Analyzer.

Those who need to scrutinize the intricate details of how and why everything works. Analyzers are invaluable in scientific and other technical areas. But their fear of missing or overlooking something can make it difficult for them to relax, trust their instincts, and stand back far enough to see the bigger picture.

Banner Carrier.

Banner Carriers are on the front lines of battles against what they perceive as injustices. Banner Carriers will picket, demonstrate, and lobby, whatever it takes to fight their idea of the “good fight.” Their challenge is to learn that they can make their point more effectively with tact and moderation than with divisive fanaticism.

Builder.

Builders are the “wind beneath the wings” of society, the often invisible but essential cogs that keep the wheels of accomplishment turning. Builders are not those who march across a stage to accept a trophy; they are those who played a major part in constructing the stage itself. They can feel unappreciated for not getting the credit they rightfully deserve, but they need to remember that the rewards for gracefully mastering the Builder theme lie in the accelerated advancement of the spirit, which is far more valuable than any trophy could ever be.

Caretaker.

The Caretaker theme is closely related to the themes of Rescuer and Humanitarian, but it goes even deeper. Those with this theme take people into their homes, give hands-on care to the elderly, and house those who’ve found themselves on the streets. They form foundations for the poor and infirm, they join groups to travel overseas and help the impoverished, and they go to prisons, mental facilities, and anywhere else they’re needed as “foot soldiers” on the front lines for the sake of the disadvantaged. Their challenge is to learn to take care of themselves while they’re so busy caring for everyone else.

Catalyst.

Those with the Catalyst theme make things happen and mobilize inaction into action. They are energetic and enthusiastic and seem to excel in stressful circumstances. On the downside, they struggle with feeling empty and depressed without a goal to tackle.

Cause Fighter.

If there is not a social issue to take on, Cause Fighters will create one. They’re the generals who command the Banner
Carriers—vocal, active, and passionate about their efforts toward a better world, sometimes at the expense of their own and others’ safety. At their most undisciplined, Cause Fighters run the risk of vying for a bigger spotlight on themselves than on the cause they’re promoting.

Controller.

At their most successful, Controllers are brilliant attaking charge of every task at hand through wise, discreet, supportive supervising and delegating. The least successful Controllers are those who feel compelled to dictate and judge every detail of the lives of those around them. Ironically, the biggest challenge for Controllers is self-control.

Emotionality.

Those with the Emotionality theme are born with an extraordinary capacity to deeply feel the highest of highs, the lowest of lows, and every shade of emotion in between. Their sensitivity is both a gift and a burden, and they need more than most of us to be mindful of the importance of balance in their lives.

Experiencer.

Those who insist on trying any activity, indulgence, pursuit, or lifestyle that happens to catch their eye. They will move seamlessly from managing a retail store to joining an archeological dig in Egypt, to trying their hand at stand-up comedy, to attending rodeo clown school, not out of aimlessness, but because of a need to experience life as an active, varied series of participation events. Excessive self-indulgence to the point of irresponsibility is their greatest, most challenging hurdle.

Fallibility.

Those with the Fallibility theme were born physically, mentally, or emotionally challenged. Only the most extraordinary spirits choose Fallibility as a theme, and when they find that choice discouraging, they need to remember what an inspiring example they’re setting as they face and triumph over special hurdles the rest of us can only imagine.

Follower.

Followers are, in their way, as essential to society as leaders, since without them there would be no Leaders. And offering strong, reliable support can be Followers’ greatest and most generous contribution on this earth. What Followers have to be mindful of, though, is the importance of carefully selecting whom and what to follow.

Freedom.

The anthem of this theme is “Don’t Fence Me In.” The Freedom theme is that of a gypsy, someone who likes to move often, go everywhere, and can’t seem to stay in one place very long. Even if they find a permanent residence, they’re always traveling and always on the go. They tend toward moodiness if they’re kept in one place for too long, and they have trouble quieting their minds. Many of those who’ve been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are actually trying to make peace with a Freedom theme.

Harmony.

People with the Harmony theme make peace, calm, and balance not just their top priorities, but their only priorities, for they will go to any extremes to maintain those priorities. On the plus side, they’re refreshingly cooperative and usually have a quieting effect in chaotic situations. On the minus side, they can find it very difficult to accept and adjust to the inevitable bumps, bruises, and stress life has to offer.

Healer.

Healers are often drawn to the physical or mental healing professions, but are found in other areas as well. Their chosen theme of Healer can express itself in a variety of forms, all of them involving easing pain and improving general well-being. It’s imperative that Healers protect themselves from empathizing too closely with those they’re trying to heal and to pace themselves carefully to avoid an overload of the stress, pain, and illness their theme has drawn them to.

Humanitarian.

