Words on Death, Dying and the Connection Between the "Living" and the "Dead." Words Connected to Explain Mediums and Spiritualist Creed

Our ideas about death and dying are jumbles of conjecture based– sometimes loosely, other times firmly– upon religious sentiment, religious dogma, scientific fact, personal fears and personal experience. Thus, a Catholic woman may spend hours praying for the soul of her deceased son. Meantime, a dyed-in-the-wool man of science may refute the possibility of "life after death" and label any belief system which posits or enforces an understanding of the soul as an immortal and essential component of a living person a hollow institution propagating a fiction. The questions concerning the concept of life after life are many. They are as myriad as are the notions people hold concerning  the identity of God.

What makes-- and keeps-- mankind so concerned with this particular concept? What drives human beings to continue to seek out answers for this question? What factors, other than a base fear of extiction with the ebb of "life" perpetuate this fascination with death? Forget the other, and  quite terrific, fear which some hold regarding damnation and other, milder forms of perdition. These are fears which obstruct a clear view at the simple question. I am not attempting to state that such fears are not valid, nor am I daring to assault the religious sensibilities of those who have taken to heart such terrors. I do, however, want very much to escape the confines of such rigid thinking. Otherwise, there is no way to properly explore what peculiar mystique "end of life" issues pose to the rest of the global population.

Who has the right to talk about death? Rhetorically speaking, I am asking you to answer this question within your own mind. Is this subject really the province of the clergy? Is it a topic best left to science; should scientists be leading all serious discussions about death?

My personal take on this question is that really, it is a matter of equal importance to clergy men and physicians, chemists and mystics. I believe that the most unlettered person may offer a pearl of wisdom culled from personal experience which may far outweigh the collective value which one thousand profoundly educated men, studying all of the most pertinent  and up-to-date data on death, have posited individually or in unison.

My own opinion is that human beings are obsessed with death--with the concept of death-- because we are the most vain of all species. We are the only animal which actively seeks to build a reputation during life, which is fundamental for the establishment of a legacy after bodily death. We spend an inordinate amount of time-- while still very much alive-- concerning ourselves with notions which revolve around legacy. We spend far too much time planning for the endurance of our unique identities.

Some do not seem to capitulate easily to the idea that death will efface the meaning of the life they worked to create. Instead, they actively work at creating a legacy; insistent that their names are not only remembered, but are spoken in centuries yet to come. How wasteful is this habit? How many Ciceros and  Aristotles are currently walking about, talking, thinking and working? Few names from the Ancient World retain their cache or meaning. The vast majority of men and women will be remembered by a generation or two of family and close friends subsequent to their passing from the mortal realm. This does nothing to prevent the enormous amount of planning certain individuals perform while living which seems to demonstrate a demand that they will not, cannot, must not be forgottton.

Yet the will be forgotton. No matter how grand the headstone or family crypt, the personalities within (or beneath) will only be vaguely hinted at to those who pass by these monuments in future centuries.

Aside from the desire to not die, evidenced by the work which many people do put into the planning of their own funerals and appearance of the monuments which will stand mute in cemetaries, I further believe that human beings are so habituated to earthly pleasures and pains that death  becomes the most terrifying of all concerns. So many persist in their belief that death is the ultimate, the most final finish, to any human life, that their eyes are sealed to the very idea that the physical world is ephemeral and the spiritual is finite.

This notion puzzles people, because we are taught by so many influences, that the physical, the tangible, is real. We are taught to believe that those things which are not visible are either fictitious, or are real but are composed of materials so weak that they are more likely to be passing and ephemeral in nature. As a medium, my idea concerning this are opposite. I am quite sure that the things we experince on earth, things composed of "hard matter" are the objects which will vanish most quickly. Spiritual material is a material, a fabric, which is enduring and indestructable.

I fear for the loss of a dollar bill far more than I fear for the loss of my "life."
I would not waste time entertaining anxieties about something I cannot lose. I do understand that this is not the way most people approach the concept. Yet, whether one believes his identity will cease at death, or another believes that he can cheat this sort  of death by becoming a subject of conversation and fame, he still has not made peace with the fact that it is approaching in a natural way. He is running and fearful. To be still, and to not fear a change which comes to every person is an evasive stance-- especially in Western Nations. I am not totally without fear. I fear how death will come; I do not wish to die in pain. I fear how, not when.

Our anxieties about death have much to do with our being quite largely left in a dim and dark space. Our apprehensions are allowed to expand in that same environment, where the unknown is the best catalyst for the existence, groth and vitality of fear. If fear, unchecked, clogs the mind with frightening or futile thoughts—then death will quite easily seem like the most terrifying reality. And since bodily death is an inescapable reality for all women and for all men, then it is no marvel that human thoughts often revolve around death.

