Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Out of the Blue-the Podcast features interviews with inspirational survivors of traumatic out of the blue events who have overcome unimaginable challenges, sharing their stories of resilience and triumph. By sharing these stories, "Out of the Blue" aims to create a community where others who have faced similar hardships can find solace and strength as together, we find the way forward.
Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
When a Fall Becomes a Catalyst for Transformation with Betsy Hammer
What happens when life knocks you down — literally — and leaves you bleeding and immobile on your kitchen floor? For Betsy Hammer, it became a profound lesson in composure, resilience, and gratitude. Betsy's fall from a stepladder could have ended tragically. Yet instead of panic, she exhibited remarkable presence of mind — reaching for her phone through sheer determination, coordinating her rescue, and even ensuring her dog's safety from broken glass. This composure was so striking that hospital staff initially underestimated her injury's severity until x-rays revealed her hip "hanging by a thread."
Beyond this recent trauma, Betsy shares several transformative spiritual experiences that have shaped her outlook — from childhood visions of what she believed was a soul, to powerful divine encounters that left her with unshakable faith. As a professional actress who has worked with Adam Sandler and performed on Broadway, Betsy's creative journey has been marked by these "out of the blue" moments that confirmed her path.
The accident has changed Betsy in unexpected ways — slowing her physically while expanding her capacity for empathy and gratitude. She introduces listeners to her practice of "gratitude hums," a technique combining vocal vibrations with gratitude meditation that anyone can use to cultivate positivity. Most touchingly, she shares her belief that we all possess "angelic souls" that flourish when nourished with kindness and positivity.
Betsy's story reminds us that life's unexpected challenges often reveal our true strength. By approaching difficulties with grace and presence, we might discover profound gifts waiting on the other side of adversity.
For more on Betsy Hammer: https://betsyhammer.com/
Out Of The Blue:
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Welcome back to Out of the Blue, the podcast, where we share powerful stories of resilience, transformation and those unexpected moments that change everything. I'm your host, vernon West, along with my co-host, jackie West, our marketing manager, professional musician and Reiki healer. Today's guest, Betsy Hammer, has faced life's challenges with courage, calm and gratitude. She experienced an out-of-the-blue moment that could have ended very differently. A fall from a stepladder in her home left her with a severe, life-threatening injury, alone and bleeding. She stayed remarkably composed and ultimately saved her own life. Her story is one of presence under pressure and resilience in the face of adversity.
Speaker 1:Beyond that moment, betsy is a remarkable creative force. She's a professional actress, singer-songwriter, vocal coach, music producer and associate music supervisor. Classically trained with a Bachelor of Music from Ohio University and advanced studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, betsy has built an inspiring career in the entertainment industry. She's performed in film, on TV, on stage, in studio sessions and in equity productions. She has guided voices as a vocal coach, directed shows and collaborated with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions as an associate music supervisor. Through it all, betsy has remained grateful, positive and passionate about sharing her gifts with the world. It is my honor to welcome the amazing Betsy Hammer to Out of the Blue, the podcast. Hi, betsy, and welcome to Out of the Blue.
Speaker 3:Hi, betsy Hi.
Speaker 1:Jackie.
Speaker 3:Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2:Nice to meet you too. Thank you for this lovely introduction and this great opportunity to chat with you and with Jackie. Hi, I'm Betsy Hammer and I'm so delighted to be asked to speak with you on Out of the Blue, my dear friend, very close friend, Wendy Liebman, who's done a show with Vernon. So she had mentioned me, I guess, to Vernon, and then I got contacted by Vernon and I'm so happy to be here today to meet you and your daughter, and you are so lucky, Jackie, to have a father with this beautiful outlook on life.
Speaker 2:I love it. I just love it. It sounds like my parents Very positive, wonderful people and I'm very grateful for them. Right now they're dancing in heaven.
Speaker 1:That's how.
Speaker 2:I mentioned them I love that. Oh, I can see them on the dance floor. I can just imagine it. The Heaven's Dance Floor. Oh, that's probably a good time for a song.
Speaker 1:I'm going to write that down Heaven's Dance Floor. Write it down yes.
Speaker 2:I'm writing it down because I'm also. I do a number of things and then I'll tell you about my out of the blues in my life. Okay, so, so I'm talking about my most recent out of the blue experience, let me say. Let me say this I may jump around a little bit, but by the end all the dots will connect. Okay, love it. My whole life has been so blessed and I'm so grateful for the amazing opportunities I've had in my life. I have from the time I was a little girl. I've had in my life. I have from the time I was a little girl. I've been performing. I was the lead in any number of shows all throughout my teenage years and even in my youth as well. I think my first lead role was when I was eight or something like that, but I was three years old. I was already by my preschool. My preschool teacher had me up singing in front of the class and also showing my artwork, because those are two of my things.
Speaker 2:I love to do and I have an affinity towards those things. So I went into my 20s and I got married and I married a lovely guy and good person. That were just two different people Didn't work out. He was a doctor, he was an anesthesiologist and he put me to sleep and I used to entertain him.
Speaker 1:That's very funny.
