Me: How do spirits like you communicate? Describe in terms of, um, what we do, what symbols do we, uh, what in the world am I saying here? I just have absolutely no idea! I mean, I know there’s telepathy, I mean, do you communicate in chunks of ideas, in symbols? Do you use linear language like we do? What is it? How do you communicate over there?

Jamie (laughing): Erik’s looking at me and saying, “What’s wrong with this person? Do they have diarrhea?

Me (firmly): No, Erik, it’s my question, so stop it right now, young man.

We all laugh.

Me: I can take a swig of Kaopectate if that helps.

Jamie: Oh my god, he’s cracking up.

Me: I’ll even share it with you, Erik. Sometimes you need it, too, Mister Oral Diarrhea. But seriously, how do you communicate with each other. Not with me, but with each other.

Erik: We don’t even open our mouths. We don’t even have to stand next to each other. It’s not even called telepathy, because it’s not a brain-to-brain activity. Think of it more as how a computer system communicates, you know, through the air, bouncing off the satellite dish and then to its directed source. (I thought he meant “target” but he clears this up later.) Think of it more mathematically, that my energetic body, my spirit, once it is thinking or feeling a concept, is being immediately directed to the source of what I’m thinking about or feeling about, and that source is experiencing it simultaneously, which, by the way is no new bullshit, because it’s exactly how the human body works. It’s just on different vibrational levels, but it’s exactly how the human body works, and it’s exactly how telepathy kind of goes.

Me: And instead of beaming up to the source, we’re beaming up to the brain? Is that what you’re saying?

Erik: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Me: Okay.

Erik: Brain to brain activity. But there’s no satellite dish for us to bounce off of. It bounces off pure source energy. God energy. Life force energy. That’s really what’s carrying or motivating, giving motion to how we communicate. We don’t have to call someone and set up a meeting. There’s no withholding here. I can’t have a thought about you and you not know about it. We’re all open books. And even if I had a thought that you would think or you would normally judge as not being good about you, you would still experience it, but you would have no desire to judge me for it. That’s a human quality—the desire to judge and measure and shred things apart.

Me: Yes, unfortunately.

Erik: You would just know that that was my truth, and that’s where I was coming from. You wouldn’t have this dire need to react emotionally with instantaneous love or disapproval or whatever. It just is, and that freedom of having no judgment or, you know, instant reaction—that’s where all of this compassionate—

(Pause)

Jamie: He’s looking for a word.

Erik: Amazing space that I exist in right now.

Jamie (chuckling): He looks so unsatisfied that he just used the word “amazing!”

Me: Aw!

Erik: That’s why the people who have those near death experiences, you know, they don’t wanna come back.

Me: Yeah.

Erik: Even if it means leaving the love of their life behind or their daughter depends on them, they don’t wanna come back. They know it’s gonna be okay. I don’t know if I explained that right. I fucked up.

Me: Aw, you did fine, Erik. But when you communicate, what is it in as it goes to the satellite dish, so to speak? Does it come in words, chunks of ideas, symbols?

Erik: No, it’s like getting visual and emotional and verbage all at once.

Me: Hm. Jesus. Confusing. That’s called multitasking.

Erik: Nah, it’s actually a really clear way, cuz you get the exact emotion that’s behind it. You don’t have to guess like you do when you read an email. You get to see what the person is creating or thinking, you know, so there’s more detail in the visual than there is in just the description in words, and then you get the verbage that goes with it.

(Okay, I think “verbage” is a new word Erik created. That’s okay. We understand what he means, right?)

Erik: And it’s not really like English, you know. It’s not like Spanish. It’s a distinct language, but it’s not like I can describe that I am totally speaking English. It’s just like this core language that you understand, and that’s what you communicate in. Even with alien forces, you know, other nations that come, we’re able to communicate. We don’t need a translator to come here.

Me: Okay, so are you saying that they’re words?

Erik: Yeah. They’re words.