Deborah Lindsey, IMU President

As President and founder of the International Metaphysical University, Deborah Lindsey is no stranger to the principles of metaphysics. Even as a small girl who was raised on a dairy farm in Lewistown, Pennsylvania Deborah was keenly aware of the spiritual energies that seemed to permeate her life.

At this time, she called this energy “God,” understanding there was a current within all life which could not readily be seen in a physical way and yet was a part of everything. Deborah realized this spiritual dimension was from another plane of existence that was integral to all sentient beings and one that unified our own lives on earth. This set Deborah on her life-long quest to learn and understand which eventually turned into her passion for metaphysics. Deborah had her first real “experience” of God and the divine at a Christian church camp when she was eleven-years-old. Standing at a cross during a religious ceremony Deborah felt a presence of what she understood as God at the time.

As Deborah explains, “It was awe inspiring and I was transformed by it. That night I went in front of the congregation and declared myself “saved”. The problem was that when I went back to my church none of what they were telling me about God meshed with what I FELT. I remember my grandmother telling me animals didn’t get into heaven and that everyone who ever lived before the birth of Jesus or who didn’t know about him went to hell. To me that was a completely ridiculous proposition and I couldn’t abide it. From that moment on, I had a real disconnection with the Christian belief.’

Roadside”Then at age twenty-four I read a book called “Another Roadside Attraction” by Tom Robbins, a counter-culture classic that transformed my views. For the first time, I felt like it was safe to explore what I BELIEVED as compared to what had been spoon fed to me by my society. Before that I was always hedging my bets, PRETENDING to believe because I was afraid of what might happen if I was wrong. I remember seeing one of those church placards that said, “If you don’t believe, you better be right!” and that was exactly where I was. I was caught up in the FEAR of God and had moved so far away from the LOVE of God that it was extreme. By the end of the book, I declared myself not just an agnostic but a full-fledged atheist.’

“In retrospect, it was the most important thing I ever did in terms of my own spiritual learning. It gave me permission to tear down all of the beliefs that had been spoon fed to me in order to really examine what I believed. But like all good things, the pendulum swung to the extreme. I was so adamantly atheist that I literally talked a reverend out of his collar! After one good conversation with me (forever the catalyst and debater!), he gave up his church and his commission. That’s how far to the extreme I had gone.’

“But the divine force of the universe does not allow one to stay away for too long and the pendulum soon began to swing in the opposite direction once more.”

“During this time I started a business called Local Music Store. It was a small artist development and distribution company in Washington, DC. It was a great business to be in in my 30′s and I had a blast. Now what’s interesting about this is that I know many people think…music industry and atheism—decadence. But it wasn’t like that at all. My internal moral code was not linked to any religion. It came from inside of me. And so even though I had an absolute blast during those years (and we helped more than a few bands go national), I managed to keep myself pretty well on the straight and narrow.”

That is until the day came when I sold the business. Up until that point, my life was in fine shape. But at that time in my life, everything was in shambles. I gave up my business, broke up with my boyfriend, and found out that the people I thought were my friends were really business associates. When I was no longer the one who could get them in the club or get their music in the right hands, I was unceremoniously tossed aside. To make matters worse, my new roommate moved in and promptly shot himself in the head, leaving the note for me to find him.”

“All of this added up to what Saint John of the Cross famously called the “Dark Night of the Soul.” It was the turning point to my life. It appeared that God had taken everything that mattered to me and shook it out at the core. I was alone, devastated, with no place to turn.”

“One evening it all changed. I had a friend named Vicki Page. She was “different” in a way that even now I can’t describe. In her mid-thirties, Vicki was already on the metaphysical track. Her terms were very mysterious to me at the time. She used to comment that she had some work to do and that when it was done she was “leaving.” So one night our mutual friend Jeanne called me up and asked me to go to a show at the 9:30 Club. A new hot band called “No Doubt” was playing and we had backstage passes. Vicki, who was a rock photographer, had scored them so that she could take some photos of the band.’

“But I was really down. So Vicki told me for what was probably the thousandth time to go the Arlington Metaphysical Chapel. She told me about a psychic medium Reed Brown and what a magician he was. So on that night, I got directions fr om her and I went to the church. You have to understand that I was down pretty far to go to that church because at that point I absolutely hated not just religion but God him/herself. But they were just “giving messages” so I could talk my way into it.’ “That night I walked into the church and immediately started crying. I cried for what must have been hours. I knew instantly that I was home. My life had changed and I was firmly on my path.”

“When I got home that night, there was a message on my answering machine about Vicki. Earlier in the evening, she complained that she didn’t feel good. Later, that night, at 36 years old, she collapsed and died. No warning. No explanation. No nothing. Even the autopsy was inconclusive. (And no it wasn’t drugs. She didn’t touch the stuff.)’

“In retrospect, I know that Vicki was part of my path as she probably was for others. I see her as an angel that came to help me. When I walked into that church, the final piece of her earthly work was complete. I think of her now with complete gratitude.’

“Afterwards, I attended a weekend spiritualist retreat for the United Metaphysical Churches in Roanoke, Virginia with the aforementioned Reed Brown. For the first time in my life I experienced pure bliss. I remember not being able to feel my feet for the entire weekend. It was during my stay in Roanoke that I first met Joe Fielder, the man who would become my life partner for the next nine years and would be the co-founder of Self-Health and the reason I moved to West Virginia.’

“My path began to unfold and I was given the opportunity to touch the lives of others. I was interested in alternative healing which allowed me to master the Emotional Freedom Technique, the Jaffe-Mallor Technique, Kolaimi, Touch for Heath, Quantum Touch, Pranic Healing, Brain Gym,and hypnosis to open a full-time healing practice while tackling spiritual and energetic issues so my clients might carry on to live happier more peaceful lives.’

“I also began to travel teaching courses on EFT, Allergy Elimination, and never straying from my interest on how the brain’s energy works, taught a fun workshop “How to Bend a Spoon with Your Mind.” This put me in touch with hundreds of amazing people whose paths were similar to my own—an undying interest in the sacred, the divine and also the unexplained. These became contacts for my future goals which could only flower into the International Metaphysical University, bringing together minds, hearts and souls on a similar path to knowledge, healing and enlightenment.

‘Through the creation of IMU, I continue with my quest in the fascinating realm we call metaphysics. And as they say, the rest is history in the making!”