Attachments, entities… it all sounds very dramatic, doesn’t it?  But what if they’re as real as the nose on your face?

Absorbing other people’s energies, especially if we are empathic is a part of life and our bodies are used to it. Our energy is a moving, vibrating instrument that attracts and repels other moving, vibrating energy around us. In quantum physics, this is called ‘sympathetic resonance’. Energetically, we find our tribe. We intuitively commune with like-minded energies, meeting people who somehow feel familiar to us – healthy or toxic connections, it matters not.

As a natural rescue medium and specialist in spirit releasement for 40 years, I work with people at the end of life in addition to souls who have died abruptly and are trapped between the worlds, their frightened or rigid mindsets keeping them caught in the last moments of life.

Everything is about energy, whether you believe it or not. We live in a world of instant gratification and selfies, with a focus on material success. The celebrities I work with are achingly lonely and hollow, because like you, they have become addicted to the most harmful drug of all – the dependency on external approval.

 On a spiritual level, the earthplane represents school and one of the few places a developing soul can experience darkness in order to know what it is to become Light. We cannot become the opposite until we’ve experienced the other side. This is how we discover our values – the power of which transcends beliefs. And, once our values are rooted within, we become our own home, our own safe harbour from which to venture forth into a deeper level of healing, purpose and connection to all.

Our souls will choose to develop strength by pitting us against something hard as the best way to build spiritual muscle. We’ll hurl ourselves into rigid, narcissistic, controlling, fearful and often abusive family structures. Then, we’ll develop low self-worth and grow up to attract similar energies to our parents, many of whom have taught us that we are ‘not enough’.

Until we wake up.

Many don’t, endlessly repeating patterns as ‘sleepwalkers’, reacting to life in the middle world by choosing fear over love in such quantities that they become blinded to the possibilities of light within and around them. Joy is extinguished, leaving only exhaustion. Others will partially wake up from this matrix of complacency and will contaminate the discipline of trust by judging others who have not.

Even though we may feel involved in comparison games, the soul is actually and earnestly striving to assert dominance over the human ego. To allow the ego free rein is to dilute our power and ability to allow our purpose to come through us, rather than be of us.

There are countless people in spiritual communities who are fulfilling purpose on a limited level, because they have not done their own transformational, human work. No-one is exalted. If you’re in a physical body, there’s still more work to do – so forget about placing gurus and spiritual leaders on pedestals. Everyone has light and shadow, even the Dalai Lama.

Then, there’s energetic distraction. I’ve come to understand that most people have ‘attachments’ and ‘entities’: disembodied spirit caught within the collective unconscious, many of them people who have died abruptly.

If you’re sensitive or empathic, you might suddenly feel a wave of incoming depression, anxiety, panic or fury, as you stroll through a shopping mall at the end of the day, drive past a roadside memorial or have a conversation with a friend whose family member has just died. You might simply decide these sudden feelings as ‘yours’, thereby unconsciously storing them. These attachments, now safely nestled within the human body again might relax and lay dormant.

However, as the greatest risk to an attachment is ‘release’, the moment you decide to evolve, seek out therapy, heal or will focus on spiritual purpose, these unwanted tenants will go into survival mode and seek to control, to hold you back, accelerate addictions, change dietary habits or create fatigue, physical illness and a foggy, scattered mind so that you forget about doing all of that silly progress!

At this point, you might conclude that you need a clinical medical diagnosis – and yes, it’s always a wise move to see a professional if you’re concerned. However, in some cases, it’s not a pill you need, it’s spirit releasement. My clients include an aboriginal man who needed to release a curse his elder couldn’t remove; an overweight woman who lost 10 kgs in as many days following her session and a police officer who was carrying anguish from a recently departed neighbour. Energy works in mysterious ways and it doesn’t need to look like something out of ‘The Exorcist‘!

There are many other ways in which we unconsciously absorb other people’s energy — whether they are dead or alive. As a young nurse, I witnessed high levels of stress, depression and drug use among the medical staff, particularly surgeons. If, for example, the operating surgeon was in the throes of a tough divorce, his mind filled with intensity, it would be quite reasonable in my field of work to assume that some of that energy would be transplanted into his vulnerable patient.

The same applies to organ donation. To receive a body part from a human being who has spent her life in repressed grief vs another who has chosen to live his life with humility and gratitude, will affect the status quo of the transplant recipient.

So, prior to surgery, ready yourself energetically. Spend time in reflection and meditation. See the outcome:  You in a vibrant state of health. Increase your sense of energetic protection and ask your support team in Spirit to keep watch and hold the space while you’re asleep.

Regardless of your soul’s journey this life, if you’re reading this it may be time to strengthen your insulation from all that outside ‘collective unconscious’, by imagining you are an astronaut choosing to exist in a hostile landscape. Visualise your boundaries as secure and cushioned. Say what you mean. Be authentic. Avoid gossip as it weakens your protection. End relationships that strengthen your need for external approval. Be brave. Explore your spirituality and explore the world of self-development.

And, within this rarefied atmosphere, the awakened You can finally live your life with freedom and purpose.