The Team Audio Book- Frances Key and Special Guest Lisa Simone

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Hey everybody, this is Brian back with another episode of Grief to Growth. And today I've got with me Frances Key, and I'll read her bio. And I also got a special guest with me, Lisa Simone, who many of you may know who she is. But if anybody's— if you've listened to my podcast at all, or followed me at all, you know, I always talk about the Team Books. And Frankie happens to be the, I guess, author, but more of the channel of the Team Books, because Frankie credits her mother with writing the books. But on October 9, 2010, at the age of 86, Gloria Crystal, otherwise known as Teddy Key, passed away at her Florida home with her family by her side. 19 days later, her lilting voice began to communicate with her eldest daughter, Frances, who I have with me today, about the scope and wonder of her new perspective from the afterlife state. Through a variety of experiences, including direct contact with her mother, automatic writing, and sudden downloads of information, Frankie produced a remarkable 4-book series that was handwritten in less than a year. Now, the team materials astounded a growing circle of readers with its unique analogies, wit, depth of wisdom and unusual outlook on the experience of being human while belonging to a spiritual team. Frankie is a retired teacher. She's a writer of books, songs, and scripts. She's been involved in a wide variety of creative projects, including musical theater, writing choral music, and a whole lot more. She's going to share with us today information about her recent audiobook release of Team Book Number One, as well as some other new creative projects. And as I mentioned earlier, we do have a special guest with us today. Her name is Lisa Simone. She's— her bio is just incredible. So I'm I'm just gonna— I'm not gonna do it justice, but she's an actor, she's an author, she's a singer, an executive producer, she's a mother, she's a daughter of legendary singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone. She's performed on and off Broadway and in several major projects with people like Tyler Perry and many others, and we'll talk about how she got involved in the TEAM project. So with that, I want to welcome Frankie Key.

Okay, thank you. It's so wonderful to be here and wonderful to introduce people to Lisa. Simone, who graciously came on board with the audiobook release of Teen Book One. In fact, was a driving force behind getting the book produced because she was an avid reader and kept telling me, "You need to make audiobooks." So we'll go into that more, but I just want to say from the very start, a big thank you. To Lisa for her support and her contribution.

Yeah, and I want to, uh, also welcome Lisa. And Lisa, you could, you could say hi. We'll, we'll talk later about your involvement in the book, but I want everybody to see you and say hi.

Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to be here with you, Brian, and of course my dear friend Francis. And I look forward to just, uh, sharing my experiences with this amazing series of books starting with book one, of course, of The Team.

Yes, great. Well, Francis, I was telling you earlier, I always assume everybody knows about The Team books, which I probably shouldn't, shouldn't, because not everybody does. I think, to me, they're just incredible, some of the best stuff I've ever read. And I feel like I was gonna— I was thinking earlier, before we started recording, I'm like, you know, these books have changed my life. And of course, any spiritual book you read hopefully changes your life in some way, but these have changed my life in a major way. So tell people about a little bit about the process of producing the books and what's in the books.

Okay, gladly. What I'm going to do first, so Brian D Smith, is just say a quick prayer to call in my team and to center myself and anybody else who wants to go along with this. I want to acknowledge that we stand upon land bequeathed to us by our Creator for the purpose of developing our individual and collective consciousness. And let us acknowledge that we as souls have been bequeathed a human, temporary human body for the purpose, the same great purpose. And we are not alone. We are accompanied by spiritual teammates who possess multiple talents to support us, love us, and work through us. And I call them in now to grace each one of us here with enhanced clarity and wisdom and honesty of the heart. With a heart full of gratitude.

Amen.

Amen.

So I have— I had a lifetime of incredibly close communication and time spent with my mother. She and I were spiritual seekers together throughout our lives. And I consider her my spiritual teacher. She— when she passed away, I became aware of a sensation that I've come to recognize and as an exchange of spiritual DNA. And part of me really felt it went with her, and part of her remained with me. And I think that's what enabled what what was to come, to occur. 19 days after she passed, I was actually on an airplane going to New York City to see my daughters. And I was looking out the window, as we often do as we travel, and looked at the gorgeous sky, and the sky made me think of where she was. In my mind, I asked her a question. Mother, is there any distance for you? And I was just bombarded with her presence, her voice, and her answer, which was, no, not like it is for you. Mine is more of a distance. My distance is more of my scope of intention. So this was a very unusual thing to hear. It felt like I was hearing her voice outside of me and within me. And I continue the conversation. I took out paper and pencil, is what I had, and wrote down what I felt like she was talking to me about more on a personal level. But then it became, over the 2.5-hour flight, became much more universal. So I thought it was a one-time encounter on the plane that I was having because of this state of awareness of her, but grief for her 19 days after she died. And my connection with the sky, in my mind, with eternity. And but it didn't stop after the flight, it continued for many, many months. And in fact, it continued for several years. And the first book was written in 3 weeks, and then the rest came very quickly. It took quite a bit of time to type them up and get them out there. But it was a very rapid download of information. It would come out of the blue, usually when I wasn't even— when I was doing something absent-mindedly. And it would be almost like a form of automatic writing, my hand would go faster than I could really follow what was being said. However, I wasn't in any kind of trance, I knew what was happening. I could hear her voice. I could feel the immensity of every word and concept that was going into me. I read them now, the books, when I pick one up, I'm like a person who's just learning about it. I'm in awe, I moved to tears for the beauty and amazement of the information. But at the time that I received them, I was one, I was at one with those concepts and information. It was a totally enlightening, enlightened time of my life. The experience was just phenomenal. It healed me physically, it healed me emotionally, it changed me at my core. I'm just happy to say I've never been the same. Because there were a lot of things that, like, like all of us, you know, that grieved me, that burdened me, struggles I had within myself that evaporated, truly. These books came through, they have a life of their own, they have a following of their own. They have touched many, many lives and continue to touch lives. And I know that they forever will, as long as they're available, hopefully far beyond me. But the audiobook, finally, once we launched this audiobook project of just book 1 for now, but we're getting to book 2 soon. Once that happened, the power of the human voice to come through on the books was so different from just the written word. I don't know if you've really had time to listen to it yet, Brian. The audio version?

