There's More to Life Than This- Part 1

I know that last time I said part 1, and then never did part 2, but it will be different this time- I promise. 

So for Christmas I received the book There's More to Life Than This, which is a book written by Theresa Caputo; you probably know her as the Long Island Medium. I've watched her show since the beginning and I love it. 

Don't stop reading if you're a skeptic. I'm not a crazy person. I don't believe in the Lochness Monster, or in zombies, or in most superstitions. But I believe in God, and so does she, and she has some pretty interesting things to say. 

Like I said, I'm not some crazy person who believes in all the weird superstitions and conspiracies, but I am open to them. I don't think that it's fair for people to rule things out until they learn more about them, and in Theresa's case, I think there's a lot for people to learn about and that they would be really surprised to learn that it is interesting to them. 

So I'm going to do a 3 part summary of her book, because there's a lot to be said. Part 1 here we go. 

In the beginning, Theresa explains that she accepted her abilities straight from God. (Her ability being that she can speak to the dead.) Because she's Catholic, she used the term God, but you can also use the term Yahweh or whatever, but there is only one. 

Growing up, she didn't understand what was going on. She would see and feel spirit, but not know what it was. She always felt safe in church. She had lots of anxiety and explains that this was spirit trying to connect with her. As a kid she had a ton of phobia's but didn't understand why they existed, but were often related to spirit. For example, she hated the rain, and every time something important it was happening, it would rain. She visited a spiritual healer who did what is called a 'past life regression' where she find out that in a past life, she was a prisoner on a boat during a torrential storm, which is why she now fears rain. Spirit made it rain during important times to help her get over the fear. 

Growing up she couldn't control when spirit connected with her, and though she can't always now, she has way to try. Every morning she asks spirit to leave her alone throughout the day, and says she will leave 4pm for their time and promises the listen to them then. Funny story, I actually did something similar. I go to a school that is known for being extremely haunted, and I didn't want anything creepy happening to me. So at the beginning of last year, I sat down in my room and told the spirits that I wouldn't mind if they moved my things around (which happened a lot on my floor) if they did it while I wasn't in the room. And you know what? It worked. They moved stuff around on my roommate all the time, but it went fine for me. 

How it works: during a session, spirit will make her sense, feel, and know things. She doesn't have any control over who connects with her (except that before she begins a session, she asks God to protect her and only put for good spirits). At the beginning of a session, she does a little monologue, then spirit clears her head of her own feelings and emotions and replaces them with what they want to show her. 

She has what she calls a 'symbol library' which helps spirit communicate with her. For example, roses symbolize love, but also the color of the rose means something. Red is for an anniversary or passing, yellow is if Rose is in the name (Rosie, Rosanne). 

A lot of her channeling isn't images, but really strong intuition. She can physically feel things that spirit wants her to know. For example, if someone died by drowning or choking, spirit will restrict her throat to explain. It makes channeling easy now, but you can imagine how scary that must have been as a kid to not be able to breath and have no idea why. 

She usually can't control what she's saying, she just blurts it out. She has no filter. Also she usually doesn't remember much after the reading because it wasn't her thoughts, it was spirit's. She sees spirit when she communicates, but usually as a silhouette, unless spirit wants to indicate something related to their face. She will often see spirit interact with people, like leaning over and kissing their sister's cheek. 

A fun story that I think is really interesting is one of Theresa's first readings where she connected with a 7 year old named Brian. Months prior to his death Brian kept bringing up strange things like where he wanted his funeral to be held. Right before leaving for vacation, Brian asked his parents to buy him a suit. While on vacation, Brian drowned in a lake in front of a hundred people. When they were talking with Theresa, his parents kept saying how if they had gotten the hint and not gone on vacation that he would be alive. However Brian explained to Theresa that had they not gone, he would have died in a car crash on the way to baseball practice. Basically, if a soul is destined to die, it will happen one way or another. 

