An Interview With John Holland

Destiny or conscious choice? John Holland has a gift that he willingly shares with those whose minds and hearts are open to receive messages from Spirit. This man with a Boston-tinged accent shared experience and on-going connection with the Divine Source that we can all tap into. John is the author of books entitled: "Psychic Navigator", "Born Knowing" and "101 Ways To Jumpstart Your Intuition" and meditation CD’s called "Healing Relaxation and Psychic Awareness" and "The Healing Touch of the Heart". He reminds us that our loved ones "are just a thought away." I get the sense that he would be a comforting presence to someone who seeks his services as a bridge between this world and the next.

Wisdom: One of the pieces from your website www.johnholland.com that most moved me was a line you offered "Neither death nor time can ever separate us." Is that a core message in your work?

John: Absolutely. The soul doesn’t die. It has no beginning, it has no end. We are always con-nected because of the power of love. I just said
recently too that when someone passes away, it’s a disruption in communication, how we used to communicate. Since they are no longer here and have passed on, there’s no body to connect to, no voice. It’s all connected to thought, to telepathy.

Wisdom: When someone you love dies, what differentiates between folks that are able to receive messages; verbal or non-verbal, and those who can’t? What blocks communication?

John: They take their cues from you. Let’s use a grandmother ( as an example). Everybody usually has a grandmother over there. If she knows
that you are an emotional person, she’s not going to come through you with a message or you might become quite emotional. Another reason is lack of knowledge. Your loved ones want to talk to you as much as you want to talk to them. Keeping in them in your thoughts helps keep the connection. If they’re bereaved, especially right after someone passes away, it’s very hard to say "Hey. I’m still here." They can’t get through because they’re a wreck.

Wisdom: So there’s a period of adjustment for the one who has died too?

John: Yes. On the other side, they have to learn to do it also, they have to learn to work with me. When you cross over and want to connect with a medium; what would you give, what words or impressions would you give to somebody here so they know it’s you. What would you send? The Eiffel Tower? Would you send your kitchen because you like to cook?

Wisdom: It sounds like it needs to be an image that makes sense not only to the person who has died, but to the receiver as well, because it
would be different for each person with whom they connect. It’s like learning a whole new language and then to be able to trust the medium enough to relay the message.

John: Right. Was Rose your grandmother?

Wisdom: No, Rose is my mother’s middle name. I have to tell you that this is the second time in a week that it has come up. I met another
medium last week named Donna McGrath and she had my grandmother come through. She had a message for my mother and said "She’s sending her a rose." Rose is also a cousin of mine who died awhile back.

John: I’m so political with my mediumship and validation. I never try to pick up flowers, we all get them when we pass away. There is a Rose over there that has nothing to do with your grandmother.

Wisdom: She was very funny, very feisty, a tough cookie, but loving. In some ways I aspire to be like her.

John: (with regard to symbols) The critic in my head says, "No, no give me something else." I fight with them too. I’m not just going to say
"Watch for birds.". I question them and say, "What do you mean by that?" It makes it even more detailed. I don’t agree with it when mediums say "You know your grandmother is with you and she loves you and is brushing your hair behind you." Bull! "Give me her name, how did she pass away?"

Wisdom: How did you first start doing this? What was the first time you remember "Oh, I have this skill?"

John: I was raised in an Irish-Italian Catholic family and out of the five kids, I was always the different one. I sensed things that my brothers and sisters didn’t. I was always fascinated with metaphysics and hypnotism, ghost books and magic. Anything non-physical is where I
was. I never played baseball. Of course, I was considered strange and then I put it away until an accident occurred. A lot of people think,
"Oh, you got into an accident and then you became this way." No, it was there and I put it away because society called me names for being
different. When I got into the accident many years later, when I was thirty, that’s when it opened up. My energy centers opened up in my body and I couldn’t let go of the information. "How is it happening, why is it happening and how the hell do you shut it off?"

Wisdom: Did it become intrusive for you?

John: It was weird, I felt like this energy went through me constantly. I used to work in a hotel and people would come up to me. They’d get a
beverage and a prediction.

Wisdom: So, a value added service?

John: It’s very important, I tell people when I teach classes; don’t do what I did in the beginning. Don’t just walk up to people. Some people
take a psychic development class and then want to walk up to strangers in the street. Two years into doing this psychic work, all my friends
would say "You’ve gotta do this." but the responsibility seemed overwhelming. People’s lives are in your hands. I slowly started doing readings bust still kept my day job. Too many people aren’t even ready to do this work. They take a class and then immediately want to start reading for people. There’s a difference between being psychic and being a medium, you know that. Every medium is psychic, but not every psychic is a medium. To be able to do this work, still do a day job and see people at night. Those on the other side started showing up and I thought, "Here I am with all the responsibilities of a psychic and now I’m talking to dead people." I wanted to know why it was happening, how it was happening, why did they keep showing up in my readings? I started to investigate and educate myself. Everything I read was from England. Two weeks into studying these books, I stepped on a plane and got to live over there for two years and studied with mediums. Had never been to the country in my life but I knew when you follow your passion, if it’s meant to be, doors will open for you.

