The Spirit of Tuscany – A Retreat

Whispers from the Light held its first international Evidential Mediumship Development retreat last month at the magical Le Pianore in Italy’s Tuscan hills. Although I had studied the photos of the venue many times in preparation for the retreat, the natural beauty, the historic accommodations and the light, bright energy that surrounded us in our mediumship study was far beyond my imaginings.

Day 1: Rome to Le Pianore

Having all arrived in Italy on different days and from different cities, the Whispers Group assembled for brunch at a hotel on the outskirts of Rome on the morning of our journey to Le Pianore. Mercury Rx (retrograde) was in full force and was definitely showing us that “best-laid plans” could and would be re-arranged! Setbacks aside, we’d all made it to Rome and were finally coming together. Whew!

I’d held two Zooms in the months prior, to begin the energetic connections within the group, but for those assembled at brunch, it was the first time to meet each other in person. Despite the “rules” I’d put in place about not sharing too much of one’s background, the discussion was lively and topics far-reaching. This retreat group was a little further along on the mediumship development path, each having had at least one mediumship or psychic development class behind them, and our discussion reflected it. I knew it was going to be an exciting and intellectually expansive week!

Our driver (and interpreter/guide), Carlo Albertini, arrived early and by 1pm, we were on our way northward through the Italian countryside to our destination. He pointed out the various wine regions and movie locations (like Under the Tuscan Sun, and Gladiator) as we went. Rumor had it, George Clooney and Adam Sandler were currently scouting locations for a new film in Tuscany. Sadly, we never crossed paths!

Upon arrival at Le Pianore, we took a few minutes to take in the sweeping vista of olive groves and mountains and then Enrica, our lovely host, guided us to our rooms to settle in. It was Enrica’s parents, Elena and Francisco Micillo, whose vision manifested into the beautiful estate that we too would quickly come to love. The main house, in which most of the bedrooms are situated, dates to 1100AD. One could feel the solidness, the agelessness of the villa in the cool tile floors, beamed ceilings and thick stucco walls. And in the elegantly-furnished bedrooms and common areas, we felt the grace and care and love invested in preparation for their guests. Fresh, fragrant air flowed through the rooms and the mountain views from every window were breathtaking! I could feel my body relax further with every breath.

Before dinner, we began our mediumship exercises with a Mindfulness Walk on the property to a small pool fed by a natural spring. In our journey together over the retreat week, we would be moving from a focus on full conscious activity and awareness, to an increasing amount of time in various levels of subconsciousness. A heightened conscious and mindful awareness of our physical senses enhances our ability to pay attention to the inner senses which engage in meditation, mediumship, and hypnosis, all of which the participants would soon be experiencing.

Dinner! There are no words, just memories that make me salivate and wish I was there! Every meal was lovingly prepared by Enrica and her cadre of professionally trained chefs using homemade pasta and fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits from the Le Pianore gardens. Here are just a few of the mouthwatering dishes. (The rest were gobbled up before we thought to take photos!)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I looked forward to the cappuccino we enjoyed each morning with our home-baked breads and cakes, granola and fresh yogurt. As soon as I returned home, I ordered a stovetop espresso maker, like the one they used. Somehow, my coffee isn’t quite the same, but close!

Exploring “The Big Ideas“

On our first evening, we began our group conversation around the role of the Medium in today’s society. Why do we feel called to this work and why is it important? We also opened the door to topics ranging from the nature of the soul—in human body and as Spirit—to the role of Karma, pre-destiny and free will, and the impact of past, parallel, probable and present life experiences on the human journey, here and now.

To help ground our discussions, I drew on the writings and research surrounding Life between Lives (on the Other Side) of Dr. Michael Newton (Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls), Dr. Brian Weiss’ many works in Past Life Regression, Dr. Ian Stephenson and Dr. Jim Tucker on childrens’ past life memories, and perhaps the most profound of all, the 1972 manuscript dictated to medium channel Jane Roberts by discarnate Master Teacher, Seth, in the brilliant work Seth Speaks. Through the week, we would explore the following questions:

• What is the role of the Medium in today’s society?
• What happens in the process of Mediumship?
• How can we, how do we, how should we communicate with Spirit?
• Where do we go in dream and meditation states? How do these states work to support our work as mediums?
• What’s the relationship between Body/Ego and Soul consciousness? How should we think about the journey of the soul, separate from the physical body?
• Why do we choose to incarnate on Earth time after time?
• What is the nature of our lives on “The Other Side”? Where do we go? What do we do? Why do we seek to connect with those still on the Earth plane?
• How can we understand or characterize the interplay between Pre-Destiny and Free Will while in human form?
• What is Karma and how do we work with it to advance our soul’s development?
• How might our past or parallel or probable lives impact this life, or one life to another?

