Lessons

Almost every expectation about channeling I had was shot down within the first year. This wasn’t a bad thing, it was just what happened to me. Maybe, if you’re learning how to channel, something similar might happen to you too.

One of the things I thought was that my life from that moment forward would be safe. I’d be safe. The people around me would be safe. My guide would save me from harm.

What I didn’t understand then was about the lessons we all have to learn at a higher level, specifically from our higher selves. I’d never heard of a higher self. I thought it was just me. Well, once the guides had given me a larger picture of what goes on and this had also been confirmed in many of the books I was reading I began to better understand the phrase, “shit happens”. I also better understood about personal responsibility and personal choices.

I remember so much of my childhood and early adulthood was spent like a leaf floating on the surface of the sea. I’d be here, I’d be there, but none of it was through my own choice, it was just me being swept this way or that. This lead directly toward the idea of it wasn’t my fault, it was somebody else’s fault, it didn’t involve me because I didn’t choose it; stuff like that.

I got over these ideas in a hurry that first year I learned how to channel.

So, here it is in a nutshell: you are not a victim. No matter what is happening to you, you are not a victim. You can change your life. You really can. Everything that happens to you happens because you made a conscious choice or your higher self stepped in (I still wonder at that) and decided it was time for you to move onto the next lesson because you weren’t getting there fast enough.

My advice? Pay attention. Stop blaming others for the stuff that happens to you. Move forward out of the mire of self blame, of whining, of despair, of hate. Doing this is going to involve a whole lot of soul searching and perhaps even some professional help. Go get a book about how to move through psychological and emotional growth.

If something shitty happens to you try and figure out what you’re supposed to learn. Higher selves aren’t always forthcoming with those sorts of answers although you are always welcome to ask them via a quiet meditative state, asking them directly and waiting quietly for an answer which might come to you in a vision, in a dream later on that night, in a flash of understanding or in actual words in your head.

I believe that people are resilient, that they really can come away from a bad experience smelling like a rose.

Okay, practicalities. You were just let go. These days our economy really sucks and there are a lot of people who are being let go from their jobs. What can you learn from something like that? Something that is positive? So, maybe you were a hermit all tied up in your job. This will expose you to a lot of other people as you let your feet hit the road looking for new work. Maybe it’s time for a change in career? Maybe it’s time for you to learn about flipping burgers instead of crunching numbers. You’re going to be bringing a lot of talent to a new job. You’ll obviously need to cut back on expenses. We’re a nation of over-consumers. Make a move to bare minimums and enjoy it. Always try to be optimistic. You’re always going to find something good if you look hard enough.

This is an opportunity for you to get to know the passengers on the bus line instead of being the only one in your car zipping here and there. This is an opportunity for you to conserve your resources rather than buying the best, the latest model, the most expensive. This is an opportunity to start examining core values.

This is an opportunity for you to ask for help. You’ve been so self sufficient all this time. You take pride in the idea that you’ve never had to ask for help. Could be this is what some of the lesson is about; you asking for help.

And, maybe this is the opportunity for you to help. How could you even think about giving help when you need it so badly yourself right now? Well, maybe you haven’t done much all these years about giving to others other than the gift of money every once in awhile as a donation. Maybe it’s time to become more involved in your community and give of your time and talents.

This economic crisis is affecting all of us. What could you learn from it?

My postscript: This was supposed to be an article in my upcoming March newsletter, except it got too long. So, I figured it would be a good blog post.

Talking to Spirit

It used to be when I was younger, when I did drugs and drank and later, as I got older and stopped doing drugs, but continued to drink I realized I was trying to alter my reality. It was in that boozy place that every once in awhile I could feel a little bit of that other place. I knew it was there. It wasn’t just the whole big world. It was a place in my head and heart. It was a bigger place I didn’t normally walk about in. It was a glimpse of another reality.

Then came the day when I didn’t want to touch the stars in a false way anymore. I didn’t want to go there with drugs or drink. I wanted the real thing. What I had with the artificial things was a way to get there, but there was a nightmarish quality about it. I wanted to remember. I wanted to participate fully. I wanted to talk to God.

That’s when I began to search. Although the path I was on meandered quite a bit I realize now that it was the best way for me to get here. I’m happy. I have a different relationship now with my higher self, with the Guides, with Folk in Spirit.

