Transcript
Alison : Okay.
Jean: I haven’t seen you in, like, two weeks.
Alison : Yeah, I know, because you went to the East Coast, for your nephew’s…. what would you say that was – a graduation?.
Jean: Graduation from the marine, yeah, from the Marines, which was, uh, in Parris Island, South Carolina.
Alison : Wow.
Jean: right after all those hurricanes.
Alison : Yes. God bless those…
Jean: God bless all the people.
Alison : And, um… And that must have been…. you didn’t get any of that though there?
Jean: no, no there were no, we didn’t get any rain. It was windy. And you could feel in the sky like an ominous type feeling. But no, we got no rain. And I was though, thinking about all the people and, you know, that have been affected by the hurricanes.
Alison : Love out to my family that was in Asheville, are in Asheville. And how shocking and brave they are. And they’re all coming together and just the sense of community and the love and just know that we’re sending you so much love and so much from all over. So just thinking about you all the time.
Jean: Yeah, that is true. We are.
Amy : And today we’re having a good interview with the woman that actually interviewed us!
Jean: That’s right, doctor Amy Robbins. And she she’s quite, um- she’s very interesting to me. She’s a psychologist, and she’s also a spiritual intuitive. So she definitely is a bridge between the spiritual and the scientific world. And I think she has a lot of beautiful wisdom. And I can’t wait for our interview.
Alison : It’s going to be exciting. She’s so interesting and smart, and it was fun to get to know her the other way—Like she talking to, asking us questions. And now we get to to have the opportunity to do it right back.
Jean: Right. And I think one of the gifts that she brings is her her depth of her questions.. Thought that was great.
Alison : She’s great, so here we go.
Jean: Okay.
Amy : Hi.
Alison : Hi again.
Amy : How are you guys?
Alison : Good. I feel like… I feel like we’re friends, and we should just do this once a week.
Amy : I know, I know, that’s what I said after I got off…. when I did my pre-recording, I was like, I feel like I got off my just got off with, like, my two good girlfriends.
Alison : Exactly.
Jean: So true. Oh, it’s so great to see you, Amy.
Amy : You, too.
Amy : How are you guys?
Alison : We’re good. It’s chilly here.
Amy : Oh, I know here, too. I just cranked up my heat.
Alison : Really?
Amy : I think you expect that here, not there.
Alison : Yeah, I know…We have different ideas of chilly. If it goes into the 60s here, I’m cold.
Amy : Now – yeah, that’s where we are. About 60s.
Alison : Really? ,Yeah, it’s it’s funny, you know, it was funny to, um, have you interview us and then now me, like, really listening to all your podcasts and getting to know you more. And I was like, and I was saying to my friend, I was listening with my friend Suzanne, and I was like, um, Suzanne says she’s very serious. And I said, no, no, not at all. She’s she’s just as goofy as the rest of us. Do you know, because on your podcast, you’re, you know, really right there and so present. It’s such a such a great podcast.
Amy : Thank you. Thank you. Serious. I know it’s so funny that it’s funny. I did a, um, zoom last night for my, like, Patreon supporters, and this woman was like, oh my God, I can’t believe it’s you. I hear you. And I’m like, it’s me. Like. Yeah, it’s me. Like I’m just me.
Alison : Exactly.
Jean: But I think that that is so true that people, um, people that they either hear on audio or certainly see on TV or on a screen a movie person, and when they see them in real, like in life, it’s, oh my gosh, you really eat chicken and you really, you know, blow your nose in person..
Amy : You poop too? hahah
Jean: You poop too? hahah
Alison : Those are the three things that are life….chicken, nose blowing and pooping. And then then.
Amy : Totally right. That’s all.
Jean: I remember someone came up to me and they said, wow, what does your husband eat for dinner? I said, chicken, rice and broccoli. The same that we all eat.
Alison : Little cards with questions on them…
Alison : But that’s too funny. Well, thank you for doing this with us.
Amy : Oh my god, I’m so excited.
Alison : So tell us how you actually began your journey. Because you’re a very interesting mix of science and spirituality.