I have not heard the audio version yet, no.

Okay. It's remarkable. We have 4 narrators, myself, my sister Kelly, Lisa, and an Australian woman, Laura McCulloch. And these 4 voices alternate throughout the book and bring such a force and such a passion. It's a different experience to listen than it is to read. So I'm delighted that it's out there, and I think it's helping the message to reach a lot of people. And one of the main reasons I wanted it to go out at this time was because I've been kind of sitting on this recording of my mother's voice speaking about the team, which came into my hands after I was writing about the team. And I wanted to release her voice. I felt like now is the time that that message should come out. And in it, she says, I am speaking to you as a member of a team, a team that believes that the human race is preparing for tremendous change, a change that may come in the form too beautiful to imagine or too frightening to consider. And I'd like to tell quickly the story of how I came into this recording. It was sent to me several years after I was writing the books. It was tagged, it was sent from a friend of mine who had a recording studio and she had recorded my mother playing the piano because my mother was elderly and we wanted to capture her piano playing, you know, in a professional way. So we all went to the studio. She played the piano for 30 minutes, all her big band old favorites. And I'd forgotten about that recording. It was quite some years later, probably 4 years after she'd made it, that my friend said, oh, I found this file and emailed it. Actually put on a CD, gave me a CD. Of course, I listened to it all the way through. And then at the very end was this extra file. And there was my mother's voice speaking these words, "I am speaking to you as a member of a team." It's really quite profound. Yeah. But we never knew exactly how those words got on that file, or when she said them, or how they could have been recorded, and how they could have been added to that file. But I put that in the audiobook. Because it was, it seemed like the right time. I think we all are feeling across the globe, you know, this incredible tug of war of energies and giving us the opportunity to choose which one we want to align with.

Yeah, absolutely. And Lisa, I'm curious, how did you become involved in the project? Or how did you discover the books?

A dear friend of mine who has since transitioned, during the year of COVID actually, gave me the team book one in June of 2012. And she used to do quantum balancing. And we weren't friends yet. And I happened to go to her office for a session. And our energies just melded very easily, as if we'd known each other over many lifetimes. And she handed me this book with her palms open. And she said, someone gave me this, but I don't think it's for me. I think it's for you. And as I said, that was June 2012. In July 2012, I went to Paris to do a series of shows, and I took the team book one with me. And I was reading it at every opportunity, and I felt like it was speaking to me personally. It uplifted me, it reminded me of certain things, and it also gave me a sense of peace, and in an area that needed it at that time. Since then, my friend, like I said, she passed away, and the fact that Frances and I have become friends and we've become colleagues in this project, and that I am someone who I feel like I'm her cheerleader leader, go, Francis, you know, have you thought about this? We got to do this. Okay, we got to make sure this gets out here. And what does this mean? And why did— why is this written on this page? It's something that resounds with my heart and my soul and my own personal mission in terms of my music and the spiritual foundation upon which I live my own life. And the fact that my friend, who is no longer with us, passed away in August 2020 of COVID I feel her presence as well. And so it's just, uh, that's a short version of how this book came into my life. And of course, I met Frances when I went to order about 10 copies because I wanted to give them to everyone that I knew. And it just so happened that she contacted me back personally, and, um, I was like a child. I was like, wow, it's Frances Key on the other end of this, of this email. And, uh, we've been close and, uh, ever since And it's really good to be here with you, Francis.

That was my experience when I found the books too. It's just that you do feel like they're speaking to you personally. And they're so, they're so profound.

I don't—

I think I've read each of the books probably 4 times, because every time you read it, you pick up something different, and you see things from a different perspective. Francis, what do you think the big reason is why the books resonate so much with people? What's, what's the big difference between the team books and other things that are already out there?

Well, you know, going through this recently, reading and narrating, I was struck differently than I was when I first wrote it, and of course differently from any time I've ever read it, because I'm at a different place in my own development. But one thing that really jumped out at me was I thought, wow, my mother really was talking to me so directly from her soul to my soul, and really addressing things that are uniquely something I needed to hear. I had never really thought about it that much. But it was at some point, it was kind of like your mom taking your shoulders and saying, listen to me. 'You need to get this.' So I think that people feel that kind of coming from her. There's a motherly love, but there's an urgency and there's a firmness. There's a— it's almost like, as I— when I read it, that I can— that it's like peeling off a little bit of an onion skin each time. You get one concept and then there's, it goes, the next sentence takes you a little deeper, and then the next paragraph's a little deeper. And it's almost like it can predict the resistance that the ego is going to put up. As you read one thing, you think, yeah, but you know, about forgiveness, for example, yeah, but that person really, oh, but, and there, immediately address that that resistance and that protest that might come up in a person as they read some of these things, it's almost like it's anticipated and answered immediately as soon as the mind goes in those kinds of directions. So I think that's what is happening. I think people really feel spoken to.

