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Friday, November 19, 2010

Time has come today !!

I tried to warn people, as quite a few others did as well, that the economy was slip slidin' into an unhappy part of town. Not a lot of people wanted to hear that.

I tried to warn people, in spite of their resistance, that this would "change" not only the day to day experiences of millions of people, but would burn deep in to the soul of those whose lives were thrown helter skelter in to the statistical hodge podge that foreclosures and long-term unemployment would put them, setting the stage for a "revolution in consciousness" that would erupt, one day, from deep within.

Changes, real changes, in thought and deed typically don't come quickly and they don't come without a lot of bumps and bruises. Carl Jung said "there is no coming to consciousness without pain" . . . sadly, for a lot of people, that pain has hit hard. The time has come, now, though -- truly, to wake up. Change the world.

As artists and people of color and heart, it is time to band together, more and more, in an emotional and logistical "tribe" . . . it is time, I believe, to step up and walk in to this "new time" -- 'cause I see it, just as I saw the economic time bombs waiting to go off, I see this, too. Time for love, time for sharing, time for a better world.

The time is now.

Alicia Kent, Jin Shin Do

Even though I am a professional psychic, sort of famous as a "remote viewer" and as someone who "reads past lives", I am still fairly skeptical. I don't buy everything I hear.

Recently, I became acquainted with the work of Alicia Kent. Alicia practices Jin Shin Do, a form of body mind acupressure -- a technique that utilizes much of the logic of acupuncture, but without the needles. Alicia is able, with just her hands, to locate "issues" which are stored within the cellular memory of the body and, just by touching and activating certain key points within the body, she is able to help release not only the "residual emotional baggage" stored within but also (which she did quite dramatically for me) help alleviate physical pain held within the body, as well.

Alicia has an interesting and relevant background for this type of work. Before her education and apprenticeship in Jin Shin Do, she worked for almost 30 years as a medical researcher and lab scientist in a major hospital. She is fully grounded in the sciences and her understanding of, and history with, biochemistry and health care underscores her understanding of the types of pain and trauma likely stored within the cellular memory of her clients.

She is a caring person and bedside manner "matters". She is a good listener, compassionate, with a quick smile and a warm heart. She is able, through just the use of her hands, to assist individuals with self-healing. I have had several personal sessions with Alicia and each one helped me "release" old out-dated patterns of thinking and also, as I mentioned earlier, helped tremendously in dealing with long-term pain in my right shoulder (the result of a dirt bike accident 16 years ago).

After just 2 sessions with Alicia, I was measurably stronger than I have been in years, able to do 40 push ups, when a few years back the pain in my shoulder was so great that I could only do 2 before giving up. I believe, very strongly, that Alicia's work is the reason I can do this now.

I recommend her work without hesitation. She is an intelligent, caring professional and her work ethic is exemplary. I think she is fantastic.

www.akashabloom.com

Love Vibe

You have come in to this world in order to find a partner, whether that be a tree or a bird or a three toed sloth or what you would call a romance. The integration of the Divine Essence is made whole through stepping in to that space between . . . the external drum beat which separates the physical shell from the surrounding ether. Only by allowing that external thought in to the internal physical shell can one become open to wholeness.

Because wholeness, the live recognition that all within is accomplished through connection without, is the beauty of this world and that beauty is the wish of the Divine Creator. To breath a still sweet breath through your nostrils, that is bliss and for that you are alive. Each breath is a gift and it is through the breath that one steps in to this confirmation of Divine Love.

All things, all beings, all rays of light, are connected through a magnetic pulse. This pulse vibrates at various frequencies. Each change in vibratory levels awakens new sounds, smells, sensations -- literally a hum that is a whisper from God. Opening to these higher frequencies is accomplished first by opening to the world around you, in its natural state.

Love, piety, kindness . . . all are expressions of high vibratory states. Each thought directed outwards, each act of kindness, each aha moment seeing a child or a puppy or a rainbow or noble acts or heroic deeds -- there is nothing "hokey" about this, it is allowing the highest frequency of love to ooze in to your skin.

You can feel it in the skin . . . vibrating.

Try this . . . smell a flower or rub a piece of fruit along the side of your arm. Test the types of responses you feel. Each opening of the heart -- either through touch or taste or vision -- allows that higher frequency to "find you". You cannot find it, it finds you . . . because you send out "light beams", like an inner sonar system, that lets God know where you are.

Opening to nature, opening to Love . . . it sends out a signal to the universe that you are ready for a higher frequency. That is the path to enlightenment, the recognition that all is filled with this beautiful pulsing Divine Golden Light and knowing, and feeling, its gentle pulse beating strongly and confidently within :)

The Alchemy of Love

Each child comes in to this life with an "optimal path" -- the highest integration of all the various talents and desires one has, all lined up and moving towards an expression of pure and total Love. This "optimal path" is based upon his or her genetics and past life "themes".

Then we lead whatever lives we lead. The difference is a fairly straight forward mathematical formula: "where we are" minus "what our optimal path should be" equals "our karma". I, somehow, am able to see both those states fairly well.

As a result, I am able to understand the wounds one has, whether they occurred first in this life or a previous existence, and help individuals integrate and heal from those wounds.

I have done a lot of work on myself over the years and, I think anyway, am starting to grow into a fairly integrated soul. As a result of that inner work, I was able to "see" my way towards meeting "self" in the form of "other" -- what you would call a "soul mate".

Since I, literally, channeled her name -- at a time when, based upon our respective paths and history, we were most likely to understand and appreciate the beauty of the other, I feel it safe to say that this "recognition" and "coming together" was a result of work I had done first on myself, literally magnetizing this connection to me at, initially, a soul level and then, after wards, live in 3-D here on the physical plane.

Alicia Kent and I have come together, partly as "soul partners" for each other but, on a different level, as co-creators of a way of seeing our lives that, in my opinion, is fairly unique. Her work with Jin Shi Do, along with my abilities as a clairvoyant and astrologer, serve as complementary modalities.

I have been reluctant, over the years, to step fully in to this "soul place", largely because I did not feel worthy to be there. There was always more to do, more books to read, bigger fish, etc etc etc. I don't feel that way any more.

I do believe I have "earned" -- based on my own internal thermostat -- the right to step in to that space, my divine space and share that divinity (which is within each of us) in a manner consistent with my "highest self". I have lived one life, in order to learn . . . now it is time to move in to a new life in order to teach.

All my past successes and failures -- and there have been plenty of both -- were simply puzzle pieces left along the road side for me, in some Great Cosmic Game, to scoop up and fit back together. I am there now, not close to there, not pretty much almost there . . . I am there.

Love is the answer. Because I "woke up" to God's Love for me (after Lehna died I was not in a "loving space" with Divine Law, and it took me a while to forgive God -- and myself -- for not protecting my darling baby), I also woke up to a love for myself, as a fully integrated conscious soul. Love of self IS love of God.

It is my journey back to that Love that underscores my career . . . I feel as if my work, truly, is at a higher level. Each year that passes, I grow stronger, see more clearly. But love, especially love for yourself, is the key to unlocking the mysteries of Spirit. There is a way back, a door to Love and understanding. I see it, finally, for what it is.

Outlaw Metaphysics

The South is a magical place, filled with h’aints and witches, outlaws and wild child snake lovin’ top-hatted preachers, rebel ghosts and doe-eyed voodoo queens . . . it is a world where darkness and light sometimes cross paths, where beauty and decay walk hand in white-gloved hand to its own special beat. There are cities filled with spirits: Richmond, New Orleans, Franklin, Tennessee; cities where music lives deep in ground, welling up to a surface full of fire and fury: Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Muscle Shoals, Tupelo, Mississippi.

The South is both a place and a state of mind. My family is Southern; this means they are prone to certain ways, certain attitudes. A way they comb their hair, put dinner on the table . . . a certain type of music they listened to, and shared with me, as well as a fairly cohesive blue print for the types of choices I was expected to make, a legacy to carry with me and to always, always rebel against. But their attitude and style is still buried within; deep down inside it is still a part of my cognitive DNA.

My great-great many times great grandfather, John Brewer, was a member of the original House of Burgesses, the first elected body ever assembled in the colonies, in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1629, as was his son, years later. There are Southern aristocrats (six U.S. Presidents, three First Ladies -- and Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams) as well as poor mountain people from East Tennessee, and the western Carolinas, dripping down from the Family Tree.

My grandfather, Terry Mainous, was BOTH Deputy Sheriff and Moonshiner -- down at the head of a holler looking up at the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Kentucky, back before the Second World War. The blood of the Cherokee as well as the “last lost tribe”, the Melungeons, also pulses through my veins.

Attitude, history, DNA. Blood. The South, to a large extent, is felt in the blood.

My own personal journey has led me, for now, west to California, running back and forth between Hollywood and the San Francisco Bay. I have built a career, and a name (of sorts), over the years as a psychic and astrologer, known to many as The Rock n Roll Psychic. I have been on TV and radio hundreds of times, written books, designed Tarot and divination decks, worked as an actor in Hollywood and was twice selected for “Who’s Who in Business”, too !! Damn, what an interesting guy I am !!

During my twenties, I wandered around the country, chanting with Buddhists, hanging with artists and witches and rebels of various flavors, in an uncharted hunt and peck psychic pilgrimage. I read a lot and stubbed (and stepped on) many a toe, test-driving how best to understand these “things” circling around inside my head. Mr. Toad’s Wild Road, indeed. I am surely not the only one who woke up one day and saw that the world was “different” than the text books suggested.

