Episode 150: What Dreams May Come

Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. Have you read the books by Neil Donald Walsh Conversations with God As a poor and often homeless man eventually had questions and answers with who he believed was God in the middle of the night, waking up and filling dozens and dozens of yellow legal pads with what became a most extraordinary conversation. In our episode today, I want to talk about this

subject called inspired or automatic writing. I think it's important to talk about the term trance channeling and to perhaps open the idea to you that through writing there's an opportunity to continue the relationship you have with your loved one. Just a few episodes ago, we talked electronic voice phenomena, which is difficult. It takes time, it takes practice. I am a firm believer that our loved ones are closer than we could ever imagine, and that they communicate with

us through our thoughts and our feelings. What if we have a journal dedicated to our loved one and we open it up and have that conversation. I don't think right away it may be possible, but who knows to have one hundred percent of their words flow through our hands. In the beginning, it might be one percent them and ninety nine percent us, but in time more of them can come through. Our loved ones need us to know that they're still alive, that they're healthy, that they're well,

that we're going to see them again. They try when they can to make a visitation within a dream. I do think they do subtle things to bring our attention to look at a license plate or a sign that may have their name on it. I know for myself, I have moments that I'm driving in the car and I feel my grandmother's sitting next to me. It's so easy to chalk that up to our imagination. That's precisely

how they communicate with us. So if you're open to this, I'd like to build upon this today, this thought of inspired or what many people call automatic writing. There is a difference. We will refer to it as automatic writing, but technically automatic writing is a bit of something else. We've heard of physical mediums and people that go into a trance like state who are not aware of the surroundings, and the spirit person can speak through him or her.

If you've listened to the show for a while, our good friend Scott Milligan is one of these trance mediums. Automatic writing is having someone in that trance like state, eyes closed, pen in hand or with a hand on what's called a planned chet and the hand moves can either draw pictures or can write. True automatic writing is something to behold, and it's very rare. Some people with

their eyes closed have written different languages. In one of the trance classes I took years ago, one of my fellow class members wrote in Chinese, and he does not speak Chinese. Someone else wrote identically to the writing of one of the loved ones in the class, perfectly wrote their name. How this loved one would write it. Also, someone else, eyes closed, wrote something and the only way it could be read was held up to a mirror.

The term automatic writing, for most people means something different. It's what's called inspired writing. These are times when you are awake, but perhaps in that daydream state, when you have your hand to paper or fingers on a keyboard, and words come to your mind and you just write them down as you hear them. Not too long ago, you heard from Francis Key, whose mother came to her shortly after she passed while she was a passenger on

the airplane. She's convinced it was her mother's words. However, the mother started sharing what ended up being four books worth of information about life, death, and the afterlife. I talked to my friend Pam Johnson yesterday, who recently wrote a book called Supernatural Love, and she claims she wrote it with her husband Alan.

to you. You hold them in your mind, maybe see them in your mind, or just say their name and just say and ask them a question, or just say what do you want to tell me, and just believe that they're talking to you. Because the thing is, I know from working with a spirit world that even if the first sentence is something you made up, they are going to start inserting their thoughts into your mind.

So you just have to jump in. It's not really hard, especially channeling our loved ones, because we already have the connection. Channeling your family members, you know, your spouse, your best friend, we're all one. How can it be hard unless you

believe it's hard. That's the only stumbling block is that people don't believe, or they've been conditioned as you and I know that all of this is make believe or even worse that if you say you see these things or hear these things, that you're going to get locked up ham.

existence of the afterlife. I always caution people to use your best judgment and if something someone says resonates with your soul empowers you to live your best life, by all means, use it. But the world of channeling, I think can be our imagination. But not only that, my friend, you and I are each divine souls having a human experience. Have you ever had a time where great ideas seem to come to you from out of nowhere? Now, that could be spirit guides and loved ones, but it's also

your soul. We all have a very powerful soul that knows the answers. That's incredibly wise, So we can tap into our own divinity. We can ask questions get great answers. Some people get into the zone and can write music, poetry, do tremendous works of art. Time seems to go by so quickly. I believe those are times when we can be channeling our own soul, our own divine wisdom. The world of trance, to me, is something different. Trance someone

speaks through you who actually existed once. We will hear towards the end of the episode some words from Scott Milligan on this subject, and we will hear some words through Scott Milligan's Trance mediumship from Eric, who is a man who died towards the end of the eighteen hundreds. Today, I'd like to share some words from a gentleman who you may not know his name, but you know his work. He's the film producer of movies such as Somewhere in