And so I think that the title of the books is really interesting, The Team. So what is The Team? What does that mean to people?

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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So interesting you saying this, because I wrote down in my notes, I always write a few notes before I come on. Of what I feel like I'm being told to talk about. And one of them is, what does it mean to be part of a team? What do these words really mean? I wrote this actual note to myself. She said, her first— some of her first statements on that plane was, you are not alone. You're not even functioning as one person. Nobody is, for you are a member of a team, a spiritual team, as close to you as breathing, and I am part of your team. So what does that mean? We all— everybody loves that statement. Every— I've known people that have memorized that statement, they can say it back because it's so beautiful to them. But what does that really mean? You are not alone. Our teammates are truly present in invisible form and in visible form, because many of our teammates are walking with us in physical bodies upon the earth. Now, no, there's nobody I can answer the question to— is this person my husband or my wife or my friend, my teammate? That is something a person has to know of their own. In fact, every single person we encounter has a divine purpose in our lives. But we do have a core team, and some are physically with us. They may be all the way across the planet, but what they're doing is going to have an effect on us. It might be a direct connection. It might be somebody knows somebody who knows somebody, and that person has some bit of information we need to have. But we are here on the earth physically with some of our teammates, and then others are on the other side or even in other dimensions. But there's no disconnect. Everything we're doing is affecting each other. We are not alone. And we have talented teammates. They have multiple gifts, just like we have a particular ability. Each one of them has a particular specialty. And we can call on that specialty if we don't have that ability. It will come through, if not through us, through someone who does have it. You are not alone. You're not even functioning as one person. So what does that mean? We are representatives. Just like you can let somebody come over here and put their hand on your keyboard for a moment to fix something or add a word, or let me show you how to do this. It doesn't mean they've come in and possessed you. It simply means they are coming in and being part of the way you express yourself. And all of us go about our day thinking, you know, I'm Francis, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But we actually have this team with us and they do manifest through us. I want to read a little bit from the book because the books are much more powerful than anything I can say. Imagine a representative of a company being sent out to a conference. Their head is full of facts and figures, Concrete goals, mile-high dreams. They have a mission to accomplish and the hopes of the business are riding on them. They've been prepared well. They have weaknesses too, which both they and the others are well aware of. Before and after the conference, they are in touch with the team, but when they stand up to deliver their material to the audience, It's up to them to be the strongest, most honest representative they can be, transmitting what they've been taught to the best of their ability. Their teammate's words echo in their mind, their faces are before him, the notes they helped him prepare are in their hands. But more influential than anything they can possibly say is the force of authenticity they bring. To the presentation. So it gives this analogy that we are members of a team coming here in life. It's like going to a conference, interacting with others at the conference, going back and reporting to our team. And everything we learn— and this makes all growth to me, and the effort sometimes we have to make to get through the difficult things of life. So worth it. Everything, we take everything back with us and we share with the team and they share with us what they've learned and we don't have to do it all alone. Do you hear the rain?

Yes.

Wow. We don't have to, we don't have to do everything or be everything, everybody, because we all blend with our team, our what we've gained and what we've learned. And we all grow from it. We grow vicariously through one another, through each other on our team. We don't have to go out and experience every single thing. And we also carry karma, in a sense, if you want to use that word, for each other. And we heal each other. Lisa and I talked about that recently. That the healing that we, as we individually experience, becomes available to others in a very literal way.

Yeah, absolutely. So, Lisa, I'd like to ask you, um, because you said these books really are— the first book, at least, first really resonated. You felt like it was speaking to you personally. So what were some of the concepts that really drew you in?

Oh, well, first of all, I have to say, like you, all of them, I love them all. And I already always have my handy-dandy highlighter and little colored pieces of paper to highlight certain things and to remind myself of certain things. With Book 1, it was an introduction, if you will. I think it's a series of courses. Each chapter is like a course unto itself. So When people have asked me, what's your favorite chapter? I usually say all of them. It's kind of like asking, what's your favorite Nina Simone song? You can't just say one, you know? But I find that where I am in my life right now, to kind of follow up on something that you said, Francis, about we're not alone. When I perform on the stage, something happens. When I walk on that stage, and this is before I read The Team, I didn't know exactly how to communicate what happens to me, but I could have a broken heart, I could have a stomachache, I can be angry, and when I walk on that stage, something else happens. And whatever it is that I'm feeling, I'm able to channel into my performance, into the music, and it becomes joy. By the time I get off stage, I'm radiating with just joy at having been able to impart my heart to those in attendance and to have had this deep exchange. And so I've taken a break from stage. And I've pulled all the plugs on everything. Most people on my earthly team thought I was crazy when I just said it's time to shut everything down. I need to just take some time to determine what direction I want to go in. And as I'm reading Book One yet again, I found a portion in the chapter that says Protection that addresses it the way that I could never have done so myself. And it says, you may decide that it's necessary to halt all outer projects that you have in motion as you focus for a time on the purification of your motives before returning to those projects. In other words, it may be necessary to re-examine the entire foundation of your life to make sure your underlying motives are in keeping with your team's essential mission. Don't let fear stop you from this process. If you hold fast to your commitment, the support you need will eventually appear. What appears to be delay does not mean defeat. It's simply part of the process of reassessment and reconstruction. Remain confident that your team can see the broader scope of your path and hearken to their signs and directions. That spoke volumes to me just last week when I read that again. And I find that it confirmed for me that as I follow my heart, which doesn't make sense to a lot of others who are watching what I'm doing, that I'm right on time. And that all I have to do is continue to trust and know that I'm being led to the next stage in my career, in the next stage in my life, and the next portion of what it is that I'm supposed to do in order to be of service to humanity. And I've turned down every single interview that I've been asked to do in the last year. My last show was in November 2021, but when Frances contacted me and asked if I would like to join her on these interviews, it Didn't take me long to get out my makeup from my suitcases and figure out how I was going to set up because this gives me a chance to participate in the types of conversations that are just as important to me as my music. My music is inspirational. It's from my spirit. My spirituality is the foundation of who I am. So this book one right here, now in the audiobook, is something that I'm extremely honored to be participating in. And I think that it's just something everybody will find will touch their hearts and souls in some way.

Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Thank you. I think that's, that's awesome. I was wondering, Frankie, you know, because the concept of the team is so strong, and we tend, especially in America, to be so individualistic, Has anybody pushed back about like, okay, I'm a member of a team, and I'm responsible for other people? You know, I've heard some of the spiritual community about, you know, spirit guides and stuff. And I actually, I use your information all the time in my presentations. And I tell people, when we think of our spirit guides and stuff, it's like, they're like supporting roles, they're behind us, but we're the lead. And to me, the concept of the team is like, you're not even necessarily the lead. What would you say to that?

Yes.

In fact, let's hope we're not always the lead. It is so, you know, if we're all parts of something, if we're all parts of the whole, then we all— well, I have to talk in musical terms, being a songwriter myself and Lisa as well. And I think I see a guitar behind you. I think you're into music too. Yeah. So there are times when a group is playing, whether it's symphony— and music is used a lot in the books as an example— or whether you just have a band or a duo, people are going to— different instruments are going to rise up temporarily and then go down. Perfect example is with jazz, you know, when it comes to that portion where each instrument does its own thing, and everybody supports that instrument, then it moves. That's, I mean, that's how music works. And that's, that's the beauty of it. And that really is the beauty of the team. We feel like we are individuals, and we feel like it's all about me and my life, and I'm trying to figure this out. And everybody's behind me. But what helps us understand that things may not go as smoothly or exactly as we planned, if we can stop, and the book says to rise up into the lookout tower of the soul. And look, look, an example is given, just look out the earth as if you're looking out the window of an airplane. And you know, that perspective you get when you're far above and distant, And you go, oh, okay, I don't really see why. But there's a huge landscape here. There's a lot going on that has nothing to do and everything to do with me without me being the focal point. So I've marked all kinds of things in the book. And for example, they say, your teammates are pouring their essence into you at all times, supporting and enriching your Earth experience. We cannot do it for you, however. You must meet us more than halfway. Just as you shouldn't carry a child beyond the age they can walk, lest you make them helpless, self-indulgent, and insecure, we cannot interfere with you as you experiment with the power of your own thoughts and actions. To do so would weaken you and delay both your progress and ours. It, it talks about the analogy of a classroom where you can walk into any grade, say you walk into a third grade classroom, and children in there are going to actually be on a huge range of skills. Some can read well but can't do the math well, or vice versa, or they're just brilliant in art. But they're struggling to even, you know, write simple sentences. And, and the books point out that our development is lopsided. We're all lopsided, actually, we're very good at some things. And we really may come across quite weak in other areas. And part of the reason for that is because we have teammates who sort of fill in that puzzle. You know, in this lifetime, it may be that For example, with me, that I never was supposed to be in the corporate world or a business owner, for example. You know, I had a different route, and yet those in the corporate world or in the business world are filling around me to make sure that certain things are done. So we don't have to be the shining light and at the top of the heap. There's no competition within a team. It truly is teamwork. And the example is given, if you happen to be stronger when you're walking through the airport and picking up that suitcase than somebody who you're walking with, you're going to pick it up. And it all balances itself out as time goes by.

Yeah, I think for, for me, when I— this whole concept of the fact that we don't have to do everything as you said, uh, is very— it's very freeing. Um, it's very— it takes a lot of pressure off being human because being human is hard. And we feel like we have to get, you know, everything just right. And, you know, part of the human experience is, is feeling that separation. I guess we step into this for whatever reason. But then to come back and realize that we're not truly as alone as we feel, it's a, it's a temporary thing. So that's one of the great things I've gotten out of the book and try to help, you know, share with other people.

