Enjoy this Best of Erik! I’d add more, but I’m about to put Christmas lights up on our trees. It’s so cold and rainy out so it should be fun. We have a 30% chance of snow tonight and tomorrow! So Christmassy!

Me: Who was the first one to meet you?

Erik: Well, hell, I can’t even remember.
Me: Was Denise (my sister) there? Aunt Denise. I think she was also there to greet you, right?

Erik: Yes. I remember seeing a whole bunch of faces. It’s different now. Looking back, I can get the feeling much more clear rather than relying on what I was seeing or saying.

Me: Yeah, because in spirit, it’s more about feelings than about mental, uh brain based remembering of details. I think why people get disappointed when they go to a medium and ask validation questions like, “What did we put in your pocket when we buried you?” You don’t remember things like that anymore. It’s not important after you cross over. It’s all about feelings.

Erik: You’re right, and, trust me; we’re not checking our fucking pockets, either.

Me: Exactly. All right. Let’s go on to the life review. What’s the life review like? I mean maybe they’re all different, but give me a general idea about what the life review entails.

Erik: Yeah, sometimes you feel like you’re going into this room, like an Imax theater and it’s almost a 360, but you get to feel what emotions or impressions that other people perceived of you. So, it’s like you’re going through this life review and you get to feel like you’re done for yourself. You see YOU through other people.

Jamie (laughing): I can’t imitate that. Basically, he said, “That’s totally wrong. That’s fucked up. It’s the worst joke you could play on anyone.

Me: So, you’re like that person. You’re seeing through their eyes and feeling what they felt?

Erik: Yes.

Me: Oof. Boy, that’s not fun. If on Earth, you’ve resolved those issues, if you’ve made amends with that person, do you still have to go through that with that person?

Erik: No! No.

Me: Okay, good.

Erik: If it’s truly resolved, it’s not on your plate.

Me (chuckling): Oo, I’m going to go around apologizing to a lot of people!

Jamie and Erik laugh.

Erik: And the life review is not like somebody comes in and says, “Excuse me. It’s time for your life review. It’s at 2:30. Please walk into this room and have a seat.”

I chuckle.

Erik: It just kind of overtakes you, and it’s weird. It happens really fast, but you’ll feel like you’ve been in it forever.

Me: Well, what causes the life review? I don’t understand. What are its origins? Who decides this; who creates this?

Erik: Most of the time, it’s actually the consciousness, the human experience, the need for the human to do a checklist. Energetically and spiritually, it’s not really needed. You don’t need to go through those checkpoints, because if you came in spiritually, energetically connected, you already know what those checkpoints are. So, you know, this is pretty much for every living person where we’re functioning more from our brain than any other part.

Me: Uh huh.

Erik: So, it’s almost like the brain decompressing, running through everything, but it’s in the reverse. You get to understand how other people perceived you for you. And your answers are given to you. “Oh! That’s why this happened this way!” You put things to rest in a very quick way.

Me: So, is it painful, emotionally?

Erik: Nah. It’s definitely fucked up, but it’s not painful. You don’t’ leave wrecks like the Titanic, right, Mom?

Jamie and I laugh.

Me: So, was yours long? Did you have to go through a whole lot?

Erik: No, it wasn’t a whole lot. Mine was mostly the voices in my head. You know, my fucked up shit.

Me: What do you mean?

Erik: I had to deal and have conversations with myself quite a bit, you know, talk myself down from shit and try to understand myself. That’s mostly what I came across.

Me: Oh. Who did you have to deal with the most as far as your life review is concerned?

Erik: Mostly my family.

Me: Yes, of course. Okay. Anything else on the life review.

Erik: Nah. That’s probably it.

Me: Do you ever have to go through life reviews for past lives at the same time, or is it only for this current life?

Erik: It’s pretty much decompressing the life you were just exiting.

Me: Okay. Now, this white tunnel. This white light you hear about. Of course, some people experience it; some people don’t. Why do some experience and others don’t, and what the hell is it?

Erik (teasing): Only the good get to go down the tunnel. No, really. That’s bullshit.

Me: It reminds me of that show, “Outer Limits” where the guys jump into this big swirly circle.

Jamie laughs.

Erik: No, really it’s based on a belief system.

Me: What is it? Does it exist?

Erik: The tunnel of white light?

Me: Yeah.

