Latest / Rare Medium with Deb Snyder / The Heart of a Healer with Charlotte LaBelle
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- Deb Snyder: I was sitting at my computer and I got this invitation through the computer and I went, Okay, So it was like a a cattle call for actors. And so it was a little bit leery. I didn't know anything about Reiki. So I went in the back door and looked in and there were about thirty people in the room. all sitting there waiting with the teacher in the front and I looked around and I said, Hey, nobody's got three heads. All right, I'll step in. So I sat at the back And the second this teacher started to get into what Reiki was, I recognized the energy that is used in Reiki. Universal life force energy was the energy that I'd been using without a name. So finally had a name for part of what it was I did. I feel like there were lots of little bits collected pieces for me, but now I can call myself a Reiki and people will understand it. Deb: Rare Medium with Deb Snyder, celebrating life's rarities, the people, places, and experiences that just might be a little bit weird. This podcast explores all facets of our energetic connections to each other and beyond. We'll dive into the depths of mediumship, psychic ability, intuition, near death experiences, afterlife research, healing modalities, and more. Our focus is to bring you relevant and moving accounts with guests who share their authentic selves and their treks into the spiritual and energetic realms. We'll learn how those experiences shifted their perspective on life itself. Join us to be inspired by everyday people on their extraordinary journeys into the rare medium of the mystical world. Topics discussed on Rare Medium by the host and guests are presented for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional, legal, or medical advice. Deb Snyder: Hello and welcome to Rare Medium. I'm your host, Deb Snyder. This week I am honored to have my dear friend, Charlotte LaBelle Charlotte and I have known each other, probably going on 10 years now. she is a professional in metaphysics in the mind-body-spirit area. She runs Teresia Reiki. It's a part of a holistic center here in Western Maine. And we're gonna let her tell us all about her work. Char welcome. Thank you, Deb. It's a pleasure to be here. I've really been enjoying your podcasts. All the guests. I listen to every single one, and I'm so happy for you and this enterprise. it's been a blast. And I'm so glad you're joining us. Now, if you guys remember, Charlotte was mentioned by one of our prior guests, Melissa, who is one of her students over the years. I guarantee you, Charlotte, has collected many a student over the years. So so tell us, Charlotte, how did you come about learning about your sensitivities, learning about your abilities? okay. So it was always there, Deb It was there and natural. My dad had some sensitivity. My mom had a lot of sensitivity. She was born with what some people call a veil over her face. It's a a skin membrane. And she had told me that if babies were able to keep that, that they would have lots of gifts. And hers actually was taken from her and put in the church. Interesting. I've never heard of that before. It's not very usual. So I I did a little bit of research on that as I got older, just to figure that out. she was amazing. a psychic. She would do all different kinds of things, works for medium. know things before they happened just all the time, but she never taught me. But it's how I grew up. Mm-hmm. And when my I I had a baby brother who was stillborn and my dad was looking out the back window towards the neighbor's porch. And what he saw was this huge illuminated clock with the hands at a certain time. And that's when my brother died. yeah. So I guess he was actually alive and then died. Right, right. that's beautifully poignant. I can understand how that could happen obviously your father's abilities as a clairvoyant, that would help him. So his whoever was guiding him from the other side, was giving him that added insight to help him cope help his family cope with what was to come. Yes. So that's powerful. what were your dad's abilities like? And did he actually embrace them in his everyday or just have them? my dad had a great sense of humor, number one. Number two, he was a very quiet man, a man of few words. It came about for him more in his connection to nature and the natural world, but he would get senses, feelings about things. And most often it would be to stay away from a certain situation because something was going to happen or something like that. But also I remember him talking about some of these experiences with a little smile on his face, which was terrific. You know. That's that's great. Now, did your parents realize that you were like them? I think my mom did, and I think that's probably why she didn't teach me because she had had some training. And so she she pretty much kept me away from it. She said that she was reading something one time and saw something and after that she refused to read again. And I think she did not want that experience for me. Right. I I can understand how that could happen if if something didn't sit well with her, she wanted to protect you. Simple as can be. And I think that coming from a family as well where some of that stuff runs in the family, We do all do it differently. And and take our own way and our own path. Now, being a friend, I know that you had a bit of a hard time