Episode 45: How to Protect Your Energy and Live Your Best Life: Lessons from the Boulder Psychic Institute

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast.

On today's episode, you'll hear about host Allie Wagner's experience taking  self-healing and manifestation classes at the Boulder Psychic Institute. Over the course of a couple of months, she enrolled in their three introductory classes and joined students online from all over the world in learning how to ground, protect, and heal our own energy.  On today’s episode, you'll learn what it was like to take the classes and why Allie thinks these classes should be mandatory for every human being.

If you're interested in learning more about the Boulder Psychic Institute, check out their self-healing and manifestation classes here. 

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Special thanks to songwriter, performer, and friend of the carousel, Darryl Purpose (https://darrylpurpose.com/), for sharing his song, "Next Time Around," as ou...

Transcript

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast. I’m your host, Allie Wagner. 

Our annual fundraiser, Animals After Dark is exactly one week away. Have you gotten your tickets yet? And, most importantly, do you know what you’re going to wear?

This event is one of our most treasured, and this year is no exception. We’ll have delicious food courtesy of Audrey Gebhardt from Decent Bagel, drinks, carousel rides, games, and prizes. Not to mention a silent auction and an opportunity to win a free Gorilla Membership.

Plus, we’ll be honoring the life and legacy of long-time carousel supporter, Doug Cosper, and celebrating the fact that this special carousel has survived yet another fire. If you, like all of us, have felt particularly grateful this year, get your ticket today and come celebrate the fact that, after four fires, a lightning strike and a wind storm, the Carousel of Happiness still spins.

On last week’s episode of the podcast, you heard the story of Sarah and Matt. A young couple from Kentucky who decided to make the carousel part of their elopement earlier this month. You heard why they eloped, how the carousel became part of their special day, and what elopement can teach us about listening to our hearts. 

On today’s episode, I’m going to share an experience I had taking some self-healing and manifestation classes at the Boulder Psychic Institute this fall. Over the course of a couple of months, I enrolled in their three introductory classes and joined students online from all over the world in learning how to ground, protect, and heal our own energy.  On today’s episode, I’ll show you what it was like to take the classes and share with you why I think these classes should be mandatory for every human being. Particularly, in this current environment.

Let us begin with today’s story.

GONG

I’m sitting in my office with my eyes closed. I feel my feet flat on the floor and roll my shoulders down my back. I hear a voice from inside my earbuds. It reminds me to breathe. As I feel my chest expand, I hear the voice again. It belongs to Miwa Mack, founder of the Boulder Psychic Institute. I am listening to her guide me through a healing meditation. In her clear, calm voice, she encourages me to bring my attention to the center of my head.

I feel into the space directly behind my forehead and in between my ears. The center of my head. It’s a term I hadn’t heard until Miwa’s class, but one I now know very well.

As my attention moves to this place I immediately feel different. Calmer. More relaxed. I feel at once more connected to my body and more detached from it. It’s difficult to explain. The best way I can describe it reminds me of a scene in one of the early Ghostbusters movies. The one where they take over the Statue of Liberty and walk through the streets of Manhattan peering through her crown.

That’s what it feels like to me when I’m in the center of my own head. A place I truthfully  hadn’t really given much thought to until I started taking self-healing and manifestation classes at the Boulder Psychic Institute back in August. The school itself is located on Pearl Street, but now teaches solely online. It considers itself to be a spiritual sanctuary and a clairvoyance school for students and seekers worldwide. Miwa, a gifted clairvoyant herself, started the school in 2003 and has trained thousands of psychics since then.

Miwa started the school when, as a psychic, she found that clients kept returning to her for the same issue, over and over again. She would give them a healing or a reading, only for them to return months later with the exact same issue. Creating Boulder Psychic was her way to empower people to take responsibility for their own energy and heal themselves without needing a professional psychic.

It is no secret that I am fascinated by the energetic component of the Carousel of Happiness. Those unseen vibrations that move and shape and heal those who enter this space. That’s why through the course of this podcast I have interviewed people like psychics and animal communicators. Because there’s something going on underneath what we can see here that piques my curiosity. This energetic exploration is my version of Scot’’s carousel, my special, little lifelong project.

