November 29, 2023 • 38 mins
Cofounder of Helping Parents Heal Mark Ireland shares afterlife communication in his new book The Persistence of the Soul: Mediums, Spirit Visitations, and Afterlife Communication.
Compelling evidence for afterlife messages backed by scientific research.
After the passing of his son, Mark Ireland began a search for messages from the afterlife and discovered remarkable proof of life after death. Interweaving profound personal experience and scientific evidence, Ireland presents a deep dive into psychic-medium phenomena, spirit visitations, afterlife communication, reincarnation, and near-death experiences, pointing to the survival of consciousness.
After the unexpected death of his youngest son, Mark Ireland embarked on a search for messages from the afterlife and discovered remarkable evidence of life after death.
Delving into the fascinating realm of psychic-medium phenomena, spirit visitations, afterlife communication, synchronicity, reincarnation, and near-death experiences, author Richard Ireland combines personal experiences with compelling scientific evidence to provide readers with a profound exploration of consciousness survival beyond physical death. Drawing from his journey of overcoming resistance towards spiritual practices inherited from his father, the renowned psychic Dr. Richard Ireland, who advised notable figures such as Mae West and the Eisenhower family, Ireland delivers a captivating narrative that sheds light on the intricacies of paranormal occurrences and their implications on our understanding of life and death.
As he embarks on his personal journey of healing, he encounters highly regarded individuals who can communicate with those who have crossed over. Through their messages, he receives unexpected and heartwarming communication from his loved ones who have departed. Delving deeper into the subject, he interviews the mediums to understand how they can perceive, receive, and interpret information from the spirits of the deceased. He also sheds light on the issue of fraudulent mediums and provides valuable insights on differentiating between genuine and fake ones. His exploration of the subject reveals the profound impact of the messages delivered by the mediums on the lives of grieving individuals.
In his book, Ireland delves into the fascinating world of scientific experiments to provide evidence for the continuation of consciousness beyond death. The author shares his account of conducting a personal test involving a secret message left behind by his deceased sister, Robin. The message was unknown to any living person and remained sealed until the author received messages from various mediums. Ireland exposes the flawed arguments made by skeptics and scrutinizes mediumship from various religious traditions, including factions that seek to vilify the practice. By highlighting the accuracy and sometimes ambiguous nature of spirit communication, the author reveals the immense healing and transformative possibilities that come with believing in the existence of the soul beyond physical death.
We talk about
Mark Ireland is the cofounder of Helping Parents Heal, an organization with more than 24,000 members that assists bereaved parents worldwide. He has participated in mediumship research studies conducted by the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia, and he currently operates a medium certification program. The author of Soul Shift lives in Camas, Washington.
markirelandauthor.com
Compelling evidence for afterlife messages backed by scientific research.
After the passing of his son, Mark Ireland began a search for messages from the afterlife and discovered remarkable proof of life after death. Interweaving profound personal experience and scientific evidence, Ireland presents a deep dive into psychic-medium phenomena, spirit visitations, afterlife communication, reincarnation, and near-death experiences, pointing to the survival of consciousness.
After the unexpected death of his youngest son, Mark Ireland embarked on a search for messages from the afterlife and discovered remarkable evidence of life after death.
Delving into the fascinating realm of psychic-medium phenomena, spirit visitations, afterlife communication, synchronicity, reincarnation, and near-death experiences, author Richard Ireland combines personal experiences with compelling scientific evidence to provide readers with a profound exploration of consciousness survival beyond physical death. Drawing from his journey of overcoming resistance towards spiritual practices inherited from his father, the renowned psychic Dr. Richard Ireland, who advised notable figures such as Mae West and the Eisenhower family, Ireland delivers a captivating narrative that sheds light on the intricacies of paranormal occurrences and their implications on our understanding of life and death.
As he embarks on his personal journey of healing, he encounters highly regarded individuals who can communicate with those who have crossed over. Through their messages, he receives unexpected and heartwarming communication from his loved ones who have departed. Delving deeper into the subject, he interviews the mediums to understand how they can perceive, receive, and interpret information from the spirits of the deceased. He also sheds light on the issue of fraudulent mediums and provides valuable insights on differentiating between genuine and fake ones. His exploration of the subject reveals the profound impact of the messages delivered by the mediums on the lives of grieving individuals.
In his book, Ireland delves into the fascinating world of scientific experiments to provide evidence for the continuation of consciousness beyond death. The author shares his account of conducting a personal test involving a secret message left behind by his deceased sister, Robin. The message was unknown to any living person and remained sealed until the author received messages from various mediums. Ireland exposes the flawed arguments made by skeptics and scrutinizes mediumship from various religious traditions, including factions that seek to vilify the practice. By highlighting the accuracy and sometimes ambiguous nature of spirit communication, the author reveals the immense healing and transformative possibilities that come with believing in the existence of the soul beyond physical death.
We talk about
- Death bed visions
- Near Death Experiences
- His famous psychic father
- The Houdini Code
- Spirit visitations
- Communication with this sister, Robin
- Certified mediums
- How to spot a fraud
Mark Ireland is the cofounder of Helping Parents Heal, an organization with more than 24,000 members that assists bereaved parents worldwide. He has participated in mediumship research studies conducted by the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia, and he currently operates a medium certification program. The author of Soul Shift lives in Camas, Washington.
markirelandauthor.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:59):
Welcome to the Oh for It,the consciousness transforming Podcasts for exceptional twenty first
century living folks. We're going tohave a very interesting show today. We're
speaking with Mark Ireland and we're talkingabout his newest book, The Persistence of
the Soul, Medium, Spirit Visitationsand After Life Communication. And you know,
this time of year, all ofthis is very important because the information
(01:22):
just flows through as the veil islessened between the two worlds. So sit
back, listen, and then doyour own investigation. This is going to
be quite an interesting show. Thisman has a very interesting past. Now.
The information shared on Get Over Ituses intuitive and pragmatic insight to help
you shift your consciousness to break throughblocks and release energy that is no longer
(01:44):
needed. Yes, we're going tohelp you let go of the BS that's
been holding you back. But youguys know I always ask are you truly
ready to? And by the way, folks, BS is belief system.
A bit about me for my newlisteners, Intuitive since birth. I'm a
third generation Intuitive with over three decadesof experience supporting people to break through the
blocks along their path. I'm astrategist for personal and professional transformation, revealing
(02:07):
cutting edge information that enables you toprosper and thrive. I spent twenty five
success successful years in Corford, Americaas an executive sales professional, and I'm
the founder of Healing Vision's Ministries andthe Northern California Children's Education Network, a
five oh one c three nonprofit.I provide consultations and healings in all areas
(02:29):
of life that heal the mind,body, spirit connection, allowing you to
live your very best life. Myclients tell me that I keep it real
while providing them with accurate information toa system along their journey as a spirit
living in human existence. But theyalso say, if you really don't want
to know, don't ask Monique.My background includes a doctorate in metaphysics,
(02:51):
Reiki master teacher or dad minister,and clinical hypnotherapists. Of whether you are
stressed, depressed, or possessed,I can help find more about me and
the services I offer. Go tomy website and that's on Nick Chapman dot
com and I invite you to likeand follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn My
guest today. Mark Erlin is theco founder of Helping Parents Heal, an
(03:15):
organization with more than twenty four thousandmembers that assist grief parents worldwide. He
has participated in mediumship research studies conductedby the University of Arizona and the University
of Virginia, and he is currentlyand he currently operates a medium certification program.
(03:35):
He is also the author of SoulShift and he lives in the state
of Washington, and you can checkhim out at his website and that is
Maxirlanauthor dot com. And I'm sorry, Mark Arlin, author dot com.
M A R K I R EL A N D A U T H
(03:57):
O R all one word dot com. Welcome Mark, Hey money, It's
good to be here. How areyou doing. That's great, It's good
to have you here. Very interestingbook that you wrote. You seem to
have a lot of well not alot, but the deaths that are in
your family you chronicled and you knowstarting, you know, heartbreakingly, I
(04:18):
guess with your son that passed away. But before we delve into that,
give us a little information about yourbackground and how you came to this place
of writing about the afterlife. Yeah, it's kind of a unique story and
that I grew up with a fatherwho is a prominent psychic and medium working
(04:40):
mainly in the nineteen fifty sixty,seventies and eighties, so kind of ahead
of the curve in many ways anda pioneer so to speak. I grew
up with, you know, thepsychic phenomena, caring in the household on
a daily basis, where as akid you couldn't get away with anything.
