My Personal Development Journey
Podcast
Episode:
Lecture Series: My Personal Development Journey
by Danielle Searancke
Happy New Year! This episode is my first recording of 2022, even though the Spirit Messages episode came out on January 2. After crossing the milestone of my second year of podcasting on December 22, I am excited to continue creating episodes when I am inspired!
I received the inspiration to share my personal development story in December, but it didn’t feel aligned to release it until now. In this episode, I am sharing my own personal development journey as well as some tips that you can use for your own.
Episode:
Lecture Series: My Development Journey
Spirit School Podcast
SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE INCLUDE:
I did not believe the many mediums who told me in readings that I could do this work.
The first reading I did scared me because it was my first experience with deep grief.
My first 3 years of development was in circles with the same mentor, meeting only once per month, making it a slow and steady path.
When I released the pressure to work for the public and accepted that my soul would let me know when I was ready, I had opportunities come to me.
After the birth of my son, I went full-time and came out of the spiritual closet.
Spirit ALWAYS shows up.
So much of the development path is the inner healing work.
I love my Instagram audience and our live conversations! If you want to get in on the conversation next time, follow me @squamishmedium on Instagram.
LINKS
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Happy 2nd Anniversary to the Spirit School Podcast
Hello everyone. And welcome back to spirit school. Happy new year, happy 2022 officially. This is my first time recording in 2022; even though you got your spirit messages on the 2nd of January, this is the first time I recorded in 2022. So excited to be here with you for another year of podcasting. On December 22nd, I celebrated two years as a podcast and the Spirit School podcast. So that's very exciting for me. I have no intentions of stopping or slowing down; every time I get a hit or an inspiration on releasing and recording a podcast episode, I will definitely come and do that. So, this is an inspiration episode that came to me in December, and the timing just wasn't right, but now it feels like a really good time to talk about this topic of development. So, I wanted to share some, maybe tips and inspirations on your own development journey near the end of this podcast episode, but I'm going to start by sharing a little bit about my development journey.
Getting Vulnerable with my Spiritual Development Journey
Some of it you may have heard, other pieces you may not have heard. So, I will start by just letting you know how this journey unfolded for me. I find that anytime I share my stories, as vulnerable as that is, a lot of people message me because they're able to kind of see different aspects of their own journey within mine. And in some ways, that is very comforting. And I get that. That's kind of why I started this podcast; because I wanted to talk about topics that I just didn't hear other people were talking about. I have had more and more people of my peers reach out to me in the past year, saying that they listen to my podcast and they're so grateful. I'm talking about some of these things, and it makes them feel less alone. So that's very exciting for me as well.
The Origins of my Mediumship Development
So, whether you're a peer, a student, a future student, or just a long-time listener, welcome. I hope you enjoy a little bit of the story, and hopefully, you get something out of it for your own development journey as well. So, my development journey formally started in 2013. After the birth of my daughter, I had a reading with a medium who was probably the seventh medium I had seen since I was 17, who had said that I was a medium. I was starting to believe that they all said this to every single client. I never left a single session where people were telling me this, thinking I was a medium. I just brushed it off. I forgot about it.
I was very aware of mediums my whole life. Obviously, since 14, I've talked about this a lot; how I used to watch John Edwards religiously on TV and had a VHS recorder. I would VHS tape every Crossing Over episode. And every time Sylvia Brown was on Montel Williams. I had tapes upon tapes upon tapes, and everybody in my family watched it. My parents and my brother, we all enjoyed watching mediums on TV. Mediumship was in my awareness, but the thought that I would be a medium just wasn't in my cards. I never thought about it. And I never believed any of these people, but something about this reader, I really, really resonated with her. For one, she gave me the best reading I've ever had, even to this day. I won't say her name. She's no longer in this work.
