The Other Side and Back: A Psychic's Guide to Our World and Beyond - Softcover

Browne, Sylvia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451198638 ISBN 13: 9780451198631

Publisher: Berkley Pub Group, 2000

Synopsis

"Psychic, medium, clairvoyant, channel--these are all words to describe Sylvia Browne's unique powers. I've personally witnessed her bring closure to distraught families, help the police close cases, and open people's hearts to help them see the good within themselves."—Montel Williams

"The Other Side and Back is the most grounded and authentic 'entry to the other side' that I have ever read. You know immediately upon reading the first few pages that Sylvia Browne is more than a psychic—she is a master at conveying the truth that exists in the fourth dimension." —Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Anatomy of the Spirit

World-famous psychic and New York Times bestselling author Sylvia Browne takes readers on an unprecedented and comprehensive "tour" of the afterlife—a world-changing revelation that has helped millions live for today, tomorrow, and forever...

Includes

* how spirit guides and angels "talk" to us daily
* the truth about ghosts and hauntings
* solving "unsolvable" missing persons cases
* how psychic energy can keep people healthy and improve relationships
* why we shouldn't fear aging and death
* must-read predictions for the new millennium
* and more

About this title

About the Author

Sylvia Browne was a psychic and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of End of Days, Blessings from the Other Side, Adventures of a Psychic, The Other Side and Back, and Life on the Other Side. 

Lindsay Harrison is a writer and teacher living in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Other Side and Back

A Psychic's Guide to Our World and BeyondBy Sylvia Browne

Signet Book

Copyright © 2000 Sylvia Browne
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0451198638

Chapter One

Help from The Other
Side: Our Angels and
Spirit Guides

Almost every religion on earth accepts the fact that our spiritssurvive death. But tell people you can communicatewith those spirits and they will think you are nuts. So spirits exist,but we can't communicate with them? I think that's nuts. Ofcourse we can! And we do, all the time, whether we are aware ofit or not.

    The truth is, we are never alone. Every moment of our lives weare surrounded by a support group from The Other Side whoknows, loves, and understands us better than we know, love, andunderstand ourselves.

    I'm sure you'd find that easier to believe if you could actually seeand hear your spirit support group as clearly as you do the peoplearound you. But look at it this way: When you leave your homeand family every day and head off to work, do you immediatelystop believing your home and family exist until they are right therein front of you again? Of course not. No matter how difficult, orstimulating, or consuming your day becomes, there is never adoubt in your mind that your home and family will be right whereyou left them when your day is over.

    Since what happens in your daily life is exactly what happens inthe life of your soul, your mind and heart can be just as sure thatyour eternal Home and family are real. You left your Home?TheOther Side?and your spirit family to come to this job, this badcamping trip, this hard work called life. Frankly, I'm surprisedwe're not all born carrying little lunch pails. And when your work/life is over, you'll find that same Home and family waiting rightwhere you left them, so safe and familiar and happy to see youthat you'll wonder what gave you the bright idea to leave themin the first place. If, like me, you've gone through life feeling abit homesick no matter where you were, it is because our soulsare remembering and yearning for a place where we have all beenbefore.

    Throughout this book, including now, you may find yourselfreading along thinking, "How does she know this?" Rather thanrepeating the answer over and over again, let me pause to offer ithere, if only to assure you that I would not waste your time withguesswork: I have spent every day of the past forty-seven years indirect contact with The Other Side, not only through my SpiritGuide Francine but also through the spirits who join my clientsduring readings. Francine in particular has given me volumes ofinformation, none of which I ever accept at face value. Instead, Ihave used it to enhance those same forty-seven years of exhaustiveresearch and experience, all of it documented and on file in myoffice. Not only am I a skeptic, but I am also from Missouri, the"Show Me" state. So nothing appears in this book that I havenot questioned, explored, tested, retested, studied and personallyvalidated.

THE OTHER SIDE

    The Other Side is where our spirits come from when we enterthe womb waiting to be born and where our spirits go when wedie. It is heaven, paradise, more stunningly beautiful than ourearthly minds can imagine. We usually picture it as being "outthere somewhere," above the clouds, past the moon and stars, beyondOz and Never-Never Land. And that's understandable, since"out there somewhere" is as infinite and mysterious as we imagineThe Other Side to be.

