The Atheist & the Afterlife: A Conversation with Ray Catania

Hey everybody. My next guest is probably the most reluctant psychic ever. His name is Ray Catania. He's the author of the fabulous book the Atheist and the Afterlife. Ray was born in a very tough life and lifestyle and background in New Jersey and has survived multiple car crashes, being shot at, explosions. And he's here to share his story of how he survived a near death experience and was the recipient of gifts. He could hear things, see things, experience things that others couldn't. And how he learned to trust and develop those skills. Hey everybody. Welcome to this episode of Next Level Healing. I'm your host, Dr. Tara Perry.

Welcome to.

I am so thrilled that the guest I have for you today, this is Ray Catania. He is an accomplished author, metaphysicist and certified coach. He is the author of two award winning books in his awakening series, the Atheist and the Afterlife. And you'd are still alive now act like It. Love that title. Ray integrates psychological and biological data with quantum physics. Obviously something I'm totally nuts about. To, to research and develop a better understanding of the fundamental nature of consciousness and reality. Ray's profound insights and intuitive abilities have made him a sought after practitioner and transpersonal psychotherapy and teacher of practical applications of metaphysics. Welcome to Next Level healing. Ray Catania.

Dr. Perry, thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate you. Thank you.

You seem to be the most reluctant psychic ever I've ever talked to. Can you talk about your background? I mean, what I. Honestly, what I love about your book is it's so not woo woo. You know, you came from a very tough background. In fact, you said that a lot of people that come from the background that you came from, you know, end up in jail, dead on drugs. So talk a little bit about your background and how, you know, this, this energy kept knocking on the door until basically you couldn't ignore it anymore.

Yeah. So you're, you're spot on. Childhood was not particularly good to me in the sense that I had it a little bit rough. It was a lot of trauma, drama, yelling, fighting, arguing, people hurting one another. And it, you know, it molded me into a person who was angry all the time. You know, I, I say chaos was my comfort zone because it was what I understood and what I knew best. If things weren't chaotic enough, I wouldn't know how to really navigate that. But I was great when things were chaotic. So I gravitated towards that type of work and play and everything else in my life as I went into my teens, in my early 20s, you know, I Would put myself in some pretty bad situations coming from that background, because I understood that. So I worked for some shady characters. I've been in the middle of a shootout twice. I've been in many car accidents, at least one alcohol poisoning. I can remember beaten once within interest of my death. I could probably go on and on. But the good news is there was that turnaround. And one of the things I neglected to acknowledge as real was that through all those experiences, right when I was at the point of death, right when I was really, really close to dying, there would always be. I call it a voice. It's not a voice or a being, it's definitely a being, but transmitting information to me about how to get out of the situation. And time after time, again it would be there. And. But being brought up in such a troubled way, and my parents being very Christian, I rebelled against that as far as I could. And I went all the way over to atheism. So I believed in nothing, nothing loving could possibly allow these things to transpire. So I'm living this atheistic lifestyle, even though I have a being that's literally telling me how to get out the door when two people are. I don't even know how many people were shooting at each other. So it's complete denial. And even when I had my NDE, I was 20, as you know, that was the time where I was lying in bed and there was a fire in the home. The first floor was where the kitchen was, and that's where the fire was. And what had happened was there was a gas leak, and the gas fumes were rising, was natural gas. And it was rising into my bedroom, which was directly above the stove on the second floor. Obviously I sleep on a stove, but. So I was inhaling gas for hours and hours, and I don't know how long. So the fire was small. My mother, I think, in the morning, turned on the stove and it went, you know, there's a ball of flames. My father put that out relatively easily. But the gas that I was inhaling, that was going on for a long time. So I went to get up out of bed. I heard the fire trucks come, I heard the police come, and I hear all this commotion downstairs. And I want to get out of bed to find, you know, something serious is happening in my house. I just don't know what it is yet. And I go to get up and I can't move certain parts of my body. My legs, for example, felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. My head, I couldn't get it off the pillow. And really, I couldn't yell for some reason. That was very strange, not being able to yell or scream for help. But my arms worked. And so what I did was I would pull myself to the edge of the bed to the best of my ability. I kept pulling, and I was inching and getting closer and closer, and sometimes I would pass out, and then I would hear the commotion. I would wake me up again, and I knew I had to get out of that bed or I was dead. And so I just kept pulling and inching my way, inching my way to the edge, and finally I tumbled out and I hit the floor and. And I hit it face first. And I knew I hit it, but I never felt the pain from hitting it. So in other words, I felt the impact, but no pain. And it was because in that moment, I was no longer in that body. I was floating above it. The room was a perfect square, and where I was laying, I was back in this corner, and I was laying closer to the front of the other side.

