Kathryn Rickert lives in Canada and has been a primary school teacher for twenty years but there is another side of her that most of her pupils know nothing about: her psychic abilities. Kathryn could see and hear spirit from very young. They opened up when her grandmother died and she used to see her uncle all the time, even though she had never heard of him because he died when Kathryn's mum was sixteen. Luckily Kathryn's mum was not dismissive of her experience but sadly a lot of parents are. And that can create more harm than good.

There was a long period of time when Kathryn ignored and suppressed her gifts because her friends mocked her, but they all came back running when she became a mum and a primary school teacher. During a mediumship training course, she called upon her uncle and he explained to her that the little girl he often brought with him was her sister. Kathryn didn't know that her mum had a miscarriage. And from that moment on, she was hooked.

It started off with burnout, sadly, and the need for her to look after herself when the demands of her job, particularly as she was heavily involved with special needs kids, whom she loves, started to impact her health. This coincided with the birth of her second child. She describes that period as both a break down but also as a breakthrough as in her own words "it brought me back to me".

She did a lot of different trainings relating to psychic abilities that led her to build her business around the time of the pandemic but is now back in the classroom and what she learnt has been invaluable to her as a teacher.

Kathryn and I discussed how parents can best support their children when they mention unusual things such as imaginary friends or maybe have instant likes or dislikes of people around them. This was a fascinating conversation. And the first thing that came up was how important it was to ask children about their experience. They might be experiencing all sorts of psychic phenomenon or visits from spirit beings but they assume that everyone has these experiences so they are not likely to share with you automatically.

But also, as important if not more, is to believe them when they share with you even if you don't quite understand what is happening. We also talked about the fact that it's often around the age of four to five that kids share memories about past lives or talk about imaginary friends. Often times, as they progress through the schooling system, these experiences either fade away or the kids don't talk about them anymore because they are mocked for it. But it's important that this age group gets the right support so they don't get scared.

If you would like to know when Kathryn is launching her course for parents of kindergarden kids, sign up with this link.

When I started exploring spirituality outside of religion, everybody seemed to talk about the divine feminine and masculine. There were circles for women, and circles for men. It was made very clear that we both have the divine masculine and feminine within us, whether we are male or female, but everything was labelled as feminine or masculine. Intuition was feminine. Leadership was masculine. And I tagged along, because I didn't know any better.

It took me to go on a journey with people that are close to me who are non binary and transgender to realise that the binary model is everywhere and that it is quite toxic. Why should being sensitive be a feminine quality? I knew plenty of exquisitely sensitive men. And why should taking action be a masculine quality? I am an action taker myself. 

I started to read more content written by queer people and even though I was disconcerted at first - I was after all unlearning from years of binary thinking - I truly felt like I was seeing the world afresh. And it felt exciting. I am not queer but I know a lot of queer people now and if you have listened to any of my podcasts before, you know I am a passionate ally. Naturally, this led me to question this whole divine masculine and feminine mumble jumble. 

When I was a child, I had more male friends than female friends. But here is the thing: I did not see them as male or female. They were just my mates. It's only when growing up and particularly when reaching adolescence that the whole feminine and masculine debate started to kick in. Back then, I did not know that gender was a social construct designed to control people. And that it had been used by missionaries all over the world to oppress indigenous cultures. 

A man only acts like a man because he is conditioned to do so from a very young age. This was made very clear when I gave birth to a child that was assigned as male at birth. I remember my child, as a toddler, picking up some of my earrings and trying them on. I thought it was delightful. However, his dad rushed to his side and took the earrings off his ears at light speed and confiscated them. How interesting? This was one of the millions of micro actions that his father and all the adults around me took to reaffirm his gender. The same happens to girls. 

Schools continue to reinforce these models if only by pushing heteronormative literature and addressing pupils as boys and girls. That is not even necessary. And yet they pretend that talking about gender is an ideology. They are obviously blind to the fact that the binary gender model is an ideology in itself and that they are perpetuating it. 

Women should be aware that issues around gender fluidity affect them even if they feel strong in their own gender, because gender roles have been used to oppress women and non binary folks for centuries. By men. 

Science has actually established that there are more similarities between genders than difference, so this whole gender binary model is based on social construct exclusively. It also varies between cultures. Dresses are routinely worn by men in certain cultures. As well as jewellery. 

Even the World Health Organisation has stated in 2023 that gender is hierarchical and that it produces inequalities that intersect with other social and economical inequalities. 

To me, being spiritual means doing everything in my power not to harm others. And then learning more to do better. I feel that the gender debate should be brought to the spiritual world and for us to question it. After all, spirit beings - which I have covered in my last episode - do not have gender. Angels are not male or female. Even spirit guides are not, even though they might have preferred to incarnate as a certain gender over their various lifetimes. 

So on the back of this week's episode I invite you to question what you hear in spiritual circles and ask yourself if this is not rehashing toxic gender stereotypes. Listen to the words you use when referring to God. Do you use pronouns? Why? Do you really think God is male or female and can you take a moment to question if this really makes sense? Next time someone tells you that intuition is a feminine attribute, stop and pause. I am not even going to go down the path of entertaining statements like men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But also ask yourself, am I being inclusive in my spiritual practice? 

As a final note, I just wanted to add that the University of Birmingham published an article stating that there is no evidence that creating gender neutral spaces increases levels of sexual violence against women and children. So when someone uses that argument to justify having women circles only, think about what hidden agenda might behind this. 

PS: I am not denying that it is important for victims of sexual abuse to have safe spaces, which might involve it being female only spaces. That is an entirely different topic that I care about tremendously.

n this episode I talk about two aspects of what I call the cloud of unknowing.

The first aspect regards how we are blinded by our beliefs. The second one talks about embracing the unknown. So let’s dive in.

Our minds and our thoughts are powerful. We might not realise but our beliefs can literally shape our lives, even though our minds have espoused beliefs through experience. It all boils down to how our mind works, particularly the part of our brain called the amygdala and the hippocampus. The hippocampus helps us to make sense of our experiences by clumping memories into clusters that over time create our belief system. It’s actually really important because it helps us filter information to both keep us safe but also to avoid us being overwhelmed as we cannot process all the information around us. So our beliefs act as filters, only letting in what is useful to us and what fits with our vision of the world.

This is a beautiful and helpful process for as long as we hold beliefs that are helpful. But most of us hold unhelpful beliefs. And the first step to getting rid of those unhelpful beliefs is to understand that the concept of truth is relative and that it does not matter if something is true when it comes to our wellbeing. We have more control over our happiness than we think we do. I share how what happened to me last week illustrates that beautifully in the episode.

A belief is only a thought that you think is true. Once you take the truth component out of it, you can actually become an active agent in your own thinking. The more important question is how does this belief make me feel and if it makes me feel bad, how would I like to feel instead?

The second part of the episode asks us to embrace the unknown by seeing it as the space holder for infinite possibilities rather than as the driver for anxiety. And I invite the listeners to ask themselves out loud: “what if there was no problem?” or if that’s too hard “what is there was a solution?”.

I end the episode with the first live guided meditation on the podcast that invites you to lean into what I call the Fog. To listen to the episode, click here. To work with me head over to the home page of this website to read about the different options, or book a discovery call with me with this link.

Einstein supposedly said "There are two ways to live. One as if nothing is a miracle. The other as if everything is a miracle."

I used to live in the first way but now aim to live the second way. It's been helped by the fact that I have experienced miracles first hand. What are miracles, though? The Oxford Dictionary says a miracle is "an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific law and is therefore attributed to a divine agency."

I want to live a life of wonder but I also want to create a space for miracles to exist without people having God crammed down their throats when they share what happened to them. If you a religious and a miracle strengthens your faith, fine. I am happy for you. I just think that the spiritual and religious spaces are not inclusive enough of people who don't buy into God. People who don't believe in God and who ae not religious should be allowed miracles too. 

I have identified different types of miracles: 

The miracle of life

The miracle of healing

The miracle of love

The miracle of the mind

The miracle of near death experiences

If you want to sign up for the next round of the Treasure Hunt that starts on the 9th of September 2024 click here. http://eepurl.com/ghyJAf

Divine timing is the idea that you are exactly where you should be and that everything happens in your life exactly at the right time. I cannot tell you the number that me and my friends have ranted about divine timing and how frustrating it is. It's not even funny. I suppose we have all been in very challenging circumstances and being told about divine timing when you are going through this can be really counterproductive and even a form of gas lighting.

The last thing I want to do is gas light people, so take the content of this episode with a pinch of salt. I also want to say that we can talk about divine timing even if we are not religious. We can replace the concept of God by Source, the Universe and even Life.

There is a risk when you discover the concept of divine timing to leave all of it to the Universe and sit on your sofa waiting for things to happen. Don't let that happen to you. Divine timing does not cancel out your part to play in creating the life that you want. It is however, a buffer that prevents things from happening when the timing is off. I share some examples of this on the podcast. If something does not happen that you have worked really hard towards, don't be disheartened. Sometimes it's a no, but more often than not, it's a "not yet". I call it delayed, not denied.

One way to find out if you are on track is to look for signs. If that is something you feel you might need support with, it's not too late to sign up for my Treasure Hunt.

Our frustration with divine timing often comes from not being able to see the bigger picture and because of that, not being aware that what we want, might not necessarily be what we need right now or we might not be ready for it. We all live with a level of denial about what we are ready for. There is often a gap. As well, when we doubt we can delay matters because we block the flow. This has to be one of the most frustrating aspects of the manifesting process, which I touched upon in episode 32. But more often than not, divine timing protect against something that we want but that could actually be detrimental to us.

When we become serious about our spiritual path, we relinquish human timing (not always consciously) and invite divine timing into our lives. Then we have to relinquish control and how things are going to look like and unfold. We need to let go of our need to fit into society and appear as the "productive" members of society that our culture value above all, in complete contradiction with true spiritual values. There can literally be a before and after, because all too often, our values are skewed. This is the reason why, people like Steve Jobs often meditate by imagining they only have a day to live. That can really reset our priorities in ways that nothing else can.

To book an private akashic records reading with me (as opposed to a business one), sign up for my newsletter as I only share the reduced fee with my list.

At the end of the episode, I pulled a card from my True Spirituality Oracle Deck to set our collective priority for the next seven days.

I am honoured to have my first representative of the clergy on the podcast to talk about mystical experiences, which will surprise some of you. Rev. Stephanie Bradbury is an interim priest at the St Andrews Episcopal Church in Ayer, Massachusetts. She also speaks at the International Association for Near Death Studies. Although Stephanie has not had a near death experience (NDE) herself, she had a spiritually transformative experience (STE) as a student at University.

Stephanie could be called a progressive priest, as for example, she uses pronouns next to her name. Historically, religion has not treated the LGBTQIA well, but it seems that things are changing.

Stephanie has been a priest for 28 years. Her church, the Episcopal Church in America, is fairly progressive. Women have been ordained in that Church since 1976. Christianity is a varied landscape with millions of people believing different things, but it is often the more vocal ones that dominate the scene. And Christianity is immersed in a culture that does not believe in the transcendent. And that has filtered through the church: the idea that if it can't be detected through our senses, then it doesn't exist. Which is ironic because the scriptures are jam packed with descriptions of transcendent experiences. It's all in there. And these experiences are hard to take seriously because for the clergy, the rest of their lives is bathed in this materialism and they are told again and again that these experiences do not exist.

Stephanie had the honour to counsel quite a few people who had near death experiences and other spiritually transformative experiences in her ministry. People who were told that these experiences were of the devil and who were told they would be going to hell. Or they were dismissed with words such as "I am sure you believe that". The average person on the street would say that too.

It's sad because for most people who have spiritually transformative experiences, their first port of call is the Church and to be told this, is damaging. That's where they look for answers and the answers are not there. At least, not in most churches. But things are changing.

It's hard for clergy too, but more and more Stephanie meets clergy that resonate with her approach. And some are afraid to lose their jobs. Even if a system is benevolent, it's hard to buck the system. Part of Stephanie's calling is to support clergy through this too. When she had her own experiences, she nearly walked away from the church until she was able to see the scriptures through new eyes. She saw that it was all there and now offers a blog about her views called Jesus and the Enchanted Cosmos on Substack.

Stephanie and I talked about how religion can become words and an intellectual exercise rather than something felt from the heart. It's a little bit like snow. If you have never experienced snow, I can describe it to you but you will never feel what snow feels like. That's what has happened with all the transcendent experiences described in the Bible. People hear them but lack the first hand experience of them.

Tarot is not the only means of getting guidance. Today I would like to address the bigger issue of how to get the best spiritual guidance. The short answer to that question is that you will only get the best guidance the day you realise that the Universe does not play favourites and that you need to realise that someone else's feelings and interests are no more or less important than yours.

This is hard to stomach, especially if you have been hurt by that person. I know what I am talking about.

In order to get the best spiritual guidance, you need to be ready to hear what you need to hear as opposed to what you want to hear. The best spiritual guidance is rarely what you want to hear. It is often what we need to hear. These can be two entirely different things. The best spiritual guidance comes from an eagle view into the situation. Most people are not ready to hear it.

How can you get ready to hear it?

First you need to understand how the mind works. You also need to learn about ego. Everyone gets defensive when they feel criticised or attacked. It's perfectly normal. And you need to learn to "bite your tongue" when you are in that space because it is your ego that is likely to answer and you may regret what you say later, when you don't feel so threatened.

Second, you need to learn to listen for the sake of listening, instead of listening to find out when you can say your piece. You need to listen to the other person with the goal to understand the other person's perspective. This is called active listening. I think it should be taught in school. There is one exception to this advice: if you are being abused or are in danger. Then your priority is not to listen but to take yourself to a place of safety. Domestic abuse, bullying and violence are no joke. Don't listen to your abuser, your bully or your attacker. It's obvious advice but I feel the need to say this, just in case someone misconstrues my words or takes them out of context.

Third, understand that beliefs are thoughts we believe are true. They are not necessarily THE truth. They are a truth. And they can be changed if they don't serve the version of reality that you would like to espouse (again, do not take my words as incitement to live in denial). We all live in some level of denial.

Fourth, know that your ego lies to you constantly, to "protect you".

Fifth, recognise your wounds and scars so that you can take responsibility for your triggers.

I share two examples of true spiritual guidance that was gifted to me by psychic mediums in the episode and I encourage you to listen to it to find out about them.

Where can you get this guidance from? Some psychic mediums, although remember that they can only impart guidance to their own level of wisdom or slightly higher, but not much. They two can be blinded by their own beliefs. I remember a psychic telling me how lovely my second husband was and what a good man he was, when it turned out he abused me repeatedly and I was not safe in that relationship. Not ideal.

Ultimately, run that guidance through your own intuition, unless of course that guidance came directly from your intuition. Be warned, though, that your ego is incredibly clever and it can pretend to be your intuition. It is a master of disguise.

Last, let go of the idea of vengeance. We do not want vigilantes. Leave that to the legal system or divine justice. And if, sadly, you are in an abusive relationship of any nature, with a parent, child, boss, friend or partner, I invite you to watch videos by Dr Ramani on YouTube.

If you would like a reading with me, I am offering all podcast listeners a 50% discount on my half hour sessions, if they have never worked with me. To hear the discount code, listen to the episode, then use this link to book your session.

