The Importance of Letting Glow and Glowing Deeper with Phil Webster

Letting Glow

Will: [00:00:00] Karen. Yes. What is your definition of inspiration?

Karen: Oh, you can't just ask me that.

Will: Apparently I can't because I just did.

Karen: Inspiration I think is maybe a feeling that you get when you are trying to do something, whether it's an artistic thing or a work thing or a creative project, but it's like a knowledge or a phenomenal.

I don't know, feeling that you get.

Will: Okay. That's a pretty good definition. I would say. Now, what about instinct? How do you define that?

Karen: I think instinct is more of a reaction.

Will: And ingenuity.

Karen: Oh, that's being crafty. I

Will: think that's the definition of Karen. Now, what if inspiration, instinct, and ingenuity were All the same as intuition, divination, and clairvoyance.

Oh, what if we had a resource that helped us connect the dots between all of those? and allowed us to let glow.

Karen: I like how that sounds on

Will: this episode. We're taking a detour into the world of adventure and take a deeper look at [00:01:00] how we experience time, consciousness, and our relationship with our higher self.

Don't go anywhere because the skeptic metaphysician starts now. Hey there, I'm Will. And I'm Karen. And today we have with us an author, an actor, and a spiritual seeker. Now they are all tied into the same person. It's not three different people. But though he's worked with people like Sylvester Stallone, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch, plus lots [00:02:00] more, that's not really where his life path seems to have led him.

You see, Karen, a devastating loss coupled with an unexplained event sent him down a completely different path forever. His debut bestselling book, Letting Glow, documents his journey to the mystical and helps us connect with our highest states of intuition. And the sequel, Glowing Deeper, continues this journey and it's packed full of meditations and practical advice to help connect us with our deepest self.

Own deeper truths and ultimately it searches for proof that we survive physical death. Does that sound like right up our alley, Karen? It sure does. Well, then let's welcome to the show, Phil Webster. Phil, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Thank you guys. Nice to be here. We're excited to chat because a lot of the stuff that you talk about in this book talks about is Exactly what we have been researching and experiencing and all that kind of stuff.

Thank you so much for sending us a digital copy of the book I didn't manage to read a little bit of it didn't finish it yet but I am very anxious to do so because I really thoroughly [00:03:00] enjoyed reading what I did read and Right off the bat. We'll get into your your whole experiences and things like that.

But right off the bat, you and I seem to have something in common from the get, it seems that what led you into this world was your love or your interest in astral projection. And that's super exciting. Here we go. Now, the interesting thing from what I read, when you were able to manage to do that, It kind of freaked you out because the perspectives that came on board were a little different than you expected.

So, we'll talk about that in a few minutes cause I'm excited to, to see and get your perspective, but talk to us about letting glow. What was the motivation behind getting this thing out there?

Phil: Yeah, sure. So essentially the book came from an experience that I had around my mom passing away.

Okay. At the start of 2021. And it was what I strongly believe was an unexplained event. I wasn't, my head wasn't in a spiritual space at this time. If it had have been, I [00:04:00] might've looked at the whole thing very differently, right off the bat, but just to sort of give you the backstory on that.

So obviously 2020 happened. And that was done. And my mom she was in her mid seventies. I'm based in London. She's on a place where she was on the place called the Isle of Wight. Which is about three hours away. It's a small island at the south of the UK, very rural place, lots of beaches and countryside and stuff like that.

I hadn't seen it for a couple of months. I was trying to do the right thing, adhering to the government guidelines, all that kind of stuff. And plus I was waiting to work on a movie that was coming up. It was like one of these big Marvel superhero movies. It was a good. stretch of work and I hadn't had any food through the whole of the pandemic.

So I was being cautious about, traveling around, sitting on trains, stuff like that. Plus I didn't want to, you know, God forbid I made my mom sick. So I hadn't seen her for a while. And we went through Christmas and we decided against seeing each other and all that stuff. she was like 76 years old.

She had various age related health problems, but I thought she was going to be around for a while. Anyway, we would FaceTime every day. And on this particular day, I called her [00:05:00] maybe the second or third time of the day and it was quite late at night and she, and when she answered the call, there was a man leaning in from the other side of the screen at the same time, and I saw him long enough that I could describe him, he had thin and gray hair, glasses looked kind of gaunt and probably looked like he was in his late 60s, something like that, and I was taken aback, I was shocked, it was 10 o'clock at night, we were in a lockdown, I knew everybody around her, immediate circles, didn't have any other family there, And I didn't recognize this guy and I was like, okay, well, who the hell is that, and my mom was like, who's what, and I said, okay, I said, I just saw somebody, and she just completely dismissed it.

