May 15, 2025 • 48 mins
What does it mean to create from a place of deep inner alignment? How do we tap into that sacred space where healing and inspiration meet?
This week, I’m joined by Brett Bevell — renowned Reiki Master Teacher, poet, performance artist, and author of Energy Healing for Everyone, Reiki for Spiritual Healing, and many more. Brett is a leader in the field of digital energy healing, having first introduced the concept in his 2013 book New Reiki Software for Divine Living. Today, his innovative healing work continues to reach a global audience through the Soulvana App by Mindvalley. A trailblazer in energy healing and intuitive technology, Brett Bevell is the creator of the Reiki Divine Healing Oracle Deck, a powerful tool for self-discovery and spiritual alignment.
In this soulful conversation, we explore the energetic connection between creativity and intuition. Brett shares wisdom from decades of energy work, poetry, and public performance — including insights from his work with Hollywood creatives and his viral NPR-featured poem America Needs A Buddhist President.
This episode is a beautiful invitation to tune inward, trust your flow, and transform your everyday life into a canvas of healing expression.
Find me on Instagram @ToHumisHuman and www.sonorouslight.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hello, friends.
Thanks for coming back toanother episode of To Hum is
Human, the podcast where weexplore the transformative power
of tuning into our intuition toexpress our passionate purpose.
I'm your host, Donna Bell, andI'm so excited to introduce
today's guest.
(00:28):
We will explore the hum ofcreativity.
Finding Your Flow.
As my next guest will show us,our inner wisdom is tied to
creative expression.
Brett Bevel is a poet andperformance artist.
He is author of America Needs aWoman President and America
(00:48):
Needs a Buddhist President, apoem that initially aired
nationwide on NPR's All ThingsConsidered.
Often compared to the late poetAllen Ginsberg, Brett has
electrified audiences witharound the world with his live
readings.
His poetry is featured in theanthology Chorus, a literary
(01:09):
mixtape, and his work is alsopart of NPR's permanent website
archives.
Brett Bevel is also a Reikimaster teacher and the author of
several books, including PsychicReiki, The Wizard's Guide to
Energy Healing, The Reiki MagicGuide to Self-Attunement, and
Reiki for Spiritual Healing.
(01:31):
He is a leader in the field ofenergy healing apps, first
exploring the concept back in2013 through his book, New Reiki
Software for Divine Living, andalso now offering energy healing
work through the Solvana app byMindvalley.
His latest work is the ReikiDivine Healing Card Deck
(01:53):
published by US Games.
Welcome, Brett.
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me on.
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
Well, it's quite an honor.
Your career is quite akaleidoscope of creative output.
I'm curious about your personaljourney to where you are right
now.
At what age did you first feelthe pull to write and what did
you write about?
SPEAKER_01 (02:19):
Yeah, I think for me, for writing probably started
in like maybe late junior high,early high school.
That's when I kind of found aninterest in writing.
mostly poetry, maybe some shortstories.
And then in college, I wasreally more focused on fiction.
My undergraduate degree was increative writing.
(02:41):
And I had the aspiration towrite the great American novel,
which hasn't happened yet forme.
And then after that, I shiftedmore into poetry.
And that was very opening.
The shift to poetry, I think,happened really as I was taking
some acting classes inHollywood.
(03:02):
I was studying with this mannamed Eric Morris, and he was
very powerful.
He may still be teaching.
I'm not sure.
He's probably in his 90s.
But he influenced some verymajor actors of our time.
I think Jack Nicholson studiedwith him, Johnny Depp, Terry
Garr.
Oh, wow.
I think Barbara Hershey did.
Actually, in the same classesthat I was in, the late Brandon
(03:22):
Lee was often there.
And anyway, Eric's really like,it felt like, to me, it felt
like, his process was mystical,you know?
And I think that's when itreally kind of opened me up to
this kind of crossover betweenthe mystical and the creative.
So he would teach these verypowerful method acting
(03:44):
techniques.
And for those who aren'tfamiliar with method acting,
it's where you're really feelingthe emotion on stage as opposed
to pretending and acting it out.
His philosophy always was, ifyou can't feel it in real life,
there's no way you're going tobe able to feel it on stage or
in front of a camera.
And so he had all theseexercises basically used to kind
of peel away those obstructionsthat we have to really feeling
(04:07):
what's really inside of us.
And there were even sometherapists in the Los Angeles
area that would come take hisclasses, not because they wanted
to be actors, but because theywanted to learn his techniques
and use them in their therapysessions with their clients.
And so it was really when Istarted studying with him that I
really started to see the worldin a more poetic way.
(04:29):
And then things just kind oftook off.
But really, I think his work wasa very strong influence for me.
Really, that edge where kind ofmysticism and creativity blend.
I mean, one thing, and again,this just to kind of give a
taste, one thing that he wouldteach were these very profound
sense memory exercises.
(04:50):
And, you know, sometimes in...
enacting people might use theterm sense memory in their idea.
Like, oh, I'm imagining I'mdrinking a cup of coffee when
it's actually a glass of wateror whatever.
But what he would teach you howto do, like you would have this
exercise where you would putlike a pencil in front of you
and you would ask a series ofquestions.
(05:11):
Like, how long is the pencil?
What color is the pencil?
But as you asked each question,you were not answering with your
mind.
You would answer the questionwith your eyes, right?
And then if you took that penaway and then you asked those
same questions, a pen andpencil, if you ask that same
questions, your eyes wouldanswer.
(05:31):
They would start to answer andyou would start to see or I
would start to see thisghostlike image of a pencil that
was not in front of me start toappear.
Right.
UNKNOWN (05:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
So when I think of it like that, this is kind of
stuff that like master yogiswould be talking about.
So the way that would be used inacting is like, let's say you're
in a scene where you have toexperience grief.
And if you could recreatethrough that same process, the
image of your dead belovedparent or whoever.
literally seeing them in frontof you, well, then it's gonna be
(06:01):
easy for you to elicit thatsense of grief on stage.
So that's how he was using it asan acting point of view.
But I just kept thinking, wow,this is just really magical that
you can actually train yoursenses in such a profound way to
elicit specific emotional statesof awareness.
And I actually think the reasonI eventually left his class, I
(06:21):
mean, I loved it, but I almostgot kind of fed up like, wow,
this is so magical.
why, why do people even careabout, you know, getting
headshots and going out forauditions?
Like, this is just so mindblowing on its own to me.
It's like, this is a, this is awhole realm of mysticism.
And so I couldn't put those, Icould no longer bridge those two
worlds of like, Oh, we have togo out for an audition now.
(06:42):
And then it just seemed like,no, no, this is too.
And so it kind of led me on my,my journey towards, you know,
the mystical and creativity wasalways a part of that from that
point forward, I think so.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
What were you writing about back then when you
were working with him, but alsotapping into this part of
yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
Mainly poetry.
It was just kind of stream ofconsciousness poetry.
I no longer have that poetry,unfortunately.
It ended up in the back of a carthat died in Boulder, Colorado
many years ago.
Everything I owned, I had abackpack.
at that point.
So it's in the trunk of some 69Chevy that I lost a long, long
time ago.
(07:26):
But they were just differentkind of stream of consciousness
poems.
Again, none of them have woundup with me.
I don't have them anymore, so Ican't recite them or anything,
but they were definitely openingme up into a very creative
space, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
Well, they're going on their own personal journey
through the back trunk of thatChevy.
So I'm curious about yourinspiration about writing
America Needs a Woman Presidentand America Needs a Buddhist
President.
Was there a particular state ofmind or tapping into sort of the
energetic space of what washappening in the world to bring
(08:03):
these works out?
I'll go
SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
chronologically.
So America Needs a BuddhistPresident was written first.
And it was because I wasconsidering going to Naropa
Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
This is the same time I lost allmy phones.
I was considering going to gradschool there for psychology.
(08:27):
And while I was there, I alsoheard a beautiful poetry evening
that involved Allen Ginsberg,Ann Waldman, the jazz musician
Don Cherry, LawrenceFerlinghetti.
It was this really brilliantevening of poetry at Naropa
(08:49):
Institute.
And I realized that that'sreally more what I want to be
doing.
I don't want to be a therapistso much.
And so I withdrew my name fromconsideration.
I mean, I honestly don't know ifI would have been accepted
anyway, because when they weredoing the interview, there was
me and one other younger womanthere.
It was a group interview.
And everyone else on theinterview was like...
(09:10):
40 or early 50s.
And we were both, I think, inour late 20s.
And they're seeing this real bitlike, hey, you two don't really
have enough experience to be,you know, going down this road.
They didn't say it directly, butit was kind of my sense.
But after watching this poetryperformance, I also realized,
even if they accepted me, Idon't really want it.
That's not what I want to do.
(09:31):
And so at that point, I withdrewmy name from consideration and
then went to work at an outdoored center in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, where I had workedpreviously.
My car was no longer running.
So that's why a lot of the poemsand journals were left in the
trunk.
I didn't know what to do withthe car, so I actually signed
(09:52):
the title and I mailed it toAlan Ginsberg, care of Naropa
Institute, thinking, oh, maybehe could pawn it or hawk it or
something.
I didn't know what to do withit.
And so then I went to YellowSprings, Ohio, and I was working
at this place called Glen HelenOutdoor Education Center.
And again, I had worked therebefore.
And literally one afternoon, asI'm sitting in this beautiful
(10:15):
old farmhouse that's in thisnature preserve, so it's very
serene.
And, you know, at night you canhear the owls and stuff.
And I'm literally just hearingthe poem, like the poem is being
written in some other place.
aspect of the divine mind andi'm just hearing it like i i'm
not having to put any effortinto writing it i'm just hearing
it like each stanza at a timeand typing it down and so you
(10:39):
know by the end of thatafternoon the poem was there and
pretty much pretty much in oneshot and again i wasn't really
in any effort to write it it wasjust appearing to me and i was
writing it down so that wasamerican needs a buddhist
president that was in 1990.
So it didn't actually air on NPRfor another 10 years after that.
(10:59):
Yeah, I did.
Eventually, kind of fastforwarding things, I moved to
San Francisco by 1995.
And I think by 95 or 96, I waspublishing it, self-publishing
it.
as a little kind of staple thingyou would do at Kinko's with
some illustrations from my dearfriend, Evan Dodd, who did these
(11:21):
really beautiful illustrationsof the poem.
And we sold it as a littleself-published things out of
City Lights Books in SanFrancisco.
And it was selling.
We weren't getting a huge amountof money for it, but we were
selling copies on a regularbasis.
