To start out the New Year of 2014, we decided to feature one of our own Bellesprit Columnists, Melanie Barnum who does a monthly column called, Psychic Symbols and Other Psychic Stuff.
By Belle Salisbury
Belle: Melanie, you are a multi-faceted person who has so much to offer in assisting others to heal their mind, body, and spirit. What led you to follow this path?
Melanie: To be honest, it wasn’t my first choice in life, it wasn’t anything I had actually considered. I was the controller of a company. I had just recently left that position to open my own store. Then, one day, I felt like I was hit over the head, literally, and I heard the words…”You need to do this work now!” I looked around and said, ‘What the heck was that and where did it come from?’ Intuitively and instinctively, I knew exactly what work they were talking about. I thought, there was no way I was going to hang out a shingle that said ‘Psychic’ or ‘Healer.’ But, at the same time, I also knew that I could not ignore what had just happened, I knew there was merit to it. So, I set out to figure out how it could work and discover what I could do. I knew that, coming from a logical background and having a mix of left and right brain function, I needed to have some kind of letters after my name, proving I knew what I was doing. I needed to have a logical backing before I could even think about putting myself out there as a metaphysical person. I began taking classes, all the classes I could find of interest in this field and began giving multiple readings. As I did, I realized that I had already been doing this work. I had just never considered it for what it was. I thought when I ‘read’ people, it was normal. I assumed everybody did that. I didn’t realize that people didn’t tune into their intuition as often as I did.
The more I set out and practiced, the more I learned with other people, some famous teachers and some not so famous. The more I set out to understand what this whole world was about the more I realized I was already doing it and I really, really loved it! For years, I literally offered free readings, free sessions, and free healings, and devoured and took everything in as much as I could. I realized also, that when you are in groups it raises the vibrations, the frequencies in the room; it makes everything flow and it makes tuning in so much easier and better. I began my career essentially by learning from others who had been there before me and that kept me open to what had been the original message, the one that felt like I had been hit over the head when I heard ‘You need to do this work now.’
Belle: That’s interesting because it’s very close to what happened to me. I tried to do the regular job scenario and yet, the promptings kept coming and I could no longer fight it. I kept hearing the message, “It’s time.” Finally, I just gave in, feeling ‘hey, this is who I am, and this is what I’m supposed to do.’ So I get what you’re saying.
Melanie: I think it was not until after I began consciously doing the work that I realized how much I had already been doing it. Essentially, many in my family were psychic–generations of my family. I just don’t think they ever really talked about it or recognized it for what it was. Before my Mom died, I had a few conversations about different things that she had gotten psychically, but had not talked about, and I believe it to be part of my heritage. I think my sister is very psychic as well as my brother (although he would probably deny it) and my Mom was. I think it was passed down.
Belle: I think it has to do with our attitude towards what is innate in us and it has a lot to do with whether it is stifled or encouraged within each individual from childhood.
Melanie: It is about what we feed in our soul; what part we want to develop, what part we want to nurture. For example, if we want to nurture just the accounting part of us, then we aren’t going to get into this other aspect of who we are, kind of the natural side of who we can be, who we’re born to be. It’s more about not just sticking to our logical senses, though I hesitate to call it logical sense because I feel that intuition is also very logical. But, it can become a pattern of relying on only the stuff you can prove as opposed to listening to your gut.
Belle: Tell us about the services you offer.
Melanie: My passion is intuitive work. I do private psychic readings and within those readings, I do everything. I’ll read the past, the present, and the future. I do mediumship–I’ll talk to people on the other side. Generally, I do it all together. If people come through, they come through. If you have questions about your future or you want to understand your past, then we’ll focus on that as well. Usually, what happens for me during a session is I’ll tell you is what’s going on with you right now, or what has gone on with you in the past; these are the kind of verifiable things which provide the “aha” moments. People will say, ”Oh my God, how could you possibly have known that?” Then we can move forward to the other stuff, the good stuff; the reasons why you’re actually there. To find out what’s going to happen, to find out what direction to go in, or to connect with people on the other side–the loved ones that have left the physical plane. That is something I also do fairly often on a regular basis with groups of people at a time. I do groups and parties, mini gallery readings where I connect to the other side and bring through messages of love and hope and peace and guidance.