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And I'm looking at myself, and. And. And it doesn't scare me to see my own self on the floor not moving, because what I'm feeling is euphoria. Adjacent to me is this white light. It's directly across in the other corner. It's shining only on me, my energetic self. Not my dead self, my energetic self. And I am one with this light. And it is the most beautiful, amazing, euphoric, painless, emotional. There's no emotional pain. There's no physical pain. It's just the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. And I have done a lot of drugs, and I can tell you that this is way better than anything I've ever done. So that light is just pure compassion and love. And so I wanted to go into the light. And now here's the being, which I believe is the same one at the end of the light. It's like a tunnel, and he's at the end. Or she. I don't know. And. And saying, it's safe to come into the light, right? You can commit. And I trusted this being in this moment, and I started to go forth. I learned to always trust this being. But I started to move into the light. And as I did that, euphoria increased more and more as I got further in, and I really wanted to go to the other side. I mean, I would have been on the other side, but here's what happens. My father, in that moment, kicked in the door because he must have heard me hit the floor. I guess that was the moment everybody said, oh, my God, Ray's upstairs. And he came up first to get me, and he kicked the door in, and he scooped me up, and he's holding me in his arms, and he's crying and yelling for the paramedics, help my son. Help my son. And, you know, this is one of those rare instances where my father showed any emotion ever. And I felt like he really, you know, he does care about me. He does love me, you know, and that was something I didn't really have for him. So in that moment, I wanted that. Not just in that moment. I always wanted that. But when I saw it, I asked if I could go back because I wanted to experience it. And I guess I was granted that because I did come back. But I didn't come back in his arms. When I came to, I was lying flat on my back on the living room floor, and the paramedics were on top of me doing whatever paramedics do. And I'm like, guys, guys, get off me. I'm fine. I feel great. In fact, some of that euphoria is still flowing through me, right? So I still feel like this beautiful wonderfulness is floating through every cell in my body. And I'm telling them, no, I'm fine. And they're like, kid, you're not fine.

Stop.

You know, stop trying to get up. You're far from fine. And the guys are yelling for the ambulance. Bring up the truck. Bring up the truck. And it's like all this big rush to help me when I feel awesome. And so I said to them, I remember I started to get into what I saw and what I heard. I was like, well, didn't you see the light? Didn't you hear the voice? You know? And they start looking at one another, and they're looking at the fire chief, and they're all like, okay, this guy's nuts. Right? And so I just shut my mouth before I go to a hospital I can't check out of, and I don't say anymore. And even I went to the hospital. I was released the next day. And I tried to address this with my mother, who also told me that I was crazy. That never happened. And so any time I tried to discuss anything that I've seen, whether it be Interactions with energetic beings or my nde. And I've had all of these throughout most of my young adult life and even part of my childhood. I'm always being told I'm crazy. So I think I'm crazy. And I just allow that to be. And it actually makes life a little simpler for me as my wanting to be an atheist. If you're telling me that what I'm seeing is not real, well, now I don't have to evaluate it. I don't have to research it. I'm just crazy. And I'm an atheist. I'm a crazy atheist. Okay, there we go.

And your thoughts about mediums prior to overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Describe that for our listeners because, I mean, you really thought it was a scam.

You.

It was bs, it was NLP used in tricky ways.

