Ghost Busting 101

My husband, DeeDude, is a fan of the paranormal television shows. He likes to watch, “Ghost Hunters”, with Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who work during the day as Roto-Rooter plumbers and who investigate haunted houses at night. He also likes, “Paranormal State”. This is a group of college students who formed a club called the Penn State Paranormal Research Society. It’s led by Ryan and has a neat psychic who assists named Chip. I have come to enjoy the shows too and if you click on the links I think you can watch some of their episodes online.

When I became a psychic there wasn’t a school to go to and I didn’t have a whole lot of direction. I read books about psychics and I would occasionally go get readings from psychics. To this day on my birthday I usually spring for a reading for myself from somebody I’ve never met before just to see how they do it. I learn from other psychics.

So, too, could I learn from these television shows.

As a psychic, though, I really haven’t had a whole lot of experience with ghosts. I’m a channel and I talk to guides and spirit teachers and the spirit of folks who have passed on. Looking back over the psychic experiences I’ve had over the years I might have had contact with ghosts, but I’m not totally certain. From what is related on the shows it’s a possibility, but again, I’m not 100% certain.

When a friend of DeeDude’s asked me to come to her house to investigate the ghosts there I was thrilled.

Now, I’m a plain channel. I’m no nonsense. I’m not as flamboyant as I used to be years ago when I drank. Drinking for me really loosened me up and I could give over to the whole experience more than I do now. So, basically, I guess I’m sort of dull.

I also channel anytime during the day. It doesn’t have to wait for night. I realize that night is spookier than day. I also realize that all those ghost hunters and paranormal investigators have other things to do during the day. Don’t we all? I do too. I’m a psychic secretary. But, I figured that talking to a ghost would likely be very similar to talking to dead guys when I am channeling.

I thought about it all as the days led up to our meeting. I knew certain things about the situation. I knew that the house was built over a cemetery. The lady had reported to me that they heard a baby crying during the night and that baby was never their own. They also heard noises during the day.

The day arrives. That morning DeeDude was watching one of his shows. It was funny because I was in the study and I heard him yelling from the living room, “It’s not going to work. You need to get the Catholics.” I thought, “What the hell?” and went out to see what was going on. In this particular show they were doing an exorcism to rid the family of their ghost. It was a Protestant minister conducting the exorcism. I went back into the study and would periodically hear comments from DeeDude as the show continued. Then I hear him say, “I told you. I told you that you had to get the Catholics in.” So, I wandered back out to the living room to come in on the tail end of the exorcism being conducted by a Catholic priest and some assistants. A member of the family was talking to one of the assistants to ask about the roses they smelled. The lady smiled and said that was the sign of a successful exorcism; the smell of roses was a sign of God’s grace. I thought it was interesting. DeeDude was still wound up and hooting around about how only Catholics can do an exorcism right.

On to our meeting that afternoon. I went with a girlfriend because the drive was long and I am not accustomed to driving outside of my own neighborhood. We arrived at the house and spent some time in the front courtyard before we met with the lady who had invited me. The courtyard was absolutely enchanting. I felt very good there. I couldn’t tell that I was having any psychic hits. I was not channeling anybody. There just didn’t seem to be anybody there to talk to. I don’t say things like, “Hello? Is anybody there? Where are you?” I used to in my earlier days, but now as a channel if somebody is there to talk to they are there.

When we went inside the house she gave us a tour. You can walk in a circle around the house. I asked what was upstairs and she told me that they have never been up into the crawl space upstairs. She pointed out that under a piece of decking in the back yard were stairs going down into a root cellar. Nobody had been down there either and from the manner in which she told me this I understood that this was a spooky area and nobody wanted to go down there.

I understood the lady and her husband were somewhat anxious about the things going on in the house.

Her daughter was with a friend and some neighbor hood girls who were babysitting while we did our ghost-buster thing. Everybody appeared to be relaxed and having fun.

I still had not gotten any sort of uneasy feeling or psychic hits about anything.

Then, as we paused in the hallway she told me about the sounds of a baby crying they had heard over and over again during the night. As she told me the sounds had stopped in their frequency after they had gotten a baby monitor I had my first psychic hit. I told her immediately my feeling was the ghosts were interested and protecting her little girl. I said they were testing her to see that she would be a good mother and attend to the well being of her daughter and once she’d gotten the baby monitor things had calmed down a bit in that regard. That had a feel to me of the truth of a direct psychic hit.

The other thing that I’d been thinking about all week was that to my way of thinking ghosts would be as reasonable as anybody else. The business with the television showmanship of provoking a ghost or talking to them in a less than respectful fashion just didn’t seem right. Working on that premise I sent out my psychic feelers and came back with the following information: I felt there were a number of ghosts involved. It was their home as well as the people who lived in the house. My thought was there was no reason why everybody couldn’t live together in peace.


The first thing everybody always wants to know when they are channeling is who they are talking to. Names are sometimes difficult because when you get into a mode of trying too hard nothing works. I have always said to folks that they could just assign a name to their guides and go from there. If there is to be a change in name down the road then that’s fine too, but in the interim you’ve at least gotten over the bump of what your guide’s name is. I figured we could go that route with the ghosts in this cemetery. Right then the name Jack came to me. It really doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, Jack works okay.

So, I told her she could call their ghost spokesperson Jack.

I also tell people who want me to relay messages on to their loved ones who have passed on that they don’t need a psychic to do that. They can talk to their loved ones themselves. It doesn’t matter whether the things they want to say are out loud or just silent thoughts, even snippets of thoughts work. Your loved ones can hear you. I am totally convinced of this. You might not be able to hear them, but they can hear you anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

I figured this was probably the same thing with a ghost so I told her that she could talk reasonably to Jack and in return Jack ought to be reasonable back to her. I just figured it could be that way.

No fuss, no muss. Plain speaking. And the message was, “Thanks for looking out for us. We are interested in living here in peace with you. You were here first, but this is also our home. Please stop with the noises you are making at night to awaken us. Please stop with the crying baby alerts. We’re on top of it, though we do appreciate the time you are taking to make sure we are vigilant parents. Have a nice day.” Something along those lines would work.

What occurs to me now as I write this is that the ghosts might be interested in a little conversation once in awhile. She’s reported to me that the baby crying has continued. Maybe the ghosts just want to talk.

The last neat thing that happened was the day after our ghost-busting her husband smelled roses as they watched television.

