Dead People Retain Their Emotions, Both Love and Hurt, with Guest: Wendy Zammit

Filmmaker Stephen Berkley fields questions about his award-winning documentary LIFE WITH GHOSTS and discusses both friendly and unfriendly ghosts (with researcher Wendy Zammit). 

*The show's host is also the writer/director of the award-winning documentary film LIFE WITH GHOSTS, now streaming at https://www.LifeWithGhosts.com/ for a limited time.

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Listen to the podcast here

Podcast Launch With Guest Wendy Zammit

For those people who are new to this space, maybe you should introduce yourself or would you like me to introduce you? I think you should introduce yourself.

That's a good strategy to let people introduce themselves. You learned that for me. My name is Wendy Zammit. I co-write the Friday Afterlife Report, which is available for free. You only have to Google that. Every Friday, we send out emails with links to terrific videos on the afterlife interviews. We have about ten free Zoom groups that run every week. Go to the Friday Afterlife Report, scroll down and you'll see all the Zoom groups that we run. We were very privileged to have Stephen as a guest on our Sunday Zoom global gathering. Thanks, Stephen.

You are a Professor Emeritus, correct?

Americans have that. We don't have that in Australia. We don't call ourselves professors. We're teachers. Whether we've got PhDs or not, we consider ourselves teachers. I used to teach communication skills.

In your introduction, as me, I like to introduce you as a professor because that gives you extra street cred.

Only in America.

Are professors a dime a dozen in Australia?

In Australia, people don't advertise their academic skills. We have a culture of not being tall poppies. I've taught with lots of colleagues and I've never known whether they've got a PhD or not. It's a different culture.

First of all, I'm glad to know that. Living in the New York area, there's plenty of alphabet soup, they call it, the letters after their name. It's time for me to start our session. I'm the filmmaker behind Life with Ghosts. I'm glad everybody could be here. I'm going to talk for a few minutes about things you might be interested in.

This is the first session that I'm doing that's going to be part of a regular monthly meeting. Up until now, I've been doing just Q&As for private audiences via Zoom. It's going to be part of a monthly series. Every Monday, I'm going to talk, and because of that, I'm going to share something with you that I haven't shared with other audiences yet.

I took the position that I was not going to say. If I'm asked, “Am I believer? Am I not a believer?” I took a page from Botkin’s book. Botkin is the founder of Induced After Death Communication Therapy and his people ask him all the time, “Is it true? Are these spirits visiting us or are these just simulations?” What Allan Botkin says and what I have been saying is, “I'm not going to answer that question because it's up to the person who's having the experience to determine that.”

Allan Botkin would say, “I'm a Psychologist. As a psychologist, I'm not in a position of authority over what you're experiencing. That's up to you.” I've been towing that party line. I'm not in a position either. As a filmmaker, I try to make an objective film. That was my goal. I wanted to make a film that would appeal to everyone and be like a mainstream film.

I didn't want to preach. I don't want to put in the title a word like heaven or veil or beyond or truth. I wanted to make a ghost story movie because I wanted a lot of people to want to see it. I felt I had a general audience. I wanted to take out Botkins’ line and say, “I'm not going to decide whether or not these things are happening.” Now that I have a regular group, this is my own program, I feel like I've said that enough where I could come clean.

I can come clean with all of you. I am a believer. At some points in my life, I was a believer and sometimes I wasn't, but I am a believer now and because of that, my whole conversation can be different from what I've talked about before. I was into the whole science of it. I was into presenting evidence and letting people decide for themselves what they thought. I still think people should decide for themselves.

I will try very hard not to be preachy at all. I'm naturally differential in nature. Whatever you think is fine with me. I'm going to be more candid with my own beliefs, which I haven't been that candid up until now. I have some people in the audience I know I want to talk to. Before I get to them, I should introduce my co-host, Gary, shouldn't I? Gary is my co-host. I couldn't make you an official co-host.

We’ll work it out. I almost always make it to the Sunday Global Gathering because they're fascinating speakers. I also lead on Afterlife book club once a month, on the first Thursday of the month. The same timeframe as this 8:00 PM Eastern and 5:00 Pacific. We read one book a month and have a great discussion. We often have guest authors on. I’m doing that quite a bit now. Also, working with August Goforth on his exploratorium through Wendy's under the umbrella of the examine groups.

