Mental Illness or Spiritual Emergence? – A Ghost Story

 

“The dark presence that had been haunting me, I now understand to be my native ancestors, who have been calling my name since I was a child.”

      –Listener

 

 

 

Episode Summary:

 

What is our perception of reality? How do we understand reality? How do we understand these perceptions in the realm of psychology and psychiatry, and when we are diagnosing mental illness? Perhaps mental illness is on a spectrum, and not as cut and dry as the DSM and symptoms would have us believe they are.

 

Today’s story from a Life, Death and the Space Between listener story weaves in and out of the concepts of mental illness and spiritual emergence. And what a ride it is!

 

If you have not yet listened to Episode 189, “A Medium Walks into a Psychiatrist’s Office with Dr. Al Powers and Brittany Quagan – you might want to start there. Either way, please listen in with an open mind.

 

 

This Listener’s Story Touches on:

• Early auditory hallucinations, as a child in Columbia.
• Ayahuasca journeys
• Mental illness including manic episodes giving way to spiritual clarity
• Managing experiences with lifestyle choices (food, exercise, etc.)
• Coming to understand the experiences as helpful messages from native ancestors

 

 

Support Life, Death and the Space Between:

 

If you’re enjoying the podcast and finding value in guest interviews, ghost stories, and the content I share, please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patreon member for as little as $5 a month at Patreon.com/DrAmyRobbins

 

As a member you’ll get more say in the content we cover and exclusive access to behind-the-scenes goodness!

 

Looking for a Compass?

 

If you’ve been feeling rudderless or second-guessing your life’s true path, get on the waitlist for the next session of Live Your Life Backwards. This community-driven experience helps you chart your spiritually-guided journey using the wisdom of mortality to live an intentional life.

 

Join the waitlist!

 

Stay Connected with Dr. Amy Robbins:

• Facebook
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• YouTube
• Fireside

 

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A Medium Walks into a Psychiatrist’s Office with Al Powers and Brittany Quagan

 

“The voices are real. Real experiences. They deserve to be taken seriously as real human experiences; as real as anybody else’s.”

– Dr. Al Powers

 

Episode Summary:

 

Have you ever heard voices? Do you know anyone who hears things when others don’t? Are they delusions -- or are they spiritual experiences?  Does it matter?

 

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Al Powers, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist on faculty at the Yale Department of Psychiatry, and Brittany Quagan, a working medium and “voice-hearer” who attributes her experiences to her spirit guides.  They work together on the Yale COPE (Influence/Control Over Perceptual Experiences) Project.

 

Yale COPE Project goals are:

 

• To learnfrom those who hear, see, and feel things others can’t/don't
• To understandthe ways people can control these experiences and their lives
• To create new treatmentsfor those who need them

 

Listen in to understand how Dr. Al Powers and Brittany Quagan are bridging the gap between spiritual and mental health experiences. Which may not be so terribly different.  

 

Topics We Discuss:

• Delusions vs. spiritual experiences
• Pros and cons of antipsychotic medications and applicability to voice hearers
• How the Yale COPE project gives voice hearers control over their voices
• Voice hearers who saw their experiences as spiritual (vs. pathological) exerted more control over their voices
• Empowering voice hearers by humanizing these experiences

 

Contact the Yale COPE Project:

 

If you, or someone you know, has perceptual experiences like hearing voices when no one is speaking, you are invited to join in the COPE Project. You do not need to have influence over the voices to join! Learn more about Dr. Al Powers and Brittany Quagan and the Yale COPE Project.

 

 

Support Life, Death and the Space Between:

 

If you’re enjoying the podcast and finding value in guest interviews, ghost stories, and the content I share, please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patreon member for as little as $5 a month at Patreon.com/DrAmyRobbins

 

As a member you’ll get more say in the content we cover and exclusive access to behind-the-scenes goodness!

 

Looking for a Compass?

