Paranormal is the New Normal - A Blog by Anne Newgarden

My Own New Normal

A Look Back Since Publishing Adventures of a Soul

I can’t believe that it’s been more than a year and a half now—a year this past August, to be precise—since I published Adventures of a Soul: Psychics, Mediums, the Mystical, and Me. I’ve learned so much about the world of self-publishing and book promotion, and yet there is so much still to learn! A heartfelt thank-you to EVERYONE who has purchased and read my book, and doubly so to those who have posted a review on Amazon or elsewhere. It’s GREATLY appreciated. The Reader reviews I’ve received have been touching and heart-warming. Honestly, I’ve been surprised many times at precisely WHO has enjoyed my book the most and/or expressed to me that they’d been profoundly changed by reading it. Friends who admitted they had barely even thought about metaphysics or the invisible realms, but had a mind open enough to read Adventures of a Soul when they heard about it, have asked me for recommendations for their first psychic or medium reading; for classes and workshops; and for more books in this genre to read. Now, that, Dear Reader, REALLY warms my heart! After all, that was the reason I wrote this book in the first place: to encourage others to expand their horizons—both inward and outward—by embarking on a personal metaphysical exploration of their own.

Even more surprising to me, Reader, has been another phenomenon that’s occurred since my book’s launch. Friends who read Adventures of a Soul with whom I’d not had contact for a long time—sometimes several decades—confessed to me that they’d had “paranormal” experiences, and even discovered “paranormal” gifts and abilities of their own. Some have come into them in recent years; others had them back when we were classmates or neighbors or work colleagues, but had never shared this aspect of their lives with me, as they had no idea I was interested in such things. (And, honestly, who can blame them? Up until fairly recently, most people haven’t generally talked about these topics in “mixed company,” for fear of being branded deluded dreamers, wackos, or mentally ill.

Reader, the stories they’ve shared with me have been fascinating! One told me of seeing an apparition, dressed in clothing from another era, that vanished before his eyes; another, of hearing a “little voice” throughout her life that told her things, including a long-buried family secret that proved to be true. One described having an ability to intuitively sense serious medical issues in the patients she was treating as a physician’s assistant, at times second-guessing her superiors, and being right! A former coworker told me she has become able to contact the dead, along with a number of spirit guides; and a former schoolmate of experiencing an “awakening” that left her able to communicate with guides, angels, and other higher-dimensional beings. One friend told me of seeing, as a teenager, up close and unmistakably, a UFO craft (or, in current parlance, a UAP); the husband of another shared his experience of seeing two actual ETs—the ones with little bodies, big heads, and huge eyes, in this case—in his bedroom! (Yes, he was freaked out; no, he’d not ingested any controlled substance; and no, they did not harm him.)

And this is not to mention any of the new friends I’ve made, while pursuing my explorations, who are gifted intuitives, mediums, past-life readers, and energy healers . . . I’ve even gotten to know several who can talk to the animals (move over, Dr. Dolittle) and see fairies (yes, Reader, I now believe in fairies, though they’re not, as I understand it, quite the way our pop culture has portrayed them: think less Tinkerbell, more energetic-beings-existing-in-a-higher-dimension-who-often-appear-as-light! (Then again, “Tink” did often appear as a bit of light, so perhaps author J. M. Barrie was on to something . . . )

Actually, Reader, all of this should hardly have surprised me. It’s part and parcel of what I’ve been learning about for a good number of years now in my studies and explorations regarding the idea of a “Shift” on planet Earth—a global shift in consciousness—that’s been long awaited, and is now taking place. (Come on, you knew something weird was happening, didn’t you?) This Shift, apparently predicted by many of the planet’s indigenous cultures and ancient civilizations as something that would occur if we got to this point in history without wiping ourselves out, involves, among other things, vast numbers of people “waking up” to the fact that we are far more than just our bodies, and stepping into a far stronger connection with their Higher Self . . . including claiming such innate human abilities as intuition, mediumship, telepathy, remote viewing, channeling, energetic healing, knowledge of their past lives, and more.