Before I talk to anybody who I plan on speaking to, I want to know if anybody has a question for me that's been nagging at them. Somebody has a question. Dario?

I'm curious, what is the intention of this group?

This group is meeting for the first time and it's my group, theoretically. I made a film and you may have seen it.

I’ve seen it.

I offered a Q&A after the private event that I had. The film is still in the film festival circuit, so I can't show it publicly. I have to do these small private events. Having these private Q&As after the screenings gives people an opportunity to ask me about the film and talk to me about what I've learned that I didn't get into the movie. This is the first time and this will be a monthly Q&A meeting where I'm going to make myself available because now, the film is not only privately available but also being advertised in some places like on Facebook and Facebook groups. I'm trying to make myself more accessible to people who want to ask me questions.

Is it going to come out DVD soon or at some point?

It won't soon because that's referred to as retail in the movie business. The retail window doesn't happen until a few years from now.

Thank you.

Thank you for asking me that question because it means you like the movie enough that you want to own it. Leslie, you had a question.

I love that movie. I saw it twice and I belong to a group called Circle Home for the Dying, where they have people who are dying stay in the home who don't have family. I would love to connect with you to show that film. How would I do that? Can you put it in the chat or should I email you?

You got emails to guide you here to this event. You can reply to any of those emails, and that'll get you something.

Thank you.

Nancy, you had a question.

I'm curious. You had talked about why you named the movie Living with Ghosts and I see that you've changed the name. What made you change the name Life with Ghosts?

I was not able to get the URL for Living with Ghosts, but I got the one for Life with Ghosts. It’s also shorter, which is better. I realized I like it better because it feels bigger. It means the same thing, but the word life in general, is bigger than living and I like that.

I got so bonded to the movie after seeing it so many times. It was a shock. Is this the same movie?

The same movie. Are you disappointed?

No, I'm just curious. I was bonded to the other name. That's all.

I feel for you. I hear you. It was a tough transition for me as well, but you've given me the perfect opportunity to talk about the title. Have you heard me speak before at all?

Yes.

Have you heard me talk about the title in the word ghosts?

Yes.

Only because I like that story, there are probably enough new people here that haven't heard it. I'm going to repeat it. I'm going to give you the Readers Digest Abridged version, though, because I don't want to bore you. I do appreciate this anecdote. I've gotten more heat from this title because of the word ghosts and not because of the word life.

I've gotten more heat from this than anything else that has to do with the film. I have Paul Selig, the New York University Professor, channeling in the film, which I thought was going to disturb some people, especially in academia, but no. What people mind is the word ghosts and that was a shocker for me. I'm going to tell everyone why I use the word ghosts and there are three reasons. I hope you understand and forgive me for using the word, if you're offended by the word at all. Some people don't want to think of their deceased as ghosts and I get that.

The reason why I chose ghosts is because, unlike the word spirit, the word ghost has multiple connotations. It's figurative, literal, and metaphorical. In the story, people have different experiences of grief. Some people are having interactions with whom they perceive to be a phantom. There are others who are missing their loved ones, and they're feeling haunted by the memory. The word ghosts applies to all the characters in the film, whether they're a believer and talking to their deceased or they're just missing them. I like that play on words.

I also like that it's a mainstream-sounding title. As I was saying earlier, I didn't want to preach to the choir. I didn't want to have a word like heaven or veil or beyond because that's a spiritualist movie. From my perspective, I was trying to avoid that. I don't want to put in anything that could possibly be perceived as propaganda. Ghost is a mainstream title to make. Ghost is a mainstream word.

Lastly, Patrick Swayze, I thought went a long way into defanging that word because he made such an appealing ghost. Most people would agree. That's my reasoning for calling the film Life with Ghosts. Wendy also knows this story, and she liked it. I'm going to tell it again, Wendy. I hope you don't mind. Most people who are interested in this topic have read or know about the book called Hello from Heaven. It's a book by Bill Guggenheim. It is the most often recommended book from grief associations. They’ll most often recommend that book if it's more on the progressive side of things.

