Atheist has NDE… and Comes Back Believing EVERYTHING! I Ray Catania

I get he's your spirit guide. His name's Thaddeus.

Oh my God. Wait a minute. You're right. How do you know that?

Because he told me. Yeah.

Oh my God. I cannot believe he just said that.

Why, have you heard that?

Yes. He told it to me once and I didn't write it down. And I'm like, it's like Theodore. I couldn't remember it. Yeah, and you just said it and blew me away.

Yeah. It's Thaddeus. So that's number one. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Ask Julie Ryan Show. It's where we blend spirituality and practicality to help you live a life of purpose and joy. We have Ray Catania on the show today. Ray was an atheist until a near death experience led him to study metaphysics and energy healing. I'm eager to hear his story and how his scientific discoveries explain his spiritual experiences. Please remember to subscribe, leave a comment and share this episode with your family and friends. Now let's go talk with Ray. Ray, so wonderful to have you on the show. Welcome.

Welcome, Julie. Thank you so much. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you today. Thank you.

Oh, my honor. You had a near death experience. What happened?

Well, I was 20 years old when it happened. So it was just a few years ago. No, I'm kidding. I was 20 years old and I was still living at home with my parents at that time. And what happened was my bedroom was located just above the kitchen and the stove ran on natural gas. And there was a gas leak in the stove. So gas was rising all night long into my room. And I was inhaling it, but I had no idea because I was asleep. In fact, nobody knew. So in the morning when my mother woke up, I imagine she went to turn on the stove to make breakfast. And it just kind of poof, big ball of flames, the way I understand it. And the wall caught fire. There was smoke, but it wasn't the fire or the smoke. In fact, my father put the fire out pretty quickly with a fire extinguisher. But it wasn't either of those things. It was the gas that I was inhaling for so long. So I hear the fire trucks coming and I hear the police. And I know something significant is happening in my house. I just don't know what it is. And I go to get up, and when I go to get up, certain parts of my body are not moving. Like they're not cooperating with my brain. My legs, they just felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I couldn't get my head off the pillow. I couldn't yell, which was very strange. But I knew how to get out of the bed. Something's really wrong. So I had my arms worked and I pulled myself to the edge of the bed. I kept inching away and inching away. It took a while, but I knew if no one, I didn't think anybody was coming for me and they didn't. So I kept pulling and pulling and eventually I tumbled out of the bed. Now I came down on my face, face first, hit the floor and I felt it like I knew I hit the floor. However, there was no pain whatsoever. Which is very strange, right, because you smack your face, you're expecting the pain to set in. Didn't happen because in that moment I wasn't in that body. In that moment I was looking down upon it from above and I was in the corner of the room. The room was a perfect square. I was on the far side on the, on the floor and. But my energy, my, my energetic being is not. It's up in the corner. Now this doesn't scare me at all. I'm not afraid because I feel euphoric. I feel like something I've never felt in my entire life. And directly adjacent for me is a huge cone shaped white light. To call this a light is an understatement. I became a part of this light. And this light was love. This light was painlessness. This light was gosh, every, every good emotion you could possibly think of rolled up into one. And I was one with that light and I didn't want to leave it. And at the end of the light, it was like a tunnel. And I proceeded to enter and I was going through the tunnel. At the end was a being that said, it's okay, Ray, you can come into the light. It's okay, come. I don't know if you said into the light, but it was come. And, and I felt safe. And at this time in my life, I really didn't trust too many people. I had a rough childhood, to say the least. And I wasn't very. Wasn't okay with any, you know, anybody. But this, for some reason, this being, I don't know if it's a man or a woman. I, I still have no idea. I just know there was a being, there was an energy at the end of the tunnel that said it was okay. So I proceed to go in and as I get deeper into it, I feel more euphoria. It increases, if that's possible. And it just, it was phenomenal. Needless to say I wanted to get to the other side. But here's what happens in that moment. My father bursts through the door. He must have heard me fall, and he scoops me up. I'm lifeless. I'm not there. And he's screaming and he's crying for the paramedics to come upstairs. Come upstairs. My son, my son, my son. To give you a little idea, I would say in my entire life that I can recall, he's hugged me three times, maybe four. And one of them is when I'm dead. So we didn't have a good relationship. And when I saw that, I was like, wow, this man really does love me. And I was so emotionally touched that I asked if I could go back because I wanted that. I longed for that type of relationship with him, and I never had it. So when I saw that he really did feel that way, I wanted to go back. And I don't know if that's why I was allowed to come back, because I really have no idea. Nothing was said. Nothing more was done. I just woke up, and I was not there anymore. I was on the living room floor, flat on my back, and the paramedics were on top of me with all their tools and equipment and everything. And I was like. I still had the euphoria. It's like, it stays with you for a while. It doesn't just dissipate, right? So it's still there. And so when I got up, I was like, guys, what do you do? I don't even know who these people are. I just know they're touching me, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm fine. I'm fine. Stop. I'm fine. And they're like, listen, son, you're definitely not fine, so. And then they're using all their lingo. Bring up the truck. Bring up the truck. He's got no bp. Bring up the truck. Truck is ambulance. BP is blood pressure. I don't know this at the time. So I said, but, guys, didn't you. Didn't you see the light? Did you hear the voice? I mean, that was amazing, right? And now they're looking at each other like, talk screen. Yeah, we're gonna have to test this kid. They're thinking I'm on drugs or I'm crazy or whatnot. So I just. I just shut up, and I let them take me away, do what they have to do. And the whole time I'm in the hospital, I'm just trying to process what the heck just happened to me. And I Can't say I came up with any sort of conclusion. I don't remember. I was just like. I just knew the feeling. That was incredible. So I came back to my house and I never did get that relationship with my father. That didn't happen. And when the euphoria wears off, the pain sets in. And, oh, my God, does it ever. Every little nook and cranny of your body that you've ever hurt, but your brain, like, kind of says, well, we're never going to fix the elbow, so let's just ignore that pain. You know, we have them all over the place. Little injuries that we've had for life that our brain just says, you know what you've sent the pain. We know it's there. We're not going to address it, right? So all those little pains, aches and pains throughout my body all came back because I was in a state of painlessness. I had no form. And having no form, I felt nothing. Now I'm back into this body. I feel everything. I can feel the air hitting me. So the pain, physical pain, and the emotional pain of not getting that satisfaction of a relationship. I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back to the light. I made the wrong choice. I said, I want to do over. Please take me back. What do I have to do? I made a mistake. And no such luck.

