| Opening Planetary Eyes The EDGE interview with HOPE -- Janice Gorman by Tim Miejan MANKATO, Minn. -- Janice Gorman, and her spiritual name Hope, are not household names, even among the metaphysical communities in the Twin Cities. Yet, the humble teacher and healer continues to empower and strengthen those who come to her for support and guidance, so much so that one former student and friend has inquired why an interview had never been done with Janice in The EDGE. Christina Rose, a former Fortune 500 consultant and former Minnesota resident, who now resides in California, said words cannot begin to describe the support she has received over the years from Hope, while experiencing powerful spiritual and physical transformations that one could only classify as miraculous. So we made a couple calls, scheduled a road trip to Mankato and found ourselves under the eaves at Hope's front door. A statue of the Buddha rests peacefully nearby, prompting visitors to feel at ease and know they are entering a home of friendship. That's what she calls her home, The Friendship House. Gorman, a Mankato native, attended Catholic school here. In the sixth grade, she was convinced that she would become a nun and serve the Lord in that way. It turns out, she is serving the Lord but without wearing a habit. "I thought for sure I was going to be a nun because I was kind of a good kid growing up," she said. "That's what my early aspirations were. And then I thought that I would be a nurse or a teacher, but I ended up getting a degree in family counseling and chemical dependency counseling and worked as a chemical dependency counselor and a family counselor at the hospital here in Mankato. What event in your life put you on the spiritual path? Gorman: Actually, two. When I was 11 years old, a friend and I were the ones who cleaned the altar and cleaned up before church services at Saint Peter & Paul's Catholic Church here in Mankato. And, before I would do that, I would always go in and kiss the feet of Jesus on the crucifix. I always had this divinity or devotion to Jesus . It was when I was 11 years old that I saw my first apparition. I thought it was a fire in the wall, because there was smoke that started coming out of the wall -- and then it just formulated behind the cross and turned into a young woman about the age of 16. She never said anything to me, but I thought I was going nuts, of course, so I just kind of shook my head and shook my head and pretty soon she kind of cocked her head and smiled -- and out the wall she went. After that I really started hearing, and my clairvoyancy started opening up. I told the priest about and I talked to the sisters (even right now I have a spiritual director who's a nun), and some believed it and some didn't. Then, after that, I just kind of put it away. After the death of my son, I think my real awakening to my spirituality came. How old was he? Gorman: He was 19 months old. He was killed in a farm accident during my first marriage. That , of course, threw me into a tizzie. But, it was after that that I opened up completely. I mean, I had to surrender during that time. Was that your first child. Gorman: Second child, first son. So that's the piece that really threw me into ... Asking questions. Gorman: Yeah, uh-huh. Like, "Why did this happen?" Gorman: Christina Rose always says, "You know, kid, I think you were just birthed into your Divinity." Because I always just really had this reverence for God and I've always had this thing about the Blessed Virgin Mary. I'm really into the Divine Feminine around Mary, although my spiritual director would ask, "If Mary was sitting right in front of you, would she want all the glory?" And I said, "No, probably not. She'd just direct it to the Source." I really believe that if she was sitting in front of me and I'd go "Ohhhh!" then she would just direct me to the Source. That's why I'm uncomfortable with this interview, because I try to direct everything to the Source. I truly try to stay out of ego and personality, because I've seen that ruin a lot of things for a lot of people. Does that explain why you are not highly visible? Gorman: That's correct. I believe in that little paradox that Caroline Myss says, that small is really big and big is really small. So many people will say, "Well, gee, you could be doing this, and you could be that." But, I'm kind of like Jesus in a way, staying with the other people. I don't go into the big stuff. What do you make of the New Age movement at this point in our time. Gorman: I think they are lost in metaphysics and have dropped the spiritual. And materialism. Gorman: Yes, because people have asked me, "Why haven't you written books?" Every time I contact Spirit, Spirit says, "Everything's been written, but nothing's been done. Everything that needs to be said has been said. Nothing is getting done. We want you to teach people about how to get things done." So, I don't have any need, nor want, nor drive to do that at all. I just want to have people become leaders instead of me becoming the leader. Everything that I hear about facilitators and teachers is that our job is to come down off the pedestal and join in community. So, my whole work is doing things in community. So if I were going to be working with the community, with the people from the Friendship house, you wouldn't know that I am Hope or Janice Gorman from the Friendship