Welcome to another episode of Walking the Shadowlands. Today I have the honour of conversing with the insightful and inspiring Mike Oppenheim. As someone who’s been deeply affected by near death experiences, Mike brings a unique perspective to our discussion. His journey’s not just about personal transformation, but also about sharing profound truths. And helping others navigate their spiritual path. Mike hosts his own podcast where he delves into the intricacies of near-death experiences and spiritual awakenings. In this episode, we explore a multitude of topics, from the authenticity of spiritual practices. To the importance of following, one’s intuition.

Mike shares his thoughts on the pitfalls of the spiritual community. The genuine intention behind helping others. And the profound impact of heartfelt communication. Throughout our conversation, we touch on the powerful experiences that have shaped Mike’s life. And the transformative power of dreams.

This episode’s a testament to the journey of self-discovery. The pursuit of genuine spiritual growth. And the incredible insights that can be gained from listening to one’s heart. So, sit back, relax, and prepare to be moved by Mike’s compelling story. But the question as always is, are you willing to walk with me into this part of the shadowland, where we delve deep into the realms of near-death experiences, spiritual authenticity and the journey towards enlightenment?

Let’s begin.

Mike’s written weekly fun essays called Are You Here? since 2006. In 2021 his wife Elena, brother Sam and Mike started his metaphysics podcast called Coffin Talk. He also is a musician, he’s an author and writes novels and he makes videos. Mike also indexes books, runs a writing workshop, drinks coffee and eats avocados. And his favourite part of life is his family, which includes his wife, son, two daughters, and their dog, my guest, Mike Oppenheim.

Marianne: I’d like to welcome my guest today. I’m really looking forward to our conversation. I say that with every guest, but I genuinely do look forward to our conversations. Because, I find Mike, that I always learn so much from my guests. And, I just really enjoy the conversations. So, I’d like to welcome you to the Walking the Shadowlands podcast. And thank you for agreeing to join us today, Mike.

Mike: Thank you so much. And it’s a pleasure. The more I have done these. And the more I participate in this side of like our internet culture. The more I realized that it really is like a blessing to humanity to just give and take and learn from each other, in this format. It’s really fascinating to me. I mean, with one small exception, maybe, I always leave it like a really warm feeling. And like I connected with someone who’s across the earth from me, you know?

Yeah. It’s the same. That’s exactly how I feel. I really enjoy conversations with my guests. And this technology that we have today makes it so much easier for us. I mean, before I would never have been able to speak to somebody in Texas, from here in Australia. So that’s absolutely brilliant. Now, you have your podcast, coffin talk. What inspired you to start it? And how did you come up with the idea of exploring. Themes related to death and dying?

Yeah. the podcast started in 2021. But, the impetus for why it would come up later in my life is that I started, volunteering in hospice in 2017. And, I have always had a comfortable, feeling around people who are dying. Because as a young boy, my mom had several friends, who unfortunately got cancer and passed away. And every time I guess I would just go with her and sit and talk. And I found it wasn’t until years later that she told me, she said, you’re really good at being with people. And a lot of people aren’t. They get scared. They’re worried about what they’re going to say.

So, I started doing hospice and then one of my best, best, best friends from growing up was diagnosed with liver cancer. And as the months went on It became clear that it probably wasn’t gonna go the way anyone wanted it to. And I started flying to visit him regularly and having like conversations about dying because he needed them, and wanted them. And no one else was willing to have them. And, then that led to kind of me noticing in hospice that the only people who seemed to not deal with dying.

Are like the people, around the people dying. Because they’ve never thought about it. And they fear it. And they think it’s like a negative thing. And so it is, because you are losing someone. But that person isn’t necessarily going away and their conscious experience. We don’t know which led to the pivotal podcast, which is the premises what do you think happens when you die? So, I interview guests and ask them, what do you think happens when you die? And I don’t ask it at the beginning. I don’t necessarily ask it at the end. I ask it, like you said, when the flow feels right. But as it’s gone on, and I’ve done like hundreds of episodes now, I realized that what I’m really doing is just seeing how people live their life.

And how it may or may not correspond to how they think they are, or are not, punished or rewarded when you move on. And then lastly, I feel like it’s just a generally good thing. I can’t speak about Australian culture at all. But in America, death is like a taboo subject. We don’t talk about it and we like definitely don’t address it correctly. And so, I would like to help change that.

That’s absolutely brilliant. And I agree, what you say about, death in the American culture. I lived in, I’m originally from New Zealand. I’ve only been in Australia now about six months. And I moved here because of my children. But I lived in the States for a number of years in North Carolina, actually, right on the border of South Carolina, near Charlotte. And I had to attend a couple of funerals while I was there. And honestly, I was quite shocked. In New Zealand with our Māori culture, we have a wonderful tradition called a tangi. And a tangi is like a funeral service that lasts for a minimum of three days, three to five days. And the person’s body’s taken to their home marae. Which is like the tribal land, the tribal home. And for three days their body lies there and the family sits with them. And people come and they stand and they talk to the person. And they express anything that they want to express. Whether they’re angry at the person, Wow. Yeah. Whether they love the person, it’s an opportunity to grieve openly. Which is something that I was shocked, in the States because it’s all very, it was like a conveyor belt system in the funeral homes that I was at. They had several different funerals going on at once. And you rushed into this room. The service is rushed. You’re rushed out. And there’s no time for the families to really grieve. In my opinion.

That’s incredible. I’ve never heard of that. And I’m fascinated because I, I’m always, I used to teach ESL. And it was fascinating because I taught at a school in America, but it was only teaching foreigners. So, people would come to America. To like vacation and, or work at a company. And we had those kinds of clients and they were always adults. So, it would be interesting cause they might’ve been trained how to speak English by an Australian. Someone from New Zealand, someone from, Britain or Canada. You know, there’s only like certain, dominant English-speaking languages and I would have to over and over again, correct them about the stereotypes they were making about all of us because we’re so different.

And this is like a great new thing to add to that. Because I never. I would have trouble as an American telling you the difference between a New Zealander and an Australian. Like that would be like a hard I’d be like, well, they filmed Lord of the Rings in one. You know, it’s like surface level, but that’s a deep, deep like thing.

It’s really awesome. And to me, I find it’s the healthiest thing that I’ve seen. And I haven’t attended a lot of tangis. But I’ve have attended a few, and it’s, it’s a way for people to openly grieve and to express what they need to say so they can let go of those emotions. And then, even though they will still grieve, they can move forward with their lives, knowing that they were able to say what they needed to say to the person involved.

That was actually the part that, the part that took me the most by surprise is here we, we don’t say it that often, but we say don’t speak ill of the dead. I get the meaning behind that. I understand how that could come about. But, you know, you don’t want to hold back those feelings if you have them. And so if you’re like the daughter or son or father, you know, whatever. And like the person really messed with you, it’s probably that beneficial for sure to speak ill Those thoughts didn’t get it out of the way, especially with their physical presence and all that that’s really interesting.

Absolutely. I think it’s really healthy. And I know we just had a tangi in my, extended my son’s partner’s sister, died just recently, and they’re Māori. And so, they just had the whole tangi for her. And, yeah, it’s a really wonderful way. Of course, as you know, deaths and funerals bring out the best and the worst in people. And that’s human nature. Just back to your thing about grief. When you were talking about grief and people grieving, it brought to mind a saying that I really, really love. And I’ve said it to members of my Facebook group quite often. And that is: “Grief is just love without a home!”.

Wow. Wow. That’s very powerful.

Yeah. Very powerful, isn’t it?