But it’s one thing to read about it and hear about it for decades from so many metaphysical teachers and sources as something “coming”—it’s another thing to hear that it’s here, now, and to actually witness these things occurring among your otherwise “normal” acquaintances and friends. If it sounds a little X-Men-ish to you . . . well, you’re not alone. And from what I’ve come to believe, Reader, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. I’ll be writing more about the Shift and in particular the information that’s been “brought in” about it via channelers—individuals who serve as “vessels” for higher-dimensional beings or collectives who are able to communicate through them—for many years now. (There are a few channelers out there who’ve been doing it for thirty or forty years. One has even been invited to speak numerous times at the UN! Who knew?)

So, yes, Virginia . . . and anybody else who’s seriously asking . . . paranormal HAS become the new normal, as I hope I’ve begun to show in my previous blog posts, and looks to be becoming more so every day! Stay tuned . . .

Past-Life Regression Pioneer Dr. Brian L. Weiss

When spending time with my mother in the Staten Island house I grew up in, which I frequently do, I take my daily walks at lovely Sailor Snug Harbor, formerly a home for retired mariners and now a cultural and arts center with gorgeous landscaped grounds. Most days, as I walk, I listen to podcasts or videos on my phone—generally woo-woo-related content that’s research for upcoming books (yes, Reader, there are two more in the works . . . so far). One day, I was listening to some material that had to do with “old souls,” a phrase used to refer to souls who’ve had many incarnations—hundreds, perhaps even thousands of them. Apparently, those of us who are drawn to this material, I had come to understand, are likely to be old souls too. And on a gut level, I felt that to be true. As I cut across a parking lot on my way to visit the loo, a license plate on a parked car caught my eye. “HERE B4,” it read. Yep, I thought, me too.

Have you, too, had the feeling you’ve been here before, and maybe more than once? As I write in my book Adventures of a Soul, it could be meeting someone for the first time and having a profound sense that you’ve known them before; it could be an inordinate fondness for—or even an obsession with—something not of your era or culture; or visiting a place for a first time and feeling, I know this place, often with deep emotion involved. (I had this feeling myself upon visiting several cloisters and convents, before I’d ever been told that I’d had many past lives in religious orders—which I was, a number of times.) It could be a phobia, for no apparent reason, or a prodigious inborn talent for, and knowledge of, something like music or math. For those who are curious about the topic, I direct you not only to the astonishing work of Dr. Jim Tucker at my alma mater, UVa, regarding children’s past-life memories—featured in several of my previous blog posts—but now, too, to that of Dr. Brian L. Weiss.

Brian L. Weiss was one of the earliest mainstream authors (and a best-selling one at that) in the field of reincarnation. A psychotherapist with an MD and an Ivy-League background, he used hypnotic regression as a tool with his patients, taking them back to their childhoods to find the roots of issues manifesting in their present-day lives. A skeptic about reincarnation at the time, he was astonished when, while regressing one of his patients, whom he refers to as Catherine, she appeared to recall past-life traumas that seemed to be the cause of the severe emotional problems plaguing her in the present. And while Catherine, quite remarkably, began to rapidly recover once those memories were explored and processed, it wasn’t until she began to bring in, or “channel,” messages from spirit “Masters” that were extremely personal to Dr. Weiss and his family, with information no one outside the family knew—in particular, messages about his deceased son—that he became convinced that what was going on was “real.”

Weiss wrote about the experience in his first book, Many Lives, Many Masters. He went on to write several more books as he continued to work with his patients’ past-life memories, finding them a powerful means of healing, including Same Soul, Many Bodies (about, believe it or not, “progression therapy,” that is, peering into the future—or a future—through hypnosis! I haven’t read it yet, but having just learned about this phenomenon, now I must!), and the hugely synchronistic, fated past-live love story Only Love Is Real (a personal favorite, Reader, as I’m not only a hopeless romantic, but have experienced a fated past-life love story of my own, as told in my book Adventures of a Soul).

Why does all this matter? Well, to me, the idea of past lives is a fascinating topic in and of itself. But then, I always want to learn as much as I can about who I am, where I come from, and where I may be going. Not everyone, I’ve found, does! (Reader, it boggles my mind, but it’s the case.) If we can heal our present-day maladies by processing wounds and traumas from other lives in our past, in my opinion, that’s a valuable thing to know.