As a little boy, I was fascinated by ESP and ghosts, reading Hans Holzer’s ghost books and Stranger than Science and anything else I could find. Later, I turned on to astrology and in my very early twenties, in a loft in downtown San Francisco, I took a class on “past life regression” which, very quickly, changed my life.

All this is part of my "karmic blueprint" . . . my genetics, my soul. My autobiography "Karmic Outlaw" will be done soon. My path has been a long and winding one but the South -- and the family tree, play a big big part . . . Outlaw Metaphysics, biting every hand that would feed me, shiny wool of the blackest black. The blackest black.

In Remembrance

*Originally Posted October 8, 2010*
It has been a year today since the tragedy at James Ray's event where 3 souls lost their lives. My feeling is that too much of the "human potential" movement is geared towards personal empowerment and not enough towards love and community. In my opinion, WAY too much emphasis is placed on the acquisition of power and not enough on the beauty of surrendering to love and Divine acceptance. My hope is that, in my own work, I never lose sight of the true power of love and kindness.

I am very disheartened by so much that happens with "gurus" and other assorted teachers. I feel that it is really pretty simple: be kind to one another, remember we're all here together, try to have a happy thought, smile at a child, etc etc. It ain't that complicated.

The hard part, of course, is identifying where love has been withheld and what the lingering impact of that loss still is. I believe that love and community is truly the essence of spirituality and that kindness IS enlightenment.

Another irony -- and to me this is huge -- is that many of the latest round of "gurus" preach pushing yourself and awakening your own power, while at the same time so obviously setting themselves up as sources of authority. Stand up to everyone and everything -- but bow down to me. This is logically antithetical and, in its extreme form, nothing more than Black Magick, poorly staged.

If more focus had been placed on providing a nurturing environment and less on pushing people to "rise above" then perhaps these beautiful souls would not have perished. Sadly, it appears as if their desire to blend with the group was stronger than their own sense of self. In other words, their desire to awaken their power was thwarted by the conflict they must have felt in not living up to a higher authority -- in this particular case, James Ray, as well as all the other eager neophytes in the sweat lodge with them.

The more I learn of this, the sadder and angrier I become. Love is the answer and when I turn my eyes towards this tragic event a year ago today, it is the one thing I miss. I know many people, including Alicia, who were friends with the people who died and they are, justifiably, grieving. But the focus in our work must -- ABOVE ALL -- be "do no harm" and, in this case, it appears (to me, anyway) that James Ray cared too much about himself and too little about his students.

Grief is a terrible thing. I know . . . and for those who are grieving, my heart breaks for you. Truly, it does. But pushing yourself is one thing, pushing someone else an entirely different matter.

Reaching for some secret magickal incantation to wealth and personal power, which is what many people attending his events were really doing, is a dangerous thing. People want short-cuts, i-phone apps to fix it overnight and that is a problem. Power without restraint . . . that is a wildfire out of control and, to me, is also the theme of this tragic anniversary.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Proust Questionnaire

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

A Peaceful life, a loving relationship with one very special woman, health / athleticism, art and books, my daughter Riana, a nice comfortable place to live with my family, happy thoughts with my daughter and partner and friends

2. What is your greatest fear?

To be ordinary

3. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Erik Jan Hanussen

4. Which living person do you most admire?

Nikki Giovanni

5. what is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Laziness / absent-mindedness

6. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

cruelty

7. What is your greatest extravagance?

books

8. On what occasions do you lie?

when I don't want to go somewhere :)

9. What do you dislike most about your appearance?

lack of hair

10. When and where were you happiest?

when Riana was a tiny baby -- but more than anything the times I spent with her

11. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

more determined and focused

12. If you could change one thing about your family what would it be?

hahahahahahahahhahahahahaha

13. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My work as a clairvoyant

14. If you died and came back as a person or thing what do you think it would be?

another clairvoyant

15. What is your most treasured possession?

Lehna's diaper

16. What do you regard as the lowest depths of misery?

when Lehna died

17. Who are your heroes in real life?

Nikki Giovanni, Norman Mailer, Sandy Koufax, Helen Keller, Nostradamus

18. What is it that you most dislike?

cruelty and arrogance

19. How would you like to die?

at home surrounded by people I love

20. What is your motto?

"flat out" -- also: "a champion is one who gets up when he can't"

Monday, October 4, 2010

The "Lonely Ones"

All gifts come with a price, the bigger the gift, the bigger the price, and there is a reason psychics are called "the lonely ones". It is very difficult to find a partner who can hang with you "knowing things", who can ride out that you can tell in seconds if a mood shifts . . . too often you become the therapist or the final stop on the "well, what's gonna happen now" gravy train. This is not the optimal formula for long-term romance.

For me, this strange gift came with an unusual bonus (or curse) twenty years past in that "potential relationships" were everywhere, literally, but they were more likely than not potentially dead ends since many of the women attracted to the handsome little clairvoyant were, deep down, too damaged themselves to have a "real relationship" and so, early on, I made the understandable choice to avoid them all as much as possible.

Of course, this was not all the "fault" of the women . . . psychics are also often there because they are damaged themselves and it takes a while to wrestle all these visions and voices into a coherent manageable pattern. So, in actuality, I was magnetizing the very dysfunction I was trying so desperately to rise above myself.

I have been doing readings long enough to know that, early on, people will turn love down for money and fame a million times but ultimately, at the end, it is lack of love that people feel most and all the money and adulation mean nothing if there is no one to love, no one to love you back . . . I have walked a winding road these past 55 years, not a trail most would walk but over these many long nights I have held in my mind's eye the idea -- and expectation -- that, one day, I would "figure it out", that I would find love and, when I found it, I knew it could only work if I had first found, and maintained, a way to love myself. I can't love another if I can't love myself.

That's what kills most relationships, you know -- the inability to love and forgive oneself. I have cursed fate a million times but today, with this new and totally different love in my heart, I feel (finally) at peace.

It is my belief that just as I have found (or been discovered by) a beautiful fellow soul traveler, it is also a sign (to myself) that if I can attract the love of such a special soul then perhaps I am not so bad myself . . . love heals and I love a woman who is by profession, and divine gift, a healer, herself.

I wish all of you the feeling I feel this very day . . . because lovers don't know fear -- another killer of romance, the fear that it will be taken away, that someone better, "more worthy", will come along.

But I am in love and so, by my own definition, I am fearless. The sky is blue and the birds are singing in this beautiful new world and I hope you find a way to join us. I found it when I was young but because I "saw things" others didn't, I took a different path and lost it; it is taken me a long time to follow that path and since this was a trail with few maps and fewer still who could walk with me, I thought I might never find love again but if I can, so, too can you. I wish you good tidings on your travels. No matter how long the trip, it is a beautiful feast once you arrive. I hope you find your way, back to the love of a special fellow soul but especially a love for yourself.

Truly, I wish this for you, all. I do -- I wish you love :)

Predictions

Over the past 4 years (since I "came out" again as a psychic) I have felt that I couldn't (in good conscience) NOT talk about what I saw on the horizon with the United States economy. Part of my vision was purely analytical, but most of it was a clairoyant recognition that many factors were coming together that suggested BIG -- and also very negative -- changes were on the way that, to most, were "impossible" to imagine.

As psychics, we very often do, in fact, talk about "impossible" things that later prove to be quite possible. So, my "warnings" -- because I looked at them as just that -- were done from this context. IF these things DO happen, then it will not only play havoc with people's financial lives, on a more subtle (but also more damaging long-term) level it will "fuck with their heads".

As "lightworkers", it is our responsibility (I think) to be conscious of the state of mind of those around us. I won't answer your question "yes or no" with just a yes or no -- I want to look at what's behind the question. Probably most people think it is because I like to listen to myself talk hahahaha, but the real reason is that I want to get down to the root cause, so clients will have a better perspective on the cycle . . . if this happened now, why -- and, more importantly, what can I do to change this going forward?

So, I knew that if what I saw actually did come to pass then the collective "angst-o-meter" would be pretty high. I wanted people to be aware that this was coming, especially other psychics so they could deal with it themselves in order to better help those around them later on, who would surely be struggling and frightened. Hopefully, some listened and were able to make the adjustments necessary in order to stay in a positive frame of mind, no matter what was happenng around them short-term.

I feel as if the general energetic trend is now turning a corner. I have talked about this for the past year as something that I felt WOULD happen but now I feel that it IS going to be happening very soon. Hallelujah.

I talked, A LOT, about "2012 Consciousness" kicking in between May and October of 2010. I felt that this period would be the cleansing period -- not 2012, which I see as actually sort of a positive time. I am going to be in the minority then, too, saying happy days are coming when everyone will be storing cans and building bunkers in the back yard. I know it -- and so do most of you.

But the darkness is passing. It is a time of renewal. I feel that I am in a very positive space now, too -- I talked about these problems when nobody wanted to hear about them, and gave very concrete steps for dealing with them, as well, which, again, few could comprehend -- so, as a result, I have accrued a lot of "street cred" as BOTH seer and advocate for change.

Talking about all this "stuff" made my life more difficult at the time but it gives me an added power boost going forward. Since I talked about all this when few would, or could, if I now begin saying what people WANT to hear -- with the track record I have -- then I think it fair to say that my life is likely to improve quite dramatically, too.

