Language of Love with Dr. Laura Berman - Mapping Out Life’s Journey with Spirit by Your Side with MaryAnn DiMarco

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

We all long to feel connected to our loved ones after they have  crossed over. That ache to speak with them again never really goes away. But is it possible to make that conversation real? Can it be instinctual, natural, like you're just talking to someone beside you? In this  Language of Love Conversation, I sit down with psychic medium and spiritual teacher MaryAnn DiMarco to explore the unseen support surrounding us. MaryAnn shows how connecting with spirit guides isn’t reserved for the gifted; it’s something every single one of us can do. Talking with her feels like being handed a secret key to a whole new world, one where guidance shows up in the middle of everyday chaos, not just in moments of perfect stillness. MaryAnn shares her own journey of learning to trust her intuition and explains how our guides, angels, and loved ones work together to support us. We dive into why so many of us feel blocked, how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and true guidance, and what happens when we finally stop forcing and start trusting the path that’s meant for us. Here’s a sneak peek… The difference between guides, angels, and loved ones on the other side Why guidance often sounds like your own voice How to know when it’s intuition speaking or just fear What to do when life feels stuck or off-track How your guides can help you manifest what you want Ways to reconnect with loved ones who have passed The surprising role your guides play in healing old wounds Why you don’t need to be psychic to receive powerful guidance If this episode resonates with you, I invite you to explore more of what MaryAnn DiMarco has to offer at maryanndimarco.com You can follow her journey on Instagram and Facebook, and if you’re feeling called, pick up one of her books or preorder her newest one, The Guide(s). If you’ve had a sign, a spiritual moment, or something meaningful you'd like to share, I’d truly love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out at [e-mail] if you're navigating loss, take a look at the Good Grief Course. It’s a gentle, structured path through grief designed to help you move forward while still honoring your connection. You don’t have to do this alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, I'm sex, love, and relationship therapist, Dr. Laura Berman. And for the past 30 years, I've been helping people just like you learn to love and be loved better. Here on the Language of Love Conversations, I'm talking to some of the world's most influential and revolutionary experts, thought leaders, spiritual teachers, and celebrities about love, sex, and relationships from a mind, body, and spirit perspective. And that way, my goal is to awaken your mind, body, and soul. It's time to become fluent in the language of love.

Marianne DeMarco, welcome to The Language of Love. We're so happy to have you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So I really loved the book. You know, it came at a really, as these things do, it's probably my guides, but it came at a really beautiful time because, and we'll get into this a little more in a second, but I have, as someone who's been really tapped in and tuned in, I would say over the past six months,

I have been really struggling. And I never really, like when I call in my support, I'll say, I'm calling in my angels, my gods, my loved ones, my ascended masters. I just sort of do this whole like soliloquy in my mind as I'm grounding or calling in for spiritual support. But I've never really attuned to the idea of guides and really having a two-way relationship with them. And over the past six months, I have been having such a hard time even tapping in and tuning in. I think in large part because my brain has been so busy and I probably haven't been making the time. But one of the things that I really love about your book is, and we're going to get into what guides are, who they are, all of that, but is that this guidance is available and you can tap in and tune

into it. And it doesn't have to be in the way that I've been really kind of rigid about, you know, where I have to sit down and get really quiet and get really zen and no distractions. And if five minutes later, I realize I've been thinking about my grocery list, then I get all upset with myself. So one of the themes that I saw throughout your book is not only making this accessible for everyone, but also that, you know, it's a casual relationship. I mean, it's a beautiful, powerful relationship, but it's a casual relationship that we can have with these beautiful beings of light that are here to support us, that we can talk to or get guidance from or feel guidance from in the supermarket, walking down the street, whenever. It doesn't have to be like this huge sitting on a

mountaintop, zen, mind clear of all distractions phenomenon. Yes. I mean, my job here is done. Thank you. Okay. Thorough explanation. Yes. Yes. It has to feel, well, to your point, here you are going through a chaotic time, a very pensive time, whatever it is that is coming into your energy in this moment, we can't always sit down and have that usual deeper routine of connection, the summoning of the higher masters into our space. I mean, I love all of that. I really do. But those are special moments for me. Those are moments when I'm really able to sit with it. What you're speaking about, what I'm writing about is can we make this instinctual so that in our lives are chaotic or we have a lot on our plate,

whatever it may be, that we can draw upon the energy from self, higher self, hear our higher self and our understanding that we could speak to these beings, energies on the other side, just like I'm talking to you now. And I don't think I could do it any other way on a daily basis, honestly. And I think what that does is it allows us to be very authentic in our connection. And we're going to drill down into that some more, but let's start here so we can all get on the same page. How would you describe what a guide is and what is the difference between angels, guides, and our loved ones on the other side? Are they overlapping or are they different? Let's go through that. And a tendency to overlap, absolutely, for the discernment,

because I get that question a lot. And so for the book, I broke it down to be very clear so that when you're looking to make this connection, you can make the discernment. Our guides are energies on the other side. Maybe we walk with them in past life. Maybe they are symbolic representations of light beings that are here to help us, but they are our team. We have a universal team on the other side, our team of besties coming in here to guide us along, everything that we signed up for. And our guides essentially are here to highlight maybe the lessons that we came in with, help us the experiences that they might be displaying themselves through. But most of all, they are here to highlight our higher self, our higher being, because we come here with the

