I have had an almost 40-year career in health and safety, I’m a Certified Industrial Hygienist, a Certified Safety Professional, and was formerly a Certified Biological Safety Professional. I have specialized experience in infectious diseases, biological safety, and laboratory safety. I have spent over twenty years with the United States government in the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Health and Human services, and Interior, nine years as a contractor to NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Kennedy Space Center, and the NASA Headquarters Occupational Health Program, and eight years as a senior/principal health, safety, and environmental consultant. My areas of professional expertise include:
Exposure Assessment, OSHA Compliance Program Evaluation and Development, Biological Hazards and Bloodborne Pathogens, Biological Safety, Mold Contamination, Indoor Air Quality, Safety and Health Training Development and Presentation, Industrial Ventilation, Noise and Hearing Conservation, Hazardous Waste Operations, Risk Assessment, Environmental and Occupational related illnesses, Risk Communication, Safety and Health Management Systems, Occupational Health Program Evaluation, Litigation Consultant and Expert Witness. Hypnosis.
I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Mount Saint Mary’s University. While majoring in Biology and Minoring in Chemistry I also received a classical liberal arts education from Mount Saint Mary’s. In addition to the biology, chemistry, physics, and math, course work also included among other things, philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, literature, poetry, logic, linguistics, fine arts, and history. It was during my time there that I realized I had been gifted with an education that taught me not WHAT to think, but HOW to think.
It was during this time that I was first formally introduced to Hypnosis, taking a deep dive into the unconscious with a semester-long psychology course focusing on the subject. I was hooked. I have taken countless hours of additional professional hypnosis training in the intervening years. I believe that anyone can be hypnotized and that there are in fact no bad hypnosis subjects only inferior hypnotists. I can perform hypnosis for entertainment and demonstration purposes as well as for remedial and generative change work assisting individuals to shatter limiting beliefs and achieve great success in understanding and helping themselves.
In addition to a professional career in health and safety, in 2009 I became an ordained non-denominational minister. I chose to focus primarily on providing wedding services and I have performed hundreds of ceremonies for couples of all faiths and no faiths, and from all walks of life. I genuinely adore working with couples in love and feel blessed to be invited to spend the happiest day of their lives with them and their families. I also provide other ministerial services such as baby blessings, home and workplace blessings and cleansings, and funeral services. Additionally, I am happy to be available to provide spiritual and pastoral care for the emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of anyone of any level of need. My hypnosis skills are a tool employed as a part of these services.
Once in the midst of a seemingly endless winter, I discovered within myself an invincible spring.
– Albert Camus
Profound change happened to us all. The COVID Pandemic completely changed our lives and redefined the concept of normal. And that was on top of the constant background of unrest, discord, hostility, and anxiety that we all have been immersed in for several years. And while some things have improved, much of it hasn’t and we’re all forced to face life as it is now. We’re all dealing with illness, loss, grief, anxiety, stress, tedious repetition, boredom, and the confusing analysis and decision of what “normal” means for us. During the early days of the pandemic when we were all in quarantine I was and have been one of the fortunate ones. I got to work from home the entire time. I literally haven’t seen my office since March of 2020. In addition to that I baked bread, dusted off my guitar, and binged Netflix along with everyone else. And it was during this time that I decided to improve my knowledge and skills and pursue my latest certification in hypnosis. And it was during this time that I realized people were hurting and I had the skills to help. It was time for me to expand my circle of influence. To reach out. To try to make a difference, if only a small one, if only to a few.
“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.”
– Sydney Smith
Although I do not have a church, I do have a ministry. It is based on inclusiveness and tolerance and all with an open mind and heart are welcome. Rather than dogma it is built on science, philosophy, literature, history, art, and love and it is open to discussion and debate. If I had to put a label on myself for discussion purposes I’d have to call myself a Philosophical Taoist/Pagan Pantheist who believes in science.
Everything in existence at its simplest, most basic form is energy. I believe that we originate from, are a part of, and are connected to the energy of the Universe. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy states, that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. And that in any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same. This process, Universal Energy changing forms into Matter and eventually returning to Energy, explains for me in a very over simplified way, where we come from, how we live, and what happens when we die. For me this is where science, spirituality, and religion, while speaking different languages, are actually saying remarkably similar things.
Because of this connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm – as above so below – we are connected to each other and everything else and so to improve the world we must look within to improve ourselves, while looking to help others. I believe in personal responsibility, in contemplation and reflection, and in doing the self-work necessary to improve ourselves.
Religions are human constructs. In their most basic forms they were attempts to understand and explain the unexplainable. The frightening things happening to and around us. They evolved into attempts to answer deeper questions and also to establish control or at least rules for living. The beliefs of every religion in one way or another does two things. It attempts to answer two questions – where we came from and where we are going, and it establishes some form of guidance/rules/laws for how we are to live and how we are to treat each other in the space in between.
Where we came from? How we live while we are here? Where are we going when we are through?
The first question and the last have been and will continue to be debated until the end of time and we will likely never know the answers. At least not in this form. That’s what makes the second question so important. The first and the last questions, we simply do not know, and we have absolutely no control. They are Yesterday and Tomorrow. The Past and the Future. But the second question is the now. The present. Today. And How we live while we are here? That we do have control over.
If we want to look for a rule for how we are to live while we are here, we need not look any farther than the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Every religion has some form of The Golden Rule. The wording may differ along the way, but some form of that sentiment has been recorded as far back as Ancient Egypt.
Now I think if we all practiced the Golden Rule we would be doing pretty well. But I think we can do better. The Golden Rule at its core, in its most basic application is akin to the Hippocratic Oath in medicine. Above all else, do no harm. If we look at the Golden rule from that perspective, I don’t want to be harmed therefore I won’t harm others. Cool. And really, sometimes that is the best we can manage at any given point, I get that. But what if, at the times we are capable of more, we took it to a higher level? What if we were to do unto others by helping them? Not just doing no harm, but going beyond the bare minimum and actually helping. I call that practicing the Golden Rule at a higher octave. It’s a higher bar to measure ourselves against in this connected Universe.
“We live only in the present, in this fleet-footed moment. The rest is lost and behind us, or ahead of us and may never be found.”
– Marcus Aurelius
