Category Spirituality

Oct 23 2020

Signs From the Other Side

Book Review by Dana Taylor

About three weeks after my Dad died, strange things began to happen. The door bell went haywire, going off by itself with mangled noises. Twice, my husband and I heard something crashing in another room and ran to investigate. Nothing. One night we heard a definite knock, knock, knock on the back window. No one there. We began laughing about it. Seemed like Dad was letting us know he was still around. We lived in his house for a couple more years and I felt him guiding me through home repairs. His visits in my life receded after I sold the house.

My husband died in a car accident in 2013, but made his presence known through psychic friends with several messages. He said a final goodbye to me in one early morning visitation that I recalled in the post Grace in Grief: Six Months After My Husband’s Passing.

I’ve learned through personal experience that loved ones continue living in another dimension. Many times they find ways to communicate with people left behind. Psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson explores various methods of those communications. From the annals of her case histories, she weaves together compelling narratives in her latest book, SIGNS: THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSE.

Laura Lynne Jackson

Jackson told her personal story in her first book The Light Between Us. (See my review here.) She comes across as a credible, caring person using her gift to help alleviate pain and confusion of grieving people. Her spot-on readings have made her a popular guest on television shows and workshop panels.

Each chapter in SIGNS relates an individual story of how a crossed over person finds a way to keep in touch. People find coins, receive messages on cell phones, have animal encounters, see rainbows, hear songs on the radio, the list goes on. From the book overview:

There’s the lost child who appears to his mother as a deer that approaches her unhesitatingly at a highway rest stop; the name written on a dollar bill that lets a terrified wife know her husband will be okay; the Elvis Presley song that arrives at the exact moment of Jackson’s own father’s passing.”

The point of the signs is to offer and comfort. They are a way of saying, “I’m still around. I’m fine. I love you.” Sometimes they are a mean, “I’m sorry,” “I forgive you,” or “Move on with your life.” Certainly, a major takeaway from the book is the realization that death is a passage, not a tragedy.

Jackson also refers to everyone’s Team of Light. It isn’t just loved ones leaving signs, but guardian angels and guides. A sign may also be an idea that came from “nowhere” or a dream. I found Chapter 29: Surrender the most compelling. In it Jackson relates the details of daughter’s mysterious illness over a three year period. Ultimately, information and prods from her Team of Light guide her to the right doctors and treatments. It’s certainly a cautionary tale about the vaccine Gardasil.

In this era when so many people are crossing over, SIGNS is a comforting reminder that death is only a transition and love never ends.

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Moon madness and a meddling ghost bring together reluctant lovers in this tale of madcap magical realism. DEVIL MOON by Dana Taylor

Aug 30 2019

Conversations from the Afterlife

Book Review by Dana Taylor

Father Nathan Castle, O.P., has unusual dreams. Over the course of the past twenty years, he’s often dreamed of a stranger’s violent, sudden death. Does he awaken in a cold sweat, fear clawing at his throat? By all indications, the answer is no. Father Nathan sits up and captures the dream on a notepad before its memory fades. He knows another Night Visitor has come a-calling.

Father Nathan Castle

Nathan Castle became a Dominican priest in 1979.  He earned his doctoral degree from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and has spent almost thirty years in campus ministries at both Stanford and Arizona State universities.

He is also a very gifted spirit communicator and has a special ministry to souls who have gotten “stuck” in their afterlife journey.

In AFTERLIFE INTERRUPTED: HELPING STUCK SOULS CROSS OVER, Father Nathan shares thirteen stories from his notes and memories of the over 250 souls who have reached out to him. Over the years, he has developed a routine. He receives a Night Visitor’s dream and later meets with a prayer partner to contact the Visitor and engage in a conversation. Beginning with a prayer of protection from an array of saints, Father Nathan invites the Night Visitor to enter his mind and use his body to communicate about the situation. While the words “channel” and “medium” are mostly avoided in the text due to the occultish baggage associated with them, those are precisely the right words for what transpires. Father Nathan, or his prayer partner, often Laura Dunham, channels the spirit to get to the heart of the matter.  They initiate a counseling session for the dead.

