Interview with Vishnu of Vishnu's Virtues

In the process of reflecting on why we do the things we do, its helpful to draw our attention to underlying principles that drive us. Self-respect, dignity and honour sit at the top of my list. Yet, I was not always so clear. We are often reminded life's apparent obstacles are the Path to getting to know ourselves better and seeing with more clarity.    

As part of awakening to elements of a more authentic life, and shifting to walk the talk, universal principles often guide me.  Synchronicity led me to meet Vishnu of Vishnu's Virtues. His popular self-help blog and books help people who have had difficult relationships heal their break-up and find love again.  I appreciate that he speaks from direct experience and is speaking his truth from the heart.  During this interview, I invite taking a closer look at messages about harmony or disharmony in our own lives:

Thank you so much for this interview opportunity. I am looking forward to it!

Please share what you do and what brought you to this point in your life...

I was born in the East and grew up in the West between two cultures. Like many “good kids” with immigrant parents, I followed the path that was designed for me and that society told me to follow. I finished my law degree, got a job in the legal field, got married and bought a house.

That is a common story. Many parents model a certain life and we are taught to find our place in their existing paradigm.  As restlessness arises, we are invited to ask why.  Tell us what prompted you to break away, and to embark on another Path.

 If I had followed the path that had been promised to me, then everything should have worked out and I should have lived happily ever after. That quite didn’t happen and instead, everything fell apart. When life falls apart, we can fall apart or we can start a blog... 

Funny. This reminds me of the film Julie & Julia with actresses Amy Adams and Meryle Streep.  The is based on Julie Powell's autobiographical book: 524 Recipes: 365 Days.  The protagonist decides to spice up her life by blogging on cooking her way through a Jullia Child cookbook.  By listening to her heart, the blogger develops quite a following.

Share insight into pivotal events that shake you up, cause you to face fears. How do such experiences prompt us to make lasting life change? 

Without question, my divorce was one of the most life-changing, pivotal and sacred moments in my life. As Debbie Ford has said, “ Divorce becomes a holy moment when you choose to use it as a catalyst for having an extraordinary life.” For me, I think divorce was a wake up call to thoroughly examine every part of my life and recreate my life from the ground up. I started making life choices and career choices more consciously.

That sounds tough, and yet, adversity also often makes us stronger.  Beautiful flowers are known to grow out of the mud. How about painting us a picture: feel the way through the difficulty... 

This may sound a bit gruesome, but it feels like being a lonely ghost in a cemetery at night. Imagine a ghost who didn’t’ know how he got there and didn’t know where all the other ghosts were. So you’re lonely, it’s dark and it feels like death all around you!

This reminds me of that classic 1965 film The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.  Unsure if you know it? Anyway, during the film,  Mother Superior (and later 'Maria') says, "When the Lord Closes a Door, somewhere he Opens a Window..." The divine message here is to simply trust in what is coming. Can you relate to that?

Definitely! The good part about darkness is that you know it won’t be night time forever. The day will surely come and the sun will rise again. 

Hallelujah! How did you find the Path back to yourself and what matters?

I found my way back to myself by forgetting about the outside world and focusing on my inner world. I found my way back to myself by getting clear on what I wanted out of life, determining what I valued and remembering the feelings that I wanted to have in my life on a daily basis. I thought about the life I wanted ahead of time before going about creating it. Often we do  the opposite.

That's a great lesson and invite for everyone.  I mean, how many people are really clear on their purpose, their priorities and actually live by them consisently?

Not yet eveyone...

Exactly! Sometimes it takes adversity to shake us up and wake us up. (See also my Interview with Kerrie Atherton about Stories of Hope)

What does happiness mean and feel like in your personal life? What are some practical things people can do to experience more personal happiness?

My biggest suggestion is to figure out what makes you happy and do that ahead of time. One way to be happy is to live in alignment with who you are.

Excellent point! How would you suggest our readers uncover this?  

One way to know who you are is to do the internal work of asking yourself who you are, why you’re here and what you want. A simple way to tap into this is to figure out what brings you happiness on a daily basis. Pay attention to which experiences and conditions evoke joy in you.

The simplicity of paying closer attention really resonates. We can only answer our own questions by being honest with ourselves.  What other guidance can you offer here?

I also invite people to reflect on what they gravitate towards. That offers many clues to who you are and what brings you purpose.  

So true! We each give ourselves little messages about changing purpose but we do not always choose to listen...

Where do the Soul and soulful living come into this? How does soul healing affect relationships? 

When your external circumstances fall apart, you are invited to align more with your soul. When you become more aligned with your soul, you can live your life more fully.  Most of us live the life we think we want without making any connection to what our soul desires. 

So, if I get what you are saying, waking up leads us to ask more conscious questions.  

Yes. We see more clearly and hear what we may have already been saying but we were not ready to hear it until now.

Being present is so important. What are the most significant relationship lessons you have learned?

I give myself permission to ask: what does my soul want? I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that when relationships fall apart, you invite yourself to go within. Your greatest soul realization and discoveries are waiting for you when your heart breaks. 

That moment when we allow ourselves to feel the pain of a broken heart is also the moment we let light in, that is, hear and consciously feel the light of our own innate understanding. Its like a wake up call that we exist to love and feel.

Thsi said, many people feel discouraged about their relationships or lack of them. Please share some advice with our readers to guide positive life change. 

Without question, the most important thing you can do for your relationship is improve the relationship you have with yourself.  Only then, can you make headway when actively working on relationships with others.

Please be more specific...

 Improving the relationship you have with yourself requires self-acceptance, self-compassion and improving your own self-worth. I believe that if you improve this relationship then all other relationships around you will improve. I truly believe that the relationship you have with yourself is the one that’s going to manifest around you. The way you treat yourself is likely how you will treat others. Improve the way you treat yourself and I promise that you will treat others better and be in relationship with someone who treats you better.

Thanks for drawing attention to the mirror principle. The external reality we each experience is indeed a mirror of the inner not vice versa. Growing conscious of this makes it less likely to be affected by external conditions. It also implies we are ready to take increasing personal responsibility for how we think and feel. Is that not so?

Agree very much.

You have written books on relationships. Which tips or techniques make a relationship last?  Which strategies or views can you suggest to help people pinpoint what really matters in their partnerships? 

I believe that the skill that makes a relationship last is how you create the relationship you have with yourself. We tend to treat others the same way we treat ourselves. So if you want to improve your relationship with others, watch how you’re talking to, treating and feeling about yourself. The way you treat and speak about yourself is what you’re likely doing to others. A couple ways to make relationships last is to speak more to each other about what you both want from the relationship and work on forgiving each other more quickly. I’ve discovered that we tend to imagine what we want without expressing out loud to each other! Also, grudges and resentments never lead to a healthy relationship so the sooner you speak about it, forgive it and come to terms with something, the stronger you can make your relationship.

If you had to identify the role of faith  and trust in your life, what role do each play? 

When I went through my divorce, I stopped believing in God and inquired if God was listening. I even wrote a book about it, Is God Listening? https://www.vishnusvirtues.com/books/is-god-listening/  My understanding about God, the universe and forces beyond is that we aren’t listening.

We aren’t trusting what we’re hearing from God, the universe or ourselves.

And if we sense God, the universe, ourselves, are all one in the same, and we ignore one, we do not hear any and do not feel heard either. Its all a  pointer to what or whom is not listening?

Definitely. If things are not working, we must ask the question, 'not working for whom or according to whom?' (which brings us face to face with beliefs and conditioning). 