And then I did send it out tosome publishers regularly.
but not until after it landed onNPR.
(11:41):
So the way it landed on NPR wasI was in a graduate program at
San Francisco State Universityfor interdisciplinary art, so
you could mix any two differentmediums.
And I was mixing poetry withperformance and also recording.
And so this one session that wasabout American Needs a Buddhist
President, at one point Iliterally took the CD I threw it
(12:08):
into a paper bag that waswrapped up with like some
napkins and stuff, threw it intoan envelope and sent it off to
NPR just thinking, what theheck?
Like, I don't know.
And then I let it go and Itotally forgot about it.
And then one day I came home andI hear a voice message on my
phone from Bob Boylan, who's theperson who was in charge of
NPR's All Things Considered,like, you know, the musical
(12:30):
parts.
And he's like, this is BobBoylan, and we've been listening
to your poem, and we'd reallylike to air it.
We've been waiting.
You know, one thing from theradio mindset is that we've
really liked it since we got it,but we've been waiting for the
right time where the length ofthe poem will fit into a segment
at the right moment.
Oh, that's
SPEAKER_00 (12:49):
really funny.
SPEAKER_01 (12:51):
And he's like, for today's segment, it will work.
Do we have permission to goahead?
And I'm like, yes.
So I called the backup.
And then later that day, youknow, him hearing my voice on
NPR and also, you know, theywanted my contact information
and stuff.
And I'm also getting phone callsfrom people from around the U.S.
wanting copies of the poem.
And so then I thought, oh, Ishould send it out to a
(13:11):
publisher.
So it wasn't actually publishedas a poem until 2004.
Again, this is a very longwinded answer to your very
simple question.
SPEAKER_00 (13:19):
I love it.
I love it.
In
SPEAKER_01 (13:20):
2004, by that time, I was working at Omega
Institute.
And a friend of mine named PaigeKitson, who also worked at Omega
Institute, was a big fan of LamaSurya Das.
She was taking one of hisworkshops.
He's a meditation teacher.
She was taking one of hisworkshops, and I happened to be
maybe walking down the path, andshe pointed to me, and she goes,
(13:42):
oh, that's my friend BrettBevel, and he wrote this book
called America Needs a BuddhistPresident.
And she was telling that to himbecause he's a Buddhist, a
Buddhist meditation teacher.
And Lama Surya Das said to her,Tell him next time that he
should write that America needsa woman president.
Right.
So that was actually theinspiration.
I have to credit where it's due.
(14:03):
It was from Lama Surya Das.
And then it's not that I justwent home and immediately wrote
the poem after hearing thatcomment from Lama Surya Das, but
maybe it was a few months later,I happened to be taking a a
workshop at Omega Institute withAlex Gray, Alex and Alison Gray,
the artists.
And it was mostly an artworkshop, but because to me, all
(14:26):
these methods all, you know,influence each other.
I was actually also writingpoetry a lot during that
workshop.
So everyone else has their inkand their pastels and stuff, and
I'm sitting there with my penand paper.
And so then I basically wrotethe poem while taking an Alex
Gray workshop at OmegaInstitute.
And for America Needs a Womanpresident was just thinking
(14:48):
about how those divinearchetypes, the divine feminine,
would kind of alter what aleader would look like if they
were really embracing that frameof mind.
And so then I reached out to myfriend Eben again.
He's like, yes, let's illustrateit.
And it was his idea.
(15:09):
He's like, since we're talkingabout flipping the script of the
power dime here, Why don't wemake the image be not only a
woman, but a woman of color?
And I'm like, yes, Eben, you'redead on.
Let's do it that way.
And so it came out in 2007,published by Monkfish Publishing
as an illustrated poem.
So both books were published asshort little illustrated poetry
(15:32):
books.
And so Monkfish publishedAmerican as a Woman President in
2007.
And it came out and it was...
It was a total flop in terms ofthe sales of books.
It was an interesting timebecause everybody knew at that
point that Hillary Clinton wasgoing to do her first bid for
running for the White House in2008.
I'd actually even sent her acopy of the poem.
(15:53):
She wanted nothing.
I sent her several copies of thepoem, and I never got any
response.
One of them was evenhand-delivered to her by Iyanla
Vanzant, and she neverresponded.
So I'm like, okay, that's okay.
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of people were alsoconfused because I was more of
an Obama supporter at the time.
(16:14):
It was image of a woman, but itwas a woman of color.
And so there was all thisconfusion and people wouldn't
buy the poem.
It seemed because like it seemedto be splitting things down the
middle, you know?
So the book itself was acomplete financial flop.
I actually had to repay part ofthe advance.
It sold very poorly.
It
SPEAKER_00 (16:33):
wasn't quite time yet.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's a little historyaround those two poems and how
they were written and stuff.
You know, I still love both ofthem, you know, but the Buddhist
president, I think, caught on alittle bit more for whatever
reason, even though I reallyhoped that the woman president
would kind of break through, butit never quite has so far.
SPEAKER_00 (16:58):
So far.
Well, I feel like there might bea renaissance coming.
Because it could, I hope so too.
Now, I'd like to speak aboutyour journey to Reiki because
that now is a big part of yourlife.
And you received your Reikimaster initiation in 1995.
So interesting that you'respeaking about certain things
(17:20):
around your life that were goingon.
What did you discover or how didyou come into working with
Reiki?
SPEAKER_01 (17:30):
It's funny, you know, because we're talking
about creativity, right?
And the illustrator for both ofmy poems is Eben Dodd.
He illustrated America Needs aBuddhist President.
He illustrated America Needs aWoman President.
We were roommates together for aperiod of time in New York City.
And at one point, I had gone tothe NYU Dental Center to have a
wisdom tooth removed because Iwas too poor to go to a regular
(17:52):
dentist.
The student who was working onmy mouth was very kind of
arrogant and rough.
And I probably looked like I'dbeen in a boxing match with
Muhammad Ali after that event.
I was in a lot of pain.
I went home.
And Evan was a massagetherapist, but also a Reiki
practitioner.
He never really talked aboutReiki.
I had no idea what Reiki was.
But when I went home, he offeredto do some Reiki on me because
(18:12):
he could see that I was in a lotof pain.
literally when he put his handson my face i just felt this
connection to something biggerthan him and bigger than me and
bigger than the pain that i wasexperiencing it just allowed me
thought that the pain went away100 but it significantly reduced
but more importantly there wasthis sense of like i knew that i
was going to be okay i knew iwas going to get through this
(18:33):
this kind of sense of being heldby the universe in a really
profound way and so after that iwanted to learn more about reiki
so i think maybe two weeks afterthat experience was when I got
my first degree Reiki trainingfrom a woman named Elka Petra
Palm, who I believe stillteaches in New York City and was
a member of the Reiki Alliance.
(18:54):
And so, yeah, it was very kindof interesting, that connection.
Again, creativity, it wasthrough Eben that I got turned
on to Reiki and Eben was a bigpart of my creative journey.
And once I got into Reiki, itjust really opened so many doors
for me, not just creatively, butalso in terms of my own journey,
because I had been in therapy alot, I had pretty, pretty
(19:15):
horrific childhood.
And so ever since college, I'vebeen going to, you know,
therapists, 12 step groups doingany kind of healing that I
could, you know, access.
And so what I noticed is when Igot into energy healing, that
that my, my own healing reallymassively accelerated.
And in terms of my own sense ofself confidence, my sense of
(19:38):
being at peace with myself andwith the world.
It just was a rapidacceleration.
And a lot of that, I think, isbecause with Reiki, as you know,
you can send healing throughtime.
So sometimes I think, and again,no disrespect to traditional
therapy, it was very helpful andbeneficial, but there's often
this kind of very linear thing,talking about things in the past
(20:01):
as though you can't change them.
And what I found out with Reikiis not that you can change the
past, but you can actuallychange the energetic signature
of how the past is influencingthe present.
And once you change thatsignature in a profound way,
those kind of traumas of thepast are no longer holding you
as their hostage.
And so I think that's somethingthat is really worth noting,
(20:22):
that through energy healing, youcan really shift those energetic
ripples that are moving throughtime and space.
And so for me, it was just sucha huge boost in my own
self-esteem, my sense of who Iwas that I was like, wow, I, you
know, there was no turning backat that point.
And so for me, it, it becamealso really a blending of that,
(20:45):
that creative listening and alsogoing, okay, this is what was
taught to me traditionally, buthow can we change that and make
it more accessible or make itheal deeper?
Because again, I was came from avery pretty deeply traumatic
childhood.
And so I was always lookinglike, how can I, how can I heal
myself as deeply as possible tobe done with this?
(21:06):
I can get out with my life,right?
I don't want to be going tohealing circles all the time.
You know, I want to live mylife.
And so I would literallyexperiment with the energies and
just try things out that, thatweren't talked about in
traditional trainings, but whichI found actually did, uh, And I
(21:27):
did literally experiment, like,let me try this as a repeated
experiment over and over again.
And do I see results?
And I would go, oh, yeah, youknow, if I do this, it does
work.
None of my Reiki masters told meabout it.
They probably didn't even thinkabout it, but it does work.
So it must be valid.
So let me put this into a book.
And so that's when I firststarted writing my first books
(21:47):
about Reiki, which were honoringthe traditional, but also
expanding into new territory.
SPEAKER_00 (21:54):
Well, and for those who are listening who may not
know what Reiki is or are notreally familiar what Reiki is,
how do you explain what isReiki?
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
Yeah, so Reiki, the best way I can describe it in a
way that I think is reallyaccessible to everyone, you
know, and also because my10-year-old son really loves
Star Wars, is if you think ofthe Force.
But if you think of the Force asnot with the dark side, but a
force that's always used forhealing.
Right.
And, you know, that it is thatenergy that kind of moves
(22:27):
through all life and that bindseverything together.
And for me, I really see it asan expression of the divine.
There's two ways you caninterpret the Japanese kanji for
Reiki.
So Reiki does originate, atleast most recently in history,
in Japan through the latespiritual teacher Mikala Sui.
And if you look at the Japanesekanji, so the Japanese writing,
(22:49):
you can interpret it in one oftwo ways.
It can either mean universallife force energy, which is the
way most people interpret it.
But you can also look at thatsame exact same kanji and you
could interpret it as divinelife force energy.
And that's more the way I seeit.
Cause I really do believethere's an intelligence and a
wisdom in the energy.
And I do feel there's aconsciousness there.
I do feel like it's part of andcoming from the divine.
(23:10):
So that's how I interpret it.
