On Thursday November 29th, I was a featured guest on Paramania Radio's "Paranormally Correct" with hosts Chad Mckenzie and Sara Spencer. I discussed my experiences with paranormal activity, my discovery of my spirit guides with medium Liam Galvin and my exploration of my two most recent past lives in Poland and Hollywood. Listen to the first 45 minutes of the show below, or go listen to the entire two-hour show at THIS LINK.
PART ONE
PART TWO
Showing posts with label spirit guides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirit guides. Show all posts
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Monday, November 14, 2011
Crossing Over
On March 18, 2010 I witnessed something very fascinating that I think people will also find rather fascinating. A circle of mediums congregated at a place in Easton, Massachusetts to cross a woman's (her name is Linda in the video) grandmother over to the "other side". Linda's grandmother had been pestering her for two years after passing and refused to "go into the light". She was afraid of having to face God and look back on what she had done during her time on earth.
I was fortunate to be able to videotape the 'crossing' and I share it here for others to view. Among other things, the video begins to answer our questions about what happens to us after we die. It also explores concepts such as "life reviews" and "life contracts", the importance of forgiveness, and the soul versus the body.
The 'crossing' is conducted by a renown medium named Liam Galvin. His voice may sound strange at times because he is actually channeling his spirit guide who is helping with the ceremony. Enjoy!
PART ONE
PART TWO
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
O TERRIBLE! (excerpt)
The following is an excerpt from my new book entitled O TERRIBLE! This is a story about how failure and unhappiness can sometimes be essential to the growth of the human spirit. In a place like America where everybody is after financial success, spiritual growth has been hindered, if not stopped completely.
O TERRIBLE!
by Matt Burns
ONE
She hovered down the long, white tunnel wearing a long, cute dress that she manifested to look like the one she used to love wearing. It was a black evening gown from Sak’s Fifth Avenue and she had worn it the night she was awarded her Pulitzer Prize at Columbia University. It represented a pinnacle in her life, one of the best nights she had ever had. A time when she was at her happiest. A time when she felt the most loved.
Her ankles and feet were visible at the bottom of her dress, but unnecessary. For a person who could virtually be anywhere at any time (within level three and below, that is), space and time were no longer a factor for her, thus rendering her feet sheer decoration possessing no practical use whatsoever. After all, she was merely energy and only as physical as she wished to represent herself. And seeing that it had only been a handful of years since she’d been on the “other side”, she was still used to thinking about her “self” in the way in which it was represented during her time on earth: that is, as a physical entity. However, once she got her wings and ascended to the higher astral planes, she would no longer feel the need to represent herself in this way. She would more than likely be represented as...well, NOTHING - maybe an orb, if anything. But most of the ascended masters on the higher vibrations didn’t represent themselves as anything at all. They were just energy. The higher one got on the astral planes, the more detached they were from their human existence. In their minds, human form was merely one possible way of representing oneself...not THE way.
But, yes, for now, Lillian was still representing herself as a form very closely resembling the way in which she looked during her time on earth - well, during her prime, that is. After all, who wanted to represent themselves as an old prune? Not Lillian. No, she was adamant about manifesting herself to be in her 30s, when she was young and beautiful, with long curly brown hair and eyes as green as a lawn in May. Her most distinguished feature was her lips because they always seemed to be puckered (even when they were completely relaxed). In fact, it was her lips that rendered her “cute” down on earth, and it was usually what would attract the men to her.
Lillian hovered further down the long, white ‘hall’ (call it what you will, as there was not a word that could describe it) and she listened to the beautiful angelic hummings emanating from the higher levels. It reminded her of being in a department store back on earth, where the music would be playing lightly over the intercom. But instead of banal, top-40 hits and one-hit wonders, these were the sounds of highly evolved musical spirits composing harmonies and melodies that were way ahead of anything that was happening on earth. One of these spirits would eventually volunteer for human existence and become the next Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix or Curt Cobain or Michael Jackson.
In fact, everywhere she went there was always word of new and fantastic arts/sciences being developed on the upper planes, all with the intention of eventually bringing them down to earth. They were supposedly the next Einsteins and Picassos and Bachs. The latter-day Socrates’ and Nietzsche’s and Shakespeares and Chekhovs. Their time on earth was imminent. New and exciting things were always on the horizon. There was a tremendous energy in the spiritual dimension. Creativity mattered so much more up there than she remembered it mattering while she was on earth. All people seemed to be concerned about on earth was money, and success, and fame. In the spiritual dimension, it was the exact opposite.
In fact, each day that passed, Lillian would find herself saying, “Oh, so that’s what it’s all about.” It was the expansion of her consciousness. Her gradual escape from the mind. Her baby-stepped departure from the earth’s vibration and preparation to ascend to the higher astral levels. She progressed a little bit more and more everyday. But she would be the first one to admit that she was still very much trapped within the human consciousness. It was a prison that was very difficult to escape.
Lillian would often fantasize about having her wings and ascending into the higher levels, but the fantasy itself only proved she was very far off from actually getting her wings. This was because the fantasy was very “human” in nature, as it involved popularity, power, envy and other man-made values. Essentially, she would envision herself flying high above New York City where every human being on the ground would look up and envy her for having wings. She was so popular and powerful up there. She was the queen of New York. And everybody loved her.
On one hand, Lillian knew that this silly little fantasy meant she still cared too much about what Man thought of her. After all, ‘Man’ was no longer relevant where she was. It was God she needed to please, not Man. But, still, she wasn’t yet at the point where she could rewire her mind differently. It was a very difficult mindset to shake. She still wanted to be loved by Man, perhaps even more than she cared about being loved by God. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true.
TWO
Lillian started focusing her mind on the Archangels long and hard...thinking and thinking about nothing but them. Soon, she felt herself in the midst of a tremendous energy, which she soon identified as Gabriel, one of the Archangels that was operating on the vibration closest to God. She wondered how it felt to be that high in vibration and was somewhat depressed to realize she would never be there. The Archangels, after all, were of a breed of their own and were never manifested as human beings. Their energy was on a vibration way higher than what was on any of the seven astral planes.
No, the closest Lillian could ever get to Gabriel’s vibration was if she became an ascended master on the seventh level, but even THAT was far off for her. It would be a while before she would get there and would more than likely have to experience human manifestation several more times. Souls that were up for their ascended mastership had some incredibly grueling contracts to fulfill during their time on earth. Some of the contracts were so darn difficult it was a wonder how anybody ever fulfilled them. Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, Mary Magdalen (yes, Jesus’ wife)...these were just SOME of the ascended masters that once graced the earth with their presence.
“State your business,” said Gabriel, now slowly manifesting himself in a human form with no distinct characteristics. The Archangels would often lower themselves in vibration so as to communicate more easily with the lower-level spirits. This meant appearing to Lillian in a shape she was more familiar with.
“I need to speak with God.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Well, you’re going to have to make one. He’s extremely busy.”
“Please, it’s very important that I speak with him.”
Gabriel’s energy glowed for a moment without saying anything at all.
"Please," Lillian repeated.
“One moment,” said the Archangel. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Gabriel glowed in silence and took a few seconds to communicate with God strictly by means of telepathically sending energy back and forth. This was the common means of communication in the higher levels. There was no verbalization of words. It was all just energy and feeling.
“OK, He’ll see you,” said Gabriel. “Come into my energy.”
Gabriel’s energy oozed out of its human shape and then transformed from a gooey ectoplasm to a blue ball of light. Although she felt nothing but warmth and comfort and peace and love from the light, Lillian still feared it, mainly because it was still all a giant mystery to her. She never believed in any of this stuff while she was a human and she still had trouble believing in all of it now, even though it was right there before her very eyes.
“It’s OK. Don’t be afraid,” said Gabriel with a deep warmth in his voice, one that would humble any radio personality down on earth.
Lillian cautiously hovered towards the light and soon became one with Gabriel’s aura. The energy gave her the feeling of a giant, warm hug from her grandfather, but multiplied by one-hundred or maybe one-thousand.
Without experiencing any physical sensation of traveling, Lillian found herself on a different astral plane before she even knew she had gone anywhere. It was a giant white space with a tremendous energy that was extremely difficult to explain in words. The best way to describe it was in saying it felt like the world and all the energy within it. All the good energy, that is. The rivers, the ocean, the trees, the butterflies, the bees, the artists, the mathematicians, the philosophers, the writers, the fools...the love...everything. It was Genesis, essentially. It was what the world WAS...before it soured.
