The second kind of soul retrieval involves ghosts. Yes. Ghosts. They do exist, and I interact with them periodically.

Don’t worry. They’re nothing like the horror movie or bed sheet on Halloween varieties. Rather, they’re a lot like the people you know and love, because sometimes they are. The point is, when we die our spirits separate from our bodies and continue on as the distinct personalities we consider to be ourselves.

Sometimes this process goes very smoothly, and people who die transition right on to a state of consciousness where they find previously departed loved ones, healing from the psychological wounds of the last lifetime, opportunity for reviewing that lifetime to learn from it, and guidance about what choices to make for future learning opportunities.

Other times things don’t go so smoothly and they get stuck. If that happens I find it is generally caused by one of five factors.

1)      Sometimes when people die their thinking can be clouded from pain medication or from pain itself if it is too great. This leaves them confused when they cross over to nonphysical reality. They simply can’t distinguish physical reality from nonphysical reality.

2)      This confusion can also be caused by a sudden death such as a car accident or a violent crime. People simply transition so quickly that they don’t even notice it happening.

3)      Occasionally people realize they’re dead, but they simply don’t know what to do next. This can be caused by a variety of things, but one I seem to encounter more often than others is that the person who died did not believe in life after death. Consequently he or she feels at a complete loss for what to do next.

4)      Sometimes when people die they remain bound by emotional ties to people or experiences from their earthly existence. Frequently this can be temporary such as a dead husband hanging around to send messages of love to his surviving wife and children. When those messages are conveyed the person moves on.

5)      Other times the ties are stronger. In these cases, personal belief systems or emotional ties are simply too strong to allow the person to recognize that she has a choice of moving on. I’ve worked with a deceased alcoholic, a father who murdered his children, and a four hundred year old ghost, all of whom fit in this category.

Fortunately the vast majority of people make the transition smoothly, either on their own or with the assistance of loved ones and other spiritual beings some might call angels. I simply call them nonphysical helpers.

For those who don’t make a smooth transition, time doesn’t seem to pass like it does in physical reality. In fact, in numerous instances they appear to be “stuck” in a perennial now rather than perceiving any passage of time at all. Sometimes when I observe this phenomenon they appear frozen in time like a movie paused on a single frame of the film. Other times they appear to be caught in a loop, living and reliving a single scene from their lives over and over again, always thinking that each time through the experience is their first time.

The first challenge when work with those stuck in a loop is to break their trance. Interestingly this is often easier for a living person (like myself) doing the soul retrieval than it is for an angelic helper because my personal energy vibrates at a “human” level which makes it more familiar and thus more noticeable to the ghost who is stuck.

Usually just showing up next to the person and talking to them is enough to get their attention. Sometimes I need to resort to techniques such as shining a bright light or play acting in a role that they’re willing to accept. Once I’ve got their attention the trance or feedback loop snaps and they begin interacting on a real time basis again.

Those who don’t get stuck in trance frequently wander about because they don’t know how to move on. So the procedure for retrievals is essentially the same from this point on. I speak with the person about the circumstances they find themselves in and strive to establish a sense of rapport.

If I’ve been sent in at the request of a living family member I may ask specific questions such as those regarding a will or safety deposit box, or I may simply relay personal messages back and forth. If I’m doing lots of retrievals during a catastrophic event such as Hurricane Katrina I may skip that phase and simply try to help as many people as I can as quickly as possible.

Having won their trust I offer to help them transition from their current surroundings to something more suitable to their desires. With their permission I then take them by the hand, look them in the eye, or otherwise establish a link between us. Then I begin to raise my energy frequency like you would adjust a radio dial, and we move together to a higher frequency where more options for healing and personal choice await the soul I’m working with.

You can read more details about specific individual and group retrievals I’ve done in Soul Retrieval – Individual Rescue and Soul Retrieval – Group Rescue.