Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast DAM
paranormal podcast network, where we offer you podcasts of the supernatural.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And the unexplained.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Get ready now for Shades of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
to Coast AM, employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
(00:40):
your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself. Hi.
I'm Sandra Champlain. For over twenty five years, I've been
on a journey to prove the existence of life after death.
Episode we'll discuss the reasons we now know that our
(01:04):
loved ones have survived physical death, and so will we.
Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Are you familiar with
the words introvert, extrovert, ego, unconscious. They come from the
field of psychology, and in particular from Swiss psychologist doctor
Carl Jung. We'll hear a few of his words today
(01:27):
and I'll even tell you why he believed in the afterlife.
We'll also talk to modern day psychologist doctor Amy Robbins
and her belief in life after life. But before we
dive into that, I'd like to start with just a
few words about fear. You and I are living in
a very tough time right now and uncertain about the future.
(01:49):
Our human minds have this nasty habit of looking into
the future and worrying about it. Have you noticed that
there is a lot of good in your life and
that there is is a lot for us to be
grateful for? But why do we worry and concentrate on
the what ifs that may happen in the future as
opposed to living in the present or being aware of
(02:11):
the good things we have in life. I'm here to
tell you that it's not your fault and that is
just a byproduct of being human. However, we don't have
to have fear, doubt, and worry run our lives. Let
me ask you how old are you right now? Go ahead,
answer the question. Have you had things in the past
(02:31):
that you were fearful or worried about? How do you
feel about those issues now? If you're anything like me,
which I think you are, there has been a ton
of fearful and worrisome things that we've dealt with in
the past, but you know we have survived them. In fact,
we've learned, grown and become more wise. We may have
(02:54):
even helped a few people with what we've learned along
in our journey. So whatever may be cause you fear
or worry today, I'm going to ask you just to
relax a bit and trust you, however old you are,
have survived this long. Let's try to live in the present,
do the best things we can with the things that
(03:16):
we have control over, and let's trust that our future
selves can handle anything that comes our way. A quote
by doctor Carl Jung for the hero, fear is a
challenge and a task because only boldness can deliver from fear,
and if the risk is not taken, the meaning of
(03:37):
life is violated. Carl Gustav Jung was one of psychology's
pioneering figures in the twentieth century. He was a radical,
an inspirational psychologist and thinker who developed a characteristic and
unique way of understanding the human psyche and its functioning.
He was born in eighteen seventy five and passed in
(04:00):
nineteen sixty one. Certain of his concepts and terms have
entered into our everyday language, such as introversion and extroversion, complexity,
and archetype. More significantly, he founded a system of thought
which has directly helped many people and indirectly influence many more,
(04:22):
as well as having entered and influenced mainstream culture with
his psychology, Jung's most famous idea was his recognition of
the psychological value of spiritual experience. He believed that the
human psyche had three parts, the ego, personal, unconscious, and
(04:43):
collective unconscious. Before we go on, I'd like to play
a few minutes of doctor Carl Jung speaking from nineteen
fifty nine, and then I'll tell you about his near
death experience. He begins by saying, we are not so
about the end.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
We are not quite certain about it.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
And because you know, there are these peculiar faculties of
the psyche, that it isn't entirely confined to space and time.
You can have dreams or visions of the future. You
can hear round corners and such things. Only eaglemants deny
these facts. Now, these facts show that the psyche, in
(05:26):
part at least, is not dependent upon these confinements. And
then what when the psyche is not under that obligation
to live in time and space alone, and obviously it doesn't.
Then to that extent the psyche is not superitted to
(05:46):
those us. And that means a practical continuation of life,
of a soft of psychede existence beyond time and space.
I don't allow myself, for instance, to believe either think
just for the sake of believing it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I can't believe it. But when there are sufficient reasons for.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
A certain hypothesis, I shall accept these reasons naturally, I
should say, we have to reckon with the possibility. I
have treated many old people, and it's quite interesting to
watch what the Organs is doing with the fact that
his apparent is written with a complete end. It disregards it.
(06:30):
Life behaves as if it were going on. So I
think it is better for all people to live on,
to look forward to the next day, as if he
had to spend centuries, and then he lives properly. But
when he is afraid, when he doesn't look forward, and
he looks back to Petrivie, and he dies before his time.