And I could always tell when somebody was there because she would put on all these airs and graces. She would speak a lot posher and it was impossible to get a conversation out of it. It used to drive me nuts. But she wasn't doing any of that and she started sort of telling me about her day And I said look mom, I said sorry to interrupt But I said look are you saying that you're alone in the house right now?

And she said yeah, you know somebody came at lunchtime But you know She was just sort of complaining [00:06:00] about this and that and I sort of grilled on it a little bit longer and then just sort Of I just thought okay Well, I guess I must have been mistaken and I didn't really want to put it down to but my mind didn't go to anything Esoteric or anything like that.

I just thought You I mean, and this doesn't make sense. I thought, well, there's a glitch on the phone or something, and I just dismissed it. And we talked for like maybe another 45 minutes to an hour. I went to bed that night and then the next morning got a call from a neighbor that they couldn't get in.

And that morning, my mom, my mom passed and had a heart attack. Sort of like right there. And then as I got the call and through the initial shock and the grief that we go through when we lose anyone. But I didn't see it coming. I thought it was, we expect that we know that our parents aren't gonna be around forever, but it's still blindsided me.

Through all of that, my mind just kept going back to this event, this thing that I'd seen. And I was like, well, what are we talking here? Are we talking ghosts? Are we talking spirit guys? Which weren't in my arena at all, you know? And It just, I just kept going back to that. And that's really what was the catalyst that [00:07:00] kind of opened the door to make me the send me down this path of exploring spiritual things, wrote, what really was the catalyst for the book and then also made me look back on other events that had happened through my life that I've dismissed, weird little things that wouldn't make sense, some of them quite profound or some of them sort of fleeting.

But when I started looking back at them for a different lens, They all made a bit more sense. So that was really the beginning of where I am now.

Will: Yeah. And I read that part of the book where you recount that it was actually in the introduction where you recount your mom's passing. And I'll tell you, you are a powerful writer because I had to put the book down for a second after I read that because it affected you.

You wrote that with such emotional fervor. That the reader feels it for sure. No, no, thank you. I'm, that's what I'm saying. I'm very anxious to continue reading the book because you it's captured my attention completely. Now, then we've heard in the book, you talk about the fact that your mom had some memory issues, like a lot of older [00:08:00] folks that when they get to that age, but you also mentioned something that we talk, we talked to a hospice nurse a while back, and she mentioned that people, as they're nearing the end, they're They become more lucid to start to remember the memory starts coming back and things like that.

And you talk about that in that part of the book where your mom was starting to feel better. And then you saw this person on the video camera. Yeah. Who do you think that was?

Phil: I've sort of come up with, and that's interesting that you put it like that because actually I hadn't, that's an area that I haven't really sort of I got so sort of swept up in this whole sort of spiritual side of things, but that's interesting because yeah, she did somewhere through the pandemic around the October, November, she did sort of go through a bout of being confused and then she seemed to pull herself out of it.

And she was 90 percent back, she was like my mom again just before she passed. But anyway, beside that I never really knew who he was. There was some point I think when I was writing the book and opening ups and learning about mediumship and all this kind of stuff that I got a sense that [00:09:00] perhaps it was my dad, but I don't know, I feel if it was him, I probably would have recognized him, right?

I hadn't seen the guy in 20 years. But I still feel that there would have been a sense of recognition. So he remains a mystery, whoever this person was, and I would tell people about it straight afterwards or over the months that followed and depending on which side of the fence they were, some people were like, well, you were grieving you're looking back at this in a weird way.

And I was like, well, it wasn't grieving because it was before the fact, and then of course there were people. Who are more spiritually inclined that were like, well, yeah, that was clearly somebody letting, you know, so that's I mean, I wasn't there. I can't 100 percent say that there was absolutely nobody in the house, but knowing her routine knowing her and the place being what it was, and it was late at night, plus we were in a lockdown.

I believe that there was nobody, physically with her.

Karen: So when you saw this figure in the computer, was he looking at you? Like, was he just standing in the background or like, was he looking at you? Did you sense that he was giving you a message?

Phil: I didn't, so, so it was on the phone.

So she had [00:10:00] an iPhone and she had it charging. She would leave it charging on the floor in the hallway. So she kind of leaned in from one side. And he leaned in from the other, so I could see both of them. And then as she moved it, he went out of shot. And often, she would have like, nurses that would go by and help her with her meds, things like that.

Just like a house help. They would go by in the morning, they would go by at lunchtime, and they would make her a cup of tea or something, and Make sure she took her meds in the right order after she'd been through this kind of confusing confusion episode But they were never there I never saw them there later than six o'clock in all the months that they went there and this was like, you know Past 10 at night.

So again, I didn't really have, I saw him for long enough that I saw him. He was there. He was solid. But like I say, as she moved away and went to sit down, he went out of shot and that was the end of it. It was fleeting, but yeah, he was there playing his day. It was odd.

