A writer whose mission is “to simply change the world.
My cell phone chimed and the text said “Michael Jackson died. Call.” My heart sank. My children grew up with Michael Jackson and I knew they would have a hard time with this. I had gone through John Lennon’s murder and James Brown’s passing and knew how hard it was to lose a musical muse and icon you grew up with. My mind went back to the times we played and sang “We Are the World” in our home and to the trip across a few states to join Hands Across America. It went back even farther to the Jackson Five and little Michael with the big voice. Maybe it was a mistake… I turned on CNN and stared at the “Breaking News” banner scrolling across the screen. Oh no…
I was not a Michael fan. I lost track of him during single parenting years because my attention was demanded and diverted elsewhere. I felt some deep and acute sadness at his loss but mostly for my children. When This Is It was released I went out of respect more than interest; I knew it would be my last chance to see Michael perform. I went alone—it seemed more of an homage that way. I left the theater in an altered state of consciousness. It was the same feeling as I had after my first viewing of Star Wars. I climbed in the car and proceeded to sob—great heaving sobs. And I had no idea why. I thought about the tainted legacy and the tabloid hammering of this man. And I knew from watching him on that screen that he never deliberately harmed anybody. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. It took an hour to collect myself.
The whole experience haunted me. I knew there was something more to it but had no idea what. I went back to see the movie again to find what I had missed. I was stunned as I watched the footage of Michael holding back in order to save his voice. The struggle was visible. I saw the amount of energy that was pouring through his body. Oh my God; the music, the performance, the mastery wasn’t coming from Michael, it was coming through him. Whoa. This deserved a closer look. I went back a few times and each time I saw more and more of who this man was and especially who he was being in the world. At some point, words started to come and form ideas and I wrote them down. It was as if I was experiencing Michael’s life from the inside. An empath all my life, this had always been easy if I focused with intent, but I had not asked for this flood.
There are times in the past when I have written things that later I wondered not only how it got on paper but who wrote it? If you know that zone, you don’t mess with it. Yes, I know that creative impulse that Michael lived in intimately. So I just took dictation. Then I published the article on my One Wordsmith website. My Oneida friend saw it and dissolved into tears and passed it on and they passed it on…
An editor who had seen the movie and my article and asked if I would write a guest column in her magazine. After publication I got letters and after the international fan club posted it more letters arrived. Michael admirers asked questions about what I had written and asked me to expand on it. There were so many inquiries, so much pain and because it was close to Christmas and I knew it was a difficult time for people; I started a website to address the questions and to give people a touchpoint. I posted responses and they asked more questions. And they asked me from all over the world to please continue writing.
I look at it this way: I was extended an invitation by Michael’s people. I know from my research who Michael Jackson was and he wasn’t the person the celebrity cultists said he was. I know how badly Michael was treated while on this planet. I know how that makes his admirers feel and how it compounds their grief. I was compelled to research not just because the fans asked but because what happened to Michael was undeserved and just plain wrong.
As I began to look closely at Michael’s work what I found was stunning. No, jaw dropping. As a minister, metaphysician, and trained shaman I am very familiar with the mystical, spiritual and transcendental. As a writer who has worked hard to hone a gift, I can convey my discovery from an alternative perspective. Michael used his voice, magic, majesty, artistry, dance, mystery, sensuality, musical genius, enchantment and colossal talent to get our attention, to pull us in, in order to deliver his message: “Heal the world; make it a better place.” His use of myth, metaphor, parables, hidden codes and codices, subliminals, and double entendre` permeates his entire body of work. It’s as if he has marked a trail for us to follow through a maze of ordinary only to find underneath, something extraordinary. What a journey! I think Michael’s legacy is not what we think it is. I think there is more; I think it is much deeper than we thought. We have much yet to discover. And I think he is still healing the world. From there.
Michael’s greatest legacy is the mark he has left on this world as its most famous and visible global humanitarian and cheerleader and his worldwide family of 250 million admirers who are taking his message seriously. They mean to live his legacy by being the change they want to see in the world and making it a better place.
Who is the person behind Inner Michael?
“I went where I was led and guided. Thankfully I was never in charge of the journey and when the student was ready, the teachers appeared right on time.” Rev. B.
Nursing: As a career nurse (or so I thought) I specialized in psych and mental health. After graduating I completed a six month internship in alcohol and drug abuse at a major general hospital and worked on a Psychiatric Unit as co-therapist. I also spent time brief periods working in ICU, Neurology, Neruo-Rehab, Surgery, Geriatrics, and Hospice. My Business Degree in Management is from a liberal arts Catholic University. As director of a halfway house, I managed and developed programs for people recovering from Post Trauma emotional illnesses. I’m a healer; I can’t help it. Now I occasionally work with private nursing clients, mostly children, who are dependent on Ventilators.
Energy Work: My interest in energy work came about from my martial arts training—Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Aikido. I currently practice yoga and hybrid Tai Chi. The combination of understanding anatomy and physiology and falling in love with the human body and how it works led me to explore further and subtler levels to find out how it’s all interwoven. My training includes Reiki, Geo Tran, Psych-K, Pranic Healing, Possibilities DNA and other Holistic Healing.
You can’t have a fascination with the human body without also being enamored with the human mind so I explored mind sciences too, studying every modality I could find. The most compelling work I have done in mind and enlightenment is the Avatar materials and I hold the distinction of Avatar Master.
