Mary D'agostino's Shared Death Experience With Her Son, Brandon EP 409

In this heartfelt episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian Smith is joined by the remarkable Mary D’Agostino, a professional intuitive, spiritual counselor, psychic medium, and author. Mary shares her personal journey through love, loss, and spiritual awakening following the passing of her beloved son, Brandon. From profound visions to a shared death experience, Mary provides insight into how grief can be a catalyst for growth and transformation.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The vibrant life and legacy of Mary’s son, Brandon.
• How intuition and spiritually transformative experiences guide us through loss.
• Mary’s shared death experience and the comfort it brought.
• Divine messages from Brandon and how love transcends the physical realm.
• Practical steps for self-compassion and navigating grief.

Featured Guest

Mary D’Agostino
Mary is the founder of Heart of Gaia Creative Healing Arts, where she offers intuitive readings, soul coaching, mediumship, astrology, and Reiki healing. She is also the author of 111 Days of Divine Intervention: A Mother’s Healing Journey. Through her foundation, Brandon’s Angels, she provides comfort and guidance to grieving families.

Connect with Mary:

• 🌐 Website: marydagostino.com
• 📚 Book: 111 Days of Divine Intervention
• 💌 Services: Intuitive readings, astrology, and Reiki

Join the Conversation

✨ What are your thoughts on spiritually transformative experiences? Share your story in our Grief 2 Growth Community and connect with others on the path to healing.

Episode Resources

• Mary’s Website: marydagostino.com
• Grief 2 Growth Community: grief2growth.com/community
• Helping Parents Heal: helpingparentsheal.org

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Can't wait to hear from you!

I've been studying Near Death Experiences for many years now. I am 100% convinced they are real. In this short, free ebook, I not only explain why I believe NDEs are real, I share some of the universal secrets brought back by people who have had them.

https://www.grief2growth.com/ndelessons

Transcript

Brian Smith: 0:29

Close your eyes and imagine. What if the things in life that cause us the greatest pain, the things that bring us grief, are challenges, challenges designed to help us grow to ultimately become what we were always meant to be. We feel like we've been buried. But what if, like a seed. We've been planted, and having been planted, we grow to become a mighty tree. Now open your eyes. Open your eyes to this way of viewing life. Come with me as we explore your true, infinite, eternal nature. This is grief to growth, and I am your host. Brian Smith, hi there, and welcome to grief, to growth, where we journey together, to navigate life's challenges, to understand who we are and explore where we're headed. I'm your host, Brian Smith, and whether this is your first time joining us or you're a longtime listener, I am so glad you're here. Today's guest is Mary D'Agostino. She's a remarkable individual whose work spans the realms of intuition, spirituality and healing. She's a professional intuitive, a psychic medium, a spiritual counselor and astrologer, an author, an artist and a ceremonialist. She's a founder of heart of Gaia, creative healing arts, a sacred space dedicated to intuitive healing, spiritual growth and navigating life's challenges through transformative practice. So in today's episode, we're going to dive deeply into Mary's personal journey of love and of loss, including the profound grief of losing her son, Brandon. Mary will share the extraordinary, extraordinary spiritual experiences that unfolded during her journey, vision, synchronicities and even a shared death experience with her son. We'll explore after how she uses these experience to help others connect with their own inner healing and spiritual growth. Mary is also the author of 111 days of divine intervention, a mother's healing journey into the forest, a maidens journey, and she's a contributor to the good, to the last drop, embracing your life's third chapter book through her writing and her foundation, Brandon's angels, she provides guidance, comfort and care for those navigating the often overwhelming terrain of grief. So some of the questions we'll explore today include, how do spiritually transformative experiences show up in our daily lives? What does it mean to meet ourselves through grief and loss? What are the messages from the other side that she's received from her son Brandon? So I invite you to stick around for what promises to be an enlightening and deeply moving conversation, and don't forget afterwards to continue the conversation in our community at grief to growth.com/community, so with that, I want to welcome Mary D'Agostino, thank

Mary D'agostino: 3:12

you. Thank you very much for that introduction there.

