Thursday, March 31, 2011

Psychic Mind: The Limits of Psychic Work

The Limits of Psychic Work by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

As a practicing psychic consultant, I have at times overreached. Usually I did so inadvertently. A woman client had referred a male friend, a professional, to me for psychic counseling. He seemed a very nice man, quietly intelligent and low-keyed. The session went very well and the gentleman, and he was that, thanked me for the insights my channel provided. When the lady who referred him visited again, I asked about her friend. Oh, he committed suicide, she said. Carbon monoxide while sitting in his car inside a closed garage.

She then confided that the man suffered clinical depression. I hadn’t known that. I assumed he experienced normal unresolved inner conflicts that my process of psychic psychoanalysis might discover. I didn’t know that he was one who when seized by the deepest of blue funks had little or no control over his dark mood. Apparently psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists aren’t always successful in dealing with such mental disorders either. Drugs are the last resort, or the first choice by lazy therapists.

In another situation, a woman friend of mine remained close to her ex-husband. He also suffered clinical depression. The only hint I got was that he remained overly dependent on his aged mother who seemed a nice woman. They all, mother, son, ex-daughter-in-law and their son, lived together apart in the same house. It seemed an odd arrangement but it worked for them. The man was a successful journalist and writer, and the sexy girlfriend he had at the time seemed a lady any normal man would surely want to live for. But there came a day when he just couldn’t cope anymore and swallowed a bottle full of pills. What he thought his problem was I never knew.

Why does a depressive sink into a deep funk? Is it a matter of dysfunctional brain chemistry? Or early life trauma that I as a psychic analyst seeks to discover? Could it possibly have to do with past-life issues that psychoanalysts usually don’t deal with? If that were the case, the right kind of psychic might come in handy. It doesn’t seem that any professional knows just what the cause is, so psychiatrists prescribe drugs, mood elevators, anti-depressants, uppers, in hopes that clients might avoid the worst of their down moods.

Any professional dealing with mental issues ought to recognize his limits. An authentic psychic has areas of expertise that will be helpful in appropriate cases. The same is true for mental health specialists. But each of us, I contend, ought to recognize our limits and not pretend to be healers of all conditions that we attract.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com


Sunday, March 27, 2011

Psychic Mind: Arcs of Light as the Soul Leaves

Arcs of Light as the Soul Leaves by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

I was attending a Friday night dance at PWP, Parents Without Partners, AKA, People Without Personalities, when SHE appeared in the doorway! It was the mid-70s and I was newly in my Psychic Development period, and Faye was interested in Astrology. She a Scorpio, me a Pisces, and she lived up to the reputation of her sign! Chestnut hair flowed down her lovely back from a wooden Spanish holder atop her well-formed head. For a forty year old divorcee’, she was a knockout, and quite psychic in her own right. I beat the other guys to her and asked her to dance, then got her out of there as soon as I could. We were lovers for a couple of years, then forever friends after that.

Along the way, the elder of Faye’s two sons cracked up in a car accident and died. A terrible thing to happen to a mother. Just get them raised, then bang, or in this case, crash, and they are gone. The youngest, a daughter, was another matter. A strange girl who became a strange woman later. The second son shared his sorrow with Mark’s girlfriend, and later they became one. Faye was a Fundamentalist Baptist but there was another dimension to her, so I introduced her to the positive thinking Unity Church of Christianity where I attended during my psychic development period. She was dual in her thinking, but, when it came time for a funeral, she did not relish the idea of some sour dour preacher talking negative hell-fire and brimstone at the time of her greatest personal loss ever. So on her behalf I arranged for a loving Unity funeral for her first son, Mark.

At Unity we talked of releasing one who passed on in love. I taught the concept to Faye, and she understood the concept. At the funeral I did not sit with the sorrowing family of course. She and I were at right angles as we both viewed the young man’s body. I was in a meditative state as the minister spoke over the boy, and Faye over the way held up and did not break down and cry. There was a stoic quality about her in all things. Of a sudden I saw arcs of bright yellow light, one after another, lifting off Mark’s still body, then shoot off and away. What, I wondered, could that possibly mean? That his soul or Self was just then releasing itself from material life?

Later when I told Faye about what I’d witnessed, my psychic sense, she told me that at that time she was saying prayerfully over and over, “Son, I release you in love... I release you in love...” I like to believe that yes, as his mother released him in a state of love, he was able to go comfortably back Home to his, to our, origin in the greater, more real world of Spirit. Home to God and His manifestations. Gone before his time? That we cannot know for certain. But go he did as his mother released her son in love as I watched arc after arc of yellow light shoot off the boy’s still body lying there.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Psychic Mind: Objectivity and Subjectivity, A Psychic Epiphany!

Objectivity and Subjectivity: A Psychic Epiphany!  by Richard Lee Van DerVoort, M.A.

As a psychic philosopher, in other words, grandiose or otherwise, a person who questions, yes, a person who longingly quests after Truth, truth and more truth, so help us Dog, I mean, God. Dyslexia crops up from time to emit, I mean time to time. And, as a psychic psychologist, psycho-log-ist, one, a psycho, who gives us the gist of things easy as fallin’ off a log, I wonder how our sdnim, I mean, our minds work, how they interact with all the things that are and is and maybe even could, should or oughtta be. So with that said, and...

speaking hyperbolically:

Last evening I was sitting upon the bathroom throne reading a book. I was reviewing a philosopher’s discussion of Objectivity versus Subjectivity. I was thinking his view a bit simplistic, if not obtuse, when suddenly another book fell to the floor from the stand in front of me. Ka-thunk! And then it occurred to me in a fleetful flash, fleetistically, so to speak: the book falling to the floor was an objective event. It was, yes, material and OUT there. My perceiving and understanding the event, no doubt under Spiritual Guidance, was subjective. The image in my mind was IN there. That caused me to conclude that objectivity, all that is OTHER, and subjectivity, mememememe and more me, are INTERDEPENDENT, not MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE categories. And as Kant said, categorically imperative. Or was it Hegel... Kant, Hegel, Sartre, the atheist who lived in an apartment that kept filled with a blue haze of cigarette smoke all his daze, i.e. days. What’s in a name? It is the idea, the thought, the content, that counts, that makes the difference. Or doesn’t.