I believe in the power of prayer. I think of the people who come to my sites carrying anguish in their hearts and even though they might never say a blessed word to me I include them in my prayers in the dead of night. I ask that the universe be kind to them if it is at all possible or permissible. I ask that they be able to recognize peace and participate more fully in whatever is best for them. I ask that their paths be as smooth as they can possibly handle. I know if you’ve got to get somewhere you can either do it the hard way or the easy way. It’s the responsibility of the person to make their own choices, but I haven’t given up that Spirit won’t help us in times of need.

I can’t give you a number for the people I pray for. There were times when I’d forget someone and feel bad when I did remember, but the guides said that everybody who needed my prayers were always there whether I consciously remembered them or not. I was comforted by that thought and continue my prayers.

Sometimes in the dead of night I throw my thoughts, my heart, my energies out there to bind with other healers working too, to help them, to help my folks, to help their folks. It’s like a network. I’ve never met any of them, but it is on faith that I feel they are already there.

And, through it all, I send my prayers out for those I don’t even know, who might be in need of something.

I’m not sure if this is the right way to do it, but I’m drawn to it. Sometimes I would wonder if I was just delusional about the whole thing, but even if it was spitting into the wind I feel I would still do it.

And, I would take whatever healing and peace was out there for my own. I pray quietly. I’ve never talked about how I pray.

I get quiet. I am quiet. I pretend I feel the energies. I sense an updraft moving up and out from me. A wonderful drift of smoke that I can see. It’s not really smoke, but it moves like it. It’s essence. I follow it. Up out to undulate upon the night sky. Above the city. Above the lights. No longer can I see the traffic. My face is turned now to see the other wisps of energy, of thought, of other prayer that rises up and away.

There’s a net, a web, an intersecting mesh of fragile cord. All of us out there. Our essence joined in purpose, in love. Everybody out there a part of what makes the world. Not just healers everybody. What do you do when you get there? Participate. Enjoy. And, when you come back? Wonder if it was real. Pretend it was.

Some Channeling

It is in the act of doing that progress might be made. You can only study so much and then you must, in order to complete the lesson, act upon what it is that you have learned. According to your level of perception you will either get it or not. Now, it does not in any way matter that you do not “get” a particular lesson. You might not be ready to get it. It might be three or four years from now before you are ready to understand all the ramifications, or at least some of them, of any particular lesson.

What will equip you to make real and valid progress with anything that you are learning is not to get the stuffed head about it. In this we speak of believing that you are the best in your field of endeavor. If you can always think of yourself as a student, as one who is constantly learning, even though you are able to teach now what you have learned, you will be able to improve upon that which you know now.

Our blessings to the chela.

Becoming Psychic

Becoming psychic isn’t a case of you being the ordinary you that you’ve been for the last 35 years on Monday and suddenly being a gifted psychic on Tuesday.

There’s a space between Monday and Tuesday that could last for several years. It’s what you do during the psychic development that will determine the quality of experience you have.

These are not hard and fast rules, but just things that I have noticed.

If you enjoy being spooked, then pursuing a course of psychic development is not for you. If you have an adventurous streak in you, go for it. If you are superstitious, don’t go for it. If you can accept responsibility easily, go for it. If you are more comfortable blaming everybody else for your problems, don’t go for it.

Mostly, what I am describing is a mature person as someone who would be a good candidate to pursue their own psychic development. People up into their mid twenties do not fall into a good category of psychic student. They just don’t. If you’re an old fart like I am I’m more than happy to help you along. If all you want to know is when you are going to get married or who your boy friend is sleeping with I don’t want to talk to you.

Anyway, once you’ve moved through this rather blunt culling of whether you think you’d be a likely person to develop their psychic abilities you can focus in on any or all of the following things during this transition:

Learn to focus your concentration. Meditation really helps with this.

Begin remembering your dreams. Begin recording these dreams.

Learn to do your own psychological fine tuning. You will be overwhelmed with opportunities for real psychological and emotional growth during this process. It’s almost a required thing. Doing things the way you’ve been doing them up to now won’t work as well. Just letting things meander along year in and year out isn’t good enough anymore. You can accept the responsibility to take care of yourself emotionally and psychologically which means either start reading self help books or hire a therapist for awhile to help you understand.

See if you are drawn to using a tool of divination. Runes or Tarot are good. Learn what the meanings of the stones or of the cards are. Do some homework. Exercise those brain muscles. And, do readings on yourself. On yourself. On yourself. After a long time do readings for other people, but in the beginning? On yourself.

