Edinburgh Fringe Day One

Welcome to my Edinburgh Fringe Comedy blog. It starts today — the day after I arrived in this beautiful city.

By the time I went to sleep here in Edinburgh last night I was really rather mithered. I had no idea how

I was going to manage all the walking, the buses and the things I had to do today. You know the kind of thing — new city, no car, no knowledge or experience and all sorts of new and pressing things that

But in what order? Especially given that I had to go half an hour in three different directions by foot.

And a LED (life-enhancing dis-ease or light-emitting diode — take your pick) to be taken into consideration with its sometimes unexpected strains on my wonderful and very brave body.

And everyone else young enough to be my grandchild...

It was certainly like that at Fringe Central today. Well, one of them could have been my son.

But first things first. Last night, I just gave it to God. I hadn't been able to do any of the PR I wanted to do in the last two weeks because the Internet was down so I'd already given that to God. There are some pretty broad shoulders up there and a lot of bored angels (probably knitting or reading books called How to Get in Touch with Your Lower Self).

I woke at 7am, knowing exactly in what order things had to be done and which bus to take. Which was a bit annoying, to be honest, as I'd planned to have a lie in and the new and improved plan meant getting a bus by 8am.

Still, I did it. And of course that particular bus only goes every half hour and I just missed one. Still, by a little Grace and the kindness of a passenger who told me where to get off (but in the best possible way) I arrived hardly flustered at all at Fringe Central in perfect time for the morning 'First Time at the Fringe' session.

About twelve other people showed up (and there were seven presenters) so it was pretty obvious that most people didn't think this was anything you needed to come to. But it was a time when you could ask questions—all the questions you wanted answered—and being a good journalistic type (as well as everyone's grandma) I asked lots of questions and found out useful stuff including where the loos were, whether I needed to bring press releases for the press event tomorrow, the contact details for the Fringe rep for The Church Times, where was the best place to hand out leaflets and that they had free maps of the city which I could actually read without my reading glasses.

Then I had a cup of tea at their cafe. And some Rescue Remedy because I was feeling very weird and tired and spaced out.

And then I felt better. And spent a while sorting out routes on the map and on Google maps on my phone and realised that there was a bus between my venue and Fringe Central so I wouldn't have to walk back and forwards, half an hour at a time, and headed off to get my bus pass for the month from Lothian Buses.

Oh Edinburgh is lovely when it's not raining. I've never been here in the dry before. Gorgeous buildings, the mound, the castle ... lovely. And some kick-ass charity shops for perusal later when I'm on less of a mission.

About an hour and a half and a lot of liquids later I found myself at Ryrie's Bar which despite looking exactly like its pictures looked absolutely nothing like its pictures and was much prettier. The events room is elegant in dark wood and will seat 50 all squashed up (please God).

The flyers and posters we had ordered to be sent there were in the cellar, just next to the major leak but quite dry and in boxes that were virtually unopenable without a knife. So God sent me a screw on the floor (no, not that sort ... I didn't have the energy) which worked pretty well on all the parcel tape and as I'd brought my own blue-tak I had a poster up on the wall tout suite.

And that was it really. Today's jobs done. Yes, if I were 25 and not harvesting energy, I could have gone back to the Royal Mile and started handing out flyers but instead I got the bus back to Colinton. And a nice person told me where to get off... and the 15 minute walk to the house was fine.

So job done; body still in one piece. Time to rest and rehearse tonight and to harvest energy for a very long day tomorrow ... and an email from the BBC's Radio 4 Sunday morning show asking to talk to me with regard to an interview a week on Sunday. Thank you to my friend Pete Simpkin who alerted them and to God for doing pretty damn good PR.

Phew.

Heading for the Edinburgh Fringe

Quite a few of you know that I'm a comedian. And in August I'm doing a one-woman show called at the Edinburgh Fringe.
THE Maggy WHiTEHOUSE EXPERiENCE

So, I was happily planning to do all the promotional stuff in the last two week. You know the kind of thing — press releases to radio, newspapers and TV, event page on Facebook, regular updates on social media etc.

And then our Internet connection went down. And I mean down. It just vanished. And, on the day I'm writing (31st July), it's still not back. Plusnet and BT have spent the last fortnight trying to find what's wrong (and blaming each other). It's not just us, it's 12 people on Plusnet in Whiddon Down area, Devon.

So it's been a very peaceful time really. And very suitable for lots and lots of rest. We didn't worry a lot because Plusnet told us virtually every day that it should be solved in 24 hours. And the BT people said the same. Eventually, we did go down to the shop at South Zeal where, in return for a cuppa in their cafe, Alex let us log on to the net. There aren't an awful lot of Internet cafes where we live and most of our local friends had the same problem that we had, if they weren't away on holiday.