Starting with a Spiritual Development Circle
She's taking a different path. There's no point in saying the name, to be honest with you, but she was the clearest, most profound life-changing reading I'd ever had. And she was doing development circles. I lived about a two-hour drive away from where she was working. But I was very interested, and there was just something that shifted inside of me after that session where I said, 'okay, yep, I'll come to your development circle, but I'm not going to do the mediumship development circle. I'm going to do the intuitive development circle' because I was that convinced, I was not a medium. And she was like, 'okay, sure. I guess so. But I really think you need to go into the mediumship.' 'Nope. I'm not a medium.'
So sure enough, in our first class, I was about an hour and a half there, and she had called me to say that class was canceled because no one else could make it. And I was like, 'oh, darn okay. Because I've already been on the road for an hour and a half.' It was a huge commitment for me to leave my brand-new baby with my husband, who had no interest in spirituality and thought I was a total nut job, losing my mind to spend all this time. And I think it was like at six o'clock at night. It was like during rush hour; it was just like a big deal. I let her know that, and she ended up saying, 'okay, just come anyway. We'll figure something out.' Lo and behold, just me and one other person ended up showing up, and she just said, 'let's just sit and see what happens.' And she had me close my eyes, and she was like, 'what do you see?'
Learning about Clairvoyance, and my first Mediumship Reading Experience
She was a Clair. Everything was about seeing and what I saw were shadows even today. My clairvoyance, when I close my eyes in particular, is very shadowy. It's just gray scale. Not a whole lot of colour. I see more colour now. My clairvoyance has definitely opened over the years, but all I saw was like a shadow. There were two shadows. And I was like, 'there's two.' But I knew that the bigger one was older. And I knew that one of them was like this young man. I just knew some things. I just started saying the things that I knew. And then I said, 'can I say a name?' And I said this name, and then this woman just like grabbed me by my arms. And she gasped. And that was a very scary moment for me because I could feel like empathetically, and through my sentience, I know now, her despair, her grief, her desperation. It was a very desperate moment. And she had just lost her son eight months before. And I had said his name and had tuned into her mother at the same time as well. But that pressure that I felt that grief, I should say, really rocked me. I'd never experienced anything like it. And I buckled under pressure in that moment, and I stopped connecting, and she was trying to explain to me what was happening. And I don't remember the rest of that experience, to be honest with you. That's all I remember. And I remember going home, driving home that night; my hand was literally over my mouth. I was shocked. I was shocked. And I have been aware of spirit guides for a very long time because I had my first experience with my spirit guide when I was seven.
My First Real Declaration to the World of Spirit
But then I've also been reading Sylvia Brown books since I was 15. I read all 42 of the books that she had released before I left high school. So I was that into mediumship, not understanding that that was a sign; I had no idea. On the way home, I was blown away. I was like, giggling. I was crying. I was blown away. I was in disbelief, doubting thoughts started coming in. And then I made my first real declaration to the world of Spirit where I said, okay, I can recognize now. And I can understand that you have been guiding me to this path multiple times over my life. I won't go into all the different stories I have around that. But this was like the third time that Spirit had brought this path and this opportunity to me, and I made a declaration to them in that moment. And I said, 'I can see that now. And I am making a vow to you in this moment that I am on this path. And I am never leaving this path. I will spend the rest of my life on this path, whatever it is.' And I have kept that honour now going on almost nine years. So that was the beginning of my development journey. It was very declaration-based because, and this is what I teach a lot in The Initiation, The Calling, all the different programs that I run; I'm like, 'you have to make these bold, there are so many people waiting for a signing or sign that they need to be on this path. And I am a testament that Spirit has been bringing me signs very clearly since I was 17 that I should look into this path, and I never took it. That was my divine free will.
Learning Mediumship Under my First Mentor
And I actually had to make my declaration at 31 that, okay, I recognize these signs now, and I'm going to hop on this path. So not knowing what to do, online development wasn't in my awareness at the time. I don't know if there was online development in 2013; I have no idea. I just trusted this woman so much that I stayed under her container in her wing for three and a half years. I developed under her and her circles. And I was probably one of her longest-standing development clients. She was a very strict teacher. You weren't allowed to mentor under anyone else if you were mentoring under her. I ended up working for her in exchange for mentorship because it was very heated in my relationship with how expensive development can be, especially when you're working with a teacher with experience and who was a little bit proven; like they charged their worth.
