John LeKay. Can you please tell me a little about your background and when did you first notice that you had a sixth sense, psychic abilities?

 

Judy Lopez: I was born in Watsonville, CA on July 5, 1970 to Lorraine Ramirez and Jessie Lopez. My father was from Mexico (Native blood-Mayan, Aztec and many other forms of Mixtecos) and mother was a Native and American mixed blood. I am registered as a Paraho Valley Ohlone Indian approved. by my cousin Patrick Orozco, who is the Tribal Chairman. I found my blood relatives at the age of 37 so I feel I have the right to embrace the spirit of my people. I am not a full blood, but I did want you to make note of the article I forward to you on my views of Mestizo. See Mexicans are Indians

 

I was raised by my adopted Grandma Eva and Grandpa Johnny Ditzler who lived in Yuma , AZ. My grandpa always told me to be proud to be a Native American for he was the son of Ira Claud and Tilda Mae Fulton Ditzler of the Choctaw Nation. As a child I attended Crane Pueblo Schools, and we lived close to the riverbed. My grandpa was a fisherman as well worked a booth at the local flea markets selling his goods. My adopted mother would come and get us just as I settled in with my grandparents so I guess you could say I a transient child. I spent my younger years in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

 

I first knew I had psychic abilities at an early age. At my adopted mother Patricia’s home, I was the only child at home as I was with my grandparents as well. Therefore, I made a lot of spiritual friends who my grandma told me were angels. I would engage in contacting and playing with these little angels the size of hummingbirds with no faces. I engaged in a relationship with my imaginary friends, protectors, and healers most of my young life. 

 

I attended Yuba College, in Marysville, CA where I graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Business. I work full time as an Insurance Adjuster and part time as a Spiritualist using my Native American gifts. Being blessed with three beautiful children I now live in Houston, Texas.

 

 

JL:  When did you begin using these gifts to help other people?

 

Judy Lopez:  As, a child I remember telling my cousins about the “little people”  or “angels” as I called them and told them they could have one of my angels to take with them for protection. Our parents loved parties so we were always involved with what I will just call  “drama”. I actually started reading and healing family and friends as the age of 30 years old. When I turned 33, I then started working with clients providing them spiritual readings using the Tarot (Native Cards and Traditional Tarot), stones, wood pieces and past life readings. At the age of 35 years old, I started doing cleansings and healing. 

 

 JL: What kind of method do you usually use to give readings?

 

Judy Lopez: The method I am comfortable with is a spiritual reading which will sometime lead to a healing prayer and cleansing. To perform I start with a prayer to the Great Spirit to use my cards, stones or third eye as a conduit for information my client should be made aware of. I don’t ask anything from them other than their birth date. Before providing such a reading, I do a protection circle using my prayer stick, a candle, and a shaker to contact spirits. Again, I was never raised by my Native family members, but the spirit was always there and it lays within me. I just let the spirit take over and provide this reading to my client. It’s their choice if they want a cleansing or not. I also will burn sage in my scared area. I sometimes smoke a cigar  for clarity and do days of prayer work. Some friends have called me a Natural Bruja, but I would prefer a Native folk Spiritualist for I don’t know any Spanish. When I met my biological family at the age of Thirty-eight, I immediately knew where I got the gifts from and from that time embraced spiritual or folk healer that lay within me. My cousin Patrick Orozco is a great story teller and told me all about all my relatives. He states we were known as the California Mission Indians www..mchsmuseum.com/orozco.html. Here is a link to a You Tube of my cousin Patrick Orozco who has appeared on Blog talk’s Dream Catcher Entertainment radio program www.blogtalkradio.com/DreamCatcherEntertainment

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIMJqVYAbo and www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttDetDqgXdU.

 

JL:  How exactly do you do these cleansings and healings and can you give me an example of someone you healed?