In this tarot series, we first looked at whether the tarot is evil or dangerous, then we looked at how to get the best tarot reading with a professional and we are now going to dive into what you need to know to do a reading for yourself, starting with choosing your first deck. Look at it as a tarot for beginners crash course.

Tarot decks always have 78 cards. If you buy a deck that has less cards, it's an oracle deck, which I will cover in a different episode. These cards are split in two groups: The major arcana and the minor arcana. There are 22 major arcana that usually follow the same pattern, starting with the fool (card 0) and ending with the World (Card 21). Major arcanas usually have their number and name on them, particularly in the Rider-Waite deck, which is the gold standard for learning.

How to choose your deck? I would recommend you choose it intuitively. Yet, at the same time, I recommend the Rider-Waite for learning. So maybe have two decks. My favourite deck is the Light Seer's Deck because it is more inclusive because the Rider-Waite is white washed and heteronormative.

Once you receive your deck, you need to both cleanse it and dedicate it. I describe in the episode how to cleanse your deck with the sun. There are of course many different methods that are available on the internet. A lot of them involve crystals or smudging sticks. I prefer to keep things simple but if you want to use your crystals or incense, knock yourself out.

Dedication: why is that important? It will set the tone for the kind of guidance you receive. Some people like to have their arse kicked, others prefer gentle guidance. I like my guidance to be uplifting, useful and inspiring. Take a little time to reflect on what you want.

There are two ways to read the tarot: if you read cards literally, you don't need to be clairvoyant to do so. This means that everybody can read the cards for themselves, psychic or not. I think it's a good thing.

In the episode I teach you one way to use your deck to get yes/no answers with just one card. I would rather you listen to the episode to hear all my instructions as there many parts to it but if you are in a rush, you pull one card. It is upright, it's a yes. If it is reversed, it's a no.

At the end of the day, the power of tarot cards lie in their symbology, mostly what things mean to you. Because of this, I encourage you to sign up for my Treasure Hunt where you will learn how to find and interpret signs. Plus if you are an entrepreneur, particularly in the online service industry, I will share how to start thinking about a powerful three or five day challenge you could run. Here is the link to sign up.

Last, here are the top five mistakes people do when they read the tarot so you can try to avoid them:

1. Doing a reading when you feel low or vulnerable
2. Using your deck in a space that is not safe
3. Asking the same question until you get the answer that you want
4. Asking the wrong question
5. Think the answer you get is set in stone

I can teach you the tarot one to one if you want for £199 a month (at the time of the recording of this episode). If you would like to find out more, book a discovery call with me with this link. Making sure you learn with the right mentor is incredibly important so let's chat.

Before we get into the meat of today's episode, I have a special announcement: The Treasure Hunt is back. Sign up with this link to receive the link to the group where I run it. If you read these show notes or listen to the episode after June 2024, don't worry, you can still sign up for the next round. I run my treasure hunt several times a year. 

Last week, we established that tarot is not evil. This week, I want to help you make the most of a reading with a tarot reader. This advice applies to all kind of intuitive or psychic readers, though, not just tarot readers. 

There are four steps to getting the best tarot reading for you:

Step 1: Choose your reader carefully

If you are going to a reader, you are likely to be in a vulnerable state, make sure you are going to someone who is ethical, has values that match yours, and preferably who is recommended. The later is not always possible, nor is it a guarantee that this reader is right for you. Use discernment. In the episode, I also list the red flags that should make you very cautious about a reader. 

Step 2: Prepare for the reading

Do some journaling, or at least reflect on where you are in life and what you want out of that reading. Ask yourself, how you want to feel by the end of the reading. And have a goal. Prepare some questions and reflect on the quality of the questions you have written down. Try to choose open questions such as how, why, when or what, rather than yes or no questions. 

Step 3: The reading itself

The advice for the actual reading is to make sure you are in a good headspace. If you can, don't fit your reading in a busy day so that you have time before and after to ground yourself and process what you have been told. Ask ahead of time to receive guidance from the deepest of love, the highest of intention and the highest of good. It's important. Also, don't freak out if you get the death card. Let your reader tell you what they think it means, even if you read the tarot yourself. 

Step 4: After the reading (preferably right after)

Take some time to unpack, decide what feels right for you and what doesn't, using your intuition and plan so you can act on the reading. But also, remember that there is nothing wrong with getting a second opinion AND it's always YOUR decision. It's your life. Don't put your life in the hands of a stranger, no matter how much you trust or admire them. Most readings will confirm something you already know. 

If you would like a reading with me, my business rates are £300 per hour at the time of this episode. To book click here. If you want a personal reading, I have a special rate that is three times cheaper, but only people who are signed up to my general list can book for personal readings. 

There is a lot of things that religious people find evil and tarot is definitely one of them. The question I want to explore is: are they right? This is the first of a series of episodes on the tarot as I would like to share the wisdom I have acquired about the tarot in the eighteen years that I have been studying and practising as a professional tarot reader.

I started the episode by sharing some definitions of evil and of tarot. I want you to know that as far as I am concerned, people who use the word evil make me edgy. The word makes me edgy. It is linked to immorality and wickedness, but even those two concepts are fluid and mean completely different things to different people. Plus over time, the concept of those things have changed. A hundred years ago, it was considered immoral to be in a same sex relationship. By whose standards? Homosexuality was a crime in Europe. The same people who condemned the LGBT community as perverse had been torturing and killing people for thousands of years in the name of God. Just a little double standard here.

In that time, did the tarot kill or torture anyone? Of course not. This being said, I see the tarot as a tool, not unlike knives. It can harm people, either the reader or the querent, if not used properly, so it should always be used with caution.

In the episode, I also explore the origins of tarot and mention a booked called The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, specifically chapter five of that book. It puts the whole original of tarot in an entirely different context and actually explains why the Catholic Church, which, at the time of the Inquisition, was trying to establish its authority over the Church of Amor and was ready to do anything to take over the ultimate power. That is why it condemned the tarot as heretic. I am sure you will find what I share in the episode fascinating.

I then go on to share the seven biggest myths around the tarot, which I will list here briefly:

1. You can only be given a deck of tarot, and should not buy your own
2. You have to be psychic to read the tarot
3. You must never read for yourself
4. Tarot is evil
5. If you charge of your readings, you get bad karma
6. Tarot tells you about your future
7. You should not have more than one reading per year

I expand on each of these myths, so that you understand what is false and what is true, because there are a lot of false information circulating about the tarot. I trained both with a local psychic medium who was a professional tarot reader and the Tarot School of New York. I even taught classes for people who wanted to learn the tarot, in person for a year. I now offer one to one online tuitions within my Get it Done package, for £199 a month (price valid at the time of the recording of this episode and subject to change). It's both a series of training videos plus me mentoring you as you learn and answering all of your questions. To secure your package, use this link.

Nimisha's story of how she came to be a mindfulness teacher is memorable. About ten years ago, she was not able to perform her job as a surgeon, due to not being able to enter the operating theatre. She felt physically sick when she approached it. Her boss forced her to take some time off and had her go through a battery of tests to find out what was going on. They found nothing wrong with her body.

But she often had friends and family comment on how high strung she was. She thought it was a good thing as it allowed her to be at the top of her game as a surgeon, until it wasn't. Friends suggested yoga, but she refused. She wasn't prepared to change her personality to make other people comfortable. She liked who she was. She needed that edge to be a good surgeon.

At the end of the two week vacation she took to get better, she finally gave in to her husband's suggestion to try meditation because she wasn't getting any better. She took medication for her upset tummy, but it wasn't working. She had cut off tea and coffee, which was huge for her as she would drink an average seven to eight cups a day, so trying meditation felt easy. Besides, at that point, she was ready to try anything because she loved her work and wanted to get back to it.

It is at that point that she came across a book called 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story, by Dan Harris. And she thought, why not. Who doesn't want to be happier. She also liked that the promise of the book was not grandiose. The author was also a high strung person, which appealed to Nimisha, even though he was an American white male and she was an Indian brown woman. She could relate to the war reporter in him in ways she could never relate to people wearing white robes with serene smiles. What happened next was miraculous. She was able to go back to the operating theatre and resume her former life.

At that point in her life, she called her practice meditation. She had an app and would religiously get on with her meditation daily. But as she slipped back into her life, she became complacent and her practice slipped. Her family noticed right away as she was cranky on days she did not meditate. Even her mother, who was raised a Roman Catholic and who is afraid of the idea of meditation, noticed.

And then there was to be a part two to her journey when she became a mother and started to struggle with issues of anger. Sadly, the meditation did not seem to help because she hadn't accepted yet that all emotions are welcome. She was resisting the anger. She just wanted the joy of being a mum. That is when she shifted from meditation to mindfulness and radical acceptance.

Non judgment became a big part of her new practice.

To find out more about her, head over to her website. Find her on Instagram. To download her free mindfulness journal, click here.

The most prominent teacher of the Law of Attraction is Esther Hicks, who channels a collective of souls called Abraham. When I first came across her book, Ask and It Is Given, I could not go past chapter one. It went against so many of the beliefs I had been taught by my parents that I could not digest its content. It actually took me years to go past chapter one. I would try, fail and put the book down. Then try again, fail again, and put the book down again. And then one day, years after my first attempt (and possibly as long as ten years after that first attempt), I was ready. I read the whole book.

One of the reasons I could not go past chapter one is that it starts, straight off the bat, with the following words "We are called Abraham and we are speaking to you from the non physical dimension". I had been to several psychics for readings at that point, and some had passed on messages from my grand mother and grand father, but somehow this was one step further on the bizarre experience and I could not seem to go past past.

The principles I was raised with were: Work hard, stay disciplined and be patient. It went further than that. As a child, I was discouraged from asking what I wanted by a mother who almost as soon as I asked for something made sure I understood that it was the best way not to get it. So I learnt never to ask for what I wanted. Throw in a couple of birthdays where I didn't get what I wanted and my belief that I should not bother to ask for what I want, and just be grateful for what I have was cemented. I was definitely never exposed to the idea that I create my own reality. Ever.

Here are my nine steps to manifesting:

1. Be clear on what you want

2. Identify the fears you have around what you want

3. Clear the fears you have identified in step 2

4. Have a plan to get what you want and take action

5. Revise the plan on a regular basis

6. Be realistic

7. Surround yourself with supportive people

8. Acknowledge the smallest successes along the way

9. Never compare yourself to anyone else

This sounds simple in theory but it is a lot more difficult to implement so head over to the podcast to actually listen to the episode as I share example and tips for each of these steps. In the podcast, I also unpack a little bit how we all start at different points so it's important to acknowledge that and to extend a helping hand to people who don't have as much privilege as we do. I also mention my True Prosperity course on Thinkific. If you want to find out more about it, click here.

In this episode, I attempt to define the various spiritual beings that you might come across when you reach out to the spiritual world. I have listed eight of them, in no particular order. They are often confused even by some of the most famous spiritual teachers.

1. Spirit guides
2. Elementals
3. Ascended Masters
4. Celestial beings
5. Power animals
6. Entities
7. Ancestors
8. Our higher selves

I just realised that I forgot to talk about magical beings so I may talk about them in a separate episode or bring someone in who specialises in them. I think that is why I haven't covered them in this episode. But also this is just an introduction to the spiritual world.

What is important to realise is that all these beings, save perhaps Ascended Masters are not necessarily of the highest of intents, so you should always be discerning about who you team up with or work with. As you listen to the episode, I also want you to know that what I am talking about is my understanding of these beings, but that this might not feel right for you. So by all means, follow what feels right for you and understand that this could be because you are not ready for what I am teaching, but also that we may never fully agree and that's ok too.

How do you work with these beings? The same way you work with angels, so go back and listen to episode 47 if you have not listened to it already. There is a difference though: these beings have free will of their own.

One of the dangers of working with spiritual beings is the natural tendency to hand our power over to them because they are wiser. This is dangerous for two reasons. First, you have a wisdom of your own that you can access through your intuition and your higher self. Second, you are the one living your life on earth and you chose to live this life so you can make your own decisions. A CEO does not delegate all decisions to experts and consultants, he/she asks them for guidance then they make their own decisions.

I also want you to know that you don't need to be psychic to work with guides and spiritual beings. I explain how this can happen without you even knowing that it is happening and it's nothing to be scared about. They might show you signs or plant ideas in your mind directly. It's really fascinating. I personally don't think I have any truly genius ideas of my own. I know my guides plant a lot of them in my mind and I am so grateful for that.

I also want you to know that just because someone is dead does not mean they are wise, so be discerning when you work with guides or your own loved ones in heaven. They might have access to higher wisdom but they might still have limiting beliefs and unhelpful ways to look at the world. Always be discerning.

If you would like me to help you connect to your guides or know who they are, why not work with me. Find out on my website www.angedelumiere.biz what services I have available and feel free to book a discovery call with me to discuss the options.

Messianism is the belief in the advent of a Messiah who acts as a savior of a group of people. It is at the core of Christianity, the Messiah being Jesus Christ.

You may say that this idea does not apply to you because you are not religious but if the dominant culture of the country you were born in rests on Messianism, then it is likely that it forms part of your core beliefs, albeit unconscious. It's likely to have seeped into books, films and songs and having shaped your thinking, even if you are not aware of it. 

In the episode I share an example of how my mother, even though she is an atheist, believed that I would go to hell because she has internalized one of those beliefs. 

Why is Messianism problematic? First, because it usually claims that only the people who adhere to that religion will be saved by their Messiah, which is problematic in itself. But also because it relies on the principle that humans need to be saved and personally I think it strips them of personal responsibility. It also carries the idea that there is something intrinsically wrong with us, and I find that toxic. Don’t get me wrong, living in the illusion that we are perfect is equally as toxic. What’s wrong with just being human and radically accepting ourselves as we are? 

Messianism is present in most traditional religions. We have already talked about Christianity, but it can also be found in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and even Taoism. 

Look around and you can also see, if you live in the Western world that our culture has a cult for superheroes, and yet these superheroes often carry a message of toxic masculinity, a justification for violence and a binary vision of the world where there are the good and the bad people. Or good or bad things happening, and of course the person who defines good or bad is usually from the dominant culture. 

Modern psychologists have recognized the unhealthy pattern at play, so much so that they have coined a complex around it: the Messiah complex. In a milder form, it presents as the White Knight Complex, but not less toxic. The reason I feel we need to be very careful around these ideas is that they pave the way for both authoritarianism and domestic abuse. 

To join the discussion in my group, click here https://www.facebook.com/groups/461328731985193 

I have been a big fan of Feng Shui since the year 2000, due to a mind blowing personal experience with it. For this reason, I wanted to do an episode about it on the show. The reason I am doing it now is because I followed the signs and it seemed to be popping up a lot in my world. I do a form of space clearing, but I no longer call it Feng Shui for many reasons that will become apparent in the episode but that has to do with the fact I have never trained in it. I was tempted, but didn't.

What is Feng Shui? It's an ancient Chinese art that combines astronomical, astrological, architectural, cosmological, geographical and topological dimensions and that guides the placement of buildings, objects and spaces to achieve harmony and balance. I have known Japanese and Vietnamese Feng Shui Masters too. It makes sense as it roots into early Taoism.

The signs I mentioned above started with Nick Stokes, in the TV series CSI commenting on room 114 being "the unluckiest room ever". Then me doing some research on how to support my house move and coming across a great article on how Feng Shui could support that.

