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“Despair and devastation”: John Edward's gut feeling about 9/11 weeks before it happened

<p>John Edward, well known psychic medium, had a gut feeling he just couldn’t shake as he was in a ballroom back in 2001.</p> <p>He shared with <em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.mamamia.com.au/john-edward-medium/?utm_source=Mamamia.com.au%20-%20All%20Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=b6079f2877-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_22_05_54&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_9dc62997a2-b6079f2877-211561537&amp;mc_cid=b6079f2877&amp;mc_eid=c10f87c072" target="_blank">Mamamia’s No Filter Podcast</a></em> about the weird sensation he felt as he ducked into a nearby lobby to take a phone call from a friend.</p> <p>“It was the most eerie, ominous, evil feeling. I can’t even tell you,” he said. “I get goose bumps as I tell you this. I looked around and I looked at the security guard, and then I remember looking everywhere around, and I just was like, ‘Oh’.</p> <p>“I walked out of the building, and I went to my wife. I go, ‘I need to talk to you… You have to find a new place [for the competition]; you can’t do it here next year.’ And she’s like, ‘What?’ I go, ‘I don’t want you to come down here. Go talk to your boss. You’ve got to get it moved’.”</p> <p>His wife was surprised at his sudden panic and kept pressing for an answer.</p> <p>“I go, ‘Death, despair and devastation’.”</p> <p>The nearby lobby he was standing in happened to be the World Trade Center.</p> <p>The feelings Edward felt that day in mid-August, 2001 – just weeks before tragedy struck on September 11 – sat with him for a long time. They reappeared when he was dining with friends and his wife, Sandra, suggested brunch at the World Trade Center restaurant, View of the World.</p> <p>It was here that Edward erupted.</p> <p>“I turned to her and snapped. I bit her head off, like a lunatic. She like looked at me, like, ‘I’m gonna be polite because we’re in front of other people right now, but I want to push your arse in front of an oncoming bus for the way you just spoke to me.’</p> <p>“But I just really erupted. [I said] ‘There’s no way you’re getting me in that building! There’s no way I’m going up there.’ I can’t even convey to you how it came out. It was like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde moment. It was really weird.”</p> <p>Edward then spend the next days in a deep depression. It was so noticeable that even strangers, who recognised him from his show <em>Crossing Over,</em> asked him if he was OK.</p> <p>“I was really struggling. It was a debilitating doom-and-gloom feeling, like I didn’t want to get out of bed if I didn’t have to,” he said.</p> <p>It was only when Edward recorded an episode of CNN interview program <em>Larry King Live</em> that the fog within him lifted. The pair had spoken about loss, grief and how to cope.</p> <p>However, the following day was one that plunged the world into a state of shock and unease as two planes that were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists flew into the World Trade Center twin towers on September 11. The attack killed 2,977 people and reduced the buildings to toxic dust that still claims victims to this day.</p> <p>After the attack, Edward was contacted by several New Yorkers as well as people from the surrounding areas.</p> <p>“They literally said to me, ‘You were the last thing we watched, my husband and I. You were the last thing that we watched, us together. We had a conversation about grief. We had a conversation about the afterlife because of you. It was the last thing that we did.’" </p>

Mind

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7 ways the government can make Australians safer – without compromising online privacy

