Interview: Amilynne Carroll ~ The Miracle During The Stroke!

Amilynne is a remarkable human being who has survived more than most (one example alone is her Stage 4 cancer that she overcame!) and who is thriving helping others navigate life and spirituality! She is a powerful speaker, as well as a divine being here on Earth demonstrating to all of the rest of us the way to live life with grace!

Transcript

Hello,

Dear ones,

This midweek miracle episode is brought to you courtesy of my guest,

Amy Lynn Carroll.

Now,

Amy Lynn talks a few miracles in this episode,

And specifically,

We talk about her NDE experience,

Her near-death experience.

But as you'll hear,

Amy Lynn does not refer to it as an NDE.

And you'll hear her explanation for just why she has changed the words around her experience a little bit later in the episode.

Now,

Amy Lynn has an incredible TED Talk online,

So there will be a link to that in the episode show notes.

But as well,

Let me give you a little bit more detail about who this human being is.

It is really hard to kind of encapsulate someone with just a few words.

You know,

You can label them and say they're this,

They're that,

But that's so reductive in this world.

Everyone is so complicated and so wonderfully complex,

And Amy Lynn is no exception.

She is a spiritual and life coach,

And so she helps people navigate this world and connect to it with more authenticity and more integrity.

On her website,

She talks about early 2007 found her not only unhappy,

But broken and fighting for her life.

She had been diagnosed with stage four cancer,

And the prognosis was not good.

We talk a little bit about the stroke that she's had.

She's a quadriplegic,

But that doesn't stop her.

She did that TED Talk.

She's working with people every day to help them make their lives better.

She is a powerful,

Powerful human being,

And our conversation was gorgeous.

It was such a pleasure to meet her and connect with her,

And I hope you enjoyed the interview.

All right,

Here's the very next episode of the Bite Size Blessings Podcast.

Imagine for just a moment as six or seven year old coming home from Sunday school,

Learning about the rapture,

And your father,

Your parents are deacons in the church.

So you're driving home,

And this is back in the 80s,

So you're in the back of the station wagon,

No seat belts.

And you're imagining this story about the rapture,

Where Jesus is going to come back and take home the chosen to his father in heaven.

Well,

My mom and dad were going,

And they're driving the car.

So what's it like for me as a six year old sitting in the back of that station wagon,

Wondering if the rapture is going to come before the cars in park?

How would you self-describe?

Who are you?

That's a really cool question,

Because a couple of years ago,

Actually a handful of years ago,

I did a deep dive on that question.

Because we spend so much of our early years,

Our formidable years,

Deciding who we're going to be in life.

I'm going to be a teacher,

I'm going to be a doctor,

I'm going to be a lawyer,

I'm going to go to college,

I'm going to go to trade school,

I'm going to take a gap year.

The who you are question is being formed by everyone around us,

But not us.

Because we're not taught our role in that question,

Who are you?

We look externally to parents,

Teachers,

Friends,

Strangers on a subway to define who we are.

And so for me,

I've been blessed with health challenges that have afforded me the opportunity to dive really deep in that question.

And what I came to the conclusion of is I'm asking the wrong question.

I know that never happens.

But the wrong question,

The question isn't who am I?

The question is what am I?

And what I'm learning is,

Is that as I really dig deep into my own identity and my own experience and my own essence is I am nothing more,

But nothing less than the expression of divine mind.

And divine mind can be whatever you categorize it.

It could be God,

Allah,

Source,

Creator,

Universe,

Spirit,

Pick a word.

It could be butterfly,

Caterpillar,

Or rock.

But I am nothing more and nothing less but the expression of that divine mind,

Which creates all.

And what that did for me was it took a lot of pressure off.

I don't have to be anything because what I am is supported by the universe.

So when I think about who I am,

I translate that question to what I am.

And what I am today,

My best understanding of that today is I am an expression of divine mind.

I was made perfect,

Whole,

And complete in the eyes of a sacred universe.

And my purpose,

My role,

My job here is to one,

Realize that fully,

Awaken to that perfection,

That wholeness,

That completeness.

To understand that the responsibility doesn't lie in my lap to accomplish things.

I'm accountable for how I show up.

But I am here to express divine mind.

And now that gets really challenging when challenges show up.

But that is the starting point.

And for me,

Starting from that question now actually makes answering these other questions not easier,

But more straightforward.

Because I'm starting from the right foundation for me.

And that might not be true for others,

Even though I see you that way.

I see everyone around me as a unique expression of divine mind.