Yeah, I'm seeing here in the book, there's a chapter called Reciprocal Influences. And it speaks about, you know, we many times as we are developing our spiritual practice in our lives, or seeking what truth to follow, or trying to find answers, We think of ourselves as like reaching up and beseeching for help, and that this is going to come down upon us or from around us, and we are imploring for help. And she points out that the influence and the help is actually very reciprocal, very back and forth. She says, We, speaking of the team, we need all of you for this purpose. You are the ones who link and leverage our efforts, turning our few fishes and loaves of bread into thousands, referring to the biblical story of the, the feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and fish. Each one of you has a portion to carry in this mission, a portion that is designated to be fulfilled upon the earth. Bear in mind that while our non-earthly state gives us a certain advantage of perception, it doesn't mean that your boots-on-the-ground position is not valuable to those of us who are in the lookout tower. On the contrary, what you can see, feel, and do there in a concrete manner is the hands-in-the-clay side of our work. Is the scout in the valley less important than those that scan the vista through binoculars from the mountaintop? So we all have a role to fill, and we're not here very long as we all are getting older. And I think the three of us are at a stage of life where we're recognizing that, like, oh, okay, we're coming over the top of a hill into the other side of our vista. I think you're much younger, Lisa, but still, I think you have that recognition. We're just not here very long. And so we, we trade off, you know, they— we have certain teammates who will come in and pick up where we leave off. And that is a responsibility. And let us not forget that when— before we came here, I think it's in Book 3, where so much is said about what was done, what has been done throughout history to lay the groundwork for each of our lives, what was prepared for us, what We can't even conceive of all the physical ancestors, much less our spiritual ancestors, have done to prepare the way for us.

Yeah, absolutely.

To think about what am I doing that is going to be left for those who come, right? And what am I doing with what they left me?

Yeah, that's, that's another really interesting concept, is that, uh, I have to speak on that.

Yes, please, Lisa, go ahead.

Francis, that was beautiful. I, I, my mother comes to mind, and, you know, as you said earlier, I am the only child of Dr. Nina Simone, and when my mother died, I began having experiences that made it clear that she was contacting me from the other side. It started very early on. And it has, it has leveled off, but it was a lot for, for a while. And I learned to open my heart and my mind up to other possibilities. And so the first album that I ever did called Simone on Simone is a big band tribute to, as I call, the great one who walked before me, because I wanted to give honor to the one whose shoulders upon I stood and who enabled me to launch, if you will, and to carry on what she had started. And of course, what she was doing off the shoulders of her parents, and so forth and so on. And there's a chapter in here, the protection chapter, which I'd like to read from yet again, because the last thing I read was from that chapter. I was talking to someone someone one day, and they said to me— and I even did a reading with Frances at one point— and I've been told that I have carried the baton, sort of like when you run track and you do that race where you have everybody that carries the baton, relay race. I've carried it further than, uh, perhaps I even agreed to do before I came here. Since my mother passed away, I've done a lot of inner work to smooth out those sharp edges that I walked around with for a long time. And I had a reading done one time, and my mother came through and said that she realized that when she passed away, which was in her house in southern France, which is where I actually recorded my portions of the book, the audiobook, from, that she realized pride was the quality that had blinded her to so much. My mother was perhaps one of the loneliest people I've ever known, yet she was one of the strongest people that I've ever known. And here in the book, um, on page 150, um, it says, how am I to recognize pride, you may ask? She says, pride is at the root of all other illusions. It is that element that causes one to judge another, to punish another, and to do the same to ourselves. It is that element that causes one to think, I've got mine, you go get your own. It is that element that causes us to undermine another person through words, thoughts, or deeds. It is that element that causes us to cry, I deserve better. Rather than I'm capable of creating better. Pride is that element that causes us to want to instruct more than we want to learn, to be respected more than we respect, to be known rather than to know, to be given a seat and served at the table of honor rather than recognizing that the servant is often the greatest teacher. It is that element that causes us to think we should receive what we've not earned, to hoard what we do not need, to be dissatisfied with the blessings that we have, and to resent lessons that involve humanity— humility, excuse me. Pride sucks the joy out of life. It inserts hesitation and inhibitions into our expressions of love and vulnerability. As we become swept up and enamored with the newest illusion, pouring our thoughts and time into it, we find that it's a dead end and we must backtrack, reconsider, and rebuild over and over again. This cycle of expectation and disappointment is due to attachment, which is the gluey substance secreted by pride. Many of us don't realize when we're judging, even when we're judging ourselves, criticizing ourselves, much less we judge people for the color of their skin, what they wear, how they walk, how they talk. And I find that on the heels of what I was inspired to share after my mother has passed away, I feel like I— Mommy stood up for our people. She stood up for the injustices that took place against so many in the world. And I find that as I have found my own path, because it took me a minute to be able to separate where do I stand, what's my path as the daughter of, because many people couldn't see past that for a very long time. Until the documentary came out. And the day that I realized that it wasn't about me trying to continue, if you will, what my mother had started in the way that she had done it, but what do I add to this legacy? What is it that I represent and that I stand for? And mine is to be of service to humanity, those people who are doing the, the discriminating, or create— or creating those horrible instances, whether it's murder or robbery or racism, they're just as lost. They're suffering just as much. All of us are in this soup together. So these books appeal to everyone. There's something in it for everyone. And if we can open our hearts and minds enough to know that even if it's just a little trickle, may not— we may not wonder why, but sometimes it's not always about the mind. It's about the heart and trusting the heart, knowing that it will lead us to our greater good.

Yeah, yeah, beautifully said, beautifully said. I love that. And I love the, the idea that we all are here just to do our part, and we don't have to do everything, and we can carry on the, the legacy of our ancestors. And we, as, as we heal, we actually help to heal, you know, their, their, their things also. And, you know, you mentioned earlier, you know, you putting your career on hold for a little while. And from an earthly perspective, people would say like, well, what is that about? But you've— your, your perspective has been broadened to the point where it's like, okay, this is, this is a temporary thing. I'm here to serve humanity. What's the best way to do that? And sometimes we need to reset and not allow other people to tell us, you know, this is the way you should go. You know, that— so I love that that chapter spoke to you and gave you confidence in what you're doing.

