Shooting Spirits, Altered Destiny, and the Meaning of Life

Question and Answer session

Curiosity. It’s one of the greatest traits of humankind. Asking questions is essential to learn and grow as a person. If we’re students of this school called Life, I’d like to think the smartest classmates are the ones who ask the most questions. So, I’ve asked people on my Facebook page to submit questions about spirituality, the paranormal, and new-age phenomena. I’ve fielded a few of them to personally address in this blog. Without further ado…

Chelsea Leigh said, “My 3 year old says he tries to shoot the ghosts in his room at night and when/if it doesn’t work he comes to get us. I’m freaked out, and my husband doesn’t believe me. SOS lol.”

Chelsea gets us off to a slightly spooky start here. A three-year-old using ghosts for target practice? Sounds terrifying, right? Not so fast. Remember that a young child is operating out of sheer emotions and knee-jerk reactions. There's little time for rational thinking when an unexpected spirit visitor appears. Instincts kick in. A child goes into fight or flight mode. And before you can say Annie Oakley, little Junior is shooting ghosts with an imaginary revolver.

But what if the spirit visitor means no harm? What if it’s the child’s dearly departed great-grandfather stopping by for some quality time with a grandkid who refuses to sleep? From Great Grandpa’s perspective, he’s there out of love. Yet, from the younger’s point of view, any unknown or unexpected visitor is automatically considered an intruder until proven otherwise. The same logic applies to the family pets. Oftentimes, when a dog growls at an invisible “something” in the corner of the room, it’s just being protecting and acting instinctually… even if the spirit means no harm.

Children are at their intuitive peak between the ages of three and four. So, hearing this from Chelsea wasn’t all that surprising. It’s a time in a child’s life when the veil between life and the afterlife is rather thin. It’s when a youngster will likely have memories from past lifetimes and interactions with spirits. It’s when a child has a boatload of intuition but hasn’t yet been reprogrammed by society to ignore it. And it’s when a boy or girl is finally articulate enough to verbalize their paranormal experiences.

I know plenty of open-minded parents who have devised ingenious solutions to diminish a child’s fear and instill confidence during bedtime. They give their kiddos sage spray and label it “ghost repellent.” Or they’ll give the child a flashlight and call it a “spirit vaporizer.” These small acts give a child a sense of control. Plus, leaving some lights on is generally advisable. Of course, that’s after the parents look under the bed and give the “all clear” after checking the closet.

BL GZwart asked, “If I have had multiple psychic readings with the same person and sometimes the future events have varied from reading to reading, why might that be? Could things be pivoting or changing as time passes from reading to reading?”

One of two things might be happening here. It’s possible that the psychic simply could not remember what was predicted or discussed in the previous session. If that’s the case, it’s completely understandable. Recalling information from a previous reading that happened weeks or months ago is like asking a cashier to recall what exact items a particular customer purchased on Tuesday last week. After scanning hundreds or thousands of grocery items, precise recall would be impossible for the cashier. The same could be said about a psychic’s numerous predictions.

The second possible explanation has more to do with the fact that free will is always changing. Everything we do in the present can shape (or change) our future. So, if life zigs instead of zags, a psychic might give a slightly different prediction from one session to the next. Predicting the future is kind of like throwing a dart at a moving target. The best psychics can usually account for all the variables and still hit the mark. But ultimately, a person’s free will is more powerful than fate or destiny. The future can be anything we wish to make it. One of my favorite quotes is loosely credited to Abe Lincoln. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Betty Patz Johnson asked, “When we are sleeping and have dreams, are we in another life?”

Although rare, it’s possible to glimpse past lifetimes through our dreams. Anything is possible because dreams are the playground of our souls. However, most dreams are merely our brain’s way of digesting the input gathered throughout the week - little tidbits strung together into a storyline. But there are those rare exceptions… like glimpses into one’s own future (precognitive dreams.) Or dreams that correlate to past life memories. If you have a dream that’s rooted in previous lifetimes, it’ll tend to be hyper-realistic. Pay attention to the details. What is the color of your skin? Can you hear a foreign language being spoken? Is the setting a place you’ve never seen but somewhere that feels familiar? These are all clues that can help you identify a past life dream.

See a full list of my books for more content related to past lives and reincarnation.

Noel Hatfield asked, “If you get to choose the life here, why would some subject themselves to a life of sickness, mental anxiety, and grief?

Thanks for the question, Noel. It’s a good one that many people wonder. Firstly, a Helen Keller quote comes to mind. “The world is full of pain and suffering, but it’s also full of the overcoming of it.”

Yes, the world can be scary and dangerous. Yes, there is a mental health crisis taking place in the United States right now. This much is true. But without the sick, there would be no nurses. Without sadness, we would need no counselors. Without crime, we would have no law enforcement. Without the dark, we wouldn’t appreciate the lightworkers.

The world needs nurses, counselors, police officers, and lightworkers. The imperfection of our existence creates opportunity - a chance for courageous souls to make a bad situation better. A chance to spread hope to those who have none. A chance to spread love to those who need it most.

We all long for a perfect utopia where there’s no sickness, anxiety, or injustice. We long for it because that’s where we came from. Heaven. The Other Side. The Afterlife. The In-between. Call it what you want. It’s our true home, and it’s far more glorious than your subconscious can recall.

Yet, because it’s perfect, Heaven cannot provide us with opportunities to be a helper, healer, or hero. So, we come back to this strange planet time and time again. We tolerate the anxiety and pain and suffering because it gives us a chance to leave the world in better shape than it was when we arrived. It gives us purpose. It gives us a chance to lose ourselves only to find ourselves and rediscover what it truly means to be human.

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Liz Schlagenhauff asked, “Are you able to use your abilities on people you see on TV or when you’re out and about without them knowing? Or do people have to give you permission for you to use your abilities on them?”