Learning While in the Spiritual Closet
And it was pretty expensive, I guess. We worked out a deal because I was very business savvy, computer savvy, and technologically savvy. And I did some things in exchange, and I did mentor under her, but that structure of mentorship was very slow and steady for me because it was only one day a month for five hours a day. It was basically a workshop a month, and there wasn't anything organized or set up between. It was really up to me to kind of figure out what I was going to do in between my sessions. I was very much in the closet at this point in time; I didn't even tell my extended family or my friends that I was doing this. So doing practice reading was almost like not happening because those five hours of class time and whatever we organized was all, all I was really getting.
A Slow and Steady Spiritual Development Journey
When I talk about my development journey, being a very slow and steady one, this is what I'm talking about. I didn't know any other way. I was just merely following the guidance of my mentor at the time. And then, in my off time, I had a very dedicated and devoted meditation practice. It wasn't traditional meditation. It was a lot more active, a lot more visualization. I did spend a majority of those sitting sessions every night for 30 minutes; I would sit in the power and or I would do a visualization to get a calling card for my spirit guide because they had been bringing me so much magic that I was like, I need to know when you're here. And I needed something very physical because I was very, very skeptical. And so, over the course of probably about two years, doing this very regularly, the development unfolded in a beautiful way.
Experiences with my Spirit Guide, Skylar
And the experiences I had with Skylar, my guide, were absolutely mind-blowing; those first two years were definitely the most potent and the most magical probably in my entire life because everything was so new, you know, even this one time during a meditation, I was still getting used to how spirits spoke to me, which was a lot through a transfer of thought. I gained just so much of it and knew it was never just anything disembodied that I experienced, but I expected other people had experienced. And one time, I heard Skylar say in my mind, take off your necklace and hold it up. And I did, and I took off my necklace. It was actually a crystal, which is known as the medium stone. I was using every tool I could to try to get more energy or like more connected in those early years.
The Only Tool You Need for Mediumship
You're really kind of relying on things external to yourself, not realizing you are the magic, and you are the only tool you need for mediumship. I had crystals and cards and all sorts of stuff, but I held up this necklace, and it literally started spinning in a circle, and I was not spinning it. And I was so blown away. My jaw was on the ground. It was one of the most magical experiences of my life. The only thing I could compare it to is when I did my first table tipping, which was by far the most incredible spiritual experience I've ever had in my life. But this was up there with that. And I held it up, and I was Googling it after I'm like holding up necklace, necklace, spinning necklace spinning. And it took me a long time because I didn't know what this was, but I came across pendulums, and I'd never heard of one before.
And because you have to remember before I developed as a medium, like I was a ghost hunter, like semi-professionally, I was in a very organized group. I was travelling some places in Europe to go to haunted locations. And I was working with race cars, so in a very masculine industry, I didn't have outside of ghost hunting, which I stopped doing when I was 24. I didn't have a whole lot of spiritual people in my life or spiritual hobbies. This was all very, you know, new to me. And it was a very profound experience. And then I became very reliant on the pendulum, and it took me a long time to realize I'm like, I think that this thing's kind of like moving to my will, and I would test it a few times. I'm like, why is this thing lying to me?
Gaining Spiritual Maturity, and Mediumship Practice Readings
And I stopped giving my power away to the pendulum, but that took a little bit of spiritual maturity to kind of like, you know, grow into before I was ready to kind of like release that. So after about three years of developing under that one mentor, I was still very much in the closet doing practice readings, but they were all going very well. And you know, I, I give this example to a lot of my students. Well, my students have probably heard the story, but after that first connection with that woman's sign and the first class I went to, I didn't know what I was doing. There was no structure or anything. I still didn't understand what had happened or how to make it happen again. Or if it would happen again or whatnot. And I remember the first practice reading I went into after that as part of the mediumship development class; by the way, she moved me over to the mediumship development class. She was like, you're not meant for this generalized class. You need to go into mediumship.
