Steve Irwin. An interview from the Afterlife, with Phil G

An extract of a recent "conversation" with Steve Irwin from the Afterlife. Full text on Phil G's "famous spirits" page.

(words in brackets are Phil's thoughts or questions)

I'm in a motel in Melb 30th Nov, 2009, laying down, ready to go to sleep, felt like someone was with me, wanting to talk. An image of Bindi, all the attention, the criticism for pushing her too hard, pops into my head.

“You've all got the wrong idea. We always made things larger than life. That's what she was so good at doing. Making things larger than life (Terri). We were already working on making Bindii larger than life. If you're going to do anything that causes change, if you're going to take millions of people and change their thinking to saving the world, the animals, if you have a cause, the only way you can take action, the only way you can achieve action, is by grabbing people's attention.

“You have to make things larger than life, and one of the ways of doing that is to take an extroverted child who loves the attention and put her right up there. She's not afraid. She's going to be a tough warrior. When she's older, she'll take on the critics and she'll nail them, nice as anything, but she'll nail them. You have to be. Have to be tough working with the media.

“No different to working with animals. (Laugh) You were going to say (type) 'dangerous animals' then! They're not dangerous animals. They're creatures. And you have to treat them with respect. You wouldn't like someone poking you around. Invading your home. What would you do? Try to defend yourself. You might even attack them. Are you being mean, vicious? No. you're just defending what's yours. They're trying to defend what's theirs.

(I was thinking of the accident...)

“It was just one of those things.

(Did you know it was the end?)

“Oh I knew the instant it happened. I knew. It was all over.

(Could you have avoided it?)

“Well I should have.

(What were you doing?)

“I was just looking. In my own way, I was just loving it (the stingray). I guess I just invaded it's space too much but I was just being 'one' with it. I wasn't really doing it for the show (camera), I was just enjoying being part of it's life. I must have scared it.

(Could you have avoided it?)

“Well, it's easy now you look back, but at the time, no. Done it before. You know yourself. You have a pet dog, and you know what you can and can't do with it, and one day, out of the blue, it does something unexpected, and it has a go at you. Doesn't mean you're going to put the dog, down, it's just one of those things.

(So are you happy with how she's taking care of things, (Terri) of how it's going?)

“I'm happy with how she's taking care of the family, but she's not really in control of the farm.

(The zoo? Why did you call it a farm?)

“A zoo is what people call it, a zoo is where you stick animals in – a freak show. This is like a farm to me, all my animals around me, and I look after them and love them. You grow them. Wasn't a zoo to me, never was. But you have to call it a zoo, people wouldn't come to a farm! .....

(So what of the future?)

“Well, I think Bindii needs to have a bit more growing up time. I think it's right if she takes things a little easier, grows and enjoys growing, comes out the other end as this beautiful teenager that's strong and tough, passionate and has a cause, is afraid of no one. Do great things.

“That's where I see this going. There's lot of things happening, lots of projects. Terri's got the right idea just to shield her a little bit. I think that's right.

(Steve, you first came to me and didn't want me to share anything publicly, as in specifically, when I was writing my first book, you didn't want anything in it about your visit. I tried to get that message to Terri. You must know what I'm doing now. Are you okay with me sharing these details?)

“Yes. I've seen how you work, and I've seen how you've treated both people in the spirit world, and people who are in a position of fame in the physical world, and I can see the respect and dignity you carry your work out with, so I am happy, and I trust you to share this appropriately.

(There must be a lot of other people around the world who are passionate about a cause.)

“That's true and maybe it's not animals, but if someone's passionate about what they want to say, then you need to try and say it.

(So for me, and anyone else, with a cause, you're saying “just keep going”?)

“Yes. I looked for the avenues to get ahead, but I wasn't obsessed by them. It was the reason for my day. I just kept trying to get my message across: that it's worth trying to save the animals. And the planet.

(So what do you think about all this carbon trading scheme?)

“That's a hard one. I think the Australian politicians, or at least the ones trying to push the emission's thing – their heart is in the right spot. They really are trying to do the right thing, and this meeting in Copenhagen, to be honest, all hell is going to break loose. There will be a lot of talk, and sadly, not quite as much action as some people would like. Defer things, but that's what always happens.

“Go back to the days of the industrial revolution, and think of England, and all the buildings were black from the soot, and it was even depicted in films and Walt Disney films, That wasn't just for ten years. That was decades. It was very obvious to so many people that they needed to change things. But how? They were using what was the most efficient method to produce energy (then), and the fact that it was polluting, and probably not making people terribly well, was secondary. I'm sure that had it's fair share of affecting the greenhouse gasses. But it takes a long time to change. If you go back in history, you'll see that took a long time to change. It took a lot of voices before action finally occurred.

“But action did finally occur, it did finally happen. But if you go back to the individual people at the time, there was hardship there. You take away a fairly efficient, cheap, reasonably way of making energy with coal, and try to make it clean, it becomes expensive. And that's what we're going through now. Go forward 50 or 100 years, and they'll look back at this, and wonder why we took so long deciding what to do, but they'll forget it took money, and it impacted on peoples lives in 2009, and it's not just about the change. It's scary, and people have to change their thinking, their equipment, the way you do things has to change. It's no different to the industrial revolution with coal. And we'll get there, but there will be a lot of heartfelt debate......

(You almost sound interested in politics.)

“No, I would never want to get into politics. Couldn't stand the Bull. But I do feel passionate about certain things, and that's why I was never afraid to stand up and talk about things, to talk to some of these people and tell them to do something.

(So if you were alive today, would you be involved in this emission's debate?)

“I would make my thoughts known.

(Is Terri?)

“No. No. That's not what she's about.

(You love her don't you. ( I can hear it in his voice)

“With all my heart. She knows I'm around. I spend all my days with her. She hears me and she knows I'm there. She holds my hand, and I hold hers, and I put mine over the top of hers. When she hugs, she feels me there. I give a hug back.

“I miss her.

For more information on contacting family in the afterlife yourself, go to philg.net.au.