In taking that back into the core of who I am,

It allows me on a daily basis,

Whether it's the customer service rep that doesn't seem to want to help me the way I would like them to help me.

Or,

You know,

A telemarketer,

Or someone that knocks on the door,

A solicitor,

Or an interruption to this,

That,

Or the other.

If I'm remembering who,

What I am and why I'm here,

It makes it a little softer to deal in those challenging moments,

Let alone the big moments that are really hard.

I have to tell you,

I love just what you said earlier about God,

Creator,

Spirit,

Universe.

You know,

It could be a butterfly,

A caterpillar,

Or a rock.

And I just had this memory flash in of being a kid,

And I couldn't have a pet.

So my parents said,

Hey,

How about you have a pet rock?

And they,

You know,

Got a little shoebox and put grass and dirt and everything in there.

And they gave me a rock for a pet.

And I dragged it around for a while,

And it was very charming and cute.

And I just thought,

Oh,

My gosh,

What you just said,

It was like I was carrying around God.

You know,

That little pet rock was God,

Potentially.

And I just found that thought super charming and really cute.

And I love it.

So thank you.

It just,

That made my heart really happy just then.

And I think you're right on.

I mean,

Who are we?

We are humans.

We are here on this planet,

Having each of our experiences.

And with our minds,

We try,

We try so desperately to kind of envision or imagine what this source is or what it looks like or what it can be or what it will be.

And I think one of the easiest ways to kind of see it and recognize it is to understand that it's in each and every person around us,

You know,

That each and every person is divine.

And that's kind of a beautiful idea because we don't have to go out there,

You know,

Out beyond the cosmos or out in the universe.

Or we could just be here on this planet,

Walking,

Driving,

Swimming,

Talking,

Praying every day.

And just whatever we're doing,

Understanding that divine energy,

That divine source is all around us.

Just every day.

Well,

And if we take that one step further,

Like let's take a little bit of the woo-woo out of it for just a second.

Fred Rogers,

Mr.

Rogers' Neighborhood.

And how can you not love that man?

One of his most favorite quotes is,

His mother told him in times of challenge to look for the helper.

Always look for the helper.

And that was a recurring theme in so many of the episodes of Mr.

Rogers' Neighborhood.

And so many of us love that concept.

But if we're looking for the helper,

Let's look for a different word for helper.

Look for the good.

Look for the love.

We get so caught up on a word that we forget the vastness of what that could mean for us if we opened up the invitation for that word helper to mean something greater than some tangible activity.

Yeah,

We definitely want to look for the helpers in a moment of need.

But to me,

From a metaphysical place,

What that means is that we're always looking for the good.

Because for those of us from a spiritual background,

And I'm going to delineate the difference between spiritual and religion for just a moment,

Because I think it's important.

I'm not talking doctrine.

I'm talking spiritual,

Divine mind.

And divine scriptures tell us,

And I don't care whether it's the Vedas or the Christian Bible or the Koran,

Every scriptural,

Spiritual text that you find out there talks about God is good.

God is all.

So if God is all and God is good,

Then all that is is good.

So in a moment of challenge,

In an extended time of challenge,

If we spend our energy looking for the helper,

Looking for the good,

Guess what?

We see God in the rock.

Because good is always present.

We are conditioned to look for the challenge.

Matter of fact,

In my personal upbringing,

I was taught to look for the challenge so that you could figure out how to overcome it.

Because if you know what you did wrong or you know what's going wrong,

Then you know how to reverse engineer it and not repeat it.

Well,

When that doesn't work,

It gets really disconcerting.

But if you're looking for the good,

Take that into a place of gratitude for just a moment.

We've all heard just have gratitude in a moment of challenge,

Right?

Gratitude in a moment of challenge.

Well,

That works really well,

Except when it doesn't.

When it becomes spiritual bypass.

Well,

You know,

I'm struggling with this relationship,

A friendship or a co-worker,

But I'm really grateful that I have my dog.

Is really kind of mailing it in.

If we really want to find gratitude and I'm having difficulty with a co-worker,

What I'm learning is I have to find gratitude that's directly related to that co-worker.

How am I seeing that person?

Am I seeing that person the same way I want to be seen as an expression of the divine?

Are you kidding me?

I'm not always a good expression of the divine.

So that gives them,

This gives me the reminder to give them space that they might not be showing up their best self in this moment either.

So how can I see the good in them,

Even in a moment where I may just want to throttle them for kicks and giggles?

I love that.

I've had those experiences with co-workers,

So I know of what you speak.

I wanted to ask because you referred to it earlier.

