02/27/19

---

Ever since I first went public with my psychic abilities, I have been beset with questions from “non-believers” who were either curious about what I do or felt that it threatened their established religious beliefs. Yes, I have been called a puppet of Satan more than once. (I guess that would really upset me if I believed in Satan, but that’s another story.) Especially in our line of work, there will always be detractors. How we react and how we respond will ultimately reflect on how we are perceived by others. 

The Ethics of Spirituality

The other night my wife and I were watching one of our favorite shows, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.  His topic on this episode happened to be Psychics and Mediums. Being primarily a comedy show, he reveled in his humorous attempt to debunk all psychics and readers in a single half hour segment of his show. While he went about showing clips that supported his position that all psychics are frauds, I initially found myself getting defensive and even angry at the out-of-context misrepresentations he offered. That’s when I realized that his perception was totally legitimate…from his experience and interpretation. 

Do you remember, several years ago, an organization called ”The Psychic Friends Network”? For the small fee of $1.99 per minute you could talk to one of their psychics (usually for 30 to 60 minutes) who would divine a profound reading for you. These were not actual psychics (surprise surprise). They read from a formulated text of tested “Cold Reading” questions and responses. I often said, quite sarcastically, that if they were actually real, they would call ME! 

In the early 20th Century, there was a huge spiritualist movement. Literally thousands of people, around the world, were billing themselves as psychics and mediums. Many of these so-called psychics were exposed as charlatans and frauds whose “seances” turned out to elaborate hoaxes playing on the deep emotions of the extensive losses following WWI and the 1918 influenza pandemic. Even the famous Harry Houdini devoted the latter part of his life to debunking the fakes, going so far as to petition the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to ban the practice of spiritualism. The fact is that, to this day, there are far too many people out there who advertise themselves as psychics who are merely showmen. And, THAT is the problem.

In my book, “Connections: A Journey to Understanding,” I devote a lengthy chapter to the ethics of our practice. Ethics is also an essential module in my live and on-line seminars. Cold Readings (playing 20 questions), Hot Readings (getting relevant information before the reading), Ambush Readings (giving unsolicited readings to unsuspecting strangers), and more are, unfortunately, practiced too often in order to heighten the theatrical spectacle of what is actually a deeply spiritual ability. 

The people who I have had the privilege of reading for will tell you that I take great pains to ensure that the read is “clean.” By that, I mean that I always ask that no one give me prior information about who, what, when, where, why, or how of what they expect to hear. I don’t want to know their expectations. I allow the guides to answer their needs. I ask the clients to refrain from verbal, audible, or physical responses to anything I may say during the read portion of the sessions. In most cases, I close my eyes or turn away so that I am not influenced by their body language. I have them write down their observations and reactions as well as recording the sessions for future review. We discuss the reading only after it is completed.

Sometimes the information that is delivered has no relevance to the client at that moment. That’s OK. I have often delivered messages about events that haven’t happened yet. Sometimes the information that is delivered is not for that client at all. That’s OK, too. Occasionally the message is for another family member or acquaintance. And, there have been times that I let my own “logic and reason” slip in and offer an interpretation of the message. (Find me a doctor who has never misdiagnosed a symptom.) Far more often than not, however, profoundly specific and accurate details come through that I could not possibly have known otherwise.

Unfortunately, there are practitioners in every profession who exploit what they do purely for personal profit. It is, therefore, incumbent on us always practice the highest level of professional ethics. Does this mean that we should never charge money for what we do? Tell your physician that, because she is supposed to be helping people with her abilities, she should not send you a bill for her services. Yeah, right! Good luck with that. Yes, we have a gift. But the gift goes both ways. The good works you do will sustain you.

Fortunately, I am, by no means, the only ethical psychic/medium out there. There are more and more of us who are dedicated to the purity and honesty of the work that we do. So, now when I hear skepticism and criticism of what we the psychics and mediums do, I look at it as an opportunity to step back, reexamine, reassess, and look for ways to improve the information about and delivery of my work. Remember that, on this physical plane, we are all judged by the ethics we demonstrate in whatever profession we practice.

P.S. I invite John Oliver to call, text, or email me anytime.