But either, you know, Eitherinterpretation could be deemed
as correct, but I really feellike it's coming from a divine
place.
SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
And well, and I know because of your experimentation
with working with this energyand in a lot of ways, thinking
outside of the box, like, youknow, there are definitely
certain precepts people follow.
There are certain methods andways in which they implement
using Reiki in their lives.
But you've taken it to anotherstep.
(23:44):
And if you could just tell us alittle bit about how Reiki has
influenced your own way of justthinking and being in the world
and how this divine healingenergy helps us in terms of
creativity or just even the mostmundane tasks.
SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
So for me, one of the purposes for me writing the
books that I do is to take Reikiout of just being something that
you pay for in a session with apractitioner and it happens on a
table or distantly, but where itreally becomes more part of your
life and part of your everydayliving experience.
And so the more you can bringthat divine light into your
(24:29):
life, into your livedexperience, into your
relationships, into yourworkplace, into your food, into
your water, all that stuff, thenI think it's just brightening
the greater whole.
So a lot of my books are justabout ways to bring that light
into your life in differentways.
And I think that one of thebeautiful things about Reiki,
(24:52):
and again, we're talking about alot of creativity here, is when
I, again, was a big fan of AllenGinsberg for a number of years.
And I remember in one of theconcerts, if you want to call it
that, or performances that Iwent to, Witnessing him in the
(25:12):
late 80s, early 90s, I rememberhim saying around writing, and I
think maybe he was quoting hisown Rinpoche teacher, Chingom
Trungpa, was first thought, bestthought, right?
First thought, best thought.
And so that always kind ofapplied.
That makes sense when writingpoetry, just not to censor and
just let go.
(25:34):
But I've always thought the samething about energy healing.
So if I'm doing a session andthe thought pops in my head
around, oh, try this.
Well, then I don't question it.
I just try it.
Right.
It's not going to hurt anybodywith Reiki.
If I if I try something, youknow, because Reiki is always
(25:54):
going to do no harm.
Right.
So it's not going to hurtanything if I try that.
So I try it, and then usuallymost of the time if I try it and
if I listen to that firstthought, then the experience is
a positive one.
And what I've found is when Ithink of that concept and dig
even deeper into it, I thinkwhen you're in that kind of
(26:14):
energetic zone, whether it'sthrough being in the zone of
creativity or in that zone ofdoing Reiki, I think it takes
you into this place where yourconsciousness starts to bleed
into a place that I call workingwith divine imagination.
And what I mean by divineimagination is that that first
thought is not just coming fromnowhere, right?
(26:36):
There's some impetus.
There's some guiding force thatis putting that first thought
into your awareness.
In my mind, I think that guidingforce is what I call divine
imagination, that there's thisplace where your consciousness
is kind of melding with divineconsciousness and divine
consciousness is now feeding youthese possibilities like, oh,
(26:56):
try this, do this.
And so I think that works bothas an artist or as a writer, but
also as a healer.
So a perfect example of that isin a modality that I teach.
There's one that I channeled inthat's called Magical Awakening.
There's an aspect of that whereyou can work with elemental
energies very easily.
And one time I was teaching thisto one of my students and she
(27:19):
was doing a healing on me justto kind of demonstrate what she
had learned.
And at one point, she just, forwhatever reason, listening to
that divine imagination, decidedto use the element of earth to
send me the healing qualities ofthe volcanoes in Hawaii, right?
(27:40):
Now, I was in Hawaii once when Iwas 16 years old for a week.
So there was no reason, norational reason for her to
think, oh, wow, Brett reallyneeds the energy of these
volcanoes in Hawaii.
But there was no rational,intellectual reason that should
say, oh, this is what we'represcribing here.
The thought popped in her head.
She went with it.
And it opened my heart in suchan amazing way.
(28:03):
And so that is how I like towork with energy healing in the
sense that There'll be all thesedifferent energetic
possibilities and something justis, again, I think it's being
fed to me by the divine, thatfirst thought, best thought,
something pops in your head.
And for me, in my mind, it'spopping ahead for a very clear
reason, because the divine iswanting you to follow this,
(28:25):
right?
And so when I'm doing energyhealing, that's really my
creative process.
Something pops into my head, Ilisten to it.
And again, with the modalitiesthat I'm working with, there's
nothing that would be...
potentially harmful to anyone.
So there's no reason not tolisten to it.
There's no reason not to atleast try it out.
(28:45):
And a lot of times I'll say tomy students, they'll come up for
me, like with differentquestions, like, Oh, well, what
if you did X, Y, Z?
And I'm like, play with it, tryit.
You know, yeah, you can ask me,but why don't you just try it
and just, then you get in thepractice of listening to your
own impulses and then you try itand then you see what the result
is.
SPEAKER_00 (29:04):
Can you, you take us to the moment where, where the
idea of creating the ReikiDivine Healing card deck came
into your awareness.
So that, again, that was
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
kind of another divine setup.
So I was doing a healing inMount Kisco, New York at a small
healing center there.
It was a group healing event.
I think it was on a weekend,maybe a Saturday or Sunday
afternoon.
And so people would just, theywould just pay to be there and
to just lay down in the room andI would just be sending energy
healing to everyone in the roomsimultaneously.
(29:37):
And at the end of the event, awoman from the back walked up
and came up to me and she goes,my name's Allison DeNicola and I
work for US Games.
Would you like to create a Reikideck with us?
And so it was really, it wasn'tanything that I had to create
any effort around.
Now, I will say I had alreadycreated a healing deck, but it
(30:01):
was based on my MagicalAwakening energy healing system,
which is not as well known.
And it wasn't created through amajor publisher.
It was basically self-publishedwith me and one of the other
Magical Awakening teachers whocreated the visuals.
So when I was given thatopportunity from US Games, I
said, well, I do have a deckthat's already created, but it's
not Reiki.
(30:21):
And they were like, yeah, thatother modality, nobody knows
about it.
So we really want a Reiki deck.
UNKNOWN (30:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
And so then they gave me a list of potential
artists that they recommendedwho they had worked with, with
other decks that they do.
And again, for those people whodon't know, U.S.
Games is the company thatcreates not all, but most of the
tarot decks in the world thatyou see are created through U.S.
Games.
And so they have a wide list ofartists and people that they've
(30:51):
worked with.
And so they gave me a list ofpeople that they recommended.
thought might be good, but theywere also like, you know, hey,
you've worked at OmegaInstitute, you know a lot of
people.
If there's somebody you knowthat you think would be better,
you know, we can work withwhatever.
And so I was looking both at theartists that they recommended,
and I was also thinking ofdifferent people that I knew
(31:12):
through Omega Institute.
And one of the people, a guy whoused to work with me at Omega
Institute named Ben Sheikowitz,and as I was looking at his work
online, I realized, some of theconcepts that I had for the
cards already existed inpaintings he had already
created.
SPEAKER_00 (31:32):
Oh my goodness.
Wow.
You
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
know, the deck, there's 44 cards in the deck and
I would say maybe around, I'mguessing about seven or eight of
those, those images were alreadyin creation.
He had already painted them.
And so I'm like, okay.
And I know him and I know how towork with him and we get along.
And so lucky he's the guy.
And so, you know, an interestingthing is one of, One of the
(31:55):
cards that he had alreadycreated is a painting of a woman
named Amina Eagle.
And Amina Eagle, it's funny howall these things come full
circle.
SPEAKER_00 (32:03):
Amina
SPEAKER_01 (32:05):
Eagle was part of the founding of Omega Institute.
She had been around for many,many years.
By the time Ben and I signed theagreement with US Games, she was
probably in her late 80s, maybeearly 90s even, I'm not sure.
And it's funny, as we're talkingabout Allen Ginsberg, this all
works full circle.
had known the beats and in backin the in the late 50s early 60s
(32:30):
because i remember one time atomega institute we were talking
about uh there was a movie nightin at a little art theater in
reinbeck called upstate filmsand sometimes so mega we would
take the staff there you knowit's like a movie night and
there was a movie about the thetrial the censorship trial for
howell the poem Howl from EllenGinsberg.
(32:52):
And I remember asking Amina,like, hey, do you want to go to
that movie where a bunch of usare going to go tonight?
And she's like, why would I wantto go to the movie when I was at
the trial?
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
I'm like, oh,
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
yeah.
Oh, okay.
But anyway, I just find itinteresting that we're talking
about so many things fullcircle.
So anyway, getting back to thedeck, her face was, well, not
only her face, but as a person,she just...
was so sweet and kind andeveryone just always thought of
her as really embodying thesense of kindness.
And so when looking at thatcard, I realized this card, you
(33:28):
know, or looking at thatpainting, I realized this
painting already embodies theReiki precept of kindness.
So that card's already there,right?
Like all we need to do is takethat image and, you know,
there's the card, right?
And just for today, I will bekind to every living thing.
And so, again, thinking ofsynchronicities and everything,
Amina was quite old at the timewe signed that agreement.
(33:51):
And I wanted to make sure we hadpermission to use her image,
even though the painting wasalready created.
I wanted to make sure she wasokay with her image being in a
deck.
And so I messaged her onFacebook, like, hey, Ben and I
just signed this agreement.
We would love for your image tobe a representative of this
card.
And I told her the specifics andshe wrote back, yes, I would be
(34:11):
honored to be part of the deck.
And then two days later shepassed away and moved on to the
next realm.
So I feel like everything wasjust kind of divinely set up and
just kind of unfolded the waythat it should.
And what I think is differentabout this deck than other
decks, even though it'spublished by the company that
does many tarot decks, it's notso much a tarot deck.
It's not about seeing the futureor, I mean, you could try to use
(34:34):
it that way and there might besome benefit, but it's really
not designed to be that.
But what it can do, and this issomething that I think a lot of
people have a hard timeswallowing until they've
actually experienced it, is thatthe cards themselves can
actually send you energyhealing.
The cards themselves are allempowered to what is called the
Reiki crystal, which is thefoundation of the psychic Reiki
(34:55):
work that I do.
And a Reiki crystal is anenergetic crystal, not a
physical crystal, but it's anenergetic crystal that would
usually be empowered in a personin front of their heart chakra,
but again i told you that i liketo experiment and try things so
for a number of years i realizedyou could actually empower
inanimate objects with reiki orwith reiki crystals and then
even program them that's veryspecific functions so the deck
(35:19):
each card each of the 44 cardshas its own reiki crystal and
each reiki crystal in that cardin that image is programmed for
a very specific function so forexample the one that i was
talking about with the mediaeagle the card is about the
reiki precept of kindness TheReiki crystal that is in that
card is designed that when youask it to, it will bring you
(35:41):
into this deep meditative spaceon that precept of kindness.
