Spirits or Psychosis?

Yesterday I was watching the Oprah show. Highlighted on her program was a family coping with a young girl who had been diagnosed with the rare condition of early onset schizophrenia. Schizophrenia usually appears in the late teens or early twenties and predominately in males. This child’s episodes began when she was quite young - before the age of 4. She spent hours in conversation and engaging play with her “imaginary friends”. At first the girl’s behavior was tolerated until some of her imaginary friends began driving her to behave in violent ways toward herself and others. This is when the parents who clearly love their daughter, sought intervention. A respected psychiatrist determined the child was hallucinating and psychotic. He diagnosed her as a rare case of early childhood schizophrenia.

Oprah showed a film clip of the girl swimming in a pool. There, she was shouting to protect her imaginary friend from drowning. I could see her friend with my own intuitive sight. He was an animal and he was swimming away from her, toward the deep end. It occurred to me that hallucinations are not visible to the clairvoyant eye. And I was clearly able to see her friend in that film. As I looked more closely at the child, I could see many spirits surrounding her. Some were friendly, but most were lost souls seeking expression. Intuitively, I sensed this child brought her psychic abilities with her at birth. She also brought the struggle to master her energy in a way she had not done in other incarnations. I felt like screaming aloud as I watched this tormented child and her loving parents walk away from the source of her condition, into a well-meaning attempt to manage her pain. Medication did not make the spirits go away; they were all still there. But at times, medicine dulled her senses enough to make it seem less invasive and her behavior slightly more tolerable.

There was a second child brought into Oprah’s discussion. This second child, who was also diagnosed with the rare early-onset schizophrenia, described with precision that spirits communicate to her and how when one attaches to her, she gets a migraine. I have seen this exact scenario occur in adult clients. This child described her experience verbatim and the adults in her world labeled her psychotic. Is she?

As an intuitive I sense spirits everywhere. As a child, I could always see multiple dimensions, future outcomes and the divine realms with ease. In the past, I have even been strongly overrun by spirit energies and manipulated into emotions and actions that were uncharacteristic of me, when I did not fully understand what was happening. It took intentional discernment to discover how to master my energy so that I could work with the spirit world in a safe and highly constructive way. Having such experiences within a culture that is uncomfortable believing that non-physical energies exist, that they can communicate with the physical world and do often directly impact it, can create a serious sense of isolation within a child experiencing this non-ordinary reality. It kept me silent about my intuitive abilities for decades.

I also grew up with a schizophrenic brother. My brother, Scott, was seven years my senior and a hero within my eyes. As a young teen, he read all of Carlos Castaneda’s books. It was only later that I discovered Carlos Castaneda wrote about shamanism and the ability to have direct knowledge of the unseen realms of spirit. It seemed my brother was drawn to understanding the nature of reality. When Scott went to college he experimented with psychedelic drugs, much like Carlos Castaneda. But Scott’s journey did not open him to a world of empowered living; it led him to an unforgiving lifelong battle with schizophrenia. Scott then spent most of his adult life within hospitals and group homes, struggling to find moments of peace.

Often I would visit my brother in the hospital. The energy in such places is replete with density. One day, I had cloaked myself in divine prayer just prior to my visit with Scott. I entered the lobby to discover my brother, several fellow patients and a room full of spirits watching television. One gentleman approached shouted upon my arrival: “You’re here!” he declared, “Will you please help me lose these mean people standing behind me!” I could see the angry spirits clustered behind him as they relentlessly jabbered expletives into his ears. My brother then looked boldly into my eyes and pleaded with me, “Lori, my room is filled with swarms of bees and dangerous people. Please clear my room.” Without questioning his pleas, I walked down the cold hallway to his room to see what was happening. There, I observed dark, clouds of energy floating about. I filled my heart with love and fearlessly called on the light of God and Divine Angels as I walked through the room instinctively cleansing the space, insisting that all energies not attuned with the divine leave now! I asked Archangel Michael and his band of mercy to stand as guardians to Scott’s room, holding the divine light intact. I then walked my brother back to his and asked what he saw. “Finally”, he said “its clean! Thank you”. His eyes were filled with a powerful peacefulness I had not seen often in the thirty years of his schizophrenia.

I had not been formally trained in energy work, spirit releasement or any other type of spiritual practice when this happened. My response was an intuitive answer to a soulful request. It made me wonder if I might have helped my brother differently during his lifetime. When my brother lay dying in his bed a few years ago, he was clinging to life. I sat next to him in prayerful meditation asking for mercy for his soul while calling upon The Divine Mother to enfold him in compassion and carry him to the light of God. Suddenly a beautiful being lowered herself to Scott’s chest, took his spirit into her arms and ascended into the light. He then took his last breath.

The children struggling with the invasion of spiritual entities on Oprah Winfrey’s program can be helped through non-traditional means. Is this the only answer? I do not know. Perhaps a combination of spiritual intervention and traditional support will serve the highest good. As a clairvoyant, I can confirm that the children on her program were not describing hallucinations: they were in fact seeing and hearing spirits in their very presence. Medication will not prevent the spirit world from interacting with them. While medicine may provide behavioral fluidity, it may also reinforce the child’s sense of powerlessness over circumstances that can be corrected when fully understood. My prayer is that we will open a meaningful dialog that allows us to expand our understanding of the suffering so we together we may bridge modalities and discover new interventions that stretch beyond the current dictates of our scientific model.