    But the truth is much more fascinating and comforting thanthat: The Other Side is right here among us, another dimensionsuperimposed on our own world, some three feet above our versionof "ground level." Its vibrational frequency is much higherthan ours, which is why we don't perceive it. For an easy analogy,think of a dog whistle?its frequency is so high that it seems silentto the normal human ear, but animals can hear it clearly. (Part ofthe psychic gift, in fact, is the God-given ability to perceive a widerrange of vibrational frequencies, which is why we're able to communicatewith the spirit world more easily than "normal.")

    People who have seen spirits invariably describe them as "floatingabove the ground." There is good reason for that?they arefloating, above our ground. On the ground level of The OtherSide. We're actually ghosts in their world, sharing the same spacebut unreal by comparison, since it is in the spirit world that all beingsare completely and fully "alive."

    Typically, Francine gives me information about The Other Side,and I then validate it through meticulous research, including regressivehypnosis, which we will discuss in greater detail in laterchapters. On the location of The Other Side, though, that processworked in reverse. Decades ago I was taking a client named Annethrough her death in a past life. She described her family, gatheredaround her bed to say good-bye, and the small, simple, gaslit roomin which she was dying. To her amazement, and mine, when thelegendary tunnel appeared to take her spirit to The Other Side, itdid not lead up from her body to the ceiling or the sky, but acrossthe room and the southern fields beyond instead, only slightlyabove the earthly plane she was leaving.

    When client after client after client, without my leading themin any way, described on tape exactly the same experience, of atunnel, or sometimes a bridge, that led not up to another dimensionbut across to it, I finally remarked to Francine one night as if itwould be news to her, "The Other Side is right here!"

    She replied, "Of course it's right here."

    With some impatience I demanded to know why she had neverbothered to mention that. With her typical and occasionally frustratinglogic she calmly responded, "You never asked."

    You will also read in a later chapter about my own near-deathexperience. Not that I needed more validation about the locationof The Other Side by then, but I am able to confirm that, just likeAnne and these countless other clients, I personally saw the tunnellift up from my body to take me across, not up, to the White Lightof Home.

    We on earth are stuck with our dimension's annoying laws oftime and space, laws that contribute concepts like "late" and"crowded" and "traffic jam" and "stressed out" to our vocabulary.The residents of The Other Side joyfully function without thoserestrictions and instead enjoy the freedom of such universal laws asinfinity and eternity. Our lifetimes here last about as long as theblink of an eye on The Other Side, and the entities who residethere have no concept of the word "crowded," since hundreds ofthem could easily fit into an elevator without even having toinhale.

    And how is this for something to look forward to: All spirits onThe Other Side are thirty years old. (Yes, that includes us, whetherwe're age two or ninety-two when we get there.) When my SpiritGuide, Francine, my "resident expert" on the subject of The OtherSide, first told me that, I asked, "Why thirty?" She replied, "whynot?" That ended that conversation. But I guess thirty is a goodphysical age to choose for a general population?we're about ascomfortable with our bodies as we're going to get by then. Spiritscan assume their earthly appearance when they come to visit us, tohelp us recognize them, but in their day-to-day lives on The OtherSide, not only are they thirty but they also can choose their ownphysical attributes, from height to weight to hair color.

    I need to make something very clear in case it is not already. Forthe purpose of these descriptions of The Other Side and the differencesbetween life there and life here on earth, I'm using pronounslike we and them. But please understand that we havebeen them many, many times, and we will become themagain when we have completed this lifetime. All of us here and on The Other Sideare parts of the same Whole, fibers in the same perfect fabric ofGod's creation. We are separated by nothing but a natural transitionwe call "death," a transition that is really the joyful cycle ofour eternal spirits going Home again.

    Home, contrary to a lot of myths and greeting card artwork, isfar more magnificent and complex than just an endless sea of puffywhite clouds and blue sky. The Other Side is a breathtaking infinityof mountains, and oceans, and vast gardens, and forests?everywonder of nature that exists here, its beauty magnifiedhundreds of times. The landscape is punctuated with buildingsof brilliant design and variety?classical Greek and Romanarchitecture for the temples, concert halls, courtyards, sports arenas,and other public gathering places?and homes designed to meetevery entity's personal preference, so that a stately Victorian mansionmight share a neighborhood with a simple log cabin and ageodesic dome.