First Practice Reading in the Mediumship Development Group
All I saw in my mind's eye was a tree, and the entire reading was a tree. I see a tree. I didn't know how to move past that tree. I didn't know how to pair another Clair, which totally rhymes - pair another Clair - with that vision and how to create something, you know, multidimensional or has depth and meaning to it. And I had a long way to go, and I really recognized and realized that. And because I was only training once a month, things went pretty slow for me, considering, but I'm happy that things unfolded the way they did. And we eventually moved up into doing readings for the public in her space and doing psychic fairs. And for some reason, I would always be really booked out, and people really enjoyed sessions with me.
Disbelief and Doubt in my Mediumship Abilities
It was hard for me to believe that because being a perfectionist Virgo and being someone who always struggled with confidence in their life, I didn't believe when people were saying nice things about me <laugh> and I definitely never felt good enough. And I really just was in disbelief in those early first few years if I was even meant to do readings for the public. And I remember the first time I did a workshop outside of my, uh, mentor, which was Mavis Pittilla. I did a week-long workshop with her in Vancouver. She flew to Vancouver then. It was like the retreat kind of thing. And I remember saying to her, like, I see people who are like, you know, developing for like under a year and then like they launch their website and they're ready to go. Like, why do I not feel like doing that?
And she said, well, either you're afraid, or your soul's just not calling you to work for the public and just honour that. And so that really kind of relieved me of a lot of pressure because I thought I had to follow a very similar path as my mentor. And I definitely knew I did not have the thick skin to do that type of work yet. I kind of decided, okay, I guess my soul will just tell me when it's time to take that next step. And I relieved myself of any pressure outside of that. But then what happened after that was like, all these opportunities kept coming to me. And the first opportunity was my friend, who was a shamanic teacher, asked me to come to her winter solstice event and do some readings for like $20. I was like, 'yeah, I guess I could do that.'
Walking Through Fear around Mediumship
And I only had space to do four 20-minute readings just because of the timetable and the schedule. And I booked out like all four readings, and I didn't realize I was the only practitioner at that event that booked out, and I had a great experience. It was actually the first time I really walked through fear in my mediumship - doing that one event. And I remember going to a friend's Christmas party after, and she's like, 'how did it go?' Because she was one of the few people who knew. I was like, 'oh my God, it was amazing. I can't believe that I can do that and that this is anything.' And I was so blown away, and that really kind of opened up my energy to potentially doing this as a path. And the rest is history.
Switching from Practice Readings to Public Mediumship Readings
After that, to be honest with you, when it comes to that switch between when do you go from practice readings to doing it for the public? For me, it was like an in almost then I said yes to it, and I could have said no too, but I said yes. And I love that feeling. And I kept walking through fear every single time I opened up sessions, and they would book out, and I would show up scared every single time. But every single time, it would work out. It actually didn't work out for my first time, about five or six years in. But I was worried about that one time; it wouldn't work out for all that time, which is a waste of energy, but sticking more to the development path. My first few years, just to kind of summarize, was basically doing something daily myself on my own, kind of making it up and letting Spirit be my guide and be my mentor. Like, okay, I'm going to sit in the power and then you're going to inspire me on what to look up or do next.
Coming Out of the Spiritual Closet
And it was a lot of fun. It was really kind of cool. It felt very innocent to me, to be honest with you because I didn't have a whole lot of exposure outside of John Edwards and Sylvia brown. And I even think I was aware of long island medium back then, you know, and obviously my mentor on what was a potential for this path. Everything felt very, very innocent for me. Now, after I stopped developing under that one mentor, I did do a Tony Stockwell retreat. I worked with him for like a week-long retreat, which was also absolutely incredible. This was after my near-death experience, but it was before the birth of my son. And then, of course, after the birth of my son is when I went professional. I went full-time. I came out of the closet fully because life is too short, and what if I died at like 34?