 

Judy Lopez: I assist people in correcting energetic imbalances in their bio-field that assists the body to release its own healing ability. When the energy of the body is balanced and moving correctly, the body’s innate natural energy heals itself. I recommend that clients continue to see their regular medical doctors and follow their advice and I reinforce that my work is a complement to regular allopathic or ostopathic medicine. My spiritual energy work is not a substitute for conventional medical diagnosis or treatment for any medical or psychological condition. For such issues, you should seek the proper licensed physician or healthcare professional. I am a Native folk healer and my work is spiritually based and I believe all healing is spiritual in nature. The cases I have cured have been emotional cases. In one case, I had a woman come to me, and she was in love with this man who had caused a tremendous amount of pain in her life. Through the reading, I found out this man she was seeing was not her husband, and that she was involved in an extramarital affair. I quickly told her what my cards had said. She broke down and started to cry. I asked her, “Would you like to have balance and harmony in your life?”  I told she had a very important choice to make. I asked her was she willing to sacrifice herself to be happy.  She quickly replied yes. She thought for a second that I was going to do some black spell to bring her lover back to her. I am, and never will be, involved in negative works. Therefore, I told her up front that if that is what she thought, she was in the wrong place. I provided her with a spiritual healing which consisted of prayer work and my cleansing solution. I told her while I am praying over you, you  must rid yourself of all your sins in silence allowing the Great Spirit to surround you with his healing love. As I am healing her, I am continuing to receive spirit messages and told her what the spirit was telling me. She stood silently in front of my fountain where I do most of my prayer work. I told her she has to become happy with herself and stop trying to substitute an easy way out. This only would cause her more pain in the future. I foretold her things I saw happening if she was not careful. I then sprayed her body from head to toe with my spiritual solution (which I will talk about later.) She was told to not speak to me but in silence speak to the Great Spirit. I would then tell her what she needed to do to rekindle her love for her husband. I would counsel the woman for about one week in two to three hour sessions. In the worse cases, I will do healing work with a drum and receive messages from my stone readings. I have a person lie down on their back and run the drum beats from head to toe while doing my prayer work. The secret to having faith in folk healing is that all healing is self-healing.

 

My spiritual baths are made with water and herbs from my patio garden which varies in season. I will boil my herbs, squeeze the juice from fruits, as well as grind mint leaves. I also use  coconut oils as well as other oil based fragrances which I pour into my bath so it will give off a pleasant aroma. When I make my baths, they are made at home in a tub and then poured into squirt bottles and containers with lids.

 

JL:  Did anyone teach you how to do these things?

 

Judy Lopez: I had a dream and in my dream the spirit said I would be reading sticks and stones. Now in the dream, I saw myself reading for others, but as I awoke, I didn’t quite know how I was going to do it. Consequently, I told a friend about my dream, and he brought me a deck of Spanish Tarot cards. He said that  I read them like his spiritual advisor in Mexico. I was 30 years old then and started reading stones and cards.  Sometimes the messages would come through dreams as well as while I was meditating. No, I have had no teacher and will do prayer work and healing work by trial and error. This means that if one prayer works better than another, I will stick with that prayer. Or if a spiritual bath seems to have a wonderful color and aroma, then I would make more of the same. Being a mother, of course, the  power of love is strong and the beliefs in the Great Spirits make the prayers unbreakable. I have always been protected, hence it is easy for me to transfer that same emotion onto another human being through prayer work.

 

JL:  Do you know if you have any medicine people or other kinds of healers in your family lineage?

 

Judy Lopez: My Grandma “Evie” Evelyn Duggar married my Grandpa Victor Ramirez. Together they had five children. Betty, Victor, Jimmy Dean, Lorraine and Alex.  My aunt Shelia, who was married to my Uncle Alex Ramirez, told me the story of how everyone in town knew my Great Grandmother Lola as a “Native folk healer”.  To other folks she was known as a Curandera or simply a “Bruja.” This powerful healer was described as  a small woman with tiny hands and feet. I never meet my grandmother Lola.

 

After my grandpa Victor Ramirez passed away, my Grandma Evelyn re-married Ben Marques who is a Chumash Indian and together they had five children. Gloria, Rosie, Hope, Eddie and Danny.  Patrick Orozco is a distant cousin of mine; also he is an elder, medicine man as well as a tribal chairman (  www.unitedcanatives.com/Welcome.html ). Patrick Orozco’s mother Annie and Ben Marques are brother and sister. So I will say my cousin Patrick Orozco is from another Indian tribe but still they still consider each other family.

 

Patrick’s Grandmother Rose Rios' Indian lineage went all the way back to about the year 1782 according to Santa Clara Mission records. Patrick consulted with his Grandmother and it was through her information that Patrick was able to learn. He then passed invaluable information to our people and also informed the public through many years of Native practices and genealogy research. I have great respect for Patrick Orozco, Terry Reynaga, and the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council for all the work they do  from the research of new members,  collecting records, and keeping the traditions alive through their dances and storytelling. Nor have I ever meet Rose Rios.