Right.

Karen: But it wasn't like, like a face looking at you. It kind was

Phil: like that. It was like that to be honest. Yeah. Oh, so he did, so like you saw his eyes. That's right. Yeah. I sort of went off track and what I meant to say was [00:11:00] that I need immediately, I just assumed that he was one of these nurses that would go and help out.

There were predominantly female. Occasionally there'd be a guy there and I sort of recognized a few of them and I thought immediately I thought, oh, this is one of the nurses. I didn't sort of really think, hang well what are they doing there at 10 o'clock at night? And that was like my initial reaction.

And then as he disappeared, that all of the sort of reasoning came in, I thought, well, that doesn't make sense. Well, what would they be doing there? You know? And then everything that she said afterwards or, and just dismissed it. Yeah I believe that. it was some sort of guide or somebody that she knew that I didn't know or something like that.

Will: So yeah, full body chills when we talk about that because that, that is amazing. And the fact that it's still an unknown mystery is even more amazing. That's cool. But I do want to, I want to dive a little now, burst from there, right. Well, let's talk about your book for a second, because in your book, you talk about how.

I mean, you try to demystify the mystical, right? Yeah. How do you approach [00:12:00] making psychic senses and things like that accessible to a broader audience?

Phil: Yeah. I mean, so first of all, I would have been, I mean, I always had a bit of an eye on the esoteric, but. I don't know, as I got older, somewhere through my 30s, I got, I became sort of very cynical and developed this kind of very practical outlook on life.

And this really wasn't my go to thing, and I, and when I started writing Letting Glow, I did as much as I wanted to prove that my mum still existed in some form, and that was really the ultimate goal. Goal of what I was really searching for I went in there with a kind of attitude of trying to look at it from both sides because I know that How I would have looked at this a few years ago all these amazing things started happening and I started learning so much But I did try to sort of show both sides of the argument, I wasn't completely okay I want to believe this so i'm gonna believe it You know, I try to keep a healthy dose of skepticism and I still do I don't just sort of buy into everything just because It's this woowoo thing or somebody believes it, i've met mediums since Got to say, they're not all, they're not all amazing.

Some of the talking about, Oh, I think I've got your [00:13:00] grandfather and blah, blah, blah. Some of it's a bit vague. So I'm still, I still retain like a healthy dose of skepticism. It's like

Will: talking to a mirror.

Phil: Demystifying the mystical is that I think that we all have these moments, right? So I say this a lot, but We talk about things with, as in like walking into a room and cutting the air with them or we have a moment of, a gut feeling or we can't quite put our finger on something and we have all these terms that we use and we accept, but as soon as you start using words like Claire sentience or Claire audience, then people typically just look at you like you're nuts, but I think we're talking about the same thing.

I think it's just literally a question of semantics, we'll agree that you get an innate sense of knowing about not going in that direction or that person or. Something like that. But then if you start again, using these kinds of spiritual terms, then it's like, so I feel that demystifying the mystical, I'm definitely not trying to debunk it.

I'm very pro mystical. But yeah I think that it's more common than we sort of give it credit for.

Will: Now, do you consider yourself, I believe,

Phil: a medium? I'd [00:14:00] say that I'm a developer medium. I feel that since learning a lot about it, and I've wrote this book essentially saying that anybody can become a medium.

And I feel that a little bit of a maverick in these circles here in the UK, especially there's a very strong tradition around it. There's a around spiritualists, which is essentially. Pretty much a religion at this point. Although they might argue with me about that but i'm aware that there's this very you know Long history behind it of a couple of hundred years And that it should be sort of treated with reverence and I know that the belief is that really you're not a medium You need to sit In development for 6, 8, 10 years and I'm three years into this by now, so I'm sort of cautiously sort of treading the water, not trying to upset anybody, any traditionalist, but that being said, at the same time, it does seem to be moving along quite quickly in like sort of like weird little, Growth spurts, I suppose.

For what? That was a weird way to put it. , , . Yeah. It seems to lull and then, it comes on. But but yeah, I'm getting there. I've got to the point that I'm not, I'm not questioning this anymore. , I'm [00:15:00] convinced.

This is a real thing. But that being said, I also get the other side of it. I wouldn't have bought into this stuff a few years back. I can only sort of say what's worked for me. And I feel that these experiences. are often very, deeply personal and hard to convey to other people because they'll typically come in as a knowing or intuitive feeling with the exception of seeing a ghost or, something knocking over or something like that they're a very subjective experience.

All I can really do is say what's worked for me or what's happened to me. And if it resonates with somebody else, great. If it doesn't, I get it. I'm not going to try and convince anybody that this is a real thing.

