How To Tell If Someone Is Lying To You (part 1)

Is Someone Lying To You?

by

Chris Johnson (c) Copyright 2015

Not long ago, on a radio interview, I was asked by the int
erviewer about my ability on stage to tell when someone is lying to me. It was difficult to answer in such a short time space because even the classic signs are not the most accurate way. At least, not on their own.

There are some "classic" signs to tell if someone is lying to you.

A few examples I read about years ago, when studying body language, is that liars can cover their face with their hand. If they don't do that, they may stroke their chin or scratch their ear. It is almost as if they are trying to hide something that they are saying.

Another "classic" sign that our parents used to teach us is how much eye contact is kept. It's believed that liars have trouble keeping eye contact while lying. To an extent that may be true but there are a couple of exceptions.

For example, a person with low self-esteem or a shyness problem and also have trouble watching you. They may be trying so hard to keep the eye contact, wanting you to know they are telling the truth that they become even shiftier. On the other hand, the liar (who is well aware of that classic sign that you are watching for) will also be practised in keeping eye contact by an adult age as well. They can be more convincing than the person who has the shyness problem.

A point like this can also become more interesting when you know how to watch their eyes. If they are looking upward while speaking with you, a person who processes things visually is likely to look upward. This means they are retrieving information from their mind and working through it to tell you the truth. On the other hand, a visual liar will start looking towards the side and may be more animated.

So don't use pure eye contact (or lack of it) as the only indicator of truth.

Try watching their mouth. Is it tense? That can indicate a certain level of stress, similar to what happens for a liar.

Watch their eyebrows too. Do they get drawn towards the middle of the forehead, creating little furrows? If so, check for any smoke coming from their burning pants.

In my own show, I perform one particular lie-detecting routine where I have two volunteers each decide between them if they will be a liar or a truth-teller. The reactions around their face do play a part when I speak to them to determine what they have chosen but their are other things I watch AWAY from their face too.

Do you think you can guess what they are?

I'll tell you more next time.

Until next time, have an ESPecially Brilliant Life.

Chris Johnson

20 Ways To Develop Your Creativity (Because 10 are not enough)

20 Ways To Develop Your Creativity

by

Chris Johnson

(c) Copyright 2012

www.thementalist.com.au

People often ask me how I come across the different ways that I present my routines on stage. For example, if I take one simple effect of myself influencing your thoughts, I might find an entertaining way to do it by either making you tell me to stop and cut a newspaper clipping at a point I have predetermined.

Alternatively I might subliminally suggest a number to you via a hypnotic method, make you think it was a number of your own choice and then tell you what you are thinking. Or I might make you and your partner both think the same thing and have it look like your partner is knowing what you are thinking (so it appears that he/she has read your mind).

 There are other means of expressing creativity also such as in the way we draw, paint, plan holidays and even the way we might sing a song.

Creativity is simply about how we find new ways to solve a problem or approach something. It can help us find something that is original and worthwhile in the solution. It's not restricted to artists, musicians and entertainers as it is a useful skill for people from all areas of life.

I use the word SKILL because it is something that we can all develop and here are some pointers that may help you out.

1. Commit Yourself To Developing Your Creativity

You have to fully immerse yourself in the believe that you can develop your creative abilities. Do not be put off by any "blocks". Set yourself goals and be ready to get help from others. If you put a little time aside each day to developing your skills, you will see results. It is a little like the shampoo ads that say, "It won't happen overnight but it will happen!"

2. Be Curious

I don't mean that you have to become a snoop. More than anything reward yourself for wanting to know more. The more you know about a subject, the more different ways you find to see a solution towards the problem you are trying to solve.

3. Be An Expert

This goes hand-in-hand with the second point. Don't just stop with being curious but experiment and push past what you already know.

4. Play

Playing with an idea or a notion can open up all sorts of doors as that is how you are likely to accidentally find something new that may have been previously unrealised by others. Simply being out playing (on the same line of thought) can relax the mind enough that it allows new ideas to pop out spontaneously.

5. Use Your Memory

Everyone has been creative at one time or another. Think about times in the past when you have been at your most inspired. As a kid, when I did most of my writing of stories, I used to find that listening to the radio was when most of my ideas came about. 10 years ago, I was thinking about that and then happened to have heard one of the songs on the radio that used to play back in the 1980s. Listening to that song for about three minutes was enough to set off some new ideas for me as I found myself back in the same state that I used to enjoy as a teenager.