AFTERLIFE INTERRUPTED is not your usual celebrity medium tell-all tale. Father Nathan doesn’t have his own reality show or fill Las Vegas lounges with curiosity seekers hoping to get a message from their departed Aunt Fanny. Instead, we hear a man of with deep and life-long Catholic Christian faith giving us a glimpse of his multidimensional world. Souls are brought to Father Nathan by their celestial guides when they are ready to move from a “stuck” place, to a higher level in the Afterlife.

Each chapter begins with the dream, a sudden unexpected death. A teenager drives his car off a bridge, drowning himself and three friends; a girl sneaks to the beach on the fateful day of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami; a young mother and her friend perish in a plane crash; a freak explosion maims and kills a young husband. And so the stories go. All of these people reject afterlife guides who come to escort them to the other side at the moment of death. They become stuck in a great Nowhere. Sometimes they are trapped in a recurring loop of the event.

By the time they enter Father Nathan’s dreams, they are ready to move on, but do not know how. Often the hindrance is lingering anger or guilt over their manner of death. Father Nathan or the prayer partner offers the Visitor another point of view. They facilitate release from negative emotions that snare souls in the Nowhere. From there, they ask a guide to come for them and take them to the Afterlife. The guide is often a friend or relative, but not necessarily. The most intriguing guide mentioned was President Dwight Eisenhower who showed up for a young man named after him.

This book gives tantalizing glimpses of a whole Afterlife society. After writing up the chosen stories, Father Nathan revisits each participant to get their permission to publish their stories. Therein lies the most fascinating sections of the book. Laura Dunham will ask, “How is your life going? What have you been doing since we last spoke?” Everyone is living and growing in their new realms.

I highly recommend purchasing the Audible version to actually hear Father Nathan, Laura Denham, and the other prayer partners performing the narration. What you will find is an insightful, authentic presentation of a multidimensional world. Humans live in this physical world and they continue living in a non-physical world. Communication between the dimensions is getting increasingly common.

What makes this book rise above the other mediumship books is the man himself, Father Nathan Castle. His foundation of faith and a life devoted to ministry is inspiring and encouraging in this chaotic world. Thank you, Father Nathan for sharing your gift with us.

Visit Father Nathan’s website: Nathan Castle.com

Bright Blessings,

Dana Taylor

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Visit the Dana Taylor Books and Bio Page

 

Jun 26 2019

Miracles Happen

by Dana Taylor

“Miracle”–an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause; such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

“For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.” from The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

Since 2005 I’ve been puzzling the mystery of miraculous healings, when one of my closest friends, Paula, overcame an “incurable” disease, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), via two Reiki treatments. It took us many months to accept her healing had truly taken place. Eventually the word “miracle” was bandied about.  (Read either of my Supernal Series books to get the full story.) Was it truly a miracle? Something beyond human ability to replicate?  What if we had stumbled upon a valid, alternative approach to health and wellness? What if we were simply ignorant of the principles behind what we deemed a “miracle”? Perhaps we were like 17th century humans who have considered electricity, air travel, and antibiotics “miracles.” I’ve been studying “miracles” ever since.

So, of course, I couldn’t resist a book entitled Miracles from Heaven: A Little Girl, Her Journey to Heaven, and Her Amazing Story of Healing in the bargain books on a recent visit to Barnes and Noble. Written by Texas resident, Christy Wilson Beam, Miracles from Heaven, relates the difficult and inspiring story of Christy Beam’s daughter, Annabel. As the subtitle reveals, Annabel had been a chronically ill little girl for most of her life when she took a head first thirty-foot fall into the center of a hollowed-out cottonwood tree. While her parents, sisters, neighbors and emergency crews worked on rescuing her, she was transported to another dimension and sat on the lap of Jesus.

Christy Beam and her editors do a deft job of weaving the day of the fall and trauma with the back story of Anna’s debilitating illness. Christy and Kevin Beam live in the “silver buckle of the Bible Belt” in Burleson, Texas. Kevin is a veterinarian, Christy a stay-at-home mom with three daughters, Abbie, Annabel, and Adelynn. They were the perfect Baptist poster family until Annabel was struck with a disorder that prevented her from digesting food. Their journey through emergencies, surgeries, specialists, and vigilant monitoring is revealed, but not belabored. The resilience of little Annabel is inspiring, as is the unity of the Christian family that strives for joy and gratitude in all circumstances.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you Annabel not only survived the fall,  but that she emerged completely healed of her illness. The book is written well enough with engaging personalities that knowing the happy ending is coming doesn’t take away from the reading experience.