The Energetic Shift of Mediumship Readings for Public Sitters
I'm like, I'm not wasting any more time, and I'm going out, but I was still developing. And I still, you know, working under mentors, I was still doing workshops. I was still doing practice readings to a large extent, as well as balancing the desire for people who wanted to do paid readings with me. And let me tell you, there's an energetic shift that occurs when you go from doing free practice readings to paid readings. It's all almost like you build up the confidence in practice readings where you're like still wanting to meet the need because that was like one of my biggest fears as a developing medium was like, am I going to meet this person's need? That was, for me, the biggest goal. And like the biggest fear was not meeting their expectations. I mean, I wish I had somebody in my world back then who talked about expectations and who talked about what a waste of energy they are.
Approaching Readings with an Open Heart
All you have to do is show up with like an open heart and just see what comes through this kind of like playful energy more than like, oh my God, oh my God, please show up. Please show up. Please come, please come. Well, that's how my early development was. It took me a long time to lead myself out of that mindset. And it took me quite a few practice readings, quite a few. The reason why it took me years to go into the public was that I had this goal in my mind of doing 150 free practice readings. And I had an online blog, and I was keeping everyone informed of how my development was going. By the way my podcast started because of this online blog; it's hidden now. You can't actually access it or find it.
Starting to Charge for Mediumship Readings
I never advertised. It was just something that people could stumble across and find and did help quite a few people out because it was documenting every spiritual experience I'd had, and it was pretty profound. I had a ticker there for 150. And by the time I hit 150, which took me three years because things were moving pretty slow for me. I knew that it was time to start charging. So, could I still perform under that pressure of meeting the people's expectations when they were putting money in the game? That was like the next fear I had to go through, which is just something you have to walk through yourself. There's no one who can prepare you for it. And there's nobody who can tell you exactly how it's going to go. But that was like, the next phase of my development - okay, now can you perform?
And I'm putting "performing" in quotes because we also don't want to perform as mediums. But what I did experience was performance anxiety. I do have to be real about that, and I could, and, and things went really well. Then I was like, okay, consistently enough. Now I can show up. And I know Spirit always comes through, which was one of my first podcast episodes because that was an early development fear of my, 'what if Spirit doesn't show up?' And then I had enough years of experience to say, okay, Spirit always shows up, but now I have to show up, and I have to show up in a very specific way. The next phase of my development was really more around multiple spirits, discerning multiple spirits instead of, you know, asking the world of Spirit. What I used to do was say the one that has the most in common with me because Spirit would use our references.
Asking Spirit to Communicate with Familiar References
I was like whoever has like the most in common with me, if you could come through first, that would be awesome. And eventually, how I started to challenge myself and my development was just telling the world of Spirit again, making my declarations can, the Spirit who they want to hear from the most come through first. I started making these a little bit more courageous steps, and you know, move forward in my development. And I hope to get like two or three spirits to come through in this one reading. And then I also remember bringing in the psychic stuff after I went professional for about six to eight months; every person who sat in front of me didn't need mediumship. They wanted psychics. I had to teach myself how to tune in psychically because I've never taken a psychic class.
Mediumship Readings vs Psychic Readings
And I'm very trained in mediumship, which is very structured in a way like there's a structure and there's a certain level of expectations on what it is and what you should be able to produce. But with psychic, it really felt to me like I could say anything, and it wasn't incredibly evidential. I had to find a way to bring evidence into my psychic work so that I could feel good about it. And I had this almost like boot camp set up by Spirit, my spirit team, to learn, to tune in psychically. And I had about six or eight months where I, I hardly even touched mediumship. Everyone just wanted a psychic. And then, when it came time to go back into the mediumship again, I was scared. Because I was like, 'oh my God like I don't remember the last time I had somebody need mediumship.'
