So pay attention, students! The gist of today’s lesson is this: everything is energy—it is at the core of what we see, do, and think about. Not only are we energy, but we also use our energy to tell the world who we are, what we care about, and who we aspire to be. I also believe that everything that exists in the universe is united by a collective energy that connects, promotes, and supports life and the afterlife. It is an amazing continuum that maintains how our bodies operate, how our souls evolve, and the way that our minds function and process emotion. Energy bonds us to each other and to God, because I believe energy comes from God, the creator of the whole shebang.
Aren’t You Just a Ball of Energy?
Albert Einstein was a man of big ideas, and like me, even bigger hair. And one of the few things I remember and understood about him from science class when I was young is his equation: E = mc2. It basically shows us that energy (E) and mass (m) can be converted into each other. What’s more, the German physicist famously said, “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” Sounds intense and maybe a little confusing, but I think the easiest way to understand this concept is to think about the water cycle. There is a finite amount of water on our planet, and while that water can change form, it never disappears. It falls as rain, some is absorbed by plants and animals, and some evaporates back into the clouds to fall again. The water that is evaporated is eventually placed back in the environment by death or excrement, and the cycle repeats. This water is never created or destroyed—it just changes. Same goes with energy. It changes form, but it never disappears.
One way that E can change is from potential to kinetic energy. Potential is related to how an object stores energy, and kinetic is the energy of motion. A tank of gas has a certain potential energy that is converted to kinetic energy by the engine; when the potential is used up, you’re out of fuel (and luck, if you’re not near a gas station)! Or batteries, when they’re new or recharged, have a certain potential. When I put them into a boom box and crank up the volume, the potential energy in the batteries is turned into kinetic energy to drive the speakers. When the potential energy is gone, the batteries are dead.
Like water, gas, and batteries, you can also use and change the energy in and around you, in a variety of ways. The body and soul are both energy, but in different forms. The human body is much heavier energy than your soul, which is lighter and more purified. Again, think of the water metaphor. H2O can take the shape of a hard and solid ice cube, or it can be liquid or vapor. The human body is similar, in that its energy is transposed into a different form that’s no longer dense but light. I’m not saying that your body dissolves into a soul when you die, but that both your soul and your body are energy in different forms.
A lot of people wonder why we even need a body, if we’re energy in both the physical world and on the Other Side. Why not just pick a form of energy and stick with it, right? But your body here serves a purpose that’s linked to the afterlife. You use it to make freewill choices, and you need all of its parts to experience life in the physical world. You need your body to move, and you also need it to feel the kinds of emotions that cause you to make choices and changes. Negativity, pain, sorrow, loss—your body and mind trigger these feelings, so that you can learn lessons that grow your soul. You know how Kelly Clarkson sings, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? I’ll do you one better. What doesn’t kill you makes your soul wiser. You learn from hard situations and use them to inform future ones. On the Other Side, Spirit says it’s mostly rainbows and Skittles, so your soul can’t learn things with the same impact that it does here.
The way your body can affect your soul, plus its ability to overcome setbacks and lead to self-awareness, is a powerful use of collective energy. During a show in Louisville, Kentucky, I met a sixteen-year-old boy named Reese. He has cystic fibrosis and lost his father to a fatal heart attack at age five. The two were very close—Dad took his son to the office every day, and after he died, Reese kept his black shirt, which was the last one he ever wore in this world. Reese had been through hell with feeding tubes, hospitals, surgeries, and funeral homes. He’d also been to therapists, because so much pent-up sadness and frustration fueled anger issues that caused Reese to beat up on his siblings. When I asked Reese what his name was, I actually thought he said it was “Grease.” You know what he said to that? “Strike one, you got that wrong.” Feisty bugger. But his father’s soul came through to say how proud Reese makes him and how impressed he is with how much he does for his community. (I later found out that Reese has a bucket list of ways he wants to make people’s lives easier, including delivering meals to families in need and raising money for Christmas gifts for children’s hospital patients.) After the reading, Reese’s mother told me that her son had let go of his rage and stopped hitting his brother. “He knows his dad is watching him,” she said, laughing. “In his head, Dad’s telling him to be nice.” But without the physical and emotional challenges that caused Reese to struggle all these years, he wouldn’t have room to grow. Trials sure feel unfair at the time, and I’m not celebrating that this poor kid has gone through so much, but without them, he wouldn’t see the value of paying it forward and healing more souls than his own—and that’s a significant opportunity for a young man.
