My afterlife

Posted by Jessica Jewett 3 Comments »

Federal Street, Brunswick, METhe more I read about near death experiences, the more I realize they are as different as they are alike. That probably sounds strange but think of it this way: as many consistencies as there are with the tunnel effect or the white light, meeting family members, going through a life review, etc., it also appears that much of the afterlife is custom tailored to the individual. In other words, everyone has a different perception of “heaven” or “hell” and the universe seems very aware of it. But is the bliss experienced in the afterlife created by an outside universal force or is it constructed by the power of our own consciousnesses?

I’m thinking in circles again.

Sometimes I do wonder what my afterlife will be like, and I don’t mean that in a morbid “I want to die” kind of way. I just mean that I deal with spirits and helping people with spiritual matters every day, so it’s not a far stretch of the imagination to think I might be curious about what will happen to me when I die. I’m not afraid of my own death either. My faith teaches me that dying is just another phase of the soul’s life and should be met with as much preparedness as any other change of life. It’s that preparation and that need to “leave my body on my own terms” as George Harrison put it, that makes me think about what awaits me on the other side of the veil.

I would like to design my own afterlife.

Androscoggin River

In my estimation, the meaning of the afterlife is to be a place and a state of the soul in which the individual is at perfect peace, joy, and love. I think of the place and time in which I feel the most at home and at peace. That place was southern Maine and the time was the 19th century. This is not to say my life was a romantic vision of perfection at the time. Far from it. But whenever I visit Maine now, I feel so much at peace and so restored that I don’t even need as many painkillers or anxiety drugs as I normally do. The restorative affect Maine has on me is my idea of heaven.

So when I pass into the afterlife, as I have said in an earlier blog, I want to meet my loved ones along a representation of the Androscoggin River (pictured above) for reasons that I already described in the earlier blog. I would like a typical home for Brunswick like the ones pictured at the very top. That’s actually Federal Street in 1906. My home would be filled with things from the 19th century and I would have as many books as the universe would allow me to read. There would be plenty of places in the home where I could play music and paint. Every pet I ever had in my life would be with me at that home and all of my loved ones would come and go with ease. I would have flower gardens. The sea would be close enough that I could spend time there whenever I wanted. I wouldn’t have any physical restrictions like wheelchairs as I do here in the physical life.

Perhaps I’m honestly thinking of keeping my afterlife home as a representation of the Chamberlain house. It is to my taste and I feel more at home there than I do in my own home now. I did live there for nearly 50
years and part of me will always be there in some way.

I’ve read many mediums say that they get told from those in the afterlife that it is indeed much of their own design. More than one has indicated that spirits often group together based on types of interests and common likes in lifestyle. In other words, there may be other spirits out there who feel most at home in 19th century villages, so these like minded spirits would find each other in the afterlife. I do believe the afterlife is just another way of living although it is without the pain and suffering of this world. The likes and dislikes inherent to your soul would naturally carry into the afterlife. The way I love art and creating things has been inherent in multiple lifetimes, so it’s logical to think that I would still have these passions in the spirit world. The relationships we have exist there as well, with the difference of being entirely aware of all facets of those relationships throughout past life history. The work continues in spirit to perfect those relationships and plan future lives.

As above, so below.

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My psychic language

Posted by Jessica Jewett 2 Comments »

Jessica JewettOne of the most common questions I get asked is how I receive information when I do readings. The primary thing that people need to understand is that the idea of a ghost whispering things in the medium’s ear is, for the most part, very inaccurate. Having the ability to read people or situations is not just about communication with the dead. That’s a very small part of it and not every person with extrasensory perception even has the ability to communicate with the dead, and focusing on that small aspect of it can limit things quite a bit. A greater number of people with extrasensory perception read energy as opposed to the dead. That has a lot to do with receiving information on instinct and having it without actually talking to the ghost of Uncle Charlie.