Start a personal journal to record your feelings during this time of transition. This is going to help, too, with the psychological and emotional growth you will experience.

If you are drinking too much or if you are doing drugs you can stop. Right now. Substance abuse only makes for a really strange and odd psychic.

There appears to be a lot of activity in the lower astral realms. This is drama. This is excitement. This is not for the inexperienced. This is only going to interfere with your good psychic development. After you’re good at it you can dabble there, but for now aim for the highest level you can. You can safely move toward your own Guide. Everybody has several. Stay focused on the one guide. This first year while you’re talking to Folk in Spirit talk to your Guide.

Read about other psychics and guides: Sylvia Browne, John Edward, Findhorn, Messages from Michael, the Seth books. You’ll come upon more of them.

Begin to trust in the universe. You’ll know what moves to make when it is appropriate for you to make those moves. Somebody or some book will come your way. There isn’t one path here. There are many you can take. And, they all lead to the same place if your aim is true.

How I Do A Psychic Reading

What follows here has channeling in it. I've set the Guide's part off in another color.

The point, generally, of developing psychic abilities is to engage in psychic readings for people. The manner in which a reader conducts their reading is going to be different from anybody else’s way.

What you’re doing is to tap into Spirit to see if there might be any answers for the person who wants the reading. Or, just guidance.

I like to look at the overall picture. The person has asked their question or stated their concern. I have that in mind and then I do a dip. It’s like dipping below the waves when I do it.

So, I’m going to try to explain to you how I do a psychic reading.

I’ve got to be in the zone. It’s a different place. It’s a place of Spirit. It’s a place that doesn’t have the stuff in it that usually distracts me or annoys me. There’s no place here for me to be thinking about cleaning the house, or what’s going on at work. I can’t worry about the car here. And, this actually, is where a practice of meditation comes in to bear fruit. It’s the removing yourself from the usual distractions of life to go to a quiet place that is very helpful here.

How do I get to this place? If my mind is busy with a lot of stuff I almost have to keep moving deep time after time. It’s not easy to do this. Some people are good at it. I have to say I’m not. So, for me sometimes it is a struggle. At some point I sort of give up the struggle of moving deeper and content myself with where I am. That’s key too. So, even though I know I could have done a better job of it I have to say to myself in order to do the reading I need to be content with where I landed.

I don’t know if others do it this way, but it’s the way I do it now. Perhaps it’s all a process and 3 years from now I’ll be doing it differently. I like to think that. I’m not done learning either.

Then, with the concern of the individual at the back of my mind, with the idea of the person in my mind I move forward. Or, rather, I wait to be swept to wherever I need to be.

The images come to me quickly sometimes. So, this first part is a “seeing” that I do. I’ll have a picture of a huge open field, like a prairie before me. Not so many trees, but miles and miles of sky. And, no people. It’s a lonely place, or it could be, but I don’t feel lonely looking at it. I also pay attention to how I am feeling. If I feel an uneasiness that might mean something too. Sometimes, when I’m wound up I will discount what I see and say, “Oh, no. This isn’t right.” This is where I need to do my own learning. Just for these few moments in time you could urge yourself to just be a witness and try to stay out of being involved in what you are seeing.

Sometimes I lay some ground rules, like: I don’t want to see anybody dying or being murdered. It’s sort of a wimpy way of doing a psychic reading, but, hey, I’m the one doing it and I just don’t want to see any gory stuff right now. Maybe after I’ve done this awhile I can handle stuff like that, but for now? Today? No thanks. So, I have that as a proviso moving into the reading. I don’t know if it works, but if it doesn’t and you are suddenly on a hard beaten floor of earth looking up through a thicket of tumbleweed you can pull out of it quickly enough. Like one of the guides just said, “Just say no.” anyway, that did happen to me once. And, this is where the clairvoyance comes into play. No only was I seeing what somebody once saw I also knew that they died there.

Anyway, what I think I could be doing is to just not react to the violence or hardship that I might see for an individual. And, for that I would need to do my own psychological work. Like I’ve been urging people from day one with this stuff is that you filter the things you see and experience in the spiritual realm through your own human beingness warts and all.

