Why Aren't I a Medium?

Tuesday March 18, 2014

I recently asked on my facebook page what's your connection to spirit? How do you connect? Do you see? Feel? Hear? The response was overwhelmingly 'a feeling' which tells me that most people who are on my page are normal human beings with the normal connection to spirit. Yes, we all have it and it comes into play at different times in our lives. We are ALL mediumistic, we all have the same basic connection to spirit simply because we all have one! A spirit that is!

So WHY aren't we all mediums? Well truth is we are but human biology steps in for some of us and causes a few problems. We have already found out that research indicates severe and even more so, long term trauma changes the electrochemistry of the brain (in very crude and simple terms the 'frequency" of our brain waves). This actually seems to make connections with spirit easier but I ahve yet to understand why. I do know it is essentially our physical self that interferes with our spiritual self development. No big news there really. 

So how do we better prepare our physical self to connect with spirit in a stronger more purposeful way? Well I believe one of the first things we have to change is the energy we create around us and the energy we decide to take on as our own. Good intent equals good energy. That's not to say we all have to be maniacally happy all the time because sometimes life throws a curve ball at us and we just can't find it in us to be happy. Having said that we can still be good and true to ourselves and others. It's true you don't need to be a saint to be a medium, some people are mediums and they are hideous people; as is the case in ALL walks of life. They are lucky because their overall physical brain chemistry is right in order to activate the spiritual part of the mind. Our mind is our connection with spirit.

Meditation and calmness. None of us can have a sensible conversation if there is chaos going on around us and neither can spook! Learn to calm your mind. Start with three minutes a day, sitting still and clearing your mind. It's hard it takes practice and even these days I find it hard sometimes. Increase it until you can zone out for an hour. 

I also believe you have to want it without ego. Having a "live" connection to spirit keeps you honest because you know someone is always there and knows what you are thinking, feeling and doing. Use that, it's your conscience and your conscience IS your guide. If you can feel, learn to go with the feelings. Don't wait and second guess them! Don't "What if .." when you feel you should because then you are ignoring spirit and shutting them out. Don't ask them to help and then slam the door in their face!

There is a Simon and Garfunkle song, "Feeling Groovy" and a couple of the lines are; slow down you move too fast, you got to make the moment last.." This is very important to strengthen your spiritual connection. Live in the moment and don't expect it all to happen at once. Your spiritual connection is a process of the evolution of you. If you want to develop it there has to be human changes but also spirit will decide when and if you are ready. It's not your decision, it's theirs. Didn't your Mother ever tell you "I want doesn't get!"

The other thing which slows many in their mediumistic development is fear. We WANT to see and hear but jump out of our skin if we do! I remember seeing my partner after he had passed away, standing at the end of my bed. My instinct at that moment was to run toward this apparition and hug him tight. I realised that day I was no longer scared and had accepted spirit as part of my life. My every day life.

Once you get yourself into a human space where spirit is easily able to connect you, it will flow. In fits and starts at first. It took me over 40 years to be confident enough to read and even now I get nervous but my spooks have never let me down. 

So, unless you are a natural with the perfect brain waves through biological circumstance you have to be in a state of mind, frame of mind and at a place in your life where you can make yourself the perfect conduit. Many of us have waking dreams and early morning visits from spirit. Why is that so? Because at that stage of semi consciousness our mind is not thinking of making money, getting the better of someone else or wagging a day of work. We are a human vessel with an open spiritual portal without the conflicts and issues of the human day. It is almost a state of purity of mind. A calmness that allows the afterlife in because there is nothing human in there.

Once you have recognised and made spirit a part of your life and reinforced this by thought and deed you will find it easier and easier to connect and then it will be with less effort as your spiritual door will have been opened.

I hope this makes sense. I'm not saying be a saint, but shrug off the unimportant things in life; declutter your mind of negativity and allow strength and positivity in and you too will find you are never alone and help is always there when you need it.

Lawyers, Doctors and Spooks!

