Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Lose - Part 1

Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Lose - Part 1

Synopsis;
This is a 2 part article about how you can learn from losing,
often learning more than from winning.

On Monday July 12, 2010, I had a Psychic/ Mediumship
reading scheduled for a woman and her son.
It was the Monday before my weekend workshop
with James Van Praagh at Omega
and I was excited about the weekend
and looked forward to doing this reading,
just as I look forward to every reading I do.

I view doing a “reading” with a combination of emotions;
from anticipation of the unknown
to dread of being inaccurate in the reading;
from the satisfaction of having people walk away from my office
happier than they were when they came in;
to the satisfaction of knowing that the work a Medium does,
is for those who are in spirit, more than those
who are still here on the earth plane.

This is how I looked forward to this reading.
I wanted to do the very best I could
for both the sitters (the mother and her son)
and for their deceased loved ones.

I have learned from years of classes and readings
that one of the biggest obstacles to a great reading is your own ego.
I learned that weekend from James Van Praagh
that EGO is an acronym for “Edging Out God”.

A new Medium is always concerned if the
images, thoughts, symbols, etc.
that they receive are from “the source”
or from their own mind or imagination.

I refer to this as the “From Me/ To Me” dilemma.
It is usually an ego conflict;
“Will I look stupid?”,
“Am I making this stuff up?”

These internal questions fade with experience and confidence.

The experience of doing more readings,
reinforces the perceptions a psychic has
as to where the information he is getting, comes from;

either from his own mind or imagination
which is in no way psychic at all
and is purely guessing, also known as “Cold Reading”;

or

the sitter (the person being read);
their mind, energy or aura which is the definition of a psychic reading;

or

from the energy of a spirit’s consciousness
which is the definition of a Psychic/Mediumship reading.

As a psychic does more and more readings,
he learns to distinguish between the “From Me / To ME” dilemma
and soon only focuses on the “To Me”
and can detach from the ego driven “From Me” thoughts.

With that distinction, he begins to gain the confidence he will need to do accurate readings.

I have witnessed incredibly gifted Mediums like
John Edward, John Holland and James Van Praagh,
stick to their guns, so to speak,
and refuse to be shaken by the denial of a sitter
to accept the information being offered.

At a demonstration of his Mediumship
with an audience of over 1000 people,
I saw John Edward stand his ground for a half hour,
until the light went on over the person’s head
and the sitter was finally able to accept
everything that John offered to him.

A novice would fold at the first “no”;
or at the first arm crossing over the chest
and the negative head shake
that we have all been aware of when being “dismissed”.

This situation is devastating to a psychic Medium
and was what happened on that Monday in July.

Unfortunately I don’t have the confidence of a John Edward.

Although I felt confident that the information I was receiving
was from a spirit that needed to communicate
to this woman and her 35 year old son.

They both just sat there,
arms folded
and even though I was giving them images that they could accept,
they acted very aloof;
no big deal about the information they were getting.
Almost every piece of evidence
I brought up was minimized and discarded.

They even said things like “Yeah, everybody has a dog!”
At one point, as I was giving the son
some additional evidence, when he said
“Yeah… So… I have a lot of friends who died on a motorcycle who also had lung cancer…
we all smoke”, shrugging and looking at his watch while rolling his eyes.

I was giving them the best I could do but they were totally unsatisfied.

Then I made a real mistake, I read them for another hour and a half!
because I truly wanted to work for their loved ones,
even though they refused to accept anything I was saying.

After a marathon 2.5 hour session, they left.

They did pay for the service… $100

That evening I received a very long email from the mother,
saying how they felt ripped off by my reading and
she went as far as saying that I was a fraud.

My reply to her diatribe was to simply
ask her for her mailing address and sent her a refund,
with a note saying that
I hoped that at least she no longer felt “ripped-off”.

Part 2 will be posted next week and
I will describe some of my weekend experiences
at Omega with James Van Praagh and
what I learned from this very uncomfortable reading.

Off to Omega Again

"Off to Omega Again"

Well I am off to “The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies”, tomorrow.

For those of you who don’t know what Omega is, picture a commune of the 60’s updated to the 2010’s. It is a wonderfully relaxing place in Rhinebeck, NY, where I have gone for the past 7 years to take classes by amazingly gifted people.

I attribute my “Spiritual Evolution” to my experiences there
(nice how I dropped in the title of my book, even before it is published…
heck! Before it is even finished!... ) but I digress…

I have been to classes there with
Dr. Brian Weiss http://www.brianweiss.com author of “Many Lives, Many Masters”,
who I learned how to do Past Life Regressions from
and who’s week long class started me on my “Journey”;

Neale Donald Walsch, http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com
author of the “Conversations with God” series
who opened my eyes to the possibility that
you don’t have to be “religious” to be spiritual and believe in God;

Raymond Moody http://www.lifeafterlife.com who introduced me to life between and after lives;

Suzane Northrop http://www.northstar2llc.com/theseance author and Psychic/Medium who broke down my hard-core cynicism about all things that are new-age

and

Last but far from least, John Holland, http://www.johnholland.com author, teacher and psychic/Medium extraordinaire!
Who took me from skeptic
to believer
to a practicing Psychic/Medium.
John had the faith in me during 2 separate classes to bring me on stage to “read” (give messages to people from their deceased loved ones) for the class.
I was about as nervous as I have ever been,
but with his guidance, I gave fairly good readings, but more importantly,
I started to grow spiritually into who I am today

(if you read this, John… I will be eternally [and that’s a long time] grateful for your devotion to spirit and your expertise in not only Mediumship but in teaching [Kudos from one teacher to another]).
His new book “The Spirit Whisperer” is a must read for anyone who is the least bit curious about psychic phenomenon.

Sometimes, being at Omega makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
Being an old New Yorker and having everyone there,
walking around nodding and smiling at you,
the cynical, street wise, Ex-Brooklyner in me thought that
I was in a place where they must be putting Thomasine in the drinking water;
everyone was sooo mellow.

Eventually this old city boy chilled out and soon I was nodding and smiling, like everyone else.
I was walking around saying “Good Morning” to everyone;
the kids that worked there,
the other students,
the chipmunks, the squirrels, but when I said good morning to on old Oak tree,
I knew I had had enough and I’d better leave!

Well as I said, I’m off to Omega again in about 12 hours from now.

I will be having a weekend workshop with James Van Praagh, http://www.vanpraagh.com Author, Executive Producer of the TV series “Ghost Whisperer” and world renounced Psychic/Medium.
If I learn half as much as I have learned from John Holland’s workshop, I’m in for a treat!

Hopefully, I can put these new learning’s to good use and considering the last reading I had, I could use some new teachings.

The next entry will be a 2 part article titled “Sometimes You Win; Sometimes You Lose”.
It will be about the reading I have just referred to.
Suffice to say it was not the best work I have done but I sure learned from it.

I will keep you informed as to my “Mediumship” progress.