Deborah Livingston: A Lesson In Eternity
DEBORAH LIVINGSTON: Yes – 100%. Like I said earlier, I can’t reiterate it enough. No-one is ever fully there, there’s no such thing. My mediumship evolved. They waited until I’m ready. I started out getting one Spirit at a time, and I’d have to do it with my eyes closed. Now, I can have a style of integrity and ethics and grace on the platform and bring through a family for a sitter. Ideally, you wouldn’t want to do that. You could do that with a private family, or a private sitter, or one-on-one, and bring a family through, a group of people and bounce between them. It’s beautiful. You need to learn how to do that. You can’t just say “I can do that.” Yes, you’ve probably got the availability to do that, but you need to be guided into how to make yourself more and more available, and that’s by getting closer to your own spirit.
SHAY PARKER: Well, that’s actually an interesting point about being able to properly bring people through because if you do have a situation where you have multiple Spirit’s coming through – or, perhaps, you have someone coming through that isn’t that clear – the sitter can’t understand it. At that point, you, as a Psychic Medium, would have to learn how to ask for more information, ask what the message is, but also be able to differentiate between the messages that the people are perhaps ready to hear and are not ready to hear. Speaking of that, what is your take on that? I know that a lot of Psychic Mediums will say OK, for instance, this is tough news or this is devastating news, and there’s a proper way to deliver some information sometimes. So, what are your thoughts on that as far as bringing something through that might not be as positive as the sitter would hope for?
DEBORAH LIVINGSTON: Well, first of all, the information that’s coming through, the evidence, is going to be different for every single reading because each one of us is different while we’re here. So are we when we go to the spirit world. The more and more and more I train, I get a little bit more seasoned with what I already knew and then I’m ready to take on something else. So when the information comes through, I can see it, I can hear it, I can feel it. I have to pay attention to my mannerisms, it’s through life experience. It’s about taking it in, interpreting it, and delivering it. I have no problem if someone says no to me because that just means as limited as my spirit is I’ll just go back in and get a little more information. What I won’t do is ever dismiss what I’m getting.
As far as what to give and what not to give, it’s about those do’s and doesn’t again. You never want to force something on somebody. You never claim to be a prediction of the future or a fortune teller. There really is no such thing because of free will. What you can do, what the medium can do, is have a conversation. It’s a three-way, sacred conversation between the spirit world, our spirit, my spirit as a medium and the spirit of the client, and, 99% of the time they’re going to give love and guidance. They’ll talk about situations that are happening. To prove it’s them, they’ll talk about what kind of person they were. They’ll all give something different. It could be a moment that they had, their name – I get names a lot – their dates or street names. I get very specific information, and it’s about trusting what you’re getting.
Don’t ever question what you’re getting. As far as negative news that I think you were alluding to, you typically won’t get that. What you get is guidance about how to proceed with it, or the strength and the love to proceed with it. I very rarely will touch upon health – that’s a don’t. I was doing platform on New Year’s Eve, and I had a Spirit and he was talking to me about his blood, and I said it right out loud “You need to pay attention to your blood.” You need to go get it looked at.” She said “You’re right. My father had a blood disease, and that’s why he passed. So do I, and I haven’t been checking up on it.” So it was the father letting her know that she needed to go do that. Another issue regarding the ‘not so easy’ information is probably sometimes on how somebody passed. Specifically, a child, or somebody who died at the hand of another or suicide. That must be handled very delicately.
SHAY PARKER: Well, let’s talk a little bit about that, controlling the emotions. I think that another huge component of professional training is you are taught as a Medium, as the vessel that is delivering the messages, to protect yourself. In professional training, they teach you how to protect your own emotions for your health? I know that some Psychic Mediums take on the physical ailments. For instance, if they’re dealing with someone who has stomach cancer, they may get a horrible stomach ache. That’s where I was going with it – the emotional and physical protection – psychic protection, basically.
DEBORAH LIVINGSTON: Again, this is where training is very important because it’s practice. It’s an ever, ongoing practice, and you should always continue to train. Now, just as an example: If the Spirit had something wrong with their last three pinkie toes and they were crushed, I would probably feel a sensation on that foot, and I would say it immediately. It would continue to bother me until I said it immediately. I would say “There is something very significant about the last three toes on my foot on the left side, you understand this?” And they would say “Yes, this is what happened.” I will not stop a client if they want to elaborate, but I will stop them if they start to give me too much information. I would just kindly say “Hold on, let’s keep going with this for a minute.” As far as the emotion, again that comes with practice and training. You can have compassion for the sitter, but you have to remember that it’s not about you. You’re the line of communication between all three. It’s very rare. I don’t really recall having long-term effects. I have to pay attention to my mannerisms and what I’m feeling. For instance, I had a young man once who passed because he fell off a balcony and hit his head, and I got a very strong headache on that side of my head. But once I get it and say it, it’s taken away. You have to learn how the spirit world is working with you, because they will work with you and you’ll get used to how they work with you, and then you’ll know right away. The flow becomes smoother if you will.
As far as walking away with any lasting effects, physical or emotional, no. The only time that happened to me was the very first time a group of family members came through, and it was difficult because they were a wild and crazy bunch of women from an Italian family and they all spoke over one another. I remember that because it was the first time. I thought I did horribly, but my clients loved it.
[Laughter]SHAY PARKER: But, basically, a professional Psychic Medium or, anyone in the spiritual community that is looking to assist the public in any type of consultation profession, the things that you can learn from seeking a professional education and furthering your training would. But then, obviously, you take it a step further of how to deliver a reading, how to do platform readings – and to our readers out there, platform means a group reading in front of a larger group of people where you’re center stage, and you’re reading for many different people within the course of an evening. It also teaches you how to handle the news that is a little tough for the sitter to hear. How to deal with things, such as emotions and psychic boundaries and psychic protection.
DEBORAH LIVINGSTON: I just want to take one step back, though, because you did mention platform. The platform would be in the church. A demonstration would be the big group of people, and there are different ways to handle each one. You should learn. Then you’ve got the private sittings. In this country, they call the demonstration a ‘Gallery.’ So you have to have a different knowledge about how to deliver in those three different settings. That’s very important. Then I forget what your most recent one was. It’s responsibility and acceptance to have the humility to know it’s an ever-evolving knowledge. Honestly, the more you know, the less you know. I know a lot of people don’t like that saying, but I do.
