What the Spirit World Taught Me About Healing a Broken Heart with Susan Grau

In this Episode

• [03:13]Susan Grau recounts her journey, beginning with a near-death experience at age four that opened her ability to see spirits and set her on a lifelong mission to bridge the realms.
• [09:40]Susan reflects on her belief that everyone possesses intuitive and mediumistic abilities, though not all choose to develop or use them in this lifetime.
• [17:24]Susan describes her evolution from addiction counseling to grief work, inspired by personal loss and a calling to support others through mourning.
• [18:24]Susan introduces the concept of anticipatory grief and how it impacts those who are facing the impending loss of a loved one.
• [21:31]Susan delves into dissociation, explaining how spirits may leave the body during trauma as a protective response to pain.
• [25:01]Susan encourages people to preserve memories by recording loved ones’ voices and assembling memory books to maintain a connection after death.
• [32:24]Susan underscores the transformative power of self-love, calling it the highest vibrational frequency available to us.
• [36:20]Susan talks about the value of staying grounded and present in order to avoid absorbing others’ emotional wounds.
• [39:15]Susan shares her top practices for living a stellar, purposeful life.

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About Today’s Show

Hey Susan, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Me too. Maybe you can describe what you do today and what led you to that path. 

I’m an intuitive medium, and that means I work with spirits on the other side that have crossed, and I work with grief. I’m a grief therapist and addiction therapist, and I have my doctorate. I work with children who have NDEs. It’s an array of things. The way I became a medium is that I think I always saw spirits. Even as a little girl, I remember being the only thing I recall about being three years old. 

At that age, I could see animals when they crossed. I didn’t think about anything. I didn’t think, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on here?” I didn’t have any of those feelings. It just was. At four and a half years old, tipping on five, I got locked in an unplugged freezer in a garage, and I had an experience that’s quite profound. Basically, when I came back from that, I could see spirits everywhere.

Wow. Was it overwhelming to see spirits everywhere?

Depending upon how they crossed, honestly. But I think as a little girl, at four and a half years old, I thought they were the Boogeyman. I would just cover my head and say, “Go away. Go away.” I didn’t connect those dots, that that experience had to do with this experience here. I felt pretty lonely. But I will tell you that my family had some resemblance to this gift. They could see things differently, so I wasn’t all alone.

When did you come to terms with that? And would you come to terms with your gift and start consciously communicating with them?

Well, I don’t think I had a choice. I don’t think I had a conscious communication. It just was, and I was abnormally normal, and I knew that. I remember they would just wake me up all my life. I think I was 19 when my Nana died. She came to me loud and clear, and I was wide awake; I always am when she does. I freaked out at it. It was like, “Wow, what is this? What’s going on?” I called UCLA Medical Center, which was doing a study on ESP, extrasensory perception. 

I saw it in the newspaper, and I asked them, “What’s going on with me? What’s happening? What is this?” They said, “You sound like a medium.” I said, “What’s that?” They said, “Those are people who talk to the dead.” Well, first of all, I didn’t believe in dead, and so that freaked me out. But also, I hung up the phone, and I didn’t have another conversation about it for quite some time. 

What I ended up doing was going into grief and addiction counseling, and that was my way of connecting in, but not letting people know, because in my day, you didn’t do those things.

Love is the highest vibrational energy in existence. So, in every dimension, in every journey that we do, self-love is the actual bottom line of the soul's path. Share on X 

So you would sit in the room with a patient, a client, and you could see the Mother, the Father, and you just talk to them as if they’re not there. Wow.

Yeah, I do that now. Then, I would say things like, “Oh, I think your PTSD comes from (we didn’t use the word PTSD at the time, but just an example) seeing your grandmother die from a stroke and trying to revive her.” They’d say, “I didn’t tell you that.” I would back up, “I’m sure you did.” No, I didn’t, because I was afraid they would take my license. This is back in the 70s, and I just knew they would take my license, so I wasn’t going to have anything to do with it. 

