I Am An American

I Am An American

On my mom's side of my family, I am related to George Soule, one of the original Mayflower travelers. At one point in time, my family owned much of the eastern coast of the USA. Chevy Chase, Maryland was built and named by a relative. Many of my family fought in the wars to free America and I take my responsibility to carry forth their mission very seriously.

My only weapon is my words.

They fought to be free of oppression.
They fought to be free to speak their mind.
They fought to be free to arm themselves.
They fought to be free to worship as they chose.
They fought to be free to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

While they were defending these rights, they were thinking of themselves of course, and changing the face of their existence, but they also considered all those who would come after. They didn't want their descendants to have a life that was anything less than free.

They are turning over in their graves at the state of our union today. Is this what they wanted when they envisioned the America of the future? I think not.

Wisdom Part 1

Wisdom Part 1

I've been doing interviews with those artists (musicians) who passed over for a while now. I have been talking to some of the most incredible artists. Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith are the farthest back in time that have come forward so far, but I know that as word spreads there, more artists will come forward. I thought I would share some words of wisdom given to me:

Jim Morrison "There is a part of me that is that Jim, but it's not all of me."

George Harrison " Sometimes between those two it was difficult for anybody to recognize that we were also in the room. Big egos, big asses."

John Lennon "Before everything big happened we were just a friendly lot of guys, just friends from a small town."

Janis Joplin "I think I did what I wanted to do the first time around when I was Janis, and it felt like I was creating something. I think the second time when I came back as Amy Winehouse, it felt like I was trying to recreate it."

Elvis Presley "I jam with others who are here and I watch others where you are to see who needs help. I've worked with many but they don't know it."

Johnny Cash "I came from nothing, I came from nowhere. My people weren't big people. And I always felt most comfortable with people that sounded like me, that lived like e,. I always thought to myself, those are my people."

Kurt Cobain "For me happy is that state where you are trouble-free, relaxed, excited. Sort of like an orgasm but in your head."

Karen Carpenter "I've been gone for a long time, a very, very very long time. And it seems as if the music that is popular now is not the music that I was interested in. Although I seem to still be a pretty big hit at weddings."

Michael Hutchence "There were people I played with, I wouldn't have been the person I was, the musician I was, without them. I got the opportunity I had because I was backed by great musicians, they made me better than I was."

Freddie Mercury "You want to know what the real story is? I was just a guy, gay, not sure, I was just in love. Doesn't matter, just matters how that person makes you feel."

Robin Gibb "I think that the music of the '60s was about revolution and I think that the music of the '70s was about battle fatigue and trying to find a new way to live and the music of the '80s was about rebuilding. That's how I phrase it in my head anyway."

Cass Elliot "My heart gave out. I think it had been stress and drugs and no sleep and a life of hard living. There was a couple of hours where I felt like I was so exhausted, I couldn't breathe. I had been partying, talking, eating, laughing. But I had felt like I was starting to lose steam and I went home. I felt like every step I was taking was a strong effort. I almost collapsed in the bed and I thought, I have got to take a few days to myself. Then, when I got in bed I kept taking these breaths, but I felt like I couldn't get a deep enough breath. It felt like the world was slowing down. Then I realized I'm really sick. I'm really, really sick here. And then I must've fallen unconscious because the next thing I knew I was out of my body."

David Bowie "I had a great life, then I got sick. I knew I was dying. I just let go. I wish I would've helped more people become what they wanted to. That's what it's all about you know, helping each other. Here I can help but there has to be intent on the other side, strong intent. If we are called upon, we will help. Humans don't believe this is true but it is true. Sit in silence, call us, we will come. Doesn't matter who you are, we will try to visit all that are sincere in their intent."

Syd Barrett " There are no rules or expectations, those are human things. We don't live by those here. When you leave that body you leave all the bad behind. Nobody bothers anybody else, we all just go our own way."

