I was waiting to see if anyone else would write about this workshop and as there seems to be no takers, i guess i will. 

  First off, there was a really interesting pretty much last minute developement, at least interesting to me.   The reason being is that some years ago, I had a dream wherein i knew i was hanging out and talking with Bruce at his home and some time went past (like it wasn't a brief conversation or interaction of minutes, but felt more like days)

   I had no idea what the dream meant at the time.   So, I was pleasantly surprised and reminded of the dream when almost last minute Caryl wrote the participants to tell us that the workshop would not be taking place at the Monroe St. location but rather at Bruce's home. 

  So i'm assuming that this was one of my somewhat common precognitive dreams as i've never expected to be at Bruce's home for any reason.  Since i rarely seem to have a surplus of spending money, i doubted i would even be able to attend a workshop to begin with. 

   Anyways, regarding the workshop itself.  There was four participants not including Bruce and the sometimes presence of his wife Phaeron (? i don't remember how to spell her name).  There were two women and two men.  With the exception of my wife Becky, the other participants seemed like nice people.  J/K about my wife!  :o ;D  (i hope Becky doesn't read this post...  :-X )

   I am pretty familiar with Bruce's work having read all of his 4 more biographical/experience books and most of the 5th study book, and so i found the presentation to be a nice summary of the various principles and techniques contained in his general work. 

  I was a bit surprised by the rather loquacious manner of Bruce since he's not particularly communicative here on the forum, but it was entertaining in person and worked for me since i tend to prefer to listen rather than talk anyways.   

  We did some of the exercises like gathering energy, relaxing breaths, priming the imagination pump etc.   

Eventually we did a Retrieval.  I'm not yet sure if i received any verifying info, but i haven't yet checked out some of the "signs" i was given.   I had a really hard time with the names because the person, real or unreal i was attempting to retrieve was Asian and i'm not familiar with Asian tongues at all.

  The two artists in the group, both women, had very detailed and vividly visual retrievals.  Becky has done some initial casual research with no results yet, but she hasn't researched it indepth yet.  Since she received so many fine & vivid details, it will be interesting to see if any match up because if so, it will be one doozy of a verification experience especially if most matches.

  Then things got interesting with another exercise we did which put us a little more on the spot, and involved information that the other participants consciously knew but we didn't consciously know. 

   There were some definite hits in the also visually vivid and detailed attempts of the two artists, but also some major not so accurate hits at the same time.  Becky was a bit of the "odd person" out on this exercise, because she chose to use a non group participants source.  I suspect she went into it with too much of a "I'm going to prove this to this (too skeptical) person" kind of attitude which may have affected her overall accuracy rate.  Too much "ego" involved, and not enough detachment and impersonal helpfulness.

    It would seem that my attempt was fairly accurate overall, but i was disappointed a bit that i garbled a couple important things.  For example, i said aunt when it was actually a grandmother.  But while i didn't mention this at the time, i did at one point have the flash impression of grandmother, but went with aunt because she felt more like an aunt for some reason. 

  That could be an interpreter overlay because in my mind and from my experience, grandmothers tend to be not as close or familiar as an aunt or uncle sometimes is.   I wish i had asked this participant if she was more emotionally close and had a more friendship type relationship with her grandmother.  If so that might explain the aunt feeling impression.

  Anyways, apparently the physical, lifestyle, and character descriptions and at least one specific "out of the blue" detail were pretty spot on.  While i think it was more or less verified, i would like more accuracy next time.

  The other male participant picked up on two more specific details which seemed to fit, but otherwise didn't receive much specific info but i get the sense he definitely has potential if he practices this kind of stuff more often. 

It seems for most people, practice and more practice is key.  I definitely need to practice more if i want to hone the accuracy rate, but generally i feel more drawn to opening up perception via attuning to and channeling PUUL in my day to day life. 

  With Pisces S. Node in the 7th, Scorp on Nadir with Scorp Uranus in the 4th in aspect to my Moon which rules the 12th, traditional ruler of the 4th CON Jupiter and aspected to Neptune, and some other similar indications, i feel like "been there and done that" with the whole psychic perception thing (the South Node, 4th House, Moon, etc are all very "past" oriented symbols and Pisces, Scorpio, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune are all very "psychic" oriented symbols). 

