Spirit Guides, Self-Discovery and Why Circle Matters
There are some conversations that finish when you stop recording.
And then there are others that seem to carry on working on you afterwards.
This week's Soul Sync is the beginning of something new: The Mediumship Sessions, a regular series of conversations with my good friend, medium and trance medium Donna King.
Somewhere during the production of the first episode, I jokingly started referring to these conversations as taking place in the Chamber of Self-Discovery.
The name made me laugh.
But the more I've thought about it, the more I actually rather like it.
Because that is increasingly what I believe genuine psychic and mediumistic development asks of us.
It is not simply about learning how to communicate with the spirit world.
It is an exploration of ourselves.
Our awareness. Our intuition. Our fears. Our expectations. Our imagination. Our confidence. Our need to be right. And, somewhere amongst all of that, the subtle intelligence that appears when we stop trying quite so hard to control the experience.
And so, for our first trip into the Chamber of Self-Discovery, Donna and I decided to begin with something I remember being completely fascinated — and slightly baffled — by when I first began developing:
Spirit guides.
Listen to The Mediumship Sessions #1: Spirit Guides
Spirit Guides: In the Chamber of Self-Discovery — The Mediumship Sessions #1 with Jason Paul & Donna King
Who Are Our Spirit Guides?
When I first started developing my mediumship, I would hear people casually talking about their guides as though everyone had exchanged contact details at some spiritual networking event that I had somehow missed.
They had names.
They had jobs.
Somebody had a healing guide. Somebody else had a philosophy guide. Someone seemed to have a guide for almost every conceivable eventuality.
And I remember thinking:
Who the hell are mine?
Where are they?
How am I supposed to know when they're there?
And, perhaps most importantly, how do I know I'm not just making the whole thing up?
That curiosity forms the starting point for this episode.
Donna's experience could hardly have been more different from mine. She remembers being aware of people other people couldn't see from around three years old. To her, these presences were simply friends: a warm, supporting part of her life.
We talk about what happened when that communication eventually became quieter and Donna had to learn something incredibly important — that spiritual support does not remove our responsibility to live our own lives.
That really stayed with me.
Perhaps guidance is not always an answer.
Sometimes guidance may be the silence in which we discover the answer for ourselves.
Do Spirit Guides Have Names?
We also wander into one of those wonderfully strange areas of spiritual development: names.
I have never been particularly fixated on knowing the names of my guides.
Perhaps that is because I increasingly question how much of the language and imagery we use to describe the spirit world is our very human attempt to make something non-physical understandable.
We like names.
We like identities.
We like knowing whether somebody is male or female, what they looked like, where they lived and apparently what department of the spirit world they report to.
It gives our analytical minds something to hold.
But perhaps the relationship matters more than the label.
Perhaps recognising the quality of an energy, what changes within our awareness when it draws close and how that presence influences us is ultimately more useful than being able to give it a name.
And that brings us straight back into development.
Mediumship Begins With Learning to Notice
One of the central themes running through this first Mediumship Session is something I seem to be saying more and more:
We have to learn to notice.
Before we become obsessed with getting information, proving something or producing a result, there is enormous value in learning what our own awareness feels like.
What does my energy feel like?
What happens when another person's energy enters my awareness?
What changes when I become aware of the spirit world?
What happens physically?
Emotionally?
Mentally?
Is something actually changing, or am I expecting it to change?
These are deceptively simple questions.
They are also why I believe strong psychic foundations are so important in mediumship development.
I think there can be a tremendous temptation to rush towards communicating with somebody's loved one in spirit because, understandably, that is the exciting bit.
But development cannot simply be about rushing towards the end result.
There is so much value in the exploration itself.
Expectation Can Get in the Way
This was another part of the conversation that made me reflect on my own development.
I used to be terrible for sitting with an agenda.
Right. I'm going to sit for my guides.
Ten minutes.
Go.
And then I'd sit there waiting for something suitably profound to happen.
Nothing dramatic happened.
I'd get frustrated.
And eventually I'd conclude that I wasn't very good at it.
Looking back, I can almost laugh at myself.
I was treating spiritual development like another task on a to-do list.
One of the things I've learned is that expectation can completely change the quality of an experience.
If I sit demanding an answer to a very specific question, I'm already arriving with thoughts, preferences and biases attached to what I want to receive.
Curiosity feels different.
Curiosity says:
What might I notice?
What do I need to understand today?
What happens if I simply allow myself to experience this without deciding in advance what it should look like?
That, to me, is where experimentation becomes so valuable.
And increasingly, it is why I am falling so deeply in love with circle.
Why Sitting in Circle Means So Much to Me
I genuinely would not be where I am today without sitting in circles.
I have attended workshops, courses and training with some wonderful people, but there is something uniquely important about returning regularly to a circle.
It creates time.
Time to practise.
Time to experiment.
Time to notice.
Time to get something spectacularly wrong without deciding this means you should immediately retire from mediumship forever.
And, perhaps most importantly, a good circle creates safety.
It becomes a sacred space where you can explore something incredibly personal without feeling you have to perform.
Beautiful friendships can grow there too.
People begin to understand one another's doubts, peculiarities and breakthroughs. You watch somebody struggle with something one week and suddenly find the key to it several weeks later.
You learn from your own experiences, but you also learn enormously by witnessing other people discovering theirs.
And there is another part of development that I don't think we talk about enough.
Mediumship requires us to know ourselves.
It can shine a rather unforgiving light on our need for approval, our fear of failure, our tendency to compare ourselves with other people and that wonderful human desire to desperately be right.
So yes, there is work involved.
But I don't believe that work needs to become solemn.
Development can be joyful.
It can be playful.
It can be funny.
It can contain moments where an entire room bursts into laughter.
And then there are moments that leave everyone completely silent.
I experienced one of those again tonight.
A Moment in Circle That Left Me in Awe
This evening I was co-hosting an evidential mediumship practice circle with Alexandra Rush.
One of the mediums had been away from her development for a while and was finding her feet again.
Earlier in the evening, during the meditation, she had written several pieces of information in her notebook.
Later, she shared them.
Nobody could take them.
That happens.
It is part of development, and in a safe circle it needs to be allowed to happen without somebody immediately feeling that they have failed.
But as she was speaking, something changed for me.
I suddenly became aware of the energy of a man.
I felt intuitively that there was something there, so I joined the connection. Between us, the communication began to find its recipient.
I helped place the communicator.
She then continued with her own information and, towards the end, brought something forward that completed the connection beautifully.
And I just sat there afterwards thinking:
How clever is the spirit world?
It wasn't about one medium rescuing another.
It wasn't about who was right.
It wasn't even particularly about either of us.
It was about the communication finding a way.
Two mediums had become involved in the same process, each bringing a different piece, and somehow the intelligence behind the communication was able to work through both.
Those are the moments that keep me humble.
They remind me why a development circle needs enough safety for somebody to say something and discover that nobody understands it.
Because perhaps the information isn't wrong.
Perhaps it isn't complete yet.
Perhaps somebody else has another piece.
Perhaps the purpose of the exercise is not the result we thought we were trying to achieve.
And perhaps, sometimes, we simply need the freedom to experiment.
Mediumship as a Creative Expression of the Soul
I have started using this phrase increasingly because it expresses something I feel very deeply:
Mediumship is a creative expression of the soul.
I don't want to produce people who work exactly like me.
I don't think development should produce identical mediums using identical language and identical techniques.
We are not identical people.
Our memories are different.
Our emotional worlds are different.
Our life experiences are different.
Our minds make associations differently.
The spirit world therefore has a completely individual instrument through which to communicate every time they work with a medium.
For me, teaching mediumship is increasingly becoming about helping somebody discover their instrument.
How do you receive?
How does your awareness change?
What do your symbols mean?
Where do you interfere?
Where do you naturally flow?
And what happens when you stop comparing your experience with everybody else's?
That is the Chamber of Self-Discovery.
Slightly ridiculous name and all.
Suddenly, So Much of My Life Makes Sense
There has been another realisation quietly growing in me since making the decision to step fully into this work.
When I look backwards, so many apparently unrelated parts of my life suddenly seem connected.
For years I ran a business.
I led people.
I trained people.
I encouraged them.
I tried to see potential in somebody before they necessarily saw it completely in themselves.
I learned how to create structures, hold responsibility, make decisions, motivate people and, perhaps most importantly, how individual human beings actually are.
For a long time I assumed that chapter of my life and this one were completely separate.
I'm not sure I believe that anymore.
Perhaps none of it was wasted.
Perhaps the business experience, the leadership, the mistakes, the difficult conversations, the nurturing, the training and everything else were simply giving me tools that I would eventually use somewhere completely different.
Because what excites me now is not simply developing my own mediumship.
It is creating environments where other people can discover what they are capable of.
There is something enormously moving about watching somebody get that first unmistakable piece of information.
