Spooky season a busy time for Gem State Medium Liz Rivera

IDAHO FALLS — As summer melts into fall and the calendar turns to October, those who have passed out of this life are on a lot of peoples’ minds. That means Liz Rivera of Idaho Falls has a lot going on this time of year.

Rivera, who goes by the title of The Gem State Medium, helps people out with paranormal situations they may be experiencing in their homes or businesses. She does so because she has a very unique gift: she says she can talk to the spirits of the dead.

It’s an ability Rivera believes she has had since she was a child.

“I started seeing ghosts when I was a kid and it never went away,” Rivera told EastIdahoNews.com. “I didn’t know it was called ‘being a medium’ back then. It wasn’t until later in life that I realized that if you’re a medium, you see dead people.”

Rivera said the first time she ever saw a ghost occurred when she was nine years old and woke up one night to see an apparition walking down the stairs in her home.

“I was terrified and didn’t know what to do with (her ability),” she said. “This was back in the 70s, so there weren’t TV shows and it wasn’t widely talked about like it is now. So I was pretty terrified for a long time and was kind of on my own with it.”

While Rivera’s experiences were hand-waved away at first, she soon found that people around her were coming to her for help with their own paranormal incidents.

“Friends would share with their friends and word of mouth (got around) and pretty soon, people were coming to me and asking me questions,” she said. “Over the years, people have asked me ‘Can you come over and see if there’s somebody here, all these weird things are happening.’ Or ‘Could you come to my work, this place seems to be haunted.’ So I started doing walk-throughs.”

“I finally decided I was just going to come out and tell everybody that I see ghosts and that I’m a medium,” she added. “It’s just blown up that way.”

Rivera’s job is pretty simple: communicating with spirits and helping the living understand and deal with uncomfortable paranormal situations.

“I see ghosts and communicate with ghosts,” she said. “Passing messages to loved ones on this side. Helping those who are in a location, a home or a business, making sure it’s safe and (the ghosts) aren’t going to harm anybody. Things like that. My job would be to hopefully help both the living and the dead.”

As time has rolled by, mediums have become more visible and widely accepted in our society, thanks to popular movies and television shows. Rivera said that has made it easier for people who’ve experienced a haunting to come forward.

“The more the paranormal shows investigate the other side, there are little bits of confirmation that it’s real,” she said. “Those shows have made it less scary, less taboo, so people are more willing to get ahold of you and not think you’re a total nutcase.”

With the dead and ghosts on everyone’s minds this time of year, Rivera says the spooky season keeps her hopping.

“People want the spookiness and they just like the idea of haunted anything and to be a little bit closer to it,” she said. “I wish it was more like that all year round because (ghosts) are always here. But it definitely picks up this time of year, as far as wanting to go into a haunted location.”

For more information about Liz Rivera, the Gem State Medium, or to see events she has upcoming, visit the Gem State Medium Facebook page or check out her Youtube channel.