My psychic life: Day 4

IMG_0536Today’s task has been to stay focused on the readings & healing I have lined up & not drift away into a trance. That’s because tonight I’m hosting an evening seance where I will be the Trance & Physical medium bringing in the Spirit people for others to see with their own eyes. A very different part of my work – but one that fascinates me.

Let me explain a little about Trance (also called transfiguration) & how I work in it. A trance is an altered state of consciousness – like meditation or hypnotherapy – in which the blend of me with Spirit can allow the Energy Being to affect my physical features, use my hands or voice and more clearly bring a representation of that being into our 3D world. A trance medium aims to alter their brainwave frequency from an awake, alert pattern to a much lower frequency (but not so low as to be asleep). Our own Spirit spark (what animates out clay overcoat) can then move to one side somewhat to make room in the aura & physical body for another Energy Being. At that point the new energy being can influence the physicality of the medium & be more present in the room.

There is a long history in Spiritualism of trance mediumship. This type of blending has been a useful way for Spirit to provide extra evidence that they can interact with our dimension & make direct changes. Trance mediumship has been investigated in many different ways – although the world of science remains unconvinced – and you will find many reports & pictures of seances from reliable sources if you want to look into this phenomenon more closely. Of course there has also been a lot of misinformation & misunderstanding about this type of work. It gets even more confusing if you then consider physical mediumship. A medium in a deep trance can often be used by the Energy Beings to produce not just facial or physical changes. Working together the blending of the medium & Energy Beings can also produce physical phenomena e.g. lights, cold & heat shifts, moving objects, noises like raps & bangs, voices in the air & through a trumpet.

There are traditions in this type of work about the ways in which mediums should work. However, many of today’s trance mediums are finding that the blending can be done in different conditions – so we are experimenting all the time. I don’t work in total darkness or with red light. I’m not disturbed by noise. I can work with ectoplasm as well as with energy to produce phenomena. My people seem to enjoy being photographed by digital cameras & phones – sometimes I feel they like showing off, lol. Occasionally they will let people video the seances. And they also love electrical equipment. I now have a light box and emf-type meter built by another experienced seance sitter so that the Energy Beings can show themselves.

Soon I will go & have a shower, a little rest & then get into my black clothes (black is a good background to pick up orbs). I have been meat free for 2 weeks so that there is no undigested food in my stomach; I’ve been drinking lots of water & avoiding coffee & alcohol; all of these help raise my vibration & ensure that the trance work can be carried out in the best possible conditions. The room has been set up with a circle of 15 chairs. There is music on hand to help raise the vibrations. And there is my trumpet alongside the musical instruments that might be used by the Energy Beings to make noise.

I love this part – the anticipation! Will the energy of the sitters blend well? Will the energy build up & be strong enough? What will people experience? Who will step forward & blend with me? Will all the equipment work? I never know what is going to happen. And I miss most of it anyway as I’m the one in trance – quite a challenge for me as I’m curious about everything. I’m looking forward to hearing what people feel & think about the seance. How it might have been improved. What to try next time. So much research to carry on doing!

My psychic life: Day 3

IMG_1517Today it was time for my regular visit to a great personal support group, Damsels in Success, in Leeds run by Dawn Grossart. Everyone needs support and I’ve become much better at asking for & taking support in my life. I come from a background where there was always responsibility, duty & plenty of ‘shoulds’ which seemed to involve not asking for help even when it was really needed. Add to that my natural stubbornness & desire to do things for myself. You can see that accepting support might not be the easiest thing. Until I encountered the Spirit Guides!

It’s often hard to ask for help – we feel we have failed, or have made a mistake or are weak. I meet many people who believe that everything they do has to be done by them alone. The idea of help & support might mean admitting to some sort of shortcoming first. Yet when my Guides stepped into my life they gently helped me to see that without their support my connections to Energy Beings might take a long time to become established. It was so much easier if I allowed them to boost my energy, prompt me with information about helpful ways to connect & to discuss with them what would work or not. They also worked with me through a lot of experiences so that I could understand & value offers of & receiving support. Then they bounced me into something that would definitely require as much help as I could get.

Eighteen months ago, after many years of working only by & for myself, I was prompted by my Guides to take on an extra suite of rooms next door to where I was already working. They had told me 12 months before that that the rooms would be mine at some point – I didn’t know when exactly. So I took on the extra rooms & 6 weeks later had my Down 2 Earth Heart Centre up & running. Our (mine & my Guides) shared vision was all about spiritual outreach, a safe haven & collaboration with others to provide the loving support people needed on their spiritual journey. I seemed to have plenty of people on board with that vision so it was all systems go.