(06:54):
But when he's living on looking forward to the great adventure,
that is ahead than he lives. And that is about
what the of courseus is intending to do. Of course,
it's quite obvious that you're all going to die, and
this is sick, the said finale of everything. But nevertheless,
there is something in us that doesn't believe it. Apparently,
(07:16):
but this is merely a factor of psychological fact. And
so when you think in a certain way, you may
feel considerably better. When I think of my patients, they
all seek their own existence and to assure their existence
against that complete atomization into nothingness or into meaninglessness. Man
(07:41):
cannot stand a minerless life. We need more psychology, We
need more of understanding of human nature, because the only
real danger that exists is man himself. He is the
great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We know nothing of man. Far too litdo.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
In nineteen forty four, famous psychologist Karl Jung slipped on
some ice and broke his foot. While he was in
the hospital, he suffered a heart attack. He hung onto
the edge of death as doctor's battle to save him.
His nurse described his unconscious body as being surrounded by
(08:26):
a strange glow of light. When he regained his senses,
Carl Jung spoke of a vivid series of visions. He
believed he had experienced what we now know as a
near death experience. He said, at first he was floating
one thousand miles above the earth. He felt as free
as a bird about to leave orbit. Then, as quick
(08:49):
as a flash, a huge black temple caught his attention.
At the temple's entrance, Yung saw a Hindu man sitting
cross legged. As he neared the temple, he felt that
everything artificial in his personality was being stripped away. All
that remained was something he described as the essential Jung.
(09:12):
He knew that within the temple, the ultimate mystery of
his existence and life's purpose would be revealed. He was
about to cross the threshold when he stopped in his tracks.
Rising up to pull him back to his earthly existence
was the King of Costs, the Greek god of medicine.
(09:32):
He explained to Jung that he had no right to
leave the earth and that he must return. Upon hearing this,
Jung awoke from his near death experience. He always would
recall the sting of disappointment at being brought back to earth.
He wrote, Life and the whole world struck me as
a prison. I had been so glad to shed it all.
(09:56):
For three weeks, Jung could take no pleasure in earth
wa life, but he slowly began to take comfort from
his visions. For Locke to Within was a valuable lesson
in his professional life. As a psychologist. Yung argued that
our unconscious mind consists of both personal experiences and those
(10:18):
that we inherited from our ancestors, which he called the
collective unconscious. Jung believed the collective unconscious contains universal images
which are eternal and which we all instinctively know. He
called those images archetypes and claimed that he saw some
(10:38):
of them during his near death experience. For the rest
of his days, Jung would stress that his near death
experience came from something real and eternal. He wrote, it
was only after the illness that I understood how important
it is to understand one's destiny. Doctor Carl Jung came
(11:00):
to believe that life is but a segment of existence,
and that what happens after death is so unspeakably glorious
that our imagination and our feelings do not suffice to
form even an approximate conception of it. If you've followed
(11:20):
shades of the afterlife for a while, or if you've
read my book We Don't Die, a skeptics Discovery of
life after death. You know I talk about that inner voice,
that inner critic that we all have judging everything that's
coming in to our occurring world. Well, those are just
other words for the ego or the ego mind. Pay
(11:45):
attention to yours right now? What is it saying? It
might have just said, where is she going with this?
Or is there a break coming up? Or what shall
we have for dinner tonight? That little voice translates everything
that's coming in. It's very busy, isn't it, thinking about
(12:07):
the past, the future, worrying, being fearful, making judgments. It
is in those times that we learn to quiet that
voice that we can connect with that collective unconscious. We've
heard many guests in the past talk about the power
of quieting the mind, the power of meditation, and connecting
(12:30):
to their loved ones. All of these concepts go back
to doctor Carl Jung. We're going to continue our episode
now with psychology and the afterlife, and when we get
back from the break, I will introduce you to a
modern day clinical psychologist named doctor Amy Robbins. And we'll
(12:52):
hear her take about psychology and life after death. We'll
be right back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife.
I'm the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.
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Com, the best afterlife information you can get. Well, you're
online Shades of the Afterlife with Sander Champlain.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain,
and today we're talking about psychology and the afterlife. Now,
I'd like to introduce you to doctor Amy Robbins, who
is a clinical psychologist, a consciousness expert who has learned
evidential mediumship. She herself has had her own transformative experience
(14:36):
and is so interested in this topic she has created
her well known podcast, Life, Death and the Space Between.
Meet doctor Amy Robbins.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
I'm a clinical psychologist. I have a private practice in Chicago,
more of a traditional psychology practice, although over the years,
you know, it's a really interesting kind of parallel path
I've been on, and only probably in the past five
years did I allow those paths to really intersect. I'll
tell you the whole backstory here. When I was eighteen
(15:10):
years old, I lost my loved aunt. She was like
a second mother to me. I was eighteen, she was
forty seven. She was waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant.