Amy : Yeah. So when I was 18 years old, my aunt died. Um, she was waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant. She had juvenile onset diabetes that, um, she had, she had the– they used to radiate your tonsils when you were young. Um, that was like the treatment for it. And as a result of that radiation, she developed an autoimmune disorder that then they think turned into diabetes. And my grandfather was a pediatrician. So, as you can imagine, like this was this was really horrifying for him at the time, because I think he blamed himself for what happened to her. Um, but she was waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant, and in order to receive the transplant, they needed to, like, make sure that all, everything else was going to be, all of her organs were okay. They had found out that she had had several heart attacks, and so they needed to go in and repair her heart in order for her to move up on the transplant list. And when they went to prepare that, when they went to repair her heart, they realized they couldn’t get it started again. Um, so she died on the table. She was my age now, which to me is like it… It brings it to a whole different level of of how young she was and how much more life she had ahead of her. She had two young kids. My cousins were in, um, high school and college at the time and I… It really shook me to my core.
Amy : She was like a second mother to me as well. Like, she spent a lot of time at our house because she had gone through a really challenging divorce… And my mom was her, i mean, she was her everything. Like, my mom helped her through everything. And so it was really crushing for me, for my family. And it was the first out of order, like, close to me, what I call an out of order death. Right? Like, she was she was young and she had young kids and and I, I struggled with now kind of in retrospect, what I realized was my grief and how it manifested was anxiety, and it was anxiety around what my life was going to look like. And, and would I be able to kind of support myself because she, in her, and this might be getting into like a lot of details, but she and her marriage…. Um, she had stepped away from working and she had, like her husband, was very successful, and then they went through a really terrible divorce and she kind of was left with nothing. And so she had to go back to work and she didn’t really have a career. So she went back to work. And the conditions at work because of her diabetes resulted in like illness, you know, the the circulation issues and like all of these problems.
Amy : And so in my kind of psyche, how I made sense of it was like, if I can’t rely on myself, then what will happen to me? And so it really spun out into a lot of anxiety. And just when I went to get my first, like when I was applying for jobs in college, I had my first panic attack because I was getting rejected and rejected and rejected. And I then realized I needed to go to therapy, which I did, and but never really connected the two pieces together that that my anxiety was a lot of grief and a lot of the kind of sense that I had made around what her death meant to me. Um, and so fast forward to graduate school. I mean, I sunk into a pretty deep depression after that. I was working at a job I was not happy with, um, living at home after college, I ended up quitting my job, waiting tables, and I had a great I mean, I went to the University of Michigan and I was like, waiting tables. And so there was that dissonance within me too like, how did I have this great degree, and not to minimize… I mean, I think waiting tables is actually probably the hardest job, and I think everybody should do it because it really gives you an incredible peek into..
Jean: Service.
Amy : Yeah, yeah, service. And I mean, I still carry in my wallet to this day a person who’s nice to you, but not to the waiter, is not a nice person.
Jean: Totally.
Alison : Yes, totally.
Jean: It’s those little things.
Amy : Yeah. And it was a insight into humanity. At that time, I decided I wanted to go back to grad school. I was volunteering at Children’s Memorial Hospital here in Chicago and decided I wanted to go back to grad school for psychology. And about a year and a half into my program, I had my first visit from my aunt. So it was around the time of my cousin’s wedding. I did not know what a visit was. I did not know that you could be visited by loved ones. I thought it was a dream and my aunt, it was right before my cousin’s wedding, so my aunt came to me and she showed me an image in my mind’s eye of my mom standing at the kitchen sink in the house I grew up in, and she said to me, uh, tell your mom not to be upset. I’ll be at the wedding. And then I saw another image of my uncle, her brother, and she said, let him know that I see him. I hear him when he talks to me, when he’s out pushing the stroller and talking to me. I had a much I have a much younger cousin and I kind of woke up and my husband, I turned to my husband and I said, Aunt Linda was just here. And he was like, what are you talking about? Interestingly, my dog also was barking at that time, so I felt like there was some energetic shift that happened. And I called my mom and I said, mom, I had this crazy dream last night with Aunt Linda, and she told me, you don’t need to be upset. You don’t need to cry. She’ll be at the wedding. And my mom started crying and she said, I was standing at the kitchen sink last night, and I was talking to her and I said, I can’t believe you’re not going to be there. I can’t believe you’re not going to be at this wedding.
Alison : Wow.
Amy : And then I called my uncle, who’s an orthopedic surgeon. So these are not exactly people who are of the mindset that, like, the soul exists and consciousness exists across space and time. And I told him the same thing, and he said, well, when I talked to, that’s when I talked to her, when I’m outside and I’m walking and I’m pushing their son in the stroller, and that’s when I connect with her. And I was like, okay, there’s something here.
Alison : Yeah.