Bottom line: I think better days are ahead :)

Business and Intuition

While the economy was imploding and housing prices were falling so dramatically, I took some time to drop out of the world and have my "inner time". I kept the house in Antiioch for a couple of years longer than I should have and let the money drip drip away but I looked at it as "my monastery"and it was comfortable to me in that context.

I think soon the world will begin to rebound. This is good. As a result, I am also starting to rebound, and am returning once again to the world that once brought me money and toys, and afforded me the luxury of living in a beautiful home for several years even after I stopped working -- the world of business. Not in the same capacity as before but my mind is open to "business" once again as a viable force.

For the past few years I would not allow myself to "touch it" -- as I felt it was, on many levels, "unclean". But I remember how it's done and over the past few months I have drawn into my own personal universe many people who have helped re-awaken that drive to "do" and whose work, integrating business and intuition, I admire.

One of those people is Patti Keating -- http://www.pattikeating.com/ . I am attending one of her "Business Breakthrough Bootcamps" and it is wonderful.

Another friend is Wendy Franklin Muhammad, "The Authenticity Coach" -- http://www.theauthenticyouonline.com/ . Wendy and I have done radio shows together several times over the past few years and I have a tremendous respect for her. She's great !!

Harmony Harrison -- http://www.intuitopia.com/ is another brilliant, intuitive soul who has come in to my world. She offers a unique perspective on integrating business and intuition and I think she is amazing. Honestly, I do :)

And then, there is Scott Grossberg -- http://www.thinkingmagically.com/ . What, really, can I say -- other than I think he is brilliant and fantastic and I love his work, and him, too.

I may soon be "shifting" more and more in to a world where the integration of business and creativity and intuition merge. I have avoided it for a long time, but I am feeling the pull. The friends I have listed above, though, are already there :)

I am feeling all these happy accidents happening around me (and yes my rep as a "wizard" / manifester supreme is, I think, actually sort of justified) . . . and I am opening myself up to finally reeling all the pieces/parts in to a new, more fully integrated whole.



I want to thank all of my friends who have shared this amazing journey from Lehna's death back to the place I stand now. I know stuff . . . both about intuition and creativity as well as more practical how does that work in the world of commerce stuff, too.

I have "healed", too (I think) my "hatred" of business, 'cause there is no other way really to say it. Business broke my heart, because a bottom line approach by a hospital led to the death of my child . . . it has taken me a long time to heal -- not only to heal from the loss of my daughter (that is still happening) but also my hatred and disgust with the corporate world.

I miss it though and I feel as if now I have the mind set to fully embrace it once again, only this time while concurrently walking in the light of my work (and name) as an intuitive -- something I didn't know how to do before. I finally see them as peacefully co-existing. I wanted desparately for this day to come. It IS a happy day, indeed.

"The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own". -- Michael Korda

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Banking Crash in the Next 30 days ??

Last Summer, in my book "The Metaphoric Mirror", and repeatedly throughout the following year, I have very publicly stated, along with the Psychic Twins, Linda and Terry Jamison, Alison Baughman, Allie Cheslick, and others, that I expected "bank failures" at the end of the Summer, 2010 -- literally the last 30 days of the season, which would have started . . . today.

Eight (8 !!) banks failed today (*published on Facebook last Friday, August 20th) and I expect more soon to follow. The news on the economic front, in my opinion, is not good. I believe this is just the start of a dark trend over the next 3-4 weeks.

In late 2008 and early 2009, I said repeatedly that the looming skeleton in our financial closet was commercial real estate; I have also stated that, as a result partly of the Gulf "spill", I expected real estate values -- and, very likely, a rise in real estate defaults -- to drop drastically in Florida . . .

in addition, record numbers of people this week have petitioned for early withdrawals of their 401K's -- and commodity prices are falling .. . to me, sort of a perfect storm for bad tidings.

My track record on the economy over the last 3 years has been pretty much dead on but this is a biggie . . . however, I have been saying it and I am going to repeat it. Right or wrong, we'll know in 30 days.

The looming mental health crisis in the U.S. Military :(

Another "surprise" to the so-called experts is an issue that I have been talking about publicly as a potential threat for the past several years -- American soldiers are increasingly falling prey to mental health issues. These are both active duty servicemen and women, as well as those recently discharged.

This problem has now reached almost epidemic proportions. Case loads of counselors have seen an 800 % increase in just 5 years -- 800 % !! -- and at Fort Hood, almost one in four soldiers sought counseling for assistance with some type of mental health issue in the past year.

This is a staggering number.

I started talking about the possibility -- no, probability -- of this happening years ago. I have said privately since 2004 and publicly since 2007 that we were destroying the US military (seemingly from within) and that, in my opinion, the problem would only get worse.

I believe this is due to several factors: fighting for something many of them had to realize was a false pretense is incredibly stressful and injurious to their self-esteem, most of our service men and women are young and many of the Reservists called up for active duty have received poor training for their specific tasks at hand, not to mention the fact that they see mercenaries like those working for Blackwater make big money while concurrently having few rules to follow, while they were given poor wages and were subject to an entirely different set of rules.

Add to this a string of continual deployments, with few breaks and without the chance (in many cases) to quit once their enlistments were technically up -- all these factors (not to mention the fact that most young men and women have been brought up in a culture that values consumption over duty and anyone who exhibited any behavioral traits other than sit still and pay attention has probably been drugged since pre-school) suggested, to me anyway, that the likelihood of a mental health CRISIS in the US military was inevitable.

Sadly, that is becoming more and more obvious with each passing week. This is a serious problem, not just for the soldiers and the Armed Services as a whole. This is also a looming threat to those of us still here once these young men and women are discharged and attempt to re-assimilate into civilian life, at a time of such economic and social uncertainty. Trained fighters who are mentally unstable is not a recipe for the ideal neighbor or co-worker.

Our leaders have failed us and wasted the greatest Army ever assembled. It is a shameful act and one, I am afraid, that may haunt all of us for years to come :(

*********

US Military 'Overwhelmed' by Mental Health Problems of Soldiers

Thousands Strain Fort Hood's Mental Health System

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/23-2

Army Weak: Soldiers Expose Deployment of Unprepared Troops

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/11-9

Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend Christian Rock Show

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/147937/soldiers_punished_for_refusing_to_attend_christian_rock_show_/

Teacher

I had always "planned" on teaching -- in some capacity. My ideas did not "fit" the academic canon of the time so even though I was considered something of an academic wunderkind, it was adios Ph.D. and all that route (which truly made me sad but . . .

no I do not want to "specialize") and I have, instead, out of necessity, taken the long winding outlaw back roads . . .

yeppers, "what a long, strange trip it's been" but I think it is safe to say that I "know stuff" and I am looking forward, now, somehow, in sharing that more and more.


When I was young, I wanted, REALLY WANTED, to have an academic career but I just couldn't compromise. I wanted to!! Don't get me wrong. But I couldn't. So, all these years later. . . here we ARE !!

My ideas obviously don't fit the "mainstream" . . . but I think the mainstream is pretty much all heading over the cliff so, right now, I am happy to be dancing on the fringe . . . So -- to the other outlaws and eccentrics of the world, viva la difference :)

The Intuitive Writer


"The Intuitive Writer" is a 5 week workshop (offered via teleconference) designed to help awaken the creative writer within. I see this as being beneficial primarily to three core groups:

(1) musicians and song writers hoping to tap more deeply in to their creative source in order to write songs or arrange existing music,

(2) "lightworkers" and consultants looking to "clear space" in order to get their ideas down "on paper" and

(3) creative writers who may feel stuck or "blocked".

The class is limited to eight (8) participants. After the second week, I will "pair you" with a creative buddy. You and your "buddy" will also be expected to arrange a time to work together on exploring your creative "selves".

Work books for the course are my book "The Metaphoric Mirror", "The Creative Habit" by choreographer Twyla Tharp, and "Demian", a novel by Hermann Hesse.

Cost for this 5 week workshop is $88 -- which includes an ebook copy of "The Metaphoric Mirror".

For more info: http://rocknrollpsychic.com/classes

Monday, August 9, 2010

Karmic Outlaw

It is kind of a crazy life, in one sense, in that you are always this free agent thing -- money comes all at once, then stops, then trickles or floods, people come in to your life out of nowhere 'cause they like your voice or your picture or whatever and then poof they're gone again and then (rinse and repeat) 15 more come knocking on your door . . . and the madness continues

you get opportunities thousands of miles away (which, very rarely, you're gonna do) and usually it is 5 all at once or none at all -- truly it is kind of a fascinating existence

Most people don't see the true story of what goes on in the "metaphysical world". It is a world of intense competition (yet, to say this out loud is considered, at a minimum, bad taste or more usually, blasphemous) and more intrigue than an 18th Century Romance

My world is not for the meek

Women are everywhere but you live like a monk 99 % of the time and the temptation to just go be a car salesman or manage a book store is always one bad moon away

and so . . . "Karmic Outlaw"

my look back at the starts, stops, heartbreaks, triumphs and dreams of this wild ride from over-protected child to wild child pretty boy jock turned bad boy poet then later The Psychic Adonis turned corporate guru morphed in to The Rock n Roll Psychic . . . and all the scenic stops along the way. the book I was meant to write. the truth.

can you handle it? I am not so sure but the truth, this time, is what you're gonna get :)



Karmic Outlaw (Excerpt # 1)

They were shooting porn in the dining room, so I had to try and stay quiet. But this wasn’t your Grand Daddy’s porn, this was S & M so there was a whole lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ going on . . . not really to my taste but I was a vagabond, traveling across the country, The Gypsy Andini Autumn Tour ’09, and for now this was my home.

