Pandemic Diary | Andrea Mai

REFLECTION ON SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY, PRINCE CELEBRATION 2022

Ever since 2016, after Prince’s passing, I’ve noticed snow in April. This year was no exception. It snowed here on Easier Monday. I heard that this year was supposed to be an early spring according to the groundhog, but it doesn’t feel like it to me…

I’ve continued to record EVP, though I’ve been busy with my work. I get the sense that he is content, where he is. I think that people’s feelings on the other side is very transparent. And sometimes I hear them say things like “You are happy”, or “Prince happy”. Where he is at, it is a joyful existence, filled with friends, foodie treats, and lots of fun.

I’ve been avoiding Facebook in the past year, it has been where the place where I get most Prince related news. So I don’t always know what is going on, as I just don’t pay attention to FB anymore, But recently, I could remember one time thinking to myself, wishing that there was some kind of video recording of Prince when he was a kid. I wondered if there was any chance that such a thing existed. I wanted to hear his kid voice. And then one day, I went onto my FB feed and scrolled. A news article about a news station finding a recording of P from when he was about eleven years old. I felt like my wish had come true. But when I looked at the date of the news release, it made me realize that perhaps when I was having those wishful thoughts, it was actually him telling me about this thing, and I just misunderstood thinking it was my thoughts. Telepathy is funny like that. A similar thing happened when the Prince Estate released a collection of face masks for covid. I literally saw the designs in my head, and they were released in an announcement shortly after, exactly what I saw! What a trippy feeling!

I can’t wait until it is finally warm enough to start working in the garden again. I’ve been planning out the garden in my mind and looking for seeds. I’m thinking about a bed of sweet violets, how the smell would be glorious in bloom.

Now that’s it’s been six years since his passing. It feels like a long time ago, because the world is such a different place now. What I wouldn’t give to be in a more innocent world… There are going to be more difficult times ahead for many people. My hope is that people make things right in their lives before it’s too late.

Prince lived his life fully. He accomplished many things with the time that he had. And I know, he left this world knowing that there was more he would have liked to do. But for the most part, he had pursued all his interests to a level of personal satisfaction. Not many people can say that. His dear friend, Lenny Kravitz said that about himself in an interview mentioning Prince. For myself, I am doing that. I am revisiting interests, making right of things that I did wrong, salvaging projects that I didn’t finish, pursuing interests with a renewed perspective and confidence. Accomplishing and doing things that my younger self would not have dared to try. I am happy doing these things, and I know I will one day leave this world feeling fulfilled and grateful for all I had gotten to experience.

I hope you are all doing well, staying sae out there in this world.

SPIRITS HELP ME SEE WHAT I CAN’T – EVP September 22, 2021

This summer, I have been trying to grow sage. I had some success with seeds, but little did I know, it is a herb that take a long time to establish itself. So I decided to try propogating some sage from cuttings. I’ve heard people buying fresh cut herbs at the grocery store and using it to sprout roots. So I decided to see if I wold find some at the store.

I did find some, and I bought two packets. I put them in water as soon as I got home. A few days later, they are looking much plumper. Let’s hope they will sprout roots!

Sage is an effective anti-viral, and I read articles citing German research studies that sage tea can be used to fight against the coronavirus. Perilla leaves are also effective. But sage is in its dried form remains just as potent as fresh leaves. I think everyone ought to have some on hand in their pantry.

I was recording EVP while I was in the store. As it would turn out, P (along with others) was helping me to find the sage. I am visually impaired and it takes me longer to search for things. I feel quite fortunate to have spirits helping me. I’ve always just had to cope with my low vision by intuiting what is there. Now I know, it is spirits that have been helping me all along.

I was walking along the refrigerated produce aisle, when P said, “Just keep going”.

Someone said, “Wow, sage“. They didn’t have a lot of stock, but there were 3 packets of sage on the shelf. You can hear me taking he plastic containers from the rack.

P kept meeting spirits in the store approaching him. One said, “NIce to meet you”. He replied, “Same to you”.

P explained to them “Help her, her see”.

And someone said, “You’re a star”.