<p>When it comes to data security, there is an inherent tension between safety and privacy. The government’s job is to balance these priorities with laws that will keep Australians safe, improve the economy and protect personal data from unwarranted surveillance.</p> <p>This is a delicate line to walk. Recent debate has revolved around whether technology companies should be required to help law enforcement agencies gain access to the encrypted messages of suspected criminals.</p> <p>While this is undoubtedly an important issue, the enacted legislation – the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act – fails on both fronts. Not only is it unlikely to stop criminals, it could make personal communications between everyday people less secure.</p> <p>Rather than focus on the passage of high-profile legislation that clearly portrays a misunderstanding of the technology in question, the government would do better to invest in a comprehensive cyber security strategy that will actually have an impact.</p> <p>Achieving the goals set out in the strategy we already have would be a good place to start.</p> <p><strong>Poor progress on cyber security</strong></p> <p>The Turnbull government launched Australia’s first<span> </span><a href="https://cybersecuritystrategy.homeaffairs.gov.au/sites/all/themes/cybersecurity/img/PMC-Cyber-Strategy.pdf">Cyber Security Strategy</a><span> </span>in April 2016. It promised to dramatically improve the online safety of all Australian families and businesses.</p> <p>In 2017, the government released the<span> </span><a href="https://cybersecuritystrategy.homeaffairs.gov.au/sites/all/themes/cybersecurity/img/cyber-security-strategy-first-annual-update-2017.pdf">first annual update</a><span> </span>to report on how well it was doing. On the surface some progress had been made, but a lot of items were incomplete – and the promised linkages to businesses and the community were not working well.</p> <p>Unfortunately, there was never a second update. Prime ministers were toppled, cabinets were reshuffled and it appears the Morrison government lost interest in truly protecting Australians.</p> <p>So, where did it all go wrong?</p> <p><strong>A steady erosion of privacy</strong></p> <p>Few Australians paid much notice when vested interests hijacked technology law reforms. The amendment of the Copyright Act in 2015 forced internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to sites containing pirated content. Movie studios now had their own version of China’s “Great Firewall” to block and control internet content in Australia.</p> <p>In 2017, the government implemented its data retention laws, which effectively enabled specific government agencies to spy on law-abiding citizens. The digital trail (metadata) people left through phone calls, SMS messages, emails and internet activity was retained by telecommunications carriers and made accessible to law enforcement.</p> <p>The public was assured only limited agencies would have access to the data to hunt for terrorists. In 2018, we learned that many<span> </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-19/authority-creep-has-more-agencies-accessing-your-metadata/10398348">more agencies were accessing the data</a><span> </span>than originally promised.</p> <p>Enter the Assistance and Access legislation. Australia’s technology sector strongly objected to the bill, but the Morrison government’s consultation process was a whitewash. The government ignored advice on the damage the legislation would do to the developing cyber sector outlined in the Cyber Security Strategy – the very sector the Turnbull government had been counting on to help rebuild the economy in this hyper-connected digital world.</p> <p>While the government focuses on the hunt for terrorists, it neglects the thousands of Australians who fall victim each year to international cybercrime syndicates and foreign governments.</p> <p>Australians lose money to cybercrime via scam emails and phone calls designed to harvest passwords, banking credentials and other personal information. Losses from some categories of cybercrime have<span> </span><a href="https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/about-scamwatch/scam-statistics?scamid=29&amp;date=2018">increased by more than 70%</a><span> </span>in the last 12 months. The impact of cybercrime on Australian business and individuals is estimated at $7 billion a year.</p> <p>So, where should government focus its attention?</p> <p><strong>Seven actions that would make Australia safer</strong></p> <p>If the next government is serious about protecting Australian businesses and families, here are seven concrete actions it should take immediately upon taking office.