Episodes
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For our last episode of Season One, I had the pleasure of interviewing my long-time friend, mentor, and astrology teacher, Mr. Nick Lasky. In this episode, Nick takes us into his real-life spiritual awakening journey from growing up agnostic, to his first sip of the Holy Grail, and into the adventures he’s encountered on his life-long quest to find it again. And as we have learned throughout Season One, spiritual awakenings aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. They can be confusing, scary, and especially isolating in a society like ours. Nick offers a well of wisdom and advice on how to navigate this universal, inner transformation, in a modern world that is shockingly unaware.
THANK YOU to all my listeners and subscribers for your support on this journey. Every like, comment, share, and review is appreciated and does not go unnoticed! If you have enjoyed what you’ve heard so far, and would like to leave a 5 star review, this greatly improves the algorithm and gets episodes in front of more truth seekers like yourself. Thank you again for listening and stay tuned for info on Season Two.
Nick’s Bio: Nick Lasky is a spiritual teacher specializing in astrology, tarot, meditation, and sacred ceremonies. He is the founder of the Society of Awakening Souls and co-founder of the Aquarian House of Astrology & the Cacao Men's Circle. He was the writer for Explore Awareness Magazine's astrology section 'Your Lucky Stars.' He offers individual consultations and works one on one with leaders and visionaries striving to expand their impact and influence in the world.
Nick’s Website - www.nicklasky.com
Nick’s IG - @nick.lasky
The Aquarian Bookshop and Metaphysical Center
Natalie’s Links:
Natalie’s Website - SidheART.com
Natalie’s Story
Natalie’s Etsy Shop
Channelled Art (Based on your astrological birth chart)
Natalie’s IG - @sidhe.channelled.art
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Welcome to Season One, Episode 9 of Tales from the Truth Seekers. In this episode I had the great pleasure of interviewing a new friend and fellow spiritual seeker, Mark Phillips. Mark's life has been dotted with various spiritual experiences that illuminate the presence and power of our loved ones beyond the grave. Mark opens up about these very beautiful and life-changing events, bringing us all back into that sense of wonder and enchantment within ourselves. This episode brings insight into important topics such as spiritual psychosis, while also shedding light on where and how one can become a formally trained psychic-medium.
Mark’s Bio: Mark lives in Scotland and throughout his life from childhood has had a keen interest in the supernatural but never for a second believed this was something he was able to be a part of. Mark had a couple of experiences with loved ones, who had passed, in dream throughout his life; At the age of 44 Mark realised that having a connection with Spirit is not only for the select few, now as a newly working medium and channel Mark's passion is sharing that we can all connect with Spirit, our own intuition/psychic faculties and healing modalities which are within us all.
Mark’s Substack - The Mind’s Aye
Mark’s Instagram
Books mentioned: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Books on spirituality and psychosis: The Stormy Search for the Self - A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis by Christina Grof
Podcast Shout-outs:
The Skeptical Shaman with Rachel White
A Psychic’s Story with Nicole Bigley
Other links:
Arthur Findlay College
No One Should Die Alone Foundation
Natalie’s Links:
Natalie’s Website - SidheART.com
Natalie’s Story
Natalie’s Etsy Shop
Channelled Art (Based on your astrological birth chart)
Natalie’s IG - @sidhe.channelled.art
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Episodes manquant?
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Patrick Belisle and his wife Jane built a life together that checked all the American Dream boxes. So when they found themselves still somewhat unfulfilled, they set off to travel the world to find whatever it was that they were missing. They proceeded to visit Australia, New Zealand, China, Thailand, and India and had numerous eye opening experiences along the way. But it was through a breath work class in Pune, India that Patrick had a truly life changing experience of completely dissolving into an unconditional love from beyond. Please enjoy Season One, Episode 8 of Tales from the Truth Seekers.