“What is it, Lillian?” asked an overwhelmingly deep voice that made Gabriel’s radio voice sound like the squeak of a mouse. The voice came from behind Lillian and was startling at first. She turned around to see the outline of a man slowly manifest itself. He was sitting at a rectangular desk with some paperwork and a lamp. Could this have been how God was showing Himself to her?
“God?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Lillian. I’m Jeffrey Gray’s guide.”
“I know who you are.”
“Yes...right. Of course.”
“How is Jeffrey?”
“Um...well, not so good, I’m afraid.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Well, I think it’s getting a little too difficult for him.”
“What is?”
“His life.”
“Life isn’t supposed to be easy.”
“Well, I think he needs a little...maybe just a tad...of....”
She hesitated a moment before she finished her sentence.
“Success.”
Wow, she didn’t think it would be such a big deal, but she felt as though she’d just said a dirty word, like the ‘N-word’ at a NAACP meeting, or the “K-Word” in the middle of a Jewish Temple. Heck, she probably would’ve been more comfortable dropping a cuss, like ‘damn’ or ‘crud’.
“Absolutely not,” said God.
“Why?”
“Success is the artist’s greatest enemy.”
“But I had my first novel published when I was twenty.”
“That’s because it was a piece of garbage.”
Indeed, it was probably true. Well, heck, if God said it, then it MUST have been the truth. See, Lillian was an extremely successful writer during her time on earth. She wrote an entire series of titillating novels with all sorts of spicy romances and betrayals and back-stabbings and murders and affairs. They were all Bestsellers for the most part and a lot of critics even went so far as to call them ‘art’ (hence the Pulitzer prize). But there was always a voice inside her head that said she could do better. She should have listened to the voice. Yes, she should have listened.
It wasn’t until her death and subsequent “life review” that she was faced with the truth of her human existence: basically, that she was a literary hack who did nothing but distract people from more important things in life. Sure, she had the money, the nice house, nice car, exciting vacations and good-looking kids. She schmoozed and rubbed elbows with all the celebrities of her time. She even got to meet the President at a dinner. And shook hands with the Pope and Dalai Lama. But, after she died, she realized that all those things were absolutely meaningless. They didn’t matter...like, at all.
So, now, she was assigned to help Jeffrey with his own writing endeavors, partly because he needed the help, but also because she needed to help him in order to help herself. Because in assisting Jeffrey she would get her wings, and progress on a spiritual level. It was all a Karmic way of repaying the world for all the garbage she put into it while she was down there.
Of course, Lillian was well-aware that Jeffrey’s life had to be significantly tougher than her life was in order for the spiritual progression to take place. But she, still, thought it may have been too much for one man to handle.
“You don’t know how he feels down there,” she tried to explain to God. “He’s going crazy.”
“Life is tough. End of story.”
“But I think his contract is too difficult. It’s too ambitious. He’s over-extended himself.”
“Help him fulfill it. He can do it.”
“I’ve tried and tried. And tried. But it doesn’t work anymore.”
“Do what you must to keep him writing, but if you give him even a taste of success, you can forget about your wings.”
Immediately - with that threat voiced - the wings fantasy returned to Lillian. This time, however, the vision of her flying over New York City was accompanied by her favorite song from earth. It was a song she had heard at Sunday Mass. Incidentally, it was also the song they played at her funeral. “And He will raise you up, on eagle’s wings. Bear you on the breath of dawn!!!!”
Needless to say, the thought of never getting wings put a muzzle on Lillian. She became reluctantly complacent.
“Yes, God. I understand. No success.”
She took a few steps backwards, unaware that Gabriel’s energy was still lurking immediately behind her. The Archangel weaved his energy in and out of Lillian's energy and transported her back to the lower levels.
O TERRIBLE!
by Matt Burns
ONE
She hovered down the long, white tunnel wearing a long, cute dress that she manifested to look like the one she used to love wearing. It was a black evening gown from Sak’s Fifth Avenue and she had worn it the night she was awarded her Pulitzer Prize at Columbia University. It represented a pinnacle in her life, one of the best nights she had ever had. A time when she was at her happiest. A time when she felt the most loved.
Her ankles and feet were visible at the bottom of her dress, but unnecessary. For a person who could virtually be anywhere at any time (within level three and below, that is), space and time were no longer a factor for her, thus rendering her feet sheer decoration possessing no practical use whatsoever. After all, she was merely energy and only as physical as she wished to represent herself. And seeing that it had only been a handful of years since she’d been on the “other side”, she was still used to thinking about her “self” in the way in which it was represented during her time on earth: that is, as a physical entity. However, once she got her wings and ascended to the higher astral planes, she would no longer feel the need to represent herself in this way. She would more than likely be represented as...well, NOTHING - maybe an orb, if anything. But most of the ascended masters on the higher vibrations didn’t represent themselves as anything at all. They were just energy. The higher one got on the astral planes, the more detached they were from their human existence. In their minds, human form was merely one possible way of representing oneself...not THE way.
But, yes, for now, Lillian was still representing herself as a form very closely resembling the way in which she looked during her time on earth - well, during her prime, that is. After all, who wanted to represent themselves as an old prune? Not Lillian. No, she was adamant about manifesting herself to be in her 30s, when she was young and beautiful, with long curly brown hair and eyes as green as a lawn in May. Her most distinguished feature was her lips because they always seemed to be puckered (even when they were completely relaxed). In fact, it was her lips that rendered her “cute” down on earth, and it was usually what would attract the men to her.
Lillian hovered further down the long, white ‘hall’ (call it what you will, as there was not a word that could describe it) and she listened to the beautiful angelic hummings emanating from the higher levels. It reminded her of being in a department store back on earth, where the music would be playing lightly over the intercom. But instead of banal, top-40 hits and one-hit wonders, these were the sounds of highly evolved musical spirits composing harmonies and melodies that were way ahead of anything that was happening on earth. One of these spirits would eventually volunteer for human existence and become the next Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix or Curt Cobain or Michael Jackson.
In fact, everywhere she went there was always word of new and fantastic arts/sciences being developed on the upper planes, all with the intention of eventually bringing them down to earth. They were supposedly the next Einsteins and Picassos and Bachs. The latter-day Socrates’ and Nietzsche’s and Shakespeares and Chekhovs. Their time on earth was imminent. New and exciting things were always on the horizon. There was a tremendous energy in the spiritual dimension. Creativity mattered so much more up there than she remembered it mattering while she was on earth. All people seemed to be concerned about on earth was money, and success, and fame. In the spiritual dimension, it was the exact opposite.
In fact, each day that passed, Lillian would find herself saying, “Oh, so that’s what it’s all about.” It was the expansion of her consciousness. Her gradual escape from the mind. Her baby-stepped departure from the earth’s vibration and preparation to ascend to the higher astral levels. She progressed a little bit more and more everyday. But she would be the first one to admit that she was still very much trapped within the human consciousness. It was a prison that was very difficult to escape.
Lillian would often fantasize about having her wings and ascending into the higher levels, but the fantasy itself only proved she was very far off from actually getting her wings. This was because the fantasy was very “human” in nature, as it involved popularity, power, envy and other man-made values. Essentially, she would envision herself flying high above New York City where every human being on the ground would look up and envy her for having wings. She was so popular and powerful up there. She was the queen of New York. And everybody loved her.
On one hand, Lillian knew that this silly little fantasy meant she still cared too much about what Man thought of her. After all, ‘Man’ was no longer relevant where she was. It was God she needed to please, not Man. But, still, she wasn’t yet at the point where she could rewire her mind differently. It was a very difficult mindset to shake. She still wanted to be loved by Man, perhaps even more than she cared about being loved by God. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was true.
TWO
Lillian started focusing her mind on the Archangels long and hard...thinking and thinking about nothing but them. Soon, she felt herself in the midst of a tremendous energy, which she soon identified as Gabriel, one of the Archangels that was operating on the vibration closest to God. She wondered how it felt to be that high in vibration and was somewhat depressed to realize she would never be there. The Archangels, after all, were of a breed of their own and were never manifested as human beings. Their energy was on a vibration way higher than what was on any of the seven astral planes.
No, the closest Lillian could ever get to Gabriel’s vibration was if she became an ascended master on the seventh level, but even THAT was far off for her. It would be a while before she would get there and would more than likely have to experience human manifestation several more times. Souls that were up for their ascended mastership had some incredibly grueling contracts to fulfill during their time on earth. Some of the contracts were so darn difficult it was a wonder how anybody ever fulfilled them. Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, Mary Magdalen (yes, Jesus’ wife)...these were just SOME of the ascended masters that once graced the earth with their presence.