Time and What Dreams May Come. He's the author of the book What Dreams Have Come, and he too, Stephen Simon, wrote this book with his wife who is in the unseen world. So bottom line, use and trust your own instinct. Personally, I would like all of us by the end of the episode if we are interested to try this inspired writing as a tool for us to be in touch with our loved one on a regular basis, so that you know they really are by your side once we

transition to the other side. Do we have all knowledge of the universe? I think we have it at our disposal, so we can learn it in the halls of learning. But we have to learn it, discover it, practice it. If you talk to your loved one that you're going to start inspired writing as a way to be in touch with them and for their words to be said through you. I'm sure every time you make that date, they'll be there with you again. In the beginning, it

can be one percent them ninety nine percent you. But through practice and through paying attention to your own feelings, more of them can come through. We need to be in the proper mindset to do it, but I know it is real. Here are some words by author Neil Donald Walsh. Is this his divine soul speaking? Is he channeling God? It doesn't matter if. To you this is the voice of truth. Do what you do for the sheer joy of it. Do what you choose, not what

someone else chooses for you. Truth and God are found in the same place in the silence. Mine is always your highest thought, your clearest word, your grandest feeling. Anything less is from another source. Remember I said earlier that it could be ninety nine percent us and one percent them. As time goes on, and as you practice inspired writing or automatic writing, it could be more and more them, or more and more your divine soul. You'll find it

in the silence. You'll find it when you say a little prayer to those who love you that are listening, and you'll find it the more on your journey you go. So let's go to our break and then we'll be back with words from author and movie producer Stephen Simon. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back

to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlaine, and as promised, I want you to hear some words from producer Stephen Simon, who was a film producer of some great movies. There was one on Conversations with God Somewhere in Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve and what Dreams May Come. When I caught up with Stephen, I asked him how he got involved in the afterlife. Here's our conversation.

moved into a different house with my stepfather. And when we moved into that house, I began having visitations from what I told my mother and my stepfather was a man in my wall. And I would say to them, there's a man in my wall at night, and they would say, oh, are you scared them? No, I'm not scared. He helps me. He's there. Well, I didn't know it then, and my parents were not on a spiritual path. I

didn't know it then, but I knew it later. Of course, that was my dad and he was there to comfort me. And that was my first exposure when I started growing up. When I was a teenager. What movies did I like, It's a Wonderful Life, Lost Horizons, The Ghost and Missus Muir, you know those kinds of films. And I grew up in the film industry. My dad was a writer and a producer and a studio head at Columbia in the forties. He made movies with Abbott and Costello and Red Skelton

was his best friend. I remember on Sundays that Mark's brothers and all these great comedians would show up at our house. And unfortunately he suddenly passed away when I was five. But my mother then remarried another film producer, so I was brought into the film business. In a very young way, and into spirituality in a very young way. But I didn't want to get into the film business right away, and I did to other things. I worked in politics. Don't hold it against me, but I was

a lawyer for a while. Okay, but I don't go to meetings anymore. I don't you know. I've gotten through that phase. I always knew I was going to get into the film industry. So one day I walked into a bookstore, right around my thirtieth birthday. I walked into a bookstore, and the clerk there and knew that I loved what we at that point called fantasy books. And he said, the great science fiction author Richard Matheson has a new book is called Bid Time Return. You should

read it. So I took it home. I read it. The minute I read it, I thought, that's it. I need to get into the film business because I need to make this movie. That movie became three years later, somewhere in time, I begged my way into a job with an incredible film producer named Ray Stark, who had done Funny Girl, Funny Lady. The way we were Annie. I mean, he was a prolific producer, and I begged my way into that job. The very first thing I did was find out who the agent was for, Richard Matheson.

