Well, I’m still having trouble with the Erik Encounters page. I’m going to try to make a button on the sidebar of the homepage so that sharing your story will be only a click away. I know some of you have taken a lot of time to write up your encounter, but I’m hoping that when we make the change, you’ll be willing to repost it. I’ll try to get the old encounters to transfer over, but I’m not sure that’s even possible. 

I always brag about Erik, but I want to spread my love and brag about my other kids too. Lukas is a sophomore in college and has yet to make a B. He “blows the curve” for others in his physics II and calculus tests because he makes 100s. He’s such a genius. We’ll be eating dinner, and then, all of a sudden, he’ll stop, turn around and start writing all sorts of scary-looking chemical or math equations on his dry erase board. Here’s what I mean:

Annika, my youngest, is a sophomore, pre-med and she, too, has yet to make a B. In fact, she’s never made less than a 95 on anything. On top of that, she’s doing research (I can’t remember in what,) volunteering at Scott and White hospital and is active in a few clubs including one for pre-med students. 

My eldest, Kristina, is a third year resident in anesthesiology and is considered to be one of the best, clinically. Surgeons often request her above others. I love hearing her tell stories of the patients she’s saved.

My second eldest, Michelle, has applied to PA school and is on an active list and three wait lists. This is amazing considering that out of 1000 applicants, only 50 even receive interviews. It’s harder to get into than medical school. Keep your fingers crossed and send positive vibes because she finds out soon. Her college record is stellar, too. She has a 4.0 science gpa and graduated summa cum laude. Plus, she’s an excellent mother to my grand daughter, Arleen.

So there you have it. Sorry for the shameless plugs! Okay, Erik. Take it from here.

Me: Why did you have such a difficult life? What was the purpose for that?

Erik: To have my own inner struggle.

Me: What good did that do? I mean, it just made you miserable.

Erik: Yeah, but think about it; if we constantly lived in Home, in Heaven, we wouldn’t have the chance to experience that hardship, that imaginary separation, that divide. That’s part of the beauty that Earth provides: The false identity that there is right and wrong and punishments and rewards. I needed that to understand the depth of myself and especially my own strength, and I needed a family that would not get in my way by telling me who I was. I needed a family who would stand around me and support who I was. I wouldn’t even say it was a helping thing. It was more a team effort. When you think of help, it’s like, “Well, I know better, and I know the answer. Here’s my help.” For everyone [reading] this, my family didn’t do that. They stood beside me and experienced it as I did. They had a level of compassion. For me, they breached walls that I think no one else could have. The therapist couldn’t; the doctors couldn’t; the medication couldn’t. This was the kind of support that I was looking for, and I got it.

(Long pause)

This has nothing to do with Erik, but I thought I’d add it since this last part was so short.

Me: Let’s talk about people who’ve lost their ability to make choices. What’s going on there?

Robert: He showed me this visual of a person who’s standing and behind them are all the roads going in different directions. They’re standing in the center of this road, and they just don’t know what choice to make.

Erik: They become overwhelmed. The reason why they freeze like that is because in the past they might have gone down one road and wound up falling into some big ass hole and hurting themselves. They get to the point where they see what’s happened to them in the past as mistakes. They become afraid of what might come next. Maybe in the past they’ve been hurt physically or emotionally, or maybe they’ve hurt someone else. They get to where they don’t trust the process anymore.

Me: Okay.

Erik: So you’ve got to step back from all that shit and realize that everything that’s happened in your life is meant to happen. It’s for the benefit of the evolution of your soul. It’s to help you figure out who the fuck you want to be! It’s to make you aware of that.

Me: So that’s the purpose of the lack of the ability to make choices?

Erik: Well I was explaining why it happens first.

Me: Oh, okay.

Erik: So the purpose of not doing that—

Robert (laughing): Okay, get in gear, Erik! He does this all the time with me. He’s like a little Tasmanian devil whirling everywhere.

I laugh.

Robert: And earlier, by the way, he showed himself in a Pinocchio outfit.

Robert laughs really hard.

Me (chucking): Are you a liar, Erik?

Robert: No, no. Well that’s the way I say it. It was one of those little outfits like, uh, with the shorts and—

Me: Like lederhosen.

Robert: Oh, I guess that’s the word. He looked kind of funny.

Robert and I both laugh.

Robert: I don’t know why he did that. Then he did this thing where he clicked his heels together. Okay, what’s the purpose of it, Erik.