More traditional grief associations won't do that, but they'll recommend that book most often if it's a progressive grief association. He interviewed about 2,000 people and he has all these anecdotes of people getting signs and the signs being validated. He also coined the term after death communication. When I finished making this movie, I thought, “I better get this movie to Bill Guggenheim and get his endorsement or at least get a pat on the head from him.” He was my intellectual hero.

He was the father of this space, and I made a movie that he would certainly love. I sent the movie to him and I asked him to watch it. He wrote back to me and said, “I can't watch this film. It has the word ghost in it. I won't read a book. I won't pick up a pamphlet. I won't watch a TV show with the word ghost in it. It's pejorative. It makes me think of Halloween, spookiness, and haunted houses. I won't watch your film. Not only that, I implore you to change the title. That title is bad for the culture. It's bad for people who will believe in spiritualism.”

He made a very hard push toward me changing the title. I wrote him back. I said, “Bill, I'm sorry the word offended you. It wasn't my intention. Let me give you my reasons and I trust that you will agree after you hear my reasoning. It's more important that the masses see this film than to come up with a title that appeals to you and my belief system.”

Bill wrote me back, returned my comment and gave me another lashing, “No, wouldn't hear of it.” That was that. I was crushed. This guy was my intellectual dad and my dad was dead. I wanted that pat on the head from him and I didn't get it. Anyway, I like that story because it connects me to Bill Guggenheim who was a famous author and I'm just this filmmaker who doesn't have much of a name.

I like to tell this story for that reason. I don't know if Bill ever caught on that I was talking about him quite a bit. I'm telling the story over and over again, but he did eventually see the film. I don't know if anything I said had anything to do with that, but he did eventually see it. I just never got any comment about it, though. Thank you for indulging me, Wendy. Who else has a question about the film or some of the research you may have seen in the film?

You've got Susan up there.

Is it Elaine?

We have three people. Elaine is next.

Elaine, you had your hand up for a while, didn't you? I’m so sorry.

Yes, there are a couple of other people. That's okay. I know you've got a lot of people to look forward to because this is very well attended, so that's great. I want to thank you first of all for doing this film. My husband died in April suddenly. This was particularly meaningful. I was disturbed by the psychiatrist, who seemed to be telling Ethel that she was either crazy or on drugs or had a head injury.

Have you in the past ever had a time when you were drinking a lot of alcohol? Either socially or marijuana or cocaine or crack?

I tried one cigarette when I was in high school.

Did you strike your head on anything or get knocked out?

No, I did not. I wonder, was this a psychiatrist that was around that she had found or that you ran into or you chose him because he was particularly obnoxious? What was he doing? He was awful.

First of all, that is usually the first question I get in my Q&A.

Sorry about that.

No, that's good. I was surprised it took so long for people to ask that question. Roger Samuel is one of Boca Raton, Florida's most admired and celebrated psychiatrists. He's a forensic psychiatrist in court. Lawyers use them all the time as an expert witness. He's a major guy. When it came time to find Ethel’s psychiatrists, that's not Ethel’s psychiatrist. That's somebody I just wanted to examine Ethel because I wanted to have in the film the opportunity for a psychiatrist to say, “This person is normal.”

That's what he was hired to do. Basically, give me an interview and also say, “This person is in charge of me. This person is a normal person after interviewing her.” That's what I figured would happen. True to a traditional psychiatrist, that's what he is. He was very appropriate, which blew people's minds because he sounded so inappropriate to me and probably to a lot of people. He sounded disrespectful. He was doing exactly what a traditional psychiatrist is supposed to do. I don't not begrudge him at all. A lot of people ask me as a follow-up well, “Did he see the movie? Was he like irate?” I make him look like the villain.

For me, as a clinician, it wasn't just what he said. It was how dismissing and insulting he was toward his facial expressions alone, the way he communicated with her. We're supposed to have unconditional positive regard to the patient and he was not. It's very interesting to know how you found them and that was the outcome. I appreciate that very much, and it adds some depth to understanding what was happening in this movie.

I loved that he gave me the material. He gave me the opportunity to make him a villain.

Without even asking.

