#257 Mediumship, Soul Contracts, and Paranormal Investigations with Danielle Worthen Cullumber

Host Johnny Burke interviews Danielle Worthen Cullumber, a paranormal investigator, psychic medium, clinical social worker, and founder of Willow Medella Wellness, about blending trauma therapy with mind-body-spirit healing. Danielle describes realizing her mediumship at 19 through precognitive and lucid dreams, then deepening it after a post-death dream conversation with an aunt who died by suicide, followed by ongoing communications with other family members. She discusses suicide stigma, observing loved ones’ continued growth “across the veil,” and experiencing “soul contracts,” especially after multiple family deaths in 2019 that intensified her gifts and led her to holistic spiritual support. Danielle recounts witnessing “welcoming parties” during transitions, differentiates earthbound spirits from crossed-over visitors, and explains astral travel and dream states. She co-founded Rocky Mountain Utah Paranormal in 2007, emphasizing ethical investigations, trauma awareness, and decolonizing historical narratives, and shares ways anyone can notice signs from deceased loved ones.

00:00 Meet Danielle Worthen Cullumber

00:36 Early Mediumship Signs

03:17 Aunt Visit Lucid Dream

05:46 Suicide Afterlife Healing

08:10 Soul Contracts Awakening

11:59 Paranormal Social Worker

13:08 Hospice Welcoming Party

14:47 Joining Investigations Team

17:09 Trauma Energy In Spaces

20:02 Ethics And Boundaries

22:02 Earthbound Vs Crossed

24:08 Astral Travel And Dreams

25:37 Bridging Science And Spirit

27:10 Signs From Loved Ones

29:21 Key Lessons And Farewell 

https://www.willowmedelawellness.com/

Transcript

Johnny Burke 0:01

Welcome to Closer to Venus. I'm Johnny Burke, and today's guest is Danielle Worthen Columber. She is a paranormal investigator, psychic medium, clinical social worker, and founder of Willow Medella Wellness. In this episode, we'll discuss how she developed her mediumship as well as how she employs her mediumship and paranormal investigations. Danielle, welcome to the program.

Danniel Cullumber 0:26

Thank you for having me.

Johnny Burke 0:28

So, speaking of mediumship, when did you first notice it?

Danniel Cullumber 0:32

I became aware of it when I was 19. I actually had a dream that actually played out after having such a dream. It honestly freaked me out. It's like, what's going on? How is that possible? I had always enjoyed ghost stories and wanted to go ghost hunting. I was always had that love for the macabre kind of thing. And with my birth being so close to Halloween, it just fit together. My mediumship actually started coming in when I started noticing more of these dreams that I was having coming true. And started noticing things that I couldn't explain as a child. Because I saw things when I was a child, but I chalked it up to just an active imagination like anybody else. I started noticing that I would have these thoughts, like random while driving, you know, how we kind of zone out. I wonder about this. I literally would think about something like something happening in the media. And within a day, I would get information about it or about that person. And I started reading books from Sylvie Brown, John Edwards to start with, and it just built from there. And I started realizing that I was finding patterns in what they were talking about that I was experiencing.

Johnny Burke 1:54

When you read books by Sylvia Brown and others, you noticed the same things that they were experiencing.

Danniel Cullumber 2:00

Similar or people they had talked to. So because I loved ghost stories as well, I would ring Holtz, he was a famous original paranormal investigator back in the day, he'd have a second medium named Sid, and she would go into trances, and they would use that actually in their investigations, and he would record what she said when she was in a trance with the spirit of wherever the haunting was. And I was like, this is so cool. I want to do that. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

Johnny Burke 2:32

Now you mentioned something about dreams a moment ago. That's where you got the first inclination that you had some skills. Did you make the connection between the dream world and the spirit world? Or was that maybe a little bit later in your development?

