The Oprah Podcast - How Loved Ones Communicate After Death - Oprah Speaks With Medium Laura Lynne Jackson

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

In a compelling conversation, Oprah talks with renowned psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson about her new book Guided: The Secret Path to an Illuminated Life. Laura Lynne Jackson says she has the ability to communicate with people who have passed on to the afterlife. She believes we all have the same ability if we “stay open” to receiving messages or signs from the other side. It’s what Laura calls living an “illuminated life.” Laura says her psychic medium gift showed up for her at a very young age and she has been giving readings over the course of her life. She describes how everyone of us living on Earth “in the physical world” has a “Team of Light” or loved ones, spirit guides and even pets who have died and who are watching out for us and sending signs. Oprah and Laura Lynne Jackson are joined by several listeners who have questions and doubts about communicating with deceased loved ones. Brittany from Arizona shares how she asked for a specific sign and received it from her 7-year-old son, Bodhi, who tragically died in 2024. Do you believe in signs and messages from the afterlife? Laura Lynne Jackson is also the author of two New York Times Bestsellers, Signs: The Secret Language of The Universe and The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven. Lessons for the Living. BUY THE BOOK! "Guided: The Secret Path to an Illuminated Life" by Laura Lynne Jackson https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735734/guided-by-laura-lynne-jackson/ Chapters 00:00:00 - Welcome Laura Lynne Jackson, author of “Guided” 00:03:07 – Discovering her psychic abilities 00:04:40 – Realizing she’s also a medium 00:06:50 – The spiritual lives of children 00:09:30 – How her brain activity differs from others 00:11:00 – Understanding our “team of light” 00:12:50 – Hearing guidance from our spirit guides 00:15:00 – Asking for signs from the other side 00:16:30 – A mother’s story of signs from her late son 00:30:40 – What happens when we pass 00:37:00 – Talking to kids about signs 00:39:58 – Learning to trust the signs 00:45:00 – Honoring loved ones who’ve passed 00:48:15 - Signs from pets 00:50:40 – What Laura Lynne wants us to know about the other side Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The day before our trip, I was sitting at his grave, and I said out loud, I need a sign from you. I need a sign that's undeniable. That undeniable sign is exactly what he gave us. Wow. Sounds like that a Laurelund book, really. Wow. Hello, it's my pleasure to be with you on the Oprah podcast. I know you all have a lot of demands on your time, so I am truly grateful that you chose to spend some of this time here with me. And my hope is that these conversations that we're having can serve to move you, to inspire you, or connect you to an idea you may be hearing about for the first time

or one that you've thought about and went, oh, yes, had an aha, something that could enhance your life. I know so many people struggle after experiencing the loss of somebody you love. And one of the hardest things to bear or to accept is not being able to talk to them anymore. We often hear friends say, maybe you've said yourself, I wish I could have had just one more conversation with my mother or my sister or my husband, whoever has passed. So just one more so I could tell them what I didn't while they were here. Well, my guest today believes that we actually all have that opportunity and that we all have the capability

to hear from our loved ones who have passed on. Now, I have always felt, believed, and there is a knowingness inside of me that is assured that when you lose a loved one, that means you have an angel watching out or a spirit guide, whatever you choose to name it, it doesn't matter.

on the other side, that everybody who passes is still there for you in some way. I've always felt that and have since that in my own life. And with me here in the Tea House is a psychic medium and author of two New York Times bestsellers. The Light Between Us is one of them. And the other is signs. Many of you have read both of those books. And she is now out with her newest book. It's called Guided.

guided the secret path to an illuminated life. Welcome, Laura Lynn Jackson. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so honored to be in the light of you. Well, thank you for that. Saying that, I love that phrase. I'll be using it now. I think that there is a path to an illuminated life and that most people are shut down to it. So we're going to be taking some questions from you, our podcast, listeners in a little bit, but I just want to talk about what you have come to know to be true for yourself and your experiences with working with other people. When did you know, Laura, that you had the gift of communicating with souls who had passed on to the other side? How did that first show up for you? Well, I think I first understood there was something

different about me in the way that I was perceiving the world around me from a very young age. I used to see people in color. I used to feel what other people were. feeling. But when I was very young, I thought that's just how the world works. And then when I was 11 years old, I had this sudden knowing while I was in the swimming pool one August day that I needed to go see my grandfather that day. It was a sense of panic. And my mom waited for me to get out. I went to visit him, and I had the most magical day with him. It was just the two of us. We laughed. We talked. And when it was time to say goodbye, I just hugged him. I told him how much I loved him. And that was the last time I ever saw him alive. He got diagnosed with leukemia.

me a two days later. And back then, if you weren't 16 years or older, you couldn't go to the hospital. So none of my siblings or I got to go see him and he crossed within two weeks. And shortly after that, I had a dream where I connected with his spirit and he showed me where he was on the other side. And that was our true home. And I thought, that's really beautiful. But I'll tell you, it wasn't until I was 23. Okay. So this happened at 11 that you had the dream about your grandfather and you connected to him from the other side. Okay? And then you were 23. So when I was 23, I had come into understanding that I had these different abilities and I had decided I was going to try to use them to help some people.

