This week’s show is packed as you will discover Steven LaRussa’s spiritual awakening and hear Sandra’s incredible experience with the latest in grief therapy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Thanks for choosing the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost Day
and Paranormal Podcast Network. Your quest for podcasts of the paranormal, supernatural,
and the unexplained ends here. They invite you to enjoy
all our shows we have on this network, and right now,
let's start with Chase of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
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
(00:42):
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.
Each episode will discuss the reasons we now know that
(01:03):
our loved ones have survived physical death and so will we.
Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Have you ever felt
like your life was just turned upside down only to
discover a deeper meaning beyond the chaos. Our guest today
is Stephen LaRussa who shares his powerful journey through a
(01:24):
spiritual awakening sparked by a crisis in his life, followed
by what he calls a dark night of the soul,
and then he had a near death experience. Today we'll
hear some important lessons he learned about letting go, trusting
the universe, and even something he calls as a spiritual spanking.
(01:44):
But before that, I want to share something personal with you,
an experience that I had. Do you remember back on
episodes two thirty one and two thirty two, I introduced
you to something called IADC grief therapy. What does IADC
stand for, Well, it's induced after death communication and if
(02:06):
you remember, on episode two thirty one, we talked to
psychologist doctor Tom Nemi, who said he was out walking
his dog one day listening to a podcast. That podcast
was me. He heard my interview with doctor Alan Botkin,
who first coined the term IADC therapy, how I movements
(02:29):
can transport you into reconnecting with your loved ones and
decrease grief. When he heard my podcast, he thought, well,
this sounds too good to be true, but as a psychologist,
he felt it was his moral responsibility that if there
is something to help people grieving, then he needs to
learn it. Not only did he learn it, as he
(02:52):
explained in episode two thirty one, he became a practitioner.
He created a study at the University of Adelaide in
Our Australia, a clinical investigation with many clients to see
what the results would be, and all people experienced a
dramatic decrease in their grief, so much so that they
(03:14):
couldn't believe that this was even available and they wished
they had found out about it sooner. But seventy five
percent of the people had some kind of experience with
their deceased loved one, either feeling their presence, hearing their voice,
feeling their touch, feeling of love, something like that. Well,
I wanted to experience this firsthand because if I'm going
(03:38):
to share about it, I need to know what really happens.
It's been about fifteen years since my dad passed. I
didn't know if I would be able to dig up
the feelings of sadness and grief or of too much
time had passed. And I had the Induced after Death
Communication grief therapy with doctor Tom Nemi. He was in Australia.
(04:00):
I was in my home in Rhode Island, USA. The
sessions are two ninety minute sessions on back to back days.
I was scared, to be honest, but I knew that
the only way to the other side of this would
be going straight through it. Friends, you really have to
dig up and experience grief in order for this to work.
(04:20):
The process involves emdr which are ive movements, and in
this case, doctor Tom sent me a link to watch
a screen and there was a little blue ball that
was going left and right and left and right. I
started with telling him some of the things about my
dad's death to bring that grief up. Not only did
I have the passing of my dad, but I wasn't
(04:42):
able to see my nieces and nephew because my relationships
suffered with my siblings so much so that they cast
me out of their life. So I went through the
grief of dad passing, the loss of my siblings, the
loss of seeing their kids, and I tell you, fifteen
years o go I hit rock bottom. Thankfully I did
because it brought me to you today. But I'd never
(05:05):
want anybody to go through that pain. So on zoom,
Doctor Tom had me relive these experiences. And even though
I was a little worried that I couldn't bring up
the grief, well I did. And so with each piece
of grief I discussed it with the Doctor Tom. I
closed my eyes, I really felt it. He had me
(05:26):
open my eyes and watch this blue ball go back
and forth, back and forth to dislodge the memory of
what happened from the intense pain. Now emdr these eye
movements is the gold standard therapy for people with PTSD
post traumatic stress. While we sleep, we go through something
(05:46):
called rem sleep, you know, rapid eye movements. So over
the course of the first ninety minute session, doctor Tom
calls it like playing the game whack a mole. Every
time a memory in grief pops up, we'd go right
after it, me feeling it fully and then doing the
eye movements. And what was really interesting is somehow it works.
(06:08):
I was able to remember these situations and things that
caused me great pain, but the pain wasn't there. So
that was session number one, lots of that and lots
of tears by yours truly. Session number two brought a
lot more of it, going back, revisiting things, making sure
I was cleared from the grief, but then finding out
(06:30):
is there anything else that was not discussed? And sure
enough there was, and the tears came. It was only
a matter of time before I couldn't find anything else
I was sad about. And then next thing you know,
doctor Tom asked me to tell him about my dad
and some of the shared memories we had, and that
followed with the eye movements again, and in time he said,
if you could say something to your dad, what would
(06:52):
it be? And for me, it was an apology that,
even though I know it wasn't my fault, the relationships
with my siblings came apart and that was the one
thing my dad did not want. And then he said,
if your dad were to say something to you, what
would it be? And it was a similar message how
Dad didn't want me to take this on it wasn't
(07:12):
my fault. We did more eye movements in correlation with
happy memories with my dad, and then something really cool happened.
It was as if I was looking through my dad's mind,
picking out memories of all the little things I had
done for him, making him an ash tray even though
he didn't smoke, making him a pencil holder all those
(07:32):
times that he witnessed me as a dad for his
young daughter, and I actually felt the love for myself
like I was looking through his eyes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That was really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And then an unexpected thing happened. It was almost as
if I got a slide show of the deceased people
in my life that just flashed before my eyes. People
I didn't expect, and there were even people that I
didn't know who they were. In truth, if I were
too invent this slideshow, it would take a heck of
a lot of time, not split second. And by the
(08:05):
end of the second ninety minute session I had with
doctor Tom, I actually had the feeling that I had
a whole bunch of my deceased loved ones, who are
of course young and happy and healthy and alive, like
they were standing right behind me, that they're with me
in life, cheering me on. It was a very very
(08:26):
special session. Friends, it is the real thing. Go back
listen to episode two thirty one and two thirty two,
and if this is something you're interested in, or if
you are a therapist, please do what doctor Tom Nimi did.
Find this out to be truth for yourself and offer
this as grief therapy for your patients. To find out more,
(08:50):
simply go to Healing Grief with IADC dot com. All right,
let's dive right into our episode with our very special guest,
who is a certified Master Spiritual coach here about his experiences,
including a near death experience. His name is Stephen LaRussa
(09:11):
from Spiritual Alignment sl dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I have basically the typical Christian background as far as
spiritual or religious beliefs, growing up in a Christian home,
going to church, studying the Bible, grew up in northern California.
I have a wife, we've been married twenty five years,
my son who's twenty one, and I spent most of
my life at you know, nine to five working manufacturing jobs.
You know, I worked for GM and Toyota, amongst various
(09:37):
other manufacturing jobs and positions. I was a QC supervisor lead,
so that type of thing. So I spent you know,
a lot of my life in the nine to five, wife, son,
pretty typical life and whatnot. Well that's pretty typical up
till a couple of years ago, and then everything changed
basically for me, and I think for a lot of
people with a spiritual awakening, is usually not all the time.
(10:00):
But usually brought on by crisis, severe circumstances that don't
really alter our thinking, and we can get us thinking
about what it's all about. So for me, I went
through a stage where I was working at First American Title.
I had lost my job due to downsizing. My wife
and I were not getting along, fighting, We were literally
on the verge of a divorce. We were going through
(10:20):
our problems. My son was going through his problems, his
growing pains. I had invested in some commercial property in
the Cleveland, Ohio area and moved out there for a
while when I was separating from my wife. That was
spiraling out control, the cost trying to find an honest contractor,
trying to find an honest property management, a lot of
things going on with that, losing a lot of money,
basically losing my life savings in that investment. All of
(10:43):
those things contributed and began my spiritual awakening. Everything broke down,
and that's how it usually happens. It's a breakdown of
everything that you're doing to rebuild you back up. So
at the time, obviously I didn't know what was going on.
I started to get depressed, sad, and it always usually
begins with the questions, why am I here? Why am
I doing this? Why am I killing myself? Trying to
(11:06):
constantly obtain more and more and more to fulfill this
void of happiness, and it's never enough because we had
caught in this circle of wanting, getting, and then wanting again.
You want something, a house, a job, a person, or
a car, whatever it may be, you get it, and
then that thrill, just like a drug, wears off and
you're looking for something else to fill the void of happiness.
(11:27):
And I felt myself doing that. I was like, God,
there's got to be more to this. It's got to
be more to living seventy eighty ninety years and chasing
the world's ideal of success and killing myself to obtain
this ideal of what success is through society's eyes. And
it just created a whole breakdown, and that's what sparked
my spiritual awakening. Basically, my spiritual awakening to me was
(11:49):
very rough. I went through the period of what we
call the dark night of the soul, the extreme struggle
between the ego self and your higher self for control.
We a lot of times make that worse because we
don't want to let go of the ego and of
our life when the universe, when God is trying to
pull you away for that and pull you out of that,
(12:09):
so we create a lot more of our suffering by
trying to hold on. That's what I did. I tried
to ignore it. I try to do the same jobs.
I tried to hang around the same people. But it
didn't resonate with me, and a lot of us know what.
It doesn't resonate, but we're so comfortable with it we
would rather keep doing something that doesn't resonate. It doesn't
work because of fear of stepping away from that, because
it's like where do I go? What do I do?
(12:30):
If this is all I know? And that keeps us
trapped in that and we stay suffering. It's amazing how
people would rather suffer and something they're comfortable with than
step out and trust God in the universe to open
up doors for it. When God in the universe is
trying to close doors, that's what it is, and we
resist it. I attribute it to when somebody's close the
door and they stick their foot in the door, they
won't let it close. That's what we do a lot
(12:52):
of times. So for me, it was going through a
severe depression Let's take.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
A quick break and we'll be right back with more
Stephen's Dark Knight of the Soul followed by his near
death experience. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on
the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.
(13:28):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
and we're with Stephen Larusa telling us about how his
ego caused so much trouble which led to his Dark
Night of the Soul and ultimately a spiritual transformation.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Let's continue, we stay suffering. It's amazing how people would
rather suffer in something they're comfortable with than step out
and trust God in the universe to open up doors
for him. When God in the universe is trying to
close doors, that's what it is, and we resist them.
I attribute it to when somebody's closed the door and
they stick their foot in the door, they won't let
it close. That's what we do a lot of times.
So for me, it was going through a severe depression,
(14:07):
a severe questioning. You know, I went through every emotion, anger, sadness,
confusion because I had no idea what was going on.