Of course, there is no singular answer to any of the questions above, but we ask and we seek and we share and we go deeper with every exchange. When you bring a group like this together, the conversations are always flowing and lively, the sharing intimate and fascinating. We teach and learn from each other, recognizing that we are simply scratching the surface of knowledge, learning to discern what resonates and let go of what doesn’t. But that’s the exciting aspect of spiritual seeking, of this work, isn’t it? What more is there to learn about ourselves, our soul’s history, our place in history, our connection to others, our path, our purpose? In the days to come, these questions and ideas would underpin and help these budding Mediums to frame their experiences in meditation, mediumship and regression hyposis.

DAY 2: Breaking Through

We began our first day together with yoga, as we would do all mornings of study. The Medium is but a vehicle for energetic transmission of information. Our minds and bodies act like radios, if you will, picking up signals and then communicating the messages in a form that can be understood by the receiver (Sitter). I learned years ago that when I am mindful about what goes into my body, and how I care for my body, my ability to receive clearly as a Medium is enhanced, and so for the week we were constantly mindful of the body’s state or wellbeing, both physically and emotionally.

The studio at Le Pianore held a peaceful, quiet energy for our work. How could it not? The calm, clear energy of the Tuscan hills permeated every cell of the structure, its very material deriving from the land. If I close my eyes, I can still feel the smooth wooden floors beneath my bare feet, smell the raw wood of the rafters, experience the gentle peace it exudes. I dearly miss it.

As we concluded yoga, the energy of Mercury Rx once again reminded us that we were still firmly under its influence and we were, once again, being asked to release, reset and re-align to a slightly different set of circumstances. We were getting a lot of practice in this regard!

In our morning session, as storm clouds literally gathered overhead, my favorite astrologer, Pippa Kate from Australia zoomed in to talk to us about the broader energy within which we would be working over the week. We were relieved to hear that by the next day, Mercury Rx would be aligning with the sun and burning away the rough treatment of the first few days. Clarity, particularly with respect to past lives, and the opportunity to link seemingly random events over lifetimes, and even to correct past life behaviors would be available to us. In perfect synchronicity, the next morning, our first Past Life Regressions were scheduled to begin.

On our mid-morning break, the cloudy morning cleared and the most brilliant double rainbow seemed to shoot up from just beyond Le Pianore’s olive orchard. A welcome sign from the Universe that all was right with the world. And perhaps a good reminder that unseen forces are always at work in our lives and so we do our best to become like the river and flow gracefully around unexpected obstacles and events, learning, always learning, as we move ever forward on our paths.

The rest of the morning was filled with exploring and learning to consciously control the energy body. Working as a Medium means working with energy — your own, your client’s, and that of the Spirit Communicator. Understanding the intricacies of the energy body, including the Auric energy body and Chakra System is the first step in learning how to manage and manipulate one’s own energy, whether to pull in for protection from noisy frequencies or negative energies, or to expand and open in our connection to others here and in Spirit. Chakra and energy-body (auric) colors and intensities can also be the perfect shorthand for Spirit’s more complex messages regarding physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Mantras and Meditations came into the mix of activities and we gradually coaxed open the mind. Psychic assessment pair exercises yielded to psychometry practice later in the day. Objects once owned by or made by a Loved One in Spirit (or were a gift from a Loved One) can still hold their residual energy and can serve as a catalyst for psychic (person to person) information flow and/or as a gateway to mediumistic information reception. It was exciting to see the Spirit communications open up, fully and dramatically in our evening session. Piggy-backing (one Medium building on another) was happening spontaneously as the room filled with very “buzzy” energy! I think we all went back to our rooms high from all the excitement and the surprisingly evidential messagework unfolding on our very first day! My expectations were high for the days to come.

