Rev. Merriam Joan Handy Q: I noticed you now live in South Florida. Where are you from originally and what led you to that area of the country? M: Originally I’m from a small town in upstate New York called Binghamton. It is famous because it is where IBM began, and also the home of Rod Serling of Twilight Zone, and Johnny Hart of the BC comic strip. I lived later on in Jacksonville, Flordia, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami Beach, Flordia, Las Vegas, Nevada and even San Diego, California, winding up back in Binghamton the last decade + prior to moving to Flordia. It was definitely the sunshine that led me there, but I have discovered a genuine spiritual and metaphysical pocket of wonderful people here, in the Palm Beach area. It suits me well. Q: What brought about this alternative thought path for you? M: Well, about 20 years ago I was in Commercial Real Estate sales, and traveled to a seminar on NLP to help me better communicate with clients. This was the beginning of my fascination with the Mind and Body connection. The class actually led me to an event in the mountains of Minnesota called PRW, or ”Personal Revolution Weekend.” There I saw the Northern lights, cured myself of acrophobia and all other fears, and walked on a bed of hot fire coals without injury. After that, my appetite to learn more about phenomena of this nature, was insatiable. It led me to hypnosis and then spiritual development, which truly changed my life forever. Q: Are you a natural medium and healer? Did you always know you had these gifts? M: Natural, yes, but I did not know it until about the age of 29 or something. For years I went to psychic fairs and readers would tell me that I should be in their chair. I laughed about it, because I never grew up with any knowledge or practice of it within my social and family circle. So, Spirit had to do some pretty hefty nudging along my life cycle to get me pointed in the right direction! Q: How did you develop these gifts? M: Hypnosis training helped at first because it taught me to go into a trance state to accomplish more than I could normally accomplish in a waking conscious state. This included having five surgeries under local anesthesia only, without any pain or discoloration afterwards. Later, I took a series of classes from a local medium which led me to Lily Dale, New York and the School for Spiritual Healing and Prophecy. I trained for three years, receiving my full ministry ordination, but more importantly, the keys to becoming a good medium and healer. Q: What makes you believe? M: I learned a great lesson from Wayne Dyer who wrote that, ”if you believe it, you will see it.” So, I followed his advice, and he was right. The more I believed in my spiritual gifts, the more they developed and came forth with proof and evidence that it was all real ”stuff.” The more evidence and validation I received that communicating with the spirit side of life was possible and real, and I could be an instrument to command healing energies through me to help others, the more my faith and belief in the phenomena being a reality, got stronger. It may have started out as faith, but for me it has been proven scientifically and without a doubt. Q: Why do you feel hypnosis works? M: Hypnosis is a natural phenomena that each one of us experiences about 50 times per day, but most are not aware that it is happening. These alpha trance states, similar to day-dreaming, are very powerful — etching in stone whatever it is that is swirling around in our heads at that time. By creating, purposefully, a state of hypnosis, we can tap into and utilize this natural power to make positive changes in our lives. The key is to use our imagination, over and over again, until our minds accept it as a reality. When this happens, it out-pictures through the physical body and attracts it back to us from the universe. The results are changes within our very nature that we design by intent and follow through, rather than by random accident in a state of mental ignorance. Q: So is Mediumship real and can we really communicate with the dead? M: Absolutely! I have documents that refer to scientific research that has been done world wide since the 1930’s involving direct communication with the so-called dead, using the mechanics of tape recorders, videos, TVs and computers. Some scientists that were once walking on Earth, working on these various projects, are now in the Spirit world, collaborating with their ”live” buddies, to enhance the equipment and provide clearer communication channels! It is clear proof and evidence that Mediumship and life after death is not illusion but our reality. Q: Are there really past lives and through regression can we really tap into those memories long forgotten? M: Remember, Western civilization is one of the few cultures in the world that has not been raised with reincarnation being a vivid part of our religions. But today that is changing due to technology and actual record keeping of days gone by. On the average, people reincarnate every 50-200 years. Today, through their flashbacks of memory or actual regressions, people can officially trace back, through the written records, to verify names and places where they existed in a previous life. Even medical doctors are now researching these truths as can be seen in many of the new books out in the last decade. Regression is a wonderful tool used to heal unserving past life memories causing problems today, as well as to reveal past life beneficial abilities that can be utilized for positive change. Benefits, either way, are extraordinary. Q: Are there different types of regressions? M: Oh yes. There are basically four types which I work with: conscious childhood, hypnosis childhood, conscious