6. Reward Your Creativity

When you have had an awesome idea and written it down or even put it into action, give yourself a reward. Take a trip to your favourite place, eat your favourite food or have your favourite drink. Enjoy some time with your partner, if you like. Just get out and enjoy yourself simply for having had that awesome flash of creativity. Doing so will help to boost the next creative streak.

7. Sometimes Creativity Is Its Own Reward

Some people find that simply having been in the process of creative thinking and action is a reward in itself. You can tell that by the amount of love that has been imbued in some works of art such as that by Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci.

8. Take Risks!

I don't mean take a running leap in front of an oncoming car. However when building your creative skills, you may need to take some kind of small risk in order to move to the next level.

9. Smile At Your Mistakes!

If you take risks, chances are that you may make a mistake. Smile with yourself for it because it is actually how we learn as human beings. We made mistakes when learning how to walk but we never gave up, did we? And look at how most of us are now! Even Thomas Edison had 10,000 failures before he successfully created the light bulb. He saw it simply as 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb... and just as well because otherwise we might be watching television by candlelight if he gave up!

10. Avoid Negative Influences

There is nothing worse than having a negative person who is around sucking that creative juice out of us and infecting our minds with their own pettiness. Well, okay, maybe two of them would be worse. However remember that positive moods help our creativity and so can being in a positive place. Get away from everything that holds you back.

11. Make Time To Be Creative

Set up a time to be away from all distractions. Give yourself time to relax, chill, and be alone with your thoughts so they can play.

12. Warmth

Being in a warm bath or shower is good for creativity too. Just don't fall asleep in it.

13. Brainstorm For Inspiration

Brainstorming or Mind Mapping is a common technique and I learned it in my final year of university while studying public relations. Start by freeing your mind of negative ideas and self-judgement and free write whatever comes to mind. If I gave you the word CAR for example, you might write about everything you associate with it... such as wheels, rubber, exhaust, engine, petrol, oil, coolant, antenna, radio, stereo, mp3, music, gearstick, backseat, sex, windows, steam. When you get stuck, go to one of the words you wrote down and then write down what you associate with each of them. The idea is to write down as many ideas as you can in as short a time as possible. Try it and see how much fun it is! When you have done that, focus on making those ideas and thoughts more clear until you have refined them into something that resembles a solution.

14. More Than One Way To Skin A Cat

Watch out, Tibbles! Seriously, realise that there is more than one solution to a problem. Take for example how humans have wanted to fly for so long. Before the Wright Brothers turned a bicycle into an aeroplane, we had other ways of getting in the air such as hot air balloons and gliders.

15. Consider Different Angles

When approaching a problem, ask the question, "What if...?" If you take a specific approach, what will be its outcome. By looking at different alternatives beforehand, you will be able to develop creative solutions to problems. Take for example the man who invented the flame thrower. There was someone who wanted to burn someone without using a match!

16. Look For Inspiration

Never expect creativity to just happen - at least not when you want it to happen. Look for new sources of inspiration that will give you fresh ideas and motivate you to generate unique answers to questions. Read a book, visit an art gallery, surf the net, listen to your favourite music or engage in a long conversation with a friend. Utilise whatever works best for you.

17. Embrace Your Mistakes

Similar to loving your mistakes, this one means that if you do make a mistake, ask yourself, "Whats the best that can come of this?"My high school science teacher once told me, as part of his class, to never be afraid of mistakes as some of the world's best discoveries were the results of accidents.As an example, superglue itself was a mistake. It was originally an attempt to create a plastic rifle sight. The same for Post-Its. The chemist who made them was originally trying to create an adhesive that was stronger than any other. Instead he created a weak adhesive that was re-usable.

18. Try the Snowball Technique

Sometimes one awesome idea leads on to another. It just can't help itself. If the idea you come across isn't a match for your current project, put it to the side and work on it later or implement it in another project in future.

19. Creative Diary

Keep a journal of your ideas, good or bad. Just write them down. They may not make sense at the time but when you come to them later, another piece of inspiration may come to you and that little thread may be just what you need.

20. Find New Ways

Okay, so you found an awesome idea that will solve the problem. Challenge yourself and try to find some new ways to do it. As I mentioned before, there is more than one way to skin a cat but why skin the cat for its warm coat when you can shear the sheep which grows more wool for more coats?

