I lost my 20-year-old son, Erik, to suicide recently and started to journal my grief in hopes of helping other bereaved. Soon afterwards, friends, family and eventually strangers all over the world contacted me to say that Erik had visited them. Sometimes he'd materialize physically just to say 'hello" or to give them advice about their personal life. Sometimes he'd pull a silly prank -- manifesting a noxious smell, turning on their water faucets or opening up all of their kitchen drawers. And other times he'd provide them with the insight he's gained about death, the afterlife, and more.
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.
George Heymont: Dearly Departed
Of death and dying, freedom of conscience and assisted suicide…
Professor with terminal cancer uses illness to teach
Documentary a matter of life, death
Mother of dying son warns of death by drink
Making Sense of Death, The Banality of Violence and the Madness of Gaddafi
Grief, and its need to alleviate it can unhinge even the best trained and strongest mind. To lose a son is a horror, to then make assertions based upon arguably the fantasies of a mind that is strongly affected(become unbalanced) is not good for others suffering their own grief. It is sad, it is harmful.
"Like the radio, if you never consider the possibility that consciousness might represent an energy that has its origins outside of the human body...and that the brain simply acts as a sophisticated reciever for consciousness, rather than being its creator"....
..."you will never find any evidence for it."
"Because you arbitrarily ruled out that possibility before ever seriously"
this is a good analogy kellygreen. my point was not the validiity of this medium she may be or not be a valid medium. my point was both the religious and the materialist reject before investigation. that is the power of a paradigm. even if evidence was given to either it would be rejected.
first they state cold reading and they will tell you they can do it but when they try it is a joke. now compassion is in order because neither the religious or the materialist have a clue they have this paradigm paralysis. not a clue.
all the data in the world will not change their minds been down that road many times but experience may. this is the role of experience in the evolution of consciousness process.
actually atheism can be one step up from religion because the atheist has discovered logic and reasoning and rejects religious dogma but they have taken on a new paradigm. ie materialism and it is powerful, so powerful most scientists in the world are taken in by it.
BS, and "the mystic" is saying investigation is not possible, so dont bother with scrutiny or evidence
Do they know something we don't?
Erik (laughing): That's not true! You made me take some bites!
Me: Well, that's true. You got me there.
This is called "cold reading," Dr. You should know better.
A few lines up:
"He's kind of rubbing his chin."
"his eyes are scrunched."
now this medium may be a fraud this is not my point. but just to state cold reading from those comments is ignorance defined and shows a low level of reasoning ability coming from a lack of research and of course a closed mind.
now ignorance is not a sin but it is troublesome. :-)
the worst word one can say to an atheist is ignorance. their treasure so to speak is their intellect.
in fact the atheist is so fond of their intellect they think they and they alone have reasoning abilities. hence the blog the reason project.
ignorance is simply unawareness and who among us has perfect awareness. ie none. ok some more than others. :-)
If you know of a "medium" who can communicate with the "spirit world", I would really like to put it to the test in controlled conditions (we can even win 1million bucks! as well as making an amazing discovery for the world).
Who would be a medium we can test?
You're harming the country with this stuff HuffingtonPost. Slowly, but surely.
Where's the "atheism section"?
I'd also love to know why everything Erik comes up with is so darned plebian. It's the same old New Age tripe, recycled for a grieving mother.
Sorry but this is just completely unconvincing.
That is the biggest issue here.
My own brother killed himself and it took me years to recover.
Let me ask you a question.
What "process" does an over-the-air TV or radio broadcast use to store information if there is no TV or radio receiver to pick it up?
Does it just disappear?
Or does it continue to exist...and can it be picked up by any receiver that can tune into the frequency of the broadcast?
Is there a follow up question?
You'd be famous! It would be the greatest discovery of our day. Contact a scientific journal and present this evidence. Please, dont hold it back from us of ignorance. "
well you at least got the ignorance part right. you already have a materialist paradigm, it will take something like what happened to the author of this article to shake you loose from your materialist paradigm.
I know you dont know or understand this. this paradigm effect is hidden from our view. most of us have been there until somthing happened to us; some kind of significant emotional event that shattered our existing paradigm or cherished beliefs.
presenting evidence to someone like you is a waste of my time and yours. enjoy your paradigm you have lots of company. ie like attracts like.
french gueen is right those paradigms are so powerful they can block all incoming information before it every reaches our consciousness or if it does we reject it before any investigation. ie this is a good definition of a closed mind.
most interesting to observe this mental phenomena in the human mind. the data is there but one must look long and hard to find it. neither the materialist or the religious want anything to do with this evidence. find out why and you are on your way of becoming a sincere seeker.