“State your business,” said Gabriel, now slowly manifesting himself in a human form with no distinct characteristics. The Archangels would often lower themselves in vibration so as to communicate more easily with the lower-level spirits. This meant appearing to Lillian in a shape she was more familiar with.
“I need to speak with God.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Well, you’re going to have to make one. He’s extremely busy.”
“Please, it’s very important that I speak with him.”
Gabriel’s energy glowed for a moment without saying anything at all.
"Please," Lillian repeated.
“One moment,” said the Archangel. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Gabriel glowed in silence and took a few seconds to communicate with God strictly by means of telepathically sending energy back and forth. This was the common means of communication in the higher levels. There was no verbalization of words. It was all just energy and feeling.
“OK, He’ll see you,” said Gabriel. “Come into my energy.”
Gabriel’s energy oozed out of its human shape and then transformed from a gooey ectoplasm to a blue ball of light. Although she felt nothing but warmth and comfort and peace and love from the light, Lillian still feared it, mainly because it was still all a giant mystery to her. She never believed in any of this stuff while she was a human and she still had trouble believing in all of it now, even though it was right there before her very eyes.
“It’s OK. Don’t be afraid,” said Gabriel with a deep warmth in his voice, one that would humble any radio personality down on earth.
Lillian cautiously hovered towards the light and soon became one with Gabriel’s aura. The energy gave her the feeling of a giant, warm hug from her grandfather, but multiplied by one-hundred or maybe one-thousand.
Without experiencing any physical sensation of traveling, Lillian found herself on a different astral plane before she even knew she had gone anywhere. It was a giant white space with a tremendous energy that was extremely difficult to explain in words. The best way to describe it was in saying it felt like the world and all the energy within it. All the good energy, that is. The rivers, the ocean, the trees, the butterflies, the bees, the artists, the mathematicians, the philosophers, the writers, the fools...the love...everything. It was Genesis, essentially. It was what the world WAS...before it soured.
“What is it, Lillian?” asked an overwhelmingly deep voice that made Gabriel’s radio voice sound like the squeak of a mouse. The voice came from behind Lillian and was startling at first. She turned around to see the outline of a man slowly manifest itself. He was sitting at a rectangular desk with some paperwork and a lamp. Could this have been how God was showing Himself to her?
“God?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Lillian. I’m Jeffrey Gray’s guide.”
“I know who you are.”
“Yes...right. Of course.”
“How is Jeffrey?”
“Um...well, not so good, I’m afraid.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Well, I think it’s getting a little too difficult for him.”
“What is?”
“His life.”
“Life isn’t supposed to be easy.”
“Well, I think he needs a little...maybe just a tad...of....”
She hesitated a moment before she finished her sentence.
“Success.”
Wow, she didn’t think it would be such a big deal, but she felt as though she’d just said a dirty word, like the ‘N-word’ at a NAACP meeting, or the “K-Word” in the middle of a Jewish Temple. Heck, she probably would’ve been more comfortable dropping a cuss, like ‘damn’ or ‘crud’.
“Absolutely not,” said God.
“Why?”
“Success is the artist’s greatest enemy.”
“But I had my first novel published when I was twenty.”
“That’s because it was a piece of garbage.”
Indeed, it was probably true. Well, heck, if God said it, then it MUST have been the truth. See, Lillian was an extremely successful writer during her time on earth. She wrote an entire series of titillating novels with all sorts of spicy romances and betrayals and back-stabbings and murders and affairs. They were all Bestsellers for the most part and a lot of critics even went so far as to call them ‘art’ (hence the Pulitzer prize). But there was always a voice inside her head that said she could do better. She should have listened to the voice. Yes, she should have listened.
It wasn’t until her death and subsequent “life review” that she was faced with the truth of her human existence: basically, that she was a literary hack who did nothing but distract people from more important things in life. Sure, she had the money, the nice house, nice car, exciting vacations and good-looking kids. She schmoozed and rubbed elbows with all the celebrities of her time. She even got to meet the President at a dinner. And shook hands with the Pope and Dalai Lama. But, after she died, she realized that all those things were absolutely meaningless. They didn’t matter...like, at all.
So, now, she was assigned to help Jeffrey with his own writing endeavors, partly because he needed the help, but also because she needed to help him in order to help herself. Because in assisting Jeffrey she would get her wings, and progress on a spiritual level. It was all a Karmic way of repaying the world for all the garbage she put into it while she was down there.
Of course, Lillian was well-aware that Jeffrey’s life had to be significantly tougher than her life was in order for the spiritual progression to take place. But she, still, thought it may have been too much for one man to handle.
“You don’t know how he feels down there,” she tried to explain to God. “He’s going crazy.”
“Life is tough. End of story.”
“But I think his contract is too difficult. It’s too ambitious. He’s over-extended himself.”
“Help him fulfill it. He can do it.”
“I’ve tried and tried. And tried. But it doesn’t work anymore.”
“Do what you must to keep him writing, but if you give him even a taste of success, you can forget about your wings.”
Immediately - with that threat voiced - the wings fantasy returned to Lillian. This time, however, the vision of her flying over New York City was accompanied by her favorite song from earth. It was a song she had heard at Sunday Mass. Incidentally, it was also the song they played at her funeral. “And He will raise you up, on eagle’s wings. Bear you on the breath of dawn!!!!”
Needless to say, the thought of never getting wings put a muzzle on Lillian. She became reluctantly complacent.
“Yes, God. I understand. No success.”
She took a few steps backwards, unaware that Gabriel’s energy was still lurking immediately behind her. The Archangel weaved his energy in and out of Lillian's energy and transported her back to the lower levels.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Meeting Henry James
For your reference, you may want to read the three blogs listed below if you haven't already. They will provide all the necessary backstory to this blog:
http://thenattyicediaries.blogspot.com/2010/01/meeting-my-guides.html
http://thenattyicediaries.blogspot.com/2010/03/meeting-lillian-gish-and-dw-griffith.html
http://thenattyicediaries.blogspot.com/2010/05/meeting-hunter-s-thompson-and-nathanael.html
Basically, I don't have a whole lot to say other than I have identified a seventh (non-family member) spirit guide who apparently helps me with my work. He is Henry James.
James, if you are unfamiliar, was one of the great American novelists of the late 19th/early 20th century. He was known for such novels as The Portrait of a Lady, The American, Washington Square, as well as his short stories like The Beast in the Jungle and The Private Life. His work dealt with how the human consciousness functioned and often focused on how 'New World' Americans interacted with 'Old World' Europeans.
The manner in which I identified James as a guide was a little roundabout. About a month ago, I randomly started getting interested in Pragmatism, which was a philosophy developed by William James. In fact, it was William whom I initially suspected as being a spirit guide of mine, because I had remembered Liam Galvin saying I had philosophers "with me" in spirit (see the videos in the first blog). But upon researching William a bit, I came to realize that he was brothers with Henry James, which is something I hadn't realized. I had always been drawn to Henry James' work, especially The Beast in the Jungle, The Lesson of the Master and The Private Life. So I thought..."hmmmm...maybe he's a guide, too." And for some reason this started to feel that it was likely to be true. Call me weird, but I had a gut feeling about it. It seemed right.
A month went by before I really felt the need to seek confirmation. Like usual, I asked my medium friend Jan to dowse for me (read about dowsing in my second and third bog) and the results were interesting. Here is our unedited correspondence:
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt
To: Jan
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 12:34 AM
To: Jan
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 12:34 AM
Subject: Hi Janet
I think two more of my spirit guides have been making their presence known to me and I just thought it might be nice to possibly get some confirmation. If you have any moment in the near future, could you dowse and check to see if philosopher William James and novelist Henry James are with me as spirit guides? Their names have been in my head for about a month now and I thought it might be nice to get some sort of confirmation. Again, no rush on this whatsoever. Please don't go to any trouble. Just curious if they are, indeed, "with me." Thanks so much!
-- Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan
To: Matt
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 1:04:52 PM
Subject: Re: Hi Janet
Yes - on Henry James, but no - on William James. But I think that you are supposed to read some of William James' writings. I hope this helps. Enjoy your week in Falmouth! : )
Jan
So, according to Jan, Henry was a guide, but William wasn't (though I guess I was supposed to read his writing, which made sense). I thought this was interesting, because I would have thought William was my guide before Henry, seeing that I was so drawn to Pragmatism at the time. But this apparently wasn't the case. Maybe attracting me to Pragmatism was just Henry's indirect way of revealing his identity to me. Who knows?
