Richard D’Angelo

      The following is my story of how I started out in life and how I ended up in this field. I am telling it so that you may see that you don’t have to spend your life meditating in some cave in order to have access to the wisdom that is the Real You. I hope that you find inspiration from my journey.

      I grew up as a scientist. By the time I was nine years old I had memorized the Periodic Table (if you don’t know what this means, be impressed) and was reading books in the fields of physics and chemistry. I loved science and its deductive reasoning and so enrolled in college as a chemistry major. In my sophomore year I discovered philosophy – specifically inductive logic. I was so excited about the discussion of ideas and concepts that I graduated a philosophy major with a minor in biology.

      I eventually went on to earn a MA in Physiology and landed a job conducting research at Roswell Park. When the grant money fell through, I obtained a BS – this time in computer science. I then worked as a Data Base Administrator for Erie County.

      Socially I was a happy bachelor who played the field. From time-to-time I would tend to get serious with a woman and consider marriage. But the same question would hit me, “Where would I get married?” Certainly not in a traditional church. Examining my metaphysical beliefs, all I could ascertain was that I believed in spirits. This belief came from a friend of my mother’s who could see spirits and received daily advice from them. She was a ‘no-nonsense’ woman and so I believed her.

      I was raised Protestant but had moved into agnosticism half-way through college. So being a logical person, I used the Yellow Pages and looked up churches. I found “Spiritualist Churches” and, assuming that they believed in spirits, attended one of their services. They began at 7pm – which was great for me because I hated mornings (still do). When I arrived there were 12 ministers and the lead guy had a pony tail down to his waist. I knew I was in for something really different. The other thing I immediately noticed was the love I felt in the room. I had never felt this in any church before. It was weird to me but I liked it and kept coming back.

      At the same time I had a penchant for reading “strange” books. I liked reading things that were out of the mainstream. I started reading the Carlos Castenada series and then picked up The Silva Mind Control Method. That book amazed me because it described the amazing things you could do with your mind. Of course my logical self didn’t believe it, but I thought that if only half of what was in this book were true, it was amazing!

      Meanwhile my job at the county was getting worse. They gave me the horrendous task of computerizing the entire library system of the county. I was responsible for the programming, system design, communications, and operational aspects of the system. In other words, everything! I knew this was a disaster waiting to happen, so when one day a headhunter from Denver called asking who would like a new job, I jumped.

      I was only making $24,000 at the time, which even in 1984 was peanuts. I knew I was worth more. A month later a company called me from New York City. I flew down for the interview. The job involved travelling the country as a consultant in the data base system that I knew. They were impressed and offered me $31,000 – mentioning that they expected the county to match that offer. (I tried hard to keep from laughing at that one)

      When I got home I thought about it. I called back and told them that the county had indeed matched that offer. They then went up to $33,000. I stalled. I was dating a couple of women…I was playing for two hockey teams here…I had season tickets to the Sabres and the Philharmonic…I didn’t want to leave Buffalo…so I called them and asked for $35,000. They said, “OK”. I stalled again. Finally I decided to give it one more try. If they agreed, I’d go. So I called and asked them for $37,000. Again, they said “No problem”. So I left.

      My first assignment was Philadelphia. It was only my second day at work when I came home to my town house and was going to eat dinner. But I got a “nudging”…not a voice…but a strong thought to look at the paper. I resisted but the need to look at the newspaper wouldn’t go away. Finally I relented and simply grabbed the paper and opened blindly to any page. There in front of me was an ad for the Silva Mind Control Method Course! I never realized that there was a course! And it began in 2 hours!!! Needless to say I dropped everything and burned rubber out of the parking lot.

      That was the beginning of my spiritual journey. I learned a lot in that course – which I still use (and teach) today. I joined a Spiritualist Church down there and slowly began to realize that this career move had nothing to do with a new job, but with a new spiritual unfoldment in my life. (By the way, around this time a friend sent me a front page article from the Buffalo newspaper. The library assignment I was saddled with before I had left Buffalo was indeed, a disaster, as I had suspected. The guy who took my place had his name in the article as the one responsible! Whew!)

      After a year and a half, I was reassigned to Connecticut. I was making $41,000 by then but I hated that assignment. The work was very dull. I had taken a six-month lease on a town house and was three months into it when one night I received a phone call. It was my employer. They said that they didn’t think that I was cut out for this work and that I was fired. That’s it. No warning. Just fired!

      As you can imagine, I was stunned. That was quickly followed by disbelief and then outright panic! The next day I called the headhunter that had gotten me this job. He said that there was an opening in Florida. Well if you know me at all, you know that he might as well have said that he found a job in hell. Sun…sand…bugs…heat…humidity…UGH!!! I immediately declined. I told him that I needed a place that had nice cold winters, a hockey team, and a philharmonic orchestra. He said that he’ll look, but that there were very few jobs that used the data base I was expert in. A few hours later he called and suggested Omaha Nebraska! All I could think about were fields, corn, and flat land. He said, “Well at least it’s cold there!” After I said no, he then told me that he could no longer help me because I was unemployable!

