We All Live Our Dharma

You wouldn’t expect psychic medium Annie Larson to find any ghost stories scary, but a particularly haunted part of London disturbed even this seasoned pro when she inadvertently took a photo of a real ghost there.

Episode Summary

When a particular area experiences years, centuries, even a millennia of trauma, does the area hold on to that negative energy? Do the poor souls that perished in that area stick around en masse, waiting for the right person to come along to tell their story to?

Because that’s exactly what happened to our guest today, a medium who made the unfortunate mistake of visiting an area where thousands of ancient entities became a little too excited to speak with her. She wasn’t prepared for the presence in the 1348 plague pit in Charter House Square.

How many ghosts does it take to overwhelm someone who sees spirits daily? Listen to this episode to find out!

Episode Promo

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Episode Show Notes

About Annie Larson

Annie is an intuitive, medium, and above all, healer. She is a reiki practitioner and a teacher. She’s a published astrologist who trained under Bryan Weiss as a past-life regression therapist. Her every practice is geared towards healing, in one way or another.

Her website is mediumannielarson.com, and no matter where you are, you can absolutely reach out to her for her help, since she’s practicing online since the pandemic started. And since she could detect Diana’s basement ghost just from our video call, we think she’s pretty legit.

Annie’s real photo of a ghost, Rahere

Annie took two photos in succession while visiting St. Bartholomew’s in London. When she took the first photo, she felt like something jumped in front of the camera, so she took another one a few seconds afterward. When she got home and looked at the photos, she realized it looked like she caught the shadow of a 12th century court jester on camera. What do you think? Could this be a photo of a real ghost, possibly the court jester Rahere who founded the church in 1123?

Episode References

What is Dharma?

According to aboutdharma.org, dharma is a buddhist practice dedicated to manifesting world peace by training the mind to inner peace. It’s a distinctly Eastern concept that finding true happiness lies not in the pursuit of our own happiness, but in the cherishing of the happiness of others. In fact, research suggests that actively attempting to be happier only works in cultures where the people value the happiness of the group or tribe over the happiness of the self.

We all live our dharma, perhaps, because we all experience in the outer world that which we’ve cultivated and manifested in our minds. We’re a bit scared about what that means for us, and all the ghost stories constantly running through our spooky minds.

Who is Rahere the Jester at St Bartholomew’s?

Almost a milenium ago, King Henry I’s renowned Court Jester Rahere had a vision. Distraught from the death of the prince, he took a pilgrimage, became a monk, and opened St Bartholomew’s. As a monk, Rahere dedicated the rest of his life to helping people. But once a year during the St Bartholomew’s Fair, he would revive his jester skills to juggle and entertain, for the benefit of the monks. 

Rahere died in 1144 and his is the only tomb inside the church. Annie captured a jester’s shadow in a photo of the courtyard of St. Bartholomew’s, which today is the oldest church in London. Legend says that Rahere manifests in the vestry annually at 7am on July 1st.

How do you know if you have synesthesia?

You’ve probably heard Becky talk about how she sees a color associated with every number. If you’re like me, you also wondered what the hell she’s talking about. Synesthesia is an uncommon perception phenomenon or glitch where one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, unrelated stimulation. The word basically breaks down to something like “to feel along with.” People on the autism spectrum often experience synesthesia where loud sounds feel painful and quiet sounds feel pleasurable, which is why ASMR content exists.

Today’s guest Annie says that Becky’s synesthesia might also be a symptom of the beginning stages of mediumship! Check out our Patreon episode You might be a medium if… where we explore this idea in the context of Becky, and also offer insights for determining whether you might be a budding psychic medium.

How do you know if you have the Bubonic Plague?

The first wave of bubonic plague in England during medieval times killed 1 out of 3 English people (and 3 out of 5 people in London) within 2 years. You’ve probably heard that flea-infested rats spread the plague. You might also have heard it’s caused by the microorganism Yersinia pestis. But what you might not know is that about 3000 people still come down with the plague annually. And cases do arise in the United States. Also, that in 2014, forensic science revealed clues that most of the deaths attributed to the Black death were actually the pneumonic (rather than bubonic) form of the plague. This is even scarier, because transmission of pneumonic plague is airborne rather than via insect vector.

So now you may be wondering, “do I have the plague?” Here are some symptoms to keep you up at night:

The main symptom of bubonic plague is actually in its very name: buboes. Bubo is just an unnecessarily gross word for a very swollen lymph node. When the flea bites you, its saliva transmits Y. pestis into your bloodstream. Your lymphatic system attempts to remove the infection from your blood. But the infection sticks in lymph nodes in the armpits, groin, and neck due to hemorrhagic necrosis. The lymph nodes swell up to the size of a chicken egg.

According to artwork from the time, buboes release horrible black pus when lanced. The physician lancing the bubo was a common image in artwork of the time. Perhaps if 3 out of 5 people you knew had just died of the plague, you might need to do some art therapy about it, too. Of course, nowadays, you could just get out your camera. If you happen to catch a real photo of a ghost, you’re pretty guaranteed to have a spooky day!