I See Ghosts
My psychic readings almost always involve spirits who have "crossed over". I hesitate to call them "ghosts" because I do not sense that their intent is to haunt anyone. However, recently I was asked to state categorically whether I see ghosts and I had to answer that I do. It's not a daily occurence or anything and it's not something I seek out. Like so many phenomena associated with psychic readings, I see ghosts spontaneously when they wish to be seen. Recently, it happened when I was in the flat of a friend who had just moved in. She was keen to make the space her own and did a space clearing ritual to remove any residual energy from previous occupants. She had invited me to do an energy reading of the place and I was happy to comply. Almost immediately after I walked through her front door my attention was drawn to one corner of her sitting room. I had the distinct impression of an older man wearing a greenish shirt or jacket and tan trousers. He seemed curious about what was happening in the flat and I noticed that he had hazel eyes with a sort of mischievous light in them. His presence was not disturbing; he was just 'hanging around'. Given that he obviously meant no harm to my friend, I kept moving through the flat. However, one other corner drew my attention: it was on the opposite side of the wall from where I had sensed the older man. It was odd because this corner was where two sets of kitchen cupboards met and this made no sense to me in terms of a human haunting. Nevertheless, I noted the spot as possibly significant and moved on to the bedroom. I had a sense of "jumbled energy" in the bedroom which would bear further attention but there was nothing negative or disturbing about it. All in all, the flat seemed neutral in energy terms. A week or so went by and I had another brief conversation with my neighbour. It seems one of her cats found the corner I had been drawn to in the kitchen of particular interest. The cat would sit and stare it for long periods of time. I don't know what the cat is seeing but I think Mr. Cat and I have a bit of work to do together to figure out what happened in that cupboard. I can't help wondering if perhaps a field mouse wandered in at some point in the past and perhaps met an untimely end in the cupboard...
I See Ghosts
The other recent incident involving a ghost occurred one night during a violent storm. I was half-asleep in my reading chair, having found the drone of rain against the glass-paned doors was making me drowsey. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind hit the house and the floor lifted under me! I was fully awake instantly, all systems on alert! Another gust lifted the floor again and this time I saw a man with spade-shaped beard glaring at me from the stairwell. He was unusually tall, intent to the point of seeming angry, and in his left hand he held a rusty iron bar. He was wearing a dirty blue shirt and looked to me as though he had just recently lost weight because the shirt seemed too big for him. In the next second I heard him say, "Moira, (or possibly Mara) get out." His eyes were fixed on a spot to my left and behind where I was sitting. As I turned to follow his gaze, I saw a young woman in a pale yellow dress with tiny flowers on it, sort of gauzy looking, reminiscent of the 1930s. She had short reddish hair and a large mark of some kind on her right cheek. I had the feeling the mark was the result of a blow she had suffered at the hands of another man. Suddenly, a feeling of utter despair came over me and, as I watched in amazement, the woman slowly turned and walked through the wall. As she did so, the man looked even angrier than before and turned toward me. I decided that this had gone far enough and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was about to mentally utter a banishment when I had a sudden memory. Sometimes one can dispel heavy energy through laughter! It had worked once before some years ago when I was faced with a frightening apparition who challenged me. I recalled the incident as vividly as I could. I saw myself in the bedroom of my old house. It was late summer and I had awakened suddenly to find the face of woman hovering in a corner where the wall met the ceiling. She was not friendly and had me pinned to my bed despite my efforts to strike out. Then she set me some sort of riddle. She said, "First there was the shepherd. Then there were the sheep. Then was there was the black sheep. Which are you?" Despite my fear, I remember thinking: I hate riddles! To hell with this! And I mentally answered her question about whether I was a white sheep or a black sheep by saying, "That depends on who in my family you ask!" I was already laughing at my cheekiness and, instantly, I felt fury coming from her. She had not expected an act of defiance, I guess. My answer totally surprised me, too. I had never before been able to 'fight back' when I was frightened. This time as I reached the 'punch line' of the story, there was a very loud "cracking" noise that startled me into opening my eyes. Where the angry male ghost had been in the stairwell, there was now a distinct blue light that gradually faded to nothing. I'm afraid I was so full of energy at that point, however, that I didn't sleep the rest of the night. But as the morning light trickled through the window in my bedroom I was seized by a deep fatigue. The next thing I knew the clock showed 11:22 AM. The sun was shining and the night was long gone. Twice now I have been able to dispel a threatening energy with humour so I guess this is a lesson I am meant to pass on. If you're ever confronted by an angry ghost, try to remember something funny and laugh out loud!