Yeah. It’s interesting because this was explained to me in reverse. But I I am unable for many complicated reasons to raise my first son. He’s in a different country. And I just don’t have a lot of time with him. And, I was told by a therapist, the reason this is so hard for you is you don’t get to grieve the way someone does when they lose someone. And what you just said really connects to the only good advice they gave me. Which is find a new home for that love, not like depriving it from him, but just you can’t give it to him. So, give that to someone else. Or something else. That’s really cool. I love it.

Yeah. It’s lovely. Isn’t it? It really resonated with me very strongly. And of course, I have a lot to do with death and dying. I’m a medium and

Cool, wow!

And part of the reason I started this podcast was to help people. Like I cover all areas. I cover any area of the paranormal. I cover unexplained. I cover cryptozoology. You know, anything that comes under. I just love it. It just, but some of my most popular podcasts have been ones where we’ve discussed dying. And signs of that our loved ones will send us after they’ve passed. I’m just getting a bit side-tracked there. Sorry.

No, I’m, I’m fascinated. Cause well, first of all, I should just formally ask you if you’ll come on coffin talk. Because you have like many great points to make and all that.

I’d love to.

That’d be awesome. All right. Cool. So we can talk about that after the interview. Cause now I’m like turning into interviewer mode. And I want to start asking you questions. You can ask questions as well. Happy. I grew up. I grew up very differently than most Americans. My parents are like hippie, meditating people. And when I. My kind of people! Say hippie, people are picturing like, crunchy hair, and yeah, and they were like, my dad’s a stockbroker. My mom is you know, she taught school and stuff. So, they weren’t like hippies in the like, drug or fashion sense. But they meditated. And they raised me to believe in soft intelligence of you know, the, the body and the mind and all this. And then they never said mediums are real. They never said … but they also never said this stuff isn’t real. And so, it was interesting growing up because the, the herd, the status quo would ridicule me for being open minded about these things. And now I’m like, in my early 40s, and I’m starting to just see that some people are quiet about it. Some people aren’t, but I actually think more people do believe in this than not, at this point. And so the question I wanted to ask you, that was a long build-up, is what is it like the first time you have these experiences? Is there self-doubt? Are you afraid to tell yourself even and acknowledge it? Or is it always just something you’re like, no, I’m doing this, it’s fine?

For me, it’s just been a lot part of my life, my whole life. I’ve just never questioned it. Because it’s always been there. Now, some people their spiritual abilities only… they may have them when they’re young, but for reasons generally to do with fear on that person’s part. They’re kind of shut down until they’re mature enough. And have the emotional maturity and intellectual capacity to deal with seeing spirit. And then they’ll open up again. And it can take… people have to work past their fear. So, if they had experiences as children that scared them, and it caused them to shut down. And of course, it’s very easy to scare a child. It doesn’t take much, just, you know, a stranger can scare a child. So, it can take them a while to open up again when they’re adults. And they have to work through that fear first. But most do.

That makes sense. Yeah. I have a couple more questions. I’m going to save them because I want to interview you. And I don’t want to, otherwise it’ll feel forced and fake.

That’s absolutely cool, Mike. Okay. I noticed that you have a lot of different guests on your podcast and how do you actually choose your guests?

I used to just take anyone who would come my way and I quickly learned that that’s a problem for a couple of reasons. And, one is some of the most aggressive people who want to be on a podcast can be, like, the worst guest ever, as I’m sure you have discovered. I was a teacher, so I, I brought into podcasting the same model I was taught as a teacher, which is your talk time should be 25 percent and your class should be 75. So, I bring that to a podcast. So, I would say, now my selection process is, if I meet you in person and you’re interesting. And you show a give and take and how to talk, I’ll immediately book you.

It does not matter what your profession is. Or your relationship to death and dying. That has no relevance to me. If anything, the further away you are from death and dying, the more interesting you might be. Because your perspective might shock people, you know. Like, staunch conservative who believes in ghosts, you know what I mean? There’s things that come up. And then another thing I would do is, yes, of course, I’ll take a funeral director or someone who embalms people, you know what I mean? So, anything that related. And in that case, even if they do ramrod and talk the whole time, it’s still going to be, on topic and interesting.

 And then my brother does most of our bookings. And he’s incredible. And he throws like big long shots at people. And sometimes we snag people who are way above my pay grade scale. And that’s the best because it’s exciting. And I get nervous and I take more notes ahead of time. And sometimes I blow it because you know that energy is not great. But then, the one thing I was going to end with is negative but it’s still interesting to me., With specifically the same program you and I met on Podmatch I had a actual System for that.

That is different from all the other ones I mentioned. And it just is really simply, does the person pitch something in their email, or not? Do they seem salesy or not? And that’s just because I’ve learned the hard way that salespeople are interesting in their own right, but I’m not a podcast where I’m… I will love helping people. Of course, I’ll give you an opportunity to talk about your platform. But it shouldn’t be a show designed to drive people to your site to get, you know what I mean? And likewise, like I have books and I do things. But I’m, I’m here to participate with you. I’m here to be on your podcast and share with you, you know?

A hundred percent. I’m with you. I’ve had a few people approach me and it’s nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. I don’t like pushy people. And I have found that there are some that are very pushy. And they’re only there for self-promotion. Not because they really want to share relevant things with people that may be interesting to people. That may help people. Or that may plant a seed that can cause them to question. They’re there to promote themselves, and that’s it. And, while I have nothing against self-promotion, just not on my podcast.

Yeah, exactly. And it’s also just I feel, I don’t know the hustle again. I speak a lot about America because that’s the culture I’m embedded in. But we’re like, we’re like such a, like even more now than when I was growing up what do you do for a living? What do you sell? What is it like, what’s your thing? Like, how does your income stream work? Do you have multiple ones, you know, and social media is like so awkward for me at this point. Because I, I’m essentially, it’s just a storefront for me at this point. And I, I just would, I want to close the store. I don’t want to stop selling the goods in the store. But I don’t like advertising. I don’t like using my space to talk about things. It’s very awkward for me. I’ve had a huge problem adjusting to this.

Social media I struggle with. Honestly, I do. I’m not a social media person, either. I do too.

Yeah. And I wouldn’t have been in any it’s not my thing. Like I would never have invented it or wanted it.

But it’s necessary to get our podcasts out there. So that’s the only reason why.

Exactly. And that’s why it’s interesting.

Now, can you share a particularly memorable or impactful guest interview and why it stood out to you?

Oh my God, it’s no question. There’s this one that just changed my life forever and I’ll never go back. And, it’s, when I say it to people, it’s either everyone’s favourite. Or people are like, oh, I’m never listening to your show again. Because it’s so out there. But his name is Christian Sundberg. I think it’s episode 54, but I am, you know, it’s like… but the point is just look up Sundberg on my site or something, if you’re interested, S U N D B E R G. He is a man, he’s my age exactly. Who, claims that when he was in his mid 30’s. No, sorry mid 20s. He was in China studying abroad. So, he’s an American citizen studying there. And he came down with some horrible physical ailment where he had to immediately be hospitalized in China, where he did not speak the language. And had no real ability to advocate for himself. It wasn’t like a torture situation or anything. It was just more that he’s like in a hospital with, as he described it, excruciating 24-hour pain.

 And amidst that weird period, he started having really strong recollections of his prenatal existence. Of being an entity that is not a human. In a place that isn’t a place. In a time that isn’t a time. Like the way he tells it is like So he’s like yawning when he tells a story like he, the last thing on earth this man wants to do is be talking about this to people. But he knows that he has to do it, that that’s his, like his, his, dogma, his, you know, karma.