Amy : But I really didn’t know. I mean, now mediumship is like in the zeitgeist. People talk about it. It’s not, it doesn’t feel like some closeted thing. But then, here I am in graduate school for psychology. And I have this experience, and I’m not sure what to make of it or how to understand it or how to conceptualize it. Maybe it was just a dream, but there was something about it. Because if you’ve had a visit, you know it’s not a dream. It is as real as you and I are sitting here talking. That is how real it is. It’s linear. It doesn’t have those like amalgamations of people who represent other people who look like your mom, but really they’re your sister, your whatever it is. And I reached out to a professor and who taught indigenous healing practices, but was also really grounded in traditional psychotherapy. And I told her, I had this experience, what happened? And she said, I think it was a visit, and I think you’re opening up to something. And at that point I was like, okay, like, I didn’t really know what to do with that. She said, well keep talking to your aunt. And I’m like, okay, this is like a little bit crazy town for me. What do you mean? Just keep talking? She’s like, just talk to her. It takes a lot of energy for the spirit to come in and you have to meet their vibration. Now, these words to me were, like, completely foreign. I was like, what is vibration and energy like? None of that was anywhere in my zeitgeist. Anywhere. And so I did. I started talking to her and I said, you know, show us that you’re going to be at the wedding and give us a sign. I mean, I read like Sylvia Browne. I think my professor told me to read. And I just started talking to her and I said, you know, show us a sign. And my aunt loved Neil Diamond. So I said, show us Neil Diamond. And we picked up my sister from the airport, and my sister got in the car and immediately a Neil Diamond song came on the radio and I was like, all right, well, this is all…. And everybody at the wedding was like, is she here? Is she here? Like, is Aunt Lynn, do you feel her? And I didn’t know anything at this time. I mean, I just had this experience and and I really moved on after the wedding, I was like, okay, I had this experience and I didn’t think anything of it.
Amy : And then my papa died, and then it happened again. And then, um, similar thing…. I had a cousin getting married and he came to me with some information from her. I shared it with her. It was accurate. And then it started happening with patient’s loved ones. Where, I start, it was always in this dream like state, but it was always early in the morning before I woke up and they started bringing me messages and I was like, okay, now this is like, this is getting a little this is out of my wheelhouse of my own family, right?—when other people’s loved ones are coming to me and my patients are not coming to me for that purpose. What do you want me to…. I didn’t know what to do. And so at that point, I went back to this professor who had given me the name of a medium, and she was like, I think you need to go and work with this person and see, like, get my lights in my house were going crazy. My husband was starting to be like, I don’t believe in any of this, but I don’t understand how to explain this.
Amy : And yeah, and that was really kind of these, these parallel path of journeys where psychology was very much driving me. But the spiritual side of me was kind of quietly closeted and speak –like going through all of this behind the scenes. And as my life unfolded and I had young kids and everything, like it would get pushed to the side, but it would creep back in…. And finally I, I listened and I explored mediumship and I did what I called my medium internship because I’m such an academic that I was like, I cannot just like say I’m a medium—so I like studied with her for two years and did readings for friends and family and then was like, okay, that’s maybe not for me because I really enjoy doing like really deep work with people. I’m a long term therapist. I work with people for many, many years, and it felt like not quite enough. And then I had this experience where a friend came over for a reading, and I did this reading for her, and at the end of the reading I said, I’m seeing this ring, this gold ring with a blue stone. And there were other things that I’d said in the reading. And she was like, yeah, that could be my father in law.
Speaker3: And so she’s like, yeah, my father in law didn’t have this a ring. And she goes home and she tells her husband and he says, my dad did not wear jewelry. It just was not his thing. And then he goes home to his home that he grew up in that next weekend. And as he walks in the house and his mom comes out and she says, I just found this ring of your dad’s, I think he’d want you to have it. And it was the exact ring that I had described in this reading. And that’s when I was like, okay, there’s like even more to this. But I was I sort of likened myself to like to Goldilocks, like the, you know, one thing was too hard, one thing was too soft. So I’ve been trying and I think I’m still kind of trying to find my like, where, where do I land in all of this? What is the sweet spot for me? Where’s the glass slipper that feels like it fits my foot? Because I don’t see myself as a medium. Because I really feel like I there are some amazing, amazing mediums out there. Amazing. That’s not me. Um, but the therapist part of me just can’t not embrace this part of myself.
Alison : Right…do you find, like, with those patients where you would get, like, a message– what would you do? would you say the message?