Speaker 2:And this is a story I mean I used. I really used to entertain him all the time because he was very clinical and lovely person, but just I found out that we were on very divergent paths but nonetheless I got into a show that was co-produced on Broadway. Then I went to Nashville and I got produced by producers there and then I found another producer who's been a legendary producer, brooks Arthur, who he produced two Grammy award winning albums with Robin Williams and he produced at 17 on Janice Ian and he's Adam Sandler's producer and he produced at 17 on Janice Ian and he's Adam Sandler's producer and he produced the Hanukkah song and he's just an amazing person and he was my best friend for 27 years and I moved to California, which is where I am right now. I'm here in Los Angeles, and the minute I came here, I moved here one day and the next day I was at Adam's office, adam Sandler's office. Just a great, great man, adam. He's just a very, very cool guy.
Speaker 1:Jackie, myself, my wife and, I think, our two other children, vernon and Samantha. We ran into Adam when we were out in California. We were on Lodeo Drive looking at all the stores and stuff and we hopped in an elevator to get to our car or something. And who comes on the elevator was adam and another gentleman and I had just played in new hampshire, where he's from right, and we played a nightclub and he had just been there. This is this place I played.
Speaker 1:New hampshire was a couple years, it was years, before I ran into him. It wasn't like I just did it, but it was like at least three or four years, maybe more, when he had put out the music of his very blue songs. He had a great album, you know, and it was hysterical. We were always playing in a truck on the way to gigs, but anyway, we're playing this club and they all said, oh yeah, adam Sand played here and we go. So I see him in the on the uh, on all of it. I go. Hey, you know, I actually played a place. I know you, I knew I played a place. You uh, I think you played it and I said it's from New Hampshire. He goes. Oh, really that's amazing. He was really sweet. And my wife goes around and says oh, you know, adam, um, people are making fun of our accents. And he said I think of a wicked awesome accent. And that's a little story, that's adam, that's so sweet.
Speaker 2:I love that really nice yeah I love it. That's great. Um, oh. So when you were telling the story, I was thinking about the fact that adam is, he's just um, that kind of a loyal guy. He just knows you know the people that he's always friendly with. I mean he'll, if he runs into you again you could say hey, remember when I met you in the yeah, how you doing, how's your accent?
Speaker 1:you might remember that he did say. He said he didn't have a family yet, as I recall, and he looked at me standing there with my three children. He says I love your family that's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that, yeah, that's beautiful it really touched me. So anyway, getting back to what led up to this recent out of the blue experience because I've had them throughout my life I feel my life is out of the blue and I feel that most of our lives are probably out of the blue, but we just don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think about that all the time. I agree 100%.
Speaker 2:So anyway, so back to now I'm in Los Angeles and everything went great. You know, adam immediately picked me to be in his movie Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights. I played the dubious role of the phone sex lady.
Speaker 2:But it still happened Exactly, but I'm grateful that I have a, you know, a role in that. And then I sang a whole, but I coached all the kids who sang the hanukkah song part three and I sang nine layers for the hanukkah song part. A lot of beautiful things happened, okay. And then um, then he, oh, and out of the blue experience. I get a phone call one day from the office a few years, about four years ago, and they said has casting called you yet? And I said no, they haven't. Well, adam wants you to sing in his next movie. I said okay, great. So they flew me to Boston. I played the role of the funeral singer in Hubie Halloween.
Speaker 2:This is just one of the many out of the blue things that happened. Well, the thing that happened out of the blue in January of this year and this is the reason we're talking I just want to let you see that so many lovely things have happened, things that I'm so grateful for. I've been so privileged to have these opportunities and grateful for every single opportunity. I was in my kitchen, I was on a four-step stepladder, I was preparing. It was a Thursday night and I was preparing for a dinner with some friends. I was going to take out my good china plates because I had ordered from Kansas City Steaks beef wellington. I was like this is going to be a good dinner.
Speaker 2:Yeah's good already beef wellington with brunette sauce and I'm gonna make some mashed potatoes and you know whatever other things you know. So, um, I'm coming down the ladder and my right foot missed the bottom step, threw me off balance. I go crashing onto my hardwood floor and I'm in excruciating pain. I mean pain that I have not ever felt before or since. And I first thought one of your questions I think that you had. You know you'd shared some thoughts that you might want to explore for our chat today.
Speaker 2:How did I first react to it? My first thought was control the pain. Control the pain. Maybe it's just a bruise, maybe it's just a bruise. I'm thinking already positively Maybe it's just a bruise, because if it's a bruise, I'll be able to get up in three minutes and it'll hurt when I get up because it's going to be a bruise, but I'll be okay. So I'm thinking, you know it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, okay, right. So I'm thinking, you know it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay. And I don't know why this makes me laugh every time, because it's not really laugh, laugh worthy. But I'm lying there in all this pain, controlling the pain, and I look over to my right hand, which I don't know.