But it kept having things to do with me. I didn’t really have an option. As time went on, I think probably 20 years ago, I started to really accept it. I really believe that when Facebook came out, I decided to announce it, and I remember pressing the button, and I was like, “Oh my God,” and just started sobbing. But it wasn’t a sob of, “What are people going to think?” It was a relief. I was crying because I was relieved that I had gotten it out and typed it. 

You know, I’m a medium, and I see people on the other side, and I had this whole thing I typed out, “If you don’t want to be my family and friend, that’s okay.” And really, it wasn’t, but that’s what I did so that I could have the freedom to be who I was. From then on, it was just really loud. 

How did people react to that back in those days? 

Surprisingly, many of them said, “Did you think we didn’t know?” There were a few who went, “She’s in that case,” and still do. Even in my family, there are a few who think I’m nutty, but I’m pretty grounded. So it’s hard to see that as being a thought pattern, but it is what it is.

Do you still see spirits everywhere all the time? Or can you disconnect?

I can disconnect. I call it a “dial” that I turn up and down. It’s a feeling that goes through my body, like I consciously become aware that there’s something in the room, and I’ll either turn it up or I’ll turn it down, and that way I can actually be in my intellect, because I’m analytical. I’m a therapist. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t go well with spiritual communication, but it’s my gift, because I can turn it down and get into my analytical side. I’m on my analytical side right now, having a conversation. I’m not sitting in spirit energy.

Intuition is something that you have to really step into and master for it to be productive and work out there in the world.

Wow. I wonder what spirit could have told us about this interview?

I know. That we weren’t going to be on Riverside, maybe.

“Don’t go on Riverside.” It was interesting. Sometimes I feel that people who are very powerful may have some technical issues with them. I think the energy is affecting the internet or the connection. 

It does, and it’ll do it on Zoom too. But I’m always like, “Please bless me and not let that happen.” 

You know what I do? Sometimes when I have an interview and a bad connection, I kind of imagine energies coming together. I bring my fingers together when the guest is not seen and the internet is coming back. It’s kind of weird. 

No, it’s not weird. You’re setting an intention energetically.

I’m just like, “Okay, connect. This is important.” 

Yeah, you’re creating an outcome with your energy. We do that all the time. That’s part of what we do. 

Can anyone be a medium and an intuitive? 

I believe that everyone has the ability. I just think some aren’t meant to use it in this life journey, so they may see a loved one when they pass, and they think it’s the most miraculous thing. They came to me in my dream, and they didn’t go further with it, is what I mean by that. I think everyone has the ability. And as far as intuitive, yes, you have to master that skill. Intuition is something that you can’t just, “I’m going to intuitively understand everything I’m feeling.” 

If I’m present, then my intuition comes out strong again.

You have to really step into it and master it in order for it to be productive for you and work out there in the world, and once you start mastering it, which is just practice right with anything, the more you practice, the more you’re mastering it. For me, it was really stepping into it and saying, What does my intuition tell me? And then noticing the difference between when I was wrong or inaccurate and when I was right, and what that felt like. 

Then, I just kept going and going and going. My intuition was always very strong. I just didn’t listen to it. You know, I still did all the things every other human did. I didn’t want to listen to it. But, getting older, I made the decision that I need to listen to it and really step into that. And so I did. 

I feel like I’m more connected to my intuition these days, more than ever, even with my clients. There are things that I know, but I don’t know how I know them. Sometimes I sway. If I ask a yes or no, I just sway. I know some people sway back and forth. For me, it’s more right and left to get the answers, but I do get confused if I’m in a low vibration. Sometimes, when you don’t feel great, that’s exactly when you want the answer, but then you don’t have clarity around that. 

That’s so true. Even in my work, if I go into a room and I’ve had a bad night, I didn’t sleep, maybe somebody was rude on the freeway, whatever it is in my mind, somewhere else, my vibration slower, and I’ll walk into the room and I note that I’m not picking up everything I should. 

