2013-06-19T05:31:18-04:00 Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=elisa-medhus-md Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Elisa Medhus, M.D. Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2495960 2013-01-20T19:29:48-05:00 2013-03-22T05:12:01-04:00

Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/
So, I did what I do best. I turned to science. I devoured hundreds of books and accounts by quantum and theoretical physicists and near death experiencers. I reviewed controlled, double blind experiments conducted on mediums and explored scientific studies on the survival of consciousness after death. My journey is still on going, but along the way, I became aware of the fact that I'm not alone in my exploration into the existence of life after death. In fact, I'm riding a surging wave of a growing fascination about what happens after you take that last breath, and that wave is swelling to tsunami like proportions as nearly 78 million baby boomers grapple with their own mortality.

Why now? Haven't people always wondered what happens when the lights go out for the last time? Haven't they always been afraid enough to ponder the question, or have they had their head in the sand for the last several centuries? Sure they have, but only in a closeted fashion. After all, most of us are afraid to die. The thought of disappearing from all existence or being yanked away from our loved ones isn't exactly a warm and fuzzy one. And yes, most of us are curious. However, we might casually wonder what happens after the person sitting next to us dies, but we don't often dwell on the thought of our own death.

Then there are the paranormal experiences. Those who have them often contemplate the existence of life after death. And you'd be surprised how many people have had them. It's nothing new. Near death experiences, visits from deceased loved ones or deathbed visions are commonplace, but until recently these were all hush-hush. No one wants to be ridiculed or labeled "mentally unfit." If only they knew that tens of thousands have experienced similar occurrences. In fact, estimates from NDERF (Near Death Experience Research Foundation) suggests at least 15 million adults have had NDEs. Multiple polls find that 20 percent of the population have had communications with those who have passed away, and a PEW Research poll conducted in December 2009 found that 18 percent of people report to have seen or been in the presence of a ghost (1)

So, what's changed? Several things. For one, we've seen a declining membership in and impact of the more dogmatic, inflexible religious denominations whose job is to tell us that some sort of Divine Being will sweep up our souls and sort us like nickels and dimes into either some sort of idyllic paradise or eternal hellfire.

Secondly, quantum science has begun to steal the show from material science (sorry, Sir Isaac), teaching us that we no longer have to rely on our five senses to hypothesize and eventually define a truth. Just because we can't see, feel, hear, taste or smell something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. As quantum physics comes into its own, studies into the existence of alternate dimensions and consciousness survival after death result in breakthroughs. Not a month goes by that new discoveries aren't becoming breaking news stories: The fact that we may be able to see other dimensions beside our own (2). The hypothesis that the microtubules in our cell's mitochondria are the origin of consciousness (3). The idea that our souls maybe be comprised of tiny subatomic particles known as "neutrinos." (4)

Last and most important, technology. The tie that binds us all. Now, the Internet helps us create micro-communities where we can share those "paranormal" experiences in a safe, anonymous place free from scorn. The number of websites dealing with life after death has skyrocketed in recent years as have the number of movies and television shows dealing with the afterlife and all things supernatural. Suddenly, the taboo becomes a more comfortable "well, maybe I'm not so crazy after all" thing. In fact, thanks to this public "outing" of deathbed visions, NDEs, and after death communications, even physicians have become emboldened enough to share the "paranormal" events they've seen throughout their careers during the dying process of their patients. Beforehand, they would have feared the ridicule of their peers, who were probably sharing the same secrets.

Once this discussion about the afterlife became comfortable, spiritual celebrities like Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsh and Gary Zukav assumed a bigger stage and a large following. As the breakthroughs in quantum physics were made public through the Internet, television and other venues, the physicists, themselves, become popularized and many, such as Michio Kaku, have become overnight celebrities as well. The wave continues to swell.

For those of you who still need to see it to believe it, Dr. Thomas Campbell, Ph.D., (5) Theoretical Physicist and author of My Big TOE (Theory of Everything), explains it like this (and I'm paraphrasing, here): We are like our intestinal bacteria. For all we know, the bread that comes down to us is manna from Heaven. We know nothing of the sowing of the seeds, the irrigation, the crop rotation, the fertilization and pest control, the harvesting, the production of bread and its transportation to market. Furthermore, we have no concept of the global economics of wheat, the rise and fall of its price in the commodities market, etc. But it still affects us, the bacteria. That said, there is much out there that we cannot perceive with our senses that exists and affects us all. Other dimensions, including the one my son, Erik, is in, may be one such thing. But the course of a big ship changes its direction very slowly, and as Schopenhauer said, "Truth goes through three phases: First it is ridiculed. Next it is scorned. Then it is taken as self-evident."