The mind blowing experience I lived happened at a time where every aspect of my life felt like a sh*t show: my work, my health and my marriage. It felt like I won the bad luck lottery. I hired a Vietnamese Feng Shui master who was recommended to me and in one session, he not only assessed what was wrong with my life without me saying a word to him, but gave me remedies that allowed me to put things right in only a few months. I love trying out things. If they work, I try again. If they don't, I drop them like a hot potato. This is how I have informed most of what I talk about when it comes to spirituality and religion.

In the episode, I talk about how important it is to honour the culture where Feng Shui has originated and not white wash it or massively culture appropriate it. I mention a woman who has not only done that but gone to the trouble of writing an infamous article where she recommends not to use a Chinese Feng Shui master if you live in the West. You can read it here. I hope it gives you the creeps as much as it has me. I rarely expose people but this women went out of her way to express her toxic beliefs, so she needs to be exposed. My podcast is here to shine a light on these practices.

I also go through the three areas of your life that would benefit from decluttering, a big part of the Feng Shui process, because there is no point using remedies if your home's energy is completely clogged up. I do, however, refer to a podcast episode from the Thriving Between The Lines by Leslie V and Meka where they highlight the toxicity of some aspects of the self development around decluttering towards marginalised groups. Scroll down to the ones they did about Marie Kondon. You won't be disappointed.

For emotional decluttering, I mentioned Brad Yates' EFT videos on YouTube. And for mental decluttering, I mentioned Byron Katie's work. I can of course help you with all these processes, including doing a house cleanse, but before we discuss this, why not join my brand new community to have a conversation about this episode. Click here to join.

Emma Turton is a medical intuitive with a health professional background and the founder of the Medical Intuition School, a pioneer space where science meets spirituality. I have interviewed Emma Turton many times, in particular for the True Spirituality Summit in July 2023.

In this interview, however, she answered questions I had never asked her before. We started off with her spiritual beliefs, which she articulated in a great deal of nuance, all leaning towards inclusivity.

I asked her what propelled her on the path she is on and she shared the first experience that she could not explain with her scientific background: when she knew her fiance had cancer without knowing how she knew. She was brave enough to tell him and nag him until he had himself checked by a doctor. His form of cancer is not one that is usually detected until it is "too late", so even the medical community who supported their journey was surprised at what was happening. Emma, even though to humble to brag about, literally saved his life. Although not discussed in the interview itself, I also know that she saved her father's life too.

And yet, after such a glorious example of medical intuition in action, she worked very hard to forget as much about it as she could because she did not have the framework to work around it. I can relate to that, as I experienced the same thing. As a lawyer, I was not equipped to deal with the power of intuition and resisted it for many years.

I asked Emma what would she say to someone who has been told that their illness is a punishment for something they have done in this life or a past life. Her answer was exactly what I expected: reassuring yet shining a light on the toxicity of some spiritual beliefs such as karma, when misunderstood.

We discussed which is more important on our healing journey: nutrition or emotion, which Emma is qualified to discuss as her background is in physiotherapy and nutrition. We also discussed the illnesses that spiritual people are more likely to face. Along the way, we also touched upon the very real belief that old age means illness and how that can set expectations that work against our health and wellbeing.

We, of course, also discussed how her Medical Intuition School can support you either in your personal health journey or if you want to become a medical intuitive, which can be done regardless of whether you have a medical background or not, or if you are psychic or not. To find out more about Emma, check her Instagram account, her Facebook page, her YouTube channel and her website.

You may say right away, of course it’s the right thing to do to help. And you would not be alone in thinking this. I am here to share with you that things are a lot more nuanced than that.

Of course selfishness is to be discouraged, if we are to have a kind society.

There are countless articles that list the benefits to you in helping others. There is a part of me that wonders why do they have to list benefits for you to want to help others, but I am not going to make a huge issue out of this.

What I have issues with is people helping others for the wrong reasons OR in the wrong way. And this week’s podcast episode is about that, but also about giving you guidelines and pointers as to what non-toxic help can look like. Having myself been both on the giving and and the receiving end of help, I want to highlight that it is a lot easier to give help than to receive it. This may sound counterintuitive but we, in the Western world live in a society where we are raised to be independent, so actually needing help is already coated in shame. And that is why most people don’t ask for help. But that could be a topic for an entire separate episode.

I have issues with people who help others to make themselves feel better or look better. And there a lot more people who do this than you might actually realise. Or they help with a sense of superiority that fills a need in them to appear better.

Help needs to come from a place of authenticity and needs to come without strings attached. It’s not a bank transaction. If it’s done for the wrong reason it can be incredibly toxic, especially if the helper then believes that the person they have helped owes them something, or they see their help as validation to give unsolicited advice or maybe even impose conditions on the help. It can then become incredibly manipulative. And then it can even become an act of disempowerment.

But even if you did none of that, it’s not enough. Your intentions, even though they might be good, are not enough. You need to make sure your help is appropriate. If you want to help marginalised groups, then you need to do better than that. You need to become a better ally. In order to do that, you need to question your motives, unpack your privilege and prejudices, take responsibility for your mistakes and be proactive in your own education. Help can also be disempowering when you are assuming that a person is not capable to do something for themselves. Here is a link to the video from the Down syndrome association that I mention in the podcast.

Last but not least, learn about the Drama Triangle and always check where you stand on that triangle when you are faced with a situation where you need help or you are asked to help. You can find out more about it here.

I am going to say it upfront: the spiritual mantra that you need to meditate in order to be spiritual or progress is rehashed ad nauseam to the point that it tastes like gum you have chewed all the flavour out of. It is also incredibly elitist and it can be an ego trap.

So, yes it can be beneficial to meditate, for some.

And yes, it can help you progress on your spiritual path.

But no, it’s not the only way. And for some people, especially those of us who suffer from anxiety, depression or PTSD, it can actually be harmful.

In this episode, I talk about the dark side of meditation: yes there are some risks, both for the mind but also for your physical health. So I want to call out all those meditation teachers who rave about the benefits of meditation and ask them to be a little more nuanced about meditation. Nothing is only positive and beneficial.

Also, for someone who works two jobs to pay their bills, when will they have the time or space to meditate? Elitist much? Plus, it’s a mega ego trap. So beware.

I am not against meditation. I started off my spiritual journey taking a zazen meditation class in 1999. I am just saying there is not just one way to calm the mind and connect to your inner self. And in this episode, I list twelve activities you can engage in that will bring similar benefits. But before you do any of these, if your goal is to quiet the mind, then your first need to understand the mind. You need to know that you are not your thoughts. You need to know that the quality of your thoughts has a direct impact on your emotions and thus behaviour but also your health. And you need to know that you can choose which thoughts you want to give mileage to. It can take practice to get there, but it’s entirely worth the effort.

People who tell you to meditate without educating you as to how your mind works are dangerous. And given how many narcissists cruise in the spiritual waters (yes, like sharks), I want you to enter the meditation waters with eyes wide open. Meditation classes have also been known grooming grounds for cults. And it’s not that I want you to be paranoid. Just prepared.

This week marked the tenth anniversary of my father's death. Some of you might consider this morbid, but actually to me, it's very special. I asked my dad if he wanted me to mark the event with some sort of celebration and he said yes and asked if I could run my treasure hunt, which I am. He has given me so many signs, it's unbelievable almost. And my treasure hunt is here to help people understand signs, their power and their meaning. We have been having so much fun, in the FB pop up group and it's not too late to join. If you want to do so, click this link. If you are reading these show notes after the 14th of March 2024, don't worry. I should be running the treasure hunt again in June, so you will be informed of the new dates when they are available, if you do.

The purpose of the treasure hunt is to bring fun into your life. There will be three chances for you to win a half hour session with me. As long as you complete the tasks before the 14th of March. My dad was a devout Catholic man who did not believe into any of my nonsense when he walked the earth. When he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, he put 100% of his faith into his doctors. And when they gave him the all clear in the summer 2013, he gave them credit exclusively and even went out of his way to have my mum send me an email to tell me it had nothing to do with the reiki I sent him.

When he was first diagnosed in 2008, I didn't know if my belief in the afterlife would help the grieving process. I had trained in reiki the year before as well as mediumship. When I realised that he wasn't interesting in support through his illness, I signed up to train with the Penny Brohn Cancer Care, who are Bristol based. It turned out to be an incredible blessing for me and I was able to support two ladies through their cancer journeys.

In September 2013, the tumour returned with a vengeance and the chemotherapy wasn't able to treat it. It was inoperable so the inevitable happened. Dad declined. He started needing a wheelchair. He eventually died on the 6th of March 2014. On the day of his death, I saw him ascend, happy and content. He later communicated with me through a medium and shared how angry he was with the Catholic Church for perpetuating so many lies of what true spirituality is, so I guess he is now very happy with the work that I do.

Our joint memoir is available for sale in my online shop. Click here to purchase it.

"When I find myself in trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be..."

Famous lines. I certainly heard them over and over again and yet, it is only when I fully embraced my spiritual journey that I started to understand their true meaning. I guess the first way that this was put in motion is when I learnt about karma. If the Big U was in charge of keeping scores, then it was no longer my job. What a relief! I no longer had to get outraged every time I thought someone did something wrong.

Mel Robbins reminded me of the importance of letting go as I was listening to her being interviewed on the Diary of a CEO. She shared that one of the pivotal moment for her was when her daughter had said those three simple words "let it be", as Mel was getting all worked up about the details of her son's prom.

This led me to remember the Serenity Prayer "God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference". What a profound prayer.

In my experience, the only thing you can change is YOU. You can't change other people. You can't control the economy. You can't control the climate. You can't control outcomes. You can't control how people react to you and what you do. Lean into the wisdom that the only person you can change is yourself and start doing something about this now.

This, of course, has to be balanced with the fact that we need to get things done, so how do we do that? First by knowing that is down to you and what isn't. I have been listening to the audio of Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets and one thing that stayed with me from her book, is the idea that you cannot measure whether a decision is right or wrong by its outcome. It has to be measured by the process that led you to make that decision. For me, that was a revolution. I had beaten myself up with all my failures in life and in business, but if I used Annie's lens to analyse my decisions, I have a pretty sound decision making process. What I failed to understand is that I was never in control of the outcome. And that is my biggest learning curve right now.

Letting go of control was not easy for me. As a former lawyer, I guess I have been used to see an equation that went like this: I want A, so if I do B then C will happen - C being, I get what I want. It worked during my studies and for most of my career. It involved hard work. Once I was serious about embracing my spiritual path, it was like the whole system was put on its head. What I wanted no longer matter. I got what I needed. And believe me, there is a massive difference between the two.

I lose my job whilst pregnant from a boyfriend who did not want a child, and I was already a single mum of two. I had no chance of finding another job as a lawyer where I lived because I was pregnant (although apparently there are a few enlightened employers who do hire pregnant women) but more importantly I was not qualified to practice law in the country I lived in. I might have had a small chance in London but I had moved to Bristol, where there is not much international recruitment going on. In addition to that, I was going through a constructive dismissal process. If you don't know, don't bother finding out. It will stress you out. My entire family and my friends lived in another country and I had no friends in Bristol because I had recently moved there. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty serious stacking of odds against me. Call it a massive spiritual exam.

I had to let go. I had no other options. I had no answers. No certainty. I had to learn to control the only thing I could: my own thoughts. Talk about being thrown into the deep end of the pool. I love what my second spiritual mentor told me almost ten years later: "You were not tested. You were trusted." Which is another way to say that the Universe never presents you any challenge that you cannot deal with. Thank you for trusting me so much Universe.

Don't forget to join us for the Spiritual Treasure Hunt on the 4th of March (2024) by clicking on this link.

Chantal Vanderhaeghen is a Mind Body Spirit Therapist, who has been writing a memoir called Deep Dive for the past year, and who I wanted to interview on the show because she has much wisdom to share with the world when it comes to embodied spirituality.

Chantal and I have known each other for years and I admire her courage at sharing her story, which is something that took a long time for her to do, as sadly it was cloaked in shame. Now in her sixties, she is a beacon of wisdom and joy for all to listen to and she specialises in supporting people who have been Hurt, Not Heard.

Unlike a lot of people operating in the spiritual space, Chantal has solid training in counselling and goes through supervision, which means that she is a safer person to work with than most people, as she is trained in identifying what is hers and what is not. This is a critical aptitude for space holders.

In this episode, I ask Chantal if she considers herself spiritual and her answer is both delightful and informative. She did not consider herself spiritual for a long time, but aspired to be. However, by understanding what it truly means to be spiritual, she then changed her own understanding of what it meant for her. Yet, for years, she was seduced by the voices of spiritual teachers who claimed to operate from a higher level and almost promised to be freed from the heaviness of the body. She has come back from that journey with profound wisdom on how spirituality without embodiment is just a trap for the ego.

A pivotal moment on her journey was her car accident which followed her father's death by only a few years. She suffered from Complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and only truly understood then the impact that her abusive childhood had on her. She wanted to badly to be out of her body, for multiple reasons, that she was seduced into the spiritual sirens of superiority, bypassing and toxic positivity.

Now that she is back from the brink of that world, she enjoys debunking myths around what it means to be spiritual and supporting people on their journey of healing from trauma. Chantal is running a three day challenge called Own Your Story in her Facebook community on the 18th of March (2024) followed by a Masterclass on the 25th of March called Release the Shame to Shine. To sign up for these events, click here.

One of the things that helped me the most on my spiritual journey is signs. Signs are everywhere if we pay attention. In this week's podcast episode, I share with you the most common ways that the Universe helps guide you. 

There seven main kinds of signs that you can receive: 

1. Angel feathers
2. Sounds
3. The weather
4. Triple numbers
5. Car plates
6. Songs
7. Dreams

In the episode I share with you many examples from my own life but also how to understand the meaning of these signs by leaning into what is meaningful to you. A sign that will mean something to someone will probably not hit the mark with another person. You need to map out what I call your own symbology. 

For example, three planes is a sign that is very significant to my sister and I because it is the sign Dad gave us on the day he died to say that he had arrived safely. Only a few years later, he guided me to a walk by the Bournemouth seafront to the Red Arrow sculpture, that has three planes. This showed me that he was there for me and gave me immense comfort. 

Even as I wrote the notes for the episode, signs kept coming. I often use the shuffle option in my music player to get messages. So, I thought I would put that in action whilst I wrote the notes for the podcast and the song that came up was Connect, which has the following lyrics "If you make sure you are connected, the writing is on the wall". How clearer a sign that what I was writing about was right on the money can you get? Epic. 

The more you are aligned and in flow, the more of these synchronicities happen so I also gave you my top tip to raise your vibration in order to keep the signs coming. And just as I finished and went on Facebook to check on my message, a FB friend has posted the following words "Universe, I am ready. Show me how good it can get" This stuff blows my mind. You cannot make this stuff up.

I will be running my signature seven day spiritual treasure hunt on the 4th of March in my community called True Spirituality with Ange on FB. To join, us click this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/1270150046502922

I know this is going to be a controversial one, but today's podcast answers the question why do spiritual people lack a sense of humour? And why they should embrace it more. I did find Christian comedians, for example, they call themselves "clean" but in the bout of research I did (I watched quite a few videos) they did makes jokes but not one of their jokes was about God or Jesus. Why?

Whilst researching, I found what I consider a pretty hilarious anthology of George Carlin on religion that you can watch here.

