Episode 195: Growing From the Ashes

Sandra speaks with forensic handwriting expert & best-selling fiction author Sheila Lowe whose daughter was murdered.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM paranormal
podcast network. This is the place to be if you're
ready for the best podcasts of the paranormal, curious, and
sometimes unexplained.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Now listen to this.

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 cost AM, employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do

(00:41):
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.
On each episode, we'll discuss the reasons we now know
that our loved ones have survived physical death, and so

(01:04):
will we Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Most evenings,
after we eat our dinner, my Mom and I watch
a TV show or a movie. Mom is open to
all kinds of genres, including thrillers and horrors and all
that kind of thing, But for me, I stay away
from the scary stuff. We just watched a movie called

(01:25):
The Iron Claw. Although we weren't certain of what it was,
it got very high ratings and we both thought why not.
It was a good film. But it's also a very,
very sad one. It's a true story about a family
who are involved in the early days of professional wrestling.
Why do I bring this up on shades of the afterlife? Well,

(01:48):
in one of the saddest moments, there is a quick
scene that takes place in the afterlife, a reunion of
those who have passed. Although it was a very short scene,
it filled me with comfort and that reassuring belief. That's
what it's like when we cross over. All of our

(02:08):
loved ones are right there to greet us in a
most beautiful place. But what makes authors and screenwriters include
the afterlife and their stories? Today, I have a real
treat for you. We are going to meet best selling
fiction and nonfiction author Sheila Lowe. Sheila is a real

(02:29):
life forensic handwriting expert who testifies in court cases. She
is the author of nineteen books, including three Beyond the
Veil mystery books, and her latest nonfiction is her personal
memoir called Growing from the Ashes. A forensic handwriting expert

(02:50):
learns about the afterlife from the murder of her daughter.
Let's meet Sheila Lowe. Claudia Rose is a handwriting She
does the same kind of work that I do.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
She's not me. She's a lot braver, or perhaps more
fool hardy and gets herself into all kinds of situations,
often through her work as a forensic documenting examiner and
handwriting analyst. I wrote the first book, Poison Pen. I
didn't know what I was doing. I had these two
nonfiction books published because the year after The Idiot's Guy

(03:25):
came out, I was approached by a company who wanted
me to write a book for Barnes and Noble. And
it's called Handwriting of the Famous and infamousis It's kind
of a small coffee table book and it has handwritings
of seventy five people throughout history, the earliest one being
as I recalled, Galileo, and that was in two thousands.

(03:46):
So we had Princess Diana and a lot of political
figures and music, Jimmy Hendrix and all kinds of interesting people.
But I still wanted to write a mystery. You know.
The big ve say write what you know, and so
I came up with this handwriting analyst character Claudia Rose,

(04:08):
and I had the title of the book poison Pen,
because you know poison pen letters. It was about a
suicide note, whether the dead person had actually written it
or not. So that was where I started.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
And as time got on, obviously you've gotten into afterlife.
You want to tell a little bit maybe of your
personal journey and the memoir certainly and share your daughter. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Well, I wrote the first few chapters of that book
Poison Pen, and really didn't know what I was doing
and put it aside. In nineteen ninety nine, my daughter
met a man, Tom Schnabel. It was one of those
love at first sight kinds of things, and they just
really hit it off together and he immediately wanted to
move in with her, and she, of course what you

(04:55):
do when your mom is a handwriting analyst and bring
home handwriting, and so he wanted me to analyze his writing,
and we talked about it on the phone. When I
saw it, it's not my heart sank because there was
such red flags for pathological behavior. Handwriting can't predict. It's

(05:15):
not like a crystal ball, a scientific thing, but it
can show potential. It shows past behavior, which shows potential
for future behavior, but you don't know whether that person's
ever going to act out. So looking at that handwriting
of Tom, I could never say this guy is going
to be a killer, that he's going to kill my daughter.

(05:37):
But within a year nine months, actually that's what he did.
The handwriting showed I put it in the book, a
little piece of it. But the problem was a lot
of physiological issues show up in handwriting. And I noticed
there were signs of a head injury. And I asked him,
did you ever have a serious blow to the head,

(06:00):
and he said yes. I was almost blinded. He was
in law enforcement. He worked for what was then the
ins the Immigration Service, now I guess it would be
Homeland Security. He said he had been hitting ahead on
the job and he was having terrible headaches. He was
seeing a doctor for his headaches. Plus they both drank

(06:20):
a lot, and it was just kind of an explosion
waiting to happen. And I put a note on the
handwriting sample the potential for explosive behavior and also authoritarian behavior.
An authoritarian wants to make rules for you and tell
you what to do's do as I say, not as