Karen: Well, that's interesting because I, I like how you talk about the little growth spurs, but in our experience with all the different people we've interviewed, we've seen everything.

We've seen the people that have studied and trained and therefore have been able to develop their psychic abilities people that born, knowing this people that have been in accidents and had brain injuries and suddenly it comes on as a flash. So that to me would be interesting to wonder how I haven't felt here, at least in the [00:16:00] States, in my experience, that kind of strong sort of traditional sense.

And I don't know if maybe it is because it's becoming more mainstream, more people are interested in it's becoming more okay. People are more open to, I don't know. I don't know. Well, what do you think about that? Does it seem, is there like that strong tradition here?

Will: I think that there was, there always has been, but it's been small.

It's been a small, tight knit it's like to Phil's point, it's been, you talk about clairvoyance and people think you're getting ready for the loony bin. But I think to your point, Karen, yeah, I think it is becoming more normal.

Karen: Yeah, it's becoming more normal. More people are talking about it.

And I think a lot of people are having these things happen more rapidly. Yeah. Because of maybe because of the awareness or because of the curiosity or because of realizing, Oh, that wasn't a dream. Or maybe that is, maybe that was a message I was supposed to get. Maybe they're just phrasing things differently.

Will: Phil, do you think that we're all heading in a certain direction? Is everybody meant to be in touch with these psychic senses or? Is it just for a select few? [00:17:00]

Phil: I'd like to think that we all have the ability. I mean, it wasn't really something that I pursued, I would get stuff, like I say, and a couple of experiences that we'll probably talk about.

One particular, profound one And I think that we all get it. I think it's almost like looking at it like a wifi signal that, it's stronger in some places or some people than it is in others. The, we all have it, but you know, fine tuning it as a, as another story, or like you say, some people just seem to be straight.

Straight there, or, you know, they'll just literally just concentrate on this for a minute and then they're, they're a medium.

Will: So, I think it's very intriguing. Right. Or they see the dollar signs flash in front of their eyes and go, Oh, I'm a medium! Yeah, or almost

Phil: half a medium at least.

Will: Yeah,

Karen: that's unfortunate.

Will: Can you share with us one of the most profound things that started you on this journey?

Phil: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, this is a bit of a, it's a bit of a sensitive one. And I, and again I don't want to dismiss a mental illness or anything like that, but we're going to go into somewhat into that arena. So around my mid thirties, I'm [00:18:00] 48 now. Around my mid thirties, I was living abroad.

I lived away from the UK for about 20 years and I ended up in Helsinki, Finland of all places. And I was running a bar and nightclub and I sort of fell into this through never really knowing what to do. I just stayed in this job from being a bartender in this place. And then they just sort of promoted me and, just food proximity.

But I'd never really found that thing, so I was doing that and I think around that time, again, I developed a bit of a, Like a skeptical sort of attitude about life in general, you know I was working all night sleeping through the day you see people drunk all the time at their worst And I started thinking that was normal and it's not normal, you know It's a very sort of select few that live that lifestyle.

So I was deep into that and live in a pretty shallow existence. I woke up one morning and there wasn't any alcohol involved or anything like that. I woke up, I was sober. I wasn't hung over or anything. Although there was a lot of that around me. And I was just kind of laying there and I was just like musing over this thought about time being non linear and it wasn't, the first time I thought about it and I'm definitely not the first person to talk about it, but it [00:19:00] was just like, Laying there thinking well, where's that moment just gone, right?

We've got this here right now and this is happening But that where is it? I know that my brain is telling me it's behind me on this timeline of events that we've all got Physically, where is it? Right and it sounded nuts and it sounds like stoner talk or something. But I was like, well, this is, this is crazy.

And something shifted in me and I can't emphasize like how powerful it was, it was as though I was suddenly detached from myself, like over here, observing my own thoughts. And. It was terrifying and I can't emphasize like how powerful of a shift it was And I think you know if you were to sort of look at it in medical terms You could call it like a depersonalization experience or something like that.

It definitely met that criteria but I was overwhelmed all of a sudden like linear time fell away It just seemed absurd and it was as though, People talk about connecting with a moment of now it was like that but times a thousand it was suddenly like now I couldn't just switch off and think, well, what am I going to have for dinner later [00:20:00] tonight?

Or what did I do yesterday? It just wouldn't stop. It was like this ultimate awareness of being right here right now. And then it just continued like that. And I was like, okay, this doesn't work. And it sent me into like a full blown panic attack. And I tried to go walk it off and it just didn't stop.

This just, this, my perspective had just changed completely. And I tried to go to work that night. I was trying to explain to people what was going on. They were like, sure. You Like, Oh, you sound nuts. And um, and, and and this went on for weeks, and. Eventually I was like, okay, well, this isn't working for me.

I just, it just didn't stop. It just didn't let up. It was just now all the time.