Like the Buddha meditating under the Bo Tree centuries past, like Thomas Edison or Einstein having an Ah ha! moment, like the comic strip light bulb flashing on above a character’s head, like in a Zen moment of insight I became immediately ENLIGHTENED in regard to the question of Objectivity versus Subjectivity. My life, yes, was transformed, and maybe even transcendentalized a tad. The moment was so beautiful, I had to wipe... a tear from my eye. Maybe both eyes. Maybe even my throbbing Third Eye, the pineal gland said to be the Brow Chakra, seated or inset Cyclopedic! Which is to say, like a one-eyed Cyclops, or Jack. Let this stand as a profound Zen Koan that no one will or can understand, or as a Taoist Story with a moral. Let this expression live and outlive all readers reading about this most transcendent moment in time!                                
Ah the life of a sophisticated intuitive intellectual is sooooo rewarding! Truth and truths abound and surround me just waiting to be uncovered and discovered! LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL  That makes 7, the magic number of LOLs!
Notice that LOL spelled backwards is LOL, which makes life easier for dyslexics.

Blessed be those who know how to laugh!     

Signed: Richard, geezer and laughing philosopher

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com


Friday, March 25, 2011

Psychic Mind: The Psychic Art of Automatic Writing

The Psychic Art of Automatic Writing by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

I have no memory of how I got a copy of James Joyces’ FINNIGANS WAKE, an experimental literary novel, back when I was maybe only 14. I found it impossible to understand, but I did read the Introduction that conjectured that first of all, the author employed the “stream of consciousness” technique, but most interesting was the psychic interpretation, that Joyce had “caught” the book via AUTOMATIC WRITING. That idea really got my attention! So much so that I decided to experiment with automatic writing myself.

I was home alone a lot out on the edge of Grandpa’s farm since both my parents worked, and it must not have been a school day. I set my ballpoint pen to paper, or was it a pencil. I cannot remember. And waited like I’d read about doing. Sure enough. I felt the psychic energy come into my arm and hand, and the pen began to write, ALL BY ITSELF! All I had to do was hold it up and watch. I suppose then as now there was an impression of voice in my head, psychic impressionistic clairaudience objectified in writing, but during that first experiment, nothing but a string of raw filth came spewing out. Every swear word, every dirty word or expression I ever heard or knew, and maybe some I didn’t, spewed forth and out! I was horrified and profoundly afraid. So I pulled back and stopped, vowing I’d never open to that again!

Just as I suspected. I was a totally evil boy, not a budding or natural psychic. I was a Christian, a Methodist, even though I’d begun to question what I heard in church. I even tried to read the entire Bible all the way through but never succeeded. And being the age I was, my adolescent frustrated sex urge was strong. I was a committed masturbator but only because I could not yet get girls. So, I knew I was probably on my way to Hell... in a hand-basket! Upon that psychic experience with automatic writing, I “closed the channel” and never tried the process again until twenty or so years had passed! But when the call to write came again, it was a whole different, and far better, story!

It was 1975, not 1951, and I meditated twice a day. By then I was already reading Tarot for clients. $5 a psychic card reading. I was no longer a college professor after 14 wonderful successful years of teaching, and I was in limbo about what to do with the rest of my life. Having been very successful as a teacher, I don’t know to this day why I didn’t simply wait out the year after Nixon’s budget cuts to Higher Education and make my return in glory. It as if I was psychically, spiritually overshadowed somehow, perhaps by my own High Self, and led to what turned out to be a greater, more satisfying, more growth-producing way of life.

One mid-afternoon, I sat on my sofa in my cheap upstairs apartment in Lansing, Michigan deep in meditation. Suddenly, a psychic voice came into my head and said, “Take up your pen and write.” During meditation I always kept pen and paper at my side in case a bright idea came in. Or a psychic experience I wanted to record. But that day, the day of a special psychic opening, was different. I obeyed, and after all those years, the pen scribbled quickly and smoothly, then doubled back in a swirl at the end of each line, no break, no stop. After my meditation I ran off to see my older lady friend and somewhat mentor, the psychic spiritualist Dorothy. She was delighted with my news.

Dorothy pronounced me then and there a natural psychic channel for Spirit, for the forces of God and Good. She gave me assignments, information I was to ask and receive for her. I passed every test. We were both delighted. Each time she forced money onto me, and told me that I was destined to do The Work. Spiritual work. And because it was to be my way of life, my career, I had to accept pay for services. She told me, and I never forgot, “A servant is worthy of his hire. You must never forget that.” And so it happened just as she predicted.                            

Automatic writing evolved and became a psychic channel for an inner plane grouping who has worked through me all these many years. My psychic process began when I was a guilt-ridden boy, and only resumed in a new and pure way after much life experience and learning. I had been chosen by Those of the Light in Spirit as a psychic vehicle, channel or mouthpiece here on material earth in service to real people suffering real problems. Once the psychic processes started working through me in a controlled way, I committed to The Work and never looked back. I became one of many vehicles, and like Jesus, I often quote, “Of myself I can do nothing. The Father doeth the Work through me”. God and I are one... Aum, Aum, Aum... 

 
Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com
 

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Psychic Mind: Weather Sensitive Plus A Sleep Tip

Weather Sensitive Plus A Sleep Tip by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. 