Speaker 2:If you can see, I've got like a little race on right yep, the porcelain china dishes had broken and one of the shards cut my wrist and I'm bleeding out on my right hand. So I'm lying there on the ground, I can't move and I'm bleeding, and I go, oh, and I'm bleeding out too. This is not good. I need some help. That's all I thought was I need help. So my phone was up on a ledge. I'm down on on the ground and I said I've got to get that phone. Talk about adrenaline. You know how they say adrenaline will help you lift a car if you need to lift it to help. So you know, people with adrenaline have just done amazing feats. I somehow got up on my knees, put my arm on one of my chairs in my dining area, put my hand on the ledge of the counter and I reach for the phone. And I get the phone and I'm thinking you know, thank you, god, thank you. And so then I call my next door neighbor who had keys to my place, thinking you can come in and can you help me.
Speaker 2:Well, what I had forgotten that I had done, which is something that a lot of women and even men do there's a security plate that you could put on the inside of your apartment. That's a metal plate. So after you lock your deadbolt lock and your regular, you know doorknob, you flip over the plate so no one could barge in. So she tries to get in, she and her husband trying to get in, and they're jiggling the keys and they can't get in because the security plate is blocking it. So I go well, please call the EMT and they can break down my door. Please have them break down my door. And the whole time I'm not screaming, I'm not crying, I'm just thinking, I just need help and I'm in such pain. But I'm also in shock.
Speaker 2:They break down my door and the other next door neighbor, who also has a set of my keys cause we're all very friendly here she comes in and she's a dog trainer and my dog was on my couch and I didn't want her to jump. She doesn't really jump down, but I did not want her down on the ground to injure her paw with a shard of glass. So I said please, please, put her in the crate. And the woman said to me afterwards she said you were white and you had perspiration. Your face was like totally white. She said, but you were like totally in control, just talking to us like I'm talking to you right now, and so those are my reactions. I thought to myself it's not going to do me any good to cry about anything. It's like I have to help myself, right I?
Speaker 1:get that, I get that.
Speaker 2:So, because I was so composed, they did not give me any medication. They thought, oh, it's probably just a bruise, literally, if I showed you. I'm not going to show you a picture of my hip, but I'm telling you. If you look at one hip when they took the x-rays of me when I finally got to the hospital, you see the beautiful my left leg, you see the socket, you see the joint.
Speaker 1:You see the normal hip.
Speaker 2:And then you look at the right hip and it's hanging by a thread, a thread, the whole thing, everything shattered. So they, finally they get me on the gurney. They put me into this ambulance by myself. Nobody rode with me for some reason, I don't know. I didn't ask them to ride with me. They, you know, they're busy in their own lives, but they were there for me to open. You know, try to help open the door. And I'm in the on the gurney and it's going back and forth and it's going over every speed bump and every pothole. And I'm going, okay, I'll be okay, just praying, praying, praying, you know, just hanging in there.
Speaker 2:We get to the hospital and in my life I've never seen or heard of anything like this, because I was married many years to a physician. There's always been an ER doctor. In the ER room there was no doctor, there was a PA who was busy with some other people. Three hours later, as I'm lying there, he finally comes, determines that I'm you know, I do have they did wind up a few minutes before that, slipping an x-ray under me and they took the x-ray of my hand and my hip. Well, he finally says, yeah, you've shattered your hip, yeah, we're going to give you medication. They give me morphine.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 2:It doesn't work.
Speaker 1:I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's such a state of shock, it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Then they gave me, as God is my witness, four rounds of Dilaudid, which is another type of medication you might have heard of it.
Speaker 1:They did that on me too.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, you can totally relate. So on the fourth round, the pain went from a 10 level to about an eight level.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I said to myself inwardly, I said oh, oh, eventually a drug is going to help me, eventually the drugs are going to work. So I was, you know, it calmed me down. I mean I wasn't carrying on, but internally I was like when am I going to get relief? When am I going to get relief?
Speaker 1:I'm thinking pain like that is devastating, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Well, the good news is my sister, who's my best friend now. She and I were on the FaceTime talking to one another and she said to me I'm coming out for a week to help you, and she literally got there Tuesday. Now the accident was on a Thursday. They were supposed to do surgery on Friday. I got bumped off the surgery schedule because there was somebody with a heart attack, something like that. Yeah, or somebody had a car accident, whatever it is, a hip surgery can wait. Then they put me on the surgery schedule for saturday. They bought me again for saturday. Then they put me on the surgery schedule for eight o'clock sunday morning.
Speaker 2:I get bumped from that and at this point my sister and I are you know we're back and constantly talking on the phone is whenever we can, and she says who do I have to talk to to get this to happen for you? This is going. It's crazy already, but the good news is, at around 3.30 on Sunday they somebody came to get me, took me down to surgery and I will tell you and this, you being a singer, jackie, I found that singing throughout this experience was so helpful, so therapeutic. I would just occasionally hum something or sing something, and I sang my whole way down to the surgery area. I have a song that I co-wrote called take it away, and it has to do with taking away the pain it's a song.
Speaker 2:It's a spiritual song and just saying God, you know, you said you'd you'd be with us in our trials and our traumas. Can you take away the pain? So I'm singing it on the way down and get down to the surgery area and finally, probably around 5 o'clock-ish, I'm down there. At 3.30, 5 o'clock-ish they start to get me into the surgery area. Well, I get back into recovery that evening.
