After a year of producing the P.E.E.P. Podcast, I took a break in November to finish writing a book. Now, the first draft is done, and I’m back with a new episode – a short discussion on a topic we’ve heard a lot about over the last several months – spiritual journeys.

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Welcome to the PEEP Podcast. I’m your host Nicolle Morock, and on this episode, I want to talk a bit about spiritual journeys and give you an example of how mine has had some twists and turns.

But first, I want to thank everyone who has listened to the podcast over the last year and welcome new listeners. I’m thankful you’ve chosen to spend time with me and my guests, and I hope we’ve provided you with something of value, whether that be entertainment, information, different perspectives, new ideas, or anything else. I’m glad you’re here, and I hope you’ll continue to listen, and please tell your friends. Oh, and if you haven’t yet, hit that subscribe or follow button in your favorite podcast app, so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks!

I also want to explain my absence through the month of November. So far, I’ve self-published three books. I don’t talk much about the first one because it was a first novel and a cathartic experience, and let’s face it: most first novels aren’t instant classics. The second book I wrote was The Tritium Hypothesis, about a paranormal investigator who’s used to dealing with hauntings but suddenly finds herself and her friends in the middle of a UFO flap in her small hometown in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It was a lot of fun to write, and I even worked my own personal sighting into the story line. The third book is non-fiction about the lessons I learned during my experiences over a decade of paranormal investigations. The title was kind of tongue-in-cheek – “Please, don’t call me psychic: Stories from my paranormal life.” I’ll get back to that in a moment.

About two years ago this month – in December of 2019 – I got an idea for a sequel to Tritium, and I mentioned it a few times on Facebook. Several of my friends and family members were quite encouraging, and I started working on it. Over a few months, I wrote the first chapter, plotted out the main points, and came up with new characters. Then life happened, as it does for independent creators with full-time jobs, and the book was set aside indefinitely.

One of the most encouraging of my friends who really wanted to know what happens next to the main characters has ALS. She’s been a wonderful friend, and she was even one of my proofreaders for The Tritium Hypothesis. A few months ago, she let me know she’s heading into the final stages of that terrible disease, and it suddenly became very urgent to me to finish that sequel. So, I used National Novel Writing Month – November – as my added impetus to finally finish writing that novel. I sent her the pages as I wrote them because I wanted to make sure she’d have the chance to finish reading it when she was ready and able to do so. And I’m happy to say that the day before Thanksgiving, I completed the first draft. It was a pretty big accomplishment, and I could not have done it if I had not taken the month off from the podcast. So, I appreciate the support and understanding I’ve been shown over the past five weeks as I wrapped up that project.

As an aside, if you don’t mind, please send her some positive vibes and prayers. She has a great attitude under the circumstances, but a little extra positive energy never hurts.

Now, let’s get back to the subject of this episode – spiritual journeys.  

I launched the P.E.E.P. Podcast because as a podcast listener myself, I kept hearing hosts of other paranormal-based shows talk about parapsychological research as if it was a thing of the past that happened during the Spiritualist movement and into the middle of the 20^th century. Hearing that from favorite podcasters drove me nuts because I know people are currently researching parapsychology, energy healing, telekinesis, and other related topics right now. In fact, I personally know some of those academics and researchers. So, the idea for this podcast was born from that frustration and my life-long passion for learning about all things paranormal and parapsychological.

I knew that finding researchers with the time and inclination to do interviews might prove difficult, especially as a newbie podcaster without a following yet, so I started with some of the ones I already knew. I’ve branched out from there as I could, and from the start, I also knew I wanted to balance those interviews with personal stories from everyday paranormal experiencers. Thus, the acronym P.E.E.P. stands for People Experiencing Everyday Paranormal.

Side note: If you’re interested in sharing your personal stories, I’d love to have you! Please use the contact form at peeppodcast.com to get in touch with me. Facebook isn’t reliable when it comes to messages, and that form helps your note stand out in my crowded inbox.

Staying true to the podcast’s goal of balancing the science  and relating the research to the experiencers, I started pretty heavily with conversations with researchers and then moved into more personal stories. I’m still trying to stick to that goal, but at certain times of the year – including the holidays – it gets a little harder to get in touch with the academics, especially if they’re actively teaching in universities. So, you can imagine, this is the time of year that experiencer stories are more needed, but I still run into the same issue – everyone tends to be busier right now.

So, as I was trying to decide what to do for this first episode back from my month-long hiatus, the topic I kept coming back to is the idea of spiritual journeys – mostly because inadvertently, this podcast has become a part of mine.