While reading a book by Colin Wilson who wrote on many psychic subjects, I was excited to find a discussion of how certain people are extra-sensitive to weather, and changes in weather. That immediately explained much of my own suffering over the course of my life. Yes, everybody, almost, knows about people who say that their arthritis pain is worse on rainy or cloudy days, and those more sophisticated weather-watchers correlate high and low pressure systems to not only pain, but anxiety. And much else!

Off but near the subject, here is another tip I read about years ago in a book by Dr. Joyce Brothers. Want to know when your natural time for best sleep is? Take your basal temperature every hour for 24 hours. When your body temp DROPS, even if ever so slightly, THAT is the time you will get your deepest and best sleep and rest. It works! I found that at 5AM, I become naturally drowsy and find sleep delicious and easy! If I can sleep between 5 and 10AM and not be disturbed, I wake rarin’ to go! and I am much sharper as a psychic counselor. And I stay good all day and evening. I may have a “bad night” or be “in and out” of sleep, or sleep lightly from say 11PM until 4 or 5AM, but from 5 to 10 I am “down” and “in”!

I have a story that underscores weather sensitivity, a story that proved that for sure I AM a “Weather Sensitive” which goes along with my other sensitivities, psychic and otherwise. Along about the mid-80s (yes I am a geezer) I was living and working as a professional psychic oil finder and business consultant. At the time I was married to the “worst wife of my life”. #5 I think she was. She was determined to have a child, a son, and so I entered her life to help her out. Once the Mama’s Boy was sprung, I split!

While she was incredibly huge and pregnant one day, this was in Austin, Texas, the power went out so we went out for a walk. I walked, she waddled. No complaint from her since her goal was in sight... right down in front of her. I recall how very peaceful and calm I became, in spite of her presence. It was such a balmy peaceful afternoon with no electric buzzing through the lines or in the atmosphere. It had become “Country Calm” like how I grew up in Michigan on the edge of Grandpa’s farm back in the 40s and 50s. But then came the change. I had a profound psychic sense that there was a BIG CHANGE in the air.

My nerves grew taut, I became tense, and I heard a psychic sound experienced clairaudiently. A kind of buzzing, singing, whirring sound that became faster and louder and faster and louder until I wanted to scream! Why? Because the power was coming back on and revvin’ up! and I changed back to my tense and anxious self! It was then I put it together in my mind. My body was sensitive to the all-pervasive electric in the air! I didn’t yet know Colin Wilson’s term “Weather Sensitive”, but I certainly knew that I was one. Not only to weather, but to electric especially, and anything else, such as toxic allergens, that lived unseen in the infested atmosphere.

Not everyone is psychically aware enough to recognize physical and psychical changes within themselves caused by atmospheric variables, and that is fortunate. Being sensitive is not a wonderful way to be in regard to personal comfort. I guess the idea parallels the old saying my father was so fond on, “Ignorance is bliss”. He too was a Weather-Sensitive, and screwily psychic as well, so maybe it is in one’s genetic make-up. My mother often said she was sensitive, but in fact she was only “thin-skinned”, meaning, that her narcissistic feelings were easily and often hurt. When the foot was on the other shoe, however, she had no problem poking a pin in someone else’s sensitive nature. But, we humans often live by that old standard called DOUBLE.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Psychic Mind: What Does Psychic Mean?

What Does Psychic Mean? by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

The psychic tradition no doubt goes back in antiquity before written language came into existence. The Oracle at Delphi and Tiresius, the blind prophet, of Ovid’s Greece and the ODDYSEY are recent expressions of soothsaying. When authentic, and I say that because psychic cons have existed just short of forever, psychic means that which is of EXTRA-RATIONAL function or process. That which transcends or goes beyond reason and its pal, logic. It is the ultimate form of subjectivity that contains truth value.

Normally, as thought by the great mass of humanity, or those capable of thought at all, regard the five senses as basic, and the sixth sense as rare or non-existent. Our sense of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell (especially if one ate saurkraut) are admissible to mass mind. ESP, extra-sensory-perception, is iffy. Psychics are called fortune tellers by mass mind. Esotericists, such as I am, by contrast appreciate the extra-rational functions of human mind. The psychic forms are varied but essentially they are super-forms of the basic five. Inner or clear seeing, transcendent hearing, and so on.

Psychic in general means fore-knowing. One attuned to deeper levels of mind in an altered state of consciousness may discern probable future events. How can one know that which hasn’t happened yet? I conjecture that since ALL IS MIND, any action occurs first as an IDEA, and the stronger the IDEA (or IDEAL FORM as suggested by Plato), the more likely it is to manifest. An attuned psychic may discern an idea that will or is likely to manifest in physical or experiential reality. Such a person, WHEN AUTHENTIC, is called a psychic. But psychism is about a whole lot more than that.

In modern times, and in my case, psychic function or process merges with the psychological counseling arts. Psychic processes are pragmatic. They have use-value. They are helpful in accord with human values. Psychics in our times are counselors of a different order than those who restrict themselves to reason, to that which is socially acceptable, but even in those cases, bright ideas or intuition creeps in the process. If it doesn’t, a psychological counselor is second rate. Oh, intuition, especially women’s, is a more socially acceptable term, but the word psychic is often condemned as, yes, BS.                 

When someone condemns my psychic work as nonsense, I simply tell them this: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE SOMETHING IN ORDER FOR IT TO BE TRUE. I get a blank stare in return, because ignorant people can’t even understand what that means. Is ignorance bliss? Are ignorant people happier than us? My father used to think so, or at least he often said that. Yes, learning can be confusing because there are so many conflicting ideas. Is this or that the truth? We have to think and choose. And that is oh so much work for the lazy-hazy-minded folk.

In short, as in, in brief, psychic is, and those who exercise higher mind know that from long experience. Also, only in the western cultures, those whose god is science, are psychic functions and processes so condemned. So, in some cases, the most educated people remain terminally ignorant when it comes to the subjective, the world of the extra-rational. How stupid is that that intelligent people choose to remain ignorant? And that is my brief rant for today.

