The Monash Weekly

“Ghost whisperer” by Daniel Tran

08 Nov, 2011 02:39 PM

When a loved one dies, can we ever speak to them again? Daniel Tran goes in search of answers.

When I meet Maria Last, I’m surprised by how, well, un-supernatural she looks. A blue-eyed blonde with a killer smile, Maria isn’t what I expected when I set off to meet a psychic. She invites me into her home, a bright, comfortable place with neither crystal ball nor tarot cards in sight.

Maria talks in a soft Irish brogue dulled by 13 years in Australia. She’s 38, an avid Essendon supporter, and she believes she can speak with the dead.

As we chat I notice her eyes occasionally flick to the other side of the room. She explains that she’s looking for the person I’ve come to speak to, my late grandfather.

The night before my visit, Maria had asked me to put a call out to any spirits I wanted to join us, so I stood in the backyard, looked at the sky, and asked if he could pop by.

‘‘I always say, ‘I can’t guarantee you anything,’’’ Maria says. ‘‘If, for any reason, they don’t turn up, usually they’ll send somebody.’’

She tells me there’s been somebody here all morning — an elderly man.

My heart leaps, but as she continues it becomes clear this isn’t Thang Dac Vu, my grandfather.

I was devastated when he died of cancer in 2005. I still miss him, and I’d love to talk to him again, so why not try?

When I was younger, he would walk my brother and I to and from school every day. He was easily the best-dressed man at school with his pressed suit pants and immaculate white button shirt, a possible remnant from growing up in French-occupied Vietnam.

When I was growing up, he was the most reliable person I knew. If it rained he had an umbrella and if it shone, well, the umbrella kept us cool, too. He used to carry it like a rifle and his walk had a certain marching quality, a habit he was never able to break after several years in the army.

When I meet with the Monash Spiritualist Centre, they assure me that getting in touch with my grandfather is possible. I visit the centre’s founder, Val Pearson, and her daughter Sandra at Val’s home in Berwick.

Spiritualists believe that, when a person dies, they end up in places they call the ether and the astral plane, where they can be contacted.

The religion’s founders claimed in 1848 to have contacted a deceased man in their home through a system of knocks corresponding to letters of the alphabet. This transmutation of life rather than death, and the contact it allows, forms the core of the Spiritualist faith.

‘‘All the communication goes through the ether,’’ Val says. “This is how we contact the astral plane but we have to put ourselves in a state where we are not physically thinking. We’re in a meditative state so that we go to a higher level within ourselves to enable us to be able to contact that higher level.

‘‘To be able to communicate with spirit, you have to be in a certain atmosphere. You have to get yourself in a certain state.”

When I ask Val and Sandra whether they can show me this type of mediumship, they say the circumstances are not right.

Wavecare counselling grief counsellor Grant Holland says that when someone dies, the people who love him or her often feel that death should be put away and never spoken about again. In therapy, though, he helps them come to terms with their loss and unlock the memories pushed down by grief.

“We have to get to a point where there’s some acceptance that physically this person is not going to walk in the door,” he says. “But spiritually and in a memory sense … they’re not deceased, they haven’t left.”

Holland succeeded where the others had failed. After talking to him I pulled out some old pictures of my grandfather, showing his time in the South Vietnamese army, and they brought back a flood of happy memories that I realised I had been keeping buried. It was nice to see him again, even if we couldn’t talk.

What happens when you are sick and tired of something? 

How do you feel when you have that thought?
What do you feel when you say those words?
And, what do you see in your mind’s eye in that moment?

Whatever your answers might be, what you need to be aware of is this:
YOU ARE CREATING IT. Whatever you see, feel, think and hear yourself say, you are in that moment creating it.

Choose your words very carefully. If you say something is a pain in the bum/ass/rear watch out – do you really want to experience pain there? I highly doubt it. So don’t say it.

Instead you can choose to be wiser in that moment. Access your wisdom of experience and transmute the old feeling and habit into something new. That something new could be a simple acknowledgement that the situation is challenging, interesting or my favourite, fascinating, (it’s better than saying another “f” word). By doing so you are removing the possibility of creating and anchoring negative energy around the experience (which in some instances can take a long time to work through and release), you are negating the possibility of creating an even more uncomfortable experience for yourself, AND you are choosing to retain your own personal power.

