In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” your host Sheryl Glick
author of Life Is No Coincidence: The Life and Afterlife Connection
which shares her journey from skeptic to a believer in life and its
unending eternal possibilities known and understood by coincidences
synchronicity and miracles from messages from our loved ones in Spirit
who live and love beyond the physical life they only visited for a short
moment in earth time. As an intuitive healer/medium Sheryl is delighted
to share Annie Mattingley’s book The After Death Chronicles as she
shares her communication with her daughter Randi and many other stories
by contributors to the book who have been blessed to experience what is
hard to put into words, a visit from a departed relative. Yet for those
who have been touched by the spirit of a loved one the feeling and
closeness and truth will never be lost as life is never lost only
transmuted into another essence of life.
As listeners of “Healing From Within” well know it has been the mission
statement of this show to show that life is both a physical and
energetic spiritual duality. Sheryl and her guests share intimate
experiences as they search the mysteries of life and what some believe
to be death, in the hopes of truly knowing that we are more than the
physical body and have an internal eternal unseen force of life which
some call the Soul. It is in becoming aware of this part of ourselves
that makes it easier to live with the challenges a physical life often
presents and to ultimately begin to know our true “higher self” that is
sharing this physical life with us.
In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” Annie Mattingley begins the
book with a chapter entitled Randi Is that You? And with the quote for
that chapter shares a beautiful look at what may be seen throughout the
many stories shared in additional chapters by those who experience an
After Death Connection which adds a new layer or awareness a dimension
of reality that previously may have been unexpected or unexplored, but
cannot be denied any longer.
The quote reads.. They just knew something that is from time to time
forgotten except by the wind. How close the dead are. One song away from
the living. (Louise Erdrich The Master Butcher’s singing Club)
Annie, shares an early recollection when she was twelve years old and
visiting a friend’s house. She saw a picture on the wall of what
appeared to be an interpretation of God and hell with fire and brimstone
as described by ancient writers such as Dante who depicted God as a
fearsome force of perhaps anger and vengeance. Annie knew in that moment
that was not the God she knew and loved. Her God was kind gentle and
forgiving of any indiscretion or human frailty—Just a God of Love.
Annie’s subject is about spontaneous communication with our dead
beloveds and she shares how she got interested in this subject and why
she write a whole book about it.
Annie wrote, “The cusps of things, the ineffability of consciousness of
conception and birth and of death and the process of dying, the mystical
realms, have long been the heart center of my life. I attend to my
dreams. I have sat with the dying. I am captivated by the enigma of
death. I have studied and meditated on and prayed and done shamanic
journeying over, avidly read about and discussed the great mysteries of
my life. How is it that I never before attended to the possibility of
direct contact with our dead beloveds now seems a mystery in itself…Soon
the idea that the dead can speak became my daily reality. In the early
morning hours of almost every day for many months, my formerly troubled,
depressed, and pain-wracked daughter came to talk with me.”
Sheryl shares with Annie that like her in her earlier life there were
confusing feelings or understanding of God and a possible afterlife.
Sheryl was somewhat skeptic and followed her family’s ideas but sensed
that she loved God even though she wasn’t sure where those feelings were
coming from. Her entire family were terrified of dying because they
thought that was the end of them and all their memories and connections
of love. But even as a girl Sheryl felt there was a bigger reality and
wished to know who we were and where did life come from originally. Her
studies into philosophy education literature business and daily life
didn’t answer her questions. But about twenty years ago after a
spiritual visitation from her grandfather in a dream the night before
her father passed requesting her to write something for her father which
she did in the form of his eulogy, she had to rethink her earlier
training and fears to discover much about Universal Energy, the
afterlife and the ability we all have to receive messages from our loved
ones. Sheryl has spent the last twenty years as an intuitive energy
practitioner medium and hospice volunteer helping others know the truth
of their dual nature as physical and spiritual beings, their own
powerful soul essence and the reality of life here and beyond.
Annie tells us about contact with her daughter Randi after her passing.
The first morning was to be the only time I have ever heard her voice
aloud outside my own head. She controlled the parameters of our
exchanges. I could not invoke her presence, and I have never been able
to see . There were subjects she would not touch, like the last sixteen
months of her life or death or where on earth she had put her original
will .
