Here you are in the middle of a crisis, another disaster, one failure on top of another, universe smooshing you to the ground, stepped on like a bug on the bottom of the shoe of life. Where is your guidance now? Where is the Divine Source when you need it? Why aren’t the guides helping you!?

Hear this now. Your guides will always come for you. But how can I be sure? Because this is true love. You think this happens every day?

The truth is, your guides do not abandon you. They signed up for this gig knowing there would be challenges and heartache. More likely you’ve either abandoned them, you stopped listening to their advice, or you can’t hear them even though you want to. It is especially during times of crisis or emotional hardship that your guides try their hardest to send you help. But you’ve got to know what it looks like, sounds like, or feels like or you might miss it.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just get a letter in the mail from your spirit guides telling you exactly what you need to do to make your life better? We all wish it was that straightforward. Unfortunately, guides can never find a pen, and a stamp costs a bazillion dollars per ounce to mail from the ether. So we’re left with signs, signals, synchronicities, or a really good intuitive who can tell you what your guides want you to know.

Your best bet is to learn how to hear, see, feel or know your guides. To do this, you need to know what your intuitive modalities are. I’ve written a nifty article on this topic, so please read it when you’re done with this one: How To Recognize Your Intuitive Modality. After you have determined the ways in which you receive intuition, you should use that modality to connect with your guides. I wrote another nifty article to help you with that called Spirit Guides: Who are they and how do you connect with them?

The best and most common way people connect with their guides is through meditation, but there are certainly other ways as outlined in the above article. But if you don’t have the time or inclination to learn how to speak to your guides directly, rest assured they will come to you. Usually they send signs, signals and synchronicities to help guide you to the person, place or plan that will help you the most. Do you know when you’re getting a sign or some guidance? Here are some articles that outline how you can tell:

Spirit Guides at Starbucks
Like Rats in a Maze
Interpreting Synchronicities From Spirit
How Should You Communicate with Your Spirit Guides?

Life is not trying to punish you. Sometimes you make decisions that lead to physical hardship or emotional pain and suffering. That’s when learning and growth happens.

If you aren’t sure what your guides are trying to tell you, you can book an intuitive session with me and I will tell you. But honestly, it’s best to learn how to do this on your own because you can’t keep going to an intuitive for advice when you have a problem. One time, when you’re really stuck, yes that’s appropriate. I can also help you understand your intuitive modalities and give you some advice on how to connect with your guides specifically. Let’s meet them together so you can form a relationship with them that will last a lifetime… because that’s how long they’ll be with you.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. How Should You Communicate With Your Spirit Guides?
2. How To Tell the Difference Between Your Ego, Logic, Spirit Guides and Intuition
3. Are guides always wiser than us?

The other bit of information you need to know about me in order to fully understand and appreciate the story I’m about to tell you is that while I am pretty darn successful in the areas of Love, Truth, and Oneness, I’ve had to really work over the years at getting better at Authority, Power, and Courage.  I’ve had to overcome panic disorder, being too dependent on my parents well into adulthood, and letting other people tell me what I should be doing with my life.  And while I’ve made significant strides in the area of Authority, Power, and Courage over the years (some of my friends can’t even believe how far I’ve come) I still have a lot to learn.

Okay, you’ve got the background.  Here’s the story of how I recently went up a level in Courage, Power and Authority.

As I mentioned, I joined Toastmasters three years ago because I knew at some point I’d find myself up on stage speaking to large crowds.  I figured I might as well get a jump on becoming a better speaker so that when I actually did take the stage I didn’t die of fright.  I’ve done well in Toastmasters, earning my first educational award – Competent Communicator – and taking on officer positions within my club to improve my leadership abilities.  In January of 2009 I became President of my Toastmaster club, Voice Links.  I did this because I’ve never been the leader of an organization or group (though I’ve taken the Vice President position many times) and I wanted to have the experience of being the person in charge, the leader, the head honcho, the buck stopper.  I had great success being President of my club, I learned a lot about delegation, managing others, and being a leader.  I was told by several members that I was one of the best Presidents the club had ever had.  I preened.  I felt good.  I stepped down.  Yes, I stepped down as President even though I could have remained for another 6 months.  I did this because the job wasn’t challenging for me anymore and I’ve learned that if I get too comfortable it means it’s time for a greater challenge.

I am a member of another club, Powerhouse Pros, which happens to be the largest club in our district with over 50 members, and is more geared towards people who are interested in becoming professional speakers.  This is the club Steve’s been in for years.  I was asked to take on the position of VP of Membership for the upcoming term, which I agreed to do because I knew it would be a challenge and a growth experience, which is what I’m actively seeking right now.  But the day after I stepped down as President of Voice Links, I was asked if I was willing to become President of Powerhouse Pros.  The thought terrified me, honestly, because I didn’t feel ready to take over a club that had had such recent massive growth and a club where people were actually using it to become professional speakers.   I’d only been in the club 8 months myself!  But I realized that I had to face this challenge because it was exactly what I asked for.  I had to feel the fear and do it anyway.  I had to step into a role I didn’t feel quite ready for because those are the situations that provide us with the most growth.  Steve had a good chortle at how the universe pushed me in this direction.  And he agreed it would certainly help me in the area of Courage, Power, and Authority.  I accepted the job even though I didn’t feel ready or capable.

I was immediately catapulted into a leadership position unlike anything I experienced in my other, more laid-back club.  The difference in correspondence alone is monstrous, but managing all of these people and making sure their needs are being met is a real challenge.  I am very lucky that I have an executive board full of officers who are awesome, kick ass, and quite competent!  Once we all become accustomed to our roles, I feel our ship will sail quite smoothly.  

The transition officially takes place on July 1, but I was asked to give a speech at our June 29th meeting, awarding our outgoing president with an engraved gavel for her year of service to our club.  I wasn’t exactly expecting to have to create a tribute speech, but I accepted the challenge.  Our outgoing Vice President of Education, the person in charge of creating the agenda for each meeting, came up with the brilliant plan of us doing a Wizard of Ah’s theme, which would involve several of us acting our parts all night during the meeting.  Whoa.  Hang on.  Not what I signed up for.  Hold up!  I found myself charged with the role of the Wicked Witch who is out to fill our president’s shoes (aka the ruby slippers).  Steve got such a kick out of this idea.  He said, “Oh yeah, you gotta do it.  You totally have the Wicked Witch cackle down pat.  I’ve heard you do her voice.  You’d be a natural at it.”  I resisted, “But I’m already doing a whole speech that is sure to make me nervous.  You want me to act all night too and memorize lines and, and, and…”  He replied, “This is what you want.  A challenge.  And the universe is giving it to you.  Accept the challenge.  That’s how you go up a level.”

Shortly thereafter the universe sent several synchronicities to show me I wasn’t going to get out of this so easily.  First, Steve suddenly got an email from a woman who signed her name “Just call me the Wicked Witch of the East.”  That was synchronicity #1.  Ten minutes later I found myself at the grocery store, parked next to a vehicle with the license plate “WchyWmn.”  That was synchronicity #2.  The third synchronicity came in the form of someone on television mentioning the tornado from the Wizard of Oz movie.  I agreed to be the witch.  I had a hat and a cackle and I knew how to use them!