So here's a fun one: what happens when you die. This part is pretty controversial, but I really enjoyed it because it made me feel better about things I believe. A lot of the things Theresa talks about, and even the fact that she is a medium, are against the Christian religion; but she's a die hard Catholic and speaks to God and Jesus all the time! It is confusing because I as a Christian want to believe my priest and the Bible, but the things Theresa says that contradict them make a lot of sense. 

So here we go- after death. When you die, your spirit detaches from your body and you are greeted by other dead friends and relatives who then guide you toward a white light which is God. Everyone has a primary spirit guide while on Earth, and that person is also there to greet them. With that guide, your soul reviews the journey you had on Earth and how you affected people. The soul's ultimate purpose is to learn lessons which allow for spiritual development. 

When it's time to learn new lessons, the spirit is given a choice: stay in heaven and keep learning lessons, or reincarnate and learn new lessons. (Here's what I mean, I felt bad because I always believed in reincarnation but Christianity doesn't support that. Now she's a practicing Catholic, she wouldn't believe in reincarnation if spirit hadn't told her about it.)

Everyone has free will. We are led towards paths that force us to make choices that help us learn lessons. We make those choices freely, so they are different each lifetime, but each lifetime a soul is given the same destiny and overarching lessons, just learned in different ways. 

So time to bring out the big guns: let's talk about the big men on campus. 

God. You can call him whatever you want, but there's only one. He doesn't care what you call him as long as you believe in him. Theresa has only seen God a couple times, and he appeared as a bright white light and she felt total peace. When it happens during a reading she gets really serious, which isn't her personality. 

Angels are God's messengers and protectors. They don't have bodies because they have never lived on Earth. (How do you become one? I don't know.) There are a bunch of different types: archangels, guardian angels, cherubim, seraphim, etc. The highest in rank are archangels which include Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Michael is a protector and performs acts of justice. Gabriel is connected to kindness, and Raphael is in charge of healing. 

Angels are very busy. What we see as miracles are usually acts orchestrated by angels. Every soul is assigned a guardian angel that is with you throughout your life. 

Those religious figures exist too. They are highly evolved spirits who made great sacrifices on earth and ascended to the highest level of heaven. They include Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Muhammad, and Mother Theresa. Theresa connects with Saints a lot, like St. Jude or St. Christopher, especially when a client prays to them a lot. She hasn't connected with Jesus directly, but she feels him in every reading watching from afar. 

The there are guides. Angels are closer to God and guides spend more time with people. They keep you on track with your lessons and give you reassurance. They arrange opportunities and place people in our paths. Hunches and gut feelings come from guides. Guides have lived in our world so they can be any age or race. There are primary guides and other guides. Everyone has a primary guide. They are with you your whole life guiding and teaching you. They choose you because they shared similar goals in their lives. Other guides with specific skills come and go when you need them. You can ask your guides for guidance whenever you want.

When she channels your loved ones, they are souls already in heaven, not souls that are stuck in between. However there are mediums who work specifically with those types of souls (like in Ghost Whisperer...it's real!)

Kids are much more connected to spirit than adults. Theresa explains this through the story of a boy named Julien who died form leukemia at 3. After his first bone marrow transplant, he began getting messages from God through a spirit he identified as Mother Mary. He told his mom that God said his leukemia was back, which was strange because he had just gotten the transplant, but two days later they got the news. He started to have dreams where he talked to a boy about God and heaven. (His mom thinks this boy was an angel disguised as someone who Julien could easily relate to). He often saw people his parents couldn't see and would identify them as people who had died before his birth. This happens frequently and though she doesn't explain how, Theresa emphasizes that it is very easy for children to interact with spirit. 

Animals are also very close to spirit. She says she sees her dogs barking at spirit all the time, and that animals often see spirit. Also she channels the spirits of dead animals all the time.

So that's part 1. It was a long one, but informative! Stay tuned for part 2. (It's finals time, so it might be a while. Patience is key!)