Healing from Trauma: Finding Purpose in Pain

Imagine, for a moment, that the boundary between life and death is not a brick wall, but a gossamer veil. Thin, permeable, and ever-shifting with the tides of awareness. On today's episode, we welcome Barbara Banner, a medium who did not always see beyond the veil but found herself standing at its threshold, beckoned by forces beyond reason. A self-described adrenaline junkie, she once sought the thrill of crisis response, moving through emergencies with a calm resolve, never suspecting that the unseen world had plans for her. But fate has a way of whispering—sometimes through tragedy, sometimes through synchronicity, and sometimes through a camera lens filled with unexplained orbs.Life, as Barbara Banner learned, is a series of nudges, each one leading us closer to our purpose.

A book by Sylvia Browne ignited her curiosity. A decade of volunteering placed her at the edge of human suffering, and years spent comforting those at their most vulnerable honed her intuition like a blade against stone. It wasn’t until the orbs danced across her audition tape—playful, insistent—that she truly listened. Spirit, it seemed, had been trying to get her attention all along.Becoming a medium was not something she planned, nor something she particularly sought. And yet, it unfolded with the inevitability of a river finding its way to the sea. The voices came first—not in the ears, but in the mind. The images followed. The trance states deepened. One day, she simply knew: she was no longer just hearing spirit. She was feeling them, speaking their words, moving as they moved. “I hear, see, feel, and sometimes even move the way they do,” she explained. “It’s about trust—learning to trust that what you receive is real.”But trust is a fickle thing. It is easy to doubt, easy to believe the mind is playing tricks. Until the evidence becomes undeniable. A mother asks for a message from her son and sees him, in Barbara’s vision, riding a butterfly—only to reveal that the very same image graced the pages of a children’s book she read to his sister.

A skeptical widow dismisses spirit’s mention of a bagel scooper, only to discover a week later that her late husband had designed such a device. The dead, it seems, have a sense of humor—and impeccable timing.Even as a guide between worlds, Barbara does not claim to know all the secrets of the afterlife. But she has seen enough to describe it in glimpses: fields of color beyond human comprehension, hands reaching down to lift the newly departed, a reunion wrapped in the warm embrace of love. Those who leave us are not gone; they are simply elsewhere, watching, guiding, occasionally nudging us in the direction of cottage cheese.The human desire for connection is a paradox. We seek signs, yet we often miss them. We long to communicate with the beyond, yet we smother ourselves in doubt. Barbara sees this all too often: “Your loved ones are always around you. But if you’re desperate—if you’re weighed down with grief—it’s like trying to hear a whisper in the middle of a hurricane.” The answer, she insists, is to raise our vibration. To meet them halfway. To trust.

SPIRITUAL TAKEAWAYS

• Trust the messages. Spirit speaks in symbols, feelings, and synchronicities. If it feels like a sign, it probably is.
• Grief creates static. The more we hold onto pain, the harder it is to receive clear messages. Healing opens the door to communication.
• Service is the language of the soul. In life and beyond, our purpose is to help one another. The more we give, the more we align with our highest selves.

In the grand, cosmic game of existence, we are all both the seeker and the sought. The ones calling out, and the ones answering the call. And perhaps, when we truly listen, we will realize that we were never alone to begin with.

Please enjoy my conversation with Barbara Banner.

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