Is there sufficient proof for immortality and the existence of the afterlife? No, not 100 percent. And for me, there will never be until I'm there. But that's okay. Being an open-minded skeptic is healthy. It's the closed minded skeptic that keeps humanity at a standstill. If they had their way, we'd still think the Earth was flat and at the center of our solar system. I'm still one of the intestinal bacteria learning about the global economics of wheat, but in the remedial class. In the end, it's all about a mix of science and faith. How much of each is up to you. Either way, you're destined to ride the wave.

If you'd like to accompany me in my adventure-laden (and sometimes pothole-riddled) journey through death, the survival of consciousness and the nature of the afterlife, please join me at www.channelingerik.com. We'll continue to search for answers, and we'll probably discover more questions along the way.

If you've learned anything in here, please also follow my twitter feed, @drmedhus


1 http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/boo/
2 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070203103355.htm
3 http://www.nonlocal.com/hbar/hameroffnote.html
4 http://fqxi.org/data/essay-contest-files/Nochur_The_Secret_Life_and.pdf
5 http://wiki.my-big-toe.com/index.php/Biography:_Thomas_W._Campbell,_Jr.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.826231 2011-02-26T13:39:00-05:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00

Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/
As a physician and skeptic to all things "New Age," this rocked my entire paradigm, so I began to pour myself into various books about afterlife evidence and the quantum physics to support it. When it became clear to me that this was no fluke, random aberration or mass scale delusion, I chronicled his views in my blog, www.channelingerik.com. Through psychic mediums, I regularly ask him those questions to which we all want answers: What is death like? What is the meaning of life and the human experience? What is the afterlife like? What is the nature of reality? In the beginning of this journey, I was the reluctant skeptic dragged along -- often kicking and screaming the entire way. But now, given the tangible evidence, all doubt has vanished. I understand, finally, that there's a lot more to our reality than this three-dimensional place we perceive with our five senses.

Erik will be the first to admit that he is neither a wise sage nor a guru sitting on a mountaintop. He's a boy who is just as flawed as the rest of us -- a human being who once suffered from mental illness but is now free from pain. From his unique perspective on the "other side," he has become our "inside man" in the afterlife. In the following channeling session with psychic medium Jamie Butler, Erik shares what death is like:

Me: Okay, Erik, I want to ask you what you'd like to share about death.

Jamie (chuckling): He's kind of rubbing his chin.

Erik: Can we come up with another word than death?

Me: Transition? I don't know! You tell me; you're the expert!

Erik: Death is just like birth. We "birth in" to this amazing world where I am, then we "birth in" to the other world where you are.

Me: Which is more difficult?

Erik: Oh, God, birthing in to the human form. It's kind of like milking a cow.

Me: So tell me more about transitioning to where you are now, Erik?

Jamie: He takes a deep breath.

Erik: Going Home. Well, because of you, I've had a lot of interactions with other spirits who talked about death. Their death. Their transition. It's all very different, I really believe...

Jamie: He's pausing to think, and his eyes are scrunched.

Erik: The mechanisms of -- no, no, scratch that. Mom, it's like this: Everyone has such a different experience, and I really think God did it that way so that we can only learn and experience what we're capable of dealing with. Most of the time, when I talk to spirits, even if they were in an immense amount of pain when they died, they don't really recall it as vividly as you recall painful things as a human. There's just not a big emotional attachment to it. Yeah, so most of the time, death is painless, unless the spirit wanted to experience a painful death in order to grow.

Me: Yes, I remember you mentioning that before.

Erik: Something else about pain during and after transition: Pain is related to the physical body, and we're not in it anymore. We don't have those body memories. Those old scars, those old pains and strains are gone. We're set free from them. We have that pain when we're in the body, but as soon as we're released...

Jamie: He's giving me this really funny image of, um, a horse race when the gate is open, and the horse just dashes out, like, "Oh yay, get me out of here!"

(Jamie and I both laugh)

Erik: Yeah. That's when we really begin to run the race. Everything is faster and freer, less limiting and cramped.

Me: Okay. Now a lot of people who have had near death experiences talk about going toward a light, going through a tunnel. I know you said everyone has a different experience, but are there some things that are constant?

Erik: It's based on their belief system. What I find most profound are children who die, and so they really don't have a belief system yet. They don't have that training or indoctrination. They cross over to here and...

Jamie: Oops, now he's changing topic.

