May and June 2019 Snake Oil
When in Deep Water
I was just finishing up a phone session in early January when I began to feel really hot and physically uncomfortably. I took a nap and felt a little bit better but when I woke there was definitely something off with my digestion. The next morning after a big breakfast I began to feel a really sharp pain just below my stomach on my left side. I thought it would subside but as the afternoon progressed the pain got worse. I had no desire to eat and the only thing that seemed to somewhat minimize the discomfort was hot baths. I had past success with acupuncture for kidney stones so I called to get an acupuncture appointment for first thing in the morning. It was an uncomfortable night with very little sleep. I did feel a little better after my acupuncture treatment thankfully but there was still something unquestionably wrong. Two nights later I had another round of pain on my left side that lasted about eleven hours. It was painful and scary. Should I bite the bullet and go to emergency care? Do I push through this and continue with my plan to use acupuncture treatments and herbal cures? More hot baths and a heating pad made it somewhat bearable but not by much.
The entire week was really difficult. I wasn’t extremely busy with appointments so I did keep working, although that was also difficult the first two weeks when I was ill. Still, when I don’t work I don’t have an income, so taking a lot of time off was not an option. Acupuncture treatments were very reasonable priced but still cost money. My daily meals consisted of soup broth, half an apple and grapefruit. I was feverish and knew my body was trying to heal what was wrong, so I had very little appetite. The entire time I researched what trigger points would help with digestion and the organs in the area I was feeling pain. After six days of being sick, with three fairly excruciating painful nights, I went to urgent care to get checked out and also got a blood test. I have purposely avoided western medicine for the most part in my life successfully for almost thirty years now, so it is definitely not my first choice, but I will use it if necessary. I currently have an Obama care plan and grateful that I have it. The monthly fees are very reasonable, but the deductible for a hospital visit if I were to commit to that road is $7,900. I only got completely out of credit card debt nine years ago and was not eager to put myself back in that spot. I pondered whether whether I should continue my current path of herbal and acupuncture treatments or seek answers from western medicine and the probability of it putting me back into heavy debt again.
The blood test came back normal and the doctor recommended a CT scan. I choose not to do that and continued to research what might be wrong with me online. Was it gall stones or kidney stones? Was it something else entirely? Most of the more vital organs are on the right side. I went through a painful appendix removal when I was 17 (and had surgery), and had kidney stones 16 years ago (resolved by an acupuncture treatment). The acupuncture treatments and herbal remedies seemed to be working now albeit slowly. I was getting better and also getting my appetite back after two weeks. I lost sixteen pounds in the process. In early February after lots of research I pieced together that it was diverticulitis. This was something my father had. I never knew what it was but had heard it often as a kid, “Dad has to be careful, his diverticulitis is acting up.”
My research confirmed that I needed to make major changes to my diet, I needed to eliminate or at least minimize the heavy amount of white flower I was eating every day and generally eat healthier. I added a lot more fiber to my diet and took daily shots of apple cider vinegar, aloe vera juice, and ginger. All of this was working. I knew that the physical issues were just a reflection of unresolved emotional stuff and areas of blocked beliefs. The physical body is the place we see our blockades when we have never resolved our emotional wounds. I had unresolved anger toward my mother. She provided well in her duties as a mother but was mostly emotionally absent. My siblings and I were shown very little emotional and verbal affection or really even touched very much as kids. I had always been able to see the wounds in all of my siblings from this, but didn’t realize how much it negatively influenced me. I thought I was lucky because I got more affection from my mother than my siblings did but it was still very little. While I was sick for those two to three weeks I took anywhere from 3-5 hot baths a day. I needed to immerse myself in hot water to physically feel better. The call to water was my emotional bodies’ way of returning to the womb. The place of safety before I came out to face a childhood of questioning whether I was lovable. Whatever this was, I knew I was in deep water and needed to dive completely into this process to heal.
The last year or so had another challenge in play that likely contributed to my illness. An old credit card debt I defaulted on from nine years ago that had been sold about 6 times back and forth, for probably pennies on the dollar was another area of frustration. The original debt had been bought and refiled in court by a collection lawyer in Scottsdale. After months of aggressive phone calls to me and some of my family members as a coercion tactic they put a lean on my checking account with the threat of a possible one time pull. While I knew they would never really get anything from me, the thought of going down to his office and beating the crap out of this antagonist honestly crossed my mind quite a few times. Threatening letters and just the feeling of being hounded this way was annoying. I was smart enough to use the strategy of purposely keeping very little in my checking account and mostly using cash but it was tiring. The debt default was from back in 2009 when the economy was in the tank. I had to default on some of the cards to survive. It was an agonizing decision that I put off for years because I ethically felt that a debt must be paid back no matter what. I was working three jobs and my condo was under water financially at the time when I made the necessary decision to default on most of it. I simply could not keep paying credit cards at a 24 percent interest rate and ever realistically get out of debt. I could have freed myself from years of getting hounded by debt collectors if I had $3000 to cover a good bankruptcy lawyer at that time. My mother was quite comfortably sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars and could have helped knowing I would have paid her back, yet when I asked her she choose not to help and pretended that money was “tight.” My father if he was still alive wouldn’t have hesitated to help, but my mother is nothing like my father. I could see years of buried anger connected with this lack of willingness to nurture in this way too was also a trigger for the painful physical issues erupting in my body.
