Sedona Spiritual Retreat for Empaths with Medium Carissa Schumacher

Sedona Spiritual Retreat: Our friend and Empath Academy graduate (from way back in the early years!) psychic medium Carissa Schumacher has been putting on amazing Sacred Spirit Illumination spiritual retreats in Sedona Arizona several times a year for the last several years.    She usually does these journeys around the equinoxes and solstices in March, June, September, & December each year.


I had the pleasure of attending 10 times since 2013 and i can say they are always one of the highlights of my life!  

She is the best and most accurate psychic medium I've EVER encountered. Each 3.5 day journey carries an incredibly special and unique focus, which Carissa designs and tailor to the group in advance. 

On the first evening, Carissa holds a powerful, rejuvenating Pure Source meditation and channeling with Yeshua (Christ consciousness).

On the ensuing days, you (along with 20-30 other empaths) will be hiking, singing, learning, meditating, and sharing sacred space within the caves, vortexes, creeks, and heart of the red rocks. Carissa and Greywolf will lead you through incredible drumming and shamanic journeying meditations and ancient ceremonies including water, fire, and medicine wheel rites upon sacred ancient lands.

You will receive unique DNA activation, energy healing, and kundalini activation bodywork. You will also learn about ancient traditions and philosophy, totem animals and spirit guides, and fundamental principles of light-work, dreamwork, grounding, manifestation, and growth in your intuition. The price is VERY reasonable. 

They have also arranged a special rate at a local inn for those travelling. I can't recommend this journey more highly for empaths or highly sensitive people, so if you've been feeling like treating yourself or changing the direction of your life, this is the journey for you! 

Carissa Schumacher is one of the best mediums in the world and regularly works with law enforcement to solve missing persons cases.  For more information about the retreats, email Carissa at cariohlovely@yahoo.com and she will email you a packet of detailed info.  (She does not have a website as all of her work is designed to spread by word of mouth).

  Carissa holds these events many times a year, with ever-increasing frequency, so there is bound to be an upcoming date that will fit your schedule.

Michael R. Smith, Ph.D.

Top 5 Regrets of People Facing Death

By Bronnie Ware (who worked for years nursing the dying)

"For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last 3 to 12 weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality.

I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to honor at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.  We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.


4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. When you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, before you are dying."


-Thank you Bronnie!   So much wisdom here for us!
Michael Smith, Ph.D., Inner Power Coaching for Empaths & Highly Sensitive People
www.empathconnection.com

Highly Sensitive Men.....

I was contacted by an Empath Connection reader and am gladly re-posting his wonderful article about Highly Sensitive men.....

Michael Smith
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I am a Highly Sensitive Man
By Rick Belden


Editor’s Note: Research tells us that high sensitivity, discerned from a pattern of observation before action, affects 15-20% of individuals of many species, including humans. Rick Belden, a poet, writes about the experience of being a highly sensitive person. 

A few years ago, I was attempting to get closer with a woman I liked. We’d been working together for several years and knew one another solely on that basis, but I wanted something more personal with her. I’d been feeling a powerful sexual and romantic attraction to her for a long time, but given our relationship as peers in a work environment, I was being very deliberate in my attempts to gauge her interest in me and careful in my efforts to move things forward.

When I’m attracted to someone, I tend to move slowly and gradually anyway; in this case, having lived through my share of work-related romantic entanglements, rejections, and disasters, I was eager to avoid any situation that might turn awkward for either of us.

Things seemed to be progressing in the direction I desired, albeit slowly and with frequent yellow flags, but nevertheless, I finally felt confident enough to share something more personal with her than our daily chitchat about our lives in and out of work. She knew I was a writer and that I’d had a book of poetry published because I’d spoken about it during our many visits. I decided to offer it to her and find out if she was interested enough in me to read it. I asked her if she might like to see the book, and she said she would, so I brought a copy to work and gave it to her.

I didn’t want to appear too eager or overly invested in her opinion of the book, so I didn’t bring it up again after giving it to her. One day, while we were outside walking during a break, she mentioned she’d finished reading it. Doing my best to appear as cool as possible and not betray the anxiety that had been building ever since I’d first offered her the book, I said, “Great. What did you think?” And she said:
“I think you’re abnormally sensitive for a man.”

Obviously, this was not the sort of response I was hoping to hear. It’s not the sort of response any man ever wants to hear, any time, from anyone, most certainly not from a woman to whom he’s attracted and with whom he’s just taken the supreme risk of showing his vulnerable side.

It was a painful experience for me, to be sure, but not the first. I’ve heard variations on this theme all my life:
“Don’t be so sensitive.”
“You’re too sensitive.”
“You need to stop being so sensitive.”


To read the full article, click here.

To visit Rick's Facebook page, click here.

Empaths & Metaphysical Aspects of Food Preparation

A Metaphysical Theory of Food

By Kevin Friel, Empath

I'll preface this with keeping Masaru Emoto's intention water experiment in mind (sending 'love' produced beautiful crystals, 'hate' jagged ugly ones...). I started thinking about the value of food after touring a top nutritional testing facility near Chicago this summer, and hearing that facilities CEO speak. My thought process brought me to the conclusion that not only what and how we eat and how it is prepared is important, but who handles the food through the farming/supply chain/distribution/preparation/serving process. More importantly, what is their INTENTION while taking part in this process?

