WORKING WITH SPIRIT - Posting 2 of 3

Synopsis;
This posting would be too long for one posting so it is posted in three parts. In Parts 1 and 2, I relay my experience of being on “the platform” at a “Spiritualist Church Student Service”; what being a “Psychic/Medium” feels like when you are in front of strangers trying to “bring through” messages from their loved ones who have passed away. In Part 3, I describe observing Janet Nohavec my tutor, pastor and perhaps one of the top ten best Evidential Mediums in the world today. I describe the masterful way she brings evidence and messages to people who have lost their loved ones and the uplifting effect these messages have on those who were there.

… After Lena’s evidence and message, she thanked the congregation and went back to her seat. Janet walked to the pulpit and said into the microphone, “Garry?” nodding towards me, I stood up and simultaneously said to the spirit of this woman I had felt,
“Ok, mom… we’re up”

Working for Spirit – a 3 Part Posting
Posting 2 of 3

“Ok Garry…” my self-talk began by trying to calm myself down.
“BREATH! Focus…”
“You have done this before and you now truly believe in the process,
so put what you’ve learned from Janet into action”
I began to listen to this new supportive voice and it felt good!
I was not hearing any negativity…
I was confident that the spirit of this woman that I had communicated with,
wanted to connect with her children.
And I certainly wanted to help her; I knew that if her child was sitting in the audience,
she certainly wanted to hear from this woman, her mother.

I was ready.

Gone were the butterflies in my stomach.
Gone was that doubting voice in my head and I was ecstatic that I no longer heard it.
Gone was questioning if I could make a contact with a spirit.
Gone was the fear; of looking foolish; of failure; of public speaking
(that one I had been working on my whole life and now I did not feel it)

In my awareness even the congregation was gone.
All I wanted to feel was the energy of this woman
who I knew was a supportive loving mother;
I felt her and I focused on nothing but the connection
I had with her for only the briefest of seconds.

I have become accustomed to the physiological feeling I get when a spirit is close.
There is a tingling on the back of my neck,
almost like someone blowing on it.

This tingling which then runs up and down my spine,
is my first indication that I am connecting with a spirit.

Then the hair on my arms and if the spirit is strong enough,

the hair on the back of my neck will stand up.
This is when I begin a conversation with the spirit; in my head of course…

“I know you’re a woman” I asked.
I “felt” the affirmative answer more than heard it…

“I feel you were on your 70’s or 80’s when you passed”
Again affirmative response.

My next question was “How did you pass?”

I am clairsentient, I feel what the spirit sends to me and at that split second,
I felt a sharp pain in my chest and my left arm
and I knew she passed of a heart attack or a heart related issue.

She showed me smoking in her youth, but not as an adult.
I then heard “Kearney”…

All this information came to me in a split second and I felt confident
that someone in the audience could connect with this woman.
I felt that after someone said that they could accept this information,
I would be able to get more evidence, prove the connection and then get a message.

So, I began to relay this information to the people in the chapel and at the same time,
I was drawn to a mother and daughter who were part of

the large family group that I saw in the parking lot.

I felt that this woman in spirit was the mother and grandmother to these two women.
I offered what I was receiving to the people in the chapel…

“I have a woman here who passed in her 70’s or 80’s…” I stated.
“She was a mother and grandmother in this life…”
“She says that she smoked in her youth but quit a long time ago…”
“She hasn’t been gone for a long time, perhaps a few years…”
This information was new and came to me as I was giving the information that I had already received.

My awareness was again drawn to the mother and daughter in the family group. With each new validation I offered, they looked at each other smiling as if the connection I had was for them and I felt comfortable and confident that not only did I have a spirit, but I knew who it was for.

I continued, “She passed from either a heart attack or a heart related issue…” The mother and daughter looked questioningly at each other.

“I just heard the word ‘Kearney’, I don’t know if is the town, a name or maybe she is referring to a circus?”

To my surprise, as I gave the information about Kearney, they seemed to disconnect with me, sadly shaking their heads as if to say that, although they wanted to connect, unfortunately, the information was not for them.

