The Mental and Life-Curbing Antagonist

So I'm driving along to work this week when my guides pop in with an amazing message about the struggles of life.  When I unraveled this nugget, a huge revelation was made regarding the role of antagonism in our everyday perceptions.  When you're faced with challenges, how often do you feel like someone is outside of you pushing for your demise, or that there is always someone (or some thing) looking to enact Murphy's Law at your personal expense?  If you often feel that way, hopefully the following inspiration can help shine a light on the way OUT and into a much happier way of being.

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Here's what my spiritual team "downloaded" into me:

The idea of a constant block of force – a counteractive agent – is purely a psychological condition.  This stems from multiple factors; the two main contributors being a deep mass consciousness belief system adopted by humanity over time, the other being a representation of life through Hollywood and other entertainment providers.  That is, in any drama or story, there is a protagonist and an antagonist.  This supplies the framework which then gets projected onto the face of reality, for which one accepts as the “packaging” of existence. 

It’s a very old story of “hero versus villain,” which contributes to the mass consciousness factor.  In the old times, mankind was always at the mercy of “demons” or “forces of darkness.”  Catholicism played havoc with the notion of an angel on one shoulder, a devil on the other, and it was a constant battle between the two for the sanctity of one’s soul.  Generation after generation.  That’s a lot of belief and energy embedded in the human mass psychological structure.  But it is only a thought, a projection, a hard-core opinion which unfortunately was received as a truth of existence.  It’s not. 

The second component – entertainment – places the same motif within the framework of modernity.  That is, as stated, every hero or protagonist must have his or her opposite in order to make the story or drama exceptional and exciting – to keep the interest of the viewer.  The workings of Drama takes our plights and assigns them to a single person or organization; a simplistic approach taken out of necessity for the sake of time and storytelling.  The more we watch and get wrapped up in such storylines, the more our own subconscious begins to supplant a loving, acceptable reality with what our other senses are telling us from the repetitive viewing of such dramatic structure: reality must actually be this way.  What we forget is that Drama is symbolic and inspired by perceptions and thoughts of outside reality and not the creator of reality itself.  This amnesia is not something we are reminded about, however, as it would really hurt the bottom line of businesses worldwide, who wish to make you think their commercial is what reality would be like if you bought their product!  How easy it is for us to take entertainment’s depiction of reality and accept such a simple philosophy of protagonist/antagonist as being a fact of daily existence: my proactive life versus some force working against me.

The fact of the matter is, life is always growing, expanding, changing, and there has never been (nor will there ever be) an antagonist always looking and hoping to get in the way and foil our deeds.  That’s the truth – the reality which we must come to accept.  The universe and Spirit, from which we are birthed, is One and does not battle against anything.  It lives, loves, grows, and expands.  Anything to the contrary is simply a perception – for life continues regardless of obstacles.  Even “death” does not stop one from living and continuing on – it is simply a path and a journey which moves one into greater avenues of experience (in that case, death is a continuance of life’s AFFIRMATION – ironic, eh?).

When we view our world – in particularly our own goals – how often do we see them as mountains and struggles?  With obstacles we must overcome?  Perhaps we place such challenges in our way not because they are real, but because we believe they MUST be there, in order to match our psychological framework we have accepted: the consistent presence of antagonism.

This is not to say there will never be challenges or that there won’t be times when it appears things are conspiring against you.  However, the phrase “conspiring against you” is a psychological one – a clear sign of the Phantom Menace.  Perhaps – because Life is always expanding, growing, and Becoming more than it was before – such obstacles are not really obstacles, but CLUES that suggest the path to enlightenment, growth, and success, are not what you currently have in mind.  Taken from that vantage point, the obstacles are not obstacles at all; rather, they are the purveyors of success – wayfarers who cry out “don’t tread here – it does not contain the positive outcome you desire.  Our obstructionism is meant to help and guide, not hurt nor hinder.”

The universe is a loving universe.  It is LIFE AFFIRMING and LIFE GIVING.  Is there anything antagonizing or stopping the universe?  No.  Whenever there’s an obstruction – such as a concrete sidewalk atop the petals of a dandelion – the dandelion still finds a way around and out of the cracks, alighting into the brilliance of the sun.  That’s because it doesn’t know of a power trying to stop it; instead, it knows of a power that is helping it, as it directs it to find the crack in the cement and bloom skyward.  The cement itself isn’t challenging the dandelion to a duel, saying “I’m going to keep you under until you die”; no, it is simply saying “The path you seek is not here.  You belong and will grow better and much happier someplace else.” I assure you, the dandelion probably doesn’t take the blockage personally, which is what we are more apt to do when we feel there’s a fight happening with our “villain.”

Part of the antagonist philosophy also makes us believe (on some subconscious level) that whoever is playing the antagonist is laughing and living things up at our expense; that the antagonist delights in a perverse mockery of our struggles.  This contributes to taking losses so personally.  However, this, too, is an illusion, as the universe (for which you are a child of) has no rival.  The idea of a twisted maniac celebrating our demise is again a construction of artists and storytellers – not a truth of the universe; it is simply a philosophy which has grown into a belief system.  In the old days, it would have seemed fitting, as tribes warred against other tribes – life was a series of struggles and clashes between what appeared to be (and oftentimes were) consistent rivals.  But let’s face it – that was on a societal level.

On the base of a single individual and his or her life, there isn’t an archrival or nemesis wholly designed or birthed to counter one’s every move.  There is only the energy and drive of life and the universe – whose sole purpose is to expand and grow.  Whatever obstacles or challenges we encounter, we must do our best to acknowledge NOT as an obstruction laid on the path of our journey by some entity hell-bent on destroying us.  No.  We must examine the challenges and determine – in the light of a loving and expanding universe – if the challenges are meant to steer us in a greater direction, or if we have placed them there as the result of our inner psychological NEED for the appearance of an antagonist.  (If it’s in your belief system, you WILL create it).       