Brian Smith: 3:16

Yeah, you're welcome, Mary. It's great to have you here. It's always nice to talk to a fellow shining light parent. And I always like to ask people who have children in spirit to start off by telling us about about their loved one. So tell us about Brandon. Sure

Mary D'agostino: 3:32

I, I would love to, and he would love to. He was quite a gregarious young man in body, and now he is in spirit too. So Brandon was my is I have five children, and so I'm a mom of five, and Brandon's my youngest boy, and he was born, you know, at the tail end of my having kids, and I didn't actually think I would have anymore, and here he showed up. So he kind of lived life that way. Surprise, you know, surprise, here I am surprised. You're not your life is going to go in a different direction than you thought, mom, even though you know it kind of was going in Well having children and raising children direction. But Brandon came in as a surprise, and continued to really be a light and a wonderful, joyful kid, high energy, and he he was the one who would his dad was kind of strict and, and all the other kids would be like, you know, get in line and Yes, sir. And, and Brandon would be like, yeah. So that's Brandon, and he grew up to be just a beautiful young man, and, but he did also carry the kind of the struggles and the pain of our family, in a way, I can see it now. I saw it then, but I could see it now. As you know, he came in with a mission. He fulfilled it, and he left and and passed on early. He was 24 so we. Got 24 years with him, and he was so friendly. He had lots of friends, lots of no one. He never met anyone he didn't love, feel a connection with, want to help. He was a big helper, and so and he had his, you know, in his own struggles, it was, it was like, Oh, I'm good, I'm good. Let's go help someone else. And, and so, you know, he, he, he was, yeah, again, also, he really embraced spirit. And his his Spirit, His Spirit of life, his love of life, and like to live fast. So that kind of took him out in the end, because he he did. He was had his dream job, his life was going great and but as a mom knows I'm always, I'm always tuned in, you know, and I was like, Okay, what's really happening here with you? And so, so he, you know, it's like, I can tell about his his death, but I really wanted to, I really want to talk about his life and and his energy, and how all of the things that I can share, that I shared in my writings, in my book, in my sessions, and how I really want other parents who've lost children or others who are grieving and a most devastating loss as you Know It. It's, you know, it's one of those things that people say, Oh, it's the worst thing anyone could ever go through. Yet, because of my son's life and his soul and his life, exuberance of life, I'm always brought back to that and how much he loved life and lived fully. He lived fully while he was here and and, of course, that doesn't really it doesn't help the grief, you know, but it does shift my Oh, it always shifts my perspective. So back to, how did he live, not how did he die, how did he live? And but he did, and he and he passed, he died in a way, in a way of how he lived. He, you know, I had a profound experience with a few days before his passing, and, oh, and being born intuitive and really having the opportunities in my lifetime to cultivate that, those, those not, not easy or not, you know, I had to, I had to burst through a lot of barriers towards, you know, of structures I was raised in to become more intuitive, more of myself, but that helped me be very connected with Brandon and his life, and all my children too, and and be very connected through his passing, and ensured that, you know, his soul was living on, and that I could take that experience too. So I had that experience through his passing, his actual physical transition of these amazing synchronicities and and connections that helped me navigate the the grief and the devastation of the loss but his. But that's how he was in life, too. You know? He he was incredibly he had a lot of challenges, as I said, and he always worked to overcome them, and as best as he could, with such earnestness and an inclusivity too, he always included the love he has for his siblings, his friends, me, his dad and everything he did. So,

Brian Smith: 9:51

Wow, sounds like quite a kid.

Mary D'agostino: 9:54

I think so. I mean, yeah,

Brian Smith: 9:57

so you mentioned that he he lived fully. It's really interesting talking to parents who have lost children, you know, young, and that seemed to be a common theme, that there's something special about them that we we recognize even before we and sometimes we get intuitions that they're not going to be here long. But there's something about like living life full out that seems to be very common among kids that transition early.

Mary D'agostino: 10:23

Yes, I found that, you know, in my my own experience with. Brandon, and then I've had the honor and experience of helping others who have children in spirit through, you know, through my work. But yeah, you know. And I think that I feel with Brandon, I wrote this too. I wrote, you know, he was an answer to my prayer at the time, actually, as I said, and, and, and so I truly believe and feel he had a mission and knew what it was. And maybe that is what it is with our children who who pass early, it's there. They know they're not going to be here for long. I don't believe it's Oh, it's conscious, because I a couple of reasons. I don't think we, I don't think we're kind of ready to know that, and it that's hard. I mean, as a parent, I had, I had intuitions also, yet I was buffered from them, from too much knowing. And I think they are too, because that's you know, that can go sideways if you knew. Oh, I'm only here for so long, so, but I believe that's their that's our soul knows. Our soul knows we're here for a limited time. So let's make this count and and what if we all live that way because we are here for a limited time? It's very

Brian Smith: 11:53

true. It's very true. We just don't, we don't know how long that time is. And yeah, I think there, I totally agree with you. I don't think that we know, or they know on a conscious level, but there is a level. There's something in the background. And as I think back about my daughter, I can certain clues that we got about the way that she thought about death, the way she thought about pain, the way she thought about experiences, like a lot of people would think would be negative, like she said, I remember when she was young, I like to break my leg. And we were said, Shayna, why would you want to break your leg? Because I want to know what it's like to walk on crutches. And sure enough, it wasn't that much longer later, she tore ACL and had to have surgery, and she was walking on crutches. But she embraced stuff like that. You know, she embraced, she had a lot of medical procedures, and she went into him like, with with curiosity. So I think there's a lot of that with these kids that are just kind of like just taking it all in, just really absorbing life. Wow,