(06:42):
I do, And that would not work with Jennifer because
she never wanted to listen to me, let alone some man.
At the time, she was twenty six and she never
listened to me before, so she didn't listen and we
know the result. Nine months later, my husband at the

(07:04):
time and I, you know, we met him and he
was a big, handsome guy and he seemed very personable,
although I didn't like the fact that I heard him
talking to my husband about his weapon and how it
had good stopping power. On the highway, he would pull
out his gun if somebody bothered him, like road rage,
fake road rage, just to scare the other person. So

(07:25):
that was his mentality. He started calling me to complain
about her, and she would call me to complain about him.
And this one particular night, my husband and I were
out to dinner and she called me and wanted me
to do something for her that was unrelated to tom
Everything was okay right then, and so I said, you know,

(07:46):
I'm out to dinner. Can I call you tomorrow we'll
talk about it, and she said sure. The next morning,
I was getting ready to go to a forensic conference
out of state, and about eleven thirty in the morning,
my cell phone ring. I answered it, and I was
in a hurry and I didn't really listen to the
person who saying who they were. And he said, is

(08:08):
ken Low there? And I said, ken Low? Why are
you asking for my ex husband? We've been divorced for
twenty years. And he said do you know Jennifer Low?
And I thought, what has she gotten herself into now?
And I said that's my daughter. Why And he said, well,
I'm sorry to tell you, but your daughter's been murdered.

(08:32):
What do you There is no good way to say
that to somebody. I couldn't help thinking later, what if
I'd been on the freeway. I told him I was
on a cell phone, and so I just called for
my husband. I looked at the phone like I don't
believe it, and handed it to my husband. The fact
is that I had grown up in a very fundamentalist religion,

(08:54):
Jehovah's Witnesses, and even though I had left that, I
got kicked out of it on my thirty fifth birthday,
which is the best thing that ever happened to me.
So this was, you know, fifteen years later. The things
that I had been taught really had kind of stuck
with me, you know, like the spirit world. That means
you've got the demons. If you're into spirit and trying

(09:16):
to communicate, don't even meditate because if you clear your mind,
it leaves room for the demons to come in and
control you. I don't know what they supposedly are going
to make you do, but that's what we were taught.
So now, Jennifer was killed. That night, one of my
phones rang, the house phone, I think it was first,

(09:37):
and I picked it up, and I heard this loud,
staticky noise on the other end of the line, and
I could hear at a great distance a voice, but
I couldn't tell what it said. And I'm saying, oh,
I can't hear you, And then it hung up. And
then my cell phone rang, and the same thing happened,
and I knew it was Jennifer trying to reach me.

(10:00):
Things like that started to happen through the first week,
especially a lot of attempts to contact. So I put
that religion aside. And I had already started to because
Jennifer really believed in the afterlife and she had wanted
to talk to me about it. So where shall we
go from there? Where should we go from there? Is

(10:21):
the guy in prison? Oh, Tom. No, he killed himself too.
I think it was the next week. I went to
clear out her apartment. She lived about one hundred miles
south of me in Orange County, Lake Forest, California, and
so I drove down there to clean up her stuff
and met her father who lived in Utah and some

(10:43):
of his family, and then Tom's father and brother were there,
and they were just kind of standing off by themselves,
and I went over and you know.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
What you do.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
I gave him a hug and we all cried. So
after I got everything packed in my car and did
it all the stuff we were going to do, and
my son came and took the furniture, and my younger son, Ken,
my ex husband, and I went downstairs to talk to
the neighbor because I had heard that he had made
the nine one one call. So we talked to him Corey,

(11:14):
and he told us what happened. He said it was
about two thirty in the morning. He was up watching
TV and she looked upstairs and he heard her on
the stairs. He heard her crying outside his door, and
he opened the door and he brought her in. He said,
are you okay? And she said, no, Tom's crazy. They
had been out earlier in the evening at a bar

(11:37):
called Cook's Corner. While they were there, they had a
big fight because of some woman, and Jennifer left him
in the car and he had to walk home, which
is about five miles, so he wasn't very happy when
he got home. Corey said, let's call the police, and
she said, I've already called nine one one, and he said,
I'll stay here until they get here. And she waited
a little while and she said, I'm going to go

(11:59):
back up because I don't want him to hurt my cats.
So she went back upstairs and everything was quiet for
about a half an hour, still no nine to one one.
This is a pretty nice neighborhood, so it's not like
a lot of crime for the police to be distracted with.
So about a half an hour later, Corey said he
heard a terrible scream. Then shortly afterwards he heard her

(12:20):
on the stairs again, and he looked out his window
and she was coming down the bottom of the stairs
and she turned around and said something, and Tom said,
I've got the keys, and then he came after her
and he opened fire. She started running towards Corey's place,
and Corey said I'll never forget her eyes.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
We need to take a quick break and then we'll
be right back with more of Sila Loewe's story and
how she began investigating the afterlife. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
a M Paranormal podcast Network.