In general, I don’t know where information from psychics/intuitives/whatever word you want to use comes from because usually it’s just there passing through us like water through a funnel. I think it’s a combination of being extra sensitive to the environment around us as well as being given information from an outside source. Sensitivity to the environment appears to be far more commonplace and not very supernatural at all if you think about it. The blind have heightened senses to make up for the one sense they lack and that’s not really considered supernatural. It’s just the way they’ve naturally adapted to their environment. I think if people stop putting extrasensory abilities on such a high pedestal, it would be easier to see it as simply another talent. Some people can paint masterpieces while others can’t put together a stick figure. Some people are highly sensitive to energy and spirits while others are not so sensitive to them. Part of understanding such abilities is taking them off the pedestal and bringing them down to earth.

Every intuitive who chooses to develop their abilities also ends up developing their own “language”. I put it in quotes because it’s rarely a verbal language. For most of us, psychic language is deeply layered and highly symbolic to the person conducting the reading. Mediums learn quickly that spirits almost never communicate by verbal means like we do here in the physical. Spirits communicate by thought and emotion. It goes against our physical instincts because we are in bodies that communicate by spoken word, which is actually quite limiting, and can sometimes frustrate spirits. They communicate their messages to us with visual images, emotional impressions, physical sensations, etc., and the filters that our own brains impose on those things can and will cause misinterpretations at times, which is why it’s not possible for any medium/psychic/intuitive to be 100% accurate. We are, after all, only human and sometimes symbolism from spirits will come across as unclear or mean something different to us than them. Mediums/psychics/intuitives who try to do readings while overly tired, stressed out, or sick will have a higher rate of misinterpretation because their concentration on symbolic reading won’t be as sharp. Misinterpretation or lack of information will happen, but that doesn’t make the medium/psychic/intuitive a fake. It makes them human. Doing readings is like playing telephone and it takes a lot of practice to learn the symbols and sensations that resonate with the person doing the reading. It’s very similar with reading energy, except you’re not reading an intelligent entity. You’re reading feelings or events that have already passed.

Psychic language is never the same from one reader to another because different feelings, symbols, etc., mean different things to different people. Some of us are more auditory, while others are more visual. The object for the spirit is to get us to say the correct thing based on our own points of references. With energy, we have to interpret feelings and flashes of things that already happened. Sometimes it’s flashes of things that haven’t happened yet too. Energy tends to be more of intuition and feeling rather than anything else, and can require a more subtle touch to read correctly.

My personal psychic language is a bit different, even within the context of other people in this line of work.

Living People

I work very hard not to read people without their permission (ethical issues) but I do almost always have a gut reaction when I meet someone as to whether their intentions are good or bad. That means their real heart, not their good or bad choices on the surface. Initial gut reactions come as colors. White or gold is good. Red or orange is bad. Blue or green happens when I meet another person with abilities (I tend to recognize “my own kind” on sight). Mixtures of colors do happen because nobody is entirely good or entirely bad but one color will usually outweigh the other.

After I’m with a person for a certain amount of time, I usually develop a “taste” for their energy or soul. I have not encountered another intuitive who reacts to energy by taste and I used to not say it out loud because it seemed so odd. By taste, I mean it in the literal sense. Certain foods get assigned to certain people’s personal energy. Male energy tends to be savory tastes and female energy tends to be sweet tastes. I don’t choose who gets what taste. It happens on its own after a certain amount of time has passed in their company. I’ve also noticed that people who have consistently confused, bitter, unhappy energy will taste burned or otherwise bad to me, and people who I really enjoy will be associated with my favorite foods. The taste is not present all the time though. It usually comes and goes when I first encounter the person and if that person experiences an emotional or mental spike. My theory about why I “taste” energy comes from the fact that my way of knowing the world is through my mouth. I can’t use my hands, so I use my mouth instead, which means I don’t have a choice but to taste a lot of objects every day. If psychic information is highly symbolic based on the person’s point of reference, then it’s not illogical to think I might experience energy in the form of taste symbolism.

Sometimes we encounter people with rather big, intense energy as well. That can come from passion, intense devotion to something, or even ego. People with big, intense energy fields come across to me as physical sensations and I can feel their positions in a room even if I’m not looking at them. I don’t encounter it very often (I notice a lot of people who claim to be intense are just normal people full of bravado), but when I do, it can be different whether the person’s intensity is good or bad. Good intensity comes across as a physical sensation of a vacuum pulling me toward that person with a mild tingling sensation on the skin. Bad intensity feels like trying to push the wrongs ends of magnets together and the vacuum sensation becomes frightening like looking into a black hole. An intense person’s mood can create both effects and it tells me whether I should stay away or not.

