Introduction: 

Our lives begin with the first awareness of ourselves. The first time we saw our reflection in a mirror. The first time we rode a bicycle. The first time we felt love. The first time we found a purpose and contributed to the world—filled us with the awareness of our independence and freedom of spirit. We are at the frontier of awakening our awareness of everything and everyone, including what’s yet to be discovered. With every gut feeling and every thought, we look beyond ourselves, furthering our awareness of who, what, and why we are. We awaken our potential to experience greater fulfillment, happiness, and peace. The adventure is only limited by the boundaries we create and the lens we focus. Along my path, I began investigating what makes existence possible. Like many people, I felt I was a part of something much bigger than myself, that reality was far more than could be seen or touched. I started taking stock of out-of-body experiences, dreams and visions I had been aware of since childhood. To help me understand memories, I opened a dialogue with a voice that had always been present in the back of my mind—what I call my higher self. The relationship I developed led me to write Brighter Realms. The result is a book that offers the potential to experience a deeper connection to wholeness.

Wholeness means unity with our higher self, where insight, intuition, and creativity flow. Wholeness is also empathy, compassion, and love expressed as the qualities of our humanity. I say “offers the potential” because each person’s experience is different. Some people have read the book and discovered a distinct awareness of their higher self. Others felt the book gave them unique insights into who they are and where they come from. I have also observed people who are unconsciously tuned into their higher self, benefiting from expanded awareness and peacefulness. For all, Brighter Realms offers the possibility to experience a deeper connection to wholeness. However, there is no one-size-fits-all technique I can offer readers. Everyone’s relationship with their higher self is as unique as their fingerprint. The higher self has a different approach to its human counterparts, and agreement is specific to each person. The main goal of the book is to bring awareness to the vast intelligence of a higher self each of us has in common. Brighter Realms represents a fundamental reality long forgotten by humanity, written as a reminder of your inherent abilities to benefit from the extensive resources available. In the greatest sense, you are already there, able to tune into the qualities of your humanity as an instinctive awareness of the larger reality at play. That is your birthright. You are the connective tissue to independence and freedom of spirit which knows no boundaries. There’s a saying that the body knows what the mind has forgotten. The body holds the memories from our past and the awareness to live in the present. I expanded this idea in another context: Our true body is the energy we are, our essence. Everything else—intellect, ego, emotions, and physical body—are parts of the suit we wear. As an essence, we are an extension of our higher self with existing links to nonphysical worlds. Our greatest fulfillment comes from living with purpose guided by the enormous resources available when we tune into our essence, offering us the potential to access our higher self. We may not be aware of our essence, and that’s fine, because it functions to immerse us fully in the life experience. We may think our essence is a part of us when actually, our essence is us. We can learn to heal old wounds, live in our purpose, and find deeper fulfillment with our essence leading the way.

Prologue: 

As a child, my mother flew in her father’s airplane, searching the clouds for angels. The little girl with large, curious eyes explored the world around her to understand life’s meaning. When she was uncertain about finding angels, her father suggested she look inside herself. He was teaching her to look at the world with discernment.  As best friends, they shared a powerful bond. In her early 30s, she was inconsolable when he died of a sudden illness. She feared their connection was broken and gone forever. For six months, she woke up with tears and went to bed heartbroken. One morning, she heard her father’s voice speak her name. She lifted her head from her pillow and saw him standing at the foot of her bed. He told her he was happy and wanted her to be happy. He asked her to let him go. A powerful feeling of calm came over her. She realized her father was not far away. When her mother died years later, we were driving home from the funeral, and she explained she could feel her close by. My mother had discovered existing connections to worlds beyond and transformed her grief. The bonds to her parents were alive and well. Before my mother passed away years later, I shared these thoughts with her. She replied, “You have the story right—I’m not sure about worlds beyond.”

While she acknowledged the wonders and mysteries of life, she also believed in proof and validation. What she accepted or rejected about reality had little bearing on the unconscious forces that formed her outlook. When her father’s voice came, she listened. Yet she was determined to resolve her grief without consciously understanding the process that got her there. She proved she could make the leap and find peace.