Okay, let's unpack that. That's quite a story there, sir. First of all, what did the being look like and did you recognize them? Did they show up like somebody that you knew, perhaps a deceased loved one or a saint or.

I'm still waiting to find out. All I saw was lines of energy and this being. This is not the only time I've seen this being, actually. Now, I didn't notice this at the time, but when I was 10 years old, I swam out too far to see. We got to the beach. My parents took me to the beach. I kept swimming, went out too far. The undertow was pulling me and pulling me and pulling me. I couldn't get back. The lifeguard jumped in, but he. There was 10 kids. I'm estimating 10 kids on this side and just me on this side. So he went for the 10, not the one, which I understand, but I'm still trying to get somebody's attention over here. And I'm going down. And I started to panic, and I thought my life was over. And something or someone says to me, calm down. Swim sideways and take all the time that you need. Now I can't calm down. I'm a kid, so I can't do that. So it happens for me. All of a sudden I was calm and I began to swim. And I just said, who cares how long this takes? And I swam slowly so I didn't burn up my energy, and I just swam to shore. And I got to shore and I collapsed. And then all these adults were, are you okay? Are you okay? And now I'm thinking, stranger danger, stranger danger. I'm trying to get up and run, and I can't catch my breath. And I'm falling down and I'm trying to get away from them. And it was one long walk back to that blanket. And my mother didn't even know what happened. So that was the first time this being saved my life.

When you say you saw lines, Ray, can you describe what the lines looked like?

So imagine, if you will, kind of a round shape, okay? Not perfectly, but like an orb with shoulders. That's all I see. And then inside are lines that are just moving and primarily blue, but there's silver, black and gray in there as well. Vertical lines, everything, all. All they just keep moving. It's like. Like an electron in an atom. They're just quantum leaping around the nucleus. It's just like there's no rhyme or reason to how they're going. And the communication. I'm not hearing anything. I'm not seeing anything. It's just coming to me like it's dropped into my head. And, you know, after I had come back, I became this portal for people on the other side to come over because they knew I could see them. And although I'm still just seeing them as lines, I know they're there. And this is the first time I get my own apartment. And I'm moving into this apartment, and I'm all excited because it's my bachelor pad. I'm like, 21, 22. And we never had one party because every time I walked in the room, it was like it was filled with people. I felt like I was being watched. I was looking for cameras. I was all paranoid. I was like, this is crazy. And anything electrical would turn itself on or off. TV would change its channel, go dead. The alarm would go off. I must have called the maintenance guy a hundred times, and he came up and said, listen to me, kid. There's nothing wrong with your apartment. Do not call me again. You are crazy. And when I told my mother about the nde, she said that never happened. You're crazy. And when I told my mother I could see energy early on in my life, Because I could. She said I was crazy. So now I'm 21 years old or 22 and everybody has told me I am crazy. So I believe this now I'm crazy. So I start to use tons of alcohol and drugs because I can't sleep and I can't stop these beings from being there unless I turn off my brain. And I do it through intoxication. It's the only way I know. And that becomes a dependency, that becomes a problem. I move out of that apartment into another one thinking I'm going to get a fresh start and no such luck. The house is not haunted or anything like that. And by the way, you know, this is still a time when I'm rebelling against my parents Christianity and I'm calling myself an atheist. If you ask me what my beliefs are, I say absolutely nothing. And it's just because I'm rebelling against them. Right? What if they said black? It was white. Whatever it was, I'm going in the other direction.

I'm sure they were thrilled with that development.

Yeah, well, don't feel so bad because you know, the reason I can see energy is because I used to have to hide in a closet or under my bed or in the backyard while they fought it out until, you know, one o' clock in the morning. Alcohol healed, you know, so that was my life growing up. Six hours of meditation a day, seven days a week, just trying not to get the kicked out of me. So you know, it's it. That's why I broke through the veil. That's why I can do what I do. And so now I'm living in the second apartment and it's the same thing all over again. So I start doing more alcohol, more drugs, and it's not until I turn 30, I'm in my own 30s and I get married and I have two kids. I have two boys, one year apart. Exactly. This is the first time in my life I have a reason to live. Because before that I would push the envelope in every direction that I could to try to get myself as close to death as I possibly could be. I manifested car accidents, severe ones. I worked for some shady characters I've been in shootouts with. In the middle of it, under the bar, hiding. And the being comes and tells me how to get out at a bar. Every time, even in the car crash I would. He said under the dash, under the dash, under the dash. Just. We didn't have seat belts back then. Yeah, we didn't have to wear them. I got under the dash. And sure enough, the top of the car was crushed. I saw the pictures. So why? I have no idea. But I am grateful and thankful for him, her and they. Whatever. Because they've always stood by me. And I have no idea why. I am not special. I am not chosen. I am not anything. I am just a regular guy who's had a lot of help from upstairs.

