Your Ego
I like to think of the ego as a little imp that sits on your shoulder and whispers in your ear when it has something to say.  Usually it’s saying things like, “You’re gonna fail.  Who do you think you are?”  Or, “He totally hates you, and if you do that he’s going to find out and hate you more.  I’d keep that little indiscretion to yourself!”  It’s a little subversive and usually broadcasting on the fear and anxiety channel.  On some level it’s trying to protect you from embarassment and failure.  It has a job to do, it has its place, but you’ve got to learn to recognize it for what it is.  It only serves you to the extent that it is trying to keep you safe, it’s looking out for #1 which is you.  It’s only care is to keep you safe and happy and off the front page of the newspaper.  Many people find comfort in listening to this little imp and, technically, it’s a valid way to go through life.  It’s not out to hurt you, only to protect you and keep you comfortable.

Logic
Logic is the mental voice that uses past experience, statistics, probability, and reason to communicate ideas to you.  It is based on knowledge and facts, not ethereal hoo-haw.  Besides drawing from your own experience you can use logic to draw from other people’s experiences, i.e. “Frank said Costco is always crowded on Sundays at noon so I should probably go on Monday when it opens instead.”

Spirit Guides
Spirit guides are celestial beings who are assigned to you to help guide you through life.  They’re very aware of your life plan, which is the plan you concocted for yourself before you incarnated.  They are volunteers.  Their job is to keep you on track and help guide you through life.  Their primary care is your growth and learning.  That sometimes means discomfort for you.  For example they might see that the best way to teach you to value money is to send you through a bankruptcy.  On the other hand, your ego would never let something like that happen to you if it could help it.   Your spirit guides carry the big picture, whereas your ego is involved only in the moment.

Intuition
Your intuition is not a conscious being.  I like to think of intuition as a concentrated blast of Source energy designed to help you avoid catastrophe or steer you in a really important direction.  It’s more like a message than a messenger.  I believe intuition stems from your higher self, angels, and God or Source energy.  Intuition is there to guide you in the moment, to help you make decisions that will have a positive impact on your overall human experience.  Intuition is connected to spirit guides in the sense that intuitive information usually follows your life plan.

How They All Sound
Here are some examples of how ego, logic, spirit guides, and intuition sound when they communicate with you.  I think you’ll be able to see the differences pretty clearly.

Ego
“Don’t go out with that loser, he’ll ruin your reputation.”
“That piece of pie is going straight to your thighs, honey!”
“No way we’re taking speech next semester.  I’ll find a way to kill us first.”
“She doesn’t love you so you might as well cheat on her.”

Logic
“Last time you tried doing that you broke your ankle.  Chances are good you’ll hurt it again.”
“Speaking in front of 30 people won’t actually kill you, so agree to do the speech and just practice until you can recite it from memory.”
“He’s geographically desireable, good looking, and his parents are still together.  You should agree to date him.”
“There’s a traffic jam coming up ahead.  I know a shortcut that will get us there faster.”

Spirit Guides
“You’d be wise to accept the job in Los Angeles.  It’s what you’ve been waiting for your whole life.”
“Don’t be afraid to do the speech.  It’s not going to be nearly as bad as you fear.”
“You know in your heart that he’s not right for you.”
“Remember what happened the last time you ate the whole pizza?  Do you want to experience that again?”

Intuition
“Run!”
“Go left, now!”
“He’s the one!  Introduce yourself.”
“Stop at the gas station on the way home.”

Do you see the differences?  Again, your ego is out to protect you from failure and embarrassment.  While it seems like it has your best interest at heart I wouldn’t say it’s the most encouraging growth-oriented voice in your arsenal.  Still, it serves its purpose.

Logic is a wonderful tool of information.  Developing your logic can certainly help you in life, until you run into something you didn’t see coming or have no information in your mental database to sift through.  That’s when you have a failure, er, I mean learning experience, you update your file and move on.

Spirit guides won’t tell you what to do, but they will help you feel and/or understand your choices better.  They’re coming from a higher perspective than you are, and they’re following your orders (your higher self’s orders that is).  You can trust that your guides have your best interest at heart, but you can’t trust you’ll be totally comfortable following their guidance.  They’re in it for the long run and sometimes see minor setbacks as necessary for your overall success.

Your intuition has but a moment to make an impression.  It’s got to get vital, sometimes life-altering, information to you in a split second.  Its general goal is to notify you that you are in danger or at a vital decision-making moment in your life.  When you become adept at listening to your intuition you’ll start getting information about less life-threatening situations.  Until then, you get snippets.

Now sometimes all four of these voices overlap.  I can imagine a situation where this is possible.  Your ego might say, “Why would that guy be interested in you?” and your logic is saying, “Look, this guy wants you to get in his van parked behind the alley.  That is probably not a good idea.  The chances of you going home in a body bag are pretty high right now.  I say pass.”  At the same time your guides are saying, “Do you really think you can trust this guy?” and your intuition is screaming, “Danger, avoid him!”  If you ever get agreement from all four voices, I highly advise you to listen!

Getting to know the voices in your head can really help you manage your life.  Identifying which one is speaking to you can help you determine how much power and credibility you want to give it.  I have found that I prefer to listen to my guides and intuition over my logic and ego, but I know people who do quite well listening to their logic and ego so what can I say?  It’s a question of where you want to go in life and how comfortably you want to arrive.  In my experience if you opt for a faith, trust, and love strategy in life, you’ll listen to your intuition and guides.  If you opt for a control or fear-based strategy in life you’ll probably prefer your ego and logic.  There really is no right or wrong choice, just preferences.  You might try developing the ability to hear all of them and then decide what works best for you.

The best way to develop the ability to discern them is awareness and practice.  Whenever you consult that inner voice try to figure out if it’s a guide, intuition, or your ego or logic talking to you.  Or consult all four before you make a decision.  You could try 30 days with each as your primary inner voice and see which one gives you the best results.