Yeah, all of the above. I mean, I would never believe in a psychic or a medium. In fact, they were the butt end of many jokes of mine for many, many years. I did not believe anything like that. And I. And I didn't even, like, I felt like they were taking advantage of people, and it really, like, made me upset. And then it was after. It was before my second marriage, you know, after when I had kids with the first marriage. I should probably preface it this way. Those kids, they gave me a reason for living. Before those kids, I really didn't have one. And that's why I would always put myself in these terrible situations. But once I had kids, I had to clean up my act, so to speak, right? So I went to rehab. I checked myself into rehab. And I also went back to college and I finished my degree and I got a real job, quote, unquote. And I worked my way up the ladder, did very well, and did that another time. But my marriage fell apart really quickly. I think it was the third year we separated or something like that. Second or third year. So I didn't date for many, many years. And when my kids got a little bit older, I felt like, okay, now they're. They're older, they'll understand this better, and I can bring maybe a woman into their life without it being so disruptive. So I decided to date. And.

And this is such a great part of the book. This is just. I mean, this is a love story. It is so beautiful. And I'm so looking forward to you sharing it with your audience. But it's just, I mean, the coincidences and the, you know, your insights and. Yeah, spoiler alert. I'm a big fan of this.

Should I go on Please tell it. Okay, so I go online to search for, you know, a compatible partner. And when you go on these websites, they usually show you like four women that are in your area and to kind of entice you to or me to join the site. And she was the third one down. There was four and she was third one down right there in the lower right hand corner. And I was like, oh my God. I. That's my wife. Like in that moment I looked at her and she was smiling. I'll never forget that. I have the picture someplace. I took it and I was just. So I was, that's her. That is my soulmate. That's. And that would be another thing that I would laugh off, right? Soulmate. The word soulmate. So I email her and I only send one email and it's only to her. And I tell her this and I explain this. I joined this website specifically for you because I saw your picture and I know you're my soulmate. We're going to be married. By the way, my name's Ray. Nice to meet you. She luckily found that hysterical and said I was crazy like everybody else. And I said, yes, I am. Would you like to have dinner? And we went out and we are still together and we are married and we live in this house. And it was happily ever after story, which was amazing. But in the beginning, when we first started dating, some strange things start to happen, to say the least. Further examples of, there's more to this world, Ray, and you need to wake up. And before that, I had some interaction with energy. But now, this time, after meeting her, one of the things that she bought me as a gift when we were getting serious, she says, so what are your spiritual or religious beliefs? I think she said religious, I'm not sure. But what are your spiritual or religious beliefs? And I was like, I don't know, what are yours? You know, whatever she would have said, I would have said, yeah, me too, you know, because it didn't matter. I didn't really want to get into. I did say I've been an atheist, but I don't know if I'm an atheist. I just think maybe I am. I'm probably agnostic. And I said, I don't know, I've been meaning to get around to figuring that out and it's on my list of things to do. And she says, well, for your birthday, I'm going to buy you a spiritual clearing. And I was like, okay, what, like massage? And she's like, no. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, we're going to have cake, right? We have cake. She's like, yeah, we'll have cake. Don't make fun of this, this is serious. And I was like, okay. And so it's done. Distantly, the woman's not there. She goes, you don't have to be present. She called me on the phone and said, we're going to do. I'm going to start now. Please don't make any life changing decisions for the next two days and don't take any appointments for the day if you can. And. And I was like, okay, you know, everybody's taking this really seriously, so I better play along. And so she does the clearing and about 90 minutes or so later she calls me with all this information about me and things that she saw and my chakra system. And she's going on and on and on and I'm just like, okay, so I'm good. And she's like, yeah. I said okay. I was very polite, you know, have a nice day. I believe in nothing right now. Here's what happens next. I get up, I'm sitting at my desk, I just hung up the phone with her. I get up to walk over to the bathroom. And as I'm walking, things start. I feel off. I don't know what the exact feeling is. It's almost like I had a drink and I'm a little wobbly, right? It's like my equilibrium is off and something just doesn't feel right. It gets worse when I am idle in that bathroom and I start to see things now, not when I say see. It's not my eyes, it's my third eye. So what that means is I'm visualizing something in my mind, okay? It's almost like if I wanted to put it there, I could, but I wasn't. In fact, I didn't want it to be there. And here comes this movie screen that I call it. And there's a man on the movie screen and the man is talking to me and he's a big husky guy and he's got a beard and a mustache and jet black hair, tons of it. And he says, I effed up, I made a mistake, you can help her. I cannot. And now I'm really freaked out and I try to function at work and it. And I see it again and then I see it again and I. I don't know what's happening right now, but I'm a little concerned, to say the least. So I excused myself from work and I'm like, I'm Going to leave for the day. It was Friday. I didn't have to be back till Monday. Great. I'm going to bed. I got a headache, so I don't know what's wrong. So I do just that. And the next day is Saturday, and I wake up, and right away, here he is again, the same guy with the same message on the same screen. And it's like, I just want to erase this from my mind, and I cannot do it.