First, let’s define a spiritual journey. According to an article on wikihow.com, “a spiritual journey is a journey you would take to find out who you are, what your problems are in life, and how to come to peace with the world. The purpose of a spiritual journey is rarely to find an answer; rather, it is a process of continually asking questions.”

Now, that might not be the only definition of a spiritual journey, but I think it’s useful because it’s simple and condensed.

Think about some of your favorite movies that show a hero taking a spiritual journey. Often the character is relatable, very human, and even reluctant. Being a child of the 70s and 80s, Star Wars easily comes to mind. In Episode IV, we meet Luke Skywalker, a young man on a desolate planet with very little sense of purpose. He just wants to hang out with his friends when his chores are done. After a couple of stolen drones are purchased by his uncle, he’s propelled into a galaxy-crossing adventure and onto a spiritual journey that changes his life forever, eventually leading to him becoming what lovers of New Age topics would call an ascended master.

It’s a compelling story because Luke’s far from perfect, even a bit whiney at times, but always tries to do what’s right by the people around him, even when it seems impossible. What makes Star Wars even better in my book is the parallel path Han Solo takes. He’s on a spiritual journey, too, but his path takes quite a few different twists and turns.

Han Solo also proves that not every spiritual journey ends in the kind of glory an ascended master revels in, but in the end, each person should end up in a psychologically and psychically better place than where they started, as long as they return to the path when they’ve veered off.

Sometimes, we take detours that take years – even decades. That’s basically my story, which isn’t over by the way. I’ve just come to a point where I realized that I’ve been on a journey that started with fear of my own senses. As a paranormal experiencer since childhood, my journey started from a place of fear.

If you want more information about that story, the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship talk I gave at the beginning of October covers my transformation from a scared, sensitive kid to a paranormal investigator. I’ll have a link to that talk in the show notes.

Like any person on a journey, I needed a guide, and I found some in my twenties in the forms of a professional psychic named Mary Beth Wrenn and a friend named Stacy who was on her own path. The psychic mediums I met during those years helped me gain control of my empathic senses, showed me Reiki (I took a weekend-long course with them), and helped me start being comfortable with the ideas of spirit guides and the possibility that I’m meant to be a healer.

But then my plot took a big twist. My then-fiancé was not interested or comfortable with any of those spiritual practices, and sadly I set them aside for him because, well. I was dumb in love and there were some lessons I needed to learn with him.

Eventually, we got married and quickly fell apart because – in his words – he never wanted to marry me. Our relationship taught me to be very careful what I ask for. I spent nearly seven years asking for him to know how much I loved him, and when he was told by friends that he should marry me because I was so devoted to him, I got what I wanted. Then I quickly got tossed aside.

After that heart-breaking experience, I learned to ask for what would be best for everyone involved, not what I thought I wanted or needed.

By the time, our short marriage had dissolved, I was on my path to becoming a meteorologist. That took three years of hard-core studying, and then I landed a job as a broadcast meteorologist in Minnesota. Through the marriage, the schoolwork, and the first several months of that job, I had my psychic walls up and I had shut down the possibility of doing anything more spiritual than attending church when my job allowed.

Once I’d settled into Minnesota, I had my first “I’ve still got it” experience in an old building housing an antique shop. I was literally followed around the building by a ghost and kept trying to convince myself that it was my imagination prompted by the old energy of the building and the antiques. But before I left, the young lady working the counter, completely unprompted, asked me “Do you know we have a ghost?”

That was it. My walls were down, and I was starting to realize I missed that part of myself.

Several months later, I saw an ad online for a group that was looking for paranormal investigators, and they mentioned being associated with psychic medium Tiffany Johnson, whom I interviewed in Episode 8. I met with an assistant and thought I’d have the chance to investigate with Tiff, but things didn’t turn out that way. Instead, I ended up helping moderate a Facebook group she had started called “Releasing crappy people out of your life.” Boy, had I gotten good at that practice, so I enjoyed helping with that group for a while.

Things in Minnesota didn’t work out that way I’d hoped, and I hate winter, so when my 2-year contract was up, I moved home to North Carolina, and within a month, I met the National Society of Paranormal Investigation and Research – NSPIR – and became quite active with them. NC is definitely where I was meant to be because that part of my world opened up quickly and amazingly.

Fast-forward about 11 years, and I started this podcast for the reasons I stated earlier. Over the course of 28 episodes, I’ve had some insanely serendipitous moments, I’ve learned much from all my guests, and I’ve come to realize that PEEP is part of my journey. Many of my guests have acted as guides in small ways, both during interviews and in the conversations we’ve had off-line. After all these years – almost two decades – I’m back on the path I started down in my twenties, and those detours were absolutely necessary for me to advance.

