In January 2011 I was invited by my colleague Jaqueline Teoh to give a talk about my work with Spirit Children at Living Resonance in Geneva, Switzerland. Jackie and I were a bit concerned how my work with the spirits of dead children would "go down". However, we both felt the paintings made to honour spirit children were beautiful and their stories deserved to be told. On that day we had a room full of people and many of them came up to me for a private conversation after the talk/presentation. We projected photographs of the paintings on the wall behind me, so the spirit children appeared to 'stand behind me', as I spoke. As things turned out, most people present in that room had a connection to a dead child. People told me about stillborn babies, abortions, dead siblings or cousins, and miscarriages. They all said: " I had no idea it was possible to do this kind of work, to make a painting of the spirit of a dead child". They were referring in particular to children lost before the parents could take a photograph or even treasure a scan (ultra sound) picture as physical 'proof' the child ever existed.

I made this video in 2014. It was my first video creation and it is very imperfect - but sincere. That is why I have not updated it since.

In our culture the assumption is that the dead 'are gone' and lost to us.

Indigenous peoples have many ways and ceremonies for honouring their dead and their ancestors.

We have lost that ancient practice. The fact that, in the Western World, the traditional Church teachings forbid us to talk to spirits (as an evangelical Christian friend has reminded me on more than one occasion), does not help things either. We have no vision of where their souls might be now (but Christians call this place Heaven). 

It is my personal belief that our spiritual framework for life and death situations is impoverished, even rather childish.

In my client work I observe time after time again how people crave a personal connection to the Divine and a "cosmology", a map to the other worlds. I also observe that Ancestors seek connection and request intergenerational healing work.

I discovered that Spirit Children are not far off either. They came and went for spiritual reasons, so there is no guilt and no blame. They can be loved and honoured.

Their journey continues in the Other World and it is a beautiful place. Seeing glimpses of that place can bring comfort and closure to bereaved parents.

This painting was made for a mother of four boys who had a stillborn daughter.

The little girl appears as a small silver face in the mother's heart.

She has many adventures in the spirit world and often visits.

Actually she was the one who demanded a painting and led me into doing this work.