Jeremy has an interesting story. Unbeknownest to me, when we met he was awaiting trial, which he never mentioned.  He told me he might be going to Haiti on a mission with his church.  In reality, he was awaiting trial in Florence, SC for stalking a woman and was convicted of indecent exposure and placed in the sex offender registry.  But I didn’t know any of that at the time. He is the son of my neighbor of 20 years, who never mentioned him. His story to me was that the Christian community he was involved with ignored him during his troubled times and he came to me for meditation. We began metaphysical discussion and reading Rumi, Hafez nightly and his mind blew open. While he was incarcerated in SC for 6 months,I introduced him to Bo Lzoff’s book We’re All Doing Time, which instructs inmates to use their prison time s self imposed monks doing sadhana, spiritual practice.  He began meditating and having revelations and writing them to me.  He was gaining insight from time spent contemplating and I witnessed the evolution of thought via his daily writings.  I could see his beliefs evolving and morphing.  I watched the light bulbs as they went off. Below I share from what I sent him. It’s way long. Continue reading →

I have met many people who have been treated for depression and other conditions when they were, in fact, in the deep stages of spiritual crisis. ~ Caroline Myss
Are you in turmoil in relationships?  Have you been fired, or betrayed? Do you have a total sense of abandonment? Is your emotional life like a roller coaster? Are you moving between feelings of numb blankness to darkness and despair?  Are you hurt, angry, irritable, fatigued, restless, resentful, melancholy, mentally foggy, over or under fed,  sleepless or overslept, using addictive substances?  Are your spiritual needs not being met in churches and temples?  You know your spiritual needs are being met when you have a sense of stillness within you, and a feeling of connection to the Creator/ Source/ Universe/ Energy/ God/Goddess of your understanding.  Spiritual crisis a/k/a “spiritual emergence-y” is a form of identity crisis where you experience drastic changes to your belief system. A spiritual crisis may cause disruption in psychological, social and occupational functioning. This crisis is a sign that deep work and purification are unfolding. It can feel uncomfortable and painful. The higher Self of you is emerging. Some would say this is the Christ Self rising within you.

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An email I just got:   Andrea, hi, I’ve been dabbling in the paranormal since I was 12 after a demonic experience. I see your a pro and just have a few questions if you would be so kind to answer.

1. How can I communicate with positive energy while keeping the negative away? For example. On my last paranormal journey I picked up many evps (electronic voice phenomena, nonphysical voices on tape )and some photos of a young child named Anna. But also had evps of what seemed to be a negetive or demonic spirit not wanting me around. I believe this young spirit is in need of something. The last evp tho was her saying “can I help you?”

2. I’ve been dealing with a succubus (Andrea’s note: a nonphysical entity that takes the form of a female to have sex with you in dreamstate) ever since I moved to my new house and since I’ve mentioned “it” or her. It’s stopped messing with me I.e having sex with me while sleeping. But also will not communicate. How can I get communication with this spirit?

3. What is the best advice to give to someone asking for help to communicate with passed relatives who linger? Continue reading →

The day before Thanksgiving, I joined Planet Fitness.  It was cool that they were open Thanksgiving Day.  I spent yesterday morning getting familiar with the equipment and the routines.  It feels good to be back in a gym. I can’t pretend I’ll stay strong if I don’t work on it, I’m 50 freaken 9. I do daily yoga but I can at least walk the treadmill each day, too.  Like you, I’ve belonged to several gyms off and on through the years.  I like something real close.  I don’t like commiting to a contract.  I’ve got friends who have never been in a gym and say they wouldn’t know what to do when they got there. Well, that’s it, you ask and they tell you.  You tell them what your goals are and they tell you which muscles that involves and show you which machines work those muscles.  They suggest which muscle groups to work together on the same day, which muscle groups to work on other days and how long to rest in between. Continue reading →

THERE WAS ONCE a student fish who said to the teacher fish, “What is this thing called the ocean?  I don’t believe it exists.”

The concept of karma isn’t easy for many to grasp.  It’s easily misunderstood.  Karma is not a punishment or a reward, although we can choose to make it so.  Karma is simply the return of what has been sent out. Karma is simply the getting paid forward from something that was put in motion in the past.  The Buddhist view of karma, the Buddhist focus on attitude and the conduct that flows from it, is said to be the basis of not only our own lives, but also the entire physical world. Karmic cycles are sometimes compared with seeds as a primary cause because they are capable of reproducing the species of plant from which they came. But just as seeds need secondary causes such as light, moisture and air in order to mature, so too do primary karmic causes which remain as the traces of past actions in each individual stream of consciousness.”  My experience has been, not just for me but for the maybe thousands of friends I’ve been honored to work with the past 40 years, is that – if your life is in discord – there is always something in this lifetime that you are attached to that is holding you back.  Complete realization of that and forgiveness of the situation will free the discord from your life. It’s all related.  Once you know this, you will be reminded by real life daily situations when you have more course correction and forgiveness work to do.  Karma becomes your friend once you begin to consciously think every thought and do every behavior as though it would impact millions of people on the planet, including yourself.  Then you begin to understand the concept of karma.

I know I’m a horse of a different color, but the apocalypse I bring is an inner awakening of the deepest sort, with everlasting benefits, destructive of nothing but the personal ego that thinks it’s separate from God.

Support for Spiritual Emerge-gency: “How blessed I was to find you. Who so effortlessly showed me who I was and made me see through the lies I’d been told and began to believe myself. Thank you.”

Someone doesn’t have to die for me to feel grief and loss.  Sometimes it’s just a part of them or a part of me, or a situation that dies.  Interruption of  the daily routine creates the space for the feelings to arise.  Watching friends go from completely independent to having to depend on others for the basics is always a real eye opening – and heart opening – experience.   I’m 59.  I know a lot of people.  I’ve lived through the deaths of parents, husbands, brothers, inlaws, coworkers, friends and more each year.  I’m not used to it as much as I am just more settled in the thought that no one is really gone.  Valerie Saurer said it well on Facebook this week:  “Grief is a sneaky thing, crawling through the window like a thief when you’re least expecting it.”  This living and dying thing, it’s a process.   Continue reading →

There comes a time in your life when you finally get it.  When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out- ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and through a mantle of wet lashes you begin to look at the world from a new prospective.  This is your AWAKENING!  You realize that it is time to stop hoping and waiting for something, or someone, to change or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that there aren’t always fairytale endings (or beginnings for that matter) and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you. Continue reading →

Ever wish you were more patient, more tolerant, more joyous?   Wish you could become peacefully serene just by wishing it so?   With a little practice, you can consciously invoke any quality you wish to acquire.   During daily meditation, take a few extra minutes for the following:  Imagine yourself in a peaceful, serene setting, being very relaxed.  Breathe in the relaxation and serenity and feel it all through your mind and body. Then imagine yourself in a stressful situation, one which calls for you to act with patience, tolerance and understanding:  i.e., with a bad driver, an angry child, a frustrating boss. Imagine yourself acting appropriately and displaying the desired qualities. Place yourself in another stressful situation, one that is likely to come up during the day; envision yourself acting appropriately and again displaying the desired qualities.  Take note of how you feel during the exercise.  As you continue this daily meditation, you are preconditioning yourself for appropriate action, so that when a stressful situation occurs, your response will be automatic.  This exercise can be used to invoke any quality you may wish to acquire.  Remember to give thanks for the opportunity to learn a new quality. Continue reading →