with your peers growing up with these abilities and you felt you had to kind of stuff it down. Definitely, definitely. Yeah, it's heading into the sixties and going to school the first day and it was like right away I could tell it was different. And so I would say things that were normal and natural to me. and people would be like, she's weird. I'm gonna go play with this one over here. She's weird. Yeah, it got to the point. I have a friend who sent me a little sign that said, You're weird. I love you. That's right. And that's kind of the best way now is of course when we're kids and we're growing up and we're more insecure. yeah, we label ourselves weird in a negative way and go off, you know, to play by ourselves. then as you kind of come into it a little bit more, you notice the other weirdos out there and you gravitate. one of my dear friends, Suzanne, would talk about waving your freak flag. so it's kind of like, there you are. There's there's one of my people. And now of course it's really fun, because especially if you go to mind, body, spirit conferences there's lots of lots of the bees buzzing around doing different stuff, but you'll end up finding yourself sitting at a table or sitting with a group and you realize, this particular group has this in common. And it's kind of fun how the universe puts people together like that. It's the best feeling when you get that connection. That's part of the reason why I started doing shares and things with the Reiki group. we do healer shares now because there are a lot of modalities. But I saw that in myself that I hid it for so long and there's such a great joy in discovering it. And meeting it and being open to it. And so a lot of people would come first time. They they didn't know anything about Reiki or they'd know a little bit, or they would be a massage therapist and different, different things. But I love, I love that spark of people going, It's okay. I can say what I see, I can say what I think, I can say what I feel, I can say what I'm wondering about. And we always leave it open. Ask any question you want. And it doesn't matter if you want to ask one of us individually in the group or you know, if it's a group question, we'll all answer it for you. I love shares because everyone's on equal, loving ground. No competition, just all for, group healing and group evolution. And I was always captivated whenever I've been blessed to participate and share is the unexpected things that can happen. where people can share visions and things where you might think you're the only one that sees a certain thing and at the end when maybe people are talking about what they experienced in a group meditation for example four out of eight people actually saw the same image that's cool. It's like magic. It's wonderful now, Charlotte you having had these abilities lifelong You said that there was a point in time when you actually took a a Reiki One course through your work that was the real big awakening for you. It was, Deb. I was sitting at my computer and I got this invitation through the computer and I went, Okay, it was sent out to everybody. So it was like a a cattle call for actors. And so it was a little bit leery. I didn't know anything about Reiki. So I went in the back door and looked in and there were about thirty people in the room. all sitting there waiting with the teacher in the front and I looked around and I said, Hey, nobody's got three heads. All right, I'll step in. So I sat at the back and then I recognized two of the the people who are closer to the front. So I went up and introduced myself and we sat there. And the second this teacher started to get into what Reiki was, I recognized the energy that is used in Reiki. Universal life force energy was the energy that I'd been using without a name. So finally had a name for part of what it was I did. I feel like there were lots of little bits collected pieces for me, but now I can call myself a Reiki and people will understand it. Right. I love Reiki and I love that it is ever expanding. So just when you think you it's this Exactly, exactly. And it matches so perfectly with so many other modalities. There are people who use Reiki when they give massage. There are people who invent different types of Reiki. you can put Reiki with pretty much any other modality and it works just as well. Well, and that's right up my alley because I love people celebrating their individuality and knowing that we can take the knowledge that we get from different modalities and create our own. Like the work that I do is called HeartGlow it's something that I have done, for my own daughter and what I teach about in my first book, Intuitive Parenting, The HeartGlow Way. so check that out. but that's it's got a little bit of this and a little bit of that and the things that I've learned along the way that helps for a true enlightening, enriching life. now tell me a little bit about at your center now. what's the formal name of the center? I want to make sure I get it. It's a center for healing arts and therapy. Okay. Now at the center, you said they do a bunch of different modalities, like like what? we have a lot of practitioners who are massage therapists, some who do polarity, reiki. it's quite a long list, we also have counselors in the building. Nice. So a more traditional walk in the door kind of thing. Right. I think that's important when we can bridge allopathic medicine, allopathic care with alternative I don't even know if