I’ve met many people who have shared stories of transcending boundaries and experiencing otherworldly events they could not place in the context of the physical world. Some lost loved ones. Some had life-changing accidents. Others recalled insightful dreams or moments of intuition—they crossed the threshold to other worlds and discovered clues to their larger role in existence. Most agreed they glimpsed spiritual realms and experienced reality beyond the physical world. They unconsciously understood their essence was already interfacing with spiritual worlds. They may live in different corners of the Earth, yet they share a common ground of understanding. Specifically, they are no longer separate from other worlds but are unified with them and the clarity they bestow. Indeed, lives are transformed through connection!

The discovery has expanded their outlook, giving them independence and freedom of spirit. The bridge to worlds beyond is never lost, although it can be forgotten. Many of humanity’s problems can be better understood by unifying with the spiritual worlds all people have in common. Our separation from these worlds has led many to a disunified and fragmentary mindset, disrupting our connection to wholeness. The beliefs we adopt can set limits on what is perceived and experienced, yet our spirit knows no boundaries. How we go from here to spiritual worlds is defined by what is accepted or rejected individually. In the greatest sense, we are already there, able to tune into intuition, creativity, compassion, and love as an instinctual awareness of our larger self.  

The life journey can be fraught with obstacles. We can struggle to feel safe in a world of uncertainty. We can feel unmoored from ourselves and the connections that give us wholeness. Fear and anger can play a role in the human experience, interfering with intuition and creativity and diminishing our capacity for empathy, compassion, and love. Our essence is what we seek most for courage and strength. Light and peace are our birthright. Tuning in offers the potential to access benevolent resources from our nonphysical origin. To be connected!

Imagine if we humans were observed by a spiritually advanced race from a distant planet. They might see us as a source of inspiration with an immense creative drive, a boundless sense of adventure, and extensive spiritual resources. They might also see a separation from the knowledge of who and what we are—many of us behave as if we are alone, isolated in our world. Single individuals adrift on a raft in a vast, empty ocean. Human evolution is at a critical juncture. There has never been a more important time to discover our energetic legacy. To be connected!

The vibrant inner life of children expresses the worlds they come from. The instinct to sustain these links supports mental and psychological well-being. Their closeness to spiritual worlds imbues them with instinctual awareness unhindered by the conformity of human civilization. Creating art is one of the many ways people discover connections. Just as the physical world inspires artists, the instinct to explore beyond ourselves is a powerful motivating force, producing profound artistic representations. Drawing, music, and dance are a few expressions that put us in touch with our essence as a link to nonphysical worlds. Access, however, is not just reserved for the artistic. Parents play with their children and experience a subtle interface with other realms. Some people journal, others read or walk to become quiet inside. A nap can help us unhook from the external world. Still, others take a more determined approach by meditating.   

There’s no mystery here—taking the path to other worlds is what people do in ordinary day-to-day life to experience connection and wholeness— where peacefulness and intuition restore the psyche and sharpen instincts. Reaching beyond ourselves is as natural as picking up an object with our bare hands to study its detail or opening a book to benefit from its knowledge. The only specific action needed to go from here to there is yielding to our essence—the part of us we can’t see in a mirror, our fundamental self that can only be experienced. As I write these pages, gaze at a sunset, laugh with my partner, feel my mother close by, or feel empathy for another human being, I engage my essence to connect with other worlds in everyday interactions.

The countless ways people move beyond themselves is an innate characteristic of human nature. We already participate in a much larger story, wherein encounters with brighter realms is the unfolding theme in our lives. All share the capacity to transcend the dense boundaries of physical existence and experience the connections we thrive in. The journey to brighter realms beckons us to explore what more there is to reality, to reach beyond ourselves where our stories shine in the wonder of our existence.

The stories in this book are not based on conceptual beliefs, such as ideologies, religions, dogmas, or the paranormal. Nor is this work a study of mythologies. In this book, beliefs are inconsequential to the understanding people have in common—for example, knowing or feeling that loved ones who have died are not far away. Knowing or feeling we are more than our bodies. Knowing or feeling there is far more to reality than meets the eye. Yet beliefs are an interminable thing that can creep into just about every idea or thought. I have done my best to put my beliefs aside and tell my stories from a purely experiential point of view as I explore the spiritual worlds I have been learning about since birth.

For the writing of this book, I describe spiritual worlds as the worlds we come from before life, where we reside when not in physicality, and to which we will return someday. I use terms like “nonphysical” or “Larger Field” to describe the entirety of spiritual worlds—what are essentially limitless environments within infinite worlds to which everything known and unknown happens and where human beings have the potential to interact by way of their essence. I use the term “higher self ” to describe what is infinitely more massive than a human being’s essence. I think of the essence as a temporary energetic extension of the higher self, and its presence in the physical world is a person who eventually returns home to their higher self. People also have associations of interrelated relationships representing their energetic family in nonphysical environments. That’s right—we have a physical family and we also have an energetic family, and our higher self is a part of that family. However, an individual’s system is much more—a very large number of related higher selves, each with one or more human extensions in physicality, and there are countless systems in the nonphysical. All these terms can just as easily be interpreted in the realm of belief. They help illustrate the ideas I explore throughout these pages. I challenge readers to suspend their beliefs and exercise discernment as I introduce stories about humankind’s origin. The challenge is getting ourselves out of the way by learning to recognize our essence as our fundamental connection to the larger reality at play.

One thing I’ve learned is that there’s a heck of a lot going on in the nonphysical. The theme of this book is about learning from ourselves. There is no one better suited to acquire information about our nonphysical origin. I ask my readers to be aware of quick and easy answers. Tuning into our essence can provide us with crucial discernment to see things as they are. To know thyself is the first and most important connection we can make.

That being said, Brighter Realms is my collection of stories about unity and wholeness, echoing humankind’s desire to explore its deepest existential questions. The core message of Brighter Realms is about discovering the fantastic capabilities of our essence—and our potential to acquire resources from our higher self—to learn about ourselves from ourselves. I have been investigating nonphysical worlds for 30 years, and learned to live with one foot in the physical world and another in the nonphysical. I wrote this book to share my discoveries about a higher self each person has in common.  

In Brighter Realms, I offer practical insights to help you tune into your essence. Tuning into ourselves can foster our primary instincts of insight, intuition, creativity, empathy, compassion, and love—the qualities of our humanity inherited from our higher self. Years ago, an old friend said to me, “The love you withhold is the pain you carry.” In my history, I experienced the fragmentary effects of a diminished connection to my essence. I am also learning to build a strong connection. I believe every person has this potential. You are the connective tissue. The discovery of wholeness expands your outlook, offering independence and freedom of spirit—the ultimate foundation of wealth—the only real wealth in the universe. To be connected! Brighter Realms is a step in that direction.

On Empathy, Compassion, and Love

When my mother lost her father, she was stricken by painful trauma. Her first reaction was the terrifying fear he was gone forever. She soon became angry as she attempted to take control of her experience. The negative emotions left her with frustration and anguish. For half a year, she suffered this way. The extreme emotions diminished her capacity to experience empathy, compassion, and love. She withdrew from her family and fell into discord with the world. My father, brother, and sisters watched her slowly disappear from our lives. She had lost touch with her essence. The further away she became, the less recognizable she appeared.

The morning she heard her father’s voice filled her with inner peace. She had reached an impasse. She made the choice to tune in and make a connection. The core of the experience gave her a renewed vision of empathy, compassion, and love from whence she came. The terrible uncertainty, the interminable noise of detrimental thoughts, and her fears and anger dissolved. She had discovered her potential to restore wholeness from the fragmentary effects of chronic emotional pain. In her most dire moments, she had asked for help, and her higher self was listening. Nothing happens without oversight from our higher self. Our higher self is the gatekeeper and guardrail, allowing or denying any adventures the human essence experiences.   

My mother was also learning about discernment. She had become lost in darkness. Then, she experienced healing. Intellectually, she was unaware of her essence or the connection to her higher self she manifested. Yet she freed herself in Brighter Realms. An old friend from another world once said, “The love you withhold is the pain you carry.” She had withheld love from herself and family. She found her essence, and rediscovered empathy, compassion, and love originating from her higher self. These values were always there, and through them, she gained the experience of self-empathy, self-compassion, and self-love. What comes from us is for us and, of course, for others. The virtuous characteristics of our essence and core self are ours to experience.