Welcome to my journal page. I'm Steve's wife Abby, and I've lived on the other side of what you call death, in what is also called the astral world, for about 170 years, since passing away in 1841 as the wife of Steve's earlier incarnation, Matthew Franklin Whittier.

Please forgive the simplicity of the design of this page--Steve's HTML is rusty. But I do like floral patterns. I used to paint florals myself. I started my collaboration with Steve in photography with subjects similar to what I used to paint. My photographs, our collaborations, and Steve's work is on our joint Flickr page.

There is not much about me in the written history--at least, not much that Steve's been able to find in three years or so of research. Half the time they can't even get my age right. I've gone into my personal history somewhat in one of Steve's "Updates," and there's no point in repeating that here. You can know that I was from a wealthy New England family, one of nine siblngs, and, as picked up on by two psychics independently, I was ahead of my time.

Steve learned of me while researching his own past life as my husband, Matthew. So Steve is my husband from that lifetime and also, as we have remarried, in this lifetime. That may seem either impossible, weird or downright unhealthy to some of you. We lived our own life in the 1800's, and many people didn't approve of us then, either. So this is nothing new. Patterns in lifetimes tend to repeat with variations. This is one of our patterns. We know that what we are doing is motivated by love, and it is quite healthy for us. It might not be healthy for you, and I am not necessarily suggesting it for you.

When Steve's researcher sent him a copy of one of my letters to Matthew's sister Elizabeth, and he started reading it, he felt like crying. Then, a few days later, listening to some music, he could hold it in no longer and began sobbing. At that moment I came to him. I had been waiting for 170 years for that moment, knowing--or at least hoping--that he would turn to me again when he was ready. I had been biding my time, working (helping terminally ill people by gradually introducing them to the astral realm), and studying my music (I still play piano, as I did when I first met Matthew--one of his fondest memories).

In fact what I did after death was simply an extension of what I had done in life, and that's because it is really one big life. Death is a change--but so is being born, growing up, graduating school, getting married, moving out of the house, entering a career, changing a career, retiring, etc. I did charity work in life, and I continued with it after transitioning.

So, to continue the story, Steve hired a psychic he'd already tested and found reliable. She made several blind "hits," brought us together, and we have been together ever since. That was in March 2010. We learned to communicate in a primitive way at first--mostly only "yes" or "no," like the Fox sisters. But then Steve learned to channel me as he is doing now, and I began writing a few of his "Updates." Just today, Dec. 26, 2011, we decided I should have my own "blog," though both of us agree that's an ugly word. So I will call this my "journal."

As I explain in several of these early entries, this is not quite verbatim communication. Steve is getting much better at it. I place a thought in seed form in his subconscious, and it rises along with the other thoughts. Steve only has to learn to discern which are mine, then string them along as I send them to him, and I can communicate via his writing.* Steve is not in a trance when I do this, nor am I "taking over" his fingers in any way. But he puts his own thoughts in abeyance, as one does in meditation, and waits for the next thought to arise. He then gets started typing "stream of consciousness" so that my thoughts form a continuous chain and his thoughts don't have a chance to intrude. If they do intrude, I can prompt him to erase them and start over.

Naturally, specific things like dates and details are harder for Steve to get, though not impossible. If I do ask him to do something like that, you, the reader, should take it with a grain of salt because it will be less accurate than when I am relaying concepts and feelings. But I have been able to get specific information to him, and we have used it for the research on his case. He has all but proved that case, I would say.

Sadly, very few people seem to take it seriously, even in our field of reincarnation studies. That is because our presentation is too advanced. It may not seem that way, but it depends on how one defines "advanced." "Fancy" does not always mean "advanced" (though the two words do sound similar). We don't use hype, and we don't tell people what they want to hear. We ignore fashion. We quietly communicate what we feel, what we experience and what we know to be true, and we let people come to us. Some 115 people each month read Steve's Updates page, and it really is remarkable the number is so small, given what we're doing, when you think of how many people must listen to the big New Age radio programs or read the books of some of the popular authors in afterlife studies.

When we began taking photographs together, I was especially disappointed in the lack of public interest. These photographs have nothing to do with the occult, except that we collaborated from opposite sides of the Great Divide. Otherwise, we might as well be any couple who shoot together. And it's good work. Normally, anyone doing photographic work of that caliber would at least gain a little favorable attention. But, perhaps because we are open about how we do it, when people read the introduction, they must immediately "bolt from the premises"! Either that, or people of this modern age have become so jaded that they cannot perceive real art. We are not the best photographers in the world, but we are working in that realm, and some of our images compare favorably to theirs. Why is our work all but ignored? Literally, these images go for weeks or even months without a single person enlarging one to look at it. We've tried putting the link up more prominently in the News section, mentioning it in the Updates, and, nothing.

The reason I mention it is that this is how our work is received, in general. And the question is, why?

Well, when it comes to telling people about our relationship, we are only trying to reach a handful of people in the crowd. We want to send a message to grieving widows and widowers who are the remaining half of a soul mate or "twin flame" couple. Our message is simple. Some of you have discovered that you can feel your lover's presence; some more of you have experienced your lover giving you signs. We are telling you now that you can have a full relationship. It may not be quite the same as both of you being physical, but it can be full and satisfying and real nonetheless. There are many things you can do together, if you want to learn how to do them. Dying is a major inconvenience, as Steve has written elsewhere, to be sure. But it is not the end.

But these messages Steve gives out elsewhere in this website. This journal is just for me--whatever I want to use it for. We shall see what strikes my fancy! I will list links to each entry of mine in the column to the left. If you want to respond to me, you can write Steve, and of course it will be him typing the response, and he will be doing his best to catch my thoughts. I am not anticipating that anyone will want to write to me, but, in case they do. There is already one "dear Abby," and probably she is enough! But I would try to answer.

I hope you enjoy my writing, and that you will forgive Steve for not conveying my thoughts 100% accurately.

Love to each of you,
Abby

*In case it should ever come up, I will definitely not be channeling through anyone else, so if anyone claims such a thing, it is spurious.