There is more between heaven and earth than meets the eye, since the beginning of time humans have tried to understand the mysteries of life. For some religion is the answer, for others science will provide the sense of security that makes us feel that we are in control. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring fills many with apprehension, and since the beginning of time we have sought out those who claim to give us a glimpse on what the future will hold. Alter Ego editor Adel Heine met Lady Colleen Heller, a down to earth clairaudient and clairvoyant.
It is the end of a sunny Saturday as Lady opens her door, asking us to be quiet as she has not finished her Psychic Development course yet. If I was harbouring any images of dark rooms with wafting incense, I was disappointed. Her living room is light and airy, and filled with people who are partaking in a programme to develop their own psychic abilities. As the day draws to a close, a few participants are kind enough to share their experiences with us.
“I feel I have this natural ability in me,” shares Heba “and I want to develop this further.” One woman joined the group to find out if she indeed did have any psychic abilities and “in the weeks that we have been meeting I found things I have never suspected in myself that keep developing further and further.” Louise treasures the fact that “by reaching a bigger understanding and control over what I can do, I can apply it in my life and it helps me to deal with whatever comes my way.”
Lady Colleen and the women of the group are friendly, funny, and quick to laugh. Lady accepts the obvious fondness and admiration the women have for her, but with a healthy dose of relativity and a small joke, she obviously likes to laugh, not in the least at herself.
Being of a sceptical nature, but not wanting to be disrespectful, I play it safe by asking Lady Colleen when she first realised she could hear and see what others could not. “I have always been clairaudient, [heard a voice] ever since I was a little girl,” she explains. “It runs in my family, through the female line, so my mother was not doubtful, she told me it was OK, but to only talk to her about it. She did me a favour with that, not many people like to be told the truth when they are trying to hide it.”
She heard the messages in a female voice, “for me it was the Virgin Mary, since I was Roman Catholic. It is strange, since there is no gender, but that is what I heard. Now I can say ‘it’ is neither he nor she, but it took me to come to Egypt first, before I could say this.”
Finding a balance between her personal experiences and more traditional approaches led her to visit every kind of church she could find: “I have been to all of them, searching and searching, hoping something would make sense. And all I found is, that in the end, it all is the same. I am not religious, I am spiritual, but I do have complete respect for the energy of religion.”
Hearing and seeing the truth about people instead of what they choose to show took time to learn how to handle, “in my twenties I had a very hard time, how to control it, how to stop it when I did not want to know and how to handle the responsibility of having all this knowledge.” Once Lady Colleen found her way, there was no turning back, and ever since she has used her abilities to help others. “Mind you, I cannot see things for myself, I get hints on what I am supposed to do, but I do not get the messages I get for others. And I am human, I make mistakes and do things that I know I shouldn’t, but want to anyway,” she concludes laughing.
Any preconceived suspicions of floaty mysticism or new age vagueness vanish after talking to Lady Colleen for two minutes, she is full of humour and professes to have a healthy disbelief for people claiming to be psychic. “It takes a lot to convince me, so I do understand sceptics very well. I am the biggest sceptic on the planet! I am like everybody: prove it! I don’t mind people that doubt, unless they come to me for a reading—then it becomes a waste of their money and my time. It usually does not take long to convince them, just time consuming; I am good at what I do.”
Over the years Lady Colleen has learned how to combine what always came natural to her; “when I was small my parents would ask me to put my hands on them if they were in pain or not. This they asked only of one of their 7 children. I decided to go to university and become a Physical/Psychological Therapist. I had problems when I worked in the psychology department, I could not sit there, not say anything and I was too emotionally involved!”
Lady Colleen has been studying ever since: “I took Reiki to give a name to what I always did naturally. I became accredited in Hypnotherapy in the states. I take a course almost every year, be it Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Medicinal Herbal Center in North Carolina or anywhere to further my education. I learnt new things about nutrition, alternative healing modalities, vitamins, and most recently the omega 3 family. My life is about learning, teaching, and healing.”
