Mariah Kunau, the Paranormal Concierge on Channeling, Mediumship + Afterlife Evidence Episode 20
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Mariah Kunau is a psychic medium and paranormal investigator, who refers to herself as the paranormal concierge. She appeared in Netflix docuseries, Surviving Death episode 5, Seeing Dead People where she takes us on an investigation of a haunted house. Mariah shares the first time she had a life changing experience when she “channeled” for the first time, connecting to a deceased woman in New Orleans. She shares about the most profound experience she had once when investigating a haunted house and a highly evidential time when her whole team heard the same sounds. She explains how she became a paranormal investigator and psychic medium in the first place. How she knew she wasn’t just “making it up,” how she gets her information, and the difference between a psychic reading and a medium reading. She explains ways we can communicate on our own with our loved ones who have passed and answers if mediums who have passed away are better at communicating with us here than us “normal” people.
As a psychic, medium and paranormal investigator, Mariah is here to help people discover, understand and unfold the truths and magic about the world of the paranormal. She had dedicated many years to not only properly develop her abilities, but she has studied parapsychology and has investigated numerous 'haunted' locations throughout the country. It's her mission to bridge the knowledge between 'science' and the Spirit World during her paranormal investigations. Mariah takes great pride working with integrity, transparency and authenticity.
Follow Mariah Kunau, the Paranormal Concierge: Website | Email | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Psychic Medium and Paranormal Investigator
Mariah, the Paranormal Concierge is a psychic, a medium and a paranormal investigator. She was in episode 5 of Netflix Surviving death. She was always curious about things like ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot and all mystical things. She was fascinated by the “magical” side of things and what we don’t see. She was just very curious.
When she went to New Orleans with a friend, she knew there were spirits everywhere. When she tried to interact with spirits in an old ballroom, she was amazed by what happened, when she had what was her first real experience.
Trance Mediumship
She began as a trance medium, where she would go into an altered state and blend with the spirits. It was all natural for her. This is what people usually call channeling.
She watched all the paranormal shows that were popular at the time, and was so intrigues. She ended up joining a local ghost group in San Francisco that would explore local haunted places. She decided to become a student of the paranormal.
Although she doesn’t like the word “paranormal” because this is actually all normal. We all have abilities. We all have experiences as children. A lot of times we don't even realize we're having an experience with spirit. To really do paranormal investigation involves a kind of knowing. There is a difference in this work between believing and knowing. Mariah shares how the emotions she felt let her “know” she was really connecting with a spirit.
Ghosts in New Orleans
Despite being a medium Mariah is also skeptical herself. She is a healthy skeptic who doesn’t take things at face value. She continued to ask the spirit for more information. The spirit overwhelmed her with emotion to the point Mariah ended up in tears. She recommends that any person who wants to have an experience, go to New Orleans, set the intention and pay attention, then you'll you more than likely will have one.
Learn to connect with your own deceased loved ones.
Mariah explains we can all connect with our loved ones. We can all connect with spirits. So many people think they need to go to a medium to connect with their loved ones, but they don’t. She tries to empower her clients to connect on their own. She offers some tips, such as setting the intention, taking 5 - 10 minutes, lighting a candle and talk to your loved ones. “t speak to them and just set the intention to have another moment with them. Have another moment with their love.” Try and see what happens.
Liz explains that some spirits - people who have passed away or animals who passed away, might be really good and knowledgeable about how to communicate with us and some might not. And some might have to learn just like there are people who are skilled mediums here and people who aren't in those of us with varying degrees. So it's the same for those over there. Mariah says that yes this is true, but they are not “over there,” they're right beside us. But when they transition into becoming into the spirit world, there is a learning curve there to some are just amazing. There was a medium who passed away, and it took her 8 years to learn to communicate.
Why do some people seem to get these amazing communications and signs from their loved ones and some people aren't getting anything?
While no one can really answer this, Mariah gives some of her thoughts and insights. Try the mediations above. Sometimes the signs also can be subtle.
Trance mediumship vs mental mediumship
Mariah explains the differences and how she experiences the differences. Overall, trance is when you almost become the spirit. You take on the mannerisms you can also take on their voice you set you start sounding like them so you almost become them. “Because I mean Mariah my consciousness steps out of the way and I allow spirit to blend with me so much.” It is an altered state. It’s a hard to describe feeling, and she balances keeping a certain awareness, but it is also a bit like listening to spirit talk to her. Some people are channeling their higher consciousness, and you have to be aware to know the difference between that and channeling a deceased consciousness.
“And then suddenly, I can feel my body changing, like, oh, there's somebody here, oh, I'm getting a little bit angry or frustrated or sad or happy. And then they say, I start blending with them, my spirit blends with them. And then I start speaking of like, they start telling me their story about maybe when they lived there, or whatever they need to say. So I don't think about it, I just let them talk. I just take the passenger seat.”