She had juvenile on that diabetes from a young age
and had complications throughout her life. While she was waiting
for the kidney and pancreas transplant, they found out that
(15:31):
she had had several heart attacks and they needed to
repair her heart in order to get her prepared for
the transplant. She had been on dialysis for a long time,
and when she went in for the heart surgery, her
heart had been just way too damaged, and she died
on the table. They couldn't get her heart back. So
I got the dreaded call that I'm sure so many
(15:52):
people who have listened to this podcast or you've spoken to,
or we've heard of, or we've experienced, right, that call
that someone you love has died. I was a freshman
in college at the time. This was really the first
what I call out of order death in my life.
It wasn't a grandparent that would have made sense, but
she was a young I mean, she was like my
mom right, young, vibrant, and it really really shook me.
(16:15):
And in ways I only think I realized, having gone
through grad school and done a lot of my own work,
realized the impacts of that. I got on with my life.
But I started having significant anxiety, and my guess is now,
in looking back, a lot of it was just the
unresolved grief and the stories I had told myself about
her life and my life and the similarities that we had.
(16:37):
And she was the oldest of three. I was the
oldest of three. She had a younger sister and brother.
I had a younger sister and brother. So I had
told myself all these stories about how my life was
going to be like hers or not be like hers,
And I kind of made it my mission that I
was never going to end up like her. She had
gone through a really bad divorce. She was stay at
(16:57):
home mother at the time. That resulted in her needing
to go back to work in a job where the
conditions for her illness weren't great, like they didn't have
great heating and because of her diabetes, she had circulation issues.
And I just really was like, hell bent, I am
not going to end up like her, and that drive
really led to a lot of anxiety. So fast forward
(17:18):
to graduate school. I had decided, after like a lot
of deep therapeutic work, that I wanted to go back
to graduate school for psychology. And my second year in
graduate school was around the time her son was getting
married and I was on a traditional psychology track. There
was nothing spiritual about anything I was doing. It was
(17:39):
like they didn't even really talk that much. I think
there was one spiritual class Psychology of spirituality or something.
Shortly before my cousins her son's wedding, I had what
I now know was a visit from her where she
came to me. She showed me an image of my
mom standing at the kitchen sink in the house I
grew up in, and she said, tell your mom not
(18:00):
to be upset. I'll be at the wedding. And then
I saw another image of my uncle pushing my cousin
in a stroller, and she said, tell him. I hear
him when he talks to me when he's outside walking
or running. I know he's talking to me. I woke up.
I looked at my husband and I said, Aunt Linda
(18:21):
was just here and at the same time as her energy,
like I remember kind of seeing her leave the room,
and my dog started barking so loudly. This was like
it probably six or seven in the morning. It always
happens to me because this has happened quite often where
I'm in that like state of brainwave state when I
wake up and then I fall back to sleep right
(18:44):
before you get up in the morning. So I called
my mom and I said, Mom, I had this. I
only knew the word dream at the time. I had
this crazy dream that Aunt Linda said, don't be sad,
don't be upset. She's going to be at the wedding.
And my mom started to cry and she said I
was standing at my kitchen sink last night and I
(19:06):
was talking to her and I said to her, I
cannot believe you're not going to be at the wedding. Well,
of course I was dumbfounded. She was dumbfounded, but didn't
know what to make of it. Then I called my uncle,
who is an orthopedic surgeon. So I come from a
family of physicians. My grandfather's a doctor, he was a pediatrician.
My uncle's an orthopedic surgeon. My father's a dentist. They're
(19:27):
very materialist thinkers. Right, there is no wo anywhere, although
I will say my mom and my grandmother my grandmother
has passed, but very intuitive women. They would never say
they connect with the dead, but they just have great
intuition and always have about people. So I call my
uncle and I tell them the same thing. And about
his part, I says, she hears you when you talk
(19:49):
to her, And he says, I'm always talking to her
when I'm out walking or running. That's the time where
I communicate with her. I think, okay, well this is interesting.
And I go to school day and I happened to
have a professor who I knew was interested in indigenous
healing practices. But she was also very, very psychologically grounded
(20:10):
in traditional psychoanalytic or psychodynamic therapy. And I told her
what happened, and she said to me, I think you're
opening up to something. She's like, I have the name
of a medium friend. I want you to call her now.
That wasn't in my repertoire really back. This was like
twenty five twenty six years ago, and I didn't think
(20:30):
anything of it, and I kind of put it to
the side. And then my grandfather died. This was several
years later, and it happened again, and then I started
having experiences with patients loved ones. I saw it, Okay,
I don't know what's happening to me, but there's something more.