So you're kind of in a place ofdeep reflection on how are you
embodying that or how does thatshow up in your life?
Other cards in the deck aredesigned to send Reiki, maybe do
specific things.
organs or organ systems or partsof the energy field like there's
(36:02):
one card in there called chakraReiki and the Reiki crystal
that's in that card isprogrammed that upon a person's
request it will send Reiki totheir chakras or another card is
programmed so it will send Reikito their etheric body so you
know again the 44 cards all havetheir own specific intention but
they can actually send youenergy healing and And I've had
(36:24):
some really wonderful resultsworking with this.
And I would say the mostprofound one was during a live
in-person experience thathappened at Omega Institute last
year.
And again, for those who aren'tfamiliar with Omega Institute,
it's a beautiful holisticretreat center in Rhinebeck, New
York.
So Ben, who was the artist, Benand I were doing a live
in-person event at the OmegaInstitute in September of last
(36:45):
year.
It was just an evening eventwhere we were talking about the
deck and how we created it.
And as part of that, we also dida healing on the audience.
And in the audience, there werea number of people who just
happened to be at OmegaInstitute that week who were
veterans.
So people who'd been through thehorrors of war who were at Omega
(37:05):
to help release that and healthat trauma and find tools to
bring in that trauma.
And it came back to me about aweek later that the vets who
were a big part of that audiencethat night were so excited.
receptive to the work of thatthat the healing that night that
they they got word back throughtheir facilitator who informed
(37:29):
the ceo of omega that that wastheir highlight that they really
loved their healing experiencewith with with that deck which
was basically me just pullingcards from the deck and asking
each card, oh, please send thisto everyone who's here in the
audience tonight.
So that's how the healingunfolded.
But it was really moving to hearpeople who've kind of been
(37:51):
through some of the toughestthings you can experience, that
they found value and that theycould feel the shift that
happened for them after workingwith the deck.
SPEAKER_00 (38:00):
Well, I love the fact that you make Reiki so
accessible to To everyone.
Now, most people, they may ask,do I need to be attuned to Reiki
to be able to receive thishealing?
SPEAKER_01 (38:14):
You don't need to be attuned to Reiki to receive
Reiki healing, whether it's fromanother Reiki person or from the
deck.
And the even more interestingthing about the deck that I find
is that you also don't need tobe attuned to Reiki to use the
deck to send healing.
to others, right?
But you could use that deck tosend healing to a loved one.
(38:38):
Obviously you'd want to havethat person's permission, et
cetera, but you can use thedeck.
And again, my hope is thatpeople who get the deck will
then be so enamored with thehealing possibilities of Reiki
that they will then want to godeeper and become attuned and
use it in that way, but theydon't have to.
They can actually just ask thedeck to send healing to someone
(38:58):
themselves, their own life, andalso to friends, family, loved
ones.
Again, I would just always makesure that you have people's
consent, but it's a verypowerful deck in that way.
SPEAKER_00 (39:08):
It's interesting how hearing about your own personal
journey, even all the way backto your mystical work in your
acting career and sort of beingable to visualize objects and
the power within thatvisualization now coming in a
way and knowing about thecrystal aspect.
of each card.
(39:29):
It's just, it's just remarkableseeing how that has transformed
over time.
Now, if you were to think aboutyour Reiki practice and what
you've learned so far, is theresomething that you wish you had
known earlier in terms of yourcreative career back then
regarding this, trusting thisintuition and this flow?
(39:54):
Um,
SPEAKER_01 (39:56):
I don't know.
I mean, I certainly, I thinksometimes I wish, wow, I wish I
still had those journals thatare in the back of that.
Well,
SPEAKER_00 (40:02):
yes.
SPEAKER_01 (40:04):
You know, there's some times that I wish that I
had certain pieces of writingthat I had let go through
because there was a period oftime when I was traveling a lot,
I would only travel with what Icould carry with me.
And sometimes I'd let things goin the process.
But in terms of my journey, Idon't know that there's anything
that could change.
Cause I think for me, a big partof the journey is when you reach
(40:26):
that place where you realizethat everything that's happened,
including those things that yousee as being maybe mistakes,
that there's a perfection thatexists in that as well.
So even when I look at thehorrific traumatic childhood I
had, it's not that I'm wishingto have been other than that.
I mean, not that I would say, ohyeah, why don't you go have a
(40:50):
traumatic childhood?
I'm not saying that, but I'msaying it is what it is and I
accept it for what it is.
And I wouldn't be who I am if itwas something other than what it
was.
And so since I embrace who I amand I love who I am and I love
my life, you know, if I was togo back and change X, Y, or Z in
that equation of my history,well, then I wouldn't be the
(41:12):
same person that I am.
I wouldn't have learned the samelessons that I've learned.
So I don't know that I could saythat there's anything I would
change necessarily, you know,
SPEAKER_00 (41:23):
So true.
So true.
Well, Brett, what's next foryou?
Is there anything exciting onthe horizon that you're
particularly thrilled about?
SPEAKER_01 (41:33):
I mean, I'm working on a book, you know, I talked
about wanting to write the greatAmerican novel.
Yes.
Yes.
And I have, I have over theyears tried to write some more
autobiographical pieces offiction.
And then I finally started torealize like maybe I, I was too
focused on everything being soautobiographical and it never
(41:54):
really came together as a storybecause good stories are usually
where you condense things andchange things around and make it
happen more swiftly for thereader and stuff.
So I am working on somethingthat I would call fiction, but
still based in the reality orthe truths of what I've learned
in my life.
(42:16):
You know, will that end up beingpublished?
I have no idea, but it'ssomething I'm working on right
now.
SPEAKER_00 (42:22):
You know, it's really not the product.
It's really about the process,especially in creativity.
I feel as an artist myself, Ifind that that is something that
sort of propels us and keeps usgoing.
You're clearly someone who hassuccessfully worked in trusting
the creative process as itguides you throughout your whole
career.
purpose in life.
(42:43):
And the books, I'm reallyexcited about this deck.
I have it myself and have usedit in many different ways.
And I could attest to theincredible healing power that
comes through them.
And just the concept ofsomething that is sort of an
object that with intention orwith asking or with its own
(43:05):
inherent properties can providehealing and transformation in
ways we could never haveimagined.
I mean, who, who had thought ofthat except for Brett Bevel?
Who else would have thought ofthis idea?
And, you know, I love also too,that you make Reiki so
(43:25):
accessible to people because wecan all use more healing in our
world and our lives.
And, you know, especially this,this deck, how do people,
connect with you?
How do people get their hands onthis deck and your books?
SPEAKER_01 (43:44):
Yeah, so my books are available at most
booksellers, you know, whetheryou're you're somebody who
orders online through Amazon orBarnes and Noble, or if you're
somebody that wants to, youknow, support your local
bookstore, your local bookstore,even if your local bookstore
doesn't have it, your localbookstore has a distributor.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be inbusiness as a local bookstore.
(44:06):
So even if your local bookstoredoesn't have it, you could
always say, hey, I would like toget this deck or I'd like to get
these books.
Can you order them for me?
So that's certainly a route thatI always encourage people to
support their local vendors.
But if you want to order itonline through Barnes& Noble or
Amazon or some other onlinevendor, you could as well.
And so they're available aroundthe world.
(44:28):
And especially the deck, again,which came out in August of last
year.
I love my books too, but there'ssomething about the deck that I
feel like it's still teaching mebecause when you have 44
healers, which is what the deckis, it's 44 healers.
Now, yeah, you're telling thosehealers what to do, but that's
44 possibilities.
(44:48):
And then when you amplify, whenyou do the math, what not only
those 44 healers, but also thevarious combinations of when
you're using differentcombinations of those 44
healers, that's a lot ofpotential healing.
SPEAKER_00 (44:58):
I mean, really?
Yeah.
You're only limited by your ownimagination if you think about
using these cards.
SPEAKER_01 (45:07):
Exactly.
And so I would say, you know,right now my energy is a lot
with making sure that those whoare in need of healing, you
know, yes, my books providewonderful opportunities to train
and learn.
But if you just need the healingand you don't want to go down
that other path, you know, Iwould say get the deck.
SPEAKER_00 (45:27):
Or they can also learn from you online.
Can you tell people about yourwebsite and the upcoming Reiki
conference at Omega?
SPEAKER_01 (45:36):
Yeah, yeah.
So I have two websites.
One is brettbevel.com, which hasmy in-person events listed
there.
And the other website isacademyoflovenlight.us.
And on academyoflovenlight.us,there are my online offerings.
I usually do weekly healings.
Also, there's some pre-recordedtrainings that exist on
(45:57):
academyoflovenlight.us for thosewho want to explore that.
And the Reiki conference thatyou just mentioned is at Omega
Institute.
We have it each year this It'sgoing to be the weekend of June
27th through 29th.
I am presenting there.
There's also a number of amazingother teachers there.
William Rand, the founder ofHoly Fire Reiki is there.
(46:18):
Tina Zion, who does a lot ofwonderful work with both
mediumship and also just usingReiki for more intuitive
purposes.
She'll be teaching there someother amazing healers, Nicholas
Pearson, who's going to bebringing in an aspect about
working with Reiki and thecompassion aspects of Kuan Yin.
(46:42):
We have a wonderful soundhealer, Felicia Bonanno.
who always does an amazing soundhealing as part of the event.
And like I said, I'll bepresenting there too.
So I'm really looking forward toit.
And again, it's the weekend ofJune 27th through 29th.
So if people are interested,please, please come check it
out.
And the wonderful thing, eventhough it is a Reiki conference
(47:02):
and the intention is certainlythat most people there already
have Reiki, even if somebodydoesn't have Reiki, you can
still come to that conference.
You will As part of thatconference, be empowered.
It's not an in-depth training,but you would be empowered to
psychic Reiki and learn how touse that to at least do a
healing on yourself before theweekend is up.
SPEAKER_00 (47:22):
It is not to be missed.
I've been, and they are trulytransformative.
So thank you for sharing that,Brett.
Brett Bevel, I just reallyappreciate you sharing your
insight and your process.
I've loved hearing about yourstory.
There's so much to take fromthat.
And, you know, I'm hopingsomeday someone's going to
discover those books and put itonline and saying, who do these
(47:45):
belong to?
Because I feel like...
They're out there somewhere andthey're wanting to come back to
you.
But anyway, I just reallyappreciate you joining us today
and sharing your wisdom.
