Although on the stranger side of things, psychic medium Seth Michael isn’t afraid to admit that sometimes goats haunt him. Yes, you read that right; cute little goats haunt the psychic! However, they don’t haunt him in a bad way. Aside from being a psychic medium, Michael is also a spiritual advisor. He says the spirits of deceased dogs and cats with strong bonds with their owners come to him.
It is often cats and dogs, but there have been a few occasions when even stranger spirits have visited him. I was reading human spirits in the office once, and there was this goat there,” he says, smiling. “It was just standing there, chewing.” He knew it was bizarre, so he didn’t want to mention it initially. However, when it stayed there for a long time, he decided to go ahead and bring it up.
“It turns out they used to have a goat that lived inside the house,” he says. As strange as a goat spirit is, it isn’t the only weird animal he’s interacted with within the spirit world. “So, another time,” Michael says shyly, “I’m doing a reading on human spirits when suddenly I see a hamster in a ball rolling through the room. And I told the person about it, and she remembered she used to have a hamster that would run around in a ball like that.”
The woman he was giving a reading to was named Cyndi Ridenhour, and she remembers the pet vividly even though she was just a little girl at the time. She remembers being slightly traumatized when she found the hamster’s body after their cat killed it. “And there it was again, apparently rolling around with us there,” says Ridenhour.
Several Of Ridenhour’s Pets Have Made An Appearance
The hamster wasn’t her only pet whose spirit came through, though. Her Siamese cat named Nipps appeared at a separate group reading that Michael conducted at Ridenhour’s home. “My cat I got when I was 19 and single. He was very special to me,” says Ridenhour. “A coyote got him after he got out.” Although Nipps is long gone, Ridenhour still senses and feels that she often sees him hanging out with her in the house.
“I would see him out of the corner of my eye, and one time I thought I saw his tail, walking into the bathroom,” she says. “ I finally said something about it to my son Cameron. He replied, ‘Oh my God! I see him all the time too!’ “ Nipps isn’t shy and doesn’t try to hide at all; he’s out there and wants the world to know. Once at a group reading, Jyl Straub, Michael’s girlfriend, took pictures while the group got their reading, and after she photographed an armchair, she looked at Ridenhour with surprise.
“She said, ‘Did you lose a pet?’ And I looked at the photo, and there he was,” said Ridenhour. The chair was empty, but the photo showed a gray figure shaped like a cat on one of the armrests. “Siamese cats, they’re like dogs; they don’t leave your side,” says Ridenhour. “He was my baby, and I’m not surprised he’s still around. That picture, though, and Seth having those other animals come through- it’s so sweet that they stay with you like that. Some of the stuff he gets is hard to deny.”
Michael Agrees These Things Can Be Too Weird To Seem True
46-year-old Michael isn’t afraid to admit that even he is skeptical of what he sees. Therefore, whenever he gets a weird visitor, he tries to get as much confirmation as possible. “When that stuff happens, we’re focused on one thing, and something else comes in. Where does that come from?” Michael asks himself. “I’m not sure, but I’m not smart enough to make up a goat and a hamster. That’s just too funny,” he adds.
It’s a bit of a mystery to him why the spirits of some animals come back sometimes. “It doesn’t matter what or who it is – if there’s a strong enough emotional connection, anything can come back,” he says. “My dog comes back every once in a while, and you can feel the energy.” Michael has a customer named Brittny Houghton who consults him anytime her dogs pass away.
She likes to get information from him and feels comforted whenever she sees him. She had an Akita named Bernie, who passed away in July, and she consulted Michael about it as soon as she could see him. “I have a hard time letting him go,” Houghton said, and she started to tear up. “His bed is still in the same place. I still talk to him sometimes. This dog, I helped deliver him. I helped bring him into this world.”
Human And Animal Spirits Have Their Differences
Michael says that animal spirits communicate differently than human spirits. He states that human spirits often speak to him, but animal spirits mostly communicate through feelings and images. “He’s giving off this,” Michael says, taking a minute to concentrate. “He wants you to feel like he’s still part of the family. You have two dogs, right? It feels like one is about to start using his bed.” Houghton begins laughing when he says that. “Oh my God, Seth!” she said, bouncing around in her seat.
“My two other dogs would never go in Bernie’s bed, and just this past week, Jojo started trying to sleep there.” Michael’s face is all scrunched up. “What was green?” he asks. She smiles, “His food dish was green, and half his bed is green,” she replies. Houghton doesn’t only consult Michael when her pets pass away but also when her friends’ pets do. She once called Michael after her friend Garrett’s dog died to see if there were any messages he could pass along to them.
“He told me, ‘Garrett’s dog wants him to get another dog,’ “ Houghton said, laughing. Michael doesn’t just believe every feeling or vision that comes to him without verifying why he might be seeing these things during a reading. Therefore, he refers to himself as an “evidential medium.” “It’s important for us to get as many details as possible,” he says. “None of this is cut and dry, and I think it’s important to have a bit of skepticism but still be open.”
Most Of The Spirits That Contact Michael Just Need Help
For the most part, Michael is never scared while talking to spirits, but now and then, while doing house cleansings, he does get something “darker” that comes through to him. Michael states that most spirits he encounters are just lost or confused people looking for help to cross over. For this purpose, he has a group he works with to assist spirits in doing just that. After finishing a reading, he leaves, remembering only bits and pieces of what just happened.
“Psychic amnesia, it’s called,” Michael says. “I remember some things, and then it’s like a slippery slope.” As part of his preparation, when he knows he’s about to give a reading, he puts himself through a mental transition. “It’s a little complicated to describe,” he says. “I can’t pinpoint the circumstances when it comes to me. If I’m going to a reading, I sort of get myself ready to be open.”
Sometimes, random spirits will contact him during a reading and ask him to please deliver a message to a loved one for them. He particularly remembers one instance when an in-law who committed suicide asked him to give Houghton a message for them. “In the middle of the night, Seth told me what was going on – nicknames we had, favorite songs, and things like that,” says Houghton.
“He found her on the other side, and she was completely confused at what she had done. He didn’t know me at all back then, we had only recently met, and he was telling me all these things.” The woman was having a hard time crossing over to the other side and found Michael, who helped her find her way and deliver messages to Houghton and other family members she had.
What’s It Like When A Pet Spirit Comes To Him?
According to Michael, since pets don’t speak, it’s different with them. They can still send emotional messages and communicate different feelings, though. However, not all species do this in the same way. “You know how people, we have a sense of ourselves? It’s not the same with dogs. They’re kind of in the moment,” says Michael.
He also adds, with a laugh, that, on the other hand, cats do have more of a sense of self. Michael believes that if animals have spirits or souls that stay behind even when they have passed on, they do. “Perhaps they come back, reincarnate,” he says. “There’s the theory that we keep coming back with the same people every time, and it may be the same for pets.”
He also believes that sometimes, as seen in Bernie’s case, the spirits of family pets stick around to assist their owners or even other pets in the household in getting accustomed to life without them. “I see Bernie sitting there all regal but with his tongue hanging out to the side like a goof,” Michael says as he passes his arm in the area where he feels Bernie’s energy the most.
“He’s got a big head. Huge,” Houghton says while laughing. Houghton does not doubt that Michael is the real deal, and she says that reaching out to a faithful companion like that gives her closure and a sense of relief. “It’s so comforting because it’s such a devastating loss,” she says. “Dogs, they love you. They’re your best friend, and knowing they’re OK is awesome.”
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