answers. We come here knowing our lessons, knowing the joys. I don't necessarily know that we come in here knowing the experiences. I honestly don't know if it would come back. I really don't. So I think, give me around a general idea and I'll take a hop back in. And our guides are here to help us do that. Angels, miracle workers, probably never really walked this earth, but are part of creation, maybe direct descendants from the light in a different type of way. That's how I view them. Again, very symbolic. Our loved ones, of course, part of our universal team, definitely. We could tap into them anytime we want. Very much here for comfort, reassurance. I'm here. I see you. I know what's going on in your life. I haven't left. I'm right in the next

room, just beyond the veil. And we can communicate with them anytime we want. My loved ones are incredibly reassuring. I continue the relationship that I have with them, but my guides are a little bit more directive. Get to work. Turn left. Guides are giving you guidance. That's right. Your loved ones are connecting and they're not necessarily giving you guidance. Turn left, here, don't go there, you know, whatever. And we're going to talk about how you know which is which and how you even know what's in your head, you know, what's just you making it up, because I think that's the biggest struggle many of us, myself included, have. So what is the purpose of an angel compared to those two? Because I understand the difference between guides and

loved ones for what you're saying in terms of how they interact with us and what they're actually doing for or with us. I know. What do angels do? Angels for you are far more specific. So if If I'm calling in on Archangel Michael, I am seeking protection. I see. If I am calling in on Archangel Raphael, it's all about healing. Gabriel, I'm working on communication. There's plenty of archangels and great ways to work with them, but those usually have a very specific representation for me.

Although I have seen celestial angels that come in, let's say, for argument's sake, a beautiful pink color around somebody, and that's really just total love, love of self, love of others, whatever that person is seeking. And to me, they just have a very specific role. That's my interpretation of how I use them. And so they're for specific qualities or protections or... Yes, yes. And I also believe that they are the miracle workers, that if you're looking for a miracle,

the angels are the ones. Angels might be your go-to person or like... And while your guides are here to... And we're going to talk about how you came to all this knowledge because people who don't you know, you were maybe thinking like, who the hell is this woman? The difference between angels die and like, why should we listen to her? So we'll get to that in a second. But, you know, if you're here, then I have vetted you and I feel like we should listen to you. So that's all you need, guys. Oh, yes. Thank you. Okay. So with guides, with angels, though, so the guides came

with us when we came here. Basically, they were like, we're your support team. You know, we all knew each other, maybe from multiple lives, maybe not. And we all got together and they're like, we're with you, we got your back, we're going to be guiding you, we understand the assignment, you know, and then, but we don't necessarily always listen to their guidance. Although my understanding, and even it came up in a lot of the stories in your book, is that they'll often detour you, you know, these blocks in your path or put it very clever, very clever. And, you know, their undying affection for us, yes, can come out in displays of repetitive lessons and really beating us over the head sometimes with what they're trying to get through. Our free will,

of course, is going to get in the way. And, you know, and that's OK, because like I talk about in the book, we can navigate that in very positive and productive ways, even if we feel like we've made the wrong turn. Yeah, we got to get to that. Exactly. We'll talk about that. But yes, I mean, do I think we've walked with them in past lives? Absolutely. Do I think we get one main guide that stays with us our entire life? Yes. That ushers us in, possibly ushers us out into transition and are assigned to us. And I feel that that guide will show us and highlight other guides in our lives. And for, again, very symbolic reasons, if I'm seeing an Egyptian around somebody, I might be talking about their spiritual communication that they might be working on.

If I am seeing a form of some type of healer, whether it's indigenous or a shaman healer or anything like that, then I know that that person's working on inner healing. If it's somebody who who is very much into religion maybe i might see the saints around them and so to me we're it's they are speaking our spiritual language yeah something that resonates with us in order to help with the symbolism behind those visions something that is attuned to you know with our soul's path or our soul's intention or what we came here to explore and work on but from what you're saying it sounds like you know because i was going to ask you like how many is there a specific number we have because I, you know, I have friends who are similar to you and do this

work. And there's one in particular who, you know, every time I'm talking to her, her eyes kind of glaze up or as people walk by because she's and I remember when we were first meeting, I was like, what are you seeing? She's like, you're not seeing that you don't see like everybody. You know, she sees like this team around everybody. And there varies from what she describes. A lot of are not human looking. They're very strange, you know, all different kind of energy guys. I call those, you know, top of the ascended master list. Very non-worldly. Yeah, I don't like a lot of that. And, you know, too, they have different feelings about them. Some of them are very soft and flowery. Other of those higher energies are very to the point. Mine are not very polite with

me at this point because I just get right to it. But I resonate with that. It's how my personality is. I'd rather just get right to the point. We don't need to fluff it around. So to your point, not everybody's going to feel them or hear them. And what I would say to people is just try to work with the fact that you know they are there. Starvin, why do we want, I mean, I know the answer to this, but I wanted you to explain. Why do we want to connect to our guides? How does it make our lives better, easier, more fulfilling to attune to our guides? The idea is that we are here all learning. This is the school. And that within that school, we've come here to learn a set of lessons. To me, these are the ultimate instructors. They are the ultimate professors.

