Do Dead People Walk Their Dogs? (5 page)

Yes, anyone we
love who has crossed over becomes part of our team of guardian angels, so to speak, and they will be helping in any way they can. Over there, they are all-knowing and they are with God; they are one with God, so both they and God will be with you.

Keep in mind you are going into a subconscious state so you will be more readily able to connect with spirit—anesthesia won’t in any way impede this. If anything it’ll help because you are taken out of your normal waking focus on the physical plane. Try having some small item with you that symbolizes your connection with God and spirit, however you think about that, whether it’s a prayer card with Mary Mother of God, a star of David, or a small statue of Jesus or Buddha, or Michael the Archangel or whatever makes you feel at peace. It can also be some small item that reminds you of another person, especially someone who is now in spirit form. (I have a small thing that belonged to my brother Harold that I use.) Assuming that you feel comfortable leaving this item unattended and that it won’t be taken, place it next to the bed you will be in to recover. You don’t really need this item; it is only symbolic, an acknowledgment of your peace of mind. Then simply ask that the Other Side be with you, tell your guardian angels that you want their comfort, and that you want to wake up well and strong.

Yes, they certainly
can. The reason is, when we are in a semi-conscious state our conscious mind is at rest and our unconscious mind is heightened. In this state it’s very easy to connect with spirits. We are able to slip out of the body—this is our soul in its pure energetic form—while remaining connected by a cord of energy. In this form, we connect with other non-physical energy forms like our deceased loved ones, who are able to give us reassurance for the healing process.

Yes, of course
they can. This happens all the time. For instance, I often get messages telling my clients to check certain things about their cars—like, maybe there’s a problem with the brakes or something. The dead person is trying to keep their loved one from having a bad accident. And I frequently hear stories about how a deceased loved one saved one of my clients from hitting someone or being hit, just in the nick of time. Recently one of my clients told me that her cousin, whose sister had died, was driving dangerously on the highway. In an instant she missteered and was losing control of the car, doing over 80 miles per hour. She was headed straight for a concrete barrier when she saw her dead sister standing right in front of her car wearing the dress they buried her in. The next thing she remembers is being safely stopped on the grass about a dozen feet or so away from the barrier. This type of situation is actually pretty common.

My own eight-year-old grandson Alexander is such a handsome, beautiful boy. He calls John and me Grandpa and Grandma Pickle because one time when we were visiting, John was being annoying, and I said to him, “You are such a PICKLE!” Alexander thought this was the funniest thing, and he just laughed and laughed. So ever after, that’s who we were to him. But to get back to my story, in spite of our funny nicknames, I could never understand why Alexander never seemed to warm up to me. I’m pretty approachable, if I do say so myself, but he always seemed to be a nervous boy and kept his distance.

The fact is, it turns out that Alexander has always been able to see spirits, he’s always been visited, and they actually scare him. Also, he clearly is aware that other people are not seeing what he’s seeing. About two years ago he finally said to his mother, Darlene, “What would you do if I told you I see things?” Darlene asked him, “What do you see?” He explained to her that he was seeing people, ghosts. I always say to people—and Darlene has heard me do this spiel many times—“Don’t show fear. If you show fear, then the visits will go away.” So Darlene said, “Well, you know, Grandma Pickle sees them, too!” Well, ever since then Alexander has been all over me. He knows that we share this ability and he knows that I will never think anything is strange if he tells me what he sees.

One time, his sister Julia, who is six, fell down the steep basement stairs, landing on her knees on the concrete floor. Because she was startled, she cried. Darlene was scared to death. She yelled, “Oh, my God!” and ran to gather up her little girl, thinking they’d be making a trip to the hospital—or worse. But there was literally not a mark on her. She was completely fine. Alexander, who had witnessed the fall and seen the spirits intervene, told me, “They put her down. They held her when she fell. You believe me, right?”