But also saw my father, bothin his non nominational church demonstrate spirit communication
(05:04):
and then also providing psychic demonstrations andsecular venues, TV shows and things like
that with Spirit Apparent occasionally popping throughdelivering specific information and messages to people in
the audience or congregation at the church. That really showed me at a young
age, like Wow, there reallyis more than just this physical existence.
(05:27):
And so it gave me a confidencein there being a spiritual dimension to life,
even though I didn't necessarily understand itcompletely. But as I grew into
being an adult, I didn't reallytake the same path as my father.
I took a more conventional one,going to the university, getting a degree,
going into the business world, gettingmarried at a young age, and
having a couple of boys. SoI was, you know, I guess
(05:53):
none of us wants to be ourparent exactly, and even though my dad
said I was very psychic, Ijust you know, took that other,
more conventional path. But when myyoungest son turned eighteen, about three months
after that, he passed unexpectedly whilehiking the mountains behind our home, the
mcnow Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona,and that kind of shook me back into
(06:16):
this field and to look for atmy dad's work, because a lot of
folks at that point you're in shockif your child passes. I don't care
what your belief system is. Tough, tough thing. But at least I
had that knowledge. And it wasn'tjust blind faith. It was having,
you know, witness first hand thecommunication from the other side that to me
(06:40):
was indisputable, and so I drewback into it and started exploring it and
took on my own journey, andthat resulted in my first book, Soul
Shift, Finding Where the Dead Go. But I'd say the very first thing
that happened the first two things.The first one was I wanted a direct
connection a day or two after Brandonpassed, and I went into a darkened
(07:03):
room which was actually my walking closet, with no light on, sat down,
and tried to meditate. And whileI'm not a great meditator, in
this instance, I was able toclear my mind and I saw my son's
face go by like surrounded with Hewas glowing and happy and joyful. I
could see that and feel that.And then immediately following that was a cross
(07:26):
with an oval loop at the top. And while I'd seen those, I
didn't really know what they symbolized.So when I was done meeting the analytrain
went to google what that was,and I found out that it's the anc
or, the oldest cross of humanhistory from the Egyptians, dated back about
(07:48):
five thousand years, with the lowerportion of the cross representing physical life and
the ovaloop representing eternal life. SoI got kind of a coded message that
told me my son was in theafterlife and he was joyful, which if
I had already known what that symbolmeant, it would have been different because
then I could have blamed my subconsciousmind as giving me something to make me
(08:11):
feel better. But instead I hadto decode the message, and then I'd
say. The next thing that wassubstantial that that happened was I think it
was about three days after Brandon passedI heard from my uncle. Now,
my uncle had similar abilities to myfather, and my father had been gone
about twelve years by this point,and my uncle connected with me by cell
(08:33):
phone. I was in the mortuaryat the time, making arrangements for everything,
and he said, Mark, Ijust wanted to let you know something.
You know, last night I triedto connect and I couldn't get anything.
But this morning, your father cameto me and he said he was
there when Brandon passed. Brandon wasa little confused at first, but your
dad helped him cross over and adjustand then the other piece. Then he
(08:56):
shared the feel good message, whichwas you know, Brandon says you were
the best parents he ever could havehad. But following on the heels of
that was your dad said. Brandon'sdeath was caused by a lack of oxygen
and his blood stream that causes heartto fail. And I hadn't had the
autopsy results yet, we didn't knowthe cause of death. Two days later
I talked to the physician who hadconducted the autopsy and she said that Brandon
(09:18):
had suffered a severe asthma attack thatdrew his blood oxygen levels down to a
point causing cardiac arrest, So thatwas really the second thing it started me
where my uncle gave me the causeof death before the autopsy. That is
really fascinating that you know, youget the validation and you didn't know that
(09:39):
it was coming, but you receiveda validation. I do want to back
up a minute, though, andtalk about your dad, doctor Richard Ireland.
Why don't you share the audience whathe did and how he eventually impacted
your life even though you didn't planon going down that path. Yeah.
So, well, he grew upin rural Ohio and I guess he grew
(10:03):
up. He was born in thirtytwo, so this would have been in
the thirties and forties. He atthe age of five, he went in
for corrective surgery to the Columbus,Ohio Children's Hospital because he went acrossside,
and after the surgery, they hadhis eyes cupped in bandaged and they had
him actually tied down to a bedso he wouldn't mess with the bandages.
(10:26):
A nurse came by and felt sorryfor him and told him that she'd let
him out of the bed if youpromised not to mess with the bandages.
He agreed, so she went onher walk and when she came back hes
the wall and catching it, andshe thought, oh my god, he's
taken the bandages off. But hehadn't, so that was probably even more
disturbing to her. Then she pulledin some doctors to show them what was
(10:48):
going on, and they tried afew random experiments with him. They put
him in his bed and then hadone doctor at the foot of the bed
and another at the doorway had asked, who's standing in front of you right
now? And he got it rightevery time. So that was kind of
the family's first discovery of the factthat he had this clairvoyance, extreme clairvoyance
(11:09):
and fast forwarding. I think hewas probably twelve or thirteen when he you
know, he'd had these experiences andmade predictions and things, and it was
not accepted by his family, atleast his father and his older brothers.
But he was usually right, butthey didn't like it. I remember one
story where where they lived they hadno telephone and no you know, no
(11:31):
communication method, but his grandfather,who lived you know, X number of
miles away. My dad would alwayssay, Hey, Grandpa's coming, And
it got to the point where themeals were actually planned around when he would
say that because the grandparents would showup within a reasonable period of time of
that. At one time, mydad said, you know, Grandpa's coming
and his beard's cut off. Andhis brother says, you're crazy, crazy,
(11:54):
Dick. There's no way, youknow, Grandpa loves that beard.
He'd never shave it off. AndGrandpa showed up and the beard was gone.
And it seems Grandpa had been makingtaffy and his beard got into the
taffy so he had to cut itoff. Oh wow. So that was
kind of the you know, theupbringing. And then I think at the
age twelve thirteen, he stumbled intoa Spiritualist church for the first time.
(12:15):
Now, this was two weeks afterhis best friend had died in a car
accident, and he and the buddyhad been playing in a creek the night
before the boy died, and theboy's mother had called him to come home
so that they could go to atheater that night to the movies, and
they were going to go out todinner, and he says, I'll see
you tomorrow, Dick. Because mydad, as a kid, went by
(12:37):
Dick instead of Richard, and mydad just blurted out, no, tomorrow,
you'll be dead now. He didn'tmean to say that, just came
out. The next morning, mydad was woken up by somebody throwing rocks
against his window, and he andthen it was other kids that had discovered
that the friend had died the nightbefore in a car accident and were kind
of blaming my dad, not understandingthat he, you know, he had
(13:00):
just forecasted this. It wasn't anythingthat he had anything to do with.
So back to my dad stumbling intothe spiritualist church. He goes in and
a minister there put a tape inblindfolds over his eyes ask for people to
write questions on pieces of paper andsend them up. So when my dad
got there, he said what shouldI write and the attendant just said,
(13:20):
just write a message please, andthen sign your name, which he did.
He sent that up and when histurn came, the minister, who
was a psychic medium, said RichardIreland, and he says yes, and
then he said, well, I'vegot a young man here who recently crossed
over and he gives me a secretcode name, and the name is Paisy.
(13:43):
Well, my dad and this kidalways had these secret code names in
the creek and the kid's name codename was Paisy. So my dad was
really impressed by this, and thenhe talked to the minister afterwards. The
minister went on to say, oneday you'll be doing what I do.
He mentored my dad, and thenyears later, I think my dad was
(14:03):
probably only twenty one years old orwhatever, he received his ordination papers from
the NSAC National Spiritualist Association of Churchesand then became a traveling minister and then
doing demonstrations and then serving at afew different churches they moved him around to
and then growing. In nineteen sixtyhe founded his own non denominational church,
(14:28):
the University of Life, which wasnot affiliated with the NSAC. He even
though he was ordained in that organization, he just I think he wanted something
with less dogma even than that,so that people could form their own understanding
based on their own personal experiences.So he would just present and share messages
and teachings, but didn't try andreally ram specific dogma down people's throats.
(14:52):
That church was very successful, andhe also branched out into doing demonstrations in
the secular world on TV. Hebecame a counselor to May West, who
I met when I was nineteen yearsold, I had to be exciting.
