EPISODE 037: Listen To Your Soul's Calling with Penny Hayward

Medium, Inspirer and Mentor, Penny Hayward, has been with me in the studio this week.

We’ve talked about the many different aspects of mediumship that currently exist, from philosophy and speaking in the power, all the way through to healing mediumship, spiritual assessments and spirit art.

In this episode, Penny talks about the differences between trance mediumship and speaking in the power and how we can become aware of that energetic shift we feel and perceive, when the spirit world comes in.

This Week’s Episode

Episode 037 Resources

Here are some resources referred to in Episode 037, which you may find helpful.

• Penny Hayward Facebook
• Penny Hayward Website
• Arthur Findlay College
•  Tony Stockwell
•  Lynn Cotterell
•  Maureen Murnan
•  Spiritualists’ National Union International

About Psychic Matters Podcasts

Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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PM 037

Medium, Inspirer and Mentor, Penny Hayward, has been with me in the studio this week.

We’ve talked about the many different aspects of mediumship that currently exist, from philosophy and speaking in the power, all the way through to healing mediumship, spiritual assessments and spirit art. 

In this episode, Penny talks about the differences between trance mediumship and speaking in the power and how we can become aware of that energetic shift we feel and perceive, when the spirit world comes in.

You’ll Learn

• What Speaking Mediumship is

• What Healing Mediumship is

• What Trance Mediumship is

• What a Spiritual Assessment is

• The difference between a psychic and a medium

• How the spirit world can influence us

• How to develop the ability to speak in the power

• About the message of Spiritualism

• Why Spiritualism is different to mediumship

• The difference between trance mediumship and speaking mediumship
  
  

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everybody! My name is Ann Théato and welcome to the Psychic Matters Podcast – episode number 37.

Medium, Inspirer and Mentor Penny Hayward has been with me in the studio this week.

And we’ve talked about the many different aspects of mediumship that currently exist, from philosophy and speaking in the power, all the way through to healing mediumship, spiritual assessments and spirit art.  We have discussed it all.  In this episode, Penny talks about the differences between trance mediumship and speaking in the power and how we can become aware of that energetic shift we feel and perceive, when the spirit world comes in. Penny Hayward is a fantastic tutor and I know this because she has taught me!  And she is still, in fact, teaching me and currently guiding me through my CSNU – Certificate of the Spiritualists’ National Union in Speaking and Demonstrating.  Part of Penny’s soul’s calling in this world is about empowering others.  Don’t go away – you need this episode in your life!

Before we dive in – I just want to share something that I’m really excited about – I’m teaching at the prestigious College Of Psychic Studies in London.  It’s a one-day workshop, it’s on Saturday July 3^rd, 11am – 5pm UK time, which is 6am – 12 noon EST – maybe a little early to get up – but well worth it, I promise you!  It’s ONLINE – isn’t that glorious?  So you can join in wherever you are in the world!  My workshop is called What Is The Back Story In Your Mediumship? We all have a backstory don’t we?  All the ordinary and occasionally extraordinary events in our lives to date – events that shaped who we are now and why we act and think as we do.  And of course, as psychics and mediums, we have the ability to pick up information from anywhere along a fellow soul’s timeline, from the life they lived on earth, to the life they are living now in the spirit world.  My one day workshop – will be exploring the backstory of our spirit communicator, in order that we may bring forward ever more accurate information, which in turn will strengthen our confidence and transform our mediumship so that we all become better and better ambassadors for the spirit world. If you fancy joining me, please head over to www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/workshops or you can also find details on my website www.anntheato.com.

And here’s another interesting thing.  Once upon a time, many years ago, way back in 2004, I went to The College Of Psychic Studies, specifically to have a private reading with Tony Stockwell.  Now, those of you who have listened to Episode 1 of this podcast – Becoming A Medium – will know the incredible story of the events that led up to this reading and WHY I happened to be sitting in front of Tony Stockwell, having a private reading with him.  But I was.  And during that reading, he said to me, and I quote, because I’m sad and I transcribed the whole thing ages ago, he said, “Do you have a major connection to this place because I keep seeing you here.  Now I don’t say you have to enrol on a course or anything like that, maybe now or in 30 years’ time, but I do feel that you will have association to this place, that this place will be known to you.”  Isn’t that amazing?  And the other amazing thing he said during the same sitting in 20024 was – we were talking about work opportunities, and he said, “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you got something within the paranormal stuff,  presenting paranormal programmes.”