Speaker 2:Monday, the very next day I now have a new titanium hip inside of me. Monday morning there's a physical therapist standing right by my bed with a walker and he said you're going to walk 10 steps to the bathroom and 10 steps, 10 steps, back. I went OK and I did it and that afternoon they had me walking up and down the hallway. The next morning my sister was flying in. She was due 10 o'clock that morning and 10 o'clock that morning is a different physical therapist telling me that we're going to walk again and I said to him can you please teach me how to walk up and down stairs? And he took me up 30 steps and 30 down. It was a little scary but I did it and my sister gets there at noon, two o'clock. We're driving away from the hospital, so, less than 48 hours after the surgery, my sister's already driving me home.
Speaker 2:I did not want to go to a rehab center, I wanted to acclimate to everything at home because I've been dealing with, you know, pain in this wrist. But I'm thinking, we're just going to, we're just going to recover, I'm just going to, I'm just going to do everything they have me do. I'm going to do all the exercises, I'm going to stay positive, because that's the only thing that can help me through this. I cannot afford to put negative thoughts into my brain. It's like what good is that going to do? It's not going to do any good. So I believe that we all have choices in our thought process. I mean, I think a lot of us can really work hard and just say, hey, I got to, I got to take control of this, yeah, and my control. I love always being positive, so that's, that's the way my life is.
Speaker 1:It's almost like I can from hearing. It's just Tori, it's almost like thread of positivity, the muscle of positivity. You've been working on it your whole life and that muscle came to your rescue.
Speaker 3:I think, even fundamentally, like just speaking, to that moment where you, your survival instinct kicked in, um you are so connected to expressing through your voice and that is like your body vibrating, so it's like a physical way to heal, um, and I think that, yeah, I think, like thoughts turn into speech, and so it makes a lot of sense to me that it would be very important for you to um start with your thoughts and angle them towards product, uh, a productive approach to this difficult situation. Um, positive thoughts, positive um speaking, and and then singing is is so primal, like rocking and humming and and, yeah, it's just all healing yes, it set up a vibrational healing pattern throughout my whole body oh, vibrations, I'm into the vibrations, yeah okay, so let me, can I?
Speaker 2:um, I want to tell you about a couple of other out of the blue things, if I may, or oh, please, that's what we're here for.
Speaker 1:Let's hear some more.
Speaker 2:I have to tell you about six. When I was six years old, I had an amazing out of the blue experience, and when I was in my 20s, right before I got chosen to be one of the leads of a show that was co-produced on Broadway, I had another out of the blue experience, and I want to share the things that I learned from them, because didn't you ask?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, I would love to hear that.
Speaker 2:So odd that this happened, but I can still imagine it and envision it as if it happened yesterday, when I was growing up in Hewlett, New York, which is on Long Island, in our little home lovely little home. It wasn't that little but it was a nice home in Hewlett, new York and my mom was a very organized, amazingly clean, you know, fastidious lady and she always had a seated. She had my it's my mom and dad and then three daughters. I'm the youngest of three girls, so my dad would sit on one end of the table, my mom would sit on the other and my sister and I would sit on one side, and then our other mom would sit on the other and my sister and I would sit on one side and then our other sister would sit on the other side.
Speaker 2:Well, everybody was out, except out of the house. My father was working, my sister Helene was busy doing whatever she was doing with some friends. Same thing with my sister Bobby she was. She was also gone doing you know whatever with friends as well. And my mom was in the kitchen and she's cooking and I decided that instead of sitting in my seat I'm going to sit in daddy's chair. I got really bold. You know, because you're supposed to sit. I was told this is your seat. I'm very obedient. This is your seat. This is where Betsy sits right. Dad was my hero. Hero. Dad was such an incredibly positive person I knew in my entire life I did not ever hear him say one nasty thing about another human being. Everybody was always he's a nice guy. Oh, she's so nice. And my mother used to say everybody's nice to you.
Speaker 2:Mill, you think everybody's nice, but he did, he manifested it so I get into my daddy's chair and I'm kneeling and all of a sudden, out of the blue over my right shoulder, I see this like you've seen. What are they called? Holograms? Holograms right, it looked like a ball. It was like an amber kind of orangey, amber colored, and it was almost see-through. And it was a ball over. It was like an amber kind of orangey, amber colored and it was almost see-through. And it was a ball over my right shoulder and it started moving up at a diagonal and my thought was oh, that's where your soul goes when you die. I had a vision of what was a soul. The orb looked like a soul to me.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And it moved just up to the sky, like at an angle, and I can still see that because it was so vivid to me and that was my only thought. Oh, that's where your soul goes when you die and you're sitting in your dad's chair and he was my greatest positive, inspirational influence.
Speaker 2:In fact, the word, the word, root, spire when you respire, when you inspire. Spirit has to do with the breath of life or aspire. You aspire, yes, and respire like respiration. Right, it has to do with breath and inspiration. The spirit comes in when you're inspired Inspiration. I was inspired by my father. He always inspired me. So somehow or other, sitting in his chair, I got some type of communication. Maybe it's from my father, maybe it was from God, I don't know what it was from.
Speaker 1:Was he not with you at the time? No, he was working.
Speaker 2:He was working.
Speaker 1:He was alive though.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, time no he was working, he was working that's a lot, though. Oh yes, yes, this is when I was six years old, right? I?