© Delia O'Riordan 2012
Clients who come to me for psychic readings often ask what I think about the idea that our world is on the brink of a huge "transformation". Indeed, it seems everywhere one looks nowadays the word "Transformation" appears and 2012 is touted as the year in which we will see a massive "Shift" into a "New Reality", one that is 'softer', more humane, more spiritual. I would be the first to agree that there is greater interest these days in what was once considered 'fringe' spirituality. More people are open to and are learning how to meditate. More people than ever before in the West are practicing Yoga. "Reducing the carbon footprint" of our homes, workspaces, vehicles, etc. has become admirable where once it was considered "eccentric". But what exactly do we mean by Transformation? Is it the same for everyone? Is it about becoming perpetually "happy-clappy", Pollyana-ish, or a "health Nazi" on a crusade to eliminate salt and sugar from the face of the earth? Unfortunately, a lot of people who believe they are engaging in "Transformation" use their alleged spirituality to bludgeon those around them into conformity with the "new paradigm", but forcing one's own views or values on others is not what Transformation is about. It is far more subtle than a change of diet or exercise routine, far more than mouthing platitudes such as "You create your own reality" or "You've manifested this illness for a reason". Transformation is above all not about co-ercion of any kind. It is not about judging others for being 'less spiritual' than we deem ourselves to be. Transformation is an inward process, an on-going one that doesn't eventuate in a "finished product". Transformation is about conscious living in all aspects of life. It's about the humble practice of mindfulness in a world designed to short-circuit the process of mindfulness. Transformation is about giving up judging everything and beginning to observe everything.
something of their afterlife experience that directly relates to the client's spiritual search for clarity and deeper meaning in life. One theme that repeats itself in these circumstances is the need for the client to gently withdraw from energy-draining social - and even intimate - entanglements for a time. When you consider how much energy is expended daily on emotions of all kinds, it makes perfect sense that the first step toward finding a more authentic way to Be starts with our emotional lives. So many of our actions are emotion-driven that we don't see that there is always a choice about how we are going to react to life events with something other than a knee-jerk response. Transformation, therefore, is not so much a "spiritual movement" as it is a personal challenge to our unexamined assumptions about what matters and what doesn't. The steps in the Transformation Process have been well-documented down the ages and our present era is no exception yet the process is unique to each of us and we need to keep an open mind as to where we are going and how we are going to get there. Future posts will deal with the most common steps in the process of discovery that leads to Transformation one individual at a time. Just as your DNA is unique, your life journey will be unique when you let it unfold rather than trying to buy a lifestyle that suggests a set of values that don't really satisfy you. When you engage in the highly individual process of creating a more satisfying life, you will find that similar minded individuals will tend to gravitate in your direction and a rich vein of friendship is often the result.