Erik: You know, I was talking the other day to somebody. St. Jonathan.

Jamie: Is there a Saint Jonathan?

Me: Heck if I know!

Erik: So I was talking to him about...

Jamie (giggling): Slow down, Erik! Take a breath.

Me: He can talk a mile a minute, that boy!

(There's a pause while Jamie catches up with Erik; then she paraphrases what he says)

Jamie: He was talking to this other gentleman about the structures of the brain. And he says there's been a lot of research about when the brain dies. There's two minutes after as the cells die, and there is no oxygen; there's an image perceived as a light, and it has this tunnel effect. And he says you can read all these articles of scientists claiming that that's exactly what the tunnel effect is.

Erik: Well, I gotta give that science some credit. Not all though.

Jamie: He's shaking his head like he's saying, "Oh, no way, not all!"

Erik: But I do think this is the way our bodies work to comfort us. I've been told that God designed our bodies this way, because it is the natural progression of death of body and release of spirit.

Me: Okay.

Erik: Why wouldn't our brains begin to start us off on this new journey while it dies? It just makes so much friggin' sense to me.

Jamie: I've never thought about that before!

Me: Interesting. I've read the research you're talking about, Erik. It has to do with the lack of oxygen to the occipital lobe of the brain. Okay, now, go back to children. Tell me how their death is.

Erik: Get this: Children with no belief system -- what do you think they report when they have near death experiences?

Me: I don't know; I give up.

Erik: The purest of pure things. They see the Light. They go into the Light, and in this Light they see people. Mom, they're so little, they don't know that it's, you know, Grandpa Joe or Great Grandma Suzy. But the child knows these people love them. They have an experience like that.

(Long pause followed by Jamie laughing)

Jamie (still giggling): Okay. You gotta go back, Erik. Back up a little for me. He's talking about people who believe they've had near death experiences, but when they die and come back they talk about a council of white robed people and people with Roman togas and wraps and, you know, streets lined with gold.

Erik: Mom, I know that's in our belief system, but that's exactly what it is. It's a man creating a story, passing it down. Most humans like to idolize the Greeks and Romans, and they think that the togas have status and the monks are very connected with God. So we imagine that our spirit guides dress like monks or leaders of that era.

Me: Do we create that design, or do they create it for us so that we'll be more comfortable and better oriented when we pass over?

Erik: Oh, no, we create that for ourselves. Our beliefs are the strongest chain link fence that we have around us. It can keep things in, and it can keep things out.

Me: What about skeptics or atheists who don't believe in an afterlife? What happens when they die?

Jamie (laughing): He's got this "cat who swallowed the canary" smile.

Me: Oh my gosh, I can just see it right now in my mind!

Erik: Well, they expect to go into nothingness, or at least that's what they believe will happen. So, they do! And then... they have a thought, and they realize, "I'm having a thought." And that curiosity right there sparks them into exploring the space they're actually in. When they begin to do that, they transition Home.

Me: What happens if they don't explore? Do they float around in nothingness for all eternity?

Erik: There are spirits who come to rescue them and orient them, but they have to wait until the person's energy vibration opens up, gets higher.

Me: What about people who believe in Hell and think they belong there?

Erik: Then they have no opportunity to see the Light and cross over.

Jamie: He puts his hand down on his knee and says, "That's it; they're going to Hell!"

Erik: Just kidding, but they have to wait until their vibration goes up. Eventually, it does. It always does. Really, Hell is just the separation from God, from the Light. Mom, we, who believe in God or The Source, we know that it's in everything. So how can you ever be separate from God? God is all there is.

Jamie (laughing): I love his mannerisms!

Me: I know! He has a lot of funny ones!

Jamie (still laughing): When he gets deep and is thinking, boy, his body really moves into it!

Erik: Mom, it doesn't make sense! God is omnipresent, so Hell can't exist. If God is everything, every being, every universe, every dimension, how can Hell exist? It's impossible.

Me: So what do people do when they think they should be in Hell? Do they imagine Hell and create their own personal reality of Hell?

Erik: Well, what I've seen happen...

Jamie: He sits back now.

Erik: Let's take the Baptists for example.

Me: Oh, no, you're going to get me in trouble, here.

Erik: You know they believe they have to go through Hell before they reach God. They believe they have to face their demons, the evil that resides inside of them, to purify themselves. So people with those strong beliefs, they don't feel the Light right away. They see their fear, the fear of mankind, all of the lower energy, and they fight. They have that struggle, then they get into the Light, and they feel they've survived. Is it necessary? No. But that's their belief. That's exactly the crap they'll set up for themselves. I think it's so weird that people can be so careless and carefree with their lives, because they think death will rescue them or that when they die, God will forgive them. Little do they know their afterlife is based on the beliefs they create while they're still alive.