 
Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Psychic Mind: Metaphysical Terms and Psychic Devices

Metaphysical Terms and Psychic Devices by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

Three basic terms indicating psychic abilities or talents are: clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience. In popular media imagery, the clairvoyant is often portrayed as a gypsy fortune teller wearing a bandana on her head and gazing pensively, mysteriously into a crystal ball where supposedly pictures appear and foretell the future. That’s how poorly understood the concept of psychic clairvoyance is to this very day. The Objectivists, the Materialists, the Technologists all are well-understood in popular culture, while subjectivism, mysticism, spirituality and psychic matters are not and often disparaged. Psychics and psychic practices remain part of a fringe culture and are thought to be kooks and self-deluded crazies or cons by mainstream materialists.

Clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience, however, have always been experienced by tuned-in human beings. Maybe even by the Great Ape but we don’t know that for sure. He never said. Clairvoyance or “clear seeing” involves inner pictures that appear, it often seems, in the forehead region where ancient psychic lore tells us the Third Eye resides, that which is connected to the pineal gland. When that opens, it is said, we see images with our inner eye, and those pictures are sometimes MEANING-FULL. They have referents, and may refer to future events, depending on the discussion at hand when such images appear in the head of a clairvoyant type psychic.

Clairaudience is similar, but like clairvoyance, it may be of two types. Our inner hearing may be audible, or it may be impressionistic, an impression of a heard voice. Similarly, a clairvoyant image or picture may be actual or an impression of what is being seen. I have experienced actual or true clairaudience at least twice in my life. The first time, while a passenger in a car that was about to crash, a voice yelled “Wake up!” A split second later I turned and yelled at the driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel, “Wake up!” and we avoided what might have been a tragic auto accident. Many years later, while typing on a book manuscript, the distinct voice of my dying Uncle Frank spoke in my right ear. “I’m goin’ now, Dick,” he told me. He had come to say goodbye. He was back in Michigan, and I was up in the northern Philippines half way around the world. But when I do my psychic channeling from Spirit, the inner voice is impressionistic, not actual or typically auditory.

Clairsentience has to do with our inner feeling or sensing nature. We humans are said to be sentient beings, at the head of the food chain. As carnivores, we are free to eat our way down to the lowest mini-micro-organism. Yum! But seriously, the clairsentient type of psychic person feels his and her way through life. “I have a feeling” such and such is going to happen, and it does. “I sense that” the old maple in the front yard is going to fall on the roof, and it does. Cee-rash! But, if a tree falls in a forest and there is no ear to hear it, clairaudient or not, does it make a sound? But back to my point: clairsentients are like people with extra-sensory radar. They feel their way through life, and if they train themselves to be aware of and interpret their meaningful sensations, they may be called clairsentient.

Psychics come in all forms and combinations, but clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience are the three psychic talents that top the list. Whether a psychic is doing the Ouija Board or reading Tarot Cards or holding a dowsing rod or pendulum, one or more of the above are in operation mentally, psychically. We are MINDS wearing a body. We are SPIRIT-MINDS housed in a seemingly physical body. Are we real, or are we illusory? Only God knows. But we are all, more or less, developed or not, naturally psychic. Even certain objectivist scientists who are often in denial. Being psychic is the nature of the animal. 

 
Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Psychic Mind: Many are Called, but Few are Chosen

Many are Called but Few are Chosen by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

In saying that many are called, we may mean that many are attracted, many become interested, but few have adequate talent and dedication to become competent or expert in whatever the field of endeavor. So it is with becoming a professional psychic counselor, a spiritual healer and  Light Worker. During my development period, perhaps the most exciting and important time of my life during the mid-70s, I had something to look forward to every hour, every minute. Something new to try, to experience, to accomplish.

As a budding psychic, a Seeker on the Path spiritually, a chela or student, I gorged myself on esoteric knowledge and the ancient spiritual wisdom of the ages. Especially the wisdom of India and China. Taoism, Buddhism, Vedanta. The Bhagavad Gita, the I CHING, and all the books of the day such as Jane Roberts’ Seth books, THE NATURE OF PERSONAL REALITY, Edgar Cayce, America’s greatest seer, the books of Ruth Montgomery and books about healing such as George Meek’s HEALERS AND THE HEALING PROCESS that introduced me to the psychic surgeons of the Philippines. It was a grand time of psychic unfolding.

Reading Tarot cards came easy. Perhaps something I’d learned as a psychic in a past life some long ago in time, during another incarnation. In a past life regression I saw myself as a scribe to an ancient prelate with a long gray beard, and realized that that was why automatic writing, channeling, came so easy to me. I’d done it before. Until finally my Guides introduced themselves and caused me to have a psychic inner plane initiation that led to my current work as a professional psychic, and, back then, as a healing vehicle as well. “Service serves us,” I wrote. As we serve others in the Light of God, we evolve ourselves. Yes, it was a wonderful time of life.                                   

I’d done fourteen wonderful years as a college professor of modern literature and creative writing, and became poet and writer-in-residence on two occasions. As a poet-writer-teacher, I was ready for a top permanent post, but instead, a personal epiphany put me on a different path, and I was led away to a still yet more fulfilling life, a life of greater freedom and service, and of personal evolution and growth.

I didn’t make a lot of money at first, but that did not matter. From that time on, I traveled to many cities and countries, gave talks and small seminars, went on radio and TV as guest psychic, wowed audiences and attracted clients. I even had along the way eight call-in psychic, metaphysical radio talk shows of my own. I was sailing! And my life had profound purpose and meaning. It still does to this very day... all these many years later. That I was chosen to do important psychic and spiritual work has been and is a blessing, something I could never have conceived of as a boy growing up on the edge of my grandparents’ farm back in Southern Michigan during and after WWII.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Monday, March 21, 2011

Psychic Mind: Good Psychic, Bad Psychic

Good Psychic, Bad Psychic by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. 

