About Me
Early Spiritual Life
I am a science teacher by training but my personal spiritual quest began when I was a child and started attending Catholic church services with my best friend’s family since my own family did not attend church. As a teen I continued to explore Christianity, joining an informal Christian fellowship at my school and taking confirmation classes at a nearby Catholic church. In college I turned my focus to eastern religions and the phenomenon of near death experiences, reading books by Raymond Moody and Kenneth Ring.
At the age of 23 I had a spontaneous kundalini awakening while meditating in the presence of a shaktipat guru named Anandi Ma. I met this guru after signing up for a class on Death and Dying at the Woodbury Yoga Center, following the sudden and untimely death of my next door neighbor, who at passing was just 19 years old. That event rocked my world and deepened my desire to understand the nature of both life and death. The course never happened but the teachers at the center encouraged me to attend the evening meditations because Shri Anandi Ma , a native of the Gujerat province of India, was visiting and she only stopped by the center 2 of 3 times a year. I attended the public meditation and was intrigued enough to attend additional evening meditations that were held as a part of a retreat for initiated disciples. The retreat was not open to the public, but the evening meditations were. It was during the final meditation that I gradually became aware of presence of God. In the days and weeks following the kundalini awakening I was flooded with psychic experiences, but more importantly with an unshakeable intuitive knowing that GOD was everything, literally everything. I experienced and looked at the world through different eyes during that time. I was overwhelmed by the immensity of what I was feeling and experiencing, most prominently an overflowing of love from, and connection to, everything around me. I quickly took initiation and became the Shri Anandi Ma’s disciple, completed a 5 week pilgrimage with her and other disciples to India and then spent 5 years immersed in her teachings. During that time, and in the decade following, I also read many books by Indian and western spiritual teachers, including Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, Ken Wilbur and Lynne McTaggart, and many other authors who wrote on the topics of spirituality, the nature of God, the underlying fabric of the physical Universe and the interaction of the material and the spiritual realms, i.e.- consciousness.
That unshakeable intuitive “knowing” faded over time, but the memory of the experience has stayed with me for 35 years. In my early thirties my life took a turn to the material as I earned a master’s degree in science education and became a public school teacher, which has been my main professional occupation since 1996. I still attended christian church and thought a great deal about spirituality, but my day to day efforts turned toward understanding the nature of the material universe at the level of atoms, electrons and energy. I taught, became a parent and spent my days focused on work and raising my children.
Seeking Answers, Later in Life, Through Direct Contact with the Spiritual Realm
Due to a very challenging life experience in my late 50s, I found myself turning to psychic and tarot readers for support. I was in a relationship, after being single for 12 years, and felt it was a healthy and loving connection with real potential to become a longterm partnership. But, at the one year mark, the relationship took a confusing and dramatic turn for the worse. My partner left the relationship abruptly after what felt like a dramatic personality shift that occurred over the space of just a few weeks. I was bewildered at the change and doubting my own perception of reality. We had no common friends and I had no one to turn to for answers, so I sought the opinions and guidance of psychics. The messages they told me, the manner in which they were able to read the dynamics of our relationship, astounded me and awakened within me my own desire to understand psychic phenomenon more deeply. Synchronistically, I had a teaching colleague who had decided to leave her position as an English teacher at our school mid-year to become the assistant director of the Berkeley Psychic Institute. Discussions with her, prompted me to attend classes there, delving into developing my own psychic abilities, which I had experienced in sleep during my kundalini awakening decades prior, but had never been under my conscious control.
Over 2 years, I had well over 100 readings, always asking the same few questions about the dynamics between my ex partner and me (as well as career focused questions), trying for closure and to heal that past relationship. Simultaneously, the scientist in me was conducting a bit of informal, experiential, qualitative research into the nature of psychic phenomenon and the human mind. There were many twists and turns along the way, highs and crushing lows, as information about the failed relationship poured forth, along with a few brief email interactions with my ex. Though the vast majority of the psychic and tarot readings felt very accurate, and informative in terms of unpacking the dynamics that existed in that past relationship, predictions varied. Some readers expressed the belief that my ex partner would return, explain, apologize and unpack the hidden underlying reasons for the departure, followed by a happy ending. Other readers were clear that they believed the relationship to be over, and that I was better off for that as my ex was not doing the work necessary to form a healthy partnership. I was grieving deeply and chose to place my hopes on the happy predictions, waiting patiently for over two years, for my partner’s return and ‘ true confessions”.