Erik: Here’s my two cents about it. When you die, if that’s what you believed in, that when you die you’re gonna see this bright white light and all that crap, then I think that’s what you’re going to get.

Me: Okay.

Erik: But also, the actually death of the brain, the lack of oxygen and everything, creates this tunnel vision. Is that the light you go into and cross into death? No. That’s your brain dying.

Me: Well, the belief system had to start from some place.

Erik: It started form those people had those near death experiences or whatever and their brains were dying, and they got up and talked about it—that they saw God and angels and all this. Consciously—

Jamie (to Erik): Thank you for saying that. This makes sense.

Erik: Consciously, you’re trying to look through the eyes that are set in your head, so when the brain is dying, that’s what you’re seeing. Intuitively, if you’re looking with the third eye, you don’t have to see a tunnel of white light to cross over into the Beyond.

Me: Okay.

Erik: So, if you’re looking with your third eye—the intuitive eye—most likely it’ll be like going into another room.

Me: Yeah, a lot of people describe it that way—It’s like going into another room. When you got pulled back by your shoulders, where’d you end up?

Erik (chuckling): In another room!

Me: Okay, and—

Erik: It’s wild. The room around me just kind of disappeared. Where I was just dissolved. I think that’s the only way I know how to say it. Got dark. Dim the lights. Turn the lights on. You’re in a different space. There’s nothing fast about it. It wasn’t like a quick jerk or anything. It was more of how you feel your body going to sleep. It’s more like that.

Me: I remember when you were doing your life review, you talked about how you sat at a long table and you had your head in your hands.

Erik: Mm hm.

Me: All right. We went backwards there. What were some of the adjustments you had to make when crossed over? What were some of the most, uh, I won’t say difficult. The most interesting. The most intense.

Erik: How to move.

Me: How to move! Yeah. “I cain’t feel my laigs!’

Jamie: He’s laughing.

Me: That’s from the movie, “Major Payne.” “That’s cuz they ain’t there!”

Jamie (laughing): I have no idea what you’re talking about, but he’s almost on the floor!

Me: Cuz we watched it all the time. It was with one of the Waylon brothers. It’s so funny. Erik loved it.

Jamie is still laughing.

Erik: Similar to that, but it’s just interesting. I’d say that’s the most urgent one that you come across.

Me: Mm hm.

Erik: You know, how to get from here to there. And it’s weird, because you keep moving and traveling, yet you can’t explain to yourself how you’re doing it. It’s like, “What’s happening. Oh shit, it’s happening!” You don’t know how.

Me: Was it scary?

Erik (chuckling): No. No, I wasn’t afraid, but I definitely wasn’t getting all the answers I needed ASAP, so that was weird.

Me: Was there some sort of guide who was there for you during your death, your life review or afterwards? Wasn’t there anybody to help you?

Erik (laughing): If there was, that dick must have been hiding behind the curtain, because I didn’t see anyone!

Me: Oh my god! That’s awful. How come? Was it because you didn’t ask for help?

Erik: Oh, I didn’t ask for help.

Typical guy. They won’t ask for directions.

Erik: And I think I just wanted to be alone.

Me: Do you think if you asked for help somebody would come?

Erik: Oh, yeah, with bells a‘ringing.

Me: Why did you want to be alone?

Erik: Cuz I wanted rest.

Me: Was part of it shame? Did you think you’d get in trouble for doing what you did?

Erik: Wow. That’s interesting.

(Pause)

Me: Like, “Uh oh. I’m busted. Don’t take me to Hell!”

Erik: No.

Me: Okay. That’s good.

Erik (amazed): Nah, I never felt like that! How cool is that?

Me: That’s awesome. So, you couldn’t move. Tell me about the whole learning experience of learning how to move.

Erik: Well, it’s like I consciously couldn’t make myself go, but if I thought about being somewhere, I’d end up there. It kept happening, but I couldn’t figure out how exactly it was happening.

Me: Could you see your arms and legs?

(Pause)

Me: Or were you just consciousness? Could you see your spirit body?

Erik: Yeah. That’s mostly what you see. You don’t see yourself like you were as a human.

Me: So, it wasn’t like you were seeing only your environment like you were just an awareness of self without a body?

Erik: Yeah, without a human body. I had an energetic shape, you know, as light, and I felt like myself. I knew my whereabouts. I know what happened. It’s not like I was thrown into some strange world without a map. I felt like I belonged and I was safe. I was never afraid, but it was just the smallest things like that that would fuck you in the head a little bit.