But I didn't really have an awareness of being a medium. A medium means you can connect with the consciousness of somebody who's no longer in their physical body. I just thought I was psychic because I would know things about people and I could feel their energy and I could see things about their past, their present and future. And I remember doing this one reading for a young man named Paul. He was in his late 20s. And in the reading, I had this very different experience that happened. And as I was talking about his path and his life,

and all of a sudden I felt this energy come from my, like behind me on the right and started giving me all this information about Paul's girlfriend, Amy. All sorts of things like her shoe size, the fact that she had just bought a new purse, and saying, oh, there's love and beautiful messages for her. And I actually stopped myself and I apologize. when I said, I'm so sorry. I don't understand what's really going on here. I'm getting all this information from someone named Chris, and it's really focusing on Amy. Our whole reading's focusing now

on Amy, and he stopped me, and he said, it's okay. Chris and Amy used to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Chris died in a car accident that Amy was in the car and survived. That's her. That's her ex-boyfriend. And he's like, and these messages are beautiful. Wow. And I, it terrified me. Did you think woo-woo? Because I'm going to tell you, this sounds woo-woo. Let me tell you.

I thought woo-woo so much that I stopped doing this. Okay. I shut down. I said, I can't handle that responsibility. And I also was so confused. I mean, I think it would be scary, too. It was. Yeah.

It was scary. I was fearful of my own abilities. I was fearful about always having that responsibility of delivering the messages. was right and I was fearful about people thinking I was crazy including myself yeah it was just so out there for me that it took me a number of years to really own that truth yeah and also see it as beautiful and comforting yeah I can see why that would happen I mean I have discussed and a lot of people are going to say we're very woo-woo for even having this conversation yeah but I've been talking about it for so long and I remember specifically doing a show

show on the spiritual life of children and talking to parents who had experienced this in young children because I have come to realize that young children come in. When you're young, you come in with it. When you're born, you come in with it. I say you come in trailing the breath of the angels. I don't know where I got that from. It just occurred to me. And I've experienced so many stories where children are trying to tell their parents, but about five or six, they no longer have it, I think because of the density of the world or something. Have you discovered that also?

That is an absolute truth. We all come here to our school. Yeah. To learn a collective lesson in love, and really our only rules are to give love and receive love. It's so simple. But the way that we arrive here is through reading unseen energy all around us. So when we're young, we're reading that love energy,

we're reading that connection. That's what babies are doing. That's how we operate. And that's why children, too, can sometimes recognize people from their family that they never met in the here and now as spirits that they're familiar with. It's very beautiful. That's why when I meet young babies, I go, tell me what you know. Yes. And you can feel that magic around them, right?

So I work actually a lot with scientists because I know that this is a truth for me and I know that I've been really wanting to explore it to understand. how does it work in me? How come I can access it? Because it's truly a gift that we all have. I know this. And so what I've come to understand is that... I mean, we may all have it, but I don't think everybody can access it. Oh, we can re-access it. You just have to understand it a little bit. But I'm like, a lot of people are so shut down to actual life. I feel like a lot of people who are just sort of moving through their lives and not really in touch with the reality and presence of their own lives. So I don't know how you could touch the other side if you're not even in touch with your own life, you know? Yeah, that's such a careful point. And I think what happens,

what you were describing, when children start formal schooling, usually kindergarten first grade, second grade. Yeah. They turn off that ability to connect with unseen energy, to feel each other's energy. Why is that? Well, what ends up happening to us is we get very much trained to use only the frontal lobes of our brain. That part of our brains in charge of analytical thinking, critical thinking, math skills, language, all the day-to-day stuff we need. So from age five to seven, daily we're being retrained to not perceive energy, but to get very focused on that frontal lobe. Do you know that most of us have 98% of our brainwave activities taking place just in our frontal lobe during waking hours? Now, what's different about me that scientists have looked at and that

I find interesting for everybody listening is that when I am in normal talking mode, my brain looks pretty similar. They've done EEGs of me brain. And I'm using mostly my frontal lobe. But the moment I go into psychic mode or mediumship, it looks like I go into a coma because the brain wave silence and different parts of my brain light up. Wow. And so what they've told me is we all have a switch in our brains that we can switch off this frontal logical, what meditation teacher call the monkey mind that chatters, right? And react to that spiritual part of ourself. And I really do feel like that's part of my mission here on earth is to just reintroduce people to their spiritual self to reaccess that because what your frontal lobe does is it tells you I'm separate from you

we're having separate experiences I'm a my own person when in truth we all belong to each other we're all having this collective experience and that's why you wrote died at the secret path to an illuminated life yes because you believe that all of us have the possibility of having an illuminated life if we pay attention to the guides. That guidance, if we open up our minds and hearts to that guidance and that connection with our teams of light on the other side, it can transform not only our lives,

