# 5 of 6 Things A PI Won't Tell You

#2 We hire subcontractors to do most of the work. BRIAN WILLINGHAM

Brian says, “There are independent investigators everywhere, many of whom do subcontract work for other firms.  It’s the nature of the business, in part because investigators rarely have a steady, normal workload.  Hiring subcontractors makes companies nimble, and it allows companies to hire outside experts who they wouldn’t be able to keep on staff or investigators in areas where they don’t have any coverage.”

There is nothing wrong with hiring a subcontractor to do the work especially if you know they will get the work done properly and timely.  It has been my experience that when someone calls you for your professional expertise they don’t care where it comes from and only want the results.  I am referring to an anxious husband who wants to know if his wife is cheating on him or a parent who wants to reconnect with their adult child having not seen them in over 20 years. 

Fortunately, I have never had a problem doing work in house.  I have been blessed with a fully staffed office for over 20 years.  Seldom did I hire a sub contractor on a case by case basis. If I did not have a staff I would happily help sub contractors keep busy with work.  But, it would have to be someone I know and well. When I started working for Dash Investigations in 1995, now known as Consumer Detective Corporation, my boss told me a story that taught me a lesson at someone else’s expense.  My boss, Mark, was hired to find ownership of a license plate on a car that parked in his driveway every night while he was at work leaving his wife at home, alone, so he thought.  He suspected his wife may have been cheating on him.  Mark knew why the man wanted the information but didn’t ask him what he would do with it once he had it.  Mark learned the car belonged to a man his wife was having an affair with and gave the information to his client including the name and address.  As a result of these findings Mark's client took a gun, went to the guys house, and shot him!  I cannot recall whether he survived the attack.  It was a long time ago.  I do recall that Mark had to give testimony to the fact that the shooter came to him for the information.  I will never forget this story and as a result I always ask my client what they plan to do with the information that I give them before I even take the case.  I would never hire a contractor whom I was not acquainted with.

 Throughout my career I often received phone calls from people who wanted to get into the industry especially police officers who wanted side work or wished to retire from the force and do what they do best without a badge short of making arrests.  I have hired a few police officers on a contractual basis and I have been hired to investigate police officers.  I have had people ask me to train them in skip tracing but there are tricks of the trade and secrets that you don’t reveal.  It's like a magician giving away the secrets to his magic tricks.  It took me many years to build the relationships and resources that contribute to my success.  It would not be wise for a PI to hand their secrets over to just anybody.

If I were to hire a contractor that contractor would have to come with their own resources, skills, and knowledge.  In order to get the experience they have to have the opportunity to work.  It’s not easy breaking into this industry without the clientele.  It’s like any start up business in an professional capacity such as accountants, plumbers, electricians and PI’s.  You have to have experience to get the clients.  If you can't get the work how do you build experience?  I support the efforts of those that wish to get into this industry.  

If you are interested or know someone who is interested in getting into the PI business please read my posting titled Adventures in The World of Investigations.

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6 Things a PI Won't Tell You

#6. Our work is really boring.   BRIAN WILLINGHAM

I don't necessarily agree with Brian and suspect he is talking about surveillance and that indeed can be boring, but not always.

A long time ago when I first started out in my career as a PI surveillance was one of the first things I learned how to do.  I was taking on a new position with a PI firm as manager and head investigator and although I knew how to make the bread and butter for the company I had other areas to study and surveillance was one of them.  Anybody could follow someone to see where they are going and what they are doing but if you lose your subject do you know how to find them again?

Here is an example:  I was hired by a husband to follow his wife.  He suspected she was cheating on him.  I said to him what I said to all of my cheating spouse clients, "if you suspect it then it is probably happening. What are you going to do with the information if you find out you are right?"  I am not going to risk my life and that of my partner for the sake of someone else' infidelity.

This case took place in the city where there were one way streets and parallel parked cars on the neighborhood streets that had rows of houses with little room for side yards.  My client was desperate to find out if his wife was cheating on him.  He said she was coming home late at night telling him she was working late which he learned was not true.  He had an idea of where she might be going after work but did not know the address and if there was anything going on that shouldn't have been.  Short of entering the house and seeing with our own eyes she was doing the deed with someone other than her husband our abilities were limited.  Our efforts were handicapped by the surroundings such as trees, cars, other buildings, etc.  

Now, there are certain things I will not divulge for the sake of giving away too much information. I assure you that no laws were broken and nobody ever got hurt during any of the investigations I had anything to do with not to mention we always contacted the police in the jurisdiction we were in and they were always made aware of our purpose and were most likely familiar with our activities.  If any of the neighbors called the police due to 'suspicious activity' they were told that they were aware of our being there.

Our client gave us a starting point.  We picked up our subject at her place of employment and started to follow her.  There were a lot of turns at stop signs and if we did not stay close enough, due to rush hour traffic, we would lose her but we also had to keep a short distance away so she would not feel as if she was being followed.  That could be disastrous.

Once we were hired to follow a young woman from her job one night after she got off work and we lost her in the process.  We learned that later that night while on her way home from a party, drunk, she hit a brick wall and was seriously injured.  Had we been following her naturally we could would have thought she was trying to get away from us and as a result slammed into a brick wall.  It was meant to be that we lost her.  Thankfully she survived in the end and as I recall we found out she was not cheating on her husband that night.  Out of all the surveillance jobs I had worked on this is the only subject I had ever lost.