Thursday March 13, 2013

I had an interesting day today which was an excellent representation of how the spiritual and the material have started meshing...it's even a little bit funny! I have obviously changed or deleted the names of the medical practitioners and some of the details (nature of complaint and locations etc) to be respectful. The reason I went to the doctor in the first place was because P woke me in the night and screamed at me that we were running out of time and I had to see a doctor. For one reason and another her warning was valid, but I didn't know that I just knew that if she was prepared to make that level of effort to be seen and heard I owed it to her to take notice.

First stop after GP was a specialist and it was decided this should be before I fly again. My GP who I have to say is rather humourless (not like my fablious GP in Perth who I miss big time!) had written some kind of note on my file about "seeing dead people, but no sign of schizophrenia or other underlying mental illlness!" Ha! Another one fooled I proclaimed to the voices in my head! The specialist shined a light in my eyes;

• Dr:    (Sort of casually) "There is a note on your file that you talk with dead people"
• Me:   "Can you see any in there?"
• Dr:    "What now?"
• Me:   "Yes! Well don't most medics think they are all in my head!? So are they in there?"
• Dr:    "Funny as well? (Steps back and leans on his desk and has a little chuckle).
• Me:  "You probably woke them up when you turned the light on. The voices in my head I mean. They will  probably tell me to go buy hundreds of dollars worth of chocolate now because you upset them!"
• Dr:    "You are lucky I'm not a psychiatrist you know that don't you? (Laughs) I  Do you need painkillers?  Specialist sits down and starts writing something in my file
• Me:   "No thanks I am pretty good without them.
• Dr:   (doesn't look up) "So is it a blessing or a curse this dead people thing of yours?
• Me:   "A bit of both I think. I would love to know why and how though. What do you as a specialist (deleted specialty) think? 
• Dr:   If you had asked me that when I was at university or even doing my residency I probably would have told you it was impossible but I'm not so sure these days. You can't ignore some of the stories you hear from people. Even people who don't know each other have similar stories sometimes and it makes you wonder. I am scientist though. I couldn't and wouldn't practice based on something like that, it's interesting though but still too much of a mixture of religion and science to be taken seriously in my profession. (rips off a piece of paper and hands it across his desk). I do think in many years to come it might actually get some research funding though we can't just leave it alone. (smiles).
• Me:  Cheers, I'll just make an appointment after I have had this done and come back and see you and the guy standing behind you when it's done. He really thought your little brother was going to be the doctor not you you know.
• Dr:   You win, probably my Father. Good Bye Ms Shankland, and thank you.I look forward to talking to you again.

Ok well this one is a bit of a cheat as my lawyer is also a friend. I spent some years working in law and accounting so I have a bit of knowse going on about this one. We did the skype thing and after we had finished the social stuff;

• LLB: Anyway what's up?
• Me:    Nothing really I just wanted a general talk with you about .. (subject deleted)
• LLB:  That's really interesting there has been a lot about that in recent years but the short answer is yes. It's tricky and can be argued but I don't think successfully, I'll give you some case law to read.
• Me:     Cheers , thanks for that reckon I owe you about six bucks we were that quick!
• LLB:   I'll swap it for six bucks of your time\
• Me:    Sure! What's up?
• LLB:  Well I can't actually tell you that's breaching client confidentiality.
• Me:   Oooh like Alison Dubois you want me to help you catch the bad guy?
• LLB:  Idiot! I don't do criminal (insert girlfriend types jokes here!) but sort of.
• Me:   Well I can't give you anything if I don't know what you want. Wait have this....Arty says "bank statements from a really huge guy, I don't mean tall and broad I mean overweight. You've missed something about his involvement in something." He signed something and he didn't have the authority to but it was acted upon. His own signature though not a forgery.."
• LLB:   Crap that actually makes sense, sort of.
• Me:     That will be twelve bucks. Six for me and six for Arty. We charge in units of ten seconds (big laugh cos I thought it was funny anyway!)
• LLB:   I think Alison Dubois was thinner and prettier than you. Just sayin. She probably still is.
• Me:  You owe me lunch!

Ok so both conversations are considerably pared down but my point here is that my spooks and spirit in general are part of my every day life and serve a purpose. As well as being amusing they look after me, help my friends and are really as involved in my life as much as anyone in my life who isn't on the other side. Maybe this is just a little peek into the real reason we are really discovering the full extent of life and life after life?