And then there’s this: I’m working on a few more books, one of which deals with a subject that I touch upon only briefly in Adventures—the idea that we are currently in the midst of a seismic shift in consciousness on the planet, one that has been predicted by a number of ancient cultures around the world, and talked about by countless channelers and intuitives in the “New Age” movement over the past several decades or more. One aspect of what they see happening to us humans as we evolve as a species is that we will be connecting far more seamlessly with what some call our “higher selves”—the divine part of ourselves to which we are always connected, but with which most (though not all) of us here on the planet don’t currently consciously interact. As we do, it’s said, one thing that we can look forward to is the ability to remember all of our past lives. Yes, Reader, you read that right! And not only remember them, but be able to access, for each and every life, all of the knowledge, experience, and talents that we possessed. Think about what that would mean . . . especially for old souls!

Do I believe it? Yes. Why? I’ll tackle that subject, as I said, in a future book! For now . . . check out Weiss’s books, and the videos on his YouTube channel, and you, too, may find yourself as intrigued as I am by the clues, and sometimes keys, to a present life of happiness that our past lives may hold.

Mediumship: Follow the Science at the Windbridge Research Center

I was talking to a friend the other night after learning the deeply sad news that one of his brothers had just died in an accident. Louie had lost his mother a few years before, and had been extremely close to her, as had his sister. He was not only now grieving the sudden death of his beloved brother, he was also quite concerned about how the shock and loss were affecting his sister, who was still very much mourning their mom. As we talked on one of those video apps—we were a continent apart—I could see the worry etched on his face as he spoke about his brother, and then his sister, wondering how he could help her.

While I generally hesitate, Reader, to bring up my beliefs about the continuation of consciousness after death with anyone going through a recent loss, as Louie expressed his profound sadness about his brother, pointing out that he would never see a new exhibition of Louie’s paintings, some in a style his brother had especially loved, it just popped out. “Well, you know me, Louie. You know I believe he can see the paintings, and that he’s around you right now. And that you can talk to him, and he’ll hear you.”

As I said it, I felt a twinge of apprehension. Had I overstepped? But Louie simply took in what I said. I told him, then, that during the course of the explorations that had resulted in my book Adventures of a Soul, and in the years since, in which I’d continued to explore, I’d become convinced that death was not the end of consciousness, but simply a transition, and a marvelous one at that. “Well, maybe it’s hard for me to believe it, because I haven’t had any experiences like you’ve had,” he said. “Of course,” I answered. “It really is the personal experiences that create the belief. That’s why I wrote the book: to encourage people to explore these things themselves. To perhaps help set them on their own exploratory path.”

After we hung up, though, I realized that what I’d said wasn’t entirely true. Personal experiences are the most persuasive. However, more and more each year, there is research being carried out that, to my mind, proves, or in some cases, all but proves, many of the phenomena I write about in my book, including the existence of an “afterlife.” I’ve written many posts about such work in this blog. But specifically, this time, I thought about the Windbridge Research Center. As their Web site explains, “The mission of the Windbridge Research Center is to ease suffering around dying, death, and what comes next by performing rigorous scientific research and sharing the results and other customized content with the general public, clinicians (like medical and mental health professionals), scientists (like researchers and philosophers), and practitioners (like mediums).” Windbridge has been studying, among other things, the ability of mediums for more than fifteen years. And I do mean scientifically studying. Serious, scientific, “fully blinded” (more than five levels of blinding!), peer-reviewed, replicated studies with optimized environments, and maximized controls. Their conclusion? Put simply, that “some mediums are able to acquire information about deceased persons through some unknown or anomalous means.”

I’d never heard of Windbridge until I happened upon the book Investigating Mediums by Julie Beischel, PhD, while trolling the waters on Amazon. Reader, with that title, of course I bought it, pronto. And I couldn’t put it down. Reading about the extraordinary work of the Windbridge Institute—which still exists, but which has since shifted its work on mediumship research to the not-for-profit Windbridge Research Center—I kept thinking, How have I not heard of this place before? Dr. Beischel, whose graduate training includes pharmacology, toxicology, microbiology, immunology, physiology, biochemistry, protocol design, and statistics, founded the Center with her husband, Mark Boccuzzi, a psi researcher, in 2017. As she explains in that book (which is now out of print, but is actually a collection of three previously published e-books, including the very much available Among Mediums: A Scientist’s Quest for Answers), her interest in mediums began after the death of her mother, and her first mediumship reading soon thereafter, which she approached as an experiment (definitely a woman after my own heart!). It’s a story that she recounts in the section of Among Mediums called “How Did I Get Here?”, and one with a great twist at its ending. (Reader, you know I’m not going to give it away! And by the way, I see she’s recently published another book—Love and the Afterlife: How to Stay Connected to Your Human and Animal Loved Ones. I’m definitely adding it to my “gotta get it” list!) After finishing graduate school, Dr. Beischel began performing medium research as a post-doctoral fellow, became totally hooked . . . and, as they say, the rest is history.

