spirit guides

Johnny Burke: Welcome to Closer to Venus, I’m Johnny Burke. Today’s guest is Greg Thompson. he is the Portland chapter leader of IANDS, a multiple near-death experience survivor and author of Living With My Spirit Guides, which is what we’ll be talking about today. Greg, welcome to the program. 

 Greg Thompson: Thank you, John. Glad to be here.

Johnny Burke: Let’s talk about the book, Living With My Spirit Guides. What prompted you to write the book?

Greg Thompson: Actually it all came out because of 9/11. And I’d seen that for like 40 years in advance, I saw it in March of 1971 and kind of lived with it off and on. When it finally happened, it bothered me greatly because I was not able to stop it. I basically kind of went into deep depression.

A friend of mine told me to go see some people he knew, and I talked to them for about two and a half hours about my life with my spirit guides and such. And when I got done, they walked up and he said, “well, you’ve got this all written down, don’t you?” And I said, no, not really. And they said,” well, you need to write it down.” So I wrote it down, went back to see them three months later and they said, “well, how much did you write?” And I said, well, about 19 pages. They said,” no, no, you need to write it as a book.” And then my spirit guide started getting involved in it too. They started kind of implying that you should be doing something you’re not doing. And finally, after 19years, I got it written.

Johnny Burke: You say you saw 911, what’d you say,40 years before it happened? the planes crashing into the towers?

Greg Thompson: Of course there were no towers, back then.

Johnny Burke: Right.

Greg Thompson: But I saw a plane, coming into, New York City. As I said as if I was standing in a high-rise deck on a condo or something like that. And I had a new camera, and I was looking just testing it out, and then I saw this plane coming in from a low angle coming in through the city and it was disappearing between buildings. And it never came out the other end of the town. When it got down to the south end of New York City, I didn’t see it anymore. And I got the feeling that it hit the building. 

I was in New York City in September of 1991, I was there with some friends, and we walked past the World Trade Center on the South Tower, and we waited to take a look at it. We were going to go up to the top to look at the observation tower, and it was closed. So my friends were debating what they wanted to do. And I walked back out into the lobby, which was a beautiful marble lobby. I think about two stories tall with palm trees in it. And I thought, what’s it look like to look up a 110 story building from right from the base. And I looked up at it and all of a sudden, I saw flames shoot out at the top of the building, and metal and glass coming, crashing down around, outside. I debated, do I go inside or go outside? I decided I better go outside. And as soon as I got outside, of course, there was nothing wrong. It was all perfectly normal. It really bothered me. I told my friends about it. They kind of laughed at me and looked at me. We were walking past the South Tower on the street, and I put my hands against the wall. I’ve never done this before, or since and I said, “is this really going to happen?” And I got no response. And so then I asked again, “how many years before it happens?” And I was told 10 years, 

Johnny Burke: 1991, so does that make you, a seer or a psychic or, has anyone explained that to you? whether it was your spirit guides or anyone else? 

Greg Thompson: That was more of a second impression. My spirit guides got involved, later. When I was having visions about it from 1997 through 1999, I had visions of it every night. I was told at that time, by my spirit guides, that I would be in China when it happened. Something bad would happen in the world. While I was there and I got a vision of the World Trade Center, so that kind of kept me going. In 2001, the message had started up again, that I’ll be going to China. Something bad will happen while I’m there. And it also said, I will climb to the top of a temple and while there, I will either meet somebody to help them or somebody there will help me. That was all I got. When we went to China, it was every night, and I had these dreams and thoughts about what’s going to happen. 

By September 8th, I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew the planes were going to hit it. I knew it was going to happen or the 10th, 11th, 12th, or 13th in the morning between eight and nine o’clock in the morning, and the towers would come down. I knew some people from Logan Airport would be involved. When I was going through Logan one time, I saw two shadows walking through security. I knew at that moment that those shadows were the terrorists, from Al-Qaeda.  

Johnny Burke: How many people did you tell about this? Where there messages, visions or both? 

Greg Thompson: Both. I didn’t tell very many people. I mean, what do you tell them?

Johnny Burke: That would be extremely awkward. We’re going to talk about your near-death experiences because you had more than one. Did all this happen before those experiences or was it afterward? 

Greg Thompson: One in 1968 and the other one was, 2013.

