“I See Dead People.”

It might have been M. Night Shayamalan who made that statement famous and Haley Joel Osments’s character that makes you remember how scared he was when he first acknowledged it, but it is where “Sixth Sense” ends where I feel I have ultimately ended up.

I have always felt like someone has been watching “over me,” I just thought to myself, “Maybe it is G-d…”, “Maybe it was in my head,” “Maybe people would think I was a freak,” Stephanie, just don’t question it. Suppress, Suppress, Suppress.  I didn’t have proof and it seemed too daunting to try and find out how I would get proof, so I compartmentalized anything that felt “supernatural.”  I would still have that nagging feeling, but it was easier to hide from it.  That is until, I died.

As you will read in 37 Seconds, I did not question where those premonitions came from at first.  I didn’t pray to G-d or meditate for an answer to reveal itself.  I was in panic mode and I felt those visions were real.  It felt like a tidal wave running through me and I had to do something, anything to save my life.

When recovering from my amniotic fluid embolism and in complete shock, I realized everyone who had made me feel like I was crazy for talking about those visions quieted down and were in their own state of shock.  I also understood in that moment, no one would be able to give me any answers, how could they?  They didn’t believe me in the first place. But now that they witnessed it, they were forming their own possible reasons. Now was the time I needed to ignore them and find my own answers.

I have a strong faith, but after everything I went through, I still couldn’t accept that something or someone outside of this dimension helped me with 100% blind faith.  There had to be a reason I was feeling it throughout my body.  That I was seeing things beyond this world. There HAD to be an explanation.

The therapy, as many of you saw a snippet of it on this website or on Facebook  shows me in incredible pain.  This next clip will show you the first time I was able to see within those 37 seconds in Heaven.  There was a lot of download in those seconds.  A lot. So when many people say “she didn’t die long enough to experience all that she says she did,” I say, time and space do not exist in this other dimension.  As discussed in this DailyMail UK article, Professor Lanza shows how space and time don’t mean what we know it to mean in a linear fashion.  And understanding and believing in that from many sources in my research, helped me open up to much more.

It is why I was able to see many loved ones who had passed and give back messages to their respective loved ones I knew.  It is why I met others I did not know who had messages I couldn’t have possibly known to give back to their loved ones and why they kept asking me “how do you know this?”  My answer had always been “I DON’T KNOW!”  A lucky guess? But how could I know about a detailed coin, or a specific design on an apron a mother used to wear 30 years before her death for someone I just met.  Or how is it the visions of a clear, beautiful Christmas experience with my friend and her late father came into my mind, with what he and she were wearing, doing, sitting and saying. HOW?  As more and more of these experiences started happening and my premonitions kept coming, I felt like I had accidentally opened a portal and there was no turning back.

My husband at one point said, “Well close that portal!  It is interfering with your every day life.”  I said “I DON’T KNOW HOW?!”  I spoke to my therapist, Linda, and she said “Stephanie, you might not want to think of yourself as a Medium, but it is what you are.”  I thought about it and I told her “I am not a medium.”  I felt, wrongly so, that a medium was a svengali, a side-show act, a circus freak– name all the labels you want and it was how I felt.  I couldn’t grasp onto it and I didn’t want everyone asking me about what their relatives were doing on the other side.

A friend of mine produces the show “Tyler Henry, Hollywood Medium.”   In the first episode he spoke of being 10 years old, the same way I describe myself at 10 years old in my book and how he and I related to our grandmother’s about knowing of their passing.  He then talks about the physical symptoms and the way those visions come into his head and body when he is about to do a reading.  I texted my friend.. “Steph, I experience everything this amazing young medium is discussing, almost identical. I want to learn more.”  It was the first time I could relate to someone’s Tell.  This was all new to me. I was having this all thrown at me at once and I just had all of this trauma and many years of life to deny its actual existence. Tyler is so blessed to be so young and so accepting. And his mother has been so embracing of it.  I only wish that was my experience.  So what Tyler knows to be fact has taken me 44 years to finally accept.  I am jealous, in such a good way, to know that I am not alone and that by owning it, accepting it, more truths will reveal themselves and life will be more rewarding than ever before. I am nowhere near his talent, and it isn’t my destiny to follow in his footsteps.  It’s taken me years to accept this as a gift and not a curse.  I am grateful to be enlightened that there are others who experience similar feelings. THAT is empowering and validating. I also know things are happening more rapidly as I accept them to be truth. And that knowing, has helped me and many others to heal. All of this is no coincidence.