I had left California almost a year to the day before, tail between legs, fancy house gone, heart shattered, brain more than a little dented but I wasn’t built for safety and it was my nature to dangle off some psychological edge, peering into dark caves where others wouldn’t, or couldn’t, go. Outlaws, porn stars, witches and goblins and all manner of artistic broken souls have followed me, crossed my path like a black cat in the moon light but this time I was Lazarus, rising from the dead, and there were envelopes a plenty to push, dark paths to walk, angels following my every move. A wizard – such was my rep with those who knew me best, a high wire act with a fancy cauldron and the power to see what others could not.

My life kind of makes bad fiction, so many twists and turns, hats a plenty, high speed crashes, miraculous escapes, a Houdini of the soul . . . there was no road map when I started, just a vague impulse an inner push and the ability somehow to stay calm while the house burned. I have accomplished tremendous things, had “peak” experiences by the score, mystical highs too high to even imagine possible, lows so low one couldn’t believe morning would ever come. I had walked to my own cosmic drum beat . . . paid my toll – but the post cards were beautiful.

This is a look back at that journey. Truly, I’m not like the other boys. My story is different, as, most assuredly, I am different . . . girls by the hundreds, trophies and plaques and countless pats on the head yet there have been so many tears, so many broken hearts; broken bones and bitter bitter disappointments piled along the side of the highway, baking beneath a grieving Sun. I have been Icarus, flying towards the Father and yes sometimes my wings have melted. I have been Prometheus, giving secrets away, chained for my sins; Orpheus singing my song, my lyre spun like gold in to the tips of my aching fingers.

But I have survived, lived to tell the tale . . . Karmic Outlaw

Karmic Outlaw (Excerpt # 2)

I went home that night and did the regressions myself. We’d done them twice during class so I had a fair recollection of the steps. Relax first, then the journey up the mountain, walk along the side count 1 to 25 step by step see the mountain picture it in your head. At the top, the guide . . . then another count and finally the doorway. Step through it, back in to the past, back in to a life “relevant to the life you’re living now.”

Reincarnation. Was it possible?

For months after that, I did them every day, kept the days and trips in a notebook, page after page after page. At first, I was a doctor, a pediatrician it looked like, living in Baltimore, born 1903 died young in a fire in a big beautiful Victorian home with a wrap-around cream-colored porch. Then I was a composer, studying at the Prague Conservatory with Dvorak, who, I later discovered was there during the years he/I studied there, 1890-1893. A doctor and a classical composer . . .

I had my validation, a historical “hit” – Dvorak at Prague. I had been playing the piano for the past year; so being a composer made sense to me. I was convinced. A verifiable fact; it was true!

But the lives started piling up. More and more and more lives – all lived in the 1900’s. It wasn’t possible to be all of them. What did it mean?

And then things morphed again . . . I won this little toy tiger at Pier 39 in San Francisco playing “whack-a-mole”. Actually, won two of them and in our apartment on Dwight Way in Berkeley there was a little hook hanging from the ceiling, so one of the tigers found a home there. At first I didn’t pay much attention to it but after a while I noticed that when I looked at the tiger it would “rotate”. The tiger’s arms were held up so the paws were both parallel to the head, like a mini goal post.

Each time I would look at the tiger, it would move. OK . . . a few days of this passed and then I started putting my arms in to the same configuration as the toy tiger and when I looked at it, I held my arms like the tiger’s and rotated at the hips. The tiger seemed to like this and moved more. Within about a week it became pretty obvious that there was something “unusual” going on . . .

Karmic Outlaw (Excerpt # 3)

During the Spring of 2010, recruiters were once again jamming my email -- not knowing I am (at least in the corporate world, anyway) damaged goods, toxic, dangerous -- (1) a whistleblower against Kaiser Permanente, (2) a "celebrity psychic" and (3) a political hellion -- the wild child trifecta . . . but I enjoyed their little notes nonetheless.

I will admit, though -- there are times when I do fantasize a bit about conference rooms and fancy shoes but, evidently . . . God had other plans. I really believe there is a "guiding hand", though, driving many of the events in our lives and I also believe that our "past lives" play a big part in how that hand is ultimately "dealt". So adios conference rooms -- although I do still have some badass Italian footwear, souvenirs from a more prosperous time. But, no matter . . .

I think it is interesting how many times I’ve looked in to the "past life" hamper and pulled out all these very high-level military lifetimes. Not privates carting a rifle around fantasizing about getting back to the farm but Generals and Princes and even Kings -- crazy but true. It is what I see and continue to see.

The first "psychic" I ever visited was at a psychic fair in the Cow Palace (perhaps, why I now channel the cow?) in San Francisco in 1979. I was a 24 year old pretty boy jock and the last thing I wanted was to be a psychic but this was the beginning of my "psychic awakening" and when it came, it came like a hurricane. But that hurricane was still a few months in the "future". This was just part of the gathering winds . . .

I was curious about past lives and asked him why I kept having these strange reactions to old Victorian homes. He told me I was a woman in Victorian times, that my husband did everything he could to try to please me but that I was perhaps a bit of a diva and gave the poor boy a bit of a hard time.

Say what?

The funkiometer began to read "High" pretty quickly because he looked right at me and said "your life is going to be hard".

Great . . . thanks!

"You were a King, many times, and so it is going to be hard for you this time round."

No doubt . . . but the funkiometer was still just revving up. He said "you'll soon be doing what I do. Very soon, in fact."

Uh huh . . .

"You'll be able to see what we see." I talked to him a bit longer, truthfully in kind of a daze and when the reading was over his wife came over to me and started talking to me. "Oh you can do what we do."

No -- I can't. She was insistent and now 31 years later, I realize she was right.

A couple of months after that I took a past life regression class in San Francisco. That night when I went home I could regress myself, I was a "natural" at it and everything in my life changed -- that day.

But in class earlier that night I volunteered to be the first one to do the regression, the guinea pig because I was sooooo anxious to see. I wanted, no "needed", to "know" . . . and what was I in this regression?

A King.

Who knows . . . I always try to reconcile how these skills, these past life "themes" fit in to the "grand plan" as well as the day to day of our lives. Well I hate it but there ain't no kingdom any more . . . still as I grow older I begin to believe more and more in the validity of that line of thinking, about who or what "I was".

After shooting wrapped, I did a past life regression for some of the other actors in a film I worked in and one of the girls, a breathtakingly beautiful young woman, had a past life memory as a soldier and I told her it was the way I saw her, too -- VERY male energy, very strong military vibe.

Breathtakingly beautiful . . . just what most little boys think a girl should be but when I looked at her I saw a long line of badass soldiers trailing along behind her and, amazingly, it was something she identified with; she even seemed empowered by the knowledge of it. It is amazing what I see . . . how these karmic "themes" work.

Which raises sort of an in-ter-est-ing question, I think. In many of my lives, I’ve had a very definite badass kind of energy, myself, a killer . . . and so as I wade through the karmic waters, I can't help but feel there's something poetic about it all -- a political outlaw, in addition to being a religious heretic. A rope around the neck or a fire beneath my feet -- truthfully, neither one sounds too good.

A guiding hand; leading . . .

"Luck is a word devoid of sense. Nothing can exist without a cause."
- Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), French author, wit and philosopher (1694-1778)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

424

Last year, all of a sudden, pretty much out of nowhere, I started getting intense headaches and feeling nauseous and disoriented and sort of felt as if the world was coming to an end. It happened very quickly and I was totally out of body / out of my mind and for a few days after I kept thinking about my experience. It was totally like nothing I'd ever experience -- which, FOR ME, is saying something.

I felt it was significant and felt, too, that the DATE was significant -- so significant, in fact, that I made a banner and for a brief time considered starting a "424 Society" with the expectation that something would happen again on 4/24. Kind of like some cosmic cargo cult looking for ??

It felt dark -- evil, AND very ritualistic. I had forgotten about all this -- incredibly -- and was watching a video on youtube about a movie tie-in to the Gulf crisis, sort of Hollywood foreshadowing . . . and then, poof, it hit me. 424!!

Did this madness in the Gulf perhaps START on 424? Here is what I found:

On the afternoon of April 22, a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site.[38] Two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) unsuccessfully attempted to cap the well.[39] BP announced that it was deploying a ROV to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well.[40] On April 23, a ROV reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well.[41] Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry expressed cautious optimism of zero environmental impact, stating that no oil was emanating from either the wellhead or the broken pipes and that oil spilled from the explosion and sinking was being contained.[42][43][44][45] The following day, April 24, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as "a very serious spill".[46]

Amazing. Here is a link to my original post (plus a copy below) along with my original "design" for "424". If you look down in the lower left, blow it up if you have to, you can see what looks like a seagull in black lying on its back, gasping for air. A sign, a coincidence . . . you be the judge.

424 -- a premonition of a dark ritual destruction, played out, amazingly, 12 months -- to the day -- later in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=76407463317

Canaries in the Cosmic Coal Mine
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Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 8:23pm | Edit Note | Delete


Well well well . . . TGIFS Thank God it is Fucking Saturday because yesterday was the Friday Night Lala Land Crazy Town Express . . . at least that is the way it felt. All night and throughout much of the early morning today I felt this "vibe" . . . this "thing" that was . . . more than just a little "unusual".

