Announcer 0:28
Hello, and welcome to speaking spirit where we talk about all things spiritual. Your host, John Moore is a shamanic practitioner and spiritual teacher. And now here's John.
John Moore 0:47
Hello, everybody. It's been a little while. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. I have a very special episode. Today. I don't I should probably do this more. But I don't. I don't actually have a lot of guests on my show. But I'm very excited to bring a guest on for you today because she works in works. She I don't know what I don't know how to say this. But she does a different thing than I do. And I think that is where a lot of the interesting stuff happens. Right? A lot of the you know, I'm fascinated with what she does, but I'm not gonna delay I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna introduce her and bring her on and start talking to her because I've got lots of questions, and I'm sure this will be a fascinating episode for you all. So my guest today is Veronica Drake. And she is a dynamic, internationally recognized spiritual, intuitive, and psychic medium, and we're going to talk about what that is. She is a sought after keynote and motivational speaker, and a frequent radio and podcast guests, which I'm I'm lucky to have her her down to earth relatable approach is a magnet for people of all ages and places. She has been called a life changer. A guardian angel and a cheerleader rolled into one. She's a coach, intuitive, and magician. And without. I want to I don't want to I don't want to give too much away because I want to hear from from her. Welcome. Good morning.
Veronica Drake 2:22
Good morning, John. How are you? Morning world?
John Moore 2:26
Good morning world. We are both but you can't see us. But we're both drinking coffee this morning. So already we're fast friends were
tears were sharing cheers. Yeah, worship, we're sharing a coffee. So Veronica, I know some people call you vi Do you prefer if I call you Veronica or VI or you don't have a preference? Whatever you're comfortable with? I've been called vi since I was 11 years old. And so just naturally, you know, it just is a progression into my business world. But whatever you're comfortable with. Gotcha. Okay, well, maybe I'll call you V that's, that's shorter,
less work less syllables for me. I want to talk about so you know, I don't know if people probably have some idea of what a psychic medium is, you know, from TV shows or whatever, but I want to hear from somebody who is a psychic medium, which is you? How, what is a psychic medium? How would you describe that? If if Well, I am asking if if somebody asked but I am asking, what is the psychic medium? What does psychic mediums do?
Veronica Drake 3:34
Well, maybe I should start by saying what psychic medium is not. We're not carnival workers. Well, at least I'm not a carnival worker. I don't have a crystal ball. I don't predict the future.
What I do do is offer insight based on your energy, your vibration, what's happening in your life at the moment. And psychic and medium are two different things. But they actually go hand in hand and the psychic part of me taps into what's happening in your life. What potentials are out there?
Perhaps what you're missing what you're not seeing. And the medium part of me the mediumship part is me offering guidance, Insight messages from the other side from deceased loved ones. So yeah, there's the distinction that I'd like to clarify there. Yeah,
John Moore 4:32
thank you for that. Um, I have, I have a couple of very dear friends who are mediums and they, they're, they're, you know, they're, they're both just fantastic people to talk to and very funny and that, you know, and I don't know if you've had this similar experience, but they they've, you know, they came to a training that I was that not that I was giving, but we were in the same training together. And they showed up and they're like, ah, you know, my mother was in the backseat the whole ride here telling me to pay it, you know, watch the road. And, and, you know, the other woman is like, yeah, yeah, you know, I kept hearing or two and you know all of this stuff do you have? Do you have those kinds of experiences where spirits sort of jumps in when it's not expected? Or is it more a little bit more like I'm I'm specifically sitting down to communicate with spirit?
Veronica Drake 5:27
Well, it's a little bit of both. But quite honestly, I didn't sign up for any of this. I quote, unquote. And this is a loose term, and very normal and normal is all relative. But I grew up in a very dysfunctional way, and just had no direction of anything. And when I was 25 years old, I was pregnant with my second son, and I lost my beloved grandfather, he and my grandmother had basically raised me, I was very, very close to them, and just was devastated when I lost him and can remember sitting wide awake on my couch, just bawling hysterically. And wide awake again, emphasizing wide awake, and he came to me, just and I had no anything prior to that he had just come to me stood right in front of me, I saw them as he was about 2021 22 years old, he served in World War Two, he had his uniform on his hat. And I heard his voice in his voice, say, I'm okay. I'm okay. You need to take care of that little boy. And you now it was 1987, we didn't know it was gonna be a little boy. Lo and behold, a couple months later, I gave birth to a healthy nine pound baby boy. So, you know, that was my first introduction to mediumship. didn't know anything about it had no clue what it was. But that was my introduction to it. And so now, I'm very protective of my energy and my time. So, you know, if I were to go into, let's say, the mall, or sit at the park, and just kind of let it free reign, I'd be categorized as perhaps, you know, mentally unstable. So I have learned just instinctively when I'm going to do it, and when I'm not going to do it, and yeah, yeah, I
John Moore 7:37
think important. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I, you know, one of the things, one of the things I discovered really early on in my spiritual practice, and the mall was a really great example of this, right, because you're surrounded by all kinds of people all kinds of energy, not all of it happy, not all of it, you know, uplifted, particularly in holidays, there's lots of, you know, hurriedness, and rampant consumerism and all of this stuff. And I just found myself getting just completely overwhelmed frequently, and it wasn't until I learned how to go, Okay, I gotta, you know, in these certain situations, I have to pull it back, I have to shield myself a little bit from this. And I think I didn't, I never considered myself particularly psychic or sensitive, or clairvoyant or anything like that. But then when I started doing the work that I do, it just, like, opened the open the faucet up.
Veronica Drake 8:40
And you write it being something bigger than we are,
John Moore 8:45
right? Yeah, absolutely. I just say spirit. Because yeah, it's this kind of catch all term that is, you know, includes it all, basically. Great. And so, after, after that happened, did were you did you then go, you know, sort of say, I gotta figure out what I gotta figure out what this is. Did it take you time? How did you get to the point where kind of where you are now where you're where you're, you know, seeing people and helping people and that sort of thing.