So why is it so dangerous to say things like being sick of something, or such and such being a pain? How does saying it make it so?

The shortest simplest answer to that question is that it is pure Law of Attraction, it’s co-creation in motion, it’s manifestation 101. Because what you are actually doing is sending your conscious thought, coupled with the power of your emotion, out into the universe to be fulfilled.

If you’re not convinced, try it out. But beware, what you talk about and most potently, what you feel about become your life experiences.

So, how many of you have figured out the higher way of experiencing this lesson? Yep, that’s right, talk about something you do want. How about a dinner date or a foot massage?

Now we’re talking!

Have you ever gone to a party or event, met some wonderful people and felt enriched and better for having spent time with them? I have and I’m sure at some time in your life, you have too.

Many years ago I met a really nice group of people at a U2 concert in Croke Park in Dublin, it was the Pop Mart tour I think, the one with the big Lemon (on a side note isn’t it interesting that their tour with the big lemon was for the band financially’ a lemon’ – curious…)  I was on my own and because I’m not very tall and found it difficult to see Bono and the boys from my standing spot amongst the thousands of other spectators I was standing on my tippe-toes and only able to catch glimpses.

That’s when the group of people next to me started to tease me in a good natured way about the great view I had of the back of peoples heads. It was pretty funny but at the same time it was frustrating. Instead of moving away from them intuitively I felt like they were good people and that I should hang out with them.

Then I noticed that even though they were reasonably tall, for some reason they had a little stool with them, (I don’t know how or why they had it, but they did) and for almost the entire concert I stood on it and had a perfect view of everything.

When the show was over we said good bye and went our separate ways.

Sometimes when I’m wondering how things will work out I remember this time and it helps me to trust that I will always find myself where I need to be and that everything I need to be supported will be supplied to me – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Really, when you are 5’2″ and standing in a sea of  60,000 people with nothing except a clear intention and desire to see your favourite band you kinda need a miracle. On that particular day my miracle came in the form of kind people who I felt safe with and had fun with, and amazingly had a stool for me to stand on.

You might not always logically know how things are going to work out for the best, but my advice is to listen to your intuition, expect that they will and then accept it when they do.

1   Intuit it

2  Expect it

3  Accept it

As a medium, what I often liken to being the telephone operator between two worlds, the most frequently sought assurance by my clients is about the deceased’s wellbeing. Essentially, are they OK?

The next enquiry, the subject of our focus here today, which almost always goes unsaid by the client is how the deceased person felt about them, were they loved?

If I were to give one piece of advice to every person, it would be this:

Tell the people you love that you love them.

Tell them what you admire and hold most dear about them. Tell them why you are proud of them and what you wish in your heart for them.

Again, tell the people you love that you love them.

Write them a letter, a love letter. A letter that tells them everything you want them to know about how you think and feel about them. This is a letter that they can have, hold and cherish should you move into spirit. From my experience working one on one with clients who’s loved ones have passed on, I can tell you that a letter like this can save years of pain and doubt.

Expressing your feelings verbally at any time in your life is wonderful, but if it’s a challenge for you for any reason, you don’t have to let that stop you. 

If you’re not sure where to begin, or you’re thinking that this might just be a little bit morbid, remember there is nothing morbid about love and it’s the one thing that binds us together and connects us across the veil of physical and spirit life.

Creating your love letter will take you a few minutes or maybe an hour or more if you choose, you can even quickly write a message on a post-it note and keep it in your wallet, whatever you decide to do you can rest assured in remembering that it’s positive effect will last forever and mean everything to those you love.

By the time someone comes to see a medium, they often desperately need that honest, heartfelt connection and it brings a sense of certainty that was feared lost, the peace of mind that’s so desperately needed and the strength and courage to embrace the love that enables them to keep moving forward with their life.

You, or someone you know, can provide all of this by creating a love letter.

My personal recommendations for this love letter are:

• Use your own words, remember you’re not trying to write a Shakespearean sonnet;
• Add pictures or photos
• You could even include your favourite song lyrics or a CD.