Absolutely. I mean, being an artist, you know, it's about recording and touring, recording and touring. And of course, with COVID that changed the entertainment industry exponentially, especially the part where you do live performances, which is where I find my greatest joy takes place. And so I also know that as I've healed myself, I have healed my mother. I have healed a lot of those areas of her life that she was not able to resolve while she was here. And one thing I learned— I went to meditation school for, for 3 years— I learned that as you heal the present— and there's a chapter in the book where a couple where It talks about time, and it uses the, the example of clay, and you roll it up into a ball. And that's the lump of clay. But if you flatten it out, and you put marks on it, that's the past, the present and the future, which enables us to be able to live in the time and space continuum that we live in here on Earth. When you roll it back up, it's all about the present, the eternal now. So as we heal ourselves, Now we not only heal the past, we heal the future as well. And so, um, the more that I've studied and the more that I continue to study, the more I am able to understand what that means. And it's an honor and a gift for me to know that the work that I'm doing on myself is also healing my ancestors, especially my mom. My dad, and also paving the way for my children who will continue to carry on this legacy. And of course, we all have legacies. People talk about the legacy of your family, and I remind them, quick to remind them, we're all the daughters and sons of— all of our legacies are equally important because we're all on this walk together.

Yeah, that's again beautifully said. And the idea and that concept of time, it still blows my mind, you know, But to know that, that we can heal the past is, you know, is interesting, because I think it was Einstein said that time is an illusion, but it's an albeit a very persistent one. So we, as we're living in this plane, it's hard to even imagine the influence that we're having rippling forward and backward.

Yeah, I want to say something more about that, because it is touched upon in Book One, and it really is developed throughout the books as you well know, goes into a much deeper, but it has taken me time to gradually really comprehend. And now it's not such a strange idea anymore, that what our actions and thoughts of this moment, we would all agree, are having an effect on our future. Like if I, whatever I do in this moment is going to influence what is going to happen in the next 5 minutes, or whatever I plan on I work for today is going to have an influence on my future. If I put money in the bank, it's saved for the future. But what about the past? How could it possibly affect my past? But what she points out over and over is that, like Lisa was saying, when she gives that example of the clay, and now we have past, present, future, and we can see it's all time here is slowed down for us. So our physical bodies can comprehend that things are happening in a sequence. But in reality, that clay is one ball, and that ball contains past, present, and future. We talk about dwelling in the now, but we forget sometimes that the now contains the past, the present, and the future. It's not like, oh, it's only this moment, because what we call past, present, and future is always contained in the now. So we're not losing anything or leaving anything behind by dwelling in the present. We're bringing it all— we're acknowledging the power of all of it right here. And we're taking that clay, and instead of it being like this, we're turning it lengthwise. And time— everything is on top of itself. And so everything is one, and everything is influencing the other. And the best example, and we've seen it in many other writings, but it's really developed greatly in this book, is when you drop a rock in the middle of a pond, the ripples go out in all directions. And if you call one shore the present and one the past, the ripples are reaching all of it at the same time. And in the same way, the ripples are not just moving in one direction towards the future, They're affecting the past. And so the vibration of past events— and this is what trips people up to imagine— but the vibration that these vibrations that we send forth, they uplift the vibration of the past event and transform it. So it joins up with another continuum of time. It doesn't affect the continuum of time it came from, or right where we are now. But it raises up to another continuum, another strand of possibility. And it creates a new event for the future than it would have created had it not been raised up and transformed. I think, I think we can— time is so slow for us here. And we see generations after generations working. A perfect example is anything to do with civil rights. It takes forever, it feels forever. And yet, with all my, all my soul, I know that those horrific events that we know have occurred in the past on this planet to all kinds of populations in all kinds of circumstances, they are being transformed. And they— how are they transformed? Through conversations like this, through love, through healing, through forgiveness, through true compassion, what Lisa was saying, seeing everyone who's struggling with their, their anger as, as people, souls on a journey, people in need of love and light and understanding and forgiveness. Because retaliating to anger and hate with more anger and hate, we already know, brings us nowhere. So we do transform those events of the past. By what we do in the future. It does matter. It does help.

Yes, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a wonderful concept. And this is one of the reasons why I read the books over and over again, because it's something from our human perspective that can be difficult to understand. And we can only get like a little bit of at a time. And we can't really, I think we have to understand it almost from a, not from an intellectual perspective, but from a spiritual perspective, just, just it's one of the things you just kind of have to trust that it makes sense once we can step outside of this limited perspective. And this is what I love about the books, you know, the analogy used about the people that are on the, you know, that are up higher, as opposed to where we are now. Just, just to imagine that analogy to think about, maybe I'm not seeing the big picture here. Maybe these things that I'm going through, from a different perspective, are they serve a purpose. And how I react to them serves a greater purpose rather than just me. And sometimes people will say things like, well, why do I have to go through this? I work with a lot of parents who have lost children because my daughter's passed away. And people will say things like, well, I would have never planned this, this could not be a soul plan, because they're still thinking of from a very limited, very human perspective, not thinking about all the ripples that come out of it. You know, and there's, there, there were good things that come out of it. It grows a lot of us, you know, spiritually. And that person that apparently died, they're just back home, you know, and when we can keep that perspective, it just changes our everything about our world.