Veronica Drake 9:20
So that was 1987. Of course, that was March of 87. I gave birth to my second son in May of 87. I had a three year old a newborn. Needless to say, life was busy. I never really thought too much about it. I will say, as you probably know, we all hit a wall. We all hit a spiral. We all hit a pocket in our life where we just kind of, you know, kind of, for lack of a better word. We don't know what to do. We don't know where to go and so fast word 87, it came to 1996, I have just gotten along in my life, I was very, in hindsight. Now, this is all in hindsight, I came from a very dysfunctional background, there was a lot of alcoholism and mental illness. And it was about survival for me. And so I made a lot of bad decisions in my life, meaning I heard a lot of people. And in 1996, I had everything outwardly, to kids, great husband, you know, everything was flowing, everything was going and I was making really poor choices. And in November of 96, I said, That's it, I don't want to live anymore. And I went to crash my car into the side of a bridge. And my foot was on the accelerator, I had full intent. And my car filled up with this incredible, all I can say is worse, and I just had to squeeze my shoulders together. That's how full the car felt. And I felt my foot be pulled off the accelerator. And I heard, we've got you, we've got you. And really, I will say, 1996, that episode, that event was what really catapult catapulted me into this way of life, the spiritual existence.
John Moore 11:22
Yeah, I, I have a very, very similar experience, I have a very similar story to that. I was definitely about to take my life and was stopped by spirit. And if anybody has been through that, there's no denying that that's what's going on. There's no denying, like, you are physically moved by somebody like it's as if there were a physical person sitting next to you take, you know, grabbing your grabbing your body and preventing you from from doing what you're about to do. And there is there's, there's absolutely no denying that that that's not well, we are all connected, and we are connected to spirit and everything. It's not like a subconscious part of yourself, it's very clear that this is another spirit stepping in for a very good reason. Because you have stuff to do here you have your important, you have things to do. And I just, you know, I actually read that story a little bit and hearing it from you, it's even more impactful. And that our stories are so similar. Mine was much later than the night late 90s. But I don't know I waited much longer in my life to sort of wake up. But I sort of think of that as an initiation. I don't know if you think of it in the same way or use the same term. But I absolutely think of that as as my initiation into spirit.
Veronica Drake 12:57
Absolutely. But let me be clear, and say, I'm so sick. I didn't really know what to do with that. I had no background in any religion or spirituality, I had nothing. And so what I did was we kind of look at the masses around me, which I think a lot of us do and what I do, I went conventional Christianity which Listen, hear me say, nothing wrong with Christian, nothing, I believe and respect all religions. You know, there's, we all go the same path, right? But I went down full blown Christianity, and I got a bit indignant. You know, Jesus said, And God said, and let's go to the I became a televangelist of sorts. And I say that with all love and respect, but I didn't like that person that I wasn't, I'm like, Jesus, I'm right back here again, you know, there's got to be more. And I found my my early mentor, because I'm old. I'm going to be 60. Right. So in I don't
John Moore 14:06
think that's old. By the way. My, my grandmother's about to turn 106. So she's still I know, right? It's all relative. It's all relative.
Veronica Drake 14:19
So in the late early, late 90s, like, there were books, right, we couldn't press in Google and right. So I had a lot of introspective time I created a sacred corner all with knowing within me, and I found my mentor Wayne Dyer. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, you know, the highlight of my life was meeting that man and kissing his bald head. I mean, I just there's, there's a story but you know, so it just it was an evolution of sorts, but definitely an initiation. Definitely.
John Moore 14:55
Yeah, I wasn't aware you worked with Wayne Dyer. I'm a huge admirer. A huge fan of his and correct me if I'm wrong he paid past a few years ago not that long ago. But what a body of work. He left behind just prolific and loving soul that he was and is still, I, you know, we often speak of people who have passed in the past tense, but as a medium, you know that they are not, they are not past tense, not at all. And I should point out, you might see, like, there's just a couple of objects behind me. So this is my ancestor altar that's behind me. And the thing I'm pointing at is actually a silver water kettle that was my grandmother's grandmother's so it's been passed in my family. And then I have photos of my family there, and from the 1800s, and all kinds of stuff. Oh, I got chills. And, and I had, I always tell people, because I talk about ancestors a lot and that sort of thing. I'm like, it's a great idea to have an ancestor altar. I think it's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to communicate with your ancestors. Don't put it in your bedroom, because they're gonna keep you awake all night. They're gonna Hey, what's going on? Let's party. Let's start. Sure. Yeah. So mine is in the center of my my home. It's not in my bedrooms upstairs and away from that. I love my ancestors. I absolutely I talk to them every day, I give them gifts and, and do all of those things. But it's a little bit like Grand Central Station sometimes over here. So
Veronica Drake 16:32
well, you can see behind me, I have my drum. I have my somebody my client actually gave me a drum sent me a drum, I have the wind, the dream catcher that someone made me I've paintings, OWL paintings that people gifted me with spirit animals, and all of these things are alive. All of these things, you know, have meaning in life. And they all contain energy. Right? So yeah, they feel in psychic world we call touching an object, like such as what you pointed out psychometry. So what I could do is touch that and get a feeling for the energy around it. That would be different than me, let's say connecting to great grandma. Gotcha. Gotcha. Is it? There's a distinct difference?