Essentially you can include everything that represents how you feel about your loved ones.  It doesn’t have to be complete, more likely it will be a work in progress.

Mediumship can provide many, many things, but what it cannot do is replace you and your unique ways. Let the medium assist you by providing evidence of survival and messages of love, but wherever possible deliver your own loving message first. Don’t depend on someone else to do what only you can do in your own unique way.

You are invited to share this article with your friends and loved ones…

Six Mornings of Soul Nourishment

 & Higher Connection

1. Meditation – Methods, Madness and Mandalas
2. Manifesting & Co-Creating – Personal Solutions for Designing & Living Your Ideal Life
3. Soul Mates – Who Are They and Where Can You Find Them
4. Soul Purpose – Reincarnation, Past Lives & Karma
5. Guides, Angels and Your Higher Self – Your Relationship with Your Spirit helpers
6. Dreams - Remembering, Understanding & Interpreting

Metaphysical Mondays will be a personal experience for you, where you get to ask questions and get answers regarding what’s happening in your life, this is not just a broad level discussion and it’s because of this that I will be capping the attendees at an intimate number. 

FIND OUT MORE AND
BOOK YOUR PLACE, CLICK HERE

“I LOVE and approve of myself, I love and APPROVE of myself, I love and approve of MYSELF” – Louise Hay

Have you ever used affirmations?  

Have you ever repeated positive reinforcements to yourself?  

Have you ever done affirmations but then gave up because you didn’t see the results you wanted?  

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, rest assured that you are not alone and if you are feeling a mild irritation or disquiet around the topic, once again you are not alone. I’ve actually seen people roll their eyes and sigh at the very mention of Affirmations.  

So what’s the real story with this highly acclaimed metaphysical staple?  
Is it really just about thinking positively?  
Are you required to put yourself out on a limb and risk disappointment if “they” don’t work?  

And whhhyyyyyyy are people still going on about them and how great they are?  

Well, like most of the truly powerful and singularly satisfying things in life, there are a couple of key elements to assure you of affirmation accomplishment.  

One of those essential elements is this:  

It’s not enough to just say the words, repeating something verbally will only get you so far.   Whatever you say (and I mean everything you utter during your day) programs your unconscious mind to seek out that experience and you also put out to the universe a message of what you want more of.

This can be very good, if your words reflect what you actually want to experience (beware all those who talk about something being a pain in the neck!)   However, in order for you to experience results, when using affirmations or not (I personally would go so far as to say that everything you say is an affirmation of your desired outcome), your vibration or energy must resonate with the words.

 ____________________________  

 It’s not enough to just say the words,
repeating something verbally
will only get you so far.

____________________________  

So what does this mean?  

Let’s take a common example. If your affirmation is centred around being in a loving relationship you need to first move into the energy of a loving relationship because this energetic connection is the dynamic that drives and supports your affirmations.  

Before the dream partner arrives? Yes.  

How can you create the energy of a loving, mutually supportive, creatively encouraging, hand holding, stone-skimming relationship when currently it’s just you, the cat and trips to soft furnishing stores?  

You create it by being that loving partner to yourself, by asking yourself who you need to be in order to attract that type of relationship into your life and then make the appropriate adjustments and changes.

Remember, the quality of the relationships we have with others are a direct reflection of the quality of relationship with have with ourselves.    

If you treat yourself or speak to yourself poorly, by your language and energy you will attract more of the same into your life. If you treat yourself reasonably but speak negatively to yourself you are out of alignment. There is a mis-match and you will attract whichever of these experiences affects your energetic state most strongly.   This is very important. Your emotional, energetic, vibrational state is the primary catalyst to your experiences in life and the success of your affirmations.  

Your words can say one thing, but if your energy says something else the result will be hit and miss at best.  

So, let’s say for example your heart-felt desire is to experience a loving relationship, you could use this affirmation “I am now ready to accept and embrace my divinely blessed relationship, I am love and love constantly surrounds me”.  

You can notice how these words make you feel.
You can notice what sort of energetic state they place you in.
You can choose to notice all the examples of love in the world around you.
You can practice loving kindness towards yourself.  
You can at the same time use your words of affirmation.  