If this is not something you're aware of beforehand, or
studied or looked into. You may think you're going crazy,
you may think you're having a middle breakdown. I thought
I was having a midlife crisis. I had no idea
what it was. So for me, I didn't know as
I know now to let go and give into the
(14:29):
universe and trust the universe, I thought it. So I
tried to hang on to those things, and by doing it,
I prolonged it and I made it worse.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I can totally get it. And I was just talking
about that yesterday, about how we try to hang on
to things even if they're not in our best interest.
You know, we're afraid of the unknown. So at some
point you got some droplets of wisdom and it changed.
I know you think you've experienced in your death experience.
I don't know if that's part of it or after.
But what started presenting itself that you started letting that
(14:59):
ego south quiet down and being open to something bigger.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, for me, it was just through personal research. It
was instilled in me when I was going through this,
that I started to have a search for knowledge, a
search for truth. You know what you've been doing, what
you've been told, the programming, the mental, social constructs, religious dogma,
A lot of that is not the truth. So you
start realizing, Okay, there's something more to this. There's an
(15:24):
inkling in me that there's something that I need to learn,
that I need to find. For me, it was just
a search for the truth, for the meaning of it all.
So for me, through research, through stumbling upon videos, articles,
which translated into me buying books, which translated into me
taking classes to get certified in a lot of different
spiritual topics and whatnot. It kind of starts with that
(15:48):
questioning and then that little research that opens the door,
and then I realized, okay, wait a minute, here's what
I'm going through. Oh I do feel this. This is
called a spiritual awakening. The universe put everything out there
for me to be able to see it. That's what
the universe will do in synchronistics, guide you to the
correct videos, the correct books, the correct people to answer
your questions. So that's what happened with me. Once I
(16:10):
went through that, everything changed. Certain relationships are going to
fall off. Things you used to do, music, used to
listen to, everything will change. A lot of people ask me,
how do I know if I'm going through a spiritual awakening.
The main thing that happens during spiritual wakning is a
change of yourself. You're breaking out of that ego self
that was never really you, that worldly self with all
those ideals and logic that was programmed into your higher self,
(16:33):
and you're not going to be able to do those
same things, hang with those same people. Those experiences aren't
going to resonate with you anymore, and it's going to
be a shift. So for me, I didn't have a mentor,
I didn't have anybody to tell me like most people don't.
It was just investigation that just snowballed into where I
am today.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That's good news that we can have all the tools
within us to explore and thank goodness for YouTube and books.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And yeah it's not and all that.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yes, definitely, I know your coach these days and you
really empower people. Did that come out of this?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Well, it's funny because it didn't. And like a lot
of others, after I went through the spiritual awakening, the
Dark Knight Soul, I came out of it. So I
started studying quantum physics, reading books, you know, Dolores Cannon,
Brian Wise, Michael Newton. Reading all these books and obtaining
all this information. Then I wanted to take it to
the next level. So I began taking classes and getting
(17:28):
certified and getting more and more information. Now there was
a point where it's like, Okay, I was comfortable doing that.
That was fine. I was on a roll. But there
was a point where God told me, okay, all right, Steve,
you're reading that's great. Now it's time for you to
put yourself out there. Time for you to get your website.
It's time for you to market yourself. It's time for
you to put yourself out there so the people that
need you can find you. That's when I stopped. That's
(17:50):
when I started stalling and starting reverting back to my
old self out of fear. Am I good enough? Will
I be judge? What are people going to think? Do
I know enough? Who am I to do this? There's
going to be too much work. That egos started to
creep back in in an effort to stop the calling,
because that's what the darkness does. So now I stalled.
So I started kind of reverting back into some old ways,
(18:12):
old things I used to do, not a lot, but
started backtracking because I was scared to step into that.
I stalled for a while and ran from the calling.
That's what led to and brought on the NDE was
my stalling and reverting from my calling and running from it.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Stephen, I had the best afterlife information in the world,
and it took ten years before I verbalized it to
the public. I'm not good enough. Who's going to listen
to me. I'm not smart enough to write a book.
It was all there, and it wasn't until the death
of my dad and discovering grief that brought me to
my deepest, darkest depths. And then it was finding really
(18:51):
good things about grief and moving through that opened me
up to where I am today. But I completely get
that ego voice that just shuts us down. There's a
lot of people listening to you that can relate good
Terrier's story right now, tell us about what happens physically
that brought on the near death experience, and if you
could share that experience with us.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yes, my near death experience, from what I understand, is
kind of rare because with most indies spark a spiritual awakening.
Right I had my spiritual wakening and dark Knight of
the soul before the NDE. So basically I started running
from the calling. This happened October ninth of twenty twenty four,
and it's funny people ask me, how can you talk
(19:32):
about it so soon? Most people hold on to their
NDEs for years, trying to grapple with them and deal
with them and understand them, and wondering about people thinking
they're crazy and they don't want to come out with it. Well,
for me, it was different because you got to understand,
I had went through a spiritual waking, a dark knight
of the soul, so I had kind of been prepped,
you know what I mean. I went through that experience first.
When I went through my NDE, it was a lot
easier for me to deal with because I wasn't just
(19:54):
fresh off the boat. I had experienced that. So my
wife was in the Sacramento, California area, is some friends.
She was coming back to Carson City, Nevada, which is
where we reside. This is how the universe works. Wasn't planning,
wasn't thinking. It just popped in my head. Let's go
to Lake Tahoe, Let's go sit by the lake, let's meditate,
let's kind of rejuvenate spiritually and let's kind of recharge.
(20:15):
So okay, we go up to the lake. We're driving up.
She comes back. We hop in the car together, go
up there. There was a strange feeling in the air.
There was something weird going on, and I can't put
my finger on it. I wouldn't classify as a good
or bad. Just were strange. So for the sake of
time on the skip some details and get into the
meat and potatoes of it. I was laying on the
bed now, I want to make this clear. I was
totally awake. I didn't wake up from a sleep. It
(20:37):
wasn't lucid dreaming. The TV was on, we were having
a conversation. My wife was standing by the bed. We
were talking. I was laying on my back. All of
a sudden, these pains start on my left side, sharp
shooting pain down my neck, going into my chest, going
down my left arm, tingling, sharp shooting pain and throbbing
all at the same time. Now, I've never had a
(20:59):
heart attack before, but I've read about the symptoms. You know,
you kind of know left side the pain, So it
sounds like everything I had known of. So I didn't
want to say anything at first because I didn't want
to alarm my wife, and it started getting worse and starting
to get severe. My arms started trembling, shaking. So I
look over at my wife and I say, Wanda, I
think I'm dying. I'm having a heart attack. Now at
(21:21):
this time, what do you expect your spouse or anybody
to do? Grab the phone? Call nine one one. Right.
Here's the interesting part. She didn't do that. She'd later
told me that when I said that to her, she
heard a voice to tell her to lay down next
to me and get in a position. There was a
com that came over. She couldn't understand it. I couldn't
understand it. My thoughts, why don't you call nine one one?
(21:42):
So she lays down next to me. Our arms are
bent at the elbow, four arms are up like this.
We're holding each other's hand, and we're just laying on
our back. So now at this point, I feel my
soul leave my body. I feel it grab we start
to leave. I'm in darkness that transitions into space out
amongst the stars, and I'm slowly traveling through darkness now
(22:03):
into space, and in the distance, far distance, I'm seeing
a white light which I'm drawn to So because of
everything I've gone through with my spiritual awakening, all the
research I've done, I wasn't surprised by you this. I
already knew about this. So I'm like, oh, oh my gosh,
but it's still a shock. I don't care how much
you know when you go through it. I don't care
what you've read. Going through it, I said, oh my God,
(22:26):
I'm dying. I could feel my soul leading. So at
this point, I start praying to God, please give me
another chance. Now I heard God's voice three times audibly
in my mind during this. The first time he said
to me, you've wasted enough time. That really shook me,
and talk about feeling bad, because I knew exactly what
he was talking about. Had all these spiritual experiences, not
(22:46):
to mention the dark Knight of the soul of spiritual awakening,
but also a lot of synchronicities happened that showed me
I was going in the right direction. And I started
to stall, and I knew what he meant, so I
start praying, I'm sorry forgive me. I know my calling.
Of course, when this is going on, you have no
concept of time. I have no idea how long this
went on. So now the interesting part is my wife
(23:07):
said she started actually feeling my pain. She could feel
on her left side. She said, I doubted what's severe
as yours was, but I could feel your pain. So
at this point we start communicating telepathy. She said, I
can hear all your prayers. Even though all my prayers
were in my mind, she can hear them all. So
as I'm praying, nothing is helping, nothing's working, I'm steadily fading.
(23:28):
So at this point I'm like, okay, you know what,
I'm going to give up. I'm going to give into
it because nothing I'm saying to God is working. Maybe
it's just my time. I need to stop fighting it.
As soon as I said that in my head, nothing
was said out loud. As soon as I said that,
my wife said to me telepathley, Steve, fight, fight, fight,
don't give up. She heard me. She knew that I
was about to give into it, so that gave me
(23:50):
a second win. So I start praying again, God, please
don't do this. I understand what I'm supposed to be doing.
I know that I was chosen to do this, and
not even just chosen, but I agreed to do this
before my incr this is part of my plan. At
that point, the second thing God said to me was
all this information and knowledge I've given you, and this
is what you're doing with it, which really hurt because
I wasn't doing anything with it. I was wasting it,
(24:11):
I was running, I wasn't fulfilling my calling. So at
that point, you know, more prayers called for Jesus everything.
I never saw Jesus or anything like that, but I
was doing everything I can. Now. It's funny because people
have asked me, were you scared to die? I wasn't
scared to die, because I know where we're going when
we die, and we really don't die. It's just a transition,
(24:32):
it's not a depth. So I wasn't concerned about leaving
and not fulfilling my mission, not about what's going to
happen after death, because there is nothing to worry about
after death, because death is just a transition. It's like
you're waking up to your true self and you just
move on from there. So I wasn't scared of death.
I didn't want to leave without fulfilling my mission because
I know I would probably have to come back and
do it again. Like I said, that mission is still
(24:53):
a part of my sole purpose at that time, I'm
praying again. So I'm getting tired now right on the
urge of the white life, and I'm just guessing here
I'm going out number. I'm literally ninety percent gone. I'm
right on the doorstep. I'm brought to the brink of it.
So at the last ditch effort, I don't even know
why I said this. It wasn't even me. I said,
wan to help me. Now, I will say this. After
(25:15):
we talked about I asked my wife. She said she
heard the voice of God one time and God said
to her, and why should I leave you here?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We'll find out when we get back. You're listening to
Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of
(25:56):
the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain, and you're hearing Steven Russa's
near death experience. And at this point, he's lying on
a bed, feels like he's having a heart attack, is
out of his body, moving to the stars. He's experiencing
telepathic communication with his wife. Let's continue.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So at the last ditch effort, I don't even know
why I said this. It wasn't even me. I said,
wan to help me. Now, I will say this. After
we talked about it, I asked my wife. She said
she heard the voice of God one time, and God
said to her, and why should I leave you here?