We are entering into the time of the Gathering. Those of us who embrace our abilities are coming forward to help guide those who are just beginning to remember. It is time to rise above the fears we have learned throughout this physical life. We have learned to fear those who speak to spirits or demonstrate intuitive insight or heal with touch. We fear others who look differently, speak differently, act differently, or love differently. We weren’t born with these fears. We learned them from our parents, our siblings, our peers, our societies. Knowledge and understanding are the only things that can conquer fear.

Step Back and Remember

In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” This passage is often used as a lesson for life that we should “grow up and be an adult.” Unfortunately, our teachers too often leave out the next verse, “For now we see in a mirror, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Growing up is not denying who we are, but rather, facing it and realizing that we are, indeed, so much more than the physical body we inhabit. 

When I was a kid, my friend Joey and I would often go out on our bikes for adventures around the old factories in our part of the city. On one of these rides, I happened to notice, just ahead of me in the road, an old wrench partly covered in the dirt. I hollered to Joey to hold up while I reached down to retrieve the tool. Joey’s eyes got very wide as, rather than my bending over to reach the ground, the wrench came up to my outstretched hand. I didn’t even realize what had happened until Joey described what he had just seen. 

I had used Telekinesis. I didn’t think about it. I just did it. The ability of the spiritual energy that is within all of us to move solid objects has been well documented. It is only one of many so-called psychic abilities that we all possess. These abilities defy societal norms and, as such, are often considered weird, dangerous, or “demonic” by the institutions of the status-quo. 

When we were children, we were fearless. We could do or be anything we envisioned. Society taught us that it was just our imagination, and that, as we grew, we would learn to accept the “reality” of our 3-dimensional lives. And we did learn. We learned to accept the fear of being “different”. We lost sight of who we really are. Step back and remember. Accept once again that we are greater than the “we” we have been programmed to see.

Are you suffering from Chronic Mortality? It’s that unfortunate syndrome that affects each and every one of us, beginning at the moment of birth. In her latter years, my mother often lamented her advanced age. She would say things like, “Old age ain’t for sissys,” or “It’s no fun getting old.” I assured her that getting older [sic. aging] was, in fact, a condition that we all must endure. Getting old, however, is a choice. 

I have been called an old soul. I do believe that I have been here many, many times before. How old am I? By earth reckoning, hundreds if not thousands of millennia. By Source reckoning, only NOW.

Why Are We Here?

This 3-dimentional planet, in its 3-dimentional solar system, in its 3-dimentional galaxy, etc., etc. What or who brought us here, and for what purpose? As I have come to realize, we, each brought ourselves here by choice, and of our own free will. This lifetime is collection of lessons that we have signed up for. 

If we are all connected to the great Akashic field of all knowledge of all time, then why would we need to experience anything at all? Having access to information and knowing what to do with it are two very different things. The internet gives us access to the sum total of human understanding as it is at any given moment. How do we process and utilize that information? In my previous career In my previous career as a school teacher, I presented specific information to the students that I believed would enable them to perform a given task. I didn’t expect all of them to be able to proficiently perform that task merely by reading about it or listening to my lecture. Therefore, I also set up an opportunity for them to practice the task, guided at first and then, ultimately, independently. I did not create a scenario in which there is no chance for failure. 

Trial and error, failure and success, these steps lead us to a better understanding of what it is that we are fundamentally tying to accomplish. I could write a three-page explanation of the dynamics of a hammer; the mass of the head, the trajectory of the swing, the transfer of kinetic energy from the head of the hammer to the head of the nail, and so on. None of it will enable the reader to successfully drive the nail into a board until the reader has applied the technique on an actual nail with an actual hammer in hand. How many of us (oh yes, me included) have bent the nail?

This is why we are here - to physically experience the bit of knowledge we want to learn. And, this is why we come back, over and over again, to this and countless other planets (or other 3-dimensional planes of existence) to learn our lessons. With each lesson, we gain a better understanding or ourselves. We are capable of incredible good, as well as indescribable bad. We can give, and we can take. Learning about the consequences of our actions and how they impact us is an essential part of the lesson. Whatever we do to another, inevitably impacts ourselves. 

Too often, however, we don’t realize and understand what that impact was until we transition back to Source and assess the lesson. Learning how to truly learn what we are learning, while we are still here, that is the real lesson. That is why we are here.