</p> <p><strong>1. Review the Cyber Security Strategy</strong></p> <p>Work with industry associations, the business and financial sectors, telecommunication providers, cyber startups, state government agencies and all levels of the education sector to develop a plan to protect Australians and businesses. The plan must be comprehensive, collaborative and, most importantly, inclusive. It should be adopted at the federal level and by states and territories.</p> <p><strong>2. Make Australians a harder target for cybercriminals</strong></p> <p>The United Kingdom’s<span> </span><a href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/">National Cyber Security Centre</a><span> </span>is implementing technical and process controls that help people in the UK fight cybercrime in smart, innovative ways. The UK’s<span> </span><a href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/active-cyber-defence">Active Cyber Defence</a><span> </span>program uses top-secret intelligence to prevent cyber attacks and to detect and block malicious email campaigns used by scammers. It also investigates how people actually use technology, with the aim of implementing behavioural change programs to improve public safety.</p> <p><strong>3. Create a community education campaign</strong></p> <p>A comprehensive community education program would improve online behaviours and make businesses and families safer. We had the iconic<span> </span><a href="http://www.sunsmart.com.au/tools/videos/past-tv-campaigns/slip-slop-slap-original-sunsmart-campaign.html">Slip! Slop! Slap! campaign</a><span> </span>from 1981 to help reduce skin cancer through community education. Where is the equivalent campaign for cyber safety to nudge behavioural change in the community at all levels from kids through to adults?</p> <p><strong>4. Improve cyber safety education in schools</strong></p> <p>Build digital literacy into education from primary through to tertiary level so that young Australians understand the consequences of their online behaviours. For example, they should know the risks of sharing personal details and nude selfies online.</p> <p><strong>5. Streamline industry certifications</strong></p> <p>Encourage the adoption of existing industry certifications, and stop special interest groups from introducing more. There are already more than 100 industry certifications. Minimum standards for government staff should be defined, including for managers, technologists and software developers.</p> <p>The United States Defence Department introduced minimum industry certification for people in government who handle data. The Australian government should do the same by picking a number of vendor-agnostic certifications as mandatory in each job category.</p> <p><strong>6. Work with small and medium businesses</strong></p> <p>The existing cyber strategy doesn’t do enough to engage with the business sector. Small and medium businesses form a critical part of the larger business supply-chain ecosystem, so the ramifications of a breach could be far-reaching.</p> <p>The Australian Signals Directorate recommends businesses follow “<a href="https://www.acsc.gov.au/publications/protect/essential-eight-explained.htm">The Essential Eight</a>” – a list of strategies businesses can adopt to reduce their risk of cyber attack. This is good advice, but it doesn’t address the human side of exploitation, called social engineering, which tricks people into disclosing passwords that protect sensitive or confidential information.</p> <p><strong>7. Focus on health, legal and tertiary education sectors</strong></p> <p>The health, legal and tertiary education sectors have a low level of cyber maturity. These are among the top four sectors reporting breaches, according to the<span> </span><a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/privacy-act/notifiable-data-breaches-scheme/quarterly-statistics-reports/">Office of the Australian Information Commissioner</a>.</p> <p>While health sector breaches could lead to personal harm and blackmail, breaches in the legal sector could result in the disclosure of time-sensitive business transactions and personal details. And the tertiary education sector – a powerhouse of intellectual research – is ripe for foreign governments to steal the knowledge underpinning Australia’s future technologies.</p> <p>A single person doing the wrong thing and making a mistake can cause a major security breach. More than<span> </span><a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-services/workforce/overview">900,000 people</a><span> </span>are employed in the Australian health and welfare sector, and the chance of one of these people making a mistake is unfortunately very high.</p> <p><em>Written by Damien Manuel. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-ways-the-government-can-make-australians-safer-without-compromising-online-privacy-111091">The Conversation.</a></em></p>

