Debbie Ford: Your Holiness – An Interview with Arielle Ford
Every generation has its thought leaders who leave an indelible mark on the world. Born of their personal pain, experience and life lessons, these leaders rise to bring wisdom and light so that others may benefit, heal and grow. Debbie Ford was one of these leaders.
Debbie Ford was a beloved spiritual teacher, New York Times Best Selling Author of more than 10 books. Her first masterpiece, “The Dark Side of the Light Chasers,” transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by showing them how to embrace their shadow selves and find wholeness. Later she followed up with groundbreaking books including Spiritual Divorce, Secret of the Shadow, The Right Questions, Why Good People Do Bad Things and The Best Year of Your Life.
Debbie Ford ‘s literary legacy was thought to be completed with her transition in February 2013.
But, death was on the end of sharing wisdom for the determined Debbie Ford. Her magic continued when her beloved sister, Arielle Ford, was mystically guided to bring to fruition a book that Debbie Ford wrote some time in the last years of her earthly adventure.
An Interview with Arielle Ford on Debbie Ford and her New Book Your Holiness
Publisher’s Note: The following interview is excerpted from Arielle Ford’s interview by Victor Fuhrman on Destination Unlimited on OMTimes Radio.
Arielle Ford joins us to share the story of her sister’s amazing life and afterlife. Arielle Ford is the Best-Selling Author of The Soulmates Secret, Wabi Sabi Love, and Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate.
Victor Fuhrman: Welcome, Arielle.
Arielle Ford: Hey, Victor. How are you?
Victor Fuhrman: I am wonderful, and it is so great to have you. And this is a story that must be told because we know what magic there is in life, but there’s real magic in this story.
Let’s start at the end rather than starting at the beginning. Here we are a few years after Debbie Ford ‘s transition last year, and you get a magical call from your dear family friend James Van Praagh. What message did he have for you?
Arielle Ford: Well, James had called to tell us that he had recently moved to San Diego, and he wanted my husband, Brian, and I and my mom to come see his new home. And while we were gonna do that, he would give us a reading with Debbie Ford. And of course, we said no, right?
Victor Fuhrman: James Van Praagh offers a reading – oh, yeah.
Arielle Ford: Right, because he doesn’t do private readings anymore. So, he lives about 45 minutes north of us, so we drove up there. We sat down in his office to do this reading with Debbie, and she came through instantly. And the very first thing she said was, Arielle, you have to write a prayer book with me, to which I said no F-ing way. I don’t want to write my own books let alone write your books, I’m not going to do it. And she was like, no, no, no, you have to do it, you have to write a prayer book with me. It’s like, Debbie, I’m not writing a prayer book with you.
And then she gave us some more messages, and then Brian’s parents came through, my dad and my stepdad came through and various relatives. And every couple of minutes, Debbie would pop up with, Arielle, you have to write a prayer book with me. Debbie forgets it ‘s not going to happen.
And then at one point, James said to me, who’s Minnie, she keeps talking to me about Minnie. Nobody knows this, but Beau, Debbie Ford ‘s son, has a half-sister named Minnie, and Minnie’s not even her real name. That’s just what we call her. And he goes, oh, okay, that makes sense. She’s saying that she wants you to tell Beau that when he was with Minnie, she was there, too.
Now, what was crazy about all this is that Minnie lives in London, and she had just happened to be in San Diego the week before to visit Beau.
I was like blown away. It’s like, oh, my God, James is even better than I thought he was. He’s so amazing. So, the reading’s going on and on and on, and Debbie’s still hocking me, you’ve got to write a prayer book with me. I realized that she was not going to let the session end until I agreed. I just said to James, I don’t know how we’re gonna do this, I will figure out how to write a prayer book with you.
We were driving home, and I’m tortured. My God, how are we gonna do this? Brian said, I spent so much time with your sister driving her to her doctor’s appointments and her chemo appointments, and I remember her telling me that she wrote some prayers. Why don’t you call Julie and see if Julie has copies of any of them?
Now, Julie was Debbie Ford ‘s right-hand everything – the CEO of her institute, her caregiver at the end of her life, you know, just everything. She’s like family to us.
I get home, and I write Julie this really short email that says, hey, Jules, do you have copies of any prayers that Debbie Ford ever wrote. And she writes me back, and she says, oh, I can do even better than that. She wrote an entire book on prayers called Your Holiness. I’ve attached it.
I’m not freaked out and blown away because I’ve been her one and only literary agent.
How is it possible that my sister wrote a book that I knew nothing about?
So, then I pick up the phone, and I call her editor at HarperOne. And he’s not only her editor, but He’s also my editor, he’s James Van Praagh’s editor, he’s Deepak and Marianne’s editor. And I start to say the word prayer to me, he stops me, and he says, oh, my God, Arielle, he goes, the last four years, I’ve been feeling so guilty. Your sister always wanted to write a prayer book, and I always dissuaded her not to do it. I told her she needed to stay in her own lane and not to write a prayer book.
I said, okay, well, you can stop feeling guilty right now. Check your inbox. I just sent you the book.
Well, within days, HarperOne bought the book, and all I had to write was a five-page forward that describes the story I’ve just shared. And the book is now on sale.
Victor Fuhrman: That’s an amazing story. Obviously, you guys led magical lives.
Let’s talk about the magic that led up to this point and the continuing magic. Please share your early memories of Debbie Ford. What was she like as a child?
Arielle Ford: Well, she was a fat little thing. Even though she grew up to be a scrawny, skinny string bean, she was a tubby little toddler. And her nickname was Sarah Bernhard because she was always a drama queen. She was always making a fuss. And as she got to be about four or five years old, she became the leader of the pack in the neighborhood. Debbie Ford was like the pied piper. Wherever she went, all the other little kids wanted to follow.
So, she was always very engaging and fun to be with and funny and stubborn and difficult but very cute, really cute. Like, she was my favorite toy until she got to be very verbal, at which point we fought a lot.
Victor Fuhrman: And what was your relationship like as teens?
Arielle Ford: Not good. She was three years younger, and she always wanted to hang out with my friends and me. And of course, we didn’t want her anywhere near us. I was always locking her out of my room, and she would do things like she would borrow my clothes. Every once in a while, she would like to kick down my bedroom door because she wanted to get in. So, we did not really get along too well when we were teenagers.
Victor Fuhrman: Did she show any signs of any interest in spirituality at a young age?
Continue to Page 2 of the Arielle Ford interview of Debbie Ford
