For many years Laura Lynne Jackson led two separate lives. In one she was a graduate of Oxford University teaching English in high school. In another she was a medium providing readings to individuals who sought her out to help them communicate with a deceased loved one.
“Then, one day at the high school where I teach,” she writes, “while I was on hall duty, I felt a sudden immense download of information and insight from the universe. It felt like a lighting bolt that brought instant clarity. And the meaning was simple. You are meant to share your story.”
Jackson submitted to rigorous tests—first with the Forever Family Foundation, a nonprofit, science-based group that helps people in grief, and then with the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential in Arizona. “At Windbridge,” she says, “I passed an eight-step, quintuple-blind screening administered by scientists to become one of only a small group of Certified Research Mediums.”
I find the model of free will that Jackson explains very convincing. Like Eben Alexander and James Hillman she affirms the important role of spirit guides.
“I am clairvoyant,” Jackson explains, “which means I have the ability to gather information about people and events through means other than my five senses. I’m also clairaudient—I can perceive sounds through means other than my ears—and clairsentient, which allows me to feel things through nonhuman means.”
Jackson began to participate in grief retreats sponsored by the Forever Family Foundation for families who have lost children to an early death. She found she could help families contact their lost children and experience a release from their grief, knowing their child was not suffering and was happy on the Other Side.
“There is a reason I gladly participate in grief retreats,” she explains. “I go in seeing how distraught people are, and I leave seeing how their burdens have been lifted by the act of sharing their grief with others. By sharing, we are acknowledging that, as spiritual beings, we are all connected.
“Grief brings us great pain, but the Other Side teaches us that this pain is not about the absence of love—it’s about the continuation of that love.
“The most powerful way we can honor someone who has crossed is to spread light and love in their name. Doing that work not only keeps that person present in our lives but also allows our loved one on the Other Side to still be a positive influence on our world.
“The Other Side wants us to live wide-open, vibrant lives. Live as fully and brightly as we can. They will be there with us. When we turn tragedy into hope, our loved ones on the Other Side don’t just see this, they celebrate it.
“The universe is designed for us to be there for each other—we are not meant to retreat into our pain and grief alone. We are meant to honor the vibrant cords of light and love that bind us, because the love of others is the most healing force of all. Why would we shut ourselves off from this powerful force? We are meant to be part of a vast, endless cycle of love, through which we receive the love of others and then pass that love on to someone else.
“Sharing our pain, and giving and receiving love, is how we heal our grief.”
“Why are we here?” she asks, and then answers. “To learn. To give and receive love. To be the agents of positive change in the world.
“What happens at death? We shed our bodies but our consciousness endures.
“What is our true purpose on this earth? To grow in love—and to help others do the same.
“Do we have free will to chart the course of our lives, or are our futures already mapped out? The Other Side has shown me a model of existence that is generous enough to encompass both free will—the ability to act at one’s own discretion—and predeterminism, which is the belief that all events and actions are decided in advance. It is a beautifully simple model I call ‘free will vs. points of fate.’
“Our existence is mapped out by a dazzling array of destination points that are in place before we are born. These are the points of fate—a continuum of all the crucial events, decisive moments, and significant people that constitute our time here.
“The Other Side has shown me that we create the actions that move us from one point of fate to the next. We are the ones who connect the dots. We make the decisions that move us from one point to another, and in the process we shape and create the picture of our lives.
Laura Lynne Jackson, The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven (Spiegal & Grau, 2015).
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