There are also countless blessings of living in a physical body, because God wants us to enjoy our time here, both by ourselves and with each other. He’s not a Tiger God, determined to be strict, practical, and overly focused on learning and achievement. For one, He’s given your body five senses, because they can bring you amazing happiness if you stop to recognize them as they occur. Petting your dog, kissing your partner, eating a slice of lemon meringue pie, smelling a hydrangea, watching the snow fall, hearing a child laugh—all of these things are a warm hug for your soul. The joy your body feels from these experiences can also turn into kinetic energy. It can put pep in your step or make you smile, ear to ear. God’s also given us a sacred planet, and we need to use our body’s energy to appreciate, respect, and protect it while we’re here. We always talk about taking care of the environment for our children, but considering that Spirit says our souls eventually reincarnate, doing this will benefit your own future lifetimes too.
Another way that you can use your body is to express yourself, your gifts, and the essence of your soul. Singers physically share their souls by using their diaphragms and vocal cords, sculptors do it by using their hands, and fashionistas do it by dressing their bodies. My husband, Larry, expresses himself with the tattoos he gets inked onto his body. He loves animals and birds—the man’s skin looks like a poster you’d buy at a zoo gift shop. He has a tattoo of a koi fish, which is a symbol of perseverance and the fact that he’s always striving to improve and succeed in life; Larry has a dragon, which represents the way he protects his family; he has an eagle, which stands for freedom; and his rooster signifies his fighting spirit and the way he pushes himself to do better and succeed when people or obstacles get in his way. Larry also has a Harley-Davidson tattoo to show his passion for the motorcycle he loves to ride, and his newest 007 tattoo illustrates my husband’s sense of humor. It’s just like the one Daniel Craig had when he parodied Larry on SNL!
Send a Thoughtful E-Greeting
Souls who’ve crossed over don’t need a physical body to transfer their energy; they make me sense and feel things by transferring their thoughts, feelings, and messages to me. Your thought vibrations are also powerful energy, and you can use them to manifest your ideas and attract your desires. Speaking and writing have the same effects, because those actions also begin with thoughts. I believe that the energy of our thoughts influences our lives and those of others, and they also attract the circumstances and people who share our mind-set. Our thoughts can help determine our success, outlook on life, and the company we keep. Spirit listens to your passionate and specific thoughts, whether they happen during meditation, prayer, or any
time you’re focused on an idea, even if you’re not consciously meditating but zoned out while driving a car or running on a treadmill. If you add a feeling to that energy, it becomes stronger and moves quicker.
Because you transfer energy with every interaction you make, be aware of the emotions that swish around in your mind and soul. Negative feelings like anger, hatred, or jealousy will create a circumstance just as quickly as if you put a positive feeling of love, joy, or excitement behind your intentions. Of course, there are a range of emotions in between—indifference, concern, hesitation—and that energy will boomerang back to you as well. Have you ever woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and watched your spouse soak up your apathy or grumpiness? It’s like the person’s soul is a big, absorbent kitchen sponge. Or do you ever start the day in a crummy mood, but immediately feel better after having coffee with a friend who tells hilarious stories? If a foul attitude can transfer energy just as much, and as fast, as laughter or friendliness, it helps to pay attention to your mood shifts and choose your company wisely.