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen.  17 years ago that was. Isn’t that interesting?

Anyways, thank you for indulging me and letting me tell that story.  For those of you who are listening after July 3^rd 2021 – and who may have missed that workshop –  keep an eye on my website for news of my other classes – or better, go to my website and sign up to my mailing list – you get two short emails per month, letting you know what courses I have got coming up.

Right, Let’s get back to this week’s incredible episode, “Listen To Your Soul’s Calling.

Ann

I am joined in the Psychic Matters studio today, by Penny Hayward and Penny is a Medium an Inspirer and a Mentor and she has studied through the Spiritualist National Union and achieved diplomas.  Penny Hayward, welcome to Psychic Matters!

Penny

Thank you Ann, it’s a real pleasure to be here, I’m quite excited and feeling inspired, so we’ll see how we go today.

Ann

It’s so lovely of you to join us Penny, honestly, I’ve wanted to get you onto the show for quite a while, because you are doing an awful lot out there in the world for spiritualism, and developing how we communicate with spirit world, not just communicators from the spirit world, but our own soul as well.  So I need to dip in somewhere, there’s so much to choose from let me think.  Maybe let’s start at the beginning Penny where did you first… where did this all start for you, because people come to spiritualism or their spirituality rather at very different ages, and so what was your journey to, to your spirituality?

Penny

Oh okay, let’s start with an easy question.  It’s really hard to summarise quickly.  I would say that I’ve always had ability, I’ve always had an awareness of something else but not known really what it was, and I kind of felt like a misfit in the world.  You can probably tell from my accent, I know you know I’m from Australia originally, but I was quite unhappy, didn’t have any direction, I felt lost and I just didn’t get what life was about, and I was sort of desperately calling out into the universe like, why? why?  And wanting to really understand what’s it all about.  I went searching in bookshops, I went, I just I just didn’t know where to look, I was just searching, and I could, looking back I guess you could say I was soul searching, my soul was trying to direct me.  And yes, believe it or not, I heard a voice say “move to England” pre having the Internet in your own home, you’d have to go to cafe Internet cafes and all that old world stuff, and anyway, long story short, here I am in England.  And within about a year of being in England, still not really knowing why was I in England.  I sort of got here, the goal was to get here, why was I here? And a friend of mine went to a medium and her reading was amazing, she was really touched by it, so I wanted a reading.  And that’s where it really kicked off because the reading was amazing, it was very evidential, I got what I needed in that moment, but it opened me up to, that that inner voice started talking to me more if you like.  And I felt I had to go back and have another reading but I really didn’t know why I needed another reading.  So I booked another reading and it didn’t go as well, because she was trying to connect with the spirit world and I had no idea why I was there.  And anyway she did say, well you don’t want, you’re not here to hear from the spirit world are you?  And before I could even really think, the words tumbled out of my mouth, no, I just wanna know how it works.  And she introduced me to mediumship, she invited me on to her workshops.  I found all the psychic stuff really easy to do straight away. The mediumship was a bit harder to start off with, to really understand the difference and I didn’t even think I was a medium but yet when I look back, I used to, I used to be aware of a man walking through my house in Saint Kildare in Australia and that was normal but I never thought I was a medium.  So it’s kind of funny when you look back, you have all these signs. But I’ve got one of those logical minds that just fobs it off like, oh yeah, hello, there you are again. It never occurred to me that I was a medium.  So she really kicked off my spiritual pathway and now I know why I heard that voice to send me to England because yes, you can discover spiritual pathways, and mediumship all around the world but I’d have to say that England is a real special place for learning about mediumship.  And of course we’ve got the Arthur Findlay college here, where people come from all over the world.  So anyway there’s a lot more to the story, but that in a nutshell, is sort of how it all got started, and I really was going to those workshops just to feed my soul.  I really, for the first few years, had no intention of doing anything but going to as many workshops as I could.  And I did.

Ann

And did you go to the Arthur Findlay College for your workshops or where did you study those workshops?

Penny

Well so I started with this lady, who happened to be a very good friend of a well-known, well-known medium, who has their own studio, and I know you know very well.  So, so she was a good friend of Tony Stockwell’s. Then I went to his studio, then I went to the Arthur Findlay College and I just really went to lots of different, lots of different tutors.  I didn’t really stick to one particular tutor, I didn’t follow one person if that makes sense.  And I was, I just feel really fortunate for the path that I had, and so it all kind of happened, probably in the first 18 months, I went to I went to these workshops, and then the college, and within about nine months, and then I was just going to anything I could.  And I was probably doing something three to four times a week.  So twice after work, I would be commuting to London, then getting a train to the studio, then coming home quite late, and then doing it all again a couple of times a week, and then weekends, and then spending the residential weeks at the college.  I think I did that probably three or four times a year, so I never, all those people who went to lovely places, and sat on beaches and had nice relaxing rejuvenating holidays –  I’d spend mine at the Arthur Findlay College.

