September 16, 2025 • 51 mins
What happens when life knocks you down — literally — and leaves you bleeding and immobile on your kitchen floor? For Betsy Hammer, it became a profound lesson in composure, resilience, and gratitude. Betsy's fall from a stepladder could have ended tragically. Yet instead of panic, she exhibited remarkable presence of mind — reaching for her phone through sheer determination, coordinating her rescue, and even ensuring her dog's safety from broken glass. This composure was so striking that hospital staff initially underestimated her injury's severity until x-rays revealed her hip "hanging by a thread."
Beyond this recent trauma, Betsy shares several transformative spiritual experiences that have shaped her outlook — from childhood visions of what she believed was a soul, to powerful divine encounters that left her with unshakable faith. As a professional actress who has worked with Adam Sandler and performed on Broadway, Betsy's creative journey has been marked by these "out of the blue" moments that confirmed her path.
The accident has changed Betsy in unexpected ways — slowing her physically while expanding her capacity for empathy and gratitude. She introduces listeners to her practice of "gratitude hums," a technique combining vocal vibrations with gratitude meditation that anyone can use to cultivate positivity. Most touchingly, she shares her belief that we all possess "angelic souls" that flourish when nourished with kindness and positivity.
Betsy's story reminds us that life's unexpected challenges often reveal our true strength. By approaching difficulties with grace and presence, we might discover profound gifts waiting on the other side of adversity.
For more on Betsy Hammer: https://betsyhammer.com/
Out Of The Blue:
For more: outoftheblue-thepodcast.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome back to Out of the Blue, the podcast, where
we share powerful stories ofresilience, transformation and
those unexpected moments thatchange everything.
I'm your host, vernon West,along with my co-host, jackie
West, our marketing manager,professional musician and Reiki
healer.
Today's guest, Betsy Hammer,has faced life's challenges with
(00:47):
courage, calm and gratitude.
She experienced anout-of-the-blue moment that
could have ended verydifferently.
A fall from a stepladder in herhome left her with a severe,
life-threatening injury, aloneand bleeding.
She stayed remarkably composedand ultimately saved her own
(01:07):
life.
Her story is one of presenceunder pressure and resilience in
the face of adversity.
Beyond that moment, betsy is aremarkable creative force.
She's a professional actress,singer-songwriter, vocal coach,
music producer and associatemusic supervisor.
Classically trained with aBachelor of Music from Ohio
(01:30):
University and advanced studiesat the Cleveland Institute of
Music, betsy has built aninspiring career in the
entertainment industry.
She's performed in film, on TV,on stage, in studio sessions
and in equity productions.
She has guided voices as avocal coach, directed shows and
(01:52):
collaborated with Adam Sandler'sHappy Madison Productions as an
associate music supervisor.
Through it all, betsy hasremained grateful, positive and
passionate about sharing hergifts with the world.
It is my honor to welcome theamazing Betsy Hammer to Out of
the Blue, the podcast.
(02:13):
Hi, betsy, and welcome to Outof the Blue.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Hi, betsy Hi.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Jackie.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Nice to meet you too.
Thank you for this lovelyintroduction and this great
opportunity to chat with you andwith Jackie.
Hi, I'm Betsy Hammer and I'm sodelighted to be asked to speak
with you on Out of the Blue, mydear friend, very close friend,
Wendy Liebman, who's done a showwith Vernon.
So she had mentioned me, Iguess, to Vernon, and then I got
(02:42):
contacted by Vernon and I'm sohappy to be here today to meet
you and your daughter, and youare so lucky, Jackie, to have a
father with this beautifuloutlook on life.
I love it.
I just love it.
It sounds like my parents Verypositive, wonderful people and
I'm very grateful for them.
Right now they're dancing inheaven.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mentioned them I love that.
Oh, I can see them on the dancefloor.
I can just imagine it.
The Heaven's Dance Floor.
Oh, that's probably a good timefor a song.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I'm going to write that down Heaven's Dance Floor.
Write it down yes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm writing it down because I'm also.
I do a number of things andthen I'll tell you about my out
of the blues in my life.
Okay, so, so I'm talking aboutmy most recent out of the blue
experience, let me say.
Let me say this I may jumparound a little bit, but by the
end all the dots will connect.
(03:33):
Okay, love it.
My whole life has been soblessed and I'm so grateful for
the amazing opportunities I'vehad in my life.
I have from the time I was alittle girl.
I've had in my life.
I have from the time I was alittle girl.
I've been performing.
I was the lead in any number ofshows all throughout my teenage
years and even in my youth aswell.
I think my first lead role waswhen I was eight or something
(03:56):
like that, but I was three yearsold.
I was already by my preschool.
My preschool teacher had me upsinging in front of the class
and also showing my artwork,because those are two of my
things.
I love to do and I have anaffinity towards those things.
So I went into my 20s and I gotmarried and I married a lovely
(04:20):
guy and good person.
That were just two differentpeople Didn't work out.
He was a doctor, he was ananesthesiologist and he put me
to sleep and I used to entertainhim.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's very funny.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And this is a story I mean I used.
I really used to entertain himall the time because he was very
clinical and lovely person, butjust I found out that we were
on very divergent paths butnonetheless I got into a show
that was co-produced on Broadway.
Then I went to Nashville and Igot produced by producers there
and then I found anotherproducer who's been a legendary
producer, brooks Arthur, who heproduced two Grammy award
(04:57):
winning albums with RobinWilliams and he produced at 17
on Janice Ian and he's AdamSandler's producer and he
produced at 17 on Janice Ian andhe's Adam Sandler's producer
and he produced the Hanukkahsong and he's just an amazing
person and he was my best friendfor 27 years and I moved to
California, which is where I amright now.
I'm here in Los Angeles, andthe minute I came here, I moved
(05:17):
here one day and the next day Iwas at Adam's office, adam
Sandler's office.
Just a great, great man, adam.
He's just a very, very cool guy.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Jackie, myself, my wife and, I think, our two other
children, vernon and Samantha.
We ran into Adam when we wereout in California.
We were on Lodeo Drive lookingat all the stores and stuff and
we hopped in an elevator to getto our car or something.
And who comes on the elevatorwas adam and another gentleman
(05:46):
and I had just played in newhampshire, where he's from right
, and we played a nightclub andhe had just been there.
This is this place I played.
New hampshire was a couple years, it was years, before I ran
into him.
It wasn't like I just did it,but it was like at least three
or four years, maybe more, whenhe had put out the music of his
(06:09):
very blue songs.
He had a great album, you know,and it was hysterical.
We were always playing in atruck on the way to gigs, but
anyway, we're playing this cluband they all said, oh yeah, adam
Sand played here and we go.
So I see him in the on the uh,on all of it.
I go.
Hey, you know, I actuallyplayed a place.
I know you, I knew I played aplace.
(06:30):
You uh, I think you played itand I said it's from New
Hampshire.
He goes.
Oh, really that's amazing.
He was really sweet.
And my wife goes around andsays oh, you know, adam, um,
people are making fun of ouraccents.
And he said I think of a wickedawesome accent.
And that's a little story,that's adam, that's so sweet.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I love that really nice yeah I love it.
That's great.
Um, oh.
So when you were telling thestory, I was thinking about the
fact that adam is, he's just um,that kind of a loyal guy.
He just knows you know thepeople that he's always friendly
with.
I mean he'll, if he runs intoyou again you could say hey,
remember when I met you in theyeah, how you doing, how's your
accent?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
you might remember that he did say.
He said he didn't have a familyyet, as I recall, and he looked
at me standing there with mythree children.
He says I love your familythat's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, that, yeah, that's beautiful it really
touched me.
So anyway, getting back to whatled up to this recent out of
the blue experience because I'vehad them throughout my life I
feel my life is out of the blueand I feel that most of our
lives are probably out of theblue, but we just don't know
what to do with it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I think about that all the time.
I agree 100%.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So anyway, so back to now I'm in Los Angeles and
everything went great.
You know, adam immediatelypicked me to be in his movie
Adam Sandler's Eight CrazyNights.
I played the dubious role ofthe phone sex lady.
(08:04):
But it still happened Exactly,but I'm grateful that I have a,
you know, a role in that.
And then I sang a whole, but Icoached all the kids who sang
the hanukkah song part three andI sang nine layers for the
hanukkah song part.
A lot of beautiful thingshappened, okay.
And then um, then he, oh, andout of the blue experience.
I get a phone call one day fromthe office a few years, about
(08:27):
four years ago, and they saidhas casting called you yet?
And I said no, they haven't.
Well, adam wants you to sing inhis next movie.
I said okay, great.
So they flew me to Boston.
I played the role of thefuneral singer in Hubie
Halloween.
This is just one of the many outof the blue things that
happened.
Well, the thing that happenedout of the blue in January of
(08:48):
this year and this is the reasonwe're talking I just want to
let you see that so many lovelythings have happened, things
that I'm so grateful for.
I've been so privileged to havethese opportunities and
grateful for every singleopportunity.
I was in my kitchen, I was on afour-step stepladder, I was
preparing.
It was a Thursday night and Iwas preparing for a dinner with
(09:13):
some friends.
I was going to take out my goodchina plates because I had
ordered from Kansas City Steaksbeef wellington.
I was like this is going to bea good dinner.
Yeah's good already beefwellington with brunette sauce
and I'm gonna make some mashedpotatoes and you know whatever
other things you know.
So, um, I'm coming down theladder and my right foot missed
(09:38):
the bottom step, threw me offbalance.
I go crashing onto my hardwoodfloor and I'm in excruciating
pain.
I mean pain that I have notever felt before or since.
And I first thought one of yourquestions I think that you had.
You know you'd shared somethoughts that you might want to
(09:59):
explore for our chat today.
How did I first react to it?
My first thought was controlthe pain.
Control the pain.
Maybe it's just a bruise, maybeit's just a bruise.
I'm thinking already positivelyMaybe it's just a bruise,
because if it's a bruise, I'llbe able to get up in three
minutes and it'll hurt when Iget up because it's going to be
a bruise, but I'll be okay.
(10:20):
So I'm thinking, you know it'sgoing to be okay, it's going to
be okay, okay, right.
So I'm thinking, you know it'sgoing to be okay, it's going to
be okay.
And I don't know why this makesme laugh every time, because
it's not really laugh, laughworthy.
But I'm lying there in all thispain, controlling the pain, and
I look over to my right hand,which I don't know.
If you can see, I've got like alittle race on right yep, the
(10:42):
porcelain china dishes hadbroken and one of the shards cut
my wrist and I'm bleeding outon my right hand.
So I'm lying there on theground, I can't move and I'm
bleeding, and I go, oh, and I'mbleeding out too.
This is not good.
I need some help.
That's all I thought was I needhelp.
So my phone was up on a ledge.
I'm down on on the ground and Isaid I've got to get that phone
(11:08):
.
Talk about adrenaline.
You know how they sayadrenaline will help you lift a
car if you need to lift it tohelp.
So you know, people withadrenaline have just done
amazing feats.