So, God will have to do my PR for me. Fair enough. I expect He/She is really good at that.

Instead, it's been time for lots more inner work — and huge gratitude that I am getting to go to Edinburgh (well, I'm already there) because a year ago, this did seem quite a bit of a risk. But I am here. I am well enough to do this. I will be going into the city tomorrow to pick up all my leaflets and start spreading the news.

I am so grateful to be here; to be doing this ... and to be staying at the lovely home of a lady called Anne-Marie Birch whom I met five years ago when I did a prosperity workshop in Edinburgh. She's on AirBnB and I'm currently sitting in her little turquoise single room with my packing reasonably sorted and feeling peaceful and excited.

I flew up on Flybe ... £85 to fly whereas it would be £250+ to take the train. Ridiculous really. But a very easy trip with lovely, helpful people. Mind you, most of my luggage is coming up via MyHermes because that's a cheaper way of getting it here than its going in the hold.

So here we go. Hopefully a daily blog on what it's like to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe....

60.Chemicalisation.

It's all been going pretty well really. The vitamin C has definitely had a good effect and, for all I know, may continue to do so. I've been zinging with energy, creating lovely healthy food that actually tastes nice—and my Shiatsu practitioner gave me a dehumidifyer for raw food on 'extended loan.' Haven't got very far with that yet apart from kale chips which are surprisingly good.

The horse is still scary—she's called Carrie and I've ridden her twice on my own now. The first time was not easy as she tested me out every step of the way, got away from me once and fly-bucked like crazy. Glad to know I'm still a good rider because I coped with it all.

But don't you love it when you get back to the stables and someone says 'did she buck?' No one had previously mentioned that little habit of hers at all...

Before ride number two I thought I'd try a bit of horse-whispering in the outside school at the stables where Carrie is kept. She's used to being lunged (going round in circles on the end of a long rein) and although I didn't do that, she trotted and cantered around me out of habit as I pushed her on for a full half hour.

It's not proper horse-whispering until you get what's called join-up. The horse lowers its head and starts licking its lips and that's a sign that it is becoming submissive to you. You have shown it that you are the herd leader. We didn't get that far but, the great thing was that the half hour took the edge off her freshness and when we went out together, she was as good as gold.

Both times there were no nasty side-effects from riding and I was thrilled. Back at Christmas time I couldn't even use a rebounder because the bouncing hurt so much. Yes, my legs were a bit stiff but that's hardly surprising since it's been about five years since I rode a horse.

So all was well. And then, on Wednesday I decided to do something I 'probably' should have done a long time ago: take down the whole strand of prosperity consciousness teaching that I used to do and have trained others to do. It was still up there on the website and, frankly, I was feeling a bit of a fraud. And, while I'm bearing my soul, I had had the sudden realisation that I had always felt a bit of a fraud with this teaching.

That's not because it's bad stuff—it's classic Law of Attraction even before we all knew what that was. And it's Biblically-based and I stand by all that. And even though my life has been one of adventures (and I wouldn't have missed them for the world) and it's always been a bit of a wing and a prayer financially, it's been an amazing life—and continues to be so. But it was all rather old—and there are thousands of people out there doing newer stuff.

It really should have been disposed of a long time ago. So I dumped it. It felt like I'd shed about three stone!

The next morning I woke up with severe pain under my left arm and it simply got worse and worse all day. By bedtime it had to be codeine even to lie down (and I really don't like taking any painkillers at all, preferring to let my body tell me to slow down or stop). I slept in the spare room because I didn't want to disturb Lion and I put my one-hour recording of the ho'oponopono chant on twice just to get me to relax.

For a while, earlier in that day, I was scared. Was this some new, horrible development that I wouldn't be able to deal with? If this level of pain continued I wouldn't be able to go to Cyprus, France or the Edinburgh Fringe. Then Seth's Blog arrived in my in-box. It was called The Rotten Fish Problem and it read like this:

On the first day, all the fish at the fish stall are fresh.

Some sell, some don't.

The second day, the sold fish are replaced by newer, fresher fish. The unsold fish remains, even though it isn't so attractive.

By the third day, of course, the unsold fish is noticably unfresh, and it doesn't take much effort to avoid them.

At this point, part of the fishmonger's stock is demonstrably unappealing, bringing down the quality of the entire counter.

Pretty soon, of course, the dropoff in business means that the owner can't afford to buy the freshest fish, even to replace his sold inventory, and the end is near.

The alternative? On day two, discard the unsold fish.

Obvious, but difficult. So difficult that we rarely do it. We'd rather lower the average and see if we can get away with it instead.