Humanitarians are born to extend themselves to humankind. Instead of addressing life’s inequities through sit-ins and protests, Humanitarians step past the protestors to directly feed the hungry, house the homeless, bandage the wounded, teach the uneducated, and generally tackle the world’s ills head-on. They face a twofold challenge: knowing there’s an infinite amount of work to be done, but also knowing when and how to keep themselves from burning out.

Infallibility.

Those with the Infallibility theme are seemingly born with everything—looks, talent, intelligence, privilege, wit, grace, and so on. And believe it or not, theirs can be an unusually difficult theme. Their problems are rarely taken seriously. They’re often resented for their advantages and can feel secretly unworthy for not having had to earn their privileged place in society. It’s not unusual for them to be uniquely drawn to such excesses as obesity, promiscuity, or substance abuse, almost as if they are trying to balance the scales by creating difficulties they were not born with. Because many things have come easily to them, they can feel emotionally inept in situations that challenge their character.

Intellectuality.

The best expression of this ultimate thirst-for-knowledge theme are people who study throughout their life and continuously use their wealth of education to inform, improve, nourish, and expand life on earth. The worst expression of this theme is found in the many versions of the “professional student” whose sole purpose is the self-directed goal of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, hoarded instead of shared, which is of no use to anyone but the one who possesses it.

Irritant.

The constant, deliberate pessimists, the faultfinders, those who are never at a loss for something to complain about have chosen the Irritant theme. For such a difficult theme, it’s amazing how many people seem to have chosen it. They’re helpful in teaching us patience, tolerance, and nonengagement in negativity, while they struggle to overcome the very negativity their chosen theme demanded they embrace.

Justice.

Those with the Justice theme are committed to an active, lifelong pursuit of fairness and equality. Some of our greatest presidents and activists are exquisite examples of the Justice theme at its finest. At its worst, when it is misguided and without God as its center, this passion for righting a wrong can result in riots, anarchy, and vigilantism.

Lawfulness.

Law enforcement and the practice and teaching of law are among the professional expressions of the Lawfulness theme, which revolves around a driven concern with safeguarding that line between legality and illegality. Elevated, those with this theme are devoted public servants who fiercely help maintain order and balance in this world. Corrupt and abusive with their power, they’re an insult to the theme they chose.

Leader.

Oddly, people with a Leader theme might be gifted at their ability to lead, but they’re almost never innovative, instead choosing to become Leaders in already established areas—for example, lawyers who gravitate toward highly publicized cases and thrive in the resulting spotlight, instead of devoting their expertise to making significant improvements in the judicial system. Perfecting this theme would involve changing their top priority from pursuing their own success to exploring new socially relevant frontiers.

Loner.

Loners are often socially active and visible, but tend to choose careers and lifestyles that will allow them to be isolated. They’re content alone and usually enjoy their own company, and they often struggle to overcome feeling drained and irritated when other people spend too much time in their space.

Loser.

The Loser theme is essentially the Fallibility theme without the physical, mental, or emotional challenges. Those with the Loser theme have many advantages and good qualities, but because they’re determined to feel sorry for themselves they insist on disregarding them. They seek attention through being martyrs, and if there’s no melodrama in their lives, they will create it. Like Irritants, they can inspire us to be more positive and to dislike their behavior without judging them as people.

Manipulator.

Manipulators approach their lives and the people in them like a one-sided chess game, controlling them to their advantage and often with remarkable talent. This is a powerful and not necessarily negative theme. When this theme is devoted to the highest, God-centered good, Manipulators can have an enormously positive impact on society. When the theme is abused, Manipulators are too self-absorbed to concern themselves with anyone’s well-being but their own, at everyone else’s expense.

Passivity.

People with the Passivity theme are sometimes perceived as weak, when in fact they’re more accurately described as uncommonly sensitive to emotional disruption. They have opinions, but express them most effectively in a nonconfrontational manner, and when they take a stand on issues, they’re strictly nonviolent. It’s difficult for those with a Passivity theme to cope with extremes, but a little tension can be a valuable tool for spurring them into their form of action.

Patience.

One of the more challenging themes, Patience takes constant effort in a world in which impatience is almost considered an admirable coping skill. The choice of Patience over a less difficult theme indicates an eagerness to move more quickly on the spirit’s journey toward perfection—in other words, Patience, in a way, indicates a spiritualim patience. Along with their ongoing battle against snapping at stress, those with a Patience theme frequently fight the guilt of occasional lapses in efforts toward their goal and of the anger they feel their theme demands they suppress. Recognizing how hard their choice of themes really is can help them be more forgiving of themselves.

Pawn.

Pawns are those whose role is to be used as the fuse that ignites something of great magnitude, either positive or negative, to emerge; as such they are essential in the advancement of the universal spirit. Possibly the most classic historic example of a Pawn is Judas, whose paid betrayal of Christ was ultimately a critical element in the birth of Christianity. People who choose the theme of the Pawn, important in their way as they are, have to be vigilant in aligning themselves with only the worthiest, most loving causes.