Speaker 1:figured he died when I was in my 40s. So I wonder if, if maybe that was um, it would. Maybe seeing the soul of another, I, I feel that the ancestors of our, we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. Yes, face it, if not for the sacrifices of the many people that came before us, that had children and raised them, we wouldn't be here right? So that's the one thing I can say is validly stand on those shoulders. That's for real. Now our existence is so much more mysterious. It's out of the blue, for sure, but maybe you were seeing that someone, a soul that was watching over you, you know absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you know my mother said to me before, before she died, many times she said to me when I'm gone, she goes, I'm going to be with you, I'm always going to be with you on your shoulder, I'm always going to watch you. I'm, I will not ever leave you that's beautiful yeah, it was really.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful that she said that, for sure. So, anyway, that was something that happened when I was six. Then when I was in my 20s, um, and I'm married to my, you know, my anesthesiologist ex-husband as I say, lovely guy, totally different kind of person, but he used to watch me with my different head shots because I, would, you know, would do some performing and right right in in the area that we were living in and and I would, um, you know, sing in studios or I'd sing live, whatever it was. And all of a sudden, I had a vision out of the blue.
Speaker 2:Out of the blue, I had this vision I'm going to be on a magazine cover and I'm like what, what I mean, I'm not doing anything right now that would warrant me being on a magazine cover. Why, and I'm like, what, what I mean, I'm not doing anything right now that would warrant me being on a magazine cover. Why do I have this vision? So I said, all right, I'm just going to do this. So I took one of my headshots and I put it on the cover of Newsweek magazine and stuck it on our refrigerator.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And he looked like what's that? I said I don't know, I just imagined that I'd be on a magazine cover. Okay, okay, honey, whatever. So months later the producer that I was working with at the time calls me up out of the blue and says you need to call the Playhouse Square Foundation because we were living in the Cleveland area area at the time. He said you got to call them because there's a show coming here from broadway and they're going to be auditioning people. You should get the breakdown, you take a look. So I call them up and they send me the breakdown and there it was a show called pump boys and dinettes two dinettes, an older sister and a younger sister, and four pump boys who were gas station attendants.
Speaker 2:I look at the six players and I look at what they described each role being. And Prudy Cup was the sweet younger sister, and I said. And then the Reda Cup was the one who was like pardon my language ballsier, you know, kind of pretty. You know we worked at a place called the double cup, double cup diner and she was the over sister and she was overbearing and she, you know, and I thought I'm going to get one of those roles. I don't know, I'm probably pretty, I'm going to get it. I just knew it, I just had a feeling. Well, I found out later, the 600 people try to know, or over however many, and I get lucky, and they call me and they say would you really take this role if we cast you? And I said yes, I'd be honored, I'd be thrilled. They said, okay, we're going to send you to the call back in New York. So they send me to the call back.
Speaker 2:I performed exactly what I did at the original audition. The girl who came in after me I heard her through the wall as I was packing up my guitar and I heard her you know gutsy voice, and I said and she looked like she could be my older sister. I said she's going to get the older sister, I'll probably get the younger sister, and sure enough, I get on the bus to go back. And I just said God, whatever, whatever you choose for me, whatever's supposed to happen, please help me be, you know, graceful about it and gracious. And I get a phone call a few days later, would you like the roll of pretty cup? And they flew me back to New York and I rehearsed on Broadway for a month and then I went and did the show. I got my actor's equity card, did eight shows a week. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.
Speaker 1:Oh my goshness, yeah, what a wonderful story about it too. Did that girl get the older sister?
Speaker 2:Yes, she did, and we're still in contact. She lives out here in Los Angeles, but she does a lot of traveling with different shows. She's really entrenched herself in the world of theater, while I've gotten into the world of film and music.
Speaker 1:Wow. So I guess you could say in a way that when you learn about out of the blue things and you kind of ride them a little bit, they create a sort of trend in your life. Sometimes they you just, and then your intuition starts getting in tune with them. You know, I felt that in myself a few times in my life when my intuition was really in tune and I would know something good is going to happen. I don't have to worry, it will happen and it would.
Speaker 1:And I remember, I remember that during that period of my life cats would approach me and just rub on me. All the time they liked me a real lot. And then there was a period of my time, my life I'm not, I I had. I wasn't always, it wasn't always um, wonderful, I got a little headstrong, maybe a little crazy, maybe I drank a little bit I'm not a drinker but I think a couple years of my life I did. And and during that period of time I noticed the cats stayed away from me. I was thinking, like what are they trying to tell me, you know? And I started to realize that they were saying get back in tune, dad, buddy, you're losing us. And I did, and they started being nice to me again. Cats really showed me that I'm not lying. That's the real truth.
Speaker 2:No, no, I believe you. I real no, no, I believe you, I believe you. And as you're talking about that, it's reminding me of another, probably the most phenomenal out of the blue experience I've ever had, spiritually. Okay, for a while I just kept studying. You know, I was reading the, um, what they call the Hebrew Bible, which are the, the Old Testament and then, um, the New Testament, with, you know, the words of Jesus and his followers and everything. I was just reading the whole thing. Just, I just want to know what people are thinking, because I love learning, love learning, love learning.