Yeah, I got to tour herapartment in Beverly Hills back then and it
still looked like it was nineteen twenties. And then I believe he counseled the
(15:20):
Eisenhower family as well, because Ihave a card from Ami Eisenhower dated nineteen
fifty six, the year my parentsgot married, congratulating my father on behalf
of the president and her on gettingmarried. So that was pretty cool.
So that was kind of you know, how his life unfolded, and then
growing up. Then my parents actuallysplit up when I was ten or eleven
(15:41):
years old, so I didn't seemy father as often then, but I
would take friends to see his demonstrations. And if anyone listening wants to see
an example of what he would doduring a psychic demonstration, I have a
clip from him on the Steve AllenShow in nineteen seventy one link on the
front page of my website you canfind and again that's Mark irelandauthor dot com.
(16:06):
Okay, well, thank you forsharing that. You delve into so
much with spirit communication and all,so talk to us first about spirit visitations.
Now I need to share with youthat my husband's son passed away.
About it. His oldest son passedaway about a year ago, and it
(16:26):
is I mean, as a stepmom, it rocked me and I can't even
still to this day imagine what myhusband and his ex wife are going through,
you know, losing that child.You being one that has lost a
child. How can you put thingsin perspective and actually recognize spirit visitation,
(16:48):
either from a deceased child of oursor anyone else. Well, there's a
number of ways, I think.First off, when you go through that
kind of very traumatic experience, youhave to take time to grieve, and
there's a number of things that helpyou in your healing process. That includes
support from friends and family, Meetingpeople who have been through the same thing
(17:11):
and developing relationships with them because theycan relate to you. Coming to a
point where you can provide service toothers, because that comes back to heal
you. Maybe not immediately, butyou know, in due time. Forgiving
yourself of any guilt you may hold, because a lot of parents will say
I should have done this or Ishould have done that, when in reality
that's not necessarily true in most cases. Releasing anger and forgiving people who you
(17:37):
may be holding responsible, whether thatmay be a doctor or someone responsible for
an accident or whatever, because reallyit's just coming back to hurt you.
And then the final pieces, Ithink, at least, you know,
beyond therapy and things like that,would be to be open to evidence for
their being an afterlife. And there'sa number of different phenomena that are out
(18:00):
there that you could read about inbooks or even experience directly that deal with
that, one of which is mediumship, which is kind of my more my
area of expertise. But additionally,you have the near death experience phenomena.
You have ADC's, which are calledafter death communications, and those are more
than one on one experiences, andI'll give you an example of one.
Now we've been blessed with many,many of these, but not everyone will
(18:22):
have them, or at least asoften or as tangible. So you have
to, I guess, come toa point where you are looking for the
subtle. You can quant your mindenough to detect them and believe them to
be real. I think the easiestway for people early on is maybe through
a dream visit, and one methodthat worked for me would be to pray
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send in a prayerferct way a requestfor a visit while asleep and to pray
to be able to remember it.And I've had at least one extremely vivid
more than waking reality vividness to itvisit with my son brand In that way,
I think the most profound experience weever had. It goes back to
six months after Brandon's passing. Butit's funny because just two weeks after Brandon
(19:10):
passed, I visited an intuitive andshe said, I believe you're going to
see Brandon at your bedside in aboutsix months. Well six months later,
we had a schedule to go ona cruise to celebrate Brandon's pending graduation from
high school, but since he wasn'tphysically there with us, we took our
older son and Brandon's best buddy,Stu. So before leaving for the trip,
(19:32):
we loaned Brandon's bass guitar. BecauseBrandon was a bassist, we loaned
it to a gentleman named James Linton, who was a musician. Now we'd
met James because he was actually onthe mountain hiking today. Brandon was there
and he tried to help, buthe was there too late. But he
had left an online comment on anonline obituary saying that he was there and
if we wanted to meet him.He gave us the contact info, so
we did meet him. We becamefriends here. It was six months later.
(19:56):
We're going on this cruise and weloan him Brandon his bass guitar.
So Jim was in the studio workingon some new songs. He was a
guitar player, composer and singer,but he didn't have a bass, so
we loaned him that. Anyhow,seven days past we come back from the
cruise, my wife goes into ourmaster bedroom, sits on the bench in
front of our bed, and suddenlyfeels Brandon's presence there. She knows it's
(20:21):
him and sees him as a shadowfigure out of her peripheral vision. That's
remarkable enough, but the very nextday we get a call from James,
and James says, Susie, havesomething to tell you, but I don't
know how to share this. Hesaid, Well, she thought maybe he'd
broken the bass, but he hadn't. I was working on this new song
and while I was doing that,I felt another presence in the studio and
(20:45):
I saw a shadow figure out ofmy peripheral vision, and then I saw
flashes of white light and I thought, I'm just hallucinating. So he said
that he went got water, hegot something, he took a shower,
but each time he came back itgot strong. And then finally he acquiesced
and said, okay, Brandon,what do you want? And then at
that point he felt guided pushed stronglyto change the lyrics to this song he
(21:08):
was working on, as well asthe bassline, and then he said the
culmination of that was a song calledThe Other Side. He said, it's
the best song I've ever written,but I didn't write it. So for
him to report almost identical experience tomy wife Susie the next day is pretty
phenomenal. So I would say thatthat's an example of an ADC or an
(21:29):
after death communication, but a verycompelling one, and one's probably pretty rare.
Well, talking about after death communication, talked to us about the Houdini
code. Sure so. Harry Houdini, as most people know it, was
a famous musician back in the earlytwentieth century, and initially I think he
had an interest in mediums in afterlife, but I think he felt like he
(21:53):
got tricked by a couple of fraudulentmediums. Whether they were or not,
I don't know. But because ofthat he kind of it turned and then
he wanted to debunk all mediums.So he spent a lot of his life
trying to to debunk mediums, includinghis own trickery to make them look bad
in cases where they shouldn't have.But near the end of his life he
thought of developing a code to sharewith his wife, and then he told
(22:18):
her. Her name was Beatrice.He said, Beatrice, if anyone gives
you this code, you'll know thatit's truly me, Harry Houdini. And
you know that I went on andI still exist. So after he died,
a medium named Arthur Ford, whowas a very prominent medium of the
twentieth century, did deliver the codesuccessfully to her. But then and it
(22:41):
was reported in the New York Times. But then after that, a bunch
of debunkers came out of the woodworkand claimed, well, you two are
in cahoots or oh the code wascommonly known, or just a bunch of
excuses to dismiss what he had done, which was rather remarkable. So if
you look it up today, it'llsay it's never been solved. But it
actual she was solved by Arthur Ford, and if anyone wanted to read about
(23:03):
that, there was a book byAlan Spraggett called, I think it was
called Arthur Ford The Man who Talkedwith the Dead. Hmm, okay,
well the Man who Talked with theDead? And who's that by again,
Alan Spraggett. It's an old book. It's out of print, but you
might be able to find a usecopy of it if someone's interested in reading
more about that. It's really aboutthe life of Arthur Ford. So the
(23:26):
Houdini code experiment was mentioned in therein detailed in greater detail than I just
described. But if someone wanted toknow more about that, that's, you
know, a good example. Butyou know, aside from the eighty cs
that I reported, we you know, that took me on a path of
meeting some top mediums. The firstone I met was actually Allison Dubois before
(23:48):
the show Medium got big, andthis was a rather synchronistic way of meeting
her because I had been watching Threeweeks after Brandon passed. I was watching
a news clip on the NBC affiliatein Phoenix about a mediumship study being done
at the University of Arizona, wherethe medium was blinded from contact with the
sitters, and sitters are people whoreceive a reading. The sitters were in
(24:11):
one area and the medium was another. They and the sitter couldn't speak directly
to the medium, and the mediumcouldn't talk to the sitter. But there
was a proxy, a third partyresearcher who had asked questions of the sitters
I'm sorry of the medium, andthen the medium would have to answer,
and in this case it was AlisonDubois, and she was doing a great
(24:32):
job with a lot of specifics.And then they debrief with the sitters at
the end, and pretty much everythingshe said was right on task, and
they weren't just generalities like your grandmotherloves you, but specific stuff, you
know, like favorite foods, orof the deceased person that they liked to
go to Las Vegas and gamble andthings like that. So I was really
impressed, and I thought, gee, I'd love to get a reading from
(24:52):
her, and I love to bein that lab someday. And little did
I know both things would happen.The very next day, I guess call
from a man named Jerry Concer,who had been friends with my father,
and he said, Mark, look, I know what you've been through,
and I know someone who may beable to help you. Her name's Alison
Dubois and here's a phone number youcan call to get a reading with her.