Peacemaker.

Peacemakers are those extremely dedicated to stopping war and violence. Unlike those with the themes of Passivity and Harmony, Peacemakers typically show a surprising amount of aggression and zeal in efforts for peace. Their allegiance to peace is far greater than their allegiance to any group or country, and they’re not opposed to achieving a bit of celebrity as part of a noble, highly visible cause.

Perfectionist.

The Perfectionist theme is exactly what it sounds like: those who need and expect perfection in every aspect of their lives—their work, their personal lives, their houses, their cars, their clothing, and their friends. Because they also expect perfection from themselves, they’re most appreciated when they stop writing improvement memos to everyone else and direct those memos inward. They’re very valuable in their ability to get things done and done well, but they also have to realize that nothing on earth is perfect and all things here are passing and transient.

Performance.

Those with the Performance theme might pursue a career in the entertainment field, but are just as likely to be content with being the life of the local party, office, or classroom. They’re nourished by the spotlight, however large or small it might be. Too often they form their opinions of themselves exclusively through the eyes of others, which they need to combat by reserving some of their considerable energy for introspection and learning to provide their own spiritual and emotional nourishment.

Persecution.

Those with the Persecution theme are not only constantly braced for the worst possibility, but are actually convinced they’ve been singled out for special bad luck and negative attention. Happiness is literally frightening for them, because they’re sure they’ll have to pay too high a price for it or that it can simply be snatched away from them at any moment. Overcoming the Persecution theme takes enormous strength, but the reward for overcoming it is remarkable spiritual advancement.

Persecutor.

Persecutors are typically aggressive, self-justifying sociopaths who will abuse and even kill without guilt or remorse and without the mitigating factor of mental or emotional illness. Obviously, it is almost impossible to understand the purpose of this theme in the span of a single lifetime, but they can inadvertently test, challenge, and inspire progress in our laws, our judicial systems, our forensics techniques, our moral boundaries, our social consciousness, and the unity of humankind.

Poverty.

The challenge of the Poverty theme is obviously prevalent in third-world countries, but is almost more difficult in the midst of affluence, where privilege can look mocking and unfairly imbalanced by comparison. Even the advantaged can exhibit a Poverty theme, perpetually feeling that no matter how much they might have, it’s not enough. Endurance, hope, and a perspective on the cosmic irrelevance of material possessions can provide brilliant spiritual growth for those who choose this uniquely demanding theme.

Psychic.

You would think this would be my primary theme, but no. People who choose a Psychic theme often design strict childhood environments for themselves, where their ability to sense things beyond “normal” is met with severe disapproval. The challenge of the Psychic theme is to learn to accept the ability not as a burden, but as a gift and to put it to its highest, most unselfish, most spiritual use.

Rejection.

Those with the Rejection theme usually experience alienation or abandonment in early childhood and proceed with those same patterns throughout their lives. Hard as it is, the challenge for those with this extraordinarily difficult theme is to recognize Rejection not as a burden beyond their control, but as a specific theme chosen so they can learn that when the spirit is whole and self-reliant for its identity, the acceptance or rejection of others is no longer relevant.

Rescuer.

Rescuers gravitate toward Victims, wanting to help and save them, even if the Victims have obviously created their own crisis or don’t particularly want to be saved. Rescuers are typically at their strongest in the presence of the weakest or most helpless, and they’re highly empathetic, but they can easily be victimized if they don’t maintain a safe emotional distance from those they’re trying to rescue.

Responsibility.

Those who choose a Responsibility theme embrace it not as an obligation, but as a form of emotional nourishment. Their joy is in active, hands-on accomplishment, and they feel guilty if they’re aware of something that needs to be done and don’t see that it’s tended to. Their challenge is to become unselfish enough to remember that very often the people around them need the nourishment of assuming responsibility and accomplishing something too.

Spirituality.

Those with the Spirituality theme spend a lifetime in a fervent search of their own spiritual center, if not as a profession, then certainly as a constant personal drive. The more they search, the more new territory they’re compelled to explore, and at its highest level the Spirituality theme creates boundless inspiration, compassion, far-sightedness, and tolerance. At its lowest, it can manifest itself in narrow-mindedness, judgmentalism, and the dangerous isolation of fanaticism.

Survival.

Yes, to a degree, we would all seem to have a Survival theme. But to those who have specified this theme, life is a relentless, ongoing struggle, something to be endured despite the fact that the odds are stacked against them. They usually excel in crisis situations, but they have trouble distinguishing between a true crisis and their grim view of common everyday challenges. They should all be given and take to heart a bumper sticker reading, “Lighten Up!”

Temperance.