Speaker 2:So I took a course called Religions of the World. So I was studying about Buddhism, I was studying about Sikhism and Islam and you know all different things. I just wanted to learn the way, the Taoists and so forth, whatever, but I was specifically centered in on the, you know, the Torah and the New Testament. And one night, while I was in Georgia, because my sister lives there and she and her husband had two children they, um, I was babysitting the kids and benji was three and and genie was one, you know, son and daughter and I was, you know, they're asleep, they're in their beds right and I'm in the uh den and I'm watching this spiritual movie um just starring jennifer jones.
Speaker 1:You know this old time oh, I think I remember, I know who that is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at the very end. You know, I'm the kind of person who, when I see somebody's dream come true, whether it's in real life or whether it's on a on the screen, right, I shed. I shed a little tear or two because I'm happy for them. It makes me so happy when people's dreams come true, right? Well, she finally sees the, the mother Mary. At the end, she wanted to always see the Mother Mary again because she had seen her when she was a 10-year-old girl. She led a hard life, she became a nun and finally, as she's on her deathbed, the Mother Mary comes to her and I'm so happy for her and a little tear comes out. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Well, I stand up, I take the remote, I turn off the TV, I stand up, I start to fold the afghan that was on my knees, you know, covering me because it was a little chilly. And all of a sudden I start to. It wasn't hyperventilation, it was like a gasping, like an abdominal contraction, and I'm going to try to approximate what it sounded like, but it was so much more weird sounding and so much stronger than what I'm just going to show you. It was like this weird, weird sound is coming out of me and I'm going, I'm thinking to myself in my brain what is this, what is this, what is it? You know, but I'm not saying that out loud, you know, the kids are down the hallway, I'm not going to be talking out loud. What is this? I just I'm thinking what is this, what is this? And it took me around oh, 35, 40 seconds to just take myself from a crescendo it was like a really loud noise to day crescendo down to okay, stop, stop, stop doing this.
Speaker 2:And in addition to that noise, tears were pouring, pouring out of my eyes, not the little tiny tears from when I watched the movie and saw her achieve her dream. It was all of a sudden this horribly weird, sounding animalistic, almost like a if you can imagine a wild boar in the jungle making screeching sounds and then tears pouring down my face. So I was like this loud, and then I got it down Okay, calm down. So I thought myself down, I made myself intellectually. I kept saying what's going on, let's settle down, settle down, stop this. What is this, what is it? And I calmed myself and I stopped, stopped crying oh my God, what's going on. And I finished holding the Afghan and I put it under the TV stand and I'm fine.
Speaker 2:And I walked down the hallway and I check in on Benji. He's doing fine in his room and I go to the restroom, to, you know, do my, brush my teeth and get ready for bed, wash my face, everything's fine. I'm no longer crying Like I was doing that weird thing in the in the den. And then I go down to the last room, which where genie and I slept. She's in her crib and I'm in a little twin bed. Right same exact boar-like sound. This thing starts coming over me again and I'm again pouring out. My tears are pouring out.
Speaker 1:That sounds coming out of you. It's coming out of me, it's coming out of me you're having a physical reaction of some kind?
Speaker 2:yes, and the tears are streaming down my face and again. So I just had happened in the den. Then I I calmed myself down, it wasn't happening anymore. I lie on the bed. This is probably 10 minutes later. I'm on the bed and it's happening again.
Speaker 2:And at this point I, my God, I'm thinking in my brain what is happening? This is happening again. What's going on? And then I thought to myself the following thought maybe it's because I've been studying and maybe this has something to do with God and spirit, or I don't know. I don't know what this is. And I said I don't even God, I don't even know if you exist. I wish I know you.
Speaker 2:And the minute I thought the thought I wish I could know you, something whooshed through my body the most peaceful experience I've ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 2:Well, I was no longer the contractions that were going and you know the rolling contractions gone. I was no longer crying, I could feel the wetness on my face and I wasn't crying anymore and I was a total peace. And I said, oh, my God, it was almost as if God, who's got billions of people across the planet and helps all these people in all their different times of need, took a molecule of God's fingertip and went I'm going to do something for you that you couldn't do for yourself. I'm going to take that away from you. I'm going to take the contractions away. I'm going to take the crying away in a nanosecond and I'm going to give you peace. And I said to myself I know you exist. I'll never, I won't ever ask you again. I know you exist. Thank you, thank you, thank, and I just was so thankful, that's all I could think. Thank you, thank you. So that proved to me in my mind's eye that anyone, if this could happen to me I'm not Moses.
Speaker 3:I'm not.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not on the mountains, mount Sinai. If God could show me this one little tiny miracle of lifting the contractions and stopping me and giving me total peace, he could come to anybody in any way, shape or form. If somebody wants to know long enough, because I was asking all year long what's going on with God. You know what do I believe, you know what do I think, and I was asking for like the whole. For about a year I was, you know, thinking I was reading the books, and so that was my out of the blue experience with God. It's like, oh my god, so I've not ever. And I also said to God at that same time, after I said I know you exist, I said please give me the strength to not ever deny you, because if I were put up in front of a firing squad, please give me the strength to not deny you like I'll give my life for you that's great.