 

Since I was raised away from my biological family, I don’t know the gifts of all my people, but I do know their Native American traditions are threaded into my spirit. People come into your life for a reason, and I have been blessed to have many families and love all people no matter what background they come from, for in the end we are all One.

 

 I am just one piece of sand in this beach we call life trying to make a small contribution to all the people I meet on a professional and spiritual level.  My goal is to live my life in such a way my children and grandchildren will see the love of the Great Mystery through my works.

 

JL:  How did you find out about your birth parents?  

 

Judy Lopez: I thought it was time to find my family so I meditated and ask for guidance from the spirit world to help me find my family. That is when Lorraine Ramirez (my biological mother) came to me in a dream and put me in touch with my blood relatives.  Lorraine was addicted to heroin and died in 1996, but I did not know where she was buried. When I was born, I was also addicted to heroin and had to be hospitalized many times in my infancy. My biological mother gave me to Patricia Poole and my uncle, Victor Ramirez (AKA, June Bug.)  They were married at this time. They actually took me directly from the hospital and there was no official adoption completed. My relationship with the late Patricia Poole was not that good; she felt she didn’t care that much for me after a failed relationship with Victor.  When Patricia and Victor divorced, Patricia took me from Watsonville, CA. She and Victor were sent to prison for heroin when I was two years old. Grandma Eva and Grandpa Johnny  Dizler came and got me and raised me on and off until I was 16.  My Grandpa Johnny was a Choctaw Indian and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Eventually, Patricia was shot and killed by her estranged husband Buttons Jones. She was a very mean spirited woman; consequently, my dream about my biological mother being so serene and good drew me to her and was a great blessing for me.

 

In the original dream, my biological mother told me to come and sit beside her, and she pulled out this album full of pictures. Also, in my dream my mother was the same age that I was when I had my dream. She had long black hair and was a beautiful woman with such a peace about her that I quickly sat beside her and looked deep within the pages of the album. She said to me to contact the Indian Chief in Watsonville, CA, and he would help me find my family. At first I was shocked at the dream that seemed too good to be true. Not knowing what to do, I contacted the Santa Cruz Sentinel and spoke with the editor there about my dream. Deep inside I knew the first three editors I talked with thought I was crazy and discounted my story. I finally got one editor to believe my story, and he suggested that I contact Patrick Orozco, chairman of the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council right there in Watsonville, CA.

 

As it turns out, Patrick was my cousin by marriage and knew everything about my family. Chris Watson told my story in the Name Dropping section of the Santa Cruz Sentinel on December 15, 2007. I learned that my mother Lorraine was buried in the Watsonville Pioneer Cemetery, but Patrick put me in touch with two of my five siblings who reside in Watsonville. I contacted the Sentinel around Thanksgiving of 2007. I flew up to San Jose airport in January of 2008 there reuniting with my biological family.

 

One could only wonder what life might have been like if I had been raised by my own blood. My spirit tells me that I was put right where I needed to be in this circle of life.  I have to be thankful that I had all the opportunities to be raised outside of my race. My Native spirit also welcomes me home to the traditions of my own people which were always a huge part of each breath I took. Life is good.

 

JL:  Do you use any kind of native traditions or rituals in your healings and what is the distinction between what you do and a traditional medicine person?

Judy Lopez:  I was raised around my Grandma and Grandpa Ditzler and neither one of them practiced any healings nor was my grandpa a medicine person. I have taught myself through the development of my intuition, listening to my spirit guides, and self-study of Native Folk healing in order to become the healer I am today. I would have been taught hands--on  by a  Native American medicine man if I had been given the opportunity to be around my Native people.

I cannot relate my spiritual energy work and the rituals to a traditional medicine man.  The Spiritual prayers and the energy work which I do on my family, friends, and clients are spirit guided. I learn from the spirit within me if that makes sense. I am aware that in most Native American groups, tribal medicine people are taught by their elders which one must meet strict criteria that take many years to learn.

