Valerie Sheppard

Wow, it sure has been awhile since I've kept up! Would it serve me to say that I've been trapped in one of those bubble wrap thingys and someone finally popped me out of it?

I have a lot of catching up to do here at the SE blog!

This week, Jennifer and I had on guest Valerie Sheppard. She was so wonderful and I know I definitely walked away from that call with more Happy and more How To! Applying my dears, now that's the hard part. But before I go into our interview....

Today's little yummies that we discussed on air!

Not Exactly *yummy* is the news about armadillos. NPR.org notes this week that Leprosy can be contracted through armadillos! The more than likely source being to handle the raw meat. Um, no offense to you Arma Afficianados but Ew.

So if you've decided to pass on the armadillo, you may also want to scoot past the imported pork. Apparently China believes that their little piggies should NOT wee wee wee all the way home but should be rather gruff and on steroids. You can check out the article here.

And for the joyousness of life itself, another article on Myths of Caffiene. Find out what diseases your heavenly cup o' joe might be fending off for you!

Onward!

Valerie Sheppard is an accomplished speaker/presenter who has been entertaining and educating audiences for more than 3 decades. As a working actor and member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, she uses performance to connect with the audience and share messages in meaningful ways. Valerie has studied adult learning principles, is certified by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business to teach at the University level, and has taught in collegiate and corporate universities. She has shared wisdom on personal leadership, living a vibrant life, leading high-performance teams, marketing and business strategy leadership, spiritual aspects of leadership, and more.

Today we spoke with Valerie about learning how to be true to ourselves in order to live a more fulfilling life....a life void of acting out the robot in a script!

Valerie had her stint in Pod America, as many of us do. She eventually found that it was unfulfilling for her, only instead of just *thinking* about it, she did something about it. We wondered how it was that she was able to make that decision. One thing she told us was that you can shift gears in a moment, ask yourself...Is this really me? Is this making me feel joyful, peaceful and loving? Or am I feeling something else?

Valerie stresses that the most important relationship we have is the one that we hold with ourselves. Yes, that sounds selfish. But that's what we're socialized to believe. Check out Valerie's article on this subject Here.

She says that the outer world has no choice but to mirror what we put out there. If we don't think very highly of ourselves, what will we attract?

In situations where we find ourselves feeling unfulfilled or negative, we should ask ourselves, Why am I doing this again? What makes me happy, feel whole, feel purposful, feel loved and loving...how am I open to the good coming to me? Am I constricted? If yes, that means I am blocked from giving AND receiving (GASP!).

Jennifer and I just loved our conversation with Valerie and wish the show was longer!!

What you CAN do though is go to her website at http://heartoflivingvibrantly.com/.

See you next week!

Chetan Parkyn

At the very least, you can't say we're inflexible! Jennifer and I decided to reschedule a previously postponed show with Chetan Parkyn just two days after our show with Tara Austen Weaver! Whew.....! Bih-zee!!!

As usual, we started up with a couple of items....I had emailed one of them to my boss earlier in the day.

On his way past me next all he could muster was "You are evil."

All I did was name drop about some exotic coffee that runs around $300 a pound. Quite possibly that coffee passed through the digestive system of a Kopi Luwak and was THEN roasted and ready for the fixin's! Yeaahhhh.....I'm good at finding info like that.

Now the only other info we went over was something we believe our listeners probably aren't into. Nonetheless, whether you are or aren't or know someone who is doing cocaine, the use of coke is affecting the Rainforest.

And then we had the pleasure of speaking with Chetan!

I will say this...some of our guests, if not all of them, make it look just so easy and attainable to change your life into something really big, no matter how old you are. Recall our show with Marc Allen who was fired for being a bad busboy!

Chetan, was - as he put it - bumbling around before finding this system of finding an individual's blueprint. He was an engineer in England and eventually at 27 years old decided to visit India. He visited Osho, who had a recommendation for someone who was desperate and trying to find themselves, and that was to visit Mumbai. A man who would tell a person all about themselves. Only when Chetan arrived, the man merely said, "Oh good. You've arrived". He was apparently expecting Chetan!

He had been working with a very old system that had been passed down, father to son, for many years. By the end of Chetan's visit, his hair was standing on end from what he heard. He was also told by the man that he was going to learn this method. Chetan politely declined and then the man laughed in his face and told him that he'd write a book someday that would change lives. This was in 1979.

In 1993, Chetan had his very own Human Design reading. And knew this was the Thing he'd heard about.

