Linda Alice Dewey is the author of Aaron's Crossing. In 1987, she discovered her spiritual skills, including channeling, face reading, mediumship, and psychometry. Dewey lives in northern Michigan in the cottage where Jacobs first contacted her.
By Nicole M. Robinson of "The Oakland Press"Linda Alice Dewey says
ghosts are like everyone else--except they're
dead.She's had more experience with ghosts than most people. Her
first book, "Aaron's Crossing" was about an Irish immigrant who
died from a fall. She encountered him in an old cemetery in
northern Michigan. Aaron was trapped on Earth since his death in
1922, and she decided to try to help him cross over to the
afterlife.After he crossed over, he telepathically told her his
story, which she wrote down and published."Aaron's Crossing" got
the attention of other ghosts, who were able to hear the thoughts
of people reading the book, explains another ghost, the subject of
her latest book, "The Ghost Who Would Not Die."It is a quick and
fascinating read.Dewey, an Oakland University grad who taught in
Clarkston but now lives in Glen Arbor, Mich., made no attempts to
verify the ghosts' stories in history. But she calls the work
"creative nonfiction"--they are collaborations between the ghosts
and the author.Ghosts flock to Dewey for help making their
transition to The Other Side--heaven, if you prefer to think of it
that way.One of those ghosts was Jacobs, a runaway slave who was
living as a vagrant in a shanty town before he was murdered in
1885. After his death, he wandered the Earth, confused and lonely,
for many years before encountering Dewey.Though born with a
deformed foot, he had promise--he was a rare black man who was able
to read. When his owner died, he fled and traveled north via the
Underground Railroad. He even joined the military during the Civil
War, but ran away from that, too. He taught others to read at a
church for a while, butwhen his dreams of teaching fell apart, he
became a thief and a philanderer. After he died, his sins became
visible to those who could see his ghost--they hung around him like
a cloud, dimming his own vision of the world. Other ghosts, the
kind he calls "clearies," saw his shadow and avoided him. His
presence made people feel ill."For entertainment, I watched the
Living," he told Dewey telepathically."I'd see happy people and
feel sorry for them because of the pain that was bound to happen to
them. Everybody gets sick and dies, I thought. I didn't know about
the kind of happiness that lasts."He joined with other
"shadows"--dark entities whose evil hangs on them like a
shroud--roving in a pack, playing tricks on the living before he
turned around and sought a purpose for his existence. Eventually,
he found a way to serve others and redeem himself.Some of the
chronology in his book is a bit confusing, despite chapter headings
marked with years. But as Jacobs explains in his story, time
doesn't work for ghosts the way it does for people. And although he
speaks in the voice of the former slave, his story shows a wider
understanding of the world because, "I'm so much more."He realized
that not only could he hear living people's thoughts, he could
speak to them and influence their thoughts. He began using that
ability for good--helping to thwart a man who was stalking a young
girl, and later comforting and guiding people dying in a
hospital.One day he overheard a woman talking to Dewey on the phone
about her ghost work, so he traveled to Glen Arbor to find her in
hopes she'd be able to help him cross over, too. He first appeared
to her teenage son, who saw a shadow reflected ina window of their
home.Dewey reached out to the shadow spirit, and tried to help him
reach The Other Side. But rather than finding heaven, he was stuck
in a kind of limbo--a place between Earth and The Other Side.
Afterward, Dewey learned that not all ghosts are ready to leave
this plane.Jacobs spent an undetermined period in a "green space"
where he seemed to dream. He heard a comforting voice tell him, "We
take care of our loved ones," and, "You are created by the Almighty
One. Who are we to judge?"While in that dream state, Jacobs helped
Dewey in her work with other ghosts, blocking some who crowded her.
He describes seeing an angel appear and remove an aggressive
ghost:
"I'm a-tugging and he's throwing me off. We're about to get into it
good when she casts her eyes upwards.
"'Angels, please remove this one, ' she says.
"Now ghosts usually don't see angels...But me, I see who done
it.
"An angel, big and fierce with a sword and scabbard and feathery
wings, pulls that guy right outta there. Stops me in my tracks.
Without a word, the angel is gone."Jacobs' cloud was beginning to
lift. Eventually, he understood that his earthly attempts to be
free were still unresolved."All that traveling north from Alabama
during the War never really got me free," he says in the book. "I
began to see the truth and didn't like it. I wasn't after freedom.
I was after 'getting.' Getting free, getting women, getting food,
getting warm, getting outta there - getting, getting, getting."When
finally he had his own white-light experience, friends including
his former owner and family members greeted him on the other
side.The book is an exciting adventure, fascinating as a taleof
slavery, the Civil War and Underground Railroad, which brought
runaway slaves to anti-slavery states in the North. At the same
time, it's a metaphysical exploration, compelling reading for
anyone who wants to know what happens after we die.Dewey does not
see ghosts, but she feels their presence, and learned to recognize
those who aren't ready to cross.She has been asked why God might
choose her to do this type of work. Why her--why not Jesus?--she
has been asked. She did not have an answer at first. Then she
realized, "Aren't we all instruments of God?""I'm not the only
person doing this work," she writes. She now gives three-hour
workshops on how to help ghosts. Dewey hopes her book sells well
and she can continue to write more.
There's no doubt she could write a series that would appeal to an
enthusiastic audience."I still do contact ghosts," Dewey said. "If
these would become good sellers, I could go on doing this forever.
They contact me all the time."
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