Danniel Cullumber 2:47

It was later in my development because in 1998, my daughter was born in October, and I have an aunt who struggled with mental illness that we weren't aware of, and she had a lot of trauma history. But she was my favorite aunt. She was the closest in age to me because I was the oldest grandchild. I had wanted her to meet my daughter. Last time I saw my aunt was on Halloween, ironically. And I had just given birth three weeks before, so I wasn't bringing my daughter at such a young age at that time to a party. Two days after Christmas, my aunt passed away from suicide. It shattered me. And I had so many questions. I'm like, why? We had our funeral on New Year's Eve, and I went to bed, and the next morning in the pre-dawn hours, I was going into one of my dreams, and there all of a sudden there's my aunt. And I just thought I was just dreamy because I missed her, but we ended up having a conversation, and I was like, oh my gosh, this if this is real, I was still questioning if it was real. I was like, if this is real, I'm gonna ask the hard question. I actually got to ask her why.

Johnny Burke 4:01

Okay, so that experience it seems like you were aware you were dreaming. Is that true?

Danniel Cullumber 4:08

In a matter of speaking, because you know how sometimes when we wake up and we go back to sleep and we're in that in-between state where we're both conscious of it, and when you start kind of going into dream, but you still had control of it, I was in that state.

Johnny Burke 4:21

That's a lucid dream though, right?

Danniel Cullumber 4:23

Yeah, it's a very lucid dream. And I've been having lucid dreams since I was a child, so this was not unusual. But this was the first time I had a dead relative that I'm aware of that I had a conversation with, and she actually told me why. And her answer actually surprised me. Her answer was Danielle, I don't know why then and I don't know why now. And I was like, okay. And after that, my aunt actually became more active in communicating paranormally to me and kind of giving me clues along the way, so she never stopped talking to me.

Johnny Burke 4:59

This is one of the um questions that is really hard for us to talk about. But one of the, I believe, possible misconceptions about religious teachings is that when someone commits suicide, they go to hell, they're damned. And from what I've noticed from conversations like this, is that it's not necessarily true. Do you get the feeling that your aunt is in a good place now?

Danniel Cullumber 5:25

Oh, yeah. I actually watched her evolve positively, just like anybody else. So when you're in a dark space, and I'm not talking about like in a purgatory necessarily anything. When we're in mental and emotionally in a dark place, we're gonna lose that vibrationally anyways. And as she helped me, it helped her. And she grew energetically and emotionally and cognitively.

Johnny Burke 5:53

And this is across the veil, obviously. This is after the fact.

Danniel Cullumber 5:56

And she's not the only p family member that has passed away from suicide that I've had. Her younger brother passed away a few years later. Same situation. My family struggles with bipolar and personality disorders, and I even talked to my uncle, and he's notorious for playing tricks on me, so I have him moving things and teasing me. Unfortunately, my younger brother also passed away from suicide. Actually, the anniversary is this month, June of 2019, he passed away. He struggled mental illness. That is not who he was, and it was just something that happens as part of the symptomologies that happen with it. But it did not help me emotionally and spiritually because I was a trauma therapist and I I couldn't prevent helping my own family members. It's it's a situational thing.

Johnny Burke 6:50

It's a case by case thing, I would imagine. Have you any experience with past lives where in that life between lives space where a lot of the soul agreements and soul families agree on what role they're gonna play?

Danniel Cullumber 7:05

You just gave me chills with that question. Because what actually happened in 2019, I had four family members die in a matter of nine months. Of course, my brother was among them. And what I had discovered was with each one passing, they were completing a soul contract, and they were supposed to support me. And my gifts got so strong and so huge that I was like, okay, the reading of the books, watching second kids isn't gonna cut it anymore. It literally was like, I need some support because I was a closeted medium. I was like, there has to be more. I gotta work on me spiritually. So I ended up being guided, I would say, to a holistic group. And I met a whole bunch of other people like me, but with different gifts, different abilities. And I had always wanted to do social work and therapy in the paranormal world because I already was a ghost hunter that I was going to support people in that way. What I didn't know was they were also setting me up to meet my second husband.