Patrick’s Bio: Patrick Belisle is a self-described practical mystic, who studied theology with Benedictine monks at his college in Minnesota, meditated with Buddhist monks in Thailand, and had a powerful spiritual awakening using breath-work at the Osho Commune in Pune, India. He and his wife Jane traveled around the world and around the U.S. for almost 4 years in search of the meaning of life. Patrick has worn many hats: He is longtime student and teacher of famous psychic Edgar Cayce, and had a 15-year tenure as a Director at Edgar Cayce's A.R.E. He has also worked for many years with Dr. Ian Stevenson’s Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia where they have been studying the nature of consciousness for over 50 years, with research into Near-Death Experiences, psychic phenomena and young children who seem to remember a past life! He has worked with teenagers, officiates weddings, baby blessings, and celebrations of life. Patrick currently serves as Director of Philanthropy for the Hoffman Institute.
Featured:
Netflix Docu-Series: Surviving Death, UVA DOPs featured in episodes 1 & 6
Patrick Belisle’s presentation at The Cayce Forum: Edgar Cayce on the Past Lives of Jesus
Books mentioned:
After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond by Bruce Greyson
The Egg by Andy Weir
The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert
Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing by Anita Moorjani
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander
The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson
Organizations and Institutions mentioned:
The University of Virginia’s Department of Perceptual Studies (UVA DOPs)
Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment Inc. (A.R.E.)
The Hoffman Institute
Servas International
For contact & inquiries:
Natalie’s Links:
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
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In Season One, Episode 7 of Tales from the Truth Seekers I had the pleasure of connecting with Lydia, a former university art professor who is deep in the midst of her spiritual journey, and recently returned from an extended residency at a Zen Buddhist monastery. In this episode, she shares her initial spiritual experience with us which encompassed vast, never-ending lightness, as well as intense darkness and fear, and the incredible, continuously evolving insights that can come with an experience like this. We both share our stories of attempting to navigate the aftermath, the struggles of trying to find a teacher who is not dismissive but understanding (even in some Buddhist circles), and our shared experience of how funny, alive, and un-serious the beauty of the world really is.
Lydia’s Bio: Lydia worked for almost 20 years as a professor of visual art at a university in Virginia and left that tenured position last year. Since then, she has spent time in residence at several Zen Buddhist centers in the US, most recently five months at a monastery in New York. She has been a committed meditator for about 13 years and practiced in the insight tradition before she found her way to Zen.
Teachers mentioned:
Thich Nhat Hanh
Books mentioned:
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryū Suzuki
The Oxherding Pictures Link
To connect with Lydia please email - [email protected]
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
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In Season One, Episode 6 of Tales from the Truth Seekers, I had the pleasure of interviewing my good friend and mentor, Rachel White, host of The Skeptical Shaman Podcast! So how does one go from Catholic school to atheism to modern shaman you may ask? Well her story is nothing short of mind-blowing, as so many of these stories are, and her ability to stay completely open while still maintaining sharp critical thinking skills is equally as important and inspiring. As we follow Rachel’s story, we learn what it’s really like to be an actual psychic medium, and how to keep yourself safe while navigating the wonderful world of “woo.”
Rachel’s Bio: Rachel graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with Degrees in both English Literature and Criminal Psychology. She is the published author of the TOTEM Tarot Deck (available on Amazon and Etsy) and the creator of TOTEM Flower Essences (available on Etsy). Rachel is also the author of the TOTEM Readings Substack, and has been a featured contributing author in publications, including Best Holistic Health. Rachel is also the host of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, engaging fascinating iconoclasts in a dialogue designed to help the spiritually-homeless navigate the New Age landscape without falling into a con, a cult, or a multilevel marketing scheme. Rachel’s spiritual practice embodies the rebellious, independent spirit of shamanism. Rachel embraces and cultivates the power of the individual, empowering clients to reject group-think in lieu of their own, direct experience of spirit. To this end, Rachel has taken the Seek Safely pledge, committing herself and her practice to the highest standards in transparency, ethics, and quality across her available scope of services.