SPEAKER_01 (47:57):
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having meon.
This has been fun to chat aboutthis kind of weaving of
creativity and energy healing.
So thank you so much.
It's been my pleasure.
SPEAKER_00 (48:08):
Thanks so much for tuning in today.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
I'd also love to hear what cameup for you.
Send me a message or drop acomment on Instagram at
(48:30):
tohumishuman.
You can also find more episodesand updates at sonorouslight.com
or on your favorite podcastplatform.
Until next time, keep humming.
Hello, friends.
Thanks for coming back toanother episode of To Hum is
Human, the podcast where weexplore the transformative power
of tuning into our intuition toexpress our passionate purpose.
I'm your host, Donna Bell, andI'm so excited to introduce
today's guest.
(00:28):
We will explore the hum ofcreativity.
Finding Your Flow.
As my next guest will show us,our inner wisdom is tied to
creative expression.
Brett Bevel is a poet andperformance artist.
He is author of America Needs aWoman President and America
(00:48):
Needs a Buddhist President, apoem that initially aired
nationwide on NPR's All ThingsConsidered.
Often compared to the late poetAllen Ginsberg, Brett has
electrified audiences witharound the world with his live
readings.
His poetry is featured in theanthology Chorus, a literary
(01:09):
mixtape, and his work is alsopart of NPR's permanent website
archives.
Brett Bevel is also a Reikimaster teacher and the author of
several books, including PsychicReiki, The Wizard's Guide to
Energy Healing, The Reiki MagicGuide to Self-Attunement, and
Reiki for Spiritual Healing.
(01:31):
He is a leader in the field ofenergy healing apps, first
exploring the concept back in2013 through his book, New Reiki
Software for Divine Living, andalso now offering energy healing
work through the Solvana app byMindvalley.
His latest work is the ReikiDivine Healing Card Deck
(01:53):
published by US Games.
Welcome, Brett.
SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me on.
SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
Well, it's quite an honor.
Your career is quite akaleidoscope of creative output.
I'm curious about your personaljourney to where you are right
now.
At what age did you first feelthe pull to write and what did
you write about?
SPEAKER_01 (02:19):
Yeah, I think for me, for writing probably started
in like maybe late junior high,early high school.
That's when I kind of found aninterest in writing.
mostly poetry, maybe some shortstories.
And then in college, I wasreally more focused on fiction.
My undergraduate degree was increative writing.
(02:41):
And I had the aspiration towrite the great American novel,
which hasn't happened yet forme.
And then after that, I shiftedmore into poetry.
And that was very opening.
The shift to poetry, I think,happened really as I was taking
some acting classes inHollywood.
(03:02):
I was studying with this mannamed Eric Morris, and he was
very powerful.
He may still be teaching.
I'm not sure.
He's probably in his 90s.
But he influenced some verymajor actors of our time.
I think Jack Nicholson studiedwith him, Johnny Depp, Terry
Garr.
Oh, wow.
I think Barbara Hershey did.
Actually, in the same classesthat I was in, the late Brandon
(03:22):
Lee was often there.
And anyway, Eric's really like,it felt like, to me, it felt
like, his process was mystical,you know?
And I think that's when itreally kind of opened me up to
this kind of crossover betweenthe mystical and the creative.
So he would teach these verypowerful method acting
(03:44):
techniques.
And for those who aren'tfamiliar with method acting,
it's where you're really feelingthe emotion on stage as opposed
to pretending and acting it out.
His philosophy always was, ifyou can't feel it in real life,
there's no way you're going tobe able to feel it on stage or
in front of a camera.
And so he had all theseexercises basically used to kind
of peel away those obstructionsthat we have to really feeling
(04:07):
what's really inside of us.
And there were even sometherapists in the Los Angeles
area that would come take hisclasses, not because they wanted
to be actors, but because theywanted to learn his techniques
and use them in their therapysessions with their clients.
And so it was really when Istarted studying with him that I
really started to see the worldin a more poetic way.
(04:29):
And then things just kind oftook off.
But really, I think his work wasa very strong influence for me.
Really, that edge where kind ofmysticism and creativity blend.
I mean, one thing, and again,this just to kind of give a
taste, one thing that he wouldteach were these very profound
sense memory exercises.
(04:50):
And, you know, sometimes in...
enacting people might use theterm sense memory in their idea.
Like, oh, I'm imagining I'mdrinking a cup of coffee when
it's actually a glass of wateror whatever.
But what he would teach you howto do, like you would have this
exercise where you would putlike a pencil in front of you
and you would ask a series ofquestions.
(05:11):
Like, how long is the pencil?
What color is the pencil?
But as you asked each question,you were not answering with your
mind.
You would answer the questionwith your eyes, right?
And then if you took that penaway and then you asked those
same questions, a pen andpencil, if you ask that same
questions, your eyes wouldanswer.
(05:31):
They would start to answer andyou would start to see or I
would start to see thisghostlike image of a pencil that
was not in front of me start toappear.
Right.
UNKNOWN (05:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
So when I think of it like that, this is kind of
stuff that like master yogiswould be talking about.
So the way that would be used inacting is like, let's say you're
in a scene where you have toexperience grief.
And if you could recreatethrough that same process, the
image of your dead belovedparent or whoever.
literally seeing them in frontof you, well, then it's gonna be
(06:01):
easy for you to elicit thatsense of grief on stage.
So that's how he was using it asan acting point of view.
But I just kept thinking, wow,this is just really magical that
you can actually train yoursenses in such a profound way to
elicit specific emotional statesof awareness.
And I actually think the reasonI eventually left his class, I
(06:21):
mean, I loved it, but I almostgot kind of fed up like, wow,
this is so magical.
why, why do people even careabout, you know, getting
headshots and going out forauditions?
Like, this is just so mindblowing on its own to me.
It's like, this is a, this is awhole realm of mysticism.
And so I couldn't put those, Icould no longer bridge those two
worlds of like, Oh, we have togo out for an audition now.
(06:42):
And then it just seemed like,no, no, this is too.
And so it kind of led me on my,my journey towards, you know,
the mystical and creativity wasalways a part of that from that
point forward, I think so.
SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
What were you writing about back then when you
were working with him, but alsotapping into this part of
yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
Mainly poetry.
It was just kind of stream ofconsciousness poetry.
I no longer have that poetry,unfortunately.
It ended up in the back of a carthat died in Boulder, Colorado
many years ago.
Everything I owned, I had abackpack.
at that point.
So it's in the trunk of some 69Chevy that I lost a long, long
time ago.
(07:26):
But they were just differentkind of stream of consciousness
poems.
Again, none of them have woundup with me.
I don't have them anymore, so Ican't recite them or anything,
but they were definitely openingme up into a very creative
space, I think.
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
Well, they're going on their own personal journey
through the back trunk of thatChevy.
So I'm curious about yourinspiration about writing
America Needs a Woman Presidentand America Needs a Buddhist
President.
Was there a particular state ofmind or tapping into sort of the
energetic space of what washappening in the world to bring
(08:03):
these works out?
I'll go
SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
chronologically.
So America Needs a BuddhistPresident was written first.
And it was because I wasconsidering going to Naropa
Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
This is the same time I lost allmy phones.
I was considering going to gradschool there for psychology.
(08:27):
And while I was there, I alsoheard a beautiful poetry evening
that involved Allen Ginsberg,Ann Waldman, the jazz musician
Don Cherry, LawrenceFerlinghetti.
It was this really brilliantevening of poetry at Naropa
(08:49):
Institute.
And I realized that that'sreally more what I want to be
doing.
I don't want to be a therapistso much.
And so I withdrew my name fromconsideration.
I mean, I honestly don't know ifI would have been accepted
anyway, because when they weredoing the interview, there was
me and one other younger womanthere.
It was a group interview.
And everyone else on theinterview was like...
(09:10):
40 or early 50s.
And we were both, I think, inour late 20s.
And they're seeing this real bitlike, hey, you two don't really
have enough experience to be,you know, going down this road.
They didn't say it directly, butit was kind of my sense.
But after watching this poetryperformance, I also realized,
even if they accepted me, Idon't really want it.
That's not what I want to do.
(09:31):
And so at that point, I withdrewmy name from consideration and
then went to work at an outdoored center in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, where I had workedpreviously.
My car was no longer running.
So that's why a lot of the poemsand journals were left in the
trunk.
I didn't know what to do withthe car, so I actually signed
(09:52):
the title and I mailed it toAlan Ginsberg, care of Naropa
Institute, thinking, oh, maybehe could pawn it or hawk it or
something.
I didn't know what to do withit.
And so then I went to YellowSprings, Ohio, and I was working
at this place called Glen HelenOutdoor Education Center.
And again, I had worked therebefore.
And literally one afternoon, asI'm sitting in this beautiful
(10:15):
old farmhouse that's in thisnature preserve, so it's very
serene.
And, you know, at night you canhear the owls and stuff.
And I'm literally just hearingthe poem, like the poem is being
written in some other place.
aspect of the divine mind andi'm just hearing it like i i'm
not having to put any effortinto writing it i'm just hearing
it like each stanza at a timeand typing it down and so you
(10:39):
know by the end of thatafternoon the poem was there and
pretty much pretty much in oneshot and again i wasn't really
in any effort to write it it wasjust appearing to me and i was
writing it down so that wasamerican needs a buddhist
president that was in 1990.
So it didn't actually air on NPRfor another 10 years after that.
(10:59):
Yeah, I did.
Eventually, kind of fastforwarding things, I moved to
San Francisco by 1995.
And I think by 95 or 96, I waspublishing it, self-publishing
it.
as a little kind of staple thingyou would do at Kinko's with
some illustrations from my dearfriend, Evan Dodd, who did these
(11:21):
really beautiful illustrationsof the poem.
And we sold it as a littleself-published things out of
City Lights Books in SanFrancisco.
And it was selling.
We weren't getting a huge amountof money for it, but we were
selling copies on a regularbasis.
And then I did send it out tosome publishers regularly.
but not until after it landed onNPR.
(11:41):
So the way it landed on NPR wasI was in a graduate program at
San Francisco State Universityfor interdisciplinary art, so
you could mix any two differentmediums.
And I was mixing poetry withperformance and also recording.
And so this one session that wasabout American Needs a Buddhist
President, at one point Iliterally took the CD I threw it
(12:08):
into a paper bag that waswrapped up with like some
napkins and stuff, threw it intoan envelope and sent it off to
NPR just thinking, what theheck?
Like, I don't know.
And then I let it go and Itotally forgot about it.
