REPETITIONS
What if an event keeps happening over and over in our lives? What if we keep seeing a certain object or hearing a certain phrase time and time again? Are these just random occurrences, or are they something more?
One of the central truths about signs is that they don’t always accomplish what they attempt to the first time around. So it’s not uncommon for the Other Side to send us the same sign over and over again. Or it could be that the Other Side simply wants to reinforce the message or the greeting it is sending. Seeing a purple balloon sail past us once isn’t much to get excited about. But seeing purple balloons everywhere—in the sky, on greeting cards, in advertisements—is kind of special. The point of a sign may be in the way it keeps repeating—that could be the method the Other Side is using to get our attention.
The repetitions could also be suggesting that we examine some unhealthy pattern in our lives that also keeps recurring. One of the primary functions of our Teams of Light is to help us learn the life lessons we need to keep ascending to a higher and better path. And if we don’t learn them on our first opportunity, the Other Side will give us additional chances to learn them.
Perhaps we keep entering into toxic relationships, or we allow self-doubt to prevent us from being the brave, light-filled people we’re meant to be. Maybe we keep listening to—and surrounding ourselves with—people who knock us down rather than lift us up. Repetitive signs can be directly linked to these issues—the purple balloon, for instance, might be the Other Side urging us to take flight—or they may be repeated prods urging us to examine an unhealthy pattern in our life.
So if something keeps happening to you—if the purple balloon just won’t stop following you—pay attention. Your Team of Light is trying to tell you something.
WHAT WE LOVE, WE TAKE
The love we hold in our hearts on this earth does not disappear into nothingness when we cross—it travels with us and becomes a part of the massive, universal life force that is the collection of all of our love and light.
In the same way, our passions and our unique individual gifts and personality come with us, too. Someone who is an artist on earth will be an artist on the Other Side. Someone who was an incorrigible jokester here on earth will be the same once they cross. If we adored elephants when we were in our bodies, we will still adore them once our consciousness has transitioned out of our bodies and turned into pure light energy.
What we love, we take.
That is why, when looking for signs, we should be aware that our loved ones will often use the very things they loved or were good at here on earth as a way to connect with us. They do this because they still cherish these things, but also because they know we recognize them as things that were cherished by the soul that passed.
For example, if a loved one’s favorite color was yellow, be on the lookout for signs that somehow involve yellow. If a loved one always rode around on a rusty red bike, keep an eye out for rusty red bikes. If a loved one’s reaction to a sudden storm was to dance joyously in the rain, don’t be surprised if you see an image of someone dancing in the rain on a day you’re feeling down and discouraged.
Our loved ones on the Other Side send us signs designed to make us think of them. They do so to remind us that they are still connected to us in very real and powerful ways. The love that bound us here on earth continues to connect us after they’ve crossed. The interests we shared, the joys we had in common, the memories that make us laugh—these are all part of the ongoing and everlasting connection between us and the Other Side. They are all part of the vibrant cords of light that pass between all of us on earth, as well as between us and the Other Side. And they are tools our Teams of Light use to get our attention and steer us toward our highest path.
So if you see something or feel or hear something that reminds you of a loved one who has crossed, and makes you think of how much they mean to you, be ready to accept it as a friendly hello, a gentle reminder, a cosmic wink—an especially beautiful sign from the Other Side. And then say thank you to them in your mind, as a way to acknowledge to them that you received their message, and also to honor it.
DREAMS
The dream state is yet another way for our loved ones who have crossed to connect with us. It is not uncommon for us to have dreams that feature someone who has crossed. We can easily recognize them in our dreams, and when we wake up we can experience the same intense feelings of love we had for them when they were here. We can also interact through dreams with loved ones in ways that alter or advance our earthly relationships with them. Healing can often take place during dream visitations.
Dream visitations are a very real thing. As I’ve said, I believe we all have the capacity to experience the nonphysical, spiritual energy of souls that have crossed. But the cacophony of our busy lives overwhelms us and makes it quite difficult for a message to break through. It’s like being stuck on a radio frequency that produces nothing but static. We are often hopelessly locked in the brain’s frontal lobe, the control panel that handles our language and math skills and our analytical thinking—in short, all our cognitive skills.
Except, that is, when we’re sleeping.
When we sleep, our brains go offline. We drift away from consciousness. The noise and the static quiet. Our brains shift in and out of the frontal lobe. We enter into something called slow-wave sleep, and beyond that, REM sleep—the deepest level of sleep, the state in which we dream. Ironically, our brains are nearly as active during REM sleep as they are during waking life, with remarkable bursts of electrical activity. REM is also the level when our bodies and our brains are most divorced from each other—our bodies are essentially paralyzed, leaving our brains to devote all their power to nonphysical experiences.