The more things that happen on a weekly basis, the more I have no choice but to let go of everything I thought before and appreciate and embrace the new life I am now living.  I accept the new space.  I accept what comes my way.  I accept the criticism and the judgements as not a direct affect at me, but a perceived conditioning of others and their projections.  Because my truth, as difficult as the journey has been, is now my truth.  I am living it. And life as I have known it, is forever changed.

I finally have admitted to myself, “I’m an Accidental Medium.” I didn’t ask for this.  But now that I’m in it, I am in it. Open to it and all that comes with it.

I definitely see dead people.  Which means to me, they are not really dead.  Their spirits, just like yours are forever thriving, growing and experiencing new things.  Just as mine is today. And just like in the end of the movie,  I am not scared of it, I am grateful for it and have accepted it as truth.  And those around me, who have been witness to it, accept it too.  Finally, everyone is being heard.

I AM JUST ME. Stephanie Arnold. Wife of Jonathan Arnold. Mother to three amazing children. Strong. Present. In both body and spirit. Full of light and love.

 

Lori Allen Photography

 

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Regression Therapy: Helped me to see the improbable truth. Warning: Graphic Video Below

What happened to me was extremely traumatic and no one had answers for me, as to how I knew so many details of how I would die, months before it occurred.  Traditional therapy wasn’t working so a friend recommended regression therapy. A type of therapy where they use hypnotherapy to take you back into those moments of trauma. Maybe this was my answer to be able to finally move forward in my life. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I remember and maybe if I re-lived them, it would put this crippling fear I had to live, into perspective.

I was not prepared for what I saw. No one was.

I began therapy and videotaped the sessions, as I had never been hypnotized before and wanted to remember the details. I just never expected what would actually be revealed.

At the time I couldn’t tell you why I was receiving the messages I had been receiving before I gave birth, but after my therapy, I absolutely, unequivocally know how I got them. I was able to go back into those terrifying moments and learn that everything might have felt chaotic and scary at the time, and don’t get me wrong, it absolutely was, but now, from this new angle, I could breathe, realizing the worst part was really behind me.

I started to heal.

THERAPY WORKED

My husband noticed the change, immediately. My children were getting their mother back. I was no longer petrified of having a spontaneous heart attack or reading any articles about other AFE stories.

Prior to regression, I hadn’t wanted to step foot through the entrance of the hospital and now I wanted to go back to say “Thank You” to those who were there in our desperate time of need.

I was ready to move forward and thought, maybe writing what had happened will not only be good for my memory, but maybe it could be cathartic for others.

HEALING

I went into great detail about everything I saw and learned because I wanted people to know, they too needed to force themselves to listen and do something when their moment comes. Because eventually, it will come. I forced myself to listen to those premonitions. I forced myself to seek out other therapy. And I forced myself to push through the pain in order to be the mom and wife I wanted to be. And if I could do it, maybe others would be inspired to do the same. Maybe if I could turn my discombobulated sentences into a manuscript, it could help others. I am happy to say that day arrived.

When we launched the book, 37 Seconds, a few months ago, I shied away from talking too much about the “regression” aspect of the book.  It was too painful and I didn’t think people would be interested in the therapy part as much as the intuition and the premonitions.  And to be perfectly honest, I was still working through the pain in therapy, so talking about it, when I couldn’t even transcribe those therapy sessions for the book (thank you my cousin Sari Padorr), was definitely not going to happen. Writing it in a book and putting it out there in black and white was one thing. Talking and showing it, was another.

But eventually I knew it was going to catch up with me, as I received an astounding number of emails from people who had read the book wanting to know if regression therapy would be right for them. If it could help their own suffering. I realized, I couldn’t shy away from it any longer.  Not only was I blessed to have survived, and had more time to heal, but I was fortunate to have videotaped those sessions.  I just never thought I would share them with anyone else, other than my immediate family.

My husband cannot watch this for more than a few seconds.  I have been told by people who have seen some of the footage, including my doctors, that it is unlike anything they have ever seen.  I decided that I needed to breathe through this and allow people to see the rawest part of my life, first-hand.

IT WAS SO REAL, IT SHOCKED EVERYONE

This is the right time.  Not on a talk show, podcast or radio.  Just here. Being me. With whoever wants to see it.  Whenever they want to see it.

I will warn you, it is not easy to watch.  It is real. It is raw and it has forever changed my life and the lives of people around me.

LESSONS

I learned I am much stronger than I gave myself credit before going through this. I am no longer searching for who sent me those messages and where those pieces of the puzzle go. Everything has been carefully put back into place with a new foundation and I clearly see the big picture.  I am whole, but in a different way.