I also find it interesting that Jan's results proved to be a bit more complicated than just providing affirmative responses, like it did with Hunter Thompson and Nathanael West (see third blog). This time around, I felt that getting a 'no' for William James added to the validity of her dowsing skills. In other words, I wasn't just getting 'yessed' to death. There was something more complex happening other than simply telling me what I wanted to hear.
So, yes, as of this date I have identified seven non-family-member spirit guides who, I guess, help me with my creative endeavors. They are John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian Gish, D.W. Griffith, Nathanael West, Hunter S. Thompson, and last (but not least) Henry James. When he gave me my reading in January, Liam Galvin had actually told me there were seven main guides who helped me with my work (see videos). Were these the seven guides? Will I identify anybody else? I suppose time will tell.
But, again I find myself wondering how it was that I lucked out and got such great guides (if it's all, indeed, true). I was actually watching an interview with "Jane's Addiction" front-man Perry Farrell not too long ago (click HERE to view), and he was talking about his "spirit" and, specifically, a spirit guide of his who visited him in his dreams. One interesting thing he started talking about was the "law of attraction," which is a concept that most people are familiar with these days, what with the whole "positive psychology" movement and what-not. The law of attraction, if you're not familiar, says that positive people attract other positive people to them in life, like friends, lovers, colleagues etc. Farrell, however, insinuated in his interview that positive people also attract positive people in spirit: that is, positive spirit guides.
So this is kind of an interesting concept: the more positive our endeavors, the more positive energy we attract to us, both on earth and in the spirit realm. And maybe the bigger endeavors we attempt to pursue in life the better guides we get to help us. In other words, we ALL have the ability to attract some really awesome people to us, if only we have the courage to go out and do awesome things. This isn't to say that I'm awesome and this is why I've attracted awesome guides. But I do feel I've taken certain atypical risks in my life that not a whole lot of people take, so maybe it paid off. I don't know.
This is all food for thought, anyway. There may be no truth to it whatsoever, but it makes you think a little bit.
---
So, according to Jan, Henry was a guide, but William wasn't (though I guess I was supposed to read his writing, which made sense). I thought this was interesting, because I would have thought William was my guide before Henry, seeing that I was so drawn to Pragmatism at the time. But this apparently wasn't the case. Maybe attracting me to Pragmatism was just Henry's indirect way of revealing his identity to me. Who knows?
I also find it interesting that Jan's results proved to be a bit more complicated than just providing affirmative responses, like it did with Hunter Thompson and Nathanael West (see third blog). This time around, I felt that getting a 'no' for William James added to the validity of her dowsing skills. In other words, I wasn't just getting 'yessed' to death. There was something more complex happening other than simply telling me what I wanted to hear.
So, yes, as of this date I have identified seven non-family-member spirit guides who, I guess, help me with my creative endeavors. They are John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian Gish, D.W. Griffith, Nathanael West, Hunter S. Thompson, and last (but not least) Henry James. When he gave me my reading in January, Liam Galvin had actually told me there were seven main guides who helped me with my work (see videos). Were these the seven guides? Will I identify anybody else? I suppose time will tell.
But, again I find myself wondering how it was that I lucked out and got such great guides (if it's all, indeed, true). I was actually watching an interview with "Jane's Addiction" front-man Perry Farrell not too long ago (click HERE to view), and he was talking about his "spirit" and, specifically, a spirit guide of his who visited him in his dreams. One interesting thing he started talking about was the "law of attraction," which is a concept that most people are familiar with these days, what with the whole "positive psychology" movement and what-not. The law of attraction, if you're not familiar, says that positive people attract other positive people to them in life, like friends, lovers, colleagues etc. Farrell, however, insinuated in his interview that positive people also attract positive people in spirit: that is, positive spirit guides.
So this is kind of an interesting concept: the more positive our endeavors, the more positive energy we attract to us, both on earth and in the spirit realm. And maybe the bigger endeavors we attempt to pursue in life the better guides we get to help us. In other words, we ALL have the ability to attract some really awesome people to us, if only we have the courage to go out and do awesome things. This isn't to say that I'm awesome and this is why I've attracted awesome guides. But I do feel I've taken certain atypical risks in my life that not a whole lot of people take, so maybe it paid off. I don't know.
This is all food for thought, anyway. There may be no truth to it whatsoever, but it makes you think a little bit.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Meeting Hunter S. Thompson and Nathanael West
Perhaps a brief recap of this whole story is in order:
Last January, I was attempting to make a documentary about metaphysics. The film was meant to be a sort of sequel to my short documentary "A Parallel World", which was about a haunted house on Cape Cod (click HERE to view). I didn't know what I wanted the so-called sequel to be about, but I essentially wanted to further explore the possibility of a spiritual dimension coexisting with our physical world, one comprised of spirits (deceased humans), more intelligent energies (what we would refer to as 'angels') and a most intelligent energy (what we would refer to as 'God').
My attempt to film such a documentary ultimately led me to a medium named Liam Galvin. Galvin is renown for his mediumship and has written several books about the so-called "spiritual world". I met Galvin through a friend of mine and he was kind enough to schedule a reading with me, both for the purpose of my documentary but also for my own personal interest. Although it usually takes about three months to get a reading with Galvin (because he's so good at what he does), he was actually kind enough to fit me in within two weeks time.
So on January 25, I sat down with Liam at a place called "The Healing Moon" in Norwood, MA., and it wasn't even five minutes into the reading that I was essentially shocked by what was happening. Not only did I end up talking with my two dead grandfathers but Liam also identified two of my "spirit guides" as being Alfred Hitchcock and indie film director/ex-Hollywood actor John Cassavetes. Liam also said I had a beautiful actress with me from the 1920s or 30s, as well as writers, musicians and philosophers. You can read the full story and listen to the audio tapes of my reading with Liam by clicking HERE.
The night after the reading, I went home and had a very strange experience while in bed trying to fall asleep. The name "Lillian Gish" suddenly popped in my head and then a B&W image of D.W. Griffith flashed in my mind's eye. Gish, if you're not familiar, was an extremely famous actress from the silent film era and Griffith was one of the first big directors of the early Hollywood days (his films Birth of a Nation and Intolerance were among the most significant of the silent era). I didn't know why these two people came into my mind, but, with the help of another medium friend (Jan), I eventually came to identify them as two more of my spirit guides. To read the full story of this particular discovery, click HERE.
After identifying Gish and Griffith as spirit guides - in addition to Cassavetes and Hitchcock - I basically tried to forget about all this spiritual stuff. Although I believed in everything that was happening, part of me was still kind of weirded-out by it all. I mean, it's not exactly normal to be walking around thinking you're haunted by the spirits of four ex-famous people. Though I was excited by my discoveries at first, I felt a little stupid in the long run. Kind of delusional. Maybe even a little crazy. So I basically tried to put it all in the back of my mind in hope of returning to a state of mental normalcy.
But my guides weren't through talking to me. Only a week or so after "meeting" Gish and Griffith, another random name entered my mind: Nathanael West.
West, if you're not familiar, was a big writer from the 1930s. His novel Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) is considered his masterpiece while The Day of the Locust (1939) is considered to be one of the best novels about the early years of Hollywood (the latter novel is often said to be on the same level as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon).
I actually read The Day of the Locust a year or two ago as research for my own Hollywood novel, so I was somewhat familiar with West, but I found it odd how - all of a sudden - his name kept echoing in my mind. At first I kind of just said "All right, maybe this is significant," but, to tell you the truth, I didn't really care all that much. Maybe Nathanael West was my spirit guide or maybe I randomly had Nathanael West in my thoughts for no significant reason -- the bottom line was that I was more or less tired of all this spirit stuff and wanted to concentrate on other things.
West, however, wouldn't let me forget about him. A couple days later, I was paging through the Boston Sunday Globe newspaper and I suddenly saw the name Nathanael West staring at me from one of the inner pages of the "Ideas" section. Apparently there was a new book that had just come out about the life of West and his wife Eileen McKenney (entitled Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney). I read the article on the book and it gave me a really weird feeling. There seemed to be something significant about this Nathanael West guy. The idea of him being a spirit guide felt a little more possible...but, still, I didn't feel any real need to confirm my feelings. I could have gone to one of my medium friends for confirmation - like I did with Jan when I was curious about Gish and Griffith - but I decided not to. I didn't want to bother her any more.
