Daniel John- Navigating Through Grief And Understanding Mediumship

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Hi there, welcome to Grief to Growth Podcast. Your host is Brian D Smith, spiritual seeker, bestselling author, grief survivor, and life coach. Brian believes that the worst tragedies of life provide the greatest opportunity for growth. Brian D Smith says he was planted, not buried, and he is here to help you grow where you've been planted by the difficulties in life. In each episode, Brian and his guests will share what has helped them to survive and thrive. It is his sincere hope this episode helps you today.

Hey everybody, this is Brian. I'm back with another episode of Grief to Growth. And today I've got with me my friend Daniel John. Daniel, I think this is the third time he's been on the program. He's been on before. He's a, he's a great guy. We've become friends over the last couple of years. I'm gonna read his bio, and then we'll get started. He is a, he's a father, he's a husband and a certified medium who was raised Catholic. He found Jesus in 9th grade, and he's a dedicated follower of Christ consciousness. When he was 37, he discovered his life's purpose, even though it was something he didn't believe in, or didn't agree with at the time. But sometimes God has different plans, and he quotes Jeremiah 29:11. Since 2017, Daniel's been on a mission to serve God, to spread love, and help the grieving connect with their loved ones in spirit. Daniel has completed thousands of mediumship grief counseling sessions. And he's done a copious amount of research on the metaphysical near-death experiences and life after death. He's here on earth with direction from the Holy Spirit to spread God's unconditional love to all. So with that, I want to welcome my friend Daniel John.

Thank you for having me, Brian. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm really excited to catch up with you today.

We—

it's been a while since we've talked. I know a lot's been going on in your life. I know you've been on the show before, and people might have heard, but we can't assume that they have. So I'd like for you to tell people how you got into what you're doing.

Yeah, so again, thanks for having me. It actually, like you said, didn't start until I was 37. And I sat next to a woman at a restaurant. And I started getting these feelings, impressions. I've never seen spirit, I've never heard them. But I started getting these feelings with information. And as I shared the information with her, she related to almost all of it, on a really deep level, with a lot of compassion, a lot of validation. And so after that moment, it was about a 45-minute, like, meeting. At the end, she hugged me and said, thank you, I've been waiting for that. And I realized how much it helped her. I found out after her husband passed away instantly and suddenly, they never really got to say goodbye. So I facilitated— or spirit facilitated through me their goodbye. And it was so healing and so full of love. And so I had to kind of take a step back after that night and say, okay, everything I've ever believed, I might have to relook at because that was amazing. And it felt good for her. And if I had the ability to do that for other people, I would love to do that. And so that's when I started my investigation on afterlife studies and reread the scripture and but with a different mind with more of an open heart.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You know, you and I have spoken about this before, and I get a lot of pushback, frankly, from people, Christians who read the Bible a certain way. And how did you feel when, when this happened to you? What was— what were your impressions before?

So I was raised Catholic, saved in 9th grade. I taught religious education in college. And so I was— if you look at it on a, on a macro level, I always believed in something greater. You know, as Christians, we call it— we call it God. We try to put a name on something we really can't define. But when I first experienced it, that really wasn't on my mind, because I witnessed so much beauty and love from the moment that happened until the moment I kind of announced to the world that, hey, this is a gift I have. I didn't think much about it because I saw with my own eyes and experience, like at that time, you know, up until my first actual sessions, you know, 20 or 30 sample sessions of experiencing like love and accuracy and like, it was all beautiful. There was nothing there's nothing demonic about it. And it wasn't until about 4 months after I came out as a medium that I got an email from a former coworker that led me to read some scripture in the Hebrew Bible, in the Torah, in the Old Testament, whatever you want to call it. And I was like, whoa, I gotta, I gotta stop, you know, this is before I— because I came out as a medium before I really started getting into more biblical studies. And so at that moment, I, for about 10 seconds, I was like, oh my gosh, I gotta stop. This is against God. This has been all a hoax. And I was like, wait a minute.. And then I started remembering, I think at that point I had about 50 sessions already completed. And it was nothing but just pure love, nothing but that, nothing demonic or evil. People were actually returning to faith and going back to church after these sessions. So I had to— that's when I reread, or at least listen to the audio, the whole audiobook, it was like 42 hours of the Bible, and kind of looked at it with more of an open mind. And so after that, Um, I started reading the New Testament on a deeper level and looking at the Greek translations and the Hebrew translations of the Old Testament and, uh, kind of came to an understanding that this is anything but demonic. And, and this facilitation, this communication wouldn't exist if it wasn't for something greater to facilitate or, um, be the source of this information. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, please.

And so I was probably going to answer your further— your next question. So go ahead and ask it. I don't know if I answered it properly.

Well, yeah, you did answer. And the thing is, so we get this all the time and people have a certain way of reading the Bible. And I get a lot of like, just go read your Bible, just go read your Bible. And I always laugh because I think about you and all the hours of study that you put into this.

Yeah. So the simplest terms, um, I believe God is something that is undefinable, indefinable. There's no way we can in a human— with our human mind understand who, what God is. That's why I think like Jesus, for instance, spoke a lot in parables. If you look at the Hebrew Bible, Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Kings, there are some verses that very clearly could lead the reader to believe that communication with the spirit world is wrong or demonic, especially in ancient Israel when the books were written. But there are. So what we have to do, and like you, probably I laugh as well, we have to take this book and look at it as a book of love. And if you're looking at it with fear and judgment and black and white, that is not, in my opinion, that's not the best way to read it, because there's so much beauty and wonderful, I guess, what's the right word for it, wonderful experiences that you can have if you truly read these scriptures with the heart, with love. And so not to get down the rabbit hole with it, but Jesus never once spoke about mediumship. Never once. There's not one scripture in the New Testament where Jesus mentioned anything about mediumship. In Matthew 17, he goes on a mountain and talks to Moses. That is the definition of mediumship. By definition, Jesus is a medium. But people— here's the problem: people get caught up in the word. The medium— a medium, by definition, in Oxford and Webster, in all the main dictionaries, is just a halfway point between two extremes. It's the means in which information is communicated. So Jesus was bringing through information from Spirit, from God. John 4:24 says, God is Spirit. Paul was a medium. We wouldn't have a Bible if it weren't for mediums. And some Christians will cringe or like, oh, no way, I can't hear that. But it really is just a word as an in-between. Like, how do you think Paul was able to write scripture? In Galatians 1:11, it says that he didn't obtain his information from men, other men, or himself. It came from spirit from something greater. You can call it Jesus or Christ or God or spirit, but it's all the same thing in the spiritual world. So if you look at— also look at some of the Hebrew Bible, you know, we're supposed to stone our kids to death and we're supposed to not deal with the unclean. And Jesus didn't stone anybody. But you know, you look at— he dealt with lepers and women and totally ignored the purity laws in ancient Israel. John 8:3-11, a woman is brought to him, committed adultery. Well, according to the Hebrew Bible in Deuteronomy 21:18, I think it is, you're supposed to stone them to death, both of them. I mean, it's kind of a black and white law back then. But Jesus didn't stone her. He just asked everyone around, because everyone wanted to stone her, the Pharisees were testing him. And he said, okay, whoever has not sinned can throw the first stone. And from the oldest, from the eldest to the youngest, they dropped their stones. And he says, you know, go and don't sin anymore. So to me, the New World Order, Jesus brought a whole new light to some of the ancient and Hebrew Bible. And as Christians, we are taught to not judge. We are taught to not condemn. We are told to love equally. If you look at the synoptic gospels, they're very different than the book of John. I feel like Jesus paints himself in a very different manner. It's more— it's less egoic, if you ask me. But you have to remember, these words, these were words. They were translated. They were— and again, it doesn't take anything away from me for the Bible, because I love the book. But I think we have to read it with a little bit more gray area. And we truly have to look at the deeper meaning of some of these words. For instance, there's a word that they— It's called metanoia— or it's not metanoia, it's pharmacia. Well, the word, they actually translate it to witchcraft, but it actually has nothing to do with it. It only because back in the day, pharmacia, meaning of drugs, the people who practice witchcraft were often into psychedelics. But that's not like that now. So there's a lot of verses in the Bible that can really be misunderstood. And the final thing, and there's so— we can go down into deep, deep in the scripture if you want. But I have prayed for the years that ever since that night happened to lead me to serve him, because it's not me of doing this work. And actually, that glory goes to something we call God. I'm just used, like many others in this world, just like you with this podcast, are spreading love and use— you're used as a tool to spread that love. And I've asked mil— not millions, hundreds of thousands probably 100 times a day, God, if this is the path you want me to take, please show me. And he has shown me in every single way possible, through scripture, through my life, through music, through every venue possible, um, that this is my path. And the last thing is, I feel like God speaks through more than just a book. Songs, license plates, birds, you name it, God speaks through everything. And if we limit ourselves to one book, it read one way, we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble.