Me: But when you looked down, you could see your legs and your feet and all that? It wasn’t a human body, but you weren’t just like a ball of light?

Erik: Correct. Yeah, right. I had an energetic shape like my human body.

Me: And you could move? You could look at your hand and make a fist, move your legs and things like that?

Erik: Oh, yeah!

Me: So, it was more about moving from one place to another.

Erik: Yeah.

Me: So, you learned how to think of a place and be there?

Erik: Yeah.

Me: What were some other adjustments that you had to make when you crossed over?

Erik: Well, I was used to kind of arguing to myself in my head or having contradicting thoughts and emotions, but that shit just doesn’t happen. That was weird.

Me: Hm. What happens instead?

Erik (slightly frustrated): I don’t really know how to explain it. You just don’t have them. You couldn’t be angry and happy.

Me: So, more peace? No more conflict in your head?

Erik: Yes.

Me: How old were you when you had no conflict in your head?

Erik: I had moments of it, but never consistently.

Me: Well, I don’t think anybody has it consistently.

Erik: Really?

Me: Where they’re always, always, always at peace with no conflict in their head? Of course not.

Erik: C’mon. There’s gotta be people. Isn’t that what being happy is?

Me: One hundred percent of the time?

Jamie (to Erik): Yeah, Erik. There’s—

Me: C’mon! What if someone is super constipated, and they’re sitting there on the toilet, and they can’t pinch one off? That is NOT a happy situation!

Erik (chuckling): Yeah, but that’s a physical conflict.

Me: It doesn’t make any difference. It’s going to create some emotional conflict. Nobody is totally at peace all the time unless they’re the Dalai Lama.

Erik: You must have an issue with shit, Mom.

Me: Look at you and your scatological humor! I wouldn’t talk! Okay. Let’s move on. What are some other adjustments you had to make? Any others?

Erik: Those two are the main ones.

Me: At what point did you ask for help? When did you finally say, “I need help”?

Erik: When I wanted to get back to my family and I didn’t know how.

Me: Aw. Did you miss us?

Erik: Yeah!

Me: So, who appeared.

Jamie: This was a female guide. Not his aunt. This was someone who was telling him how to cross dimensions and how to communicate.

Erik: About this time, it was when you were doing all the research and trying to find mediums, you know. So, I was trying to learn how to talk through them and get into it. By then, I didn’t have any conflict with my emotions. I was perfectly A-OK.I knew how to travel, and ten I immediately started learning how to communicate to humans. Cross-dimensional communication.

Me: How did you ask? Did you just think, “I need help!”?

Erik: Yeah. Yeah.

Me: Or did you get on the loudspeaker and yell, “A little help here!”

Erik: No, I thought about it. I would need someone to come to teach me, and that’s all you do. You just think that.

Me: Did you have to go through some sort of therapy? They say some people have to go through therapy to mend energetically, etc. Did you go through that process, too?

Erik: I did some, yeah.

Me: One medium told me that you had to go through a lot less therapy than most suicides.

Erik: Yeah.

Me: Why is that?

Erik: Because it was a contract written that it was the end of my line whereas with most people who take their lives it’s not the end of their line. They’re just doing it out of revenge or because they want an out or avoidance.

Me: Okay. It’s not their destiny. It’s not an exit point for them.

Erik: Yes.

Me: All right. Now, what do most spirits miss about the earthly plane. I know you have all of your buddies over there and they’re like, “Oh my god, I really miss pizza” or whatever, but what do most, if you were to do a survey, miss about the earthly plane.

Erik: Food, number one. Sex, number two.

Jamie giggles.

Me: But I thought the sex was better over there.

Erik: It is, but it’s not physical like that. It’s different. So different.

Me: And why do you miss food? Can’t you conjure up the taste and texture thing or is it different?

Erik: It’s totally different.

Me: But can’t you create that taste, the texture and the fullness in the belly?

Erik: It’s the whole chewing it, smelling it, waiting for it to be done. I mean, we don’t really have that kind of process. We don’t need it.

Me: Yeah, but can’t you create every aspect of it like you’ve described?

Erik: It’s not the same, Mom.

Me: It’s not the same.

Erik: It’s like artificial flavor is not the same as the real thing.

Me: I see. And sex is not quite, uh; you don’t have that physical, the physical body.