And as I’ve explored these unseen realms and tried to find words for them, I’ve reached out to people like Miwa for help. Turns out, she brings both of her kiddos to the carousel, and she was so generous in responding to my request to learn more.

When we talked, I explained my interest in understanding the energy of the carousel through the lens of her expertise. I had a couple of ideas of how we could explore this through the podcast. We could do an interview, I said to her. Or answer questions from our listeners, I suggested.

As we went through the different options, Miwa had a suggestion of her own – why don’t I sit in on some classes at Boulder Psychic and see for myself how it all works.

*

There’s an old piece of advice that many writers receive on how to write well. The advice goes, “show, don’t tell.” The suggestion supposedly came from Anton Chekov who said to another writer, “don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” 

The idea of “show, don’t tell” is that it allows you as the writer to describe sensory details of the moment and allow the reader to experience those sensations and draw their own conclusions about what’s going on in the scene. So, instead of me telling you the day was hot. I would describe to you what it felt like to have sweat drip down my back or how tart the icy lemonade tasted when it finally hit my lips. That sort of thing.

So, on today’s episode I’m going to show – not tell – you what it was like to take some self-healing and manifestation classes at the Boulder Psychic Institute and why I think everyone, regardless of your intention to be psychic or not, should take these classes, particularly in 2025. 

*

Back to my office. I’m listening to Miwa’s guided meditation. I find the center of my head at her prompting. That “Ghostbusters-in-the-Statue-of-Libery" place. She tells me that’s my only job right now. To direct my attention to the center of my head and witness and enjoy the sensations that unfold.

From the center of my head, I notice a tug on my hips downward. The downward tug feels comforting. It feels stabilizing. My body hasn’t moved, but I can clearly feel downward momentum on my hips right now. As I take a big breath in and the sensation subsides. Now, there’s a tingly sensation in the base of my spine. Something about that downward tug has given my upper body some lightness to it, which I notice now. Then, I feel that tingly sensation at my tailbone and I watch it rise up along my spine to the crown of the head. I feel weightless. While I know I’m in my office at home, I can’t quite tell where I end and the room begins. I have zero idea what time it is. I am both here and not here. 

Somewhere, off in the distance, I hear our front door open. My husband is home. I notice the sound of dog nails as they scratch along the wood floor as the pups say hello to him. I am aware of what is happening in the other room, but detached from it. I don’t feel the need to move. I don’t feel the need to respond.

In my earbuds, Miwa guides my attention back to my breath. From the center of my head, I notice a swirl of energy around my forehead. It’s subtle, but noticeable. Like someone is tracing their finger on my forehead. The sensation starts to intensify the more I pay attention to it. 

Then, a thought “pops” into my head. Out of nowhere, I can hear my own voice repeat a sentence I might use for this episode of the podcast. It’s at once poetic and direct. A perfect way to describe how I’m feeling in the present moment. And as my mind reaches for the sentence to preserve it, to remember it, to analyze it, the words fade, and the energy morphs into a flash of an old memory. My mother. 15 years ago. Laughing at the dinner table, flipping through her high school yearbook.

For the next 27 minutes and 9 seconds, I stay in the center of my head and tune to the parade of sensations that stream through my body. For the next 27 minutes and 9 seconds, I bear witness to my unseen world as I follow fragments of feelings and snippets of sensations. Words that bubble up and vanish, followed by flashes of memories. Each one, an expression of energy that morphs and melts into the next almost as soon as it materializes. 

When I open my eyes, I turn the guided meditation off and come to my computer screen to write these words. Just like in meditation, I’m listening. Observing. Trying feel into places within my body where the words seem to live. Present at the page long enough to try to snatch the ideas as they bubble and surface into my conscious awareness.

It’s been two weeks since I finished the three introductory classes at Boulder Psychic Institute and the meditation I’m listening to is one Miwa gave us at the end of the sessions. It encapsulates everything we’ve learned. It guides us through what we’ve practiced.