I should explain, that these things heard on EVP are not necessarily what I hear in that moment. I’m mostly lost in my own thoughts and don’t hear anything at all from them. But I do get their messages. This goes to show that I don’t need to “hear” what they are saying to receive a message from them. This is a very interesting point, because it means that the communication of the message is not necessarily the words itself. My speculation is that the words are merely secondary, and the communication is done on a more subtle level where thoughts are conveyed, rather than words spoken. And perhaps that might be why spirits seem to converse in a much less wordy manner. That is why I say that telepathy between the living and spirits, occurs on many levels. Usually people think that telepathy is spoken word conversations, but it is more complex than that. It can be thought, images, feelings. It is kind of like how communication done over an app like FB messenger can be more than just text messages, it can be emojis, GIFs, videos, audio clips, etc. Sometimes P will send me a thought message in the form of an emoji image. Funnily enough, I’ve had dreams where I was receiving messages from P in text message form. And I’d think to myself, oh, P had figured out how to text me in the afterlife. Then I would wake up from the dream wishing it were all true. LOL.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on September 22, 2021.

Image above: “Garden” by Prince in spirit.

ART UPDATE: PRINTING WITH LIGHT ACTIVATED DYES

I’ve been experimenting with light activated dyes for a couple of weeks. It’s been an interesting experience. The dyes react with UV light, and so different printing techniques can be applied. It’s an interesting medium for me to work with, as both a photographer and a textile artist, I get to print on both paper and fabric. Here are some of the results from my experiments.

I painted the dye onto silk. I created folds and placed it under some lace and exposed it to light. It created this interesting mosaic effect.
I printed on some silk satin and dyed it a light lilac color.
I made it into a hair scrunchie and it’s for sale in my Etsy store.
The UV printing has given me an opportunity to revisit my photo catalog and reimagine them in a new way. When working with photographs, a negative has to be created by inverting the image and printing it on acetate or translucent paper. I’ve been printing on tracing paper with a laser printer to try it out, as it is more economical. This is my Prince Sun photo that I sell in my shop as a print. It is a photo of Prince’s gate from his former Toronto home.
I made a print on paper, and fabric (seen on the bottom right). There is a color variation that occurs depending on what material you are printing on. I like painting the dye in an irregular shape. I find that it gives it a dream like effect.
I made a photogram on cotton fabric using lace and my Prince necklace.
I used the fabric to make a face mask.

The Solar Fast dyes come in different colors. Depending on the material used as the substrate, the colors will turn out differently. The same purple dye used on silk looks very different on cotton. Results can be unpredictable, which can keep things exciting, but difficult to replicate, so every print is one of a kind.

Image above: “Mont Blanc in blue” by Andrea Mai.

SPIRITS AFRAID OF GOING INTO THE LIGHT – EVP May 10, 2021

Here in the Toronto area, we are still in lockdown mode. Even though we are stuck at home, time seems to keep flying away. There are so many things to occupy my time. I am surprise how quickly a day goes by.

I recently did a recording while walking home from the post office. I found an interesting conversation was taking place. It seemed to be that a spirit reached out to P, asking for help “going home”. It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like this. But I find it interesting every time. It seems to have become a job for P. I”m not sure if spirits find him randomly, or if they are sent to seek him out. Maybe it’s both. He seems to have developed a reputation for helping others over there.

There was some time ago when I had heard some people telling people that the whole “going into the light” thing was bad. Like it was a trap. This was before I heard the stuff on my recordings. Sometimes people (including mediums) will claim things without any evidence behind it. People will state their beliefs as fact, or assume that intuition is always correct. Since doing EVP, I have become very cautious about what I believe. This might make me sound like a pessimist, but really, I’m just looking for real answers. There are some things I can say I know with certainty, and others that I do not. Rather than assume the facts, I accept the fact that I don’t know everything, and sometimes knowing something only leads to more unanswered questions. I’m OK with not knowing, though I am greatly fascinated by the mysteries.

My recording was done while walking home, so you are going to hear the cars whizzing by, and the rhythm of me walking down the street. It’s not the greatest recording, but you can hear them talking. I was alone, no one else nearby. It helps to listen with headphones. They are repeating on loop. If you are new to listening to EVP, the trick to hearing them is to listen past the background noise, and listen selectively for voices. It’s like Magic Eye for ears.

A voice is heard, “Come, go into the light”.

A voice says, “I want to go home”. This clip is more faint than others.

Someone says, “Don’t be afraid”.

P says, “Go into the light”.