Due to the continuous stops we did eventually lose our subject but we managed to pick her back up at another cross street.  When we lost her we felt our hearts drop down to our feet.  We failed but we didn't give up.  We used our skills to navigate ourselves around the neighborhoods in order to catch up with her again. Speeding through neighborhoods, hitting more stop signs, and keeping our eyes open as wide as can be we found our subject at a stop sign.  It was a sigh of relief.  Once we had her in our sights we followed her to a house where she parallel parked her car. Of course we kept going down the street but came back around and parked our car within eye shot of the house we thought she entered.  First, we had to verify she was in the house and once we did we sat and waited.  This is where the boring part comes in.  You sit and take turns keeping your eye on the subject and any movements made.  While we waited we did our computer searches to find out who owned the property and then did a background on the resident of the home.  He was a single man that she worked with.  They appeared to be the only ones in the home at that time.  There was only one light on that was visible from the outside.  You have to have the guts to get out and walk around to the back of the house to see if there were any activities or areas that were more visible.  To be successful at surveillance you have to have the guts to do pretty much anything that needs to be done but as long as nobody gets hurt.

In the end we concurred that our subject was in deed cheating on her husband.  Their marriage ended in divorce down the road.

An exciting surveillance job I did was a highway speed chase.  We were following a subject from one state to another and it became very dangerous.  It ended with successful results and nobody got hurt.  

After putting in two years of surveillance training I decided it was not the area of investigation I wanted to work in. The only time I ever needed to use the skills I acquired was years later on a criminal investigation.  I have not had the need to use it since and I hope I never do.   -The end

"There is no hole big enough in this world to hide from a PI."

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My Past Life Regression Session

Before I begin I want to state that everything I examine and investigate on the topic of life after death is for the purpose of finding proof that there is life after death or finding proof that there is not.  This posting is all about regression therapy which is recalling a past life while under hypnosis.  I have not found convincing evidence to prove that it is possible to recall a past life because there is nothing to prove that it is true, but I continue on my journey trying to learn more about it until I satisfy my curiosity.  It goes without saying that when I speak of my past life regression session and past life recalls it is all alleged and not validated.  

I was still under hypnosis with my regression guide Rhonda Leifheit in the drivers seat.  I was looking for answers to a few questions that my past life might reveal about my current life.  As I regressed from a life I once lived in the 1920's as an aspiring singer I was taken back into a light as I descended.  This is where we left off: 

These were questions I was seeking answers to from the beginning.  I wanted to know if there was a connection between me and my mother, grandmother and husband. I also wanted to know what happened to the soul of my unborn child.  I did not get the answers I anticipated and was shocked at the results.  I knew this much, if the answers were premeditated or of power of suggestion I certainly would not have gotten the answers that I did. 

The light was of peace and calm and apparently where answers could be found while still under hypnosis. These were questions I was supposed to be able to answer, for myself.  As I listened to her voice the questions the answers rolled off of my tongue.  I did not have time to think about the answers.  It was as if I knew the answers before the questions were asked.  They say that right before we are born the angel touches our upper lip and we forget everything and when we die we know everything there is to know. Having been the one giving the answers I was surprised by them.  

Question 1:  Who in this past life is in your current life?
 
The only person in my past life that I was able to identify in this life was my father.  My father in this life shared my former 1920's life as my manager/agent.  I found this amusing considering I had not questioned a past life with my father but with my husband, mother and grandmother.  The agent in my past life reminded me of my father in this life but they looked nothing alike. Could it be that when Rhonda suggested I find my father from this life to comfort me from my fear of heights into the spirit world that I actually sought and found my father in a past life?  Meaning that my father in this life and the agent/manager in the past life were the same soul.  Could it be that in the spirit world we are connected and have lived many lives together where this soul has acted as protector and caretaker to my soul?  It makes perfect sense if I take into account  many of the research studies I found in the countless books I have read.  There is too much to explain but in a nutshell our souls have soul mates that are not necessarily lovers but are friends, siblings, parents, as well as lovers and our souls choose to repeatedly live lives on Earth with each other but in different capacities.  When we are "dead" or in the spirit world we know our soul mates well but when we are born into an earthly life and forget everything we knew in the spirit world sometimes we are so connected to someone that one can only suspect that they are somehow spiritually connected and in most cases they are.   I am sure you have heard of deja-vu when you have an experience for the first time that you feel you have experienced before.  This includes people you feel you know but no matter how hard and long you think of how you know one another the dots do not connect for either of you.....in this life.  This is a very good example of what a spiritual connection is.  You (your spirit or soul) recognizes someone in this life that you can only know in the spirit world.  I don't want to digress too much but this is where things get interesting.  Our body is occupied by our spirit or conscious state of mind.  Our brain connects our body with our spirit that it's really hard to distinguish the two.  This is possible through meditation where you can separate your spirit from your body.  While our spirit sits behind our eyes and manages our personality and consciousness it does not die with our body.  In fact, when we die there is no shift in the way we consciously feel as our spirit rises out of our body.  Several people who have experienced out of body and near death have stated that even though "they" were looking down at their own bodies they felt as if they were still attached to their body until they realized they were apart and only describe the feeling as FREEDOM.  Free from any illness that may have caused them disabled.  I can go on and on but I will save this for another time.