Yeah.

I think you said,

Did you say you were a type triple A personality?

Is that what you said?

Yes.

And so I'm curious.

And then you just brought up your childhood.

Were your parents,

Were they both type A?

Like when they were talking about overcoming challenges and kind of meeting life head on,

Is that where you learned it?

Or do you think it's intrinsic to who you are?

I definitely learned it growing up because intrinsic to who I am is not about control.

It's about command.

And we can talk about that later.

But growing up,

So my father was a Marine Corps drill instructor.

I was one of 15 children.

Structure,

Framework,

Very important to my upbringing.

And so we were taught structure.

We weren't taught critical thinking skills because you do what you do because you're told to do it.

And the consequences of not doing it were dire.

So I take that grace of learning structure and framework and I've learned to soften it instead of toxic,

You know,

Canceling it.

Oh,

Well,

My parents did this and this ruined me.

And no,

I absolutely have some wounds that I needed to heal that came from an overabundance of rigidness.

But when we can look at it,

Look for the good,

Look for the helper.

It's important to have that framework.

It's important to know what the foundation is.

And then to continue to bring into your experience the things that are helpful and supportive and to let go of,

Which is simply to let go is simply to release.

There's not a process.

We just say thank you for your help,

Your support,

The time you've spent with me,

What you've carried me through.

You're no longer needed.

And we let go.

So it's that space of I took that rigidness and I joke about being a recovering triple-A personality because a type-A personality wasn't quite enough for me.

OCD.

I was OCD before the letters existed in life.

And it all came from that upbringing of everything has a place and must be in its place.

The expectation of knowing something,

Even without maybe having studied it,

There was just this constant demand and expectation of human perfection.

And for me,

What I get to do is make,

Again,

That translation from gratitude everywhere to gratitude in the moment.

It's not human perfection that I look for today.

It is seeing the divine perfection unfolding,

Even in the midst of what looks like chaos or a quagmire or quicksand or even a small challenge.

It's seeing that goodness.

So yes,

Recovering triple-A personality,

But I'm still a go-getter.

So we'll just say type-A for today.

I love that.

I am curious now with kind of this background on your parents and your family,

Did you grow up in a religious household?

What did that look like for your parents,

For your family,

For your siblings?

That's a really interesting question.

And I'm learning to share that part of my life in a very different way.

I grew up in a household that I now know to have been supported by a cult.

We grew up being taught predestination.

Only a select hand few were going to heaven.

And lucky for me,

I had already been determined I wasn't going to be one of them.

So I didn't have to worry.

Now,

I started to figure out why I still had to be good and do things the way God would want me to if I still wasn't good enough to go to heaven.

But hey,

We'll get there soon enough.

I mean,

Imagine for just a moment as six or seven-year-old coming home from Sunday school,

Learning about the rapture.

And your father,

Your parents are deacons in the church.

So you're driving home,

And this is back in the 80s.

So you're in the back of the station wagon,

No seat belts.

And you're imagining this story about the rapture,

Where Jesus is going to come back and take home the chosen to his father in heaven.

Well,

My mom and dad were going,

And they're driving the car.

So what's it like for me as a six-year-old sitting in the back of that station wagon,

Wondering if the rapture is going to come before the cars in park?

And so there's this space of my parents learning those things growing up,

Really for a time in my life,

Pulled me not only away from the church,

But away from any thought that God was anything I wanted in my life.

Forget a label,

Benevolent,

Loving,

Good,

Hard,

Obedient.

I don't care what the label was.

I didn't need that in my life.

I had enough of that here in the human form.

I sure didn't need some deity looking over me that was like that.

But when I began to realize that,

And here's another one of those buzzwords in the church.

When I began to do a deep dive on free will.

Wait a minute,

If everything is God,

And God is good,

And God is love,

Then free will is also love.

And what matters is,

And what determines how we engage with people is our skill level at love.

It's not free will.

It's our skill level at love.

And sometimes I'm really unskilled in that love level.

And man,

I've learned to apologize in full sentences because of that lack of skill.

And other times,

I can absolutely see the face of God in a person who is challenged or angry or struggling.

And so that skill level of love has increased in that moment.

But when we look at free will as this sliding scale of our skill level within love,

It shifts the conversation entirely about our relationship to the divine.

Which is important considering we are but an expression of the divine.

We can't be separated from it.

So if we look at it as a skill level,

Some aspects of love I'm much more skilled at,

Such as opening the door for a stranger or being kind when a circumstance doesn't unfold the way I want.