It took me dying to understand how it is to live. 

Coming out on the “other side” of this trauma, I am learning how to deal with my newfound “gift” in a way I can grasp and explain.  After all of the research and determination to make sense of what happened, I am finally accepting it all as evidence of spiritual existence. And  others, including many of my doctors agree with that sentiment.

I look forward to learning more about this other dimension of life. Each day opens up new ways on how to communicate, connect and create space to see what I didn’t think was possible. Yes, it took work, but no, you don’t need to die to see that it is possible. It exists and I am alive to show you how to open your eyes. It is there for all of us to see.

My journey is ongoing and so is the work I will do to stay healthy for me and for my family. I am committed to helping others face their traumas, fear, and aid them in their path to healing. It would be a pleasure and a privilege to have you on this ride with me.

Thank you,

Stephanie

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It truly is a WONDERFUL life!

The holiday season is a time where we often reflect on the wonders of the past year, show our love to the ones we hold close and celebrate with grand family traditions. One tradition that spans many families during the holiday season is to curl up on a couch and watch classic holiday movies like Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas or Meet Me in St. Louis. But there is one holiday movie that reigns supreme at reminding us what the season is all about.

 

It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite holiday movie. And it is no surprise that I am not alone with that sentiment, because it tops most lists for best holiday films. It’s hard to say exactly what makes it the best. It might be the writing that bring us quotes like “What is it you want, Mary? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down… I’ll give you the moon, Mary.” or “every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”  It might be the charming, playful nature of Jimmy Stewart that wins us over with every smile. Or the feeling that Bedford Falls is just like anywhere U.S.A. The message from the film that rings the loudest and clearest for me now is how life can change in a flash and sometimes, we need to be reminded why we should cherish it.

In the movie we see George Bailey, a beloved father, husband and a beacon
in his community, reach the lowest point of his life and is left contemplating suicide. He is greeted by a funny old man named Clarence, who claims to be George’s guardian angel. George doesn’t believe a word of it and declares he wishes he never was born. Clarence then shows George all the lives he has touched and how Bedford Falls would be, for the worse, had he never been born. Thank goodness for Clarence because he helped change George’s perspective.

Uncle Marvin

I believe we all have loved ones around us, acting just like Clarence. They
watch over us and keep us safe.  I had my own “Clarence” with my Uncle
Marvin. Although he had passed many years prior, I now know that he was the one sending me those messages to help save my life. As I describe in 37 Seconds, he was the one who made me see what life would be like if I was gone.  I didn’t realize it until I had died, but he was there.  He was ALWAYS there.

 

You can know they are there by the little things, like the time you feel that little breeze with a hint of her perfume or find the book he referenced to all the time, out of place, or the time you were in a car accident and walked away without a scratch on you. (That just happened to me last month).

These are all little and big signs of those loved ones watching over us from the beyond and keeping us safe.  That I had my passed loved ones trying to warn me to fight for this wonderful life.

We need only acknowledge these passed love ones by listening with an open heart.  Who knows, we might just help them “earn their wings” or their messages might help save your life. We don’t need to die, have a near death experience or see what our life would be like had we never been born to realize that this IS a wonderful life.

So during this holiday season hold your families close, laugh full and heartily, take in all of those precious moments and keep an ear out for bells.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours!

Stephanie

What Happens When We Die?

This week I had the privilege to speak at Chicago Ideas week on the subject of “Life’s Big Questions.”  Among the speakers were: Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund; David Gregory, former host of Meet the Press, talking about his new book How’s your Faith?;  Dan Diaz, one of the strongest men I know, who spoke about his wife Brittany Maynard‘s life and her plight to die with dignity; and Patricia Marx, former SNL writer and staff writer for The New Yorker, who wrote a very funny book called Let’s be less stupid!. And then there was me.  I was speaking on “What Happens When We Die?”
Alex Wagner of MSNBC hosted the 12 minute Q & A, but as is often the case with time constraints, there is always much more left unsaid.  Alex was gregarious, funny, witty and inquisitive.  I could have spent hours talking to her as a friend, forgetting the fact that there were 1,000 pairs of ears in the live audience listening to what we were saying.  I wanted people to come away with the importance of being your own best advocate, understanding how your intuition can save your life, and finally knowing we are not alone.