During my regression session I did not recover any relationships with the people I wanted to connect with the most.  My mother in this life and I are extremely close.  There is not a day that goes by when we pick up the telephone to call each other at the exact time and our lines are busy because she was calling me and I was calling her and the weird part about it is that I know why her line is busy and that she is calling me.  Also, sometimes when she calls me I was thinking of calling her at that very moment and she claims the same of me calling her.  I know I am connected to my mother in the spirit world and that perhaps our connection on earth is somehow driven by our connection in spirit.  We are in sync.

My grandmother and I were extremely close.  She called me her best friend.  I was always close to her especially after my grandfather died in 2000.  I was by her side daily while she lay in a nursing home bed unable to care for herself.  She depended on her family to take care of her needs that the nursing home could or would not.  It was then that I started reading about life after death and learned about death bed visions which explained what was happening when I caught my grandmother speaking to someone that I could not see.  I detailed my visits and earlier research in my Nursing Home Drama blog.  I feel that my grandmother and I once lived a life where I was her mother.  In fact, in this life I am named after her parents.  And, perhaps we too are soul sisters. 

 Question 2:  Is the soul of your unborn child in any way connected to either of your children in this life?

Surprisingly I said "my unborn child did not yet have a soul" so, no, there is no connection.  What?  I never imagined this as a possibility but I have read that the spirit (a branch of the soul) typically enters the body of a fetus in or around the fifth month in the womb.  If you ask any mother who has lost a fetus or unborn child for any reason whether a miscarriage or abortion she might admit that she wonders about the development of the spirit of her unborn baby and question when the conscious life began for that child.  There is no proof but researchers have suggested that a spirit that enter a fetus or unborn baby that is miscarried or aborted was aware that this would take place and that their life lesson was to see what it was like to enter a human form.  This may have been the case for new souls.  And, research studies show a spirit will sometimes be reborn into the same family especially after the loss of a young child.  This may seem complicated so if you want better clarification I suggest reading the book Return To Life by Jim B. Tucker, M.D.  This book is about research on reincarnation that Dr. Tucker and Dr. Ian Stephenson gathered from around the world.  The stories in this book are amazing and enough to make a believer out of a skeptic.  This is one of many books that document the investigations from a skeptics point of view.  Doctors and a team of investigators treated each case with doubt.  Their efforts were to discount the cases of reincarnation as young children remembered their past lives with detailed information including their home address, the layout of the home they lived in, names of family members, and more.  The investigators took the children independently to the address they recalled from a past life, had the child name each family member they recalled and their relationship to them in their past life.  The investigators often tried to trick the child by suggesting a family member with a wrong name but in every case the children would correct them with the correct name.  In all cases the families had lost a loved one the way the child recalled and confirmed everything the young child claimed.  The puzzling fact is the young subjects in this book were three to five years of age, most could not read, and have never been to the areas where they claimed to have lived their past lives.  The distance could have been as far as 200 miles away from their current homes yet they knew the address and demonstrated familiarity with the vicinity they claimed to have once occupied.  It's the perfect book for the skeptic.  

With my questions answered I was satisfied with this session.  I walked away wondering if I had really lived this life as an aspiring singer in the 20's or made it up without knowing I was making it up.  I felt exhausted as though I had been doing physical work but I had only been lying on a recliner for an hour.  I went home after my session and did some online research hoping to find something about a once cigarette girl turned singer somewhere in France in the 20's but I did not find anything.  I did, however, find a (black and white) picture of a cigarette girl that resembled the one in my session.  I had never seen the picture before.  

Believing in life after death really has nothing to do with past life regression or the ability to recall a past life.  While we live multiple lives, thousands of them, we may or may not be able to recall the lives through past life regression or meditation.  There are books giving detailed steps as to how one can recall a past life but how do you know whether or not what you recall as a past life is really true?  

The next session was a few weeks later.  My reader, Rhonda, took herself into the Akashic Records searching my past lives.  I had more doubts about this reading.  To be continued.......

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Can A PI prove or disprove there is life after death? The PI Files

Rhonda Leifheit was guiding me into a hypnotic state of mind in order to experience past life regression.  I wanted to know who I was and what happened to me in a past life, if at all possible, that according to psychics, mediums, and many doctors of Psychology believe we all have.  I was putting it to the test as author and former Private Investigator Bob Olson suggested in his book Answers About the Afterlife .   It is something I know little about so I don't know at this point whether I believe it is possible to recall a past life.  I do, however, believe in reincarnation and that we have lived and will live many more lives and that each life there is a lesson to be learned.  The more we learn the closer we get to God.  As I continue to investigate I wanted to experience hypnosis and past life regression in two phases.  The first phase is to be put under hypnosis by a Past Life Regression Reader and the second phase was to have the reader go under hypnosis and give me a reading of my past life through Akashic Records.  Akashic Records have many meanings but to someone like me and you it means "memory bank" of our past lives.  You give your name and date of birth to the reader and they are supposed to be able to get into your personal records in the Akashic zone.  During the first phase of my reading I was being guided into meditation and into a state of deep hypnosis.

