Minou the Ghostbusting Cat

My beloved Minou is in spirit now, but during the 20 years of her life, she showed me many times how a cat can be an invaluable companion for a hypersensitive medium. She had a great and gentle spirit.

There were only two times in that whole 20 years when Minou got angry to the point where she frightened me. One time, she spotted a workman installing an awning on our apartment window, and decided that his intrusion demanded a strong response. Lucky for the poor fellow, there was a strong window in her way. She gave him a fright though, and all of us were lucky he had a good strong grip on the awning!

Many years later, we moved into another “store-front” apartment, this time, on the ground floor of an old office, which I discovered quickly was thoroughly haunted. Our spooky roommate was a cranky old man in grubby overalls, whose unpleasant attitude and grimy appearance was a perfect match to the basement we almost never entered. I was aware he did not want me going in what he saw as “his” space, but after many attempts at trying to get him to move on, I decided to give up on using the basement. Still, I stored a few nick-nacks in the basement, and went to get them one afternoon. As I reached the top of the stairs, I felt the spirit moving himself at me in anger.

I immediately threw up my protective shields, but between one step and the next, Minou launched herself at me. She attached herself to my leg, howling, hissing and screeching, and as I hopped around in pain and shock (nick-nacks flying around the room), I could not shake or pull her off. Finally, the spirit retreated, terrified and confused, into the comfort of his dark basement.

As soon as he was gone, Minou dropped off neatly and calmly off my leg, and flipped over into her “rub my tummy” pose. There was no sign that anything was ever wrong. I was bleeding quite profusely, though no stitches were needed. At first I was distressed that she had attacked me, but I quickly realized it was not me she had attacked. It was our nasty spirit roommate!

After I calmed down, I once again tried to persuade the spirit to go into the light, but he was adamant that he was going to stay. So I made him a deal. I would not go into the basement, if he would not come upstairs. His response? “Keep that damned cat up there with you!”

From that day to the end of her very long life, Minou never so much as hissed at me. I remain convinced that she drove this spirit away from me. I don’t know what he might have been able to do, if anything, but I am grateful for her love and protection. Years after she passed, she would often come back for visits. One time, she walked across my bed, and I could see the indentations where her little spirit-paws had passed.

I need your help

Dear Brandi,

I need your help. I'm 18, in Australia and for the last year, I've been experiencing momentary visions, along with a strange feeling of deja vu, even though I know I haven't seen these things before. Also, when these visions hit me, I feel dizzy, and nauseous, and certain places on my body feel very hot.

Am I crazy? Or sick? Or is it something else?

I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't know who to ask. I just need some clarification because its starting to scare me.

Thank you so much for your time,

Sincerely,
JR

Dear JR,

Dizziness, nausea, and hot flashes are all common side-effects of certain kinds of psychic experiences. I am not a psychiatrist, nor am I a doctor ... but I will say you don't sound crazy at all on the basis of what you have told me here, just a little stressed out, which is totally understandible. I do think you should have both these possibilities ruled out, if for no other reason than to ease your mind and turn the anxiety down. I might not mention the "Deja Vu" feelings to the family doctor, and if you are not depressed or having panic attacks, I wouldn't worry about your mental health at this point.

On the other hand, I do think the content of the visions has some bearing on your well being, honestly. If they are scary, hostile, or depressing, even if they are absolutely verified as involving a psychic experience, they do reflect your mental state. If you are feeling depressed or anxious, do talk to your doctor about these feelings! These can be symptoms of physical illnesses, and you need to be sure to rule these out or have them treated. The healthier you are overall, the stronger, more useful and more positive your visions will get.

The best advice on the psychic side that I have is to meditate every day, to regularly ground yourself, and to keep a regular journal of these kinds of experiences so that you can look back on them with more clarity in the future. Pay strong attention to those Deja Vu experiences - in my personal experience, they are often connected to past lives, and what you can learn from them is invaluable!

