The presenter asked us all to close our eyes and take a moment to mentally ask our partner's loved ones in spirit to connect with us. My partner, a middle-aged woman, sat across from me. I closed my eyes and immediately I felt this woosh of energy, as if I was being lifted or stretched upwards. Then, in my mind's eye, I saw a man. He was like a bear; big and tall, with dark hair. When I mentally asked him for more info about who he was to my partner, he proceeded to give me the most mind-blowing feeling of love for this woman. The feeling was so overwhelming, I felt high on it. I shared everything I was sensing with my partner, and she in turn, through tears, told me that this was her husband. Before the workshop ended I had this incredible urge to hug her; not for me, and not for her, but for him.

This was my very first time doing mediumship in a conscious way; in an hour-long workshop at a psychic fair. The rest of the day I felt like I was glowing. I felt like I was on track. I was 19 years old, living in Oslo, Norway at the time, but I knew that mediumship would play a big part in my life. Whenever someone asks me when I first realized I was a medium, this is the moment I think back to. But of course, the answer is usually more complicated than that. It wasn't a big shock for me to find out that I could connect to dead people.

You see, I was always interested in anything to do with the world of woo-woo when I was younger. When I was a child I loved everything to do with fantasy: dragons, witches, and fairies were my favorite. Then, when I was 12 years old I went to visit my dad in Florida for a few months, where he lived with a woman named Lady Christopher. Lady C was an animal communicator who went on boats to communicate with wild dolphins and whales. She was a healer. She was a psychic and medium. Her house was filled with exotic rescued animals, and two wolf-dogs. It was like one big magical party. My soul said yes to all of it.

I dove head first into books on meditation and divination. Lady C's friend Frannie, also a medium, came to stay while I was there. Frannie gave me a book she had written about her experience communicating with a little boy who had drowned. She also gave me two of her guided meditation cassettes that involved connecting with angels. I was also introduced to the book "The Mists of Avalon", and once I finished it, I was propelled into the world of Wicca and neo-paganism.

When I went back to Norway, still 12 years old, that whole world of spirituality became my whole world. I steeped in it for years, always searching for more, though becoming a medium was never a goal I had set for myself specifically. I just knew that I had to move closer in this direction: the pull was too strong.

Throughout that time I still managed to be completely ignorant of just how sensitive I myself was to energy (leading to a psychiatric diagnosis), but that is a whole other story that I promise to share in one of my next posts.

For now, I hope you all have a lovely week.

P.S. This Saturday I will be at another psychic fair, offering readings! It's the Yule Metaphysical fair in Corvallis, Oregon, and admission to the fair is free! On Sunday I will be doing another mediumship audience reading in Portland, Oregon. I hope to see some of you there!

For me, November has always been a month for turning inward and conserving my energy. No matter how well-laid my plans are, if it's November, I can be pretty sure that I won't get most of those plans done. When something isn't meant to happen, the universe will find a way to put the breaks on it.

My colleague Anna Blossom and I were to do a blogtalk radio show last Thursday, and despite both of us having had crazy days we decided to forge ahead. Well, our plan of radio had to switch to a Facebook live instead, but trying to get Anna to join the live with me became a disaster as her computer decided to all sorts of updates right then. Then as I was guiding everyone through a short meditation on the live, my internet decided to go on strike. So we naturally planned to try the next day, but it just wasn't working out then either. I originally decided to try again on my own the day after that, but I had a feeling I needed to conserve my energy for our upcoming audience reading event on Sunday. My old self would have stubbornly tried again, but I am luckily getting better at going with the flow of energy. We all go through cycles of energy, of creation and of rest. Fighting against those cycles just makes everything that much harder for yourself. 

On Sunday, we had our audience reading. (I wrote about our last one here). This time we had Joshua-John DeLorenzo with us as well, so we were back to our Spirit-Squad trio. Last time we did an event at Healing Waters and Sacred spaces we had 31 people, and because the space is so small, it got pretty stuffy and a little claustrophobic. So this time we decided to cap our ticket sales to just 25 people. Somehow 28 people managed to buy tickets before I could stop it, and then when we got to our event, an additional 3 people showed up without having pre-purchased tickets, so we ended up with exactly 31 people again. 

I love doing audience readings. With a big group like this, we don't get to everyone unfortunately, but it's still a great low-cost way to experience mediumship for those who can't afford a full reading or are just curious about it. We get to demonstrate how mediumship works, and demonstrate that our loved ones are still around and continue to love us from the other side.

Before an audience reading, we generally like to meditate, to help us get centered and ready to connect to the other side. It can take a lot of energy to do readings like this, so I also like to make sure that I eat something first. On the suggestion from Joshua-John, I have also started to drink some caffeine before events, because it helps raise my energy more. I notice a big difference since starting to do this. (I wouldn't necessarily recommend this if you are prone to anxiety though.) I also like to smudge with sage and palo santo. It helps clear the energy and prepares the space.

The great thing about working with friends is that it's really easy to get into a silly mood, as making jokes and laughing together helps us raise our vibration and connect higher. If I am working on my own, I will usually dance around a little before the event, to get me into a brighter mood.

The event went great, and I am grateful that so many people come out to see us each time. Afterwards, I got a bite to eat with Anna. After a big group reading I am always hungry, even if I ate right before the event. I also will almost always get a low back ache, and physically feel quite tired.

Our next event will be on December 3rd, and you can pre-purchase tickets here. This time it will be just Joshua-John and myself. We are also continuing our plans of doing more blogtalk radio shows with free readings. We have planned our next attempt to be on December 10th, so keep a look out for that. I will post the link on my facebook page a little closer to the date.