but the lives of those around us. So you say we all have spirit guides on the other side that speak to us in different ways by sending us signs and messages to help guide us through life. And you call it a team of light. Who are these guides? Yeah, so I've come to understand that

from my own experiences and all the readings I've done. Each and every one of us has what I call a team of light. It's made up of three parts. The first part I see as God energy, just this force of love that is part of us, inherent in us, connects us, leads us and guides us every day on our highest path. The second part of our team of light,

and this might sound a little woo-woo, is what I call spirit guides. Throughout time and history, a lot of religions were referred to them as guardian angels, this angelic realm with specific guides that each and every one of us have that have been helping us since the moment our souls came here to Earth school. There are nobody in this lifetime. They're just advanced angelic beings that we contracted with spiritually.

They're not in this lifetime? We don't know them this lifetime. That's, you know, they're usually before we come here to Earth, we contract with them. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't call upon people who have lived on Earth and ask them to guide us to. certainly can but they're really more the angelic realm and then we have loved ones who have crossed that's the third part of our team of light pets included as well as our ancestors we might not have met and they guide us as well 100 percent they are our angels as well how do you know them loved ones that have crossed how do you know this how do you know this to be true so i've

come to understand this through my own experiences with my guides with my feeling of connection to God and with the way that I read and what I see on this inner screen when I read. The screen in your mind. Yeah. The screen in your mind that shows up. Yes. Now, you say we all have spirit guides on the other side that are speaking to us. Are they speaking to us all the time?

They're trying to because they like to help us with everything. And they're speaking to us by sending us messages and signs to help us guide through life. Yeah, I always try to. help people see the signs that they've already gotten from their team of light and their loved ones on the other side. I call them default signs. And so typically what happens is when somebody crosses, one of the main things they want to do is let their loved ones know they're still very much present and that they're not in pain and that that love that they have for each other hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, can get stronger. And so they like to send what I call default signs.

And default signs are putting coins in the person's path, pennies, dimes, and nickels. And I always say, pick it up if you're feeling that and look at the date, there might be a second sign. And I think, why are they doing that? And I think maybe it's because we return to light energy, and so it's easy to manipulate small metallic objects into our path. They also love messing with electrical devices. So flickering the lights, TV on and off. But now that we have cell phones, oh, they like having phone calls come in on special days with a number. you can't call back. They love changing the words when you're texting people. And usually

pay attention when that happens what that word changes to. That might have special meaning to you. That's not just autocorrect? You know, they love manipulating electrical devices to do this. Could it be autocorrect sometimes? Maybe. But it's a really big little flag to pay attention if that happens to say, am I feeling somebody's presence? And what did that word change to? I'm a definite believer in signs. And I loved your previous book, Signs. and it really affirming for me and for so many other people that there are specific indications. And you say that in your book guided, you're now saying that we should ask for very, very specific signs from our spirit guides.

And so how do people ask for these specific signs and what do you ask for? Yeah. So one of the things that our loved ones on the other side, our team of light, send us to, are creatures that navigate this world using magnetic field, electromagnetic field, electromagnetic. fields like birds butterflies dragonflies deer bats they do that to get our attention but what they love is when we co-create a language back and we can ask them for a very specific let's say creature but i always say don't make it something typical make it a little different and also you know what make it as unique as possible so let's say you think of an elephant i want an elephant is from a sign from my

dad on the other side now let's change it a little let's make it a purple elephant or or let's ask for a dolphin and change it, make it a pink dolphin. But it should extend beyond that because just like when you learn a foreign language and every new word you learn, you have a new way to communicate, that's our language with those we love on the other side. They don't have voice boxes to say things. They don't have arms to hug us, but they are looking for all ways to communicate with us.

I always encourage people to also pick a number sequence that they want to receive from their loved ones. it could be one that you just think of or it could be one that's meaningful or it could be one that continually shows up in your life that's them already sending you signs they've established that one the greatest thing is when we recognize it yeah and you should ask for a song and a phrase as well and now you created four ways that the other side can yeah i had a friend who had the number four four four kept showing up and yeah yeah that definitely means something when they keep showing up and showing up We need to take a quick break when we come back.

Our listeners share stories about signs from loved ones on the other side. Maybe that's happened to you. Stay with us. This episode of the Oprah podcast is brought to you by booking.com. Listing your vacation rental and booking.com opens the door to more guests. Booking.com is one of the most downloaded travel apps in the world. That makes it the place to list your vacation rentals if you want to earn more with consistent bookings, reach new markets, and turn hosting into a steady income.

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head over to booking.com to see how you can get started today. The reach is global, the bookings are consistent, and the control is yours. For the bookings you've dreamed of, list your property on booking.com. Welcome back to the Oprah podcast. I'm with Psychic Medium and best-selling author, Laura Lynn Jackson, whose new book is called Guided, the Secret Path to an Illuminated Life. Okay, I want to bring in some of our listeners to talk to Laura. But first, let's watch this video, a mother in Arizona, posted on social media.