Me: Wow! Their whole afterlife, really?

Erik: Yes, because if they believe that this is all they get, then their perspective is going to be so narrow, so then that's all they'll get. It's the same in life. Haven't you realized?

Jamie (giggling): Beans, Erik? Really? (pause) All right. He says maybe you've never tried bean, and then at age 30 you try beans. Then all of a sudden that's all you can see everywhere, beans, beans, beans. That's because you're more open to it.

Me (chuckling): Well if they're green beans, you've probably never tried them, Erik!

Erik (laughing): That's not true! You made me take some bites!

Me: Well, that's true. You got me there. So that's really interesting. I remember every time I was pregnant, it seemed like every other woman around me was too. So, what you're saying is that the beliefs you have all throughout your life set the foundation for what your death and afterlife experience is like?

Erik: Yes. And the chance of evolution and self-growth is much more vast over here, because everything happens more quickly. Thought creates reality instantaneously.

***

Naturally, my questions seemed to generate hundreds more, but all will be answered in due time. I hope you enjoy our journey together. Stay tuned for Erik's visit with God, his take on the concept of time, what it's like to not have a body, and more.

]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.804364 2011-01-20T09:29:00-05:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00

Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/
As a lifelong skeptic to all things spiritual, my grief was particularly profound. Since I did not believe in the soul's immortality or in an afterlife, my Erik was lost to me forever. Or so I thought.

It was only after Erik began to make his presence known to others and eventually to me that I cautiously reconsidered. On the journey that followed, my grief and lingering doubts lead me down a road littered with potholes and detours, but eventually, thanks to the assistance of three talented mediums, Erik and I settled into our comfortable roles: his as the insider to death and the afterlife, mine as his scribe.

For months now, Erik has shared his insight on heaven, hell, pets in the afterlife, the consciousness of rocks, plants and animals, the nature of time and reality, a discarnate soul's abilities, reincarnation and much more. Here is a small part of his channeled description of the afterlife, just the tip of an ever-growing iceberg.

Me: Okay, so what does the afterlife really look like, Erik?

Erik: Anything you want it too! Picture life on the earthly plane as living with a real, real gray pair of glasses on. Here, the colors are more vivid than you can ever imagine, a hundred times more than on the earthly plane. Heaven looks like whatever appeals to you at the moment. It's based on belief systems. What I find most profound is children who die, and so they really don't have a belief system yet. They don't have that training or indoctrination yet. They cross over to here and -- Get this: Children with no belief system -- what do you think they report when they have near death experiences?

Me: I don't know; I give up.

Erik: The purest of pure things. They see the Light. They go into the Light, and in this Light, they see people. Mom, they're so little, they don't know that it's, you know, Grandpa Joe or Great Grandma Suzy, but the child knows these people love them. They have an experience like that.

Me: What about skeptics or atheists who don't believe in an afterlife? What happens when they die?

Jamie (laughing): He's got this "cat who ate the canary" smile.

Erik: Well, they want to go into nothingness, or at least that's what they believe will happen. So... they do! And then... they have a thought, and they realize they're having a thought. And that curiosity right there sparks them into exploring the space they're actually in. When they begin to do that, they transition Home.

Me: What happens if they don't explore? Do they float around in nothingness for all eternity?

Erik: There are spirits who come to rescue them and orient them, but they have to wait until the person's energy vibration opens up, gets higher.

Me: What about people who believe in Hell and think they belong there?

Erik (jokingly): Then they have no opportunity to see the Light and cross over.

Jamie: He puts his hand down on his knee and says, "That's it; they're going to Hell."

Erik: They have to wait until their vibration goes up. Eventually, it does. It always does. Really, Hell is the separation from God, from the Light. Mom, as we, who believe in God or The Source, we know that it's in everything. So how can you ever be separate from God?

Jamie (laughing): I love his mannerisms! When he gets deep and is thinking, boy, his body really moves into it!

Erik: Mom, it doesn't make sense! God is omnipresent, so hell can't exist. If God is everything, every being, every universe, every dimension, how can Hell exist? It's impossible.

Me: So what do people do when they think they should be in Hell? Do they imagine Hell and create their own personal reality of Hell?

Erik: Well, what I've seen happen...

Jamie: He sits back now.