The brain scientist Jeff Tarrant explained that when I do readings, my brain literally shifts from a state of consciousness to something resembling deep meditation, or even unconsciousness—even though I am awake and alert and aware. That shift is very similar to what happens when we are all deeply asleep.
When we sleep, we can achieve a state where we can more readily experience the spiritual energy of people who are part of our lives, both on earth and on the Other Side. That is why these dreams often seem impossibly vivid, as if they are really happening.
I refer to these dreams as 3-D dreams, and I think of them as glimpses of the unseen reality of existence. The things that happen in these dreams are, in a way, really happening. We can meet with and get messages from our loved ones in dreams, and we can experience new facets of our relationships with them. What happens in these 3-D dreams most definitely matters to us. In a way, it’s like getting a download from the universe, with extremely useful information we might otherwise have been too busy or too distracted to receive.
So pay attention to your vivid, 3-D dreams, to these visits from your loved ones, and to the signs and messages the sleeping brain so beautifully conveys. They are all part of our interconnectedness, and honoring them empowers us in a way few other things can.
INTUITIVE PULLS
There’s a kind of sign you cannot see or hear but only feel deep inside—an intuitive pull.
We have these feelings all the time. We call them gut feelings or gut instincts, or a sixth sense—a guiding force that exists beyond our rational, logical mind. Turn left, not right. Walk down this street, not that one. Leave this place, the energy feels off. If I stay here, something bad could happen. Go say hello to that person over there because a wonderful connection awaits. We somehow understand things instantly, without consciously reasoning them through.
This is intuition. And those tugs we feel are intuitive pulls.
The energy behind these pulls is connected to a great gift of light, and to what I call God energy. It is the sweeping power of the universe steering us and intervening in our lives. It is our Team of Light on the Other Side strummin
g the brilliant cords of light that connect us all. And we need to remember that our gut will never steer us wrong. That is why it is so important for us to heed our intuitive pulls. Because when we heed them, we honor them.
And when we honor our endless connection to the God energy of the universe, all of the blessings of existence will flow more easily to us.
Intuitive pulls are the way the Other Side tries to protect us from wrong or harmful decisions on earth. Often these intuitive pulls are actually counterintuitive. For instance, we may believe we really want something, but at the same time experience a nagging hesitation. I read for a woman who was very successful in a prominent job and looked forward to advancing even higher in her company. But she also had the persistent feeling that she should leave the job and pursue a new path that excited her. It was completely counterintuitive to what she believed was her best course of action.
So she chose not to heed her intuitive pull and instead stayed at the job. Not much later, her company merged and a new co-worker maneuvered to take her position. She was let go.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When she left the job, she embraced the wonderful, powerful new path she had been pulled to earlier—and her life opened up and transformed in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Often, our intuition is one step ahead of us!
In fact, it can sometimes even save lives. I myself recently experienced three instances of this in quick succession.
The first episode was on a mundane Wednesday afternoon. I was out with my kids, running errands. Our destination was Target. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a prime open parking spot close to the entrance. I turned down the aisle to claim the spot, but something made me slow down. I didn’t have time to process why—I just stopped the car in front of the spot. “Mom, why are you stopping? What’s going on?” my son asked from the backseat. “Aren’t you going to park?” At the precise moment my son asked the question, a tiny girl, her black hair in pigtails, darted into the space. My kids gasped. I gasped. The little girl’s mother gasped—she was in the spot facing us, struggling with her infant’s car seat when her daughter ran away. Quickly, she grabbed the little girl by the hand and led her back to the car. The air around us felt still.
“Mom, what just happened?” my daughter asked. We were all shaken. If I hadn’t stopped my car, if I had pulled into the spot at that exact moment, I would have driven straight into the little girl. I said a silent prayer to my Team of Light, thanking them for alerting me through my intuition, thanking them for helping me to avoid a tragedy that would have forever marked both our families.
One week later, I was driving home. As I rounded a corner, I suddenly slowed to a crawl. “Mom, what are you doing? Why are you stopping?” asked my daughter from the backseat.
“I don’t know, I just have a feeling,” I started to say. And with that, a basketball bounced in front of my car and a boy who looked to be about fourteen ran right after it—right in front of my car—oblivious to the oncoming traffic.
“OMG, Mom!” my daughter said. “That’s crazy! It just happened again!”