Thirty years later we have "Human Design". A divine soup with mystical seasonings all working together using the Kabbalah, chakra system, I-Ching and astrology. I can't tell you how it works...it's pretty intricate, but it is pretty spot on accurate!!!

Jennifer and I were exposed a tad on air as Chetan was awesome and had our charts at the ready. And wow....it's ON.

Not only is your birth time involved, but there is also a second, distinct time - approximately three months before your birth. We are told that this is when the neocortex turns on and takes in the first burst of information while in the womb.

Also involved are Neutrinos, which are said to be "messengers of the universe". One theory is that they came out of stars and then fly through the universe at the speed of light and pass through everything...including us. Where two bits of mass connect, there is an exchange of information. So from stars to even Venus to us....pretty amazing stuff we're mixing with!

Admittingly, I am silly at times. We know this. Poor Jennifer has to deal with it on a regular basis. I couldn't resist asking Chetan if he'd even seen a chart where he could see someone had the potential to be a serial killer. Sorry Chetan! The mind sometimes....!

For more details, check out our special Friday show! Be sure also to check out the Human Design website where you can within moments get a free short report to help you figure out what YOUR unique design is! A more comprehensive report is currently available for $19.95.

Tara Austen Weaver

On January 26th, we had the fun and pleasure of speaking with Tara Austen Weaver, author of The Butcher and the Vegetarian!

Of course, I have some tidbits to share with you! I try to share things of interest and I do hope you will find them interesting!

This week we spoke briefly about the following topics...

For one, you've heard by now of the new astrological shift! We assure you, you are still the sign that you were and we will not be changing our name to Libran Equinox! Scorpion all the way baby! Besides, I don't want to get this tattoo removed. I hear it hurts.

The USDA was getting rather annoyed with a number of birds who were flitting around a feedlot and figured to take care of it, execution style. They decided to use bait that was poisoned and all in all killed at least 200 wild birds. Thumbs down!!!!

Thumbs up though because it's about time that the FDA looks into food coloring a little more closely to see its effects on children! NOW can that giant pitcher of red dye stop busting through the drywall after school??

Foie gras. It's liver removed from a severely punished body. Need I say more?

Where's that old lady from the Wendy's commercial? She's picketing Taco Bell with her famous slogan...Where's the Beef? Well, 35% of it IS in the taco.....the rest is whatever's inside the couch cushions...

File under Barbaric, subcategory - Ewww. Lion Tacos here in the United States. Really?

And now onto our interview with Tara....

First off, I have to say that Tara was a really fun and bright light of an interview.

And....in my not so humble opinion, her mom rocks. Her mom went vegetarian in approximately the 1950s, before being a double dipped organic hippie was even thought of! She did allow Tara and her brother to go ahead and have a little meat when they ate out or were at friend's homes. As Tara puts it, she was "raised vegetarian".

Eventually Tara found that her health wasn't up to par and went from doctor to doctor...conventional, homeopathic, accupuncture.....she's tried it all. Finally one doctor told her that she needed to have animal protein and this is how the book starts.

We follow Tara through going from being a culinary garden whiz in the kitchen to taking baby steps and trying to figure out how to tame the packages that come straight from the butcher. I give her a lot of credit....she hopped in with two feet and went for it! She even worked with the bone marrow - now THAT'S something that I have definitely had to tangle with!

Tara also learned how to fit in as good as she could on the customer side of the butcher counter. Learning what to ask for, being able to say what you are going to do with it and standing firm when you are maybe being pushed in another direction would all be skills she would add to her new life.

I did ask her though, on what diet she feels best. And she did answer it! However, I'm going to leave that one for the interview....can't give away ALL the surprises!

Tara did leave with our listeners her thoughts on food choices in general. When making that decision to eat meat, she sought out ranches to visit to see where her food comes from. She learned about the quality of the meat and how that quality is passed down in the food we eat. She says that you need to do your own research and find suppliers. And I'd back that up - especially if you aren't comfortable with just eating the *stuff* in the styrofoam package at your local chain grocery.

Currently Tara is writing a book about growing food and we can't wait to see how it turns out!

You can find Tara's website Here. Also, check out her awesome food blog, Tea and Cookies to check out a Sexy Kale Recipe that we spoke of on the show! Cue the stripper music and eat!

Marc Allen

On January 12th, Jennifer and I had the pleasure of speaking with Marc Allen! Marc is the president of New World Library (co-founded with Shakti Gawain) in 1977. He is also a musician and author and has also with his wife Aurilene, founded the Brazil Hope Foundation to help street kids in Brazil.

