Episode Transcript
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Lisa Brandis (00:46):
welcome back to
the Connecting to Spirit
podcast.
I'm your host, Lisa Brandis, andtoday I have the absolute joy of
sitting down with someone whosework has touched thousands of
lives here in Australia andbeyond.
Dawn Collins is aninternationally recognised
psychic, medium spiritual mentorand teacher based here in Perth.
(01:10):
With over 35 years of experienceand 25 of them professionally,
Dawn has devoted her life tobridging the physical and the
spiritual realms.
She also brings through messagesof love, clarity, healing.
And always with a touch ofhumor.
She was named AustralianSpiritual Teacher of the Year in
(01:32):
2024.
A reflection of not just hertalent, but her integrity and
the profound impact of her work.
Dawn was one of the pioneers ofpublic mediumship demonstrations
here in Perth, and to this day,her readings, workshops, and
mentoring sessions are sotransformative that she's often
(01:55):
booked out months in advance.
In our conversation today,you'll hear Dawn's story of
resilience and spiritualrebellion, and you're also going
to hear more about what it meansto be a soul led medium.
How to honor both your naturalgifts and training and the
legacy Dawn hopes to leave forthe next generation of
(02:16):
intuitives beyond her publicwork.
Dawn is also a devotedgrandmother, nanny Nunu, as her
family calls her, and she bringsthat same warmth and connection
into every space she holds.
So settle in and join us as wedive into the heart of soul led
mediumship with the incredibleDawn Collins Welcome to
(02:41):
Connecting to Spirit.
Dawn, I am so excited to haveyou here.
We've been planning this for awhile now, and we've also walked
this path together for I thinkit would be over 22 years.
I remember meeting you back inthe hypnotherapy days at Yes To
Life.
And I loved you then and I loveyou now, and I'm just in
(03:02):
absolute awe of your work and sograteful to have you here today.
So welcome to the podcast, Dawn.
Dawn (03:09):
Thank you, lisa.
It's an honor to be here.
Oh, I'm excited about this.
Be careful to show my age.
I know.
We'll
Lisa Brandis (03:16):
keep that little
secret.
So.
No, we won't.
So with over 35 years ofmediumship experience and
teaching, can you recall whatfirst led you to this path?
Dawn (03:32):
I was led from a child.
Mm-hmm.
Like, we can often hear thestories of, people talking about
seeing the spirit world orhaving a psychic connection.
Yeah.
As a child, I was always led, Ibecame more familiar when I came
in my teenage years and theninto my adult years through life
experiences.
And in making that decision, thespirit world would just be there
(03:56):
in my darkest days.
Oh wow.
Did the guides or spirit helpyou in that life changing moment
you said?
Absolutely.
And it was in the days where Ifelt disconnected from society.
Lisa Brandis (04:10):
We tend to
withdraw, don't we?
If we go into a bit of a darkphase or a dark night of the
soul, as they call it.
So it's like that retreat.
And did you find that you wereable to connect more with spirit
than humans?
Sometimes.
Dawn (04:21):
Absolutely.
And saying that there was, therewas times where.
I would be on my own.
Yeah.
And there'd be times where Iwould just hear my name called.
Oh really?
So you're an audible medium.
Do you hear them?
Absolutely.
And it would be Dawn or therewould be taking note of noise
(04:41):
around me and I'd come out toinvestigate and there'd be
nothing there.
Lisa Brandis (04:45):
Oh really?
And did it scare you at the,because I would imagine that
that would be quite unnerving.
Cause back then there wasn't alot of talk about spirit.
Certainly not available like itis now where we can get
information in a book.
Like I know you, you were backin the early days where they
were kind of all secret andstashed away in some kind of
mystery school when they, likewe didn't have the whole school,
(05:05):
we didn't have access and wedidn't have the internet, which
we are talking about our ageagain.
Dawn (05:12):
I would say that I just
come out and just think I was
imagining it.
I was always had a vividimagination and I kind of
thought that was pretty coolsometimes.
Absolutely.
The magic that I created in myimagination was better than the
real world.
So gave me escape to it a littlebit, don't we?
There's the healing.
Then I started to see more ofspirit world.
(05:32):
And then one day it just allhappened.
I can't even tell you.
It, it was just a realawakening.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Once you get touched by thatspiritual connection, isn't it?
The veil thins and then all of asudden we know more.
It's hard to go back.
It's hard to go.
Yeah.
I remember one of my mentorsonce saying to me, once the
door's spirit's open, you'll tryto close it.
(05:54):
And she's like, just so that youknow.
Yeah.
You can't undo what you've, youcan't what you've learned.
we were talking earlier on theway over and you were telling me
about, being invited onto a TVshow.
That would've been quitethrilling and I would, I would
imagine very nerve wracking.
Tell us about, tell us aboutbeing on that TV show.
Sure.
(06:14):
I think it was in the earlynineties.
Yep.
And, that TV show had a debate.
Okay.
A discussion.
Oh god.
A debate that's like, like, nowyou're really coming out, now
you're really, really going totest the waters here.
But, being invited, I, it wasn'tjust me, we were a part of a
(06:36):
team.
There was a couple of otherintuitives that were invited on
to have a discussion, likeLittle Lambs being brought in
where there was a discussionwith a skeptic.
Please tell me it wasn't adiscussion with a skeptic, it
was, and on the discussion therewas going to just be a
(06:56):
discussion, about connecting tospirit.
It was, the psychics discussionwith the head skeptic of
psychic.
That just sounds like my worstnightmare right there.
I think the worst was, that wasthe easy part.
The worst was after that.
Oh my gosh.
He's serious.
I'm serious.
How did you do on the show?
(07:17):
So I'd imagine you just showedup the spirit.
It was just, yeah, I showed up,just gave my point of view.
Yep.
And, just told my story.
So it wasn't demonstrating, itwasn't showing evidence or doing
a reading, it was just talkingabout your capacity to do so.
Is that right?
Our beliefs.
Oh, talking about sharedbeliefs.
And if you were reallyauthentic, you'd get a million
(07:37):
dollars.
You're joking, aren't you?
No.
What is that?
How they got you on the show?
Obviously, I wasn't authenticenough.
I can't tell if you're joking ornot.
So, was there really a milliondollars up for grabs?
Yes, there was.
For what?
What outcome did the skepticswin?
The million dollars.
(07:57):
Please tell me.
They didn't win.
No one won.
So it was a debate.
With the pretense of winning amillion dollars that no one
could actually win.
So then you said after that showhad aired, what was the
aftermath of that?
Positive or challenging?
It was challenging.
Okay.
How so?
I found myself in a situationwhere I had a lack of support.
(08:20):
It was really hard to getsupport back in those days,
wasn't it?
There was absolutely eithercircles or books, but even they
were hard to find.
So kind of a bit of a controlledenvironment.
Would that be right?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you found yourself on yourown and needing, had you
considered kind of giving up?
Was it a bit of a catalyst?
I think, what happened out ofthat was I, I was a little bit
(08:42):
lost and confused in mydirection.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Going back into, those days ofsupport and my dad, said one day
to me, as a father would say toa child, in any circumstances,
you don't need anybody, Dawnie.
Oh my God, that must have beenterrifying but liberating at the
same time, I would imagine.
(09:04):
Yeah.
so here you are a fledgling,beginning your mediumship work,
having clear communication withspirit, trusting, being on tv,
having an experience thatprobably wasn't what you had
anticipated.
'cause I can imagine that theyset these things up in a way
that maybe, did or didn'tportray you in the light that
(09:26):
was honest or in integrity.
Would that be correct?
That's correct, yeah.
So then out the other side ofthat, you lose your support and
you are faced with a decision.
Do I just give up, which manywould dawn like most would go
under those circumstances?
Would go, this is all too hard.
And I'm sure that crossed yourmind.
And then your beautiful father,I had one choice and that was to
(09:52):
go on.
You didn't have a choice to giveup, wasn't an option for you.
I wasn't going to, it was mybreath.
I wasn't going to give up.
I wasn't going to give up beingmyself.
And spirit is who you are.
And that's exactly who I am.
And what happened from there wasmy dad, said, go out and do your
own and make him laugh.
(10:12):
Do it your own way.
That's so powerful.
So you did have support, you hadthe support of somebody that
loves you, your own father, andthat's kind of uncommon, isn't
it?
To have to have that.
But not the community support,which is hard because we're all
in a situation where we havethis innate drive within to
wanna belong.
(10:33):
So, man, you came up againstextremely difficult odds in
those early years.
So what was the outcome ofstepping out?
What was the first thing thatyou decided to do?
How did you set about carvingthe path?
We went to a town hall.
Yep.
And my father said to me, do itfor charity.
(10:54):
Get out there and do somethingfor charity in which we did, we
opened a event and the charityback in them days was, the Sids
Foundation and also the HeartFoundation.
Oh, beautiful.
Which brought it more meaningfulto me.
Mm, I bet.
'cause it's not about thedollars or the money service,
(11:14):
it's about actually being ofservice.
Yeah.
And helping others.
Helping people that really needthe help.
Absolutely.
And how did you go?
I would imagine that would'vebeen, the entry was something I
will never, ever forget as wecame around to walk up the path.
Yeah.
There was only a handful ofprotesters, but they had their,
you had to, oh my God.
(11:35):
You had to walk throughprotesters to get to your
demonstration event.
Dawn, did you do it?
You gotta go back to, I loveyour attitude.
Only a handful of protestors.
My father just held me in hisarms and just, told me to keep
on walking.
Aw, that's so beautiful.
And walk.
You did dawn and you kept onwalking and you've been walking
(11:58):
for 35 years and you havechanged so many people's lives.
So I just wanna say thank youbecause that must have taken
some big courage and also adesire, like you said, when it's
part of who you are, your workto bring love and spirit
connection and communication topeople who need it the most.
(12:19):
Thank you first of all.
How did the event end up?
It ended up good.
It was good.
there was a lot of people, therewas people that were curious,
there was people that wereunsure.
There was the spiritualcommunity there.
Beautiful.
So your dad's words reallyturned things around for you
(12:42):
then Absolutely.
And what it showed me was youjust have to trust and just walk
with that inner guidance of thevoice within.
I couldn't stop being who I was.
Nor should you.
I couldn't stop being, beingdawn.
And I would imagine the 200people that showed up that day
to hear your voice and yourmessages.
Showed you that there was a needin the community.
(13:04):
For sure.
And so even though there was asmall, resistance, you kind of
was able to overcome it and helppeople.
Of course.
And go on and do more.
That's amazing.
So I wanna change direction alittle bit.
You've referred, you refer toyour, your teaching style as
soul led mediumship.
What does it mean to you to besoul led in your work?
(13:29):
It's feeling it from within,connecting to the soul.
Mm-hmm.
Because it all comes from thesoul, the essence of our own
soul.
Beautiful.
'cause you've got to have acommunication.
Yeah.
You have to embark oncommunicating with the spirit
world.
Yeah.
Psychic readings are readingswhere the soul of the person's
(13:50):
life experiences soul.
Mediumship is a sacredness, andI want to enhance the word
sacredness.
It's a trust and we are puttingour heart and soul into it.
Our very essence and breath, weget past wanting it to be a yes
or no and correct, and we allowit to pass our own conscious
(14:14):
mind and we get out of the way,for example, our wants and
needs, and we allow it to benatural.
This allows the flow to happenand the pure essence of the
spirit to blend with us bysurrendering.
After all, they have come toreassure a loved one.
(14:35):
Everything will be in divineorder.
We have to let the spirit bringtheir messages to us.
They know what they need to say,and by doing this you allow the
true essence of the spiritflow./ So soul mediumship is the
core of really to me, at beingat one with self.
(14:58):
That allows the soul of thespirit to be at one with you.
Yeah.
And get yourself out of the way.
It's an integration, absolutelyIt takes time to learn how to
trust that's why we call itdevelopment, isn't it?
It's developing the medium,developing the ability to
surrender in that moment, toallow that wisdom to come
(15:18):
through.
I think we need this, the formalkind of style of teaching gives
us a kind of a framework.
Would you agree?
Like there's the tools we use,the different way in which we
connect the getting in thepower, the angel cards, there's
so many different tools we canuse to develop that connection
with spirit.
But ultimately it's about theneed for the client, isn't it?
(15:41):
It's about.
That intention, would you say?
The intention, and it's asacredness, it's getting
yourself out the way.
Yeah.
And it's honoring thatconnection.
Absolutely.
And by getting yourself out ofthe way, you have to be present
of course.
But by getting yourself out ofthe way, you are enabling that
(16:04):
love to come through Themessage.
What is the message?
It is one that is awkwardbecause, our monkey mind is
always going to come into it.
We cannot not.
It's a bit of a monkey mind.
Yeah, it's a bit of a battle,isn't it?
And so do you have any, do youhave any tools or techniques
that kind of make it easier?
(16:25):
I just sit so sitting in thepower.
Sitting in the power.
So meditation.
Meditation.
Not a guided meditation.
Yeah.
I don't do, I mean, I'm notsaying don't do guided
meditations.
I think these are wonderfultools, but just sit in the
quiet.
Sit with your own soul.
(16:46):
Sit with your own soul and move.
Just move and, and just move outof the way.
Yeah.
And then just left and trust.
This is the, this is the bridge.
The trust.
Enabling the trust.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's powerful./ I am going tooask you the question that
(17:07):
everyone at home's probablywondering, how do we get our
mind out of the way in order toreceive For sure.
We go back to what we saysitting in the quietness.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sitting with your soul's energy.
Energy, that's hard to do intoday's busy world, isn't it?
Absolutely.
A hundred miles an hour.
Yeah.
(17:27):
Things are going to resurfacestraight away.
Mm-hmm.
But it's like a psychic muscle.
The more you sit and become justa little bit more relaxed
mm-hmm.
It's all about relaxing.
And the more you relax, the morethat you are able to enable
yourself to just go with theflow.
(17:48):
Yeah.
Work through the monkey mind.
Allow that, acknowledge that,monkey mind, acknowledge it.
Park it up.
Yep.
Come back to a thought orsomething that would take you
back into that space and keep ongoing.
Just keep working through it.
It's like a psychic muscle.
(18:10):
The more you do, the easier itbecomes.
Mm-hmm.
And do you have an intention toconnect with your guide
specifically when you sit to dothat work absolutely.
Because otherwise we are justsitting there staring at the
clouds.
If the intention's there to, Iwanna connect with my spirit
guides, I wanna feel thepresence of love, or I wanna
feel the presence of my angels.
(18:31):
Is it like we set that and thenlet go and just wait for it to
happen?
Absolutely.
We set an intention.
Some people do a prayer.
We set that communication.
We're working with another mind.
You set that they will meet youmore than halfway.
But we've gotta put out theinvitation for them to come.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And that's, I think that's thekey component that people don't
realize you have to ask Spiritto engage with us.
(18:53):
They don't just come in withoutan invitation.
And it's literally like, once wehave the address, they know we
want their communication.
They know that we are ready andwe are open, we're open-hearted,
open-minded.
Then we lay out the invitation,which is just a purely a thought
that we send out.
The universe picks up thefrequency, it goes, oh, she's
interested, she's curious.
(19:13):
And like you said, I think someare naturally gifted and it just
happens kind of spontaneously,usually out of a place of.
You know, sometimes despaircomes the ask for something,
some help, some support.
Or there's an internal cry formore right?
In times of great need.
(19:34):
And then in that response,that's an invitation.
It's an invitation through pain.
Or we can have an invitationthrough just pleasure.
'cause we wanna choose itbecause we go, I know there's an
ability to connect to somethingpure and wise and it can come
from two different ways, can'tit?
So I kind of think Absolutely.
Yeah.
And, having that invitation, butalso, they want you to develop.
(19:57):
Yeah, of course.
They need you to develop.
And as that connection and bondgrows with our spirit team, then
we grow, they grow.
And we also help humanity at thesame time, which I think is
amazing.
Dawn, I think integrity plays apart.
So we've covered intention.
How does Integrity play, out inyour experience of mediumship?
(20:23):
It's very important, ourintegrity.
Because we can't be clones ofeach other.
We need to be authentic.
We need to be ourselves and weneed to be natural.
We can learn from watching othermediums and learn from their
experiences and mistakes.
As a mentor, it's important tome to keep the naturalness of
(20:46):
mediumship within the studentand not try to change their
natural way.
So I, I kind of see it as, yeah,you know, sometimes students can
fall in the trap of trying tomodel off others, and sometimes
teachers can fall into the trapof trying to teach what we know
has worked for us because itworked for us.
But I, you know, I think is,isn't it, there's somewhere in
(21:07):
the middle where it's not justabout structure, it's not just
about I, I guess, passion.
It's about finding that uniquespark where there's just where
innocence leads to.
Absolutely natural ability andeveryone has that ability.
(21:27):
Yeah.
And, and keep it to theirnatural ability.
Otherwise, we're going too betaking them away from the
calling.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Aren't we?
Yeah.
We may fracture that innate giftthat is theirs to shine with.
Yeah.
So, and that's not always easy,is it?
As a teacher it's to, becausesometimes it's subtle.
(21:48):
It's, our abilities to be ableto see that and encourage that
within the students so that theystart to blossom.
Because I know from my ownteaching experience, we retract
when we're a little frightenedor a little afraid.
And it's almost like as ateacher we see that fledgling
flower starting to open up andthey can just pull back and kind
(22:11):
of hide and it's our job to kindof tease that gift out of them,
isn't it?
To just allow them to blossom.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We're going too get it wrong.
Absolutely.
We have to get it wrong.
we are human.
and that's part of the learningjourney isn't, that's part of
the learning.
But I also find by keeping it intheir natural environment of
their own soul mm-hmm.
(22:32):
Is going to allow them to workand, and use that strength that
is right for them.
Yep.
As long as we keep it withcompassion.
And humbleness.
Yeah.
And we allow them to shine.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
And that's a really nice spaceto be nurtured into that soul
(22:55):
spirit development.
I love it.
So Dawn, after all these yearsof doing readings and
demonstrating and connecting thespirit world to loved ones, is
there any story that stands out?
Absolutely, because when we'redemonstrating also for some
people, they will feel the loveof the spirit in the room.
You can bring through somewonderful messages and
(23:16):
connections, but to actually allfeel the love of the spirit
world in the room, this one is,one that will stay with me for
sure.
I was given a message, to twowomen on different parts of the
room.
And one was a mature lady, andone was a younger lady and
gentleman was coming through andhe was insisting of, coming
(23:39):
forward.
And both ladies wereidentifying.
They were taking the message.
Both ladies are agreeing toevery word that I've said in
different parts of the room.
So I went with that.
Mm-hmm.
I did ask the lady's first name,and as she, called out her first
(23:59):
name, it changed the connection.
What I mean by that is themature lady, had married a
second time.
Mm-hmm.
And the gentleman that wascoming forward was trying to
connect to his daughter and thewife of his second marriage.
(24:21):
The message in itself was.
Prior to the gentleman passingfor some time, it was brought
up, not openly, but it wasbrought up that he had been
looking for his daughter just totell her the value words of I
love you.
And with that, the two ladies,came together and the father got
(24:44):
the wish.
The spirit world.
I believe the spirit worldorchestrated that time, that
meeting and that wonderfulopportunity to bring two people
together.
And for the lady to tell thedaughter that her dad did love
her.
Oh my gosh.
Can imagine there wasn't' a dryeye.
I can imagine.
Yeah, I can imagine.
(25:04):
The energy in that room would'vebeen so incredible.
Was the daughter relieved tohear from her dad?
Had she been wanting to hearfrom him too?
Yeah.
So they'd both been looking foreach other, hadn't found each
other and found each other.
Sadly after he'd passed over,but, profoundly that he was able
to tell her how much he'd beenlooking for her, and loved her,
and the, the feel in the room,the emotion and the feel,
(25:27):
everybody, felt the presence ofthe spirit world.
Yeah.
So much love.
Absolutely.
So dawn, what lights you up mostabout your own spiritual
practice right now?
I love just being with spirit.
So I can't define, I love whereit's led in life.
Mm-hmm.
(25:48):
The personal healing.
The personal healing.
I love, I love the souls that wemeet here.
And the stories.
The many, many stories that youget to meet and the many, many
people on the spirit side oflife that you connect with.
I love the educational side ofit.
(26:08):
Teaching others to inspire, towalk the path, to allow the,
innate soul to just open up andjust.
Be Yeah.
I love all of it.
the spirit world.
It's my breath, it's my soul.
Beautiful.
Is there anything else that youwanna share?
(26:29):
We can't work without the soul.
Mm-hmm.
It, you have to work, you haveto work on your own self.
To personal development plays.
Yeah.
A big, and you know what?
We would, and you grow and youevolve and you, you move on.
And we're all, we were talkingabout it the other day.
It never stops does it?
That self-development thatlooking at ourself, how can we
(26:50):
love ourself more?
How can we be kinder, be kinderand gentler to ourself.
It's kind of an ongoing,development, isn't it?
But so much easier if we havespirit walking by our side.
A hundred percent.
But we've gotta live our life.
We've gotta live and be in thepresent of today.
Yeah.
And not hide in spirit.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So the, you find the soul.
(27:11):
So where's the happy medium foryou?
I think in any of ourdevelopment of mediumship and
psychic awareness and all ofthat.
We've gotta have fun.
Yes, we've gotta have fun.
We, we, we, we have to take, wehave to keep it real and, you
know, we will be serious withthat because that's the
foundation.
We have to have that foundationof having that inner strength
(27:35):
behind you.
But what I find in all of thisis we have to have fun.
Mediumship is not, just aboutbeing serious.
Mediumship is about the essenceand the presence of your own
soul.
And sometimes your soul can bereally funny.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
(27:55):
I shine more when I, when I'mhaving fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's, and I gotta dance withthe soul of the spirit world./
What does Spirit want me to knowright now?
What does Spirit want me tohear?
Joy.
Follow your own truth.
Is in the foundation of growth.
(28:17):
Yeah.
Spiritual growth knowledge.
Finding your truth be creative.
Be creative, have fun, becreative.
They're waiting for you.
Having the joy back.
Channelings joyful.
I love joy.
Yeah.
I love channeling.
See, I love it.
Spirit will turn up.
Alright, so that's it for today.
(28:38):
We will share all the links toDawn and to her website.
I do believe you've got a waitlist for readings, but still
jump on the wait list.
She's worth it.
I had a reading with Dawn and atthe time we were in a
transitional period.
Everyone was against my husbandchanging jobs'cause he was going
too lose 20 grand and she tunedin and said, is your husband on
(29:00):
a plane right now?
And I'm like, nah, no he's not.
And then I'm like, oh, hang on.
Yeah, he just literally flew toa conference in Sydney and she
picked that up and she said tome, you can trust your husband.
He knows what's right for him.
And so I did against all odds,everyone was saying, don't do
it.
We just had a baby.
We were on one income, he lost acompany car, mobile phone, and
(29:20):
$20,000.
And would you believe the weeklater, the place where I was
running Reiki workshops offeredme a part-time job that gave me
$20,000 and I started workingpart-time, which gave us the
capacity to shift into that newcareer.
And it was mind blowing.
And he has just gone fromstrength to strength.
So Dawn, thank you because youwere one of the most accurate
(29:43):
readers that I've ever been to.
And not only that, you are themost beautiful soul, full of
love and compassion and justwanna make a difference in the
world.
So hat off to you, thank you forthe legacy of work, the,
millions of people's lives thatyou've changed.
'cause I know it's not just thesitter or the healing, the
person who receives the healing,their frequency changes and
(30:05):
therefore everyone benefits intheir life.
So thank you from the bottom ofmy heart for everything that you
do and how you show up and howyou deliver, even when you're
nervous, especially about beingon a podcast.
So we love you.
We are so grateful, and, wecan't wait for the next chapter,
thanks, Dawn.
(30:26):
Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa.
It's been absolutely wonderful.
I had a great laugh with you.