But, this also brings up the doubt of the reading. So, you think you’re screwing up the reading by just being you. Practice. Practice. Practice. Like one of the guides just said to me: Ubung macht den meister, which means: practice makes the master. I actually don’t speak German very well. It’s what I call Gasthaus Deutsch. When I’ve had a few beers to drink I speak it better. And, since I quit drinking 9 years ago….well, it’s just not very good. But, every once in awhile one of the guides will say something in another language. Keeps me on my toes.

Anyway, back to the psychic reading. So, I’ve seen stuff. I’m starting to know stuff. And, finally, because I channel better than I do anything else I dip into channeling mode. And, I might as well do that now too. Oh, I forgot, on the “practice” reading I was doing this morning in bed just after I’d awakened what I was seeing shifted from the open plain to waves crashing on a rocky coast. Somehow I knew this to be in Ireland. Then, it moved into a village and very, very quickly zoomed in on a red brick house set right on the road to an upstairs window that was covered with a window shade. It wasn’t a pristine white. It was a faded and yellowed shade. And, something ominous was going on in that room. And, naturally, since I’m a wimp I pulled away from the vision.

So, for the next stage of this reading, since I did have that rather detailed vision about an hour ago before I got up I’m going to dip back into it and do some channeling.

Dipping…Remembering…. In this we are pleased to have been called in for assistance in this imaginary reading. What was not said was the person receiving the reading does not necessarily have to be a person the reader has met in the flesh, so to speak. This person might have telephoned, or emailed, or written a letter. Remember that you are all connected, one to the other, with strings of silver. You don’t normally see them, but it is there. The structure of the universe is a web and you are a part of it.

As Pauline has said she is a wimpy reader. This is not a fault. She does not do readings anymore for people as they were too draining upon her, but she can do them. And, as is evident today has proven to herself that she can still do it. It’s like riding a bicycle.

Hey, can I interrupt here? Yes. Something else that happened when I stopped doing readings was there were some who didn’t like what I said. Well, Dear, that is your own problem is it not? Well, yes, but I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. Why do you think they didn’t like their readings? Because they sucked. You didn’t read correctly? No, the news wasn’t pleasant. So, whoever said that a psychic reading always had to be good news? Okay, okay. You’ve got a point. I’m just a wimpy reader. No, Dear, you are a good teacher. Okay, I’ll stop and let you guys get back to it.

So, we might continue with our portion of the reading. What has been set forth so far is the visual part of the reading and that is of place. First, the prairie and then the rocky coast of Ireland, then a brick building with a shuttered window.

Within that house there is pain. There is anguish. There is grieving. The damage is done in the sense that the woman, the young woman who is gone will never return. There is a question in the minds of the people who live within these rooms as to what happened to their daughter. They will never know for sure. They have their suspicions, but someone saying to them that their daughter’s remains have been found will never happen. If, just if you were doing a real reading, which this actually is, but to think of it as a real reading as opposed to a practice reading you, the reader, would become too caught up in it to do it justice. In any case, we would say to those people that number one they will move naturally through the grieving process. But, in order to start that they might make the decision in their minds to say their daughter is dead to them. She will not return. Now, they can begin the grieving process. The questions will never be answered as to what actually happened. And, the pain never really goes completely away. But, if it makes any difference their daughter, having passed over, is happy. Karma was involved, but when she incarnates again it will be taken care of. There is justice in the world and if justice is not served in this lifetime it will be served in subsequent lifetimes.

For now, she is happy. She is content to be helping others. She is invigorated and stimulated by the things she is continuing to learn. She has expanded beyond the person she was in your hearts to claim every inch of her soul and of her higher self. She is wise beyond her years. She holds love in her heart towards you and towards everyone who has touched her in that lifetime and in other lifetimes too. She is reunited with blood relatives from this lifetime. She is reunited with children she had in previous lifetimes. She is greeted with joy by her husbands from other lifetimes.

You might think her life was cut short all too quickly. But, it was not. She lived exactly how much she intended to live and has moved on to the next step. She knows you miss her. She knows you love her. Someday she can visit you in your dreams and show you how very joyful her life is right now.

Our blessings.

Hey, thanks. You are welcome.

Anyway, that’s a reading the way I do them. And, if you don’t want to be relaying messages of this sort to another human being and risk their anger, pain, etc. Just do a practice one.