For me, the explanation comes from history. Here is where Sting's song History Will Teach Us Nothing might have been wrong. If you look into canon law, which is religious law. In case you don't know it, it is taught in universities. In the UK there is even a canon law society. There is also an ecclesiastic law society in the UK. 

Anyway, looking back in time, blasphemy was an offence that was punishable by death. And even though this is no longer the case in the Western world, I am pretty sure it's a sin so you are told you will be going to hell for it. And for religious folks, that's serious. By the way, blasphemy also exist in Judaism and Islam and are taken equally as seriously if not worse. 

The first person to be condemned to sorcery was Roman and was sentenced to death in 386. The last one to be executed as a heretic was in 1626. It's not that far back in time. So my theory is that religious people do not laugh about religious matters because of fear. A fear that was handed down by their ancestors. 

And of course at the time, religious organisations established their power and control over their flock through fear. This is the sign of a cult, in my humble opinion, so something to ponder on. 

This lead me to research the purpose and benefits of humour, but also to find out that laughter can only happen in a safe environment. This was concluded by research done at the very reputable University of California by Christopher Oveis. 

What people who don't have a sense of humour are missing (my mother has no sense of humour whatsoever), is the power it has to free you from fear. Being able to see the funny side of things helps our resilience when facing what might otherwise be soul crushing challenges. The sadder the times in your life, the more important laughter is. 

I conclude episode sharing about a way you can laugh without ever having to be funny or hurting someone else and the six areas where comedy and spirituality intersect inspired by an article I found on Chopra.com. 

Dancing in the light and playing with the shadows used to be my catch phrase for years at the start of my spiritual journey. I was well aware that we all want to think that we are these luminous and loving being, but sadly, as humans, we have a shadow. You cannot have light without shadow on Earth. It's a fact.

A fact that a lot of spiritual folks deny or hide, because having a shadow is "unspiritual". However, in my opinion embracing your spirituality requires you to embrace your shadow. So what exactly is the shadow and who coined the term?

Carl Jung defined it as "the part of us that contains what lies dormant beneath the light of our awareness and contains unacceptable traits and feelings, but also our hidden gifts and talents." The man did not invent the concept, he just made it popular in the white western world, and probably borrowed it from shamanic communities that he came in contact with. 

As Joanna Penn mentions in her book Writing from the Shadow, it is not unnecessarily evil, illegal or immoral, although it can certainly be. But the truth is that we all have one. Even Gandhi often mentioned how imperfect he was and resisted the tendency of portraying him as a saint. 

That part is also sometimes labelled as the ego in spiritual circles, which is a different definition to the one espoused in psychology circles. Some spiritual people even claim that the death of the ego is the goal. I personally believe this to be a dangerous goal, as it is virtually impossible and when you do that, there is a risk that you start hiding parts of you that don't conform with this unrealistic ideal. Two things can then happen: you project it onto other people or it erupts like a volcano after being repressed for too long and you go into a rage. 

Of course this comes from the misunderstanding of what the ego is. Most people think the ego is that propensity that some people display to boast about themselves in an exaggerated manner. But the ego can pretend to be humble. It can make you manipulative. And it will usually try to convince you that the thing that you are doing that clashes with your values is justified because... fill in the gap. The ego is incredibly clever and persuasive. And if you don't understand how it works, it will play you. 

Even Jung defined enlightenment in relation to making the darkness conscious rather than imagining figures of light. But to paraphrase him, making the darkness conscious is vastly unpopular as it requires looking at things we do not want to look at and doing hard work. 

Feel free to head over to the show notes on my website www.angedelumiere.biz/podcast if you want to comment with your thoughts and experience so we can start a conversation going.

I wrote an article on Medium on how to be a better person in December last year where I talked mostly about being a better listener. It talked also about the prejudice we carry towards groups of people that maybe have been known to have conflict with your own.

In this episode, I go further than that and examine what we, as spiritual seekers, can do to stop some incredibly damaging practices that are commonly carried out by our peers and take a stance. I am talking mostly about cultural appropriation and white washing.

When I started my spiritual journey, these two topics were not talked about much. Because of that, I harmed marginalised groups without being aware of what I was doing, and although it is not an excuse, I want to forgive my younger self for what she has done. It is because of this that I feel the need to be vocal about this. And it was only last week that I saw a post on LinkedIn by Steve Barlett, sharing what happened in the Dragon's Den, which gave me the proof that these practices are still very much happening right here and right now.

As white spiritual people, it is our duty to educate ourselves into topics such a anti-racism, our own biases and beliefs but also the systemic discrimination that marginalised groups suffer at the hands of our institutions such as hospitals and the police for example. Did you know that black people are nine times more likely to be arrested and searched for suspected drug possession in the UK despite the fact that they are statistically less likely to be users than white people? These statistics come from the Institute of Race Relations. I knew that instinctively as a teen. What I did not know was that people of colour are prescribed less pain medication than their white counterparts by the NHS. This stems from remnants of beliefs from the European slavery days when white people considered people of colour as animals and pretended they could not feel pain, to ease their own conscience with how their slaves were treated.

Your beliefs are like the furniture in your house. You are so used to them that you hardly notice them anymore.

The other two topics we need to actively seek more information about are cultural appropriation and white washing. Cultural appropriation is taking a sacred object, ritual or food from a historically marginalised culture and making money out of it, turning it into a costume or using it without showing understanding or respect. The man who pitched the Dragon's Den last week did exactly that. He took a ceremony from a Guatemalan shaman around cacao ceremony, and is now making it the centre of his business by training people in cacao ceremonies (he has his own school) and selling the product in the UK. Other example of cultural appropriation are: dream catches, sage bundles, reiki, but also using the word chakra and desacralising yoga and turning it into mere exercise. Whole industries have been built on this and it time we stopped.

I am inviting you, actually scratch that, urging you to decolonise your spiritual practice now. You didn't know better but now you do. And please share this episode far and wide so we can collectively put an end to the damage we are doing to marginalised groups. Thank you.

Eleanor is an Intuitive Love Coach. Eleanor was raised by two parents who were spiritual seekers who became Buddhists in their 20s and her parents talked about things other parents did not talk about, such as past lives, enlightenment, meditation, compassion and all of those topics. But because there was a disconnect and her childhood household environment was volatile, she moved away from Buddhism and into New Age practices such as the use of tarot cards, crystals and other modalities. This led her to becoming a reiki teacher and a registered holistic nutritionist.

As she built her practice, though, the women who came to her with a health problem, invariably would end up talking about their intimate relationships. Either because they did not seem to be able to find love or they had all these issues in their romantic relationships. However, she resisted embracing this line of work until she felt she had sorted her own unhealthy patterns in relationships, which took her until 2018.

Part of the work is to find your true self, which ironically ties into Eleanor's childhood of observing her parents being disconnected and this led her to call her business Truly Eleanor. This is the starting point of the work she does with her clients, because as long as we are people pleasing, and we tend to do a lot of that in the courtship phase of dating, then we can't really meet the person that will be the right person for us.

Eleanor and I picked up the topic of twin flames, especially the Netflix documentary that I mentioned in Episode 10, and how disturbing this is because it rests on the false premise that your romantic partner is here to complete you, and even fix you, and that you are not complete on your own. But the concept of Twin Flames goes further than that. It rests on the premise that you must be pure to find your twin flame and that it is a privilege that only a few chosen people will experience. It brings in it the notion of elite, which actually speaks to the ego, which is ironically, is the opposite of what being spiritual is.

But what Eleanor warns us against, especially two weeks from Valentine's Day, is that this concept will lure you away from yourself in a sort of chase for the gold, like a love olympics of some sort, and then paradoxically, it will bring you down and make you feel worthless. You end up losing yourself in that process. You also start believing in a kind of fairy tale kind of love, that is supposed to be this exalted spiritual experience, but in reality, it does not exist. And it is easy to get manipulated into this movement because it is incredibly seductive. They are making you feel that you are superior to others. Who doesn't like that? Especially if you have a fractured sense of self, or you lack confidence.

To find true love, you need to be true to yourself and dig deeper into what you truly want. It's never going to be perfect, because perfection does not exist. The ego is welcome to come along for the ride, but it is not in the driving seat.

Asking yourself, how do I want to live my life and how do I want to feel with another person. It's a self discovery process and it's also a trial and error process. The clearer you will be on what you want, the more magnetic you will become. In order to stay authentic in the dating process, Eleanor recommends that instead of focusing on the person that you meet, you take your awareness back to you and ask yourself "How do I feel in the presence of that person?"

Eleanor and I talked about so much more though. I asked her questions about how do we know if we are ready to date again after a relationship breakup but also the top three red flags to pay attention to. To listen to the full interview, click here. You can find Eleanor on her website, on Facebook and Insight Timer.

I wrote an article on medium about this back in November  but wanted to expand on the topic. I realised the reason why I felt I needed to wait so long before doing the episode was probably my intuition as it turns out that someone whose work I admire a lot, Caroline Strawson, is literally running her first Rage Release Retreat as we speak to help victims of narcissists deal with their repressed anger. https://carolinestrawson.com/ 

For years, I never got angry and I believe, wrongly may I add, that it was because I was more evolved than other people. What I did not realise was that this wasn't at all what was happening. What was happening was that my nervous system had shut down and I was living in functional freeze. I even remember a dear friend of mine in my twenties asking me why on earth I was such a cool cucumber. I know better now. I had no space to express my anger as a child so I shut it down. My body was frozen. Interestingly, from a law of attraction perspective, I was surrounded by angry people. The anger vibe was deep seated in me, I just couldn't feel it. 

I personally believe that it is a spiritual thing to take responsibility for ALL our emotions, negative or positive. No emotion is actually good or bad. It is what society wants us to believe. Anger is just an emotion. It is not a pleasant one but it's not better or worse than happiness. Until we can accept that, we won't really take responsibility for our anger. We will continue to be in denial. Religions have not helped in this respect, except maybe Buddhism which in my opinion is the healthiest of them all because it has integrated psychology into its philosophy, which is something most other religions could learn from. I want to mention in particular Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who is one of my favourite spiritual teachers, and who wrote an entire book on Anger and another one on Fear. 

When you don't take responsibility for your anger, there is a risk that you will:

- act out

- explore

- project 

- judge

- lack compassion

- be passive aggressive

Acceptance of our anger is the first and necessary step in that road to responsibility for ourselves. If you have been hurt and feel angry about it, why not join our brand new community called Hurt, Not Heard on FB.  It's for women only but if you are a man and need support, I work with men too. Head over to my welcome page and find out about my offers. 

I didn't give much thought to angels growing up. I left church at twelve because the Catholic teachings made me cringe. So you can imagine my surprise when a psychic told me in 2003 that I had angel dust coming out of my hands. What?

I wasn't amused, but in a way it planted a seed in my mind that earth angels might exist, just not me.

Fast forward a year or so and I decided to train in reiki. I attended a reiki one workshop and a girl who trained with me claimed she was an earth angel. She was bitter and quite negative and she monopolised the attention of the group for the entire weekend. I wasn't impressed. If that was what an earth angel looked like, I didn't want to meet any.

Then I came across Doreen Virtue's books on angels. She had severa: Angel Therapy, Healing with the Angels, the Lightworker's Way, and even one on Earth Angels. She also produced the most exquisite angel oracle cards. I have several of her decks. But that did not convince me either. It was just a nice idea. And I hadn't met an earth angel yet either.

It is only a few years ago, as I was walking the streets of London with a person I know very well, when suddenly, I looked at her back and saw wings. Energetic wings. This took me by surprise for two reasons. The first reason is that I don't consider myself clairvoyant and very rarely see things, so that was definitely something unexpected. The second reason is that the person I saw with wings was not a lightworker, a healer, or a psychic. They are a highly regarded professional in the corporate finance industry. And the New Age movement certainly never talks about earth angels having these sorts of jobs. I liked it. I like a good paradox, or at least something that commands you to think differently.

As you can imagine, from there, the idea that there could be earth angels presenting as lawyers really appealed to me. I just had to wait to meet one.

So what are the signs that someone might be an angel in disguise (for real)?

1. They are here to serve humanity (although they might not know it themselves)
2. They can have compassion for people that you and I really struggle too feel compassion for
3. They have brilliant energies that can shift a room
4. They love to help people with no strings attached
5. They always look for a better way to do things
6. They always see the good in others
7. Being in their presence instantly uplifts you
8. They want everyone to win
9. They don't like to be the centre of attention
10. They are very bad at asking for help and often neglect themselves

But they are also human and make mistakes. And for them, being human is way more challenging than for us because Earth school is rough.

I have a job for you. I want you to observe around you to find out if you know an earth angel from the list of points above. And if you do, I want you to go give them a big hug. And then I want you to go to my article on Medium that asks whether lawyers can be angels, and in the comments share a story about that earth angel with us. Here is a link to my profile on Medium.

As always if you have enjoyed the episode, please share with people you think might enjoy it, write a review and rate it. Here is a link to the podcast.

What is the best way to achieve your dreams in 2024? Is it through intention setting? Goals? New Year Resolutions? Or maybe even the Law of Attraction. In this episode, I explain the difference between these four modalities and the pluses and minuses of them all.

For me, Goals tend to be purely action driven and are often rooted into what our minds believe we should be doing. They lack the energy of co-creation and can be a big rigid. They can also compound our feelings of failure if we are perfectionists. There is definitely an art in setting goals and if you feel a little bit hesitant to set goals because they scare you or you have failed at reaching your goals before, it is well worth the money to invest in a planning coach who can help you set realistic but also goals that are going to help achieve those big dreams or targets for 2024.

Intentions are usually "softer" and leave more room for inspiration or creativity. They allow more for life or the Big U to come in a co-create with us, but there is a danger that they are going to be too vague. There is also a risk in the spiritual communities that we are going to hand over all our decision making process to God, the Big U, the Universe or our higher self or our spirit guides, and in my opinion that is a real danger. That is what makes spiritual people give up at the smallest obstacle with the expression "It wasn't meant to be". The reality is that once you set your intention, you are going to face some obstacles because it is the way the Universe is going to test how motivated you are to reach that particular outcome.

New Year Resolution are problematic in a different way. They often lack vision or planning which is why they often only last a few weeks. And I feel for people who go through this cycle because it compounds the feelings of failure, which makes it just that much harder the second or third time around.

Knowing this, choose what feels right for you. We have sensitivities and proclivities towards certain words and expression, but then make sure two things are in place: a vision and a plan. And remember that tiny steps are much more effective than giant leaps, when it comes to creating new habits or reaching goals. Without goals/intentions/new year resolutions, we will constantly allow the urgent to trump the important, nothing of significance is achieved.

Before you go, I want to mention that I have taught for many years a planning process that combined the intellect (goals) with intuition (inspiration) which most of the participants have said was a breath of fresh air in the entrepreneurial world. If this appeals to you, there are two ways I could help: through my planning in the akashic records kit for £59 (price valid as of January 2024) or through my two week Get it Done package for £600 (price valid as of January 2024). If you want to discuss these two options to find out which one is most suited to you, why not book a discovery call with me with this link.

Dr Lulu is a paediatrician and coach who works with LGBTQIA+ families, as well as an activist. I asked her to come on the show to discuss how we can create more inclusive spiritual spaces. Although she retired as a physician a little over two years ago, she is now coming back into medicine with a new angle: offering gender care for transgender individuals. She is passionate about rectifying the myths and misinformation around what gender care really is. 