    Animals, among God's most perfect creations, are alive and wellon The Other Side, too. (And to be honest, if they weren't, I don'tthink I'd have the slightest interest in going there.) All the animalsthat exist on earth exist on The Other Side, without fear or aggression,and they are appropriately cherished and respected as thepure, innocent, guileless spirits they are.

    You will probably be as relieved as I was to learn that entities onThe Other Side don't really spend all their time lying around playingharps. That might be pleasant enough for five or ten minutesevery once in a while, but for all eternity? In fact, The Other Side'sresidents are constantly active and stimulated. Frankly, it is ridiculousthat we refer to them as "dead." We should be so "dead." Theystudy, they work, they research?by choice, I must add, and withgreat joy. They have brilliant social lives, full of parties and musicand dancing and sporting events and fashion shows and lectures,literally every possible option for every possible preference. Allthe arts, crafts, hobbies, and outdoor activities available on earthare available there, taken to their most exhilarating extreme.Words like boredom, loneliness, and tedium are not part of thelocal vocabulary.

    It is especially fascinating that the entities on The Other Sidealso create everything from inventions to medical cures to greatart, music, philosophy, and scientific breakthroughs. They thentransmit those creations through subtle telepathy to those on earthwho have the skills, tools, and dedication to make them a reality. Ifyou have ever wondered why significant humanitarian brainstormsseem to occur almost simultaneously to separate people on oppositesides of the globe, now you know?The Other Side likes tomake sure its finest contributions get maximum attention here onearth. This does not take a bit of credit away from the brilliantpeople among us who make these leaps of discovery. The entitieson The Other Side need gifted, willing hands and hearts to carryout their work just as surely as we need their divine inspiration.

    Telepathy is the most popular form of communication amongthe spirit entities, but verbal communication is easy, too, since alllanguages are spoken and understood. The most universal languageon The Other Side is the eloquently descriptive Aramaic ofancient Syria, a dialect of which was spoken by Christ and His disciples.However, there's no need to start boning up on our Aramaicbefore we die. Like all entities on The Other Side, we willhave access to all knowledge when we get there, including memoriesfrom every one of our past lives, preserved for eternity in themagnificent domed Hall of Records. The Other Side's vast librariesinclude sacred Askashic records, which Francine defines asthe written depiction of God's memory. All the entities have constant,total communion with God, who offers information and answersthrough "infused knowledge," transmitted directly from theHoly Spirit into the mind.

    There is no negativity on The Other Side, no aggression, no egoor jealousy or pride, and no judgment. Those qualities are strictlyhuman-made, not God-made. And those human qualities are exactlywhy we make the seemingly insane choice of leaving ourHome on The Other Side from time to time and trudge throughyet another incarnation.

    Our purpose in coming here is to learn and to gain knowledge,as the sensing, experiencing extensions of God we all are. I haveheard and read different interpretations of this, implying that witheach incarnation our spirits "evolve" in an effort to get "closer toGod." But that is simply not true. Our spirits were already fully"evolved" when God created them. Because we're part of Him justas He is part of us, there is no such thing as getting "closer" toHim?we're already there.

    I once asked a very wise soul, when I was much younger andgoing through an especially rough time, why life had to be sohard. She answered with a question: "What have you learned fromthose times when life was easy?" As much as I hate to admit it, shewas right. The old adage "If it doesn't kill you, it'll make youstronger" is true. We don't learn from never having hurdles in ourpath to begin with; we learn from overcoming the hurdles we areconfronted with along the way. That is why our spirits sometimesfeel the need to leave The Other Side and come here?to experienceand overcome negativity in all its forms and learn from it,and then take that knowledge back Home.

    Yet if we have access to all knowledge on The Other Side, whyeven bother putting ourselves through this "negativity" business?Why not just stay in the perfection of Home and read an eternityof wisdom about imperfection?

    Brilliant concepts are useful only when they are acted upon. IfGod had created our spirits to be content with unexperiencedknowledge, Neil Armstrong would have never set foot on themoon. Leonardo da Vinci would have been too busy reading artbooks to create the Mona Lisa. Amelia Earhart would have stayedhome with a dull ache in her heart every time a plane flew overhead.William Shakespeare would have spent his life going to thetheater and never bothered to reach for a pen.