So that was pretty wild. Ifelt my dad was pulling strings from
(25:17):
the other side to take care ofme, and then coinciding with Alison's reading,
another kind of remarkable synchronicity happened.So because she was even then before
the Medium show came out on NetworkTV, she had a big following because
she was very good. And soI didn't get the reading until August that
(25:37):
year, and you know when Isaw the clip was February. So fast
forward to August. Two weeks beforeI get the reading, a gentleman hands
me a box and it was someonewho had known my dad, and I
opened the box and it had basicallya manuscript in there of typewritten pages,
all eight and a half by eleven, called Your Psychic Potential, A Guide
to Psychic Development. And I said, well, where did you get this
(26:00):
and he goes, well, yourdad gave it to me before he died,
because you were out of state atthe time. And I said,
well, it's been twelve years sincehe passed. Why are you giving this
to me now? And he goes, I don't know, I just feel
like I'm supposed to. Well,two weeks later, I have the reading
with Alison and one of the firstthings she says to me is, your
father's hearing. He's showing me abook, but I feel it's his book
and he's handing it to you totake forward. Does that make sense?
(26:22):
I'm like, yeah, I thinkI get that. I actually later got
the book published in twenty eleven.So those are some of the early experiences
that I had, both direct youknow, after the communications, and with
mediums. And then I had threemore meetings with mediums that are reported my
first book, and the last ofwhich was at the University of Arizona when
(26:45):
I was a test center for amedium, Lorie Campbell under Blinded Conditions that
was recorded for a Discovery Channel excerpt. People could see that clip too on
my website. It's on the mediapage. Okay, So that kind of
dovetails right into certified mediums. Youcertify mediums, what is that process?
(27:07):
Like? Sure? Well, thewhole reason that I do this is it
goes back to when my first bookcame out, I suddenly got flooded with
people saying, Hey, who's agood medium. I can see who's a
good medium? I can see well. At that point I knew half a
dozen, but most of them werelike celebrity mediums like Alison and others,
and they were so popular they hadlong wait lists, some like up to
(27:27):
two years. And they and sincethey a lot of them did nothing,
I mean, that was their careerand they didn't do anything else, you
know, or a living, theycharged more than some people could afford.
So I'm not going to be judgmentalabout what people charged or don't charge.
But anyhow, I thought there mustbe more people out there with this ability
at a high level that don't havea following and their kind of undiscovered talent,
(27:49):
so they would probably have more availability, quicker when people really need it,
and maybe they charged less. SoI put it out there. I
developed some protocols after sure participating ina mediumship research initiative by doctor Emily Williams
Kelly at the University of Virginia Divisionof Perceptual Studies. She had been doing
one and then I kind of tookher methodology and looked at that, and
(28:14):
then I also went to my friendTricia Robertson, who was the president former
president of the Scottish Society of PsychicalResearch, and formulated my own protocols and
I've been modifying them to make themharder really over the years. I started
this in twenty fourteen and as oftoday, what a medium has to do
is they have to do five blindedreadings via zoom. So just like right
now, we don't have video on, so they have to do a reading
(28:37):
with no video and they're only giventhe first name of the sitter, nothing
but the first name of the sitter, So they have to give them a
reading. It's recorded, and thenat the end, the sitter has to
transcribe that into written format and breakit into individual statements. For example,
let's say the medium said I havea son here that crossed over. His
(29:00):
name starts with an A, andhis favorite food was pizza, So that
the sitter has to break those intoinitial individual statements and then grade them as
correct, incorrect, or indeterminable,and then let's warranted, they can assign
extra credit. So let's just saythe first statement, I have a son
who passed over. Let's say anassistance. It is correct, so the
(29:23):
sitner would mark that correct. Thenthe next statement, his name starts with
an a Aaron. His name isAaron. That's correct, and I'll give
that a bonus because that's pretty good. But we have two levels of bonus,
a two point and a five point. So let's say the sitter says,
I'll give a two point bonus forthat one because she didn't get the
name that she got the initial.And the next one, the favorite food
(29:45):
was pizza. Yeah, that's truetoo, so I'll give a two point
bonus for that. Let's say themedium said, Okay, I have a
son here that crossed over. Hisname is Aaron and his favorite food was
pizza with bell peppers, onions,and anchovies. Okay, well, if
the name is Aaron, that's afive point bonus, and that's specific specifistical
(30:06):
detail is worth a five point bonus. So that's kind of how it works.
So we take basically the entire reading, we grade it by the percent
of accuracy, comparing correct statements toincorrect. We set indeterminables on the side.
Those would be like future predictions orthings that for some reason the sitter
can't verify because they may involve somebodythey don't know or they can't reach.
(30:29):
We set those aside unless there's aninordinate percentage of those, So we kind
of limit the indeterminables to thirty threepercent. If they exceed that, anything
over that's going to be counted asincorrect because reading shouldn't it needs to be
to be an evidential reading, itneeds to have a higher percentage of accuracy
than that. So at the endof the day, the medium to pass
has to score an average over thefive readings conducted this way of seventy five
(30:52):
or better and a minimum accuracy ofsixty five percent. So theoretically they could
be sixty five percent accurate, havetwo five point bonuses and get seventy five
and then just barely pass, orthey could be seventy five percent accurate and
then pass. I've had people scorein the high nineties, and I've had
people sqeak by too, But Ihave probably five to eight people that have
(31:15):
scored, you know, in ninetyor points or higher, which is a
combination of the accuracy and those bonuspoints that are really valuable because those are
the specific hits that are highly meaningfulto the sitter. So after they are
certified, do you help present themto the world or are they basically on
their own? No, what Idid was I developed a website to host
(31:40):
all of these So today I haveforty one mediums over nine years that have
been certified, that have achieved thesestandards, and each one has their own
page. So someone who's looking fora medium. Again, you can never
guarantee or promise somebody a good reading, but your odds are greatly enhanced by
someone who has been through this processand I know is credible because they did
this, you know, with blindedreadings. So this website, you know,
(32:05):
you can look if you want tolook by region, state, country,
you can find people that way,Like if you wanted to do it
in person, that might be helpful, but otherwise most all of them will
do readings by zoom, so itdoesn't really matter where they are. You
just go through the list and seewho resonates with you and pick somebody.
I don't make any money off this, in fat I spend all my own
money developing the website, spending thetime developing the protocols, the testing.
(32:28):
I do have a volunteer assistant whohelps schedule and then helps me grade the
readings. But this is all outof my own pocket. It's a public
service really to help people in grieffind a good resource, because I know
there are some Charlatan's out there.I don't think there are as many as
people think, but there are some, and I want people to avoid those,
(32:50):
as well as people who are abit deluded about their abilities and think
they are better than they are.When it comes to dealing with people in
grief, you really need someone whoknows what they're doing and has the real
high level yes, and anything lessthan that it just presents disaster. Yeah,
and the website I mentioned can befound. There's a link to it
(33:10):
on my site. So just mysite's kind of a one stop shop for
not only my books and my media, but also the Helping Parents Heal website.
There's a link to that. There'sa link to my dad's videos that
I described, There's a link tothe Certified Medium website and links to other
helpful things as well. Yes,so thank you for sharing their website because
that was going to be my nextquestion. But my last question to you
(33:36):
is about your sister Robin. Youdedicate a very long chapter in your book
to her, and many lessons learned. Could you tell us a bit about
Robin and what she's taught you.Yeah, well, this really goes back
to that Houdini Code question that youasked, because he was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. This was two thousand andsix, actually think it was discovered in
(34:01):
two thousand and five, but shewas going to pass the two thousand and
six. Leading up to that,I had an idea for an experiment,
and I asked her if she'd bewilling to participate or want to participate to
try and help other people in thefuture to have confidence in the afterlife.
She agreed to that, and whatI started with was the idea from the
Houdini Code. And I thought tomyself, well, what was wrong with
(34:23):
the way Harry Houdini conducted his experiment? What caused people to come out of
the woodwork and say that someone wasin cahoots with him? And I thought,
well, the reason was because anyliving person knew what the code was.