you call it alternative anymore because it's become so mainstream. But having that bridge. I knew things had changed when in the hospital with Raegan part of the offerings we could choose were Reiki. That's so exciting. Color therapy, aromatherapy, visits from puppies. You know, it and it became they realized that that was part of the healing you realize things have really come a long way when the traditional medicine is embracing how much these things are helpful to have for people that are inpatient at hospitals. Yes. it's great that they have that full list of things for people to be able to choose what suits them or they might be comfortable with. Very early on when I became a Reiki, it was not well known in the Oxford Hills area. And so after thinking about that for a while and having my shingle hung out there, I said, okay, we need to make this so the public understands what it is and we need to do it in a very open, comfortable way. And so we actually joined an arts fair that was going on and we took the Reiki table out and we took it to the streets. And some of my favorite things, as I always say, the best compliment for a Reiki is when they fall asleep on your table. Because that means they're absolutely relaxed. And in this case, it was packed full. The entire street had people all over the place, vendors, things going on, music, clowns, you name it was going on. And we would have perfect strangers come up who hadn't tried before, and we put them on the table, and they would fall asleep. And everyone around them could see, hey. This is something pretty cool. I mean, who's gonna fall asleep in the middle of a street? With all that going on, you know, but they would wake up refreshed and feeling better even from a very short amount of Reiki it was a delight and it was just really nice to be able to put that out there where people could observe as well as try it. Charlotte worked for a major hospital here in in Maine. when you were doing that training, this was all that was going to be supporting the Dempsey Center, correct? Correct. Which is Mr. McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey, his family founded what's called the Dempsey Center here in in Maine. they do amazing work for cancer patients here. So that was how you provide a lot of your healing toward people that are treating for cancer. Yes, yes. That was part of the original invitation was that if we learned, we would volunteer at the center as Reikis to help clients. Absolutely. And I think for me personally, having a devotion in your life as part of your just everyday life. We all need to make a living. to know that you're going to volunteer to do things to help uplift the world. trust me, it uplifts yourself as much as it could ever do for anyone else. thank you for doing that for people that's important. Absolutely important. And often introducing a modality to people who've never experienced it before. Yes. At a time they need it the most. And it's just wonderful to see their reactions and how the Reiki made them feel, the pain eased, they were able to relax. just some really wonderful experiences with that. And grateful I had some time to be able to do that there. I know that when I was treating for cancer, I personally didn't let my guard down very often in protection of my own family. I think I think a lot of people are like that. Certainly a lot of women I know are like that. And having the time to just be with a healer without discussing everything, just having that time where allowing that space to be created, that healing space to be created, it's sacred. those those moments that I had nurtured me so much because when you're not in that space, you're doing so much else. There's so much else you have to keep going, for your family, for everything else. And a a lot of cancer patients I know, you're trying to keep a happy face. And that's not always, easy to do. when you have that opportunity to be so authentic and be nurtured, it was positive for me. Wonderful. So these things are necessary, folks. Nurture yourself. Yes, it's all about self care. And even going to a practitioner for Reiki, level one. Reiki comes in three levels for the most part. level one is mostly self Reiki and right away. You can put your hands on or not for yourself to give you Reiki. And that's taking care of this. And then you learn level two, which is the practitioner level. And that is sending the energy out to others. And then the third level is the teacher Sometimes they call it master as well. Right. Right. Because you'll hear becoming a Reiki master, Now it's all about channeling the energies, right? And being attuned. Yes. And being attuned at those different levels. Right. Okay. And for those who don't know about Reiki, an attunement is basically a ceremony where energy is put into your system with symbols from Reiki. And Reiki, symbols are meaning dense And we could have a whole nother talk about that because I love symbols. But so this ceremony would occur and so that each level you'd have a different ceremony for that. sounds fascinating. Now I know Charlotte, another part of your work with the center is hosting retreats Tell us a little bit more about the retreats that you do. We've been doing retreats for probably about sixteen years now. And we began by renting a cabin at the ocean and going and enjoying our time. We stayed over. So it's it's like a long weekend usually nice. And it really gives us a chance. Sometimes we have presenters