So, I have to really concentrate on flipping that. I mean concentrate intuitively, not intellectually, on flipping that and just sitting in my soul and where I’m at and being present in this moment. I have this little saying for myself, “Life is in session, be present.” If I’m present, then my intuition comes out strong again. 

I love it. It’s very assertive. It’s very, very strong. I like that.

I like to be in control of it. I don’t want it to control me. When I was young, it used to control me. I don’t want it to do that. I like to have my ability under wraps. But I couldn’t imagine going somewhere and having them just be everywhere again. I couldn’t go through that anymore. What I do is like, I’ll be sitting eating dinner with my husband, and I’ll look across the room, and I’ll see something. “My daughter’s here eating.” I’m behind her.

I’ll hear, “Tell her I love her. Tell her I’m here,” and I’ll actually say, “No, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to go up and walk up to your daughter and disrupt. I would not want someone to do that to me and remind me that my mother is gone while I’m eating dinner and having a nice time. No, that’s not appropriate,” and they go away.

Do you see it? Do you feel it? Do they come to you, or do you call them?

I use claircognizance, which is a clear knowing, being cognizant. But I have all the clairs—I can hear them, I sense them, I see them, and I feel them. I have all of them. 

As an adult, have you ever been scared of the information you got?

Oh my gosh, yes. I still do. It’s not scary information. But when you’re sleeping and someone says, “Wake up. I just died.” You go, “What? Go away. Go away.” I still do that to this day. But then I go, “Okay, wait a minute. What do you want to tell me?” I am now aware at all times that they’re not there to hurt me. I’ve never had a bad spirit come to me to harm me. That has never happened. When I passed away, I felt angels with me, and I feel like they were there the whole time. 

Nice. Do you think spirits are everywhere? It’s just that they live in a different dimension that we cannot see. How many dimensions are there, do you think?

I believe there are many dimensions that people are even unaware of. Some people say there are five, some people say there are eight. Some people say there’s endless. I believe in endless dimensions. I believe we’re doing different things at different times. We limit ourselves. We have these limiting beliefs that we know, “I’m here in this body, therefore this is where I am and nowhere else.” That’s not the truth. 

Each dimension has its vibrational energy, and that’s why we don’t step into it all day long.

Our soul is expansive, and it expands beyond the infinite. When they come in, they’re just right next to me; they’re vibrating higher. I can feel that they’re vibrating very high. I think each dimension has its own vibrational energy, and that’s why we’re not stepping into it all day long, and I think sometimes we do. We have flashbacks. We have this moment where we go, “I’ve been here before.” Those kinds of things.

I feel like, in the last couple of years, I’m actually developing some kind of animal communication. It’s pretty cool. I see things. It’s interesting. You’ve got lots of wolves around you. 

I do. 

There’s a painting. There is also a statue of two wolves. How did wolves show up in your life? How are they coming in as a spirit animal? 

Well, they showed up, I think, when I passed. I always loved German Shepherds, even as a little girl. 

Me, too. I love German Shepherds. 

Yeah, they’re my favorite. Of course, I don’t have one because of hair; they shed 24/7, and I’m really picky about that. 

You’ve got a dog behind you. What kind of dog is that? 

That’s a golden doodle. She doesn’t shed. It matters to me. The shedding is really bad with German Shepherds, like you’re peeling it off of them and putting it in your hand, and that’s not a good thing. But I had them most of my life, and I love them. Even as a little girl, I was never afraid of them. I always loved them, and they never made me feel uncomfortable. So when I had my crossover, my NDE, I felt really strongly the energy of wolves around me. 

I don’t normally share that because it seems so woo-woo to most people, but I did. I felt that, and I felt one come up to me, and I called it a dog, but it wasn’t. I remember this feeling of, “Oh, you belong to me.” I had a really hard time leaving them. Even when I do past life regression under hypnosis, I’m always with wolves. I have a very deep connection with them. 