  

These are just 20 ways that you can stimulate your creativity. However there are other ways as well so don't just stop there. You probably know of many more yourself that you use. Think back to your creative times and think about what you were doing at that time. What were you touching, where were you sitting or standing? What colours were around you? What smells were in the air?

  

Do whatever works for you. If nothing seems to work, look for new ways to stimulate it. Simply by looking for alternative methods is creative in itself.

  

Please feel free to share some of the ways you stimulate your creativity here.

ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson - Mentalist

www.thementalist.com.au

Chris Johnson is an Australian Mind-Reader, performing as a mentalist and psychic illusionist at corporate and special events around Australia. His work is based around what is possible with the human mind when its potential is tapped and utilised.

All War Is Won Through Deception

All War Is Won Through Deception

by Chris Johnson

(c) Copyright Chris Johnson 2011-2015

Patterns spin themselves around us in our lives, weaving themselves about us in a multitude of hues, tones, dramas and emotions to form the fabric of our universe.

The patterns in my life have been fascinating me over the course of this year. Only in the past 7 days has there been some light coming to pass as one of these patterns revealed itself, presenting itself as a series of problems to me, and shown that it provides its own solution.

It comes through the conflict between personalities, the two classic sorts of dependent and independent. I used to believe that we are either one or the other but today I have realised that we are neither and we are both at the same time.

Confused?

Take an example of two people, each the opposite of the other.

One example I can think of belongs to two people who I used to know years ago who existed in a doomed relationship. He was a tradesman, a boilermaker, and she was unemployed. Her case was only so because she believed that she had no need to work, a belief fostered by her partner who was breadwinner and always brought the money home.

She believed that she was dependent on him for everything :- money, security, love, food, a home and a bed to sleep in at night.

He, on the other hand, learned to take her for granted by believing she would always be home for him when he returned from work. Food would always be cooked and ready, the house would have always been cleaned and ready for his friends to come around and drink and leave the house in a mess again, and he believed that he always had sex on tap when he wanted it.

If she wanted to try something for herself, he always told her that she would never be able to do it. That included something most of us take for granted, such as driving a car.

Eventually her stronger self had reached its pain threshold and lashed out. Her partner came home one day and found that she was gone. All of her possessions were taken from the house, leaving him with his own things in his house.

She has since learned to drive, has found a loving and supportive partner who is now the father of their two young sons, and has a better outlook on life.

The question is :- who was really the dependent one in the relationship?

Personally I think that he was the dependent one. Those who are too dependent in a relationship, especially when insecure in their own abilities as a human being, will generally attempt to suppress the ones they "love" in order to keep that loved one with them. That is exactly what they guy did. In reality he was dependent on her for things to be done around the house and to be there when he needed sexual release. She was more than capable of achieving what she wanted in life. All she had to do was SEE it and then BELIEVE it.

Have you seen the Disney animated film called, "Song of the South"?

It's full of stories, based upon three characters known as Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear as told by "Uncle Remus".

One of the stories tells of how Bre'er Fox and Br'er Bear managed to capture Br'er Rabbit, using his own cockiness against him as a weapon with the help of a tar baby they had created. When the rabbit was captured, the bear and the fox took their time trying to figure out what to do with him. Would they eat him or would they torture him some other way?

Br'er Rabbit said, "You can do whatever you want with me but don't throw me in yonder briar bush."

Of course this just tempted the Fox and the Bear and they tormented the Rabbit with the idea of doing exactly just that. The more they pressed, the more the Rabbit protested until eventually they threw him as far into the prickly briar patch as they could.

Listening, they expected to hear the Rabbit crying in pain and misery... only they heard him chortling and laughing as he admitted that was exactly where they wanted to throw him. You know why?

That was his original home as he had been born there!

You're probably wondering what that has to do with dependent personalities....?

I will explain that in a moment but next I want to bring your attention to one of the oldest personal development books known to history. It's called The Art Of War and was written by a Chinese gentleman by the name of Sun Tzu.

Sun Tzu has been quoted in his works for sayings such as "War is best fought with deception", "pretend inferiority and encourage your enemy's arrogance". My other favourite is "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster".

Is there a light shining in your mind from those words and what I have already written earlier?

Br'er Rabbit used deception, pretending that he had no control (when really he had it the whole time) and encouraged the arrogance of the Fox and the Bear... until they did exactly what he wanted by throwing him in the briar patch. He lived to laugh for another adventure.

In the case of the couple I used to know, the lady had let her partner think he had fully convinced her of how "useless she was". She let him believe how good he was, all the time planning how to make things work best for herself and her personal growth. (She is doing better than him and he's still doing the same disempowering things as before.)

