Today is a beautiful day, so I’m going to try to do most of my work outside, watching Bella, Camo and Gidget play. I hope the weather holds out throughout the weekend because Rune and I plan to meet up with my sister, Laura, and my bro-in-law and hot tub buddy, Jim, in Austin to camp and to take our small boat out on Lake Travis. We’ve been waiting for years to go out on the lake because the Texas drought has lowered its level so much that all the boat ramps have been out of service. Fortunately, we’ve had so much rain lately that it’s filled to the brim, so it should be a lot of fun.

I’m still waiting for the Android version of the CE app to get approved. It was rejected at first because I had a picture of Prince on it that they said was copyrighted. I took that off as well as some others that might be in question, so I hope that’s enough. If they reject it again, I’ll be bummed because everything related to Erik and spreading his word around is super important to me. So keep your fingers crossed!

Enjoy this Best of Erik post about various diseases.

Me: Okay, let’s get into various diseases. What is the spiritual basis for some of them—and I’ve talked about this with you through Jamie, already, but I want to see if you have anything else to add. Let’s see, like Alzheimer’s. Why do people get Alzheimer’s?

Jeannie: Yeah, and they change so. They can go from being this soft, kind being to this grouch.

Me: I know.

Erik: Often, Alzheimer’s is a way to cope with the past. Even those who were really wonderful, gentle beings all their lives had trauma in their childhood. So, it’s a way of forgetting. Most of these patients hold a lot inside their heads. They were ones who never let out their anger—at least not all of it—or that never talked about their problems. They just buried them. So, when they get buried too long, they come out, wham!

Me: Interesting. Hm. What about arthritis?

(Long pause as Jeannie listens)

Jeannie: That’s interesting. This is the angel talking now.

Me: Oh, okay.

Jeannie: Erik’s kind of standing back on this one.

Angelic Being: Arthritis usually has to do with people who have either one of two things. Either they pushed themselves too hard, moving through life putting one foot in front of the other and just kind of pushing and forcing instead of moving with the flow of life. Or sometimes it has to do with resisting: resisting certain lessons in life or not paying attention to what it was they were supposed to learn in this life, which is also a type of resisting.

Me: Oh! What about cancer?

Jeannie: That’s a huge one.

(Long pause)

Angelic Being: Depending on where the cancer is in the body, it can mean different things.

Me: Oh, okay. That makes sense.

Angelic Being: But one thing that cancer patients all have is either a chance to leave the planet consciously or decide that they truly want to live.

Me: Oh, I can see that! And it all rings so true, doesn’t it?

Jeannie: It does, because when some people survive their cancer, they have this whole new outlook on life.

Me: I know. I’ve seen that so may times in my practice.

Jeannie: But for some people, it’s just a chance to go.

Me: Like an exit point.

Erik: So it’s an exit point or a “come to Jesus” moment,

Jeannie: Exactly.

Me: What about heart disease, like coronary artery disease?

Erik: The heart always has to do with emotions, feelings. So heart disease usually comes from holding those feelings or emotions in instead of expressing them or allowing them to flow. It can be positive emotions or negative ones: grief, love, sadness, or even joy!

Me: Wow, and anger too, I guess.

Erik: Especially anger.

Me: Okay, what about diabetes?

Angelic Being: Diabetes is really one’s lesson to really take care of the body, caring for the physical body with the proper food, exercise, sleep, all of these things.

Me: Yeah, because it’s very time consuming to have diabetes, all the focus on the body with blood sugar testing, watching the diet. But does it happen in a person who has not taken care of the body before in a past life?

Erik: Usually, yes. Even children who come into this life with diabetes. Sometimes they’ve abused their body in a past life.

Me: Oh, because one of my sisters developed diabetes after she had her baby, but even before that she’s always been incredibly attentive to her health. She’s a vegetarian, exercises daily, you know, very healthy lifestyle. I found it so weird that it could happen to her, but I guess it might be from a past life.

Jeannie: Yeah.

Me: Okay, what about HIV and AIDS? Sometimes I think this is a lesson for others, you know?

Jeannie: Exactly.

Erik: HIV is one thing that has a design to bring the world together. It happens across the world, and if you look and watch—when it first became known, people making quilts, people loving. It’s designed to bring the world together in love.

Jeannie: Yeah, I remember clearly how back in the 80s people just banded together.

Me: Yeah, with benefit concerts and so many other wonderful displays of love and unity. And it, I don’t know, helps us develop compassion. This is a group, in general, that has not received very much compassion.

Jeannie: Yeah, yeah.