Johnny Burke: Okay. So you did have one before that. The reason I asked is, I’ve had several people tell me when experiencers have a near-death experience, their psychic and mediumistic, abilities are increased. It’s actually fairly common. So, you got involved with IANDS? Talk a little bit about that. 

Johnny Burke: And for our listeners, tell them a little bit about what IANDS, what it stands for. 

Greg Thompson: IANDS, stands for International Association for Near-Death Studies. They’ve been around since the 1980s, I believe, though I never heard of them. I only heard about them from this group I met after 9/11. There’s a chapter here in Portland. It was comforting to find other people who also had near-death experiences and what people consider paranormal activities. I got involved in that a few times. The leader of the Portland IANDS wanted to move on to other things and she suggested,” Greg, why don’t you join? And why don’t you take over the leadership of it?” So I did. 

Johnny Burke: And speaking of IANDS, which I think is very valuable nonprofit for the research for those experiences, a but, have you heard of, Spiritual Awakenings International? 

Greg Thompson: Yes, I have. 

Johnny Burke: Two of those people came from IANDs. 

Greg Thompson: yeah, Dr. Yvonne Kason was the president and, Robert Bare was the vice president. 

Johnny Burke: Really good people. And I like what they’re doing there. They’re expanding it to lots of different types of experiences as a lot of us think a lot of these things are connected.

You apparently had an experience where you met your guardian angel. So what came first? was it the experience with the guardian angel or the spirit guide or was it all about the same time? 

Greg Thompson: Well, that’s a good question. the guardian angel came first by a few months. 

Johnny Burke: What was that like? 

Greg Thompson: That was rather interesting. I was four years old. And I was staying at my grandmother’s house and, it was my first time being able to be in my own bed at her house. She had always had me sleep in the same room with her. Now. She said, “well, you’re getting older now you’re old enough to have your own room”. So I was lying in my bed, and I suddenly became aware that there was something else in the room. And I looked around, I didn’t initially see it, but the second time I, kind of closed my eyes and looked again and there was this little boy sitting on the end of the bed, it’s a double bed and he was on the bottom right corner, and I was lying on the left side he had his back to me, and he was, sitting with his legs crossed. 

And then dawned on me well, he’s not really a boy because he was a bluish-white color and I could see through him, and I thought, is this supposed to be a ghost or something? I wasn’t scared. I was more just curious. He finished his writing and turned around and saw me and said, “Oh, hello”. I said hello. And we just stared at each other. I said, “what are you doing here? who are you? “he said,” oh, well, I’m your guardian angel. And I’m here just to check on you and see how you’re doing. Are you doing okay?” I said,” yes, I’m doing fine.” “So good, that’s when I wrote in the report.” Okay. And then it was kind of like, we’re just staring at each other. And I said, “you’re writing a report to whom?” And he goes, ” well, my superiors, they want to know how you’re doing”. And I said, “and you’re going to do it periodically?” And he said,” well, at least one, maybe two more times.” And I said,” okay.”

The conversation kind of went on and on a little bit, and I find it dawned on me; he seems to know something like I have a path to follow in this life, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was. He kept saying, “you’ve got choices, you can do anything you want, you don’t have to do anything in particular, just have a good time.” I thought, Oh, okay, fine. Then he disappeared. When my grandmother came to the room and say, “who are you talking to?” ” I said, “nobody.” She doesn’t hear him. I think he actually was talking words to me. I swear it was, but then I was a four-year-old. So maybe, who knows?

And then later that year, my father died before I was born. My mother remarried when I was two. So I had a bedroom upstairs in the house. They were on the main floor. I found myself, leaving my body at night, floating up in the air, above my body. And I’ve had a really good time about that. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I flew up high one day so that I could see the top of the dresser drawer. And I saw a toy up there that I have forgotten. I couldn’t figure out where it had gone. And I normally, if I’m standing in front of the dresser, I couldn’t see the top. So this was kind of neat. 

Johnny Burke: That’s an out-of-body experience though. Isn’t it? 

 Greg Thompson: Yes, it is. And the two, spirit guides, I didn’t see them physically, but I could feel them or they’re right here on the right side of my body. And they were saying,” fly higher, fly higher.” And they finally got me convinced to fly higher and they actually had me fly right through the ceiling of the house and up into the air. And they said,” keep flying higher, higher, higher.” We finally got up to above the clouds, and, I’d say this is pretty cool. My father had been a bomber pilot in World War II and my mother said he would thoroughly enjoy flying above the clouds. 