Amy : So I wouldn’t say the message, but I would try to kind of weave in questions that would, like, validate whether or not it was true. Like the best example that I have of this is I’ve had a couple of times where I’ve felt like I’ve, um, seen or had hits of past lives of patients where I get a very clear image of what it looks like, where they were. And that’s a little bit easier for me to kind of maneuver around, because I can use what I’m seeing and say, like, I feel like you felt like, um,— You were a lady in waiting. This was a specific example of someone who felt like they were kind of always waiting for people. Um, and so I would say, like, it felt like you were, you’re a lady in waiting. And the image that I had in my mind was, was this woman in kind of like a brothel, like waiting for the men, not a lady in waiting, but like a, you know, a brothel. Like waiting for the men to come in. And whenever they came, it was like there for her. And when they they left, it was like she was forgotten about. And then I would see what the response was to that. And so if the response was like, oh my God, yes, I’m like, okay, so maybe there’s more now, do I know for sure that was the past life?
Amy : But there’s something that resonated with her soul in that moment. The same with I’ve had. Sometimes I’ll sit in meditation and just say like, okay, where is the stuckness for this person? Like, help me see where along the way they got stuck. And then I’ll bring that into the session. Not saying like, oh, I sat in meditation and I saw that maybe you were stuck in this. Although my patients now know this about me so I can be a little bit more free with it.
Amy : But I would say something like, you know, did something happen around the age of ten where maybe you were feeling very alone? And then I’ll see where they go with it. And so it’s more woven in that way rather than like your dead cousin’s here talking to me. Although I have done that, too, if it comes through and it’s very strong. Some people’s loved ones are a little bit more, are a little bit pushier than others. And so I’ve had some that have been quite pushy and I’m like, I, I’m sorry, I can’t, I actually can’t continue like doing the therapy right now. I feel like your so and so is here. Are you okay with me sharing information they might be bringing forth?
Jean: And what’s the usual response? Do they say yes?
Amy : Yeah.
Jean: Because I think, Amy, it’s it’s such a beautiful gift, if you will, that you offer some additional insight to your patient’s quest for releasing trauma, anxiety, whatever the the thing is. Um, I think that’s just so beautiful. And, um, do you think this is something that any of us can learn to talk to our loved ones that have gone beyond?
Amy : Absolutely. But I think how we think about I think sometimes we get hung up in how we think about what that communication is going to look like. So for some, it might be that you clearly hear those messages, but for others, I was just in a call. I’m doing a course right now, and we were talking about how information can come in, and one of the women in my course was saying that she opened up this book and she was reading the book, and she realized there was something in the book that really resonated with her… And it’s like the messages I feel like can come through in all kinds of different ways. But what happens often is we are so unconscious in our lives, and we are so not present that we don’t see those messages when they come through. And I think so many people think, I want to feel like I feel like you and I right now, we’re sitting across talking to each other, and it’s not…. It’s for some people it can be like that, but it doesn’t mean that’s the only way to have that relationship anymore.
Amy : And I think that people need to be open one, it’s a muscle, and I think the more you use it, the the stronger it gets. And I always equate it to like there’s Michael Jordans, right. Like Michael Jordan is the best, one of the best basketball players of all time and had some natural talents. But there are other basketball players who are really, really good and practice and practice and practice. I would never be a Michael Jordan of mediumship. I just it’s not there for me. But if I practice and when I’m more present and when I’m meditating daily and when I’m connecting daily, that I know that that switch goes on much easier than when I’m like embroiled in the, you know, who’s going to get dinner on the table and, um, who’s picking up my son from football practice today, right. Yeah. So like those, you know, those daily life, uh, experiences for me, take me out of that connection sometimes, which can be a little bit frustrating, but I can’t always live in that space of like, expansiveness, despite what I wish I could do.
Alison : So you talk to so many people on your podcast about this and so, so many…. unbelievable…I just listened to the one on sacred geometry last night.. Like it was fascinating. But anyway, um, what do you think happens after we transition? What do you what do you think is going on?
Amy : I believe that our consciousness still exists. So that energy and this is, you know, really simple or not, simple physics and quantum physics. Um, but the research now that’s coming out, and I can’t explain it all beyond how my mind can how I can wrap my mind around this. But when I listen to it in the moment, I understand it, but I can’t regurgitate it. The Quantum physics, the quantum entanglement, the, um, like what they’re starting to find around the consciousness of more than just the human brain and the human mind is, is, frankly, mind blowing. And so I think that and we have, you know, it’s so interesting that people still dismiss this because this is not woo. There is research behind this. Bruce Greyson out of University of Virginia. Um, Ian Stevenson like they have done research with people around near-death experiences, past life experiences, I mean, kids, kids who say things and and it’s validated and checked out. It’s like, okay, but No. Well, how do we, why do we choose not to… Why is that not considered real research? Because we can’t replicate it in a, in a, in a setting, in a, you know, in a science scientific setting? But it’s anecdotal and so many people have similar stories. It’s just amazing to me that we continue to refute it. And it makes me wonder what people are so afraid of?