Mary D'agostino: 12:51

that's, that's fascinating. And I can say Brandon was similar. He had so many accidents and medical procedures like he was always fascinated. I remember watching him as a kid getting his shots, you know, or his and, and he would be like, oh, I want to watch, yeah, take my blood. I want to look at, I would be like, Oh, I can't. But he was just wanting to experience, and I do feel that's true, wanting to experience the the fullness of life, from the pain to the joy to the and, and, and I, he did that for for me, for us. It's like, okay, well, here's the depth. As I say this in my I feel this truth from the depth of my being. Love is so connected with grief and and pain and is connected with love. You know, it's they're they're together. And when you love so deeply and unconditionally a person, a child and and then they're gone. That pain going through it, that devastation, that brokenness to go through it, you in into it is where you meet them. It's where you meet the love that is eternal and unconditional. It's, it's, it's in that experience and and it's seeing that people, many, many people aren't you know, it's dissociation and distraction, and let's not feel too much pain, because that hurts, and we don't want to go there, but that is missing out on the, you know, the juiciness of life, the the the Real Reason I feel, maybe not consciously, but unconscious? Well, we know at a point, I believe we know before we come what we're going to we have an idea we're going to do this that, you know, we have a little plan in place, but we we, we don't realize that to live fully is really the point. Yeah, you know, yeah,

Brian Smith: 15:37

to experience it all, yeah, even the stuff that we that we don't think we like while we're here, this, the soul has that curiosity that our kids had. The soul was like, I want to, I want to go through this. I want to experience, you know, all of it, because that's, that's where we grow. You mentioned earlier that you were, sounds like, you. Always been intuitive, but maybe some of that was held back when you were young because of the circumstances you were in.

Mary D'agostino: 16:03

Yeah, you know. So I was born into a I was the oldest of eight kids, and in that and like a typical air quote, typical middle class family in the 60s and and, but I kind of I always felt thing I always could feel. And I think this was part of my protection, too, back then it was, I had, it was volatile and lots of emotional, you know, disruptions and emotional issues that were never dealt with with my parents. And so I would feel them all and and know how to respond or react. But I would also feel, I felt very early on, the protection and of angels. And so I was raised in a religion of Catholicism. And so we were taught certain things, right? Of, okay, this is who God is. This is what, and angels were part of it. But though, when I I don't even remember learning about angels, I just knew they were with me all the time, and I could call on them, and they were very real. And then the trees and the and the, you know, the fields by where we lived. And I could go there, and I could feel connected. And so I, I know now that was my intuition, my senses, my full embodied senses. But I didn't tell anybody about that, you know, and and I also knew in my religion, which I feel was my first kind of spiritually, I don't know, transformative, but I remember being in Catholic school in the we were learning about God, and God was this really scary, mean man who lived in the sky, and he had kind of long, gray hair, like me. Now, right? You know that God, and it was Thou shalt not, and it was like those overhead projectors where, you know, I don't know. Just it just was like, I looked at that, and I was about nine, and I was in my classroom with all my kid, you know, peers, and I was like, No, that's not God. And I just knew, and that was in that knowing, and I also knew, don't tell anybody, because no reason to Mary, just don't. And I wasn't scared not to tell anybody, but I felt like I I knew the secret, you know, that that's not really God, and by the way, that's really not even the God they're teaching me, because, on the other hand, they were teaching about Jesus and love and kindness and loving, we're all children of God. And so I was like, yeah, that feels more right to me. So, you know, and I

Brian Smith: 19:08

go ahead, I could never square that circle. I could never figure out how God was so angry. And I don't know why he was so angry, but Jesus was so loving. So I love Jesus, but I, you know, God was like, Yeah, I don't, I don't need that. I know that was a very scary thing to me too, yeah,

Mary D'agostino: 19:26

and, and that little I love. How our soul does that? You know, our spirits like, yeah, no, probably not. So you might fight with that for a while. You know, because we're, I see it, you know, collectively, we can see and I think that my son and most likely your daughter, we're part of this too, collectively, of this shift of, you know, people, it's time that we really break free from these confines that aren't helpful are not really helping us become loving or compassionate, more loving, more compassionate, more inclusive and generous with our our lives as God, so, you know, as Jesus, as the as kind of, that whole idea was a was, originally was loving each other and helping each other and being kind. And so anyway, yeah, so I had to break through, you know, I had to be quiet. And then I had to, you know, follow all the rules. I was a very good rule follower. Yeah, I'm still having trouble with that, you know, yeah, which rule you're following here, Mary, you know, but, but it kind of, over the years, really broke free. I broke free from so many rules. I. Because I had to it was they were hurting me, you know, and and and oppressing and and suppressing my my soul, my being and hurting, really hurting, hurtful so and Brandon did a lot of that rejecting, like I said jokingly, he he would never fall in line with his kind of controlling father or anyone else that was trying to tell him what to do that was not true to what his soul knew was was loving or compassionate, right?

