47: THE SPIRIT REALM AND DEPRESSION: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The spirit realm is real. And overcoming depression starts with understanding our thoughts and the external influences shaping our mind. In this powerful episode of the Overcome Depression Podcast, Jennifer and John reveal that all thoughts are not necessarily our own — but rather shaped by the forces around us. Subliminal messaging, technology, our upbringing and programming, spiritual attachment, spiritual attack, and even ancestors can play a major role in the thoughts we think. Learn how to take control of your thoughts and prayers!   

View all LINKS and supporting content mentioned in this episode HERE:
https://imaquarius.com/spirit-realm/

This episode of the overcome Depression Podcast is for you if you want to learn:
* How the brain processes information
* The importance of understanding the spirit realm in overcoming depression
* How angels, spirits, daemons, and entities differ, and why they try to communicate with us
* How society and evil forces seek to control our decision making
* How your thoughts and feelings are directly connected to depression symptoms
* Why discernment is critical in today’s world
* Why emotional triggers and outside voices tend to impact our mental health so profoundly
* How to use spiritual warfare to win the fight against evil - and the war on your mind

Chapters

• 0:00 I Want to Understand My Thoughts! The External Voices Shaping Depression
• 3:07 Brain Processing Power: Why You’re Overloaded and Overwhelmed
• 6:09 Subliminal Messages: The Hidden Influences Behind Depression
• 8:51 Technology and Depression: Distraction, Overstimulation, and Repetition
• 12:13 Find the Deeper Meaning of Thoughts and Prayers
• 15:00 Intuition and Inner Voices: How Can I Trust Myself Again?
• 17:55 The Power of Discernment: How to Use Your Agency to Choose
• 21:06 Find Peace in Chaos: Grounding Practices to Beat Depression
• 23:54 Real Stories on Overcoming Depression
• 35:21 Why Admitting Weakness is Strength
• 38:04 Support Systems: The Role of Community in Mental Health
• 38:58 Faith and Moral Growth: How Spirituality Supports Healing
• 40:57 Conflicting Voices: How to Identify What Serves You
• 44:09 Winning the Battle Against Spiritual Entities
• 49:04 The Spiritual Battle Behind Mental Health
• 52:07 Life After Death: What We Can Learn About Communication Beyond
• 56:09 Healing is a Journey

Transcript

0:00

I think that each of us have guardian angels who were specifically sent to follow us throughout our life and help us in any way they can, in any way we allow them to. And that Satan has specifically assigned demons who know us better than any other demons and know better than else how to help us to fail. Whereas angels, us better than anyone else and know better than anyone else how to help us succeed. But you've got this war on your joy really is what it is you can have a life of joy now. You don't have to wait and it's easier here because you got this body and it's all hinges on your agency. You can choose every day the energy you put out, where you're putting your fight, who you're listening to, and the energy you choose to latch onto. Are you hooking to the Savior or are you hooking to something else? And if it's anything else, you're going to be pulled down by it, ultimately. Welcome to the Overcome Depression podcast. Today I have John with me. Good morning, Jennifer. It's a pleasure to be back. And we're excited to talk about kind of an interesting topic today, which is that all the thoughts in our head are not ours. And I think honestly, the most horrific part about being chronically depressed and experiencing chronic depression for 25 years was the belief that all the thoughts that were going through my head belong to me because they were horrible. Well, like a lot of the thoughts that I thought were judgmental. They were downright horrid. in lot of cases, but I believed it was me. I believed that they were all my thoughts and added up to equate my worth and who I was when the reality was most of the thoughts that were going through my head did not belong to me and had nothing to do with my worth or identity. The whole concept of thoughts can be somewhat abstract just the sheer amount of data that's coming in on a physical level let alone anything spiritual. wise. One of the studies from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that the human retina transmits visual input at roughly 10 million bits per second. That's a lot. Basically, your eyes are the same speed as an ethernet connection. That is how much data they are processing. In a TV sense, the human eye sees 30 to 60 frames per second, depending on the individual. MIT released a study they said the human brain can identify an image that it sees in as little as 13 milliseconds and that the human brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than visual text. With all that data coming in the human brain itself only processes at about 10 bits per second to get to give you and this is coming from Smithsonian magazine and the journal Neuron. Wi-Fi connection is 260 million bits per second a phone call is 64,000 bits per second going back the human brain is only 10 bits per second in comparison to all the technology so have all of this information coming in And yet your brain is much slower than all these visual signals, all these images, all this data coming in and One of the reasons why your brain is quote "going so slow," is that it is constantly processing what is important and what isn't important. And in many ways, our brains are designed like a computer system. You have your short term memory. and then your long-term memory. And when your eyes, your ears, your senses bring