What do I mean by that?  There are many neurologists and scientists who will say that as the brain shuts down, the hallucinations people see are common (DMT). And that there are so many people with the same experiences in their near death moments that, in essence, it is physiological event, not a spiritual one.  I would counter that with a couple of things.  First: These scientists are studying the brain, but they are not your brain.  They can assume what you are seeing is based on a physiological response, but they do not 100% KNOW.  Second: Why can’t so many people having the same experience lead to another conclusion? It IS a spiritual experience, something Divine working in tandem with the scientific.  The great Carl Sagan had something to say on the topic of science vs. spirit and why the two are not mutually exclusive.

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”  – Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

 

What I am about to tell you had scientific and spiritual explanations all over it. I will not attempt to talk about anyone else’s experience but my own.  Others may have had different accounts to their own Near Death Experience (NDE), but this is only what happened through my own “windows to my soul.” So what happened when I died?

I separated from my body.  I go into great detail in my book 37 Seconds about it, so I don’t need to reiterate it here, but there is another dimension.  A life after death.   I talk about the detailed visions I had 3 months before I gave birth, and no scientist – not a one – can tell me how that was possible.  I talk about what happened in the operating room, down the hall and across the street with what people are wearing, doing, saying (with validation from those people I was seeing) after I flat-lined, and I am given zero insight that there is a scientific explanation.  Believe me, for my PhD Economist husband’s sake, I asked. A lot. Yet, every time I asked, they tried to come up with something, anything, to make what I was saying improbable and likely there was a good explanation for it.

Okay, but what?  I was given excuses by doctors that the premonitions were a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”  When pushed if they actually believed that (because that in of itself would mean they believe in a spiritual component), they ultimately said “It’s the only thing we could come up with, and no, we don’t believe that.”  I was relieved, because if they did, I would have to go on a quest to see if I could actually imagine my organs combining and hemorrhage and think my way to dying.  My own intuition tells me I cannot and that these scientists wish they could have an answer for themselves.   I felt for the longest time I was in an episode of House, MD and they were trying to dissect everything to make it make sense.  There was an article in Psychology Today I found interesting discussing the subject of why people claim to see ghosts at a time of extreme stress and that at that high level of unusual stress will cause them to see apparitions in order to feel less alone and help save them. This would normally be great, except in my case, it does not help me understand my situation.  I never, for 3 months, thought a spirit was present giving me these accurate premonitions and it wasn’t until I went back into those moments through therapy, in the comfort of a healing environment that I saw them there.  I also had details from individual’s passed loved ones and since then, others, that I could not have known just by having a “good guess,” and I wasn’t under heavy stress when those spirits revealed themselves. I am open to more scientific proof, but what I HAVE been able to prove is that when it comes to what I saw in the future or back into the past, science has no explanation.

I came across an interesting perspective that you may find as fascinating as I did, from Cliff Gilley, a Technologist, problem solver, product manager and lawyer:

“There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that ghosts (intelligent spirits of those who have passed away) exist.  There are two possible conclusions to draw from this fact: (1) that ghosts do not actually exist; or (2) that we have not yet acquired the scientific knowledge to understand or measure their existence.

There are a great many things that have been presumed not to exist, yet have been identified and scientifically validated as our technology and understanding of the universe increased.”

Science and technology helped save my life. The medical tools were in place and they were prepared to help me to survive.  But if you ask the doctors why I survived, they said “they were prepared, because I prepared them.”  And for that, they have no scientific explanation. One doctor, Dr. Elena Kamel, Associate Professor of clinical OB/GYN at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, went insofar as to tell me “I can’t give you a medical reason why you survived.  I think you need to go spiritual on this one.”  And I absolutely agree with her.  There is no doubt in my mind, I was saved by a spirit. Actually, many of them.

I was helped by my mother’s brother, my uncle, who was someone I loved very much and had passed away 20 years before. My grandmother from Cuba, who passed many years before my uncle, was by my side the moment I coded and I realized she had always been there.  I’ve seen people I know and others I did not.  I had messages in those moments that I sent back to their families. Those families were in shock by the messages that didn’t quite make sense to me, but made perfect sense to them. Again, I go into greater detail in the book about them.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not a medium. Things come to me periodically, organically, and I SENSE them and then I SAY them.  Every time I talk about what I am seeing, it affects who I am speaking to at their core.  I do not shy away from the messages anymore and there is a reason I am getting them at the time I am getting them.  I am now just more highly aware and in tune with what I am seeing, because I have seen it over and over again since I died.  And I am not alone with what I see. I point to many examples within my manuscript.