Yeah, okay. The. The lined guy with all the lines I get. He's your spirit guide. His name's Thaddeus.

Oh, my God.

That came into me when you were describing it.

Wait a minute. You're right. How do you know that?

Because he told me. Yeah. When you were telling this story. So, Thaddeus. So we can explore that further.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

I cannot believe he just said that.

Why? Have you heard that from others?

Yes, from. Begged him to tell me his name. And he told it to me once and I didn't write it down. And I'm like. It's like Theodore. I couldn't remember it. And you just said it and blew me away.

Yeah, it's Thaddeus. So that's number one. Number two, we can find out more about him, which is really fun to do. And find out about his lifetime that he lived in the life that's he's advising you the most in. And they. I see spirit guides. They all. They all look like a version of Dumbledore or from Harry Potter or Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. That's how they appear to me first. And I learned how to do all this stuff. I was not born with dead people chasing me like you were. I just learned how to do this. Now I teach people how to do this. And so they show up like an old man. Father Time, long hair, white beard, white gown, all of that. And then they morph into what they look like in the lifetime they live. That pertains to whatever they're guiding you about. And it's funny because sometimes they'll show up like the banker in Monopoly or like a, you know, a glamorous woman from the 1940s walking down the street in Paris. And we'll get all this information. And a lot of the time we can corroborate the information that we get from Spirit. We can corroborate it with. And validate it with historic documents. Like we can find them in census and stuff. So we can do that another time if you want.

Oh, my God. I'm stunned. I'm absolutely stunned that that's him. I mean, like, I can't even believe you okay? I'm a little speechless. Go.

Okay. But you're stunned because you can feel that. That resonates with you.

Yes, 100%. You are, right?

Yeah, yeah. So when you were in the tunnel, just let's go back to your nde and then, and then I'll explain what I see. I have not had an nde, but I get to see all this stuff in my mind's eye. When you were in the tunnel, describe that to us. You said it was like a cone. And was there any sensation in there? Was it.

Oh, God.

Hot, cold, noisy, quiet?

What if you could take what you envision perfection to be and roll that? It's like a spotlight that's shining down on me. So. And I'm sure it's. It's giving the impression that it's a cone, but it's probably not. It's just that if I'm looking way down, I can just see it as being a small circle at the end. And that's where he was. And he said it was okay to come in. And the feeling that this gives you is, other than to say, euphoric, it's ineffable. It's impossible to put words on it. It's the greatest feeling I've ever felt. The greatest day of my life was the day of my death. Undeniably.

Okay, so how did you figure out that this was a near death experience? Because it sounds like you weren't familiar with that term before. Were you led to a. To read something? Were you led to a community? Were you. What? Tell us that journey.

That's a great question.

Yeah.

And you knew that was a great question. You're totally messing with me. You have that? Yes. Yes.

I'm not. No. I'm just genuinely curious.

It's a very good question of how it.

How it.

I had nowhere to go. I was too young. There were no computers.

Right.

There was no Internet yet.

Right.

So I was too young to go anywhere. So the only person I had was my mother who told me I was crazy. Don't you ever say that again to anybody. You're absolutely out of your mind. And I, you know, I think I tried it with a friend once and I got the same reaction. So I just shut it down and I said, you know, if I told anybody about any of these things that I could see, feel or whatever, they would just tell me I'm crazy. So I adopted I'm crazy. And I put that aside and just went about my life in acceptance that I do have this. I don't know what you want to call it. Mental illness or whatever. And I need to navigate it. Yeah. And it wasn't until I had my kids that. That turned around for me because they gave me this reason for living. You know, he's pulling me out of my God. Six, eight times at least. I was really at the brink of death. One time. I really did die. But the other times, it was just, like, really close. And I am now I gotta turn around my life toward them because I need to live for them.

Right.

They need me. It's my responsibility. I brought them into this world. So they did more for me than I've ever done for them. And I tell them that it's the book. The second book is dedicated to them for that reason alone. And I. I went to rehab. I checked myself into rehab. I got my college degree. I went back to work. I worked my way up the ladder. Came back to another company, worked my way up the ladder. Then I did it again. We were. My kids. Never went without anything. Yeah. And I did that all for them while navigating these other entities and just saying, you know, you stay on your side of the room and I'm gonna stay on my side of the room, and we can all just get along. And somehow that worked for a good 10 years.

And what a blessing for you to have the opportunity to be the father to your boys that you didn't have in your relationship with your dad. And it's said, and I buy this. Cause I've heard it so many times from Spirit Ray. And that is we choose where we're born, when we're born, to whom we're born. So our lives can have a trajectory that will allow us to explore and experience whatever it is our spirit wants to explore. And certainly part of your script that you came in with is to learn how to be the father that you didn't have. Were you ever able to repair that relationship with your dad? Is he still alive?

No, he passed. But we. I've. As I grew spiritually, I began to realize that we are. When we're children, we're a product of our environment. And both my parents grew up very, very poor in horrendous neighborhoods. Horrible things happened to both of them. So if you look at their lives and then you compare them to mine, mine was a huge step up for them. Okay. So I accepted their reality. Now I accept. I learned to accept people for who they are, not for who I want them to be. And this is who they were.

Right.

And so I had to Let that go. And I forgive them. My mother's still around. She read the book, actually. She said, you must hate me. And I said, no, actually I understand. You're better than I've ever have. And we have the best relationship today that we've ever had.