Or watching somebody who has spent months doubting themselves suddenly trust what they feel.
Or creating enough safety in a room that someone is prepared to take a risk, say what they are experiencing and discover what happens.
It feels like many of the threads of my life are finally meeting.
And I am genuinely excited about where that leads next.
New Online Psychic & Mediumship Development Classes
From mid-October, I will be beginning a new autumn and winter programme of online psychic and mediumship development.
There will be opportunities for people beginning at foundation level as well as developing mediums who already have experience working with spirit.
The intention behind these classes is the same philosophy I've been exploring here:
curiosity before pressure, experience before performance and individuality before imitation.
We will explore psychic awareness, recognising energy, intuitive senses, sitting in the power, the transition between psychic and mediumistic awareness, evidential communication, confidence, ethics and the individual way your own mediumship wants to unfold.
And because these are regular online groups, people can join this journey from different parts of the world and develop alongside one another over time.
If something in this article — or in The Mediumship Sessions — has made you curious about your own potential, you can now register your interest directly through my Development & Unfoldment page.
Explore Psychic & Mediumship Development
Registering your interest means you'll be among the first to receive the confirmed autumn/winter class information and availability.
The Mediumship Sessions Continue
Donna and I will be returning each week to explore another part of psychic and mediumistic development.
These won't be lectures.
They are conversations.
We will share what we have learned, where we disagree, what we've experienced, what we've got wrong and the questions that still make both of us stop and think.
We'll also be creating exercises and experiments that allow you to explore some of these ideas for yourself.
Because ultimately I don't want The Mediumship Sessions simply to tell you what Donna and I believe.
I hope they encourage you to become curious about what you discover.
Explore.
Learn.
Experiment.
Evolve.
Welcome to the Chamber of Self-Discovery.
Listen to Spirit Guides: The Mediumship Sessions #1
If you have a question about psychic or mediumistic development that you would like Donna and me to explore in a future episode, email:
And if you'd like to explore your own psychic and mediumistic potential in a regular development environment, visit:
jasonpaulmedium.com/psychic-mediumship-development
Read the Full Conversation
Prefer to read rather than listen? Open the section below to read the full conversation between Jason Paul and Donna King exploring spirit guides, spiritual support, signs and synchronicities, sitting with guides, expectation, free will, discernment and the relationship between our own awareness and the spirit world.
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
The Mediumship Sessions #1: Spirit Guides in the Chamber of Self-Discovery
Jason Paul & Donna King
Note: This is a lightly cleaned transcript of the recorded Jason/Donna conversation for website publication. Obvious speech-to-text errors and the brief recording interruption have been removed. The separate produced podcast introduction and outro are not included here.
Jason:
That's alright. Ready?
Donna King:
Yeah.
Jason:
Okay. Donna King, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Soul Sync.
Donna King:
Hi, Jason. Pleased to be back.
Jason:
Oh, it's an absolute delight to have you back, and I am super excited to have you on, because… You've been on the podcast before. For people that don't know you, you have been a medium for the lion's share of your life, and, you know, people do want to find out about your story. We're going to be talking about that anyway, by virtue of your experience. But what you're known for is being a physical medium. So, in brief, so people can understand, firstly, what does that mean?
Donna King:
A physical medium is when the spirit phenomena is brought into the room so that everybody can see it, or feel it, or hear it. M.
Jason:
Mmm.
Donna King:
That's something we've been working on for over 20 years, and we're still working towards. I think they've got other tricks up their sleeves, but the main emphasis will be pure physical healing, which, I could feel the emotions in my chest. Would be a great thing to be able to achieve, in, you know, in the light of being of service to spirit, and obviously being able to help others, you know?
Jason:
Well, exactly. There's many, many different types of physical mediumship as well, and I… I feel that if we go back 100 years to the days of some of the pioneers in mediumship, it was a lot more prevalent, and there was a lot more, you know, psychic surgeons out there, there was a lot more, just a physical mediumship in every regard, you know, when you look back at some of those books, it just blows your mind. I think trance is making a resurgence, but, you know, there's many different forms, and sometimes I think to myself, have we only just scratched the tip of the iceberg in terms of what spirit can do with us? And I feel Yes, especially at the current time where it seems to be, you know, everyone Going down the sort of same cookie-cutter kind of, route. So, what we're going to be talking about today, and this is an exciting, several-part installment series where Donna and I are going to take you session by session through what we believe, you need to know in order to be a medium, to make a connection with spirit, to, develop, unfold your gifts. So this is going to be a series that runs over, the next few months, and we are going to talk about everything, can't we, Donna?
Donna King:
We are, and hopefully be able to bring forward some lessons for the listeners, if they, you know, are open to being student of.
Jason:
So, today we're talking about a subject which, I have to say, I get a lot of emails about, and it's a subject which even myself, at the very beginning, I was scratching my head because I would sort of, well, the subject we're going to be talking about, firstly, is spirit guides. And at the very beginning, I used to hear so many people talk about their guides, people having names for their guides, and I used to think to myself, who the hell are my guides? Where are they? Do I have some? How do I access them? So, to begin with, what does a spirit guide, mean to you, Donna?
Donna King:
Well, for me, they was, the friends I spoke to as a young child, so for me, the story and narrative can be very different, but they are, You know, like, backseat roles within your life, leading you and guiding you towards, you know, different concepts, like, of… you know, within your journey, basically. it's like a supporting back role, you know? Because they can't tell you what to do, but they can influence you and guide you, hence the word guide, because I like to think of them as a team, really, and friends. You know, on the choices that you make, and the paths that you choose.
Jason:
And how was you, when you was younger, you becoming aware of these guys? What guides, what did that look like for you? How did you, how did that relationship develop, and how would you, describe them?
Donna King:
So… this… because it's… it's forever. You know, like, since I was around 3 years of age is my first sort of recognition of speaking to people that other people couldn't see. And they were just, like, my warm space. And, to be honest, I never really questioned whether anybody else could sort of, like, see and hear their other friends. I just… it didn't even… it wasn't even an idea. So, for me, there was just, like, supporting factors, you know, in my life. You know, if I asked a question, of a relative, they may give me… they may… they are… you know, they would give me their perspective or their view on stuff. So it was just like guiding friends, you know, it was just like, they spoke to me, and… and we had this relationship, It was only really when I was 15 or 16 did I… really questioned, hold on, you know, because he's, you know, some of these men that I talk to that, you know, they're thinking, I thought, oh, it's just the voices, you know, of your own minds and chatter, and I thought, no, because I could see these people all in my head, you know, like, and sometimes outside of myself. So, yeah, and I used to.
Jason:
Oh my gosh.
Donna King:
in the toy cupboard just to sit with them in an absolute peace of sanctuary. So I've been cabinet sitting since I was about 6 or 7 at points.
Jason:
And I have to say, there's a few people I know who, have had such a connection, a mediumship, and the spirit world, and the world unseen has been such a big part of one's life, and to have that relationship from a very young age… I always remember, I think, one of the pivotal parts of your story was when, your guides Decided to, suddenly take a much more backseat. And that was very difficult for you. Tell us about that, because I feel that that, you know, is an interesting story.
Donna King:
Yes.
Jason:
health.
Donna King:
that was a very difficult moment. And actually, I was at the Arthur Findlay College when they first brought it up via a medium teacher there. And and she said, other guys are saying, you know, you panic every time you can't hear them, and there's many points where if I spoke to them, I expected an immediate response, because that's the way it had always been in my life. I can even feel the emotions in my chest now as I speak about it. And she said, and I just looked at her, and she said, they're talking about a moment in the car, and I knew the exact moment she was speaking about exactly where I was, because I kind of got irritated, and never before I really ever got irritated with them, because they come in such an energy of peace and love that you know, that are always so supportive, you know, it was… it was new for me, but I was in a particularly difficult stage in my life. And, And they just said, and she said, well, they're saying, you know, you need to learn… oh my god, I can feel very emotional, actually. This is… I sort of adjusted to this. You need to learn to adjust to live, you know, like, in a quieter world. This is the point where you're going to have to learn to support yourself, but they will be there, but, you know, not on tap, so to speak. And actually, that took the best part of 4 years between me and Spirit to do that. And it is a lot quieter world. And for me. So now, sometimes, when I go to speak to them, then there's, you know, this, this, you know, these, these pauses in between. It does feel a little bit like, oh, come on, where are you? Because, patience is, is a, is the key. But, Yeah, it was quite a transition in my life, actually. And and she did say to me, everybody here is learning at the college, was learning to open up. She said, you're learning to… closed down, and it was very true, and it was a key, pivotal moment in my life, because actually, it was… it was an adjustment. But had I not had them, I don't believe I would have got to that point. not that it's been easy since, but, yeah, I definitely needed them around me, so different, different, you know, different ways of doing things for different people, I presume.
