The Invisible Gorilla

Not too long ago, I was trying to move some copy around on my Godaddy.com Website Tonight template (why, yes, GD — you CAN thank me with a free year!) when it just wouldn’t budge. I had to call the tech help number and explain my dilemma.

It was about 1 a.m. Eastern when I called, and the guy I got was professional yet still rather detached. That was until I gave him my website address and he landed on the home page.

I am a professional intuitive, not a career absolutely everyone feels is a valid use of one’s time.

To many, it’s just ‘crazy talk.’ And ironically, the name of my autobiographical book, prominently featured on my homepage, is Psychic or Psychotic? Memoirs of a Happy Medium.

Tech Dude landed on that and didn’t even attempt to conceal his loud scoff.

“Sooo,” he said, rather confrontationally, “You think you’re a psychic?”

I paused a moment, but realized I didn’t have anything to hide.

“Yep,” I replied.

“Well then,” he challenged me. “Tell me about my grandfather!”

I figured, what the heck, and “went up.” That’s my short-cut reference to how I achieve a heightened state of consciousness, where I can effectively connect with people’s energy and tap into what’s happening with them, past, present and future. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid.

ANYWAY, I did my silent affirmation, took a deep breath, and was propelled into that Unified Field, if you’re a physicist, or Collective Unconscious, if you’re a Jungian psychologist, or God Consciousness, if you’re into spiritual stuff.

“His name began with an ‘R,’” I told Tech Dude. This elicited another scoff.

“NO,” he said triumphantly. “You’re WRONG. His name began with an ‘A.’”

I felt I accurate.

“What was his name?” I asked.

“Arthur,” Tech Dude replied. I silently waited for him to connect the dots. Three…two…one…

“OHMYGOD!” he yelled. He realized that technically, I was correct. “Arthur” definitely does begin with that “R” sound.

“He says he loved the hiking and camping trips you did together,” I added.

“OHMYGOD,” Tech Dude yelled again. “WE WENT CAMPING ALL THE TIME! Tell me about my grandmother!”

In the space of 90 seconds, we’d gone from “You are full of crap” to “Give me a reading!”

There’s a great clip on YouTube of Movie Director David Lynch talking about human consciousness being like a golf ball. All our experiences, everything we believe, is contained in that little ball. It’s not “seeing is believing” – if we have no frame of reference for understanding something, even if it’s happening all around us, if it’s not in our golf ball of awareness, we’re not going to see it.

Until we have that personal experience that catapults something into our consciousness, to us, it’s just not there.

Cognitive psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris dramatically proved this point with the world-famous “invisible gorilla” exercise back in 1999. Observers were asked to watch a video of three people in white shirts, and three in black, handing off basketballs to each other. The assignment was to count the number of times the white team passed the ball.

In the middle of the video, a guy dressed in a gorilla suit walked into the circle and waved at the camera before walking off. NONE of the observers saw the gorilla! It simply wasn’t in their golf ball of consciousness.

At the heart of the presentations, teaching and consulting I do is my passion to help others see those “gorillas” and expand that golf ball of consciousness. If it means tapping into a Tech Dude’s grandfather at 1 a.m., as long as TD then understands the world is a lot more interesting and interconnected than he previously believed – then it’s totally worth it.

Here’s to all of us seeing – and appreciating — a lot more gorillas.

 

 

Gratitude = Happiness = Awareness

Everyone’s innate intuitive ability naturally gets stronger when we enter into a prayer state, and a sincere “Thank you!” is the most heart-centered prayer there is.  The more we consciously choose to be in that spiritual space, the happier and more powerful we become. Not only are gratitude, happiness and psychic awareness closely linked — they’re all, quite literally, a choice — a conscious decision on your part to make them the focus in your life, your relationships, your work — the whole enchilada. One of the ways this is manifesting is in a whole new branch of mental health, “Positive Psychology,” founded by Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Seligman respected how traditional psychology studied behavioral problems, but wanted to focus on “the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.” (Positive Psychology Center website)  I participated in some clinical studies Dr. Seligman and his students were doing to measure and nurture a positive, happy state of mind, and one of the exercises was so powerful I have to share it with you. Each night, before you fall asleep, jot down three positive things that happened to you that day. Then, write down what your role was in making those things happen. This little ritual causes some major positive shifts immediately. First of all, instead of ever thinking, “What else can go wrong?” you click into the gear of eagerly anticipating what wonderful things are going to unfold in your day.  This automatically makes you happy.  Since you’re also noting your role in causing these marvelous things to happen, you’re proactively CHOOSING to focus your intent, and your actions, on doing positive, happy things.  As my environmental engineer friend Herb loves to say, “How can it get any better than this?” Give it a try this month, and let me know how things begin to shift for you.  You’ll realize there are a ton of reasons in your life to be happy RIGHT NOW.  As you’re journaling your top three wonderful events of the day, you’ll feel that surge of gratitude for your limitless opportunities. And just choosing to be in that spiritually high place of joy and thankfulness will super-charge your intuitive awareness in ways you can’t begin to imagine yet. Honestly — just try it for a week.  Pretty soon you’ll know that every day is truly a day of thanksgiving.  JonnaRae.com

Break on Through to the Other Side!

