Excerpt from "You Are A Medium"

Philosopher Thomas Carlyle spoke a truth I have long felt. He said. “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.” I am a psychic and a medium and I love what I do. A psychic is able to tune into and put words and meaning to energy information. While a medium, has the ability to connect to and communicate with beings in the spirit realm. As a medium I have communicated with those on the other side almost daily for the past twenty-five years. Even though I am frequently able to provide peace and closure to people who are grieving the passing over of their loved ones, I often feel as if it is I who benefits. I am constantly amazed, inspired and deeply touched by the poignant coming together of my clients with their loved ones on the other side.

Our Evolving Connection with the Other Side

Years ago when I first started giving readings, people were often surprised that I had enough clients to do this work full time. They felt like brave pioneers coming to my office and initiating contact with their loved ones on the other side. Most of the time they did not want their friends and family to know that they were consulting with me. While their desire to communicate with their loved ones was compelling enough to overcome their apprehension, I was still a hush, hush secret. Over time I have seen my clientele become more open and deepen their respect and knowledge of the spirit world. In some ways, the unseen realm has become almost as common place as primetime television. On a daily basis we can watch ghost hunters, paranormal experts, psychics and mediums, all living as normal people. Thanks to the magic of television and film even vampires, werewolf’s and otherworldly beings endear our hearts.

With global technology the world may be shrinking, but at the same time it is expanding. We are more and more comfortable with what was once thought of as spooky and mysterious. There is an increasing widespread acceptance of life beyond the physical and we desire and seek more knowledge, wisdom and personal experiences with it. This is leading us into new territory as we are more aware than ever that the spirit realm is a part of who we are. The line that seemed to separate the physical from the spiritual, the seen from the unseen is becoming blurred. As our connection with the other side evolves, the veil that separates us in thinning. Those on the other side are drawing closer and our desire to connect with them is stronger than ever. Our ability to influence one another is also growing and expanding.

As you go about your daily concerns and activities your thoughts, emotions and actions are intersecting with those on the other side. You may have noticed this yourself. Have you ever had an instantaneous thought or idea that gave you valuable insight into a problem or concern? Have feelings of love and comfort spontaneously soothed you during a time of crisis? Maybe the lights in your home blink or prematurely burn out. Have you ever felt a warm, but invisible, hand on your shoulder or smelled the scent of your deceased grandmother’s perfume? Has a bird ever seemed to linger on your window sill and you had the odd feeling that it was sent to you as a message of love from someone from the other side? Maybe you have had a dream of a loved one that feels more like a real encounter or seen the fleeting image of a loved one in the corner of your eye? These are common ways that that our loved ones make contact with us. Our worlds are not as separate as they may appear to be and just as you long to communicate with them, they desire to make contact with you.

Why People Visit Mediums

People go to mediums for a variety of reasons. Many clients have come to me by way of their loved ones in spirit who are anxious to communicate with them. With an invisible push and silent prodding from the spirit realm new clients will often tell me that they “just felt like they needed to make an appointment with me and are not sure why”. Sometimes people seek out a medium because they miss their loved ones and need to know that they are alive and well. A family member or friend may have passed unexpectedly and they are in shock and wonder where they are. Sometimes the last contact that we have had with a loved one was difficult. He or she may have been very ill and in pain and we want to know that they are happy and close to other family members in spirit. A loved one’s passing over to the other side can be distressing and life altering. Feelings of loss and grief can be overwhelming. I often get referrals from grief counselors and suicide support groups. People who have lost loved ones in traumatic circumstances often seek closure from the other side in order to move forward in their lives. It is also not unusual for people to tell me that they do not know why they want a session. I am often contacted by an individual who may have hear about a friend‘s experience with me and they are curious.

Your loved Ones are With You

Although I have been giving people messages from their loved ones in spirit for a long time, I am still surprised by what those on the other side have to say. I begin sessions by tuning into the spirits that are present. They will often tell me their names, but if they do not, there are other ways to identify them. Because I am able to visually see those of on the other side, I can tell my clients the color of their loved one’s hair, their height, body type and the expression on their face. If I have a client who is more skeptical, they will sometimes desire more specific information that only their loved ones would know.

