"Journey Into Grace: Tales Of A Psychic Paramedic"

For Sarah Grace, life was about escaping the wounds of an abusive childhood.

Growing up in Mobridge, South Dakota, she writes in her memoir, she began to experience strange visions and a sense of energies flowing around her.

Then it happened. "One night, in the wee hours of the morning, my mom sprang onto my bed and shoved a pillow over my face. Panicked, I squirmed, kicked, and clawed at her arms, fighting desperately for air until a beautiful angel with long flowing golden hair appeared just above us and told me to stop and play dead. … I had been interfacing with spirits for over a year by that time, but this was the first time one of them had rescued me in a difficult situation. I was grateful."

The Folsom resident, who often visits friends in Chico, writes of finding her true calling in "Journey Into Grace: Tales Of A Psychic Paramedic" ($12.99 in paperback, self-published, sarahkgrace.com; also for Amazon Kindle).

She continued to see "ghosts of Native American tribal members, monks, gurus, recently deceased townspeople" as well as "demons, dragons, gargoyles, and every kind of slimy, sticky sloth imaginable."

Her account takes her to Southern California and beyond. She became a stripper in college; tried marriage; got high on ephedrine and harder drugs; modeled for Playboy; developed bulimia; and became a paramedic. In that job she confronted horrendous traffic accidents and the souls of those killed hovering nearby.

Only after revisiting Mobridge is her trauma finally laid to rest. Plunging into studies of shamanism and energy medicine, she now teaches "other energetically sensitive people how to work with their gifts and apply them in their daily lives."

The bottom line? "I understood that by taking one hundred percent ownership for the state of my well-being and life, I had the power to create my own destiny. … At our core, we all just want to be loved, accepted, and validated for who we are. … Our past does not define us, unless we allow it to."

The author is scheduled to be interviewed by Nancy Wiegman on Nancy's Bookshelf this Friday at 10:00 a.m. at mynspr.org.