The Temperance theme is typically accompanied by an addiction to deal with and overcome. Even if the actual addiction never manifests itself, people who choose this theme have to fight a constant sense of vulnerability to potential addiction, whether it is to a substance, sex, a lifestyle, or another person. They also have to avoid the opposite extreme of becoming fanatically or psychotically repelled by what they perceive as something that may be a potential addiction. The key to the progress of the Temperance theme across the board is moderation.

Tolerance.

You name it, those with a Tolerance theme feel compelled to find a way to tolerate even the intolerable. Obviously, this can become a pretty untenable burden, to the point where they will eventually focus all their energy on one area they feel they can universally tolerate most easily, while becoming either narrow-minded or oblivious to everything else around them. Their growth can be accomplished by recognizing the theme that is causing such an unrealistic and indiscriminate view of the world and learn that being magnanimous is only worthwhile when its target is worthy.

Victim.

By definition, life’s sacrificial lambs. Their purpose among us is to throw a spotlight on injustice and inspire us to take action and make changes for the better. Abused and murdered children, targets of hate crimes, and those who have been wrongly convicted of violent felonies and then subsequently proven innocent are among those whose Victim theme is devoted to the interest of the highest good.

Victimizer.

Here to achieve absolute control over as many victims as possible, for the purpose of being surrounded at all times by visible proof of their own power. The will and feelings of their victims are meaningless until and unless they are in perfect agreement with those of Victimizers, and the only compassion they are capable of is toward their own hypersensitive, insatiable ego. On a small scale, they are the controlling lover or spouse, the stalker, the pathologically overzealous parent, and so on. On a larger scale, they are Jim Jones of the People’s Temple, “Bo” and “Peep” orchestrating the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide, David Koresh of the Branch Davidians—anyone who demands such slavish devotion that even children, who were given no options, were sacrificed not in the name of God, but in the name of the Victimizer.

Warrior.

Our fearless risk takers, our soldiers, our pioneers, astronauts, firefighters, and countless other unsung heroes in countless other professions with the courage to step up to a physical, moral, or spiritual challenge. They work in every sphere, from the mundane landscape of everyday life; to the front lines of wars against crime, drugs, natural disasters, and homicidal tyrants; to the vast unconquered worlds in space. Without direction, Warriors’ aggression can be destructive. But when focused, especially with a secondary Humanitarian theme, those with a Warrior theme can make historic contributions of global significance.

Winner.

The Winner theme differs from the Infallibility theme in that Winners have an active, pervasive compulsion to achieve and triumph. They are perpetual optimists, always believing that the next business deal, the next relationship, the next roll of the dice at the crap table, the next lottery ticket or sweepstakes entry, the next job or even the next marriage or child will be the one they have been waiting for, that will make all the difference. In its finest form, Winners’ unfailing optimism and ability to pick themselves up from every failure and move on with confidence is inspiring and exhilarating. Without frequent reality checks, though, Winners can squander their money, their security, and their lives with too many impetuous, undisciplined, and uninformed decisions.

Mission Life Entities

Mission Life Entities are among the most advanced spirits among us on earth, which is why there are so few of them mentioned in this book.

Each and every one of us has our own God-devoted purpose, whether our conscious minds are aware of it or not. Every incarnation we live here and every moment we spend on the Other Side are stepping-stones toward fulfilling that purpose. It’s essential to remember that no one purpose is more important than any other—every purpose toward God’s greater good is indispensable and equally valuable. If you find yourself doubting that, try to imagine a world full of kings and presidents with no teachers, nurses, miners, charity workers, cooks, mechanics, homemakers, and all the other residents of this planet who contribute to our day-to-day lives, or an army filled with nothing but generals and not a single foot soldier. Whatever our purpose, it’s ours to commit to, excel at to the very best of our ability, and know that, in God’s eyes, the very best of our ability is all He asks.

Those who volunteer for the purpose of Mission Life Entity have essentially said, “Wherever on this earth you need me, God, I’ll willingly go.” They’ll sacrifice their own needs and their own comfort for the mission they’ve signed on for: to compassionately, selflessly rescue, affirm, inspire, ignite, and celebrate the essential genetic connection to the divine in every one of God’s children they encounter, no matter what it takes or where it takes them.

Mission Life Entities don’t try to recruit or convert others or preach any specific dogma or religion. They’re kind, generous, and tireless, never claiming superiority or some elevated closeness to God. They include and embrace humankind rather than trying to isolate or estrange anyone. And they can be found in all walks of life, with a variety of job titles and varying levels of social status. Their purpose isn’t dependent on the amount of media exposure they can attract. It’s expressed through quiet generosity, universal empathy, and their ability to enrich the spiritual well-being of humanity during their time on this earth, a profoundly satisfying, very advanced path often filled with hardship and turmoil, which is why it’s a journey only a few rare souls choose to take.