Now, if you’re hearing other voices in your head like, “She looks tasty, let’s carve her up and eat her,” or “Jump off the barn because you know you can fly,” then you’re listening to something entirely different!  Seek professional help immediately.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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I can’t for the life of me remember the woman’s name, but it’s probably just as well.  My aunt paid for my “lessons” which at the time cost $375 for 3 sessions.  I very nervously called her and arranged for my lessons.  But she told me she didn’t take on just anyone to be her student, so she interviewed me, asking questions about my current abilities and interest.  I think I answered all of her questions pretty well and demonstrated a fair amount of knowledge of psychic phenomenon.  Then she asked me why I wanted to learn to be psychic.  If I recall correctly I said something to the effect of, “So I can explore other realms, learn cool techniques like mind reading and telekinesis, know my future before it happens, and learn to communicate with the dead.”  She was silent for a moment and then said, “But where’s the love?  You didn’t mention love and you didn’t mention God.  You also didn’t mention helping people with your abilities.”  Oh… er, I tried to correct my answer but it was too late.

“Erin,” she said, “being psychic is about caring for others.  It’s about helping people connect with something they’ve long forgotten exists.  It’s about using your abilities to help people make conscious decisions about their lives with all the facts at their disposal.  It’s about compassion and love.  If you don’t have that, you won’t be able to reach a level where you can actually use your abilities to help others.”

I was very annoyed by her statement.  Pfft… love?  What’s love got to do with it?  Just help me unlock my powers and let me figure out how to use them okay?  Teach me and let me decide how I’ll use them.

She decided I was not a good candidate for training.  I felt so let down and defeated.  But I was eventually able to convince her that I would use my abilities to help others.  Maybe she really needed the money or maybe some other source told her to give me a shot, but she relented and agreed to train me.  I was beyond excited!

In our first phone session she went through a lot of educational material, explaining the different ways of tuning in to any latent psychic abilities I might have.  It was fascinating and I totally understood what she was conveying.  She talked about God/Source and about protecting myself and my energy whenever I did any psychic work.  She gave me meditations to use to connect with my spirit guides.  I did them religiously, enjoying every minute of it.

In our second session she explained how to gather information and took me briefly through the process for each method (tarot, pendulums, psychometry, numerology, clairvoyance, etc.)  At the end of the second session she had me take out 16 small pieces of paper.  On four pieces I wrote down the same name.  On another 4 pieces I wrote down another name, and so on until I had 16 pieces of paper with one of four names on each.  This was my big assignment.  Each day I was supposed to pick a folded piece of paper out of a basket and just hold it in my hand.  I was supposed to tune in to my guides and write down any impressions I was getting about the name on the paper.  I was not supposed to open the paper but I was supposed to put a number on it for referencing later.  So the first one I picked I wrote down all my impressions and then labeled my entry as #1 and labeled the paper as #1.  The goal was to see if I was accurately picking up impressions about the name on the paper.  She knew who all 4 people were and she knew I didn’t so she would know if I got anything right.  I had four chances with each one.

It was very hard not to cheat and open the papers after I’d written my impressions, but I didn’t want to fail so I did not cheat.  When the time came for me to call her for our third and final session I was so nervous!  I was afraid I’d get the whole thing wrong, dashing my hopes of ever becoming psychic.  In fact, I was so afraid of failure that I postponed our call and told her I was studying for finals and couldn’t call her.  She gave me another date. 

I flaked out on our final call.  I could not bring myself to call her and tell her what I’d written down for each name.  I was too afraid to fail, my ego was too wrapped up in being right or wrong.

One day she called me.  She expressed some disappointment in me for wasting her time and not trusting her own instincts about me.  I felt very ashamed because I had wasted my aunt’s money and I had wasted this woman’s time.  The last thing she left me with was this… “When love is your primary reason for being psychic, your abilities will come.  When care and compassion are what drives and motivates you then the door will open.  Everyone has the potential, but not everyone is able to unlock it.  Only love unlocks this gift.”  I asked her why love was so important, why it made such a big difference.  She told me, “Love is what connects us with God/Source.  If you can’t feel the love, you cannot feel God’s tendrils.  And it’s God’s gift you are receiving.  You must be worthy of handling the gift.”

I was young. I really didn’t understand.  Today, I understand completely, and she was right.  Sure, I’ve had psychic abilities my whole life.  I’ve been able to tune in to my own psychic radio since I was a young girl.  But it wasn’t until I developed an intense compassion for people, until I understood that we are all One, until I cared what happened to others, that my gift was unlocked and I was able to use it to help others.  I am just a conduit.  I understand that now.  I am blessed and humbled to be able to hear and see what others cannot.  And I have a responsibility to pass on what I hear and see to those who consult with me.  There is love behind every reading I give, it’s the driving force behind what I do.  It took me almost 20 years to figure it out.

If you’re working on developing your own psychic abilities ask yourself the same question she asked me.  “Where’s the love?”  Do you feel it?  Are you connected to Source?  Have you allowed yourself to be a conduit for that love, or are you developing your abilities so you can pick lottery numbers or intrude on people’s thoughts?

I wish I could go back today and tell her I finally understood what she was trying to tell me.  I hope that wherever she is she somehow knows that I finally got it. 

Love is the key, and you don’t have to go too far to find it.  It’s buried in your own heart.  Remember your connection to Source and that you are never truly alone.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Get Clarity
First, you have to identify what you want.  Simply identifying what you don’t want isn’t enough.  You don’t want to say, “I hate that I’m always late.”  Instead you’ll want to say, “My ideal self is punctual.”  Who is your ideal self?  Ignoring who you are right now, just make a list of the qualities, character traits, and attributes of your ideal self.  It’s not about what you think you can attain, it’s about what you want to attain. Here’s an example list which is obviously not exhaustive:

Honest
Compassionate
Attractive
Healthy
Courageous
Punctual
Cheerful
Courteous
Professional

Read this list of values to help you determine your ideal traits.

You can’t reach your ideal if you don’t know what you’re reaching for.  So make your list as exhaustive as you need to in order to feel like if you were all the things on your list you’d be really happy with yourself.

Take An Inventory
Now look at your list and put a check mark next to all the attributes you have already.  If you’re already honest and compassionate, check them off your list.  Whatever attributes are left are the ones where you’re currently challenged.  Those are the ones you’re going to work on attaining.