Yeah, I really wish I could just— I am recording. I wish I could say, I wish I could record you and play you for all these people that hit me with all this. And I love what you said there, especially at the end. You know, there's more than one way to connect with God, the Bible. And it always kills me when people call the Bible the Word of God with a capital W. And I'm like, the Bible is not the Word of God. The Word is Jesus. You know, so this, the, you know, I love the fact that you've studied this, that you've prayed about this. And before we started recording, I asked you what you're up to now. And I know you're a man that you ask God about everything in your life, you just, and you constantly seek God's, God's guidance and wisdom on things.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

You know, one of the hardest things about grief most of the people in your life just don't get it. They want you to be further along than you are. They get uncomfortable when you bring it up, so you stop bringing it up. And that's why I started writing. My Substack is where I go deeper. Thoughts I don't always get to in the podcast. Essays on consciousness, on continuing bonds, on what it actually means to carry a loss and still build a life. The stuff that used to keep me up at night, written out in a way that I hope meets you in the morning. But here's what I didn't expect when I started it: the community that showed up. People who are doing exactly what you're doing— listening, learning, trying to find their footing. Readers who comment, who share their own stories, who remind each other that none of us are as alone in this as we feel. And that's what the Substack has become— a place to go deeper with me and to find your people. It's free to subscribe. Find me at grieftogrowth.com. Substack. That's grief2growth.com/substack. Or just go to Substack and search for Grief to Growth.

I hope to see you there.

Proverbs 3:5-6, my absolute favorite Bible verse, in different translations. But what I'll say, what it says, and then what it means to me, it's trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, and always acknowledge him and he'll direct your path. It's really 4 lines that say, well, listen, you have to admit there's something greater than you. Humble yourself, right? But you don't have it all. But if you just like lean on that thing, it will guide you. You can call it Allah, source, universe, God. We try to label these things and think that we know it all and we don't. So if you let that source guide you or the universe or God guide you, then you take the ego out. Because there's things over the years, Brian, where I wanted to do very much so. God said no. Spirit said no. He wanted gambling, you know. I used to drink alcohol. I don't do those things anymore because it puts me at an energetic vibration so that Spirit can work through me to help other people.

Yeah, yeah. I think, um, as I said, when, when we read the Bible, as you said, we have to, we have to understand that it's a It's a different book, the Hebrew Scriptures. I don't like to use the word Old Testament, because they're the Hebrew Scriptures. And we, you know, I see these people that they pick and choose, as we were saying, and we all do, we all pick and choose. I mean, let's just face it, no one takes the whole thing because you can't. There's so many contradictory things in it. And so we still say, well, the prohibition against eating shellfish, that was just for them, that's okay for us to eat shellfish now. But the thing about homosexuality, for example, well, that's, that's for all time. You know, not consulting with mediums, that's, that's for all time. And it's just amazing how people make that distinction.

Do you know the simple cover-all to all of it is? It's one word. It's love. And by that, I mean, what is your intention? If you're taking scripture and using it to attack, judge, condemn, and lead with fear, that is just as demonic, if not more, than actually doing something that may be considered that. And what it boils down to is ignorance. And I don't mean that in a, in a bad way. Ignorance means just lack of knowledge. But if we're using the Bible for instance, and I use this example in my second book, if you're a doctor, and you've been given a gift to be a doctor, which I think people have all kinds of gifts, Paul mentions it in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But if you're a doctor, but you're using it to make a ton of money and have malpractice, and, and you're doing it for all the wrong reasons, I would consider that sinful or demonic or against God, however you want to word it, we're using words to describe things. But if there's a doctor who's making a decent living, but donating time, donating money, doing it with his heart, really helping patients, I think that's beautiful and makes God happy for— in our terms. So one same action can have very extreme reactions from source or from energy. Same thing with mediumship. And you got to remember in Deuteronomy 31:16, when Moses goes on a mountain, God says, "Your people will forsake you." Like all the work after the 120 years that you did, they're still going to forsake you. The energy and the amount of quality of vibration or energy in that time may not have been good for connection with spirit. Moses put himself on that level vibration-wise, whether it be meditation or prayer or whatever he did back then, where God or source could choose him to be a medium Don't cringe as a Christian, because we wouldn't have the Ten Commandments if it wasn't for Moses, who was the in-between between God and humans. Um, but because he raised his vibration. So, uh, you know, totally just lost. This happens sometimes. Maybe we can cut this out, but we were talking about, um, the spirit of which you use the Bible.

Yeah, yeah.

So if Moses' intentions was to hurt people or to make people angry, or if his intentions were demonic, we can look at it a whole different way. So whether you're a doctor, a priest, or a medium, and you're doing work coming from the heart, it can be considered God is happy. But the same 3 people who do work coming from fear and anger and, and ego could really be called demonic. So are there, are there mediums out there who are doing this work for money and for fame and other reasons? I don't know, but I'm assuming so. I don't mean to be negative, but I'm assuming there are people out there who don't have spiritual gifts. And that's why in 1 John 4:1, he warns us about people being false prophets. But that doesn't have to be with just prophets. I mean, I don't know what the Greek word is, but there's people doing all kinds of work and claiming to be something they're not with the intention of maybe screwing someone over. So it doesn't matter what you do. It's your why. Why do you do it? If your intention is pure in love, who are we as humans to judge that? And that's where Romans 14 comes in. If you haven't read that, sit down and read that sucker because it's an amazing chapter about, you know, who are you to judge? Let that be on God because we can't judge. You know, it's not just Matthew 7:1, do not judge. But in Romans, you know, and again, that's a big letter to the people of that, you know, church and state, really no separation back then, to like say, hey, listen, You know what, we can't judge other people. I mean, I was one of them, right? He was one of those people who was doing exactly that. But God picked him out and chose him to be an in-between, a medium, to help spread a whole bunch of love. And, you know, you know as well as I do, he's believed to have written at least 10 to 12 of the books that we— in the New Testament, which is about 45% of that whole book was channeled, was brought through by a medium. And it's amazing work. But read Romans 14, because we're not not to judge other people, because only God knows our heart and our intentions.