So – what’s stopping or blocking you?  It isn’t anything outside of yourself.  The universe (Spirit) is a loving and empowering force – the expansion of life and progress.  Perhaps your nemesis is only an angle of your own inner perception.  Perhaps obstacles – instead of being taken as the latest attempt by some Phantom Menace to derail your life – could be seen as a loving universe informing you “your best outcome will not be found here.  Don’t dwell on me, just use me as a sign.  I’m not here to destroy you, but rather empower you by showing you this is not the way.”  In that light, perhaps we should THANK our obstacles and move on, versus putting on our boxing gloves or reaching for the latest psychological weapon of self-defense and go to war.  If it’s not the greater universe, then it can only be yourself manifesting your own Phantom Menace. 

It’s only a psychological structure. 

Psychological structures can be changed.

There’s a phrase we use in offering advice to others we see struggling with certain issues: “You need to give yourself PERMISSION.”  That’s another clue of the inner Phantom Menace psychological structure.  How often do we apply that to ourselves?  No such nemesis really exists – it is simply our own thoughts.

When we set a goal, we oftentimes try to imagine what obstacles we must overcome – which in some cases, is automatically INSERTING the Phantom Menace!  Now, there’s nothing wrong with trying to determine where the most work might be needed for success, but more work does not mean “arch rival pounding against me.” How self-critical and judgmental can we be with ourselves, eh? 

When you were born into the world, there was not another being born at the same time whose sole life mission was to challenge and obstruct you at every turn.  So don’t create that psychology for yourself.  Better yet, obliterate such thinking from your consciousness.  Life will feel much more expansive and certainly more inviting.

Information Processing and Retrieval

How do you receive the information from spirit?  This has been a recurring question over the years from those who have had private readings or watched mediumship being demonstrated on a public platform (whether the medium was myself or somebody else).  It’s a question which I – being the left-brained analytical kind of guy – have given a lot of examination to.  This post isn’t going to answer with the standard “It’s in the ‘clairs’ – clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience” – though those do play a part.  My goal has always been to understand it from a larger perspective, to which the “clairs” then break it down.  As with anything, this is an ongoing process, a continuous journey, and no doubt perceptions will change as new information is brought to light.  Here’s what I have learned so far.  Though this may sound simple (which it is), there’s still a lot to it.

 Intuition is the process for which messages come into the context of one’s consciousness.  By paying attention to the inner sensations brought about by intuition, one can become “in tune” with energies and information not perceived outside in the objective world, nor rationalized by the logical mind. 

Historically, the mind has been where most confusion and inner struggle has been fought when it comes to spiritual communication.  It is a losing battle.  On some level, the desire to receive clear messages from the Other Side speaks to the brain being able to decode the packets of information sent by those in spirit.  Though this is a true statement, the error is in perceiving the mind as having the primary functionality within this process.  In reality, the mind is not the one in charge; rather, it is subordinate to the intuitive self.   

Indeed, the mind does unravel the images, sounds, and feelings which are piped through the intuitive self, but it is not in the focus of the mind where these ingredients originate.  Intuition goes much further than the brain and encompasses the aura and subtle bodies – something quite outside the scope of the physical matter lodged inside our skulls. 

When approaching readings, one needs to “get out of the head” for it is “in the head” where he or she most likely spends the bulk of one’s time navigating the jungles of time and space in the here and now objective world.  Thus, normal everyday “in the head” focus must, to a certain degree, be abandoned in order to “tune in” to other energies.  The shift is to move out of reliance on the brain and onto the reliance of the intuitive self. 

Intuition requires an entirely different set of faculties to be engaged than simply thinking and wandering around inside the mind.  Intuition connects you with the environment; it reaches out into the subtle vibrations and energies coursing around and through you.  And when one can focus their awareness into their intuition, the door to these other realities can be cracked open and engaged.

“What does my intuition tell me?” is an excellent way to move your mind out of its role of supremacy and into an act of service.  “What does my intuition tell me?” moves your awareness off your physical senses and onto the many senses inherent within the complexity of the intuitive self.  “What does my intuition tell me?” drives your observation off the chatter of the physical mind and into the eternal abode of cosmic consciousness.

It is incredibly difficult to rationalize psychic occurrences because they originate from intuition – a form of perception and communication not well understood by anyone in the 21^st century.  We may discover that we can never pin it down or understand it from a left-brained perspective, for the simple fact that it may be inherently much greater than what logic can comprehend.  The brain loves to use logic like a microscope so as to have a better understanding of things – for if we have a better understanding we can have better odds at controlling whatever it is we are examining.   Unfortunately, intuition may be much larger than what the left-brain can comprehend, thus the notion of control is too far out of reach.  Nay, it may be completely impossible.   

But just because we do not understand it does not mean it isn’t real or that it doesn’t have value.  What we do know is that information outside the normal channels of perception happens – this has been documented time and again.  We know it’s not coming from the jello inside our heads, but from sources outside coming in or by us going outside the body to bring the information back – again, leaving the physical brain behind.  As psychics and mediums, we recognize intuition as being much larger than our minds, though we must trust our minds to be able to process it to the best of our abilities so that our normal consciousness can gain some sort of comprehension. 

But it all starts with intuition. 

And not the brain.

Communicating with Spirits, Part 2

The Greater Picture, The Larger Act of Awareness

Two weeks ago I talked about how, when we take into account 7 billion people on the planet, and how many of those people right now are receiving information from the deceased friends and relatives in spirit, as well as spirit guides, demonstrates that spirit communication is a natural and normal part of our existence in the physical world.

So what does this all mean in the bigger picture?

By the very nature of these interactions, spirits are demonstrating that they desire to communicate with us; that we are not alone and we do not need to fall prey to the limited visions of material existence.  Their messages, unanimously, all speak to the same meaning:  we as spirits are here, we love you, and we can help you – provided that it doesn’t derail you from your own purposes being alive on the earth.  This is in sharp contrast to what we have been told traditionally from fearful ideologies.