When dealing with someone who is suppressive, overbearing and hurting you, remember that you really do have the potential to turn things around. If they are doing that, it means they are feeling threatened by you. If their words and actions are aimed at making you believe in your own inferiority, it means that actually have superiority hidden inside you.

When you do that, you have found your own hidden power inside and you can foster and nurture it. Let the other person believe they have beaten you or that you depend on them for something. They may not drop their guard but your own little piece of deception will help to relax their hold for a moment... and then when the time is right, surprise them by bursting from the burning ashes like the reborn phoenix.

If you listen carefully, you may hear Br'er Rabbit's laughter coming from inside yourself. :)

Have a great day.

ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson

www.thementalist.com.au

Empty Cup - Part 2 - What To Do With Your Full Cup

What To Do With Your Full Cup

by

Chris Johnson (c) 2014

Bruce Lee also spoke about the Empty Cup with a similar story to the one I detailed in my article from earlier this month.  If you haven't read it, you can find it right here.

In Bruce Lee's explanation of the Empty Cup, he described a glass half full of Coke and another half full of clear water. The Coke was the student's mind and all the knowledge they had found to be true. 

The second glass represented Bruce Lee's mind and knowledge and skill... which the student wanted.

Bruce explained that he could not give the student his knowledge because there was no room for it in the glass. The student would need to empty his own "glass" to allow for what would come from Bruce.

A couple of the ways that we can apply this to our everyday lives will be described from BOTH points of view.

Take the example of what most likely happens in your home life.

You have come home from your day at work which could have been absolutely hellish. Your boss could have been an absolute bastard and the customers could have been grumpy creatures before they even thought of speaking with you about their problems. So by the time 5 o'clock happens your head is full of the day's trials and tribulations.

When you arrive home, your spouse greets you but they have had a totally awesome day. Everything went well for them. They managed to achieve their daily tasks and they seem to have swallowed so much sunshine that they could be farting rainbows.

Both of you are Full Cups at this point and want to blurt out all of the day's events to each other. After all, that's what couples do. They talk, right?

Imagine what happens if your spouse starts talking first. You see his or her eyes light up and... are you even listening to what they say? Probably not because you're thinking about how someone at work expected you to take over a task for her just 2 minutes before you had to go home... and that task required at least 10 minutes to assess before even attempting it. However you chose to handle that, you are aching to tell that battle story and your spouse's words are falling on unlistening ears.

Your spouse may as well be pouring into a glass until it overflows because that's what happens.

On the other hand, if you speak first and unleash your stories and woes upon your poor spouse, you will end up potentially ruining their chances to express themselves too.

Yes, I made this a really tough situation purposely to make you think for a moment.

Here is one solution (but not the only one), utilising the Cup.

You don't have to Empty the Cup completely. Either of you could start by saying, "I have some really great news" or "I have had a really crap day".

Although it's only a little bit, that one little "spillage" from your Cup could be enough to let  you take on your spouse's story before telling them your story if they are to speak first. Alternatively, if you speak first, you have emptied yours ready for their story too.

It works both ways. You can empty your cup or you can help empty theirs... or you can both spill a little bit each.

Another example of the Empty Cup comes about through the workplace. How many emails do you receive or send daily? I mean the ones within the workplace that detail things about updates to policies, new information on products, and so on.

I know of at least one company where the staff receive at least 50 to 100 emails daily AND they are expected to read every single one of them while answering calls in the call centre every day. Remarkably the management know about it and do zilch about it, probably because they are caught in the same poisonous cycle themselves.

Meanwhile their Outlook has just about herniated from the overload as well as their staff who have gone into a zombified coma from too much information.

In this case, as the email sender, you could try changing either how the information is written (eg: bullet points rather than long waffling paragraphs), how many you send (eg: a digest of points, rather than multiple messages, or even a summary) or just send the truly important information (could be hard for some people).

Consider the people you intend to inform of things. They are busy people too and you need to give them a chance to Empty their Cup to take on, and appreciate, your own refreshing Tea.

The other challenge is as the one with the Full Cup. What do you do when you are receiving heaps of emails at work which serve as distractions from your work... and yet paradoxically are meant to help you even though it hinders you to have to take time to read the overload?

You have to Empty the Cup in one way or another. You could speak with the manager and ask for time off to catch up on the emails. If you have to keep doing this, day after day, it may indicate an issue with management themselves or even require asking the senders to change their frequency.