House. You'd just know that I'm right there at the community doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing. So that's what I see kind of wrong in the whole metaphysical community. They might put the word "spiritual" on it, but to me it isn't spirituality. Some Christians have promoted the idea of WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? If you think about what would Jesus do in a lot of situations, it wouldn't be writing a lot of books or charging a lot of money to speak with people. It would be making His gifts as accessible as possible. Gorman: And that's what I do. I think that's also why people come to see me, because my rates are dirt cheap. But I don't need any more than what I'm getting. Every time I go to a reader, they would tell me that I must raise my rates. And I've thought about it and talked about it. I started out at $15 an hour and then I took my lead from Spirit and raised them to $17 an hour, then $20 an hour, then $25 and hour, then $30 an hour, then $35. Spirit would always give me $5 increments. Finally, here now in Mankato, I'm up to $40 an hour -- and in the Cities I get to charge $50. I use the word "get" because Spirit tells me what to. And, that's enough for me. Who is HOPE? Gorman: I got that as a Spirit name. It stands for Help Open Planetary Eyes. It isn't about hoping for a better future or anything like that. It's just that I'm supposed to help. When they told me it stood for Help Open Planetary Eyes, I believe right now in my knowledge, in my knowingness, that it was to help people not open up their gifts, to their gifts, I think it is to open up to God. I used to think it was about opening people up to their gifts, but now, with my devotion, I know I'm to help them open up to God, not in a right-wing religious way and not in a woo-woo way-out way, but kind of meeting in the middle of all this stuff. It's about opening up to the Source. Obviously, the Source is on the inside and on the outside and all around us, but something's wrong with the world. I think that when we open up to God and allow God to work through us, then we become different people. And yet, members of our government say "God is on our side" in the midst of killing people. Gorman: I don't think they've been very clear. They don't have clarity, and the only way I believe that people can really have clarity is through prayer and meditation and by doing lots of hard work of being clear so they're out of ego and personality. I would love to talk to the president on a one-to-one basis and just say, "You know, when you say that, where is that coming from? Is that really coming from the depths of your soul or is that coming from something that you learned in church?" I don't know how people do such things in the name of God. That would be big-time karma. I say a prayer every time somebody comes to me for a reading or for teaching. I just say that whatever happens in this room, I give all the honor, all the glory, all the praise and all the all to God, and I promise the person that I won't lie and I promise that I won't embellish -- and they always act really surprised about that. They always say, "Well, why would you say that?" And I say, "Well, because I do think some people do embellish and I think some people do lie. I want you to know that I won't lie to you." And then they'll always look back at me and they'll say, "I deeply appreciate that." You mentioned that the key is to live in service to God and to receive it through meditation or prayer. Do you think a lot of people just don't do the work? Gorman: Yes, because it takes a lot of discipline. Not wanting to do it or finding distractions and excuses for not doing it. Gorman: Uh-huh. It takes a lot of discipline, a lot of practice, a lot of commitment to do that piece. I think everybody gets caught up in their lives. I always tell students, "Don't go to a teacher who doesn't have a teacher." I think that's important. I really teach the thing of discipline and practice. I have a discipline and I've had that for a long time. That came from when I was very, very young, and I think it did come out of my upbringing of Catholicism, too. I didn't go through it like I was sinful. I never, ever thought I was sinful or bad. It wasn't that at all. I wanted to devote my life to God. I wanted to pray to God. I'm not sitting around praying because I think I'm bad, by any means. I want to devote some time to God in private prayer and the practice of meditation. That's the piece that keeps people unclear. Unclear. Unclear. Unclear. I see a lot of that in the metaphysical and spiritual world. I think we've gotten all these messages from Spirit and now we need to apply them and focus on how to apply this stuff in our everyday life. Gorman: I lovingly challenge people to go out and feed the poor. I lovingly challenge people to become active in their community or even active in their churches, active in their neighborhood, active in their families, active someplace. Even the Dalai Lama says prayer is great, but action's better. I mean, every big leader and holy person is talking about the art of practicing it and being it and doing it. I was just telling a friend of mine the other day that I don't even want to put channeler behind my name any more. I just don't. I don't want people to just come to me for answers. They have it all. Like Spirit said, "Everything's been written and nothing's