Keep Smiling, Your Teacup Is Levitating

By Vivi Stutz

A paranormal memoir, and useful strategies for intuitive living.

Imagine sitting across from your health insurance broker, and when queried about your mental health, you want to blurt out: "I see dead people, but there is nothing wrong with me."

More than one boyfriend ran for the hills because I "saw" future events, such as a fire that endangered the lives of two children. Then again, I once passed on a call-back for an acting audition because the producer had a creepy vibe. He was later convicted of murdering his lead actress. 

I "heard" my boyfriend's name before we exchanged the first words. My dead cat visited and scared a friend away.

I scheduled a psychiatric evaluation when I "saw" the events of September 11th on a beach in August of 2001. thought I had to be insane.

A decade after his death, our late landlord demanded we foster rescue dogs even though I prefer cats.

Holding someone's briefcase revealed a future drug overdose. "Reading" keys announced an unlikely pregnancy. 

Viewing a rental property comes with a detailed report of the previous tenant's history. Divorce, disease, and depression linger in a space like muck.

Telepathy has proven more efficient than text messages or shopping lists.

And yes, a teacup levitated across a table and was set on the floor without spilling the tea.

The paranormal is my normal. It wasn't easy to accept because "seeing things" is only popular in the plotline of a Halloween movie, rarely in real life. These are true stories, and sound advice on how to navigate the paranormal without questioning your sanity.

Let me take you for a ride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vivi Stutz
• Release date: Dec 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386550396

Vivi Stutz

Vivi Stutz is a fiction and non-fiction writer. In fiction, she writes magical realism  and paranormal romance - magical events happening to ordinary people in real life. In non-fiction, she writes about transpersonal/spiritual psychology and holistic mind-body wellness. She is a certified personal trainer and a pre-licensed marriage and family therapist with a Master's of Arts in psychology and a Master's of Arts in spiritual psychology. Originally from Germany and now a dual citizen, she attempts to have one foot on each continent while maintaining a home with her husband and various rescue animals in Southern California.

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Ghosts, Premonitions and Other True Stories Boyfriends Couldn’t Tolerate

Table of Contents

Title Page

About

Dedication

1. Yes, I Have Had a Psychiatric Evaluation

2. The House at Village’s End: My Mother’s Haunted House

3. Ghostly Babysitters: Voices Behind the Curtain

4. Prophetic Dreams: The Stolen Sled

Receiving Prophetic Dreams For The Coming Year

5. That’s When He Ran: Visions of Fire in Potsdam

6. A Ghostly Farewell: Sancho’s Apparition

Sancho’s Story

Medical Intuition

7. An Inner Compass: A Life Review from the Perspective of Inner Guidance

Honoring and Recognizing Intentions

8. Psychiatrist Needed? Visions of September 11th

How Do We Know We Are Receiving Guidance?

What Can Guidance Tell Us?

9. May I Hold Your Key? Psychometry

Reading A Person’s Energy Field

Space Readings

10. Rider of the Storm: A Mystical Dog Story

11. Hello Landlord, How’s It Going In The Afterlife? The House That Wanted Rescue Dogs

12. I’m Loving Angels Instead: Animal Communication

13. No Ticket To The Gustloff: My Grandmother’s WW2 Story

14. Is It Your Life or Someone Else’s? The Ghosts That Haunt Us May Not Be Our Own

15. Intuition, Anyone? How to Activate Your Sixth and Seventh Sense

Other Books by Vivi Stutz

Copyright by Vivi Stutz 2017

A paranormal memoir, and useful strategies for intuitive living.

Imagine sitting across from your life insurance broker, and when queried about your mental health, you want to blurt out: I see dead people, but there is nothing wrong with me.

More than one boyfriend ran for the hills because I saw future events, such as a fire that endangered the lives of two children. Then again, I once passed on a call-back for an acting audition because the producer had a creepy vibe. He was later convicted of murdering his lead actress.

I heard my boyfriend’s name before we exchanged the first words. My dead cat visited and scared a friend away. I scheduled a psychiatric evaluation when I saw the events of September 11th on a beach in August of 2001; I thought I had to be insane. A decade after his death, our late landlord demanded we foster rescue dogs even though I prefer cats. Holding someone’s briefcase revealed a future drug overdose; reading keys announced an unlikely pregnancy. Viewing a rental property comes with a detailed report of the previous tenant’s history; divorce, disease, and depression linger in a space like muck. Telepathy has proven more efficient than text messages or shopping lists. And yes, a teacup levitated across a table and was set on the floor without spilling the tea.

The paranormal is my normal. It wasn’t easy to accept because seeing things is only popular in the plotline of a Halloween movie; rarely in real life. These are true stories, and sound advice how to navigate the paranormal without questioning your sanity.

Let me take you for a ride.

To John-Mark Horton,

and his sanctuary city

1. Yes, I Have Had a Psychiatric Evaluation

IMAGINE SITTING ACROSS from your life insurance broker, and when asked about your mental health, you want to blurt out: I see dead people, but there is nothing wrong with me.

I didn’t say that. I do have common sense.