And then it really started to become a bit intrusive,
(20:53):
like my lights in my house were going on and
off and full circuits coming down. And I thought, okay,
I have to get a handle on it. Situation because
I would be in yoga class and I would start
hearing the names of people in like back corner, right left,
and I was like, I don't know how to control this,
but it has to stop and this can't be how
I live. And so I did. I went to see
(21:13):
a medium. I worked with a medium for a couple
of years to try to understand and control and set
boundaries and open up and close down and do all
the things that mediums teach you in terms of what
happens when you're opening up, and how to protect your space,
and how to be really intentional, because spirit will come
in wherever there's an opening. You know, if you leave
(21:34):
your door open all day long, you're going to get
some bugs, and you're going to get some flies, and
you might even get a person. And if you live
in the city like I do, you could get a rat.
And so you don't just want to leave yourself open
in that way. I worked with her for two and
a half years. Now, this parallel path is no one
knows that this is happening for me. And I'm now
(21:56):
a new mom and I have a therapy practice and
I have patients coming to me for all kinds of issues, grief, loss,
relationship issues, old wounds, traumas, all of that. And I'm
starting to use in some way these intuitive hits that
I'm getting, whether it be I have task life where
I'll see like an image of something that I think
(22:19):
is a past life where I can go in and
see where someone is specifically stuck and bring that into
the room. But I'm not yet really clear how this
looks in everyday practice, Like I'm not saying to people
I think you had a past life or your dead
grandma's here. I'm just sort of subtly using it to
(22:40):
test out whether I'm right or wrong. Then I moved
to doing my medium internship. Because I value training and
making sure that you are an integrity to what you do.
I decided I would do medium readings for friends and
family for what was supposed to be one month ended
up being like three and a half and did readings, readings, readings,
(23:01):
and I realized one I was always nervous that I
was going to get it wrong, and so that definitely
impacted my abilities. But the other side was it felt
like a part of the puzzle was missing because I'm
so used to doing this deeper work with people that
it felt like just showing up and saying, yeah, your
(23:23):
grandmother's here, and they really love you and they miss you.
I did have an experience in a reading where I
was reading for a friend and her father in law
came through and I gave some messages for her husband,
and her father in law showed me this image of
this ring, this blue ring with a blue stone on it.
I told this to my friend. She went back to
(23:44):
her husband and he said, I don't know what you're
talking about. My dad didn't wear jewelry. He goes home
for the weekend to visit his mother. His mother as
soon as he gets there, walks into the room and says,
you know, I just found this of your dad's and
I feel like he would want you to have it.
And it was the ring exit as I had described it.
And so it was like these moments where I was like, what,
(24:05):
this is unbelievable, and I don't want to just be
the person that says, here's the ring from your dad.
Isn't that cool? Which it is, And I think that
this work can be incredibly healing in that way, But
I also always have that question of so, now, what
what do you do with this information now that you
have it. It's great that my aunt came to visit me,
(24:26):
and I do believe that there is more that happens
after we die, that our soul goes on, that this
is not the end. But then how do you use
that in your life? And that's really where the intersection
has happened for me, is these experiences are amazing and
they really do bring magic to life. I was moving
(24:47):
in this direction because when I decided I didn't want
to be a medium, and my psychology practice is my
practice and I enjoy that, but I felt like I
needed to share this part of myself. I needed the
people to know it was okay. They have these experiences.
They are very powerful. They can help you heal, they
can help you find magic in the universe and the world,
(25:10):
and a time where it seems like the world is
so heavy, there's something really joyful about having these connected
experiences with call it whatever you want, loved one, spirit, guides, angels,
the universe, source God, whatever works for you. So I
decided to start my podcast because I was like, Okay,
(25:31):
similar to you, you're a skeptic. I was a skeptic.
I never believed in this stuff. I would have said
this is not real, even when I've had my own
medium readings, even when I've gone to see mediums, which
I've gone with my husband, so we can experience some
of this and maybe become kind of a believer. I
feel like when you have the experience yourself. There's no
(25:54):
getting away from it. And so what my work now
feels like is helping people cultivate their own relationships with
their own spirituality. Whatever that looks like.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
We're going to take a quick break and we'll be
right back with more, Doctor Amy Robbins. You're listening to
Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast AM Pirinormal podcast Network.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
Don't go anywhere.
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Speaker 8 (27:05):
Hey everyone, it's the Wizard of Weird Joshua P. Warren
And now here's more Shades of the Afterlife.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
and we're with clinical psychologist doctor Amy Robbins, and she's
sharing about her husband and herself going to a medium
and the unique experiences we all have that leave no
other explanation than connecting with our deceased loved ones. Let's continue.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
I feel like when you have the experience yourself, there's
no getting away from it. And so what my work
now feels like is helping people cultivate their own relationships
with their own spirituality, whatever that looks like, to have
these similar experiences, because they are so profound. It is
(28:15):
incredible to be able to have conversation with the universe
in a way that feels like you are in lockstep
with what your soul is here to do. And that's
really where now I feel like I'm shifting again into
that space of trying to put out more offerings, taking
what I know from psychology and how our early relationships
(28:39):
shape us and how we carry that throughout our lives
and the stories we tell ourselves about that, but then
bringing in for me what has been really the most
healing work has been the spiritual work, because Once I
had that experience with my aunt, my anxiety dissipated. I
was no longer walking around and feeling anxious all the time,
(29:02):
or feeling like I needed to control everything. There was
a letting go process for me that allowed me freedom.