And there are other spaces where I'm working on that skill level,

Such as when a customer service rep doesn't seem to care that I have a challenge and that it's their job to help me.

It's keeping it all in perspective,

Not only remembering where I'm at at my skill level with love,

But that remembering the other person is at their own place in that moment with their skill level as it relates to love.

So I can now see that the upbringing that my parents gave me,

Are you ready for this?

Came from a deep love for me.

In spaces it moved into fear,

Rigid fear,

But it was still love.

That fear makes us do things in ways that we wouldn't otherwise do it.

And when fear is attached to religion,

All bets are off.

I need to save your soul.

My soul doesn't need saving.

My soul is but an expression of the divine.

But that doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Because that desire to save my soul was how they were expressing love.

The best they knew how in that moment.

So to throw that out is to put an end to that love ripple.

As opposed to recognizing they were absolutely doing the best that they could at the time.

And that they loved me deeply.

I don't have to agree with the way they loved me.

And I can recognize that the way they loved me has given me the opportunity to heal and to grow.

But those opportunities to heal and grow bring us into our truer essence.

Did they do it on purpose?

Absolutely not.

I do not believe that a single person wakes up ever and decides that they are going to harm another soul.

But their skill level in love in those moments are so low and we're not taught to ask for help.

We're taught that asking for help is a sign of weakness.

And so I'm going to do what I know how to do and sometimes all I know how to do is to vomit on someone else.

Mentally,

Physically,

Emotionally.

And that causes wounds.

But if we remember,

Wounded people wound.

It gives us an opportunity not to condone the behavior but to have a place of compassion in our heart.

When we feel wounded by another,

First we must take accountability for our own space in that healing process.

And part of that healing process is seeing that other person for who they are.

And they're a wounded child of God.

They may not know it,

But I do.

And that matters because that matters.

That tells me how to show up in their space.

I think it's really interesting to just,

It's good for me to hear all that because it's another reminder that I need.

Daily reminders that,

You know,

In this kind of fractious world that we live in where the media is kind of pumping up all our differences and that these people want to do this to you or these other people want to do this to you or these people are,

You know,

It's all this,

It's a lot of negative news.

There's a lot of us in them too.

Absolutely.

And it's always a good reminder that,

You know,

I think about the scientific study that said,

You know,

I forget,

70 or 80% of people will rush into a burning building to help someone.

That most people are just waiting for a chance for someone to say,

Hey,

I need help with this.

Or,

Hey,

Can you help me?

I mean,

I know I'm one of those people.

I'm just like,

I'm here.

I'm ready for whatever this day has to bring to help someone or what have you.

Even if it's carrying something to a car or opening a door for someone or buying someone's groceries or whatever.

You're smiling at someone across the room.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And so it's,

It's,

Thank you.

Because I think we need to remember that most people,

And this is borne out by science.

They want to help other people.

They're ready for it.

Right.

Right.

Those aren't the stories we hear,

But it doesn't mean they don't exist.

It's the squeaky wheel gets the oil syndrome.

You know,

It's the,

It's the space of,

Because I don't know,

I'm going to rely on someone else's belief.

And that,

That's that borrowed belief.

You know,

We think so often,

Especially when like,

Man,

There are so many opportunities in any given day.

I don't know about you,

But to just crawl back in bed,

Hold covers back up.

Those pillows are so soft.

I love clean sheets.

Like to me,

Sheets are luxury that I do not skimp on.

And so that soft,

Secure,

Comfortable place,

The cocoon,

If you will.

But what we fail to remember is,

Is that within the cocoon is when that caterpillar,

The entire DNA of that caterpillar changes into a brand new being,

A creature completely unlike its origin.

It's the only creature on the face of the planet that from birth to death completely changes its DNA 100%.

So the cocoon isn't meant to be dark and stagnant,

But it's a place of evolution and growth and resting and preparation.

So that when I have the courage to pull the covers back down the next time,

I'm prepared for whatever might show up.

And part of that preparedness is reminding myself in that cocoon that when the covers come down,

You look for the good.

You look for the helpers.

You remember that everyone's doing the best they can and that people really do want to help.

The other thing that I think is really important that we don't always remember is that just because someone in a position of authority has said something,

It doesn't make it absolute truth.

And I'll give you a very dramatic example.

In October 2022,

I had a stroke and I absolutely,

Without exception,

Believe that I was on the brink of death.

Oftentimes after an experience like that,

We come back and we have these conversations about near death and what it was like.

And what I came to realize through my healing process since then is that I did not have a near death experience,

Nor do most people.