like yourself and sometimes we do intensives where it's very, very quick learning and crammed into one day. in the fall we go to Rangeley and we'll be there coming up this September we're going back to the basics with Reiki. And yeah, a lot of the people have been there for many years, but there'll be some new folks too. And so we're just gonna go back to the very, very beginnings of learning the symbols, tracing them, finding ways to work with them, and lots of hands on Reiki this time around. Nice. remember where we came from and and rehonoring that. that sounds really good. Now you choose to go Rangeley Maine Folks is a very beautiful community, very beautiful lakes region, part of the extended lakes region of Maine. Now, but you go there for a very specific reason. We do, we do. And when I first became a Reiki, I had information given to me that there were four things I needed to do before I could become a master. And I did them all except for one. And it was seemed like every time I tried to complete it, that it wasn't working. So I asked my guides, can I do this but study this after? And they said yes. But one of the other things was that I very much got information to go to Rangeley to the Wilhelm Reich Museum at Orgonon and went and was blown away by the amazing work this man did with universal life force energy. He was able to recognize it, to measure it, to capture it, and to utilize it to help people. Now tell people what what era was this in when he was doing this work? Okay, so he came to the United States, I think back in the nineteen forties, and this particular time period spanned more into the fifties where he was really doing a lot of he had amazing other things going on too. But so think of how provocative this is folks. That this this gentleman was doing this research and study and sharing with the world these concepts that, especially in the in the state of Maine at this time, would be so foreign. Yes. And so just how powerful that was. I mean, think back when we think of the nineteen fifties, we're thinking about, Bobby Sox and, post war where people are doing things in a different way. And universal life force energy wasn't on the tip of everyone's tongue. So good point, good point. And it was also McCarthyism time. Absolutely. So that definitely ended up having an impact on this man and his life. And so the story doesn't end well for him, but they've continued the museum and his work this last month They were just able to send out accumulators and orgone blankets for the first time in 50 years. Wow. They haven't been able to sell them or ship them any place in that amount of time. Now I personally have not studied his particular work, so I cannot speak to it. You can, thank goodness for doing that. in all the different types of things that I've explored, there's redeeming qualities have an open heart and have an open mind. I'm sure they have a website for the museum and everything, so you can learn a little bit about it. But I find it so captivating. I had years ago, I sat with a sound healer out of the UK, Stewart Pearce he talked about how When in the course of our life, that sometimes there are just places that we need to go to pick up little pieces to our own puzzle. And that's going to be different for every single person. if we're called to go to Oahu, Hawaii, or if we're called to go to the UK, or if we're called to go to Rangeley Maine, pay attention to that because sometimes you just need to step foot that's what he said to me. Sometimes you just need to step foot there. So that it's almost like you pick up. I thought of it, like a video game. It's like you just need to go and power up you're setting foot where you need to set foot. so it's kind of neat because if you think about it, there are times of our lives where we feel very depleted. And to know that we can be restored somewhere is a really neat concept. So wonderful. Healing time. That's the name of the retreat. Healing Time. Good. Thank you. Now, Char what do you have? You said this is going on actually this come this month. Yes. So this is gonna be happening good. Now, how many people do you normally have at these retreats? Generally we have between and it it it does depend, but because of the location of these particular cabins that we rent while we're there, there's a limited amount that we can absolutely stay over. And this year it's about eight to ten we can manage for overnight. But we do day trippers as well. And we certainly have lots of room for day trippers, especially on Saturday while we'll tour the museum. do you feel you talk about being in the mountains and then being at the ocean? Yes. That's a beautiful part about Maine, because you're only a quick drive from from either one. quick meaning a few hours. do you find the energy is different? Yes, but in both cases, Orgonon is located on Dodge Pond. So it's not only the mountains, but there's a water as well. And I I think that's vital. I think good water is vital. and when we went to the ocean the first time, I didn't realize it, but I found out later after we'd gone to Orgonon, Wilhelm Reich was a golden boy of Sigmund Freud's. And so they had a division on how the libido was going to be handled. in science and investigation. And so Freud had changed his mind about it and wanted to go in a different direction, where Reich continued on that. So they had a falling out. And it's very interesting because in the spring when we go to the ocean, we originally went