John Moore 17:21
Yeah, Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. And I remember, years ago, when I was doing my shamanic training, I went to go do a workshop with an indigenous woman who was a drum maker and I made I made a high drum and everything about it, about making it it was a beautiful experience. If anybody, I don't think you have to be a shamanic practitioner at all to make make a frame drum. But go to somebody who is doing it in a sacred way. And you honor everything, you honor. So it's a high drum. So the surface of the drum isn't it is the skin of an animal that passed and we you know, we journey to the animal and honored the animal that passed and the hoop is made out of wood. So that's a tree that had to be cut down. So we journey to that. And we you imbue the drum with the energy of your, your heart. And so you're absolutely right there is there is a living energy to all of this, and you can feel it. You know, someone who's very sensitive, like you, I'm sure would get a ton of stuff, but even people who don't consider themselves particularly sensitive, like me, you I can feel that stuff. When I pick it up. Like it's imbued, it's palpable. Yeah, it
Veronica Drake 18:39
really is. You know, and also, you can see on my table, I don't know if you can see this, but I have elements, I have pieces of sticks, these little things here. And I, you know, they're shark's teeth that I've collected. Okay, so we have shark's teeth, we have shells. You know, everything is just my little altar. And then over here, I have rocks the element and angels and, you know, so So I gotta be honest and tell you when I when I first got into doing this, I really went hard and fast against I'm not woowoo. And my tagline might have been, I don't shrink heads or boil chicken bones. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But now, you know, I'm all about learning evolving. And while I'm not woowoo I do believe that there is value in everything and everything and that if I want to, you know, kind of say a ceremony or pray to the shark's teeth or talk to the energy of this, you know, like, I'm okay with that. You know, and, you know, I think the older you get, at least for me, the more confident you get, the more the easier it is to be your true self is what I found.
John Moore 19:54
Yeah, you stop. In my experience. It's funny I have I 15 Your old daughters, their twin twin daughters, and they, they'll always, you know, oh, they're like, do you want to? Do you want to be? Do you want to dance in our Tiktok? Video? I'm not a dancer. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if people can tell by looking at me, but I've never taken a dance lesson in my life. And I always say yes. And they're like, my friends love you. Because you always you always do this stuff. I'm like, I have no sense of shame. Like, that's it, I like, I don't care if somebody thinks I look dumb, I don't care. And part of that is I'm just like, I'm having fun with my daughters. And the same is true with my spirituality. I don't care if you don't believe the same thing that I believe, and I'm fine with whatever you believe it, but I'm going to be true to myself, I'm going to do the rituals that I do, I'm going to do the ceremony that I do, I'm going to practice in the way that I practice. And I don't insist that anybody else do things my way. Right?
Veronica Drake 20:58
And I'm not here to convince you of anything. I'm not here to believe anything. I'm just me doing me,
John Moore 21:06
you know, right, right. And I think, you know, if somebody, if somebody were on the fence, a belief lies, and we're in we're to talk to you, for example, I think they would very quickly hop over that. That's my experience. And sometimes like, when I'm when I'm working, and I work in I work in Germany, so I work in altered state most of the time. Sometimes stuff comes through that cannot possibly be coming from me, right? There's stuff that I tell my clients that it's coming from their grandmother or coming from whoever who passed away, that there is no chance on this earth of me knowing or gathering that information. And it surprises me. Sometimes when that stuff comes through. It's nice, you know, it's nice when it happens that way for me were like, okay, yep, yep, I'm on, you know, I'm following the right the right thing here. And it happens more and more as I as I go on, and I have I have a student I met with just Sunday, Sunday morning, as a matter of fact, and she said, You know, I'm starting to, you know, I did the ceremony for this person. And even before I got into this healing ceremony, like I started getting flashes of, you know, the, the, you know, the trauma that they had experienced that I was working on, I'm like, yeah, it's gonna happen more and more as you practice, it just opened your eyes.
Veronica Drake 22:32
We we are most comfortable, I think with titles and labels. Yeah. Because then our human brain can wrap around and say, Oh, I can get that. When you try to explain exactly what's happening as a medium art, we don't have any reference vanity to say, you know, so I'm very clear to my clients to say, I'm humanizing this by saying, Okay, you go to the white light, you stand at a table, there's a line they check your name off and you go, you know, I'm really good at it. Well, spirits really good at using me as a communicator for humanizing it. But with my, my journey into shamanism looks like this. Again, doo doo doo doo doo going about my business, you know, being a psychic medium, and all of a sudden, I get on a phone call with a client and she's talking about shamanic stuff. And I was remembering, I was like, Oh, I didn't say anything on the phone call. But you know, we hung up and afterwards, I sat down and this very prolific Whoa, line of stuff came out of me. And it came to me. I wasn't a shaman, but I in a past life was a medicine woman. So I go, What am I gonna do with that? And Spirit says to me, it's just in your repertoire. It's just what you're going to do. Yeah, it doesn't belong necessarily under one category or another. Like I talked earlier to you coming on here. I work with Tarot. I work with mediumship I work with angels I it's just a knowing um, the conduit.
John Moore 24:15
Right, right. And there are there are tools and I think most people, or many people get this but there are tools like tools like tarot, right. And when you when you are reading Tarot cards, it's not so much that there's magic in the cards. Although as you use the cards, they start to get imbued with your energy. But a brand new, like somebody who's good at reading Tarot can open up a brand new deck and do a very insightful reading. These are just tools. These are just ways to bring things up ways tools for communication, it's the it's the, you know, it's the person sitting across from you who's acting as a conduit and the information is coming through from spirit we talked before this, that my, my girlfriend is a very gifted tarot reader and she had been doing readings well before we met. And then when we met, she's like, Oh, you practice shamanism. I'm really, you know, that's really cool. Let me and, and I knew off the bat, you know, when she started, she started working with me that she was going to be a natural she already had it, she was already there. And so shamanism for her is just another tool. Again, it's just another modality that she's working with. But she is able to, to channel and harness and be the be the conduit and in shamanism we have the phrase is be the hollow bone, right be the bone that spirit passes through, able to get out of the way for Spirit to spirit to work through us.