This healing is reminiscent of Anita Moorjani’s book, Dying to Be Me. (See The Gift of Cancer.) Both books relate near-death experiences followed by complete healings of chronic conditions. These things happen. They fall far outside modern medical models. Double blind studies are impossible. They can’t be replicated by drugs, surgeries, or protocols.

Yet, there are lessons to be learned. Simply being opened to the possibility of improvement may be a first step. The Beam family maintained a deep, abiding Christian faith that got them through the toughest of times. After seven years of dealing with RSD, my friend, Paula, had been told by her doctors that her options were finished. She should go home, get her affairs in order, and prepare to deteriorate and die. When I suggested a visit to Oklahoma and a few Reiki treatments, she could have rejected the idea in resignation and despair. Instead, she reached out to a branch of hope. She didn’t expect a healing, but perhaps some relief from pain. Instead, she received the “miracle.”

One thing receivers of miracles seem to have in common–they reach out to others with compassion and generosity of spirit. Annabel is noted for her kindness and hopes to work with chronically ill children. Anita Moorjani travels the world speaking on spirituality and self-acceptance. Paula is always helping others less fortunate than herself.

Miracles have a ripple effect. At this point, I can only say, be open to “miracles” and when they happen, don’t ignore them. Miracles are a second chance at getting life right. Live with joy, gratitude and compassionate action. Maybe we can all become miracle workers.

Bright Blessings,

Dana Taylor

Don’t miss the Supernal Series Books!

 

 

Apr 4 2019

Pre-Life Planning: What Was I Thinking??

by Dana Taylor

A fascinating concept emerging from the New Age is the idea of Pre-Life Planning. I’m not sure where it started, perhaps with the life-between-life hypnosis discoveries and subsequent books of Dr. Michael Newton (Journey of Souls; Destiny of Souls). But esoteric thinkers are increasingly buying into the idea that WE SIGNED UP FOR THIS.

That’s right. Abusive parents, birth defects, gaslighting relationships, chronic disease might have been your challenge of choice. On the bright side, unique talents, loving relationships, and amazing opportunities might have also been on the menu.

Author Robert Schwartz must have put Revealing Pre-Life Planning to the World in his life plan, because that appears to be his life mission. His two books Your Soul’s Plan and Your Soul’s Gift are the result of in-depth interviews with a variety of people he chose to personify various life-theme scenarios.

Schwartz targets a range of human experience challenges, to name a few:

  • Physical illness
  • Parenting handicapped children
  • Deafness and blindness
  • Drug Addiction and alcoholism
  • Accidents
  • Miscarriage and abortion
  • Caring for a spouse
  • Homosexuality
  • Poverty

Schwartz also assembled a four-person team of mediums and trance-channels to access multidimensional information. Deborah DeBari, Staci Wells, Corbie Mitleid, and Glenna Dietrich each offer a unique vantage with their psychic gifts. Staci Wells stands out with her ability to relay the details of pre-life planning sessions, where incarnating souls meet in an other worldly room with their guides and prospective key people who will take on significant roles in their lives—family, mates, lovers, and even enemies.

These books present a universe where people reincarnate again and again on earth (and other planets) to promote their soul growth. Prior to birth, they confer with guides to map out target areas for soul growth, which may include a variety of challenges. More advanced souls may focus less on life challenges and more on life purpose. The main point is that everyone is responsible for the circumstances of their lives. The concept of pre-life planning strips away victim mentality, bad luck, or even divine retribution. In Schwartz’ world, every one not only plays the cards they are dealt in life, they have stacked the deck and are the dealers.

 People often incarnate repeatedly, working out old karma and trying to “get it right.” Souls with timeless history together work out scenarios for mutual soul growth. For instance, in the chapter on homosexuality, three souls decide on roles as closeted husband, wife, and best friend/eventual lover for a multitude of reasons that will serve them all as their drama unfolds.

These books include in depth channeled, analysis about how people can learn and evolve through the various challenges presented, whether it be incest, addiction, violence, illness and beyond.