  With Virgo N. Node cusping Leo in the 1st House, Capricorn Sun in the 6th House, ruler of my Sun Sign in Virgo, Taurus MC, and some other similar more present and future oriented indications, apparently i need to focus more on practical and more material oriented service, refining, and discrimination involving plenty of "left brain" focus. 

I get the feeling that eventually i will bring both more into balance and when i do, the psychic gifts and tendencies i've brought over but largely am blocking now, will completely open up.  Not surprisingly, a couple of sensitives have indicated the latter as well. 

  Anways, back to the workshop.  I enjoyed hanging out with the group and generally had a good time.  I really like Bruce's wife Phaeron in a more personal sense as she felt fairly familiar/old friendish to me for some reason. 

  Other than the loquacious aspect, Bruce was pretty much as i imagined him to be, gentle vibe, laid back, somewhat humorous, and smart. 

 



 

HI Justin,

I'm guessing the other people at the workshop don't post here, so since no one responded with anything I thought I'd just say congrats...glad you had a good time!  Bruce said he thought it was a good workshop overall and I think he said too that everyone seemed to have at least some good hits and a lot of experiences during the workshop. 

He told me that someone gave the name of someone who died that wasn't someone they knew, but their friend did.  Was that Becky who did that?  And that she had to call the friend and give the details of what was picked up so that it could be verified that way.  I thought that was cleaver, so did Bruce.  Not cleaver as a way to trick and test, but since Becky is young and didn't have anyone dead whose name to submit, this was at least a way to participate.  So wasn't there hits with that one which she got confirmed?

I'm still embarressed at the fact that at my only workshop with Bruce, back in 2007, I didn't have anyone dead to put in either, so I put my cat's name.  It didn't seem like a dumb idea at the time, and I honestly didn't think it would matter one bit.  But the person who got my cat's name didn't get anything right and was obviously thinking it was a person. 

After, when I had to reveal it was my dead cat, I did feel so embarrassed and Bruce said, "I guess next time I'll have to add that it should be a person's name, since that's what everone is expecting to receive."  I doubt he meant to embarrass me, but I'm still embarrassed about that.  (That cat and I always had a very psychic connection, so I figured it was worth a try)   ::)

Vicky

  Yes, it was Becky.  Becky is really close to a guy i will call "Matt", Matt wasn't there at the workshop, but not long before the workshop he had mentioned to Becky that someone he was close to had died.  The only thing he had told Becky was the person's name and he was close to this person. 

  Matt is very skeptical of nonphysical reality, though a bit more open minded and curious than some more typical guys are.   

  Becky at times tries to push the subject with him, as she senses he has a lot of potential in this area, but sometimes i get the sense that she goes a little overboard with it, and acts too much the "guru" with him.   

  I think she thought this would be an opportunity to "prove" to Matt the reality of the nonphysical, etc or at least make some big cracks in his belief system structures.  I think this kind of attitude and intention hindered her accuracy rate, as normally she is quite psychically sensitive and has had various verifications over the years. 

  She did get some definite hits for it, like she got that the person died in a car crash and some other specifics like that, but she got the wrong gender!  Course, it was interesting that Blair, though a female in actuality, was tomboyish in both appearance and character as reported by Matt.   

Matt of course, latched onto this screwup, and was not impressed at all. 

  Sorry, but that is kind of funny about the whole cat thing.  I don't fully see why you would feel embarrassed by that, but i can sort of understand.  I can see where the preconception or expectation might really throw someone off, but some people could probably get that it was a cat right off.

Speaking of cats and telepathy, just a few hours or so ago, i was thinking very specifically of that topic because my uber affectionate cat Jasmine was sitting on my lap and arm and "needing" my bare arm with her claws in her zealous display of happiness and pleasure.   Well, it hurt, and i kept trying to telepathically tell her to please stop because it hurt. 

Either i wasn't doing it right, i'm a bad "sender", or she is just dense in the area, or like a typical female she just doesn't care what a male like me says...( 8-)  :o ) but either way it didn't work.  I even imaged Cat version of my face (yes, i even gave myself whiskers) hissing at her in displeasure, silly as it sounds.  Maybe i should have hissed physically?   :D ;D

Hey, when are you ever going to visit your brother, and by brother i really mean ME?   :P  :-*

 

Hey Justin,

I don't know when I'll make it out to Virginia, but I'd love to see you guys.  That'd be quite a fun visit!

