Susan Shumsky: Color Your Chakras
Interview with Susan Shumsky: Color Your Chakras
Interview by Victor Fuhrman
Susan Shumsky has dedicated her life to helping people take command of their lives in highly effective, powerful, positive ways. She is the author of 13 books, published by Simon & Schuster, Random House, and New Page. A pioneer in the human potential field, she has spent more than 45 years teaching thousands of people meditation, prayer, affirmation, and intuition. Her books have been published in several languages worldwide, and several were #1 Amazon.com best sellers. Dr. Shumsky is a highly respected spiritual teacher, award-winning author, and founder of Divine Revelation®—a unique field-proven technology for contacting the divine presence, hearing and testing the inner voice, and receiving Clear divine guidance. For 22 years, her mentor was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru of the Beatles and Deepak Chopra. She served on Maharishi’s personal staff for seven years.
Remember coloring books when we were kids? They featured shapes and designs that were usually meant to teach us something. What if you had a book that, not only gave you the joy of coloring but also opened and expanded your concept of the subtle energy centers that make up all of us? Susan Shumsky has created a book just like that for all of us.
For 22 years, her mentor was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was a guru to the Beatles and Deepak Chopra. She served on Maharishi’s personal staff for seven years. Her books include Miracle Prayer, Divine Revelation, Exploring Meditation, Exploring Auras, Exploring Chakras, How to Hear the Voice of God, Ascension, Instant Healing, The Power of Auras, The Powers of Chakras. Her latest is a coloring book for adults and children entitled Color Your Chakras: An Interactive Way to Understand the Energy Centers of the Body.
Full Audio Interview of Susan Shumsky
To listen to the full interview of Susan Shumsky by Victor Fuhrman on Destination Unlimited on the OMTimes Radio, the iOM Radio Network, click the video button above.
Interview with Susan Shumsky
Victor Fuhrman: Susan, let’s begin by sharing a little bit about your path. When did you first become aware of subtle and spiritual energy and how did that manifest for you?
Susan Shumsky: Well, actually, it was the sixties. I was a hippy. I was living in the San Francisco Bay area. And perhaps your listeners don’t realize this, but those of us who were flower children, we were very serious about studying spirituality.
We wanted to have experiences of higher states of consciousness. We wanted to experience spiritual enlightenment. And I was reading the Buddhist texts. I was reading Tibetan Book of the Dead and other Buddhist scriptures like the Dhammapada. I was also reading Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda, and I was reading Alan Watts books, including The Way of Zen. And in the books by Alan Watts, he said that you have to find a meditation guide. Well, in 1966, in Berkeley, California, you did not go to the Yellow Pages and find anything remotely similar to a meditation guide. So, I asked my roommate. I said, “Well, how do I find this meditation guide?” And he said, “Have you ever tried to meditate on your own?” And so, I said, “Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”
I lay down on my bed, and I prayed for or asked for meditation. Immediately, I was propelled into an ecstatic state, and I felt this rush of energy or chord of energy, rushing from the tips of my toes all the way to the top of my head. I felt like I was plugged into an electric socket, but in an ecstatic way.
I figured, “Well, I guess this is meditation.” Little did I know that I had not only had my first meditation experience, but I had had my first Kundalini experience, all at the same time.
I found myself in the transcendental meditation center, and I was the picture of the guru on the wall who was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who later become the guru of the Beatles, and he also becomes the guru of Deepak Chopra. I found myself in India, on the banks of the Ganges, studying with him to become a meditation teacher.
Victor Fuhrman: I remember you sharing about a period you spent. It was in almost a constant meditation in your room in the ashram. What was that like, and how did it change you?
Susan Shumsky: Yes. As a matter of fact, when I was in, I would meditate, up to 20 hours a day. I spent time, either on the meditation courses or also, I was on Maharishi’s personal staff for seven years. So, what was it like? It was like we were cutting the pathway in the forest. The forest was a forest of a lot of negative energy on the planet, and we were cutting through with a scythe, to lighten up the planet and to create a better vibration in the atmosphere on this planet.
Victor Fuhrman: What was your return to the United States like after your stay in India?
Susan Shumsky: Well, actually, I wasn’t in India for most of that time that I was on the personal staff of Maharishi. I was living mostly in Switzerland. But, I also lived in Italy and Austria and Spain and Majorca, different places in Europe. What was it like after I got back? It was a total culture shock. I felt like I was a fish out of the water. I didn’t know what in the world to do. I couldn’t hold a conversation with anyone because I really couldn’t relate to anybody. It was just odd.
Victor Fuhrman: How can one balance being in that state of bliss and grace and then re-immersion into our world as it is?
Susan Shumsky: Well, it wasn’t easy for me, I’ll tell you. But, I managed to do because I had to do it. I had no other choice.
Victor Fuhrman: Please, share with our listeners the genesis of the publication of Divine Revelation.
Susan Shumsky: Well, I was still living in the ashrams. This was when I was living in Fairfield, Iowa. That’s one of Maharishi’s ashrams.
When I got back to the United States, at some point, I did end up at one of his ashrams. And there I met somebody who was bugging me and trying to teach me something that I couldn’t imagine he could teach me. I really was very arrogant and thought I knew everything, just like a lot of people who are into TM, I’m sorry to say, is that they really think that they know it all, and no one else has anything to offer them. Let’s put it that way. And this gentleman managed to convince me that he did have something to teach me. He said, “I want to teach you these techniques. You have to learn these methods. You have to learn this form of meditation.”
I was not the least bit interested. And then, something happened. I actually had gotten into trouble with the board of executive governors there and the board of the organization, the TM organization.
And they were about to call me into their office, and I was really kind of terrified about it. And so, I don’t know what possessed me, but I called this guy.
And he said, “Get out a piece of paper. “I’m going to dictate this to you, and I want you to use this affirmation for 15 minutes over and over and over before you go into that meeting.” And so, I wrote down the affirmation; I was so apprehensive about this meeting that I actually said that affirmation over and over for 30 minutes before going into the meeting.
But, after I had said it for 30 minutes, I was feeling so centered, so balanced, and in control, and I just had felt like completely amazing. So, I walked into the room.
I had tremendous self-confidence, and I sat down with full confidence. And they ended up, in that meeting, apologizing to me for any inconvenience they may have caused me.
So, I was so impressed with that one affirmation, that I decided to study with this guy. And he taught me this method that I later called divine revelation. And it was so powerful that I got excited about it. It was another method of meditation that I found to be very profound and that had helped me ever since I learned it, which was 1986 when I learned it.