 And so he went, he’s like an engineer. He’s like from Pennsylvania. He’s just he’s not by, he’s very smart. I’m not trying to like, describe him demographically. What I’m trying to explain is he’s not a spiritual, he was not a spiritual person. He was not raised deeply religious. And so not only does he remember it, but he has like specific instructions. And he also has a memory of a different time where he was about to be born, and then he quit. And so, the reason it changed me, there’s two, one, I just believe him. I just it’s weird. Cause I’ve, I’ve met Christians. I met people who like have faith in their version. And I’ve never had that. I’ve never experienced that. I have faith in what he said because it resonates in a goosebump way.

You know, like it just I read his whole book. As soon as the interview was over, I, his book is free. This is another thing about him. Like he doesn’t charge for his book. It’s just free. It’s just not normal for a person who’s spiritual. And has… usually these prophet type people are all about and donate here and give to this. And then the other thing is he’s just he’s not happy. Like he, he said, he didn’t say the point of coming to earth is to be unhappy. But he said It is to experience conflict. And it is to work through the conflict. And so, it helped me because like anyone, I mean, every time I’m out of conflict, a new fricking thing comes within the two weeks, you know? And it’s, yeah. And it’s not cause I’m unhappy and I’m looking for conflict. It’s not you know, that, that is not my MO as a human. It’s that literally as soon as it’s all clear, no clouds in the sky, you know, then a new cloud just comes. So, something else comes along for sure.

So, it really helped me. Because I just feel like that’s the missing link in all these other narratives we hear. We hear so much about the afterlife and near-death experiences. But in near death experiences now, they are learning that during those experiences. Many people revisit their prenatal state. And all of them corroborate with how he described it. Interesting. Yeah, the best analogy he gave, because he said it’s impossible to actually make sense of it is There’s a board in front of you with how you’re going to be set up and every possible way to go. And every time you do anything like parts of the board just close. And that’s your life so like it is predetermined, but not how you leave it.

Right.

Yeah. So, I’m getting so excited talking about this.

Yeah, that’s actually correct, Mike. I say to people, it’s like this. You come in with a blueprint of your life. Of the lessons you want to learn. Of how, you know, the things you want to gain from this particular lifetime. But. You have no choice over how those lessons are presented to you.

Oh, it’s so true. And it hurts so much to you know what I mean? It’s just like I have a neighbour who lost a child. Like actually lost them, you know, and they’re deceased. And, you know, it’s just no matter how much I interact with her, it’s in the back of my mind. I’m just like, I feel so bad for you. And then I just, I know that people talk to me and they feel the same way about my situation. My son, you know what I mean? Like we all take turns, if we have empathy.

Yeah. Have you, in your podcast, during your interviews with all these people? Have you had, many of them, apart from that gentleman, who have had paranormal encounters, along with their experiences?

Yeah, it’s a, it’s a mix. That actually would go back to guest selection. I’ve only rolled my eyes at a few. Most of them seem legit. Like you seem legit to me. It’s not that, it’s not for me to say whether you do or do not, act as a conduit between spirits. It’s for me to decide if I think you’re full of it or not. That’s all I care about. Right. Because, because it’s, all of our experiences are unique. And I live in my head. And you live in yours. And I’m not gonna, I don’t want you judging how I perceive. And also, my worldview has collapsed and rebuilt like a million times. So, so yes is the answer to that. But, it’s funny because the only one that really, I was kind of skeptical about was this like Hollywood couple that’s on all these ghost chasing shows. And just something like seemed off to me. And so it’s weird because I released it anyway. Because when someone gives you this much time you kind of feel guilty and you want to release it. But I still… 100 percent. Yeah, and I can’t say to my audience like I’m releasing this but I think they’re full of you know that’s not helpful to them, and also, it’s very arrogant of me.

Again, it’s a feeling I have. It’s not, you know, true or false. But I can say it just resonates. Like, when I meet someone like you and we’ve talked for 30 minutes. And you mention your medium. And the way you mentioned it, it wasn’t like, look at me, everyone. You know, there’s not, and also you talk very matter-of-factly, about it, in a way that is, calming and not you know,

Well, I, I don’t use my abilities to promote myself. I’m not, that’s not, it’s just given to help people. And like yourself doing these podcasts. Even though we get a lot of pleasure out of it and we, we get a lot meeting different people. We’re also helping people. Because you never know who listens to your episode, whatever episode that’s about. That’s going to touch them and make a difference, a positive difference in their lives.

I totally agree and I think about this a lot because, oh sorry, please.

No, no, go ahead.

It does tie into the social media thing for me. Because what social media does that’s very damaging to me. Is I’m supposed to look at a post and see how many hearts or likes it got, and then assess the success of the episode. But we all know that I’ve listened to things that have touched me and changed me. And I never hearted some posts with it. And I never told the author of the book he changed. You know what I mean? Yeah, whether it’s a book from someone in the 1800s. Or a book by a contemporary author, few of us reach out until it’s too late. Like the person is huge and then they’re just getting like volumes of email or whatever as praise. So, I feel like, what you said is actually so critical to anyone else who’s podcasting or doing anything creative. Which is you have to dance like no one’s watching, like in this era specifically,

I like that. Dance like nobody’s watching. And then you can just go crazy and enjoy yourself. And who cares? And actually, I do, I do when I’m by myself. Do you know, if you’re feeling like in a spiritual mood? Or you want to get your spiritual energies elevated. The best thing to do is dance or sing, move your body, make some music. It just gets your energies flowing. So, it’s a bit different for me to have somebody on my podcast, who’s not solely paranormal, unexplained, UFOs, cryptozoology. But who interviews people, who have these experiences? And I think it’s really important because, like you said, death is a taboo that many don’t talk about. And It’s important to, I feel, take away some of the fear for people. Or the stigma surrounding it.

For example, somebody was making some comment. I can’t remember who it was. I think it was in my, in my Facebook group. The same name is… actually my podcast started from my Facebook group. And somebody made a comment about death, you know, the figure of death. And I said, well, look, I feel like poor death gets a really bad rep. Because he doesn’t actually kill anybody. He’s just there to make sure that nobody dies alone.

Yeah. And it’s also so interesting cause you’re a medium. So, you know, this actually more than I know it. I just more into it and accept it. But this is not the end and this isn’t even the beginning. This is actually this is the weird thing. And that’s why that Kristen Sundberg interview was so, helpful for me, is I’ve always felt, especially at night when I dream. That this isn’t real because that’s not real. And I just don’t understand why? Yeah. I mean, and yet this is weird too. It’s so tragic when someone takes their own life. Or takes another person’s life. You know, it’s so interesting that even though we know this is fake, there’s a realness to taking it seriously.

 I don’t know if you’re familiar, like Rom Doss? But he’s one of my favourite people ever. He’s a. He’s famous in my culture. He was a Harvard professor who ended up taking a lot of LSD with Timothy Leary. And then he flew to India and met a master, quit doing all drugs. And became like a spiritual teacher, and unlike many of them, he doesn’t like charge, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s a very… he’s, he’s deceased now. But he would always say the hardest part about life is what life is, which is you have to constantly be a dual entity. You have to be a spiritual person in a body. But also, you have to be, and my favourite example, because you’ll love this. Because you’re a grandmother and a parent. You have to step into your role with full force. You have to be dad yelling at the kid, when the kid didn’t do the thing right. You’re not living if you don’t do that. If you just Oh, well, you’re just a spirit. And I’m a spirit and it’s okay that you threw possible. Well, that’s bullshit. They didn’t come here for that. Yeah. Like, so that like fascinates me.

Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I’m with you on that. You do. You have to step into your role. When I have consultations with people I’m really straight up. And I don’t sugar-coat things. And I never tell them what they want to hear. I tell them what they need to hear, so they can make positive changes in their lives that are going to benefit them. And I think you need to. You need to do that with people. You need to give them the opportunity to grow. And you can only do that by stepping into your role, as you said.

And it’s, it’s hard. ’cause, like I said, I, I want to interview, like this is a great conversation. But I, I’m like, I don’t over compliment people. But I like to be complimentary and you just have a real even with what you just said, like, when I console clients. Like you have a real I like helping people vibe. And, you know, it’s just, it’s precious. A lot of people have it, but it’s like when you encounter it… I was actually writing today for an essay for tomorrow that someone’s presence can change you more than almost anything. You know, like people just bring a presence. And so, I, I like your presence a lot. It’s why I’m like pausing and just listening a lot.

Oh, thank you, Mike.  Oh, a hundred percent. I agree with you. In fact, an example, I had a lady in my group and I’m not going to give out any details, cause it’s personal, but we’re talking about a person’s presence. And to do with your podcast. And death and dying. Some people are intuitively drawn to work with people who are dying. And it’s just their mere presence of being there that makes a difference to that person. They don’t necessarily have to say anything. They don’t necessarily have to do anything. But just being there with that person, their energies have an on-flow to that person who’s dying. And it helps them to pass with more dignity. That’s why so many people are drawn to hospice work.

Do you? I I’m just dying to know. Do you do you have to do like a process to then be open to an entity? Or can an entity just wake you up at three in the morning and start trying to talk to you?

Oh, no. That’s all about boundaries. Boundaries. Boundaries. Boundaries are so important.

But did you set them as a child, like the first time it happened? Or did you have to learn how to set them?

I had to learn how to set boundaries. Because as a child, I’d never had boundaries that were respected. So, I had to learn to set boundaries. But spirit are just like humans. They’re just humans without physical bodies. And you don’t have interactions with physical peoples without boundaries, of some description or another. So, it’s exactly the same thing. And people have this idea with spirits that they’re all-knowing. And that, because they’re in spirit, they have to automatically be, you know, good or whatever. No! They’re still people. They’re just people without bodies. And…

That scares the hell out of me!

And many retain the same characteristics that they had when they were in this reality. Especially for souls that haven’t actually moved on, for whatever reason. Then they’ll retain the same characteristics. Those that have moved on, and aren’t earth bound, then they have a little bit more of an expanded view. But the basic character remains the same.

So interesting. ’cause it’s first of all, I don’t want to hear that. I’m just gonna be very honest. I want to hear that we’re all noble in another world. I’m thinking literally picturing a very prominent popular politician in my country. Because I don’t drink the Kool Aid of freaking out like most Americans, in either of two binary directions. I have been drinking the Kool Aid of there’s an afterlife and these things get sorted out. And I know that is actually true, but what you’re saying is kind of, not appeasing a part of me that’s vengeful and wants justice. And, and actually I could really say this about a lot of famous you know, Things, but, yeah, that’s, I know you’re right and that’s why I’m saying it’s upsetting.

When you hear a truth, it resonates in your soul. Like on a gut level. Or on a heart level, however you want to feel it. It resonates. And you know, when you hear a truth.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. And how do you feel about how, no, it’s great. It reminds me of my children. I’m happy to hear it. What, how is it harder to judge, to not judge a human or an entity? Does that make sense?

Oh. I can only speak for me. I can feel intentions. So, it doesn’t matter whether they’re human or whether they’re spirit, I feel their intentions. And their intentions tell me what they are…

Wow! That’s powerful!

What they are.

Can I keep asking you questions? Because I’m just this isn’t stuff I would ask you on Coffin. No, because I wouldn’t ask this on Coffin Talk, so this is not I’m not going to repeat this. What, what is it? Were you fooled? Did you learn that? Or the hard way, so to speak… did you learn it the hard way?

Yes, I did. Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

What happens is, with a lot of people… and you’re like this to a degree. When you meet a person, especially if you’re really intuitive, and if you come from a background that can be difficult. Sometimes when you… oh, okay, I’ll just speak for me… when I was younger, I would look at a person. And I still do today, to a degree. I look at a person and I can see their potential straight away. I can see what sort of person they could be. Now, just because I can see their potential. Doesn’t necessarily mean that they live up to it.

You are striking a big arrow in my ass. Yeah. Wow.

And because I feared judging people. Feared because I grew up in a very critical home. And I was always criticized, you know, you couldn’t have good feelings about yourself. You couldn’t trust it, you know, it was that sort of situation. So, so I feared that I was doing that to somebody else. So, against my better judgment, I would. Allow them into my life, for whatever reason. And inevitably my initial impression was correct and inevitably! So, I say to people now, listen. Especially people that are just developing their spiritual abilities. Look. You know, you may be able to see that this person could have a really good heart. And they could be a really nice person. They could be really honest and blah, blah, blah. But, listen to your first impression. If your gut says to you, don’t trust that person, they’re not what they appear. Listen to that. Because if you don’t, you’re only going to give yourself a lot of hurt.

That is so powerful. And it’s such like an ah ha moment in reverse just because I like it. You explained a lot of the times I’ve been let down in life. And it, and it’s, it’s funny because, you know, people say you have too big of a heart. Or you, you know what I mean? And those sound egomaniacal and self-aggrandizing to me. But what you just said takes all that out. It’s not a good or a bad quality. And if anything, it might even be a bad quality if taken to its furthest. Unchecked level, yeah.

So, you, it’s, again, it’s about boundaries. It’s about boundaries and it’s about self-trust. And it took me many, many years. Like I’m in my 60s now. It took me many, many years to learn to trust myself. And to trust my knowing that what I sensed about a person initially, was not judgment.

Yeah, the woman who helped me the most in life, calls it discernment. Like she says, there’s judgment and there’s discernment. And they seem very similar, but one is necessary. You’ll die. Like this one. Don’t get in that car with that person isn’t judging if it’s discerning, you know?

Correct. That’s actually a really good way of putting it. It’s discernment. You’re discerning what that person’s true intent is. Or, true character is.

Yeah, that’s, it’s really powerful to hear all this. Because it’s definitely, I feel guilty. Or I did in my youth doing what we’re talking about. And now It’s interesting because I have children. So now I’m like no like I’m getting a weird vibe from this person. No way! and I told my children I’m like I will never make you hug someone. It doesn’t matter and if you’re not feeling it like, you know, I respect you know. And especially what you said about like when my daughter says like well, she hasn’t said it yet. But if she said there’s a man in my room talking to me. I’m never gonna go in there be like that’s not true. I’m gonna say Don’t be scared of him. You know, I’m going to I’m going to work on the fear part or not. And then meanwhile, what you’re telling me though, is I still shouldn’t say be afraid of him, but if I’m going to say well, if you don’t want to talk to him, you have to tell him that

Exactly. Exactly. Like boundaries you would set with a living person. Same thing. And if you’re a parent and your child is having interactions with spirit, you can set boundaries on behalf of that child. Because you’re the parent. You can say. Look, okay, and I get a lot of people… this is going way off what we started on, but…

I’m sorry I do this a …lot. It’s so interesting to me though.

I know that there will be a lot of people listening who will pick stuff up that’s relevant to them. I say to parents. Who have got children who see spirit. And a lot of children do see spirit. In fact, most children see spirit until they reach a certain age. And then it’s socialized out of them, for the most part. Some, some never grow out of it, but most do. So, I always say to them, look, you have to treat spirit like you treat people. Like you treat a living person. You just don’t allow anybody to come into your child’s room. You set boundaries.