I have a picture where a wolf is actually up in my face, looking in my eyes, and I have another picture where it’s sitting down with its ears back, looking at me and in a room with me. It was the highlight of my journey, I think, just being in that presence, because they see your soul. So do dogs; they see your soul. 

There is a chemical that happens between wolves and dogs, which is very interesting, maybe in other animals too, but definitely with wolves and dogs. There’s a chemical in their brain that changes and actually puts serotonin and dopamine in your brain when you look into their eyes.

Oh, and maybe that’s why I like dogs. It’s actually just the chemical reaction. It’s not how cute they are. 

It’s both. I love them both ways. But yeah, I mean, that reaction is pretty powerful.

There’s a grief called anticipatory grief, which means you’re anticipating the loss of someone.

That’s amazing. How do you think working with spirits and connecting with spirits led you into grief counseling?

I think it was natural. I started with addiction counseling, and that was really powerful, but it ended a lot of times with grief. And so I wanted to learn about that, like, what does that look like, and how can I help people in that portion of it, not just with their addiction, but with the portion of going through the grief process, of letting go of drugs or even losing their lives over it, or going back out and using. 

It led me to help people who had had losses. It kind of just unfolded for me. It was a perfect segue into being the medium that I was, because I was dealing with loss. It just came naturally from there. 

What are some things people need to know about grief? Or can you ever be prepared for grief?

No, there’s a grief called anticipatory grief, which means you’re anticipating the loss of someone. Maybe they’re sick and going to leave, or they might be addicted, and you have the feeling they’re going to leave. There’s this anticipatory grief. You are never prepared till it happens. Sometimes you’re not prepared then, but you accept that as part of the journey. I say this, and in all honesty, we contracted before we came here. We knew we were going to leave here. That doesn’t make it any easier for us here, but for the spirit that left, they completely understand that, so they’re not suffering or in pain. They understand that, and that’s good to know when you have a loved one who’s left. I have tremendous grief in my life. I have two brothers and a mother who died by suicide. 

Oh, my God.

When you put fear on the tag of anything, you’re going to have a problem; you’re more of a problem than if you just allow it.

I had a tremendous amount of grief. I could go on a list. That was meant, I guess, to be in my journey. But what it did is, I’m more because of it, not in spite of it. I became more honest. I had more depth, and I wanted to help people who are very important to me. I see a lot of suicide ideation, people who want to leave by that means, and also people who have lost people to suicide. I understand that in some form, we all agree differently. 

Grief is singular, and that’s the hard part for people to get their heads around—you know how you might grieve the same mother that I might have, I might grieve differently. We have the same mom, but you might have a different relationship with her. Your grief is different. We are all different in how we handle the loss. I never pretend to know exactly what someone else is feeling, but I do understand the grief process quite extensively, from my own experience, and also from studying it. 

I spend a lot of time remembering that grief is in charge, that it comes to you, you don’t go to it. You might be walking through the grocery store and burst into tears, and nothing’s going on, but it just comes to you. It’s in charge, and I let it be. Grief doesn’t have the power of fear behind it. When you put fear on the tag of anything, you’re going to have a problem; you’re more of a problem than if you just allow it. 

When you allow it, it kind of roll through it in a different kind of way than fighting it and fearing it. Fear is extremely powerful. People say to me, “I don’t know how to do this, Susan,” and I say, “But you do.” You’ve been grieving since the moment you came out of the womb. 

You grieved coming out of the womb. You grieved not being attached to your mommy. You grieved when your mom took your blanket away. You grieved when she took your bottle away. You grieved when you had a boyfriend who left you. You grieve when nobody wants to be around you, or you don’t have friends. 

When you remember that you’re able to step into grief in a different form, it’s not foreign to you. We think it is because it’s so intensive.

Grief is part of our process here, and when you remember that you’re able to step into that grief in a different form, it’s not foreign to you. We just think it is because it’s so intensive. 