Now guess who they got to join me in this debacle?

John Kinde, playing the scarecrow.  John is a professional speaker, humorist, and runs an Improv Troupe here in town.  This man is the unmitigated king of observational humor.

Bryant Pergerson, playing the Tinman.  Bryant made it all the way to Toastmaster’s highest competition, the International Speech Contest, beating out nearly 25,000 other toastmasters along the way.  My man Bryant can speak like nobody’s business.

S. Frank Stringham, playing the Cowardly Lion.  S. is also a professional speaker and comedian who does an amazing impression of the Cowardly Lion.  S.  is a member of John’s Improv Troupe as well.  The man was born to be on stage and is always entertaining.

Darren LaCroix, playing the Wizard.  Darren is actually a World Champion of Public Speaking and coaches people on how to be better professional speakers.  If you want to know how to speak better, you get with Darren or buy his products.

Bill Parker, as our narrator.  Bill is a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest level of distinction that Toastmasters offers, and is also a new member of the Improv Troupe.  He’s quite comfortable speaking and has been doing so for years.

Sherri Parker, playing Glenda, the Good Governor of the South.  Sherri is our new District Governor, a high mucky muck in the Toastmaster organization, and also a Distinguished Toastmaster who gave a keynote address at our recent Toastmaster Leadership Institute.  Girlfriend’s got it going on!

And then me.  Little old me.  Still struggling to get the butterflies to fly in formation.  It was like standing next to Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Meryl Streep while they decide to throw together a little something to act out for fun. 

But hey, I’m here to learn, to get my feet wet, to challenge myself, and this was how it had to be.  I got the script for our play the morning of the performance.  I spent the day practicing my cackle and also writing up my tribute to our outgoing president.  I fed the butterflies in my stomach since they were hanging out so long, I figured they might be hungry.

I was too busy to be nervous, but occasionally throughout the day I would get stabs of adrenaline as I realized what I was going to put myself through.   The night before our meeting I had a dream about the entire event.  There turned out to be some prophetic components to this dream.  First, I dreamed that twice as many people were at the meeting than we usually have, and in the dream we ran out of chairs and it was standing room only.  I also dreamed that some of our guests were in school and had to attend a toastmaster club meeting as part of class credit.  I dreamed that our VP of Education, Bill, was late – he usually arrives first to help set up the meeting room, but in the dream he came only 10 minutes before the meeting which, at a meeting as chaotic as this was going to be, would have been a bad idea.  I also dreamed that our outgoing president, Pam, was in a bad mood and angry at our VP of Education.

All of these things I dreamed came to pass.  Our room was overflowing with all manner of people, more than 50 people showed up.  It was insane.  Several people had to stand in the back because we ran out of chairs.  Our president, Pam, was angry at Bill because the fake agenda he handed out was wrought with errors and she was annoyed with him.  Plus he was nowhere to be found as he was running unusually late.  And there were several students from the local university who came by to witness the meeting as part of one of their classes.

Back to the story …

This night turned out to be a whirlwind for me.  I successfully did Pam’s tribute.  I did a decent job as the Wicked Witch, though I spoke much faster than I should have.  Our area, division and district governors came by to do our officer installation so I was involved in that.  And finally, at the end of the meeting, Pam called me up to get feedback from our guests and to end the meeting.

Through it all, though, I had fun.  I can’t believe it, but I had fun.  Something I’d been dreading turned out to be something quite enjoyable.  By the end of the meeting I could feel a metaphorical mantle of power settle on my shoulders, and instead of weighing me down, it raised me up.  And I learned something so valuable.  When you face your fears instead of running from them, you go up a level in courage.  And if you can remember to have fun in the process, you’ll have all the power you’ll ever need.  For a moment there, I forgot all about the butterflies in my stomach.  They had stopped fluttering.  I think they were afraid of my cackle.

When Steve and I got home that night I was riding a high I haven’t had in a long time.  We sat on our couch together and watched the end of a Star Trek episode, Remember Me.  In it, Beverly Crusher is in a reality of her own making and is trying to get back home.  At one point she says, “Could it be that simple?  Just click my heels together?”  It was the final nod from my Guides.  I’d done good, and I was pleased with myself.  I know the road ahead may have some bumps, and I know the butterflies may come back, but I will face them with courage.

What could you do today that would help you level up in courage?  Where have you gotten so comfortable that it’s not even a challenge anymore?  What are you avoiding doing that you know would provide you with tremendous growth?  Follow that yellow brick road, my friend.  At the end you’ll find not a wizard, but your own power.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Running for President
2. Fear of Public Speaking
3. Las Vegas I Can Do It Conference 2008 – Review

Answer:  I get variations of this question a lot.  It’s normal to want contact from people who have recently crossed over.  You want to make sure they’re okay, that they didn’t suffer, and you want to know they are still connected to you.  There are several reasons why you may not hear from them so fast, if ever.

First, you have to be an open conduit.  If someone is calling your cell phone and you’ve got it turned off, whose fault is that?  If you want to receive communication from deceased loved ones you’ll have to be open to it.  That means paying attention to your dreams, watching for signs that were unique to them, and being open to a clairvoyant, clairaudient, or clairsentient message from them.  If you associate your boyfriend with a certain song, maybe you’ll hear it on the radio at the same time you’re already thinking about him.  Maybe you’ll smell gardenias when none are around and you equate this to your grandmother.  In short, maybe communication is there and you’re just not picking up on it.

Second, maybe they want to contact you but can’t.  Reaching the other side isn’t a one way ticket to omniscience.  People don’t suddenly become god-like on the other side.  Some spirits are unable to make contact with the living.  Sometimes they need help.  Other, stronger spirits, can sometimes bring through a deceased relative who can’t come through on their own.  Or your spirit guides can at least relay messages between you two.  Again, you’ll have to watch for communication from many different channels and methods.  Over time a spirit can learn to reach back to the living, which requires altering their frequency, and that isn’t an automatic skill.

Thirdly, maybe they don’t want to communicate with you.  Sometimes when I do readings a bunch of people from one family will come through, but someone will be conspicuously absent.  I am sometimes told that that person has already “moved on” and is no longer feeling an emotional connection with family they left behind.  Sometimes, I get a mother who will talk to my sitter and then leave before the father comes through.  Usually that means they were separated or divorced (or hated each other) while alive, and they are not wanting to come through together.

Fourth, maybe you are blocking the communication with your emotions.  Sometimes when a person dies the people they leave behind are angry.  It’s hard for a spirit to come through anger.  People can inadvertently block communication with a spirit if they’re feeling angry or too upset.  When you settle down you might find the spirit was there all along.

Some people are better able to pick up on deceased energy.  So if you don’t hear from your boyfriend it doesn’t mean he isn’t connected to you.  Give it time, patience and love.  Concentrate on his energy.  Hold a photo or something dear to him.  Ask him to come to you and tell him you will be open to the signs, signals, and synchronicities that work best for him.