As "I" had been lifted out of my body and into the sky towards a light I began to feel hot as if I was burning up.  I doubt this was the reaction my past life regression reader and guide was expecting as her calming voice guided me towards a light as she described as warm and full of love, but she had no idea that I was afraid of heights.   Once there she suggested I seek comfort from my father, who passed away ten years ago in the early morning of Halloween, and look for him in the light, however, before I was able to find him it was suggested that I find a way to cool my body down in perhaps a cold rain shower or with a cold drink but I sought a ground covered in snow as I lay my body down to make snow angels as suggested by my guide.  Once cooled off I wanted to find my father, and became emotional for a moment but I was quickly guided to a long hallway where at the end I would find a door.  I stood by the door with a blank mind waiting for the next direction.  "Open the door" my guide asked  "what do you see?"

I slowly opened the big wooden brown door and the scene reminded me of when Dorothy opened the door to the Emerald City, and the first thing I saw was the color of dark silky red and a woman standing with her side to me.  She had the profile of a young slender woman with short dark hair and a band with a feather in her hair.  She had on a dark red tight dress that came down to right above her knees and fishnet stockings covered her long legs  After I described what I saw as if I was talking in my sleep I said, "I don't know if it's me I am looking at or someone else.  I don't know where I am."  I looked around the room to try to get a sense of where I was and guessed "I don't know if it's a brothel or a night club but I am in a dressing room somewhere."  My guide asked me to look down at myself to see what I was wearing.  "I am wearing fishnet stockings.  I am looking at myself in the mirror. The woman I see is me."   I said out loud, "I don't know if I am a prostitute or a lounge worker."  I was about to find out.  Rhonda said, " step through the next door to see where you are."  I opened the next door and I saw myself standing among a crowd of people shuffling past me as if they had somewhere to go.  I had a cigarette cart hanging down from my neck.  I am a cigarette girl in a night club and I am an aspiring singer trying to get on that (I pointed to the left) stage.  I am very focused on my career.  I see a man with a long mustache walking by otherwise everyone else looks blurry.  Nobody else stands out.  But, I don't know who this man is."  

 The best way to describe how I was feeling during this process is comparable to that while in meditation.  I can hear Rhonda's voice but when I respond to her questions I know what I am thinking in an effort to speak but I have no idea how I sound.  Listening back later to my voice I sounded as if I was talking in my sleep.  As I lay on the recliner every now and then I would consciously remind myself that I was still in my body and try to get a sense of how my body felt.  It felt tight and numb.  But, I would not feel my body unless I thought about it or focused in that direction. 

Rhonda took me a few years ahead of my days as a cigarette girl and I saw myself sitting in a small apartment.  It was just me.  It was quiet.  I had no friends.  I was completely focused on a singing career.  I was quickly whisked away from this scene.  Rhonda wanted to take me back to my childhood.

I went back into the childhood of the life I was viewing and I saw a little girl with short brown hair and bangs wearing a short white dress with small blue flowers sitting on the floor holding a doll in her hand.  The room was white as if I was in a kitchen or perhaps the white was symbolic for clean and spotless with a double meaning that my life was pure and boring as there were no other toys in sight and I felt as if I only had one toy to play with.  There was an attractive young woman sitting in a chair doing something with her hands.  I couldn't quite see what she was doing but I guessed she was knitting or something. My viewpoint was from that of a five year old girl sitting on the floor.  I sensed the woman was a mother figure in my life and was very firm and cold towards me.  I did not feel the love.  The next scene involved a piano but I wasn't sure what was happening.  I assumed I was taking piano lessons or something of that nature because I was standing next to it or maybe I was taking singing lessons.  The scene was unclear.  In my current life I never took piano lessons but taught myself how to play a song or two.  I never took to one instrument but had had lessons in guitar, violin, and flute and although I am no Madonna I love to sing for fun.  At this point Rhonda asked me to move on into my adult life.  The first thing I felt was myself and an unidentified man who was holding my arm guiding me through a crowded room and my viewpoint was as if I was shuffling through a crowd.  I realized that I was a headliner at a nightclub and the man on my arm was my agent/manager escorting me through the crowd of people to the backstage area.  I was trying to figure out my name and listened to the crowd but I did not hear it.  Rhonda suggested I look for a sign but there was none.  I was inside a building in a lobby area walking toward the stage to perform as a singer and that is as far as I got when Rhonda took me to my death in the life that I was seeing.  I would soon learn how and at what age I was when I allegedly died in my life as a cigarette girl turned singer.    I was nervous to take that next step but after all it was something that had already occurred so I took the leap and went to the next phase of my life.  Rhonda guided me to the time of my death and a scene immediately came to me as if a veil was lifted off of a picture in a gallery.  I saw myself lying in a hospital bed but this time my viewpoint was different than it had been.  It's as if I was watching it happen to someone else in a movie.  A man by my side was holding my hand but he was not a lover or a friend but more of a fatherly figure as I felt the bond that I shared with him.  He was my agent and cared for me as a father cared for a daughter.  He didn't speak much but took good care of me.  I felt safe with him.  He was older than me and had dark hair and a mustache that curled at the ends and he always looked so debonair.   I was weak, coughing and hot to the touch.  I clearly had an infection that was killing me because this was the death scene of this lifetime.  I died when I was in my mid to late 30's.  It was a peaceful death as I felt it occur.  I didn't feel any different except that I was no longer occupying the body that lay on the hospital bed.  The man that took care of me all those years was sad but maintained his composure as if he knew it was my time to go.  My guide led me back to the light and the spirit world where she asked me some questions.  1. who in that life is connected to me in my current life? 2. is the soul of my unborn child connected to either of my living children in my current life? 