Yeah. And it's, it's, I said, it's really interesting when I, when I discuss with these people, and I even have some of them said, well, your argument's not with me, it's with God. And I'm like, okay, so now you're speaking for God, you know, and you're telling me that this is the way I have to interpret the Bible. I, I don't take the Bible literally. I hope people don't, because you would— it's crazy if you do. I have studied the Bible, I've studied biblical history, where it came from. I know the translation are not great. You know, I know it was written by men. I think it's a very good book, but it's not— I don't live my life by what literally what it says. Because even, you know, Jesus, like we talked about, there were the Pharisees who tried to say, you have to live, you know, exactly like this because this is what Moses wrote down. And Jesus was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that.

Yeah, he contradicted many, many Hebrew laws. He was performing miracles on the Sabbath. He was talking to women and lepers, which were the bottom of the purity class and the purity laws in ancient Israel.

Right.

If anything, he was, you know, I'm reading a book right now by Richard Rohr, who's an amazing author. He's like, Jesus was dangerous. He was, he got technically got himself killed, but he was against the social norm. He was trying to reteach and try to kind of reiterate love and equality when even 2000 years later, we still have those extremes and those, those purity laws. They're just a little less out in the open.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, and, you know, again, going back to what the Bible says about this, this, you know, it says test the spirits, you know, by the Spirit. And Jesus said, you'll know a tree by its fruit. So, again, when I think about what you're doing and the people that you connect with, and the healing that it brings, it's just, how could this be a bad thing?

Yeah, I don't know where the information comes from. I still— I don't know how it works. But I've done thousands of these sessions, thousands of them, literally. And there's so much peace and love and accuracy that comes from it. It's anything but demonic. I was even telling my mom last night, in the 4 and a half years I've been doing mediumship, nothing bad has ever happened, knock on wood. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, there's not demonic spirits. And I don't— I'd be ignorant to say that, because I don't know. But I've— I have not experienced anything but pure unconditional love. And if someone's sitting there throwing a stone, per se, because don't forget, Jesus spoke in parables. So throwing stones and things like that, yeah, it was a real thing. But still, throwing a stone is a symbol of, hey, you're like judging someone. I don't— I think a true Christian doesn't do that. That's why when you say, I put the air quotes, because if there's a Christian, quote unquote, who's telling you that you're doing something wrong, that is not what Christian— that is not being a Christian. There's not following. Because if you look up Christianity, or to be a Christian in the dictionary, it's following the teachings of Jesus. But if you read one of— like, for instance, take John 3:3, and you read that in John, Jesus said that you need to be born again to inherit the kingdom of God. Well, to you, it might mean becoming a Christian and becoming saved. For me, it might be literally born again, like I believe in reincarnation. Because don't forget, after when the apostles questioned him, he talked about the birth of the water. Right? So is it the water birth? Like, don't— water breaks when you're having a baby. Or what if our friend, the third person, says, well, I think Jesus meant that, you know, being born again into spirit. So like, when we die here, we're born again back there in spirit, wherever. So if all three of us could be right, all three of us could be wrong. And so that's where that— if you take a scripture or any verse and you think one way or another way about it, that's okay. It's the way that you want to interpret it. And back to the original point, if you're looking at it with love and your intent is pure, if you believe that John 3:3 means reincarnation, and I believe it means being born again, but we're both serving God and we, and we both live our lives in a positive, loving way, then we may both be right in our lives. Right?

Right. Right. Yeah. Well, it's, you know, I just, I feel sorry for these people, honestly. I don't, I don't get, I don't get angry. With them, you know, I will, I will engage them to a certain point. I'm always like, you know, if you've got, if you've got ears to hear, I'd be happy to share what I know with you. And because I used to read the Bible one way too. I used to believe in eternal hell, because I was told that's what the Bible teaches. I don't believe that anymore. The Bible hasn't changed, which changed is the way that I read it.

So I'm in the same boat. But what I'll tell you is very interesting. I was— a video came across on TikTok about this girl who says, you know, Jesus is real. And if you don't find him, you're going to go to eternal hell. And then I sat there and it was just, it's got all these remarks and stuff like that. And I prayed about it. And I wasn't going to respond because, you know, if anything, it's more loving to kind of just send some love and hopefully that, you know, she ends up having an amazing life. But I prayed about it and I feel like God said to me, some people need to believe that so that they live their life in the way that I want them to. And I was like, wow, that's like, that makes so much sense. Because if you think about it, there's some near-death experiencers, I think about 4% of them have had actually hellish NDEs. Does that mean that hell exists? I don't know, I'd be ignorant to say. I don't believe in a prototypical hell either. I believe those are words we put on a perception, right? You can be in heaven or hell. I don't think they're eternal damnation. But if someone does, I don't go out of my way to prove them wrong or to try to change their mind because maybe God implanted that in their mind. So that they would live their life accordingly? Who am I? Just like a quote-unquote Christian would judge me for mediumship, who am I to judge someone who does believe in an eternal hell? Because if that makes them a better person, then who am I to judge that, even though I completely disagree with that? And I think Christians should look at mediumship the same way. Unless you're willing to dive deep and talk to me and look at mediums— not just me, but mediums in general— there's hundreds of thousands of people who do this amazing work. With a— as a gift from God, and really find out truly what our intention is and the beauty that comes from it, you might bite your tongue. And that's why, with what you talked about earlier, or just talked about, I, I don't try to change anyone's mind. I don't waste that energy. I truly send them prayers. But if that is their belief, and they believe in eternal hell, then maybe they live life better and treat people better because of that belief. So I don't try to change that. And when you come to that understanding, life becomes so much more peaceful. Because you may— we both agree, right, that we don't, we don't believe in personal health. But we may have two people on here that do. The four of us could still get along and be loving and treat each other kindly, even though we have completely different beliefs, without trying to change them. And that's where I think we need to get to as a society.

Yeah, that's, that's a, that's a great point. And I, you know, I'm thinking, you know, kind of doing some introspection here. I don't, I don't go out of my way to change people's minds. If people want to engage with me, you know, I believe, you know, the Bible says be able to give reasons for your belief, right? So I'm here and I will give you reasons for why I believe. I'm not arguing with you. I'm just telling you where I'm coming from. And my, I guess my issue with people that preach that to other people is I think that demeans the character of God, to say that God is eternally tormenting people. That's, that's, that's my belief. Now, again, other people, and I've had some really interesting conversations with people who are pastors, literally, I remember lunch one day with a guy who's a pastor. And I was like, well, how can you believe that? Again, not argumentative. Just tell me, tell me how this makes sense to you.

Right.

And I've never had anybody give me a really good answer to that. It just, it always comes down to, well, God's ways are bigger than our ways. And so that's, that's fine. That's what you want to go with.