Families used to prepare, cook, and in a lot of cases even farmed their own food together. They would then sit around together and eat. For the most part (sibling rivalry aside), the intention of all those people was to basically love the food that would keep their loved ones going. Even if we directly transpose the results of Dr. Emoto's findings to this, water is used quite a bit in preparing and cooking. If the intention is set in the water surrounding the food products, then no doubt that same energy would transfer into the ingredients. But I'm sure intention directs the building blocks of food (as we already know, energy effects everything!) in the same way. In the end, we ingest the loving energy 'intended' into the food. That has to transfer into our bodies too! Empathic receptions aside, why do 'home cooked meals' taste and FEEL so much better than an equivalently prepared meal at a mediocre restaurant?

So, the flipside. Much of our 'cheap' food comes from poverty stricken nations in large, factory-style farms. People are happy to work for the limited money, but the conditions are often poor to uphauling with long-hours and many accounts of abuse. The intention is set right from the crib of our ingredients. Hate for their boss, for their health, for missing their family etc, gets infused into the ingredients before they even get to the next stage of prep. If they are shipped across seas, more often than not the shipping crews are in a similar situation as the farmers. Sometimes this is compounded by having adjacent containers (or in some extreme cases, even the same shipping container) carrying drugs/weapons/human traffick. Another point for negative intention infusion. The truckers who spread the ingredients to the rest of the continent often lead dubious lifestyles, or miss their families greatly. Yet another point.  

If we are buying these products from a large discount chain, the warehouse staff are underpaid, and underappreciated. If we end up with these ingredients at a sub-par restaurant or fast-food chain, some preparers even PHYSICALLY put intention into the food (spitting, unsanitary practices...), never mind the metaphysical effects of such actions. So we end up with multiple points of potential 'hate' energy being infused, and then digested into our systems. Would this explain the broader link between depression and fast-food consumption (nutritional considerations aside)? Are GM foods filled with the negative intentions of their penny-pinching project-managers?

There are so many ways to be exposed to 'intentional energy', this seems like a very important one. And it puts so many pieces of our societal paradox together.

I would love to hear the reader's comments on this.  Have you heard of a "theory of food" anything like this floating around out there, and any other viewpoints along the way.  I intend to make a short film on the subject, so your comments will be helpful.

Kevin Friel, Canada

Earthquake Premonitions and Dreams: What's Happening?

Just in the last week, on three separate occasions, I have had three different clients who report being disturbed by having dreams and visions of massive earthquakes. This is in addition to three other friends who report the same thing - dreams and premonitions for earthquakes. (I have long had earthquake premonitions - and I am also having an increase in dreams and visions lately, especially for japan).

As empaths and intuitives, we are "feeling" the Earth, and how she is now moving and throwing off the energy from our years of abuse. None of this is new. Spirit has been telling us for years that this would happen, and now we're right smack in the middle of it.

More of this is explored in my empath empowerment package, The Complete Empath Toolkit.

Because this is happening NOW, that's why it's absolutely imperative that we learn about our abilities, enroll in healing classes, go to spiritual ceremonies, and learn about ourselves and our gifts.

For now, I will leave you with the words of Empath Connection reader Beverly Tier Bartlett, who prompted me to write about this today:

"My question is: Is there a shift in energy lately that is causing empaths to feel anxiety and to have heightened sensitivity? I'm empathic and kept hearing in my head the word EARTHQUAKE three times and it would not stop and I had no idea why I heard this and it turned out to be one week PRIOR to the earthquake in Haiti. Ever since then its as if I'm reading peoples minds and it isn't even fun :-) All of this is both interesting and amazing, yet quite distressing for along with hearing the word earthquake comes a flood of an overwhelming sense of doom and gloom and tragedy but non specific. Last week I started to hear earthquake again three times along with the number 6 so I shared it with a friend. I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do with this information except pray."

Yes, Beverly, the best thing any and all of us can do is PRAY. And also to SHARE what's happening with others, just as you did with your friend and by reaching out to me. By sharing your dreams and experiences, it allows others to know that this heightened sensitivity is GLOBAL. We're ALL experiencing it. There's no separation - what one person feels, so do all of us, on many refined and subtle levels.

You may benefit from reading the stories and experiences contained in my Complete Empath Toolkit package.
Until next time, may you pray for the world, the Earth, and all of her inhabitants, human, and non-human alike.

Michael Smith, Ph.D.
www.EmpathConnection.com

Test Your ESP & Psychic Experience Forum for Empaths

Found a great little psychic test website that I'd like to pass along.

https://www.psychic-experiences.com/psychic-tests/

You can test your psychic ability with a series of fun & interesting tests.  I recommend the classic Zener test (which many parapsychologists use), as it only takes 5 minutes and will analyze the results and tell you the 'amount' of psychic ability you have.

I spent 30 mins this morning; seemed to have great success with the 'Guess the Random Number' test, not so much with the remote viewing test. Interesting how for empaths & highly sensitive, often our psychic ability rests on the fact that it may need to be connected to a person in order for it to be optimally effective.

When emotions or other people are involved, our sense of knowing comes through with more ease.

Computer psychic tests are impersonal and may throw empaths off.  Beware of the psychokinesis test! I tried it once and decided it was better to avoid it; (I once sent sparks flaring from my TV by having the brilliant idea to do Reiki on it).

Looks like a great site to share empath and psychic experiences as well.

Michael


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Announcing the Empath Blog

I have received an amazing response in the last few months since this site has been promoted on the internet.

Sooo...

Here we go with the new blog. It's my intention to blog at least twice a week with information, tips, and hints to keep us, as empaths, on track.

My favorite part is going to be the interaction with you!

Now you have a reason to keep coming back to the site.

I am looking forward to this tremendously.

- Michael