Well, I tell people when I hear stories from clients that'll just curl your toenails, as this saying goes, and people who are still upset with their parents. And I talked to somebody today who's 70 and she's still wallowing in her horrible childhood. And I said, okay, here's a different way to look at it. Your parents were playing a role in a movie. And when you join them in heaven, because everybody goes to heaven. I said, when you join them in heaven, you can say, man, you guys, you were like the bitch from hell and you were the bastard from hell. And you both deserve Academy Awards for your performance. Because that was exactly what I chose as you and my parents. And we think, why in the name of God would anybody choose to come into a situation like that? And yet we don't know what their past lives were. To your parents, to your point about your parents, we don't know. There's no way we could know what they went through in their lifetimes as children and as adults. And so we can give them some grace and say, okay, we know you are making the best decision that you could make at that time, and we give you credit for having good intentions. And when we get to heaven, you know, there's going to be an Oscars ceremony, there's going to be an Academy Award ceremony there.

It's like there's three parts to healing, right? The first part is you did this to me. The second part you evolve into, I'm doing this. The third part is, I'm sorry for doing this to you. Right? Forgive every ask for forgiveness. So it's not about them. You eventually realize that you knew what was right and wrong and you chose to mimic this, right? If assuming you did, and then everybody that you hurt as a result of that, you got to go back and say that you're sorry. And that allows the healing process, I believe, to happen fully. You can't stay in that number one zone where you did this to me. You did this to me. You're the reason. I'm like, you can only do that so much. At some point you gotta take responsibility for your action and grow up. And that's. And that's part two. And then all the people that you hurt with that behavior, you gotta go back and fix that, and then you can evolve.

That's classic addiction recovery.

That's right. Strategy, which is brilliant.

Right? That worked great. And at the same time, I think that we all have things that we regret. And once we understand, all we have is now. We can't control what happened in the past. We think we can control what's going to happen in the future, but we can't. That's just a pipe dream. That's not going to happen. But at the same time, nobody can control our thoughts and we can't control anybody else's thoughts. When I got that ray, that was a eureka moment. I thought, whoa, yeah, that makes tons of sense. So somebody could be, you know, calling me a poopy head or something. And at first it hurts my feelings and I think, oh, please, you know.

What another person thinks of me is none of my business.

Exactly. I love that saying. I love that. Do you think back to the NDE thing? Do you think that when people have an NDE and they're told that they need to go back or they can choose to go back, do you think everybody has that choice?

I don't know. I can only speak from my own experience and those that I've spoken with. And I can't recall anyone telling me they had a choice. I do have. Eventually, I, I met with the group called ions, the International association of Near Death Survivors, I believe it is. And I became a part of their group and actually spoke there a few times. And the people that I met, they had similar experiences. And it was just so refreshing to finally meet somebody else that saw the light. You know, it was like I knew I wasn't crazy, but I don't recall anybody saying they had a choice. They might have asked and been granted or not. Well, if they weren't, I couldn't talk to them, obviously, but. But, well, actually I can, but that's another story. And I'm going to have to say I, I, I don't know. But I think that there's a reason I was sent back and I think there was a reason they were sent back that I believe because like you said, my mission wasn't finished.

Right.

So I had a long way to go.

Yeah, I've spoken with, you know, for IONS as well. And even though I'm not, I haven't experienced it myself, but I can talk to dead people and spirit that to a body and doesn't matter energy, you know, like, like in the Bruce Willis movie, you know, why mommy could talk to dead people. Yeah, that'd Be me. But I learned how to do it once again. But the interesting thing about that is I have heard of others that were given the choice to come back. But it seems to me that most people that experience a near death experience are told or commanded kind of in a loving way. There's no fire and brimstone involved. But it seems to be that I would say a bigger majority of them are told that they need to go back because their mission isn't done. How do you feel about death now? Do you fear death? What's your feeling about when you do crossover through the pearly gates and you don't come back in this lifetime?

I'm not afraid at all because I know it's going to be the most beautiful day of my life. And when you change your relationship with death, you live differently. And I've lived differently ever since that. I came to terms with the fact that that was real. And it took me a long time to accept that that was real.

I bet.

But when I did, it reframes your life. And there's been so many studies done on hospice patients that aren't laid up, but they can move around. They were given six months, one year, or maybe it's five years, one year, whatever it is, they start telling everybody they love them, all the people they love. Right. I don't let my kids leave this house without telling them I love them or my wife or anybody else. Because you don't know when it's going to be your last breath.

Right? Right.

You have no way of knowing. And in addition to that, I am. They check off everything on their bucket list. So they do all the things they want to do and they take risks for the fun of it. Isn't that the way we should all live every day? That's what I'm doing.

Yeah.

Because, yeah, when that day comes, I. I'm. It's just a transition. I can't wait. That feeling was great. I mean, I know I shouldn't say I can't wait. I could wait a little bit, but.

You know what I mean, you're looking forward to it. Just not today.

Just not today.

Just not today. You got a few more things and it's coming to mind. I can't think of the name of it, but it was Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and Ann Margaret and they were all older and they were dying, the guys were dying and they were checking off their bucket list. And I think Morgan Freeman did a movie about that as well, didn't he? Who was his co star in that one. I can't think of it.

I don't know. I believe I saw it, but it's a very long time ago. Yeah, I know the movie, though.

Yeah. And I feel the same way. Not because I've experienced it, but I've experienced it with thousands of people who, with whom I've worked their families. Normally, when somebody's at the end of their lives and they're surrounded by angels and the spirits of deceased loved ones and pets, and university based research validates that and says 90% of people at the end of their lives see the spirits of deceased loved ones and pets as their getting near the end of their lives. So it's a glorious component to it. And I. I feel like if that's the worst thing that can happen to me is I'm dying and I'm surrounded by angels and the spirits of deceased loved ones and they're waiting for me once I get to heaven and I'm carried to heaven escorted by angels. Okay, bring it on. What, you know, what is it that I want to do that, that I'm the same way? Because it's glorious. Certainly there's a heart wrenching component. A lot of the time when we're losing a loved one, not only because we're sad about them leaving, but it also makes us face our own mortality.