And then one day I came home andI hear a voice message on my
phone from Bob Boylan, who's theperson who was in charge of
NPR's All Things Considered,like, you know, the musical
(12:30):
parts.
And he's like, this is BobBoylan, and we've been listening
to your poem, and we'd reallylike to air it.
We've been waiting.
You know, one thing from theradio mindset is that we've
really liked it since we got it,but we've been waiting for the
right time where the length ofthe poem will fit into a segment
at the right moment.
Oh, that's
SPEAKER_00 (12:49):
really funny.
SPEAKER_01 (12:51):
And he's like, for today's segment, it will work.
Do we have permission to goahead?
And I'm like, yes.
So I called the backup.
And then later that day, youknow, him hearing my voice on
NPR and also, you know, theywanted my contact information
and stuff.
And I'm also getting phone callsfrom people from around the U.S.
wanting copies of the poem.
And so then I thought, oh, Ishould send it out to a
(13:11):
publisher.
So it wasn't actually publishedas a poem until 2004.
Again, this is a very longwinded answer to your very
simple question.
SPEAKER_00 (13:19):
I love it.
I love it.
In
SPEAKER_01 (13:20):
2004, by that time, I was working at Omega
Institute.
And a friend of mine named PaigeKitson, who also worked at Omega
Institute, was a big fan of LamaSurya Das.
She was taking one of hisworkshops.
He's a meditation teacher.
She was taking one of hisworkshops, and I happened to be
maybe walking down the path, andshe pointed to me, and she goes,
(13:42):
oh, that's my friend BrettBevel, and he wrote this book
called America Needs a BuddhistPresident.
And she was telling that to himbecause he's a Buddhist, a
Buddhist meditation teacher.
And Lama Surya Das said to her,Tell him next time that he
should write that America needsa woman president.
Right.
So that was actually theinspiration.
I have to credit where it's due.
(14:03):
It was from Lama Surya Das.
And then it's not that I justwent home and immediately wrote
the poem after hearing thatcomment from Lama Surya Das, but
maybe it was a few months later,I happened to be taking a a
workshop at Omega Institute withAlex Gray, Alex and Alison Gray,
the artists.
And it was mostly an artworkshop, but because to me, all
(14:26):
these methods all, you know,influence each other.
I was actually also writingpoetry a lot during that
workshop.
So everyone else has their inkand their pastels and stuff, and
I'm sitting there with my penand paper.
And so then I basically wrotethe poem while taking an Alex
Gray workshop at OmegaInstitute.
And for America Needs a Womanpresident was just thinking
(14:48):
about how those divinearchetypes, the divine feminine,
would kind of alter what aleader would look like if they
were really embracing that frameof mind.
And so then I reached out to myfriend Eben again.
He's like, yes, let's illustrateit.
And it was his idea.
(15:09):
He's like, since we're talkingabout flipping the script of the
power dime here, Why don't wemake the image be not only a
woman, but a woman of color?
And I'm like, yes, Eben, you'redead on.
Let's do it that way.
And so it came out in 2007,published by Monkfish Publishing
as an illustrated poem.
So both books were published asshort little illustrated poetry
(15:32):
books.
And so Monkfish publishedAmerican as a Woman President in
2007.
And it came out and it was...
It was a total flop in terms ofthe sales of books.
It was an interesting timebecause everybody knew at that
point that Hillary Clinton wasgoing to do her first bid for
running for the White House in2008.
I'd actually even sent her acopy of the poem.
(15:53):
She wanted nothing.
I sent her several copies of thepoem, and I never got any
response.
One of them was evenhand-delivered to her by Iyanla
Vanzant, and she neverresponded.
So I'm like, okay, that's okay.
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of people were alsoconfused because I was more of
an Obama supporter at the time.
(16:14):
It was image of a woman, but itwas a woman of color.
And so there was all thisconfusion and people wouldn't
buy the poem.
It seemed because like it seemedto be splitting things down the
middle, you know?
So the book itself was acomplete financial flop.
I actually had to repay part ofthe advance.
It sold very poorly.
It
SPEAKER_00 (16:33):
wasn't quite time yet.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's a little historyaround those two poems and how
they were written and stuff.
You know, I still love both ofthem, you know, but the Buddhist
president, I think, caught on alittle bit more for whatever
reason, even though I reallyhoped that the woman president
would kind of break through, butit never quite has so far.
SPEAKER_00 (16:58):
So far.
Well, I feel like there might bea renaissance coming.
Because it could, I hope so too.
Now, I'd like to speak aboutyour journey to Reiki because
that now is a big part of yourlife.
And you received your Reikimaster initiation in 1995.
So interesting that you'respeaking about certain things
(17:20):
around your life that were goingon.
What did you discover or how didyou come into working with
Reiki?
SPEAKER_01 (17:30):
It's funny, you know, because we're talking
about creativity, right?
And the illustrator for both ofmy poems is Eben Dodd.
He illustrated America Needs aBuddhist President.
He illustrated America Needs aWoman President.
We were roommates together for aperiod of time in New York City.
And at one point, I had gone tothe NYU Dental Center to have a
wisdom tooth removed because Iwas too poor to go to a regular
(17:52):
dentist.
The student who was working onmy mouth was very kind of
arrogant and rough.
And I probably looked like I'dbeen in a boxing match with
Muhammad Ali after that event.
I was in a lot of pain.
I went home.
And Evan was a massagetherapist, but also a Reiki
practitioner.
He never really talked aboutReiki.
I had no idea what Reiki was.
But when I went home, he offeredto do some Reiki on me because
(18:12):
he could see that I was in a lotof pain.
literally when he put his handson my face i just felt this
connection to something biggerthan him and bigger than me and
bigger than the pain that i wasexperiencing it just allowed me
thought that the pain went away100 but it significantly reduced
but more importantly there wasthis sense of like i knew that i
was going to be okay i knew iwas going to get through this
(18:33):
this kind of sense of being heldby the universe in a really
profound way and so after that iwanted to learn more about reiki
so i think maybe two weeks afterthat experience was when I got
my first degree Reiki trainingfrom a woman named Elka Petra
Palm, who I believe stillteaches in New York City and was
a member of the Reiki Alliance.
(18:54):
And so, yeah, it was very kindof interesting, that connection.
Again, creativity, it wasthrough Eben that I got turned
on to Reiki and Eben was a bigpart of my creative journey.
And once I got into Reiki, itjust really opened so many doors
for me, not just creatively, butalso in terms of my own journey,
because I had been in therapy alot, I had pretty, pretty
(19:15):
horrific childhood.
And so ever since college, I'vebeen going to, you know,
therapists, 12 step groups doingany kind of healing that I
could, you know, access.
And so what I noticed is when Igot into energy healing, that
that my, my own healing reallymassively accelerated.
And in terms of my own sense ofself confidence, my sense of
(19:38):
being at peace with myself andwith the world.
It just was a rapidacceleration.
And a lot of that, I think, isbecause with Reiki, as you know,
you can send healing throughtime.
So sometimes I think, and again,no disrespect to traditional
therapy, it was very helpful andbeneficial, but there's often
this kind of very linear thing,talking about things in the past
(20:01):
as though you can't change them.
And what I found out with Reikiis not that you can change the
past, but you can actuallychange the energetic signature
of how the past is influencingthe present.
And once you change thatsignature in a profound way,
those kind of traumas of thepast are no longer holding you
as their hostage.
And so I think that's somethingthat is really worth noting,
(20:22):
that through energy healing, youcan really shift those energetic
ripples that are moving throughtime and space.
And so for me, it was just sucha huge boost in my own
self-esteem, my sense of who Iwas that I was like, wow, I, you
know, there was no turning backat that point.
And so for me, it, it becamealso really a blending of that,
(20:45):
that creative listening and alsogoing, okay, this is what was
taught to me traditionally, buthow can we change that and make
it more accessible or make itheal deeper?
Because again, I was came from avery pretty deeply traumatic
childhood.
And so I was always lookinglike, how can I, how can I heal
myself as deeply as possible tobe done with this?
(21:06):
I can get out with my life,right?
I don't want to be going tohealing circles all the time.
You know, I want to live mylife.
And so I would literallyexperiment with the energies and
just try things out that, thatweren't talked about in
traditional trainings, but whichI found actually did, uh, And I
(21:27):
did literally experiment, like,let me try this as a repeated
experiment over and over again.
And do I see results?
And I would go, oh, yeah, youknow, if I do this, it does
work.
None of my Reiki masters told meabout it.
They probably didn't even thinkabout it, but it does work.
So it must be valid.
So let me put this into a book.
And so that's when I firststarted writing my first books
(21:47):
about Reiki, which were honoringthe traditional, but also
expanding into new territory.
SPEAKER_00 (21:54):
Well, and for those who are listening who may not
know what Reiki is or are notreally familiar what Reiki is,
how do you explain what isReiki?
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
Yeah, so Reiki, the best way I can describe it in a
way that I think is reallyaccessible to everyone, you
know, and also because my10-year-old son really loves
Star Wars, is if you think ofthe Force.
But if you think of the Force asnot with the dark side, but a
force that's always used forhealing.
Right.
And, you know, that it is thatenergy that kind of moves
(22:27):
through all life and that bindseverything together.
And for me, I really see it asan expression of the divine.
There's two ways you caninterpret the Japanese kanji for
Reiki.
So Reiki does originate, atleast most recently in history,
in Japan through the latespiritual teacher Mikala Sui.
And if you look at the Japanesekanji, so the Japanese writing,
(22:49):
you can interpret it in one oftwo ways.
It can either mean universallife force energy, which is the
way most people interpret it.
But you can also look at thatsame exact same kanji and you
could interpret it as divinelife force energy.
And that's more the way I seeit.
Cause I really do believethere's an intelligence and a
wisdom in the energy.
And I do feel there's aconsciousness there.
I do feel like it's part of andcoming from the divine.
(23:10):
So that's how I interpret it.
But either, you know, Eitherinterpretation could be deemed
as correct, but I really feellike it's coming from a divine
place.
SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
And well, and I know because of your experimentation
with working with this energyand in a lot of ways, thinking
outside of the box, like, youknow, there are definitely
certain precepts people follow.
There are certain methods andways in which they implement
using Reiki in their lives.
But you've taken it to anotherstep.
(23:44):
And if you could just tell us alittle bit about how Reiki has
influenced your own way of justthinking and being in the world
and how this divine healingenergy helps us in terms of
creativity or just even the mostmundane tasks.
SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
So for me, one of the purposes for me writing the
books that I do is to take Reikiout of just being something that
you pay for in a session with apractitioner and it happens on a
table or distantly, but where itreally becomes more part of your
life and part of your everydayliving experience.
And so the more you can bringthat divine light into your
(24:29):
life, into your livedexperience, into your
relationships, into yourworkplace, into your food, into
your water, all that stuff, thenI think it's just brightening
the greater whole.
So a lot of my books are justabout ways to bring that light
into your life in differentways.
And I think that one of thebeautiful things about Reiki,
(24:52):
and again, we're talking about alot of creativity here, is when
I, again, was a big fan of AllenGinsberg for a number of years.
And I remember in one of theconcerts, if you want to call it
that, or performances that Iwent to, Witnessing him in the
(25:12):
late 80s, early 90s, I rememberhim saying around writing, and I
think maybe he was quoting hisown Rinpoche teacher, Chingom
Trungpa, was first thought, bestthought, right?
First thought, best thought.
And so that always kind ofapplied.
That makes sense when writingpoetry, just not to censor and
just let go.
(25:34):
But I've always thought the samething about energy healing.
So if I'm doing a session andthe thought pops in my head
around, oh, try this.
Well, then I don't question it.
I just try it.
Right.
It's not going to hurt anybodywith Reiki.
If I if I try something, youknow, because Reiki is always
(25:54):
going to do no harm.
Right.
So it's not going to hurtanything if I try that.
So I try it, and then usuallymost of the time if I try it and
if I listen to that firstthought, then the experience is
a positive one.
And what I've found is when Ithink of that concept and dig
even deeper into it, I thinkwhen you're in that kind of
(26:14):
energetic zone, whether it'sthrough being in the zone of
creativity or in that zone ofdoing Reiki, I think it takes
you into this place where yourconsciousness starts to bleed
into a place that I call workingwith divine imagination.
And what I mean by divineimagination is that that first
thought is not just coming fromnowhere, right?
(26:36):
There's some impetus.
There's some guiding force thatis putting that first thought
into your awareness.
In my mind, I think that guidingforce is what I call divine
imagination, that there's thisplace where your consciousness
is kind of melding with divineconsciousness and divine
consciousness is now feeding youthese possibilities like, oh,
(26:56):
try this, do this.
And so I think that works bothas an artist or as a writer, but
also as a healer.
So a perfect example of that isin a modality that I teach.
There's one that I channeled inthat's called Magical Awakening.
There's an aspect of that whereyou can work with elemental
energies very easily.
And one time I was teaching thisto one of my students and she
(27:19):
was doing a healing on me justto kind of demonstrate what she
had learned.
And at one point, she just, forwhatever reason, listening to
that divine imagination, decidedto use the element of earth to
send me the healing qualities ofthe volcanoes in Hawaii, right?
(27:40):
Now, I was in Hawaii once when Iwas 16 years old for a week.
So there was no reason, norational reason for her to
think, oh, wow, Brett reallyneeds the energy of these
volcanoes in Hawaii.
But there was no rational,intellectual reason that should
say, oh, this is what we'represcribing here.
The thought popped in her head.
She went with it.
And it opened my heart in suchan amazing way.
(28:03):
And so that is how I like towork with energy healing in the
sense that There'll be all thesedifferent energetic
possibilities and something justis, again, I think it's being
fed to me by the divine, thatfirst thought, best thought,
something pops in your head.
And for me, in my mind, it'spopping ahead for a very clear
reason, because the divine iswanting you to follow this,
(28:25):
right?
And so when I'm doing energyhealing, that's really my
creative process.
Something pops into my head, Ilisten to it.
And again, with the modalitiesthat I'm working with, there's
nothing that would be...
potentially harmful to anyone.
So there's no reason not tolisten to it.
There's no reason not to atleast try it out.
(28:45):
And a lot of times I'll say tomy students, they'll come up for
me, like with differentquestions, like, Oh, well, what
if you did X, Y, Z?
And I'm like, play with it, tryit.
You know, yeah, you can ask me,but why don't you just try it
and just, then you get in thepractice of listening to your
own impulses and then you try itand then you see what the result
is.
SPEAKER_00 (29:04):
Can you, you take us to the moment where, where the
idea of creating the ReikiDivine Healing card deck came
into your awareness.
So that, again, that was
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
kind of another divine setup.
So I was doing a healing inMount Kisco, New York at a small
healing center there.
It was a group healing event.
I think it was on a weekend,maybe a Saturday or Sunday
afternoon.
And so people would just, theywould just pay to be there and
to just lay down in the room andI would just be sending energy
healing to everyone in the roomsimultaneously.
(29:37):
And at the end of the event, awoman from the back walked up
and came up to me and she goes,my name's Allison DeNicola and I
work for US Games.
Would you like to create a Reikideck with us?
And so it was really, it wasn'tanything that I had to create
any effort around.
Now, I will say I had alreadycreated a healing deck, but it
(30:01):
was based on my MagicalAwakening energy healing system,
which is not as well known.
And it wasn't created through amajor publisher.
It was basically self-publishedwith me and one of the other
Magical Awakening teachers whocreated the visuals.
So when I was given thatopportunity from US Games, I
said, well, I do have a deckthat's already created, but it's
not Reiki.
(30:21):
And they were like, yeah, thatother modality, nobody knows
about it.
So we really want a Reiki deck.
UNKNOWN (30:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
And so then they gave me a list of potential
artists that they recommendedwho they had worked with, with
other decks that they do.
And again, for those people whodon't know, U.S.
Games is the company thatcreates not all, but most of the
tarot decks in the world thatyou see are created through U.S.
Games.
And so they have a wide list ofartists and people that they've
(30:51):
worked with.
And so they gave me a list ofpeople that they recommended.
thought might be good, but theywere also like, you know, hey,
you've worked at OmegaInstitute, you know a lot of
people.
If there's somebody you knowthat you think would be better,
you know, we can work withwhatever.
And so I was looking both at theartists that they recommended,
and I was also thinking ofdifferent people that I knew
(31:12):
through Omega Institute.
And one of the people, a guy whoused to work with me at Omega
Institute named Ben Sheikowitz,and as I was looking at his work
online, I realized, some of theconcepts that I had for the
cards already existed inpaintings he had already
created.
SPEAKER_00 (31:32):
Oh my goodness.
Wow.
You
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
know, the deck, there's 44 cards in the deck and
I would say maybe around, I'mguessing about seven or eight of
those, those images were alreadyin creation.
He had already painted them.
And so I'm like, okay.
And I know him and I know how towork with him and we get along.
And so lucky he's the guy.
And so, you know, an interestingthing is one of, One of the
(31:55):
cards that he had alreadycreated is a painting of a woman
named Amina Eagle.
And Amina Eagle, it's funny howall these things come full
circle.
SPEAKER_00 (32:03):
Amina
SPEAKER_01 (32:05):
Eagle was part of the founding of Omega Institute.
She had been around for many,many years.
By the time Ben and I signed theagreement with US Games, she was
probably in her late 80s, maybeearly 90s even, I'm not sure.
And it's funny, as we're talkingabout Allen Ginsberg, this all
works full circle.
had known the beats and in backin the in the late 50s early 60s
(32:30):
because i remember one time atomega institute we were talking
about uh there was a movie nightin at a little art theater in
reinbeck called upstate filmsand sometimes so mega we would
take the staff there you knowit's like a movie night and
there was a movie about the thetrial the censorship trial for
howell the poem Howl from EllenGinsberg.
(32:52):
And I remember asking Amina,like, hey, do you want to go to
that movie where a bunch of usare going to go tonight?
And she's like, why would I wantto go to the movie when I was at
the trial?
SPEAKER_00 (33:03):
I'm like, oh,
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
yeah.
Oh, okay.
But anyway, I just find itinteresting that we're talking
about so many things fullcircle.
So anyway, getting back to thedeck, her face was, well, not
only her face, but as a person,she just...
was so sweet and kind andeveryone just always thought of
her as really embodying thesense of kindness.
And so when looking at thatcard, I realized this card, you
(33:28):
know, or looking at thatpainting, I realized this
painting already embodies theReiki precept of kindness.
So that card's already there,right?
Like all we need to do is takethat image and, you know,
there's the card, right?
And just for today, I will bekind to every living thing.
And so, again, thinking ofsynchronicities and everything,
Amina was quite old at the timewe signed that agreement.
(33:51):
And I wanted to make sure we hadpermission to use her image,
even though the painting wasalready created.
I wanted to make sure she wasokay with her image being in a
deck.
And so I messaged her onFacebook, like, hey, Ben and I
just signed this agreement.
We would love for your image tobe a representative of this
card.
And I told her the specifics andshe wrote back, yes, I would be
(34:11):
honored to be part of the deck.
And then two days later shepassed away and moved on to the
next realm.
So I feel like everything wasjust kind of divinely set up and
just kind of unfolded the waythat it should.
And what I think is differentabout this deck than other
decks, even though it'spublished by the company that
does many tarot decks, it's notso much a tarot deck.
It's not about seeing the futureor, I mean, you could try to use
(34:34):
it that way and there might besome benefit, but it's really
not designed to be that.
But what it can do, and this issomething that I think a lot of
people have a hard timeswallowing until they've
actually experienced it, is thatthe cards themselves can
actually send you energyhealing.
The cards themselves are allempowered to what is called the
Reiki crystal, which is thefoundation of the psychic Reiki
(34:55):
work that I do.
And a Reiki crystal is anenergetic crystal, not a
physical crystal, but it's anenergetic crystal that would
usually be empowered in a personin front of their heart chakra,
but again i told you that i liketo experiment and try things so
for a number of years i realizedyou could actually empower
inanimate objects with reiki orwith reiki crystals and then
even program them that's veryspecific functions so the deck
(35:19):
each card each of the 44 cardshas its own reiki crystal and
each reiki crystal in that cardin that image is programmed for
a very specific function so forexample the one that i was
talking about with the mediaeagle the card is about the
reiki precept of kindness TheReiki crystal that is in that
card is designed that when youask it to, it will bring you
(35:41):
into this deep meditative spaceon that precept of kindness.
So you're kind of in a place ofdeep reflection on how are you
embodying that or how does thatshow up in your life?
Other cards in the deck aredesigned to send Reiki, maybe do
specific things.
organs or organ systems or partsof the energy field like there's
(36:02):
one card in there called chakraReiki and the Reiki crystal
that's in that card isprogrammed that upon a person's
request it will send Reiki totheir chakras or another card is
programmed so it will send Reikito their etheric body so you
know again the 44 cards all havetheir own specific intention but
they can actually send youenergy healing and And I've had
(36:24):
some really wonderful resultsworking with this.