General Energy

Energy fields that come from nature, or past or future events, not living or dead people, come across to me as physical sensations. I almost never see anything visual in this area. When I do, it has to do with the imprint of energy depicting events that already happened or, in rarer cases, events that haven’t happened yet. Imprints of energy from events tend to replay like movie clips on repeat. They can range from shadowy, hazy, and only a glimpse, to crystal clear replays of entire scenes.

I’m not so in tune with environmental energy as others because it requires the ability to pick up on very subtle cues. I’m not so good with subtlety. I do pick up on big natural disasters before they happen. The ability to pick up on disturbances in environmental energy means having the ability to pull yourself out of your own circumstances to feel out whether sensations are coming from you or something else. If it’s not you feeling the disturbance, then there’s some outside energy causing it. For me, it’s usually the approach of severe weather before the news reports it or some kind of major disaster like 9/11. Using 9/11 as an example, I felt severe energy disturbances for the entire summer before it happened. The trouble is I never really know exactly what’s coming, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to stop it.

Spirit Communication

This is the type of work that is most deeply layered with symbolism. To get me to say certain things, I’ll be influenced by images I understand most of the time. Movies are a big reference when we’re talking about time periods. For example, if it’s a female going through the mid-19th century, I’ll see a Gone with the Wind poster, and if it’s a male going through the mid-19th century, it’s usually a Gettysburg reference. Regency period spirits usually reference Jane Austen to me. Late Victorian spirits usually reference Edith Wharton to me. These symbols are just to identify the period, not any other specific information. Since those things are so familiar to me, I jump to say the correct thing instantaneously. Those are just a couple of examples, however. There are so many more.

Conveying emotion comes from symbols in nature for me most of the time. “I love you” is pink roses for family love and red roses for romantic love. I’ve heard of other mediums using that symbolism as well. Water tends to go along with emotion. If a spirit is fulfilled or wants to convey fulfillment to someone here in the physical, I typically see a clay pitcher getting filled up with spring water. If the spirit is drained or wants to convey being drained to someone here in the physical, I typically see the clay pitcher being poured out into the grass and the water (emotion, life force) being wasted. The need for physical healing is conveyed by liquid light moving over, around, through the affected areas.

To get me to say something like, “You’re likely to have an opportunity to move in three years,” I’ll see a red 3 and a house. Numbers and letters in red are future and numbers and letters in blue are past. Measuring out days, weeks, months, or years is not met with symbolism per se but more of a gut reaction. I usually “know” which time measurement is the right one. If I don’t know, I say so.

Sometimes I do have auditory information from spirits. Oddly enough, it happens when there are foreign languages more than English. I suspect it’s designed to get me to point out when someone is foreign or spoke a foreign language. Establishing relationships looks like pieces of family trees in my head. I don’t see the names but I do see the branches extending from the person being read, whether they are alive or not. They conduct energy on levels. Mothers, aunts, older friends are on the same level. Grandparents, great aunts, much older friends are on the same level. Sisters, cousins, contemporary friends are on the same level. Children, nieces, children of friends are on the same level. You see how this works. It’s the same with male relations. From the energy level, I can sometimes sort out which role on the level the person or entity fills.

That’s just a piece of how it works for me.

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Subjective paranormal experiences

Posted by Jessica Jewett 7 Comments »

The night of December 7, I had a rather significant encounter with a spirit. I should have written about this sooner but I’ve been battling my very first bout with step throat. I’m still not totally well but I wanted to write about these things before I forget.

December 5, 6, and 7 were truly odd days, even for me. My family and I have been sick on and off for over a month but I thought my last illness before Thanksgiving was it. We all seemed to be getting better. The afternoon of December 5, I wasn’t feeling right but I hoped it was just my allergies getting weird. When I woke up the next morning, I was basically paralyzed by a sore throat, congestion, intermittent fever, and so forth. I thought it was just a really bad cold, so I started taking cold pills, but they weren’t having any affect except helping me sleep. By lunch, I thought, “I should call the doctor. Oh well. He’ll never get out here before next week and I’ll be over it by then.” Then 4 pm rolled around and guess who called? My doctor’s office! They wanted to send out the nurse practitioner for my every three month checkup the next day (the 7th). I was really taken aback by the timing but very, very grateful for it. Long story short, I was diagnosed with strep throat and it was something I had never had before so I couldn’t have known the symptoms. The nurse practitioner said a few times about how the timing of her visit was very strange and suggested it was some sort of higher power because strep throat can be rather dangerous when left untreated. She said sometimes it can turn into meningitis or scarlet fever. That caught my attention because two of my children from the 19th century died at two different times from scarlet fever and that day, December 7, was also my wedding anniversary from that lifetime.