 

If you’ve been feeling rudderless or second-guessing your life’s true path, get on the waitlist for the next session of Live Your Life Backwards. This community-driven experience helps you chart your spiritually-guided journey using the wisdom of mortality to live an intentional life.

 

Join the waitlist!

 

Stay Connected:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Fireside

 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Raising our Vibration into the 5th Dimension and Beyond with World-Class Medium Ginette Biro 

 

 

Ginette says 2020 was all about, “Going inward to ourselves, discovering who we are, what we’re all about, what truths resonate with us. Being called to find what is right for us, to get rid of triggers and traumas, to come to a place of peace to navigate these next several years.”

 

 

Episode Summary:

 

Have you been hearing people talk about the 5th dimension?  What does that have to do with living a life full of joy, love, and purpose on earth? Do you wonder what 2020 was all about?

 

In this episode, we talk with Ginette Biro, a world class medium who connects with beings from the 4th to 12thdimensions.  She connects people to the other side and brings messages to inspire and inform our world.

 

Ginette relays what her spirit guides, angels, and ascended masters have told her about the chaos of 2020 and Earth’s ascension.

 

 

Mind-blowing Topics We Discuss:

• Ginette’s encounter on the other side, her life-changing Near Death Experience (NDE) during surgery -- working with spirit, pouring over her life blueprint and making life choices
• Ginette describes our 3D reality vs. higher dimensions!  Mind blowing!
• Anyone can ask spirit to show them a greater understanding of reality; it moves you toward higher dimensions
• The galactic federation – a collection higher consciousness light beings here to help humanity ascend in technology, consciousness, wellness, spirituality. Those on earth are meant to ascend and grow in consciousness further help out other places.
• Why we’re hearing more on the media about alien contacts
• Ascension means balancing harmony – between light and dark, science and metaphysics, left and right, masculine and feminine, fear/oppression/control energies and compassion/love/creative energies…
• What Ginette says 2020 was all about for those on Earth

 

 

Get Your Copy of “Avalon to Aurora”:

 

You can learn more and purchase your copy at avalonspirit.com. 

 

Follow Ginette Biro on:

• Facebook
• Instagram

 

Support Life, Death and the Space Between:

 

If you’re enjoying the podcast and finding value in guest interviews, ghost stories, and the content I share, please consider supporting the show by becoming a Patreon member for as little as $5 a month at Patreon.com/DrAmyRobbins

 

As a member you’ll get more say in the content we cover and exclusive access to behind-the-scenes goodness!

 

Looking for a Compass?

 

If you’ve been feeling rudderless or second-guessing your life’s true path, get on the waitlist for the next session of Live Your Life Backwards. This community-driven experience helps you chart your spiritually-guided journey using the wisdom of mortality to live an intentional life.

 

Join the waitlist!

 

Stay Connected:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Fireside

 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We should all have the goal of emotional wellness. Because if we manage ourselves emotionally, we forestall a lot of physical disease that could be coming.” – Lisa Samet

“Life is full of challenges, we will never get rid of those challenges. But we can navigate them better.”  – Lisa Samet

 

Lisa Samet, ND, is a well-known health practitioner who has appeared on the Dr. Oz show to promote homeopathy and naturopathic healing. She has an international practice based in Montreal, specializing in homeopathy, emotional wellness, nutrition and lifestyle optimization.  Lisa Samet is the author of “Emotional Repatterning” (O-books.com).  “Emotional Repatterning” provides insights, stories and real-life examples to deepen the reader's understanding of their own mind; the patterns of thinking and deep-seated beliefs that keep them feeling stuck and unhappy.