I recently had a session with a client who asked me for more “proof”. My description of her father’s body type, hair color and health issues were not enough. Fortunately those in spirit will oblige. In answer to my client’s skepticism her father showed me an image of antique chairs, tables and other home furnishings.

When I shared this with my client, she remarked. “Well, he did love to buy and sell antique furniture.”

I then saw an image of her having dental work done as a young girl. When I asked her if she had struggled with significant dental problems when young, she seemed convinced.

“I had congenital problems with my teeth and had extensive dental work done as a child. This is my father.” She told me.

Sharing personal information with my clients that only someone close would know helps to open their hearts and mind and receive more from the session.

After I identify who is present I simply listen and relate to my client what I have heard, seen, felt and the impressions that I receive. Sometimes those on the other side will talk about their passing, their activities on the other side and what they are learning. They will offer advice and guidance on many of my client’s concerns and express love and gratitude. Loved ones will also often share memories, favorite places they may have visited with my client and special events and anniversaries. Whatever the reasons for coming in for a session, my clients are often surprised at the detail of what their loved ones know about their lives and the amount of information that they are able to share.

Those on the other side likely know much more about you and your daily activities than what you might suspect. They will often comment on my clients redecorated homes or describe the hallway where a picture of them hangs. They give career and health advice and they may know when your car needs repair and where you are going on vacation. I have had those in spirit tell me what my clients had for dinner the night before and offer advice to improve their health. Those on the other side know your worries, stresses and they celebrate in your achievements and victories.

People come in expecting to simply say to their loved ones in spirit. “Hello, are you happy”? Instead they are often startled at how close and connected their loved ones really are. You are seen, known and loved.

How This Book Came About

Several years ago my communication with the other side began to deepen. One morning I had a session with Claudia, a woman who had come to connect with a dear friend of hers that had passed over several months prior. This session began like most others. Her friend quickly came in to let her know that she was with family and in peace and she shared a few happy memories. She thanked Claudia for all of her help during a prolonged illness. Toward the end of our time together, Claudia’s father came forward. He had died several years previous after a brief illness. Claudia was startled by his presence as her parents had divorced when she was young and she rarely saw him after this.

However his message to Claudia was clear and direct. “I want to apologize for not being your life.” Her father said. “Your devotion to your friends and family has taught me so much. I didn’t give your needs much thought. I am sorry. I have a lot to learn from you about how to open my heart and give. Watching you love and care for others inspires me.”

After Claudia left, a little shaken and surprised by both her friend and her father’s presence and messages, I realized how this kind of session was becoming more common. The depth of sharing from those on the other side was expanding in its scope and substance. Although those on the other side share their love and offer support and guidance to those still in the physical realm, more and more they were expressing how their loved ones were helping them. I was beginning to understand that the role that we play in helping our loved ones after their death might be more significant than what I once thought.

Inspired by this session with Claudia, I began to review records of my past session. What I discovered surprised me. In reading after reading, there were accounts of friends and family in spirit who had communicated similar type of experiences. Fathers discussed how their sons and daughters ability to express love, helped them to open their hearts. Side by side with their physical loved ones, those on the other side read self-help and inspirational books. Those in spirit who were dismissive of intuitive and psychic abilities while on earth were developing their intuitive skills along with their physical family and friends who had similar interests. Loved ones in spirit who had passed over due to drugs and alcohol problems went to addiction counseling with loved ones who were experiencing similar challenges. People who worked hard all their lives and then died without ever enjoying leisure time were traveling, climbing mountains and visiting exotic locations along with their adventurous people in the physical realm.

As I reviewed these past sessions I had an experience similar to what happens when we suddenly decipher the words of a song that we have listened to over and over but could never quite make out the words. Or the flash of understanding that sometimes happens when we learn a new language or solve a math problem. All of a sudden the brain connects the dots and confusion lifts. I understood in a new way what I had been hearing for years.

Although I had always been aware of how those in spirit help us in countless ways, I had not fully grasped how much we also help them. Through our personal choices, struggles and actions, those who have passed over are inspired, encouraged helped and healed. In session after session it became clear that we are often serving as living examples of how to succeed at the often difficult life lessons that we are all confronted with in the physical world.