But Dr Lulu is also a member of the LGBTQIA+ herself. She describes herself as Bi-Plus although she prefers the term Queer. And she is a mum of three, one of which is transgender, which is actually how we met. 

I wanted to have her on the show because I am well aware that some religious people and some spiritual people are not as inclusive as they could be towards the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Dr Lulu was born and raised in a Catholic household. Her family is so religious that one of her uncles is a priest. She enjoys having a relationship with something bigger than her. She went to mass for the first fifty years of her life. And when she was in medical school, she even went to mass daily because it was available. She told her dad she was attracted to girls when she was sixteen and he made her believe that it was just a phase. Her father did not say it with any malice, but her aunt, who was much more engrained into Nigerian culture, made her feel that if she indulged into these inclinations, she would go to hell. Her auntie was very close to her. She had helped raise her and she believed her because she knew she loved her so much. So she started to turn down the volume on her attraction until it was nearly down to zero. She got married and had three kids. The pressure to conform was enormous. 

Dr Lulu wants people to understand that when you have very strong beliefs, especially about what is right and wrong from a religious perspective, then it can put undue pressure on other people to conform, especially if they are children. It's not really fair. Religion, by nature, is not inclusive, but it's not God. It's the religion. And these are two very different things. If there is a God, God is inclusive and God's pronouns are they/them. It is us humans who love to put conditions on everything. It's an important distinction. 

Religion is based on a binary model that is divisive, but to a certain extent, spiritual circles have also espoused this binary model especially when they insist on having separate circles for men and women. No one should have a say for what is right or wrong in terms of gender identity. It's an individual expression that should be respected. In addition to that, just because someone reads a passage from the bible from 2,000 years ago, doesn't make it right. Especially since it has been rewritten many times to suit the people who preached from it. The LGBTQIA+ community is giving us the gift of diversity. It is constantly expanding and offering new ways to express and see oneself. Dr Lulu first thought she was a Lesbian, then Bisexual. Now Bi-Plus and rather than see it with contempt, people who are not part of the LGBTQIA+ community should see it as "a garden that has flowers you did not even know existed". 

This goes against the current of religion and spirituality which has tried over the years and even decades, to dictate who people should be, how they should fit in, or else, they go to hell. Dr Lulu mentioned a famous Black Pastor  who was openly homophobic, but when he died, it was revealed that he was gay and died of AIDS. Instead of blaming that pastor, we need to look at the institution and the pressure that is put on people to be other than who they are. This causes internalised homophobia. And this can be traced into colonialism, which is a subject that Dr Lulu broached on her own podcast, Moms 4 Trans Kids. podfollow.com/1708676679

But things are changing. Dr Lulu and I discussed several clergy members in the US who are openly either gay or trans. It looks like the Church of England, in the UK, has also appointed their first openly non binary vicar. 

Christmas time can be very stressful in the Western World. Whilst everywhere we see images of happy gatherings, the reality can be very different. Everything gets a little frantic. People spend time buying presents and of course there are the family gatherings. Everyone wants everything to be perfect. And I sometimes wonder, if the same pressure exists in other religious traditions such as Diwali, Hanukkah or Yule. Personally, it's too much pressure and if you add to this a relative level of dysfunction that exists in most families, then it can be a recipe for disaster.

In my family, it was taken to a whole new level due to the fact that I have four autistic children so this is the perfect storm to trigger meltdowns, sensory overload and kids actually not even wanting to come out of their bedrooms.

For you it might be another kind of challenge (or a combination of): your family may be far away, maybe a loved one has recently died, you might be under a lot of financial stress or you might be single. Christmas is not kind to single people. Not many celebrations are.

How can you do Christmas differently so that it can be a happier time for you? One way would be to fly away to a destination where they do not celebrate Christmas, but that's not always possible. I want to mention someone who has helped me tremendously to redefine Christmas and make it a much happier time for me and my kids. Lauren Winzar is an Australian decluttering and organisation coach with a signature program called Simplicity. She also has a very reasonable library of resources called the Simplicity Toolkit, available for the very kind price of AUD9 which you can check out here.

One of the tools I used from her kit helps you do a Christmas audit. It's a questionnaire that you can fill in for each person in your household where they will share what they love about Christmas, what they don't, their favourite activities, the people they love, their favourite food, and their triggers. When I did this audit, it made me wonder why I had never asked my kids these questions before, or even myself. And it allowed me to make Christmas a much happier time for everyone.

The other thing you can do is to learn to say no. And if you find it hard because, like me, you are a people pleaser, I share on the show seven ways you can say no without actually using the word. I was inspired by a humorous page on FB called Very British Problems, because let's say it, the British are very good at saying no without saying no, which to Frenchies like me, can drive us a little mad. French people know how to say no. There was a meme recently on FB that circulates of a foreigner who tried to order an oat Cafe au lait in Paris, and the waiter just said "No!" That had me giggling.

I also want you to have strategies to deal with energy vampires over Christmas, because we all have them in our lives, if not in our friend circles anymore, they might lurk at work or in our families. In the episode, I share six strategies to deal with them (one of them is to learn to say no).

I also share ideas of clutter free presents, inspired from Lauren's tool.

I want to invite you to look at what you normally do at Christmas time and look at it with the eyes of an alien, and ask yourself: does it work for me? What could I do differently? Personally, I have gotten rid of the whole Christmas tree tradition and have created a wall one with drift wood and string, which I absolutely love looking at. I was never really satisfied with the real Christmas tree tradition as it did not feel very earth friendly.

Last but not least, I want you to have realistic expectations. I have been reading the Happiness Trap recently and what I have retained from it, is that our emotions are like the weather. To expect to only get sunshine is not realistic and it means that you get upset about the rain. Challenge the assumption that if you feel negative emotions, you are not normal. Be kind to yourself. If it happens to you in the middle of a party, take some time out and allow yourself to feel all the feels without the pressure to perform in the happy happy Christmas play. Do the best you can and be ok with it.

Last but not least, I gave you some tips on how to focus on small things that can enhance your feelings of happiness during the Christmas period even if you are feeling challenged.

If you would like some support in the background, my Sage in Your Pocket package is ideal. You can reach out to me without having to get on a call and I can help you go through those difficult moments. Check it out here.

If you have enjoyed this episode, please go in your favourite app and write us a review. Whilst you are at it, also rate it. And share it on socials. Thank you.

I was invited by a very dear friend of mine to go to Church last Sunday. I am not a church person but she recently joined that church and I wanted to honour her.

The last time I went to church was weeks before my dad died. He was a very devout Catholic and going to church was everything to him. As a child, us going to church was our very special time. Dad was an eye surgeon and worked long hours, so I did not get to see much of him. As I sat in a chair at the back of the room, the tears started to flow. Grief knows no rules. It hits you unexpectedly. Some of the tears came from memories of me at the girl scouts, listening to the songs. My friend has joined an Evangelical Church, so there was a lot of singing and clapping, which I had never experienced before in a house of God.

Before I launch into why Christianity clashes with my values, I want to honour the Vicar of my village and his wife, now retired, for the beautiful friendly and inclusive community he created for the twenty years I have lived here. Even though he knew I wasn't a church goer, I was always made more than welcome and invited to all village events. I never quite made it to mass, but my kids loved going to Messy Church, an after school gathering where kids made crafts, ate cookies with squash and learnt about bible stories.

As I listened attentively, the usual words triggered me: sin, father, savior. The cross always triggers me when I enter a Christian church. Why, of all the important moments of Jesus' life do Christians focus on his darkest hour? Sacrifice is another trigger word for me. Perhaps because my mother reminded me on a regular basis all the sacrifices she did for me as a mother and that weighted heavily on my small shoulders as a kid. Also, my grandmother wore her pain as a badge of honour. It was pretty toxic.

I was fairly young, probably twelve, when I realised that Catholicism clashed with my values. I found the fact that I was condemned as a sinner just for being born unsavory. Come on, God, give me a chance. Now, of course, I know better, but I was raised in that faith and it was all around me. How do you resist? Most of our beliefs are shaped before we reach the age of seven. Is that really the start we want to give our kids?

The moment the pastor referred to God with the male pronouns, I was put off. It was an immediate red flag. I know that most religious organisations are not inclusive, but if they just made the small effort to use they/them when referring to God, it would take that sexist and white supremacist edge. Is it that difficult? Not to mention that the constant mention of a father and us as being his children, plus the idea that he sent his son to save us, made me feel like an irresponsible child. Surely, at fifty eight, I don't need a father to admonish me or tell me what to do.

As my December guest on the podcast said in her interview, if Jesus was to come back he would be non binary. Think about it, it makes sense.

One claim that a lot of religions make and that grates me is that if you don't follow their rules, then you won't be saved. It's the "my way or the highway" rule. How can people claim this? It stems on the idea that there is only one right path. Personally, I value diversity. At the start of my spiritual journey, I wondered why there were so many religions, if there was one god, and I received the answer: each culture is to have their own version of religion to suit their set of beliefs. To claim that yours is better than others is childish at best, supremacist at worst.

There as also the elephant in the room, as a child, which was how religion treats women as inferior. As a little girl, this made me wonder. Why does God not value me as much as my brother? I had a very strong sense of justice and it felt wrong, so I told my dad I did not want to get my confirmation. And so, I walked out.

As soon as I went to University, I started making friends with people from the LGBTQIA+ community and I was even more appalled at the messages conveyed by religious people about them. Condemnation of same sex love? I could see clearly that it was because it challenged a model of society where everyone was to conform: get married, have kids, work hard. And please, do not create any waves that are going to upset the apple cart.

The claims by various religious organisations that their buildings, whether they call it a church, a temple, or a mosque, is the house of God is, in my opinion, false. God is everywhere. And God is here, even for non religious people. God is in the rivers, on the hills, in the sun, in the wind, in the forest, in the sea, in the heart of every animal, but also in your home, in your car... and in the business world.

God is also in the middle of war zones.

God knows no hierarchy. God is inclusive. God is forgiving. God is unconditional love. God is un-judging. God is pure. You can access God directly. You don't need to be a saint or to have permission from another human being, but you might need a guide to help you shift through all the claims that are made in their name. And if that is the case, I can be here for you. You can find out about "Sage in your pocket" offer here https://www.theintuitiverevolution.co.uk/a-sage-in-your-pocket-package/.

Also, I have a brand new quiz available to find out which of the four pillars of success needs strenghtening. Click here to receive it http://eepurl.com/gdEEJX. 

In this podcast episode I talked about what really happens when we commit to our spiritual journeys. 

First of all, this commitment can be conscious or unconscious. It's obviously more powerful when it is a conscious commitment although, as we are actually 90% driven by our subconscious, having a subconscious commitment is by no means less effective than a conscious one. 

What most people think happens when we commit to our spiritual journeys, is that we will live happy, trouble free lives in this bubble of bliss and enlightenment. What really happens is something completely different. This is where I give a warning: anything can happen. And what I can guarantee will happen to you is something in your life that is not aligned will be brought to your attention and you will have to address the issue. I have had several of those wake up calls. The first one was nearly dying three times. The second one was losing my job. Now you could argue that the wake up call comes before the commitment to the spiritual journey. I think they are one and the same. 

I believe that life whispers first, but if we don't listen, the volume gets louder each time until life throws bricks at you. The trick is to act before the bricks start to come your way. It's so much less painful that way. 

And this brings me to the next point: every person who has embraced their spiritual journey is likely to experience Joseph Campbell's twelve steps journey. Here is a list of the steps: 

1. The call to adventure
2. The refusal of the call
3. Meeting the mentor
4. Crossing the threshold
5. Test - Allies - Enemies
6. The cave
7. The ordeal
8. The reward
9. The road back
10. Resurrection
11. The return
12. The freedom to live

Knowing at which point of the journey you are is really important because it will help you plan things a little but also know what kind of help you need. And when you realise that you are the hero of your own life, you can start to understand that life is happening for you rather than at you. You can choose a growth mindset and take back some level of control: in fact the only control you have which is how you respond to things, because there is no doubt that you cannot control what happens to you. If you are experiencing challenges and need a mentor, you are in luck, my Sage in Your Pocket Package is meant just for that. Click here to find out more. https://www.theintuitiverevolution.co.uk/a-sage-in-your-pocket-package/

If you like the podcast please make sure you take a few minutes to write a review and rate it so that more people can find out about it. I would also love for you to share this blog post or the link above with friends, family or colleagues who you think might benefit from it. Thank you. 

In Episode 10, I mentioned that friends and relatives can be soul mates, not just romantic partners. https://pod.fo/e/202cde I even said that businesses could be soul mates. https://podfollow.com/1572071820  (see episode 2) What I did not explore is whether our pets can be our soul mates. So I am doing it in this episode, this week. 

But first, I wanted to explore what traditional religions say about animals and what I found did not sit well with me. The Bible says that animals are "things" to be controlled by men. And it wasn't so long ago that these same men thought that women did not have souls, nor did children. It's also the same men who promoted slavery and considered that people of colour did not have souls. We need to decolonise our minds from the centuries of brain washing by white supremacy. 

When I looked into Hinduism and Buddhism, I wasn't that impressed either. They both consider animals as inferior to men. It's slightly better than Christianity because they are considered to have souls, but the supremacy remains. Full disclosure here, I am not a pet person, but I love animals and get upset when they are not treated properly. And I certainly question the narrative that they are inferior to us. In fact, they do much less damage to the environment than we did, when left to their own devices. And I could be wrong, but there is much less cruelty in their world. We as a species are much more prone to darkness and evil. And yet the Buddhists consider the animal kindgom as part of the "evil" realms. 

I know the texts that these religions are based on are thousands of years old. Well then it's time that these religions base their morals on revised texts. Why would "God" have stopped talking to us thousands of years ago? 

In this episode I talk about my lived experience and some pretty extraordinary cat stories. This was all possible thanks to a Facebook friend of mine called Sarah-Jane LeBlanc, who is a pet whisperer and who teaches animal communication. You might want to buy her book called Pet Whisperer, my life as an animal healer. I won her home study pet whispering course in a Facebook competition. I am not a pet person, so I actually told her to gift it to someone else but she refused. She said that if I won it, I was meant to do it. And she was right. I did the course and managed to help one of my dearest friends who lives in Dubai (I am in the UK) who had just brought home a rescue cat, who wouldn't come out of her basket and eat. I can't say that what I did had a direct link with what happened next, but the timing was certainly interesting. 

The reason I agreed to do the course is that when I first met my ex, who was a cat person, his cat, Tom, behaved really strangely towards me. For one, whenever we were on the phone together (at the start we lived in different parts of the UK), he would sit on top of the sofa and listen to my voice through my ex's phone. And he did this every single time. When I trained as a reiki master six years later, my reiki master told me that he was a soul mate in a past life. At the time, I found her claim bizarre, but now that I know more about the spirit world and spirituality in general, I am more inclined to think "Who is to say this is not possible?"