I hope you all have a lovely week of thanks-giving and fun!

For the past week or so, I did quite a few heavy animal communication readings. Readings with very old animals, animals close to passing, and animals who have just passed through seemingly traumatic deaths. It has been a reminder that I wouldn't necessarily recommend pursuing a career as a psychic medium or animal communicator if you really don't like having a lot of pressure on you. This work is not easy, on many accounts. It isn't necessarily fun all the time either. It is sacred work, yes. A lot of the time it is lots of fun. But it ain't always easy.

Psychic readings can often include themes like grief, guilt, pain, abuse, depression... Serious life-issues. It can be a lot to sort through and provide insight into and ways out of, in just an hour's session. Sometimes some really important questions come up, but that also have quite of bit of pressure to them. For example, how did a pet truly pass? The pressure comes with the owner feeling immense guilt from the question of whether or not they could have prevented their pet's death. Another example is a question of whether or not a missing family member is still alive. These are some heavy questions that carry a lot of responsibility for the person answering them.

In questions such as whether or not someone a missing person is alive or passed, I always make it very clear to the client that I should not be used as their sole answer for this question, and they shouldn't make any drastic decisions based on what comes up in our reading, because I could be wrong. It's important that every psychic be clear on this possibility, because so many people take what we say as complete truth, when they don't realize that everything in a reading is subject to interpretation from both the psychic and the client. If a psychic says that they are 100% right all the time, then I would run the other way (because that is one giant sign of a fraud).

Psychics are people too, and a reading can be influenced by so many things. I will write more about this in the future, but for now I wanted to mention that the typical Hollywood depiction of  psychic mediums as super-humans who walk around knowing everything about everything is not accurate, and psychics should never be used as a replacement for professional help (whether that be medical, psychological, financial, etc etc). It is incredibly important to have strong ethics in this work.

As the psychic medium, I am not only connecting to the spirit who has passed or the client's spirit guides or animal: since I am opening up to sensing the non-physical, I also sense by default some of the client's own energy, their emotions, their fears, their nerves... It's important as the psychic to distinguish between what is just the client's fears or hopes about the situation, and what is the actual truth of the situation. 

I also will sometimes feel connected to a client for hours after a session is done. This is just part of being psychic, of feeling when someone is thinking about you a lot. Some days I will have to continually break my energetic connection with a client after a session, just so I don't have to walk around feeling them working through the issues brought up in the session. It also took me a while to figure out that a lot of the anxiety and nervousness I was feeling before doing a reading belonged to the client I was about to meet. Once I realized that half of it wasn't even mine, I was better able to relax and ground before a session.

I am often asked if this work is draining. My usual answer is that no, it isn't usually draining at all. Some days I might wish I had a job with zero pressure, but even if this job can be hard, I also feel filled up when I do this work. Because even though I do have to wade through quite a few heavy topics, I also get to feel some amazing things, such as the unbelievable love a spirit has for their loved ones left behind, or the absolute joy and humor of those on the other side. And being part of a problem-solving process, of helping people through their serious issues. Of helping people through their grief. Of illuminating ways in which to shift things. It's an incredible honor to be apart of all this.

In other news I am continuing on my journey of healing my self through a type of elimination diet, and am learning something new every week about my body and what foods have been causing problems for me (even 'healthy' foods). It also has been a lot clearer what foods have been affecting my energy levels in a negative way or causing foggy thinking, which also really affects my readings. I just figured out that a probiotic that I started taking a week ago was giving me increased body pain, foggy brain, mild depression, and headaches. I switched to a different brand now and am feeling great again.

I hope you all have a lovely uplifting week. I myself am feeling quite excited about this week. The energy feels lighter. The readings so far this week have been upbeat. The weather is milder. If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, then I will be doing another mediumship audience reading with two other mediums this Sunday the 19th. Click here if you want more info on that. We also plan on doing a blogtalk radio show this Thursday the 16th, at 7:30pm PST. We'll be taking callers live and doing some readings. If you go and like my facebook page, I will post the link there on Thursday.

Warmly,
Thea

Yesterday was one of those slow days. I usually get up around 6:30am to get some work done in the mornings before everyone gets up. I might answer emails, work on class materials, follow-up with clients. Yesterday however I overslept about an hour, and since then I have just been slowly moving around getting only the basics done.

Langer describes mindfulness as the practice of actively noticing new things. This practice puts you in the present, engages you, and is literally enlivening. This practice is different from meditation, in that meditation focuses on eventually bringing mindfulness into your daily life, while noticing new things is the direct practice of mindfulness in your daily life.

I am currently putting together an online course on developing your intuitive abilities for your daily life. This concept of mindfulness is a huge part of actually utilizing your already working intuition. (Believe it or not, we are all intuitive beings, with well-functioning psychic abilities. It's just that most of us are unaware of it, don't pay attention to it, or sabotage it). Your intuition is always on, but becoming more mindful of it and how it expresses itself within you is key to utilizing it.

So how do we do that? Well, meditation is one way to practice mindfulness. Once you begin practicing it every day, you create a habit of it, so that it's easier for your brain to naturally slip into that mindfulness state in your day to day life. Another way is to practice mindfulness in the way that Langer describes in the podcast above. Make a practice of noticing new things. New things around you, in your thoughts, in your senses. Become more present to what you are actually thinking about or feeling, and you will begin to notice the energy you are already picking up on. You notice a thought of your cousin pop up out of the blue? That's probably your intuition bring to your attention something going on with your cousin.

There's of course a lot more to developing your intuition into a reliable resource in your daily life, and I am excited to share my class with you all. In the meantime, stay warm and I hope you all have a lovely rest of your week!

Warmly,
Thea