Sunny Dawn Johnston :: Edge Life Expo Guest speaker
"Unleash the Psychic in You: Understanding Your Spiritual Gifts"
Room 101BC | 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Friday, November 10, 2006
$20 in Advance through Uptowntix.com or (651) 209-6799, $25 at the Door
As a spirited teacher and healer, Sunny Dawn Johnston has helped thousands of people from across the country find their inner truth. Sunny was a gifted child and has since devoted her life to the enhancement of her natural gifts and to the application of these skills with humanity. Sunny has become widely known and respected as an Internationally known intuitive, medium and spiritual teacher. Her dynamic methods effectively reach out to help people to help themselves.
She is a regular guest in television, radio and print, and a columnist for an online newspaper (out2news) and an Arizona magazine coming soon (Spanglish Times). Sunny also hosts two of her own internet talk radio shows – Sunlight at Night on Achieve radio, and Living your Light on Contact talk radio. Sunny also volunteers as a psychic investigator for the international organization FIND ME. In December 2003, Sunny opened a beautiful teaching and healing center in Glendale, Ariz., and Sunlight Alliance was created.
At Edge Life Expo 2006, Sunny will help you to unleash your psychic skills. She will guide you to explore the true power within you and teach you to listen to your angels and guides in each and every moment. You will leave with a better understanding of why you are here and how your psychic gifts can support your dreams. Several free meditation CDs created by Sunny and her angels and guides will be available.
She spoke with Edge Life by phone from her office in Arizona.
Where were you born and where have you lived longest in your life?
Sunny Dawn Johnston: I was born in Cheyenne, Wyo. I was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it’s kind of a tie between there and Arizona for where I have lived longest. I lived about the same amount of time in both places.
What are your memories of Utah?
SDJ: I was raised in a metaphysical household in Salt Lake City, so my memories were that it was a great place to grow up in, but I learned a lot about judgment and tolerance.
Did you accept metaphysical ideas of your parents right away as a youngster?
SDJ: My mother and my father both were raised Mormon, coming from Salt Lake City, and they left the church when they were young, before I was born. My mom went through all different types of religions growing up, trying to find what was true for her, and so she never really pushed anything on me. But growing up in that environment, the Mormon religion was very much forced on me from everyone at school.
Spirituality was very much something that was within me. I started seeing spirits around or feeling energies that I wasn’t quite sure what they were. I talked to my mom about them, and then she gave me guidance and direction at that point, but she never said, "This is the way you need to look at things." So it was a great environment in that sense, because she supported me along my way.
How did your personal experiences fit in with regard to your peers?
SDJ: They didn’t. That’s where I learned judgment. I found that as long as I kept it to myself, things were fine, but when I would tell other people, not so good. First of all, they all knew that I didn’t go to church in a state where 99 percent of the population was Morman. I didn’t fit in in many ways. When I started sharing that we had a ghost in our house and I would talk to it, everyone would just roll their eyes and think I was crazy. So I learned how to keep quiet and I learned how to try to blend in.
Fortunately for me, blending in doesn’t work too well, so it really taught me a lot of strength and a lot of courage. I just stepped out of that and just said, "This is who I am and this is the way it is."
Well, at least you didn’t try to conform to the majority.
SDJ: You know, I went to church a few times when I was young and I literally would get sick. It just did not feel right to me. All of my family is Mormon everywhere, and they all tried to make me go to church or told me that if I didn’t go that bad things would happen. It was a really good lesson for me in knowing what’s true for me, even if everyone around me didn’t agree.
What is the main idea you’ll be stressing during your talk at Edge Life Expo?
SDJ: I’m going to talk about understanding your spiritual gifts and finding the psychic or the intuitive in you. As I was growing up, I knew I had these abilities, but everything on the outside said they weren’t real or that they were bad or they were the devil. It’s important for me to teach people that everyone has these gifts. People who are very religious and don’t even believe in it have intuition. They have a gut feeling. I will teach how to tap into your connection with your angels and your guides and listen to the guidance that’s around you always, even though you may have been taught from a young age to not necessarily believe it.
Why should someone take the time out of their busy schedule to come and hear your talk?
SDJ: Because it’s going to be so much fun! I like to do hands-on exercises, so first of all it will create an awareness that we are intuitive, and it will empower people and give them the awareness of their gifts and the awareness of how Spirit is working with us every minute of every day. We’re told that we have thousands of messages coming to us every day, and most people don’t catch many of those. It will be a fun and insightful workshop helping you learn how to discern what your strongest attributes are and how those messages are coming to you so that you can see them more clearly.
If you were coming to hear your own talk, what question would you have for the speaker on this topic?
SDJ: My question would probably be, "How can I create a better relationship withy my angels and guides?"