Veronica Drake 25:51
Oh, absolutely. You know, and and it's funny, because I have always just seen myself as the communicator, I laugh because I tell people, people always come to me and they say, What's my purpose? Why am I here? And my answer to that is, your purpose is found in your naturalness of who you naturally are. Right? So I go all the way back to birth. And my story in my family is I started talking at nine months old and I haven't shut up. Detention, I could not I was the kid sitting in the corner that couldn't sit by their friends. Well, the joke's on you because it's how I make my living. So So embrace who you are, naturally, don't run from it. Don't you know? Because society wants to say, well, here's a box, you better get in it. And if you don't fit in it, cram yourself in it.
John Moore 26:49
And no, and nobody fits in a box. Literally, nobody fits in that box perfectly. And
Veronica Drake 26:56
I just saw I'm wearing the box with my arms cut out.
John Moore 27:01
Like the Halloween costume, right when we were kids? Yeah, yeah, it's very funny. My mom will tell you, you know, when I when she went in for parent teacher conferences when I was I don't know, whatever elementary school and the teachers like, you know, John's a very good student. He's very smart. But you see that desk over there in the corner?
Veronica Drake 27:25
We wouldn't have been friends.
John Moore 27:26
Yeah, we would have been separated in school for sure, though. But yeah, I'm a I'm a talker, and I'm you know, but you touched on something that's really, really important to me, and has become a, you know, really, if I were to boil my life's mission down. And I haven't, I haven't done a really good job at putting words around this yet. But it is really about being being part of the support for people to be who they are, whatever that is, without judgment, without telling people who they need to be, you know, people will, you know, have students all over the world. And, you know, sometimes they'll come to me and they'll say, oh, you know, I have this really weird dream, or this really weird journey, can you? Can you tell me what that means? And I said, Well, I could do the work and tell you what that means. But you're going to do the work, because I'm disempowering you by taking that away from you. I'm disempowering you by telling you what you need to do with that, like, I'm going to I'll help you as a student. It's different with clients, because clients don't have the training. So I'm going to help them in that way. But when I teach people, I'm like, I am not going to give you any answers. I'm going to give you some experiences, and I'm going to show you how to get your own answers. But I'm also a little bit like that with my clients and really supporting them to be whoever they are to step to step out if that's what it means. Some people don't want to step out into the, into the, you know, and I have to hold myself back because I'm like, Oh, you gotta get out there and be in front of audiences and sounds to me, like, Oh, hold on. I'm an introvert. That's not my thing. And I'm like, okay, all right. That's cool, too, if that's your thing, if that's your thing, but if you've got a gift, if you've got a gift, share it, share it in whatever way that makes sense for you. You know, the world will be a better place with more art and more spirit and more music and more people who love to cook or it doesn't matter what it is, whatever you love to do to be however you love to show up. fill the world with that love and we'll all be better for it.
Veronica Drake 29:48
Well, and people the if I had to give you the number one question I get asked during every reading without exception. What's my purpose? Why am I here? Yeah. Uh, and so my answer to that is always, it's kind of generic in the sense that that's not a question that's answered by where you go to work. Or you know, what you produce, you know at your work or how degreed you are or what car you drive or how much money you have the soul as I understand it, the soul comes in and I use very human terms. So I'm not going to fancy Glancy it up and you know, I don't use esoteric terms, I'm going to the soul comes in with its agenda, its mission, its purpose, right? It very distinctly understands why it chose this demographic, why it chose this geographical region. It knows all of that, and the human do to do through. Right. Why is this happening to me and, and then grandpa, Joe tells you, you know, don't like these people, and then be on the lookout for these people and be skeptical. And you know, oh, you're gonna fail? If you do, right, we're conditioned, we have all this heaviness on? Yes. Yeah, I was just sitting down this morning. And I know, I'm going to jump all over the place. But I was sitting down this morning. And I as I do every morning, and I talked to spirit, and I am ready, I got my pen poised. I'm doing a psychic development Academy. I'm going to be launching in September. And I said, Well, spirit guide communication helped me Help me Help me. You know, however, I'm saying it. And you know, talking to Spirit is like an equivalent to a child learning to walk. No one can tell that child how to walk. I mean, you have kids, you know, did you you know, come on now Susie, pick your foot up like no one does that, right? Where does the kid know? It's inherent right? Kid, right? What do we do? Oh, look at she's picking her head up. She's a month old. What do we do, right? That's a natural milestone in that child's life. Then the child goes and you know, stands up, boom, the child falls down. The child doesn't go, Oh, I'm not going to do this anymore. This is too hard. No, because there's no conditioning. So when we're learning to speak with spirit, everybody wants to know V, tell me how to do it. Tell me, I can't. Yeah, I can help you with some benchmarks and some guidelines. But I can't tell you how to do that for you. You got to get up, pick your foot up, you know, fall down, you know, and then try again. And so my approach to teaching this is let's rely on what's inherent in you. You're programmed, I believe the soul is a spark of what created us
John Moore 32:51
100% It's funny, we talk about things in very, very similar terms and have a very, I always say that, I would say that what the inner part of us is a spark. I'll say divinity and you realize that might be a spiritual term. We can call it source we can call it creator you can call it God, whatever name you want to label you want to put on it. But absolutely 100% And I have experienced that firsthand and is an incredibly powerful when you when you get in touch with that. But I often say with my students that look, I don't want to I don't want to be anybody's guru. That's too much responsibility for me too much.
Veronica Drake 33:31
walk next to me because I don't know where to hell, I'm going.