That night, I took my first dose of antibiotics and settled into bed with trash TV in hopes of sleeping through most of the illness. You can’t imagine the pain that comes along with strep throat unless you’ve had it. I just wanted to zone out and forget the last few days and hope the antibiotics would work quickly.

As I was lying on my side looking at the TV, I felt a rather concentrated cold spot on my face. I didn’t pay it any mind at first. No rational person automatically thinks they’re having a paranormal experience when it happens. It’s the air conditioner, or it’s a draft, or someone walking by. Your mind just doesn’t say “GHOST!” with such a minor experience. But a couple of minutes later, the cold spot came back and it seemed to press harder on my face. Not only that but I noticed rather unexpectedly that the cold pressure vaguely felt like the shape of a hand on my cheek. I didn’t move because it has happened a couple of times in the past but my rational mind still likes to say it’s nothing. Being very still eliminated the possibility that it was me creating my own cool air flow as I moved. Neither the heat nor the air were running and all of the doors and windows were closed. Also, there was no cold air blowing around or pressed to any other part of my body. On the contrary, the rest of me was rather hot.

The rational causes checked off in my mind, so I decided to see if I could get whatever it was to respond to commands. Deep down, I knew who it was and why, but I still try to keep my wits about me. I made a request that if it was who I thought it was to touch my cheek. There was no delay. Instantly, a centralized spot of cold pressure came to my cheek. So then I requested to be touched on the lips since that was a significant distance from the cheek. The cold left my cheek right away and moved to my lips, just as I had requested. I made a few other requests like my forehead and each request was honored straightaway. I then felt a weight settle behind me after I stopped asking for requests. There was no cat or dog in bed with me either, which was odd in itself, because they always sleep wrapped around my legs.

I knew who it was. It was the one to whom I had once been married quite a long time ago. As I thought about the fact that it was the wedding anniversary of our marriage at that time, it occurred to me that my medical attention earlier in the afternoon had been influenced by him or some other higher force, just as my nurse practitioner had suggested more than once. I thought of the way she casually mentioned that me not being treated for strep throat could have become dangerous soon. Coupled with his visit later that night – the night of the anniversary – I slowly accepted that I was still being watched over. The way I was touched in itself was significant because during the 19th century, I suffered from from migraines, anxiety, and eye problems (I still do on all accounts), and he routinely spent time in bed touching my face and forehead the same way. These were all things that occurred to me after the fact and I felt as if I should have known.

The thing about subjective paranormal experiences is they are subjective because nobody else witnessed the events and they can’t be proven. I know for certain what happened to me but there’s no way I can prove it. I don’t have a need to prove it but it got me to thinking about subjective and objective paranormal experiences. I don’t really think there is such a thing as a truly objective experience unless a ghost streaked a room full of scientists or something. Aren’t all experiences subjective on some level? If they were objective, wouldn’t the question of whether ghosts exist be answered once and for all already? I can’t rightly say but my mind thought in circles for hours on it.

True, some could argue that my experience was brought on by my illness. I have in fact been battling a high fever on and off for days. However, I have had a similar experience of being touched and the touch following directions a few times before without the benefit of fever. I don’t believe drafts, air conditioning units, or heating units are capable of following directions to very concentrated and specific parts of my body. My own skepticism is satisfied, especially given the date significance and the illness involved as well as the odd timing of accidental medical treatment. One coincidence may pass unnoticed but when they pile on top of each other in such a short period, one has to sit up and take notice.

Personally, I’m grateful that he still watches over me. Anyone who has lost loved ones should remember that they are still watched over in some way. Take comfort in it. You don’t need to prove it to anyone.

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