A month or two passed and West remained in the back of my mind, though my immediate thoughts were on other things. I probably never would have gone to any effort of confirming him as a spirit guide if it wasn't for another development in this whole story. About six weeks later (i.e. two weeks ago), I was polishing my novel for probably the five-thousandth time when a thought suddenly entered my mind. For some reason, I started acknowledging certain affinities between my work and the work of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Then I remembered how Liam Galvin had told me I had five writers with me as spirit guides, which is something that - for some reason - didn't interest me too much at the time (I basically figured the writers were unknowns from way back in the past). But, suddenly, I started to think "Hmmm...maybe Hunter's one of those five."
But, of course, the idea seemed rather far-fetched. First of all, I've always like Hunter's work (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of my favorite books of all time), so I kind of chalked up the whole idea of him being my guide as "wishful thinking". Plus, Hunter has only been dead for five years; I mean, he friggin' committed suicide in February 2005, for Christ sakes. The idea of a guy shooting himself and, sometime within a five-year period, attaching himself to me as a guide, seemed like a really wacky idea. So I kind of laughed off the whole thing and tried to forget about it, kind of like I tried to do with West.But Hunter wasn't going to let me forget about him either. Day after day passed and I had extreme difficulty getting him out of my mind. For some reason, I felt compelled to go on Youtube and start watching Hunter S. Thompson interviews and other video clips. I looked up photos of him on the Internet and read little tidbits about his life. Looking at him and listening to him struck a chord within me. There was something strange going on.
About a week later, I finally came to the point where I started to seriously consider the idea that maybe - just maybe - Hunter was actually with me as a guide, and I stress 'maybe'. Possibly. Conceivably. There was a one-percent chance. But, still, I wasn't quite ready to consult with someone like Jan, mainly because I didn't want to make a complete ass of myself if the answer was 'no'. I wanted to, first, try and confirm my suspicions via a few methods I could perform myself.
The first thing I did was 'dowse', just as I did with Gish and Griffith. I explain the concept of 'dowsing' in my last blog but let me give you a brief explanation here: What you essentially do is hold a pendulum in your hand and ask your spirit guides 'yes' or 'no' questions. Usually your guides start moving the pendulum in a clockwise direction if the answer to the question is a 'yes' and in a counter-clockwise direction if the answer to the question is a 'no'. However, I find that you can calibrate the pendulum in any fashion you want to. For example, sometimes I ask that the guides show me a 'yes' by simply moving the pendulum and a 'no' by not moving it.
Anyway, by means of dowsing with my (home-made) pendulum, I was able to further confirm my suspicions that Hunter was with me as a guide. Basically, when I asked if Hunter was present, the pendulum would move like crazy, without my help or the help of any external stimulus. In other words, the pendulum's movement was entirely 'paranormal'.
Watch the video below for a demonstration of this phenomenon:
So, yes, the dowsing - once again - yielded some interesting results and I was one step closer to being convinced Hunter may have been with me as a guide. But I still had my doubts. After all, the pendulum could have moved from my own subconscious energy, especially if - deep down - I really wanted to believe Hunter was my guide. Clearly I needed more evidence before I drew any conclusions, but I still felt foolish consulting with a third party like Jan. I mean, think about how silly I would have sounded: "Hey, Jan, could you just check and see if the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson is haunting me? Thanks a bunch." And if the answer turned out to be 'no' I'd feel like a royal schmuck. "Who do you think you are, Matt, thinking a dude like Hunter S. Thompson is with you as a guide? Get off your high horse, ya stupid hediot!"
Yes, I needed a little more convincing before I consulted with my medium friend. So I tried one other experiment, a method that paranormal investigators refer to as an "EVP session". "EVP" (if you've never watched the shows "Ghost Hunters" or "Ghost Adventures") stands for electronic voice phenomenon. What you do is basically take a voice recorder and ask spirits questions in hope that they provide answers. Metaphysical theory suggests that it takes less energy for a ghost to communicate through the audio frequency recorded on an audio tape than it does through the frequency we hear with our own naked ears. This means that we may not hear the ghosts respond to our questions, but they may still turn up on the recorder.
Anyway, I managed to get my hands on a digital audio recorder and I began an EVP session by simply asking Hunter to say something I would be able to hear when I played the tape back, so that I would know he was with me. However, after a couple of tries, nothing turned up - no voices as far as I could hear.
So I altered my approach a bit. I began another EVP session where I asked Hunter to knock or click or make two sounds twice, as confirmation that he was, indeed, with me. And it was after this request that something rather interesting happened. About five seconds after I asked the question, I felt as though something flew past my eyes, kind of like a bug, but it wasn't solid. The best way to describe it is that it was like a ball of energy...sort of like an orb, though it wasn't illuminated. And, then, about a second or two after I saw the orb (call it what you will), I heard a noise that I'm still having trouble finding an explanation for. Listen to the audio clip below and hear for yourself:
(Note about this clip: the reason why I specify that Hunter only communicates with me if he is "in the light" is because I was afraid of attracting any kind of negative energy to myself. Hunter, after all, committed suicide, so I was concerned that he may not have made it into the light after passing. Spirits who aren't in the light are not good to have around you, not necessarily because they're negative or evil, but because their intentions are often misguided, even selfish, and they may influence you in ways that are not in your personal best interest.)
Now, the above audio clip is played at regular speed and - to the the naked ear - the noise sounds like it is one single 'click'. However, upon slowing the clip down, the noise is actually two distinct clicks that come right after each other. Here is the same clip played at a slower speed:
So, yes, there seems to be two distinct noises in the above audio clip, but why are they so close together when played at normal speed? Why wouldn't Hunter (if it WAS Hunter who made the noises) have spaced them out more? Well, there is one possible explanation for this. Metaphysical theory suggests that many spirits (especially those who are in the light and not earthbound ghosts) are operating at a higher energy vibration than human beings. What this sometimes means is that their method of communicating can be much faster than our kind of communication. EVPS from these particular spirits will sound sped-up, like they are in fast-forward. In other words, the two clicks in the above audio clip may sound fast to the human ear, but to a higher spirit like Hunter S. Thompson, they may be slower, more spaced out and not sound like they're layered on top of each other. This is a possible explanation.
Anyway, all this talk about EVPs and vibrations may sound strange and complicated to the everyday layman, but the fact of the matter is that I seemed to get an appropriate response when I asked Hunter to make two noises. Surely the 'clicks' could have sounded out of sheer coincidence, but I have to say I never heard the noises again and I really couldn't identify the source of them. Plus, there was that weird orby-thing that flew in front of my eyes only seconds before I heard the noise, which only adds to the strangeness of it all.
Paranormal or not, the results of the EVP session were undeniably interesting. But I STILL was nervous about consulting with Jan and asking her to see if Hunter was with me. The whole idea seemed too far-fetched, and if the answer was 'no' I would have felt like the biggest ass in the friggin' world.
Days passed and I, again, tried to forget about the entire situation. But I had great difficulty doing so. Hunter simply wouldn't get out of my mind, and, eventually, I came to realize that, if Hunter was with me, I really needed to know, one way or the other...literally, for my own peace of mind. I needed confirmation.
So I finally caved and wrote an email to Jan. As I mentioned in my previous blog (click HERE to read), Jan is an experienced dowser with both psychic and medium abilities. Keep in mind that I don't pay her for her services. She is simply a friend kind enough to help me out with my metaphysical questions. She has nothing to gain by telling me what I want to hear.
Anyway, here is our email correspondence. It's brief, simple, and pretty damn straight-forward. Also, you will notice that I asked her about Nathanael West as well. I figured I might as well try and get both names out of my head while I was at it; you know, kill two birds with one stone.
---
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt
To: Jan
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 3:30 PM
Subject: Re: question
Hi Jan,
Just another question to run by you if you have any free moment. Absolutely no rush.
The medium I went to a while back said I had five writers with me as spirit guides and two names have been in my mind lately that I just wanted to run by you: Hunter S. Thompson and Nathanael West. If you have a moment could you dowse to see if these people are with me as guides, just to rule them out and get them out of my mind? Again, absolutely no rush.
Thanks a lot. I really appreciate the help.
--Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan
To: Matt
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 8:44:17 PM
Subject: Re: question
Yes on both counts! : )
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt
To: Jan
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 3:44:17 PM
Subject: Re: question
Wow hahaha. Thanks again for your help! I really appreciate it!!!