The point to all this is simple:  Spirits are co-existing with us.  Granted, while our focus is here in the material world, theirs is focused in the spiritual.  Nevertheless, they interpenetrate this realm all the time, based on the statistics of people interacting and encountering them.  And chances are likely, we interpenetrate their realm, too, if given the proper belief system, knowledge, and conditions.  It is not “foreign” nor is it “wrong” or “against nature.”  It is actually part of nature’s design.  We co-exist with many dimensions – this is a scientific fact. 

Are we supposed to be communicating between the “veils”?  Actually … Yes.  In fact, it’s vitally important that we do.  We are here to experience the breadth of our souls, and part of that magnificence is our ability to transcend the physicality of what we are experiencing in the material world.  In order to learn our lessons, as well as help others learn theirs, we are given the capabilities to engage in this communication to bring forth the guidance and information we sometimes cannot get from the observable, material world.  Especially in a world where love is in lack – it is spirit’s greatest goal to show us that no such lack exists; that the universe is primarily a loving universe, and through love – positivity – we will prevail through our lessons and continue to heighten our souls to our greatest possibilities and potentials.  After all, we were spirit first, and then human … Not the other way around.

The spirits will not harm us; nor will they take over our lives.  On the contrary, they are wanting to help us live better, happier lives ourselves, fulfilled in the knowledge that the greater we become at being a loving, creative spiritual expression, the more it benefits others and combines to create healing and success to so many people, transforming the earthly experience to be a grand state of livelihood in comparison to what it has been in the past.

Historically, such communication was seen to have dire consequences by various superstitious ideologies – repudiation, ridicule, and ultimate death as a “witch.”  So long as the facts remain of people’s own personal experiences with receiving communications (no matter how sparse) from deceased loved ones or angels, then it cannot be denied that such forces are indeed interacting with us, and that we have the ability to receive and understand their communications, given proper conditions.  In addition, so long as traditional books refer to “prophets” or other types of religious people receiving “inspiration” or other angelic visitations (and many of these people were considered “normal” people having a divine experience), then the notion of conversing with “the devil” must be tossed aside as rickety architecture of fear.  Again, spirit isn’t trying to control us or our reality (that would take up too much time and energy and deny the purpose of their own existence), they simply want to help us – as no doubt, we would want to help our loved ones once we have traversed the bridge of death and realized communication back to earth was possible. 

It is time to wash away those belief systems and ways of thinking that deny this.  It is time to ignore and toss out belief systems that say “It isn’t natural.”  Nonsense -- utter nonsense.  It is natural; it is normal -- It was meant-to-be.

Tell yourself – remind yourself often – that you communicate easily with spirit; that it was meant to be from the beginning of humanity’s emergence into the physical realm; it is a part of our core being and heritage.  Don’t ask of yourself “Why cannot I communicate?”  Instead you should be asking “How could I not communicate?  It was meant to be!”  Again we are spirit first and then human.  It’s all about where we choose to place our focus, and hence our energy, creating an environment that makes communication conducive and expectant. 

When it comes to linking with spirit, all you have to do is ask and then BE AWARE.  Trust your senses (which is sometimes easier said than done, I know).  When the time is RIGHT, when the energy and conditions are appropriate, spirit will be there with the messages they wish to convey.  It is what they have been doing for centuries.  No doubt, we will be doing the same thing when we hit the Other Side – reaching back and sending messages to our loved ones still on earth.  It’s going on all over the place RIGHT NOW across this planet.  Accept it and embrace it.  Become a part of it.

Communicating with Spirits - It's Natural! Part 1

There is a belief system out there – maybe it’s one you’ve had or you know of someone who has it – that says “if spirits are real, isn’t it unnatural for them to be interacting with us?”  In other words, if there is a spirit realm and an earth realm, doesn’t it stand to reason that because they are separate places of existence that one should not be able to effectively interact with the other?  Almost like some kind of rule that says if you live in environment “A” you should not be able to communicate with environment “B”? 

It’s a belief system that has been passed down to us through the generations.  On one hand, we ask for God or angels or some other heavenly beings to impress the earthly environment to help us out when we pray, but on the other hand, we also hear “talking to spirits is not right.”  In the past (and even today) it is sometimes viewed as witchcraft or leaving one’s self open to communing with Satan if one wishes to “talk to dead people.”  Here, we get the usual sound-bites “You’re not talking to a deceased person – it’s the devil in disguise.”  What I find interesting is that those who usually make that declaration hardly have the qualitative knowledge to know such things, as they lack any experience or breadth of study in spirit communication since their own belief system keeps them totally isolated and sterilized from it. 

Nevertheless, to say that because one is living in environment “A” and should not be allowed to communicate with someone in environment “B” is like saying you can’t have two people in two different rooms of a house talk to each through an open doorway or some other intercom system … or even through the wall itself.  When we really take a closer look at it, living environments are for the expression and expansion of experience, but that doesn’t negate the ability to communicate with others in different rooms.  In fact, as I hope to demonstrate through this first of two posts, it is not only common, it is natural for communication to take place – and quite possibly, was meant to happen.

Let’s face it, when looking through the annals of history -- with stories of divine intervention, ghosts, portents revealed by deceased relatives (and these are by sane, normal, rational people) -- it is clear that spirits interpenetrate the physical realm all the time.  Quite frankly, this functionality has been a part of reality since the beginning and is considered a natural part of existence in many indigenous cultures. 

We must recall that we are spirits having a human experience.  Due to a bit of effort (intention), we have brought our awareness into this physical dimension, yet our home is really the spiritual realm.  We condition our awareness to be present in this earthly domain for the purposes it yields, in terms of growth and expansion.  Yet this does not negate that we still have parts of our soul in connection to our homeland, and are therefore co-existent with that original dimension.  This grants us continued access to it; the functionality needed to engage in cross-dimensional communication.