I offer hypnosis sessions (I’m a certified hypnotist with the National Guild of Hypnotists) and I offer hypnosis for pretty much anything. I am certified in past life regression. That is my favorite type of hypnosis. I do performance hypnosis; performance in sports, performance in school and social anxieties. I do a lot of this type of work with kids and adults, but I think my favorite is working with kids. I love to see that light bulb go on. They’re usually very open to intuition as well, so I’m able to combine the two.
I also offer coaching. I do life coaching and hypno-coaching. Life coaching helps you figure out where you want to be and how to get there. While hypno-coaching is combining that same kind of coaching with mini hypnosis sessions so that you get an extra edge to accomplish your goals. I use my intuition with both types of coaching.
Another thing I love doing often is something I call mentoring. I offer an individual one-on-one sessions where I help the client develop their own gift. Generally, I work with people I feel have something going on already, or who have a strong interest in it. Usually, after the first of a minimum of three one hour sessions, they start to see the results and they come back and tell me that it’s amazing. That’s one of my favorite things. Just to see the glimmer in their eyes when they realize that they can do it; that they are able to connect with their intuitive self and even sometimes connect to the other side. Along this same vein, I offer Intensive sessions; three or four hour individual sessions which really pack a punch. These are a combination of my psychic guidance, mediumship, and mentoring, along with the development of the clients own gifts and abilities.
I also offer, [I guess I do offer a lot of stuff…laughter] I also offer Reiki. Usually, I like to offer Reiki in combination with other things like intuition. Often, I’ll do intuitive counseling along with the Reiki. I’m a Certified Reflexologist, and like to do that as well. I enjoy that the variety of services I offer–it provides a little break from the routine.
Belle: I’ve always been fascinated with reflexology. So share, if you would, what are the benefits of having reflexology done?
Melanie: Oh, my gosh, the benefits are huge. We talk about intuition being a mind, body, spirit thing. Reflexology is as well because it can help to open you up to your spirit, your soul. It can also help you physically and mentally. There are different zones in your body that relate to different points in your feet or your hands. By gently, and sometimes not so gently, manipulating those points, you’re changing the energy throughout the body. For example, if you work on the solar plexus area, you’re relaxing them and helping them to open up to their intuition because that is also your gut instinct area. You can help anything, including physical ailments like headaches. I work with cancer patients. I worked with a woman, many years ago, who came in to see me after going through chemo and radiation treatments. Her cancer had gone into remission, then, unfortunately, she developed cancer again. She said to me, “This time I’m not doing chemo. I’m doing it all natural.” She came in and had several reflexology treatments. She was also taking vitamins and the cancer went away, without chemo or radiation. I’m not saying it’s a cure, but I think it has definite benefits; you can move the energy in your body, and by moving that energy, it can help your body to heal.
Belle: What about an individual who struggles with depression? What points of the feet would we focus on to help move that depressing energy?
Melanie: It’s kind of hard to just give a simple answer to that. Let me use headaches as an example. A headache can be caused by any number of things, so you would have to work on various areas, including the location of the stomach area. You wouldn’t necessarily think that work on the stomach area would get rid of headaches, but a lot of times, headaches are caused by food or by an irritation in the stomach, so you need to work that through to get rid of the actual headache. So, as to your question, it would depend on what the depression stems from. If it’s a physical ailment that is causing the depression, we’ll work on the area where the physical ailment is. Often, it’s not physical, it’s caused by something that’s being experienced socially in some way which means we have to get to the root of what’s making the client feel depressed. It may be because you’ve got a blockage in your chakra system, so you need to begin at the spine and work all the way up and down on the whole chakra area. Depression might also be stemming from many different things. It could be a love thing, or a failed relationship, so we would go into the heart chakra as well. That would be the heart-lung pressure point on your foot, as well as the solar plexus, that relaxation space, to help you relax and not worry about it so much. There’s so many different possibilities to work on depending on where it stems from, which is why every time I do a reflexology session or a Reiki session, I ask people that come in if there is anything they want to work on.
Belle: That’s a good approach. It allows them to actually get in touch with what their body is telling them.
Melanie: Exactly. It helps you focus on what’s going on, and direct energy to the area that needs help.