Adopt New Habits
Pick one or two attributes on your list and start working on them.  If you want to be more punctual, for example, start giving yourself an extra 15 minutes to get where you need to go.  Even if you’re early, it’s better than being late.  If you want to be healthy and you don’t currently have good health, begin adopting a few habits that will lead you to greater health.  For example if you don’t currently exercise, start walking 5 minutes a day, and gradually ramp it up to 10 then 20 and then 30.  When you’re able, increase your exercise and continue to challenge yourself in this area.  Work on your diet too until you’ve achieved the state of health you desire.

I don’t suggest working on more than 2 or 3 attributes at the same time because that involves a lot of change and you don’t want to get discouraged.  Instead, plug away steadily on a few at a time.

Be very conscious of the attributes you’re working on.  It helps to tell others what you’re working on so they can help reinforce your changes.  If you’ve decided to quit smoking you may need to tell the other smokers in your life what you’re doing so they can support you.

Delete Attributes and Qualities That No Longer Serve You
While you’re adding qualities and characteristics of the ideal you, start deleting the old attributes that no longer serve you.  Does your ideal self drink coffee?  Does your ideal self hang up on her mother when she argues with her?  Does your ideal self ignore homeless people?  Does your ideal self start his day with 6 Krispy Kreme donuts?  Drop any habits that are not going to be part of your new package.  Dropping an old habit is not the same thing as adopting a new attribute.  You have to consciously delete old programming and consciously create new programming.  Simply dropping bad habits won’t instill good ones.

Repeat Until You Reach Your Goal
After you’ve instilled a new character trait or attribute, check it off your list and pick another one to work on.  Pick an attribute you want to delete and work on deleting it.  Keep working on your list until you are exactly the kind of person you want to be and you no longer have habits or character traits you don’t want. 

It really is that simple.  Out with the old, in with the new.  One day you’ll wake up and realize you’re exactly the way you want to be.  It will feel awesome!  You’ll be totally congruent with yourself.  It’s like being in vibrational harmony with yourself.  It may take years, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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You’ll still be able to purchase a reading or consultation any time during June but you won’t get an appointment until July.  As always, readings are scheduled on a first come, first served basis based on when people send me their contact and booking details.  So once you sign up, please follow the instructions in your autoresponder and get me your phone number, photos, and time/day preference asap so you’re not bumped to the end of the queue.

Right now I’m booking for the week of May 26 and beyond.

Readings during the I Can Do It Las Vegas conference will be conducted on the following dates:
Thursday, June 26 between 10am and 4pm.
Saturday, June 28 between 8am and noon.
Monday, June 30 between 9am and 3pm.

If you’d like a reading in those time periods let me know when you book your reading.

Don’t forget that Steve will be speaking at the I Can Do It conference on Sunday, June 29 at 11am.  He’ll be covering topics from his book and addressing lightworker syndrome.  You can purchase a full conference pass or just purchase a pass for Sunday.  Here are all the details about the conference.  He’ll also appear at the I Can Do It conference in Tampa, FL in early October.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Answer:  I have never met someone who was actually possessed by a demon, spirit, or satanic figure.   However, I do believe it’s possible under rare circumstances.  Having never been possessed or been in contact with a possessed person, I cannot say for sure that possession is possible, but based on some of my own experiences with demonic entities, and from literature I’ve read, and from stories I’ve been told by people I trust, I don’t think we can rule it out completely.  Therefore…

If possession is not possible, we’ve got nothing to worry about and we can go on about our merry way, right?

If possession is possible all we have to do is avoid it and protect ourselves.  So let’s talk about ways to do that.

A while ago I was doing some work with a local paranormal investigator group here in Las Vegas.  They investigated all kinds of paranormal events and claims, and one day they got a call from a family who believed the father-figure was possessed.  We were on the job!  I was excited and scared.  What if he actually was possessed?  What would we do?  Did I really want to be around someone who was housing a demon in their body?  What if the demon fled the host and looked for the tastiest person to enter next?

As it turns out, the person was not possessed.  What we did see, however, was a family in a very stressed, cluttered, poor environment.  The man of the house was struggling to make an income, and he was responsible for supporting 4 or 5 people.  We saw evidence of drug use going on, lots of religious paraphernalia, and the apartment was extremely messy and dirty.  The husband and wife had been fighting terribly and the kids in the house were visibly disturbed and frightened. 

Before we ever went to their house, our lead investigator talked to me about what we might expect to find and what we would do if the father turned out to be possessed.  He told me that people are more likely to be possessed when they are in a really low vibrational state such as fear, anxiety, anger, shame, guilt, or apathy.  Also, people who preferred to give control of their lives to someone else (boss, God, father, boyfriend, priest) were more likely to succumb to possession than someone who took full responsibility for their life.  He also said that smoking, drinking, and doing drugs would also lower a person’s resistance to becoming possessed.  This is not to say that if you are an angry, smoking person who gives all your power to God that you will become possessed.  Far from it.  He was simply suggesting that if you are a joyful person practicing clean living who takes full responsibility for your own life that you probably will not be susceptible to possession.

One thing I firmly believe is that you cannot be possessed without giving permission on some level.  You may not be consciously inviting possession but it can still happen if you’re a vibrational match for it.  Let me use an analogy.  If you are walking around a high crime neighborhood at 2am and you’ve got money velcroed to your jacket with a sign on you that says, “I’m not armed, come and get it” there is a greater chance that you will be robbed than if you’re sitting in a coat and tie in church on Sunday with your wallet tucked firmly into your pocket.  Right?  Doesn’t mean the guy walking around the high crime neighborhood will be robbed, just saying there is a greater chance and that he is more of a vibrational match for it than the guy in church.  Can the guy in church be robbed too?  Yes, but it’s not nearly as likely.  You’d have to be really bold and powerful to rob someone in church with hundreds of people watching.

Practice proper psychic defense.  Keep your vibration high.  For example, don’t light candles in your living room, stand in a pentagram, and call out, “Hey demon, if you’re there, come and get me!”  When you feel like you’re in a state of fear or anxiety, call upon your angels for protection, or imagine a white light around you emanating peace, love, and joy on your behalf, even if you can’t feel those vibrations yourself.

