Jane Palzare - The Power to Heal: Spiritual Lessons from the Master

SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM THE MASTER

JANE PALZERE

Changing Lives Press
50 Public Square #1600
Cleveland, OH 44113
www.changinglivespress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available through the Library of Congress.

ISBN-13: 978-0-99094-240-5

Copyright 2015 by Changing Lives Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.

Cover & interior design: Gary A. Rosenberg

Printed in the United States of America

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For Donald and Emma,
and the other Donald

I want to thank Boyce Batey who, through Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, made it possible for me to hear and meet so many people who enriched my spiritual life. Im also very grateful to Laszlo More for his encouragement and support through the years as well as Igor Sikorsky Jr. for making sure that people read my books. I cant forget Shirley and Richard OBrien and, of course, Anna and Dick Brown who made the dream come true.

There is a special prayer for Francesca Minerva, who saw something in the book that even I didnt see, and for Marie Timell, who was a delightful editor to work with and a wonderful asset in bringing these words to print. She did a fantastic job in understanding me, the material, and the workings of spirit.

Let me Live my life in such a way that everyone will know that I am a disciple of Jesus, a strange prayer from one who, just a few years earlier, had denied the name of Jesus and, indeed, the existence of God.

As I look back on those dark years in my life, I see them as a very necessary part of a spiritual quest that started before I was born.

Coming into a household with an agnostic father and a Catholic mother who attended church sporadically, I knew nothing about religion as a child. One day, I entered a Catholic Church with a playmate and sat in the back pew while she attended catechism class. I can still remember the peace and love I felt there as I waited for her. There was a presence and warmth around me that seemed to say, You are welcome here. Please come back. And I did, often.

During this wonderful time, it was not unusual for me to see Jesus in my room. I didnt think this at all strange until the day I mentioned it to my mother and the look on her face frightened me. Dont ever tell anyone, she said. Soon, Jesus stopped coming by to play with me.

I started to go to communion classes with my friend and at the age of 13, I was baptized with her and became a member of the Catholic Church. I married in the Church and spent the first few years of married life in quiet complacency, raising children, supporting a good husband, being part of an extended family.

But lifes disappointments caught up with me, as they do, including a miscarriage, and my spiritual foundation began to topple down around me. No priest could reach that part of me that was dying. I began to feel mistrust, disbelief and skepticism. My eyes were opened to the cruelties and the unexplained evils of the world and I began to think that God was either very stupid or very cruel and I wanted no part of Him.

Life became very black, very depressing and very frightening. My most common companions were anxiety and fear and most present moods were envy, resentment and anger. I denied God. Disowning sacrifice and discipline, I indulged whims, satisfied longings, and thought only of myself. There was a hollowness to my life that bordered on despair.

Yet, somewhere deep within me something was crying out: There must be more to life than this. So I prayed. Is there a God and if so, show me! What is the purpose of living?

Now I recognize that a guardian angel was fighting for me. Miracles and synchronicities began to happen. A book would catch my eye in a store; a lecture would speak to me. Every time I came to a fork in the road, there would be an experience, an encounter with someone or an event that would lead me in a new direction.

One day, while reading the newspaper at the dining room table, the phone rang. When I returned to the table, the wind had blown open the paper to an article that caught my eye. It was for a class to be held at the Episcopal Church, a block from my house. It would be a night out for me, I decided, but I went with a chip on my shoulder.

The minister had just joined the church and was enthusiastic, motivated, with a spirit of understanding and openness along with theological acumen. Although I argued question after question, he answered truthfully, sincerely and expertly.

He paved the way for me to start a serious search for God. I attended different churches, questioning, challenging, arguing, but always I struggled with the dichotomy between what God should be and what man said He was. It was when I attended a Jewish synagogue that I found the God of my understanding: A God who allowed us to be in charge of our lives; one who talked to us directly, communicating practical, fundamental laws that worked. Now I knew what I was looking fora church where God and man talked to each other and worked together without guilt, shame or fear.

And then I came upon a Spiritualist church and found not only God in people, but a God I could relate to, a God I could understand, a God I could trust. Each soul makes his own happiness or unhappiness by the way he obeys or disobeys natures physical and spiritual laws.

I learned that all my fears, failures, doubts, dependencies, pains, sorrows and my growth in spirit were all part of me. Coming to know that all these things were tools God uses in mans search for truth, a search that exists within all beings. There is more to life than just survivingmore than just cooking and laundry, a paycheck and cocktail parties and baseball games. There is not only more to life, but there is more to death than what we know.

Now I understood that the world was in my hands. What God gives me is the courage, strength and power to make decisions and perform actions. God works with me not against me. I have the power to make my life all that I want it to be.

Once Id made a commitment to spirit, I enrolled in classes for spiritual unfoldment and found myself being used as a channel for Gods healing energy. After several years of study, I applied for certification as a healer and took classes to be an ordained minister.

As I pursued my gifts of the spirit and was heavily involved in various spiritual and new age groups, the subjects of the nature of reality, psychic development and mental illness were becoming confused for me. When I heard voices or saw images, I thought I might be losing my mind, not knowing if it was imagination, intuition or wishful thinking.

At this point, spirit very wisely sent me to work in the Nursing Education department of a psychiatric hospital. Working there I discovered that what I had been studying, the psychology of mediumship and spiritual gifts, was part of the human experience and products of the human mind, so that my understanding and awareness grew. There I learned to understand an even mind. I also moved closer to putting my trust in spirit to direct and guide me to be a channel for God.