The result of doing all of these things is that it places your energy vibration in alignment with your words of affirmation because you will be marrying your physical world creative energies of your lower chakras, with the spiritual higher intelligence of your upper chakras through the gateway of your heart.    

If you would like to share your experiences and success stories about using affirmations please post them here. They are inspiring and encouraging and I’d love to read them as I’m sure your fellow IntuiChic Living friends would too.

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caroline Hook of Women Winning @ Work fame, to have a chat about the power of harnessing intuition at work and when enriching a career.

What was initially to be a quick catch up turned into something far more substantial as the depth of intuition as a critical career and business tool began to unfold.

This audio is our first introductory chat which will be followed up with a full Webinar in September and details of that Webinar will be announced closer to the date.

Right now though, you can listen to the first audio here:

Caroline Hook from Women Winning at Work Chats with Maria Last

If you want to participate in the full webinar or if you want to find out more about what Caroline and the team at Women Winning @ Work have to offer you, you can visit their website at http://www.womenwinningatwork.com.au/

In the meantime, as always, here’s to your intuitive success!

You are so much more than your physical body.

Your spirit expands to a vastness our limited minds can hardly perceive of.

If you are feeling restricted by your physical surroundings, including your body, if you are breaking through new ground in your life, if you are stretching yourself beyond your old limits and are apprehensive even though you know it’s for your benefit, try this:

For this exercise give yourself about half an hour, on your own, undisturbed.

Lie on the floor but keep your head and body aligned so you don’t fall asleep.

With conscious awareness, clear intention, give your sprit permission to expand out from your body into whatever shape, size, colour or vibration it would like to. You can simply set the intention without any parameters. Your spirit’s intelligence will take over.

You can know, and trust, that it will once again come back to comfortably house your physical body once again when you choose to come out of the exercise. Your spirit/soul is connected to you in a way that can never be broken.

The change you can experience on completion of this meditation exercise will be that your spirit has had ‘free run’ and the opportunity to connect with that part of your spirit that always resides outside of you in source.

In essence, the whole can stretch and re-adjust itself and then return to rest at home once again with a clearer vibration, a stronger connection to your higher self and rejuvenated energy to support the physical you – the human who is following the path of spiritual experience.

Nurturing your spirit, nurtures you.

When you are ready, and you will know when that is, gently come back to awake,  ground yourself and give yourself a couple of minutes before re-entering your day.

Caution: Don’t think about this too much, it’s un-necessary and will hinder the process. Allow your spirit to do whatever it does and allow yourself the time to rest.

I’d love to hear about your experience with this exercise, please post your comments below or share with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Sharing is caring.

Huh?

What a silly question!

It can be ANY length, or even ANY short for that matter, depending on what you make it (excusing the poor grammar of course).

And that’s just the point.

Depending upon your point of view, perception or those famous filters we’ve spoken about before (The Camera Adds 10 Pounds) that ‘string’ could be twine, knitting yarn or even the most beautiful gossamer thread and it could range in length from a miniscule micro dot all the way to stretching to infinity and beyond as Buzz Lightyear would have you believe.

The truth is, nothing has meaning except the meaning we give it and this began at a very young age and continues to be true until the day we leave this world.

Everything we experience in our lives we attach meaning to. Whether it is the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Lindsay Lohan’s impending stint in the “big house” or the smile or frown of the barista at your local coffee house; the meanings we give to our experiences have the power to shape those experiences and all that follow it.

What is good?

What is bad?

What is right?

What is wrong?

How are those meanings affecting you?

What if there were none of these judgements and instead we simply observed our world and experiences as an opportunity to learn something about ourselves, another person or the planet we live on; and through this learning we became even more enlightened wise souls. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, now would it?

We are all entirely unique individuals and have all been given the gift of free will and choice. (Yes, it’s true, I do love shining a light on the power of choice, how keen your observations are!) And on the subject of choice, most people love to have choices, yet some would say that too many choices are overwhelming and they’d rather have fewer. For them, having lots of choices means it is going to be hard to make a choice, and yet, another person might relish the thought of being submerged in such an experience. Neither is right or wrong, they are simply meanings given to circumstances and those meanings can help or hinder us, support or stunt us.