I called, I set up a lunch. Richard and I met, became lifelong friends. He became my spiritual mentor as well. And I said, look, I have no clue how to produce a movie, Richard, but when I do, this is going to be my first movie. Will you just shake my hand and agree to let me do that? And he was so bemused by that he said, of course, and we shook hands, and three years later we made

Somewhere in Time. While we were making Somewhere in Time, while we were prepping it, he gave me the galleys for his next book, which was What Dreams May Come, And I started working on that. That took me twenty years to do for a whole bunch of different reasons, but it was something I knew I had to do. I mean, this has been and continues to be for me, a very purpose driven life, very purpose driven life. I

knew this is what I was meant to do. And now we formed the Spiritual Cinema Circle, my partner Gay Hens and I and Kay Katie Hendricks and I formed the Spiritual Cinema Sir, which we operated for sixteen years Spiritual Films. Now, all of this leads to me meeting my interwoven soul, Lauren. Lauren and I had both gone through two very unsuccessful marriages before we met each other. We both had two

biological kids, and I have an adopted daughter. Brought an adopted daughter into the mix, so there were five of them. The minute I saw her, she turned around in a movie theater and I happened to see her and we both had the same reaction which we talked about later, not in the moment, which is there, she is there, he is, Oh my goodness. We did it. We met on the night we were supposed to meet, and from that point forward it was obvious that we were going

to be together. We got married. It was an extraordinary time together, and I was the happiest I have ever been in my life, and I know that I will never reach that level again until we're reunited. On January third of twenty eighteen, I went to do an early morning workout at the gym. I came home and I knew Lauren had been up later than me the night before. She was watching television watching a movie and she was

still asleep. It was around eight and she usually was not asleep that long, but I figured, well, she was up late. I waited, and then I went up later and I walked in the room and our dog was lying very quiet next to her, didn't even raise her head when I walked in the room, and I walked around the bed, and I found that she was gone, and it had been gone for a while because when I touched her to try to do compressions, when I got nine to eleven on the phone, nine one one

on the phone, she was cold. I knew she was gone, and it was later confirmed to me that she had been for several hours. She had an undiscovered hard rhythmia and had just passed away peacefully in her sleep, which is I understand the way most angels do transition when they transition. Needless to say, it devastated me, and I haven't been the same since, and I assume I probably never will be, but that's okay. Lauren and I had

talked at length about this eventuality. We thought it was going to be me because I was seventeen years younger older than Lauren, which I always when I say that her saying to me now in my ear, and now it's twenty honey, on his way to twenty one. It's getting up there, You're getting older and older. Anyway, we thought it was going to be me, and we talked a lot about it. Lauren is a very spiritual being. Lauren is an intuitive herself and a therapist. We actually

designed our afterlife life experience together. She asked me, She said, Honey, I think we should do this. She had a sense of this, of what was coming. I know she did. And we did and I wrote it down and she said, put it in an envelope and seal it because I want you to have it to read later. I didn't really pay a lot of attention to this specificity of her words at that point. I want you to have it to read later, which I do now quite a lot.

We had already talked about being in touch well for the first six weeks when I was a complete and utter basket case. I remember one night I called my dear friend, Neil Donald Waals, who wrote the Conversations with God books, and Neil has been a dear friend for twenty years. And I called Neil one night and I was so completely gone with grief, and I was sobbing and I couldn't talk for a while, and God bless Neil.

He's the most patient person. And he just waited. He didn't say anything, he just waited, and finally I got out barely, Neil, I'm out of my mind with grief. And he said good. And I was like what, And he said, good, Stephen. You got to be out of your mind now and in your heart because that's where you're going to spend the rest of your life. And boy,

did that ever make a difference. And Lauren, after six weeks, made her first contact, which I talk about we talk about extensively in the book, and I'm not going to get into here, but she made her first contact, and I knew that we would always be together from that and we have a lot of contact together. I was making notes on my feelings on yellow pads of paper, and sometimes I couldn't even read them the next day because I'd been so upset when I wrote them. But

I had several pads of paper fade out. The end of September twenty eighteen, I went to Ashland, which is about four hours south of me here, to see one of our daughters, and have lunch at dinner with Neil and his wife. And I have to say this, for the six months before that, Ashland had received no rain and there was a drought going on down there. It's important. We had dinner in a restaurant where I was facing the front windows of the restaurant, and of course they

said how are you? And I said, you know, I'm making all these notes, and Neil, you know, I'm beginning to feel like you must have and I'm thinking this is a book. At that exact moment, there was a huge lightning strike outside the restaurant, huge, and then thunder, and then Neil said, okay, and I know what the title has to be. What Neil, it has to be What dreams have Come Come? Another lightning strike.