I’ve been listening to it often since class ended because, quite frankly, I miss it. For the last 8 weeks, I’ve spent most of my Tuesday evenings, as some of my Thursday evenings listening to Miwa guide me through visualization techniques designed to ground me, protect me, and heal me.

And while all of this might sound complicated or farfetched, it was hardly that. In fact, I’m slightly annoyed by how easy it all was. I could have been doing this for years now.

Each class starts with a very specific type of guided meditation. If you’ve struggled with meditation in the past, I assure you this is different. The style of meditation she teaches is more active, you’ve always got “something to do,” so to speak, and she walks you through it, step-by-step.

Then, she covers 1-2 easy visualization techniques each session that are designed to ground your energy, protect it, and heal any imbalances. You learn how to tune into your own intuition, release codependent attachments with others, and protect your own energy in this chaotic world. 

According to Miwa, every human is psychic. Every human is a healer. These energetic abilities are innate to the human experience. They “come standard,” so to speak, in all bodies. 

Yes, even yours.

The problem, of course, is that none of this is taught or discussed in Western culture, which is where Boulder Psychic comes in. You can think of it as your Energetic Kindergarten.

And I use that term intentionally, because Miwa knows that ease and joy and playful curiosity is how you do this work successfully. Seriousness and “trying too hard” gets you nowhere. Fast.

So, the classes have a relaxed, playful feel about them. She encourages students to practice with classmates and have fun! Progress is what we’re after, she says. Not perfection.

Imagine what it would be like to move through life standing in your own power. Unaffected by those around you. Able to support those you love without being drawn into their drama. Able to watch the news without becoming it. Capable of making your own personal choices so confidently that no one, not even an Internet troll or your own mother, makes you second guess yourself.

That’s what the Boulder Psychic Institute has given me. In less than three months. No fancy equipment. No funky teas or itchy creams. Just your own mind. And your own breath.

*

Last week, I’m in line at King Soopers and the woman standing in front of the cashier is fussy. She’s fussy because, according to her, the coupon in her hand did not clearly state the quantity limitation in its fine print. She points to her second jug of something blue, and demands a discount. 

When the cashier shrugs, Ms. Fussy asks to speak to a manager. 

Behind glossy eyes, the cashier picks up the phone and presses a few buttons. Sandra 10 41. 10 41 for Sandra, she says.

We all wait for Sandra as the two men in line in front of me audibly sigh and shift their weight back and forth. One aggressively looks for another line to dart into. He pounces on the next spot in aisle 11, but a mother with two toddlers sneaks in front of him. He fumes and sighs, as one kid slaps at the magazines and the other wails for candy.

As a stack of Us Weekly magazines slides to the floor and fans out on the linoleum, Mr. New Line sighs and searches for another escape. Then realizes it’s too late.

The man in front of me has tightened up our line, securing his new place, and shows no signs of letting Mr. New Line back in. He looks from the cashier to me and rolls his eyes. Some people, right?

Sandra arrives, armed with a 45-pound ring of keys and key card. She doesn’t even look at Ms. Fussy’s coupon. She swipes the card, presses a few buttons and Ms. Fussy’s second jug of something blue passes through the scanner as it beeps to the tune of $2.49.

Ms. Fussy is satisfied. Everyone in line audibly exhales. Until, she asks, “What is today’s date?” And slowly opens up her checkbook.

The man in front of me sighs again. Mr. New Line is now all the way down at self-checkout. The light above his terminal blinks, but the attendant doesn’t notice. He’s in line at Starbucks buying an iced latte for the new girl in the floral department.

And me? Well, I stand firmly on my feet in the line at aisle 12. Tucked safely in an energetic ball of my own creation I sit and watch the scene unfold. Able to witness what is going on around me without becoming it. Able to be present and observe without getting sucked in. Just like the meditation.

My peace in the grocery store line is an example of how the classes at Boulder Psychic have impacted my life. In the past, I might have gotten sucked into the drama of the moment, but today I don’t. I’m able to watch the energy form and change, all from the safety of my own energetic island. A protected, safe, and neutral place of my own making.