The section of Windbridge’s site that first caught my eye asks, “Why Is Mediumship Research Important?” That question is answered in three parts, each of which is expanded upon, but I’ll give you the main points here: “1. No research question affects more people than ‘What happens when we we die?’ 2. People are getting mediumship readings every day and it is important to understand the resulting effects of those experiences. Extensive research exists demonstrating that spontaneous after-death communication experiences (ADCs) have a positive impact on grief. 3. Sensory experiences related to accurate information about the deceased and similar psychic abilities point to more extensive human capabilities than can be explained by the currently dominant scientific paradigm.”

Amen to all that! I had experienced the “positive impact on grief” mentioned in point number 2 myself, after connecting with my recently deceased father through a personal friend with newfound mediumship abilities, as I wrote about in my book (quite a story, if I do say so myself!). And on a larger level, my explorations into these sorts of phenomena have completely taken away my own fear of death . . . a result that I didn’t expect when I began them. But it’s sure been a nice side benefit, Reader.

Getting back to Louie though. . . the day after our video chat, he texted me to thank me for our talk. “I wish I had your faith in the spiritual afterlife,” he wrote. I could almost hear the hopelessness and desolation in his voice as I read it. Well, Reader, that was all the invitation I needed. “You know, Louie, there are a lot of studies going on, scientific studies, on mediumship and the afterlife, that you might find interesting . . . ” I didn’t intend to take away Louie’s grief; I knew that I couldn’t, nor should I. I still grieve my loved ones when they pass—though more and more, I find myself focusing on celebrating their life, and on the memories and love we shared. But I did want to offer him some hope, and perhaps, through him, offer some to his sister, too. With the continuing work of places like the Windbridge Research Center, that hope is no longer unfounded, and I am so grateful to pioneers like Beischel and Boccuzzi for that.

UVA’s Bruce Greyson, MD, on Near-Death Experiences

I recently had the pleasure of making a pilgrimage to my alma mater, the University of Virginia, in beautiful Charlottesville, VA. It was a gorgeous late-winter day, and I strolled the “grounds” (Note: Not the “campus,” as any UVA student quickly learns), taking in the glorious Rotunda and Lawn, and wandering through a few of the gardens enclosed within elegant “serpentine” brick walls, where lemony daffodils were already abloom far before ours up north had even begun to poke their sleepy heads through the soil. I remembered studying in those gardens, and even taking exams there, unwatched, as the U. has always had an Honor System that allows for such things. I thought about, and truly felt, the history of the place, founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson (or “Mr. Jefferson,” as he’s known on grounds). And I marveled that a place so steeped in history and tradition is now, in fact, the home of some of the most remarkable, most cutting-edge research in the field of what some would term “the paranormal.”

In honor of that visit, Reader, I’m thrilled to share this interview with Bruce Greyson, MD, UVA Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, and colleague of Dr. Jim Tucker, who heads up the University’s remarkable Division of Perceptual Studies, and whom I featured in my first blog entry, as well as in my book Adventures of a Soul. While Dr. Tucker has focused his fascinating work mainly on children’s past-life memories, Dr. Greyson’s area of expertise is the NDE, or near-death experience. (And I can only say: Go, Wahoos, go!)

In this excellent interview, Dr. Greyson discusses the prevalence of NDEs (some 5 percent of the population have experienced them); the patterns and features of NDEs that are consistent across cultures—going as far back as ancient Greece and Rome; the accurate and verifiable things NDE experiencers have observed that logically should have been impossible for them to observe while unconscious and apparently “out of body”; the fact that NDE experiencers have often encountered deceased friends and loved ones whom they did not yet know were deceased at the time they “met” them during the NDE; how NDEs have dramatically affected and altered the lives of the great majority of those who have had them; how science has tried to explain NDEs; and more.