When we incarnate into the earthly sphere, we have asked several of our friends left in spirit to help us along in our intentions for being here.  These helpers are spirit guides, angels, whatever you would like to call them.  That we have asked them to assist goes to show that they have the ability to interpenetrate into this realm in order to do their requested tasks – otherwise, our requests for their help would be useless.  In “testing” these helpers (as many of us who are on this type of spiritual path have done), they have demonstrated that they 1) Can communicate via the mind with verification occurring in the objective world outside imagination; 2) Can orchestrate physical events that work in sending a message; 3) Can protect us from harm by either mental instruction or actual physical intervention.  This demonstrates the ability that spirit is meant to be able to interpenetrate – it is not “abnormal” or otherwise “illegal.”  Let’s face it, if they weren’t meant to, they wouldn’t be able to, nor would we ask for their assistance to interpenetrate on our behalf.  On some level, we know this interaction is capable of occurring – and that it is all right.    

Now, this interpenetration is not 24/7 for each individual, for we are here in the flesh for a reason and they are simply here to assist – not to live their lives focused in this world, nor doing our personal bidding.  (If they were to be so focused, they would have incarnated themselves and given us a chain to hold them with).  This does not mean they do not spend chunks of time interacting or that they are not meant to have the ability to interact – or that we are not meant to have the same interaction back into their realm with them. 

When you factor in the notion that everyone has at least 1 or 2 spirit helpers (and usually quite a few more), and that when people are aware of them, greater communication commences … this becomes a loud roar that signals spirit having the right and ability to interpenetrate naturally and organically into the environment.  Though I may not be getting messages from my spirit helpers at this very moment (it isn’t necessary), that doesn’t mean spirit isn’t acting on somebody else’s benefit right now.  On a planet with 7 billion people, guaranteed, millions of spirits are right now sending thoughts, messages, and doing work to orchestrate their alliance with people living here.  And these are just the spirit guides!  But imagine that interaction happening right now … All over the planet …

Now, let’s take into account those friends and relatives who have died -- another level of spiritual “populace” in conjunction with guides and angels.  Many people often feel their lost loved ones nearby after they have passed.  Many claim to talk to them in dreams or receive psychic communication from them.  Moreover, in many cases, these deceased loved ones have demonstrated interpenetration by apporting objects and also making complex events happen in the objective “out-there” world to the benefit of people still here.  Now, add that to the work being done by people’s spirit guides and helpers across the planet at this very moment … Millions of people are getting messages from their lost loved ones in so many different ways … Millions are getting inspiration and messages from their spirit guides, too.  Cross-dimensional communication and interpenetration is happening all the time.

Spirit is interacting with us constantly.  Naturally.  It is not paranormal, it is normal.

This is all supposed to be happening.  It is a natural part of existence and reality. 

Part Two: The Greater Picture, The Larger Act of Awareness

Training, Books, and Presentations … Welcome to Spring!

 

 

It’s been awhile since I last posted and several of you have been wondering “What’s happened?” The simple answer: Busting my a--, heh heh.

As always, I am working on developing my mediumship abilities. Part of that work was taking some amazing training with internationally renowned medium Lisa Williams. The bestselling author and host of the former television show Life Among the Dead really put me back to square one with examining, redefining, and then re-igniting the mediumship flame. It started as a four-week online course complete with homework that really took me back to the nuts-and-bolts of communicating with the Other Side and how that communication takes place.

At the end of the four weeks, I and my fellow classmates from around the world (about 40 of us) all gathered together in Los Angeles for a full weekend intensive with Lisa. The finale of the course was doing two separate one-on-one readings for members of the general public who she had invited. Throughout the weekend, Lisa was taking notes on each of us – grading us like a proper instructor – and then had the general public grade us as well! Can you say “Pressure”? (Fortunately, I PASSED!)

To say the weekend was intense would be an understatement. First off, to be accepted into the course, we had to submit an application and hope our credentials as practicing mediums were enough to be accepted. When I arrived in L.A., I was excited, but when class officially got started – I was terrified! Here I was, sitting in a room filled with other practicing mediums who had already proven themselves simply through the application process and I was going to be graded by one of the top mediums in the business. I know I was not the only one feeling like a fish out of water, but there’s always a part of you that says “Really? Me? Do I really belong here?” As the weekend progressed, this fear diminished, but I have no shame in admitting – I had a couple panic attacks at the beginning!

By the time Sunday came and we were scheduled to do the readings with the public, everyone had bonded as a group and our initial fears had subsided. We all were going through the proverbial boot-camp together … and surviving.

Lisa was incredible – not only as an instructor, but as a down-to-earth human being in addition to being a medium. She understood and honored our fears and doubts (and moments of lunacy) that we all experience in doing this work, especially within the intensity of the environment we were training in.

Indeed, one of the great take-aways from that weekend was the realization that everyone – all 40 students and our instructor – never competed or felt that we needed to ultimately prove ourselves to one another. There wasn’t one of us that felt we had to “outdo” or “outperform” a fellow medium for the sake of our personal ego.

In the end, the course simply wasn’t another workshop, it was a literal journey of discovery. Lisa’s compassion and authenticity continues to carry forward in many different ways for each of her students -- and I am delighted to return to Los Angeles come October to get more training. I am also excited to see that many of my fellow mediums from this original class will be returning as well! It will be a grand family reunion!

Back here at home, I have taken what I’ve learned and acted on it – booking more public demonstrations and private home groups, with more to come in the next several months.

But … I am not done yet. I have also begun putting together the marketing and promotion for my next book The Afterlife Interviews, Volume I, due out this August. The book is the culmination of nearly 2 years of research where I conducted fourteen separate readings and asked the spirits who came through for my clients the same fifty-two questions about the nature of the Other Side. The result is a huge well-rounded portrait of what the afterlife is like from those who reside there. This has been such a huge project that it equally deserves a huge marketing and promotional effort, which is another reason why I have been so silent in my blog. The Afterlife Interviews is going to be nationwide (and potentially international), so it requires a lot of focus and attention leading up to its launch.  All this right on the heels of my first book Your Magical Soul receiving a silver medal in the 2012 Nautilus Awards in the Science and Cosmology category (previous Nautilus winners include Gregg Braden, Caroline Myss, and Deepak Chopra) as well as being one out of three finalists for the Body/Mind/Spirit category for the Benjamin Franklin award. 