DAY 3: Finding Clarity

Pippa was right. The past life regressions that filled our morning session afforded a significant learning opportunity. Connections between past and present life made themselves known as participants recounted their experiences under this hypnosis technique. So much material upon which to reflect, to learn, to grow!

It’s easy to forget that this moment in time, in this body, living this life with these people in this place and feeling these emotions—while significant to us, right here and now—is but a drop in the ocean of our soul’s experience. We are so much more than what we see, hear, sense or know in the physical sense. Regression hypnosis allows us a short window into another part of our soul’s life; it offers us a thread of connection to our greater selves. And when performed in an energy as clear as Le Pianore, it can be extremely powerful. And by all accounts, it was.

In the afternoon, we shifted gears into a short lecture on mediumship symbology and process, followed by fast-paced mediumship exercises. I told you this group had some foundation, right? Put that together with a process, and we had a winning formula to build on. The message details that began to come through each of the participants were impressive! In a surprise to me, one student, Laura, brought through, for the first time ever, my 8x great grandfather, Emanuel Enoch Buck, who landed in Massachusetts in 1634 at the age of 11 with his parents and brother. They settled in what would later be called Cambridge. As an adult in the mid to late 1600s, Emanuel would become influential in the founding and building of several early Connecticut towns, which means a fair amount is written about him, making it possible to validate many aspects of Laura’s message. In this work, it’s all about the evidence!

I wrote this in my journal at the end of the day: “They all have strong but varied foundations and are blossoming in powerful ways. All natural Mediums.”

DAY 4: Going Deeper…and a little Play Time

We thought we were out of the woods with Mercury Rx, but no. Our excursion day got bumped out due to a driver conflict… so it was back to the Studio Loft for more Regression Hypnosis, but this time, we would explore Life Between Lives, that space between lifetimes on The Other Side. Yes, it may be hard to imagine, but it’s possible. [If you’re curious, check out Dr. Michael Newton’s decades-long research in this area.]

A full afternoon of Mediumship practice, including an introduction to “Platform” or Gallery-style mediumship, left everyone a little depleted, but after evening dinner, we rallied as we picked up the fun with psychic manipulation and physical mediumship: spoonbending, dowsing rods and automatic (group) writing.

Spoonbending: I brought to Italy a set of spoons all of the same type, so we could rule out that variable in success rates. There are varied methods promoted for spoonbending generally, but one of the participants, Chelsea, who has had regular success with it, led us by raising the energy with music, dancing and singing. Then, we simply focussed on our spoons. It was personally mind-blowing to see spoons bend and twist like putty in others’ hands. Unfortunately, as in earlier attempts, mine didn’t budge! No amount of singing or joy or love or cajoling of my spoon was going to move it, but I’ve not given up! Perhaps, I just need to find the right method for me. 😀

Dowsing rods: It had been many years since I tried dowsing rods, or “witch sticks” as petrol professionals who use them still today in American oil fields, refer to them. (Surprising, but true!) In mediumship, dowsing rods are used to point to Spirit energies as well as to allow Spirit to answer yes/no questions. When Chelsea asked me before the retreat about trying them at the retreat, I was game. I’m always open to trying anything like this in a controlled and clear group environment (As with any oracle, I do not recommend novices trying these alone at home). We had several different rod types to experiment with, and again, we could observe the difference in how the sticks seemed to respond better to some people’s control than others, overpowering natural body movements, which would otherwise invalidate the messages. The nature of a person’s subtle energy body plays a role in this process, though I’ve no science to back this up…yet! A highlight was connecting with a group of Spirits whose stated role was to protect Le Pianore, its land, its keepers and its guests.

Automatic writing: I’ve no photos to share, but this is accomplished with one person grasping the pen firmly and holding the point steady on a large sheet of paper, while holding the arm more loosely, allowing the arm to be moved by Spirit. The others present form a human chain, directing energy to the writer. Then we invite Spirit in the Light to work with the body. The process is a bit awkward as Spirit links with the Medium, and writing is often difficult to decipher initially, but once a Spirit “learns” the energy of the Medium, things speed up and greater clarity in the words becomes obvious. Each Spirit’s handwriting differs, as we’d expect. The messages that came through for us that night are special because of the physicality of the process. There’s a note left behind. It’s often short. Just a sentence. But it lifts the heart and that is a gift.