And what I have found is that as I've navigated through my life and different detours and hardships and wonderful things as well, I've always heard them. I just didn't recognize them as the energies that they are. And when I started to realize, we talked about how this all started, my mother's been teaching me about ascended masters since I was a little girl, I finally understood what she was talking about. I realized that we are part of our own co-creation, that everything you're looking to manifest, everything you're looking to hold on to in life, change, transform into, or sit and just be grateful for, is a joint effort, that part of the story. And so I just thought developing this relationship in a beautiful, relatable way is a great way to help

yourself, not only manifest everything, but to really feel what you came here for. So I think what you're saying, if I understand you correctly, is that first of all, when there are things that you want to manifest, your guides are facilitators of that. So if you can attune to their guidance and hear it, which we're going to be getting to in a second, then the path from A to B, where you're wanting to go, tends to be much more direct. To me, it tends to be more productive. okay more and i think direct yes sometimes yay if we get really proficient at it but i always tell people especially when it comes to manifesting put it out there set it and forget it and then kind of enjoy the ride that they show you are our guides are giving us little breadcrumbs they're

giving these slight directions for us to say yes to and while we do that the soul is learning what it came here to do, making your energy authentically you in all areas. And we get to kind of understand a little bit on a deeper level about who we are and what we have to offer and why we're here and how we could care for self and most importantly, maybe how we can heal in our own lives. I've decided that this beautiful co-creation is probably one of the most beautiful gifts that Spirit has given us. Let's talk, you know, drill down into some examples just so people can really envision how this might work. Can you give an example of what you're describing? Sure. So let's say you are looking to manifest that great job that you want, and you've been

thinking about it, and you just keep hitting the brick wall. You keep hitting the brick wall, and you don't really know why. I always ask Spirit then, what is it that you need to show me in this moment? What is it that I can learn in this moment to understand why I feel like this is a brick wall. Meantime, I want to say brick walls are usually powerful pauses, usually wonderful times to receive great downloads and hear your powerful pause. So I encourage everybody who's feeling like they've hit a brick wall to do this exercise. And I get to work, I start asking what is it and I might hear your egos in it. I might hear there's fear around this decision making, or the right job, you're looking at it wrong. Can we just change the purview? Can we expand what best this may look

like for you? And then I try to get to work with that. Where did my ego come into play and why? And this is a constant exchange with my guides in conversation, in feelings, through meditation, writings, whatever your tool is. I get plenty of exercises in the book. And then I want to get to work with that. I want to understand it and then maybe release it or change how I'm viewing things or just take the lesson head on, whatever it's called for. And then allow the breadcrumbs to follow me to get to that job that I'm working on. So maybe I have to start, you know, in the mailroom, let's say, right? And I might say yes to that because I know it's going to take me further. You could start to see the signs with much more clarity. You could see the guidance

with much more clarity when not in tandem. I think that's really important because when you can feel, sense, hear, however we're going to do it, and we'll talk about a little bit, I know you go into great detail in the book, but when we can attune to that guidance, let's just say, you do feel supported. And I think, you know, a lot of what I talk about and even try to live, I very much try to live into when things aren't going the way I planned or things aren't quote unquote working out or something is just really stuck or my computer is like not turning on or whatever, you know, whatever is frustrating me or upsetting me, I always find such tremendous power in just surrendering to it and getting really curious

and just being like, OK, like, you know, my computer's not starting. Oh, you know, I haven't stopped working for two days. Maybe I should go outside. You know, that's. Yes. So what I love about what you're saying is you may get really frustrated in that moment. And you may express that frustration in that moment. Right. I mean, I definitely I say in the book, I'm a spiritualist, I'm not a saint, right? So in those moments, if I'm hitting every red light, or my computer's not working, and I'm cursing mercury and retrograde for whatever's going on, it will feel your feels. And then, yeah, can we answer it in a more productive way? Can we look at this and say, well, someone's protecting me from getting to my destination

too soon. Someone is saying to me, rest right now. That's the higher self. When we talk about what that sounds like and trying to discern the difference, our own voices are going to give us all the reasons wrong, all the reasons that it's not going to work, all the reasons of the frustration. And we should feel that, definitely. But our guides are here to help us answer that with the higher self. Or we could say, well, this is a pretty crappy day. But maybe we feel maybe it's the next day that we get to the but, by the way. Just let that day be. End it however we need And then the next day, maybe we wake up and we reflect on why it went that way and how we can learn from it and how our guides were trying to show us something. So how do you discern?

I also want to talk about how you even meet your guides or identify them or get to know them. But in terms of the guidance, you discern between what you're making up and what is really guidance. Because obviously the first thing is that if it's negative and derogatory and fear-based, it's probably not anything coming from a higher realm. But sometimes we can speak positive. I mean, I certainly can talk myself into, you know, you just deserve a day to lie in bed. You know, I can give myself very gentle, loving, avoidant messages that are not coming from spirit but are very kind. They're not all. Maybe your higher self knew that you needed the rest that day, right? And then I think the gentle talk is them helping us self-talk in a positive way. I truly believe

that. I think that we know in our gut when we're making excuses for ourselves and when we know accountability obviously has to come into all of this for sure. But I think there's something to be said, did it feel good to take that day? Yeah. Did it flow right? So to me, that's them helping us. Most of us have no idea how to move through loss. There's no roadmap to follow when you're trying to navigate grief. And I realized this when I lost my son three years ago. As a therapist who understood grief, a whole new level of pain opened up to me when I lost my 16-year-old son. And since then, I have been building resources that have allowed me to navigate through loss, not only in a healthy way, but in a way that has transformed me for the better.