Reincarnation Q & A

March 6, 2014

Arty will probably be the man for this one (forgive me if it's been asked before).. Reincarnation.. Do all spooks leave the spook world eventually to come back to our world? If so.. Why do they come back? Or do they have to complete something in spook world to enable them to come back?  ....asks one of my facebook friends.

Well this is something that can sometimes go beyond what we can grasp. No I am not saying everyone except me are idiots but there are some discoveries and understandings we are yet to come to - sort of like 30 years ago we had no idea what a CD was..that sort of thing. 

The simple answer is actually no. Life is a lesson and we either learn from the situation we are born in or we don't. It's our choice and no one else's. "Fate" or "Destiny" doesn't decide you are going to make a mess of things or make a million bucks because that then means we do not have free will. Not having freedom of human and spiritual choice as we do the human thing would make it a complete waste of time. The whole biological experience would be a moot point. 

When we died away from the human experience the spirit, soul or spook whatever you like to call it goes off to the spiritual realm and goes through what Arty calls "The Knowing."  I think he calls it that because there is no other way of explaining it or giving it a proper name.  During that time it is my understanding that we see, hear and feel the impact we had on others during our life. We don't watch a big TV screen and critique our work, it is more like if we hurt someone, we would be made to feel that hurt. If we killed someone we would be made to feel their fear pre-death. Don't forget as a spiritual being we have no eyes and ears but we still have the ability to feel. we also get to relive the good bits, and the feel good. We look at what our intent was though rather than our deed because that is what counts on "judgement day" if you like. Only there is no "day" and there is no judgement. Just a lesson and a score out of ten if you like! 

People who think or say suicides are judged harshly are wrong, suicides generally don't take their own lives to hurt anyone but themselves and so the intent is actually not toward hurting another. People who go to church every week aren't necessarily given a free pass either. As it has been proven that churchgoing doesn't necessarily make one sinless.

Once we have gone through this our collective soul if you like, the being that has all of the knowledge from past lives is consolidated. If there is more to learn then we go back and are reborn and in that life situation we will go on learning what we need to become as perfect as possible.

If our lessons are over then we will become a higher being. The type of being we refer to as angels and guides. And there my beloved Arty stops talking and tells me the next stage of "heaven" is for another day!

Who's In Charge Here?

Monday March 3, 2014

I often get questions like; can you help me find my lost earring or do you know where I left my car keys? I wonder, is it downright disrespectful to ask spook to ‘go fetch’?  Actually I don’t wonder at all, I find it to be quite rude. Akin to asking the best neurosurgeon in the world to clip your toe nails! The analogy refers to spook being the surgeon and not me. It’s like being asked the sex of an unborn child or whether we will buy a house. Are both so important and life changing that you really think that is what the power of spirit is all about? How do the people who don’t believe manage without having a spook in their pocket?

People often tell me that someone; great Uncle Ferdy for example, is “always” around them and that they do certain things for them. Like a prized performing poodle on a leash that you gently tug now and again when you want something done or you want to know something before it comes to pass. Oh yes he always tells me when such and such is about to happen! Exclaims the ever proud “owner” of that spook!  Then there is the “when will I see them?” “When will they show themselves to me?” A question that usually comes with an exasperated sigh, as if spirit is being noncompliant, rather the fact that the individual just isn’t ready, according to spirit, yet.

The pinnacle of spook ignorance and disrespect I found was when I was actually told by a loved one how I could and couldn’t interact with their passed over relative. Big fat LOL for that one! Not my decision and not anyone else’s on this mortal coil either. My lady spook and I often shoot the breeze and I love having her around. I don’t keep her in a glass cage underneath my bed and it's her choice to be around me. sometimes I read for people and they don't get the spirit they want, it's rare but it happens or the loved one the sitter considers the most important comes in right at the end. Their gruntles get dissed because Auntie Mamie wasn't knock knock knocking on heavens door waiting to speak in the human world.