Whitney Houston "Nothing will ever make you happy if you can't find yourself. Pray, ask for help from the Universe. Don't take mind-altering substances, you won't be able to receive your direction."

Michael Jackson "I am an artist, a son, a father. I am just like everybody else in that sense. My life is no different than yours internally. I have access to more than others but that doesn't make me happy."

Death Is The Best Thing That Can Happen To The Living

Death Is The Best Thing That Can Happen To The Living

I recently interviewed Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. During our conversation, Syd said "Death is the best thing that can happen to the living." and I immediately knew I had to write something using this phrase. In fact here is the conversation:

Rene' "Where you are now, are you happy? 

Syd "Oh yes, what’s not to be happy about. No pressure, no expectations, it’s great here." 

Rene' "Are you going to come back here and try again?"

Syd "I’ve considered it. There are some items that I do need to address, things that I wanted to accomplish but didn’t. There’s no rush to do it, I’ll make up my mind when I am ready."

Rene' "So there’s no rules, no expectations?" 

Syd "No, those are human things. We don’t live by those here. When you leave that body you leave all the bad behind and your soul doesn’t keep track of anything. You just live, pure and simple. No right, no wrong, just live your way, whatever that is. Nobody bothers anybody else. We all just go our own way." 

Rene' "Looking forward to being there someday."

Syd "Death is the best thing that can happen to the living."

Rene "Love that, sounds like a song." 

Syd "Help yourself, you’re the poet, write the poem then turn it into a song. It’s not that hard to do." 

Rene "Thank you, Syd."

Syd "I appreciate your interest in my life there."

Rene "And where you are now is just as important, if not more." 

Syd "I’ll tell you what I can. We’re very limited as to what we can divulge."

Rene' "I appreciate the time you gave me today. I hope that hearing from you will help anyone who is still struggling with your passing." 

Syd "Let me know when you finish that song, I’d like to hear it."

What follows is my poem/song. What comes next is learning how to write a song. 

Death Is The Best Thing That Can Happen To The Living

Letting go of things we love.

Being stuck with things we don’t. 

Every day I give thanks that I am here, 

But I don’t know how much longer I can do this.

You see

Death is the best thing that can happen to the living. 

It is our reward for enduring this adventure called life.

Living is hard, dealing with the ups and downs

And ins and outs. 

But life is long and hard my friend 

And it ain’t no fun getting older. 

So be prepared to spend most of your time 

Being unhappy.

You see

Death is the best thing that can happen to the living. 

It is our reward for enduring this adventure called life.

If you make it to the finish line alive,

You will reap your reward. 

Life is what you make it, 

Not quite true.

We have no control over our destiny, 

It is what it is.

Try as hard as you can,

You still won’t get what you want,

What you deserve,

If it isn’t what you’re supposed to have or be,

You see

Death is the best thing that can happen to the living. 

It is our reward for enduring this adventure called life.

If you make it to the finish line alive,

You will reap your reward. 

Like climbing the mountain, 

Almost to the top,

My foot slips

And I fall.

Back to the beginning.

What did I do wrong?

I followed the directions, 

Obeyed the instructions,

Did the best I could.

Why do I still fail to 

Reach the top of the mountain,

The peak of life?

You see

Death is the best thing that can happen to the living. 

It is our reward for enduring this adventure called life.

If you make it to the finish line alive,
You will reap your reward. 

Advice From "The Otherside" Edgar Allen Poe

Advice From "The Otherside" Edgar Allen Poe

I have a special relationship with Edgar. He stepped forward during a reading I was having with Myrna back in October 2019. I had been speaking with those passed over during my readings but it was always a family member. Until that day.

Myrna looked at me and said, "Edgar Allen Poe is asking permission to speak with you." I just sat there for a minute and tried to let that sink in. "Is he a relation?" was all that came out of my mouth. "No, you are kindred souls," he said through Myrna. Edgar says he wants to write through you. "What does that mean, channeling?" was my next comment. He said "Sort of" and I said ok. He let me know that he would be in touch to discuss.