We can move through the most terrible loss with grace. And that's why I have created the course, Good Grief, Healing from Loss with Love. You can find it on my website, drlauraberman.com, right there on the homepage, as well as free resources letting you know how to support others who are going through loss. None of us has to do this alone. When we feel resistance in a way that we are forcing something, that is us. When we know and that small voice is saying to you, you know you shouldn't be doing that, you know, come on now, right?

That is them. We are forcing a narrative, not trusting divine timing, not surrendering over to certain guidance. Absolutely, that's us. That's ego, doubt, fear. I encourage everyone to get curious about why you're doing that. Very important. But the higher self, the guidance part, usually hindsight's a wonderful way to recognize what spirit sounds like. I always say, I knew I shouldn't have done that. I knew I just knew it. Your intuitive gifts, every single one of us is psychic. Every single one of us can connect to our psychic abilities using all of our senses. Every single one of us has an opportunity to connect with our guides and our loved ones. You do not have to be a psychic or go to a psychic medium in order to do that. I want to, I'm happy that you do, but I want to empower everybody to know that they can do that on themselves. And just like anything else, we have to use that muscle.

We have to make it strong. We have to trust, believe, and practice and be consistent in that. Okay, that makes sense, right? Trust, believe, and practice. And obviously, you get into tons of exercises and details in the book. But in general, just for the purposes of this conversation, what does that look like in action? As we said, it doesn't necessarily look like taking 30 minutes every morning to go quiet and zen with your hot lemon water, you know, on a grassy knoll. That is not my style.

And if that's anyone's jam and that works for you, then and it feels like I would love to just wake up with the peacefulness of a matcha. But I go in hardcore to pry my eyes open, pouring a good strong cup of coffee like and I need a minute, you know, to eat and function. What I encourage people to do is to create an authentic spiritual practice that works for you, that's realistic for your own schedule and your own well-being. Because if you set it up too high and you have all these expectations of what the other person is doing, all you're going to do is disappoint yourself and think that you stink at this. Right. So even if it's once a week where you just wake up and every day or once a week, you even express gratitude, you just wake up and you say, you know what, I'm really grateful for the breath in my lungs today. That is starting things in motion. You might hear, thank you for expressing gratitude. Take a nice deep breath. So how do they come through? Because I know depending on how you tend to get, you know, some of us hear things, some of us see things, some of us feel things, right?

Some of us know things. for me, I've only once heard a voice and boy, was that a wild situation. We don't have to go, we can go into that if we have time, but I've only heard something, someone, but I know things or I just kind of quote unquote hear without hearing it, you know? So is it that you're getting, you're figuring out how you take in information, like for someone wanting to start attuning to their guides. Yes, maybe I wake up with gratitude. Maybe I quiet my mind. But how do you call on them? How do you open the invitation? How do you start hearing them in whatever form that hearing is going to take? The way I would start doing that is picking a

practice that works for you. If it's meditation, start in meditation. If it's writing, journaling or automatic writing, start with that. And a great way to start is asking open-ended questions. What is it that you need me to know is one of my favorite ones because it really leaves them to tell you anything. You might hear or feel, because some people say to me, I can't hear them.

And I'll say to them, well, what feel like they're saying to you? Or what do you think they would say? If we ask, what is it that you need me to know in this moment? And I'll give it over to you in five second rule. What do you think they're saying to you? You're asking me?

All right, let me see. Do I need to like do any tapping or do I just answer that question? So what do they want me to know? That I need to slow down, but not be so, and to create pockets of space, but not be so rigid in, you know, how and what that space looks like. Beautiful. Yeah. No questions asked.

Five second rule. You didn't overthink it. You just allow the words to flow into you, however they're received, whether you receive them in through your gut, whether you heard them, by the way, spirit comes in your own voice. It is not a disembodied voice. Allow it to come within you. Whether you had to just think about it just for a sec and let those words flow out of you. Those are all very natural ways of making connection. Now you have a beautiful trust. You know that you are in tune and you can make that connection. if you're working on the trust part now let's say for argument's sake when you start just tell yourself i'm not making this up i'm just going to leave that at the door and just for this five ten minutes this is an experiment this is an experiment i'm going to let the words come and then you can follow it up with asking for a sign ah you really need that validation you can ask for a sign now remember if you don't see the sign doesn't mean it's not coming to fruition we have to accept that

to. We just have to say no sign sometimes is a good sign that that's a sign in itself. But if you see something, you know, accept it. Don't keep asking because you're developing the trust that you're looking for. Yeah, that makes sense. And also that I always say that sort of a stepping stone or cousin to faith, which is not always easy for people, is optimism. Oh, yeah. Perception. Yeah, if you can just be a little, you know, a little open, a little optimistic, a little surrendered as an experiment, as an experiment. And that might take some undoing for a lot of people. We're all raised a certain way. We have different backgrounds. And so I understand the undoing. But if you gave yourself permission just for a moment, if we gave into the idea that you are part of the light and that you are allowed to do this and that this is part of yourselves, part of who we are, we're all being kind of woken up in our own way, just give it that moment and see what comes through. I love that. And you talk about this idea, as I mentioned earlier, of integrating your guides into your daily life and just receive whenever you're willing, you know, just create the space for them to come in. So what does that look like in action? In action, it looks like you are moving into levels and areas of acceptance.