Can a demon possess you while you’re astral?  It’s doubtful.  You can be messed with and challenged by a low vibration entity, maybe even a demon, but as long as you’re still attached to your body, you own it.  Don’t rent it out.  You’ve got a team of people behind the scenes keeping you safe even when you don’t always feel safe yourself.  But even they can’t stop you from getting possessed if you’re going to lower your energy too far.

If you think you might be possessed, contact a priest or your local paranormal investigator team.  How do you know if you’re possessed by a demon?  I think your friends and family will probably clue you in.  If you start eating bugs that might be a clue also.  If you start growling, speaking in tongues, or you find your head spinning around to the back, you may want to make an appointment with someone pronto.

To sum up, don’t worry about possession too much.  If it exists it’s highly unlikely.  Keep your vibration high, don’t worship the Dark Lord, and you should be just fine.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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First, submit questions you’d like the spirit guides to answer.  I’ll sort through them and pick the best questions.  Questions should be general enough to benefit everyone but specific enough to give the guides a focus.  I’m going to ask my guides if they want to be the ones to write the responses or if perhaps they will bring in a guest guide who is more suitable for this sort of exercise. 

I’ve done some channeling in the past, but usually I’m just taking dictation from my own guides about affairs that matter to me personally.  So this should be interesting.  If this goes well, I’ll do another channeling session with either the remaining questions or new questions.

Lastly, stay tuned to the blog to see the results of the session and my comments about it.  I’m not sure how long it will take me to get to the session but I’ll try to find some time to fit this in asap.  I am not sure what will happen but I’m excited to give it a try.

Submit your questions here

Update: I have more questions than we’ll have time to answer this go around.  Thanks for sending in so many questions.  Stay tuned to the blog for the channeling session.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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I received permission from my friend to share this story however I have changed the names to protect their privacy.  All details except the names are true.

In the dream there were four scenes.  In the first scene I was hanging out with my friend Anna and her family.  They were preparing to have a family portrait taken.  Her son and his wife and kids had flown in from out of town so finally everyone was together.  While we all waited, Anna’s daughter, Samantha, decided at the last minute that she didn’t want to take part in the family photo and walked off in a huff.  Anna was really upset as it had taken a lot of effort to set this up and her daughter was basically ruining it for everyone.  As she ran off to convince her daughter to pose in the photo I made a comment to Anna’s son, “Does this happen often?” to which he replied, “Only when Samantha’s involved.” 

Now the second sequence in the dream:  While waiting for Anna and her family to resolve their family issues, I went to visit my mom who was throwing a party.  At the party she was spending so much time talking to all her friends that she actually missed out on eating.  She was hungry so she kept asking the wait staff if they could please bring her meal back out.

Third sequence:  Now I’m back with Anna’s family and I see her son sitting with a friend who I knew was 22 years old.  The friend hit on me and I said, “You know I’m 47 right?”  Then I realized I wasn’t actually 47 so I said, “No wait, actually I’m 38 (my true age).”  He replied in a slightly lecherous tone, “Doesn’t bother me one bit!  I like older women and you’ve got quite a rack.”  I was insulted and flattered at the same time. ;)  Anna’s son is actually in his mid-20’s but in the dream I knew he was still in the Air Force academy and that he and his friend were 22.

Fourth sequence:  I decide it’s time for me to go and Anna’s husband Richard says he’ll walk me to my car.  While we were walking the scene changed a little and I now I’m in the desert with Richard and some military types.  I’m in a secret underground military base in the desert and I’m seeing things I’m sure I’m not supposed to see.  Civilians in makeshift prisons, small spindly humanoid creatures running around, and some bug-like creatures that were pretty scary looking.  Richard comes up to me and says, “Look, you really weren’t supposed to see any of this, you don’t have the clearance.  They’re going to detain and debrief you for 24 hours and then they’re going to make you sign this non-disclosure confidentiality agreement.  If you refuse to sign it, they’ll keep you here until you do so you might as well sign it and get on with your life.  They’ll give you lie detector tests periodically to make sure you haven’t said anything to anyone about what you’ve seen here.  If you do, you’ll be charged with treason.  Trust me, they’re serious so I suggest you just sign it.”

I woke up.  The whole dream left me feeling really odd.  I felt like I was witnessing things that were really not my business.

So that morning I’m driving the kids to school and my daughter is on the phone with Grammy, my mom.  I can hear Grammy say, “Oh Emily, I had the strangest dream last night.  I dreamed I was at this party and I spent so much time talking to my friends that I missed the meal service.  I spent the rest of the dream trying to find some food.”  WHAT!?  I grabbed the phone and got the story directly.  She dreamed what I saw her doing… trying to find food at the party and missing out because she was talking too much.  That was too weird.  That’s a shared dream. 

So I call my friend Anna to discuss the other pieces of the dream.  To my great shock she told me that the first sequence with the photography fiasco actually happened a couple of days prior.  Indeed, her daughter refused to be in the photo at the last minute offering a somewhat lame excuse for why she couldn’t be in the photo.  I was so surprised that this actually happened.  I guess that’s not pre-cognitive, it was post-cognitive.  I picked up on something that had already happened.

So I told Anna the next sequence about her son and his friend in the Air Force academy.  She thought back and remembered that her son did indeed have a friend at that time who was, for lack of a better word, always hitting on older women.  It’s a small thing and we can’t totally verify that I saw the same guy she’s thinking of.  If only I had gotten the guy’s name, that would have been something.  But both Anna and her son knew exactly who I was talking about when I talked to both of them.

The fourth sequence with the underground military base we can’t totally verify, but Anna confirms that her husband, Richard, was heavily involved in top secret military missions in the Nevada desert, and that he was always debriefed, had to sign non-disclosure agreements and take lie detector tests because of it. 

I’ve had dreams of this nature related to this family before.  Once I dreamed that they had a leak in their ceiling and water was dripping all over Anna’s bed.  She told me that that had indeed happened many years ago, long before I ever met her.  I think there is a strong psychic connection between me and Anna and members of her family.

What really surprised me was having the same dream about my mom that she had about herself.  Wondering if this was happening more often than I thought, Steve and I have started sharing tidbits from our dreams each morning to see if we’re having any of the same dreams.  This morning we both reported having a dream about our old martial arts instructor whom neither of us have had contact with for probably 8 or 9 years.  That was odd.

