I want to apologize to you guys for yesterday’s post. I mentioned the phrase “nut farm,” which was very insensitive of me even though I had no ill intent. I guess I’m old enough to have been raised in a culture that isn’t very PC!

Today’s topic is kind of dear to my heart because when Erik was very young, he stuttered. I remember one day he broke Rune’s train engine. He had a big set to entertain the kids, and it the black locomotive engine itself was fairly expensive. The next day, I went to Erik’s school (I think he was around five) and found out that he was with the speech pathologist. She was having him do an exercise where he says a word while sliding his index finger from the top of his arm to the bottom, I guess to help him say the phrase smoothly without stuttering. As I watched, the speech pathologist pulled out a card with a picture of a locomotive. Erik slid his index finger in a stuttered manner while saying, “The-the-the engine I broke.” 

Kim: Good morning.

Me: Good morning, Ms. Kimberly. How are you, and how is Erik?

Kim: I’m tired but Erik is great!

She chuckles.

Me: I bet you’re tired. You’ve been traveling. Me, too. I’m going to stick around for a while.

Kim: I got in late and had to help my son do his homework!

Me: Oh, no! That’s not good. Yeah, I’ve been traveling, too. California, visiting relatives in Norway. So it’s nice to stay put, right?

Kim: Yeah.

Erik: What’s up, Mom?

Mom: Not much. You wanna get started? We have some interesting things to talk about today.

He blows me kisses.

Kim: He’s so sweet. He got real mushy.

Erik: Oh course, Mom.

Me: Aw. I love you! So, Erik used to stutter when he was little and went to speech therapy. Well, one day, he broke this little choo-choo train, this locomotive that went to a train set, and he got into trouble for it because he wasn’t supposed to be playing with it. So I went in to see him during speech therapy, and they do this thing where they move their finger down their arm while they say something like, “My name is Erik Medhus.” When I went in, the therapist was showing him a picture of a train and he says, “The-the-tr-tr-train that I br-broke/”

I stutter my finger along my arm in concert with the stuttering of the phrase.

Me: So it didn’t work out on him! It was funny.

Kim: Aw.

Me: Poor. But anyway, I want to talk about stuttering because a lot of people have brought this up as a topic they want to talk about.

Kim: He’s actually giving a lot of information about this really quick. Why do people stutter, Erik?

Erik: It’s a great stagnancy from the past.

Kim: He means like past lives.

Erik: Patterns that develop within you at a soul level can continue in a strong way so they manifest in this way. It’s like a nervous tic, and it has a lot to do with self-worth. I don’t really want to use the word, “confidence” because even people who seem confident can stutter.

Me: Yeah, that’s true.

Kim: He’s talking really fast today!

Erik: What? Haven’t you had enough coffee to keep up?

Kim laughs.

Me: I haven’t.

Erik: Someone can project confidence but still have issues with their self-worth. It’s almost like a mask.

Me: Ah!

Erik: They project that confidence as a mask, but then they go home in their quiet space and introvert, kind of like going to an empty space where there’s no self-worth or a great lack of it. But Mom, most of the time it’s subconscious. They don’t even realize that their self-worth isn’t whole.

Me: And it’s tied to a past life, the self-worth issue?

Erik: Mostly.

Me: Okay.

Erik: Most of the time, but sometimes it’s from the current life. A lot of times people aren’t aware of their lack of self-worth, so they develop this tic, this nervous outlet. Oftentimes, these people won’t just have this one issue. They’ll have this—

Kim stutters on the words.

Kim (laughing): He thinks he’s funny because he’s trying to make me stutter.

I laugh.

Kim: I just keep repeating words from him, so now I’m starting to stutter!

Me: Uh oh!

Erik: They’ll have more than one “tic.” Most of the time, someone who stutters doesn’t just have that one thing. People with these nervous tics might dig at their scalp–

Kim (laughing): That’s a weird example!

Me: Okay.

Kim: He’s showing me other things that they do like peeling their fingers or chewing on their fingernails, all sorts of different things. Erik, get a little deeper with the lack of self-worth. I’ve heard that too many times. I want more.

Me: Ooo, look who’s being all demanding and what not!

We both chuckle.

Kim: I do. I get in the mode sometimes where I’m like, “Yeah, I’ve heard that a million times. Give me something new.

Erik: Well, when you go beyond self-worth, the reason there would be a lack in that area, it goes back to not being mindful.

Kim: No, he changed it:

Erik: When we’re not mindfully present, then the self-worth is just floating out in outer space. Bring yourself back to the present, and the self-worth will naturally blossom. Too many times, when we’re not in the Now, when we have our awareness all over the place—

Kim: He’ll get into these past life patterns here in just a second.

Erik: Here in this life, too many times we get all wrapped up with things that are not in the Now. When we do that, when we try to place ourselves elsewhere or place our awareness elsewhere, we steal from ourselves. We’re robbing ourselves of being true.

Kim: He’s making fun of me, man! He’s harping on me!

She laughs.

Me: Ah, pick on a girl when she’s down! Come on!

Kim: He’s like, “Robbing? You said that weird! You emphasized that weird.”

Erik: We take ourselves out of the Now, and then we get nervous about it and rob ourselves of the ability to have that self-worth and the capacity to be present with it. That’s when all of these nervous tics come about like they eat weird or they don’t eat, they stutter, they have all sorts of manifestations.

Me: Mm hm.

Erik: So, it’s a lack of mindfulness, a lack of presence.

Kim: Can you change it?

Erik: Of course you can, but I want to get into the past life patterns first.

Me: Well, before you do that, it seems like one past life thing would be being denied the ability to communicate like maybe you were a woman who was not allowed to speak in a political realm, and you got killed because you were outspoken. I don’t know! I’m just making things up! It’s better than the digging at the scalp example! I’ll say that!

Erik: The example you gave goes back to self-worth issues, even like dignity, having dignity within yourself. With these past life patterns, what you can see unfolding is, let’s say it’s a religious belief that women don’t speak, and then all of a sudden they’re liberated from that. So when they do begin to speak, they stutter and have trouble expressing themselves.

Me: Oh!

Erik: It goes back to that lack of self-worth. Before, you weren’t good enough to speak. What I want to emphasize about this is not necessarily the root of the speech issue but more the stagnancy. It’s an emotional stagnancy for some people, and that emotional stagnancy can manifest as stuttering. If it comes from a past life, then it’s an emotional stagnancy that’s manifested in that way. No matter what, it boils down to the fact that it becomes a nervous tic because of a lack of presence. That lack of presence feeds into the lack of self-worth, personal value and power.

Kim: He uses self-worth and self-love interchangeably.

Reminder: tomorrow at 7 PM CT is Erik’s Hour of Enlightenment radio show. Call 619-639-4606 15 minutes prior to talk to Erik. http://goo.gl/aFHTzJ