And she said Jordan, which is our son, and she
said other than God telling her to lay down and
(26:34):
get in a position, and asking her why should I
keep you. She heard God's voice twice during the ordeal.
I said, Wanda, help me. So she sat up because
I can hear everything she was saying. We were speaking
telepathically up at this point. This is the first time
that she actually spoke audibly out loud. She starts praying
in what we call light language and tongues. This wasn't
(26:55):
really a shock to me because we've been the other
twenty five years, and I've heard this a couple times before,
so I can hear it. I can vaguely barely hear
it because I'm so gone, I'm barely even there anymore.
As I'm approaching the light. Now, this is the third
time I heard God's voice, and he said to me, Stephen,
be quiet and listen to your wife. Now. When he
said that a calm came over me. I was allowed
(27:17):
to focus on her. I was giving back my clarity
of where I was at that moment. So as soon
as I looked over to her to my right, she
starts speaking in different languages. She starts speaking in an
African language and chanting in the African language. Now we've
been the other twenty five years. The only language we
know is English. So in my mind first thought, thinking
human terms and logic, that this is impossible. She starts
(27:39):
speaking in the African language and chanting. She transitions to
a different one. Now I could tell it's an African
language because I've heard it. We've heard the past, like
you know what someone speaking Spanish even though you don't
know what they're saying, right, or Italian, so you know
the language, but you don't know what they're saying. She
speaks in three different African languages, and then she transitions
to an Indian language where she's speaking and chanting fluently.
(28:01):
So I'm in amazement. I can't believe it. But it's
funny if soon as she started doing that, as soon
as she started interceding, that's what brought me back. Nothing
brought me back before then, begging, asking God, promising this,
you know, begging that, asking for Jesus. Nothing brought me
back until she interceded. I got up. As I came
(28:21):
fully back, I was brought back. I was back aware
in my body. I got up, started pacing the floor.
I looked over at her. She was sitting there with
the days on her face. She was there with her
eyes wide open, just staring at like she was asleep,
but her eyes were open. So I didn't want to
say anything to her. I didn't know what she was
going through, but I left her alone. At this time,
I'm getting all these downloads from God about what you're
(28:43):
going to do, what's going to happen in the future.
My third eye, the penal glant, was throbbing and was
in so much pain and just throbbing and in pain
because I was in such a spiritual state of receiving
after going through this spiritual event. So my wife finally
comes out of it. I said, oh my God, do
you know what you just did? Do you know what
just happened? And she said, what are you talking about?
I said, you just spoken three different languages. She couldn't
(29:06):
remember it at first, and she's like, hold on, I say,
give me a second. So she takes a second, gavenged
herself and starts to come back to her. I said,
what were you saying? She said, I have no idea
what I'm saying. I don't speak those languages. I have
no idea what I was saying. We came out of it.
We started comparing notes. She said, I could hear your prayers, Stephen,
and I said, I can hear you telling me to
fight and telling me to keep praying and don't give up.
(29:26):
We were speaking telepathly, so in a nutshell, that was
our experience, and I know from that that was part
of the wakeup call because I needed a swift kick
to get on your path and purpose. And I thank
God for it because who knows how much I would
have reverted if it wasn't for God giving me that
experience to let me know you are supported like we
all are. This is your calling and basically you know
(29:49):
what you need to get to it or else stop
fooling around. So, yeah, did you go to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Did you get yourself taken care of? After that?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You know what? I've had people ask me that, And
as soon as that came to my mind, I was
told you don't need to go to the doctor. This
is not a medical condition. It's a spiritual condition. You
don't need to go to the doctor. So I had
never had any kind of pain or symptoms before, and
I haven't had the pain or symptoms after this because
I know that it wasn't a medical condition. It was
(30:17):
a spiritual condition that I had to go through.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
My goodness. Not too long ago, we spoke with a
woman about spiritually transformative experiences. Yep, and yes there are
near death experiences that are part of that, but there
are other kinds of experiences. They put you where you
need to be in the biggest picture. And I can
totally get the way you were describing that wake up
call that it's time to get on your mission. I
(30:41):
mean it took me hitting rock bottom with my dad dying,
like Okay, you're going to do this now right here?
You go?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah for me? And I'll say this, and people have
kind of misconstrued, so I want to make sure I
explain this. A few months before then, like I said,
because I had a lot of syncreticities, out of body
experiences and whatnot where I was in the white light,
but it wasn't a near death experience. It was an
out of body experience where God showed me the love
of the white light, gave me a taste or peace
(31:09):
of his love. A lot of people haven't experienced this,
and I've heard this before where people really can't describe it.
It's so intense and incredible. It's undescribable. Where I felt
that it was actually so intense, I had to ask
God to ease up a little bit because I couldn't
take it. I was literally in a ball, crying, clutching
myself trying to take all the love in. It was
so powerful. That happened a few months before my nd
(31:32):
and everything. But the reason I say that is because
during this NDE, when I was approaching the light, I
know God loves me, God loves us all. God is
unconditional love. That's what the universe is based on. But
for me, this was more like I could attribute this
to a spiritual spanking. It's like a father coming in
the room with a belt. I love you, but you
need some tough love. It was a totally different experience
from that. Yes, Steve, and I love you, but you
(31:54):
need this spanking to get on track because there's people
that you need to help. There's things that you need
to do. You need to be out there raising the Bible,
raising the frequency of this world, this universe. And you
know what, I'm going to give you this experience to
show you that you are enough, You are supported. This
is your calling. You're not crazy. Don't worry about other
people's opinions, validation, or approval. And That's where I'm at
(32:16):
right now.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I love spiritual spanking.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yes, Oh my gosh, it's a perfect term for that. Yes,
And I agree too. There's always going to be people
that don't agree with us. There's always going to be
people that think we're crazy. But that's okay. I was
the biggest skeptic twenty seven, twenty eight years ago that
I wouldn't even believe I'd been having this conversation now,
(32:40):
I really thought I knew better, right, And so we
all go on those paths, and sometimes it takes having
a crisis or trauma in your life, or a death
of a loved one, or an illness or something that
gives us that dark night of the soul gets us
on our path. So you've got your little spiritual spanking,
and look at you now. I want to talk to
you a little bit about the afterlife because you seem
(33:02):
pretty confident and I too feel very confident that there
is one. But we have a lot of listeners right
now who have a loved one who had passed. Yes,
could you talk a little bit about your reasons to
believe in the afterlife?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Well, Number one, you have to have an open mind
to realize that there's something more, that there's something out there.
Don't believe everything you've been told, don't believe everything you feel,
don't believe everything you think, because a lot of those
things are not reality. And as far as the afterlife,
it starts with all the stories. I'm a firm believer
that everybody is not making it up. Everybody's not crazy,
(33:37):
not lying to get attention, or not making stuff up.
There's too many experiences, there's too many people, there's too
much evidence out there for me to not believe. So
I was a believer even before any of this happened.
I was actually jealous of people that went through it.
It's like, Wow, that's great. I never thought I would
go through it. But after going through the spiritual awakening
and seeing the light in my outer body experience, not
(33:59):
the near death, of sperience, feeling the love of God,
the synchronicities, the way the universe communicates with you through numbers,
through song, through other people. Being on the verge of
death but knowing that, and this is the big thing
is there's just a knowing a lot of this stuff.
People want proof and all that kind of stuff. You
got understand when you're thinking worldly and logical in this proof,
(34:19):
you cannot apply that kind of thinking or kind of
logic when trying to understand and interpret spiritual events and concepts.
You can't because it's not going to work, because you're
going to put that event in those boundaries, in that box,
and you can't do that. The spirit world's unlimited. So
in order for us to understand it and even to
be in tune and connect with it, we have to
unlimit ourselves to be able to connect with it. And
when you keep yourself limited, you can't. So being on
(34:42):
the verge of death and not fearing death and knowing
that on the other side is just a transition of
energy that your loved ones are still there, our sole
family is still there. There's been so many synchronicities that
I've had from the universe of being spoken to, and
for me, going through these situations is not something that
(35:02):
we can create or imagine on our own. It's a
spiritual condition. So just knowing that there is something more
out there. Your loved ones are out there, your higher
self is out there, your spirit guides, your angels are
out there, and they're waiting to contact you. So I
encourage people if you just let go of some of
those things that you hold on as truths. Let go.
I'll teach you how to identify that negative thinking, identify
(35:24):
those social mental constructs, religious dogma that's keeping you trapped
and not allowing you to experiencing what the universe wants
to show you, what it wants to tell you, and
even the loved ones out there that may be trying
to communicate, but you have all these blockages, You have
all these hindrances that are keeping you from receiving. So
it is real. It is out there. And I'm telling
(35:45):
you this not because of a book I read, not
because of somebody else's experience, and not because of the
doctrines as I've studied. It's real through experience. And that's
another thing that God told me. I was told no
matter what you read no matter what you study, what
degree certificates you get, that's all great knowledge and wisdom
is great. Nothing beats experience of going through it and
(36:05):
living it. I could be a true example of not
what my brother told me, not what my mother said
or friend said, or not what I read, but what
I've experienced. And it's all they're waiting for you once
you release, because when you continue to limit yourself, you
will limit the universe and you limit your connection.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Makes perfect sense. I know that ego is a bear,
and I know we live in a time that we're
constantly looking at our phones, checking mail, checking text messages.
We live in the past, we live in the future.
In our mind, we're busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
And it's my firm belief Stephen, that our connection to
(36:44):
everything is in the present moment.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Do you recommend any meditative kind of processes for people
to slow down and to connect? I do have processes
and meditations for connection. The most important thing is the
old minded.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
This so when I talk to people, I don't take
on all my clients because I'm a firm believer and
not wasting anybody's time or resources. And if I don't
truly believe I can help you, I don't do that.
I do not waste time. I believe that you have
to be open, and you have to be open to
looking at yourself and doing the shadow work first before
you get into that, because there's a lot of people
that come to me actually and say, you know what,
(37:21):
I'm meditating, I'm doing sound baths, I'm walking in nature,
and I just don't feel the connection. I don't understand
what's wrong. I'm not hearing it. I don't get it.
And the reason behind that is you're not dealing with
those low vibration feelings, emotions and thoughts that are blocking,
that are hindering. So you have to deal with those first.
