Kathryn Harwig will present "Messages from Spirit" from 1:30-3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, at Minneapolis Convention Center. Advance tickets are $31 available at Ticketworks.com or $37 at the door.
What happens to a soul after the body dies? Can you really communicate with your deceased loved ones? Kathryn Harwig, an internationally renowned psychic and medium, will discuss the realm of spirit and relay messages from those who have passed beyond the veil. Kathryn will give a short talk about life after death and then take questions from the audience and relay messages from the audience’s loved ones on the other side. Join Kathryn in exploring and speaking to all of the ones who are only a doorway away in the world of Spirit.
An internationally acclaimed author, speaker, trainer and attorney, Kathryn Harwig has been an intuitive since birth and an attorney since 1982. She is the author of the bestselling Your Life In the Palm Of Your Hand, as well as The Millennium Effect, The Intuitive Advantage and The Angel in the Big Pink Hat. Kathryn has trained thousands of people to use their intuition to maximize their career goals, relationships and life skills.
You’ve presented the program "Messages from Spirit" several times now. What has been your experience at Edge Life Expo?
Kathryn Harwig: Of all the topics I’ve discussed over the years at the Expo, which include palmistry and millennial changes, and any number of other topics, the topic that seems to grab people’s interest the most is being able to speak to their loved ones from beyond the grave. Because of the radio show that I have on WCCO, so many people are coming to the Expo because that’s what they want to talk about. People are yearning to know that we don’t just end. They want some kind of proof that life is eternal and that there is contact with people who have passed.
Do you feel like mediumship offers the best kind of proof we can provide at this time?
KH: Well, it certainly isn’t proof, in my opinion. That’s kind of a Catch-22, isn’t it? Because I don’t know that you can prove that on any sort of scientific basis. I certainly have never seen any proof, and it really comes down to a belief system. Really, the only thing I can do, and hopefully I can do that, is to give people information that’s personal enough to them that I wouldn’t be able to guess it or that I wouldn’t be able to know. It’s a bit of a Catch-22, because what spirits who come in really want to say to someone they haven’t seen for a long time is something like "I’m fine" and "I love you" and all that kind of stuff. That’s their message, but also the people who are asking the questions want something more unique to the individual.
There’s been the suggestion that all of us, even when we’re alive in our bodies, still maintain a cord or connection to the other side.
KH: Absolutely.
When people pass over, do they have experiences on the other side that keep them from making contact with us still in bodies on earth?
KH: I think that people who pass over, particularly when they still have loved ones who are still alive, are very interested in what’s going on here. And, to be honest, I think the longer they’re dead, the less interested they become.
That’s why I don’t think you get very many great-great-grandfathers coming forward to speak through a medium. They just don’t really have a lot of interest anymore.
What does it take to receive information from those on the other side?
KH: I think anybody could act as a medium. Having psychic ability, or certainly practice, helps us as mediums, but probably 50 percent of the people who come in to see me tell me that they’ve had absolute, concrete contact with their passed loved one, and they know it. They want me to verify it. They want me to say, "Yes, that’s true," because they don’t want to think they’re crazy. So I think the dead people are trying to contact us, but most people don’t know how to listen. My unique gift, I think, is that I do listen.
How would you describe the afterlife?
KH: What the spirits have told me, pretty much unanimously, is that what their lives are like is what they expected their lives to be like. Strong Christian fundamentalist people will go to a Heaven and they will be able to see Jesus. If they want to see Jesus, Jesus is very happy to be seen. If they want to sit at the foot of God, in however they envision God to be, they can do that, too. Obviously, someone who is a Buddhist or a Muslim would have a completely different expectation, and the Divine God or Power or whatever you want to call it is very willing to create a place that meets people’s expectations, at least initially.
After a while what happens, I think, is that expectations change, and those who have passed over realize that that’s not completely what they want. They don’t just want to sit a the foot of God. That gets fairly dull, and so they want to do other things.
I think we’re co-creators. I think we get what we expect to get-with God’s help, or the Divine’s help, or the Universe’s help, or whatever you want to call it, just like we do on Earth. I actually think it’s pretty much the same thing; it’s just a different dimension.
We get what we expect here. We pretty much get what we expect there. Now, that brings up the question, "What if you expect hell?" What I think is that people who expect to be punished create their own sort of mental punishment here, and probably they do that there, too, but they’re not encouraged to. They have guardians, helpers, who will say, "You know, this is really very dumb. You don’t need to do this. This is not smart. You don’t have to spend eternity beating yourself up. You did that well enough on Earth."
And everyone goes through a life review?
KH: Everybody I’ve talked to on the other side says that they do a life review when they’re ready to do the life review. What’s different than maybe what I’ve read in some people’s books is that I don’t think anyone forces you to do a life review. I believe some people will put it off a long time because they can’t face it. Others want to go through it. But, eventually everyone will want to do it, because if there’s any one defining characteristic of a human being, it’s that we want to grow.
What is the role of the departed in our lives after they’ve passed? Do some of them stick around some people and serve as guides, or is that a job or a classification for beings who are more experienced at doing that?