Yeah. And I think having that peace, Brian D Smith, of letting other people believe those beliefs and having intelligent conversations about it. Like, I have a couple friends of mine who really not— I their friends, one specifically, who really thinks what I'm doing is dangerous and demonic. And they don't want to know more about it. They just feel like I'm being fooled, and they pray for me, but we still talk. But it doesn't feel good that he really thinks that about me. Because if he really just took the time to understand, he would be pleasantly surprised that I'm a man of God. I teach about eternal life, and I teach about peace and equality and same things Jesus taught. And Jesus is probably my, my biggest, like, hero. I think he's a man who came here to spread love. So when we all agree as as a society to— it's okay to disagree and have different beliefs and not try to change people or judge people for their own beliefs. Uh, that's when, that's when I think the second coming of Christ is, right? I, I, I'm a firm believer that Christ— you know, we call Christ— it's not— his name was Yeshua, right? We, we name him— the Greek word is the Anointed One, but we put that label on him. But I feel that thing that Jesus found in himself, that divinity, we can all find in ourselves. And that's John 14:12. It's the— it's in the 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, that we're supposed to imitate Christ and that Christ consciousness, but we label Christ to Jesus when we all really are an anointed one. We are all the chosen one. And if you take away the Book of John and you look at some other gospels like the Book of Thomas, Jesus was just one of us. He was just a man who did it probably better than a lot of other people did. You know, I even look at Martin Luther King, like, well, the way he spoke and what he wrote when he was in prison, there was an 8,000-word manuscript that he wrote that I felt like it was channeled. Just like, yeah, don't forget all this stuff that Paul wrote. He was in jail. He was being— he was dodging people. He was getting chased and murdered. Like, you know, eventually probably it was, I think. I don't know if it's in scripture, but he was in jail in many of these towns and he was writing these beautiful pieces. And I think there's people even now, Martin Luther King, for instance, who brought to light— in fact, they even pitched, they even tried to get some of Martin Luther King's writing into the modern canon, but they denied it because we're so stuck in our old ways. We got to have this, this way, this way. So, um, yeah, I think people today can channel and can bring through love and God and Jesus and spirit just so, just as much now as they could 2,000 years ago. And so I think God still speaks. He's not done talking.

Yeah, I think it was Gracie Allen was credited with saying, you know, never put a period where God has put a comma. And that was something we, when I was going to the UCC, United Church of Christ, they talked about all the time. And, you know, I look at the Bible, and I'm like, okay, this thing was canonized 2,000 years ago. Do you really believe God stopped speaking 2,000 years ago? There is a, there's a sermon by George MacDonald called Justice that I love it. And I'm like, this should be in the Bible. You know, I'm like, what, why can't this be in the Bible? Why can't God still be speaking inspired words today? And I look at Martin Luther King, I look at Gandhi. And I say, you know, Jesus gave his life for his people. They gave their life for their people also, they were, they were both murdered. For, for what they were doing.

It's what we seem to do when people come here to spread peace and love and equality, because it doesn't fit with the narrative. And it's just like it was back in, uh, when Jesus was, was alive. And it's no different now. It wasn't that long ago, and probably it's probably still happening, not being, you know, known. But there are a lot of people coming here to spread peace, love, and equality with gifts from God, and we're not treating them with, with love. Like, it's kind of, kind of ironic.

Yeah, well, that's why, you know, Jesus is my hero too. I still, I still call myself a follower of Jesus. I don't identify as a Christian anymore, just because of all the baggage with that. But when people come at me, I'm like, bring it on, because that's what they did to Jesus, right? So I'm like, I know I'm doing the right thing when people tell me that I'm, I'm being demonic. And they accused Jesus of casting out demons using the devil's power?

Matthew 12:24. You're exactly right. Big deal. So they use Beelzebub. But back then, the same works that Jesus did is the same works that lightworkers use today. Like, if someone watches one of your podcasts and they feel closer to God, how are you doing the devil's work? No matter what is involved, even if it's— even if it completely misaligns with scripture, but people are more closer to God, and they're more full of love because of your podcast, that's demonic? Who am I to judge that? Same reason we talked about when someone believes in eternal hell. That's okay, you can believe in that. And I, and I believe in something different. It's when we get in trouble, Brian, is when we think that our beliefs are right, and everyone has to believe what we believe, or they're going to suffer in some hell or some purgatory because they don't believe what I believe. And that is, that is completely the opposite of what I believe Jesus taught when he came here.

Yeah, well, it is. It's ironic that, that there are, you know, people will read the scriptures, and then they'll act just like the Pharisees. He'll take the scriptures and use them to beat up people who are out here trying to spread, spread God's word, you know, people, people like yourself, you know, I've spoken with many healers that, you know, that do healing work, you know, just like Jesus talked about, just like Paul talked about, I have a friend, I was— because I interviewed a lot of people had near-death experiences. And he's an evangelical. We were out walking one day, we're having a conversation. And I said something about near-death experiences. And he goes, why don't I don't believe in those? I don't believe it. And I said, well, I think Paul had a near-death experience. And he said, well, what do you mean? I said, saw a big light, you know, was struck blind, heard a voice from the sky, completely changed his life around, changed his name, Sounds a lot like a people— a lot of people I know that have had near-death experiences. I'm like, why do you believe what that guy wrote down 2,000 years ago, but you won't believe Tricia that I spoke to yesterday?

Yep. And what's the end? And they don't have an answer for that, though, because it's in the Bible. It's the word. It's, it's called cognitive dissonance, right? And there's actually a lot of Christian writers who write about near-death experiences. There's a few really good ones, like I can't think of off the top of my head. But they write about near-death experiences. And I agree with you, on the road to Damascus. That's exactly— I think by definition, we can only guess what happened to him. And don't forget, you were kind of hinting at healers, you know, in Acts 9, Ananias was asked to heal Saul. Oh, by the way, he— in the Bible, it says God spoke to him. Well, do we really know? Was God? Was it his spirit guide? Was it his angel? Was it Jesus? Was it his mom? Was it— we don't know. Spirit is spirit. Who are we to separate that? Right?

Right.

But when he healed him, laying of the hands on him took away his blindness. A lot of metaphysical people today call that Reiki. But if you say that word to a Christian, they're like, oh no, that's demonic. You know, yoga and Reiki. It's throughout Scripture. In that same verse in John 8, when Jesus— when the Pharisees brought the woman who committed adultery, It says in the Bible, he was writing in the sand.

What do you mean?

I don't know for sure. But as a studier of the Bible and metaphysics and Jesus, I think he was automatic writing. He was getting information on how to kind of handle the situation. Because don't forget, he was still human. He came from spirit, but you know, he had to regain and third took him 30 years, right, according to scripture. But he was writing down how to kind of handle the situation, I firmly believe. So these words that we use, Reiki, and even medium, instantly people like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. And it's like, wait, let's open our hearts and open our minds and find out what this work actually is. Because if you really look at the Bible, it's a metaphysical book. You wouldn't have that book if it weren't for Moses and Jesus and Paul, who were mediums.

Yeah. And people seem to forget that, as you said, Moses channeled, you know, the Pentateuch, you know, Paul never met Jesus, you know, a lot of people, some people even some of the disciples had a problem with Paul because Paul's talking about Jesus. They're like, dude, you never even met him. But so Paul never met Jesus in the physical, and people read the Bible and they take Paul's word. It's like, well, as you said, it's either he had to be channeling through Jesus if he's representing Jesus.

Yeah, it says in Galatians 1:11. But, but think about this: if someone did that today and stood the way Paul stood, we would think, just like in Matthew 12:24, the way they accused Jesus of casting out devils only by the work of the devil. We would— and that's exactly what people are doing to people like you and I spreading love today is the same thing Pharisees did 2,000 years ago. So they're missing the whole point because it's lost in translation. If you really look at what we're doing, it is of pure love. And just take Paul, for instance. If you said like, hey, there was a guy— I just met a guy the other day, his name was Joe, and he like was walking and he fell, he like died, and he like went blind and he heard God talking to him, and now he's going from town to town preaching Jesus and saying that Jesus is telling him to say these things— we would think he's we would think he's the devil. But Paul, 2,000 years ago, because it's put in this book, the Word, capital W, of God, it's okay then. And the answer— the question is why? Because I feel like God could speak just like through you or me 2,000 years later, because like you said, God always speaks in many different venues, not just a book. Although it's—

well, you know, I'm, uh, I'm watching the recordings of the IANS conference, which was just a few weeks ago as we're recording this.. And I'm listening to these people talk about, I was in the light, I met God, I saw Jesus. I saw spirit guides, I met angel and Archangel Michael. And the message to me is that everybody is one, where it's all about love, you know, you are eternal being, you know, go out and do good works, you know, all the things that the Bible tells us to do. And I'm listening to these messages. I'm like, This is exactly what, you know, the Bible is trying to say to us. But these are people today having these experiences. And, and unfortunately, so many people have shut themselves off from this incredible source of inspiration and love and peace and healing.

