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.