Speaker 5 (13:00):
Stay there, Sandra will be right back.

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Speaker 3 (13:31):
You're listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM
Paranormal podcast Network. Heard on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you find your favorite shows. Welcome back to

(13:58):
Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and you're listening
as best selling author Sila Lowe tells the story of
her daughter Jennifer. I'm going to back up just a
little bit just so you can hear in full what
happened with her passing.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Corey said he heard a terrible scream, and then shortly
afterwards he heard her on the stairs again and he
looked out his window and she was coming down the
bottom of the stairs and she turned around and said something,
and Tom said, I've got the keys, and then he
came after her and he opened fire. She started running

(14:36):
towards Corey's place, and Cory said, I'll never forget her eyes.
And I said, what do you mean, And he said,
the first shot she was gone. So he shot her.
It was eight times. He hit her in every vital organ.
He was trained to do that kind of thing. And

(14:58):
he started to leave, and then the police arrived the
cavalry a little late. He left his car where it
was idling, and he went back. She was in front
of Corey's front door, and Corey said that he knelt
down and kissed her, and then he put the gun

(15:18):
in his mouth or under his chin. And that was
that for Tom, which is and he had a nine
year old daughter after that. I wanted to know what happened.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
I had gone to psychics, to a couple of mediums
before that. I think the first one was Brian Hurst,
a British medium. He's retired now. I didn't tell him
what happened. I had met him at a group session
some years earlier, so I just said my daughter had
died and I would like to have her reading. And
I put a lot of what he said into the

(15:52):
memoir because he was so amazing. He says, why am
I hearing this? The nursery run Tom Tom the viper's son. Well,
Tom was the name of my daughter's killer. And he
said when she realized that she was dead, she was
furious and she was trying to hit him, which sounds
like her. He gave me a lot of real strong evidence,

(16:15):
starting out with Tom's name, and I believe he had
her name. But there were many things, not just about
their situation. Oh and he said, is there a lake nearby?
So was they lived in lake Forest? There were so
many things that were specific, but not just about that,
but about other parts of my family, about my father,
and other things that were really evidential.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Definitely comforting to have a good medium and get some
of those details, even though obviously grief is the very
worst thing, and I can't even imagine from being a parent,
because it's just not supposed to happen. That's not something
you could ever prepare for. You've done a lot of
research on the afterlife, it's included in your books. What

(17:00):
other kind of things did you explored? Obviously, lots and
lots of mediums.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Lots and lots AND's some really great ones like John Edward.
He came to LA This was just before he had
the first TV show Crossing Over. My sister in law
called me and she said, there's this guy and you
want to go to the meeting.

Speaker 8 (17:21):
They're having a meeting at this big hotel and I
was like, yeah, I don't know, and I waited until
like the very last minute, and then I went and
there must have been probably a thousand people in the ballroom.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
Huge.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
It was funny because he was very young then, I
think he was just about thirty, and he came bounding
up to the front of the stage and he said,
you know, let me explain my process and then I'm
sure that some of your people will be coming through.
And then he stops and goes, oh, wait a minute,
somebody is coming right to the front of the line
and insisting on being heard right now because there's gunshots.

(17:56):
It's a murder, and I look around like the woman
a few rose behind me and she stood up. She goes,
it's my son, and he said no, it's a daughter.
So I'm looking around and nobody else is saying anything.
So I stood up shaking. He said, I don't know
in what order, but he said this happened in February.

(18:19):
She knew who shot her, and some other stuff. He said,
you have a dog that died and I said no,
I've never had a dog. I'm a cat person. He said,
but your sister had a dog that died, and yes,
Wally had died a year before. And he goes, well,
your daughter wants your sister to know that the dog
is with her. And he's okay. So that was really sweet.

(18:41):
He said a lot of stuff. I don't think i'd
mentioned that I had other children. But he said, does
one of your sons have something to celebrate, like a
birth or a wedding? And I said, not that I
know of, and he goes yes.