Speaker 1:It it's a great, great story, very inspiring.
Speaker 3:I know that we don't have much time left and I'm really interested in hearing more about how your outlook has changed after these out of the blue experiences and like how people maybe around you feel too, like how you found community with all of this thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you because I was just about to want I wanted to get into that with you. Thank you for bringing that up. First of all, you. There was a question that I think you suggested maybe. How did it change my mindset and my view of life? The only changes are that I feel that I'm even more compassionate, more empathetic towards people who have pain. I mean, I've always been a compassionate person. I don't laugh at somebody or scoff at. I don't want to ever see anyone, any living being, whether it be an animal or human being, in pain.
Speaker 2:I feel that I've become more compassionate and a better listener, and my jobs in life as a singer, as an actress, as an associate music supervisor for Happy Madison Productions my job is listening to songs for his movies, and all I had to do was listen, listen, listen, listen. I feel like I'm a better listener now as a result, because I just feel like it just slowed me down a little bit. It's like I can't move as fast right now. I'm still in recovery. It's only today is four months since my accident and I'm not moving up to speed yet. I, you know, I used to zip around, you know, and, and now I'm, I'm walking and I'm grateful that I'm walking, but it's definitely slowed me down and I'm much more as patient as I've always been. I'm even more patient. That's one thing. Um my outlook. I am just ever, ever grateful.
Speaker 2:I've always believed one of my things that I have my students do are gratitude hums. So I'll teach you this very quickly. Because you're a singer, jackie, you love humming, because I heard you say something about humming. Okay, so you can do this after we finish. But think of a beautiful, positive thought that you're grateful for something you're grateful for. Don't tell anybody what it is, keep it to yourself, it's your own personal thought. And then for about 30 seconds to a minute, just hum as you're grateful for something you're grateful for. Don't tell anybody what it is, keep it to yourself, it's your own personal thought. And then for about 30 seconds to a minute, just hum as you're resonating within your brain, gratitude for that thing in your brain and believe it. Believe it or not, it sends out a vibrational pattern that will attract even more positivity into your life.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3:That feels like something that I do something like that, but this is more of that that you're describing as more of a reframe. I think that when I, when I go through it, when I have an uncomfortable memory, I hum and I soothe myself and it helps me that this is taking that attribute and and like associating it with emphasizing gratitude and joy.
Speaker 1:I love that a lot, I really love that exactly that's something everyone can do. You really don't have to be a professional singer or a singer absolutely absolutely anyone can do it.
Speaker 2:my current mindset, um, have I become more aware of other out of the blue experience? Yeah, I mean the things that I shared with you, some of my out of the blue experiences. There are more. When I was just called out of the blue to be the part of Maria and the Sound of Music, that was great. When I was singing on a baseball mound and somebody a major producer produced me and came up to me in Nashville and suddenly wanted to produce a whole album on me, that was incredibly out of the blue.
Speaker 3:Do you recall, like your feelings before these out of the blue experiences happened, before these out of the blue experiences happened, like the ones that you're like? Whoa, this totally makes sense, but in some weird way, I call it for me, my own blind faith.
Speaker 2:I have this feeling, prior to these things happening, that good things are going to happen. I don't know why and I don't know where and I don't know how, but I'm just going to be, I'm going to be grateful, and I'm going to be grateful and I'm going to be faithful and something great's going to happen. So what about you? What about you, jackie, and your out of the blue experiences? Can you share something?
Speaker 3:I guess out of the blue would. Essentially one thing I can think about is getting into singing jazz. Well, actually I can probably just say like really getting into music. I know my dad's a musician, um, but when I was growing up I felt like I felt really scared and and sad and that it wasn't really possible for me to do it. Um, because I actually never made any of the school things.
Speaker 3:I always tried it out for school plays and and um, and musical theater and singing the star-stangled banner, and I would always become like understudy or something.
Speaker 3:So I was like, okay, that's my thing, like I don't make it, you know, and um, but then a part of me was like, doesn't matter, like you love it, like, so now it's really pure. There was something that was like, yeah, you know what, you're just actually building a little muscle here. So that stayed with me, like when I was little. But then I kind of like got into art and writing and then somewhere in my 20s I was like I'm missing something, like I needed to be louder, like I actually need audibility as part of my expression and um, I read this book about John Coltrane.
Speaker 3:I didn't even listen to John Coltrane, I just read a book about him and I got so excited by improvising and how people learn from each other and you discover music in you, with instruments and and singing and and I just that started my whole like I started going to jazz clubs and and learning standards and and I felt like this is a community thing. So I feel purposeful in the world being a part of a community and also I have a role in that, in, in, and I started there.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing, yeah really Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3:Something's coming up Like I feel like this out of the blue experience, talking about things that are out of the blue, which is essentially life unraveling in front of us and our flexibility. It's talking about our flexibility with that um I. I think it's very much um pointing out that we have a dedicated relationship to ourselves and we can meet ourselves in, in, in experiencing pain and getting dark, and and also looking at that darkness and saying you, you contribute to my beauty, because you know what's a painting without some dark paint? You know?