Did you at that point have any connection between what was going on and the energy clearing?

Well, no, because I don't believe in an energy clearing.

So to you is to you as a nothing thing, and this, this was a something.

Yeah. No. Yeah. Well, here's when I. As it worsens, right? He's appearing almost every hour on the hour. And then by Sunday, I'm just completely distracted by what's happening in front of me or to me. And I believe I'm starting to lose my mind. On Sunday, it was so invasive that I could not have a conversation like we are right now. I could not. I had trouble driving. I couldn't interact with people. I couldn't really think. I mean, he was just bombarding me over and over. And the breaking point, I'll never forget it, because I'm in a store. I'm in the line to pay for my stuff, and I get to the counter and I go to pay the lady, and I don't know what I do. I must, I must have froze or did something really silly. And she says, sir, are you okay? And I said, no, no, I'm not. And I took my car. She didn't know what to do. She was like, what do you mean you're not. Everybody says, yeah, they're fine. And I took my card and I went back to my car and I was like, you know, I busted my butt. I went to rehab, I went back to college. I did everything I was supposed to do right by my kids. I finally fall in love, and now I, I'm crazy. And it's coming out. I'm insane. What do I do now? So I, I literally start to make provisions for my child, children when I'm gone. I'm starting to plan that this is the end. I really am crazy, like I was told my whole life. And I'm not. If this continues, I'm not going to be able to function. So it will take me over. And so, you know, I, I, I call my brother. I make sure he's got my will, my dnr, all my paperwork, point you were really serious?

That something was dead serious.

No pun intended.

Way crazy.

Yeah, I wanted to make sure that that was done because if I was hospitalized, you know, or whatever. He's got everything that he needs, right? Whatever you do, pull the plug. Do not resuscitate under any circumstances. I'm going back to that light.

Had any conversations with Jessica? Because you guys.

Okay, not yet. So it's. But by Monday or May. No, it was Sunday night. It was Sunday night. And I just. This is, this is. I'm. It's post breaking point now and I decide that I have to tell her it's the right thing to do so she can make a decision as to what she wants to do. And if the story is not crazy enough, let me add to the fact that she is by trade a doctor of psychology and a doctor of neuropsychology for a living. So I'm going to tell her I see people that aren't there. How you doing? And she's going to run for the hills. This is. I see what's going to happen. It's going to be terrible. But she not only has the right to know for herself, but also maybe she can get me the help I need. Right? Maybe she can give me a great doctor or somebody that can figure this out. So I explained to her everything I see, how I see it, what happens first, second, third. And I told her about the man and he's this big husky guy and beard and mustache and thick black.

And you described it like as an 8 second loop, right? Kept playing over and over again.