Coming Back to Mediumship
And it was a big test for me back then, too, to realize, even though some time has passed, it still works just like it did before. And actually, I'm more confident now because I'm not afraid of psychic information. And that's how I kind of learned to marry what I call soul and mediumship. Most readings I do now will be a blend of both of them, though. I will say, I weigh you prefer the mediumship. To be honest with you, for one, it's got depth to it. It's got a lot of depth to it. It's got a lot of meaning to it. It's got a lot of purpose to it. I get to feel like I touched heaven, blending with Spirit. There are just so many things I love about mediumship. Over the years of development, I had that circle.
Spiritual Development: Retreats vs. Practice Readings
I was in for quite a few years. I did a couple of retreats with some of the greats of our time. I did one on one mentorship with a few other mentors, but what I did find after a certain amount of time, which is what I want to talk about as part of this episode, was looking back at my development. I'm glad I took all those courses, and I'm glad I was in that circle for such a long time, and I regret nothing. But I do look back and realize that the biggest part of my development was actually in the sessions. It was actually doing what we had talked about in the classes. Even though we had talked about a lot of the things in the classes, it didn't necessarily fully prepare for what actually happened out in the field. Looking back, I see very much.
Spirit as my Mentor
And even now, because I did mentor with two people last year and this year, I'm going to go with no mentorship. I'm just going to let spirit be my mentor, but I can see how when we're in our practice sessions, how our guides then become our mentors, and we're learning most of our craft actually in the practice sessions. So that's why I structured my initiation program. The 12-week program includes two practice readings a week because looking back at those early years of development, the only thing I wish that was done a little bit differently is that there was some encouragement direction or even provided for us not opportunity to practice between those four weeks because I feel like my path went pretty slow because of that. But it also went slow because I was healing a lot of fear and doubts within myself. And you know, I recognize now that the difference between a good medium and a great medium is confidence.
Owning My Mediumship Abilities
And so, that has been the biggest journey in the last two years of mediumship development for me, we're talking years - seven or eight - has been really around owning it and just owning that I'm a medium owning that I am a good medium and owning that I'm good enough. Do you know what I mean? I'm good enough. And it's been really a journey out getting to that next level with my mediumship through confidence. And here I was thinking that 'oh, when I can get this, you know, say names, I'll be more confident. Or, you know, when I'm able to bring in like three spirits, every reading, I'll know that I'm confident enough.' It's like I was waiting for an external circumstance to make me feel confident and make me feel good enough, but I didn't realize that's the other way around. You'll actually get those things when you know that you're enough, and you'll actually get those things when you know you're worth.
Breakthroughs in my Spiritual Development
And that's been one of my biggest breakthroughs for the past year. And then one of the other things the Spirit said to me last year was your only limitation in your mediumship is your beliefs. That is it. You are literally limitless. Everything you want to receive and pass on. You can get, but there's a belief in you that you can't, or it's not time yet. And that's your only limitation. It's not us. It's not your sitter, it's you. And my, you know, more advanced development, I would say, is really around that mindset work and that belief system work and then giving myself the vulnerable moments of still being in practice readings to stretch myself. So yeah, development is a really beautiful path, and it's very different for everybody. I didn't realize until a couple of years in that so much of the mediumship development path is actually the inner work.
The Healing Journey in Spiritual Work
It's actually the healing work, and there's no way to bypass your healing of your fears or your doubts about yourself without like, there's no way to separate them. You're going to be developing in the technique in the structure, in the mechanics of mediumship, and you're going to be healing at the exact same time. A lot of people will wait till they're healed to step into this work, but you are always going to have stuff to heal. That's the human journey. Unfortunately, I mean, I don't know for sure. I mean, I would love to meet someone who is like, 'oh no, I'm done my healing, and I have a cruisy life now.' I have yet to meet such a unicorn in my life. If you know one, I would love to know about it because I know that even some of the greats that I love to follow still have healing to do and are still involved in their healing.