So here I am flying above the clouds. It was really cool “and fly higher”. So we went way out into space, and they said, “turn around and take a look.” I could see the earth. I could see the whole earth. And I see the blues and the whites and a little bit of green, a little bit of Brown, I thought, wow, that’s really neat. And I could feel the energy coming from the earth and it felt really good. It felt warm. It felt like home. then I looked around and I saw nothing but black with a lot of little stars, but basically black and cold. And that kind of upset me.” I want to go back home now”. And he said, “no, no, no, no, we’re going further. We’re going to up further.” So they took me way out into the middle of the solar system where we met three other guides. And the two that had been with me, they left and these other three other guides who said, “okay, we’re taking it for the rest of your journey. And we enter into a tunnel of colored lights. a circular tunnel and we’re going right through the middle of it. And the lights were like red, green, blue, yellow, white, and they’re streaking by. And changing colors as we go.

And they said,” just look at the end of the tunnel.” I could barely make out an end of a tunnel, but we went really fast, and we got to the other end, and we came out into a black void. And “what do we do now?” And they said, “well, just wait.” And slowly, but surely can see two white lights coming toward me when they got close enough, they were about the size of an adult- two of them. And they were kind of white and cylinders, white light. And the one on the left said,” we are your teachers. We are here, to teach you things that you need to know while live in your life on earth this time”. He said repeat after me. And then he had me repeat after whatever he was saying to me at that time. And when he got done, then the other one said,” I’ve got something for you too.” And they told me to repeat, and I did the same with that. The next thing I know, I wake up in the morning in my bed and I’m going to go, well, that’s the weirdest dream I’ve ever had.

And so I, I kept floating up out of my bed every night. And then after a while, the spirit guides came back and said,” well, they want to talk to you again. “So we went off and did the whole trip back over there. And this time, they had me try to tell them what I had been told before. So I ended up back at home again, woke up in the morning and we went back a third time and evidently, they got it right that time. And what they told me is that what you’ve been told, you won’t remember now until you need to know it, and then you’ll just suddenly be aware of it. That was the end of the trips with them and sure enough, it happened.

 When I was 17 years old, I was at college, freshman year and I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to do for a career. I just don’t know what to do. And you know, all this money’s being spent for going to college and I don’t know what I want to do, and I need to figure that out so I can get a major, and then I suddenly I knew that I’d have a career. That would be fantastic. I would have one career. I would never be fired. I’d never be, let go. I would stay with the job, and it’d be in for as long as I want, and I’ll retire on my own terms. I would have a woman in my life that would thoroughly enjoy. and we’ll have children, though they’re not my children, in my life. And it all worked out really nice. And both came true. I was a software engineer for IBM. I was there for 43 years. and I have a woman in my life and her daughter from a previous marriage who had several kids. So we’ve got grandkids too. 

Johnny Burke: A few questions about the spirit guides. Do you think we all have them, and we often hear stories about spirit guides and guardian angels, and they’re often confused. What are the differences between the two, and can a spirit guide also be your guardian angel?

Greg Thompson: Well, that’s a good question. Guardian angels, I got the impression that it’s another spirit guide.

 I thought about this over the last few years, is if the guardian angel actually isn’t my spirit part of my … when we come to earth, only a small portion of the soul is in the body, the rest of it is elsewhere. And I can’t help but wonder if the guardian angel is more that than anything else. Just another segment of myself, that I’m not aware of because of the veil between me and home if you will.

Johnny Burke: I’ve been told that, sometimes they can be the same thing, but there’s also several different types of spirit guides. What is your experience, with the different kinds, if any.?

Greg Thompson: Yeah, there is definitely more than one type. The spirit guides that I normally talk with are with me all the time, every day. It appears to be two, but, you know, I that’s my guesstimate. But I’ve also had a situation where I’m in meditation, and it’s only happened a few times, where I’ve had another entity, come to me, and it comes from above my head, comes down over my head and over the front of my forehead. Well, the first time I did that, the power and the energy of it was so strong it gave me a headache. It was trying to communicate so fast with information that I couldn’t absorb it. And I actually said, I think I yelled it out, it was in a meditation with this group of people yelled out, “please stop, stop! It’s hurting.” And it did, it stopped. About six months later, it came back again, but it came back much gentler. I could pick up and understand, and it was asking me questions, rather interesting ones. It said, “what do you want to do in your next life?” 