We have become arrogant, demanding and wasteful of our connection with spook. We are making assumptions that this is yet another area of life where we must have ultimate control; the evolved man, modern life, western civilisation. Call it what you will but it’s really just all arrogance and ego.  It’s all about “Look at me and what I can do if I can just train my spooks right,"  rather than “Wow, we are part of this universe and there is so much we don’t know yet!” We don’t have control of anything spiritual. We have a modicum of interaction that at times allows us to make decisions about our interplay with spirit, such as throwing out the bad guys or letting in the good ones. The notion that we can make a spiritual being do what we want to do when we want them to do it, is ridiculous and selfish.

When I think about my spooks I call them mine out of a sense of affection and not ownership. My wonderful friends not my great new handbag if you get my meaning. I know you do. I didn’t ask for Arty or P. They came to into my life rather than I went looking for them and chose to stay. Possibly because Arty and I share a similar thirst for knowledge of the human and the spiritual and P and I are so darned alike it’s scary! I get the connection. But they don’t belong to me. They aren’t mine and I certainly don’t control what they do.

It is different with Matthew; although he too came of him own free will. He was on a mission and even though his last year on earth was only his 24th I still respect him because I know he is wiser and higher than I am now – especially as he has gone through the knowing.  His mission was accomplished and it was then that he went forward on his own spiritual journey and evolved further than his human self. I didn’t want him to go through fear of never seeing him again (although I saw him the next night so my tears were for nothing!), but he had to haul ass and I had to let him go. Again it wasn't my decision. He had to go on and leave the last twinkle of his human self behind to become a spirit real now that he has reconciled where he is.

Our roles have been reversed and the universe has decided that his best purpose, for now, is with me. Ok so I got my own way, but I am not arrogant enough to think it was because I am special or it's what I wanted. It was just what the universe had planned.  So why can’t we all be grateful for what the Universe gives us in terms of spirituality rather than stomping our feet because we REALLY wanted to know what happens in the last episode of Suits before it happens! Sure when I go looking for Arty and P and Matthew too, if they are there I will let them know I need them, but I don’t ding a little bell and they come running. I am honoured to have their love and support and I will not abuse it. Nobody should.

I love reading for people who need and deserve it; P loves to read for women who need hope, and support. She also loves to reunite lost loved ones who never had a chance to have that final word even if it is just “I love you.”; Arty likes to read for people who need to have a greater understanding of their life and the path they are on and Matthew it seems likes to read for younger people to keep them on the right track. All three of them like to read for a purpose rather than a party trick.

So if you need to know if you are having a boy or a girl; where your car keys are and if your husband or wife is cheating on you, please don't ask us. If you are in trouble, confused, running out of hope or needing some direction where the path doesn't seem clear, then we are here for you. There are some areas that we read without charge particularly missing persons and recent suicides. We prefer to prevent both if we can though.

We are just having a little vent…you all understand right! Tomorrow thanks to Tamara Scott we are going to talk about Reincarnation!

Spot the Difference?

Sunday February 23, 2014

Spirit? Entity or Energy? That is the question.  So it is a question I posed to Arty in the hope that once and for all he could clarify things, or at least point us in the right direction if it was to be another of those revelations that we aren't quite ready for yet.

We all know that a spirit is a spook in my world.  It is the soul if you like, the spirit of a human being who’s human biological form can no longer sustain them in the material world. As the mind and body part ways at the moment of death, this is what remains.  The unique change being that the spirit can now more freely exist on two different levels; the human and the everlasting. Biology tells us that the human brain creates electrical energy. We know that for sure. This energy is moulded into thought, emotion and feeling. The essence of us; our very spirit. Who we really are is what remains when our biological self is no longer viable. How many times have we heard the phrase that something "embodies the spirit" or "captures the spirit" because the word spirit in this sense means the true identity, who we really are and again the essence of us. We must also be clear that before the knowing and the evolution of our spirit we are who we are when we passed away. If we were a bitch in life we will be a bitch in the first stages of the afterlife and so it goes!

Entity. Spiritually speaking something completely different but  strangely also quite the same! An entity is a being that originated in the afterlife but has never been part of the human experience. Think of it like this; the universal energy is one huge great big piece of Play Doh and that big bright colourful lump of energy has to keep morphing to evolve and improve. As a small amount is pinched off to become part of a human life, it does just that. It learns and grows with the knowledge and wisdom it gathers along the way. An entity if you like, is almost an energetic leak! It shouldn’t be here and it rarely knows how to behave! It is neither male nor female as it has no human being and it just does what it does.