Alison : Yeah.
Amy : What would it mean to to acknowledge that?
Alison : Exactly.
Jean: That reminds me of Eben Alexander, who was a brain surgeon and had had his near-death experience and said, no, this is there’s so much more going on. But I you know what? I think it is permeating out. I think people are meditating more people are starting to maybe-there is something more? And and I think these kind of conversations really help dis dismiss or kind of soften the the fear that many people have around death. And um, and it’s not you know, it’s so sort of ingrained in our system, in our DNA, you know, how we feel and celebrate or just fear death.
Alison : You know, I have a friend who’s in stage four cancer. And it was interesting because she’s like, you don’t believe how few people want to discuss death.
Amy : Mhm.
Amy : Including doctors.
Alison : Yeah. It’s all very um, we’re going to get through it this and that and, and so they, they go to this death workshop and people with people and discuss it because we’re all going to go through it like, what is that like from, from a, from a more therapist point of view, is it just a fear or what is that like?
Amy : Yeah, I mean I think it’s an anxiety. I think it’s a fear of the unknown. Um, I find it to be like, is fearing death. It can be so paralyzing because really, what fearing death, I think does, is prevent you from living your life. And when I think about, I hate to talk about Covid, but to to talk about Covid for a minute… What was at the core of that was such an intense fear of death, right? Like every we were washing groceries, because there was like, this is this is what people kind of went to at the time because they were so afraid of dying. And yeah, I’m afraid, frankly, of not living.
Alison : Right.
Jean: I think that’s so great that you say that because that’s so, so true. Um, I read I don’t know where I read. It could have been A Course in Miracles because we we all talked about A Course In Miracles when we were being interviewed by you, Amy, but the very heavy identification that we’re bodis like that –So I think it’s like opening up to… No, I have a body, but I’m actually this eternal presence of love and and everything.
Alison : What do you mean, though? What do you mean, though? Like by saying you’re afraid of not living.
Amy : What do I mean?
Alison : Yea..
Amy : Personally I don’t want to be on my deathbed and look back at my life. And this is what I think death is our greatest teacher… I mean, this is the concept of, “Memento mori” , right? That, um, I want to make sure that the people that I love , knew I loved them, that they felt that every day that anybody who came into my presence, was cute today– I talk about this a lot on my podcast, like, I’m kind of probably, because I was a server, and I knew what it was like… But we are all equal. I was at the grocery store this morning and I went to get my meat from my meat guy, who I see every Sunday. I’m like religious about. It’s like my church Sunday morning, 8 a.m. I’m at the grocery store and the guy says to the person who’s helping me, he’s like, are you helping my best customer? And I was like, you mean your favorite customer? And he’s like, my favorite customer because it’s about like, I see you, right? I want people who I’m with, who are with me to feel seen by me, to feel loved by me. That is an expression to me of living, of/from my soul.
Amy : I want to travel. I want to see different places, I don’t want to get to… I mean, it could be tomorrow. Look, my aunt died at my age, and I want to know that I want to be off my phone more, which I’m still working on, because if I died tomorrow, that would not be something I would be happy about, is how much I’m on that stupid device. But, um, like that, that I want to have lived– like I want my life to feel every single day – full. And how I express that, i mean, even just this conversation for me, like, I know I will walk away from this feeling like, just like I did when I interviewed you. That was amazing. It was such a deep, beautiful connection. And I carry that with me. And so I want people to look at their own lives and determine what that fullness would feel like to them. Because if they were to die tomorrow, if they and I do have like a contemplative death, sometimes I’m I wake up in the morning, I’m like, oh God, enough with the death.(haha) Like sometimes like the first thing on my mind. And I’m like–oh God, can’t I just like, wake up in the morning, (hahah) but it does, um, it does shift how I live it.
Amy : It really makes things more, everything feels more vibrant.
Alison : Right.
Jean: That’s so beautiful. Yeah. I love that you say that. And it’s. It’s true. We don’t know when we’re going to leave our bodies. And so everything becomes very precious. And to your point, you can almost go like, oh, my God, I’m. I’m making way too much…. Like, I gotta chill out..you know. And I love that. Can you tell us what you do in the morning?
Alison : Do you have practice?
Amy : Oh, gosh. I wish I had, like, a good answer. It depends on the day.
Jean: Okay. That’s that’s a great answer.
