Friday, May 29, 2015

June 2015 Snake Oil/Snap Out of It!

June 2015 Snake Oil/ Snap Out of It!

I woke up one morning in late March feeling depressed. I still went thru the usual motions of eating breakfast, checking emails, my bank balances, and a few other morning necessities. No matter what I did I felt gloomy, mildly miserable and just couldn’t shake a sense of why-bother. I wasn’t even sure what I was depressed about. I wasn’t sick. I hadn’t recently been through anything specific that would be a reason for my unhappiness. Even though I had slept almost eight hours already, I decided I would just go back to bed. My cat ran to the bedroom excitedly when she saw her dad was heading back to bed. Her enthusiasm gave me a little comfort, as my sad self hit the pillows and went back to sleep for two more hours.
I had a bit of a too-much-sleep headache when I woke. I headed for the gym to do my usual work out and by the time I got home, made my lunch, and prepared for my three late afternoon appointments, my depression was completely gone. Two of the three clients I saw that day admitted they were taking antidepressants. I was not surprised that they used pharmaceutical ”helpers.” I can often tell when someone is using antidepressants. They are subtle, but there are a number of behavioral clues that give it away. A lot of people use them, it is far from being a rarity. I used to wonder why so many people (not including people who are bi-polar or with similar types of illnesses) try to push depression away with pharmaceutical “solutions?” Over the year I found the answer to that question. 
I personally have never even considered using an antidepressant. Pharmaceutical cures in general are not my thing. I did smoke marijuana fairly often from the ages of 17-25. This may have been my way of dealing with some depression when I was younger, although there were more prominent reasons why I smoked weed. I was an art major in college, worked at restaurants, and went to lots of concerts in the eighties, partying in general and getting stoned was pretty common place. I hung out with other stoners and a big part of what bonded us together was this shared commonality. I really was never much of a fan of the influences of alcohol, so I rarely drank liquor. The shift in perspective from getting stoned was more appealing than being drunk. It didn’t have the uncomfortable physical effects alcohol seemed to have on my body. Even in my stoner days, I still never smoked every day, just mostly in the evenings when the day was winding down. I enjoyed life when I wasn’t stoned just as much. The popular theories about becoming lazy and nonproductive from marijuana never applied to me. It never stopped me from getting anything done, and sometimes motivated me do more. I had some serious cleaning the entire house and organizing closets and files sessions back in those days. I still was usually productive when I was under the influence, it was just done in a different state of mind while doing so. It never was a “gateway to hard drugs.” My use of pot decreased quite a bit when I got into my early thirties, especially when I got out of the restaurant business. It became more of a once in a while, recreational celebration thing at best. I know of a number of people who still smoke weed regularly, and are very, very productive people. 

Like many people who are creative (this pattern can be seen in Numerology and Astrology charts), I had occasional bouts of depression throughout my life. Over the years the amount of times I feel depressed has definitely declined. At best it’s now every few months when I have a brief bout of depression and it rarely lasts for more than a few hours. I always spring out of it. The things that make me happy again are never medicinal solutions. It can be as simple as something cute my cat does, a funny text from a friend, a television show that makes me laugh, a song I haven't heard in years, or simply a good cup of coffee and cake. Hell, if I plan my next Vegas trip, or any trip, all aspects of depression are long gone. It seems the planning of a fun, future event alone is a definitive cure. Even if I feel sad about something I feel is missing, or hurts, I always realize that I am blessed and lucky in so many ways. If I linger on depression for too long, in some respects it almost feels like a performance on my part. My life is simply too good to allow depression to eat up my time.
There are legitimate reasons for people to go through long term depressions. Sometimes people go through really traumatic events. Things like losing a child, having a string of deaths of friends and family, going through a painful divorce, finding your mate has been cheating, getting fired from a secure job, finding out you or a family member has an illness, etc... can understandably really be grounds for depression. Difficult things happen in life from time to time. It is normal to occasionally get depressed. It is a natural human response to difficulty. The more severe the difficulty, the more likely and lengthy a depression can be. In extreme cases, getting a prescription for a pharmaceutical antidepressant may be temporarily beneficial.

A number of doctors and psychiatrists believe antidepressants are useful and necessary and they influence many people. In addition, even without a doctor’s aid it is easy to get various forms of these “magic pills.” The problem many encounter with prescription drugs is getting off of them. Most pharmaceutical remedies are not cures. They are designed to mask symptoms and problems. They also have a number of negative side effects. A common side effect from some anti-depressants is depression! I have actually seen this listed on bottles. When I was younger and had really bad allergies, I tried pharmaceutical aids to help with my allergy symptoms. Yet, I found that the side effects from the allergy pills were worse than the allergies themselves. This always seemed to be the case for me every time I took any form of pharmaceutical remedy. It is easy to become dependent on relief aids and it is equally difficult to get off of them. This is why I often suggest to clients to either not take them, or wean off of them, even if the process is difficult, and it often is!

I have always looked at depression differently than the norm. In some respects I see it as both natural and good for us to feel and experience depression. Being sad, and melancholy can be good for us. It can be a contrast that makes the happy times even more notable. We are not meant to experience one mood, one way of perceiving things. Experiencing difficulty and sadness can help us to be more empathetic to other people when they are going through the same or similar experiences. When we are depressed it is usually because we feel unfulfilled, or something we want is missing in our lives. Sometimes we long for roads never taken. A huge component in depression is “where I should be by now.” We often compare ourselves to others or simply feel we are not living up to our potential. These types of thoughts of course, will trigger depression. 
When the depression is triggered by painful events, we need to remember that what we are going through will in most cases, inevitably pass. And, if it is a truly unchangeable issue, we may simply need to accept this as part of life and change our point of view. Our resistance to what is causes all of our suffering. Often the fear of change itself is the problem. Prompts from our Higher Self will often show us what we may need to do to find happiness, yet often we simply don’t listen. The fear of the unknown or making a wrong decision can keep us holding onto the very things that limit us. We are not meant to suffer. It isn’t good for the soul, no matter what any parent, religious influence, or anyone else might have told us to believe. Focusing on the hopelessness of a problem is not only not a solution, but the very thing that keeps us there. An antidepressant in the long run is never a solution to any problem. If a depression is lingering too long, maybe it’s time to both look and take some action to resolve what needs to be done for us to become happy again!
Jim V 5-2015 

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” Terry Pratchett

Editors Note:

I will be sending out my next round of referral comps at the end of June. Note: they expire after six months. The ones I sent out in January 2015 will expire at the end of June so be sure to use them within that time period. If you have one or multiple referrals u sent to me so far this year, you will be getting those in early July.  Thats $10-$25 off your next session for each referral! Please pass on my website information, FaceBook fan page link, and other information about my work to friends and family who might find it of interest to add to your comps. I am also currently running a new client special, so they can also take advantage of that. I appreciate all the efforts my Snake Oil fans and clients put into bringing me new clients, and I like to reward them for it!
Everyone who receives my monthly column gets $5 off my listed rates on 45-90 minute sessions. If you follow my fan-page on FaceBook its $10 off my listed rates! Local in office clients get another $5 discount for cash and check payments. If you were once in my Regular client program and stopped for any reason, having quarterly (or monthly) sessions you also receive the FaceBook discounted rate of $10 off sessions if you need to book a session. I can’t continue to give you the Regular client discounted rates though if it has been over four months since your last session. Clients currently in my Regular client program get higher discounted rates than the above listed rates. Check out the many benefits of this program on my website or request more information by email.
I have been doing monthly Michael teachings classes on my Thursday radio show. You can catch any of the previously recorded shows anytime on the archive at Blogtalkradio. Life changing information in so many ways. And absolutely free!

 MICHAEL MATERIAL
* What is your soul age? The soul age of friends and family ?
* How do past lifetimes influence us in the present ?
* What does karma feel like, and how does it work ?
* How does your chief negative feature impact your life, and can it be changed?
* What happens when your partner is an idealist and you are a realist ?
* What is your life goal? Is it dominance, acceptance, flow or submission ?
*What is your essence, your soul mate’s essence ? Artisan, priest, king, server, sage, warrior or scholar. ?
* What is a soul mate, task companion, heart link ?
* What do the higher centers feel like?
After this workshop you will understand all of these questions and many more, and more importantly have the answers.
There are no tests to pass, just some great information. 5 classes, 2 hours each.

What is the Michael teaching?
The main goal of the Michael teaching is agape or unconditional love. The teaching views life as a learning game in which fragments of the Tao - that essential part of each human being - set up lessons which continue over lifetimes. These lessons are learned via the personality which Essence chooses each lifetime. Michael teaches us what the components of the personality are so that we can learn to use and see these components in ourselves and in others. In that way we can learn to understand why human beings behave as they do. Michael is composed of 1,050 individual Essences who have lived on the physical plane and now teach from another plane. One of the most basic and important principles of the teaching is that it is not a religion or a belief system. Michael encourages their students to self validate all of the information they receive. The system was originally in print in over 12 volumes of information. “My studies of this material have been extensive and now I offer what I have learned to my students” Jim Ventura (Old Scholar). The classes will help you to use and understand the material without the need to read all the out of print books.

Wishing everyone a happy June! Cheers, Jim V

“I realized I was officially a professional writer when all my plans began with ‘drink coffee’ and ended with ‘take a nap.” Cassandra Duffy

Channeled corner. I read many, many books from different trance channelers in the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately many of them are now out of print, but I still have a huge collection and will share some of the best material I have collected over the years.
The Human Tendency of Depression
Dr. Peebles: Depression is created when there is no direct loving relationship with the Higher Self, but when there is a schism, when there is a direct self-inflicted interference. This is where you are not living up to what your Higher Self intended in this life. You have been taught, over the last few hundred years, to embrace more totally that which you are supposed to do on the soul level, not what you are supposed to do according to society or the collective unconsciousness of the planet Earth.
Depression is created then as an opportunity, a reminder, a barometer that says, ‘you’re not living up to your expectations of the soul. You are not living up to your potential. You are creating new karma, not balancing old karma. You are having a delightful opportunity to be Earthbound.’ That is all that your depressions are telling you-that you are not living up to your purpose in life. I would suggest to you that depression is not something that can be healed as a circumstance of the intellect. Depression is not something that can be healed by medicines, by herbs, by spices, by massage.
Depression is something that can only be healed when each individual is willing to face up to their purposes in life.
It can be healed only when each individual is willing to accept life EXACTLY as it is, not as they would hope it would be, as they compare themselves to others. So many times we hear people say that depression is created by this imbalance, that imbalance, this mother, that father, when actually depression is created by irresponsible spirituality.
Look at Christianity. Christianity was created in such a way that depression had to walk hand in hand with it. Depression is integrally part of the doctrines and the teachings of Christianity. You are taught to compare. You are taught to try to live up to expectations that are unattainable to human beings. And if you do not live up to those, you are improper, or you are bad, or you are evil. And depression must follow accordingly because you are not given the permission to be exactly what you ARE designed and created. In the grace of God, and your guides and the masters in the spirit, you’re exactly perfect as you are! You do not have the right to start comparing yourself to anyone or anything, for no other being or situation has anything to do with your experience in this one lifetime...
“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive it isn’t.” Richard Bach
New Client Special May and June 2015:

May 1st 2015 thru June 30th 2015 Special: New Client introductory offer
$10-15 off listed rates  for your first 45 minute session, 70, or 90 minute session! Ask for the special when you email
Venturasag@yahoo.com to book. Debit and credit card payments get $10 off for 45-90 minute sessions. Local in-office clients can get an extra $5 off for cash or check payments for sessions. If you want to buy a new client a gift of a session you can also take advantage of these rates!
My current rates (new clients can subtract the above discounts from these rates): 45 minute sessions $80. 70 minute sessions $110. 90 minute sessions $130.
Snake Oil Radio

Thursdays at 3:30 pm (there will be three live broadcasts this month)
My next live broadcast of Snake Oil Radio will be Thursday, June 4th at 3:30 p.m. (AZ doesn’t use daylight savings time, so same as pacific). Most Thursdays you can catch a new show. Each 45 minute show will expand on my current column’s subject matter. It will also offer an opportunity for you to call in live (or chat with other listeners in the chat room) with comments and your thoughts about the topic of discussion. If you miss the live show, you can catch any of my previously recorded shows on the web site’s archive. You can also catch Snake Oil Radio on I-tunes (download my pod-casts there).
To hear a live show, all you need to do is be at a computer and tuned into: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Jim-Ventura  You may also access it by going to blogtalkradio.com. Type “Snake Oil” into the search option.
You can also go to the shows that are currently “On air” at that time and find me. The call in number is 646-200-3966 for questions and comments.

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” George Carlin

Here’s my contact information to make an appointment for a session, or information on current classes: Phone: (602)957-3035 text: (602)349-0746 Email: Venturasag@yahoo.com (best method for contact)
Information about the different sessions and types of readings and services, past Snake Oil columns, and how to order my books and audio CD’s can be found at my website: Http://JimVentura.com 
“Friend” me on Facebook to get other extra offers and in between column extras! Signing up for my fan page will get you even more extras and first shot at reading specials. Simply click on “like” on the fan page and you will automatically get my weekly updates. 
You also may want to check out my posts on Tumblr.com: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/snake-oil-blog
All sessions/readings for 2015 are: Full (70 minutes) $110.00; Shorter session (45 minutes) $80.00;  Extended session (90 minutes) $130.00 (two people can split an extended session back to back for $65.00 each).  Email me for information about my Regular Client Program for even bigger discounts on session prices with the added benefit of monthly or quarterly check-ins. 
All Current Snake Oil subscribers get $5.00 off all listed prices for any 45-90 minute sessions (except when using a special discount promotion). Local in office visits receive  another $5 off listed prices for cash or check payments.