Something amazing happened between my body cleanse, working with herbal cures, trigger point work, a series of colonics, and my acupuncture treatments. I became really aware of my blocked chakras, lack of flow and my emotional wounds. I forgave my mother, and the obnoxious collection agency and stopped being angry. Maybe it wasn’t so much that I even forgave her. I realized she was just missing a healthy developed ability to show empathy. She was born during the depression, and was a text book “Baby soul.” The collection lawyer was just doing the job he chose to support his own family. All of the stuff that irritated me wasn’t about specifically attacking me, even though it felt that way. Most of all, I got tired of being angry and hurt. My life was too good in so many ways for me to waste the present and future time I had in this life brewing about old perceptions of wounds. There were good things that came directly and indirectly from my mother. She taught us to be strong and all my siblings are truly survivors. Difficulties never take us out for long. Indirectly she created a strong large family. I am particularly good at blending in with any family, group, social circles, and work environments because of this “training.” I met with my siblings for a family reunion weeks ago in Las Vegas and we had a great time and for the most part all got along. How many people can truly say they are friends with all of their siblings? There were other things my mother did that were valuable. I also had to own that from a metaphysical perspective I choose for her to be my mother. The debt collector would for the most part get nothing from me and if he chooses to keep spending money filing in the courts in the future it is his choice. This obnoxious process taught me to be shrewd when dealing with this nonsense and I lived for years without any credit cards at all. I didn’t really need them. Now it seems that he is actually finally given up or has sold the debt off to another less aggressive collection agency. I haven't heard anything in months and my desire to strangle this vulture has long subsided.
In truth I had struggled with these somewhat buried issues for a long time. I honestly think that my cat absorbed a lot of this hurt for me. When I painfully put her down last year at age sixteen she had all kinds of digestion and elimination issues and was beginning to have organ failure. She would have done anything to protect and heal me and it is likely she did. I don’t blame myself for her death or feel I caused it. She had a good long life with me and I celebrate the time with her as part of my family. The entire time I was sick would often look at the clock precisely when it was 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, or 5:55. I knew they were higher self and angelic messages that I would not only be okay but come out stronger and wiser. I had times when I doubted and felt fear but mostly I knew I would heal. While I recommend my clients and readers explore more alternative medicine solutions, I don’t suggest most of you abandon western medicine entirely. It has notable use and has benefits too and is so much a part of our cultural belief systems and societal structures. I choose alternative and eastern medicine because it is less damaging to the body and often cures the illness and wounds permanently without sacrificing organs, extensive surgery and reliance on pharmaceuticals for life. While surgery is quite harsh to the body, it can also shock us out of old beliefs and blocked emotional patterns in the process so it also has value. I adjusted my diet and minimized white flour, and spent the last few months eating more healthy. I still use herbal remedies a few times a week and have maintained my fiber intake. The diverticulitis though seems to be completely gone now. It is realistically possible there may be future flare ups but I am feeling that this is unlikely. I wonder how many people can say they got rid of this illness? The emotional issue resolved and of course so did my body. I had been drowning with unresolved emotional pain for some time so when I realized I was in deep water I dived down to the bottom and came back with some notable buried treasures. The challenges that do not destroy us can actually rebuild us and ultimately have the potential to actually permanently transforms us.
Jim Ventura 4-2019
Notes
I purposely waited a few months after healing from my illness before I wrote this column. I wanted to be sure the thorough process I used to heal had really done its intended job. I was able to find a great acupuncture place in Phoenix called Modern Acupuncture. The first visit is an incredibly reasonable $29! I have met people who have said acupuncture didn’t really work for them. This always surprises me. It has always worked for me. I think I resonate with a lot of Chinese medicine (probably past life stuff here) and acupuncture. To me when we are ill, energy is blocked up in connection with chakras in the body and these restrictions end up clogging and damaging organs. Acupuncture seems like it is designed to get the energy to flow again in the body. This translates to healing and going back to a state of harmony, the bodies’ natural state. I think in the process we become aware of limiting beliefs and emotions and often purge and reframe them in the process and begin to look at things from a more enlightened perspective. I also had some added help with three colonic treatments at a spa in Tempe to “move” things along: I highly recommend Dee Munsterman deemunsterman@gmail.com.