Every film needs a good villain and people love to hate him. He got a hold of me. By the way, I was afraid to show him the movie for the longest time. I figured he would see himself as a villain and say, “This is not what we agreed to,” and sew me, but he got in touch with me. I had to say, “Here's the film, but let me know what you think because in every Q&A, people want to know what the forensics psychiatrist thought of his place in the film and also the film in general.”

He said you watch it with his wife. He enjoyed it. He liked the film a lot, but all it proves is that ghosts exist in our minds. That's all it proves. I was like, Great. That could be true. Ghosts do exist in our minds.” The thing is, I knew it because of my experience with talking to experts in this field. I know that our minds and imaginations are only interfaces we have to communicate with the other side.

Everything is in our minds.

If you believe in panpsychism like is talked about in the film, everything is mind. He wasn't telling me anything that I objected to, but it is true that the film only talks about the fact that people are perceiving their loved one is nearby. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are nearby but that was okay with me.

I found the bunkers like Dawkins and that crowd also to be rather amusing.

First of all, I'm honored to be here and speaking to you.

Thank you.

I heard of you through Suzanne Geiseman. You did an interview with her and I was so excited. She was so excited about your film. I put myself on the watchlist and waited weeks to hear about your film and then it came through. I finally got to see it and I loved it. I can't even say it's because I want to communicate with anyone on the other side. I already know everybody's okay over there, but I think of people that I know who would benefit from this. I want to ask you because one of the people I'm thinking of has lost her son to suicide. I'm wondering, through your research, have these methods worked to connect people who lost loved ones through suicide? Have they had the same benefits from it?

The short answer is yes, but I'm going to elaborate on that. Everyone can benefit from the therapy.

The issue is about what's going on with the client sitting for the therapy. If the client is in a place where they're angry or clinically depressed. There are some things that act as blocks. Suicide, as you know, it's a big, messy bag of emotions that come along with that for the survivors. Those can get in the way of the possible success of the treatment.

It doesn't mean that the therapist is not going to administer it. Unless he finds some of those red flags I refer to, which would be if they are clinically depressed and if the client has any history of mental disorders like bipolar disorder. Those kinds of things can be problematic and can cause harm. I'm talking about the ladder, the pipe bipolar disorder.

There are some disorders that, if you have a penchant or propensity to have an episode like that, the therapy that's featured in the film can cause an episode of bipolar disorder. There are some red flags like that, so the therapist has to vet you pretty carefully before he says, “You could sit for this therapy.”

Good to know. Thank you.

Dawn has had her hand for a long time.

I see Ellen and Rose raise her hand up.

You answered my question. I was going to ask, what do you think of spiritualists? I know spiritualism is back on the rise again compared to how it was in the 1800s and 1900s versus now.

The 1800s was when it was big.

It was big then, but now, it seems like it's back on the rise again.

We're having a reprise or a resurgence.

It's interesting. Maybe a few lay people still use the word ghost versus the word spiritualism or spirits. It's just hard to weigh the difference between them.

I'm going to say to you the same thing I said to Bill Guggenheim. If more people come into the theater to see the movie, it moves them. Their hearts and minds are now shifted. Is it to make up for the fact that I'm using a word in the title that might be offensive to the spiritualist clan?

It isn’t offensive to us. Anything to move the consciousness of the world. It’s wonderful.

You're with me then, Dawn?

Yes, I wanted to make sure that you didn't poo-poo on spiritualism. That's all.

It wasn't a poo-poo.

Good. Thanks.

I was never scared of ghosts when I was a kid. As a kid, when I thought there could be ghosts around. I was like, “How cool will we go on forever? That's so neato.” For me, it was never a naughty or scary word. Casper the Friendly Ghost was my favorite cartoon. I like ghost stories. It's always been my favorite topic. It's a provocative and fun word.

They're not harmful at all. The idea that they're harmful ghosts out there.

Let me ask you this question, Dawn. Is that 100% true? I have heard of people complaining that their spirits are menacing them.

As far as I know, I have not heard of any evil spirits out there.

Let me get Wendy in on this. Wendy, what do you think?

If you put life with spirits, you'd have all the alcoholics wanting to watch the film.

What do you think of Dawn's suggestion that there are no evil spirits?