In fact, in Episodes 24, 25, 27, and 29, you’ll hear the stories of how Carrie, Cynthia, Betsy, and Smith followed their very different paths to a place of helping people through relationship issues, their planetary alignments, and two types of energy healing. After talking with Betsy offline, I purchased the book The Emotion Code so I could learn more about that practice, and it might be something I pursue. I know I’m back on the path to becoming an energy healer. I just have to find the modality I’m most comfortable with.

At this point, there are some practices, I know I need to work back into my life, including daily meditation and yoga. It’s easy to fall out of habits and harder to restart them, so I’m saying this publicly to keep myself accountable.

On Thanksgiving night after a day filled with family time, I spent much time praying intensely for someone close to me who had gotten Covid. Knowing that when I’m in that “please,” mode, I’m not listening, I did something I occasionally do. As I got into bed, I asked God, my angels and spirit guides, “If there’s anything I need to know right now, please show me in my dreams.”

And you know what? They did. (It’s not the first time, and I trust it won’t be the last.)

I’ve always had vivid dreams, and while they’re usually what I call brain-dump dreams as my mind clears cobwebs and makes new connections, there are occasionally dreams with spiritual value. I’ve spent time with dead loved ones, received instructions, and been shown things that gave me a sense of peace when I needed it. On Thanksgiving night, I was shown over and over a website URL that was very clearly something I needed to remember. So, when I woke from the dream, I wrote it down.

The next day, I looked at the notebook I keep by my bed, and I was sure the website would have whatever message I was meant to receive. Imagine my surprise when it was not owned by anyone. I knew right away that I was meant to buy the domain, so I did. Now I’m waiting for clarification on what to do with it. Given the name, which will remain secret for now, I’m sure it’s related to my next step in this spiritual journey, but it could go several different ways. I want to be sure I get it right. Not perfect – just right.

In the process of my journey over the last several months, one thing has become clear to me: If I write another book about my personal experiences, it will be titled “Okay, Fine. Call Me Psychic.”

While each of us has our own personal path to take, we can encourage each other and learn from each other. So, what can you learn from my spiritual journey?

• It’s okay to take detours. Detours are for learning. When you’re ready, you’ll be shown the way back to your path.
• Everyone has their own path, and you can’t walk it for them. Don’t try to tell others to walk the same way you do. Just encourage them along the way as they learn the lessons they need to learn in this lifetime.
• Be open-minded, hopeful, grateful, and ready to take the next step when it appears. Nobody sees the whole path laid out before them in advance. That would defeat the purpose of the journey. We must be present in each moment as we move forward, or we’ll miss the experiences we need to have.
• Gratitude is everything. Since the day my ex-husband left, I have counted my blessings every night before I go to bed. Every single night. Why? Because I know how blessed I am even when my world seems to be in chaos. God has my back and I trust him to help me through even my worst days. He always has.

That being said, I’m grateful for your being a part of this journey, and I hope you’ll continue to listen as I continue to interview researchers, academics, and experiencers about all things paranormal.

If you have an idea for a show topic, you can fill out the contact form at peeppodcast.com That’s P-E-E-P-PODCAST.COM. Remember that stands for People Experiencing Everyday Paranormal. If I can find a study about it, I’ll be happy to use it! Special thanks to the listeners who have submitted topic ideas! Also, if you’re interested in sharing your own personal stories of paranormal experiences, I’d love to have you on the show. It can be as anonymous as you’d like.

You can keep up with the show on its Facebook page: facebook.com/P.E.E.P.Podcast. We also have a group linked from that page in case you’re interested in joining the conversation. One thing to note that I only approve group members who answer the questions, and unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t keep a list of people who’d be interested in being on the show, so if you said, “yes” to that question, please get in touch through the website.

If you like the podcast, please give it some rating love on your favorite podcast app, share it with friends, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Doing so will help the podcast be found by others. Special thanks to everyone who has given the show some love! I really appreciate it!

The P.E.E.P. Podcast is 100% free to enjoy, but it’s not free for me to create. So, like many other independent podcasters, I’ll happily accept donations. If you’re interested in supporting the show financially, you can buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/nicollemorock. The Patreon account still exists, but Buy Me a Coffee doesn’t require a monthly commitment. All donations will be received with extreme gratitude.

No matter how you support the show – listening, telling others about it, financial assistance, or any other way, I always appreciate your being here.

Thanks again for listening! Stay safe and be well!