past life and hypnosis past life. The difference is this: conscious regressions are non-invasive. The client returns to childhood or a past life as an observer, like watching a movie and gaining insight and information. Hypnosis regressions are more invasive. The client returns to childhood or a past life and actually relives the experiences, often feeling both physical and emotional pain as if it were really happening at that moment. This has great benefits when we are attempting to release physical ailment conditions, often chronic, or emotional traumas and anxieties, unexplained from this life time. Q: And what about readings? Are there different types of those? M: Yes again. I do a general psychic reading, a mediumship reading, and a past life reading. The first is what most people look for; it tells the client a little bit about the past, present and future that surrounds them now. A mediumship reading is communicating with those who have died. A past life reading is where I, as the medium get a glimpse at the Akashic records, to review a client’s past life that is affecting them now, either positively or negatively. Often this little bit of insight as to the cause of a situation, can move the client onto a path of healing and transformation. Q: Do you still study? M: Without ever stopping! There is so much more to learn, and I’m pleased and privileged to have found a truly proven Mystery School where words of wisdom from great Ascended beings are shared to help me in my spiritual and higher conscious thinking development. I am just a humble chela in kindergarten compared to some of the great immortal minds that speak to us from the Spirit side of life! What I learn has a purpose, and that is to help me and guide me towards spiritual and physical ascension, breaking through that repeating pattern of the birth-death cycle. And even more wonderful is the fact that it is now available to a common person like myself and anyone else who has the ears to hear and the desire to seek. Q: What does holistic mean and what holistic work do you do? M: Holistic is like the word ”whole” meaning the whole person which encompasses mind, body, emotions, spirit, relations, and business. The key is to have all these elements in our lives in perfect order and balance so they harmonize and create health on all levels of our beingness. When I work with a client, it is like a process of detox and elimination, one step at a time. I like to begin with the physical body, helping to restructure shopping, cooking, eating and exercise habits after a good, healthy detox cleansing. Next, I help them detox their minds and replace old negative, misguiding thoughts with positive and powerful ones. Then I move on into the emotional body, and detox blocks and limitations caused by fears and emotional traumas. After that we have a much clearer path to open up the spiritual pathways of enlightenment. Through those avenues of higher thoughts, words and deeds, relationships are then healed and strengthened, and business takes on a major paradigm shift for the benefit of all. It is a fun process and a privilege to assist in. I have seen lives completely turned around and healed in less than six months; that’s why I call the work that I do ”brief therapy.” Q: I notice you do a lot of teaching and speaking. What makes you different from other teachers or speakers? M: Well for one thing, when I teach or speak, I do my homework and prepare, but once I am there in front of my students or audience, then the little ”me” steps aside and I let Spirit channel through me to create the perfect class or lecture. Years ago, I would prepare oodles of pages of notes and would use them as a strict guide in my work. Then one day, I had to teach for three hours and had forgotten my notes; in other words, I had to wing it from the seat of my pants! Well, phenomena happened; information flowed through me like Niagara Falls, and later students came up to me totally elated as if everything I said was a personal message for each one of them individually! From that point on, I knew Spirit knew what each person needed to hear a whole lot better than I did. Sometimes I only ask for one word or a phrase of words, and from there can teach an entire class or present a ”toastmaster style” speech. The great I AM Presence has given me the gift of being able to take large amounts of information on a subject, and whittle it down into a small capsule that is easy to swallow and easy to digest. More importantly, I am able to share it in the form of being practical and applicable immediately into a person’s life and daily routines. Without that element, it would be like reading a dozen books, but not changing one thing in your life afterwards. Transformation occurs through love in action, not just sitting around thinking about it! Q: What about the Corporate world today? Have the doors even started to open? M: Good question. You know, over ten years ago, I started knocking on the doors of businesses, talking to them about bringing spirituality into the workplace and into their relationships between employees and customers, their two most important assets. At that time, using the word spiritual was like a four letter cuss word, and not allowed at all! Today, California is beginning the trend of bringing holistic and spiritual practices into the work environment. They are beginning to discover the truth that we are spiritual and sexual beings in a divine temple called the human body, and it is our nature to want to be surrounded in soothing experiences that can balance our typically stressful and strung-out days. It will be such a pleasure when from the top down, the orders from headquarters provide for wholesome foods rather than candy