Brian Smith: 21:37

Right. So you mentioned you were you were intuitive, and you said maybe you had some Inklings that he was going to transition early, but maybe you were shielded from that a little

Mary D'agostino: 21:47

bit. Yeah. So, so Brandon when he was about 14, so 10 years before he transitioned, he started to dabble in drugs and do the, you know, do some things that were kind of, you know, as I said, he pushed the limit. Let me try this, let me see what it might be. And then they would come home and tell me, like, Hey, Mom, I tried this drug and and I had the craziest experience. And then I would have to appreciate that, he told me. But then, you know, discipline, reprimand, whatever I you know. But anyway, so, so he pushed my limit quite a bit, and he he, he got in some trouble and and so I, I just really brought, I just called in the big guns, meaning the angels, the archangels, the and he, he knew about all that, and he had, he, he loved connecting with his angels and spirit guides and helpers, and and, and so there was one point at one, well, there was a couple of times that I had this dream, and this was probably a year or two. I can't remember exactly before I had a dream that he got into a black sports car, and he wasn't driving, but it was someone else was driving, and I knew it was a drug dealer, and he got into the back of the car, and he drove away, and He and in my dream, I knew he died, and I thought, Okay, well, when I woke up, it was like, All right, well, I'm going to do everything I can to support him in his, you know, sobriety and all that, and and so. And I also had a dream that his dad called me on the phone to tell me something like that, and and so I pushed that aside, and then just kept doing everything to help him. And then about a year before he passed, he had a very bad experience, and I call it his near his near death experience. And he had a bad experience when he, when he took some drugs, and he he was nowhere to be fine, found, nowhere to be found. And I used all my intuition and my guidance, and I got connected with a nurse, a psychiatric nurse, who was a friend of mine, and she helped me and guided me, and it was like everything just fell into place. We couldn't find Brandon. We didn't know where he he was off somewhere, and nobody knew. And he came. He showed up at my house after we had been praying and searching and everything for a week. He showed up, and I took him to the hospital, and he got the help he needed. It was just one miracle, and using my intuition after another, and then, but then, a year and a half later, he's doing so well. So I thought that was it like I went through the, you know, my that was all that was that wasn't going to happen. And but as I explained in in my I wrote it in my book, and I wrote it because so that I would have it written in a place where, you know, it's to share with others these incredible synchronicities and divine interventions that happen all the time. This was quite profound because it had to do with my son and his death and his life and but two days before he passed, I had i. The vision of me and the numbers, 111, and going through this meditation and portal that was that I would it would be very difficult, but I could go through it and still again I had, I didn't connect it with with Brandon, really, you know, so while I was I was preparing, and I feel that the divine, my my soul, the life force, energy, the source energy, was preparing me On a level, every step of the way to be able to to have those parts of me activated the you know, enough so that I could find what I needed, know where to turn. Know everything was ultimately going to be okay, sure. And I know that's that is. That's the depth of how, what I know, it's like everything you know, all in all. Of course, it's not when you're in the pain of it or the you know, but it ultimately, I believe this, and I've lived it, and Brandon proves it, and I know you share so much of this, that ultimately the universe has our backs. And when we have to experience these difficult, challenging things, there are also all, all these pieces that come together to help us, yeah,

Brian Smith: 28:21

yeah. I definitely believe that's been, that's been my experience. It's, it's totally opposite of what I believed before, but it's, it's what I I've come to understand.

Mary D'agostino: 28:28

Oh yeah, yeah.

Brian Smith: 28:31

Because, you know, the universe, even though I was taught about God and everything, and still God was scary. And, you know, again, one hand, they'd say, God's got your back, but the other hand, I saw what God did to a lot of people in the Bible. It's like, it doesn't seem to really have a lot of people's backs. So yeah, but it's an understanding I think we come to as we go through and learn to trust in that that process. So you had some slight intuition that Brandon was going to pass, but then you said you said you had a shared death experience when he actually did pass. So what was that like?