Today we talk about:

• After working with patients extensively over the past 20 years, how feelings and emotions fit into her work as a naturopath; the mind-body connection. How emotional stress, or "wrong thinking" is responsible for not only great emotional suffering but oftentimes physical illness as well.
• You are not the victim of your genetics!
• Lisa’s personal experience with her youngest son’s mind blowing leukemia diagnosis, and the subsequent two year program of chemotherapy treatments in the traditional medical system.
• Her model of 8 spheres of emotion – what she calls “thinking traps” – which emerged from her practice: self-love, acceptance, responsibility, stories, cocreation, gifts, regret, and death.
• How death is not normalized in our culture, and because we don’t talk about it, it becomes a tabu topic.
• 5% of our awareness is conscious, therefore 95% is subconscious.
• Emotional Repatterning technique - akin to a software upgrade: 1) engage both the left and right sides of the brain, and then 2) replace long standing subconscious negative beliefs (often from childhood) like “I am not loveable” with more current positive beliefs like “I am a good person” or “I have great worth and value”.  We then no longer see the world from such a distorted way. We see things from a more healed place, more clearly, where I know who I am.
• Emotional Repatterning typically takes a minute or two per belief that needs to be upgraded.

 

FOLLOW LISA SAMET

EmotionalRepatterning.ca

https://www.instagram.com/lisasametnd/

 

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“We have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.”

– Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

“We are not thinking creatures who feel, we are feeling creatures who think.”

– Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR is a Harvard trained and published neuroanatomist. In 1996 she experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to lose the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Her memoir, My Stroke of Insight, documenting her experience with stroke and eight-year recovery, spent 63 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and is still routinely the #1 book about stroke on Amazon.

 

In her groundbreaking new work, Dr. Jill shares how we all have two emotional and two cognitivemodules of cells that underlie four predictable characters: Left and Right Thinking and Left and Right Emotional. WHOLE BRAIN LIVING marries our psychology with our brain's anatomy, giving us the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment regardless of our external circumstances. 

 

Dr. Taylor is a dynamic teacher and public speaker who loves educating all age groups, academic levels, as well as corporations about the beauty of our human brain and its ability to recover from trauma. In 2008 she gave the first TED talk that ever went viral on the Internet, which now has well over 26 million views. Her TED talk is in the top 10 TED talks of all time. Also in 2008, Dr. Taylor was chosen as one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and was the premiere guest on Oprah Winfrey’s “Soul Series” webcast.

 

I am so excited to have Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor on the show today! We talk about:

 

• After her stroke Dr. Bolte Taylor sensed the energy of her surgeon, and said to him, “Please be responsible for the energy you bring into this space.”

 

• Although she couldn’t move or speak after her stroke, she could sense people as energy

 

• For those who haven’t watched her incredible Ted talk -- her stroke story from the perspective of a neuroscientist.

 

• How her book “Whole Brain Living” came to be from the experience of her stroke

 

• Her 4 characters, and she encourages you to name yours!

 

• • Character 1: Left Brain Thinking - rational interaction with the outside world, language, ego center, judgment

• • Character 2: Left Brain Emotional – deep emotions (shame, guilt, blame), past trauma, alarm/alert, likes what is familiar, addiction, stress circuitry

• • Character 3: Right Brain Emotional - interconnectedness of everything, fun loving, joy, enthusiasm, us not me, thrill seeking, comradery/togetherness, present moment experience

• • Character 4: Right Brain Thinking - the portal to the peaceful and beautiful energy of the universe, consciousness of the universe, present moment, meditation, no ego self, supportive, nurturing, connected to all that is, connected to nature, kind, loving, gratitude

 

• The “BRAIN Huddle” which Dr. Bolte Taylor says, “is how we own our power by taking full responsibility for who and how we present ourselves to the world, as well as how we choose the let the world influence our emotions, feeling and behavior.” 

 

• BRAIN = Breathe to come to the present moment + Recognize which character you are in + Appreciate all four characters + Inquire which character I want step into + Navigate your new reality

 

• Division between science and spirituality in our brain

 

 

 

FOLLOW DR. JILL BOLTE TAYLOR

ted.com/speakers/jill_bolte_taylor

wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Bolte_Taylor

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[email protected]

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 

• This is really hard for me to do…
  • I have been creating podcasts for 2 ½ years, I love interviewing all these amazing guests!
  • So many people have reached out lately that I have a huge backlog of guests
  • Our community has grown organically – all because of you. Thank you!
  • I love your ghost stories, and hearing from all of you about how the podcasts impact your life
  • Integrity is everything to me – for me, and the interviews themselves.
  • I want to continue to dive deep into what we are all curious about – Life, Death and the Space Between – What happens after death? What is consciousness?
  • And I want to continue to present a scientific perspective – the latest science
  • So far, I have done it all without ads, and my goal is to keep it ad-free.