I operate a Drop In (it was 4 days a week & is currently 3) so that people can access service & support at short notice. I try to be available at each session, either for a chat, a reading or to do healing. I have regular events so that people can access healing & guidance at each Drop In for a small sum. Most importantly, there is always tea & coffee & a warm blanket if someone needs to rest outside of the world for a while. The Drop In is also supported by a small number of regular practitioners who have very kindly shared in my vision. We hope to grow our businesses together as we grow support for our model of holistic centres. But it hasn’t all be plain sailing by any means.

Being in a spiritual business is viewed as contradictory by many people. They tell me that what I do is a gift from God so I shouldn’t charge. Other people argue that I am taking advantage of the vulnerable & needy by charging for my services. Some people will pay a fortune to access services that I provide & then say that I charge way too much. Wanting to offer the best I have sometimes let less scrupulous people take full advantage of my generous nature. I have listened to what they say but realised my error when I’ve seen what they do (or don’t do) in practice. I’ve given people lots of chances & been let down in very surprising ways. However, I don’t give up easily – if at all. I know that the Centre has been a refuge for some people; a place of warmth & love; a space to be accepted as who they are. Most importantly, I have been able to validate their experiences – to agree that it is possible to see non-physical beings, to hear the words of a loved one long gone, to encourage the sensing of a familiar person around them. To talk about the afterlife, the dead & the new life they have. So if I charge for some things it is also because I want to keep my Centre open for those who need it. And that requires adopting a practical, focused, business headed outlook.

So back to the support from Damsels. I have tried a lot of business networking – it’s not really for me. I don’t especially have anything to sell & I am not in the market for much. I run a tight ship – on a realistic budget so that I can give my time & energy to the Centre. I am grateful for an abundant Universe where everything I need is actually supplied. What I do take support for is the personal growth & development I need to hold a clear & expanding vision for myself, the Centre & the practitioners. Finding a group where I could be vulnerable, challenge myself & ‘be’ much more myself has been life affirming. My creativity, my enthusiasm for my business & my passion for my vision have all increased. So take a look around. Have you got enough of the positive, encouraging support for you that you need? There is sure to be something – your Guides will have been trying to show you all this time. Take a chance. Join with your positive, supportive tribe today!

My psychic life: Day 2

12234944_10200870479441824_6765952252498023577_nToday I’m at the Centre (in my pink slippers) to catch up on a bit of admin & follow up on readings I’ve done over the past few days. I always record any readings I do as there tends to be a lot of info in the sessions. It’s too much for anyone to remember perfectly so a recording you can listen to again is a great way to help people get all the guidance they need. I often say that readings are the bread & butter of my work – it’s where I started my psychic life & a key part of bringing support & information to people. It’s also the way in which the Energy Beings give others evidence of their existence.

And that is a key part of my psychic life – encouraging others to wonder how I knew the information I gave them. I’ve often been told it comes through cold reading, or that I’ve researched someone on social media, or that I’m a lucky guesser. But there is always something in a message that the person says no to – then comes back, sometimes a long time after, to tell me that the message info was completely accurate. I’ve learned not to worry about info that the person can’t understand & to be patient for the confirmation to turn up. So how did all this readings work get started?

In 1992 I was working away from home & lodging in a shared house. Margaret, the lady who owned the house, & I had many interesting discussions as she had had a Near Death Experience. This had led her to find out more about the afterlife. As part of her research she had found out how to read playing cards. She encouraged me to give it a try too. So I got a pack of playing cards & a book. It was strange to me then but the cards seemed to give correct info every time I tried a reading for myself or Margaret. I started trying them out on other friends. The people who had readings kept saying how accurate the readings were. I was hooked!

I dived into the world of Tarot wanting to understand how it all worked. I still didn’t believe in the Spirit world or any other kind of energy beings but the cards also seemed to help with my past life work too. Soon friends of friends were asking me to read their cards or tell them about their past lives. As I discovered more & did more readings I noticed that I could also sense their aura energy. It was quite a slow process to understand what I was sensing & then translate it into anything meaningful. Even though I got a direct message from another Tarot reader that it was time for me to sit in a development circle I resisted. I still don’t know if I was too afraid to find out more at that time or if the sceptic in me was in charge. So it was’t until 2005 that I opened up to the fact that I could get messages from Spirits.

