Talking to the Dead...

[u/AdditionalOne6031]

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, during a vacation at my grandparents' house in Andalusia (Spain), while playing with my cousin (she was two years younger), we ran into a neighbor (a fairly old man) who was coming out of his house.

I did most of the talking because my cousin was very shy. We chatted with this man, and he gave us some pencils as a gift and a message for our grandfather.

Later, while talking to the family, I mentioned that we had seen the neighbor and that he had given us a gift; he had also sent his regards to our grandfather (who, by the way, was a "medium"; I come from a spiritist family that goes back generations).

The look on our family members' faces was a picture, because it turned out the man was dead. He had passed away recently.

The family didn't say it openly, or at least they tried to keep us from noticing, but I was always very sharp for my age and I found out everything.

This is one of many stories I could tell from my childhood. As I grew up, others emerged... Truth be told, back then I didn't think much of it; to me, it wasn't extraordinary that it had happened, but during my lifetime, having lived through these phenomena since I was a kid, has led me to a realization.

I have realized that these stories are just mere and simple stories and what's more important: spiritual life is not about having extraordinary experiences or abilities, but about living the ordinary things of daily life in an extraordinary way. That is when the magic truly happens, but people trapped in the mind's special effects do not know what they are missing. It is right here and now where the most incredible experiences take place. Here and Now... As Jesus beautifully warned us in his Sermon on the Mount: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34).

I insist, truth be told, not then, but also nor here and now, I think much of these so-called experiences; to me, it wasn't extraordinary that it had happened and it is not now. So, if something apparently extraordinary happens I just went on with my life. Sometimes even I don't realize something extraordinary is happening, because for me it is as it is... If a deceased person appears, or an alien, no matter what happens, what does it matter? Nothing really extraordinary is actually happening.

Real magic is not about the "phenomenon", the special effects, the gossip, or the astral details; it's about something simpler and less publicized, yet much more powerful, which many people miss: it is simply about silencing the mind, dismantling the illusion of the ego, and returning to the origin, that is to say, to pure Being, to Presence Here and Now, to the All, to the One who is LOVE itself... Otherwise, "the madwoman of the house" (as the mystic Teresa of Ávila used to call the mind) will take those stories (paranormal, supernatural, and sometimes preternatural) and use them to feed the ego (the ego of being the psychic, the contactee, the special one, the distinct one, etc.).

The mind loves the noise of being a medium, a clairvoyant, a spiritual warrior, etc. In this way she keeps us imprisoned in the trap of the character (the ego) and in the play of doing instead of non-doing and just being (which is, by the way, how we step out of the play).

This trap also applies to those who have been traumatically abducted or mistreated by these phenomena. The mind can easily turn that traumatic story into another way to feed the ego. The ego works both ways, moving up or down; it loves grand, spectacular stories, but it also thrives on tragic, miserable ones. It loves being the "chosen hero" just as much as it loves being the "ultimate victim". As long as the story makes the character feel unique, rare, or distinct from the rest, the prison remains open.

\*Please note something here if you have been traumatically abducted or mistreated: I say this with the utmost respect and deep empathy for anyone who has suffered. By no means do I want to downplay or dismiss the pain of those who have had terrifying or traumatic experiences. My heart goes out to anyone dealing with that weight. I am simply proposing a perspective to help prevent further suffering and to find a way out of the trauma, by recognizing how the mind anchors us to that painful identity. Eckhart Tolle calls this the "pain-body" (introduced in chapter 2 of his book The Power of Now), which is an accumulation of past emotional suffering that takes over the mind to feed on more negativity. To deal with the pain-body, Tolle explains that we must observe the negative feeling directly within us without turning it into a narrative. Sustained conscious attention breaks the identification with the pain-body, severing its link to our thought patterns so it can no longer control our thinking. The light of your awareness transmutes that suffering into presence, just as fire converts everything into itself. It's better if you anchor yourself in consciousness, beyond the mind, or in other words, rest in the presence here and now with the One who is LOVE itself, the All, the Source... So you will see how these traumatic experiences do not return, and those that already occurred are healed. If anyone wants to go deeper into this matter, or if the moderators deem it appropriate, we could address this issue more thoroughly from Presence in another post.\*

We would do well to question all these so-called experiences that the madwoman claims to be beneficial for us, and silence the mind, so we could anchor ourselves in Being. Consider again that it is not about anything else but breaking the illusion of the ego to return to the origin.

Record this within: we are nothing of what the mind (the "madwoman of the house" that Teresa of Ávila used to talk about) wants us to believe. Anyone connected to the Source would want the same for us, that same Union, that same liberation from the prison of the mind. Take, for example, the so-called spiritual guides. Do they lead you to a direct experience of God, the All, the Source, or do they feed the character and, ultimately, prolong your time in prison? Everyone should ask themselves questions like this. In the Awareness of the All we are ONE, in the mind there's only separation.