Speaker 9 (18:57):
I said okay, but I don't know, and he said yes.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
So I told my sons what he said was proven
to be true. You couldn't say he was reading my
mind or he researched it, because it was something that
I didn't know. I would never have guessed.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
I have a funny John Edward's story. One of the
guests that I had on her mom had died suddenly
with a brain tumor, literally diagnosed in three weeks later.
She was gone. The girl was interested in the afterlife.
John Edwards was coming to town. It was a last
minute decision to go. She drags her father, who was

(19:33):
not at all interested, but of course he loves his
daughter and wants to support her. And right at the beginning,
just like you said about the woman who just died
of brain cancer, who's showing me that her husband was
by the water sitting on a park bench, and a
man dressed in drag as little bo Peep sat and

(19:56):
started hitting on him, and the father just burst out
in tears. He never told anybody that story, and it
could only have happened, obviously if the mother had witnessed.
And he went on and on and on to the
daughter and more to the husband, and it just changed
his life. And every place he went he got an

(20:17):
extra seat. He'd go out to eat, and he just
knew his wife was with him.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
It's really specific. Yeah, that is so amazing.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
There's some good ones out there. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
Yeah, Well a year later, my sister in law again
said James Van Prague show, they're giving out tickets. Do
you want to go? And I said okay, And the
producers were saying, we're going to take James out into
people's homes and stuff and if you have a story,
let us know. So I wrote to them and they
picked me. The day before my birthday, he came to

(20:53):
my house and taped a show and I just figured
it was Jennifer giving me a birthday gift. That was
kind of amazing too. I really had some terrific experiences
with some of the best mediums and some that are
not well known that are just as good.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah, they are out there. What else have you explored,
because I know you follow this show and has some
of the guests or conversations made a difference in things
that you've chosen to research more about.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yeah, I've had readings with several of your guests because
I was so impressed with them, like Sonia Rinaldi and
Suzann Geeseman and lots of people. And Craig Hogan was
talking about creating zoom groups that he wanted to have
in various areas to discuss different aspects of spirituality and afterlife.

(21:45):
And he asked what topics people would be interested in,
and I said, you know, I'm a handwriting analyst automatic writing.
I was interested in that. Somehow I thought I was
going to just, you know, attend a group. Somehow I
was now the leader of this group. How does this
happen to me? It's a wonderful group. It's not a class.

(22:08):
Sometimes we'll get together and do a group short meditation
and do automatic writing or see what we get and
then we discuss it. But we don't do that as
much anymore. So we're changing the name to automatic Writing,
et cetera. And anybody can come and we talk about
all things after life and we meet on the first

(22:30):
and third Wednesdays at five point thirty Pacific time on
the zoom. We've talked about a lot of different things.
We've had lots of different mediums have come as guests.
That's some just super people. What is really gratifying is
when new people come and they say that that was
exactly what I needed. What you talked about the group

(22:53):
was like one of those life changing things. So that's
always the best, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
It is the best. It really is, because you just
never know. And you know, you say you don't do
automatic writing, but someone who has published so many books,
you get in the zone, don't you.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
So here, Yeah, I write all the time. I find
fiction writing really hard work, but I work hard at it.
I think I've progressed a lot and sometimes, Yes, now
should we talk about the Beyond the Veil series?

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Let's do it.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
How do people find out about your zoom group? They
can email me Sheila at Sheila Loow dot com. That
keeps it easy. Okay, I'm kind of a psychic junkie,
and this must have been five or six years ago.
I had gone to a psychic fair, met somebody brand
new who said that I was going to write a

(23:47):
book that was different from my other books, and that
my daughter was going to help me. And then I
heard the same thing from two other psychics. I was like, oh, okay. Well,
when Jennifer was killed, I immediately started thinking, well, and
I should write her story. But it was too hard,

(24:09):
And part of that was because, yeah, it has such
a sad ending. Who wants to read a story with
a sad ending? And so I kept putting it off.
But I knew immediately that the title was growing from
the ashes. So I started hearing from several mediums that
I need to write a book that's different from my

(24:30):
other books and more personal. And I thought, well, I
could write a fiction then put into it a lot
of what I've learned about the spirit world, but it
would be fiction. And Jennifer helped me that's great.

Speaker 7 (24:45):
So I was.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Thinking, you know, she's going to take over my hands
on the keyboard and tell me what to write.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Wouldn't that be nice?

Speaker 4 (24:51):
Wouldn't that be xt But it didn't happen that way.
But there were times a couple of times especially that
I thought, what am I going to do here? And
I think I put this in the book. I had
written a scene where this young woman goes into a
trance or maybe it's sleep, you know, you don't know.

(25:12):
She's on trance and she sees this hellish scene and
when she wakes up on her palms, there are these
two crosses are cross by across, and I thought, you know,
that was kind of cool. I liked it, and I
didn't know what to do with it. And the editor said,
why did she have those crosses? And I thought, Jennifer

(25:32):
help me what were they for? And almost immediately I
get this like download of information about what it was for,
and it was perfect and it was something I would
never have thought of.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
When we come back, we'll find out how else Sheila
gets her information for her novels. You're listening to Shades
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
AM Paranormal podcast Network.