They are alive and they want you to know it. So Let's go to the break and we'll be back with more. Steven Simon. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Hairinormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and we're talking to Stephen Simon, author of the book What Dreams Have Come and producer of the movie What Dreams May Come. This is him talking about

the movie. Conversations with God probably the most important moment in the entire movie, and it was something I didn't know if Neil would go along with or not, and I wasn't going to do it without his permission. But there is a moment when Neil first the book first comes out and he starts talking to groups. He has just spoken in a bookstore and a woman has approached him and he processes something with her and he goes outside and his assistant comes out and says, are you okay?

And he says, what if I'm making all this up?

a lot myself. When you are devastated, when you are completely heartbroken and grief stricken, can you make could you make this up? Steve? And then all you're doing is trying to comfort yourself. And when people ask me that, they say, how do you know? My answer is I don't. I can't one hundred percent tell you that it is real.

This is about beliefs, and I can't quote prove it unquote, so I have to say to people, well, ninety nine and nine hundred and ninety nine tenths of one thousand, I'm certain, but you'll have to make up your own mind about that. And I think that also extends to how we see the afterlife. You know, in dreams, it is a magnificent painted world that Robin wakes up into.

And there was a lot that went behind that, and there's a reason that the people who did those effects won the Academy Award that year for it because it was just mind boggling and our incredible production designer Eugenio Zenetti, who also got nominated for Academy Award. But the whole conceit of that is that he went someplace he was comfortable because his wife painted. His wife was the curator

at a museum. It was a way they converse. They had paintings all over their house, and it gave him handrails to move himself into the afterlife, and everything that he experienced were images from his own life. And one of the things that I believe strongly in this experience now is that the afterlife is not one size fits all. The life is certainly not. Is it so very different people with very different beliefs. So why can't a person's

afterlife experience reflect their beliefs in life? You know, if you believe it is going to be the traditional religious god, then it should be. And if you believe it's something different, then it should be that. And there's unlimited space. And I am assured by Lauren that what we've designed is what we are going to experience. I love that.

then all of that literature flooded into the world. You know, it's Wayne Dyer's work, it's Neil's work, it's James Redfield's work. I mean, all of that came into the world. Well, you haven't seen one of those since illusion. Oh yes, And the reason for that is now the information's out there right, and I think people are beginning to resonate with that. And because of that, we are learning a different language, and it is a language of the heart.

You know, there was a movie many years ago that had a great line in it the heart is a mysterious organ It plays by its own rules. And to that I would most humbly add that the brain does not understand because it is a different language. And learning to experience the language of the heart is challenging. It is exhilarating, it can be frustrating, but it is a new way of being and I believe that for those

who have these communications. And since we published the book, and since people such as yourself have been kind enough to have me on to talk about it, the emails that I've been receiving from people and the responses to the book have been so gratifying because at the end of the day, the reason that Lauren and I really did this was to say to people, hey, you're not alone.

Don't let people tell you you're crazy. You can talk about this with people, and if they don't want to hear it, then those aren't people who should be in your tribe around you, you know, I mean that you shouldn't have to experience that, and I'm glad that we are giving some people some consensual validation that there are

millions of us who are experiencing this. There are Facebook groups that are completely dedicated to this, to people who have lost spouses physically but are still communicating through the veil. Absolutely hoping it'll never be mainstream, which is a word I hate anybody because usually means well, it really doesn't say much of anything, but it doesn't offend anybody, you know. I would rather make movies like I've made, like Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, that people either

love or hate. And I can tell you they either love or hate both of those movies. There are very few people in the middle. And to me, that's art.

know my wife. We've been together a long time. I've had so many mediums, and one in particularly, a very dear friend who you may know, Alison du Bois, talk about this and it's like, you know, Stephen, you guys have been doing this for so long, you don't really need anybody to help you communicate with each other. When that all happens, your life changes. It becomes the focus of your life. And this is the focus of my life.