We're in a mental health crisis right now. I think
we're in a spiritual crisis right now. I think we
have lost our connection to ourselves. Lisa Miller, who I
just interviewed last week at the Mental Health America Conference,
talks about religion on one side, it's like with a
(29:23):
Venn diagram, spirituality on the other, and then there's a
small overlap. This doesn't have to be religious, It can
be spiritual in all kinds of other ways. And I
really am passionate about helping people find for themselves what
that looks like. I'm not even here to tell you that.
I think you need to believe that there's an afterlife.
That is my truth, but that doesn't need to be
(29:45):
someone else's truth. But that doesn't mean they can't find
magic and awe in this incredible world in which we live.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
That's right, I know for me. Had I visited you
for as an appointment as a psychologist over twenty five
years ago and you brought up life after Death, I
would have left. It would be one of those weird people.
I don't even want to know about you. We're each
on our journey of unvolvement and at different times, in
different lives, we're at different places with your So I
(30:16):
always say, mainstream patients, if all of a sudden, what
are their loved ones pops up? Are you at a
place to test the waters to see if they're open.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
Yeah, So obviously I have this podcast that's pretty out
there for people. So when I started the podcast, I
reached out to several of the doctors who refer me.
I live in Chicago, like I said, a lot of
doctors from the hospital systems in the area will refer
patients to me. And I said, look, I just want
you to know I'm putting out this podcast, and I
(30:52):
want you to know what it's about, because if you're
recommending me and you have a patient who looks me up.
And when I started, they're really wasn't even the internet
the way it is, and there was certainly no social media.
I mean, no one had phones, right, so it wasn't
a big deal. But you know, in the last five years,
it has become that and I wanted them to know
that this was a part of me, and they all said,
(31:14):
oh great, okay. And I was a little worried that
it would impact my practice, but it didn't. The patients
that I had I never told that I had a
podcast out, so the old patients kind of maybe would
find out on there and like sometimes they would be
listening to another podcast and then it would be like,
this is recommended for you and everything. And there are
(31:35):
some people that I know pretty clearly because I do
ask in my intakes, like what spiritual practices do have?
What do you believe happens to us after we die?
If someone is grieving, I'll ask that question so I
can kind of gauge it a little bit like that.
There's been a few people where their loved ones have
come in and been very very very pushy with me,
(31:57):
where I've then said, you know, I feel I'm still
always tentative with it too, like I'm still like is
this information? Am I making this up? So I'll say
I think I might have information for you from a
loved one, how would you feel about me sharing that?
And then usually they'll be like, oh yeah, I please.
(32:17):
It does not happen often, and for me, it really
feels like I almost liken it to like a switch
on either side of my brain, and I can very
much feel on my right side when that information is
coming through, and when it comes through so strongly, I
can't think about anything else. I can't even access the
(32:38):
left side of my brain to do therapy. It feels
like it is all here and it is just coming
in and it's blocking me from being able to do
anything else but share that information. Again, this doesn't happen
to me often, and so I leave it up to people.
But I never push my belief system on my patients
(32:59):
because it's my job. My job is to help them
open and explore what their belief systems are, what they
think happens, what their spiritual experiences are, and for them
to begin to open up in that way. Do that
make sense?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Makes perfect sense. My hope is in time, more people
in physical health and mental health take a course or
two in your psychic abilities and mediumship and all that,
and you never have to tell people that side of you,
but to get that intuitive communication that's coming from your
(33:33):
soul and coming from the unseen world, just what a
gift that would be working with people, Like you said,
they don't ever have to know what your beliefs are,
but what an impact you can make. And I just
have this vision that your people on the other side,
your loved ones, your guides, whoever, feel like, Okay, she's
a warrior for helping people have the best life possible.
(33:57):
How can we best work with her? They're working with
you and making a difference that way.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
Yeah, that's what it feels like, and it's really exciting.
One more fun story, I'll tell this. This patient knows
that this happened, so she wanted to be pregnant, and
I knew that she was pregnant, and she kept going
and kept taking tests and she was like, I don't
know what's going on. And I never said anything because
that was a space where like I didn't want to
(34:24):
be wrong, of course, to give someone hope like that.