Why the Other Side Needs Us

We come to the earth to learn how to love self and others, activate the power of our spirit and accomplish the lessons and tasks that the soul most needs in order to evolve. Although the realm of spirit is one of love, forgiveness, wisdom and joy, we do not go to heaven as much as we grow into heaven.

After we pass out of the physical body we experience the healing and love of the other side. Family and friends who have passed over welcome us and we are nourished and renewed in the light of the heavens. With angelic support we review our lives here on earth. We become aware of what we have learned, where we have grown, and what still needs our attention, forgiveness and healing. This process of understanding where our soul has made advances and where we have allowed fear, negativity and other human challenges to thwart our progress is done in the spirit of love and compassion. The choices and actions that we made that were motivated by fear, pain and self-centeredness and those that we made through love, become obvious. We forgive and are forgiven and we heal and come into wholeness. But, this is just the beginning. We must now learn how to integrate this new awareness into every aspect of our being.

One of the ways that our loved ones who have passed over continue to heal and evolve is by drawing close to those of us in the physical world that are experiencing similar life lessons. When our loved ones in spirit go through their life review they become aware of the decisions and actions that they took while in the physical world that sabotaged their soul growth and evolution. Inspired by the all-knowing awareness of the heavens, they begin to understand how they have limited their ability to manifest and experience their highest good. This is where we come in. By watching and observing our positive efforts in confronting our day to day challenges and circumstances, healing our emotional wounds, developing our talents and skills, and our service and kindness to others, they have the opportunity to vicariously experience a new way through us.

The Importance of Your Choices, Intent and Actions

Life on earth as most of us know is not always a picnic in the park. While it is beautiful, loving, fulfilling and the bearer of great happiness, it can also be tough and demanding. But, life on earth is a precious opportunity. Our loved ones in spirit are immersed within the soft cushions of divine love. Angels watch over them like doting parents applauding their growth and lighting their path with love. It is we, the physical living who often wander in the dark, making our way through challenges like fear, financial and relationship stress, aging and illness. Often unaware that celestial help is available. We try to do the right thing. We want happiness and all the good that life has to offer. But, we frequently feel lost in the fog. Yet, when we love, forgive and evolve here on earth, the heavens cheer and heave streams of translucent confetti our way.

Transforming anger, eliminating negative thoughts, forgiving those who have hurt us are powerful acts that elevate us to the heavenly realms. Our struggles have meaning. Every decision and action that you take that is derived from love, including the small and seemingly insignificant daily acts that happen in secret, have tremendous power. Not only do you evolve and forever move beyond the clutches of negativity and darkness, your actions reach out beyond time and space and touch the lives of family and friends and past generations. Even those who you barely knew or didn’t know at all in the physical world can richly benefit by what you do and who you are. Our actions are like stones thrown into a still pond. The affect ripples, expands and reaches out far and wide and into the realm of spirit.

How This Book Will Help You

My hope is that as you read through the pages of this book you will more fully recognize and tune into the eternal and vital connection that you share with those in the spirit realm. Not only do your loved ones on the other side, assist, guide and help you to heal, you do the same for them. When a loved one passes over, the grieving process can be arduous and difficult. Knowing that you connect to and affect your loved ones on the other side in positive ways can ease the ache of separation. Those on the other side desire to communicate and share with you. They benefit from this interaction and are closer and more involved in your day to day life than what you may think.

Even though you may not know it, you are already communicating with the other side. It is so common and natural, most people are not aware that they are doing so. Once you become aware of your innate medium ability, further development and expertise comes faster and easier. The last section of the book will empower you to ignite and harness the medium within you. At any time you can skip forward to this section and get started.

In the first section of the book, I discuss how the conditions and circumstances of my early life encouraged me to connect and communicate with those on the other side. My decision to become a professional medium was in part inspired by my interactions with guides, angels and loved ones in spirit. I will explain the differences and similarities between these three spirit allies and help you to understand how they guide and help you.