Mary D'agostino: 29:04

Yeah, it took me a while to understand, to be able to name it, you know? And when I heard shared death a while after I went, well, that feels accurate, but what that was because I was very connected with him, you know, and open and and my intuition was intuition, and using all of our senses is, I feel it's like a muscle. You build it, you know, you you practice, you build it, just like our connection, our meditation, or other tools. So I had built it enough, apparently. And was the so two days before he passed, I had that I took, I did a meditation. And the and then, so the number 111, is profound in my experience, and for no other reason than that, was the number, you know it, it's interesting. It's like it. What does it mean? It meant, for me, it meant, pay attention. There's, it's, you're going through this portal, and it's a portal, it's an opening, it's a, it's a, it's a, an awareness, it's a place, it's a tunnel, it's all of that. So before, two days before, I personally was I was gifted a meditation, a guided meditation, audio. And I and I said, Okay, I'll listen. And I did. And in that meditation again, as I was a little alluded to it earlier, I was being pushed through this, this portal. It was called the 111, meditation with Archangels. So I was pushed through it, and I felt angels on either side, and very like, okay, it's going to be okay, but this is really a tight squeeze, and didn't feel good and but, but it was like I'm in a meditation, but So alright, and so I got the message to just keep looking straight ahead and keep going through this. And everything was going to be okay, but I had to really be discerning and and stay with the path right of in between these, stay in between these columns of light and I'd be okay. So two days later, it was January 13, and it was a Friday the 13th, which is actually for me and lucky day, because my first born was born on the 13th. Of November. So it became a lucky number, and later I learned that it's actually a goddess number. It's a good number, it's a wonderful number. So it was Friday the 13th, and I was in my in this room that I'm sitting in now, in a session with two clients. They were a husband and wife who who I had known and seen a few times before that, and in our work together, I was able, it was, it was quite amazing. I was able to connect with his father, who was deceased, but he didn't know his he had been put up for adoption as an infant, and he came to me, I think, for another reason so, and it throughout the prior year. So I said, you know, I see a man coming through, and he's, oh, that's my dad. Well, through our connection of from the realms of spirit, he was able to connect with his family that he of his deceased dad, who passed in Vietnam. And anyway, so it was quite profound. So here he was back with his wife having a session. And in the session, I saw this vision that came through that had nothing to do with my the couple and I have permission to talk about this, so they they gave me permission to share this. And in the vision, I saw a goddess in the sky, a big she looked like an angel goddess, all I can describe. And she was taking stars out of the sky in the dark night sky and placing them on the earth. And then she was taking the stars off the earth and putting them back in the sky. And in my vision, I was like, Oh my gosh, that's that's like life and death. That's the that's like the Great Mother Goddess. And so I shared it with my clients and and we're all like, wow, that's really amazing. But I knew, and they knew it wasn't for them. I was like, Okay, well, we just got a glimpse of the Great Mother God, wow. Isn't that fascinating? It must have some meaning, right? So. So they left, and I did, you know, I went to to do my Friday evening, sleeping and relaxing and but before I went to sleep, I looked at my phone that night, and I looked at, I saw a picture of my son, Brandon, at his previous birthday when he a few months earlier. And it was just this beautiful picture with him, with all his cake and all these lights, and he was smiling. And I felt the deepest peace when I looked at that picture, and then I went to bed, and it was I didn't find out. I can tell that part, but that when I had that vision, it was the exact time he was transitioning. He was 70 miles away in the city, and he had taken a car he worked for a car dealership. He had his dream job, lived in a new apartment in Parker by the way, yeah, and he was test driving a brand new Maserati, and it was a dark, small sports car. It wasn't black, it was blue. Oh, and by the way, his car that he drove all the time was a black BMW that always needed fixing. And so I thought, when I had that previous vision, that it was that car he would get into. So anyway, he had taken that evening, Friday the 13th, at around 730 he took the car out, and he was driving it down a road that they always would the kid that the his colleagues would take the cars out. Was dark road, and there was a curve. And he actually, we know this. I know this because at that exact time he was filming himself live on social media, and so there is a snippet of him. He filmed his speedometer going from zero to 111, 111, and then nothing. So it's about a 14 second video that he was filming at the same time I was having that the vision of the Goddess. And also. So we, we he was his car went out of control. After the the fast speed turning the 111 miles an hour, and he lost control, and he flew and landed upside down in a very small retention pond. And so when they look went to look for him, which happened without me knowing I went to sleep. And I feel that, and I know this because he shared it with me about a month later, in in a in an intuitive connection with him. He was I was with him like I was ushering through the portal. And I do know about that in my practice, in my learning, in my in my spiritual awakening and all that it's like, it's what people do for others, right? They they help them go to the other side. And that is what I was doing that evening. So we were sharing the experience. And the reason I do know that so it wasn't just to wrap that up. Nobody could find him until the next morning, that because it was so dark, the car was upside down and it was completely demolished. And he well when we went to look for hit, or when we found out, you know, Brandon's missing that morning. By the way, his girlfriend called me many, many times throughout the night. I got none of those. No, I got none of the messages they none of them came through. She Well, she texted me, where's Brandon? Is he there? We can't find him. None of them came through until she called me the next morning to ask. And so I feel that again, was another divine like that. Nobody bothered me and Brandon were, you know, we're, he's transitioning, and I'm helping him, I'm with him, I'm comforting him. I'm whatever you know, I was doing because I felt so in the zone, I call it, or in the channel, in, you know, as a as a soul, as a spirit. But then my mom sense kicked in too, and I was quite, you know, like, where is he? I don't know. Let's find him. Oh, my God. And and during that time when everybody was looking for him, I did tune in. I said, Brandon, where are you? Where are you? And I could, I saw his face, and it was surrounded by this shiny light, and it looked like water. I didn't know he was in, actually in some water, but, and he said, I'm okay. I'm okay, Mom, I'm okay. And that would be what he always would say, even if he wasn't. But, and then, then, yeah, and then he was found and and, you know, the terrible what we had to go through. But I was in a protect. I was being protected even then I felt so like I was in this bubble of protection, that there was this profound spiritual connection that no one and nothing could break, or it was protecting me. Yeah, right.