Awakening Psychic Abilities

The way you make changes in any part of your life is to practice in your mind and believe that the thing is true.

For instance a person who practices their golf swing over and over in their mind, day dreaming about it, seeing it, feeling it, really getting into the imaginary day dream about their perfect golf swing is likely to be able to execute that same golf swing out on the golf course too. Practice your Spanish? Imagine cooking? Sew a seam? All of those things can take their place in your imaginary day dreaming.

So, how to apply that to awakening your psychic abilities? If you work on the premise that you are already psychic that helps. If you work on the premise that the “signs” are there already and you are just not noticing that works too.

So how are you supposed to notice the “signs” being given to you from the great beyond? Become more aware. How? Think sensory overload. Think radios, internet, television, people at work, telephone calls, clamor, clamor, clamor. Think of how much is going on around you at any given moment that you tune out in favor of concentrating on only the things you feel are worth noticing. You already know how to tune out clamor. Think now of things psychic that you would like to know about. Often those signs are quiet.

Okay, so perhaps you need to get quiet. You seek a quiet mind. Meditate.

What’s meditation going to do? It will help you to settle for a little bit. It will show you in the beginning just how active your mind is. It’s hard to meditate. Get a book about it. There are lots of ways to go about it. I would suggest short periods of meditation. Don’t think you are doing any good by saying you were able to sit for 4 hours mediating. That’s way too much. You would need a meditation coach for that sort of meditation because the first thing that is going to emerge is all the psychological crap you’ve buried for years. So, do it slowly at first and get a book to help you.

Another thing for you to do is start keeping a journal to record your impressions, your dreams, whatever floats your boat. This is a private journal. Meditating however long you do it has a way of getting you to cough up the phlegmy gagging mucous of your own psychological stuff. Getting it out onto paper helps for you to make a start at sorting it out.

All of this is helping you to notice things.

Take up a hobby. Perhaps something that you’ve always wanted to do and just never allowed yourself the time to indulge yourself. Get lost in it. I don’t know why this step works, but it does.

Read stories of other psychic’s lives to see what they experienced. It might happen this is something you can relate to.

Be prepared for the reasons you initially began this journey to change. For instance, you began with the idea that if you were psychic people would stop picking on you. You’d be able to frighten them into a position of awe. What’s going to happen is as you chip away at the barriers between your non-psychic self and your psychic self you’ll also chip away at the insecurity you feel. Once that’s gone your reason to be psychic will need to change because you will no longer care what people think of you.

Being psychic is not going to make you a more powerful or wealthy person. Being psychic is going to put you on the fast track for taking care of your own psychological and emotional growth and, I believe, will enrich your life.

Becoming Psychic

Becoming psychic isn’t a case of you being the ordinary you that you’ve been for the last 35 years on Monday and suddenly being a gifted psychic on Tuesday.

There’s a space between Monday and Tuesday that could last for several years. It’s what you do during the psychic development that will determine the quality of experience you have.

These are not hard and fast rules, but just things that I have noticed.

If you enjoy being spooked, then pursuing a course of psychic development is not for you. If you have an adventurous streak in you, go for it. If you are superstitious, don’t go for it. If you can accept responsibility easily, go for it. If you are more comfortable blaming everybody else for your problems, don’t go for it.

Mostly, what I am describing is a mature person as someone who would be a good candidate to pursue their own psychic development. People up into their mid twenties do not fall into a good category of psychic student. They just don’t. If you’re an old fart like I am I’m more than happy to help you along. If all you want to know is when you are going to get married or who your boy friend is sleeping with I don’t want to talk to you.

Anyway, once you’ve moved through this rather blunt culling of whether you think you’d be a likely person to develop their psychic abilities you can focus in on any or all of the following things during this transition:

Learn to focus your concentration. Meditation really helps with this.

Begin remembering your dreams. Begin recording these dreams.

Learn to do your own psychological fine tuning. You will be overwhelmed with opportunities for real psychological and emotional growth during this process. It’s almost a required thing. Doing things the way you’ve been doing them up to now won’t work as well. Just letting things meander along year in and year out isn’t good enough anymore. You can accept the responsibility to take care of yourself emotionally and psychologically which means either start reading self help books or hire a therapist for awhile to help you understand.

See if you are drawn to using a tool of divination. Runes or Tarot are good. Learn what the meanings of the stones or of the cards are. Do some homework. Exercise those brain muscles. And, do readings on yourself. On yourself. On yourself. After a long time do readings for other people, but in the beginning? On yourself.

Start a personal journal to record your feelings during this time of transition. This is going to help, too, with the psychological and emotional growth you will experience.

If you are drinking too much or if you are doing drugs you can stop. Right now. Substance abuse only makes for a really strange and odd psychic.

There appears to be a lot of activity in the lower astral realms. This is drama. This is excitement. This is not for the inexperienced. This is only going to interfere with your good psychic development. After you’re good at it you can dabble there, but for now aim for the highest level you can. You can safely move toward your own Guide. Everybody has several. Stay focused on the one guide. This first year while you’re talking to Folk in Spirit talk to your Guide.

Read about other psychics and guides: Sylvia Browne, John Edward, Findhorn, Messages from Michael, the Seth books. You’ll come upon more of them.

Begin to trust in the universe. You’ll know what moves to make when it is appropriate for you to make those moves. Somebody or some book will come your way. There isn’t one path here. There are many you can take. And, they all lead to the same place if your aim is true.

Listening to Shelby

Every morning Shelby, our littlest cat, comes to wake me up. Usually, it’s about 5:00 am, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but my mornings always start with her walking on me. She starts from the bottom of the bed and works her way up with inquisitory meows. I complete the welcome by patting my stomach to have her come settle for a few minutes before I get up.

This morning was no different from any other morning and she made her way up to settle down and have some quiet time with me before I got out of bed. However, that’s when DeeDude commenced to snore. These were loud snores too. Hggghhhhhh….. Hggghhhhh…. Hggghhhh. I could see Shelby’s interest peek. I was thinking she might be thinking DeeDude was awake and ready to play so I held onto her a little tighter so she wouldn’t take a notion to go jump on DeeDude who, though snoring enough to wake the neighborhood, was still fast asleep.