CAN PETS BE PART OF THE PRE-LIFE PLAN?

If there is a “fun” chapter in these books, it is the one on pets.  Schwartz interviewed Marcia DeRuse, a middle-aged woman, whose life challenge centered on being a dwarf. Throughout her life, a variety of animals were her friends and companions. The personalities of a horse, dog, cat and, even chicken, come through during the sessions. As it turns out, they each were indeed part of the pre-life plan. Most had known Marcia in a previous life when they were all a part of a circus together. The animals were always animals. In the circus life the horse had been an elephant. All of the animals expressed great love for Marcia and wanted to help her get through the journey of this lifetime where she would be a dwarf.

IS EVERYTHING PREDETERMINED?

The question arises: is everything in our lives mapped out? Do we have any choices or are events and relationships predetermined? The material makes it clear, scenarios are set up, but earth is a free-choice planet. Certain relationships may be arranged, like an abusive father to son. But how it will all play out is decided by the actors in the parts. In other words, life is improvised, not scripted. We are given a set of circumstances and a character to play, but we make it up as we go.

When I read the first book, Your Soul’s Plan, I thought it a bit too neat. Everyone in that book managed to overcome their big life challenge and come to a higher consciousness and sense of peace. Looking around at some people I’ve observed in real life, it’s not always so triumphant. We all know people who sank into the depths of addiction or died in sad bitterness. Your Soul’s Gift is more sophisticated. Not every relationship is HEA. Some people plan challenges that don’t go well. Case in point is the woman who chose an abusive husband thinking she could bring out the best in him, but it didn’t happen. Her guides, and even the man himself, expressed doubts about the outcome of the relationship in the pre-life planning session, but she insisted she wanted to go with the scenario. She learned her lesson, but it wasn’t the one she had hoped for.

So, the takeaway from these books, is we are each responsible for the relationships and events in our lives. We set up certain parameters before birth. Our reactions, choices, and emotional responses drive the course of unfolding events. Ultimately, it isn’t our circumstances, but our sense of peace and self-worth that determine whether we have triumphed over life challenges.

The old adage is true, Life is what you make it.

For more information on Robert Schwartz, visit his website, Your Soul’s Plan.

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Visit Dana Taylor Books and Bio Page

Sep 18 2018

Awaken Your Inner Dolphin

I’ve been hanging around the metaphysical section of book stores for decades. New Age, channeling, healing, past life therapy, pre-life planning, spirit guides–I’ve pretty much read it all. So, it’s rare when I pick up a book that has a new angle, a fresh story to tell. Inner Dolphin Awakening: Opening Time Capsules of Joy, Telepathy, and Multidimensionality by Jan Lemuri opens some interesting vistas, even for a jaded old New Ager, like myself.

Jan Lemuri

Jan and I became “Facebook friends” a while back through a Lee Carroll/Kryon connection. We are both well-versed in the Kryon world view of expanding consciousness that emerges after listening to dozens of messages given across the globe. Regarding dolphins and whales, Kryon states that cetaceans have a special relationship to the earth. They are the memory keepers of the planet. They may be far more evolved spiritually than human beings. Dolphins and whales are playing key roles in raising the consciousness of the planet.
Jan and I share a common multidimensional bond with dolphins. In my book, Supernal Adventures: Exploring the New Normal of Multidimensional Living, I recall a “dolphin attunement,” when I had a vision of becoming a dolphin and swimming with a pod. My affinity with dolphins has continued since that frequency bonded into my auric field.
Jan’s spiritual journey with dolphins has set the course of his life. He has traveled the globe to swim and commune with cetaceans in their natural habitats. The dolphins have become his spiritual teachers and family as he has grown into a multidimensional connection with them.
Inner Dolphin Awakening begins with Jan’s personal spiritual memoir. Born in the small central European country of Slovenia, Jan was raised in a non-spiritual home. His father was an avowed atheist and his mother a nurse who focused on the physical realities of life. A series of spiritually charged experiences as a teenager opened the mental door to esoteric exploration. Illness led to discovering Reiki and energy healing. Kryon channels caught his attention. After a few years, dolphins entered his consciousness through dreams.
Jan traveled the globe to meet and commune with dolphins. He studied dolphins and wrote a thesis on Assisted Dolphin Therapy, which is a growing field.  Ultimately, inter-species communication entered the picture.
The book moves beyond memoir to exploring the spiritual possibilities of communication with cetaceans. It’s possible they have been waiting for humans to reach a level of consciousness where we can receive the messages they have to share.
Dolphins seem to live in a state of joy. If they can inspire joyful living in humans, wouldn’t the world be a better place?
Inner Dolphin Awakening adds to the esoteric library a fascinating glimpse of evolving understanding of global consciousness, universal oneness, and inter-species communication.
Pick up or download a copy and you may discover an Inner Dolphin waiting to be awakened in you!

