GHOST WRITER Chapter 1
I'm not dead
Welcome to the launch of GHOST WRITER! With each chapter, I hope you’ll find new insights, thought-provoking questions, and an expanded awareness of your limitless, multi-dimensional nature. Thank you for being part of this journey—enjoy the series!
I’m not dead
Some days I spend more time speaking with the dead than I do the living. For more than twenty years, this has been my work.
My colleagues are an ever-changing cast of supernatural characters who are far less interested in me than they are in you. They come forward, drawn by your energy, your questions, and your desire. In the quiet space of a psychic medium reading, spiritual counseling session, or during shamanic energy medicine work, these non-physical beings step in from unseen realms to offer wisdom, love, and messages of healing support. My job is to be a bridge-builder between realities, forging a connection between you and your departed loved ones. I translate their language of energy, symbols, and intention into words, ideas, and expressions.
From my unique perspective as a psychic medium, the number one message I receive from the non-living is this:
I’m not dead. Tell them.
So, I do, with compassion and respect, in session after session. These messages convey that there is no end to life, not really. Not in the way we typically define dying. They reassure us that death is just the beginning and there is profoundly more to existence than our common everyday focus. They encourage us to learn about our multi-dimensional nature to experience deeper meaning and fulfillment now, in this lifetime.
For all who have mourned a death, the person you loved so deeply and miss so desperately is right here. And I mean, right here. To me, they are as real as you are. Their presence conveys an energy that is palpable and distinct. They express feelings like love, peace, sincerity, and amusement. And they want you to know beyond any doubt:
I am not gone. I am with you.
My hope is that by reading this book series you will gain a fresh perspective about the dying process and what happens after we transition. This material has expanded my own understanding enormously and life has grown much more meaningful, creative, and joyous. I have learned countless invaluable lessons about living well from those who are no longer living.
For me, writing is spiritual practice. It is something I engage in outside the daily framework of home, family, and business. Mornings are an especially creative and liminal space as I transition from the dreaming realm to the waking world. With a fresh, hot cup of coffee in hand, I find I can easily step into the world of ideas and stories to collaborate with the universe and communicate with consciousnesses that are vastly different than my own.
My relationship to earthly time and space has always been somewhat casual in that I find myself comfortable whether focused here in material reality or focused elsewhere in non-physical dimensions. I know this tendency enables me to work well as a psychic medium and shamanic practitioner. After decades of practice, it is easy and enjoyable to leave my body for other dimensions to retrieve insight and information. This is possible because I have maintained a solid foundation and grounded awareness of my own beliefs, thoughts, and actions. I always return home to myself in the present moment. My life is full of the same precious and poignant moments we all share with our families, friends, and communities.
Meeting with disembodied spirits in the morning hours is a different experience for me than when I go to my office later in the day to meet with clients for psychic readings and shamanic healing sessions. These early private sessions are for receiving material and information that often become content for a book or articles later. The segments might also include personalized messages or helpful wisdom that I can apply to my own life. This is a type of focused and intentional meditative writing where I open my conscious mind to communicate with my higher self, spirit guides, and universal intelligence. I have used this as a personal spiritual practice for almost thirty years and I always receive helpful perspective and loving guidance.
I didn’t know when I started this book series that it would be about death. Actually, I didn’t know I was starting a book series at all. After finishing my first published book, A Medium’s Memoir, I knew I would write more books. Though I didn’t know when, or how, or what the next subject would be. Until one sunny day, a few years ago, when I unexpectedly met my new writing partner—who just happens to be dead.
That morning, I set a conscious intention to receive any helpful feedback the Universe might want to share. Sometimes I ask specific questions about particular topics, other times I like to remain open and nonspecific. Within moments, I sensed a distinct and welcoming energy essence that I didn’t recognize. Intuitively, I understood her to be intelligent, witty, and very loving. I asked if she wanted to give me her name. Immediately she responded:
I would wish to be known as Teacher. Would you like to write with me?
Intrigued, I telepathically replied, yes!
Right away, the psychic flood gates burst open, and she began communicating words and sentences almost faster than I could write them down in my notebook.
We propose a book as a way to further your creativity as a psychic medium, healer, and teacher. It will be about metaphysics. A collaboration of your wisdom and ours, your perspective and ours.
We wish to assist you with knowledge, stories, and practices that you may share.
Channels are messengers. Our purpose is to ignite change and creative thinking. You are such a channel. And you are getting stronger and stronger.