Johnny Burke: Oh, that’s incredible. 

Greg Thompson: Well, now am I dying yet or what? I had been thinking about it. One of the things that I can do, and I’ve been puzzled by it is that, when I look at a person, I can see them as being a child, a baby, all the way up to the point in time when they die, what they look like. and it’s not with everybody, and it makes me kind of interested in time and how time works. And so I said, “I would like to, study time.” There was a pause, and the answer came back granted. So I guess when I leave this life, I will be working with time.

Johnny Burke: So this gave you some insight into the reincarnation cycle?

Greg Thompson: Oh yeah. I’ve had reincarnation dreams, it actually started with one of the women at this group of people that I met in St. Helen’s. There was this one woman sitting in the corner, and I looked at her and I go, I know her. And I couldn’t figure out how I would know her, because I had never been to St. Helen’s that much. How would I know her? And she was older than me, by probably 10, 15 years. She had a white glow around her or aura around her and everybody in the room. They didn’t treat her as being the leader or a facilitator or whatever, but they all look to her for, guidance while we’re in that meeting. Afterward she’s the one that said,” have you written a book yet or not? “One of the people in that group died a few years later and they even came to me after they had died, and said, “write the book, write the book.” So I was getting hit by people that I knew who are now passed over and I’m getting hit by my spirit guides at the same time.

Johnny Burke: You got quite a few, I don’t know what you’d call them, extrasensory skills. That sounds like a mediumistic ability, being able to contact or experience people that have crossed over. Would you agree? 

Greg Thompson: Yeah, I think so. In fact, the woman which he passed away, and, the gentleman who died, I sat down at the piano one day and, the gentleman, just before he died, I got a tune from him and I started playing it on the piano and I took it to him actually, and recorded it and took it to him and said, “you know, does this sound familiar?” and goes, “well, not really, but it’s kind of cute, kind of pretty”. And it was a jig, an Irish jig. And I said, “well, you’re the one that gave it to me.” He said” I did?” So he was a bit surprised by it. and then later, when the lady died, she did the same thing. She gave me a tune which was rather interesting. And then I had to finish the tune. She put in the first phrase, I put in the second phrase, and then the third phrase of it, which we both worked on together on the piano. And I still play that. I play both of those tunes still- they’re very important to me.

Johnny Burke: They actually, gave you like some riffs or, or some melodies for an actual song then?

 Greg Thompson: Yeah, yeah, they’re playing it through my hands.

Johnny Burke: That’s pretty incredible. Since we are on the subject of extrasensory powers, I spoke to someone, Robert Bare, who had quite a few experiences. And he noticed a heightened ability, a mediumistic ability after I believe it was, his second NDE, but he said he didn’t want to pursue it. Do you ever get the same feeling? 

Greg Thompson: My second NDE was much stronger than the first one. I think the primary cause the first one was my fault. I was drinking and drove, one of those things you shouldn’t do ever do. And I swore I’d never do, but I did. But the second one was, after getting the neuro virus that was a situation where it took me five days for the body to die. Parts of it stopped working. The feet stopped working. One day I was lying in bed at the rehab. It started with a viral foot infection in my right foot. So I was sent off to rehab to learn how to walk again and then also monitor through the antibiotics. And it took five days to die, and I actually did die.

It was on the beginning of the sixth morning. I couldn’t talk, my body didn’t work at all. I could not move anything except my eyelids. I could still grunt, and that’s what I realized that I actually am dying. I had been given a 30% chance of survival.  I went through the process of thinking about friends, what would they say when I die? and I started with my coworkers. And I moved my way down to loved ones. With the final person I’ve talked to or thought about was Nancy, who is my significant other, and she would take a very hard. At that time, she didn’t believe much in the afterlife at all. She’s changed her mind since knowing me a lot. But I finally did die. I mean, I know I died. 

Johnny Burke: Were you clinically dead or ?