Johnny Burke 8:10

Your family had a part in this.

Danniel Cullumber 8:12

Yes. So the soul contract was we had to fulfill this part so you could do this part. But there was an interesting caveat with soul contracts I found out. My father, who passed away a year ago last September, he too had a soul contract with me. Had no idea until he passed away. He had actually came to visit me the day before he started to transition. And he was telling me he was tired, and I didn't realize that he actually decided to stay here on this side for three years just to make sure I was okay. He also was able to help me see things that I would have missed out if he'd passed before then.

Johnny Burke 8:55

Okay, so let's talk about the sole contract. I don't have any doubt because I've heard this so many times that this happens, but how did you discover specifically, was it when you were in a certain type of space where your family members told you what the agreement was, or was it telepathic? Was it a download? How did that happen?

Danniel Cullumber 9:16

It actually came in different formats. In fact, it had been also other people who had gifts. Because my my family members can talk to me, but sometimes it's just kind of nice to have another voice to talk to. So another person that had mediumship would talk to me. Once they mentioned something, I'd get like a download of the awareness in this holistic group because I had access to so many people that had different gifts and their healing process. I also got to tap into their awarenesses because one of my gifts is I can kind of tune into vibrations of what people are going through. So it's one of my gifts also as a therapist. I can actually look at somebody before I actually do the actual diagnostic to prove what they're going through. I may not know their story, I may not know their background, but my awareness of certain mental health illnesses or even physical elements, I can pick up in my mediumship and my psychic abilities.

Johnny Burke 10:17

You know what that reminds me of? People like you that have that skill that work in hospice, and they can basically see the welcoming party literally. Most likely in their mind's eye. Sometimes they get all the Claire's and they can see it too, and they can see the welcoming party there to greet the person as they pass.

Danniel Cullumber 10:38

I've actually been on that receiving end when they were transitioning, and I actually was picking up on the welcoming party.

Johnny Burke 10:46

Oh, so you've seen it.

Danniel Cullumber 10:48

Yeah, I think the first time I saw it was my grandfather, my mom's father. This is before my uncle passed away from his suicide. He came to visit, and I saw the half-form of a woman. I described her skirt and everything, and I explained, I told my grandmother, and she goes, Oh, I think that's my mother-in-law. And I never met her because she'd passed away before he did, but it would make sense why she was there for her son. In fact, it was the first time I actually had a conversation about my great-grandmother, who was from Germany, and how she was and who she was. And I was like, I got to know family members that had passed over that I never had a relationship with on this side.

Johnny Burke 11:24

And you never met them.

Danniel Cullumber 11:25

Right. I watched my former father-in-law's own father transition. I was literally was watching the beeps, and I watched his wife stand up and go, she goes, I can't do this. And she walked out. I looked up at the thing, I saw the fly line, and I literally watched with my own eyes, not with my gifts, I actually watched the silhouette of white form of legs following his wife out. I went, That is cool. I got so excited, just watched a man that I had a great relationship with just transition. His grandson, who was my husband at the time, go, This is it. He was confused. And I hear him all excited, and he's having an existential crisis at that very moment. I was like, talk about a day and night experience.

Johnny Burke 12:08

That's pretty incredible, but it wasn't scary though. No. No. So let's talk about how you got involved in paranormal investigations. How did that work?