Believe it or not, before Marc became the wildly successful man that he is, he was also an actor, a failed busboy/dishwasher and got kicked out of a zen center for breaking rules!

When Marc was 30, he realized that he had no job, no money and found himself in a state of age-related shock! He figured it was ok to go through his twenties unemployed, broke and in a funky apartment but at age thirty! No way! By the end of the day on his 30th birthday, Marc became a different person.

He simply remembered an exercise that he’d done when he was 22 years old, sitting around a fire and a couple there had said, Imagine five years passing and having gone as well as you can imagine. What would have happened?

So Marc wrote it down. The Ideal Scene at the top and then 5 years had passed and how he was living his ideal life. He had no interest in business or money as he figured money would not be good for a spiritual path. He also stressed to himself that he wanted a life of ease….not work too hard, just when he felt like it.

How on earth can this work? Can you just imagine saying to yourself…I won’t be working too hard and will just enjoy the fruits of life?

Well somehow Marc has done it. And he wrote a book about it called The Greatest Secret of All.

A few things that Marc shared with us to get started are :
~Dare to dream
~How to deal with thoughts and fears
a)What is the problem
b) what emotion are you feeling
c) what are you feeling physically
d) what are you telling yourself….what are the recurring thoughts?
e) what’s the worst thing that could happen….explore your deepest fears about it.
f) what’s the BEST thing that could happen in this situation?
g) What prevents you from reaching that best case scenario?

For Marc it was that he felt he was a ‘fool with money’. That he could not handle money effectively. So what did he do? He asked himself what affirmation would counteract that belief.
“I am sensible and in control of my finances, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.” He said this over and over…a few thousand times! Finances were simple and actually, no big mystery!

And of course, eventually he hired a bookkeeper!

Marc says that we have to ask ourselves the right question. The clear message is that you aren’t trusting yourself. You have everything you need, right NOW! Trust yourself and your intuition. Dare to dream and put the doubts and fears aside for a minute…how can I possibly get there? Ask and you will receive your answers! Marc says it helps him to stroll around his yard a bit.
And I have to agree! Walking outside or sitting in a bookstore with a cup of coffee are great ways for me to “hear” answers.

If you don’t know what your passion is, take the time to find out. If you are fascinated by someone else’s career, that’s a clue. You don’t have to do it all, just do what you WANT. YOUR passion.

Marc stresses that when we speak to ourselves with affirmations and plans, that the simpler the words, the better. The Universe says YES to every thought! That means if you are thinking negative thoughts, it’s also giving those equal opportunity so think positive!

The most important thing in life, Marc says, is to love and serve yourself and others.

Check out the show and Marc’s website and Marc's music along with the website for Brazil Hope Foundation!

1000 Breaths Live!

On December 31st, we had our very first live simulcast for Scorpion Equinox! Jim Ellis and my co-host, Jennifer put together a fundraiser to raise money for the awareness of youth prostitution and child trafficking.

J2 had quite the scene going on in San Diego! I was here in NY during broadcasting. While on the show during this event, I heard there was media buzzing around, and a lot of people coming in with pillows, blankets and good vibes. As it was put to me, it was like a huge “slumber party”!

There were parts that I was unfortunate not to be able to hear clearly but what I could tell was that this event was a huge success! And although I couldn’ t hear well enough the vocals of Karl Anthony, I COULD tell that he was amazing by the music and the crowd participation.

So what I’m doing for this post is to post Jim’s account of this wonderful day. Thank you to all who participated!

See below and don’t forget to check out the 1000 breaths blog!

Today was the day.9 am at the site for set up.
10:15 am open the doors for the couple hundred people to arrive.
10:30 am speak with four local TV stations.11 am start the radio show on blogtalk radio.11:11 am start the event. What a miracle it was. To see such attentiveness with those sharing this event.Karl Anthony getting everyone up and singing.The short film to focus people on the cause of ending child sexual exploitation. An impassioned message from Nikki Jo Junker. The breathwork that sent people inward on their journey of freedom. We shall stay connected, as we all make our way, as a community of hearts, towards our freedom. We shall stay connected as the children of our community are taken care of. Thank you for being a part of it all.
Also, check out the 11 minute short educational film, Indoctrinated …

At the event we debuted the 11-minute version of the short educational film "Indoctrinated," filmed, edited and produced by Jim. This film is what 1000 Breaths was all about – raising funds to complete a longer version which can be distributed to schools for the sake of prevention. A tool that will create awareness as well as educate children and parents about child sex exploitation, the 11-minute version is now on YouTube. Please check it out.

