Secular exorcist Rachel Stavis has been able to view spiritual entities since childhood. Eight years ago she began helping unwitting hosts shed attachments and possessions through a form of energetic exorcism, in which she works with higher beings and spirits. In the first half, she discussed various cases and types of entities which torment, as well as methods to remove the attachments. Low-level spiritual attachments are bountiful, in fact as many as 85% of the population has had an entity or carries one now, she estimated.

Stavis can physically see a person's attached entities-- the smallest and most common of them she refers to as "Clives" (after Clive Barker drawings), and they work as amplifiers of negative or sad emotions. "Wraiths" are associated with night terrors and sleep paralysis and often attach to people who've been through sexual trauma, she said, adding that "Tricksters" sometimes pose as imaginary friends or deceased loved ones. "Realm Walkers," she continued, are the most dangerous of the entities and seek to possess people that can affect global change. She cited protection methods which make someone less susceptible to entities by raising their vibration. These include singing, burning certain types of incense like frankincense, connecting to higher spirit for at least 30 days in-a-row, or doing random acts of kindness.

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A reporter at the New York Times, John Leland wrote a yearlong series that became the basis for his book, "Happiness Is a Choice You Make." In the latter half, he detailed how the late stages of life can be unexpectedly rich and the elderly incomparably wise. He looked at the lives of a small group over the age of 85, "and none of the people that I followed," he explained, "defined themselves by whatever disabilities or lack they had. They all defined themselves by things they could still do." They weren't afraid of death itself, he noted, but feared a drawn out or painful death.

One of the paradoxes of old age is that for all the idealization of youth, people are actually happier when they get older, he said, citing a survey that showed those who are 80 are more content than people who are 20. "Older people see a short time in front of them so they will concentrate on things that are pleasing to them in the moment," Leland detailed, adding that in the group he studied, they tended to move the goalpost of what was unacceptable further away. For instance, they might think 'if I can't walk, what's the point?' but then if they reached that juncture, they would change their thinking to "if I can't sit up in a chair, what's the point?" During the last hour, many callers over the age of 85 shared their individual stories.

News segment guests: Andre Eggelletion, Dr. Peter Breggin, Steve Kates

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