Sometimes it can be hard to know if you’re really receiving communication from deceased loved ones or if it’s all in your head.  That’s one reason why going to mediums is excellent because they don’t know anything about you or the deceased person.  So if a medium starts telling you about your first date with the deceased or something equally private, it will give you greater confidence that your loved one is really there on the other side.  I once did a reading for a guy and his grandmother came through. Her first words to him were “Don’t worry.”  That was significant for him because those were apparently the final two words she spoke on her death bed and only he, his father, and his dying grandmother were present to hear it.  But if he had tuned in to her on his own and heard “don’t worry” in his mind, that may not have been enough proof for him to believe he was really communicating with her. 

Even professional mediums can wait months or even years to get definitive communication from their loved ones on the other side.  Which just goes to show that if you’re sitting there waiting by your phone you still may not get a call.  Go live your life, watch for signs and communication, keep sending them love, but try not to be terribly upset if you don’t dream about them right away.  These things take time.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Can I contact a deceased relative on my own?
2. Are dreams about deceased loved ones real?
3. Do deceased family members know when someone is going to die?

Answer:  The guides would ask you why you feel the need to resist your path so stubbornly that being dropped on your ass is the only way to get you to stop for a second and notice where you are.

In truth, the guides don’t do anything to us, at least not overtly.  They’re not conspiring behind the scenes to get you fired or to send you a brain tumor.  They are there to encourage us, to drop signs along the way, like breadcrumbs to follow.  I like to imagine it metaphorically as our guides standing above a maze.  We, the rats in the maze, are dropped at one end and we have to find our way to the “cheese” which is whatever your higher self intended for you to experience and learn in this lifetime.  The guides are standing there saying, “Come on, kid, you can do it.  Keep going.  Wait, why are you running down that path?  That’s the wrong way.  Uh oh, you’re really lost now.  You took so many twists and turns down the wrong path it’s going to take you years to get back on the right one.  Would you like to use a lifeline?”  The guides can’t pluck you off your path, that’s against the rules.  They are allowed to send nudges though.  Intuitive flashes of insight, people telling you that you’re on the wrong path, synchronicities, signs, symbols, gut feelings, those are all methods they use.  If you can’t tune in to your spirit guides on your own, there are people like myself who can do that for you.

How do you know if you’re running down the wrong path?  You’ll know you’re on the wrong path if you wake up each morning dreading your life, if you feel dead inside.  Remember that hot-cold game where someone hides something and in order to find it you wander around and they tell you if you’re hot or cold (close or near)?  Same thing happens in life.  When you’re going in the wrong direction you can almost sense someone telling you that you’re getting colder.  When someone is barreling towards their goal don’t we sometimes say, “He’s on fire!”  See … you’re getting hot! 

Dropping you on your keister is a blessing.  It’s like they put a hand up in front of your little rat nose and said, “Enough.  We can’t let you keep going down this path.  Will you please just tune in and hear us?”  The best way to honor the ass-drop is to take it seriously.  Stop.  Breathe.  Listen.  Tune in to your heart’s desire.  Figure out where you went wrong.  Make a plan.  Then get up, dust yourself off, and get going in the right direction.  Remember to thank your guides for caring enough about you to get your attention.  That wall you’re crashing into is Divine Love.  It might be painful, but maybe it’s there to stop you from running off a cliff just around the corner.

When life drops you on your ass see it as a gift.  It’s a chance to correct your course before you plow into a mountain or drop into a pit of spikes.  The worst thing you can do is sit there and do nothing, moaning or whining about how life ain’t fair.  For all you know, you may look back on your predicament one day and realize it was the best thing that could have happened to you.  Honor these moments.  Honor the setbacks.  And keep going.  Always keep going.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Like Rats in a Maze
2. A Spiritual Perspective on Homosexuality
3. Are drugs a good way to achieve spiritual experiences?

You can do both and they will hear you both ways.  When you think a thought, it creates energy.  That energy can be received and understood by guides, angels, higher selves, God, anything with a consciousness.  You can cast your thought to one specific energy, like your higher self, or you can cast your thought out to the Universe, like, “I am ready for love, Universe.  Bring it on!”

A lot of people think they need to be in a specific building, praying to God in a certain way.  That works, but it’s not necessary to be in a building, on a certain day, praying in a certain way.  Our guides on the other side can hear our thoughts whenever we think them. 

If you want to hear them back, that’s another story.  They don’t communicate using vocal chords and mouths to your ears.  They will respond energetically, the same way they received your communication.  So if you’re not able to tune in to their frequency, you won’t hear their message. 

But there are other ways of receiving their response or communication.  For one, you may get an image in your head, a form of clairvoyance.  You may hear a thought come back to you like, “Yes, my child, you are indeed loved.”  That’s clairaudience.  You may get a warm tingly feeling in your stomach or chills up your back.  That’s clairsentience.  Alternatively, you may get signs, symbols or synchronicities in your life, which is their way of letting you know they received your message.  Interpreting them isn’t always easy, but you do the best you can.  You can consult an intuitive, someone whose job it is to receive energy from the other side and interpret it for you.  These people, such as myself, have trained themselves to receive and interpret communication from the other side.

Who should you address yourself to?

If you need help immediately, like your life is in danger, call upon the angels.  Specifically, Archangel Michael would be a good choice.  If you need healing, call on Raphael.  If you want to commune with God, Source, Oneness, Love, direct your thoughts to your version of God.  If you want to make something happen in your life, like you want to change careers or find a new relationship, I would address yourself to your spirit guides.  If you want to remember who you really are and consult with the highest version of yourself, talk to your higher self.  If you’re curious about what it’s like on other planets or in other dimensions, ask a high vibration celestial being to communicate with you.  If you’re, uh, more attracted to the dark side, you can ask for a low vibration being to assist you.  I’d watch out for that though.  They don’t always play fair.

How do you talk to them?

Some people use meditation.  Quiet your mind, open your chakras, breathe deeply, and ask them to appear to you in your mind.  Talk to them telepathically and see what they say.

Some people like ritual.  Light some candles, turn on the fountain, add some relaxation music, chant, hum, sing; however you feel like connecting, connect. 

Some people like prayer.  Sit quietly or kneel, go into your heart and/or mind, and commune silently with your God.

Some people do well with journaling or automatic writing.  I especially recommend this technique for the left-brained folks who don’t go in for the woo-woo stuff.  Just write down some questions in a Word document, and type back the answer you see, feel, hear, or just know.  Or the answers you think you just saw, heard, felt, or knew.  Rationalize it later.

You can communicate with the other side in dreams too.  This was a method I preferred growing up.  I would program a dream or ask for a message dream on a certain night and pay close attention to what my dreams were about.  If I got myself a lucid dream, I was good to go!

There are many ways to communicate with the beings in the ether.  Try different methods until you find the one you like best.

How do you know if your guides are communicating with you or if you’re just hearing things or making things up?

Practice for one thing.  Keep communicating and acting on what you get.  See if it turns out like you thought it would.  That will strengthen your communication.  I also find that the deeper into meditation I go, the stronger the connection.  You want to get yourself to the point where you can discern the difference between your ego, logic, intuition, and guides.  It’s not likely going to happen on your first attempt unless you’re already a pretty advanced intuitive and just didn’t know it.

You can talk to your higher self, guides, angels, and God out loud with your voice if you want.  That sends the same energy as doing it in your mind.  Sometimes it feels better to hear your prayer out loud.  You can put some oomph and inflection into it. 

