Of Buffalo Robes and Brain Tanning

What a strange month April has turned out to be for me! Starting with whirlwind decluttering and cleaning inside and out for the We-TV series that turned out not to happen, then got a call from a film student in Iowa City...could HE come film me for a documentary he's doing on psychics and mediums? So, instead of filming with a national crew Tuesday of last week, I spent 3.5 hours filming with a masters student from U of I. He'll let me know how it comes out sometime soon here.

My dear Lakota friends have also gone through quite a month for a different reason...and I have to admit to joining in on the unusual goings on.

Although Lester has been a practicing Medicine Man for 20+ years, he had not gone through the traditional Yuwipi ceremony that is required for the members of the Lakota Nation to recognize and sanction him as such. How can I describe the pressure of this ceremony....hmmmm. A good analogy would be someone who has been a practicing minister AND doctor for years being tested by other clergy and physicians of the church and the medical community to see if God really truly DOES indeed speak to them and through them by performing an absolutely full blown miracle on the spot! Lester is covered tied up in a sacred blanket, and Spirits must come to untie him (among other things.)

Two years ago, I created this sacred blanket for Lester for his ceremony by hand dying the fabric and sewing it to his specifications. He's been gathering sacred materials for this event for the past 3 years...including elk ivory teeth, dirt from the entrance to mole hills, choke cherry sticks, and other things that would make you and I shake our heads and go, "Huh???"

A Yuwipi ceremony involves having at least one other Yuwipi Man come to perform it on the candidate. Many of these men can trace their spiritual heritage back through generations of medicine men with very famous names you would recognize. There are only a few dozen traditional Lakota medicine men in North America and even fewer Yuwipi men alive at any one point in time. Two of the current standing Yuwipi Men were at Lester and Mindi's house this month performing Lester's first ceremony.

So, long story short, Lester went through the first of four ceremonies a couple of weeks ago and thank the Ancestors, the Spirits came and untied him. However, during the ceremony, it was made clear that he was missing two key things....1) His own buffalo robe (from a full grown male bison in winter coat, that also has the tail still attached) and 2) ropes made of deer or elk skin strips, created by tanning the leather with the brains of that animal. I believe he was instructed that he MUST have these things before June 1st and that Lester was not to seek these things or purchase them himself, but that those who he had worked with in lodge were to go find them for him.

Until 10 days ago, I had no idea what "brain tanning" was. Apparently it's a very old, very traditional method of tanning a hide that makes it very soft and very supple by the end of the process. Most leather these days is commercially tanned and easy to find. What's not so easy is finding someone who does brain tanning at all...I managed to seek out a couple of buck-skinners, and 2 native folks, who did this process, but not very many people understand or go through the effort to do this method any more. Second, even if I found someone, it's not currently deer season and I needed a full deer or elk hide (as least a 3 x 5 piece) that could be shipped to Iowa before the end of May! It took dozens of calls and e-mails to find a man in CT who was getting ready to finish up smoking a batch of four hides this weekend. Apparently, after the brain tanning these hides are pretty white and it takes hanging them over a wood fire to get them to be a nice toasty golden color. The CT Tanner said he would be happy give us our pick of the four and ship it out on Monday.

Then I made calls all over seeking a reasonably priced full size buffalo robe. Yee-gads! These robes can get costly! If you look on the internet, a full size male bison or buffalo skin can run up there well above $1000! This was not quite in our budget, so I grabbed my handy search engine and began calling members of the Iowa Bison Association. I figured if I bought locally I might have a better chance of finding something reasonably priced, and those who raised bison for their meat would likely have robes for sale from their own animals. Sure enough, had a fellow call me back within less than two hours from Harlan, Iowa (near the west edge) who owned a bison ranch. He quoted me a VERY reasonable price and I told him he had a deal. This morning I drop my son off to school and keep on trucking a couple of hours west to pick up not only the buffalo robe for Lester, but also two coolers full of frozen bison meat.

Sometimes my psychic work overlaps with my spiritual work and that can and does often take me down unusual paths!

Do You Doubt Your Psychic Abilities?

For many people, listening to their intuitive or psychic side at first feels a little backwards and even silly. Sometimes they become embarrassed and filled with doubt. It doesn't always make logical left brain sense and sometimes we never understand exactly what it is we pick up or why. When we first encounter a new phenomena, we often doubt our senses...it's so different, so far outside of the realm of our day to day experience that what we're not sure that what we perceived was real.

The skeptics of the world often poo-poo the right brain input because it's illogical, not easily repeatable and not under their scientific control. It often is outside of their own realm of personal experience and I constantly hear that if it's hasn't been experienced by them personally, well then......

