Soul-Led Mediumship: Why You Can’t Put Dawn Collins in a Box

A conversation with internationally recognised psychic medium & spiritual mentor Dawn Collins.

In this episode I sit down with the extraordinary Dawn Collins — an internationally recognised psychic, medium, and spiritual mentor with over 35 years of experience bridging the physical and spiritual realms.

Dawn’s story is one of resilience, spiritual rebellion, and the freedom of living as a soul-led medium. We talk about her journey, the importance of integrity in spiritual work, and what it truly means to trust Spirit.

Highlights include:
 🌟 A powerful moment where a father in spirit reconnected with his estranged daughter during a mediumship demonstration.
 🌟 Dawn’s practical tips for developing your own spiritual gifts.
 🌟 Why integrity, trust, and surrender are at the heart of soul-led mediumship.
 🌟 Insights on intention, connection, and creating sacred space.

This conversation is heartfelt, inspiring, and a reminder that you truly can’t put Dawn Collins in a box.

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Transcript

Lisa Brandis: 0:46

welcome back to the Connecting to Spirit podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Brandis, and today I have the absolute joy of sitting down with someone whose work has touched thousands of lives here in Australia and beyond. Dawn Collins is an internationally recognised psychic, medium spiritual mentor and teacher based here in Perth. With over 35 years of experience and 25 of them professionally, Dawn has devoted her life to bridging the physical and the spiritual realms. She also brings through messages of love, clarity, healing. And always with a touch of humor. She was named Australian Spiritual Teacher of the Year in 2024. A reflection of not just her talent, but her integrity and the profound impact of her work. Dawn was one of the pioneers of public mediumship demonstrations here in Perth, and to this day, her readings, workshops, and mentoring sessions are so transformative that she's often booked out months in advance. In our conversation today, you'll hear Dawn's story of resilience and spiritual rebellion, and you're also going to hear more about what it means to be a soul led medium. How to honor both your natural gifts and training and the legacy Dawn hopes to leave for the next generation of intuitives beyond her public work. Dawn is also a devoted grandmother, nanny Nunu, as her family calls her, and she brings that same warmth and connection into every space she holds. So settle in and join us as we dive into the heart of soul led mediumship with the incredible Dawn Collins Welcome to Connecting to Spirit. Dawn, I am so excited to have you here. We've been planning this for a while now, and we've also walked this path together for I think it would be over 22 years. I remember meeting you back in the hypnotherapy days at Yes To Life. And I loved you then and I love you now, and I'm just in absolute awe of your work and so grateful to have you here today. So welcome to the podcast, Dawn.

Dawn: 3:09

Thank you, lisa. It's an honor to be here. Oh, I'm excited about this. Be careful to show my age. I know. We'll

Lisa Brandis: 3:16

keep that little secret. So. No, we won't. So with over 35 years of mediumship experience and teaching, can you recall what first led you to this path?

Dawn: 3:32

I was led from a child. Mm-hmm. Like, we can often hear the stories of, people talking about seeing the spirit world or having a psychic connection. Yeah. As a child, I was always led, I became more familiar when I came in my teenage years and then into my adult years through life experiences. And in making that decision, the spirit world would just be there in my darkest days. Oh wow. Did the guides or spirit help you in that life changing moment you said? Absolutely. And it was in the days where I felt disconnected from society.

Lisa Brandis: 4:10

We tend to withdraw, don't we? If we go into a bit of a dark phase or a dark night of the soul, as they call it. So it's like that retreat. And did you find that you were able to connect more with spirit than humans? Sometimes.

Dawn: 4:21

Absolutely. And saying that there was, there was times where. I would be on my own. Yeah. And there'd be times where I would just hear my name called. Oh really? So you're an audible medium. Do you hear them? Absolutely. And it would be Dawn or there would be taking note of noise around me and I'd come out to investigate and there'd be nothing there.

Lisa Brandis: 4:45

Oh really? And did it scare you at the, because I would imagine that that would be quite unnerving. Cause back then there wasn't a lot of talk about spirit. Certainly not available like it is now where we can get information in a book. Like I know you, you were back in the early days where they were kind of all secret and stashed away in some kind of mystery school when they, like we didn't have the whole school, we didn't have access and we didn't have the internet, which we are talking about our age again.