Brian Smith: 40:37

Wow. Well, you mentioned Parker. And so people might be thinking, Why? Why was it a big deal? But I've only been to Colorado once, and when I was in Colorado, I happened to be in Parker, and January 13 also happens to be my daughter's birthday. So when I was reading your book, I was like, Okay, well, that was, that was an interesting coincidence or synchronicity. So yeah, that I again. So sorry for your for your loss. You know of him in the physical but it's amazing that the connection that you have with him and the experience that you had. So thank you for sharing that, because there just doesn't be again. When we look back on we can get some indications and stuff. And I think your vision is really interesting too, about the goddess, you know, putting the stars on the earth and taking the stars off the earth. Because, you know, we think we have so much control over our lives, and we might think, Oh, I could. I could have stopped this, or he could have stopped there. So what if he hadn't just done this? And I truly believe it's one. It's our time to go. It's our time to go, and it's just a matter of how you know, just you know. So if it hadn't been that way, it would have been another way. Is what my belief is.

Mary D'agostino: 41:48

Yes, I agree. I think, you know, I have heard people say we have different exit points and we and I think that, well, when I look at Brandon's life, I can see that like I was talking about how he almost he had it like a near death, but he had several, and he and near misses. He was very daring. He did a lot of skateboarding and a lot of snowboarding, and a lot of this and that. So I do think, I do think we have a few where we might leave, but it really isn't, yeah, when it's our time, it's our time, and it and and it happens. It's such a but I also feel that it is, it's, I don't know if this is, I feel comforted to know that, that it we can't go we can't doubt that there's something bigger, right, like the goddess in the sky. That is like, don't worry. We've been doing this for eons. You know, we'll, we'll be back or, or you, you know what a great life you had, and now you're going to, you know, have your, your next adventure in the in between world, and you're going to come back and, and in the meantime, though, you know, we are left with our I do want to say I know without a doubt there was nothing I could have done to stop it. Stop it and even. And that leads me to a month later, I was out walking, and I walk all the time to for it's, it's a spiritual practice, really. And I every time I go to that question, how could I have stopped this and what? What if or I would feel that truth of, no, it's bigger than that. You know, it's there's so what do I need to help me understand that, that you know, and I also would wondered, I even though I knew, because I had a lot of divine interventions with this too, that he did not suffer. That's another thing that us parents who lose children are like, did they suffer and what did they feel? You know, because we're so, I mean, we're there. We're supposed to take care of them and protect them from everything, and so of course, we're going to not want that and but every time I'd felt that, I would, you know, he apparently died instantly, that's what the report said. So I was glad to know that. But then, you know, then there were some other things that I was like, Wait, if he did, but, you know, anyway, so fast forward, about a month later, I'm out walking, and I'm I'm just doing my best, you know, to keep my body but moving and and be out in nature. And I could feel his presence, and I hear him talking like is a conversation in my mind a lot, and I know that is something that I will tell people over and over again, that you can have conversations and believe that when you hear what they're saying, what you think they're saying, it's most likely what they're saying, And it might be in your own voice or it might be in theirs. It doesn't matter, but to trust that. And so I'm out walking, and I say, I hear him say, Hey, Mom, you want to know what happened when I died? And I was like, yes. I say, yes, please tell me. But I said, but don't I don't want to know anything you know, Gary and, and again, I was and he goes, No, no. And I said, Wait, I'm going to go home and and I'm going to write this down. So I went home, I opened my journal, and I started to write what I was hearing. And again, another practice that I've done for years is journaling, and I also facilitate a lot of journaling to connect us with our soul, our inner self. So this is what he said it was like. So this is where I know I was with him. And if I'm just gonna it's short, I'll read a little bit. But the message is beautiful, and I think it's what each parent, each person who has lost a loved one, needs to know beyond a doubt that our love is is eternal. It's strong, it's not. Uh, food, you know, it's, it's, it's substantial, it's, it's an essence. So I said he, he said, Okay, here's what he said. So here's how it went. Mom, I was driving along, and along came this giant angel. She snatched me right out of that car. She lifted me up, and she held me in her arms, and I thought it was you, mom. She looked like you, she smelled like you, and she felt like you, like I was going home, and she held me, and we watched the car just for a moment, and then she took me somewhere. She held, she held me and told me how much she loved me. I thought, I still thought it was you, mom, and I think it was you. I felt the connection like when you love me, that and that, that love goes on and on. She was your love and my love. And all the love I ever felt, and all the love I ever gave, I felt this warm glow, and then it's, well, it's where I've been returning to over and over he got, he said, I remove myself from it, and I visit places, and then I return to the love. But I really can't ever leave it. It was all a part of the plan to light up this love again in our family to make that the love the strongest. It's more like remembrance. We forgot, but you didn't forget, Mom, you never forgot. Love. You fed me. Love, Mom. So much. Love,