There are a host of other interesting interviews with Dr. Bruce Greyson on YouTube, and he’s also featured in the provocative documentary Surviving Death (along with Dr. Jim Tucker), based on the book of the same name by journalist Leslie Kean and available on Netflix. I haven’t yet read Dr. Greyson’s book, After, but Reader, it’s high on my list.

I had planned to visit Jim Tucker, who has been so kind to me and to my book, during my visit to the U., but alas, he was called to attend to a family matter and unable to meet up with me, though he hoped to, he assured me, next time I pass through. I’ll be sure to contact him then, and I’m hoping to meet Dr. Greyson too. It’s my dream to be a fly on the wall in the offices of the Division of Perceptual Studies. I’m wondering what other provocative stuff they’re looking into these days! Is sixty-two too old to be a student intern? Student of the metaphysical, that is!

University of Virginia, Historic Lawn Rooms

Will a day ever come when UVA students may actually take courses in Perceptual Studies, or even Parapsychology? I’ll have to ask these two pioneering men of science for their take on that, next time I’m down in C’ville. Meantime, well, a gal can dream . . .

The Science Behind the Woo-Woo: Mark Gober

Are you ready for a paradigm shift? Are you even open to one? Why is a shift in paradigms so threatening to so many? And what does it mean to have a paradigm shift, anyway? Calling all those who are interested in REALLY “following the science,” regarding the metaphysical—phenomena such as the continuation of consciousness after death, intuition, mediumship, remote viewing, telepathy, and much more. Have I got a book for you!

As those of you who have surfed the waters of YouTube know, it has its own algorithmic elves who pop up recommended content that relates to other videos you’ve recently viewed. That’s how I came upon Mark Gober, and this “Buddha at the Gas Pump” interview conducted by Rick Archer. Mark Gober is the author of several books with “Upside Down” in their titles, the first being An End to Upside Down Thinking: Dispelling the Myth That the Brain Produces Consciousness, and the Implications for Everyday Life. After watching this interview, and several of Gober’s others on YouTube too, this book jumped to the number-one spot on my personal to-buy list.

Why? Reader, I loved Gober’s story. Like me, he’d launched into his own exploratory expedition, and written a book that I would have loved to have written myself, if only I could have. Gober reminded me of the smart, nerdy (in a good way) “kids” who went to Stuyvesant, my math-and-science specialized New York City high school, with me, many of whom, I’m sure, think I’m crazy for believing in the phenomena I wrote about in Adventures of a Soul. But here’s the thing I’ve always said to them, and to others who roll their eyes indulgently when I tell them what my book is about: There has been SO MUCH RESEARCH on SO MANY OF THESE PHENOMENA that many of them have actually already been proven—using the standards by which all NON-“suspect” types of scientific phenomena are typically judged—and yet, hardly anyone in the world of mainstream media, nor the scientific community, talks about or even acknowledges this. I know this. And others like me who have sought out this information know this. (It’s not hard to find it!) But Gober didn’t know it: Until he did! And it rocked his world.

But, Reader, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Gober had me hooked with his tale of how, as a Princeton graduate working at a “technology-focused investment bank and strategy firm” in Silicon Valley and commuting long hours each day in his car, he’d tuned into a health-related podcast, only to find that the featured guest, Laura Powers, was talking very matter-of-factly about psychic intuition and her ability to communicate with nonphysical entities—things which Gober had no absolutely awareness of. Gober was a self-described “materialist” at the time, who believed that consciousness was a product of the brain, and that when the body—and thus the brain—died, well . . . that was it (although, as he states in this interview, he’d had an interest in “big existential questions for a long time”). When Powers mentioned her own podcast, “Healing Powers,” where she interviewed other people who had abilities and experiences similar to hers, Gober was left with a dilemma: What he was hearing, from these people who sounded intelligent and credible to him, didn’t fit in with his own long-held beliefs about reality. Unlike many who would simply dismiss such information as rubbish, and move on with their day, Gober grew extremely curious.