These were questions I was seeking answers to from the beginning.  I wanted to know if there was a connection between me and my mother, grandmother and husband. I also wanted to know what happened to the soul of my unborn child.  I did not get the answers I anticipated and was shocked at the results.  I knew this much, if the answers were premeditated or of power of suggestion I certainly would not have gotten the answers that I did.  To be continued............................

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Can A Private Investigation Unlock The Mysteries of Life After Death?......My Past Life Regression Experiment....The PI Files

MY PAST LIFE REGRESSION EXPERIMENT:

Friday, September 18, 2015

I was preparing to be hypnotized by Rhonda Leifheit, a seasoned Past-Life Regression Therapist certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists, who with years of training and experience puts people under hypnosis and guides them into past lives while also passing through spirit where our souls live one with God. My curiosity of past life regression began after reading the book Answers About The Afterlife written by Bob Olson who was a Private Investigator who spent 15 years researching life after death with claims to have unlocked the mysteries.  I was excited to learn that a PI with natural skepticism such as myself shared this common interest and had possibly found evidence to support his findings.  My interest in life after death began a few years ago when my grandmother, who I was very close to, was near death.  I began reading books on the subject as I sat in a chair next to my dying grandmother who was confined to a nursing home bed.   More recently I hired a self proclaimed psychic medium who was less than authentic in my opinion.  The only statements she made that I could relate to were few and very generalized and while I wanted to connect with deceased loved ones she was unable to identify anybody she claimed to have connected with nor was I able to identify them using the information she gave. I was looking for very specific words and statements to be used in order to prove to me that she was an authentic Psychic Medium.  I will talk more about this experience another time. I only recently read Bob Olson's book which is a question and answer book with answers to some of the most common questions about death such as "how can I tell if a psychic medium is real or fake?", "is death scary, painful, dark?"  and "can my loved one in spirit hear me when I talk or pray to him/her?"  These are only a few of the many questions answered in his book and while I am interested in the answers from Bob Olson's perspective while reading this book I was also looking for the background to his answers for instance whom did he interview, how was the interview conducted, what is the background of the people of which he relied on.  Had there been background to support his answers I would be less skeptical of his investigation and how it was conducted besides not knowing Bob Olson himself.  Is a reader picking up this book before any other on this topic supposed to simply believe what he 'says'?  I decided to have my own life regression experience for myself as Bob Olson did discussed in Part 9 of his book.  As an Investigator I feel it is as equally important to provide the right answers along with the information that led to the answers in order to build credibility with the readers.  I was disappointed that there was no such information included in the book that has incredible answers some of which I have read about in other books where the authors do provide more background information to their findings.  So, while Bob Olson might provide realistic answers in his book he does not provide the background and how he reached his answers.  I know his investigation included reading other books.  With that said,  I have provided the name of the regression therapist I have chosen to use. Her background can be viewed on her website.  

Before my appointment I felt anxious and excited because of the new experience I was about to have.  I felt confident that I would have no trouble being hypnotized because it is simply meditating under somebody else's direction and I have successfully meditated on many occasions on my own and with the power of suggestion given to me by my meditation teacher Tom Pasley where all five senses came alive. For example going to the beach and feeling the sand underneath your bare feet, smelling the ocean breeze as it brushes over your head, tasting the salt that the ocean emits into the air, and hearing the waves.  You can visit the beach in meditation and it is the next best thing to being there.  My anxiety came from the unexpected and not knowing what I would see or feel if I would even make it that far.  I also had many questions that I had hoped could be answered such as the connections I may have had in past lives with my mother, grandmother, and husband from my current life and the possibility of my unborn child reincarnating into one of my living children.  My ultimate quest was to learn the truth about life after death and if the process I was about to encounter is a real way to find answers to our past lives assuming my first answer is affirmed.  On my way to the appointment my nerves went out the car window while I found the street I needed to turn onto was closed!  I thought to myself, "how in the hell am I going to get there if her street is closed?  I need to arrive there on time!  I need to calm down otherwise I will be too worked up going into the session."  I did arrive there and on time and my anxiety did not return.  Sometimes we need a diversion from tension and sometimes it comes when it is needed the most.

