Hi Jon-
Welcome to the forum. Hopefully you'll find what you seek here.

Personally, I'm a pretty cold blooded scientist, and have been driven to acceptance of what I used to view as airey fairey mumbo jumbo because no matter how I try to avoid it, it seems to be real. And my experiences have consistently suported the notion that there is more than the everyday world. I have a practice in psychotherapy that in spite of myself, routinely brings me people who have problems that are rooted in past lives, as well as a few people who report being haunted or possessed (take your choice). Everyone seems benefitted permanently by therapy based on those initial assumptions, although any therapy delivered in terms of the definition of a problem is effective in permanently removing the problem.

The key to exploration seems to be meditation, which is not all that difficult. It also pays off in everyday activities, because the meditative state is a good one for doing business that involves deep concentration, like studying quantum mechanics, or balancing the checkbook - for me a far more difficult task

Bruce's work in soul retrieval implies acceptance of souls, of their issues in the afterlife etc, and of our ability to help fix them. His  "Home Study Course" will help follow his routines etc, but doesn't create an initial awareness of the spiritual state. (My copy was autographed, so at least you get a collector'e item!) However, meditation will take you to awareness of aspects of reality not otherwise noticed which may be all that you need to find your own psychic roots. As for the application, therapy, such as soul retrieval (or any of the myriad other options), is a great way to do some good while learning about this stuff.

Enjoy!

dave

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I wouldn't go that far myself .  I am very tolerant of what other people choose to believe, and frankly want there to be an afterlife.  Cessation of being, is the most terrifying prospect to me in the world to the degree that I have even told those that have discussed it with me, I would prefer the Christian "Hell" (Or any version of a Hellish hereafter) to nothingness, because at least I would still be me.  And in looking for evidence of an afterlife, I don't want to later feel that I fell victim to self-delusion or wishful thinking because of my fears.

If Bruce's methods work, and allow me to "see" one of my departed family members even once, or go to Focus 27 even for a few moments, just to get the tiniest glimpse, I know my life would change forever, and I could put this fear aside and "get on with it", as it were.  And to me, that peace of mind would be worth far more money than I think I will ever accumulate (I am rather poor -- sadly) in my lifetime.

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Compared to how I feel now, which is to say like I am at some kind of spiritual crisis or even critical mass (which leaves me scared deep inside most of the time).  That isn't bad news at all, it would be a great relief.  Truthfully, I think if materialistic science actually proved beyond the shadow of ANY doubt that we had no souls and ceased to exist beyond death, I could even then eventually get on with things.  But it would be more akin to be being pronounced with a terminal illness with all the stages of grief through acceptance that go along with such a thing, but I would eventually reach acceptance and be ok, if very sad.

The problem is that I feel like I am at a balance that isn't.  There seems to be ample evidence that we don't carry on after death and just as much that says we do.  So I am stuck in the middle, I use the analogy of the wolf in a bear trap -- It will chew its leg off if it must to escape, but in my case I chew and the leg stays intact but it is as painful as if I were making progress in escaping.

Sorry for the length, rambling and analogy at the last.  And again thanks for taking the time to reply.

-- Jon

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actually i would say the evidence for life after death far outweighs any evidence to the contrary.  why?  because it's supernatural.  you can show me corpses all day long, and i'd say "ok that's all fine and good, but what about the thousands of people who have seen the ghost of a passed relative?"  just because a person stops breathing doesn't actually prove anything about whether "they" cease to exist or not - it simply proves that their body has stopped functioning.  scientists say life after death can't be real because they only measure what they can see - yet thousands see spirits - are their sightings not valid?  give me a break!  i don't care if some scientist says the sky isn't blue - if i can see that it's blue, i know it's blue.  remember science is the same ongoing process that used to think the world was flat.  it's always up for dramatic revision.

Thanks everyone for your comments and insights all have been very helpful.  After re-reading the posts here, as well as the replies to similar questions/discussions I have been in on other forums, I have reached at least one conclusion:

I will have to find my own 'truth' be it proof or lack thereof, and asking others or hearing their stories isn't going to convince me no matter how sincere or credible it may sound.

For example:

Yesterday, while at an IV center for daily infusion of antibiotics I spoke to the nurse attending me who was an RN.  And somehow (probably because of my own desperation) the topic got steered to my fears of non-existence after we die.  Normally I'd expect an offhanded remark about God or Jesus (I live in the SE USA) and that would be that.  Being a Sunday and I being the only one of two patients scheduled for the whole day she felt free to speak (or it was no mere coincidence that we spoke as it was so meaningful to my current situation depending on one's POV).

She wasn't religious but spiritual, like many on this forum, so a deity never entered into it.  She told me some amazing stories of what are called "deathbed visions" that she had personally been a part of in some form or another, during her days as an ICU/CCU nurse (One in particular was truly impressive).  And I was looking carefully into her eyes and at her face for any glimmer of deception or lack of conviction, I found nothing there but the opposite, mixed with compassion for my plight.  And it left  a very deep impression on me, because she shared all of this and was all but a total stranger.

We spoke for a while (even after my IV was done for the day) until the next patient arrived and our conversation ended there (Perhaps in part because the man was an old southern gentleman with a baseball cap that had the word Jesus in bold red letters) and on the drive home I kept coming back to the look in her eyes.

I wanted to believe everything she said was true, and I do believe what she said was true to her and that she experienced 'something'.  But I didn't experience it, I wasn't there for the things she saw and so fell back onto the teeter-totter that I've been living on since release from the hospital.

In the end, I will have to find out for myself, whether its via Bruce's methods, some spontaneous experience or (and I am not eager for the last) dying myself.

Again thank you all for your kind words and insights.

-- Jon

Hi Jon-

This forum is a strange place in some regards, as it seems that everyone has some kind of supernatural experience, some kind of supernatural opinion, and most of us seem willing to voice both at every opportunity. Amazingly, after all the really vast diversity that this brings, there's a comon thread to which we all seem to contribute. Rather like the RN who gave you her opinion.

There is a necessary difference between viewpoints because we all see things from a different perspective. Beyond that, however, I personally sense a flow that is rather like watching driftwood and leaves flowing past, from which I discern the presence of a poweful, but invisible river that is inviisbly carry them, leading me to a slow, but certain understanding.  And then you have Alycia's approach, which is to grow by leaps and bounds.

I'm not sure of how many methods there might be for people to contact their loved ones who have passed. In my practice, I use past life regression, passing through a death experience, after which most people have access to the spirit world. Occasionally they get a surprise, such as a woman who wanted to see her father. He was quite upset, and told her to go away, "You're not supposed to be here yet." More often it's just an exchange of love and acknowledgement. If you want to pursue this course, any local hypnotist who does past life work should be able to help - or at www.IARRT.org  you might find an expert in your vicinity.

And of course, keep Bruce in mind - he's both the reason this forum exists, and also a competent psychic who does healings on stuck spooks. The manner of his work, and reasons he does it as he does, give clues to the nature of the spirit world in very pragmatic terms. One of the advantages of following his suggestion to do retrievals of stuck souls is that it also brings us into the spirit world in a very positive manner - much better than methods a lot of us used back in the early 1960s!

dave