Writer | Ghostwriter | Content Creator
I have ghostwritten two books, published articles in major newspapers, helped entrepreneurs create blog content, and assisted in editing and proofreading a variety of published works. I specialize in breaking down complex ideas and concepts, particularly those of a spiritual/metaphysical nature, in order to make them easily understood. I am adept at channeling material and weaving these transmissions with the written word to create something wholly/holy unique. Below are some samples of my work.
IMAGINE
[A channeled transmission from John Lennon]
Yoko and I, we were yin and yang, completely compatible, pushing each other forward, pushing each other higher, pushing each other through our evolution just as Yeshua and Mary Magdalene did. We were both here, just as they were, to plant seeds, particularly the seeds of intention, of imagination, of breaking open old constructs, of looking at things a bit differently, of being open to surprise and mystery, of play and of rest. For in the short time that Yoko and I were together, these were the things we most wanted the world to see. I continue to be drawn to the earth plane and continue to have so much love for humanity, for each and every human soul. I remain very connected to the earth plane in many ways. As an ascended master myself, I am helping to guide the energies, helping to awaken those who choose to awaken.I offer up that my song Imagine was written for this day and time. Yes, it was received well when I wrote it, when we wrote it, yet we knew that there was a future timeline that it would resonate with even more so, and now is that timeline. So if you wish to share this message, you may also wish to share the lyrics to that song. It is important, we think, that this song be reintroduced in a new way so that more, particularly younger people, find it. And we think it is important to have that conversation about how important imagination and intention are in this day, in this time, in this evolutionary process. We want to help awaken people to the understanding that the earth plane is evolving, it is growing, it is expanding in its own consciousness and those humans who choose to do the same will assist Mother Earth in creating the kind of world that you all want to live in. Be intentional with your thoughts. Imagine only the best and the highest for not only you, but for all humans on earth. Spend time imagining. Take time every day to sit in your own imagination of what the world could be, of the kind of world that you prefer it to be, and then as you sink into that knowing, take steps every day to create that world for yourselves, even if they are small steps. When I left the Beatles, that was an important step for me to create the world that I wanted to live in. I no longer wanted to be worshipped in the way that I was worshipped by fans, by industry professionals. It was a false worship and though it took me awhile to see that, once I did, I could not remain in that sphere any longer for it made me unhappy, it made me depressed, it made me untrue to myself. And as you have sensed, Yoko assisted me in making that connection and with having the courage to move into the kind world that I would prefer to live in. And as you know, we as a couple took steps to create that world, through protests, through music, through poetry - through art of all kinds - and through the way we lived our daily lives - simple, loving, collaborating, experiencing beauty and fun and laughter and love. Use your imagination for the good of the world. Go in peace, go in presence and go in love.
Imagine Lyrics:
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Winston Lennon (& Yoko Ono)
Imagine lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Photo product of Vanity Fair Magazine
There is a Zen koan accredited to Zen Buddhist Lin-chi I-hsuan (a.d. 866) that goes something like this, “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.”
I once envisioned the Buddha as a kind of deity, sitting at the top of a mountain, cross legged, alone in meditation, having transcended suffering. I had this idea that if I was to live the life of an enlightened being, I had to sit in lotus on the mountaintop, too. Killing the Buddha means killing that illusion - that I can’t be in the world and still live an enlightened life. It is killing the illusion that I am even separate from the Buddha. I AM the Buddha. I can be peaceful while living in a chaotic world.
Pema Chödrön talks about enlightenment as more of a triangle than a straight line. You go up one side, reach the top, and then come back down as that Buddha, back down into all of that pain and joy that is humanity. This is the end-game of all spiritual journeys - walking your God-ness out into the world. This is the nature of Becoming.
The world is on fire and you, dear friend, are the water. This book comes to you at a time when life as you know it is changing shape into something that will ultimately be more pleasing, but at the same time, there will be a great deal of falling away to make room for the new. There may be some tumultuous times ahead. It can be challenging.
It may help to remember that so many people are tired of living lives of quiet desperation - unfulfilled, unhappy, with little pockets of joy scattered here and there but mostly immersed in hard work, distraction, and exhaustion steeped in feelings of anger and fear. Life is permeated by a cavernous sense that something central and profound is missing. We are searching for that Buddha within us.
I gaze out at the planet and see plastic pollution and air pollution, rising costs, shortages, migrants fleeing war torn countries, human trafficking and oppression and I think, there is no way to fix all of this. I can’t stop wars, I can’t remodel the prisons, I can’t change the justice system, I can’t stop the earth from warming. What can I do?