Would you say then that unhappiness suggests we are not listening to the part of ourselves that knows what is best for us?

You could put it that way. I know I learn to trust myself more and realize the forces outside of us have their own intelligence. I stop making demands on it to make my life a certain way. I trust that the universe knows what’s best. I do my part but surrender to the universe to do it’s part.

Absolutely! Letting go and surrender are valuable lessons. 

In addition, if you’re looking for a partner, take action to find a partner and trust you’ll find one but don’t push or control the universe to do it faster or force it to produce someone who isn’t right for you. Trust that the universe knows best.  

Love yourself like you wish to be treated is a great take away. Setting an example is attracting what is best.

What do you value highly or believe in with all your heart? How does this energy or life force help make things happen?

I know that the universe is working on my behalf to help me discover who I am and help me live in alignment with it. I believe that we have to force things to happen less and let life guide us more. As smart as we think we are, the universe knows best. I’ve stopped making wishes for my birthday of things that I want and instead ask for guidance and wisdom to trust the universe to lead the way. It’s a cosmic dance and we each need to lead and follow. If we lead and follow, we are tripping the universe up!

People often speak about what they want yet do not seem to have in their lives. What from your experience, causes people to discover the truth behind their relationships and patterns?

I think the biggest lesson that people can take away from relationships is when relationships go wrong.

It also appears helpful to ask who is judging the relationship as good or bad for us in the first place (or which ideas we have adopted in relation to this).

You can get super curious about yourself, your patterns and who you are. The problem is that  many people do not self-reflect and thus do not learn from their mistakes. In fact, most of the time, we think the other person is wrong, blame or we are fault-less. Relationships are our greatest learning experiences but we seldom self-reflect, learn or grow from them as much as we can. You can choose to grow from experiences.

Self-reflect more is another great take away. As the saying goes, 'what we dislike in others is what we have not accepted about ourselves.' Facing our shadow is what we exist to do and love. 

What would you say is your reason for being? Which event (s) caused you to feel this way?

My reason for being is to be a bridge to help people grow from who they are today to become the people they are capable of being. My divorce certainly caused me to feel this way. I broke away from a predestined life and welcomed in a life that was entirely new and unfamiliar. I’ve had plenty of growth and self-awareness in the process. I’ve gained experience and heart wisdom and want to be a catalyst for others who find themselves in the throw of heartbreak realize that their best life is on the other side of a broken heart. 

Tell us about practices or teachings that shape your life-view. 

My biggest lesson about my breakup and divorce is that the past doesn’t have to equal the future. All readings and teachings that have helped me live in the present moment have helped shape my view.

Who are your inspirational mentors? How have they empowered you to shift how your see yourself?

I would consider Eckhart Tolle, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Pema Chodron as my teachers who helped me see that this is the only moment we have. As Nancy Levin says, “honor the space between no longer and not yet”. I think this quote really encapsulates that it’s about the journey, not about the destination. There is so much growth, understanding and wisdom to be collected along the way. I am now aware that you do not have to be a prisoner of the past. They remind me that you can’t have spring until you first have winter : ) There’s a place for every season. 

Our audience benefits from this: Universal principles speak when we are ready to hear them.

You write about love, heartbreak, letting love back in and the power of grief and heartbreak. What are some key observations you make about yourself as well as people/ clients you have encountered?

I would say that the key observations I’ve made it we can’t start fresh until we let go of the old. I’ve realized that it takes work, not time, to let go of the past and grieve. We have to actively work on letting go of the past. The one thing that our past is good for is to help us make some observations about ourselves. We have to use past relationships as a learning classroom and discover truths about ourselves. Each relationship helps us become the better version of ourselves so we are continually growing. Don’t think of soulmates when it comes to relationships. Think of relationships as classrooms. We have many teachers. 

Indeed.  When open-minded, everyone and everything is a teacher, as are we for ourselves. As Lao Tzu says, when the student is ready, the teacher appears...  Please share any universal messages that stand out which would help us all in our day-to-day living. 

Our purpose in the world is to become un-ravelled and discover who we truly are beyond everything else.

How do relationships fit into this universal wisdom?

Relationships and breakups help us discover who we are beyond it all. Use your rock bottom moments in life to get a deeper understanding about yourself. When your external world crumbles, you have an invitation to go within and see what needs improvement, healing or awareness. Use the lessons of life to help you discover who you are spiritually.

Remember, there is nothing to fear about change. Change is a teacher. Change happens to let go of what doesn’t serve us and welcome in those things that do. You don’t have to hold onto the present for dear life. There is life after relationships ending, careers ending, and familiar circumstances ending. Every ending has a new beginning.

Share anything else you feel you would like our readers to know.

Thank you for such a comprehensive interview and questions. It was so in-depth and based on the things that I’m exploring.

Where can people find you?

I would invite my readers to follow me on journey at www.vishnusvirtues.com and to pick up my new book, The Sacred Art of Letting Go, on sale at the Amazon store.

Really appreciate that you focus on encouraging people to recognize the messages of love in their lives.  For Vishnu's latest Amazon book, The Sacred Art of Letting Go, visit his Amazon store here. Here are some links to offer more information:

Interview with Kerrie Atherton

Meeting Kerrie Atherton and learning about her endeavours is heart-warming reminder that every moment is an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and develop strength from adversity. I had the pleasure to meet her through Darron Eastwell whose inspirational story and self-healing show us the universe shakes us up to awaken us to see the world and our evolving purpose differently. 

Like many of us, Kerrie Atherton has faced physical and emotional trauma throughout her life.  Rather than allow adversity to define her, she has used the wisdom gained from her experience to create Empower Life Solutions and become the Founder of Stories of Hope Australia. She has been highlighted in recent editions of Profile Magazine , Sunshine Coast Daily and has been a guest on radio. I am grateful to Kerrie Atherton for creating space to connect and engage in this dialogue:

If you asked someone to describe you, what would they say?

These are some of the things people have said to me: That I am caring, compassionate, bright, bubbly, non-judgemental, creative, wise, resilient and empathetic.

How has your sense of purpose and life focus changed over time?

Once I was able to let go of shame for things that happened to me and for mistakes I had made, my whole perception changed.  I no longer felt like I had to put on a mask or pretend to be someone I was not just to be accepted.  I finally felt I could be my authentic self without concern or fear of judgement or what others thought of me.  And that was a very freeing thing.

Love that your evolving purpose involved getting more connected to community. The more we feace our fear of speaking our truth, the more we come into our personal power.  This is also a measure of the ability to focus our attention on soul-fulfilling activities.

Indeed. Many people imagine they need to reach for liberation. It is said the hardest prison to escape is our own mind. Your life experience and those stories you share remind us we can change our thoughts and change our life. 

What has been your greatest life challenge? 

My greatest life challenge was when I hit total rock bottom where I planned to take my life as a result of much trauma due to alcoholism and a pill addiction.  

That is a huge thing to acknowledge.  How did you overcome or get through this?

I overcame this through reconnecting with my faith In God that day and through walking into the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Details of your story that you share with people include the internal shift you have experienced to transform your life. It is akin to what we hear about celebrities who beat addiction.  Australian singer- Songwriter Keith Urban speaks about his own addiction and sobriety. He came to recognize that he wasn’t living to his full potential.  Although he wishes he got sober earlier, It seems like you resonate with Jamie Lee Curtis who said on the Today Show, “My recovery is the single greatest accomplishment of my life. Without that, the rest of my life would have fallen apart... Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in a shambles and you have to change it.”