And I hope that when the time comes that I do reunion with Lauren, we will have left behind a marker for people who have these kinds of love. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a spouse. It can be a mother, a father, a child. I've gotten some heartrending emails from people who have lost children and then have reconnected with them on the other side of the veil, and it is why when I said in the beginning, my whole life seems like it has been funneled into

this as my final public facing project. You know, I have no idea when I'm going to rejoin Lauren. Only my soul knows that. But in the meantime, we have this. We have five amazing adult kids and four amazing grandchildren hint hint to a couple of daughters with more to come. And you know, it's taken me almost four years to get to a place where I actually feel I'm kind

of emotionally okay, at least most of the time. But as most people know, grief, the best quote I ever heard about grief is that grief lasts as long as love does.

your movies, your words, your books. I don't even know all about the spiritual cinema and things that you've created there, but they'll live on forever, Stephen. And people have that aha moment by watching a film not even expecting it, and that has the power to set people on their spiritual journey.

make it right. And for a long time that was true until I found the guy, Vincent Ward, who's a brilliant director from New Zealand who knew exactly how to make it.

to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and I forgot to mention that Stephen Simon's website is what Dreams Have Come dot com. Now wouldn't it be nice to hear what the afterlife thinks of inspired writing and how we can be in touch with our loved ones. Yep, we can do it. As I told you earlier. One of our dearest friends is Scott Milligan. Twenty six years.

He's been sitting on behalf of the spiritual world. The most loving and wonderful messages come through his trance mediumship through the voice of Eric Robert Johnston, who passed at the end of the eighteen hundreds. I've sat with Scott over two hundred hours now and have moderated questions and answers with mister Eric on life, death, in the afterlife, great questions and you're always welcome to join us. So I'm going to first place some words from Scott. This

is from our class this week. He teaches a class called Trance and the Altered States online just so you can hear his voice and then you'll hear from mister Eric.

to be so that I can sweep the path. And the moment we started to offer those thoughts, I kind of asked myself why was I allowed to sit every night in a seance with Colin Fry, David Thompson, Stuart Alexander, and Joan Navison, and for my own development and rare

occasions Polly as well. Why is it that I was allowed to go to cober Hill and sit next to the mediums that were demonstrating, or be able to go and stay with Eileen Davies and live with David Thompson, and to then go to Mavis Botilla's house and be.

may your thoughts move within my mind. And these wonderful opportunities will present themselves to you, and sometimes flowers grow in the darkest and dampest places which have a great impact within this world. So by all means watch, by all means prey, but by all means give of yourself and great things will come.

So I have taken mediumship and automatic writing courses, but I feel that I don't really shift into an expanded state. How can I be a better conduit to exchange messages from him and give messages to others for the highest good?

to sit in company of who you are. This will be the root of your development. Like any tree that reaches great heights, it must always draw from its root to the strength the route will hold it firm, even though the mighty wind will blow, It will hold it to the earth if the rivers burst their banks. You must always remain with the core of the development of

sitting to know who you are. Once you become relax with this thought and the emulation of communication starts to exude from you, then grab that pen and bring it to life. But to understand. For this moment it may be the pen that writes, but it comes from the message within. You will realize you may not have to hold the pen and just sit and listen to the voices that may speak through the memory of who you are.

To allow the time to be your friend, not your enemy to appreciate life and also appreciate the eternal life. Every time you think of the loved one, and in this instance in the story your husband, if you think of him and see him happy and well and shares laughter and strong memories, that brings overwhelming joy. That is him working his way into your life after he survived it. If you see or think of anything that causes any disruption or discomfort, or any pain or tears of sadness,

it has come from your mind. And therefore we have to work with your mind to return that smile.

And so, my friend, psychomatry helps for you to understand the vibration of now and of the past, building your sensitivity so that all facets of who you are can be used, and from that can be the rise of the spirit. And therefore you become and use the title media arm a medium between the worlds for the world. You may travel the world and sit in different chairs and listen to different explanations, but you are learning from someone else that seems communication from their own making. And

are you not the storyteller of your own story? Be who you are and be in your own company. And therefore, my friend, your giftful unfold how it is meant to unfold, not with the influence of someone else's ideas. Sound to my dear. Is that pleasing, yes, very much, so, thank you, Eric. I apologize to you all that time is against me. It has been the fascinating conversation to engage with the words that others have uttered, or to hear your sweet

voice has uplifted my spirit. But may I return this to you and say to each of you, you who may go to bed this day concerned, allow your mind to be free, just for a moment. For when you sleep, let us counsel you, so when you wake you have the focus to face the day and see it through. May be the love of our world wrap around you and the families that you represented this day, May they know and have the knowledge of the eternal life. Good day to you my.

and into your heart. That's where it all begins. As mister Eric was talking about going within, please revisit episode one hundred and fifteen for the experiential journey and I hope you start inspired writing or automatic writing, have that special journal between you and your loved one and see what unfolds. In closing, I'm Sandra Champlain and I'm always so happy to be your host on Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network.