So, for someone who recently, or even not recently, lost a loved one, and they want to understand more of their grief process or how to handle their own emotions, what would you advise?

Well, dependent upon how they lost them. So if you lose a loved one to a major tragedy or horrific event, it’s going to affect you in a very different way than if you lose a loved one who has cancer or dies by illness. Not that it’s less intense to lose them, but the process is definitely more intense than what you have to go through and experience. The goal is not to focus on how they died, but to focus on the fact that they are in the afterlife and how they’ve lived. 

That is what I try to do—allow them to step into their grief, but then bring the focus back to how they live their life. Were they happy? Did they love music? Were they joyful? Did they love swimming? What parts of them were in joy? That helps a lot. We want their joy to go on forever. But that is not how it worked, unfortunately. What we tend to do as humans is focus on the tragic event and what they experienced. 

I’m here to tell people that most people who are leaving this planet do not experience the terror that we do watching that happen. I want to say that. Spirit has the great ability to pull us out of our bodies. It’s a projection outside of us. We deflect from what’s happening to us, and spirit created that so that we didn’t have to be in that moment, so they don’t suffer the way that it looks like they’re suffering, which is the blessing. It’s called dissociation, and it’s powerful. 

What happens is that they leave their bodies and remain in the spirit world. They’re not watching it, they’re not experiencing it. And when that event is over, they go back into their bodies, or they’re passing over and knowing that has always brought me peace, because I have family members who have died by suicide. I have family members that died murdered, which is really hard for me to take in. 

Spirit has the great ability to pull us out of our bodies. It’s a projection outside of us.

My uncle was murdered, yet I know that he dissociated from that event, because they tell me that. So I trust that, and I dissociated from my event of almost leaving the planet forever. For me, that’s soothing knowledge. That is the truth. I don’t say it to soothe. I don’t speak lies to make people feel better, although I want them to. I want them to know the truth about the spirit world and about their loved ones, what has occurred, and that they’re safe. 

They were safe, even though they didn’t seem safe, because the spirit world would have it no other way. So, say there’s an event where more than one person is involved, like a car accident or something, the one who comes back will remember the details, but the one who left will not. 

Let’s say you have a relative who is going through something hard, like a disease, or that, “Wow, this might be the end. Might not. We don’t know.” Do you have any advice on how to collect memories, talk to them, or even prepare yourself and them for that transition? 

I don’t think there’s any preparation for grief again. Unfortunately, it’s when you are going through the actual loss, the physical loss, that you realize that you’re not really prepared for anything.

Some people say to ask questions, take videos, and ask them about their childhood documents. 

Oh, I love recordings. One of the things we often forget is their voice. I really suggest that you record their voice and let them talk to you every day on a recorder. You know, my father did that, and it was extremely powerful for us. He would talk about, “Oh, I’m going to leave.” He had pancreatic cancer. He would talk about, “I’m going to leave, but I’m going to always be with you, and I love you.” We got to be in that energy anytime we wanted to. 

He would talk about his memories with us and all those beautiful things. I suggest that it happens prior to them getting really, really sick, if it’s a sickness, because then they’re on medications, so it sounds different, but I really encourage that. I encourage people to do memory books. You know where they journal, and even the people who are leaving to journal. It’s very powerful. Lots of pictures, prior to them being drugged to the point that they look like they’re sick. 

For instance, if one of my family members got ill and I wasn’t certain if they were going to leave or not, I would start doing more, because I’m uncertain. And I’d want to have those memories in case. It’s not that I’m thinking they’re leaving for sure, but I want that memory. I want that in the books.

Wow, that’s so powerful. When your dad left, did you contact him? Did he contact you? Or your uncle, or any of those people you lost?

My uncle did. My mother, I was in too much pain. My mother’s suicide took me to my knees. I didn’t think I’d ever survive it, and I did.

How did you survive that? How did you heal yourself? What was the process? 

