The NYC event is all set up, and we’re really excited to hear what our sweetie, Erik has to say. We also have the very well-known medium, Joseph Dumas, on the agenda. I can’t wait to see what he has to say. We plan to take a lot of video and hope to create a great montage so that those of you who couldn’t join us will get a taste of the event!

Me: Hi, Erik.

Erik: Hi, Mom.

Me: We’re going to try the trance channeling again. Do you think you can shove Kim out of the way and control her like a puppet? I love it. I get to see your old familiar body movements and facial expressions. It’s so cool.

Erik: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

My Little Engine Who Could.

Kim laughs.

Kim: He’s being goofy.

Kim explains a little about how trance channeling works and exits her body, letting Erik in.

Erik: Okie dokie. All righty. What’s up, Mama?

Me: Hi, sweetie. I miss you. So much.

Erik blows into his hands, then rubs them together.

Erik: You know I love you.

Me: I know. I love you more. I wish I could come and hug you, just get into the screen and hug that little body of yours.

Erik: You will. You will soon, Mom. I’ll hug you soon.

Me: Oh good. Well, first of all I want to ask: Kim is kind of new at trance channeling. Does she sometimes try to sneak in and take back over every once in a while?

Erik: Well, you know, sometimes she can have a hard time maintaining. Basically, the way I can explain it to you guys to understand it the best is it’s maintaining a constant state of surrender, so to speak. Maintaining that constant state of surrender can be really fucking hard. So many people try it and try it, jump in and out, back and forth, but when people trance channel me, I can at least help them maintain that constant state of surrender. But it can be hard, especially when you’re new at it. A lot of people have fear about it. Kim’s biggest fear is peeing her pants!

Erik and I laugh.

Erik: Don’t tell her I told you that. Her biggest fear is that she’ll pee her pants. There you have it.

Only tens of thousands of people will know. No worries.

Me: Just don’t let that happen.

Erik: Nah, I won’t let that happen. I’ll take care of her.

Me: Sneak over to her grocery list and write down, Depends.

Erik laughs.

Me: Aw, you laugh just the same way you used to. Well, I’ll give you a couple of choices to talk about. One is how to be self-directed and not put your self-esteem in the hands of others and the other is how to be self-empowered.

Erik: Those are both pretty similar. Self-power vs. putting your power in other people’s hands is a huge struggle that so many go through and can relate to. Harnessing your own power is tricky, and a lot of people struggle with that because they depend on people or situations or even outcomes and expectations to bring them to that sense of power. So when shit doesn’t work out like they expected, they feel powerless. Harnessing your own power is all about relying on yourself because when you rely on situations or people to find your power, that’s when it gets all fucked up and people get all depressed and down on themselves and think they have no power and control over anything. That’s another thing, the whole control factor, but you know, Mom, it’s all about relying on yourself.

Me: And how do you do that?

Erik: It’s tricky. It’s hard because people nowadays place not just their power but their value in other people and situations so going back to the core of who you are, finding out who you are and what feels right to you no matter what situation it is and honoring your natural instincts will help you rely on yourself. Part of that requires letting go of expectations because people might say, “Well, I followed my intuition, but it ended up being shitty.”

Me: Yeah!

Erik: Well, guess what? Sometimes you’re supposed to learn from that shit. Sometimes you’re supposed to take that as a lesson and move on.

Me: Damn those lessons! Can’t we just get the Cliff Notes? Seriously. Cliff Notes.

Erik: People think that if they follow their intuition, it’s always going to be glorious and it’s going to be easy, but that’s not the case. Your intuition is going to lead you to learning about yourself so you can evolve to a higher sense of who you are. I guess the most important thing goes back to following your natural instincts. If you do that and rely on yourself, then you’ll have your power.

Me: Okay.

Erik: Make sense?

Me: Yeah. So I guess to be completely self-empowered, you probably have to know who you are, authentically. You need to know your authentic self.