I was invited into her home office where I saw a desk in the front hallway by the door.  She took me into her living room where there were two chairs and a small table with two glasses of water.  Next to the table was the main part of the living room with a large futon sofa and a recliner chair.  She first invited me to sit on a chair at the table where we would talk and get to know each other for the first part of my session time of one and a half hours.  I had read her website so I knew just about everything there was to know about her as a regression therapist and my questions were related to my session of hypnosis and the content of what I might learn and how she would guide me through it.  As I sipped on my water she asked me specifically about my interest in past-life regression and what I was hoping to get out of it.  I told her that I had been interested in life after death since my grandmother was dying but my interest of past lives came after reading Bob Olson's book whom she had never heard of.  She was familiar with the books Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls both written by Dr. Michael Newton and knows someone who studied with him.  That alone was impressive to me considering I had read both books and found Dr. Michael Newton to be a credible Psychologist and a certified Master Hypnotherapist with a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology. Rhonda Leifheit was referred to me by a friend who holds a Masters degree in Teaching and Music who had a reading with Rhonda along with a friend of hers, also a Teacher.  The two friends did not have a reading together and were not in the same building during their readings but found through each of their past life regression sessions and in their own words, conducted on the same day, an experience they had with each other in a past life.  Again, they spoke of the same experience with each other while under hypnosis. This information was not shared with them until both sessions ended.  How bizarre is that?  Dr. Michael Newton had a few clients in the recent past who experienced similar situations.  I recall a story where two people who met on an online dating service and felt a strong connection before they ever met had a past life regression session with Dr. Newton on the day they first met and in fact met at his office for the first time after having spent hours talking on the phone.  They wanted to find out if there was a past life connection with one another because they felt so connected.  They both spoke, while through hypnosis and in their own words, about the exact same story of how they had dated in a past life at the age of sixteen and seventeen and were in a car accident together near the Pacific ocean coast in California.  The boy died at the scene.  You can't make these things up!  Dr. Newton is just one of many doctors who has written about life after death. After discussing my desire of knowing Rhonda explained the process of how she would hypnotize me and guide me through my journey.  I was eager to get started and went into it with an open mind yet made her aware of my skepticism going in.  She advised me that many people have asked the question of how would one know if they were making things up as they go, but she assured me that it may not be made up but a real memory from a past life.   I asked her if my talking about everything with her before hypnosis can in any way suggest as in "power of suggestion" and she replied that it will not. Then we were ready to begin.

Rhonda invited me to sit in the recliner and as she closed all of the blinds that allowed light into the room I was busy getting comfortable. She sat in a chair caddy-corner to me on the right side.  There was a blue pillow on the recliner that I rested my left arm on.  I reclined the seat and turned on my phone recorder and layed it on a t.v. tray in between us.  She did the same with hers.  She told me ahead of time that I would most likely remember everything but just in case I would have a recording of our session.  The session began with my breathing and the focus of my breaths, eyes closed, and comfort level high.  As I started the breathing pattern I opened my eyes for a brief second to make an adjustment and noticed Rhonda had also closed her eyes and followed her own lead.  It felt as if we were going under hypnosis together as student and teacher. So, this is how they do it!  Focusing on my breathing and Rhonda's voice were my two tasks.  I became more relaxed as Rhonda counted from one to twenty with my head becoming lighter, all of the tension leaving my body from head to toe, and the white light that was virtually cleansing my body was lifting me up and out.  At some point she asked me to think of the happiest most relaxed place I had ever been.  I described as I was sitting on an outdoor recliner chair on the balcony of an apartment in the heart of Jerusalem.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold, and the air was fresh and peaceful.  It is a feeling of serenity you can't explain.  As Rhonda guided me up and out of my body and into the sky slowly leaving the earth in my mind I was seeing the earth getting smaller and smaller as I could feel my heart beating harder and harder and my body felt tight as if it was burning.  In my mind I was panicking but I did not verbalize it the way I was feeling it.  When Rhonda guided me to spirit (the spirit world or heaven) she asked me how I felt.  I said, "I feel like I am burning up.  I am afraid of heights!"  After the fact it reminded me of the time in my youth I allegedly hypnotized a girl who was afraid of dogs and ran for her life.  Was I really under hypnosis?  Was I in the spirit realm?  

To be continued...................................

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Can A Private Investigator unlock the mysteries of life after death?..........The PI Files

On the last page of Bob Olson's book Answers About The Afterlife, A Private Investigator's 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death and the host of Afterlifetv.com, page 242, he states "become your own afterlife investigator, gather your own evidence, and then draw your own conclusions."  From the beginning of this book I was hoping to read in more detail about the investigation and resources used to reach the conclusions in order to give more substance to the statements made such as: "we communicate through our thoughts" when answering the question "How do spiritual beings communicate with other spiritual beings?" found on page 102.  And, what about this more controversial subject of "What happens to the soul after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion?"  Mr. Olson concluded in his statements "in both a miscarriage and stillbirth, the soul is in control of this outcome" and "just as with miscarriage or stillbirth, because souls are eternal, the child's soul knows it has infinite possibilities to live life through another baby and possibly through a baby from the same mother.  The soul intending to experience life through that baby is, therefore, completely accepting of the mother's choice to end the pregnancy."  This book is good for someone who is seeking peace of mind due to the loss of a loved one but offers little or no evidence to support the information contained within.  It is also a good book of reference to other books that have been written about these topics.  I enjoyed reading this book but what I seek in my journey includes detailed information about resources used to support the content of the material I view.  In this instance I do not know Bob Olson nor do I know the resources he used to write his book, other than what had already been published in other books, so I cannot automatically believe what he says to be true, however most of what he wrote I have read elsewhere by authors who have provided some form of background to their conclusions and with that I believe many of Mr. Olson's answers but for those who are relying on this book for answers and proof will not be satisfied.  