Ann

And it’s intense when you’re there, isn’t it?

Penny

It certainly is, you’d need a holiday after being there I can tell you, so.. then I’d be back to the corporate world in London.

Ann

So, that’s a lot isn’t it?  That’s three to four times a week – that’s a real passion there, that you obviously had that you wanted to follow through.  And so you did your study, you did your workshops and then how did you go on to become the tutor that you are and the Certificate and Diploma Holder that you are?

Penny

Well I guess if I start where I finished, about just going to as many workshops and things as I could, I really had no plan.  A lot of people I’ve met along the way would have designs or ideas of what type of mediumship they wanted to do, or where they wanted to go with it. Some didn’t, some were like me, but yeah, I just, all I wanted to do was soak up as much knowledge as I absolutely positively could.  Along the way I would have spiritual assessments when I went to Open Week, when I was on the residential weeks at the college or you know, you’d have readings from other students when you were practising on each other, you know, and I kept getting these messages from the spirit world, that I was going to work in public, that I was going to teach, that I was going to do all these things, and I’d be like no, no, that’s not me.  And it kept happening more and more and more.  And I have a little story for you, I kept getting these messages in my spiritual assessments when I went to the college, and kept getting told I would work there one day.  And I really thought, the first few times I heard it, I thought they were a little bit bonkers perhaps.  I really had no designs or could even see how that could happen.  And so one Open Week, so, it’s an anniversary really, because we’ve just had Open Week, so this is kind of an anniversary for me, and I got told by one of the amazing tutors there, ‘oh the spirit world is ready to work with you and you’re going to be on platform’ and I thought, oh my goodness, here we go again.  And I was driving home and I was basically threatening the spirit world, saying if you think I’m going to work in public you can make it happen, because I’m not going to!  And despite the way I may appear to come across to people, and especially back then, I’ve always put on a confident bravado, but that’s not who I am, it is and was a protection, if you like, so it’s sort of like, don’t come near me because I’m strong and confident, and really underneath I was the absolute opposite.  So anyway, I kind of made this challenge to the spirit world and within a week I got a phone call from a spiritualist church asking me to do a service.  I’d never even heard of the spiritualist church before and I just thought, oh my goodness gracious me!

Ann

It’s starting!

Penny

And as many people may know on this spiritual pathway, when the spirit world decide you’re ready, you kind of get thrown in the deep end, and I was absolutely thrown in the deep end.  Well I said no to this person who rang me up, who I had no idea who they were, how they got my phone number, or what spiritualist church it was.  And after I hung up the phone, I heard this voice and I had this wave of feeling come over me and the voice said, ‘we told you you’d be tested’.  And when I had that last reading at the college, the medium said the spirit world is going to test you, and so that was like a bit of a kaboom! brain exploding moment, so I knew I had to call back and see if I could put this right, and I called them back, and I thought they’ll have booked somebody else, it’ll be fine.  Well Ann, let me tell you, my knees were knocking, my hands were shaking, my whole body was shaking with fear and I rang this phone number back and you know, the phone is wobbling at my ear, and I said, oh, you know you called me, have you found somebody?  And she was really upset, she was like, no I haven’t I can’t find anybody! So, I said ok, well, I’ll do it.  Well, aside from watching a spiritualist service, and aside from doing bits here and there in classes, I’d never done a whole service before, and certainly not on my own.  And so I was thrown in the deep end, I did it and at the end of it, I thought I’m never going to do this again.  I promise you, for 48 hours after saying that I was gonna do that service, I didn’t eat, I hyperventilated and I really was quite ill at the thought of doing this service.  And even when I stood up, I remember quite clearly I was like shaking all over and it must have been visible.  And then there was just this power that started to come over me and the next thing I knew, it was all done, it was all over, and I thought I’ll never do it again, and the Booking Secretary came up and said I’d like to book you for next year.

Ann

Oh great!

