I have a very important request for you guys. I’m very grateful for those of you who have shared your stories about how Erik has saved you from taking your life, and I need more in order to be a part of this upcoming reality show. I need stories of how Erik has helped you but with tangible signs, not anecdotal  ones rather than signs like dragonflies or goosebumps that could be seen as coincidental  Examples might include BBs dropping from the ceiling, his physical presence, messages on the phone or TV, hearing his voice, having messages appear on your computer screen, etc. I remember one of you was struggling with what direction to go in your life, and Erik made a screensaver with floating pencils. She didn’t have that screensaver on her computer. Through that sign, he was telling her to become a writer. Some of you have had electronics work that were unplugged. Some of you have had the blog appear on your computer but have never been to the blog, etc. But these things have to be associated with your need for help. They can’t be stories of Erik just coming by to say “Hey” or tease or prank you. Plus, you also need to be willing to appear on TV. If you have a story like that, please send it to me at emedhus@gmail.com. I would be so grateful. Can you imagine how many people we could reach out to this way? Sorry if there are any typos or editing errors in this,. For some reason, my vision is particularly blurry today. 

Here’s the second part of the Ray Charles interview!

Me: Okay. Were you here to teach anything other than what you said at first?

(Long pause)

Jamie: He and Erik are talking, and I’m tapping my fingers, waiting for him to finish. Erik’s talking to him about his family, but I can’t figure out why he brought it up. Either he was from a big family or he had a big family. I’m just listening. Again, I forgot the question!

I repeat it.

(Pause)

Jamie (to Ray, giggling): Over here! Can you talk to me?

Jamie and I laugh.

Me: Don’t ignore poor Jamie!

Jamie: Erik and him are getting along really well.

Me: Aww, awesome!

Jamie: It’s weird, though, cuz Erik just had a full-blown conversation, but it sounded like he purposely kept me on the side.

Ray: Again, I definitely was there to teach that you’re not a victim.

Me: Do you think you accomplished all that you came here to do?

Ray: All I can say is that I did the best I could. If that’s not accomplishing something, I don’t know what is.

Me: Oh, gosh, yes. I think you did. You had some rough patches throughout your life, didn’t you?

Ray: Yes ma’am, I did.

Me: Would you like to talk about any of those?

Ray: No ma’am, I would not.

Me: Okay. That’s all right. Did you gain any other insights when you passed?

(Pause)

Jamie (to Erik and Ray): Okay. Nice. High five each other.

Ray: There a sense of peace that Heaven provides that you can never every find on Earth.

Jamie: That’s when they high fived each other.

Me: Wow. Would you like to share another life that influenced this last one?

(Pause)

Jamie (to Erik): Erik, stop!

Me: Erik!

Jamie: Here’s what I heard just now. He asked if he had his real eyeballs or if they were fake, and could he pop ‘em out.

I chuckle.

Jamie: So I have no idea what they personally have covered, but if it was that classy… But Ray’s getting a kick out of it. I’m on a first name basis with him. “Ray thinks it’s funny.”

She giggles.

Ray: Oh, don’t worry about me. I had several lives that led up to the struggles of this last one. The two I can narrow it down to both dealt with how to be around death, how to be around loss. So it was death in my family and the loss of my eyesight. In one of them, I was the son of a –

Jamie (to Ray): What is that? What did you just call it? It’s a funeral parlor. That’s what you’re showing me in my head. The dead are coming in, but, it’s funny, there’s a dirt floor.

Me: Ah, so it must be pretty early on.

Jamie: It wasn’t polished and clean.

Ray: At a young age, I learned how to let the blood out of a body and clean the body and preserve it so that it could be—

Jamie: Oh, it’s put in a wagon, so we’re in wagon days.

Ray: I had a lot of run-ins with death of the people I knew, people in my own town. I took over my father’s business. In the other life—

(Pause)

Jamie: He’s showing me a lot of snow. He has on a fur bonnet and jacket like an Inuit. The ground is all white. I don’t even see a tree. It’s like I’m on a glacier or something. He’s talking about the glare and the reflection, and how too much light plays tricks on your eyes. He had to put oil or—

Me: Like whale blubber?

Jamie: It looks like mud. It’s across his eyes to help him see.

Me: Below the eyes like the football players do?

Jamie: Yeah, but it’s kind of like when you use four fingers, and you swipe it across your eyes, across the bridge of your nose, to your temple.

Me: Okay.

Jamie: Not so manicured like the football players. He showed me that many times in that life he got lost and couldn’t find his way back home. There were storms. But he survived and watched his family thrive.

Ray: As I got older, I lost my eyesight, so I was homebound. They wouldn’t let me out. I loved that. It brought me such joy to know that I didn’t have to go out, and that some of the responsibilities could be put aside, and I could be honored as a elder. I could tell my stories and connect to the music and the history of my tribe. So when I lost my sight in that lifetime, it was joyous. It gave me peace.

Me: Did you tell stories in music?

Ray: Storytelling and music: writing, singing. So I’m no stranger to not having sight. It wasn’t scary for me, even as a boy in this last lifetime. It didn’t scare me. It came on very slow, and I knew that this would be the life that I would lead. It never slowed me down, not a once!

Me: “No a once!” So do you have any messages for humanity?

Jamie laughs!

Jamie: Before you even finished, I felt like I was in a church, and he slaps his hands down, and he claps them together, and he screams just one word, “Live.” I would love to imitate him, but I don’t know how.

She belts out the typical Ray, “Whoo!”

Me: Can you expand on that?

Jamie (laughing): Erik’s teasing about getting him a microphone and a Geri-curl wig.

Me: Oh no!

Jamie: I don’t know why that’s so funny!

Me: It is funny!

Jamie: In a Geri-curl wig and a microphone telling everyone to live.

Ray: People forget that they’re living. They just need something in their life that’s going to remind them that that’s what they’re doing whether they like it or not.

Me: Yeah.

Ray: So get up and live!

Me: Okay. I’ll get right on it! Erik, do you have any questions?

Jamie: No, he asked them  all during their conversation!

Me: It sounds like it! Well, thank you, Ray. Anything else you want to add?

Ray: I’d like to add some kisses.

Jamie: He just pushes them out. I don’t know how to describe it. Throwing them out.

Me: Poor Jamie. You’ll never be the same.

Jamie: I won’t! Not with that visual that I had earlier.

Me: Well, thank you!

Ray: You’re welcome. You have a blessed day.