 

• Love the Show? Show the love!
  • If you are NOT able to contribute – I totally understand. Please continue to enjoy the podcast.
  • If you ARE able to contribute at some level, think of Patreon as a membership platform like Netflix or Hulu.

 

• • • Patreon.com/DrAmyRobbins

 

• You will be enabling me to continue to create these amazing shows.
  • At $5/month, you will help me shape future podcast content and themes.
  • At $10/month , you get juicy behind the scenes footage with my guests.
  • At $20/month, you will also be invited to a quarterly live Q&A – where you can Ask Me Anything. I am super excited about this!
  • If you would like to contribute differently, reach out to me at [email protected] or DM me on Instagram @DrAmyRobbins
• And to all my listeners – Please do me the favor of helping me out:
  • Share my Podcast with friends and family who you think would be interested,
  • Follow me on Instagram
  • Subscribe to my YouTube channel
  • Leave podcast episode reviews often. Even if you already have done a review. It helps!
• Thanks again for being such an important part of my life!

 

Questions I answered today, asked by listeners Sara and Donna, both about reincarnation:

1. If someone I lost has chosen to reincarnate, can I still communicate with them?
2. If a soul in heaven decides to reincarnate, will they be born into a different body? How can a soul be in a different body since that’s no longer that person?

 

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FOLLOW DR. AMY ROBBINS

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Life only matters because we die.”

        – Alua Arthur

“There is something absolutely miraculous about standing at the doorway of existence.  I am absolutely humbled by it every time. Rather than it being heavy, there is a lightness of being that goes along with it because there is such a mystery to this human ride.”

        – Alua Arthur

 

 

 

Alua Arthur is a death doula, attorney, adjunct professor, and ordained minister. Her goal is to bring grace and compassion to the cycle of life by planning for it and effortlessly tying up the loose ends. Going with Grace exists to support people when they answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may die gracefully?”, and to support family members completing the affairs of their loved ones life after death.

 

I am so excited to have Alua on the show today! Today we talk about:

• After 10 years as social justice attorney what triggered her transition to career path of death doula
  • First, a literally accidental interaction with a young woman her own age facing death
  • Next, helping a dear, close family member and her family walk toward his death, and the resulting grief and depression
  • Then, deep dive into around the topics of death and dying
• Along with the heaviness and sadness of death -- there is also laughter, joy, tenderness, compassion; the juicy human emotions along with the difficult ones.
• The miracle of standing at the very doorway of existence.
• What she observes as death approaches: more difficulty interacting with the outside world, the life force diminishes, loss of appetite for food and drink, changes in skin. Often followed by a “death rally” just before death.
• We need a functional and cultural death literacy. Considering things like what happens to the body, finances, stuff, grief, what to say, what to do with leftover medication. We need Death Ed.
• How unlike as an attorney in court, she is able to cry with clients as a death doula
• Her organization Going With Grace – teaches how to surrender to the process of death.
• How death makes life more meaningful. Life only matters because we die.
• Swedish death cleaning – pairing things down, and holding onto only the essential stuff, considering someone needs to deal with your stuff after you are gone.
• Alua’s values to live authentically, boldly, as fully as possible.
• How one of these 365 days is our Death Day!
• We both talk about what we want our deaths to look like.

 

 

 

FOLLOW ALUA ARTHUR

goingwithgrace.com

youtube.com/c/GoingwithGrace

https://www.instagram.com/going_with_grace

twitter.com/goinggracefully

linkedin.com/in/alua-arthur/

 

 

 

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"We don't see things are they are. We see things as we are."