Good character and right motive is the very first thing a client ought to look for when choosing a psychic counselor. When I was first called to do “The Work”, I puzzled over taking money for doing the work of Spirit. Because the great Law of Attraction is absolute, Reverend Dorothy, a minister of a Spiritualist Church, came into my life to give direction and help. She was a talent scout and I was her latest discovery. Regarding the issue of compensation, she always instructed me, “A servant is worthy of his hire”. That was good to hear because if I was going to devote all of my time and energy to doing the work of the Light, I needed to make a living.

Psychics of good character do not make money their primary motive in a profession that is devoted to service. For a time I used a motto, “Service serves us.” By being of service to others, we build good karma. We evolve ourselves, and that is the point of being here in human life in the first place. The Materialist cannot take his money with him when he goes back to Spirit, but the Spiritist takes back with him whatever improvements of the Self he has made.                                             

Goodness we CAN take back with us when we return Home. At the same time, a psychic consultant needs to set a fair fee for his service in order to make a decent living from his or her profession. But as in any line of work, one must work his way up. Commanding top dollar for psychic service comes after one has become well-developed and performs at a high level of competence and excellence.

The Right Motive for a psychic counselor is to be of help and service to his client. He or she must be a person of natural easy empathy and compassion, one who has a natural urge to be of help. The Buddha taught that compassion is the highest form of love. The Master Healer and Teacher, Jesus, also put love at the base of all else in human life. Right use of our talents, our abilities, is basic to the Light Worker, as we have been called. The Light Worker cooperates with Spirit in service to God and human kind.

Negative ego has no place when we are in service to the Light. Positive ego or self develops itself to evolve the Self and to be of service to those in need of help. One way of putting the matter is that we practice ALTRUISTIC HEDONISM, NOT EGOISTIC HEDONISM. While doing what is good for us, we help others get what is right and good for them. It is and ought to be a win-win situation.

Psychic work is like any other job in the sense that the psychic practitioner develops and uses his skills in order to perform, to function well in his chosen discipline. Or to put it more correctly, to work well after we have been chosen by Spirit to do the Work. “Many are called but few are chosen” is a true saying. One does not one day decide he is going to take up being a psychic. First the ability is inborn, and after that it is developed. Yes, everyone is psychic, up to a point and in a way, but few possess extraordinary psychic abilities and develop to work on a professional level. The only kind of psychic worth his salt is one of good character and right motive. 

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com


Saturday, March 19, 2011

Psychic Mind: Mary, Strange Psychic Visitor

MARY, STRANGE PSYCHIC VISITOR by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.        

As a touring psychic counselor, metaphysical speaker and media personality, I based out of Houston for almost twenty years before moving to the Philippines on a gold deal. Basing out of Houston, I lived in both low and high rent districts. I preferred the low because people were friendlier and socialized readily. High class folks keep distance, and are not as ready to help each other as “plain people”. Living upstairs in a modest apartment, I never knew who might come a’knockin’ at my door. The most interesting uninvited visitor was sweet Mary who was almost as wide as she was tall.

Had Mary, a black woman, trimmed off a hundred pounds, she would’ve been beautiful. Even at that, there was something magnetic about her. She visited often, and when I asked her, “Why my door?” she told me it just “felt right”. She said she lived in another part of town in a small house that had been her grandmother’s place. “Who is the man name’ Ralph?” she asked me one day. I was taken aback and said, “Why, that was my father’s name.” “An’ a small woman name’, uh, I think, uh, Esther?” Totally blown away I answered, “That’s my mother’s name.” “You an’ she don’ git along too good, do you...” It was a statement, not a question. “Who’ve you been talking to?” I asked her, but no one around there knew items such as that about me. “Things, names, I dunno, jus’ come in my mind and I say ‘em,” Mary told me.

Mary, who made my easy chair sag, was a natural psychic, I concluded. “What’s this, uh, nam myo ho renge kyo sound that comes in my mind. Almos’ kinda sing songy like?” I said, “Oh, you know about Japanese Buddhism, Nichirin Shoshu of America, and chanting?” “What’s that?” she asked innocently. The things she came up with on her many visits amazed me. She swore she knew no one who knew me, and even if she had, she could not have learned those things from them.

It was strangely comfortable sitting with Mary, almost like having an old friend visit. The only difference, she was a natural mind-reader, but totally undisciplined as a psychic counselor. She just picked around in my mind like an intuitive scavenger noticing at random one item or another, commenting on what caught her inner eye. No ulterior motive, never accepting food or drink when offered, nor was money ever mentioned.                         

I did have evidence that she’d fallen a little bit in love with me, and I could have been interested as well if she hadn’t been so obese. Mary was a beautiful soul, a kind of psychic innocent, and I never stopped wondering about her and her natural untrained talent.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com
Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Friday, March 18, 2011

Psychic Mind: Death Postponed

DEATH POSTPONED  by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

 As a professional psychic consultant and teacher of spiritual philosophy, I often question events beyond material causes. Aristotle described the Four Causes, and the “Material Cause” is only part of the story of CAUSATION. I’m reminded here of “the worst wife of my life”. One time she told me about a visit to a psychic who, she said, explained that THE REASON for whatever it was she asked was CAUSATION. Do you think I was ever able to explain to her the foolishness of that chimp-like reasoning? Not even to the day of divorce! Oddly, though dumb as a stump, she was very psychic.

But, back to my subject: one evening in the mid-90s, I was out in my old travel trailer parked in my dying mother’s backyard. I’d go out there to practice my drums, watch TV or read, or nap... just to be alone. Of a sudden, a crashing sound occurred that made me think I was under attack by I knew not what. Martians? I grabbed my .32 pistol and flew through the only door. What happened was, a light pole complete with live wires and flashing transformer had fallen across the top of my camper.