There we were, me holding Shelby as she continued to purr and to watch DeeDude with fascinated interest. And, that’s when I caught the errant thought from Shelby. She was interested in DeeDude’s snoring because she thought he was purring. I have to explain what a particularly interesting moment this was for me. I am psychic. I am a channel. I talk to Spirit Guides and folks in Spirit and animals in Spirit. It’s all one. I can do it easily. What I don’t do as easily is talk to and understand the live animals. It happens once in awhile. But, the times that it happens are few and far between.

It happened this morning when Shelby thought DeeDude was purring.

Where I Find Some Keys

One of the most frequent requests I get from people along the line of “Things Psychic” is help on finding lost articles. You’d think that would actually be an easy one, but, in actuality it is difficult.

Over the years I’ve misplaced tons of stuff. As I’ve gotten older and accumulated more stuff it has gotten worse. But, I have asked for help from my guides and from Spirit many times in finding things I’ve misplaced. Most of the time they would chime in with, “Look up.” This has never seemed to be very helpful and when I’ve gotten that response I figured they were telling me in their own way that they were not going to help me on that one.

But, there have been times when it did help to ask them for help and when their help was forthcoming. I wrote a story about how Seth, my guide, helped me to find a pair of slippers years ago. It’s here at my other website, so I won’t go into that rather long story here.

What I want to talk about here was how my husband, DeeDude, misplaced his keys yesterday and how Spirit helped me to find them for him.

Here’s the scenario: I walk in the door from work. We’re going to a dinner being put on by the Alameda County Historical Society in an hour and a half and I need to get ready for that. I’m already nervous about it because this is the first time in years that I’m going out to a function with my husband. I just don’t get out much being very shy and frightened of crowds. But, I’m thinking that it’s time for me to start getting over these fears and I’ve been working on it. However, I’m still edgy and it’s not going to take much to send me over the edge. Hence, the story gets real interesting.

I walk in the door and DeeDude says to me, “I’m having a minor crisis.” I hate when he says that. My heart leaped up into my throat and I stuffed it all back down to calmly walk in thinking the car has been wrecked, or he’s lost his job or all manner of horrible things. He’s obviously not bleeding, so I don’t have to worry about that. He says, “I can’t find my keys. I’ve been looking for them for over an hour. I was going to go to the store and I went to get them and I couldn’t find them.”

So, although I know it’s sending him over the edge I start grilling him on just what he did when he got home from the errands he was doing earlier in the day. He obviously got into the house using the keys, but, where are they now? I searched through all the places he’d already looked: In the seat cushions in his chair…on all the counters in the kitchen and the bathroom…on the book shelves….in his pockets….again…under the chair….in his other pockets (which was starting to get ridiculous since he hadn’t changed clothes). I dumped over the recycling can to see if they had gotten mixed up in a box he’d thrown away…I looked everywhere. At the same time he’s at the other end of our house looking again in the same places he’d looked before.

I located a spare set of car keys for him and he went down to his car to see if he hadn’t locked them in there because he’d made several trips carrying things up to the house. Nowhere. Nowhere could we find those keys.

I’m moving towards the idea that we’re just going to need to get another set for him. We’ve already got spares for everything. I made him check to see if the fuel lock key and the club key on the spare set work for this car. They do. So, this is where I sort of gave up.

All through this search I’d been asking for help from Spirit. I didn’t actually expect much because I was at such a high level of anxiety about it. The party was looming…I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to get ready…DeeDude was really upset and I was not operating in a cool, calm and collected manner. Spirit gave me that smart ass suggestion of looking up several times so I gathered they weren’t going to be around to help me on this one and we were on our own trying to find DeeDude’s keys, which I thought was a pity since I ought to, as a psychic of many years, at least be able to do this one thing.

I went out onto the patio and leaned over onto the arms of one of our plastic lawn chairs. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and I tried to calm down. I knew that trying to tap into that “other space” is very difficult when you’re uptight. I said, “Please, I really need you guys to help me now. If you’ve ever helped me before help me now.” I stayed bent over for a few more seconds until DeeDude came to the door and demanded to know what I was doing. I didn’t say, but I walked back into the house.

I went into the kitchen, stood in front of two of the drawers, pulled them both open at the same time and this is what I saw:




By the way, the dinner was fabulous. They had it at Spenger's in Berkeley and Richard Schwartz, a friend of DeeDude's, gave an interesting presetation of early days in Alameda County. You can see the work he's done at his website: www.richardschwartz.info

Out of Body Flying

Here's a question I got in the email today: Sometimes this frightens me but I quite literally feel like I am flying. I would like to cultivate this ability, but have no clue how to do it. Any suggestions?

And, my answer: Baring any inner-ear disorder I'm assuming you mean flying while you are lying down, meditating or asleep. These episodes are called OBE's. Out of Body Experiencies. Here's an easy way to have one:

It might take a few times to practice or, since it seems like you're already halfway there it might happen the first time for you.

When you are quiet and in a place where you will not be disturbed, with the lights off and in the darkness lay back in a reclining chair, on a sofa or even on your bed. Now, imagine, with your eyes closed that you are moving the toes on your foot. But, don't move them. Just in your mind pretend that you are wiggling your toes. Stop and be quiet again.

Now your foot. Move it in your mind's eye, but don't actually move it. Now, your whole leg. Move it just a centimeter in your mind's eye. But, don't actually, physically move it.

Now, in your mind's eye swing your leg off of the bed, or the chair or the sofa. Let it swing down and touch the floor if you are near enough. But, don't really move it.

Now, bring the other foot down and swing up so you are now sitting up on the sofa, the chair or your bed. Except, you're really still lying down. But, in your mind's eye you have swung your legs around and are sitting up.

Open your eyes in your mind's eye (keep your physical eyes shut) and look at the familiar room around you. Get up and begin walking to the other end of your place. Walk down the hallway. Or, walk into the kitchen. You are safe. This is your place. Everybody is asleep or gone and you aren't going to be bothered by anybody. It is quiet. It is safe and you are only walking around your own place.

Next step is to open the front door.

Walk through the front door to the outside. If you live in an apartment building you're going to need to navigate the steps and then go to the outside, but somehow you want to, still in your mind's eye, move to the outside.

Next step is to take off. Just jump up and fly. Circle around your place. Stay low enough to the ground that you can see the street lights, the sidewalks and the streets. It's your neighborhood. You know where you are. You aren't going to get lost.

Now, look behind you. Do you see a sort of silvery cord that is attaching your flying around astral body to where your physical body still lies on the sofa? See, you're not going to get lost.