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Don't go anywhere. There's more Shades of the Afterlife coming
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Now let's get back to more with Sandra.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain
and we're hearing Shila Lowe's story. And yes, those things
that happen in our life can become inspiration for our books.
If you'd like to read some fictional great stories. Sheila's
got three books in her Beyond the Veil mystery series.

(27:29):
Right next to me, I've got her book Proof of Life. Also,
you're here to learn more about the afterlife, and she's
got many stories in her incredible personal memoir called Growing
from the Ashes. Next we'll find out how Sheila gets
some of the ideas and inspiration for her stories. I'd

(27:52):
written a scene where this young woman goes into a
trance or maybe it's sleep, you know, you don't know.
She's tramps and she sees this hellish scene and when
she wakes up on her palms, there are these two crossing.

Speaker 9 (28:07):
And I thought, you know, that was kind of cool.
I liked it, and I didn't know what to do
with it. And the editor said, why did she have
those crosses? And I thought, God, Jennifer, help me, what
were they for? And almost immediately I get this like
download of information about what it was for, and it
was perfect and it was something I would never have

(28:28):
thought of.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
That's lovely.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah, And the same thing happened with my late boyfriend,
see in twenty sixteen. I was seeing this guy for
two and a half years. I was actually trying to
break up with him. He sadly died very suddenly of
a massive heart attack. The week before. He'd been at
my house and he said, you know, I was lying
in bed last night thinking I'm gonna die. A week
later he knew. I realized after he died how very

(28:55):
important he was in my life. And so now he
was showing up when I was writing a scene in
the book. It's like he came in riding his bicycle
on the promenade at the beach, like he liked to do,
and I said, Okay, you want to be in the book,
I'll put you in this. So I made him a
scene in the book. And then much much later, near
the end of the book, the same thing happened. He

(29:18):
rides up on his bicycle. I was driving in my
car and I said, Arnie, if you're going to be
in the book, there has to be a reason you
can't just show up. And again, almost immediately I get
this answer that was perfect, and it added a dimension
to the book that it wouldn't have otherwise had. So
I appreciated that, and later in one of the readings

(29:40):
i'd had, I thought it was Robert Brown. No, it
must have been. Later Arnie came through and he said
he wished I'd made it more handsome in the book.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
When you say the information just came down, came in
versus you said, you work very, very hard. So for you,
consciously you are creating, Okay, what's going to happen next?
That takes a lot of thought and it's a different
experience all of a sudden to have it just show up.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
Right, Yeah, you've got an answer to a question and
an answer that you would never have thought of. And
just like when people are doing automatic writing or in
the group, what we've learned is automatic writing is not
necessarily just spirit taking hold of your hand and writing.
It can be inspired thought or typing.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
The memoir talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
I have to go back a little bit. So I
published Proof of Life. As I was writing it, I
realized that the main character needed to be a young
woman that I had written about in a standalone book
five years earlier. We'll just called What She Saw, and
it's about a young woman who wakes up on a
train with amnesia, and it's her story in this book.

(30:54):
She comes back and she's been hearing dead people wanting
her to do things, and she's trying to ignore it
and say I'm just crazy. But in Proof of Life,
she has to recognize what's going on with her and
start working with Spirit. I wanted to write about her again,
and so I came up with the Last Door, which

(31:15):
I always start with a title, and I loved that title.
It was funny because I was at a party and
the hostess was telling people feel free to wander anywhere
around the house, just don't go to the last door.
That's my bedroom. And I said, there's my next title,
and so I wrote that book. I was bargaining with
Spirit because they kept saying even after I'd written Proof

(31:36):
of Life, I still in readings kept hearing you need
to write something different and more autobiographical. I was like,
I don't want to write about myself. So I brought
out the Last Door, and I thought, you know, now
that's going to work. All didn't work, and I kept
hearing the same thing, and so I thought, well, maybe

(31:56):
if I listened to spirit and do what they want,
it will open up some other areas that I wanted
to help them. And so last December I decided I'm
going to finally write something autobiographical. What I could write
about twenty three years later was my spiritual journey and

(32:17):
hopefully that has a happier ending and I can bring
Jennifer into it. In January, I started making a list
of things that I wanted to talk about in the book,
and I started reading books about memoir writing, and I
learned that memoir is a little different from autobiography, which
autobiography has everything in your life you start to wherever

(32:39):
you start writing at. A memoir is about some specific
aspect of your life that you want to explore. And
so I got this list of scenes, you know, parts
of my life, and on February first, I started writing it.
I was totally astonished to find on February twenty seven

(33:00):
myself writing the end. Last week, my sister was here
and she hadn't read it yet. She read it during
a weekend while she was here, and she said, there's
two hundred and nineteen pages in the book. Jennifer was
killed on two nineteen. She said, it took you twenty
seven days to write the book, and she was twenty
seven when she was killed, which was an interesting coincidence.