And I would say the mostprofound one was during a live
in-person experience thathappened at Omega Institute last
year.
And again, for those who aren'tfamiliar with Omega Institute,
it's a beautiful holisticretreat center in Rhinebeck, New
York.
So Ben, who was the artist, Benand I were doing a live
in-person event at the OmegaInstitute in September of last
(36:45):
year.
It was just an evening eventwhere we were talking about the
deck and how we created it.
And as part of that, we also dida healing on the audience.
And in the audience, there werea number of people who just
happened to be at OmegaInstitute that week who were
veterans.
So people who'd been through thehorrors of war who were at Omega
(37:05):
to help release that and healthat trauma and find tools to
bring in that trauma.
And it came back to me about aweek later that the vets who
were a big part of that audiencethat night were so excited.
receptive to the work of thatthat the healing that night that
they they got word back throughtheir facilitator who informed
(37:29):
the ceo of omega that that wastheir highlight that they really
loved their healing experiencewith with with that deck which
was basically me just pullingcards from the deck and asking
each card, oh, please send thisto everyone who's here in the
audience tonight.
So that's how the healingunfolded.
But it was really moving to hearpeople who've kind of been
(37:51):
through some of the toughestthings you can experience, that
they found value and that theycould feel the shift that
happened for them after workingwith the deck.
SPEAKER_00 (38:00):
Well, I love the fact that you make Reiki so
accessible to To everyone.
Now, most people, they may ask,do I need to be attuned to Reiki
to be able to receive thishealing?
SPEAKER_01 (38:14):
You don't need to be attuned to Reiki to receive
Reiki healing, whether it's fromanother Reiki person or from the
deck.
And the even more interestingthing about the deck that I find
is that you also don't need tobe attuned to Reiki to use the
deck to send healing.
to others, right?
But you could use that deck tosend healing to a loved one.
(38:38):
Obviously you'd want to havethat person's permission, et
cetera, but you can use thedeck.
And again, my hope is thatpeople who get the deck will
then be so enamored with thehealing possibilities of Reiki
that they will then want to godeeper and become attuned and
use it in that way, but theydon't have to.
They can actually just ask thedeck to send healing to someone
(38:58):
themselves, their own life, andalso to friends, family, loved
ones.
Again, I would just always makesure that you have people's
consent, but it's a verypowerful deck in that way.
SPEAKER_00 (39:08):
It's interesting how hearing about your own personal
journey, even all the way backto your mystical work in your
acting career and sort of beingable to visualize objects and
the power within thatvisualization now coming in a
way and knowing about thecrystal aspect.
of each card.
(39:29):
It's just, it's just remarkableseeing how that has transformed
over time.
Now, if you were to think aboutyour Reiki practice and what
you've learned so far, is theresomething that you wish you had
known earlier in terms of yourcreative career back then
regarding this, trusting thisintuition and this flow?
(39:54):
Um,
SPEAKER_01 (39:56):
I don't know.
I mean, I certainly, I thinksometimes I wish, wow, I wish I
still had those journals thatare in the back of that.
Well,
SPEAKER_00 (40:02):
yes.
SPEAKER_01 (40:04):
You know, there's some times that I wish that I
had certain pieces of writingthat I had let go through
because there was a period oftime when I was traveling a lot,
I would only travel with what Icould carry with me.
And sometimes I'd let things goin the process.
But in terms of my journey, Idon't know that there's anything
that could change.
Cause I think for me, a big partof the journey is when you reach
(40:26):
that place where you realizethat everything that's happened,
including those things that yousee as being maybe mistakes,
that there's a perfection thatexists in that as well.
So even when I look at thehorrific traumatic childhood I
had, it's not that I'm wishingto have been other than that.
I mean, not that I would say, ohyeah, why don't you go have a
(40:50):
traumatic childhood?
I'm not saying that, but I'msaying it is what it is and I
accept it for what it is.
And I wouldn't be who I am if itwas something other than what it
was.
And so since I embrace who I amand I love who I am and I love
my life, you know, if I was togo back and change X, Y, or Z in
that equation of my history,well, then I wouldn't be the
(41:12):
same person that I am.
I wouldn't have learned the samelessons that I've learned.
So I don't know that I could saythat there's anything I would
change necessarily, you know,
SPEAKER_00 (41:23):
So true.
So true.
Well, Brett, what's next foryou?
Is there anything exciting onthe horizon that you're
particularly thrilled about?
SPEAKER_01 (41:33):
I mean, I'm working on a book, you know, I talked
about wanting to write the greatAmerican novel.
Yes.
Yes.
And I have, I have over theyears tried to write some more
autobiographical pieces offiction.
And then I finally started torealize like maybe I, I was too
focused on everything being soautobiographical and it never
(41:54):
really came together as a storybecause good stories are usually
where you condense things andchange things around and make it
happen more swiftly for thereader and stuff.
So I am working on somethingthat I would call fiction, but
still based in the reality orthe truths of what I've learned
in my life.
(42:16):
You know, will that end up beingpublished?
I have no idea, but it'ssomething I'm working on right
now.
SPEAKER_00 (42:22):
You know, it's really not the product.
It's really about the process,especially in creativity.
I feel as an artist myself, Ifind that that is something that
sort of propels us and keeps usgoing.
You're clearly someone who hassuccessfully worked in trusting
the creative process as itguides you throughout your whole
career.
purpose in life.
(42:43):
And the books, I'm reallyexcited about this deck.
I have it myself and have usedit in many different ways.
And I could attest to theincredible healing power that
comes through them.
And just the concept ofsomething that is sort of an
object that with intention orwith asking or with its own
(43:05):
inherent properties can providehealing and transformation in
ways we could never haveimagined.
I mean, who, who had thought ofthat except for Brett Bevel?
Who else would have thought ofthis idea?
And, you know, I love also too,that you make Reiki so
(43:25):
accessible to people because wecan all use more healing in our
world and our lives.
And, you know, especially this,this deck, how do people,
connect with you?
How do people get their hands onthis deck and your books?
SPEAKER_01 (43:44):
Yeah, so my books are available at most
booksellers, you know, whetheryou're you're somebody who
orders online through Amazon orBarnes and Noble, or if you're
somebody that wants to, youknow, support your local
bookstore, your local bookstore,even if your local bookstore
doesn't have it, your localbookstore has a distributor.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be inbusiness as a local bookstore.
(44:06):
So even if your local bookstoredoesn't have it, you could
always say, hey, I would like toget this deck or I'd like to get
these books.
Can you order them for me?
So that's certainly a route thatI always encourage people to
support their local vendors.
But if you want to order itonline through Barnes& Noble or
Amazon or some other onlinevendor, you could as well.
And so they're available aroundthe world.
(44:28):
And especially the deck, again,which came out in August of last
year.
I love my books too, but there'ssomething about the deck that I
feel like it's still teaching mebecause when you have 44
healers, which is what the deckis, it's 44 healers.
Now, yeah, you're telling thosehealers what to do, but that's
44 possibilities.
(44:48):
And then when you amplify, whenyou do the math, what not only
those 44 healers, but also thevarious combinations of when
you're using differentcombinations of those 44
healers, that's a lot ofpotential healing.
SPEAKER_00 (44:58):
I mean, really?
Yeah.
You're only limited by your ownimagination if you think about
using these cards.
SPEAKER_01 (45:07):
Exactly.
And so I would say, you know,right now my energy is a lot
with making sure that those whoare in need of healing, you
know, yes, my books providewonderful opportunities to train
and learn.
But if you just need the healingand you don't want to go down
that other path, you know, Iwould say get the deck.
SPEAKER_00 (45:27):
Or they can also learn from you online.
Can you tell people about yourwebsite and the upcoming Reiki
conference at Omega?
SPEAKER_01 (45:36):
Yeah, yeah.
So I have two websites.
One is brettbevel.com, which hasmy in-person events listed
there.
And the other website isacademyoflovenlight.us.
And on academyoflovenlight.us,there are my online offerings.
I usually do weekly healings.
Also, there's some pre-recordedtrainings that exist on
(45:57):
academyoflovenlight.us for thosewho want to explore that.
And the Reiki conference thatyou just mentioned is at Omega
Institute.
We have it each year this It'sgoing to be the weekend of June
27th through 29th.
I am presenting there.
There's also a number of amazingother teachers there.
William Rand, the founder ofHoly Fire Reiki is there.
(46:18):
Tina Zion, who does a lot ofwonderful work with both
mediumship and also just usingReiki for more intuitive
purposes.
She'll be teaching there someother amazing healers, Nicholas
Pearson, who's going to bebringing in an aspect about
working with Reiki and thecompassion aspects of Kuan Yin.
(46:42):
We have a wonderful soundhealer, Felicia Bonanno.
who always does an amazing soundhealing as part of the event.
And like I said, I'll bepresenting there too.
So I'm really looking forward toit.
And again, it's the weekend ofJune 27th through 29th.
So if people are interested,please, please come check it
out.
And the wonderful thing, eventhough it is a Reiki conference
(47:02):
and the intention is certainlythat most people there already
have Reiki, even if somebodydoesn't have Reiki, you can
still come to that conference.
You will As part of thatconference, be empowered.
It's not an in-depth training,but you would be empowered to
psychic Reiki and learn how touse that to at least do a
healing on yourself before theweekend is up.
SPEAKER_00 (47:22):
It is not to be missed.
I've been, and they are trulytransformative.
So thank you for sharing that,Brett.
Brett Bevel, I just reallyappreciate you sharing your
insight and your process.
I've loved hearing about yourstory.
There's so much to take fromthat.
And, you know, I'm hopingsomeday someone's going to
discover those books and put itonline and saying, who do these
(47:45):
belong to?
Because I feel like...
They're out there somewhere andthey're wanting to come back to
you.
But anyway, I just reallyappreciate you joining us today
and sharing your wisdom.
SPEAKER_01 (47:57):
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having meon.
This has been fun to chat aboutthis kind of weaving of
creativity and energy healing.
So thank you so much.
It's been my pleasure.
SPEAKER_00 (48:08):
Thanks so much for tuning in today.
I'm so glad you spent this timewith me.
If something in this episoderesonated, feel free to share it
or pass it along to someone whomight need that little spark.
I'd also love to hear what cameup for you.
Send me a message or drop acomment on Instagram at
(48:30):
tohumishuman.
You can also find more episodesand updates at sonorouslight.com
or on your favorite podcastplatform.
Until next time, keep humming.
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