Have fun. Fly around some more. Practice zooming and zipping and soaring. When you are done just return to your body. Generally it happens pretty quick. You just think about it and Booop, you've back in body again.

No way can you get separated from yourself. No way can you get lost so don't let anybody scare you. I even took a trip from where we are in California to my sister's kitchen in Washington state in the blink of an eye. Pretty terrific and what a way to save on air fare!

Have fun.

For more info read Robert Monroe, "Journeys Out of the Body "

Thanks for writing and happy traveling.

Seeing Clearly

I can remember as a kid a common entry in my year book at the end of the year was, “Don’t ever change”. If I hadn’t changed I think my life would have been rather boring. Though, perhaps if it had been boring I would have liked it in any case. Who knows? Anyway, I’m glad I’m not the same way I was when I was 14 years old.

I am sorry to have lost my 24 inch waist, but that’s another story. I think in the last 15 years I’ve made great strides with my own life as far as clearing out psychological gunk that was miring me down. It’s not all cleared up, but at least I made a commitment and am doing things as they come up. Bit by bit. Friends might tell me I could work a bit quicker at it, but slow and steady is my usual pace.

It’s interesting, too, for me to discover that I don’t need to be “completely cured” in order to have made a definitely noticeable difference in my own life. And, if I am in a better place it makes sense that I can be of better assistance to others.

So, if you go to a psychic and what they tell you sounds strange just take it with a grain of salt. They are no different than you or me and it is just their neuroses showing up. What they are telling you is the truth as they perceive it. It’s just shining through a bit of psychological gunk.

Becoming Psychic

Nothing changes. Not much anyway.

When we were kids we hung out with other kids. I suppose some of us were loners. But, at some point I think everybody must have hung out with somebody for awhile. I had years of being a loner, but there were a few places where we lived where I did cultivate some friendships. What I experienced was that we mostly all wanted to be like each other. There was no room in our groups for people who were not like how we were. We’d make fun of the others and although they had their own friends and groups they hung out with they did not seek to be friends with us.

So, this brings up an interesting point.

To get psychic you can hang out with other psychic people. It is a sort of contagious condition. Most times it is difficult to run across people who will say they are flat out psychic in “real life”. I don’t really have anybody who is seeking me out at the present time other than the odd internet connection every once in awhile. I don’t go around with a sign hanging off of me saying that I’m psychic either. However, I hope that with whatever I can teach about the condition I am also furthering your desire for it.

It’s actually pretty cool. You can say to people quite often, “Wow. I was just thinking about you.” That’s sort of low key, but it’s psychic. Actually, everybody has this ability. Your job, though, should you accept this quest is to go after it in a big way.

Actually, this bit that I’m writing right now is sort of meandering aimlessly about. I don’t really have a point to make other than if you want to be psychic hang out with psychic people. If you live in the middle of a corn field and really can’t say there’s anybody obviously psychic around you start reading books by psychics. Learn from them what it feels like to be psychic and what they use their psychic gifts for. Some are psychic detectives. Some help others over the rough spots in their lives. Some draw. Some create music. Some write. You can use your psychic gifts in any field. It’s the edge you can give yourself. It’s knowing yourself a little better. It’s honoring yourself fully.

It’s not being afraid.

Go get a few psychic readings from different psychics just to see what they say. Don’t pin a whole lot on it. If it strikes you as something valid then honor it. If it’s sort of confusing or off in any way, then don’t be bothered with it. Remember it for future though. Many times they see things a far ways away. I got a reading once where what was said didn’t come to pass for 5 years.

Sometimes I just sort of dip into the psychic state. It’s like relaxing into a warm bath. Like tonight I did it and I sensed my mother’s presence. I felt her arms go around me and I laid my head upon her shoulder. It had been awhile and I just fell to pieces. Fourteen years since she died and to be able to have her that close to me is a joy. So, for a few minutes here, while I typed this essay I was able to be with my mother again. Now, in my opinion that’s the best thing being psychic can get you.

Red Hair

Nothing would tickle me more than to become a flaming psychic. When I think of a flaming psychic I would have red hair. It would be really frizzy. Out to here. Also, I would wear gold jewelry, big hoop earrings and beaded necklaces that I would make. I’d also make really snazzy hair ornaments. I’d wear floaty, flamboyant, colorful shirts and tailored pants. Or jeans.

I’d write in the mornings and in the afternoons I would commune and meditate and just do whatever. I know for certain I’d take a nap in the afternoons. That’s necessary for writers. Then, when I awakened, I’d hang out my sign that the psychic was in and I’d do readings for people. We’d do them over the phone. I doubt I’d be having folks come to my house. No need to pick things up and there is the matter of a gazillion cats all over the place. If the people not be offended the cats sure would be.

Ah…

Well, it was nice thinking of it.

I go to work everyday and am a secretary. I complain a lot. Loudly at times. Mostly, I just work hard. I do not dress stylishly. I certainly don’t have red hair. It’s gray. Steel gray…sort of orange where the henna stayed on too long, but mostly gray these days. I don’t use henna anymore. Someday that damaged bit will grow out. I’m horribly overweight. There could be two of us here! Slowly I am losing the weight. I go to Curves, not a whole lot, but I go.

But, I am still a psychic.

So, what happens is I try to incorporate my psychic bits with my ordinary bits and what happens is me.

I used to be more fun when I drank and smoked. When I die I told my guide that’s what I’d like to be greeted with at the Pearly Gates…a rum and coke and a cigarette. I just wrote, “Jesus can wait.” But backspaced over it when somebody said, “Don’t say that. He’ll get PO'd.” I suppose that wasn’t ordinary. I put it back in to illustrate that point.

Sometimes the guides or folks in spirit will talk to me while I’m driving. Somebody says in my ear, “Go straight.” I narrow my eyes and say, “Why?” Nobody ever answers me. They just say, “Go straight” or “turn left”. Fine. Generally, I do it. The reasoning behind this is 15 years ago my guide told me to roll up the window. I didn’t do it and 5 minutes later some lady reached in and stole my purse. No skin off my back if I go straight or turn left. Maybe, just maybe we have averted something nasty.

Actually, everybody has just as much opportunity to listen to spirit as I do. It's just that you need to pretend at first. They really don't mind if you go putting the words in their mouth in the beginning, just to see what it feels like. I wouldn't blab it around because it can be really wierd at first as you get accustomed to it. And, you might wish you never started. Some of those guys do tend to run on at the mouth. And, of course there is the idea that once you've done it you can't undo it. Make it stop...Make it stop. Sorry. Deal with it.