It's exactly it just over and over and over, repetitive. And I explained all this to her and, and especially how the guy behaved and acted and you know, like, he reminds me of one of my uncles who would be like that, you know, and she's like, that sounds like my dad. I said, babe, your dad's dad? You told me. Now I'm thinking she's crazy. I'm the one that's got to get out of here. You think I'm seeing dead people? She said, relax. She. You're probably a medium and you just don't know it. How is a medium? And she goes on to explain, she's like, listen, I've been to many medium, psychic mediums and my father always comes forth and he's always like really bold and present and he's. He's a force that they tell me. And I'm looking at her like she's nuts. And she's. And I don't know which I want this to be. Do I? Because at least insanity is something I understand. I don't. This is like a complete unknown. So now I'm petrified. So. And then I remember I saw a picture of her dad. It was on the mantel over the fireplace. Literally. And this guy was thin and he had no facial hair. Look, completely different. I'm like, that's not him. It's definitely not him. And she replies with, that's a very old picture. Let me show you what he looked like before he died. And she shows me in her phone, and I said, you know this man? And she goes, that's my dad, silly. And I'm like, well, then why is he in my brain? Take them out. And she says, this is wonderful. This is great. And I'm like, no, no, it's not. It's not wonderful. Nothing here is wonderful at all. And she says, listen, relax. You got to take a breath and just relax. I said, okay. A medium that I was waiting to see is coming to the neighborhood. She travels around, very well known, very prominent. And I'll book us both appointments. You can sit with her and explain what you see and get answers, and we'll just take it from there. And I was like, that's a great idea. I thought so. It was very soon, luckily. And she goes. She booked two appointments. And I remember it was in a woman's house. And we went into the house, and she says, are you going to go first? And I said, oh, yeah, I'm going, because if I don't go first, I'll be gone by the time you get out. I was shaking. I mean, I was really scared. And I don't know what a medium is. Now all of a sudden, they might be real. I'm just completely confused. And I go in and I meet this woman, and I say, hi, I'm Ry. And she replies with oh, you're that Ray.

Because Jessica had already sent her a photo, right?

That's right.

And she had already identified you because she's got sensitive abilities, too. As somebody that did have these abilities.

Yes. She looked at my picture and she says, he's the real deal. Bring him in. And so I'm sitting, I sit down. She goes, tell me what's going on. And I said, well, I'm. I'm losing my mind. I'm going crazy. And she said, why you say that? And I said, well, I see people that aren't really there. And she says, me, too, me too. And. And I proceed to explain to her how I see things. What happens first? The vibrations, the lines across the room, the little swirly things, and blah, blah, blah, blah, and all the other things that happen. And the movie screen opens up and she says, stop. And I said, what? That's how I see it too. She's, in fact, how we all see it.

And what's also very unusual about this is because for men to have these abilities is apparently much more rare than women.

That's what she says. And it's been my experience that that is the truth. Later on in life, as I eventually begin to meet mediums, it's like nine to one ratio. That's just how it is. So, you know, we. We sat and we chatted, and she made me feel good. She even confided in me that when she was young, she was put away for being schizophrenic by her own parents. And I finally, after all this time, met somebody who understood the things I saw and told me, you're not crazy, you're special. And I actually kind of felt a little bit special in that moment. And that's not a feeling that I would have normally had. So that she took me under her wing for the first year and changed my life completely. I was so great. I am so grateful for her.

And what was the first sort of real world thing that occurred? Because, of course, now you're getting clear messages, you're seeing things, you're hearing things. But what was the first real world experience where, for example, Jessica's father wanted you to deliver a message or intervene in some way for somebody else's safety? What was the first one that came along that sort of provided you additional validation?