in information, it goes into the short-term memory, your brain decides what is important and what is not important, and it literally throws away. discards anything that it does not feel is worth saving. And then only those small pieces that are left actually go from the short-term memory into long-term memory. I most of this stuff that goes from short-term to long-term memory has a very intense emotion attached to it. So if you're a really happy person in general, a lot of your memories would be based on intense joyful moments or connection. Whereas a depressed person put lot of importance onto the moments that there was trauma, where they felt intense hate, where they were really angry. And happens quite a lot when you're chronically depressed. So you can see how you might build a different kind of brain based on what you're filtering, based on what you feel is important or what you're programmed to identify as notable or important. Yeah, that's correct. When we say not all thoughts are your own, that's very true because there's just so much data and your brain It has to sort through so much that it's very likely that there are some items coming in that you don't even realize. who remembers where you were one minute ago? You know, if you're walking through your house you don't realize that your senses have literally picked up on everything within visual or earshot. All of that has come into your brain, but the only thing you actually remember is what your brain wants you to remember. it is hard to recall with perfect accuracy everything that I did one minute ago. can't do it. And I think when we try, sometimes my son will be like, that's not how it happened. And I'm like, well, based on my limited ability to recall every detail, this is what I recall, and I'm doing my best here. even in court of law, it can be really sticky because you're trying to recall things that have happened previously from your perspective with a brain that only takes in what you thought was important and with all these missing pieces. You know, even if you had a camera looking at it, it's hard to know what was going through everybody's heads at the time. so while it's difficult to remember just a minute ago, 30 seconds ago, that way you can understand it is possible to have different thoughts and different ideas coming into your mind. want it From a material way or a physical way, I should say. If you look at subliminal messaging, This was discovered early on, when video came out, when they started doing movies, they wanted to find a way to increase popcorn sales, candy sales, and drinks. And what they did is every so often in a single frame, they would put an ad and say, buy popcorn, buy a drink. And these ads go by so fast, you might not realize that you've even seen them. However, subconsciously your mind has seen them. It records it even for that brief second. And you can look this up on the internet and the study showed that by doing this, sales of food went up. Mm-hmm. was in college, we actually took a class in this and I analyzed magazine ads and going deep into the ads and seeing all these small subliminal messages that were hidden within the images and the pictures. Even the way text can be written sometimes can create a subliminal. message that your active mind might not realize but then your subconscious mind receives it and it will actually alter a change in your thoughts; a reaction and that's also why there is legislation and laws in place once this was discovered that prohibit or restrict companies from doing this anymore in advertisers because they were literally taking advantage of people because of it. brains. would go out on a limb and say that they're probably still doing this. They're just abiding by the law and finding different ways to do it. Yeah, that's why I said restrictions. Yeah, they can't be as blatant as they were. But I know like some of the early ads, this is a very interesting topic if you want to look into it, but some of the early ads for cigarettes, you would actually see outlines of female genitalia. because they wanted it to have a sexy you wouldn't necessarily be able to recognize that's what it was, but your brain would subconsciously recognize it? Okay. Yeah. And here's another funny thing. If you look up some of the early cartoons.... and I know Some your Walt Disney fans might not like this but in some of those early movies, they input subliminal images inside of those movies. Like you would see somebody running down a street of tall buildings filled with windows. And they would actually put an image in one of those windows. Depending on the company, depending on the air, some were not so bad. Others could be depending on who was doing the ad and who was the company behind it. And that's why, again, when we say not all thoughts are yours, that's true. Mm-hmm. because of the nature of the world that we live in your eyes your ears your senses your processing so much information that at times it becomes confusing for your brain to process it and that some things are literally planted in there on purpose. Yes, especially for the more I would nefarious purposes. And that's just something to really consider Symbols have meaning, know, especially when they're hidden Well, you add on top of that our very distracted society where we're constantly information or entertainment in the form of a phone or television set or keeping so busy at work that we don't have time to think. So we're literally being fed this information and we might think that the things that we're responding to or the things that we like are our likes, our responses, but sometimes like, again. Is that really coming from you? is that coming from the programming? And I think that maybe this is why some