So what does it all mean?  Is dream sharing possible?  I think it definitely is.  Is one person picking up on the dream of another?  Or are both having the same dream on their own?  I’ll bet both are possible.  I think that the fact that I am so aware of my dreams and also so intuitive offers me the opportunity to dream-share more often.  I am intending to continue exploring this more proactively.

If you ever have a dream about me, please email it to me the next day if you can.  I want to see if I can correlate your dream with anything I dreamed the night before.

In any case, the whole subject is fascinating.  If we can share dreams I wonder if we can have lucid communication in a dream that is actually received and remembered by both parties.  I enjoy exploring possibilities such as this.

Does anyone else have a shared dream experience they’d like to relate?  Please post in the forums or contact me privately.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Many people, including myself, believe that when you die you go through a life review.  It’s like the post-mortem concept in video game development.  When the project is done, you take some time to review it and see what worked, what didn’t, and how you might improve upon the process the next time you tackle it.  A life review works the same way.

Your life review is not just about kicking back with a bowl of popcorn and watching a movie of your life.  It’s more in depth and intense.  You get to see the impact you had on others, even though you weren’t aware of it while alive.  You get to feel the happiness you instilled in others.  You get to see people’s actions and reactions to you even when you weren’t physically present to see them.  All the compassion and kindness you showed to others, and the ripple effect it caused, you get to see and feel.

You also get to feel the pain you inflicted on others so you understand how they felt by what you said or did.  Notice I said “get to feel” because this is actually a gift.  If you were physically abusive towards another human being, guess what?  You get to feel what they felt when you were beating them to a pulp.  If you were emotionally abusive to someone, guess what?  You get to feel your self esteem get squashed and stepped on.  No, it won’t be pleasant.  This part of your life review is probably what most people refer to as Hell.  You cause pain and suffering to someone in this life, and you get to feel and experience it yourself during your life review. 

Is there judgment?  No.  Just understanding and growth.  Many people fear that when they die they will be judged.  This isn’t so.  You judge yourself and your own actions.  And then you decide if you will forgive yourself for the pain you caused others or if you will beat yourself up for it.  The purpose of getting to feel the pain you caused others in life is not punishment.  It’s designed to help you understand and grow. 

A while ago I had a dream that I died and went on to the afterlife.  This is a common occurence in my dreams, but in this one, I got to go through my life review.  There was a female energy present who assisted me in going through my life review.  After I saw and felt my life’s impact, I was given the option of making changes.  Yes, making changes, even after the fact.  I was excited.  Like a lucid dream, I was given full control of the circumstances of my life.  I went back and played the good parts and then I went back and changed the bad parts.  Yes, changed.  I made different choices once I understood the negative impact I’d had, and how I’d hurt others with a careless word or an intentional barb.  I asked the female energy how long I could play in this manner.  She told me I could relive all the parts of my life as long as I wanted, that everyone could, but that she and others like her were there to remind us that eventually we needed to stop replaying our lives and cross over fully; to disconnect from our previous life, taking all the growth from the experience as we could.

I asked her what happens to people who don’t want to disconnect from their lives and fully cross over.  She said they often get stuck replaying aspects of their life over and over again and refuse to release.  In some cases people cannot forgive themselves for the pain they caused others and they end up dwelling in the land of self-inflicted punishment.  Instead of changing the negative, they relive it over and over again, continuing to punish themselves instead of learning and growing. 

This whole experience was fascinating to me because I’ve seen the deceased in varying stages of crossing over and releasing from their lives.  In one case that I’ve written about in the past there was a woman who suicided.  When she got to the other side she was so filled with shame and guilt for what she’d done that she continued to relive the experience over and over, never forgiving herself.  Her angels were there trying to get her to release the guilt and shame and move on, but she could not forgive and continued to punish herself.  Eventually, the angels were able to take her back to a time in her life when she was at a higher vibration, one of joy and happiness.  It was in this state that they were able to get her to forgive herself for the depression that eventually led to the suicide.  Today she has released and crossed over and is enjoying the peace that comes from understanding and growth.

There’s a great movie that depicts the life review, Defending Your Life with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep.  Check it out sometime and you’ll get the gist of what I’m talking about.  Another movie, What Dreams May Come, comes close to depicting what happens when you take ownership of your suicide but don’t forgive yourself for it, instead wallowing in the dark energy of guilt and shame.

Knowing you will eventually get to feel everything you inflicted on others (happiness and pain) doesn’t it behoove you to begin acting now the way you’d like to feel later?  When you get to the afterlife, what will your life review consist of?  Will you see joy spreading through others like a pebble ripples the pond?  Or are you dooming yourself now to a life review filled with hate, anger, resentment, and fear?  Can you forgive yourself now for causing pain to others?  Can you move ahead from this day forward into a life of joy, happiness, compassion, mercy, and empathy?  What pain might you be inflicting on yourself?  The pain you caused others isn’t the only pain you get to re-experience in the afterlife.  You also get the opportunity to forgive yourself for choices you made in anger and fear. 

Your life is like a video game.  You are not your character, but you use your character to have experiences.  You get to choose the experiences you have so you can learn, grow, and understand.  When you’re done playing you get to see where you did good and where you went wrong, and you get to decide what kind of experience you’ll have the next time you play.

To anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of pain, abuse, and trauma I have this to say … the person who inflicted this upon you will eventually feel it themselves.  In reality, it’s the person who inflicts the pain who owns it.  Are you carrying around that pain still?  Why are you holding on to it?  It’s not yours. 

Do not seek revenge, hurting those who have hurt you, because you own and bear responsibility for all the pain you intentionally cause others, even if you feel it is justified.  During your own life review you will experience all the pain you caused others, even the people that wronged you first.  Let them bear that burden, not you.

You’re going to reap what you sow, whether that is happiness and joy, or terror and misery.  It’s your choice.  Before you take an action ask yourself if you’re willing to be on the receiving end of the consequences, because someday you will be. 

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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John’s Readings
There were between 200 and 300 people in the audience at the Flamingo Showroom.  John read for maybe 10 families in that room during his 2 hour performance.  He went in depth with each family, offering between 15 and 20 tidbits of validation. 