Rachel’s Links:
Rachel’s website - TOTEMReadings.com
TOTEM Readings Substack
TOTEM Readings Etsy Shop
Rachel’s IG - @totemrach
Natalie’s Links:
Natalie’s Website - SidheART.com
Natalie’s Story
Natalie’s Etsy Shop
Channelled Art (Based on your astrological birth chart)
Natalie’s IG - @sidhe.channelled.art
Books mentioned:
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings: Working with the Intelligence in Nature by Marko Pogacnik
The Trickster and the Paranormal by George P. Hansen
Animal-Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small by Ted Andrews
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
The Outsider by Stephen King
The Shining by Stephen King
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
TV series mentioned:
HBO doc-series Breath of Fire
HBO doc-series The Vow
TED Talks mentioned:
Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
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Sometimes it is when we are most hurried, most distracted, and most distraught that these unexplainable experiences suddenly enter our lives. In Season One, Episode 5 of Tales from the Truth Seekers, I had the pleasure of interviewing Roger Oney, my podcast launching mentor, about the spiritual experiences he has had throughout his life, and the ways in which they have changed him. The most potent of all being an out of body experience that introduced a burning clarity back into his life, melting everything else away. This episode also touches on the struggles of integrating an experience like this back into daily life as we follow Roger into circles of people who seem to have grave misunderstandings about what it means to be “spiritual.” Yet he ends with hopeful perspectives on the nature of humanity and our innate connection to our distant indigenous past, as the inevitable restructuring of our modern society continues to loom ever nearer.
Roger’s Bio: Roger is a multipotentialite and creative with a background in technology, spiritual healing, and Core Energy Coaching™. He enjoys working with clients one-to-one, helping them tap into inner guidance during times of great change. And more recently, is working with healers, helpers, and guides to expand their reach and better connect with clients through Podcasting.
Rogers website - Rogeroney.com
Rogers substack - Roger Goes Rogue
Books mentioned:
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by David R. Hawkins
Authors mentioned:
Joe Dispenza
Martha Beck
Byron Katie
Serenity Prayer
“O God and Heavenly Father, grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.”
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
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This episode is a special episode. Not long after I recorded this interview with Jewels, she passed away. I didn’t know she was sick at the time of recording, or at all. I am grateful that the nature of my podcast is to ask about the person‘s entire life. So I look forward to sharing and celebrating the incredible life of Jewels Maloney with you. Rest in peace dear one.
In Season One, Episode 4 of Tales from the Truth Seekers, I had the pleasure of interviewing my professor/mentor Jewels Maloney, from the Edgar Cayce founded college, Atlantic University. In this episode, Jewels takes us through the incredible ups and downs of her life and spiritual journey since 1977. From her initial heart opening and kundalini awakening, to a true dark night of the soul, to becoming a channel for the sacred Magdalene, to the disarmament rallies of the 1980s, her life is a myriad of spiritual experiences, all equally as beautiful, and all coming with their own unique lessons to learn.
Jewels’ Bio: Jewels Maloney was a Mentor at Atlantic University for the Masters in Transpersonal Psychology program and the Certificate in Spiritual Guidance and Mentoring. Her passion was pure gnosis - intuitive inner connection with Creator and Creation in all forms of life, especially here and now on our magnificent Gaia/Mother Earth. And her greatest passion these days was simply BEing in nature. In the past, Jewels received a Masters and Doctorate in Creativity, worked with young children, founded two nature-based schools, and mentored Early Childhood and Elementary teachers in training in Massachusetts and Montana. She moved to Sedona, AZ in 2003 and for 20 years was involved with taking people out in the red rocks and vortex energy areas, and doing healing work, emotional release work, and spiritual readings.
Books Mentioned:
Every Child is Holy by Jewels Maloney
Mary Magdalene - The Christos-Sophia Revelation by Jewels Maloney
The Christos-Sophia Revelation Vol II: Love One Another by Jewels Maloney
Soul Songs by Jewels Maloney
Ecstasies & Meditations by Jewels Maloney
Wadogh: I AM Thankful by Jewels Maloney
Anna, Grandmother of Jesus: A Message of Wisdom and Love by Claire Heartsong
Anna, The Voice of the Magdalenes: A Sequel to Anna, Grandmother of Jesus by Claire Heartsong
Organizations Mentioned:
Food Not Bombs
American Friends Service Committee
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
Dear Jewels,
The news about your passing comes as a surprise and a shock to me and I am grieving today. But I am so grateful that in our last conversation I was able to convey to you just how important you were to me. You changed my life in beautiful and amazing ways and your work continues to inspire me. Your podcast interview will be airing very soon now, and I am so humbled to be able to share your light with the world, one more time, even after your passing.