After a brief six month hiatus from doing shows on the List TV I am back to filming a few more this year, thankfully at a less frantic pace (13 shows in late 2017-late 2018). I recently had a production company reach out to me from California about possibly doing a pilot for a show. The potential pilot show is a big idea and I actually felt a little nervous getting interviewed. I rarely get “butterflies” in the stomach in my fifties so it was cool to feel that again. I am not sure if it will turn into anything yet, but it is exciting and doors are opening in this area. I will keep my readers informed about where this leads. The good thing is while I am open to doing more television, and in many respects “made for it,” I have no attachment to whether I do or not. I like the life I have and the things I already do and will continue to do them either way.
The spring and start of summer (at least in Arizona) is on the horizon. The weather continues to be weird and choppy, but it has been a great spring. It seems the uncomfortable energy earlier this year is more even. This month’s column was a long one and took a bit of extra work to finish, so I won’t have another column out until early July. I have been busy with a nice flow of appointments and added family stuff connected with my mother’s rapidly failing health to juggle as well. Still doing the casino once a week and Vegas every two months. I have been very lucky so far this year. I am balancing the enjoyment of working on a lot of different things with the fun of a bit of playing more than many people do. Less responsibilities of family and I am a bit of a proud hedonist. My Virgo side with my Sagittarius side. They are square each other in my natal astrology chart but at age 54 I have finally found a way to make them work well together!
Wishing everyone a happy start to the summer. Cheers, Jimmy V
“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” Sophia Loren
Channeled corner. I read many, many books from different trance channelers in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. 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.
“What is your perception of disease?
If you consider your accidental body to be floating through its meaningless days on a planet swarming with germs, viruses, bacteria, and other pestilence whose sole purpose and intention is to strike you dead, to eliminate you from the gene pool, then the course of one’s life thus becomes a constant microorganisms target-shooting game with you the frantic target, dodging projectiles of death by donning the armor of pills, vitamins, diet, and so on.
Remember, above all, your beliefs create your reality. If you believe you are ever at the mercy of microscopic organisms that intend you harm, you shall indeed find yourself falling ill on a regular basis, pumping yourself full of antibiotics to kill the little buggers, and then enjoying a brief respite before the next onslaught. You live, therefore, in a perpetual fear of disease.
Remember our old friend, fear? Does it ever lead to understanding? Does it ever lead to purposeful action? No, it always leads to paralysis and irrational action.
Thus your entire medical system is structured upon beliefs that guarantee that you will become ill on a regular basis; that you, an individual, can have no comprehension of how your body works and must not attempt to heal yourself in any situation, always depending on the advice of your schooled betters; and reducing your life to a game of chance, a roll of the dice, forever the prey of pernicious creatures you cannot even see.
Now let us state the reality.
THE UNIVERSE IS SAFE. It is not out to destroy you, to deprive you, to batter you about. The state of health, of your body working in smooth unison with your mind, is the most natural course of events. When you do become ill, it is a sign that you have not faced certain issues; you are therefore urged to stop and consider that state of your life and what might have brought on the illness. And the illness itself, its expression in your body, will always carry a host of clues as to the genuine source. The world is not out to trick you! Any disease or illness will always represent, in plainest terms, the issues you have not faced that brought it on...”
From Whatever Happened to Divine Grace by Ramon Stevens
New Client Special 2019:
January 1st 2019 thru October 31st, 2019 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 at 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 thoughtful gift of a session you can also take advantage of these rates!
$10-15 off listed rates for your first 45 minute session, 70, or 90 minute session! Ask for the special when you email at 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 thoughtful 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 $85. 70 minute sessions $110. 90 minute sessions $130. Sessions can be in-office or by phone.
“You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.” Richard Bach
Snake Oil Radio
Thursdays at 3:30 pm (there will be three live broadcast this period)
My next live broadcast of Snake Oil Radio will be Thursday, May 23rd at 3:30 p.m. mountain time. Usually one or two Thursdays each month you can catch a new show, and once a month on Sunday at 2 pm. 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 the site and 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.
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” Oscar Wilde
Session Highlight
REALITY CHANGE SESSIONS
These session(s) are all about understanding how our personal realities are formed, and developing the skill to change yours! Almost every area of your life can be changed for the better. This session will show you how to uncover the limiting beliefs that have blocked your progress. The beliefs that block us from experiencing happiness, and success in any area of life are not hidden. Their are many methods for uncovering what is limiting us. Instructions will also be given for new methods and tools to create the present and future you truly want. I often quote famous authors who talk about this subject. Learn in a one on one session with me about how to begin to master some of these techniques.
You can literally recreate yourself
Change your beliefs - Change your reality
Suggested session length 70-90 minutes.
Email me at VenturaSag@yahoo.com to request my availability calendar.
“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive it isn’t.” Richard Bach
Here’s my contact information to make an appointment for a session, or information on current classes: Email: Venturasag@yahoo.com (best method for contact).
Phone calls: (602) 957-3035 text only: (602) 349-0746
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 2019 are: Full (70 minutes) $110.00; Shorter session (45 minutes) $85.00; Extended session (90 minutes) $130.00 (two people can split an extended session back to back for $65.00 each, although no other discounts will apply). 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.
March Las Vegas family trip
