Check Your Ego at the Door

There is a small town not far from Orlando, Florida they call a “Spiritualist Camp”. The name of the town is Cassadaga. It is supposedly a place made up of psychics, spiritual counselors, and others who practice the mystic arts.  I just knew that this was the place where I was destined to be.  I was living in central Florida some years ago and I could not wait to go there when I heard of its existence. I was sure that I would find so many kindred spirits there and I would never feel like the odd person out again.   Well, I must have slept with the husband of every human in the place in a past life because I could not have felt more unwelcome in a town.  All that was missing was a huge scarlet letter “A” on my blouse.

It was a very quaint and beautiful little village.  It had old world charm, it was clean and bright and was surrounded by tall trees and paved streets that made me feel so at home - on the face of it, but I didn’t see a single soul outside and it was a beautiful day.  Truly, I expected to see spiritual beings everywhere bustling around and sharing their peace, love, and healing with each other and communicating deep spirituality on every corner.  Nope.  It was almost like an abandoned ghost town, only there were no tumbleweeds rolling down the street.  I began to have a little more hope when I looked around and saw a new age bookstore.   It was a huge white clapboard building set above the street.   Inside, there was one woman behind the counter speaking to someone on the telephone.  She did not even acknowledge my presence, even though the store entrance was directly in front of her and there were no other customers inside.  I decided to look around until she finished her phone call.  She never did.  I really wanted to connect with someone in this place.  It seemed like a perfect place for me.  It had to be. For christ’s sake, I was someone just like them.  I really wanted kinship with others who believed as I did and were living in harmony with their true selves. Too bad.

After about 15 minutes of being deliberately ignored, I thought about buying something to make some sort of contact with the only soul who seemed to be alive in the place.  As I considered what might be something I would like to own, I realized that it would make no difference if I bought her entire inventory.  I was not going to make a friend that day.

It was a good thing that I already had my psychic sense about me because there would have been no way to learn anything as a seeker in that town.  It was a huge disappointment.  If the town was closed that day it would have been helpful if they had posted a sign to that effect.  Truly, just because one promotes oneself to be in touch with the universe does not necessarily make it so, even when the whole town represents itself to be in touch. The spiritual life demands that you connect with others in order to evolve.  Being there felt like “High Noon” with all of the citizens hiding in fear of the showdown in the street.  I was Gary Cooper but my nemesis never showed up. What is interesting about this is that it is becoming the norm for many of us who want to make a difference in this world.  Nobody wants to know the peacemakers.  If it looks like you might be trying to do so (or even if it just “feels” like it) you are not welcome.  It shouldn’t be true with those who claim to be of the mindset of peace, although, just because you claim to be psychic does not mean that you are seeking balance for yourself or those you may read for.  I see a lot of fear of being wrong in people now and even though I understand it to a point, it is something that needs to be eliminated from the populace or we will never solve the social problems that are killing us and keeping us from having any real peace.

Some of the most grandiose (thinking) people who are in possession of some psychic ability are capable of being as unfriendly, unprofessional, and as wildly inaccurate as Criswell.  Select your mentors carefully and take whatever a psychic tells you with a grain of salt and some skepticism until you have some reason to accept what they say.  I would never tell you that there is a psychic anywhere on the planet who is 100% accurate.  As with anyone, you are dealing with a human being.  Any information that you receive in a reading is being interpreted by a person.  Hopefully the person will have dealt with their own ego and have learned to set aside their personality long enough to read for you in an unbiased way. But there are no guarantees.

I have been told some bizarre things in readings that I have had.  One psychic that I went to in Indianapolis, Indiana had been written about in the newspaper with a huge full page spread and several pictures.  He was purported to have given readings to several movie stars and some high powered people in his day.  I was extremely surprised when I was able to get an appointment with him and his fee was very reasonable. 