Belle: I am so amazed with the benefits of reflexology and, as difficult as it is sometimes, I will actually work on my own feet when I go to bed at night; pressing on various pressure points, particularly the one for the bladder. I have issues with my bladder so I’m always working on those pressure points and it’s amazing how it helps.
Melanie: Yeah, I do it all the time. Actually, the whole time we’ve been talking I’ve been sitting on my bed massaging the pressure points my feet.
Belle: Let’s talk about your book Psychic Symbols. The concept of your book introduces a fascinating way to recognize the symbols that are all around us that can contain messages which, of course, you demonstrate in your monthly column here in Bellesprit. Share with us how you came up with the idea to write this book.
Melanie: It was kind of a joint effort. I had started writing this book called “Developing Your Intuition.” Essentially, it was a book about all different aspects of intuition and teaching you to recognize your intuition and tap into that. I sat and meditated one day and asked, ‘what symbol do I see on the book spine, what is there, and who’s going to publish this book?’
As anyone would, I wanted to have a good publishing house behind me. During my meditation, I saw the Llewellyn Moon on the spine of the book and I thought, ‘There’s no way, there’s absolutely no way! I’m a first time author and there’s no way they’re going to want my book.’ But then, I remembered it was my intuition telling me, so I submitted my book proposal to Llewellyn.
It was my first query letter and I essentially said, ‘Hey, would you be interested?’ They took a look at my proposal and sent it back. They said, “We have a lot of books that say ‘I am psychic and you can be psychic too,’ but we’re really intrigued with your chapter on psychic symbols. Do you think you can develop that further?” I responded, ‘absolutely and that’s huge!’ I went back and re-worked the proposal, put together the book and re-submitted it. They responded back with “We love it and we want it. Let’s do it!” The book totally flowed naturally. What’s interesting is I called it The Book of Psychic Symbols-Interpreting Intuitive Messages, but essentially, it was the same book I had originally started writing. I even used a lot of the same chapters. I just moved them around a little bit and added a symbolic directory with over 500 symbols, which I didn’t have in the original book, so that’s definitely an added benefit.
Belle: How can people obtain a copy of your book, Psychic Symbols?
Melanie: They can contact me directly if they want a signed autographed copy. They can email me at: Melanie@MelanieBarnum.com. They can go to Llewellyn.com on the publishing house, or they can go to their local bookstores or the big bookstores like Barnes & Noble and even Amazon. Amazon sells them like hotcakes. If you want one that is signed, you will need to contact me directly, it will be autographed, and personalized to whomever the book is going to.
Belle: That is so wonderful! So now, are there any new books coming out in the future?
Melanie: Yes there are! I actually have a book that is available now-it’s just being released in January! It’s called The Steady Way to Greatness: Liberate Your Intuitive Potential and Manifest Your Heartfelt Desires. I also have a third book that’s coming out in the fall of 2014 as well. That one is called, Psychic Abilities for Beginners: Awakening Your Intuition.
Belle: Awesome! You’ve been busy!
Melanie: Yeah, I have been a little busy! We’re actually talking about a fourth book already. I told them I wanted to take a little break over the Christmas holidays and then I’ll start writing again in the New Year.
The second book, The Steady Way to Greatness, is about manifesting what you want in life, and bringing out the greatness in you. We all have a greatness within us. Not everyone is going to be a concert pianist. Not everyone is going to be a pro football player. Not everyone is going to win Academy Awards for their roles in movies. Being famous is not the only way to achieve greatness. Again, we all have a greatness within us. It’s up to us how we want to develop and nurture that and bring it out in ourselves. A lot of times, it’s really hard to figure out what it is that is our greatness. I think I’ve gotten lucky, I’ve found what my greatness is. For me, it’s about helping others; tapping into my intuition and psychic ability to connect to the other side, and helping others to heal. But not everyone is as fortunate as me to have figured that out. There’s 52 weeks of exercises in the book and manifestations every week, as well, that can help you to be successful and to not only be great, but help you develop who you were born to be; the potential that lives in every one of us. We just need to pull that out and understand how great we can be, how great we can feel, and how full of joy our lives can be once we start pulling into that greatness we have within.