Standing beside the mess later with police and firemen, we watched the bumper and metal wheels of the unit sizzling. My travel trailer was electrified and hot. A fireman standing next to me observed, “How come you weren’t killed? That is amazing!” At first I wondered if maybe my rubber-soled tennis shoes had grounded me, but that and car tires is a myth. I know I touched the metal door knob to get out, and stepped on the metal door frame. So why had I not been electri-fried? As I moved through the door in the greatest of haste, I’m sure I was in shock, but not the electrical kind. So what, using Aristotle’s or any other reasoning regarding CAUSATION, happened that I did not die as a result of that MATERIAL EVENT?

I could invoke a spiritual view. By then I’d toured for many years as a psychic consultant and spiritual healer, and I’d studied a great deal about matters that transcend the material world. I also count myself as a person under “spiritual protection” but still vulnerable to material forces. My deceased father would have said, “Dick, it just wasn’t yer time.” He used to say there is a BIG BOOK with everybody’s name in it, and beside each entry is a date the person will die. I never bought that idea, but in the case of my survival of electric pole attack, it did make me wonder why I stayed alive. I’d like to believe that Spirit had further plans for me here on Planet Dirt and enabled me to somehow escape an untimely death. Or it could be that “causation” was the reason.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Psychic Mind: The One Ethic

THE ONE ETHIC by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.   

Before beginning professional psychic consulting work in the mid-70s, I studied philosophy and became a university professor. And then I discovered Eastern philosophy and broadened my understanding. Philosophy concerns itself with the essential questions in human life: what is good, right, real and true, and how we know. When I was a child, my first generation American mother, an over-worked farm girl, took me with her to the Methodist church. She liked to hob nob with the folks and show off her new clothes, and me, her bright and shining son. But as I grew in mind, my Inner Destiny Plan steering me toward my future work as a psychic counselor, I took what the minister taught seriously, and that caused me to wonder about things. That was my meager introduction to philosophy. I had no one to ask about what puzzled me, so all my long life through I’ve studied and thought and tried to find out just what is good, right, real and true, and how we can know. Thank God for BOOKS and the Law of Attraction that put them into my hands even when very young.

Because of my early exposure to the Christian religion, I became acquainted with the Ten Commandments that Moses, according to Biblical legend, received from God on Mount Sinai. Each tablet etched a truth in human consciousness. Ten Thou Shalts and Shalt Nots were my early ethical guides. When I was a child, I had no idea other religions even existed, only the Catholic church next to Mrs. Chapp’s ice cream store where a single dip was only five cents, and the strict Lutheran Church a few streets back. I knew nothing of ancient China and India, let alone eastern philosophies such as Vedanta and Buddhism. All that came later. But before that, as a frightened kid, I was bombarded with psychic experiences I could not understand. My parents thought I was nuts. Later I thought the same about them!

I guess because of my home life I became something of a dissenter early, at least in one respect. The Commandment to “Honor thy mother and thy father” began to give me fits along with continuing psychic episodes. Parental behavior that I witnessed pained me as a kid growing up. Some of the things they did were not in accord with what I’d been taught was right and good, so I anguished over that one Commandment. In my generation, a child did not express his concerns and fears, so I was alone with my thoughts, dilemmas and wonderings. I suffered because I could no longer honor my parents. Only as an adult did I hear of a different way to interpret that supposedly Divine Command: act in such a way as to bring honor to one’s parents was the alternative view, not necessarily respect and honor one’s parents if they were not worthy.

In any case, as I grew and read, studied and pondered, and became formally educated, I found alternative philosophies of the east: Taoism of ancient China, the Buddhism of India that was a reaction to Hinduism, and Vedanta. Probable Truth and truths leapt out at me. Finally, I had things to think about. Alternatives to the brand of Christianity I grew up with. Only in later years did I formulate a philosophy that I came to call “Spiritual Eclecticism”, a position that allowed me to take Truth and truth wherever I found it, no matter its origin. Only later did I understand that Spirit was getting me ready to become a psychic counselor, teacher and helper in the world.

The range of Buddhist ethics was a delight to discover. And each area required a great deal of thought. Gautama the Buddha experienced, according to legend, a sacred revelation while meditating under the Bo tree. The ideas that purported to stop human pain and solve our ethical dilemmas are called the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. The Four advises an attitude of non-attachment or desirelessness as the way out of human suffering.                               

The Eight describe the basic areas of conduct that we should concern ourselves with. To list, Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Like the twelve houses of Astrology, the list covers all areas of human conduct. Even though ten is greater than eight, the Eight-fold Path is far more inclusive than the Ten Commandments, and that gave me as a budding professional psychic much to consider.

At another point in my life of thought, I found Vedanta among the many branches of Indian philosophy. The core ethical concept of that system is called “Ahimsa” which means, simply, DO NO HARM TO SELF OR OTHER. That injunction, I thought, requires a great deal of judgment. No wonder the Commandments that the Law Giver, Moses, brought down the mountain were particularized and far more specific. Ahimsa, a position that requires reverence for all of life, necessitates fine-tuned judgment, and not all people are capable of that.

For me, the concept of Ahimsa is the answer to all my ethical dilemmas. The One Law, DO NO HARM TO SELF OR OTHER, appears to be all-inclusive. It covers any behavior one can imagine. A person has only to judge what causes harm and what does not, then act or behave accordingly to fulfill the One Law. But, always the “but”, KNOWING and DOING can be two different things. As a psychic counselor I am ever-mindful of teaching that.                             

Close judgment and right behavior can be a tall order for those of us in the middle of the muddle of living. But for myself, I know of no more essential, all-inclusive guideline to Right Behavior than Ahimsa, or, DO NOT HARM TO SELF OR OTHER. Fortunately, however, the One Law is not mutually exclusive. It does not say that we cannot also follow the Ten Commandments of Christianity, and the 8-Fold Path of Buddhism. We can, and ought to. They are consistent. As a psychic consultant and “Spiritual Eclectic”, a term I coined for myself, I am free to take and espouse Truth and truth wherever I find it. 