Penny

And after that, it was just all word of mouth, and so that church told another church, who told another church, and they all talk to each other and they all kind of recommend people and if they have cancellations, they’ll ring you up.  So that’s what I did, so there’s me thinking, oh good I’ve got a whole year to be sick before I do another service.  But what happened was I’d get these last minute phone calls, and so I just went from there really.  As for the Diplomas and the Certificates, I felt drawn to… it was a journey to become a member of the Spiritualist’s National Union and I would say that initially I was adamant I was never gonna be a member of any organisation, you know.  There was sort of this fear in me. And one day, I just felt like I really wanted to join.  So nobody told me to, nobody suggested I should, it was something, this feeling that I needed to do it.  And once I joined, I thought, oh, I might do some of those written courses, those course work things. I wanted to learn more about Spiritualism because Spiritualism is different to mediumship.  And you can be a Spiritualist without being a medium and you can be a medium without being a Spiritualist.  So, I wanted to learn more about Spiritualism and I thought well, if I do these courses and it doesn’t resonate with me, I’ll just stop paying the membership, you know?  But I found that it intrigued me, I wanted to learn more and more and more, and by the time I did a couple of the coursework courses, I realised I could do my Platform Accreditation.  It’s not a Certificate but it’s, you can get that first baby-step level if you like, so I did that.  And I thought, oh OK, well that’s done, I may as well do my Certificate, so I’d done enough coursework to do that. And then I went on and did more courses, I did all the written courses, and then I thought well, seeing as I’ve done all these written courses, maybe I’ll do my Diploma. And along that journey, I kept then sort of being steered, or, you know I had those comments like, oh, you’ll do this, you’ll work on platform,  etc., from the spirit world I started getting messages, you’ll be a good teacher.  So I then started to do some of the teaching weekends that they do, and looking into that side of it.  And it was a little bit of a bumpy ride, but there was a lot going in my own in my life at the same time as well, and so I kind of went on a bit of a detour through that, but I tell you what, I am glad I had that detour, because I really learned a lot about how to be a good teacher, and a good mentor, and how to get the best out of people. Or how to try to encourage people along their spiritual pathway and journey.  So I don’t regret it, it was hard at the time, but I don’t regret it, and then it led me towards becoming a tutor at the Arthur Findlay College which I never thought possible.  And as I said, I never aimed for that, but the pathway unfolded in a way that it took me by surprise if, if that kind of makes sense, Ann, I don’t know, I’m waffling.

Ann

It does, no, you’re not waffling at all, it’s making perfect sense, it really beautifully explains how it all unfolded for you, because we’re all lead in our own unique way, but I just wanted to ask you a couple of things about some of the things that you said there.  When you say that you were getting messages in various different stages of your journey, how did those messages manifest?  Were they something you heard subjectively or objectively, inside your own mind or something you heard outside?

Penny

Well it’s, it’s hard to explain, but for me, the way that I’ve heard, it’s subjectively, but there’s this overwhelming feeling that comes with it, so it’s easily identifiable as very different to your own thoughts.  And the resonance of that internal voice, hearing that clairaudience, is different to your own conscious thoughts that go through your own mind, does that kind of make sense?  So it comes combined with this feeling.  So earlier I described a wave of feeling that moved over me, and it was like that when I heard the voice to move to England. There was a wave of feeling that came with it that I must pay attention, that this is important.  So it’s not a command, it’s a guidance if you like, and it’s, this feeling that comes with it.  You feel safe, but you know you must do your bit to help, like to take that next step. So I’m the one who had to look up how to move my whole life to England, and it turns out my grandmother was born here, so I could have an ancestry visa.  So I had to be the one that applied for the ancestry visa, but I had no idea whether I’d even get through customs because all the forms in all the paperwork, and anyone who’s done anything to do, anything to move country, you’d know that they they tell you, even though you give all your financial information, all your background, bank accounts, information, so that you can show that you’re independent when you arrive in the country, they don’t guarantee that you will get through customs.  So there was, there’s never any guarantee along the way, you have to take the chance, and it’s the same with mediumship.  There’s no guarantee along the way but you have to take the chance, you have to step into the abyss, you have to take that trusting step forward, and see where it takes you.

Ann

And that’s what you’re so good at teaching, Penny and that’s probably coming from your, well the experiences that you’ve just explained to us, where you’re suddenly filled with the power of spirit.  And so how… I know that you have a passion for the talking about speaking in the power, or speaking in the power of spirit and there’s many, many different aspects to mediumship, so maybe before we talk about speaking in the power, maybe we could talk about, because a lot of people listen to this podcast, they don’t know much about mediumship or psychic work.  So maybe you could talk a little bit about, briefly, the different types of mediumship there are, and then perhaps a little bit about speaking in the power.