Me: So it teaches us to have compassion and put away our stereotypical prejudices and hostilities.

Erik: Right.

Me: Okay, so there are so many people who were prefer not to be sick with mental illness, etc., so why do some stay sick despite all the positive efforts to get well? How are they creating that reality if they are working in a positive way to overcome their illness? So, it seems like there are some things we just don’t have control over. IF we did, we’d get well, or we wouldn’t get sick n the first place.

Erik: Speaking from experience, sometimes that’s how I felt, Mom. From what I’ve learned here, again, it’s many layers. Some is karmic. There’s also a polarity in the world. You can’t go through life without challenges. You’re born and you die. There’s no getting away from that on the earthly plane. When someone becomes ill and seems to overcome it, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and work—and it’s very hard work. Sometimes, someone just gets tired of fighting and battling and just decides to let go. You were just talking about the diseases and why things come into the body. It’s a complicated question, because it deals with so many different things.

Me: So really, part of it might be getting down to the spiritual basis of disease. Until you address that, all the positive efforts targeted toward the physical aspects of disease might not really cure you. Unless you address the spiritual basis, you can’t get well.

Erik: Exactly. And it takes a huge amount of energy. You have to always be conscious about what you’re thinking—about thinking positive thoughts. Sometimes it gets to be too much.

Me: Oh, I almost forgot. What’s the spiritual basis for mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disease—I mean in general. I’m sure it’s a little bit different for each one. I think in part these are people who want to work through a whole lot of issues so it can be their last lifetime, especially with schizophrenia. Or maybe it’s to teach others compassion and patience. But, uh, what’s your take on it, Erik?

Erik: All of the above, Mom. Mental illness is often the result of many lifetimes, many karmic events all rolled into one. And you’re right about it being the last lifetime for some. It’s as if they’ve come back again and again and still haven’t learned what they needed to learn, so finally, mental illness then becomes an issue. Also, it’s why it’s one of the most difficult things to heal and cure—sometimes it can’t be cured. It teaches compassion also, so yeah.

Me: So are you saying that in some cases it’s kind of a remedial class or summer school for those who just won’t learn their lessons any other way?

Erik (laughing): Exactly, that’s really a good analogy.

Me: What about mental retardation, Down’s Syndrome and other developmental disorders? I have a feeling those souls are usually highly evolved and are here to teach us joy and compassion, but I don’t know. I’m just part of the peanut gallery, here.

Angelic Being: Those beautiful beings are all Beings of the Light. There is so much Light in them—-and so much wisdom!

Me: Yeah, I can see that.

Angelic Beings: Each time there is a soul who comes into the world with Down’s Syndrome or other mental challenges, it is all about bringing Love. Little angels that walk among the earth.

Me: Wow, I’m getting shivers. (pause) Well, I guess that’s all we have time for. We have a session next week, though, so that’s good. Oh! Any messages from Veronica, my guardian angel? I want to tell her this: ‘I love you and I’m so grateful you’re sticking with me! I’m sure I’m not the easiest person to guide!’ And Erik, I want to tell you I love you with all of my heart, my soul, my entire being, and then some.

Erik: Ditto, Mom! Ditto.

Veronica: What do you mean, “not the easiest person to guide”? I have to laugh at that! Oh, you can have a stubborn nature at some times, but what you give—it is with great delight that I work with you. Even as a child, you were fun. Quick to laugh. You wore your emotions on your sleeve, and you loved everything and everyone, animals, plants. You’re a sister to me. Your role in their world is being played out now as we speak. I know. I know the grief that you experienced when Erik chose to come over and be with us, and yet look. Look at what you’ve done and all the hundreds and hundreds of people you and Erik have helped. You’ve made a pack, you know, the two of you, in the physical life and in the spiritual life. I love you more than you can even know. The light that emanates that we spoke of—that gold, purple and blue—it reaches so high—high, high into the heavens. You’re a jewel, a gemstone placed on the earth that shimmers and shines and draws to it those who need help and assistance. I thank you. I thank you. So go now, with peace and joy and many, many blessings.

(And I thought I was sappy! I love her, though. She’s an amazing spirit, but she makes me blush sometimes.)

Me: Aw, I couldn’t do it without you, Veronica, and you too, Erik. I love you both.

So it seems disease is often the body’s way of acting as a tool for communication. It’s there to tell us: “Hey, you need to work on this,” or “Stop being complacent and lazy,” or “Are you forgetting what you came here to do?” It’s just so hard to be aware of this form of communication much less interpret it. So, I hope this has helped some of you.