At first I noticed that I was a little irritable . . . primarily because my trip to Columbus didn't happen and I was stuck at home with zero to do. I went to the gym--a little distracted, but not bad--and got home around 8 pm. I noticed HARD CORE chemtrails over the apartment . . . you say contrail I say chemtrail--thicker and more intense than I had ever seen before.

The night before (Thursday) I had gone through a bit of an existential "naming dilemma" . . . . to be or not to be . . . The Rock n Roll Psychic? Sometimes I get sort of tired of things and since I don't have hair anymore to cut and/or color I find that I need to do something else I guess to stir the pot so I thought "should I be more SERIOUS and drop this little title . . . in favor of something more respectable, like Andy the Wonder Dog or Madame Andre (come to think of it, I have used--as a joke--Madame Andre for a long time) . . . maybe the Seer from Over Here" . . . well, you know, I was bored and fuckin' with myself--a bad, but constant, it seems, habit.

All of this passes with nary a hitch; I recognize my spiritual brotherhood with the name and settle in for a little myspace/facebook action before napper's time . . . soon--and I mean REAL SOON--after I got back from the gym I noticed a kind of "buzz" in the air, things just "felt funky" . . . I am very plugged in to subtle energy shifts and I noted this was "odd" but didn't thank so much about it . . .

until I noticed that my head was starting to "expand" . . . as an exercise for astral projection many times people will "push" energy out of the body and sometimes will feel as if their head is getting "big", filled with something, like air but not exactly. I was starting to feel this and thought "wow, what's up?"

So being the astrologer I am, I looked at the ephemeris (a book showing where all the planets are on a specific day) and noted I had a VERY intense grouping of transiting planets all kicking in right then: a Triple conjunction of Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron . . . EXACTLY on my MC; Pluto . . . EXACT conjunction of my North Node; Mars-Venus EXACT conjunction in Aries . . . EXACTLY square my natal Venus (what I assumed the most likely candidate making me cranky); New Moon coming up in an hour or so in Taurus square my Chiron and opposite my Vertex. In other words, a perfect storm astrologically.

Really it was no wonder I was feeling looney, especially about my career . . . plus my resident astrologer . . . badass Southern Wild Child Rocker T. Watts . . . had already warned me . . . Mars (as well as Venus) is square Pluto this weekend which is funky anyway but in my chart it is doubly, maybe triply, funky . . .

So I said, on facebook, "consider me pretty much like a fall down drunk this weekend and don't hold me to anything I say hahahahahahahahahaha . . . Wild Turkey and Mars-Pluto . . . stay off the SPIRITS hahahahahahahaha and don't answer the phone."

But it just kept getting goofier and goofier; it was like when you get high and look at your hands a lot . . . I was somehow watching myself while simultaneously responding to all this CRAZEE energy--and writing it all down, pretty much play by play on facebook. I was tripping with the "astrological" Brady's . . . ho lee fuck . . . hide the light bulbs . . . and, even for me, it WAS weird!!!!

At 11:50 pm I wrote this: "Normally I am about as Zen as Zen can be but I truly do "feel" some kind of very strange "electrical" vibe . . . I don't THINK I'm crazy . . . very unusual vibe tonight VERY unusual . . . wow wow wow!!"

I didn't really know what the fuck was going on hahahahahahaha but I kept going from pissed to bliss baby to pissed to like straight jacket insane to who knows what . . . all in like 4 minutes. And then all over again.

But the thing that was the most "intense" was that I started having something very much akin to spontaneous O.B.E.'s (out of body experiences) . . . I could "feel" energy and everything was "magnetic", too . . . I also felt it in my teeth, like if you drink something metallic tasting, and my arms were "tingly" . . . shit was also just more "Colorful", like Fantasia on acid kind of intense . . . the colors were vibrating and had a low level glow, like a slow hum to them.

And, later, my dreams -- weird, whacked, also super intense and super fucking emotional, too . . . but weird emotions, hard really to describe. The dreams were also in like 3-D (and no, honestly, I was not taking anything hahahahahahaha) and so that only added to the overall whacked flavor of the day.

While all this was going on I was documenting the ins and outs of my cosmic journey online, sort of a Hunter S. Thompson on the way to Vegas kind of gig, thinking "dude, people are REALLY going to think you are STRANGE" . . . which, I guess, they probably did.

But this morning I noticed my friend Patty had posted this: "Having some very stange vibes this evening...and earlier today...Cant explain it, and not sure I understand it or even like it...Something like energy pressuring my head and Body...currents of unlevelness, yet filled with strength....dont get it....who know? ANYBODY?"

I thought to myself "THANK GOD . . . someone else had the same thing!!" Maybe I am only slightly neurotic and not having a full-blown psychotic breakdown!!

Today I posted this: "strange strange strange . . . I think (based on my profession) that once the dust settles this will turn out to be a good thing . . . I was clairvoyant before but . . . now . . . whoa!! . . . something happened yesterday . . . don't know what hahahahahahahaha . . . I have had unusual peak divine experiences that CHANGED ME but this . . . thing . . . was different . . . wow

it was like my head "got big" and I had "the swim head thang" like you're drunk and I just felt this PULSING PULSING thing . . . like big speakers with the bass pumped up . . .

I was flat out clairvoyant before, I think, but for seem reason it seems like it has kicked in even more . . . don't know if this is like a short-term blip or the way it's gonna be . . . from now on . . . I can only smile and shake my head . . . WTF!!

something very interesting happened last night and I do (at least in the short-term, we'll see how long it lasts) feel different and my psychic vision is revved up . . . and it is usually pretty revved up anyway . "

Crazeeeee . . . the weirdest most alien abductee where the Hell am I mommmmmeeeeeeee experience I think I have ever had. Today, now, finally, I am feeling more back to "normal" but . . . THAT was intense.

And today, I feel somehow more alive more plugged in than ever before. Did something "happen" or was it bad tacos . . . don't know, exactly, but I do know this . . .

There is a God and from time to time God peeks in to say hello. I think last night he/she was checking in, playing with the wind, making his/her presence known.

There were earthquakes all over the world last night, including one, for God's sake, here in Ohio! Lots of people, not just Patty and me, reported "strange" feelings from last night. "Something" happened. I think this happened because we are "shifting" . . . little by little we're waking up to a higher vibration, a vibration more fitting, more attuned to God, to divine consciousness.

Last night was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride . . . but I think the ride from here on out is likely to be even wilder.

My "Path"

I have thought a lot about my "purpose" in this life -- questions of who and why and what the heck run 'round my brain all the time. I float sometimes from place to place, possibility to possibility . . . Am I a psychic? Am I an actor? Or a painter or a novelist or all or none of the above? Or maybe something else entirely?

I want to soak up life with a big sponge -- love and passion and art and transcendence . . . I want to live BIG and because of that, Icarus flying towards the Sun, I have a tendency, at times, to fly too high and then crash.

I'm a crash victim.

I have thought that part of my "lesson" this go round was grounded in my ability to crawl back from the train wreck I made after my baby Lehna's stillbirth in 2006 -- torching my career and anything else I could set fire to, a "passive" suicide, too chicken shit to just kill myself but not above upping the ante so, ultimately, I wouldn't have a choice.

Death by cop . . . sort of.

I think I'm past that now . . . a rockn rock star psychic wild child Hollywood'n somethin' -- but, what, exactly have I put in its place?

I feel that now, more than ever, I am filled with love -- in ways I never knew before. I truly do have kind of a "love vibe" going on (que the Barry White) and I am working towards finding that love that comes hardest to us all -- the love of self.

I am working on it . . . so at this stage of my life I find that I am morphing once more -- towards self-love (and forgiveness for not being able somehow to make God and the Universe allow my baby to live) . . .

We all walk our paths alone but finally I am able (and willing) to share that journey in ways I couldn't before. Wherever I end up, I realize that this lesson was worth learning. Love matters.

And so, on we go . . .

The Coming Crash in Property Values in South Florida Share

Originally Posted: June 26

I just had a very interesting conversation with my bestest pal Dominique Alexandar about the possible implications of the Gulf oil spill on homes in Florida and what that may do to valuations of property there . . . as well as what impact this could have on the banks -- who may see hundreds of thousands of homes literally abandoned, not to mention boats docked along the coast.

I know I said I was going to stop making predictions about the economy but :) . . .

This is going to get much worse soon as both banks and insurance companies -- something no one talks about much -- are at grave risk for serious shortfalls if property values in Florida suffer a huge hit -- which seems likely to me to happen within the next 60-90 days.

I talked about banks suffering a big hit around the end of August. Well, Hurricane Season is likely to be in full force by then and don't be surprised if people soon just walk away from Florida.

The valuation of homes, especially around Ft. Myers / Naples is probably going to be dramatically impacted and insurance claims are certain to cause some serious pain for insurers. This is a mess -- not just an ecological mess . . . it is a financial catastrophe just waiting to tick off.

People will still live in Florida and homes will continue to be bought and sold -- but values across the board are likely to suffer and people who may be in dire straits financially already may not survive. I expect a lot of people to simply give up and let the banks take back their homes; same thing with boats, too.

Tourism (at least for 2010 and 2011) is going to crash and burn and all businesses with revenue streams tied to tourism are going to suffer huge losses over the next 12 months -- not just along the Gulf Coast. People aren't going to travel because they want to conserve gasoline and no one is going to set on a black beach and watch chocolate covered pelicans die right in front of them.