Along with the continuation of the Explorers of Consciousness radio show and the NW Mediumship Association, other classes (and gasp) regular day-job, I am one busy cookie! And then on the heels of The Afterlife Interviews will be my first fiction novel, The Resurrection of Osiris. Whew! To make all of this happen, I have had to push “pause” on doing individual one-on-one readings and paranormal investigations. However, if people are interested in receiving a one-on-one reading, I am creating a waiting list which I will jump on as soon as time opens up.

So if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been silent in the blogosphere, this is it! Training, books, presentations … With more to come!

‘Til next time!

A Tool for Developing Energy Awareness

As many of you know, I am always on the look-out for stretching my senses. After all, I can only get better in my work as a medium by becoming more aware and being present with whatever might be floating around in the environment.

How do you do that, you might ask?

A fun little gadget from yester-year is actually playing a tremendous part. Remember those plasma balls that came out back in the 1980’s? They contain a coil which shoots arcs of electricity out to the globe’s surface. When you touch the ball, the arcs amp up and coalesce at the point where you touched the glass. What makes them interesting is that they shoot huge amounts of electromagnetic frequency beyond the globe’s casing – we discovered this while doing an experiment during a Washington State Ghost Society investigation. Using an EMF detector, we found that the energy of the plasma ball can be directed by someone touching the glass and then raising their other arm. In other words, a person can act as a conduit for the ball’s energy and “throw it” in various directions which the EMF detector is able to measure.

One evening while talking about this with WSGS president, Dave King, we decided to see how sensitive the human detector could be. We turned the ball on and hovered our hands over it. It was very easy to feel the pulsing of the field at just a few inches from the surface. Then we stepped back several feet and raised our hands toward the device. Slowly, we walked toward it. Amazingly, I was able to detect the field at a whopping 5 to 7 feet away!

Intrigued by these results, I went and bought one for myself to try at home.

First, I held my palms out, facing the plasma ball at a distance of about 12 feet away – then slowly walked toward it. This was all about being more sensitive to outside energy, so I paid really close attention to what I was feeling inside and outside my body. What ended up happening was that I felt a subtle tingling on my palms. It is so very slight, but noticeable. Then, as I get closer, I could feel “pressure” on my hands and my abdomen. By the time I was three feet away, the focus of the energy coursing through my body was so intense, my hands felt like they were being pricked by hundreds of needles. It was absolutely amazing!

In continuing to practice this exercise, I have extended my range of awareness with the ball’s energy another 2 to 3 feet, so now I can feel it at 10 or 11 feet away. I have also done the same experiment with the ball turned “off,” just to make sure I wasn’t messing with my own mind. Eyes opened or closed, with enough focus, I could feel that energy field at a great distance.

Will this help in my work as a medium? Only time will tell. But it does reveal that with enough awareness and focus, energy fields can be detected by the human organism – and what is Spirit if not another form of energy? Already they do affect my physical body in the course of a link. If I can become even more sensitive to their energy, I potentially can become even more aware of the detailed messages they wish to convey.

It’s all about becoming the best conduit I can be.

If you are interested in working on your own sensitivities to energy, I highly recommend the plasma ball. It demonstrates – once again – that energy can exist beyond what you see and that you can tune into it!

‘Til next time,

The Face, Love, and Strength of a Spirit Guide

A couple of weeks ago I found myself shaking a fist and really giving my guides the third degree. I felt they had challenged me one too many times with a result I truly didn’t care for. Oftentimes, we don’t understand why our guides move us in certain directions or allow certain things to happen; but it is always in retrospect that we gain the perspective of truth about such enigmatic circumstances and then forgive, engrain the lesson, and move on. Part of that process for me a few weeks ago was to declare to my spiritual advisors that they were going to have to do something pretty extraordinary to convince me of their strength, love, and sincerity for what I had gone through. I didn’t tell them what they had to do, just that they needed to do something pretty impressive to convince me they really cared. (Yes, it was one of those dark times which tests your faith).

The answer came through the night of Development Circle, a few hours after I had made my demand. We were doing an exercise called “Transfiguration.” In this exercise, you pair up with a partner and stare at each other in extremely low light while opening up to spirit. The objective is that spirit will come over your partner and begin to change his or her facial features to where you can somewhat see the face of the spirit objectively. We were doing the exercise twice, and had already completed the first round with great success and were excited for the second session.

For about ten minutes, each of us sat with our partner in silence and just looked at the other’s face. One set of partners sat in a completely different room, as we have a member who uses Skype on the computer to participate in the circle, since she lives in Portland, Oregon.

Immediately, my partner appeared as one of my lead guides, who I have seen objectively on many occasions, the first time when I was 15-years-old. He appears as a medicine man from an aboriginal tribe, with face makeup and jewelry. His bright eyes gleamed back at me during the session, and he smiled widely, expressing his love and telling me clairaudiently how proud he was of my development. He expressed that it was okay for me to have been angry at what had happened earlier and had anticipated the outburst, and that the lesson was being learned (and truth be told, I had already been given insight to the lesson a day beforehand). Then my partner’s face darkened, but lit back up with the face of another one of my guides, with curly hair, high cheek bones, and British accent (again, clairaudient). I was surprised they had showed up to be the spirits my partner became.

The real shocker was when the session was over and we all got back together to share our experiences. I held off on revealing who I had seen – because everyone was talking about seeing the same aborigine male with the painted face! Even Penny, our member from Portland, mentioned seeing him during the session. Wow! My spirit guide really came through on my demands. He appeared to 7 out of 8 members of my Development Circle, all within the same round and across literally hundreds of miles. It was unmistakable and truly amazing.