Amy : Yeah. It really depends. Like, some mornings I wake up and I’m like, out of bed and at the gym and other. More like today I laid in my bed and I put on my morning meditation, and I do my meditation before I do anything. Um, some days I’ll pull a card or two, I’ll sit in meditation and pull a card. Um, some days I will just get up and make breakfast for my kids. Um, so. Or their lunches or whatever it is. Although my husband’s been doing a lot of that. Thank you very much. So, um, but I think it really, you know, I really try to tune in and ask myself, what is it that you need today? Because I think when we get, like, dogmatic about I have a meditation practice for sure. But I think when we get so dogmatic about, like, it needs to be every day at this time, it starts to feel like a chore rather than am I listening to what I need today? And sometimes I’ll sit down and meditate after my kid. You know, my kids will leave for school and I’ll sit down for 20 minutes. I’ll meditate, and then I’ll get in the shower to get ready for work, but it’s like I try to tune in to like, where is the where am I feeling pulled and what am I feeling pulled for? And sometimes in the middle of my day, I’ll. I’ll hear you. You you best sit down and meditate right now, right. Um, it’s like almost a pushy demand. And I’m like, okay, I’ll just go and like, or I’ll sit here and I see my one of my meditation chairs and I’ll like, feel like it’s like pulling me in. And that’s when I’ll be like, okay, I’ll go and sit for a few minutes.
Amy : Come, come. hahah–We have stuff. We have stuff to say to you.
Alison : Exactly. Do you hear us?
Alison : Do your kids know about your, um, intuitiveness.
Amy : Yeah. They don’t really give it much thought. I think my daughter, um, my daughter’s friends were way more into it than she was. And so last summer, they were like, come tell us your stories, because I did my first, like, official talk at, um, and I did it on signs and synchronicities and intuition. And a couple of her friends moms were part of like, the community group that organized it. So they came, so suddenly, she was like, mm, this is interesting. And my middle one is probably has, he’s very intuitive. So he probably would connect. He’s very into like or he was when he was younger. He’s 15 now. So he’s this is all not so interesting to him. But he was very into like wanting to know what his past lives were. And um, just super curious about that. And I do use, I mean, I talk to them about meditation as a way obviously more from the like anxiety, a way to manage anxiety and stress and things like that. And my little one, I call him my tiny Buddha because he just says things. I think all little kids are like tiny Buddhas. He says things sometimes I’m like, are you coming from the quantum space? Who are you? Like last week, he said something to me. He said, mom, when you make a choice, that means that any other choice you could have made is no longer a choice for you? And I was like, wow. Are you like, is this the matrix?
Amy : What’s happening here, Savage? He’s dead, right? …It was just like, so profound. I was like, what? What is going through your little mind that you came up with that? And he he’ll drop some of those truth bombs, like throughout my weeks, and I think that all kids have that ability and have that accessibility. And one of the things that I talk about sometimes is, I think that our intuition gets kind of hopefully, not actually physically beaten out of us, but unfortunately, sometimes that is the case. But when we’re little and and we have experiences where we are much more able to read people’s emotions and cues because we’re not filtered by our own, um, judgments around what different things mean. And when a child comes to a parent or says something like, you seem sad today, and the parent then says, no, I’m not sad, why would you think I’m sad …in those tiny moments we are squashing intuition.
Amy : Because intuitively they know that that’s.
Jean: Yeah, they sense it
Amy : They sense it. And so then, they put words to it and then we tell them no, and then they think, oh, I must not be right.. There must be something wrong with what I’m sensing. So you start to learn to turn off that, um, monitor within you. And the older you get, the further and further you get away from it. So I don’t think intuition necessarily, you asked me earlier is something you need to learn? I think it’s something you need to find your way back to.
Jean: Right….I think that’s.
Alison : Perfect.
Jean: Wonderful.
Alison : Yeah,
Jean: I think you nailed it right on the head, and I… That was great.
Alison : You know, my mom, my father had a very, very risky job, and I was an only child. And my mom, I could sense the anxiety my mom was going through. And I’d say, are you worried? Are you angry? And she’d say, no, honey, no, because she wanted to protect me. And I understand that. But as I grew up, I even still something will happen and I’ll have to call Jean or my husband or my friends and say, this happened and this is what I feel. What do you think? Like, I don’t trust that I’m picking up. So it’s exactly what you’re saying. So with my kids, my kids would say, are you angry? Are you? And I’d say, you know, I kind of am because I ran around today and I got stuck in traffic. It’s got nothing to do with you.