When you focus your intentions by bringing energy to them, you turn them into action and create your reality. Your thoughts make up your actions, and thereby the reaction is created. This result can have endless repercussions, good or bad. I also think that maintaining consistent, upbeat energy helps make life a lot easier. If your energy is strong and balanced, things will move more positively in your direction and your soul will feel more fulfilled. When your energy is dysfunctional and fragmented, your flow becomes blocked or disturbed, and you’ll face more challenges. Your energy here also affects your soul in the afterlife, because your life is assessed based on whether your actions (prompted by thoughts) had a positive or adverse effect on others.
When gifted healers do healings, they transfer all kinds of energy to their clients. They use thermal, or heat, energy, which is the physical manifestation of God’s energy surging through their bodies (some healers’ hands actually turn red and feel hot). They also heal with thought energy by using their minds to call on their, and your, guides and angels; then they merge the energy from these beings with their own energy to assist in curing the problem. They think about what the physical or emotional issue is and how they’d go about fixing it as well; those directed thoughts and intentions help promote wellness. And because so much energy comes from thinking, they can do healings in their home or remotely. It works the same way and with similar speed and efficiency.
Your body language can also give off energy, because that too is initiated with thought. I’ve had clients who ooze emotion, whether it’s bitterness, fear, vulnerability, or sadness. They transfer energy just by how they cross their arms, bite their inner cheek, or can’t look me in the eye. It doesn’t take a spiritual gift to sense or be affected by it.
We always credit our brains with turning our thoughts into words and actions, but so many thoughts begin at the soul level. On the Other Side, our souls speak through thought and we are infinitely and energetically connected to that part of ourselves. I’ve found that my own brain can be unreliable sometimes, so I trust that a lot of what I say comes from a more instinctual place. But I’ll bet you’ve also had eureka moments where you’ve surprised yourself with a really insightful or uncharacteristic conclusion and wondered, Did that just come out of my mouth? Those moments often start in the soul.
Put Your Vibes Up
All energy has a vibration, but when it comes to understanding what your energy’s vibration is, it’s helpful to think of a ceiling fan and its blades. When it is not in operation, you’re going to see five stationary blades. That’s like your vibration as a human being because you are very solid, heavy energy. When you turn the fan on, the blades begin to disappear and the vibration/speed is very quick; it looks like the blades are one movement. That’s how Spirit’s vibration is. It’s much faster than ours, since souls are very light and can move faster.
I also know the frequency on the Other Side is different, because I can feel the shift when souls remove themselves from that dimension and change their vibrations to be among us. Because of this energy change, I have to raise my vibration when I channel, and in my everyday life. One way to do this is to boost my spiritual integrity by practicing forgiveness, having compassion, and exercising less judgment.
Raising one’s vibration isn’t just a medium thing—it should be something you strive to do too. It will help you connect with loved ones in a better way, and it will benefit your everyday life. Everyone’s energy has a vibration that changes depending on who’s around you, what your mood is, and what foods and substances you put into your body. We should all want to vibrate at the highest level we can. When you raise your vibration, you affect both the body and soul. The more positive your vibration is in the physical world, the more lessons you are learning and working through, and as a result, your soul elevates. Everything works hand in hand.
Pat taught me that great ways to raise your vibration in the here and now include gratitude, laughter, music, prayer, meditation, and dance; these positive activities also attract good energy back to you. You can also raise your vibration with uplifting visualizations and breathing exercises. Surrounding yourself with a color you love—in a room you spend a lot of time in, or by putting on a brightly colored shirt—can lift your spirits and shift your vibration too. It’s no coincidence that I’m in a better mood when I wear canary yellow shoes, dance around to Train, play a joke on my kids, feel grateful for my friends, and fit prayer and meditation into my day. It’s total bliss to raise my vibration. An instant high!