You're also putting accountability into your actions in those scenarios. For me, it's about releasing what's no longer serving me and allowing for things to flow into my life that are better suited for my own energy. And that takes some work. It takes some time, but it's working through lots of different areas in my life. And the way I noticed it the most is repeating patterns in my life. Contracts are repeating patterns. And when I started to really work on them, I noticed that I was absolutely freeing space for more information to come through. So by patterns, you mean like what I can imagine. But just I talk about in the book, I'm working with scarcity, working with a fear of being without. I came up for me in the last few years, very big time. And I had to really get to work with that. I had to understand why I was so afraid of something that really, in reality, wasn't truly happening. Right. Yeah. I think that too, for some reason. And you talk a lot in the book and write a lot

about sort of the, which I also love, the interweaving of working with your guides and, you know, psychology, right? Like those are in the example you're giving, is it that your guides are kind of giving as you're tapping in and tuning in or showing you scenes from your, I don't know, from your childhood, or they're giving you downloads, so to speak, or input, which, by the way, as a clinician, that I have always depended on. So I guess I have, which I never really thought about until recently, therapy guides. But when I, as a therapist, would speak to people and work with someone, I would have this, I would see this scene, which I began calling the point of fracture, Because it would be a scene from their childhood, a metaphor, sometimes literal, you know, see you on a dirt road with like a car. It's like in the 70s, a car driving away and you're like sitting on the ground crying and they're like, oh, my God, that literally happened. Right.

And sometimes it's more symbolic, but it's always about sort of a point of fracture where they realized they were unlovable or they got really scared about something or they shut off from something. So I guess that's the same thing, right? It is. You were channeling. Absolutely. I noticed when I started mentoring people, especially, my readings were never, I mean, for a while, they were kind of that traditional psychic medium reading. But when I started to move out of that space and teach people more, I was really feeling called to teach people to make this connection. That came up frequently, if not all the time. I would start to see them, you know, can we talk about what happened? I'm seeing something at three. And, you know, my mom's a therapist. I wanted to be a therapist. I don't know. I just grew up kind of with that spirituality therapy going on. And I started to be surrounded by people who were, a lot of my clients were therapists at the time, and also being people who are really discovering different methods. And I think what had happened was my guides were just showing me how to do this in a spiritual way, but forcing me to do my own work because everything I learn, I teach everything I learn, I give. And then they put me through the wringer and I had to really revisit past. And so I started to ask, I talk about this method in the book, who, what, where, when, why, where did this start? Who gave it to me in the first place? And I remember years ago doing a meditation about kind of putting everything that doesn't serve you in some luggage, in your baggage, so to speak, and then handing it back to either the situation or the person. And that was years and years ago. And it started then, you know, just really thinking about what your soul knows to be true in your own life experience. I worked with a teacher once who said to me, you're a product of your own environment. And I had to really, those words kept coming back to me. If we're a product of our environment, we can really learn from our own environment. And my guides worked with me as I channeled the book to phrase it that way, to have it laid out that way. Yeah, I think that's so important. And that intersection, because there's such kind of epidemic of, you know, what we call spiritual bypassing, where you aren't really facing the wounds of the past. I'm just gonna pop out of the way and go to the better feeling thought. Right. But it doesn't really change your energy. It doesn't change your frequency. It doesn't change what you're manifesting. And it keeps you stuck. agreed and because it won't go away yeah i are happy to keep showing you your lessons on repeat

and they get really creative about it too they do it's you know when it's when i realized it was just pounding you over the head and i've never been a person who has used this to get out of things what i tell people is nobody comes out unscathed we're all going to have to learn something and maybe what i'm doing differently is that i just learn this really effective set of tools in order to help me understand it on a deeper level you have to be willing to learn you have to be willing to go there and if you're not willing to go there maybe you learn about why you don't want to go there too you know you cannot keep taking it back and pulling it back and seeing oh it's good yeah well why why is that yeah because you had to write about how one of the guides

purposes is to help us frame our challenges we're facing within the context of our soul's journey And you, I believe the same thing, that we kind of have this soul plan, soul contract, soul journey, whatever our agenda is of the things, the experiences, the soul growth, the evolution that we wanted to fix, redo, explore. I don't know how you could say it better, in this lifetime and where we come with tools and with talents and interests, you know, and then we face the challenges or the traumas and that they're here in part to help us frame those challenges that we face within that larger context of what we came here to learn. Beautifully said. Beautifully said. And yes, yes. And I find that really comforting. Yeah, me too. I find that, first of all, incredible that we might not completely understand what's going on on that other side, but there is some sort of rhyme or reason behind it, whether we agree with it or not. Something's going on and that we are coming here not only with this set of lessons, but this amazing set of tools that I really, truly believe most of us were taught to forget. And that we are in the middle of seeing people really wake up to them. I've been seeing that for the past five years. And that that transition is helping people understand their own psychic abilities, their own intuitive selves, their own knowing in whatever form that looks like.