Jason:
Why do you believe that your… because, you know, myself, for instance, I was always very sensitive growing up. I was aware of the spirit world. I don't have many regrets in my life, and one of the biggest ones still to this day is the fact that I didn't really ask my granddad enough questions about the spirit world. And by the time he was very unwell and diagnosed in cancer, I didn't want to start asking him all the questions about the spirit world at such a point that he was… You know, very close to stepping over to it. So, when you were having these experiences at such a young age, why was it you feel that, you know, reflecting back now, why were your guides, coming through at that time? Why was you recognising them? Because, obviously, you mentioned that you needed, help and assistance. So, why did… you know, it's always beautiful when you reflect on these things, you know, throughout the course of your life.
Donna King:
Yeah, I mean, you know, anybody that knows me now would find it very hard to believe that I did… I was such a quiet person until I was, like, 11 years of age, 12 years of age, and stepped into secondary school, quiet and shy, really. So I'm… I just, I think through different things that I was meant to experience, you know, things with step-parents, things with the parent, that caused them to the need to be rummy, and I do believe a lot of it really was about this stage of my life. In being able to help and guide other people, to learn, you know, how to connect themselves, because if they're… my teaching is my passion. I mean, I love the healing aspect, which is mediumship, intuitive work, you know, the trance work. all aspects of it, but… which are healing, but I do believe, really, it was for the greater of the work later on, because some people are born with the connection, you know? As you, you know, already stated, I'm not the only one. It just happens to be my story.
Jason:
It is, and I think that we all kind of have a different relationship with our spirit team, and I think we come across them at different times. I feel that my back was, I think, turned to them for quite some time. I was living a completely different world that couldn't have been further from connection with them until I got to my 30s. And when they stepped back, what… because I can imagine for you, because I know this part of your story is just, really emotional for you, when they made that decision to step back, how did you then go about, kind of, you know, learning to live without them, and how was it that they then came back into your life, because I don't believe that they ever left you, I just believe that the communication stopped, at that point.
Donna King:
That is exactly… that is exactly it. They didn't leave me, it was just more that if I, you know, went to speak to them, they wasn't just there just to talk to you, you know, as though I pick up the phone and speak to you. Now I have to wait, it's like the ringing in between. You know, they was just constantly there, you know, to respond. And now it's like, they're not constantly there. So I suppose, in a way, it's always having, like, a background white noise. And always, and never feeling alone. And then having to get used to this energy not always being there. And… You know, having to sort of say, okay, you know. can you, you know, can you speak to me about this? And, you know, so I suppose, in a way, it's just being patient with picking up the phone. You know, you're never alone. That is, you know, one true of everybody's spiritual guides. You are… Never alone, they are always there, you know, to help and support you when needed, you know, even if you're not aware of it. And that's including myself.
Jason:
I think that's the thing as well, because even in those times where we do feel that life is going absolutely, you know, the wheels are coming off, it's going wonky, the guides will always be there, and I believe that everyone has guides, because it is just the universal law. I believe it's… it's as common as these days, everybody having a mobile phone. I guess my relationship with my guides was… I was aware of the term spirit guides from a very young age, because I used to hear my granddad talk about spirit guides and guides all the time, and I believed in it, but my relationship with belief had changed and evolved over time. And I always remember at the very early days of developing my mediumship, I used to, like I said earlier, very much look at other people, what they were saying about their guides. They were sort of giving names. They were saying, I've got this guide for this, and this guide for that, and I would sort of be thinking… I'd almost have a sense of, being quite dubious, actually. Almost going, really? Okay, what does that look like? How do I access it? And then I… except when I got to a point in my mediumship journey of really accepting, really believing, absolutely understanding what I'm doing is channeling the spirit world, I then started to become aware of different guides, but I never fixated on a name. I think, for me, the reason I never fixated on names of guides is because, in the world of the unseen. I don't believe they actually have names. I don't believe… I think a name is something we attach in that of this physical world, and I believe that if they do come through with a name, it may be a name that they've had when they had an incarnation down here, or a name they want to relate to. And I feel the name is actually more for our benefits than it is their benefit, because we… we are obviously in the world that we live in, here in the world of matter, you know, we need names, and a lot of people get fixated on these things, but when I started developing my relationship with my guides, I've always been aware But I've had, some very theatrical guides, and some very… so far, I now believe that I've got a guide that was, a Parisian woman who, done… what do I want to call it? What's that word? Cabaret. And, also, I believe this guide was, involved in, the… what's the word I want to use back in the day? Well, I want to say sort of like a cool girl, but a much more refined call girl. I think this one is one that you'd probably have to, you know, pay a month's rent to sort of perhaps see back in whatever era it was that she was here. And actually, one of the biggest revelations that I've had when it comes to my guides is my granddad being a guide. And I was suspecting of it from about… Maybe 2 years into my mediumship development, because my granddad seemed to play such a pivotal role in coming through on readings all the time, he'd always be, when I was doing readings with other mediums, he would be the first to always come through. And what I noticed about him, and this was a very distinct thing, is he's always taken a role in readings, of teaching. And I thought, it's very bizarre that every time there tends to be a reading, the medium really gets something from it, and I always felt that he's kind of teaching them a listen. And when I started to become aware of that, actually, his acts that he would do would become more hilarious. He would put humor around them that only I would recognise. So, for instance, he'd have a medium bring him through, and a medium say, oh, your granddad's stepping back now. Oh, I've got a bit of evidence, oh, he's stepping back again. And then my granddad would do something, like make himself be like the green giant, a 10-foot man, and the media would say, now he's towering over me and laughing! And I had to say one day, do you know what? He's laughing with you, because the reason he's done that and projected that is because he's been with you the whole time, but you're in your head. So, these days, I absolutely… believe that he is a guide, because I… I just know it these days. I've… I've had so many, experiences now where, it's been proven to me, and it's been proven to me through loads of different ways. I think that synchronicities, signs from the universe, I would think a certain thought, and other times when I would think about him being a guide, then all of a sudden, the radio would start playing a song from the era that he would like. And, you know, there comes a point where you've been slapped in the face, so to speak, by the spirit world enough times, where you either, believe it, or, you know, you're being somewhat foolish, because, you know, how many signs do you need at the end of the day? So, I believe… my granddad's role now, and I… I think he has several roles, but I feel that he, is the guide, and I will say this, I believe that mediums have more guides than normal, you know, non-mediums, non-healers, people who aren't in this arena. Because, I believe he's that guide that acts as, like, the old-fashioned telephone exchange, where, a spirit person wants to come through and talk to me. And obviously, my belief now is readings… when we go to do a reading, I don't believe it's spontaneous in that moment. I believe that the spirit world plan for these readings, very much in advance. And what I've noticed, even with my own family members, is the progression in their own language, as time goes on. So when I first started, developing my mediumship, my nan, at the start, was quite a weak communicator, so they'd sort of get things, but it would be a bit patchy. And then. She started becoming a lot more, Balshier by pushing her way into readings, almost very true to character, for her. And then, you know, I've just seen that evolution, and even since my dad has passed away to the spirit world, what's happened is he's… he just amazed me, actually. I can't even believe that he's… that I'm finding he's now coming through in platform readings, platform demonstrations of mediumship with messages of love. My dad, 12 months ago, when he was alive, I can assure you, would not be coming through in front of an audience proclaiming messages of love to family members. So I find that very reassuring, because I know, by virtue of that, he has been healed. So I believe that my granddad's role as this mediumship link type guide is a spirit person wants to come and communicate, and then I… and I get found as the medium in the directory of mediums, up in the spirit it well, because someone might say, actually, look, he's had the right life experience, he's had the right, experiences in his life, he's been through these certain events, which we can draw on, we can use his memories, we know that that particular moment in his life was difficult. We know that, addiction, he really understands, he went through it too. We know that he would be able to feel that in someone. So I believe they go to the directory. Then I get selected as the medium, and then that's, I think, when my granddad comes in and starts this process. of starting to get that person ready for the communication at whatever time it will be. One other thing I will just say on this point, because I think it's very interesting as well, is The other night, I went to a spiritualist church with my mum, and my mum very rarely… we very rarely go, and we sort of go maybe once a year, and I said to my mum, look, I really want to go to, this demonstration of mediumship in the local church on Sunday, because of the fact that I'd… reached out to the church to say I wanted to demonstrate there, as part of me getting out and about now. And my nan, at the very, very, very start of the demonstration, came through in the first message, and she came through, and the first bit of evidence was, your hair! Look, the Mini was saying, her hair, she's talking about her hair again! And me and my mum just looked at each other and laughed, because… Every single time she ever comes through in the college, or comes through in an environment where I've been training, she always talks about her hair. It's almost like a telltale sign. Like, when my granddad comes through, I always know it's him because of the flat cat. That he would wear. And my nan, over time, she… my nan was a funny character. She was a little bit of a… she was the sweetest lady ever, but a little bit of a firecracker at times. And she has got this… energy about her, that mediums always say, oh, your nan's a bit pushy, she's a bit feisty, isn't she? Anyway, when she came through on Sunday at the church, the medium, said, oh, I do find that your nan's a bit aggressive, actually. Was she an aggressive person? And then I had to say, well, no, because she wasn't aggressive at all, she couldn't have been further from aggressive. But it was very interesting, because in that moment, my mum said, oh, no, I don't think it's her. And I said to my mum, look, the medium up doing the demonstration, who was absolutely lovely, but you could tell she wasn't that confident, her energy, she would be, you know, you could see when she would say, oh, can you understand that? There would be an element in her energy of doubt. And it was very interesting that she picked that up on my dad, because I could understand if you were quite a timid person doing platform, then of course you might get that inclination from my nan. So, that's what I feel my granddad, does for me as a guide, but it's taken me, you know, a lot of time and a lot of, sitting and understanding and reflecting and looking at it to sort of come to that belief. So, with guides today, the lovely listener is going to be thinking, okay, right, perhaps I've got some guides. I'm accepting of that. I guess, firstly, what sort of guides do people have from your experience? Because someone once told me I had a business guide, and this was at a time, Donna, when my business wasn't doing particularly well, and I thought to myself, where have you been, business guide? You're not here!
