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In a world of chaos and uncertainty, Vaishali is in a class of her own. Moreover, she is the cutting edge voice of outrageous wisdom and eclectic spirituality. She wears a variety of hats (all of them purple) within the most current realm of erudite now age leaders. Vaishali is not only a superb writer who has authored three masterful yet, enchanting books: You Are What You Love, You Are What You Love Playbook, and Wisdom Rising, but she is also the verbally agile radio host of her own show, “You Are What You Love” with Vaishali. In her spare time she makes public presentations, across the country, helping her audiences to trade in their limiting beliefs in exchange for more passionate and conscious ways of living, loving and laughing. In the interview that follows, the Vivacious Ms. V is more than mesmerizing. Enjoy!

Kathryn: Vaishali is such a beautiful and unusual name. Please tell me the story behind it.

 I studied Indian Ayurveda with Dr. V. Lad, and according to this ancient system of self-healing, there is great value in changing your name at least once if not more frequently in one’s lifetime. The idea is that each person holds a plethora of unresolved trauma in relation to their name. Think of all the times someone called your name and said, “Why are you so stupid?!” Reflect back on all the occasions when you were sitting in class, and you thought to yourself, “Please, don’t call on me, I don’t know the answer...” and the teacher called out your name. Or whenever a bully called out your name just before they inflected physical/emotional/social pain upon your life.

Changing your name allows you to grow beyond these limiting, self-defining moments. It gives you permission to expand your sense of self-identification. It nurtures a new beginning.

I felt it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to teach this philosophy and cling to my own myopic label. So I tried it. I changed not only my first name, but dropped the middle and last names as well. I found it to be blessedly liberating, and I highly encourage others to try it. Not from an intellectual viewpoint but rather from personal experiential knowledge.

Kathryn: You’re one of the most entertaining teachers on the spiritual circuit today! You’ve coined the name, Beyond Karma Queen and The Wild Woman. What inspired you to create this professional persona? I have found that a lot of people who teach or represent spiritual teachings were people I felt very uncomfortable identifying with. I did not see anyone who shared spiritually relevant information living a really fun, playful life. If I am going to give my attention to someone who claims to have the wisdom to improve my life, and they look, sound and feel boring, uptight, rigid, formal and confining... I am completely turned off.

For me enlightenment should translate into lightening up. In my mind, spiritual maturity is not allowing life to have a stranglehold or death grip on your experience of the present moment. So I wanted to break the mold and live the truth that each of us is unique and designed to celebrate our personal individuality - to model the truth that Heaven is expansive and large enough to embrace everything and everyone, even the most “out of the box” personalities.

Kathryn: You are also known as the Purple Princess; why do you always wear the color purple? Since I was a child I have been absolutely fascinated by the color purple. Sometimes I will find myself staring at it, as if I have never seen it before.

However, when I was a child the fashion world did not really cater to this color. It has only been in the last 15-20 years that you could get almost anything in purple. And now that I am an adult and can buy whatever I want... I go passionately pervasively persistently purple.

According to the Hindu tradition, purple is Shiva’s favorite color. Shiva is considered to be the most powerful of all the Gods because Shiva was willing to step forward and drink the world’s poison, transforming it into unconditional love.

So, I see the color purple as representing the transformation of the worst, the most traumatizing of experiences, into unconditional love.

Kathryn: Your childhood was greatly challenged by alcoholic parents and physical deformity. How did these early experiences help to shape your spiritual destiny?

We all come to the planet Earth to grow and evolve beyond any and all limitations. We all come here to learn how to identify with ourselves as Divine Love and absolutely nothing else. These childhood experiences simply highlighted what I had already agreed to focus my growth on before arriving here in a physical body.

These events underscored what my Spiritual identity desired to grow beyond. These limitations provided me with the Blessed opportunity to start creating a new response to suffering right from the gate.

These challenging situations also instilled a deep-seated understanding of what it means to extend and live a compassionate and accepting existence. To inspire me to live and let live, independent of intellectual judgment and criticism, without giving my power away.

Kathryn: In early adulthood, you were diagnosed with a terminal illness. Please share the details and how this devastating event forced you out of your cultural paradigm and ultimately to your healing.