I also didn’t say, You seriously dislike your husband, and you stay with him only because you bought real estate together. You stay because you think it’s the smart thing to do. But the energy field around your physical body brims with resentment. It’s making the atmosphere in your office stuffy. I wonder how this affects your sales record?

A conversation with a stranger can reveal their personal information as if their minds had downloaded into mine. Walking our dogs past a house in my neighborhood can turn into a mind’s eye documentary of what happened there – a son died, and the parents’ grief turned them to alcohol, which they haven’t recovered from in decades. Viewing a new rental property comes with a detailed report of the previous tenant’s history; divorce, disease, and depression linger in a space like muck that resists the most potent cleaning agents. Holding someone’s car keys or wallet can show future events such as a friend’s unexpected pregnancy or someone’s drug overdose of a controlled substance mixed with hard liquor.

Shopping in a crowded mall is off-limits for me due to the overkill of information. After a Black Friday trip to buy a Macy’s cashmere sweater for my mother, I went to bed at seven p.m. with earplugs and a pillow over my head. The emotions emanating from people’s bodies were overwhelming, and I was exhausted.

Then again, perceiving the unspoken communication coming off a person’s energetic field has its perks. I once passed on a call-back for an acting audition because the producer had a predatory vibe that gave me a chill. He was later convicted of killing his lead actress and dumping her mangled body in the Santa Monica mountains.

If I were still dating, I would ask to hold my date’s car keys before entering his vehicle and his life. Keys will tell secrets the candidate is withholding. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the confidence to do so when I was dating, but it would have saved me a heck of a lot of trouble.

Sharing these stories feels like stepping onto a stage in front of a large auditorium while utterly naked. They are recollections of real events and told according to my best ability to remember.

Seeing things is only popular in the plotline of a Halloween movie, but rarely in real life. The mind doesn’t go to, No problem, it’s a psychic. The mind goes to, Weird!

If you admit to seeing things, you might embarrass your family as if you had publicly announced your boyfriend/girlfriend was a sheep. You might receive more business cards of caring psychiatrists than traffic tickets for parking violations.

More than one boyfriend ran for the hills, the desert, or into the safe arms of another woman. When the events I saw and told of came true, such as a fire that endangered the lives of two children, one boyfriend granted me a certain amount of notoriety as the witch with a large number of women that came after me.

I’m not a witch. I’m a personal fitness trainer. I write, but it doesn’t get much worse than that.

The paranormal is my normal. Why it happens, I’m not sure. I’ll tell you how I came to accept that it happens. It wasn’t easy to admit to because there is a fine line between intuitive knowing and deliberate self-delusion.

Am I making it up, or is it real? Am I particularly sensitive, or just plain crazy?

Walking this line with confidence took practice, careful discernment and courage. The process of coming into acceptance was uncomfortable, embarrassing and sometimes painful. For a long time, doubt was stronger than evidence.

As I tell you my stories, I’ll tell you what mutes or fine-tunes extra-sensory perception, and how you can access your intuition if you wish.

Maybe my stories will comfort you if you have lost a loved one and you wonder if life has meaning at all. Perhaps you will feel less alone if you have experienced the paranormal and you don’t feel comfortable telling anyone. Maybe you can learn to tap into inner guidance when you feel lost; because at your core, there is a wise knowing of your necessary next steps.

Inner guidance comes in handy when faced with life-changing decisions. No one knows your path as well as the wisdom that resides in the depths of your being. You can utilize your sixth and seventh sense, and you can do so without losing your grip on reality.

We’re all mad down here is one of my favorite lines by Tom Waits. Those who honor their intuition are no madder than everyone else.

I questioned my mental health more than once. I had my most severe crisis in August of 2001 when I saw mental images of billowing black smoke around the tops of high-rise buildings in a turquoise California sky. Everyone else was sunbathing on fluffy new beach towels while I saw something no one else saw, and my teeth clattered with horror. I thought I was schizophrenic. Until I saw the exact images that my mind had shown me replayed on TV. It was September 11th.

I had two psychiatric evaluations, just to be sure, and I spent years in psychotherapy.

The first psychiatrist thought my mental health was fine, but I needed marriage counseling. The second psychiatrist spotted an issue he also attributed to matrimony. He was Japanese, sitting crouched behind a massive oak desk as if he was hiding a Samurai sword underneath, ready to let heads roll if I didn’t close the door behind me all the way as he instructed. He found no serious issues concerning my mental health other than occasional insomnia, but he was alarmed when I answered Axis Four questions of the evaluation.

You’ve been married how long?! he said.

Eighteen years, I answered.

To the same person?!

Uhm...yes?

Apparently, he thought it was insane.

That’s how far I got with my mental health evaluations. Keep this in mind as you read my stories. They’re not the musings of a clouded mind.

I’m married to a man who says Hrmpf when I tell him my relationship with his mother has improved a lot since she passed; she is so helpful, and there is no more competition in our relationship. When I had a dream our house was broken into, he took his watch collection into a bank vault. When I dreamt we were going to take in another dog, even though we already had too many rescue animals, he said Hrmpf, and took the dog without further question. The dog later alerted his stepbrother to a developing kitchen fire.

Integrating psychic information, or cohabitating with disembodied roommates who don’t need to brush their teeth or file tax returns