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Psychic Mind: You Are Your Name!

You Are Your Name by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.

When acting as a professional psychic consultant, I open every session by analyzing the client’s birth date. Using my unique system beyond traditional numerology, my client validates the information by saying yes, yes, yes, that is true, that is correct. And as s’he utters that, the unconscious flies open and allows us to read the INNER KNOWING psychically. Rapport is established. “We can’t tell you anything that you do not already know at some level of consciousness,” I instruct my client. And then we begin analysis and problem solving, and much else.

In addition to reading one’s birth date, it is also fun and instructive to take a look at the first name as well. Reading the full name, more complex, involves three numbers, vowels, consonants and total, and is beyond the scope of this writing.

Every letter of the alphabet has a numerical equivalent. The following table will show you:

                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
                 A B C D E F G H I
                 J K L M N O P Q R
                 S T U V W X Y Z

I will demonstrate this fun process by example: me, my father and mother because I know and knew us best. Richard, Ralph and Esther. Son, Father and Mother. The name Richard adds to 43, and that added together becomes a 7. Ah how fitting, knowing myself as I do! The 7 runs the whole gamut of possibilities “from saint to sinner”. The 7 likes to meditate and contemplate, to philosophize. And, the 7 wants to teach. On the down side, the 7 can be moody, irritable, emotional and downright stubborn. At the lectern I can be a saint, and a sinner in the bar and street. As I said, the 7 can run the whole range of human experience. But, there is more...

My 7 is made up of 9+9+3+8+1+9+4=43 4+3=7,  and that’s the way it’s done. Reading internally, notice there is a preponderance of 9ness. That is intellect, and a quality that says, try as you may, you will never know the deepest me. But with my 3 and 7, I am capable of creating endless charming illusions for others to behold and believe. My 3+8, to get fancy, is the Master Number 11, and that parallels my Life Number based on my date of birth. 7 and 11 is naturally psychic, and points to my idealism and the way in which I work and express. And the 1 indicates how adamant I am, and yes, like to be the Star, the one at the center of attention. And then there is the 4 at the tail end which grounds me lest I fly too high during my flights of fancy. The 4 and 8 are here-and-now work numbers, and indicate self-discipline. Much more can be learned from my or any first name, and you can play with your name the same.

My father named RALPH was 9+1+3+7+8=28 or 1.
1,7,8 can all be stubborn numbers, and he was #1 immoveable. And using his 9, he made certain that no one could ever know him. Given his 7, he was a natural psychic. He used to say, “I can hear a man thinking,” and I swear he could. Through his 7 and 8, my father was an adamant worker, a “hard worker,” as people used to say of him. Being 1 total showed him as unique and individual. And speaks of how, like his son, he never gave up. He saw things through to their end, always. The 3 indicated natural musical ability which he demonstrated by playing five instruments, including the mandolin, all by ear. Never had a lesson. But the downside of his 7 made him mute as a clam. You could not get a word out of him if he decided not to speak, and he usually didn’t. The worst of the afflicted 7 spells problems with substance such as alcoholism. And I could go on. It’s all there in one’s numbers. WE ARE OUR NAME.

And then there was my 4 foot 11 mother wearing a size 4 baby shoe. She was busty and petite before she got old and fat. ESTHER was her name, 5+1+2+8+5+9=30 or 3. The 5+8 jumps out at me. That is the very best combination for a sales person, and that she was. And for business in general. And that is backed up by the 5 of terrific personality and the 3 of expressiveness. English was her second language after Hungarian but she was a verbal whiz. Double 5s however caused her to be a tad on the lusty side, a “hotsy totsy” girl which I found embarrassing. Her 1 made her aggressive, and coupled with the 2 of empathy and compassion, she could win her man. Double fives can dance and drink the night away, and when younger, she often did, but not necessarily with my dad who often worked the night shift. Her 9 was negative and expressed itself as quick tempered. She’d wheel and slap my face when I was a kid, until I cured her. The overall 3 can be outgoing and expressive, and that she certainly was.

My father was an INNER type, and my mother OUTER. They were opposites which is said to attract, but not necessarily able to live well together. And I their only child and a son am definitely a blend of both, INNER when alone, and OUTER when social. I inherited, it seems, the best and worst of both parents genes. And that has made my life fun, productive and very interesting! YES, WE ARE OUR NAME.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Psychic Mind: I Have Your Number

I HAVE YOUR NUMBER by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.

Tell me your date of birth, and I will tell you your number. Your Life Number according to the metaphysical art of Numerology. I like to do a bit of birth date numerology as a warm-up to a psychic consultation. A secondary benefit is that once the client begins saying, yes, that is true! her non-conscious store-house of information flies open. Then it is easy for me and my inner plane workers to read her. Or him. I like to note that over the years I have attracted more males for psychic readings than one might expect. I’d say a third or more have been men. And yes, “Real Men”.

Simply add the numbers of your date of birth, reduce to a single digit, except in the cases of Master Numbers 11 and 22, and you have your Life Number. Realize that in my unique system of reading birth dates, patterns within the birth date, as well as intuitive impressions, may color the meanings of the overall Life Number. But in general, here is what the basic numbers ONE THROUGH NINE can mean, in the potential. The choices you make and the actions you take determine how, both positively and negatively, your numbers mean. Yes, in the potential, every number has an upside, and, a downside.

Say your Life Number is ONE. You could be self-directing, independent, individualistic and strong, OR, you might be overbearing, arrogant and egotistical, or pushy. The ONE reflects the creative, the inner masculine principle. If you don’t know which, look to feedback people give you.