I was raised just like everyone else in America. When you do not feel well, just go to your friendly local doctor, take a pill and make it all go away. Do not examine your life; do not consider your diet or lifestyle; and for God’s sake, do not look at what you give your attention to.

I had been experiencing abdominal pain for well over a year, and it kept getting worse. When all else failed, my doctor suggested exploratory surgery. After the surgery, all my doctor could state with any clarity was that all the organs from the stomach to the rectum where in crisis. He took out a quarter and said, “The liver and small intestines are the worst. I could flip this coin to determine which organ will shut down first, the liver or the small intestines. I do not know why, but that is most likely how you will die.”

The good news is I was willing to accept that I needed to look beyond “better living through chemistry.” I was open to exploring alternative perspectives and methods. All I knew was that traditional Western medicine was not “people friendly.” It was not comprehensive enough to offer me anything practical, and it was not educating me on what options I might utilize. Little did I know at the time, this was a profound opportunity for growth in my life.

In my attempt to suppress, or at least manage some of the mind-bending pain I was in, I discovered the ancient Chinese internal organ massage called Chi Nei Tsang, www.chineitsang.com. This literally translates to transformation of the internal organs through Chi energy. This system taught me how to breathe in a manner that is detoxifying to the body and emotions, as well as providing me with an on-going practice on how pull old, stagnant, traumatizing charges from the body.

From there I branched out and studied Indian and Tibetan Ayurvedic medicine, which showed me how to balance my body type through diet and lifestyle.

I write a great deal about this in “Wisdom Rising.” Before this medical crisis I had been literally addicted to worry and fear. I had no idea that my thoughts, emotions, experiences and perceptions existed as a form of food ~ a non-physical form of food. I was ingesting this negativity, but I was not letting any of it go! I learned that thoughts, emotions and experiences are here to enhance me and make me stronger and wiser. I slowly started to realize that these energy forms of food are here to serve me, and that it is not useful to see these things as having more power than I do. It would be like sitting down to breakfast and seeing the bowl of corn flakes as having more power than I do. Not a good way to start the day or progress through life.

I awakened to the greater understanding that digestion is really a metaphor for life. How well are you digesting your life? How effectively do you realize that what does not serve you is the waste portion of your life and that it can be released now, versus how much of the painful and limited aspects of life do you hold on to, because you do not see it is the waste portion of the program?

Kathryn: A very serious accident almost took your life as well. Do you feel this was another necessary and spiritual wake-up call.

 There is an old saying, “The greater the student the greater the lesson.” The car accident forced me to graduate from childish, inner limitation.

Before the car accident, I had been studying and practicing Ayurveda, which means the science of everyday life. And there really is a science to the execution of everyday life that keeps us in balance. I knew what would promote healing and maintain a life-sustaining support system for my body type.

I had also been studying and practicing the Spiritual Law, “you are what you love, and you love whatever you give your attention to.” I had been reading the teachings of the 18th century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. He writes that we do not have divine love, we ARE divine love. And, our awareness and spiritual identity are inseparable. Therefore when I am giving something my attention, I am also giving it my love.

He states that as divine love we are senior to any and all limitations on the Earth. That in fact, we are here to experience and identify with ourselves as divine love and absolutely nothing else, unconditionally. That means we come here to recognize only one power, and that is divine love and wisdom.

When the accident occurred, I was still recognizing the power of fear, worry, intimidation, scarcity and abandonment. After the car accident if I wanted to survive, I had to be willing to grow beyond that life diminishing loyalty, the habit of giving my attention to those limiting, hellish thoughts. I had to be willing to give my love, my full undivided attention, to the story that everything that was happening was working for me, or it would not be allowed to touch my life. I had to do this to the exclusion of all other stories, no matter what the outer world threatened or looked like.

I had to take my power back from anything that did not acknowledge my divinity as divine love and wisdom. I had to be senior to the physical pain I was in, the car accident trial, which by the way I lost. I had to grow beyond the ugly divorce I was also going through at the same time, and the betrayal that relationship inflicted. I had to identify with infinite abundance when I could no longer work and lost my business and my life savings. I had to BE LOVE NOW, unconditionally.