The mistake I made for so long was to believe that the only way to change anything was to focus on the external world, to think that I must go to rallies and protests, call out people on social media, post about my beliefs, donate to worthy causes, and work to tear down the existing structures that reinforce these societal ills. True, directly interacting with these issues might be helpful. For example, going to a rally based in love which calls more attention to the desire for more love. Maybe it is in my divine plan to bring a unique technology or solution into the world. Maybe I can get a sense of worth and identity from attempting to solve these issues. For most of us, though, I think there is another choice that might have an even greater impact.
The thing is, I don’t actually have to solve all of the world’s problems to solve all of the world’s problems. I know now that a new reality will come much more quickly and easily if I begin with a focus on myself. This isn’t to say that some sort of action might not be called for, but any action that doesn’t come from a place of love, trust, and my authentic self is not likely to make much of a difference when it comes to the big picture.
What does have an enormous impact is living my truth out loud. The most important thing that I can do is to take time to breathe, sit quietly, breathe some more, and listen to what I truly desire and only then take steps to move myself out into the world. I can’t do this if I am getting lost in the noise of distraction. I can only know if, and how, I am called to interact directly with any of these problems when I get quiet, listen to my inner voice, and follow where it leads. I know that if I do this, I will bring something unique and powerful to the table.
I can choose to see everything that is happening in my life, and in the world, as a collective path that is leading us to grow and evolve. I can be at peace with it all. I don’t have to solve all of the world’s problems to bring about a new world order. I only have to create that new world order in my own life. This is such a mind blowing concept, to think that if I only concentrate on living my own beautiful life that anything would actually get done. It’s crazy right? Except it’s not crazy at all, it’s Universal Law. Anything I create gives another permission to create the same. When I open the door to my own authenticity, I open that door for another, and that person opens the door for another and so on, and so on, and so on until a tipping point is reached. Until it is inevitable. [Taken from the manuscript for "Fire & Water" by Manoj Bhardwaj M.D. with Julie Trager"; as yet unpublished]
Hypnotherapy once belonged to the world of medicine and I don't just believe - I know - that it's time to bring it back into mainstream use. It has the potential to improve outcomes, decrease suffering, mediate the use of medication, boost overall health, and yes, even heal. When we combine hypnotherapy's tools...with current medical treatment, I believe we can positively impact almost every disease state. We are on the cusp of a movement, one so powerful that it has the potential to revolutionize modern health care. Anyone can participate in this revolution. Whether you are overseeing the future of a large healthcare conglomerate or you are an individual practitioner serving your community. Whether you head a large educational institution grooming the next generation of mainstream medical students or lead an Integrative Medicine department's vision to integrate new and effective techniques. Whether you are focused on cutting edge research on mind/body internventions or just another person looking for nothing but hope to relieve yourself from an age-old maladay, and to enjhoy life to its fullest. I see all of you as part of this movement.
Within: Finding Yourself, Fixing What's Broken, & Finally Reclaiming True Health! Gupte, Dr. Sonia; Trager, Julie MSW.
Holland House Publishing NY NY. 2021 p. 189-190.
Untethered
Much will fall away.
Much will be born.
Through it all, I will ride wave after wave.
I will simply float, knowing that even swimming is unnecessary
in the ocean of God's grace.
The Shero's Journey
Blog Post
Have you ever felt that something in your life is missing, that you are sleepwalking through life, or that you have something big to offer but have no idea what it is? If you have - you are likely at the beginning of the hero’s journey.
Joseph Campbell, a professor at Sarah Lawrence, wrote extensively on the human experience, but his best known work is his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (1949). In it, he details what he called “the hero’s journey” - the path that everyone must take in order to live their bliss [Campbell]. Campbell’s 12-stage structure of this spiritual journey has been used as the formula for stories told throughout millennia.
You see the basic structure of the hero’s journey everywhere. In movies and books like Shakespeare in Love, Star Wars, The Hobbit trilogy, The Matrix, or Million Dollar Baby. They all revolve around the archetypal hero who is initially seen as different, misguided, or crazy because he/she/they have a calling, a deep desire that flies in the face of current wisdom or societal order. To follow that calling, they must go off on their own to face numerous challenges and ordeals in order to come through the other side. The culmination? Living an authentic, soul-driven, passionate life that makes the most of the unique gifts the hero has been given.
The 12 stages are designed to give the hero inner strength and wisdom, as well as acquire the guides and mentors they will need. To begin, each hero must leave the “ordinary world” (i.e. their current safe life) for the “special world”. Once in the special world, the hero must go on an inward journey in order to deeply connect with their own soul. It is in the special world that each hero defines their dream, heals their wounds, and finds their gifts. This middle stage requires facing numerous challenges designed to give the hero the courage needed to live their heart’s desire, regardless of what society tells them is possible. Finally, when they are secure in their quest and their own abilities, they re-enter the “ordinary world” as an enlightened or transcendent master ready to offer their gifts to others.