The Empty Cup is always in a better position to take on more tea (information), therefore it is a useful cup. The Full Cup, although serving a purpose, is less useful unless it has been emptied at least a little.

Until next time....

ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson

www.thementalist.com.au

The Empty Cup (Is Your Cup Empty?)

One of my favourite stories involves the young and the old Masters in China.

There are many different versions of who the characters really are and the one thing in common involves the setting of how they came to be speaking. It was even "inserted" into the apocalyptic movie "2012".

When you read it, ask yourself, "What am I missing out on because I haven't emptied my cup?"

A young Shaolin monk in Feudal China had an extensive background in the ways of the Shaolin, Tao and Buddhism as well as being an expert on the Nirvana Sutra. As was the custom in those times, he studied under many different masters. Many of those masters he had bested with his knowledge and skill. Finally he came across the most venerable of masters of that time.

He came to study with the Master and, after making the customary bows, asked him to teach him the greater truths.

The old Master sat him down for tea and, while preparing the tea, asked the young scholar about his background. The young man gladly spoke of his past, how he had bested other more learned men than he. To each of the scholar's tales, the old Master smiled and nodded, listening patiently the whole time while making the tea.

When it was ready, he poured the tea into the scholar's cup until it began to overflow and run all over the floor. The scholar saw what was happening and shouted, "Stop! Stop! The cup is full, you can't get any more in!"

The Master stopped pouring and said, "You are like this cup - full of ideas, full of yourself, and full of what you believe. You come for teaching but your cup is full. I can't put anything in. Before I can teach you, you will have to empty your cup."
_____________________

LESSON?
1. Challenge your beliefs.
2. Search not for the truth but first cease your infatuation with your opinions.

In 2 weeks time, after I return from my honeymoon, I will tell you a little more about some of the many ways this can be applied to your everyday life.


Until then,

ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson
Mentalist and Psychic Entertainer
www.thementalist.com.au

How To Detox Your Life AND Enjoy The Rewards

Have you ever heard the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together"?

This has a few different meanings. The most obvious one is that Like does attract Like and, when you think about it, we do tend to like people who are like us. That's whether we are in a good frame of life or one that spirals out of whack. Positive people hang with other positive types and the same goes for negative ones.

If you find yourself in a negative frame, you need to start looking at yourself and the people who you hang around (or who hang around you).

What kind of people do you find yourself hanging around or hanging around you?

Let's define a negative or toxic person. It's someone who complains all the time, dumping their problems on you while doing nothing about their situation. They are not supportive (although they may feel they are). They can be someone who makes you feel bad, shoots down your brilliant ideas, big goals, or big decisions that you need to make in order to rise to greater heights.

There are others who either border on psychotic or are square in that territory, very dangerous who hold onto emotions of jealousy of others. They're the kind of person who, like a vulture or psychic vampire, latch onto you when you have a bad day and do what they can to make you feel worse about yourself so they can feed off your own negativity. Picture the person who, as a child, would pinch or punch their sibling and then start saying, "Oh! Why are you crying? What happened?" and then progress as adults to do similar things on a larger scale.

The latter can also call on you, under the guise of wanting to help or support, when in reality they are trying to get under your guard so they can start suckling off your negativity and bask in watching you writhe in mental anguish as they goad you further with well-placed manipulative language.

The sad thing is that these same people are often in a very dark place in their own lives. It can be tempting for some empathic people to want to help them, as anyone would support someone who is simply having a bad day, only to find they are being drawn into another drama. Be aware that many times they are unable to see beyond their own struggles and not open to constructive feedback or changing.

This article is not about them but rather how to help yourself so you don't allow their negativity to impact upon your own life.

Why is it so important to detox your life of them?

"Develop an allergy to negativity"

Negative or toxic people slow you down towards achieving what you want in life. Whether they know it or not, they can either discourage you from your ambitions and ideals or following your dreams by questioning your thoughts and planting doubts in your head. Their energy can affect your own performance, not to mention your stress and anxiety.

It's about looking after your health (mental and physical) and also your own psyche so learn to look after yourself!

I've personally found it important to distance myself from such people, whether they are strangers, friends or even family members. Mahatma Ghandi has been quoted as saying, "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet." After seeing what such toxic personalities can do, can you blame him for saying that so strongly?