Kathryn: With all the major life obstacles that have confronted you, how did you manage to keep such a sparkling sense of humor, and optimistic outlook on life?

 At the end of the day, if you cannot laugh at all the pain and limitation, what is the point of life? I was not able to control the woman who hit me in the car accident. I was not able to make my now ex-husband behave in a more humane, honest manner. But what I could do and can control is what I give my attention to, and my attitude about what life throws my way.

As Dannion Brinkley is so fond of saying, “In the Spiritual realm it is not what you do, but why you do it that matters.” I know it is not what I do that liberates my Soul but why I give something my attention that matters. I may not be able to stop or censor what the world throws my way, but I will always have the power to choose how I respond to it. And the bottom line is... humor and laughing simply makes me feel better than helplessness and bitterness.

My health may have suffered from time to time. My emotional process may have become occasionally overwhelmed through the years. Who hasn’t been through that? However, for me, humor is my spiritual support, and I was not going to permit laughing at this endless parade of suffering to become a collateral causality of life’s slings and arrows of outrageous misfortunes.

Kathryn: What advice would you give other women, in full maturity, regarding their magnificence and importance in a society that has a negative attitude towards aging?

 You are what you love and you love whatever you give your attention to. You are a timeless and immortal force of divine love and wisdom, and no one and no thing can take that from you... unless you let it.

I see the process of aging as an opportunity to remember I am not my packaging. I existed before this body; I will exist after it. Everything in life is an invitation to identify with divine love exclusively in an arena in which I cannot fake it.

Society may have its issues with aging, but I get to choose what I will give my attention to and how I feel about it. And the truth is, the body ages. I do not. I am eternal, unchanging divine love. That is my story and I’m sticking to it!

Kathryn: In my opinion, your first book, You Are What You Love, is a masterpiece and belongs on everyone’s nightstand. It is so well written, incredibly enlightening and thoroughly delightful. Please explain the title, and give us the books three main messages.

 If I could have said it better than Emanuel Swedenborg, I would not have stolen these words directly from him. But then I only steal from the best. And honestly, there is no better way to wrap your mind around it than, “You are what you love and you love, whatever you give your attention to.” That is and always will be #1.

#2 You do not have Divine love; you ARE Divine love. Love is not a possession. No one can take it from you. You do not have to prove you are deserving and worthy of something you already are! You do not have to wait for someone to throw you a few crumbs.

As divine love you are also a form of God consciousness, for when was God ever separate from love? As divine love you do not have value, power and worth; you are value, power and worth, for when was love and God ever separate from value power and worth? You are divine love, God consciousness, value, power and worth and no one and no thing has the power to change that!

#3 As divine love… God consciousness, the most powerful force in the universe, you do not have the ability to create a learning experience you do not need. There are a lot of things God can do, but create a learning experience of itself it did not need, is not one of them. You can trust your life. You can trust what you are creating and when you are creating it, as you do not have the ability to create a learning experience before or after you needed it. There is nothing about effective and efficient God consciousness fails to understand.

If you needed to be doing something else or living somewhere else in order to grow and learn more efficiently, you would be doing it already. As divine love you simply do not have the power to create learning experiences that do not serve you.

Rock on!

Kathryn: You say that we love whatever we give our attention to. So, do you advise that people simply overlook or ignore all the things in life that worry, concern or create fear within them?

I advise that people do not give their power away to worry and fear. I go into more detail on this in “You Are What You Love.” We are here to explore what it means to live a humanly and divinely balanced life. Give the temporal world its due: pay the taxes, balance the checkbook. But do not let the outer world overshadow your attention. Give the inner world its due as well. That means acknowledging the truth about yourself. You are not life’s bitch. You are a force of divine love that no one and no thing can take from you. Everything that happens here exists for one reason only… it serves YOUR growth.

As Swedenborg phrases it, “We must live according to our love.” What that means is this: when you give your attention to hellishly limited things like worry and fear, you spiritually live in a hellish place. When you give your attention to unlimited things, like the truth about your value, power and worth, you live in a heavenly, unlimited place.