The Steady Way to Greatness is about becoming who you should be, becoming who you can be and living up to your true potential, whatever that may be. Along the way, you manifest things into your life, so you’re not only just gearing up to that greatness at the end. You’re manifesting everything you want and you’re bringing abundance into your life. There’s more money, there’s more recognition, love, health, relationships, family, a slimmer body, a bulked up body…whatever it happens to be that you want to manifest. There are exercises and stories of manifestation and psychic experiences throughout the entire book that will help you to achieve and accomplish all the little goals, plus the big ones.
Belle: This sounds like an amazing book and you said this is coming out in January?
Melanie: Yes, this is almost out already-it’s scheduled for release January 8th. It’s available for pre-order on Llewellyn.com and on Amazon.com, and again, you can order directly through me to receive your book personalized and autographed!
Belle: Incredible! Now, how can people find you? What is your website, Facebook, twitter?
Melanie: My website is www.melaniebarnum.com, my twitter is @MelanieBarnum, that’s pretty easy. My Facebook page is a little more difficult because I wanted to try and encompass my first book, but it’s at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Psychic-Symbols-Intuition-and-Hypnosis-by-Melanie-Barnum/142065072522159.
Belle: One last thing from you, what message do you have for our readers going into 2014?
Melanie: You know, I think 2014 is going to be a year of expansion. I haven’t really contemplated this before but, since you asked the question, the first thing I get is a year of expansion, which means that people will be coming out from under. I think there’s going to be a lot more freedom. People are not going to hide anymore, they’re not going to stay stifled, they will come out a little bit more. I think that’s about finances, family, it’s about religion, and sexual diversity. I think, essentially, people are going to be more open and expansive in their lives. So, when I think of 2014, I see it almost like a Lotus flower that blossoms. I feel we’re going to be at that next level. We’re going to be developing more, developing further and I think that is also indicative of our own spirituality, including abilities. Whether you’re religious or spiritual, you’re going to surpass where you’ve been, growing and expanding which will carry over into everything in your life. Also, spending will increase which should help with jobs. I know it’s been a really, really rough couple of years here, but I feel it’s going to open up a little bit more, expand a little bit more. People will have more of an ‘I can’ attitude this coming year which is wonderful!
Belle: I have to agree. The word that came to me about 2014 was empowering.
Melanie: That makes perfect sense to me, precisely!
Belle: You know, where we find our strengths, and it also feels like a year of harvest where we are going to start reaping what we’ve sown.
Melanie: Exactly! That’s exactly how I feel. That’s the freedom, the feeling that no matter what it is, we’re going to be able to finally succeed. We’re going to be gung ho doing it and we’re going to be opening up. I’m feeling a lot of movement in 2014; there’s a lot of movement. I don’t feel as much stagnation as there has been.
Belle: Yes, I completely agree. It’s time. People are ready for it, and I think that really helps to catapult the coming years ahead to the direction that we’re going as a collective consciousness; I think it’s going to catapult us into a forward motion.
Melanie: Absolutely. I also think, Belle, (chuckle chuckle), that buying and reading the books I have written will help to open us up as well. But, seriously, tapping into your own intuition and starting to do what you think is right, instead of just doing what society has told you to do, or what you have had to do to put food on the table. Starting to tap into that intuitive side also helps us manifest a little bit more and tap into the potential of your own personal greatness. I think that is going to be huge in 2014! Like you said, expanding and empowering us, and that will be huge.
Overall, I feel 2014 will be a year of manifesting greatness! Enjoy it!
It’s easy to see, as we’ve been able to learn a bit more about Melanie Barnum, why we chose her to be our January New Year Cover Feature. Melanie emits an energy of great love, and her desire to teach others how to tap into their own intuition is certainly going to come in handy for those opening to their own inner strengths in 2014. This places Melanie within the Bellesprit ranks of Beautiful Spirit!
About the Author:
Belle Salisbury is the owner and Editor of Bellesprit. She has been a Spiritual Counselor for 41 years utilizing Clairvoyance, Clairsentience, and Clairaudience in her sessions bringing you guidance in your daily life. As a medium she is able to see and communicate with your Spirit Guides or departed loved ones bringing you communications of guidance, healing, validation, and closure. For more information or to book a session, visit her website at www.bellesalisbury.com.