You know, I saw, I saw an interview, and I wish I could remember because it was so long ago. I feel like it might have been on Oprah. But it was a TV show many years ago. Somebody was speaking to someone whose child had died. And this man said to this couple, I want you to expand your understanding of your child beyond— and I'm going to just say his name— Joey, beyond my child, Joey. And comprehend this is a soul. This is a soul that came to Earth and has left the Earth. We all come at different times, we leave at different times. Sometimes we're here one second, sometimes we're here more than 100 years. This is the journey of a soul. And it was the first time these parents had thought about that this little body of their child who was a baby, died shortly after birth, is actually a soul. And in that moment of realization, what came over that young couple was really tremendous. And I just want to add to that, because Lisa also spoke a lot about ancestors. The books point out that we have, just as we have physical attributes that we got from our physical parents— I got wavy hair from my dad and brown eyes from my dad, you know, just be— and just like we have physical gifts that we probably often inherit from others, musical or physical or sports or whatever. We have We get that through our physical DNA, and we get that through our physical ancestry. But we have spiritual DNA, we have spiritual ancestors. True, those spiritual ancestors may have come into the physical body of physical ancestors. But it's good to at least for a moment to think of them as two separate things. So we do have this body that we use in this life that comes through physical ancestry. But we have a soul that has divine parents, who have divine parents, who have divine parents, and on back into— and every soul is unique, just like every child and every body, every physical body is unique. Every soul is unique. And yes, we're made of the same divine light. And I said in a recent interview, and I want to say it again, it is not egotistical or prideful to, to acknowledge that you have divinity within you, any more than it is to say you inherited blue eyes or brown eyes or whatever. We didn't create ourselves, we were created, we are divine children. We do have this divinity within us. And we have to claim it to live it. If we shirk from it, oh, I couldn't be good enough. That's like saying, you know, no, I'm not going to use this ability I have with music. I don't feel good enough to use my own ability. I mean, we are— this is what we are, whether, whether whether— but, but if we don't claim it, we're not going to live it. We're not going to believe it. We're not going to manifest it. So taking the time, not only to focus— we all love to do DNA searches and find out who our ancestry was. But we have incredible spiritual ancestors that go back through eternity. That make up our soul. And I think that's worth mentioning. And I think that's worth thinking about with every person that we love, who passes away. They have their own soul, and they have their own spiritual team, spiritual ancestors, spiritual parents. And we had the opportunity to have them for a while. We don't know why it has to last a long time or end quickly. But, and I think part of it, honestly, Brian D Smith, is when we come into the physical world, just like when you go to college, you sign up for certain classes, but then you change your major, or you drop out, or you fail at something and take it over. It isn't that we have this set-in-stone destiny. So when people say to you, well, I would never have chosen that, that may very well be true. That may very well not have been the chosen path. But things change. Accidents happen. People come and go. Someone who, who rose up, who claimed I will, that they would come and fulfill something, didn't fulfill it, perhaps, which led to a chain of events. So I don't, I don't like the word accident. But I also don't like the word that everything's predestined and planned. We do have free will, things do change. And we can't see that complete picture right now. But we will.

Yes, yes, absolutely. And the free will versus predestination thing is something that another thing that gets my head really spinning. Because I believe it's both. And those seem like polar opposites. But I do believe that it's both. I think it's just like light can be a particle or can be a wave depending on how you look at it. And someone said, well, which is it? It depends on how you look at it. So what I do know though, is that we're all eternal souls. And if we take that perspective, and we're all coming in for a short period of time, it is relatively short, even if it's 100 years. Once we're back in spirit, I don't think it's any big tragedy whether we live for 16 years like my daughter did, or if we live for 96 years. Because from that perspective, it's all the blink of an eye.

Yes. And something I had marked. There's a statement I had marked that says death is the result of the soul redirecting its focus away from a physical body that is no longer viable to one that is— the spiritual body, which we all possess and have had ever since our Creator formed us. And it points out, and I always repeat this in every interview, that only an aspect of our soul comes and connects with the body. So, you know, when you say, I'm not all here, that's true. We're not all here. There's only a part of me that's associated with this body, a part of you associated with your body, and other aspects of us are elsewhere. And so the beautiful thing about that is when our loved one passes over, there is an aspect of us that is already on the other side and is with that person. You know, you are— there's a part of you that's working here as Brian, and there's a part of you that is literally with your daughter at all times, spending time. You are in the other— you're on the other side with her. So I know it's very painful and very hard when we, this aspect of ourself, miss them. So I always say it's our body misses their body.

Yes. Yeah. I, I'm glad we've been able to go through some of these concepts because this is why I love the book so much. And I, and I, I've been stealing your concepts and teaching them all over the place. And that's one that really, that I hadn't heard much anywhere else. That helps me, you know, so much to know that, that thing you use, I think you talked about like someone sitting on the edge of a river and putting their toe in the water was what it was. And that's how we are. That's how the physical part of us is here. So my daughter and I love to play video games. So I use virtual reality, virtual reality analogies. So when you play a virtual reality game, you're in the game, and all you can see is what's in the game with the goggles show you. But there's a very real world still going on around you. You just choose to focus on this while you're playing the game. And that's really the way I view my life now.