After pouring over my notes and journals from past sessions I have discovered many tender, funny, surprising and inspiring stories. In the second section, I share these with you in the hope that you will see a bit of yourself within them. We all share common earth school lessons. Whether it is confronting fear, addictions, financial and relationship concerns or our pursuit for joy and fulfillment, we are evolving through our everyday struggles and successes. Your choices and actions create a better life for you here and in the hereafter and influence your friends and family in their celestial home.

In the third section on the book, I help you to become aware of how you unknowingly, interact with your loved ones on the other side. You have within you the qualities of a medium and a particular way of communicating with the other side.

In my book Discover Your Psychic Type, I reveal how we all have a particular way that we absorb and receive intuitive energy information. We do this through our thoughts, emotions, our physical body and our energy field. I have heard from many people who after reading this book are better able to understand the spontaneous and often perplexing thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and inexplicable knowing of information that they sometimes experience.

In this same way, you are often unknowingly connecting and communicating with those on the other side. A flash of light or color or an image that quickly passes in and out of your vision is easy to ignore. Yet, it may be a loved one on the other side trying to let you know that he or she is with you. The waves of emotion that sometime seem to come out of nowhere, the conversations that go on in your head or the spontaneous awareness of ideas and solutions to problems may also be real encounters with those on the other side. That sudden feeling that you are not alone and that there is a guiding presence with you may be someone in the spirit realm offering you a helping hand. Once you become aware of how you interact with those on the other side you can better develop and enhance your natural medium abilities.

This section includes a quiz to help you to become aware of your innate medium tendencies. As well as meditations and step by step development exercises for each medium type. In the last chapter of the book there are exercises to help you to further assist those in the spirit realm. This includes practical ways to help your loved ones who are making their transition into the spirit realm and exercises to assist lost souls and ghosts into the safety and light of the heavens.

****************************************************************************

Whatever your interest may be in connecting and communicating with the other side, it promises to be an exciting and enlightening adventure. As you make your way through this book, you may identify with some of the events and influences that led to my becoming a professional medium. You might also recognize some of your own challenges and experiences in the stories of my client sessions. As you read about how those in spirit have been helped by their loved ones positive efforts here on earth, you may be more motivated to better embrace your life lessons. Yet, this book is not meant to simply be a testament to my abilities or the experiences of others. My hope is that you will more fully understand and embrace your own innate medium ability and further develop it. In the last section I empower you to further dig in and embrace your inner medium.

Psychic since childhood, Sherrie Dillard has been a professional intuitive, medium, medical intuitive and teacher for over thirty years. Among her international clientele are spiritual leaders, celebrities and business executives. Sherrie's love of service combined with her intuitive ability has catapulted her intuitive practice around the globe. She has given over 50,000 readings worldwide. Sherrie has taught intuition and medium development classes at Duke University, Miraval Resort and in Europe, Costa Rica and Mexico. Her passion for the fusion of intuition, spirituality and conscious self-growth has made her a popular speaker and teacher at retreats and conferences. She has been featured on radio and television for her innovative books and her work as a psychic detective, medical intuitive and medium. Sherrie is the award winning host of the weekly radio program Intuit YOUniversity on transformationtalkradio.com. With a lifelong devotion and dedication to be of service, Sherrie has worked with diverse populations in unique settings. Along with her work as a professional intuitive she has helped to house and feed the poor and homeless in New York City, and in San Jose and San Francisco, CA. She has built simple water systems in Indian villages in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala and created art therapy programs in treatment centers for troubled youth in North Carolina and Georgia. Sherrie holds a B.S. in Psychology and an M.Div. in New Thought pastoral counseling. Originally from Massachusetts, Sherrie has made Durham, North Carolina her home for the past eighteen years and can often be found walking along the river with her dogs. Sherrie is the author of the best-selling Discover Your Psychic Type, Love and Intuition, The Miracle Workers Handbook: Seven Levels of Power and Manifestation of the Virgin Mary and You are a Medium. She is the host of the weekly radio show, Intuit YOUniversity on Transformation talk radio. www.sherriedillard.com

Buy Book: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Medium-Abilities-Communicate/dp/0738737925