Sheryl says that as a sensitive or empath she must tell Annie that when
she read her description of Randi’s physical pain and how she relayed to
Annie her preparation and need to take her own life It was hard for
Sheryl to understand why as divine souls loved by Spirit we would in our
earthly journey have to experience so much suffering. But still knowing
nothing is random, and that we all have a time to be born and also to
leave this life, she allows accepts and surrenders to life’s needs, but
still it hurts to see people suffer, especially when it is your own
child.
Annie tells how in one interaction Randi in Spirit laid her hand
tenderly on your thigh and whispered, “Mom do you think you could let go
of that stuff now?” Had anyone else husband friend therapist asked that
of me I would have resisted, but Her wisdom and guidance not of this
plane carry a different weight than what comes from those of us in the
physical. The strength of our months of nearly daily communication was
so healing and so empowering. I longed to do something to let the world
know how close our beloved dead can be. With that idea came the thought
to write this book. Sheryl suggests to Annie that perhaps her soul
purpose and that of her daughters from both realms of life was to engage
on putting their story into a book and to share their growing awareness
with others. Heaven perhaps is not far as many think and our loved ones
are always around.
Sheryl tells a story and says, “That reminds me of being asked to go to
the hospital where a co-workers father was in a coma after a stroke and
I was asked to tap into his energy and find out what was happening. The
first time I was visiting his room and in meditation with him he
suggested he was ready to leave and showed me the green beauty of a
place he loved and would soon see again. His daughter told me he was
talking about Ireland. Then he showed me that he was ready and wanted to
take a rocket ride to above. The next day when I visited again he
amended his impression of the journey and said that he only needed a
helicopter as he would not be far away and would visit his daughter and
granddaughter by the broken fence. Later his daughter told me that was
the fence behind her house where the swing set was. Heaven it seems is
the energy of love that surrounds those here in a physical body and
those out of a physical body and allows us to participate in life with
those we love even if we have moved beyond our body.
Annie shared in the book other experiences of after death communications
with interviewees that were different from her verbal form of
interacting with the soul of her daughter. Her communications with her
daughter were primarily verbal (clairaudient) and (clairsentient) felt
in the body but visitations come in as many guises as there are people
to die and return to visit us. One common way for the dead to make
contact is through some aspect of the natural world especially with
birds and butterflies. Annie gives an example and tells the story of her
Spanish teacher Flor whose mother comes in the form of a white butterfly
ever since her death. When Flor shares that with her granddaughter the
granddaughter strongly denies that possibility until the girl yells to
the butterfly, “If you are my grandmother come over here to me” and the
butterfly zooms to her chest and the girl feels her grandmother’s
essence. The skeptic in her is wiped away hopefully forever.
Communications can be initiated by smells (olfactory visitation) Annie’s
hairdresser told her of smelling liverwurst and A & D Ointment and
thought of her father, and then had a lengthy conversation as though he
was physically present.
Annie believes few of us are born seers or psychic but the ability to
experience and to recognize a visitation appears to be a skill we can
develop. The first surprising event may awaken our inner vision and lead
us to the second. Susan tells the story of being awakened by beautiful
music which she and her departed husband Jesse shared and allowed her to
half see, half sense his presence which has continued to delight and
amaze her for years. His presence is so definitive to one of their young
granddaughters that she holds doors open an extra moment so her granddad
can come through too.
Another way the dead reveal themselves is through physical objects. They
are particularly adept with lights electrical equipment and electronics
and they really can make things go bump in the night. All these ways
seem natural for an After Death Contact.