Now then, you are learning to listen to more than one channel of input, like a multi-dimensional radio. We can help you with this.
As we get closer to the collaboration of a book, more and more who can be of assistance will be joining us, our small but determined band of intrepid physical and non-physical creators. For this is indeed a journey and an adventure we undertake as a group, much like you would find on a sailing ship, bound for new lands. Each of us — all of us — have a fascination with truth and what is possible within various realities.
What if we overlap thought, bringing into confluence beliefs from one area of being and combining them with held beliefs in this point of reality? What happens if we mix the viewpoints? What happens if we not only bend the rules, but we rewrite them? What if we handed a book to our fellows in physical form and said, with this book you may think quite differently about life and death?
There are, of course, many books available which discuss the process and nature of dying and the afterlife, however, there is not yet a book from us discussing these matters. We believe there is room on the universal bookshelf for just such a book. And perhaps in our particular combination of words, new discoveries might be unlocked.
You have, most of the time, incredible focus and will, this serves you well, as you knew it would. You are also adapting continuously, evolving at a fast pace.
How so? I asked.
By allowing more of who you really are into your awareness.
What does that mean?
It means you are aligning with your spirit source, your soul self. Consider it this way: as you navigate your life, and make decisions for yourself, you push the outer limits of your experience more and more.
Okay! I said. Where do we start?
We have indeed begun, dearest one.
This book series contains material received through an extrasensory method called trance channeling. Channeling is a process I use as a psychic medium to allow communication and information to flow through me while I am in an altered state of consciousness. This is different than the method used in client sessions where I am alert and speak through my own voice to deliver spiritual guidance and intuitive messages. I think of it this way: as a channel, I temporarily hand the microphone over to an intelligent consciousness who shares their unique wisdom and perspective. As a psychic medium, I stay put to receive messages and information gained through my own extrasensory abilities and I then convey that data, much like the speaker on a radio.
My sessions with Teacher have evolved beyond that first sunny morning meeting. Now, during weekly sessions, my husband, Curt, is present and typing the messages directly into his laptop as they are channeled through me. As an extra measure to ensure accuracy, he is also recording the audio of each session onto his phone and will use this later to fill in anything that may have been missed during the original transcription.
In this book series you will be reading Teacher’s channeled words in tandem with my written ones. Her comments are typeset in a distinctive font and separated within the layout using line dividers (as shown above, in the opening paragraphs). I will provide input in the font and style you are reading in this paragraph, sharing my own perspective and experiences to complement and connect the channeled segments.
Along the way, additional helpful entities make guest appearances to add unique and relevant wisdom from their intriguing, unearthly point of view. Most of the channeled information, however, will be from Teacher, as she has become a beloved guide and friend to me over the past several years. She is a consciousness who is devoted to learning, expansion, and creativity, and has incarnated many, many times on earth and in other dimensions. In her most recent human incarnation, she was an American writer and painter and, according to her, a “dauntless pursuer of wisdom and the mechanics of consciousness.”
Our book is indeed a collaboration among all of us. The topics, as Meaghan has described them — death, dying and the afterlife — are, for the most part, correct. However, we will likely see an expansion, an inclusion, of soul and upper consciousness considerations too. The basic idea of how one might live as though they will never die is a useful premise. Very soon in the dying process, most realize that not only are they not dying as it is usually understood, but they are also becoming more alive than they were in life. Our book will be a type of handbook explaining that there is no need to wait until death to live fully.
Teacher has patiently and carefully instructed me on the nuts and bolts of trance channeling. Together we strive to refine our psychic connection in order to share content which is as pure and informative as possible. She has likened this process to two friends sitting side-by-side on playground swings. At first, one may go forward while the other goes back. Eventually, though, out of mutual desire and playfulness, they synchronize into a shared rhythm and move in partnership through the wave of motion. This harmony results in better quality channeled information. Because the material delves into serious and complex topics, Teacher will, now and then, insert a bit of light-hearted imagery, or humor, to maintain ease and grace. I have noticed that when I become too serious or try to work too hard to make channeling happen, the information flow begins to unravel.
During one of our early channeling sessions, Teacher talked about her death experience as she transitioned from her most recent life. She said she became aware almost immediately of the desire to share this extraordinarily creative process with the living. She understood this could be achieved by partnering with a human channel.
Nearly instantly following my physical death, I returned to the seat of my creativity and laughed with glee to be there once again. At last, I was again myself. At last, I had the full range of abilities that in life I sometimes felt I could only touch upon. So, I pushed up my sleeves and got to work.