Speaker 2:you need to have all of it, exactly exactly we we want to, at least. Personally, I can only speak for myself, but walking in the light, walking with goodness and love and kindness and all the things that I personally value are is the most important thing. But yes, things happen. This was a dark moment of something that happened in my life, but yet it's past. I'm moving on where we're, you know, it's just, it's just part of life you know if we were not.
Speaker 2:If we were supposed to go through life without any pain, we would not have come out of our mother's wombs screaming.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and you have to admit, out of the blue stuff makes us we. We improve, it improves us. I think of the uh, you put a stone in a rock tumbler and that polishes it to gem like beauty. Well, how's it do that? It has to rough it up a little bit, right. It has to rough it up a little bit right. It has to scrub it. So that's kind of what we're doing. We're going through life and out of the blue things. See, I know you said what you thought and I think I agree with that, and I think that is primarily why I'm so drawn to this phenomenon. I think that A everybody experiences it, but the people who are doing the best things with it are sort of the shamans of Out of the Blue. And that's why, betsy, you're so ideal person to have on the show, because your life has been like polished in the stone the whole time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I don't know, it's the way I've been practicing my entire life.
Speaker 2:My mother used to, um, my mother was an amazing woman. She, she and I sang together, our, you know, every day of our lives, but and she wasn't a professional singer, but thank god she sang, because I learned a lot from her that way. But, um, occasionally she'd say don't blah, blah, blah, blah, or no way, and she'd say, you know, she'd like kind of put this aspersion on something and I would sit there as a writer because I'm a songwriter, as you are too right, all of both of you are um and I'd rewrite the script inside my head. I didn't answer her back because I didn't want to be rude to my mother, but I'd say to myself, the minute she goes down, I'd say, when I grow up, when I'm older, I'm gonna say would you please be kind enough to try not to do I? I'd be writing the script in my head, to put it in a kind way. I was doing that my entire life. I've been practicing this methodology every single day of my life.
Speaker 1:I think that's wonderful. You know, I think that your today's show has been so inspirational. I think you are definitely ordained, preordained, to help spread this message. We need to get more people paying attention to how we're really all going through the same thing in our lives and if we treat it with the right positive attitude, we see past the darkness and we put the darkness in its place and we know it's outside us. It's not doesn't have to be inside, and the just like emotions, the joy that we can experience. We have to choose to experience it.
Speaker 1:Joy is definitely not something you can experience if you don't want to. I mean you can. You can talk yourself into misery. People do. And, um, I think that the best thing I've learned from this out of the blue phenomenon is that there are people like you, betsy, who do this and know how to do it well and I would say, like a shaman, like a priestess of it. You know you do it so well that it's inspirational. I do that the minute I spoke to you. You are definitely a wonderful person that I'm so grateful to have met and to have been enjoyed your presence on our show thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Can I tell you one more thought before we go?
Speaker 1:Okay, absolutely.
Speaker 2:On a closing note, a few years ago I had a revelation, and the revelation I collect angels. I love angels because there are always, like there are angels everywhere in our lives. We don't know when they're going to appear to help us and guide us. And I feel like my mother's, as I said, an angel on my shoulder. My father's an angel Brooks, my longtime best friend Brooks. An angel on my shoulder. My father's an angel Brooks, my longtime best friend Brooks. Arthur, the great, legendary producer. These people are angels, these three in particular.
Speaker 2:And all of the revelation was oh my God, when we're born, we are born with a very pure angelic soul within us and we are either socialized by factions of society that teach us kindness and goodness and good character and being ethical and being straightforward and being honest all these good things that we can be nourishing that angelic soul with or, if they're on a divergent path and they're taught hatred and bigotry and prejudice, these angelic souls get squashed by these hateful thoughts. But we have these angelic souls that we're born with. So if you just try to keep nourishing and feeding the angelic soul, it will grow. It will grow even if you there are people who have been terrible bigots who have learned. Their lives have turned around because they were fed beauty and positivity and joy. You know what? Everybody has the right to exist. Let's just all coexist with one another. If someone doesn't believe what you believe, let them live in their home as long as they're not hurting you and you're not hurting them, just coexist, that's it.
Speaker 1:I think that we cannot, cannot, we cannot close on a better note, and that is probably the best, highest note we could hit, because it really is what this whole purpose of this show is for is to remind people that we're we're all beautiful and something beautiful about every single person. Thank you, everybody. We're going to end it here. Talk to you next time on Out of the Blue. I'm Vernon, this is Jackie, and we have our special guest, betsy Hammer. So please, betsyhammercom, and, of course, you can always send any questions. Or, if you'd like to be on Out of the Blue, please send me an email, drop me a message. We're all open to everybody that has a wonderful experience they want to share. Thank you so much for joining us on Out of the Blue.
Speaker 1:Out of the Blue, the podcast Hosted by me, vernon West, co-hosted by Jacqueline West, edited by Joe Gallo Music and logo by Vernon West III. Have an Out of the Blue story of your own you'd like to share. Reach us at info at outoftheblue-thepodcastorg. Subscribe to Out of the Blue on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and on our website, outoftheblue-thepodcastorg. You can also check us out on Patreon for exclusive content.