You need to create space for positive change to happen. Being in toxic relationships with such people will hold you back from creating happiness and conditions for your own success. Also, releasing negative people from your life will create space for the positive influences to enter your life that encourage, support and helpl you to grow as the beautiful person you deserve to be.

It is your right to stand up for yourself!

There are three basic steps to do that.

Step 1: Decide that you are worth it and tell yourself that.

Some people feel they have to wait for approval or permission to be worth something. You are worthy of achieving your dreams and goals and being the person you want to be. Letting go of any negativity will get you there quicker. Commit to doing it for yourself otherwise that guilt for letting go of such relationships will keep you in the same place.

You're worth it and all I can say is that you just DECIDE. DO IT NOW!!!

What goals do you have. How badly do you truly want them? Are these negative people actually supporting you or are they taunting you with how you haven't been reaching them in their own passive-aggressive way?

Do you want to be happy?

Step 2: Work out who the toxic people are

Toxic folks make you feel worse when you start talking to them. They bring your energy level down, leaving you feeling like you have just bottomed out on empty.

To be clear, there is a difference between someone sharing their problems with you (such as having a bad day, as we all do) and someone who constantly moans, bitches and complains.

The difference is someone who is genuinely struggling is willing to take constructive feedback, is open to change and follows through on it. On the other side of the coin, complainers don't want to change and want you to feel sorry for them and stop everything to do so at the drop of a hat every chance they can get.

They can shoot down your ideas, question your decisions. They can question your relationships, job choices, and other things such that they come between you and what you want. In short, they love to rule and manipulate you with fear.

It can be so well-practised (if they are doing it deliberately) that it is so subtle and hard to notice that you don't realise until it's possibly too late. Otherwise they can be as obvious as a slap in the face from a killer whale. So be on guard.

They don't have to be blatantly obvious to be just as dangerous. Nor do they have to do it knowingly.

Step 3: Let them go

In the famous words of Nike, just do it! Do it any way you can or that you think is appropriate.

Avoid them. Stop picking up their calls. You can apologise for being distant but feel no obligation at all to explain yourself or defend your actions. You don't have to answer to them.

Even if you do try explaining to them, it may fall upon deaf ears as they are not ready to listen and to change themselves. They're happy in their own muck or they may also get defensive or attempt to divert the blame back onto you.

My advice is to do it gracefully and with love - especially love for yourself. Send them away with love and good wishes. If you wish, you can be open to the possibility that if and when they are ready to change and be more positive or supportive then you would be open to rekindling things. If you do give them a chance, be on guard just the same as you may need to break the connection permanently.

Step 4: Be happy

I lied. There is a step 4. Once you have done step 3, it's time to smile and be happy!

Remember to not feel guilt for letting them go. You have just helped yourself by being your best friend.

Perhaps you feel that you should keep them around just because they're a family member. Families are meant to nurture each other and be supportive. Normal ones also let each other live their lives unhindered and you have the right to be positive and happy while living your life to its fullest limit.

You're not obligated to keep them in your life if they have been a negative influence and potentially harming your own happiness. Relationships tend to evolve and some simply run their course. Let that be one of them.

Let the positivity in and enjoy the good times that you have allowed into your life!

You deserve it.


ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson, Psychic Entertainer
www.thementalist.com.au

PS: Would you like to make a little extra money? I actually pay people who find me bookings. Drop me a line at www.thementalist.com.au and I will tell you more.

The Devil Made Me Do It.... Really?

One of the biggest lies people can ever tell others (and themselves) when they do something wrong is that the Devil made you do it.

The truth of it is that the devil doesn't make you do anything at all. I mean, sure, he can suggest, nudge you and tempt you, but in the end you make the choice of whether to do right or wrong.

It's a sad fact in humanity, and it may be a growing trend although there may be evidence to the contrary, that people are learning more and more to fail to take responsibility for the actions they take. The blame is not always placed on the Devil as it can also be placed upon a boss, the children, the spouse or even the weather.

The Tarot's Devil card has often been misrepresented, especially in popular culture such as Hollywood movies, as being a card of evil. This is perpetuated further, and just as falsely, by others who "reason" that it proves a so-called Satanic connection of sorts.

Regardless of whether you believe the Devil to be an actual entity or not, it is generally accepted amongst most Tarot Consultants that the Devil card is mostly about ourselves and our choices than it is about some "demonic presence".

Many texts, old and new, state that the Devil card represents an enslavement, fear, and temptation. This is the same meaning that I believe it takes and the same message I give if it comes up during one of my Intuitive Consultations.

