Yet the notion that talking to the dead can help further their spiritual journey seems almost alien to them.  And that’s because generations of priests, monks, gurus and the rest, have strongly discouraged  the mystical path, citing dangers to the eternal soul and dire warnings about ‘mere psychism’.   All religions, and I mean all, require  devotees and congregations dependent on a priestly caste to interpret the meanings of the divine.  They all need to keep their jobs basically and we represent their life insurance.

Unmediated spirit contacts are the escape hatch out of that quandary.  Not that spirits are repositories of ancient wisdom.  Just dying does not make them geniuses.   But seeing that grandmothers, uncles, cousins, friends and colleagues have survived the transition and are doing well, including those who have strayed into self-destructive activity, does more to alleviate common anxieties than any formula distilled and repeated until deafness results.

Spiritualists have repeated this for the last century and more, and while many, if not all, of my psychic colleagues agree, I feel the need to bring it to your attention once again.  It is not considered a path of development among the spiritual cognoscenti but I remain a strong proponent.

Souls here need to see and be reminded that souls there are very much like them, minus the many aches and pains the flesh is heir to.  Assumptions and expectations make their astral bodies very similar to our physical ones, although youthful elegance quickly re-manifests, usually as one arrives they see it all around them and ask after the secrets of the enabling magic, which they are soon told, is thought.  Think yourself young and think yourself attractive are usually the prelude to think your dwelling as you wish it.  A learning curve to be sure but not an impossible mountain.

Hearing of their new lives, either similar to the old or bracing with fresh adventures can be reassuring and exciting.  Remaining within their extended family, earthly ethnicity and religious denomination can be wonderful news to many, while breaking away from those perhaps worn-out ties to a more individual path can be thrilling to many others.  Some souls, exhausted and defeated by life’s trials and self-destructive addictions, locking themselves away in some lower purgatory or hell, can be tough or impossible to connect with, but those trying to connect can often see the trajectory followed and find themselves disappointed rather than shocked.

We are, as a culture, already at the stage of discussing someone’s vision or brief interaction with grannie, uncle Albert or your long time golf buddy, and feeling a rightness and satisfaction about the content of what was likely a pleasant surprise.  I am merely proposing an extension of that, making it more conscious and deliberate, a building up what amounts to more family chatter, not dissimilar to that on relatives now dwelling abroad.  If that sounds too good to be true, then let me add that the practice I envision will take no more focus or determination than the daily half hour of yoga, meditation, workout or jogging that many indulge in now.  Just rein in that dependence on psychics and mediums, as you have with gurus and charismatic frauds, and give yourself the power you once gave them.  A tall order some would say, and it is until you see how you’ve buried your light in that bushel basket.

There is no reason for the merely curious among you to refrain.  This is not the preserve of those who have ‘lost’ loved ones.  To extend my original slogan from years back, – “The afterlife is for everyone and all you have to do to get there is die”, spirit communication is for everyone who wants to experience immortality as observable fact not compensatory fantasy.   As for the wounded among us, the seeming insurmountable barrier of grieving can be overcome, and the more of us who brave it the more the path will be smoothed out for those who follow.  It’s all about building bridges between worlds whose time has come to no longer be separated.  Some writers term it the rainbow bridge and I find that a very appropriate descriptor.