And they are insisting that I correct some things said and unspoken in Barbados Tourism and the Empowered Exhalation.

First of all, on the encouragement side, I have to be brave. Some folks will just plain ridicule the claim that I hear the dead speak. After all, I am not channeling ancestors on TV like the guy from “Talking to Heaven,” running a reality show, making my living as a psychic, or interested in debates with “skeptics.” Being as a medium is a gift that has opened up since studying energy healing quite extensively. And it switches on and off, depending sometimes on whether I am busy taking out the trash, fixing the light bulbs, attending to clients, and simply doing the necessities of life or in a period of extended meditation.

As indicated elsewhere, I am much impressed with “Otherwhere” by Kurt Leland, in which this fine New England gentleman who has a talent for music and writing explains his out-of-body journeys in ways that make sense of the deep metaphors inherent in metaphysical traveling.

But this is neither here nor there. I could not hear them in the graveyard behind St. John Parish Church, because I was busy reacting to a bunch of fellow tourists on the bus; the latter were being loud, forming unnecessary queues, and otherwise making themselves irritating. All that was, admittedly, my reaction. Now those who lived, and died, as members of the St. John Parish Church, one of the historic churches of Barbados, are making themselves known.

And why not? If you slander someone living you may find yourself having to deal with a nasty letter and possibly a lawsuit, and if they are recently deceased, perhaps with their estate (or estate’s attorneys), so if you neglect or overlook some detail with regard to those already long in the Spirit world, might not they be similarly offended? And it’s good to have friends on the Other Side … they got there before you, so it always helps to have a tour guide.

In any event, what I want to credit and respect is the many lives that flawlessly worshipped God, loved, lived, celebrated, sorrowed, and passed their time on Earth in ways they best knew how.

I don’t personally believe that the body — this body with which we are familiar — comes back in some “resurrection,” but my belief is not of consequence; it is simply an opinion and just that.

And sometimes this Blog is news, and sometimes it is legal information and resources, and sometimes just saying what I am supposed to say.

These people lived in integrity, as honestly as you and I. They lived far shorter lives, but none the less sweet. They were upright, passionate about religion, and immersed in an immigrant culture forging links between old and new. They too loved the ocean, swam its current, built houses, and mourned the passage of their loved ones.

I suppose I have written sufficiently to make reparation. Would like to say more about how it is possible to integrate the psychic and the physical; the objective and the subjective; the scientific and the mystical; all these polarities I have outlined in a number of books — and how I must have been driven to write, no doubt, in part by the need to find validation in the world for hidden quests and allow them to openly live alongside the mundane. But that is not about them, and it is their voice now I hear.

If you are in Barbados, please visit the Church of St. John; read the headstones, the tributes, and soak up the atmosphere and energy of those who have gone before. They are present with us now, and deserve to be remembered as they are witnesses to future generations. They have much to say, for those who listen. And there is something that binds us to them, some thread of continuity , an unbroken circle that predates cloning, silicon chips, smart cards, nuclear proliferation, and whatever else is in the news.

The Church of St. John: the island’s first church. The first wooden building was replaced by a stone church in the late 1600s, but was destroyed in the 1780 hurricane. Notes the Barbados Tourism site: ” This classic Gothic church was built to replace a previous structure which had been destroyed by hurricane in 1831. The chancel was added to the church in 1876.”

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The Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen offers corporate legal services, litigation consultation, and expertise in health law with a unique focus on holistic, alternative, complementary, and integrative medical therapies. The law firm represents medical doctors, allied health professionals (from psychologists to nurses and dentists) and other clinicians (from chiropractors to naturopathic physicians, massage therapists, and acupuncturists), entrepreneurs, hospitals, and educational organizations, health care institutions, and individuals and corporations.

Michael H. Cohen is Principal in Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and also President of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine (also known as the Institute for Health, Ethics, Law, Policy & Society), exploring legal, regulatory, ethical, and health policy issues in the judicious integration of complementary and alternative medical therapies (such as acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine, chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, massage therapy, energy healing, and herbal medicine) and conventional clinical care. Michael H. Cohen is author of books on health care law, regulation, ethics and policy dealing with complementary, alternative and integrative medicine, including Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives (1998), Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Human Evolution (2000), and Future Medicine: Ethical Dilemmas, Regulatory Challenges, and Therapeutic Pathways to Health Care and Healing in Human Transformation (2003).

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Health care and corporate lawyer Michael H. Cohen has been admitted to the Bar of California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington D.C. In addition to qualifying as a U.S. attorney, he has been admitted and to the Bar of England and Wales as a Solicitor (non-practicing). For more information regarding the law practice of attorney Michael H. Cohen, see the FAQs for the Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen. Thank you for visiting the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog.

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