I somehow got up on my knees,put my arm on one of my chairs
in my dining area, put my handon the ledge of the counter and
I reach for the phone.
And I get the phone and I'mthinking you know, thank you,
(11:32):
god, thank you.
And so then I call my next doorneighbor who had keys to my
place, thinking you can come inand can you help me.
Well, what I had forgotten thatI had done, which is something
that a lot of women and even mendo there's a security plate
that you could put on the insideof your apartment.
(11:53):
That's a metal plate.
So after you lock your deadboltlock and your regular, you know
doorknob, you flip over theplate so no one could barge in.
So she tries to get in, she andher husband trying to get in,
and they're jiggling the keysand they can't get in because
the security plate is blockingit.
So I go well, please call theEMT and they can break down my
(12:16):
door.
Please have them break down mydoor.
And the whole time I'm notscreaming, I'm not crying, I'm
just thinking, I just need helpand I'm in such pain.
But I'm also in shock.
They break down my door and theother next door neighbor, who
also has a set of my keys causewe're all very friendly here she
comes in and she's a dogtrainer and my dog was on my
(12:39):
couch and I didn't want her tojump.
She doesn't really jump down,but I did not want her down on
the ground to injure her pawwith a shard of glass.
So I said please, please, puther in the crate.
And the woman said to meafterwards she said you were
white and you had perspiration.
Your face was like totallywhite.
She said, but you were liketotally in control, just talking
(13:00):
to us like I'm talking to youright now, and so those are my
reactions.
I thought to myself it's notgoing to do me any good to cry
about anything.
It's like I have to help myself, right I?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
get that, I get that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So, because I was so composed, they did not give me
any medication.
They thought, oh, it's probablyjust a bruise, literally, if I
showed you.
I'm not going to show you apicture of my hip, but I'm
telling you.
If you look at one hip whenthey took the x-rays of me when
I finally got to the hospital,you see the beautiful my left
leg, you see the socket, you seethe joint.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
You see the normal hip.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And then you look at the right hip and it's hanging
by a thread, a thread, the wholething, everything shattered.
So they, finally they get me onthe gurney.
They put me into this ambulanceby myself.
Nobody rode with me for somereason, I don't know.
I didn't ask them to ride withme.
They, you know, they're busy intheir own lives, but they were
there for me to open.
You know, try to help open thedoor.
And I'm in the on the gurneyand it's going back and forth
(13:58):
and it's going over every speedbump and every pothole.
And I'm going, okay, I'll beokay, just praying, praying,
praying, you know, just hangingin there.
We get to the hospital and in mylife I've never seen or heard
of anything like this, because Iwas married many years to a
physician.
There's always been an ERdoctor.
In the ER room there was nodoctor, there was a PA who was
(14:21):
busy with some other people.
Three hours later, as I'm lyingthere, he finally comes,
determines that I'm you know, Ido have they did wind up a few
minutes before that, slipping anx-ray under me and they took
the x-ray of my hand and my hip.
Well, he finally says, yeah,you've shattered your hip, yeah,
(14:45):
we're going to give youmedication.
They give me morphine.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, it's such a state of shock, it doesn't work,
it doesn't work.
Then they gave me, as God is mywitness, four rounds of
Dilaudid, which is another typeof medication you might have
heard of it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
They did that on me too.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Oh my God, you can totally relate.
So on the fourth round, thepain went from a 10 level to
about an eight level.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And I said to myself inwardly, I said oh, oh,
eventually a drug is going tohelp me, eventually the drugs
are going to work.
So I was, you know, it calmedme down.
I mean I wasn't carrying on,but internally I was like when
am I going to get relief?
When am I going to get relief?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm thinking pain like that is devastating, oh my
God.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, the good news is my sister, who's my best
friend now.
She and I were on the FaceTimetalking to one another and she
said to me I'm coming out for aweek to help you, and she
literally got there Tuesday.
Now the accident was on aThursday.
They were supposed to dosurgery on Friday.
(15:55):
I got bumped off the surgeryschedule because there was
somebody with a heart attack,something like that.
Yeah, or somebody had a caraccident, whatever it is, a hip
surgery can wait.
Then they put me on the surgeryschedule for saturday.
They bought me again forsaturday.
Then they put me on the surgeryschedule for eight o'clock
sunday morning.
(16:15):
I get bumped from that and atthis point my sister and I are
you know we're back andconstantly talking on the phone
is whenever we can, and she sayswho do I have to talk to to get
this to happen for you?
This is going.
It's crazy already, but thegood news is, at around 3.30 on
Sunday they somebody came to getme, took me down to surgery and
I will tell you and this, youbeing a singer, jackie, I found
(16:38):
that singing throughout thisexperience was so helpful, so
therapeutic.
I would just occasionally humsomething or sing something, and
I sang my whole way down to thesurgery area.
I have a song that I co-wrotecalled take it away, and it has
to do with taking away the painit's a song.
It's a spiritual song and justsaying God, you know, you said
(16:59):
you'd you'd be with us in ourtrials and our traumas.
Can you take away the pain?
So I'm singing it on the waydown and get down to the surgery
area and finally, probablyaround 5 o'clock-ish, I'm down
there.
At 3.30, 5 o'clock-ish theystart to get me into the surgery
area.
Well, I get back into recoverythat evening.
(17:23):
Monday, the very next day I nowhave a new titanium hip inside
of me.
Monday morning there's aphysical therapist standing
right by my bed with a walkerand he said you're going to walk
10 steps to the bathroom and 10steps, 10 steps, back.
I went OK and I did it and thatafternoon they had me walking
(17:45):
up and down the hallway.
The next morning my sister wasflying in.
She was due 10 o'clock thatmorning and 10 o'clock that
morning is a different physicaltherapist telling me that we're
going to walk again and I saidto him can you please teach me
how to walk up and down stairs?
And he took me up 30 steps and30 down.
It was a little scary but I didit and my sister gets there at
(18:05):
noon, two o'clock.
We're driving away from thehospital, so, less than 48 hours
after the surgery, my sister'salready driving me home.
I did not want to go to a rehabcenter, I wanted to acclimate to
everything at home because I'vebeen dealing with, you know,
pain in this wrist.
But I'm thinking, we're justgoing to, we're just going to
recover, I'm just going to, I'mjust going to do everything they
have me do.
I'm going to do all theexercises, I'm going to stay
(18:26):
positive, because that's theonly thing that can help me
through this.
I cannot afford to put negativethoughts into my brain.
It's like what good is thatgoing to do?
It's not going to do any good.
So I believe that we all havechoices in our thought process.
I mean, I think a lot of us canreally work hard and just say,
(18:47):
hey, I got to, I got to takecontrol of this, yeah, and my
control.
I love always being positive,so that's, that's the way my
life is.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's almost like I can from hearing.
It's just Tori, it's almostlike thread of positivity, the
muscle of positivity.
You've been working on it yourwhole life and that muscle came
to your rescue.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think, even fundamentally, like just
speaking, to that moment whereyou, your survival instinct
kicked in, um you are soconnected to expressing through
your voice and that is like yourbody vibrating, so it's like a
(19:33):
physical way to heal, um, and Ithink that, yeah, I think, like
thoughts turn into speech, andso it makes a lot of sense to me
that it would be very importantfor you to um start with your
thoughts and angle them towardsproduct, uh, a productive
(19:57):
approach to this difficultsituation.
Um, positive thoughts, positiveum speaking, and and then
singing is is so primal, likerocking and humming and and,
yeah, it's just all healing yes,it set up a vibrational healing
(20:18):
pattern throughout my wholebody oh, vibrations, I'm into
the vibrations, yeah okay, solet me, can I?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
um, I want to tell you about a couple of other out
of the blue things, if I may, oroh, please, that's what we're
here for.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Let's hear some more.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I have to tell you about six.
When I was six years old, I hadan amazing out of the blue
experience, and when I was in my20s, right before I got chosen
to be one of the leads of a showthat was co-produced on
Broadway, I had another out ofthe blue experience, and I want
to share the things that Ilearned from them, because
didn't you ask?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I would love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So odd that this happened, but I can still
imagine it and envision it as ifit happened yesterday, when I
was growing up in Hewlett, NewYork, which is on Long Island,
in our little home lovely littlehome.
It wasn't that little but itwas a nice home in Hewlett, new
York and my mom was a veryorganized, amazingly clean, you
know, fastidious lady and shealways had a seated.
(21:17):
She had my it's my mom and dadand then three daughters.
I'm the youngest of three girls, so my dad would sit on one end
of the table, my mom would siton the other and my sister and I
would sit on one side, and thenour other mom would sit on the
other and my sister and I wouldsit on one side and then our
other sister would sit on theother side.
Well, everybody was out, exceptout of the house.
My father was working, mysister Helene was busy doing
(21:39):
whatever she was doing with somefriends.
Same thing with my sister Bobbyshe was.
She was also gone doing youknow whatever with friends as
well.
And my mom was in the kitchenand she's cooking and I decided
that instead of sitting in myseat I'm going to sit in daddy's
chair.
I got really bold.
You know, because you'resupposed to sit.
(21:59):
I was told this is your seat.
I'm very obedient.
This is your seat.
This is where Betsy sits right.
Dad was my hero.
Hero.
Dad was such an incrediblypositive person I knew in my
entire life I did not ever hearhim say one nasty thing about
another human being.
Everybody was always he's anice guy.
Oh, she's so nice.
(22:20):
And my mother used to sayeverybody's nice to you.
Mill, you think everybody's nice, but he did, he manifested it
so I get into my daddy's chairand I'm kneeling and all of a
sudden, out of the blue over myright shoulder, I see this like
you've seen.
What are they called?
(22:40):
Holograms?
Holograms right, it looked likea ball.
It was like an amber kind oforangey, amber colored, and it
was almost see-through.
And it was a ball over.
It was like an amber kind oforangey, amber colored and it
was almost see-through.
And it was a ball over my rightshoulder and it started moving
up at a diagonal and my thoughtwas oh, that's where your soul
goes when you die.
(23:01):
I had a vision of what was asoul.
The orb looked like a soul tome.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And it moved just up to the sky, like at an angle,
and I can still see that becauseit was so vivid to me and that
was my only thought.
Oh, that's where your soul goeswhen you die and you're sitting
in your dad's chair and he wasmy greatest positive,
inspirational influence.
(23:28):
In fact, the word, the word,root, spire when you respire,
when you inspire.
Spirit has to do with thebreath of life or aspire.
You aspire, yes, and respirelike respiration.
Right, it has to do with breathand inspiration.
The spirit comes in when you'reinspired Inspiration.
(23:52):
I was inspired by my father.
He always inspired me.
So somehow or other, sitting inhis chair, I got some type of
communication.
Maybe it's from my father,maybe it was from God, I don't
know what it was from.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Was he not with you at the time?
No, he was working.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
He was working.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
He was alive though.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh, yes, time no he was working, he was working
that's a lot, though.
Oh yes, yes, this is when I wassix years old, right?
I?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
figured he died when I was in my 40s.