But are unusual first time perceptions invalid because they are different, unique or not repeatable and happen just to you and you alone? Let me give you an example...you be the judge.

Pretend you are out in the woods and you hear a lovely little bird song that is so different and so distinct that you stop, cock your head to one side, and immediately begin scanning the area around you trying to locate the source of the melody. You stand in that same spot, hoping to have the call repeated, but alas, the bird has flitted off to parts unknown and the call is not to be heard again. You never visually spot the source and you hear it only once, but it absolutely caught your attention. It was so clear that you yourself could whistle the little unique tune even years later.

Did you really hear the bird? You didn't see it! It happened only once. Did it really exist?

You're pretty sure that you heard what you heard. Your sense of hearing accurately picked up the bird's lilting call. But BECAUSE IT WASN'T SEEN WITH THE EYES, many people discount the accuracy of their other senses.

If you relayed this story to a skeptic, would they be inclined to believe you? Well, the subject is a simple little bird and the average skeptic could probably accept that you just plain don't recognize all the bird calls that are in existence and/or that it's entirely possible the foliage of the forest obscured your ability to spot the bird. Chances are the skeptic would shrug and not think much of it.

But what if you were in the woods and heard a female voice clearly say your full name out loud, but you couldn't see the speaker with your eyes. You scan the area, and no one is there. You hear it only once and, like the little bird, the source seemed to vanish. The voice was so distinct, so clear that you could pick the speaker out of a crowd, even years later.

What then? Would you believe what you heard? Would the skeptic? You have no proof! You have only your personal experience.

It's a paranormal disembodied voice for goodness sake....your left logical brain begins to reel, to question your senses. After all you didn't see anything! It makes no logical sense! Even if you tried going back to the same spot in the forest day after day, you may never hear that particular bird call (or voice) again.

You decide to keep the experience to yourself...who would believe you anyway!? They would probably think you were a little wacko and had a bit of a weirdo. Only nut jobs talk about hearing things like this or admitting they have these kinds of things happen to them, right?

Even if they don't talk about it, for many people this first time metaphysical experience prompts all kinds questions. Who or what was the voice? Why did they hear it? Why that day, that place, that time? What does it mean? Why won't it come back? Why didn't the source allow you to see it? Was it an angel, a relative, a ghost, something from another dimension?

Sometimes we are left with questions that have no answers.

Down time

Well, the cold and flu virus hit really hard yesterday afternoon into early evening, so I decided to get really proactive with it and fight back. Here's how this medical intuitive boosts her own immune system when she gets sick and what traditionally has worked to get me better faster. My own personal formula just for me when I get hit with something is this:

Vitamin C - I take a 500 mg time release capsule about every 3-4 hours.
Olive Leaf Extract as directed on the bottle
L-Lysine as directed on the bottle
Multi-vitamin with iron and minerals
Zinc lozenges if I have them...I will suck on one every 4 hours or so making sure I don't get more than 100 mg in any one day from all my sources.

Depending on how tight my chest has gotten, I often will drink some kind of breathe easier tea blend that I find at my local grocery or health food store. I sometimes alternate that with a green tea for the antioxidants.

I also spend all day with a silk scarf wrapped around my throat to keep it warmer and hopefully out of a bacteria's comfort zone temperature wise. I also keep sipping on various hot beverages throughout the day for that same reason. This usually amounts to lots of broth, tea, and hot water. I make the broth myself and use lots of onions and garlic as they tend to be good immune system boosters and as stuffed up as I am, it's something I can actually taste.

When my sinuses are plugged, I start the day with a really hot bath or shower and make sure I breath in lots of steam. It's not unusual to head into the bathroom and continue 20 minute steam treatments standing in the shower every three or four hours. Also, if I have a bottle of sterile saline (Ocean or Ayr) around, I'll clean out my sinuses several times a day to help make breathing easier.

For me, I like the good tissue with lotion in it because when I get sick I tend to drip, blow and sneeze more than most folks. It's part of spending a few more pennies to pamper myself when the crud hit's me. I rest a LOT. I honestly try to only do the few things I really need to and spend lots of time on the couch sitting upright to help with the drainage.

So, here I sit and type....scarf around my throat, silk robe still on from this morning, pajamas and hand knit wool socks on, slippers at my feet and a nice warm blanket tucked up as high as it will go. As I wipe yet another drip from my nose, I think I'll head into the kitchen soon for another cup of broth.

