Copyright © 2016 by James Van Praagh, Sunny Dawn Johnston, and Lisa McCourt. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review. This is a work of creative nonfiction. While all the stories in this book are true, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved. Cover design by Emma Smith Cover art by unchalee_foto and LilKar | Shutterstock Hierophant Publishing 8301 Broadway, Suite 219 San Antonio, TX 78209 888-800-4240 www.hierophantpublishing.com If you are unable to order this book from your local bookseller, you may order directly from the publisher. Library of Congress Control Number available upon request. ISBN for the paper back edition: 978-1-938289-55-2 ISBN for the hardcover edition: 978-1-938289-68-2 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed on acid-free paper in Canada Printed on acid-free paper in Canada www.redwheelweiser.com www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter Contents Introduction by Lisa McCourt 1. Spirit Strings James Van Praagh 2. Only Kindness Matters Sunny Dawn Johnston 3. All That Matters Lisa McCourt 4. The Real Deal Chelsea Hanson 5. Constance Kristen Marchus-Hemstad 6. Still There Wendy Kitts 7. Mermaid's Message Phoenix Rising Star 8. Grandma's Gifts Marla Steele 9. Through the Heart of a Child Shelly Kay Orr 10. The Documentary Ellen Cooper 11. A Mother's Gift Kathy Jackson 12. POP! Goes the Dryer Janet Rozzi 13. Undying Friendship Michelle McDonald Vlastnik 14. The Spirit of Cancer Jodie Harvala 15. The Miracle of Marc Jean Culver 16. Conversations with Max Mandy Berlin 17. A Divinely Orchestrated “Accident” Karen Hasselo 18. A Father's Message Vicki Higgins 19. The Mirror with a Message Laurel Geise, DMin 20. The Golden Eiffel Tower Christie Melonson, PhD 21. My Mother's Gift Kim Dayoc 22. The Gift Thea Alexander 23. Moving Beyond Fear Jessica McKay 24. The Heart of an Intuitive Parent Debra J. Snyder, PhD 25. Miraculous Cracks Karen James 26. Surrender Avenue Jacob Nordby 27. Angel in Disguise Shanda Trofe 28. Life After Death Heidi Connolly About the Authors Introduction Lisa McCourt Is the universe a friendly place? Albert Einstein has famously claimed that this is the most important question you can ask yourself. He knew your answer to that question would determine the quality of your life. He knew the extent to which we believe the universe is a friendly place is the precise extent to which we experience joy, peace, and contentment. Conversely, if you believe the universe is a hostile place, your experience of life will bear out that belief. Science has since come a long way in validating Dr. Einstein's bang-on claim. Thanks to advances in quantum physics, we now know with verifiable scientific certainty that our beliefs affect our experience of reality. Maybe it's not easy for you to acknowledge that up until this very moment you've been creating your reality, step by step, unwittingly, from the springboard of your individual belief system. It's likely you've never been made aware of this process, and likely you aren't even readily aware of most of your beliefs. But isn't it a relief to realize that you can change anything in your experience simply by changing your beliefs around it? This truth isn't limited to the question of whether or not the universe is friendly but extends to the very laws that govern that universe. This book is for people who choose to believe in a force of love so immense, so all encompassing, so inextricably interwoven within everyone and everything that it transcends paltry life/death delineations. But it's not for us believers alone. It's also for the “cuspers”—those on the cusp of believing in such a glorious and impervious force of love but who can't quite wrap their heads around it. And even though we die-hard believers cherish the accounts in this book (because we get teased a lot and enjoy validation!), the cuspers will appreciate them even more. It's the cuspers who'll feel the quickening in their gut as they absorb these words. They're the ones who'll have the giddy, coming-home sensation wash over them as the niggling suspicions they've long buried come bubbling up to the surface of their awareness. They're the ones who will feel the chills of “Aha!” and the tingles of “Yes! Deep down, I've always known!” Maybe you're not sure you're ready for that kind of full-on acceptance. We present-day humans like to look smart and feel in control. We like to think we've got it all figured out. And, inconveniently, the spirit world doesn't let us do that. The spirit world—even for those of us who know that world is as real as our elbows—is shrouded in mystery. No one is precisely sure how it works. No one. Not the religious master, not the seasoned meditator, not the near-death survivor who's come back to describe the afterlife, not the most brilliant scientist or the most revered guru. No one knows exactly how the realms beyond this one operate; no one has the rule book. This makes lots of cuspers so uncomfortable they choose to just deny the whole metaphysical package. It feels safer that way. But hiding out in the constraints of that artificial safety comes at such personal cost, diminishing the richness of your life experience to a fraction of what it could be. If you've felt the restriction of disbelief, I invite you now to set aside your desire for hard-line facts just long enough to taste the mystery of surrendering to a force so powerfully satisfying, juicy, and in-your-bones right that it's worth giving up your plebeian need for black-and-white answers. Because once you taste this Technicolor force, you never go back. Once you taste it, you understand that its inherent mystery is not a flaw, but just another facet of its irreproachable perfection. The only important question before you right now is this: Would you like to live in a world of miracles, governed by a love this powerfully embracive and all encompassing? If so, it's available to you. Your beliefs are a choice. As Einstein has pointed out, your experience of the world you live in is also a choice. Most of the contributors to this compilation are no different from you. They aren't any more innately psychic, or energetically sensitive, or wise, or spiritually talented than you are. There's just one thing they have in common: they believe that miracles like the ones found in these pages are possible. You'll hear some of them say they didn't believe until it happened to them, but I would argue that on some subterranean level a thread of belief ran through each of them—a vein of hopefulness that the universe, in all its mind-blowing complexity, is not only friendly, but rooted in a love so far beyond our comprehension that it defies the constructs of our limited present-day paradigms. You have that same thread running through you or you wouldn't have picked up this book. If you'd like to experience the kinds of things these courageous, vulnerable contributors have experienced, nurture the thread. Make room in your heart for miracles. Pull on the thread until it unravels those hardened, crusty layers of cynicism that only serve to cut you off from the wellspring of infinite, pure love you're made of. Dip into the well and see how right and natural it feels to join the ranks of the believers. Welcome home. We've been waiting for you.
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