The most frequent way our loved ones make connections with us is through
dreaming which is an altered state of consciousness and spiritual visits
are most readily accepted by the most number of people. ADC dreams are
not simply about the dead or with the dead. They are particularly vivid,
easy to recall and they come bearing gifts. They can contain important
guidance. Lenore describes how her mother gave approval for her
relationship with a new friend who she eventually married. When Lenore
told her mother how she missed her, her Mom, in a very no nonsense
manner the dead can have, told her too much longing or missing or very
intense grief can block contact
There are ways beyond believing an experience with spirit is a
hallucination or something made up to relive our grief and proof that
these experiences are real. Annie has been asked how she know people
interviewed aren’t making these stories up. Annie naturally attends
carefully to people’s characters. She looks for a sense of integrity for
how directly someone looks one in the eye for emotions. In addition for
Annie a confirming rush of energy which her friend Tracy calls God-bumps
ripples up her spine as she listens and is aligned to spirit and the
truth of the conversation. She has felt this sensation for decades
whenever she hears something valid which her mind might otherwise doubt
or question. She says this comes from Spirit. Others call it intuition
or your Higher Self or soul or Buddha Allah or Christ or the Holy Spirit
or help from Guardian angels. Sheryl says she as an intuitive
healer/medium just knows in her heart what is truth what is her truth
and her mission in life and to stay focused on that. Sheryl has also
come to work hard at being open to all people and their stories even
those that may be out of her realm of awareness or understanding for the
moment as there are so many dimensions of life and reality beyond this
three dimensional physical world. Sheryl believes whatever the mind
envisions or creates is possible so she does not deny or judge the
fantastic stories she hears or the messages she receives in readings for
clients even though she may not have experienced that vision or version
of life YET.
After death communication (ADC )is so powerful and pervasive so why are
people so unwilling to talk about it? Sheryl feels it is because of fear
and not wishing to be thought of as odd or unintelligent. Sheryl tells
Annie a story about being at a wedding recently and her cousin who had
lost her husband asking if she thought he was at the party and if our
deceased parents and family were there. I closed my eyes and tried to
get a message for her but there was too much noise so I just asked for a
sign that would be helpful. We took several family pictures with my cell
phone and when I looked at it in the upper right hand corner was a light
form with defined wings and above that an orb of orange and fushia light
and below a purple light: all beings of light showing themselves to us.
I made copies of the picture and sent them to all my cousins present to
help them think of new ways to perceive life in its many realities.
Everyone who saw the picture was open to hope that their loved ones were
alright.
It’s funny but this same cousin who can’t quite believe once told me
that at the time our grandmother passed she felt air flying all around
her and a hand on her shoulder and later found out about grandma’s
death. I told her that I always had great talks with her Mother Lilly
who told me she had a dream that her father died two weeks before the
actual event and didn’t tell anyone about it. My aunt Lilly was
intuitive like we all are and believed in my belief in eternal life or
the afterlife, which I was trying to share with her daughter who still
did not believe even after her own experiences.
Annie you tell the story of a boy who fell of his bicycle and in that
moment knew his failing grandfather had passed. Now as a man and lawyer
considers himself an atheist even though he still has this memory. Why
do so many resist the truth of all these experience? Fear I guess, of
being thought unbalanced or different. These contacts are not among a
particular faith group but are happening to many people. All religions
in one way or another express a belief in an eternal place of life. Some
call it heaven or the afterlife, the void and also speak of angels
guides teachers loved ones who guide and help us through the challenges
of a physical incarnation in order for the soul energy to evolve expand
and remember it’s true force and interconnectedness to all that is.
People of all ages genders races religions nationalities and animals
might even experience the visit or presence of a soul not in a body. We
are the energy of the Universal Life Force of Creation and Evolution and
are alive always.
It is possible while we are living, especially if we’re near death to
make an arrangement for how contact could happen. Annie tells of her
friend who before dying arranged how she would make contact with her
after passing. She told the story of a bird who had flown into the
fireplace and was limp and ash covered, and after she cleaned it off saw
it was a stunning swallow with gorgeous colors. She brought it to the
doorway and it flew off into the sky. After her death such a beautiful
bird appeared in her garden and Annie knew it was a sign from her that
all was well.
Sheryl Says that before her mom died she asked her to tell what would be
her message. Even though Sheryl wasn’t sure if her mom believed in an
afterlife she finally told me her message to me would be “three white
doves.” I began to receive that message many times after her death but a
very prominent one for me was after the destruction of Twin Towers on
9/11. I was so sad and crying at home and opened the New York Times
which my mother voraciously read when alive. There was a picture of a
family who had lost two relatives: a father and son and right in front
of them were three white doves captured in the photo…I framed that photo
and often look at it. Before my sister passed she told me it was over
and I said to her a new life was just beginning and she was to get a
message to me. She couldn’t think of one so I said how about a little
white dog like Oliver that you love so much. The night after her death
for the first time I saw a commercial with a little white dog who had a
damaged leg and couldn’t keep up with the other dogs so the owner a very
other worldly type young man called Amazon and ordered a dog carrier so
his dog could be carried close to his heart. I saw that commercial many
many times after that and knew my sister now knew what I had tried so
hard to share with her.