Such entities can attach themselves to other spiritual beings including human beings; so if that person has suffered trauma or abuse, two of the darkest and most miserable things that can happen to a living person, the door creaks open to allow a negative entity to fill the tank and hang around. Many people who think they are evil or can sense something bad or even have experiences where their personal interaction is physical with something malevolent, have suffered in some way; drug abuse; mental abuse; depression or loss and emotional damage. The reason for this is the mental trauma creates negative energy and the negative entity feeds off this. We cannot undo the past damage but we can manage and rid ourselves of it eventually. Deal with the trauma. Face it. Label it if you need to and then move forward. You can then file such experiences in the human mind (and thus the spirit) where it belongs rather than allow it to run amok and cause you further pain and hurt. The entity is then eventually starved of fuel and dissipates back into the greater universe.

Other ways that I have personally worked with malevolence with people is to identify it. Usually a malevolent energy will give itself some kind of form. I remember once doing battle with a mean entity and he decided to manifest himself grabbing my hand. It was grey, slim and bony with long fingernails. I looked down on it and thought, "aint no such beast" and therefore took it's credibility away. On another occasion the vision of Jack the Ripper was manifested and I actually believed it so it hung around for quite a few days after that until Arty told me it was false. So even when we are dealing with entities, we are still the ones that give them life or expiry with our own thoughts and feelings. Fear equals fatter for a negative entity.

A positive entity is quite different. They can manifest themselves as mischievous shapes and lights; children or even twinkly star like sprites. Again there is no such thing other than the raw positive energy and so the entities are just letting us know they are positive. People who see or feel these kinds of energies tend to feel momentarily happy or want to giggle and laugh. Same Play Doh  but from the pink section not the grey section. Never a human being just an entity that has slipped through and will slip back too.

Energy; Simple energy is attributable to both kinds of beings. It can be negative or positive but it is the force with which either exist as does everything. When we talk about energy and matter we now know that the source of human life had to be energy. It's all around us in different forms and frequencies both mad made (generated) or natural.

We have human energy that comes from eating, drinking and looking after ourselves; spiritual energy is created by our thought processes and patterns. Imagine each time you have a thought a little firework is shot out into the universe. If it’s a good thought the firework is blue if it is a bad thought the firework is green. We are creating this kind of energy all around us all the time. Arty gave me a really good example of how unseen energy can be proven. Rioting. Over the years there have been riots in England, France and Canada, fuelled by racism and above all the loss of an ice hockey game. Such riots were incited by a small group each time and then more and more people joined in once the actual event started. People can be seen on television footage looting and smashing, their destructive behaviour part of an energetic infection that has spread. When they got up that morning they had no intention of being angry, hateful and destroying property but somehow the energy; the mood, the energy spread, got under their skin and it happened.

Elementary!

Family in Spook

Monday February 17, 2014

So many people say to me..."Who can you see around me" I think my Aunty/Mum/Dad is around me all the time." I often roll my eyes and think how do I deliver this other than just saying "Are you sure?" We always assume so many things when it comes to spook. A common one being if we lose someone we love and there is spiritual activity around us it's always them. Seriously if you lose someone ask yourself was that person with you 24/7 when they were alive? Then WHY would he be there 24/7 now!

Ok that all sounds really sad, and a little harsh by me I am sure, but this is how Arty and I see it. When someone passes away yes they do spend a lot of time with those they love and this includes everyone they enjoyed a positive connection with; athough if they favoured one person in life they will probably favour them on the flip side. We have to realise that once we have passed over we are also spirits in the spirit worlds. We have finished the human experience and we have to do whatever it is to be a good spook. I have never quite been able to get the details out of Arty but I know there is the knowing like like reviewing your life;  the good and the bad. I am not sure what comes next maybe Arty will tell us one day when we are ready.

As time passes those we have loved and lost are less connected back into their own human world and more and more centered on their own spiritual evolution. It is quite difficult for a family spook to go on with their own soul evolution because of the grieving process by loved ones in the human world. The thought energy of both love, anger, grief and other emotions does tend to hold those who have passed over closer to the earth plane for longer.