Donna King:
Yeah, I mean, I do believe they just… you have different guides to help you with different, you know, aspects of your life, you know, whether it be the emotional support, whether it is, you know, a role you're taking in your life, like business or mediumship, because I know I have different people that work with me. I mean, I say that, and there is two guides, in particular, that will work with me With him, you know, was giving spiritual guidance readings, and also within the trance, but… so some of mine do sort of move around, but they are more permanent fixtures than two. But, you know, I have different teams for different elements, and they do just change, you know, like, as well, as you learn and grow, there will be new ones that will step in, and it's… I do totally believe that you know, mediums, people that do our work, do tend to have larger teams, but that's because, effectively, we're working for them. So I do believe it just takes that much more, hence the word medium. We raise our energy up, they bring theirs down, there is a lot more to it than we could possibly comprehend. You know…
Jason:
When you talk about the teams that you've got, how would you describe the teams that you've become aware of? And have you become aware of different teams, sort of the older, and wiser that you've got along your journey?
Donna King:
Yeah, yeah, well… well, I don't know whether I've become wiser of it, because I didn't really think… it was all very naturally done, through my young years. There was never a question, and, you know, you mentioned names. I never asked them a name, because in essence, the energy that we shared, there was just this knowing. So you just knew of them, you know, you know who they are, so it just… it didn't… there was no need for names. And it was only, actually, much like… I think I was in my 20s. when, somebody mentioned names, and I was like, oh! Like, names! And I've never really given much thought to it, even now. I don't reach for names. I've been given a couple on occasion. Whitefeather once, made that very clear to me, that he works with me, and…
Jason:
This sounds like a lovely guide, Whitefair.
Donna King:
Well, he's quite common. He actually does a lot of work with many different people that work for Spirit, actually. He come forward when I was doing a demonstration at a rugby club once, and giving a woman a reason, and as it turned out, he said he was helping her write a book, and she was a medium, and in fact, she was writing a book. And he was helping her with it. It was about spiritual stuff, and she was a medium, so, you know, they're quite clever in the way that… what they do, but you know, I just know that as they come in, as new ones come in, then they'll, you know, they'll bring themselves forward for… for the… if you sit, I mean, it's taking the time to sit. Sit quietly, and give them the time to come forward, which, you know, is very… You know, difficult at times in this, you know, the way people live, you know. What we're expected to do, how busy we need to keep, just to, you know… keep a roof over the head and put food on the table, you know, that's where you… when you spoke about, you know, times of the past with the physical, people had… it was… the working life was very different then. And, obviously during the war, people then would… started sitting more in circles, you know, in the dark. So it gave Spirit, you know, a wider door. to sort of, like, work with people and bring them things forward. I do truly believe that. But they are moving into a different time, because they have spoken to me about that. They've been saying it for, oh, way over 10 years.
Jason:
What have they been saying?
Donna King:
that we… they are moving towards a different way of working with people, and that they will be bringing themselves forward in a different way, so that it is not detrimental to the physical medium. Because at the time when they made it clear to me. when, my chest grew up, and they made it clear to me that I was, you know, physical medium. And I just… the main thing that concerned me at the time, because all of my children were very little, in fact, I didn't even have all four at that point, I don't think, was that the, you know, they say that… they say that, physical mediumship can affect the health of the medium, and my concern was, well, I'm not sure I want to do this if… if that.
Jason:
That's the.
Donna King:
And that was when they started saying to me that actually things will be very different, they'll be, you know, they're bringing in a new way of doing things, we'll be moving into a new time, we'll be in the age of Aquarius, da-da-da-da, and, you know, just to trust them with that, and just to, you know, allow for the experience, and via sitting my trance, I would find that that would change on occasion. And it did, you know, it did, and then I found myself sitting in a deeper state where it's very difficult to open my eyes, when I'm coming around, which you can have a little bit of in the trance states, but in the… you know, the deeper, more clocking out states, it's a very different feeling, you know, even if I wanted to open them, I actually can't. I just have to quietly wait for the moment, which is the weirdest feeling, because my head's back in the game almost, and very, like, I'm very sort of, like, mentally with it, but my eyes won't open. So, you know. They have different tactics and different ways of doing things with people. Everybody… spirit… their guides will work differently with everybody, so…
Jason:
I think you make a really important point. If we go back, you know, even 30 years, we wouldn't have half as many distractions. We've had terrestrial TV, which would just be a load of rubbish, come a certain time in the evening. If you go back to the 100 years ago, the times of the pioneers, they actually… well, one, they would sit because there wasn't a great deal of resource, and, you know, the last place you would probably want to be walking into is a library and asking for a book on spirit guides in certain points in our history, because Well, if you go that far enough, you'd have probably been taken and put straight on a, you know, a burning pile of, rubbish, wouldn't you? It's, it's very sad how mediums have been treated over time. So, you do make an important point, because… and this is something that I struggled with. Recently, I've obviously made that decision to step fully into my mediumship, because I know it's… it's what my soul is calling me to do, I know it's what I've been put on this earth to do, and if I look back at my life now, it's almost like screaming at me. I want… so much so that I want to laugh at it, the amount of synchronicities and, you know, the apparent lack of free will I've had, because my path has led me in perfect synchronicity to this point. If I look back at, you know, why I was such a businessman at certain points in my childhood, wanting to sell things in the playground, then I did magic, and then I you know, got my sparkliness, from Virgin, and all these things, all these threads, all these, threads I very much believe have kind of made it so glaringly obvious to me that this is what I'm meant to be doing. But yes, you need to see it, and the difficulty I had when I ran my business, and I almost laugh now at myself looking back, because I would have stuck all around the house on bits of paper, because I'm one of those people where I… if I determined that I want to do something, one of the first things I'll do is I'll stick it on every available surface to remind me to do it. And I've still got it, I need to go around my house, actually, because I've got these signs that say, sit in the power, sit for guides. And I used to go, oh, right, it's that time of the evening now, right, it's 9 o'clock, I'm gonna go sit, and I'd sort of go. in a certain vibration, and I would sit, and I, you know, it would probably take me 10 minutes to even, wind down to some degree of being able to quiet my mind enough. And then I would say, oh, 10 minutes, right, that's it done, didn't feel anything, and I'd become disenfranchised with it. But if you were going into, you've got to think that these guides are real people. that guides a lot of the time. Some of them Yes, and a lot of them… have walked the earth plane before, they've had lives, and it's worth noting that a guide, in my belief, has to choose to want to come. They might be given this assignment. And they choose to do it, and, you know, I can imagine it's not an easy job up there, you know, trying to lead us along our journeys. But if you were going into the experience like I used to, with a… almost like an air of discipline, like, oh, I know I need to do it, so I sort of would go up there energetically to my little chair, and I wouldn't… I'd almost be going in, if I was a guide, I'd almost be thinking, even though they don't do this, you know, look, he's doing this, dragging his heels. He's not doing this, you know, in a way that he wants to do it. he's doing it because he clearly has to. So I would actually say to people that the first thing that you need to do is you need to sit and start learning how to sit in the silence, in your own energy, in your own soul energy, because you are never going to, you know, be having mass amounts of inspiration and closeness with guides, because when the hell can they get in on this busy life of ours now? And even if they did get it, most of us would normally say, well, oh, it's probably my imagination. And guides do, they do reach out even more. You know, at times, and I've heard so many stories over the years of when people have had synchronicities that they just can't ignore. And actually, I had one myself the other day. I was walking around a reservoir next to me, and just at the exact moment where I sent up to the spirit world. you know, is everything going to be okay? Am I making the right decision? A feather landed on my hand, and I thought, right, okay, there we go, that's the sign. So, when you get those signs, and you hear about them all the time, and people say, oh, it was so weird, wasn't it this coincidence that happened? And a lot of the time, that can be your spirit guides trying to reach out to you. So, you've got to learn to sit, and you've got to be very kind to yourself, and I would say that it's far better to sit twice a week for 10 minutes a day, and actually go into it with the right mindset, with a sense of awe, with a sense of wonder, with a sense of openness, with a sense of intrigue and curiosity, rather than saying, like me, the old gym thing of when you join a gym and you go six days and it lasts two weeks, and then before mid-January, you've canceled the membership. You know, it's better to start small, but we hold ourselves to high expectations. So you'll be glad to know, lovely listener, but we are going to be releasing a meditation very soon, that's gonna… intentionally lead you into an experience to connect with your guides, and that'll be coming out, as soon as Donna and I have got our acts together and released it, which will be very soon by the time you're listening to this. So… I wanted to ask, then, people want to, you know, are you going to find that there's going to be spiritual people listening to this, and we touched on this earlier, but… when the guides do go silent, and perhaps you've had a relationship with them before, I sometimes think that the silence itself is even part of the guidance.