Equally unfortunate, for me, was that I went into my head.
This is what happens, to all mediums that are starting to hone their craft.
Once your sitter can’t or won’t to take the information you are offering,
you think the fault lies with you.

You instantly doubt if you even had a connection at all.
Your confidence levels drop like a stone;
you begin to question yourself as to why you are even doing this…

You kick the door wide open to have your “Doubter Part” make it’s grand re entry!
Which was something I was determined not to let happen again.

This situation, like the “from me to me” dilemma, I have posted about http://hyp4lifellc.blogspot.com/2010/07/sometimes-you-win-sometimes-you-lose.html
can ruin a good reading/connection and destroy the fragile sense of confidence
that all beginning mediums struggle with.

I accepted that who I thought the connection was for, was not going to be the case,
I again asked the congregation if anyone could take any of the information and I repeated it once more…

"A 70 year old mother and grandmother, a smoker who quit early, who passed of heart issues, a connection with the word 'Kearney'”.
I looked around the congregation expecting to see a hand rise, but no one raised their hand.

My heart sank again…
No one…
O…M…G…
NO ONE??? I stared to sweat, something Janet taught us not to do…

“Always trust in your connection…” she stresses.
Easier said than done, though…

A bead of “flop” sweat formed at my hairline…
“Never let them see you sweat…”
“You are a professional, always stay in control”

I started to “stroke” my chest, which was something that is neither in my nature to do nor one of my stress management tools.
But doing that caught my attention.

As I stroked my chest, I felt a chain around my neck and a cross…

Almost to myself, but loudly enough for everyone to hear, I asked

“Why am I doing this?”, as I demonstrated stroking my imaginary chain.

“I feel a chain and a cross in my hand…
This woman is telling me that she was buried with her cross…”
The connection was back; In fact, it was never gone,
it was just my confidence that was temporarily gone.

Instantly I was flashed my symbol for “NOT”; a red circle with the diagonal line threw it.
When I am shown this sign it usually means I am either wrong or
I need to be shown something different due to my misinterpritation.

I said to the audience, “No Wait… She wasn’t buried with her cross…
Bare with me for a moment here…” as I tried to understand the conflict
between either being buried with her cross or not.

Symbols are a communication method that spirits use
to quickly relay information to Mediums.
For example, John Edward’s symbol for love is a yellow rose.
My symbol for Roman Catholic is a feeling of rosary beads
over my hands in a prayer position.

So when I received my “Not” symbol
when I said this woman was buried with her cross,
I asked and waited for clarification and I got it.

“No, sorry, she wasn’t buried with the cross. There was discussion about burying her with the cross but it was decided that her granddaughter should have it”

Immediately a hand went up in the back of the church, Carole a long time member of the congregation and an excellent Medium herself said
“Garry, you’re with me! You have my mother!”…

I could have jumped right off the platform,
run to the back of the church and kissed her!
The flop sweat instantly evaporated!
The knot in my stomach untied and I felt the connection again, only stronger.

When she said that I had her mother, I felt a surge of energy…
A chill went up my arms and my spine;
a feeling I have found to be my validation that I truly do have a connection.

After some other validations and a loving message,
I thanked Carole verbally for accepting my reading
and thanked her mother in my internal voice;
“Thank you Mom, for coming through and connecting with me so well”
I projected to the energy of her mother and I heard
“No… Thank-YOU… And I felt a kiss on my cheek!”

And as I walked back to the oak chair on the platform,
I knew why I love doing this work…

In "WORKING WITH SPIRIT -  Posting 3 of 3" (scheduled for posting on 8/19/2011) I describe an amazing reading done by Janet

WORKING WITH SPIRIT – a 3 Part Posting

Synopsis;
This posting would be too long for one posting so it is posted in three parts.
In Parts 1 and 2, I relay my experience of being on “the platform” at a “Spiritualist Church Student Service”; what being a “Psychic/Medium” feels like when you are in front of strangers trying to bring through messages from their loved ones who have passed away.
In Part 3, I describe observing Janet Nohavec my tutor, pastor and perhaps one of the top ten best Evidential Mediums in the world today. I describe the masterful way she brings evidence and messages to people who have lost their loved ones and the uplifting effect these messages have on those who were there.