I think it's harder on the people that are alive than the people that die. The people that die, they're moving on. They can still see everything here and they're experiencing their new world. It's the living that are hurt the most by the death. Not the dad, not the deceased.

And people say to me all the time, well, did my mom like the funeral? Did my dad like the park bench that we erected in the, in his local park with his name on it? And certainly, yes, they love it, but not for themselves. They're in pure bliss. It's for us, it's for the living. We do the funerals, we do all that kind of stuff for those of us that are still living. So let's change gears here for a second.

Yes.

You're in the process of getting a doctorate in metaphysical parapsychology. What's that mean?

Well, I actually just switched it to metaphysical counseling because since I am a life coach, I felt that that was a better direction. But the study of metaphysics opened my eyes so much. It's taking Carl Jung's research and the collective consciousness and bringing it to scientific viewpoints. So I take, I call, I have what I call scientific spirituality. I take scientific principles and I match them up to spiritual principles and I mesh them together because I was the biggest skeptic of all time. So I figured when I. The first book is just about my story and how it came to be. The second book, however, is. Let's say you want to learn the law of attraction. Well, that's in there. But I also tell you how that actually works from a physical standpoint. So you don't have to just believe me. You can actually read the laws in physics that make that happen.

Can you give us the Cliff Notes on that?

Yeah, of course. Imagine if you will. You want, let's see, I'll give me, I'll give you my own example. I had a kid that was going. My, my younger son was going to college and the school called me. He was going away to college and it was about two or three days he was leaving college, calls me up and says, you, when are you going to send us that last check for $10,000? And I was like, what last check for $10,000? I didn't, I didn't even know. I overlooked it. So I'm not going to let my kid down because those are my kids and they're going to college and that's that. So I'm not telling anybody. But I had just learned recently from my mentor how to do a meditation for manifestation. And frankly, I thought it was a little woo woo, but he's never steered me wrong. So I said, let me see if this works. And I went into my meditation and I did it exactly 1, 2, 3 of all four steps. I need $10,000, need $10,000. And I'm putting it out and I'm visualizing the 10. And what I'm doing when I visualize it is, is I'm sending out the frequency of that is 10,000. So if I say I 10,000, the two words that go up into the universe is I, image of self and $10,000, whatever that looks like to me. And that's what I'm sending out. Like a beacon, like a satellite dish, it's just going. And the more power I can put behind it, the farther I can send that it will find its match and come back. So here's what happens. It's no more or less than the cell phone. If I dial your phone number, it works the same way. My phone will adjust itself to your frequency and your phone will ring. You'll pick it up, say hello, and we can communicate and transmit information. That's all it is, the radio. Same way Satellite to a radio dish, and you just change the dial until it comes in. You're connected. So I need to connect with this 10,000 and bring it to me as quickly as possible like I would a radio station or a song. So I do it six times a day. We're only supposed to do it two times a day, in the morning and at night, just to keep us in flow. But I need this now. So I'm working hard and I do it six times and absolutely nothing happens. And I was like, all right, tomorrow's a new day and we're getting close, but I'll do it again. So I get up. Boom, here we go. Six times that day. By the end of the second day, I'm getting discouraged, which I shouldn't be. It's only two days, but for. I'm getting discouraged now. I'm starting to think, who can I borrow from? Maybe I could take money from this account. I could sell some stock here, move this around, but. And I'll make it happen, right? And there was a pile of mail sitting that came the day before. You're laughing already. And I went through the. The. The. I went through it. It's bill, bill, bill, bill, bill. Tax bill. Oh, God. Tax, bill, Gu. Just kept going. And I was like, am I doing this wrong, guys? You know, Tell me, am I saying this wrong? And so I got frustrated and I picked up the pile and I started to open the mail. And the first thing I went with was the taxes, Because I know that's going to be the biggest bill I always Pay. I'm a 1099 employee. I gotta pay. So I open it up and the letter says, they always does it the same way. Dear Ray, thank you very much for your business. You owe us X amount of dollars for doing these returns. Okay, Flip that one, take out the next one. Dear Ray, blah, blah, blah. You have overpaid the federal government. 8200,200, something, something, dollars and something something cents. Overpaid. That means refund. $8200 refund. And I put that one down very slowly. I had to read it like 10 times. I take out the second one. Dear Ray, you have overpaid the state of New Jersey. 1,800 something something dollars, something something, a little over 10 grand. And I've done that so many times, and it's always been just a smidgen over the number. And so it works.

Spirit's really literal spirit. I find that all the time. And I tell people when we're talking with their deceased loved ones, in heaven, I'll say, you gotta be really specific. And we need to be concise if we're looking for guidance. What exactly is the guidance that you want? What do you want them to advise you about? Because let's say you say, hey, dad, since your dad's in heaven, hey, dad, are we going to enjoy the movie? And you hear a yes in your head. First thing comes in your head, that's spirit answering you. And you guys are watching some movie tonight on tv. And it's atrocious. And you're saying, dad, what's up with that? This movie's terrible. Well, the way you ask the movie could pertain to any movie you're going to watch throughout the rest of your life. If, however, you said, hey, dad, are we going to enjoy watching the documentary on Tom Brady and the Patriots that's on Netflix tonight on tv? You're very specific. And then that's the answer that's going to be able to apply to whenever. Because they're always going to give us a correct answer. Our loved ones, in spirit, how applicable it is will be predicated on how we ask the question.

Absolutely.