Sometimes we might take our guides for granted, or are completely unaware of just how much they do care about us, and what they are willing to do to make themselves known. It was an incredible moment of humility and gratitude to realize the amount of energy, intent, and orchestration to make it all happen; to appear to each member at the same time, with one member being geographically far away – all to say “We are here, we love you, and are proud of you.”

I cannot tell you how many times my guides have proven themselves to me (and on occasion, to others as well) -- and not by doing simple things, but by doing stuff that is truly remarkable. It just goes to show that we are loved, cared for, and guided to truly realize what it is great in the universe and inside ourselves by incredible helpers who reside in the land of eternity, unbound by Time and Space. Their love is unlimited – especially after putting up with me for so many decades arguing and disagreeing with them. (The score to date in who wins the arguments: Jeffrey=0. Guides=10000. Go figure).

Never doubt your Spirit Guides. They won’t let you down and they do truly care about you.

Feel free to challenge them – Just be prepared for the response. It will oftentimes astound you.

‘Til next time,

(If you’re interested in meeting your own Spirit Guide and are also interested in mediumship, be sure to come to the next NW Mediumship Association gathering in April. See Events tab for details).

The Busting of the Ego and a Return to the Platform

Spirit introduced me to platform work back in 2003. What is platform work, you ask? This is when the medium plucks people from the audience and gives them a reading. If you’ve seen John Edward or James Van Praagh do a “gallery”-style performance, that’s what it is. When I first began doing them, I was always terrified that nothing would happen. I would get panic attacks and worry that people would find me a fool. Fortunately, this ultimately wasn’t the case and excellent information did come through, but the more I did them, the more difficult they became, and I was doing them on a monthly basis. Finally, unwilling to take the anxiety attacks anymore and struggling to get information from the Other Side, I stepped down from platform demonstrations in 2007 and re-morphed my public services into private home settings, which didn’t necessarily have me connect with the deceased, but allowed me to simply be “psychic” (which is oftentimes easier than being mediumistic).

The new groups helped. I would still get anxious, but most of the time that anxiety would disappear after the first or second reading; and the crowd was considerably smaller. I continued to bring through messages from spirit, but it wasn’t as overwhelming, and I could jump out of being a medium and work strictly on a psychic level if I chose to.

But that’s what happens when you’re green.

For the last few years I have pounded the pavement in trying to develop, learn more, and define my mediumship. I have devoured scores of books on mediums and mediumship, as well as taken (finally) some actual courses which were able to give me much needed direction and explanation. This work has broken down a lot of barriers I didn’t know I had.

The main obstacle, of course, was my EGO. This has been the hardest to tackle, but looking back now on all the anxiety and stress before a service, this has been the culprit. When one worries about whether or not spirit will come through, what they are really worried about is looking foolish – which I was concerned about. Well, that isn’t looking out for spirit and spirit’s inspiration, that’s looking out for number one – the ego. “What if I’m wrong? What if I’m wrong? How will I look?” Yes, that is a natural thought, but if one clings to it as consistently as I did, then it becomes a HUGE distraction and disruption to the process of communicating with spirit. Even more so, if you’re also worried about how the sitter is going to respond to the information you bring through (“Will the information make me look like a fool”), that too is a distraction that will block the flow from spirit.

Pretty much what it all boiled down to wasn’t a lack of trust from spirit; it was more about how I was going to appear to my audience. It wasn’t until I finally started to let go of ME and simply watch out for what was being brought through did my readings really take off. Do I give stellar readings every time now? No, nobody ever does, but the quality of my readings and how I feel going into them has certainly changed.

Case in point: I did my first platform in over 5 years on February 4^th at the Venus Moon in Renton. There was close to 40 people in the audience – the largest group to date (before then, my largest audience was 30). Before, when I had no real formal training and was “fending for myself” I would have been freaking out hours before the event started. But on this night, I was completely calm and relaxed. Not even that, I was excited! I knew, so long as I got out of my own way and gave my mind over to spirit, everything would be fine. And it was! I connected with 8 or 9 different people in the audience, with excellent information from spirit – including names, personal characteristics of the deceased, information surrounding how they passed, and much more, lasting for just over an hour in the demonstration. The only distraction I had was an ongoing fire or medical emergency, as ambulances and fire trucks were screaming by the building with sirens blaring. Nevertheless, I remained committed to being a vessel for spirit and spirit came through.

When it was over, a part of me felt a bit cheated. My mind was so used to viewing platform demonstrations as being stressful and frightening, yet that night it was the exact opposite. Part of me had been waiting for the sense of “work” which the spectre of fear used to bring, but it never came. I had zero fear, and spirit came through without problems. A member of my development circle who attended said I was “inspiring.” What a gift! (And she stood up and made a connection herself, which was equally a joy to witness!) I would love to have compared that demonstration with my last platform in ’07. I bet they would have been light-years apart in terms of quality and style.

So now I am committed to returning to the platform. Spirit has amazing messages to give and they are inspiring me to give them. I am always curious these days to hear what incredible details a person’s relative comes through with that is so unique and expressive that it screams “I’m really here!”

When it comes to doing the work of spirit, there is no room for the ego. As I heard a few years ago (and what has led me on my quest to dissolving it), the word EGO stands for Edging God Out. That is so right. As a medium, I am here to serve spirit, not myself. As a medium, spirit’s messages serve the client, and I can’t be the judge of what that information is, I can only deliver it with as much compassion and love as I can.

There are a lot of messages out there. I look forward to bringing them to the platform as I continue my work and my development throughout the year.

Hope to see you there!

Raising Your Vibration and Expanding the Aura

So what does it mean to “raise your vibration” and “expand your aura”? It’s something we hear about a lot when it comes to psychic and mediumship development; yet when you ask people “how do you do it”, you really don’t get a straight answer.