I still believe that the economy will rebound and "pick up" towards the end of 2011. But this year . . . not so good, in my opinion. And getting worse by the hour.

This is why I said all those years ago that the months between May and October of 2010 was going to be the REAL 2012.

Why I "Predict" the US Economy will Rebound, Dramatically, in 15 - 18 months

Originally Posted: June 20

Let's face it -- right now, things suck. Unemployment continues to be a huge problem, homes are still being foreclosed on right and left, more "bailouts" are in the works, and the Gulf Coast is an ecological disaster unlike anything we've ever seen . . . and Europe is about to hit a wall, too -- with the very real possibility that countries may actually default on their debts. Amazing.

When I said, back in 2006, that home prices would drop, it was viewed as a "Chicken Little" what is wrong with you kind of statement. Home prices would continue to rise; why couldn't I see that?

When I said in late 2008 that unemployment would get worse -- again I was considered a bit foolish. Same thing when I said that not only would Barack Obama not fix everything six weeks into his first term -- as most people SWORE would happen -- but things would get WORSE after he was inaugurated.

I even went so far as to say that within 16-18 months (that translates to right now, in fact) his popularity would plummet and he would be seen not only as an ineffectual president but he would be viewed as a terrible disappointment by a great number of people, even by some who had been his strongest supporters back in 2008.

I could go down a dark dark path looking at why the US economy is in the mess it's in but I have chosen across the board to go to (and stay) in my "happy space" and so I am going to try and focus on the positives going forward and not dwell so much on the darkness of the past.

People are fed up; they are, literally, not going to take it any more and my faith in the resiliency of the United States is very strong. It won't come from our elected officials -- they are, for the most part, bought and sold by corporate lobbyists so the answer will have to come from somewhere else.

Capital for start-ups has dried up and corporations rule the land with an iron glove. Both are negative drivers for business growth and to see any real innovation and change in the business climate people will have to forge ahead IN SPITE OF so many things being stacked against them.

But, in the Fall of 2011 I believe the U.S. will turn the corner a bit and things will begin to look up. I expect business to drive that growth but not business as usual -- this will come from a more entrepreneurial spirit and will come about ONLY if the United States buckles up and starts to produce more than it consumes.

And it will.

I believe the next 12 months are going to continue to suck. A lot. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and by the Fall of 2011 I think the wheels will start to turn in a more positive fashion. I think we will come back and for once I am the positive optimistic voice as now most people see what I was talking about before and can't see much beyond it.

But people are smarter than the elites think (or want) and as a collective we will take back our economic prosperity and see it return to the world (with a few dents and scratches) that we planned out before . . .

That is my "prediction".

"Welder" by Elizabeth Cook

I got back from LA Thursday night and found a lovely surprise: an autographed copy of Elizabeth Cook's wonderful new album "Welder". I have known Elizabeth and been a fan of her music (and her, too !!) for several years now. "Balls", her critically acclaimed 2007 album, is on my ipod and close to my heart. I have played several tracks from this album on my radio show and, honestly, I think she is unique, one of a kind. A TRUE artist.

I put "Welder" in the CD player yesterday and headed west in to Berkeley. I listened to this album, literally, all day -- all the way through at least 4 times and some songs I played 8-10 times apiece, maybe more. This is an amazing album.

It also had to be an album that took some "balls" to do, too -- since it doesn't fit a formula and, in my opinion, is probably not so easy to categorize. There is a lot going on in this album and for those who like one thing -- but a lot of it -- they may be a tad confused.

But, to me, this album just screams "genius" and the diversity and depth of "Welder" add to its beauty. There are fun upbeat songs like "El Camino" and "Yes to Booty" and hauntingly beautiful ballads like "Heroin Addict Sister" and "Til Then", plus some honky tonkin' foot tappers and and tear jerkers, too.

An amazing album. Honestly it is.

Elizabeth Cook is one of my favorite artists. I'm biased, 'cause I know her, but I don't feel as if I'm being prejudicial when I say she really is one of the best artists in Nashville.

I doubt there are too many boys who've ever met Elizabeth who didn't think "now there is a woman"; by the same token, I doubt there will be many who listen to this album who don't also think "this album is something special."

There is a also something masterful in the way this album flows. I know she had a big-time producer, Don Was, and was backed by people like Buddy Miller and Dwight Yoakam, as well as her husband Tim Carroll (a great guitarist) and Rodney Crowell, who produced "Balls" -- but this album, to me, screams Elizabeth Cook !!

Elizabeth is an interesting woman -- kind of a throwback, in some ways -- elegant and beautiful and respectful but she is thoroughly "modern" too (an intelligent, self-aware, resourceful, stand on her own two feet multi-tasker). I think this album, like Elizabeth, is also both modern and a throwback to an earlier time.

"Welder" melds many different sounds and emotions into a beautiful musical tapestry. I am not a professional musician, nor a professional reviewer. I don't know all the ins and outs of the instruments, nor who influenced who.

But I do know this. "Welder" has soul -- and it's real. I think it is an amazing album and I think, honestly, that you may feel the same as me if you give it a listen.

She has a song "Yes to Booty" that basically says this; don't get drunk and expect to be gettin' any. It reminds me of an old Loretta Lynn song (that I also love) "Don't come home a drinkin' with lovin' on your mind!".

I personally think a few giant posters of Elizabeth Cook flashed on the wall with this song played over and over would cure a lot of alcoholics !! One of my favorite songs on the album.

The final track, "Til Then", is an achingly beautiful piece that reminds me, for some reason, of Janis Ian. "El Camino" funny funny funny but a rocker, too. Another song in heavy rotation yesterday.

But my favorite song on the album (so far; that could change) is "Heroin Addict Sister". I loved this album; it speaks to my heart. That, to me, is what music, when it's done right, does best.

Elizabeth Cook has the all the right parts to be a BIG hit on Music Row -- beautiful voice, great lyrics, hott blonde drop dead stop you in your tracks beautiful -- but she is true to her self. There is something special in doing it your own way and this album is beautiful and true in its depth and diversity.

"Welder" is a wonderful album. I loved it . . . and, most importantly, I ain't done listening to it yet, either !!

For more info about Elizabeth, please check out http://www.elizabeth-cook.com/

Earthquake Sensitive

Originally Posted: June 18

Well, I am having an "interesting" phenomena now. Last night, right after I got back to Northern CA, about 1 am, I felt the earth "rolling", as if we were having a minor earthquake. This lasted, I believe, about 10-12 seconds.

I checked the internet -- nothing. I kept waiting for an update, looking back every few minutes for the next hour. I woke up this morning and, first thing, checked again -- nothing, but there WAS an earthquake in Japan.

A few days ago, I felt the same thing in LA -- nothing, but, while this was going on, give or take an hour or two, there was a big earthquake in Indonesia. Strange -- yet the actual everybody felt it earthquake in LA, a 5.9 a couple of days ago, I didn't even notice.

"Predicting" earthquakes? Sure, it is what I do. But "feeling" them, actually feeling the room shake and the ground roll? THIS is different. The irony to this is that each time (and it started a few months back with an actual 4.4 earthquake about a mile from where I lived in LA) this happens it feels like being rocked to sleep, kind of like being a little kid.

The earth motions are very comforting. I can't really explain it.

I don't mean to sound fatalistic, or excessively morbid, but it is sort of like being told not to worry; Mother Earth will gently rock me to sleep . . .

When I was a child I had my tonsils taken out when I was two years old. I had what might be considered an N.D.E. experience where I was left to go run through the halls of the hospital. Three girls, a really beautiful girl, maybe about 8 years old and two twin girls about my age, played with me and talked to me. For the longest time, I accepted this as totally normal -- and maybe it really DID happen. I honestly don't know.

There is an irony, I think, in that the person I feel most like me in terms of what I do, and how I do it, is actually not one, but two -- The Psychic Twins, Terry and Linda Jamison. I had never made that connection until just now . . . strange strange strange.

But as I have gotten older it seems less and less likely to have happened that way, that a little kid on the way to the operating room should just be left to run wild through the halls of a hospital . . . there was a very surreal kind of vibe to that experience at the time and, remember, I was two years old (just barely two) and so memories from that part of my life are few and very far between.

I had very strange, very vivid almost 3-D in your face dreams when I was 3 and 4 years old. I guess NOW that won't seem so unusual, based on what I do "for a living" but these "earthquake" experiences are, for whatever reason, bringing me back to those dreams I had as a little boy.

Anyway, I find this all so VERY fascinating and, honestly, I am kind of baffled by it.

On the way north yesterday on I-5, my right ear starting "hurting" -- out of nowhere. Now, every time I touch it, it hurts. I wouldn't think much of this, except in the "wow, that, too, is odd" after reading this article I found on the web. So . . . who knows, I don't understand it, but . . .

What can you say? I fascinate myself hahahahahahaha !!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Gulf Oil Doomsday

I have said, repeatedly, for the past 3 years that it was 2010, starting, literally, May 1st, when things began to "change" -- the months between May and October of 2010 was the time I predicted as being when events people associate with 2012 would happen. The Gulf spill started a week before May 1 and that was also t...he date of the massive flooding in Nashville.

You can go back to all of my "prediction shows" and guest spots over the past 2-3 years and confirm my prediction with those dates: May to October, 2010 . . .