And it sounds like you're finding the same thing with your manifestations. So from a scientific standpoint, back to the quantum physics part of the equation. What's happening when you're thinking, $10,000 me.

So what you're doing is you're turning the word into a visual. So it's become I becomes me. Okay? And the $10,000 becomes a visual of what 10,000 looks like. So if, assuming I already have it, where is it? Is it in my bank account? So then I. I'm staring at my bank account, and I always say, don't just look at it. But a visualization has all the senses involved. Try to touch it, try to feel it. Try to smell it. What does $10,000 smell like? What does it taste like? I mean, go the distance. Go it doesn't really matter. The point is that you're. You're taking it to what you. You know, to that level. So that it can't be miscommunicated. Like you said, you've got to be precise. And English doesn't really always translate. Neither does French, Spanish or Japanese. But you know what does? Vibration. It will never steer you wrong. So you've got to create the vibration of the things. I want to be healthy. Can't say I don't want to be sick anymore. Because guess what? You're going to get sick. I and sick equals more sick. So whatever we Put out, we get back. But you got to say it right. You can't say, I don't want to be in debt because you're going to get more bills. You have to say, I want an abundance of money and I need it. When do you need it by? Put a deadline on it, like you said. Be exact, be precise.

When my son, who's almost 32, when he was little, I read from somebody, I don't know, some psychologist or somebody, that said, no is not enough information for a child. And if you say, don't put your hand on the stove, the brain hears, stove, don't. So it here's hand, stove, don't. They always hear the don't at the end. So this person said, you always want to tell them what you want them to do. Keep your hand away. Stay away from the fireplace instead of don't go near the fireplace. You know, stay away from the fireplace. And at that time, I wasn't into woo woo. That was long before I studying woo woo. And. And I. But I believe now that's exactly what you were talking about. It's the vibration of what you want instead of what you don't want. Because when we focus on something that's negative, we're on that vibration. It's like we're tuned to that radio station and we're gonna get more of it.

That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Yeah. Yeah. What do you do now to raise your vibration when you're feeling blue?

So there's a couple of things. There's I do in the morning, I do my meditation, which I call the foundation meditation. And it actually is the same, or I should say similar to the manifestation one. I do the first three steps the same, but then instead of maybe manifesting, I'll go someplace else. Maybe it's just to open up the movie screen in my mind and see, you know, what information I'm going to get, you know, just randomly. Or maybe I'll let spirit come through and see who pops up. Or, you know, it could be just to go deeper into myself and whatever the it is, or just speak to my higher self. And then there's other times that I use it for manifestation. So I do that in the morning. I do a little bit different one in the evening. And that kind of keeps me in flow. But you know what, with the. With life coming at you, like you said, you don't know what's going to come. And it can derail me just like anybody else. I've lost. I had an Awakening where I lost most of my negative emotions. But they come, but they just dissipate very quickly. And it really doesn't matter if that car cuts me off. I'm like, okay, we didn't hit. Who cares, right? But I'll do. If it does get to me for whatever reason, and I start to feel that I always do an attitude of gratitude. That's what I call it. It's a very brief meditation. And you can do it in the bathroom and just go into the bathroom. I am thankful and grateful for blank my kids, my house, my job, my roof over my head, et cetera, et cetera. I used to have a job where people would always come to me and say, I have this problem, I have this problem. And after a while it would kind of get to me. The ones that didn't ask very nicely, you know. So I would take a break and I would go into the bathroom and I would say, I'm grateful for this job. It pays for my kids stuff. Thank you for this job. I am grateful for this job. I am grateful for these people asking me these questions, you know, who you know, and then, and then I go back out and I'm a completely different person. And the next person that comes into my office gets a great ray, you know. Hey, what can I help you with?

Right, yes. You've raised your vibrational level. I do that in the morning and at night as well. And I write it out and then I do it on my fingers. Ten things, each finger, you know, has. Grateful. I like that you say, quote, I practice metaphysics and therefore I may have theories that might not yet have been proven by science. I love it when science catches up with woo woo, because woo woo's been around a whole lot longer. Not in science. Can you share a theory that. That comes to mind where you believe it and you are proof of it, even though science hasn't caught up to it yet?

Well, no, a theory is not proof. But I will share with you a theory that is plausible and enough to contemplate. Right?

Right.

If I could prove it, I'd get the Nobel. But here's what I think. When we, when we die, when we pass on, we know from the first law of thermodynamics that the energy, all energy, no new energy can enter the universe, nor can it leave the universe. So it must be recycled. It must go into something else. So our consciousness, our energy, which is referred to as soul or spirit, that's going to leave the body, but at the end of the day, that is Energy. Where do you suppose it goes? Hold that thought. Now, we have this other type of energy. Why doesn't the universe collapse on itself? Einstein told us because there's energy that we cannot see. We'll call it dark energy. And it's pushing the universe out faster than the speed of light. That's why you can look up and see stars. And they don't burn you. They never, they're never going to reach Earth because the universe is spreading out so fast. So we have a dark energy. We have no idea where it comes from, and we have this energy that exits the human body, and we don't know where it goes. And yet we all know that the afterlife is here and now. It just makes perfect sense to me that that's physically where you go. Now, you can call that heaven or insert your, you know, beliefs into that, but this is a physical place that one could accept. That can be another realm of consciousness that's right here.

How do you know the afterlife exists here and now?

I. I can see it. Okay, meaning so can you.

Yeah, but what does it look like to you?

Well, I mean, I don't get the best visual I get. Sometimes it's grainy and sometimes it's not. But what happens is, for me, get the vibrations. I see the line shooting across the wall, and then I can see the little swirlies. And if I go into a meditation and allow spirit to come through, my movie screen opens up and boom, there will be someone there and they will talk to me. And I will. After three times, that's for me. I have to do everything three times in order to make. Make sure before I'm going to say anything to anybody. And, you know, I. Sometimes I get a better visual than other times. And I, you know, I have a. Not a great. I mean, if I told you I know everything, I don't know everything. It's ridiculous. But I. I have a good understanding. And then my guide, like you said, I believe he's at the next level, right? So when we first die, we go to that, the fourth, let's call it if this is the third. And I'm just throwing numbers around because other people did. If we say this is the third realm of existence, next one's four, the next one's five. And I think that's where guides are. And when Buddha died, he said, I'm not coming back this time. This is my seventh life, and it'll be my last. And I'm going, you, my disciples, have to carry this message forward. So what he was Saying is, he's going to the fifth. He's not going where we're getting recycled. He gets to go a little higher. And that's the way I envision it. I can't say there's proof, but that's the way I kind of see it.

Well, and that's how we interpret information from spirit. It's been my experience, Ray, that it's going to come into us in a way that we can grasp it based on our human frame of reference so that it makes sense to us. I do a lot of energy healing and medical intuition work. I'm like a human mri. And I can see broken bones, torn ligaments, cancer, whatever, inside somebody's body with their permission when I'm scanning them. And then I watch these energetic healings happen and I describe it to them. They're hilarious. A lot of the time. I may tell you, your elbow looks like whipped cream and your ear looks like peanut butter. I mean, it's just hilarious. Cracks me up. And it's. So we can have a frame of reference that's an analogy or a metaphor for the energetic healing that's taking place because we don't understand it. We don't have a frame of reference for it. And I believe that's what's going on with you. And everybody's interpretation is correct. It doesn't matter. It's all energy coming in. And it's coming in through our filter based on what we've experienced in this lifetime and frankly, all of our past lives is how I understand it. So when I don't understand something, where I go is, is it feasible? Yeah. Will I know about it when I get to heaven? Yeah. So, okay, that satisfies me. And I get to see healings all the time that continue to get more creative, more advanced. I don't know if they're higher vibrations or what, but when they come in, I'm on that channel, I'm on that frequency, like that radio station. That energy comes in. I saw healing on hearing this morning with a client. And then I. It was first time I'd seen it. And then I saw it happen again this afternoon. So it's like I reached that level and then I'm going to use it with other people is needed. It's kind of like you learn how to ride a bike with training wheels on it. So you reach that level and then you eventually learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. So you still know how to ride a bike with training wheels if needed, but you're, you know, you're off doing other things as well. How does combining spiritual and cognitive therapy help your clients?

Well, I think metaphysical counseling is the new psychology. And my wife, who is a doctor of psychology and neuropsychology by trade, she works mainly with pediatrics with children who have autism and other learning disabilities. And she's like, listen. You know, she's watched me. We share the office. And she's like, you do in three months what takes me five years. I'm just going to send you all the adults. We don't focus so much on yesterday. We. We acknowledge it, right? And we acknowledge where it sits. In the brain or the mind. Not the brain, the mind. And, you know, I explain the unconscious subconscious, the egoic mind, the conscious mind, awareness, higher self, so on. And when you understand how that works, you can change it, because we have awareness. We're one of the few animals that have awareness, or living things, I should say. And probably more of them do that we don't know about. But if you are aware you're having a thought, you're aware you're having an emotion, it's changeable. I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's changeable. So when something happens. I was working on the second book, and I got to the end, and the second book had a lot of awakenings in there. But the final one is when I was driving my car. This about, I want to say, six or seven years ago. I'm not exactly sure it was an expensive car, because I thought that was a big deal at the time. And I drove, and it was snowy, and I missed my turn, and I drove right into a deer. Now, the old Ray would have gotten out of the car livid, yelling at deers. Who knows what I would. I don't know what I would have done. I was an angry person that came from an angry household. But none of that happened. I didn't even get the adrenaline surge. In fact, the only thing I was worried about was the deer. I had compassion for the deer. And I got out and I looked at the deer and I helped it up. And we kind of had this moment where we looked at each other. And she's like, I'm sorry. And I was like, I'm sorry. And she walked off, and I was stunned. And then I looked down at myself, and I'm fine. The car's trashed, but it's just a piece of tin. It's nothing. It's literally nothing. And I started. I pulled over and I started to call my wife. We lived in different houses. That's why I was leaving. We weren't married yet. And I was going to my home and it was a snowy day. I wanted to get a jump on it and I went to call her and I said, why am I calling her? What am I going to do? Tell her I just had an accident? How's that going to help her in any way? Who does that help? No one. I'm just passing this news on to her. That doesn't make any sense. I hung up the phone, I drove the car to the auto body shop, I pulled it in and put it in there and I ubered to my house and I went to sleep. I didn't lose any sleep over it. I was exhausted. I just went home and went to sleep. My son woke up in the morning, goes, dad, somebody stole your car. Somebody stole your car. And I was like, no, no, no, no, relax, it's. It's in the body shop. What do you mean it's in the body shop? I had an accident. You had an accident and you didn't call me? I would have came and got you and blah blah, blah. And I said, that's why I didn't telling you you were going to act like that, so why ruin anyone else's day? I don't even care. And that was the moment I knew that I had transformed into a different person. And I was telling the story the next day to my acupuncturist and she's like, she's crying, she's like, that's the most beautiful thing I ever heard. And I said, yeah, but I don't know who the hell I am anymore. You have to, you have to relearn yourself. You know, you come out of this and you, you know what your reactions to things are going to be. And I literally did not know because that was my go to was my anxiety and anger. And now that's washed away and it, it's beautiful today. But there was a learning curve to it because I really did not know who I was.