Jamie bursts out in laughter.

Jamie: Uh huh. He’s talking about the “bang banging”.

Me: Oh god, Erik. Well, you didn’t have much of it when you were her, poor guy. I guess you’ll have to come back as a prostitute.

Jamie laughs hard.

Me: Or, what do you call it? A gigolo. Come back as a gigolo.

Erik: If I come back, I’m definitely coming back with a dick.

Me: So, come back as a gigolo and then you can really get some—on a regular basis.

Jamie still hasn’t stopped laughing.

Erik: Jamie has just checked out!

We all can’t help but laugh at that one.

Me: Okay. Let’s talk about this. When spirits cross back over what do they miss about Heaven?

Erik: Huh?

Me: When they come back to Heaven, and say, “I’m so glad to be back because I missed…” What do they miss about Heaven?

Erik: The bullshit.

Me: You miss getting away from the bullshit.

Erik: Yeah. The emotional conflict. That’s why a lot of spirits like to come to Earth—to feel the lower vibrational emotions. Hardship. Struggle.

Me: But when they come back to Heaven, they go, “Ugh, I miss being away from those emotional conflicts.”

Jamie: Does that make sense? Cuz the way he’s explaining it is that they’re attracted to it, so that’s why they reincarnate. That’s where some of the deeper lessons are learned.

Me: Mm hm.

Erik: Through the conflict. There’s no conflict in Heaven or Home. So, when the human dies and becomes a spirit again, the ease of life is sometimes shocking and hard to adjust to.

Me: Yeah.

Erik: Cuz they just spent all that time adjusting to conflict.

Jamie: Oh. So he’s saying not that they miss that the most. It’s just that it’s the hardest to adapt to.

Me: To not have the conflict anymore? You like the conflict-free dimension, but it’s hard to adapt to. But I want to know what they miss about Heaven when they come back. “Oh my god, I’m so glad to be back, because I miss…”

Jamie: Glad to be back on Earth or glad to be back in Heaven?

Me: No, in Heaven?

Why is this so damn hard?

Erik: Oh, the ease of life. Peace. Love. Unconditional love.

Me: All right. (finally!) What are the coolest new abilities you gained that you didn’t’ have on Earth?

Jamie: Coolest new abilities.

Me: Yeah.

Jamie (to Erik): That aren’t raunchy!

Me: Really!

Jamie giggles.

Me: I didn’t expect we could go there on THIS question, but leave it to Erik.

Erik: Telepathy. Love it. It’s accurate. It’s better than instant messages. It’s better than text. It’s better than email.

No fax?

Me: Okay. What else?

Erik: Not being stuck on planet Earth. You can just go wherever the F you wanna go.

Me: Why are you saying, “F”? Seriously, Jamie!

Jamie: I know! He said, “You can just go wherever the fuck you wanna go.”

Me: There we go!

Jamie laughs.

Me: He’s got you all messed up today.

Jamie: Oh, the highs and lows we’ve gone through already!

Me: I swear to god! This is Emotional Roller-coaster Day. Okay, what else? I can imagine the frequent flyer miles you can rack up there!

Jamie: Now that! He loves that!

Me: What else. Name a couple more.

Erik: A couple more. Transcending space and time. Time travel. Going back into your past lives. Oh, what about going to the fucking library?

Me: The Akashic Records?

Erik: Yeah. That shit fucking blows your mind.

Me: Tell me about it.

Erik: I can’t even plan how to get to the grocery store and buy everything that I need, and I go into here and all my past lives, my future lives, my now lives, my afterlife lives are all finely tuned. How the fuck does that happen?

Me: What? Do you go into a library and open up a book? I mean, what’s it like?

Erik: No, it’s not really like a book. It’s more like a never-ending page. Like it’s not like a “lick, flip” book.

I chuckle.

Erik: It’s kind of like a scroll, in a way, like one constant page, but you don’t have to manually unroll it. The information just comes to you.

Me: Is it like a holographic display?

Erik: Sort of like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s technologically advanced.

Me: Do you just take your thumb and scroll through it like an iPhone or do you think about going to the next life or whatever?

Erik: Yep. It shows you what you want it to show you.

Me: Interesting. Does it have cool colors? Glowing? Sparkly?

Erik: Yeah. To me I see it in a kind of glowing blue color.

Me: Hmm. I can almost see it. Probably have.