Wisdom: I got goose bumps when you said that. I believe it 100%. It helps if you get out of your own way too and don’t block the door. How
do you recommend that people, as your book says, ‘jump start’ their intuition?

John: First, acknowledge that you are psychic. We’re all born psychic. I don’t think God would put us here without a little help. That ‘help’ is
your intuition which keeps you connected with your Source. I don’t care if you call it God, Universe, Almighty, He, She, All That Is, Goddess... whatever. I also say that intuition is the language of the soul. All kids are psychic until around the age of seven when they go to school. The right side of the brain that they used as a kid; the creative side is stronger than the left side; the analytical side. Because of school, books, teachers and society, they pull away from that intuition. It takes you many years to pull away from it and many years to re-discover it. You should start to do little things. Not lottery numbers. I don’t teach people to be psychic, I help them remember that they always were. Start off small: "How many emails will I get?" "What will my boss be wearing today?" If the phone rings, see if you can guess who it is. Have fun with it. You’ll know what it is to be intuitive, as opposed to asking "Is it me? Is it my mind? Am I making this up?" I’ve got a reputation for the stuff that I say that I couldn’t possibly have known. I just did a demonstration in Andover last year and had this woman in the audience. I brought up a name and she said, "Oh that’s a boyfriend of mine’s brother." I asked, "Would you be on a motorcycle with him?" and she said, "Absolutely!" In my mind, I saw the image of her lifting up her shirt way back when and enjoying nature’s air conditioning. And of course this got a huge laugh and she said, "Absolutely." I give what I get.

Wisdom: And sometimes the answers seem so outrageous that you couldn’t have made them up.

John: When I first got started, I used to do readings for people at the Unicorn Bookstore in Arlington, MA. I went up to the audience and in my head, I heard "I hit them in the head with a cast iron frying pan." That’s how I started out the demonstration. "Is there anyone here, with
someone from your mother’s side that hit you with a cast iron frying pan?" I’m in my head thinking "Oh my God." Sure enough a woman raised her hand and said, "Absolutely. That was my mother’s sister; my aunt and she did knock me in the head with a frying pan. As a matter of fact, that’s who I’m named after." I appreciate the "I love you’s.", but I’ll take the frying pan incidents any day. In my first book, I write about
a reading I did with a woman who lost her daughter Jennifer. I kept hearing the ‘click, click, click, click, click’ of shoes. I asked her, "Is your daughter a dancer or something? Is she tap-dancing? What is that noise?" and she said, "John, when she was five, she passed away
because of a mistake in a hospital. She had these clippity clop clogs that were too big for her feet." She would walk down the aisle of the hospital, "clippity clop, clippity clop." They buried her in those shoes. I told her, "She’s so excited by the balloons. Keep doing it. I don’t know what it means." She said, "Twice a year, on the anniversary of her passing and on her birthday, we send up balloons to the Heavens with her picture tied to the string and a note."

Wisdom: When you do your work, I’m sure it’s a healing for their hearts.

John: When I deal with parents who have lost their children, they’re the ones who touch my heart.

Wisdom: Do you feel you have any semblance of a normal life, given the work that you do?

John: Yes. It’s always a challenge and I always want to keep a balance. This year, I have television things happening, I’m going to 24 cities
and I’m working on a book. It can be consuming. It’s a job, it’s a life of service, so it comes with the territory, but I do my utmost to have a
balanced life. It’s a 50/50 split. You’ve got to devote as much time to your physical life as much as your spirituality. One should not
overshadow the other. I try to do everyday things. I love going to the gym to ground me. I love being with friends who have known me for a while, who can give a damn about what I do.

Wisdom: I have had increasing numbers of occurrences lately that I would call psychic ‘hits’ and wonder how we can learn to make those signals consistent, rather than having them be random and haphazard.

John: That’s what I also teach in "Psychic Navigator". Sometimes intuition is that gentle nudge that comes in every once in awhile, yes? How do you know it’s intuition and that you’re not making it up? Because it keeps coming back. When you can take intuition and make it work for you, that’s when it can turn into a psychic ability. One of the things that came to me is this: "Set a dream before you. If the dream can be shared, watch it become a reality." I’m so passionate about this.

John can be heard every Monday at 3 pm EST. www.hayhouseradio.com He takes calls, does readings and offers advice on how to enhance your intuitive and psychic abilities. His guests have included Brian Weiss, James Redfield, psychic detectives from Court TV and more than 20 other authors. It’s all a labor of love for them. John will be appearing with Brian Weiss on Saturday, May 20th 9:30-5:00 at the Wyndham Hotel in Andover, MA. The topic is: "Journey of the Soul a day of enlightenment and healing for the Body, Mind, and Spirit" For tickets, call: 1-866-468-7619