(33:23):
If that's what it was.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Your spiritual journey passing of your daughter, because we know
she didn't die. She's still with you, absolutely she is.
What difference could those topics in your memoir make for
a reader?

Speaker 4 (33:38):
I think anybody who is open it gives them evidence
because I've included transcripts of quite a few of the
readings that I had with real evidence. They can see,
not just for me, for anybody, and they can also learn,
as I did, that there is no death. There's life

(33:58):
after earth. That's beautiful in life after earth that you've
got to do something with that too. It's not just
a story about people living on which we do, and
we're going to see them again. We will, and they're
doing their best to let us know that they're alive
and well and still with us. But you mentioned spiritual growth,

(34:20):
and sometimes it is out of the ashes. You think
of those beautiful pine trees out in California and other areas,
the pine combes that need to be subjected to that
severe heat in order to grow. Talk a little bit
about this spiritual journey, maybe your thoughts on the bigger
picture and what can come out of the ashes. It's

(34:44):
all about openness and being willing to accept what is
there and asking for it. I've learned. You know, you
have to ask your spirit guides to give you what
you need, and it may not be what you want,
like the old Rolling Stone song, Okay, always get.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
What you want. Yeah you don't you get what you need, but.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
You get what you need. Yeah. I thought that I
needed to write those books, which I did, but that
wasn't all there was.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
I can give you a bit of life advice that
my mom gave my niece. She let her know that
it was just this big piece of advice she wanted
her to carry on. And my mother, with a great
sense of humor, she says, don't park under a tree.
Y'all know the birds are in there anyways. So when
we think of a big piece of life advice, you

(35:37):
can maybe use that.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, you know, having come from such a restrictive religion
where it was it's fear based, and I grew up
with this terrible fear. They told us all the time,
you will, at some point in your life get strown
into prison and tortured for your faith. And hearing that
as a child growing up, and everything is contracted and fearful.

(36:01):
In handwriting, you can see fear by contraction, narrow handwriting,
everything jammed together. That's one way of seeing fear. But
in a true spiritual life, not religious life, it's expansive.
Everything is open, and it really is all about love.

(36:22):
It seems very trite to say that, but it's true.
You know in the Bible that love God and love
your neighbor. That's the whole thing that replaced all of
those laws in the Old Testament.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
And it's easy to say, but when you really think
about what love is and how we all experience love,
having that present in every interaction is not the easiest thing.
But boy, would that make a difference, wouldn't it? On
planet Earth? It certainly would. And like I told this
young man who was having some issues, if you're with
somebody who's not reflecting that love back to you, you

(36:57):
still keep giving it to them. They're abusive, you have
to leave them, and that's showing love too. Like Jennifer.
You know, she would attract all of these men who
were not nice to nobody ever beat her up. She
would not have tolerated that, but emotionally abusive. She saw
me do the same thing, and that's what she learned.

(37:19):
But now I know better. Yeah, we do the best
we can. You know a lot of people experience guilt,
and I always say, had your younger self known that
there was a choice, maybe you would have done something else.
But we do the best we can. So guilt is
a waste of time. Let it go. You did the
best you could when you could. And I do believe

(37:40):
even though no, you didn't want Jennifer to pass, and
all the things that have happened in your life, the
difference you're making. It's not only loving as a piece
of advice, but sharing and being of service. So it
may be entertaining someone in one of your books, maybe
educating one and another. It may send somebody on their journey.

(38:03):
I do know that grief is I don't want to
say relieved, because it never goes far. But there's all
the neurotransmitters that really impact the loss of them when
we're grieving, and to read a book, it can help
raise those levels again and help try to bring our
system whole. So that's a way that you are of

(38:23):
service as well. There's so many ways I encourage anyone,
whatever your self expression is, just do it, even if
it's just saying hello to people or giving somebody a compliment,
whatever that is for you. If you can just be
there for someone else, it's a huge, huge thing, Sheila.
Do you feel Jennifer's presence ever?

Speaker 4 (38:46):
I do, maybe not as much as I used it
because I think she's busy, and I hear that she
works with young children who have crossed over in traumatic ways.
She didn't have children of her own, she wanted to,
so I'm glad that she's doing that.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Sheila, and I have more good things for you after
the break. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm
the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast, a paranormal podcast network.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Don't go anywhere. There's more Shades of the Afterlife coming
right up.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Every eight minutes. The American Red Cross brings help and
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(39:48):
saving skills like CPR and first aid. Be a hero,
donate today, visit Redcross dot org or call one eight
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Speaker 5 (40:06):
Hey everyone, it's producer Tom of Coast to Coast, A
M and More.