The “happy ending” never come to pass. Thus, I also found myself pondering the limits of psychic and tarot readings, the role of the psychic reader serving as spiritual conduit, and whether the information was coming from spiritual entities, guides, or was somehow, they were tapping into projections from my own mind. Needless to say I also felt bitterly disappointed at times, wondering if I had simply been foolishly swindled out of a great deal of money by the readers. To be honest, there were very few a time I felt I was being lied to by my psychic advisors and each reader seemed to truly believe their own predictions. And the predictions, though varied, all felt plausible because of the detailed manner in which they seemed to tap into our dynamics accurately, in spite of me providing just the barest shreds of information to get the reading started. I also recognized that the psychics never told me what I needed to work on in myself, though I knew there was a lot. There were even times when I directly asked them how I contributed to the demise of the relationship, but there were few details about that, they tended to blame my ex!
Psychics work, and are paid, to support you in positive ways, but there may be a tendency for them to take on your point of view, to become your cheerleader. It is important to keep that in mind. When reading about complicated relational dynamics, I believe, psychics will skew, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the psychic, in your favor.
At this point, I have no definitive answers. This is all a work in progress. I am trying to enjoy the journey! My blog entries will explore the issues presented in the paragraph above in greater detail.
Psychic Training, Reiki Training
As of 2024, I have taken 10 courses in psychic development and 2 courses in Tarot from two schools in the United States (the Berkeley Psychic institute and Psychic Awakenings) and another in the UK (the College of Psychic studies). I worked briefly (3 months) with an intuition development mentor and coach living in France (Judee Gee). I also completed a year long self paced course and became a certified Tarot reader through Biddy Tarot. I have completed two levels of Reiki training under the guidance of my teacher, Melissa Harel (Power to the Healing). Finally, I recently completed the level one training in accessing the Akashic records through Akashic Knowing School of Wisdom.
What do all these trainings mean? I have a thirst and curiosity about the spiritual realm and the nature of consciousness! Have the courses helped me to develop psychic and healing gifts? Yes! And, I still consider myself at the beginning of a long journey. I am in the process of winding down my teaching career and pondering the possibility of supporting people in their own spiritual and healing journeys once I retire. This website and reading offerings are my attempt to explore this area while also gaining practice using my own psychic skills. I consider myself a “journeyman”, moving beyond novice, trying to accumulate the hours of practice needed to develop and hone my skills. The cost of my services is kept low as an acknowledgement that I am still in training. As of September, 2024, I have completed 72 readings as part of my training through Biddy Tarot. I estimated I have also completed 25+ more, informally, with friends.
What Makes Me Unique as a Reader/Healer: My Background in the Natural Sciences
What I feel is most unique about me as Tarot reader and Reiki practitioner, is my solid background in the natural sciences. I earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in Human Biology (1987) and a Master’s degree from UC Berkeley in science education (1996). I also spent 5 years in doctoral training at both UC Berkeley and UC Davis. I draw on my doctoral training as I conduct this informal research on my own practice as revealed through the feedback I get from my Tarot and Reiki clients. I currently teach biology and health and bioscience, full time, at an academy in Oakland, Ca. My 9th grade students and I explore the physical underpinnings of life and good physical health together over the course of the academic year. Thus my Reiki and teaching practices are closely aligned.
Developing My “Right Brain” through the Fine Arts
All of the art on these pages is mine! I began formally studying painting and drawing as a means to develop my creativity and ability to “feel”, not just think about the world, and my experience within it. In 2020, I was feeling so locked into my rational left brain, given my natural tendencies and decades of studying and teaching science, that I made a very intentional decision to delve into the fine arts. I began with a class in watercolors, then moved onto drawing, then painting with oils and acrylics.
Art has brought me much joy. I have even integrated it into my teaching career, co-teaching an art elective at my high school, in addition to the courses I teach in biology and the health sciences. I also feel that in developing my artistic side, I am further opening my self to receiving intuitive messages and living more in “flow”.
Closing Thoughts
It is very important to me that those reading this website know that my spiritual work has a decidedly scientific and philosophical bent. But I also firmly believe that the intellect can only take you so far in knowing God and spirituality, and at times you must put it aside. I feel that Spirit cannot be known fully through the intellect, but the intellect can support (and block!) you on your spiritual journey. Having a science background also means I hold my work as a developing Tarot and Psychic reader and Reiki practitioner to the highest standards of honesty and objectivity possible (for an enterprise that is decidedly subjective). My experiences with Kundalini yoga mean I have a commitment to spiritual development in myself and my clients. I adhere to an ethical exploration of Tarot and psychic phenomenon. I am still an explorer, not a master, feeling my way through the metaphysical world, as I develop my own personal philosophy around the use of psychic and Tarot readings to support one’s emotional, intellectual and spiritual lives. I am a work in progress but my commitment to the ethical use of metaphysical tools is high.