Speaking of the telepathic cat topic...this cat of mine was the one who, about a month before I got him, had appeared to me clairvoyantly.  I could see him and feel his energy and knew him like I knew an old friend.  So as we searched for a kitten since we both wanted one, I was only looking for him.  He was an orange and white Maine Coon, and finally after a month or so of looking at many, many places with kittens, the only two of this description finally was found in a pet store one evening.  The employee first brought me one, and as soon as I held it I said, "This isn't the right one, can I see the other one?"  He said, "They are identical", and I tried to explain that I knew I wanted the other kitten, I knew what I was looking for.  So he brought me that one, (my Tristan), and the moment I held him I could feel his energy, knew it was the one that I'd been seeing and sensing for weeks.  Another psychic thing we had was the spider incident...I was lying in bed one evening and Tristan would always come lay on my chest and look into my face, we'd "talk" by looking into each other's eyes.  Well suddenly I could see through the cat's eyes in my mind, and could see a huge spider on the wall right behind my head.  I quickly moved and turned around, and yep, there was this big spider (which I can't stand!), so that was cool of my cat to show me that.   :)     I could also mentally call him and he'd come running, or if I wanted him off the couch or something, I could mentally ask him to move to a chair, or get down, and he would.  By the way, I also used to have an English Pointer who once gave me a vision by walking up to me and looking right into my face showing me that his water dish was bone dry.  I said, "Ok Eli, hold on."  And when I went into the kitchen to check, it was empty.  I filled it and he drank the entire thing.  He was really thirsty and came and told me!  When I say "clairvoyance", and "vision", I mean that I see in my mind exactly as you see with the physical eyes.  So that's my proof alone, let alone for the fact that in both these cases I had physical-world verification. 

Consequently, I also do the mental talking thing to my kids, like calling their name in my mind...it always makes them turn around, even at a pretty good distance, like at school when I go to pick them up, or once in the grocery story...my daughter was looking at something and I "called" to her and she immediately turned and looked right at me. 

Anyway, sorry to ramble on about all that.  I think it's fun stuff to play with, and the more you see it work, the more it just becomes second nature to do it. 

So this guy Matt, he tossed out the whole thing just because of the gender mistake?  What did he have to say about all the other things that were true, like the car crash??   I guess that just goes to show that people need to have their own experience before they can change their beliefs about anything.  Which is what I prefer myself personally.  It's much more real that way.

Lately I've been thinking about how comfy I am in my beliefs and that I don't HAVE to seek out verifying every little thing because I've learned to trust more, which is great.  However, yesterday I had another psychic experience and part of the learning experience got me going out of my way to get verification of something specific of a complete stranger!  Well guess what...my psychic info was correct and I think it was a gentle reminder that IF there is opportunity for verification, it's a good thing to get because I'm obviously still learning.  And this type of psychic experience was a wee bit different than my others, so I think I'm noticing that when I'm ready for the next stage of learning something new, verification is a necessary thing to help keep me "open".  Makes sense to me anyway.  That's how I'm taking it. 

Kinda like, if this guy Matt, Becky's friend, had allowed himself to be open to the hits, rather than shut it all down due to the wrong things, he might just have advanced a little.  A missed opportunity, in my eyes.  But then again, not all of us are on the same journey.  That's why I don't bother trying to prove things to others anymore...that's not my job.  I am only working on myself. 

:)

  We are moving back with each other soon as we are in the process of buying our first house, and so we will definitely have extra room for guests if you even decide you want to come out to VA and hang out. 

  Wow, those are quite some intense experiences with your animal friends and very interesting.  I've had some similar type experiences with my cats, but a lot more subtle and less physical sense oriented.  No need to apologize, i enjoy reading about your different experiences in these areas.

 
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So this guy Matt, he tossed out the whole thing just because of the gender mistake?  What did he have to say about all the other things that were true, like the car crash??   I guess that just goes to show that people need to have their own experience before they can change their beliefs about anything.  Which is what I prefer myself personally.  It's much more real that way.

  Pretty much, and he said he was not impressed or convinced.  I think he ignored the more definite hits, and focused on the misses.

Re: your last three sentences, i completely agree.  Yet, i wryly and dryly note that if i came upon a fellow human who i saw with my own eyes walk on water, manifest food from seemingly out of nowhere, instantaneously and completely heal a person of a severe disease or physical disfigurement, etc.

  Well, needless to say it would put some huge cracks in my belief systems, and i would be quite apt to "believe" such things were possible.   I would have to be pretty dense for it to not have an effect on me. 