And many years ago, when I was only four months old (this is a story my mother told me) and my brother Harold was fifteen months, he fell out of a third-story window in the Newark projects where we were living. It was a terrible accident—he hit each cement windowsill on the way down and landed smack on the concrete sidewalk below, breaking virtually every bone in his body. The ambulance came and took him and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. He had a tag on his toe that said Baby Ferrell. My mother was beyond distraught—she was only twenty-two years old. She felt guilty, like the accident was her fault, and of course she couldn’t bear to think that her child was dead. My grandfather on my father’s side had the same ability that I have, and he said to her, “Don’t worry. He’ll make it, and he won’t have any sign of the accident.” How that could be possible only the Other Side would know. My mother at that time didn’t really know anything about my grandfather’s psychic abilities—it wasn’t talked about in the family. She probably thought my grandfather was crazy. She threw herself across Harold’s little body, and as she did so, she saw a tiny tear in the corner of his eye. She cried to the doctors, “Please, check him again!” They did, and were amazed to discover that he wasn’t dead after all. Harold spent six months in the hospital, but just as the Other Side had predicted, he had no lingering problems, not a mark from having fallen three stories and broken all his bones.

First of all,
I would have to say no, but this is one of the hardest questions because, as you know, I don’t believe there is any such thing as a coincidence (something unusual happening for no reason at all), so I have to say that in each case of an accidental death, the person who dies knew that their life this time would end in this way. Maybe they did not know the exact circumstances, but they would have agreed to leaving at or around that age in order to effect a particular lesson—not for himself, necessarily, more likely for the individual who caused the accident—and they would have been aware of at least a general idea of the reason. Each major circumstance of our lives has karmic reasons attached to it. It’s playing out an event to balance another previous event, and to offer a lesson to those involved. This is not to say that the person who is killed is conscious, while they are still on this side, that this is the plan. And the person who causes the accident also believes it was an accident, at least most of the time, even though they have made an agreement before coming here to play this very sad role. To everyone involved, the death appears to be an accident. I just know from all my experience talking with the Other Side that it’s not what it appears.

I’ve had the experience more than once of doing a reading for someone who had found themselves in this type of circumstance. In one case, it was a man who had inadvertently killed one of his coworkers with a piece of heavy machinery. In another case that I remember too vividly, a mother was completely devastated because she had accidentally run over her two-year-old toddler, who got behind her car as she was backing out. I felt so helpless in that reading. I couldn’t get out of my own way because I was so strongly relating to her pain. I couldn’t tell her strongly enough that God knew her pain and confusion, that this was for a purpose. To her, it was an accident, yet the guilt she was suffering was unbearable. In my heart, I know her child’s death in this way was not coincidental, but what the purpose was, what the lesson was, I cannot imagine.

Yes, and again,
there is always a reason. Nothing is for nothing. In a case like this where one accident takes many at the same time, there will be particular karmic reasons for each individual, and at the same time, these people will have shared karma as well. They will know each other on the Other Side and through many other lifetimes. An event like this has layers of meaning. It’s not just about the pilot or conductor or the individuals on the plane or train. It’s also about others in their lives who will be affected by each person’s crossing in one way or another. You can call it a ripple effect or a domino effect. It could be an event like 9/11 or a bus being blown up by a terrorist. It doesn’t stop with those individuals, that event, that day—the effects go on for entire lifetimes, plural.

I should say that there are also karmic reasons for each person who “missed their plane” or “usually rode that train” but didn’t that day. Nothing is a coincidence. A coincidence is nothing more than God remaining anonymous.

True spirituality is
living in partnership with God and relying on that spirit to come through, guiding our thoughts, our words, our actions. More than any other power of any kind on Earth, God is the greatest. His love is greater than logic, greater than money, greater than muscle.

Personally, I have not achieved true spirituality. I don’t think I’d still be here if I had. Everyone here, with very few exceptions, is still working toward it. The frustration is when I know right from wrong and still can’t stop myself from doing wrong. That’s the place I’m in, in this particular lifetime. I know in my heart the difference, yet I’m human, not divine, and I still make mistakes. They say ignorance is bliss, but I’m not ignorant. I don’t have bliss.