If you look closely at the picture of the card, you will see it shows two people, a man and a woman, chained to the Devil. The chains are around their neck and, if you look even closer, you will notice that those same chains are loose. Similar to the elephant I mentioned in another blog post, Ask Me About The Elephant, the chains are so loose that they can escape if they so choose!

The key word here is choice.

These chains in our lives can take many guises, whether it be a bad habit, alcohol and other addictions, self-defeating belief systems, toxic relationships and other types of behaviour. All of these things can be chains to hold us down. Just like any other problem in life, the first step to helping yourself to recovery is to acknowledge that you have the problem.

When you do acknowledge it, however, you do so as the first step towards recovery. NEVER use it as an excuse to hold you back like that chain (which is so big it would fall off you if you just shrugged a little more).

First comes taking responsibility for yourself. Then comes the treatment and help before freedom.

Taken in this context, the Devil Card is a very self-reflective card that allows us to look at our lives and to recognise the things holding us back so that we can deal with them better. The card itself is not a source of evil but the things it represents are self-destructive and detrimental to our physical, mental and spiritual health.

What chains are holding you down in life and how can you get rid of such negative things?

We bring these things on ourselves and the great part is that we don't have to fix it by ourselves. If the Tarot, as a self-improvement tool, teaches us anything it is that we can not make it through life's journey alone.

If you need help, acknowledge it and seek it. Then rid yourself of your slavery to your temptations and excuses.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

ESPecially best wishes,

Chris Johnson

www.thementalist.com.au

PS: Are you missing out on the World's Biggest Psychic Party? You don't have to.

The Seeds Of Life And Death

A few years ago, one of my clients made a return visit. This time she had brought her youngest daughter along.


The 18 year-old girl was deathly thin with cheeks sunken and eyes so dull that she looked really sick. That wasn't what worried me so much. It was when her mother told me that just 2 weeks earlier, she had been a picture of sunshine and good health; a complete opposite to the gaunt figure sitting opposite me. She looked as though the life had been sucked out of her by some kind of astral parasite.

For the sake of the story, we will call her June (since I am writing this in June and I want to protect her identity).

A couple of days after a slumber party with friends, June lost her appetite and stopped going out with friends. After a week, her mother started to worry because now as June was becoming lethargic and was starting to "die from inside". They had been to a doctor who did the responsible things. He had referred her to have blood tests and a series of other checkup with a specialist.

The test showed nothing was wrong physically and the specialist could not explain it. The other girls were all healthy and there was nothing to show what could have caused it.

Her mother decided to bring her daughter to me.

My first question was to ask why she had brought her to me. June was sick and I'm not a doctor.

By this time I was already looking at the girl's palm and examining the life line as well as the colours around finger tips and palm in general. While the lifeline did have a slight faint look towards the end of it, I knew that there was still plenty of energy passing through it. This girl was making herself sick!

I looked her in the eye and asked her, "Why are you making yourself sick?"

Her mother looked surprised to hear this and we both looked at June who denied it although I could see something was battling in her mind. 

Normally I ask first-timers if they have had a reading before. It's a general question usually to let people relax. This time I already knew the answer before I asked the question.

The girl was surprised at first and nodded in confirmation, telling me she already knew what I was going to tell her.

"Then you already know that your friends were extremely irresponsible," I said.

Her friend at the slumber party had done the equivalent of what other teenagers sometimes do at parties with ouija boards (another very strongly misunderstood item). Rather instead of a real ouija board, they created a makeshift version out of cards with words and letters written on them. For the planchette they found a glass and turned it upside down on the table so that their fingers were moving it about and touching different letters and words to create answers to their questions.

When it came to my client's daughter's turn, the "spirit" (which I strongly suspect was not a spirit this time but a very silly girl) announced that June was going to die and that it would happen within 6 weeks!

June's mother asked, "Can you see if it is true?"

I traced my finger along June's life line. "Your energy is strong inside you. The blockage that is making you feel sick is not from anything physical such as illness. It's a dis-ease."

I explained that dis-ease, in this case, was simply a LACK OF EASE. She was worrying herself to death needlessly.

June found it hard to believe at first as she could not believe she was making herself sick until I said, "Were you worrying before the reading?" (Her answer was no)

"Were you worried AFTER the reading?" (Yes)

"Now," I replied. "Would you have been worried if you had not even had the reading? Do you think you would have been sick and dying if you had not been told so?"