John Moore 33:37
Right? I'm a guide. I'm a guide. I'm gonna you know, I've I've been to some places you haven't that I can show you around. But you know what you do? There is up to you. Right? And that's it. And I'm not going to tell you what you need to do with your life. I'm not going to tell you and if you and if Spirit tells you this John guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Do it differently than listen to them. Spirit always takes precedence over me. What do I know? I know
Veronica Drake 34:05
worse. Of course. You know, it's funny because I've been doing this work so long, and I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of testimonials. Right? Oh, V is so you know, she's that and every time one comes in, I'm like, oh, geez, you know, that's like, I don't really, you know, but the business world, it's what we do. But, you know, you get that one person that comes in or two people and they're like, well, she's a fraud and she's, uh, you know, in we get them we do, you know, and right away. You know, there's that like, yeah. And what's interesting to me is no matter how advanced or how developed quote unquote, we are, I always have that retaliatory energy that wants to come back at you and say, Why have 1000 reviews? That's right, right. But then I go like this. Okay, there is my special teacher of the day.
John Moore 34:59
Yeah. Uh oh, I love that I love that. I got this from from a student of another teacher and I should say so I didn't come up with this phrase, I'm stealing it completely. I'm admitting to stealing this phrase, we were talking about being triggered, right? Which is that experience of oh, how dare this, you know, or, or just having this and how triggers are pointers to our wounds or our inner wounds? And, you know, the his teacher said to me, instead of wounds, I like to use the word teacher. I'm like, Oh, yeah. And his student, I could tell Spirit was speaking through him just said, yeah, so these triggers their bread crumbs from your teacher. And I was like, blew my mind. I'm like, Okay, first of all, I'm gonna steal that phrase. And someday I may write a book called bread crumbs from the teacher, but I will give you full credit and, you know, split the profits or something with you at that point. I don't even care. I don't care. I wouldn't be writing it for profit. Anyway, I'd just be writing it to share information but bread crumbs from the teacher what a beautiful phrase. And you know, when stuff like that comes out of people that that's, oh, this this guy is this guy was so his, his teacher and I are partnered in the shamanic community and she's like, Yeah, this guy, he the first time he came to me, I knew like he was he was he was kind of, kind of on it. So I've had I've had lots of conversations with him and he, you
Veronica Drake 36:29
find to the simplest things are the most profound. For sure.
John Moore 36:35
Absolutely. Simplicity. It's
Veronica Drake 36:37
so there's so much profoundness in. I mean, really, and I say this in all earnest in all sincerity. Watch the grass. Watch the grass, and I get chills when I say this because a blade of grass to sit and watch that watch as it just is, right. It's how it's nurtured and how secure it is, and how the wind will, you know, move it or the footprint or the you know, watch the watch the trees, I can see the trees swaying. It's a beautiful day here in Pennsylvania, the airs, I can see the clouds floating by I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.
John Moore 37:22
No, there's a there's a story about, there's a story about the Buddha actually, where I think this happened in Deer Park, where he was preaching with the people who are following him. And one day, he just came in and picked up a flower, and just sat there and held it and said nothing. And one of his students, I forget which one that you know, people who are scholars of Buddhism would know know which one it was, he was one of the our hearts, one of the his famous followers, like got it and was almost instantaneously enlightened to like, fully full on, like, reached enlightenment from from getting it and, and absolutely people I think are frequently looking for these. And I'm a fan, I have, I have a case, you can tell I have ADD and like I'm a fan. I'm not Yeah, I'm a fan, I'm a fan of complexity and making things more complex than they have to be. But that's a really good reminder that they're like a blade, like if you look at, you know, the billions and trillions of blades of grass out there, but you can pick fine, just one and just look at it. That alone can be an enlightening experience, and then you recognize just what a miracle it is to have this consciousness to have, that we exist at all that the world exists, that the universe exists to give us, you know, infinite opportunities to reach and touch spirit in that way.
Veronica Drake 38:55
You know, it blows my mind that, you know, an egg and a sperm. And then walawe like, it's like, it just I know, I'm gonna be 60 And I'm still like, blown away by that concept. You know, of life. Like it's miraculous, you know, you know, I was reading an article and this is I'm very naive, and like, I'm very, I'm very childlike in the sense. I don't ever offend people. You know, my husband says to me, you can ask anybody anything. And because I haven't an air of innocence about me, I'm not asking you about your sexuality, because I want to condemn you. I really want to understand your perspective. You know, so I'm reading this article, and I was in a forum, you know, typing and they and you'll often see the word God, g dash or g dash D, and they won't put the O in it. And so here's me going, why don't they put the O in God? Like, why don't we wait, you know, someone in the forum says because it's offensive to some people and, and I said, Well, it's just a word. Yeah, so I don't understand. Like, I'm all about exploring deeper and looking about, why are you triggered by a word? Right? So I can call it God, you can call it source divinity, I don't care what you call it, it at the end of the day, it's an energy.