Mystical Travelers

Mystical Travelers can most easily be described as Mission Life Entities with a broader range. What they have said to God about their soul’s journey is, “Wherever in this universe you need me, I’ll willingly go.”

In other words, Mystical Travelers devote themselves to the same eternal purpose that Mission Life Entities do: strengthening the divine spiritual connection between us and God as a thriving, active force. But while Mission Life Entities limit their focus to earth, Mystical Travelers volunteer to incarnate and continue that purpose on any inhabited planet in any galaxy. Most Mystical Travelers have experienced many lifetimes on earth and are ready to “graduate” to more expansive horizons. It’s as if their learning on earth earned them their Ph.D., and they’re yearning to go elsewhere for their postgraduate work.

Mystical Travelers have all the transcendent qualities of Mission Life Entities—the peaceful acceptance of sacrifice and discomfort, the uncommon empathy, the generosity, the kindness, the unwillingness to sit idle if someone needs help. The only two I’ve met in my six-plus decades had the added bonus of seeming to have taken and excelled in every theological course ever conducted, coming away with none of the rhetoric and all of the joy of actively loving and being loved by God. Both of these Mystical Travelers made me feel like a beginner, and neither of them lived long enough to reach adulthood. They came, they gave us a glimpse of our spirits’ greatest potential, and then they quickly left for their next assignment on the other side of the universe. You’ll read about one of them in this book.

Orientation

Orientation is an essential part of our transition from life on earth to our joyful lives on the Other Side. It takes place in one of the countless satellite rooms in the Hall of Wisdom, after we’ve studied our most recent incarnation through the Scanning Machine. During Orientation we’re debriefed on the lifetime we’ve just lived, with the help of our Spirit Guide, a team of trained Orientators, and any other spirits whose input can give us perspective.

For example, let’s say there’s someone your life deeply hurt, and watching your own cruelty through the Scanning Machine has left you devastated. The Orientators and your Spirit Guide can help you see if your actions might have resulted in some long-range unimagined progress in your soul’s journey or in the journey of the person you hurt. You can even summon that person (if he or she is at Home) or that person’s Spirit Guide to join the discussion. The point is to get an overview of the impact and inevitable ripple effect of your behavior, not so you can come away patting yourself on the back for what a great idea your cruelty turned out to be, but to give yourself enough perspective to make peace with the person you hurt and with yourself.

Another function of Orientation is to ease the transition to the Other Side for those spirits who were unprepared for the trip and are too confused or annoyed to be at peace when they first arrive, but don’t need the more intensive “therapy” of cocooning. As we’ve discussed, and as you’ll discover among Francine’s celebrity comments, not everyone is instantaneously giddy about going Home, and the Orientators are impeccably trained to help. After unprepared spirits experience the Scanning Machine and the debriefing afterward, they’re counseled by their Orientators to quiet their turmoil and resentment. They’re then given as much time as they need doing activities that brought them comfort on earth—reading, hiking, golf, soccer, chess, movies and television, computer games (let’s face it, there are those who wouldn’t consider it heaven, if there weren’t computer games), whatever will allow them to “decompress” at their own pace and renew their spirit’s awareness that our real lives are those we live on the Other Side.

Quadrants

As we’ve established, all of the earth’s continents exist on the Other Side, including the “lost” continents of Atlantis and Lemuria. And each of the continents at Home is divided into four quadrants. The division has nothing to do with government and politics, since there’s no need for those on the Other Side. (It’s sounding more like paradise by the moment, isn’t it?) Instead, the quadrants are simply areas devoted to specific purposes corresponding to the chosen vocations of our lives there. One quadrant of each continent is dedicated to Orientation, for example, not only the “decompression” activities of those who need them, but also the training of aspiring Orientators. Another quadrant is specified to house all the sciences. Another is the center for the creative arts, and the fourth is where all the research of Home takes place.

There’s complete freedom of movement among the quadrants, and as with all other areas of the Other Side nothing exists that’s off-limits to anyone. A sentry is posted at the entrance to each quadrant, but only to keep track of the whereabouts of everyone who works there and direct their visitors or collaborators from other quadrants to their exact locations.

To make our lives there even more convenient, if you go to, let’s say, the second quadrant of Asia to say hello to a friend, and the sentry tells you your friend left there to meditate in the Gardens of the Hall of Justice, as the “locals” love to do, you’re not facing a long journey to catch up with your friend. Free of our bodies, with our skilled spirit minds sharp and clear, we enjoy the gift of astral travel, which is effortless, instantaneous, and taken for granted—we simply think ourselves from one destination to another and we’re there.