KH: From what I can tell, they will stick around and guide loved ones to a certain extent. I don’t know that they’re particularly good at it.
So we all come into this world with our guides from past lives or friends or whatever. We have lots of guides. The dead people in our lives probably shouldn’t be a guide, but they do have opinions, and they will give them. I’m just not sure if I want my grandpa being my guide. He wasn’t all that bright! That’s a joke, of course.
I have had people come to see me so intent upon having their dead husband’s opinion that I think it was not healthy. After the first or second time, I think it’s really not healthy for either one of them, because the dead person needs to get on with his or her new life.
What is the message that you present at the Expo about death?
KH: I hope the statement I present is more about life, that life is eternal and it’s a matter of how we’re currently living it.
What do people ask about during your Expo talks?
KH: Some people truly want to know the deceased one’s advice about something, and sometimes it’s very concrete, "Where did you hide the will?" or "What do you think about me selling the house?" Those are, I think, very appropriate questions to ask their dead loved ones, particularly those who have passed quickly without taking care of their affairs. Other cases may involve people who, perhaps, have committed suicide or something, where it’s really important to understand why or how it happened.
When people come to you, do you ask for specific loved ones to show up or do you merely present those who come to you?
KH: Both. Spirits often will appear to me prior to a client even walking in the door. So I’ll say to them, "You’ve got this guy, he’s been here for a half an hour. I haven’t paid any attention to him, but here’s who I see." Sometimes I’ll ask people, "Who do you want to talk to?" Sometimes, a particular spirit may not be available. They might be in life review. They might be skiing in the Alps for all I know, but they’re just not around. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it’s one of the things I have to warn people about.
Some spirits don’t want to be contacted. My older sister died when she was 47, and other than maybe the first couple of days after she died, I’ve never heard a peep from her.
Even though you may have tried to communicate with her?
KH: I haven’t tried a lot. I don’t have this strong, burning desire to do that. I know she’s okay. But I also find it interesting that she feels the same way, apparently.
Were you close to her?
KH: We were very close, and then we also had times when we weren’t. She died of a heart attack very quickly. She came to me right after she died and said she was fine, but I suspect she’s off doing her thing.
What are you currently working on? Do you have any more books coming in the near future?
KH: I’m finishing my third edit on my first book I’m completely revising Your Life in the Palm of Your Hand, a palmistry book, after 15 years. I thought I would revise it, but it ended up being a complete rewrite. It’s getting a new name and will come out under the title Palm Visions. It will be out in November. I’m also working on some DVDs from some of the channeling of my guides.
Why is it important that we think of our palms in a different way?
KH: I believe reading palms is the best personality assessment tool, bar none. It beats Myers Briggs by a mile. My take on palmistry is that your body is giving you very clear messages. Your hands change all the time. If you listen to your body, any questions that you might have about your true life’s work, your relationship or your health will be answered on your palms.
By reading your book, will people be able to get some of those basic questions answered for themselves?
KH: Yes, it’s a self-assessment tool with a lot of illustrations. It also includes a lot of little stories about people and how they’ve used it and how it works for people’s lives. You should be able to pick up that book and do a nice job of assessing your own palm.
It doesn’t forecast what’s going to happen to you. I don’t honestly think palmistry is a fortune-telling tool. It can do that, but there are better ways of telling the future. But it’s a really good self-awareness tool. And I’m going to be teaching some seminars again. I haven’t taught palmistry seminars in at least ten years, so I’m starting to do that again just for fun. I put it aside for a while because you can’t do everything, and now I’m kind of dusting it off.
Is that kind of fun, to come back to it?
KH: You know, it really is. Honestly, though, the only problem I have is that my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, and so I now have to wear glasses. I have to look a little harder for those minor lines.
Why are people afraid of being who they truly are?
KH: That’s an interesting question. I don’t think most people have got a clue about who they truly are. I don’t know that they’re afraid of it so much as they don’t even know where to begin. For most people, that’s just a basic hunger, to become who they are. I think for a lot of people, maybe their only job in life is to become who they already are.
What one life lesson would you like to share with others?
KH: For myself, I am working on clarity. Maybe just another way of saying "becoming who I am," but the older I get the more I don’t want to be distracted by anything other than who I am, where I’m heading, what I’m supposed to do. I’m not sure if that’s a good life lesson, but that’s the one that I’m working on right now.
What do you want to achieve personally in the rest of your life?
KH: You know, in some ways I feel…that’s another fascinating question. I have done so much more than as a little girl I ever would have considered myself able to do. It’s absolutely dazzling. My goals right now are really to remain in joy as much as possible. As a matter of fact, I would say I use that as an assessment tool for myself: "Will this bring me joy or will it not?" Or "Will this enhance my joyness?" That’s not even a word, but it’s not a bad measuring tool. It sounds selfish, and I guess, it is.
But, a lot of people don’t really think about bringing themselves joy, not on a daily basis.
KH: Yes, and if you consider the fact that we’re all one, then my being in joy should aid everybody. But, you know, that’s not my goal right now. My goal is to bring joy to myself, and I’m encouraging everyone else to do the same.