You have to dress those. If you haven't forgiven your
mother for something, if you're jealous of your best friend
(37:42):
for something, if you get on the phone and you
have expectations of people, and these little things like this
we don't think about.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
We'll be right back with a whole bunch of advice
from the spiritual coach. You're listening to Shades of the
Afterlife on the iHeart Radio and Coast to Coast AM
Normal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(38:23):
I'm Sandra Champlain. You can find out more about our guest,
Steven LaRussa at his website Spiritual alignmentsl dot com. Now
there's things that block us in life. We can all
agree on that. Here's the advice from this spiritual coach.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
You're not dealing with those low vibration and feelings, emotions
and thoughts that are blocking, that are hindering. So you
have to deal with those first. You have to dress those.
If you haven't forgiven your mother for something, if you're
jealous of your best friend for something, if you get
on the phone and you have expectations of people and
these little things like this we don't think about is expectations.
You call somebody and need something or want to tell
(39:01):
them something, and you expect a certain response and you
will respect a certain outcome. So I had a client
I was dealing with this. They said they called somebody
and they wanted a favor. And they said, well, I
did the same favor for them a few months ago,
so I know they'll do it for me. But you
don't do that when you hold on that expectation and
you start getting angry because they don't react like you do,
or you start judging, or you start getting mad. All
(39:23):
those little things that we do that we sweep under
the rug, that we don't think is a big deal
and we don't look at or we try to justify
because I'm angry, because I'm mad, and we justify those feelings.
When you go to try to connect, you're not gonna
be able to get the full connection because you're not
dealing with those blocks and hindreds. Like I tell people,
it's kind of like Wi Fi. You know how your
(39:44):
Wi Fi buffers when you're trying to play a song
or a TV show. I said, a lot of people
are spiritually buffering. It. May play once in a while,
you may get a connection here and there, but to
get that to play fully, we have to deal with
those things first. And I think a lot of people
they make the mistake of skipping the shadow work with
the issues and want to jump over that and jump
to the spiritual practices. I had attributed to a car
(40:06):
where we take a car for an oil change. What's
the first thing to do. They drain the old oil.
They don't put new oil on top of that old oil. Right,
You've got to drain that old oil first for that
car to run at its optimum level. Now, you could
put the new oil in on top of the oil
and still run, but you're not going to run and
be fully connected and run at your best and get
(40:27):
all the signs and the messages and be able to
receive unless you deal with those things that are blocking
Henry Because all those low vibrational thoughts, feeling, jealousy, anger, unforgiveness,
that's all opposite of the universe, that's all opposite of God. Right,
So if you're operating in things that are opposite of God,
what do you think that does to your connection? No
(40:47):
matter what spiritual practice you do, and you're holding onto
that right, I've.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Heard it phrased this way, and it's the same. And
throughout our life we make judgments about it other people,
I can't trust you, or even to ourselves, I'm not
good enough. And it's like we put on different pairs
of glasses. So we've got to I'm not good enough
and I can't trust you all these things, and then
we think, oh, I want to have this spiritual transformation,
not realizing that we can't see clearly. So we have
(41:14):
to be able to pick off those judgments, put them
back in the past where they belong, and then we're
free to be able to explore. So I love that
you want to tell us what we can find on
your website, what it is, and how people can reach you.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
My website is basically a little more well. It has
my story on there, and I do have a video
of my nde which goes into more detail. I've had
the services that I provide, workshops, Q and A talks
one on one, and for me, it's all about having
people realize their power, come into their power, and a
(41:50):
lot of people, unfortunately, have been conditioned. And it's not
about doubting any religion or any faith, because I'm consider
myself an omnus which I find truth in all the
religions and I take the good from all of them
and I apply them. But here's the thing, and I'm
not knocking any religion, but what people have to understand
is they have to stop giving their power to other
people and other institutions putting their power in other people
(42:13):
to connect them with God, whether that's a pastor, a priest,
a clergyman, or an institution. We have the power to connect.
We got to stop putting people in institutions on pedestals
that they're above us, that they're higher than us, that
they have a better connection, basically, that they're more worthy.
What they're telling us is I'm not worthy to connect
on my own and have my own spiritual experience with
God and talk to God and connect with the angels
(42:35):
and my spirit team. I need to go to this man,
I need to go to this institution. You don't you
have the power within. We all have an equal connection.
Some people are more connected because they're more in tune
and they deal with a lot of the things I've
mentioned and talked about earlier. But people need to stop
giving their power to institutions and running the institutions and
expecting to be connected. I have family coming to me
(42:56):
and say they've been in church for twenty thirty years
and they don't feel a connection. I said, why do
you keep going? And this is the thing. Keep going
because it's comfortable, because it's all I know, because I
don't know what else to do. And that's what I
want to have. People to know that you have the
power within to connect, and a spiritual coach it's not
his job to tell you what your path or purpose is.
It's not his job to tell you what you should
(43:17):
be doing or what you should believe. It's about having
you come in your power, being there as a support,
helping you identify those blockages and hindrances and dealing with them.
Changing your perspective, because there's only two perspectives. You can
go through life thinking of things and perceiving things and
having the paradigm of a logical, man made view, or
(43:38):
we could shift our perspective look at things more spiritually
and through a spiritual lens. One of the biggest things
is judgment. I tell people that have this judgment. When
you look at someone and you see what they're doing,
we label, oh, what's wrong with them? They're crazy, that's stupid.
All those are low vibrational thoughts and feelings that keep
you stuck and don't align with spiritual and universal laws,
(44:01):
and it affects your connection. So what I tell people
looking at these people and looking at it from a
more spiritual view, you know what, that's their path and purpose.
There's something that they have to learn, there's a lesson
that they have to go through. Now, maybe that's not
something I would do or something you could say that, Okay,
that's not a choice I would make. That's fine, But
to judge them and label them crazy, stupid, what's wrong
(44:21):
with them? All those low vibrational thoughts and feelings blocking
hind your connection. So, no matter what you do spiritually,
the spiritual practices and make you spiritual, the first step
towards spirituality and truly connecting is unlimiting yourself. All those
things that you believe to be true and concrete. You
have to let those go because if you're stuck in
believing this is the only truth and this is what
(44:41):
I believe and there's nothing else, you're limiting yourself. You're
stuck in that construct. So you have to unlearn everything
you've learned, and you have to be willing to address
the things deep down that you maybe are sweeping under
the rug or not a big deal, or you're trying
to justify. That's how you begin to connect spiritually, not
by running to meditate and yoga and all that which
(45:02):
is great, which is good, but a lot of people
are skipping that. They're skipping the main part of it
as a connection.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
My my goodness, really good advice and feels like that
a little coaching session. Spiritual Alignment sl dot com is
your website, and yes, it all sounds so good. I
do hope you're writing a lot down and that there's
a book in your future, because I just feel like
there's a little handbook for living from Stephen LaRussa that
(45:29):
is going to be appearing someday. Stephen, with our time together,
you got a nice audience listening to you. What's something
maybe we could do today just to kind of open
ourselves up to maybe the bigger picture or our loved
ones or whatever it is. You'd like to say, Yes,
I appreciate it. Here's a few things that I suggest. One,
(45:49):
work on unlimiting your mind. Work on unlearning what you've learned.
Work on being more open, more receiving to ideals. Don't
be so concrete in your book leafs and your thoughts
and your emotions. Also judgment and expectations.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Those are two of the biggest things that hinder us
right there, that we do consciously and sometimes unconsciously. But
as far as connection, here's the three biggest things that
I use when I'm feeling a little spiritually down or
need a little boost or whatnot. Is one it's important
to stay in the present. Then you mentioned this earlier,
staying in the present, because you cannot receive the messages
(46:26):
from your loved ones, from your spirit guides, from the source,
from angels. You cannot receive them if you're not in
the present. Because those messages are going to come to
you in the present. They're not going to come to
you in the past. They're not going to come to
you in the future. Right, So it's a couple tips
for being in the present. It's very simple when you're
out and about. When you're at home, focus on the
task at hand. If you're washing the dishes, feel the cup,
(46:49):
feel the warmth of the water or the coolness of
the water or the SuDS. When you're outside, take note
of what you're smelling, what you're seeing, when you're eating,
what you're tasting down in life and taste it and
embrace it. Basically, being in tune with your current environment
or situation. Smell. Using those senses of being in tune
that helps keep you in the present. Two is being grateful.
(47:12):
Other than unconditional love. Being grateful is the second highest
frequency in the universe. Now here's the thing to take
your gratefulness to a higher level real quick. Everybody's grateful
for the things. Oh, my job and roof over my head,
my family, all great. But here's why I tell people,
when you start being grateful for the situations that you
went through that we classify as tough or bad or horrible,
(47:35):
and realize change your perspective that those were learning lessons,
Those were things I needed to learn from, to grow
and evolve from. That's part of switching our perception of
those things being bad, terrible, horrible, because then every time
you think about them again, you're reliving them and you're
bringing your vibration down right. So let's change the perspective.
What did I learn from that? What did I get
out of that? Or if that situation comes up, how
(47:58):
could I hand look better from a different perspective where
I can stop. Especially for people that are called a loop,
I always hear, why does this keep happen to me?
Why do I keep going through this? That's part of
stopping that loop. Once you learn and you transcend that
lesson and learn it and perceive it and handle it differently,
it'll stop. It'll be removed from your life. I guarantee it,
because it's happen with me. So be grateful for those
(48:19):
things that we look at as bad or terrible and
turn them around and look at them as lessons. What
do I learn? What do I do differently, real quickly
is embracing oneness. We're all one, We're all from God,
We're all from source. This illusion of separatism helps to
hinder and block your connection because if you consider yourself
separate from everything in everybody meet against him, her against him,
(48:40):
Democrat against Republican, right against black. That creates separatism. That's
anti universe, that duality, it goes against the universe. That's
something for us to learn and grow and evolve from.
But you think of everything as one. The plants, the rocks,
the trees, everything you see, smell, touch, or hear is
from source, and you just embrace that and kind of
keep that thought in your head throughout the day. Those
(49:02):
three things raise your vibration and open you up to
receiving spiritual downloads, to receiving messages, signs, and synchronicities from universe.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
Stephen, I have loved talking with you today.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
You know, I received my own spiritual slap in twenty
fifteen when my dad died. I had so much information
about the afterlife, but I was too afraid to share.
Who would listen to me anyways? But once I got
a taste of what real grief is, I knew I
had to share. And if you're suffering, I want to
give you everything I can. Don't forget. Come to wedotdie
(49:39):
dot com the bottom of the page. Enter your name
and your email address. You'll get my book, We Don't Die,
a skeptics discovery of life after death, plus a whole
bunch of other great goodies. Chapter ten is about grief
and also don't forget to visit doctor Tom Neimei site
find out about induced after death communication, which is most
(50:01):
importantly a grief therapy and a good one. Healing grief
with IADC dot com. I'm Sandra Champlain. Remember there's an
invisible world around you, filled with love. You are one
of a kind and your life matters. Thank you so
much for listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the
(50:24):
iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
d A and Paranormal Podcast Network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app, or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com
And you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Thanks for choosing the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost Day
and Paranormal Podcast Network. Your quest for podcasts of the paranormal, supernatural,
and the unexplained ends here. They invite you to enjoy
all our shows we have on this network, and right now,
let's start with Chase of the Afterlife with Sandra Champlain.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
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
(00:42):
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.