No one can create a learning experience they do not need. If people need to learn there is nothing in it for them to respond to life with hellishly limited thoughts, then by all means continue to do that until you realize there is no payoff in to for you. As Jesus said, “When did worry ever add one inch to your stature or one day to your life?” As Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman said, “What Me Worry?” (You find spiritualism in the most unlikely places.)

All I’m saying is that worry and fear have never solved a single problem. Yet we habitually reach for it with our attention as if it were some universal panacea. I have found giving my attention to the truth that sets me free allows me to attend to life’s details and challenges in a much more balanced and empowered fashion than worry or fear.

Each person decides with their free will what they will give their attention to. Each person takes accountability for what they are building a monument to with their love. I’m not saying live in denial, or put your head in the sand. Give the outer world its due. Teach your children well. Eat and live responsibly. Pay your bills. But do not give your power away to anything limited.

If you find yourself tyrannized by the re-creation of limitation, fear and lack.... create a new response to these old tired limitations. You are God Consciousness. There is nothing limited about you. The purpose of your life is to experience yourself as beyond any limitation. The best most balancing focus is to give your attention to what sets you free.

Kathryn: How does this work in the creation and maintenance of fulfilling relationships?  Everyone here is equally divine love, equally God, equally sacred and holy. How you treat others is how you treat God. How you relate to yourself is how you relate to God. Treat others with the same respect and dignity you wish to be treated with.

Do not give your power away. If others are abusing you, harming you, treating you as disposable, value yourself. Create healthy boundaries; respect the divinity you have been given stewardship of. Trust that others are capable of healing themselves, and if they are disrespecting your divinity, move on, and do not let other’s love of limitation define your understanding and acceptance of yourself.

Kathryn: Wisdom Rising is the title of your third book. It is also a fabulous spiritual volume written almost for “deep wisdom on the go.” What was your inspiration here?  People asked me to write a book with shorter chapters that stood alone. That way if they didn’t have a lot of time to read, or if they put the book down for a week or more, it would not be a problem. They would enjoy each chapter independently as its own nugget of wisdom that would raise the quality of their life.

People also asked for stories from my own life that enabled me to self-resurrect. People wanted easy to read and digest wisdom without short changing them on the depth and quality of the liberating knowledge that is in “You Are What You Love.”

Kathryn: Your radio shows are very popular due to your keen intelligence, sharp wit and ability to speak in-depth on a wide range of subjects. What aspect of radio do you find the most gratifying?

You forgot to mention my humor. Just kidding.

I can support and help an unlimited number of listeners on both my weekly “You Are What You Love” shows airing on Sunday’s 11-12noon PST/2-3pm EST on KTLK 1150am http://www.ktlk1150.com/main.html and Fridays 1-2pm PST/4 to 5pm EST on Contact Talk Radio http://www.contacttalkradio.com/hosts/vaishali.html improve the quality of their lives from the inside out, and that is personally and spiritually satisfying. When I talk to one caller and break down what they are doing with their love and examine what is holding their suffering together, I am speaking to everyone listening about how to reframe their perspective on whatever the lesson or challenge may be, and to ultimately feel better about their lives and why they are here. Human suffering is a very universal phenomenon. Everyone likes to think their suffering is unique and special, but the reality of the matter is suffering is ubiquitous and inherent in the lives of all unenlightened beings.

I give individual, personal sessions. However as you can imagine there is no way I can sit down with every person on the planet, one at a time, before I die. With radio, and as an author, I can reach an unlimited number of people, and I can continue to be of service long after my human experience has expired. And if I’m like Dannion, and have 9 lives, I can keep coming back and extend the shelf life of my mortality. How good is that!

Kathryn: Along with your radio shows and public speaking engagements, you conduct Self-Emergence Sessions. What can a client expect to gain from scheduling an appointment with you?

I have had intuitive abilities since I was a child. Whatever you most need to understand about your life purpose, and what you are doing with your love is what comes up in a session. 

Everyone who makes an appointment gets whatever they most need to understand about why they are here, what their spiritual strengths are and how they sabotage themselves.

Imagine you had the opportunity to talk with your liberated mind, while the ego waited out in the hall. That is what these sessions are like. You can also find out more about these session at www.purplev.com

Kathryn: Do you have a formula for helping people find their purpose in life?