The Benefit of Taking a Deeper Breath

I find myself caught up in the hurry scurry of everyday stuff much of the time. Work can be categorized as putting out fires much of the time. Sure, we’ve got regular duties, but intruding upon that are the urgent needs of many people. That’s why I liken it to putting out fires. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Many people have the same issues at work and at home, so it’s not that I’m complaining. More, I’m trying to understand why I allow myself to get caught up in it so much of the time.

If I could set aside some time for me and me alone, I think that might be an answer. And, interestingly, as I sat down here to write this entry I closed my eyes while my fingers rested on the keyboard and took a really deep breath. It didn’t take but 3 seconds. Then, when I opened my eyes it was easy to start writing.

It was a co-worker who told me to breathe deeply the other day. She could tell I was moving into over-load. I hadn’t noticed since I was on the roller coaster and didn’t have plans to get off of it anytime too soon. I’ve thought more and more about what she said to me. Even before I knew the value of breathing deeply prior to beginning a session of writing but I just hadn’t thought a great deal about it in the midst of a very busy day at work.

The two halves of my life sometimes seem to be so different from each other. But, I suppose, in reality they are not. I’m here in my blogs and at my website to serve. I try to help people through the uncertainty of psychic awakening, through the grieving process, and to a place where they might take a mature and responsible hand in the direction of their own spiritual growth. I suppose I must try to bring something of the same to my work.

So, it’s a small step. Or, breath. It took only a few seconds and I feel a lot better too.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody. I hope you have a joyful holiday today. I know there are those who aren’t in the best circumstances right now, and even if the hyper activity of the season offends you take a moment, just 60 seconds when you get the opportunity, to reach down deep into that quiet place within yourself and rest for a moment.

I don’t care if you say you don’t know how to do this. Just pretend. The way I figure it we are all in this together. We are all a part of this world and of other spiritual places, of other planes, the past and the future and the now. It doesn’t matter even if you don’t celebrate Christmas. This isn’t a club.

Pretend and once you are sitting and see this pretend place within your own heart be at peace. It can come. There are those, “on the other side” who wait for you to open your eyes and be welcomed. These Folk in Spirit, as I refer to them, are your own spiritual guides, your own angels, your own loved ones who have passed over, even your own beloved pets gone to doggy or kitty heaven. Guinea pigs. I forgot. Yes, chickens too. Elephants and whales. In any case, you get the picture. Whatever is appropriate for you to see, to experience will be there for you. Trust your higher self.

However you choose to celebrate or don’t celebrate, I hope you might feel the peace of this day.

One, Two, Three - Say Cheese!

How difficult would it be for you to smile at a stranger in the grocery store next time you are there? That simple smile and acknowledgement of them as a fellow human being might be all that they need to pass your smile on to somebody else.

The findings of a study released recently by the Harvard Medical School and the University of California in San Diego and published 12/4/08 in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) pondered the effect of happiness on people, who know people, who know people, who know people. Happiness is passed along to three degrees of separation from yourself. And, it would appear that the happiness lasts up to a year’s time. Conversely, sadness does not travel through the network like happiness does.

Interestingly, the researchers used data that had already been compiled for a study of over 5,000 cardiovascular patients that spanned a period of 20 years.

Smile. You never know who is watching.

Listening to Shelby

Every morning Shelby, our littlest cat, comes to wake me up. Usually, it’s about 5:00 am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but my mornings always start with her walking on me. She starts from the bottom of the bed and works her way up with inquisitory meows. I complete the welcome by patting my stomach to have her come settle for a few minutes before I get up.

This morning was no different from any other morning and she made her way up to settle down and have some quiet time with me before I got out of bed. However, that’s when DeeDude commenced to snore. These were loud snores too. Hggghhhhhh….. Hggghhhhh…. Hggghhhh. I could see Shelby’s interest peek. I was thinking she might be thinking DeeDude was awake and ready to play so I held onto her a little tighter so she wouldn’t take a notion to go jump on DeeDude who, though snoring enough to wake the neighborhood, was still fast asleep.

There we were, me holding Shelby as she continued to purr and to watch DeeDude with fascinated interest. And, that’s when I caught the errant thought from Shelby. She was interested in DeeDude’s snoring because she thought he was purring. I have to explain what a particularly interesting moment this was for me. I am psychic. I am a channel. I talk to Spirit Guides and folks in Spirit and animals in Spirit. It’s all one. I can do it easily. What I don’t do as easily is talk to and understand the live animals. It happens once in awhile. But, the times that it happens are few and far between.