    It took the same strength, courage, discipline, curiosity, andfaith we admire in those people for us to choose to experience anotherhuman lifetime. We owe ourselves and each other profoundrespect just for having the guts to come here.

    Once our spirits make the decision to inhabit a human body,we create a blueprint for this life based on what we're most interestedin experiencing and learning to overcome in our eternal pursuitof knowledge. That blueprint includes everything from thekind of parents, families, and childhoods we will have to ourcareer paths, health and financial circumstances, sexual preferences,marriages, children, and the length of our lifetime. Wealso select an "option line," or area in which we feel we have themost to learn and will therefore be especially challenged by whilewe're here.

    There are seven option lines to choose from: family, social life,love, health, spirituality, finance, and career. If you take a closelook at your life, I'll bet there is one item on that list that you justcannot seem to get right no matter how hard you try. At its worst,it spills over into the other six and makes it feel as if you are doingeverything wrong. Don't panic. It is not an affliction you havebeen burdened with against your will; it is actually the area ofchallenge you have chosen. Think of it as the subject you decidedto "major" in this time around so that you can finally masterit someday. (That's not always easy, I know. My option line is"family," and trust me, I'm still trying to get a handle on it at agesixty-two.)

    In addition to mapping out our blueprints before coming here,we also make sacred contracts with entities on The Other Side towatch over us, protect us, help us and advise us through thisearthly journey we have chosen to undertake. The most intimateof these advisers, who, with God's help, conceives and reviews ourblueprint with us, and is at our side every step of the way, is ourSpirit Guide.

SPIRIT GUIDES

    Every one of us has a Spirit Guide, someone we were very closeto and literally trusted with our soul on The Other Side, whoagreed to be our constant, vigilant companion and helpmate whenwe made the choice to experience another lifetime on earth. OurSpirit Guides are the best friends we have ever had; they just happento live in another dimension.

    All Spirit Guides have spent at least one life here, so they areable to empathize with the problems, mistakes, temptations, fears,and frailties inevitable in the human world. In fact, most of us eitherhave been or will be someone else's Spirit Guide somewherealong the way. On rare occasions your Spirit Guide is an ancestoror someone you've shared a past life with. But because your relationshipwith your Guide was formed between your spirit andtheirs on The Other Side before you were born, it is impossible forthem to be someone you've known in this lifetime.

    My Spirit Guide, whom I mentioned earlier, is an Aztec-Incanwoman named Iena, although I took it upon myself to change hername to Francine. She was born in northern Colombia in 1500and was killed in a Spanish attack on her city in 1520. That washer only incarnation on this earth, and we never knew each otheruntil we met and became close friends on The Other Side. Thefact that we had never met in a past life has not diminished our intimateconnection in the slightest.

    The Spirit Guide's job is to urge, nudge, encourage, advise, support,and, as their title suggests, guide us on our life's path. Andthey have several advantages to help them in their work. First, theyhave the closest possible bond with our spirits?the very essence ofwho we are. They have also studied and memorized our blueprints.We, unfortunately, lose conscious awareness of our blueprints duringour time on earth and tend to wander off from our intendedplans. They can help us get back on track. Their vantage point onThe Other Side gives them direct access to God's divine knowledge,and they also enjoy every spirit's enviable ability to be in severalplaces at once, unencumbered by these bodies we make such abig deal out of having. They can be at a lecture or party in thespirit world or visit another loved one on earth while still keepingan eye on us.

    Incidentally, in case you are picturing a flock of voyeurs, gapingat our every move and invading our most highly personal, shallwe say, "private moments," let me put your mind at ease. They'recalled "Spirit" Guides, not "Body" Guides. They concern themselveswith our spirits and only our spirits. Our various bodily functionsare not their concern.

    Another thing a Spirit Guide won't do?take it from me?isleap in to interfere with the choices we make, or deprive us of ourfree will. At best, they will offer possible alternatives and warnings.But our agreement with them from the beginning is that we arehere to learn and grow, and they know we cannot accomplish thatif they are constantly shielding us from the lessons we need tolearn.