So I thought, well, whatif my sister wrote something on a
piece of paper, put it ina sealed envelope and no one knew what
it was? And then we soughtout medium responses after her passing to see
(34:47):
if someone could get the code.And that's really what that's really what it
was about. She you know,the last few days she wrote this,
she put it in a sealed envelope. She initialed the outside. I had
developed a friendship with a neuroscientist,doctor Don Watson. I talked to him
about the idea and he helped developprotocols for conducting it. He asked me
to send him the envelope so noone could accuse me of opening it.
(35:10):
So I did that, and thenwe went out to a number of different
mediums and sought responses. We collectedthose, and then you know, a
number of months later we did openthe envelope and compare the results. I
don't want to give it away,though, because it's I think it's one
of the better chapters of the books, and more intriguing chapters. So I
would say, you know, Ilearned a lot from it in terms of
(35:31):
what you can expect or how youwould want to format an experiment of this
nature so that it has the bestchance for success. And I would say,
you know something that you have tounderstand how mediums work. Some of
them get messages visually, some areclear audience. So they might get words
(35:54):
here or there, like a wordor two, or some sort of audio
communication, but usually that's more intheir mind, not necessarily through the ear.
Some will get it through the air, but that's pretty rare, more
in their mind. So when youtake those things into consideration, you think
have to think, well, you'vegot to you need a message that's put
together in a way where that themediums are going to be able to clearly
(36:16):
get that through an image or justa word or two as opposed to a
string of words or you know,a long sentence or something like that.
But with that said, I wouldsay that it's an encouraging chapter. I'll
leave it at that. It isa very encouraging chapter, and folks as
well worth the read is well worththe book if you just read that chapter
(36:38):
by itself. Mark, I've reallyenjoyed our time together today. Could you
leave us with a pearl of wisdomfor the audience please? Yeah, I
think you know. Whether it's someonein grief for someone who's just discouraged in
life, I would say, we'reall here for a purpose and we all
have a path. So hang inthere. You know you're loved. Even
(37:00):
if you don't feel like you're lovedright now, or maybe you don't have
people in your life who are supportive, hang in there and get through this.
It's worth it because it's actually aprivilege to be here. It's a
challenging world. It presents us withsuffering and obstacles, but those are the
things that grow us and refine usinto being more than we were when we
came here. So it's worth seeingit through and hanging in there. And
(37:24):
I think if you could develop apositive, half glass, full outlook,
it'll help you too. It's notalways easy, but I would just encourage
people to just recognize you here fora reason and a purpose. Okay,
well, thank you very much forthat, and I appreciate your time today.
Thank you very much, and I'llquite sure the audience does too,
(37:45):
as we have explored this wonderful subject. And everyone please remember that the whole
important choice that you can make iswhat you choose to make important. Consider
making the masterful choice of covering thepersistence of souls. But the blessings,
light love to all, Gopa MHM.
Welcome to the Oh for It,the consciousness transforming Podcasts for exceptional twenty first
century living folks. We're going tohave a very interesting show today. We're
speaking with Mark Ireland and we're talkingabout his newest book, The Persistence of
the Soul, Medium, Spirit Visitationsand After Life Communication. And you know,
this time of year, all ofthis is very important because the information
(01:22):
just flows through as the veil islessened between the two worlds. So sit
back, listen, and then doyour own investigation. This is going to
be quite an interesting show. Thisman has a very interesting past. Now.
The information shared on Get Over Ituses intuitive and pragmatic insight to help
you shift your consciousness to break throughblocks and release energy that is no longer
(01:44):
needed. Yes, we're going tohelp you let go of the BS that's
been holding you back. But youguys know I always ask are you truly
ready to? And by the way, folks, BS is belief system.
A bit about me for my newlisteners, Intuitive since birth. I'm a
third generation Intuitive with over three decadesof experience supporting people to break through the
blocks along their path. I'm astrategist for personal and professional transformation, revealing
(02:07):
cutting edge information that enables you toprosper and thrive. I spent twenty five
success successful years in Corford, Americaas an executive sales professional, and I'm
the founder of Healing Vision's Ministries andthe Northern California Children's Education Network, a
five oh one c three nonprofit.I provide consultations and healings in all areas
(02:29):
of life that heal the mind,body, spirit connection, allowing you to
live your very best life. Myclients tell me that I keep it real
while providing them with accurate information toa system along their journey as a spirit
living in human existence. But theyalso say, if you really don't want
to know, don't ask Monique.My background includes a doctorate in metaphysics,
(02:51):
Reiki master teacher or dad minister,and clinical hypnotherapists. Of whether you are
stressed, depressed, or possessed,I can help find more about me and
the services I offer. Go tomy website and that's on Nick Chapman dot
com and I invite you to likeand follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn My
guest today. Mark Erlin is theco founder of Helping Parents Heal, an
(03:15):
organization with more than twenty four thousandmembers that assist grief parents worldwide. He
has participated in mediumship research studies conductedby the University of Arizona and the University
of Virginia, and he is currentlyand he currently operates a medium certification program.
(03:35):
He is also the author of SoulShift and he lives in the state
of Washington, and you can checkhim out at his website and that is
Maxirlanauthor dot com. And I'm sorry, Mark Arlin, author dot com.
M A R K I R EL A N D A U T H
(03:57):
O R all one word dot com. Welcome Mark, Hey money, It's
good to be here. How areyou doing. That's great, It's good
to have you here. Very interestingbook that you wrote. You seem to
have a lot of well not alot, but the deaths that are in
your family you chronicled and you knowstarting, you know, heartbreakingly, I
(04:18):
guess with your son that passed away. But before we delve into that,
give us a little information about yourbackground and how you came to this place
of writing about the afterlife. Yeah, it's kind of a unique story and
that I grew up with a fatherwho is a prominent psychic and medium working
(04:40):
mainly in the nineteen fifty sixty,seventies and eighties, so kind of ahead
of the curve in many ways anda pioneer so to speak. I grew
up with, you know, thepsychic phenomena, caring in the household on
a daily basis, where as akid you couldn't get away with anything.
But also saw my father, bothin his non nominational church demonstrate spirit communication
(05:04):
and then also providing psychic demonstrations andsecular venues, TV shows and things like
that with Spirit Apparent occasionally popping throughdelivering specific information and messages to people in
the audience or congregation at the church. That really showed me at a young
age, like Wow, there reallyis more than just this physical existence.
(05:27):
And so it gave me a confidencein there being a spiritual dimension to life,
even though I didn't necessarily understand itcompletely. But as I grew into
being an adult, I didn't reallytake the same path as my father.
I took a more conventional one,going to the university, getting a degree,
going into the business world, gettingmarried at a young age, and
having a couple of boys. SoI was, you know, I guess
(05:53):
none of us wants to be ourparent exactly, and even though my dad
said I was very psychic, Ijust you know, took that other,
more conventional path. But when myyoungest son turned eighteen, about three months
after that, he passed unexpectedly whilehiking the mountains behind our home, the
mcnow Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona,and that kind of shook me back into
(06:16):
this field and to look for atmy dad's work, because a lot of
folks at that point you're in shockif your child passes. I don't care
what your belief system is. Tough, tough thing. But at least I
had that knowledge. And it wasn'tjust blind faith. It was having,
you know, witness first hand thecommunication from the other side that to me
(06:40):
was indisputable, and so I drewback into it and started exploring it and
took on my own journey, andthat resulted in my first book, Soul
Shift, Finding Where the Dead Go. But I'd say the very first thing
that happened the first two things.The first one was I wanted a direct
connection a day or two after Brandonpassed, and I went into a darkened
(07:03):
room which was actually my walking closet, with no light on, sat down,
and tried to meditate. And whileI'm not a great meditator, in
this instance, I was able toclear my mind and I saw my son's
face go by like surrounded with Hewas glowing and happy and joyful. I
could see that and feel that.And then immediately following that was a cross
(07:26):
with an oval loop at the top. And while I'd seen those, I
didn't really know what they symbolized.So when I was done meeting the analytrain
went to google what that was,and I found out that it's the anc
or, the oldest cross of humanhistory from the Egyptians, dated back about
(07:48):
five thousand years, with the lowerportion of the cross representing physical life and
the ovaloop representing eternal life. SoI got kind of a coded message that
told me my son was in theafterlife and he was joyful, which if
I had already known what that symbolmeant, it would have been different because
then I could have blamed my subconsciousmind as giving me something to make me
(08:11):
feel better. But instead I hadto decode the message, and then I'd
say. The next thing that wassubstantial that that happened was I think it
was about three days after Brandon passedI heard from my uncle. Now,
my uncle had similar abilities to myfather, and my father had been gone
about twelve years by this point,and my uncle connected with me by cell
(08:33):
phone. I was in the mortuaryat the time, making arrangements for everything,
and he said, Mark, Ijust wanted to let you know something.