The purpose of After-Death Communication seems to have many positive
effects. I think the purpose of an ADC may remind the living of the full
potential of their spiritual eternal energy to remember love, be
compassionate, and make the physical world more like heaven a place of
peace respect and to honor our divine nature.
The shock of a death itself can override all the pleasant memories of
life with the beloved person. After death communication can take on the
task of dispelling or replacing disturbing end of life health challenges
or unpleasant circumstances relating to the death.
Being told of a death through a dream either before it would be possible
to learn of it or as in a dream or through external means is not
unusual. Annie wrote, “ I love how the dead make these little tips of
the hat on the way out of their bodies letting us know that separation,
distance and lifestyle choices have little significance in the larger
scheme of our connected existence. Sheryl remembers her Dad always
tipped his hat as he walked by a person in a kind and gracious fashion.
Often in dreams or meditation, a soul may show us especially after a
difficult passing that they spend most of their time “in Healing.” There
would be little need for more than a bed, beautiful surroundings and
reminders perhaps of their beloved animals or spiritual angels. The
living can be encouraged to know their loved ones have made the
transition and are safe. Sheryl’s sister Rodelle who passed a few years
ago expressed to Sheryl that she was in a green glory of healing and
becoming acclimated to the peace and love of those around her in Spirit.
Sometimes the dead can help change a longtime pattern of suffering.
Terry who lost his twenty year old sister clung to mourning for her and
keeping the connection through deep suffering. In a dream he heard her
shout at him, “You are holding me back. Stop It.” This new understanding
turned him away from self-pity and he released his memory of suffering.
The age of the dead in an ADC dream often fluctuates. Almost invariably
they look younger and healthier than last seen, but how much younger
seems to be determined by what is needed to facilitate recognition. In
Darleen’s dream her daughter who had died at fourteen was now old enough
to drive, this maturing a pleasing detail to her mother.
Contacts may be initiated from the other side or from those in living
form. Sheryl says to Annie, “As a medium when I do a reading for a
client I ask Spirit to share messages that will help the person know
themselves and their destiny or life plan more fully, and Spirit always
seems to give them what they need at the moment, even if they are not
unaware of what they need. Now I was told many years ago by one of my
teachers that I could ask to receive guidance from any person, out of
body, any historical figure not matter how long ago they had lived. In
my next book “New Life Awaits: Creating Your Best Afterlife by Living
Consciously as President George Washington came up many times in stories
in the book and since our nation was going through such painful
challenging political and social times, I engaged in a meditation and
simply asked George Washington to help us. The reading is available on
my website www.sherylglick.com on the book link and it was for me a very
moving loving exchange to share. Please go to the book link to access
the Epilogue of New Life Awaits which I am in the process of finishing
now.
There are conditions that may make it easier to bring about a contact.
Annie’s daughter Randi told her she is with her a lot and that it takes
a degree of energy, but not that much because often the other person is
raising their energy toward the loved one. What’s hard is getting others
to notice that she is around them. Randi says, “ The dead are among the
living a lot. Some people just happen to be aware of it more.”
Sheryl says the best way to bring about a contact for her is to meditate
as she listens to quiet music in a darkened room away from the hustle
and bustle of life and to breathe deeply in with a slow steady
exhalation while asking Spirit to join her in this silent moment. With
no expectations or pressure she begins to feel the flow of energy around
her like a spiral of love and then she asks to receive impressions that
would be helpful for the client who is coming. Sheryl always gives their
name and residence as she wants to tap into the story of the correct
person. Sometimes she asks questions, sometimes she just asks to receive
what will he transformative and helpful to the client. Then Sheryl waits
for visions sounds songs smells feelings in the body color or whatever
being presents to her and then she writes it all down.
Among the many contact stories Annie reports in her book there are
general facts and features that are common and shared. Yet the events
are unique to the people and their life stories and at the same time
there are some common shared factors. We learn that because of our
modern mostly medical take on death we are encouraged to perceive it as
a one step process. One moment alive and breathing..the next moment
these functions have stopped. However, death can be a gradual process.