Meaghan has developed a more than adequate vocabulary over the years, I can add my own and together there is a substantial bank of words that might describe my ideas about creativity, reality formation in various realms, and the flexibility needed to traverse these. Naturally, my ideas are my own, however, I feel they have value because of my now perspective in the after-death state.
As I have said, upon my death, I reemerged into the greater pool of creativity from which I had withdrawn when I was born. I was fully aware during this process, as I expected to be given my belief in the continuance of consciousness held during my lifetime. What I did not expect was the immediate sense of exhilaration I felt to the core of my being. In those moments, I became aware of my unique individuality within the infinite expansiveness of creation. It was as if the larger I became upon my release from physicality, the more integrated I could also become. I felt completely secure within myself and my new state of beingness. I was myself and so very much more than that. I knew this immediately and began utilizing it just as immediately. I unfolded and unfolded and unfolded, again and again and again. I began to realize the physical symptoms my body had fought for so long during life were expressions of folding and folding and folding to fit into that small body.
At this point in the session, Teacher did an interesting thing. It felt as if she took my hand and then psychically led me to where she exists in the afterlife state. She wanted to show me all that is available to her now and to share a glimpse of the incredible vastness of opportunity where she is currently focused.
I want to communicate this experience because I believe all of you can live in this state more often than you allow.
She conveyed optimism and excitement about the positive impact this understanding offers. She believes she may be able to find the right words to share the expansiveness of the death experience in a way that would have special meaning for those still living in physical reality. She is, as she says, a teacher. And there have been others, in various times and places, who have, like her, sought to impart helpful perspective regarding the true nature of existence.
We teach across the ages. It is our way of expanding the expression of All That Is. We teach, we communicate, and we share. When one of us makes a leap forward, we turn around and attempt to share, which moves us all forward. We have done this many times together, many times.
Channeling was very common in earlier forms of humankind. It was not necessarily unusual for one physical body to host more than one personality. This was not a mental disorder. Indeed, consciousness was allowed its natural fluidity and incarnating could be chosen as a broader, less encased endeavor.
Occasionally, there were conscious negotiations and agreements for one soul or entity to leave a body and one of the channeling visitors to come in to finish or complete that lifetime. This was known to that person’s family and friends, and they were supportive. It did not happen frequently. When it did though, it was acknowledged and accepted. This will not be happening here. I have no desire to be back here full time, and Meaghan has no desire to leave, beyond these meetings that we share.
When one is alive in the physical body today, there is a membrane constructed that presents a filter or barrier to one’s highest soul sense. This allows the physically based personality to believe itself independent, indeed, alone. Upon dying, this membrane dissolves and one remembers who they fully are. It has been said before, and is worth repeating, that this assumed divorce from the highest soul self is a highly creative construct, allowing experiences to be had which would never occur naturally in the fully realized soul state. Believing himself or herself to be acting independently, the human personality applies themselves differently to creative tasks.
You are not guinea pigs for your higher soul self to experiment with while incarnated in a human body. It is true when it is said that you are each creators in your own right. What you discover about yourselves and what you create while you are here — meaning here in your body — is singular from the whole soul self. This is one way the soul expands. The soul self is quite fond of its human lives however this is not a parent/child dynamic. You are not children. You did not come here to be somehow lesser than the whole soul self.
Often a personality like myself, upon dying, finds they would like to retain a level of independence and uniqueness from the higher soul self from which they emerged. This propagation occurs frequently. This is what Meaghan will likely choose upon her death. She sets the stage for it even now.
I wish for this book series to also convey information and processes to heighten individuals’ senses of easeful living in the body. A lightness of approach, at times. Creativity, of course, thrives in possibility and it is difficult to see what is possible when you are down, meaning when you have become weighted in oppressive thoughts and emotional stances. Creation is innovation and innovation often likes to arrive as a surprise, as a flash of insight. Innovation is like a ray of light, and you must attune yourselves to look for the light.
She explained this book series would be a collaborative process and we would be joined, now and then, by others who have transitioned into the afterlife state, including writers who authored their own books while living.
I have been working with several other writers, meaning, several who were writers when physically focused in a body. These are, or were, writers who, in their own time and in their own ways, contemplated many of the same ideas covered in this book series. You can know that these personalities are, like you, interested in continuing the conversations, so to speak. These personalities are supportive of book writing efforts, for they understand very well that ideas, like stories, wish to be retold and thereby kept alive. These personalities will at times offer their support during this writing process for they are aware of all that it takes to complete a book when you are residing in a physical body. So, you can know that you will be assisted by many. And the more you stay aware of this assistance, the more you may be assisted.