A Dedication to Developing Mediumship
The mediumship development journey for me was one of great healing, and it was one of personal growth. And one of my other epiphanies around reflecting upon my almost nine years now of development, and I still consider doing my readings developing, and I still think I'm going to be developing my whole life. I don't think I'll ever consider myself to be not a developing medium because I hope that there's always going to be more, I can achieve and more I can strive for or else. I feel like it would be very boring. I hope I'm always going to be developing. And I'm just certain that be, I'm certain that I will be. But one of the things that I didn't take into consideration is how much we develop in our real life and in our regular life. If you have an intention and you've made a declaration to see what this path could mean for you, everything that happens for you during that time is actually going to be beneficial for your development as well.
Drawing upon Experiences and References in Readings
I can recognize that so many of the conflicts that me and my husband have had around my development around money and the time away, and the fact that, you know, our belief systems are just so different have supported me so much in my mentoring and so much in my mediumship reading. The references that I have now because I've had those conversations and those emotions, and those experiences help me be a better lightworker and a better medium. I love history, and I love ancient times. Like I love the Tudor times. And I've read and listened to every Philip Gregory novel. Those are almost guilty pleasures for me. And I love learning about the Queens and Kings and, you know, royalty of the past. And I will listen to a Philip Gregory novel and then sure.
In the next few readings, there is some reference from that book that I listened to or read that comes up in one of my sessions, same with watching TV. I love Netflix. I will watch a show that has nothing to do with spirituality. And then, lo and behold, in one of my mentoring sessions or one of my mediumship sessions, a reference, a phrase is saying an appearance, a symbol, something will come up from that. And then same with my career incorporate. I can see how those eight years in the corporate world and working in that atmosphere and all also getting the experience. You know, when I talk about that episode on my journey to confidence, a lot of it was around my eight years.
Learning to Hold my Energy in a Corporate Environment
I spent time in corporate that had nothing to do with my spirituality. It had nothing to do with my mediumship, but that is where I learned to hold my energy. That is where I really learned how capable I am without the confidence that I got through those eight years of experience. It completely translated over to my mediumship. And I really want to kind of wrap up this conversation with saying that the development path is going to be very different for everybody. And when you declare that you're on the path, everything's interwoven and intertwined, and how we experience our life actually supports us in our development as well. And development doesn't have to be expensive. I took a very, I'm going to say traditional path, even though it was like done in-home circles, it wasn't really done through the spirituals church or anything like that, which I would consider to be a very traditional path.
Different Paths to Mediumship
I did sit in development circles, and I did do practice readings before I did professional readings. And I struggled with a lot of different things, which I'll talk about in the future episodes coming up. I might take one at a time and do maybe mini episodes on them because I know so much you guys are experiencing them too, but I just didn't realize how much of my life experiences were translating into my mediumship development. I did take maybe a little bit more of an expensive path through workshops and retreats and classes, but there are great examples out there of people who have never been mentored and have never taken a class. I don't recommend it necessarily, but there are amazing examples out there of people who are incredible, who have taken that more nontraditional path.
Developing Mediumship in a Non-Traditional Way
You might want to look at Laura Lynn Jackson; she's the Goop Labs medium.And she was also highlighted in surviving death, that documentary on Netflix that was very controversial amongst mediums, but you can read her book, the light between us, and she shares her journey of development, which was very phenomenal for me to read. She was actually the first example ever read of somebody who developed outside of a circle or outside of a class and workshop and not being mentored. And she's a great example of how you can see how Spirit can mentor you. So, you know, you don't have to take a very traditional path, but what I will say is it is the doing, you can read all the books, take all the classes here, all the philosophy study all the different readings, but until you're in the arena yourself and experiencing what it feels like to be under that pressure to connect with that world of Spirit, to serve somebody from the heart, that's where you're going to be doing your biggest.
Developing Mediumship Through Readings
And that's where the development really unfolds and takes place. Okay. So that sometimes comes up when I have a bigger break between readings because so much of my career now is like teaching and mentoring. And I miss doing reading so much like I'll sneak them in as much as I can. I love still being in the arena. Because that's where I get my development. That's where the things come up that, that I like to teach about and talk about. And I really want to be embodied in my craft. I'm always going to continue to do readings, but that's where the greatest work is. If you have an opportunity and you're are developing outside of a class, look at just asking a friend to sit with you and, you know, opening up your heart and setting an intention and doing what you need to do to kind of get into that space and just see what comes through.