John Moore 40:16
Right, right. And I think that, I don't know for sure, I don't know why spelling the word God out it has the same root as the word good. Which, you know, whatever is offensive to some people other than I know that in there are ineffable Names of God that comes from Hebrew that, you know, only the only the priest of the inner sanctum of the temple back when there was a temple could speak once a year or something like that. So there was some ceremony or some ritual, but it wasn't, I'm pretty sure it wasn't God, what that this person was speaking, you know, whatever, whatever it was. And, interestingly, he would go in once a year and put his hands on the Ark of the Covenant. When it was still in, you know, people have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. And people have looked at because they're the the, I'm going off on a complete tangent here, but it's my add the Ark of the Covenant, if you were to build it today, exactly as designed. In the Bible, it says, you know, take this type of wood and put gold on the inside gold on the outside and put it on top and do this and do that, if you were to do that, it would be a gigantic capacitor, an electrical capacitor. And so what happened from time to time, is when the one priest who is allowed into the inner sanctum where the Ark was, would go in, and they would have to tie a rope to his ankle, because very frequently, once a year, they would touch this and sometimes explode. And they would have to pull his body out with with a rope because nobody else was allowed in. And it's theorized that there was like, this thing was gathering an electrical charge for an entire year. And then this priest would go in to do this, you know, whatever the ceremony was, and put his hands on it. And of course, the electricity would discharge through him like lightning. And if you hear it, read the stories about the ark, you know, they carried it into battle, and it casts lightning and all of these things. And then you look at the plans. If you're a nerd like me and say, Oh, that's a giant capacitor. And that's not taking anything away from the sacred nature of this of this object. Because I think electricity is a pretty miraculous thing. We can sort of explain it scientifically, but not completely, but the fact that it exists at all is pretty darn miraculous. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. You know, and allows us to have this conversation. You're in Pennsylvania, I'm in Maine, you know, and then people, you know, and I know, I look at the statistics on on this podcast. I have listeners in India, in Norway, all over the US all over Canada, all over Europe and Africa. Right? Yeah. I love that I love you know, some people say that technology dehumanizes us and it can, you know, there's a lot of grossness on social media and stuff. But But I without technology, we wouldn't have met, probably we wouldn't be able to have this conversation, we wouldn't people wouldn't be able to tune in and hear about this stuff. And so, you know, again, it's a tool. It's a tool, and it's all in it's all in how you use it. Right? Absolutely.
Veronica Drake 43:31
It really is a small world. When I talk to a client in Norway, or Singapore, or Ireland or, you know, all over the world, there's a commonality to own. Like, I don't, you know, it's like, wow, it just blows my mind how similar. We all are.
John Moore 43:53
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We're all human. We have different cultures, we have different languages and different upbringing, but we underneath it all. Underneath it all, we're all the same. And you know, every, every genuine spiritual teaching teaches that we're all brothers and sisters. You know, I think it's a perversion of spiritual idea, idea to separate people the way that they have. And definitely to justify that using any sort of religion or doctrine or anything to say, you know, we're good and those people are bad. That's basically what well I
Veronica Drake 44:31
give to theory there is divide and conquer, we, we have an agenda, we have a mission, you know, we'll divide you and we'll conquer and then we'll divide you again and we'll conquer more and then we'll have the whole you know, there's like all of this going on. But you know, we're human and we live we must live in a world of duality. There has to be if there's good, there's bad like, we have to experience duality. You know, the other thing is people always say to me, Well, you know the ascension is coming and how to Why ascend and here's what Spirit told me about the ascension. The Ascension is a very personal thing that happens within you. Right? And I teach my clients if you want to ascend, use your bottom three chakras work through your stuff and ascend. I mean,
John Moore 45:19
yeah, that's simple, I think. Yeah, I don't I think people have these mo for movies or where they get these ideas from that you're gonna physic I mean, any I know people believe us that you're physically going to get sucked up into the clouds somewhere or something like that. Where it is, it's really about turning inward as opposed to looking upward. I don't I don't I don't know yet if I'm a fan of the word ascension, because I think it's, I think it can be misleading like that. I don't I don't have any problem with people who are who are trying to quote unquote, ascend or whatever. That's not it. It's the word I think is misleading, that people think that it's it's a, it's a raising up rather than a turning in somewhere to go. Yeah, yeah, somewhere to go. Your divinity is, is here, you can't get rid of it. If you were to get rid of it, you would cease to exist. So you have it within you right now. And that, you know, that's there's that teaching, as well, that runs through spiritual systems. Sometimes it's hidden, because it's esoteric. And sometimes it's out in the open. In Buddhism, they believe that everybody is a Buddha already, it's just a matter of getting rid of the stuff that isn't, really. And that's and that's kind of it and that's enlightenment, or ascension or whatever word we want to put it. I gotta come up with a better word, I think, I don't know.
Veronica Drake 46:43
Really, let me know when you do. You know, we get so as the human race, we get so distracted with words and titles. And, you know, my clients will come to me and they'll say, Well, what about this five d? And I'll be like, Well, what? What is five? D? Right? Oh, we're in 3d now. And then we go to fourth? I can't help you with that. I don't I don't work on that language. I don't know it.
John Moore 47:12
Yeah. I don't know it either. So I won't, I won't claim to know. But I do know, it's a term that I've heard out there. And relatively recently, like, just in the past couple of years, that term has come out. So you know, there is there's an element to spirituality where people are, people are trying to come up with new stuff, because they haven't been satisfied with what they've found so far, or something, which is fine. And that's okay, do your own thing, find your own thing. But, you know, people have been doing this work since there have been people and so there isn't necessarily a need to make up something new to quote unquote, ascend or go, you know, travel to other dimensions, we, you know, we can, you can do that right this moment, without, you know, any new terminology technology or anything,
Veronica Drake 48:05
I mean shamanism, 100,000 years old, and whenever, you know, and
John Moore 48:09
they think it may actually predate modern humans, so it may actually be older than 100,000 years, because they found evidence in a cave that in Qasem Cavan, in Israel, that's three or 400,000 years old. So that's not even, that's not even homosapiens at that point. So as long as there have been people capable of symbolic thought they have been, we've been talking to spirit and you know, so everybody has everybody has that innate ability anyway.
Veronica Drake 48:41
Well, I have to tell you, because my husband is Catholic, miss my second marriage, and we've been together 20 Some years and he's Catholic and for us to we got married civilly, right. So we went to the courthouse, whatever, we got married, and he really, I respect and honor his religion, and he wanted to become married Catholic. And so I went through the tradition of, well, I'm gonna go into the tradition, but you know, ABC, XYZ, right. All that. And we got married to the Catholic Church. And I had the priests over one day for dinner, and we were talking and and I just said, You know what? I'm just going to tell the priest what I do. Because it goes along that vein of if I try to hide something, I'm not being true to who I am. I can't do the work. I came here to. So I said to the priest, no, because I'm one of the things I'm really funny. Um, yes. Right. You too, right? Yeah, really? So I said the priests I said, Did you bring your holy water with you? He says, why? Probably gonna want to douse me in it when I tell you what I do. And I said, I just know things. I can look at people. I can feel things about them. I can know things about them. And I'm talking and he's not saying any thing and he sipped his coffee. And he puts his coffee down and says, whoa, that's your gift from God.