So I wonder if, if maybe thatwas um, it would.
Maybe seeing the soul ofanother, I, I feel that the
ancestors of our, we stand onthe shoulders of our ancestors.
Yes, face it, if not for thesacrifices of the many people
that came before us, that hadchildren and raised them, we
wouldn't be here right?
(24:35):
So that's the one thing I cansay is validly stand on those
shoulders.
That's for real.
Now our existence is so muchmore mysterious.
It's out of the blue, for sure,but maybe you were seeing that
someone, a soul that waswatching over you, you know
(24:55):
absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And you know my mother said to me before, before
she died, many times she saidto me when I'm gone, she goes,
I'm going to be with you, I'malways going to be with you on
your shoulder, I'm always goingto watch you.
I'm, I will not ever leave youthat's beautiful yeah, it was
really.
It was beautiful that she saidthat, for sure.
So, anyway, that was somethingthat happened when I was six.
Then when I was in my 20s, um,and I'm married to my, you know,
(25:20):
my anesthesiologist ex-husbandas I say, lovely guy, totally
different kind of person, but heused to watch me with my
different head shots because I,would, you know, would do some
performing and right right in inthe area that we were living in
and and I would, um, you know,sing in studios or I'd sing live
, whatever it was.
And all of a sudden, I had avision out of the blue.
(25:42):
Out of the blue, I had thisvision I'm going to be on a
magazine cover and I'm like what, what I mean, I'm not doing
anything right now that wouldwarrant me being on a magazine
cover.
Why, and I'm like, what, what Imean, I'm not doing anything
right now that would warrant mebeing on a magazine cover.
Why do I have this vision?
So I said, all right, I'm justgoing to do this.
So I took one of my headshotsand I put it on the cover of
Newsweek magazine and stuck iton our refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And he looked like what's that?
I said I don't know, I justimagined that I'd be on a
magazine cover.
Okay, okay, honey, whatever.
So months later the producerthat I was working with at the
time calls me up out of the blueand says you need to call the
Playhouse Square Foundationbecause we were living in the
Cleveland area area at the time.
He said you got to call thembecause there's a show coming
(26:28):
here from broadway and they'regoing to be auditioning people.
You should get the breakdown,you take a look.
So I call them up and they sendme the breakdown and there it
was a show called pump boys anddinettes two dinettes, an older
sister and a younger sister, andfour pump boys who were gas
station attendants.
(26:49):
I look at the six players and Ilook at what they described each
role being.
And Prudy Cup was the sweetyounger sister, and I said.
And then the Reda Cup was theone who was like pardon my
language ballsier, you know,kind of pretty.
You know we worked at a placecalled the double cup, double
(27:13):
cup diner and she was the oversister and she was overbearing
and she, you know, and I thoughtI'm going to get one of those
roles.
I don't know, I'm probablypretty, I'm going to get it.
I just knew it, I just had afeeling.
Well, I found out later, the600 people try to know, or over
however many, and I get lucky,and they call me and they say
(27:34):
would you really take this roleif we cast you?
And I said yes, I'd be honored,I'd be thrilled.
They said, okay, we're going tosend you to the call back in
New York.
So they send me to the callback.
I performed exactly what I didat the original audition.
The girl who came in after me Iheard her through the wall as I
was packing up my guitar and Iheard her you know gutsy voice,
(27:59):
and I said and she looked likeshe could be my older sister.
I said she's going to get theolder sister, I'll probably get
the younger sister, and sureenough, I get on the bus to go
back.
And I just said God, whatever,whatever you choose for me,
whatever's supposed to happen,please help me be, you know,
graceful about it and gracious.
(28:20):
And I get a phone call a fewdays later, would you like the
roll of pretty cup?
And they flew me back to NewYork and I rehearsed on Broadway
for a month and then I went anddid the show.
I got my actor's equity card,did eight shows a week.
It was a wonderful, wonderfulexperience.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Oh my goshness, yeah, what a wonderful story about it
too.
Did that girl get the oldersister?
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes, she did, and we're still in contact.
She lives out here in LosAngeles, but she does a lot of
traveling with different shows.
She's really entrenched herselfin the world of theater, while
I've gotten into the world offilm and music.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Wow.
So I guess you could say in away that when you learn about
out of the blue things and youkind of ride them a little bit,
they create a sort of trend inyour life.
Sometimes they you just, andthen your intuition starts
getting in tune with them.
You know, I felt that in myselfa few times in my life when my
(29:10):
intuition was really in tune andI would know something good is
going to happen.
I don't have to worry, it willhappen and it would.
And I remember, I remember thatduring that period of my life
cats would approach me and justrub on me.
All the time they liked me areal lot.
And then there was a period ofmy time, my life I'm not, I I
(29:33):
had.
I wasn't always, it wasn'talways um, wonderful, I got a
little headstrong, maybe alittle crazy, maybe I drank a
little bit I'm not a drinker butI think a couple years of my
life I did.
And and during that period oftime I noticed the cats stayed
away from me.
I was thinking, like what arethey trying to tell me, you know
(29:54):
?
And I started to realize thatthey were saying get back in
tune, dad, buddy, you're losingus.
And I did, and they startedbeing nice to me again.
Cats really showed me that I'mnot lying.
That's the real truth.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
No, no, I believe you .
I real no, no, I believe you, Ibelieve you.
And as you're talking aboutthat, it's reminding me of
another, probably the mostphenomenal out of the blue
experience I've ever had,spiritually.
Okay, for a while I just keptstudying.
You know, I was reading the, um, what they call the Hebrew
Bible, which are the, the OldTestament and then, um, the New
(30:28):
Testament, with, you know, thewords of Jesus and his followers
and everything.
I was just reading the wholething.
Just, I just want to know whatpeople are thinking, because I
love learning, love learning,love learning.
So I took a course calledReligions of the World.
So I was studying aboutBuddhism, I was studying about
Sikhism and Islam and you knowall different things.
I just wanted to learn the way,the Taoists and so forth,
(30:52):
whatever, but I was specificallycentered in on the, you know,
the Torah and the New Testament.
And one night, while I was inGeorgia, because my sister lives
there and she and her husbandhad two children they, um, I was
babysitting the kids and benjiwas three and and genie was one,
(31:16):
you know, son and daughter andI was, you know, they're asleep,
they're in their beds right andI'm in the uh den and I'm
watching this spiritual movie umjust starring jennifer jones.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You know this old time oh, I think I remember, I
know who that is.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, and at the very end.
You know, I'm the kind ofperson who, when I see
somebody's dream come true,whether it's in real life or
whether it's on a on the screen,right, I shed.
I shed a little tear or twobecause I'm happy for them.
It makes me so happy whenpeople's dreams come true, right
?
Well, she finally sees the, themother Mary.
(31:53):
At the end, she wanted toalways see the Mother Mary again
because she had seen her whenshe was a 10-year-old girl.
She led a hard life, she becamea nun and finally, as she's on
her deathbed, the Mother Marycomes to her and I'm so happy
for her and a little tear comesout.
Okay, that's fine.
Well, I stand up, I take theremote, I turn off the TV, I
(32:15):
stand up, I start to fold theafghan that was on my knees, you
know, covering me because itwas a little chilly.
And all of a sudden I start to.
It wasn't hyperventilation, itwas like a gasping, like an
abdominal contraction, and I'mgoing to try to approximate what
it sounded like, but it was somuch more weird sounding and so
(32:37):
much stronger than what I'm justgoing to show you.
It was like this weird, weirdsound is coming out of me and
I'm going, I'm thinking tomyself in my brain what is this,
what is this, what is it?
You know, but I'm not sayingthat out loud, you know, the
kids are down the hallway, I'mnot going to be talking out loud
.
What is this?
I just I'm thinking what isthis, what is this?
And it took me around oh, 35,40 seconds to just take myself
(33:07):
from a crescendo it was like areally loud noise to day
crescendo down to okay, stop,stop, stop doing this.
And in addition to that noise,tears were pouring, pouring out
of my eyes, not the little tinytears from when I watched the
movie and saw her achieve herdream.
It was all of a sudden thishorribly weird, sounding
(33:29):
animalistic, almost like a ifyou can imagine a wild boar in
the jungle making screechingsounds and then tears pouring
down my face.
So I was like this loud, andthen I got it down Okay, calm
down.
So I thought myself down, Imade myself intellectually.
I kept saying what's going on,let's settle down, settle down,
(33:52):
stop this.
What is this, what is it?
And I calmed myself and Istopped, stopped crying oh my
God, what's going on.
And I finished holding theAfghan and I put it under the TV
stand and I'm fine.
And I walked down the hallwayand I check in on Benji.
He's doing fine in his room andI go to the restroom, to, you
(34:13):
know, do my, brush my teeth andget ready for bed, wash my face,
everything's fine.
I'm no longer crying Like I wasdoing that weird thing in the
in the den.
And then I go down to the lastroom, which where genie and I
slept.
She's in her crib and I'm in alittle twin bed.
Right same exact boar-likesound.
This thing starts coming overme again and I'm again pouring
(34:37):
out.
My tears are pouring out.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That sounds coming out of you.
It's coming out of me, it'scoming out of me you're having a
physical reaction of some kind?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
yes, and the tears are streaming down my face and
again.
So I just had happened in theden.
Then I I calmed myself down, itwasn't happening anymore.
I lie on the bed.
This is probably 10 minuteslater.
I'm on the bed and it'shappening again.
And at this point I, my God, I'mthinking in my brain what is
(35:12):
happening?
This is happening again.
What's going on?
And then I thought to myselfthe following thought maybe it's
because I've been studying andmaybe this has something to do
with God and spirit, or I don'tknow.
I don't know what this is.
And I said I don't even God, Idon't even know if you exist.
I wish I know you.
And the minute I thought thethought I wish I could know you,
something whooshed through mybody the most peaceful
(35:34):
experience I've ever experiencedin my life.
Well, I was no longer thecontractions that were going and
you know the rollingcontractions gone.
I was no longer crying, I couldfeel the wetness on my face and
I wasn't crying anymore and Iwas a total peace.
And I said, oh, my God, it wasalmost as if God, who's got
(35:56):
billions of people across theplanet and helps all these
people in all their differenttimes of need, took a molecule
of God's fingertip and went I'mgoing to do something for you
that you couldn't do foryourself.
I'm going to take that awayfrom you.
I'm going to take thecontractions away.
I'm going to take the cryingaway in a nanosecond and I'm
going to give you peace.
And I said to myself I know youexist.
(36:20):
I'll never, I won't ever askyou again.
I know you exist.
Thank you, thank you, thank,and I just was so thankful,
that's all I could think.
Thank you, thank you.
So that proved to me in mymind's eye that anyone, if this
could happen to me I'm not Moses.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You know, I'm not on the mountains, mount Sinai.
If God could show me this onelittle tiny miracle of lifting
the contractions and stopping meand giving me total peace, he
could come to anybody in any way, shape or form.
If somebody wants to know longenough, because I was asking all
year long what's going on withGod.