And I think it changes the scope. It can really change the scope of people's lives. And to me, being in this space, I find that so exciting. Yeah. By tools, you mean these abilities, this instrument that we can create to our higher selves, to our guides, angels, loved ones. And you also talk about how, and I'm curious about how this works, too, because I work with a lot of grievers. and we have a lot of listeners, I mean, all of us are lost. It feels like everybody's grieving something right now, but we're all going to face loss if we haven't already. And you write about,

I want to understand more how this works, how the guides are kind of, can be facilitators to connecting with our loved ones on the other side. They sure can. We have the ability. The beautiful thing about connecting with our loved ones on the other side is that we ourselves, know them best. And that if we just, I do a meditation in my previous book, A Meeting Mentor, that if you, I call it meeting hours in heaven, and you can create, this is a great way to use your third eye too. It's a wonderful way to exercise your third eye, the IC. If we create this amazing space that is very familiar with our loved ones, I often go into my great-grandmother's house. I can smell the sauce cooking. I can see the cigar smoke from my uncle's cigar and the

mist in the air. I can hear the chatter of, you know, Italian being spoken or whatever was going on. And I go in there sometimes with the intention to meet someone, but you never know who's going to pop up. And I'm able to sit down. I could feel the plastic on the couch. And if I sit down and I have this great conversation and I would truly believe that I'm visiting with my loved one in that moment. And I think our guides are teaching us and showing us that we have access to beyond the veil anytime we want that, especially with our loved ones that we can sit and we can visit that they come in dreams and those dreams are visits. And so if they have to come all the way our way, we can certainly go their way if we choose. Yeah. And so what role did the guy, because I've done

this too. In fact, I went once and I teach people how to do this. I still do go and visit my son where he is. And he, oh my gosh, he has put together a whole tricked out, crazy, futuristic, I mean, exactly, I couldn't even make this stuff up, but exactly what he would have created if the sky was the limit, you know? And, you know, he even showed me this robot that was doing housework for him. And he got this big grin on his face and said, that's Svetlana. And I cracked up because when he was five, he saw a cartoon with a character named Svetlana and he became, I totally forgot about this, but he became obsessed with the name Svetlana and everything, every stuffed animal, every toy was named Svetlana. He said he was going to marry a girl named Svetlana.

You know, eventually he moved out of that phase, but his robot on the other side, he makes us a stegona. But I'm curious, so what role do the guides play? Are you calling in the guides first and then you're saying, help me go here? Or are they just quietly behind the scenes facilitating? How does it work with their role? Yeah, I think it depends on your style. You know, some people feel more comfortable. if you're just getting started some people like the idea of having guides bring on loved ones

because we have to remember not everyone has had a wonderful relationship with some of their loved ones on the other side and if they're looking for forgiveness i often find they're very comfortable having a guide make that introduction or having that feeling of safety around them yeah for me i've always just gone right in with my loved ones and i think it's just because of the way i was taught do i think that guides can facilitate those meetings absolutely and i often say when i'm reading people my guides are connecting with your loved ones guides and they're saying hey look you know this is how she works you know come with all the goods make sure you know and I always envision this kind of meeting going on or like oh yeah you come on all right you're next sit down

she's ready to talk to you about that so I but that's for other people I think with your own loved ones uh yes you can absolutely call in in your guides and say really want to open up can you help me? Because people have a hard time with visualization too. Can you help me see them better? Can you help me so connect with them where I really feel their presence? Maybe it's feeling them or paying attention to the signs. I think our guides can help with the tools to make that connection feel more real for people. Yeah. And it feels like, I mean, maybe you do this or don't, but you said, you know, you often do work with the guides, but I do, I feel like a lot of the mediums that I know will say, some of them do, but some of them don't, but a lot of them will say,

yeah my guides kind of are the facilitators especially in like a big group reading it's like my friend who's a really powerful medium but she gets so and she's never never fails but she gets so freaked out every time she's about to do a group reading like what if nothing comes in and what if i you know she gets i've been there yeah but then if she calls in the guides they're like okay you line everyone up like you make sure i don't you know so that i don't disappoint anyone, that I don't, you know, that everything is for the highest good or whatever her agenda is. Absolutely. I call on my guides whenever I'm doing a big group for sure. Also, if you're dealing with maybe some social anxiety, you find tough rooms, I tell my guides,

you go in there and make that space feel good first. You know, I rely on them. And to your friend's point, yes, please make sure everybody should. I always tell my guides before really groups, I'll say, give me names, give me dates, give me everything I need in order to help provide healing messages. And I always say, dear spirit, give me the words to serve. And this way, I feel like I'm already starting to make that connection. But that buildup of energy, it's a lot. It's a lot. I'm used to do big readings and I would just want to hide. Now I just call in on them and I go, come on, let's get to work together. So I do that like before I go to a big meeting. I never. So you don't need to know. Like I said, I literally have this soliloquy. I do. I'm calling him my angels, my guides, my loved ones, my ascended masters and sweet boy, Sammy. I don't know why Sammy gets his. I just give Sammy a shout out in addition to my. I have plenty of people, family members on the other side, but he gets a special shout out.