Tell us about Empowered Life Solutions.

EMPOWERED Life Solutions is a business I formed around 5 years ago.

So, your choice to shift your attitude in your life guides you to help others take their lemons and make their own refreshing lemonade. Cool! What fulfils you about mentoring roles taking shape?

After working with many people suffering with addictions and after working with troubled youth in schools for over 11 years, I wanted to devote my time to counselling, coaching, mentoring and running programs to help EMPOWER people who were struggling with different issues in life and to help prevent those people from going through them in the first place. 

What does empowerment process entail? 

To sit with an individual or family after the trauma has happened in their lives, especially due to drug addictions.  This is very devastating at times to see and to help them. That journey of recovery can be a lengthy process.  Prevention or early intervention programs can save so much heartache. Prevention really is better than cure.  Having said that, being trusted by someone with the opportunity to counsel and help them through their hard times is something I consider to be a huge privilege.

Something touches my soul as you describe creating a welcoming space where your clients feel safe to share stories of self-rejection and vulnerability.  Such an environment of unconditional acceptance would benefit many. 

When do you feel most alive? 

I feel most alive when I am sharing my own story or testimony to others about how I have come out the other side of hard times, so I can bring others HOPE.

How does instilling hope make you feel?

I feel most alive when I am playing a part in helping make a positive difference in the life of someone who has lost HOPE.  When I am at my Stories of HOPE events and I see all the faces in the audience this really causes me to know I am fulfilling my greatest purpose and being part of the process of changing someone’s life brings me the greatest JOY.  Especially helping someone who was about to give up on life discover that they really have a reason and a purpose for living.

Tell us about the Stories of Hope Australia initiative. (Some people get a taste via your Linked In)

I got the inspiration for this after I hit rock bottom for a second time in August 2016.  My father had just died, and my husband became very ill.  These things happened on the back of other trauma and grief I had experienced over the past few years.  I just felt like I could barely  go on.  I felt very alone and with little support. 

When did you get the inspiration?

After pulling out of all regular activities and spending much time alone for a few weeks trying to heal and regain my strength, I attended a women’s conference.  There I had a light bulb moment after hearing a couple of other people share about how they had come out the other side of their very hard times.  I knew right there and then that I had so much to share with the world.  That I had not been through all this pain for nothing, that it wouldn’t be in vain, and that I would use my pain for others gain, through sharing my stories of how I had come out the other side of the circumstances which could have easily destroyed me.  I also knew that I had to gather together all the other inspirational people I knew who had also triumphed over adversity and I thought ‘together we can literally change the world’. 

Eureka moments are like what you describe, instances which change each of our lives for the better. Like intuition in action, they prompt us to listen or pay attention to how we feel.  As you imply, we are triggering our own inner shifts in energy, attention and transforming purpose. 

How do you see this brain child unfolding? (and expanding)

I see myself taking my events into different states with some of my team members, and I am now working on my second Stories of HOPE Australia book. We will continue our regular free monthly events where we started two years ago at the Sands Tavern Maroochydore and will also be working on more ‘Men’s Only Mental Health’ nights and separate women’s nights targeting sensitive topics.

Meeting you echoes Pay it Forward movie message. You may be familiar with this flick. Who inspired/inspires you to empower and help others as you do?

There are so many people who have inspired me with both my parents who are no longer here being two of them.  My dad in particular who I witnessed over his many years also in AA, he was 60 years sober to be exact, pouring his life out to help others recover. Other than them, there is no one person more than another.  I guess the thousands of people that I have met in the rooms of alcoholics anonymous who are walking miracles, and all the people I have met through Stories of HOPE Australia.  Some of those people are my closest friends today and they continue to inspire me on a daily basis.  When you go through extensive pain and trauma, it doesn’t just disappear overnight.  It is a slow consistent journey of recovery.  Watching the progress of recovery in anyone who I have seen at the beginning of their journey and who is moving forward through it, inspires me beyond belief.

You have a book coming out soon. Share a bit about your process. Many people dream of writing a book. What is your own motivation? Why now?

The motivation behind me writing a book has always been there.  I have had my story sitting partially written for a few years, but got stuck.  I just really wanted to share a glimpse of the SOH journey and some of the stories to all the people out there who for different reasons, can’t make the events or they live in different states or countries.  I wanted,to take a glimpse of the SOH events and experience out to the big wide world, so I could exponentially share the experience with the masses of people out there, so they too could find the same kind of HOPE  that we have found through the sharing of all these inspirational stories.

This reminds me a  bit of a rendition of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.  You may know that Chicken Soup for the Soul book series of over 250 titles has sold more than 110 million copies in the U.S. and Canada. Chicken Soup for the Soul books have been translated into 43 languages, have been published in over 100 countries, and have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide. What a backdrop for your inspirational endeavours!

At what stage did you awaken to the importance of feeling the way through life to grow and heal?

At 18 when I was about to commit suicide, I heard a voice I believed to be that of God.  He said  ‘Don’t do it.  If you hang on a bit longer you will find happiness one day.’  And I am so glad I did hang on. Since that day when I walked into AA I have dedicated my life to helping others heal also.  To try and help prevent anyone especially young people going through and experiencing the pain and trauma that I did became like a mission for me.  I never want anyone to get to that point like I did where they feel like they are all alone and that they have absolutely no HOPE.  If I can help provide that HOPE I will.

That is an inspiring wake-up call. It reminds me a bit of an experience of a man who was intent on committing suicide and the touching story of his Golden Gate Bridge Survival.  His will to live sent out a vibration that brought the aid of a sea lion.

If you could share a single message with the world, what would it be?  

When you are able to be your authentic self, you unlock the door to freedom.  When you have Freedom to truly be yourself without fear of judgement, that opens the door to true connection with others, which is something we all need and have a deep longing for.  My mantras of Don’t do life alone and together is better ring loud in everything I do.  Also to believe that there is always HOPE.

Based on many shared stories, hope feels like a stepping stone to trusting ourselves more.

If you could share a meal with 5-10 people, who would they be? 

Jimmy Barnes, Mother Theresa, my grandfather Bert Fisher (who was the Tivoli Conductor/ composer and violinist who I never got the chance to meet), Brett Whitely, and the queen.

An intriguing combination of individuals would be sitting at your table...why them?

The reason I would pick all these people, is because they have all experienced deep trauma and lived both complicated and exciting lives.  They have all been through extremely sad and hard times and all reveal depth and great talent.  They all show resilience in the face of hard times.  All these people would have the most amazing stories to tell.

Love your choices! What the public hears about famous people is often only a glimpse of the truth or tip of the iceberg of deeper truths. It is also interesting that everyone we draw to us is revealing things about us we may not yet know. It is said we are drawn to or inspired by people who’s admirable traits we are in the process of recognizing, loving and accepting within ourselves. In a similar line, we can also imagine which fictional characters we would invite to dinner and the underlying reasons for doing so. In addition, it has also been said that anyone who is born into this world experiences birth and/or pre-birth related trauma and this is another possible avenue for investigation and healing.

Please share anything else you wish to add:

Our book launch is on the 28^th of Feb at Venue 114 Lake Kawana.  Tickets must be purchased by next Tuesday 26^th and are available via our Stories of HOPE Facebook page.  For anyone who would like to purchase a copy of my book  Stories of HOPE Australia ‘Everyday People, Extraordinary Stories’ which will be sure to change the way you look at life forever, you can do so via my website www.storiesofhope.com.au

If you are someone who feels you have a story of HOPE that you would like to share to help change lives for good, I would love to hear from you.  Until then,  ‘don’t do life alone, together is better’.