Erik: Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, it’s to learn to trust in your ability to choose, to be the captain of your own ship. You need to know that you’re doing what’s best for you. You don’t trust your fucking self. That’s the opportunity.

Me: So the purpose is to learn how to trust yourself.

Erik: To trust in yourself and to trust in the process.

Me: What do you mean when you say “the process?”

Erik: The process. Well you are the process. It’s your journey. It’s your life. It’s being conscious.

Me: Being conscious?

Erik: Yeah, of being aware.

Me: Oh, being aware.

Erik: Yeah, that’s the “process.”

Me: Being aware of what? I know these are remedial questions but…

Erik: Oh, well it’s so expansive, it can be a lot of different things like the thing I talked about in the past: being aware of how you feel, physically; being aware of how you feel, emotionally; being aware of the connection you have with other people; being aware of how the choices you make create all these puzzle pieces that you can make and choose and mix one way to create a puzzle and mix another way to create another puzzle. It’s also about the awareness that you create your own reality and how that can affect the reality of others.

Me: Yeah.

Erik: You see how expansive that is?

Me: God, yeah.

Robert: He’s showing me these things like electrical current, like pieces of lightening and how it never strikes in the same place.

Me: Right.

Erik: Every time it strikes, it might look similar to us, but it never looks exactly the same. When you watch and observe that, you see that there are so many interactions going on that shape the way the lightening bolts comes down and where it comes down.

Me: Give me an example of that interaction.

Erik: Well since we’re talking about the lightening, I’ll talk about when the lightening strikes it looks one way, and another one strikes another way. It’s because the wind currents changed in a certain way at that moment. The electrons flow in one direction from one second to the next changing the shape of the lightening. That’s how interaction works and that’s how consciousness works. In the broadest sense of the word, it’s how everything kind of bumps into each other and creates these different kinds of outcomes.

Me: Give me a human, real life example instead of lightening bolts.

Robert: It’s funny because he shows me this Rolodex, and he’s sifting through it like he’s looking at all these different scenarios, trying to pick one.

Erik: I’m trying to pick one that a lot of people can relate to.

Me: That’s tough.

(Pause)

Robert: Okay, Erik. That’s a good one.

Erik: Say someone comes up to you, and they have a pissy attitude. In that moment, if you’re completely aware in the definition I just gave you, when that person comes up to you with that pissy attitude, you don’t have to react with pissiness in return because you understand that that’s only going to escalate the situation or damage a friendship. What you can do in that moment of awareness is connect with that person, figure out why they’re acting fucking pissy in the first place. It might be something that just happened or a whole series of things in their life that makes them a pissy person. If you got a lot of fucking shit in your life, it’s going to make you fucking pissy.

Me: Yeah!

Erik: That’s why they’re like that. You have to step back a little and have compassion for the person. You have to approach them in a different way, not with kid gloves or not like “I’m afraid of you,” but with a genuine sense of, “I feel for you.” Not in a patronizing way like, “I’m better than you because I don’t feel that way.” No judgment. It should be coming from a place of “I care for you.” So when you make one choice to give them pissiness in return, you might feel a real pressure in your body, a heaviness. Everything gets real tense. Both people will feel that way. You literally feel heavier because the energy around you is heavier, and your body will reflect that. Then you might have a fucked up day for the rest of the day. If you choose the other way, you feel light. You may feel like you want to skip down the street, or you might feel like you want to go up to someone and hug them. You’re energy is light, and your body will reflect that.

Me: So one choice is a lightening strike and the other choice is another one.

Erik: Right. And we, as conscious beings, have this ability to be aware of potential outcomes and choose how we can direct that outcome. It doesn’t mean that when you come up to someone and choose compassion that they’re going to sit around and sing Kum-Bah-Ya and go fuck.

I laugh.

Erik: It’s not going to be like that all the time. Most of the time it will because you’re seeing them and everybody wants to be seen.

Me: So one of the purposes is to learn how to see people.

Erik: Yes, and I mean see them from an emotional perspective. To see what their energy is.

Me: Right, and to see yourself, I guess?

Erik: Yeah.

Me: Hm. Anything else you want to say about on this subject?

Erik: Nah, not unless you want to go on with it.

Me: You’ll probably just take us down rabbit holes. I know you very well.

Robert: He loves to do that! Oh my god.

Me: I know! I know!