I had a friend ask me this question and few weeks ago. After I pondered the response, I wrote it down and said to myself: Other people have got to be asking this same question. So I decided to blog about it!

Okay … Here goes:

Believe it or not, the process of raising vibration and expanding the aura is a natural by-product of meditation. Our left-brains like to parcel things out into bite-size bits so we can look at them individually, therefore it is easy to perceive them as separate events when they are the natural growth process of letting go and quieting the mind and body.

Typically, we think of meditation as slowing down and being still, which is counterintuitive to “speeding up and raising vibration and expansion.” In terms of shutting off the monkey mind, the idea of slowing down and being quiet is an accurate description. But what happens when we shut down the monkey mind is that it allows the rest of our consciousness to be free.

When we run around in our heads with the left-brain, we actually keep our auras very close to our body; in other words, we are wrapped up in ourselves because we are so busy processing in our heads. At that point, we don’t acknowledge much beyond our beings because that’s not where our focus is. But when we let go of the chattering head, it allows our consciousness to become more receptive, and it is at that moment – when we begin to open up – that the aura starts to expand. Of course, a little intention helps, but letting go and quieting the chattering mind releases the restraints on the aura and it will begin to grow naturally. This is why “meditation” and “sitting for spirit” (two phrases which really mean the same thing, at least to me) is so important in wanting to become more attuned and aware.

The other aspect of this – raising vibration – happens in a similar fashion. Now, you might think that in raising vibration you should feel something vastly different from your “normal” vibration -- like you’re sitting there and all of a sudden you should feel like you have a rocket pack strapped to your back. Sorry to say, this doesn’t happen. But when you reach a good meditative state and with enough awareness, you can actually feel a rapid pulsation go up and down the core of your body through your chakras that is about double the speed of your heart rate, and you will also notice your breathing is smooth and equal, in terms of time spent inhaling and time spent exhaling. This pulsation, now that I think about it, does extend to your skin, too, as I have felt a buzzing sensation across my epidermis during these moments of awareness.

However, if you don’t feel this rapid pulsation, that doesn’t mean you haven’t raised your vibration, it just means that you haven’t got an awareness of it just yet. That may take time. You might not have fine-tuned your sensitivity of discerning the different energies/feelings surrounding the body yet. That’s okay. With enough practice, you’ll get there. And you won’t feel it every time you meditate, but you will from time-to-time. If, after sitting in meditation, you feel more open, relaxed, and as if you are no longer confined to the sense of a “box around your being,” then you have raised your vibration. In changing your state from being “frenetic, chatty, running around in a maze” to being “relaxed, open, peaceful, freeing” you have changed your vibration. Changing your state of mind and feeling of your body is a changing of vibration and frequency.

Sometimes, it can be as simple as thinking more positive, uplifting thoughts. If those thoughts create more positive feelings, then you have raised your vibration (and most likely expanded your aura, too).

And, of course, you can go in with intent while meditating: “Lift higher, lift higher, lift higher” or “raise vibration, raise vibration, raise vibration.” Once you make the intent, you have to then let go and let it happen – don’t chase after it like you’re chasing a butterfly. That just confounds things. Let it happen naturally, because it really does happen naturally on its own. Like I said, if you feel lighter and more freer after the meditation, you have successfully raised your vibration. If you feel you have more energy after meditation, you have raised your vibration. If you feel more balanced instead of lopsided and heavy, you have raised your vibration.

Also, don’t think that the level of vibration of which you are wishing to reach is so distant from your normal vibration; it’s not like you are traversing a football field – it is subtle and slight. The trick is learning to know when you are in it and becoming sensitive to the information that gets transmitted in that zone. It’s really not a huge gap. Plus, when you reach that state, that doesn’t necessarily mean an individual spirit communicator is going to step right in and start delivering information. You can raise vibration and be in the space of spirit – you can feel their presence, you know they are there – but you may not get anything more. That’s fine. A spirit communicator may not wish to communicate, for they feel there is really nothing of great importance to convey at the moment. What’s important is that you are in the space. When the time is right and when a message is necessary to give, a communicator will come in. And with practice, you will be able to “fine-tune” your vibration – stay in it with consistency – and raise it even a little higher. This, so we all believe, will allow either more or “different” information to come from spirit.

The trick is shutting off the left-brain and your ego because the two LOVE to run things; they love to control, identify, and create definition based on your personal beliefs and biases. Yes, we must identify the information which comes to us through the vibration and aura, but our left-brains and egos also try to imbue stuff with our own personal meaning. As mediums, it’s not our job to determine what something means; our job is simply to deliver the information as we get it. We don’t always have to understand it – because 9 times out of 10, we’ll get the meaning wrong when the recipient knows exactly what is being transmitted. Admittedly, I think this is the hardest part of development. I’ve heard and learned to categorize the EGO as “(E)dging (G)od (O)ut.” We must learn to ignore our personal biases and the brain’s need to label things and just pay attention to what is popping into our consciousness from spirit and then deliver only that. Spirit will, if they can, imbue the impressions with their own meaning so you don’t have to. But we cannot judge what they are giving us; we can only deliver it to the recipient.

Have a great week!

2012 - A Paradigm Shift?

For decades we have been hearing this talk of a paradigm shift in consciousness; that a big sweeping revolution is going to cross the globe and affect everybody energetically, consciously, spiritually – at least that’s how I have interpreted this conversation – and people will all of a sudden wake up, as if night has suddenly turned into day. And with the onset of the Mayan “prophecy” this year, this notion has become closely wedded with the December 21^st date and become the focal point for when this shift will occur. Unfortunately, I think those people who are holding out on this event are going to wake up on December 22^nd very disappointed.