Greg Thompson: Well, it was not clinically dead, because I was not being monitored, but I have congestive heart failure. After getting that situation, I hear my heartbeat through my ears. Left to your right ear, a hiss kind of a sound. At that moment, I didn’t know it at the time I was reflecting back on it that I didn’t hear anything at that moment at a time when I said,” I give up”, at that one at a time, it was completely, nothing happening. And then there was a voice that popped up in my left ear saying, “why are you still here? “You know how to fly away. You’ve done it before -why are you still here?” and it kept repeating this and I was not responding to it at all. 

And then the Golden Sphere of Souls, I call it, appeared at the bottom of my bed. Just beyond the bed. I’d seen it twice before my life when I was heavily depressed . And in the past, what it did was I permitted to come to me, it’s a ball of energy. And inside the energy, there’s a lot of white, silver flashing lights, and each one of those lights represents a soul. And there’s hundreds of them, maybe thousands of them in this, compacted sphere. And what they had done in the past was, I permitted them come to me and they covered me completely, smother me in them and I’d get this unconditional love. There is no English language that works for this. It warmed the soul, if you will. Every part of me was warmed up. And so here it is again at the bottom of my bed and the voice said, “what’s that? what’s that doing here? You know how to fly away. Why are you still here?” And I said, Oh, I’m fine. I’m just kind of going, oh, I know that. And I should come forward. And it came forward. It covered my feet and my feet got warm. And that’s when I realized that my body was dead cold. And The voice is still saying “you haven’t left yet. Why are you still here?” it stopped after it got my feet warmed up.

And so I asked the sphere to come forward and it did. It started moving up my body slowly encasing my body in this, golden energy. As it got up where my hands would be, it spread out like a scanner and kept on going up. Now through my hands and the body at the same time, going up the arms and such.  And when it got to my heart, I was not there anymore. I was not in that space anymore. I was out in the universe, and I fully connected to everything. Everything that’s out there. I could feel the energy between planets and the suns, and I could feel it between the asteroids and the comets and everything. I could feel all being connected, all being one. And I am part of that one and I felt spirits floating around with me and I know them, but I couldn’t figure out who they were. And it just became a beautiful moment where everything was connected. And I am part of that connection. 

Johnny Burke: I’ve heard that quite a few times as well. So when you’re in the hospital, what you told me about the Goldens Sphere of Souls reminded me a little bit of when people are just about to pass. They start talking to some of their deceased relatives. So being that you’ve gone through this, obviously more than once, do you believe that it’s not someone’s imagination, that the veil is getting thinner and their loved ones who have left us are coming over to kind of guide them through the light? 

Greg Thompson: I believe that’s very, very true, very true. One of the things that my spirit guides have asked me to do, and it’s an ask. It’s not a, not a command, is to help people die.

Johnny Burke: Which is exactly what I was talking about.

Greg Thompson: Yeah, that sounds cruel, but it’s not. If I finally figured it out with the last one I did, which was in 2018, and the first one was when I’m 17 years old. This is my belief; part of my soul is in this body, this physical body on earth, the body is part of the earth itself. And therefore it has a lower frequency than what we would have if we were a soul, out at home. And I also have a connection with the spirit world on a daily basis, on almost an hourly basis. So I’m able to communicate, I’m also an empath. When I’m asked to help somebody die, I’m actually at that location. It’s a remote viewing. I’m actually with that person group of people.

Johnny Burke: Okay. Remote viewing is often associated with out-of-body experiences, isn’t it? Because I think you can’t really have one without the other. So, do you consider yourself an empath or an intuitive or both? 

 Greg Thompson: I’m definitely an empath. I can’t handle bright lights. I can’t handle loud noise, it’s just too much stuff coming into me at the same time. One time I was at a concert, and they warned us at the beginning, they were going to have flashing lights on and loud music. And I didn’t realize what they meant by that. The flashing light was so strong. And the decibel level of the sound that they had was extremely high. And when it got done, I had been sitting in a chair and I had literally floated out of the chair was almost on the floor and I couldn’t move.

Johnny Burke: Being an empath; it’s probably a lot easier for you to make the connection to the spirit guides and the guardian angels of the world. I’ve been told that everyone has spirit guides, but it’s not the easiest thing in the world to make that connection. How do we do that? 