(36:56):
You know what do I believe, youknow what do I think, and I was
asking for like the whole.
For about a year I was, youknow, thinking I was reading the
books, and so that was my outof the blue experience with God.
It's like, oh my god, so I'venot ever.
And I also said to God at thatsame time, after I said I know
you exist, I said please give methe strength to not ever deny
(37:19):
you, because if I were put up infront of a firing squad, please
give me the strength to notdeny you like I'll give my life
for you that's great.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It it's a great, great story, very inspiring.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I know that we don't have much time left and I'm
really interested in hearingmore about how your outlook has
changed after these out of theblue experiences and like how
people maybe around you feel too, like how you found community
(37:51):
with all of this thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Thank you because I was just about to want I wanted
to get into that with you.
Thank you for bringing that up.
First of all, you.
There was a question that Ithink you suggested maybe.
How did it change my mindsetand my view of life?
The only changes are that Ifeel that I'm even more
compassionate, more empathetictowards people who have pain.
(38:17):
I mean, I've always been acompassionate person.
I don't laugh at somebody orscoff at.
I don't want to ever see anyone, any living being, whether it
be an animal or human being, inpain.
I feel that I've become morecompassionate and a better
listener, and my jobs in life asa singer, as an actress, as an
(38:37):
associate music supervisor forHappy Madison Productions my job
is listening to songs for hismovies, and all I had to do was
listen, listen, listen, listen.
I feel like I'm a betterlistener now as a result,
because I just feel like it justslowed me down a little bit.
It's like I can't move as fastright now.
I'm still in recovery.
It's only today is four monthssince my accident and I'm not
(39:00):
moving up to speed yet.
I, you know, I used to ziparound, you know, and, and now
I'm, I'm walking and I'mgrateful that I'm walking, but
it's definitely slowed me downand I'm much more as patient as
I've always been.
I'm even more patient.
That's one thing.
Um my outlook.
I am just ever, ever grateful.
(39:20):
I've always believed one of mythings that I have my students
do are gratitude hums.
So I'll teach you this veryquickly.
Because you're a singer, jackie, you love humming, because I
heard you say something abouthumming.
Okay, so you can do this afterwe finish.
But think of a beautiful,positive thought that you're
(39:42):
grateful for something you'regrateful for.
Don't tell anybody what it is,keep it to yourself, it's your
own personal thought.
And then for about 30 secondsto a minute, just hum as you're
grateful for something you'regrateful for.
Don't tell anybody what it is,keep it to yourself, it's your
own personal thought.
And then for about 30 secondsto a minute, just hum as you're
resonating within your brain,gratitude for that thing in your
brain and believe it.
Believe it or not, it sends outa vibrational pattern that will
attract even more positivityinto your life.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That feels like something that I do something
like that, but this is more ofthat that you're describing as
more of a reframe.
I think that when I, when I gothrough it, when I have an
uncomfortable memory, I hum andI soothe myself and it helps me
that this is taking thatattribute and and like
(40:28):
associating it with emphasizinggratitude and joy.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I love that a lot, I really love that exactly that's
something everyone can do.
You really don't have to be aprofessional singer or a singer
absolutely absolutely anyone cando it.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
my current mindset, um, have I become more aware of
other out of the blue experience?
Yeah, I mean the things that Ishared with you, some of my out
of the blue experiences.
There are more.
When I was just called out ofthe blue to be the part of Maria
and the Sound of Music, thatwas great.
When I was singing on abaseball mound and somebody a
(41:06):
major producer produced me andcame up to me in Nashville and
suddenly wanted to produce awhole album on me, that was
incredibly out of the blue.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Do you recall, like your feelings before these out
of the blue experiences happened, before these out of the blue
experiences happened, like theones that you're like?
Whoa, this totally makes sense,but in some weird way, I call
it for me, my own blind faith.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I have this feeling, prior to these things happening,
that good things are going tohappen.
I don't know why and I don'tknow where and I don't know how,
but I'm just going to be, I'mgoing to be grateful, and I'm
going to be grateful and I'mgoing to be faithful and
something great's going tohappen.
So what about you?
What about you, jackie, andyour out of the blue experiences
?
Can you share something?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I guess out of the blue would.
Essentially one thing I canthink about is getting into
singing jazz.
Well, actually I can probablyjust say like really getting
into music.
I know my dad's a musician, um,but when I was growing up I
felt like I felt really scaredand and sad and that it wasn't
really possible for me to do it.
Um, because I actually nevermade any of the school things.
(42:21):
I always tried it out for schoolplays and and um, and musical
theater and singing thestar-stangled banner, and I
would always become likeunderstudy or something.
So I was like, okay, that's mything, like I don't make it, you
know, and um, but then a partof me was like, doesn't matter,
(42:41):
like you love it, like, so nowit's really pure.
There was something that waslike, yeah, you know what,
you're just actually building alittle muscle here.
So that stayed with me, likewhen I was little.
But then I kind of like gotinto art and writing and then
somewhere in my 20s I was likeI'm missing something, like I
(43:03):
needed to be louder, like Iactually need audibility as part
of my expression and um, I readthis book about John Coltrane.
I didn't even listen to JohnColtrane, I just read a book
about him and I got so excitedby improvising and how people
learn from each other and youdiscover music in you, with
(43:24):
instruments and and singing andand I just that started my whole
like I started going to jazzclubs and and learning standards
and and I felt like this is acommunity thing.
So I feel purposeful in theworld being a part of a
community and also I have a rolein that, in, in, and I started
(43:46):
there.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
That's beautiful, that's beautiful.
Thank you for sharing, yeahreally Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Something's coming up Like I feel like this out of
the blue experience, talkingabout things that are out of the
blue, which is essentially lifeunraveling in front of us and
our flexibility.
It's talking about ourflexibility with that um I.
I think it's very much umpointing out that we have a
(44:16):
dedicated relationship toourselves and we can meet
ourselves in, in, inexperiencing pain and getting
dark, and and also looking atthat darkness and saying you,
you contribute to my beauty,because you know what's a
painting without some dark paint?
You know?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
you need to have all of it, exactly exactly we we
want to, at least.
Personally, I can only speakfor myself, but walking in the
light, walking with goodness andlove and kindness and all the
things that I personally valueare is the most important thing.
But yes, things happen.
This was a dark moment ofsomething that happened in my
life, but yet it's past.
(44:58):
I'm moving on where we're, youknow, it's just, it's just part
of life you know if we were not.
If we were supposed to gothrough life without any pain,
we would not have come out ofour mother's wombs screaming.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Right, yeah, and you have to admit, out of the blue
stuff makes us we.
We improve, it improves us.
I think of the uh, you put astone in a rock tumbler and that
polishes it to gem like beauty.
Well, how's it do that?
It has to rough it up a littlebit, right.
It has to rough it up a littlebit right.
It has to scrub it.
So that's kind of what we'redoing.
We're going through life andout of the blue things.
(45:32):
See, I know you said what youthought and I think I agree with
that, and I think that isprimarily why I'm so drawn to
this phenomenon.
I think that A everybodyexperiences it, but the people
who are doing the best thingswith it are sort of the shamans
(45:53):
of Out of the Blue.
And that's why, betsy, you'reso ideal person to have on the
show, because your life has beenlike polished in the stone the
whole time.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Thank you, I don't know, it's the way I've been
practicing my entire life.
My mother used to, um, my motherwas an amazing woman.
She, she and I sang together,our, you know, every day of our
lives, but and she wasn't aprofessional singer, but thank
god she sang, because I learneda lot from her that way.
But, um, occasionally she'd saydon't blah, blah, blah, blah,
(46:27):
or no way, and she'd say, youknow, she'd like kind of put
this aspersion on something andI would sit there as a writer
because I'm a songwriter, as youare too right, all of both of
you are um and I'd rewrite thescript inside my head.
I didn't answer her backbecause I didn't want to be rude
to my mother, but I'd say tomyself, the minute she goes down
, I'd say, when I grow up, whenI'm older, I'm gonna say would
(46:52):
you please be kind enough to trynot to do I?
I'd be writing the script in myhead, to put it in a kind way.
I was doing that my entire life.
I've been practicing thismethodology every single day of
my life.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I think that's wonderful.
You know, I think that yourtoday's show has been so
inspirational.
I think you are definitelyordained, preordained, to help
spread this message.
We need to get more peoplepaying attention to how we're
really all going through thesame thing in our lives and if
(47:25):
we treat it with the rightpositive attitude, we see past
the darkness and we put thedarkness in its place and we
know it's outside us.
It's not doesn't have to beinside, and the just like
emotions, the joy that we canexperience.
We have to choose to experienceit.
Joy is definitely not somethingyou can experience if you don't
(47:49):
want to.
I mean you can.
You can talk yourself intomisery.
People do.
And, um, I think that the bestthing I've learned from this out
of the blue phenomenon is thatthere are people like you, betsy
, who do this and know how to doit well and I would say, like a
shaman, like a priestess of it.
You know you do it so well thatit's inspirational.
(48:12):
I do that the minute I spoke toyou.
You are definitely a wonderfulperson that I'm so grateful to
have met and to have beenenjoyed your presence on our
show thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Can I tell you one more thought before we go?
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
On a closing note, a few years ago I had a revelation
, and the revelation I collectangels.
I love angels because there arealways, like there are angels
everywhere in our lives.
We don't know when they'regoing to appear to help us and
guide us.
And I feel like my mother's, asI said, an angel on my shoulder
.
My father's an angel Brooks, mylongtime best friend Brooks.
(48:47):
An angel on my shoulder.
My father's an angel Brooks, mylongtime best friend Brooks.
Arthur, the great, legendaryproducer.
These people are angels, thesethree in particular.
And all of the revelation was ohmy God, when we're born, we are
born with a very pure angelicsoul within us and we are either
socialized by factions ofsociety that teach us kindness
(49:08):
and goodness and good characterand being ethical and being
straightforward and being honestall these good things that we
can be nourishing that angelicsoul with or, if they're on a
divergent path and they'retaught hatred and bigotry and
prejudice, these angelic soulsget squashed by these hateful
(49:31):
thoughts.
But we have these angelic soulsthat we're born with.
So if you just try to keepnourishing and feeding the
angelic soul, it will grow.
It will grow even if you thereare people who have been
terrible bigots who have learned.
Their lives have turned aroundbecause they were fed beauty and
positivity and joy.
(49:51):
You know what?
Everybody has the right toexist.
Let's just all coexist with oneanother.
If someone doesn't believe whatyou believe, let them live in
their home as long as they'renot hurting you and you're not
hurting them, just coexist,that's it.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
I think that we cannot, cannot, we cannot close
on a better note, and that isprobably the best, highest note
we could hit, because it reallyis what this whole purpose of
this show is for is to remindpeople that we're we're all
beautiful and somethingbeautiful about every single
person.
Thank you, everybody.
(50:25):
We're going to end it here.
Talk to you next time on Out ofthe Blue.
I'm Vernon, this is Jackie, andwe have our special guest,
betsy Hammer.