Well, you were. You're recreating yourself lit.

Yeah, yeah, literally.

And it, and it has not gotten past me that she married a psychologist. I think that's no coincidences in life. All right, couple of other questions as we're winding down here. Why do we all have self doubt?

Why do we have it? It's when we come into this world, we are a blank slate. And if we don't, we take in everything that's around us, especially between the ages of 2 and 7. But really it's from birth. And some could say it's even before birth. When you're in utero, you're hearing everything. And between the ages of 2 and 7, the brain remains in what's called a theta state. We have delta where you're asleep, right? And that's rapid eye movement and you're dreaming. One notch above that is theta. And I could tell you how many times I've said to my son, put that down, put that down, put that down, put that down, put that. He's not hearing me, but he hear. His subconscious hears me because he's in this data state. So he's taking it in, but he's not hearing me. Now this is important because when we're young, we take in everything that we hear, see, feel, touch, and our subconscious does not know what's real and what isn't. So it's absorbing all this information and we're going to use it at a later date. By the time you're seven, you. You don't spend much time in a theta state anymore. We do it when we meditate, we get into that state, or if we're hypnotized, we get into that state. But as adults, we never go there. Just when we wake up in the morning. And when we go to sleep. Oh, ironically, that's when we meditate. So this is what happens. This information is implanted in the subconscious and it's stored like a hard drive and it never gets deleted. You can overwrite it, but you can never delete it. So let's go to the example of the kid with the stove. Let's say there's two kids and they're side by side, and the kid on this side touches the stove in his house and he gets third degree burns and he's frantic and he gets third degree burns and for the rest of his life. All stoves burn, cause pain. What can change that? You have to go into the conscious mind and say, hey, conscious mind, you understand? Tell your subconscious that you can use a stove safely, but someone has to teach him that otherwise forever it's all stoves cause pain. Now the other kid next door, he puts his hand on because he wants to experiment and it's cold and nothing happens. And I don't know what you're talking about. Stoves don't cause any pain. And somebody has to consciously teach him that, yeah, a stove can hurt you under certain circumstances. Same situation, two kids, completely different perceptions that will stay with them. And that's kind of a minor thing. But that happens with everything. And one time, I remember I was very small, and I was playing with my trucks under the table, and my parents had people over, and the conversation was about fears and phobias. And my mother said, I am deathly afraid of heights. So my whole life, if somebody asked me, I said, I'm deathly afraid of heights. I don't even know what that means. And I said it for 40 years. And then at the age of 50, we went to Peru, and we were going to the top of Machu Picchu because we were meeting the elders of the Cairo tribe. And it was a celebration and it was a beautiful thing, and I wanted to be up there. So I just went up, and then I came down, and then I said to my wife, you know what? I'm not afraid of heights. My mother is. So that's my ego drawing from my subconscious, telling me I'm afraid of heights. My ego's not me. It's everybody else. And when you realize this, it's the most enlightening, beautiful thing, that voice inside your head. You didn't make the voice. It's not your voice. It's everyone else's voice. Including television, Including. Well, nowadays kids have social media. I didn't have that, but we had television. I had hbo, and I was watching things I shouldn't have watched at that age. So I'm taking all this stuff in as it's real when it's not, and I make it my own. And that is what you have to work on to get rid of through your consciousness, using your awareness. Now, your awareness knows, right, that you can feel this way when you touch a stove. You can feel this way when you touch a stove. Or you can have a reaction or not have a reaction. You can have an emotion or have a different emotion. Your awareness is the most beautiful thing that we have as human beings.

And that's where all those limiting beliefs come from. They're somebody else's belief that they were taught, and then we adopt them. So that's what we need to be able to discern between. Is this a real fear or a fake fear? And, yeah, how that goes. Last question. Why do we incarnate?

Oh, I think that we incarnate until we become enlightened in one try. That's what I think. Similar to what the Buddha said when he was dying. He said, I've done what I set out to do and what I had to do, so I won't be coming back. And told his disciples, please take this message and carry it Forward. So I think we're coming back until we get to do that. And I am not enlightened. I'm not prepared to say, hey, I'm a work in progress. Hopefully I'll make it. Maybe I won't. And if not, you know, we'll do this all over again. Well, you might go on. I don't know, but, you know, I'm not so sure.

Yeah, Great answer. What a fascinating guy you are, sir. Thank you for taking the time to join us today, and I'm sure we can continue the conversation probably for several other hours, so we'll have to have you back and. And do a deeper dive into the.

I would love and thank you. I am so grateful you said his name, I cannot even begin to tell you. Thank you so much.

You are most welcome. I'm hearing you talk about. I'm like, well, this guy's name's Thaddeus, and he's his spirit guide. So I call those divine downloads when I get that information coming into my head. And we do. We all do, all day long. We just don't pay attention to it. That's a learned skill, is to really start paying attention to it and act on it. You know, I. I could have just not told you. And. And. And it's a learned skill to not edit things that we get, too, for fear that we're going to be wrong. And so that's what I always tell people when you're.

How could you even get that? Like, that's not a common name at all, which is why I couldn't remember it. The one time he told me, and I was like, I forgot. Can you please tell me again, please? And he never told me again. And now you just said it here. I. I almost fell off the chair. That's a. That was so amazing. You're very talented. You know that already. I don't have to tell you.

Well, it's all learned. All learned. Everybody has the ability. Yeah. All right, that's it for today, everybody. Sending you lots of love from sweet home Alabama and from New York, where Ray is, too. We'll see you next time. To enhance your spiritual journey, click on one of the videos below and remember to subscribe, leave a comment and share with your family and friends.