Where are the straight men in the metaphysical and spiritual communities? Previous guests Ash Riley of InMySacredSpace.com and Slade Roberson of the Shift Your Spirits Podcast join Patrick in a roundtable (ahem – triangle table) discussion of a rarely approached topic!
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Psychic Medium Kristy Robinett returns to the parlor to share experiences and stories from her new book, Journey to the Afterlife: Comforting Messages & Lessons from Loved Ones in Spirit. We talk about Heaven, Hell, and everything in between!
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Clairvoyant medium, Travis Sanders, sits down with Patrick for a conversation about psychic kids, Spiritualism, and support for today’s young people. Plus his book, I Am Psychic, So Are You!: A Clairvoyant Handbook.
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What happens when we die? What does Christianity get wrong, and what happens when we only look at the words of Jesus? Patrick sits down in the Big Seance parlor with author and afterlife expert, Roberta Grimes.
A conversation with spiritual medium, Carole J. Obley, on such topics as past lives, meditation, how she uses her gifts, the most memorable messages that she has received from spirit, and her book, Soul to Soul Connections: Comforting Messages from the Spirit World.
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Carole J. Obley, of Soulvisions, LLC – is a professional spiritual medium from Pittsburgh, PA, who has done thousands of readings for people seeking confirmation, guidance, and healing from the spirit world. She has been the subject of newspaper articles, spoken on both radio and TV and is the author of three books on mediumship and healing. She has also published articles on spiritual and metaphysical subjects and taught workshops at Lilydale, N.Y., the largest US center for Spiritualism. She has produced audio programs to help people with spiritual development and teaches three levels of classes in intuition and mediumship. You can find Carole’s website at SoulVisions.net.
Carole gets details of past lives in her readings 13:19
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Thanks, Carole!
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A New Book!
The Big Seance Podcast can be found right here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and iHeart Radio. Please subscribe, submit a rating, or share with a fellow paranerd! Do you have any comments or feedback? Please contact me at Patrick@BigSeance.com. Consider recording your voice feedback directly from your device on my SpeakPipe page! You can also call the show and leave feedback at (775) 583-5563 (or 7755-TELL-ME). I would love to include your voice feedback in a future show. The candles are already lit, so come on in and join the séance!
Spiritual teacher and psychic Sylvia Browne didn’t have the easiest life, and controversy sometimes followed her, but today she passed on, presumably to a beautiful and picturesque Other Side that she wrote so much about. I absolutely love her books, and am convinced that many of her critics have not read one. I just know that she’s working on a new book right now, well, at least after her guide Francine drops her off at one of the marble benches inside the Hall of Wisdom for the cool scanning machine, which she claims is our first stop after reuniting with our pets and loved ones.
She always claimed that she was on her last incarnation, so what now? I wouldn’t mind having an extra guide! And if Francine is looking for another gig, the more the merrier! I have to tell you, it makes me want to have a séance right now. I sincerely hope she reports back to someone soon!
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Our lives on this earth, no matter how briefly or how long they last, are just moments in the context of the eternity God breathed into us at the instant He created us. Our real lives, joyful and glorious and perfect, are back Home, on the Other Side, where we all came from, the place we’re wistfully Homesick for every minute we’re here whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, and where we’ll go when we abandon these flawed, cumbersome bodies and soar Home again as alive as ever. Clinging fiercely to this one life, as if it’s all there is and all there will ever be, would be no different than clinging fiercely to one random day of school, as if there’s nowhere else to go but there and nothing more to learn.
–Sylvia Browne, from Prophecy, 2004, Health and Medicine, page 217.
Sylvia Browne: In her own words… (Big Séance)
Sylvia Browne: Are members of the “spiritual community” turning on her? (Big Séance)
My dad called me about this one. “Hey! Turn it on SyFy. There’s a new show and they’re talking about séances!” This seems to be a goofy show that tastes a little like Unsolved Mysteries to me. Maybe it’s the reenactments that give me that vibe, because it’s certainly not the goofiness. And that’s not horrible, I guess… because I love me some old school Unsolved Mysteries. To this day the old theme song can make me pull the covers over my head, but musically I just love it! But Weird or What? is hosted by William Shatner (which explains the goofiness).
William Shatner hosting Weird or What?