Dawn: 5:12

I would say that I just come out and just think I was imagining it. I was always had a vivid imagination and I kind of thought that was pretty cool sometimes. Absolutely. The magic that I created in my imagination was better than the real world. So gave me escape to it a little bit, don't we? There's the healing. Then I started to see more of spirit world. And then one day it just all happened. I can't even tell you. It, it was just a real awakening. Yeah. Yeah. Once you get touched by that spiritual connection, isn't it? The veil thins and then all of a sudden we know more. It's hard to go back. It's hard to go. Yeah. I remember one of my mentors once saying to me, once the door's spirit's open, you'll try to close it. And she's like, just so that you know. Yeah. You can't undo what you've, you can't what you've learned. we were talking earlier on the way over and you were telling me about, being invited onto a TV show. That would've been quite thrilling and I would, I would imagine very nerve wracking. Tell us about, tell us about being on that TV show. Sure. I think it was in the early nineties. Yep. And, that TV show had a debate. Okay. A discussion. Oh god. A debate that's like, like, now you're really coming out, now you're really, really going to test the waters here. But, being invited, I, it wasn't just me, we were a part of a team. There was a couple of other intuitives that were invited on to have a discussion, like Little Lambs being brought in where there was a discussion with a skeptic. Please tell me it wasn't a discussion with a skeptic, it was, and on the discussion there was going to just be a discussion, about connecting to spirit. It was, the psychics discussion with the head skeptic of psychic. That just sounds like my worst nightmare right there. I think the worst was, that was the easy part. The worst was after that. Oh my gosh. He's serious. I'm serious. How did you do on the show? So I'd imagine you just showed up the spirit. It was just, yeah, I showed up, just gave my point of view. Yep. And, just told my story. So it wasn't demonstrating, it wasn't showing evidence or doing a reading, it was just talking about your capacity to do so. Is that right? Our beliefs. Oh, talking about shared beliefs. And if you were really authentic, you'd get a million dollars. You're joking, aren't you? No. What is that? How they got you on the show? Obviously, I wasn't authentic enough. I can't tell if you're joking or not. So, was there really a million dollars up for grabs? Yes, there was. For what? What outcome did the skeptics win? The million dollars. Please tell me. They didn't win. No one won. So it was a debate. With the pretense of winning a million dollars that no one could actually win. So then you said after that show had aired, what was the aftermath of that? Positive or challenging? It was challenging. Okay. How so? I found myself in a situation where I had a lack of support. It was really hard to get support back in those days, wasn't it? There was absolutely either circles or books, but even they were hard to find. So kind of a bit of a controlled environment. Would that be right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you found yourself on your own and needing, had you considered kind of giving up? Was it a bit of a catalyst? I think, what happened out of that was I, I was a little bit lost and confused in my direction. Mm-hmm. Yep. Going back into, those days of support and my dad, said one day to me, as a father would say to a child, in any circumstances, you don't need anybody, Dawnie. Oh my God, that must have been terrifying but liberating at the same time, I would imagine. Yeah. so here you are a fledgling, beginning your mediumship work, having clear communication with spirit, trusting, being on tv, having an experience that probably wasn't what you had anticipated.'cause I can imagine that they set these things up in a way that maybe, did or didn't portray you in the light that was honest or in integrity. Would that be correct? That's correct, yeah. So then out the other side of that, you lose your support and you are faced with a decision. Do I just give up, which many would dawn like most would go under those circumstances? Would go, this is all too hard. And I'm sure that crossed your mind. And then your beautiful father, I had one choice and that was to go on. You didn't have a choice to give up, wasn't an option for you. I wasn't going to, it was my breath. I wasn't going to give up. I wasn't going to give up being myself. And spirit is who you are. And that's exactly who I am. And what happened from there was my dad, said, go out and do your own and make him laugh. Do it your own way. That's so powerful. So you did have support, you had the support of somebody that loves you, your own father, and that's kind of uncommon, isn't it? To have to have that. But not the community support, which is hard because we're all in a situation where we have this innate drive within to wanna belong. So, man, you came up against extremely difficult odds in those early years. So what was the outcome of stepping out? What was the first thing that you decided to do? How did you set about carving the path? We went to a town hall. Yep. And my father said to me, do it for charity. Get out there and do something for charity in which we did, we opened a event and the charity back in them days was, the Sids Foundation and also the Heart Foundation. Oh, beautiful. Which brought it more meaningful to me. Mm, I bet.'cause it's not about the dollars or the money service, it's