EPISODE 2 TRANSCRIPT

Jenna: Hello everyone, welcome to the Star Family Wisdom Podcast. Thank you for joining us. I'm Jenna Layden, former Global Vice-President for Whole Foods Market, and founder of Star Family Wisdom.

Sinéad: And I'm Sinéad Whelehan, former special needs educator and co-host of the Star Family Wisdom Podcast. Star Family Wisdom is a paradigm-shifting podcast, community and online school for your cosmic evolution.

Jenna: Although we only met last year, the journey and experiences that have led us here were very similar. Five years ago, we each had experiences that changed our lives forever.  And after years of research, exploration and healing, we know that our reality is so much more expansive and beautiful than we used to believe.  And last year we quickly became friends and started having long conversations about our experiences, the expansion of consciousness and the reality of extraterrestrials. And we realized we need to share these conversations with you. 

Sinéad: Why? Because we know we're not alone, and that it's time for the world to know.  So on this podcast, we intend to share conversations, ideas, and information that will inspire you and support you on this wild journey of becoming a human - being human, and becoming human in some ways as well.  We're going to explore ancient clues about our untold human story, real life supernatural experiences, lost knowledge from the stars, and spiritual wisdom that empowers you to transform your life for the better.

Jenna: Being experiencers of supernatural phenomena and ET contact, it's important to us that we have open, fun, mature conversations about what is possible and how we are evolving as humans.

Sinéad: We love all things woo, magic, mindset, science, spirituality, health, and wellness, and of course, extraterrestrial. And through these conversations, we want to explore how all of these topics connect to inform the evolution of our human experience.

Jenna:  Ultimately, we want everyone to embrace a multi-dimensional reality without fear. Things are going to get a little far out here at Star Family Wisdom from time to time, but we'll ground you in the science, research, and information that we use to expand our minds and open to the incredible nature of our reality.

Sinéad:  Together, we will discover and remember our place among the stars.

Jenna:  And the thing is, we're not special. We know so many people are going through a spiritual awakening, or just beginning their spiritual journey, or have had experiences

they can't explain. So it's time to talk about these experiences. And we think that being weird is the new normal.

Sinéad:  It's definitely the new normal. It's also the new cool as far as I'm concerned. So let's get started. Uh, Jenna, we were going to talk about the weeks that we have just had…it's been quite a week on a personal level, you know, individually for both of us, but also, um, collectively.  As just, North Americans and then as citizens of this world, because there's been so much going on in the world this week, what are your thoughts that you'd like to start off with, about that today?

Jenna:  Oh my gosh. Well, you know, at first we need to explain ourselves with the title of this episode. Um, you know, it's not, not exactly a normal title, but you know, we've already said being weird is the new normal, so here we are.  Yeah, it was a big week, you know, I, I'm still processing, you know, a lot of my feelings, you know, around what's transpiring in the world and, and, you know, processing both from that, you know, human place, right, like, the human part of me - but also trying to zoom out and see, see the bigger picture. Right. And reflect on that bigger picture of, you know, what got us here.  And, you know, that's always helpful for me, you know, on my journey to be able to, you know, gain perspective right. And attempt to, to widen my perspective at times.  But, but yeah, it was a hard, hard week, you know, I think while, you know, so many people are, you know, reeling, you know, from the fact that, you know, we just saw a big conflict escalate in the world.  Right. Um, it's, it's one of those things that, you know, is somewhat predictable, right. Because history repeats itself. And, you know, I think we've already talked about, uh, you know, how on this podcast, we'll talk a lot about history.

We'll talk a lot about what we can learn from our past, can inform our future. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, this time was predicted by, you know, a lot of people in this world, you know, we've got a lot of prophecies out there that have even predicted this, you know, time of kind of tumultuousness or chaos that, you know, we might be experiencing, you know, we went through it with the pandemic now, you know, this Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is just so tragic and, and it has been predicted, you know, we're living through this incredible time of change on our planet. And when we transition eras, you know, which is what we're doing right now - we are actually in this process of transitioning eras - that's freaking hard. And, and sometimes that, you know, that chaos and the, the hard parts of that can lead to really profound growth and healing.  And that's my hope, you know, is that while we are, you know, experiencing and witnessing, you know, this situation in the world, that ultimately it will give way to healing and a positive transformation eventually.  And, you know, I've been working on finding acceptance, right. You know, I think when we get onto this spiritual path and we are, you know, evolving ourselves and working to create our realities, we can also start to develop a resistance to what is, and what is happening in our lives.  And the reality is we live in this collective reality and we, we’re going to experience things that are hard, no matter how we are evolving ourselves.  And no matter how we are doing our best to control, you know, our experience of reality, we are going to experience hard moments and finding acceptance in that, and, and finding ways to be of service, are so important. And, you know, I come back to that in these moments, right, when all of a sudden it feels like there's a lot of chaos, and there's a lot of unknowns, and that can feel scary, right.  For a lot of us, you know, it's about coming back to what we can control within ourselves and, and, and doing our best to find acceptance and not resist the situation and find ways to show up, to be of service in the world.

Sinéad: Yeah. And of course, to be of service to ourselves as well. I really firmly believe that  - this is something I've talked about a lot in the interviews that I've done, in the panels I've been on… and so on that, um, you know, I really feel that personal responsibility comes first because we can't control - the fact is we cannot control anyone else or anything else.  We just do not have the ability to do that. We do have full control, uh, or choice - I would like to say choice more than control - I think we have choice in how we operate, you know, um, with ourselves, we always have a choice about how we respond to something, how we react to something, what we choose to say, what we choose to think, what we choose to feel.  And of course, um, a lot of people that are out there, like - I'm hearing the devil's advocate in my head, you know - people that, they're probably saying, well, that's not true.  Sometimes other people force things on us, and they force circumstances on us, or on children, right, who are at the mercy of whatever adults are in their lives.  That's all very true. But sooner or later, you still have choice about that situation. And you can still choose to, if you aren't able to have the awareness, if you are a spiritual practitioner, if you are somebody who has access to the tools and knowledge that’s available to all of us, then you can choose how you're going to respond to that, how you're going to process it, how you're going to deal with it, how you're going to carry it into your life, if at all.  And so this week, I feel like it was a little bit of a, an exercise in that for both of us, you know, just, it wasn't a particularly - I wouldn't say it was the hardest week I've ever had - but it was definitely really bonkers.  And there's been a lot of that going on in my life over the last month that I feel like has to do with helping me prove to myself that I'm strong, that I'm resilient, that I'm flexible, that I'm adaptable.  You know, I really feel like I have a choice - I can say, oh my God, this is a really, really difficult period, I'm so stressed out, I'm so unhappy, I'm so unsettled, whatever. But I really firmly believe in walking towards those experiences, you know, walking towards fear, walking towards what is uncomfortable, as much as we're able to, and just trying to learn from it and realizing that it is also an opportunity to become stronger, to become more self-aware, or to draw from our endless personal resources.

Right. So, yeah, I think especially in times of great change, which you've been talking about, they did some really - I mean, regardless if you're a spiritual person and in the spiritual community or not, it really doesn't matter - everybody is experiencing massive, massive change. It is a global situation on multiple levels, you know, politics, economics, um, quality of life, what is meaningful to people, you know, people are really shifting and changing internally and externally in terms of our expectations of how we want to live and you know, how we want the world to be in order to be able to live that way.  So, yeah. It's just - so many thoughts come out of this situation. What would you like to say about that? 

Jenna: Yeah, I think it's, you know, I, I reflect on how it's like this real life, battle of good and evil, you know, on our planet, we have this very extreme situation that has unfolded, right, where there is some very real, you know, evil actions occurring and the amount of darkness, right, and compounded trauma, that has occurred on this planet has led to, you know, what we're experiencing, you know, over this last week with Russia invading Ukraine.  You know, we don't, we don't get out of what has been created in one generation, you know.  This sort of evolutionary process back to a more harmonious civilization takes time.  And, and we're in that fight right now. We are in that, that existential, you know, battle for, you know, dark or light, good or evil and, and it's playing out, you know, on our planet.  And it's so interesting to just be in that and, and to move through that. And yeah, I love what you were saying about how every situation presents us with a choice, presents us with an opportunity to learn.  And while a lot of people, myself included, might have times of thinking, what are we doing here? Right. Like, what is this, how did we end up here?  There is also this opportunity and that this, this extraordinary opportunity for spiritual growth and evolution and so many souls on earth right now have that opportunity to take no matter what is happening, whatever the experience is, whether it's your cats getting sick and dealing with all of that drama or whether it's, you know, a bigger, you know, crisis, we can all choose how we move through that.  And that's, you know, I think the lesson we find in these moments is, do we cower, do we go into a state of fear and do we, you know, allow the worst parts of ourselves to be exacerbated, or do we allow the light within ourselves, right, and the parts of ourselves that can bring resolution to these situations, do we allow those parts of ourselves to flourish and, and how we all show up in these moments contributes to our evolution, contributes to our karma, contributes to how we are, you know, kind of climbing that evolutionary, spiritual ladder of the universe.  And, you know, while that's a thing that doesn't replace the fact that we are all having this very human real experience here, right?  Like last week, when it was all starting to go down and, you know, we're watching the news and thinking, oh my God, are we on the brink of nuclear war?  Are we on the brink of World War Three? Could this be happening in our lifetimes? And you know, the probabilities are there that it could, it could escalate, right?  We don't want that. And we are putting all the intentions out into the world for peace and harmony and love and bringing, you know, a swift peaceful resolution to this hopefully, but we also have to be realistic in what could be, you know, our future.  And, you know, when you're in that moment, you know, you have all of these conflicting emotions and, you know, one thing in our title, that's like this, you know, odd juxtaposition of the, you know, cat mom, nuclear war and ETs, which, you know, we'll talk more about our ET experiences in the next episode and, you know, get into more of the nitty gritty there, but, you know, suffice to say we've had them and we are connected, you know, with our star family, with ETS.  And I had a moment, you know, even though I can zoom out and see the big picture of why this is happening, and I can understand the relationship between humans and ETS, I even had a moment of getting, you know, grumpy and, you know, griping to the, getting bossy with the ETS and saying, help us, what are we doing here? Right?  Why are we letting this happen? And how can we allow a civilization like ours to go down this path, to go down such a destructive, violent path.  Like we have to, you know, do our best to avoid the atrocities of war, to avoid another situation of compounding generational trauma.  Like, we can't have that happen on this planet, right. And so I've been, you know, struggling with those emotions over this last week.  And we can probably talk a little bit about the noninterference policy at some point, and you know what that means for us here, but, but yeah, I've had a lot of those conflicting emotions, right.  The zooming out, finding acceptance, allowing myself to feel it all, but to move through it and to come back, you know, to my center, but it's a lot, you know, it's a lot.

Sinéad:  Yeah. Uh, yeah. And I think, you know, touching on what you were saying about the polarization that occurs in this planet, on this planet, you know, the so-called good and evil - um, it is true. I, you know, I, I think a lot of people in the spiritual community, um, talk about this particular issue, you know, of the existence of good and evil.  And there's some people in the community that believe that ETs are only bad, that  they come in and hurt us ,they abduct us and they hurt us, and you know, that there's kind of maybe a conspiracy involved - and then there are other people who believe the complete polar opposite, that ETs are only good, they're only here to help us, that all of, you know, this spiritual life should only be good, should only be rainbows and crystals.

And then there's people who are in the middle. And I personally am in the middle. I feel like it's really important to, to acknowledge the existence of - you know, in this reality on this planet, I believe we're living in a third dimension.  And I also believe that it is made up of duality. And so polarization is like a natural state, you know, for us in this level of evolution and this level of our human progress.  And so, you know, I think it's important to not avoid conversations that are about that, you know, conversations that are about the difficult, challenging, scary stuff that does happen on earth that is painful.  That is, you know, um, troubling, that does not represent the best of our human, our human nature and how we treat others, how we treat animals, how we treat the planet. 

Jenna: And we can't ignore that this is a big part of our human experience, right? 

Sinéad:  Yeah, it is a big part of the human experience.  It's an innate essential part of the human experience. And I think, you know, again, it's about choice. We are always creating our own reality.  You know, that is what we're gaining more and more awareness of. And this is a fact, I mean, this is now being further and further validated by science, by many people, in many fields of science, most notably quantum physics, that we do create our own reality that we are manifesters of what occurs to us.  And if you're anybody who has practiced that in any way, you know, it's true, right? It's kind of like that stereotypical example of getting up on the wrong side of the bed.  If you get up on the wrong side of the bed, then you have a bad day. Well, if you really think about that, getting up on the wrong side of the bed means waking up with essentially not a great attitude.  You know, you're waking up in a bad mood, you're feeling negative, and then we are magnets, right? We are antennas.  And so, we attract more of the same, whatever we put out is what we get back. So going back to the polarization and the duality, I think it's really important for all of us to embrace both.  Not only that it exists in the world, but that these things both so-called good or bad exist, always in ourselves.

You know, we are not perfect. We have flaws, we have mistakes, we make mistakes, we hurt other people. We learn from those things, hopefully, right.  We also have all these good qualities, but in times of great challenge and great fear like we're going through now, that struggle is I think magnified, you know, and, and the oscillation back and forth between the two can feel a little bit kind of schizophrenic or something like you're going back and forth between experiencing joy, experiencing beauty, experiencing life, as so-called normal, you know, having comforts, having the people in your life that you love, the things you'd like to do, the things that bring you joy.  And then there's all this troubling stressful stuff that can happen on a personal level, but also on a global level that that's us now more than ever because of our connectivity with the internet.

Jenna:  Yeah. And like you said, this is normal for this stage of our civilization. It may not be, it may not be the norm in terms of every single civilization goes through this extreme level of polarization, but a certain level of polarization is normal when you are at this point in the third dimension and working to evolve past it.  And our civilization just happens to be experiencing a much more extreme version of that because of, you know, events that have played out on earth.  And so it is important that we honor that and acknowledge it and, and do our best to help each other through that experience of that polarization of feeling like you're being pulled right between, you know, um, these extremes and, and, you know, I think -  I've been thinking a lot over the last week about how we direct our consciousness and how our culture has actually been a little obsessed with war movies, violent media, um, media that depicts the end of the world, right?  Like there's, there's a lot of media, right, that we allow our consciousness to latch onto that is directing our energy in a way that we might not actually want to play out in physical reality.  Right. And I think a lot of people don't understand that that is a thing that occurs. And like you said, we are waking up to that understanding now. And so it's important. We have these conversations about how we are using our thoughts and our mind and our intentions, because even just watching a movie, right, it might seem like a small thing, but even just watching a movie about big, violent destructive things can contribute to our collective energy, going down a certain path.  And we have to be careful as a collective about how we direct our energy. And I think a lot about that because now that we have this science and we have this, you know, grounding and that understanding, we can start to make some different choices about how we direct our consciousness and about the media we choose to watch and the things that use to engage in and the things we choose to talk about.  Right. So while we're reflecting here on just kind of what is, and what has been happening over the last week, we certainly shouldn't follow this up with watching three violent destructive movies, because that is pushing our consciousness in a direction we do not want it to go, and we all need to reflect on, on that actually in the, you know, Raise Your Vibe Challenge on Star Family Wisdom.  One of the challenges is about that, about auditing all of your media intake, auditing everything you listen to, you watch, you read, and just noticing how much of it is, you know, going down that negative path or exposing you to, you know, negative things that could, you know, affect how you're experiencing reality versus going down a path that's more positive. And that's part of our, this choice point we have as a civilization kind of part of this fork in the road we're experiencing right now.

Sinéad: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, it's so important to, again, acknowledge that we always have choice, but also that we are, you know, we are pretty desensitized in many ways, partially because of the media, we experienced all that also because it's, you know, social norms and behaviors that we're taught and ways of thinking that we're taught that don't always allow us to think and feel freely, right. Um, or think or feel authentically, authentically to ourselves. That is, you know, there isn't, there isn't a lot of room for thinking that doesn't fit within the so-called norm.  I personally feel there's no such thing as normal. It's a fabricated concept. It has changed innumerable times over, over the course of our history.  It's not a static perfect thing, right. It's just an idea that changes over time. So I've never really believed in normal.  I've never felt normal and I've always been extremely sensitive and extremely empathic and very, um, you know, attuned to intuition and vibration and energy.  And then of course, I got desensitized from that, you know, walking, growing up and becoming, um, subject to just all the messages about, you know, being part of the group and following the rules. And not that there's anything bad about necessarily following the rules. There's sometimes there for a very good reason, but sometimes they're not there for us for, for our benefit, right.

To help us grow and help us expand. Um, but then also individually, you know, all of us go through experiences in our lives that kind of disconnect us from ourselves, you know, painful experiences or experiences where we're not heard or seen or recognized or whatever it is.  So we can become a little bit - we can become a little bit detached and desensitized from who we really are, from how we really feel organically about things.  And, you know, I think that in this process of thinking about how our lives both on a big scale, and on an individual scale, affect us and how to deal with stresses and the ups and downs, the positives and negatives that happen.  I think it is really important to recognize that we are much more sensitive than we think that we are. You know, I was thinking about when you were mentioning, uh, movies that are not good for us to watch, right?  Like really violent movies, really negative movies, movies that maybe propagate stereotypes or discrimination, whatever it could be. Um, so many people say, oh yeah, I can watch that, and it doesn't affect me at all. You know, it doesn't affect me at all. How come you can't watch that and just, you know, kind of buck up and watch it and not have any feelings.  And I just never was able to understand that, because to me, it's - food comes in different forms, right? Food is not just what we put in our mouth and swallow and chew and digest.  Food is also comes in the form of what we can give ourselves energetically.  It comes in the form of what we give ourselves, vibrationally, what we, what we choose to see, what we choose to feel, all of our senses, give our bodies and minds and energy fields food.  So we do have to be very cautious, about what we are doing to, to nourish ourselves, to give ourselves nutrients, so that we can be strong and flexible and able to move through life in an empowered state, where we're also open to how amazing and varied life really is.  And then the more we have awareness of that, we're more able to deal with it because of course, if you can't see something, you can't address it accurately.

Jenna: Yes. You're more mentally, emotionally, spiritually stable and strong. You become more resilient during times that are hard, right? You can move through those times in a different way.  It's really interesting. You talk about, you know, that nourishing quality right, of the energy or the food, whatever it is, because we now know on a scientific level, we know now that plants, when ingested, turn on your longevity genes, the calories, right, that you are eating, and one piece of food versus another piece of food, have a different effect on your biology.  And, and that is true also for all of the media intake, right? So we, we can, we can think of it that way, too.  It's all energy. And it's all sending different signals to our cells, to our biology. And one example from my life recently was being with my dad, and step-mom watching a film when they were visiting my house not long ago. And over the last three to four years, I've been very mindful about that shift in my consciousness and that shift and what I'm taking in, what I'm watching. And while I was always sensitive, like you, I had also become desensitized and growing up, I was around a lot of those sorts of violent movies.  My dad was into Western movies and, you know, anything that was action-oriented. So it was a lot of that, that I was taking in.  And over the last three, four years, I've mindfully shut that off so that I could start to experience something different.  To allow myself, my body, my mind, my spirit to heal. And recently with them watching a movie that they wanted to watch, it was the John, one of the John Wick movies.  And that’s with Keanu Reeves. I hadn't seen them. I think I'd heard of them. And, you know, Keanu can be good in some things.  So I agreed to it. We watched it and, oh my God, the amount of violence, and just, yeah, it was awful.  You know, I laugh, but geez, it's just killing.  Nonstop. Like there's not a scene in the movie where someone's not getting killed.  And that's what we're watching for entertainment. My God. 

Sinéad:  Oh, speaking of desensitization, right? Like what better way to desensitize people, through a seemingly harmless, medium, such as movies.  Right. Cause people really seen movies as, oh, it's just a story. It's just fiction. It's just a movie, but this is stuff that it's like, it's not like saying, oh, junk food.  Oh, that's just junk food. You know, it's just, uh, a processed hamburger, like no big deal, but it has an effect.  You can't just go, oh, with just a bit of junk food. Oh, it's just a movie. All of these things have an effect.

Jenna:  Oh, I could barely watch it because I've been more sensitive again.  Right. I've, I've worked on allowing, you know, my, my sensitivities to grow because I've been healing and I've become more energetically sensitive and I could just, I could barely watch it.  It was too much. And I think about that in relation to, you know, again, how we are also desensitized to even what's happening right now in the world.  Right. You know, as we film this, this is four or five days after, you know, the invasion of Ukraine. And here we are all, you know, watching this on social media and the news.  And while it's also shocking to many people - we’re also somewhat desensitized to that because we've been seeing it all our lives.  Even if it's not on the news, we've been seeing it in our movies. And that's just, it's just a tragedy that we're in that state as a civilization, right. That, that we've gotten to that point where that feels normal to us. And that is, that is just part of our experience here.  And again, I think, you know, we, we can all do the work to envision and dream a different future into being, we can all be, you know, doing that work now to be thinking about how do we get to the other side of this and what does that, what does that world look like on the other side of this?  What does, what does that world look like that we can collectively build once we've moved through this, this period? 

Sinéad: Yeah, I mean, one of the things we're seeing in terms of exactly that if people are saying, you know, we need to be kinder to each other, we need to be more compassionate when you can be more caring.  It's very clear that people have that intention. You know, that that statement is out there among many, many people on social media as well.  So social media and media is not all bad, right? Obviously there's a lot of good in our human nature that also comes out in social media that comes out in media.  But I, what I think is really concerning is that our compassion, compassion, true, compassionate, true care. And, you know, uh, I guess you could phrase it as unconditional love is unconditional, like, compassion is not, I'm only going to feel compassionate towards these people and not towards those people.  And I think it's sad that we are, you know, it as very, um, uh, you know, as beings who have so much potential to change and to be amazing in so many different ways, that we have been conditioned to be so selective in our compassion.  You know, for example, the imagery - going back to media again - the imagery of Ukraine is largely of white Ukrainians. Meanwhile, there are a huge number of African Ukrainians who are having a great deal of difficulty being able to leave the country because they're being put as the last point already by border guards, by people who are trying to leave the country to escape the war and not to mention, I mean, Afghanistan has just gone through an absolutely horrific, uh, regression back to the Taliban and people didn't respond to that as much as - my Afghani friends, my friends who are Afghan - they were kind of surprised that more people didn't respond because it was really so drastic.  And of course, it was a big deal for a little while, right. It was in the news, but then it fades away and look at Syria, look at Yemen, Yemen, the people in Yemen are starving to death right now.  That's been going on for years. Where is that in the news? Right? So it is, it is sad to me that we have fostered this practice of kind of deciding that there are certain kinds of people and certain kinds of situations and certain kinds of animals that deserve our compassion and our care, whereas others don't, you know, and again, there's that polarization like, I'm going to put it here and I'm not going to put it there when really an integrated sense of compassion, which is something that if we practice can help us get through these situations that we're talking about, you know, practicing compassion for ourselves, for the people and the beings in our immediate life, like in our own home, if you have animals, I have three cats.  Um, there are insects, you know, there's spiders that come into my apartment. I don't kill anything. I will not kill anything.  I will, I will catch and release. Um, but having that practice of compassion really does expand your heart, expand your consciousness and affect your life, you know, permeates your life in ways that you don't really expect and changes how you react to situations such as war, conflict, um, between human beings and political situations.  You know, it's, it's what all the wise teachers have always told us all this time, the practice of love, of compassion for self, for the world, for animals, for nature, for everything, for in general, love, compassion, openness, receptivity, that takes care of so many problems that we have in this human existence. It really, really does. It sounds so simple. It's not simple, but it is true. It is true. 

Jenna:  I love that.  I love that you just talked about compassion and unconditional love, and it's, it's like this remembering that we're all connected, right?  It's actually this remembering that we're really not separate and that, you know, when we hurt each other, we hurt ourselves and, and, and we can come back to that remembrance.

And it's, it's interesting that you bring that up because I, in preparation for this chat and yeah, some of our upcoming chats, I did a couple of readings and I pulled a card and I want to just read the passage briefly because it, it sums up what you were saying beautifully.  And it's, it's this reflection on that. And this is, um, actually from the Divine Feminine Oracle deck. So I use this, this deck a lot in my practice and the card I drew is Serada Devi, unconditional love exists within me.  And the passage says, in her teachings she emphasized that there is no such thing as a stranger. She encouraged her devotees to understand that everyone we meet is actually a part of us and is connected to us.  And if we want to experience true peace, we need to own the fault and judgment that we project onto others.  And we need to see our own faults and forgive them with love. And she says to us, “No one is a stranger. My child, this whole world is your own.” 

Sinéad:  Yeah. It reminds me a lot of um, something I learned that I will never, ever, ever forget.  It was when I was living in a Buddhist temple for a while. I was a Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist nun in training.  So I had shaved off all my hair and gave away everything I owned and lived in this temple and was living a communal monastic kind of life.  And, um, one of the best lessons I got, this really landed with me, and I hope it will land with listeners too - it's a common, um, lesson, I'll say in, in different kinds of Buddhism, not only in Tibetan Buddhism, but Buddhism in general believes in reincarnation right, that states that reincarnation is a truth.  And that we have all, we are all eternal, that we are born over and over again, that we have different bodies, but our consciousness is essentially traveling, you know, over these lifetimes and over these bodies and learning and progressing and evolving, hopefully.  And so, you know, um, but as impeached is that we need to try to see every single other human being.

And, and I think animals, as well as our former mother.  That we have, that they have all been our mother, and that we have also been their mother.  And when you think about it like that, it immediately evokes the love that, you know, motherly love that love that, that nurturing heart that we all have, whether we're in a male or female body, whether we're mother or not, I'm not a mother, I don't have children, but I've taken care of children.

Jenna:  You’re a cat mom.

Sinéad:  I’m a cat mom, yes

Jenna: It’s in the title of the episode.  We can explain that real quick.  We’re both cat moms, by the way. 

Sinéad: Yes. Yes. Well, we'll dive into that right after this, but yeah, just that, that, that practice of, you know, seeing every other, being as our mother, but then also another one that really, really hit home for me, this is the same theme that I also learned during my time in the temple, was that every time we come across someone that we don't like, and we say, we don't like that person because they do this, or they have that quality.  It's usually because that's something that's in ourselves that we don't like, we don't want to look at it, we don't want to own it. And so we projected outward on that person, and then we run away, so we don't have to look at it and deal with it.  Right. So really, it's not that person we don't want to deal with. It's that part of ourselves. So if we learn again, if we learn to embrace our wholeness, our light and our dark good and our bad, then that helps us become more compassionate to other people as well.  So diving into the cat mom thing, oh my God, what a week.  Um, all three of my cats got sick.  I have never, ever, ever had this happen before. My family has always had animals. Um, we've had a dog, we had a couple of dogs.  We've had lots of cats. We've had birds, we've had rats, we’ve had lots of different things, animal lovers. And, um, so I've had cats, literally my entire life, have never, ever had this happen before.  All three of them got really ill and there was just diarrhea everywhere, and there was vomit everywhere, and they were not eating, and I had to give all three of them medication, every 12 hours. This is still ongoing. So it's been very messy, and very, uh, you know, a challenge, like really not something that I wanted to have to experience.  But how metaphorical is that at the same time, you know, s**t happens - sometimes in your house, on your wool rug.

Um, and also, you know, life is messy and gross and the human body is messy and gross and animal bodies are.  And that's all part of our reality too. 

Jenna:  And sometimes when, sometimes when we have this like, perfect plan, right? Like we have this perfect plan of the things we were going to do over the last week.  And then that happened, you know, first it's one cat, then it's a second cat, then Russia, invades Ukraine. Then I've got a ghost in my house that's bugging me and all this stuff, right. That just showed up and redirected us. And at the end of the day, like you have to find, find a little bit of humor right.  In the messy parts of life. Right. You have to, you have to be able to just like accept right. And move on and find a little bit of humor in the moment.

Sinéad:  Yes. I mean, that's what kept me sane!  You know that, I just kept sending you messages saying, okay, now the next one is sick and this is the latest, and this is what's happening.  It was just one thing after another. So yeah, you have to laugh at yourself. And I actually find that the ETS, that is a lot, you know, that's a part of how they, how they contact me, is they make me laugh at myself.  They make me laugh, you know, they help me loosen up. They helped me laugh at the absurdity of being human, the absurdity of, of so much of what we choose to do as human beings, how we choose to behave, is absurd, you know, but we're so entrapped in the idea of normalcy and we're so entrapped in these sort of, um, pathways of behavior that we're all supposed to travel on, that we don't always, we're not always able to step back and have perspective on that.

Jenna:  Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes you're possessed by a ghost or a spirit that's agitated and that's, what's bothering you, which I learned last week, the hard way.

So you get up actually, that is a practical thing to share with people who maybe don't know, you know, we actually do sometimes get affected by other energies.  Right. We can get affected by, you know, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be a ghost, but we are affected by other people's energies.  And sometimes there are spirits, right. That are lost. They haven't made it back to the other side. They haven't made it back to, you know, the spiritual realm or they will then, you know, decide on their next incarnation.

And they're kind of, you know, floating in this kind of bardo, limbo state. Right. And we can get affected by them.  And so, yeah, while you were dealing with cat drama, I was not expelling a spirit from my home, but working to, to bring, you know, the, um, guides and spiritual beings into, into the room to help that spirit cross over and find peace and move on in their journey.  So that was a big lesson for me. I've been doing shamanic practice for the last - oh about two years -  but the last year, like very intensively.  And, and I'm pretty sure I've had this situation happen, you know, over the last year.  I just wasn't aware of it. But this last week finally, you know, realized what was going on that, you know, some of that I was feeling and experiencing, you know, in me and around me was not me.  And, you know, I've worked on, you know, opening those channels and, you know, my senses in a way where I could, you know, understand and perceive what was going on.  Um, but, but yeah, you, you never know what life is going to throw at you and, um, and what you need to be prepared for. Right. What you need to be prepared to move through and address, and um…

Sinéad:  And, um, and especially if you're a weirdo, if you're, if you’re a weirdo, right.

I, this is a perfectly normal conversation to the two of us, you know, there’s a spirit in your house, metaphorical cat poop. 

Jenna: We've either gained a lot of followers and listeners here or lost a lot.  So this is either going to go really well or really badly. 

Sinéad:  It's a polarizing episode. It's a polarizing episode.

Jenna:  Well, speaking of polarization right now, right?

Sinéad:  Yeah. But I love that we can talk about these things. You know, I love that when we talk about all of it, I love that we're both curious, open, receptive people.  And so many of the people that we're so lucky to talk with and spend time with are also like that, you know, that's one thing I appreciate so much about this community that, you know, everyone, um, is open.  Everyone is open to possibility. They're open to the unusual, they're open to what's outside of the norm. And if you're just willing to be in that state, you get to have all these really fun, fascinating, transformative, uh, bizarre conversations, you know, so whatever purpose it serves, it still opens our minds and kind of, um, lets us know that there are doorways and windows beyond where we think they are.  We think that there are like, we have access to so many different ways of seeing and being, right and learning. 

Jenna:  And expanding into that does make life a lot more fun even during the hard times, right?  Even during the very human, difficult moments of this experience, having that bigger picture perspective and being able to kind of experience all aspects of reality can, can be comforting and, you know, be this, this way of moving through our experiences in a lighter way, in a less heavy way.  That's been my experience at least, you know, finding this path and, you know, getting to this point where now, you know, I really have these spiritual practices and this way of life integrated for myself, it does help you move through those heavy moments in a lighter way.  Right. You're still going to feel some of that heaviness, right? You're still gonna feel the emotions and you need to let them move through you.  You still need to, you know, allow the full experience, but it's going to be a little easier. Just a little.

Sinéad:  Yeah. I mean, you and I talk a lot about zooming out too. Like we talk a lot about perspective, and then how we choose to frame experiences and thoughts and so on and live as manifestors to, you know, creators of our own reality, um, we talk a lot about zooming out and that is something that is a practice for me. You know, the practice is zooming out my perspective because that always gives me relief.  It always helps me to remember that I am just a grain of sand among all the other grains of sand and that I'm part of a collective experience and not get so condensed inside my own experience, my own reality, my own head - but to zoom out and remember that the human experience is huge, varied, collective, worldwide, and I'm not alone in the experience that you know, that I have, uh, of course, to different degrees, different people have different advantages and disadvantages around the world.  Uh, that's karma, I think largely right. And also choice. Some people believe that we choose to lives that we come into, that we lead, you know -

Jenna:  Both.

Sinéad: Yeah. I mean, there's different theories about that. Yeah. We either choose it or we don't.  I mean, you and I have our own personal perspectives on that, but there's so many fascinating, um, researchers, and there's so much incredible information out there that really helps us get a better perspective whether or not we are spiritual practitioners or ETE believers or whatever.  There's such an incredible wealth of information out there. And I want to touch back to, touch back on when you were saying about media, media is not wholly - I don't believe in anything being completely good or completely bad. Again, I believe that we live in a place where duality, um, is constantly existing and coexisting, right? The - so yeah, good and bad co-exist and they cannot exist without each other. So media of course, is also so-called good and bad.  And we have choice with how we take in media, but we also have a choice to see media as not the only source of information about what is happening in the world and to maybe take in what's going on from media, but also taken from other sources what's going on and to explore and be curious and ask questions and seek, you know, and not just assume that whatever is given to us on the mainstream level of our reality is all fact, and is everything that there is, you know, we really have to push further, especially at a time like this, when we feel this density of transformation and change and shifting that's happening so profoundly on so many levels of our human existence.

Jenna:  Yeah. And there's a lot of agendas out there, right? When you get money and power and greed and economics and political agendas, all intertwined that can lead to a less pure state of, you know, information delivery, I guess.  And, and so, yeah, we just have to be discerning. We have to be discerning and what we're taking in, how we're taking it, it in.  And, and like you said, look across a wide variety, you know, of information. And I consider media to be all of the things these days, right?  Social media, you know, boots on the ground, or reports of what's happening out there. In addition to mainstream, in addition to independent news sources, in addition to YouTube channels, right.  Where you have very well-researched, well-educated, you know, commentary happening about things, you know, going on in the world. And, um, you know, we've got a lot of ways to compare and contrast information to discern.

And I think where we get into trouble sometimes is when we take that polarized view of saying everything the mainstream media says is inaccurate or not truthful, or, or, or you can't trust anything that's outside of the mainstream media.  When we get into that polarized state, you know, when we start making those very grandiose claims that tells me that we're missing some piece of the truth there, right.  And, and you and I both kind of land in the place of truth is found in the middle. Right. Um, it's usually not found in those very polarized, extreme points of view.  And, and, and so, so that's kind of how I like to approach it as discernment and using a wide variety of sources to form my opinions.  And we talked in the first episode about, um, you know, my journey from being atheist to where I'm at now, and that required a lot of research and discernment and what I was taking in who I was trusting, what I was believing and comparing and contrasting, you know, resources and, you know, finding a corroborative, you know, um, information out there that, you know, started to help me evolve my point of view.  And so I think any time we take one thing, one person said and say, yes, that's true. We've got a problem, right?  We, we live in a very complex world today and, and it's just important that we're practicing that sort of discernment.

Sinéad:  Yes. I could not agree more. I could not agree more. I want to say, actually, I'm sort of reiterating what you just said in a different way.  Um, that I think many people who are not in the spiritual world, who are not in the ufology world in particular, the paranormal world, may be thinking that it's not possible to be spiritual and be a critical thinker at the same time, because they think that spirituality is all woo.  And that a lot of it is nonsense, you know, not based on fact or true.  But the fact is that you can actually be a deeply spiritual person, be able to be a dedicated spiritual practitioner as you and I are, being extraterrestrial contactees as you and I are, and also be educated, thoughtful, discerning, critical thinkers.  You know, I mean, educated, meaning not having, I don't mean necessarily going to school and having a degree. I mean, educated, like you're, you've taught yourself, you have learned from other people you have learned from life, you have read books, you have investigated different sources of information, and you have a foundation underneath you that allows you to evaluate information well and use your critical thinking abilities, as well as your intuition, because intuition is a source of wisdom.  You know, it's not only our left brain wisdom that counts, right. There's so much right brain or intuitive or psychic wisdom that counts just as much.  And that is also starting to be validated more and more and more in the mainstream, which is incredibly exciting. I could not agree with you more about that.

I think it's so important to say to our audience, you know, we are, we are people who believe in woo, we believe in magic. We believe in all the wonderful, exciting, miraculous things that do occur around us all the time.  But we also believe in science and history, you know, some aspects of history, you and I are going to talk about that that - but um, you know, we believe in, in, in information that can be proven in whatever field, you know, like there's so much really thorough, careful research that’s done by so-called alternative academics.  But these are people with PhDs who, you know, worked for governments for decades, who have been scientific researchers in universities for decades, have been medical - medical doctors for decades.  And these are people who have experiences. Their entire lives are changed and they go into a, you know, they start to dedicate their intelligence and their drive and their ambition and their, their, you know, uh, holistic commitment to information to this new field, right?  Because their perspective has been so changed. There's so many just brilliant, brilliant people.  And I really want to emphasize that because it's such an unfair and unfortunate stereotype that spirituality just means rainbows and unicorns.  You know, it isn't, it sometimes is. But as you, what I, you were saying earlier, we, you and I are in the middle.  We are not this extreme or that extreme. We don't think everything is all bad or all good. All rainbows and puppy dogs are all demons and ghosts either.  

Jenna:  I also don't love the term alternative, either, you know, because I think when we talk about alternative research, alternative media, whatever that is, that has this connotation with it, that it can't be trusted.  Right. That's kind of the connotation. Our culture has developed around that term. And when I look at quote unquote, alternative research, like you said, this is information that is coming from people who are credible academics, you know, have gone on to achieve very high levels of education and they professionalism and professionalism.  And all they're doing is presenting new information, right. Presenting new evidence. And we should all be willing to change our minds when presented with new evidence.  Right. And I think we, we end up labeling new evidence as alternative because it is evidence we don't want to talk about or see or acknowledge.  And, and so that's part of this change, right? That we're going through. It's a, it's a natural part of our human nature to resist change, right? It's a, it's a natural part of our human nature to not want to change our entire belief system when you've spent, you know, your entire professional career researching something that now has to shift.  That's a hard thing to go through. That is a, that's a difficult thing to go through. And that's, that's also what we're going through right now as a civilization where we're being presented with a lot of new evidence for how we can operate for our history, for what is true about our reality.  And, and it's not fair to say, well, that just doesn't align with what I've already come up with. So we're just going to ignore that, right.  We can't do that. We have to be open-minded and we have to allow ourselves to evolve our understanding over time.  So when we present quote, unquote, alternative research on this show know that it is absolutely trusted by us, right? We're presenting it because we trust where it's come from.

We trust, you know, the, um, the grounded nature of the people who are presenting this information. And it's, it's from that grounded foundation that, you know, we form our beliefs and, and are able to expand our, our worldview, expand our consciousness, expand our understanding of what's going on, why we're here and why all this is happening.  Right. And so, um, it's with that intention, right. That we do this. And so, so yeah, I think it's so important that we're all open to that.  We're open to new evidence. We're open to changing our minds. We're open to evolving our understanding of things. 

Sinéad:  Yeah, yeah.  It is so true. I mean, you're reminding me, I can't remember what this quote is. You will probably remember, because it’s that famous one everyone knows, about, you know, “good girls never make history”. It's the difficult women who may kick up a fuss and give everybody a hard time.  And that's, that's true of anybody, male or female or whatever. Um, you know, I, I don't believe in the binary, uh, by the way, I think that, you know, whoever - sexuality and gender, there's a whole other conversation, but I just think anybody should be allowed to represent themselves in the world the way that they choose to.  And if not other people to tell you, it's not up to other people to tell you who you are. So I'm saying male and female, very loosely, I'm talking more about the energetic forces within us than our bodies and sexuality.  But, you know, regardless of who it's been in history, um, that has, has done things like that. Of course, anyone who's pushing the envelope, who's pushing boundaries, who's pushing what is what people understand to be the norm.  Who's making people feel unsettled or uncomfortable, or, oh gosh, there's some new information that is creeping into my reality, that I'm not sure how to digest this.  All of these people are seen as troublemakers. All these people are seen as unacceptable in some way or another. Um, if, even if we just go to that old tried and true example of Galileo, right, who went through so much trouble after trying to tell people that the, the universe was not quite what we thought it was, and that planets are not quite what we thought they were.

And you know, this is how we can see the night sky and that got him in tremendous amounts of trouble.  So anybody who tries to show new information to help people learn, it always unsettles the rest of the population. It always makes people nervous.

And I think that that's actually a good thing overall, right? We are supposed to be a little bit uncomfortable and get a little unsettled when something is going to change, because it can't change unless it becomes unsettled first. 

Jenna:  That's part of pushing through right. That's evolutionary process. 

Sinéad: Yeah, Exactly. Yeah. The erosion of the old world and the birth of the new. And so another thing you and I are going to talk about a lot is destruction and creation and how those forces exist in our lives as well.  But I think that this is probably a really good point to wrap up our discussion and maybe tease a little people, a tease, a little people, tease people a little bit with what's coming up next because we're going to be talking in the next few episodes about our ET experiences, and how that has changed our lives. That is what has brought us to be here today, in this friendship, creating this podcast, you already created Star Family Wisdom, me joining you in that company - and then, um, you know, talking about how we support ourselves on that journey as well, what our spiritual practices are and the tools that we use, what we have learned from all kinds of different things that we've explored and tried and how we've created our own kind of practices that support us the best way that we can. 

Jenna:  And our healing process through all of that, because, you know, this is all about healing.  This is all about us healing individually and collectively, so we can move forward in new positive ways. So we can move out of what we've been experiencing over this last week.  And so, you know, part of our, our intention with sharing our practices and our spiritual journey is to talk about how we have approached our healing and in a way that we hope is supportive for you and, um, helps you in that process of your own healing.  And, and so, you know, we'll, we'll have those conversations next to, to kind of, you know, move, move beyond this, this last week a bit, but to stay in that place of how can we heal and how can we, how can we continue forward on this journey together in a way that supports our collective transformation in the best way possible.  And then, um, and then we'll, we'll see you on the other side of that for lots of conversations with guests and people who are also troublemakers in this space - are we going to be labelled as troublemakers now?  Is that, is that a thing? 

Sinéad:  I like being a troublemaker. I liked being a weirdo. I like not being normal.

I mean, this is who I really am. This is who you really are. And I hope that everybody who listens to us will feel the freedom to just live authentically.  You know, that is something that is so incredibly important to us, to live authentically, to feel in ourselves, that we are living as truthfully, as authentically with as much integrity and honoring our true selves, as much as we possibly can, no matter what anybody else thinks, no matter how we are moving through life, that is our journey is to live life, the truest way that we can.

Jenna:  Yes.  Pick up, pick - uh, speaking of which - pick up the book, professional troublemaker by Luvvie Jones. It's incredible. And it's about her journey of being a troublemaker and, and pushing the boundaries, you know, of our culture and, and helping people rise through that.  Helping people find their true selves and stand in their power. And, um, you know, I love her, I love her voice and her humor and how she just like tells it like it is, this is not an ad, by the way, I'm just telling you about this book that I love, because, you know, for me, it really helped me step up into my power and be okay with ruffling some feathers and be okay with living authentically as myself.  So if you're in that place right, where you're kind of struggling with, you know, how to get to that authentic, empowered place, her book's amazing.  Check it out. 

Sinéad:  Yeah. I haven't read that, but, um, we are going to be recommending some wonderful books along the way, as well, on our podcast.  And occasionally doing book talks so that we can share with everyone, incredible books that we've read and what the key information in there is, and how it's affected us.  So, let's say goodbye and thank you everyone so much for listening. We really, really hope that you enjoy our conversations.  We love having you here with us, and we're hoping that you will continue to follow us, please, by all means, tell us what you think of our podcast episode, of course, like and subscribe and share, and please stop by starfamilywisdom.com.  There is an incredible library, free library of free resources to help you get started. If you are not somebody who's yet on the spiritual path, if you'd like to know more about ETS, if you'd like to know more about how to create your own reality, how to have a spiritual practice, and we're going to be adding more and more and more content along the way.  So thank you so much, everybody for being here with us and Jenna, I just adore you. I'm so happy to be doing this with you.  And, uh, I just love that we get to do this together. It is really a great experience. 

Jenna: I know.  Yeah. I love you.  I'm so glad that that we met and that this is happening. So thanks everyone. Catch us on Tuesday and Thursdays for new episodes and we'll see you next time.  Bye for now!