machines; a meditation room to relax, reflect, and recreate; soft new age music to soothe some frazzled nerves; energizing crystals on desks; healing fragrances wafting across the rooms; pictures of angels and icons upon the walls; a workout room to stimulate the metabolism; a shoe rack to hold sneakers that promote a twenty minute parking lot walk; a massage therapist relaxing aching necks and shoulders; and of course, a holistic and spiritual corporate counselor on staff to guide, promote, and motivate our healthy thoughts, words and actions. These positive changes reflect positive increases in the bottom line of profits and the longevity and loyalty of employees and customers. Q: So what do you see as your future? M: To speak, to teach, to share, to write, to reach as many people as I can with the truth of their Divine nature and how to make it ”happen” in their lives through simple and effective tools and techniques. That’s my job — that’s what I signed up for before I was born. It has been said that ”when the student is ready, the teacher will appear” Well, for me, because I want to reach lots of people, it is more like ”build it and they will come.” So, that is why I go on speaking tours. That is why I teach classes every day. That is why I make myself available day and night to help manifest God’s Divine plan on Earth: the unveiling of the I AM Presence in each and every one of us. That is the truth of our future together; the all in all as ONE. Q: Rev. Merriam, what type of methods do you use to keep yourself centered? M: Actually, there are many. From the physical level, I make sure I supply my cells with a daily supplement of the nutrition from 17 fruits and vegetables, which I get from four capsules of a product called “Juice Plus.” I try to eat four nourishing meals per day in addition, and drink oodles of water to stay flushed from toxins. My treadmill starts my day, and I get to the gym for weight training in between. From the mental level, I witness my thinking process to make sure I don’t get clogged up with old, worn out negative thoughts. When I catch myself in a nonserving thought sequence, I sort of capture and transmute it right then and there, and create an affirmation to replace it. On the emotional level, I practice detachment and neutrality which allows me to respond rather than react, but allows me to experience the give and take of love and compassion. I use several quick and efficient tools of hypnosis and meditation to accomplish this throughout the day. In addition, I use a growth hormone product to energize me and reverse the aging process during the day, along with herbs to balance hormones and give me restful sleep at night. It’s a concentrated process of integration, with a key factor being I love doing what I do! Q: If there was one wish or dream you would like to see fulfilled, what would that be? M: That would be the awakening process. Right now we are on the brink of either destroying ourselves or raising ourselves into higher consciousness. I pray for and affirm the later every day. More importantly, I do my part to create the 2% factor that will make it happen. Like the 100th monkey theory, it only takes a small amount of a species, all doing the same thinking and the same thing, to create a quantum leap of information into the consciousness of the other 98% of the species. In human form, that is about 250 million people, or the population of the United States. That’s all it takes; one mind and one concentrated action of those few people, to raise ourselves up into Divine thinking, and then binga, banga, booma, the whole rest of the world “gets it” like a big light bulb going off in their heads! That’s my dream and I not only want to be here to see and experience it. Each one of us, knowing the truth of our power and using this truth and goodness, is the key. We all play an integral part in changing the world, so let’s do it together for the better of all. Q: Is there anything else you desire to impart to our readership? M: Yes, wake up. Take responsibility that to know God is a process and takes focused attention and effort. Truth is never handed to us on a silver platter. We must first recognize our true purpose is to seek and find our own Divine truth, and then live it, following the Golden Rule of no hurt or harm. Indifference, or the cry of victim, can only cause harm and eventually add to the destruction of humanity. Time is truly of the essence. We are on the edge of a shift that could fall or be pushed in either direction. We are a generation that can literally integrate all the knowledge of the past into the present, and functionally create our future. We are a generation that can master the integration of Spirit into matter and matter into Spirit. Together they are the lateral and vertical energies that form a perfect balance in life. The only question is whether or not we will accept the challenge of the task, or sit back indifferently, hoping someone else will take care of it. The way to change the world is to first change ourselves, individually, into the highest and most Divine thoughts we can imagine about who we really are. When we accomplish this, the rest of the world will simply follow and model our excellence. This is how we change the world into those one thousand golden years of illumination talked about by Nostradamus. I believe we not only have it in us to do this, but that we must do it, and do it now. The only question to ask yourself each day is, “What am I doing today to hinder or help this process.” If you walk and talk from within the heart and mind of God, I guarantee you will not only be helping the process, but enjoying the great rewards that it provides. I’m willing to help. Are you? ¤ |
An Interview with 