Thanks Kerrie, for creating the Stories of Hope initiative and inviting people to come together to reassure, empathize and support others.  I certainly look forward to taking in more of the events. You set an example to us all that we are not the body, not the mind, but the Soul in the process of experiencing different facits of life necessary to become a butterfly. Highly recommend people come attend one or more of the monthly events to get a taste of speakers who regain their personal power by sharing their stories, shifting their attitude and direct experience of what is possible in a group setting. Contact Kerrie Atherton for more details and visit the FB pages.

Leave people with a story:

Moving Mind from 10 Zen Stories 

Two men were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind.

“It’s the wind that is really moving,” stated the first one. “No, it is the flag that is moving,” contended the second.

A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them. “Neither the flag nor the wind is moving,” he said, “It is MIND that moves.”

Meeting Kerrie Atherton and learning about her endeavours is heart-warming reminder that every moment can be understood as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the strength we can develop through adversity.

Interview with Jane Teresa Anderson

 Jane Teresa Anderson is an expert on dreams.  As a dream analyst and therapist, author, and regular guest on radio and television, her work sparks growing curiosity and attention.  She offers Dream Academy courses and subscriptions to her Dream Sight News, as well as an abundance of ways we can deepen our self-understanding and sense of purpose. 

I initially came across her work during my own dreamwork and radio shows.  A recent synchronicity prompted me to contact her. I find her views both powerful and insightful.  My intention in sharing this interview is to reveal deeper reasons why she does what she does, invite her to share things many people would like to know but do not ask, and orient us to where can benefit from more of her expertise.

What makes you, you?

I am the total of all my experiences, conscious and unconscious, throughout all time, honed by a regular practice of dream work, yoga, and spiritual devotion.

Funny! My mom used to say our names take on deeper meaning through our choices in each lifetime. I love the wizard Dumbledore from Harry Potter, who echoes, ‘It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’  The poet Rumi also echoes, ‘We are beyond words.’ Somewhere, in the unseen continuum, all views and experience merge, just as you imply above. 

This said, as we are exploring the sense of things, we encounter many kinds of dream analysis and interpretation. Which approach do you take? Why?

I take an approach I developed through my research back in the early 1990s.

That’s a bit mysterious. Tell us what happened back then…

Well, I had a few hundred people engaged in writing down their dreams alongside their waking life experiences, completing questionnaires, and doing experiments before sleep and during their dreams. Over subsequent years, I then built on that approach as I worked with clients and on my own dreams. I’m still refining my approach.

It would be fun to hear about the pre-sleep and during sleep experiments!

Your life and interviews, suggest subconscious transformation happens in stages.  What compelled you to deepen your research into this?

I felt a need to do my own research because I wasn’t entirely happy with any other approach that I had studied or read about.

Assume nothing and question everything, what a wonderful philosophy!

Well, some approaches were wonderful in certain circumstances, not in others. I felt there was more work needing to be done. Since I was trained as a scientist, doing my own research was a natural step.

Indeed, taking an interdisciplinary approach is often undervalued. In a role as a lab researcher, I learned that recognizing and documenting findings is invaluable. How do you chronicle your process and research findings?

My findings – and my approach – have been reported through my books (beginning with my first book, Sleep On It, which was published by Harper Collins in 1994, then Dream It; Do It! published by Harper Collins in 1995, followed by The Shape of Things to Come, published by Random House in 1998, and Dream Alchemy first published by Lothian Books in 2003, and then in second edition by Hachette in 2009. My latest book, The Dream Handbook, published by Hachette in 2018 and by UK publishing house Little Brown also in 2018, is an updated version of Dream Alchemy). I have also published my work in an inde-published title, many blogs, and as part of on-line training.

Having read your original Dream Alchemy, I often highly recommend it!  Would you say you have a specific Dream analyst inspiration?

While my work has a Jungian leaning, it is not Jungian.

People often assume a dream analyst must be Jungian or Freudian or some combination. Its refreshing and encouraging to be reminded we can draw from, combine or, not relate to either approach for a given dream. It is as if we each create and evolve in our own paradigm beyond models.

Many people may wonder what led you to your unique career. Yet, rather than focus on the past, I prefer stick to the present. People sense who you are in your energy, actions and passion. Do you focus on past and future?

In dream analyses, I take the approach that dreams reflect the processing of our conscious and unconscious experiences of the last 1-2 days in a bid to update our perspective of our self and our world. When you’re processing a recent experience, it may bring up – or resonate with – experiences from the past, which are then touched upon by the dream. The dream may also project into the future, not in a predictive way, but more to practise how things might be.

Indeed, every day is a new day, full of occasions to learn and unlearn more.  What do you learn from your clients? How do you empower them?

When you interpret a dream, you get to see aspects of the dreamer’s mindset: their conscious and unconscious beliefs, feelings, patterns of behaviour, unresolved issues, ways of seeing the world. I use a number of tools and techniques, including many that I have developed through my research, to do this.

Ah-ha! So, you guide clients to grow more conscious and aware of things they may not yet realize about themselves. That may seem surreal…

Dreams look bizarre and surreal because the logical, editing areas of the brain are not particularly active during dreaming, leaving the more holistic, emotional, intuitive brain to paint a picture of the processing. Interpretation is a matter of learning how to see through the eyes of the picture-painting brain and translate this into a language the dreamer can relate to.

And how does this translate in simple terms?

My approach shows the dreamer (or helps them to discover) how the dream relates to their life; present, past, and potentially future, and lays bare the mindset that causes this.

It feels like you empower people to recognize beliefs, heal their attitude or shift patterns or mindset that may hold them back. Now that is powerful!

Please identify what makes your approach to dream analysis unique.

I follow dream analysis with dream alchemy. Dream alchemy is a process of working with the unconscious mind to reprogram limiting beliefs and resolve unresolved issues. It’s a process that works with a person’s individual, unique dream symbols, since these were produced by their unconscious mind. When you communicate with the unconscious mind using its symbolic language – again, unique to each dreamer – magic happens.

Bertrand Russell astutely reminds us, the universe is full of magical things waiting for our wits to grow sharper.  As you imply, we are our own source of magic. 

During traditional training, student analysts’ dreams are analysed.  What is the most surprising thing you learned about yourself during your training?

I took a different route, doing my research, developing my theories and methods, then testing them on myself and volunteers, so I didn’t experience being trained in someone else’s methods or receiving analysis. Mine was perhaps a longer, more challenging route, because I was my own analyst, and analysing one’s own dreams can be a very tricky business. It’s very tempting to analyse your own dreams and self in a desirable (false) light, to see what you want to see, to not see what you don’t want to see. I experimented with imagining that my dreams were my clients’ dreams, and this allowed me to be more objective.

What you highlight here is that our lives and how we see ourselves in them has outgrown existing paradigms. Your approach that imagined your dreams as those of others is like a mirror. Love your example of being open to observing everything and everyone.  Does this shake your world up?

I couldn’t point to one specific surprising thing that I learned about myself during my own (ongoing) dream analysis. The whole process was more one of turning absolutely everything I thought I knew about myself and the world upside down and inside out, and then opening to a completely changed perspective. At the same time, that dreams can be approached analytically and rationally, the work also opens to embrace the mystery of life. I love walking through both these worlds.