And, and if your, if your child sees spirits, say to spirit, verbalize it. You might feel silly, but verbalize it. Say, listen, I know, I’m aware my child sees you, but you are not to visit them in their room. Their room is their safe space. You can talk to them when they’re playing in the lounge. You can talk to them when they’re playing outside. Not in their bedroom. Not at night. Set boundaries. And most spirit, those with good intent, those who don’t come, you know, with intent, that’s not so great, will listen.

I have two questions I’m torn between. What is the most harm an entity can actually cause a person? Who yeah, like what I’m trying to ask is the movie Ghostbusters didn’t make it clear, is poltergeist real? Can, can entities make windows break? Could an entity literally kill me? What is the extent of physical damage to a human that an entity could do?

Yeah, most that I’ve come across. It’s not physical. Most it’s mental and emotional. They can influence your emotions. They can make you incredibly depressed. They can create conflict in the home. It depends on their intent, of course. And these are just human spirit. I’m not talking about any other kind. And if they do that, it’s because they were negative in life. They were predators in life. I’ve done episodes where people have been sexually abused by spirit. Yes, that happens. And that’s a very real thing. If they were predatory in life, they’ll be predatory in death, if they haven’t moved on.

And so, is there like a hard and fast golden rule of being in a human where if you say the right phrase or you word it correctly, they can’t do that to you? Or is there actually like a situation where nothing can be done?

Oh no! It can always be done. But, very often time these entities will, they will encourage people to think that they can’t do anything. That these entities are all powerful and all strong and they have all the control, which is actually bullshit. It’s bullshit. But they encourage this thinking in the person that they’re tormenting. So, the person becomes a victim. And they think they can’t do anything about it. Whereas they have the physical bodies. They’re in control in this reality. Totally opposite.

That’s so interesting. Cause my whole life I use the word con-man, like anyone else did. And then only recently I discovered it comes from confidence, man. And it’s like selling your own confidence. And so, what you’re describing is exactly what the entities can do there. They can’t actually force you to adhere to what they’re saying. But just like all successful con-men and con-women, they can give you the false sense of confidence in what they can and can’t do to you.

Correct!

And their lack of power and, and yeah.

Correct.

That’s incredible. That’s so interesting. And then my last question on this, I swear, this is the last one, but, have you, have you ever, and are you still, friends with an entity you randomly met?

No, not really, no, no, no. They come and go. People come and go. Yeah, no. It’s all about boundaries again, you know? No, I can’t say. But I’ve had a lot to do with so many over the years, it would be impossible for me to keep track of them all.

Yeah, I was more like curious if one day like a spirit named Sally started talking to you. And you both liked the Harry Potter books and like you both had something in common. And then you just kind of were like, hey, you know, visit me anytime we can hang out and talk like.

No, it’s never been like that for me. It’s always been in a situation where I’m helping other people.

Got it! That makes sense.

It’s not for me. My abilities that I have, my gifts that I have, are not for me. They’re given to me to help other people.

Totally makes sense.

Yeah. We’re totally way off the subject of our podcast, but hey.

I’m sorry. I am done though. I did get to the last one in my head. So, I’ll be really honest with you. You’re like legit. And I like talking to people who aren’t like. Blowing smoke, you know what I mean? It’s just, it’s hard to explain. But like even, there are people with your same gift who are haughty about it and want to tell, you know what I mean? I’m sure you’ve met them. So yeah, so it’s just interesting.

Well, I’ve had some really horrific experiences earlier. When I was in my 30s. Where I had actually had a person tried to kill me because of who I am. And it’s not something I really talk about, but it scared me off helping people for many, many years. But ultimately, I came to the realization that they were just one person. And they were just being influenced. It doesn’t excuse their behaviour. But some spirit stepped in and saved me. They sent somebody to save me. And this person said to me, Oh my God, Marianne! And I just, I just had this horrible feeling that you were in danger. And I had to come to you right now. Spirit just kept saying to me, you’ve got to go to Marianne, NOW! And she did. She saved my life. So, yeah. So, spirit will look after you. They will. Especially when they know that you are trying to help people.

In the, the Jyotish astrology. So, there’s astrology, but then there’s like divisions. Jyotish is like the oldest ancient form, from India. And I’m saying this just for people listening. And, in the Jyotish astrology tradition, they believe that every human, if they reach 30 to 60. Has an Agadasha event. I can’t remember the word for it. But it’s what you described. It’s like someone tries to kill you or someone does something like the unthinkable. Maybe you’re in like a huge car accident. But like you have this one test. And it’s supposed to bring you to your knees so that you spiritually evolve. And then the rest of your life is you doing more selfless behaviour and stuff. And the more I meet people and get into these kind of conversations, the more sure as, heck, it’s literally somewhere around 30 something. Up to about 60. It’s not really in their 70s. And again, it, it excludes, it precludes, childhood trauma and childhood events. Those aren’t the same thing. The point is you’re supposed to have established, like level of living. And then this event is supposed to shake it up. So, you’re more spiritual essentially. Or, it actually can send you the complete other way, which is what we already talked about. You can choose to ignore it and be a selfish piece of the, you know.

That’s really interesting. Very, very interesting. Oh, my goodness. There’s so much truth.

So, I feel blessed because ours were in our 30s. Get it over and done with.  Like I’d rather have it come early.

Yeah. Well, you know, it like for me, personally. It shook my confidence immensely. And it had taken me years to build up my confidence and self-trust to begin with. It was a real journey for me. And yeah, but since then I haven’t looked back. To be honest, since then, I haven’t looked back, I’ve actually been more vocal. I don’t hide who I am. I talk about my experiences with star people. I’m really open. I just don’t, what you see is what you get with me.

I’m moving in your direction. And part of it is the podcast for me. And part of it, like I am really trying my best in a world where it’s just constant noise of… I hate to phrase it this way, but Science. The way it is used in my culture has become like a very interesting term. Because I am, obviously, Newton understood physics about our universes. I’m not, you and I are not in any way defying that. But at the same time, anyone who’s going to tell me and that’s it? Like these planets revolve and there’s nothing more to the cosmos, you know, it’s just crazy to me. It’s utterly crazy that I was socialized into, you know, this. Going with that, if anything, just being quiet in a room where someone, you know? you got to stand up for this kind of stuff.

Yeah, you do. You really have to stand up and speak up. And I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older that I really don’t give a fuck what people think about me, you know? I’m going to speak my truth. And if people don’t want to hear it, well, that’s just, you know, No skin off my nose. It doesn’t alter who I am. It doesn’t alter my truth. It doesn’t alter what I know to be a fact. And you brought up another subject, actually, that we almost sent us off on a tangent early in our conversation. That was talking about are dreams reality? Or is this reality? And what my, one of my top ten most listened to episodes. And this is my 13th season of my podcast. One of my most listened to episodes is called: ‘A glitch in the matrix: a holographic reality?’

Yeah. I’m writing that down.

Yeah. And it was, I think I did that in my first season, I think? I can’t quite remember. And I did like over 30 hours research on holographic universe theory, quantum physics. All those, all the leading researchers and, and I went into, is this reality that we live in a hologram or is it actually real? And it’s a subject that I love. I absolutely love it. And I have always said that this reality is not real. This reality is like the dream.

And are you noticing that more people are saying this and feeling it?

Yes.

As if the very fabric of illusion is actually starting to like, have you heard about the Mandela effect?

Oh, correct! I went into the Mandela effect in that program. Yeah. It is.