Each episode will discuss the reasons we now know that
(01:03):
our loved ones have survived physical death and so will we.
Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Have you ever felt
like your life was just turned upside down only to
discover a deeper meaning beyond the chaos. Our guest today
is Stephen LaRussa who shares his powerful journey through a
(01:24):
spiritual awakening sparked by a crisis in his life, followed
by what he calls a dark night of the soul,
and then he had a near death experience. Today we'll
hear some important lessons he learned about letting go, trusting
the universe, and even something he calls as a spiritual spanking.
(01:44):
But before that, I want to share something personal with you,
an experience that I had. Do you remember back on
episodes two thirty one and two thirty two, I introduced
you to something called IADC grief therapy. What does IADC
stand for, Well, it's induced after death communication and if
(02:06):
you remember, on episode two thirty one, we talked to
psychologist doctor Tom Nemi, who said he was out walking
his dog one day listening to a podcast. That podcast
was me. He heard my interview with doctor Alan Botkin,
who first coined the term IADC therapy, how I movements
(02:29):
can transport you into reconnecting with your loved ones and
decrease grief. When he heard my podcast, he thought, well,
this sounds too good to be true, but as a psychologist,
he felt it was his moral responsibility that if there
is something to help people grieving, then he needs to
learn it. Not only did he learn it, as he
(02:52):
explained in episode two thirty one, he became a practitioner.
He created a study at the University of Adelaide in
Our Australia, a clinical investigation with many clients to see
what the results would be, and all people experienced a
dramatic decrease in their grief, so much so that they
(03:14):
couldn't believe that this was even available and they wished
they had found out about it sooner. But seventy five
percent of the people had some kind of experience with
their deceased loved one, either feeling their presence, hearing their voice,
feeling their touch, feeling of love, something like that. Well,
I wanted to experience this firsthand because if I'm going
(03:38):
to share about it, I need to know what really happens.
It's been about fifteen years since my dad passed. I
didn't know if I would be able to dig up
the feelings of sadness and grief or of too much
time had passed. And I had the Induced after Death
Communication grief therapy with doctor Tom Nemi. He was in Australia.
(04:00):
I was in my home in Rhode Island, USA. The
sessions are two ninety minute sessions on back to back days.
I was scared, to be honest, but I knew that
the only way to the other side of this would
be going straight through it. Friends, you really have to
dig up and experience grief in order for this to work.
(04:20):
The process involves emdr which are ive movements, and in
this case, doctor Tom sent me a link to watch
a screen and there was a little blue ball that
was going left and right and left and right. I
started with telling him some of the things about my
dad's death to bring that grief up. Not only did
I have the passing of my dad, but I wasn't
(04:42):
able to see my nieces and nephew because my relationships
suffered with my siblings so much so that they cast
me out of their life. So I went through the
grief of dad passing, the loss of my siblings, the
loss of seeing their kids, and I tell you, fifteen
years o go I hit rock bottom. Thankfully I did
because it brought me to you today. But I'd never
(05:05):
want anybody to go through that pain. So on zoom,
Doctor Tom had me relive these experiences. And even though
I was a little worried that I couldn't bring up
the grief, well I did. And so with each piece
of grief I discussed it with the Doctor Tom. I
closed my eyes, I really felt it. He had me
(05:26):
open my eyes and watch this blue ball go back
and forth, back and forth to dislodge the memory of
what happened from the intense pain. Now emdr these eye
movements is the gold standard therapy for people with PTSD
post traumatic stress. While we sleep, we go through something
(05:46):
called rem sleep, you know, rapid eye movements. So over
the course of the first ninety minute session, doctor Tom
calls it like playing the game whack a mole. Every
time a memory in grief pops up, we'd go right
after it, me feeling it fully and then doing the
eye movements. And what was really interesting is somehow it works.
(06:08):
I was able to remember these situations and things that
caused me great pain, but the pain wasn't there. So
that was session number one, lots of that and lots
of tears by yours truly. Session number two brought a
lot more of it, going back, revisiting things, making sure
I was cleared from the grief, but then finding out
(06:30):
is there anything else that was not discussed? And sure
enough there was, and the tears came. It was only
a matter of time before I couldn't find anything else
I was sad about. And then next thing you know,
doctor Tom asked me to tell him about my dad
and some of the shared memories we had, and that
followed with the eye movements again, and in time he said,
if you could say something to your dad, what would
(06:52):
it be? And for me, it was an apology that,
even though I know it wasn't my fault, the relationships
with my siblings came apart and that was the one
thing my dad did not want. And then he said,
if your dad were to say something to you, what
would it be? And it was a similar message how
Dad didn't want me to take this on it wasn't
(07:12):
my fault. We did more eye movements in correlation with
happy memories with my dad, and then something really cool happened.
It was as if I was looking through my dad's mind,
picking out memories of all the little things I had
done for him, making him an ash tray even though
he didn't smoke, making him a pencil holder all those
(07:32):
times that he witnessed me as a dad for his
young daughter, and I actually felt the love for myself
like I was looking through his eyes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That was really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And then an unexpected thing happened. It was almost as
if I got a slide show of the deceased people
in my life that just flashed before my eyes. People
I didn't expect, and there were even people that I
didn't know who they were. In truth, if I were
too invent this slideshow, it would take a heck of
a lot of time, not split second. And by the
(08:05):
end of the second ninety minute session I had with
doctor Tom, I actually had the feeling that I had
a whole bunch of my deceased loved ones, who are
of course young and happy and healthy and alive, like
they were standing right behind me, that they're with me
in life, cheering me on. It was a very very
(08:26):
special session. Friends, it is the real thing. Go back
listen to episode two thirty one and two thirty two,
and if this is something you're interested in, or if
you are a therapist, please do what doctor Tom Nimi did.
Find this out to be truth for yourself and offer
this as grief therapy for your patients. To find out more,
(08:50):
simply go to Healing Grief with IADC dot com. All right,
let's dive right into our episode with our very special guest,
who is a certified Master Spiritual coach here about his experiences,
including a near death experience. His name is Stephen LaRussa
(09:11):
from Spiritual Alignment sl dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I have basically the typical Christian background as far as
spiritual or religious beliefs, growing up in a Christian home,
going to church, studying the Bible, grew up in northern California.
I have a wife, we've been married twenty five years,
my son who's twenty one, and I spent most of
my life at you know, nine to five working manufacturing jobs.
You know, I worked for GM and Toyota, amongst various
(09:37):
other manufacturing jobs and positions. I was a QC supervisor lead,
so that type of thing. So I spent you know,
a lot of my life in the nine to five, wife, son,
pretty typical life and whatnot. Well that's pretty typical up
till a couple of years ago, and then everything changed
basically for me, and I think for a lot of
people with a spiritual awakening, is usually not all the time.
(10:00):
But usually brought on by crisis, severe circumstances that don't
really alter our thinking, and we can get us thinking
about what it's all about. So for me, I went
through a stage where I was working at First American Title.
I had lost my job due to downsizing. My wife
and I were not getting along, fighting, We were literally
on the verge of a divorce. We were going through
(10:20):
our problems. My son was going through his problems, his
growing pains. I had invested in some commercial property in
the Cleveland, Ohio area and moved out there for a
while when I was separating from my wife. That was
spiraling out control, the cost trying to find an honest contractor,
trying to find an honest property management, a lot of
things going on with that, losing a lot of money,
basically losing my life savings in that investment. All of
(10:43):
those things contributed and began my spiritual awakening. Everything broke down,
and that's how it usually happens. It's a breakdown of
everything that you're doing to rebuild you back up. So
at the time, obviously I didn't know what was going on.
I started to get depressed, sad, and it always usually
begins with the questions, why am I here? Why am
I doing this? Why am I killing myself? Trying to
(11:06):
constantly obtain more and more and more to fulfill this
void of happiness, and it's never enough because we had
caught in this circle of wanting, getting, and then wanting again.
You want something, a house, a job, a person, or
a car, whatever it may be, you get it, and
then that thrill, just like a drug, wears off and
you're looking for something else to fill the void of happiness.
(11:27):
And I felt myself doing that. I was like, God,
there's got to be more to this. It's got to
be more to living seventy eighty ninety years and chasing
the world's ideal of success and killing myself to obtain
this ideal of what success is through society's eyes. And
it just created a whole breakdown, and that's what sparked
my spiritual awakening. Basically, my spiritual awakening to me was
(11:49):
very rough. I went through the period of what we
call the dark night of the soul, the extreme struggle
between the ego self and your higher self for control.
We a lot of times make that worse because we
don't want to let go of the ego and of
our life when the universe, when God is trying to
pull you away for that and pull you out of that,
(12:09):
so we create a lot more of our suffering by
trying to hold on. That's what I did. I tried
to ignore it. I try to do the same jobs.
I tried to hang around the same people. But it
didn't resonate with me, and a lot of us know what.
It doesn't resonate, but we're so comfortable with it we
would rather keep doing something that doesn't resonate. It doesn't
work because of fear of stepping away from that, because
it's like where do I go? What do I do?
(12:30):
If this is all I know? And that keeps us
trapped in that and we stay suffering. It's amazing how
people would rather suffer and something they're comfortable with than
step out and trust God in the universe to open
up doors for it. When God in the universe is
trying to close doors, that's what it is, and we
resist it. I attribute it to when somebody's close the
door and they stick their foot in the door, they
won't let it close. That's what we do a lot
(12:52):
of times. So for me, it was going through a
severe depression Let's take.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
A quick break and we'll be right back with more
Stephen's Dark Knight of the Soul followed by his near
death experience. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on
the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network.
(13:28):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
and we're with Stephen Larusa telling us about how his
ego caused so much trouble which led to his Dark
Night of the Soul and ultimately a spiritual transformation.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Let's continue, we stay suffering. It's amazing how people would
rather suffer in something they're comfortable with than step out
and trust God in the universe to open up doors
for him. When God in the universe is trying to
close doors, that's what it is, and we resist them.
I attribute it to when somebody's closed the door and
they stick their foot in the door, they won't let
it close. That's what we do a lot of times.
So for me, it was going through a severe depression,
(14:07):
a severe questioning. You know, I went through every emotion, anger, sadness,
confusion because I had no idea what was going on.