Will: How long did it last? I mean, yeah,

Phil: I mean, so just to sort the initial stages, the first time I went to a doctor was after a couple of weeks and they started using words like psychosis. Which terrified me further and they gave me a bunch of anti anxiety meds and sleeping pills.

The anti anxiety meds just didn't touch it. The sleeping pills would knock me out and then I woke up the next day and this whole thing would start over again. Now. It's really hard to [00:21:00] explain. I've got to say it's really, it doesn't sort of, it sounds really abstract. And it was essentially. I went to another doctor, same diagnosis, psychosis, more pills.

And I was like, Hey, well, this isn't working. And, I don't want to take this down a dark path, let's keep things light. But I was just starting to get to the point of, okay, if this is the way my brain's working now, I'm out of here. I was like, I don't see any tragedy in that.

This just doesn't work. I, it was as though I was just completely separate to everybody else. It was. I would love to say that this was a amazing, enlightening experience. It wasn't. It was terrifying. I found a therapist and I went to see this guy and what attracted to me to this guy was that he was a hypnotist.

So I was like, I went along there and I tried my best to explain this, which is still very hard to explain. And I was like, Hey man, just zap this away, right? I just, whatever this is, just make it stop. And he explained to me how hypnotherapy doesn't really work like that. But he did give me a very grounding meditation to do.

And it was a very basic meditation. He also started [00:22:00] using words like awakening and the, I was seeing ultimate reality and he called me a mystic, which I felt really awkward about. I just felt like embarrassed for him. I was like, well, what the hell does that mean?

Will: Wait, you were embarrassed for him.

Phil: What? And he gave me a very basic ground on meditation that they let me record and it pretty much brought me back almost instantly. I had to keep doing it. I had to do it the next day and I just continued to do this. guided meditation. And very gradually, I sort of came back online or offline, depending where you stand with these things.

and it would work out like, one good day, and then I'd get two good days. And very gradually over the course of a year, I came back. And I gotta say, I came like my I felt like my ego had been smashed to pieces. I was just happy to have my brain back. I felt okay. And I didn't attribute any of this to anything spiritual at all, despite what this therapist guy had talked about.

I was just thankful to have my, to have everything working again and sort of be back. With the herd, and I just sort of put it behind me and I was like, okay [00:23:00] Well, that was horrible. But I mean, I just came back a lot humbler. I came back, Thankful for my mental health. I did drop a lot of dead weight around me people like that.

I Changed jobs and ultimately I decided to come back to the uk and then I pursued acting, in my Early forties it kind of made me reevaluate everything. But yeah, it was a overwhelming experience Not one that I'd really wish to go through again But looking back on it through a different lens and all that I've learned about since and people that have contacted me since reading the book It seems to be fairly common.

And And again, I'm not definitely not dismissing mental illness, And that's not a real thing But I have had people get in touch with me saying, you know You Thank God somebody else has explained this because I went through this and I'm back, but it's going to be more common than you hear about.

Will: It's amazing perspective. Perspective is everything because as you're going through it, you found it terrifying and you did everything you could to get rid of it. While people like me. [00:24:00] are struggling to get to where you were because we want to feel that now and be disconnected from everything and be more connected with the all if that makes sense.

So it's really interesting the different perspectives. I was having a conversation with my daughter this morning And apparently she had an out of body experience once that freaked the living crap out of her and never, she never wants to do it again for the same thing. She, She also all of a sudden saw herself walking down the sidewalk from above and it freaked her out and she never wants to do that again.

While I've been here, everyone who's listening to the show knows how badly I want to leave my body even for a second. So perspective is everything.

Karen: but also not having gone through it, you don't really know what it's gonna be like.

Will: Well, that's true. I mean,

Karen: it could be a situation like what, what Phil's telling us about that does not sound pleasant, especially for an extended period of time.

You think it's gonna be like, oh, this knowing, but I guess everyone's experience is different, but that, whew, that sounds like a struggle.

Will: Yeah. But then when you look at Phil's book and the title of it, you just gotta let [00:25:00] Glow. Right. Let Glow. And that's what we're looking for because I think and correct me if I'm wrong, Phil, but it sounds like. The act of you struggling against it is what's made it seem uncomfortable for you.

Phil: Possibly. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that one was really exceptional. I have to say that, I'm not, again, I'm not dismissing the term sort of psychosis.

Maybe that's what psychosis is. I don't know. I mean, I, I, I came out of it and what I just found really interesting was the medit, meditate, forgive me, meditation. Did what medication couldn't, that sounds like a tagline

Karen: or

Phil: really, that's what brought me back. And it sort of does leave the question out there that I wonder if this does sort of get misinterpreted by sort of, standard.