From what you say, dream analysis is a life-affirming or awakening tool on many levels. It can bring clarity, inspire shifts in life direction and far more.  Please share some examples of positive changes from your clients.

All my work with clients is confidential, so I cannot share details. Most work focuses on healing current and past conflicts, issues, and pain, and shifting perspective to enable personal and spiritual growth. Many people I work with discover latent gifts and talents that they go on to develop. The point of the work is to grow through bringing more of our best self into consciousness and into service in the world. Most clients achieve this.

Understand that client details are confidential.  The question is posed as cases are often included in books where names and key details are changed to protect client privacy.  Anyone interested in exploring specific themes can tune into episodes or archives of your monthly Dream Show Podcast.

It is felt by many that Humanity is evolving or shifting in different ways.  How do you witness and/or imagine dreamscapes changing as humans grow more collectively conscious?

I come back to basics: our dreams process our conscious and unconscious experiences of the last 1-2 days, compare these with all our past experiences, and project into potential futures (symbolically, not literally). As individuals evolve and become more conscious, their dreams will reflect this awakening, but will also continue to reveal the unconscious side.

So, if I get what you are saying, we all dream in parallel timelines, the personal and collective, even if aspects of this are as yet unconscious.  It is like, as we awaken, we allow ourselves glimpses into an expanding picture that is beyond our ideas of ego selves...

Please clarify awakening from your point of view as a dream analyst.

Dreamers paying attention to their dreams have the opportunity to fast-track awakening (bringing what is unconscious into consciousness), and this further awakening will be further processed in subsequent dreams. I look at dreams as reflecting an individual’s mindset or evolution, not as tapping into a collective unconscious unless that tapping in is part of the individual’s recent experience in which case it will need to be processed in dream.

Although you admit you only take partial Jungian slant to dream analyses, Jung divides his idea of the unconscious mind into personal unconscious and collective unconscious (where the former made feelings that were once conscious but forcefully subdued, and the latter comprised accumulated genetic information and experiences).  Is this a case where you do not see things the same way?

To be clear, I do subscribe to a collective unconscious, but I believe our dreams focus on our individual experiences. Our dreamscapes reflect our individual experiences.

Thanks for clarifying that!

Some people see dreams as a tool to unleash untapped potential. Other people sense dreams simply invite them to get grounded. What do you see?

We can glimpse our untapped potential through our dreams, and we can also discover where we might be out of balance and need more grounding. These are just two of a multitude of the types of gifts dreams can bestow when we work with them. Dreams show us where we’re at, on every level, what holds us back, what drives us forward, what we have lost touch with and need to reconnect with, and what we have yet to discover and fully bring into our being.

Like you but in his own unique way, Dr. Eric Pearl invites us all to be open to deeper   Reconnection with ourselves. Dreams are but one Path. Its not what you do, but why you do it.

Different levels of dreams exist. It is said many creative people are inspired while dreaming on the astral plane and bring visions into their conscious awareness. Alexander Graham Bell for instance, is said to have downloaded the telephone vision in a dream, drawn it and invented it in our reality.  Great composers are said to hear heavenly sounds in dreams and then translate this in our world as symphonies for us to hear. What is your view?

In my work I do not refer to astral travel or the astral plane. It’s maybe just semantics, but I prefer to focus on how our dreams relate to our individual and unique experiences of life on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. My understanding of ourselves as spiritual beings working through physical bodies means that our dreams process our individual experiences at each of these levels.

Which examples can you share where inspiration comes through dreams? Would you say we each contain an unconscious reservoir of bright ideas?

Our unconscious reservoir is perhaps endless, and can certainly be drawn upon during dreamtime when our logical, editing brain is pretty much out of action, freeing us to be more creative and imaginative. Whether we believe we draw on an unconscious mind that is part of our individual being or part of our spiritual being, or part of an overarching wisdom is, I believe, semantics again. Our dreams assist us to know the greater aspects of the self and our being.

What about finding solutions to challenges…how can dreams assist us?

When life reaches a point where we’re ready to find the solution to a challenge that has been occupying us (what a machine would look like that could help us to communicate across the world: a telephone), the solution is there, accessible through our unconscious mind, often delivered powerfully through our dreams when the chains of waking consciousness are loosened. (It is also possible to be inspired by a symbolic dream, to take elements of a dream and spin them into a new invention, or a song, or a painting, quite apart from the meaning the dream would deliver if analysed as reflective of the individual’s mindset.)

Clearly, this invites us each to pay closer mind to what we tell ourselves!

Past and future regression are often described as states of consciousness. How do you see these in your work?

While we may indeed be able to access past and future lives (or past and future events) through our dreams, my approach is to come back to basics. Our dreams process our conscious and unconscious experiences of the last 1-2 days and compare these to all past and potential future experiences. If past life or future life scenarios are relevant to this processing, then they may be glimpsed in dreams, but I find this is a dangerous track to introduce into dream analysis because people get naturally very excited about bypassing challenging dream work and believing that – for example – the dream about being in a battle in the Middle Ages is a literal glimpse of a past life rather than a symbolic dream about the inner conflicts and battles about reaching middle age.

Absolutely! Different ways exist to look at things. Some dreams are efforts to escape what we resist. Of course, we cannot escape ourselves forever! Please share another thematic example.

As another example, a person might be terrified that the dream that they had about their partner dying is a literal preview of the future, rather than a symbolic dream about a sense of an ending in some area of their life (not necessarily the relationship). I have met many dreamers who have wasted years looking for a soul mate they met in a dream, having missed the opportunity to connect with a wonderful inner aspect of their own soul or being. So, while I do believe in past and future lives, I don’t encourage dream work as territory to explore this.

So, its like dreams allow us to map our own uncharted (emotional) waters. Love they can put situations into perspective, provided we are open to that.

Breathwork is described as a futuristic kind of dreaming where people are known to heal themselves of emotional trauma. What is your perspective?

I don’t know enough about breathwork to comment on this. I certainly agree that there are plenty of healing avenues to connect and reconnect with our inner being and with life on every level, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, and that is wonderful. My work focuses on dream work because I believe it is one of the most powerful avenues to self-knowledge, awakening, and healing. I also enjoy working with dreams because they directly access the unconscious. If you have an element of conscious awareness, it can be used to re-shape or redirect any experience of the unconscious: it can edit. So even in hypnosis, the conscious mind can edit (in my personal experience of being hypnotised). Unless you are lucid dreaming, dreaming is a place where there is no conscious edit. You have absolute access to your unfiltered unconscious mind.

However, working with remembered dream material (while awake) can be powerfully healing. Dream alchemy is one example. I imagine that breathwork, hypnosis, and other modalities are also powerful in this regard.

Thank you for sharing these insights.

As you were originally trained as a scientist, consider this: the voice of Alpha is our intuition, which grows clearer the closer our brainwaves get to 7.5Hz. Theta (4-7.5Hz): Theta brain waves are present during deep meditation and light sleep, including the REM dream state. Some people use the terms subconscious and unconscious interchangeably. Researchers link deep feelings of peace to Theta brain waves, as well as lucid dreaming.  Share your view.

My work leads me to believe that there is the conscious mind, and everything else is, by definition, un-conscious. In my understanding, what was once known or experienced but has slipped out of consciousness is now unconscious, until retrieved.

Would you say we heal others and ourselves by growing more conscious and lucid dreaming?