Yep, I agree 100%. And if we would just open our heart and mind, which is what I had to do 5 and a half years ago, and that whole experience happened to me. And all the reunions and experiences I've had since have been nothing but divine.

Yeah. So tell me if you could just give me a story or two about some people that you've, you've touched with your, with your, your work and how it's changed them.

Um, a fruit fly just showed up. My dad always pops in and I'm in the basement in September. There's no food down here. There's little fruit flies right here. The one person that comes to mind, which is in chapter 16 of my book, is a young boy named Buddy. He's a 9-year-old who passed away. And I was on Facebook about 2 years ago this month. And this, you know, I do Facebook, kind of like pro bono stuff. It's just kind of like what God asked me to do. So on Monday nights, like tonight, I'm gonna go on Facebook and give a whole bunch of messages to people. I let God work through me, you know, and I'll just pause real quick and say that as a medium or a lightworker, or a Reiki healer, or even a psychic, whatever word you want to use, those who are doing it with true intention and true heart are getting their information, their knowledge, everything, even their healing. It comes from, from God. We'll call it God, but it comes from some other source. We have to humble ourselves, right? So when I say, um, when you ask the question, it's how is spirit able to, or God able to help someone through me? Because it has nothing to do with me. I have just put myself in a position that God asked me to, right? Because what was gambling, it was drinking, it was, it was watching things I shouldn't watch on TV. And that allowed me to get to the vibration where spirit could work through me better. And I think Jesus did the same, Paul did the same, and so did Moses and the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lightworkers in all of history. So God has worked through me, or spirit has, in amazing ways. And one of them was a 9-year-old who passed away. And so Facebook, I bring this woman on. She— as mediums, we get— I just get impressions. I get numbers and symbols, and she seemed to relate with what I was saying. So she came on. Now remember, I know nothing about these people. I didn't know she lost a child. I know how old she was. In fact, during the session, I thought her son was much older. But we start bringing through this information, and, um, it's her son. There's no doubt, no doubt about it. Talks about his Snoopy doll and all this stuff like that. And if you watch the video, it's on my YouTube. I was even shocked that she still had a Snoopy doll because to me she sounded a little older. I thought maybe her son was in her— in his 20s. Well, 3/4 of the way through the thing, I get this song. It's Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. And, um, I said, I'm hearing that song in my head. I don't know what it means. And she just says, you know, you won't believe this. And I had to go off camera because I started crying, you know, because I haven't— I have a 9-year-old. And so she's like, that was a song that we sung. You know, I have it on video of him singing that song during his treatment. And it brought— so after the session was done, I was so overwhelmed with, with— and she was so thankful. And her story is in chapter 16 of my new book. And it was so overwhelming and so peaceful and so full of love. And it actually gave her some resurgence and more faith and allowed her to kind of continue to move on after losing— you know, you've been through that of losing a child. It's the one thing you would never even think or want or have to navigate that road. And she was able to reconnect to him for a 30-minute session, just long enough to give her some peace in her heart, to help her continue living in this world without her only son. And so I called her after, and we said we stayed in touch. She took all the classes, some of the classes I teach, my mediumship classes, and she has a gift. When her son passed away, her, her gifts opened up to be able to help other parents who've lost their children. And she's given sessions to people. So Buddy always stays in my heart. His story is in my new book. And his mother was helped by God or spirit through me. I'm insignificant here. But they used the opportunity to help her through me. And now she's living a better life. She still misses her son. She still cries pretty much every day from what she says. She's still upset. But she— her heart was full that night. And that love and energy that he was able to provide to her in spirit is still with her to this very day from that session in that moment. Moment that she—

yeah, it was just one. And, you know, I, you know, what I love about that, and I love about the way you even wrote in the description that you sent me, you said you've conducted thousands of mediumship/grief counseling sessions. Because unfortunately, mediumship gets a bad rap in a lot of ways. You know, one is some people think it's demonic, some people think it's all fake. And then because of Hollywood, a lot of people think it's all about entertainment. And even some mediums— I interviewed a guy that had it on his website, his disclaimer this is for entertainment purposes only, because he thought his lawyer wanted that. But, you know, the thing is, you— it's a healing session when people have a great mediumship session. And there's been studies, literally studies done, that mediumship, a good medium reading can be better than a year of grief counseling.

Yep, 100%. And I have that on my website too, because my lawyer recommended the same thing. But I've experienced the healing and the love that comes from it. And I actually quote that in my book, that one session with a genuine medium who's able to connect you with the energy that lives forever, which is the person who passed away. Don't forget, energy cannot be created or destroyed. We just go on to some other form of existence, which is what I believe Jesus taught. And connecting with their energy, wherever it is, is not demonic. It's the opposite. It's beautiful. It's loving.

It's full of—

I think the theme over the time, to kind of answer, or not answer the first question, and kind of go towards what you're saying, is, um, The theme has been your loved one is still alive. They have not left you. They are watching this movie with you, this life, this experience with you. They're rooting you on and trying to cheer you on to just choose love and compassion and forgiveness every day. And the analogy I have is there's a movie theater and you're in the main middle seat of your movie, and you're experiencing with free will and destiny to kind of navigate through this path. And alongside of you on both sides is your mother's side, side and your dad's side from generations back, and they're all watching you make these choices and rooting for you to choose love. And so when you connect with a medium, they just, they take the opportunity to let you know that they're still with you. They're watching your reality. They want nothing but the best for you. And they want you to live your experience in your life with love, and with the most fulfillment you could possibly have and to be happy with love, right? So we, we don't want to get in some of those egoic things, right? Focusing on the earthly things, like Colossians 3:2, but focusing on spirit and love. And I'm doing this work because this is what God told me to do. And so if someone thinks it's demonic or doesn't understand it, Galatians 1:10 talks about doing things to please God, not to please others. And that's, and that's what I do. And if you, if someone even on this watching this or listening to this is a skeptic, that's okay. And I think you've talked about that before. But having your mind and heart open to things that maybe you don't understand is more full of love than, than closing your mind off and being stuck in these ways and not being open to new beliefs.

Yeah, I tell you, for me, you know, you were talking about her with Buddy, and you mentioned as you were giving the answer about they're still with us. That was the thing that surprised me. I believed in the afterlife because I was a Christian for a long time, raised with the Bible. But that's heaven in the by and by, and they're, they're gone, you know. So my grandmother died, she's in heaven. When my grandfather died, he's in heaven. I'll see them a long, long time from now when I die. The thing that really has helped me to heal is knowing that my daughter is still with me. And in grief counseling now, it's a new model— they're not new, but newer— they call continuing bonds, that we can continue that relationship with the person that's still— that's gone. We don't have to let go of them and wait till we see them again. And it's been— it's really cool. And I find that really helps a lot of people to know, like you said, they want you to be happy and healthy. You know, I think in the Bible, it's called the great cloud of witnesses. They're watching us, they're cheering us, they're cheering us on. And that's, that's really encouraging.

Yeah, it's true. And I don't know if you're open for a quick message. If you are, I can— I don't know what it is. Are you open for a quick message?