Practitioners, you know, and what's also interesting and I'm not sort of, being a self proclaims guru or something, but like looking into stuff as I have over the last couple of years and writing these books, it does come up and you sort of, if you go back thousands of years and we're talking about sort of ancient tribes and shamanism and stuff [00:26:00] like that, then typically the medicine person would Go to the brink of madness come back and then that would be the person that everybody went to for spiritual advice Which seems to be the way that this is going so I don't know, if there's some sort of You know more traditional elements of this one.

Will: There was also the part of the book that I read the very early on as when you were young And you're very, the first meditation in the book is visualization to get you prepared for the rest of the meditation that you do later on. And you, we'll bring it back to the very beginning of the show when we talked about astral projection.

You laid in bed and you physically willed yourself to leave your body and yet it didn't quite go as you expected. Can you tell us that story?

Phil: Yeah. So this was, like I'd grown up, through the eighties and nineties. So I was like in those early days, I was really obsessed with, all things to do with ghosts and all that stuff.

It was only sort of when I got to my twenties that I was like, well, that was a load of nonsense and just put it behind me for like, 20 years basically. But yeah, [00:27:00] as a kid I was fascinated by these things and I'd read a, I'd gone into a bookstore and picked up a book. And essentially found this section on astral projection, and I didn't have any money, so I just skimmed through it as best I could, and went home and tried it.

So I just laid on my bed, and I thought, well, I don't know, the logical way seemed to be, to just think about really hard about getting up without actually getting up. And I can't remember, I couldn't tell you how, I mean, this is so long ago now, but let's say I was laying there for an hour or two, just trying to do this.

I didn't fall asleep. And then all of a sudden I had this really beautiful sensation of floating above my body and I had my eyes closed, but I had an awareness of being in both places. I could feel myself still laying on the bed and I could feel myself floating above it. But what I wasn't counting on and what this book had to mention was I suddenly had a third perspective and I was at the side of the room.

I mean, I didn't recognize it as being me, but there was an awareness of that. I had from the side of the room looking at myself laying on the [00:28:00] bed and floating above the bed and that that was like. Too much, like I was 15 or something like that and this is the 90s We weren't that smart back then and that was that just freaked me out and I was like, okay No, I don't know what they you know, and I snapped myself out of it and sat up interestingly sort of every time I tried to go to sleep that night, this separation would happen again, but I was like no, I'm done with that.

Whatever that was just too much for me to wrap my head around at that age. And I just sort of, I eventually fell asleep that night. I went into school the next day, tell my friend about it. And he was like, And that was it, you know, and that was um, and, and I, and I sort of, again, just sort of dismissed it some years later, I was watching a morning TV show over here and they had a psychic on and somebody called in and then he described this exact same experience.

And what was really intriguing to me was that he described the third perspective, which I've never read anywhere, before or around that time. He said, okay, something weird happened last night. I floated above my bed and I could see it as though I were the wall. There's a way [00:29:00] he described it. And I was like, well, that's the first time I've ever heard anyone else say that.

And it kind of validated it to me. I was like, well, okay, well maybe that did happen, so that, that was really my experience with astral projection. And it wasn't really something that. I've explored since, but yeah, interesting that it happened so easily.

Um, uh, Um,

Karen: Um, So easily. Oh, you're so jealous.

I am super jealous. I can tell

Will: you're so jealous. Well, it's, so it's interesting, both the, in this story and the story before, when you mentioned that you were someone else looking at you. That's something that Michael Singer talks about in his book, right? The Silent Watcher. And so does Eckhart Tolle. A lot of people talk about Deepak Chopra.

They all talk about who we truly are. And who we truly are is that watcher. So, the perspective of each one and the fact that you were able to access That silent watcher is really interesting because as I know you mentioned that it's common and it's getting more and more common for sure, but [00:30:00] I don't know that A lot of people experience that handily like you have.

So if someone wanted to try to get to the point where they actually identified themselves with that watcher, are there anything that you could recommend for our viewers or watchers to, to try?

Phil: Yeah, I mean, I think that meditation is the key to everything and as without sort of looking into it before I really knew anything about it, I would have just dismissed that and thought, Well, that sounds boring.

I've got better things to do. But I think that's really the key. And it's also been the key in moving towards mediumship and exploring that like I have. So I think that really is the thing, when you take that time to just sit with yourself, and I'm not the first person to say this.

Many others have talked about this and describe it in their own way. But I feel that when you practice it, and it's not like I sit for hours, you know, I'm not like a sitting like a monk or anything. But I'll just, I'll try to sit for 10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes sometimes. And I feel that you start to recognize that you're not that whole, jumble of thoughts that are just constantly, like, Hey, look at me [00:31:00] all the time.