Two days later I began t work with EEP on our book, "Dear Mr. Poe...Just Call Me Edgar." (Now available on Amazon Books, shameless self-promo. So what.) It's a book of free-form poetry and brings together the best of both of us.

What follows is some advice to me from Edgar about becoming a writer.

EDGAR ALLEN POE

"The writer has a process that only the writer can see. No one else understands the writer's labor and very few people have faith in it until there is a finished product. It’s a lonely place and I think that maybe a lot of the fear is rooted inside of that. It is the reason why so many writers look for sources of comfort because they feel the information coming through and everyone else is saying yes, you must clean the bathroom or you must vacuum the rug and you are thinking why such mundane things when I have the entire Universe at my fingertips. Ultimately, you can only rely on yourself to carry forth the task in front of you. Ultimately it is your resolve whether or not you choose to craft the narrative that others may read for the fulfillment of their understanding.

What is the focus that you want to bring? Remove the idea that people have to think a certain way, you cannot make others process like you. Instead, say to yourself, for those who understand my internal language, for those who understand what I am writing or why I must write, this is just a little story for you. Ultimately for every writer, you are writing for yourself. And once it is complete you send it out to see if others will care for this small changeling you’ve given birth to. Don’t think any longer about other people. Think only of the subject matter. Take the Universe and bring it down to the smallest grain of rice. And write about that. Give people the commonality of the experience of being alive."

Advice From The "Otherside" Norman Mailer

Advice From The "Otherside" Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer kicked my ass. Norman is a friend of Jim Morrison. Jim and I have had conversations about writing and he has given me some wonderful advice about life. Jim mentioned me to Norman and what follows is the advice Norman gave me about writing.

NORMAN MAILER

"I think you are putting together a process. An infrastructure as it were. I think that the very first thing you have to do is figure out the process before you put in the people. Process first people afterward. People are messy, the process keeps things clean. And you can understand what you need from them, what you are looking for, and what needs to be tossed aside. Have you made a decision about what you want to write about, the artist, or the issue? It doesn't seem as if the issue is what's hitting at you, musicians are notoriously messy when it comes to how they live their lives. You ask one question and you get 6 hours worth of conversation and only 20 minutes of it is usable and then it has to be edited down. It's not the people, it's the work and if you want to be on target with the scope, then you have to be on target with your process. The process is what does your workday consist of? And that’s the fear. If you want to deal with things, feelings, and messiness, you have to have a place that does not change. You have to have a desk, and paper, and ink and you have to have a notepad. You have to have the things that you need to process the information. You have to put together what your time at your desk looks like. If you're going to pour your heart and soul into paragraphs, it has to be worth it. There has to be something productive and you need to be productive with it. My advice would be to begin thinking about what happens during the time that you're working. And then to be disciplined with that. So many words per day or so many interviews per day, or so much research per day and you complete that and it is simply what it is. If you want to be the master of your craft then you have to be the master of your craft. There isn't any excuse for anything to impede your progress once you’ve started. Once you’ve started you’ve made a commitment to complete the work, you’ve made a commitment to your subjects, you’ve made a commitment to yourself, those things have to be in your mind every single time, I am going to write these pages, I am going to complete this project, then I can fall apart, then I can disbelieve. But all of that has to go to the side while I am creating it. Do you understand that?"

Advice From The "Otherside" George Harrison

Advice From The "Otherside" George Harrison

What follows is a conversation George Harrison and I had about my insecurities in this new realm of life that I now live.