Donna King:
Oh, absolutely. There's been times recently where I've sort of reached out and asked a question and, been left waiting, and I just… and then just been given the feeling of, you know, you figure this one out yourself, because even… even though I know they can't tell me what to do, they can… they can lead you energetically by, you know, prompting the energy to remember what way the soul wants to go. and even either, you know, forget, and I'll just ask them a direct, well, what, shall I do this? And there's no answer coming. But, there will always, you know, they will always… you know, they never let you down. Never. There's one thing I can trust, you know, with every, you know, beat of my heart, is that they will never let you down. They will always be there. They will always endeavour to do what they can do to help and support you on, you know, this journey we've called life, you know? so they never actually don't respond, per se, but they will sort of quietly maybe say nothing, and then say, well, you know, you need to make that decision yourself, or, you know, what do you think? Or I might feel my nang come in, you know, to sort of say, prompt speak up, because my nan can speak up more. And, like your good self, actually, my nan used to work with me a little bit, but she actually works more like a guide, with the teaching element of mediumship with my daughter, than she does myself. The end. Yeah, so she will sometimes pop up, because, her energy is very similar to your nan's, because obviously I have worked with your nan before. a couple of years ago, and they are very similar, so my nanny's quite feisty when she needs to be. Not aggressive, but quite feisty, as soft as she can be, and she will come in and say, you know, just get on with it, or just, you know, da-da-da-da. Alright.
Jason:
Honestly, it's… my nan, honestly, was a right fire snapper. I will never forget this funny story, actually, where we'd gone to Turkey, and my nan was hard of hearing, and sometimes I'd speak to her for 10 minutes, and then she'd sort of blurt something out, and I'd think. was she even listening to what I just said? And I'll never forget, actually, telling her, that, oh, Nan, I've opened up a legal recruitment business where I recruit lawyers, and, you know, I obviously kept her… she was alive for probably the first four years of my business. And one day, I said to her, Nan, what is it that I do? Do you understand? And she said, oh, it's like the job center. They line up in the morning, I imagine. I thought, bloody hell, if they did. I would be sitting here now if they lined up. It's very much a headhunting exercise than what I used to do, but we went to Turkey on this holiday, and on the way back. My nan had been unwell for a couple of days on the holiday, but anyway, we checked in, and we had a window in the middle seat, and I remember we got on the plane. And my nan, we got there, and there was a lady sitting in our seat. in the window in the middle, and my nan said, are you going to say anything to her? And I was thinking, man, you think you're whispering, but you're not. You know, it's coming out much louder. Anyway, she still wasn't happy about this, seating. So, a fuss was made, and then obviously the cabin crew came over, and I almost wanted the floor to swallow me up, because then they said, oh no, sorry, you are in the right seat. She was in the window, and I thought, oh god. Oh, God, this could be any more awkward on the 4-hour flight back. Anyway, then she was still sort of wittering on about this, lady. Next thing I know, this, very, say, let's just say chav lady, said, that's it, when we land at Gatwick, I'm gonna tell my husband, and he's gonna come and, you know, sort you out. So, next thing I know, we're getting moved to the front of the plane to stop a fight breaking out, and I thought… I just loved her for it. And she was, like, none the wiser on what was going on, and I thought… and then she goes, oh, I haven't got my hearing aid on right now, because it ran out of batteries. I thought, yes, I know that man! I know that. So, you know, but it's interesting, and what I will say to anybody listening to this right now is you have a guide. There is no one listening to this podcast right now that perhaps has a vacancy that's advertising and hasn't got one, because perhaps they've had a mass walkout. Guides will always be with you, no matter how much or how little. You believe in it, you feel them, they will be there. And this is the thing, when you start seeing in the early days, sitting in the stillness, and one of… I'll actually give you a great exercise When you sit in the stillness, an exercise that I think is a really powerful exercise in the early days of developing and getting to understand that feeling of spirit is to quiet the mind, and you do that with the breath. I think it's always about the breath, because the breath just centers you, it grounds you, it makes you still. And once you've got to a certain, stillness, where you feel your mind settling down, and, you know, it's very important when you do that as well, that you're not trying to fight faults. You were gonna have thoughts, and I think one of the biggest mistakes I made early on was thinking that the mind is the enemy. The mind isn't the enemy, because it's the mind in which the spirit world used in order to communicate through us. So if a thought comes, just let it go, gently. And I always just return myself to the breath. And it took me a while. It took me a good, I would say. year, 18 months at least, until I felt I could quiet down my mind. But I would then just ask your spirit guides to draw close, and just sit with that, and then ask them to step back. And it's a really great way, in those early days, of understanding what the guide's presence feels like, and what it doesn't feel like, and it is absolutely noticeable. Because you can feel that, and that's why I think if you're going to want to develop any type of mediumship at all. you need to start with the basics, which is what these… this course that Donna and I is doing is all about. It's about, understanding the fundamentals, because we live in this world now where people want to jump one, two, three, four steps ahead, because really. even doing mediumship, you shouldn't really be, doing mediumship until you've got a really solid grounding as a psychic. Because if you can't feel the energy of someone sitting in front of you, and be able to kind of give them information on their life, what they're going through, and so on, then you know, going to the spirit world is… you're missing a step there, and a really important step at that. So, the exercise of just asking the guides to draw close and asking them to step away is a really good way for you to understand the difference of energy, because everything is energy. Every single thing in this world is energy, whether it's, you know, a spirit person, you, the food you're eating, the apparent… wooden table that sat there gathering dust for the last five years in the corner of a room. It's all energy, and it all vibrates at different vibrations. So, you know, how much do you believe that a spirit guide can actually intervene in our lives? Because they do intervene in lives, because I've heard stories, and I've even had it myself, where I was once traveling down the motorway. And a lorry, just out of nowhere, swung out into the lane, and a few moments before, I heard the clairaudiently, the spirit world shout at me to slow down, and it saved my life in that moment. So what do you believe? How much can they actually intervene in our lives without interfering with free will? And free will, we always have.
Donna King:
Yeah, I'd believe just in the general day-to-day, they can't, you know, it's like asking for permission. I mean, it would be wrong of me just to intrude myself upon you without saying. oh, you know, would you mind if I give you this healing, as an example? You know, it's almost that don't ask, don't get, you know, from my understanding with my guides. I do totally agree. There is times where they will speak up, pipe out, to save you, protect you from something that could potentially happen Because I've had that kind of experience myself. So, you know, I do believe that they can, when necessary, speak up and intervene, but as a general consensus, out of respect for my soul doing my journey, they will sort of, like, gently, you know, encourage and… rather than tell, you know, dictate what to do. You know, like, they can't be the leader of your life. Your soul… they've come along to help you and your soul on its journey, rather than intervene and say, well, this is the way to do it, otherwise, what are we doing here? You know?