Technology

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I contacted my dead husband through a medium

<p><em><strong>Anne Roddick, 76, was sceptical at first, but when she sought out her first ever medium, she was surprised to find herself speaking to her husband, who had passed away a year earlier.</strong></em></p> <p>Bill, my husband of 50 years passed on 20th June, 2011, after years of ill health. I, of course, felt the loneliness terrible. About 10 months after his death I started getting a message, saying “I want to talk”, coming out of sleep. This lasted every morning for three weeks until I got angry and decided to put an end to this nonsense and seek my first ever medium and my first contact with that side of life.</p> <p>I found what I was looking for in a very nice older lady and had my first ever reading. I went into it convinced I was wasting my time and money, and sure nothing would happen. But in the medium’s room, my husband was waiting with my dad, who had passed many years ago. They both started to talk, taking in turns like musical chairs. I borrowed a piece of paper and pen from the medium and started to quickly jot down all I could.</p> <p>Both men talked about my life in the UK, Africa, and Germany, which was years before we had immigrated to Australia. I was starting to believe. How could an Australian medium who had never been to UK ever know about my life? As I said I had no contact with that side of life before, and was not even sure if I believed in that sort of thing! So I was very curious and asked for a second sitting.</p> <p>This was the start of weekly sittings, and as I had a lot of experience with video cameras and making DVDs so I started filming our readings and putting them on DVDs to enable me to transcribe word for word our conversations.</p> <p>On the 5th April 2016 we celebrated our fourth anniversary – four years of talking and healing each other. We now share what we do in our lives, we laugh and tease each other and our readings are as important to him as they are to me. Although a one hour reading now takes me three to four days each week to transcribe (I have well over 3,000 pages of his talking), this has been the most wonderful and happy experience for me. My husband has also brought all my family through, so it’s like a talking family tree and wonderful to know they are all well and working very hard at their duties. The icing on the cake was when he brought through my twin sister, who passed when we were 18 months old in Scotland. She told me, “Apart from Bill when you return home I will be waiting for you and we will be together again.”</p> <p>I know there are many people who have a fear of the afterlife, and so many spend their years in grief. I hope the story of Bill and my healing, our grief will give help and hope to others. I am 76 years old now and hope my love affair with my husband continues for always.</p> <p>Have you made contact with the other side before? Share your experience in the comments below.</p> <p><em><strong>If you have a story to share please get in touch at <a href="mailto:melody@oversixty.com.au">melody@oversixty.com.au</a></strong></em></p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/gary-chapmans-five-love-languages/"><em>5 ways giving love is the key to relationship success</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/04/the-reason-we-close-our-eyes-when-we-kiss/"><em>The reason we close our eyes when we kiss</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/04/surprising-reason-you-get-sick-at-same-as-your-partner/"><em>Surprising reason you get sick at same as your partner</em></a></strong></span></p>