A law of physics states that energy can’t be created or destroyed — it merely changes form.

In my experience, this applies to the energy we call life, too.  Since I was a youngster growing up in a circa 1750s Pennsylvania farmhouse, I’ve heard, felt and seen people in the spirit world who didn’t cease to exist when they died — they just changed form.

There was even a particular incident when I was around 9 where I woke up in the middle of a steamy, humid Pennsylvania summer night to see a woman in white standing by my bed. My first impulse was to scream, and my parents were in my room in a matter of seconds.

By that time, the apparition had disappeared, and mom and dad told me I’d imagined it — it was all a dream.  But as dad was leaving my room, he turned around and said, “Man, it’s really cold in here.”  Just like in the movie “The Sixth Sense,” this entity had taken thermal energy from my room and transformed it so she could manifest.  She didn’t want to frighten me; she just wanted to connect.

Since that night decades ago, I’ve had many contacts with the other side, and even visited it myself during a near-death experience from a brain aneurysm in 1989.  What I’ve learned is that as spiritual beings having a human experience, we too frequently get weighed down with denser vibrational energies — fear, anger, guilt, shame, worry.  Basically, anything not coming from a vibration of love.

When we shed our physical form and ‘die,’ the general rule of thumb is we also shed those denser, heavier emotions for feelings of compassion, joy and love to literally become beings of light.

We grieve when loved ones die, and the sorrow is at the heavier end of the energy spectrum.  The loved one who just left wants to connect with us, to let us know they’re fine, but as they’ve become “lighter” energetically, our grief makes us “denser.”  The gap between us can be too wide for a connection to be possible.

That’s why the first step to being able to connect with loved ones in spirit is to consciously choose to focus on the happy memories and the love you shared.  Just transforming your grief into hope — hope that they’re fine, hope you’ll be able to reconnect soon and hope that they still feel your love — will significantly raise your energy, and make that connection happen so much sooner.

Start looking for the little “coincidences” that let you know they’re near — things like flickering lights, a TV switching channels, butterflies or birds flying close to you, a familiar aroma suddenly wafting into the room.  You can also invite them to visit you in your dreams.

I was “told” in an intuitive flash back last year it’s time to start teaching others how to connect with loved ones in spirit, and I’ve been teaching “SpiritTalk: Break on Through to the Other Side” (love you, Jim Morrison!) ever since.  If you’re ready to make that link, please join us, or email me for a private session at info@PSIStudies.com.

It’s definitely time to dissolve that barrier between realms, and know, as a sweet woman on the other side told me, “Love means never having to say you’re leaving.”

We’re Waking Up

“God is alive, magic is afoot.” – Leonard Cohen For decades, when I prayed to understand the meaning of December 21, 2012, I always got the same divine answer: “It’s all about the consciousness.” We weren’t supposed to be living in fear that our world was about to end (unless you’re a Twinkie) — but rather we had to shift our focus to embrace an expanded view of our world, our interconnectedness and our natural intuitive abilities. In the months since we passed that prophetic date, just about everyone I work with in private sessions, intuitive development workshops and Reiki classes is being activated by powerful, expansive energy. One dramatic example happened in my March Practical Spirituality 101 class in Asheville.  Students pair up to read each other’s chakras, then share what they received with the entire class. Karen Miller, a Life Guide, described to Wendy Nethersole the images she “saw” in Wendy’s heart chakra. There was a swath of vibrant blue in various shades, lots of light, and a dove. Wendy thought Karen was picking up on her company, Anam Cara. I had a different interpretation. I reminded Wendy about the beautiful painting her late mother created, showing a little girl on a beach, bathed in brilliant sunlight and set against the blues of sea and sky. A white bird was taking flight at the girl’s feet. Karen, who was flexing her intuitive muscles for the first time, was shocked. Wendy was overcome.  When she could speak, she shared that the next day was the anniversary of her mother’s death, and she had asked her mom to send her a message, through another person, to confirm her continuing presence in Wendy’s life. It was a beautiful validation both for Karen and Wendy! Healers are reporting near miraculous results with both human and animal clients. Dreams are becoming more vivid, meditations are going deeper, and little flashes of insight are making everything more clear. We’re not waiting for the New Earth, we’re living in it. We just get to decide if we want to embrace the new possibilities, or get dragged into them, kicking and screaming. “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours,” says Richard Bach in Illusions.  Here’s to less arguing, and more expanding our hearts, minds and spirits to soak up the divine clarity that’s now there for the taking.  Make it a magical June! -30-