As a physician with a strong science background, I used to regard all things spiritual with a jaded eye--until the recent suicide of my young son, Erik. Since then, my life has been cleaved into two parts: The Before and The After, The Bliss and The Dark Despair.
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.
Susan McCorkindale: Hell If I Know: How Kids Deal With Grief and the Afterlife
I am a student of metaphysics and am interested in counselling those who have lost loved ones. I will have my Ph.D. in Metaphysical Counselling soon. I plan to help others understand more about reincarnation and after death experiences. I am a fan of Thomas Campbell as well as Seth and others who bring spiritual awareness to us. I wanted to thank you for having the courage to present your beliefs to others. We live in a world of five sense thinking and it is refreshing to read of someone who thinks outside the box.
Blessings
Jake
I use the name Jake as it is my spiritual name, in case you might be wondering.
Blessings
Jake
My youngest son crossed over in 2006, he was 23 yrs old. I , too, have been on a journey for many decades, starting with both my husbands crossing, but nothing prepared me for my son.
as a skeptic ,I demanded science be involved, and I thank god for quantum physics, and people like Dr Jeffrey Long . my son did get thru to me, I know he is with his father, and I know consciousness is not centered in the brain, or in the perspective of a materialist /reductionist world.
I know now my son and I are closer than before. He is home, Im still at the bus stop.
Thank you from another mother, who understands.
I share your beliefs and your pain, sweet girl. Thanks for your insight and for all you are.
I have a cage match with 'god' planned, as I wonder why we even have to play out this drama in 3 dimensional perspective. My next question to the higher power is : what is this LOVE my son is experiencing?? I am aware of it at an intellectual level, but it has not reached my heart, so I do not understand it. I am told it is a love that defies words. I want to know it, and touch it, so I know how my son is doing.
A huge hug to you through cyberspace. because, I have been told, there is no separation, nor duality. we are all one it seems.
a book you might consider which has helped me greatly just recently
http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Beyond-Life-Near-Death-Experience/dp/0061777250
written by a cardiologist, whose skepticism was also tested.
hugs
I am glad you have discovered Thomas Campbell’s “My Big TOE” in your journey to come to understand our place here, and what happens when we leave here. His model of Reality has been the most useful bit of data EVER to come into my view, and has helped me make sense of a very complex and confusing life. I also am becoming a better person, and mother to my twins, one with autism.
Autism is perception of the data stream coming in from more than one Reality, and different functioning of sensory modalities than a neurologically typical human would experience.
I am glad you have found the peace that LOSING the fear of death brings, and the ability to stay in contact with your son’s data.
Love
Bette S Baysinger, B.S.
Much love back to you! Elisa
My son, as do about 20% of people with autism, metabolizes serotonin into Bufotine of the same chemical make-up as the Bufo Toad secretes, and people lick to hallucinate. My son does this as I can tell when it is happening with him. He is also almost always connected to more than one stream of Consciousness at the same time, and his sensory modalities work differently than ours. With all that I’d say he is doing brilliantly. Limits in space here limit my answer.
A wonderful gentleman who has Asperger’s thinks that there is a special connection to god, William Stillman, http://www.williamstillman.com/. I do not though. Thank you for replying, so much.
Love
Bette
-Stanley
Most of my life, up till about last year I have not believed in god. Never even attended a church. Due to severe child abuse, I felt with all that happened, that there couldn't be a god. And if there was, why did he/she/it let this happen. I didn't feel real love till I met 3 friends in 2002. I never knew what love felt like prior to that. When two of them died, it crushed me. Both of their deaths I felt I played a part in. For example, one died of a heart attack, but I felt I should have forced them to go to the hospital. Then there was the block of the first 10 years of my life. From 1997 to the end of 2009 I was doing all I could to try to find those lost years. Driving down to where I lived during those first 10 years trying to jog my memory. Using google earth when I couldn't drive down going street by street looking for anything that could explain my past........
My point is, you can't yourself a skeptic or say that science backs this up when your main argument is "our view is too limited to see beyond what is really there."
Anyone can believe anything they want, obviously. That's freedom of religion. But you can't make a monkey into a horse. Or whatever than analogy is! Hahahaha.
Dr. Medhus, I would like to respectfully say that if you were a skeptic, you would still be a skeptic because there is still zero proof, just faith. This is a suspension of reason, the opposite of skepticism.
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/myers/phantasms.htm
Sherry