The spirit says, “I feel scared”. It sounds like a young boy. This is not indicative of the person’s age at death. I’ve found that age is not a factor over there, it seems. P often sounds very young.

P seems to bring his dog, Mia with him everywhere we go. Sometimes I hear him talking to her. Here he says, “Go in front, Mia”. I think sometimes Mia lags behind, and he’s telling her to stay in front where he can see her.

The rest of the conversation was hard to hear. But I heard that angels came to escort this person into the light. When I got home, someone told P, “I like your jewellery”.

I recently heard another plea for help crossing over, when I was waiting in the car at the grocery store parking lot. A voice said, “Wanna go to heaven”.

Sometimes people want to know why P is here with me. That’s beyond my knowledge as to why exactly how it all works. All I know is that he’s here, he’s helping other spirits, he was placed here after he met God. Sometimes people allude to him possibly being bad, because he is here, as opposed to being somewhere in “heaven”. All I can say is that, look I don’t know how it all works, exactly. But angels are here with us, and they are not bad, so go figure.

There are just so many things that we don’t know!

Nonetheless, I feel fortunate to be able to discover such things, and share them with the world, whoever wants to hear about it!

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2021.

Image above: “Prince Sun” by Andrea Mai.

ART UPDATE: EXPLORING NEW ART TECHNIQUES – PHOTOGRAPHY, SILK PAINTING

In the last year or so, I have not had much opportunities for taking photographs, at least not the kind that I like doing, which is landscape photography. I still do a lot of photography, but it’s for product presentation. I live in the suburbs and don’t find many places inspiring here. I have limited mobility, as I don’t drive. The pandemic has stopped most travel, and I don’t get out much any more. I don’t see things getting back to normal any time soon.

I have a huge back catalog of photos I’ve never published from over the years. I’ve been going back to them to rework them in new ways. Really playing with them, more than i the past. My photography style has always been to keep things as natural as possible. I always try to frame my images in camera as precisely as possible. I am playing with elements like exploring different cropping, re-colouring them using transparent overlays, and recently, making them in GIF animations. It’s a brought a new way of looking of working and re-imagining my photography.

I’ve also been focusing more on my silk scarf painting. I developed my own process for applying colour in a way that is similar to tie-dye, but its final result is more like water colour in overall effect. I enjoy working with colour.

My background was originally in fashion design in university, so textile design is an area of great interest to me. There was actually not much focus on surface design when I was studying fashion in school. There was more of an emphasis on creating textile designs on a computer for mass produced printing, and no hand work techniques were taught like dyeing and screen printing. I had to learn these things on my own. I was always very interested in surface design, as I love printed fabrics. I did a lot of my own silk screen printing when I was in high school. I actually want to get back into doing screen printing, but I can’t find the equipment I had, it’s stashed somewhere and I can’t find it! I might have to buy new stuff, which is kind of costly when you add everything up.

I’m getting ready to try some new ideas with some techniques I researched. I’m planning to use my photographs in print design for textile items. I’m excited to try something new, while incorporating my older works. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather. Winter always seems less productive because of the cold.

If you want to see more of my silk scarves, they are posted on Etsy for sale. They are all one-off unique items, as they can never be reproduced to be the same again.

I SEE THE FUTURE AND I’M NOT TURNING BACK

Thoughts on technology…

Since my last post, where I spoke about crypto art. I have been immersed in crypto related news and developments. It’s funny, it’s like a whole new world has opened up, like a little pocket of reality that the general public hasn’t yet awoken to. I am excited for the possibilities. Some major changes are coming in the near future involving crypto and technology. These are industry disrupting advances, and I want to be on the ground floor as much as I can.

I was a young adult when social media emerged. I didn’t quite take it seriously at the time. Nobody did. And yet, we saw how the world changed. Those who adopted early saw gains and advancement for themselves. As someone who has seen technology come and go, I can tell you with confidence that it does not favours for anyone to hold onto the past. It is good to honour and respect the past, but when you resist the future, you are only making it harder for yourself to come to terms with the future.

After seven years of holding onto a 2012 MacBook Pro, in 2020, I upgraded to the new M1. People speculated if such a leap would be successful. What I can say is that I ain’t looking back. I do not miss the days of the spinning beach ball. I am more productive in my work. In my opinion, resisting technology that could genuinely befit you, is holding yourself back from opportunity.