We have infinite lifetimes, and we don’t know how long we’ve been in this universal energy.

Well, I remember literally, physically being on my knees, rocking myself and reminding myself that that spirit loved me more than anything. I had my arms around myself, and I did that for probably an hour, and all of a sudden, I felt a rush of love like I’ve never experienced. It was hypnotic in nature. I was able to get off the floor. 

It’s only been fifteen years, and until this day, when that time comes around, a couple of weeks before, I notice I’m in that anticipatory grief, and I don’t even know it, and I’m acting different. I’m sensitive.  I take everything personally, and I’m feeling all this energy that I don’t understand. 

Our body has memory. Then, I’ll look at the calendar and go, “Oh, the day I don’t really react.” I kind of just go through that day because I’ve already had the experience for the few weeks before. Everyone is different, but that’s really common.

My logical mind understands what you’re saying, that they’re going to a beautiful place and they’re not suffering anymore, and they’re whole and complete and all that. However, the emotional human side cannot even come to terms with something like this happening. How can one heal from grief? Do we ever heal? 

It pretty much changes the landscape of your journey, and it joins with your journey. Yes, you can heal, but healing doesn’t mean gone. Healing means that you can still smile and laugh and enjoy life and have parties and be part of the world that you’re in, and do that with joy. That’s a healing process, but it doesn’t mean that it’s gone, and grief is never gone, no more than tragedy and trauma are ever gone, but it becomes part of the landscape of your journey.

I get it. I had an experience where I was in a space of non-duality and the spirit realm, and it was just love. I noticed that love. But as soon as you go back from that awakened moment and into the human realm, you’re back in duality, and you’re back in like, “I cannot even wrap my head around losing a loved one. That’s too hard.” 

It’s too hard, yet we are prepared for it and agree to it before we come here. No one gets out of here without leaving. But, I understand that that doesn’t make it any easier. It doesn’t soothe it, but it’s good for me to know that. Last night, I was playing the piano, and I don’t play well, and I was learning a song. I got up and I looked at the piano, and I thought, “Someday this piano won’t be mine.” It was a really weird feeling. 

I thought, “All these things that mean so much to me, somebody’s going to sell, somebody’s going to give away. This house will not be mine. Somebody else will be sitting in front of that television or sitting outside by the pool.” It was really a weird feeling, and it rushed through me. I said that to my husband, because I’m going to be 66 and I don’t know, there’s something about getting closer to death.

You’re so beautiful, and you look so much younger.

Thank you so much. 

You’re like a very hot counselor.

Thank you. But I was freaking out a little bit inside, and then I went, “Oh, you know, I agreed to that this is just a partial moment. This is a moment in time, and I should be appreciating that.” I’m closer to 70 now. People leave at any age, but we know we’re getting ready to go at some point. When we’re getting older, we’re getting closer. If we are going to have a long, full life, this weird feeling came over me, and it was almost a feeling of panic. 

I don’t panic because I’m really excited to be in the actual. If I don’t want to go yet, I’m not ready, but I love being able to sit down and play my piano and have all the tangible, physical things. You know, people say to me, “I’m never coming back,” and I go, “You will miss some of the beautiful things that are here. Holding your baby for the first time, feeling it moving in your body, if you can carry one, if you’re adopting that feeling of excitement, the piano, marriage, and the first time you ever fall in love, you’ll miss those things, and you’ll want that tangibility. You probably will come back,” and they just look at me, “You know, that’s kind of a scary thought with everything I’ve been through.” For me, it’s not with everything I’ve been through. I would want it again. 

You’re meant to experience, and with experience comes healing if you choose that, but it is not the goal.

How many lifetimes do you think each one of us has gone through, and how many new souls are coming to earth?

I think it’s infinite in both directions. I believe we have infinite lifetimes, and we don’t know how long we’ve been in this universal energy, in this universal consciousness, but I think forever. Souls always are and always will be. What’s forever, it’s infinite.