If this is not something you're aware of beforehand, or
studied or looked into. You may think you're going crazy,
you may think you're having a middle breakdown. I thought
I was having a midlife crisis. I had no idea
what it was. So for me, I didn't know as
I know now to let go and give into the
(14:29):
universe and trust the universe, I thought it. So I
tried to hang on to those things, and by doing it,
I prolonged it and I made it worse.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I can totally get it. And I was just talking
about that yesterday, about how we try to hang on
to things even if they're not in our best interest.
You know, we're afraid of the unknown. So at some
point you got some droplets of wisdom and it changed.
I know you think you've experienced in your death experience.
I don't know if that's part of it or after.
But what started presenting itself that you started letting that
(14:59):
ego south quiet down and being open to something bigger.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, for me, it was just through personal research. It
was instilled in me when I was going through this,
that I started to have a search for knowledge, a
search for truth. You know what you've been doing, what
you've been told, the programming, the mental, social constructs, religious dogma,
A lot of that is not the truth. So you
start realizing, Okay, there's something more to this. There's an
(15:24):
inkling in me that there's something that I need to learn,
that I need to find. For me, it was just
a search for the truth, for the meaning of it all.
So for me, through research, through stumbling upon videos, articles,
which translated into me buying books, which translated into me
taking classes to get certified in a lot of different
spiritual topics and whatnot. It kind of starts with that
(15:48):
questioning and then that little research that opens the door,
and then I realized, okay, wait a minute, here's what
I'm going through. Oh I do feel this. This is
called a spiritual awakening. The universe put everything out there
for me to be able to see it. That's what
the universe will do in synchronistics, guide you to the
correct videos, the correct books, the correct people to answer
your questions. So that's what happened with me. Once I
(16:10):
went through that, everything changed. Certain relationships are going to
fall off. Things you used to do, music, used to
listen to, everything will change. A lot of people ask me,
how do I know if I'm going through a spiritual awakening.
The main thing that happens during spiritual wakning is a
change of yourself. You're breaking out of that ego self
that was never really you, that worldly self with all
those ideals and logic that was programmed into your higher self,
(16:33):
and you're not going to be able to do those
same things, hang with those same people. Those experiences aren't
going to resonate with you anymore, and it's going to
be a shift. So for me, I didn't have a mentor,
I didn't have anybody to tell me like most people don't.
It was just investigation that just snowballed into where I
am today.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
That's good news that we can have all the tools
within us to explore and thank goodness for YouTube and books.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And yeah it's not and all that.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yes, definitely, I know your coach these days and you
really empower people. Did that come out of this?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Well, it's funny because it didn't. And like a lot
of others, after I went through the spiritual awakening, the
Dark Knight Soul, I came out of it. So I
started studying quantum physics, reading books, you know, Dolores Cannon,
Brian Wise, Michael Newton. Reading all these books and obtaining
all this information. Then I wanted to take it to
the next level. So I began taking classes and getting
(17:28):
certified and getting more and more information. Now there was
a point where it's like, Okay, I was comfortable doing that.
That was fine. I was on a roll. But there
was a point where God told me, okay, all right, Steve,
you're reading that's great. Now it's time for you to
put yourself out there. Time for you to get your website.
It's time for you to market yourself. It's time for
you to put yourself out there so the people that
need you can find you. That's when I stopped. That's
(17:50):
when I started stalling and starting reverting back to my
old self out of fear. Am I good enough? Will
I be judge? What are people going to think? Do
I know enough? Who am I to do this? There's
going to be too much work. That egos started to
creep back in in an effort to stop the calling,
because that's what the darkness does. So now I stalled.
So I started kind of reverting back into some old ways,
(18:12):
old things I used to do, not a lot, but
started backtracking because I was scared to step into that.
I stalled for a while and ran from the calling.
That's what led to and brought on the NDE was
my stalling and reverting from my calling and running from it.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Stephen, I had the best afterlife information in the world,
and it took ten years before I verbalized it to
the public. I'm not good enough. Who's going to listen
to me. I'm not smart enough to write a book.
It was all there, and it wasn't until the death
of my dad and discovering grief that brought me to
my deepest, darkest depths. And then it was finding really
(18:51):
good things about grief and moving through that opened me
up to where I am today. But I completely get
that ego voice that just shuts us down. There's a
lot of people listening to you that can relate good
Terrier's story right now, tell us about what happens physically
that brought on the near death experience, and if you
could share that experience with us.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yes, my near death experience, from what I understand, is
kind of rare because with most indies spark a spiritual awakening.
Right I had my spiritual wakening and dark Knight of
the soul before the NDE. So basically I started running
from the calling. This happened October ninth of twenty twenty four,
and it's funny people ask me, how can you talk
(19:32):
about it so soon? Most people hold on to their
NDEs for years, trying to grapple with them and deal
with them and understand them, and wondering about people thinking
they're crazy and they don't want to come out with it. Well,
for me, it was different because you got to understand,
I had went through a spiritual waking, a dark knight
of the soul, so I had kind of been prepped,
you know what I mean. I went through that experience first.
When I went through my NDE, it was a lot
easier for me to deal with because I wasn't just
(19:54):
fresh off the boat. I had experienced that. So my
wife was in the Sacramento, California area, is some friends.
She was coming back to Carson City, Nevada, which is
where we reside. This is how the universe works. Wasn't planning,
wasn't thinking. It just popped in my head. Let's go
to Lake Tahoe, Let's go sit by the lake, let's meditate,
let's kind of rejuvenate spiritually and let's kind of recharge.
(20:15):
So okay, we go up to the lake. We're driving up.
She comes back. We hop in the car together, go
up there. There was a strange feeling in the air.
There was something weird going on, and I can't put
my finger on it. I wouldn't classify as a good
or bad. Just were strange. So for the sake of
time on the skip some details and get into the
meat and potatoes of it. I was laying on the
bed now, I want to make this clear. I was
totally awake. I didn't wake up from a sleep. It
(20:37):
wasn't lucid dreaming. The TV was on, we were having
a conversation. My wife was standing by the bed. We
were talking. I was laying on my back. All of
a sudden, these pains start on my left side, sharp
shooting pain down my neck, going into my chest, going
down my left arm, tingling, sharp shooting pain and throbbing
all at the same time. Now, I've never had a
(20:59):
heart attack before, but I've read about the symptoms. You know,
you kind of know left side the pain, So it
sounds like everything I had known of. So I didn't
want to say anything at first because I didn't want
to alarm my wife, and it started getting worse and starting
to get severe. My arms started trembling, shaking. So I
look over at my wife and I say, Wanda, I
think I'm dying. I'm having a heart attack. Now at
(21:21):
this time, what do you expect your spouse or anybody
to do? Grab the phone? Call nine one one. Right.
Here's the interesting part. She didn't do that. She'd later
told me that when I said that to her, she
heard a voice to tell her to lay down next
to me and get in a position. There was a
com that came over. She couldn't understand it. I couldn't
understand it. My thoughts, why don't you call nine one one?
(21:42):
So she lays down next to me. Our arms are
bent at the elbow, four arms are up like this.
We're holding each other's hand, and we're just laying on
our back. So now at this point, I feel my
soul leave my body. I feel it grab we start
to leave. I'm in darkness that transitions into space out
amongst the stars, and I'm slowly traveling through darkness now
(22:03):
into space, and in the distance, far distance, I'm seeing
a white light which I'm drawn to So because of
everything I've gone through with my spiritual awakening, all the
research I've done, I wasn't surprised by you this. I
already knew about this. So I'm like, oh, oh my gosh,
but it's still a shock. I don't care how much
you know when you go through it. I don't care
what you've read. Going through it, I said, oh my God,
(22:26):
I'm dying. I could feel my soul leading. So at
this point, I start praying to God, please give me
another chance. Now I heard God's voice three times audibly
in my mind during this. The first time he said
to me, you've wasted enough time. That really shook me,
and talk about feeling bad, because I knew exactly what
he was talking about. Had all these spiritual experiences, not
(22:46):
to mention the dark Knight of the soul of spiritual awakening,
but also a lot of synchronicities happened that showed me
I was going in the right direction. And I started
to stall, and I knew what he meant, so I
start praying, I'm sorry forgive me. I know my calling.
Of course, when this is going on, you have no
concept of time. I have no idea how long this
went on. So now the interesting part is my wife
(23:07):
said she started actually feeling my pain. She could feel
on her left side. She said, I doubted what's severe
as yours was, but I could feel your pain. So
at this point we start communicating telepathy. She said, I
can hear all your prayers. Even though all my prayers
were in my mind, she can hear them all. So
as I'm praying, nothing is helping, nothing's working, I'm steadily fading.
(23:28):
So at this point I'm like, okay, you know what,
I'm going to give up. I'm going to give into
it because nothing I'm saying to God is working. Maybe
it's just my time. I need to stop fighting it.
As soon as I said that in my head, nothing
was said out loud. As soon as I said that,
my wife said to me telepathley, Steve, fight, fight, fight,
don't give up. She heard me. She knew that I
was about to give into it, so that gave me
(23:50):
a second win. So I start praying again, God, please
don't do this. I understand what I'm supposed to be doing.
I know that I was chosen to do this, and
not even just chosen, but I agreed to do this
before my incr this is part of my plan. At
that point, the second thing God said to me was
all this information and knowledge I've given you, and this
is what you're doing with it, which really hurt because
I wasn't doing anything with it. I was wasting it,
(24:11):
I was running, I wasn't fulfilling my calling. So at
that point, you know, more prayers called for Jesus everything.
I never saw Jesus or anything like that, but I
was doing everything I can. Now. It's funny because people
have asked me, were you scared to die? I wasn't
scared to die, because I know where we're going when
we die, and we really don't die. It's just a transition,
(24:32):
it's not a depth. So I wasn't concerned about leaving
and not fulfilling my mission, not about what's going to
happen after death, because there is nothing to worry about
after death, because death is just a transition. It's like
you're waking up to your true self and you just
move on from there. So I wasn't scared of death.
I didn't want to leave without fulfilling my mission because
I know I would probably have to come back and
do it again. Like I said, that mission is still
(24:53):
a part of my sole purpose at that time, I'm
praying again. So I'm getting tired now right on the
urge of the white life, and I'm just guessing here
I'm going out number. I'm literally ninety percent gone. I'm
right on the doorstep. I'm brought to the brink of it.
So at the last ditch effort, I don't even know
why I said this. It wasn't even me. I said,
wan to help me. Now, I will say this. After
(25:15):
we talked about I asked my wife. She said she
heard the voice of God one time and God said
to her, and why should I leave you here?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We'll find out when we get back. You're listening to
Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of
(25:56):
the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain, and you're hearing Steven Russa's
near death experience. And at this point, he's lying on
a bed, feels like he's having a heart attack, is
out of his body, moving to the stars. He's experiencing
telepathic communication with his wife. Let's continue.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So at the last ditch effort, I don't even know
why I said this. It wasn't even me. I said,
wan to help me. Now, I will say this. After
we talked about it, I asked my wife. She said
she heard the voice of God one time, and God
said to her, and why should I leave you here?