Knowing that the Universe receives your thoughts and wishes, I encourage you to send love and gratitude out whenever you can.  That tends to be returned in kind.  And I encourage you to watch the negative thinking as you don’t want to accidentally manifest something unfortunate for yourself.  The universe responds to our thoughts. Guard yours well or they will become your destiny.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. How To Tell the Difference Between Your Ego, Logic, Spirit Guides and Intuition
2. Can you tell me who my spirit guides are?
3. Spirit Guides: Who are they and how do you connect with them?

Answer:  I believe spirit guides do play a role in many relationship meetings, but not all of them.  If your spirit guides have determined there is a good match for you they will discuss it with that person’s guides to see if the arrangement is suitable to that person’s goals and life plan as well.  If an agreement is reached then the fun begins.  They have to find ways of getting you two together.

Before Steve and I met, I was a graduate student at California State University, Northridge.  Unbeknownst to me, Steve was also attending CSUN on his way to getting his Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and Math.  I was in the Psychology program so the odds of us meeting in a classroom were pretty slim.  Except, there was this one class: Human and Computer Interaction.  I was in the Human Factors graduate program and this was a class that taught us how to design interfaces to be user friendly and intuitive.  I signed up for the class, although my area of specialty was aeronautics, not computers.  At the same time, Steve signed up for the class, probably as an elective.  Same class, same teacher, same time.  At the last minute, though, I cancelled out of that class to take something else that had opened up.  We found out later that we would have been in the same class, probably would have met, and maybe even found ourselves on the same team to do a group assignment.  Who knows?

Were the guides thwarted in their efforts to get us together?  Yep.  So a new arrangement was made.  I was a member of an online local BBS.  An acquaintance of mine, named Adam, was also on the board.  He was a Computer Science major at CSUN too and had met Steve there.  He convinced Steve to log on and create an account.  Steve’s handle was Savage (a name he chose quickly when he looked up and saw his Savage Empire game poster on his wall).  Meanwhile, I had just finished reading a romance novel where the main character’s name was Adam Savage.  So when I saw this guy named Savage log on, I sent him a quick private message and simply said, “I just read a book about you.”  Steve was intrigued, a dialogue followed, a meeting took place, and the rest is history.

Do I believe we were destined to meet?  I absolutely do.  I believe the guides work behind the scenes to help you meet people that will be important for your life plan.  Not just intimate relationships, but business relationships too.  Can you miss out on an arranged meeting?  Yes, you absolutely can!  Free will trumps all, as I’ve said many times.  I could have decided I wanted nothing to do with a guy whose handle was so dark (Savage? Lordy, he must be like a serial rapist or something), but the romance novel predisposed me to thinking he was some knight in shining armor.

So what should you do?  Look at everyone in a room and try to see if there is a light above their head or a spark coming off their aura?  I wouldn’t spend too much time peering into everyone’s soul and thinking, “Is this who I’m supposed to meet?  Or is that who I’m supposed to meet?”  It will either click for you or it won’t.  If you feel a strong attraction to someone or a strong feeling like you’re supposed to connect with someone, give it a shot.  Approach them.  Make small talk.  See what happens.  They might feel the same connection you do.  Just don’t block your intuition on this.  I’m sure it takes a lot of effort for the guides to arrange chance meetings, so be open for synchronicities (such as the romance novel character and Steve’s handle was for me).

What happens if you miss out on meeting someone you were supposed to meet?  Your guides will find another way to help you with your life plan, so don’t worry.  Their job is to help you.  But it helps them if you can develop your intuition and be open for those synchronistic meetings.

I have found that when I feel a strong desire to interact with someone, there is usually a reason.  Something is shared, something is learned, something is passed on.  So pay attention.  The girl in front of you in line at the grocery store could be your future wife.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Are Spirit Guides Deceased Relatives?
2. Spirit Guides: Who are they and how do you connect with them?
3. Can you tell me who my spirit guides are?

Answer:  For the most part guides assigned to you before you incarnate are wiser and/or more experienced than you.  That’s part of what makes them good guides.  Sometimes your guides are beings that have had human form in the past, and sometimes they are beings who have never incarnated.  But if they’re advising you, and are part of your “spirit guide council” as I will call it, then you can rest assured they’re capable of serving in this capacity, otherwise your higher self would kick them out of the club.

Now, what you’re describing, about the younger guide, is also possible.  This has happened to me.  A young spirit named Keith did some work with me early in 2006 while I was just developing my psychic abilities.  He was assigned to help set up opportunities for me to practice my skills.  He was not on my spirit guide council, per se, but was recruited to help out. It was part of his “work” on the other side.  He did this with great gusto and great success.  Afterward, he was given the opportunity to continue doing this work, but I still wouldn’t call him one of my guides.  His job now is to nudge people who would benefit from getting a reading with me to book one.  He arranges synchronicities, chance encounters, signs, and signals to make people aware of me when the time is right and if the fit between us will be right.  He “scores points” for this work and is learning on the other side.

When you encounter a younger guide or an inexperienced energy it could simply be someone like my Keith.  Often they do feel like a friend instead of an advisor.  I send Keith a lot of my gratitude because he is part of the initial process of me doing readings.  And my conduit guide, Bob, is there during the actual reading helping me connect with the guides of my sitter.

It’s wonderful that you’ve connected with your guides, and yes, you are accurately picking up his vibration as being less experienced than that of your regular guides.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Are Spirit Guides Deceased Relatives?
2. Can you tell me who my spirit guides are?
3. How To Tell the Difference Between Your Ego, Logic, Spirit Guides and Intuition

Have you ever made any of the statements above or something close to them?  Does it sometimes feel like life is against you?  Do you want to throw in the towel because you just can’t find your way to happiness?  Does it feel like you are being blocked from achieving your goals?

I get a lot of emails from people who share their personal stories and situations with me.  One thread I see in many of them has to do with not achieving goals and feelings of being blocked from achieving goals.  People want to know what they are doing wrong and/or how to turn their situation around.

Here is what I tell them…

Life is not against you, sometimes you are against life.  I’m talking about the life you intended for yourself before you incarnated.  I’ve touched upon the concept of planning your life before you are born in three blog entries:

Picking Our Parents and Our Life Circumstances
Destiny vs. Free Will
Like Rats in a Maze

But let’s talk about a practical application of the fact that you had plans for yourself and your life before you incarnated.  Let’s say you incarnated with the goal of helping people feel empowered.  You feel you can make a real impact on our planet by teaching people how to empower themselves.  That’s your message.  The medium (the manner in which you express your message) is entirely up to you.  You could decide to become a life coach, a writer, speaker, blogger, psychologist, teacher, minister, personal trainer, psychic medium, or any number of other careers.  But once you incarnate, you forget your message, though it’s encoded into your energy and can be found if you know how to look.

Now, you’ve got your higher self and your spirit guides who still remember what you wanted to do in this lifetime, and their job is to keep you on track.  So what happens if, through social conditioning and some badly aligned choices, you end up going down a road in the maze of life that isn’t going to lead you to what you want?  Like you decide to become a dentist, stock analyst, secretary, Wal-Mart employee, or graphic artist.  It’s not that there’s anything wrong with your choice but it’s just not going to lead you where you intended to go. What do your guides and higher self have to do to get you moving back in a direction that will lead to you empowering others?  That’s right… they have to put roadblocks in your way. 