---
So, indeed, the answer, according to Jan, was simple: YES...both Nathanael West and Hunter S. Thompson were with me as spirit guides. Now, I'm not saying that Jan's dowsing results are one-hundred-percent accurate, but I do have to say that she's usually right. I mean, her results combined with my own dowsing results (not to mention the EVP session) have basically convinced me that, yes, it's probably true that both Hunter and Nathanael are two of my spirit guides.
Needless to say, this is all pretty crazy. I mean, knowing that a guy like Hunter is with me is a really intense feeling. This is the guy who wrote The Rum Diaries (the inspiration behind my "Natty Ice Diaries") and Hell's Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He worked and became good friends with Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro while making the Fear and Loathing movie. He was a pop-cultural icon in the 70s, writing for Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated and covering the disillusioning Nixon era with his unique "Gonzo" journalism. It's very surreal that Hunter is actually with me right now. I mean, he knows who I am! That's a really weird thought.
And then, of course, there's Nathanael West, one of the great novelists of the early twentieth century. The Day of the Locust was an ingenious novel, probably one of the best Hollywood novels I read while researching my own novel. I'm sure he provided a lot of assistance when I was writing my book.
So, yes, discovering Hunter and Nathanael are with me as guides is an incredible feeling; however, what's even more incredible about the whole experience is how, again, my guides were able to telepathically reveal their identities to me (just as Gish and Griffith did). I mean, their names just popped into my head in a very weird way and haunted my thoughts until I finally got some confirmation that they were, indeed, with me as guides. For some reason, they felt it was time to reveal their identities. Why now? I don't know.
What's also interesting about the situation is how both Hunter and Nathanael experienced really tragic deaths at the end of their life, but are now (apparently) alive and well in the spiritual dimension. I mean, Hunter, of course, committed suicide, so it's interesting to see that he made it to "the other side" in one piece and is still doing his thing. And then there's Nathanael who actually died in a tragic car accident while driving to his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald's funeral in 1940.
Hunter's situation, in particular, raises some interesting questions about the concept of suicide. Is killing oneself really the ultimate sin? Was it wrong for him to do it? Was it his fate? Maybe Hunter's helping me out now for Karmic reasons, because he cut his life as a writer on earth too short. In fact, maybe Nathanael is helping me out for similar reasons: that is, because his own life was cut too short (for reasons outside of his control, of course). Or maybe everything was meant to be. They were meant to die when they did. It was all part of God's grand design.
Whatever the reasons, I am honored to have Hunter and Nathanael helping me out. I'm sure there's more spirit guides to identify, but I have no idea who they are at this point in time. Liam said I had three more writers with me, not to mention musicians and even philosophers. It will be interesting to see if these people ever decide to reveal their identities; maybe, over time, they will. But, frankly, I'm happy enough knowing Hunter and Nathanael are with me, not to mention John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian Gish and D.W Griffith. It's nice to know that these people are endorsing my endeavors. They give me a feeling of validation, especially during the times when I start doubting myself and the creative life I lead.
Now, one thing a lot of people are probably wondering right now is where the hell all these spirit guides are? I mean, if they're "with me", where are they in relation to my physical self? And, to be honest with you, I don't really know how to answer this question other than to say that the spirits exist in a completely different (i.e. non-physical) dimension that we can't see with our own eyes and therefore have a difficult time comprehending. But it's important to remember that our eyes are only designed to process a very narrow spectrum of light, which means that we only see a fraction of what is actually in front of us. If our eyes were designed to process a much broader spectrum of light (one that would include infra-rays and ultra-violet rays) then we would probably be able to see a lot more spirit activity, as spirit energy usually only makes itself visible in the higher portion of the light spectrum. This, incidentally, is why so-called "Ghost Hunters" have more success capturing spirits with "full-spectrum" cameras (i.e. cameras with lenses that can process both infra-red and ultra-violet rays).
The bottom line is that our concept of reality is unavoidably limited because we can see very little of what's in front of us. So, in the end, who is to say that our guides aren't around us all the time? Maybe they are, but we just don't know it. Maybe an entire world of spirits surrounds us on a 24/7 basis, but we're just completely blind to it.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Meeting Lillian Gish and D.W. Griffith
A couple of months ago, I visited a renown medium named Liam Galvin who, among other things, informed me that I not only had my two dead grandfathers "with me" as spirit guides, but also the spirits of John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock and a beautiful actress from the early 1900s whom he wasn't able to identify. (To read about this story, visit this link: http://thenattyicediaries.blogspot.com/2010/01/meeting-my-guides.html)
Curious about the actress' identity, I went home that night, lied in my bed and thought about who she could possibly be. Little did I know that I wasn't going to have to wait very long for an answer. As I was laying against my pillow - trying to get some sleep - a name suddenly entered my mind: Lillian Gish.
Now, when I say the name 'entered' my mind I mean, literally, it seemed to just pop into my head. The best way to describe the sensation is that I felt as though I didn't think of the name myself. As corny as it may sound, it was almost as though the name was inserted into my mind, like from some unseen force.
Oddly enough, Lillian Gish wasn't even an actress who I was very familiar with. I remembered hearing the name here and there while I was in film school and when I used to research the history of Hollywood, but I actually thought she was an actress Charlie Chaplin used in a lot of his movies. In fact, I was literally saying inside my head, "Hmmm...Lillian Gish...wasn't that the actress in all of Chaplin's movies?" And it was at this point that another name immediately entered my mind, as though it were a response to my question: D.W Griffith.
Griffith, if you're not familiar with the name, basically started Hollywood. I mean, obviously there were several different pioneers involved with putting Hollywood on the map, but Griffith was a sort of godfather of the Hollywood film movement. His film Birth of a Nation in 1915 was the highest-grossing movie of its day and revolutionized the art of filmmaking with its innovative cinematic techniques. Birth was the film that inspired Louis B. Mayer to enter the movie business and start MGM studios. It was the film that made people realize the pictures was not some superficial fad or silly novelty but a serious art; the wave of the future; a respectable means of individual expression (and, in the eyes of people like Mayer, a way to make some serious cash).
Anyway, Griffith's name came into my head differently than Gish's did. Where with Gish I simply got the name in my head, in Griffith's case, an actual image of his face entered my mind. It was a B&W photograph that flashed in my mind's eye for about one full second and I immediately identified the person in the photograph as Griffith. Just like with Gish's name, it was as though some unseen force planted this photograph into my mind. I did not consciously think up this image. It was very different from how I knew my brain and thought processes to operate. I realize this may sound wacky and somewhat crazy, but I do not know how else to explain it.
The next day, I woke up, Googled the two names and discovered that Gish and Griffith (much to my surprise) had a big connection with one another...like, a really big connection. In fact, Gish starred in pretty much all of D.W Griffith's significant films, including Birth of a Nation, and also films like Intolerance and Broken Blossoms (two other Griffith masterworks). The director and the actress were like how Scorsese and Deniro were in the 70s/80s, or how Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are today. They were basically a package deal.
Needless to say, I was intrigued by this discovery: how odd it was for these two names to pop into my head when I wasn't even consciously aware that they had such a connection with each other. What did it all mean...if anything? Was Gish the actress who Liam Galvin thought was with me as a spirit guide? And how did Griffith fit into this picture? Was the image of Griffith in my head just Gish's way of helping me identify her as a spirit guide? Or was there something more to this? Was Griffith another one of my guides???
There were a couple of ways I went about finding answers to these questions. First of all, I tried a method that is commonly used by meta-physicists to communicate with the spirit world; it is a technique called 'dowsing' (read about it at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing). There are several tools one can use when they 'dowse' but I find that the one that works best for me is a pendulum. What you essentially do is hold the pendulum in your hand and ask your spirit guides 'yes' or 'no' questions. Usually your guides start moving the pendulum in a clockwise direction if the answer to the question is a 'yes' and in a counter-clockwise direction if the answer to the question is a 'no'. However, I find that you can calibrate the pendulum in any fashion you want to. For example, sometimes I ask that the guides show me a 'yes' by simply moving the pendulum and a 'no' by not moving it.
Anyway, by means of dowsing with my pendulum, I was able to come to the conclusion that Lillian Gish and D.W. Griffith were, indeed, "with me" as spirit guides. As you will see in the video demonstration below, I simply asked my pendulum to move as much as possible if the spirits of Gish and Griffith were with me; and sure enough, the pendulum moved like crazy - on its own - without my help or the help of any force in the real world. In other words, the movement of the pendulum was completely "paranormal".