Vibrations increase with positivity, and as yours rises, just watch: you’ll become more sensitive to other people and the environment you’re in. You may start to sense if someone is in pain or struggling, be it physically or emotionally. I think this is why my husband, Larry, cries so easily since I accepted my gift. He’s become more empathetic from coming to most of my group readings and from being at my shows. He feels people’s emotions more intuitively and intensely than before, and he naturally finds himself doing more good for others, since he sees how it impacts us here and in Heaven. Those ASPCA commercials make him sob like crazy, he engages the most unlikely characters in emotional conversations (most recently, heavy metal bassist Rudy Sarzo!), and when Larry hears a child sing opera on America’s Got Talent, the guy leaves water marks on my sofa. We recently met Oprah Winfrey at a party hosted by Discovery Communications, Inc. (they own TLC, which airs Long Island Medium), and he actually told her he “cried like a baby” during the farewell episode of her ABC talk show. Oprah being Oprah, she squeezed his hand sympathetically. I sure hope Larry’s vibration has gone way up, or else my husband’s just getting soft in his old age!
Instant Attraction: Energy and Objects
I’ve seen energy and Spirit cling to personal objects like Saran Wrap. Items made from fabric (clothes, blankets, scarves) and solid things like jewelry, especially with stones, attract and hold energy long after a person is no longer wearing or using them. A lot of clients bring objects with them to a reading or show, but I don’t have to touch them to feel their energy; Spirit just tells me when I should mention them and tells me what to say. I’ve had a loved one’s soul tell me to acknowledge that a woman was wearing her mom’s cremains as a necklace, to validate its presence. I wouldn’t have known otherwise; it was just a silver chain with a pendant. Personally, I find it comforting to keep my loved ones’ favorite objects, and therefore energy, close to me. I wear Gram’s wedding ring a lot, especially to big events like my son’s lacrosse games or Victoria’s gymnastics meets. I’m always missing Gram, so I like to bring her with me wherever I can. When I feel her energy, I feel her presence.
Since energy can’t be destroyed, it can remain as an impression or vibration in inanimate objects. So when I bring new stuff into my house, especially antiques and estate jewelry that have a history, I always sage and encircle them in God’s white light. Energy is also drawn to wo
od, so I give furniture and mirrors more attention than most. Even if I buy new household goods like appliances, I sage and surround them with light, because the item could have been in an old warehouse with bad energy, or the person handling it may have had unpleasant energy attached to him or her. Trust me, the wrong type of energy is a free gift you don’t want!
The craziest example I have of an object holding on to energy is my friend Marie’s wooden end table that moved across her room when I visited. I’m sure you remember it from the show. The heirloom belonged to Marie’s grandparents. Marie and her friends used to play with it when they were kids. They’d ask the table questions, and tell it to knock once for yes, twice for no . . . and it did! Marie’s grandmother was very spiritual, and at one point, she felt something bad was going to happen to her eighteen-year-old granddaughter. She told her family that she didn’t want to use the table anymore, not even for fun, because she felt it was going to tell her who was going to die. Her granddaughter did die soon after, and they never used the table again.
Marie’s table was stored in her sister’s basement, but she took it out for the first time in thirty years to show it to me. We wanted to see if the table would move for us, the way it did for Marie’s family when she was young. So I saged the table, protected it in God’s light, and asked for only the highest good of all concerned. If I was going to put my hands on that piece of furniture, I wanted to make sure its energy was purified!
Me, Marie, her mom, and her brother Michael sat on all four sides of the table and lightly put our hands on it. The table vibrated. I then asked everyone to lift their hands just above the table (I didn’t want people watching the show to think we were moving it). Right then, the table began to slowly slide and slightly lift up; then, it moved across the floor really fast toward Michael. We didn’t push or pull the table with our hands, there was no fishing wire attached to move it from off-camera, and the floor was perfectly level in Marie’s home. I’ve never seen anything like it before or after! Marie said she and other visitors have tried to make the table move since, but it won’t stinkin’ budge.
There's More to Life Than This: Healing Messages, Remarkable Stories, and Insight About the Other Side from the Long Island Medium Page 16