How do I know that every morning when I wake up, we didn’t decide to change what happened? How would I know? It’s so mind blowing. I’m getting huge goosebumps when we talk. It’s I live for this because it’s like, at least we can hold each other’s hand as we think holographically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I’m very convinced. I’m very convinced that this is why AI is gonna bring better things to humanity, not worse, is that More intelligence is more intelligence. And so the more we can understand the holographic nature, which, you know, these famous books and Einstein plank and board, you know what I mean? These were the smartest minds, but they had a limit. They were the smartest minds. And, and, you know, Stephen Hawking’s like all these people, it’s still IQ 300, something, you know. We’ve never pierced 400, 500 and, these machines are about to do it. And, I don’t know. Like everyone else is not everyone. A lot of people are naysaying it, but I have a real strong feeling that since it’s a holograph, it would just make sense that we’re just inventing the technology that is already holographs. Like it’s not, yeah.

Well, you know, when you talk about reality, let’s break it down to basics. At our basic level, we’re energy, atoms, protons, electrons. Everything moving around. This This chair you’re sitting on feels solid to you, right? But it’s actually not solid. It’s a mess of atoms moving at, right now. I wish I could think of this quote correctly. From the Matrix? It’s when that guy with the glasses says to Neo what is reality? And I’m paraphrasing here, it’s just a bunch of electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Yeah, and then one step even further, we don’t even know if it’s the brain, you know, yeah, the witness is behind or somewhere. Yeah, that’s what near death experiences really piqued my interest because like when you hear The person who can say the name of the badge of the EMT person who was like over their dead body, you know? And it’s just and when they talk about you could have 360-degree vision anywhere except here. And like how limiting our bodies are. And there’s a famous podcast host in America who uses the term ‘meat suit’ all the time. And it’s kind of caught on now and I like that we’re just. Yeah, what is this thing?

Yeah. While I don’t like the term meat suit, it’s this I say, look, our bodies are like the car that we’re using. To drive from point A to point B. It’s not who we are, it’s just the vehicle that we’re utilizing to experience this reality.

Yeah, that, that gels and yeah.

Such an interesting topic. Now, on near death experiences, I had a gentleman on my show, his name was David Ditchfield. You might like him for your podcast. He’s such a lovely, lovely gentleman. I found it so hard to remain professional, when I was interviewing him. I actually had tears down my cheek pretty much the whole time we were talking. Such a lovely man. He was saying goodbye to a girlfriend at a train station in England and he saw her on the train. And he got off the train, as the train was about to pull out. And his coat got caught in the train door. And you know, normally doors will open, if something’s in them. Well, it didn’t and he couldn’t get his coat off. And he was dragged under the train, as the train left the station. All these people saw him being dragged under the train. And he was dragged for quite a while under the train. And he died.

And he had this near-death experience. Well, he had this, it wasn’t a near-death because he was actually literally dead, while the medics were working on him. And when he came back, he talked about, what he saw. How he was out in the universe and he could see all these stars. And these beings working on his body. And then when he came back, he discovered that he had abilities that he never had, before he had his near-death experience. He paints the most beautiful paintings. He creates orchestral symphonies that have been performed in public. And he is the most amazing, lovely, lovely man. Lovely man, really touched my heart deeply. And he came back with these experiences that, with these abilities that he never had before. I know you’ve had some near-death experiences on your show. Have any of them ever come back with similar abilities that they never had before? Even if it’s just increased spiritual awareness?

All of them have increased spiritual awareness. And all of them feel compelled to help others in a way that didn’t gel, make sense, or even matter. And, what I also find very interesting is now, I read a lot of books on near death experiences, so it’s a little hard to remember who I interviewed versus who I read. I know that sounds like crazy to people, but yeah, yeah. And so many of them say the same thing. Which is, they were begging not to come back. Just begging, begging, begging that it’s so much more peaceful, and great. And like the presence of the Light and the people and the abilities. Going back to the Mitsu thing like the just oh you can fly oh okay that’s why it feels weird that I can’t fly on earth you know. And so, I take a lot of strength in that. Because I’ve always known since I was a little kid, and I the first time I was, like, really down on my body image, and high school, and just, you know, I hated myself in the way that a lot of adolescents do.

The flicker of suicide, as distracting as that was as a teenager, it never actually made sense. Because I just always implicitly understood that that’s not actually an option. Of course, it’s an option. But it’s not actually an option. You didn’t come here with that as an option. It’s more that it’s a red cord that always exists. Because it has to. But and so that’s what the near-death experience has helped me see. Is that even if it’s like horrible right now, and Ram Dass talks about this to. Well look if you have to erode a mountain with a handkerchief, do you want to do it like over 60 million years? Or do you want to do it in like 30 million years? Well, guess what? The more conflict in your life is your soul working through more lessons. It’s like taking four courses in college instead of three. Everyone has a different pace. And every life has a different pace. So that’s really helped me because I it’s, you know how you said you don’t give a fuck anymore, like in your sixties.That’s my dream. That’s all I’m really been asking for, for the last five, 10 years is like to learn that freedom because. People I don’t have it, but I don’t think they actually feel that way. I think they do care deeply what other people think. And so, it’s miss.

Misleading.

 It’s, it’s, it’s distracting. And hard to tell. Yeah. Misleading. Thank you. Yeah. And for me, I know I’m not there yet and I don’t want to fake it. Does that make sense? Like I don’t want to start writing essays and saying things that I’m not actually prepared to own but I am moving in that direction. And that’s why it’s been like a fascinating journey in my forties to I want to stay on earth. I want to help other people. But I want to do it genuinely. I don’t want to do it because I was told that I’m supposed to help people. And that’s what spiritual, cause that’s, I don’t believe that gets you to enlightenment. I think that Western people use that word enlightenment in a certain way, that sounds like a prize. And then when I talk to Eastern people, they talk about it yeah, that enlightenment thing, you know, like that’s not at all the goal.

Yeah. I have a real issue with it. I don’t mix with spiritual community. Never have. Because it’s been my, well, for a start, I have different understanding to most people. Because I’ve interacted with star people my entire life. So, a lot of my knowing comes from them. And the spiritual community are the same as any organized religion. Any religion on this world. You follow their tenants, their beliefs, or you’re an unevolved soul. Oh, you’ve got so much learning you have to do. You can’t possibly know what you’re talking about. You know, that sort of thing. It’s just another control mechanism, in my opinion.

I totally agree. And well, I brought up that my parents were meditators growing up. And so their part, like they learned from a very famous branch of meditation, called transcendental meditation. Which I’m sure in your sixties, you’re more than familiar. So, I only need to explain it to younger people. But they were in it to win it. And then they actually moved to Fairfield, Iowa in the middle of America. Where there’s like a colony of people who meditate. They lasted 10 years for the same reason you described. My parents were like, what is going on? This is like crazy. And they loved. They loved 90 percent of living there. And so do other people who live there, but the 10 percent were on them. And I’m their children, I don’t fall far from the tree, and so I agree. It’s I was in a huge spiritual group that started small and got bigger and bigger and bigger. And then it imploded. And I’m like, not good riddance, because I loved that the person ran it. But also, good riddance, like it was, it was becoming something hideous.

Yeah, ultimately, it’s a form of control. You have to think a certain way. You have to feel a certain way. You have to believe a certain way. Even though it’s unspoken and unwritten, it’s subtly enforced. Subtly enforced.

