As I am reading Answers About The Afterlife.......A Private Investigators 15 year research unlocks the mysteries of life after death written by Bob Olson who is also the host of afterlifetv.com I am trying to relate to the subject of this book, that there is a life after death, that according to Mr. Olson is "here to deliver the answers that are based on that evidence from a practical investigator's assessment." The evidence Mr. Olson is referring to are his personal experiences with mediums, psychics and channels during his 15 year investigation. As a skeptic I am highly curious to know how an investigator who "draws conclusions based on an examination of the evidence using logic, reason and pragmatism" finds the answers to questions like: what happens after we die, how do our loved ones communicate with us after they die, and what it feels like to be a spiritual being and many more. What I seek are the background to the answers for example who were the mediums who helped him reach his conclusions and claims, their backgrounds and reliability, and how he calculates their reliability.
On page 141 of Answers About The Afterlife Mr. Olson talks about how he determines whether a psychic medium is real or fake and states "fake psychic mediums and scam artists ask a lot of leading questions....fishing around for clues so they can improve their guessing ratio....yet not every medium who asks a lot of questions is a fake". Another red flag for him is "fake psychic mediums and scam artists present vague, general messages, rather than accurate evidence. For example "spirit communication should always begin with messages that identify the spirit who is communicating with the psychic medium". So, basically they should give the name or description or a detailed account of their death what Mr. Olson calls identifying evidence. I believe, based on my research and experience dealing with a very specific personality disorder often found in criminals it is very possible for good con artists to appear genuine and reliable in this case at least they appear this way to clientele but not so much to those that have experience with genuine mediums. What matters in my humble opinion is the client whom which receives the reading and their level of desire to connect with spirit and naivete.
I have personally met several people who claim to have the gift of psychic ability. My most recent reading was with a medium who calls herself Matina. #Matina started her reading with me over the phone stating their were two males present who 'said' they wanted to communicate with me and my mother. She offered no description of them, how they died, or who they were to me in my life. I offered no information and scheduled an appointment for a reading for the very next day. At the beginning of the reading she compared herself to Theresa Caputo (The Long Island Medium) and said instead of moving her lips when connecting with spirit as Theresa Caputo does she sometimes stands up and sways her body side to side which is what she did the entire reading. I was waiting for her to talk about the two males she claimed wanted to communicate with us but there was no mention of them, in fact, she did not identify anybody who she claimed was communicating through her. We told her throughout the reading that we were unable to associate with anything she was telling us and her response was, "you may not remember it now but later it will come to you and you will be shocked that it relates." This, in my opinion, is a good way to hold the confidence of the client until long after the reading is over. Yes, it could be that it would later make sense but none of it did at least not for us. To this day we are still unable to relate to anything she claimed and in fact she in our opinion was either an unseasoned medium, a fake or perhaps gave us a bad reading and no spirit came through for us. Comparing her to the others', well, there is no comparison. We will never know how authentic she is unless we conduct an in depth review with her readings with other people. On her website she will only publish positive feedback but again we do not know the level of desire to connect with spirit or the naivete of the clients nor do we know what kind of negative feedback there might be. This is why I am reading Bob Olson's book Answers About The Afterlife because he did a 15 year study into the afterlife that includes in depth interviews and readings between mediums and their client. Here is a link where you can see Matina in action. http://khqa.com/news/local/medium-connects-to-the-other-side-for-khqa-anchor?id=1007082
Here is a link to buy the book Answers About The Afterlife by Bob Olson. www.amazon.com/Answers-about-Afterlife-Investigators-Mysteries/dp/0965601986/
I witnessed readings with Lisa Williams, voted one of the best mediums in the world according to psychic-readings-guide.com and Rebecca Rosen named medium to the stars. Lisa Williams readings were spot on. She named the spirits coming through and gave detailed information about the events that occurred leading to their deaths. Rebecca Rosen was not as accurate during the readings I witnessed. She named people some of which were identified and some not identified. Once I was read by a channel who when she spoke to me her voice changed from a female to a male and said some thing that later proved to be true. She told me that the friend I was with that day had a dark secret he was keeping from me and emphasized on it throughout the reading and I later learned it was true when I found out that there was in deed a secret and the secret was pretty dark meaning something was being hidden from me by my friend. When I found out what the secret was it was devastating to say the least and was life changing for both of us. It is hard to know what to believe and what not to believe when it comes to something you cannot see or feel and again I think that the reliability of the person making the claim combined with the level of desire to connect with spirit and client naivete are the ultimate factors that determine the most likely truth.