Erik: Let's take the Baptists for example. You know they believe they have to go through Hell before they reach God. They believe they have to face their demons, the evil that resides inside of them, to purify themselves. So people with those strong beliefs, they don't feel the Light right away. They see their fear, the fear of mankind, all of the lower energy. And they fight. They have that struggle, then they get into the Light, and they feel they've survived. Is it necessary? No. But that's their beliefs. That's exactly the crap they'll give themselves. I think it's so weird that people can be so careless and carefree with their lives, because they think death will rescue them or when they die, God will forgive them. Little do they know their afterlife is based on the beliefs they create while they're alive.

Me: Wow! Their whole afterlife, really?

Erik: Yes, cuz if they believe that this is all they get, then their perspective is going to be so narrow so then that's all they will get. It's the same in life. Haven't you realized?

Jamie (giggling): Beans, Erik? Alright. He says maybe you've never tried beans, and then at age 30 you try beans. Then all of a sudden that's all you can see everywhere, beans, beans, beans. That's because you're more open to it.

Me (chuckling): Well if they're green beans, you've probably never tried them, Erik!

Erik (laughing): That's not true! You made me take some bites!

Me: Well, that's true. You got me there. So that's really interesting. I remember every time I was pregnant, it seemed like every other woman around me was too. So, what you're saying is that the beliefs you have all throughout your life set the foundation for what your death and afterlife experience is?

Erik: Yes. And the chance of evolution and self-growth is much more vast over here, because everything happens more quickly. Thought creates reality instantaneously. I'm just a thought away to creating anything and going anywhere.

Me: So how do you go from one area to another?

Erik: By projecting my consciousness. I just visualize my electrical energy being here or being there and, boom, I'm where I visualized myself. Mom, it's just like if you visualized being in Venice, Italy, and you were able to transport yourself there in the next instant.

Me: Is the afterlife structured a certain way? Are there levels like one where people with near death experiences go, then portals to higher levels. Um, I guess I'm asking if there is a hierarchy to the afterlife.

Erik: Yes and no. Yes there are titles, positions, spirits who are in positions to help others. There is a hierarchy, but when you say it in human language, (it) suggests one level is better than the next. Even if you take the name, "levels," like one, two, three, four and up, people think the higher levels are better than the lower ones. So this is where humans have a hard time understanding that one is not better or worse than 10. Yes, they're different, and as a human, you'll try to measure them, but one is not greater or less than the other. Humans have a hard time getting this, because everything is so linear on the earthly plane. Nothing is linear here in the spiritual realm. Nothing. That's why it's hard for me to explain certain things to you sometimes using your sequential language.

Me: Yeah, we always have such a linear perspective over here, don't we? But in an earlier session, Erik, you said you sort of graduated to a different level, to a new place. Are there different parts to the afterlife? You said you were in a beautiful place where the grass is purple. Is it that you evolved into that or, well, just tell me how that all works.

Erik: The term "graduation," meant that I'm just able to perceive and understand more than I did before. I perceive and understand more of what exists, so I'm able to do and create and help more now. That's because I proved to myself that I have the capability for that. Now, I can be unleashed to other people. It's like now I've tasted the green beans, I know they're out there, and I opened up my perception to see more.

Me: So let's see. I guess you evolve, and so your thoughts evolve with you?

Erik: Yes, and when your thoughts evolve, the reality to create evolves too. It changes. And so that's how the hierarchy or structure of the afterlife is created.

Me: Wow. So it's all about beliefs, perception, opening your perception to more possibilities.

Erik: Yep, exactly.

Me: Anything else you want to say about the afterlife, Erik?

Erik: Oh, we can be on this subject all day, Mom. First, nothing is fixed. Everything is in existence because it's believed in, not because it's been created by one person. And the other thing I wanna say is (long pause) you can never be right and you can never be wrong. You can only just be.

Me: Wow, that's good. Very different from the earthly plane, because here there is always contrast, always duality, always right and wrong, winner and loser. You know what I mean, right?

Erik: Exactly, but that's why it's such a great classroom. You have to one side to understand the other. If a portrait has no contrast, I mean zero, it's just going to look all monochrome and shit. You're not gonna know who the hell it is in the picture.

Me: Exactly. So how do parts of the afterlife differ in terms of vibrations or energy?

Erik: Different "areas" of the afterlife are based on different intensities and kinds of energy. I say "area" but this is really not a two- or three-dimensional realm, but I have to use this to explain in a way you'll understand. You can look at it in terms of vibrational levels. In certain vibrations, your perspective is narrow and in others, it's broader.