The thing is, there are a lot of people who are what we call Earthbound. There are still people, but it's like if you go out into a low-level neighborhood and you call out to everybody, “Come and talk to me. I have money.” Guess who's going to come and see you? The point is if you're an open door, you can attract negative energies, like attracts like. You have to work on raising your vibration because it's a law in the universe that you will attract people on the same vibrational level as you.

If you are angry, depressed, and low, you will attract people to you who are the same and who will increase and intensify that energy around you. There are some good books out by forensics psychiatrists who have worked in prisons and who talk a lot about the negative energies that surround prisoners and murderers. We talked about psychiatrists, but there's a whole stream of alternative psychiatrists who do believe in spirit possession. If you google spirit possession and evidence, you'll find some interesting stuff.

Maybe my guides are too high level then.

It might be that. One of our people, Sherry Pearl, who's a lovely person and you might know, was doing EVP. EVP is one of the things that does attract negatives unless you protect yourself. It's a very physical thing and she was getting imposters coming through and pretending to be loved ones who were not. This is why the Catholic Church has always tried to limit spirit contact because remember what the Bible says, “Test the spirits to see that they be of God.”

The astral world is a very interesting place there. There are many different levels in the astral world. If you go into a casino in Las Vegas. You're going to find a different energy if you go into a meditation circle in Palo Alto. It'll be a different vibrational level. If you go into those little smoky rooms where the people have been playing poker machines all night, you're going to feel the energy that you can't even stay in that room.

Particularly if people are vulnerable, then they can attract negative energies. There's no point in getting anybody to clear their aura because they go outside as soon as you clear their aura. Their thoughts will continue to attract that energy to them. This is one of the reasons. Sherry put up a wonderful video on how to protect yourself when you're working with spirit. I used to sit in a physical mediumship circle. Every spirit physical circle has what they call bouncer. I call a doorkeeper.

He's a great, big Indian guy who makes sure that no negative comes in. I can remember one night, we forgot to say the protective prayer when we started and the communicator came through straight away. He said, “Stop everything and ask for protection.” For me, that is enough of an indication that it's a good idea when you're working with Ouija boards and pendulums. Particularly anything physical because it's easier for the negative energies to influence something physical.

EVP and ITC protection is something. You don't make a big deal of it, but you also protect it with your energy. This is why kids who go to a party, take drugs and alcohol and play with the Ouija board get negative things coming through. They get people coming through saying, “You're going to die next year or you're going to die on your 21st birthday.”

It's great fun, but the point is the Ouija board is a tool and attracts like. There's been a lot of wonderful communications through the Ouija board. Seth came through the Ouija board. A lot of very high-level mediums started with the Ouija board, but it's all about intention. Keep remembering that like attracts like.

We have a question from Gary.

I wanted to add to what Wendy was saying. A little perspective. They're just people. You know people here, there are all types. We're in a big melting pot here on the Earth plane. They're a little more separated. You're more with your own kind on the other side, but those closest to the Earth can recall kinds of havoc if they want to, to a degree. We have to keep in mind, they're not suddenly enlightened because they're on the other side. They're just in a different energy field and their people. I also wanted to say Dario had his hand up for one.

I'm finding this interesting because I'm a therapist. This is part of what I do. I work primarily with addiction. As Wendy was saying, people who struggle with addiction a lot of times are very vulnerable. These negative energies are coming in. A large part of my work is helping to remove entities from people that have entered their system. I believe that these things are real. I'm a weird therapist. Most therapists would not do what I do.

An exorcism?

It’s not an exorcism. It's just directly talking to the entity and being very direct with them. It's like if you're going to a haunted house and telling a spirit it's time to move on. Instead of going to a haunted house, I go into a haunted person.

There's no holy water in your practice.

No, it's just talking directly to these entities and it's surprising that they leave sometimes. Anyway, that's not my question. My question was about Dr. Allan Botkin. I would notice that he was not featured very heavily. I was wondering if he had feelings about the movie or if there was a reason why he wasn't featured very heavily in the movie.

There are two reasons. One is that Dr. Botkin has some orthopedic issues, making it difficult for him to sit on a plane for a long time. We were in two different parts of the country, so just the pain he would have to endure to get to where we were filming the interviews was too much for him. He said to me, “My graham,” it was his favorite at the time. That was his golden boy.