Jason:
Well, it goes back to the question as well, of how… even on that point. how much do our guides know about our path and the whole trajectory of our lives? And I know, and I know this, and I will only ever say things I know, and I will only ever say things that I really believe with good substance, because I'm one of those very skeptical people, but I think that's a very healthy thing to have a skeptical mind at times, because, you know, otherwise I could go around thinking that the money tree exists, and all sorts, so I think you need a healthy degree of… skepticism, but I… I feel that even in the readings that I've had, and you've done a lot of prophecy, and prophecy being the spirit world talking about the future, and it's such a shame that prophecy isn't, encourage more, because the spirit world don't just talk about the past, what's going in our life at the moment. They really can help us in our future, because I keep having it prophesied that I'm going to meet a lovely partner at some point, which I do believe in utter confidence, because it's come up so many goddamn times, and just in the last few days, when I was away, immersed in mediumship, my granddad, bless him. came through so many times to tell me that, over the next year, I'm not just going to be rising to the top, apparently I'm going to make it to the top. And so I do believe that they understand our whole trajectory of our life to some extent, because I feel that what they're there to do is to guide us to where we need to be. Well, otherwise, what's the purpose of the guide? Where are they guiding us to? They're guiding us somewhere. It's like a sat-nav. You don't have a sat-nav just sitting there. The guides are there to do a job, and to get us to where we should be. But, and especially with people like you and I, Donna, because we're nosy at the best of times, there is many things that the guides won't be able to tell us about, because if we knew about it. You know, someone said to me right now, Jason, in two years' time, you're going to be stood, doing a TV program, with loads of people knowing you as a medium. That would be a really unhelpful thing to tell me, as a person, because, one, that would put pressure on me, thinking, well, if I'm not getting there, then I'm, doing something wrong. I might get overwhelmed by where I could be, because perhaps I'm not ready to energetically accept or believe that I'm capable of that. So there's a lot of things that guides have to hold back, and they hold it back not because They're trying to play smoke and mirrors with you, because sometimes you can't have the answers, you know? It might be that they're aware of someone very close to you passing in your life, but they're not going to tell you that. There's a lot of things that they can tell you, and a lot of things that they can prophesize. And there used to be a very, famous, guide that would come through Gordon Higginson, and I know that that guide, I can't remember what they were called now, but they would come through just before each new year to make 12 months of prophecy about what this year's going to bring, on not just a national, but a kind of global level. And when that was being done. every single year, as the year went on, it would be ticked off for everything the guide prophesied would come true, and that guide would only come through Gordon once a year. So what do you believe about guides understanding, knowing the trajectory of our life, or, you know, do you feel that there is more of an element of them just being there for the moment by moment as our choices kind of change.
Donna King:
Oh, no. Absolutely, energetically, they've got every picture and vision of what our lives can be, and the different routes we may or may not take. They've got a greater understanding of so much more than we could possibly comprehend, and they totally know what is the best route, which is where I do believe they come in to guide us and prompt us towards that. hoping that, you know, the journey will take the best route for the development of the soul.
Jason:
You know what, that's very interesting, even that point, because the fact that they understand and know the whole trajectory of our life, and they've got sight, probably, of our lovely, shiny. very mystical soul contract that we signed up to. They understand where we need to be, which is why connecting with them, building that relationship with them, is so important, because it's almost like you've got you know, access to a resource, a spiritual resource that is with you any time of the day, any time night or day, 24-7 support available with your life map. And even if they can't give you guidance on, you know, where you may be going, what you might be doing over the next, you know, 10 years, what the guides can do is help you in the moment to make decisions, choices, and take paths that align with where you need to be going. And that is so… powerful, and I have to say, if you are new to this kind of world. the intelligence of the spirit world, it just blows my mind. So if you're not connecting and building that relationship with your guide, and you want to get into this work, you may want to be unfolding, this really is one of the first steps, because even if you were developing your healing, even if you were developing your mediumship, even if you were just wanting inspiration from The spirit world, whether it be for art, music, creative matters, work, business. whatever that might look like, you have got a resource there that will have a guide that is corresponding to that. So, honestly, and to have an intelligence like that by your side actually makes me quite emotional, because it's, you know, they're only ever there Through, them wanting to be there, and they… they are like love you have never experienced before.
Donna King:
Yeah.
Jason:
So, coming on to some more questions, because I have had some lovely questions emailed in about guides, and I want to try and address and debunk as many, myths about guides as possible. So, I think one of the big challenges people have got, and especially it was something that came up in my mediumship, is how do we understand this guidance? Because I think a lot of the time, we may misunderstand guidance, and how do we distinguish Between genuine guidance from what might be fear, ego, wishful thinking, or indeed people's very own subconscious.
Donna King:
that's a separation of the brain and the heart in my world. for me, it's about, you know, feeling rather than thinking, because the brain is a, you know, a powerful, magical thing in all of itself, you know, that can create, you know, it can even create an idea that you might feel a certain way, and then you will feel that certain way, you know? The mind is extremely powerful. Which is great for one aspect of being a human, but when I'd… you know, I totally believe that when you're… comes to working with your guides, comes to working with any element of your spiritual, you know, basis, that it's in the feeling, you know? And a small trick for that is, if you feel that you're very heady, just to gently place your hand on your heart, because it is very centering. It can bring you back very much into the body, and back into the self. to help you feel more aligned for that. You know, guides, you know, they bring a very soft energy with them. So, again, it comes around to allowing them the time and space to sit and be to recognize the difference in how you're feeling. And I…
Jason:
It's a very good point, it is subtle, and I think that because we all have these different belief systems, and I think that when we… if I was to picture a guide in my mind, I would think of some very powerful being, you know, probably with angel wings, emanating the brightest white light you've ever seen. And, you know, you'd almost think if a guide was to come through, I'd almost have some kind of static, around me. My hair's be standing up because, like, I've put my fingers in a plug socket or something. But it's not like that. The spirit world is very, very, very, very subtle. And especially at the beginning, when you are in those early stages, the whole journey of mediumship is indeed about building energy. It's about understanding how to get that energy to a point where it's noticeable. And now, when I sit for my guides, because I really understand the process of what I'm doing, which is building the power. Using, you know, every available, trick in the book for me, which is about just, not being in the mind, staying as much as possible, just with the breath, and I just feel, as I, breathe out, I just feel that I'm pushing my energy out, and I do this thing where I send my energy up to the North Pole, I send it down to the South Pole, I send it all the way to Australia, East, I send it all the way west to Los Angeles. My energy is global, baby, and that's the way that I choose to do it. But I think that when you are… you are right, we all have different belief systems. And… especially when, you know, you're going into this at the very beginning, I remember I would get quite jumpy, actually, when I would feel the presence of a guy, because I would feel something, and then as soon as I felt it, I'd be out of it, because I'd be in my mind with fear. So, I always remember when you told me about placing my hand on my heart, and that was such a great thing to do, because when you're, you know, experimenting with this. Our belief systems are so powerful. Our belief systems, just… they define the way we experience life, they define the decisions we make, they… they define, even the reality that we live. Everything is tainted by that of our previous experiences and that of our thoughts, and that… has, a definite impact on, you know, what you're going to feel, what you're going to find happens. So that's why the journey of a healer, the journey of a medium, in my mind, is… is… so much of this is about the internal work. because of the fact that you're… you know, what you're trying to do to some degree, is you're trying to erode the ego, and that takes a lot of work, especially if you've got a very active mind. I… used to find that my anxiety would bloody run away with me. Was I in control of my thinking? Certainly not a lot of points along my journey. So, it is subtle, and I think that it does require you, you know, to… and if you think you're just going to sit down on the first, second, third, fourth go, and suddenly, you know, start feeling that you're having open communication, you know, you're probably kidding yourself somewhat. Because you need to understand that depending on the day you've had, depending on what's going on in your life, depending on the belief system that you've got, the fears that you've got, and so on, they are all going to have a part to play. But what I would say to Anybody sitting is, even if you don't experience something. do not doubt that nothing is happening. If you are not feeling something, I guarantee you, with every ounce of my being, that actually there is things going on, the spirit world are working with you, they might be working with your energy, and just because you don't feel it, don't doubt nothing's happening, because every single time you sit. The spirit world will be doing things to help you. Whether you can understand that, experience it, sense it, stuff will be happening. Do you or do you not agree with that, Donna King?
Donna King:
Absolutely agree. And as you were speaking, the guys just said, you know, it's about just allowing us the space and the time to come forward and work with you as individuals in the best way that we can, and allowing them to continue time. It's often best to make an arrangement, you know, with yourself. You know, for that, even if it is 10 minutes, you know, once or twice a week, just to allow that space for them to bring themselves forward and work with you, because, you know, they will know that this is the allocated time, and they'll be there ready and waiting. You know, to help you in the best way they can, in whatever is suitable within your life. You know, you do not have to be, you know, a healer, a medium, you know, transmit. You don't have to be any… you're working within the spiritual field. for your guides to be present and want to help you in your life. That is so important that people know that, you know, bringing your guides forward and learning to meet your.
Jason:
Cave in this metric.
Donna King:
state does not mean that you need to be working spiritually, you know? You know, it's a misconception. I don't know why anybody would, you know, why people kind of get that idea. You know, they could help you.
