Additional information
by Adrienne E. Gusoff (Author)
Several years ago, a few weeks into a deep meditation practice, dead people started telling me their stories. It began when an unusual, one-of-kind name popped into my head, as clearly as if someone had spoken it aloud. I was on my computer already, and so I did a quick Internet search which brought up the obit of a New Jersey woman who'd died in her late 90's, a few months before. I had no idea why her name had come to me, but I wrote it off as one of those bizarre, fluky things, and forgot about it. Until...It started happening more frequently. Over the next week, maybe a dozen other names flashed across my mental screen, all of them too unusual for me to have made them up on the spot. In every case, the first thing a Google search returned was a fairly recent obit. Initially, this was intriguing in its strangeness. Why are the names of random dead people popping into my head? After a while, however, as the frequency increased, it became rather annoying. What kind of a lame super power was this? I could get the same names by reading a newspaper. I hardly needed all this useless info cluttering up my psychic airwaves!I decided to have a stern talk with "them" (whoever "they" were.) "Enough already! What am I supposed to do with this information?" There were a couple more names after that but I refused to look them up.There! Take THAT, dead people!! "If you want to use my brain," I told them, "you're going to have to use it for something more interesting than this, because I'm not playing this game anymore! It's pointless."I guess "they" got my message, because the names stopped and sure enough, something a lot more interesting started to happen...
Author Biography
Adrienne was born in Brooklyn sometime during the Pliocene Era and has lived in New York City most of her life. She is the author of several books including Dirty Yiddish Slang, Lucky in Love and Zen Jewish Humor. She's a freelance writer and has been an advice columnist for various publications and websites. Adrienne is the founder/Grand Poobah of www.BubbyGram.com, a party entertainment company. Back in the 1980's, dressed as a Jewish grandma ("Bubby") she delivered Birthday Bagels, Get Well Chicken Soup and her famous "Chopped Liver Heart" throughout the New York Metro area while singing original songs, doing original jokes and shtick, and delivering a personalized roast. The company has since morphed into a full-service party entertainment company. (These days, it's pretty hard to get Adrienne out of the house in drag.) She is also a designer/writer/consultant to the greeting card industry, writing funny cards, buttons, mugs, etc, for Recycled Paper Greetings, Papyrus, Smart Alex, Avanti, American Postcard and others. She teaches Greeting Card Design and Marketing at The New School-Parsons in New York City. In additional to her humor writing, Adrienne is also a relationship coach and certified hypnotist. You can visit website at www.artofepiphany for inspirational articles and advice. She is also the author (channneler?) of the blog http: //thelivesofthedead.wordpress.com. "Dead people started telling me their stories. After a while, I figured I should write them down." As if this weren't all enough, Adrienne is a popular public speaker. She designs programs for smallish to auditorium-sized groups, speaking with humor and wisdom on variety of subjects, including Jewish/Yiddish culture, improving personal relationships, finding more happiness and fulfillment in life, and how to find and keep love in your life. (visit either of her websites for more info.) All this and plus some freelance brain surgery on the side, and usually she can pay her bills.