GEORGE HARRISON

"It feels a little like you were warming up to us and you got cold. I’ve had my issues with stage fright, I can completely understand yours. And yet when it came time I had to perform, that’s what I was contracted to do. And I imagine you are still wrestling with the idea of contracting to do this work. That's something you need to think about, because it’s voluntary, but it seems to be sitting on top of you. Because you are interested because you are willing to listen because you are willing to find the balance, you were given this gift. We’re not all right you know, not all of us. And we’re not all wrong. There's a balance there. The artistic temperament is different, we live in a different world, we answer our calls immediately and sometimes we are out of balance with that. I think you understand that concept. And I don't think that if you can frame anything in terms of worthiness that anybody qualifies to do anything. I think the question is readiness. Are you ready to do it? Do you have room for it? Are you willing to give it space? You have a desire for it, but are you really ready to step forward? You know sometimes, I couldn’t remember the next chord to play, it would just vanish out of my head but it was still in my fingers. I could still figure out with my fingers where to go even though my brain went blank. I think it has to be the same thing for you, you may say it went cold for a minute or I’m not sure but you still have to write something. You still have to say well let me get information that I can get from the other side let me see what the sources are let me understand where the story comes together how does it dovetail? No matter how much you speak to us, there’s a hell of a lot of research you need to do and that can be the place that you begin to find your footing. It's interesting that in any amount of writing or journalism or speaking about it always comes down to my truth, your truth, and then the truth that’s somehow in the middle. And that's what you're looking for, the truth that's somehow in the middle. I may say we were treated unfairly or I was treated unfairly, somebody else may say that was not how it was and maybe that's true and maybe it's not. And you are there with the puzzle pieces trying to figure out decades later what really happened there. So maybe that’s not even am I hearing it or receiving it, I think maybe it’s do I have the ability to put the puzzle pieces together? Can I get all of the information in such a big task when so many of these people are gone? And get a feeling for what really happened and who we really were. None of us are the same people that the publicists and The Machine made us out to be. We were all just human beings trying to figure it out."

George: "What's your favorite word?"

Rene': "Peace."

George: "Why is that your favorite word?"

Rene': "believe that's where you find true happiness."

George: "Can you show me a picture of peace?"

Rene: (I hold up a photo of sunrise that I love, that makes me feel peaceful.)

George: "This is a picture of sunlight and clouds, and water, where is the actual picture of peace?"

Rene': "There is no picture of peace, this makes me feel peace."

George:"AHA, that’s correct. You’re looking at something that cannot be touched. Your favorite word is of something that is ethereal. And if you can resort back to that and to say well I can’t touch peace I know it when I feel it but I can’t touch it. It’s no different than when you say I know I am talking to them I just can't touch them."

Advice From The "Otherside" Jim Morrison

Advice From The "Otherside"  Jim Morrison

I've been gifted with the ability to speak to those passed over. It's not something I was born with or even knew I could do. Gifts are like that sometimes, they don't appear in your life until you are able to understand and use them. I was 63 when mine appeared.

Since I have had this ability, I have been producing a podcast with my husband, a radio announcer for over 50 years.

Along with some really good interviews, I have received some really insightful advice about life from Jim Morrison, George Harrison, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and writers of note, Edgar Allan Poe and Norman Mailer.

I have decided to share this advice with the world.

I was having difficulty accepting this gift, being able to communicate with the otherside, doubting the reality that I am worthy. Jim Morrison gave me this wonderful gift of guidance.

Jim Morrison

"We’re all lighter than air toots, all of us. And we float like puffs from a dandelion in the air. You are no more real than I am. You're my dream I'm your dream. All we have between us are the thoughts between us. We connect differently, it's electric. Our neural pathways are what’s connecting. The minute that you stop to question how it works, the minute you begin to look for infrastructure, the minute you begin to say I need brick and mortar, you’re saying I don't want to connect my neural pathway to yours. None of us is bigger than the other and none of us has work that's bigger than the other and that’s the fear, that you think, what could we possibly have to say to one another. Maybe it's just enough that we both got lost in the music together, maybe it's just enough that you are willing to listen to what I have to say and that I am willing to hear you too. You talk a lot about your connections with that other dude but you listen to him when you talk to him, have the conversation with us too, some of us are worth the time and effort, maybe that's all of us. That's all for now."