      Well, if I hadn’t gone into a panic before, I certainly did then. Unemployed with no prospects for a job sitting there in Connecticut. It was at that point that I received another “nudge”. The thought/feeling told me that I was being tested on what I had learned. Well, what was that? I wondered.

      I remembered the Silva Mind Control teachings and somehow knew that everything was in divine order. The only thing interfering with it was my fear, and I certainly had plenty of that. So I went into a meditation. In this meditation I released all the fear, anxiety, and trepidation I was feeling. It took over an hour but finally I felt empty inside. I knew I couldn’t leave myself empty, so I decided to fill that emptiness with my favorite thing – FUN! I began to plan what I was going to do with all my free time…visit my buddy in Dallas…visit an old girlfriend who had married someone in Wichita…visit an old college pal in Burlington…go out to Minneapolis and look for a job. (hey, if it was good enough for Mary Tyler Moore…) I slept well that night and never again felt fear of the future. I woke up the next day filled with big plans to have fun.

      And then the miracle happened. Well, I wouldn’t call it a miracle today, but back then it stunned me.

      My phone rang. It was a friend of mine from Buffalo. He told me that he was working at Empire Bank and that they were going to bring in my data base and since there were only a handful of us who knew that system on the east coast that they would need my expertise.

      I couldn’t believe my ears! I never even considered that Buffalo was a possibility. And do you know that that job opened up for me exactly one week after my lease ended on my townhouse? Well, that reinforced my trust in the universe tenfold.

      But we all remember what happened to Empire. In 1988 I was released from that job and again I was unemployable. I knew that my computer career was over but I had no idea what to do. However I was cool…no fear…no worry…no anxiety. I waited and waited until my unemployment was just about finished. Then I began to seriously worry!

      And again, I got that “nudge”. It again said that I was being tested on what I’ve learned. I thought that I had handled everything correctly…no fear at all, so I didn’t know what that meant, but I figured that I needed some advice. I had learned how to talk to the angels, so I went into meditation and asked them what I should do.

      They said, “Do what you love.” Gee, thanks. But what in hell was that? I knew that I loved to teach, but I had taught many different subjects over the years from 7th grade science to chess. So I went back in and asked what I should teach. They said, “Teach what you love.” Thanks again. But what was that? Well I knew that I loved to help people with their lives, so maybe I should start teaching people how to do that.

      But how? Then I remembered what I could do…meditate, talk to angels, connect within to access my Inner Self. So I signed up to teach a course I designed called Meditation & Metaphysics at Ken-Ton Community Education.

      And that is how I started my journey into teaching metaphysical courses into where I am today. I am still teaching that course. It was initially only 6 weeks long back then and has now expanded into 9 weeks. Still filled with information that will change your life and put you in touch with the wisdom and guidance of the Inner You.

      I would be remiss if I didn’t say a word or two about how Fran and I connected.

      In 1991 I had learned the Tarot and was giving readings. A friend of mine called and aksed if she could bring over her friend (Fran) who had these spiritual abilities. We met one Saturday evening along with my girlfriend at the time. Fran seemed nice and I kept her phone number for future reference.

      Two years later I was impressed by spirit to go attempt trance channeling. It wasn’t hard for me to do that but you always have doubts – is it really THEM or is it my mind? I remembered Fran from years ago and called her. Since she could see spirit, she could look at my transcripts and determine who the real author was. We began to work together on the transcripts. Meanwhile I noticed that she had no meditative experience so I invited her to take Meditation & Metaphysics which I had moved from the schools into my house in exchange for her help. In addition I was teaching a class at Erie Community College on how to find your ideal occupation. Fran had had 30 different jobs in her 33years but it was immediately obvious to me that she should become a reader. She had never conceived of that idea or that she could make a living working with spirit. I purchased business cards for her and spread her name throughout the metaphysical community.

      At that time my girlfriend asked if I would like to attend a CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Institute) workshop. CPSI is a world-wide creative problem solving organization who held annual meetings at the University of Buffalo. I immediately jumped at the chance.

      The guy who ran my group at CPSI stood in front of us the first day and declared that he was an alien! I was flabbergasted. He looked just like you or me, so how could he be an alien? Then I remembered Fran. She would know, so the next day I brought her to the meeting.

      As soon as she saw him she confirmed what he had said. “What???” was my response. “Oh sure, if you could see the beings with him, you would know that he’s not human because they’re not human. They are living boxes!” I didn’t know what to say.

      But as I was driving her to her car, I was in for another shock. She told me that she had seen our souls talking that morning by her bed and had listened in. She said that they were discussing getting married having a child, and doing spiritual work together.

      “What do you think of that?” she asked.

      “That’s the strangest marriage proposal I’ve ever heard!” I replied. I had my girlfriend to worry about, so I told her that we needn’t be concerned about such things at that time.

      Well, we were married one year later in 1994 at Lily Dale (appropriately), began Life Enrichment Seminars, and the rest is history.