THIS is not a good thing -- and I believe there is a strong chance that the oil will, in fact, not only continue pumping for months, maybe all year long, but it may also circle around the southern coast of Florida and travel along with the current all the way across the Atlantic to Scandinavia -- and back.

This is not going to be easily fixed and the costs associated with clean-up and rebuilding, in a time with all the economic reversals on a mass scale that are already taking place, are just going to add to our existing problems. Dramatically.

And -- one more thing . . . I said that massive floods would continue from late March until around June 15th. I have published these predictions repeatedly all year long.

The place I've been talking about privately the past 10 days or so as a prime target for flooding was Arkansas. I just saw that several people have died in Arkansas in the past couple of days due to flash floods.

Anyway . . . fwiw, another video about the crisis in the Gulf.

LOVE . . . and 2012

Originally Posted June 2. 2010 on Facebook:

One of our critical needs in order to fully maintain psychological balance is the need for love -- both to give it and receive it. This doesn't necessarily mean only a romantic love -- love for and from our children, family, friends, even our pets are all key components in maintaining a sense of well-being.

In my one on one readings with people I always look towards the psychological drivers underneath the surface that may unconsciously steer them towards certain patterns in their lives. Typically, this is a compensatory action that, under a microscope, stems from a feeling of non-love, or abandonment.

All people -- everybody -- want to love and to be loved. Everybody.

In the world right now there are many things happening that cause us to feel both unloved and unloving. There are wars across the globe, financial hardships tearing families apart, ecological trauma to our beautiful Mother Earth, obvious ethical breeches from our elected officials and on and on.

It is not so easy sometimes in this environment to maintain a loving spirit.

But in times of crisis, especially in times of crisis, feeling and giving love is critical. It may be all we have.

But it's enough.

I have made my reputation, such as it is, in large measure from making predictions about global events. Of course, this is but a small part of what I do but it is something that has helped draw attention to my work as a psychic and -- for the most part -- those were predictions of things people didn't much want to hear about -- economic problems, ethics violations and scandals, tragic floods and earthquakes and . . . well you can see my point, I'm sure.

But I always have said (and continue to say) that these are events that ONLY provide a backdrop to our lives; they are not the determinants of what we do or how we feel, but rather just background noise on which we can choose to turn the volume up or down.

However, I felt very strongly that the background scenarios and events I predicted would happen (and usually they did) and, if they did happen, we would be forced, as a result, to deal with them as they happened on their terms -- but I have never EVER lost a profound sense of optimism or a sense of ultimate renewal. Nor should you.

I have, over the last 3 years, very publicly proclaimed the months from May to October of 2010 to be a "hard time" -- the "real 2012" . . . a time of ecological and financial upheaval.

We have already seen more tragic floods, the growing crisis in the Gulf, rising tensions around the globe in, among other places, Israel and Korea and Pakistan, as well as financial problems in Europe and the US straining our sense of optimism to the max.

And it is likely, on so many levels, to soon get much worse.

To me these next 5-6 months are as bad as it gets. But, here's the real deal. No matter how complex these next few months may be, our love will get us through.

I see 2012 as being like Y2K. I see us dancing and singing and carting babies around on our hips and having a happy world. Our world is not going to end; in fact, I think we are growing in to a beautiful phase . . . but we need flowers and butterflies and happy thoughts to keep us going.

Love your neighbor, hug your child but most importantly . . . please please be kind to yourself. We will rise above these short-term disruptions and hold our heads high.

We are people who know love and, because of that, we will rebound and build, once more, a beautiful world :)

My thoughts this morning on Israel's Attack on Humanitarian Aid Convoy

Originally Posted June 1. 2010 on Facebook:

Well it was a busy but beautiful Memorial Day and I went to bed last night with a smile on my face, with the expectation that I would wake up this morning and get started on helping make sure my latest environmental cause celebre, Fabric Rationing. would receive the kind of serious attention it so desperately deserves.

At least that was the plan.

For those of you who may not yet be aware of it, a flotilla of ships bound for Gaza, with aid for Palestinians who are suffering so terribly as a result of Israel's three year long blockade, was attacked in International Waters.

Unarmed aid workers were murdered; reports vary but perhaps as many as 20 were killed, and video footage shows the Israeli attackers were brandishing weapons clearly stamped "Made in the U.S.A."

Not only am I terribly saddened by this, I am also outraged (and I feel this is the appropriate word) that more is not done to frame Israel's policy towards Palestine in what I believe is the proper context -- an illegal oppressive act and land grab not really much different from what happened to Jews themselves 70 years ago in Germany and throughout Russia and Eastern Europe.

I realize that statement is going to quickly erase my short-lived "Happy Psychic" status talking about hemlines and The Stanley Cup but as much as I may support Israel, in principle, THIS is unacceptable and for a group with such insight in to the human condition -- and with such a terrible history of being oppressed -- it breaks my heart that the State acts as it currently does.

Of course, right now, the same could be said of the United States.

I am a supporter of the rights of Palestinians to at least co-exist and the means by which Israel attempts to maintain control in the region is, to me, ethically unacceptable.

But ethics and he said she said aside -- the reason for this blog is not just because of my sadness for the people who lost their lives nor for the plight of oppressed people all throughout the Middle East and the rest of our lovely but volatile planet.

The reason for my blog is because this act is connected -- dramatically connected -- to a vision I have long held, call it another of my psychic predictions or, what I really believe it is, a "prophecy".

The ships set sail originally from Turkey. Since my early 20's . . . and I was just as psychic at 25 as I am now at 55 -- the biggest difference being my level of education and experience is (after 30 years) much broader -- still, flat out pound for pound my clairvoyant abilities were roughly the same . . . I have been "shown" a vision of Turkey as being the starting point for a time of serious problems in the world.

Little insignificant Turkey.

I think this is the beginning of what may soon, I fear, get out of hand. The world is a dangerous place and it won't take much to domino in to a huge mess. Let us all pray, seriously pray, that a fair and equitable solution can be found.

Israel's act, I feel, should be condemned internationally. I fear though that it will be more of the same. money talks etc etc. But Turkey is important. I don't know how, exactly, but I know it is.

No Floods, No Bank Failures, No Troop Escalations -- Happy Predictions from the Happy Psychic

Originally Posted on May 31 on Facebook:

The good news is I predicted the "Floods of the Century" to hit in the Spring. It will be Summer in 3 weeks . . . the banks ?? , well -- let's talk about something else :)

So . . . predictions about things that REALLY MATTER:

First off, the million (actually quite a few million) dollar question -- Lebron James?

Oh mighty Andini, Ohio boy that you are, please say King James will stay true to his school and play for the Cavaliers.

If Lebron was primarily a basketball player (which I know you all think he is) then perhaps yes. But, to me, Lebron is primarily an entertainer and business man who just happens to ALSO be a badass on the court . . . so that potent combo screams NY Knick.

I predict King James will go to where the advertisers and TV cameras can more easily follow him, so I believe he will play for the Knicks -- and I believe the Knicks will try to surround him with actual players -- so expect the Knicks soon to be amongst the basketball elite.

Number Two -- Women's Fashion. First off, let me say that, in the spirit of scarcity and conservation of resources, I feel one of the primary places to cut back is in fashion. Why waste so much fabric on one outfit -- shorter tighter skirts and plunging necklines show a commitment to sustainable resources. I think the time has come to begin "fabric rationing".

And, brilliant as this idea obviously is, I am not fully convinced that it will be readily or properly implemented. Such a tragedy. Still I think my vision of shorter skirts IS, in fact, the wave of the future.

And when you think "short skirts" what era comes to mind? Well, the Sixties, of course !!

Revolution is in the air and people want a little color in their life so I think soon there will be a Sixties Mod clothing revival -- bright colors, micro minis, pale blue granny glasses. Twiggy and Janis Joplin reborn :)

And, three -- the playoffs in Hockey and Basketball. I see the Chicago Blackhawks winning The Stanley Cup and, in a tight seven game series (in order to maximize ad revenue), the NBA Champs will be . . . The Boston Celtics.

So keep your fingers crossed -- even though I am rooting for the Lakers . . . especially about fabric rationing. Write your Congressional Representative and let them know how you feel !! Third World Cultures NEED our cotton !!

You say 2012, I say 2010

Originally Posted May 28. 2010 on Facebook:

I want to give "happy predictions" -- truly I do :) . . . but when I kept saying (as I have for the past 2 years) that the months between May and October 2010 would be what people think of when they think of 2012 there was a reason for it -- the floods in Nashville and now in Poland and of course the madness in the Gulf. And the financial bombs . . . well they're waiting in the wings as we speak.

The greed and shenanigans in the Gulf of Mexico is killing our planet, not slowly like we've been doing -- but in big chunks.

The marine life we need to maintain our own quality of life is being decimated -- this should piss everyone off and finally put the fire in our belly to do something rather than wait for it to rain down from above.

But this is not the first time we've seen massive spills -- nor probably the last time either.

In 1999, when I was the Process Manager for Enron (YES, 'tis true) and a direct report to the VP of CSC Energy Services, I warned him that there were fundamental core infrastructure problems within Enron that would be incredibly problematic soon.

At the time, Enron was publicly hailed as THE most innovative company in the world. It crashed and burned 2 years later.

At Kaiser Permanente, I tried to warn people, as the head of Problem Management for all Batch Reporting Systems and later as the Operations and Testing Manager for all of Northern California, that there were patient safety issues galore within their digitized medical record system that could "kill someone". Ironically, it was my own child who later proved the accuracy of this prediction.