But she still maintains control. And this only happens when she is consciously channeling. Spirits can’t just “come in” and take over.
Becoming a paranormal investigator
Mariah went from a “normal” job as a concierge to a paranormal investigator and medium. She shares a bit about this journey. Overall it was her curiosity and all the ghost shows that were on such as Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters. Then she went to New Orleans because of the ghost tours, and that was when she connected with the ghost there.
She has had many beautiful and profound, as well as evidential experiences on her investigations since then. She shares a few stand out ones. One of the most profound occurred in Death Valley junction in Nevada.
“And I just had to have a moment like, wow, I didn't question what it was, it was like, like that. That's what spirit is that was one visual aspect of it.” And in Virginia City she had a highly evidential experience that was verified when the whole group heard cowboy boots walking around, but didn’t see anyone.
Psychic vs medium
Mariah is both a psychic and a medium. She explains the difference. Psychic is when we can tune into the energy of this world and living people. Then mediumship is when we can tune into another layer. Another dimension. She explains we can all do this to some extent. It is like playing the piano. We all have to train to be good, but some of us also have an innate talent that others of us don’t have.
She explains what it feels like for her to give a psychic reading vs giving a medium reading.
“But a psychic is when someone living person when my spirit or my soul blends with your soul. When I connect from living to living, and I perceive about what's going on in either your life, your emotions, I'm just blending with you. And I can look at, you know can be the now it can be the past I mean, there's so many different kinds of psychic readings you can give but it's a psychic is when my soul blends with your soul living soul. And you can also blend with other people to other living I don't, you don't have to always be in front of me, I can also tune into a location, or an object or things like that that's part of psychic work. But a medium a medium is when my soul is connecting to a discarnate soul an invisible, another, another person in spirit. And I'm receiving information from them. I'm connected with a third party.”
Classes on psychic mediumship
She delves further into the differences and explains how she learned to perceive the differences. It took her time to get to where she is today, and she took some amazing classes with mediums and learned from some of their online videos. Martin Twycross is a UK tutor who she learned a lot from. She went to multiple online lectures and also asked many questions of him.
Overall she has been tutored and trained with many of the UK’s top mediums and has taken multiple workshops. She found others she loved as well such as Austyn Wells. She also loves many of the UK mediums and the training at Arthur Findlay College, which is a top university for mediumship (taught in a very serious, ethical, and respectful way) in England. Many of the UK tutors also started coming to the US, to help teach at Psychic Medium Janet Nohavec’s (who is certified with the Forever Family Foundation) spiritual center in New Jersey, The Journey Within . Mariah resonated with and was inspired by the serious approach of the UK mediums and the quality of their mediumship.
“And everyone I've worked with is just so incredibly ethical, and has high morals, and they have I just really, really resonate with with their principles."
“So as we develop our tutors may change, we may resonate with the certain teacher and teaching methods for different reasons. So I really just jumped right in, and it's like, I want to be educated, I want to be trained properly. So going to these workshops, you know, exercise and practice, just everything they taught me to properly know the difference between being psychic and being a medium.” But she also had to learn to develop her intuition and feel the difference for herself.
Mariah also learned what she considers good mediumship versus bad mediumship. Or more accurately, mediums with some bad habits. For example mediums should not ask the sitter (the person sho is getting a reading) questions like “do you have a sister.” Also the medium should not have specific pieces of information that they want to get. They should let the deceased person give the information that they want to. The medium should not control the information that the deceased person wants to give.
Evidential Mediumship
Mariah explains that she does not like when mediums are like “you have to give me these facts” to deceased loved ones during a reading. Lis questions that though because to her, an evidential reading, getting the evidence that we really do survive bodily death is the most important thing to her. Mariah thinks that ideally a medium and the sitter should release expectations. Also you can get very evidential information that you were not planning and that is still emotional too, such as a special memory. You can get practical evidence and emotional evidence. Also a medium cannot control which deceased loved one comes in and a sitter needs to be open to hear from whoever comes in.
Mariah also shares how she gets her information. There are the “claires” that medium soften talk about, such as “clairsentient” which means feeling, “clairaudient” which means hearing, as well as others for all senses. Mariah shares that she gets a combination of all. She shares a fun experience she often has, where she tastes. She usually drinks water while giving readings, and the water will start to taste like favorite drinks of the deceased person. “. And I'll say, You know what, I feel like your mom, she loved her a little bit of whiskey. And then there's a story behind that.”
Mariah is clearly passionate about mediumship and constantly learning and growing. Liz asks her to share what she would have said to someone like Liz was early on in her grief. Someone in grief who thinks an afterlife is very unlikely. Mariah shares what she can to give people hope.
Overall it was a fascinating and fun conversation.
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