Penny

OK, so when I started, let’s just say when I started exploring mediumship, I explored lots of different types of mediumship.  I mentioned earlier, I found the psychic stuff really easy.  Now, if I reflect back as a child, and a young adult, I’m a people watcher.  I’m always watching people, and from a young age, I was always watching people and what I, what I realised is I was I was tuning into people naturally, it was a natural thing for me to do.  And psychic work is when you’re working with the physical person, so when you’re working with the person in front of you, you’re connecting with them, their energy and information about them and for them.  Psychic can also be connecting to a place, and you know, some of us, I think everybody on the face of the earth is psychic to some level.  How inherent and how strong that is in you will vary, so some people are only a little bit, they have little flashes here and there.  Other people it’s more strong and naturally inherent in them.  And most people can understand the theory of, if you go and view a house, it can look beautiful on the inside and out and you can look at pictures of it and you can think that’s a beautiful house, and then when you visit it, you might come away and say it’s a beautiful house but there’s something about it I just don’t like.  And that’s a psychic connection, that’s an intuitive connection to a place.  So for those people that are listening, who are trying to understand the differences, hopefully that analogy can help.  So when it comes to mediumship, mediumship is connecting with the spirit world and evidential mediumship, is when you connect with a loved one of the client or the person that is in front of you.  So that you are going to bring their family members, or their friends, people they know, people they understand, and can confirm the evidential information, and then any other shared memories, and any potential communication that comes with that.  And what I would say is, evidential mediumship can bring great comfort to people that are in grief, but they should feel ready to have that, you know.  There’s always a time and a place for these things, and it can really bring a lot of peace to people knowing that their loved ones are safe, or still around them.  So, it’s a wonderful thing.  You have healing mediumship, so healing mediums are people who are able to attune to the spirit world for the power of allowing healing energy to move through them.  Now healing doesn’t mean that somebody will be cured, or will, or anything like this, but the healing energy may assist in the healing process of an injury, or something along these lines, or recovering from an illness, or it’s a complimentary thing.  It may well have a physical effect, it may well help somebody on a stronger deeper level, it’s not a cure, that’s what I would say.  And then we have trance mediumship, which is allowing, the medium becomes extremely passive, passive in their conscious mind, passive in their body, passive in their power, and the spirit world, so the I like to call them spirit team, rather than guides, they need us, we need them, so it’s a team.  So the spirit team will blend their consciousness with the consciousness of the medium.  And depending on how proficient that medium is in the trance ability, will depend on how involved or not they are with that experience, and it takes time to develop.  So you’ll have more of the medium than the spirit world involved in the early stages, and as the medium gets more proficient with the blending of consciousness, and the spirit world too, then there will be a shift where the spirit world has more influence in what flows with the information.   And you can have in trance mediumship, you can have trance healing mediumship, you can have evidential medium trance mediumship and you can have philosophical trance mediumship.  Then there’s also inspirational mediumship, so spirit art so where the spirit world might influence somebody with, it can be good for one medium to another where they might be aware of their spirit team.  It could be with loved ones, so Lynn Cotterell is an amazing spirit artist and she works with Maureen Murnan and other mediums and Lynn will draw the face of a loved one while the other medium is giving evidence.  So you can have the spirit world work artistically, and there’s a myriad of others.  There’s also writing, automatic writing, this is a lost art as well, and I think that now that we have this technical world, digital world that we live in perhaps, there are the odd people out there that can go into an altered state and perhaps allow the influence or inspiration from the spirit world to move through them to the keyboard, for example.  So perhaps automatic typing, rather than writing, might be a better word to call it, but for it to be true automatic writing, or true automatic typing, for example, there should be that, the mediums mind must be out of the way, their conscious mind has to be out of the way, and the spirit world has to have that main influence, that main control.  Otherwise it’s more of an inspiration, rather than a control, or influence.  So for me, I like to use the word influence, rather than control, but control is also used quite a lot and then otherwise a lighter form would be inspirational, inspirational.  So when it comes to the speaking, so speaking mediumship or speaking in the power there, I do have a passion about, a passion about this.  So I started off, psychic was easy, I moved into understanding how to recognise when I had the spirit world with me and give evidential information.  I did trance and I did trance for many years and I, I’ve stepped back from that, I can still do it, it’s still a part of my experience, but I feel that I had that period of time and experience to then understand the different states of consciousness and levels required because it helped me to develop and understand speaking in the power, because there is a difference between trance and speaking in the power  or speaking mediumship.  So as I mentioned, trance is passive, passive power, passive conscious mind of the medium, and passive in the physical body to all intents purposes, so it’s a passive form of mediumship whereas with speaking in the power, the medium needs to have a passive conscious mind, but there’s an active power.  And so there’s a fine line of blending the consciousness.  So the, so the way I would describe it is when I’m speaking in the power, the power is active, I’ve got my eyes open, to all intents & purposes anybody listening or watching, it’s Penny Haywood speaking.  But when the spirit world come in, there’s a shift in the energy, there’s a shift in the power, and the influence of the spirit world is there.  And so it’s not as deep as trance because it’s not as passive as trance, does that make sense?