Danniel Cullumber 12:19

So I as I said, I had always loved ghost hunting. I literally had been studying this since I was in junior high. In fact, while I was reading, that's how I actually got my first paranormal attack from something. And it scared me pretty badly, I will be honest. But I had been reading on how to do it, w the what not to do. As I said, Holtz was like old school. What they used to do during the spiritual movement, I was just learning everything and anything. And then one day, shortly after my son was born in 2006, so it was almost 2007 when this happened, I saw an ad in the paper where they were inviting potential paranormal investigators to join a team. And I'm glad I reached out because the woman I talked to actually was trying to promote it, but then she was actually leaving that group because they weren't being ethical. So she had founded the paranormal group, Rocky Mountain Utah Paranormal. I joined as the historian because I had done so much reading, especially local folklore and history, that I had a lot of information at my fingertips because I was such a bergworm. And the next thing I know, because we'd worked so well, she made me the co-founder. So I became the co-founder of Rocky Mountain Utah Paranormal back in 2007. And we started traveling, investigating, and we were actually in Utah the first nonprofit licensed with the Department of Commerce in Utah. So we were trying to do everything ethical and clean because so many of the shows out there were actually causing harm because it was all about that propaganda. You do this to get a reaction. I was also learning that people were having trauma responses during during investigations and after investigations because these people would come in, cause a problem by either disrupting the ecosystem in the home, taunting the spirits.

Johnny Burke 14:22

Not a good idea.

Danniel Cullumber 14:23

Yeah. Or even dismissing and not pathologizing the experiences and accusing them of having mental illness of those people that were having these experiences. I was a guest panel speaker on at FearCon here in Utah pre-COVID, and I was talking about energy that's even left in the rafters and stuff from people building buildings, not just the land and everything. But I was talking about the trauma that people were experiencing. They didn't have coping skills. And that was one of the issues that I was seeing was when you aren't able to regulate, how are you supposed to help yourself, let alone something paranormal when you don't feel like you have control?

Johnny Burke 15:01

It sounds like when there is trauma in a space, that energy can be left behind.

Danniel Cullumber 15:07

Yeah. We all have intuition because we call it our sixth sense, like your gut instinct or anything. It's just refining it. And some people just know when a good deal's happening, they don't question it. They don't let the brain override the instinct or their awareness. So we can actually walk into a room and know there's been a fight without ever asking a question because it's like the energy is charged in the environment.

Johnny Burke 15:29

I got that idea from a woman I interviewed recently who uh is a medium like you, and she's from Poland, and there's certain areas that obviously experienced a lot of trauma, abuse. It's so thick. You can feel it.

Danniel Cullumber 15:44

Yeah, people have actually gotten sick from how dense and the energy. And yes, there's some people that are naturally sensitive to energy waves too, like EMF waves that come from electronics and things like that. It's our nervous system being a radio wave picking up this information. It's just how the frequency is tuned to it and how you work with it. It's just like anything else. And I was seeing this, and that was one of the my goals to work with therapy and paranormal together with trauma work over the years, was I was consistently seeing this gap of healing because it was either you get a diagnosis with let's say anxiety or depression, and you can go to the pharmaceutical route, put a band-aid on it, and that but you're still left with suicide ideations. And the problem is if you admit that you're having suicide ideations, you get labeled with all this stuff and you don't want help, or it's a weakness, the stigmas of our conditioning, even the colonized definitions of healing versus indigenous, wasn't even in the conversations yet. So what was happening as my gifts got stronger, I was actually able to talk to those of indigenous people, islanders of Hawaii, Pacific Islanders, to Native Americans who are here, all the way up to the I think it's the Alaskan natives there too. I don't want to be disrespectful and mispronounce their indigenous names, so I'll pause there because my dyslexia will override me faster than I can correct it.

Johnny Burke 17:13

Quick question. We're talking about trauma.

Danniel Cullumber 17:16

Yeah.

Johnny Burke 17:17

The mediumship and oddly enough, the paranormal. Is there a relationship to it?

Danniel Cullumber 17:22

With so many people c wanting to work on their self-spirituality, we're also seeing that people are not held accountable and aren't doing things ethically. The mediumship comes in where we're like going, I am gonna keep my boundaries and this is what I'm gonna work with because this is what I know and I am safe with this. But when you start going outside your scope of practice, even as a clinician or doctor or physical therapist to a reiki healer, then you're gonna cause harm. It can cause harm to you and the people you're working with. So the overlap is you have doctors who may be agnostic, they know when something's off. It could be actually a loved one or someone that's passed over the hospital from a similar thing, is prompting them to look at something. And that's where the paranormal crosses over is we're always getting information we're not aware of. When I'm aware that I'm getting information, I call it spirit because it's an umbrella term because I don't know where the source is coming from. Could be coming from collective, could be from a past life I may have had. To maybe I read something, I just forgot it. I have no idea. But if it's my own thoughts, I have more bias in it. But if it's spirit, it comes in quick and out of the blue.