Roadblocks come in all shapes and sizes.  Sometimes they involve tragedy (car accident knocks you out of commission for months and you lose all kinds of time at work) and sometimes joy (you meet the girl of your dreams but you have to leave your cushy job at Wal-Mart to move to Nebraska with her).  Sometimes they involve synchronicities like when a book at a bookstore just drops off the shelf as you walk past and it’s titled, “Empowering Yourself and Others.”  Sometimes it means deals will fall through, your car will always be in the shop, or you’re always sick.

The point is that when you feel like you’re the fly trying to get out the window and you can’t see why you’re being blocked, consider that there may be another way to get where you’re going.  Turn around and look for a window that’s actually open.  Look for an open door.  Look for someone waving at you screaming “Hey, buddy, your destiny is this way…” (metaphorically speaking of course).  When you’re trying to go in one direction and you’re being constantly blocked, consider that a higher part of yourself knows you’re trying to go in the wrong direction.  Pause for a moment and consider what you’re trying to achieve and why.  Maybe it will dawn on you that you’re going the wrong way.

There are a lot of things in life that can distract you if you’re not careful like money, cars, and hair restoration products.   Don’t be distracted from your life’s purpose.  Tune in to your higher self and your own game plan and then align yourself with that path.  It’s much easier to let the current move you along the rapids than to constantly try to battle to go upstream.  After all, the song doesn’t say, “Row row row your boat gently up the stream.”  You’ve got to go with the flow and let your boat move easily and gently down the stream.  This doesn’t mean being lazy and just letting things happen to you.  It means you need to discover your true north, turn your boat so you’re facing that direction, and stay the course until you arrive at your destination.  When you’re finally going with the flow and heading in the right direction all kinds of things in your life will suddenly become easier.  You’ll know you’re headed in that right direction when you stop saying, “Life is against me” and start saying, “Life is easy when you go with the flow.”

Steve and I have both experienced this to be true.  Although we worked very hard in our chosen professions for years we didn’t find true success until we aligned ourselves with our true norths.  Now we row our boats merrily, living lucidly in life’s dream. 

Instead of the quotes at the beginning of this entry, you’ll be saying:

“Getting ahead is easy when I’m living my life on purpose.”
“Life’s little missteps can’t derail me from achieving success.”
“Every year my dreams take me to new heights I never dreamed possible.”
“Great things just seem to fall into my lap.”
“Life is working with me.”
“I am succeeding every day that I stay aligned with my true north.”

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. When Intuition Appears to Fail You
2. Like Rats in a Maze
3. Can You Use Law of Attraction to Attract a Specific Person Into Your Life?

Answer:  People often ask me about soul mates and whether I believe they exist.  The answer is not as cut and dried as one might think.  It really depends on what level you’re looking.  So the short answer on whether or not soul mates exist is yes and no.  Let me ‘splain.

Yes, there are couples who incarnate with the prearranged intention to hook up as life partners.  Circumstances, synchronicities, guides, higher selves, and angels will work to get the two of you together during your life to fulfill a spiritual contract made pre-incarnation.  This doesn’t mean, however, that you have been together in every incarnation or that you will be together in the next one.  Chances are good that you have incarnated with this particular soul energy before and will again, though.  Steve and I fall into this category.  I know we were supposed to meet and be a huge part of each other’s lives because our missions coincide very closely.  We got married, but we could just as easily have been close friends or even business associates.  But it’s the intention to work closely together that drew us together.  Of course there is a deep and abiding love between us, and I refer to Steve as my soul mate quite often.  I am certain we share a very deep spiritual connection, and I know his energy and my energy have spent a lot of time together in the ether, planning, creating, merging, etc.

A soul mate doesn’t have to be a life partner, though.  Your intended “soul mate” could turn out to just be a very good friend or companion to you in this life.  Marriage is a man-made construct and has nothing to do with the energy you’ll share with this special soul.

Now let’s look at things from a much higher perspective.  All souls are just part of Source energy.  From this perspective, there really cannot be just one soul that completes you or is your soul mate.  We are all One. 

I think when you feel like you’ve found your soul mate you are simply recognizing another collection of energy that you either had a prearrangement with or remember from the ether or other life times.  You will naturally be drawn to them because they are familiar.

The idea of soul mates, of one perfect life partner, is romantic, but from the highest perspective, all souls are part of Source, all consciousness is part of Source, we are all One.  But during our time here on Earth you will be drawn to souls you recognize or remember.  There may be love, passion, or just friendship and guidance.  Take it for what it is and enjoy it. 

I know some people get very attached to the idea that there is just one person out there who they are supposed to be with.  That isn’t true.  You can find love in many places and with many people.

So to bottom line it … everyone out there is a potential soul mate when you realize we are all part of Source consciousness.  Sometimes people choose ahead of time who they will incarnate with due to having a similar soul purpose.  In these cases, you will recognize or feel very drawn to a particular person.  It will feel like a soul mate in the romantic sense of the word.  If you “lose” your soul mate, don’t worry.  Your guides, angels, and higher self can work around it.  You can still find love, you can still find your purpose, and you will meet up with your lost soul mate back in the ether.  In the meantime, work on feeling that soul mate connection with every incarnated soul.  What a love triangle that could be.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Reincarnation and Population Growth
2. How Can Psychics Reach Deceased Relatives Who Have Reincarnated?
3. Was Hitler’s life pre-planned?

Who are these guides?
Some guides will stay with you throughout your entire life, and others will pop in every now and again to help you with specific areas of your life or goals you are trying to achieve.  These guides are at varying levels of consciousness themselves.  Some may be highly ascended masters (such as Jesus) and others might be your average spirit who just happens to be a master in a certain area.  They may appear to have a male or female energy, though in reality they are just energy.  They may be spirits who have had physical incarnations, or they might be spirits who have never taken corporeal form.  You may be the only person they are guiding, or they may be on the “panel” for other people as well.  They might be deceased relatives, but that is less likely.  When it’s time for your spirit guides to help you, they tune in to your energy and help direct you to fulfill your earthly mission.

How do guides help us?
Spirit guides can see what’s going on in our lives, and when it’s time for them to actually guide and/or intervene they have several ways they can accomplish this. 