Erik: That’s true, and a lot of people in today’s society base that on, “What kind of car do you have? What kind of job do you have? What kind of relationship are you in? How many kids do you have?” But being able to know who you are, finding yourself outside of all of that and knowing where you come from—knowing your connection to your Higher Self is important, Mom, because sometimes people lose their footing in life. They’re not grounded to who they are. They’re not grounded in themselves. So whatever life brings them through, they’re kind of wishy-washy and float through life. They’re not grounded in their sense of self. So it’s important to know who you are and not let anything else define you. Certain situations can build characteristics within you but don’t define the source of who you are.

Me: Yeah. I guess you have to be emotionally honest with yourself and about yourself.

Erik: Yeah, that can be pretty raw. There are people who can be completely emotionally honest with themselves, but a lot of people shut that out. They deny themselves that because sometimes it fucking hurts! People don’t like to hurt, so they’re not so honest with themselves. But when you’re truly honest with yourself, you can really learn and come out on top, really come out shining.

Me: Yeah, like I wouldn’t want to be honest with myself—well I’m not a jealous person, but that’s the only thing I can think of now—but to say, “You know, sometimes I can be really petty,” or “Sometimes I get insanely jealous.” That’s kind of hard to deal with. You just want to blame everyone else or make excuses for your petty actions or your jealousy.

Erik: It is, and that’s where you get caught up, and they don’t want to be honest with themselves with, “Am I really petty? Is it worth the energy that I’m putting into it?” If you can stop in those situations and acknowledge that you’re acting petty or acknowledge, “Okay, I’m being a complete shitbag. I’m a little bit jealous. I need to knock it off”—when you can actually truthfully identify yourself in that situation, that’s the first step to stopping it. A lot of people don’t even give it a second look. More and more people are trying to, though. More and more people are trying to get to the core or cause of the thing, why things are happening in certain ways. That emotional honesty, being truthful with yourself, is important. A lot of people are working on it, but it’s hard. It hurts because people want to think good of themselves. If they look back and see, “Man, that was all my fault. That was me acting like this or that,” they have a hard time stepping out of their ego to be able to see and admit that.

Me: Yeah. Let’s make an example. Say there’s a couple, and let’s say the man is the one who has lost his power, and the woman is the one with all the power because she’s the breadwinner, and he feels like he really doesn’t have a say in anything in the family because she’s the one bringing home the bacon. How does he get his power back?

Erik: Hmm. That’s kind of a tricky situation because really, in a relationship, one shouldn’t have more power than the other. If one is the breadwinner and one is not, you should still try to maintain equality, but if one is feeling powerless in a relationship and they don’t have a voice or the space to be themselves—

Me: Yeah, and it doesn’t mean that the other forces them out of power. They could have made that decision on their own.

Erik: –that’s where it’s all about communication. This is not a hidden message. If all of a sudden she takes over and is the breadwinner, part of that is people (laughing)—there’s a lot of people out there who don’t like change. When things change, we, as humans, tend to resist. So being able to adapt to change is important. Be more accepting of it. That goes back to ego, Mom, because sometimes people have that need for things to stay the same. They need to control the routine in things even in relationships. So, being able to step outside that ego and accept change, being more adaptable and communicating is important.

Me: Yeah, because it might be that the woman doesn’t want all the power, but the man just assumes and has lost his voice, but yeah, I guess communication is key. So just really quickly. Your final tips. Basically, get in touch with your authentic self, and that takes, in part, being emotionally honest with yourself, but what are the other tips for getting your power back? I was so fascinated with watching your facial expressions and all the familiar Erikness that I wasn’t paying attention to the first part.

Erik: Well, you know, part of it is also—and this is going to sound funny—to get your power back takes vulnerability. People think it’s one or the other, but you have to be vulnerable with yourself, with your relationship, with your partner to actually have that sense of equality and get your power back. The best thing to do is communicate not just with your partner but with yourself. How are you feeling? Be honest about it because that shit’s going to resurface and resurface until you acknowledge and identify it, and work through it, process through it. Otherwise it eats away at you. If something bothers you and you have the sense of being powerless in a relationship, you’ve got to talk about it. You’ve got to communicate with yourself and with your partner.

Me: Yeah, and that takes an open heart and a vulnerable position. All right, well, thank you!

Erik: I love you.

I love him so much. I sure have been missing his hugs.