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#039 Talking to the Dead—And Getting It Right (with Cheryl Murphy)Welcome to "Life With Ghosts—Let's #039 Talking to the Dead—And Getting It Right (with Cheryl Murphy)


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Welcome to "Life With Ghosts—Let's Chat!", where understanding communication with those who've crossed over doesn't have to be mysterious, spooky, or off-limits. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s really possible to reach loved ones who’ve passed, how to tell real messages from wishful thinking, or what it might feel like if you grew up surrounded by spiritual energy, you’re in the right place.

On this episode, host Stephen Berkeley invites Cheryl Murphy—an evidential medium, psychic, and medical intuitive—to share her story, her guidance, and plenty of practical tips for anyone exploring the realm of spirit connection. From family tales involving government-mandated psychic searches and swaying kitchen utensils, to compassionate advice for those in grief, this lively conversation covers it all.

Let’s get into it.

Meet Cheryl Murphy: A Spirit Connection That Runs Deep

Cheryl Murphy isn’t your average medium. Her journey began early—her first memory of spirit was at age 3. Spiritual awareness has been in her family for generations: her great-great-grandmother on the Cherokee side was gifted, and her great aunt was even hired by the government to help solve a missing persons case.

Cheryl has trained internationally, including at England’s renowned Arthur Findlay College, and has been recognized by respected peers like Manhattan medium Thomas John for her professionalism. Her readings—whether for humans or pets—are known for being compassionate, down-to-earth, and filled with spot-on, specific details.

But there’s another side to Cheryl. She’s the founder of the Healing Prayer Circle, a free online community for group prayer and meditation, and works to help locate missing persons with the non-profit Find Me. Her message is clear: love never ends, and connection isn't limited to this side of the veil.

Growing Up in a Spiritually Open Family

Cheryl’s household wasn’t just “open” to the unseen world—spirit was a regular, comfortable part of day-to-day life. This included:

  • Family stories of spirit connections as far back as her Cherokee great-great-grandmother

  • Close relatives being called upon for psychic assistance—her great aunt once located a missing air force pilot in mountainous snow when the government’s technology came up short

  • Kitchen utensils swinging on their own, just from the energy in the room

  • Playful, loving energy: toys and pictures moved without fear or horror. “It was always in fun and gesture. There was never any fear.”

Cheryl first saw spirit as a glowing light around age 3, a presence that felt like family energy—encouraging and supportive.

“The feeling Spirit gives you is really one of a family. And I’m learning now that a lot of that energy I was feeling... was also perhaps other children in Spirit, which is maybe why it felt so playful, too.” — Cheryl Murphy

Even as a child, Cheryl found these experiences natural. While it was more accepted and openly discussed in her family, she realized her friends and classmates didn't talk about it, so she found it unique but not isolating.

The Four Pillars of Spiritual Connection

Why Pillars Matter

When it comes to connecting with spirit, Cheryl believes there are some core “pillars” you need to learn and practice—almost like prerequisites before the doors open.

The Four Main Pillars

  1. Surrender

    • Let go of your own expectations about how a connection “should” go.

    • “We have to get out of our own way.”

  2. Forgiveness

    • Make forgiveness a regular part of your life—for others and for yourself.

    • Cheryl suggests imagining forgiveness like walking a labyrinth: it starts wide, forgiving little things and others, and narrows to forgiving big things, then finally yourself.

    • “When you can practice forgiveness in your life, your intuition will open up leaps and bounds... Forgiveness is not a one-time thing.”

  3. Gratitude

    • Gratitude is about being in the present and inviting more support from spirit.

    • You can’t be angry and grateful at the same time.

    • “Gratitude is about stepping into the power of manifesting your dreams, but also moving the wheels forward.”

  4. "When we practice gratitude, when we think of what we're grateful for, it gets us in the present moment. It brings us to the here and now. You kind of can't be angry and have gratitude at the same time. But having gratitude, it's almost like that invitation to invite our angels." — Cheryl Murphy

  5. Meditation (Stillness)

    • Spend even just five minutes a day in quiet, prayer, or sitting with spirit.

    • Meditation is about acknowledging there's a greater power, and being open to guidance.

    • “Acknowledge that maybe we don’t have all the answers, but we’re open to receiving guidance and support.”