The particular episode that I watched was episode #2 and titled “Life After Death”. In this episode, Mr. Shatner makes his entrance on a Segway…. ??? I was delighted to see that the séance material ended up being about the Scole Experiment, which I’ve discussed on this blog quite a bit (see related links below). Most of the information was watered down to fit a small segment, but it was nice to see some fresh discussion on the topic with people involved. Other segments include a man who has been told and is convinced that in a past life he was a general in the Civil War Battle of Antietam, and a man who comes back from the dead after 18 years. That last one, of course, is trying to take advantage of the huge zombie craze that the American culture is going through right now.
Some of the interviews in this episode include a scientist who discusses his theory about the soul and quantum physics (that’s when I started seeing chickens out of the corner of my eye and thought about going downstairs for a snack), a photography expert that analyzes some of the Scole evidence (even though it has already been done), and a Harvard psychologist and a scientist who both play the part of skeptics. The scientist sets up an almost insulting and fake séance for unsuspecting sitters. Of course, this is his way of saying it’s all an illusion.
So what did I think? It’s the only episode I’ve watched and my DVR is not set to record anymore episodes.
I used to not like the boys from Ghost Adventures at all. In fact (as if I knew it all), I would roll my eyes and tell you all about why I thought they were giant asses (though they have been in the past). I’ve talked to other GA fans who believe that they’re softening up a bit and getting more serious. That might be true, but I think I just didn’t really give them a chance before because of the first impression. I began really checking them out in preparation for my Fort Chaffee Prison investigation with JPRS. They had investigated that location a year or so before and I studied that episode. Some people turn their noses up and pretend that all paranormal television (Ghost Hunters, etc.) are nonsense and had nothing to do with why they do whatever it is they do in this field, but I’ve learned to appreciate them for what we can get out of them. I suppose there are pioneers out there who have been at it for years, but the vast majority of people in this field joined AFTER the great paranormal craze of the early 2000s. (Warning: Completely random comment. I think we need to start using the term “ott” or “ot” again when referring to the first ten years of the century. Thoughts?) I can’t pretend Ghost Hunters wasn’t one of the biggest inspirations for why I do what I do.
The Goldfield Hotel
Anyway… (Look! There goes another chicken!) I’ve been watching more Ghost Adventures episodes recently. The episode of their most recent visit to the Goldfield Hotel was outstanding, but just the other night I watched the Glen Tavern Inn episode. What fascinated me about this one? Not only did they get some really great EVP, and they gave us plenty of shots of the beauty of the hotel, but they conducted a séance! I was pleased to see Zak and the boys be open to doing that. The fact that they (like Ghost Hunters) have been having celebrity guests lately has been getting on my nerves, but I guess they gotta do what they gotta do.
Has anyone else been watching?
Glen Tavern Inn
I Still Watch Ghost Hunters… So What?
Video Highlights from our 9/15/12 Séance
Exciting News! Beyond the Scole Experiment!
The Scole Experiment… My Review…
The Scole Group’s “A Basic Guide”
More Random Bits and Thoughts on Scole
Some Random Bits and Thoughts on Scole
Shirley MacLaine has written several books, but the autobiographical Out On a Limb (1983) is the first book that really goes “out there” as she lets you follow her search for inner truth. If you not only go back a bit in time, but also think about the massive career that Shirley had built by this moment, it’s not hard to understand that she had a lot to lose by “coming out” to the public about her enlightenment. It’s not really a short read, and it’s not light and fluffy either. But I suspect many Big Séance readers can relate to much of what is in this book.
There are a few initial chance meetings that introduce Shirley to topics like reincarnation, mediumship, and aliens/UFOs. I found it interesting to hear her talk about her hunger for learning and finding information through books. She couldn’t stop reading and searching for answers. This is how I felt when I began what I’ve often called my “spiritual shift” several years ago. This blog has been a continuation of this shift. It took what seems like forever for Shirley to really accept some of these concepts. There were times she was downright skeptical and wouldn’t just take one person’s explanation or even one personal experience as proof. And the biggest moment that I could relate to happened after spending two and a half heavy and dramatic weeks in Peru with a friend and teacher. She became overwhelmed. The spiritual truths and learning was all too much and was happening so fast. I flagged this paragraph in the book.