Oh yeah, sure.

So as you're talking about your daughter, I just, in my mind, and this will kind of give your listeners an example, and I have no idea if and what it means to you. All I see is a candle. And I hear that song Candle in the Wind by, you know, you know, it's about Marilyn Monroe, and I get a goosebump even as I say that. So my feeling is wherever her energy is, she's either blowing out your candles, or someone just blew out the candles, or that you light a candle every day, and maybe she's messing with the flame. But this is her way. And I don't even know if it makes sense to you. But this is her way to validate that she truly is with you. But she's also being creative and smart, which I think she probably is, and was in human form to show you that life is eternal. And just because— okay, so she's being symbolic, just because— but also it may mean something to you. But just because the candle blows out, doesn't mean that candle is not going to be relit and could be relit forever. Do you understand the candle reference with her? Do you understand this?

Yeah, yeah. Because when I meditate, it's funny, because for a very long time, I would light incense when I meditate. But lately I've been lighting a candle when I meditate. So yeah, yeah.

So it might blow out tonight, or you might like, you know, I don't know how it works, but even that in itself doesn't have to blow out. It's just kind of like a, hey, I'm with you, you're on the right path, keep doing what you're doing. I also feel like that message is a correlation between, um, what we talked about before and kind of guiding you in what's coming up, you know. Yeah, that meditation is gonna help guide you there. So that's your time to, to connect. And I kind of laughed too. And this is kind of the theme of the thing. People, oh, you're not supposed to meditate or do yoga. That's demonic. I was like, well, Moses was supposed to meditate by the burning bush. In fact, some of Jesus— when Jesus talks about prayer, some of the Greek words actually can translate into like silent thinking or meditation. It's just— no, it's just lost in translation. So I hope as a connector of you with your daughter, which I tell people in my second book, especially, you don't need a medium, that that message gave you peace, it gave you hope. And next time you go meditate, maybe the candle blows out, or even if the wind— even if the window was open and that's what blew it out, that's just her letting you know she's with you. Um, and that, that moment that you have now and/or then is, is beautiful and divine, divine and anything but demonic, you know?

Yeah, well, you know, it's really cool because I— because of what I do, I have a lot of friends that are medium, and my daughter likes to drop in on people. So I have a really good friend, we're friends on Facebook, and we were talking on Saturday, and she sends me this GIF of a penguin, like a claymation penguin, like dancing. And I'm like, well, that's really interesting that she chose this in this meeting, because when Shana was 10 years old, she made a claymation movie. She was obsessed with penguins. And it was a penguin, and it was called Fins Off My Fish or something. And she was— so she made this thing with it. It's just like a 30-second thing that she made. So I get that— my point is, I get these things from her all the time. She's always, you know, dropping in and just saying I'm here, I still know what you're doing. I still, you know, care about you. And I could, I could go on and on for hours with all the signs that she gives me. And that's been the thing, like I said, that I didn't know. And it's really interesting. Not to take away from anybody's faith or anything, but if people just have their faith, just, just totally based on the Bible, as like, I just read this book, and I believe it, you're missing 90% of what's out there. You're missing, like you talked about earlier, you know, they communicate to us through synchronicities, through signs, you know, finding feathers or dimes or a butterfly acting unusually, or, you know, stuff like that. We're missing out on all the other ways that spirit speaks to us and is alive and wants to be part of our life.

100%. And the only other thing that's coming through, I know I had your permission, is the I name, Isaac.

Isaiah.

I don't know if it's— she's talking about a book in scripture or if there's someone with the I name. It's a very random, obscure name.

Well, my mother's name starts with an I and it's Ida, and it's a pretty unusual name. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Is she still here?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, um, yeah, that's—

you— are you— are you okay? You're still open? Real quick, sorry. Um, are you doing a lot for her, but you wish you could do more or something. So I don't know if she lives away or whatever, but I feel like you're doing what you can for her, but you just wish you could do more. And she's making me feel like you're doing what you can do.

You know what's wild about this? I have to be careful how much I share here. When I was talking earlier about Christians and the Bible and stuff like that, and when my, when my mother has struggled with the concept of death, the concept of mortality. And she has 9 brothers and sisters, and there's one, one still left here. And I feel, I feel for people that don't have the peace that I have now. So I, that might be what it is. It's like, I wish I could give everybody what I know. And, and in particular, people that are, that are close to me. So yeah, that I think that might be what the message is, you know, as I said, it's I just feel, I feel sad that so many people are closed off to, you know, what you and I know what, you know, what you and I experience. And, you know, and I struggle, I still struggle with my daughter, you know, being in spirit. It's not easy for me. But like, when I got that little thing on Saturday, when my friend sent me this claymation penguin thing, I'm like, wow, this is Shayna, you know, really is with her, you know, and, and I still need to have that reinforced. I need to, I need to hear this, you know, over and over again.

She's still— I won't keep longs and those puppies. She's sharing one more thing. So yeah, keep in mind there's only so much you could do for mom. I do feel like she's gonna be there for her when her time comes. Um, and she's just showing me an Oreo, but it's interesting because it's only half the Oreo. It's not like the whole thing. So I don't know if you just had one or one—

this—

it's not half like cut in half the way, it's cut in half like the wafer way, but there's only one side of it. Um, do you understand what she's going for with the one-parted Oreo. It's just like the one— it's either the part without— it feels like the part without the frosting on it. It's like you take it apart, one side has the frosting, the other side is just the Oreo.

Yeah, I'll have to think about that. I'm not sure what, what that is.

Um, the wafer part. It's almost as if like you bought the Oreos without the filling. Yeah. Did you buy— you know how they have those Oreo Thins where they don't have— I don't think they have the filling. Did you buy them? Okay, check that. Could relate to your mom or your wife. Um, but there's something about the Oreo without the—

Yeah, yeah, I have to get back to you. I'm not sure about that. But yeah, she, um, like I said, she's always dropping in. She's always, she's always, you know, like I said, making sure she gives us messages.

And, and so real quick, two— okay, so two out of three messages you understand. The candle, you do it when you pray and you meditate. You understand I name, which isn't, you know what, I don't know your mom's name. So that was a way for her to bring that. So you get to— and then you get to a third message, it's like, oh, I don't get it, but I'm gonna hold on to it. So you're Throughout a mediumship session, there are a handful of times where the person doesn't relate to what I'm saying. And they hold on to it. And it makes sense. I get so many emails later. And hopefully you'll do the same if you find out. Oh my god, wouldn't you— wouldn't believe this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's just a way to validate that your loved ones are with you and watching you. And it's beautiful. So I hope you do validate. But if you're watching as a skeptic, which is okay, mediumship is not 100% like, oh, I have this person here, and this is their name.

It's symbols, it's feelings, it's pictures, it's Well, and I want to give you an example of that. So one of our friends, and I'm allowed to use her name because we've talked about it, Suzanne Giesemann. And so Shayna drops in on her, and she, she called us one day, she had a message from Shayna. And she goes, does your daughter— was your daughter Kayla playing basketball recently? And I'm like, no, Suzanne, you're way off here. My daughter hates any kind of sports. She swam, but she doesn't do anything with balls. At all. She's like, I, you know, volleyball, basketball, none of that stuff. And I said, no, I'm pretty sure not. She was living in Toledo at the time, uh, which is 3 hours from us. So I'm like, but I'll check, you know. So just like this, I'm like, I, I don't think so, but I'll check. So I called her up, I said, Kayla, have you been playing basketball lately? Because she had a boyfriend at the time. Like, maybe, maybe her boyfriend dragged you to the gym or something. She goes, no, no. I'm like, okay. She goes, but she She was babysitting for these two kids at the time. And she said, we did make some basketballs out of Play-Doh. We made Play-Doh. We pretended we were playing basketball. Okay. I had no idea at the time. And I'm thinking, there's no way that, that she's right about this. But you know, I'm open. So let me check. And it turns out that she was spot on.