And what I also noticed, because it only happened to me with the one group I just described. And I’m still actually very close to several people in it. Especially the person who actually developed it. And I still feel awful for her, because the flock did it. Like it wasn’t her design. And it wasn’t even… and she would even say repeatedly don’t say, I don’t want to use her real name. So don’t say what Barbara said, you know, cause like people would be like, but Barbara said, and she’s I’m not Barbara. That’s not, you’re completely misunderstanding what I’m trying to help you with. And, and, so it was very frustrating. Cause yeah, I just, now she’s helping people just like more individually. And it works and it’s fine. But, but, she wanted to help as many people as possible. Because she actually loves people. Yeah.

Yeah. And it’s very common that that happens. Sadly, humans do tend to, do stuff like that. Now let’s get back to your podcast. What is the biggest, thing that you’ve learned from your podcast and from your guests? What do you think the biggest takeaway is for you?

A great question. Can I actually think about it for a second? I don’t want to be flip. I want to really, I’ve never thought about this.

No worries at all.

Don’t, this is going to sound weird, but it’s intuitive. Don’t pretend you know what you’re doing when you do something. I started a podcast presumably to push a website that has my essays. Which also sells my novels. It was like not developed. For one reason or another. But it was my wife and I’s idea for a creative way for me to have a presence online. Because I have, I’m good at talking and you don’t have anything like, she was like, you’re a writer or in an era where no one cares about writers. So, and, and now it’s like an unstoppable force that is beyond me. And, I’ve constantly wanted to quit for a million reasons. And I just know I can’t. I also know that if it’s ever time to quit, it will be abundantly clear. And I will be informed by myself, my intuition. I should mention this. I do believe in entities and I do believe in spirits, but I’ve never really tried to communicate with them.

The one time I did try, it wasn’t really helpful because I just have a quicker access to my intuition. And so I just go there and, and I do it constantly, like 50 million times a day. All the time.  So, when I speak like on these podcasts, I get loose with someone like you, because I know you understand what I’m talking about. But yeah, there’s an intuitive voice that I implicitly trust at this point in my life. I ignored it, which led to the worst events in my life.

There you go!

And I learned the lesson. And, so with that said, the air It’s a good idea to have a stated reason for starting something. I became this ‘cause, I want to do this. Or I had children because I always wanted to have children. But let’s just be honest. Like the best lesson I’ve learned from this is that applies to everyone. Don’t pretend you know why you’re doing something. Cause there’s spiritual reasons for, and it could be self-driven or self. It could be, it could be more to help you than others, or it could be more to help others than you.

And I would say with the podcast, it actually just takes turns. Yeah. There’s like interviews where I can tell I helped the guests more than, you know, and then otherwise, like I’ve gotten like free sessions with amazing people. I’m not trying to get one for you, but you know, I felt like I was shocked. I mean, like someone did a past life regression for me, for free. Like, I am the kind of person who pays. dutifully for all these kind of services all have. So, it’s cool that like I’m getting a kickback, but it’s actually feels earned. Like I’m working very hard to make these podcasts. I’m working hard to interview people, you know, so, so yeah, so it’s, it’s been really cool. And that would be the biggest takeaway is just go with your intuitive messages, but don’t pretend you know what the end game is.

Right. And that’s a very valid point because everything we do is multi-faceted. And what’s that box? There’s a box in psychology.

Oh, Pandora’s box?

Well, where you know what you know, where you know what you don’t know, where you don’t know what you don’t know. So, there’s all these.

Yeah, I love it.

There’s all these. facets to us. And while we may feel that we’re doing something for this reason, there are reasons behind that, that we’re not aware of. And I think, I feel, that you have to go with the flow, you know, you have to, like you do, you have to really listen to your intuition, your inner knowing, that inner voice. Whatever you want to call it. Because that never sets you wrong. We’ve been taught in this society, oh, you don’t listen to your heart. You must listen to your head. You must listen to your head. Don’t listen to your heart. Listen to your head. Well, that actually isn’t correct. One of my star people gave me the best advice I’ve ever received. And it’s something I’ve tried to live by since he said this to me. He said, Marianne, when you do anything. You must do it from your heart. When you think, think from your heart. When you speak, speak from your heart. When you act, act from your heart.

Yeah. I don’t know what your life status is like? But I’m in a second marriage and I plan on it being my final marriage, not because I’m going to get a divorce, but I want to make it work. And I would say that that advice is the easiest advice in theory for how to have a successful marriage. And also, so difficult in the day to day. And it’s, it’s uniquely yeah, but I do agree. I agree. And I think that it’s so hard because like we’re socialized. I really do. Like I hate to sound like this whiny like Western culture. I mean, it’s not like my son is living in Eastern culture I was living in Eastern culture. It’s not better than Western culture. Like people who like want to idolize Oh Europe’s better than America.

Nothing is better Like these are all just different human systems that are like helping and hurting humans differently, as I would say. Like they’re systems. Yeah. And, and so like the, the, because I’m a product of the Western system, I can say that this socialization to, feel stupid, silly, and childlike, if you have heartfelt thoughts or reactions to things. It’s hard because equally though, this is why it’s hard. It is true that only fools rush in. You should not marry the first person who makes your heart skip a beat like that. That’s yeah. So, so I think the, the word heart even is, is so hard. In a literal society, you know, cause. Yeah, and it’s also funny cause I’ve learned with

Sorry. Go ahead.

I’ve learned, I’ve learned with skeptical friends who don’t like these conversations to just say your gut. And it’s like an instant, like shortcut, like they, you know, so it’s like funny that code switching is what they call it in school, but yeah, you got to code switch. Yeah. Like in Western culture.

Yeah. I was just, I’m glad you brought that point out. Because I was just going to say while he was talking about my heart. And he’s referring to coming from my heart space. It’s really intuitive. It’s really listening to your inner knowing. And yeah, it’s not just like you say running off and doing stupid things. You have to use your head. You have to think about what you’re doing, but do it from a point of empathy and compassion and understanding. That’s the point that, he was trying to make. And it’s not easy. Certainly I, you know, there are times when I get really angry. And I swear like a trooper sometimes, you know? But I try my hardest. And that’s what it’s about. You can only try. And as long as you, you know, if you make a mistake, you’re human, pick yourself up and try again.  That’s what it’s all about.

I taught for 10 years and I give the same impression when I teach that I’m giving you like I’m sure of it. I’m very composed. I’m a thoughtful person. I don’t have a bad temper at home. Like I don’t yell at my children and my wife. I mean I have yelled. I’m not trying to sound like a saint here. But in the car. I am such a wild animal and I know that it’s my, like my dharma is in the car. Like that, I will know when I’ve passed the spiritual test the day I can get in my car and not judge every single car as someone Out to stop me from my goal.

And so, I just find it interesting that like You know, I think people who meet people like us, or especially you, I’m just going to speak about you, they just would have trouble picturing that because it’s just but it’s… and that was actually the woman I spoke about who led the group. The reason she’s always going to be someone I’m endeared to is she never hid her temper from people. And she never pretended that she didn’t have glaring human fallibility. And yet she had a gift that was So over the top noticeable in her presence and just ability to do it. That like people just were dying to make her a saint, you know, right. Yeah, and Rob Doss did the same thing, by the way. He had a child out of wedlock. He like, never hid it. He was also a closeted homosexual for most of his life.

It’s sad.

So, it’s like interesting I’m definitely attracted to only these people who are sublimely evolved in a way I’m gonna be, but I’m not there yet.

There’s a saying that I really love, and it’s: ‘what comes from the heart touches the heart’.

Love it. Yeah.

And people resonate. If you speak your truth. If you speak from your heart. From a viewpoint of compassion, and understanding, and empathy, as best as you can in any situation. Then people feel that. They can tell

I’m writing it down because it’s sober.