Speaker 7 (40:09):
Sandra starts right now.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain.
In our last segment together, we'll hear more from best
selling fiction and non fiction writer of nineteen books, including
her memoir Growing from the Ashes. The Magnificent Shila Lowe
also let you know how you can get involved in

(40:45):
her free automatic writing et cetera Zoom group. Next, here's
Sheila answering my question. Do you feel your daughter, Jennifer's
presence ever?

Speaker 4 (40:57):
I do, maybe not as much as I used to could.
I think she busy, and I hear that she works
with young children who have crossed over in traumatic ways.
She didn't have children of her own, she wanted to,
so I'm glad that she's doing that. Sometimes a wave
of emotion will come over me, that it just comes

(41:17):
out of nowhere, and I often feel that that's her,
and sometimes I ask her for signs, and I've put
some of them in the book.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Our Loved Ones. I am convinced of this work through
our imagination and as human beings, it's so easy to
just blow off thoughts that come into our mind thinking that, oh,
that's just our imagination. But taking any classes in psychic
and mediumship, that's how it works. So I ask everybody

(41:49):
make a little more attention to that, because there are times,
even with people that I know who have passed, I'm
busy doing something and all of a sudden, like a whoosh,
a memory that I have with that person comes out
of the blue, nothing related to what I'm doing, and
filled with the emotion and the feeling, and I'm just

(42:10):
just a little.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Like, hey, okay, you're here.

Speaker 7 (42:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Pay attention to that because it's how they communicate. Not
everybody can turn lights on and off, or he even
wants to, because I believe they're busy too. I believe
that we continue to learn and grow and explore, but
they can just be by our side, and so often
they are, you know, cheering us on living life through
our eyes as well. And some of them, I mean,

(42:35):
just like here, we all have different talents and skills
and maybe some of them are talented at manipulating electricity,
and some who are really strong might actually come through
with a physical manifestation. I saw Jennifer walk past the
kitchen door shortly after she was killed, like within a
few days.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
But that's extremely difficult to do communicating that way, like
trying to breathe on the bottom of a swimming pool,
because the atmosphere of the Earth is so heavy compared
to what they're used to. And then also I think
it was Sonya Rinaldi who was talking about why we
don't get as much physical mediumship as we used to

(43:18):
because with all the electronics and stuff that we have
in the atmosphere, it really makes it hard for them
to come through that way, which made perfect sense to me.

Speaker 7 (43:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Absolutely, you've probably seen me do this, and if you're listening,
you just have to visualize this. I've got my hand
held out in front of me and that's us. And
if I wave my hand really fast, or if anybody
waves their hand really fast, it gives it illusion that
it's invisible. I mean, you have to wave it really
really fast have it to be invisible. But you get

(43:49):
what I mean. They're vibrating at a different speed within
the same area. We are lots more than one form
of energy can exist in one place at the same time,
So I believe we're part of their world. But for
them to slow down enough, like you said, like it's
being underwater trying to talk maybe and get your words

(44:10):
out above a pool or above water, it's very difficult
for them. So if we can meet them halfway and
take some time. Even though Jovah witnesses didn't want you
to meditate, I really do think if we can learn
to slow our mind down, even if it's just for
a little while, just try to be in that present moment,

(44:30):
whether you're out for a walk or doing whatever you're
doing in that present moment. It's kind of like recharging
our spiritual battery a little bit, and you just never
know how much that can raise our own vibration. Do
you want to call it?

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Then? Yeah, you're handwaving is good illustration. The first time
I thought of something like that was when I was
watching my room fin First it goes slow and you
can see it, and then it's spinning and spinning and
you can't see it anymore, or you don't see it.
In the same way, we're like, I didn't have my
contact lenses in, and I went and put them in,

(45:05):
and all of a sudden, I saw that there were
some ants on my counter that I could not see
without my lenses. Just because you can't see it doesn't
mean it's not there.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Amen to that, sister, Well, remind us what your websites
are and how people can get in touch with you.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Yes, well, they're very easy for handwriting analysis. It's just
shilolo dot com and the other one is shilolobooks dot com,
which is obviously dedicated to my books. The beautiful memoir
cover that Scott Montgomery made for me of the phoenix,
And what's kind of ironic about choosing the phoenix growing

(45:42):
from the ashes is that I'm extremely pyrophobic. I never
even used the fireplace when I had one in my house,
so to choose this it was still the perfect image.
And he made it like in a form of question mark.
And I just love this cover. It's beautiful. Any closing
words or anything I should have asked you that we