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Welcome to Season One, Episode 3 of Tales from the Truth Seekers. You may have heard that juniper trees hold significance in the Bible, or that they can be traced back to the ancient goddesses of Canaan or Greece. You may have heard talk of spiritual energy vortexes in and around Sedona, Arizona and that they are mysteriously linked to the juniper that grows there. But it's another thing altogether to hear a story first-hand from a modern, American, financial analyst who just happened to have a life-changing spiritual experience for himself, while sitting next to one of these trees.
Thomas’s Bio: Thomas is a financial analyst covering banks by day. He is also a successful entrepreneur, owner, and co-founder of Pristine Cleaning in Fredrick Maryland, and co-founder of Namsa Investment Company. Professionally, he sometimes goes by T. Leo Curley. You can find Thomas tweeting about finance, politics, and philosophy at - @Thomas_lc192
Books mentioned:
Be Here Now by Ram Dass
Be Love Now by Ram Dass
Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
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Welcome to Season One, Episode 2 of Tales from the Truth Seekers. In this episode I interview the incredible Monica Rao. Her story is quite unbelievable and yet it is 100% true, a perfect story to help open our minds and hearts to what is actually real and possible.
For example, what do you do when the doctors tell you that you have a terminal illness that has severely shortened your lifespan, and yet you feel the healthiest you’ve ever felt in your entire life? What do you do when you miraculously heal the “un-healable” through the divine light you encountered in death, and then discover you have the ability to channel this light for others?
All of these questions and more are explored and answered as Monica takes us on the journey she’s been on for the past fifteen years, from clinical death, to expansive oneness, to complete rebirth. A successful professional, a wife, and mother of two, she could never have seen it coming and yet here she is, a magical and guiding light for all of us.
Monica’s Bio: Monica is a native of Bombay, India, and earned a degree equivalent to a bachelor’s in commercial art and design, as well as a B.A. in graphic art, and a Master of Science in leadership from Central Michigan University. She is an award winning artist and has held many positions on community boards on both the state and national levels. She has also held the position of liaison at CMU providing leadership in the University's partnerships abroad. Following her near-death experience in 2010 and fully healing from a life-threatening illness, she founded Graphoria Inc. in 2014. She splits her time between creating art, writing, and public speaking. She has a private practice as a transformative (intuitive) energy healer and a spiritual life coach. Additionally, she leads art and intuitive energy healing seminars, workshops, and wellness retreats for organizations in Richmond, VA and out of state.
Monica’s Website - Graphoria.com
Graphoria Inc. Facebook
Graphoria Inc. Instagram - @monicarao.graphoria
Monica Rao LinkedIn
Sidhe Readings & Channelled Art Website
Personalized Sculpture based on your Astrological Birth Chart
Sidhe Art Instagram
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Before we begin: If you know me, and you listen to this episode, I want you to understand that you are unknowingly healing a painful perceived gap between us that I have been experiencing for a long time, and I extend my utmost gratitude to you in advance.
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If you had told me in April of 2014 that in ten years time I would be hosting a podcast complied from interviews of people who have had real spiritual awakening experiences, I would have not believed you. Before everything happened the word “spiritual” felt cheesy to me, all religions looked no different from cults, and if someone had an awakening it meant they’d been taken. The very idea of cultism and brainwashing has been deeply disturbing to me for as long as I can remember and I was very happy to subscribe to the Newtonian, mechanistic, material, model world-view as a means of dodging the brainwashing. Plus who doesn’t like to believe their outlook makes them smarter than everyone else?
Oh how life loves to humble me.
Of course there are still plenty of people out there who treat religion no differently than a cult member would. I’ve also witnessed for myself the transformation of the word “spiritual” from something deep, profound, and mysterious, to something silly, cheesy, and ridiculous by tribes of seemingly well-intentioned, oblivious people who only proceed to ruin the movement known as New Age.
But what I didn’t know at 27 was that there was a third group of people, who don’t always belong to religious or spiritual circles and who don’t call themselves atheist or agnostic either. I also didn’t know that with this third group comes another dimension of reality altogether, and that I would suddenly find myself as part of it at 28.