The questions that I have been asked in this interview have inspired me to do more in--depth research into my family tree and have discovered that Caucasian blood also runs through my blood.  My grandmother’s family name is the “Duggers” out of  Texas; however, I know nothing about their teachings or healing work.  Through prayers to the Great Spirit, willingness to heal, and trusting my readings as a conduit for information for my clients, I have proven to be successful. I base that success rate on return clientele, the results of self healing, and people’s faith in Folk healing.  At the end of the day, the race card is placed face down and all that is left is the bridge of understanding and enlightenment that truly makes us all one people who are all taught by the Great Mystery.

JL: How do you feel about non native people who practice native medicine?

 

Judy Lopez:  I personally don’t see anything wrong with a person who is non native practicing Native American Medicine provided they have been  taught by a Native American healer, or they have received the gifts through messages from the spirits to do so. I have many American friends who were adopted by Natives, and were raised around the ceremonial practices. They have met all criteria to conduct their ceremonial rituals and were also approved by the Medicine bundle keepers.

 

I find it narrow minded in today’s world with separation of family members from their tribes due to financial stress and lack of federal funding for tribes to disavow all natural “spiritual healers” whether your Native or non Native. You can call it New Age wannabe if  you want, but my heart tells me if  a client is feeling better, then they should be able to find alternative healing by any means necessary. (Please review my disclaimer in question four regarding medical help vs. spiritual help.)

 

It’s not good manners to compare yourself to others or say one has more power than another to heal. God gives every man the gift of healing whether your red, yellow, black or white. It’s your choice where you want to use it or you want to enhance it by getting special training by a Native American. I find the hearts of Most Native Americans  are willing to help you and teach you, but it does take work on your part. Most spiritual work is just different in some ways and similar in others ways. (There are many different aspects of every kind of healing.)  See article here

 

JL:  What are your thoughts on the idea that practicing native medicines by non natives is another form of cultural exploitation and identity theft of native peoples?  That it should be outlawed because it has been abused by many non natives in the past.

 

Judy Lopez:  Well, if the question is worded with cultural exploitation and identity theft of Native American’s that is a different subject entirely. I want to believe in my heart that when every person wakes up they are happy and their intentions are good. But, it is sad to say that is not always the case.

 

If  Non Native Americans who have no healing gifts are purposely exploiting services that they know nothing about and conducting ceremonial rituals in the name of certain tribes, then that is wrong and should be stopped. Having done many Native American interviews, I know personally if a healer is caught for identity theft or cultural exploitation, it is brought to the attention of AIM (American Indian Movement) then they will be stopped. Accountability is being responsible for anything you say and everything you touch. If you misuse your responsibility as a “healer” then you take a risk of taking someone’s life as well as ruining your reputation. Some Native Medicine healers deal with life threatening illness and if they do not have the training, then they could cause fatalities. As a healer you take on the role of being a counselor and an advisor, and you are liable for your actions. Identity theft is abuse and should be outlawed.

 

JL: . So how does one make this distinction between a legitimate medicine person and a fraud and know if one is abusing this or not and who should be the judge of this?

 

 Judy Lopez: In one of my interviews I asked the same question and the response was, “It is very simple question---a legitimate medicine man DOES NOT CHARGE!  Only the fakes charge for their "services"---hope this answers your question. Another friend answered a true legitimate medicine is one that is humble and does not draw attention to himself. The community knows them by who they are and what they do. A fake medicine person will have business cards, many types of media to promote their works and charge hundred and as much as thousands of dollars for their services. One Native American that I interviewed stated a true medicine man is know by just doing what they do and allowing their reputation to speak for itself.  

 

The ones who are the judges of these fake healers are legitimate Medicine people, their family, friends as well as those who protect Native cultural exploitation. I have seen firsthand Native Americans “out” fraudulent healers. The Natives will band together and through networking they will put a stop to this type of fraud.

 

JL: On another subject. Do you ever get intuitive insights into the bigger picture such as what is going on with the economy or things of that nature?

 

Judy Lopez: Yes, the insights I get about the economy come through listening to the elders. Also, being an employee of corporate America and listening to my own intuition are very important in this process. If I think about something and go to the spirit, I will get my answer and then work on myself because that is all I have control over. For example, I have been getting prepared for financial hardships for about the last two years. I have an older paid off car, live somewhere less expensive, and took the advice of an elder and  am stocking up on can foods and dry goods. In most cases it is common sense.

 

 

Judy Lopez contact: judyannlopez@yahoo.com