If you want to hear the 2 hour broadcast, go Here.

Indoctrinated

Our show for December 22nd was on a more serious topic of Indoctrination. The dictionary will tell us that this word means “to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., esp. to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view”. In this case, it would be the point of view of a Pimp.

Our guests today were Manolo Guillen, Dr. Sami and Nikki Jo Junker. Both Dr. Sami and Nikki have their own personal indoctrinated stories. Today’s show was incredibly powerful and revealed some truths about prostitution that you may not know.

Manolo is involved with the CSEC (Commecial Sexual Exploitation of Children).

Dr. Sami wrote her story in SCALDED: The Making and Undoing of an Extremist and also now counsels survivors and their families.

Nikki is a former prostituted youth who is now Executive Director and Cofounder of “With More Than Purpose”.

Dr. Sami’s story does not fit in with the “usual” mold, as she told us. She grew up in an “ordinary” middle class family, was very well educated and had everything she could want. She was very religious and had no sexual education. That would change however, as she became involved with a religious sex cult. This solidified two things for her – how to make her own way and how to use and manipulate people for what she wanted.

She used a person for relief, pleasure or a passing encounter, but because she was raised in a solid middle class background, she didn’t act out much. The seeds of the development were already laid down in her primary years however, because of learning to see people through commercials and other media. People were good for security, safety, a house, etc. She was being primed for a legalized lifestyle in prostitution.

Dr. Sami told us that not all sex was violent or horrible, although of course, that was present too at times. Money is spent beyond your wildest imagination….in makeup, in fashion. There is a nearly unbeatable addiction for power, sex and money. The power to manipulate sexually and in any way that can be done. She stresses that really in this situation, you are more powerless due to a pseudo sense of power. A lot of money is made but most of it is handed over to the Pimp.
Nikki shared with us that she was indoctrinated at age 17. She had started stripping to make money to go to school and was pursued by a man who visited the club. He won her over by acting like a romantic boyfriend who bought her things, took care of her money, gave her the male attention that she hadn’t had. Nikki was made to believe this was a serious relationship and they made future plans to open a business together. Her “boyfriend” told her that they needed more money and so introduced the idea of escorting to her. She eventually met the other girls in his tribe and was told they were ‘cousins’ or ‘friends’ and they all moved to Las Vegas. The relationship eventually revealed itself and her punishments included choking her until she passed out and then dunking her head in a toilet to wake her up – repeatedly – 10 or 15 times. When she eventually tried to leave she was struck on the head with a huge candle by one of the girls and her head was split open. She woke up in a pool of blood and luckily, left the business from there.

*Legalized Prostitution is not Fine. There is a LOT of emotional scarring. And it starts as early as age 11.

*You don’t have to be brought up in a poor or uneducated background to be indoctrinated.

*A Pimp will not necessarily come off as a Pimp. They may be of the ‘Finesse’ variety – the kind that will make a person feel falsely secure and safe by easing her in with promises of love and a future together. The other type of pimp is called a Guerilla pimp. These are more of the kidnapping and violent types from the get go.

*It is NOT easy to stop working in this industry. There is a lure that will bring many escaped women back on their own. If she can even get away by herself, there is also a strong threat of her pimp and female ‘family’ hurting her in any way to keep her from leaving. If a girl is arrested for prostitution, her pimp is usually the first one she calls because she has been groomed into thinking that he is the only one that she can trust to take care of her.

*The object is to dehumanize a girl. Beatings are frequently given to enforce this.

*Children are arrested many times when it is really the crime of the predatory johns, who usually walk away with a slap on the wrist. The Safe Harbor Act decriminalizes children in acts of prostitution.

*Immigrants are frequently forced into prostitution. The American girls are usually finessed into indoctrination.

This was an incredibly powerful and recommended interview that should be heard by teachers, parents and teenage girls.

You may contact Manolo and Dr. Sami at mguillen@sdycs.org.

Please check out the new 11 minute short education documentary created by Jim Ellis on Indoctrination.

And remember - no class, race, wealth or religious background is immune.

Donna Anderson Collins

This week we spoke with Donna Anderson Collins! It would be a shorter list to say what she HASN'T done than what she has! In a nutshell, Donna uses teachings from Feng Shui, Heartmath, EFT, the World Peace Diet and Imagine to help improve the home, health and spirit for individuals.

But before we delve into the highlights, what else did we cover?

Being That Cheery Time of Year, we just HAD to pass along some tidbits of Holiday Info!