This past weekend, we went on a trip for the first time since our son passed away. Before we left on our vacation, I asked my son for a sign. Going as a family of four instead of a family of five was already such an eerie feeling. I just, I wanted to know that he was. on the trip with us. Now I didn't know what to ask for because he was seven when he passed away. We were shopping for souvenirs and I was looking around and I see this tower of stuffed animals and I immediately heard Bodie's voice in the back of my mind, Mama, I want this one. So I be lined straight to those stuffed animals and I picked up this giraffe.

Bodie loved giraffes and they were just his thing. My oldest son, who's 14, realized it's a follow giraffe where you scan the code that's on this giraffe and then you can see where your animal is. We're looking at where it is. I'm like, oh, that's cool. And, you know, I hand the phone to my son and he's like, looks up at me with like, his eyes were big and he's like, mom, the giraffe's origin date. is February 18th.

And I just looked at him. February 18th is my son Bodie's birthday. So immediately I burst into tears. I'm like a wreck. He made himself known on our trip. And we all took turns clinging to the giraffe the rest of the trip. Wow.

That's a story. That's exactly what you're talking about. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Brittany's joining us. Brittany, hi. I'm so sorry for the loss of Bodie. Hi. Your precious little Bodie. Thank you. And thank you for happening. He's in spirit. He's in spirit. And we're talking about him and the energy of him is with us all now.

If you're comfortable with me asking, don't answer if you don't want to. But how did he pass at seven? So it was kind of a traumatic passing, but it was very unexpected. And I, um, I, I call it a freak accident, but he was taking a bath on a Saturday morning, and we didn't know, but he had anterovirus, and he spiked a fever in the bathtub, and it can cause a febrile seizure, and so he ultimately had a febrile seizure while taking a bath. So we had a few days in the hospital with him because they got his heart started on the ambulance, and so we had some days in the hospital with him, and we were. hoping that a miracle would happen and we were praying and we were just holding on to hope

that he would pull through and his brain swelling wouldn't be too much. But we ultimately had to say goodbye three days after that accident. And God, my heart breaks for you. My heart breaks. How long ago is this? It was September 10th of 2024, so a little over a year ago. It's just shocking. Yeah. Shocking. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

And for the rest of the children and the family. Just so hard, so many things having to deal with and unexplained things. So I'm trying to understand and asking this question for myself and the audience listening to us as well. So he had a seizure. Did he end, was he, did he, did he drown? Did he pass out in the tub? So they weren't really sure, and the doctors were kind of, it was just their best educated guess. Before the age of two, Bodie had had two febrile seizures.

Now, that's just a body's way of responding to a sudden spike in a fever. Now, those two febrile seizures he had had were essentially harmless. I remember asking the doctor, do I need to get him on seizure medication? No, he will outrow these around age five. nothing to worry about. So hindsight is 2020. I think if we knew that he was even feeling crummy that day, we would have been right there next to him during the bath. But at seven and a half, you don't sit there and stare at them. Like, they want their privacy. So you respect that. Absolutely. My husband had gone in and checked on him as he was drawing his bath. And Bode's like, he had taken a nap. And he's like,

I feel great. I'm, you know, we're going to have a good Saturday. And so my husband walked out and comes back and he was already face down. So that was the part that just didn't make sense to us. We're like, how did that happen? There were no contusions to his head. There were no reasons why. And they couldn't call it a drowning because there was little to no water in his lungs.

So essentially the seizure caused him to go unconscious. And since he was faced down, when his body tried to breathe again, it couldn't. And so that's why he didn't have water in his lungs. So it's kind of hard to say, like, I can't just say, oh, yeah, he drowned because that's not what happened. It's such a complicated story. Yeah, it is complicated.

And I know you would want answers and your family would want answers, but the only thing that matters now is that he's not here. And we were just looking at pictures of him. And he looks like such a happy boy. And when I was reading about your story, I just love the name Bodie. I love that name. Thank you. We named him Bodie because he was our Enlightenment baby.

I entered my pregnancy with him. I started to meditate and started to just get more in touch with my spiritual side. And so it was the most fitting name for him. And here we are now, it still is the most fitting name for him. Yes. Well, you told my team that you were not. never a quote woo woo spiritual person but that has now changed now with all the signs that you believe bode has been sending you and i listen i have to i want you to tell us about that but i mean

a giraffe is not like a butterfly you know a lot of people talk about i saw a butterfly well we all see butterflies but yeah we don't all see giraffes you know well bode loved giraffes i i i I don't know when it started, but from a very young age, he loved giraffes, and so he had so many giraff stuffed animals, and he just loved them. In fact, the night of September 10th was the night that we came home from the hospital without Bodie, and we, my kids were like, can we please all sleep in the same room? I'm like, absolutely instant yes. How old are your other children?