Me: Okay. So the lower vibration, is that narrower?

Erik: Yes. Like we were talking about atheists or skeptics; they don't believe anything. They have a narrow vibration; they have a different vibrational heaven. But when they reach out and say, "I can't believe I had that thought," or "I wonder where my dog is," then we have the ability to intrude with another vibrational energy and help that soul perceive that there is more in existence. But we can't intervene unless we're somehow invited.

Me: What do you mean, invited?

Erik: Opening up or raising their vibration level.

Me: That reminds me of how it's so very difficult for you guys, you spirits, to manifest or communicate when we're deep in grief.

Erik: Yes! That's exactly right! When you grieve, your vibrational energy is way too dense for us to get through.

Me: Okay, so you say where you are now, the grass is purple. Is that only for you or everyone else, too? In other words, can you and another soul be right next to each other and see a different landscape?

Erik: Well, we can do both, Mom. We can see the same landscape through the other person's "eyes," because, listen, listen -- a (he's very excited at this point in the conversation.)

Jamie (chuckling): He's got his palms out.

Erik: Listen, Mom, if the person's sitting next to me, they're sitting in my energy. And when we do that here, we can merge perspectives, merge consciousness. So if I'm perceiving the purple, shiny grass, then the person sitting next to me can see through my eyes what I'm envisioning, and I can see through his.

Me: That is awesome, Erik! Now, what if you and your buddies want to go surfing at a beach? Do you have to create reality as a collective?

Erik: Yeah, but there's so many people who have that same desire, that these beaches exist, so we can go to that place any time.

Me: Oh, I see! Can one buddy snow ski while you surf, but you're still in the same proximity?

Erik: Yep. You can have one created realm on top of another created realm. It's amazing, Mom.

Me: Plus you don't have to break a leg or get eaten by sharks!

Erik laughs.

Me: Wait, there is some science behind spirituality, isn't there, like quantum physics?

Erik: Sure, but I'm talking about science in it's current state. It's not there yet. Ask any quantum physician --

Jamie (laughing at her error in translation): uh, I mean physicist.

Erik (teasingly): Get it together, Jamie!

Jamie and I both laugh hard.

Jamie: I stuttered on it! (Pause) Go back, Erik.

Erik: Ask any quantum physicist to explain what quantum mechanics is; they can only touch the surface. They can't give you a full explanation. They're still learning. Give us about five or six more years, which is not a lot in the big scheme of things. We're going to have more definition, more grasp, and people, the mass of the people, tend to wait until there's acceptable knowledge before they allow themselves to consider it a reality.

Me: Yeah, I can see that.

Erik: That's what's gonna encourage this whole enlightenment movement, Mom.

Me: So it's not too far off. Awesome.

Erik: Here, people can live where they want, live how they want, and as you evolve here by contributing to the lives of others and by incarnating and working through issues, you envision where and how you want to live in Heaven. That does change. But you have different priorities here, and that makes the biggest difference in what kind or afterlife each individual soul has.

Me: Okay.

Erik: You know, just like people who are more enlightened on the earthly plane have different priorities compared to others who aren't as evolved. Different priorities, different perspectives, different experiences.

Me: So if a person who isn't super enlightened crosses over, does that mean he or she would have an afterlife environment that resembles the earthly plane more with houses, TVs and pizza delivery?

Erik (laughing): You just described my first place over here. What are you trying to tell me?

Me: Oops, my bad. But you've obviously evolved greatly since you first crossed over.

Erik: Yeah, but when you're more evolved, your focus is more on serving others, not watching TV. It's not about, uh, it's less about what structures we envision or if we have pizza delivery and more about what we do with our "time" and energy.

Me: Oh, so the "structure" of the afterlife has more to do with what you do there rather than what you visualize and create as your surroundings?

Erik: Yeah. It's all about priorities and beliefs.

Me: I'm sure there are spirits who gravitate toward a more earthly environment. Maybe they like that sort of lifestyle, so they can create their own earth-like afterlife, right?

Erik: Correct. So Mom, let's go back a question you asked before about whether the afterlife evolves as we do. Let's take Venice, again. I just visited it, and I like it a lot. Any one can go there, so say one person is at the lowest level of enlightenment and another person is at the highest level. Venice is gonna be Venice, but the way these two people see it and experience it is going to be different depending on where they are, spiritually. So, the spiritual plane remains very similar, but we experience it differently based on our enlightenment. Your vibrational level goes up, your belief system opens up, and so your experience and how you envision the afterlife changes. But if you are a Catholic and your belief is that you're going to go to Hell or purgatory, when your soul pops out of the body, it's gonna go here to Heaven. There is no Hell or limbo or purgatory. Take the jihadists who blow themselves up, You know how they think there's gonna be a bunch of virgins here waiting for them?