Yep. And just that open mind, that open heart can lead to an amazing amount of blessings. And you might know that your daughter is with your other daughter and then being happy that she's experiencing time with, with the kids and babysitting. And that could give you so much peace to know that your daughters are still connecting on that type of level. That's beautiful. It's anything but bad. Hopefully that made you feel amazing even for weeks.

It does, you know, because the thing is, there is some survivor's guilt that comes sometimes when people, you know, pass and we think, oh, I'm here and I'm doing all this great stuff and they're not able to do that, not able to experience it. But they are with us. And this, this came through another medium friend of mine who told my daughter in a reading, my daughter Kayla, in a reading, she said, Shayna says that she will be with you, like at all these special events, when you graduate, when you get married, when you have your children, you know, I will still be with you. So I was at my nephew's wedding last weekend. And one of our signs is a dime. And I'm sitting in the church just before the wedding, they were taking pictures up front, I'm sitting in the second row of the pews. And I look down and there's a dime on the floor in the church. And I'm like, what were the odds of me finding that? First of all, because I would have never been sitting there if it hadn't been right before the wedding. And I'm like, okay, Shane is here. You know, so that's, that's comforting. Yep.

100%. There's something—

I want to get back to talking about you and what you're doing now. So I think the last time we spoke was a while ago, you were opening a a massage and not a massage, but a Reiki center, I think. And you were doing mediumship out of there. You still doing that? Or what are you doing now?

That was a while ago. We opened it and then the pandemic hit. And so we had— it was hands-on kind of stuff. So we shut it down. We never opened it back up. So I'm, you know, doing— I'm full-time. I've been in medical device sales, medical sales for the last 18 years. And so I'm doing that. I do sessions 3 to 4 nights a week. I do group sessions. I have live events. We have one in, uh, local one coming up and one in Dallas, uh, in November. So I'm kind of mixing, uh, you know, being a dad number one and a husband, uh, and then working full-time but also doing the mediumship and, uh, you know, writing my— finishing up my second book as well, which should be published next week.

So tell me about your second book. Well, first tell everybody about your first book because I know that's already out and it's— I've read it, it's fantastic. So tell us about your first book and then tell me about your second book.

Thank you. Yeah. So Why Are We Here is the first book. It was written and published in 2020, right during the pandemic. And this first book is about finding your purpose, trying to live your life in the most loving way. In the beginning, I explained how I understood my gift and how this whole mediumship came to me. And then I explained all the things that I've learned by connecting with spirit about meditation and prayer and doing nice things for others and I talk about forgiveness and finding your purpose in the book. And at the end, I share a few testimonials from some sessions, from mediumship sessions. So it's a book to help you live a better life, to let you know that love is the most important thing. That's, that's the first one, Finding Your Purpose. And then the second one is called Journey Through Many Mansions. It pretty much talks about life being eternal and a circle, and it goes on forever, and your journey doesn't end. And so I go through, and the subtitle is Navigating Grief, Grief and Understanding Mediumship. And so someone lost someone they love, they can read this book, it helps them navigate their grief with the illustration that we don't die, and that our loved ones are with us. And I slowly try to prove— can't say prove— but I try to illustrate or demonstrate that throughout my experience in the last 5 and a half years, your loved ones, kind of like what we said earlier, they're with us, they show us, they, they root for us, they, their energy is always lasting and part of our lives in one way or another. And we are eternal, so we don't have to fear death because we don't die, we just change realities. And then at the end of the book, I have 5, like, goosebump-raising stories of some of the experience, one of which I mentioned earlier is Buddy, um, that you— if you read and believe, you, you have to almost believe there's something more, right?

Yeah.

And so I try to teach people that, um, We don't die, and your loved ones who have passed before you are with you. In fact, they've told me over the years, they're more with you than they were when they were physically here. They're literally part of your energy, experiencing your reality and rooting, rooting you on and hoping nothing but the best for you.

Yeah, you know, it's funny that you said that, because I tell people, and again, I miss my daughter, I will miss her every day. But I'm closer I have more connection with Shayna than I do with my daughter who's here in the physical. My daughter is in the physical. I did see her over the weekend. But you know, I'll see her every, every couple of weeks, I'll talk to her when I see her. I talk to Shayna every day. You know, she's the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning, I say good morning to her and I come out of this, this picture that's behind me is also in my foyer. So when I walk out of my bedroom door, you know, she's there. So in a way, she is closer to me now than she was when she was here in the physical. And I feel like I can connect with her, you know, at any time. So it's an interesting point that you just made.

Yeah, and that's what I try to illustrate through the book. And, you know, Ferris wheels being the theme, you know, my daughter drew this, you know, she's 7. And I try to teach people that life's kind of like a Ferris wheel. You can go in different gondolas, you can look out different ways, but it keeps going and going like forever. Like, you know, I think we are limited with our human mind. I know we're limited with the human mind, But, uh, I think creation and, and a final thing is just all kind of dogma and made up. I think that life is eternal. We are literally eternal, and we can't even conceptualize that. We have to think that we had to start at some point and try to teach in the book that we've always been, you know, before you are, you know, before I am, I am, right?

Yeah. Well, you know, and you use the word, you know, prove, and you kind of, kind of backtracked on that word, and I just finished a fantastic book that takes the near-death experiences and makes a logical argument for them. And I learned, I learned something there. I guess there's a way you can logically prove something. So it's like, you know, something could be like, nailed down, like, like a mathematical proof. But there's also like, I guess, I think the word's empirical, there's empirical proof, which means beyond pretty much any reasonable doubt.

Is that Jeffrey Long's book?

No, I can't remember the name of the guy. I should have brought up because I can't remember. But it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, I think it's pretty new book. I was recommended by a guy named Bernardo Kastrup. So I'll look it up and I'll send it to you. I'll put it in the show notes.

Yeah, please do.

But it's really fantastic book. And like I said, what I, what I learned is, you know, if you take all the evidence that we have, mediumship, after-death communications, near-death experiences, quantum physics, you know, consciousness studies, there's at least 5, if not 8 or 9 different fields that really hint strongly at the afterlife. You can maybe pick holes in one or two of them. But when you put it all together, I believe we've proven beyond any reasonable doubt that there is life after death. You have to be, you know, it was interesting because someone— I was talking with someone at the Helping Parents Heal conference, and she was a real skeptic. And we had all these fantastic mediums there, and they're doing demonstrations and stuff, and they're just amazing. And I said, so, because I'm not really sure about mediumship. And I said, what do you mean? She said, well, where are they getting information? I don't know. You know, it could be from the deceased person, they could be reading the sitter's mind. It could be the Akashic Records. And I'm like, well, yeah, I guess it could be those things. But sometimes I get things that the sitter doesn't know. You know, we don't know that the Akashic Records even exist. And why would you believe in that more than what the medium is telling you? That I said, you know, the most obvious and the simplest explanation would be that we're connected with people on the other side. So a cynic, I would call rather than a skeptic, a cynic will say, well, it's impossible, therefore it can't be true. And I think anybody who's skeptical, if they examine the evidence, you can't come to really any other conclusion. And I, as much as I've studied this over the last 30 years, I, I don't, I see no other conclusion other than life goes on.