When you start to recognize that you're the one watching it, and again, I'm not the first person to talk about this, But then you start to recognize that, okay, this is me back here. I'm the one that's observing this and I don't have to get caught up in all of that. And it's going to distract you, this, it's not going to stop, but I think the key is to being able to just be like, okay, that's that.

And then bring it back to the breath, bring it back to that moment of now where you are right now and just let that get on with it. It's going to keep sort of vying for your attention, but you don't have to get swept up in it. And I feel that's really , the key to just sort of recognizing yourself as this sort of internal knowing what I've wrote about and call it as like the backseat driver.

You know, Like if you have a moment of crisis, if you've ever been in an accident, this is quite a little voice that's like, okay, do this, or this is what's happening right now, and some of us have experienced that. Yeah. And I think that's, the voice that speaks up at the voice of reason.

And that's what's, that's really going on back there amidst all this, madness that's, trying to distract us. It's like the Jiminy cricket

Will: on our shoulder.

Phil: Yeah, exactly.

Will: [00:32:00] Yeah. Well then let's get back to your book for a second, because I'm really curious about something letting glow and then glowing deeper are the names of your books.

I get the sense that Glowing Deeper is, it's a sequel, but it builds on what you put on paper for the first book. Is that fair to say?

Phil: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I was like, my, my interest really went to mediumship. I know it's not for, it's not everyone's cup of tea. And to be honest with you, it's, I don't see it as sort of my end goal.

I see it as part of this journey that I'm on. I find it fascinating. I've scratched the edge that I needed to with it. I've proven to myself that I believe that we do go on from things that I've been told, things that I've given evidence to other people myself that I know that I didn't know.

It's amazing to have somebody sort of to give this information that I sound like I'm making up and then someone's like, yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. I find it amazing. But that was really my sort of primary interest to start with. And that's really what the books are about.

The second book is less about my journey [00:33:00] and I finished writing letting glow and I'd learned all these amazing things and I felt like I'd moved on in leaps and bounds and I thought well, I've got another book here looking back on it. It seems pretty basic stuff. I can't when I look at it. It's like a soft introduction to spirituality.

I suppose. But the second book is more about the wider perspective of spiritual practices, rather than just being about my story of grief and all that kind of thing.

Will: you say that you identify more with mediumship. Yeah. So the question immediately jumps to mind. Have you been able to contact your mom?

Phil: I've had a few instances where I've, her voice has been very loud and clear. Again, as a sort of natural skeptic, I'll always question it, But I'm just starting to trust it. I mean, I suppose the skeptic viewpoint on that as if you're looking for stuff you'll find it, but it does actually seem to work like that, unfortunately.

I feel that you have to pay attention to it for it to start becoming more apparent and for it to be more frequent. So I get the argument there but [00:34:00] it does seem to be the case. When you turn your attention to it, then these things start to happen more and more often. But yeah, I've heard from a mom.

I mean, other people have given me evidence of her food through other mediums. That have been well, well one of the real again and the second sort of real catalyst was I wanted into a spiritualist church which are ten a penny around here. I don't think you have so many over there But every sunday there actually happens

Will: to be one right down the street from our house.

Oh, okay Cool. Yeah, but we've but there's you're right. They're very few and far between here

Phil: Yeah, so, so every Sunday, at least here, there's a demonstration of mediumship. I haven't been to one for probably nearly a year now, to be honest. But in the early days, I did find comfort in them.

And I've seen this thing and I was like, okay, demonstration of mediumship. I know what that is, but I'm going to go along. And there was a lady given this demonstration. So nobody knew I was going to show up. Everybody just, rolled in there. No money exchanges, hands, anything like that.

And she sort of worked her way around the audience there and everybody was like yeah. Given her affirmation after affirmation by the time she got to me and it wasn't a given that she was going to [00:35:00] come to me, but she did. She started telling me about somebody that had passed, like a young man.

And I was like, okay, I don't know what she's talking about, and she kept on and she wouldn't let it go until eventually the penny drops. And I was like, Oh man, she's talking about a friend of mine that had passed 20 years ago. And then everything fell into place. And so just to get to the sort of punchline here, one of a better expression, she said, well, I've got a lady that's recently passed.

And this was about three months after my mom had died. And I got a lump in the throat and she started describing, The conditions around my mom passing, but the game changer for me was this lady had a very strong London accent, almost a cockney accent. If you're aware of what they sound like absolutely.

And her accent changed and it changed to a very strong Northern English accent, which was my mom's accent. And this person didn't know me. I just walked in off the street and she started giving me, the situation of around my mom's passing. She said the sort of generic, yeah, your mom's still with you and she's great and all that stuff, what medium say, but really the thing that her accent changed, [00:36:00] I was just, there's a very distinct change between those two accents.