*

During one of our classes, Miwa pairs us all up with our classmates. Right now, I’m on the phone with Libby from Lakewood. Not her real name. We’ve known each other for all of 30 seconds, but I know her to be giggly and a little nervous. She’d like me to go first in this exercise. 

Miwa is teaching us how to read our partner’s aura. The aura is the energetic bubble that surrounds each of us and we can learn a lot about ourselves through what we see in our aura. For example, from someone's aura you can learn how they communicate or how they see the world around them. Today, we are covering the first three layers of the aura and I’m going to take a stab at reading Libby’s third aura layer, which will show me how she gets things done in the physical world.

I hear Miwa over the main microphone. She instructs all readers to close their eyes and take a deep breath. I do so, and relax. She asks us to imagine a bubble on what’s called our “reading screen.” That, like the center of the head, was a new term for me before class. But it refers to the place where we visually imagine things we cannot see. You’ve got a reading screen too, by the way. In fact, you use it all the time without realizing it.

Then, with our intention, I ask that the bubble on my reading screen show me the 3rd layer of Libby’s aura. Miwa asks us to tell our partner the color we see on our reading screen and wait. 

I see a nude color and I blurt it out, as Miwa has taught us to do. Go with the first thing you see. See it and say, she says.

So, even though it sounds silly, I tell Libby about the nude color.

Then, Miwa asks us to describe what the color means to us. What do I associate with the color that has appeared? What does it mean to me?

I tell Libby in Lakewood that the nude color reminds me of panty hose. The sheer panty hose of my working girl days.

Miwa then directs me to the worksheet she’s given us. It has a little fill-in-the-blank sentence I can use to take the information I have seen in my mind’s eye and apply it to the reading. Then, I’m encouraged to go with whatever comes to my mind. Get poetic, she says.

The sentence on my worksheet reads, “The way you accomplish things physically is like  __________________.”

I tell Libby the way she accomplishes things physically is like a nude pair of panty hose. The ones that no one can tell you’re wearing. Someone sees you from afar and everything looks perfect. Even. Uniform. Nude panty hose are sneaky like that. They do so much work without garnering attention. They bring an outfit together, make it all happen, without the fanfare, without the “look at me” sort of vibes of colored tights or fishnets. Nude panty hose don’t need to be the center of attention to get things done.

When we debrief after the reading, Libby says my panty hose comparison was spot on. In fact, she tears up just a bit. She tells me, it feels good to be seen.

How did I know this? I had known Libby for 30 seconds. I never saw her face. I’ve never done this before. The only thing I did was listen to Miwa and follow her guidance, step-by-step.

And that brings me to why I think these classes were so impactful for me. You see, in addition to working as a psychic, Miwa has also worked as both an engineer and a preschool teacher. And it’s that blend of psychic, engineer, and preschool teacher that makes her teaching style stand out to me.

While Miwa herself is a talented psychic, as everyone knows, not all those who are talented are destined to be teachers of what they know. It takes a special kind of person to be able to hold space for others and be patient as they learn. And I think the influence of both her engineering background and her experience in a preschool classroom, is why the classes were so impactful for me. 

The engineer in Miwa has meticulously built the curriculum and designed it to meet you at the very beginning, at square one, and then move slowly and methodically, inch by inch, along the way. Each exercise clearly built upon the next. Each break for questions is perfectly timed. I was never asked to do something I didn’t feel prepared to do.

And this proved to be such an empowering learning environment for me.  I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew with 100% certainty that Miwa did. And that everything was going to be okay if I just followed her instructions, step by step. Which meant, each step outside my comfort zone felt effortless and easy because I felt I held. I felt supported. I felt prepared.

The carefully crafted curriculum made it feel safe to learn. To play. To try things out. There was no point in the process where any of this felt scary or weird. Because she had taken time to build the basics one-by-one.

