An Alternative Method for Spirit Contact
For those seeking the next level of spirit contact beyond readings.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com.
So, you’ve had successful readings with mediums and are now seeking the next level of spirit contact. This article explains one I had about fifteen years ago that allowed me to feel my deceased father’s presence, hear his voice (in my head), and even feel him hug me.
This experience was so meaningful that I became certified to facilitate it for others. Once I was prepared, the very first person I tried it with had an extraordinary experience. She, too, met with her deceased father, spent time with him and felt his presence, walked hand-in-hand with him down a hallway and received helpful advice from him as they walked.
If you’ve had readings and were wondering how to take the experience to a new level, you’ll love this article.
Spirit Contact Through Hypnosis
Many people are having direct contact with people in spirit using hypnosis. This is where a person uses hypnotic techniques to relax and connect with deceased loved ones. It’s not nearly as common an experience as mediumship, but it can be even more effective since the connection is more direct. In my first experience with this technique, I saw and felt my father's presence in spirit as if we were in the same room together. It was truly awe-inspiring.
What I’m calling spirit contact with hypnosis (using hypnotic techniques) is an engaging personal experience that allows any person to connect with a loved one in spirit without an intermediary. By this, I mean the communication with the spirit is direct for the experiencer, rather than having a person (like a medium) relay the communication from the spirit to you. This alone is what takes spirit contact to a new level.
In this experience, you communicate with a deceased loved one telepathically and can also see them and feel their presence near you. You can go so far as to hug them in this hypnotic-induced ethereal space.
This experience involves a facilitator (practitioner) certified in hypnotic technique who guides you verbally but does not stand between you and the spirit contact itself. The verbal guidance leads you into a relaxed state of mind and then assists you in moving the experience forward.
Why the Hypnosis Facilitator Is Necessary
You might wonder why you can’t simply use a recorded script for this process rather than hiring a hypnotherapist. The answer is that you could. People have had past-life regression experiences using a recording. However, one key issue with doing this is that the experience falls flat compared to using a facilitator.
We’ve learned from past-life regressions and between-lives regressions that the experiencer can become so involved with what they are experiencing that they figuratively get suspended in time. The facilitator is needed to guide the experience to the next stage. A recorded script can do this, but it’s too easy to ignore the instructions.
From my own experiences, if not for the hypnosis facilitator, I might enjoy the relaxed hypnotic state for hours—because time flies by in this state of mind—yet never move forward in the experience. The facilitator gives you time to take in what you’re experiencing but then urges you to move to the next phase.
The hypnosis practitioner is also needed to suggest questions for the spirits who are present. Once your loved one in spirit is present, the facilitator helps you with questions to ask your loved one in spirit, such as: What message do they have for you? Again, this is important because it’s natural for a person having the experience to be content with sitting in the presence of their loved one (because it feels so good), but then they never end up asking questions that they later wish they had asked.
My Experience with Spirit Contact Through Hypnosis
The first time I experienced this event fifteen years ago, it was part of a more complicated experience facilitated by a practitioner via telephone. Even though there was much more to the session, my favorite part of the entire experience was meeting with my father. It is such a simple system for guiding clients toward spirit contact that I’ve come to believe many practitioners miss its value and significance as a healing practice. The weight of this experience can be so compelling and emotional that I still remember it like it happened yesterday.
In my first spirit contact through hypnosis experience, I initially could feel my deceased father’s presence beside me. I also had an intuitive knowing of what he was communicating to me. I could hear his voice in my head.
Feeling my father’s presence was new to me, so it immediately melted me into tears. It became a sentimental reunion with someone I loved and hadn’t seen in years. The facilitator encouraged me to ask my father questions; his answers were relevant and meaningful. He taught me how to recognize when he was around me (when I wasn’t using hypnosis), and he gave me signs he would send me to remind me he was around during my day-to-day life.
I wanted to bask in his presence, so I was disappointed when the practitioner moved the experience in another direction, ending my time with my dad. As I mentioned, I don’t believe she understood the value of this experience alone and erroneously thought she needed to add more to the session, the rest of which I don’t even recall.
Because this extraordinary experience uplifted my heart for years, I wanted others to experience this direct connection with spirit. I had already become certified in hypnosis in the early 90s, so I got my past-life regression certification from two schools (I wasn’t confident enough with the first training) and set out to practice facilitating past lives to get used to the methods.
The first time I attempted a past-life regression with a friend, she connected with a deceased loved one instead of experiencing a past lifetime. My spirit guides clearly knew that I’d become certified in past-life regression to facilitate my subjects to meet with deceased loved ones on the other side, so they decided to hasten the process. As I directed my friend to go into a past life, she opened an imaginary door and was instantly met by her deceased father on the other side.
My friend embraced her father with tears and could feel his arms around her. They held hands as he walked her down a hallway, and then he gave her advice on what she needed to change in her life to expand and grow personally and spiritually, which resonated deeply with her. My friend still recalls the experience and her father’s advice with clarity and gratitude. His words were quite direct yet filled with love and compassion.
This first experiment taught me what I needed to know to create this experience for others. I then facilitated a second subject through the experience, getting additional feedback from her. I adjusted my approach a bit more and facilitated the experience with a third person. This continued with multiple people until COVID-19 hit in 2020.
