A life path
When I was four years old it seemed normal to have conversations with the spirit of an old man appearing in my bedroom. I had higher than 20/20 vision (and even today still do not require glasses to read). Between the ages of 14 and 21, I stopped seeing things clairvoyantly. When I think back to that time, I realise that, living in the suburbs and attending an all-male college, I didn’t even notice this change.
One day while walking across the college quad I heard a voice inside my head. It was very calm and clear. It told me: You will have a much more interesting life if you do not pursue a career in international law. I was about to graduate with a BA in International Affairs, interning at the Philadelphia National Bank with the promise of an international position.
After college I met Elwood Babbitt by ‘chance’. He was a psychic who channeled historical entities such as Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Vishnu, and underwent multiple scientific experiments and tests. (Anthropologist Charles Hapgood wrote about these and other tests in his book Voices of Spirit). Elwood and I, together with many of his students, created the Caduceus School, an alternative approach to education that would help pioneer home education throughout the state of Massachusetts.
During this time in my early twenties, I began to meditate daily. I started to get more in touch with myself. I wrote songs and began to have experiences of past lives. I started keeping a dream journal that demonstrated to my skeptical mind that I had dreamed in precise detail an event which would take place two week later. This was a major turning point for me: I had always thought of time as linear, that the future was determined by the past. Now I had jumped ahead two weeks. If this was true, how far ahead would it be possible to see? And what did that say about reality?
A few years later, now with a family to support and a mortgage to pay, a voice in my head (which I had by now learned to recognise as my ‘guides’) told me: It is time to become a full-time healer. I was working in the construction trade by day and teaching meditation and yoga classes at night. I was in a dilemma. I had responsibilities. If I couldn’t pay the mortgage, we could lose our house. My guides agreed, but asked: What do you believe in?
Clairvoyance does not stop nor fade. It provides sneak previews and unique insights into how beautiful and precious this Life is. Ever more chakras have appeared to me over the years. They are everywhere: at sacred sites on the earth or in galaxies beyond. As humans we have the potential to access not only our personal chakras (inside our bodies) but also the chakras above us, our Higher Self and the chakras of the Cosmos.
For almost four decades, I have worked throughout the US, Canada and Europe as a healer with thousands of clients and have taught many hundreds how to meditate and work with their chakras. Though I am traveling less now, I continue to work both locally and online, offering private sessions, workshops and courses.
Major influences
I am indebted to all those who are and have been my teachers, each one. We can only know what we experience.
I study and practice Qi Gong, Taoism, and Buddhism. Throughout my adult life, I have been led to many teachers and leaders of different spiritual and healing traditions. These have all served to create context and in many instances validation of personal insights.
I met Dr. Mary Jo Bulbrook, RN, in 1985. She was a professor of Nursing and Psychology at Memorial University in St. Johns, Canada. She was also a senior student of Virginia Satir, noted pioneer of Family Systems Therapy which has today has evolved into ‘Family Constellations’ work. From Mary Jo, I learned how to work with a client’s emotional needs, how to psychologically support them within the framework of each session and help empower them using Satir’s techniques such as ‘re-framing’. Virginia taught me how to understand the underlying dynamics behind the emotions of anger and shame. Her attitude was to see the good in everyone (which was made evident to me in her radiant round golden aura).
My studies of Qi Gong started in New York City with Dr. Feng in the late 1980s. He had an extraordinarily joyful appearance and an established reputation as a healer. His simple technique was easy to learn but he had to return to China. My training was then taken over by Qi Gong Master Chen, Hui X’ian who came to Ireland in 1999 and taught for the next four years. I am certified by her to teach both Soaring Crane and Essence Qi Gong forms.
Buddhism
In 1981 I saw the His Holiness Dalai Lama for the first time at Harvard University. His aura, a huge golden hemisphere, illuminated the sky over Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am convinced that he is not only a man – a humble monk – but a Mind or Soul that has evolved through fourteen successive incarnations. My relationship to the Dalai Lama completely altered my interface with life as I saw him a dozen times over the years, attending teachings and receiving two Kalachakra empowerments in 2002, Gratz, Austria and in 2006, Amaravati, India. Each time I see His Holiness I recognise someone who is truly compassionate, expressing himself simply with an extraordinary grasp of both Tibetan manuscripts and the commentaries.
I formally took refuge with Venerable Lama Lodro in Tibetan Buddhism in 1989 in Santa Fe, NM. It happened by accident – as do most remarkable things in life: I thought I was going to attend lecture on Amitābha, the Buddha of Illumination, but instead ended up having a piece of my hair cut off, being given a dharma name and receiving my first empowerment of Amitābha. I unexpectedly entered a palpable golden realm; I felt a sense of nurturing and comfort like never before. This experience catapulted me into a profound and continuing practice of Tibetan Buddhism.
Since then I have undertaken many empowerments, including: Green Tara in 1992 with Very Venerable Bokar Tulku Rinpoche; Vajrayoginī in 2006 with Venerable Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche; Vajrasattva in 2009 with Lama Drakpa; Vajrayoginī and Amitābha in 2011 with His Eminence. Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche; and lastly in 2016, Medicine Buddha with His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
In November 2014, I co-hosted the Maitreya Loving Kindness Relic Tour in the Aula Maxima of University College Cork, officiated by Venerable Panchen Otrul Rinpoche. Over two thousand people attended, receiving blessings from the 2,500 year old rincel, white pearls of Shakyamuni Buddha.
In early 2017, I went on a month-long Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat on Holy Isle, Scotland. I maintain my practice as a Shangpa within the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhists headed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. Shangpa is a Tibetan minor branch uniquely started by two Kashmiri women, Niguma and Sukhasiddhi along with Khyungpo Nenjor in the 11th century.