And it all felt fun. Which brings me to Miwa’s “preschool teacher” experience. She has created a learning environment that genuinely feels like Psychic Kindergarten. Nothing is serious. Everything is play. And as research has shown, play is an integral part of how humans successfully learn. When we play, our brains are more receptive and capable of retaining information. 

Plus, when you’re dealing with the unseen, a joyful, silly environment makes it easier to go with your gut, to bypass your thinking mind. I saw it firsthand in my reading with Libby. In another environment, I might not have shared my image of nude panty hose, of all things. It’s sort of ridiculous. But Miwa fosters a space that encourages you to go with what you get, regardless of how “silly” it might sound.

And because of that? I built confidence in my ability to read others psychically and Libby had the opportunity to be seen by a stranger in a way she otherwise wouldn’t have. That’s pretty exciting.

*

During our last class, I receive a healing from a woman named Niwa in Albuquerque. Again, not her name. She says she sees something on my fifth chakra. The energetic seat of my self-expression. She says the energy looks dark, meaning it does not belong to me. It is possible, she says, that there’s foreign energy – other people’s opinions and beliefs – getting in the way of me expressing myself.

Duh, I think to myself.

She clears away the foreign energy and I instantly feel better. For a brief moment, I ponder the energy. Whose energy was it? What does it all mean?

But I stop. As I’ve learned from Miwa over the last 8 weeks, you don’t go through your trash before you take it to the curb. You simply take it out. 

The same thing is true for foreign energy in your space. It’s not yours. It does not belong to you. Therefore, there is nothing you can do about it except let it go.

This understanding was revolutionary to someone like me who literally has been telling stories about her garbage before taking it to the curb for the last two decades. It had never occurred to me until then that I could just get rid of it. 

Niwa finishes her healing, and I cough and clear my throat. It is a sign my body is taking its garbage to the curb. 

The next day, my husband and I have a challenging conversation I’ll admit I’ve been avoiding. It goes really, really well. It feels easy. I know, without a doubt, that it is because of my friend from Albuquerque. 

*

Which brings me to this past weekend. My husband and I went to a concert at the Boulder Theater on Halloween. And it was packed. People were bumping up against each other, shoulder to shoulder. The impact of the crowd was magnified by the fact that everyone was in costume. Which means there were errant tails and hats and big bushy skirts hitting people in the face, getting in others’ way. Everywhere. And, because it’s Friday night, people are drunk and a little sloppy. They are taking up space in ways that dramatically impact those around them. But they are unaware. They’re not present. 

And, in many ways, it feels similar to what’s going on collectively these days. In general, most folks aren’t present. They aren’t aware of their impact on others, and they’re looking to others to “fix it.” Move your tail, get out of my space. They are looking outside themselves and demanding the external environment change to make them feel more at home in their space.

I, on the other hand, have a clear two-foot circle around me. No one in my vicinity gets anywhere close to me. My husband can’t believe it. And, to be honest, I was a little surprised myself. Sure, I’ve felt the impact of this work in other areas of my life, but a crowded concert? On Halloween?

I enjoyed the rest of my night, dancing in my bubble and watching the shenanigans from afar. I am at once part of the action and detached from it. I am both here and not here.

I mentioned at the top of the show that I think these classes should be mandatory for everyone, particularly in 2025. Because, let’s be honest, the world is a little nutty. And what I think I’ve learned from the Boulder Psychic Institute is how to move about this world and be part of it, but not become it. The energetic armor I now possess makes me feel more confident to leave the house, quite frankly. And I think this is something we all really, really need today.

Because the energy I am conserving by not engaging with the shenanigans has freed up space for me to learn things I want to learn like how to give a psychic reading or a healing. And while you might not be interested in exploring those things, chances are, there is something you yourself want to do or learn in this lifetime, but haven’t because you have been allowing your energy to be siphoned off by others in the grocery store line or on the dance floor.

If you are interested in taking classes at the Boulder Psychic Institute, you can check out their website in the show notes. If you still need to grab your ticket for Animals After Dark, you can find a link there too.

In the meantime, take care. Be well. And, as we like to say at the Carousel of Happiness, “don’t delay joy.” And we’ll see you next time around.