprints, I won’t detail it here.) What I | | | | “resurrected” someone who had passed on |
| would like to say here, though, is that our loved ones | | | | – conjured him/her up physically. We could call this |
| don’t forget those they left behind on Earth. Even | | | | type of instance a ghost, but one has to wonder |
| though they get into their higher soul awareness at | | | | where its consciousness is – and this situation would |
| some point and have dropped the personality of their | | | | be devoid of volition on the part of the ghost. |
| last lifetime, they remember their loved ones, are | | | | And now consider this instance: there was a |
| aware of what they are experiencing, and are fully | | | | fascinating and widely related account of two English |
| able to project their personality to their loved ones | | | | women, Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, both |
| whenever they choose to. This may be what | | | | academics from Oxford, who went to Paris on holiday |
| mediums are communicating with: the projection of the | | | | in 1901 and toured Versailles while there. Finding their |
| personality. And the reason for this may be that loved | | | | surroundings strange and encountering oddly-dressed |
| ones left behind would not take as much comfort from | | | | people (in old-fashioned clothes), the two women felt |
| a communication from the higher soul awareness, | | | | that things were not quite “right” and |
| devoid of the personality they knew in life. Passed-on | | | | subsequently did some research after their return to |
| loved ones are aware of this fact, choosing to project | | | | England. They discovered that the Versailles they had |
| what would be both recognizable and comforting to | | | | visited was the Versailles of the 18th Century without |
| those on Earth. | | | | the architectural details and changes that had been |
| Ghosts and Apparitions | | | | made since that time. One woman they had seen in |
| No discussion of departed souls would be complete | | | | Versailles they later realized was Marie Antoinette. |
| without a discussion of ghosts and apparitions. I | | | | They subsequently wrote an account of their |
| recently attended the Mensa Annual Gathering at | | | | experience in An Adventure. (A good account may be |
| which there were two presentations on ghosts, in | | | | found at Basically these two women upon arriving in |
| addition to mine on intuition. (And, yes, Mensans were | | | | Paris had suddenly stepped into a former century. |
| genuinely interested in these topics.) Neither presenter | | | | How do we explain this type of apparition – more |
| on ghosts covered the source of the | | | | of a time warp than a haunting? It would appear to be |
| “hauntings” in much depth – i.e., what caused | | | | the intersection of two time periods – two |
| them. Yet the question fascinates me. | | | | dimensions that inexplicably intersected, with one |
| I have read a great deal about the subject of ghosts in | | | | supplanting the other. In instances such as these, we |
| the last forty years, and I even lived in a house that | | | | have to wonder if the people populating these other |
| was haunted back in the mid-70s outside of Chapel Hill. | | | | time periods can see us and our present time period. |
| From what I’ve read and experienced, I feel that | | | | And now, consider this case: a friend of mine related |
| different hauntings can come from a range of causes. | | | | to me an out-of-body experience he had in the sleep |
| Let’s take that haunted house I lived in. The house | | | | state. In this out-of-the-body experience, he traveled to |
| had been built in the early 20th Century and lived in by | | | | the place where his grandfather had lived – as well |
| the same family for about fifty years, but had been | | | | as to the time period that his grandfather was alive |
| vacant for almost twenty years when I moved in. The | | | | there. During this experience, he met, talked with, and |
| first night I spent there, I saw a ball of light go through | | | | interacted with someone there. He told me that he |
| the room after the light had been turned off. This was | | | | knew during the experience that he had gone to this |
| my first such experience – and it really jolted me. | | | | previous time period and even told the person he was |
| (It’s one thing to read about such things and quite | | | | speaking with that he didn’t live there. He related to |
| another to experience it for the first time.) I also heard | | | | me the person’s total shock as my friend |
| noises, like a party going on, from a room across the | | | | dematerialized before his eyes as he was preparing to |
| hall, a room that was physically empty at the time. | | | | return to his body. So this represents yet another |
| Over the next couple of years, there were noises | | | | potential cause of apparitions: someone time-traveling |
| upstairs that sounded like children running through the | | | | during an out-of-body experience. |
| room (even though the room was full of boxes and | | | | As you can see, there are neither consistent nor |
| furniture and had no clear path for anyone to run | | | | simplistic explanations for these phenomena. We may |
| through) and drawers being opened and closed. | | | | want simple explanations and we may want to |
| Footsteps were heard coming down the stairs a few | | | | understand the afterlife in our normal or our customary |
| nights, articles were moved on occasion, and the dogs | | | | cultural terms, but this is not the case. My sense is that |
| would sometimes yelp and jump off the front porch. A | | | | the afterlife has many surprises for us. Passed-on |
| figure fitting the description of the father of the family | | | | loved ones are not restricted to their former |
| would sometimes be seen outside at dusk. | | | | personalities. And hauntings, ghost, and apparitions are |
| The noises were quite real. If I had had a tape | | | | not necessarily caused by the same factor – or by |
| recorder, I’m sure they could have been recorded. | | | | people always trying to haunt. What this speaks to, I |
| However, those noises felt to me that they were | | | | feel, is that our world truly reveals a greater deal of |
| simply an accumulation of daily noises from the past | | | | complexity than we may either realize or give it credit |
| – a residue still in the house — auditory | | | | for. Wonderfully intricate world fully deserving of our |
| manifestations devoid of any volition or intent. In other | | | | respect and awe, isn’t it? |
| words, the children weren’t trying to haunt and I | | | | This article was first published in the October |
| didn’t feel that a presence was trying to create | | | | November 2007 issue of "Innerchange Magazine. |