Many people live for long periods of time throughout which they never give death much thought. This is not usually a perpetual condition. Unless an individual is cut down in his prime, his thoughts will eventually become filled with questions about death. This happens quite naturally when people age and see friends and family members capitulate to their own mortality. Or it happens when a healthy person receives a diagnosis for a terminal illness from a health care provider. No person is able to walk through life and never see, hear, taste or be touched by, death.

Death looms over the beds of the ill. Death checks his wristwatch when the elderly awaken. Death may well be appreciated to be present at the birth of each new child.

For many people, death is darkness. Death is a "Black Angel" a ghost of terror, a "Grim Reaper. But is he really? Is this sort of characterization appropriate— or is it simply a portrait painted by the hand of a race of people whose fear concerning death is heavy, dismal and absolute?

I am asked by many people to offer them my own opinion on death. I am asked chronically, perpetually about death. People feel at home discussing death with me. Sometimes individuals appear as comfortable discussing the same concept with me as they might be were they speaking to a minister. I am always humled by this. For this reason, I have made a long study of many socities and their different customs concerning death.

It is a rather unusual concept and reality to be questioned about so frequently. However, since my work does have much to do with death, I fully expect to be asked questions about death. In reality, I welcome these questions. I have the chance to allay apprehensions and anxieties when I am asked about my own beliefs about the topic. Still, there is nothing I can tell anybody about death which has not already been written about, broadcast, gossiped over or filmed. Again, the public interest in this topic is vast, and saturates all manner of human thoughts and productions. If one need question this, that death saturates human thinking to the point it manifests in human creation, one need only visit any museum which houses fine arts, read any major sacred test or simply recall the  popularity of the critically lauded cable television series Six Feet Under.

If I have not already emasculated my own authority by proclaiming the truth: That I have no more to say on this matter other than reiterating the sentiments of others—then perhaps you will want to finish reading this blog.

I may not be able to tell you something absolutely groundbreaking or new. However, I can offer with indomitable zest my many experiences as a medium and as a person who has been through his own Near Death Experience as the solid foundation for the beliefs I hold concerning this subject. They are not based on faith or on tradition I learned by rote in some Sunday School class. My background in Spiritualism bolstered what I would probably have accepted when I had my first brush with death during a debilitating bout of encephalitis at age nine. I do not downplay the family association with this religion, because it assuaged all of the fears which began to grow in my young mind as I recovered. Not only did the spiritual vantage point of this faith assuage my concerns about death-- It annihilated them.

I can tell you emphatically that there is no "death." There is no death as perceived by most— there is no cease to the soul, or its smile– or the spark beneath it. Whatever lights that up, whatever animates the spirit is a material which is so utterly indestructible, so permanent, that it survives ultimately and forever. The concept of death as a period at the end of a sentence is a terrible folly. The fear which that concept generates is a wicked delusion, set upon others by those who regard it as bankable currency. In reality, or in my reality, the validity of that concept is nil. Other concepts of death, specifically those informed by religious texts are interesting to toy with and even challenge. I don't at all wish to imbue any religious teaching with my own distaste for it. Like any other person, I have opinions about some systems of faith which are positive and others which are not.

I will , however, readily go on the record and voice my own disapproval of religious teachings which attempt to regulate human activity by enforcing any belief in damnation. To me, this is wickedness; a terrible wickedness which wields a power over the mind of any believer in such theocratic scare-tactics which is absolute. I believe that such spiritual threats are likely the cause of acute psychiatric scarring.

I do believe in Hell. However, not in the traditional sense. As spiritualists believe that we "make our own happines as we choose to live our lives according-- or in defiance-- of nature's laws" (and I am paraphrasing) I personally believe that Hell is real, and it is here, and many do experience it as they walk through their current incarnation. I suppose we all do at some time. I suppose that some experience it more, or their experience is more intense, than the experience of others.

I believe that we can make Hell out of our lives quite effectively while we are "alive."

So far as my belief in a "Heaven" goes, I have no issue with that concept. Indeed, I often use that word to describe the place or state we arrive at when we die. But my own belief system is one which holds that the bliss of Heaven is a grace a human soul will know only after it "perfects itself" by living through as many earthly incarnations as is necessary in order to achieve the right and ability to experience, know and fully comprehend.

I do, also believe in reincarnation. Many are astonished by this, because they assume that I must live within the restrictive confines of rigid Spiritualist thinking— and therefore I must believe that following death every human soul enters into the realm of Spirit. I understand this confusion. After all, how am I going to tell anybody that I-- or any other medium-- can put a person living on the material plane "in touch" with a person who is now a resident of the spirit plane when I am issuing a conflicting message... How can I "talk to the dead" if I believe that the dead are reincarnated into new bodies?

