Ghosts, New Age Pet Peeves & Dealing with Adversity – Interview with Intuitive Slade Roberson

In this interview, I’m delighted to have Slade Roberson joining me – Slade is an intuitive and writer who shares his knowledge and experiences of the spiritual world at his popular website Shift Your Spirits.

Slade and I have known each other for quite a while – he was one of the spiritual writers who inspired me, both with his stories and practical know-how, on my path back in 2007, as I was discovering my own purpose and abilities as an intuitive and healer. I’ve also had a few intuitive readings with him over the years (he’s very good at what he does…)

So it’s great to be interviewing him – welcome, Slade!

First of all, for those who don’t know you well, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in this line of work, and what prompted you to develop your intuitive skills?

Slade: For over eleven years now, I’ve been a professional intuitive counselor, author, teacher, podcaster…But I primarily consider myself a storyteller, first and foremost. Always have. In 2002, I had a stroke at the age of 33. I was partially paralyzed for ten months. The paralysis mostly affected the left side of my face—my eyelid did not close; my speech was slurred.

Long story short, I became agoraphobic and lost my job because of it. And wearing an eyepatch and having my face melted and sounding like I was drunk was obviously inhibiting to looking for work. I had to find something I could do from home, and the only thing left for me to do was the thing I’d always most wanted to pursue—writing and publishing.

So, I taught myself to code and in 2006 I started a blog called “Shift Your Spirits” with articles about my experiences with Spirit Guides. And, surprisingly, hundreds of people started following me and writing to me asking if I could connect with their guides. I tried and discovered that I could.

Anna: Very cool. So when you experience your guides speaking to you, is it more of an internal or external kind of “hearing?” Do you visualize the words in your mind, or does it come along with any other images or sensations?

Slade: It actually depends on the type of entity or the source. Mostly, I experience it as an internalized voice—a still small voice in the mind. That tends to occur with living humans and human souls, of which Spirit Guides are a part. Now, I sometimes see a single name or word clairvoyantly, like a neon sign in my mind’s eye. That visual language is usually coming from an angelic being.

Anna: Which one of the “clairs” (clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.) do you think is the most common? Are any more useful or easier to hone than the others, or are they all equal as far as you’re concerned?

Slade: I have a program called Automatic Intuition where I mentor emerging intuitives, psychics, and energy healers. I would say the most common intuitive channel or ability is empathy, a kind of clairsentience. I think the most satisfying “clairs” to practice are claircognizance and clairaudience—both of these abilities can be tapped with automatic writing. The reason I say it’s “satisfying” is that it produces information already synthesized into language, which is easy to process and share with a client. Most people have a bit of all the “clairs” in varying proportions, but some psychic techniques and modalities will produce less results for one person than another. It’s important to develop the ones that are the strongest and to not worry so much about the ones that aren’t dominant. This is a very individualized process, but it’s not complicated. Most people know what their strengths are, and I have a process for revealing a person’s potential abilities. It’s usually what we do the first session.

Anna: Would you consider yourself a person who is exceptionally sensitive or intuitively gifted, or do you believe it’s possible for most people to develop the kinds of ability to communicate with Spirit that you have?

Slade: I think it’s probably like any other gift or creative aptitude, like, say, being able to sing. A person with a nice average singing voice who takes vocal lessons, works to develop their instrument, produces music for the public is likely to be more successful than someone who is more “naturally gifted” yet never employs their abilities. I coach people all the time who I would consider more “naturally intuitively gifted” than I, so I don’t think I’m the most psychic person in the world. But I practice it a lot, and the confidence that comes with that causes you to be more relaxed about your gifts, which actually allows you to be more intuitive. I have also never met a person who I could not teach to be more intuitive than she might already consider herself to be.

Anna: Do you think the medical issues you have faced in the past have made you more able to help people who are suffering? Do you believe we decide before we’re born to have challenges like these, in order to stimulate our souls to grow, to give one example: to become more compassionate?

Slade: My mother will tell you I was always very compassionate, from the earliest age. She says that I never made fun of anyone and was always concerned for people I perceived to be sick or hurt. I feel that’s just a part of who I am. Honestly, I don’t know that I believe in a story where we hang out on some ethereal plane and pick and choose the challenges we will have in life like a video game. I’m not saying that can’t be true, but let’s be honest—no one can say they know that. I think sometimes sh*t just happens to you. You get dealt a crappy blow. It’s random; it’s cruel; it’s the nature of being incarnate on this planet. I think “why” the bad stuff happens is less useful than the question “what are you going to do with it?” Because that’s the only way to transmute pain and suffering.

Anna: What aspect(s) of spiritual or intuitive development do you think it’s important for people to focus on? What would benefit them most in the “real world” and beyond?

Slade: Being grateful. Living in the present. Being of service to others.

Anna: Have you ever had any experiences with frightening or negative energies in your work?

Slade: No. Not in my work. I learned early on in doing this work professionally how to set up protocols with the entities who protect me. It’s kind of like the Secret Service. I have a team of guardians (angelic entities) who surround me and vet the entities I interact with. There may be negative entities that approach my orbit, but they are dealt with in such a way that I do not have to even know about it.