Gober ended up, on his daily commute over the next few weeks, listening to every single episode of Powers’ podcast—at that time, five years’ worth of shows. Hearing so many independent individuals’ convincing accounts of their own experiences, experiences that so fully contradicted his own materialistic worldview, he grew more curious yet, and plunged deep into his own “obsessive” research on these and other such topics. (Sound familiar, dear Reader?) Gober looked at the science—experiments and research that had been conducted about which he’d never read or heard—and also eventually worked firsthand with people who had these types of abilities themselves, finding that what he witnessed in doing so backed up what the science claimed. The results: His vigorous investigations brought him to the point of a total “paradigm shift” in terms of his beliefs about reality, which, he says, “rocked” and, for a time, disoriented him. After sharing what he was learning about topics like psychic abilities and life after death with some friends, many of whom had been as skeptical of such things as Gober had, they encouraged him to write about it. And thus, Gober’s amazing first book!

In An End to Upside Down Thinking, Gober tackles not just the scientific and academic studies that are proving that so much of what a good part of the world considers “woo-woo” is real—with many notable physicists and other scientists, including Nobel prize-winners, chiming in—he discusses the implications of that conclusion for our world and our future. He also discusses why it is that so much of this work and information is ignored, dismissed out of hand, or ridiculed sight unseen by so many in the scientific community—including the fact that most scientific journals refuse to publish studies, no matter how professionally and rigorously done, to do with topics such as psychic ability, even when the studies have proven that these things are real; that university faculty won’t generally pursue such studies until they are tenured, for fear of losing their jobs; and the tendency of many in the scientific community to even consider ideas that they don’t personally feel—without any study or investigation of them—could possibly be real.

Why is this the case? Gober discusses that, too. Basically, he points out, if these phenomena were widely accepted as real, it would call into question the world’s currently established scientific views on . . . well, pretty much everything!

Now that’s a paradigm shift.

After devouring Gober’s book, I signed up for his mailing list at MarkGober.com, and received back a lovely letter from him and his “team,” thanking me for my interest and asking about me—who I was, what I was doing, and what had made me interested in his work! Reader, I loved that too. So I wrote and told him about myself and my book, and how much I loved how open-minded he’d been to have done what he did; how excited I was about it; and how this was the book I was going to give to all my “skeptical” friends! He not only wrote me back personally, but told me he thought my book sounded fascinating, and that he’d just bought a copy. (I knew I liked the guy!)

Whether self-proclaimed skeptic or committed, seasoned metaphysical explorer, I hope with all my heart that you’ll check out Mark Gober’s uber-important first book. (I’ve already bought one of his other three—about ETs and UFOs—which I can’t wait to crack.) You, too, may want to gift it to your skeptical friends and family for the holidays. Not only may they stop rolling their eyes and calling you crazy (well, a gal can dream), but, not too far down the road, when the mainstream media and the scientific community finally begin to admit that all of this stuff is real, you’ll be able to say, with a knowing grin, “I could’ve told you that!”

The Power of Thoughts: Lynne McTaggart

My mother, who often has trouble sleeping, is prone to listening in the wee hours of the night to Coast to Coast AM, a radio talk show about things “paranormal,” “weird,” or “unexplained”—whatever term you want to use. Though often, as with much that is labeled thusly, the topics they cover turn out to be firmly based in science—just science that’s considered by most to be “fringe,” because it is so new. I prefer to think of it as “cutting-edge,” myself.

One morning, my mother handed me a slip of paper, telling me that she’d heard a guest on the show she thought I’d like. Her name was Lynne McTaggart, and she was talking about her book, The Field. My mother couldn’t really explain what this woman had talked about because, she said, it involved things like quantum physics and consciousness. But it sounded really interesting, and she thought I should get the book.

Well, let it not be said, Reader, that I don’t—at least, sometimes—listen to my mother!

And thus began my love affair with the work of Lynne McTaggart, investigative science and medical journalist, New York Times best-selling author, pioneer in the field of consciousness research, and a true hero of mine. In The Field and in a later book, The Intention Experiment, McTaggart reports on the work of respected scientists in prestigious institutions investigating the power of THOUGHT to affect . . . well, everything, from plant growth and the output of random number generators to the behavior of animals and people. Intrigued by what she learned, McTaggart eventually began to create her own experiments, including, eventually, large-scale, global ones involving thousands of people, to see what effects their collective focused intentions might have on things like lowering the level of crime in inner-city regions and decreasing the level of violence in war-torn nations. The results, dear Reader, were significant—and to many, astounding.