Both lucid dreaming and conscious dreaming are powerful methods for exploring the conscious and unconscious minds, for healing, and for drawing inspiration. I choose to work with non-lucid dreaming, and non-conscious dreaming because the editing rational brain is largely inactive during dreaming and so the dream itself brings you direct, unedited unconscious material. Of course you are awake (and potentially in editing mode) when you review a dream, but if you work with a dream analyst or learn the tools and techniques to analyse your own dreams, you can reduce the effect of editing mode.

So measuring brain waves is one way Science measures peaceful states of dreaming (being)? 

I agree that feelings of deep peace can be associated with brain waves.

If you could leave us with lasting insight from your direct experience, what would it be?

We are each infinitely greater and more immaculately supported than we can possibly know.

Please draw attention to anythign else you wish.

I am am available for dream consultations, and invite interested readers to check out Course 1 (How to interpret your dreams step-by-step) at The Dream Academy.  

Thanks Jane Teresa, for all you share here. I also draw attention to Jane Teresa's Blog which is also a great way to catch up on her podcasts and interact with her on subjects of interest.

This interview invites us all to explore different avenues to  better understand ourselves.  It is always wonderful to aspire to become a better person.  After all, we exist in this world to learn and evolve.  Yet, the nature and degree of what we learn does not determine our core worthiness.  We actually have nothing we need to prove.  Any Path we take is up to us. Many reasons exist why some people choose to heal and others not to get well. Come what may, its reassuring to recall we cannot aspire to that which is already ours and can never be lost.  The Truth is only temporarily forgotten.

Interview with Ross Bishop

I cannot identify the exact point in time I began exploring shamanism.  As my intuition grew louder, I became part of a shamanic sisterhood interacting through the post.  This led to related teachings, books and crystals presenting to expand me.  Interview with Carlos Castenda also came into my scope. Along this Path. I encountered the writings of Ross Bishop and felt drawn to A Shaman's Path to Inner Peace. His life highlights the value of trusting our own spiritual experience.  A long-time reader of his newletter and blog, I feel blessed to connect and engage with Ross on a whole new level. Thanks to the universe for co-creating this opportunity.

What makes you who you are in this lifetime? 

My “essence” does not change. My understanding and acceptance of who I am is under constant revision. That has required a willingness to let go of preconceptions of who I am, and that did not come easily. It is scary to let go and trust that The Universe actually knows better than you do and that it has your best interests at heart. When you’ve been hurt, it’s hard to learn to trust (another lesson!).

So many people experience fear of the unknown.  As you highlight,  the universe is inviting us to shift this fear to curiosity and excitement about the unknown, to be open to shifting our sense of normal.  A helpful start is exploring 12 Ways to Master our Fear  ...

So, how much of your 'essence' comes from other lives/ realms?

My other “lessons” mostly came from conflicts between the world and who I thought I was at the time. I learned that I wasn’t ever going to win that one and that I needed to listen to the messages my life was giving me - not an easy task mind you! My previous lives contribute to lifting the scales from my eyes in the same way, either through direct lessons or unfinished experiences that I resolve later in subsequent lives.

This echoes a common tug-of-war that occurs between the ego-driven mind and another part of us that has different priorities. It the consciousness that moves between bodies and lives and prompts us to make choices. This reminds me of James Cameron's film Avatar.  As a human soldier, Jake Sully has a limited idea of purpose. Yet, as he moves consciousness from his human body into a Navi body, and opens his heart to love, he expands a sense of life purpose.      

This said, which shifts in perception arose in you during the shamanic Path?

There are so many that it is impossible to put into words. I went from a rather limited view of life in an ego-based existence to a vastly expanded new perspective. And in those few words I cover what has been an extraordinary transition from corporate executive to practicing shaman.

As just one example, instead of right and wrong I now see the interplay of the lessons in God’s teaching, which is here to give each of us exactly what we need in order to grow and develop. We call that life. Most of us learn the most from our pain, so guess what we get? I am more able to accept what is, still wanting to help where there is pain and ignorance, but also am more at peace, allowing the world to be as it needs to be, warts and all.

What you share resonates a universal journey.  Polarity is so ingrained, it invites us to create challenges to trigger wake up calls about reality.  We are inviting ourselves to look in the mirror, to recognize and see through our outdated beliefs.

Describe the most surprising experience you have had as a shaman.

Early in my work, a woman came to see me and as she sat down, I saw the whole drama of her existence displayed above her head like on a movie screen. It startled me at first, but the transmission gave me great clarity as to how to help her. Today I get the same information, but without the movie. (I do miss the popcorn, though.)

Synchronicity is that those who share Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) often shae similar stories. They commonly describe seeing life events pass in front of their mind's eye, like on a movie reel.  It hits we are our own judge and jury.  Interview with Dr. Eben Alexander echoes we choose to return to Earth and complete a mission or leave. Each of us can ask how an NDE changes (or change) us?

This said, what is your mission in this lifetime?

Like all of us, I need to learn to love myself more. Everything else flows from that. Learning to love myself has meant shedding the limiting beliefs that my childhood seared into my brain - what my life to that point had been built on - and accepting things about myself that teachers had taught me and that I wanted to believe, but had little real evidence to support. Making that jump is the leap of faith that guru’s speak of.

At a second level, to further develop my knowledge of the human process and deepen my psychic insights and abilities.

Indeed! Taking a leap of faith or, learning to trust ourselves more, is what we are each invited to do, moment-to-moment.  What also stands out is that we choose our bodies, life conditions and beliefs for specific and important reasons.  Aspects of our self can be in conflict with our Soul. It is up to us to recognize and heal disharmony on physical, emotional, spiritual and other levels.

On this note, one view says emotional trauma does not exist, only energy blockages in need of release.  How does the shaman see this?  

There are events and then there is our awareness and interpretation of them. Events exist on a neutral plane, where our reaction to them is filled with (mostly) fear-driven emotional energy.

Ah-ha! When we are open, different perspectives always shed light. Seeing everything as energy, is like seeing from a neutral place of love and acceptance.  Seeing from here, events are branches of energy flow. We determine the nature of the flow based on our perception, emotions, filters.

Through all your experience, what is your biggest challenge as a healer?

As a healer, my challenge is to help the individual bridge the space between event and interpretation - by helping them to realize that there really is nothing to fear and to come to a neutral space about what has happened. Sometimes this can be induced by external stimuli - like sound healing, drugs, etc. but my experience has been that the conscious process of soul retrieval grounds the individual’s awareness in truth and is far less susceptible to subsequent fear based (ego) sabotage.

Now, when the person has walked the path for a time and has dealt with most of their “demons,” I have found external stimuli to be very useful in integrating and deepening individual awareness.

Wow! Some people question whether true objectivity is possible, whether perception  can exist undistorted by emotion and personal bias. You remind us that all is within reach.

What would you say, is the true origin of shamanism?

The purpose of life on Earth is to bring us to the conscious awareness of who we are. Many (20-30?) thousands of years ago, the early shaman found that techniques such as soul retrieval and shamanic journeying were the most effective at bringing people to that truth. And we have had many years since to develop and refine those techniques.

Now, the individual must be ready to accept the truth, and that is the bumpy road we all travel on in order to come home. Most of what I do is to convince people that I know what I am talking about so they can make the leap of faith into a new space with a certain level of confidence.

We are witnessing hi-story unfold every moment we are weaving our own stories. We have to lose faith in others along the journey to gain more faith in ourselves.

When did deeper shamanic insights arise in you?