Anna: Me neither. I have on occasion had people contact me thinking they are being pursued by negative beings or under psychic attack. I wrote about my thoughts on that here.

So onto the next question: do you think of your Spirit Guides as individuals with names, faces, and personalities? Were they once human beings, or something else? What’s the best way to get this information about one’s own guides, if one wants to, or does it really even matter?

Slade: Some of them have more individual characteristics than others. I have one, in particular, that is kind of my “chief of staff.” She speaks on behalf of the others and delegates to them. I usually talk to my guides as a group and let them sort out who does what. I can go deeper into that detail, if I want, just for curiosity sake, but I don’t think it has much practical application. It doesn’t make me “more psychic” and it really has nothing to do with my clients.

If you want to know your guide’s name, ask. What name comes to mind? You can ask for confirmation of the name and you’ll experience a series of meaningful coincidences—the person who makes your coffee will have it on his name tag; you’ll look up at the TV and see the name on the screen; you’ll pick up a book and the name will be there in print… That’s usually the way they confirm their names.

If you want to, give them a name. Who knows what their names might be in their dimension? They may not have the same concept of names as we do. I think they’re choosing names that will appeal to us just for the purpose of engaging with us.

Anna: What has been the most rewarding moment or aspect in your life, personally or professionally, of using your psychic gifts?

Slade: It’s a quiet thing, and occurs frequently. Hopefully, with every single person I speak with. It’s the moment, near the end of our conversation, when I sense the client’s energy shift. I will usually ask them how they feel. The thing I most often hear is that they feel more hopeful than they did before we started speaking. That is my intention. That’s my goal. There is nothing better than knowing you’ve given someone back a sense of hope.

Anna: What’s your biggest personal “superpower?”

Slade: I am an enabler! In the best sense of the word. I am a natural cheerleader, motivator, and coach. If you tell me your dream project, I will break down the steps for you and make you believe you can do it. My listeners and readers tell me I am a storyteller.

Anna: If you left the planet tomorrow, would you have any regrets? Is there anything that you still really want to accomplish on your earthly or spiritual bucket list?

Slade: Being in love. Being “married” or partnered, depending on how we might define it. Having that soul mate experience.

Anna: Have you ever seen or experienced a ghost in the conventional sense? What do you imagine the afterlife is like, and what should we do to prepare for it, if anything?

Slade: Yes. Many times throughout my life. I’m pretty convinced these are psychic echoes, or some kind of storage of energy. Like a gif or a short video.

Note from Anna: Slade describes his interesting past experiences with ghosts on his podcast.  And on his blog.

Anna: On your website your tagline is “83% fewer hearts and flowers than most New Age blather.” How did you arrive at that particular measurement, and what’s your biggest New Age pet peeve? 🙂

Slade: When I first created the blog, I could never decide on a tagline or meta-data description. So I created a WordPress plug-in—a really simple bit of code, nothing worth sharing—that would rotate the tagline whenever you refreshed the page. So, I created an on-going list of taglines and constantly added to it. Most New Age Web Site taglines seemed so full of it. The serious ones I tried to write made me laugh at myself. So, I started to include snarky ones.

“83% fewer hearts and flowers than the leading New Age blather” was the most popular. I started to get emails from readers saying that stopped them in their tracks. It was also my favorite, so I made it permanent. For eleven years, there is not a week that goes by that someone doesn’t comment on that tagline speaking to them.

It communicates irreverence. It’s a beacon for those who are on a spiritual path but don’t identify with a lot of the cliches of the New Age world. I did not see myself in a lot of that material, although I studied it. So, I write from the perspective of a misfit.

I chose the figure 83% because numerologically it’s an 11, a master number. A gateway.

My tagline is a secret handshake.

Anna: Your tagline definitely drew me to your site back in the day. I think it appealed to me because I spent my early adulthood as a Christian and had some experiences with a bunch of evangelical Christians which left me feeling like I wanted to break out of dogma and embrace the irreverence!

Another question: what have been the challenges for you, of being a professional intuitive?

Slade: Dealing with the social stigma. Ego issues around being perceived as a flake. But for anyone who might think negatively about what I do, there are several thousand out there who love it. I do the work for them.

Anna: And if you could go back in time 15 years, and give yourself a piece of advice about your spirituality or psychic gifts, what would it be?

Slade: You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become. You fulfill your life purpose with every breath you take.

Anna: I love that. Thank you, Slade, for doing this interview. You can find Slade at his website Shift Your Spirits.

Meet Anna

Hi, I’m Anna Sayce! My purpose here on this website is to provide practical techniques and information to help empaths to understand, and fix the root of their energetic overwhelm & also to help sensitives to embrace and develop their intuitive gifts. I believe that developing our spiritual & intuitive side is very powerful and allows us to improve our own lives, and if we wish, even make the world a better place for others. Discover more >

2 Comments

  1. Beth

    Love Slade’s work! Great to see him featured here ❤

  2. Ryan

    Interesting interview. Nice to hear someone make something out of life who has gone through so much physical suffering. Awesome work. I started out adult life being an enabler motivato, then ended up listening to wrong people lol. I’m still trying to get out of a hole I dug myself into. Wondering if it’s possible anymore.

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