been done and now is the time to do what you know you're supposed to do." And see, you don't charge any money for that. There's something about the mentality that the more that you charge the better that you are -- and I would lovingly challenge that, too. People don't think they're getting much if they don't have to pay very much. You're not getting a Jaguar if you're not paying $50,000. It's a status thing. So, I want to go to the best, the person who charges a lot. Gorman: Yes, and I do teach that whenever I go to speak to groups or have one-to-ones that if you go to a channeler or a spiritual teacher or spiritual director and you're wanting or hoping that they are connected with God, I always tell them it looks like God, it feels like God, it sounds like God, then all of it's God. You'll know when it's of the God and Goddess Source. Don't doubt that. I believe in the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi's to give, to give, to give -- and I do, and I'm happy giving. I literally tell my clients and the people who come to the Friendship House that if they see me moving into ego and personality, please give me a quick, swift kick in the butt. Tell me about the Friendship House and how that developed. Gorman: When I worked at the treatment center here in Mankato, I was told in my ear, "You are to give your two week notice and start the Friendship House." So, much to my husband's chagrin, on that day I gave my two-week notice and started the Friendship House. Is this the Friendship House, right here? This is the space of the Friendship House? Gorman: Uh-huh. And I do classes downstairs, and when they get too big I get a community room in Mankato. I've been doing this now for 11 years, right here at the Friendship House. I got the name Friendship House through a client at the hospital. I asked him what he thought he was missing in his life as he recovered. And he said, "A place to find friends. If we only had a place to go where you can sit, like a house, and just have it be a friendship house." And, that never left my mind, and so that's what I always wanted to create, a place where people would come with spiritual wanting and need and create friends. That's what the Friendship House is about. We have Christmas parties, and I have many prayer groups. And we do transmission meditation as a large group. I also do pilgrimages with women. Last year, I took them down to Our Lady of Guadalupe and went to Mexico to the healing waters of Tlacote. This summer, we're going to go to California to see Benjamin Creme speak. What are your thoughts about Benjamin Creme and his information he's bringing forth about Maitreya? Gorman: I think it is Truth. I was introduced to Maitreya through The EDGE, and I was enamored by the material that was written about Maitreya. So then I got every book I possibly could read. I learned about this world teacher who was going to teach about sharing and the art of cooperation and about not being into ego and personality and that our job is to feed the poor and our job is to house the homeless and our job is not to constantly clear people's chakras or connect them up with their 12-strand DNA or get them into sacred geometry formation. I just loved the fact that when I read his material, it was a simple as, "Let's get the work done. Let's clean up the polluted streams and the polluted air and feed the hungry and home the homeless and..." Share the wealth. Gorman: Yes. I just loved that completely. So that is my philosophy, and that was Master Jesus' philosophy. So it all made much sense to me. That's the reason I'm journeying out to see Benjamin Creme in person, so I can see him speak. I was told that this is the last time Benjamin will be coming over here to the United States. Ever? Gorman: Because he is getting old, so it's just easier for him to stay. Who's influenced you most along your spiritual path? Has there been a person who's influenced you most. Gorman: Yes, but she isn't known by anybody. She's an elder friend of mine and her name is Irma Beaumont and she's 86 years old. Just someone whom you've known for a long time? Gorman: Uh-huh, and she is probably one of the holiest and aligned people. She's like a Mother Teresa to me. She always says, "Persevere, dear. Persevere. I know you get tired in all this, but your job is to persevere. God wants you to do holy and good things, so you must persevere." When asked about who is the greatest influence, some people might say Babaji or Master Jesus and, of course, all of them have affected my life, but if I think of the person who has helped me the most to continue to persevere, it is Irma, this little elder who is known by no one except a handful of people. She is one of the holiest people I know. When I went to go see Ammachi, I loved her energy. And Mother Meera, I've seen her in person. Those are two women who, in their holy divinity, have affected my life, but Irma helps me stay connected to the line of God. I wish everybody had an Irma in their life. She encourages you to keep taking the next step. Gorman: And keeps you connected to God. If these people who go off into the metaphysical world and charge too much had a little Irma in their life, she would ask them, "What do you think God thinks about that?" That's the first thing she would say, "What do you think God would think about that, Janice? What do you think God would say?" I think everybody