You know, last night I triedto connect and I couldn't get anything.
But this morning, your father cameto me and he said he was
there when Brandon passed. Brandon wasa little confused at first, but your
dad helped him cross over and adjustand then the other piece. Then he
(08:56):
shared the feel good message, whichwas you know, Brandon says you were
the best parents he ever could havehad. But following on the heels of
that was your dad said. Brandon'sdeath was caused by a lack of oxygen
and his blood stream that causes heartto fail. And I hadn't had the
autopsy results yet, we didn't knowthe cause of death. Two days later
I talked to the physician who hadconducted the autopsy and she said that Brandon
(09:18):
had suffered a severe asthma attack thatdrew his blood oxygen levels down to a
point causing cardiac arrest, So thatwas really the second thing it started me
where my uncle gave me the causeof death before the autopsy. That is
really fascinating that you know, youget the validation and you didn't know that
(09:39):
it was coming, but you receiveda validation. I do want to back
up a minute, though, andtalk about your dad, doctor Richard Ireland.
Why don't you share the audience whathe did and how he eventually impacted
your life even though you didn't planon going down that path. Yeah.
So, well, he grew upin rural Ohio and I guess he grew
(10:03):
up. He was born in thirtytwo, so this would have been in
the thirties and forties. He atthe age of five, he went in
for corrective surgery to the Columbus,Ohio Children's Hospital because he went acrossside,
and after the surgery, they hadhis eyes cupped in bandaged and they had
him actually tied down to a bedso he wouldn't mess with the bandages.
(10:26):
A nurse came by and felt sorryfor him and told him that she'd let
him out of the bed if youpromised not to mess with the bandages.
He agreed, so she went onher walk and when she came back hes
the wall and catching it, andshe thought, oh my god, he's
taken the bandages off. But hehadn't, so that was probably even more
disturbing to her. Then she pulledin some doctors to show them what was
(10:48):
going on, and they tried afew random experiments with him. They put
him in his bed and then hadone doctor at the foot of the bed
and another at the doorway had asked, who's standing in front of you right
now? And he got it rightevery time. So that was kind of
the family's first discovery of the factthat he had this clairvoyance, extreme clairvoyance
(11:09):
and fast forwarding. I think hewas probably twelve or thirteen when he you
know, he'd had these experiences andmade predictions and things, and it was
not accepted by his family, atleast his father and his older brothers.
But he was usually right, butthey didn't like it. I remember one
story where where they lived they hadno telephone and no you know, no
(11:31):
communication method, but his grandfather,who lived you know, X number of
miles away. My dad would alwayssay, Hey, Grandpa's coming, And
it got to the point where themeals were actually planned around when he would
say that because the grandparents would showup within a reasonable period of time of
that. At one time, mydad said, you know, Grandpa's coming
and his beard's cut off. Andhis brother says, you're crazy, crazy,
(11:54):
Dick. There's no way, youknow, Grandpa loves that beard.
He'd never shave it off. AndGrandpa showed up and the beard was gone.
And it seems Grandpa had been makingtaffy and his beard got into the
taffy so he had to cut itoff. Oh wow. So that was
kind of the you know, theupbringing. And then I think at the
age twelve thirteen, he stumbled intoa Spiritualist church for the first time.
(12:15):
Now, this was two weeks afterhis best friend had died in a car
accident, and he and the buddyhad been playing in a creek the night
before the boy died, and theboy's mother had called him to come home
so that they could go to atheater that night to the movies, and
they were going to go out todinner, and he says, I'll see
you tomorrow, Dick. Because mydad, as a kid, went by
(12:37):
Dick instead of Richard, and mydad just blurted out, no, tomorrow,
you'll be dead now. He didn'tmean to say that, just came
out. The next morning, mydad was woken up by somebody throwing rocks
against his window, and he andthen it was other kids that had discovered
that the friend had died the nightbefore in a car accident and were kind
of blaming my dad, not understandingthat he, you know, he had
(13:00):
just forecasted this. It wasn't anythingthat he had anything to do with.
So back to my dad stumbling intothe spiritualist church. He goes in and
a minister there put a tape inblindfolds over his eyes ask for people to
write questions on pieces of paper andsend them up. So when my dad
got there, he said what shouldI write and the attendant just said,
(13:20):
just write a message please, andthen sign your name, which he did.
He sent that up and when histurn came, the minister, who
was a psychic medium, said RichardIreland, and he says yes, and
then he said, well, I'vegot a young man here who recently crossed
over and he gives me a secretcode name, and the name is Paisy.
(13:43):
Well, my dad and this kidalways had these secret code names in
the creek and the kid's name codename was Paisy. So my dad was
really impressed by this, and thenhe talked to the minister afterwards. The
minister went on to say, oneday you'll be doing what I do.
He mentored my dad, and thenyears later, I think my dad was
(14:03):
probably only twenty one years old orwhatever, he received his ordination papers from
the NSAC National Spiritualist Association of Churchesand then became a traveling minister and then
doing demonstrations and then serving at afew different churches they moved him around to
and then growing. In nineteen sixtyhe founded his own non denominational church,
(14:28):
the University of Life, which wasnot affiliated with the NSAC. He even
though he was ordained in that organization, he just I think he wanted something
with less dogma even than that,so that people could form their own understanding
based on their own personal experiences.So he would just present and share messages
and teachings, but didn't try andreally ram specific dogma down people's throats.
(14:52):
That church was very successful, andhe also branched out into doing demonstrations in
the secular world on TV. Hebecame a counselor to May West, who
I met when I was nineteen yearsold, I had to be exciting.
Yeah, I got to tour herapartment in Beverly Hills back then and it
still looked like it was nineteen twenties. And then I believe he counseled the
(15:20):
Eisenhower family as well, because Ihave a card from Ami Eisenhower dated nineteen
fifty six, the year my parentsgot married, congratulating my father on behalf
of the president and her on gettingmarried. So that was pretty cool.
So that was kind of you know, how his life unfolded, and then
growing up. Then my parents actuallysplit up when I was ten or eleven
(15:41):
years old, so I didn't seemy father as often then, but I
would take friends to see his demonstrations. And if anyone listening wants to see
an example of what he would doduring a psychic demonstration, I have a
clip from him on the Steve AllenShow in nineteen seventy one link on the
front page of my website you canfind and again that's Mark irelandauthor dot com.
(16:06):
Okay, well, thank you forsharing that. You delve into so
much with spirit communication and all,so talk to us first about spirit visitations.
Now I need to share with youthat my husband's son passed away.
About it. His oldest son passedaway about a year ago, and it
(16:26):
is I mean, as a stepmom, it rocked me and I can't even
still to this day imagine what myhusband and his ex wife are going through,
you know, losing that child.You being one that has lost a
child. How can you put thingsin perspective and actually recognize spirit visitation,
(16:48):
either from a deceased child of oursor anyone else. Well, there's a
number of ways, I think.First off, when you go through that
kind of very traumatic experience, youhave to take time to grieve, and
there's a number of things that helpyou in your healing process. That includes
support from friends and family, Meetingpeople who have been through the same thing
(17:11):
and developing relationships with them because theycan relate to you. Coming to a
point where you can provide service toothers, because that comes back to heal
you. Maybe not immediately, butyou know, in due time. Forgiving
yourself of any guilt you may hold, because a lot of parents will say
I should have done this or Ishould have done that, when in reality
that's not necessarily true in most cases. Releasing anger and forgiving people who you
(17:37):
may be holding responsible, whether thatmay be a doctor or someone responsible for
an accident or whatever, because reallyit's just coming back to hurt you.
And then the final pieces, Ithink, at least, you know,
beyond therapy and things like that,would be to be open to evidence for
their being an afterlife. And there'sa number of different phenomena that are out
(18:00):
there that you could read about inbooks or even experience directly that deal with
that, one of which is mediumship, which is kind of my more my
area of expertise. But additionally,you have the near death experience phenomena.
You have ADC's, which are calledafter death communications, and those are more
than one on one experiences, andI'll give you an example of one.