And she said Jordan, which is our son, and she
said other than God telling her to lay down and
(26:34):
get in a position, and asking her why should I
keep you. She heard God's voice twice during the ordeal.
I said, Wanda, help me. So she sat up because
I can hear everything she was saying. We were speaking
telepathically up at this point. This is the first time
that she actually spoke audibly out loud. She starts praying
in what we call light language and tongues. This wasn't
(26:55):
really a shock to me because we've been the other
twenty five years, and I've heard this a couple times before,
so I can hear it. I can vaguely barely hear
it because I'm so gone, I'm barely even there anymore.
As I'm approaching the light. Now, this is the third
time I heard God's voice, and he said to me, Stephen,
be quiet and listen to your wife. Now. When he
said that a calm came over me. I was allowed
(27:17):
to focus on her. I was giving back my clarity
of where I was at that moment. So as soon
as I looked over to her to my right, she
starts speaking in different languages. She starts speaking in an
African language and chanting in the African language. Now we've
been the other twenty five years. The only language we
know is English. So in my mind first thought, thinking
human terms and logic, that this is impossible. She starts
(27:39):
speaking in the African language and chanting. She transitions to
a different one. Now I could tell it's an African
language because I've heard it. We've heard the past, like
you know what someone speaking Spanish even though you don't
know what they're saying, right, or Italian, so you know
the language, but you don't know what they're saying. She
speaks in three different African languages, and then she transitions
to an Indian language where she's speaking and chanting fluently.
(28:01):
So I'm in amazement. I can't believe it. But it's
funny if soon as she started doing that, as soon
as she started interceding, that's what brought me back. Nothing
brought me back before then, begging, asking God, promising this,
you know, begging that, asking for Jesus. Nothing brought me
back until she interceded. I got up. As I came
(28:21):
fully back, I was brought back. I was back aware
in my body. I got up, started pacing the floor.
I looked over at her. She was sitting there with
the days on her face. She was there with her
eyes wide open, just staring at like she was asleep,
but her eyes were open. So I didn't want to
say anything to her. I didn't know what she was
going through, but I left her alone. At this time,
I'm getting all these downloads from God about what you're
(28:43):
going to do, what's going to happen in the future.
My third eye, the penal glant, was throbbing and was
in so much pain and just throbbing and in pain
because I was in such a spiritual state of receiving
after going through this spiritual event. So my wife finally
comes out of it. I said, oh my God, do
you know what you just did? Do you know what
just happened? And she said, what are you talking about?
I said, you just spoken three different languages. She couldn't
(29:06):
remember it at first, and she's like, hold on, I say,
give me a second. So she takes a second, gavenged
herself and starts to come back to her. I said,
what were you saying? She said, I have no idea
what I'm saying. I don't speak those languages. I have
no idea what I was saying. We came out of it.
We started comparing notes. She said, I could hear your prayers, Stephen,
and I said, I can hear you telling me to
fight and telling me to keep praying and don't give up.
(29:26):
We were speaking telepathly, so in a nutshell, that was
our experience, and I know from that that was part
of the wakeup call because I needed a swift kick
to get on your path and purpose. And I thank
God for it because who knows how much I would
have reverted if it wasn't for God giving me that
experience to let me know you are supported like we
all are. This is your calling and basically you know
(29:49):
what you need to get to it or else stop
fooling around. So, yeah, did you go to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Did you get yourself taken care of? After that?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
You know what? I've had people ask me that, And
as soon as that came to my mind, I was
told you don't need to go to the doctor. This
is not a medical condition. It's a spiritual condition. You
don't need to go to the doctor. So I had
never had any kind of pain or symptoms before, and
I haven't had the pain or symptoms after this because
I know that it wasn't a medical condition. It was
(30:17):
a spiritual condition that I had to go through.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
My goodness. Not too long ago, we spoke with a
woman about spiritually transformative experiences. Yep, and yes there are
near death experiences that are part of that, but there
are other kinds of experiences. They put you where you
need to be in the biggest picture. And I can
totally get the way you were describing that wake up
call that it's time to get on your mission. I
(30:41):
mean it took me hitting rock bottom with my dad dying,
like Okay, you're going to do this now right here?
You go?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah for me? And I'll say this, and people have
kind of misconstrued, so I want to make sure I
explain this. A few months before then, like I said,
because I had a lot of syncreticities, out of body
experiences and whatnot where I was in the white light,
but it wasn't a near death experience. It was an
out of body experience where God showed me the love
of the white light, gave me a taste or peace
(31:09):
of his love. A lot of people haven't experienced this,
and I've heard this before where people really can't describe it.
It's so intense and incredible. It's undescribable. Where I felt
that it was actually so intense, I had to ask
God to ease up a little bit because I couldn't
take it. I was literally in a ball, crying, clutching
myself trying to take all the love in. It was
so powerful. That happened a few months before my nd
(31:32):
and everything. But the reason I say that is because
during this NDE, when I was approaching the light, I
know God loves me, God loves us all. God is
unconditional love. That's what the universe is based on. But
for me, this was more like I could attribute this
to a spiritual spanking. It's like a father coming in
the room with a belt. I love you, but you
need some tough love. It was a totally different experience
from that. Yes, Steve, and I love you, but you
(31:54):
need this spanking to get on track because there's people
that you need to help. There's things that you need
to do. You need to be out there raising the Bible,
raising the frequency of this world, this universe. And you
know what, I'm going to give you this experience to
show you that you are enough, You are supported. This
is your calling. You're not crazy. Don't worry about other
people's opinions, validation, or approval. And That's where I'm at
(32:16):
right now.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I love spiritual spanking.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yes, Oh my gosh, it's a perfect term for that. Yes,
And I agree too. There's always going to be people
that don't agree with us. There's always going to be
people that think we're crazy. But that's okay. I was
the biggest skeptic twenty seven, twenty eight years ago that
I wouldn't even believe I'd been having this conversation now,
(32:40):
I really thought I knew better, right, And so we
all go on those paths, and sometimes it takes having
a crisis or trauma in your life, or a death
of a loved one, or an illness or something that
gives us that dark night of the soul gets us
on our path. So you've got your little spiritual spanking,
and look at you now. I want to talk to
you a little bit about the afterlife because you seem
(33:02):
pretty confident and I too feel very confident that there
is one. But we have a lot of listeners right
now who have a loved one who had passed. Yes,
could you talk a little bit about your reasons to
believe in the afterlife?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Well, Number one, you have to have an open mind
to realize that there's something more, that there's something out there.
Don't believe everything you've been told, don't believe everything you feel,
don't believe everything you think, because a lot of those
things are not reality. And as far as the afterlife,
it starts with all the stories. I'm a firm believer
that everybody is not making it up. Everybody's not crazy,
(33:37):
not lying to get attention, or not making stuff up.
There's too many experiences, there's too many people, there's too
much evidence out there for me to not believe. So
I was a believer even before any of this happened.
I was actually jealous of people that went through it.
It's like, Wow, that's great. I never thought I would
go through it. But after going through the spiritual awakening
and seeing the light in my outer body experience, not
(33:59):
the near death, of sperience, feeling the love of God,
the synchronicities, the way the universe communicates with you through numbers,
through song, through other people. Being on the verge of
death but knowing that, and this is the big thing
is there's just a knowing a lot of this stuff.
People want proof and all that kind of stuff. You
got understand when you're thinking worldly and logical in this proof,
(34:19):
you cannot apply that kind of thinking or kind of
logic when trying to understand and interpret spiritual events and concepts.
You can't because it's not going to work, because you're
going to put that event in those boundaries, in that box,
and you can't do that. The spirit world's unlimited. So
in order for us to understand it and even to
be in tune and connect with it, we have to
unlimit ourselves to be able to connect with it. And
when you keep yourself limited, you can't. So being on
(34:42):
the verge of death and not fearing death and knowing
that on the other side is just a transition of
energy that your loved ones are still there, our sole
family is still there. There's been so many synchronicities that
I've had from the universe of being spoken to, and
for me, going through these situations is not something that
(35:02):
we can create or imagine on our own. It's a
spiritual condition. So just knowing that there is something more
out there. Your loved ones are out there, your higher
self is out there, your spirit guides, your angels are
out there, and they're waiting to contact you. So I
encourage people if you just let go of some of
those things that you hold on as truths. Let go.
I'll teach you how to identify that negative thinking, identify
(35:24):
those social mental constructs, religious dogma that's keeping you trapped
and not allowing you to experiencing what the universe wants
to show you, what it wants to tell you, and
even the loved ones out there that may be trying
to communicate, but you have all these blockages, You have
all these hindrances that are keeping you from receiving. So
it is real. It is out there. And I'm telling
(35:45):
you this not because of a book I read, not
because of somebody else's experience, and not because of the
doctrines as I've studied. It's real through experience. And that's
another thing that God told me. I was told no
matter what you read no matter what you study, what
degree certificates you get, that's all great knowledge and wisdom
is great. Nothing beats experience of going through it and
(36:05):
living it. I could be a true example of not
what my brother told me, not what my mother said
or friend said, or not what I read, but what
I've experienced. And it's all they're waiting for you once
you release, because when you continue to limit yourself, you
will limit the universe and you limit your connection.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Makes perfect sense. I know that ego is a bear,
and I know we live in a time that we're
constantly looking at our phones, checking mail, checking text messages.
We live in the past, we live in the future.
In our mind, we're busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
And it's my firm belief Stephen, that our connection to
(36:44):
everything is in the present moment.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Do you recommend any meditative kind of processes for people
to slow down and to connect? I do have processes
and meditations for connection. The most important thing is the
old minded.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
This so when I talk to people, I don't take
on all my clients because I'm a firm believer and
not wasting anybody's time or resources. And if I don't
truly believe I can help you, I don't do that.
I do not waste time. I believe that you have
to be open, and you have to be open to
looking at yourself and doing the shadow work first before
you get into that, because there's a lot of people
that come to me actually and say, you know what,
(37:21):
I'm meditating, I'm doing sound baths, I'm walking in nature,
and I just don't feel the connection. I don't understand
what's wrong. I'm not hearing it. I don't get it.
And the reason behind that is you're not dealing with
those low vibration feelings, emotions and thoughts that are blocking,
that are hindering. So you have to deal with those first.
You have to dress those. If you haven't forgiven your
mother for something, if you're jealous of your best friend
(37:42):
for something, if you get on the phone and you
have expectations of people, and these little things like this
we don't think about.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
We'll be right back with a whole bunch of advice
from the spiritual coach. You're listening to Shades of the
Afterlife on the iHeart Radio and Coast to Coast AM
Normal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife.