I thought he did especially well with details.  A lot of people accuse John Edward of doing cold readings but nothing could be further from the truth.  It’s a cold reading if John says, “They’re telling me you sometimes feel anxious but for the most part you do okay in life.”  That could apply to anyone.  It’s not a cold reading when John says, “Your family sometimes refers to you as Lard Head.  What’s that all about?” and the sitter laughs and validates that that is indeed a nickname of theirs.  John gets very specific with his details, and not just a few details, but many in a row.  Getting one validating hit could be a coincidence, but getting 10, 15 or 20 in a row without missing is very convincing evidence of his paranormal abilities.

I find John to be an excellent medium.  I would love to learn from him directly to improve my own medium skills. 

Q&A with John
After doing about an hour and a half of readings, John hosted a Q&A period and answered probably a dozen questions from audience members.  I especially enjoyed this part because this is where I personally received the most value.  As John answered each question I was glad to notice that I would have answered them the exact same way.  Sometimes psychics have different beliefs about the nature of the afterlife, what constitutes a haunting vs. emotional residue, and reincarnation, among other things.  John’s answers perfectly coincided with my beliefs.

Someone asked John how he felt about all the negative press he often gets; the ridicule and claims of fraud.  John basically said that he made a personal decision to be public with his abilities and understood that when he did so that he was painting a big bullseye on his butt (his words, not mine!).  He said that as he grew in popularity, the bullseye became larger.  He said that one time a major news magazine was doing a story on him that was supposed to be this big expose on how he’s a fraud and charlatan and they brought in a defense attorney to question him extensively and test his abilities.  John said they ended up writing one of the most positive stories about him that he’s ever read after he wowed them with an in-depth reading.

John answered questions about reincarnation and the afterlife.  He shared that he does not support the death penalty because it releases people from this life before they’ve learned all of their lessons.  He also agreed with me about the spiritual consequences of suicide in that you are not released from your lessons and you’ll simply come back to finish them at a later date, plus you alter the course of the people you’ve left behind whom you were supposed to be heavily interacting with.  John talked a little about psychic self defense as well.

Someone asked John if he has an on/off switch or if he ends up reading for people in the grocery store or in restaurants.  He relayed a few funny stories related to being recognized in public and people surreptitiously trying to get him to read for them.  He says he is either “on” or on “standby” so that his guides can get his attention if necessary.

John spoke about how deceased people try to get our attention.  Similar to what I wrote about in my blog entry, Signs from the Spirits, they can mess with your electrical equipment, sometimes you’ll hear them calling your name, and he says that sometimes you’ll even see them. 

One thing he really wanted to impress upon the audience is this:  Our dearly departed do not miss us because they are still with us.  We miss them because we feel like we can never express our love, thoughts, and feelings to them.  But this isn’t true.  The deceased can hear and see us, and they are aware of much of what we do.  Talk to them, write them a letter, sing to them… they will receive your love however you are sending it to them.  Try to feel their love in return.

John talked about visitations from deceased loved ones in dreams.  Sometimes dreams about the dearly departed are just dreams.  You’ll know it’s a visitation by how clear the dream is and how peaceful you are when you awake.  You’ll feel like their true spirit and/or personality came through in your dream. 

Technical Difficulties
About 7 minutes into John’s presentation his microphone went out.  They brought a replacement but it was also malfunctioning.  As a toastmaster and someone who will probably be speaking on a stage one day, I was very curious as to how he would handle it.  The audience began, ever so slightly, to get hostile.  Some people shouted out rude comments like, “Maybe someone up there wants you to shut up,” and “What happened?  Did you lose your connection?”  John handled the hecklers with aplomb.  He relayed a story of a time he was doing an event and there was a blackout.  He ended up doing all the readings with a bullhorn.  That’s adaptability!   They finally got his microphone working and off we went.

John’s the Man!
One thing I really appreciate about John Edward is that he blazes a trail of integrity for all the rest of us psychic mediums.  Because of his fortitude and moral strength he stands as a beacon of truth in a sea of frauds and charlatans.  It’s a tough job and he handles it well.  My hat goes off to John.  He’s been doing this work for 23 years.  I’ve been at it for about 2 years.  I can only imagine where I’ll be in 23.  But I’ll be looking to John all the way…

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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1. Marriage and family problems
2. Career advice
3. Advice on becoming a professional psychic or medium
4. Lucid dreaming
5. Astral projection and out of body experiences
6. How to run a business
7. Feedback on their website, product, or business plan
8. Personal meditations designed to fix specific problems
9. Chakra meditations (I’ll take you through a guided meditation specific to your situation or needs)
10. Discussion and explanation of paranormal experiences
11. Q&A on anything you’d like

If you’re interested in this combination option you can select it from my order page.  Instructions will be emailed to you instantly and we’ll set up your appointment.  Thank you to everyone who mentioned they wanted this option.  I think it’s a great idea.

If you want just a consultation and no psychic reading, you can opt for that as well on the same order page.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Answer:  No, women are not more psychic than men.  The playing field is level between genders when it comes to psychic abilities.  However, it is probably more socially acceptable for a woman to demonstrate her intuitive abilities in society than it is for a man.  Men are often taught to think with their left brains, to be more logical and analytical, whereas women are taught to use feelings, emotions, and intuition.

If you’re a man you may be able to get away with a gut feeling.  “George, I just have a gut feeling that this merger isn’t in the best interest of our company.”  As opposed to, “George, I just get this intuitive feeling that working with XYZ company is the wrong thing to do.  It doesn’t feel right at this time.”  Some men are comfortable displaying their intuition and some are not.  It’s unfortunate that in society men are often taught to suppress their emotions or their feelings and to think instead of feel.  That can be a barrier to psychic development.  For the man who is willing to open himself up to spirit there are great rewards.

Developing psychic abilities is a choice.  Everyone starts out with psychic muscles, just like babies are born with a muscle structure, but not everyone chooses to develop their psychic abilities to a high degree.  Women are probably more likely to develop their intuition because it’s socially acceptable for them to have “feelings” about people, events, and circumstances.  But men are perfectly capable, and often quite skilled, at doing psychic work.  Some of the best psychics out there are men including Gordon Smith, John Edwards, John Holland, and James Van Praagh. 