And now, as the Rock n Roll Psychic I, once more, clang the alarm. There are problems and no amount of positive happy thoughts will change them unless there is action to support it.

THIS is the time for action. Right thought, right action. There is no better time than NOW to embrace your neighbor and pitch in (from the ground up) to protect our natural resources and show kindness and compassion to our neighbors, no matter what color they are, what language they speak, how hip or cool they may or may not be.

This is a crisis -- so put the positive thinking to good work and make a difference. But don't think, for a minute, that there are not problems, BIG problems, looming large.

The reason I predict the things I do is because it is what I believe will happen. THIS is the most critical year. Right now is 2012.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Beeline to Extinction

In my "past life" 5 years ago as a corporate analyst I saw first hand how accountants made decisions that undercut best practice methodologies, especially in terms of testing and contingency planning.

Everything was geared towards shareholder expectations, irregardless of the long-term health of the project and, ultimately, the compa...ny itself. We have become a 1Q/2Q world -- quarterly profits the only yardstick. We are eating ourselves from within. Here but one more example -- working a resource to death with no thoughts beyond the short-term.

We are not, as the Native American Elders instruct us, making decisions for Seven Generations to come. We are barely thinking even 7 years down the road; more likely 12-18 months, if that.

This article should worry you. In the late 50's and early 60's when I was a little boy, the sky was different. It LOOKED different, there was a different kind of breeze, the air was "happier" . . . hard to explain but I always notice how the sky and wind has changed; you can see it in 10 year increments just how much.

We are all connected; please remember that . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/26-6

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Predictions and Positive Thinking

People have asked me lately why I make predictions about "negative things" like floods and ship wrecks and an imploding economy run by professional thieves with nice shoes. The reason: they are the images that jump out to me and, sadly, they are both newsworthy and impact a lot of people.

You could look at it as a warning -- a "head's up", in the case of the economy my advice to wait a bit in 2007 and 2008 to buy a house or this Winter "if you live near a river or at the foot of a hill, don't leave your valuables in the basement" . . . but that would assume there is a value to what we say in regards to future planning.

But psychics are not about "planning" in most people's minds. That is left to experts, "talking heads" who typically know less than the cab driver who took you to the airport or the man fixing your toilet because it is usually people outside the system who see it best. They have less investment in protecting the status quo when it is painfully obvious that we are in a "shift" like nothing anyone's ever seen.

Thomas Kuhn talked about this 50 years ago when he came up with the concept of "paradigm shifts".

Anyway . . . to quote another thinker and philosopher "the times, they are a changin" and, right now, all the dark boogey man spiders in the night thoughts one could have are playing out in technicolor all across the globe.

Economic meltdown? Check

Environmental catastrophes? Check

Forced child prostitution? Check.

Forced child prostitution? Yes -- and this isn't some random thing in some far away place like Romania or Somalia but right in our own backyards. Fifteen year old girls (or even younger sometimes) are being pimped out to 75 year old men all across the country, in nice little suburbs in Kansas City and Tacoma and Dallas and, really, all over. We have a "sick society" -- one in which every vice is publicly condemned, yet those throwing the biggest stones pull the curtains down in their glass houses and do terrible things.

I was told over and over two years ago that I was being negative -- that if I only "thought positive" then the economy would surely be fixed and who was I to think (or say -- OUT LOUD) that it wouldn't. We're America and dad gummit -- God likes US. U.S. -- US.

Well the floods and earthquakes will continue; that is out of our hands -- and dirty dealing behind the scenes financial chicanery and exploitation of pretty little girls will continue, but that IS something we could do something about but to acknowledge our power to intervene would suggest that things are not good and well, that's just plain negative thinking.

The reason many of my predictions are not roses and puppy dogs stems from this fact. The hidden in our world is now predominantly dark and until we as a collective wake up and embrace our inner light and stop expecting things to be fixed by experts -- predictions of economic implosions and unethical behavior will, sadly, continue to have a high probability of coming to pass :(

Right thought, right action. It is time to wake up. It is time to act.

Predictions and Positive Thinking Part II

I have made many BOLD statements over the past 10 years -- making "public predictions" about things people absolutely did not want to hear. Let me list just two of them . . . the ones that have probably caused the most uproar.

1. The War in Iraq -- I said, while the needle in the haystack who hid the WMD's where's Waldo Hussein charade was playing out that (a) Iraq had nothing to do with anything other than not giving us their oil for the price we wanted to pay for it and (b) that a war with Iraq would

-- last forever &

-- bankrupt the US.

Put the Freedom Fries back in the oven and pour me a big tall glass of French wine because it was a scam from the get-go but nobody wanted to hear that. We weren't gonna let those "non-white people" invade us and use their WMD's -- which the crafty little boogers had the audacity to HIDE from our inspectors, who were really just doing their jobs.

I said the war would not end quickly -- as everyone KNEW it would, it would be a financial black hole and a diplomatic disaster, AND that it would put strains on the US Army that would, one day, come back to haunt us.

No roses and puppy dogs in that prediction. But -- seven plus years later . . . was it accurate?

Black Cloud Prediction # 2 -- the rosy economy is being systematically looted and will soon, once there is nothing really of value left to steal, begin to implode.

I didn't say it right off EXACTLY in this way -- but then I did sorta suggest that there was some "crony capitalism" that wasn't for the common good . . . so I watered down what I knew a little bit so as to make the medicine go down just a little easier.

I said that housing prices would not only stop rising like a runaway rocket ship but, blasphemy of all blasphemies, they would soon drop like a stone and take the rest of the economy down with it. I started saying this privately in 2004, publicly in 2006.

Before Barack Obama arrived on the scene I said he was not what he seemed and that beautiful as his speeches are/were, he was on the bank's Christmas Card list and he would do nothing to implement the changes he promised.

I said unemployment would skyrocket, the economy would go into stagnation for years and that people would suffer -- more so, much more so !! -- if they did not understand what was happening and allowed the status quo to continue without taking steps to avert the impact.

There are more, of course, but these two will hopefully make my point. Good news is beautiful but perhaps most of us have been in love and all was roses and candles and violins -- only to later learn that the story wasn't true.

We were being played. It didn't feel good, did it? Would you rather have a heads up early in the game -- or learn later after you bought your partner a house and a fleet of BMW's?

Forewarned is forearmed. Look at my track record or friends like Terry and Linda Jamison, Alison Baughman, and others. We see what is going to happen -- even if it goes against what people expect.

Isn't that why you go to psychics -- to see what's coming up, especially the things that may "pop up" out of the blue?

I stand by my predictions and my right (no, obligation) to deliver them.

Friday, May 14, 2010

2012

In the years leading up to the housing crisis and the "bailout" I was a pretty consistent voice saying "hey, there is trouble on the horizon; these housing prices can't continue to go up like this" -- to me a fairly simple economic observation that most people could have seen simply by comparing the escalating costs of homes relative to what seemed to be a stagnation in personal income. The math wasn't good.

My predictions about the economy were consistently poo-pooed as mad liberal Anti-American love it or leave it propaganda but there was one small thing about what I said that became fairly obvious -- but only much later.

I was almost always right.

In fact, my observations and predictions were not only totally contrary to the "common wisdom" -- even to what most people swore up and down was just plain common sense -- it was also (in the "New Agey" think positive reality is what YOU make it world) -- considered blasphemy . . . "if you just think positive, it will all be OK."

OK . . . "I'm positive. The income is gonna suck -- HARD!"

This year I have, once again, found a new out of nowhere prediction of gloom and doom that (a) people didn't want to hear -- or even imagine could be true and (b) turned out to be absolutely accurate. For those who follow my published predictions, you all know that to be my thoughts on the "great floods" for the Spring of 2010.

I said years back that "2012 Consciousness" would begin during the week of September 15, 2008. I specified the exact week that our "world would change".

That is the week that the word "bailout" first become part of our national "heritage" . . . and that word has opened the floodgates to a new form of personal consciousness in the Western World.

I have also said for the past 3-4 years that 2010 was the year people feared when they thought of 2012. I believe it is 2010 when the most destruction and "change" happens.

It is my belief that, in many ways, 12/21/2012 will be a lot like Y2K -- a lot of hype. There were plenty of people back then storing nuts for the winter (buying generators and toilet paper by the truckload) and I said at the time "this is NOT going to be a big deal".

Neither will 2012.

I believe that my "accuracy" in pegging the events of the past 4 years serves a higher purpose and I started thinking of it -- and decided to write this blog -- after reading my friend Alison Baughman's blog this morning about 2012 -- "what IF 10 % of the world's populace BELIEVED it was the end of the world and let their fears run wild?"

What then?

I used to joke that people said "oh, he's such a nice boy (referring to me) until he talks about the economy!!"

I tried to warn fellow psychics and "light workers" about the economy so they could prepare for the psychological problems that potentially would arise in the general population. Not a lot of people paid attention to what I was saying.

I am afraid that Alison is right -- and hopefully as a doom and gloomer about the economy and the environment who consistently seemed to know what was up, my wish is that people will hear me when I say "the world is getting better, not worse".

These are growing pains to a better world -- a world that will perhaps appear shortly after 2012. The trend, short-term, is down. But by 2012 it will start moving higher and higher :)

Here is a link to Alison's blog: http://visiblebynumbers.blogspot.com/2010/05/2012-ask-yourself-this.html