Jason:
Well, we get so many things. I used to be almost a bit embarrassed and apologize to my guides in the early days, because I used to say to them, oh, I'm so sorry I've let you down by doing this unspiritual thing again, and I used to feel that the guides, and this is how silly, you know, when I look back now, I almost want to burst out laughing, at the way my brain would work, but I would almost think, well, my guides are with me all the time, they've seen this thing that I've done. So let me debunk another myth. Your guides, you know, you are going to do things in your life that, yes, aren't great, we make the wrong decisions, we do things that we feel guilty for. Your guides will never, ever, ever judge you, because in the land of the spirit world, all there is is love. But love, not like you felt on this earth plane, a degree of love, but you could not… even possibly comprehend. You might love your child implicitly. You might love… well, I'd like to hope you love your child implicitly. If you don't, you're probably… you're probably not the sort of person that's going to be listening to the soul sync in the first place if you got this far along. But… you know, that degree of love that one might have for a child is nothing in comparison to the level of love, out there in the spirit world that our guides have with us. And all they ever want to do… we could make the same mistake. 20, 30, 40 times over, and guess what? The guides might be up there, maybe banging their heads against a philosophical, you know, slabs of concrete up there in the spirit world, but they will be there for us, and they will help us again. And your guides will… nothing but love and the best, and they will guide you back, and they will do everything, because that is their job. They have signed up to do that for you, and they will do everything in their power. Like, I've had moments in my life where, oh my goodness, my spiritual guide at one point during addiction, must have thought to themselves, look, are we going to save him or not? Because he's going more and more off that into the gutter, and you know, I can only imagine what they were feeling, but they obviously knew that that was a building which was going to act as a catalyst moment at the time, because it was my soul yearning out, saying, well, look, I'm absolutely bloody miserable, because you know, what I… the reason I got myself into that pickle was because I'd, thought all my life that, you know, when I make something of myself, I would feel internally happy, I would feel internally successful, I would feel, fulfilled. But actually, the more money I ever made, the more miserable I became, and then that's where, you know, I started feeling that I was an actor the whole time. People would say to me, Jason. you are so successful! And I'd be thinking, my God, I've never felt so bloody miserable. So, you know, it's interesting, the journeys that we go on. Do our guides disagree with the choices that we make? It's an interesting question that's been emailed in. I think that, of course, the guides are gonna disagree with things that are not in our best interests and not in alignment with that of what we should be doing. Do they step back or become more consistent with that, do you believe, Donna?
Donna King:
I don't know whether they… Holy do. I mean, they can wish that you had done something differently, but like you said, you know, I mean, the love we feel here on Earth is literally, I love to say it, is incomprehensible. It is like a grain of sand. In the enormity of the love you feel in the light of home, because I have seen and felt that. But I just… I just believe that they have such, you know, the… the energetic strands of being at home for the guides is the level of understanding of everything is so far… far from, again, comprehensible… comprehensible for us as humans, that they… they know… they've got far greater knowledge of, you know, why we've done that thing, that they may think, maybe you should have not gone left, you should have gone right, you know, but they'll understand that a whole lot more, so I don't know whether…
Jason:
You know?
Donna King:
Yeah.
Jason:
I guess as well, you know, because you've had a very close relationship with their guides, and this was something that jumped into my mind earlier on. Do you feel that there's a danger in constantly asking guides what to do, and accidentally, by way of doing that, giving away our own power?
Donna King:
well, yeah, that's probably why they don't give the answers. But, they always tell me I'm very nosy, but that… very nosy. It's come up in.
Jason:
Oh, I couldn't possibly comment on that, of course!
Donna King:
Well, I always want to know, you know, I've always got a question, you know, like, there's always something else I want to know. You know, I'd like to say I'm an avid learner, you know, But, you know, Yeah, I do… I do… I do think, you know, that they… they do… my brain's just gone there with that now, you know?
Jason:
Look, on that point, I do think that guides… and I've always felt, when you've told me this story, I have always felt with my… faculties that one of the reasons I felt the guides stepped away from you is because I felt that at that point, there was an over-reliance on them, and it was every decision, and big… kind of moment in your life was, and even the little moments, I felt, was very much about you reaching for the guides, and it was almost like, yes, we're here, but you need to understand how to navigate this. We can't give you the answer to everything.
Donna King:
Yeah, I mean, yeah, because, I mean, it's not direct answers, it's sort of more of an influence of energy of ideas, but for me, it was very much… it was almost a relationship I'd had with them my whole life. So, it was like, right, you're going to go through some stuff now that we kind of need to step back from, and you've got to navigate and do. So, in respect. for the most part, yeah, that's correct. But always reaching… although I am very nosy when I, you know, I do… do like to know, you know, answers to things.
Jason:
But I think that's a good quality of a medium. That's a good quality of a medium.
Donna King:
It does.
Jason:
Very nosy person.
Donna King:
Yeah, and you're… I don't know whether you got to that point yet, but I even do it in readings, you know, like, I can be aware of somebody's relative, and it's almost like they want to tell them something, but then I can feel the guides come in, and there's something they can't say, and then there's almost, like, this background conversation going on as to whether they're figuring out what they can say, you know? So, again, it's the element, because, you know, using that intrigue, I mean, that nodi, whatever you want to call it, that intrigue. They're wanting to know more, because of who I am as a person, comes in, even moves into the elements of my work, so I suppose, in a way, it's been beneficial. I think I always had them there and asking questions. I mean, you know, I asked them why a homeless man was homeless once, when I was about 5 or 6. You know, so it's just been an on-tap relationship, really, that I… it was a pivotal moment in my life where I had just discovered something very traumatic, so… It took a while for them to back up, but… I kind of get why they had to, because, you know, there's been a time when they said something to me, and they said, well, that's only happened because you were there, and I was like, and they was like… and then I got it later on. You know, it's because we don't all… can't always make sense of what they're saying, and sometimes they can say something, and I can interpret it in my own way. And then later on down the road, I'm like, but you said… and they're like, yeah, but we said… And I'm like.
Jason:
Well, the distracted being jaded by your emotions, being.
Donna King:
Yay!
Jason:
by, you know, how you feel about yourself, what beliefs you've got, what sort of state you're in at the time. The guides will always give us the answers we need, but whether we choose to listen, take it at face value, you know, I've had my guides say things to me in the past, and then I'll just go off and do a totally different thing, but that is the… That is, you know, me. That is the sort of person I am. Or what I might do is the ego might kid me. I might get something from the guides and then go, oh, okay, I think I've got this one under control anyway. You know, the old, lead a horse to water but trying to make it drink is a different, matter. And, you know, we… and I think one thing that's really daunting to me in this conversation is about reflecting back on when you start getting a bit older, and looking back at your life, and looking back at, the relationship that you've had with the guides, how you felt about certain things, you know, you really start to understand and see things in a different light. I think if people realized how much guidance is actually available to them. You know, what do you think people might do differently in their everyday life? Not just in their meditation, but in relationships, work, grief, decision-makings, moments of fear? I guess to answer that question myself. you think about, as we go through our lives, we have so many moments of times in our life where we don't know which path to take, we feel kind of split in our decision making. I know myself, I'm a very decisive person, I'm very one way or the other, and in those moments, I get those, oh, god, I'm on the fence moment. They unsettle me, because it's very rare that I feel that, and when I do, I might always be tempted to not tempted, even. I might just want to sit with the guides and try and get an understanding on not just what I need to do, but why am I feeling this? What… because, you know, we should always know what we need to do. We shouldn't have those on-the-fence moments, but sometimes we do get them, you know, if you've got a job and you've got two good offers and whatever, I would always say to… on those kind of key life moments, to sit with the guides. And always to eventually go back to what you feel. What you feel will always be the right answer.
Donna King:
Yeah. I totally agree with that. And the sitting with your guides also, you know, just sitting for the power of yourself, you know, allows you that space and time that actually helps you move through the week and through the day. in a slightly better energy than you might had you not, you know? And until you sort of do that on a regular basis, and understand the influence of that, there's days where I don't sit. I can… the story of my life spirit saying to me, sit, sit, sit, you know, And there's days when I think, and I think, oh, and I feel a bit ratty in the car, because, you know. whatever, you know, somebody's cut me up. And I'm like… and I know the days where I sit, I'd be less bothered, you know? So… of the effort of doing, you know, and allowing your guys to sit with you, even if it is just sitting for the power of yourself. is… has a marvellous impact on, you know, the individual as a soul, just on the day-to-day. And again, you know, great for anybody that works in the spiritual field, and great for anybody that doesn't.