How old are the other children? Juniper is 12, and Braxton is 14. Okay. They wanted to sleep in all the same bed, and so I was starting to prep the bed and just get stuff, you know, cleaned up and fixed up. And I noticed I'm throwing on the bed stuffed animals, but my mind was in such a haze that I wasn't even, it wasn't registering what I was doing. And my daughter, Juniper is the one who pointed it out. She said, Mom, why are all of Bode's giraffe stuffed animals here in your room? And I looked at them on the bed, and I was like, I don't know, knowing very well, the last time I took that boy in three nights previous, all of those stuffed animals were in his bed across the house.

So it was the first sign that we received from him, the night we got home from the hospital, all of his tariff stuffed animals in my room. other there were no other stuffed animals just his and just giraffes and so i kind of took that as a sign of like giraffes are going to be maybe one of our ways to get signs from him i didn't really know because like like you said and i said i was the biggest skeptic i've never been a super in my adult life i haven't been a super religious person and so for me to lean into these signs and be like, I know that it's him. I'm the biggest skeptic of them all. But when you all were away recently, the story that you put on social media, you were away and the voice in your head says, go to the giraffe. I mean, and then it turns out it's the same

date as birth. I mean, what did you think then? Yes, that was, I just knew it was him. I knew it was a sign from him and I could feel it. I don't know how to explain it. but I could feel his energy. I know as his mom, what his energy feels like. And so I knew it was him. I often go to his grave and I talk to him. I feel closest to him there. So the day before our trip, I was sitting at his grave and I said out loud,

I need a sign from you. I need a sign that's undeniable. I didn't know what to ask for. But that undeniable sign is exactly, what he gave us of his birthday, 218, um, wow. This sounds like it's right out. It sounds like it sounds like this is out of Laurelund's book, really.

Wow. It sounds like you were guided. It sounds like, you know, you were illuminated. It sounds like that was a sign. What do you want to say about this, Laurelind Jackson? Yeah, I first want to start by say, I'm so sorry for your physical loss. Um, it's so hard for us to ever try to make sense about a child's crossing. it can't to us logically.

I can only share what they tell me from the other side, and what they tell me is that it's all about love in some way, that they have taken that love with them and are still connected to the people they love here. I think it's so beautiful that you were open to trusting that voice you heard that said, go buy that giraffe, because that's what our loved ones do. They want so badly for us to know they are present with us still. and the joy that that brought in knowing he was still present with you to his soul,

to your family while you were on vacation for that is really magnificent. It's like he was there. He joined the vacation. Absolutely. Yeah. And we took turns like holding the giraffe and my kids wanted to, oh, it's my turn with the boaty giraffe. They wanted to just hold it and it was a special thing for us to have the entire rest of the trip. Wow. I will tell you one thing. to that they tell me on the other side, the highest way we can. Who is they? And our loved ones who have crossed. Okay. You mean the collective. Yes. Collectively throughout all the readings I do. Yeah. When I connect with people on the other side who have crossed, they all say the same thing to me.

And it's this, the highest way that we can honor receiving a sign from them is to share it, that story, share the story with others. So I just want to let you know that you and he worked as a team of light together. by you sharing that online and now here with everybody who's tuning in, they could learn about that beautiful connection of love and know that they too are connected to those they love on the other side. So you and he became teachers. Absolutely. Thank you. I started just this summer to pivot my mind a little bit to this is not the relationship that I want as his mother. But if this is what I'm going, like, this is the way I'm going to love him, then I'm going to lean into whatever that is. And so I would say it was around June is when my mind started to pivot.

And I'm going to love him and I'm going to foster a relationship with him no matter what that looks like. So I, that makes me want to cry, Brittany. I have to say that is just so powerful. and you have honored us so much and honored the name of your son, the life of your son, by sharing his story with us today. Thank you so much. Thank you. I know that the light of him will continue to guide you and your entire family because it's really strong.

I hear you have the giraffe there. I do. Would you like to see, honey? Yeah. Oh, my. Here he is. That's the giraffe that was scanned in his birthday. Yes, this is the one. This is the little scanning. This is the little thing.

Oh, wow. Wow. So, yeah, there he is. That's a powerful story. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Blessing to you. Blessings to you. That's amazing. Yeah. That makes me so full of love to hear that she was able to open. I mean, it sounds like it's right out of your book, right? Yeah. You know, the book isn't about people coming to me. It's about the beautiful stories that I hear. of connection, that it can occur just by making this small change of choosing to be open, choosing to be open to the guidance and to the messages and learning to trust in it. So I think there's two big obstacles. The first is fear, like, what does this mean?