It’s a beautiful saying.

Yeah, it’s been a weird week. And I’ve been like dealing with a lot of personal stuff and it’s not anything I can’t get over. But like that quote would have really helped me last Sunday. So why did we not schedule this?

Hindsight is always 20, 20. Look, we’ve gone way over all sorts of areas. You know, I didn’t have any expectations when I started this conversation with you. But I did know that we were kind of going to go interesting places, places where I never anticipated. I sort of had a feeling we would go all over the place, but you know what? That’s a great conversation when you do that, isn’t it?

Yeah, and it’s, it’s funny because we were talking about pod match and podcasting. Like I apply to be on people’s shows and I’m grateful when you say yes. But then I don’t really give you any thoughts until way in the, you know, because we… yeah, yeah. Usually, a month in advance and then and, so it’s only like how you do or don’t email me ahead of the interview that I start to get an inkling of a feeling. But I can just say like you, there was like a warmth that came through your email. And so, I got excited for this interview and I was like, you know, really? So, it’s just cool though, because first of all, it’s always nice when your intuition does pay off, you know? And secondly, I think that’s something in the internet world that I think people are going to have to understand is that there is palpable feeling in text on space. And people don’t want to admit that, I think, you know?

Yes, they don’t. You’re right. Yes. I have clients all over the world. All over the world. And I don’t need to be in the same room with them. I don’t need to be in the same country with them. To be able to feel what they’re dealing with. To be able to feel the pain that they’re feeling. Or the joy that they’re feeling. Or what physical ailments they have. There is no distance or time with regards to energy, we’re all interconnected. And so, the words that you write, the words that you used in an email, people will feel the intent behind what you write and what you say. Intent is everything.

And also, to go back to the dream thing. You know, so I’ve been dancing around the subject just because it’s too long of a story and I’ve decided to just not overtalk it. But I miss my son greatly. He’s eight going on nine. And I have these powerful dreams when I can’t take it anymore. And they’re always the same. And it’s where I just visit him and we hug and talk and hang out. And always works to the point where they’re real, like I don’t care. Someone can tell me all they want that they’re hallucinations, but I don’t care. Because, Just I can’t prove that this conversation was real in 10 minutes. I can’t prove that that one was fake. And the, the lingering feeling comes through. And so, you know, people who have helped me a lot have told me anytime you have a loving thought about a person, they get it. They might not Oh yes. 100 percent. Notice it. Yeah. And so my mom at an early age told me anytime you hear an ambulance, say a prayer for the person. You don’t know what’s happening, but just someone’s life is in turmoil or chaos, you know?

Yeah.

And it’s just powerful that. And I love like when someone’s I was just thinking of you and the phone rang. Like I love when like that, you know, again, we’re talking about the matrix and like these, so what you just said really, like really helps me with something that I’m trying to build in my life.

Awesome.

Feeling like this is worth it. You know?

Yes. Yes. It is. And everything. If you, if you’ve lost a loved one, or a friend, it doesn’t matter. Somebody you loved and you cared about. And you know, they might have been gone for some time. And you’re busy doing something in your day, you’re not, you’re just going about your life. And all of a sudden, they’re there on your mind, just out of the blue. Like that. That is because they are with you, in spirit, right at that point in time.

Wow. Yeah.

And your experience with your son… we all astral travel when we sleep, we all leave our bodies and we do a lot of visitations. And in fact, many people who have lost loved ones will see them in their sleep. Because your conscious mind and therefore your grief, doesn’t get in the road of interactions with them. That’s why so many have visitations in their sleep. And I would venture to suggest That these dreams are actual visitations in spirit.

Yeah, and it’s just so funny too because Someone’s need to prove the validity of something that gave you the feeling you wanted, anyway is so fascinating to me because that’s part of that socialization of if it’s not measurable, and if it’s not currently provable, it’s not happening, you know. And it’s just like funny because okay, so when static electricity wasn’t explainable, it wasn’t real. When germs were clearly making people sick you know, yeah. And that’s like going back like why I’m excited about all change, like even though it’s scary at first. And even though social media is a chaotic zoo, and then some. I know over time we’re just developing a closer, a closer relationship to how this really works without destroying this either, you know.

100%. Yeah. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. It’s been really fascinating. And I’m feeling fairly sure that my listeners, at least some of them will get some stuff out of our conversation, that’s really relevant to them in their lives. Where can people contact you and how can they get in touch with you if they want to?

Yeah, I’m very accessible. And I mean that in a positive way. All you have to do is head over to my website, which is my name kind of in a weird form. So, it’s www.mikeyopp.com. And, if you also Google mikeyopp.com, there’ll be a link. Technically it’ll show up on the URL with the word substack in it. Cause they host my podcast and my writing, but I paid for that domain name. And the reason I brought it up is not only do I provide like, essays and content and stuff. But I am reachable, which is what you asked. And if you liked this and you want to contact me, you can totally email me through that site without spambots, knowing my email address. Does that make sense? So, it’s a safe way for me to be reachable. So yeah. And if I’m an open book. I don’t open the whole book on every interview because it would be boring and stupid, but, yeah. If I can help anyone further or if you think you have a story to tell. And you want to come on my podcast Please let me know.

Awesome. Now if you didn’t pick up his website address listeners, you can find all his information on this episode’s page on the podcast website at www.walkingtheshadowlands.com. There will be links to his website. So, you can access it from there. So, no worries.

Mike, thank you so much for your time today. It’s been really awesome. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Me too. And so much. Total pleasure.

Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope our conversation with Mike provided you with as much insight and inspiration as it did for me. Mike’s authenticity, vulnerability, and wisdom truly shine through. Offering a unique perspective on spirituality, intuition, and the human experience.

As you reflect on the topics we’ve discussed today, remember the importance of staying true to yourself and following your heart. Whether it’s navigating spiritual communities, connecting with loved ones in dreams. Or simply trusting your intuition. Let these insights guide you on your own journey.

Before we close, I want to share some personal news. This will be the last episode for this season of Walking the Shadowlands. I’m going to take a much-needed break for four to six weeks to recover from a chest infection. And to interview and prepare new episodes. I truly appreciate your understanding and patience during this time.

Your support really means the world to me. And I’m excited to bring you fresh, insightful content upon my return. And some old favourite guests also. In the meantime, please feel free to revisit past episodes, reach out with any thoughts or questions. And stay connected through our social media channels.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with others. And leave our podcast a review. Your feedback helps me to bring more thought-provoking content to you. Also consider becoming a supporter and helping me with running costs of keeping this podcast on the air. You can buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/walkingtheshadowlands. Or become a monthly supporter.

Any help, big or small, to keep our podcast up and running is appreciated. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this episode with friends. And so, you don’t miss out on any episode, follow for teasers of our upcoming shows on any of these social media platforms. Our Facebook page WTShadowlands. Our Instagram feed. Walking the Shadowlands. TikTok under walking_the_shadowlands. We have a YouTube channel under Walking the Shadowlands as well.

This podcast is available on all free podcasting platforms. If you have Alexa, just say, Open Walking the Shadowlands and Alexa, will play our latest episode for you. If you don’t have a smartphone, don’t worry. You can still listen to the episodes from the podcast website, www.walkingtheshadowlands.com. For those hearing impaired, there’s a full written transcript of each episode on the website. So, you don’t miss out either.

If you want to connect with Mike or explore more of his work, visit his website mikeyopp.com. Or check out his podcast. Where he dives into near death experiences and other profound topics. Thank you once again for being a part of this journey and until next time, stay curious, stay compassionate. This is Marianne, bidding you farewell from the Shadowlands.