About 40 years ago, the door was opened for me/with me by a very wise teacher. I found him inside me. He started me on the path of healing by kicking me squarely in the butt, and I have continued to learn from and follow his guidance ever since. (Not so many butt kicks these days…)

Certain pivotal moments, like huge energetic shifts in perception, remain with us always.

When an individual does a future life progression (FLP), what is the best approach to integrate newly expanded awareness into the present timeline?

There is only Now. If we gain an insight into how we might be, we must work to integrate that perspective into the present. Otherwise we run the risk of getting lost in ego fantasy.

The conflict usually comes for the fact that people are afraid to make the change. As much as we say we want it, we come up to the edge and then pull back. Over the edge is unknown, and based our past experiences, that isn’t a good thing. My task as a healer is to help people to see that taking that step is really not such a big deal and really quite safe.

Right! People are not taught to trust themselves. We each find this within.   

While on the topic of healing, what is the difference between mental illness and spiritual awakening?

Each of us receives messages. A few listen, most ignore and a few hear, but are unable to process or deal with what they hear. They go into feeling overwhelmed. Since psychology doesn’t know what to do with these people, they label them as “mentally ill.” A few of these people are so troubled that they become violent as a protective response. Most of the rest are just lost and need someone to help them find a way out of the labyrinth. Are they more psychically gifted than average? Some are, and that by itself, is a tremendous loss to the society. Now is there another condition having to do with messed up internal wiring? I haven’t seen it, but some of these folks can be pretty hard to reach.

A spiritual awakening involves the individual transitioning from ignorance into self-awareness. So for me the difference between the two is getting information as opposed to being able to do something with it.

And admitteddly, a spectrum or degrees of awakening exist. It is like a range of ibration comes out of us, from resisting to allowing and accepting energy flow to through and beyond ourselves. 

One view is that Earth is a virtual reality Time-ship and everything on and around it is energy evolving in parallel realities. Share your insight of what is going on individually and collectively.  

We are involved in the evolution of our species as individuals and as a group. I see only One reality, an infinitely complex one, at that.

Author Brian L. Weiss, M.D. echoes as much in his book, Same Soul, Many Bodies. I also relate through direct experiences. Evolving into a vision of Unity brings the progressive end to illusions of separation. 

In which ways are Souls stronger after incarnation?

We learn with every evolutionary cycle. That gives us more resources with which to deal with our remaining growth challenges. Some trips seem more powerful than others because we create more turmoil in them (i.e. more powerful learning opportunities).

Hmm...cycles. As timeless wisdom echoes, we have no beginning and no end. Nisagardatta Maharaj said, "Becoming has, apparently, no beginning and no end, for it restarts every moment. With the cessation of imagination and desire, becoming ceases and the being this or that merges into pure being, which is not describable, only experienceable."

When is a Soul ready to create its own universe?

I see the Universe as existing separate from us. It sets the template for Universal Law. We live in the universe and are symbiotic with it. We create our messes and eventually learn to live in harmony. I see this as the driving force behind human existence.

As is the microcosm so is the macrocosm.  As is the atom, so is the universe, so says Deepak Chopra.

Share any experience with or insight you have into Soul walk-ins.

Ego and confusion. (Leave it at that).

If you could ask me a question, what would it be?

How much do you love yourself?

Share anything else you wish to add.

I do a good deal of writing on my web site and would love to invite others to join in - www.rossbishop.com.

I have four books Truth, Healing The Shadow (second edition), Journey To Enlightenment and About Life. As I know postage to Australia can be expensive, the last three are all available as ebooks from my web site. I have also created a series of videos, A Shaman’s Path To Inner Peace, that guides the viewer through the healing process that I use. That is also available at www.rossbishop.com.

A concept I’d like to comment on is that many people hold the church-created view of heaven and hell as external realities - as places we go when we leave to body. That was, in my view, a guilt created scheme to keep the sheep in line.

In my view, hell is the life we create for ourselves when we do not live in harmony with what we have been taught. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of peacefulness we create for ourselves when we live in harmony with those teachings. It is not a blissful place - that for me, is ego - but it is a place of complete acceptance. There will still be pain in the world, as people continue to get their lessons, but in that place you see the process as perfect and offer to help those who are in pain.

Regarding shamanism - I think a lot of people could follow the path if they opened themselves up to their native abilities. But being a shaman is not an easy path, as attractive as it may seem. People (especially Westerners) can be surprisingly resistant to accepting the truth, because it means leaving the comfort of their egos and the belief structures they have created for themselves. Never mind that this causes them difficulty, it is known and familiar to them. In the short term it is easier go through life repeating the same mistakes.

I could walk around the town I live in and tell everyone I met exactly what they needed to do to be at peace, and only a very, very few would be able to accept that truth. Living in the truth means feeling vulnerable and exposed (at least at first) and accepting that we are not the damaged beings we have come to see ourselves as. That means giving up our ego-based protection and taking the chance of being rejected (again). Until one is really ready to do that, it is asking a lot. The sad truth is that most people are just not ready to hear it. After all, it has been over 2,000 years and we still have not accepted the teachings that Christ brought to us!

Thanks again Ross, for taking time out from your endeavours to share these insights. Leaving off with a quote by another inspiring shaman: 

.. We don’t need to escape from Life;
We don’t need to deny our own Nature.
What we need is Complete Awareness and Self-Acceptance.
We need to Learn to make our own Choices
and finally Control our Will from the Inside.
With that , if someone crosses us,
We just Shift our attention and Recover our free Will.
That is what makes us a Dream master.
Where we Choose to put our Attention
Is what Creates the Miracle.

~ Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

Interview with Anne Jirsch

As part of my own process of clarifying my mission in this lifetime, I have been inviting diverse healers, therapists, and a now future life progression expert, into my awareness. As Lao Tzu reminds us, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher Disappears. We often tell ourselves we do not know what is around the corner, but maybe we do in the heart, and do not accept it until we see fear is a stepping stone to live more fully.

Anne Jirsch of this moment arises from many life choices.  A London-born psychic and workshop leader, she is the world-renowned authority on Future Life Progression (FTP).  As a field pioneer. she runs the only FLP training school in the world.  Her clients include heads of industry, politicians and celebrities. She is also an internationally best-selling author of four books; Instant Intuition, The Future is Yours, Cosmic Energy, and Create Your Perfect Future.  (All available on Amazon too). Being in harmony with her calling, she triggers new levels of awakening in everyone she encounters. I feel privileged to connect and appreciate her sharing this interview.

Describe key stages of your human awakening.

As a child, I would peek when my grandmother read the tealeaves. She would cure people’s warts and used herbs to make potions. I was fascinated and had a burning desire to discover more.

In my teens, I went in search of answers. I travelled to India and visited various ashrams and temples, but my biggest teacher was a beggar called Vikram. He made me see the world with different eyes.

Love that from so young, you were aware of the power of intuition and also had role models who encouraged you to trust it.  Your unexpected teacher reminds me of Dan Millman’s, The Peaceful Warrior.  On the surface, an injured gymnast meets an unexpected teacher in an auto mechanic.  On a deeper level, Dan Millman is facing his own fears of vulnerability, failure, and death.  This is the universal Path.

As it happens, Marcel Proust says, The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. You echo a shift in perception, seeing things differently, was a pivotal moment for you.

Yes.

So, we know facing fears is key to embracing what is beyond them.  Tell us about key events that guided you to FLP as a career.