Alison : or say it’s the car… I felt like screaming. I just tell them, like, you know?
Amy : Right. Because what you’re teaching them is, like, what you are sensing is accurt,e you’re sensing someone else’s energy.
Alison : Right.
Amy : And so you/ we don’t want to shut that down because then, we’re really shutting down like a safety valve for people.
Alison : Yeah. Oh, that’s a great way of putting it.
Jean: Yeah.
Amy : That is so true because it’s important to have that, right?
Alison : And the great thing is, I mean… Some of us that will, you know, if we miss the boat with our own kids, we can pass that on to our children and go, you know what?…. Back in the day, I didn’t want to add any more pressure to you. So I never was… But when you think when you feel something, lean into it a little bit.
Alison : or if You don’t have kids, your friends.
Jean: Yeah. Exactly.
Alison : Like right.
Jean: Or like, this conversation is so helpful, Amy… I think so many people will relate and benefit from this.
Alison : Do you, could you just tell us what you meant when you said about living life backwards?
Amy : Yeah.
Amy : So living life backwards is this kind of concept that I came up with using, obviously from the perspective that we talked about earlier, like using this notion of the end, in mind, as a way to really guide your life, but also thinking about what happens to your soul when you die. So Eben Alexander, you talked about and many near-death experiencers will talk about this concept of a life review. And the life review, they say, is that they experience their life from the perspective of all the different people in their lives. So, and it could be someone that you, you crossed paths with once. It could be someone you were in deep, intimate relationships with, but that you are going to experience what it was like to be in relationship with you.
Alison : Wow.
Amy : So, I mean, just sit with that for a moment and think about. Right? Like when when people talk about heaven and hell, I’m not particularly, I’m not particularly religious in that regard, but I that’s what I think hell would be like if you have not treated people well. And and look, there are people, I’m sure that I have not treated well and things that I’ve done, and I’m not looking forward to that part of my life review. Like, I don’t know that I want to feel what what it felt like in that way. And again, that then informs how I act now because I’m like thinking about that. I’m like, oh, I don’t want that life review to to feel that way.
Jean: Right. So it’s about another choice. You’ll make a choice not to, uh, put down someone or gossip. You’ll be like, um, you know.. Yeah… You just make another choice.
Amy : Yeah, and I try. I’m far from perfect. And like you were saying earlier, like, with the kids, like, I also know that I’m going to mess up my kids. And I also know that we’re humans, and that’s part of the experience. I don’t even want to say mess up, like there’s going to be hardships for them. And things that I said and did and what I know, having been a therapist for as long as I have, is that whatever the things you think are the things you said and did that your kids going to talk about in therapy, it’s not going to be that. It’s going to be like the little thing that you like, never even remember saying that in some way, hit your kid in a certain way or whatever it was. And it and there’s I mean, it’s just part of the nature of being human. And so I think having been able to see that over time has given me permission to make mistakes, to know that I’m not going to do this perfectly, to know I’m going to say things to my kids that are sometimes going to be hurtful, even if that’s not my intention, and that I can apologize for that, and that it’s not like one thing that you’re going to do that’s going to like set off this, you know, barrage of mental health issues. It’s it’s life, and life is hard. And I think the best thing you can do is teach people to cope with life rather than feel like everything has to be perfect. And I have to say the perfect thing all the time so no one feels any hurt or pain. That’s not realistic.
Alison : Yeah. Yeah.
Jean: There’s that saying that says, you know, if you want to be sad, try to live a perfect life.
Alison : Oh, I love that. Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Alison : Um, you know, just we have two last questions, and one is.
Amy : Oh, that’s it.
Alison : Yeah…it been 40 minutes. We don’t want to… Unless you want to keep going?
Amy : I’m good. I’ve got till 4:00. I love you guys.
Alison : So I know, we love you.
Jean: We would love to interview you again.
Alison : Could we do it again?
Amy : Of course.
Alison : I would love that. I want to do this like, every week.
Amy : I would love too, I love it.
Jean: This has been such a beautiful conversation. I’m already glowing just by chatting with you, Amy.
Amy : Oh thank you for that.
Alison : Do you want to do the questions?
Amy : My questions?
Alison : Yeah.
Jean: All right. So, Amy, what does inside wink mean to you?
Amy : Oh, I like this. Um, I feel like to me, it means, like, the little wink you get from the universe. Like you’re on the right path, like we’ve got you here.
Alison : I love that, and that’s what you were saying about like, serendipity, right? And sort of…
Amy : Exactly.
Alison : and like Signs.
Amy : Yeah.