Animal communication is not that different to mediumship and what I learnt in Sarah-Jane's course helped a lot with my mediumship skills. I actually talk about it in my first memoir, My Father Who Art in Heaven, which is available for sale in my online shop. https://www.theintuitiverevolution.co.uk/shop/ The old concept that we are punished if we reincarnate as animals is obsolete at best, offensive at worst. In fact, I believe animals can teach us humans a lot about spirituality. In the UK there are several famous mediums who specialise in animal communication. But I want to finish these shownotes with a reflection from a vet interviewed by the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/nov/20/pet-psychics-telepathy Dr Chen says she has seen enough evidence to convince her that the idea of pet communication should not be dismissed outright. I like her thinking. She also says that when she trained as a vet, acupuncture was considered voodoo, and it has now become relatively mainstream. So let's all keep an open mind. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not share it with a friend or with your audience. Can you also be kind enough to write a review and rate the podcast so more people can find it.

You know my love of definitions. For me, the definition that suits best for angels is a spiritual being being believed to act as an agent, attendant or messenger of God (Source, the Universe, Universal intelligence, or whatever word you use instead). They are traditionally represented wearing long robes and with wings.

In the episode, I also share what angels are not and debunk a couple of myths around guardian angels and archangels. You know how I like to debunk myths. I share the one rule angels have to abide by, which I compare to the laws of robotics that Asimov described in his books. I like introducing humour in spirituality too, in case you are new to me.

I share about how I came across the works of Doreen Virtue and Diana Cooper and how this led me to experiment working with angels, without ever attending any workshop around angels specifically. This is important because I believe anyone and everyone can work with angels. Everyone can ask the angels for help. You don't need to be special in order for them to answer your prayer.

There is also no prayer too small. And your prayer will never deprive someone else of the help they need so don't be shy and ask anyway. Angels have triage centres and they can prioritise if needed. Don't hold back on asking for help because what you consider unimportant might actually be very important to them. I share a story that illustrates that truth. In 2009, I battled with incredibly poor body image and asked the angels for help. Not only did they help instantly, they showed me why it mattered to them.

The help they send might look very different from what you expect, so keep and open mind. But also, you need to accept the help, which for a lot of us is far easier than said. I used to think that asking for help was a sign of weakness, so that took me time to unpack too.

This episode is a follow up on the episode about creating your spiritual blueprint, so make sure you sign up for my newsletter so you can download the PDF and work through it. Angels was one of the topics mentioned in it. Also, you only have a couple of days to take part in my competition to win a half hour akashic records reading with me (the deadline is the 4th of August 8 pm UK time). To find out more about it click here. If you don't know what akashic records readings are, watch my YouTube video on the topic. To listen to the episode, click here.

Emma is one of our featured speakers for the True Spirituality Summit, which was held in July 2023, and which is still available for free. http://spirituallawyer.thinkific.com/

She is a yoga teacher, a medium, a tantra teacher and a sexologist. Emma was raised a Catholic, and nearly became a nun, but she felt the need to depart from that religious tradition, due to the wars and deaths that had been waged in its name. It broke her faith, but also clashed with her values. 

She feels that yoga has replaced the sanctity of mass, so she feels no grief. 

As a young person, she remembers having had a book about auras and energy, that she borrowed from the library, and did the instructions on her hand and saw the energy. It resonated so much. But because she did not have the space to discuss this with her family, she slammed the book shut and took it back to the library. She had to wait until her first born baby turned four months old for that to come back. 

Emma studied anatomy because she wanted to be a doctor, then psychology. But she could not get work because she learnt was not applied knowledge. She managed a youth centre, which highlighted how much trauma some people have. 

After her first baby, she trained in yoga because she did not want to work a nine to five. Then after her second child, she started coaching but also mediumship. Then in 2016, she started a dark night of the soul period and she came across the book Pussy, a Reclamation by Regina Thomashauer, mamagenas.com/books/?fbclid=IwAR2ha0PY-A2o499vEYqop3dF3tvLoaFebG_Kk5_Bv4p4K-lrZwBStSUmFRI and it was like a revelation. She realised that pleasure was the missing link in her work. She also realised how much shame she carried about enjoying sex with her husband, and she decided she wasn't going to put up with it anymore. She embraced Burlesque and somehow tantra also made it into her world. 

People have a very limited view of what tantra really is but I can't blame them because if you do an internet search, all you are going to find is the sex aspect of it. But it's a bit like if you were searching for a recipe on google and all it came up with was spaghetti bolognese. Tantra is 6,000 years old and in a way, it has suffered in similar ways to yoga when it was brought to the West. Tantra is the way of the heart through the body. Tantra can be practised alone, but also with our friends and our children, because there is a social aspect of tantra that is about connection and presence. Pleasure can be something purely hedonistic, or it can be mindful and intuitive. We have a bath for self-care, or we can take it to the enxt level and have a bath because it feels good, and it's a mindful and intuitive action; it;s the cream on top: pleasure. 

To bring pleasure into consensual sexual intercourse, women, in particular, have to bring self knowledge and have the courage to voice what they need and what they want. But that can come with guilt and feeling selfish. And intimacy can only happen if we have the courage to be vulnerable. 

I also asked Emma if she experienced sexual intercourse as a spiritual experience and I will let you listen to the show to hear what she shared about this. You can find Emma on Instagram instagram.com/emma.pleasure/ and Facebook facebook.com/emmamccanncoach. Her website is www.emma-mccann.com.

I believe that the concept of Twin Flames and Soul Mates is vastly misunderstood. It is also dangerous, if we approach it from the space of feeling that we are not complete without that other person.

On the 6th of October, here in the UK, Netflix released a documentary on an organisation that says that they connect you to your twin flame. I encourage you to go back to my episode on how to cult proof your spiritual journey (episode 2) in order to make sure that you don’t fall into the trap of similar kinds of organisations who pray on people’s desire to feel complete and their naivety around how to go about it.

Before we dive deeper into the topic of Twin Flames and Soul Mates, I want to debunk three myths around Twin Flames:

• The myth that you are not complete until you are in a romantic relationship with your Twin Flame
• The myth that when you find your Twin Flame/Soul Mate, it will be this ideal relationship that fairy tales tell us about
• The myth that your Twin Flame is your only true love

This is magical thinking at best and dysfunctional at worse and it can lead you to putting yourself at danger of being exploited by a narcissist or a cult. And if you have listened to episode 2, you know that there are a lot of parallels between the behaviours of these two groups. I am passionate about keeping you safe on your spiritual journey, so take care.

When I researched where the concept of Twin Flames originated, I found out that it came from Plato and Greek Mythology. The idea is that Zeus split an androgynous human being into male and female. The reason he did this was because he was scared of the power of androgynous human beings and wanted to weaken them, by dividing their strength and making them pine for each other, thus distracting them from the important things they would have otherwise done, which Zeus felt threatened by. If there is a cautionary tale about our politicians and the people who rule the world, I can’t see a better one, but I am not here to talk about conspiracy theories.

As you can see, this story is only slightly better than the Adam and Eve story from the Bible. At least, in that version, men and women are created equal, but the motive for creating Twin Flames is really flaky. I think the myth comes with its own warning: don’t let the pursuit of your Twin Flame distract you from more important things, specifically owning your power and realising that you are whole.

I would like at this point to talk about a definition of Twin Flames: two souls who were once one and have the same energy consciousness. If we retain this definition, we have to wonder why these Twin Flames would need to reattach themselves at the hip in a close romantic relationship. They are whole. They have the same energy consciousness. They don’t need each other. They have different soul paths and akashic records at that point. I want to posit the theory that they might not want to spend earth lives together. But they might choose to anyway. If they do, it’s because they have a soul contract together, which then makes them soul mates.

Before I go any further, I want to say that every single person on this earth is whole without the need of someone else to complete them. It’s important to say it because the music industry, the entertainment industry and the dating industry, who each represent billions of revenues, want us to think otherwise. And we push that myth that we need someone else to complete us onto our kids from a very young age. There is a really toxic narrative in western culture that actually grooms us for narcissistic abuse. If we don’t feel complete, we leave ourselves vulnerable to love bombing, but also to us obsessing about our object of desire.

So what is the different between Twin Flames and Soul Mates? With soul mates, what links them is not the same soul essence or the fact they might have been one soul at one point, what links them is a soul contract. A soul contract is an agreement that souls enter before they incarnate. And that agreement describes the kind of relationship they will have on earth and what they will “do” for each other. Think of the earth as a giant stage and you being two actors in a play.

Soul mates are not necessarily romantic partners. They can be siblings, parents, friends, colleagues and even our own businesses. Yes, businesses. Businesses have souls. You can check my podcast episode about this by clicking on this link and scrolling down to episode dated 14th June 2021 “What if businesses had souls?” Also, sometimes soul mates feel like enemies. They make our lives difficult and can even be our “petty tyrants” to use an expression used by Carlos Castaneda. And the reason is that, sadly, at this point of our evolution, we learn much more from conflict and pain than we do from sunshine and rainbows. To understand better the concept of soul mates and soul plans, I invite you to read Michael Newton’s book called Journey of Souls.

In conclusion, yes I do believe in the idea of Twin Flames and Soul Mates but I urge you not to let the pursuit of that “true” love from distract you from how important your own life path and purpose is on this earth. If you would like to find out how to work with me and receive special offers and musings, why not sign up for my newsletter? I always offer a freebie for people who sign up and the freebie at the moment of release of this episode is a PDF that includes a process to help you start forgiving yourself and others. http://eepurl.com/gdEEJX

I discovered Astronomy at the tender age of eleven and was immediately won. So much so that I became an Astronomy instructor in summer camps when I was old enough to do so. What Astronomy brought me is awe and help in putting things in perspective. When I lied at night watching the stars, I was able to see that my problems weren't necessarily as big as I made them to be, and I found that incredibly helpful.

So in 2001, when I had to decide whether to accept a job offer in London and move with my children who were five and one at the time, I wanted to have a peek into the bigger picture. This was no longer only about me and I wanted to make a decision that would be not just for my highest good but also for the highest good of my children. I went to see a psychic medium and she told me that it was, and so I did.

We make better decisions when we see the bigger picture.

How can we though? How do psychics do? Psychics can do so in three different ways. By reading the energy of your body, by asking their spirit guides and by reading the akashic records. In this episode I explain what akashic records are, briefly. Traditionally, they were only accessed by mystics with the most stringent of training because knowledge is power and the akashic records are sacred. It is also a knowledge that can be misused.

Accessing the akashic records unable you to see your entire life from a bird's eye view. Imagine flying over the valley of your entire life. This is what happened to me during my first reiki atunement. I share more in the episode but I was shown a past life I had with both my mother and my ex husband, and what I was shown made so much sense, it enabled me to complete the soul contract I had with them.

Your akashic records contain the entire blueprint you chose for yourself for this lifetime. It has the soul mates you chose for yourself (soul mates are not what people think, but this will be the topic of another episode), the main destiny points and your purpose. It's like a map of your life. But just like a map, you can choose to follow the plan or not, because we all have free will. And also, you still have to do the work to make it happen.

As my birthday was last Monday, I am offering a birthday special 50% discount that expires on the 12th of November on half hour akashic records sessions. Click this link and use the coupon BIRTHDAY. If you are reading these show notes after the 12th of November 2023, and would like to receive updates on my content and special offers, sign up for my newsletter with this link.

In this episode, I talk about all things spooky in the spiritual world, because it's Halloween! I saw a connection of mine post a photo of a graveyard with orbs on LinkedIn over the weekend end it reminded me of my connection to both graveyards and orbs, so here we are. 

I grew near the Cimetiere Montparnasse in Paris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_Cemetery Growing up as a child, my bedroom window overlooked it. As if this was not enough, my grandmother took us playing hide and seek in the Cemetery whenever she came to look after us on Wednesdays, weather permitting. I also remember the first time I was tipsy walking through the Cemetery with my sister as a chaperone on the way back from a friend who served me a pretty strong of Rhum, as he was originally from the West Indies. And the one thing I did whilst walking in the middle of the night was do a speech to the dead. 

I don't believe dead people hover over their graves nor that their new homes are cemeteries. They might visit when you do, say for example on the 1st of November for All Saints Day, but only because you are there and they care. Most of the rest of the time, they live in another dimension (a higher one). 

My grandmother, who is now in that dimension, used to take my sister, my brother and I to play hide and seek in the Montparnasse Cemetery. When I went to see a psychic medium for the first time in 2005, my grandmother high jacked the session. Yet when I told my mother about it, she accused me of disturbing the peace my grandmother was having. Since then, and thanks to Abraham Hicks, I have come to believe that when we die, we continue to be interested in the same things we were interested in when we walked the earth. I guess that means my grandmother is in that cemetery most of the time. Joke apart: lawyers would gather around law firms, piano players around pianos... etc. 

I want to explain the difference between our departed loved ones and ghosts, as this is a Halloween podcast. Our loved ones, when they come to see us, are only visiting. They don't come to haunt us. They are not attached to a specific venue and they know that they are "dead". They usually are now able to see the bigger picture and are slightly wiser than when they walked the earth. Ghosts, on the other hand, are trapped in between the Earth plane and the spirit world. They usually haunt places because they don't realise they are dead. So for example, they continue to live in the house that was theirs when they lived and disturb the new occupants. Think of the film the Others, with Nicole Kidman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Others_(2001_film) It's pretty accurate. But ghosts are not necessarily humans trapped in an in-between world. They can also be energy imprints or entities. I go into more details about the difference in the episode. They often hover around pubs, places where massacres have happened and generally dark spots on the Earth. 

Orbs are the opposite of entities. They are beings of light. In March 2014, a day after my father died, I captured an orb on my phone camera as I was walking in the XVIth arrondissement, in Paris, which is precisely where my dad grew up as a boy. Two days later, I captured two orbs on either side of the Church where his funeral was going to be conducted, just before I met my cousin to hand him the speech I wanted him to read for me. Both photos are included in my memoir, My Father Who Art in Heaven which you can purchase in the online shop. www.theintuitiverevolution.co.uk/shop

Energy vampires: my grandmother was one. What are energy vampires? People who drain you. You recognise them because before you see or interact with them you feel great. Whereas after you have, you feel exhausted, drained or simply awful. They can be friends, relatives, people you work with or even complete strangers. They can be trolls on social media. How does it work? They come into your energy field, if it is open or compromised, and hook into you then syphon your energy. They do not need to know how energy works in order to do this. You, on the other hand, need to learn about energy in order to protect yourself. Personally, I thought I was the one with a mood problem until I trained as a reiki master and learnt more about energy. Energy vampires hook you in by making you feel sorry for them, by complaining or by creating arguments. This enables them to wedge an opening into your energy field, et voila. I explain a little more about the mechanics of how that happens in the audio of the episode. 

Psychic attacks are quite common. If you have been on the receiving of a psychic attack, you can feel off, on edge, anxious or nauseous. A psychic attack is when someone transfers their negative energy into your energy field. It can be deliberate, if they get angry, jealous or start hating you. This can happen for example with someone who knows you and is jealous of your success even if you don't actually know who they are. It can be accidental: someone who loves you who worries so much about you that they pour their worry energy into you. It can also be violent and feel almost like a physical slap when people attack when they are triggered. I share a story in the episode of a client who actually woke up in the middle of the night and who thought she was having a stroke. 

You can open yourself to unwanted energies when you use tarot cards or Ouija boards. I am passionate about keeping people safe, so if you want to avoid the top three mistakes people make when using a tarot deck, head over to Julie Brown's podcast, This Sh*T works, where I was interviewed for a Halloween special. https://podfollow.com/1528595881/episode/5054aae6c39e2f1a168ad07800f5462ba4dd9d51/view

Mark Deeks calls himself an atheist. Can he be spiritual nevertheless?