But the idea of a near death experience only kind of came into mainstream conversation in 1975,

Dr.

Moody's book.

And he's compiling stories about something that people didn't talk about because it was very taboo,

Anti-religion.

There's absolutely no way that God would pull you to the brink and then take you back.

So we believe we started calling these near death experiences.

But what for me,

I realized was it wasn't a near death experience.

It was actually what I'm now referring to as a fuller life experience.

There was an opening to consciousness,

An experience that I didn't know how to capsulate.

I can barely put it into words and I still struggle now almost two years later.

The experience,

Though,

Cannot be denied from someone who's been in that space.

And what I've learned since is that we need not have some huge medical trauma or tragedy to inspire,

To invite,

To ignite that space of consciousness,

Which is a fuller life experience.

People talk about love and they talk about light.

We use these words that seem to have a universal meaning for an experience that is actually universally available to all of us.

But because we think of it as a near death experience,

Don't none of us want to go there.

None of us want to die.

Are you kidding me?

I do.

Bring it on,

Girl.

The things that I've learned,

The difference in who I get to be each day from this revelation and to live out of that place of fuller consciousness,

A fuller awakening,

A fuller understanding of the experience,

Ain't dead,

Ain't dying.

None of us are.

Our body may be maturing in a way that we're going to leave it behind at some point when our consciousness is ready to do that.

But death is not the end.

And death is not what we have been taught that it is.

Death is actually an opening into a broader,

Into a wider,

Into a more expansive space of living and loving and operating.

But to come back from an experience like that and be told by an expert because they have X amount of years of training that what I experienced was X.

I was like,

No,

That's not what I experienced.

Thank you.

And I appreciate that that's your best understanding of what I experienced,

But that's not it.

What I experienced without exception,

A fuller life experience.

And I now know how because I'm not afraid of that.

I now know how to tap into that while having a conversation with someone else and holding that space for them.

And absolutely every one of us has that at our availability,

At our fingertips.

It's about shifting the way we look at things,

Though.

And not relying on somebody's definition just because they have an alphabet after their name.

And I'm not denigrating the work that they've done or the knowledge or the experience that they've had.

But I'm not about to rely on someone who's never had what they refer to as a near death experience to tell me what my experience was.

I get to decide.

And so do you.

I mean,

I'm going to guess that the day that your stroke happened,

There was no conceivable thought in your mind.

You couldn't even imagine that something like this could happen to you.

No.

So it was a total shock.

And I was thinking,

Listening to you speaking,

How great.

I don't know what happened or if there were people around you or what have you.

But I was just thinking while you were speaking,

I'm so grateful because some people have strokes and they don't survive.

You know,

There is a woman at my work who had a stroke and she's,

Gosh,

I mean,

Maybe 40.

And she had to learn how to walk again,

How to talk again,

How to feed herself,

Everything.

And,

You know,

We don't plan for these events to happen in our lives.

And then something like this happens.

And I was thinking to myself,

I don't know what happened to you that day,

But it sounds like maybe people are around you when you were able to get the medical care that you needed.

No,

No,

I actually I'm a student of Christian science.

And while I do have doctors on my team,

On my care team,

My primary participants,

My primary team members in my care team are Christian science practitioners.

And look,

It's I'm going to take just a moment to qualify because for those who aren't familiar with Christian science.

The premise of Christian science,

The premise of the teachings of Christian science is that we were made perfect,

Whole and complete,

Genesis one.

We were made in the image and likeness of our father,

Mother,

God.

For me,

Chapter two in Genesis starts the human story of man trying to figure out his relationship to God.

And so,

Therefore,

We bring in these human concepts of clothing and shame and sin and all of this.

But if I go back to that original spot of being made perfect,

Whole and complete in the image and likeness of divine mind.

Then what happens in a medical space for me is the first the first line of defense is prayer.

And it's not God,

Please heal me.

It is OK,

God.

What what am I learning?

What is the blessing?

What am I seeing?

I want to see what I'm experiencing through your eyes because mine are pretty veiled right now and it's pretty dark.

That being said,

For me,

There is space for a partnership with medical support.

Prior to my stroke,

Though,

I was actually already on palliative care from a cancer diagnosis.

And so medical doctors had said,

We're here to help keep you comfortable.

And we'll do our best at that.

But when I take a step back now and I talk with those doctors who have been dear friends and continue to be,

They will say repeatedly,

They used to say,

Never going to count Amy Lynn's God out.

And now they say,

Never going to count God out because it's not about my God.