1. Sending signs.  Guides can arrange synchronicities to help alert you to something you need to see or know about.  Pay attention to those when they happen.  Recently the same scene from the movie, The Incredibles, was shown to me 3 times in 3 different ways in a 24 hour period.  I saw it at home while my kids were watching it, at Office Depot (it was playing as a demo on the tv), and someone else mentioned that particular scene to me in conversation.  That’s a sign, folks.  I got the message.
2. Gut feelings.  Guides can poke you in the gut when you’re experiencing something they want you to pay attention to.  Following your gut feelings is probably a good idea.  Have you ever had this eerie feeling that something terrible was going to happen but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it?  That might be a guide poking you in your gut.
3. Intuitive insight.  Guides can send you flashes of intuition which may sound like a voice in your head.  “Slow down!” and then you realize you were almost in a car accident.  Or “He’s cheating on you.”  These are thoughts that appear to come out of nowhere but which contain important information you’ll want to notice.  Many people tune out their intuition, but it’s a valuable source of information.
4. Sending people into your life.  Your guides sometimes get together with other people’s guides and together they try to create a meeting between their charges.  Perhaps you are thinking about someone from college and whammo blammo see them in the bookstore later that day. Chance encounter?  Probably not.  Perhaps you were thinking about moving and you run into your old realtor friend in the supermarket.  If it feels like a coincidence, consider that it might be more of a set up. 
5. Arranging and nudging.  Guides can also nudge you in the direction they want you to go, or arrange for something to happen to you.  For example, perhaps you’re running late and can’t find your keys.  You’re frustrated because you need to get somewhere on time.  Suddenly, your phone rings and it’s a really important call you would have missed if you had found your keys earlier.  Who do you think actually misplaced your keys?  This is hard for them because you have free will.  They can only arrange so much or nudge so hard.  The more you can pick up on their clues, the better.  Sometimes you just need to surrender to a situation that seems frustrating.

How do you connect with your guides directly?
Wouldn’t it be great if your guides could just call you on the phone and tell you what’s coming in your future, or tell you to look out for a guy named Joe, or that your child needs you and you should get to them right away?  For some people that’s quite nearly how it works.  It just takes time and practice to be able to hear, see, or feel your guides.  Here are some ways you can work on increasing your connection directly.

1. Listen to your intuition.  That little voice that tells you to “slow down” or “buy bread” or “take notice of the pretty woman in line in front of you” is a direct communication from your guides or higher self.  Try listening to your intuition and see what results you get.  Many people dismiss their intuition.  See what happened to me when I ignored mine. It’s not always pleasant.  Do not mistake your ego for your intuition, however.  If you’re hearing thoughts like, “Don’t bother asking her out, she’ll never go out with someone like you” then that’s your ego.  Flick him off your shoulder.
2. Go with your gut.  Following your gut instinct is also a manner in which guides try to direct you.  For example, let’s say you’re in a business meeting and logic and reason tell you that the people sitting in front of you will fulfill their end of the deal, but your gut feeling says these people are going to fail to deliver and you’ll be stuck holding the bag.  Listen to that gut feeling.  If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.  At the very least, use your gut feelings to protect and keep yourself safe.
3. Watch for signs.  Ask your guides for what you want and then watch for signs that you’ve been heard.  My guides like to show me interesting license plates.  For example, at my mastermind meeting recently I put out the intention to become fit, trim, and slim.  When I left the meeting I found myself driving behind a vehicle with the license plate, “Fitness.”  But signs can come in so many ways.  Maybe you’re wondering if you should take up tennis and you go out to your car and see a flyer offering tennis classes in your area, and then you get home and your spouse has coincidentally brought home a tennis racket that a co-worker just didn’t need anymore, and you see a news story about tennis later that night on television.  Those are all positive signs.
4. Journal.  A method I recommend to a lot of people during my readings is to open a journal program or just a Word document and write down some questions you’d like to ask your guides.  Be quiet and meditative and type up the answers you hear.  Keep going as if you’re having a conversation with them.  It may seem like you’re just typing answers from your imagination, but keep going.  When you get to a point where the answers you’re getting don’t feel like your own voice, take notice of what they say.  A benefit of this approach is being able to refer back to it later.
5. Meditate.  Do a meditation where you imagine yourself going to a room or a garden and ask your guides to appear before you, sit with you, and chat.  Like the journaling method, just see what they say.  In time your connection will become stronger, and the information you get will be more accurate and applicable to your life.
6. Dream.  One of the best ways to meet and connect with your guides is to meet them halfway.  Open your dream up to them.  You can put out the intention every night to see and connect with your guides in your dreams.  It may take a while, but it will probably eventually work.  If you can master lucid dreaming you’ll have success much faster since once you become lucid you can simply ask your guides to appear and talk to you.
7. Ask a psychic.  One of the services I offer in my readings is to help people identify at least some of their guides, usually the ones working with them on the areas they’re asking about in the reading.  This introduction can help you tune in on your guides yourself.

How do you know if you’re just imagining them?
You’ll know by the advice you get.  Does it resonate with you?  Do you feel like it’s coming from them and not you?  Does the advice make sense to you?  Do you get great results when you listen to their counsel?  Do they appear the same way every time?  If the answers to these questions are all “yes” then you are on the right track.  You may wonder if you’re actually in tune with your guides or not, but the most important thing to remember is that if you get great results and you’re happier, does it really matter where the information is coming from?

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Are Spirit Guides Deceased Relatives?
2. Interpreting Synchronicities from Spirit
3. Do Guides Have Names?

I put out the intention that I wanted to get better at communicating with the spirit world so I could serve my clients even better.  I wrote down my intention, discussed it with my mastermind group, and expected to see the alpha reflection (the first sign from the universe that a request has been received.)  Initially, I put out the intention that I would find someone who could train me, but my mastermind group felt that I wouldn’t necessarily need someone else’s training and that I should be open to just trusting my own guides and my own abilities and that I would eventually learn how to connect the way I wanted to.  I wasn’t really happy with that because, frankly, I figured if I learned from someone who was already an accomplished medium that it would help me faster.

Shortly after setting out the intention to get better at connecting with the deceased, I started seeing recurring instances of 444.  On the clock, on billboards, license plates, phone numbers, etc.  The number combination 444 just kept coming up.  I knew it was a sign and I knew it was related to my intention to connect better, but I didn’t know exactly how to interpret it.

So I started trying to figure it out logically.  I had learned from Doreen Virtue at the I Can Do It Seminar last May that 444 referred to angels and angel connections.  So I thought, “Hmm, maybe I’m supposed to hook up with Doreen and learn mediumship from her.”  But I remembered that she’s not really a medium, so at first I thought that wasn’t right.  But I went on to her website and discovered to my delight that she actually does teach a mediumship workshop that’s one week long!  Score!  Sign interpreted.  Right?  Uh, not quite.

In order to join her medium workshop she requires that you become a certified angel therapy practitioner.  Oh.  So I looked to see when that next workshop was and the next one was all sold out.  The next one after that was available next Spring.  The cost?  $1777.  Wow.  Expensive.  But… still… if I could graduate from that course then I would qualify to be in her medium workshop the next time she taught it.  So next I looked at what hotel arrangements would be.  $3,000 for the week.  Whoa.  Now it’s getting really expensive.  That’s almost $5000 to get a certification I didn’t really want, just so I could get into a class a year from now.  That didn’t seem right, but I really thought that’s what the spirits wanted me to do.  I kept seeing the 444 references and was getting frustrated.

Next I thought maybe there is another famous medium teaching a course that will cost less.  Sure enough, there were two.  John Holland and James Van Praagh both teach medium courses.  But I was blocked there too because both require a prerequisite workshop (expensive and far away), and neither one had a workshop coming up any time soon that I would qualify for.  Why was the universe blocking me when I was trying so hard to do what it wanted?!

So I brought my problem to Steve.  Here is roughly how that conversation went.