(46:04):
want to share about any last things before we were
labbed on long enough, so you blabbed in a perfect way.
We really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you so much
for having.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Me, and thank you Sheila. To find Sheila's books, including
her memoir Growing from the Ashes, go to sheilalowbooks dot
com and spell Lowlowe. Also, if you're interested in the
forensic handwriting analysis that sounds pretty cool, doesn't it, you

(46:38):
can just go to Shilalow dot com. Simple and easy.
I hope you enjoyed that. It made me feel really
good to talk with Sheila. She's one of my heroes,
being such a big author of so many books and
being vulnerable to share her story. If you'd like to
join her on one of those automatic writing et cetera

(47:02):
free zoom meetings that she hosts, the easiest way to
find it is if you go to a website called
Victor Zammit dot comic t R Z A M M
Victor Zammit dot com. Victor and his wife Wendy have

(47:23):
a wonderful website and on the left of the page
you'll see zoom groups. That's what you can click on
and you can see all the zoom groups that are happening.
Wendy and Victor Zammit, many many, many years ago, started
what's called the Friday After Life Report. You can sign

(47:43):
up for that and a shout out to Victor and Wendy.
When I was a brand new author well over ten
years ago, I contacted them because I needed some people
to read the book before it got published, and they
were kind enough to post it and their afterlife report
and good news came in made everybody happy. And here

(48:06):
we are today with my book, We Don't Die, a
skeptics discovery of life after death, as a number one
international bestseller. If you have not yet read my book
and you'd like a free PDF copy, simply go to
We Don't Die dot com. At the bottom of the page,
you can enter your name and your email address. It

(48:27):
says you get the first few chapters. The secret is
it is the entire book. If you are experiencing grief,
start with chapter ten. There's so much good information about
what grief is, why we grieve, tools to make it
an easier process, how our brain chemistry changes, and more. Also,

(48:49):
you've heard me mention our medium classes that happen atwdotdie
dot com. It dawned on me this week. Of course,
not everybody wants to be a medium, but there's value
in taking the classes aside from being a professional medium.
You know, it takes years and years of good study
and practice to be a medium, but there is magic

(49:12):
that happens in those meeting rooms. They're held on Zoom.
Our tutors are Kerrie McLoud and Phil Diyke's longtime mediums.
They're fun. You're with a community of people and you're
exploring your soul and how it receives information. So when
you start off in the classes, you learn about your

(49:34):
psychic ability and you do readings on other students in class,
it empowers you. It gives you that shot in the
arm of inspiration and happiness and knowing that you're never alone,
that you're a divine soul with all this wisdom. And
if you imagine a pie and that's your psychic nature,

(49:56):
one little slice of that pie is your need ability
as a divine soul. We all have this ability. So
once you learn how your soul communicates, then instead of
doing a person to person soul to soul reading, you
do a soul to soul reading on someone who's no

(50:18):
longer walking on planet Earth. That's called mediumship. There are
literally miracles that happen in each and every class. We
work with other students and who comes through it's our
loved ones. You know how I feel so often about
high priced mediums out there, but it dawned on me.

(50:40):
Our six week medium classes are lower in price than
getting an inexpensive medium reading. So why not join us
and be part of a very loving community where miracles
can happen and your loved ones can speak. Please take
me up on that. It's a great experience. That's at

(51:00):
We Don't Die dot com. Just click on our at
home courses and don't miss our free Sunday gathering with
medium demonstration included. It's one of the highlights of my
week and always leaves me feeling so good. Have you
ever felt inspired to write a book? You know the
world is waiting for your words and somebody needs to

(51:24):
hear the journey you've been on and your words of wisdom.
Pretend like you're writing to one person, tell them your story.
Let loved ones and your inspirers work with you, and
before long you'll realize that there's a lot of good
you can share. There's some great resources at Amazon's ACX

(51:46):
dot com. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just
needs to be out in the world. My friend, it
is time for us to say goodbye for just a
little while, feel free and listen to one of the
past episodes. Also, if you're interested, you can go to
rate this podcast dot com, forward slash Shades of the

(52:08):
Afterlife and let me know what you think. Remember, you
are a divine soul having a human experience, and in
the invisible space around you, You've got a huge group
of cheerleaders. You are loved, and your life matters. I'm
Sandra Champlain. Thank you so much for listening to Shades

(52:29):
of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast
am Paranormal Podcast Network.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Thanks for listening to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Ghost
Day and Paranormal Podcast Network. Make sure and check out
all our shows on the iHeartRadio app or by going
to iHeartRadio dot com.