to Bailey Island and walking distance from the camps that we rent there is the first place in the United States that Carl Jung, also a golden boy of Sigmund Freud, came for a symposium. that's amazing. I'm a big, fan of Carl Jung's work. I'm always captivated by some of the writings he did about interviews with people that were living at the time in insane asylums because of course what was there and some of the things that he would encounter and he would write down about people's visions and what they believed, seemed downright odd, you know, to the average person. And I remember specifically him talking about this one patient said when he moved his head in a certain way he could see the phallus of the sun. And Jung was like, how fascinating is this? After that, years after that, they discovered a civilization whose part of their belief was if you Move your head and look at the sun in a certain way, you could see the phallus of the sun. So to realize that this person who is unfortunately locked up in an insane asylum was probably having some sort of past life overleaf into his current existence. And I just thought that that was captivating. Love that stuff. Absolutely. We're geeks, guys. We're geeks about that. But it just goes to show you that energy work, past life belief. All this does overlap. people like Charlotte and myself, we are reading the books. We are trying to learn who came well before us to make sure that we understand this knowledge and that those coming after us realize that there were pioneers who did this work, that were teaching us I don't think that's ever gonna end. And I'm hoping more people delve into that aspect. There's a lot about pop. culture, psychism, pop culture, spirituality, even pop culture, astrology. Do the work and know the little bit deeper down levels. talking about that, Charlotte, you find yourself being a mentor to a to a lot of people on the path. and that you allow that to happen organically? I do, I do. when I meet with someone, the first thing I do is just allow them to be who they are. And then what are they talking about? What what is their mode or what do they some people see colors, some people have senses of things, some people hear voices. We start out with their strength and then work from there, but always leave an opening to check other things out. That curiosity is incredibly important. And I just I love that. I love folks who are curious and want to find out. And even if something seems like a dead end, A month ago, a month ahead, a year ahead, all of a sudden something will click. I call it a click. No, I get it. And it just falls into place. It's like, that's why I had to find out about that. Or that's why there's never a straight line. And it's I I actually like wandering off and finding different things and saying I know this is gonna help at some point or this is going to mean something to me. Yeah, being an intuitive and helping people. And and trusting your own intuition of what you're getting to assist them and whether or not their intuition agrees or it's say, yeah, I think you're right, but I'm gonna go this way slightly, that's what it's all about. knowing that it's important to have different methods and different ways, but not to be limited by those different things. I think I even said this when I talked to your group. the dogma of fixed belief is by far more cumbersome to carry than the light in your own heart. Yes. So that is important that you identify your own uniqueness and celebrate your own unique expression of energy and let that lead the way for you because that's what's gonna help our world is being ourselves, being ourselves authentically. So it's perfect. Awesome. Now, Charlotte, before I let you go, I make every guest on Rare Medium answer our 10QQ questions. These are 10 quick questions that everyone answers. Are you ready? I am. Your 10QQ? Do you believe in the afterlife? Absolutely. Now, what was your age and the best year of your life so far? All of them. All of them. Who's your favorite musical artist? that is tough. We go from Bach to. Billy Joel's who i it's wide and diverse. Very good. Where would you most like to travel? Hmm. It's a good question. Let me think about that for just a second. Right now I'd like to go to Europe. Not any specific place, but being a bum in Europe would be really fun. Sounds fun. who is the person who has inspired you the most? Probably hard for me to admit back in the day, but my mom. Yeah. Nice. Now, if you could have an entirely different profession, what would it be? Just what I'm doing. Perfect. What are you grateful for? every day, every second. just waking up in the morning with a smile on my face and saying, Okay, there's something fun out there to discover or some play. Lovely. Do you love yourself? I do. What's your most regret? I think my biggest regret is not recognizing myself sooner. That's powerful. In a word or two, what advice do you have for your fellow humans? Be open, be curious. Allow yourself to be happy with what's simple. I like that. I definitely can relate to having a simple process, a simple life. It's rewarding, very rewarding. Charlotte, Labelle, thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate you being here. Wonderful to see you again. Thank you for And we'll see you next time. This has been Rare Medium with Deb Snyder. Please subscribe on your favorite channel and leave any comments you'd like us to see. To learn more, visit DebSnyder.com or Heartglow.org.