Why Practice?

These four pillars aren't just theory—they help you build a stronger, more real relationship with spirit, intuition, and your own inner guidance.

Wishful Thinking vs. Spirit Contact: Telling the Difference

A question everyone asks—mediums and non-mediums alike—how do I know it’s real spirit communication, and not just what I want to hear?

Cheryl’s answer:

  • Spirit contact feels subtle—like a whisper. It's positive, supportive, loving.

  • Ego, self-talk, and wishful thinking are often filled with doubt and uncertainty.

  • Real spirit contact is uplifting and helps you dream bigger, while wishful thinking is less reliable and can carry negative or unsure feelings.

  • Set your intention: Be clear why you want to connect.

“Always know that when you're connecting with spirit, it’s a loving energy coming through. Spirit is all about love... Setting the intention is when the energy starts being activated.” — Cheryl Murphy

Practical Exercise:Set an intention each time you want to connect—either in a reading, meditation, or simply quiet time. Even Cheryl sets new intentions with each client.

Training as an Evidential Medium

What Training Gave Cheryl

Even with a psychic family background, Cheryl gained much from her formal studies:

  • Community: Found “like minded people” and felt part of a tribe.

  • Ethics: She learned about boundaries, professionalism, and how to communicate with people in grief.

  • Technique: Practiced different styles of mediumship and refined her skills.

What Is an Evidential Medium?

  • Mental mediumship: Most readings are “mental”—seeing, hearing, or feeling messages internally.

  • Physical mediumship: Involves objects moving or sensation in the environment.

  • Trance mediumship: Deep altered states.

  • Evidential mediumship: Shares validation that loved ones recognize—hobbies, personalities, jobs, mannerisms, and more.

Cheryl is known for having a “high bar” for evidence: she delivers details and messages that can be specifically validated by her clients, avoiding guesswork or vagueness.

Practice Makes Perfect: How to Develop Mediumship

Cheryl recommends:

  • Development Circles: Weekly groups for practice and feedback.

  • Regular practice: Like any skill, it gets stronger with time.

  • Directness: Cheryl aims to bring “the essence of the spirit world” with clear, direct messages.

If you’re looking to develop your abilities, find a local circle or online group and just start practicing—you never know what connections might come through.

Applications Beyond Mediumship: Missing Persons, Animals, and Healing

Cheryl’s abilities don’t just stop at reading messages; she’s also called on for:

Finding Missing Persons

  • Works with the non-profit Find Me

  • Collaborates with teams to work with latitude and longitude

  • Fills out reports and keeps things as scientific as possible

  • Sometimes working with those who are departed, sometimes with the living (as a psychic)

Communicating with Animals

  • Works both with living and departed pets (“soul to soul connection”)

  • Animals’ souls come through just like people’s

  • Even countries, homes, and the planet have a “soul” and can be tuned into energetically

A Story of Hope: Healing After a Car Accident

Cheryl shared a personal success story about working with a client post-accident:

  • He was in pain, depressed, stuck, and unable to work.

  • Cheryl’s goal wasn’t just energy healing but teaching him to connect with his own angels and guides.

  • Over time, the client reduced medications (with doctor’s help), returned to work, and regained a sense of balance.

“To me, that’s the reason why I do this work. It’s about helping people facilitate their own healing and remember they are intuitive.” — Cheryl Murphy

Becoming a Medical Intuitive: What’s It Involve?

Cheryl didn’t set out to be a medical intuitive—it just unfolded through her spirit work as more people with health concerns sought her out.

What Medical Intuitives Do:

  • Tune into low energy or “stuck” areas in the body

  • Sense whether pain is physical or tied to emotion (e.g., back pain linked to old resentment)

  • Help clients recognize and acknowledge past hurts to help release them

  • Sometimes connect pain to past-life experiences

When Insights Heal

Just claiming and acknowledging the emotional root of pain (even if it seems small or inconsequential) starts to “loosen” it, making it easier to heal and release.

Collaboration and Ethics

Cheryl always encourages people to see their doctors and take medication when needed—energy work isn’t about replacing medicine, but working together for deeper healing:

“Medicine is very spiritual... But the goal is to go a little deeper, to find out if we can discover anything below that.”