And then I'll say, you know, help me whatever the agenda is for that meeting or that session or whatever. Is there a benefit or does it, quote unquote, work better when you know your guides or you've met them or, you know, because I know you describe in the book different ways, speed dating your guides and meeting them and getting to know who your guides are. is the guidance more palpable or powerful in your experience if you know them or is it enough just to say hey help me out whoever I haven't met you in my conscious mind I know you're there I believe you're there like is there a difference no I think they're both equally as powerful I think getting to know your guides is just like to develop a relationship with any stranger you want to kind to get to know them. You sort of want to feel what they feel like, what it's like to have these wonderful conversations. What I encourage people, however, to do is to not get distracted with the who of it all, because I think it's a rabbit hole that's fun to go down, but we certainly don't need

to reside there. Your guides are here. They are happy to get to know you, but in reality, they want you to get to work. Yeah, so you can either go direct or you can get to know them in a more formal way. I have done both and I continue to do both. And I find them both equally as powerful and beneficial. And so what is one of your favorite ways? I know there are many ways you describe in the book, but just for people listening, what is one of your favorite ways to meet your guides? I like creating a temple. I love doing a meditation where you ascend through the colors of the chakras, you know, or in alignment, the red, the orange, yellow, green, blue purple and then i land on white whatever that essential looks like for you i go up a

mountain that's just my jam and then i create with my guides this amazing temple to make it look as ornate or as simple as you like this is very common temple meditation is quite common you can do it in whatever variation you like and then i love to create this temple and of course mine is like you know marble pillars for that no roof it's very celestial above yeah i got it But then sometimes I meet them in the boardroom. Yeah. I create a boardroom and I tell them we need to renegotiate this contract. And I get to work.

I'm bringing a red pen. I kid you not. And I'm like, can we rework some of these lines? Because what's going on here? And so it depends. Sometimes I'm really business about it. Sometimes I'm super wooey. So I love to meet them at the beach when I'm literally at the beach.

Water is a big thing with me. and I love to just sit down and envision them there or just feel their presence and hear whatever it is they have to say. Everyone who's listening, do you. But those of mine are pretty much a container of sorts. And then you ask them to come in. You know, in one of the meditations,

maybe this was this, I don't remember if it was this speed dating one or what, but you're sitting at a table. Have one come. Yes. Whoever wants to come first, sit at the table. You observe them. You get to know them. You're asking what their role is. You're kind of getting a real sense of

them, even though you may not, like you said, go all the way down the rabbit hole of whose soul they are and what, you know, all their details are. You're getting a sense of who they are for you. Yeah. It brings up that five second rule again. You know, that speed dating is fun because you don't have really time to overthink it. We're kind of just getting in. Hey, here's who I am. Here's what I can offer you. And then we get out and it sort of takes away that monkey mind that's going to get in there and be like, am I really sitting with my guides? And before you can do that, the next one is sitting in front of you. And then write them down. Always write your experiences down, whether it's dream, meditation. I highly encourage pen to paper, by the way,

writing it down. If you're stuck and you have to do a voice memo, go right ahead. But I like writing it down. And then you can sit in reflection on those things. I love guides and threes, by the way. I don't know if I say this in the book, but I love seeing guides and threes. I think it's a manageable number. And then I think it's also because like mind, body, soul, who's here to help the mind, who's here to help my soul, who's here to help body kind of a thing. Develop this. So many different ways you can develop your meet and greets. And why do you suggest writing versus typing or voice notes? It just feels more heartfelt, more like a piece of your energy is going into it. I've always written that way. I have a hard time channeling in computer or on my

phone. And I do it, especially if I have a download for a book or something like that, I have to do it. But there's something about writing that I think they work through you better. Because when I'm channeling, it's not me. I'm just the conduit. And they're working through me to get that information, not from me. And I think when you write, it's through me instead of from me. I love that. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, when I'm doing automatic writing, I have never tried to do it typing, but it seems like it would be really hard. It is. I mean, I've done it. I can channel text, you know, through text, especially if I'm with my psychic friends or I've channeled this book. So I had to go into a computer, channel all my books, but I write it out first. And then I

find it to just be it's just maybe it's part of my creative process with them just works better yeah it's interesting and so let's just get back to manifesting for a minute because i know people are really interested in that and that you write about how the dance between us and spirit it's about the how we get there we mentioned that earlier that it's about staying flexible staying patient and that releasing the outcome right that we still hope for the best and work to bring it about, but we also accept what is right on one level is also potentially really hard on another level. And so you give some examples of that, but I'm wondering if we can get into that a little more. I think manifesting with your guides is, I think we talked about it under the understanding

that this is a co-creation, that we are part of it. What I love, the word that you said that I love is hope. And that if we can manifest without expectation, we can lead into spaces of hope and hope is limitless. It allows us to create even more. If we have a tendency to be rigid in our manifestations, it's okay to be there. I want you to be very specific. I just want people to open up to the idea that spirit might know better and that part of that journey that you're taking with them can be very beneficial to the next destination i was going to say end result but i never say that i was it's the next destination like where we where we are next right and we have to remember that there's divine timing i have put out things 10 years ago in manifestation that is not only

my own manifestation but a download something that i was being shown by spirit that i myself am capable of and i would write that down if i focused on it every single day why how come this hasn't happened yet. How come this isn't? I would have wasted 10 years of me asking how come this hasn't happened yet. So instead, all of our answers, what I've realized, especially with manifestation, is that all of our answers are right within us. They are here in the now. And that's what your guides are trying to get you to see. Yes, we see all of this. Happy to co-create it with you. Let's go for it. We have some steps to take first. So let's get here and now and let's do that. Of course, if it doesn't happen, yes, we're being protected for sure. And so you have

to say thank you. Had lots of projects not work out. And I'm really grateful about that. Do you always see eventually why you're grateful? Or is it I do? Yes, yes. Obvious. They're not trying to be cryptic. I know we think they're trying to be cryptic because we're dealing with, you know, this other energy plane, for lack of a better word. But they're not trying to be cryptic. They really are. They're not trying to complicate it. We have a tendency to complicate things. And if we could just simplify and accept what we see here and feel and trust it, the answers are right in front of us. They're part of us. We know them. Well, I see them. I see why it didn't work out. Yeah, you see it. Oh, yeah.

I often do, but sometimes I don't. And I'm just like, all right, I guess I wasn't supposed to do that. I love that. That's beautiful, though, because we might not always understand. Yeah. But if we believe that we're being guided, then I have to sometimes say, okay, I might not understand this right now, but I trust you enough to say, okay. And believe me, it doesn't mean it doesn't come with some sort of tantrum or, you know, I'm like, whatever, fine. It didn't work out. Okay. I accept it. You know, I have my feels about it for sure. dreaming about it. Yeah. I mean, me too. And so when you are like, even in a situation like this, right? I'm always curious about this for people who are really tapped in and tuned in like you. Do you close off the channels before, you know, a lot of them before you come in? Are you sitting here talking to me and seeing all kinds of stuff that you're just saying, be quiet for now? I'm

focusing on having this conversation. How do you move with it? Before I got on this call, I always say, dear spirit, give me the words to serve. Anytime I give an interview, anytime I'm talking about the work, the work is from them through me. I happen to be beautifully in alignment with it. I love the work. I always want them to navigate us through conversation. And I truly believe that everything that we're speaking about is being given to us and there's a reason behind it. And so I hope it resonates to everyone who's listening because there's a reason it will land with certain people and that has always been my process and it will always be my process as far as being open all the time i am very strong boundaries about when i'm open and when i am

closed and the intentions about what that means it means if if spirit was meant to come through then they will if i am meant to channel in the manner in which i'm doing right now great i have also not asked your permission, right? And saying, hey, do you mind if I channel, right? So that is a huge boundary for me. I would never just pop in and say, oh, and by the way, right? And I would say, hey, do you mind? I might have a message for you. And I think that's really important, whether you're a psychic medium or whether you're a person who knows how to give intuitive advice. I think that delivering messages, not only for yourself, but for others with care, concern, and compassion and thoughtfulness and respect behind it all is incredibly important to not

only your good spiritual hygiene, but to the other people around you. That's how I felt all the time. Yeah. And you talk about channeling. Let's just clarify that, right? Channeling, is that for you when you define that different than mediumship, different than, like, how do they all relate? It's just the intention behind it. If I'm tuning in for self, I'm still channeling. If I'm having a conversation like we are right now, channeling for the collective, we're giving something out for all, then I'm doing that. If I'm sitting with a one-on-one person, my sitter, and I'm reading for them, then that is the intention behind it. I just always trust that they have my back and that they'll show me what to do whenever I can. I'm just thinking about the word channeling, because I have always thought of channeling as like, which I guess is what you're saying, as channeling a higher spirit or entity or being, you know, those channels of Yeshua or... Yep. That higher self, universe, light, whatever it is for you. Do I think we can channel from different spaces on the other side? Yeah. I mean, when I'm giving someone a medium reading, I'm definitely channeling from a place where their loved ones are roaming. You know, if I'm channeling something for the collective, it just feels more broad than that. Yeah.

That's right. Yeah. So, again, they always tell me the funniest thing when I do that and when I really think about it. They're like, yeah, you can have fun there, but can you just go do your job? I'm trying to come up with all the gnomes. I love it. I'm like, well, I'm just curious, you know, and they're sort of like, yeah, that's nice. But can you just go back to work?

Yeah, get to work. No worry, not. We've got you. Just go do your job. Well, that's beautiful. And I encourage everybody to read. If you want to get closer, learn more about the guidance that's available to you. They're guiding you whether you know it or not.

But Lord, is life a lot easier and more fun. I think that is so much more comforting. Yeah. I have to say, I'm really no fear about what goes on on that other side. I think what they've shown me through all the years that I've been doing this, been doing this a long time now, it's miraculous. us. And they're happy to show off, including your loved ones, to show you all the ways that they are surrounding us. And I encourage everybody as down to earth as I am about all of this. The magic is

the magic. And it's really quite beautiful if you lean into it. Right. Thank you so much. And we'll put all, we'll put the book link and your website and everything on the show notes. But if people want to learn more about your offerings, I know you do mentorship when people want to cultivate their abilities. As you say, all of us have them, so they can come to you for that, too. But where do people find you if they want to explore more of your work? You can find me at maryandmarco.com, and you can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Mary and the Medium. Beautiful. Thank you so much.

What a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thanks for watching!