Before I answer I want to first say that while I do believe in the creed and principles or Spiritualism, that there is no despotic consensus amongst Spiritualists where the concept of reincarnation is concerned. Some believe in it, others do not. I also want to say that there exists no conflict between my identity as a medium (who speaks with the dead) and my belief in reincarnation.

Here is my brief "apology," or explanation: Our own ideas about time and space box us into a cell where we have difficulty comprehending why a soul which is supposedly moving on towards a new bodily incarnation would linger around long enough to speak with a spirit medium. In fact, I feel as though our capacity to think in terms of the tangible only is the most clumsy and staunch stumbling block which foils us when we try to make sense of what we are taught to believe is nonsensical. We do not know how many dimensions there may be and our very strict interpretation of time makes it far more simple to believe that if we reincarnate it must be something done immediately. This sort of thinking doesn't allow much support for belief in things such as rest between lives.

I am a big believer in the notion of rest between lives, and I also hold a belief that there are souls which do reincarnate rapidly. There are times when I am unable to "get" information from a person who has passed on. Perhaps they have reincarnated... Perhaps they are at a higher level of spirit. This seems likely to me, as the quickest and most accurate identifying information is furnished to me by souls who exited this plane raoidly, violently, with unresolved issues-- or at their own hand. Thus, it would appear that more "rest" is needed. Or that the time to make contact with those they left abruptly is allowed or provided for as they linger, waiting for the time to make themselves understood via a spirit medium, or by their own persistence in a particular place where they may physically manifest or cause physical disruptions in order to prove that they are still "here."

If we are actually capable of speaking with the so-called dead, how is this achieved? More importantly, how is this explained. Primarily, I do believe that mediums exist in order to fulfill this role. This is an intensely esoteric concept, and a proper explanation would require a much longer venue than a blog. I am perhaps risking doing a disservice to mediumship by speaking so quickly, but to sum up the "explanation" for how this works, I offer you the following:

I believe that our dead are very close to us. This belief is built upon the idea that we are all "vibrating" at a certain frequency while we lead our lives. Those who we understand to be dead are actually vibrating at a higher level than is the human soul encapsulated within a living, physical human body. When we do "cross-over" we then vibrate at that higher level. People such as myself, people identifying as "mediums" are naturally capable of making two-way communication with the spiritual essence of the dead because we naturally vibrate at a level higher than most people and lower than that at which pure spirit does. I also believe that each dimension of existence has a vibration which is peculiar to that dimension.

Those who have crossed-over to the next, most immediate dimension are the most accessible because the dimension occupied by those who have died more recently is one which is close to our own plane. (I use the word plane as a synonym for dimension). The essence of wise figures from the distant past or the spiritual material and cognition of Angelic Beings or "Ascended Masters" are more difficult to reach. This is why people attempting to communicate with ascended masters or angels— or even God— are often seen chanting or breathing rhythmically, or meditating. They must do something in order to raise their own vibration to a level high enough that perceiving and understanding these beings is facilitated. Of course, people talk to Angels and to God every day without doing any such thing. I do believe that such people are heard by these spiritual forces. However, in order to hear the wisdom or guidance of such beings, then it becomes necessity to raise the vibration-- via meditation or by other practices which facilitate this communication.

Mediums do not necessarily always prepare for communication with the spiritual energies of persons who we think of as being dead. Persons who serve as "channels" for higher spiritual identities-- those who are more spiritually evolved, such as "Ascended Masters," do prepare. I channel my own guide only on the occasions when I feel an urge. This urge, if you will, dictates that I immediately prepare, for this feeling always means that a specific wisdom-- or message-- is forthcoming and must be channeled. It is rare that I do channel my guide for any client. Most are not ready for the type of message they will receive. Many are perturbed by the physical changes they appreciate in my visage as it contorts... Some find his accent difficult to understand. "His" accent has been described to me (after re-emerging from trance) as "Indian," "Haitian," or "Asian." My guide has allowed me to understand some of his earthly incarnations, and I can only assume that when he speaks through me, he utilizes an accent or form of speaking which reflects one of these-- or that he speaks in a manner which he deigns is most likely going to impress the listener as authentic and powerful.

I do not do anything special in order to prepare for communication with the souls of "dead" people. Other than to respect the position I occupy as one who has been granted authority to live in a mezzanine, if you will, and to occupy this place in a responsible way— I do not go into an "Alpha" state or need to do anything out of the ordinary to prepare for work. When I do any channeling work, I will prepare. But, as a person with a natural, innate ability to sense and comprehend the thoughts and emotions of those who are not "with us" in any corporeal sense, I don't need preparation. I have almost always heard "them" and I have never feared "them" or death.