Yes, yes, it's like the virtual reality can make you compare to the idea of that we have one foot on the other side and one foot here at any given time. And while we want to be present and immersed and giving our— the totality of who we are right now with the body to whatever we're doing, understanding that we— the soul is not trapped inside the body. The body is inside the soul. So the soul is vast.. And this little tiny body— my goodness, aren't we tiny in this universe? This little tiny body that we're in, that we have, is surrounded by the soul. And the soul has consequence because it is connected to the all. These bodies are really, in and of themselves, so, so small in the vast scheme of things. I don't want to say they're not of consequence, but we are atoms upon atoms upon atoms when you look at the vastness of space. But the consequence comes from the soul, which enshrouds the body, which connects to the all. And a great deal of us is there, out there, even, even the soul, even the part aspect or aspects How do I know how many aspects there are to a soul and how many are connected with this human body? I don't know. But even those that are connected aren't trapped. So this soul that I am, this aspect, also can move out into the vastness and have experiences and come back, can remove itself and leave me with a limited resource at times while the aspect is, is exploring and doing certain things, or can come, or extra parts of myself, of my soul, can fill me up to accomplish something. It's like a wind that blows through the body and moves around. You are not trapped inside the body. So there is a part of each of us on the other side still with our loved ones, and they very much, uh, are wrapped up in love with us because they don't miss us because they're with us. They're with us.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I, um, I want to talk about your other projects before we run out of time. So I know you're working on, or you have a new novel, The Train to Haverhausen. So tell me about that.

The Train to Hoffhausen. I wrote it most— I started it before COVID but it really got— had time to work on it during COVID It is the story of two women, one in modern times, one in World War II, 1939. They each board a train and in their respective generations and because of the strands of possibility that we've just talked about, and because time really is this way and not this way, their lives intersect. And so the spiritual principle is described through, through an encounter with a very wise individual character in the book. So her name is Sister M.M., Sister Mary Magdalene. She's actually an ex-former Catholic nun. And so she becomes the counsel to the woman who is trying to discover what, what's really going on. So it's a love story. It's a time travel story, if you want to call it that. It's a spiritual story, but it's also just a real exciting book. People tell me they can't put it down. It alternates chapters between the two women's lives. It's The Train to Hofhausen, and I picked a word that nobody can spell, so you'll have to put it on your screen.

Yeah, I'll put it in the show notes.

If you're in New York City on November 18th, there's a presentation of 4 actors and some musicians presenting excerpts of the book as a fundraiser for Crossing Point Arts, which is is a New York-based nonprofit that helps people who have been sexually trafficked build their— rebuild their lives. So I'm real happy to be part of that project, and that is November 18th, uh, coming up next.

Yeah, that, that, that's exciting. And, um, sometimes we can't really grasp some of these principles directly, as I was saying earlier, so sometimes we have to use allegory or myth to really get them. So I'm glad that you, that you wrote that, because I think that can be— maybe help people, you know, grok some of these, these concepts we're talking about today. They're a little too big for our little tiny brains.

Yes, in, in novel form, they may be easier for people to follow, and that's, that's the reason I wrote the book. And in the presentation on the 18th, uh, we have a conversation between Sister MM, who understands all of this, and one of the characters. And that conversation describes exactly what we've been talking about. So it's kind of an unusual thing to be picked up in New York and presented in this way, but people, people love it. And the people who got the script and who tried out for the part for the script really loved it. They're very to read it and to even talk about it. So yeah, I think it's going to be a wonderful way to present it.

That's great. I'm glad to see that getting out. Well, we were just about the end of our time. I wanted to give you guys both a chance to say whatever you'd like to say as we wrap up. Lisa, I want to really thank you for being here. And for promoting this project ever since I discovered the books several years ago. I'm like, more people need to know about this. I've been doing everything that I can do. So I appreciate you doing that as well. But Anything you'd like to say as we wrap up?

Thank you for having me on your show. It's been an absolute pleasure. I hope to be able to speak to you again when my next project comes out and get a chance to talk about my own spiritual walk, in addition to, um, everything else that I'm going to be doing with the team, because I'm going to be a part of this Francis's team until, I don't know, however many lifetimes will pass by. Um, And it's been a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much. And I look forward to seeing where, where this leads us. Who knows?

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to have you back anytime you're, you're, you're willing to do that. And Frances, I'll give you the last word.

I just want to say we've talked about some things that are heavy at times. And I'm— the books really emphasize to walk in joy and peace and simplicity. It, it, we've talked about a lot of complexity. It really isn't that complex. It really is very, very simple. You are not alone. You're not even functioning as one person. Nobody is. We're all members of teams. And as we go through our day, let's look at each person through those eyes. They're not alone. They have a team. They're a soul on a journey. And I have found that simple statement to bring to help me relate to people with compassion and peace.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Again, thank you both for your time this afternoon, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Thank you, Brian.

You did.

Thanks for listening to Grief to Growth. Brian hopes that you find this episode helpful. And will come back for future episodes. Brian D Smith's bestselling book, Grief to Growth: Planted, Not Buried, is a great resource for anyone who is coping with grief or knows someone who is. If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support it, there are 3 things you can do to help. The first is to share the podcast with someone that you think it will help. The second is to go to iTunes, rate and review the episode. The third way you can support the podcast is by becoming a patron. Head over to www.patreon.com/grief2growth. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/grief, the number 2, growth, and sign up to make a small monthly donation. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus content and knowledge that you are helping to spread the message of grief to growth. For more about Brian D Smith and Grief 2 Growth, visit www.grief2growth.com.

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