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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As some of you may remember, Steve and I have attended the I Can Do It conference put on by Hay House here in Las Vegas for the last few years.  This year, Steve will actually be one of their speakers since he is one of their upcoming authors.  See his post for details on his speaking engagement.

As time permits, I will be doing psychic readings while at the conference.  I am offering either the regular 1 hour in person reading, or you can book a half hour in person reading if you’d like.  I will be able to do only a limited amount of readings due to all kinds of committments, not the least of which is attending the conference.  If you are attending the conference and you want a reading please let me know as soon as you can so I can put a schedule together.  Thursday during the day (before the conference begins) and Monday (the day after the conference ends) will be the best day to book a reading.  Other good times will be Saturday afternoon/evening or Sunday in the early evening.

I highly encourage you to attend this conference.  It completely changed my life.  Just being around so many thousands of lightworkers is totally empowering.  Healing happens just being in the same room with so many healers, believe me.  The insights you will gain are immeasurable.  Plus it’s a good conference to look for like-minded, high-awareness people.

For details on the conference itself and to make travel arrangements, go to the Las Vegas I Can Do It 2008 website.  Don’t forget to sign up for Steve’s breakout session on Sunday, June 29 at 11am.  It’s going to be the first time he will be publicly discussing the concepts from his upcoming book, Personal Development for Smart People.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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So what shall we do to celebrate this momentous event? How about if I share some of what I’ve learned from doing a thousand readings.  Some of this will be similar to other update posts I’ve done, but there will be a few new tidbits here and there.

Awareness Matters
It has become very clear to me that when I read for people who are of a high vibration the information comes through more clearly.  It feels very much like having my own signal boosted by my sitter’s signal.  It really does help if you do a little meditating or deep breathing before a reading.  Being nervous is just fine, that doesn’t interfere much.  I really appreciate my sitters because the vast majority of them are very smart, highly aware, and take full responsibility for their lives.

Trust is Key
I’ve had some really odd things come through during readings, things I couldn’t even imagine being true, but because I’ve learned to trust my guides I pass on what I’m being given.  That trust has paid off immeasurably.  Early on in the process I would be so hesitant to even bring something up because I was so afraid of being wrong, but I made a committment to my guides to convey what they give me to convey, and that trust is vital for proper communication.  Consequently, I’ve been able to provide validation for my sitters in some very odd ways. 

Guides are Good
You gotta love the guides.  I’ve encountered guides who were so amusing that I’ve had to laugh out loud at some of the images they’ve sent me.  I also learned that guides will sometimes confer with each other before answering.  And I’ve learned that sometimes the guides don’t agree on a course of action.  When I’m tuned in, the guides come to me as a collective energy.  I rarely see them individually.  I think they’re focusing their energy into one beam to transmit a clear signal to me.

Seeing Dead People
I’ve only been startled by one spirit since I started doing this work.  Before I started doing this work I thought I’d have ghosts lined up in my office showing me their decapitated heads and gunshot wounds.  I was very wrong about that, so if you’re someone who is afraid of doing psychic work because you don’t want to see scary, icky dead people, rest assured that you may not!  I’ve also had a few spirits wake me up in the middle of the night to talk to me before a reading, but for the most part they wait until 5 minutes before a reading to come to me and make themselves known.

In-Person vs. Phone Readings
Sometimes people are concerned that a phone reading won’t be as accurate or detailed as an in-person reading.  Don’t be concerned.  The phone readings are just as good as an in-person reading.  Distance doesn’t mean anything to the guides.  Now, a heavy accent does!  I’ve had some situations where someone has booked a reading with me and they don’t speak English very well.  This does make it hard to communicate but not impossible.  It just takes longer for me to make myself clear, so please only book a reading if you can understand English very well.

Group Readings
I haven’t done too many group readings.  That’s something I want to practice over the coming year.  The group readings I have done have gone well.  I did have an occasion where all the info I was getting for this one woman turned out to be inaccurate for her but extremely accurate for the woman sitting next to her.  So I’m still working on discerning what’s what for who’s who.

Getting Better
As time has gone on, I’ve become a much better psychic and medium.  As with any profession, you learn a lot from experience.  I would encourage anyone who wants to become a professional psychic or medium to practice as much as you can.  When you’re ready, you’ll know it, and you can start charging for your readings.  Every psychic has an off reading once in a while, or even an off day.  In any profession you’re going to experience that.  Sometimes your energy is lower one day than another.  On days when I’ve been very sick or had a really bad headache, I’ve had to reschedule the readings so people get me at my best.  To all of you who have listened to me coughing up a lung while doing your reading, thank you for your understanding and, believe me, I sounded worse the week before.

What’s Next?
Bookings have been way up since the new year started.  I apologize for the long wait time; the demand is currently very high.  Aside from raising my rates, I’ll just have to hope I can catch up and get back to a reasonable 1-2 week wait time again, but if this demand continues then there may be a rate increase in the future.  I can see now why the really famous psychic mediums have turned off their waiting lists.  Every time I think readings will die down a bit, they just don’t.  It’s not that I want them to die down, it’s just that there’s a lot of things I want to be doing and I always give readings first dibs on my time.  My time is starting to remind me about promises I’ve made it that I haven’t gotten around to yet.  We’re currently negotiating, and I think Time is ready to go on strike.

I’m still working on my audio program.  I don’t get as much time to work on it with all the readings I’m doing.  In June I’ll be taking a break from readings while my kids are between school and summer camp and I will be able to catch up on my back burner items.  I may also be doing some local classes or workshops.  I will, of course, announce them in the blog ahead of time in case people are close enough to attend.

Several of you have recently requested a half and half reading, 30 minutes of consultation and 30 minutes of an intuitive reading.  That’s a good idea actually.  So I’m going to set that up as an option in case you want to talk to me and your guides in the same reading.

The blog will continue and if you have ideas about what you’d like me to write about or topics you’d like me to cover, just ask.

Such a Joy!
Doing all of these readings has been an immense pleasure, and provided me with tons of growth.  I just love connecting with my sitters.  I really do care what happens to my sitters after a reading.  There are many of you out there that I keep in contact with long after the reading is over.  Thank you all for allowing me to relay information between you and your guides, higher self, angels, and deceased loved ones.  One of my goals this year is to teach you how to connect on your own.