In her book The Bond, she further explores the energetic interconnectedness that exists among all living things—an interconnectedness, I would assert, that helps to explain the workings of phenomena such as telepathy and intuition.

Ultimately, as McTaggart writes in The Power of Eight, her most recent book, she came to the conclusion that even a group of as few as eight people could create such “miracles”—including miracles of healing—by connecting to one another and then projecting their focused, synchronized intentions. Moreover, she also concluded that those who were sending these intentions experienced as many improvements in their life—including the healing of health issues, increases in income and abundance, improved relationships at home and at work, and better, more enjoyable jobs—as those who were receiving the intentions!

As you may by now have guessed, Reader, this was too much of an invitation for me to resist! I had to test it out. During the first summer of covid, when we were all restricted in our movements and activities, and many, I felt, needed community and healing, I formed my own “intention group,” based on McTaggart’s protocol. I scouted out eight to ten interested, open-minded friends from various parts of my life and various parts of the country, and sent them a copy of The Power of Eight. From the first night that we met on Zoom, when the friend for whom we intended experienced a dramatic diminishment in the intense pain she was experiencing while waiting for a root canal, we were hooked.

More than two years later, some members have moved on, new ones have joined, and a solid core group endures. I’m touched by the willingness of these friends to give an hour or more of their time each week simply to help others, often those they do not know. We’ve seen “miracles” of many sorts. Not every intention has worked . . . at least, not yet. (McTaggart notes that it may take several attempts at an intention to manifest it.) But many have, and some have been remarkable, including one “intendee” who cancelled her imminent back surgery because the staggering and debilitating pain she’d had for many weeks, reflected by her MRI results, in her doctor’s opinion, simply disappeared almost immediately after our intention–permanently. As for the intenders experiencing “miracles” too, from what I’ve observed, it seems to be true. For me, it certainly has been.

And yes, I’ll be writing about it all in an upcoming book!

For now, Reader, please enjoy this interview with Lynne McTaggart. I hope it will inspire you to check out her Web site, her many other intriguing online interviews, and of course, her books! Perhaps it may lead you to join in some of the weekly global intentions listed on her site (you’ll find postings there from former intendees about the incredible results they’ve experienced) or even inspire you to start a Power of Eight group of your own! There’s so much opportunity to do good in the world.

Near-Death Experience: Anita Moorjani

I first encountered Anita Moorjani some ten or twelve years ago, on a TV special featuring the now late Wayne Dyer, on PBS. For those who don’t know him, Wayne Dyer was one of the first New Age gurus, the best-selling author of a great many self-help/spirituality books. He was so popular as a speaker that PBS often ran his specials during their fund-raising weeks.

In the course of the show, Wayne introduced a petite, dark-haired, extremely “down to earth” and ordinary-seeming woman—someone you might easily strike up a chat with in the check-out line at the grocery store—whose apparently remarkable story had somehow come to his attention. And he invited her to share that story. She did, simply but profoundly—she was a natural speaker with true ease before this huge audience, with an engaging smile and an air of quiet confidence. And I, and the millions of viewers tuned in, were, I’m certain, simultaneously blown away.

Anita Moorjani has since gone on to become a best-selling author in her own right, and a fast-rising icon in New Age/metaphysically oriented media. Her first book, Dying to Be Me, which I purchased after watching the show, gobbled up, and passed on to my mother, as I knew she’d find it as provocative and uplifting as I had, was a massive hit. She quickly began to show up as a guest on New Age/spiritual talk shows, and not long after, as a featured presenter in New Age/spiritual conferences. She now has several other books under her belt, all quite popular as well.

What, you ask, was Anita Moorjani’s story? Obviously, Reader, I don’t want to give it away, but hope to entice you to watch it for yourself. Suffice it to say that it involves a horrific battle with stage-four, “terminal” cancer, a coma, a fascinating near-death experience, a fantastic voyage beyond the body, and a total recovery of her health that left her doctors astonished and perplexed.

Several years ago, I was surprised and pleased to be offered Anita’s latest book, Sensitive Is the New Strong, as a freelance copyediting gig. A copy editor’s job is to correct mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency, etc. But it also involves carefully reading a manuscript and making suggestions for how it may be improved—made clearer, more concise, more correct, etc. etc. etc.