And this is so strange. And do I want to dive into this? And the second is trust, trusting that inner voice that tells you, go do this, trusting the messages. This is what I've experienced. Tell me if you can affirm this. confirm this, that when somebody you love passes away, the spirit of them, I felt this very strongly when Maya passed, that the spirit of them remains or abides with you in some way,

and that you are, as Brittany was just saying, there is a relationship of connection that is very different than your relationship of connection when that person was in the dense body, but it's still very, very, very real. And I have sensed for myself that when people who have loved you on earth pass, that it strengthens you, it makes you more aware, makes you more on it,

more vibrant, more able to live your life with a different kind of intensity. Yes. And that's what death has taught me. Is that the cheat, is that one of the things you've gained? The way that you just stated that was so eloquent and profound and so true. And that's really the highest path we can all take when we physically lose someone we love. Because I think so often this materialistic world, you know, the paradigm we're living in,

which by the way, has been blown to smithereens decades ago, but we're still pretending like what you see and touch is what there is. But I think what ends up happening is that we think of death as a dead end. And it's not. It's a doorway. Yeah, I know that. And that relationship strengthens. And people who were here and maybe even we could have had conflict with or they were stuck in a belief system, when we cross and do our life review, we understand in a millisecond the, you know, ways we were thinking, maybe things we were stuck

in, how we made others feel, and we evolve. And so those relationships we have with people on the other side, they're not just continuing. They are getting stronger and brighter. Anytime we ask forgiveness or give forgiveness, it is always received and heard. And we have this beautiful spirit that's present with us from the other side, guiding us, leading us. Yeah, I want to say to anybody who somebody left and you felt like you needed to forgive them or they needed to forgive you, it all is well. Yes. All as well. Yes.

All as well. You don't have to worry about I should have said or what I only said. Because once they leave, that's when you really get it. Yeah. That's what I've come to feel is true. Time for a short break. Our listeners have questions for Laura about how to communicate with loved ones who passed on. That's next. I'm back with my conversation with psychic medium Laura Lynn Jackson.

Laura's taking questions from our listeners, so let's get back to it. Nikki's joining us from Los Angeles. She and her longtime friend group lost their dear friend two years ago. Nikki, tell us your story. Hi, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for including me. I really appreciate it.

Two years ago, my family and I lost a dear friend, Andrea, to cancer. And at the dinner table with our children who were 8 and 11 at the time, we talked about death and the soul. And our boys asked us, well, how will we know if Andrea arrived to heaven safely? And I said, well, boys, she's going to show us a sign. Well, Mama, what is that sign going to be? And collectively, they decided, Andrea, you should show us your name. I was like, okay, to myself, I'm like, this is a big task,

but I'm going to go with it. Okay, Andrea, wherever you are, if you've made it there safely, we love you. Show us your name. And that weekend, we had taken a little family vacation and we were in the little town and there was a bookstore and the boys wanted to go buy a book. And I was like, oh, in my head.

This is the moment, Andrea, in the bookstore. Come on, there's so many names. You got this. This is your time. Obviously, in my head saying this. And we were in there an hour, absolutely nothing. I was so defeated.

No author named Andrea. Not a thing, Oprah. Nothing. Get in the car. And the kids are like, Mama, what's wrong? I mean, they could tell. I was a little upset.

And I said, boys, I have to be honest with you. In the bookstore, I told Andrea in my mind, now is the time. Show us your name. As we pulled up to the stoplight, the boys go, Mama, Mama, look. Not only did she show me a sign, she showed us a street sign that said Andrea Way.

Get out. Like the biggest street sign, you could, I have chills right now, but girls, she was not done. We got back to the Airbnb, and that night my son asked me to hand him the one book that he bought at the bookstore. He wanted to read it in his bed. And it was written by Andrea Beattie.

I didn't see it in the store. So she decided to show us a big old sign on the way home. And ever since then, I see Andrea's name all the time. We are having a luncheon for Andrea like we do every year during her birthday, which is coming up this Sunday. And my spouse and I went to dinner last weekend, and we were talking about how much we were looking forward to having the luncheon. It's when all of her close friends and family get together, and we celebrate her. And, of course, we were crying in the car. And we got to dinner, and we were seated across from a storefront that said Andrea's.

Of course, she makes us sit right across her at dinner tonight, you guys. I can't. We're just talking to her in the car. I just laughed. I said, thank you. We love you. And I continue to talk to her. And, you know, for two decades, I had to have my grandmother who's passed away,

whose apartment number was 807. She shows me 807 twice a day, every day in everything I do, whether it's a license plate, how many emails I have, how many likes there is if it's a random phone number or the time from the gas company telling me that this is your pin it doesn't stop and today your producers had asked for some uh pictures that you might be using and so i found the last one of my grams and i last night which i took a snapshot of and i emailed it to myself with the word grams in the subject this morning so i could send it to your producer no sooner did i send that to your producer but i got a random email from a

person named Dane Grams. It was like she said to me, I do 807 every day. I'm going to give you this today. Oh, wow. Wow. Do you have a question for Laura? Wow. Laura, I do have a question.

You know, when our children do see these signs, how can we nurture them instead of influence them to make them feel like that's the person or how do we honor that? That's good. First, I want to start by commending you so much. for teaching them about signs and that we can communicate with loved ones on the other side. That was the most important step because you gave them the tool and you gave them the blessing and permission to own that beautiful part of themselves. So just by doing that, this is phenomenal.

