The movie Hereafter, Mediums in General & an Odd Incident at the Mall

Jeff and I went to see the Clint Eastwood-directed movie "Hereafter" starring Matt Damon.  It's a slow, thoughtful film which meanders through the lives of three people with their lives converging at the end.  Matt plays a nonpracticing psychic whose life is lonely because he can no longer tolerate seeing death and sorrow on a daily basis.  This struck a chord with me since my dreams are filled with the awful, final meaning of death to those of us still on this plane of existence.  So far in my life, the only time I'm visited by missing loved ones, whether they're human or animal, is when the loved one has already died.  I wish it weren't so!  I'd love to be able to say that a loved one is still alive, just waiting to be rescued, but that's not how it works (for me). 

In the movie another character, a young boy who is a surviving twin seeks out psychics in order to communicate with his brother.  The psychics in the movie are depicted as questionable, at best, with the exception of Matt.  What struck me as significant, however, was that while Matt's character could envision the loved one, he didn't know their names, just could describe what they physically looked like.  That's how my gift works, too - I see the spirits, but I have no idea what their names are.  In the psychic world, which can be snobby and backstabbing - trust me!, most mediums will tell you that that's a fault, that you're not very good if you aren't shown  what the spirit's name is.  But I've noticed that most mediums "fish" for names, too - "Do you know anyone whose name begins with a 'D'?"  I don't go that route; the few times I've been shown names have been in my dreams, and those are of people who might be strangers to me but are very much alive.  Another thing about many mediums:  they don't actually see the spirit.  They may see shadows: a large one is an adult, a tall one is a grandparent, a small one is a child.  Then they download symbols which, through their experience, have meaning: an apple can mean that the spirit was a teacher, for instance.  My gift includes symbols sometimes, but in a more pronounced way: if I'm visited by a spirit who believes strongly in education or was well-educated him/herself, he/she might be standing in a library or some other institution of learning.  If the spirit loved to fish, he'll be standing on a dock or in a fishing shack (which also gives me a clue as to where he lived - ice fishing is only in the northern states).  In any event, I was just really, really pleased to see that even though Matt Damon played a fictional character, whoever wrote the movie understood that not all mediums see things exactly alike.

Which also made me think of connections to the spirit world.  If you ever go to a medium and he/she is stumbling to give you answers, you're probably not connecting to one another AND he/she isn't connecting to your loved ones.  It happens.  A reputable psychic should give you a refund and ask that you see another medium.  Also in a psychic reading sometimes what the spirit is showing the medium won't make sense to you at first.  It's a good idea to take notes or have the session taped so that you can go back later and think about what was said.  Many times information isn't confirmed until several months later, at which point you have an "eureka" moment when you think, "OMG, so THAT'S what she was talking about!"

If a psychic voluntarily gives her services to you, as in a missing person's case, by all means take it!  Just know that what the psychic may be seeing is from the viewpoint of the missing person.  In other words, if the person is lost and confused, the images will be, as well.  The hope is always that someone will recognize and can interpret the images so that the loved one is found, but the psychic should be the last person who can interpret what is seen - she doesn't know the loved one personally, nor is she likely to know the area where the person is mentally sending images.  Keep that in mind!

Please keep in mind, too, that we charge for our services (if not volunteered) because that's how we make our living.  We consider ourselves professionals, much as any other business person considers him/herself to be a professional. While there are some mediums who charge outrageous fees for very little effort, most mediums would just like to be able to help support their families, and readings can take a deep toll, much as it did to Matt Damon's character.  It's not easy to get constant downloads of pictures that a spirit is sending and then try to verbalize what you've been shown to a client.  It's certainly never easy to be constantly bombarded by loss, sorrow and pain.  Many mediums, therefore, also suffer physically no matter how many spiritual shields of protection they may put in place before and after a reading.  Personally, I'm also an empath, which means that I feel your pain and your sorrow and that of your loved one just as deeply as you do, and I suffer greatly as a result.  So please don't take advantage of my kind nature in asking me to do free readings for you (family and personal friends are an exception :D); my gift is not to be taken lightly nor to be taken advantage of, especially when I spend so much time and energy gathering the information.

This also leads me to another point: if you ask for my intuitive advice on personal matters and then ignore what I've just told you because you don't agree with it OR think your way is better, you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not listening to your own inner voice.  You wouldn't have asked me the question(s) to begin with if you were certain about the outcome.  For instance, if you tell me that you think your husband is cheating on you and what should you do, and I reply (after meditating on it, then pulling a card for verification) that you should not give him another second's thought, that your journey is to keep moving forward irregardless of whether he's with you or not, and then you tell me that oh, no, he loves you, you can't live without him, I'm wrong, etc. etc., you haven't been paying much attention to what your gut's telling you.  You wouldn't have asked me to begin with if you were so certain of his love, would you?  Just because you didn't like the answer is no reason to ignore what's been told to you.  Conversely, if you had a medium telling you that all was love and light but you think otherwise, please pay attention to your intuition!  A psychic cannot predict the future, ever; the future is constantly changing because we all have free will to change our lives at any time we so desire.  What she is able to do is to help guide you on your journey.  I might "see" someone who has had multiple miscarriages with a baby in her arms, but will it be this pregnancy that comes to term?  Maybe, maybe not, although I'll definitely be hoping, right along with the mother, that it is, and even if I don't see any complications doesn't mean that there won't be any.  Make sense?  The law of nature is that it's unpredictable, and you should always be prepared for a change in direction.
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I also want to share a little experience we had standing in line to buy tickets for "Hereafter."  A young man in front of us who was tall, looked Middle Eastern, wore jeans, long, baggy sweatshirt and a white knit/crochet cap on his head, said in broken English to the ticket seller that he wanted to see the first available movie - he didn't care what it was . The seller looked amused, pointed to the show times on the huge board behind him, then said, "The first movie is "Hereafter" and starts at 2:45."  The young man kept repeatedly asking the seller about times and movies, then suddenly asked, "What is "Hereafter"?"  The seller then pointed across the lobby to the poster of "Hereafter."  The young man then asked how much the ticket was. "$9.50" was the reply, and the young man searched his pockets, then shrugged and walked away.  I watched him as he was walking, and he headed toward the exit of the mall (we were at the multiplex AMC at Tyson's).  It suddenly struck me that wouldn't a movie theatre, especially a huge one such as the AMC at Tyson's, be a perfect place for someone to plant a bomb?  The theatre's surrounded by restaurants and is a busy place.  I am NOT prejudiced nor racist and in fact personally know and like quite a few people who are Islamic, but this young man was giving off really weird vibes, which is what made me pay attention to him to begin with, and in fact I would have noticed him if he had been a blue-eyed, blonde-headed surfer-dude, his aura was so far off.  Later after the movie when we got in the car to go home and I talked about this, Jeff said that his company had received a terrorist alert that "credible" sources are reporting that restaurants in the D.C. area are the latest target by jihadists in order to kill as many people as possible in one fell swoop.  Was this young man a threat or just wasting time waiting on a friend to get off work?  Who knows; if he was a threat, he couldn't afford the ticket (makes me laugh) but if your intuition starts humming, please be alert for possible threats, whether real or imagined.  It just might save your life.