It happened this morning when Shelby thought DeeDude was purring.

Thanksgiving Day

My heart goes out to those in terror situations, to those in war, to those under siege. My heart goes out to those in pain, to those who grieve, to those whose hearts are breaking. If I could I would take away your pain, but I cannot. I can only grieve with you and send you whatever thoughts I have of love and of healing.

Today is a day of Thanksgiving in the United States. Everywhere people are gathered, sometimes in large groups with friends and family, sometimes in small groups. Our hearts are lifted in gratitude. I wish all who are celebrating a Happy Thanksgiving and I send my love and prayers to those people in need.

What Seth Looks Like - my 600th post

To celebrate my 600th post, this is a picture of Seth. Robert Butts, Jane Roberts' husband painted it a long time ago.

About Writing

It’s easier to achieve a dream if you break the journey down into steps. Like the prospect of writing a book. Say, we’re talking about 75,000 words. It’s not a huge tome like, “War and Peace”, but then it’s bigger than, “The Little Engine that Could”.

First step would be to have something to write about. Once you’re set on that the rest of it is actually gravy. You’d need to examine your intentions too. If you are writing with the sole intent of being a famous author remembered through the ages for your writing, for your clarity of thought, for your succinct handling of language; forget it. If you are writing just to make money; that too is a bad idea. I don’t know why, but it is.

Why you write should be more along the lines of you can’t do anything else. It’s a driven sort of thing. If you are not exactly driven right now you could develop the habit by writing in small chunks. You could write 500 words a day. Every day. Actually, 500 words isn’t really that much. It’s not even a full page of typewritten material. Write about anything you want to write about. Cut pictures out of magazines or print them off of the internet and write a page about the picture. Describe what is going on. If there are people in the picture pretend that you can see into their hearts and talk about what they are feeling.

Once you are easy with the 500 words a day extend that by a few hundred and do a page and a half. Then, after a week or two of the increased output aim for 2 pages a day. Now, at 2 pages a day you are writing about 1,200 words a day. That is a pretty descent output. The rule of thumb is to write 1,000 words a day, but I figure filling 2 pages is easier than counting. Or you could use the word count feature in your word processing program for awhile until you get sick of it and just count pages of new material.

Once you have the driven thing down you are invited to begin work on your book. That in itself can seem daunting, but just plunge in. You could develop an outline or have index cards filled out. One of my favorite techniques is to write the story in the form of a short sentence: “A wants to go to B and finds herself distracted at every turn.” Then, you go back and expand that sentence a little bit: “A wants to go to B because her sister is being held captive by an ornery old woman. A sets out on her journey but finds obstacle after obstacle is thrown up in her face.” You get the idea. Just keep expanding on these sentences until you’ve got a paragraph of, maybe, 10 sentences. Then, take each one of those sentences and expand each one of them into a paragraph. Now, you’ve got your book on one page and each one of those paragraphs can eventually be a chapter.

You will probably see that your story goes every which way anyway, but the original plan might just carry you through from beginning to end.

You’ll know you’ve hit the driven quality of writing when you find yourself thinking about what you are writing about while you are filling your car with gas, while you are waiting in line at the grocery story, while you are driving to work. There’s a story I love of James Thurber and his wife. They were at a cocktail party and James was standing by himself in the middle of the room. He had a drink in one hand and some hors d'oeuvres in the other. He was just standing there not talking to anybody although people swirled all around him. His wife was across the room. She spied him where he stood all alone in the middle of a room full of people and stalked across to him. She hissed at him, “Quit writing.” I just love that story.

It is important that you write every day. You might feel now that you don’t have a minute to call your own, but you can carve out an hour or two for yourself if you try. My favorite time to write is in the very early morning before everybody gets up and before I go to work; and I do have a full time job. I tend to go to sleep a little earlier when I’m writing so I can get up a little earlier and have that time to myself. I put some headphones on and will either play music or not. Many times I “come to” to find that I’ve been sitting here writing for 45 minutes with headphones on and nothing coming out of them. But, there was a time when I wrote a book mostly listening to Celtic music. One of my favorite pieces is, “Wind Horse” from Bill Douglas' album Celtic Twilight. Another favorite I listen to is Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Brainwave Suite. Background music that helps to get me in the mood that helps to sustain the moment and that will mask background noises if I am writing once everybody is awake.