On page 129 of Answers About The Afterlife Bob Olson talks about loved ones who are deceased communicating with us in our dreams. My experience was at the age of 26. I was told by a doctor that I must have inherited a smoking gene, because I smoked, as did my grandparents and parents when I was very young. They all eventually quit and lived healthy lives except my fathers' father who was not so lucky because he was eventually diagnosed with emphysema, a form of COPD, and suffered through the rest of his life with breathing problems. He died when I was eleven years old. I miss him dearly and visit his grave a few times a year. (As I write this now according to Bob Olson's claim my grandfather is aware of what I am writing about him as stated on page 123 "our loved ones in spirit always hear us when we talk or pray to them....but our loved ones in spirit are also aware of when we write a letter or email to them, even if we have no place to send it.....when we talk about them" ) I had a dream but not just any dream. I felt everything that happened in my dream really happened. According to Bob Olson this event is called a dream visitation. He states "the dream is extremely vivid and feels like you are really in the presence of your loved one, which, of course, you are." In my dream I was visited by my grandfather. I heard his voice and saw him as if I was physically standing in front of him. I felt his touch as he put his arms around me and I around him. The best way to describe what it felt like is what some people refer to as an out of body experience. There was no background in this dream. No wall colors or furniture. It was just the two of us and nothing more. It was very strange and something I had never experienced before. I was just at the beginning of my career in the investigation field and had all of the skepticism in the world. In this dream my grandfather warned me about the dangers of smoking and reminded me of his health problems as a result. I heard his voice very distinctly and he was not gasping for breath as he did when he was alive and in fact I sensed he was at peace. He hugged me and said he loved me which I do not recall having ever heard him say to me when he was alive. I felt love from him as I had never felt before. Now, I was in no way interested in life after death or the paranormal at this point in my life. The thought of these things never crossed my mind except in the form of haunted houses on Halloween and occasionally a local psychic fair for fun. I knew in my gut something out of the ordinary had happened and I felt so happy and loved. For several days following this dream it was the only thing I could think of because it stood out among the rest. In other words it was enough to make me question this dream out of the millions I have had over 50 plus years, so far. I was afraid to tell anybody because I thought they would discount my claim or think I was crazy. I knew nothing about dream visitations or spirit at the time. But, I eventually told my father and he listened and offered no negative response and entertained the thought that it was possible. It is one of those things you cannot forget and is always in the back of my mind and to this day I remember it very clearly as if it happened yesterday. It has been over 20 years since the dream and I had always hoped it would happen again but I have never had a dream like it since. Ironically Bob Olson states on page 128 "those who have experienced a dream visitation say that they remember the details of the dream with great clarity many years later. They often remember the dream as if they had the dream the prior evening, even if the dream visitation was 20 years earlier". Having had this occur I truly believe what happened was real, therefore I am open to the possibility that there is much much more that humans are unable to comprehend and there is a spirit in all of us that lives on after our bodies die. It wasn't until I started reading up on life after death, near death experiences, and out of body experiences a few years ago and that my claim of having a visitation with my grandfather was more than likely.
In conclusion I decided to test a theory that our loved ones have the ability to communicate with us after they die. Mr. Olson claims based on his investigation on page 123 "our loved ones in spirit always hear us when we talk or pray to them" and page 125 the claim is "you can communicate with your loved ones in spirit at any time". I made a verbal request to my father who passed away ten year ago how I would like him to give me a sign that he is with me, can hear me, and is at peace. I was very specific that the sign be obvious enough for me to believe because of my skepticism. I would have expected to have found a picture of him in a drawer when I opened it or received a phone call from my mother telling me that something odd happened that reminded her of my dad. What did happen right after my request was this: I was looking for some perfume samples in a drawer because the perfume bottle I used regularly was empty so when I opened the drawer and reached in for a small perfume sample something subconsciously told me to pick the one that was underneath another bottle. I put some perfume on and then something subconsciously told me to look at the bottle and read the name on the label which is something I would not normally do. The name on the label read MIRACLE. Now, I immediately thought this was just a coincidence, but wait, there is no such thing. Was this a message from my father? I mean, the writing was 'on the wall' or in this case on the small perfume sample. So, I asked my friend to request the same from her father who died many years ago and who is not yet a believer in the afterlife. She will let me know when and if she feels she has received a message from her father.
I cannot leave you with one story so here is another one that tops the last. Mr. Olson states on page 127 "there is nothing wrong with asking for assistance from people in spirit, including requesting help to find your lost keys". And, "you're only going to find your keys if and when you are meant to find them". A few years ago I was searching for some important papers that I needed for a court hearing the next day and I knew I had them somewhere but couldn't remember where so I searched everywhere in my office and home without success. I turned to my spirit guides and asked them to please guide me to the file that contained these important papers. I was desperate. So, the very moment after I prayed I received a message in my head that told me to go back to a box I had already searched in but to dig deep. The key words that stuck out to me were 'dig deep'. I did not hear a voice but a thought that I knew was not coming from myself. I went back to the box, stuck my hand deep underneath all the crap on the top and pulled out a big brown envelop without really knowing what I was holding onto. Inside the big brown envelope were the papers that I desperately needed for court the next day. If that is not prayer being answered I don't know what is. I had already searched the box and would not have given a second thought to do it again had I not had this bizarre message in my head telling me to go back and 'dig deep'.
Remember, I am the biggest skeptic I know and am considered very realistic and down to earth. I mean, you can't make these things up. For now my eyes, ears and mind remain open for any communication from spirit.
Until next time if you read my blog please like my facebook page at www.facebook.com/diaryofapi. Thank you for your support!
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