Also, I do not recommend that teenagers do this. Or little kids. Sometimes it just comes on naturally for them and then will fade away as they get older only to return when they are 35 like it did with me. But, I don't encourage kids to dabble with this stuff. Actually, I wouldn't even recommend anybody start unless they are in their 30's. But, that's just my own opinion.

Oh, and if you're under a doctor's care for a mental condition you do NOT want to do this.

But, if you've weighed the consequences (never getting away with a single blamed thing in your life again because somebody in Spirit will want to talk to you about it) see what you think. Spirit is waiting. Oh, and they do not give winning lottery numbers...not usually anyway.

Where I Don't Recognize a Psychic Hit

Here’s what happened. I intended to hook a camera up to my computer to download some pictures. The camera rests in a cradle. There’s a power cord to the electric and there’s a USB cord between the camera and the cradle. Usually, the order I do things is to plug in the USB thingie first and then plug the power in. Except, it’s been awhile since I did this, I forgot how I normally did it and I neglected to plug in the USB thingie.

The cradle fired up, but the charge light was the only light to come on. Normally, I lean on the USB light and that function becomes active and then I download the photos.

Right.

So, the procedure got turned around and I’m pushing on the light/button for the USB and nothing is happening and I’m starting to get concerned. Suddenly, I realize I never plugged in the USB cable. I realized right then that this was not the normal order of how I do things and even though my intention was to now plug in the USB cable I got this very, very quiet feeling of unease about the whole thing.

That, dear readers, was my psychic hit.

And, I didn’t pay attention.

My computer broke.

The whole ding-donged screen went black and I could not get the stupid computer to turn on again. So, here I go thinking I’ve broken my computer at work and why hadn’t I done a backup recently (I will do one today) and why hadn’t I ever located the stupid Outlook.pst file to backup too because now I’m really sorry and most of all: Why the hell didn’t I pay attention to that psychic impulse?

Because it was so quiet.

Because it was such a tiny, tiny thing.

Because I’m stupid.

The guides say it’s because I’m learning. Okay, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Anyway, that was the psychic hit.

Now, the good news. After trying and trying to get the computer to turn back on again with no success, we called our computer guy who was able to rearrange his plans and make an emergency visit to the office.

He unplugged the computer and plugged it back in again.

It worked.

He explained that sometimes electricity will cycle around inside the machine and somehow the computer gets confused. Unplugging it completely and plugging it back in again reset the whole thing.

Musing

What does it feel like to receive psychic information? I think it must be different for everybody. In the book that I’m reading right now the heroine gets itchy palms. Also, the hair stands up on the back of her neck. By the way, the book is, “I Thee Wed” by Amanda Quick. It’s one I’ve read many times before and enjoy immensely. I actually think that the writer taps into her own intuitive side on a regular basis, so I figure from a fictional account we’re getting solid info. There have been too many times, not only with this book but with others written by Amanda Quick – Jayne Ann Krentz – Jayne Castle (all different names she writes under), for me to ignore the similarities of psychic impulse.

When I get a piece of information coming in via psychic avenues I don’t always get the big psychic TaDa to differentiate that information from something I might logically know and something I’ve divined psychically. It used to drive me nuts.

My main contention here is that everybody is psychic. Everybody. And, I feel that many people receive psychic hits regularly and just take them for granted and don’t feel that they are anything other than normal life. It’s when things like itchy palms and that knowingness, that greater knowingness comes into play that it can either be frightening, or unnerving or, at least, stand out like a sore thumb. I’ve always wondered why this won’t work with lottery numbers.

In retrospect, I can feel I had a psychic knowingness about my husband when I first met him. I remember DeeDude and I hadn’t known each other all that long. I went home for a vacation visit and I said to my mother, “I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.” DeeDude didn’t know about it yet. We were in the early stages of dating. But, I knew in my heart that he was the one. We’ve been married 31 years.

When a person is learning how to play the piano they sit there for hours on end hammering out songs or playing scales. It’s boring as hell. It takes a lot of time. It is a very deliberate action on their part to learn how to play the piano. Later, once your fingers, your head and your heart have it learned you can then begin the process of enjoying yourself as you play the piano.

I think the same thing holds for being psychic.

I think it works better, or at least more smoothly, if you can put yourself into that area where you think and believe you will receive psychic info. And, again, this is going to be different for everybody.

Maybe you take a deep breath envisioning the bad gunky stuff in your body coalescing and riding on the coat tails of the breath you expel as a cleansing of sorts. Maybe as you inhale the breath you pretend that what you are inhaling are waves of energy that pulse over, through and around our planet radiating out into space, coming from some distant source and all that lovely energy courses through your body as you inhale that breath moving and touching upon the bad gunky spots in your own body to heal, to energize, to get you moving. It’s a thought.

Or, you might take an imaginary stroll in your mind to a peaceful grotto. Once you are there have a look around. Bring the consciousness that you have to this grotto and just look around. Use your inside eyes to do this. Tell me, what does it look like? This could be your secret place to go when you want to think about things. This could be the place you come for a quick energizing pick-me-up. This could be the place where you ask a question. I don’t care what the question is. Just something you’re wondering about. Hey, your feet hurt. And, they’ve been hurting. Why now? What did you do to make them hurt now when they could have hurt just as badly 2 weeks ago? Ask.

And the answer comes back as: Stress. Tension. Tension and stress translated into how you are moving and how you are moving hurt your foot. Oh. Okay, how to fix that? Another question. Fine. How to fix this?

Go after the tension. The source of the tension. Be quiet and feel this. Allow pictures to come up too. Allow visions of what the original tension was to rise up into your consciousness. Wait for it. Baby stuff. Tense baby. Crying baby. Stiff baby. Mad baby. Hurt baby. Arching back baby. Hurt baby. What to do now? What would help? Think of mommy holding you. Think of your mother holding your head, molding you to her chest and shoulder. Holding you. You calm down. You are comforted.

Well, gee. That was interesting.