It's not about my belief.

It's about experience and seeing.

And so for me to to live this experience quietly and to hide it,

Because for some,

Having any sort of medical intervention for a Christian scientist goes against their belief.

For some,

Not for all.

And that is not,

In my opinion,

The premise or the teachings of Christian science is that we're to throw out medical care entirely.

Mrs.

Eddy,

The founder of Christian science,

Actually talks about using temporary means and blessing and praying for those doctors as they do their highest sense of right.

But we don't turn over our care to a stranger and expect their expertise to help us find healing.

We partner with them and we only bring them in in a space where they're meeting a need and not creating more conflict.

I was,

However,

Surrounded by amazingly loving people.

Absolutely.

I better clarify that.

No,

I wasn't all alone.

My dear,

Sweet husband was there.

Close friends.

I have a dear,

Dear friend from Grenada that actually flew up and sat at my bedside for two weeks.

And I'm looking forward in the coming months.

I'm actually writing a book about my experience.

And part of it is going to be their telling of their experience.

Because I think it's really important that we talk about these things in an open way,

In a practical way,

And in a way that honors each person in the experience.

Because I think so often we think that the victim,

The patient,

Is the end of the conversation.

No,

That ripple is far and wide.

The care team,

Whether it's a Christian science practitioner or a Christian science nurse or a medical doctor or a nurse that comes in or a friend that's sitting at a bedside reading or praying or singing songs.

We are not individuals.

We are extensions of the people around us.

And when we realize that,

It makes it easier.

One,

To traverse the hard stuff because you don't feel so alone.

And two,

To help others traverse their hard stuff because we get to be there to remind them that we are an extension of one another.

We are an extension of one divine mind.

Unique expressions,

Absolutely.

But our core essence is that image and likeness of our Divine Mother,

Father,

God.

In my opinion and my experience.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

I could talk with you forever.

I don't know what your timeline looks like,

But I need to ask you the central question of the podcast,

Which is,

And I really could talk to you forever.

I don't just say that to anyone.

The central question is,

I would love for you to share a story or stories.

I mean,

First of all,

I have to say,

I think your experience with your stroke and what you experienced already is so miraculous.

But your view on life is miraculous and you kind of are this just miracle in being as you move throughout your day.

Miracle in becoming,

Because you're using the caterpillar and butterfly kind of metaphor there.

But I'd love to hear a story or stories,

Whatever you'd like to share of something magical or miraculous or mysterious.

Something that's happened in your life that kind of changed it forever or made you think about things in a different way.

And I feel like you've already shared some of those,

But if you have anything,

I would love to hear it.

Ooh.

It's interesting because as much as some of these other stories are kind of like practical life things.

As you were asking that question,

What came to mind is a story about a moose.

So my husband's family has a family cabin up in Tin Cup,

Colorado,

Which is 10,

000 feet.

It's an old mining town.

It's a rustic,

Like authentic cabin that we've really honored its origins.

The family,

It's really important to the family.

And of course,

There's tons of forests and Gunnison National Forest and all of that is up there.

And a number of years back,

I had gone up and I'd taken my journal and I was just going to go and sit in nature.

And I'm journaling and sitting quietly.

And all of a sudden I hear this clop,

Clop,

Clop,

Clop.

And I turn around and there is this humongous bull moose coming directly at me.

And as I share this story,

It's like I can feel the listeners.

I can feel from you like you feel that energy rising up in your gut when you think about this humongous bull moose literally coming straight for you.

And I didn't feel a moment of angst.

I sat very still.

I'm not stupid.

And as he walked past,

He just kept sauntering.

All I could think of was his beauty and his majesty and the power.

And as he continued past me,

Even going up,

He kind of turned back and looked at me over his shoulder and I was like,

Have a beautiful day.

He kind of snorts and keeps on walking.

But the grace and the power and the majesty and the softness.

So that moment,

Which for so many,

Myself included,

Could bring about this fear.

What it brought about was the reminder that there are two sides to absolutely everything.

The strength and the power.

He absolutely could have squished me.

But the calmness and the grace and the majesty with which he carried himself and me just simply allowing him to be.

I didn't react.

I didn't even respond.

But I encouraged,

I was committed to remaining present in that moment.

And so by being present in that moment and not allowing fear in,

Not allowing preconceived ideas in or beliefs about what would happen if I was confronted with a bull moose.

None of that was entertained in my thought.

And so I was able to see the grace and the strength and the majesty and the beauty with which he carried himself as he just continued on his day.

And so then to have that connection of him to actually turn around as if to say,

See you later.

