Lana McGlasson...Who is she?

Hi, it's me again! I am often irritated by people who obviously are writing their own websites discussing themselves in the third person, so I'll just talk to you directly.

I was born in beautiful Seattle, Washington, but was raised in the great free-thinking town of Ann Arbor, Michigan as a bleeding heart liberal and Unitarian-Universalist. Very right on, very crunchy granola!

Influenced by my father, I was always curious about the abilities of the mind. But when I was in college, a friend of mine suggested that I go see her "reader" for a "reading." I had no idea what that was, but when I sat down with that dear lady, I was completely blown away. She'd been trained as an electrical engineer at Cornell University, but had turned her back on it to become a professional psychic and hypnotist. I thought to myself "that lady has the COOLEST job in the world...WOW!" I was completely hooked on the idea that such a fantastic job could exist, but at the time it was beyond me to think that I could ever end up doing the same thing.

In 1989, when I got out of college, I fled a dying Michigan economy and the brutality of Reaganomics, and took off for Europe. I ended up teaching English as a Foreign Language to business executives in Finland, France, and England, and had a magnificent but short stint at the BBC World Broadcasting Service working in their Publications department. I did my Masters in Social Anthropology and the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, but got fed up when I realized that academe poo-poohed anything to do with trance states, higher consciousness, psychic abilities and all the other stuff I both loved and was quite good at. According to most academics, "fortune tellers" are either charlatans or quaint but childishly naive "primitives." I hope, gentle reader, you are too smart to agree with such narrow-mindedness!

Ironically, I had my first experience of GIVING a reading when I was 19 years old. As an exchange student in England, I'd taken a bus to Istanbul to see the beautiful architecture there. I ended up being asked to "read" the Turkish coffee grounds for someone. I was nervous, because I didn't know what I was doing, but the ladies there egged me on for a laugh. I got even MORE nervous when everyone fell absolutely silent as I spoke through a translator. I thought I'd pissed them all off! Then another lady asked for a reading, and then another, and another. When I went back a year later, all THOSE ladies came back for readings and brought all their friends! Yikes!

I eventually married, and through all those years of working and studying, I'd still been in denial about my abilities. But necessity is the mother of invention. My husband and I went our separate ways. I was living in Dublin, Ireland, at the time, and since everyone there knew how to speak English and wasn't in need of a Social Anthropologist, it was absolutely necessary that I hang out my shingle!  It was quite remarkable how I had become the professional psychic that I had admired so much in MY first psychic reading back in college. I still can't believe it!

By the way, if you think (or KNOW) you have some abilities, then go for it! Develop them! Doctors and teachers have to study and learn and practice, too...so why shouldn't you? There's this myth going around that psychics are just supposed to come out of the box knowing what they are and how to do everything perfectly from day one. Rubbish! Doing psychic work well, like doing ANY profession well, takes time, dedication, study and practice. To illustrate, anyone can learn to play basketball, but there aren't many Michael Jordans around. Likewise, ANYONE can learn to develop their psychic abilities, but some, like Michael Jordan, have both exceptional natural aptitude AND make the choice to practice, practice and practice. You can take your abilities as far as you are willing to put the work into developing them. Don't think you have to be "born with it." All you need is that burning desire and to put the time and work in to become a competent psychic.

But I digress. I finally got sick of the bad weather and the high cost of living in Ireland. It was time for a BIG change. So since 2003 I have lived in the bizarre little town of Pahrump, Nevada. You may have heard of us through Art Bell's great radio show "Coast to Coast AM," now usually hosted by George Noory and sometimes George Knapp. Pahrump is an extremely strange place, full of energetic portals, UFO's (we are very close to Area 51 and S4), and intense energy polarities. Living here is what I imagined living on the moon might be like, if we colonized it! (Is NASA planning to put a Wal-Mart on the moon?)

In Pahrump, I have a little weekly internet radio show called "Wide, Wide World of Spirit," which you can check out at www.kpah.com . Or, if you're having difficulties in downloading it from the site, search for "Talk Radio of Pahrump" at www.live365.com so you can download the station from them more easily. If you're a Mac user and/or you use AOL as your ISP, then just send an email to the station to have them help you out. It's a GREAT station...full of eccentric, smart, funny people crazy enough to live out here in the sticks and have fun making up internet radio shows. There's another hilarious show called "The Can't Sleep Show," and the host is looking for a crazy co-hostess...any volunteers?

Pahrump is full of libertarians, open-carry (gun) advocates, the highest number of people enrolled in the Witness Protection Program, and, chillingly, what is estimated to be the highest number of registered (and non-registered) sex offenders in America! Also, Pahrump is the home of the great subversive and provocative TV show "Out There," hosted by Kate and Rich Mucci, too! (I drop by their cool shop, Music Mind and Matter frequently.) And of course, we have several legal brothels in Pahrump, including The Chicken Ranch and Sherri's Ranch. (I don't go to either of those places frequently!) And finally, you can buy fireworks here, too--but not set them off! Having grown up as a big fan of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "Second City," my appetite for the ridiculous and surreal gets completely satisfied living here! Heidi Fleiss moved here and has settled in nicely, opening her new business "Dirty Laundry," and the local gossip mill says Michael Jackson was house-hunting around here, too! Well, you know what they say in Pahrump..."What happens in Pahrump...goes around in five minutes!"

Thanks for reading! Come visit our strange little town!