Journal-keeping is vital to your personal and psychic growth. You can go back over time and check the details. You'll find that you remember some things differently a week, month or year down the line. It is really helpful in so many ways. It will prove to you that you are seeing something "real", and where your blind-spots are. It keeps things grounded.

Ghost Story ... The Haunted B&B

It wasn't stormy, but it was dark, cold and late, and we were tired from a long day of exploring Ontario just north of Toronto. Normally we would drive the extra hour or two back to Toronto, but when we finally saw a vacancy sign, we decided to spend a night at a charming bed and breakfast at the side of the road.

Fortunately there were lights on inside the quaint old house as we pulled into the parking lot. We paid for our stay and trudged up the carefully maintained stairs to our quiet room. My companion, who is blessed with absolutely no skill in detecting spirits, quickly drifted off to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow however, I was immediately treated to a Technicolor slideshow of images from the old house throughout it's colorful history. I sensed a strong spirit, who immediately noticed that I was aware of her. She was delighted that I could communicate with her, and immediately started nattering away in a charming accent how happy she was to find someone to chat with!

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night as she regaled me with tales about the old house. She was delighted with the current owners, "That nice man and his lovely family!" but she had been unhappy for many long years before, when a series of thugs and bootleggers had used the place to run drugs and alcohol during prohibition times. I had a mental picture of her in a Victorian-era dress and hat (purple if I recall correctly), sipping tea in a sunny parlor that I was told I'd have breakfast in the next day. I tried a number of times to convince the old woman to go into the light, but she was adamant that she was happy where she was, and wanted to stay and help the current owner. I finally drifted off to sleep just before a knock on the door let me know it was time for breakfast.

Bleary-eyed, I dragged myself down the stairs. My traveling companion, usually entirely immune to psychic interference, actually asked if I'd been speaking to someone that night. "Not out loud," I replied. She lifted an eyebrow (which for this Taurus, used to hearing about my psychic adventures, spoke volumes). I explained what had happened as the proprietor brought in breakfast.

"Is this place haunted?" I asked him. He smiled.

"If it wasn't, I'd have to make up a story," he said amicably. "That's good for business."

I began to tell the story of the Victorian lady, and shared her history of the house, which he confirmed. I told her she stayed to protect the house, and that she was fond of him and his family because he was such a nice man, and they took such good care of the place. When I described her, he pointed over my shoulder to a picture behind me on the wall. "That's her," he said.

I looked back, and there was the old woman in her Victorian dress and hat who had kept me awake all night with tales of the bed and breakfast where I had gotten no sleep.

Joseph Jacobs on Coast

Joseph Jacobs is a kind, gentle spirit, in his own words, the "antidote" to the "Doctor Doom" psychics and remote viewers that Coast to Coast AM so often features. Jacobs started of saying that previously he had said this would be a difficult year, and rattled off a list of tragedies and disasters from 2007. September and October will still have some harshness. There are some harsh realities to go through but he sees things clearing up a bit in October-November. Expect serious weather conditions in the coming weeks. He sees diseases coming in from China. September could be a good month for ufology.

If you have had a bad year, use meditation and affirmations to stay in a positive mind frame. Look for how we get in our own way, how we are negative or stuck in life. Move on, don't cling to the past. Live in the now. All good advice, but for the most part, he didn't have any specific advice for how to accomplish this. One cool thing he suggested that I really liked, especially for empaths and sensitives, is to remember to be the audience instead of a participant when you see something negative going down. Don't let yourself get sucked into dramas and negativity.

Jacobs says that next year will be better, good for new beginnings, with lots of breakthroughs and inventions. It will be a great year for communications. A whole new beginning. We need to be realigning ourselves in the next few months. The downside is we will see dictators making lots of news.

On a humorous note, Jacobs recommended that medical students get into orthopedics, psychology and ear medicines because of the impact of technology on our lives in the future.

He said that he noticed that a law involving emminent domain was passed just after Dick Cheney went hunting with one of the Supreme Court justices and he is now worried that some of the lands in New Orleans could be taken over by the oil companies.