Skull

On the weekends I like to have a mid-morning nap. Sort of like a cat nap. It’s not that I’m overly tired or anything, it’s just that I can go back to bed if I feel like it and both days this weekend I did that. So, this morning I’m lying in bed sort of snoozing and I was considering how I don’t have that many psychic hits these days. Actually, if I do have a psychic hit I don’t always know that I realize I’m having one while it is happening. Generally, it’s a day later where I’m getting confirmation of the hit that I realize I’d done something along psychic lines the day before. Anyhow, I was sort of pissing and moaning about how I figure I must be a half-assed psychic and one of the guides said that I needed to make time for being psychic. Special times. Not just any old time, but a deliberate choice of time to be psychic. Well, that made sense to me and, encouraged, I settled in for a bit of being psychic. I waited and something floated into my vision. It looked sort of like the side view of a skull and I could see the upper orbits of the eye sockets. At least, that’s what I thought it looked like. Then, it went away. Right away I said, “I want to see that again. I’m not sure what it was and I want to see it again.” I’ve actually never done that before. And, it worked.

Here comes a skull. This time there is no mistaking what it is. I’m seeing it face on. And, I see a hand holding it. I begin to expand my awareness and I sense a Shaman holding his or her skull for me to see. They are showing me this was their gateway to things psychic. Without words it was implied that I’d be a good candidate for this sort of stuff because I don’t scare easy, at least with psychic stuff. So, I thought that was encouraging and interesting and figured I’d share it with you.

That Was a Good Idea

One of the things that I find very interesting about being a psychic is how to integrate the flaming psychic parts of myself into normal everyday activities without looking too obvious. Actually, it’s something that everybody can do whether they are flaming psychics or not. Well, not flaming, but acknowledged psychic. Maybe that’s a better term.

It’s like what my physical therapist was telling me the other day about how to do back strengthening exercises all day long without looking like I was getting ready to bench press a huge amount of weight. Just do the exercises, but do them quietly. Do them unobtrusively. No need to screw up your face and make grunting noises.

Same thing with acknowledging psychic stuff. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing, put your hand to your head, close your eyes, grimace and receive the words of wisdom or whatever it is that’s coming your way in a psychic manner. It’s more like, “Oh, that’s a good idea.” Now, don’t get me wrong, people have “good ideas” all the time. But, you can, after awhile of studying the matter, differentiate between what is a regular good idea and what is a good idea that is originating from a guide or somebody in spirit or even your own, bless them, higher self.

One of the guides just said most good ideas are going to originate from you anyway. It’s sort of unusual to have them coming from spirit I guess. Mostly those guys (I think) sit around up there chuckling and nudging each other while they watch us go about our business and leave us to our own devices. But, like I said before, sometimes there are obvious psychic inputs going on.

Like the other day at work. We couldn’t figure something out. I forget now even what it was. It was just that we couldn’t think of who, or what, or when it was that concerned something we were dealing with. We’d puzzled over it. We’d both made suggestions and each of us shot down the other’s ideas. We were stumped. Suddenly, out of my mouth is the answer. My co-worker looked at me and said, “How’d you figure that out?” I sort of shrugged and wasn’t actually going to fess up, but I did, in the end say, “Sometimes the psychic stuff does work.” It just felt right. I can’t make it happen. If I could make it happen on demand I’d be out there helping solve crimes and finding things and stuff like that. But, every once in awhile it happens. I think it’s my job as a developing psychic to know the difference.

Straight Laced Psychic

Last night we were watching a show on television about folks who were investigating haunted places. It was on the Biography channel and called Dead Famous – Ghostly Encounters. In this episode they went looking for Lucille Ball. There have evidently been a number of sitings of Lucy since she passed on and off to Stage 2, The Queen Mary and the Hotel Del Coronado we went.

On the team is a sensitive and a skeptic. Nicely balanced and in this particular show the skeptic got it with both barrels. Whether it was Lucy or somebody else’s spirit I don’t know. I think Lucy was more than likely in there some place since they were looking for her, however, my own personal opinion is that there were a bunch of lookie-loo spirits who were attracted to the ghost hunters.

At the end of the show they did a séance and the sensitive went into full blown unconscious channeling mode. He twitched. He flayed himself out all over the table. He flung his head back. It was a show. I looked over at DeeDude and said, “This is why I never wanted to do unconscious channeling. I was afraid of making a spectacle of myself.” I said, “I have come close, but only if I have 3 drinks under my belt.” It has to do with relaxing and surrendering your space for awhile. I’ve just never been real comfortable doing that. Just call me a psychic with a stick up my ass. Think of your old 5th grade teacher. That’s me.

On the flip side there’s no show to what a conscious channel does. It’s blah. How can you tell they’re doing anything other than talking to themselves? Well, with me the guides do speak in a different voice. It’s a sort of 18th century or older voice. The words they choose are usually different than the ones I speak. I sometimes think it’s a voice of a European dude. A male voice. It’s deeper than my own and gravelly at times. But, that’s my style, I guess.

Wanting as far as flamboyancy goes. Jane used to give it up and channel Seth from the unconscious mode. I’ve just either not progressed that far or will never go that far. I don’t know. I can remember twirling around my kitchen once a long time ago channeling Tupac, gyrating and with a brother’s rapping voice. The lady I was channeling for just about wet her pants she was so thrilled. But, I guess that’s the extent of it.

Which all leads me to the dream I had this morning right before I woke up. I’m on the telephone talking to a man and a woman who want me to find their cat. I’m thinking I can’t do that. I don’t do that. I’m hopeless as a psychic to find this animal. But, somebody I was with urged me to try anyway. Somebody says, “Feng Shui” and I put the telephone to my ear. I begin hearing music and a white ring forms at the edge of my vision and narrows to a point in front of me. A whole bunch of them one after the other after the other. And, then I fall down to the floor (spectacle, folks) and begin writhing and singing with the music that I’m hearing over the phone. And, I think that maybe I can psychically find this missing cat.

Hazy, It's Hazy

Okay, so here’s my first lesson in encouraging psychic impressions. This is something that I actually did last night with a little encouragement from my friends, the guides, those invisible ones who help me out. Actually, they helped me out this evening when I got home from work to discover one of my library books was overdue and I was going to need to return it and another one to the library tomorrow…I have the day off. Anyway, I couldn’t find it. I found four other ones, but not those two I want to return.