Is an experience that could have been very different.

And I only recognized afterwards that my commitment to staying present,

Because if we are present in any given moment,

There's no room for fear.

Because fear is imagining and fear is projection and fear is future.

Fear isn't this present moment.

If I could stay present in that moment with that big monster.

No,

He wasn't a monster.

He was an amazing,

Majestic creature.

Just on a walk.

So for me,

I love that experience because it reminds me that when I'm on the phone with the AT&T customer service rep,

I need to stay present.

As much to recognize their beauty and grace.

As it is to express my own.

As opposed to needing to come back and apologize for having not shown up my best self in that moment.

I love that story about the moose.

It was interesting a couple years ago.

I think it is now year and a half ago.

I spent some time up in Jackson Hole house sitting for a friend.

You'd drive to the store and there'd be a moose in someone's yard just hanging out.

Then you'd drive somewhere else and there'd be another moose hanging out.

Or there's a herd of elk and after a while it got passe.

You're like,

Oh,

There's another moose eating that person's tree.

There they are again.

They're huge and they are powerful animals.

Animals that you should have so much respect for because they're magnificent.

Thank you for that story.

A lot of us live in places where you're not going to see them on the daily.

They're not going to be just everywhere.

It's another good example of if you take yourself out of your comfort zone or somewhere where you normally don't show up.

You can have enchanting experiences or things will happen that will remind you of the beauty in the world.

If we don't put ourselves in those positions,

We live the same life every day.

Going in a circle,

Just doing the same things.

That's another thing I appreciate about that story.

I wanted to ask you.

I know you've been listening to the podcast and I don't know if you've heard this.

I don't know if you've heard my story about the dream that I had.

I had this experience where you have these noetic experiences and you can't really explain them to anyone because there are no words.

There are just no words.

It sounds like what happened during your stroke was a noetic experience.

Would you describe it as a noetic experience?

I think for those familiar with noetic experiences,

It absolutely is in alignment with that.

I'm in complete agreement with you that when we experience something and we can't find the words,

To me that is the first indicator that there's something beyond human acknowledgement even to some regard.

That means that has to be the universe,

Divine mind,

Whatever,

However you want to refer to that.

Yes,

I think that they are two sides to the same coin and that the label is important only as a point of reference.

It's important that we not let the label be the full definition because that experience for you is very powerful.

To try to capsulate it or define it or label it,

In my opinion,

Dishonors you and dishonors your experience.

I love the idea that we can find ways of commonality to refer to something.

I just encourage us not to let that be the end point of the discussion or the experience,

But to ask questions about that experience for someone else.

If you had to share in this moment with me one takeaway from that dream experience that you had,

What would that idea be in this moment?

That I know nothing.

I think it really is that I know nothing and that I was given a glimpse.

How lucky am I that I was given this glimpse,

But what a terrible knowledge to have.

That was what I struggled with for a long time was I don't want this knowledge.

How dare you give this to me because I don't want it.

It was such a burden after a while.

I don't know if you experienced that when you were having your stroke.

When I was in the dream,

I was fully in it.

It wasn't until I woke up and felt the energy in my room that I understood that it was something other,

Beyond.

When you were having this experience during your stroke,

Do you have a conception that it was a gift?

Yes.

For me,

It's always been a gift.

Partly because of the good old-fashioned Shakespeare quote,

Nothing is good or bad,

But thinking makes it so.

From a place of optimism and positivity and principle,

If I can encourage myself to be open and inviting first,

Versus afraid and closed and negative,

Then what happens doesn't feel like a burden.

It feels like an invitation.

In that space for me,

There is so much void in that time for me.

Yet,

There's such a clarity of it could feel quite heavy to know some of the things that I now innately know.

Even since then,

Sensing things,

Some would call of a clairvoyant.

I call it greater consciousness.

Others call it clairvoyance.

For me,

That is a demonstration in my own mind that we are part of a greater whole.

Oneness is not the compilation of two.

Oneness is the origin and foundation of one.

That we are all expressions of that one does not dilute it.

If I can see this place of inviting what I don't understand or inviting into my thought questions that others wouldn't even begin to welcome,

Then what I'm doing is I'm setting myself aside and opening to whatever messages it is that I'm meant to receive because I can't share what I'm not willing to receive.

I can't reflect that back.

I can't be a good expression of divine mind if I think I know how divine mind is.

At each turn,

I feel like those moments that can feel heavy at first,

If I start feeling that heaviness from an idea or a thought,

Whether it's meditation or prayer or a deeper consciousness moment,

That clairvoyance is one.