For a great many years, I had worked with cards and past life regression. One day, I was working with a couple of military men, we were trying to discover something about the past. Instead, we jumped forward and saw the attack on the Twin Towers, three weeks before it happened! At first, we were shocked, but then, I wondered if we can do this whenever we wished. We starting experimenting and the results were phenomenal.

What stands out is your invitation to each of us to celebrate what enables us to feel comforable in our own skin.  In the song Most Girls, singer Hailee Seinfeld echoes we are each unstoppable when we  follow the wave of what excites us.  Her song, Back to Life in the new film Bumblebee states: we are all looking for things we cannot seem to find until we tune into the feelings inside that won't go away. The way you consistently listen to your intuition reinforces this.

What is the difference between creative visualisation/ vision boards or future pacing and FLP?

With future life progression, we actually tap into the future, we actually see what happens. With the others, it is more wishful thinking or trying to manifest.  We really can and do see the future.

In the mainstream, we are often taught that future visions are science fiction (Sci-Fi) until technology catches up, until we develop the skills or struggle our way to make a dream happen. Popular movies and books condition the mind to believe one thing while it is beginnnig to dawn that with a different attitude, new realities arise faster.  Thanks for inviting us to shatter our own myths and trust  our experience more.

Many teachers focus on guiding students to expand or be more authentic. How would you describe your approach as a teacher and guide? 

It’s all about bringing people up, inviting them to expand into new possibilities. FLP is more of a collaboration.  Our practitioners all have their own talents which FLP brings out. This allows us to guide clients, allow them to bring out their full potential. Most people have blocks and they try to manifest with their current consciousness. We take them into the future where they are beyond any blocks, we then bring that energy back to the present time. They change before our eyes.

How inspirational! Life may seem to string us along until we begin joining dots more consciously and feeling part of a larger symphony. Every revelation is a feeling of synchronicity. Its as if we know the feeling of being in harmoony with our best self, because we do and choose to forget.

Share 3 of your most emotional moments in this lifetime. What did you learn?

This is the toughest to answer; I am pretty private about such things. My most emotional moments have been when times have been tough and I’ve had to pull myself up by my bootstraps. I had very little money and a poor education to had to fight from the bottom up.

One key time would have been walking away from a long-term relationship. I packed my bags, picked up a bottle of brandy and left. Felt weird to walk away from everything you have.  Yet, it took me down a new path, opened doors and I created a wonderful life.

Your sharing here reminds us that losing everything we think we need actually brings us the experience of what we always wanted.  Eleanor Roosevelt echoes, [we] gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience where [we] stop to look fear in the face.

Your life illustrates that doing what we think we cannot do empowers us to stretch and blossom into more of ourselves. It is said our future self is living though our memories until we catch up with a more expanded and confident version of true selves.

On a more practical note, for people whose current life repeats unconscious past behaviour patterns, how does FLP help them?

Using FLP, we can take people beyond the pattern, even go into a future lifetime where we are all wiser and have moved beyond those patterns.  We have a method to locate the source of an issue and clear it.

Knowing this, it is hard to imagine people not being drawn to heal themselves on a whole new level.  Yet, fear can be immobilizing until understood and healed. In Return to Love, Marianne Williamson reminds us, our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkeness, that most frightens us.

Please share 3 examples of clients whose lives shifted as the result of FLP.

We have literally had thousands of clients experience positive results with FLP. For instance, Paul seeing himself married to a wonderful girl whom he subsequently met.  This happened after he’d given up on ever finding love.

Many of our clients have seen their future work. Wendy is a good example; she came on our training never having worked in the spiritual field. She saw herself in magazines and on stage. She thought it was just fantasy but again, within weeks it started to happen.

And many have seen their future home, Carmen saw herself living in a mansion by the sea, again she thought it was just wishful thinking.  Yet, I can vouch for her getting the home, I stayed there.

So many people benefit from being reminded of their power to change from the inside out. I also invite people to refer to your books.  You highlight the hidden power of thoughts and words. We are not only what we eat.  Our lives manifest the result of our vibrational visions and blockages which can be removed when we are ready to express our heartfelt selves more fearlessly.

Tell us of revelations you have experienced due to your own regressions/ progressions. What stands out?

There are so many. For me, what stands out was glimpsing my books before they ever materialized. I didn’t really believe this was happening because I was unknown.  Yet, I saw myself with a three-book deal, and within weeks, I had it. It all came together. It is mind-blowing to go from nothing to being published by a major publisher. 

Love that authors like Dr. Bruce Lipton (Biology of Belief, Spontaneous Evolution, The Honeymoon Effect), Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations with God series) and Rhonda Byrne (The Secret in 2006,  The Power in 2009, The Magic in 2010, Hero in 2013, and How The Secret Changed My Life in 2016) all admit they were surprised at how their books came together and left a lasting impact.

The revelation I love the most was seeing my future grandchildren before they were born. I saw two boys who were brothers; then I saw a little girl. They are all here now.

But also world events, when we travel further into the future the world seems much cleaner and calmer, it is as if the human race grows up.

These examples are so inspiring and heart-warming. Many people are taught to visualize dreams and yet sparks of doubt often arise to cloud or block the unfolding. Humans are also taught to feel impatient or discouraged by time and forget they have far more control over their lives as they grow conscious and reclaim power they give away to anger, fear and other emotions.  We can each reharness all that energy and use it more constructively. The encouraging vision of the human race collectively growing up or evolving is entering the awareness of more and more of people. When it happens is up to each of us.

Share your most profound lesson about love (from this or other lifetimes)

It would be to have no judgement, if someone is fabulous in your life and makes you and your life better and happier then that is it. In the future we do not worry about age, race, religion or bank balances, it’s about how they make you feel.

As singer Harry Styles Sign of the Times echoes, we have all been here (in this world) before.  Rather than want to get away from here, we can embrace what Millman calls, The Life [We] Were Born to Live.  This brings me to your unique calling.

If you could offer insight that transformed your perception, what would it be?

Travelling into the future has changed me. I find it hard to worry about silly stuff because I know it doesn’t matter in the future. I am more clear-cut and, in some ways, harsher, I cut away negativity for instance, I am less liable to make excuses for people.

For many of us, time travel is a concept we are taught to believe requires a physical tardis like in Dr. Who, a whacky car like the invention in Back to the Future or a physical timepiece like Nicole Kidman seeks in The Golden Compass.  We are fascinated with machines that act as Stargates or  enable us to take a Quantum Leap. Films suggest we need a physical device to access different worlds and parallel realities. We forget we all do it between the ears and with every breath.

It’s a bit like when you are on plane and they say, put the oxygen mask on first then help others including your children. It goes against our instinct but it is the right way. Look after you, cut out the negativity in your life including people who drag you down, once you are strong then you can help others.

Share anything else you would like to add.

My website is www.annejirsch.com

Do follow me on Face book we share a lot of information there

https://www.facebook.com/annejirsch

We have FLP practitioners available for sessions, FLP Practitioner training in March UK, plus Ireland. Drop me an email and I will put you in touch.

We are about to plan a series of worldwide trainings so do let us know where you are.

And do feel free to email me annejirsch@hotmail.co.uk and I will send you a free download recording to take you into your future lifetime where you will gain wisdom to guide you right now. 

Thanks for your generous contribution to the Inspirational Mentors thread of the Dreambuilders Australia Blog.  It is a gesture of love that transcends space and time.  We each give ourselves periodical and increasingly frequent wake-up calls to evolve into more of our true selves.  as always, inviting readers to follow through on their intuition. See where it takes you...

The best way to predict the future is to create it. -Peter Drucker