Well, the, the one that he, he was referring to was that there was someone sick in the family, and it was something that, if it wasn't caught, would take the life of the person. And we had to figure out how to get this information to the person without coming out and saying racist dead people. Because I didn't even meet the family yet. I didn't even know them. You know, imagine I'm just. I'm like, hey, by the way, you know, I can speak to so and so, and he says, you know, they're just never going to have me over the house ever again. So we devise a plan to get the information, we get her to the doctor, and it all works out. And there is a happy ending, that she got the help she needed. And then after that, I start getting bombarded with messages. I mean, they just keep coming. The screen opens up, there's another person there's another person. There's another person. And I don't know. Again, I don't know any of them. I have no idea. And I remember the second one. This guy was telling me all things to. He wanted to tell his wife he loved her so much, and he's so sorry for the way things happened, and he's sorry for the financial situation that he's in and showed me they took the money. They took the money and all this other stuff and things you really, really needed to know. But I didn't know who he was or who she was. And. And. And so I bring all of these things to my wife, and I say, so this is the one I got. And instantly she was like, I know who that's for. I was like, okay, just please don't say it's from me. Please don't say it's from me. I won't. I'll say I got it from my medium, and that's the truth. And I was like, oh, God. And I said, by the way, there's one last thing he said to me. And she says. I said, well, I don't know why he said this, but the last sentence was, remember the silly shoes. And I said, if that means something to your friend, okay, I believe it. Remember the silly shoes? So she has dinner with a friend, and she comes back, and I said, so what happened? What happened? She's like, oh, my God. That brought her so much relief. She needed to know about the money. She needed to know about all those things that happened. You can't. She was crying, and I was crying, and. And I said, yeah, okay. Okay, great. What about the shoes? What about the shoes? And she goes, oh. She starts chuckling. She says, on their first date, he wore the silliest, most ridiculous shoes she's ever seen in her life. And that was a running joke throughout their entire marriage. And I was like, oh, my God. Another thing, you know, I was almost like, I don't know if I want this to be real or not, you know? But the messages keep coming, and they give me these. These evidential facts that there's no way anybody could know. And the more I give them out, the more They're. They're always on point. So I conceded to the fact that this is what I can do, and I had to learn more about it because I didn't want it to overpower me. And when I meet my second mentor, which about a year after the first, he says. He says, if you don't get help and you don't get a mentor, you can go crazy. And I said, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because if no one scooped me up and told me what was happening in my own, I would have lost it. That is true. So I got a grip on it and I could turn it on and turn it off. And that was a very, very big deal. Very.

And today are you utilizing these? Because I know again, you were extremely reluctant to move into this. You found it very draining. How long ago did the book come out? Because I know you've continued your studies since then. How have you continued to manage this? And how. What kind of place does it take in your life in terms of you being a guide for others?

So with mediumship, I wound up with my second mentor in a class, a very, very small class. Hundreds of people had applied and I was only one of 11 that got in there because he had to make sure that everybody in there was legit. And that's what he does. And turning down hundreds of people, by the way, for this two year program, that was thousands of dollars. I mean, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars he could have made and let.

That go well, which further solidified that this man was in it for getting the job done properly rather than just making a bunch of money.

So not only is my viewpoint changing towards mediumship, but it's also changing towards the people that are involved in mediumship. It not only is he not a scammer. Right. Like I had this impression that all mediums were just scamming people. This guy turns down hundreds of thousands of dollars and takes only 11 people. Because the only 11 people he can prove that are real doesn't mean the rest weren't real. It just means that he couldn't get there with them. Right. So I get into this program and I study with him. It's a two year program and I am still with him. He is still my guy. I mean, in two months I told him, you've been more of a dad and taught me more than I really had in my life. And so I'm not. I'm never leaving you. I just. So I hope you're okay with that. And he's like, I'm okay with that.

What do you think of organizations like Windbridge that are not only doing double blind testing, but triple blind and quadruple blind testing?

Yeah.

Can you comment on that? Because I just think that's super cool. I love that you're about science. I love. I'm a big Joe Dispenza person and he talks about how science is the modern day language of mysticism. And I mean, it's just kind of cool that we're at a place in time now. And I also love your quotes from Einstein and Niels Bohr. I have a great Niels Bohr quote that I copied because I wanted to share it. We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it's crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.

Yeah, I mean, it's just. That's where we're at. And I hope that more and more people are kind of adapting to the possibilities that are out there. But to answer your question about mediumship, I chose to not pursue it for any financial gain or I don't practice it. And it's just, it's because of the. When I was writing the second book, I had a huge spiritual awakening and I lost those negative emotions like sadness and violence or anger, I should say. And you know, I used to just blow my top really easy and now it's completely different. The way I see the world, it's like I just. I guess I. You could say I care less. And there's so many things that we wrap ourselves up in and we think are important and are not important. And when you retrain your brain over and over and over, eventually you get rid of all that stuff that other people gave you and you can't delete it, you can't erase it. It's always going to be there, but you can overwrite it. And the more times you overwrite it, like a hard drive, override it. It pushes the bad stuff down and brings up your new beliefs that you can find from the collective. And now I go to my awareness before I react to anything and I get better information there. You know, it's just a millisecond pause that can change the outcome of your life. So I had an experience where I would have been livid. I would have blown my top. And I didn't. And in that moment I realized that I had reached that level. Now with mediumship, unfortunately, you have to take on the emotions of the deceased and to some degree the person sitting as well. Because your energy is going to be commingled. It has to, it has to become entangled in order to get the information across so they come through. Everybody thinks it's always lovey dovey. No, it's not. It's guilt, it's remorse, it's regret. I'm sorry I didn't do this. I'm sorry I messed this up. This is where the money, you know, it's that stuff. So I just found happiness after 50 years of being on this earth. And I respect medium so much for what they do, because I think even my mentor says he only does three or four a day max, because it's so taxing. And he's been doing this for 25 years.