In my mind I’m revisiting DeeDude as he cleared a path into the study the other day. He said to me, almost in apology, that he couldn’t get to the trash can to dump it. I said, “No, that’s perfectly all right. It looks so much better.” Except, that’s where I could have sworn all the library books were. And, now two were missing. So, I’m thinking of DeeDude and wondering what the hell he could have done with them. See, the interesting thing is right away I’m blaming it all on him. I look three times, four times in my study. I go into the bedroom. I go out into the living room. I think, “They were in a bag. Weren’t they?” I’m in a panic. I can’t find my library books. A voice in my head says to me, “They are in the bathroom. Go look in there.” I go, “Unh?” I’m more accustomed to the guides telling me to look up when I’m in a panic looking for something. This time there was some actual direction. I go into the bathroom. There, buried under another couple of books are the two I’m looking for. Thanks, guys.

Anyway, from those Folk in Spirit who help me with the most mundane things I also listened to last night. I remembered watching, “Psychic Detectives” and began thinking, “I wonder if I could do that?” So, I began reporting what I “saw” psychically. There is no way to verify any of it. I don’t know who it was that I saw. I have no idea where these impressions are coming from. But, the rule to start with is that I am going to report my psychic impressions. That’s all. Doesn’t matter what, where, when or who is in this report. You can do this too. Just close your eyes, pretend that you’re going to be doing a psychic impression and have at it. For a little direction you can specify an incident if you want to, maybe a period in history. You could say, “I want to visit a time in the 1890’s in the Midwestern United States.” Or, “I want to visit the time of one of my ancestors 400 years ago.”

Is it true? I don’t know. Does it matter? No. You’re just exercising a psychic muscle. I’d love to hear if anybody does anything with this.

More on Crystal Balls

Well, I’m not sure which way to go with this. I purchased a crystal ball years ago. I spent a lot on it too. Back in the early days of my psychic awakening I tended to spend more money than I do now. That’s why I urge folks who are just learning how to channel to lock up their credit cards. Not that I’m going to blame the guides for me spending too much money. They were just there at my elbow saying stuff like, “Hey, you deserve it. Why not?” Stuff like that. I sucked it up. Anyway, now I know better.

But, I’ve got a crystal ball that doesn’t work. Every once in awhile I get it off the shelf and clean it off. It’s like a dust magnet. It’s really heavy and totally round, not flat on one side like some.

I learned later that any round, shiny object would do. I could have gotten a beach ball. Imagine, “Let me gaze into my beach ball.” Right. Like the guides said to me at the time, “Any psychic worth their salt has a crystal ball.” That’s what clinched it for me on my see-sawing between should I spend the money or should I save the money. I was the proud owner of a crystal ball. Happy birthday.

All this is called scrying. You can look into a dark mirror rather than a ball. Or, you can fill a pan of water (painted black on the bottom) with water. Brim it. I mean really fill that pan full until, if you put one more drop into it, it’s going to flow over the side. Then, you sit quietly looking at the surface. You go into a semi-meditative state of mind. But, more than that. With the intention of “seeing something” in your pan of water or your crystal ball. I suppose you could even look into a puddle on the sidewalk. Sidewalk sessions with Zelda. You could have a lemonade stand on the side, too. Your cousin Rachel could like, rake it in on a Saturday afternoon. I’m getting distracted.

You know about those magic-eye pictures? Where you stare and stare and all you see is some dumb repetitive pattern that makes no sense at all and then suddenly, baammm, your focus shifts to where you are seeing through the layers of the picture to where the hidden picture is. Sort of like that.

But, I can’t with any real authority say that’s how to do it. I have a feeling this is going to be very much like me learning how to channel. I just keep reading about how other people do it and try to emulate their technique. Finally, one day it’s going to work.

It’s interesting that I was able to do it in my dream last night. That’s what dreams are for too, practicing the stuff you want to do in “real life”.

Look Into My Crystal Ball

I had an interesting dream this morning. I only remember parts of it. Here’s one: some lady was behind a counter serving up refreshments. She handed me a completely squashed down soda can. You did something to it and it expanded and became a can full of soda. It was some sort of new space saving technology.

Then, as I sat there enjoying my beverage I looked up to see a crystal clear glass of water. It caught my eye it was so clear and sharp. Then, as I looked at it I began to see things. A little boy. Blond hair. Different times, different scenes. Always the little boy. I awakened thinking it might have been a son I once had (former lifetime?) but I got a no on that. Then, I thought of one of my grand-nephews. Maybe.

What does it mean? I don’t know. I can’t remember what I was looking at other than it was a blond haired little boy. No trouble. Nothing scary. Just like I was looking through a crystal ball.

Write Down Your Dreams

One of the things that you can do to investigate your psychic nature is to begin recording your dreams. The dream time is the place where your subconscious does housekeeping of the things that are concerning you during the day. Also, it's a place where you work on problems and find solutions to those problems.

However, the dream time is also an ideal place for you to dabble in things psychic. There are any number of things that you can do, but the most important thing is that you be able to remember your dreams. Not just a hazy rememberence, but a full blown write it down right after you wake up situation.

It won't take you that long to get into the habit of recording your dreams. Start today. Then, when things are comfortable for you and you're writing down one and two and three dreams each morning you can begin to work on getting lucid and practicing your psychic skills.

Psychic Readings

One of the things I haven’t done in a really long time is a psychic reading for someone. I think what happened was that I just lost heart for doing them. What I didn’t like about the psychic readings I did for people was that I did not like being the bearer of bad or of disappointing news.

And, it happened a lot.

I tried my hardest to couch the messages I got in an encouraging way for the person, but so much of the time they also were not listening to what I said. Mostly, folks just want to hear what they want to hear. Maybe I didn’t charge enough. Anyway I sort of gave it up for awhile. I actually don’t think that’s what I’m supposed to do anyway. I was careful to occasionally check in with the guides about their own feelings or preferences on the matter, but they never had any to speak of. They always said if I wanted to do it, go ahead. They would make their contribution and that was it. Same thing at work. They help me there, but it’s because I ask for help, not because it’s their job or anything like that.

What I do know is that I am there for those people who want to learn how to channel. And, I think that I’m here to demystify the whole thing. I want folks to know they can go to a psychic for help in making a decision, but not to just take a psychic’s advice without thinking about it. Does that make sense? It’s like you’ll ask your sister, your mother, or the ladies at work for advice about something you’re thinking about doing. You’ll listen to their advice, but in the end it is you who is going to make up your mind. The important thing is that, as a mature adult, you’re not going to blame anybody else for the things that don’t go quit right. What I would do is to urge you to think of a disaster or of a failure as one more step towards a successful outcome and to keep trying with whatever it is that you want to do. It’s just in how you look at it.