Stephen King, one of my all time favorite authors, listens to rock music while he writes. He also writes every day. Every day. I believe he takes one day off a year which, if I remember correctly, is his birthday. Otherwise, it is every day.

Something else that is going to happen which might alarm you in the beginning but will quickly feel okay is that all that you write is not going to end up in the book. You will probably write yourself into a corner at some point. Speaking from personal experience I can tell you that if you’ve killed off a key character and need them later on to extricate your other folks you will have written yourself into a corner. This is where you go someplace quiet and try to figure out what to do next. A good technique is to begin a separate piece where you allow your characters to speak to you. Just pretend. Let them talk to you and tell you where they think the story should go. This is where you deviate from your original plan, but hey, it happens. Also, you could just go lie down on your bed with a tape recorder and let the free thoughts come. One time I’d written myself into a corner and did the tape recorder thing to not only get myself out of the jam I was in but also had six month’s worth of writing material to work on and I only talked for 15 minutes.

Anyway, getting yourself out of a jam might entail you deleting a portion of what you’ve already written, or changing it somewhat. There are those writers who save that deleted material in other file to be used later on. I just delete it.

Having written a book I can tell now when I read stuff other people have written when they get bored. It’s this draggy quality to the material. These are folks who got bored with what they were doing and pushed on regardless. Been there…done that. Anyway, consider jumping forward to another part of the book and writing that for awhile. You’ve got a plan and can do that. Then, go back to your original spot where you started getting bored and resume writing. It might help. Or, just delete a bit of it and start over.

Doing this writing every day is a lonely thing. There’s nobody but yourself involved though you’ll need some support from your family members. Like, “Don’t talk to me when you see me with my headphones on.” I’m actually thinking about decorating my headphones with flowers or something just to make them special, but that’s sort of silly. Fun, but silly.

I remember reading somewhere that a book might be compared to an iceberg. What you are reading is the part of the iceberg above water. The part you don’t see, the enormous mass of the iceberg that is underwater is the mass of written material that never saw the light of day. It was a necessary part of the book, but you just don’t get to read it. That material might be saved for future projects or it could just be character sketches that you do to get an idea of what your characters are like before you have them hit the pages of your book.

So, my husband is up. I’ve written 1,439 words (which is almost two and a half pages) and that’s enough for today. I’m also running out of steam. These are my thoughts about writing and I hope they help you to achieve a dream that not that many people dare to do. Write a book. And, when people ask you what you do you can honestly say to them that you are a writer.

Where I Find Some Keys

One of the most frequent requests I get from people along the line of “Things Psychic” is help on finding lost articles. You’d think that would actually be an easy one, but, in actuality it is difficult.

Over the years I’ve misplaced tons of stuff. As I’ve gotten older and accumulated more stuff it has gotten worse. But, I have asked for help from my guides and from Spirit many times in finding things I’ve misplaced. Most of the time they would chime in with, “Look up.” This has never seemed to be very helpful and when I’ve gotten that response I figured they were telling me in their own way that they were not going to help me on that one.

But, there have been times when it did help to ask them for help and when their help was forthcoming. I wrote a story about how Seth, my guide, helped me to find a pair of slippers years ago. It’s here at my other website, so I won’t go into that rather long story here.

What I want to talk about here was how my husband, DeeDude, misplaced his keys yesterday and how Spirit helped me to find them for him.

Here’s the scenario: I walk in the door from work. We’re going to a dinner being put on by the Alameda County Historical Society in an hour and a half and I need to get ready for that. I’m already nervous about it because this is the first time in years that I’m going out to a function with my husband. I just don’t get out much being very shy and frightened of crowds. But, I’m thinking that it’s time for me to start getting over these fears and I’ve been working on it. However, I’m still edgy and it’s not going to take much to send me over the edge. Hence, the story gets real interesting.

I walk in the door and DeeDude says to me, “I’m having a minor crisis.” I hate when he says that. My heart leaped up into my throat and I stuffed it all back down to calmly walk in thinking the car has been wrecked, or he’s lost his job or all manner of horrible things. He’s obviously not bleeding, so I don’t have to worry about that. He says, “I can’t find my keys. I’ve been looking for them for over an hour. I was going to go to the store and I went to get them and I couldn’t find them.”