Though I have had psychic ability for as long as I can recall, and have been able to speak and deliver messages from those who have crossed over since age nine, I do believe it was sharpened when I became gravely ill at that age. I also do think that the time I spent in "development classes" in the Siritualist Church also whittled away any sort of cumbersome matter which muddled my other sense. I am indebted to many people who served as teachers during my youth and into my early twenties. One of these wise, and beloved people, was my deceased maternal grandmother, whom I referred to affectionately as "Nana."

I do believe that all men and women are psychic, and that all people may develop this ability to the level they wish. I also believe that certain individuals are more likely to naturally maintain the psychic ability we all are born with.

I do not believe that all men and women are mediums. I believe that a medium is born and not made. I do teach classes and workshops in mediumship. I believe that anybody can develop a certain degree of ability in that direction. However, the life of a medium is a life which is, by definition and nature, a life led between two realms. The life of a medium is not a typical life, by any means. There is no getting around that fact. People always have a reaction when I answer the simple, conversational question: "So, what do you do." The reactions I receive when I answer this question run the gamut from curiosity, to happy enthusiasm  and to disgust.

There are many people who will gravitate towards me at parties and get-togethers because I am "unusual" because I have chosen to identify as a medium and not shirk the responibilities incumbent upon myself or upon anybody who does so. There are other people who will steer clear of me because they feel I am engaging in some verboten evil. Then, there are those with whom I must sometimes contend who believe that people who call themselves mediums are nothing more than charlatans engaged in a ruthless and low chicanery whose sole aim is to take advantage of the bereaved for financial gain.

This last group is the one which I feel the most uncomfortable with— because there are now, and have  always been, many fraudulent mediums. I can understand the contempt they feel. However, they are often so slosed-off to the idea that some of us are doing a great deal of good. I can only offer a glimpse at what I do, in an earnest attempt to prove that life is a continuous process. But, I would be lying outright if I were to state that I didn not wish that this sort of skeptic were at least partly receptive to the notion of true, authentic mediumship. Skepticism is healthy; I am a skeptic. I have a rule I issue to anybody who is interested in pursuing a session with a medium: Follow your heart, but do not think with it. Wait until you have sufficiently dealt with your grief before running towards a medium. Run away from a "medium" who tells you that your loved one is hopelessly earthbound... Run from a "medium" who demands, or subtly implies, that a donation of your cash or services can help ease the sorrow of any soul. A true medium understands that the door to reformation is not closed to any soul. True mediums will never ask a client to give money or services in order for the path to a more serene dimension to be opened for a soul who is "stuck" in an astral state.

My opinions about death and my beliefs are all based on my experiences. I have seen too many clients whose dead have "come through" with astonishing revelations and accurate information to be unconvinced. StilI, I remain a skeptic. I continue to question myself and my ability. I feel that when people— when mediums— stop questioning and start feeling like oracles, they become very obnoxious and repulsive people. The hubris which one can easily develop when working at this is a very special and very toxic kind of pride. I feel strongly that a medium is born as a medium and that such an individual, upon recognizing what that means and entails, must accept his or her role and then function in society. This does not mean that every medium is going to shout it from the rooftops, or make it his or her career. Some of the loveliest mediums I have had the pleasure of meeting have been extremely introverted, unassuming folks who relegate their work with spirit to time spent in church or with close friends and family. Then again, I have known several "career mediums" who are loving, giving spirits... Sometimes, they are extremely bright, but do not function well at "Nine to Five" occupations. That is me; I could do other things, but I would be checking my happiness at the door everyday I arrived at work. I am grateful that I do not have to do so.

Again, my life is atypical because of what I do. We are so reliant upon career to define us that it is ridiculous. A coal miner is only a coal miner by trade. A physician may have an added amount of responsibility because of his choice of occupation-- but occupation is only a facet of his identity.

In the next world, or dimension, what we did in order to make a living is not always going to matter-- lest that occupation be vile or cruel by nature. What will  matter then, and should matter now, is what do with ourselves. How we conduct ourselves and how we treat those we call our friends is of paramount importance in this life, and in subsequent lives. What we let ourselves do to others is what will matter. I do believe that enlightenment is only attained after a soul "works off" its "Karmic Debt." So, I do not believe in perdition, but I do believe that making poor decisions or acting in a wanton or outright cruel manner which harms or disturbs those we live by will slow the development of the soul. Anybody can make the decision to conduct themselves in a manner which affirms the spiritual beauty of life. It is never too late, and if you regret something you said or did, don't live with regret. Learn from it the mistake which engendered this regret, and conduct yourself in a manner opposite than i

BE WELL,

JEFFREY JUSTICE