Brian Smith: 48:12

yeah, that's that's awesome. And I want to say to people who are listening that, and I'm glad that, I'm glad that you read that because I've seen so my parents, their minds go to the worst place. But I remember listening to Dr Mary Neal at the helping parents heal conference. And even before, I heard for years ago, and she drowned, and a lot of people said drowning would be the worst way to go. And she, even though she loved the water, she always said that would be the worst way to go. But when she describes her drowning, she says it was very peaceful. She said that was that was a great way to go. And I've heard other people that have been killed in various ways, ways that we would think would be horrific. And these people seem to leave their bodies before we were before we see them in pain, and even people who seem to be suffering, that are unconscious in the hospital, that are moaning and groaning, will report after they've passed that they weren't in there when that was happening. It was just their bodies going that through that reaction. So if you I take comfort in what your experience was, but I would say for anybody else, if you're imagining that your loved ones suffered. I don't believe that's the case.

Mary D'agostino: 49:22

I agree Brian, I so agree with that. You know, in the in the readings that I've been able to do with others who've lost loved ones, I have never, ever known any spirit to come loved one to come and say that they remembered the suffering or they don't, it's it's gone. And I've had my own experience with with that years before Brandon passed, about understanding that our soul, our spirit, kind of, it leaves our body before we and we never remember that it's never, it's not something taken with us. And, you know, I, I'm going to say that this is interesting, because this is such a every time I do any of these promoting, or whatever we want to call it sharing, because I wrote a book and and I'm like, Really, it is my heart of heart. It's my soul. You know, it's my it's everything. It's my grief. It's all of it. But I really want others to know that they're, you know, that their their loved ones, did not suffer, that there is so much more that has occurred, that has happened. And if you can take a piece of this and use it to help yourself, then do it. And that's why I wrote it. It's not and but my own. So my son, when I did not know this, he the cause of death that they said was drowning. And even though I was told when he So, what you just said, even that, that just gave me more comfort, yeah, because when that he, he also had a fear of that, you know, and and so I kind of think he kind of, I don't know, but he was in the car, and it was in such a small amount of water, and the and right away they told me, I don't know, gave me comfort for a little while, but. He was in his seat, and he was upright, and he wasn't in the water. And I was like, oh, okay, that's good. Because the thing was, if I could have, if we could have gotten there sooner, if somebody saw it, it, he could have been saved, but he couldn't have right? No way. There's no way. So anyway, all of that wraps around the truth that our loved ones are not they don't suffer. They are taken right out there. He would, he was, I knew what he said too, because he would come in the house, or my house, and be like, I'm home, and I would hug him and and he would give me good hugs. And then he go see what was in the refrigerator that he could eat. So he spoke those words like, you fed me. Love you, you know, yeah, really, really amazing. Yeah,

Brian Smith: 52:29

that's awesome. So you had these intuitive abilities before he transitioned. Were you doing this work before he transitioned? Or did that start after