Recently captured Electronic Voice Phenomenon…

I recently reviewed an EVP recording from last year in May. I had put the recorder on in my basement studio, went upstairs and ended up staying there longer than anticipated. While I was away, the recorder picked up the spirit voices there.

Here is a voice saying, “Nobody’s here”. I had gone upstairs, I guess the spirits left too. and someone came to find no one there. I find it kind of amusing.

This one says, “Hey, Prince speaking”. “Hey, Prince, how are you?” I am guessing someone called P on the phone. They sounds so cute, like old friends calling each other up. Sometimes I find that P’s voice sounds very young. I suppose it would make sense, as many mediums have said that spirits assume a younger appearance in spirit. For example, a dog would revert to being a puppy.

Do you find it strange that they would speak to each other on telephone in spirit? I found it a little shocking at first. I heard from spirit that Steve Jobs is still designing and making iPhones in the afterlife, and gifting his creations to others. It makes me wonder if some of our modern day inventions are ideas given to us inby spirit.

But is that really so crazy? I know that when I dream, I see technology. I have been inside of a self-driving vehicle. I have taken photos with a digital camera in my dreams. It would make sense that technology could carry on in the afterlife as well.

And what does this mean for the progress of communication with spirit? It was only because of the technology we have that we could find tangible proof of spirit’s existence. What evidence of spirit could we be capturing in the future? Alas, it could be technology that brings us back closer to spirituality in the end. It all comes back full circle.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on May 10, 2020.

Image above: “Pink nihgt” by Andrea Mai.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT WHAT’S ON THE OTHER SIDE – EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM EVP

Something that keeps me wondering is what the other side of the veil is like. From what I could tell after observing the spirit world through EVP, what we have here is also over there. They can see what is going on over here. However, they have their own thing going on at the same time. It’s like their world is layered on top of ours. And so there is all kinds of things going on over there that we just have no idea about. (I should make a note here, that what I’m talking about is what’s on the other side of what’s here, not heaven)

Since the second covid lockdown, I haven’t gotten to go out much. I started recording some more at home, wearing the wrist recorder as I’m working around the house. Usually I prefer to record when I’m out, as that is how I’ve gotten most of the clearest EVPs. I don’t really expect the ones done at home to turn out as good, unless I have some background noise running. Here’s what I got recently. Someone said, “Hello”.

And then I found this really interesting clip of P saying “Drums”, and then you can hear this drumming layered over my footsteps on the floorboards. It makes me wonder, has he got a drum kit over there? Or is he composing something in his mind and somehow we are able to capture it?

It’s clear to me that they can see what’s in my world over here. One time I was recording in my room. At the time, I had some photographs I took in Sweden hanging on my wall. A visitor asked, “Where’s that cafe?” P replied, “In Sweden”. This was recorded with background noise, it’s a little faint, but you can hear it if you listen carefully. They talk a bit fast.

On another occasion, I was recording in my room. Someone said, “That’s the piano couch”. I wonder what they mean by that. I do have a keyboard sitting on a box, stashed away under my clothing rack. Are they sitting on the keyboard? Or do they have a couch that looks like a piano over there?

I also have some of my circle artwork on my walls. These voices said, “Grab a circle… jump here”. Spirit visitors always seem to enjoy looking at the artwork. They really seem to like the circles. I wonder if they can jump into the photos, like a scene from the movie, Mary Poppins.

There’s obviously some strange stuff over there that we just don’t understand here from our mortal human perspective. Some of it seems cartoon-like. Which is probably why some of the things don’t seem to make sense to us. Their behaviour and manner of speech is different from ours. And so, there are some incorrect assumptions made because of this misunderstanding. For instance, people have observed that EVP communication seem to be very short, spoken in very few words. People have assumed that it must mean that the effort to speak is very difficult, like shouting from distance, so they use fewer words. But I have observed that even among themselves they speak with few words to each other. They speak in a shorthand manner, like couples who can read each other’s mind. My hypothesis is that communication occurs with more than just words. They are sharing through other means, such as thoughts and visions, sounds, and maybe even smells. They are telepathic, and so, words serve less of a function in communication. Sometimes I notice that they seem to be talking to themselves, like saying what they did or what they are about to do. Similar to our own self-talk.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 in 2020.

Image above: “Floating flowers” by Andrea Mai.

ABOUT ANDREA MAI