“Yes,” I told her, “that’s why it’s so important to pay attention to intuitive pulls and honor them. That’s the Other Side watching out for us.” In a way, I think the Other Side was also using these experiences to teach my children the importance of intuition. Again, I silently thanked my Team of Light.
The last occurrence took place just a few days later. My older daughter, Ashley, and I were in the car, and she sat beside me in the front seat. We were stopped at a traffic light. Ever since Ashley was little, we’ve played a game at stoplights. She watches for the light to turn green, and when it does, she says “Ping!” in a cute, high-pitched voice—which is my sign to go. On this particular day, the light turned green and Ashley said, “Ping!”—only I didn’t go. Something stopped me. I had an instantaneous download that told me to stay put. So Ashley she said it again, louder—“Ping!”—and then, “Mom, why aren’t you going?” At that very moment, a huge truck ran the red light and blew past us at fifty miles an hour. We were rattled—if I’d gone, there is no doubt the truck would have slammed into us. Ashley stared at me, openmouthed. We both took deep breaths. “That’s why I didn’t go,” I said. I could feel it. Something inside told me to stay put. And I knew what that something was: my Team of Light.
Intuition is one of the great gifts we have as human beings. But it only works if we heed it. When we begin to look at intuitive pulls as evidence of our connection to a higher source of power, and we begin to honor them in a way that leads us to better decisions, we find our higher paths and attain more fulfilling happiness.
BLOCKED PATHS
There’s the famous saying “Be careful what you wish for.” The Other Side has taught me a version of this lesson—sometimes it’s a blessing not to get what you want.
The Other Side tries very, very hard to steer us toward the right decision. Sometimes our Team of Light will even put obstacles in the way of us getting what we think we want.
We might, for instance, be constantly thwarted in our efforts to land a certain job, or make a certain move. If we are—if it seems the universe is determined to work against us—we should consider that there is a reason why we’re not getting what we think we want: It’s not actually in our best interest. It won’t help us navigate to our best and highest life path.
Think of it as the Other Side staging an intervention. The Other Side wants to help us avoid pursuing something that will not bring us true fulfillment, or something that may lead us down a path of sadness and anger or even danger. If we keep trying to obtain something yet our attempts are blocked from every angle, and we can’t figure out why, consider that it might not be the right path for us. Sometimes, surrendering it to the universe and moving on is the most powerful thing we can do—our highest and best path.
Blocked paths are one of the many ways the Other Side intervenes in our lives and tries to steer us in the right direction. This can be true with regard to the people brought into our paths, too. Some people are brought in as blessings, others as lessons—and sometimes, we are a lesson for someone else. Often, once a lesson is completed, the Other Side will shift a particular person away from our path. Understanding that and letting go of these people can be a very powerful tool to help us achieve our best and highest path. It also opens our energy to new and beautiful connections and lessons.
THINK BACKWARD
As hard as our Team of Light may try to hit us over the head with signs, we may not see or receive them. Despite how closely we are connected to the Other Side, there is a necessary difference between our existence on earth (as souls in physical bodies) and what happens to our energy afterward (when we leave our physical bodies behind). They’re distinct steps in the journey of our souls. And so the process of communicating isn’t always straightforward; it’s elliptical. It can be a little like a cosmic Morse code.
And because it is, we are all going to miss a few signs sometimes. They might even be great signs—big, bold, unmistakable. But we’ll walk right by them, or we’ll be on the phone and not see them, or we’ll see them but not really see them. That is going to happen. So if you’re sitting there thinking, I never get any signs, I guarantee you—your Team of Light has been sending them to you. You’ve just missed them. Our Teams of Light understand this, and that’s why they keep sending us signs, over and over, until we finally see them.
But there’s a way we can help them out. We can look backward.
We can think about events that happened in our lives and look to see a discernible pattern—a cosmic thread of light and connection woven through them. In retrospect, we might be able to make connections we missed the first time around.
Ask yourself, “Did this happen to me before?” Ask, “What sign or moment of connection did I deny or put away on a shelf in my mind?” Ask, “Was there a m
iraculous occurrence that I maybe casually tossed away?” We can go back in our minds and turn a missed connection into a made connection.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
—MARY ELIZABETH FRYE
The universe is always speaking to us…sending us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop, to look around, to believe in something else, something more.
—NANCY THAYER
IMAGINE YOU’RE IN A BUSY restaurant, and you see someone you know across the room. You want to get their attention, so you call out their name. Above the noise, they hear their name and turn around. You both wave and smile and feel good about your sweet little moment of connection.
What I’d like you to understand is that connecting with the Other Side is just as simple as calling out a name in that restaurant.
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