Mary D'agostino: 52:37

I was doing this work, mostly with intuitive counseling, intuitive soul coaching. For since, you know, since about 2000 or I started doing Reiki and learning Reiki, and it all felt so natural to me. So everything just kind of built upon itself. The Reiki helped me understand how I could I was reading people's energy, so I did a lot of Reiki, intuitive coaching, intuitive psychic, psychic, mostly helping people. A lot of helping people through transitions and change. And I always had could see and feel and sense people's loved ones in spirit, and they would pop in, you know, so wasn't like, I would say, Okay, we're only going to do mediumship, but they would def if needed, if the message they had for their loved one. While I was doing Reiki or I was doing an intuitive session, they would pop in. So the mediumship. And so I now do more mediumship, and I also do it. I do a little different things I do, like love notes from from your loved one in spirit, because my channeling has always been I write and channel. So I write and channel, I channel and write and channel and speak, but so I do some of that. But yeah, so now I do even more, because they're Brandon bring it brings me all these people. And he connected me with helping parents heal, he connected me with, oh, this amazing synchronicities of young men in spirit that these people just come to me through all different places, not just through helping parents heal, but through my community. And I see him them, and I feel them. And they're not all just young men, but the lot of them are young, like teens to maybe 30 year olds that I feel like they're in a club. And it's kind of like because Brandon was like that in life. He had lots and lots of friends, and everybody was invited, and he always so I connect with them, and they bring their moms and dads to me, and I'm like, Okay, I'm glad to help. Yeah, yeah,

Brian Smith: 55:12

yeah. So, so you mentioned a couple of the services you offer to people. What else do you do? And how do people how do people reach you?

Mary D'agostino: 55:21

Sure? Yeah. So I do the intuitive readings and mediumship, and I do soul coaching. I also do astrology, because I love I do intuitive astrology, so I'm I'm I'm very connected to the energy of the moon and the phases and and I think it has a lot to do right now with how we're evolving and opening to the our connection with the earth and our connection with each other, and our connection with the Higher Mind and the one heart it so astrology readings, and they're always attuned to healing, growth, simple, easy understanding of what is an astrology. It's I feel an astrology birth chart is a blueprint for your soul, okay? And that's how I read them and help people I do journaling, you know, different things with journaling and what else do I do? All of it is just woven into helping people connect and know who they are. Yeah. Remember, like Brandon said, you remembered love, but we forgot. And it's like, remember who you are. You are pure spirit, and you're having a human experience. And how, how do you live practically? Because I'm very practical and grounded in everything I do too, believe it or not, like this means nothing if it can't help you on your human journey, right? If it it to to heal and evolve and grow. So I, that's what I do. And I do, I still do Reiki, and I teach, I teach Reiki the all the levels. And I because, again, I want everyone to take little steps, big steps, in awakening their higher self, their wisdom, their inner knowing, and remember how powerful we are as beings of love, beings of that came here to help transform this planet. And goddess knows we need it right now. So I do that. That's what I do.

Brian Smith: 57:41

Yeah. So if you could, if you could get one message to people that are listening today, what's, what's the most important thing to take away from our conversation?

Mary D'agostino: 57:54

I feel that right now, it's coming through, is that it's so important right now to be very, very kind and gentle with yourself through all the things that you're being given to face, deal with, look at, walk through it. It matters so much that you can apply as much self love as possible. And if you don't know what that is, or can't get to it, reach out, because there are others to help you connect with just one person with you, Brian, all the your offerings with me, with whoever, but be kind and gentle, because we're and compassionate. Compassion is so important for self first, yeah, so that we can, because it's hard, it's rough, it's like there's lots and lots of changes happening.

Brian Smith: 58:57

I love that. Thank you for sharing that. You know, it's really important. I think, you know, again, we were taught. I was taught when I was a kid, you know, to love others before you love yourself. You know, we were taught. There was an acronym that we were taught in Sunday school, Jesus, others and you. So you love Jesus first, then others and then yourself. But what I've learned lately is that when Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself, that implies loving yourself first you have to love yourself before you can love your neighbor as yourself. And that's, I think, what's missing for a lot of people, because as we, as you said, As Brandon said, we have to remember who we are, and if we remember who we are, remember why we're here. That's, that's the that's the key to getting through this with as little pain as possible.

Mary D'agostino: 59:46

Yes, and, and I feel like things are happening exponentially with that, with the love. Like, if you just apply a little bit and shift a little like, you know, you're learning, wait, Jesus said that, but yeah, and that's a lot of people follow that. It's like, but how do I love myself? Mm, hmm. How do I do that? And just a little bit of that grows so huge, so quickly. And, and will guide you, guide you through? Yeah,

Brian Smith: 1:00:20

absolutely. So Mary, I remind people where they can reach you and remind people about the name of your book.

Mary D'agostino: 1:00:27

Sure. Okay, so I have a website and all my varied wonderful things that I do, and it's my name, so it's m, A, R, Y, D, A, G, O, S, T, I N, o.com, and my book, my latest book about Brandon and all the proceeds, I'm I have a foundation to help anyone who needs a bit of care package, if they're going through grief, if you know of anyone, send them to me. And it's the book is 111 days of divine intervention, a mother's healing journey. Yeah,

Brian Smith: 1:01:02

it's awesome, and thanks for sharing that with us today. So Mary, it was good to sit down with you and have this conversation. Thanks for being here. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Mary D'agostino: 1:01:12

Thank you. You too, Brian, thank you so much for having me. Thank you, everyone. Bye.