 The Chair that Rocked On Its Own
by Adam Bosler A couple I met at a barbecue told me a story of a rocking-chair in their front room that rocked on its own. They also heard strange footsteps at night, in their hallway. There were other unsettling occurrences in their physical environment that couldn’t be explained. These things always happened in the middle of the night, they told me. I talked to them a little about psychopomp work, just enough so they understood what I could offer. A few weeks later, the wife of the couple contacted me, and asked if I could meet with her family to discuss how I might be able to help them. They were getting kind of scared, she said. I arranged an in-person meeting at their home. Before going there, I did some “powering up” with the compassionate spirits I work with, using my drum and rattle and a candle, in a dark room. I asked the spirits to help me be filled with peace and love. I asked that my heart remain open to whatever I found or felt when I visited this family’s home. This is typical for how I prepare to meet with a client. The married couple, along with their teenage son, met with me at their house, for about half an hour. I learned that they also had an elderly matriarch living in their home who spoke only Spanish. The son went and got his grandmother, and brought her out to meet me. We very cordially shook hands and smiled at each other, but then she returned to the backroom, down the hall, where (they said) she spent most of her time. The rocking chair sitting in the front room, where the family meeting occurred, did not rock on its own while I was sitting there in their house, most likely because this was daytime. I explained to the family what psychopomp work is. Not a lot of explanation, just enough so they understood what it is I could offer them. I could tell from their facial expressions that just having an explanation, and someone there saying it’s possible to help the stuck spirits move on and find somewhere they will be happier — this was a great comfort to the family. They eventually told me that they believed the rocking chair was being moved by a grandfather who had passed away in recent years. I again emphasized that psychopomp work is done from a place of compassion, to try to help the “stuck soul parts” of someone find a place outside of the physical world where they will be happier and more at peace. The family agreed that this is what they wanted. They said, yes, please, any stuck soul that is attached to this rocking chair, please help them find a place of peace and happiness. I agreed to go home that evening, and do the work of assessing what’s going on at their residence. I told them I needed a few days to do this work, and that I would get in touch with them after the work was finished. Later that night, around 1:00 AM, from the comfort of my own home (after another round of powering up with my helping spirits), I did the middle-world journey and began circling around their house. I immediately became aware of about a dozen human-form spirits milling about in their front yard. It looked like a party, or a barbecue, of some kind. I floated over and asked one of the friendlier-looking beings what they all were doing there. He said they were relatives of the grandmother who lived in the house. They were having a “family reunion” he told me. “We’re here to help her, whenever she’s ready to move on from here.” I thanked him for communicating with me, then proceeded to travel into the house, toward the rocking chair. Sitting there, in the chair, which was now rocking gently back and forth, was a tiny baby girl, young enough to be pre-linguistic. Somehow, this baby and I were able to communicate telepathically. Inside the house, there was no party going on. There was silence and darkness. This baby was the only spirit around. I told her I was there to see if she needed any help, and she immediately communicated to me that she wanted to find her Aunt. The little girl was lonely, and she didn’t know how to leave that room and find the Aunt she wanted to be with. One of my helping spirits who I rely on for this kind of work showed me immediately that the girl’s Aunt (her soul) was currently living in one of the layers of the Upper World. I saw the image of where she was, and recognized it from my FSS training to do psychopomp work. I described to the girl where her Aunt was, and it was immediately clear to me that she was filled with an exuberant YES! Take me there! That’s where I want to go! I reached my hand out, asked the child to grab ahold of me, and I did the work, the way I was taught. Once I returned to that room, I exited the house, waved goodbye to the spirits who were partying in the front yard, and returned to my body laying on the floor at my own home. A few days later, I met with the mother and father of the family. (The son, a busy college student, had decided not to meet with us this time). The first thing I told them was “Well, it wasn’t a grandfather rocking the chair… It was a tiny little baby girl…” Both of their faces turned white, like the blood had dropped out of their system, or they had seen a ghost. They looked at each other, then back at me. I could see tears beginning to well up in the eyes of the wife. She proceeded to tell me that when they had first moved into that house, she had suffered a miscarriage. They had lost the girl they were expecting, before they ever had their son. When I described how the child told me she wanted to be with her Aunt, the couple again looked at each other, then back at me. The wife explained to me that her sister (who had since passed away) used to come over and help her throughout her pregnancy. The couple were both crying, tears of release. I could see the grief and sadness they were letting go of. My heart was filled with compassion for their suffering. Tears flowed freely from my own eyes. When it seemed appropriate, I proceeded to tell them about the spirits outside who were “having a family reunion.” Because I had studied the Near-Death Experience, I knew this was quite common, to have spirits of deceased loved ones show up to meet a person, and help them transition and cross over. I told the couple, I thought it was these spirits who were walking in their hallway at night. But I could tell that my explanations didn’t really have a lot of impact on the two of them. I had switched into a mode of “talking from my rational mind and book-knowledge,” and I knew almost immediately that this was not helping. I eventually felt my voice tapering off, slowly coming to a stop, even as my mouth continued to regurgitate all the logical, rational reasons I would’ve seen spirits in their front yard. One thing I learned from doing this work had to do with “not talking too much” about things I may have witnessed in the journey, but which are somewhat irrelevant to the healing work that has been requested. I didn’t need to tell them about the party in their front yard. I also learned that shamanic training is not always enough, on its own, to have real credibility with people. There was a look of doubt and disbelief in their eyes when I started talking about deceased ancestors coming to meet with their elderly mother. Later, at home, through some personal journeywork to ask my helping spirits what I needed to learn from this healing session, I was shown that it would be helpful for me, as someone who was offering psychopomp work, if I would volunteer in a hospice. Eventually, I spent three years as a volunteer who cooked food for patients, and helped feed them. I also did weekly home visits to bed-bound patients who couldn't be left alone, so their family members could leave for a few hours to go get some errands done. At the main facility, a 10-bed, 24-hour care unit, I interacted with many medical professionals. I learned that Western-trained scientific-minded professionals who spend lots of time around people getting very close to death are often well-aware that patients will begin having conversations with the spirits of deceased loved ones. Many of the hospice nurses I reported to and assisted told me this was a well-known phenomenon in their line of work. The hospice volunteer program was shut down when the pandemic started. I found my time as a volunteer to be very beneficial for my shamanic practice. I now have stories I can tell, from my own actual experiences. I know about death and dying from first-hand observations, not just from all the years I spent studying books, or going through training to do shamanic work. I did not find it nearly as emotionally taxing to be around dying people as you might think. But then again, my initiations in shamanism, and other experiences throughout my lifetime, have shown me that the soul never dies. It only leaves the physical body, at a certain point, on our continuing journey toward wholeness. |