We absolutely get to learn how to share those moments because it's very uncomfortable for some.

And if we don't honor that,

Then what we're actually doing is dishonoring the divine.

Because even Jesus talked in parables when he talked to the multitudes and he spoke very differently to his disciples because they were in a place where they could receive it differently.

So it's imperative that we know how to share our experience and we know when to share our experience and when not to.

Not sharing it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

But sharing it in the wrong environments actually shifts what it was depending upon the environment.

So I can understand and I see completely where experiences like these can feel very heavy and burdensome.

And in those moments,

Same as I do for myself,

When I feel that heaviness,

I encourage me to think.

I encourage your listeners.

I encourage you to think of it more of as an invitation to experience the unknown.

Because there's so much more available to us in the unknown than there is in what we think we know.

Like we got it down,

Right?

We know all the answers.

Just ask me.

I'll tell you.

And if you don't ask and if I can't tell you,

Google will.

Well,

No.

You know,

Divine idea.

We talk about omniscience,

Omnipresence.

There's a third one in there.

There's a third omni in there,

But you've got it.

So we say that and then we question it.

And by questioning,

I'm talking about it feeling like a burden.

Are you kidding me?

The universe isn't going to open up to you something that you are not fully prepared to explore.

You don't have to understand it.

I don't have to understand it to explore it,

To be open to it.

But it's finding a travel partner that can support you as you do that exploration,

Especially in the early stages,

Because it can be scary as all get out to explore the unknown all by yourself.

But find a good travel partner.

Find someone that doesn't have the answers either,

Isn't trying to impart them on you,

Isn't trying to fix you.

You're not broken.

None of us are.

But someone that's just willing to sit in the seat next to you along for the ride,

Because nothing in life is as scary if we've got a good travel partner just sitting next to us.

I like that.

I like that notion of a travel partner.

We all need a good travel partner to kind of share in our hijinks,

Because there will be hijinks.

Yes,

Absolutely.

That's the fun part of it.

Yes,

And adventure and mystery and revelation.

I mean,

I feel like if that's the takeaway,

Besides the fact that you are an incredible human being and just wise beyond anything I can comprehend,

Having a good travel partner is paramount in this life.

It can even be just a friend.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a romantic partner.

It can just be someone that you love dearly who's ready to go on the adventure with you.

I have one specific travel partner.

She's a dear,

Dear soul sister.

And do you know I can pick up the phone and I can call her and I say,

I just need you to sit with me for 10 minutes in quiet.

I need to pray on this idea or meditate on this idea or sit in contemplation.

And I don't want to sit alone.

And do you know that she will sit and hold that space for me?

She's not there to fix me.

She's not there to give me answers.

She's not even there to give me advice.

But she's there to hold that space so that no matter what it is that comes up,

It ain't coming up in a space where I'm alone.

And what an amazing blessing that is.

You don't have to have any training to sit quietly with someone and love them exactly where they're at.

And so often she will tell me,

I needed 10 minutes of quiet myself.

Thank you for the invite.

So it's a gift we give to our travel partner when we ask them to sit with us.

I love this because we circled back to Mr.

Rogers,

I feel like,

A little bit.

Yep.

What a dear man.

And people just want to help.

They do.

They want to show up for us and they want to just be present or,

I don't know.

Yeah.

Do your yard work,

Which is something,

You know,

I'd like to find more yard work partners.

Yeah.

But yes,

People want to help.

Exactly.

Absolutely.

At every turn.

I really,

At the end of this interview,

Wanted to be her neighbor so that I could stop by every day,

Sit at her kitchen counter and just enjoy some conversation.

Amy Lynn is a profoundly gorgeous human being.

And I'm so very grateful that the universe connected us.

I'm so grateful that through this podcast,

I'm getting to bump up against these other humans in the world that are making this world a more beautiful place.

And that,

In itself,

Is payment enough for me,

Is getting to meet all these fabulous humans as far as making this podcast.

Thanks to everyone who listens to this little labor of love of mine.

And please do consider,

If you can find it in your hearts,

To leave me a rating or write a little review wherever you find the podcast.

I would be so very grateful.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Amy Lynn.

Live with your heart wide open.

Wide open.

Believing in life.

Believing in others.

Believing in the universe and its capacity for redemption,

For beauty,

For brilliance.

Live with your heart wide open,

Just knowing that there's more than enough gorgeousness,

More than enough beauty in this world,

In this universe,

To fill it 100 times over.

Thank you.