Watch and observe the phenomenon in this video. And, by the way, anybody can do this. All you need is a pendulum of some sort and an open mind:
So, yes, the dowsing yielded some very interesting results, but I still didn't see it as conclusive evidence proving Gish and Griffith were my spirit guides. First of all, I didn't completely trust my dowsing skills. And I also worried that the movement of the pendulum was potentially created by my own subconscious energy, not by the energy of a spirit guide independent from myself. What I needed to do was get a neutral, third-party to dowse for me. This way, I could definitely rule out the possibility of my subconscious skewing my results.
So I consequently consulted a more experienced dowser (and also a medium) whose full name I cannot publish right now, so I will simply call her Jan. Jan has significant psychic abilities and has been dowsing for several years now, almost always with successful results. I contacted Jan via email, told her my dilemma and had her dowse for me. Here is our email correspondence:
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt To: Jan
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 9:29 PM
Subject: two questions
Hi Jan,
I have two random questions that I thought your dowsing may be able to shed some light on. Please understand there is no rush in answering, as it's no emergency. I'm just trying to fit some pieces into a puzzle here and I thought you may be able to help. I don't even know if these questions are answerable but I thought I would give it a shot.
1. Is the former actress Lillian Gish "with me" as a spirit guide?
2. If so, do I have a past life connection with her?
I ask these questions after seeing a medium and he said I had an actress from the early 20th century "with me". He also said I had a past life in California. I was just curious to see what kind of answers you could get for me. Again, no rush. Just curious if you have a moment. Thanks so much! -Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan
To: Matt
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:06:41 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: two questions
Hi Matt,
If I'm dousing correctly, yes on #1 and no on #2. I hope this helps with the puzzle pieces. I think you also did have a past life in Calif. I don't know how to explain past lives. I don't think it's reincarnation, but I don't know that we can truly understand what past lives means. I'm glad you weren't in a rush because I was busy this week and didn't see your email right away.
Take care!
Jan
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt To: Jan
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: two questions
Thanks so much!
Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan
To: Matt
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 10:25:06 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: two questions
He's one of your guides too. But no connection in a past life. I'm glad to be able to help!
----- Original Message -----
From: Matt
To: Jan
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: two questions
----- Original Message -----
From: Jan
To: Matt
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:15:24 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: two questions
I guess you should keep writing - with an entourage like that behind you!!! Good luck and may God bless your work - and you!!
----------
So there it was: confirmation from a reliable third-party source that Lillian Gish and D.W Griffith were two of my spirit guides, in addition to John Cassavetes and Alfred Hitchcock, not to mention others whom I have not identified and am not sure if I ever will.
As I mentioned in the above emails, I felt extremely flattered by such a discovery. First of all, Lillian Gish is an icon of the silent screen. She was the star of some of the most significant films of the silent era. Hell, Smashing Pumpkins named their first album after her (Gish)! She was an absolutely beautiful woman (just look at her photo above). It's like having a beautiful metaphysical girlfriend with me all the time, which probably sounds like a pathetic thing to say, but it is kind of a cool feeling I must admit.
And then, of course, there is Mr. Griffith, who is basically Mr. Hollywood. His film Birth of a Nation was essentially the Titanic and Avatar of its day (only much better). And his film Intolerance - a huge and enormously expensive epic film - will always be remembered as being Hollywood's most ambitious project in the industry's history. How honored I am to have this man as a spirit guide.
So, yes, identifying Gish and Griffith as my guides is an incredible feeling, but I think what's even more incredible about this whole experience is seeing how my guides were able to telepathically communicate their identities to me. I mean, never in my whole life would I have ever thought that Gish and Griffith were two of my spirit guides, but then their names randomly popped into my head while I was in bed that night. Honestly, at first I thought my brain was just getting wacky on me, but I guess I was actually experiencing a form of direct communication from the spirit world. My guides were speaking to me.
Furthermore, it's nice to know that Gish and Griffith are together again on "the other side". Gish has actually only been dead for seventeen years - she died in 1993 - but Griffith died way back in 1948. In fact, his death was rather sad and tragic. Supposedly, he was somewhat depressed, still in debt from Intolerance (one of the most expensive films ever made in Hollywood) and also disgruntled with the direction in which the film industry was going at the time. One July night he was drinking at the bar in Hollywood's famous Knickerbocker hotel, got up to go to his room and was found a while later unconscious on his floor. He died on his way to the hospital from what was reported to be a cerebral hemorrhage.
Anyway, it's somewhat comforting to know that Griffith is OK, still alive (in spirit form) and has seemed to have reunited with one of his soul mates. They may not like me saying this, but there were actually rumors of Gish and Griffith being romantically involved at one point or another, though they never admitted to being an official couple. Neither of the two ever married anybody, so maybe they were secretly in love with one another but didn't know it...or just couldn't make the relationship work during their time on the earth. Romantic or not, one thing is for sure: Gish and Griffith were extremely good buds. And if they are, indeed, my spirit guides, I guess it's pretty safe to assume that they're still really good buds in the spiritual dimension.
So now the question lingers: why the hell have these people chosen to be my guides? I mean, we're talking John Cassavetes, Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian Gish and D.W. Griffith. These are some really big names. They were really good at what they did. Why did they choose me? Or why did I choose them (many theories suggest that we choose our guides before we are born)? Who really does the choosing? How does all this stuff work??? I have so many more questions, but the fact of the matter is that I'll probably never get them all answered...not while I'm alive, anyway.
My guess is that they're with me - more or less - because of one particular project I've been working on that I won't say too much about other than that it does involve Hollywood, the film industry, the media, our celebrity culture and just the American culture in general. Judging from what I know about Griffith, Gish and the others, I think they would probably believe in the project and be supportive of my purpose in doing it. Hopefully - some day - I will be able to get this project out to the public; but until then, I simply appreciate the fact that I'm having some great people help me with it. At the risk of sounding looney and weird, I would like to now thank my invisible friends. Thanks, dudes! I appreciate your support.
Now I really only have one more thing bothering me: who I was in my past life. In her emails, Jan told me I didn't have any past life connection to Griffith or Gish but confirmed what Liam Galvin told me about having a past life in California. Honestly, I don't really know who I could have been. It's possible I was just some anonymous Native American or Mexican or something. I'm not sure if I will ever find out. Maybe I'm not meant to find out. Who knows....
To be continued. Maybe.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Meeting My Guides
The roots of this particular story go back several weeks to when I was attempting to shoot a documentary about metaphysics. I had wanted to do a "follow-up" to my short documentary "A Parallel World" which consisted of me investigating a haunted house and communicating with an intelligent entity through knocks (go to my http://www.mattburnsproductions.com website to watch).
After "Parallel World", I became fascinated with the possibility of some sort of spirit world coexisting with our real world, and I wanted to further explore this phenomenon. I didn't know exactly what angle I was going to approach the subject from, but I knew I wanted to explore anything and everything metaphysical, especially the possibility of past lives and the existence of spirit guides (a concept which I'll explain in a minute).
Anyway, along came Liam Galvin, a renown medium who's written a couple of books and is so popular with people that it takes about three months to get an appointment with him. I actually met Liam through a female psychic friend whom I planned to initially focus my documentary on. Liam is my friend's "spiritual mentor" and I filmed him reading her at a place called "Women of Wisdom" in Easton, MA. And when I say he "read" her I mean he explored her past lives, her spirit guides, her health, her love life and her general future. Although I was skeptical at first, I must say that it didn't take long for me to be absolutely blown away with what I saw. Within minutes of the reading, Liam was talking to the girl's dead father like he was right in the room with us (which he supposedly was).
After the reading, Liam approached me (sitting in the corner of the room with my camera) and said I had "very interesting people with me."
"Really?"
He also told me I was "intense" and that I "got stuff done." I'm not sure what that meant but it sounded good to me. Then he said that there was "California energy" all around me and that I'd definitely be going there.
"Really? Interesting."
Needless to say, I was rather intrigued, but not necessarily sold on the idea that this guy was reading my future. I mean, maybe he just figured that since I was into making films that I obviously would want to go out west - to Hollywood - eventually.
I asked Liam whether he could do a reading on me sometime and he said "Sure! Absolutely! Just call and make an appointment!"
So a couple days later I called "Women of Wisdom" and was surprised to learn that Liam was booked for the next two or three months. I didn't really want to wait that long, so I made a few more phone calls, pulled a few strings and eventually managed to land a reading with Liam two weeks later at a place called "The Healing Moon" in Norwood, MA.