The Scanning Machine

Once we’ve completed our overwhelming reunion in the meadow with all the beloved friends and animals who gather to welcome us Home, our Spirit Guide escorts us to an immense, sacred, private chamber in the Hall of Wisdom for our visit to the Scanning Machine. The Scanning Machine is a huge convex dome of blue glass, circled by curved white marble benches. And through that domed blue glass we watch every moment of the incarnation we’ve just completed replayed before our eyes, the ultimate home movie in three-dimensional hologram form. Because there’s no time on the Other Side, the number of “years” it takes to review our lifetime in exhaustive detail is a nonissue.

Rather than simply being a nostalgic stroll down memory lane, our session at the Scanning Machine is essential to the journey of our spirit. We all slog along through our lives on earth with no conscious awareness of our charts—in fact, even if we astrally travel from earth to the Hall of Records and locate our current chart, we’ll be staring at a blank parchment scroll, since our own charts are off-limits to us until we’ve done our best to live through them. But once we’re Home again, we have total recall of our charts, and the Scanning Machine provides the means for us to literally see how our intentions stacked up against our actions.

I find it fascinating, and so logical, that it’s not God who evaluates how well or how poorly we did. We evaluate how well or how poorly we did, stripped of the earthly devices of defensiveness and ego-driven self-justification. We come face-to-face with the unfiltered, unedited reality of a lifetime of actions, for better or worse, and it’s ours to deal with, process, and learn from.

And by the way, next time you read about others’ near-death experiences and they mention the fact that their whole life flashed before their eyes, you’ll now know that they got as far as the Scanning Machine before they were resuscitated and came back to “life.”

Soul Mates

The true definition of a soul mate, as opposed to the hyperromanticized definition that’s become such an unfortunate myth, is simply this. Each of us is created with a spirit that has both male and female aspects. At the moment our spirit is created, an identical twin spirit is created right along with us. That identical twin spirit’s male and female aspects are mirror images of our own. And that identical twin spirit is our soul mate.

While we’re living our lives on the Other Side, we’re more emotionally connected to our soul mate than we are to any of the other spirits we know, just as most identical twins are uniquely connected. But we also have separate and complete identities. Our soul mate is not the other half of us, nor are we the other half of our soul mate—none of us is half a person in need of completion. We and our soul mate at Home each have our own friendships, our own interests, and our own pursuits, while loving each other freely and unconditionally. Again, don’t think romance, think identical twins, and you’ll have a much healthier, more accurate idea of what a soul mate is.

Like all spirits on the Other Side, both we and our soul mates choose when, if, and how many times we feel it will benefit our growth to come to earth for another incarnation. Because we’re separate, complete, and on our own unique journeys, we make the decision to incarnate independently and for intensely personal reasons to do intensely personal work on ourselves. Which makes the chances very slim that our soul mate would incarnate at exactly the same time we do, let alone that we would choose lifetimes on earth in which we’re going to be together, since we see each other as often as we want on the Other Side. It frustrates me to no end when clients complain to me that they can’t seem to meet their soul mate, when the truth is, it’s highly probable that their soul mate is joyfully busy at Home and, when the time comes, will be the first to greet them when they emerge from the tunnel. So if you find yourself surprised or even disappointed by the scarcity of soul mates among the famous names in this book, now you’ll understand.

Spirit Guides

Since my Spirit Guide, Francine, is the coauthor of this book, it only seems fair that I elaborate a little more on who Spirit Guides are and their role in our lives. As I said earlier, every one of us has a Spirit Guide, someone we literally trusted with the well-being of our soul on the Other Side, who agreed to be our constant, vigilant companion and helpmate when we decided to experience another incarnation on earth.

It’s a requirement that Spirit Guides have experienced at least one lifetime here, so that the problems, mistakes, temptations, fears, and frailties inevitable in humans won’t be completely foreign to them. In fact, most of us either have been or will be someone else’s Spirit Guide during our soul’s journey. But to clarify a point I’m frequently asked about, your relationship with your Spirit Guide was established between the two of you on the Other Side before you were born, so it’s impossible for your Spirit Guide to be someone you’ve known in this lifetime.

Spirit Guides are responsible for encouraging, advising, and supporting us toward the goals we’ve set for ourselves here on earth. And they’re equipped with plenty of information to help them live up to the astonishing challenge they’ve agreed to. They study us closely and objectively on the Other Side, once we’ve mutually signed on to this relationship, and they memorize and then continually refer to our charts every step of the way, while we lose conscious awareness of our charts the moment we’re born.

Even when we think we wish they would, Spirit Guides never interfere with our charts or deprive us of our free will, no matter how far off track we seem to wander. At best, they’ll steer us toward possible alternatives and give us warnings along the way. But our sacred pact with them is based on the fact that we’ve incarnated for the further education and growth of our souls, and those things can’t be accomplished if our Spirit Guides are constantly shielding us from the exact lessons that we designed for ourselves in the first place. They’re Spirit Guides, after all, not Spirit Bosses, Spirit Police, or Spirit Superheroes, doing precisely what God and we ask of them for our maximum benefit.