If you are a TWO, you may be receptive, kind and warm. A compassionate person and a good listener. Certainly introspective, but perhaps unfortunately a brooder. Or, you may like playing the doormat for some brute, or be an anal retentive jerk. The TWO reflects the inner feminine principle of receptivity, and is often quite psychic.

The THREE person is usually artistic, not autistic, and a good communicator. Music and Art appeals. And is often a harmonizer, a peace-maker. On the downside, the THREE may be a procrastinator, a do-nothing, one who can never decide anything. On the one hand, but on the other hand, ad infinitum.

The FOUR is often karmically afflicted. FOURs usually suffer a difficult life. They have much to overcome. They can be plodders or good steady workers. They are either very stable, or wobbly on their fours like old table legs. FOUR seeks security in all things, and may find it difficult to find the humor. The word is dour.

The FIVE, on the other hand, is usually outgoing, charming and humorous and may talk a blue streak. They love change, song and dance and sex. They are fun to be around, unless you are a FOUR. FIVEs, however, can fritter away good energy on the meaningless. They may seem to be going in all directions at the same time and cannot focus. But, they are loveable never-the-less.

SIXES are the serious ones. They seek solid meaning and purpose in their lives. They make good counselors, doctors and nurses. They are the helpers, and marriage and positive partnerships mean a great deal to them. On the down side, a SIX may intend to roll the rock but instead sit upon it contemplating what might have been, yet longing for meaning. SIXES must learn to risk.

The SEVEN is the contemplative one, very inner-oriented and psychic, given to meditation and introspection and writing. The SEVEN is good at analysis, and over time becomes very learned and wise. But when afflicted, the SEVEN is moody and a depressive. And can be unknowable and withdrawn. Actually, the SEVEN is the MOST INCLUSIVE NUMBER of the nine. It may run the range from saint to sinner. Alcohol and drugs are often a problem with the afflicted SEVENs.

EIGHTs are the business folk. The money-makers. They love to wheel and deal and are good at it. The material world is their home. Money, power, position all appeals to the EIGHT. On the downside, the EIGHT might not remember to take care of his and her spiritual nature in the interest of materialistic pursuits. After all, they are PRACTICAL PEOPLE, not dreamers like the SEVENS.

NINEs can be very hard to get to know. Being standoffish is their down side. But, the NINEs are often intellectual and brilliant. They can think in the abstract. Aloof, they find themselves alone and misunderstood. Idealism is their forte’. NINEs and FIVEs would not likely understand each other.

OF THE TWO MASTER NUMBERS, ELEVENs are like super-SEVENs, and TWENTY-TWOs are like super EIGHTs on speed. ELEVENs are psychic and spiritual, TWENTY-TWOs are said to be the Master Builders, and their success often comes later in life.

These are but a few of my playful suggestions about the meanings of the 9 plus two Master Numbers. Variations and combinations are endless, and must be sorted out in order to get a true numerological profile of any person. But, as in all studies, we have to start someplace. And the beginning is usually the best.

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com

Monday, March 14, 2011

Psychic Mind: You Are a Number!

YOU ARE A NUMBER!
 by Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A.                           

According to NUMEROLOGY, you are a number. Actually you are a set of numbers. Based on your date of birth, you are a number, or, you have a Life Number that tells about how and who you are. The list of potential meanings of the nine numbers, however, is long, so how do you know which prospective meanings fit you? When figuring your Life Number yourself, you will recognize the meaning-complex that fits you, if of course you know yourself at all. When  I as a psychic consultant and analyst look at the birth data of another person, I intuit which meanings fit that client.

I look at a client’s birth date psychically as well as numerologically. And, I have secret methods I’ve developed over the years, and I know they work because of positive feedback I ALWAYS get. For one thing, I look at the entire birth date, all the numbers, BUT, all the numbers are not equal in strength, and, I look at certain combinations that I have devised over the years. Exactly how I will not tell you specifically. But the result is uncanny. The psychic aspect, however, makes all the difference in interpretation. Practice makes Perfect, and more practice makes more perfect as you become perfecter and perfecter!
How perfect can one become? Only Zorro knows! Z!

Briefly, the easiest way to determine your personal LIFE NUMBER based on your date of birth is to add all the digits together, reducing the result to a single digit except in the case of Master Numbers 11 and 22. If you are one of those, you are a special person. But only in the potential.
A dead-head is a dead-head no matter his or her potential. The work of manifesting your eleven-ness and your twenty-two-ness is for you to do in Real Life, and that means WORK. The Life Number only indicates your POTENTIAL. You are the ACTUALIZER. Here is a sample birth date: March 7, 1936. Ok, let’s add: 3+7+1+9+3+6=11. Guess who! Remember, when adding we continue to reduce to a single digit, but in this case, the last two numbers, 5+6, come to the Master Number 11, so we do not reduced further.

What do the numbers mean? Books on Numerology tell you, or do a Google to find out. Similar to finding your Life Number, you can find the number of your Personal Year, 1-9. Each year has a prospective meaning. Using the same formula for finding your Life Number, substitute the current year for the year of birth. Add the same way, and the result is your Personal Year. Using the sample above, 3+7+2+0+1+0=4, the Personal Year is 4.         

The 4 Year is a kind of “back to basics” year. One must look to security concerns, especially in the area of health, and, one’s financial condition. It is a year to attend to the groundwork of one’s security systems. And more. To put it bluntly bleakly, a 4 Year can be the pits! But if you tough it out and lay the groundwork, the 5 year can be as good as the 4 was bad, so hang in and do the work required.

When offering my psychic consultations, I give a free birth date numerological workup. My style. Going beyond the book can be a plus!

Richard Lee Van Der Voort, M.A. Please see my website that includes books, blogs and psychic services at http://psychicconsultingbyemail.com. For more information about psychic readings my e-mail my address is psychicmind.vandervoort231@gmail.com