Life, Death and the Space Between podcast listener shares her story of a recurring dream that caused her to reexamine and reexperience her past through more mature lens, releasing decades old sadness and grief, finding a new peace.

Ghost Stories is a way for listeners to tell their amazing stories of the metaphysical.  If you have a great story to tell, something similar to this, contact you have had with your loved one who has passed, or any other mystical experience please reach out and let me know.  Tell me your story and so we can feature it on the show.  

 

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“The research has shown there are ways to improve dream recall. Some people say each dream is an unopened letter. But not all dreams are meaningful; we get a lot of junk mail.”

             – Dr. Josh Black, Grief Dream Researcher

 

Dr. Joshua Black is a researcher in grief dreams, with a special focus on dreams of the deceased. Josh is one of the leading researchers in this field.  In his research, Josh examines why some bereaved individuals dream of the deceased while others do not, the experiences of people’s grief dreams and how grief dreams help with grief recovery.   

This is my first interview on FiresideChat.com/amyrobbins.  There were some technical hiccups, but we pulled it off!

Our topics today:

• How overwhelming grief following his dad’s sudden death – then a transformative grief dream experience - led him to grief support, and ultimately dream research.
• Categorizes the various types of grief dreams:
• • Dreaming of the deceased
  • Imagery that reminds the dreamer of the deceased
  • Other characters talking about the deceased
  • Anticipatory grief dreams – where someone dreams of a death before it happens
• How a dreamer’s perspective differentiates a visitation from a dream.
• Dreams in general are more negative (which I never really thought about). But grief dreams tend to have a more positive bent. They can help the bereaved process the death of their loved one, or process their own experience of end of their own life.
• After the death of a loved one, the very high rates of grief dreams:
• • 86% of spouses
  • 78% of pet owners
  • 58% after a miscarriage
  • 55% of children dream of the deceased parent
• How to quickly increase your own dream recall, supported by research.

 

 

FOLLOW JOSH BLACK

griefdreams.ca

twitter.com/griefdreams

instagram.com/griefdreams

 

WAITLIST FOR COURSE

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FOLLOW DR. AMY ROBBINS

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DrAmyRobbins.com

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[email protected]

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“Do epic shit every day.” – Chris Meyer

 

Chris Meyer is a lawyer, filmmaker, funeral home owner and author of a new book, "Life in 20 Lessons: What a Funeral Guy Discovered about Life, from Death" is like "This is my Life" meets "Tuesdays with Morrie." Meyer spent 14 years in the funeral business assisting grieving families and in one case, the soon to be departed, in planning funerals. It was a life chapter he never intended to write, but he feels grateful for, given the impact the career detour had on him personally.  

 

In this beautifully lighthearted conversation we talk about:

• After being a lawyer, filmmaker, how the unusual “funeral guy” career came to pass – how the motivation for the career shift sprung from the birth of his son
• Job description of mortician, funeral director, funeral home owner…
• Funeral considerations - burial vs cremation, death certificates, embalming, preparation for visitation
• Intensity of dealing with families after a death – when emotions are high, and personalities are charged
• Psychological impacts of literally living and breathing death day after day, and how necessary it became to dissociate
• The difficulty compartmentalizing when a child had died
• After thousands of funerals, the most memorable eulogies were lives well lived - people with simple lives, who relished the smaller moments, lived in the present, lived with empathy and compassion for their elders, had great connections with family and friends
• A few of his lessons learned: make a few great friends, enjoy food, stop worrying about money, DEST - do epic shit today

 

FOLLOW CHRIS MEYER

instagram.com/ChrisMeyerAuthor

facebook.com/ChrisMeyerAuthor

Buy “Life in 20 Lessons, What a Funeral Guy Discovered about Life, from Death” wherever books are sold

 

WAITLIST FOR COURSE

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FOLLOW DR. AMY ROBBINS

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dramyrobbins.com

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[email protected]

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