The first day of the I CAN DO IT! Toronto conference took place on Thursday April 2, 2009. It was an evening session and during this evening the featured speakers were Colette Baron-Reid and Sylvia Browne.

Colette was the first speaker up, for the shorter part of the evening and Sylvia was on for the remainder of the evening. Colette’s session focused more on her most recent ability to communicate with deceased animals and she also did some random audience readings, while Sylvia ’s session focused on the ideas of the “mystical traveler.” I will explain both in more detail below.

My general impression of this evening and thus of both of these sessions was that they made for an extremely entertaining evening. At many points throughout the evening I felt like I was at a comedy festival, as both ladies had a unique and vivacious sense of humour regarding the subjects they presented. I definitely did not expect to laugh as much as I did!

Colette Baron-Reid

For those of you who are not familiar, Colette Baron-Reid is a world-renowned spiritual intuitive. Her name may not be as familiar to many like Sylvia Browne’s, but she is quickly making a reputable niche for herself where matters of the metaphysical are concerned.

I personally was not that familiar with Colette either before this conference. I do have one of her books Remembering the Future: The Path to Recovering Intuition which I have not yet had a chance to read, but am excited to do so in the near future. This is just one of so many phenomenal books out there today that serve as markers for us to awaken to who we truly are, to remember our spiritual and intuitive nature and to rise to our greatest potentials.

Well I have to tell you I was blown away by Colette as a speaker! She could not have been more real, kind, sweet and pleasant, not to mention hilarious. She is such a warm-hearted and genuine spirit, one cannot mistaken the amazing energy that flows from her.

Colette’s talk focused on “Amazing and Mysterious Intuitive Readings.”  She began by explaining a bit about her own journey and shared with the audience her most recent intuitive experience where she has began to be able to be a medium for deceased animals. And by the way, we are talking here dogs, cats, hamsters and the whole bit!  Now let’s presume that we are all sceptics and this cannot possibly happen. Well being in the audience, and seeing the random people that were given readings and the precise accuracy of the readings was undeniable of Colette’s gift. Some of the deceased animals that came through were sick or had some challenge during their lifetime and simply came through to say “thank you” to their owners. While some stories were hilarious, others brought wells of tears to the eyes.

Colette is actually from Toronto and today has a strong connection with Hay House publishing company with whom she has written several books, given many talks, seminars and more. Throughout 2009, Colette is on tour with Sylvia Browne. To learn more about Colette, visit her on her site.

Sylvia Browne

It is probably quite rare for anyone not to have heard of Sylvia Browne, as she has been a world-renowned psychic now for several decades. She has been featured on numerous shows, both television and radio, has written dozens of books and spoken at numerous engagements. Sylvia also has had a long standing history with Hay House, but has announced that this year is her “farewell tour.”

Even though I have 2 of Sylvia’s books (one of which I read), and have seen many of her books, I actually have never seen her or heard her speak on any media. I know, I know, I am probably a minority on this one. Well because of this, I was taken back by Sylvia’s presence and her as a presenter in general.

Like Colette, Sylvia too provided for a very entertaining evening. Her sense of humor and style of speaking however, is very different from Colette’s. Sylvia has a very dry sense of humor I would say, and came across at some points as somewhat cynical. While I enjoyed her presentation immensely, I did not connect with her energy or resonate with her being strongly.

While I highly value Sylvia’s intuitive gift, Sylvia herself says she is a gnostic Christian and hence numerous references are made to the “Lord”. While I have great respect for gnosticism and Jesus and know that I am connected to him, understand him and his work better today than ever in my religious past, I feel like I have moved past that stage of my being. I am also not drawn to the idea that Sylvia herself has set up a “church”, as I feel that today we are moving into universal spirituality, instead of putting out more seclusion, labels and organizations between ourselves. I understand that it is more of a meeting place than anything else, but I guess the word “church” can have negative connotations for some today. However, having said this, Sylvia’s references to present day world religions sent the room into bouts of laughter many times throughout the evening.

Sylvia spoke all evening in that “this is how it is, matter of fact kind of way.” I really don’t think she cracked a smile all evening, which made a lot of what she said that much funnier (you know those comedians who can send the room into wild laughter with not as much as a smile on their faces).

Sylvia began by acknowledging that never in history was there a period with so many colossally negative events happening at once. For those of us who are positive thinkers, I know you may not see it that way, but when we dissect world affairs I can see her point. Sylvia believes that there is a big change upon us here and now on this Earth and that many of us (99%) who are here today, are in their last incarnated lifetime on this planet. While again I see her point as to why she feels this way, given the many other speakers, specifically Gregg Braden, whom I will tell you about in the 3rd part of this write-up, I have a more comprehensive view of why this is very likely, beyond what Sylvia eluded to. Sylvia shared some stories about her life and family too, which were equally comical, as they were educational.

She went on to stress that “each one of us seek out our own truth/spirituality”, with which I highly agree. She emphasized the fact that today’s religions are where they are, because they have “humanized God so much.” Those of us who today seek a spiritual path know that we need to rise up to “meet God” rather than bring” him” down to our ego-driven level. One very funny statement that comes to mind from the evening was when Sylvia explained what she says to people who come and see her and say “I don’t want to go to hell.” She responds by saying “sorry, you are already in it.” This is of course to poke fun at the fact that being in spiritual form with God can be anything but hell and that the only hell is the one we make here for ourselves.