    Spirit Guides communicate with us in a variety of ways, if we'lljust shut up and listen to them. You would think that would be especiallyeasy for me, because I have the advantage of being able toactually hear Francine talking to me, and even channel her so thatshe can talk through me, but incredibly, there are still times to thisday when I get ornery and don't pay attention and end up withegg dripping down my face. It is a testament to her patience, andto the depth of the bond between us, that she is even speaking tome at all by now.

    So don't feel disadvantaged if your Spirit Guide doesn't seem tohave an audible voice. They are still sending you plenty of messages,most often through your subconscious mind. What you havealways accepted as instincts, or your conscience, or unusually vividdreams are more likely your Spirit Guide waving flags. These experiencesare common. You for no reason drive a different route thanusual and find out later you avoided an accident. On impulse youcall a friend, only to discover they needed your help at that moment.You go to sleep concerned about a problem and wake upknowing the solution. Anything you've written off to "somethingtold me to ..." change that to "someone told me to." You're receivingyour Spirit Guide's signals?and acting on them.

    As for your signals to your Spirit Guide, you can and should askfor help, advice, and reassurance as often as you feel the need. Butplease remember something I learned the hard way?whatever it isyou want, be specific.

    When my son Paul was five months old, he was stricken with apotentially fatal infection. His fever was soaring past 105 degreesas I raced him to the hospital, where he struggled in intensive carefor twenty-six hours before his doctors could assure me he was goingto make it. I was terrified and alone for most of those twenty-sixhours, and as I paced and prayed and sobbed in that waitingroom, I must have pleaded, "Help me, Francine!" a thousandtimes without any noticeable response.

    Once Paul was home again, safe and sound in his own crib, Iangrily confronted Francine, feeling betrayed. "How could youabandon me like that when I thought my baby was dying?"

    Like all Spirit Guides, who have the divine perspective we lack,Francine is always calm, no matter what I say to her. So with hertrademark serenity she simply replied, "Is that what was wrong? Iknew you wanted my help, but I had no idea what the problemwas. I can't read your mind, you know!"

    That was news to me. I assumed she knew everything about me.But the more I have thought about it, the more sense it makes.Our Spirit Guides know our blueprints, but those blueprints hardlycontain every momentary fear we will ever have. Also, speaking frompractical experience, as psychic as I am, I can't read minds, either.When a friend or client says, "Help me!" I'm going to say, "Withwhat?" every time. It was a valuable lesson I'm happy to passalong?your Spirit Guide is available twenty-four hours a day tojoin God as one of your greatest allies, if you'll just skip the generalitiesand tell them exactly what you need.

    I still wasn't ready to let her off the hook, though. She couldn'tread my mind, but I had prayed constantly in that hospital room.She didn't have to be a mind reader to hear prayers, did she?

    More news to me: When we speak directly to God, a "dome ofprivacy" instantly surrounds us. The privacy of our conversationswith God is so sacred that not even our Spirit Guides can hearthem. God is part of us. We are part of Him. No one can trespassor eavesdrop when we are already one with Him to begin with.

    One more tip, by the way, is that Spirit Guides seem to be absolutelyliteral-minded about what you say to them, so when youtalk to yours, forget about nuance or unspoken assumptions.Here's a perfect example: If I ask Francine, "Can you describeyourself?" she'll answer, "Yes." Period. Just, "Yes." She's not tryingto be coy, she's simply giving the precise answer to your questionbecause she thinks that is what you meant. But if I ask, "Wouldyou describe yourself, please?" she's happy to oblige.

    Please don't neglect talking to your Spirit Guide just becauseyou might not know who it is. Don't forget, they have been humanat least once before. They are well aware that our memories ofthem and our lives on The Other Side are virtually nonexistent, sothey don't expect us to remember them. If you haven't been introducedto yours, or if a psychic or medium has not identified themfor you, make up a name and call them that. It will make yourSpirit Guide seem more personal, and your Guide will happily answerto any name you come up with, just for the joy of your finallyacknowledging and embracing them. Take it from a woman whochanged her Spirit Guide's name from Iena to Francine for myown childhood convenience?their love for us is as patient, eternaland unconditional as The Other Side itself, where we'll reunitewith them someday and, I'm sure, have a good laugh about thelong, strange trip they saw us through.

Continues...

Excerpted from The Other Side and Backby Sylvia Browne Copyright © 2000 by Sylvia Browne. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451198638
• ISBN 13: 9780451198631
• Binding: Paperback