1. Tell us a bit about your family.
I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the oldest of five children in a close-knit Catholic family, a descendant of Irish immigrants on both sides. We value story-telling above all else, and that has served me well both as an author and as a psychic. If I can communicate with humor and empathy, the job’s half-done. People learn best by analogy and myth, which is why religions have used parables since the dawn of time.
I communicate with my family daily via the internet and weekly on the phone, and I love how they make me laugh and think at the same time. Living in South Africa, I go home only once a year, but I’m trying to stretch that until I’m living six months in each country so I can have summer-summer every year.
2. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?
As a healing practitioner, I have accumulated a list of calming techniques that now runs into the hundreds. Working through anxiety is a top priority for me, especially because I do live readings on the radio. For those I need to steady my mind and clear my thoughts so that I can be the best channel possible for people’s information. Currently, my favorite methods are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and deep meditation — I use Vipassana.
With CBT, I sit down with pen and paper and list out all my outrageous, irrational fears, such as: I will become homeless, I will be hijacked, I will be paralysed in a car accident. My mind says these are certain facts and then invents vastly detailed scenarios. With my pen, I then check each fear as true or false. At the end of the (long) list, I ask myself, “What is really true?” and I usually end up with a solid set of statements such as, “I am safe. I am doing my best. I am OK. I am loved and supported.” Google the technique and see if it works for you to un-wrap your own tight wires of anxiety.
Vipassana is a meditation technique taught in a ten-day course all over the world. The course is “free,” in that they ask you for a donation at the end. It’s a silent retreat, which I absolutely loved — not only do you keep quiet, you don’t even make eye contact or acknowledge the presence of others. As a hardcore extrovert, I found it a serious relief. In Vipassana, also called “insight” meditation, the only mantra is the breath, and you learn to do a body scan to feel all sensations from head to toe, allowing them to pass through you. When I did the retreat in 2001, it was the first time in my life that my mind chatter actually ceased, and I experienced a state of bliss that I can still tap into to this day.
3. What scares you the most?
The potential death of my son scares me the most. I waited until I was 40 to have him, and he lights up my every day. He’ll be my only biological child, and I’ve come to terms with that. Still, I worry about his safety when he’s at school or with his babysitter. As someone who works with angels and who purports to walk on a spiritual path, I believe that he has his own road. He also has his own intelligence, discernment, and thankfully, his own guardian angels!
I am here to accompany my son, to support him, to assist him to become the best version of himself, and to over-protect him as little as possible while encouraging him to take the risks that will help him grow. So I balance out my “human mom” side with my “Spirit Guide interpreter” side. Being a mother has given me tremendous empathy for everyone suffering and struggling through the human condition. Parenthood has made me a much better practitioner, and being a psychic has made me a better parent.
4. What makes you happiest?
Adventure. In my 20s and 30s, I traveled nearly constantly. I walked through strange cities by myself, finding my way, discovering friendship and love and food and music. Even now that I’m more grounded and have lived in Johannesburg for eight years, I’ll wander through Chinatown or the Ethiopian quarter. Next up: the Congolese market.
5. What’s your greatest character strength?
Honesty. When I was younger, I told fibs all the time in a mistaken belief that I was “making things easier,” for myself and the person I was telling lies to. I was wrong, and it took me until my mid-20s to figure that out. I was forever digging myself into social holes and then struggling to remember which version of reality I had presented — and I woke up out of that set of behaviors. Now I might not recall whether I’ve told you a story before, but it will always be the same story (instead of five different accounts).
6. What’s your weakest character trait?
I have an extremely Northern concept of time. I’m early for every event and end up wandering around outside. I consider timeliness a virtue and a sign of respect, and this leads me to judge others (and myself!) far too harshly when life gets in the way and things run late.
Punctuality has served me fantastically as a radio host, as radio waits for nobody. I could definitely learn to lighten up with real people, though, especially considering I’ve lived more than half of my adult life in the Global South and I should stop taking lateness so personally!
7. Why do you write?
“I write to find out what I’m thinking,” as the author Joan Didion famously said, and I also follow Julia Cameron’s and Anne Lamott’s advice about getting drafts out without worrying about their perfection. Some passages will just be venting, and they will get tossed. Other phrases and stories have been simmering long enough inside me that when they emerge, they are solid. They’ll just need polishing. I always turn to an external editor to polish, or else I get bogged down.
I write to explain how things happened for me, and if I write it clearly enough from my perspective, somebody else will identify with it. We could live in different countries, be different ages, have different experiences, but if I can touch a core human emotion, that writing can help uplift someone else, and that’s my aim.
In GUIDED! Shannon combines practical how-to’s and case studies with magical worldwide adventures, reminiscent of Elizabeth Gifford’s Eat, Pray, Love and Sonia Choquette’s Trust Your Vibes.
Shannon’s voice in GUIDED! How to Communicate with Your Spirit Guides is as strong and bright as her personality. Her concise and ‘to the point’ method of writing is refreshing.
In the biography section of the book, Shannon is candid about her tumultuous journey, which includes much sadness and hardship. She writes with empathy.
There are two main sections to the book:
Part I – Ways to Hear from your Guides – is practical and describes in detail how to make a connection with your angelic helpers.
Part II is an inspiring biography of Shannon’s life and is as entertaining as it is informative.
For an interview or review, contact: Ben, the rep for Pat Grayson, Publisher Graysonian Press, pat@graysonian.com or (083) 610-1113. For more information on Graysonian Press, a South African publisher of spiritual and inspirational books, go to www.graysonian.com
BOOK REVIEW
“Guided: How to communicate with your spirit guides” by Shannon Walbran
Review date : 2009-03-06
Book review by Rev. Dr. Ralph Thomas Shepherd for Body and Mind by Antonet–Nirvana Lange.
This book by Shannon Walbran, seeks to assist readers to discovers their own soul’s purposes’ and learn techniques to improve your health, happiness and enlightenment. Shannon does this by describing her own life plan and how she was led through very exciting and thrilling life experiences.
Shannon was led from the US where she was born in 1969, the same year as Anastasia, the Russian leader for social and cultural change currently becoming an international phenomenon. Shannon describes in detail her childhood and the accompanying struggles that contribute to her future. She had a childhood embedded in spirituality and describes her consciousness of fairies and other supernatural experiences. Later she also describes her struggles with her high school activities like ADD and food allergies. One can see them as instrumental in forming her spiritual stature in the years to come.
As Shannon moves into adulthood, we will see her undergoing multi-cultural experiences thereby continuing her ‘spiritual schooling’ which is now opening up for her in a most remarkable way. Shannon is now living in South Africa and is proving a successful guide for those wanting an in depth understanding of their own lives.
Most people only experience spiritual events as separate from normal phenomenon. It seems that with what we are currently experiencing globally. Humanity is standing on the brink of a global crisis of immense proportions. Within the next few years, a whole new paradigm of human development will reveal the work of Shannon Walbran as crucial for human beings as she will be able to help many people to see a meaning future for themselves and their families.
Shannon’s background in radio and not-for-profit work has prepared her for the kind of life that bridges both the spiritual and physical world. Her book, “Guided” will help many souls find solace in the years to come.
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Genre - Spiritual, Memoir, Non-fiction, Self-Help
Rating – G
More details about the author
Website www.ShannonWalbran.com
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