So, although I know it’s sending him over the edge I start grilling him on just what he did when he got home from the errands he was doing earlier in the day. He obviously got into the house using the keys, but, where are they now? I searched through all the places he’d already looked: In the seat cushions in his chair…on all the counters in the kitchen and the bathroom…on the book shelves….in his pockets….again…under the chair….in his other pockets (which was starting to get ridiculous since he hadn’t changed clothes). I dumped over the recycling can to see if they had gotten mixed up in a box he’d thrown away…I looked everywhere. At the same time he’s at the other end of our house looking again in the same places he’d looked before.

I located a spare set of car keys for him and he went down to his car to see if he hadn’t locked them in there because he’d made several trips carrying things up to the house. Nowhere. Nowhere could we find those keys.

I’m moving towards the idea that we’re just going to need to get another set for him. We’ve already got spares for everything. I made him check to see if the fuel lock key and the club key on the spare set work for this car. They do. So, this is where I sort of gave up.

All through this search I’d been asking for help from Spirit. I didn’t actually expect much because I was at such a high level of anxiety about it. The party was looming…I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to get ready…DeeDude was really upset and I was not operating in a cool, calm and collected manner. Spirit gave me that smart ass suggestion of looking up several times so I gathered they weren’t going to be around to help me on this one and we were on our own trying to find DeeDude’s keys, which I thought was a pity since I ought to, as a psychic of many years, at least be able to do this one thing.

I went out onto the patio and leaned over onto the arms of one of our plastic lawn chairs. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and I tried to calm down. I knew that trying to tap into that “other space” is very difficult when you’re uptight. I said, “Please, I really need you guys to help me now. If you’ve ever helped me before help me now.” I stayed bent over for a few more seconds until DeeDude came to the door and demanded to know what I was doing. I didn’t say, but I walked back into the house.

I went into the kitchen, stood in front of two of the drawers, pulled them both open at the same time and this is what I saw:




By the way, the dinner was fabulous. They had it at Spenger's in Berkeley and Richard Schwartz, a friend of DeeDude's, gave an interesting presetation of early days in Alameda County. You can see the work he's done at his website: www.richardschwartz.info

Voices of Angels

A Question Answered about Ouija Boards

I got this email today and thought others might find it useful.

The Question: When you start with the Ouija Board (On your site), what do you say?? How do you begin??

My Answer: When I sit at the Ouija Board there is no beginning word to start, it is just on.

The problem when I was learning how, the six months leading up to when it actually worked there was nothing, absolutely nothing I could do to make the stupid thing work. It was horribly frustrating, but I kept trying. I’d sit there and concentrate and meditate and pray for my guide to please, please, please come talk to me. Nothing. Nothing would happen at all.

But, I kept trying.

Now, I sit down and phrase whatever I want to talk about silently in my head and zip, zoom, swoosh, there goes the planchette. There is no sitting politely and reverently asking for my guide to please come talk to me. I know that my guide is always at my side, when I’m sleeping, when I’m driving, when I’m eating, even, Heaven forbid, when I’m sitting on the toilet. No privacy. No privacy at all anymore.

What’s fun about it is that I can do Air Ouija now. I sort of made it up. You don’t need a board or a planchette to make it work. You just sort of imagine the board in front of you and your finger sketches into the air pointing at the invisible letters. For me it’s more useful for Yes and No questions since I can clearly remember where those words are on the board. I sort of forget where the letters are….and I can hear anyway, so I don’t have to see who’s pointing to what to know what it is they are talking about. It’s just a fun and silly thing to do. Make a game of it, but always, always be mature about only asking to speak with your guide.

The stuff you’re going to be hearing in the beginning is going to be strange and off the wall depending on how mature you are, how susceptible you are to superstitious things, how afraid you are of things that go bump in the night and how psychologically well balanced you really are. If you are under a doctor’s care for a psychiatric issue then you do NOT want to do this.

If you make a promise to yourself that you will not be afraid to pay attention to your own psychological growth to include going to see a therapist if it gets to that then you will be okay. Talking to Spirit really pushes your buttons. You will find yourself, whether you want to be there or not, on the fast track of spiritual growth. And spiritual growth includes that your body, both physical and mental be in the best shape you can get to given what you’ve got to work with.

So, be very real and mature about asking for contact with your guide because it will NOT be limited to only the times that you sit there at the Ouija Board. And, once you get things moving with the Ouija Board there is not unmaking the connection with Spirit. You’ve broken through and there ain’t no backing out anymore.

You can find more information about using the Ouija Board at my site Talking to Spirit.