Welp, here’s to the next thousand!  Whoa, that gave me vertigo … let’s just take it one at a time.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Dream interpretation is not about universal symbols.  To interpret your dreams you need to understand what the dream elements mean to you.  I’ll expand on this in a moment.

In junior high I made a study of dreams for a science fair project.  I learned how to interpret dreams and started doing it for all my friends, and even my teachers.  As the years went by I just got better and better at it.  It’s hard to interpret someone else’s dream without knowing the person really well, so usually I have to ask questions to elicit the information I need for a proper interpretation.  I can’t just automatically assign a meaning to a dream symbol based on some universal interpretation.

Interpreting my own dreams is very easy for me because I know me so well.  The other night I had a dream about a lilac bush with a bunch of bees on it.  One dream dictionary I looked up online says it means good luck is coming my way.  That’s not what it meant to me though.  Earlier that day I was sitting at a red light and looked over to my left where I saw a lilac bush with bees buzzing around it.  I am really afraid of bees and I remember feeling glad I was in my car with the windows closed so one didn’t buzz in.  So dreaming about bees in a lilac bush was simply my subconscious mind reliving a fearful experience from earlier in the day.  If a florist had the same dream, it would mean something else.  If a beekeeper had the same dream, I’m sure it wouldn’t have the same meaning as it did for me.

There are common dream themes, however.  When I first learned about dreams I read that there were eight of them actually.  These eight dream themes are supposedly so common that most people will have all of these dreams at some point in their lives.  They are:

1. Dreams of falling
2. Dreams of flying
3. Dreams of finding money (usually coins)
4. Dreams of losing money
5. Dreams of being naked in public
6. Dreams of losing your teeth or having them fall out
7. Dreams about being chased
8. Sex dreams

But just because you have a dream that falls into a common theme category doesn’t mean it will have the same meaning for you that it will for someone else.  If you’re a dentist and you dream that your teeth are falling out it could mean that you feel inadequate as a dentist, or you feel like you’re a fraud, or you feel like you want to stop being a dentist … or any number of interpretations.

In order to interpret your dreams properly you have to know what the dream symbols mean to you. 

Let’s take an example.  The dream is that you are sitting on your couch when all of a sudden you feel something slithering around your body, and you hear a rattling sound.  In a moment, you see it’s a rattlesnake! 

Are you afraid of snakes or do you like them?  If you’re afraid of them then I might suggest you are coming face to face with a fear.  Or I might suggest you feel like you are in the grip of fear.  

If, on the other hand, you love snakes, the dream will have a different meaning.  Maybe it’s an expression of courage.  Maybe the snake in the dream reminds you of a deceased pet snake you had and you’re happy to see it.

The emotion you feel from a dream is the most telling element of what the dream means.  It’s important to identify how the dream made you feel.  Often it’s difficult to figure out what each and every symbol in a dream means.  But knowing the emotion is probably the most critical element.  Did you feel sad, angry, overwhelmed, depressed, defeated, afraid, overjoyed, hopeful?  That alone can be enough of an interpretation.

A great technique to figure out what your dream means is to tell it to someone else.  The words you use are often indicative of the meaning.  Example:  I was with my father and then all of a sudden his head just came flying off.  “Hmm, did you have a fight with your father the other day?”  “Why yes, I did, and he really just flew off the handle.  Oh, I get it… ”

Try this one:  I dreamed I was in a boat and was floating gently down a stream.  All of a sudden there was a thunderstorm and lightning and the river started moving more swiftly.  I felt like I was out of control, like I couldn’t get control of my boat.  All I wanted to do was get back to safer waters, but I saw rocks ahead and knew I was going to crash.  When I woke up I was so anxious.

Now let’s take the same dream and describe it a different way so you can see how the emotion is different even with the same elements.  Dream:  I dreamed I was in this boat and was floating meekly down the stream.  But a powerful thunderstorm was brewing; I could just feel it’s power.  Then lightning struck and all of a sudden I was barrelling down the river faster than I ever had before.  I could easily see the obstacles ahead of me but I was so powerful that I knew I could easily face and overcome them.

In the first dream, our dreamer is expressing anxiety over something in their life that probably happened suddenly, without warning, that is scaring them.  Our dreamer is not feeling in control of his life and probably wants things to go back to the way they were.  He thinks tragedy looms before him.

Our second dreamer is having a different experience.  He went from being meek to getting a great idea that is propelling him forward in life.  He is feeling courage and power, not anxiety, about the obstacles ahead.

Telling your dream to your partner or a friend is a good idea.  The words you choose are often insightful.  Sometimes I’ll tell Steve a dream that was very emotional for me and he can interpret it as I go because he’s hearing the words, not seeing the images I saw.  While I’m caught up in just describing the scene, he is hearing my words.  This works when you write it down in a dream journal too.

It takes practice to interpret your dreams.  You’ve got to just keep working at it. 

Being able to intrepret dreams has actually helped me considerably with my psychic readings.  When I tune in to the spirit guides they will often send me a metaphor for my sitter’s life and current circumstances.  I have to figure out what the imagery means just by seeing the symbols.  If I didn’t know how to interpret dreams I might be really lost. 

Not all dreams require interpretation.  Sometimes I will dream that someone calls me on the phone, tells me something, and hangs up.  The message comes through cleanly and with no symbolism.  Saves time. 

Some dreams are communications from spirits or deceased relatives and also do not require much in the way of interpretation.  And some dreams are premonitions so where you might see something symbolic it could be literal.

If you’re not used to remembering your dreams you may find them very disjointed in the beginning (e.g. “There was a flying monkey and then it was in my bath tub.  A second later I was back in high school with my old boyfriend, Fred.  He was annoying me.  Then I saw that he had a butterfly tatoo, which started singing to me in Latin…”)  Don’t be discouraged.  Keep on dreaming!  Share your dreams with a partner, or just say them out loud to yourself.  The words you choose are important.  In time you’ll get to know what your dreams mean to you.  If you feel fear in your dream, ask yourself what you’re afraid of in your life.  If you feel excited in a dream, ask yourself what you’re feeling excited about in your life, and so on.

But throw the dictionaries away.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

© 2008 by Erin Pavlina.

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