It is hard to provide evidence when it comes to something you cannot see.  When we seek advice should we believe anybody who offers us an answer especially when it is something we want to hear?  If you answered yes then this blog is not right for you because you may read things that you may not want to read OR maybe you are open minded enough to consider something you have never considered and/or agreed with in the past.  If you have never considered an afterlife in the form of spirit or soul then how could you even consider there is a God?  Let me state it another way.  If you believe in God then you must consider there is something more.  God is something we cannot see, right?  At least not in the form that we would expect that makes it believable enough to know that it is God that we are looking at. We first have to ask ourselves what God means to each of us and what it represents.  If you believe in God then you must consider the possibility there is something other than what we see on earth and in our galaxy as humans.  The common factor that most if not all professionals who have ever written about life after death have agreed and concluded that there is a soul or spirit in all of us that is separate from our body and when "we" die our soul or spirit leaves the dead body and returns to the spirit world.  Therefore, "we" do not die, only our bodies do.  With that said, once you have decided whether or not you believe in a more supreme existence then you will accept the likelihood that people have an ability to connect with spirit in one way or another.  Just because you do not have the ability doesn't mean another person does not.  There are some people who have proven their ability to the world and some claim to have the ability but have never been so lucky to have been given the chance to show it and there are those who claim to have it, have convinced them self they have it, but are unable to prove it because they simply do not have the ability they claim to have. When a psychic medium tells you things about yourself and your life that only you would know would you consider they have a gift of psychic ability?  Once they prove to you they have the gift of psychic ability (and I do not use the word "prove" lightly) and then they give you messages from your deceased loved ones would you believe the messages are real?  This is a form of evidence we cannot see! 

I will be visiting a regression therapist by the name of Rhonda Leifheit in the next few weeks and will seek answers about my past lives and my purpose in this life.  I will not know if I am a believer of this artist until after my session.  I have questions about my spiritual relationship with several people in my life including my husband, mother, grandmother, perpetrator, my children and some friends whom I feel I am connected with on an advanced level.  I will audio record my sessions and document my analysis in this diary.  I am both nervous and excited about this potential and going into it grounded and skeptical.  

I am a skeptical believer, not a doubter and seek answers about spirit with a sensible and practical mind.  I hope you continue on this journey with me if not for anything but to consider the information I provide to help answers to your questions while on your own journey.  This, I believe, is what Bob Olson's intentions were when he shared, in his own way, his book Answers About The Afterlife.  

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Can a Private Investigator unlock the mysteries of life after death?.......The PI Files

The question is:  What happens after we die?  I have been seeking answers to this question for several years by reading books from reasonably qualified professionals that have researched through various methods including meditation, psychic readings, channels, and using the deepest state of hypnosis used in regression therapy called the somnambulistic state of mind.  The book I am reading now and have been blogging about lately is called Answers About The Afterlife A Private Investigator's 15-Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life after Death written by Bob Olson who is also the host of AfterlifeTV.com.

I was given this book to read because I am a Private Investigator, a natural born skeptic, and curious about the afterlife as was Bob Olson who wrote this book.  I have so far found this book to be very easy to read and understand even for a beginner who is curious about what may come after life on earth as we know it.  It is a question and answer book to some of the most common questions regarding life after death such as: what determines how and when we die?, when does our spirit leave our body at death?, and is death painful, scary, and dark?  These are just a few of the questions answered by Bob Olson in his book Answers About The Afterlife where he bases his answers on the results of his 15 year investigation.  I was especially interested in reading his book because of the shared skepticism and the mindset of seeking evidence and then drawing to a conclusion based on that evidence while using his skills and resources as a PI.  In my opinion an investigator of any type is much like a scientist who must see to believe, in most cases, and this is no different.  Mr. Olson states that he interviewed many people who have had near death experiences who have seen and witnessed a glimpse of the afterlife.  But, who are these people?  What is their background and are they reliable, and how reliable is the person performing the reading?  These are questions that were not answered in the book but there are many topics I can relate to based on my personal experiences that Mr. Olson writes about including mediums, channels, and psychics.

I think in order to best understand how mediums, channels, and psychics work is to have experienced deep meditation because during deep meditation you feel as if your body separates from your soul or as Mr. Olson explained in his book it is your spirit that inhabits your body and not your soul.  On page 86 of his book he says, "our spirit is that part of our soul that inhabits our human body in order to experience a physical life" and "the soul is forever connected to the spirit".  Better said on page 17 he states "first, there is an ocean, then from that ocean comes the waves.  The ocean is the soul, and the waves are the spirits".  While I have never heard it put quite this way I think it is a good analogy having read a number of books on the subject.  If you ever get to the point where you meditate and experience the feeling of oneness with yourself then you will have a better understanding of how it feels to have an out of body experience and find peace within yourself as well as believe that proven reliable mediums, psychics, and channels have the ability to do what they do.