Alison : Which is really what I would love to talk about another time with you, because I think that, I think once you become aware of that, don’t you think that’s life changing?
Amy : Life changing. It is so fun. It’s like…. It’s like a whole nother level of fun in life. When you start engaging in the synchronicities and signs of life, I feel like it just changes everything you, you do and how you are.
Alison : So we gotta, we gotta plan that for the new year. Okay?
Jean: And we’ll leave our audience hungry for more.
Alison : That’s right. Our last one is…Do you like pie, cake or ice cream?
Amy : I love this. I was like, what do I… Cake! No question.
Alison : What kind?
Amy : Oh, gosh. Okay, so I live in Chicago and Sweet Mandy B’s is this amazing bakery right by my house. And they have a yellow cake with a chocolate frosting. That’s my favorite.
Alison : God, that sounds really good. It’s the worst question to end on, because then I have to go eat something.
Amy : Yeah….What do you guys. Are you cake? pie or…???
Jean: I am definitely cake.
Alison : I’m cake and ice cream. There’s no like I put ice cream on the cake. I like pie, but cake with ice cream. Oh, man– with that frosting, with the ice cream.
Amy : It’s the frosting on the cake for me.
Alison : The frosting makes it. We had a cake recently, and the frosting wasn’t good. And you went, what’s the point of eating the cake?
Amy : Totally. Yeah. I mean, and that’s why I love their frosting. It’s it’s delicious. It’s like the best frosting I’ve ever had. And I have a funny frosting story, but that could be for another time.
Alison : Okay, well, we’re going to we’re going to set something up for January with you..
Amy : Okay. Perfect. Amazing.
Alison : That would be great. And we just appreciate you so much. And I’m so enjoying your podcast.
Jean: Yes.
Amy : Thank you. Thank you. Likewise.
Jean: It’s right up my alley.
Jean: I love all your… You have such wonderful guests and your questions are so…
Alison : you’re really smart.
Amy : Thank you. Thank you. I’ve just read a lot—- like this whole— i read every book. And I really try to tailor each… I’m like so purposeful with every question, and I’ve been doing the work of working with people for so long that I feel like I can be in the heads of what the listener might be curious about.
Jean: Yeah,
Alison : and , I think that’s a thing about you that I really enjoyed. You’re curious?
Amy : Mhm. Yeah.
Alison : You really want to know… Like just now, you said well what about you guys. What do you like, pie, cake or ice cream? And I think we’ve done this many times and I don’t think anyone’s asked us that. So that really speaks to your your soul. You know, your your consciousness. So thank you so much.
Amy : Thank you both so much.
Alison : Have a beautiful day.
Amy : I want to hug you guys. Mwah.
Jean: Yes. Sending you big hugs.
Amy : Okay. Have a great day. Stay warm.
Alison : Yeah, right.
Jean: You too.
Amy : Bye.
Alison : All right. Bye.
Jean: She was amazing. I loved her, and I really could have spoken a lot longer.
Alison : Right. And her podcast is really interesting. She has really interesting guests… She’s right, she’s very focused when she’s doing it.
Jean: And i think that’s good.
Alison : yeah. Me too.
Jean: Because these are topics that, that need a little bit of focus, because they’re it’s talking about the esoteric is challenging…okay, so her podcast is called…
Alison : Life, Death and the Space Between…. and It really encompasses a lot — sitting on that line between science and spirituality.
Jean: Yeah, that is so true. I want to share with our listeners that if you go to her website, Doctor Amy Robbins.com. You can download a workbook that she offers called ,Soul Wisdom, and she has wonderful questions to ponder about– that just kind of get you out of the everyday do do do. It kind of gives some attention to it, not kind of, it does give attention to your soul.
Alison : And what I love is that you feel that she’s very accessible because she’s like, I’m not the best at it.
Jean: She’s so relatable.
Alison : She’s very yeah..
Jean: I don’t do it every day. Some days I do, some days I don’t, but. Right?
Alison : Yeah.
Jean: She was awesome.
Alison : It’s excellent. You know, we were saying how great it is to keep making sort of these connections with people because really, every time we speak to someone or meet someone, I learn a little bit more about them and then myself.
Jean: Right. Yeah.
Alison : You know?
Jean: Same.
Alison : It’s really great.
Jean: Well, we hope you enjoy this this really lovely, wonderful interview.
Alison : And and us, we hope you enjoy us….hahahah….That’s it.
Jean: I enjoy you.
Alison : That’s right.
Jean: I enjoy us.
Alison : That’s right. We do… Have a great day.
Jean: Bye