asked in our culture. The generations born since the end of WW2 have been confronting that question with greater urgency than previous generations. In periods of rigid social order, the individual has generally had very little choice in areas of life that we consider to be essential such as the choice of a profession or trade. It was assumed that at least the eldest boy would follow his father's trade; girls were groomed to be wives and mothers. Even for those at the top of the social heap - landowners, nobles, royalty - there were rigid expectations and demands that left little room for improvisation or experimentation. After the revolutions in America and France in the late 18th century however , people began to question their inherited social and economic structures and greater emphasis began to be placed on the individual as the unit of society rather than class or family. More than any single other factor the growth of the "middle classes" made choice possible, at least in theory. Yet, we have no idea how many great artists, composers, writers, and even scientists, were steered away from using their natural gifts in order to fulfill their parents ideas of a "safe", "reliable" or "traditional" profession or trade. Would-be theoretical mathematicians were steered
instead into teaching or accountancy; girls who dreamed by being doctors were persuaded to become nurses; potentially serious playwrights, poets, and literary novelists were sent off to learn journalism, public relations, or advertising even during times of prosperity when choice should have been the norm. Why? Because of the fear of what might happen in years to come. How could one earn a living as a painter in a period of recession or depression? Who would marry girls who had medical or law degrees? Nowadays, we might laugh at such a question but social advances have a way of being reversed during periods of economic stress and political regression such as we are in right now. But despite the outward circumstances, humans must engage in a process of self-discovery in order to claim the self-knowledge that leads to happiness in life. Skipping that process is what gives us generations of unwed mothers with children they can't support, "deadbeat Dads", abusive husbands and fathers who use their physical strength to prevent women and children from exercising their rights to be free to act on their own consciences and knowledge; bosses who are in the wrong jobs and abuse their power to prevent others from becoming the best they can be; and today a ubiquitous "security industry" that is laying the groundwork for the subversion of democratic institutions that had been designed to protect the rights of the individual. More than at any time in the past, we need to ask "Who am I?" and "Who am I meant to be (by virtue of my inborn abilities, talents and interests)?" One of the aspects of my practice as a professional psychic that I most enjoy is working with clients on the twin issues of who they are and what work would give them the greatest satisfaction in life. I have worked with many "misplaced" professionals who were actually "meant to be" lawyers, judges, researchers, writers, dancers, business owners, restaurateurs, architects, even astrologers and one or two who were "closet psychics". I was one of those myself for nearly twenty years in a "left brain profession" which I believe helps me to recognize others in a similar situation.
how they will live their lives, including how they will "make a living". We are at a critical juncture in human history; 99% of the population of the planet is in thrall to the 1% of economic plutocrats, a situation that grows more dangerous by the day as one form of employment after another is declared redundant or economically not viable. Rarely is that true. Most of the "wealth bubble" is made up of air - speculation, "hedge funds", hostile take-overs, etc. without regard to the overall social as well as economic impact that will ensue when the current "bubble" implodes as it did in 2008-2010. If the majority population of the planet is not to be enslaved or eradicated by natural or engineered disaster, we have to discover how to live in accordance with who we are and what we were meant to do to support life on this planet. In the search for answers to these questions, I am in favour of any instrument that furthers human freedom from economic, political, or intellectual tyranny. Self-discovery is the deepest root of freedom in all areas. There are many tools to increase self-awareness including books and courses on identifying your "strengths and weaknesses" in terms of employment. One of the most recent such books is Search Inside Yourself, a creative and sometimes hilarious tool for finding out what would make you much happier at work and in your life. I recommend this one highly.
respect for her willingness to learn - in public - including learning from her mistakes. I also respect the fact that she seeks out professionals to work with and has created what I think of as her own "human resource network". I detested the hype that crept into the staging of her daily TV shows; it was so obviously producer-driven. However, when I listen to what she actually says I am struck by her humility in seeking answers to the important questions facing the planetary culture of which we are all a part. So, I recommend that readers of this post who harbour doubts about their careers or wonder if there might be a better alternative out there, begin with tools they can gain access to in their environment. My only caution would be to be sceptical of any book or "authority" who claims to have "all the answers". Above all, remember that nothing in nature grows in absolutely straight lines. Nature meanders, spirals, circles back from time to time and constantly changes. That is our reality. Circumstances change and we can't protect ourselves against all of them. However, the best thing we can do for ourselves and those we care about is to make an honest effort to find out who we really are (emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, and physically) and live in harmony with that identity including how we support ourselves and our loved ones. There are no general answers, only individual ones so we cannot compare what is best for us with what is best for others. What would make us happiest might be radically different from the current "norms" but remember we do not know what is "normal" for human beings - we only know what is common. And the common choices might not be right for us.