Me: I want to connect more often with deceased people and the universe keeps sending me the 444 sign.  I thought it meant I was supposed to go work with Doreen Virtue, but I’m being really blocked from making that happen.  Help me figure this out.

Steve:  Why do you think 444 refers to Doreen?

Me:  Because she’s the one who introduced me to those numbers at her seminar.

Steve:  Well what do the numbers mean, according to her?

Me:  Something about the angels being present, like they have a message for you when you see 444.

Steve:  Oh, okay.  Well then, maybe you just have a message from the angels that you need to pick up.  Here, let’s tune in and see.

Me:  Okay.

We tune in…

Steve:  Ah, I’ve got it.  When you do your meditation to connect with people for a reading, who do you call in to help you?

Erin:  I ask to speak to their higher selves and their spirit guides and any deceased spirits that want to come through.

Steve:  Do you ask for the angels’ help?

Erin:  Er, um.  No, actually I don’t.

Steve:  Well you might want to try that next time you do a reading and see what happens.

I decided this was sage advice.  The next time I did my meditation to prepare for a reading I included the angels in my request.  It was like a floodgate opened!  Not only did I get a better connection, I started connecting with deceased relatives way more often than I was before!  I also received a new meditation from my guides that would help me reach a much higher plane (it seems so obvious in hindsight).  My connection improved massively once I invited the angels to help me, and my mediumship skills have improved significantly.

I stopped seeing the 444 references once I interpreted the sign correctly, because they knew I’d received the message.  And my mastermind group was right.  I didn’t need someone else to train me.  My own guides and angels helped me establish a better connection, and I know with more practice that it’s only going to get better.

Thank you angels!!  And thank you Steve for helping me figure that out!

Are you receiving signs or getting synchronicities and you can’t figure out what they mean?  Don’t stop investigating.  If you’re being blocked using one interpretation, try changing your interpretation.  Don’t assume, like I did, that you know exactly what they’re trying to get across.  When you finally do figure it out, you’ll know it.  The synchronicities will stop.

Note: Signs from deceased relatives like pictures tipping over, or always smelling their perfume when you enter your house, or clocks stopping… those are indications that they’re just trying to connect with you and let you know they’re okay.  Those won’t stop when you figure it out, those will keep coming.  I’m referring to synchronicities where you keep seeing the same thing over and over or experiencing the same thing over and over and you know that something out there is trying to tell you something.

Does anyone else have a similar experience to share?  What was your synchronicity and how did you eventually figure out what it meant?

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Are Spirit Guides Deceased Relatives?
2. Signs From the Spirits
3. Revelations

This past Friday I was attending a meeting with a couple of acquaintances from Toastmasters.  There was a woman there named Sandy who told us we had to go see this movie, The Secret, and that someone was screening it in his home on Sunday night.  She couldn’t attend but thought we would enjoy ourselves.  We all called this English chap and left our phone numbers so we could get directions and time and place.  He called me back on Sunday morning and gave me directions.

I headed over there at 6pm, only no one told the hosts I was coming.  And so it was that when I knocked on the door I got a blank stare from the owner of the house.  He was confused as to how I ended up there.  But I knew I was supposed to be there so I simply said with confidence, “Hello, my name is Erin and I know I’m a total stranger but is this the house where The Secret is being shown?”  He replied, “Uh, yes.”  And I said, “Great, this English chap said it would be okay to come, and by the way, a few other people you don’t know are also coming.”  He was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.  Very adaptable.

For 30 minutes I sat in their living room noticing no one else arriving.  The fellow who was supposed to be bringing the movie wasn’t there, nor was the English chap who directed me there, nor were any of my friends from the previous meeting.  But I’m a pretty friendly person and I love meeting new people so everything was okay.

By 7pm, everyone else who was supposed to be there had arrived.  Phew.  We ate, got to know each other, and then watched the movie.

Okay, so what is The Secret?  The Secret is a movie that you simply have to watch. I’m not going to reveal what the Secret is because you’ll be much better off learning about it in the way it was meant to be revealed.  How’s that for cryptic? 

You can download and watch the movie on a broadband connection for $4.95 or you can purchase the DVD for $29.95 and have a showing in your home like these people did in theirs.  I highly recommend you purchase the DVD and invite your friends over.  It’s one of those experiences where you’ll want to have a discussion afterwards.

Basically, The Secret will help you manifest anything you want in life.  The movie reveals how it’s done.  I noticed so many synchronicities as I watched the movie, one of which was that I had just spoken of something similar in my podcast, Embracing Your Passion.

Esther Hicks, who channels an entity known as Abraham, figures prominently in the movie.  What he/she has to say will wake you up to a whole new way of thinking that has to be seen to be fully understood.  And if you’ve read the book, Ask and It Is Given, then you’re one step ahead.

Check The Secret out for yourself and join us on a path to total manifestation of everything you’ve ever wanted.

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

No related posts.

Four months ago I made an agreement with the spirits and my higher self to become the Lightworker I decided to be before I incarnated (see my story Once Again for details on that).  They felt I was ready for this step and I agreed, though I wasn’t sure what it would entail.  Since then they’ve been fast tracking me in an attempt to catch me up to where I need to be so that I can do the work I was sent here to do.

The first thing that happened was that I opened my heart chakra so I could increase my empathy and connection with everyone on the planet.  I also indicated to the spirits that I wanted my psychic abilities to increase and that I was ready to help people.  It didn’t take long.  A relative of mine recently appeared on a reality show.  Every time I watched him on the show I was hearing a spirit talk to me about him and give me an urgent message for him.  I was really confused by what I was receiving.  But this spirit, a female, was really insistent.  It was like she was jumping up and down in front of me waving her arms and I finally couldn’t ignore her.  I got in touch with my relative and told him I had a message from a deceased female spirit that I simply had to tell him because she wasn’t leaving me alone.  We spoke on the phone, I delivered the message, and he was stunned by what came through.  Because the message was really personal I don’t feel it’s my place to share it here, but the information she shared with me was specific enough for him to feel that I truly was in contact with his recently deceased girlfriend.  I was as stunned as he was.  But this experience taught me to trust my “gift.”  His girlfriend came to me two more times and I delivered her messages.  I credit her with being my first reading as a medium.

The next step was much harder for me.  In the past all of my psychic abilities manifested through dreams.  Premonitions, instructions, information, spirit visitations all came through my dreams at night.  Why?  Because I am a chicken.  I told the spirits for years that I didn’t want to see spirits while I was awake because I was afraid I’d see something that would really terrify me (think Poltergeist).  So I shut down my third eye so I wouldn’t be scared by anything horrifying.  So the next step was to open my third eye and see.  I was already channeling and writing down messages (I’m clairaudient so I can hear spirits talking to me) but I knew that for my own validation I was going to need to be able to actually see deceased people or spirits or angels or *gulp* even the ookie spookies.  So I told the spirits I was ready to see.  And see I did.

