Bridging Two Realms

Losing a loved one is one of the most profoundly challenging times that we all have to face at some point in our lives. It’s a highly emotional time, one where unanswered questions can cause you to question your own beliefs about life after death. It’s perfectly normal to ask questions, such as:

• “Is there really a Spirit World?”
• “Is my loved one at peace?”
• “Can I get in touch with them or are they able to reach out to me somehow?

Bridging Two Realms provides inspiration and comfort for the bereaved. John shows how you can make contact with yours passed loved ones. He also reveals the mechanics and techniques used to extend your awareness beyond your physical senses. He also explains how you can develop your potential skills of mediumistic, and how to use them to connect with your loved ones on the Other-Side.

In Bridging Two Realms, you’ll learn:

• What happens when a loved one passes into the Spirit World
• The signs and symbols your loved ones use to get your attention
• How mental telepathy acts as a bridge between this world and the next
• How meditation can be used to enhance your connection with Spirit
• Exercises and techniques to develop your own mediumistic skills
• How to use your specific psychic strengths to become a receptor for spirit messages

Psychic Medium John Holland has been helping people connect with their loved ones in the Spirit World, bringing closure and healing, and has taught thousands of people how to develop and enhance their own natural psychic abilities.

John says: “We’re all spiritual beings with unlimited potential and we are and always will be connected to each other. Neither death nor time can ever separate you from those you’ve loved.”

This is one of the most comprehensive books on mediumship to date. It’s written in a highly open and plausible manner, that makes it easy to follow and practical to use. It will not only help give inspiration and comfort to the bereaved, but it will also help those who are seeking to awaken, develop, and enhance their own spiritual gifts.

“I believe I am servicing two worlds: Those that have been lost – and those that are left behind. I’m simply the bridge between the two worlds.”
JOHN HOLLAND

Chapter 1 | Your Real Home

Heaven, Paradise, Eternity, The Other Side, and even Upstairs are just some of the names that are frequently used to refer to the Spirit World. Yet for many of us, we rarely speak openly about this mysterious and extraordinary place. We might well retreat into the privacy of our own thoughts to ponder or imagine what this special place might be like. In these moments of quiet reflection, comes the realization that someday, we will come to know this place for ourselves … again.

As a practicing Spiritual Medium, there’s one overriding question that comes up time after time: “Where is my loved one now that they’ve left this world … Are they at peace?” It’s a very profound question, which has an equally complex answer.

Before I answer that important question, I first try to help people understand that you’re a soul that comes with a physical body having human experiences — not a body that comes with a soul. It’s my belief that the soul is eternal and can never die or cease to exist. The soul is the real you, composed of pure consciousness. You were a soul long before you came into this plane of existence, and you’ll be a soul long after you leave this body to return home … to the Spirit World.  

The ways that people imagine and define the Spirit World range from the ghostly to a place that’s beautiful and ethereal. There are different views or explanations of the Spirit World, depending on your religious upbringing, faith, and social conditioning. Many people are influenced by how fictional books, television and movies overdramatize their portrayal of the Other-Side. We’ll never really know what it’s going to be like until we leave this physical plane and enter the spiritual planes for ourselves.

I truly believe that the Spirit World is our real home, and our loved ones who are there are no longer ill. They’re no longer suffering or in pain. More importantly, they’re whole, reunited with family and friends who have gone on before them. It’s those of us that remain here who feel the pain after we lose someone, mourning the physical loss of someone we truly loved.

As humans, we expend a significant amount of time and energy trying to make sense and understand our own beliefs about life after death. There are so many philosophies, so many opinions, and so many ways to approach this delicate subject. The whole thought process can be challenging. It’s really not possible for anyone to provide absolute definitive physical evidence of the very existence of a “Spirit World,” as it’s beyond the sphere of this physical life.

However, there are more and more people coming forward with accounts of how they clinically died but were resuscitated and brought back to life. They return to this physical world with vivid memories and images of what they’d seen and experienced when they’d temporarily crossed over to the Other-Side. Many speak of sensations, such as feeling a detachment from their physical body, feelings of serenity, or even releasing the pains associated to lifelong medical conditions. These incidences are called near-death experiences (NDEs). (In Chapter 2, we’ll discuss what we can learn from NDEs.)

When it comes to describing the Spirit World, I go by what I have studied and experienced as well as the information I’ve gleaned from the Spirit People, who tell me of their life in the Spirit World. Even though I’ve been doing this work for a long time, I’m always fascinated when information is conveyed to me of their time back home in the Spirit World. It’s a joy to hear who they’re with, their surroundings, and how they still see what’s going on with their family and friends here in the physical world. It’s always an honor and a privilege to act as a bridge between this world and the next, and to share the knowledge that none of us are ever truly alone. Now let’s take an in-depth look at what’s on the Other-Side.