Spirit Guides communicate with us in several ways, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t have the advantages I do of clairaudience and the ability to channel. The vast majority of the time they express themselves telepathically and through infusion, directly from their spirit minds to ours. What you might habitually define as instinct, your conscience, or the ever popular “something told me” is really most likely to be your Spirit Guide sending you messages, and it’s up to you to remain open-minded and alert enough to pay attention.

They’re also the very last to say good-bye to us as we leave the Other Side to come here, and they’re there when we return Home, among the crowd that welcomes us and the sure, steady hand that leads us to the Scanning Machine to start making sense of the lives we’ve just finished—in other words, our relationship with our Spirit Guide is one of the most unique, steadfast, and invaluable alliances we’ll ever experience.

Spirits

Just to clarify something right up front, we’re all spirits. The only difference between us and the celebrities in this book, not to mention our deceased loved ones, is that we’re currently inhabiting a body and they’re not. So in this discussion of spirits who’ve moved on from their bodies, when I use third-person pronouns like “they” and “them,” please remember that not that long ago “they” were “us,” and not long from now we’ll be them again, just as we were before we incarnated.

The spirits we’ll be talking about are those who’ve made it safely to the higher-frequency dimension of the Other Side, three feet above our own ground level. You know those countless descriptions you’ve heard of visiting spirits looking as if they’re floating a few feet above the ground? They’re not really floating at all; they’re simply moving along on their own ground level, exactly three feet above ours.

Once spirits arrive Home and go through any Orientation or cocooning processes they might need, they’re living in a very real place of perfect bliss, where the atmosphere itself is charged with God’s immediate presence, peace, and eternal, unconditional love. Living in that state of bliss, reunited with their memories of all their past lives on earth, and now at Home and back on the “time clock” of eternity again, they’re literally incapable of the strictly human emotions of unhappiness, anger, resentment, pettiness, worry, fear, and negativity. Any emotional and physical burdens a spirit carried through an incarnation are resolved in the white light of the Holy Spirit on the Other Side. So if you ever encounter a being who seems sad, mean, or troubled in any way or who shows even a hint of wounds, disease, or other challenges, I promise you’re dealing with an earthbound ghost, not a spirit. And if you ever find yourself worrying if deceased loved ones at Home are angry with you, if they’ve forgiven you, or if they are as ill or unhappy as they were during their lives, you can ease your mind. Needlepoint it on a pillow if you need to, because you can count on it: if they’re Home, they’re happy.

Unobstructed by our earthly limitations, spirits have any number of advantages over us on earth that we all have to look forward to:

• The natural ability to communicate with each other, and with us when they visit us, through the use of telepathy—that is, the instant transference of information from one entity to another without the use of the five physical senses. One of the most common observations you’ll hear from people who’ve experienced spirit visits is that an entire conversation took place between them without either of them saying a word.
• The natural ability to bilocate—that is, literally be in two places at once. For example, deceased loved ones can easily visit two family members simultaneously who live hundreds of miles from each other, and each visit is unique and absolutely real.
• The ability to manipulate animate and inanimate objects on earth to get our attention. Spirits can easily communicate with our animals and cause them to respond to telepathic commands, so that, let’s say, a conspicuous number of birds, butterflies, squirrels, or whatever will be impossible for the recipient of the visit to ignore, or a family pet will suddenly perform tricks it only used to perform for the visiting spirit. The variations in the use of inanimate objects as spirits’ way of waving at us are literally countless. They’ll move photographs or keepsakes, they’ll rock their favorite rocking chair, they’ll play a “broken” music box and make dormant toys spring to life, they’ll hide keys and eyeglasses, they’ll leave little clusters of coins in places that make no sense, they’ll superimpose their own image on a painting or snapshot just long enough to be seen—anything it takes, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, for a spirit to try to express, “I’m here!” and be noticed.
• The ability to dramatically affect electrical devices. Spirits, after all, have to cross from the dimension of the Other Side into ours in order to visit us, and they often find it helpful to attach their energy to such readily available conductors as electricity and water (which is why the old movie cliché is true—the spirit world really does love a good thunderstorm). They can create utterly bizarre behavior in TVs (a popular favorite is changing the channels over and over and over again, as if someone’s sitting on the remote control), appliances (particularly instances of doors of microwaves, refrigerators, and ovens swinging open and closed over and over again “on their own”), telephones (they don’t call it “phantom ringing” for nothing, and if you’ve ever answered a ringing phone to nothing but blaring static, it’s safe to assume you’ve been visited), and countless other electrical and electronic devices.