needs a little Irma in their life to help keep them out of ego and personality and to do God's work. She'll always say, "You're here to do God's work." What is happening in the bigger perspective of the world? Some people have suggested to me that humankind is on the verge of deciding whether or not to stay on this earth. As for me, I just keep seeing that there's a big swell of love underneath everything and it's going to come up and crash over everything. Is what we're experiencing just kind of a reorganization? Gorman: I see it as a spiritual reorganization and a spiritual getting priorities straight. I think it's a wonderful learning lesson and I don't see anything real bad. In a trance or in a meditation, I asked Spirit to take me to the new world, the new Jerusalem, the new this, the new that. And I asked them to take me to what is to come. They took me to a place that was like a courtyard. People would come to this courtyard. And in this courtyard, there was a round circle on the ground with what they said was their motto. This would be the motto of the new world. I couldn't read it and I said, "Would you teach me it?" And they said, "Well it comes from the round table of King Arthur. They said the motto of the new world to come is that when we serve each other, it is then that we are truly free." And I can remember crying when I saw that and heard that. And I said, "Is that really to come?" And they said, "Yes, that is to come." That it will be coming. And, so I don't see this a time of doom-and-gloom. I see this as wonderful chaos for us to correct ourselves. We're being given an opportunity of great growth. When I came out of that whole vision that I had, I always tell people that I always come to my holy wall. I not only have a mental and emotional relationship with God, I have a visceral body reaction to God. And so I said, "Is that true, what I saw? Is that true?" And, I was told that it was very true and it will be quite lovely and we will receive lots of love. I keep on saying, "This has to be true. I can't teach if it isn't true." And, I believe it to be true. Of course, it's scary and it's ugly, but if you go there and you just keep on doing, persevering like Irma would say, and keep on doing God's work, then I think good things are going to come. What suggestions do you have for people who are depressed or fearful at this time. Gorman: Try a natural high. Go for a walk, sit in the sun, visit with friends, do something for another person, feed the poor, go exercise, go kiss a baby. Go horseback riding. I always tell people to do a natural high. God has given us so many natural highs and we don't take and use all the natural highs that we have. Do whatever you need to do to have this really wonderful natural high and see all the good things, all the beautiful things. Every day when I wake up, I go outside. And when I listen to the birds, I am just so utterly grateful that I have eardrums. You know? I so appreciate that single moment. I tell people to persevere, like Irma tells me, persevere, persevere. I always thought persevere was not a very good word, because I always thought, "Oh, I don't know if I want to persevere." Yeah, hard work. Gorman: But, the bottom line isn't. It is a choice of how you want to see it. But because there's that duality right now on the planet, it does take a little bit of discipline and work to stay above it all and you do your prayer work. I guess it comes down to your choice: Do you want to be above it or do you want to be in it? Gorman: I liked Einstein's statement, when he said that you can't solve a problem on the same level that the problem was created, that you have to go above it all. That's what prayer and meditation does: They bring you above it all, with all the energy and the chi and the prana and the spirit. Then you are not down in the dumps. You go out and you can help an elder rake her lawn. We think we have to do such big things, but we don't. It's really the little, bitty things that we can do that really matter. Like the Buddhist saying: Chop wood, carry water. What do you do when you're enlightened? Chop wood, carry water. I live near a park with woods and a pond, and two or three times a day I walk my puppy there. He goes through the same path, but it's all new to him every time. Gorman: Yes, that's how they experience the world and that's how we're supposed to experience the world, as well. There's so much to see and be thankful for and be happy about. Why do people come to see you? Gorman: I think that people are prioritizing their life a little bit differently and looking at their life. I would say that the majority of people who come to see me are really coming to enrich their spiritual life. They are coming for spiritual teaching or direction, versus channeling. Let's look at our spiritual journey and what we need to improve and what we need to glorify and be proud of. So many more people are coming for that. I see many people coming for how to be a better person rather than to have their 12-strand DNA healed. If we are made out of the likeness of God, if people really, truly believe that we are made out of the likeness of God, then why is there so much out there in the so-called spiritual and metaphysical world telling us that we are not right. I mean, on one hand they say you are a perfect specimen of God, you're True Divinity. And then they say, "You need my workshop, it's