about actually being of service. Yeah. And helping others. Helping people that really need the help. Absolutely. And how did you go? I would imagine that would've been, the entry was something I will never, ever forget as we came around to walk up the path. Yeah. There was only a handful of protesters, but they had their, you had to, oh my God. You had to walk through protesters to get to your demonstration event. Dawn, did you do it? You gotta go back to, I love your attitude. Only a handful of protestors. My father just held me in his arms and just, told me to keep on walking. Aw, that's so beautiful. And walk. You did dawn and you kept on walking and you've been walking for 35 years and you have changed so many people's lives. So I just wanna say thank you because that must have taken some big courage and also a desire, like you said, when it's part of who you are, your work to bring love and spirit connection and communication to people who need it the most. Thank you first of all. How did the event end up? It ended up good. It was good. there was a lot of people, there was people that were curious, there was people that were unsure. There was the spiritual community there. Beautiful. So your dad's words really turned things around for you then Absolutely. And what it showed me was you just have to trust and just walk with that inner guidance of the voice within. I couldn't stop being who I was. Nor should you. I couldn't stop being, being dawn. And I would imagine the 200 people that showed up that day to hear your voice and your messages. Showed you that there was a need in the community. For sure. And so even though there was a small, resistance, you kind of was able to overcome it and help people. Of course. And go on and do more. That's amazing. So I wanna change direction a little bit. You've referred, you refer to your, your teaching style as soul led mediumship. What does it mean to you to be soul led in your work? It's feeling it from within, connecting to the soul. Mm-hmm. Because it all comes from the soul, the essence of our own soul. Beautiful.'cause you've got to have a communication. Yeah. You have to embark on communicating with the spirit world. Yeah. Psychic readings are readings where the soul of the person's life experiences soul. Mediumship is a sacredness, and I want to enhance the word sacredness. It's a trust and we are putting our heart and soul into it. Our very essence and breath, we get past wanting it to be a yes or no and correct, and we allow it to pass our own conscious mind and we get out of the way, for example, our wants and needs, and we allow it to be natural. This allows the flow to happen and the pure essence of the spirit to blend with us by surrendering. After all, they have come to reassure a loved one. Everything will be in divine order. We have to let the spirit bring their messages to us. They know what they need to say, and by doing this you allow the true essence of the spirit flow./ So soul mediumship is the core of really to me, at being at one with self. That allows the soul of the spirit to be at one with you. Yeah. And get yourself out of the way. It's an integration, absolutely It takes time to learn how to trust that's why we call it development, isn't it? It's developing the medium, developing the ability to surrender in that moment, to allow that wisdom to come through. I think we need this, the formal kind of style of teaching gives us a kind of a framework. Would you agree? Like there's the tools we use, the different way in which we connect the getting in the power, the angel cards, there's so many different tools we can use to develop that connection with spirit. But ultimately it's about the need for the client, isn't it? It's about. That intention, would you say? The intention, and it's a sacredness, it's getting yourself out the way. Yeah. And it's honoring that connection. Absolutely. And by getting yourself out of the way, you have to be present of course. But by getting yourself out of the way, you are enabling that love to come through The message. What is the message? It is one that is awkward because, our monkey mind is always going to come into it. We cannot not. It's a bit of a monkey mind. Yeah, it's a bit of a battle, isn't it? And so do you have any, do you have any tools or techniques that kind of make it easier? I just sit so sitting in the power. Sitting in the power. So meditation. Meditation. Not a guided meditation. Yeah. I don't do, I mean, I'm not saying don't do guided meditations. I think these are wonderful tools, but just sit in the quiet. Sit with your own soul. Sit with your own soul and move. Just move and, and just move out of the way. Yeah. And then just left and trust. This is the, this is the bridge. The trust. Enabling the trust. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's powerful./ I am going too ask you the question that everyone at home's probably wondering, how do we get our mind out of the way in order to receive For sure. We go back to what we say sitting in the quietness. Yeah. Okay. Sitting with your soul's energy. Energy, that's hard to do in today's busy world, isn't it? Absolutely. A hundred miles an hour. Yeah. Things are going to resurface straight away. Mm-hmm. But it's like a psychic muscle. The more you sit and become just a little bit more relaxed mm-hmm. It's all about relaxing. And the more you relax, the more that you are able to enable yourself to just go with the flow. Yeah. Work through the monkey mind. Allow that, acknowledge that, monkey mind, acknowledge it. Park it up. Yep. Come back to a thought or something that would take you back into that space and keep on going. Just keep working through it. It's like a psychic muscle. The more you do, the easier it becomes. Mm-hmm. And do you have an intention to connect with your guide specifically when you sit to do that work absolutely. Because otherwise we are just sitting there staring at the clouds. If the intention's there to, I wanna connect with my spirit guides, I wanna feel the presence of love, or I wanna feel the presence of my angels. Is it like we set that and then let go and just wait for it to happen? Absolutely. We set an intention. Some people do a prayer. We set that communication. We're working with another mind. You set that they will meet you more than halfway. But we've gotta put out the invitation for them to come. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's, I think that's the key component that people don't realize you have to ask Spirit to engage with us. They don't just come in without an invitation. And it's literally like, once we have the address, they know we want their communication. They know that we are ready and we are open, we're open-hearted, open-minded. Then we lay out the invitation, which is just a purely a thought that we send out. The universe picks up the frequency, it goes, oh, she's interested, she's curious. And like you said, I think some are naturally gifted and it just happens kind of spontaneously, usually out of a place of. You know, sometimes despair comes the ask for something, some help, some support. Or there's an internal cry for more right? In times of great need. And then in that response, that's an invitation. It's an invitation through pain. Or we can have an invitation through just pleasure.'cause we wanna choose it because we go, I know there's an ability to connect to something pure and wise and it can come from two different ways, can't it? So I kind of think Absolutely. Yeah. And, having that invitation, but also, they want you to develop. Yeah, of course. They need you to develop. And as that connection and bond grows with our spirit team, then we grow, they grow. And we also help humanity at the same time, which I think is amazing. Dawn, I think integrity plays a part. So we've covered intention. How does Integrity play, out in your experience of mediumship? It's very important, our integrity. Because we can't be clones of each other. We need to be authentic. We need to be ourselves and we need to be natural. We can learn from watching other mediums and learn from their experiences and mistakes. As a mentor, it's important to me to keep the naturalness of mediumship within the student and not try to change their natural way. So I, I kind of see it as, yeah, you know, sometimes students can fall in the trap of trying to model off others, and sometimes teachers can fall into the trap of trying to teach what we know has worked for us because it worked for us. But I, you know, I think is, isn't it, there's somewhere in the middle where it's not just about structure, it's not just about I, I guess, passion. It's about finding that unique spark where there's just where innocence leads to. Absolutely natural ability and everyone has that ability. Yeah. And, and keep it to their natural ability. Otherwise, we're going too be taking them away from the calling. Yeah. Yeah. Aren't we? Yeah. We may fracture that innate gift that is theirs to shine with. Yeah. So, and that's not always easy, is it? As a teacher it's to, because sometimes it's subtle. It's, our abilities to be able to see that and encourage that within the students so that they start to blossom. Because I know from my own teaching experience, we retract when we're a little frightened or a little afraid. And it's almost like as a teacher we see that fledgling flower starting to open up and they can just pull back and kind of hide and it's our job to kind of tease that gift out of them, isn't it? To just allow them to blossom. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're going too get it wrong. Absolutely. We have to get it wrong. we are human. and that's part of the learning journey isn't, that's part of the learning. But I also find by keeping it in their natural environment of their own soul mm-hmm. Is going to allow them to work and, and use that strength that is right for them. Yep. As long as we keep it with compassion. And humbleness. Yeah. And we allow them to shine. Yeah. Beautiful. And that's a really nice space to be nurtured into that soul spirit development. I love it. So Dawn, after all these years of doing readings and demonstrating and connecting the spirit world to loved ones, is there any story that stands out? Absolutely, because when we're demonstrating also for some people, they will feel the love of the spirit in the room. You can bring through some wonderful messages and connections, but to actually all feel the love of the spirit world in the room, this one is, one that will stay with me for sure. I was given a message, to two women on different parts of the room. And one was a mature lady, and one was a younger lady and gentleman was coming through and he was insisting of, coming forward. And both ladies were identifying. They were taking the message. Both ladies are agreeing to every word that I've said in different parts of the room. So I went with that. Mm-hmm. I did ask the lady's first name, and as she, called out her first name, it changed the connection. What I mean by that is the mature lady, had married a second time. Mm-hmm. And the gentleman that was coming forward