John Moore 50:04
Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Veronica Drake 50:06
I said, All right, then, you know, there was some validity, but I can I tell a quick story about please do. My son was in pharmacy school in Florida. I live in Pennsylvania. It was his graduation. The only flight down was late at night, my husband couldn't go. So I took a late night flight from Pennsylvania to Florida. I get on the plane, I'm traveling alone. I get on the plane, I sit down, I'm sitting, I got the ILC this guy comes on the plane. And I thought, Oh, he looks interesting. And I could pick a vibe up, right? And I look now this is me. I like his shoes. He's really nice shoes. You know, hopefully, maybe I'll sit across from him. We'll have good conversation. Let him sit across from me. So he sits the other aisle seat across from me. And we're talking and you know, just he's very interesting. And he's got three businesses and we're going back and forth. And he says, the flight attendant comes down and she says, Would you like a cocktail night? No, I'm good. And he says, Let me buy you a drink. No, no, no, no, that three four times he would not take I said, No, I'm good. You're not You're not buying me a drink. He wouldn't stop. I looked at him. Honest to God, I looked at him, right. And it just came out of my mouth before. I know. How many times have you been in jail? And now by outwardly appearances, prim and proper, great Italian leather shoes, like didn't look like he was in jail. How many times have you been in jail? He looked at me and he said three, he turned his head forward. Never said another word to meet. We're getting off the flight. And he said to me, how did you know? And I said, I just know things. Yeah. And it kind of it's like that, like you just know things. You don't know why you know it. You just know it. But it protected me. Right. Right. Got me out of that situation. So trust.
John Moore 51:52
Yeah, totally. Yeah, absolutely. So interestingly, I have a little story as well. He's sort of a similar vein. So it was just last week, as a matter of fact, I was. I was leading a journey circle over zoom. So there were some people journeying. And when I lead, I don't journey with them, I just, you know, make sure everybody is all said, and I play music and all of these things. So immediately, I put the music on and people are journeying. And for those of you who don't know, it means going into an altered state and traveling in spirit form and working with spirit. That's what, what shamans do. And so the second thing I started doing, I get this like, really weird picture in my head. And fortunately, I had a pad of paper next to me, and I just grabbed it. And I just started drawing. And it was sort of like this conch shell looking thing with a flame coming out of the top. And like, well, that's really interesting. But the vision is really strong. And I have to so I put it down. And then after the journey, which is about 20 minutes long, I'm like, Okay, who wants to share, and this woman started to share, oh, I have this really weird thing. It was like a whirlwind in the water with a fire coming out of the top. And I'm like, Hold on, I gotta, you know, I gotta show you something. And I, like I held up the thing that I had drawn, and she lost her. She's kind of lost her wits a little bit. Like, how did you do that? You're a wizard, your brother? I'm like, no, no, I'm like, it just, it just came through it just like it just happened. It's you know, and I knew, there's a moment that you know, like, Okay, this is this is information that needs to come out, or I need to trust it, or I need to draw it or something along those those lines. But it was it was really funny. And then she emailed me again, the next day. And she's like, I'm still reeling about what you drew last night. And I should probably should probably mail her mail her the drawing or something. I mean, it's not, it's not a fantastic work of art. It's just a really quick sketch of what I saw. I didn't quite understand what it was when I saw it. But then when she described it, it was it was exactly, and it was a weird, like, it was a weird combination of, of objects as well. So it wasn't something that would have likely been something for me to draw.
Veronica Drake 54:12
Well, when I read for clients, it never means anything to me, because it's not the most, and I can't censor the message, you know, and I just bring the message forward. I'm, as I said in September, I'm starting my psychic development, Academy and teaching psychic development, intuitive development, I use them synonymously is kind of like trying to tell a two year old what to do. You know, it's like intuition is going to happen, right? It's going to take its own course, like the two year old who wants to get dressed by himself. He's just gonna go at it and intuition is just going to flow out of us. It's going to do its thing. Our job is to create an awareness. Yeah, yeah. Up A space of awareness so that when we get that subtle nudge because, people The other question I get is people will say to me, How do I know if it's my intuition? Or if it's my own thought, intuition will never beat you over the head. It's going to be a very think about the quietest. You know, I'm old enough to remember the low talkers on Saturday Night Live. Right,
John Moore 55:25
right.
Veronica Drake 55:28
Versus the loud. That's right. So the low two or no low talker was Seinfeld? Yeah. When we would get next to Seinfeld. Right. Right. Right. And so intuition is like the low talker, you you, you know, it's very subtle. It's very calming. And it's out of the blue like, oh, I never would have thought of that. Where'd that come from? Yeah, where your own ego your own critical mind, replays. And it really only has a built in loop that you've created. So it's gonna be familiar to you.