only $124, and it's the best workshop you'll ever need or want." So, on one hand they're telling you you're perfect, while on the other hand they're telling you that you need help aligning your chakras. In that sense, it ties into the whole idea of needing to be healed. Gorman: We are made of the likeness of God and now our job is to just be like God. It was funny. The other day when I was praying, Spirit said, "The question never was: 'To be or not to be, that is the question.' " They said the question is, "What are you being? That is the question." What are you being? Are you being functional or dysfunctional? You don't need to have anything done to you anymore. You don't need. I know that many people get mad at me when I say that, especially teachers, because they're making a business out of it. But my job is to bring people to the closeness of God. Your job is to help open planetary eyes. Gorman: Yes, it is. And if I have to do it one person at a time, I'm just fine, because God brings me the people who are ready. So if you're thinking of God or if you're thinking you're sick or needing to be healed, then you're going to experience whatever you believe. Gorman: That's correct. What if everybody who took an ad out in The EDGE, wrote, "We're closing up shop because we're telling you right now, right here, that you are perfect in the eyes of God and you are healed now through the mercy of God -- and your job now is to be God." What if you opened up a whole magazine that told you that you were perfect in the eyes of God and that the only thing that was left is for you now to go forth and be like God? And every article said the same thing. Gorman: Yes, and every article said the same thing. It would close up shop for many people. And I pray for the day that I can see everything close up shop, because this has been a vocation and not a profession for me. I had a profession and then I went into my vocation. This has not been a business. It has never been about selling hope. It has never been about me. It has always been about God -- and it's supposed to always be about God. And God is not for sale. God does not cost anything. I will always direct people towards God. You mentioned that you're about teaching people about true power and humility. How do people move from where they are to that space? Gorman: Through choice. It's not a process anymore. Right now, energetically, cosmically, we are in that moment of Now, so the choice, I don't think, is death and life. The choice is moving into humbleness and doing the right thing at the right time. I mean, just be good. It's just purely out of choice whether you want to serve God and serve others or whether you want to service your ego and personality and rip people off. It ties into the idea of integrity. Gorman: It is, it does. And I almost felt like I was somewhat the Ralph Nader of spirituality to try and help people understand that something's gone awry in the whole metaphysical, spiritual world. Humbleness is really a choice, sometimes a hard choice. I have to admit that it's a hard choice. In the Bible, it is said that the meek shall inherit the earth and the aggressive who are really out there trying to promote, promote, promote, promote, promote will not. I heard that the first will go last and the last will go first -- and you kind of see that with the Catholic Church kind of going down hill and with the Martha Stewarts of the world and big business and Enron. I really believe that the meek and the humble will persevere. It's like the powerful are all stumbling over each other trying to get up the hill. Gorman: And I don't want to be a part of that at all. I don't know how you keep family together. I have four kids and a husband and a cat and a rabbit and a house, and what I hear is that as we move through this spiritual opening, we're supposed to bring through the family unit. We're not supposed to say goodbye to them for us to go off on our spiritual journey. We're supposed to bring them through the door with us. That's the new way of doing it, and I said, "Hurray for that." I think that, in the long run, everything is going to come smooth out and love is going to rule and love is going to win out, along with the humble and meek with all those attributes like spiritual integrity. I don't know if I read it or heard it, but someone said that Truth goes through three phases: Truth first is ridiculed, then after it's ridiculed and made fun of, then it's rejected. But the last phase of Truth is that it's inevitable. So I tell people to stay in their spirituality and their God, however they want to manifest their God, whether Buddha, Kwan Yin, Krishna, Jehovah, Allah. If you stay in your Truth, then it will be inevitable -- and we're moving into that inevitability. We're going to see that. That's going to shine through. Truth is an inevitable thing. It can be ridiculed and it can be rejected, but Truth is with God and it will be a very powerful thing. I believe it's really right around the corner. It's right around the corner. Be patient. I always tell them to be patient. Be patient. Persevere. Contact Janice Gorman at (507) 359-1730, or visit her website at www.thefriendshiphouse.com Tim Miejan is editor of The EDGE. Contact him at (651) 578-8969, toll-free 1 (888) 776-5687, or e-mail editor@edgenews.com Copyright © 2003 Tim Miejan |
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