Johnny Burke 18:31

You mentioned ethical concerns.

Danniel Cullumber 18:33

Oh, yeah.

Johnny Burke 18:34

With not only mediums but ghost hunters, paranormal investigators. It's my idea that a medium that is assisting in a paranormal investigation is gonna have a better understanding of how we interact with those that are either from across the veil or what we would call an earthbound ghost, right?

Danniel Cullumber 18:59

Yeah.

Johnny Burke 18:59

What have you seen in the difference between an earthbound spirit and one who is maybe visiting, who's already crossed over?

Danniel Cullumber 19:07

With earthbound ghosts, it's more they're in the lower plane, and that could be in more of our earth tone vibration where it's more dense. And they sometimes choose to be here. Sometimes the situation of their passing may happen so quickly they're not aware that they passed, or they also may have their own belief systems that created them to decide to stay here. And it could also be other entities when I say it can be a higher, lower vibration that's controlling it. So just like anybody else, we have free choice once we cross over. We're still parts of us. I heard this from another psychic medium, and I love that the term goes, we're all spirits walking around with our meat suits on. This is our space suit. I was like, yeah, that's a pretty good way to put it.

Johnny Burke 19:52

Can we assume that once someone dies that they can go to the light and cross over? It's not like anything is holding them back.

Danniel Cullumber 20:01

And that's a good question because I've had people who weren't sure if they saw it, or they were confused because I've actually came across spirits who had Alzheimer's and they were still confused. Like they're more worried about their loved ones, so they stayed behind to watch over them. Or maybe they felt so much guilt, they figured this was the best it's gonna be. Or maybe they didn't have a belief system, they're like, I don't know what to do next. They're still having that form of amnesia. But with the little bit they've told me, I've been putting pieces together.

Johnny Burke 20:33

These are spirits you're talking about.

Danniel Cullumber 20:35

And then it's still earthbound spirits too. Now, spirits that I've crossed over, those were the ones that like to visit me in dreams, and I've known that I'm astral traveling in my sleep because the colors will be brighter and more in focus, and I'll remember the details more. But then there's times where they'll superimpose into a dream. My father's done that, my uncle's done that, my aunt's done that. I've had a lot of deceased past clients and residents that I worked with over the years. Visit me like that.

Johnny Burke 21:01

In the dream.

Danniel Cullumber 21:02

In the dreams.

Johnny Burke 21:03

So you mentioned astral travel. Is there an overlap between astral travel and the dream world? Is it the same thing or is it something else?

Danniel Cullumber 21:14

This is just my lens, so there's no validity to back it up. So this I'm giving you from my perspective. I think it's all the same because when we astral travel, we can go to different worlds and different planes. We can get into that state even in meditation. So we're just raising our vibration and able to access things and be aware of things and observe things than we could differently.

Johnny Burke 21:37

Okay. Well, if it's your experience, then it's valid. It's not something you read in a book that's your lens.

Danniel Cullumber 21:43

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, pre kindergarten age, that I would literally fly around and see things through around Salt Lake. I even remember swimming in the oceans, seeing things, and I didn't know that I was actually traveling at that. Time because my parents would be driving somewhere and I would tell them exactly where things were, where we were going, how to get there. And and I know kids can learn patterns really fast, but this is for I've never been there. I'd show up and go, Oh, I've been here, and I would go A, B, and C. And this had nothing to do with at the time that I were of either that of a past life. I just recall it from dreaming about it. This is just me being a kid going, la la la, this is normal.

Johnny Burke 22:27

You developed into a medium, you did trauma work. Are you still doing that now?

Danniel Cullumber 22:32

Yes.