There is an echoing from another friend, another teacher, from long ago and far away. He steps in to remind us that it is possible for channeled relationships to grow and deepen over time. Improvement in the transmission of information is attainable with practice and focus and willingness on both parties’ parts. He encourages us to continue our efforts and delights in the results of the shared focus.
You, Curt, are important to this process for many reasons. Psychologically speaking, you offer trustworthy support to Meaghan, and this provides a stable foundation for her to use as a springboard. Your brain activity alters, as does hers, during these sessions. Whether you are aware of it or not, you enter a state that is similar to someone who is endeavoring to paint, write, or draw. You may believe that because your job is to report the words spoken, you are not necessarily in an altered state, but you are. Even in the air passing through the space between the two of you are certain chemicals released from your bodies and taken in. Certain hormones and chemical byproducts are released and so there is a physical chemical support happening in this time between you both. As Meaghan steps aside from her physicality and personality during these sessions, you, sitting there, extend your awareness, not outside of your beingness, but into deeper, higher levels of your consciousness. This, in a way, accelerates the energies involved in these sessions. You feed the connections.
Curt asked, “Is there a mindset or a meditative state I could enter during these sessions to facilitate?”
You do this automatically. This state may be more native to you than you understand. This is a state you will often enter in your work or anytime you are focused and immersed in an event or task. The years you have spent reading consciousness material, experimenting with it, pondering it, practicing it, have contributed to your ability, and after this amount of time it has become natural to you in many ways.
You also provide a constancy and a congruency, from a personality standpoint. This means: who you are, as expressed through this current personality this lifetime, bears striking resemblance to the overall character of your higher, inner source self. Earlier, I expressed the word trustworthiness, and this is the result of your congruency. Meaghan naturally finds you to be trustworthy because she senses this congruency you share with your source self. You possess a distinct lack of subterfuge.
Some would say that I am here merely in spirit form, but I am more than that when I speak in this way. To a very small degree, I, in these moments animate Meaghan’s cells. If it were possible to measure (which it is not at this time,) a chemical change could be detected in Meaghan’s biological reactions. These changes would be detectable only when this channeling process is enacted. Meaning, when a presence such as myself is animated through Meaghan’s body, there is a particular way I activate even the thrumming of these borrowed vocal cords. The cells of Meaghan’s skin are alerted to this different presence and reactions occur in temperature and muscle movement. This is a distinct physiological process requiring incredible dexterity of belief in the integrity of the body. If Meaghan did not trust in the overall safety of her body, she would not vacate it. A strength of spirit, a tenacity, a stubbornness of personality and an extreme valuation of intelligence and intellect become the pillars and foundation of this dynamic. Also, and obviously, Meaghan possesses a great facility in her extrasensory skills and abilities which I am able to use quite easily.
I would suggest some time off from channeling work periodically. There are certain practical advantages to now and then taking a break, which has to do with the human nervous system. Interestingly, spending frequent or long periods outside of the body during sessions like these, or during readings with clients, can cause some shifting and detachment from body consciousness and calibrations within the nervous system. Many resets take place following each episode out of the body, such as those happening now. Most of the time, upon returning the consciousness to the body, functioning is close enough to normal. Occasionally, or with particularly frequent out of body episodes, the reseating is a little off-center and can be experienced as forgetfulness or being somewhat accident prone. Sometimes, small time slips or time incongruities are experienced. And so, there are definite effects in leaving and returning to the body, however, most of the time these are minor and impermanent.
In this work that we are doing together, you will find yourselves growing creatively, and you will find this very satisfying. You will have your own ideas for organizing this material, ultimately, and this will be encouraged. You understood this to be your role from the beginning. I speak as Teacher though I am so much more, as has been said. I see myself as a presence having the ability to convey concepts promoting greater comprehension of the universal principles of creativity. We are investigators, we are researchers, we are truth-tellers in the form of stories. And there are many, many, stories.
Absolutely love this chapter! I cannot wait to read more! Beautifully written. Fascinating. Highly recommend!
I had to reread a few paragraphs so the information would come alive for me. I wonder if goosebumps that I call the goosebumps of truth are truly just that. I get those around or about certain people. I still tell Paul I love him, even though he passed 10 years ago. Now I know he does sense that, no matter where he may be.