And then she kept saying I don't understand, like, I
don't know what's going on. I'm not pregnant, I'm not pregnant,
and in my mind I was like, I know she is.
And then suddenly one week, like a month later, she
came She's like, I'm pregnant and I was like, I know,
she's like you did, I said, I did.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Great, let's talk a bit about grief. A lot of
people that come to this show, well, there's a lot
of pain there. Grief, to me is the worst pain
any of us will feel. And if you're listening right
now and going through that, we are here for you.
And I also know you, like me, believe that facing
(35:04):
death can't open us up spiritually in so many different ways.
If we were to have a little mini session and
I'm grieving or someone listening is could you just shed
some light a little bit about grief and life and
death and some words from doctor Amy.
Speaker 7 (35:23):
Yeah. I think that no matter what you believe, if
you lose someone you love, it is going to be
excruciatingly painful. There's just no way around that. I say
all the time, if something God forbid happened to my children,
to my husband, this belief system is not going to
shield me from that. I have to walk through that
(35:46):
pain and I have to know that this new way
of feeling, this grief is going to live with me now.
It's just part of who I am moving forward, you know,
just like the loss of my a is a part
of me and other losses that I've experienced, miscarriages, things
along those lines are a part of me now. And
(36:09):
I do think that having this belief that the relationship
can go on, that it's going to look different, softens
it a little bit, but it doesn't make it any
less painful. There's no way around that if you believe that.
And I know you've had people on the show that
I've talked about soul contracts and those things, and I'm
(36:29):
not someone that is like, oh, well, you chose that,
so here we are like, I think that's very, very
dismissive of people's feelings in the moment. If we can
look at those as obstacles and ways to grow and
deepen our relationships with ourself and with the people that
we love and that we care about, then grief can
(36:50):
be a real opportunity to grow and learn and feel
being human. You can't get around grieving. And that's what
I was going to say about soul contracts. We did
make a choice, I believe to be here to incarnate
in this life and this time now. And so why
did we do that? What is that about? What are
(37:11):
these experiences here to help us to learn and grow?
So our soul can keep learning and growing over time,
but grief doesn't go away. Think about Elizabeth Koublaros's stages
of grief as like the five stages start to finish,
you move through them. They were never meant for the grieving,
they were meant for the dying. And we don't move
(37:32):
through anything in life as linear. We are spiraling, and
we are always coming back and growing and coming back
and growing. And I love this image of a spiral
because the spiral is sacred geometry. And that's how I
think of how we transform is through looking in, looking out,
looking and looking out, and we're constantly evolving over time.
(37:55):
And I think grief is not just about death. I
have a child that's getting ready to go to college now,
share I'm already grieving the loss of her and her
life and her moving on and our family and what
it's going to look like and all of those things,
and those are very real. That's grief and loss, just
(38:17):
like the death of someone is grief and loss. Divorce, moving,
new jobs, babies, loved ones, dying, pets, all of that
is grief and loss, all of it. And so I
think that when we can start to integrate grief into
our daily life, rather than thinking about it as it's
something that happens to me when someone dies, than when
(38:38):
someone dies it's not as scary because you're like, oh,
I've done this before. It's we're just building emotional muscle,
and when you build emotional muscle, you're stronger every time
it happens. That doesn't mean that some of those grief
loss experiences aren't more painful than others. Life is always
about grief and loss.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
It is most definitely you know, you mentioned Elizabeth Kobler
Ross and I just featured her story on a recent
episode of Shades of the Afterlife, and many people don't
know is just a couple of years after she gave
those five Stages of dying. She was a skeptic, and
all of a sudden, patients would see loved ones in
(39:22):
the room with them, you know, those deathbed visitations. She
studied twenty thousand near death experiences. She was a believer,
gave her whole life to that. Let's take a quick
break and we'll be back. You're listening to Shades of
the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM
Paranormal podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
More of Sandra's coming up just around the corner. In
the meantime, make sure and check out all the shows
on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 8 (40:01):
Hey folks, producer.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Tom here reminding you to make sure and check out
our official Coast to Coast AM YouTube channel. For many
of us, YouTube is our go to place for audio
visual media, and we here at Coast to Coast are
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Coast AM with you, our loyal fans and new listeners.
Our YouTube channel offers many different Coast to Coast AM
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(40:28):
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To visit or subscribe, just go to YouTube and type
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(40:49):
official Coast to Coast AM YouTube channel. You're gonna love this.
Just get on over to Coast tocoastam dot com and
start your free listening now.
Speaker 8 (41:04):
Now here's more Sandra on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Ghost Am Paranormal podcast Network.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
and we're here with clinical psychologist doctor Amy Robbins talking
about psychology and the afterlife. Let's continue.