If any of you knew this, I'd congratulate you - because I certainly didn't! The voice of the Grinch song is Thurl Arthur Ravencroft (I love Ravens!). Who was also incidentally known as Tony the Tiger for over 500 Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercials! He also sang No Dogs Allowed in the Peanuts show, Snoopy Come Home.

The best selling Christmas album of all time, prior to March 1, 1991 (before the Nielsen SoundScan tracking system was in place) is listed as Elvis Presley's 1957 title, Elvis' Christmas Album. After soundscan, the best selling from 1991 - 2010 is listed as (gulp...and Yipes) Kenny G (for Go Away) - Miracles: The Holiday Album.

We also listed the top 10 gifts this year! Wii is at #10, amongst digital cameras, i-pods and gift cards! (Psst....we used to think gift cards were tacky way back when....but now when I recieve a Borders giftcard, I know someone bargained their soul for a piece of heaven for me!)

Onward to our interview!

Donna has this incredible adventerous spirit. She has been all over the world and even studied Buddhism with the Dalai Lama! (If it weren't so UnZen, I'd be wearing my Envy Gauchos!). What we really focused on was her involvement and the principles of Heartmath, which is (and this is taken from the site) the only scientifically validated system of stress intervention techniques and objective biometric feedback that quantifiably and dramatically boost the health and performance of individuals and organizations. Sound good to you? It certainly does to us! We love a heavy dose of optimism, intuition and faith but feel deliriously happy when there is science to back it up!

One amazing thing we found out that many people probably wouldn't even think to be true is that the energy from your heart goes out about 12 feet in front of your body! Heartmath strives to teach heart-based living. The heart is different than the brain, there is no memory, therefore it is 'pure'. From what we understood, shifting to your heart, rather than reacting to an event can make all the difference in the outcome. Shifting to your heart can change a reaction from defensive to compasionate in seconds. Imagine your very own spouse/mother/child not having to defend themselves and then the two of you going into the never ending spiral of an argument.

Oh Joy!

Because I don't know about you, but I really don't want to travel to that country very often. The landscape is riddled with mines! Even the rainbows have shrapnel in a place like that.

What Donna taught us was how to use the Quick Coherence Technique to bring us to this blissful state....and it can be done in under a minute. She even told us that it can be done in half that time! Imagine being able to disarm a blast right before it could happen! Why is this? Because when a person (and I could be talking about YOU or maybe my own mate because it certainly isn't about ME...har har har) is stressed, the neocortex shuts down, and you basically stop thinking properly from not getting enough blood and oxygen.

Ahead of time, Donna says to create a sort of Happy Rolodex in your mind, full of uplifting, wonderful or funny moments. It has to be something that makes you smile or feel really quite amazing. Or you can choose a memory of gratitude. Donna shared hers with us about her cat getting a Haagen Daas ice cream container stuck on his head and then trying to back his way out of it! This is her moment that opens her heart and she says if you find it funny, you can use it too.

This is how easy it is...

An important part of the entire system is to deep breathe from the belly, moving oxygen all the way down. When stressed we shallow breathe, which is not relaxing. In fact, take a deep breath now....all the way down to your belly and let it expand slowly, then release. Easy, right?

So close your eyes, put your hand on your heart and take a deep breath all the way down, nice and slow. Let your stomach fill up with air two or three times and think about that most happiest of moments that you've put in your Joyous Rolodex! Imagine breathing from your heart center, that your breath is moving in and out of your heart.

And that's it!

Some people may just topple over for a impromptu snooze. Some might feel like they've taken a high dive into a pool of coffee. Go with whatever your body does.

Donna also mentioned that if you are struggling with any issues, you can think more compassionately or with proper response by using this method and will get an immediate answer.

There are measurements of energy being tracked that are in the earth's atmosphere. Heartmath found that on 9/11, the collective grief, fear, sadness and compassionate created quite a spike in the world's energy. This shows the importance of all of us being that drop of water that creates the ocean! If collective energy can do THAT, what else can it do?

Well, it turns out that the Peace Project has been working to drop crime in Dallas, TX. They get together to pray or meditate in order to create that harmonious energy in an attempt to balance out prime crime times. For instance, during football games in Dallas. They've even noticed a drop in crime during church hours....and it ain't because the criminals are hanging out in the pews! We are told there has been a 50% reduction in crime in Dallas in the last 24 months!

There is one thing that Donna mentioned that she hasn't yet done.....be a part of a Flash Mob! And who wouldn't?

To book Master Collins for an event, please call Bruce Yamini at 214-505-2781 or email Master Collins directly at pureenergy@spamarrest.com.