How I Discovered Coaching

When I first became aware that I was on my Highest Path and Purpose it was very surreal.  I was enveloped in this energy that is securely anchored to Source and even though I had no idea where I was going – it was clear that Spirit was leading somewhere, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow.

One day while at my computer I distinctly heard a voice (from outside of my own head) say life coach as if someone or something had been leaning over my right shoulder.  Now this really impacted me because clairaudience is not my usual channel and so I immediately typed it in the search bar to see what this life coaching thing was all about – where was this guidance leading?

As I searched I found several definitions of coaching and what really struck me about the modality is that you see your client as whole, capable and having all the internal resources they need to achieve whatever goal they may have.

My Definition of a Coach

A coach deploys what I call “full-body listening” in which they hold intense focus on their client (with no mental background chatter) using listening and their bodies response system as a way of syncing with the energy system of the client.

This allows them access to all the choices available, to see the situation from the client’s point of view, but also from many other directions as well.  By the coach holding this expanded space around their client and asking questions that guide the client toward the things that are available that they haven’t noticed or been able to see, the client becomes aware of more empowered paths and choices.

The NLP and Coaching Institute of California

One school in particular literally jumped out at me and when I talked to co-founder Kris Hallbom I was so pulled toward the NLPCA’s Coaching Program that I just knew (right then and there that somehow I would attend).

This program was a 23 day intensive.  At the time, my two young children were ages 4 and 7.  The intensive ran in July when the kids were off from school and my husband did not have the vacation to cover taking that much time off.  My mind looked at this situation and began to run statistics on the likelihood of this all working out, however Spirit was in the driver’s seat and simply said to Speak My Truth and trust what manifested.

When I spoke to my husband about it he was immediately on board as he saw what a great match it was to my natural tendencies.  The training itself was not all that expensive but hotel and food would kick it up a notch, regardless – he was willing to dip into our savings to send me.  His parents who are often busy, just happened to be available and were extremely excited about the prospect of having their grand kids all to themselves for several weeks for camping and other fun summer activities.  I watched in awestruck wonder as every little piece of what seemed impossible fell effortlessly into place!

The program itself was amazing. It was set just outside San Fransisco (one of my favorite cities ever!) in nearby and less expensive Burlingame where a quick drive would deposit you on the BART and into the heart of everything there is to do.

Operating Principles

We had five instructors who were the very embodiment of the teachings (each offering a vast amount of experience and a different area of expertise) over the duration of the course.  Covering a wide range of skills deeply anchored in the empowering perspectives of the NLP Operatives:

• Communication is redundant.
  You are always communicating, in all 3 major representational systems – auditory, visual and kinesthetic. You signal this through tone and tempo of your voice, posture, breathing patterns and gestures, as well as your language patterns and eye accessing cues.
• The meaning of your communication is the response that you get.
  Communication is not about what you intend, or about saying the right words; it’s about creating an experience in, and getting a response from, the listener. The “bottom line” is the response you elicit.
• The map is not the territory.
  People respond to their map of reality, not reality itself. NLP is the science of changing these maps (which then changes the way a person perceives and interacts with reality).
• Requisite variety.
  The element with in the system with the most flexibility will be the controlling element.
• People work perfectly.
  No one is wrong or broken; it’s simply a matter of finding out how they function now, so that you can effectively change that to something more useful or desirable. People don’t need to be “fixed”.
• People always make the best choice available to them at the time.
  (but often there are lots of better ones that they haven’t yet learned to access)
• Every behavior is useful in some context.
• Choice is better than no choice.
• Just about anyone can learn to do anything.
• People already have all the resources they need.
  What they need is access to these resources at the appropriate times and places.
• There is no such thing as failure only feedback.
  Every response can be utilized.
• Chunking.
  Anything can be accomplished (by anyone) if you break the task down into small enough chunks.
• Behind every behavior is a positive intent.
  While a behavior may be harmful or seem “bad”, there is always a positive intention behind the behavior.
• Symptoms – pains, anxiety, depression, tumors, colds, etc., are communications about needed action.
• We are all responsible for creating our own experience.
  Even when challenging events that we cannot control happen, we are responsible for our responses to the events. Typically we have much more control than we think we have. Another way of stating this presupposition is that “We consistently create our own environment” through our beliefs, filters, capabilities and behaviors.
• Energy flows where attention goes. (from Huna)

Learning to Coach

In the training we learned how to create the coaching state, holding the client from the viewpoint of the NLP presuppositions in total respect, while cultivating within ourselves a curious, not knowing state that allows our clients to go deep and find their own answers.  We learned to build trust to directionalize the conversation toward the client’s goals, to hold space for their agenda with active listening and specific questions, planning and action skills and how to create a meaningful metaphor on closing our sessions that the client could easily access to help them stay on target.

Coaching Skills and Tools

We learned the following coaching skills:

Accountability, Acknowledgment, Asking Permission, Bottom Lining, Challenging, Championing, Forward the Action, Goal Setting and Planning, Holding the Client’s Agenda, Inquiry, Intrude, Powerful Questions and Requesting Structures.

Along with these NLP skills:

Meta-Programing, Perceptual Positions, Neurological Level Alignment, Well-formed Outcomes, Backtracking, Universal Cycles of Change, Vision to Action, Ecology, Open Questions, Voting with Time, Energy and Money, Working with and Changing Beliefs (Six Step Reframing), Resonance Patterning and much more.

In Retrospect

This course really changed me.  I learned more about myself in 23 days than I had in many, many years and had the opportunity to shift many of my less productive mind patterns while we learned and practiced the material.