Me (chuckling): Yeah.

Erik: Nope. They can conjure up a vision of them, but they can't create them as new souls. You see, our religious beliefs are usually learned through our environment, but our spiritual beliefs -- we always bring them with us in our soul's memory bank. We build upon those on earth as we're supposed to as we look inward. Religion is taught and experienced by looking outward.

Over time, I've learned that Erik's death was his destiny. In designing the blueprint for his last life, he was determined to experience enough hardships and heartache to better fulfill his role as our guide to all things spiritual. Is he a guru? No. He's just a boy who is as flawed as the rest of us, perhaps even more so in some aspects. To me, that makes his perspective all the more intriguing in its honest simplicity. Both he and I hope you join this exciting adventure at www.channelingerik.com


]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.692417 2010-08-27T13:20:00-04:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00

Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/
Everyone deals with grief differently. I heal best by journaling my thoughts in a way that helps others. So once I was able to wipe away my tears and crawl out of bed, I began to write a blog: www.channelingerik.com. At first, I shared my grief, pouring my broken heart onto every page. I thought my son had been ripped from my arms forever. But soon, Erik began to challenge that belief by making his presence known to friends and family through smells, touch, apparitions, conversation and mischievous pranks. These events defied explanation. After all, science taught me that the soul does not survive death and that nonsensical notions like clairvoyance, the afterlife and reincarnation belong to the domain of New Age freaks and unscrupulous gypsies hunched over crystal balls.

My first reaction was to pour myself into hundreds of books, because not only was I determined to find out if my son was really alive in some other dimension, I needed scientific proof for it. What I discovered was no short of amazing. For one, I came to understand why I was a skeptic to begin with.

Over the past two millennia, humankind advanced intellectually but not spiritually. Spiritual teachers like Jesus taught us about the afterlife and our oneness with each other and a Higher Power, yet some reinterpreted these teachings to fit their own needs, creating organized religions with the power to oppress, control and bilk money from the masses. Some religious leaders led us to believe that only they were privy to universal truths. Many followers were punished, even killed, for discussing spiritual subjects not sanctioned by the church.

During the 17th century, a new religion takes its throne: materialistic science. For all beliefs about life and the universe, science became the undisputed authority and scientists, the new priests. Science taught us that reality is only that which can be discerned by the five senses. The result: God became superfluous, and humankind plunged into spiritual bankruptcy.

Enter quantum science, and the pendulum swings once again. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle suggests that our consciousness collapses waves into particles, thus thought creates reality. We now know that the universe is not a huge vacuum with a few celestial bodies scattered here and there; it's teaming with energy from which all matter is created. The quantum entanglement theory suggests that we're all connected and our actions and thoughts affect everything in the universe.

Of course, science in its current state cannot explain everything, but this does not mean there is no explanation. In his book, "My Big TOE," physicist Thomas Campbell likens us to our intestinal bacteria. They dwell in a damp and unsavory darkness. From this limited perspective, the bread we swallow is manna from Heaven. They're oblivious to the production and distribution of wheat, the manufacturing and marketing of bread and the global economics involved. Yet all of this is very real indeed, and it affects the entire colony profoundly. I propose that, as is the case with our intestinal bacteria, there is more to our reality than we can perceive or even create the language to describe.

Once I felt comfortable with the scientific basis for psychic phenomena, I enlisted highly regarded mediums to communicate with my son. Of course the Doubting Thomas in me warned me that I was crazy for doing so, but the longing to find comfort that only certain answers could provide transcended all sanity. The personality channeled was clearly him: his humor, his favorite phrases, even his cursing all came across. In fact, through the mediums, Erik shared information that no one else could have known. So, what started as a desperate attempt of a mother to reach her deceased son became a miraculous journey unto itself. This new journey propelled me out of grief and into the light.

In subsequent channeling sessions, I asked Erik about the nature of death and the afterlife as well as hundreds of other questions that have piqued the curiosity of many for centuries. I also asked questions that blog members submitted about their own departed loved ones and personal life issues. If he doesn't have the answers, he always finds someone who does. After all, he doesn't claim omniscience.

