Our Soul Life

June 19, 2013

Several weeks ago, I attended a conference at the ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment) in Virginia Beach on Our Soul Life. It concerned all aspects of the soul as in our current lifetime, past lifetimes, as well as how the soul moves through from one lifetime to another.

heavenIt was an enlightening conference, although this material is relatively familiar to me, since the speakers provided new and interesting information. The presentations included notable, scientific, and what I normally call left-brain (well-grounded) individuals; one such speaker was a neurosurgeon, Eben  Alexander, who had an experience of dying and describes his experience into the afterlife in his book entitled, Proof of Heaven. During his approximately 20 minutes in a near death state, Dr. Alexander experienced what he called heaven prior to being revived.  In his talk, he described experiencing levels of consciousness that included an ameba-like experience all the way up to sensing an all knowing and totally love being.

The next speaker was Suzanne Giesemann, a Navy officer who became spiritually receptive after the trauma of losing her stepdaughter to a freak lightning strike. She studied for in the UK to become a medium to make contact with loved ones that have crossed over and now helps others with their grief by such contact. She emphasized that not all psychics are mediums.

And yet another speaker, Greg Underberger detailed what his clinical experience with clients moving into a hypnotic state where they experienced contact with others in a “life between lives” state found to be extremely healing. Greg showed a video of a woman, who had suffered extreme trauma at the loss of a loved one, enter a hypnotic state only to advance into a state that appeared to transcend this dimension wherein she spoke with her dearly departed and in so doing, gained tremendous grief relief. She described the realm she was experiencing with eyes closed yet, to the audience, appeared to be interacting with other souls somewhere else. It was very interesting to watch and probably even more so for the one on stage.

All of the speakers together led the audience to wonder and perhaps take in the concept of life after death in a new, more believable way. I, for one, already believe in the continuation of the soul. Yet, to hear these stories described in such detail was exhilarating anyway. I’m sure that my summary doesn’t do the conference justice; that said, I hope that if you were on the edge, you might give the concepts further consideration.

On a more personal note, I’ve had my own experiences with after death communication when my father used me as a channel to convey messages to my Mom that she was not supposed to follow after him. The series of messages was healing, revealing, scary and soul developing for all those involved in both planes of existence. (The Circle of Life-A Journey Through Grief to Understanding) For more, see http://www.josanpress.com/store.html

Leave a Comment » | Community, emotional support for widows, inspirational stories, Spirituality, The Circle of Life - A Journey Through Grief to Understanding | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by intuitivelifecoachjoanne

Sleeping Into Oblivion

July 28, 2011

Ever feel like sleeping all day? Sometimes it’s just a matter of being tired and needing more sleep. Other times we may really be sick and our bodies may actually need rest to rejuvenate. These are all possibilities. Another one is that you’re depressed.

When you don’t feel quite like yourself, (who else could you feel like?), you might well want to avoid contact with other people and prefer to stay by yourself. I see this behavior in my cat Judas when she’s upset about something. A cat, you say, well, yes. Cats are very sensitive creatures and my Judas is particularly so. When her brother Hercules crossed over in April, Judas’ behavior changed dramatically. Whereas before, she wandered around the house, sat on different chairs in different rooms or in the sun by the front door, she would hide in the closet or just sleep in her little bed. Mostly she started to just sleep. This has been the beginning of what I’d call her grieving stage for her brother Hercules. She’s depressed over his loss. I can really tell. For her, sleeping is a way of getting away from the world as she knows it and simply checking out. Sometimes she stands in the middle of the living room floor and just screams at the top of her lungs. I find this her way of asking, “So where is my buddy Hercules?” How many of us would like to do the same thing when stuff happens in our lives or when someone dear to us departs? It all seems so unfair. One reaction is to try to unhook from our daily activities.      

Honestly, there are lots of events besides the loss of a loved one that can cause situational depression. This is a term that captures the symptoms of depression a person exhibits due to circumstances occurring within their world or environment; a caveat to this is that the behavior is not normal for them otherwise. Thus, the situation causes them to feel depressed rather than actually being depressed.  I’m not a psychologist so I don’t diagnose, nor treat depression, but I can certainly tell when my friends that are normally pretty happy get upset about something in their lives; they may even need to take medication for awhile, but this doesn’t label them as depressed people.

Then there are people who have given up on life and are in assisted living. These people really are depressed AND they sleep all day. When I visit my hospice clients as a volunteer, they all take lots of naps. In addition, when they’re not sleeping, they have a tendency to be physically present, but appear to be mentally checked out. Thus even when they are awake, it’s not the kind of awake that you or I are used to. Sometimes I chat with them, but little gets through to their comprehension. And, in return, they will tell me something like it’s important but the words formed from their mouths are garbled versions of what their brain has conceptualized. It’s all quite sad.

So, when I look at all this sleeping going on, is it just a momentary depression or a real depression? For Judas, she got up a little while ago and came to visit me! So there’s hope for her. She seems to be coming out of her depression. I tell her that I miss Hercules too and we can help each other. Having friends provides companionship and a sense of community. Pets need people and people need other people. That’s why I visit depressed people in the hospice. It’s so that they aren’t alone for that period of time. Perhaps it will help them to not be so depressed.

1 Comment | Hospice, Inspiration, loss of a pet, Spirituality, universal principles | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by intuitivelifecoachjoanne

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

April 8, 2010

Every wonder how you just happen to be in the right place at the right time? Do you thing it’s a coincidence or do you believe that you are divinely guided? I subscribe to the later philosophy. Here’s a great example that happened on my recent visit to my Mom in Palm Springs, CA.

We were at the local strip shopping mall, having left the grocery store, and passing a couple with a cute dog sitting in the lovely cafe area just outside on the patio area. The dog was so adorable, I couldn’t help myself, and stopped to pet the little feller as I often do in such cases. Then I looked up at the owners, sitting on either side of their beloved frisky, tail wagging friend. Before I knew it, we were all in a conversation of “where do you come from?, where do you live?, what are you doing here?… etc. etc.” I had my newly-released inspirational memoir in the car, having conducted a book-signing just a day or so before during my visit there, always ready for an impromptu sale and or autograph session.

Apparently, the couple, about 60 years old, were visiting the area from LA and were enjoying a cold drink before heading back to their rented condo. The husband – Michael,  had just lost his mother and was grieving terribly. So much so, that even in the shade, he was continuing to wear his sunglasses to hide his eyes reddened from crying (I later found out from his wife). After hearing me provide the introduction to my book – that my father had communicated with me after he died to provide hope to my mother that there was more to life for – he was very interested. At that moment, I realized the car wasn’t close enough – I needed to carry copies of my book with me. Michael got my Mom’s phone number indicating that he indeed wanted a copy and would come by.

Michael followed through and while I was walking the next morning, he came over and bought the book. In addition, he made real contact with my Mom, for he needed some TLC that only another mother could provide. My mother was happy to have found Michael and has had considerable contact with him since, even inviting him over for dinner while his wife was traveling out of town.

So it all worked out perfectly. I connected with people that needed to meet both me – for my book – and my mother – for her surrogate mothering. In turn, Mom was happy to make the acquaintance of new people that she could relate to. The day went well for all concerned. Was it an accident that I stopped and spoke to them? I don’t think so. Do you?

Leave a Comment » | Inspiration, Spirituality, universal principles | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by intuitivelifecoachjoanne