Relationships

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Meet Amanda de Warren – she communicates with animals

<p>The first time that I spoke with pet communicator and medium, Amanda de Warren, I was hoping that my recently departed cat, Truly Scrumptious, would somehow figure in the conversation. <br> <br> Admittedly, I was sceptic, so I made sure that Amanda knew nothing about my circumstances, my life, or my pets. I ensured my Facebook page was set to the highest privacy settings, so she couldn’t scour through my images or glean any insider information on my life before our interview.</p><p>My cat, Truly, was my treasured best friend of 14 years, and had met a sudden and traumatic death when she was mauled by dogs. Suffice to say, it was the worst day of my life.&nbsp;</p><p>I have always blamed myself, and I guess in some way I was hoping I could speak to my cat via Amanda and let her know how sorry and how devastated I was.</p><p>It wasn’t to happen in that first phone call, though. My hopes were squashed and I was a little disappointed, but it didn’t dilute my faith that Amanda is the real deal. Why? Well, I had my question list prepared, as all good journalists should, but I didn’t get around to asking a single question.</p><p>Instead, Amanda just started talking about my menagerie of pets and for our allotted time, sent messages to me from them. Not only did she accurately pick the sex and species of each animal, but she perfectly described each critter’s unique personality. <br> <br> From my aloof male husky, Pepi, who she said sleeps in the living room as he likes to have his own space (it had been bothering me that he didn’t join us in the bedroom), to my soulful female husky, Simba, who I was considering training to be a therapy dog in oncology wards. <br> <br> “Go ahead with Simba and the hospital,” said Amanda out of the blue. “She is telling me that she really wants to help people.” I had not given Amanda even an inkling that I was in discussions with people about this.</p><p>Then she stopped and said, “I have two female dogs here that have passed over. They were your beloved pets and they want me to tell you that they are always watching you.”</p><p>I hadn’t thought about Goldie and Shiloh for years! They were the two rough collies that I treasured growing up. They had passed away when I was a teenager.</p><p>Despite not “talking” to Truly, I was a firm believer that this woman had a true gift. Sadly, Amanda had to cut our conversation short, as she had another reading to get to.</p><p>I rescheduled the interview time for a few months down the track (Amanda is in high demand and has a gruelling schedule). This time I was determined to get my questions in.</p><p>About a minute into our conversation, Amanda revealed that she had the presence of a noisy cat with her. “You lost your cat recently, very suddenly, didn’t you?” <br> <br> And there she was! I had not mentioned her to Amanda, and there was no way she could have known this. Amanda communicated that Truly did not want me to blame myself, and that she was OK.</p><p>Some of you may think this is crazy, but I am a believer. There was no way Amanda would have known that Truly used to chase me and bite at my ankles when she wanted a cuddle, or that she chatted to me all day long. And there were just too many instances where she knew things that she could not have otherwise known!</p><p>In between blubbering tears, I did actually manage to interview Amanda. Here’s what she had to say.</p><p><strong>When did you first realise you had this affinity with animals, this ability to actually speak with them?</strong></p><p>“I was about 5 years of age. I was on my uncle’s farm in England and one of his farm dogs went missing. I could hear him barking in my mind. I could hear him saying, “I am in the shed but I have fallen down the haystack.” <br> <br> I convinced everyone to go down there. And there it was! It had fallen down.</p><p>Also, when I was really young my neighbour passed away, leaving his cat to live with his widow. I was always connecting to his cat, which was still alive. <br> <br> The cat would say, “my daddy is here”. I could always see the neighbour who had passed over with his cat. I knew then that I could communicate with animals. I shut it down, but then I started working with Steve Irwin. That brought it out in me. I was always able to understand what they had said, but I felt like I wasn’t meant to bring it out back then. I worked with Steve and Terri for two years. That really brought it out in me.”</p><p><strong>What is the process you go through when speaking to animals?</strong></p><p>“It is a telepathic connection. It is pictures, feelings, drawings. It is an energy. It is the same if they have passed over. When your cat came through, I knew she came through in spirit. I saw her come through over the Rainbow Bridge and she had no heartbeat.” <br> <br> <strong>Do animals have the same thought processes/connection of thoughts as us?</strong></p><p>“Yes! They have thought processes and their own personalities and thoughts. They are like us, very similar to us in a way. We don’t actually speak to ourselves, we just get up and do it. They are like that. They just get up and do it. It comes in feelings, senses, taste.”</p><p><strong>Do animals use the same language that we do?</strong></p><p>“The thing we have to remember is that animals are far more advanced than we are. They are incredibly intelligent beings. They telepathically connect or vocally connect. They understand a vocal language between each other. It is universal language they have between them. Generally though, they don’t always vocalise with each other … they use body language and they connect telepathically. They connect to each other on so many levels, not just verbally.”</p><p><strong>What has been one of your most memorable animal readings/communications?</strong></p><p>“I was doing a reading for Kyle Sandilands and his dog came through to me and told me to say, “thanks Dad, for when we go to McDonalds and you feed me the chicken nuggets while you chow down on your burger!” The dog was meant to be on a diet, and so was Kyle! <br> <br> Animals will dob you in big time! I had three little dogs that came through to their Mum and said, “Mum who is that lady with the blonde hair and red jacket that comes to visit Dad when you’re at work?” <br> <br> They told her that this lady came to visit and brought them a treat, which they ate while this lady and Daddy went into the bedroom. <br> <br> So, one particular day, she left work early, but told him that she would be late home. She parked the car around the corner and she snuck into the house, flung the bedroom door open and busted them! <br> <br> Another dog told his Mum that Dad was hiding money in a shoebox and a hidden bank account. He had squirreled away $45, 000 was planning to run away!” <br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>What tips can you give us to enable us to have better paths of communication with our furry friends?</strong></p><p>“Animals love to communicate with us. However, where we humans chat verbally, they communicate through things like body language, through telepathic images.Clear your mind completely, sit on the floor with your animal and relax. Get a flow of energy between you. Leave your mind open they will do the rest. They will bring the information through to you. Once the lines of communication are open, then you won’t be able to shut your animal up! If we open our minds to them, they will open themselves up to us. <br> <br> Always remember that animals are far superior than we are. They look at us humans and they wonder, ‘what the heck are you doing to this planet? Why are you destroying it and destroying each other? Why do you have to kill and maim?’”<br> <br> <strong>What advice can you give to those grieving over a lost pet?</strong></p><p>“The love goes on forever. It doesn’t stop because they have passed over. They go on loving us forever. They never leave us.” <br> <br> <strong>To book a reading with Amanda, or to purchase her book, My Journey Behind Blue Eyes (BookCover Café), visit <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.amandadewarren.com/" target="_blank">www.amandadewarren.com</a>.</span></strong></p><p><strong>Related links:</strong></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://oversixty.com.au/news/news/2015/02/loyal-dog-finds-owner/" target="_blank">Loyal dog travels 20 blocks to reach owner in hospital</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://oversixty.com.au/news/news/2015/02/dogs-motivating-kids-to-read/" target="_blank">Therapy dogs are motivating kids who struggle to read</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="http://oversixty.com.au/news/news/2015/02/dogs-can-read-you/" target="_blank">Dogs can tell how you’re feeling, according to new study</a></strong></em></span></p>

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