My journey has connected me with remarkable, highly enlightened spirits from whom I've received more than I've given. For Erik, the blog has become a platform to help others, not only by providing answers to their questions, but by bringing forth their deceased loved ones or visiting them personally. Several readers have experienced such visits, one as far away as Ireland.

Through his unique perspective from the afterlife, Erik provides insight and comfort to many, finding the fulfillment that eluded him in life on the earthly plane. Although his death has left a permanent hole in my heart, it has also ushered me into a new kind of light. It has opened my eyes and my mind and has given my son a life full of purpose and meaning. For this, I am eternally grateful.



]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.630740 2010-07-01T08:16:47-04:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00

Elisa Medhus, M.D. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisa-medhus-md/
It didn't take long, however, for our new dark world to lighten with brief moments of hope. As early as the day after Erik's death, he sent us what would be the first of many messages that all was well with him in the afterlife. These intermittent respites from grief inspired me to share our experiences in a blog, www.channelingerik.com.

As a physician with a strong science background, these ghostly visits radically shifted my belief system. I had always believed what science had taught me: reality is that which is measurable by one of the five senses. If it cannot be touched, smelled, heard, seen or tasted, it is unknowable and therefore not "real." Whatever is "unreal" we scorn and relegate to the domain of mysticism where only gypsies hunched over crystal balls and New Age kooks dared to tread.

Each of Erik's visits made me question: Is there more to our three dimensional reality than can be perceived by our senses? Do these phenomena have a rational explanation? In a quest for truth, I began to devour nearly every book on consciousness survival and the afterlife, including those written by theoretical physicists and other scientists. Eventually, my research evolved into a new understanding of the quantum physics behind all things metaphysical, converting me from skeptic to believer. I now know the soul survives death. Erik has simply shed his body like a set of clothes and now lives in an alternate reality.

Eventually, I began regular and direct communication with Erik through a gifted medium. I wanted to ask the tough questions: What was death like for him? Where is he now? What is he now? What is the afterlife like? Why did he take his life when he had so much to live for?

In the blog, I continue to share not only the amazing stories of Erik's ongoing visitations and mischievous pranks, but also his answers to our many inquiries. Channeling Erik gives him a voice to help us broaden our perspective. Often each question generates a dozen new ones: What's left after the body is shed? Has he met God? If so, what is God like? What new abilities does he have? How do souls manipulate energy to manifest themselves to us here on the earthly plane? How do thoughts create reality? Does time really exist? Will 2012 mark the end of our existence? Do we have past lives? If so, why can't we remember them? Do souls in Heaven have a work life, a sex life, a social life? Can they hear our every thought? The list goes on.

Over time, those questions have blossomed into a journey. Strangers from all over the world have joined me, asking Erik their own thought-provoking questions. Many of these strangers, now friends, consider his insight life-changing. For some on the brink of suicide, he has inspired them to live. Now, my readers and I venture hand in hand to explore the human experience, the death process, the afterlife, reincarnation and more.

As a physician, writing this blog has been an immense healing experience for me, because it is in my nature to heal others and, through their restoration, I find my own salvation.

As a mother, writing this blog has not only strengthened my relationship with Erik even more, it has also allows me to continue to parent my son. Motherhood and love know no boundaries, even death. I defy that wall and reach beyond to guide Erik to become what every mother wants their child to be: a productive, fulfilled, contributing soul who makes the world a better place for his fellow travelers. In the end, I refuse to allow his death to be in vain.

Erik would be the first to admit that he is no Oracle of Delphi. He does not claim to be a Dalai Lama, the Great Messiah, a mountaintop guru or even a wise sage. No, he is a flawed human being who, like many of us, has battled his own dragons. He has stumbled and failed time and time again. But perhaps because of his foibles, he has a deep understanding of the human experience. He knows what it's like to be neck deep in a foxhole of misery clawing desperately in the mud to pull himself out. He also knows what it's like to feel hopelessness, to give up, to believe that life is not worth the pain and setbacks. But his trials and tribulations offer another type of wisdom--one we can relate to in the shadow of our own hardships. That said, however young, flawed and imperfect, Erik is a voice worth hearing. He is one of us.

It is my sincerest hope that you join Erik and me on this journey. At times you will cry. At times you will laugh. At times you will pause in wonderment. Some of you may be drawn by a fear of death. Some of you may be drawn by grief over a departed loved one. Like me, you search for comfort and hope. Some of you may be drawn by a yearning to see the bigger picture, to grasp the purpose of your existence. Whatever your motives, together we will explore the meaning of life, death and a new reality infinitely larger than both.







]]>