There is another life after this lifetime. Actually, there is another life running parallel with this lifetime.  A fourth dimension, if you will. Remember that Christmas ornament that moved when there was no wind or reason for it to have moved? Or the smell of your passed loved one’s perfume at what seemed like a random time or place? A book that had fallen off the shelf for no apparent reason.  Or even hearing a voice in the quiet moments of your life? I believe all of it are messages from the other side.  We are just so convinced it cannot be possible, that we brush it off as coincidence.  Until something happens dramatically to stop you in your tracks or there is complete silence, you will likely miss it.

That old saying “Life is Short” is a fallacy.  Life doesn’t end because our bodies die, we just take a different form.  Maybe scientists want to prove this is not the case and that is fine, but I would bet that toward the end of their lives, many of them will question if they will live on.  I know something else awaits, because I have seen it.  Many spirits saved my life.  Many spirits came together to give me information I could not have “guessed” the answers to and there is irrefutable truth and documentation to all of that.  There is no doubt that there is a life after death, and it awaits us all.

#NoCoincidence (most of the time!)

co·in·ci·dence

kōˈinsədəns/

noun

noun: coincidence; plural noun: coincidences; noun: co-incidence; plural noun: co-incidences

• 1. 
a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

My husband dislikes when I say this because as a statistician, he says “What that says is that coincidences never happen. That is a statistical improbability!” He continues, “So what you are saying is that EVERY remarkable occurrence is predestined.” I say unequivocally, “Yes.” I completely acknowledge what I am saying might be a little extreme for someone like my academic soul mate to accept, but I firmly believe extraordinary sets of circumstances have fate written all over them. And my story is one of those series of events I cannot chalk up to “coincidence.” My husband happens to agree with that point, but hoping to caution me on taking such an extreme position with every rare occurrence, he pointed out an article published last week in EPOCH TIMES that discussed the fact that meaningful coincidences happen more frequently to people who have had a near death experience (NDE).

Dr Bruce Greyson, psychiatrist and neurobehavioral professor at the University of Virginia analyzed the WCS (Weird Coincidence Scale) referenced in the article, saying “The data suggest that prior tendency to recognize coincidences and to analyze or interpret them do not lead to spiritual experiences such as NDEs. Rather, spiritual experiences such as NDEs, and the increased spirituality that typically follows, lead to increased experiences of meaningful coincidence and increased analysis and interpretation of these coincidences.”

Jonathan said “Maybe there is something to this after all. You have to admit that you are trying to find more meaning into why things happen since your NDE.” Yes, he is correct, but after connecting all the dots to our story before my NDE, I realized this was “too close to be mere coincidence” and this article doesn’t take into account stories like mine and maybe yours. Again, my husband agrees with that statement, but he is not convinced that every remarkable act is predestined. I respectfully disagree, but am open to discuss. And seeing that the only way I can prove to him what I believe to be true is to find that fateful link in every act, we are going to just agree to disagree. Until there is more conclusive evidence on both of our perspectives.

As you will read in 37 Seconds, my “meaningful coincidences” happened before I had my NDE. I had six premonitions during the last trimester of my pregnancy.  Six.  All very detailed, all the tests were negative, yet every single one of them came true. Even more so, I talk about the doctors and their “coincidences” before and after my brush with death. I even discuss the probabilities of them doing the things they did prior to my Amniotic Fluid Embolism and the actions they took to prepare themselves, that serendipitously worked to save my life. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I am not going to claim that all who die versus the ones who survive have “coincidence” written all over them. That would be incredibly disrespectful to those struggling with their losses and the ones who have passed. Tragedy is tragic now matter how it ends up in your lap.  I can only imagine your faith in something spiritual will help you get through the darkest of times. Finding out “why” is one’s own personal journey and one opinion to which I will never claim to have any answer.  The only thing I can say is what I explain in the book regarding the afterlife and what I saw.  I have immeasurable empathy for those stricken with illness and who have lost loved ones. So please do not think I am throwing this opinion around lightly. It does not encompass this particular subject. Loss is loss. My family came close to it and I will say in the end we were “lucky” it didn’t come to pass.  I am thinking this is an example, where my husband points out, I should not be so extreme in my opinion. Point taken.

I can accept it may be hard to disregard coincidences altogether. Some people might spend their entire lives focusing on the reasons something happens to them, never finding the answer and driving themselves crazy searching for it. It is easier to chalk it up to chance. You might never know the reason why something extraordinary happened to you. In my humble opinion, I don’t believe (in most circumstances) it was by happenstance.

My statements are still driving my husband crazy! I have loved him from the first moment I laid eyes on him and I like to remind him how our “chance” meeting was not a fluke. He smiles, understanding the analogy. He is a work in progress. And so am I.