So why the eye rolling? Well when we feel someone around us sometimes it can be other family members who passed over earlier, friends, hijackers and even just energies. We also tend to exclude listening to our intuition,  gatekeepers and guides because we are focussed on the miracle of contacting our loved ones and assume they are on hand to answer our prayers, questions and just about everything else. We become one sided spiritually if you like. We also slow the process of our loved ones into the spirit realm by constantly "calling them back.". By assuming it is family all the time we are opening our spook door to  anyone. I'm not saying don't connect with your loved ones but if you do; protect yourself and close your spook door afterwards. It's just another part of learning and exercising caution in a world we don't truly understand.

Mediums are people too!

It’s not that I am unhappy about something so much as frustrated.  The reason I have decided to write this is because I have found it is not only me, it’s common to many mediums, psychics and readers and someone needs to say something.

Mediums are people and we do a job. Mediumship is like learning another language but trying to teach someone else at the same time. Interpretation can sometimes be an issue. We aren’t in your life-space or your reality so sometimes we don’t know where the message should be placed. So when we get it wrong can I ask you oh so very nicely not to beat us up!  Usually when a medium gets their working wings it’s because they have enough referrals – word of mouth says “She/He is ok” and it goes from there. Like any business it’s by reputation. I personally don’t ask for public feedback , if it comes it comes and if it doesn’t it doesn’t. Readings are private. Your Doctor or your Lawyer doesn’t post on his or her facebook page “Oooooh Mitzi Smith has a sore throat and I cured it!” 

Many mediums, me included will open their facebook pages for interaction. I have never met a medium who doesn’t get a substantial amount of inbox messages expecting a freebie reading. I give them when I can but only if it’s just a question but when you ask me for a full free reading I often wonder – Do you shoplift as well? This is our time and for many of us we do what we do as a full time or part time job. Me personally it just happened and I actually had a spook come to me and tell me I should be doing it. Reading that is. When I am doing a full reading for someone the entire process is over two hours. 

What I do wonder is – why are we then abused, unliked and berated for not giving freebies!  To do a reading it takes more than one person for me. I need my spooks, Arty, P and sometimes Matt. I might not have my spooky head on, I might not want to answer a question if I feel it will do damage and I NEVER answer questions about other people when they are not asked by that person; for example; is my boyfriend cheating on me! I am happy to answer questions for concerned parents and the like though. If you ask me if you are going to marry the man you are with; what happens if the answer is no! Are you going to go home and dump him? Are you going to be miserable because you are going to wait for him to drop you? What would you DO with that information? I don’t want to be responsible for that. Similarly if the answer is yes; what happens if your guy or girl isn’t there yet and thinking of marriage and you ruin the relationship by TELLING them something they don’t feel yet and they feel pressured? 

The other issue is we all do freebie question time. For me I make sure I have Arty and P around and its rapid fire. One question – short answer.  Usually I will get 30 or 40 questions and try and plough through them. I love giving people good things or steering them in the right direction – that’s what spook is for, guidance and love. Help and support. Yesterday  I missed a few as I was busy, getting ready for Darwin, Bali and a weekend away not necessarily in that order. I also have a life and went for drinks with friends. I was abused for missing some free questions!  What the heckers?  Reverends and Vicars receive a salary for the work they do and yet somehow there is a perception that mediums are b*tches or b*stards if they don’t work for nothing! it's weird as there is no other profession in the world that I know of where the practitioners are expected to work for nothing. Please if you disagree comment on my facebook page.

So all of that said and done; do you go to a Doctor, a Therapist or a Lawyer and take their advice and then refuse to pay? Do you complain that they didn’t give their service for free? The notion that mediums should do what they do because they are simply good people is wrong! We ARE good people and many of us do a large volume of work for free that isn’t publicised. Many of us have other work or other jobs or families that we have to attend to.

All I am saying is be kind to us and it is more likely we will be kind to you. Probably not good PR having a vent but it certainly shows a motza of self respect on my part and unbending support for my colleagues out there!

In the words of some sporting guy; "I love youze all.."  I do - so don't be mean!