people think we're just beings of biology, we just respond to what's fed to us from the time we're an infant. definitely you have to understand the physical side of things and there's a whole spiritual element that we're going to get into as well. one of the current things on the physical side, Jennifer mentioned cell phones. Did you know they did a study and they found that the quickest way a person can get a dopamine hit is five minutes. That's why a lot of these games that people play on their cell phones every like five minutes then there's an ad or a 30 second ad. That is int... that's intentional. So even the duration of a lot of these games and the scenarios that they give you They're designed specifically for that. And I've looked at the studies on how the human brains have been changed biologically because of what technology has done to them. I can sit down and read a physical hard copy book without any issue. I enjoy it. In fact, My claim to fame is reading the entire Harry Potter series from start to finish. All of the books, took me three days and I literally did nothing but sit down and read the books non-stop. I could do that was given respite from my toddler. But the students today especially what I see in my classroom you ask them to read for 15 minutes and they can't do it. They start getting jittery. It's like they want that hit. Another study that I read are calling for the way that we teach to change because we have to teach in smaller segments. We have to adjust our classes to do those five to ten minute little hits Because that's the way the young generation coming up. That's the way their brains are wired to accept it are wired, for sure. That's just the way they come. Five minutes is about all the attention you get from a two-year-old. But we've raised or we've created this generation or several that don't have any more attention span than a two-year-old. people get bored of jobs require discipline. focus and I don't like this job. I hear that a lot young people. I also wanted to mention my son Jaron. He's like, I hate Coco Melon. show. It's so popular. And I want to know I'm feeling this because there's something about the show I don't like. So he did some research. And he found out that the researchers who created Coco Melon get all these different kids of all types, into a room and they put them in front of the shows that they are creating. And I think they do this on a regular basis. one child with ADHD who couldn't sit still for anything, they keep changing the show until the child with the least attention span can sit for the duration of the program. which shows you what they would, mean, it indicates what they would have to do to the show to make that possible and how that's not conducive to helping children to maintain focus. And not only that, but the kids in the show act like they're smarter than the adults, you these babies in a lot of cases. subliminal message of your parents are stupid. And I don't think it's a mistake that they're putting the... people in China are putting this show in the US for our babies. I have a Coco Melon stroller because it was on sale, but that's the extent of my Coco Melon investment. Ah. And it stood out at Disneyland. All the other ones are black and I could see the Coco Melon one. It was like, bing! if you can understand what we just told you, it can give you a little bit of leverage out there in the world when you know that these advertisers people who don't necessarily have your best interest are using that against you. You can start to recognize it when it's happening or even in hindsight and maybe journal about it. There are forces of good and evil God knows how our brain works, but He also will not force us to listen to Him or to listen to our intuition. If you go back and listen to episode 8, I talk about intuition and how your specific way of receiving intuition would change the way you're listening or hearing it. it is important to, if you haven't yet, go back and listen to that. because it's individual to you. Everybody doesn't hear or feel things the same. But a very basic level understanding is that the voices that want your attention and want to control you are very loud, very urgent, very forceful. They can use emotion, your emotion. bank on that emotion, which I mentioned earlier, as those are the memories that you often remember. Even if it is happiness, to grasp you and take control of you. And emotions are different than feelings. Okay, when we talk in this channel about emotions versus feelings, emotions are those chemical responses that are a result of the brain. A feeling is intuition that is felt in the soul, and it can be manifested in the body as well as kind of that warmth or knowing. You just know what you don't know how you know, and that peace, and it's usually very quiet. It's not forceful. it's accompanied with peace and knowing. And it can, When you're used to listening to all of the loud voices, it's sometimes hard to recognize that still voice or to discount it or to wonder if that was really the right thing to do. And You can get talked out of it through the thoughts that are in your brain that aren't yours. I tell, I teach my kids that the only voice you really want to listen to For real, is God's voice, the voice of His angels that are sent in His behalf. That's it. If it's any other voice, it's not a voice I want to be taking seriously. it's my mom talking to me or a friend, I can feel when God is speaking through them and saying, yes, what they're saying is true. And he can be speaking through your friend or your mom anybody else for that matter, it could be through the television set. In the case of my story, was touched my life changed because of something I heard on TV that the