So please, betsyhammercom, and,of course, you can always send
any questions.
Or, if you'd like to be on Outof the Blue, please send me an
email, drop me a message.
We're all open to everybodythat has a wonderful experience
(50:49):
they want to share.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Out of the Blue.
Out of the Blue, the podcastHosted by me, vernon West,
co-hosted by Jacqueline West,edited by Joe Gallo Music and
(51:12):
logo by Vernon West III.
Have an Out of the Blue storyof your own you'd like to share.
Reach us at info atoutoftheblue-thepodcastorg.
Subscribe to Out of the Blue onApple Podcasts, spotify or
wherever you get your podcasts,and on our website,
outoftheblue-thepodcastorg.
(51:35):
You can also check us out onPatreon for exclusive content.
Welcome back to Out of the Blue, the podcast, where
we share powerful stories ofresilience, transformation and
those unexpected moments thatchange everything.
I'm your host, vernon West,along with my co-host, jackie
West, our marketing manager,professional musician and Reiki
healer.
Today's guest, Betsy Hammer,has faced life's challenges with
(00:47):
courage, calm and gratitude.
She experienced anout-of-the-blue moment that
could have ended verydifferently.
A fall from a stepladder in herhome left her with a severe,
life-threatening injury, aloneand bleeding.
She stayed remarkably composedand ultimately saved her own
(01:07):
life.
Her story is one of presenceunder pressure and resilience in
the face of adversity.
Beyond that moment, betsy is aremarkable creative force.
She's a professional actress,singer-songwriter, vocal coach,
music producer and associatemusic supervisor.
Classically trained with aBachelor of Music from Ohio
(01:30):
University and advanced studiesat the Cleveland Institute of
Music, betsy has built aninspiring career in the
entertainment industry.
She's performed in film, on TV,on stage, in studio sessions
and in equity productions.
She has guided voices as avocal coach, directed shows and
(01:52):
collaborated with Adam Sandler'sHappy Madison Productions as an
associate music supervisor.
Through it all, betsy hasremained grateful, positive and
passionate about sharing hergifts with the world.
It is my honor to welcome theamazing Betsy Hammer to Out of
the Blue, the podcast.
(02:13):
Hi, betsy, and welcome to Outof the Blue.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Hi, betsy Hi.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Jackie.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Nice to meet you too.
Thank you for this lovelyintroduction and this great
opportunity to chat with you andwith Jackie.
Hi, I'm Betsy Hammer and I'm sodelighted to be asked to speak
with you on Out of the Blue, mydear friend, very close friend,
Wendy Liebman, who's done a showwith Vernon.
So she had mentioned me, Iguess, to Vernon, and then I got
(02:42):
contacted by Vernon and I'm sohappy to be here today to meet
you and your daughter, and youare so lucky, Jackie, to have a
father with this beautifuloutlook on life.
I love it.
I just love it.
It sounds like my parents Verypositive, wonderful people and
I'm very grateful for them.
Right now they're dancing inheaven.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I mentioned them I love that.
Oh, I can see them on the dancefloor.
I can just imagine it.
The Heaven's Dance Floor.
Oh, that's probably a good timefor a song.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I'm going to write that down Heaven's Dance Floor.
Write it down yes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm writing it down because I'm also.
I do a number of things andthen I'll tell you about my out
of the blues in my life.
Okay, so, so I'm talking aboutmy most recent out of the blue
experience, let me say.
Let me say this I may jumparound a little bit, but by the
end all the dots will connect.
(03:33):
Okay, love it.
My whole life has been soblessed and I'm so grateful for
the amazing opportunities I'vehad in my life.
I have from the time I was alittle girl.
I've had in my life.
I have from the time I was alittle girl.
I've been performing.
I was the lead in any number ofshows all throughout my teenage
years and even in my youth aswell.
I think my first lead role waswhen I was eight or something
(03:56):
like that, but I was three yearsold.
I was already by my preschool.
My preschool teacher had me upsinging in front of the class
and also showing my artwork,because those are two of my
things.
I love to do and I have anaffinity towards those things.
So I went into my 20s and I gotmarried and I married a lovely
(04:20):
guy and good person.
That were just two differentpeople Didn't work out.
He was a doctor, he was ananesthesiologist and he put me
to sleep and I used to entertainhim.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's very funny.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And this is a story I mean I used.
I really used to entertain himall the time because he was very
clinical and lovely person, butjust I found out that we were
on very divergent paths butnonetheless I got into a show
that was co-produced on Broadway.
Then I went to Nashville and Igot produced by producers there
and then I found anotherproducer who's been a legendary
producer, brooks Arthur, who heproduced two Grammy award
(04:57):
winning albums with RobinWilliams and he produced at 17
on Janice Ian and he's AdamSandler's producer and he
produced at 17 on Janice Ian andhe's Adam Sandler's producer
and he produced the Hanukkahsong and he's just an amazing
person and he was my best friendfor 27 years and I moved to
California, which is where I amright now.
I'm here in Los Angeles, andthe minute I came here, I moved
(05:17):
here one day and the next day Iwas at Adam's office, adam
Sandler's office.
Just a great, great man, adam.
He's just a very, very cool guy.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Jackie, myself, my wife and, I think, our two other
children, vernon and Samantha.
We ran into Adam when we wereout in California.
We were on Lodeo Drive lookingat all the stores and stuff and
we hopped in an elevator to getto our car or something.
And who comes on the elevatorwas adam and another gentleman
(05:46):
and I had just played in newhampshire, where he's from right
, and we played a nightclub andhe had just been there.
This is this place I played.
New hampshire was a couple years, it was years, before I ran
into him.
It wasn't like I just did it,but it was like at least three
or four years, maybe more, whenhe had put out the music of his
(06:09):
very blue songs.
He had a great album, you know,and it was hysterical.
We were always playing in atruck on the way to gigs, but
anyway, we're playing this cluband they all said, oh yeah, adam
Sand played here and we go.
So I see him in the on the uh,on all of it.
I go.
Hey, you know, I actuallyplayed a place.
I know you, I knew I played aplace.
(06:30):
You uh, I think you played itand I said it's from New
Hampshire.
He goes.
Oh, really that's amazing.
He was really sweet.
And my wife goes around andsays oh, you know, adam, um,
people are making fun of ouraccents.
And he said I think of a wickedawesome accent.
And that's a little story,that's adam, that's so sweet.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I love that really nice yeah I love it.
That's great.
Um, oh.
So when you were telling thestory, I was thinking about the
fact that adam is, he's just um,that kind of a loyal guy.
He just knows you know thepeople that he's always friendly
with.
I mean he'll, if he runs intoyou again you could say hey,
remember when I met you in theyeah, how you doing, how's your
accent?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
you might remember that he did say.
He said he didn't have a familyyet, as I recall, and he looked
at me standing there with mythree children.
He says I love your familythat's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, that, yeah, that's beautiful it really
touched me.
So anyway, getting back to whatled up to this recent out of
the blue experience because I'vehad them throughout my life I
feel my life is out of the blueand I feel that most of our
lives are probably out of theblue, but we just don't know
what to do with it.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I think about that all the time.
I agree 100%.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So anyway, so back to now I'm in Los Angeles and
everything went great.
You know, adam immediatelypicked me to be in his movie
Adam Sandler's Eight CrazyNights.
I played the dubious role ofthe phone sex lady.
(08:04):
But it still happened Exactly,but I'm grateful that I have a,
you know, a role in that.
And then I sang a whole, but Icoached all the kids who sang
the hanukkah song part three andI sang nine layers for the
hanukkah song part.
A lot of beautiful thingshappened, okay.
And then um, then he, oh, andout of the blue experience.
I get a phone call one day fromthe office a few years, about
(08:27):
four years ago, and they saidhas casting called you yet?
And I said no, they haven't.
Well, adam wants you to sing inhis next movie.
I said okay, great.
So they flew me to Boston.
I played the role of thefuneral singer in Hubie
Halloween.
This is just one of the many outof the blue things that
happened.
Well, the thing that happenedout of the blue in January of
(08:48):
this year and this is the reasonwe're talking I just want to
let you see that so many lovelythings have happened, things
that I'm so grateful for.
I've been so privileged to havethese opportunities and
grateful for every singleopportunity.
I was in my kitchen, I was on afour-step stepladder, I was
preparing.
It was a Thursday night and Iwas preparing for a dinner with
(09:13):
some friends.
I was going to take out my goodchina plates because I had
ordered from Kansas City Steaksbeef wellington.
I was like this is going to bea good dinner.
Yeah's good already beefwellington with brunette sauce
and I'm gonna make some mashedpotatoes and you know whatever
other things you know.
So, um, I'm coming down theladder and my right foot missed
(09:38):
the bottom step, threw me offbalance.
I go crashing onto my hardwoodfloor and I'm in excruciating
pain.
I mean pain that I have notever felt before or since.
And I first thought one of yourquestions I think that you had.
You know you'd shared somethoughts that you might want to
(09:59):
explore for our chat today.
How did I first react to it?
My first thought was controlthe pain.
Control the pain.
Maybe it's just a bruise, maybeit's just a bruise.
I'm thinking already positivelyMaybe it's just a bruise,
because if it's a bruise, I'llbe able to get up in three
minutes and it'll hurt when Iget up because it's going to be
a bruise, but I'll be okay.
(10:20):
So I'm thinking, you know it'sgoing to be okay, it's going to
be okay, okay, right.
So I'm thinking, you know it'sgoing to be okay, it's going to
be okay.
And I don't know why this makesme laugh every time, because
it's not really laugh, laughworthy.
But I'm lying there in all thispain, controlling the pain, and
I look over to my right hand,which I don't know.
If you can see, I've got like alittle race on right yep, the
(10:42):
porcelain china dishes hadbroken and one of the shards cut
my wrist and I'm bleeding outon my right hand.
So I'm lying there on theground, I can't move and I'm
bleeding, and I go, oh, and I'mbleeding out too.
This is not good.
I need some help.
That's all I thought was I needhelp.
So my phone was up on a ledge.
I'm down on on the ground and Isaid I've got to get that phone
(11:08):
.
Talk about adrenaline.
You know how they sayadrenaline will help you lift a
car if you need to lift it tohelp.
So you know, people withadrenaline have just done
amazing feats.
I somehow got up on my knees,put my arm on one of my chairs
in my dining area, put my handon the ledge of the counter and
I reach for the phone.
And I get the phone and I'mthinking you know, thank you,
(11:32):
god, thank you.
And so then I call my next doorneighbor who had keys to my
place, thinking you can come inand can you help me.
Well, what I had forgotten thatI had done, which is something
that a lot of women and even mendo there's a security plate
that you could put on the insideof your apartment.
(11:53):
That's a metal plate.
So after you lock your deadboltlock and your regular, you know
doorknob, you flip over theplate so no one could barge in.
So she tries to get in, she andher husband trying to get in,
and they're jiggling the keysand they can't get in because
the security plate is blockingit.
So I go well, please call theEMT and they can break down my
(12:16):
door.
Please have them break down mydoor.