Available at Amazon: Inner Dolphin Awakening by Jan Lemuri

About the Author

Jan Lemuri is a passionate explorer, traveler and writer. His curiosity was sparked 14 years ago, when dolphins started visiting him in his dreams. His journey took him to meet and often swim with cetaceans in Hawaii, Croatia, Azores (Portugal), New Zealand, Tonga and Australia. In 2012 he finished his studies of Social Work with a thesis on Dolphin Assisted Therapy. He currently resides in Taos, NM with his wife and a 3-year old daughter.
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Supernal Adventures: Exploring the New Normal of Multidimensional Living

Apr 26 2018

Mediumship Goes Mainstream

by Dana Taylor

Mediumship, also known as Spirit Communication, is growing in popularity and acceptance. Celebrity mediums such as Theresa Caputo (Long Island Medium) and James Van Praagh, and  Tyler Henry (Hollywood Medium) have big fan followings. In my world, several of my friends have mediumship talents. Though I have never visited a medium for a reading, nonetheless, my relatives have popped in with messages when I have been in some meditation sessions–or simply driving down the road with my multidimensional friends. The idea that my loved ones have simply moved from “physical” to “non-physical” has become part of my world view.

I’ve recently read two books by mediums that shed light on spirit communication. We have moved into an era when the frequency between planes of existence appears to be getting closer–the “veil” is thinning. Reports of spontaneous encounters with spiritual entities are on the rise.

The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson is a well-written account of Jackson’s journey into mediumship. She uses her personal story of childhood encounters, rejection of her gifts,  and growing acceptance and development to weave together stories of her spirit communication. She led a double life–one as wife, mother, and teacher. The other as a weekend and evening medium. For many years she was able to keep her lives separate, but ultimately was able to reconcile both areas of her life.

She shares many touching stories of clients trapped in the throes of grief able to move on with their lives after she is able to communicate with loved ones on the other side. She has been certified as a psychic medium by the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential and has allowed scientists to scan her brain, which reveals physical anomalies.

The book’s subtitle is Stories from Heaven, Lessons for the Living, which pretty much says it all. She chooses key stories of clients to illustrate how spirit communication can enhance human life. Grieving parents connecting with their children, mysterious deaths resolved, guilt-laden survivors released, even animal visits make for an interesting and engaging narrative.

Laura Lynne Jackson comes across as a normal person with an extraordinary ability. She shares it with the world to offer peace and comfort. If you’re looking for a book on mediumship, this is a good choice.

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Hay House author, John Holland, is a popular speaker on matters of spirit communication and the workings of the spirit world. Having already told his personal story in earlier books, Bridging Two Realms is chock full of information on techniques of mediumship and general psychic development. It’s a sort of do-it-yourself manual for the would-be medium.

My friends who are students of mediumship have attended Holland’s workshops and speak highly of his coaching abilities. The book offers an overview of the spirit world and multidimensional living. He maps out the planes of existence, the human energy field, catalogs spiritual encounters and even offers a brief history of spiritualism.

I listened to the audio version of the book which is read by John Holland himself. It’s pretty much like attending one of his conferences for only ten bucks. He speaks with a gentle East coast accent, a regular American guy. He makes mediumship sound very “normal,” something any willing student can learn and develop.

Bridging Two Realms packs a broad range of information into one book and makes the spiritual realms seem highly accessible. A good resource for students of spiritual development.

The ebook version of Bridging Two Realms is currently on sale for $1.99.

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Spirit communication helps us know at a fundamental level that life really does go on. The Other Side is simply a change of address.

Learn more about spiritual development in Supernal Adventures: Exploring the New Normal of Multidimensional Living