Wow, I thought. I was going to be suggesting improvements for a best-selling author’s book?! Well, it wasn’t the first time in my freelance editorial career, I must say, but being a huge fan of Anita Moorjani’s, I was a little bit . . . nervous. I needn’t have worried, though. Anita loved and appreciated all my suggestions and fixes, according to the production editor who’d hired me. I asked that editor if she might pass along a personal note to Anita, as I was a fan, and she agreed—not a common practice, so I was thrilled. Since that note, I have been able to connect with Anita a number of times via email. She’s never been anything but friendly and gracious, and I know that she’s an extraordinarily busy woman, so I’ve always appreciated her answering my emails at all.

And so, it is my true pleasure to share this early TEX-X talk by Anita Moorjani with those of you who may not know who she is, and may not have heard her story. I count it among the really important stories of NDE’s, as near-death-experiences are often called. If you enjoy it, check out Anita’s Web site where she’s created a global online community called The Sanctuary, which she’s kindly invited me to join, when my own time permits (and I surely will).

I’d love to hear about any NDE you’ve had, Dear Reader, or anything else provocative you’ve experienced in the “invisible realms” that you’d like to share.

Happy viewing, and happy exploring!

Testing the Afterlife

In my book Adventures of a Soul, I chronicle a number of “informal experiments” that I performed with the invisible world. For instance, I accumulated a posse of ten gifted psychics and mediums—whom I dubbed my “Dream Team”—and had readings with them every six months for several years, to see whether they delivered any of the same information. Another thing I did was to pose challenges to beings in spirit, asking them to manifest specific “signs” to show me they were truly “there.”

At the time that I was doing these “experiments,” and even years later when I was writing about them, I wasn’t aware of many others who shared my proclivity for testing out the invisible realms. Or at least not many who were writing about it. But that has begun to change. And I’m excited about that.

Case in point: Recently, I discovered The Test: Incredible Proof of the Afterlife, a fascinating book by best-selling French author Stéphane Allix—a former war correspondent, journalist, and documentary director, cofounder of the Institute for Research on Extraordinary Experiences (INREES), and definitely a kindred spirit in his earnest desire to investigate whether consciousness survives beyond bodily death. Apparently, his interest in the subject was initially sparked by the untimely loss of his brother. But the book centers around a test he constructed after his father’s death.

Allix secretly placed five objects in his father’s coffin before it was buried. Then he sought out six mediums to see if they could—ostensibly with the aid of his father—name the objects in question. I won’t give away the results, Reader, but of course, there would be no book if they hadn’t been provocative.

Allix questions the six pracitioners, just as I did, about how they work, how their information comes in, and what they’ve learned from their experiences. Particularly interesting to me were one of the medium’s views on how schizophrenia may relate to mediumship—a question I’ve pondered myself.

Alas, the fantastic-looking INREES Web site (you know I had to check that out, Reader) is entirely in French . . . sacré blue! While learning French has always been on my bucket list, for now, I’ll have to satisfy myself with another intriguing-sounding Allix book available in English, When I Was Someone Else: The Incredible True Story of Past Life Connection.

I hope Allix’s book, and mine, will inspire you to conduct some “tests” of your own, if you haven’t already. Be prepared for some intriguing adventures!

John Cleese Interviews Dr. Jim Tucker

Research into Children’s Past Life Memories

I’m pleased as punch to post this video on reincarnation—specifically, children with past-life memories—as my first blog entry. As an alumna of the University of Virginia (Wahoo-wah!), I couldn’t be prouder of the work of their Department of Psychology’s Division of Perceptual Studies team, which has been studying this topic for more than fifty years. What, a well respected University like UVa studying . . . what some would term the “paranormal”? Frankly, I had no idea that this was going on during my time there! Now I can’t wait to take a trip back down to Charlottesville and see if they’ll allow me to be a fly on the wall and observe some of their work . . .

Here, Dr. Jim Tucker, who appears in my book and has been very kind in answering my questions, is interviewed by the fabulous John Cleese (of Monty Python fame . . . who knew he was so woo-woo curious?). If you find this intriguing, check out Jim Tucker’s books Life Before Life and Return to Life.

Take it away, John . . .