Mediumship Doesn’t Have to be That Complicated
That's what happened the first time I saw shadows; one was taller than the other. I know that that means one's older than the other. And I know one of them is a male, and I know that he's young. Like, I want to say like 18, 19, and he was 18. And I want to say the name, and I'm not going to say the name. I said the name. And it was like very close to it. It was just like one letter that was off. And you know, I was just saying what I was getting like, it doesn't actually have to be that complicated. I found that it got more complicated. The more I knew, there's like this ebb and flow that happens in developments. Like you're very innocent, natural at the beginning. And then you become a bit unnatural because you know, more, and then you contend to overcomplicate things and then sooner or later you're like F it all, I'm tired of being drained.
Learning Mediumship in a way that is Natural to You
I'm just going to go back into my natural way that I learned how to do it and how I initially did it. And that's why like in The Initiation, I don't necessarily teach a structure because my passion is to have people learn mediumship in their most natural way. It's like creating a space, creating a container, creating, you know, this, the space for you to play because what I find and what I feel, especially through mentoring for these past five years, is people usually end up rocking their abilities, how they started out, which is your most natural way. I'm super interested in people having real natural experiences. And then they'll learn different techniques and structures and kind of like feel constricted, and then they'll end up in their natural state once more. So that's my experience with it. You know, a lot of it is very much a declaration.
Declarations on your Spiritual Path
You actually have to choose and declare that you're going to be on this path. If you're looking for that sign or sign, you're probably going to be looking for signs for a very long time. And then, when you finally hop on the path, you realize, 'whoa, I could have been here years ago.' You never missed an opportunity. So don't beat up on yourself. If you feel like you have missed something, it comes back again. Again, I recognize it's 17. And at 22, 23, and 24, I had every opportunity at my disposal to hop on the development path, and I ignored them. It just wasn't even part of my realm of potentiality. To be honest with you. I had that little faith in myself, and I don't regret it. I'm happy. It happened at 31. I'm so happy with where I'm at today. And it happened perfectly for me. Don't look for Spirit to drop feathers at your feet. If you want to hop on this path, if you're interested in it, hop on it, declare to Spirit, I'm going to see what this is all about, and I'm going to see what potential lies within me.
Learning Mediumship at Spirit School
If you're interested, The Initiation starts January 21st, a 12-week mediumship foundations experience. I set you up with two practice readings a week with peers, by the way, not the public peers. It's a 52-self-study course module plus six live classes with me and a community with full access to me, seven days a week. I might take a day or two off here or there, but it's an incredible experience. I've had hundreds of people go through this program. Many of them are still in my world today through different programs. And my membership that I offer the Spirit School Collective but do consider taking the initiation 12-week mediumship development experience.
This will be my fifth time running am. It's what I wish I had. What I created was what I wish I had all those years ago. And so, I get really excited about sharing that because it's not only what I know today, but what I wish I knew then for your first three years of development. People are coming in with no experience. And we've had people come in who are already working professionally in their first three years and still gain so much knowledge and experience. It's a beginner and intermediate program. Hope to see you there. Doors are open till the 19th, and I hope you enjoyed some of these stories and experiences. And I will be going deeper into some of these topics in upcoming episodes. So, for now, I love you, and I'll leave you, and I will see you next time.
Spirit School Podcast
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of spirit school. If you did, please leave me a review and a rating wherever you're listening to this podcast. And if you do feel called to share this with your friends, thank you for tagging on Instagram at Squamish medium. I can also share it really helps get the word out about the podcast. If you're interested in working with me in my 1-on-1 mentorship, a reading or all the various programs that I run, you can go to squamishmedium.com or check me out on Instagram. Have a great day, guys.