The girl stopped to think and I knew she was starting to see the light. So I started explaining some more things to her that were very evident about her hand.

"I'm not a doctor," I told her, "so I won't give you medical advice but I do know plenty of things already just by looking at your hand. This is what I am seeing. I see a hand which has healthy colouring in it, despite the rest of you being pale. Your life line is full of energy so I know that you can live a very long time if left to your own devices. You're a strong girl and you will live for a very long time when you choose to do so."

She looked hesitant but I knew that she could see sense. So I gave her the extra nudge.

"The only spirits that you have to worry about in life are the ones the liquid ones that come from a bottle. No other spirit will ever hurt you and there were no spirits telling you things at that party. It was your friends playing a very nasty joke. Are you going to let them win?"

"No way," she said, brightening.

She also admitted that the girl who "gave the message from the ouija board" was not one of the nicest girls either. I told her that, if anything, the other girl just wanted to spew out her own poison because she was jealous of June.

I've seen June again a few times and I am happy to say that she's not died. Rather she is living a very full life and has many great things coming up for her still. I'd bet my career upon it.

The point of this story is about how much we take on from others around us and about how much what we say can affect others as well.

Be careful what you say to your children, your family and your friends and enemies. The words we speak are the seeds of change. They can be noxious weeds that choke yourself and others to death or they can be beautiful trees full of bountiful life.

You have the choice of what you think and of what you say and we all reap what we sow.

Which do you want to have in your life?

I wish you all the great things that life can offer you in abundance.

ESPecially Best Wishes,

Chris Johnson
www.thementalist.com.au

Ask Me About the Elephant

Ask Me About The Elephant

by

Chris Johnson

(c) 2013-2014

This is not so much about elephants as it is about yourself.

If you were born in the 1970's or before that, you are probably able to remember the days of going to a circus and seeing an elephant tethered by a chain to its leg. The chain (or even a rope) was attached to a peg stuck in the ground.

That elephant, my friend, is you. It is strong, noble and wise, powerful, intelligent and able to hold its own in harsher environments than our modern living.

An elephant is a strong creature more than capable of knocking down trees, moving and lifting heavy weights with its muscular trunk. It is even able to move obstacles MUCH STRONGER THAN THE CHAIN AROUND ITS LEG!!

So why is it able to do these things and yet a flimsy looking chain on a stake can hold the elephant in check?

When an elephant is only a baby, the animal handlers attach it to the rope and stake. As a baby, the elephant is still quite weak and the peg is sufficient to hold it.

Like any other free spirit, it will fight against the chain or the rope. It will tug and pull and whinge and complain as it learns that it simply isn't going anywhere while it's caught on that rope.

Its mind becomes conditioned so much that the proud elephant becomes complacent and gives in. In fact its mind is so powerful that it tells itself that it will never ever be able to move that stake.

Elephants have a long memory and so, even when it has grown to an adult size and is physically able to move that stake and rope, it does not even try!

Effectively it becomes its own captive!

Earlier I said that YOU are this elephant and there is a reason why. I don't mean you specifically as the point is that we are all that elephant in one way or another.

That chain and stake represents your own self-limiting beliefs.

Do you remember when you tried to do things as a child and some things appeared REALLY HARD TO DO? Either you were not strong enough at the time to lift something or you just could not get the knack because your coordination was not right at the time. Or maybe something else held you back.

You may have tried very hard to do it but eventually gave up.

This could happen in adult years too when getting a job in the area you want is difficult. Maybe you gave up on finding the right life partner? Maybe you gave up at a particular sport or pasttime because of one thing or another.

Either way, you had enough references to create a negative belief that something could not be done... so why bother?

You, my friend, became that elephant. We all have in one way or another.

Here's the good news.

Just like that elephant, we are capable of learning extraordinary things, to develop, to adapt, to break free. To grow!

If you showed that elephant that it can walk off, carrying that chain and stake behind it like a toothpick, it would learn that the only thing holding it back was its self-limiting belief.

What chain and stake are you letting hold you back?

When are you going to realise your own personal power?

When are you going to make the decision to move forward?

It's time to break free from your self-imposed chain and stake and live your dreams!

ESPecially best wishes,


Chris Johnson - Mentalist & Public Speaker
www.thementalist.com.au
www.facebook.com/chrisjohnsonthementalist

PS: To learn how to release your own inner elephant spirit and strength, visit me at www.thementalist.com.au and book in a time for a psi-q consultation.