Johnny Burke 22:33

Okay, so you're doing that. Are you still involved in paranormal investigations?

Danniel Cullumber 22:37

Yes. In fact, I'm bridging the gap even with Willow Medella Wellness to do that. My goal is in the next year to start training potential paranormal investigators or people who just want to have a safe way to talk to their loved ones when they're not sure how to access it with their own gifts and want to prove it with scientific fact with equipment to back it up. I love to have evidence because evidence produces results and awareness and education. I want to do that because my husband and I last September went to Virginia City in Nevada, and we did a ghost hunting tour all over the town, and even uh the bed and breakfast we stayed at, it was notoriously haunted. And the history, we actually found out that the indigenous wanted their stories told, the miners wanted their story straight, and not just the surface level let's talk about the rich people and who settled this. One of my paranormal gifts goals, including my husband's as the medicine man, we call him because he works with me, is getting that story straight, decolonizing that narrative, telling what the spirits want to be told and want to be remembered.

Johnny Burke 23:51

Do you think that in the non-intuitive, no psychic ability, nothing like that, they're able to contact their loved ones that have passed on?

Danniel Cullumber 24:01

Oh yeah. Ask for a sign, but don't be a dick about it.

Johnny Burke 24:05

That was awesome. That's great.

Danniel Cullumber 24:06

Like my aunt I told you when she passed, she would leave me things in threes because I would see this pattern. I'm like, oh, it's her. Some people says butterflies, coins, feathers, birds. Mm my brother loves to send me butterflies. I saw a monarch butterfly out the bay window to the part where he passed away. And this poor butterfly was just floating there, just eating just staying straight. And I go, Yeah, I'll take care of the family. It's okay. And then once the butterfly was released, the poor thing was like, what just happened? It was the funniest thing I ever seen. During a moment of deep grief, I found joy and laughter in it. And that's the other thing is if it connects to songs, oh my gosh, these songs that come on the radio, they can align that.

Johnny Burke 24:55

Song that comes into your head though.

Danniel Cullumber 24:57

Exactly. So acknowledge it. Don't think that you have to just go to the cemetery to go there to visit. The reason you probably went to the cemetery, because they probably gave you an idea that was the connection. A lot of times they're just right there beside you. I have my father's ashes here downstairs. I have a picture of him in my office. And I it's not like I go around going, Oh, my dad's here. I know he's in multiple places at once. I know he's playing tricks on my stepmother. I also know that he's also played a trick on me when after he died. Literally, we walked into the house, I walked in the kitchen, and then I hear my husband go, Honey, where's your son's picture on the coffee table? I go, What are you talking about? He'd taken my son's picture off the wall, put it on the coffee table. And I knew why he did that, because my son was unable to say goodbye to him. And they were both okay with that. But he was just making a point because I'm aware. And I actually said, Dad, I love ya. Just because I can talk to you doesn't mean this doesn't creep me out. Please don't do that again.

Johnny Burke 25:51

With all your experience, what is the most important thing that you've learned about your mediumship, the spirit world, astral traveling, and that type of thing?

Danniel Cullumber 25:59

I think the most important thing is we are still human, regardless of wherever we are, we are who we are. So treat people with respect here, treat them with respect there. And another thing is trauma is its own ghost, it's its own abyss and sadness, and healing's possible here and even on the other side, wherever that is.

Johnny Burke 26:22

Healing is something that I think many of us can definitely use, either as individuals or as a collective, as in like here in the States. I'm not gonna go any farther than that, but I think you know what I'm talking about. Thanks for joining us tonight, Danielle. In the meantime, how can our listeners find you online?

Danniel Cullumber 26:39

Through my website at willow medello of wellness.com. Or you can contact me through my WhatsApp number at 1-801-906-3802.

Johnny Burke 26:52

You've been listening to Closer to Venus, I'm Johnny Burke. If you enjoyed tonight's episode, please consider subscribing. In the meantime, you can find more info on closer to Venus.com. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.