I did some past life regression myself, multiple times. I’m like, “Wow, I’ve been this and I’ve been that, and I’ve been this and I’ve been that,” and it’s never ending. I wonder, “So many lifetimes, how can I heal all of this in this short lifetime?” What’s your advice?

You’re not meant to heal all of it. 

But I’m an overachiever.

You’re meant to experience, and with experience comes healing if you choose that, but it is not the goal. 

What’s our goal here? 

Self-love. 

Oh, I like that so much. 

The hardest thing you’ll ever do. 

Yes, radical self-love. Oh, I love that. 

That’s the sole purpose. I can give you the reason. Love is the highest vibrational energy in existence. The spirit that created us has the highest vibrational energy, and we want to rejoin with that at the highest vibration possible. In every dimension, in every journey that we do, self-love is the actual bottom line of the soul’s path. The life path is all the other things we do that create self-love, hopefully. 

How do you practice self-love? 

As long as your intention is good, you’re going to do good things.

I remind myself that I’m enough. I can be very hard on myself. I’m a perfectionist. I like things to be a particular way.

It reminds me of somebody I know personally.

I don’t need anybody else to be that way. But I put a lot of pressure on myself, especially in my work. I’m really hard on myself, and so I have to remind myself that it’s okay not to do it perfectly, and that I’m going to fail sometimes, and that that’s part of learning and growing. So I remind myself of that, so I don’t beat myself up, and I just work on my soul expansion. So I’ll say things like, “You’re lovable, you’re capable, you’re worthy, you’re enough, Susan, as long as your intention is good.”

You’re a hottie.

Well, thank you. As long as your intention is good, you’re going to do good things. And I also do this for myself. When I start to fear leaving, or I didn’t do it right, or I’m not enough, I tell myself, “Life’s in session, be present.”

I should have this on my mirror.

Yeah, stay where your feet are, literally. Where are your feet right now? Wherever they are. Mine are on a little cushion, and I’m on the wood floor, and I remind myself of that. I stay where I am, because what happens when we project into what we should have, could have, or would have done. We are fear-based. What you fear you feed, what you feed, you perceive, and what you perceive becomes your reality. 

So, we want to remove that fear-based approach and stay right where we are. So when I start to project, “Oh, I did this.” So that’s going to happen. I tell myself, “Where are your feet, Susan? Not today, Susan. Stay where your feet are.” So that life’s in session and I’m present with life. I don’t always do it. I want to be honest. I try really hard, but I’m having a human experience, but I know how to do it.

Amazing. What are some of the most rewarding moments in your journey of helping people? 

I think that as part of having a human brain is to have some PTSD from the journey we experience.

Oh, when they come in and their arms are crossed and they say things like, “My wife brought me in here,” or “My husband brought me here, but I don’t believe in this stuff. I know my child or my loved one’s gone forever, and I believe we don’t turn into dirt.” They say all these things, and I’m watching them, and I just know the spirit world’s going to go after them right in a loving way, and let them know they’re wrong. 

When they’re done with the reading, they flip into tears, joy, laughter, and they go, “They’re really here, aren’t they, Susan? Like, you couldn’t know that stuff. They’re really here.” You see the powerful metamorphosis of change. It’s so beautiful, and I’m so grateful for it, because I get to do that every day with people, and to see that shift, knowing that their loved ones are not gone, is just enormous in beauty. 

When you were a beginner, did you ever get affected by your clients’ stories or by the trauma? How do you build this? Or do you need to build a protection shield so you’re not taking on other people’s issues? 

I still work on it every day, but I really believe that the spirit world helps me forget. There are certain things that I hear every day. People like to make mean comments about mediums. You know, “Their spirit vampires, their grief vampires,” all these other things. It’s really sad to me, because if we are knowledgeable in grief, we’re taking that on, and we’re hearing the worst of the worst on a daily basis, and it is the hardest thing I can tell you. 