  We're all connected, and we all affect each other unconsciously and consciously.  There's much to be said for this aspect of reality.  Sometimes people get a little too locked into the individualistic, autonomous part of reality with certain concepts or approaches i find.

  But yes, certainly direct self experience of something is the most convincing and transformative way on the average. 

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Lately I've been thinking about how comfy I am in my beliefs and that I don't HAVE to seek out verifying every little thing because I've learned to trust more, which is great.  However, yesterday I had another psychic experience and part of the learning experience got me going out of my way to get verification of something specific of a complete stranger!  Well guess what...my psychic info was correct and I think it was a gentle reminder that IF there is opportunity for verification, it's a good thing to get because I'm obviously still learning.  And this type of psychic experience was a wee bit different than my others, so I think I'm noticing that when I'm ready for the next stage of learning something new, verification is a necessary thing to help keep me "open".  Makes sense to me anyway.  That's how I'm taking it.

  Very well said, and i can relate.  I have tended to have a lot of trust in the whole thing (and since young) in the sense of really truly believing in the reality of the nonphysical.  Where i've trusted a bit less here and there, is a lack of confidence in my own abilities. 

  But i think the former trust is what has led to me experiencing verifications almost every time i had sought to consciously, and the various unconscious or not consciously sought verifications.  But, the thing is, i haven't tended to consciously seek verifications.

I still need to build up my own confidence a bit, but i've really come to trust my intuitive sense when i'm coming from a more positive space to begin with.

  One time, i was fairly sure i got some info psychically (about another person), but it ended up being totally off in some ways and i experienced a lot of "egg on face" socially because of it. 

What was different?  It was my intent and motivation.  The other person involved was someone i had a really hard time being more positive, loving to, and accepting of (which is unusual for me), and my stuck, shadow aspects and tendencies ("lower self") were too much involved at the time.  Lesson learned the hard way.

  He thought i was deluded to begin with, but i'm sure this only strengthened his belief about me. 


Quote:

Kinda like, if this guy Matt, Becky's friend, had allowed himself to be open to the hits, rather than shut it all down due to the wrong things, he might just have advanced a little.  A missed opportunity, in my eyes.  But then again, not all of us are on the same journey.  That's why I don't bother trying to prove things to others anymore...that's not my job.  I am only working on myself.

Again well said and i agree.  Becky is usually more laid back with most people, and i think the difference with Matt is how attached to and close she feels to him. 

  She knows they were married in the recent past life, and in some ways he's become like a 2nd husband to her in this life (that whole open relationship thing that Becky and i have, though thankfully ending soon when we move back in with each other). 

wrote on Apr 28^th, 2011 at 2:55pm:

Re: your last three sentences, i completely agree.  Yet, i wryly and dryly note that if i came upon a fellow human who i saw with my own eyes walk on water, manifest food from seemingly out of nowhere, instantaneously and completely heal a person of a severe disease or physical disfigurement, etc.   Well, needless to say it would put some huge cracks in my belief systems, and i would be quite apt to "believe" such things were possible.   I would have to be pretty dense for it to not have an effect on me.

Well, seeing with your own eyes is your own direct experience...quite different than just telling someone what you experienced. 

  Totally Vicky, but this was my deeper point, and i was comparing and putting in context to the situation of Becky and Matt and what you said about how it's best to have your own experiences etc. 

While i basically agreed with you, i used the walking on water, etc. example to show that sometimes someone elses direct experience that we just observe or become aware of, can have a pretty impacting affect.

After all, in my example, it wasn't the person observing who was actually doing the walking on water, etc., but just looking on.

That's akin to Becky doing a psychic exercise, and say theoretically picking up only or mostly accurate hits, and then relating that to a friend or even if the friend is there watching it.   It's still not the friends direct experience either way...

  But if the friend is on that precipice, it might be one of the factors that helps "push" them over to the side of really considering the reality of the nonphysical.

Perhaps soon after, they will have their own experience because there is now that just a bit larger inkling of openness.   Course, through their own experience they will fully and completely come to know that reality. 

  I guess my point is, is that it's not a black and white process and that others can really affect our path at times.  I'm not saying that you were saying it was a black and white process, but i felt i should go into more depth about the relativity and complexity of the process for any potential newbies reading the thread. 

My mind and thought processes work in strange ways.