Tom’s Beliefs about the Spirit World
All of our paranormal investigators have their own beliefs about the afterlife. Our elder, Tom Charles, has spent his life coming to his own understanding of our existence after we die.
“Growing up as a little boy, there’s been a conflict in my mind about the spirit world and as I get older, I have tried to have a better understanding of what the spirit world is all about,” he begins in a video interview.
Tom describes a system of living our lives as humans, then moving into the spirit world, and then to a final resting place. He believes that after we die, we “can go back and forth from the spirit world back to the human world and have visits.”
After some time in the spirit world, he says, we move to a different plane. “Your final resting area. My ancestors would call it the happy hunting ground.”
His beliefs have been formed through years of living in Northern Saskatchewan, surrounded by traditional First Nations practices, and more recent experiences as a paranormal investigator with “The Other Side”.
In his travels he has spoken to many others about their beliefs and has learned of their ways. “In my searches I have asked other people of different faiths, with different religious backgrounds, ‘what are their beliefs?’ There are some people that will put a rock on top of a grave marker and that rock is the symbol to keep the spirit down so it doesn’t wander.”
He continues, “Some people believe that in a burial ceremony they like putting plants and things like that in the grave. Other people, they stuff them in the jackets with their loved one’s favourite stuff.”
Tom practices many traditional ceremonies. He uses sweet grass and sage to cleanse energy, and he believes that many paranormal experiences involve deceased loved ones coming to share messages. As he searches for missing people in Northern Saskatchewan, Tom regularly seeks guidance by communing with the spirit world.
“When I search I try to get into the person’s mind by going through their eyes to see the last thing that they see and this is after a number of different ceremonies. Generally something will click and there okay ‘this is where I am supposed to be looking’. So going back to the spirit world the spirit itself is telling me where to go and retrieve the body.”
Tom transfers his attention between human reality and the spirit world to help people in need and to provide comfort to families of missing people. His calming influence and ceremonies have also helped the families involved in “The Other Side” investigations.