No. This is Simple.
I'm not asking to talk to the "spirit world", I'm asking for "Spirit world talker who is in touch with whatever" to prove they are doing what they say they are doing. This can be tested easily, and objectively. No paradigms to interfere.
Simply put, if said medium is truthful, they should be able to answer falsifiable questions when tested. In other words, he should be able to tell me what my neighbor, who died when I was 16, had hanging above his work bench.
You supply the medium, I'll supply the info, and he can contact him and ask him. Too simple. My "paradigm" would be irrelevant.
If for some reason dead people I know dont want to talk, or you think I'm going to lie, fine, pick something completely objective. We can put something in a safe deposit box, and you can ask "Erik" what it is, with a neutral party over seeing the whole thing.
Too Easy.
So spare me "paradigm"
Let me ask you a question. One that will make the absurdity of the assumptions about the nature of reality that are implicit to your paradigm a bit more apparent.
How much time do you require in taking apart a television until you find your favorite show inside of it.
How does one take apart a computer to find your favorite website...minus the internet?
Information is energy...and energy is neither created nor destroyed. It simply changes from one form to another.
...and considering that science (at this point) only really understands the rules that govern about 4% of the energy content of the known universe....
Well...I wouldn't be quite so dogmatic about what can...and cannot...be real.
you already know that this person is giving you his or her beliefs as facts and now you know better dont you. until we experience such things we talk and act and preach and give advice based in ignorance like this person above with the best of intentions.
now one must be careful for while in grief a person can be taken in by those that care more about money then helping others.
after 20 years of research into the paranormal these areas of communication are common but so are many others that are fraud. seeker beware.
thank you for sharing and all the atheism in the world will no longer alter your evidence. most americans have no idea that even qualitative evidence exists for the paranormal and life beyond this one.
this is the role of experience it can change the way we view the world. parents who lose a child are very fragile so proceed with caution. but proceed and take no one's word as fact. most know not.
So present it.
You'd be famous! It would be the greatest discovery of our day. Contact a scientific journal and present this evidence. Please, dont hold it back from us of ignorance.
I guess that tells us all we need to know about old Mellon.
http://www.corp.ca.gov/ENF/pdf/2003/TLC.pdf
you can see that Benedict Mellon is a clear fraud and huckster.
She needs to let go so that YOUR worldview remains intact?
Interesting.
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though everything is a miracle." -Albert Einstein
"From the context it seems that White did not specify whether he had heard Einstein himself say this or whether he was repeating a quote that had been passed along by someone else, so without a primary source the validity of this quote should be considered questionable, especially given that elsewhere Einstein defined a "miracle" as a type of event he did not believe was possible—Einstein on Religion by Max Jammer (1999) quotes on p. 89 from a 1931 conversation Einstein had with David Reichinstein, where Reichinstein brought up philosopher Arthur Liebert's argument that the indeterminism of quantum mechanics might allow for the possibility of miracles, and Einstein replied that Liebert's argument dealt "with a domain in which lawful rationality [determinism] does not exist. A 'miracle,' however, is an exception from lawfulness; hence, there where lawfulness does not exist, also its exception, i.e., a miracle, cannot exist."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
Even if the quote is indeed Einstein's, given his overall view on the possibility of miracles one cannot be certain it wasn't uttered in a highly ironic tone.
information that agrees with our paradigm has an easy track to our consciousness but information that disagrees with our paradigm is blocked from our consciousness. this has been proved time and time again.
stated another way materialists and the religious are kissing cousins.
Well, Billy Joel is going there to, or at least wants to, so at least they will finally have some darn good rocking music.
Hmm, maybe I sould join the Baptist Church. That sneaky Billy Joel, I bet he's a secret Baptist.
Does anyone know where Mick Jaggard is going.........no!, wiat! Rod Stewert,....no! Wait! Marvin Gaye.....NO! Wait! Lionel Richie!.....No! Wait!.........Elton John..........Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,.....
And that Steven Tyler is looking good for an old guy......Rescue Me, oh take me in your arms, resuce me......lol
Leviticus 20:27
27 “ ‘A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.’ ”
Cafeteria christianity has its merits in this case I guess.