How would you answer yourself?
SDJ: Meditation is very important – getting quiet, getting still. People get very intimidated by the word "meditation." They think there’s a right or a wrong way to do it. Meditation can be sitting out in nature, just focusing on breath, when you’re in a line in the grocery store and you just stand there focusing on love or peace. That really is meditation. When you get the intimidation out of the way of having to do it "right," then you open yourself up to catch those thousands of messages that are coming in. Meditation is the key to making a connection with your angels and guides, and even deceased loved ones, if you’re wanting to connect with them.
What is your life purpose?
SDJ: My life purpose is to help guide and support people in finding their truth, the truth that lies within them.
Who was your greatest inspiration to leading you to your purpose?
SDJ: My greatest inspiration is my mother, I think. She has really been my support system and encouraged me to be who I was, even when I didn’t fit in. She always gave me that unconditional love of, "Yeah, you look different. Yeah, you think different. And, you know what? That’s perfect, it’s OK." My mother gave me the tools once I learned that that’s what I wanted, and she gave me the understanding that it was OK to be who I was. That was the greatest gift I could have received.
What is the greatest misconception among the general public about psychic ability?
SDJ: The greatest misconception is that people don’t believe they have it within themselves. They think it’s something that only certain people have or that it’s something that is outside of them. Everyone is psychic and everyone can learn how to tune in.
What was the one thing you didn’t expect about opening up your own healing center?
SDJ: Spirit just kept telling me, "You need to create a space for this." And I did. We built this healing center and it was like the movie Field of Dreams. I built the space and people just showed up. I had 10 students, and for my grand opening two months later, more than 100 people came. What I didn’t expect was how quickly people would find me. I knew that it was the right thing to do it and I knew that the universe would take care of it, but I didn’t expect how fast it happened.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of what you do?
SDJ: The most rewarding aspect is really seeing people connect and watching people grow within and find that trust within themselves, that self-worth. It’s rewarding to help people find the tools that allow them to trust themselves and know that they can find the answers within, because that’s where the answers are. When that little light bulb goes on and their life starts to change from that moment on, that is the greatest gift.
What is your favorite word?
SDJ: My favorite word is "create."
Why did you choose to be a part of Edge Life Expo?
SDJ: I’ve been a part of it for several years and I love the people there. There is an intention and energy of all the people coming together with like minds and like purposes, and I don’t feel a sense of competition. I feel a sense of connection and I feel a sense of community. There are not many expos like it that are as well put together and as fulfilling on many different levels. I come back to it every year, because the people are so open and willing to find themselves.
What signs do you see in our world that make you hopeful for our future?
SDJ: The children. The children are growing into their spirits and not following and not conforming and not going with what people have told them to do. They’re very spirited.
The other great sign that is a major change since I’ve been teaching is the number of men who are stepping into their spirituality. In spiritual classes, you used to have one man to 20 women. Now we have at least 25 percent men. And now the men are coming with children. And the children are teaching us. They’re so spiritually aware and evolved, and I believe that with the energy that’s coming through them, the planet is going to change.
Who do you look up to as someone who is leading humanity in the right direction?
SDJ: One of the people I look up to is Louise Hay. She’s been an inspiration since I was very young, because I read her books. She really taught me how to believe in myself and honor myself and love myself. From where she started and now has a huge publishing company, she’s a great example of what one person can do.
What is you favorite movie?
SDJ: My favorite movie is Grease.
What is your favorite song, and is it from that movie?
SDJ: My favorite song is the Gayatri Mantra by Deva Premal.
What’s the big question that we, as human beings, should be asking ourselves at this time?
SDJ: We should be asking ourselves what we are doing to make a difference.
Describe what you felt when you were in the most memorable place you’ve ever visited.
SDJ: Koh Larn, Pattaya, Thailand, an island right off of Phuket. We had to take a two-hour boat ride out there. There were like 28 people who lived on the island. You could rent this little room with a very thin mattress on the floor and a fan for $10. My husband and I had taken my 4-month-old baby to the island with a whole bunch of people. In time, everybody left. We just fell so much in love with that place that we wanted to stay overnight. We found out they had a room to rent above the only restaurant on the whole island. We stayed there with a Thai family. We couldn’t communicate verbally, but we sat there with them for three hours enjoying each other’s company. They had a baby who was a little bit older than my son.
The feeling that I had was how connected we are on a soul level to people with whom we don’t even need to speak. I felt like I knew that whole family without any verbal communication at all. It was just heart communication with new friends – on an island where nobody really had anything, no phones, no televisions. They lived very simply and it was so peaceful. That was a great gift.
For more information on Sunny Dawn Johnston, visit www.sunnydawnjohnston.com or www.sunlightalliance.com.