It helped me to embody an awakened Highest Path and Purpose perspective and I still rely on the mindsets and tools for creating shifts in perspectives that I learned in coaching in my personal walk everyday.

I made some amazing spiritual friendships and experienced as well as received much healing over the duration of the course.  In, fact you could very well say that this course is what awakened me to my path as a healer…it was the first step that I took toward that direction and I have never regretted it!

Reminder

For those of you who missed the teleclass on intuition the audio is available here (I’m still working out the technology end – so please excuse the static – it doesn’t last long) 

Special Offer

For those of you who might want to take up coaching, NLPCA is offering (this year only) a special price of $3600.00 for their training.  Be sure to head over to www.nlpca.com and check them out if you’ve been considering coach training!

My next post in this series will cover NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner training

Author’s Note:  The following post was inspired by questions asked of me by Albert Foong of the Urban Monk.  Thank you Albert for your questioning and seeking of the Truth

On Halloween or Samhain there is a belief that remains constant regardless of how you may celebrate the holiday – this is the understanding that on October 31st – the veils that typically keep us from seeing the world of energy and spirit and keep us firmly rooted in our 3rd dimensional reality grow thin even for those who typically don’t experience such things.

In ages past, it was also thought that this made people particularly vulnerable to negative entities who use this unaccustomed sight to generate and feed off of the fear energy of the those unlucky enough to encounter them.

This kind of thinking still survives, only now it lives in the collective subconscious mind where it mostly remains out of sight and unnoticed until something stimulates it into action.

So let me stimulate you by talking about the biggest beastie of them all – Lucifer himself.  When it comes to fear-based promotion, this guy has got a great publicist – after all what could be more terrifying than the very personification of evil itself?

So who is he and what does he really want?

The answer is simple.  Lucifer is an Archangel who was given a pathway to become one of humanities greatest teachers.  Stay with me now…

Why?

Because within our evolution came a time when our third energy center became very active within us. We moved up from the level of survival and simple pleasures and now were beginning to understand that we could influence and impact the world and situations around us. We could bend nature and others to our will.  As a result, individuality began to step forward above the group or collective thinking and as it began to take over the control booth a funny thing happened…we fell into judgment.

Now during this time the lower energy centers were in control – and we basically operated from two principles – moving away from pain or moving toward pleasure.  Only now there was another element getting mixed in -  what we believed would get us pleasure (or what I call projected into the future pleasure) – and this thing came to be called desire or what I want.  Soon all things pleasurable became good, anything that promoted our sense of will was good and anything that stood in the way of it was bad.

We chose this method of learning so that we could fully experience our individual impact on the whole.  In the Archangelic realms – plans were made to support us in this learning so that we could fully explore our own power and impact through our third energy center.

The Archangelic realms mirrored our internal split – many of the Angels were assigned to be space holders for Divine energies to support us in understanding and finding our way back to Oneness.  Others, were given the job of taking on negative energies in order to mirror to us our learning choices.  These were called by history – fallen angels – however they are merely high level dark teachers wearing masks.

So who is the Devil really?

He is the essence of Duality – a paradox – he is everything scary and he is everything Light.  The best way to consider it is through the concept of a spectrum – what you see and experience of him is determined by the vibration you are humming along at when you encounter him.

If you meet up with him when you are in a vibration of fear – he’s the scariest thing on cloven feet you’ve ever seen.  From the vibration of unconditional love he is the Angel of Light – the most beautiful of Archangels – the one who sang over the throne of God.

Some angels hold the space of Light,  fallen angels have followed us down into the darkness and will not come back until we all choose the light – this is how much they love us.

Lucifer’s job is to reflect to us the darkness that lives in our hearts – so that we may choose to live in love – this is what he does.  In order to do this he has to stay rooted in Source – otherwise it would be an impossibility to be meet us at each level within the spectrum.

What is he like?

I checked in with Lucifer to have a little chat before writing this post.  He is very funny!  As you can imagine he is also very charming.  I like him a lot.  It IS difficult to maintain the vibration necessary to see him as the angel of light rather than something of darkness as it requires you to consciously disconnect from the collective belief system and several times during the our conversation I was prompted to raise my vibration.  Like I said, it’s not easy – but it can be done!

His message is that he is really working FOR you.

He really appreciates anyone who can see him through the eyes of love as it is such a rare treat!  When you realize that Lucifer is really working FOR you rather than against you – what on Earth is there to possibly be afraid of???

So my dears, be Light-based tonight.  Enter your heart centers, open your seventh chakra’s, raise your vibrations and have yourself a wonderfully fun and Happy Halloween!

Image Credit

Last week I had a conversation with Source and the Angels that has changed my life.  I matter of factly told them I was done with illusion that I only wanted to live in Divine Truth and to – Bring it on!!!

I’ve been warned that I might want to use a little caution with this kind of enthusiastic statement – however, I am not a very cautious Spiritual Seeker

Well Source said, “O.K.” and it has been a pretty wild ride ever since!

This next story is a teaching about how we can take a step beyond forgiveness with the people that have hurt us most in life.

I was a fly on the wall observing a meeting most of us are unaware even occurs.  Here in this room sat my Higher Self,  Source the Archangels and my Guides discussing life lessons and hiring participants with whom I would dance in my current incarnation.  The candidates were reviewed according to the level of complement for what each Soul was working on – and that turned out to be quite the detailed process.

“What am I observing?” I whispered to Archangel Gabriel.  He simply smiled and said, “The truth”.