My first experience happened during a dinner meeting with a local friend named David.  The purpose of our dinner was to discuss some experiences he’d had that I was interested in discussing with him.  He brought his wife, Jennifer, to our meeting.  While I was talking to him, though, I kept seeing a man behind Jennifer.  A very tall man.  I wasn’t sure about what I was seeing and these people were virtual strangers to me, but finally Jennifer asked if I was seeing someone.  I decided to trust in my gift again and I told her who I was seeing.  She confirmed it was her father.  The floodgate opened and I started hearing this deceased father speaking to me.  I communicated many things to Jennifer and soon we were both crying.  Her father died somewhat tragically and untimely and his death set into motion many things that weren’t supposed to happen.  Things that had serious consequences for Jennifer and her family.  To be able to be the bridge between this man and his daughter was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I was able to tell Jennifer some things that were crucial for the healing of her family.  I could feel this spirit’s joy at being able to finally communicate some very important things to Jennifer.  I came away from that experience thinking, “Wow, this isn’t scary at all.  I’m okay seeing dead people after all.”

So I started practicing.  The next time I saw someone deceased was at a Toastmaster’s meeting.  I saw a man standing behind my friend, and it was like he could see me seeing him.  He told me he was her father-in-law.  After the meeting I told her what I saw and I described him physically.  She confirmed that it was indeed her father-in-law and the messages he was giving me resonated very keenly with her.  Another great experience for me!

I decided I just needed to keep practicing.  Next I did readings for my parents, siblings, aunt, uncle, and cousins at a family dinner.  I told them I was going to channel a message from their higher self.  Specifically I was going to give them the answer to their most urgent, dire questions; the ones they thought about while going to sleep at night.  Without knowing the question, I gave them each their answer.  It was staggering.  The messages were so clear and so concise and so perfect for their particular situation.  Another boost in my confidence.

Now we come to the roller coaster ride.  In late April, Steve and I were having a conversation when Steve told me he was getting a message from a spirit guide named Keith, a young 16ish spirit who had crossed over but had a message for me.  Keith said, “Tell Erin to go to the haunted house.  She will see many spirits there, some good, some bad.  But she needs to go.”  I figured this was a metaphor of some kind.  Keith told us a few more things, specifically that I should not be afraid by what I see, and to have a reaction, not a pre-action.  We filed it away for later.  Three days later I got an email from a woman who works for the Criss Angel Mindfreak show.  She was seeking a psychic medium who was willing to go to a haunted house and be filmed communing with the dead for an upcoming episode.  I was floored!  To say the least!  There is no way on this planet that I would have agreed to put myself on television as a psychic medium if I hadn’t first received that message from Keith.  Because of the message though, I realized it was meant to be.  How this woman found me is another story for another time, but I can assure you the synchronicities there are amazing as well.  I spiritually squirmed in my seat and questioned my higher self and spirit guides.  “Are you sure I can do this?  I mean, doing readings for friends and family is one thing but doing this on national television?  Are you crazy?”  Every time I tried to wiggle out of doing it I would receive an even stronger message/synchronicity that I was supposed to go.  I surrendered to their will.

My experience filming this particular episode of the Criss Angel show is something I will share with you in the next blog entry because it’s a long story and I don’t want to skip a single detail.  But doing the show was the next amazing hill on this roller coaster ride.

After the filming I had just two days off before I was off to the I Can Do It seminar. Before I went my spirits told me I would receive confirmation of my abilities from Doreen Virtue.  To make a long story short, Doreen Virtue read for me in front of several thousand people.  She did indeed confirm for me that everything I had been experiencing was real and true and that I was meant to do this work.  I could no longer doubt, no longer deny, that I am indeed a psychic medium.  I had the opportunity to do several readings at the show, all of them totally accurate.  After the seminar I began doing readings for friends of friends and I’m going to do my first room reading at my future sister-in-law’s bridal shower in a few weeks.  After that I’m doing readings for my cousin’s birthday party.  I’ve already got people calling me for readings and I haven’t even gone public yet.  (Er, I guess I’m doing that now).

The spirits then led me to someone who would mentor me in honing my psychic abilities and talents.  We are forming a development circle so we can help each other improve our skills.  I know I am still a medium-in-training but I also know that now I can see, hear, and know what the spirits are telling me.  I know that I need practice but that I’ve clearly got the gift. 

The spirits and my higher self have shown me what’s coming next, which I will reveal as it happens.  The joy I feel in knowing that I can help people connect with their loved ones who have crossed over is amazing.  The messages I can deliver, the confirmation that they are okay, and the healing that I can help facilitate make me so happy and energized that I can hardly contain myself these days.  I am so anxious to read for everyone I come across, but I know I need to pace myself and take it one step at a time.

Steve will be discussing psychic abilities and development in his blog, so tune in over there too if you’re interested.  In the meantime, I will be sharing some of my adventures as this new world opens up to me.

Tune in next time for the full Criss Angel story.  It’s a doozy!

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

Related posts:

1. Ask Erin: How can I speak with my deceased father?
2. The Ghost in the Hall
3. The Connection Between Psychic Abilities and Being Vegan

Answer:  I get this question a lot.  The short answer is that everyone has the ability to reconnect with Source and in so doing demonstrate abilities that others might consider psychic.  How’s that for vague?

In a previous post I suggested that being psychic was like tuning into a radio.  Let’s take this analogy further so you can understand how psychic abilities develop and how you can get on the road to developing yours.

Being psychic is like tuning into a radio.  Some radios work better than others.  Some people can get a stronger signal with their radios than others.  Some people have their radios on but the volume turned down.  So they might be tuned to the right station but still can’t hear anything.  When you seek answers from Source, it’s like trying to find a clear radio station.  Be sure your radio is on, turned up, and tuned to the right frequency.  Otherwise you’re going to get static, or simply hear nothing.  You might think your radio is broken, when it’s actually you who is not using the equipment properly.  You may need to mess with the bass or treble to hear the “song” you’re trying to hear.

So how do you get a radio? 

1. You need to raise your level of consciousness.  Steve has written an excellent article about how to do that, and I urge you to take it seriously and work hard on it.  It is really important.
2. You need to raise your vibrational frequency.  That means you need to bring feelings of love, peace, harmony, and compassion into your life instead of greed, selfishness, fear, anger, and hate.
3. Cleanse your body.  Avoid putting dead, cancerous, diseased, rotting flesh into your body or you will attract dead, rotting spirits into your life.
4. Get in tune with your inner feelings and thoughts.  If you can’t hear your own thoughts how can you expect to hear Source’s.  Use meditation for that (or a nice hot bath with some candles and some Enya).
5. Be sincere in your desire to help people.  Source doesn’t want to hand the keys to the Corvette to a drunken teenager.  Show that you can be a responsible “radio-owner.”
6. Practice.  Try listening to Source.  Try seeing the messages Source is trying to send you.  Look for synchronicities. Look for other people who are Eagles instead of Bears.
7. You can read books if you want to, but you still have to do all the above work yourself.  You can read until you’re blue in the face and it won’t matter if you haven’t done what I’ve suggested above.  It’s like reading the manual to your radio but never turning it on.

I never learned how to be psychic from reading a book.  My connection with Source and my ability to hear what others can’t hear came from the sincere desire to help people on this planet, and then asking Source to help me accomplish this. 

Good luck!

Submit a Question to Ask Erin

© 2009 by Erin Pavlina.

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