Often people shut down slowly to the physical environment. They may lose
interest in talk, touch, food, weather. They often see or hear
predeceased loved ones. As dying is this way also, perhaps, arriving in
the afterlife has levels of adjustment. As dreams allow us to step out
of our limited vantage point we begin to think beyond the divisive
approach my body, your body, my psyche, your dreams, and see aspects of
a single and interconnected whole. This would be the same for all souls.
At times our dead beloved come into our dreams with messages for someone
else that can have enormous positive impact. Annie tells of Lisa who saw
her grandmother in a dream following her death and heard her say, “Tell
Freddy I’m not mad at him.” When she told Freddy, who was her father, he
burst into tears. He was suffering within a deep well of grief because
his mother had told him never to put her in a nursing home, but
following her stroke he needed to do just that. Lisa described the man
who she did not recognize in the dream and Freddy told her “That was
your grandfather.” That was a very healing experience for both Lisa and
her father.
Annie’s contact with her daughter Randi helped change her view of life.
Viewing life and death as journeys helps to clarify why travel and
trains and boats and planes appear so often in dreams with the dead.
They show that life goes on and the thinking beyond our physical ego
materialistic fearful life is but an illusion of what we and life really
are: eternal creative and loving. The dead prioritize life differently
and they hope that contact with them will help us to release and let go
of grief sadness and self-doubt about any part we played in their
passing or didn’t do to keep them alive.
Sheryl shares a sensitive story of what happened before her mother
passed. Sheryl was asked to sign a Do Not Resuscitate form. When her
mother passed Sheryl felt badly about that choice. At a spiritual
retreat six months later, a medium gave her undeniable proof of her
mother’s presence and told Sheryl that her mom said she had made the
right decision signing the Do Not Resuscitate and it was also her
decision also. After that message I never again had a moment of doubt
and sadness about doing what was necessary at the time.
Annie would like readers of The After Death Chronicles to remember that
there is credible evidence that our consciousness does indeed continue
after death and there are many ways souls seek to communicate with each
other while in or out of a body. Dreams, verbatim conversations
synchronicity or coincidences are all forms of messages from spirit.
There are also physical manifestations from departed love ones as they
can manipulate matter as they are pure energy.
In summarizing today’s episode of “Healing From Within” Annie Mattingley
came to find her way to the greatest truth of life in both its energetic
and physical components after the loss of her daughter Randi. As a
somewhat skeptic of these views of afterlife Sheryl came to find her way
to develop and study energy healing and mediumship after a visit from
her grandfather William in a dream alerting her to the passing of her
father and the need for her to write his eulogy after the event. The
energy and presence in that moment lead Sheryl to change many
preconceived notions of who we are and what life is all about. The last
twenty years of study and readings for people seeking to know their
loved ones exist and are safe beyond physical life has been an honor and
pleasure. For once you feel that connection of love and life eternal how
can you not find peace and happiness in all the beauty and joy of life
here. Beyond the fear of the physical world is the freedom of the soul
to explore the ancestral patterns of our soul group.
Sheryl believes Annie expressed the value and purpose of After Death
Contacts in this way and wrote, “The experiences that follow are as
varied as the people who have shared them with me—some are visual, some
auditory, some subtle some as life affecting as near-death experiences.
They range through dreams disembodied voices, visions electrical and
physical manifestations, messages received through nature….They can be
the rare frightening contact or a profoundly satisfying grace that
precedes or follows a death or occurs at the moment of death.
Visitations can come at once or continue repeatedly for years….They can
happen in a flash or transport us into an extended altered state that
lasts all day….These experiences have defied my early efforts at near
categorization—dreams here, visions there, visitations through
nature….We don’t have labeled pockets in our psyches to which to file
such moments. Like a sonnet or a symphony an After Death Contact is more
than the sum of its parts. These moments speak to us in the language of
Spirit or God or the Universe. They are not intended to be fully
understood but rather to be savored and allowed to delight. More than
anything else they resemble poetry which is defined by being
undefinable.
Annie and I would wish for you a moment of surrender to the beauty and
flow of life: listen to the wind and whispers from Spirit and our loved
ones as you may just discover that life as a dream returns to us each
evening when we allow ourselves to be enveloped in the darkness and the
magic of the night and life, is but a constant return to life, in its
many forms dimensions and realities.”
Today’s Guest