First I asked him what kind of religious background he grew up in. And he shared that 90% of his family is from a Christian background. Starting with a Church of Scotland background and moving into an Evangelical. For those of you who don't know (I had to check this myself), Evangelical Christians are conservative protestants. Protestants being, Christians who are not under the authority of the Pope. Mark, however, does not related to the information I found about the Evangelical Church and simply refers to them as happy clappers and a more modern version of Christianity. His Dad's grandfather was a preacher as were his dad's dad and uncle. 

Despite this, Mark describes himself as non religious, non spiritual and ultimately, an atheist and to him, it stems from just being practical as well as the experience of not being able to visualise, so if it's not here, then it does not exist. When Mark did his PhD in Heavy Metal Music, he had a chance to explore myths and culture and he became fascinated by how men, in all parts of the world, try to explain things they don't understand and can come to entirely different conclusions. And to Mark, religions are part of this search for meaning and he respects that. He has also had a chance to see first hand the extraordinary comfort that religion can bring to people. And despite that, Mark cannot accept that these experiences prove the existence of any god, be it Christian, Muslim or other. In a way, he wishes it did  as it apparently brings a sense of belonging and meaning, but he just can't. He doesn't believe that God is the explanation. And therefore, Mark came to the conclusion he was atheist over time. 

When I shared my definition of what spiritual means to me, which involves the desire to leave the earth a better place and to become a better person, Mark had some objections about that too. And the issues he has with always wanting to be better comes with his experience of the academic world. He was working in a college about ten years ago that had received several outstanding inspections in a row and instead of being satisfied with it, the college decided they were now aiming for "beyond outstanding". Why can't we just accept that some days we are great and other days we are average and simply accept our humanity. 

Mark shared with us his belief that the need for religion or spirituality stems from a hole in us that yearns to explain everything that we are longing for and searching for. Personally, however, he does not feel he has a hole that needs to be filled. And it makes him uncomfortable around religious people or events because he does not want to be disrespectful, but the same time, he just can't buy into it. 

In a similar vein, Mark stays away from what he calls woo, because he doesn't understand it at all and he tends to get the wrong end of the stick when he tries to get involved. We talked about how the spiritual community can get side tracked talking about concepts that are actually distractions from what is more important to our spiritual journeys, which are our values. 

We then moved to the topic of meaning and leading a meaningful life. And Mark shared that he finds it really hard to acknowledge success in his life. However, part of what Mark does is to facilitate people's musical dreams, as an unorthodox piano teacher. He does this through playing the piano at events, creating bespoke piano meditations, being part of a band or teaching people how to play. 

And this has led Mark to think about his legacy, which in turn led to him creating an album called Arð, entirely to his own specifications with absolutely no compromise. Within two weeks of completing this passion project, he got a record deal with one of his favourite record labels. Hence, his dream of combining his two loves of piano and metal finally came to light. All in low baritone chorals, because that's what he does. He does not scream like more mainstream metal singers do. And this project has given meaning to his life, more than the thousands of gigs that he has been to, or the choirs that he has run or even all the people he has taught piano to. 

The second part of our interview focused on how music and art can be vehicles to feed the soul, whether we are spiritual or not and the importance of changing the mainstream approach to art as a way to excel. Mark is a mental health first aider, like me, and he is passionate about using art and music as a way to support our mental health. 

Mark had a little rant about how classical music still dominates the teaching of music when it is not encouraging creativity, but rather perfectionism on a prescription. You can't change the notes or the speed. It is just what it is. And that's what is often presented as the only way to people who want to pursue music as a creative outlet. It also encourages perfectionism which can actually be detrimental to mental health. 

Mark wants to teach a fun way to play the piano that actually supports mental health. A way that puts a smile on your face. Improvisation can bring that fun into the playing. 

You can find out about his music on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/ardnorthumbria. And about his business on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/MarkDeeksMusic.

Before we explore the topic of prayer, particularly non denominational (non religious) prayer, I want to say that my research into this topic has lead me to the conclusion that there is no scientific evidence that prayer has any measurable effect on the health of the person being prayed for. Prayer has been studied since at leat 1872, supported by various religious groups. All the studies on prayer that claim that there is a correlation between prayer and health improvement had problems with self selection, selection bias and other aspects that discount them from the scientific method.

At the same time, there has never been any funding from the scientific community because prayer lacks biological plausibility. So it looks like we will never have scientific proof.

Prayer has its place in True Spirituality, however, especially non denominational prayer. I have created a non denominational prayer group on Facebook called the Sacred Heart Prayers, which you can join by clicking this link. Make sure you answer the three questions, though, as I won't let you in unless you do. There are some rules to post that you can find in the about section.

This being said, I want to explore here magical thinking and delusion. I have been watching the TV series Manifest and one of the characters, Angelina, loses her grip with reality and tips into fanaticism. In it, she believes that a baby she is looking after is her guardian angel and when she sets the baby's room on fire by accident, she does nothing to get herself and the baby into safety because she relies on the magical properties of the baby to protect them both.

I am a promoter of grounded spirituality. This is not ok. Nothing, and least of all prayer, justifies taking undue risks with your life or someone else's. Nothing, and least of all prayer, justifies making bad decisions because you believe you are chosen so you won't suffer the consequences. Prayer should enhance our lives, not take from them or bypass our responsibilities.

What is prayer? The Oxford dictionary defines it as a "Solemn request for help addressed to God or another deity". True Spirituality is inclusive, so my own definition of prayer does include God or other deities. I replace that by "something bigger than us". I know that a lot of people have suffered at the hands of religious people, and continue to, to this day, so I understand if some of the people who listen to the podcast do not want to hear the word God. Besides, many atrocities have been committed in the name of God. Most religions have blood on their hands.

We also want to avoid tipping into superstition, which is the credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural. We don't need fancy words to pray. We don't need to repeat a specific formula. We don't need to repeat prayers three times. However, if you want to create a ritual around your prayers, feel free to do so but do it out of choice, not because you think you need to.

My approach to prayer is that it can't hurt. Although having said that, I do not recommend that you ask for an outcome and I advice people not to pray when they are upset.

To me, a prayer is asking for help. But if we ask for help, we also need to ask ourselves how good are we to receive help? Gracefully? Most of us are reluctant to ask for help. I want to mention here one of the spiritual teachers that has most influenced me: Abraham-Hicks. Their book Ask and it is given, separates the process in three steps: Step 1 is us asking for help, Step 2 is the Universe answering our prayer and Step 3 is us allowing the answer to come to us. Basically accepting the help. Part of this is accepting that help might look very different to what you think it will.

So how do we pray? We can use a very simple phrase that says: Please help with (insert the thing you need help with). Who do you pray to? If you are not comfortable with the concept of God, you can use words such as Source, Infinite Intelligence, Life, the Universe, the Big U and whoever the fuck is in charge. Let's not get hung up on words. When should we pray? Whenever we want. And we can pray for past events, current events and even future events. Once I explain to you how energy works (in a future episode), you will understand that energy is not bound by the concepts of time and space.

In the episode I shared to lived experiences of help being given after I prayed for help. From a reiki master's perspective, prayer makes sense, because we are all interconnected to all the people we know energetically. And in turn these people are connected to the ones they know. It's a bit like the internet but without computers, wifi, electricity and cables. When you send a prayer out, it's like a message sent out to this incredible web of light and the Universe locates where help is available and sends it over. It can send it to you as an idea or an impulse.

However, not every prayer is useful. I don't recommend asking for an outcome, because the Universe is vastly more clever than you are. It has access to far more intelligence than you do. So it will find of a solution you might not possibly even think of. Also, if you are full of anxiety, don't pray for someone else, as you are more likely to send them negative energy than actually help them.

Please make sure you rate the podcast and write a review. Share with people you know. Thank you. If you would like to receive the link to book a free fifteen minute session with me, sign up for my newsletter here.

I have been studying intuition for eighteen years and teaching it for over four years. I ran a powerful five day challenge from 2020 to 2022 that taught people how to trust their intuition. In June 2021, I launched a podcast called the Intuitive Revolution in Business that you can listen to with this link. And in November 2021, I launched a book called the Intuitive Revolution in Business that you can purchase in my online shop. You could say I am a little obsessed with intuition.

There is a reason. Intuition literally saved me from a bomb attempt in Paris in September 1986. You can read about the bomb attempt (In French) here on Wikipedia.

My biggest mission is to get intuition on the curriculum all the way from Primary Schools to Universities. The reason for this is that intuition saved my life, but also protected me from predators and who wouldn't want children to trust their gut feelings so that they can be protected.

Well, actually the way the school system as we know it was designed is not compatible with this dream of mine, yet. The reason is that it was designed with a heavy bias towards producing compliant beings. Two hundred years ago, when education was democratised, the agenda was pushed heavily by factory owners who needed employees who were both literate but also likely to follow orders. What better way to do that than by having children sit through classes, with heavy discipline and a huge emphasis on attendance.

Whilst we wait for the school system to be ready for intuition, let's see what you can do to trust your intuition more. First of all, you need to understand that we are all intuitive. Due to the fact that intuition is taught mostly by psychics, people confuse intuition with psychic gifts and as a consequence, think that only a few people are chosen (psychic) and the vast majority are not. Nothing could be further from the truth.

My definition of intuition is a form of intelligence that does not require thinking. And for most of us it's either a knowing or a feeling. How do you distinguish between your own thoughts and your intuition. Your thoughts come in a train. I call it the thought train. You have one thought, then another that links into the previous one, and then the third that links to the second and so on and so forth. The logic can sometimes be a little strange but there is a link. With intuition, it's more like a bubble that comes up. It's a single thought. And it's not attached to any train of thought. So you would be thinking about groceries and suddenly, a thought bubble pops up to call your Aunt Mazie. The difference can also be how the thought feels. Let's take the thought: "Don't trust her". If it comes from your own thoughts, it will probably feel yucky. If it is your intuition, it won't feel bad. At least not right away. It will make you feel calm instead. Your critical mind is going to kick in pretty quickly though, and will try to make you feel bad about it because intuition often takes you out of your comfort zone and your logical mind doesn't like that. It's dangerous.

Here are my top three tips to get started:

Tip #1: Be a detective

Tip #2: Don't attach expectations to your intuition

Tip #3: Learn about your own belief system and your "symbology"

If you would like to start to trust your intuition, my five day signature challenge is now available on Thinkific as a self study course. Head over here to sign up. 

Before we even start, I need to highlight that meditation is not one of them. What? You might exclaim. No. It isn't and for a good reason. I don't actually believe that it is one of the essentials.

For one, meditation is not going to help you:

• know who to trust and who not to trust
• heal your wounds
• grow faith in yourself
• understand your ego
• with your anxiety

And in some cases, meditation can actually be not only counterproductive but harmful. So let's stop promoting as the be-all and end-all of spirituality. It can even be used as spiritual bypassing. If you can't seem to meditate and think that for this reason you can't be spiritual, I want you know that there are many other ways to become more mindful, more connected, calmer and more grounded. I will talk about that on this podcast.

Gay Hendricks, the author of Corporate Mystics, says in his book: "if you want to find a genuine mystic, you are more likely to find one in a boardroom than in a monastery or a cathedral." So if you work in corporate, you can be spiritual too. It's not reserved to those who call themselves spiritual. I know some dangerous narcissists who have meditation podcasts. Be warned. Rant over.

So here is what I believe are the six essentials that you should pack with you on your spiritual journey:

#1 essential: Understand how your intuition works

#2 essential: Therapy

#3 essential: Willingness to embrace uncertainty, aka the Fog

#4 essential: Keep your journey close to your chest

#5 essential: Never put anyone on a pedestal

#6 essential: A solid knowledge of how the mind works

I go into much more detail in the episode, especially the importance of #1 as it is the safeguarding tool that will protect you from predators, narcissists and cults. We are all intuitive. If you don't trust your intuition, it is because you don't understand it and you have heard too many people diss it or call it weird. Also we ignored our intuition when we believe someone knows something better than we do. You will come across people who compensate their lack of substance by an over confident attitude in the spiritual world. Don't be fooled into thinking they are experts. Just because they say they are, doesn't mean that they are. Take my word for it.

Intuition could be the tool that saves you from the nets of a cult. I saw that happen to a friend. It's scary. That's also why I made episode two of this podcast about cult proofing your journey. I invite you, my friend to put learning about your intuition and trusting it a priority.

Jose Pereira was looking forward to a well-earned retirement from his position of executive of an oil and gas company when he received a phone call to make one last business trip to Venezuela. It was a routine trip and he was looking forward to have it done and dealt with. Never in a million years did he imagine that it would lead to him being held captive as hostage by the government in a politic row between Venezuela and the USA.

When Jose finally came back from those five years of hell, he became aware that his case was actually not that unusual and that there was a community of people in the US whose loved ones were held captive in various parts of the world like Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Syria and Cuba to name a few. He felt the urge to connect with these families and they created a Bring Our Family Home Campaign. Within a month, he was invited to Washington where a big mural with his picture was created. This was the start of his advocating career.

It’s not just US citizens, though. Citizens from all over the world are held hostages in countries that use them as bargaining chips in their diplomatic relationships with Western countries. How they become hostages vary. Sometimes they go to someone’s wedding, or on holidays, or on a business trip like Jose. Journalists, of course. Environmentalists. Human rights advocates. None of them ever imagined that it would end this way. Nothing prepares you for this. And most people think it’s never going to happen to them. And sadly, these people have become a global family around these terrible events. What did they do to deserve that? They held the wrong passport at the wrong place.

So why have I invited Jose to my podcast about spirituality? Because I wanted to find out if his extreme experience had deepened his spirituality but above all, I wanted to understand how he kept the faith, regardless of whether he considered himself spiritual or religious. I also wanted Jose to share whatever nuggets of wisdom that he had, as I felt his experience could help people in different circumstances.

As Jose’s wife so pertinently said to him a few weeks ago: “Adversity always comes with a phone call.” You receive a phone call from the doctor that you have cancer. In my case, I received a phone call that my father died. Or you receive a phone call that your son has had a car crash. Nothing prepares you for this. First, you deny this. Then you begin to accept the situation. And then you need to make a decision. You decide how you are going to overcome it.

Jose had always been a positive guy and although the first year was horrid, after that first year, he began to make a choice about how he would experience the ordeal. Leaning back into his positive mindset is what Jose believe saved him. Jose believes that in life, if you have a positive mindset, you cope with challenges a lot better.

Before he was held hostage, Jose wasn’t particularly religious. And as mentioned before, in the first year, he questioned why this was happening to him. He wondered what he had done wrong. He even wondered if he had called this situation to himself because a week before the trip, he was in a car on his way to work and he reflected on what a wonderful life he had had, and said to himself the only thing you need in life is something bad happening to you.

There was a turning point for Jose when he realised that he had to find a meaning for this experience. And luckily at that point, he and his inmates were allowed access to books. And the book that changed everything for Jose was Man’s Search for Meaning: The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust by Viktor Frankl. This book boosted Jose’ faith to the point that at the first opportunity, he started a Bible study group with the other hostages. This was kind of ironic, as Jose had driven many times past churches in Texas, where he lives, and looked at these churches and wondered why people attended Bible studies. To him, back then, it sounded ridiculous. So this whole experience, instead of making Jose bitter, deepened his faith. And when he read the Bible with the other hostages, he really felt that God was besides him.