Jason:
Oh my goodness, if I could give anybody on this episode one bit of advice, the best 10 minutes you could spend every day is 5 minutes in the morning sitting with your guides, seeing what comes to you, 5 minutes at the end of the day, and it's actually, in this newfound life that I'm living at the moment, it's part of my timetable now, because I… and one of the biggest things I have to say, and we have to talk about this. is expectation. Oh, my goodness, Expectation is a killer when it comes to mediumship, guides, whatever. What do I mean by expectation? I mean going and sitting and asking for a particular thing. When I was sitting in the early days, I would always have an expectation. Guides, can you help me with this? Guides, can you do this? Guides, can you do that? Guides, can you do this? there was never a moment where there wasn't an expectation, and do you know what that does? Is it absolutely halts the progress of you getting what you need, because you… we like to think that we know what we need. Your spirit guides and people in the spirit world know far better than you what you need. Why is that? Because their intelligence is off the chart. how do I know that? Because I always want to fact-check these things. I know it from my own mediumship by how clever the spirit world are in how they communicate to us. The spirit world will use every thought we've ever had, everything in our consciousness, every single emotion that we've got tied to, even the things that are so small that you think are insignificant, can be used. Everything from the day you were born within your life tapestry, and not just your life tapestry. They could even use things from previous lives that you don't quite know why you feel a certain way, but you do. So they will use everything available to them to communicate. Now, that is intelligence. We think that it might be difficult to speak to someone of another language. Try speaking through the spirit world, and having to use a medium's own thoughts. And the difficulty with that is, a medium, yes, might have had a certain experience, but I feel a certain way about that experience. So the spirit world might draw on that, but they also have to work with me, the medium, who's got a mind that, at times, might want to interpret, might want to place, might want to… so there's… you know, I can only imagine at times, how difficult it is in the spirit world to speak through consciousness itself. So, you know, expectation, you've got… one of the best bits of advice is to sit to just be in the energy, or to sit and say, what do I need to know today? Keep it open, keep it broad. Don't limit the intelligence of your guides, limit the intelligence of the spirit world by going in with an expectation. Yes, sometimes it can be great. to ask a particular question, but I would always encourage you to not… to ask the most open question possible. If you're going to say, for instance, you've got a job offer, rather than asking, should I accept this job? Ask, if I was to accept, what might this look like in my path? Open it up, because the more open you are, the more you're allowing the intelligence of the spirit to drop in. Because, for instance, if you sit down with an expectation. And what comes to you is something that you've already got a conscious bias about, because you've asked the question. Perhaps you've asked the question where, deep down, you already want the answer to be one way or the other. You're not even allowing the spirit world to use their intelligence, and one of the most amazing parts of the spirit world is when you know that they've given you something, because it's something that is so obscure that you know you didn't think of it, and that's when you know you've been touched by that of the other world. On the subject of expectation, because it is such Such a big point. What's your thoughts on this, Donna? How do… what do you feel about this, and how should people navigate it?
Donna King:
To be honest, you've said everything I would totally agree with. I never go in with an expectation. It's about trusting them to bring you what's needed, and trusting your soul with what you feel, you know, with what you're given. to have an expectation? I mean, it comes to go back to the conversation a minute ago, about the perception of something. Spirit have said stuff to me before, and then I've had my own preconceived idea of the expectation of what they've said. And then, actually, later on, I've gone back to them and said, but you said this, and they're like, yeah, but we said this, and they give me the exact words, and I'm like, so it was my perceived expectations of what they said in the way I wanted to perceive it, and the way my brain worked, that gave me this, you know, false narrative of what they actually meant. You know, because they…
Jason:
Well, you've taken that one step further, then. It's… you've got something come to you, and then your own expectation has jaded the message that you've given. And you make an important point there, because it's about listening to what the spirit world say. The spirit world will never say one thing and mean another. They will never say something to you that… unless they are giving you a message that needs that deep reflection, that needs to be contemplated to the eighth degree. They're very straight-talking, and I always think the most beautiful example of their straight talkingness is when you read, things like Silver Birch, and you see that every single word in there really makes sense, and the spirit worlds are very clear. They don't mix their words, they don't play Chinese whispers, that's just not how they work.
Donna King:
No, it is very clear-cut in the way they might say something, but, you know, the human can want something, and then you, you know, you can get your own preconceived ideas. You know, I mean, I'm a lot better… I don't really do that so much no more now, I'm in my 50s, but, I just, you know, trust the process, trust in the journey of my soul at the moment, because, you know, for me, there's a whole new world opening up within my spiritual work, you know, I've reached a new door, again, you know, and we're…
Jason:
It kind of feels to me that in this new dawn that you're in, I very much feel, energetically, you've got new guides coming in to give you empowerment, to give you strength, and I feel that our guides, you know, change. Some people are here for a season, some people are here for forever. And I think you've just got to be open-minded. Just be open-minded, and go in to it. And know that whenever you see, you are going to attract nothing but love and light, and it's amazing what the mind does to trick us, what the left side of the brain does to want to keep dragging us back, to doubt things, wants to keep… the left-hand side of the brain will do everything it can To stop you from realizing that, the fears that you've had, you know, are holding you back, and it's amazing, the tricks that the mind can play on us, and, you know, as soon as we become aware of that, you know, it's very, very life-changing. We've got time for one last question, and it is a good one, actually, and this is from Amy in Boston in the US, who got in touch To say, are guides always separate beings, or could we call a guide sometimes a deeper aspect of our own consciousness or soul?
Donna King:
I think that depends on how much you've worked on the development of yourself and your own, you know, innate… meditative ability to differentiate whether it's the ego, mind, and, you know, bringing that in, the higher self, if you like, or whether there is actually an energy of a different person, present and known. Because I've heard this before, that there's a tutor that believes that actually, you know, it's just your higher self just giving you a play act, if you like, to, you know, to guide you along the way. Well, I absolutely. agree with that, you know, because these people come through with personalities, and I, you know, the depth of a person is great, and so it is, you know, is vast, and that is, when you're only worshiping with them energetically, that is far, you know, it's even more vast in the way that is felt and seen. So, I do believe for some that are in the beginning stages, that may be the case, and… and, you know, maybe that is, you know, there's no right or wrong way, you know, The conversation, so…
Jason:
Story.
Donna King:
Yeah, and for somebody recently, you know, like, you know, even those that, you know, per se, were not, you know, born to be a medium per se, even… but do mediumship, you know, they have their part to play. So, even if it is that, you know, you're subconscious, you know, higher self creates this, you know, being that's, you know, there, then that's what's needed for you, and that's part of You know, what you're bringing forward for yourself in your own soul's development.
Jason:
Mmm, interesting. I guess, and I always say, I believe, because my beliefs change, and they evolve, and they grow, and I always caveat everything with, I believe, because I always encourage everyone listening to this podcast to come to their own beliefs, be skeptical, be, don't be distrusting, you know, I would say trust the spirit worlds, but I would say to be, very much take what resonates and leave the rest, but my belief is that I feel that a lot of our guides are… people that have walked this earth plane before, because I think in a lot of aspects of our life, we need guides that are relatable, guides that have understanding of what it's like to be down here, to understand the challenges of the human experience. So, you know, it makes sense that, you know, why would we have guides that have no understanding or relatability to the challenges in the life that we've got. But I believe that the ego And… and our physical, mind. Very much wants to always, project our own reality onto that of the spirit world. So I feel that, like I said earlier, we've become obsessed with wanting to know names. We like to think that our guide is a male or a female. We like to think that they're wearing human clothes, we like to think that they've got a very similar life to us, but they're perhaps clocking on at 9 and leaving at 5 and getting the train back to Terminal 2 of heaven, I don't know. So… but it's… I believe that, you know, a lot of our guides aren't always, entities that have walked the earth plane, and I think that's much more relevant for, spiritual people that are on that path, I think that they can draw other aspects, but do I believe that a guide is always an actual individual, or could it be a collectiveness of different souls working together in the same pursuit and mission to help that person? Well, yes, I do, because I… I don't believe that every guide is always, you know, a man who's been here, a woman who's been here. I believe that it's different people, different, entities, and I believe that it changes and evolves. And I think that's the fun and the experimentation of getting to know your guides, is to have this very open relationship with them, and to know that they're there for you, to know that they can be accessed anytime. They can be accessed from 36,000 feet on a flight from London to Mumbai. They can be accessed to on a train, they are not bound by physical location, and, you know, the resources people have got there to be able to start to do that and to find that, it's magical, and it's, you know, very much you have a family down here on the earth plane, but you also have a spiritual family, and your spiritual family are there, and the difference being, you know, your own family, at times, might be hard to to work with. They might not always give you the best advice, they might be jaded in their views. Well, your spiritual family, let me tell you this, they want nothing but the best for you, and they will never judge you, and they will always look at you through a lens of light and love. Well, there we go, I don't think we could have packed more into that first episode, and, you know, it's been beautiful to talk about this, because I really think that this is one of the real early stages of what people should, you know, start to explore and work with on their… spiritual journey, and as I've said, there will be a meditation for guides, released very soon. And, you know, I'm really excited to do these, sessions. So I will just say that if you do want to submit a question on any aspect of mediumship or psychic development, go to the show notes, send an email, and Donna and I will discuss that in the episodes that follow. It's on a king. to say is it's been an absolute loss talking about spirit guides.
Donna King:
Thank you, darling.