WORKING WITH SPIRIT Posting 1 of 3;

On Sunday June 5, 2011 at 5:15pm, I was driving on Rt.287 North to the
Journey Within Spiritualist Church in Pompton Lakes where
I would be giving a Mediumship reading.
But this reading was going to be a new experience for me
and I am a big believer in the importance
of new experiences for the growth of your soul.

The Journey Within Church
http://journeywithin.org,
is a Spiritualist Church in Pompton Lakes NJ and is a member of the SNU,
The Spiritualist’s National Union
http://www.snu.org.uk

The Church’s Pastor, Janet Nohavec is a world renowned psychic/medium
and an amazing teacher.
She had invited me and about twenty other Mediums,
to join her school for Evidential Mediumship.
Her goal is to make us the best Psychic Mediums we are capable of being
and that means getting evidence, evidence and more evidence.

Saying
“...I have your father here…
Your father IS in spirit, isn’t he?
Well he is here and he says he is proud of you”...
will just not fly in Janet’s class.
Janet wants “Name, Rank and Serial Number”,
by that she means; she wants specific information from the spirit
that you are feeling, in a specific order
with no fuzzy fluff like...
“Your mommy says she loves you”...
Janet says that is not a “Wow” reading and
there is no evidence from that statement,
that you are actually in communication with a spirit.

A wow reading is one that when it is over, everyone there;
The sitter,
You - the Medium
and The spirits that are there say...
"WOW! that was amazing”

Janet is a tough teacher and I should know, being a teacher.
She also has one of, if not the most important attribute of a great teacher;
an absolute passion for her subject and in this case,
the subject is Evidential Mediumship.

I received a call from Janet about a week or two before,
asking me if I would be able to read at the Student’s service on Sunday evening.

I was so honored by her asking me
that I answered immediately with a resounding
“SURE! And Thank-you for asking”.

Which was just before the annoying voice of my doubter part said
“What are you crazy, what if you screw it up?”
I have learned to acknowledge that part of me
that is always causing self-doubt and
then try to ignore it;
perhaps it’ll stop one of these days.

In any event, If Janet had the faith in me, as a student, to “read” during the service, who am I to doubt her or say “no”.

So there I was driving on 287.

Having given myself extra time, I was cruising along at a slow 60 mph…
Just me and my increasingly annoying voice in my head.
Those of you, who know me, know that in my hypnotherapy practice,
I use Parts Therapy for many issues that trouble my clients.
Then, why, you may ask don’t I use it to treat this part of me that is so full of doubt.

Well the answer to that one would be a 10 part posting!
(Maybe at a future date)

As I entered the church’s parking lot with lots of time to spare,
I noticed that 4 cars had just pulled in and parked ahead of me.
There were about a dozen or so people huddled in a big group
animatedly talking with each other
and you didn’t need to be a psychic to know
they were all related and anxious about the experience they were about to have.

Once in the church’s beautiful chapel,
I met with two other students of Janet’s Medium school.
You could tell quite easily that we were all quite anxious and nervous.

Janet called us over to explain how the student service was going to work.

“First, Barbara, you’ll be the homilist and will speak to the congregation then you both” pointing to Lena and me, “will connect with a spirit and give evidence and a message to someone in the congregation and then I will give a message”

Before we walked onto the platform, I sat in the fourth row and closed my eyes.
Not only to center myself and get into the Medium mindset,
but to stop the old annoying frightened voice in my head
filling me with self doubts.
It seems to show up in my mind
as soon as I am about to read someone and always,
its timing is perfect to get me off my game.