Now we've been blessed with many,many of these, but not everyone will
(18:22):
have them, or at least asoften or as tangible. So you have
to, I guess, come toa point where you are looking for the
subtle. You can quant your mindenough to detect them and believe them to
be real. I think the easiestway for people early on is maybe through
a dream visit, and one methodthat worked for me would be to pray
(18:45):
send in a prayerferct way a requestfor a visit while asleep and to pray
to be able to remember it.And I've had at least one extremely vivid
more than waking reality vividness to itvisit with my son brand In that way,
I think the most profound experience weever had. It goes back to
six months after Brandon's passing. Butit's funny because just two weeks after Brandon
(19:10):
passed, I visited an intuitive andshe said, I believe you're going to
see Brandon at your bedside in aboutsix months. Well six months later,
we had a schedule to go ona cruise to celebrate Brandon's pending graduation from
high school, but since he wasn'tphysically there with us, we took our
older son and Brandon's best buddy,Stu. So before leaving for the trip,
(19:32):
we loaned Brandon's bass guitar. BecauseBrandon was a bassist, we loaned
it to a gentleman named James Linton, who was a musician. Now we'd
met James because he was actually onthe mountain hiking today. Brandon was there
and he tried to help, buthe was there too late. But he
had left an online comment on anonline obituary saying that he was there and
if we wanted to meet him.He gave us the contact info, so
we did meet him. We becamefriends here. It was six months later.
(19:56):
We're going on this cruise and weloan him Brandon his bass guitar.
So Jim was in the studio workingon some new songs. He was a
guitar player, composer and singer,but he didn't have a bass, so
we loaned him that. Anyhow,seven days past we come back from the
cruise, my wife goes into ourmaster bedroom, sits on the bench in
front of our bed, and suddenlyfeels Brandon's presence there. She knows it's
(20:21):
him and sees him as a shadowfigure out of her peripheral vision. That's
remarkable enough, but the very nextday we get a call from James,
and James says, Susie, havesomething to tell you, but I don't
know how to share this. Hesaid, Well, she thought maybe he'd
broken the bass, but he hadn't. I was working on this new song
and while I was doing that,I felt another presence in the studio and
(20:45):
I saw a shadow figure out ofmy peripheral vision, and then I saw
flashes of white light and I thought, I'm just hallucinating. So he said
that he went got water, hegot something, he took a shower,
but each time he came back itgot strong. And then finally he acquiesced
and said, okay, Brandon,what do you want? And then at
that point he felt guided pushed stronglyto change the lyrics to this song he
(21:08):
was working on, as well asthe bassline, and then he said the
culmination of that was a song calledThe Other Side. He said, it's
the best song I've ever written,but I didn't write it. So for
him to report almost identical experience tomy wife Susie the next day is pretty
phenomenal. So I would say thatthat's an example of an ADC or an
(21:29):
after death communication, but a verycompelling one, and one's probably pretty rare.
Well, talking about after death communication, talked to us about the Houdini
code. Sure so. Harry Houdini, as most people know it, was
a famous musician back in the earlytwentieth century, and initially I think he
had an interest in mediums in afterlife, but I think he felt like he
(21:53):
got tricked by a couple of fraudulentmediums. Whether they were or not,
I don't know. But because ofthat he kind of it turned and then
he wanted to debunk all mediums.So he spent a lot of his life
trying to to debunk mediums, includinghis own trickery to make them look bad
in cases where they shouldn't have.But near the end of his life he
thought of developing a code to sharewith his wife, and then he told
(22:18):
her. Her name was Beatrice.He said, Beatrice, if anyone gives
you this code, you'll know thatit's truly me, Harry Houdini. And
you know that I went on andI still exist. So after he died,
a medium named Arthur Ford, whowas a very prominent medium of the
twentieth century, did deliver the codesuccessfully to her. But then and it
(22:41):
was reported in the New York Times. But then after that, a bunch
of debunkers came out of the woodworkand claimed, well, you two are
in cahoots or oh the code wascommonly known, or just a bunch of
excuses to dismiss what he had done, which was rather remarkable. So if
you look it up today, it'llsay it's never been solved. But it
actual she was solved by Arthur Ford, and if anyone wanted to read about
(23:03):
that, there was a book byAlan Spraggett called, I think it was
called Arthur Ford The Man who Talkedwith the Dead. Hmm, okay,
well the Man who Talked with theDead? And who's that by again,
Alan Spraggett. It's an old book. It's out of print, but you
might be able to find a usecopy of it if someone's interested in reading
more about that. It's really aboutthe life of Arthur Ford. So the
(23:26):
Houdini code experiment was mentioned in therein detailed in greater detail than I just
described. But if someone wanted toknow more about that, that's, you
know, a good example. Butyou know, aside from the eighty cs
that I reported, we you know, that took me on a path of
meeting some top mediums. The firstone I met was actually Allison Dubois before
(23:48):
the show Medium got big, andthis was a rather synchronistic way of meeting
her because I had been watching Threeweeks after Brandon passed. I was watching
a news clip on the NBC affiliatein Phoenix about a mediumship study being done
at the University of Arizona, wherethe medium was blinded from contact with the
sitters, and sitters are people whoreceive a reading. The sitters were in
(24:11):
one area and the medium was another. They and the sitter couldn't speak directly
to the medium, and the mediumcouldn't talk to the sitter. But there
was a proxy, a third partyresearcher who had asked questions of the sitters
I'm sorry of the medium, andthen the medium would have to answer,
and in this case it was AlisonDubois, and she was doing a great
(24:32):
job with a lot of specifics.And then they debrief with the sitters at
the end, and pretty much everythingshe said was right on task, and
they weren't just generalities like your grandmotherloves you, but specific stuff, you
know, like favorite foods, orof the deceased person that they liked to
go to Las Vegas and gamble andthings like that. So I was really
impressed, and I thought, gee, I'd love to get a reading from
(24:52):
her, and I love to bein that lab someday. And little did
I know both things would happen.The very next day, I guess call
from a man named Jerry Concer,who had been friends with my father,
and he said, Mark, look, I know what you've been through,
and I know someone who may beable to help you. Her name's Alison
Dubois and here's a phone number youcan call to get a reading with her.
So that was pretty wild. Ifelt my dad was pulling strings from
(25:17):
the other side to take care ofme, and then coinciding with Alison's reading,
another kind of remarkable synchronicity happened.So because she was even then before
the Medium show came out on NetworkTV, she had a big following because
she was very good. And soI didn't get the reading until August that
(25:37):
year, and you know when Isaw the clip was February. So fast
forward to August. Two weeks beforeI get the reading, a gentleman hands
me a box and it was someonewho had known my dad, and I
opened the box and it had basicallya manuscript in there of typewritten pages,
all eight and a half by eleven, called Your Psychic Potential, A Guide
to Psychic Development. And I said, well, where did you get this
(26:00):
and he goes, well, yourdad gave it to me before he died,
because you were out of state atthe time. And I said,
well, it's been twelve years sincehe passed. Why are you giving this
to me now? And he goes, I don't know, I just feel
like I'm supposed to. Well,two weeks later, I have the reading
with Alison and one of the firstthings she says to me is, your
father's hearing. He's showing me abook, but I feel it's his book
and he's handing it to you totake forward. Does that make sense?
(26:22):
I'm like, yeah, I thinkI get that. I actually later got
the book published in twenty eleven.So those are some of the early experiences
that I had, both direct youknow, after the communications, and with
mediums. And then I had threemore meetings with mediums that are reported my
first book, and the last ofwhich was at the University of Arizona when
(26:45):
I was a test center for amedium, Lorie Campbell under Blinded Conditions that
was recorded for a Discovery Channel excerpt. People could see that clip too on
my website. It's on the mediapage. Okay, So that kind of
dovetails right into certified mediums. Youcertify mediums, what is that process?
(27:07):
Like? Sure? Well, thewhole reason that I do this is it
goes back to when my first bookcame out, I suddenly got flooded with
people saying, Hey, who's agood medium. I can see who's a
good medium? I can see well. At that point I knew half a
dozen, but most of them werelike celebrity mediums like Alison and others,
and they were so popular they hadlong wait lists, some like up to
(27:27):
two years. And they and sincethey a lot of them did nothing,
I mean, that was their careerand they didn't do anything else, you
know, or a living, theycharged more than some people could afford.
So I'm not going to be judgmentalabout what people charged or don't charge.