Once I did readings work became full on. In 2007 I decided to work full time doing readings as there seemed to be so many requests that I couldn’t fit them all in around my other (non psychic) work. I’m grateful to say that the readings work continues to be a big part of my mediumship. I can work over Skype, the phone or face to face. I love connecting people up with their loved ones in Spirit & also, on occasion, their Guides. I love that my Guides work with me on evidence based readings so that the info is clear & understandable. And the privilege for me is meeting all these Spirit people as it has changed my world view. From sceptic to believer. From fearful of death to looking forward (lol, eventually) to my next (after) life.

As I burn each CD (with a cuppa & biscuit & cosy feet) I recognise something else about my work too. In with the readings is another challenge – to educate people what is a reading & what isn’t. To help everyone understand how readings work, what to expect & why a reading might not be possible. To explain about energy & why we need to understand our own psychic energy so we can get guidance & support from Energy Beings. I can do readings, that is, tune in to Energy Beings – but so can you. Be prepared to listen to your intuition, explore in my world & be open minded. You might find you are hooked too!

The Blog Challenge Begins!

Annie Conboy, MA(Couns), MSWG

Annie Conboy’s blog challenge

Much as I love all the stuff about the ‘woo woo’ side of being a psychic, it really isn’t the way I live. Having reached a stage in my life where things have to be simple – senior moments are lurking around the corner – & preferring to be down to earth about what I do, I’ve taken on a challenge to write a blog a day for the next 30 days.

Immediately there is a problem. I have a book full of the first 2 paragraphs of blog posts. They never seem to get finished. There is always something else I find I need to give my attention to. Even my first go this evening had to stop so I could make my daughter a meal, then run off to my Centre to open up for someone using a room & finally off to my local Spiritualists Church to chair for the medium doing the service. Now I’m feeling the pressure! I promised myself & I want to do this yet getting the focus is hard.

What to write about? The question I’ve just answered, very briefly, on Facebook about synchronicity? The chat I had with someone this evening about why their particular loved one didn’t come through in a reading? The social media posting I do to encourage people to find the positive in every situation – no matter how difficult that might seem? The Reiki meditation I did to send out healing? There are so many things that fall under the general titles of medium or psychic. So the easiest thing is to write about my day, every day for the next month. Sorry in advance if it gets boring but hopefully at the end you will see that my life is really no different than anyone else. Oh, OK then, perhaps the same with a few extraordinary bits added in, lol.

So to begin. I’m going to talk about the energy work I was involved in yesterday afternoon as today has been about following up the experience & processing what happened for me. On a Monday at my Down 2 Earth Heart Centre I run a session called Walking the Spiral. It’s something fairly new that my Guides encouraged me to offer to people because I know the benefit of personal development work in spiritual growth. In fact, I first used a circle for my own search for understanding when I read about vision questing in Denise Linn’s book Quest in the late 1990’s. So this session involves creating a safe energy space in a circle, spiral or labyrinth so that the participants can access, understand & release unconscious emotional energy that might be blocking the messages they are receiving psychically.

I often work with people who have got stuck in their psychic & mediumship work. They can sense their Guides, pick up on psychic energy & often have ‘breakthrough’ messages. Yet they aren’t able to boost the energy enough to pick up info more easily or to make sense of what they are getting. Yesterday we used a White Light circle – candles & crystals creating a physical space within which to work & the energy of our Guides & the Earth’s ArchAngels to guard & boost the energy of the space. After welcoming all of the energy beings we took our places in the circle & began with some chanting. So that the energy could be boosted some more I entered a light trance and one of my healing Guides stepped in to blend with me. Having created a strong healing vibration my Guide left me so we could continue the work. We were visited by at least  5 Guides who could be seen clairvoyantly. What followed was a long conversation amongst the participants as information was given by our Guides concerning energy blocks & ways to release them.

At the end of this work, with a lot of new information to consider, we closed the circle. I always ask for feedback as I’m curious to see how the energy work has been experienced by others. It’s always good to find that they have become somehow lighter by what they have seen, felt & thought about in the circle. Also that blocks have been released & they are ready to carry on experiencing the guidance & contact with their own Guide teams. It’s also an experience for me – I’m a participant too. So today I’ve been meditating on a couple of vivid dreams I had last night. Sometimes I’m too stubborn to take the guidance I’m given so my team have to send me the messages over & over again in different ways. Today was one of those days. I finally understood about writing this blog, lol, because half way through I had a deja vu moment! So I must make it through the 30 days somehow, and people perhaps won’t be too bored, and a barrier to my development will have been released. I love my psychic life!