The journey always begins with the call, a deep desire to do something regardless of what people think is prudent, safe, or realistic. For me, my call was to leave the 9 to 5 corporate world, and it came when I realized I was no longer the kind, loving, always smiling, optimistic Julie I had been. Instead, I was burnt out, irritable, pessimistic, judgmental and sarcastic. I hated who I had become and at the same time, felt deeply that I had more to give. Like me, many heroes-in-the-making refuse this call for months or years, sometimes for a lifetime. It took me over 5 years to understand that the voice inside my head, the one that told me I wanted to live a very different life than the one I was living, just wasn’t going away.
Once you begin to entertain the notion of accepting the call, there is often an initial guide that arrives to shine a light on the life you might have. Your guide doesn’t have to be someone you know, or even someone in the flesh. She can be an author (dead or alive), a TV or film superstar, a professor, or a boss. For me, it was an unexpected email from the founder of a school for health coaches in New York City that finally moved me to action. I crossed the threshold into the special world when I applied to their certification course and subsequently quit my job to become a health coach and entrepreneur.
While in the special world, there will be challenges and ordeals that test your commitment to this journey. It is here that you must develop a deep connection to yourself and an abiding faith that you will always be supported by God, the Universe, your soul, the cosmos - whatever you call that element of life that is much bigger than yourself. Fortunately, you meet mentors along the way who help you navigate your passage and deepen your understanding of your soul, gifts and unique calling on this earth. This is an exceedingly spiritual, inward voyage that, though difficult, is made easier by events and connections that show you how amazing life can be “on the other side”.
My own path through the special world has taken 4 years. I am just now breaking through to see glimpses of my return to the ordinary world. I have faced mounting debt, many rejections, a stripping away of my previous identity, marital tension as I navigated the new me, and a morphing of my original call into something quite different. In full transparency, my tests and challenges culminated, for a time, in a profound sense of despair. This is not uncommon - it’s the stage Joseph Campbell would call “entering the innermost cave” and what John of the Cross called “the dark night of the soul.” While not everyone experiences this rock bottom, wrung out, desperate place, if your calling feels big, it is often the final step before leaving the special world.
It’s important for me to admit here that my journey has lasted much longer than it might have purely because I kept refusing to heed my true passions, over and over again. My ego, my personality, whatever you want to call that “bad boyfriend” voice in your head kept saying “who do you think you are, you are not special, you are a fraud, and you are not smart enough”. Quite frankly, it took me far too long to stop listening. So here’s where you learn from me - the longer you continue to listen to your false inner voice that, in one way or another, tells you you’re not good enough, the longer your journey through the special world will last.
When I accepted that my metaphorical boyfriend was bad and sent him lovingly, but firmly, packing, my life started to shift towards what Campbell would call “seizing the sword”. Mentors started to appear, I made new friends who resonate with the new me, and I received new opportunities. But this shift only happened once I totally embraced who I am called to be - no longer a social worker, hospital administrator or even a health coach - but a speaker, blogger, social change agent, and above all, a writer. It wasn’t until I could actually say - out loud without having a panic attack - “I am a writer” that my life started to change.
I am slowly making my way back to the ordinary world, newly armed with the tools that are required for transcendental living: a method for tapping into my intuition, a support system that includes mentors, friends and family who believe in me, a deep spiritual base that sustains me, and a profound commitment to living an authentic life.
Has it been worth it - the debt, the despair, the strife, the loss of who I was? Profoundly, yes. I no longer worry, I don’t do drama, I have time to create and play, and I am at peace. My life is utterly different than it was 4 years ago. I know now I wasn’t even living my life back then; I was living a life that just happened to me. As Shauna Niequist says in her book Present Over Perfect, “As I look back, in many instances, I simply followed the natural course of things. And great things happened, mostly. But over time I realized they weren’t necessarily great things for me.” Now, on the other side of my own hero’s journey, I am living a life that is intentional, authentic, soul-filled and fluid.
I truly believe more and more women, in particular, are being called to their own hero’s journey, and the world needs every single one of you. I’m convinced that those of us who successfully navigate this path will guide this planet to its next incarnation. At the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summitt, the Dalai Lama said “the world will be saved by the western woman” and I think he was talking about us. Not Western women per se, but the women everywhere who are brave enough to accept the call to their own hero’s journey.