And the whole time I'm notscreaming, I'm not crying, I'm
just thinking, I just need helpand I'm in such pain.
But I'm also in shock.
They break down my door and theother next door neighbor, who
also has a set of my keys causewe're all very friendly here she
comes in and she's a dogtrainer and my dog was on my
(12:39):
couch and I didn't want her tojump.
She doesn't really jump down,but I did not want her down on
the ground to injure her pawwith a shard of glass.
So I said please, please, puther in the crate.
And the woman said to meafterwards she said you were
white and you had perspiration.
Your face was like totallywhite.
She said, but you were liketotally in control, just talking
(13:00):
to us like I'm talking to youright now, and so those are my
reactions.
I thought to myself it's notgoing to do me any good to cry
about anything.
It's like I have to help myself, right I?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
get that, I get that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So, because I was so composed, they did not give me
any medication.
They thought, oh, it's probablyjust a bruise, literally, if I
showed you.
I'm not going to show you apicture of my hip, but I'm
telling you.
If you look at one hip whenthey took the x-rays of me when
I finally got to the hospital,you see the beautiful my left
leg, you see the socket, you seethe joint.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
You see the normal hip.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And then you look at the right hip and it's hanging
by a thread, a thread, the wholething, everything shattered.
So they, finally they get me onthe gurney.
They put me into this ambulanceby myself.
Nobody rode with me for somereason, I don't know.
I didn't ask them to ride withme.
They, you know, they're busy intheir own lives, but they were
there for me to open.
You know, try to help open thedoor.
And I'm in the on the gurneyand it's going back and forth
(13:58):
and it's going over every speedbump and every pothole.
And I'm going, okay, I'll beokay, just praying, praying,
praying, you know, just hangingin there.
We get to the hospital and in mylife I've never seen or heard
of anything like this, because Iwas married many years to a
physician.
There's always been an ERdoctor.
In the ER room there was nodoctor, there was a PA who was
(14:21):
busy with some other people.
Three hours later, as I'm lyingthere, he finally comes,
determines that I'm you know, Ido have they did wind up a few
minutes before that, slipping anx-ray under me and they took
the x-ray of my hand and my hip.
Well, he finally says, yeah,you've shattered your hip, yeah,
(14:45):
we're going to give youmedication.
They give me morphine.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, it's such a state of shock, it doesn't work,
it doesn't work.
Then they gave me, as God is mywitness, four rounds of
Dilaudid, which is another typeof medication you might have
heard of it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
They did that on me too.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Oh my God, you can totally relate.
So on the fourth round, thepain went from a 10 level to
about an eight level.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And I said to myself inwardly, I said oh, oh,
eventually a drug is going tohelp me, eventually the drugs
are going to work.
So I was, you know, it calmedme down.
I mean I wasn't carrying on,but internally I was like when
am I going to get relief?
When am I going to get relief?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm thinking pain like that is devastating, oh my
God.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Well, the good news is my sister, who's my best
friend now.
She and I were on the FaceTimetalking to one another and she
said to me I'm coming out for aweek to help you, and she
literally got there Tuesday.
Now the accident was on aThursday.
They were supposed to dosurgery on Friday.
(15:55):
I got bumped off the surgeryschedule because there was
somebody with a heart attack,something like that.
Yeah, or somebody had a caraccident, whatever it is, a hip
surgery can wait.
Then they put me on the surgeryschedule for saturday.
They bought me again forsaturday.
Then they put me on the surgeryschedule for eight o'clock
sunday morning.
(16:15):
I get bumped from that and atthis point my sister and I are
you know we're back andconstantly talking on the phone
is whenever we can, and she sayswho do I have to talk to to get
this to happen for you?
This is going.
It's crazy already, but thegood news is, at around 3.30 on
Sunday they somebody came to getme, took me down to surgery and
I will tell you and this, youbeing a singer, jackie, I found
(16:38):
that singing throughout thisexperience was so helpful, so
therapeutic.
I would just occasionally humsomething or sing something, and
I sang my whole way down to thesurgery area.
I have a song that I co-wrotecalled take it away, and it has
to do with taking away the painit's a song.
It's a spiritual song and justsaying God, you know, you said
(16:59):
you'd you'd be with us in ourtrials and our traumas.
Can you take away the pain?
So I'm singing it on the waydown and get down to the surgery
area and finally, probablyaround 5 o'clock-ish, I'm down
there.
At 3.30, 5 o'clock-ish theystart to get me into the surgery
area.
Well, I get back into recoverythat evening.
(17:23):
Monday, the very next day I nowhave a new titanium hip inside
of me.
Monday morning there's aphysical therapist standing
right by my bed with a walkerand he said you're going to walk
10 steps to the bathroom and 10steps, 10 steps, back.
I went OK and I did it and thatafternoon they had me walking
(17:45):
up and down the hallway.
The next morning my sister wasflying in.
She was due 10 o'clock thatmorning and 10 o'clock that
morning is a different physicaltherapist telling me that we're
going to walk again and I saidto him can you please teach me
how to walk up and down stairs?
And he took me up 30 steps and30 down.
It was a little scary but I didit and my sister gets there at
(18:05):
noon, two o'clock.
We're driving away from thehospital, so, less than 48 hours
after the surgery, my sister'salready driving me home.
I did not want to go to a rehabcenter, I wanted to acclimate to
everything at home because I'vebeen dealing with, you know,
pain in this wrist.
But I'm thinking, we're justgoing to, we're just going to
recover, I'm just going to, I'mjust going to do everything they
have me do.
I'm going to do all theexercises, I'm going to stay
(18:26):
positive, because that's theonly thing that can help me
through this.
I cannot afford to put negativethoughts into my brain.
It's like what good is thatgoing to do?
It's not going to do any good.
So I believe that we all havechoices in our thought process.
I mean, I think a lot of us canreally work hard and just say,
(18:47):
hey, I got to, I got to takecontrol of this, yeah, and my
control.
I love always being positive,so that's, that's the way my
life is.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's almost like I can from hearing.
It's just Tori, it's almostlike thread of positivity, the
muscle of positivity.
You've been working on it yourwhole life and that muscle came
to your rescue.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think, even fundamentally, like just
speaking, to that moment whereyou, your survival instinct
kicked in, um you are soconnected to expressing through
your voice and that is like yourbody vibrating, so it's like a
(19:33):
physical way to heal, um, and Ithink that, yeah, I think, like
thoughts turn into speech, andso it makes a lot of sense to me
that it would be very importantfor you to um start with your
thoughts and angle them towardsproduct, uh, a productive
(19:57):
approach to this difficultsituation.
Um, positive thoughts, positiveum speaking, and and then
singing is is so primal, likerocking and humming and and,
yeah, it's just all healing yes,it set up a vibrational healing
(20:18):
pattern throughout my wholebody oh, vibrations, I'm into
the vibrations, yeah okay, solet me, can I?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
um, I want to tell you about a couple of other out
of the blue things, if I may, oroh, please, that's what we're
here for.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Let's hear some more.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I have to tell you about six.
When I was six years old, I hadan amazing out of the blue
experience, and when I was in my20s, right before I got chosen
to be one of the leads of a showthat was co-produced on
Broadway, I had another out ofthe blue experience, and I want
to share the things that Ilearned from them, because
didn't you ask?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I would love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
So odd that this happened, but I can still
imagine it and envision it as ifit happened yesterday, when I
was growing up in Hewlett, NewYork, which is on Long Island,
in our little home lovely littlehome.
It wasn't that little but itwas a nice home in Hewlett, new
York and my mom was a veryorganized, amazingly clean, you
know, fastidious lady and shealways had a seated.
(21:17):
She had my it's my mom and dadand then three daughters.
I'm the youngest of three girls, so my dad would sit on one end
of the table, my mom would siton the other and my sister and I
would sit on one side, and thenour other mom would sit on the
other and my sister and I wouldsit on one side and then our
other sister would sit on theother side.
Well, everybody was out, exceptout of the house.
My father was working, mysister Helene was busy doing
(21:39):
whatever she was doing with somefriends.
Same thing with my sister Bobbyshe was.
She was also gone doing youknow whatever with friends as
well.
And my mom was in the kitchenand she's cooking and I decided
that instead of sitting in myseat I'm going to sit in daddy's
chair.
I got really bold.
You know, because you'resupposed to sit.
(21:59):
I was told this is your seat.
I'm very obedient.
This is your seat.
This is where Betsy sits right.
Dad was my hero.
Hero.
Dad was such an incrediblypositive person I knew in my
entire life I did not ever hearhim say one nasty thing about
another human being.
Everybody was always he's anice guy.
Oh, she's so nice.
(22:20):
And my mother used to sayeverybody's nice to you.
Mill, you think everybody's nice, but he did, he manifested it
so I get into my daddy's chairand I'm kneeling and all of a
sudden, out of the blue over myright shoulder, I see this like
you've seen.
What are they called?
(22:40):
Holograms?
Holograms right, it looked likea ball.
It was like an amber kind oforangey, amber colored, and it
was almost see-through.
And it was a ball over.
It was like an amber kind oforangey, amber colored and it
was almost see-through.
And it was a ball over my rightshoulder and it started moving
up at a diagonal and my thoughtwas oh, that's where your soul
goes when you die.
(23:01):
I had a vision of what was asoul.
The orb looked like a soul tome.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And it moved just up to the sky, like at an angle,
and I can still see that becauseit was so vivid to me and that
was my only thought.
Oh, that's where your soul goeswhen you die and you're sitting
in your dad's chair and he wasmy greatest positive,
inspirational influence.
(23:28):
In fact, the word, the word,root, spire when you respire,
when you inspire.
Spirit has to do with thebreath of life or aspire.
You aspire, yes, and respirelike respiration.
Right, it has to do with breathand inspiration.
The spirit comes in when you'reinspired Inspiration.
(23:52):
I was inspired by my father.
He always inspired me.
So somehow or other, sitting inhis chair, I got some type of
communication.
Maybe it's from my father,maybe it was from God, I don't
know what it was from.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Was he not with you at the time?
No, he was working.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
He was working.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
He was alive though.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh, yes, time no he was working, he was working
that's a lot, though.
Oh yes, yes, this is when I wassix years old, right?
I?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
figured he died when I was in my 40s.
So I wonder if, if maybe thatwas um, it would.
Maybe seeing the soul ofanother, I, I feel that the
ancestors of our, we stand onthe shoulders of our ancestors.
Yes, face it, if not for thesacrifices of the many people
that came before us, that hadchildren and raised them, we
wouldn't be here right?
(24:35):
So that's the one thing I cansay is validly stand on those
shoulders.
That's for real.
Now our existence is so muchmore mysterious.
It's out of the blue, for sure,but maybe you were seeing that
someone, a soul that waswatching over you, you know
(24:55):
absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And you know my mother said to me before, before
she died, many times she saidto me when I'm gone, she goes,
I'm going to be with you, I'malways going to be with you on
your shoulder, I'm always goingto watch you.
I'm, I will not ever leave youthat's beautiful yeah, it was
really.
It was beautiful that she saidthat, for sure.
So, anyway, that was somethingthat happened when I was six.
Then when I was in my 20s, um,and I'm married to my, you know,
(25:20):
my anesthesiologist ex-husbandas I say, lovely guy, totally
different kind of person, but heused to watch me with my
different head shots because I,would, you know, would do some
performing and right right in inthe area that we were living in
and and I would, um, you know,sing in studios or I'd sing live
, whatever it was.
And all of a sudden, I had avision out of the blue.
(25:42):
Out of the blue, I had thisvision I'm going to be on a
magazine cover and I'm like what, what I mean, I'm not doing
anything right now that wouldwarrant me being on a magazine
cover.
Why, and I'm like, what, what Imean, I'm not doing anything
right now that would warrant mebeing on a magazine cover.
Why do I have this vision?
So I said, all right, I'm justgoing to do this.
So I took one of my headshotsand I put it on the cover of
Newsweek magazine and stuck iton our refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And he looked like what's that?
I said I don't know, I justimagined that I'd be on a
magazine cover.
Okay, okay, honey, whatever.
So months later the producerthat I was working with at the
time calls me up out of the blueand says you need to call the
Playhouse Square Foundationbecause we were living in the
Cleveland area area at the time.
He said you got to call thembecause there's a show coming
(26:28):
here from broadway and they'regoing to be auditioning people.
You should get the breakdown,you take a look.
So I call them up and they sendme the breakdown and there it
was a show called pump boys anddinettes two dinettes, an older
sister and a younger sister, andfour pump boys who were gas
station attendants.
(26:49):
I look at the six players and Ilook at what they described each
role being.
And Prudy Cup was the sweetyounger sister, and I said.
And then the Reda Cup was theone who was like pardon my
language ballsier, you know,kind of pretty.
You know we worked at a placecalled the double cup, double
(27:13):
cup diner and she was the oversister and she was overbearing
and she, you know, and I thoughtI'm going to get one of those
roles.
I don't know, I'm probablypretty, I'm going to get it.
I just knew it, I just had afeeling.
Well, I found out later, the600 people try to know, or over
however many, and I get lucky,and they call me and they say
(27:34):
would you really take this roleif we cast you?
And I said yes, I'd be honored,I'd be thrilled.
They said, okay, we're going tosend you to the call back in
New York.
So they send me to the callback.
I performed exactly what I didat the original audition.
The girl who came in after me Iheard her through the wall as I
was packing up my guitar and Iheard her you know gutsy voice,
(27:59):
and I said and she looked likeshe could be my older sister.
I said she's going to get theolder sister, I'll probably get
the younger sister, and sureenough, I get on the bus to go
back.
And I just said God, whatever,whatever you choose for me,
whatever's supposed to happen,please help me be, you know,
graceful about it and gracious.
(28:20):
And I get a phone call a fewdays later, would you like the
roll of pretty cup?
And they flew me back to NewYork and I rehearsed on Broadway
for a month and then I went anddid the show.
I got my actor's equity card,did eight shows a week.
It was a wonderful, wonderfulexperience.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Oh my goshness, yeah, what a wonderful story about it
too.
Did that girl get the oldersister?
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes, she did, and we're still in contact.
She lives out here in LosAngeles, but she does a lot of
traveling with different shows.
She's really entrenched herselfin the world of theater, while
I've gotten into the world offilm and music.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Wow.
So I guess you could say in away that when you learn about
out of the blue things and youkind of ride them a little bit,
they create a sort of trend inyour life.
Sometimes they you just, andthen your intuition starts
getting in tune with them.
You know, I felt that in myselfa few times in my life when my
(29:10):
intuition was really in tune andI would know something good is
going to happen.
I don't have to worry, it willhappen and it would.
And I remember, I remember thatduring that period of my life
cats would approach me and justrub on me.
All the time they liked me areal lot.
And then there was a period ofmy time, my life I'm not, I I
(29:33):
had.
I wasn't always, it wasn'talways um, wonderful, I got a
little headstrong, maybe alittle crazy, maybe I drank a
little bit I'm not a drinker butI think a couple years of my
life I did.
And and during that period oftime I noticed the cats stayed
away from me.
I was thinking, like what arethey trying to tell me, you know
(29:54):
?
And I started to realize thatthey were saying get back in
tune, dad, buddy, you're losingus.
And I did, and they startedbeing nice to me again.
Cats really showed me that I'mnot lying.
That's the real truth.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
No, no, I believe you .
I real no, no, I believe you, Ibelieve you.
And as you're talking aboutthat, it's reminding me of
another, probably the mostphenomenal out of the blue
experience I've ever had,spiritually.
Okay, for a while I just keptstudying.
You know, I was reading the, um, what they call the Hebrew
Bible, which are the, the OldTestament and then, um, the New
(30:28):
Testament, with, you know, thewords of Jesus and his followers
and everything.
I was just reading the wholething.
Just, I just want to know whatpeople are thinking, because I
love learning, love learning,love learning.
So I took a course calledReligions of the World.
So I was studying aboutBuddhism, I was studying about
Sikhism and Islam and you knowall different things.
I just wanted to learn the way,the Taoists and so forth,
(30:52):
whatever, but I was specificallycentered in on the, you know,
the Torah and the New Testament.
And one night, while I was inGeorgia, because my sister lives
there and she and her husbandhad two children they, um, I was
babysitting the kids and benjiwas three and and genie was one,
(31:16):
you know, son and daughter andI was, you know, they're asleep,
they're in their beds right andI'm in the uh den and I'm
watching this spiritual movie umjust starring jennifer jones.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You know this old time oh, I think I remember, I
know who that is.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, and at the very end.
You know, I'm the kind ofperson who, when I see
somebody's dream come true,whether it's in real life or
whether it's on a on the screen,right, I shed.
I shed a little tear or twobecause I'm happy for them.
It makes me so happy whenpeople's dreams come true, right
?
Well, she finally sees the, themother Mary.
(31:53):
At the end, she wanted toalways see the Mother Mary again
because she had seen her whenshe was a 10-year-old girl.
She led a hard life, she becamea nun and finally, as she's on
her deathbed, the Mother Marycomes to her and I'm so happy
for her and a little tear comesout.
Okay, that's fine.
Well, I stand up, I take theremote, I turn off the TV, I
(32:15):
stand up, I start to fold theafghan that was on my knees, you
know, covering me because itwas a little chilly.
And all of a sudden I start to.
It wasn't hyperventilation, itwas like a gasping, like an
abdominal contraction, and I'mgoing to try to approximate what
it sounded like, but it was somuch more weird sounding and so
(32:37):
much stronger than what I'm justgoing to show you.
It was like this weird, weirdsound is coming out of me and
I'm going, I'm thinking tomyself in my brain what is this,
what is this, what is it?
You know, but I'm not sayingthat out loud, you know, the
kids are down the hallway, I'mnot going to be talking out loud
.
What is this?
I just I'm thinking what isthis, what is this?
And it took me around oh, 35,40 seconds to just take myself
(33:07):
from a crescendo it was like areally loud noise to day
crescendo down to okay, stop,stop, stop doing this.
And in addition to that noise,tears were pouring, pouring out
of my eyes, not the little tinytears from when I watched the
movie and saw her achieve herdream.
It was all of a sudden thishorribly weird, sounding
(33:29):
animalistic, almost like a ifyou can imagine a wild boar in
the jungle making screechingsounds and then tears pouring
down my face.
So I was like this loud, andthen I got it down Okay, calm
down.
So I thought myself down, Imade myself intellectually.
I kept saying what's going on,let's settle down, settle down,
(33:52):
stop this.
What is this, what is it?
And I calmed myself and Istopped, stopped crying oh my
God, what's going on.
And I finished holding theAfghan and I put it under the TV
stand and I'm fine.
And I walked down the hallwayand I check in on Benji.
He's doing fine in his room andI go to the restroom, to, you
(34:13):
know, do my, brush my teeth andget ready for bed, wash my face,
everything's fine.
I'm no longer crying Like I wasdoing that weird thing in the
in the den.
And then I go down to the lastroom, which where genie and I
slept.
She's in her crib and I'm in alittle twin bed.
Right same exact boar-likesound.
This thing starts coming overme again and I'm again pouring
(34:37):
out.
My tears are pouring out.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That sounds coming out of you.
It's coming out of me, it'scoming out of me you're having a
physical reaction of some kind?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
yes, and the tears are streaming down my face and
again.
So I just had happened in theden.
Then I I calmed myself down, itwasn't happening anymore.
I lie on the bed.
This is probably 10 minuteslater.
I'm on the bed and it'shappening again.
And at this point I, my God, I'mthinking in my brain what is
(35:12):
happening?
This is happening again.
What's going on?
And then I thought to myselfthe following thought maybe it's
because I've been studying andmaybe this has something to do
with God and spirit, or I don'tknow.
I don't know what this is.
And I said I don't even God, Idon't even know if you exist.
I wish I know you.
And the minute I thought thethought I wish I could know you,
something whooshed through mybody the most peaceful
(35:34):
experience I've ever experiencedin my life.
Well, I was no longer thecontractions that were going and
you know the rollingcontractions gone.
I was no longer crying, I couldfeel the wetness on my face and
I wasn't crying anymore and Iwas a total peace.
And I said, oh, my God, it wasalmost as if God, who's got
(35:56):
billions of people across theplanet and helps all these
people in all their differenttimes of need, took a molecule
of God's fingertip and went I'mgoing to do something for you
that you couldn't do foryourself.
I'm going to take that awayfrom you.
I'm going to take thecontractions away.
I'm going to take the cryingaway in a nanosecond and I'm
going to give you peace.
And I said to myself I know youexist.
(36:20):
I'll never, I won't ever askyou again.
I know you exist.
Thank you, thank you, thank,and I just was so thankful,
that's all I could think.
Thank you, thank you.
So that proved to me in mymind's eye that anyone, if this
could happen to me I'm not Moses.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You know, I'm not on the mountains, mount Sinai.
If God could show me this onelittle tiny miracle of lifting
the contractions and stopping meand giving me total peace, he
could come to anybody in any way, shape or form.
If somebody wants to know longenough, because I was asking all
year long what's going on withGod.
(36:56):
You know what do I believe, youknow what do I think, and I was
asking for like the whole.
For about a year I was, youknow, thinking I was reading the
books, and so that was my outof the blue experience with God.
It's like, oh my god, so I'venot ever.
And I also said to God at thatsame time, after I said I know
you exist, I said please give methe strength to not ever deny
(37:19):
you, because if I were put up infront of a firing squad, please
give me the strength to notdeny you like I'll give my life
for you that's great.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It it's a great, great story, very inspiring.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I know that we don't have much time left and I'm
really interested in hearingmore about how your outlook has
changed after these out of theblue experiences and like how
people maybe around you feel too, like how you found community
(37:51):
with all of this thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Thank you because I was just about to want I wanted
to get into that with you.
Thank you for bringing that up.
First of all, you.