I plan on being better by Monday and better yet by Tuesday....that's my proactive take charge of my own health kind of thinking.

I think I might head to bed early this evening as well.

Psychic training

I recently was interviewed by a reporter from Parade Magazine. She asked me about my day-to-day life as a professional psychic and medical intuitive. It's always interesting to me about what folks are curious about. She wanted to know if a person could take psychokinesis training classes, or telekinesis training. I told her that there are several seminars or paranormal classes available across the country, where people could increase their psychic skills. The Internet and Google tend to be your best friends in this type of a search. Type in what you're looking for, and start surfing the Web!

When it comes to energy projection or abilities with telekinesis, I've never met anyone quite like my friend Andre, who passed through my life three years ago. I've chronicled my experiences with the amazing abilities of this spiritual guru on my website.

I've also been fielding a lot of questions about the economy lately. My advice? Hold on.. we're going for a ride. I see a continued decrease or deflation in the real estate sector, which will end up with higher foreclosure rates. The chickens from the sub-prime mortgage loans are coming home to roost.

Psychic Preditions for 2008

Here are a few of my general psychic predictions for 2008 by Psychic Su Walker:

The economy

The markets will continue to remain unstable, as the value of the United States dollar continues to lose ground to the Euro.

I foresee the number of home foreclosures increase in the United States,and at least the fall or buyout of one major banking institution.

Corporate farms will once again absorb smaller family farms, as economic pressures worsen.


THE WEATHER:

I look for an major F5 Tornado between Wichita and Salina Kansas this year, and be on the ground for at least 30 miles.

South Dakota, Minnesota, and Missouri will be drier than normal, while Des Moines, Mason City, Fort Dodge, and Moline will be wetter than normal.


Politics:

Democrats win the White House, giving us our first woman President Hillary Clinton.

Technology:

Apple continues to gain market share and traction against age-old rival Microsoft.

Gas Prices:

Watch for gas prices in the Midwest to bounce between $2.75 and $3.50 per gallon until the 4th of July Holiday.

World:

A major leadership change in France in July.

A major health crisis for Vice President Dick Cheney on or around the 24th of July.

Thank You

Dear Friends and Clients,

It doesn’t seem possible, but yet another year has come and gone. 2007 seemed to pass at a break-neck pace, especially for me.

I was blessed to be the feature psychic on an episode of Court TV’s Psychic Detectives which first aired on the 4th of July. I must tell you, I really appreciated all of your patience during that busy time! The interest generated by the show was overwhelming. For several weeks, my phone was ringing off the hook and my calendar was booked several weeks in advance! Even though it was super frenzied, looking back now, I can really laugh about it. It was a never-ending game of trying to keep all of my telephone batteries charged! What a hoot!

I’ve been taking a psychic look forward into the upcoming year…it’s going to be a roller coaster for the nation economically and politically, and even weather wise.

I also want to express a heart-felt THANK YOU for your trust and patronage. YOU are the reason that I do what I do, and I am honored to be your friend, confidant, and advisor.

I’m just a phone call away, if you need me.

Have a healthy, prosperous and safe 2008!



Su Walker


PS…if you are interested, you can still catch reruns of the Psychic Detectives show on Court TV if you watch the listings…the title is “Open Road.”

Intuitive vs. Psychic

Lots of folks ask the difference, if there is one, between being intuitive and being psychic.

I guess I've created my own distinction here. I consider intuition as reactive, and psychic skill as proactive. Let me see if I can explain in more detail.

If we're talking about a multi-sensory awareness that you are born with, that just happens to you randomly, that you react to but it's not under your control, that's what I call intuitive. An example would be if a Jane Smith is home doing the dishes and suddenly realizes in the middle of scrubbing the last pot that her elementary schooler has just fallen down on the playground, skinned both knees and is in the nurse's office about ready to call her on the phone. While technically this would be classified as a detailed "sudden knowing" experience, because it's not under Jane's control, I would consider Jane highly intuitive.

If Jane Smith had been doing the dishes and purposefully, standing there with sudsy hands, actively been checking on family members using her clairvoyant remote viewing ability, then I would term Jane psychic. She consciously wanted information and pro-actively used her multi-sensory abilities to reach out and purposefully bring back the information she needed.

Can you be born either intuitive or psychic....technically, according to the above definition, sure you can. Just depends on if you have a handle on your skills or not and consciously know that your ability is under your own control.

Do I as a professional psychic have intuitive moments throughout the day. Of course! It's often the intuitive flashes that prompt me to pro-actively use my psychic skills to gather more detail. For me the two go hand in hand and I'm very glad for both!