What I will say is now encourage them to create a language of their own, whether that be with Andrea or a guide and have them pick anything that they've done. want, something that pops into their mind, anything they want at all, just continue to help guide them in the here and now to the beautiful gifts they have inside of connection and communication. Nikki, that was a wonderful story you shared about Andrea. You can tell her, you can stop now, Andrea. It's everywhere.

No, no, no, no. Andrea Way, Andrew in the book, Andrew on the restaurant, it's okay, we hear you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Nicole is joining us from Chicago. I hear before your mother died that the two of you had a conversation about sending her signs to you from the afterlife. Tell us about that. Hi, Nicole. We did. And, you know, our conversations about spirituality and faith and religion and how to navigate life without her here in the physical world started long before. she got sick. And one of the things that she said to me is that I don't know what I'm going to send you, but when I send it, you will know. And so after her transition four years ago, you know, I see

her birthday plastered all over social media. I see it on license plates. I see it on the clock when I'm cooking. And ironically enough, I see white feathers in my house just sprinkle where they shouldn't be. And I'm like, mom, is that you? Like I find myself speaking to her out loud looking for confirmations. And I will say on my most difficult days, I look for the signs. And when they don't come, I'm like, okay, you got to send me something because life is a mess, life is hard. You know, I'm picking up the phone. I want to call you. I want to reach out. And it's just, it's been really tough. And so when she does send me a sign, I'm like, okay, this is giving me just a little bit more hope

to bring my whole self back to life because my mom was my soulmate. And so when she died, I felt like a part of me went with her. Do you have a question for Laura? I do. When I feel her presence and I see signs stronger than I normally would,

how do I know without a shadow of doubt that they are in fact for her? Yeah, you know, it can be so hard because we're so trained to be in this analytical, critical thinking mode of just logic. And so we get in a little wrestling match with those spiritual experiences when we have them. Here's the rule that I've learned. If you have a moment where you notice something and you have this little voice inside you that says to you, I think that was a sign it was.

That little voice is the connection. I think learning to trust it is our. our real challenge here. That is the connection and learning to trust it. You know, I just wanted to say to you how commendable it is that you and your mother had this conversation long before she passed, because one of the things that I think is so key in all these years in having conversations about death and people who've had near-death experiences and transitioning, people are afraid to talk about it. But what I have learned from all of my conversations and experiences with scientists, and psychics and mediums and all of them, the array,

is that staying open is the key. You know, we've been taught a certain way to behave and grieve and mourn and so forth. And I always say to people, just stay open. Even in the grieving process and the mourning process, obviously you're mourning the loss of your relationship here in the density of the body. But just as Brittany was sharing with us about being,

able to have a relationship with her son, however that was going to show up in the spirit, you can continue to have a relationship. It's not what we're accustomed to, but can be as strong and as powerful and certainly as guided, guided. I use those who passed on Maya being amongst them as my guides, you know, through the density of this life. And I see that you're doing the same thing. wanted to just say, you know, when the feathers show up in the room or whatever signs that you're looking for, she's always there. She's never not there. Just because you're looking at the signs and you think, oh, that's you, that's you, she is always there. She abides with you, through you, above you, around you, and in you.

She is always there. Yeah. That's what I feel. I feel that for myself. I say that because I so assuredly feel that for myself. Is that not true? That's so true. That's so beautiful how you said it too.

Because we ask for these signs as proof. And we need that sometimes in the tangible world. You're looking for the thing and the thing and she's never not there. Never not there. I love that. Yes. Never not there. All right. God bless. Thank you. God bless. God bless, Nicole. Hope you find this conversation with medium Laura Lynn Jackson comforting in some way. If you think this episode may help a family member or friend, share the link to this episode. We'll be right back.

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and we're about to meet a woman who lost her very best friend and is hoping to keep a spiritual connection with her. All right. Karen is joining us from near Berkeley, California. Hi, Karen. I know you've been listening. How do you relate to this conversation? It's very profound.

A lot of what's already happened has really touched me and has a lot of connection with what I wanted. to share. So I lost my sister-in-law, who I knew for decades. She was my very best friend. She was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer in October of 23, and she died in May seven months later. And while it was a very hard seven months, of course, she was such a warrior and such a teacher that it was actually a very inspirational seven months in her death. was also very beautiful and inspirational and designed by her in many ways. A couple weeks before she died, we had a conversation, and she said, Karen, I will always be

with you, and I will always connect with you if you're open. And we shared a very special bond, and she knew me very well. She knew that I have trouble being more open sometimes. I was different from her that way, but she honored her promise. She has showed up for me in very beautiful ways. And when she does, I always say, hi, Raquel, I love you. And I know it's her, you know, without a doubt. I guess that leads me to my question, which is that I feel that I'm somewhat passive