But anyhow, I thought there mustbe more people out there with this ability
at a high level that don't havea following and their kind of undiscovered talent,
(27:49):
so they would probably have more availability, quicker when people really need it,
and maybe they charged less. SoI put it out there. I
developed some protocols after sure participating ina mediumship research initiative by doctor Emily Williams
Kelly at the University of Virginia Divisionof Perceptual Studies. She had been doing
one and then I kind of tookher methodology and looked at that, and
(28:14):
then I also went to my friendTricia Robertson, who was the president former
president of the Scottish Society of PsychicalResearch, and formulated my own protocols and
I've been modifying them to make themharder really over the years. I started
this in twenty fourteen and as oftoday, what a medium has to do
is they have to do five blindedreadings via zoom. So just like right
now, we don't have video on, so they have to do a reading
(28:37):
with no video and they're only giventhe first name of the sitter, nothing
but the first name of the sitter, So they have to give them a
reading. It's recorded, and thenat the end, the sitter has to
transcribe that into written format and breakit into individual statements. For example,
let's say the medium said I havea son here that crossed over. His
(29:00):
name starts with an A, andhis favorite food was pizza, So that
the sitter has to break those intoinitial individual statements and then grade them as
correct, incorrect, or indeterminable,and then let's warranted, they can assign
extra credit. So let's just saythe first statement, I have a son
who passed over. Let's say anassistance. It is correct, so the
(29:23):
sitner would mark that correct. Thenthe next statement, his name starts with
an a Aaron. His name isAaron. That's correct, and I'll give
that a bonus because that's pretty good. But we have two levels of bonus,
a two point and a five point. So let's say the sitter says,
I'll give a two point bonus forthat one because she didn't get the
name that she got the initial.And the next one, the favorite food
(29:45):
was pizza. Yeah, that's truetoo, so I'll give a two point
bonus for that. Let's say themedium said, Okay, I have a
son here that crossed over. Hisname is Aaron and his favorite food was
pizza with bell peppers, onions,and anchovies. Okay, well, if
the name is Aaron, that's afive point bonus, and that's specific specifistical
(30:06):
detail is worth a five point bonus. So that's kind of how it works.
So we take basically the entire reading, we grade it by the percent
of accuracy, comparing correct statements toincorrect. We set indeterminables on the side.
Those would be like future predictions orthings that for some reason the sitter
can't verify because they may involve somebodythey don't know or they can't reach.
(30:29):
We set those aside unless there's aninordinate percentage of those, So we kind
of limit the indeterminables to thirty threepercent. If they exceed that, anything
over that's going to be counted asincorrect because reading shouldn't it needs to be
to be an evidential reading, itneeds to have a higher percentage of accuracy
than that. So at the endof the day, the medium to pass
has to score an average over thefive readings conducted this way of seventy five
(30:52):
or better and a minimum accuracy ofsixty five percent. So theoretically they could
be sixty five percent accurate, havetwo five point bonuses and get seventy five
and then just barely pass, orthey could be seventy five percent accurate and
then pass. I've had people scorein the high nineties, and I've had
people sqeak by too, But Ihave probably five to eight people that have
(31:15):
scored, you know, in ninetyor points or higher, which is a
combination of the accuracy and those bonuspoints that are really valuable because those are
the specific hits that are highly meaningfulto the sitter. So after they are
certified, do you help present themto the world or are they basically on
their own? No, what Idid was I developed a website to host
(31:40):
all of these So today I haveforty one mediums over nine years that have
been certified, that have achieved thesestandards, and each one has their own
page. So someone who's looking fora medium. Again, you can never
guarantee or promise somebody a good reading, but your odds are greatly enhanced by
someone who has been through this processand I know is credible because they did
this, you know, with blindedreadings. So this website, you know,
(32:05):
you can look if you want tolook by region, state, country,
you can find people that way,Like if you wanted to do it
in person, that might be helpful, but otherwise most all of them will
do readings by zoom, so itdoesn't really matter where they are. You
just go through the list and seewho resonates with you and pick somebody.
I don't make any money off this, in fat I spend all my own
money developing the website, spending thetime developing the protocols, the testing.
(32:28):
I do have a volunteer assistant whohelps schedule and then helps me grade the
readings. But this is all outof my own pocket. It's a public
service really to help people in grieffind a good resource, because I know
there are some Charlatan's out there.I don't think there are as many as
people think, but there are some, and I want people to avoid those,
(32:50):
as well as people who are abit deluded about their abilities and think
they are better than they are.When it comes to dealing with people in
grief, you really need someone whoknows what they're doing and has the real
high level yes, and anything lessthan that it just presents disaster. Yeah,
and the website I mentioned can befound. There's a link to it
(33:10):
on my site. So just mysite's kind of a one stop shop for
not only my books and my media, but also the Helping Parents Heal website.
There's a link to that. There'sa link to my dad's videos that
I described, There's a link tothe Certified Medium website and links to other
helpful things as well. Yes,so thank you for sharing their website because
that was going to be my nextquestion. But my last question to you
(33:36):
is about your sister Robin. Youdedicate a very long chapter in your book
to her, and many lessons learned. Could you tell us a bit about
Robin and what she's taught you.Yeah, well, this really goes back
to that Houdini Code question that youasked, because he was diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer. This was two thousand andsix, actually think it was discovered in
(34:01):
two thousand and five, but shewas going to pass the two thousand and
six. Leading up to that,I had an idea for an experiment,
and I asked her if she'd bewilling to participate or want to participate to
try and help other people in thefuture to have confidence in the afterlife.
She agreed to that, and whatI started with was the idea from the
Houdini Code. And I thought tomyself, well, what was wrong with
(34:23):
the way Harry Houdini conducted his experiment? What caused people to come out of
the woodwork and say that someone wasin cahoots with him? And I thought,
well, the reason was because anyliving person knew what the code was.
So I thought, well, whatif my sister wrote something on a
piece of paper, put it ina sealed envelope and no one knew what
it was? And then we soughtout medium responses after her passing to see
(34:47):
if someone could get the code.And that's really what that's really what it
was about. She you know,the last few days she wrote this,
she put it in a sealed envelope. She initialed the outside. I had
developed a friendship with a neuroscientist,doctor Don Watson. I talked to him
about the idea and he helped developprotocols for conducting it. He asked me
to send him the envelope so noone could accuse me of opening it.
(35:10):
So I did that, and thenwe went out to a number of different
mediums and sought responses. We collectedthose, and then you know, a
number of months later we did openthe envelope and compare the results. I
don't want to give it away,though, because it's I think it's one
of the better chapters of the books, and more intriguing chapters. So I
would say, you know, Ilearned a lot from it in terms of
(35:31):
what you can expect or how youwould want to format an experiment of this
nature so that it has the bestchance for success. And I would say,
you know something that you have tounderstand how mediums work. Some of
them get messages visually, some areclear audience. So they might get words
(35:54):
here or there, like a wordor two, or some sort of audio
communication, but usually that's more intheir mind, not necessarily through the ear.
Some will get it through the air, but that's pretty rare, more
in their mind. So when youtake those things into consideration, you think
have to think, well, you'vegot to you need a message that's put
together in a way where that themediums are going to be able to clearly
(36:16):
get that through an image or justa word or two as opposed to a
string of words or you know,a long sentence or something like that.
But with that said, I wouldsay that it's an encouraging chapter. I'll
leave it at that. It isa very encouraging chapter, and folks as
well worth the read is well worththe book if you just read that chapter
(36:38):
by itself. Mark, I've reallyenjoyed our time together today. Could you
leave us with a pearl of wisdomfor the audience please? Yeah, I
think you know. Whether it's someonein grief for someone who's just discouraged in
life, I would say, we'reall here for a purpose and we all
have a path. So hang inthere. You know you're loved. Even
(37:00):
if you don't feel like you're lovedright now, or maybe you don't have
people in your life who are supportive, hang in there and get through this.
It's worth it because it's actually aprivilege to be here. It's a
challenging world. It presents us withsuffering and obstacles, but those are the
things that grow us and refine usinto being more than we were when we
came here. So it's worth seeingit through and hanging in there. And
(37:24):
I think if you could develop apositive, half glass, full outlook,
it'll help you too. It's notalways easy, but I would just encourage
people to just recognize you here fora reason and a purpose. Okay,
well, thank you very much forthat, and I appreciate your time today.
Thank you very much, and I'llquite sure the audience does too,
(37:45):
as we have explored this wonderful subject. And everyone please remember that the whole
important choice that you can make iswhat you choose to make important. Consider
making the masterful choice of covering thepersistence of souls. But the blessings,
light love to all, Gopa MHM.
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