Emotional Roots of Illness: Is There Always a Reason?

Cheryl believes emotions contribute a lot to physical illness, but there isn’t always a simple, single root.

  • Past lives may play a part (e.g., someone with a lifelong fear of tight clothing recalling a past life where they were hanged)

  • Not every issue is purely emotional, but emotional awareness can help relieve, understand, or even release some of the pain

The journey is about learning, healing, and compassion—for yourself and for others.

The Spiritual Purpose of Infirmity

So, is there a larger reason for our struggles, pains, diseases?

Cheryl’s view: All experience is about learning, raising soul awareness, and compassion.

Every challenge, whether physical or emotional, is a doorway. Sometimes if we “didn’t get it right” in a past life, we try again in the next. It's a complex picture—never just a single reason.

“To say that it all comes from our forgetfulness of who we are—it’s very possible. But I believe there are so many lessons, with each person as an individual.” — Cheryl Murphy

The Power of Group Prayer: Real Results, Real People

Cheryl’s Healing Prayer Circle is open to everyone, free, and draws participants from around the world.

How Group Prayer Works

  • Studies (like Larry Dossey’s) support the effectiveness of group prayer and intention, showing that people feel positive effects—no matter the distance.

  • “The power of group prayer is exponentially more powerful.”

  • Members can contribute prayers, meditate as a group, and learn techniques for releasing, manifesting, and connecting spiritually.

Real-World Prayer Circle Stories

  • One participant seeking a job received not just one, but three job offers, plus an unexpected move and her dream home.

  • Others have shared successful medical results after group prayers focused on their healing.

The Science and Feeling

  • Cheryl believes group prayer is “laser focused”—the combined energy of several is tangible.

  • It’s not that solo prayer can’t be powerful, but as a group, the energy is “more tactile” and creates a focused bubble of pure support and love.

Grief and Spirit Work: Supporting Those Deep in Loss

What about someone in deep, fresh grief? Cheryl’s advice:

  • Acknowledge where they are. Grief is sacred and should not be ignored or “buried under the rug.”

  • Give it time. You have to go through it to grow through it. Sometimes grief opens your intuition further; sometimes it can create blocks—it varies for everyone.

  • Offer tools: Meditation, journaling, supportive groups (like Cheryl’s prayer circle), and safe spaces to express emotions, all help.

“Being around other people, where you get to express your emotions, is so helpful. I do believe that can be healing in its own way,” says Cheryl.

Preparing for a Gallery Reading: Openness and Intention

Before performing a gallery reading with the group, Cheryl asks everyone to:

  • Come with an open mind and an open heart

  • Set the intention for high, appropriate, and helpful information to come through

  • Realize that sometimes loved ones can reach more than one person at once—spirit works in mysterious ways

  • Listen for messages that might also apply to you, even if delivered “for” someone else

Explore Further: Resources from Cheryl Murphy

If you want to learn more, try one of Cheryl’s self-guided tools:

In Cheryl’s Words: The Big Takeaway

“To help people remember that love doesn’t end, and connection isn’t limited to this side of the veil.”

Whether you’re just starting to explore spiritual development, searching for healing, or deeply missing someone who’s passed on, Cheryl’s message is clear: It’s all about love, openness, and never giving up on the miracles possible for you.

Key Takeaways for Readers

If You’re Curious About Spirit Communication:

  • Build the four pillars: Surrender, Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Meditation

  • Trust the loving, gentle “feel” of true contact—set your intention!

  • Find your tribe: join a circle, take a class, or join Cheryl’s community

If You’re Seeking Healing:

  • Recognize and claim emotional pains as well as physical ones

  • Work with medical professionals and with energy

  • Be curious about the roots—whether in this life or past ones

If You’re in Grief:

  • Allow yourself to feel and express, without rushing the process

  • Try meditation, journaling, or group prayer for gentle support

For Everyone:

  • We are all intuitive—and we can strengthen it!

  • Group energy, intention, and support can create real results in our lives

Thank you for exploring the world of spirit, intuition, and love with us today on "Life With Ghosts—Let's Chat!" Stay open, be kind to yourself, and remember—love and connection live on, in more ways than you think.


 
 
 

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