in our relationship, meaning she comes to me. But I really would like to honor her more with being more courageous. And what you were saying, you know, maybe address the fear and generate more trust. How did I do that? How to open, how to be more open. I mean, I think I keep going back to Brittany and Bodie. I think the fact that she was able to actually articulate what you're trying to express. not trying to express, what you have expressed in guided and what we're trying,

what we're trying to express here is that it's about another kind of relationship and we're all just used to these relationships, you know, in the dense body. But let Brittany be your guide and teacher also as well as Laura Lynn Jackson here because the fact that she is, she feels that going to her son's grave is the place that she can best, you know, feel him or communicate with him and that she's staying open to receiving the messages, that is the key, as I have learned over the years with my encounters with people who passed. What would you like to say? Absolutely. You know, one thing I would like to share, too, is that we can receive these signs and we know that they're present, but they also are rooting for us to live vibrant and engaged, meaningful lives

where we are being loving. So one of the things that, those who have crossed on the other side will share with me consistently is that when any person here does something in their name, whether it's want to raise, contribute to something, tell a story about them, pay for some of these ice cream with the intention of this is to celebrate my love for that person on the other side. They're a team of light with us. Their energy gets to experience that along with us. It's one of the most beautiful things we can do. So I want to commend you so much for being open to this new language, because as you said before, that's not your norm, but your love for each other is what helped open you.

And I think go forward into this world, talk about her, celebrate her, and do acts in your own life that celebrate, that joy and that love in whatever way feels right. Yeah, I do share everything that I experience of her with her, with her daughter who's 15 and her, my brother and her son. And I do try to pass it along. But even, even, may I just say to Karen, that what Laurelund was saying earlier, just speaking her name and sharing the story here is a big thing, is a big powerful thing. It's like honoring the memory in a way that gives, you know, respect and glory to her name

and the work that she did here on earth in the body, in the body. Yes, yes. Yeah. In closing, I would just say, stay open, stay open, stay open, stay open. And even if it feels, woo, I never felt anything like this before, never experienced the word, this is weird. Stay open, stay open, stay open, stay open. Thank you so much. You know what taught me this in addition to reading signs your book,

in addition to having had so many conversations over the years about death, and dying is I've had 21 dogs, 19 of them have passed. And what I started to see was a pattern in the soul crossing of my dogs, that each one of them had a different energetic soul vibration. Some were smaller than others, some were bigger than others, some were more profound and more pronounced than others. But I started paying attention to the death. of my dogs and how their spirits abided with me.

So I think this is also not just true of humans, but it's also true of loved animals and pets that have gone on. Absolutely. I think pets can even communicate with us better than humans initially sometimes because I think our animal companions never got stuck in the language, right? The English language or whatever language. And so they're really good at manipulating things to get us signs right away to let us know they're still around and loving. If we can feel their presence, that's so beautiful.

I've also found if we have other pets, we might find that after, let's say we have a dog here and a dog that crossed, we might find that our dog here all the sudden starts looking at something that we can't see and barking and getting all excited. Why? Animals can sense and see spirit in a way that I think we're a little limited. Yeah. And this is something that I've done in the past. I don't know why I started doing this, but maybe a vet told me this years ago because I've had so many dogs. And when the dogs have been together and a dog passes, I bring the other dogs in to smell the dog that has passed so that they can sense that the death has come and they're not waiting for the other dog. So I just did this recently in February when I lost my dog Sunny. I bought Lauren. Sadie in to sense and smell Sunny to know that Sunny was gone, so they're not no longer waiting for Sunny. Because the dogs know. The moment they come up to the dead body, they know.

Yes. And they just walk away. They're not mourning or anything, but they know that there's no life there. Yeah. What do you most want people to know about the light on the other side? Oh, that it's real. and that it's accessible to all of us at all times

that no one ever needs to go to a psychic medium to connect with that light. That's what you say. You've written the book about it and then you say we don't actually need a psych. Ever, nobody ever needs a psychic medium. No one needs me to make these connections happen in their lives. It's absolutely true.

You know, I spent 20 years as a high school English teacher and I know that my soul is here as a teacher. I happen to be a psychic medium and I felt called. I knew this was my calling now, to open people's minds and hearts to this teaching. But all I want to teach them is that that doorway to all of that, that connection, it's in each and every one of us. You can just do it by setting that intention, saying,

okay, I'm all in, I'm ready to receive your guidance. Send me the signs, send me the messages, send me the knowings, guide me onto my highest path. You know, I always love to say to my team of light, use me as a vehicle of the love and healing in this world, however I can best be used. And we can all say that because we're also all part of each other's journeys.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think You's Me is a beautiful prayer. It's been one of mine for many years. Thank you, Laurelind Jackson. And thank you to all of my guests for sharing your story. Laura's new book is called Guided, the Secret Path to an Illuminated Life,

which is the life we all want. It is available wherever books are sold. And I hope you come on back next week. I'll be right here on the over there on the open. Podcast. Go well. You can subscribe to the Oprah podcast on YouTube and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. I'll see you next week. Thanks, everybody.