Our modern, mainstream society with all its fancy gadgets and technological advances is shockingly ignorant to a part of the human condition that is arguably the most important part. It is a piece that was celebrated, understood, and woven into the fabric of societies around the world for millennia. In fact it still is in many parts of the world today. Modern, Western, non-indigenous, culture and the societies of relatively recent past that helped to shape it, are possibly the first and only societies to banish firsthand spiritual awakening experiences to the forbidden lands of the taboo. In most other cultures if a person found themselves able to communicate with the dead, the unborn, and the spirits of nature, or if they were suddenly consumed with a love so intense and overwhelming that they could feel the essence of a higher power, these people were encouraged to become shamans, priestesses and priests, medicine men, sages, mystics, and druids. In many indigenous cultures there are also much needed support systems in place for people who suddenly wake up to the nature of reality and their experiences and abilities are celebrated as important contributions to the community which gives them an outlet and a role in the world.
In modern America there are no support systems. Instead the person’s innocent, direct experience seems to threaten everyone else’s belief system and sense of safety by defualt. In not all but many cases, people are deemed insane by the secular, heretical by the religious, and are usually gaslit by the New Agers, while we all continue to search for answers about the mystery of life in places we will never find it. Meanwhile, the mental health crisis rages on, the Earth continues to be treated as a dead, lifeless, thing to be exploited, and the experiencers themselves can suffer greatly from isolation, confusion, lack of support, and depression all for having the most beautiful and the most human experience they can possibly have.
Yet there are people who have gotten through it, hiding in the margins, living real-world examples of what is possible and where the answers lie. They are sitting on the sidelines, usually trying to contribute their magic to the world in the most “acceptable” way. So they commodify and commercialize their offerings so as to remain digestible to the highly spook-able public. Meanwhile there are plenty of imposters and fake gurus out there, further clouding our ability to see any of them clearly. Or perhaps they just live quietly, as role models of grace and maturity, living a seemingly normal life while silently wondering if anyone else has felt what they’ve felt or seen what they’ve seen.
Not being given a role from the community when having a spiritual experience does contain a silver lining though. Because when you are able to step out of your comfortable belief systems and open your heart and mind to listen to people’s stories, you’ll come to find out how universal and how simply human these experiences really are. You don’t need to have been meditating in the desert for years or make life-altering sacrifices to something you believe in. These are misconceptions that can come with labels and titles. You’ll find instead that these people are actually just financial analysts, corporate company members, university students, lost 20-somethings, hospital patients, mothers, fathers, authors, and teachers, neighbors, “atheists,” Christians, and Hindus. People of any culture, and religion, any age, and any belief system. One day it hits them, their consciousness expands, their spirit soars, and they become a living example of what we all are hoping to find but continue to be too scared to see in plain sight.
Now let’s be clear. No one can “get out” of the human experience. We are here to feel all of the emotions and to be the protagonist in our one, unique, hero’s journey of ups and downs and of deaths and rebirths. No one has all the of the answers either. This is an ironic realization of the most enlightened among us, the people who seem to know it all. A huge part of awakening is realizing that divinity and the great mystery are linked, that it is all around us, and to become re-enchanted by how much we do not know and yet thoroughly enjoy pondering all of it anyway. Spiritual awakening stories are also sometimes highly personal and tender. It is vulnerable to publicly share them and can feel strange to take your experience of unity and spread it out into the world of separateness, up for anyone to judge or naysay. But our world today is in desperate need of the truth from trust-worthy, primary sources, people who are not pushing opinions or beliefs, who are not selling you anything, promising anything, or expecting anything from you. Just stories. Stories that serve as a healing elixir to both listener and experiencer alike. Stories that turn you back around and send you home to yourself. Stories that are here to bring truth, love, peace, and magic to an increasingly cult-like, fearful, and cynical world.
So I humbly invite you to join us this winter, and welcome to Tales from the Truth Seekers.
HUGE shout out and thank you to Rachel White of Totem Readings and host of The Skeptical Shaman Podcast and to Roger Oney aka Roger Goes Rogue, for helping me move my dreams into a reality. If you are interested in this subject matter while simultaneously staying grounded and laughing along the way, I highly recommend subscribing to Rachel’s and Roger’s Substacks and Podcasts linked above!!
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