“What if you don’t get a spirit? I felt/heard it say…
“You’ll look like a jerk, up there” it seemed to know exactly what I didn’t want to hear.
“…Mr. Wannabe Medium…” it said, spewing it’s venom and sarcasm.
“Why do you do this to yourself?...” the voice was relentless…

Finally another voice in my head chimed in…
“Shut-UP!” it said
“He wants to do this so stop hindering him!”
This conflict has been going on for years, if not decades.
But now I began to pay attention to this new supportive voice.
I liked his supportive energy.
It knew what I wanted to do and now I decided to only listen to him…
My supportive part…
And it felt good…
It felt right!

It wasn’t so much listening to this new part/voice in my head as much as it was deciding to do what Janet has been teaching us…

“Have faith in those spirits and they will never let you down.
Oh, and just say ‘screw it’ and have fun!”

Janet stood up and motioned to us to take our seats on the platform
and I began to put my supportive self to the test.
I also felt him sitting on top of my annoying doubter self.

So, the three of us,
Barbara, Lena and I stood and walked onto the platform with Janet,
sat down in the tall oak chairs on the platform
that were vibrating with the energy of the hundreds of Mediums
who had sat there over the years.

The service began with an address to the congregation by Janet,
who thanked all the people for being there
and explained what this special “Student Service” was;
that it was an abridged Spiritualist service
to provide experience to her students.
She went on to say that we would have a student homilist speak,
two students will give a reading each and
then she (Janet) would give a reading.

Janet had the music system cued up to “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles
and we all sang along with John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Honestly, it felt a little awkward singing on stage
with the feeling that all eyes were on you.
But by the second chorus of “All you need is love…”
my energy was definitely picking up as I harmonized with John.

Janet introduced the homilist, who began giving her homily and I hate to admit it but I was distracted.

The same ego driven concern popped into my head once again
but this time I had anticipated it and was able to ignore it.
Janet consistently told us that when the butterflies are fluttering
in the pit of your stomach, just say
“Screw it and enjoy yourself”
and that was my intention.

Since my introduction to Metaphysics ten years ago
at a week long Past Life Regression Workshop with Dr. Brian Weiss
which peaked my interest in psychic phenomenon,
I have had an ongoing internal conflict between my ego and faith/trust.
After these ten years…
finally, my trust and faith have won the battle and now,
to my surprise, I am comfortable on the platform.

As I sat on the platform, knowing I was going to be asked soon to make a connection, I asked my Spirit Guides to give me a hand.

“OK guys… Time to put up or shut up…”

I began getting that familiar tingle up my spine, the hair on the back of my neck started to stand up and I thought…

“Great! I have a link… thank-you God!”

I felt a woman, who had passed in her older 70’s or 80’s,
and was a mother and a Grandmother.

I thanked her for connecting with me and I asked her, if she could,
hold off until later when I am on the platform.

I began my self talk;
the set up I do prior to doing a reading.
Eyes closed now...
Slowing down my breath…
Expanding my energy out in front of and behind me…

Now I set my intention;

“I want to make a connection with a person in spirit
who wants to communicate with their loved one
who is sitting in this place of love and light”…

“I surround myself with the white light of truth…” I said my white light prayer.

“Our father who art in heaven…” I said the Lord’s Prayer.

Lena wanted to go first. Even though she was clearly very nervous, she did fine.

“Hi I’m Lena…” She said to the congregation...

“Hi Lena” the congregation responded.
I smiled as I pictured an AA meeting.

I thought that when it was my turn, I’d mess up and say,
“Hi I’m Garry and I’m an Alcoholi… I mean a Medium…”.
Then said to myself that there is a time and place for everything
and this was certainly not the time to be joking around
and this is not the place for comedy.

Lena made a connection with a woman in spirit who was “taken” by Jake, one of our fellow students in Janet’s class who came to the service to support us, his classmates.

After Lena’s evidence and message, she thanked the congregation and went back to her seat.

Janet walked to the pulpit and said into the microphone,
“Garry?” nodding towards me,
I stood up and simultaneously said to the spirit of this woman I had felt,

“Ok, mom… we’re up”

In WORKING WITH SPIRIT Part 2 of 3, I describe my experience of connecting with the spirit of a woman whose daughter was sitting in the congregation.