But it wasn’t just faith in God. It was faith in life and faith in humanity.

This only happened because Jose was willing to look for the gold in the experience. And of course, it is not something you can do right away. But it is what people call a growth mindset.

Jose is launching his first memoir called From Hero to Villain on Publishizer. To support his crowdfunding campaign, Click here   He already has the plan to write two more memoirs.

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I hate to rain on your parade, because I am generally a very positive and uplifting person, but today I need to tell you about the danger of being roped into a cult, as a spiritual seeker and of course, the lawyer in me immediately wants to give you tools to protect you from that. And this is what episode 2 of the True Spirituality Podcast is all about. Let’s do this.

There is an incredibly high risk, on your spiritual journey, that you will come across people who are dishonest and who will try to enrol you into cults. I watched a documentary released on Netflix in the UK in July called How to Become a Cult Leader and believe me, it’s blood-curdling. The documentary was very well made, but as is often the case, it did not give you the antidote. It just showed facts. I am all about antidotes so this episode is going to give you some serious tips on how to cult proof your spiritual journey.

In 2023 alone, the press reported ten cases of cult scandals, one of which, related to a coaching company called Inside Lighthouse in the UK, hit a particularly chord because self development is a noble activity. Who do you trust? There are so many genuine coaches, yoga teachers, meditation teachers and hypnotherapists out there who do good work but whose work has been tainted because of some unscrupulous individuals in their field.

I also want to add that I believe that religious dogma paves the way for cults in ways that need to be exposed. Most cults thrive on the ideas of there being evil in the world, that you are a sinner that somehow needs to be redeemed and purified, that the world will end soon and that they have superpowers (similar to those that Catholics attribute to Jesus). Dogma is not neutral. It is a form of manipulation. The oxford dictionary defines it as a belief that you are asked not to question. When you have been manipulated once, you are more inclined to be manipulated again because you have adopted a thought hole (a concept that we will explore in a further episode and that comes from the brilliant book Out of the Fog by Dana Morningstar). Basically a thought hole is a fault in thinking.

Before we go any further, I want to own that I have a vested interest in this episode. When I was a law student in the 80s, I did a gap year in England. I met a lovely American woman who became a very close friend. She was in all things spiritual and actually dragged me to see my first psychic medium whilst I visited her in New England. A few years later, she was roped into a cult. I stayed in touch and supported her when she left the cult, five kids later. It was bound to make a very strong impression on me and it created a passion for me to keep spiritual seekers safe.

We have argued over time, my friend and I, as I saw her situation as a domestic violence situation whereas she likes to label it as a cult experience. Over the years, I have come to realise that there was no need to argue as they are very similar experiences anyway. Cult leaders are narcissists.

There are five main types of cults: religious, self help, success, new age and personal. My friend’s cult pretended to want to create a better world. There are lots of cults who pose as environmental movements. Many cults have a front as meditation centres. This reminds me of Alexis in Schitt’s Creek when she joins that gym that sells health supplements. Yes, that’s real. In fact, a very prominent cult in the US supplies sushi to restaurants. Cults are businesses and are into big money.

In case you think you are above mind control and manipulation, I want to draw your attention to an experiment done in the 60s, the results of which have been duplicated in 2006, called the Milgram experiment. This is part of research into the theory of conformism, which at the start, wanted to understand if what happened in Nazi Germany had a risk of happening in America. The answer is: yes. Non of us are immune to manipulation and mind control, no matter our level of education. The results of that study blindsided the scientific community.

Now, for the good part, how do you cult proof your spiritual journey?

Tip #1: Cultivate discernment

Tip #2: Learn about narcissism

Tip #3: Learn to identify dogma

Tip #4: Beware of the part of you that wants to believe in miracles or short cuts

Tip #5: Recognise red flags

Tip #6: Learn about mental manipulation and mind games

Tip #7: Understand your weaknesses

I go into more details of each of those tips in the actual episodes.

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Maria Shiyko, PhD, MMetaph, is a spiritual business and life mentor and the author of three books.

Her first book, "From Russia to Love, a journey of spiritual awakening", is a memoir about her journey of un-conditioning from her culture as she made the move from her native Smolensk, in Russia, to the USA. From a scientific background, she dived into spirituality whilst in a deeply unhappy marriage. In an effort to help herself, she met her first meditation teacher who helped her transcend the mind and realised that she was not her thoughts only. Which, for someone with a PhD, was remarkable. That's when she started questioning everything.

It took her five years to write her memoir, and at one point she threw away her manuscript and deleted the file, but the book kept on calling her. And it's within weeks of it being published that she met her current life partner. She speaks about being Russian in a world where Russia is the enemy and how she wishes to be the inspiration to wake her people from their state of victimhood. We discussed what spiritual leadership means to her.

Her second book is about money, as she realised that pursuing spiritual studies meant somehow negating being human. Mariya left academia, and felt angry and thinking to herself that "There has to be a way for do what I love and make money". She was determined to break the cycle of being spiritual and being broke. 

She followed a writing process that she called channeling, where she connected to the universal energies of Love/God/the Universe and received guidance on how to break that paradigm. She then collaborated with a friend to help her edit the book, and became a co-author of "My brilliant money book: for joyful and creative living".

Her third book is a collection of 31 stories on "Gifts from Pain" in which she contributed a chapter called from suicide to joyful leadership. This book brings hope to anyone going through hard times and shares tools of inspiration. 

To find out about Mariya's course about Money Mastery, head over to her website www.mariyashiyko.love or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mariyashiyko/

Sometime in July 2023, a member of my community, True Spirituality with Ange, asked me a question: Am I Spiritual? I have known this woman for over ten years both online and off line and I could have answered the question immediately for her: Yes, in my humble opinion, and yet still my opinion only, she was.

This led me to consider that an answer to this question that offers a process would actually be helpful to my future podcast audience, hence the first episode now being about how to answer this question. But in order to give you the tools to find out, I first had to debunk quite a few myths around what it means to be spiritual because let’s be frank here, there is a lot of BS in the spiritual circles.

I always like to start with definitions. I owe this process to my late father who always invited us to pick up the dictionary around family meals to check our understanding of words. (Thanks, Dad. I love you and I miss you.) The Oxford Dictionary defines spiritual as the quality of being concerned with the human spirit and or the soul as opposed to material of physical things. It’s a good starting point, but it seems to, at least to me, to exclude people who are living in the modern world. It’s creates this divide between people who have renounced the material or the physical, and people who, you know, have jobs, houses, cars, families, friends, et cetera, because this is quite a material world we live in.

I also want to express my concern about this definition because it leaves so many people out.

Now let’s look at the definition of religious, which my father was. Pious even. The definition of religious is someone who has a strong belief in God or gods. That’s, you can see is different from spiritual as well, in the sense that they’re bringing in the whole notion of God into it.

This highlights right away that you can be spiritual without being religious. I really need to make this point.

In this podcast episode, I go through a meme I found on the internet and that I will share in my community when the podcast goes live that lists twelve signs that you might be spiritual created by the Mind Journal. I am not going to list them here as I talk about them extensively in the podcast episode but suffice to say that out of the twelve listed, most of them are not actually signs that you might be spiritual. Not in my world anyway. Mindfulness and meditation, of themselves, do not make people more spiritual. I know someone, who I won’t name although the temptation is real, who meditates every day and who is a complete arsehole. in fact, some narcissists meditate or pretend to meditate and use this to lure innocent victims into their web. I will be talking about the danger of manipulation on your spiritual in next episode, so watch this space.

This led me to compile my own list of five signs that you maybe spiritual. I am happy to share it here:

Sign #1: You have kindness as your highest value

Sign #2: Your intent is to refrain from harming or hurting other people

Sign #3: You take responsibility for your feelings

Sign #4: Accept you have an ego and learn what ego is

Sign #5: Aspire at being a better person

Is meditating or eating pure food on my list? No. And I would like to warn you if it is on yours. You might just be buying into false spirituality.

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Hello everyone. I want to welcome you to my brand new podcast called True Spirituality with Ange. I am a spiritual lawyer, an author, and obviously a podcaster. I started calling myself a spiritual lawyer, I think around 2010 when a friend of mine called me a spiritualist on Facebook when he was trying to reintroduce me to some university friends. And there was a big response in me, a big, no, I'm not a spiritualist, even though I am trained as a medium, I've never been comfortable calling myself a spiritualist or a medium. So on that thread, which was lovely, I wrote down, I'm not a spiritualist, I'm a spiritual lawyer. And it stuck. It felt right, and that was what was important. And in this podcast, I want you to understand that what feels right for you is really important, and you have to honor that, okay? Things need to feel right. And this brings me to talking about intuition within the topic of spirituality. When you start to explore spirituality outside of organized religions, you have to be careful. I like to say as a joke that it's a bit of a spiritual jungle out there. And so your intuition will be like a satellite navigation system that is going to keep you safe, okay? You have to keep safe. 

You may know me from a previous podcast called The Intuitive Revolution in Business. I ran this podcast from June, 2021 until December, 2022. It has 88 episodes, and it's still live on all the podcast platforms. And I really want to invite you to go and listen to those episodes, especially if you are an ambitious entrepreneur or if you are an ambitious professional and you want to learn how to integrate intuition in your decision-making to create success on your terms. And I suppose I'm expanding my niche a little bit with this podcast because I believe that spirituality can enhance all the areas of our lives from family, parenting, relationship, relationship to your body as well, health, money, but also healing. And I think it's very, very important that we create a blueprint for our spirituality that serves us and that enables us to connect to something bigger, but without the dogma and without the preconceived ideas that other people maybe have dished to you.

I want you to understand that spirituality is going to enhance every aspect of your life. And I have seven points that I've listed that I believe you can get benefits from almost right away. First, it brings more intentionality. When you are spiritually aware, you are more intentional. You set your intent about something. And intent is slightly different from goals in the sense that they're more flexible, they're more open, especially open to the idea that the universe might step in and help you and co-create with you. And we're touching a little bit on the law of attraction here, but I'm going to keep it sweet and short for now. Two, you become aware of your thoughts and their impact on your life. And when I trained as a clinical therapist in 2006 or seven, that's something that was a massive change for me. The way I looked at myself and my thoughts and how I understand how my mind works. 

Alright, so what can you expect from this podcast in terms of periodicity? I will issue podcast episodes every Friday, and I'm not too sure yet how often I'll have guests, I suppose at least once a month, maybe more. I might have series of guests if we have a theme. 

I already know, for example, as I launched this podcast, that I have seven speakers that I've interviewed for my True Spirituality Summit back in July, 2023.  If you would like to sign up to receive the link to the free platform, click here http://eepurl.com/gn0565

I had a couple of transformative experiences that led me to want to train in energy as a lawyer. The first of these experiences was when I went to a shiatsu masseuse back in my Paris days and saw blues and greens inside my head as she worked the knots in my shoulders and neck. I wanted to understand what this was all about and found a book called Hands of Light that started to explain energy for me.

Fast forward a couple of years and I lived in London and what do you know, the author of that book was doing a talk in a theatre near me. As I sat in an audience of 1,000 people, I saw this woman's energy expand and fill the entire theatre. It was mind-blowing.

A couple years after, I was living in Bristol and got an itch to see a psychic-medium, which led to me training with her in spiritual healing. Now that I have practiced energy medicine for now twenty years, here are the five things I think you should know:

1. We all have energy fields around us
2. This energy field sends strands of energy to make sure we are safe
3. Sometimes these strands turn into cords (they can be cut)
4. We have energy centres in our bodies
5. People do not need to know about energy in order to use it

To purchase my energy intelligence for sensitive entrepreneurs self study course, click here.

There were a lot of concepts and beliefs in the faith that I was brought up in that did not sit well with me. So at the age of twelve, I stopped going to church. My desire for spirituality was still there though. So what do you do?

I started exploring different religions, such as buddhism, and without giving it much thought, I started to pick and choose what felt right for me and what didn't. Now that I have been on this path for well over thirty years, I would like to invite you to do the same, regardless of whether you decide to stay in your religious tradition or not, as some of you value the communities that these religions have built and want to stay.

I am officially giving you permission to create your own spiritual blueprint. Especially if you are a woman or a member of the LGBT community because traditionally, religions have not treated our communities well, so it's up to us to create a new narrative. Before we dive in, I also want you to go through this exercise with cultural appropriation in mind so that you remain respectful of other people's cultures and religions, especially if they have been exploited or are marginalised. You can read more about what cultural appropriation is in this Wikipedia article.

With this caveat, let's dive in. I have selected three concepts from the PDF that I created to help you with this process, namely, heaven and hell, angels and karma. The PDF, that you will receive is you sign up for my newsletter with this link, has five pages of key words for you to explore.

1. Heaven and Hell

Heaven is traditionally regarded as the place where God and the angels reside and where the good go after death, and often depicted as above the clouds. Hell on the other hand is regarded as the place where the Devil and demons reside and where the wicked go after death and often depicted with perpetual fire and darkness.

Heaven and Hell rest on the dualistic model of good and bad. Personally, I think that good and bad are always relative as they can depend on our beliefs, our culture and our circumstances. It also rest on a model where people are judged. And if you have been raised in the Catholic faith as I am, you only get one chance.

When faced with a spiritual or religious concept, I want you to get into the habit of asking yourself: Does this support the life that I am creating? And if it doesn't, challenge it and replace it by something that feels better. You can use the four question process that Byron Katie has created, which is incredibly powerful. I describe the four questions in the episode but the most important one is number three which asks you to find out how that concept makes you feel. Personally that concept make me feel manipulated, as if I could not decide for myself what is right and what is right and I had to have the threat of hell to behave myself. Is heaven real? Who knows. Is hell real? Same answer.

What better belief can we replace them with? Personally I believe there is a material world populated with beings with bodies, humnan or animal, and a spirit world for beings without bodies. I believe that God lives in my heart (although I rarely use the word God because it has a connotation that makes me cringe). I don't believe in heaven and hell.

2. Angels

Does the concept of angels resonate with you? The definition of angels is spiritual beings believed to be messengers of God. Do we need to believe in God to believe in angels? I personally don't think so. For the record, I want to mention that religions have created hierarchy of angels that reflect the religious hierarchy and one has to wonder why, if not to support the oppressive religious model created by (mostly white) men. My own measuring stick for angelic presence is simplicity. So an angelic hierarchy feels like an oxymoron. You might also be interested in reading a piece I wrote for The Taoist Online on Medium recently that claims that guardian angels do not exist.

3. Karma

Although traditionally linked to Hinduism and Buddhism, karma has found its way in popular culture in the West, so I wanted to include it in this episode. It is the idea of a chain of cause and effect in morality. The most common example of karma I have heard being used is someone being ill because they did something wrong in a past life.

This ties into the concept of good and bad, with the added dimension of reincarnation, although it is not a necessary piece. I personally found it liberating when I came across it for the first time in my twenties. I had been raised by a very judgmental mother and tended to get very upset when people did the wrong thing. Of course, at the time, I could see no fault in my own behaviour but that's a topic for another discussion. The idea that karma took care of it all was freeing at first.

Not anymore. And that's another point I would like to make: Your blueprint is a living document. It might look a certain way today and be entirely different in a year's time, so revisit it regularly.

To share your piece of art regarding your new blueprint, DM me on my Facebook profile or my LinkedIn profile. To discuss this episode, head over to my FB page where you will find a post for this particular episode.