I'm surprised he does that many. That's kind of a lot.

He's FFF certified, which is one of those. The two are Windbridge and Forever Family foundation, owned by the Ginsburgs. They are doing a great job, you know, and they started that company because they lost their son and they were looking for a real medium, and that's how that started. And it's a triple blind test. I'm not taking that test anytime soon. 99% fail, I think, is the. Is the rate. There's only 24 people that have passed it in the world. And my mentors.

You're not them. You're not curious to try it?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not putting myself through that. No way. There was a time when, yeah, that would have been a goal because I like, I love to become, like, obsessed with a project and just dig in. But I found that for me, it was more about the spiritual awakening side, bringing science and spirituality together and sharing that with people to change their lives.

How are you spending most of your time now?

Coaching. Coaching others and writing. So my writing, my coaching is what I hope to bring to the masses. And Joe Dispenza is a guy that I admire so much. He was inspirational to me and was speaking with somebody once, and they said, well, do you have a business model in mind? And I said, yeah, it's his right there. Joe's. That if I could do that, that's what I would be doing.

Wow. Does mediumship creep into your coaching at all?

Yeah, well, yeah, it does. And so does the intuitive side. It does sometimes. And if it's prevalent and it's useful, we'll go there. We will.

And you have the ability to turn it off if you wish. Is that correct?

Kind of like you could you feel it begin. So it's kind of like you can your cell phone when you can decline the call or take the call, you know, it's building. It's building. You can like, no, no, no, no. Or allow it to come in and focus on it.

So for our listeners who all of us want to just improve our lives, what would you say are the three most important things that people can focus on to either add or Eliminate to their life to uplevel our energy.

So one of the, one of the biggest things that I can say is learning that your egoic mind, which is driven by your subconscious, which is all your experiences from the past, your unconscious, is your emotions. And there's all this going on behind the scenes. And it's given to the egoic mind and given you advice in the moment of what to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say. Don't wear this. You don't look good in that. Don't go for that job interview. You can't get that job. All the negative, negative, negative. Why? Because it's there to protect you. That's the ego's role. That's the part of the mind that protects you. Look both ways before you cross the street. That's a good one. We don't want to get rid of them all, but we don't need it setting our limitations. And it does. And those limitations are set by other people. You know, their definition of what happiness is is often what we shoot for. And my clients are, have everything sometimes. And they come to me and, you know, they got 2.2 kids and a house in the burbs and, and three cars and they're just living the dream. And they sit down and I say, I have no idea why I'm miserable. And it's because you're living someone else's life that they think that was right for you. This is what you were told happiness looks like. But for you, happiness might not be that. It may be something completely different.

That's one thing I love in your book. And again, I just, I love that you come from this really sort of raw tough guy background. It's just refreshing to have that perspective because we have a lot of the woo woo out there and, and yours is definitely not a woo woo background. But you talk about the first time you came across the concept of knowing your why. And, And I agree 10,000% how important that is. Do you want to share that with our listeners?

Yeah. Yeah, sure. What is your why? I believe is, is the chapter or the sub chapter. And, and knowing what your why is is crucial because when you, you must be willing to die for your why to accomplish whatever the it is. If. So, in other words, if your big goal in life is to own a Ferrari, would you die for a Ferrari? And if the answer is no, that's not your why, and you're looking in.

The wrong place, and if it is, yes, you've deluded yourself.