And I was like, okay, well, that's it. This is a thing. This is a real thing. And I came out of there feeling like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. I got to say, I was just like, okay. My mom's around, amazing. And then I came home and told my atheist fiance about it. And she, she was like, no, she really was.

She She's uh, yeah, yeah. I'd like to think she's coming around, but you know. Anyway. . .

Will: Well, little by little. Yeah. In the testament that you still dedicated the book to her, even after she, the fact she kinda gave you like . Okay. Yeah. That's it. Slowly was in a

Phil: way of it. Yeah.

Karen: So now have you heard your mother, so you said that her voice was very strong.

Did you mean that like a feeling or do you actually hear a voice? Because we've talked to people that have both. Some of them are just, it's a knowing. Some of them actually hear a voice.

Phil: I've had a bit of both like so what I've been when I've been given other people readings just in practice like I'm not asking anyone for money or anything like [00:37:00] that.

I've had some really sort of distinct I'll get things very visual. I remember sitting with the, with a lady. Like, I was getting like in my very early, I mean, there's still early days, but in my earliest of days of sort of practicing here a lady came to the circle. I'd never met her before.

From the UK, she lived in the neighborhood or whatever.

And I was like, okay, let's give her something, that, that was the point. And I was imagining like a blank screen and I was like okay. Give me something on the screen to tell this woman and I described her dad, which she confirmed. And then the next thing I got was like an orangutan, a baby orangutan wearing like a diaper.

Right. And it looked like one of these posters from the nineties, where there was like, I don't know, you'd get those black and white Athena things or whatever, or then these comedy, comedy posters or whatever. And I was like, I'm not saying baby orangutan, but I was like, in

Karen: a diaper. Yeah.

Phil: And I said, Okay, so this is gonna sound ridiculous. I said, but I've got a baby orangutan in the diaper. And she was like yeah, that makes perfect sense. I was like, really? And she said, this lady [00:38:00] who lives, you know, in South London, Her daughter was in an orangutan sanctuary in California, right? The took care of baby orangutans and I was like, okay, that's just so off the wall.

And specific, and that, that was really, again, these little moments that I was like, all right, this. This stuff seems to be a thing. Yeah. I mean, she, she, I didn't know she had any connection to the States or anything like that. I didn't know she got a daughter. So she took that as, her dad's keeping an eye on her daughter.

Yeah.

So yeah, that was my first real sort of, yeah, this is the thing.

Karen: Wow. That's I can't deny that. Yeah, that's pretty specific.

Will: That's pretty amazing. All right. If there's one message that you want to make sure that our audience firmly gets, what would that message be?

Phil: I think it's just about trusting your intuition.

I mean, there's so, so many avenues you can go down with this. Some of it goes really deep. Like we were talking about only having the moment of now there's a whole other. multiple conversations you can [00:39:00] have about that thing. But at the most basic level, I think really just sort of, yeah, just get in touch with that in a voice, take those moments to just sit with yourself and just believe that, just trust that you sort of know the right direction.

Sorry, that sounds sort of very generic, but I really, I think that's really the key to sort of moving forward. And we do, we've got multiple possibilities out there of timelines running alongside us. It's, when you start looking into this stuff it's amazing and freaky. And all these things at the same time, when you sort of just turn your attention away from the mundane.

and see what else is going on. Yeah, I think that's it.

Okay. Well, Phil, if anybody wants to get your books, I'm assuming that they're everywhere, correct? Any Amazon Barnes and Noble, all those places.

Phil: All those places. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.

If they haven't physically got it, then they've got them all on their websites. Yeah. And then I've got a website philwebster. com, which is with Phil with two L's. If you put one L, I think you're going to get a blacksmith in Yorkshire. So yeah.

Karen: Which might come in handy as [00:40:00] well.

Will: great. We're going to add direct links to your website as well as to your books so that if you're interested in reaching out to Phil or reading his books, please feel free to go to skepticmetaphysician. com. Go to his episode page. You'll see the links directly laid in there. So it's easy to find, but I do urge you to pick up at the very least, Letting Glow because I started reading and I got sucked in immediately.

You are a great writer and I'm really looking forward to finishing that up. So thank you. very much. Thank you. And thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your experience with us. And we're hoping that we are able to do a follow up where we learn about glowing deeper. So, that'd be great.

Yeah. I'd love to come back. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

And a huge thank you to you. We'd love for you to contribute by sending us a voicemail or an email from our website, or leave us a review on Apple podcasts or any other podcasting platform that supports them.

Karen and I love hearing from those that are moved to message us. It truly does fuel our passion. You are the reason we do this show and knowing what you like and don't like, help us craft the very best show we can so that we can help [00:41:00] raise the vibration of the planet together. Well, that's all for now, but we'll see you on the next episode of The Skeptic Metaphysician. Until then, take care.