He said, “Use Graham,” and Graham ended up being the lead therapist in the film. He does connect really well. Graham got that lantern jaw and heroic thing going that Dr. Bakken didn't have. As a filmmaker, I like using the 6’5”, lantern-jawed hero type in that role. Dr. Botkin is a handsome man, but this worked out better for me.

The other reason was I liked him having a small part via Zoom. We could have included him via Zoom. I asked the Professor to call Dr. Holden to call Dr. Botkin to have him come into the film and talk to her about what was going on with Karen. I like that he has that small cameo because he's almost like Oz. He had time in the film as Oz did in The Wizard of Oz. That gave him a certain gravitas because it was like this rare sighting. For me, it worked that way.

One last question. Are you affiliated with What the Bleep? I noticed you had some of the same folks from that movie. Are you worried about the filmmaker?

I'm a filmmaker.

Are you affiliated with the filmmaker of that film?

I would say two films inspired me in terms of the roadmap to where I got to. I love What the Bleep. I love that movie. I love all the speakers in that movie. As you saw, I used two of the experts from that movie. That was an homage to that movie because I like it so much. Was there another reason? I can't think of it.

The movie I liked is called Wake Up, which not many people have heard of, but it's good because it's about a filmmaker turning the camera on himself. He does a documentary about himself and it's because he is seeing dead people in his life and he does not like it. He's got some ability and it came after a car accident. He was freaked out that he was seeing dead people. It's his journey talking to all kinds of experts and doctors. How do I get the dead people out of my life? It was well done. I do recommend that movie.

I’m going off-topic, I’m going back to what I was saying earlier and to Dawn and to Wendy. The reason why I brought up evil spirits is because I partnered with a medium who wants to do an event. Her name is Veronica Drake. Veronica said, “If you want to see me in action, I've got a lot of hits from when I channeled Stephen Paddock.”

If anybody here is familiar, Stephen Paddock is the Las Vegas shooter. She did a channeling session where she channeled him. She got very popular very quickly, both because of her abilities and because a lot of people didn't want to hear from Stephen Paddock because he was a mass killer. She told me privately that she hated doing that. She will never do it again because the feeling of channeling him was too yucky for her. He was saying vile things.

I was surprised because I thought that even though there might be some spirits that want to do something like pranks, maybe. I thought that was the extent of an evil spirit, but this made me feel like, “There are some bad people over there who retain their badness.” I thought it would smooth out a little bit. My question to you, Wendy, is didn't you think they would smooth out a little bit that they would be likable on the other side?

No, it takes time. If you want to see what the lower realms are like, have a look at Jurgen’s film on YouTube about the lower realms. There are lower realms and like does attract like in the afterlife. People in the afterlife are still people, as everybody has said and as Gary has said it. There are some nasty people on Earth and in the next dimension. That's the reality.

I do think it's not a good idea to be associated with people who claim to channel negative energies because it may not even be the one who it claims to be. It's most unlikely that it is. It could be others trying to cash in on the notoriety. There are a lot of tricksters in the field. This is why. Even when you're trying to communicate with a loved one, it’s a good idea to say a prayer for protection and surround yourself in white light.

You gave me an opportunity to transition over to Shanti. Let me tell everybody how I met Shanti. Shanti wrote me a beautiful email.

It was through Wendy's group that I almost missed you. I was doing something and it was like 40 minutes into it and I remembered. It's like going to church. I heard you and I was attracted to you immediately. Do you want to ask me about my email?

The reason why I brought that up is because since I've been doing this film, there's been a lot of synchronicities. The synchronicities are almost commonplace now. Shanti wrote me an email saying, “I want to see this movie. How do I get to see it? I'm having trouble.” I get at least ten of these kinds of emails a day, but for some strange reason, I respond to Shanti myself. I called her.

Usually, the producer, Jenny will email people back and tell you how to get the movie, but I called Shanti because I saw her name. I saw her number on the email and I called you. It was a very strange compulsion to call you, and then you told me what your story was. It did seem a little bit like kismet that we were talking. It felt like a spirit of communication from your husband. That's how it felt to me. I'm not going to share that story unless you want to share that story. It’s your story.

