One of my YouTube buddies told me I should take 5 minutes a day when it’s nice a quiet and just clear my mind and meditate. Do any of you guys have trouble doing that? Right now I have four kids, two grandkids, my husband, four dogs and four cats living under my roof, so finding a quiet time is a challenge. Plus there’s me. It’s hard for me to quieten my mind because it’s full of crazy ADHD monkeys swinging from one neuron to the next while making all sorts of loud monkey sounds. They probably throw their own poop around like they do in the zoo. If you have these same challenges, let me know. If you’ve found a cure or fix, DEFINITELY let me know. Jamie taught us to do this exercise where we focus on visualizing numerals, counting up 1, 2, 3 and so on, without letting your mind drift to other thoughts. I can barely get past 1. I think with practice I could definitely get better, but finding the time and even remembering to find the time isn’t easy. 

Me: Okay, so Erik, a while back you were saying that the physical body is fed by the energetic body, and if we could open that up and allow more energy through, we could do amazing things—stop bullets even. Well how, Erik? Tell us! How can we open up the energetic body and allow more energy through so we can do those amazing things?

Erik: Well, the practice of Reiki is a real basic foundation. That’s like your everyday Band-Aid.

Me: Um hm.

Erik: The practice of Reiki allows more energy in through the body. Qi Gong fine-tunes the body to allow more energy in. Um, eating healthy foods—no processed shit, no white sugar, no caffeine, no drugs or things like that—you know, nothing manmade or abnormal.

(Of course I’m thinking about chocolate chip cookies so as far as I’m concerned, bullets can roam free. Someone else will have to stop them Keanu Reeves style.)

Erik: All that shit kinda gets in there and takes away the space where energy is supposed to be.

Me: Oh!

Erik: Clogs it all up. See, people want to have these abilities, but they don’t want to practice the discipline that goes with it to allow that energy to move through the body.

(Guilty. Hmm. I wonder if there’s such thing as spiritual Drano? Gotta look that up later.)

Me: Yeah, I’m one of those.

Erik: Well, as long as you’re happy, and—

Me: Yeah, I’m gonna have my Latte every morning until my Tassimo machine heaves it’s last breath. Anybody try to take that away from me will draw back a bloody nub.

Jamie (laughing): Erik’s laughing so hard! He like spreads his hand across the sky and sings out, “ADDICTION!”

Me: I know. I know!

We all laugh.

Me: Oh well, I’m happy; it’s a happy addiction.

Erik: That’s right. If your happy, then that’s all that matters. You’re in the right spot. If you’re constantly yearning for something more, then you need to learn a discipline.

Me (singing): So, if you’re happy and you know it, clap you hands, right?

Erik claps twice just as he would after that phrase in the preschool song.

Me: So speaking of grade school songs, is it true about the Hokey Pokey?

Erik: What?

Me: Is that what it’s all about?

Erik: Yep, as simple as that. That’s what everything in life and the universe is all about. I’m surprised you didn’t know that, Mom.

We all laugh hard.

Me: Here’s another question that came about after you shared your insight on uncertainty, broadening your focus, etc. If you have to benefit by remaining open, not having expectations, and by being uncomfortable with uncertainty, how does that relate to the whole “manifest what you want”? Don’t you have to focus on a goal to manifest it? Also, if we can focus and manifest what we want, why is it so difficult to do? In other words, if we all focused on manifesting everyone becoming millionaires, why doesn’t it happen? And what about sports teams. Each side wants to win and is focusing on manifesting that, so why does only one team win? Are we supposed to float along like rudderless ships and accept whatever happens? No goals, no expectations? Won’t we starve or freeze to death?

Erik: Focusing on expectations is far different from focusing to manifest, Mom. It’s called balance. Mom, most people are thinking way too much! Tell everyone to stop analyzing things so much and try to just feel your way to the answers. When you approach a problem by feeling it out for a solution, you’re going to come up with completely peaceful answers instead of letting the brain toss it around in some sort of rabbit hole.

Me: Yeah. It seems like you can have a focus while at the same time having a relaxed awareness of other possibilities and opportunities.

Erik: Sure, absolutely. That’s what manifesting is. She’s right. No expectations; you can’t have those. When you have an expectation, you’re shutting off possibilities.

Me: Yeah!

Erik: When you’re manifesting something–Mom, you said it in less words. That was great. You create it. you write down everything you want, then you make a blanket statement: “What highest best for me, come.” That right there lets it all open up.

Me: Yeah, because if you have expectations, you get swept up into that expectation-reality gap. That can be like drowning in an abyss of disappointment. There’s an emotional investment tied up in expectations. You get emotionally married to them. It’s pretty much the source of a lot of our personal problems, I guess.

Erik: Absolutely! You should try to swim around in some of the shit thoughts that people have! It’s horrible! A lot of it is so superficial, too.

Me: Yeah, I can see that. So what about the sports team scenario?

Erik: Well, some people will manifest an outcome better than others. Also, remember that there’s involvement and nudging from spiritual guides and the Higher Selves of each person on each team. It’s also based on human competition and talent. That’s why sports are so much fun. It’s such an Earth-grounded, lower energy type of an experience. Planning, controls, fight, strength. It’s awesome! So, it’s not just a spiritual element. The whole spiritual element of whole teams in sports is actually about creating a community around it.

Me: It’s a lot easier to manifest where you are.

Erik: I know they’ll be some people who are like, “Well, what the fuck? I just wanna be in Heaven forever. To hell with the Earthly plane.” But believe me, when you’re here, and you still have a lot of growth left to do and a lot of issues to deal with,  you really, really want to get it done. You might wanna take a break here, but the urge to go back and finish “remembering” is totally huge.

Enjoy this review for Erik’s book, My Life After Death. Be sure to buy your own copy or see if it’s in your local library to read for free! Same with my book, My Son and the Afterlife!

This book was a wonderful introduction to what it’s like after we die. I love Erik’s humor and down-to-earth descriptions. You can really see his personality and the continuing and deep love he has for his family.

–Bethany Ristoff

By the way, we picked up a lot of EVPs in the last radio show beginning at the timestamp 36:20 and ending around 38:00. Check it out. It’s very, very clear. I posted it at the end of the post, Praise for my Boy.