My work as an afterlife investigator may have improved my abilities as a hypnotic facilitator for this experience, but I think anyone proficient in hypnosis can facilitate a positive experience. More importantly, I feel that spirit contact through hypnosis is the next level of experience following mediumship. These sessions allow no room for misinterpretation, given that the communication is direct (sans a third-party interpreter). There is nothing more precious than feeling your deceased loved one in your presence and feeling them hug you. Granted, this is not the same as a physical hug, but it’s the next best thing given the circumstances.
Spirit contact through hypnosis can exceed the benefits of a reading with a medium because it leads to knowing, and this is coming from a guy who highly recommends mediumship readings. The most significant difference is that messages often get lost in the medium’s choice of words or interpretation, making them fall flat and meaningless. But when a person connects with a spiritual being through hypnosis, telepathic communication and sentient feelings are direct communications that cannot be misinterpreted.
Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This?
Most of the time, when you get a reading with a medium, messages will come through from your deceased loved one. This is because the medium is experienced with using their ability. But you might not be experienced with hypnosis. Going under hypnosis is like a deep meditation, so if you’re unfamiliar with either experience, your experience with spirit contact through hypnosis might be less than satisfactory. The issue typically isn’t with the facilitator (hypnosis practitioner); it’s more likely that you need to learn what to expect during hypnosis, overcome any skepticism you have about it, and have more than one session to warm up to it.
It’s important to note that not every subject I worked with had the same experience as my first subject, who met her father. Most people did, but a few who had never been regressed, didn’t meditate regularly, or never experienced hypnosis beforehand were less successful.
One woman felt super relaxed but never met with anyone in spirit. Another young woman was met by a husband from a past life and a spirit guide, which led to an extraordinary experience but not a reunion with a deceased loved one from this lifetime. Those who did have positive experiences said it held healing qualities beyond those gained from readings they had experienced with mediums. But it’s essential that you know that your chances of a successful experience are often related to your past experiences with meditation, hypnosis, or regression.
The caveat to this is that if you’re the type of person who has out-of-body experiences every so often, has had more than one dream visitation, or has been known to see spirits now and then, you’re probably wired such that you’re going to have a positive experience. But if you’re somewhat skeptical and have not had any otherworldly or spiritual experiences (like those listed), it may take a little practice to get you there. That was me in the early 2000s, and it took me a long time and a persistent hypnosis facilitator to make my first past-life regression happen. I’m sure glad she didn’t give up on me.
Similar Experiences Go by Different Names
As I mentioned in a recent article, I interviewed Dr. Allan Botkin about a similar experience with a twist. It’s worth repeating here because his work directly relates to the experience I’m discussing.
Dr. Botkin’s method for facilitating spirit contact wasn’t hypnosis but rather rapid eye movements via EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). To explain EMDR in a nutshell, the practitioner waves an object back and forth in front of the client’s face several times while the client moves her eyes to follow the object. The process mimics rapid eye movement. The best visual that comes to mind is how hypnosis practitioners originally waved a pocket watch on a chain in front of their subjects (rarely used anymore).
For Dr. Botkin, what initially happened by accident was honed into a predictable method for inducing direct spirit communication. The result was like my personal experiments using hypnosis. His patients were experiencing what seemed like direct contact with people in spirit, including the hugs.
In that interview, Dr. Botkin told me about the first time one of his patients had contact with a spirit. “My first case was a Vietnam veteran I call Sam, and, while in Vietnam, he became very close to an orphaned ten-year-old Vietnamese girl, who basically lived at their base camp and helped out with the chores and so on. And he developed a very close father-daughter relationship with her, and his intention was to bring the little girl, named Leigh, back to the States with him and adopt her. In fact, he had even called his wife back in the States, and she agreed to go through the process and so on. But anyway, one day, she [Leigh] was shot and killed right in front of Sam, and that was really the cause of his psychological undoing in Vietnam.”
Dr. Botkin facilitated the EMDR to work on Sam’s sadness. Botkin ended Sam’s session with an extra set of eye movements and then had Sam close his eyes. The session was over when an unexpected result occurred.
Dr. Botkin continued the story, “Sam was sitting there, and a big smile came over his face. And I had never seen that before and I wondered what the heck is going on? And he opens his eyes, and he tells me that Leigh appeared to him privately, as a grown woman, with long, beautiful black hair in a beautiful white gown and surrounded by the most beautiful light he had ever seen. And then Leigh told Sam, ‘Thank you for taking such good care of me back then.’ And Sam responded privately, ‘I love you, Leigh.’ And then she said, ‘I love you, too, Sam,’ and reached out and gave Sam a hug. So Sam told me all of this after he opened his eyes.”
Dr. Botkin’s experiences using EMDR mirrored my experiences using hypnosis. I suspect there might be other avenues to the same spirit-contact phenomenon, basically any method that relaxes the brain to stimulate a hypnotic or meditative state of mind.
Like all experiences involving hypnosis, some subjects tend to have better success than others. However, practice definitely helps. While my first past-life regressions required long induction techniques to get me relaxed enough for a beneficial session, I can now close my eyes and get myself in the proper mental state without any induction. With a little practice and persistence, many of these experiences are available to most people, and spirit contact with hypnosis is one that I recommend exploring.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in the comment section.
With love,
Bob
PS, If you missed Friday’s video, you can watch it here.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of two books, Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the reputable directory of psychics and mediums, BestPsychicDirectory.com. His newest venture is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.
Thanks so much Bob!
Yes she has! You’ve got a winner there. Thank you.