Where is the Spirit World?

Have you ever seen someone praying or calling out to their loved one who has passed? It’s quite common for you to see people with their hands firmly clasped together in prayer as they look up. Alternatively, they might just call out to them, while looking toward the heavens. However, I believe that the Spirit World is not “up there” but right here where we are, all around us. It’s not beyond the clouds or thousands of miles away in some far-off place. It’s closer than you could ever imagine.

Time also works differently in the Spirit World. Because we have analytical minds, living by set time measurements of 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in each hour, we’re governed by time itself. In fact, it’s man who developed the concept of linear time. Many people live in a constant state of worry that they’re going to run out of time! It just goes to show how time plays such a significant part in our lives. Yet time has no meaning in the Spirit World; it is a place that’s not bound by the limitations of time and space.

The Spirit World is not separated from the Earth by what we understand as conventional distance that can be measured in miles or kilometers. It’s as much about definitions, in that I prefer to define that spiritual place known as the Other-Side as a different dimension, sphere, or realm.

Everything is made up of energy and vibrates at its own unique frequency, and the Spirit World is no different. The Spirit World vibrates at a much higher frequency than our own slower frequency, as we exist in this third-dimensional plane of existence here on Earth. Since the vibrational frequency level is so high in the Spirit World, we’re unable to see into it using our physical eyes. The fact that it’s invisible to most of us doesn’t make it any less real. But there are people who have had rare glimpses of the Other-Side, including those who have spent years training themselves clairvoyantly, those who have the ability or experience of astral traveling, people who were born with a heightened perception, and those have died and come back.

In Our Dreams

Did you know that many of us often visit the Spirit World when we sleep?

Our physical body can’t exist without time to rest, to regenerate, heal, and recharge our energy. Sleep is a vital function of our daily routine and overall well-being, and our spirit I believe also uses this time for a similar function. While we’re asleep (usually during our deepest dream state), it detaches itself from its physical encasement (our body) to visit the Spirit World to regenerate. During this time, it’s still connected to our physical body through what is known as the “silver cord,” or “etheric cord.”

Many people have reported having dreams in which they communicated with loved ones who have passed on. When we see our loved one in this dreamlike state, it’s usually just a fleeting visit. They appear younger, healthier, and more vibrant because in the Spirit World, because that’s how they really are!

As we awaken and the spirit returns to our body, we feel the connection start to slip away, as though we’re letting go from an embrace. People tell me stories of how they often wake up with tears in their eyes as the feeling of that special visit slowly fades. I remember the first time it happened to me.

I waited a year for my mom to come through after she’d passed on. When she finally did, I remember waking up from this special dream, with the distinctive memory of how we hugged in an all-too-familiar embrace. I could feel her love as though she had been right there with me. I still hold that feeling in my heart to this day.

Anyone who’s seen my lectures and demonstrations will have heard me ask my audiences, “Who here has had a dream of a loved one, and who has had a hugging dream?” Usually, a sea of hands will fly up along with nodding heads and smiles, confirming that they too have had a dream experience with a loved one. It’s heartening to witness and just goes to further validate the existence of the Spirit World.

If the dream you’ve had of a loved one is a real visitation, then the dream is more than likely to be uplifting and happy. Alternatively, if you dreamt of someone experiencing sorrow or fear, then that’s not a real after-death communication (ADC). More likely, you’re still working through your bereavement.

Trust me, you’ll know a real visit when you have one. They’re very healing and precious, and no one can take that away from you or say that it’s your imagination playing tricks on you … or just wishful thinking! You know when these visits are true, as you’ll feel it in your heart.

The good news is, you don’t have to die to get a glimpse of the Spirit World, and you truly can have connections to your loved ones who have crossed, even though we remain here.

The Thin Place

Have you ever experienced being in a particular place where you’ve felt closer to God, Spirit, or Heaven? You just know there’s something special about that place, and it feels as though it touches your very soul. The sense of peace and tranquility encompasses your whole being, and for some inexplicable reason you’re drawn to this place, even though you don’t truly know why. When you’re there, it’s almost as if the veil between this world and the next has been lifted, if only for a short time.

In Celtic Tradition, such places that provide an opening into the magnificence and glory of God and Spirit are called Thin Places. There’s a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in these Thin Places, distance is even smaller.

Pastor and poet Sharlande Sledge provides this enlightening description:

“Thin places” the Celts call this space,
Both seen and unseen,
Where the door between this world
And the next is cracked open for a moment.
And the light is not all on the Other-Side.
God shaped space.
Holy.