Greg Thompson: That’s a very good question. I’ve been asked many times. it came naturally to me. But I have had times in my life when I’ve had to, especially working on deadlines, you work on getting things done and getting them done right. I’d get tied up in that mess for days. And finally, I have to remove all of that pressure. And so I ended up doing a meditation and the meditations are very simple. what I ended up doing is I find a quiet place for me. It has to be very quiet. Other people love to have music on or whatever. That’s fine. Whatever works for them is good. I just sit down, and I just relax my body. I start feeling my body. And it may take five or 10 minutes to do that. Just to get the body quieted down. And what I do is basically I open my mind.

I think about the fact that I’m surrendering. I don’t believe there are evil demons trying to get to me. I’ve never come across it. I’ve never experienced it. So I opened myself up to the goodness and I accept the fact that there are things I do not understand. And that’s a hard thing. If you’re a logically minded person, or you’ve been taught the physical is the only thing out there.

Johnny Burke: I think we know that’s not true anymore. You’ve also mentioned in the book that you communicate with other forms of life. Is this in the astral plane or is it a different type of spirit, or what exactly is that? 

Greg Thompson: It’s actually things here on earth. I communicate with trees. That was my first thing that I ever did. And I started that when I was really young. I think about six years, seven years old, something like that. During the summers, I would live at the beach with my grandparents.  And there was this one tree out there I’d go to, and I don’t know why, but when I went to that tree, I would start to climb it, when I was old enough to finally be able to get that first branch. And I was very careful not to break a branch.

And I would just slowly imagine myself going into that tree. I would start looking at the detail of the tree. I look at the bark, I’d be looking at the needle so I could be like 50 feet away looking at the street. I started feeling like I was getting closer and closer to the tree. And then all of a sudden, at some point the trees are very slow. They don’t talk fast. They are very slow, And I wouldn’t say talk, communicate. I would sit there and just slowly, start imagining myself being in that tree. And I would slowly connect up with it and I could feel the fluids going up the tree and coming down the tree.
And I could feel the breezes and the leaves such has when we go by and such. And it’s such a peaceful thing. It is one with other trees. It’s one with the brush and shrubs around it. They all understand they all work together. The trees will send energy, and minerals in any way it can, to another tree that’s being affected if it’s ill. They really do stand together.

Johnny Burke: Earth is actually a living being, hence, the name Gaia. So, any other, forms of life that you’ve contacted that we need to know about?

Greg Thompson: Whales, grizzly bears, and deer.

Johnny Burke: Grizzly bears? what do you guys talk about?

Greg Thompson: It was in Glacier National Park. A friend of mine and I were going down to Hidden Lake. We were hiking down by the waterfall. There was some activity on the other side of the lake. A couple of bears. They were aware of us; they could smell us. And they were scared of us, and something had happened to them to make them jittery and come into this valley from wherever they had been before. And so I communicated with them” we’re not a threat- we’re just going down to the end of the lake.” And as we’re walking back out, the bear started moving forward again, and they were going pretty much where we had been.

#48 Johnny: For listeners that really want to know more about spirit guides and angels, what is the biggest takeaway that they need to know about?

 Greg Thompson: My belief: we all have at least one or two spirit guides, angels if you wish to call them that. They’re with us every day and they are trying to communicate with us constantly. They do not tell us what to do. They’re only trying to guide us and, they may actually be trying to help you avoid a dangerous situation too, which I’ve actually have had happen. They are our friends and I believe they actually may be soulmates, that we have many soulmates. I believe we have hundreds of them. 

Before coming back to earth this time, these two, I think I had a contract with them, to work with me during this life. I’m very fortunate that way, but anybody can do that. If you just open your mind to the fact that it’s possible, that there is some help there and they’re good. They’re good people. Good souls. Open your mind up to it and, you’ll be surprised. And then the other thing is, look at all the questions this is you’ve ever had in life. Are they really a coincidence or was there an intervention of some sort going on to help. 

Johnny Burke: Someone just asked me that in an email, and I wrote back coincidence? No such thing. Greg, thanks so much for joining us today. Really, really good stuff. How can our listeners learn more about you online?

 Greg Thompson: That you can find my website, http://www.livingwithmyspiritguides.com.And I’m also the leader of the Portland IANDS. So if you went to Portland IANDS, you’d find me there too.