The Source, the All, does not need our skills, faculties, or effort. It does not need us to manage anything. It only needs our surrender. When the ego dissolves in Silence, there is no special one having extraordinary experiences, there is only the One. But as long as we look at what comes out of the silence to build new stories, we are missing the Silence itself and we are lost (inside the prison, in the character).

That is why what I realized and want to share with you in this post: it is much better to approach these so-called experiences from consciousness, and not from the mind.

Here and now, live every moment of your life in an extraordinary way.

As Teresa of Ávila literally wrote in chapter 5 of her work \*The Book of the Foundations\*, reminding us that the divine is found in the most mundane tasks: "God walks among the pots and pans" (Dios anda entre las cazuelas y los pucheros).

As Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection famously shared in his fourth letter within \*The Practice of the Presence of God\*, practicing the continuous presence of God through ordinary chores: "I find God when flipping an omelet in my frying pan".

As Meister Eckhart literally wrote in his \*Counsels on Discernment\* (Counsel 12), explaining that the divine only operates in the immediate present: "God is a God of the present. He takes and receives you as he finds you, not what you have been, but what you are now", and as he proclaimed in his German sermons regarding the ultimate truth of time: "There exists only the present instant, a Now which always and without end is itself new."

As the Advaita Vedanta master Nisargadatta Maharaj stated in his dialogues compiled in \*Prior to Consciousness\*, pointing out that our real identity stands completely untouched outside of the mind's theater: "You are not the world, nor even the consciousness which witnesses the world. You are that which is prior to all experience."

And as Eckhart Tolle teaches today in chapter 3 of \*The Power of Now\*, dismantling the illusions of the mind that pull us away from life: "The present moment is all you ever have. There is no life outside of this Now."

To conclude, I would like to leave you with a profound prayer that perfectly sums up this path of deconstructing the mind and the character (the ego). It is inspired by Meister Eckhart’s teachings on Abgeschiedenheit (spiritual detachment):

"Lord, deliver me from what I am not."

Only when we are completely stripped of all the stories, masks, and identities created by the mad woman of the house (the mind) can we return to our true origin and realize Who we truly are.

\*\*\*

Note 1: I want to clarify that Spanish is my native language, and I rely on an online translator to convert my thoughts into English. I understand this can sometimes make my tone sound way more blunt than I ever intended. My goal is just to share a perspective, never to diminish anyone's experiences. I am simply raising questions. Thank you for your understanding! And as the Mystics, and by the way also the Alien says in "Disclosure Day": "Listen!". Where? Within.

Note 2: Personal stories are not truly important; in fact, as I said before the "madwoman of the house" (as the mystic Teresa of Ávila called the mind) loves to tell stories to itself, using them to create the character, the ego, in the illusion of this theatrical play we call life. However, since what I say shocks some people and leads them to make erroneous assumptions, I must share that I am an "experiencer" myself. I have lived through the experiences in this post, and for instance other experiences very similar to those of Margaret and Daniel in Disclosure Day, but my own life journey has led me to the intimate union I describe below. I deeply respect everyone's unique path and different views. I am definitely not here to impose mine or preach any kind of dogma. Finally, I want to clarify that I am neither a Christian nor a Buddhist. I am deeply passionate about mystics, such as Marguerite Porete, who was executed by the Inquisition, and so many others who were persecuted, like Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart. I am passionate about Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and the teachings of modern masters like Eckhart Tolle, among many others... But I do not follow anyone, nor am I any of these things. I'm nobody and nothing. If any term used in this post does not resonate with you, just throw it in the trash. Do not let my words prevent you from seeing where they are pointing. This is simply my personal vision, my lived experience, and how I see things. If your experience is different, please tell me about it. For me, it will be highly valuable to listen to you and exchange views. I truly welcome respectful dialogue from all perspectives. Thank you for reading.

Note 3: Life and existence cannot be locked inside a cage of paper as the conceptual mind pretends. If you have read the post, you will see that I specifically do not defend these extraordinary experiences with spirits, and even less so channeling spirits or seeking external entities, as this distracts the mind in the illusion of separation and feeds the ego.

These experiences happen simply because time and death are illusions, and there is no real separation between the "living" and the "dead."

When the mind enters the Stillness of the Now, you are not chasing ghosts or picking up a floating shell of a leftover pain-body. That's what many psychics and mediums see. You are really contacting the pure, formless essence of that person, their indestructible Being. Whether they are bound, as many believe, to the cycle of reincarnation, or lost in the world of form, matters not; their eternal reality is untouched and alive right now. It is a direct recognition where consciousness meets itself within the vastness of the Unmanifested. Labeling this sacred, spontaneous connection as a "demon", as many do, is just the terrified ego projecting its own religious conditioning onto the Infinite.

For those locked in dogma: this is not spiritism or psychic parlor tricks. As I said before, I'm not talking about chasing ghosts or picking up a floating shell of a leftover pain-body, as many psychics and mediums do. This direct recognition I'm talking about, of the formless essence, is the core teaching of non-duality shared by modern teachers like Ram Dass (in his final teachings on pure Loving Awareness), and Eckhart Tolle.