There was a question that Ithink you suggested maybe.
How did it change my mindsetand my view of life?
The only changes are that Ifeel that I'm even more
compassionate, more empathetictowards people who have pain.
(38:17):
I mean, I've always been acompassionate person.
I don't laugh at somebody orscoff at.
I don't want to ever see anyone, any living being, whether it
be an animal or human being, inpain.
I feel that I've become morecompassionate and a better
listener, and my jobs in life asa singer, as an actress, as an
(38:37):
associate music supervisor forHappy Madison Productions my job
is listening to songs for hismovies, and all I had to do was
listen, listen, listen, listen.
I feel like I'm a betterlistener now as a result,
because I just feel like it justslowed me down a little bit.
It's like I can't move as fastright now.
I'm still in recovery.
It's only today is four monthssince my accident and I'm not
(39:00):
moving up to speed yet.
I, you know, I used to ziparound, you know, and, and now
I'm, I'm walking and I'mgrateful that I'm walking, but
it's definitely slowed me downand I'm much more as patient as
I've always been.
I'm even more patient.
That's one thing.
Um my outlook.
I am just ever, ever grateful.
(39:20):
I've always believed one of mythings that I have my students
do are gratitude hums.
So I'll teach you this veryquickly.
Because you're a singer, jackie, you love humming, because I
heard you say something abouthumming.
Okay, so you can do this afterwe finish.
But think of a beautiful,positive thought that you're
(39:42):
grateful for something you'regrateful for.
Don't tell anybody what it is,keep it to yourself, it's your
own personal thought.
And then for about 30 secondsto a minute, just hum as you're
grateful for something you'regrateful for.
Don't tell anybody what it is,keep it to yourself, it's your
own personal thought.
And then for about 30 secondsto a minute, just hum as you're
resonating within your brain,gratitude for that thing in your
brain and believe it.
Believe it or not, it sends outa vibrational pattern that will
attract even more positivityinto your life.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
That feels like something that I do something
like that, but this is more ofthat that you're describing as
more of a reframe.
I think that when I, when I gothrough it, when I have an
uncomfortable memory, I hum andI soothe myself and it helps me
that this is taking thatattribute and and like
(40:28):
associating it with emphasizinggratitude and joy.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I love that a lot, I really love that exactly that's
something everyone can do.
You really don't have to be aprofessional singer or a singer
absolutely absolutely anyone cando it.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
my current mindset, um, have I become more aware of
other out of the blue experience?
Yeah, I mean the things that Ishared with you, some of my out
of the blue experiences.
There are more.
When I was just called out ofthe blue to be the part of Maria
and the Sound of Music, thatwas great.
When I was singing on abaseball mound and somebody a
(41:06):
major producer produced me andcame up to me in Nashville and
suddenly wanted to produce awhole album on me, that was
incredibly out of the blue.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Do you recall, like your feelings before these out
of the blue experiences happened, before these out of the blue
experiences happened, like theones that you're like?
Whoa, this totally makes sense,but in some weird way, I call
it for me, my own blind faith.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I have this feeling, prior to these things happening,
that good things are going tohappen.
I don't know why and I don'tknow where and I don't know how,
but I'm just going to be, I'mgoing to be grateful, and I'm
going to be grateful and I'mgoing to be faithful and
something great's going tohappen.
So what about you?
What about you, jackie, andyour out of the blue experiences
?
Can you share something?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I guess out of the blue would.
Essentially one thing I canthink about is getting into
singing jazz.
Well, actually I can probablyjust say like really getting
into music.
I know my dad's a musician, um,but when I was growing up I
felt like I felt really scaredand and sad and that it wasn't
really possible for me to do it.
Um, because I actually nevermade any of the school things.
(42:21):
I always tried it out for schoolplays and and um, and musical
theater and singing thestar-stangled banner, and I
would always become likeunderstudy or something.
So I was like, okay, that's mything, like I don't make it, you
know, and um, but then a partof me was like, doesn't matter,
(42:41):
like you love it, like, so nowit's really pure.
There was something that waslike, yeah, you know what,
you're just actually building alittle muscle here.
So that stayed with me, likewhen I was little.
But then I kind of like gotinto art and writing and then
somewhere in my 20s I was likeI'm missing something, like I
(43:03):
needed to be louder, like Iactually need audibility as part
of my expression and um, I readthis book about John Coltrane.
I didn't even listen to JohnColtrane, I just read a book
about him and I got so excitedby improvising and how people
learn from each other and youdiscover music in you, with
(43:24):
instruments and and singing andand I just that started my whole
like I started going to jazzclubs and and learning standards
and and I felt like this is acommunity thing.
So I feel purposeful in theworld being a part of a
community and also I have a rolein that, in, in, and I started
(43:46):
there.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
That's beautiful, that's beautiful.
Thank you for sharing, yeahreally Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Something's coming up Like I feel like this out of
the blue experience, talkingabout things that are out of the
blue, which is essentially lifeunraveling in front of us and
our flexibility.
It's talking about ourflexibility with that um I.
I think it's very much umpointing out that we have a
(44:16):
dedicated relationship toourselves and we can meet
ourselves in, in, inexperiencing pain and getting
dark, and and also looking atthat darkness and saying you,
you contribute to my beauty,because you know what's a
painting without some dark paint?
You know?
Speaker 2 (44:37):
you need to have all of it, exactly exactly we we
want to, at least.
Personally, I can only speakfor myself, but walking in the
light, walking with goodness andlove and kindness and all the
things that I personally valueare is the most important thing.
But yes, things happen.
This was a dark moment ofsomething that happened in my
life, but yet it's past.
(44:58):
I'm moving on where we're, youknow, it's just, it's just part
of life you know if we were not.
If we were supposed to gothrough life without any pain,
we would not have come out ofour mother's wombs screaming.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Right, yeah, and you have to admit, out of the blue
stuff makes us we.
We improve, it improves us.
I think of the uh, you put astone in a rock tumbler and that
polishes it to gem like beauty.
Well, how's it do that?
It has to rough it up a littlebit, right.
It has to rough it up a littlebit right.
It has to scrub it.
So that's kind of what we'redoing.
We're going through life andout of the blue things.
(45:32):
See, I know you said what youthought and I think I agree with
that, and I think that isprimarily why I'm so drawn to
this phenomenon.
I think that A everybodyexperiences it, but the people
who are doing the best thingswith it are sort of the shamans
(45:53):
of Out of the Blue.
And that's why, betsy, you'reso ideal person to have on the
show, because your life has beenlike polished in the stone the
whole time.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Thank you, I don't know, it's the way I've been
practicing my entire life.
My mother used to, um, my motherwas an amazing woman.
She, she and I sang together,our, you know, every day of our
lives, but and she wasn't aprofessional singer, but thank
god she sang, because I learneda lot from her that way.
But, um, occasionally she'd saydon't blah, blah, blah, blah,
(46:27):
or no way, and she'd say, youknow, she'd like kind of put
this aspersion on something andI would sit there as a writer
because I'm a songwriter, as youare too right, all of both of
you are um and I'd rewrite thescript inside my head.
I didn't answer her backbecause I didn't want to be rude
to my mother, but I'd say tomyself, the minute she goes down
, I'd say, when I grow up, whenI'm older, I'm gonna say would
(46:52):
you please be kind enough to trynot to do I?
I'd be writing the script in myhead, to put it in a kind way.
I was doing that my entire life.
I've been practicing thismethodology every single day of
my life.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I think that's wonderful.
You know, I think that yourtoday's show has been so
inspirational.
I think you are definitelyordained, preordained, to help
spread this message.
We need to get more peoplepaying attention to how we're
really all going through thesame thing in our lives and if
(47:25):
we treat it with the rightpositive attitude, we see past
the darkness and we put thedarkness in its place and we
know it's outside us.
It's not doesn't have to beinside, and the just like
emotions, the joy that we canexperience.
We have to choose to experienceit.
Joy is definitely not somethingyou can experience if you don't
(47:49):
want to.
I mean you can.
You can talk yourself intomisery.
People do.
And, um, I think that the bestthing I've learned from this out
of the blue phenomenon is thatthere are people like you, betsy
, who do this and know how to doit well and I would say, like a
shaman, like a priestess of it.
You know you do it so well thatit's inspirational.
(48:12):
I do that the minute I spoke toyou.
You are definitely a wonderfulperson that I'm so grateful to
have met and to have beenenjoyed your presence on our
show thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Can I tell you one more thought before we go?
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
On a closing note, a few years ago I had a revelation
, and the revelation I collectangels.
I love angels because there arealways, like there are angels
everywhere in our lives.
We don't know when they'regoing to appear to help us and
guide us.
And I feel like my mother's, asI said, an angel on my shoulder
.
My father's an angel Brooks, mylongtime best friend Brooks.
(48:47):
An angel on my shoulder.
My father's an angel Brooks, mylongtime best friend Brooks.
Arthur, the great, legendaryproducer.
These people are angels, thesethree in particular.
And all of the revelation was ohmy God, when we're born, we are
born with a very pure angelicsoul within us and we are either
socialized by factions ofsociety that teach us kindness
(49:08):
and goodness and good characterand being ethical and being
straightforward and being honestall these good things that we
can be nourishing that angelicsoul with or, if they're on a
divergent path and they'retaught hatred and bigotry and
prejudice, these angelic soulsget squashed by these hateful
(49:31):
thoughts.
But we have these angelic soulsthat we're born with.
So if you just try to keepnourishing and feeding the
angelic soul, it will grow.
It will grow even if you thereare people who have been
terrible bigots who have learned.
Their lives have turned aroundbecause they were fed beauty and
positivity and joy.
(49:51):
You know what?
Everybody has the right toexist.
Let's just all coexist with oneanother.
If someone doesn't believe whatyou believe, let them live in
their home as long as they'renot hurting you and you're not
hurting them, just coexist,that's it.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
I think that we cannot, cannot, we cannot close
on a better note, and that isprobably the best, highest note
we could hit, because it reallyis what this whole purpose of
this show is for is to remindpeople that we're we're all
beautiful and somethingbeautiful about every single
person.
Thank you, everybody.
(50:25):
We're going to end it here.
Talk to you next time on Out ofthe Blue.
I'm Vernon, this is Jackie, andwe have our special guest,
betsy Hammer.
So please, betsyhammercom, and,of course, you can always send
any questions.
Or, if you'd like to be on Outof the Blue, please send me an
email, drop me a message.
We're all open to everybodythat has a wonderful experience
(50:49):
they want to share.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Out of the Blue.
Out of the Blue, the podcastHosted by me, vernon West,
co-hosted by Jacqueline West,edited by Joe Gallo Music and
(51:12):
logo by Vernon West III.
Have an Out of the Blue storyof your own you'd like to share.
Reach us at info atoutoftheblue-thepodcastorg.
Subscribe to Out of the Blue onApple Podcasts, spotify or
wherever you get your podcasts,and on our website,
outoftheblue-thepodcastorg.
(51:35):
You can also check us out onPatreon for exclusive content.
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