“I spent the next few days walking and thinking. Sometimes David came with me, sometimes not. Sometimes I wanted to go home, back to America, back to the familiarity of my old world with its fast-paced involvement, its clanking relationships, its unrealistic romance, all the rushing with no seeming purpose–the events, the news, the arts, movies, hits, flops, sweat, hard work, black humor, competition, new fashions, profits, color TV, and success. I missed it all. I was used to it. I had survived in its colorful confusion, and I missed it. But I didn’t want to be unfulfilled in it anymore either. I watched the woman with no teeth wash her clothes by stamping on them with her feet. They came out clean. The clothes, I mean. (Probably the feet, too.) That’s what I wanted to do with my life… stamp on it until it came out clean. Could I go back to my old world now? Would I be two people? Was I more than one person anyway? I stopped and laughed right there. That was the whole lesson, wasn’t it? I was all the people I had ever lived. I had probably been through versions of this brain drain more than a few times before.”
How many of us have experienced this? I know I did. I still do sometimes. Well according to her book, it didn’t take long for her to snap out of the confusion. You might say that since then she’s been one of the few Hollywood faces of the paranormal/spiritual. Her site has the following as a part of their mission.
“The objective of our center is to afford visitors of all ages the ability [to] explore and interact with the myriad of alternative views relating to Spirit, Mind, and Body. These are vast realities that range from the very human concerns of health, well being, aging, and alternative therapies, to universal topics of extraterrestrials, UFOs and phenomenon, to our delicate environment, to life after life, and the spiritual truths of the Divine that each of us is striving to connect with.”
For those in a younger generation that may only know her as playing the role of Martha Levinson on the hit PBS series Downton Abbey (AhhhhMAZING show!), below is Shirley’s Oscar acceptance speech for the amazing film, Terms of Endearment in 1984, a year after Out On a Limb was released. In it, she makes a joke about past lives, but she also talks about there being no such thing as accidents and that we all manifest what we want. I love it and I’ve watched it several times. Just look at the amazing talents and personalities that are shown. The ending of her speech is classic. This video started me out on one of those endless labyrinths of addictive videos that kept me from sleeping. I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that this same all-night obsession has happened in the past with Esther Williams and Gloria Swanson. Anyway, view at your own risk.
Unfortunately, Shirley has most recently been in the news after her daughter, Sachi Parker, wrote and released a book Lucky Me: My Life With — and Without — My Mom, Shirley MacLaine. In the book, Parker apparently claims that Shirley was an absentee mom.
The 1986 TV Miniseries Out On a Limb based on the book
Shirley MacLaine Chose Career Over Me, Daughter Says (ABC News)
Coming Out of the Paranormal/Spiritual Closet
Communicating with Dead Celebrities and the Famous
Today during a class of mine a student asked me something about Bigfoot. First of all, it was a completely random moment in class. I promise I don’t teach paranormal studies. 🙂
Anyway, I explained that there were a lot of things I am open to believing in… aliens, ghosts, and other paranormal topics. Bigfoot? Not so much. Go ahead, bring up astral travel at dinner! I’ll tell you how I’ve tried it and have read quite a bit about it. Reincarnation? Channeling? Automatic Writing? Remote Viewing? Sure! I’d love to learn more about it all and believe it’s all absolutely real. But when it comes to Bigfoot, that’s a little too crazy for me. I find it hard to keep a straight face while having Bigfoot conversations. Why is that?
There are a few other topics that make my ego uncomfortable when I hear or read about them. It’s that same ego that forces me to want to roll my eyes as I tell myself “It’s okay… just get past this chapter. You don’t have to be sucked into believing every paranormal topic you read about.” 🙂
What do you think about these?
So…. What paranormal topics are a bit too far-fetched for you?
Here’s a blog on the topic of parallel universes.
http://www.quantumjumping.com/articles/parallel-universe/parallel-universes-theory/
Information on Time Slips
http://uforeview.tripod.com/timeslips.html
A list of links about Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti
http://paranormal.about.com/od/weirdcreaturesmonsters/u/creatures-and-more.htm#s1
Information on the belief in elves, fairies, and leprechauns
http://paranormal.about.com/od/fairieslittlepeople/Fairies_and_Little_People.htm
**Update
Here is an interesting blog discussion that is PERFECT to link to this post. It is from one of my favorite new sites… Channeling Erik!