entertained, children are especially prone to boredom with all of its attendant ills: quarrelsomeness, dangerous pranks, etc. But the last weeks of summer also offer a wonderful opportunity for total engagement. As unpicked berries begin to shrivel and fall from the vines, dry leaves drift to the ground, flowers need to be 'dead- headed', pine cones drop onto forest floors, birds lose feathers and squirrels knock nuts out of trees onto the ground, a whole new world of possibilities opens up: the chance for families to build houses for the fairy guardians of the wild places to rest and refresh themselves in the cold months ahead. The enormous popularity of photo-essay books documenting fairy houses that dot parks and woodlands in the state of Maine has drawn thousands of tourists every summer and spread the idea of building fairy houses as a family acitvity around the globe.
do and that those items must be already on the ground can get children interested in really looking at the natural world around them. This is also a good time to introduce the idea of asking permission of the natural world before picking anything up and carrying it off. Fairies are very respectful of the territories of creatures in the wild and we need to follow their example by seeking permission from the trees, plants, and fallen natural elements before we begin to collect them. The process of collecting these elements can be presented as an expedition. This phase can also include a trip to the library to see if the kids can find any books about fairy houses and how others have made them, or books about the local trees and plants so that the children can learn the names of the species from the types of leaves and nuts or berries they bear and which animals eat those things. If you are fortunate enough to live near a beach, the children can bring a little shovel and buckets to collect some sand, bits of driftwood, sea glass or dried seaweed, shells (if it is permitted to remove them), pebbles, etc. The sand can be used to line the "floor" of the faery house where fairies can take naps when they are tired. Children can be encouraged to thank the spirits of the sea and sand for letting them remove things to use in the fairy house.
the Shoals and Monhegan Island off the coast of the American state of Maine have set aside areas where children are welcome to build fairy houses using only materials they find on the ground. This means no plastic or resin items, nothing that comes from outside of the island site. The result is a veritable colony of fairy dwellings including little fairy theatres, fairy swings, even fairy bath tubs (large sea shells that catch rainwater. The popularity of this venue for families on holiday in the area as well as year-round residents of Maine, is largely down to the success of books by local author Tracy Kane. Fairy Houses Everywhere! is a compendium of the best and most interesting structures created by children and families. The photographs are stunning in their clarity and detail and kids can spend hours just studying the images to find all the treasures hidden in each Fairy House. One thing is certain: there is nothing boring about these amazing fairy dwellings and if fairy etiquette is observed you may even be rewarded by a glimpse of the fairy world just the other side of ours.
high on national agendas. Enormous "shack cities" cling to the edges of the world's great metropolitan areas like parasitic fungi spreading over the terrain. Poverty is not new, of course, but slum cities on the scale we see today are new. They are the product of the "baby boom" following World War II. The availability of anti-biotics, vaccination, and immunization ensured that the 10 to 25% of children who would have died in the first two to five years of life in previous generations would survive to have children of their own. The spread of these medical "advances" to what came to be called the "third world" further increased the percentage of children who would survive the illnesses that once would have killed them. The problem was that no provision was made for the consequences of this massive and sudden increase in population all over the world. Today, the situation is critical verging on the catastrophic. The vast majority of humanity is unhoused or under-housed and living in unacceptable conditions. The price we are paying in threats to public health, rampant spread of crime, and proliferation of mental illness are almost incalculable. This is not a practical problem or a political problem; it is not a social problem or an economic problem. It is a global humanitarian problem. It affects all of us whether we acknowledge it or not. The hideous reality of slum cities lives in our consciousness. We all know it is there but we seem willing to ignore it as long as it doesn't encroach on where we live. The unrecognised problem is that it does encroach on our lives and we are in denial about it! "Out of sight, out of mind" just doesn't cut it. We put our own lives at risk every day that this situation is permitted to continue because of the sheer environmental degradation resulting from the slum cities. Far worse, however, is the mental and spiritual damage being done to the inhabitants of the shacks, the cardboard and tin side-walk shelters of Mumbai and Kolkatta and other urban areas of India, Rio and Sao Paolo, Santiago and Mexico City, every city in Africa, the floating cities of Asia, and increasingly the homelessness in the former "Soviet Block". Homelessness has become so ubiquitous that it seems "normal" in almost every country! But it is NOT normal. Nor is it acceptable for sentient beings to live in such conditions. Our bodies are providing a temporary home for our psyches but our bodies also need shelter and we are all just one natural disaster or war zone away from becoming slum dwellers. It is in our interests to address this problem and to do it in a sensitive, creative, and environmentally friendly manner. Sounds like a tall order doesn't it? It is a tall order but one that we are perfectly capable of handling right now. Soon it will be too late and we will have cause ot regret our inaction.