Ann

Yes, perfect.

Penny

So, and I feel that this is a really important form of mediumship and it’s a lost art in spiritualism.  And as I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to be a medium to be a spiritualist, and you don’t have to be a spiritualist to be a medium.  So I feel that this form of speaking mediumship, is probably needed now more than ever, because look at how we are changing.  Society is changing, the way we live is changing, and that’s without taking into consideration the Covid pandemic that we’re also surviving.  And a lot of people, I go back to something I mentioned about my own journey, I felt lost in this world, I didn’t understand why am I here, what is the point, what is, what is the purpose of life?  What does it all mean? And I wasn’t getting any answers from anywhere.  And it wasn’t until I started going to investigate spiritualism, that I started to find meaning in life and living life.  And that’s what spiritualism is about.  And that’s what trance mediumship should be about.  That’s what speaking mediumship should be about, is the message of spiritualism and the message of spiritualism is that we are indestructible.  We are invincible.  We survive physical death, we exist beyond the physical realms, our consciousness, our soul, our spirit, survives this physical world, isn’t that amazing?  And if we survive, which we do, then what does that mean about life here?  What does that mean about living life in this physical world?  And I’ll give you an example.  We often have misgivings with family, with friends, we fall out, we fall in love, we fall out of love, we have all kinds of experiences, and we sometimes never have the opportunity to apologise, or to make amends, or to come back together and try and understand where the other was coming from.  And we may get to a point in our lives where we wished we had that opportunity, and a lot of people do, and usually when they do is when someone has died and then they are left with this feeling of regret, of remorse, of wishing they should have, would have, could have, and then not necessarily living life because they’re feeling these feelings of regret or remorse or … and wishing they had have had that reconciliation or that understanding or that apology.  The good news is they can, but they don’t know they can, until they until either they have a beautiful healing evidential reading from a medium, or they go to the spirit world themselves.  And I think one of the fundamental things we forget in this life,  is that we are a spirit already and that we are meant to have a spiritual unfolding.  We are meant to embrace a more spiritual pathway in life to whatever capacity that is meant to be.  If it is taking up yoga for somebody and that is the first step on their spiritual pathway in the physical world, fabulous.  If it’s trekking the Himalayas and that’s their spiritual experience in this life, fabulous!  But we are all meant to recognise and understand that individual, indestructible, invincible spark of life within us. And if you can embrace and understand and know that life continues beyond this physical world, then I want to make sure that I have the least amount of regrets that I can possibly have, and lead a more spiritual life in this world and inspire others to recognise that within themselves, so that they don’t have to have and carry those regrets, until they too move to the spirit world.

Ann

Beautifully put, that’s amazing, thank you Penny, that’s great.  Going back then, to just clarify, the speaking in the power that you speak of yourself so eloquently, how do we use it?  We can use it if we are Spiritualists with our inspirational address, but are there other ways that we can use speaking in the power?