The practicalities of life are no different for her than for any of us. Lady had built up a successful career in New York when she kept receiving messages that she should go to Glastonbury UK. “I had no idea where to go when I arrived in 1993, but ended up, where I was meant to move in 1996 to Chalice Well and Gardens, Glastonbury UK, know as Avalon. I had a life in the US, making a lot of money but it was time to move. So I packed my bags and went where guided.” she adds smiling. “Moving to Egypt was something else. I arrived in Sinai through Israel and from there went straight to where I currently still live in a Bedouin village for over 9 years. Working in Cairo as well came later as my work spread. I love America, my family, and friends but home for me now is Egypt.”
Offering many different forms of healing, I wonder how Lady Colleen decides what is suitable for whom. “For example people ask for a treatment of Accu-Pressure Point Reiki™ or Reiki, because they have a bad back. Sometimes I find that when they come, there is actually something else wrong too, sometimes on an emotional level. I have to be careful—I still need to wait for them to ask. So, I tell them about the other things I do, for instance Energetic Auric Release™1 which may be beneficial to them. Still, it is their choice.”
Tension and worry make up a large part of most peoples’ lives, and knowing what the future will hold would make life a lot easier of course. She agrees: “Everybody wants to know what is going to happen! But I never bring up what I know about people unless they want to talk about it, but the fact is, I know. Also, I can not do anything for you that you don’t want, you have to be accepting, and involved with me.”
Spiritual Pathway Readings™ are closer to the traditional concept of divining the future, and it is a process that involves the person who comes with questions as much as it does with Lady Colleen. “It is a two way street. For one or two days before the reading you must write your questions and your thoughts. Anything you are looking for answers for. And you have to ask yourself: why do I have this problem, and do I want an answer to this?” she concludes laughing. As this is going on, Lady is already part of the process. “I will start receiving information before the scheduled appointment. So when you come to me, I just start giving you back the information and the answers to what you wrote down. That is because we have made a commitment.”
If you think Lady Colleen Heller will tell you what will happen in your future though, you are wrong. “I think my forte is to show people that there is a choice. I show them different roads, so they are aware of the possibilities. I am not here to change the path people are supposed to follow, I don’t interfere. One of the best gifts we have is the power of choice. We have free will.”
Lady believes that in different forms these abilities are in all of us, but that most people do not want to think about it or acknowledge it. “That is why I like this culture so much, Egyptians are an open book and their emotions are very much at the surface. That really helps me to do what I do. I am good at what I do, and I am sure of what I do. I am human, so I am not a 100%, but I get it right 95% of the time.”
Seeing the truth about a person must mean that dark secrets are also visible to her. “I have been in situations where I knew horrible things about people, but what am I going to do? I have no proof. I am not supposed to interfere, but I can warn off things. I am not going to let a child get smacked by his father because he is drunk, I am going to move that child. It is not like I turn a blind eye, but I have to believe people are following their own paths. If I see somebody innocent about to get hurt however, I will speak up. Maybe talk to the mother and then she has a choice to make sure it does not happen again.”
Lady Colleen has learned how to protect herself from any negative energy she encounters: “When I look at you, I see you, not who you portray yourself to be, but who you are. In order to function, I have to have a ‘cut-off valve’, because there is light and dark in everybody. I concentrate on the light, or I would go nuts! The best way to make sure it does not affect me is to make sure I am as happy, smiling and vibrant as I can be, because this energy attracts light.”
Applying these insights in her own life is not as easy as one might think. “I wish I could read for myself, but I can’t,” Lady says laughing, “show me any psychic who can! And I don’t always follow my intuition and signs, oh no! I tell myself, maybe I did not hear right, if it is something that I don’t want to do, maybe I misunderstood… I can’t help myself, I am sceptical!”
After we conclude the interview Lady Colleen sits with me privately to give me a small reading as promised. When her first remarks are about a physical ailment that I have been struggling with for decades, I fall silent and she smiles. She mentions more details about my life, and points out which options and choices are available to me. Right at the end I realised she did not pick up on what I thought would be an obvious detail, while she got all other details exactly right. When I tell her this, she points out readings are personal and do not involve others and then bursts out laughing and says: Ï told you, I get it right 95% of the time!”
Lady Colleen’s matter of fact approach, laced with humour and wit are as far from mystic crystal-ball-staring as it can get. Her positivity is infectious, and her genuine like of people shines through in everything she says. Her final advice, “to be as happy as possible in all your moments” sounds deceptively simple, but worth pointing out in a world where hardship and strife so often dominate our lives.
Published in Alter Ego July 08