discourse unless it's in a context that our societies deem acceptable such as Flight 12xz has 320 "souls aboard"; we need to cultivate "team spirit" , "school spirit", "winning spirit", etc. This is partly a good thing; it arises from the modern practice of keeping "Church" (soul, spirit) and "State" (equal treatment under the law) separate in order to preserve the democratic right to freedom of religion without interference from government. But the human "psyche" is more than the religious notion of a soul as a kind of record book of our good or bad deeds. The psyche is the expression of consciousness in the human species. It contains all of our abilities but also our potential abilities; our grasp of the past but also our capacity to dream about and plan the future; our ability to relate to our loved ones but also our capacity to identify with the suffering of total strangers. It is this last ability that is the one that is most valuable: humans can imagine themselves in another's circumstances and, out of compassion for the other, offer help.
enough as Britain learned after WWII when it re-housed 60% of its population in "council flats and houses". The massive blocks of flats were soul-less and over time people came to realise that just having a roof and walls - although it was an improvement for many - ignored the occupants' essential need for connection, for community. I don't pretend to know what we humans actually are or why we exist but my own experience convinces me that we are more than physical bodies. When we "house" only bodies, we create impersonal, ugly, cold monoliths or cramped cookie-cutter houses that leave the inhabitants isolated in boxes next to other boxes and on top of or below still other boxes. Such buildings send a message. They tell the inhabitants that "beggars can't be choosers" and to "shut up and be grateful for a roof over your head". The meta-message is that "we" can't be bothered to design a more welcoming, interesting, friendly space for others of our species. We'd better hope that one day soon "we" will not become "them".
between the other two? Actually, I hope to persuade you that what we see as one or the other depends on our thoughts, that our thoughts are subject to choice and that our choices filter our experience of "reality". Many people, however, conclude that the dominant emotions in their lives define whether they are optimists or pessimists and essentially they have no choice in how they see themselves and the world. People who think this way have a deterministic view of life; they don't believe they have the power to shape their lives beyond the superficial level of 'person style' or simple likes and dislikes. At the extreme end of the spectrum, determinists seem to lack "motivation" or "will" and may live in a more or less permanent state of despair or depression. Next to them on the spectrum are the "cynics". Their experience seems to point to pessimism as the only logical point of view. Optimism by contrast seems to them naive. In general, Western culture values only the measurable, the objective, the impersonal - notwithstanding the gazillion or so "positive thinking" and "self-help" books that are sold every year. A strictly materialist view of reality - one that excludes or discounts the value of the non-material - is the natural refuge of the cynic and seems justified by science.
most extreme form, it becomes a substitute for dealing with the reality of our physical mortality. Physical existence is finite and sooner or later our bodies will die. But in recent years, there have been great advances in research into the existence of a non-local reality that operates at the sub-atomic level of reality. Part of the result of that research is a shift in our thinking that allows for the possibility of the survival of the non-physical aspect of us that we call consciousness. Since we do not as yet understand what consciousness is and can only map a fraction of its function with technologies that allow us to see some of the activity of the brain in real time, we cannot say that consciousness is finite. What we do know is that consciousness in the form of human attention and intention can have effects on physical reality at the sub-atomic level. From the current research into these effects it seems that consciousness interacts with "material reality" in some way. If that is true, it only makes sense to apply our conscious intentions in a more concentrated way to increase this effect. Beginning back in the 1960s, Carl Simonton, noticed a correlation between the attitudes of cancer patients and how long they survived or even made complete recoveries. Those who came through the process of acknowledging the seriousness of their condition and decided to use their inner resources (an optimistic outlook tempered by the reality of the suffering that lay ahead of them) as well as the medical help available tended to live beyond the statistical survival expectation by two to five years. Those who dealt with the diagnosis by denying all possibility of dying and adopted a false positivity, did not do well. And those who reacted with anger, bitterness, and resentment and never got beyond that did least well.