Sylvia then explained “what is a psychic” and how to find a good one and know that you are in the presence of someone who is ego, rather than spiritually driven. Main thing to look for is that a true psychic channels, speaks from God and hence is not negative and all about doom and gloom. Also a good psychic will never lead you to thinking they have all the answers for you, but will point you in the direction of yourself for all the answers, as deep within we are ALL intuitive. Now interestingly enough Sylvia says she is not “psychic about herself.”

Sylvia’s talk was entitled “Mystical Traveler: Join the Spiritual Swat Team!” and hence the rest of her talk was focused on explaining what is a “mystical traveler” and the path of one, should they decide to take on this  – their soul’s journey.

Sylvia explained that a “mystical traveler” is one who becomes a spiritual teacher, but never puts themselves above others. They live out of God’s love for the service of others, receive “special” gifts once they take on their calling and do not go back once on this journey.  They also acknowledge that their chart is already written and hence cannot be changed, we can only minimize the severity of it by being conscious. Now having heard that, my mind fluttered back to my religious upbringing in how “everything has already been decided by God.” While I know where she is coming from, I also know today that this completely does not resonate with my soul. I do believe that our soul has a purpose and lessons to learn in every lifetime to grow and further evolve. However, I do not believe that every event has or is already pre-determined. We are creators after all, and in every moment have our free-will, to which she did actually elude to a lot.

Some of the gifts that one receives once they take on the role of the “mystical traveler” are those of strength, honesty, honor, loyalty, gratitude, as well as psychic and healing abilities. Deep down I believe that we are all “mystical travelers” in one way or another, we just don’t consciously recognize it and I think that is what it has more to do with, conscious recognition rather than a pledge or oath to something.

Sylvia also strongly emphasized to “not own your illness, rejection, misery, abuse, negativity, etc.” As when we do this, we get stuck in a very helpless situation that is not helping any matters, especially our soul’s purpose. Anyone who is familiar with the Law of Attraction or Eckhart Tolle’s works can completely attest to this.

On matters of death, Sylvia stated that the more spiritual we get, the faster we cross over to the other side. I have meditated on this fact myself and completely agree. It is easier to go somewhere, IF we know where we are going. Hence, some people who know of someone who is suffering long before their death or especially has Alzheimer’s may not want to hear this, but it is an example of a soul in limbo, one who is not quite here and not quite there either. They are stuck, not sure of where to go and in many ways afraid to let go of this reality. Sylvia also made an interesting comment regarding death, that when we are here, we are always focused on “praying for the dead”, when given our situation and their situation, they should really be “praying for us.” That sent the whole room into a roaring laughter. It is funny though, when someone brings out some truth or logic to an unconscious situation.

Sylvia continued her talk with 6 ways of how to know one is moving through their levels of soul consciousness:

1. Soul cries out for more spiritual enlightenment
2. One is constantly giving their will to God (our will is God’s will and vice-versa) and doing good
3. One wrestles with the knowledge of what is a mystical traveller
4. One surrenders their will
5. One knows that this (life) is a gift that enhances ones chart
6. One feels they will go “home,” graduate and take on their next assignment

Finally Sylvia’s session ended with a guided healing meditation, which was quite enjoyable for the most part and then random people got picked to go ask her one question. No my number did not get called, but I was very okay with that as I feel that I am lucky not to have any pressing questions to which I cannot find the answers to within me at the present moment.

So while I really did enjoy this lecture to learn more about Sylvia and her work, she is not one of the people with whom I identify, for spiritual guidance or as a direct source of learning what I came here to know. Having said that, I am very grateful for her being, as I know she has helped many, many people throughout this life to find peace, closure or answers to what prevented them from their further growth. Also, our greatest growth comes from both that which complements us and from that which does not.

To learn more about Sylvia and her work, you can visit her on her site.

Conclusion

Well that was the first day of the “I CAN DO IT!” conference and did it ever start with an energetic high and an extremely entertaining spin! I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about Colette and Sylvia and their work.

I want to also take a moment here to say a special thank you to all of you who shared in my excitement for and about this conference, especially Lance, HalfCrazy, TheJourneryWithin, Julie, NaturalMoments, Liara, Mark, and Juliet. It really meant so much to me! As I mentioned before, it was the first time I was attending this or something of this magnitude where so many spiritual teachers would be gathered in one arena. The only other event that remotely comes close to this was the Day with Abraham Hicks, that Markus and I attended last September. That was the ice-breaker to going to see and hear spiritual teachers and I have to tell you, this is just the beginning of the journey for us when it comes to this. I find great value in events like this, not only because of the speakers, but because one gets to connect with and be in the presence of hundreds or thousands of others who are like-minded in these areas. And that is still rare to find in today’s world.

Day 2 featured Brian Weiss, John Holland and Wayne Dyer – till then!

About the author:
Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is the main author of EvolvingBeings.com where she writes about spiritual and personal development. She hopes to inspire people, to truly live out the life of their dreams and awaken the highest version of themselves. She is also a nutritional science and holistic health expert for optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.