Note: the use (and control) of the psychic mind is different from the mediumistic mind. This has been demonstrated using electroencephalogram (EEG) testing by neuroscience researcher Jeff Tarrant who studies the minds of certified mediums. In his work with Psychic Medium Laura Lynn Jackson for example, he demonstrated that her brain engages in different areas when psychic vs mediumistic communication occurs.

DAY 5: Pienza and Montepulciano

After 4 full days of intense mind focus, we were in dire need of a fun day of mental refreshment and exploration. Carlo picked us up for a drive through the rolling Tuscan hills first to Pienza and then to the lovely hilltop village of Montepulciano. At the end of our busy day of exploring, dining and speed-shopping (ha!), we rewarded ourselves with an hour-long sound bath. Magical! Here are some highlights:

Day 6: The Gamut

Our final full day of mediumship exercises took us from yoga to guided meditation, one-on-one readings, chanting, whole-group circle, and a longer session of “Platform” or gallery-style readings, each step building on the other. Yes, a full day but this group was up to it and they proved without a doubt that they were connecting, clearly, evidentially, and with emotion to Spirit. By now, we knew a fair amount about each other and each other’s Loved Ones in Spirit, but different Spirit communicators kept coming through and those who were persistent visitors (and we definitely had a few!), kept things fresh and lively with new evidence and information. By the end of Day 6, it’s safe to say we were spent but happy. And as a teacher, exceptionally pleased with the progress we’d made together.

Day 7: The Big Exhale

Our final day included a hike to the nearby town of Monticello Amiata, the spotting of a white peacock (representative of spiritual rebirth and alignment with higher consciousness) and a free afternoon for massages in the on-site Yurt, poolside lounging and readying to depart the next morning.

Pre-dinner wine tasting of the Le Pianore wines was an earthly high point. Mediumship and alcohol don’t go together, so we held off until our final night, and it was worth the wait! The Micillo family has been winemakers for generations and now, under the direction of Filippo, Enrica’s brother, their delicious organic wines are flourishing, and deservedly so.

FYI: the little black (panther) cat you see in the photos, Bagherra, regularly surprised me with his presence at my side. So quiet and sweet, a comforting shadow. On this day, however, I think he was hoping for a little cat-appropriate vino!

Day 8: All good things…

The days at Le Pianore, the wonderful attentive staff, and this intimate group of budding Mediums will forever remain in my heart. What a journey we shared together! Retreating from our day-to-day lives, releasing what no longer serves and pursuing a spiritual passion nourishes us, refreshes our outlook, and re-energizes us on our paths forward. In one word, I feel grateful to all who made this retreat the special experience that it was.

I hope to return to Le Pianore in the not-too-distant future with another group…so stay tuned! If you’re not yet receiving my blog posts and announcements via email, you can sign up on the front page of the website, left column, scroll down.

Testimonials

Dana

The Tuscany retreat was so amazing. The beautiful location with a very relaxed atmosphere made for a perfect environment for learning and practicing mediumship. Renee brought in lots of interesting experiences from past life regression to automatic writing. We were working all day long but it flew by. The facility was lovely and Enrica’s food was fabulous. One meal better than the next. Our visits to local towns were a nice opportunity to explore and have some fun. I look forward to staying connected with the friends I made and await next year! Thank you Renee for all your hard work planning this adventure.

Laura

The Whispers from the Light retreat at LePianore in Tuscany was a transformative experience, helping me tune into and adapt to the subtle energies of mediumship. The location itself felt like a true Garden of Eden, abundant with fresh food, olive oil, and botanicals used and sold at the center. Living in such harmony with the earth beautifully complemented the spiritual alignment we achieved as we honed our mediumship skills.

Renee curated a rich and immersive weeklong retreat. We deepened our connection with ourselves, each other, and the spirit world. The experience included numerous mediumship circles, meditations, past life regressions, nature walks, physical mediumship sessions, and a mesmerizing sound bath. I left feeling more confident in my abilities and excited to continue growing and developing my practice.