I returned my gaze to the meetings before me and a Soul I recognized came forward and was asked if he would be willing to play a role in the life situation displaying before him.  His gaze was cast toward a screen – I turned to watch with him and saw his beautiful Soul willingly take on a negativity that instantly transformed him from the very presence of beauty to something slinking in the darkness.

“Are you willing to play this part?” he was asked by the council.  “Are you willing to take this job in order to help the One before you evolve during it’s incarnation?”

“Yes.” he said gazing at me with such Love that my heart nearly burst – tears wet his eyes and with this answer he accepted the mission.

I began to cry tears of gratitude – it never occurred to me that we could be so loved and so supported by other Souls that they would be willing turn themselves into something despised by others in order to help move us toward our Highest Path and Purpose.

“Gabriel” I said, “is this the true Nature of Darkness.”  “Yes.” He said, “Even the Dark Teachers work for the Light – they simply take a different path to get there.”

When I consider the Dark Teachers in my life (the people I’ve encountered who’ve pushed me to grow with the energies of pain or fear) I’m now grateful for the lessons they taught me – because I understand what it must have taken for them to move themselves out of the Light and into extremely low vibrational energy in order to aid me with my life lessons.  Only the greatest kind of Love and Authority can produce Courage of this nature – and I find myself wondering if I have what it takes to make that kind of sacrifice?  I’ve certainly changed my mind about a lot of things due to this experience and I now know that Dark Teachers are more evolved than most of us believe

I’ve also come to recognize that along the way I made the decision that I no longer wanted to learn through darkness in my life.  I realized that I had an option and that I was drawing negative learning experiences to myself because at that time – I believed that I needed them.  That all ended when I chose to create positive learnings instead.

When we as a collective decide we no longer need darkness as a vehicle through which to receive our lessons and experiences – the Dark Teachers will be able to take off their costumes and return to the Light

Maybe it’s a strange idea that they are here because we want them to be here – but I think it makes sense…afterall we ARE that powerful!

Image by Aelle.

Ever wonder whether or not you are responsible for your choices if you accidentally engage with negativity? I mean, shouldn’t ignorance save us on some level from suffering severe consequences if we unintentionally make a bad choice?

Well the answer to that is if we make the choice, we suffer the consequence. Unintentional or not, you are responsible for the decisions that you make, even if you had the best of intentions when you made it. Hidden within the beauty of the accident however…is the ability to make another choice and to learn from the experience.

The Quija Board

When I was fourteen years old my cousin from Connecticut flew out by himself to spend part of the summer with us. He was like an older brother in many ways, as our families had lived together on and off throughout our childhood.

Getting Bored

Well, it wasn’t long before we started to get bored. We had taken hikes, seen the sites and spent enough time together to remember all the stuff about one another that made us crazy, so as most teen-aged kids eventually do…we decided that taking ourselves to the mall would bring some much needed entertainment into situation.

The Mall

On this shopping excursion we hit the game isles looking for something to do when a most unusual board game caught our attention. There right in the middle of the isle were Quija boards.

We looked at them with curiosity. Eureka! This simply had to be entertaining!

We were absolutely certain that Quija boards were nothing more than a game. So we took one home to have fun with later.

The Game

There really wasn’t much to the game, which consisted of a board and a pointer device. We placed it on each others knees, put our hands on the pointer and started asking questions. Some of the answers were funny, some of them curious and then they started to get a little creepy.

Slowly but surely we became more and more uncomfortable…until we decided to ask just who we were talking to. The energy started to feel very heavy and dark as the entity gave us its reply and identified itself as an angel of darkness.

That was enough to prompt us to end the game, which had seemed like such a harmless thing to begin with.

We stood looking at each other shifting uncomfortably, while we tried to laugh the whole thing off as a figment of our imaginations…despite our best efforts, the dark feelings and heaviness remained prompting the decision to retire the game to my bedroom closet shelf for the rest of the evening.

When my mother came home, we told her of our experience with the board. Needless to say she was not happy about the events that had unfolded in her absence…although she didn’t say much, I would come to find out later that she was prepared for the worst.

Psychic Attack

That night as I got ready for bed I started to feel less and less safe. It was as if someone or thing was watching me.

My room, which was normally my sanctuary began to adopt and unfriendly feel and resonated with an energy that I actually disliked. I’ve always been someone who doesn’t believe in darkness and if you ask me today…I’d still say I don’t give it much attention if any at all.

This being my natural tendency it was really strange for me to feel what I was feeling on that night regarding my room.

I decided to ignore it though…and went to bed.

I turned off the lights and the energy emanating from my closet grew immediately more intense. I turned my back on the closet and attempted sleep but the feeling of being unsafe persisted to where I was having difficulty. I am a person who is practically narcoleptic when I am tired though, so eventually…despite the difficulty at first, I fell asleep.

My dreams were dark and threatening…literal night terrors and I found myself sitting bolt upright, facing the direction of the closet, drenched in cold sweat.

It felt as if something was literally out to get me. That something was meeting me in my dream time and we were in a literal show down.

I got up, terrified. My legs shook as I opened the closet door. You can’t hurt me, I told it as I grabbed the box and took it out to the kitchen table. Where I intended to leave it for the night.

Soon, I was awoken again this time sitting bolt upright and staring at the opposite side of the room. I was utterly confused at this point, because I knew I had removed the board…but there it was, sitting on my shelf.

I took it out again and my cousin stopped me. He had been sleeping on the couch in the living room right next to the kitchen. He told me that he could not sleep with it there and literally begged me not to leave it on the table. At this point my mother appeared in her doorway. I felt a deep sense of hatred begin to ooze out from the board. It was about 5am and it was garbage day.

The Trash: My Way of Saying No to Darkness

Making up my mind to be certain that no one else had this kind of experience I grabbed the box and began to take it outside to the trash. My mother stopped me and thrust a box of sea salt in my direction. I took the board out to the trash can that stood in front of our house, the sun was not yet visible but it was growing more light. Smashing the board over my knee I told the demon the game was over and poured the sea salt over its broken remains while holding the intent for this portal to close.

I stayed up, camped out on our porch waiting for the trucks to take it away while my mom sprinkled sea salt in a stream all around the house. When the trucks came and took it away I knew it was finished and I went back inside and actually got some sleep.

Consequences of Choices

I was exhausted for several days after this experience. Later on in life I would come to find the scarring in the energy body surrounding my seventh chakra due to this event. It was a simple experience, a bad choice, with some very real consequences. Many kids play with stuff they don’t understand. My story is not at all uncommon.

Fortunately, I was strong enough to face the negativity I engaged with head on…my refusal to acknowledge the power of darkness and my absolute faith in the power of light really helped me here.

When I think back on this experience however, I feel doubtful that it would have happened at all if I (at the time) had possessed a conscious relationship with my spirit guides.

They were prompting me and trying to steer me away from it, but I consciously dismissed this as a kind of childish fear on my part. Seeing how at that age, we really want to be grown up…it is an easy trap to fall into.

Had I been consciously aware though of how my guides communicate with me…I would not have thought of it in that way.

Developing a Conscious Awareness of Your Guide Team

It took me a long time to realize that I had guides and even longer to learn how to communicate with them – much of which I learned by trial and error over a time of intense spiritual practice.

It sure would have been nice to have something to start out with!

Kick-Start Your Relationship with Your Guides

With that in mind, I’d like to offer a more empowered place to start by opening up to you my Spirit Guide Readings, click here to order!

Image By James Miller

The Meaning of Tears

Here they come again. Wet, hot tears…streaming down my face, wracking sobs buckle me over and I wonder once again why this would be? After all I knew this was coming, Grandma showed me everything I could want to know and more…so why am I overtaken like this.

Why don’t you ask the part of you who cries? Knowing-ness queried. Hmmm, I hadn’t thought of that. So I drop down inside, identify the part and I ask, what are you trying to tell me?

Rising up in front of my face very close is a red faced little girl. She’s me and she clenches her fist in my direction and shouts, Don’t you ever forget how much I love her! Don’t you ever forget her!

I draw her up in my arms and comfort her. I know you loved your Grandma, I love her too. It’s o.k. I’ll never forget. As I make this promise the feeling sinks back down to the depths from which it came.

Looking for a Sign

The last time I spiritually saw Grandma was on the day she died. I’ve felt her and heard her but could not detect her with my spiritual sight. I wondered at this; unconsciously looking for a sign.

Grandma’s Message

Then while listening to a new CD I got for Christmas I received one. “She’s Too Much”, played and I experienced the rising tears again. I told the part, I’ll always remember her and I’ll always love her but there was something more the part wanted me to know.

As I tuned into it I saw Grandma standing there…swaying to the music singing…

she’s gentle to the touch
she’s everything head-first
so happy to be causing trouble
sometimes the pressure gets too much
and you think she’s going to burst
and shatter like a Xmas bauble

I’ll be there when the world is coming down upon her
when she’s scared I’ll be there fighting in her corner
I’ll be there when the walls are closing to surround her
in the air as she falls with my arms around her
holding on I’m looking out for her thin skin
because she’s everything – and I don’t think she knows

She’s such a gentle touch
She’s too much a gentle touch

she likes to catch the sun
plays with it like a ball
and never mind whatever keeps it burning
someday she might just be the one
who’s going to save us all
if this apocalypse is coming

I’ll be there when the world is coming down upon her
when she’s scared I’ll be there fighting in her corner
I’ll be there when the walls are closing to surround her
in the air as she falls with my arms around her
holding on I’m looking out for her thin skin
because she’s everything – but I don’t think she knows
I don’t think she knows

she is such – a gentle touch – I don’t think she knows
she’s too much – the gentle touch – I don’t think she knows
she is such – a gentle touch – I don’t think she knows
she’s too much – the gentle touch

Lyrics: Simon Le Bon
Music: Duran Duran
© 2007 Skin Divers

The Queen of Hearts

My Grandma’s spirit is strong, her presence is more like that of the angels I’ve experienced than any other energy I’ve encountered so far.

In life she was always a source of cheer, love and protection. It would appear from her message that none of that has changed

Image Credit

Messages From Guides

Many signposts are written, many messages are sent…the question is how you do use the information you receive.

My guides tell me that they are always communicating with us, when I asked them about why I’ve had such heightened experiences with them over the past year they indicated it was because my awareness had grown to a level where I actually began to act on what I received in a way that allowed the experience to grow and they indicated that one of the biggest mistakes people make with their guides lies in the way that they attach meaning to the messages.

Like learning a new language, you have to wait for the context and just assume you don’t know. When I began to just hold what I received and take an attitude of curiosity about it, that’s when it really started to take off.

I feel that the final chapter of this series that commenced earlier in the year due to a psychic encounter with my great grandfather Ernest, illustrates this very well. You can find the previous entries in the series here: part one and part two.

Following Intuition

Ernest showed me scenes from his family’s passage from Denver to the town of Cedaredge, CO by train and the trunk that carried all of his belongings to their new homestead when he was just fourteen years of age.

Following his promptings to visit the area, I went to see my grandmother in August, arriving on her birthday. Since she could no longer speak to me due to advanced Alzheimer’s, I curled up next to her on the bed and communicated with her through the only method I had available to me…trance.

The first thing I noticed from years of burying my head into her for gigantic hugs as a child was the acidic undertone that hung against the comforting scent of the woman who had always been a second mother to me. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, my senses were the first to pick up the shifting energy.

My grandmother and I spoke for some time while I was in trance state. We hadn’t talked for long before she mentioned her dad coming to pick her up, showing me a mental movie of him walking through the door and herself as a child of about five running to his open arms for an embrace. He picked her up, gave me a nod and said, It’s time to go see mother. And with that he headed into the early winter evening with my grandmother in his arms toward a small house full of people waiting for them to arrive.

Loose Ends

On December 29th, I received an e-mail from my Aunt saying that my grandmother had given them a scare but seemed to be doing better now. I immediately went into meditation connecting with her only to find that everything was different…I knew she was dying.

My grandmother had been bedridden with Alzheimer’s for years. I always thought there must have been a reason for her to hang on all of this time. Even so, I was surprised to find her in turmoil when I entered her energy as she had been so congruent the last time I communicated with her. I asked her to show me what she was experiencing that was causing this distress.

A glowing scroll-like paper appeared and I knew immediately that all of this centered around some sort of spiritual contract that was still playing out in her energy. As I focused on it, the scene rolled out before me.

There was an inn-like structure in which my grandmother and another woman were holed up. A threat was underway and they were frightened for their lives. A man whom I recognized as one of my uncle’s entered the inn door through the shadows and was erroneously perceived as an enemy by my grandmother who stabbed and killed him.

I got the sense through all of this that my uncle was a very loved and respected man, so it was quite tragic and horrific to them losing him in this way.

In this life, however, the cycle was to play out differently. My uncle has had a troubled life from a very early age. My grandmother always tried to help and protect him, in fact he still lived with her up until the disease advanced beyond her ability to care for him. His anger and vehemence toward life was getting worse so they were separated by force before they got the chance to live out the remainder of their karmic debt.

In viewing this movie of their past life interaction I was gifted with a huge moment of understanding regarding their close bond in life. I called them to me and together we viewed what happened as a group, my grandmother to my right and my uncle to my left.

I mediated by talking about how hurting each other was never an intent but rather a result of circumstance and asked each of them if they were ready to rewrite this contract rather than allow it to play out again. From this vantage point in which they had more information it was easy for them to see how unnecessary it was to continue any further with it and the contract dissolved at the moment of their agreement.

Leaving or Getting Home?

Later on that day my grandmother died very quickly, and with ease. Her father had come to take her home on the same day he departed this earth 48 years before…just as she showed me he would.

When I look back on what I have experienced, I am very grateful that I acted on the information I was given with openness and curiosity about where it would lead because that is what allowed me to receive it fully. As a result, I was present for my grandmother’s last birthday which was immensely important to me. Had I doubted what I received I would have missed it and rationalized my way out of taking the trip. Instead, I did not allow the rational mind to come in and switch things off…so I was then able to be of assistance in clearing her karmic debt before she passed as well.

Paradigm Shift

On December 30th, my husband’s birthday, I received confirmation from my mom that grandma had gone. As a day that our family traditionally celebrates life, I thought it appropriate to buy a bouquet of lilies as a space holder for my grandmother. With their energy I created a place at our table for her to join us…and I know she’s with us still

When I think about life/death and time, I’m filled with awe. There is a reverence within me that accompanies thoughts of the void; the door that swings both ways through consciousness moving in and out of form in this dance that we describe as life.

This same deep, void is the pool from which our intuition springs…and perhaps therein lies some of the mystery. Every time I use my intuition I think of it as dipping into that pool and swimming with the universe which runs through every thing and every one I’ve ever loved. My thoughts for the new year revolve around swimming there often with curiosity and acceptance of whatever new adventures life brings.

Image Credit

When I first met Slade Roberson we had an immediate spiritual connection. I can only describe it as a very conscious recognition of spirit, as if, on another level we knew each other. This connection manifested in me asking him for an interview for this blog, a meeting with his guides regarding interview questions and lastly, scheduling a reading.

In each of these instances Slade was thinking something to which I responded, almost as if we had a spiritual short wave radio that we were using to listen to one another. I received my first reading from him a few days after I began my NLP Coaching course. I didn’t know what day he would do it, but was not surprised the morning I got the email because I was aware of another person’s presence (a distinct energy connection) the night before.

What was it like?

It was a journey. Together we traveled through the landscape of my energy toward a visual message that was meant for both of us. We met my main spirit guide, got a look at my god posse and discovered that we both serve the mother/goddess in the aspect of Mary…I would come to understand later the connection between her appearances to me and first chakra energy. Here is a segment of my reading:

I received a very detailed vision of visiting your Tower with you. You told me you had to “run upstairs to check something” and told me to look at a display case of what looked like trays of jewelry or pendants. You said “I want one of those” and ran off. I looked where you pointed and there were two pendants or amulets that appeared to be made of amber. They were shaped like honey bees, but were the size of carver or bumble bees — slightly larger than life-size.

They were gorgeous, and I thought, if Paula gets one, I’m getting the other one right beside it — I want one too! If you come back from San Francisco bearing some gorgeous new amber pendant, I’ll just die from jealousy! : ) Obviously, these are symbolic — I can’t imagine actually finding something like them physically existing… They were almost anatomically perfect, like tiny machines made of jewels or some material we don’t have the technology for. Well, I take that back, circuit boards and computer chips have a similar look and feel, really, in terms of physical material…

So, you came flying back down the stairs and grabbed my hand and said “I’ve got to show you something!” You were very excited. I followed you up this spiral stone staircase leading up into your Tower, and I was anticipating where you were going, but I was also reluctant to mention that I can only go so far up in my Tower — I can’t go out “on the roof” — at least, I haven’t been able to yet.

I was beginning to suspect you had discovered something I have not. Sure enough, the staircase went straight up to the ceiling and awkwardly ended. No door or window. There was a landing at the top, like there SHOULD be a door or window, but the space between the landing and the ceiling was barely half-a-foot high.

You said “Watch this!” You had just “watched someone else do this trick” and had apparently tried it, and very quickly returned to find me and show me:

You laid down and inched/crawled into that space between the landing and the ceiling — barely room to squeeze your body into it. It looked incredibly uncomfortable, claustrophobic… I was like “Paula, what are you…?”

Red-faced and barely able to breathe you shouted back “No! Watch this!” And right before my eyes you pushed yourself up against the ceiling, like doing a push-up and BIRTHED yourself through the ceiling and vanished. Like a caterpillar erupting through the skin of a cocoon.

The ceiling is an illusion. After you went through it, it returned to looking like a hard surface. But I know now that you have discovered a way to another level.

Slade literally saw me go through the roof of my tower and that is an appropriate visual comparison to what I have been experiencing.

What Does the Bee Mean?

The bee piece resonated with me so strongly I was surprised by my reaction when I read it. Around the same time as the reading, I picked up a chakra book at the East West Bookstore in Mountain View, CA when I was in training. I had no idea at the time that I would find a part of my answer to the bee there.

(From Wheels of Light)
The image of the bumblebee is found in Crete and Egypt. In Crete the queen bee symbolized the mother goddess who created everything, nurtured everything, and was the reason for being. In Egypt, the bumblebee was a sign of the female pharaoh, the southern part of Egypt or the Upper Nile.

The bee and other insects that move like a bee have a rhythmic movement in their legs and in their antennae. This movement relates to the first center. When that movement becomes exaggerated and accelerated it is then associated with flight. In people, when internal movement (or energetic vibration) becomes rapid, it can be said that we are “flying”. We are lifting and moving, expanding and growing in a way that we had not been doing before. Because of this association, the sound of buzzing is often related to the opening of the kundalini. Consequently, the bumblebee became symbolic of the first chakra in the ancient world.

Understanding Symbolism in Readings

Slade has a way with symbolism and reads authentically. He is his own physic in every sense and has a distinct style and ability mixed with straight forward honesty, curiosity and wonder at what he will learn.

My experience with him was a surprise, the information right on and the connection profound. Do I know all of what it meant? Yes, actually I do, so I will leave you with this last quote from my reading as food for thought.

It’s not lost on me that Jeff Lilly had a vision he wrote about that involved a mechanical bee. What do I think this bee is?

Well, I think it’s some totem that we share. I think it’s connected to technology and human ascension. As a devotee of Mary, I believe the bee represents something she stresses to me about human ascension — that we don’t ascend individually — we’re meant to ascend collectively. Is the bee perhaps a metaphor for the hive mind, the collective social structure, connectivity, our new technologically enhanced democratic communication?

These are my theories. Any honey bee action going on in your world?

I flew into Denver International Airport on a mission to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday and to explore psychic messages I received from my great grandfather. In order to begin this adventure I would need a car, so I made my way over to Alamo early on Saturday morning wondering what I would discover. The first discovery was that renting a car is not a speedy process , the second was that two year olds can be extraordinarily affectionate (as my cousin’s daughter showered me with hugs) and the third was the true meaning of home…

The Original Message

My great grandfather was a Stolte of Cedaredge, CO. He moved to the area when he was fourteen with his family and helped them homestead 80 acres of land that in time became a productive orchard operation.

When he contacted me earlier this year he sent me several images; an old steam train, an airplane, a travel trunk and an image of an old farmhouse stamped with a heart. He told me to go…and showed the trunk opening to something that felt wonderful.

Based on these images I spoke with my aunt who lives in the area. Aside of my grandmother (who now has Alzheimer’s) my aunt remembers the family history having heard their stories from her mother and her aunts for the many years she lived nearby and visited them. I described the travel trunk to her and she identified it as my great grandfather’s. It was actually in her possession for a time but was now in very bad shape and in a place that just isn’t accessible to us…my original intent was to be open to the experience and see where it would lead. With that in mind, I went to the link between us and the real reason that I came.

Visiting Grandma

While visiting my grandmother I connected to her energy and sat sending images of birthday cakes (it was her birthday) and the old family structures I had spent the previous day visiting, right down to the taste of an orchard peach I purchased less than a mile away from her family orchards. It was then that the scene changed and I found myself in a room with her. She looked much as I remembered when we lived together. My grandmother never went anywhere without putting on her lipstick…always leaving traces of it on my cheeks, so when she kissed me hello without it I teased her and asked her why she didn’t have any on. She said she didn’t need it because she wasn’t going anywhere until her dad came to pick her up.

Then she showed me an image like a movie displaying before us. I saw my great grandfather open the door and my grandmother as a child of about five run to him. He bent down and engulfed her in a hug, picked her up and said, it’s time to go see mother (my grandmother lost her mother to surgery when she was very young). They waved and exited through the open door, I followed to stand and watch them walk up toward the same farm house he had previously shown me imprinted with a heart. Her brothers and sisters were all there seated around their mother waiting for their father’s return.

The scene closed and I was back with my grandmother lying in the nursing home bed. They got her up to eat and I went and sat with her, smoothing her forehead, relaxing the muscles in her tightened brow. She remained relaxed and happy until I announced it was time to leave. She furrowed her brow once again and I kissed her goodbye, knowing that love transcends our physical reality…that the bonds we create are not dependent on time, they are spiritual and they operate on laws of their own. In some space and place the intense love that this family held for each other lives on…and has created a home. A home of the human heart and soul…

Home

Witnessing this I ponder some of the ways in which we humans shine with beauty…we shine through our care and concern for one another….our capacity to help, to share our human experience, joy in one another and our love of this amazing adventure we call life. To me home is any place where I have experienced intense connection and love…what does home mean to you?

Considering how much people all over the world loved Diana, sharing my encounter with her is not something I do without a form of hesitation. It is only through Diana’s reassurance that this is the reason she came to me (attracted by my main spirit guide Laura, a powerful queen of stately measure accustomed to aristocracy) and the trust I have developed in my own psychic experiences and urges that I do this…my personal growth would suffer if I did not…so really it wasn’t much of a choice

Diana wants people to know the soul behind the face of the beloved princess, her purpose for entering our world and that she is with us still…impacting us in an even bigger way now, from beyond.

Opening the Channel

This encounter started with a treadmill routine which isn’t all that shocking considering that I use the treadmill to raise my vibration as long time readers know from my good vibrations post.

It is fair to say that some of my most unusual psychic experiences actually occur while I am working out. This event in particular began with an onslaught of images from my life dramatically displayed. Right outta nowhere, I was shown pivotal people in specific interactions, was flooded with a full gambit of intense emotions and witnessed soul rings in formation. I was taken by such surprise that I backed out of the scene for a moment…the images were disturbing to me but at the same time it didn’t feel like I was viewing real sequences from my own life but rather someone was using creative images of my life to communicate with me…why are you showing me this? I asked, talking to my higher self and guides.

In a claircognizant moment I knew. Diana, the Princess of Wales, was trying to communicate with me. I had inadvertently opened a channel to her while gazing at her photo when I picked up a Reader’s Digest from the floor to put it away, prior to my workout.

She expected me to immediately end my routine to communicate with her…when I did not, she adopted a sideways posture in which she turned her back to me in a slightly indignant manner and said, it is not everyday that an intuitive gets a visit from the Princess of Wales! We both laughed at the petulant quality of this statement. Admittedly it isn’t an everyday occurrence, that much is true, but seeing how she came to me for a reason I felt it was best to prepare. She agreed and the conversation below, followed…

Interview with a Princess

PK: What do you want to tell us?

Diana: The truth.

PK: Did you choose to be a Princess?

Diana: Yes. It was all part of the design. It is important for people to know that there is a circle of tightly bound connected souls in my life…we came with interconnected purposes…we agreed to have certain relationships with one another for the benefit of those purposes. To them and that purpose I am bound still.

I chose to be born into the family I was for a reason. I chose to experience an emotionally painful life so that the privilege, which was necessary to accomplish my mission, would not interfere with it.

One could say that my physical self could not take this world, but my spiritual self was inseparably connected to it. I absorbed the pain of my fellow humans, developing a deep connection to the world’s suffering…yet only partially knew how to answer this. I was aware of my life purpose as a humanitarian, but I had difficulty sustaining that purpose without the status and station which supported those efforts. When I lost what my insecure physical self had used as an identity, I entered the collapse of that self and lost my grounding.

My life ending how and why it did is viewed as tragic because so many were on some level aware of and responding to me. Death to the personality means the end, but it does not work that way in actuality. I am still working, using the love that was generated within my lifetime to stir people.

People responded to me because deep down inside they knew that I was here to expand their ability to love and care for one another…it had little to do with Princess Di.

PK: Do you consider your life to be tragic?

Diana: No not at all. It was filled with pain but that is not tragic. I’ve spent a lot of time wandering other places in this world – everywhere there is pain. I still work to fulfill my soul’s mission to end the madness and help human beings return to a place where they no longer damage one another.

PK: You say return, that implies we’ve been there already?

Diana: Yes, we have been…but when we take on physical form we forget. We become locked in patterns. I came to help break some of those patterns, to change people’s thinking and to open their eyes to the fact that what happens in the world…happens to us all. My life and death were a perfect example of that.

PK: What does the life of Diana mean?

Diana: It means perfection is not required to make a difference in the world. It doesn’t end with physical reality. Don’t think about whether or not you can…just open your heart and participate.

PK: What do you want to say about how you are remembered?

Diana: I am here. I watch people and reach my hands into the physical world through their memories. The connection is profound and it is one that I am working through every time I am recalled, remembered, talked about, written about or referenced. Remember me…but more importantly remember why I came.

Erin’s goals revolve around taking her understanding and insight into the worlds of energy and consciousness and using them to help human beings achieve universal love, awareness and peace. In the following interview Erin talks about her mission, developing her psychic ability and remembering where she came from…

PK: What are some of the techniques that you found the most helpful for developing your psychic abilities (i.e. exercises to stretch your awareness, meditations, etc.)?

Erin: Consciously listening to my intuition was the first step. I actually practiced listening to my intuition. The more I did this, the stronger it became. It got to a point where my intuition was like a guide riding around on my shoulder warning me of danger or guiding me through tough situations. Once I mastered that type of communication, I did a guided meditation to find my higher self. Being able to talk to her directly allowed me to tune in to my purpose more easily. She helped me develop my “antenna,” so to speak, so that I could hear and see other helpers from the ether such as angels, spirit guides, and celestial beings. Once that door was opened it was just a matter of turning up the volume on my “psychic radio” and tuning to the right frequencies. I do a lot of work on my chakras, and I still visit with my higher self several days per week to see if she’s got any messages for me and to make sure I’m still on the right path. I always seek to stretch my awareness. Lucid dreaming and the occasional astral projection help me stay conscious.

PK: Where did you learn these techniques (i.e. who has influenced your development)?

Erin: In my teen years I used to read a lot of occult books. I was interested in astrology, psychic development, crystals, ghosts, past lives … pretty much anything in the New Age section. Shirley Maclaine’s Out on a Limb series did a lot for my interest in all things psychic. But I’ve always been very self motivated to learn, study, and understand the paranormal because I was having so many experiences as a child.

However, since becoming a professional psychic medium I’ve begun trying to study from more established people like John Edward, James Van Praagh, Gordon Smith, Doreen Virtue, and John Holland. I’ve learned a little something from reading each of their stories, but I’m also finding that my path is very unique. My guides train and teach me most of what I know. And I learn a lot just from experience and practice.

PK: I’ve heard psychics refer to their guides taking them through something similar to a spiritual training class. Please describe this process, how it starts and your personal ideas about initiating such training with your guides.

Erin: When I first began doing psychic work for others, not just myself, at first I was only hearing snippets of information, like a one-line message for people I was reading for. I was very clairaudient at that point, so I could hear spirit communication easily. But I told my guides I needed to be able to see, as well, so that I could accurately describe deceased family members coming through during a reading. They facilitated that, but I had to make sure I was open to it too. As I got going with the readings, my guides literally showed me how to tune in better. They took me up a celestial staircase that led to a White Room. I call it the White Room because it is just pure light in there. Inside is a special guide that helps me tune in specifically during readings. Occasionally my guides will inject a new technique or take me to a new place to do a reading; to connect at a higher level.

When I first started receiving communication from deceased relatives, they would come to me in my White Room. But I was unable to find them on my own; I had to wait for them to come to me. So I worked with my guides on finding a way to reach out to deceased relatives that had crossed over long ago and were not hovering. I still can’t force anyone to come through, but I’m able to “call long distance” now.

PK: Has your psychic ability been forged through the process of ‘remembering where you came from’?

Erin: Definitely. For many years I had this memory of where I was before I incarnated. I could remember the conversation I had with my guides and other wise beings about what I would do while incarnated. But during my whole life I thought that couldn’t possibly be a true memory. When I finally opened myself up to the idea that it could be is when I finally started to embrace the yearnings I had to help others. I didn’t know it would take the form of being a psychic medium, and I still consider this ability to be just one tool in my belt. My true mission is to help bring this planet back to a state of love, peace, and compassion; to remind us all that we are One, and that what we do to others we are really doing to ourselves. When you remember where you came from you remember who you are. You remember that we are all One. And you stop hurting others.

PK: How has this changed your life and what do you hope this remembrance will give to others?

Erin: I believe that if people remember where we all come from they will immediately stop harming each other and our planet. A great awakening and shift in consciousness will take place. And that’s what I’m here to help facilitate, as are many of the Lightworkers on this planet who are incarnated now.

PK: I view psychic ability as reading energy. My experience with it is that you tune in to your truth if experiencing your own energy or the truth of the energy of the person you are reading. This energy is translated into something that your spiritual senses can receive. People often ask if what is received can be proven or is true. My take is that truth is relative and that what is received is what is needed to help someone to move forward in a particular area of their life…their truth may not be another person’s truth…but the part of them that knows will look inward and they will see something that clicks with their path and where they want to go. What is your understanding of this concept?

Erin: When I tune in to someone’s higher self, guides, and angels, they pretty much just tell me what they most want my sitter to know. The very first thing I do in a reading is let the guides speak to my sitter. The message they share is so important to the overall well-being of my sitter. Usually the message connects very specifically with my sitter’s main reason for contacting me. But sometimes the message is something they were not expecting and they sometimes want to reject it. By the end of the reading, or maybe even a week or two later, they usually get the message. It’s life-changing! It’s like finding out the corridor you were following is going to lead to a dead end and having the opportunity to correct your course before you have to experience that dead end. I’ve had people tell me that their guides’ message helped them more than years of therapy ever did. Your guides know you. They can see what you’re doing and where you’re headed. And they can help you make course corrections. One reading can save you years of heartache.

As for proof and validation, when I am tuned in the guides will often provide my sitter with some profound validation that I am indeed speaking to a higher being. Recently during a reading someone asked, “What can you tell me about my health?” I immediately heard one word shouted at me: “thyroid.” So I asked her if she had a thyroid condition. She said, “God, you’re good! That’s my problem exactly. I have Grave’s disease.” Some people ask me, “How did you know?” To which I reply, “I didn’t. They did.” I only pass on what I hear.

I am honored and privileged to do this work. I am grateful every day to my higher self, guides and angels, and to Source for supporting and allowing me to help people on their paths. It fulfills an agreement I made before I incarnated, an agreement I take very seriously.

Erin Pavlina
“Remember Where You Came From”
www.erinpavlina.com

I hope you enjoyed these conversations with Erin Pavlina. I encourage anyone who wants to open up to their own psychic abilities and/or god connections to book a reading with her and have blogged about my own experiences after having done so. On that note I’ll end this post with a message that came through when I connected with Erin’s guides to formulate the questions for this interview:

“Light and dark are two paths to the same place…learn to love them both equally. Embrace the darkness and love it, enjoy it as truly as you enjoy the light…do this and you will overcome fear…no dark place can hold any power in the light of love…a person who truly loves all is the source of their own light.”