In order to meditate successfully it is best to find a quiet place where only you control the sounds such as a sound machine or music.  Sitting outside with bird chirping is fine too but not near a highway where the big rigs sound their horns. Outside noises are very distracting when learning how to meditate although once you have mastered it you will learn that you can meditate anywhere without distractions.  I often meditate for fifteen minutes at a time while at the gym during my workouts and have no idea what goes on around me during this time nor am I aware that my feet are moving underneath me and surprisingly my eyes are always open.  There are many ways to meditate but the best way to start out is to learn how to focus.  The best way to do this is to find that quiet space and close your eyes and do some breathing exercises in order to relax your body and mind.  Don't forget to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth....slowly for a count of three.  Then, relax every part of your body from your head down to your toes one body part at a time including ear lobes, throat, and stomach.  For every body part you relax try to focus on that body part.  Once you have completed this task then try to focus on one thing.  People who try to meditate and fail often blame it on the inability to focus and get distracted by thoughts that may cause them stress like a report that is due or something as simple as a mental grocery list.  Try to focus on a single white light or a black dot that you envision in your mind or maybe can see through your eyelid.  Shut your mind off and focus on looking at the light or dot.  Every time your mind wonders, and it will, just go back to your chosen focus object.  Learning to focus will get you closer to a successful meditation session that can last anywhere from ten to twenty minutes or longer and believe me when I say that ten minutes of meditation can feel like longer than ten minutes.  The deeper you go under and are able to focus the more you will start to feel different as if your mind is not connected to a body.  It takes time and practice to get it right and it is very rewarding especially for people who have a lot of stress in their lives.  Is it possible to meditate if you have a lot of stress?  Absolutely!  It's a temporary break from life, a vacation, and something to look forward to doing especially for those that have a lot of stresses in their lives.

Hypnosis is very similar to meditation.  My teacher of meditation who had the pleasure of meditating with and learned from the Dalai Lama, Tom Pasley, often took his class on a journey through the power of suggestion and it was up to us, the students, to focus on his words and allow ourselves to travel on these journeys.  If you were lucky enough to be on a journey with Tom all of your senses came alive and were able to see, hear, feel, smell and taste all that was suggested while meditating.  Please know that Tom's ability to use the power of suggestion was not the reason for our success but it was his guidance, his voice, and our ability to relax ourselves that allowed us to have these experiences.  The difference between meditation and hypnosis in my opinion, having had done both many times, is that meditation is a self propelled state of mind and hypnosis is when someone else guides you as you meditate. Here is a link for Tom Pasley and his background:   http://www.stlouisqigong.com/St._Louis_Qigong/About_Tom.html.

My definition of a hypnotist is a person who helps someone meditate by the power of suggestion by first taking them through the first few steps of meditation and relaxation.  Then, they guide you to wherever it is you want to go and sometimes where you would never want to go.  When I was a teenager I went to several hypnotist shows and parties where the hypnotist put a group of people on stage and attempted to hypnotize them all at the same time and would test each person by putting a flame from a lighter underneath their hand to see if they follow the power of suggestion by not reacting to the heat from the lighter.  I was the subject of this experiment a few times.  The next step was to have them each do something funny or something that might otherwise cause them embarrassment in order to get a reaction from the audience who paid money to see the show.  I studied the way the hypnotists worked and tried it on some friends and friends of friends one night at a sleepover.  Three girls opted to go under hypnosis and I knew two of the three so I knew nothing about the third girl.  Out of all of the hypnotists that I had seen I combined their different techniques hoping it would relax a person enough to act on my suggestion but wasn't sure if it would work.  It seemed that all three girls were relaxed and in some sort of meditative trance so I proceeded to give them suggestions of things to do that only sixteen year old girls would think of as some of the other girls were watching and helping me give suggestions to those that were allegedly in a meditative state.  Everything was going strong until I told the girl I didn't know that two friendly dogs were approaching her.  Upon that suggestion she started to scream and cry and ran off really to nowhere since the door to the room was closed but she went as far as she could and hugged the wall and would look behind her as if the dogs were following her which got us into trouble because it woke up the parents of the house.  Of course all three girls were still under when the parents found out what we were doing and ordered me to take them out of the trance, as if they actually believed they were under, and asked us to promise to never do it again.  After I went through the exit process of hypnosis the one girl told us that she was afraid of dogs and swore she felt as if two dogs were following her.  We were all shocked by the possibility that my attempt to hypnotize actually worked and as a result scared me to the point that I have never done it since.  All these years later and now that I know more about it I would certainly share what I know in order to help others learn how to relax using the safe methods I have learned from certified trainers.  But, keep in mind what works for one person might not work for somebody else.  Once you learn how to meditate you will find what environment works best for you along with music, a mantra, or silence.

Once you have experienced meditation in the way that I have experienced it you might find it easier to accept the gifts that mediums, psychics, and channels have and that regression therapy in the form of hypnosis might actually work.  Let's go one step further and imagine being in a deep state of hypnosis with a regression therapist who guides you to a past life.  I am about to take this journey for the first time with a regression therapist by the name of Rhonda Leifheit who was recommended to me by a friend who experienced it for herself.  Here is a link to her website: http://www.pathfindnews.com/resources/source.html.  I hope to learn about my purpose in this lifetime and my connections with friends and family that I consider soul mates.  More about this next time.

If you are interested in reading Bob Olson's book Answers About The Afterlife you can purchase it using this link: (I do not make money from promoting this book)
 http://www.amazon.com/Answers-about-Afterlife-Investigators-Mysteries/dp/0965601986/

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