Speaker 7 (41:40):
There are a lot of people in the psychological space.
Young and being the first right who always talked about
synchronicities and the spiritual side of psychology and archetypes. And
he was really a pioneer, and there is a branch
of Jungian therapy, Jungian psychology you can study, you can
do young in psychoanalysis. But it really got quieted by
(42:02):
Freud and a lot of the other kind of disciples
post Freud, and he was pushed to the side. And
in the same way that Elizabeth Koobler Roth's stories have
been pushed after Dath experience stories are not as known.
I don't know why. I think it really minimizes people's experiences.
I'm sure there are tons of your listeners right now
(42:24):
who have had experiences similar to mine who have been
in therapy before and who have never brought it up
to their therapist because they're afraid of what their therapist
might think, rather than feeling like this could be an
opportunity maybe as a therapist for the therapists to help
them cultivate what could be a new relationship with their
(42:45):
loved one. And it's not delusional, and it's not crazy,
and it's not making someone believe that their loved one
is not here anymore, because I think you have to
accept your loved one is not here in a physical
body anymore, and the relationship is going to look different,
But that doesn't mean you can't still cultivate some connection
to someone. And maybe that connection is around memories and
(43:08):
lighting a candle on their birthday, but maybe it's about more.
I want people to be okay with the about more.
And I think one of the side of effects of
my podcast has been the number of clinicians that have
reached out to me secretly and said, I want to
know more, Where can I learn more? How can I
incorporate this into some of my clinical work. I have
(43:30):
these intuitive hits too, because if you're connected with your
patients intuitively, you are going to know things. I know
things sometimes before they walk in the door. I know
what they're going to talk about. I know what they're
going to say. Not always, but sometimes, And so that's
an opportunity to even deepen the healing work more than
what we're already doing. I think that obviously, like anything,
(43:53):
you have to be careful. As you know, there's a
lot of Charlatan's out there. People claim that they can
do these things, and I do believe like you that
we all have this ability within us. But I think
there are people who take advantage. But that's in any
field anywhere doing anything. I think unfortunately people in this
space get a bad name because they say there's less
(44:15):
science behind it, but I don't know. I mean, there's
a lot of people who have researched this over the years,
and a lot of people who have had these experiences.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
So yeah, and there's so much fear amy. I know
for myself, it took everything I had to write my
book and then come public to my community people at work.
I was so scared what people would think. And there
hasn't well, there was one there was one person who
(44:43):
was born again Christian took me prayed for me, let's
get the demons out of Sandra. Okay, I said, thank you,
you know what am I going to do? But everybody
else embraced it. Everybody would tell me stories that they've had.
People would come up to me that were maybe had
breast cancer or some illness. There's some of them lost
a child and wanted to know more. So we're culture
(45:04):
of believers all around the world, but that fear has
us convinced that we can't talk about it. We're going
to lose friends, We're going to lose credibility, so we
stay quiet. So I'm thrilled that there's people like you
and your podcasts that you're being open about it, and
I dig the fact that other therapists are coming to
you wanting to know more. Talk about the podcast.
Speaker 7 (45:27):
So the podcast is similar to yours, I think in
many ways. So if you love your podcast, you'll probably
love my podcast. It is an exploration, I say, of life, death,
consciousness and what it all means. So I'm always looking
at things from the psychological and the spiritual lens and
trying to bring that into the work. So I interview mediums,
near death experiencers, consciousness experts, scientists, I look at alternative
(45:51):
healing practices because I don't think that there is one
way to heal. And that's something that I think as
I've grown in clinical work, I now am able to
see and not hopefully any person you're working with does
not believe that their way of doing things is the
only way, because that's probably a cult. And I don't
(46:12):
think of myself as a healer. I think of myself
as someone who helps people heal, and so I have
exposed myself to like so many different healing modalities because
I want people to say, oh, wait, this resonates with me.
I listen to your podcast and Sound Healing, and that
really sounded like something that I felt that when I
(46:34):
was listening to it, and so I'm going to give
that a try and just be curious and be willing
to experiment. I talk about all different modalities of clinical
traditional clinical psychology, I talk about energy psychology. I talk
about Chinese medicine and the Tao, and I try to
cover as much as I can so people can then
(46:54):
kind of pick and see what might work for them.
And my favorite part of the podcast, ghost Stories, I
do so people share their own stories of connecting with
loved ones or having these mystical, magical experiences that are
profound for them and help them in their grief. This
is my favorite part of what I do is being
able to talk to people and hear their stories because
(47:17):
there's power in stories.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Absolutely remind us of the name of the podcast and
where we can find it.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
Sure it's life, Death and the space between. You can
find it anywhere you get your podcasts and then YouTube.