The souls on
the Other Side are with their dogs—or cats, or ferrets, or whatever creature they cared for and loved here. However, their beloved animals never have to be on a leash. The Other Side is a place of perfection. It’s not survival of the fittest over there. We walk among the “savage beast,” and they walk with us. It’s absolutely natural for us to grieve the loss of a beloved pet when he or she crosses over. Especially people who don’t have children or live far from family or friends—our pets really
are
family to us—and maybe I shouldn’t say this, but in some ways possibly even dearer, since who can resist being loved without any strings attached? But it’s true, those creatures we loved while they were here will be reunited with us in Heaven.

Our pets are
gifts from God and God’s gifts don’t just disappear into thin air. All go back and all will be there.

They’ll be thrilled!
You have to remember that the Other Side is total perfection. It’s only here that we harbor petty jealousies. Nothing of the kind exists over there. ALL creatures rejoice with God ALL-mighty.

Tt’s so interesting
to me that it always seems to be the things that we don’t know or understand that we’re most afraid of. It’s hard for me to talk about this because it does cross the line of some people’s religious beliefs, and I do feel that everyone is entitled to believe what they want, worship how they want, so long as no one is harmed by their beliefs or the way they worship. But I do feel that if people knew what I know of the Other Side, they would realize that it doesn’t take anything away from religion. This ability, like any other ability, comes from God. God is all-powerful and all-providing. There is nothing we have here that doesn’t come from God, so that must include my ability (or yours!) to have a connection with spirits who have crossed to the eternal realm beyond the life of the physical body. We just tend to fear what we don’t know—whether it’s dying or waiting to get the results of a test. Or sometimes, just the terminology makes a difference between what’s accept-able and what is “bad” or “not allowed.” For instance, it may be true that certain religions will not be accepting of a “psychic,” but they are very comfortable with the idea of a “prophet.” And just to be clear, I am not, not,
not
calling myself a prophet! But as I understand it, a prophet is one who receives a message somehow—sometimes in a dream or another way that the Bible doesn’t even make clear—and can tell what is going to happen, or receives and passes along a tiny part of what God’s plan is for a particular person or group of people at a particular time. The message may be different, usually more important than the kind of message someone like myself might hear from a client’s deceased family member. But the means may not be that different. I can’t tell you how many times one of my clients will share with me that they had a powerful dream that made them understand something or warned them of something or gave them some message that they needed to hear—and these people don’t even consider themselves psychic, much less prophets! Sometimes the messages I get are things that my client can act on, that may protect them in some way, but oftentimes they really aren’t. They are just confirmations that the spirit is who they say they are because they know things the client can confirm. So I admit that the importance of the message is really limited to just that person, but still it isn’t harmful in any way, and I have to assume, on the face of the evidence, that the intention behind a loved one on the Other Side communicating in this way is to make that person here feel better.

I think, basically, people just need to learn to make the distinction between good psychics and lousy ones, instead of lumping everyone together. Even in the Bible, God warns against false prophets, right? So use your sense. If you see a big red neon hand that says PSYCHIC READINGS $5, or run into someone who would tell a client that she needs to bring them a wheelbarrow full of cash, or a toaster, or a pillow case, or whatever you might want to think twice. There’s a good chance that individual is a charlatan, or as I call them, a “boardwalk psychic.” I wish I could give a more definite answer to this, but I really don’t want to place myself in opposition to someone’s religious beliefs. It would be like I’m saying, “I’m a higher authority,” to contradict what someone’s church was telling them. All I can do is speak for myself to say that, as God is my witness, in my heart, I am only trying to do good, only positive, loving work with the ability I’ve been given. I think if you have this ability, that is the test you should give yourself. After that, personally, I don’t care what name anyone gives me or what I do so long as it’s not negative.