What a great Victory of Light Expo!  My most lucrative and exciting expo ever and I got to lecture to a fantastic audience Saturday morning.  It really was a blessed weekend and I want to share the lecture recording will all of you.  I began by messing with the fancy new lighting system and then went on to talk about Chakras ~ Balance and Power.

Good afternoon, My name is John Michael Thornton, Thank you for coming. I would like to start off by clarifying the title of my talk here today – the full title was "This I Choose" – Ethics and Responsibilities of the Modern Mystic was the tagline to the original title. I bring this up not because they cut my beautiful and beloved words… they did, but because my central thesis for this discussion is the importance of choice and choosing and I don't want y'all sitting there wondering where that came from.

Also, since I see some people I know in the room I should explain about the pages of notes here. See, I don't usually write out my lectures, I show up with a page or two of notes so I don't mix up the organs associated with the second and third chakras and then fly with the energy of the room. That's my normal way of teaching, but after I proposed this topic last fall I started over thinking the whole thing. It didn't help that I was obsessed with Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog at the time and was this close to turning the whole thing into a musical, I already had songs picked out when I came to my senses, It's only a blessing that was before Glee came out. Musicians would have been a stretch but there is no way I could have afforded backup dancers.

Shaboop

So please allow me to introduce myself – I am a psychic and teacher and I am immensely please to say that has been my full time job for two years this January. Who else here has gone full time? Isn't it awesome?

I was off and on, part time, hobby kind of thing as a psychic for sixteen years, before giving in and letting it be my life in 2007. My parents are both metaphysically inclined, I was raised with the Edgar Cayce Readings and Ray Stanford and we were always very involved with the ARE. Psychic work, metaphysics, and exploration of the stuff of the Universe were always respected vocations growing up.

At 15 I trained as a psychic at the Natural Psychic School of Metaphysics and I've been giving readings with varying frequency ever since. The structures and mores of the metaphysical community have always intrigued me and for a long time I wanted to be a preacher. (specifically a televangelist, {nervous laugh} Youthful indiscretions) I studied Religion and ethics at Youngstown State University, graduating in 1998, worked at the A.R.E. (Association for Research and Enlightenment) in both the Youth and Family Life Department and The Archives before moving to New York City to wear a tie and pretend to be a normal, non psychic, person. It didn't work out.

I moved back to Ohio in 2004 and continued to circuitous journey that has lead me here – Psychic, Teacher and Yoga instructor. 10 million times better than being an office laky and normal person.

I have taught and lectured a bit all over the place the last few years Including Youngstown, Rochester, Columbus and LilyDale. Which reminds me – as I was griped at in LilyDale for "Inappropriate Language", I said hell once and sucks twice, Chick in the front row with the HAIR was counting. Let me give a brief disclaimer: this lecture contains adult content and language, view discretion is advised. I bring this up because I don't want to get caught up in a long tedious discussion of language or sex. I believe there is too much emphasis put on proper language and sexual morays and not nearly enough on how we behave toward one another. So other than the comment I could not care less about "bad language" or what two or more consenting adults do in private, I would prefer to stick to more substantive issues. If you want to talk about sex and cussin, save it for the questions at the end.

Second, while I have thought long and hard about the issues we will be discussing here this afternoon, Sadly, I have no Missives of truth from on high, no stone tablets or wisdom of Solomon, and while I have many a time wanted to smite those I see as con-artists or scammers I have no great moral or legal authority to do so. I don't even have a lycra superhero costume to slip into so to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers… as much as I may want to.

This I Choose- Ethics and and Responsibilities of the Modern Mystic Continues in Part 2

A few months ago I was called upon for a house clearing and blessing in Sharon, PA. I've told bits of the story a number of times, focusing on the ghost story aspects, but there was one unexpected encounter that I haven't talked about yet – there was a fairy trapped under the stair.

I don't know how he (possibly she, I was a bit fuzzy on that) got stuck under those nasty basement stairs, but the principle haunt was the spirit of an old man trapping the ghosts of children – a truly nasty piece of work, now thoroughly banished with his victims sent to a much better place. While my fellow ghost hunters focused on the children I tried to talk to the huddled, dirty and diminished being under the stairs.

At first I got no response and the others with me barely sensed anything there at all, but I'm good with fairies and elementals and I was not about to let this little guy fade.

After telling him he was free and safe and trying to send him out of that place to no avail I offered him my hand and said, come with me and I'll take you out of here. I could feel the feather light touch on my hand as we walked up the stairs (with some of the hunters looking at me like I had lost my mind, but folks, there is a lot more out there than just ghosts).

We walked up those horrible stairs and out the kitchen door and as we reached the solid Earth and drizzly rain I saw my companion's big, sad eyes clear and fill with first hope and then power as he changed in an instant from a broken, fading creature to a brilliant, winged being taking flight – one of the most beautiful visions I have ever been blessed to see… and he was gone.

I went back into the house and joined the others in clearing the last dregs of psychic and spiritual gunk from that place, but I was blessed that night to see something everyone else missed.

I saw a fairy reborn into the world.

 

Join me September 7th for discussion and mediation with Fairies and Elementals.

Last night I did something very unusual for me, I rescheduled my yoga class so I could go to a lecture in Warren. This is probably the second or third time in six years I've fiddled with my teaching schedule, but something about Paul and Deborah Rees' talk at the Meg TC was calling to me. At first I was a bit disappointed, I'm not really into mediumship, and while their stories of getting into the biz were interesting, it was nothing to jump up and down over. I did really like what Paul said about language getting in the way of communication. So often spiritual discussions get derailed over word choice. I like the word God, some prefer Spirit, or Divine, or Allah, or Yahweh, but why should our conversation grind to a halt over names? 

That was good and I was glad that someone else was talking about the horrors of semantics, but I still wasn't sure why I was there… and then the mediumship demonstrations began. They work very well together, better than any team I've ever seen before. They way they would pass off to each other when one was stuck or stalled was very smooth and played to each of their strengths. 

They started on the other side of the room, but quickly started coming to people over near me. There were over 50 people in the room, but aside from the first 2 everyone they talked to was within a few feet of me – this always happens. I don't like to be read in public so when I am at a gallery reading (usually with a friend who does like it) I shield hard and picture myself surrounded by Teflon coating, just let the attention slide off to the side. After three or four people Paul turned to me and said "Sorry, I need to speak to the gentleman in the black shirt." Me. "You shine so bright it's hard to see (words to this effect I wasn't taking notes). You are a healer, right? You need to keep your focus and not let anyone tell you otherwise or distract you from your path. You are on the right path and need to focus on healing and mediumship and you have talent with trance mediumship as well."

And then he moved on.

Wow, I was not expecting that, but it was great and what I needed to hear. I loved that instead of opening with some dead relative or bringing up names and events the way he was with everyone else (which was the point, it was a Mediumship demonstration, after all), he cut right to the point, told me what I needed to hear and moved on.

It's been a tough summer for me. Business has been very slow, money has been crazy tight and I have been doubting. I've even found myself thinking about getting a regular job again and then having to go lay down lest I barf on the carpet. I know I am a very good teacher, psychic and lecturer. I've also started doing a bit of healing work and been very pleased with the results – I've even started planning how to offer healing services to the public. Even so, nothing takes the wind out of your sails like a really bad few months.

This unexpected message from Paul Rees was exactly what I needed to get me focused and moving again, to push away the doubt and I am very grateful.