Understand the law, you are what you love and you love whatever you give your attention.

Remember that all life’s challenges are working for you, because you are the senior force of love.

Know that you cannot create learning experience you do not need.

Everything is a sacred gift for you to claim that you can BE LOVE NOW!

Kathryn: You are also an expert dream interpreter. You write about the dream work documented by Emmanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century. Would you share some of what you learned from his work regarding the significance of dreams?

 Swedenborg says that when we dream Angels come to us and speak to us in a symbolic, feeling/knowing language that is constantly commenting on the quality of our love.

So if you want to know what the divine has to say to you about your life, and what you are giving your love to... listen to your dreams.

Kathryn: Vaishali, one of your most charming quotes is, “whatever is worth doing is worth overdoing!” And you believe that choosing life “outside the box” is the only way to grow. Can you give me an example of how you suggest we can start to climb outside the box?

A lot of people limit themselves because of what they fear others might think or say about them. If you want to try something, like skydiving or writing poetry but you find your family may not approve or may be critical, choose to grow beyond those limited responses. Where would rock and roll be if Buddy Holly let others convince him rock music is of the devil?

Maybe you would like to dress differently or go join a ghost-hunting club, but are afraid of what your friends, co-workers or neighbors would say. Don’t waste your time living within other people’s comfort zones. In other words, dress like Cindy Lauper when you sign up for the next paranormal field trip.

Fear is very confining and forces us to live in highly limited quarters. Living inside the box translates to not taking the risk to write the book you always longed to, or not taking up painting, because you are afraid people will look upon you as “not good enough.” Or maybe it is something like not learning surfing or polka dancing even if you have always wanted to, because you were concerned others would laugh at you. Living inside the box is letting fear hold your life hostage. At the end of your life all that will matter is: did you have fun, did you play, did you explore what adventures your imagination invited you to?

The bottom line is this, and you know what the bottom line is… it is the little line at the bottom… when it comes to living “outside the box” the basic rule is a quote from James Dean, “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” And Vaishali’s Rule of Conduit: If it isn’t your problem, don’t make it your problem. Just get out there and rock on, babies!  

Kathryn: What is your take on the galactic shift in consciousness we are now experiencing? Do you sense that the monumental energy surrounding the year 2012 is something we should all take note of?

I see where you are going with this question, and yes, I do feel more profound and dramatic shifts and changes are coming. However, I am a real “here and now” present moment kind of wild woman. To me being present as a conscious force of love and choosing in every moment to give my attention to what is unlimited in nature is the only game plan I need, regardless of what year it is.

Tomorrow is promised to no one. I trust 2012 will take care of itself. Right now I am concerned with what am I doing with my attention now, in this present moment. The future is colored by how we relate to the present. The future is an extension of how we relate to each “now” moment. I feel the best way to honor the heightened opportunity for self-realization that is about to open to each and every one of us, is to make our mind our friend now.

I do not feel 2012 is about remaining loyal to limiting habits. So, I am focused on putting down whatever does not work for me now, so that when that time does come, I will walk into that new energy free and clear, because I have valued practicing that in the now. Beam me up!

Kathryn: What is the Wild Woman’s secret to living a happy, successful life?

If the truth be known… and I can tell you… Bugs Bunny is my religious symbol. He reminds me to not take reality seriously, to give all my enemies a kiss on the lips and to ask good questions like, “What’s up Doc?”

Also any day I get up, and I do not have to talk to a lawyer or a doctor, and I can watch my religious symbol, I’ve cornered the market on happy and successful.

In the end, everyone’s life is only as happy and successful as what they have chosen to give their attention to. And with that said may I suggest, “What’s Opera, Doc?” a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, or as I like to call it “animated enlightenment.”

Kathryn: What personal dreams do you still aspire to manifest?

To love to the best of my ability. To remain a faithful and loyal resident of Heaven unconditionally. To go to as many Grateful Dead concerts as possible. To work like I don’t need the money. To dance like I was at an endless Grateful Dead show. And, of course, to have plenty of organic, dark chocolate on hand. And when I die, I want Bugs Bunny to greet me on the other side. How cool would that be!!!!!

Music control: