It takes courage to explore the unknown, as it does to publicly tell others about personal experiences that are contrary to prevailing conventional ideas. Another Brave Soul is a periodic column that highlights the efforts of individuals who are exploring spirituality and the boundaries of human potential?and helping others to do the same. If you or someone you know are having such experiences, let us know and we?ll consider profiling them in this column. Click here to submit your suggestion.

Everyone has a spirit guide, according to the New Age axiom. Dori Alsop Paden of Richfield, MN has more than a dozen. And she?s on a first name basis with all of them.

While most people settle for one-way prayers for assistance or whispered flashes of insight during moments of quiet repose, Dori engages with her spirit guides on a daily basis. Fortunately for those people whose lines of spiritual communication are less developed, Dori shares the advice, guidance, and messages she channels with the general public on her blog.

Dori operates under the premise that self-awareness is found at all levels of existence, including that of animals, trees, and even planets. Her blog posts chronicle her communications with pets and dolphins, a fascinating conversation with a redwood tree, and even a discussion with the planet Mercury. They also detail out of body adventures to distant planets, contacts with extraterrestrials, and insights into pending earth changes such as global warming. But most posts represent channeled messages from spiritual guides at differing levels of nonphysical reality.

The subject matter varies depending upon who Dori converses with and whether she is answering reader questions or pursuing her own desire for guidance. Topics range from the nature of belief systems and the manifestation of physical things to advice on dealing with negative nonphysical entities and tips on improving interdimensional communication. Channeled personalities vary from the caring motherly messages of Benjamin to the calculating statistical analysis of Xanpithicus to the no nonsense practical advice of Meridian.

All Dori?s messages follow a similar format that provide a brief preamble to establish a context for the channeled message and a section for follow up commentary where she adds insights that help readers to better understand the messages she is bringing through.

The chronology of Dori?s early psychic development sounds a bit like a prequel to M. Night Shyamalan?s movie The Sixth Sense. Dori first recognized her psychic abilities in 1964 when she was 18 years old and attending college. At that time her dorm room was haunted by a poltergeist. Although her roommate also experienced trouble with moving objects, only Dori could hear the poltergeist laughing.

While Dori was still in college, a woman from her dormitory died unexpectedly as a result of a horseback riding accident. Dori began to see the woman?s face superimposed on other people?s faces as she passed them on the street. With the images came the words, ?Tell my mother.? Although she ignored the plea at first, eventually Dori located the woman?s mother and delivered the message. This stopped the communications from her schoolmate, but it opened the door for contact with a number of other disembodied spirits.

In 1975 another breakthrough happened. Dori experienced what she calls a total spontaneous bleedthrough. ?I was walking down a stairway and looking out the window on a summer day when suddenly I experienced myself sitting around a campfire on a cold black night chanting the name of Indra, an ancient Hindu god of fire,? she says. I was wide awake and in both places at the time.

Today this might be classified as a past life memory, but Dori had little context for the experience at the time and she found it quite disturbing. Fortunately it proved to be a positive turning point when soon afterwards a friend recommended she read Seth Speaks by Jane Roberts, a groundbreaking book that documented Robert?s channeled communications with a nonphysical personality called Seth, who spoke about the nature of human consciousness, how we shape our personal reality, and the interrelationship between our experiences in the physical and nonphysical realms. The book changed Dori?s life.

?What was strange about it was the reading wasn?t like learning new material, but a remembering. For me it was a wake up call.? she says. This led her to a series of courses and workshops that awakened a host of new psychic abilities, including channeling, psychic readings, out of body journeys, and an unearthly type of spirit singing in a language Dori calls EKtavasi.

Now some 30 years later Dori is a skilled medium and talented traveler in nonphysical reality. But she is moving beyond the realm of acting solely as a student and taking on the role of teacher and guide. She?s recently recorded her EKtavasi singing on CD and is offering workshops through the Learning Annex and the Society for Teaching, Astrological Research and Study.

You have to be careful what you ask for, she advises. ?I started getting some serious messages that it was time for me to start teaching. I told my guides I had a job and didn?t have time. Suddenly my job disappeared and I had lots of time. Now these new opportunities are opening up for me,? she says.

Dori posts her adventures and channeled communications each morning Monday through Friday. You can read her most recent posts online at www.psychicblogsonline.blogspot.com or you can visit her main site at www.onedarnedgoodpsychic.com.

Check it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Blaze