The meanings we attached to objects or events in our lives, determines the level and quality of the experiences we have in our lives. Therefore it is very prudent to consciously observe these events and defining moments to assess their true meaning for you, not just on fast assumptions and casually attributed meanings. Due to the often fast paced nature of our modern society, you may choose this to mean that it would take you time to become consciously aware of the true worth of something which would require you to slow down; or you could make it mean that because you are accustomed to moving at this swift pace you can easily adapt to incorporating this level of conscious awareness into your life with ease.

It’s your choice. It’s your meaning.

“The more challenging a situation appears to be means
the more scope for creativity I have”

This is something I’ve made a challenge mean. Who’s to say its right or wrong?? It works for me which means I’m sticking with it.

So, what does all this mean to you?

Is it a good time to ask yourself these questions?

• What new meanings would you attach to the things, people or events in your life to better support you?
• Are the meanings you attached to those things in the past still relevant for you today?
• How do those meanings take you closer to or further away from your dreams?

One final thing, I’m not sure who said this but I agree with them:

“Whatever you think, you’re right”

It’s been a few weeks since the last edition of IntuiChic Living, so what’s the problem? Why haven’t you been getting them? Have I just been too busy?   

Yes, I have been rather busy over the past couple of months but in truth, the main reason for the pause is because my computer has been doing an excellent impersonation of a snail having a nap. It’s in it’s senior years and is now sooooo slooooow that I could make a sandwich and fully digest it while waiting for the screen to refresh. (I’ve had a lot of sandwiches recently!)  

So, what’s the solution I hear you ask?    

I’ve ordered a speedy, stylish and soon to be delivered new laptop.  Hoooray!   I anticipate tweeting and posting it’s joyous arrival in the next 5-10 business days…  

While I’m on the topic of updates I’ll bring you up to speed with a few more intui items of interest.   Scroll on….

Intuition & Confidence @
The Australian Style Institute

Last month I was invited to speak about Intuition and Confidence at The Australian Style Institute.   It was a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience all round. Each of the ladies participated fully in the experience and asked some really great questions during the impromptu segment at the end.   It’s because of these ladies and their open hearts and minds that I have included the opportunity for you to ask me any question you want about mediumship, intuition and being psychic at my two upcoming events.  

If you haven’t already booked your seat, you can do that and check out all the information about these events by clicking here.  

“Each time Maria speaks at our events she delivers more outstanding content that we can apply in our busy modern day lives.    

Maria’s knowledge, skill set and unique ability (though we’re learning from Maria that we all have it) brings a fresh and exciting perspective to learning, to training and to the delivery of information.   Not only do we love Maria but our clients love her too. They give us amazing feedback about their experience of Maria when she speaks at our events, she adds another dimension to training and a measurable value-add.  We will definitely have Maria speak at our events again, hopefully she will say yes!”  

- Lauren Di Bartolo, CEO Australian Style Institute

Do You Flip?

Have you seen the new video clips on the IntuiChic web site?   Now that I’ve mastered getting them on there and with the arrival my new uber fast laptop, there will be more to come. Not just announcements but also great information and valuable resources.  

I have to admit to being way outside my comfort zone recording them, I usually like to take pictures or videos of my surroundings and not necessarily of myself. Well after a few trial runs I decided to get over myself and go with being myself not what I thought someone on You Tube “should be”. The result is a more natural approach which I’m trusting is ok with you.  

Au$$ie, Au$$ie, Au$$ie

This week I noticed a distinct shift in the currency exchange rate between Australian and American Dollar values, (I don’t generally follow these things), and so I decided to do something about it.  

All products in the IntuiChic Store, including events and IntuiWorld, will now be processed in Australian currency in the online shopping cart.  

This may not make things quite as convenient for IntuiChic’s overseas customers who are used to trading in USD, and it may need to be reviewed in the future, however for now, I feel it’s a positive and ecological move all round.

Happy shopping!    

We love to hear from you, please leave your comments and feedback below.