Ministry and Shamanism: What is a shaman? A shaman is someone with training in the healing arts who is a combination of Medicine Man or Woman, Priest and advisor for the tribe of peoples he or she is familial to. Every indigenous culture has shamans. A modern shaman is sometimes called the Urban Shaman. Shamans are called to the practice just like ministers are called. They usually undergo some kind of Initiation that can take the form of a severe illness, trauma, event or experience whose magnitude rattles the soul. True shamans are not made in weekend workshops but are guided under the tutelage of an experienced shaman.
My unusual communication skills led me to a formally study Interspecies Communication and the advanced training with Penelope Smith, herself shamanically oriented. That training led to in interest in shamanism. My Shaman work is a result of 6 years of study with my shaman, a graduate of Michael Harner’s Institute for Shamanic Studies. My shaman developed her own advanced spiral work which I have completed. I continue to work under her tutelage. I have also worked with two Hawaiian shamans, an Egyptian Shaman, and Akashic Record Interpreter. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and His Holiness the Dalai Lama were two of my most prominent teachers along with James Twyman, Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dorine Virtue, Carol Parrish, Ram Dass and others. My first teachers were a nun and a Sufi; the only guru I claim is Yoda. I own land adjacent to the Christine Center, a retreat and spirituality center in northern Wisconsin and have been affiliated and studied there for 25 years.
Of course, discovering the body/mind connection led to the human spirit, soul and Anima Mundi work. I graduated from Beloved Community Seminary in Oregon in 2006 and was ordained after graduation. The seminary has a focus on metaphysics in theology. I attended courses at Sancta Sophia seminary in Oklahoma which specializes in Esoteric Christianity, and I completed specialized training in Spiritual Emergency. Meditation, Metaphysics and Martial Arts have been an ongoing study for more than 20 years. I taught personal development courses at both U.W. Wisconsin and Fox Valley Technical College.
Peacemaking and Art: Body… mind… spirit… soul… world soul. It was a natural progression. The Anima Mundi (world soul) communication was an experience in childhood that led me to make a vow: The cold war was raging, the arms race was heating up and the world was on the brink of nuclear war. As a child, I could not understand why the grownups weren’t doing something, so I vowed that when I was a grownup, I would do something! That led to my involvement with Sister Cities , my work as an Executive Officer, grant writer and administrator and my citizen ambassador work in Russia. I also worked with AIHA and eventually wrote a grant for USAID to fund the social infrastructure development to support the START II Treaty initiative : decommissioning weapons of mass destruction. I was a consultant grant writer for Los Alamos and others for their weapons’ decommissioning exchange programs. Our Sister Cities program worked with Russian and American citizens and militaries to support the chemical weapons reduction program. A one time “Stranger in Moscow,” I made friends with former “enemies.” That journey is chronicled in the book: Looking Back. I’m a long time peacemaker working in the humanities.
I studied most major religions and traditions, mythology and mysticism. I have been a Lutheran, Quaker, Buddhist, Sufi, Taoist, Hindu and a Unitarian Universalist (which embraces all of them.) I have found that at their mystical core, they are all very alike; only the trappings are different.
My writing and poetry has found a home in anthologies, poetry and short story collections, calendars, chapbooks, college programs and magazines and has received awards and international credits. George Washington University awarded me the distinction of founding case author for their education program and Voices in Wartime division of Voice Education Project has featured my work. Dean Lauter, Lawrence University’s Dean of International students said about my work in studio arts and writing: “Barbara’s work is art in the service of humanity.” The paintings and artwork have been featured in posters, photo essays, programs, concerts, and covers. My signature piece sculpture “Gaia,” whose inaugural appearance was at the Soviet-American Citizen’s Summit plenary session, in Moscow b
ecame an award to recognize humanitarians and peacemakers. A script writer and impresario, I did casting, production, performed in, and was Mistress of Ceremonies for Harmony Peace Concerts held annually at Lawrence University. I periodically present seminars and workshops privately and as a consultant for The Messenger Network. I have a private practice as: Soulwhisperer- guidance for those on the spiritual path, shaman, and energy worker.
“A theologian studies the celestial realms; a shaman makes regular visits.”
I write to “simply change the world.”
“And about that changing the world business: “If you feel a pull inside, if you have a message to share, or there is one you are passionate about… you came to change the world. Just begin where you are and Providence will have its way with you. I promise.”
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About the website and Inner Michael’ s Look:
From the mind of a Disney… no, a Da Vinci… no, a Tesla… no, an angel.. or maybe it was simple Grace…
Amy Grace is the designer for Inner Michael. Namaste` master of light and color, of intuition and Michael.
The arts make you live in a different world than most people. Artists see the world differently. They are different people. There is an eye that views from another perspective, from possibility rather than reality. Artists live in a kind of time machine that moves them from here into the future where they envision something that doesn’t yet exist.
Not going there isn’t an option for the artist. When the impulse calls, you’re going. And while there, the artist samples something juicy and with it tucked safely in an inside pocket of consciousness, they sneak back into the present bringing it with them. Sometimes what issues forth is nothing you could imagine from here. It’s leaky creation and you catch it with whatever vessel you have been given to capture that nectar.
When it does come back from that other Universe where it is at home and comfortable, its life here in the now, by its very nature transports the receiver into that world from whence it came. It becomes the vehicle transcendent.
Inner Michael was designed with the Beautiful Frenzy that is Amy Grace. To see more of her handiwork click on the designer button at the bottom.