On a planet with 7 billion people, 7 billion minds, and 7 billion different points of view (and growing), in order for this type of paradigm shift to occur, it would require something so incredibly powerful and miraculous, it would be beyond our comprehension. Judging by our march through history as a species, shifts in consciousness do not happen overnight – they are quite gradual and filled with plenty of upheaval. The closest example that we can relate to is the Renaissance, and in no way did that shift from ideology-based wisdom to free thinking and science occur within the course of a single generation, it took several generations with a backdrop of events stretching back millenniums -- and it still hasn’t shifted the whole planet even today. There are still large numbers of people who have entangled themselves with archaic old-world belief systems and dogma; they are firmly entrenched in them; and as the planet becomes more and more populated, the larger those populations will also become – the more people you have to deal with.

We have this idea that a paradigm shift is going to radically change how people will think, act, and at last, world-peace will prevail (or at least be closer at hand). It’s a beautiful thought, until we realize mass consciousness cannot make that leap overnight – with a real good possibility that it will NEVER make a decisive shift in that direction for the very reason of why people incarnate on earth in the first place: to be the fullest expression of universal consciousness and LEARN LESSONS to become all that we can be, as a being of consciousness. Think about what it would be like if we all started to think and believe in the same way, it would become far too limiting for people’s paths and inhibit their free god-given ability to learn the lessons they have chosen to incarnate to learn in the fashion they feel they need to learn them. Some people NEED DRAMA in order to learn their lessons. That’s their choice. In other words, a world without all the different points-of-view which we currently have may actually be a world with Less Creative Expression for a soul to learn in. If mass consciousness were to all of a sudden align itself in one particular direction like atoms in a laser beam, think how that would actually inhibit spiritual growth and expression versus having all of these other oftentimes contradictory points-of-view.

Ultimately, what we are hoping for in a paradigm shift is a change in thinking because we believe it will lead to a change in behaviors – to be more loving rather than destructive and divisive. But we all know, we cannot make other people think differently … We can’t go into a person’s mind and switch their gears for them. We can only inspire them. They have to make that mental consciousness shift themselves – we call it Free Will. We CAN force them to change behavior through intimidation – we see that all the time – but even then, though behavior might be different, the thoughts might still be the same old thoughts someone has always had. We cannot change how other people think, we can only change how WE think and WE behave. In this sense, the only kind of paradigm shift that will occur will not come from something outside people’s consciousness sweeping in and giving them a huge all-of-a-sudden “aha” moment, it will be something they experience and come up with inside themselves. The only way a true paradigm shift will occur is if we can apply the wisdom of Gandhi: Be the change you want to see in the world.

About the only outside influence that could quickly change the way we treat each other on planet earth would be something catastrophic – something that forces us to unite. I’m thinking a planet-destroying asteroid, alien invasion, or pandemic plague.

Outside of that, spirit, consciousness, needs the varying viewpoints and philosophies in order to allow the growth of souls to become all that is possible. Our challenge is to learn to embrace these differences with unconditional love and understand that everything in the universe is not here by chance or coincidence; the universe works with mathematical precision, therefore, what we see in today’s world is supposed to be happening. If we believe that the main goal or lesson in life is to learn how to love, how can we learn that lesson? Only by encountering those things which will challenge us to find that kernel, that gem, and expand from it. That is going to require these challenges we face. We may not agree with what others may think and are doing, but that is because that is not our path, it is theirs, and they are simply learning their individual lessons and becoming all that the nature of spirit can be from that unique perspective. And, yes, we often cross the line in trying to force a shift upon one another to move in different directions – this is the game-plan in learning our life-lessons. You can’t learn them from sitting on a couch; you have to engage.

My prediction for the future: We will continue to evolve. Evolution is a constant. But it occurs in baby-steps. I don’t think anything is going to come sweeping in and kick that evolution into overdrive in such a way that we go from 10 mph to 120, in terms of consciousness expansion across the globe. Can we reach universal peace and brotherhood on earth? Yes, but it won’t come easily nor swiftly.

Some say the reason there are so many people on the earth at this time is because of this massive, quick, evolutionary leap. I don’t. I think it’s because we have made it a biological imperative to have a family, as it has been for millennia, and so we consciously and spiritually ask and welcome more souls to come in, in order to fulfill this imperative and “standard life design.” Standard life design: get married and have children. It has nothing to do with paradigm shifting consciousness. Especially when it appears everything is quite unorganized and chaotic. Watching the news, I don’t see a movement toward consciousness shifting any time soon. I see life engaging and going on as it has been for centuries. Riots are not new. Civil wars are not new. Overthrowing and trompling dictators is not new. Ghadafi could have been the reincarnated Louis XVI for all we know. We are doing the same things we have always done.

The notion of paradigm shifting into a new form of higher consciousness is a holdover from biblical times and Revelations – “We’re right on the cusp of it. The end is nigh!” They thought that back in the 900s at the turn of that millennium, then the late 16 & 1700s when Newton had an apple knock his noggin; they thought that back in the 1800s with the advent of materialist science; around the same time, the spiritualists were advocating it when the Fox Sisters became famous and parapsychology was birthed; they thought it again in the 1930s when ESP became all the rage thanks to J.B. Rhine’s scientific research; then again in the 60s with flower power; and in the 80s with the New Age movement; and when we switched the clocks 12 years ago. It’s always been with us. It’s a social, societal, mental habit, but not necessarily a realistic outcome to expect.

There are reasons why we engage in this habit … which I don’t have time to talk about here. Nevertheless, it does have to do with our recognition of our eternal consciousness and connection to all things and trying to grasp at that omnipotence within this current environment of time and space, multidimensionality, and multiple probabilities. It ain’t easy, folks … And you know what, we make it that way on purpose.

A paradigm shift will not occur TO other people without their choosing; it will occur only within the individual who desires it – and it requires no special date on the calendar to do so. So those that are espousing a paradigm shift will either experience one for themselves and not see it happen with their neighbor – because the neighbor is too caught up with paying the bills and seeing the kids off to school – or they will start to see their neighbor acting differently and will think “That’s weird. What’s up with them?” and not notice any abnormal changes within themselves. It won’t be this big switch from night to day without any form of conscious choice.