I've been so lonely because of the language. When you said to me, “Your husband gave me a nudge,” That's a beautiful thing for me. Only one viewing of the movie has catapulted me. What happened was I started listening to people, hundreds of people on Facebook groups who couldn't get out of bed in the morning. Their lives were destroyed. I was an intuitive reader, so I have that intuition. I thought, “Something's wrong here with this story.” I didn't know what it was then. It's like breadcrumbs. To make this shorter, when we connected, I watched the film. I saw Ethel on a pad say, “Are you here?” That's all I needed.

Since my husband has been fluid, all of the people that I meet on Sunday and Loving Connections has been life-changing, but there is something. Wendy, I'd like to ask if you agree. There's something so strange about so many people, hundreds of thousands of people just blindsided in their lives, immobilized and feeling like there has to be something wrong. Something inside of me says, “There's something not right,” and it's being lied to me. There is this connection that we can have.

This is why Stephen's film is so important. It is. It's a film that speaks to the mainstream. It is possible to communicate with your dead realm. Stephen says in the film, “There's been nine studies done that more than 50% of widows and widowers talk to their husbands.” Their deceased Partners. They see them. They communicate with them, but they keep quiet about it.

I've done talks to groups of Catholics, which is quite another story. You get a group of 12 Catholics together and 6 of them will have seen their dead mother at their bedside. “My mother came to see me.” I don't know whether Catholics are open to spirit or what it is, but there seems to be a very high percentage of them will say, “My mother came to see me and she told me I'm fine. She looked a lot younger. I hear from my husband. When I'm driving the car, if I go the wrong way, somebody will tell me, ‘Stop the car. You're going too fast.’”

People do this, but they don't tell anybody. That's the whole problem. My husband has been involved in the afterlife for many years. His mother, before she died, said, “My mother came to me and stood at the bedside.” He said, “Why didn't you tell me? She said, “Everybody would think I'm crazy.” I couldn't tell anybody and that's what happened. As Stephen says in the video, “People let others talk them out of it. Their friends and relatives say, “You were dreaming. It was a delusion.” That's another thing that stops them from sharing it, but this film is so important. It's so presented in such a way that people who are on the fence can say, “Maybe there's something in this.”

Paul Selig also said during the film, “It's conditioned out of us. We all have an ability to communicate with our deceased loved ones.” Deceased is a not proper word for it, but our loved ones on the other side. We all have the ability, but it's conditioned out of us from about school age on. If you mention it to anyone, you're going to get backlash. People get quiet about it and if they had an ability, oftentimes, they bury it and it re-emerges later in life. A lot of people are coming that had it as a child, the ability to communicate, but now it's back and they're embracing it. You're right. There is something very wrong with our society in the way we're conditioned to believe this is the way things are, the Newtonian Paradigm and that's it. That's not it.

Every other culture in the world, apart from Western culture, communicates with their ancestors. Every indigenous culture values mediumship and spirit communication. You look back in any culture, and you'll find there’s a rich history of mediums and communication. The Western anthropologists call it ancestor worship. That's not ancestor worship. It’s communication. Your ancestors help you, and your friends and spirits are on the other side.

Our churches have tried to cover monopoly on it and science in throwing out the religion throughout the baby with the bathwater. There are lots of people. In Iceland, there's a fellow named Harrelson. He did a survey. Iceland is a very fishing-oriented country. A lot of people drown on the fishing boats. He found 85% of people had spontaneous after-death communications. Have a look at his book. It’s a fascinating book.

I have had experience with that because I have lost a child. It was to suicide, so very unexpected and a lot of heavy grief that was somewhat extended. However, I have learned with time, study, research, and experience that regaining a new relationship with that loved one is the key. By that, regaining a new relationship and that includes communication.

I am a medium at this point, but I do believe that everybody can be their own medium. You can connect with your own loved ones, guides and whoever you feel is helping you through this life.

You have access to all of them. When you gain a relationship with them, the grief subsides, especially when it becomes so evidential. There's no other possibility but that you have an ongoing relationship. That's my experience and I'm grateful I came to it. Grief sometimes cracks you open and that has been true probably for anybody who has gone into more spiritual understanding after losing a loved one. It's what drives people to see movies like this.

Important Links

• Friday Afterlife Report

• Induced After Death Communication Therapy

• Hello from Heaven