In almost all of Francine’s comments you’ll see that she mentions specific people on earth whom celebrities come to visit. It’s my hope that those receiving visits—and all of you as well—pay attention and know what to watch and listen for. They’re so eager to assure you that they really are alive, well, and with you, and I’d hate for you to miss them.

Visages

Through casual, completely unscientific polls among countless clients over the years, I’ve become familiar with the popularity of the myth that when we leave our bodies and rejoin the spirit world, we assume the form of wispy, shapeless blobs of fog. I guess a case can be made that with the gift of eternal life to be grateful for, it’s petty to worry about what we look like at Home, but living eternally among an endless sea of floating fog blobs doesn’t sound like a lot to look forward to either.

The truth is, we all have very distinctive individual identities on the Other Side that we return to when our lifetimes here are through. We have bodies of various shapes and sizes. We have faces with unique features, just as we have on earth, as well as a variety of hair colors, eye colors, and skin colors. We have eyes that blink, and mouths that smile. In fact, we even have hearts and other “human” organs, but their placement is a mirror image of our earthly bodies, so that everything is reversed from left to right. I once asked my Spirit Guide, Francine, why we have organs at Home when we no longer have to bother with annoying functions like digestion and waste elimination. She replied, “Because that’s the way God made us.” For the life of me, I couldn’t think of a good follow-up question.

We get to choose our own visages on the Other Side, and we can change them whenever we like through simple thought projection, especially when we visit a loved one on earth and want to be sure they recognize us. The one exception to that choice is that we’re actually bestowed with increasing physical beauty as our spiritual advancement increases—another of the major differences between here and Home, come to think of it. Sadly, we on earth usually come to learn sooner or later, whether we want to or not, that there’s no reliable connection whatsoever between physical appearance and spiritual advancement.

The Waiting Room

It never fails—just when I think Francine and I have covered all there is to learn about the Other Side, I find out there’s more, not because Francine’s holding out on me, but because, as she tirelessly puts it, “If you don’t ask the question, I can’t give you the answer.”

I knew that when we’re about to descend into a new lifetime on earth, there’s a long, beautifully designed process involved to guarantee that we haven’t made the decision lightly, there’s nothing haphazard about it, and we’ve taken every possible step to ensure that our brief trip away from Home will accomplish every goal we’ve set for ourselves. We’ve chosen our Spirit Guide. We’ve exhaustively designed our chart. The body we’ll inhabit is taking form in the womb of the woman we’ve selected to be our biological mother. We lie down on a table in a sacred, soothing room in the Towers, with the sunset pastels of the sky filtering in through the blue glass façade. We’re surrounded by comfort and support from those special, loving souls who are trained to keep us confident and unafraid.

I thought that was all there was, that the next step was our spirit entering the fetus in the blink of an eye, at the exact moment we choose. I was wrong.

One morning when she was six years old, my granddaughter Angelia told me about an astral trip she’d taken the night before. She routinely traveled to the Other Side while she slept, and she especially loved visiting the peaceful hush of the Towers. On that particular night she’d come across a room she hadn’t noticed before, with a vast window covered by a veil. Like every other child confronted with something hidden, she was curious and wanted to know what was behind that veil, and she took a step toward the room. But Francine, who’d been watching her, stopped her and said, “I’m sorry, Angelia. You can’t go in there.” Angelia couldn’t remember exactly what else Francine had told her, but by the end of the conversation she understood that behind the veil, inside that room, spirits about to leave Home to inhabit an infant body were actually diminishing in size, being transformed from their thirty-year-old physiques into babies themselves.

Honestly, I’d never given a moment’s thought to that very last part of our trip to earth. I guess I assumed that one minute we’re in our thirty-year-old body on the Other Side and the next minute, somehow, poof, we’re occupying a fetus. I shared that assumption with Angelia. Who knew it would be one of the dumbest things she’d ever heard me say? She rolled her eyes, she shook her head at my hopelessness, and her hands went straight to her hips as she replied with utter exasperation, “They can’t come in without getting little, Bagdah!”

With all the confidence of an older, wiser (and completely wrong) woman, I discussed with Francine this assertion that there’s a place spirits go to “get little” before they come back to earth, and wasn’t it typically adorable of Angelia to come up with such an imaginative dream? I should have seen this coming—it wasn’t a dream at all; it was an astral trip, and Francine had indeed stopped Angelia from going into that place in the Towers called the Waiting Room. In fact, her exact words to me were, “Of course spirits physically diminish in size when they descend,” and she sounded almost as exasperated with my ignorance as Angelia had been when she clarified that for me.

So, at the expense of my own pride, I can officially confirm that we’re all thirty years old on the Other Side until and unless we’re about to reincarnate, at which point we go to the Waiting Room in the Towers to essentially become babies again in preparation for entering the fetus we’ve chosen for our new lifetime on earth.

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