Reading Stephen King

Well, it’s been awhile, but I’m reading one of Stephen King’s books again. This is, “From A Buick 8” it reminds me a bit of another one he wrote and danged if I can’t remember the name of it. I want to say it was, “The Tommyknockers”, but that one is too old. It was a recent book of his where folks were in the woods and they all begin to be consumed from the inside by the Things from outer space sort of thing. Sorry I can’t be more specific, but the wonderful thing about his books with me is they all sort of slide in and bump up against each other in my memory. I think that might be because there are so many common threads that Stephen King explores. It’s like an artist who paints and goes through a period of time where all she wants to paint are flowers, or cats, or something like that. It’s a theme that you just can’t shake, where every time you write about it once it’s finished you think to yourself, “You know, I didn’t think about this aspect of it. I think I’ll explore that some too.”

I just love it.

You’d sort of think that some supposedly spiritually minded person wouldn’t be interested in the scary stuff Stephen King writes about, but I am. He’s just a terrific writer. And, I love how his characters both bad and good are really ordinary people. I credit him with me breaking through to the psychic side. Years ago it happened. Ssomewhere I’ve already written about it, but I’ll write about it again.

I’d just quit my job because I figured that now I was officially a writer because I’d just spent 3 years writing a book. It was done. So, I was a writer. My husband was doing well enough that we could afford for me to not be bringing in a steady paycheck and I really, really wanted to have the time to write full time seeing as how I was now a writer and I didn’t want to be a secretary anymore.

Right. Instant writer’s block.

As it happened, I took a year and a half off from work. Now, I'm back again at the same job. Interestingly, the lady they hired to replace me only lasted that long. She left and I went back to the same position. That was 15 years ago and I've been there ever since.

Anyway, back to my story: Then, I caught a cold. Seeing as how I didn’t have to drag my butt to work because I didn’t work anymore I indulged myself in the sick. And, I was sick. It was the worst cold I’ve ever had in my life. This was a doozy. I slept when I could and stayed up the rest of the time. That first week I watched television until I was numb. Already sick I didn’t have a lot of energy to spend doing anything productive. It ended up that I was sleeping a whole lot during the day and awake at night. And, having the television going at night wasn’t all that great because I felt I was disturbing my husband and the family who lived downstairs.

So, it occurred to me that I would really be interested in reading. And, what I wanted to read was Stephen King.

The reason why was that a few months before I quit work I’d taken a swing by the library after work on a Friday afternoon. The idea was that I wanted a really fat book to read over the weekend. I really didn’t care what it was. I just wanted a fat book I could curl up with. So, I was moseying around the new books section and saw a copy of, “ The Stand” by Stephen King. I pulled it off the shelf and had a look at the jacket. To this point in time I had never felt inclined to read anything Stephen King wrote. I was scared to death of this guy. I would change the channel when his movies came on. Nothing had the power to move me faster than the thought of anything Stephen King. It was like riding roller coasters: I just did not do it.

But, I’m holding the fattest book you can imagine in my hands and I’m falling for it like an old bucket tumbling down into a well. I checked it out and read that book in 3 days’ time. By Monday I was done and by Monday I was an official fan of Stephen King. By the way, “The Stand” is an enormous book. It took him 12 years to write. I’ve read it 5 or 6 times since then and will probably read it as many times more in the years to come.

So, anyway, here I am a few months later facing boredom beyond belief with this horrible summer cold still hanging on. I was so totally restless, uncomfortable and noisy in bed that my husband just couldn’t get any rest. Also, I didn’t want to make him sick too, so I sort of set up camp out in the living room for the duration of my cold.

Tired of watching television it occurred to me that I could go get some Stephen King books out of the library. We didn’t have a car in those days, or at least that I remember, because I hauled my sorry, sick butt onto a city bus and tried not to breathe on people. I checked out 35 pounds of Stephen King books and read them all in a week. Then, I went back to the library to turn those in and get more. Three trips I made to the library and I read a boat load of his books during the time that I was so sick.

I overdosed on Stephen King.

The first indication I had that something odd was going on was when I began seeing, “222” everywhere. When I looked at a clock it was at 2:22. When I happened to glance at the microwave it said, “2:22” for the time or for whatever was left to nuke. While I was reading a book I’d notice page 222 as it went by. Actually, that still happens to me. It got to be spooky. What was really spooky was when I told my sister about it and she called me the next day to say she’d just been in their bank’s parking lot and she happened to glance up at the time and temperature sign to see that said 2:22 as well. Like I said, spooky.

Then, I began knowing that the phone was going to ring. Then, I began knowing who was going to be on the phone when it rang. Then, I began having really vivid dreams and those morphed into visions that I had when I wasn’t quite asleep and not quite awake.

It scared the crap out of me.

That’s when I went looking for help. I found something Colin Wilson wrote, that I think was called, “ESP”, but may have been his book, “The Occult”. In it I remember reading that it was okay to have ESP and it wasn’t really such a big deal.

That’s when the shit hit the fan and I was okay with it.

I began reading other books investigating what was happening to me and I eventually, stumbled upon Sanaya Roman and Duane Parker’s ,"Opening to Channel" when I learned how to channel.

So, that’s why I credit Stephen King with me finally opening up to my psychic nature.

I Need A Psychic

Hey, I need a psychic. What? You are a psychic. Why do you need one? Guess what? I don’t read very well for myself. What I’ve learned is that I am a case of I can’t see the forest for the trees. Also, I’m so much aligned with sensing the larger picture that my own tiny bit of real estate just doesn’t rate all that much importance. At least, that’s what it seems like to me. So, I mostly just go with the flow and allow it all to fall where it may.

Sometimes when I really want something to happen I’ll spend a bit of time on it as if it were a project to cut my teeth manifesting a favorable outcome, but mostly I just sit there watching forensic detective television shows talking to the murdered victims. What am I going to say? Nothing. I have nice chats with them in my head. They’re not hurting anymore. But, danged I wish my husband didn’t like to watch them while we’re eating dinner.

By the way, DeeDude found out he has strep throat today. Since Sunday before last he’s been sick. Did he listen to his wife the psychic and go see the doctor last week? No. Now, he’s on antibiotics and went to bed early tonight. I haven’t seen him dragging his butt like this in years. We anticipate a speedy recovery now.