Penny

Well yeah, I feel that it can be moved into various areas of mediumship, so for example, when the spirit world started inspiring me and teaching me to learn, and understand the different blending of consciousness, so once I understood trance and how that worked, when I was working on the platform, I started to feel the power of the spirit world and the blending of the consciousness when I was doing the addresses.  And so yes we can have it on the platform there in that way, but then I started to discover that in some, not all, but in some of my readings that I would do for people, whether it be evidential or psychic, I would have the spirit world inspire me and influence me with certain things.  So if I had a communicator from the spirit world, they might inspire me to say something which is something they would have said.  And when it comes to giving the communication from the spirit world, sometimes I feel them there, giving me the words, impressing them on my mind, and so it becomes a story, rather than, here’s a bit of information, here’s a bit of information, here’s a bit of information and kind of tying it in a bow.  And so I found that it can move into that area, also sometimes if I’m doing a spiritual assessment or a psychic reading, I can feel that influence coming from the spirit world to impress on my mind where I need to go, what I need to say.  I’d also say that there are people, some very interesting speakers out there, motivational speakers out there, that are probably aren’t spiritualists probably don’t consider themselves mediums in anyway, but you watch some of these people and you can feel the power around them, you can feel the energy there. And so I would say that the spirit world inspire people in this way a lot more than perhaps we recognise.  And perhaps they inspire artists in this way as well, and musicians, and people that are creative, because if you, even if you look at the movies… so you might think some of the movies are a bit far-fetched or whatever it may be, but I think the spirit world works with directors and producers of movies to bring that message, or that spiritual message through, so it’s not exactly speaking in mediumship but it’s, that inspiration to move through people to get that wider message out there.  So sure, I think it can work in lots of different ways.

Ann

Yeah it’s beautiful and I know that you teach this particularly in workshops, this particularly topic of speaking in the power, so have you got anything coming up?

Penny

Yes, so as mentioned, I teach with the Arthur Findlay College, and in just a couple of weeks, so depending on when this comes out, I’m doing a Speaking In The Power four week workshop, so a couple of hours every, I forget what day of the week it is, over 4 weeks, but if, if you miss it for this time, it starts later in May but if you miss it for this time, I’m sure I’ll be running it again another time.  I also do mind and power in mediumship and so that’s a good foundation for people who want to understand that speaking in the power and working with mediumship and those sorts of things, so… because I think as mediums we really need to understand… there’s so many different aspects to take into consideration to be able to do mediumship, so understanding the power and how it moves and works through you, and understanding the mind and where that balance needs to be to do the different forms of mediumship is quite important.  So I’ve got workshops coming up in May, June, July and into August with the College and I’ll probably be setting up a few more for later in the year and into next year.  So you can check on my website or the College website for those sessions.

Ann

OK, perfect. And you’ve mentioned a couple of times through this interview, spiritual assessment.  Can you perhaps explain what it is, because I know that’s a question I get asked a lot, what is a spiritual assessment?

Penny

Yeah sure.  So I can’t speak for every medium who does a spiritual assessment because we’ll all have our own style if you like, but essentially what I do, is connect with the person and I follow their spiritual path through their life.  So I usually connect with the energy, their spiritual energy as a child, how it worked with them through their life, and how it’s working with them at that moment .  And then any potential with that mediumistic or spiritual ability.  So a spiritual assessment is working with that person’s mediumistic ability, what the potential is, and occasionally I might be aware of one or two spirit team members, I don’t guarantee that, and it’s not evidence of the spirit world, and I’d say to most people it’s important you have your own journey with getting to know your spirit team, and how they manifest for you, and then if it comes up in a spiritual assessment, just take that as confirmation, not as, oh I’ve got, I’ve got a China man who works with me, you know.  You need to have that experience only, and it has to make sense to you.  So I might, I might be aware of that but usually I’m aware more so, of how the spirit team work with that person, and inspire them, and so it might be healing, it might be art, it might be evidential, or trance, so whatever it might be and I talk about the potentials there. Sometimes there might be hints and tips that come up, so when I’m working with their spirit team and their energy, I might be inspired with something that might help them to take that next step forward or that that helps them make a decision on what steps they need to take next.  So it’s really important for anyone who has a spiritual assessment, I would say use it as a form of confirmation, use it as a way to confirm what you already feel and what you where you feel you’re going.  Because as I said about my own journey, I tended not to think too far ahead and if anything I was adamant, I wasn’t gonna do a whole bunch of things, and everything I was adamant I wasn’t gonna do, I ended up doing.  So, I think that when people get fixated about where they think they should be going, that’s where they might come a cropper. So that the spiritual assessment is more to, as a kind of inspiration or guidance if you like, but it’s certainly not telling them what to do.  It should really serve as a confirmation of what they’ve already been thinking, feeling and progressing with.  Does that kind of help?

Ann

Yeah that’s great, thanks Penny, that’s a really good explanation.  Just one other question, you spoke earlier about having lots of different tutors as you went through your spiritual journey.  Do you think it’s important for people who are learning to have tuition from lots of different people, or do you think we should stick with one tutor for a while and then move on?  What, how do you see it?