The reading took place at a very elegant home in the Indianapolis suburbs.  When the man greeted me at the door and bid me to come in I nearly fainted when I saw that the place was virtually empty.  There were two chairs set up in the living room area and two wooden crates turned on their sides that were makeshift tables, and that was the extent of it except for several newspapers strewn about the few  pieces of furniture there and a telephone.  The man asked me if he had ever seen me before, possibly in Las Vegas?  He was sure that I looked familiar.  Of course I had never seen this man before in my life.  When I told him that I had never been to Las Vegas before, he began to tell me that I must have been a showgirl in a past life because he absolutely could see me doing this again.  He even described the outfit that I would be wearing in the act.  Well, I knew that he was off his “bleedin’ nut” then!   I sat and listened to him ramble on about this for quite some time and every time I made the attempt to cordially end the reading he would see something else on a grand scale that was going to happen to me that was truly wonderful.  I did manage to make an escape after about 45 minutes but the guy followed me out to my car and stood there, leaning against it for another 10 minutes or so rambling on about my upcoming career as a showgirl.  I finally told him that the possibility of that happening was extremely unlikely since I had no desire to go to Las Vegas and even attempt such a career.  He paused for a moment and then told me that I was at least going to do very well financially and he saw me getting a new luxury car.  When I finally managed to get the hell out of there, I was laughing so hard that I nearly ran off the road twice driving home.  I will never be sure if this fellow actually believed this baloney or he was just hoping that I would.

On another visit to a psychic, I was told that I was in contact with beings from the planet Saturn.  He said that I just needed to try harder and I would be able to understand them.  Interestingly enough, this particular psychic was correct about some things that he told me.  I truly did not know if there were beings on Saturn or not.  I still don’t, for that matter.  I suppose that it is as likely that there is life on the other planets as there is on this one.  I can’t say for sure that the guy was nuts.  I have never actually tried to do a reading on the possibility of life on Saturn or any other planet so he may have information that I have just never been privy to.  I will say that I told this story to another psychic who was from England, after a UFO seminar in Winter Haven, Florida, and he told me that there is no life on Saturn.  He didn’t say whether or not there was life on the other planets.  Being that he was attending a UFO seminar and he seemed to be tense about the possibility that aliens are among us already, I had to balance my belief in the validity of his opinion and that of the other psychic.  If there are beings from Saturn communicating with me it would appear that they aren’t trying too hard either.

Psychic, John Edward tells in his book, “Infinite Quest” about other psychics approaching him when he had his television show, “Crossing Over with John Edward” and rudely intimating to him that they were much better psychics than he and they deserved to have their own television show instead of him.  This much ego and rudeness tells me that these people may have a bit of their psychic radar turned on but I would never trust the validity of someone with that much snobbery and self-righteousness. Anyone with their self worth in place does not need to insult others.  Their self confidence in what they are and what they do does not need to be confirmed by an adoring public.  If John Edward was fortunate enough to have been given his own television show it was in him to have it all along.  Others who haven’t been given a public forum aren’t given it for a reason, most likely a very good one, too. 

If you are working on developing your intuition and psychic sense it is helpful to communicate with others who have already done so.  They can be a wealth of information and support to you if they have done their homework on themselves and truly know what they are doing.  My advice to you if you are seeking a mentor or just someone to confirm that you are going in the right direction (if you haven’t gotten your confidence yet) is to seek a spiritual counselor or a true mystic first.  Those who just call themselves “psychic” may have some ability but as a learned friend once told me they are most likely just “playing in the astral plane of life” and may have (like many people on the planet) gotten themselves to a point where they feel they have learned enough. They can achieve a few “hits” and call themselves professionals as a result, without ever comprehending that the true nature of being a whole person is something that one never stops learning.  You are ever evolving and you will never know everything.  Check your ego at the door because you are never so good as to be infallible.  Socrates said, “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing”.  I would not say that you know nothing if you are capable of reading the wisdom of the universe, but it is a fact that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.  It is in this ability to acknowledge that the universe is vast and comprehending its secrets is a lifelong process that you will make the best use of your particular gifts and be able to share them with others when you have reached a level of competency to teach this to others.  It is much like being a PhD or a college professor in that you have reached a level of excellence that enables you to  impart what you know to others, but you are in no way at the end of your learning process.  It is impossible for mere mortals to know everything so do not assume that you ever will, but there will be a time when you can expand your horizons and help others do the same.  Your journey from the past to the present to the future will make you uniquely qualified to contribute to the hope of the entire planet.   Your endeavoring to do so is the most important thing that you can do in your life.