John Moore 56:02
Right? Right. That's, yeah, that's a big distinction. For me. When I when I get information that I'm like, it's quite clear that it's not coming from me when it's when it's on. And like that image that I got the other night, it was a quick, it was a really quick, you're right, it was quiet, it was a really quick flash. But I knew I'm like, That's really strange. I'm going to draw that before I forget it. And, you know, other, you know, very frequently with clients very much the same, I just get information, I'm like, I'm just going to deliver this to you. Because if I interpret it, then I'm putting my human expectations, experiences, prejudices, all of that stuff on top of it. And it's going to be less meaningful at that point. So let's, I want to get into this. I want to hear about your psychic development Academy. That sounds fascinating to me that you said starting in
Veronica Drake 56:58
September, September, yep. I, I really, it means a lot to me, to help people to develop with integrity, and compassion, and discernment. And so I want to teach in a way that honors those traits, those qualities, right. And I want to humanize psychic development, and I want to put a, a spin on it, that is very normal. And, you know, if somebody's born without sight, you know, we accept that. But you know, sight is part of who we are. And we just go, oh, you know, they don't have sight. But no body is born without psychic ability. No one, right. And that's a direct to me in meditation from source, nobody's born without it. And so if I can help you, you know, I just saw an image in my head. Now, it's like that silver pot behind you. You don't know the luster it has until you work at it until you clean it and you change the luster and the brilliance of it. I take psychic ability, and I show you how to buff it out how to bring it to fruition in a way that's helpful and useful to people. I'm not a predictive psychic, you know, I have what to expect when you come for a psychic reading with me. I'm not going to tell you the future. I'm not going to tell you your soulmate. I'm not gonna I'm not that I probably a more like a psychic or intuitive coach, I'm going to have a conversation with you. And this is the techniques that I'll be teaching in the psychic development Academy.
John Moore 58:46
Wonderful. And, you know, I'm sure they're going to be listeners out there who want to check that out, potentially sign up for that, should they go to your website? Or whether it be something separate for that? How would they find out more about that,
Veronica Drake 58:59
I'm in the process of fine tuning some things on my website. So if you go there, right now the program that is available is called going within. And the reason I created going within was because I believe all transformation happens from within. So whether you're looking to get a different job, whether you're looking to step up your own intuition, whether you're looking to forgive someone, it all starts with with from within. So going within is my membership. And it's it's very eclectic, and it's a lot like me, it's all over the place one day, you know, one week we're going to learn this and the next week we're going to learn this but then I'm going to show you how to use it in practical reality. Not just give you some esoteric, here it is I'm going to show you how to use it in your everyday life. So I'm really proud of of going within
John Moore 59:52
Yeah, that's fantastic. Because I think, you know, I love to read about really sort of highfalutin esoteric things and stuff, but there's an expression in shamanism, but does it grow corn? Right, which is the whole thing of okay, now I've read about these, you know, histories and all of these things. But really, I still have to live my life and I have to help my clients live my life. And I really need to ground this ground my spirituality, because guess what, folks? If you're listening to this, you probably are in a body, I'm assuming. I mean, maybe maybe not. But most of us listening to this or speaking on this, are in a body, we live on Earth, we have to pay the about bills, we have children to raise, you know, we've as a culture to live in and all of these things. So grounding, that knowledge is so important. And your website is Veronica drake.com. Right? Dra. Yep. So definitely check that out. And I will put a I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. So depending upon your your, what, however, you're accessing this podcast, you should be able to find that but you can you know, if you type in Veronica drake.com, Google double Google double. That's a good word. I like that. Google. Google. It's hard to say. But it's a fun word to say. It's not my business
Veronica Drake 1:01:19
card. I'm Google Now.
John Moore 1:01:23
Google, Google me if you had said that. 20 years ago, Google me somebody would think you were saying something perverted. But kind of a cool word, though. Right? Google? It is? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I knew it from being a nerd. Because it's a math term. It's a it's a one with 100 zeros behind it is a Google? That's where that term came from. Yeah, I
Veronica Drake 1:01:42
just learned something. Yeah, it's
John Moore 1:01:43
a it's a nerdy math term, which is why you know, the the people who founded Google are all you know, Merit editions and nerdy, nerdy folks like myself, or actually probably more so than myself. And I don't mean mean nerd in a pejorative way. It's, it's, it's now nowadays, nerd is actually a compliment. So it just means you're incredibly smart. And yeah, lots of math going on there. But yeah, I mean, let me Google you is such an interesting turn of phrase. Anyway.
Veronica Drake 1:02:15
I have a ton of personality. I have no math skills, but
John Moore 1:02:21
we all have our gifts and personality is a personality is a gift. Well, look, we are we are at the top of the hour. And I feel like we could talk for two or three more hours. I hope that you will come on again, I know you are a very busy person. It looks like you're doing about 30 million different things. And you've got this psychic development Academy coming up in September, I will be sure to check it out. And do you have a newsletter something people can subscribe to if they go to your site and social media
Veronica Drake 1:02:57
to ask. I was just sitting at my desk right before you we got on here at writing the newsletter. So yeah, that will be going on.
John Moore 1:03:06
So yeah, so for me, if I if I know like with my add some things coming up in September, I'm gonna have to like sign up for your newsletter or something like that as a reminder. So people do do that. Because I know how these things go. You're like, I'm interested in this thing. Oh, I'm really I'm really down with that. And then you, you know, it's a couple of months away, depending on when you listen to this. So definitely, definitely give us subscribe, and I'm sure you've got social media and oh, yeah, Google, Google Mobile. And we all have we all have that stuff these days. You know, that's how I that's how I found I found my teacher online using the shamanic tool called Google. But, Veronica, it's been just what a wonderful conversation I have had with you this morning. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your your insight and and all about, well, maybe not all about but at least some about mediumship. And and what makes psychic ism is that the bright term being a psychic and being a medium different, I guess. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how to. I'm not always great with words. I'm very gracious
Veronica Drake 1:04:17
host though. You're very gracious host and I would be honored to come back.
John Moore 1:04:21
Awesome. Awesome. Well, we'll we'll be in touch and we will definitely have you back on. Maybe we'll get you in like closer September to and really dive into the, your, your academy as well, a little bit more. But thank you so much for coming on. And thank you folks for tuning in. And I hope you're happy, healthy and well and we will talk to you real soon.
Announcer 1:05:14
You have been listening to speaking spirit with your host, John more. For more info or to contact John go to main charmin.com That's mainshman.com