It was very clear. I'd filled my stall with unsold fish for far too long. And getting rid of it in one fell swoop had created what's known as chemicalisation. That's when you get a kick-back reaction from a major healing. Sometimes it's known as a healing crisis. I had a previous one when I first went to see Suzi the Shaman. A huge, hard lump appeared on my chest practically overnight. Utterly terrifying. I called Suzi at once and she was marvellous. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'It's a healing crisis. It's a good sign.' It was completely gone in a week once I'd had a session with my healer, Cathy, and it has never returned.

Healing crises are never fun, but they do show that something good is happening. This time, to back up the healing theory, my hot flushes stopped at the same time that the pain arrived. Well, not stopped entirely but went down to about 5% of what they had been. That's amazing.

What's more, it made me talk to my homeopath and ask her for a Peter Chapel remedy that we had discussed many times previously. I said it was time to go for it; she agreed so it kicked me into some more action.

Once I realised what was happening, I was fine—happy even. I read some more Catherine Ponder work from The Dynamic Laws of Healing and, with perfect synchronicity, read of a woman with the same symptoms as me who had been healed after affirming that she was forgiven.

A lot of the time, a dis-ease is about the need to forgive, but this rang a lot of bells. I started affirming that I was forgiven, by everyone and everything that could possibly need to forgive me. I mixed that in with the ho'oponopono (I love you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you), realising that the 'thank you' is for forgiveness received.

The next morning I woke up still in some pain but considerably less. And feeling so happy and confident and sure that all is very, very well.

To read more of the story, please click on 'newer post' or 'older post' in black below.

If you are new to this blog and would like to start at the beginning, please go to the side bar and click on 'January' to find post no. 1. Thank you.

I+E=K

In December I had an article published in a major US magazine - The Secrets of the Bible supplement to US News. And since then, my profile having been raised somewhat, my in-box and mail box have been regaled with articles and newsletters from some amazing people. Some I have discarded because I didn't like the feel of them; others I have read with interest. But what interested me most was that they all wanted me to hear their voice - and validate it for them.

There's nothing wrong with that - after all I am writing this so that you can hear my voice. Most of these people were casting their bread upon the waters and writing to a total stranger. Nothing wrong with that either. But in addition to the emails and newsletters that I'm sent because I'm a subscriber to certain sites, I've been truly overwhelmed by information.

It made me take a whole week out to catch up on my reading. That's a challenge to do even if you do work for yourself. And it's taught me a lot - but not actually through anything that I read in that week...

I sat and read a 50-page document on how we should believe in God in the modern day; I absorbed countless well (and not-so-well) phrased arguments for this or that aspect of spirituality/Jesus/Judaism/Buddha.

I've had at least three people sending me the Our Father (Lord's Prayer) in Aramaic as if I'd never seen it before. And one amazing man sent his complete re-translation from Hebrew of the first five chapters of the Book of Genesis. In addition, I even read two whole books that were sent.

It was all very interesting - but was all theory. It's what Kabbalists would call 'Hod.' And when I say that it's 'taught me a lot' I actually mean that it's taught me how much time we spend (perhaps even waste) on information.

Hod is the Sephira of information; the gathering and spreading of the spoken and written word. At its best it is informative and interesting and at its worse it's recycling harmful gossip. It sits on the passive side of the Tree of Life because all this information may be very interesting but the big question is: What are you going to do with it?

And it seemed that the vast majority (though not all) of the writers were passing their information on to me rather than doing anything with it in their own lives.

There's an equation that my husband, Lion, came up with: Information+Experience=Knowledge. I+E=K.

Without experience, information is not real. This is why nowadays I include creative action and visualisation in all my workshops where before I was happy just to talk and answer questions. And without wishing to blow my own trumpet (much) I truly never pass anything on to you before I have tried and tested it for myself.

By acting on information we make it real; by just reaching for yet another book or article or DVD because we think learning just one more thing will bring us closer to enlightenment, we are deluding ourselves and running away from the value of experience.

So I sat down and assessed exactly how much I'd learnt in this whole week of reading. In more than 500 pieces of paper/online articles and the two books only two paragraphs struck gold within me. And guesswhat? They were instructions on how to do a certain meditation that I had already got written down in my Discovery Journal (which is a book I keep to make a record of everything that I find transformative). I did the meditation and it was wonderful. In fact I'm doing it every day until I know I've done it enough.

Don't get me wrong; I value the time and effort all these people took with their research and their wish to make me happier and wiser with their information. But it's not the information that makes me happier or wiser, it's what I choose to do with it.

The nub of it is this. You already have all the information that you need to transform your life into a happy and prosperous one. But have you done anything about it? Have you applied I+E=K and lifted your vibration through the joy of direct experience?

If not, please do. Because that's what works. And that's this month's prosperity suggestion. Find something you've already been taught and do it. If you're stuck for an idea go back through some of these articles. And let me know how you get on.