Spirit said, yes. But it was that confirmation. But in many cases, you could be hearing advice or advertisements or you should, you should, teachers telling you what you should do, parents telling you what you should do, friends and all most of- say a lot of these people we listen to are usually well-intentioned, but sometimes they are being misled by the loud voices as well. And so if you're listening to other people's opinions and you care so much about what other people think or you want to just fit in with society, that is not the right reason to do anything, for one thing. And you're going to be swept all over the place. It's not a foundation for a life of joy. I'm not saying everybody should be like me or live a life like I do, but I have chosen the way that I live my life not based on what society says I should do, but by inner desires, taking them to the Lord asking Him, are these your desires as well? And if so, will you help me achieve them? And I have seen miracle after miracle after miracle where I live a very different life than a lot of people. I don't live in an HOA like most people in my community. I have goats and chickens. I'm stay at Years and years of me wishing I could just own my house. Miracle, I own my house now. The money just showed up. And it's crazy how these things can happen if you trust. in God's pen for you and the voices that you really need to be listening to that can guide you to the right Walmart for it could be something that simple. I need toilet paper. Which Walmart should I go to today? And the Lord can tell you that one, the one that's not as crowded today, and they actually have toilet paper. The other one ran out. But you don't know that. God does. It can be something that simple. there are so many competing voices are vying for attention. You think just in terms of your phone, all the people trying to get your attention on the phone, on these social media platforms, they're trying to get you to stop and swipe on theirs. It's no different in the spiritual realm. You've got all kinds of different types of spiritual things out there. And again, the only one I want to listen to is God and the angels that He sends in His behalf. other ones that might be vying for your attention that might be filling your thoughts that you might think are your thoughts, but they're not your thoughts, are people who've died. Okay? That's probably the most benign the bunch. People who've died. Could be my dad. Could be... anybody. It could be a friend that you've lost. And they're not probably trying to hurt you, but they might be giving you advice that would just be like them being alive and giving you advice. It may or may not be good advice. And so you don't necessarily listen to your dad who's passed away if he's not coming on behalf of God, if that makes sense. can consider the thoughts and then take them to God. right, You do have to remember that God acts on a hierarchy. Usually, He will send angels down. That's why he gave them. So everyone has an angel whether or not you believe it you have one and God will send everything through that angel. That's their purpose. That's one of the reasons they're there is to act as the intermediary and He tells them what to do and then they do it by helping you out. And so that's really the main thing you should listen to. On the Catholic side you do have, some of the saints, but that's very limited. And you always have to test again. think it was the last podcast we did. You have to test, you have to test, you have to test scenario. Question everything. a cynical way, just you got to get real. Ask the Lord, is this person really who they say they are? Here's actually a quote from Dom Lorenzo Schiapoli. He was esteemed by Saint Francis de Sales. So he's a very popular saint and this is what he said. The devil does his utmost to banish peace from one's heart because he knows that God abides in peace and it is in peace that he accomplishes great things. That is actually by far the easiest way to discern whether or not the thought is yours. it because Your soul reflects God you're His creation. Therefore your soul inherently wants peace. It wants the same thing that its creator does. So if a thought comes into your mind and it does not bring you peace, and it's not helpful in some way, then that's the easiest way to discern whether or not it's actually your thought, if it's true or not. One of the other things to remember is Those who would to do you ill especially like Satan and his ilk They can't read your thoughts But they can read your mannerisms They're like walking lie detectors my emotions. Those of you that are on the Internet and you have it where you like delete my history, delete my internet history, delete this. I don't want people knowing that this is what I do and that's what I do. They're literally all over your shoulder watching everything you do and they're recording it and they will use that against you and they will throw these thoughts into your head from... Oh yeah. T and they will use everything you have shown them, all of your history, your mannerisms, your patterns, how you react. So it's important to keep the others a lot closer so they can help you navigate and refute these master liars who are using your own psychology to get you. Exactly I mean, it's continual too. It's not just one and done. It's an ongoing constant struggle. Don't get too Worried if you're just starting out, you know trying to question your thoughts trying to figure out who you are; we all go through that struggle. I myself gonna mess up. Even this week, I was like, dang it, I wish I'd listened. And it was something simple, but I got a prompting, don't do that. And I'm like, nah. And I did it anyway. And I ruined a blanket. You know, just I ruined a blanket of mine that I loved because I washed it incorrectly. And Sometimes we are going to listen to the wrong voice or disregard the good one. But it's just, Try again, learn, all about the journey. it's It's a process. There's those who are beginners, those who are advanced. the more advanced you get, the harder the temptations and the thoughts become, you know, because God allows the increased difficulty. So you can, you can start out basic. will become more intense wherever your vulnerable spots are. So if you're not continually fortifying those vulnerable spots, it can get pretty intense. But I think the better we get at listening to our intuition, the better we're able to also fortify those vulnerable spots. And so if we're being vigilant, I feel like life keeps getting better. The closer I get to God, the more that I listen. I haven't found it to get harder because when hard things occur have a lot more faith and I'm able to handle it better it's just like they just can't get me down a lot more resilient I bounce back up pretty quick so while that can be the case especially if you let your guard down for an extended period of time I mean they'll pound you oh my gosh they will pound you if they see a really strong individual who's reached level of obedience and determination and righteous, whatever, all They see that brightness start to wane and they're going to take a lot more effort and get a lot more fortifications against you than they would someone else who's already down. But I think that, again, if you're concertedly improving, life just keeps getting better and easier. Not because life in general is easy, but because you learn how to listen to the right voices most of the time. And when you feel that attack coming on, you start knowing what to do and what to ask for and how to get back to a good place again rather quickly. And to give you an example, this just happened to me this morning. Today is the first Saturday of the month and first Saturdays you have a first Saturday Mass. The church that I go to that does this, there was no Mass time in the Bulletin. There is nothing online. There was only one minor indication on the monthly calendar but all the current information did not indicate that there was going to be a mass this morning which I thought was really unusual and Instantly the thoughts came into my head. it's not in the bulletin. There's no mass. it's not online. There's no mass Maybe the father had to go someplace and he couldn't do mass this morning You don't need to drive out there. so all of those thoughts literally started coming into my head and I started thinking about it and I'm like, no, I'm going to go to the church anyway, just in case. At which point the thought came, well, you know, it's just going to be a wasted trip. You're going to drive there. There's going to be no mass and you're just going to have to drive home. And I'm like, Well, if that's the case, all right, there's no church, no mass, I'll just drive to the church, do a few prayers and then come home. No big deal. Well, it turns out that they had forgotten to put it in the bulletin and forgot to make the announcement. And yes, there was a morning mass and yes, the priest was there. There was only a few of us that showed up but that's a perfect example. There were the two different thoughts the one thought that said go to the church regardless. Just go. trust God and then there was the other thoughts at the same time that were like it's a wasted effort Don't do it. You should know better. You should trust I don't. that going to Mass, going to the temple, it gives us that boost, that energy, that light, that fortification that we need really help us protect those vulnerable spots. And I think that also praying to the Lord and saying, can you help me see what my vulnerable spots are? Because I think some of us are not aware of some of our faults. We're just not seeing them. We're blind to them. And that can be the most dangerous because we're getting attacked in these places, whether it's our faith or trust, whatever it is, and we're not even fortifying it or aware of it until it's way down the road and you're struggling with your faith in huge ways that you weren't before, but you didn't fortify it or you weren't aware enough, unless you're tuning in and saying, what do I need today, Lord? Tell me what I need to do today, even if you're not aware of it. Right that's one of best things you can do and I'll further add to that Don't be afraid to admit that you are weak especially in a certain area Know your weaknesses that's the hallmark wisdom is to understand where you are strong But also to recognize where you are weak Don't be afraid to ask for help That's how you fortify your defenses and God designs us not everybody is 100% strong in every single area Well, we are all no one is I think the only one who was was Jesus. really? really at the end of the day, is it a good thought? You have to get your morality down That's a hard concept for some people, develop that strong moral code. One of the first codes that I learned was Bushido. The other thing to realize is that we are... everybody we've ever met. We are every place we've ever been. We are every experience we've ever gone through. I always like to say that when you meet me, you also meet the people that I have met along the way the ones that have made an impact on my life. I've tried to incorporate something from them and you have to realize that that does make you up. And with that said, when we're tuning into God and asking for his help, it makes it more feasible to accept and reject what we do and don't want from all of the people that we come into contact with. And that was the second group that I wanted to kind touch on as far as who we listen to. We've got like the little spirits on the other side who are well intentioned, but maybe not giving the best advice. Maybe they are, I don't know. And then we've got living people who have impacted our lives with their teachers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and everybody we've ever come into contact with. all of the things that have ever been said to us, everything we've ever read. And all of that that's coming into our space. that's not God. That's just a lot of different voices, a lot of different opinions. And again, if you want to filter it and use your intuition to accept and reject what can serve you, your family, and your life, and you moving forward so you can achieve your purpose. the challenge. if you are aware of how human design works, there are more challenging human design types for this sort thing where you, well, I guess it's not necessarily more challenging, it's just different. So you're either filtering through your own thoughts your own pride and your own ego and all of those things more, or you're feeling and interpreting all of the thoughts of others more than you're listening to your own thoughts. But ultimately you have to kind of push all that aside and tune to that balanced, beautiful light of Christ to find where the truth is, because it's all going to be a little bit of a gobbledygook. But again, it's all there to help you learn. And then After that, you've got... spirits on the other side who have been there for quite a while, they're not willing or able to leave. Let's just say that they died very, very angry and addicted to whatever. their proxies are us. So the point is we can feel these different people on the other side and the intent And the purpose is for us and them to release those really difficult, stressful anxieties, the addictions, the hate, the anger, give it to God finally, because they didn't do it in their lifetime, but maybe we can do it in behalf of them and us. Does it make it harder because they're kind of constantly, like, exacerbating what we already feel? Yes, it's so much harder. And I think that's what a lot of people are dealing with. But When you're able to do it, you're so much stronger and better than you were before and they can leave at that point if they choose to, but if they're not choosing to heal, they just become this spirit of anger or the spirit of jealousy or the spirit of addiction that just kind of torments mankind. Kind of like a little ghostie, like the things you see in horror movies. That's kind of what I see. a way that I view it is basically like a portal into the soul what does your soul welcome? What type of thoughts what type of entities does your soul open up to does it open itself up to God and like from my religious perspective the Holy Ghost, are you open to receiving him and his instruction and his guidance or Are you focusing on the negativity which attracts the wrong things the wrong spirits the wrong entities which will start coming in? ill. Oh my goodness. can feel like I don't want to be doing this but I don't know how to stop it. And that's where the miracle of the Atonement and all the things we're teaching you in this program can get your brain functioning better so you can actually make proper decisions and tune into that light. Because it's hard when you're in that dark place to do anything else. the world around us is so very very noisy and God has even said that's not where He's at. He's the quiet gentle whisper. There's some different ways of discerning your thoughts and we've talked about first of all, does it give you a sense of peace? Another thing is quiet reflection. You know Go someplace quiet and you can pray Meditate whatever you feel but the thing is to let it be quiet and let yourself be alone with your own thoughts without the world being noisy around you. Just someplace quiet. That's usually good But people who are crazy like I was. It can be kind of counterproductive I think it helps to take someone with you who can just sit in quiet with you. if you're journaling, something to keep your mind busy so that the Lord can use that quiet good music in the background because again, if you're super quiet and alone. it can be like sabotage, because it's this quiet time where you're just going to inundate your thoughts again with all these horrible things that you can't control. So with that in mind, you have to find a way of quiet that maybe involves movement or writing or another person to talk with you through that, but in a way that they're just listening and gently correcting and empathizing with you and meeting you going to the temple, going to church, going to somewhere sacred or into a forest. Again, having something that's helping keep those thoughts in a real direction so that you're able to process and you're right? Right. It's basically a way of processing I know early on I journaled everything you you just review again, finding someone you can trust that you can just talk to. know that they're not going to judge you. everything, but will help guide you to a more real place. Because you're just rehashing all the negativity, just recycling it. You're not processing it. So you want to connect with someone who can help you to process and isn't just gonna listen to you badmouth for an hour. Yeah, and I've had that happen too; I like to be there for people if they need me if they want to sit down and they want to talk and I appreciate the friends I do have because they will listen to my rantings on occasion But there have been cases where someone was very negative and they reached out I'm like, okay, I can help you But during the whole process, they were just focused on negativity. There was, never any effort on their part to break the cycle. Yeah. You ha it. You can't just be, I just wanna sit here in this misery. That's the spirit of misery. That's the spirit of anger that's probably not you. But the goal here is to ask it and get it to move on, leave, whether it's up there with the Lord or somewhere else, just not with me. You can't stay here. And I think that when you start to view it that way and understand that there's literally people and forces on the other side that are... constantly trying to attach to us or have been there for a while if you've been struggling with depression or mental illness, they've probably been there a long time. You probably have some very established, I guess, roommates living in and around your home, your temple, your physical being, and your spirit. So you have to start looking at it this way. If you're not religious, you can try to think of it more abstractly, but picture I'm trying to draw is you've got to let them go. And the next kind of level, I think, are the ones that aren't really human. Okay, so you've got your lesser degraded, not human form at all anymore. These kind of Entities that are more like leeches, parasites, they just kind of latch on and they take your energy just, they make you feel crappy and make it hard to think. You think about what parasites do to us. cloud your mind, your vision, everything kind of is off because you're just so tired and you can't do what you want to do with the same vivacity because you're getting sucked dry. Or They feed on negative thoughts. They feed on your negative energy. And until you can change that, they're not gonna go. It's really hard to get them to go anywhere. But once a good host anymore, you're not giving them the energy they need to survive, they will move on. But understanding this from a very literal spiritual level did help me to start looking at the world differently and start overcoming this stuff. I think that each of us have guardian angels who were specifically sent to follow us throughout our life and help us in any way they can, in any way we allow them to. And that Satan has specifically assigned demons who know us better than any other demons and know better than else how to help us to fail. Whereas angels, again, know us better than anyone else and know better than anyone else how to help us succeed. But you've got this war on your joy really is what it is because I don't think that if you get to the end of this life and it didn't go very well or you never overcame depression and you just struggled that it's over for you. there's hope on the other side as well as here but it's you can have a life of joy now. You don't have to wait and it's easier here because you got this body and the body is kind of important. If you wait you're gonna need a proxy. You're going to extra help to get you to that next level. It's just kind of how it works. And it's purposeful and it's all hinges on your agency. You can choose every day the energy you put out, where you're putting your fight, who you're listening to, and the energy you choose to latch onto. Are you hooking to the Savior or are you hooking to something else? And if it's anything else, you're going to be pulled down by it, ultimately. It might make you feel good for a minute, but it won't last. So. It's a hollow pleasure. It's empty. empty. with that said, that's basically the lowdown. pretty deep lesson there. But there's books that I would highly recommend if you want to see from the perspective of others who have been there. I'm talking like near-death experiences, people who've seen these things in ways that I maybe haven't, okay? I think John, he has a lot of visions. He has all kinds of experience in this realm. Visions of Glory is a great book. Life After Life. There's a lot of them out there, and they're all different, but at the same time they all fit together. God allows that to happen, specifically so that person can relate their experience to give hope, to give guidance to the rest of us to say, yes, there is life after death. Yes, there is something to aspire to. please do it. And if you think that that's a new idea, go talk to Lazarus. Jesus brought him back after he was dead how long and there's actually also stories of the apostles even bringing people back from the dead. So that's not uncommon. God does it and He does it specifically just to show us, yes, there is more to the story. Wake up, be aware of it. meets your eye that's ingesting however many bits per second that you're taking in. Right but on a spiritual level I'm gonna quote eye has not seen ear has not heard What goes on in the spiritual realm? blows The material out of the water. there's no comparison something else that I've learned, and again this is all from Jennifer's understanding, so take it as you will and take it to the Lord, but we all have this 360 degree, probably more than that, basically camera, like spiritual camera, down, up, everywhere that records everything. It sees everything. Our spirit remembers everything, even if we don't remember what happened before we We have it all right here and everything we've ever experienced including what was behind us and underneath us. Our spirit has recorded it knows it remembers. It remembers every detail. So again we talking earlier about oh I can't remember what happened one minute ago. Your spirit does. Your spirit does. So if you say man where are my keys? Lord help me find my keys. He can help you find your keys, your spirit knows where they are. they are. So and also chakra system, I'm sure it's so much more complicated than I can possibly describe, but it's an energy system and it has the ability to communicate and align directly with Source, with God. And so there's lots of things trying to tap into it, hack into it, damage it, get a virus into it. Trojan, think of computer terms, And literally our systems work on a spiritual level. It's quite similar to a physical computer. We are energy. You know, the spirit is energy for lack of a better analogy. it's more than that, but it is that level. have one more question for you. and if you're not comfortable answering it, it's okay. But if you, if you're listening and you heard John talk about his story, he lost his fiance, Beth, to a murder and it was very, very tragic. do you ever talk to Beth on the other side? Why or why not? because I think that kind of ties into like, of course you loved her. There's probably a part of you that wants to stay connected, But what happens on the other side when people pass on? I think most people think, they just go to Heaven and then become an angel and they come back. And I don't necessarily believe that that's true. No well first of all to answer your question. Have I ever spoken to Beth? Yes Can I still speak to her if I want to yes? Do I still feel the love? Yes, the love has never faded. She's been dead many years now from this point of view but the love between us is still there and If I need to talk to her or want to talk to her I can. However, when you pass over to the other side and you stay there, you go through a change. Because, I mean, I've experienced this myself to a limited degree with my near-death experiences, but your soul is opened up to the truth to the true magnitude of what God has planned and what He gives you It makes it difficult in a sense and again, that's a poor analogy Trying to use human words to describe. This is difficult in itself Mm-hmm. but it becomes difficult for the souls to interact with you on the same level as when they were human. An analogy I like to use is You are a nuclear physicist who has studied all of this nuclear theory. Chaos theory all these mathematical equations. You have a full total comprehension of all of that then you walk over to a newborn baby and start trying to talk to them and start describing mathematical calculations computations That's kind of what happens they reach such a higher state of existence a truer state of existence They can limit themselves In fact, that's what saints do whenever they come down and angels do this as well. They can limit themselves to a degree But they I don't like to them to limit themselves. it's hard to describe but That's generally what happens. And it's not until you pass on to that other side that you go through the same process and then now you're able to communicate. Speaking of, hi! There's my baby. I think I'll over and talk quantum mechanics with him. See if he understands. the uh best analogy I can think of and I'm Partially on that side I understand some of this because of the gifts I've been given and even I find it difficult, I live my life knowing that I cannot fully communicate with the angels or the saints or with God while I'm on the earth. I can't wait to have an honest conversation with Demidelion. Is there period or a point that someone like my dad or Bev decides to move on to that next level? usually instantaneous or depending on the state of their soul. Like we also believe purgatory on the Catholic side of things. But once the soul enters heaven, it's just a totally new experience. For instance, my one friend, David, after he passed to the other side I only saw him once and that was shortly after his death he wanted to say something to me and then that was it and I pretty much understood he didn't want to come back to this side he just doesn't want to and so that's that's fine are, in some of these books, they're receiving some level of training and experience. and The easiest way I think of heaven is God always refers to us as children and I Believe that's 100% correct. We're still in preschool the earth our entire life. This is a preschool it's not until you get to heaven when you go to kindergarten and start learning again and learning the real stuff was one person had a near-death experience and when they went to the other side they actually saw Abraham Lincoln teaching a room full of young children and those were people that had just passed over they were literally young children again and he was teaching them the basics as they put it of things they have to learn. again, that is the point of this life, this journey. excited to learn, continue learning. I'm grateful for all of the challenges that I had during depression that allowed me to be grateful for what I have now. Couldn't have had the joy I have now without it. again, just tuning in, learning to be aware the thoughts in your head and identifying that these are probably not mine. And not condemning yourself for every thought that comes into your head. Just be willing to Give it to the Lord, process it, do something about it. No matter how long it takes. it's taken me years to get to this point and I'm not done. journey and people often will say, well, that's just so hard, so much work. Okay, but if you're living every day hard as it is because you're miserable, it's a lot easier to do those small and simple things that will get you to a better place that will help you to enjoy life and ultimately be the kind of person who can give back in ways that you couldn't give back before because you're listening, you're aligned, you're listening to the right voices. I want to thank John again for being here today, for sharing your incredible wisdom and insight. I'd better get back to my almost preschooler and attend to his needs. But thank you again for joining us today, making it to the end of this podcast. Check out the Overcome Depression workbook if you haven't already and we will see you next time. Take care.