(38:23):
I'm Sandra Champlain. You can find out more about our guest,
Steven LaRussa at his website Spiritual alignmentsl dot com. Now
there's things that block us in life. We can all
agree on that. Here's the advice from this spiritual coach.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
You're not dealing with those low vibration and feelings, emotions
and thoughts that are blocking, that are hindering. So you
have to deal with those first. You have to dress those.
If you haven't forgiven your mother for something, if you're
jealous of your best friend for something, if you get
on the phone and you have expectations of people and
these little things like this we don't think about is expectations.
You call somebody and need something or want to tell
(39:01):
them something, and you expect a certain response and you
will respect a certain outcome. So I had a client
I was dealing with this. They said they called somebody
and they wanted a favor. And they said, well, I
did the same favor for them a few months ago,
so I know they'll do it for me. But you
don't do that when you hold on that expectation and
you start getting angry because they don't react like you do,
or you start judging, or you start getting mad. All
(39:23):
those little things that we do that we sweep under
the rug, that we don't think is a big deal
and we don't look at or we try to justify
because I'm angry, because I'm mad, and we justify those feelings.
When you go to try to connect, you're not gonna
be able to get the full connection because you're not
dealing with those blocks and hindreds. Like I tell people,
it's kind of like Wi Fi. You know how your
(39:44):
Wi Fi buffers when you're trying to play a song
or a TV show. I said, a lot of people
are spiritually buffering. It. May play once in a while,
you may get a connection here and there, but to
get that to play fully, we have to deal with
those things first. And I think a lot of people
they make the mistake of skipping the shadow work with
the issues and want to jump over that and jump
to the spiritual practices. I had attributed to a car
(40:06):
where we take a car for an oil change. What's
the first thing to do. They drain the old oil.
They don't put new oil on top of that old oil. Right,
You've got to drain that old oil first for that
car to run at its optimum level. Now, you could
put the new oil in on top of the oil
and still run, but you're not going to run and
be fully connected and run at your best and get
(40:27):
all the signs and the messages and be able to
receive unless you deal with those things that are blocking
Henry Because all those low vibrational thoughts, feeling, jealousy, anger, unforgiveness,
that's all opposite of the universe, that's all opposite of God. Right,
So if you're operating in things that are opposite of God,
what do you think that does to your connection? No
(40:47):
matter what spiritual practice you do, and you're holding onto
that right, I've.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Heard it phrased this way, and it's the same. And
throughout our life we make judgments about it other people,
I can't trust you, or even to ourselves, I'm not
good enough. And it's like we put on different pairs
of glasses. So we've got to I'm not good enough
and I can't trust you all these things, and then
we think, oh, I want to have this spiritual transformation,
not realizing that we can't see clearly. So we have
(41:14):
to be able to pick off those judgments, put them
back in the past where they belong, and then we're
free to be able to explore. So I love that
you want to tell us what we can find on
your website, what it is, and how people can reach you.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
My website is basically a little more well. It has
my story on there, and I do have a video
of my nde which goes into more detail. I've had
the services that I provide, workshops, Q and A talks
one on one, and for me, it's all about having
people realize their power, come into their power, and a
(41:50):
lot of people, unfortunately, have been conditioned. And it's not
about doubting any religion or any faith, because I'm consider
myself an omnus which I find truth in all the
religions and I take the good from all of them
and I apply them. But here's the thing, and I'm
not knocking any religion, but what people have to understand
is they have to stop giving their power to other
people and other institutions putting their power in other people
(42:13):
to connect them with God, whether that's a pastor, a priest,
a clergyman, or an institution. We have the power to connect.
We got to stop putting people in institutions on pedestals
that they're above us, that they're higher than us, that
they have a better connection, basically, that they're more worthy.
What they're telling us is I'm not worthy to connect
on my own and have my own spiritual experience with
God and talk to God and connect with the angels
(42:35):
and my spirit team. I need to go to this man,
I need to go to this institution. You don't you
have the power within. We all have an equal connection.
Some people are more connected because they're more in tune
and they deal with a lot of the things I've
mentioned and talked about earlier. But people need to stop
giving their power to institutions and running the institutions and
expecting to be connected. I have family coming to me
(42:56):
and say they've been in church for twenty thirty years
and they don't feel a connection. I said, why do
you keep going? And this is the thing. Keep going
because it's comfortable, because it's all I know, because I
don't know what else to do. And that's what I
want to have. People to know that you have the
power within to connect, and a spiritual coach it's not
his job to tell you what your path or purpose is.
It's not his job to tell you what you should
(43:17):
be doing or what you should believe. It's about having
you come in your power, being there as a support,
helping you identify those blockages and hindrances and dealing with them.
Changing your perspective, because there's only two perspectives. You can
go through life thinking of things and perceiving things and
having the paradigm of a logical, man made view, or
(43:38):
we could shift our perspective look at things more spiritually
and through a spiritual lens. One of the biggest things
is judgment. I tell people that have this judgment. When
you look at someone and you see what they're doing,
we label, oh, what's wrong with them? They're crazy, that's stupid.
All those are low vibrational thoughts and feelings that keep
you stuck and don't align with spiritual and universal laws,
(44:01):
and it affects your connection. So what I tell people
looking at these people and looking at it from a
more spiritual view, you know what, that's their path and purpose.
There's something that they have to learn, there's a lesson
that they have to go through. Now, maybe that's not
something I would do or something you could say that, Okay,
that's not a choice I would make. That's fine, But
to judge them and label them crazy, stupid, what's wrong
(44:21):
with them? All those low vibrational thoughts and feelings blocking
hind your connection. So, no matter what you do spiritually,
the spiritual practices and make you spiritual, the first step
towards spirituality and truly connecting is unlimiting yourself. All those
things that you believe to be true and concrete. You
have to let those go because if you're stuck in
believing this is the only truth and this is what
(44:41):
I believe and there's nothing else, you're limiting yourself. You're
stuck in that construct. So you have to unlearn everything
you've learned, and you have to be willing to address
the things deep down that you maybe are sweeping under
the rug or not a big deal, or you're trying
to justify. That's how you begin to connect spiritually, not
by running to meditate and yoga and all that which
(45:02):
is great, which is good, but a lot of people
are skipping that. They're skipping the main part of it
as a connection.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
My my goodness, really good advice and feels like that
a little coaching session. Spiritual Alignment sl dot com is
your website, and yes, it all sounds so good. I
do hope you're writing a lot down and that there's
a book in your future, because I just feel like
there's a little handbook for living from Stephen LaRussa that
(45:29):
is going to be appearing someday. Stephen, with our time together,
you got a nice audience listening to you. What's something
maybe we could do today just to kind of open
ourselves up to maybe the bigger picture or our loved
ones or whatever it is. You'd like to say, Yes,
I appreciate it. Here's a few things that I suggest. One,
(45:49):
work on unlimiting your mind. Work on unlearning what you've learned.
Work on being more open, more receiving to ideals. Don't
be so concrete in your book leafs and your thoughts
and your emotions. Also judgment and expectations.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Those are two of the biggest things that hinder us
right there, that we do consciously and sometimes unconsciously. But
as far as connection, here's the three biggest things that
I use when I'm feeling a little spiritually down or
need a little boost or whatnot. Is one it's important
to stay in the present. Then you mentioned this earlier,
staying in the present, because you cannot receive the messages
(46:26):
from your loved ones, from your spirit guides, from the source,
from angels. You cannot receive them if you're not in
the present. Because those messages are going to come to
you in the present. They're not going to come to
you in the past. They're not going to come to
you in the future. Right, So it's a couple tips
for being in the present. It's very simple when you're
out and about. When you're at home, focus on the
task at hand. If you're washing the dishes, feel the cup,
(46:49):
feel the warmth of the water or the coolness of
the water or the SuDS. When you're outside, take note
of what you're smelling, what you're seeing, when you're eating,
what you're tasting down in life and taste it and
embrace it. Basically, being in tune with your current environment
or situation. Smell. Using those senses of being in tune
that helps keep you in the present. Two is being grateful.
(47:12):
Other than unconditional love. Being grateful is the second highest
frequency in the universe. Now here's the thing to take
your gratefulness to a higher level real quick. Everybody's grateful
for the things. Oh, my job and roof over my head,
my family, all great. But here's why I tell people,
when you start being grateful for the situations that you
went through that we classify as tough or bad or horrible,
(47:35):
and realize change your perspective that those were learning lessons,
Those were things I needed to learn from, to grow
and evolve from. That's part of switching our perception of
those things being bad, terrible, horrible, because then every time
you think about them again, you're reliving them and you're
bringing your vibration down right. So let's change the perspective.
What did I learn from that? What did I get
out of that? Or if that situation comes up, how
(47:58):
could I hand look better from a different perspective where
I can stop. Especially for people that are called a loop,
I always hear, why does this keep happen to me?
Why do I keep going through this? That's part of
stopping that loop. Once you learn and you transcend that
lesson and learn it and perceive it and handle it differently,
it'll stop. It'll be removed from your life. I guarantee it,
because it's happen with me. So be grateful for those
(48:19):
things that we look at as bad or terrible and
turn them around and look at them as lessons. What
do I learn? What do I do differently, real quickly
is embracing oneness. We're all one, We're all from God,
We're all from source. This illusion of separatism helps to
hinder and block your connection because if you consider yourself
separate from everything in everybody meet against him, her against him,
(48:40):
Democrat against Republican, right against black. That creates separatism. That's
anti universe, that duality, it goes against the universe. That's
something for us to learn and grow and evolve from.
But you think of everything as one. The plants, the rocks,
the trees, everything you see, smell, touch, or hear is
from source, and you just embrace that and kind of
keep that thought in your head throughout the day. Those
(49:02):
three things raise your vibration and open you up to
receiving spiritual downloads, to receiving messages, signs, and synchronicities from universe.
Speaker 3 (49:10):
Stephen, I have loved talking with you today.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
You know, I received my own spiritual slap in twenty
fifteen when my dad died. I had so much information
about the afterlife, but I was too afraid to share.
Who would listen to me anyways? But once I got
a taste of what real grief is, I knew I
had to share. And if you're suffering, I want to
give you everything I can. Don't forget. Come to wedotdie
(49:39):
dot com the bottom of the page. Enter your name
and your email address. You'll get my book, We Don't Die,
a skeptics discovery of life after death, plus a whole
bunch of other great goodies. Chapter ten is about grief
and also don't forget to visit doctor Tom Neimei site
find out about induced after death communication, which is most
(50:01):
importantly a grief therapy and a good one. Healing grief
with IADC dot com. I'm Sandra Champlain. Remember there's an
invisible world around you, filled with love. You are one
of a kind and your life matters. Thank you so
much for listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the
(50:24):
iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
d A and Paranormal Podcast Network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app, or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com
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