Right? Good luck with that, you know, you, you'll get it, but you know, it's not where you should be looking. That's the point. It's a thought exercise. So you think about, am I actually willing to die for the thing that I'm working towards or working for? You know, in my case it was my kids. So of course the answer is yes. And that is exactly where I focused my efforts. So all the good things I did for me were for them, they were not for me. And the second book is dedicated to them. I said, you guys have done more than for me, than, you know, just by being born. So that was my why. And finding that why is for, for each person is going to be different and it's going to affect your, your outcomes and your perspective of those outcomes. And that's huge.

And when you say the why is usually a heart centered thing, I mean it's just that thing that gets you here and that you, you would die for. Yeah. Whereas the Ferrari, you know, hopefully that's not something somebody wants to play.

It's not monetary. If, if you need money to accomplish it, that's fine.

But that's different.

Should not be the money. Like my kid, he asked me, he says, well, you know, I just want to be a billionaire. And I said, well, why? What's the reason? And he goes, what do you mean? He goes, life would be great. And I said, how so? And he thinks about it, he goes, well, I could buy anything I want. And I said, what's so great about that? You have a lot of stuff. Are you kidding me? You could do better than that. And he's like, well, freedom. And I said, now, there you go.

Now we're on Dr. Joe because Dr. Joe used to do mind movies. And then everybody was coming up with all the material stuff, but at the end of the day, everybody just wanted freedom.

That's it. So when he said that, I was like, now you're looking in the right place. Would you die for your freedom? Yes. You would go do it. And that's where, that's where the why lies. You got to go deep.

So if you could go back and talk to 10 year old Ray for five minutes, what would you tell him?

Oh my God, I would shake him up so much I just strangle him. You know, look at the signs, look at the signs that are there. You know, don't ignore the signs and ask for help. Get help from people who can actually help you. Reach out, find that mentor. I see kids sometimes because their parents will bring them and they are seeing things, they are experiencing things, and they want to know if it's real. And I will sit with them and I will find out if it's real and. And will also, you know, determine who may have a problem and who may. Who's really a medium. And so far, you know, children don't have any preconceived notions of anything. Okay. So actually, my wife sent me a video that was on Instagram of a little kid that didn't know she was being filmed. It was a nanny cam, and it was just her in the kitchen, and she's running, running, running, and she stops and she looks up at somebody who isn't there and says, oh, you want to play? And hands. Hands the bucket and takes the bucket back and moving back and forth, having this whole dialog with somebody that's not there. And I was like, somebody finally caught it on camera. You know, there it is right there. This kid had no idea she was being. At first she was startled. You could see she was scared. And then she kind of just went with it and spoke to the being, and whatever the being said back to her put her at ease.

We've had Mark Gober on the show, and he talks about how children, you know, usually up until the ages of five, a lot of them have. Or I would necessarily, a preponderance, but they might have recollections of previous lifetimes. So there definitely is an openness that. That's. That's going on. And in being a young person that, as in your case, you know, it got shut down because you were laughed at and made to feel humiliated because you believed in things that weren't really there, and so you shut it down. So that's a very interesting.

Don't adopt the beliefs of others. Look for your own beliefs. Because when you, you know, there's. There's a chapter in. In the next book, that's. Whose world do you live in? And are you, you know, joining separators? I call them separators. Like, are you part of a political party? Or you define yourself by your race? Or do you define yourself by a word or a term? Are you part of somebody else's group? You're not being you. You're not being your authentic self. Throw all of that stuff away from. You're an energy being in a human form temporarily. That's it. That's the only thing you are. And you will live on after this life. And if you can just simply identify as that and part of this universe and part of nature, that. That is where you'll find true power, true freedom, true happiness.

I love it. Ray how do you want people to find you? Reach out to you? Take next steps with you? What are the contacts?

Thank you for asking Ray Catania.com is the website and you can contact me through there. Learn more about the books, learn more about what I'm doing, and get in touch with me for coaching classes and things of that nature. Ray Catania.com thank you.

R A Y C A T A N I A.com Ray I could talk to you for a week. I so grateful to for you coming onto the show and sharing your wisdom and your insights. Folks. If you got value from this, please click subscribe and we will see you on the next episode of Next Level. Healing.