was trying to connect to his daughter and the wife of his second marriage. The message in itself was. Prior to the gentleman passing for some time, it was brought up, not openly, but it was brought up that he had been looking for his daughter just to tell her the value words of I love you. And with that, the two ladies, came together and the father got the wish. The spirit world. I believe the spirit world orchestrated that time, that meeting and that wonderful opportunity to bring two people together. And for the lady to tell the daughter that her dad did love her. Oh my gosh. Can imagine there wasn't' a dry eye. I can imagine. Yeah, I can imagine. The energy in that room would've been so incredible. Was the daughter relieved to hear from her dad? Had she been wanting to hear from him too? Yeah. So they'd both been looking for each other, hadn't found each other and found each other. Sadly after he'd passed over, but, profoundly that he was able to tell her how much he'd been looking for her, and loved her, and the, the feel in the room, the emotion and the feel, everybody, felt the presence of the spirit world. Yeah. So much love. Absolutely. So dawn, what lights you up most about your own spiritual practice right now? I love just being with spirit. So I can't define, I love where it's led in life. Mm-hmm. The personal healing. The personal healing. I love, I love the souls that we meet here. And the stories. The many, many stories that you get to meet and the many, many people on the spirit side of life that you connect with. I love the educational side of it. Teaching others to inspire, to walk the path, to allow the, innate soul to just open up and just. Be Yeah. I love all of it. the spirit world. It's my breath, it's my soul. Beautiful. Is there anything else that you wanna share? We can't work without the soul. Mm-hmm. It, you have to work, you have to work on your own self. To personal development plays. Yeah. A big, and you know what? We would, and you grow and you evolve and you, you move on. And we're all, we were talking about it the other day. It never stops does it? That self-development that looking at ourself, how can we love ourself more? How can we be kinder, be kinder and gentler to ourself. It's kind of an ongoing, development, isn't it? But so much easier if we have spirit walking by our side. A hundred percent. But we've gotta live our life. We've gotta live and be in the present of today. Yeah. And not hide in spirit. Absolutely. Yeah. So the, you find the soul. So where's the happy medium for you? I think in any of our development of mediumship and psychic awareness and all of that. We've gotta have fun. Yes, we've gotta have fun. We, we, we, we have to take, we have to keep it real and, you know, we will be serious with that because that's the foundation. We have to have that foundation of having that inner strength behind you. But what I find in all of this is we have to have fun. Mediumship is not, just about being serious. Mediumship is about the essence and the presence of your own soul. And sometimes your soul can be really funny. Absolutely. Absolutely. I shine more when I, when I'm having fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, and I gotta dance with the soul of the spirit world./ What does Spirit want me to know right now? What does Spirit want me to hear? Joy. Follow your own truth. Is in the foundation of growth. Yeah. Spiritual growth knowledge. Finding your truth be creative. Be creative, have fun, be creative. They're waiting for you. Having the joy back. Channelings joyful. I love joy. Yeah. I love channeling. See, I love it. Spirit will turn up. Alright, so that's it for today. We will share all the links to Dawn and to her website. I do believe you've got a wait list for readings, but still jump on the wait list. She's worth it. I had a reading with Dawn and at the time we were in a transitional period. Everyone was against my husband changing jobs'cause he was going too lose 20 grand and she tuned in and said, is your husband on a plane right now? And I'm like, nah, no he's not. And then I'm like, oh, hang on. Yeah, he just literally flew to a conference in Sydney and she picked that up and she said to me, you can trust your husband. He knows what's right for him. And so I did against all odds, everyone was saying, don't do it. We just had a baby. We were on one income, he lost a company car, mobile phone, and$20,000. And would you believe the week later, the place where I was running Reiki workshops offered me a part-time job that gave me$20,000 and I started working part-time, which gave us the capacity to shift into that new career. And it was mind blowing. And he has just gone from strength to strength. So Dawn, thank you because you were one of the most accurate readers that I've ever been to. And not only that, you are the most beautiful soul, full of love and compassion and just wanna make a difference in the world. So hat off to you, thank you for the legacy of work, the, millions of people's lives that you've changed.'cause I know it's not just the sitter or the healing, the person who receives the healing, their frequency changes and therefore everyone benefits in their life. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you do and how you show up and how you deliver, even when you're nervous, especially about being on a podcast. So we love you. We are so grateful, and, we can't wait for the next chapter, thanks, Dawn. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. It's been absolutely wonderful. I had a great laugh with you.