It is so difficult next to self-love. I think the other hardest thing we do on this planet is to help someone grieve a loss, right? I mean, it’s so painful to watch them suffer, and I see what’s happened to their loved ones. What I do is I just ask the spirit world to help me forget as much as I can. And it stores somewhere in a little vault, and I know it’s there if I have to pull from it. But not all of it. The really horrible parts don’t come back to me. 

But there are these once in a while, ones that I can’t shake, and I’ll go home. I’ll just sit the next day, I’ll be exhausted from holding on to it, and I’ll cry, and I’ll release it by crying, and I’ll talk about it on my way home, I’ll call a friend and, you know, say I had this really difficult reading and I’m in the pain space, and I don’t know how to get out of it, and I’ll talk through it. But I think what gets me the most is animals and children. 

When I go through helping someone who has lost a child, it’s extremely draining. You just don’t shake it easily. But I’m glad I’m there to help them move through it, and I remind myself of that. But I think the spirit world puts the shield around me for the most part, puts it in a little vault over here. I’m sure I have some PTSD from it. I have no doubt. I have it from my life journey. I think that as part of having a human brain is to have some PTSD from the journey we experience. 

It’s not like it’s scary to me. I just know it’s there, and it helps me forget. Somebody will say, “Remember that reading you had that you told me about, blah, blah, blah.” And I’ll go, “No, I don’t,” and that works for me. That’s great. And by the next day, if somebody calls me and says, “Do you remember the reading I had with you?” I’ll go, “I don’t even remember their name.” Not that they weren’t important to me, because they were so important that I needed to vault them. 

Oh, wow, incredible. I can see it. I really like you. Even in the beginning, we had technical difficulties, and you were so sweet. It just seems like you were genuinely coming from a place of love and kindness. So what you’re doing in the world is so important and so beautiful. So, thank you for being you and thank you for doing all this incredible work in the world. What are your three top tips for living a stellar life? 

Oh, I love that. I think they should get my book, Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons, honestly. It tells them those tips. I really believe that when we’re connected to our souls, and the soul is the vine to the Divine, which is enormously important to remember. So it’s there to help you in every way. If you want to live a stellar life, heal, and discover who you are, and you want to change aspects of yourself that you dislike or embrace, the things you do, step into your soul. That’s where the power lies, because that’s where the spirit world is talking to you and helping you in every way. So I truly believe that people who need visual, we need audio. You know, we need all those things to help us move through things. So, reading, listening to podcasts, learning about other people’s journeys and the creation of their healing or their lives, those are the powerful things we can do to have a better life. When we stay in a cocoon, we are one and alone with the world, right? But when we raise our consciousness and join our consciousness with others, we become more valuable to ourselves and others, and so that is living a stellar life to me.

When we stay in a cocoon, we are one and alone with the world. But when we raise our consciousness and join with others, we become more valuable to ourselves and others.

Beautiful. Where can people find you, get the book, and all that good stuff? 

The book is sold by Hay House. I’m actually writing a second book about healing those areas that bind us. But my book, Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons, is out. It has been out for about nine months. They can buy it anywhere books are sold. It is extremely powerful for people who want to know where their loved ones are, and learn about my journey and how I healed, and what it’s like in the spirit world, and how to connect in. Intuition versus fear. 

All of those beautiful things that we need to know to grow and expand ourselves. It’s phenomenal. Spirit wrote it. It’s helped so many people. I’m so grateful for it. Then, visit susangrau.com to learn more about me and schedule appointments, and follow Susan Grau on all social media platforms. I have a new Infinite Soul Sanctuary, where it’s a subscriber site, where I do all things spirit, and I come on once a month, and I do readings and I teach about the spirit world and about sound baths and things like that, how to center ourselves in this journey to have the self love we need. 

Oh, beautiful. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. 

Thank you for having me. I loved your energy. This was really fun, and I loved it. Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you, listeners. Remember to connect to your soul, join others and learn from them, get supported and have a stellar life. This is Orion till next time.