Yeah. And it's interesting. You could take all religions and all spiritual studies We're all saying the same thing. We're just saying it in a different way. Yeah, but there's something more. I've come to the conclusion— this is my opinion— that we're living in, in our own movie, and we have destiny and free will. Destiny is gonna happen, and the free will can extend within the destiny window, right? So the way— if you haven't read Robert Schwartz, he's a really interesting guy, channels Jesus, which, oh my gosh, say that to a Christian, but that's exactly what Paul did. He brings through Yeshua, and he shares a bunch of things about forgiveness and compassion in your life purpose. It's a really beautiful book. Authors. It's called Your Soul's Plan. Um, and in the book, and in one of his interviews, he explains that, listen, this is what he's come to believe, what kind of Yeshua and his studies have shown him, that life is like a video game. Uh, take Mario Brothers for instance. You know, you can run, you can jump, and you can go back and forth, and you can go down certain tubes, but you can't go down other tubes. And you don't have to go down a tube, but you can. Um, so you can only do what's programmed in the parameters of the game. Game. But you do have free will within the game to kind of go your own way and do your own thing. And that kind of works the same way when it comes to life. There's a destiny. There's things that are going to happen in your reality, this, this blueprint, but you have flexibility within it. There's actually a really good movie called The Adjustment Bureau.

If you— oh yeah, it's such a great movie.

I think that's so accurate. I think it's such an accurate— there's another movie called Soul, which I— it's a Disney movie called Soul, which I think is very accurate. But I think God speaks through media and through—

I completely agree with you.

And that movie is just— it's about this plan that can be adjusted, and there's this destiny thing. It's really cool. So yeah, I think opening our heart and mind to things that maybe we either don't believe or don't understand, uh, can really, uh, allow us to take leaps and bounds in our own reality, in our lives.

Well, I have to— I have to say this. It's interesting you mentioned Mario Brothers because that was our favorite game. Shayna and I played Mario Brothers for hours and hours and hours, Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo Wii. And I always use that analogy when I'm talking to people about, about life, you know, is the Mario Brothers game, in the sense that Shayna used to like to pick people up and throw them into the lava. So she would be playing around, she'd pick up your character and kill you. And, you know, I tell people, it's like, that's kind of how our lives are here. We we, we think this life is so— and it is precious and it is important and it is all those things, but we also take it way too seriously. And, you know, I was thinking about, like I said, I think about Shayna. I was like, she's like, I'm just gonna kill you and then you just regenerate, you know, you never actually die.

It's, it's funny you say that because my son plays a bit, he's 5, and I said, they're playing like Robux, Roblox, and I was like, I hear shooting and I'm like, I guess they're like, like paintball guns, I guess, but you do die. And I was like, I don't like games where you die. And he goes, Dad, you respawn. I kind of was like, oh, I think you do. I think we do that in real life too. We just change realities. Um, yeah. So yeah, I'm under the same, the same understanding.

Yeah. So I, you know, like I said, it's, it's really, it's cool to me. Um, and I know we, we, we're very careful with our language and we say this is what I've come to believe. And then I say that too, you know. But there's certain things I feel like I really know. It's like, do I know the sun's going to come up tomorrow? I have a pretty good idea, you know. I, I don't know, but I have a pretty good idea.

It. Right.

And I've got a— I, and I'm pretty much, I would say I know to a reasonable, within a reasonable amount of certainty that my daughter is still alive, and she's better off than she was when she was here. And what I, what I want people to get out of, and this is why I do the podcast, I want everybody to know that, want everybody to internalize that, not just, not just believe it because they read this one book, you know, or this one way of doing things. But that it's all around us, that God is speaking to us in so many different ways, in every different way, trying to get this message to us, trying to get us to remember, to get us to wake up.

Yeah, Ephesians 5:14, right? Um, and that's what the goal of this book is. And that's— if you know that I— this is kind of a piggyback on John chapter 14, verse 2, where he says, if my Father's house, um, didn't have many mansions, I wouldn't have told you so.

Right, right.

I actually quoted it, uh, in the book. Um, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would not have— I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Um, and this was kind of a piggyback on that, but also like, I believe we live in different realities or mansions, and your daughter is still experiencing this one but also experiencing a reality in a whole different blissful— because that's what they tell me. I had to tell a woman last night, I had a session with her, she lost her son. And I had to kind of share that even though he's with you and experiencing life and rooting you on, he's also in a state of bliss. Because one of her concerns was she felt bad that she didn't— he didn't get to experience his life. And they tell me this over and over, like, no, no, no, they're way, way better off than we can ever imagine or ever can be, believe it or not, in this realm and in this lower vibration energy than they are. They feel— even souls who have crossed lost in tragic ways have made me feel that they're okay and they're better and they're doing other things that we can't even begin to understand.

Yeah, and I find that to be a very comforting thought because my daughter was 15 and a half when she passed. So, literally just a few weeks away from being 15 and a half and in Ohio, that's when you get your temporary permit. She was so looking forward to driving. So, you know, I was like, "Oh, she's going to miss driving. You know, she's going to miss her high school graduation." You know, you think about all the things that they're quote missing. But then I speak with the medium. And actually, I was talking with one medium, and she said, you know, why she's showing me car keys. She said, she's showing me that she's driving. And people will say, well, can people drive in heaven? Well, I think you can if you want to. I think you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Yeah, that's what I've learned. I'll share with you what she's sharing with me right now, maybe after, because I don't know, I want to be conscious of your time.

Oh, yeah. Well, no, we actually like to keep these to around an hour because I could talk to you all day. So we'll have you back and we'll talk some more. So what I want to do is to let you to let people know like how they can reach you. I know you do some live events on Facebook, like on Monday nights, how people can reach you for readings and everything else.

Yeah, so everything is Daniel John Medium. It's DanielJohnMedium.com, Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, TikTok is all Daniel John Medium. Be careful of fakes because people make fakes of everybody. You probably got fake pages. So, they make— people have a— but everything's Daniel John Medium. YouTube as well. And Monday nights we go live on TikTok and Facebook and just give, you know, give free sessions. There's no cost.

It's just a—

we've built, you know, just like you have with your base of people, have built a very strong-knit close community on Facebook and TikTok of people who just want to learn and understand more. And celebrate life. So you can join us Monday nights on Facebook, usually around 9:15. And then if you want to check out my website, it's danieljohnmedium.com.

Right. Daniel, it's good seeing you again. And when will your book be available?

We're crossing our fingers that we get through the final publication. So we'll just say October 3rd, next Monday, is our launch.

Okay. All right, cool.

Well, we're recording this on September 26th, but it'll probably— it'll be a while before it's out. So by the time this is out, your book should be available. So yeah, great. Good. Good seeing you again. Good catching up with you.

Thanks for having me, Brian.

All right.

Thanks for listening to Grief to Growth. Brian hopes that you find this episode helpful and will come back for future episodes. Brian's bestselling book, Grief to Growth: Planted, Not Buried, is a great resource for anyone who is coping with grief or knows someone who is. If you enjoy the podcast, and would like to support it, there are 3 things you can do to help. The first is to share the podcast with someone that you think it will help. The second is to go to iTunes, rate and review the episode. The third way you can support the podcast is by becoming a patron. Head over to www.patreon.com/grieftogrowth. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/grieftogrowth. Patreon.com/grief, the number 2, growth, and sign up to make a small monthly donation. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus content and knowledge that you are helping to spread the message of Grief 2 Growth. For more about Brian and Grief 2 Growth, visit www.grief2growth.com.

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