Like "Women of Wisdom", "The Healing Moon" is a "wellness center" where people do yoga and Reiki and engage in other holistic healing practices. There is also a small gift shop where they sell New Agey sorts of things, like crystals, rocks, minerals, angelic figurines and other items that would probably make the common Joe Six-Pack raise some eyebrows.
I met up with Liam in the gift shop and he led me into a peaceful room with dim lighting and an artificial fountain that sounded like a small brook running deep in the middle of the wintry woods. I don't know if it was because of the fountain sounds or maybe the good Feng Shui, but the room was seriously one of the most relaxing environments I had ever been in.
"All right, let's get started," said Liam as we sat down at a small table with cushioned chairs.
And so we began....
The session started with Liam introducing me to my main "spirit guides". In layman's terms, a spirit guide is basically like a guardian angel. The theory (proposed by meta physicists) is that these guides help us with our endeavors and also protect us from harm. Oftentimes, guides are family members who have died either far back in the past or during our lifetime. But many of our guides are also non-family members who help us with our work or hobbies. A musician, for example, is likely to have ex-musicians as guides, as well as writers to help them write lyrics, and maybe even philosophers who help them convey complex ideas through their music.
Anyway, Liam introduced my first spirit guide as being a "maternal" figure who didn't sound very familiar to me, though Liam ultimately determined that it was probably my great grandmother on my mother's side (whom I had never met). He said she was on the short side, had great skin, was very pleasant and uplifting, and also very religious.
"OK," I thought to myself. "I guess that could be true." But so far I wasn't very impressed. In order for me to take Liam as legit, he needed to talk about somebody I actually knew, not some person who may or may not be a great grandmother of mine. I needed something more concrete before I definitely took this guy for real.
Liam proceeded to skip over my second guide (whom he had trouble identifying) and went immediately to my third guide, whom he identified as my dead grandfather (my mother's dad)! And just as he started to speak with him my other dead grandfather (my dad's father) supposedly "came through" to talk as well! Yes, both of my grandfather's were supposedly in the room with us!
Needless to say, I was pretty damn shocked about all this, though still very skeptical. After all, Liam could have just taken a shot in the dark and guessed that one or both grandfathers could be my guides. Maybe he got lucky. I didn't want to feed into it too much, so I remained stoic and conservative with my reactions.
But then Liam proceeded to describe each respective grandfather's personality/physical build/interests/quirks in detail and with eerie accuracy. He told me one grandfather was more social and the other one was very military (true). One was bald and the other had a full head of hair (also true). The military one was surrounded by water (yes, he was the captain of a ship) and the other one liked the beach (true). He even described the different ways in which the two grandfathers passed. One "went the way he wanted" while the other had a "tougher passing".
Although I tried to maintain my composure, I was completely blown away by what I was hearing. Liam was dead-on with his descriptions!
Here is the video of this section:
After listening to my grandfathers speak for a while, another shock came my way:
"Who's John?" asked Liam. "They keep on saying, 'Say John. Say John. He'll know what we mean.'"
And, indeed, I did know what they meant...or at least I thought I did. See, for the past few months I had been thinking about the possibility of spirit guides and also thinking about who mine would be (if they actually existed). For some reason - and don't ask me why - I always thought the ex-filmmaker John Cassavetes, the so-called "godfather" of the American Independent Film movement, may have been with me. This was partly because I was so drawn to him as a filmmaker and also because I felt that we thought eerily alike. Now, of course I never told anybody about this. They would have thought I was nuts. But if I had to (I mean HAD TO) guess who one of my spirit guides was, I would have probably said it was Cassavetes...possibly.
So when Liam said "Who's John?" the first person to enter my mind was, of course, John Cassavetes. But I didn't want to admit it right away. I wanted Liam to describe this "John". And he did...with more eerie accuracy.
He said John was a young, good-looking man who died too early (Cassavetes died at 59), loved women and was very flirtatious (true, Cassavetes made women the main focus of much of his work), worked hard and played hard (very true), didn't take good care of himself (also true, as he died of cirrhosis), smoked like a fiend (he was a chain smoker, basically), and was an artist (of course). He also said that I admired this "John's" work and there were shades of his work in my own work (incredibly true).
Overall, it sounded a lot like Cassavetes. The only thing that threw me off was that Liam said he saw a lot of music with him and that he thought he might have been a musician. This was not true. Cassavetes was a filmmaker and an actor (you may remember his role as the husband in ROSEMARY'S BABY), though he loved music and listened to it all the time, which is what Liam may have been picking up on.
Whether it was Cassavetes or not, this "John" was ultimately identified as being my spirit guide number-two, right behind my great grandmother and in front of my grandfathers. Crazy stuff.
Here is the video for this section. There is more about Cassavetes in parts three and four where it is more definitively confirmed that the "John" is, indeed, Cassavetes:
After the introduction to Cassavetes, Liam started to talk about my future and my work and how he saw me in California. He also told me there was a beautiful actress with me as a guide, somebody from the 1920s or 30s. Apparently a book I had written (about Hollywood) attracted a lot of ex-Hollywood spirits to me and they helped me out with it. Why me? Who knows...
Oh, and apparently I was in California before. In a past life....
Here is the video for this section:
After discussing my future in California and Cassavetes some more, Liam gave me shock number three. All of a sudden - out of the blue - Liam said, "You have Alfred Hitchcock with you!"
"Alfred Hitchcock????"
"Yeah, he hangs out with you."
Of course it goes without saying that I was completely knocked on my ass by this (figuratively speaking). I mean, at least with Cassavetes I sort of had a tiny inkling that he may have been a guide of mine, but Alfred Hitchcock?! Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock?! The guy who made PSYCHO and VERTIGO and THE BIRDS and God knows what else??? This was pretty intense.
"You must be all about detail," explained Liam. "There are a lot of parallels between you and him. He's philosophical like you and you try to get messages across like he did. He's going to help you with Lighting and color."
"Yeah, well...I guess that makes sense," I said to Liam, but I wasn't really sure if it actually made sense.
"Wow, that one really shocked me," said Liam. "He's all around you."
Here is the video for this section:
The reading eventually came to an end and I told Liam I was incredibly impressed with what I had seen. I mean, this guy was so dead-on about so many things it would have been extremely difficult for me to call him a phony.
I subsequently left "The Healing Moon" feeling...well, incredibly weird. If what Liam said was true, I am not alone when I am alone. I am supposedly walking around with the spirits of John Cassavetes and Alfred Hitchcock (not to mention the spirits of my grandfathers and a bunch of other people) by my side. It's pretty hard to comprehend, but at the same time it's a really cool feeling.
And maybe it all sort of makes sense. I mean, what really happens to us when we die? If there is an afterlife, then do we just sit on our ass, like in a hot tub or something with tons of babes around us (or hunks if you're a woman)? Surely we would want to make ourselves useful in some way. So maybe this is what we do. We help others who are alive. Why? I'm not really sure.
Some meta physicists view life on earth as a sort of school where we constantly come down here (over the course of several lifetimes) to learn certain lessons, go through different types of experiences, all with the ultimate intention of growing into the most intelligent and wisest soul we can possibly be. In other words, the meaning of life is to learn and experience, so that in the greater scheme of things our soul grows to the most advanced level possible.
So maybe our "guides" help us with this growth. And we help our guides with their own growth. It's, like, something we HAVE to do if we want to progress on a spiritual level. After all, Clarence didn't get his wings until he helped George out with his problems on earth (allusion is to IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE if you didn't get it). Maybe we're both helping each other in a way. And we switch roles as the guides and the guided. And we grow in the process of playing both roles....
Anyway, this is all food for thought, but not necessarily something I one-hundred-percent believe in at this point in time. I feel the need to investigate further. In part three of the video, Liam told me I had been in California during a past life of mine. I'm curious as to who I was and whether I was there recently, like within the past 100 years when the film industry was alive and kicking. Was I a filmmaker or director? Actor? Musician? Or maybe I was a Mexican or Native American who was there a long time ago. Maybe a dude in the gold rush. Who knows?
...
On my way home from "The Healing Moon" I zoned out for a second in my car and took a wrong turn onto a web of side streets. I suddenly found myself on a street that looked very familiar. It was the street where my grandparents lived before they moved into a condo many years ago. In fact, most of the memories I have of my grandfather are products of the time he spent at this house. And the weird thing is that I had actually forgotten how to get to it!
Perhaps I'm being a tad melodramatic, but it's almost as though my grandfather led me to the house, as a sort of sign. It was a way of telling me that everything that had just happened with Liam REALLY just happened.
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