Penny

I would say it’s important that people do what’s right for them.  And the reason why I say that, is because it was right for me to go to lots of different tutors, because I got different things from different people, and in some cases I learned what not to do, more than what to do. My attitude was when I went to any workshop, any course, any teaching, I went with an attitude that I was gonna get out of it what I needed to get out of it at that time, and I didn’t always mean that I knew what I was going to get out of it, so while the course might have been focused on evidential mediumship, yes I might have learned some techniques, and all those sorts of things, but I might have learned a lot more about what works for me, what doesn’t work for me. I would always find myself watching the teacher, and how they handled different students and I would I would watch other students and how they worked, so I really sort of observed a lot and I don’t know whether other people do that, I don’t know if I’m a bit weird or what, but I was very observant of the group dynamic in every situation, and learned from that as well, So as far as if it’s right for somebody to stick to one teacher for a period of time, then they should do it, but what I would say is, anyone that says that they know better, or that they are the best, or that they, that students should follow them and not go to other tutors, then if that was the case, I would say, run a mile.  But basically the message is, do what feels right to you, cause I don’t think there’s a hard and fast answer to that.

Ann

Yeah, it is well answered.  It is right you should do what you feel you’re moved to do in that moment.

Penny

That’s right and you will learn something from everybody, even if it’s what not to do.

Ann

Agreed, so Penny people want to come, they want to come and see you, perhaps they want to have a reading with you, they might want to join one of your courses either in person which you are running, some, I know everything’s on your website, you’re teaching at the Arthur Findlay College which includes of course, the Barbanell Centre … where do they go? What is your website?

Penny

Well, pens at the ready!

Ann

Yes, get ready everybody so it’s all the w’s, so it’s www.pennyhayward.co.uk and you spell Hayward HAYWARD.  And then on my website, there’s a page dedicated to readings, and it explains the different types of readings I offer.  There’s a page dedicated to mentorships, so I do one to one mentoring, and I do group mentoring as well.  So twice a year I run The Progressive Soul Development Group and so the Spring and Autumn they’re called, so people have got plenty of time to investigate joining up for the Autumn one if they’re interested.  And then I’ve got the events page which shows what I’m doing at the College or at other associations or centres around the world.  And I’m on Facebook, so yeah, it should all be there on the website anyway.

Ann

That’s perfect but what I’ll do is, because I have Show Notes for each episode of the podcast, so there will be a full transcription of this on my website, and all the URLs where people can reach you, so if anybody is stuck, they can go over there and pick all the resources up and that will lead them over to you and everything that you’re doing, Penny.

Penny

Perfect, that’s amazing, thank you.

Ann

Oh listen, it’s been absolutely fabulous having you on the podcast and just sharing your knowledge because you know, you’ve been learning and delving into your own spirituality for quite some time now, and so therefore you have got a lot to share with other people, and I can highly recommend everybody, that you go to Penny because she’s been one of my tutors and you’ve recently been instrumental in helping me get through my own Platform Accreditation Scheme, so thank you very much for that, Penny and it was lovely being taught by you.  So I do highly recommend that people go along.  Thank you again, Penny for coming onto Psychic Matters and sharing everything with us, we are so very grateful to you.

Penny

Oh thank you and I’m grateful to be here, thank you so much.

Ann

Well that was Medium, Inspirer and Mentor Penny Hayward.  Do go and visit her website and put it on your favourites list, so that you don’t miss out on any of her events and classes – https://pennyhayward.co.uk.

All resources for this episode, including a full transcript and plus importantly, how to reach Penny, are over on my website under podcasts, so do  head over there and you can pick everything up on the show notes. www.anntheato.com.  Have a little explore while you are over there, I have some wonderful meditations that you might enjoy.

Before I go, can I ask you to write a written review for this podcast?  For Apple users, launch the Apple Podcast app, search for PSYCHIC MATTERS, and scroll down to Ratings and Reviews. If you have anAndroid phone, go to Stitcher, find Psychic Matters, click “Reviews”, & write your honest review there.  You know, they really help so much with moving this little one-woman podcast up the podcast charts and I really appreciate that, so thank you.

Thank you also, to my wonderful guest this week, Penny Hayward, and to all of you out there who are listening. Have a fantastic couple of weeks everybody, enjoy the Summer – it’s finally arrived here in the UK which is honestly thrilling me to bits! – until next time… my name is Ann Théato and thank you for listening to PSYCHIC MATTERS!