Are There Gifts in Dementia?
Channeling Light Through Dementia: A Journey of Connection, Healing, and Unexpected Gifts - By Stephanie Banks
Reading time: 4 minutes
"Stephie, I can't do this anymore", my mother sobbed into the phone.
I sighed. "I know, mom." Then silence.
I didn’t know what else to say. I listened to her heavy breath on the other end of the line. My mother was almost 10 years into her dementia. She was often agitated, unpredictable, emotionally labile, and profoundly confused.
I’d just received a frantic call from her caregiver to beg for my assistance. Minutes prior, my mother had tried to elope (again) out the back door of her home of over 20 years. The caregiver had tried to block her escape and, in her fearful state of mind, my mother wielded a wooden dowel like a baseball bat, threatening to club her caregiver if she did not permit her passage. The caregiver handed the phone to my mother. My familiar voice did the trick: She came out of her rage and panic.
At the time, I had 3 very young children. They would not have the grandmother I’d hoped they would. My mother was no longer the person any of us had come to know. Dementia had disrupted the flow of information and impulses in her brain. This made it difficult to connect with her, at best and made me afraid of her, at worst. Dementia permanently altered her personality, cognitive abilities, moods, relationships, and communication skills.
I was a licensed and skilled Speech-Language Pathologist with extensive experience working with people with cognitive impairments just like my mother’s. Yet, even with my clinical expertise, I struggled to find ways to join her in her world.
Out of desperation and despair, I asked my best friend Jen, a very gifted medium, to channel my mother's soul. I didn’t understand channeling much at the time, but I knew I needed something, anything to help me understand what my mother’s soul needed from me. How could I best support her when we couldn’t have coherent conversations?
Jen held her swinging pendulum and brought through beautiful, channeled messages and insights from my mother's soul. I’d found a way to transcend the limitations of dementia and go directly to the essence of my mother. It changed everything.
My mother left her body on June 8, 2013, after a long 15-year journey through dementia. The void left behind was painful. It was also a relief.
I needed to find ways to stay connected to her on the other side. And I wanted to help others in the way that Jen had helped me. What if I could learn to channel?
Jen sent me to her mentor for training. I also traveled to Chicago to attend many trainings from a world-renowned psychic medium. I read and studied and practiced for years. Slowly I built my confidence and expanded my work beyond friends and family.
Fast-forward to now: I have left my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist and I now channel full-time for clients all over the globe. I channel for a highly intuitive grandmother who wants to understand her developmentally delayed grandson on a deeper level. I channel for a mother who desperately wants to stay spiritually connected to her incarcerated and chemically- dependent son. I channel for a seasoned therapist whose dog is close to transitioning so she can provide for her beloved companion’s needs. (Yes, I channel animals too).
My mom and I still talk. All the time. And she’s been sending a bright red male cardinal to my son’s window every single day for years. I have no idea how she does that. It's impressive.
I credit my mother's dementia with my thriving career as a professional intuitive channel. Without the need to find alternative ways to stay connected to her, I would never have embarked on this profoundly rewarding and astonishing career. My mother’s dementia took a lot from my family. But it also gave us so many unexpected gifts.
If you’re wondering if you can learn to channel from the soul perspective of your loved ones (or even your own soul), my answer is “Yes, you can.” I’ve witnessed it countless times with the students in my classes. Learning to channel takes time, practice, patience, consistency, and radical self-care. And, of course, an open heart.
Stephanie Banks
Stephanie Banks is a highly sought-after intuitive channel, mentor and guide who helps people connect on the soul level.