You can follow me on Instagram at doctor Amy Robbins.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
Wonderful. Can people work with you one on one? Somebody
might know in their heart, I'd love to have an
appointment with this lady. Is that something you do?
Speaker 7 (47:40):
So I do spiritual consultations, but I don't do psychotherapy work.
I really prefer to see people in person. So if
they are in Chicago and I happen to have an opening,
certainly reach out. But right now my practice is pretty false.
But I do do the one off spiritual consultations and
(48:00):
so it gives an opportunity to work with me in
that way.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
I know. There's so many words of wisdom on your podcast.
You talk to great guests, you listen to their stories,
but you also sprinkle a little salt and pepper of
a great Amy wisdom in them as well. What can
we find on your website, Doctor Amy Robbins dot com
twobs in Robins.
Speaker 7 (48:22):
You can find my podcasts, you can find out more
about my course, and you can find out just how
I work and how I think about this work. And
I really hold integrity and authenticity very close, very dear.
It's two values that are really important to me. I
hope that that comes through because I always say, like,
(48:44):
if my patients ever saw me outside of the therapeutic space,
I never would want them to think, who is that woman?
I don't recognize her right like? I want to be
the same fully integrated person wherever it is that I go.
Long time, I wasn't because I didn't feel like I
could talk about that. But now that I feel like
(49:05):
I do, I feel like I'm just continuing to move
more towards that fully integrated person. And I think that
that comes through in my website where you can see
it all. You can find out all about me and
the podcast and talking to dead people once in a
while and doing the traditional psychotherapy as well, so it's
all there.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
So great. In a moment, I'm going to ask you
for some closing inspirational words for our listeners, something that
they can use for today and carry with them. But
before I do, you mentioned integrity and authenticity, and just
from me foundations of everything. Integrity gives us power, be
your word, do the things you said you would do
(49:47):
if something can't happen, be honest about it, Be honest
to yourself. The people that have had the most success
in life in the most people that really honor and
respect them. Integrity is at the core, and that authenticity,
that self expression. It took me a heck of a
long time to get that. That is the key to
(50:07):
the kingdom. That we don't have to pretend to be smarter,
or better looking or have it all together. The world
loves you when you can be just who you are.
You're one of a kind. You're special, good, bad, and indifferent.
We are who we are, and we trust people who
are open and authentic. So that's just my two cents
on integrity and authenticity. So back over to you. What
(50:30):
would you like to share it to leave with our
listeners today.
Speaker 7 (50:34):
So as you were talking, I think two things came
to mind. One is I believe that the most spiritual
thing you can do is to know yourself and that
that is a long, deep journey that I don't think
we ever get to the end of until we die
and then beyond. So I think that, and I also
think as you were talking, what came up in my
(50:55):
mind was show up. No, show up for yourself first
and foremost, and then everything else will show up for you.
But if you can't show up for yourself, nothing else
is going to show up for you.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
Doctor Amy Robbins, thank you so much for being our
guest today.
Speaker 7 (51:11):
Thank you, Sancha. I really appreciate it, and I'm so
happy to be in connection with you and have a
new friend.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
I love that it's just the beginning. We need to
join like minded people and get their stories out into
the world. It really helps I know that the tipping
points going to occur and that we can see therapists
and doctors, everybody tapping into their spiritual side. I think
(51:39):
that's really a wonderful way to look at the future.
For you, dear listener, I want to thank you for
taking the time to be here. I really do being
open for these conversations. Remember that ego is so strong
and it wants to convince you that these things aren't real.
Here's an example of how mean it can be. When
(52:00):
you wake up in the morning and you'll look in
the mirror, what does it say, how radiant and glowing
and wonderful you are. No, it'll pick out the wrinkles
and the gray hair and the extra weight. It is
not there to be your champion. It is just part
of life. But we can quiet the mind and tap
into all of it. I want to remind you you
(52:23):
can check out doctor Amy Robbins dot com and her
podcast Life, Death and the Space Between. Don't forget to
come to my website, we Don't Die dot com. If
you don't yet have a copy of my book, just
scroll to the bottom of the main page and to
your name and your email address. It says it's just
(52:43):
the first few chapters, it's the whole book. We have
some new medium and special classes starting open to everybody,
and of course our free Sunday gathering with medium a
demonstration included. I want to leave you with one line
quote from doctor Carl Jung. He says, where there is fear,
(53:06):
there is your task. So whatever brings you fear, walk
right into it. And I promise you there's magic on
the other side. They say fear means false evidence, appearing real.
I understand it. Everything's going to be okay. I'm Sandra
Champlain and from the bottom of my heart, thank you
(53:29):
for listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio
and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
Day and Paranormal Podcast Network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com.