It always amazes me that my family continues to think they are not mediums…. here’s the latest that will make you scratch your head.

Since not all of my daughter’s grandparents live locally (my dad and stepmom live in Florida, and my husband’s parents live in Maryland), we  send out a picture of the day. My aunt, who has always been like a mom to me and who adores baby girl, is included in the mailing.

My aunt is also one of our regular babysitters.

Why am I telling you this? The two came together when my aunt asked the other days while we were picking up our munchkin, “Dawn. I love the pictures you send. But, I’m curious. There was a man sitting at your dining room table in one of the recent pictures. He had a white beard. You didn’t mention him in the caption and I didn’t recognize him. Who was he?”

Knowing that my aunt doesn’t check her e-mail too often, I asked her when she received the picture she was referring to. She thought it was in the last week. When I looked back at recent pictures, there weren’t any in our dining room and definitely none with a man in the background. The closest I came to finding a picture that was what she described was one at a restaurant with a woman in the background – clearly not my dining room and not a man with a beard, but closest we could come. I showed the picture to Aunt Vickey, who thought maybe that was it.

It wasn’t.

That evening she looked through the pictures of Baby Girl and FOUND the picture. She forwarded the e-mail I sent with the picture attached telling me, “It’s the second picture.”

Now you might be thinking the story ends there. Perhaps amazingly we caught a picture of one of our loved ones who had passed. Mystery solved.

Nope. It gets better… and weirder.

There was no second picture. Not embedded in the e-mail she forwarded me. Not on the original e-mail I tracked down in my sent folder. It wasn’t on the original e-mail that my husband received (he’s cc-ed on all ‘Pics of the Day’). AND, checking my phone for pictures taken the same day the e-mail was dated, there were NO pictures taken with a view of our dining room that day OR with anyone but baby girl and the dogs.

At this point, my aunt is freaking out (and probably thinking she is going a little crazy)! Because the picture also DISAPPEARED from her hard drive. It is nowhere to be found!

So what’s going on? Why would a picture with a strange man appear to one person and then disappear? Do these things really happen?

Yup they sure do! It is what we call an apport or physical mediumship. And my thought… someone is trying to say HELLO from the other side. It might be a loved one. It might be a guide. Who it is, I’m not sure. It’s someone for her. If she was a client, I’d be telling her to keep her eyes open for other messages: it may be a song that reminds you of someone who had passed, someone you haven't thought of in years comes up in conversation, it could be anything that strikes you out of the ordinary.

Will she watch for these things? Maybe… maybe not. But the messages will be there. And she thinks she doesn’t get messages… if you ask me, this was a pretty big one.

Last year, I wrote the blog, “My Guides… They Meddle.” If you read that, you know that my guides like to pester not only me but people around me. It’s efficient and effective and gets the message across.

My guides, however, aren’t the guides that choose to work this way.

Last week, during the last Building Blocks of Mediumship session we talked about Spirit Guides. During this class, we talk about what Spirit Guides are; who has guides; how many guides a person has; what their role is; how they can help you; and, who/what they are.

Like me who thought all guides were Native American (my grandfather’s was after all) or at least human, several individuals were surprised to discover that guides could be animals, fairies, aliens, or angels. They come in the form that is most comfortable for you. It was at this point we did a meditation to meet our guides and discussed what they experienced and who their guides were.

Unfortunately, some people struggled to get clear messages from their guides and the conversation moved onto how guides communicate with us and the signs they provide us. It was then when I suddenly had a loud and painful ringing in my ears. Knowing it was angelic and hoping to release the noise, I used that as an example telling the room that ringing, even when not clear, can mean angels are around.

Hearing that, a woman who had been quiet but had been noticeably squirming in her chair for some time, nearly jumped out of her seat saying, “NOOOOOO… Really? Angels? I thought for certain I was imagining it. My guide, who is waving at you obnoxiously by the way, has been telling me he’s an angel. I told him no way, but he insisted. So I told him to prove it. And he said watch this! Then you grabbed your ear and… really? Angels??”

It made me and the classroom chuckle. Her guide in that moment had worked through me to give her a sign and validation to make it clear that her experiences were not her imagination. They were (and are) very real. Sometimes it takes working through that third party to make the message more concrete and real.

So my advice, when you get that clear message to an answer out of the blue from a third party… pay attention. Your guides may be working through them… And man, can that be interesting for the third party. From this experience, man were HER GUIDES WERE ROWDY! Once they got my attention, her lion would roar and paw at me and her angel continued to flap his wings.

On a plus side, it made for a VERY interesting evening. And most importantly… they got HER attention.

It’s been a crazy few days. The full moon has really done a number on me. So this morning when I received a twitter response from an astrologer telling me I received a free astrological reading, I thought COOL. I’ve been thinking about getting an astrological reading for years and just made an appointment with the very talented Cassandra Butler, but she isn’t available until July 24th. So, what could it hurt to see what this is about… it is FREE after all.

So I clicked the link. A new page popped up and I was asked for my email address and birthdate. Made sense because both would be needed to complete an astrological chart. What wasn’t asked for was my birth time. Odd. The reader wouldn’t be able to know my rising sign. I dismissed this, maybe it’ll be asked for later.

After I hit submit, I found out I was added to the mailing list. Eh, for a free reading, I can unsubscribe if need be. Nothing in life is free, right?

But then came my first red flag that something might not be totally on the up and up. With my confirmation, there was a request for my phone number. With this request came fine print. By providing my number I would be willing to receive automated and sales calls. I promptly declined this. While I am open to received spam, I’m not willing to accept phone calls.

At this point I was skeptical, but still hopeful. Then I got an e-mail from the reader with “first impressions.” In this e-mail, the reader indicated that they felt I was in “some kind of emergency.” Followed in the next sentence, “I specifically felt that you live (or work?) in, or near, a city beginning with the letter “E”, maybe it is East Aurora?” In the following paragraph, there is a link to connect to a talisman so we can get a better connection and communicate telepathically.

Oh goodness… you don’t have to have my spidey senses to see all the red flags.

Now let me break this down and why I feel like this is a scam. First off, the “free” reading was in response to my tweet about sticking to my values and beliefs. Which would indicate something might not me “right” in my life. Also, it would be unlikely I would click for a reading if something wasn’t going on. It’s rare for someone to get a reading if everything is hunky dorey.

Were you impressed that he mentioned East Aurora? Yes. I AM in fact working out of my office East Aurora today. But, no need to be impressed that he knew that. While I’m not a computer genius, I do know enough about computers to know that when a submission is made on a website the recipient can trace the IP address. That IP address will tell you the town (and perhaps even what part of town) where a person is.

As for the talisman…. Wondering what it is? Me too. But, I DID NOT click the link he provided to download the file. (My husband, the techie, would be very proud!) Why didn’t I download it? The download most likely is spyware. This spyware would allow the reader to gather personal information about myself that they could then use to lead me to believe they were very talented OR worse, take bank numbers, passwords, etc to steal my identity as well as my money.

This makes me sad all around, as this is a stigma I fight all the time. One reason why I don’t use the word psychic on my literature. Bad apples like the Miss Chleos and this individual place question on the whole profession. My recommendation from you… be leary. If someone comes to you, they probably aren’t legit. I’ll wait til the 24th for my reading. I know it’ll be a good one.