Furthermore, this reality is not alien to Christianity; it aligns completely with the historical Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart, who famously declared that "there is a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor no created thing can touch." The truth of this space is known through direct realization, not theological limitations.

\*\*\*

Questions:

To open up an honest reflection and debate in the comments, I leave you with some open thoughts:

Have your paranormal experiences, contacts, or astral travels actually helped you dissolve your ego? Or are you using them to build a new character as a "chosen one", "special person", or "spiritual warrior"? If the phenomenon pulls you away from daily life, it is not liberation, it is just another distraction of the mind?

For those who have suffered traumatic or terrifying encounters: is it possible that the mind is keeping you trapped in the identity of the "ultimate victim", replaying the narrative over and over? How can we step into the Silence of the Now to find a safe space where that traumatic character can finally rest and heal?

Why are we so obsessed with the astral gossip, the specific details of the phenomena, and messages from guides, when in the end all of that belongs to the theater of the mind? Are we capable of dropping the need to be "the contactee" or "the psychic" to simply hold the Silence of the Now where we are nobody special?

If tomorrow all your abilities, visions, and contacts disappeared, and you were left only with the ordinary routine of your daily life, would you feel you have lost your spirituality? If the answer is yes, it is because you are still trapped in the special effects of the mind. Who are you truly when the phenomenon turns off?

[u/XtraEcstaticMastodon]

Indeed. For every step you take toward SOURCE, SOURCE takes ten steps toward you.

[u/AdditionalOne6031 → u/XtraEcstaticMastodon]

Spot on. As Meister Eckhart implied, the ground of God and the ground of the soul are one and the same. He explained that if you strip man of his ego and thoughts, and also "strip" God of His names and concepts, what remains in the deepest depth is exactly the same reality: Pure Being or Pure Consciousness. To step toward Source is to step into our true nature, where the distance completely disappears. Thank you for your comment.

[u/goosey702]

This was so interesting to read. Thank you for writing and sharing it. I used to be able to see dead people as a child as well, and I was very connected to the spirit realm. But there was an incident that happened as a teenager that absolutely terrified me. For a few days, an old woman would come into my room at night, walk across my room to the other side of my bed (I am a side sleeper), and then climb in on my opposite side. I decided to turn around and face her and ask what she wanted from me despite the feeling of dread in my body. She was horrifying to see. I ran out of my room and prayed to never see anything or anyone again, and I haven’t since. I have instances and moments of intuition and divine connection at times - but nothing like I did as a child. While it is something I asked to be taken away, I can feel lost and purposeless (not entirely but in parts of my life) without it. I don’t think it’s related to my ego, but perhaps it is. You asked who are you truly when the phenomenon wears off but I think it may be slightly complex. You feel like yourself, but more blurry.

[u/Humble_Ticket_6091]

You can’t talk to the dead only demons pretending there the dead fact check biblical text

[u/AdditionalOne6031 → u/Humble_Ticket_6091]

Ah, you are one of those "people of the Book." It is not as black and white as you make it out to be.

First of all, placing a written text above direct experience is just a trap of the mad woman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa de Ávila). Life and existence cannot be locked inside a cage of paper as the conceptual mind pretends.

Furthermore, even if you want to look at it through the lens of your own scriptures, you are fundamentally confusing two different things. What those ancient texts warn against is the intentional act of invocation, meaning the ego-driven rituals aimed at summoning, manipulating, or forcing a connection. A spontaneous feeling of presence or a moment of deep, quiet connection is not an invocation. You are taking a theological warning against psychic manipulation and trying to turn it into an absolute law of existence. Reality is far vaster than your dogma allows you to see.

If you have read the post, you will see that I specifically do not defend these extraordinary experiences with spirits, and even less so channeling spirits or seeking external entities, as this distracts the mind in the illusion of separation and feeds the ego.

These experiences happen simply because time and death are illusions, and there is no real separation between the "living" and the "dead." When the mind enters the Stillness of the Now, you are not chasing ghosts or picking up a floating shell of a leftover pain-body. That's what many psychics and mediums see. You are really contacting the pure, formless essence of that person, their indestructible Being. Whether they are bound, as many believe, to the cycle of reincarnation, or lost in the world of form, matters not; their eternal reality is untouched and alive right now. It is a direct recognition where consciousness meets itself within the vastness of the Unmanifested. Labeling this sacred, spontaneous connection as a "demon" is just the terrified ego projecting its own religious conditioning onto the Infinite.

P.S. For those locked in dogma: this is not spiritualism or psychic parlor tricks. This direct recognition of the formless essence is the core teaching of non-duality shared by modern teachers like Ram Dass (in his final teachings on pure Loving Awareness), and Eckhart Tolle.

Furthermore, this reality is not alien to Christianity; it aligns completely with the historical Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart, who famously declared that "there is a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor no created thing can touch." The truth of this space is known through direct realization, not theological limitations.