Today we’d like to introduce you to Toni DeMaio.
Hi Toni, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born psychic. I remember my birth and I have since discovered a very small percentage of the population have such memories. I always had a sense of never being alone, even in the womb, and I now know I have always been able to hear the voice of my spirit guide and also receive information through claircognizance, which is inspired thought, clairsentience, which is gut feelings, and also through visions and dreams, which is clairvoyance.
This ability to communicate with my spirit guide I believe, is my greatest gift as I do psychic readings through him, and I call upon him to help me in channeling reiki healing energy to my clients. His name is Ebon and we have written seven published metaphysical novels together.
My first memory of seeing dead people was around the age of three. We lived in a huge Victorian house converted into three apartments on all three floors, in the Italian section of Newark, New Jersey. It was in 1950 when the dead angry man came into my room at night and lunged at me repeatedly with a huge butcher knife. I see spirit in colored pixelated lights that depict the features and form of the spirit. I would call out to my parents for help but when they turned the light on in my room, the spirit would vanish.
So, I learned early on, there would be no help coming from my parents. But I was blessed to have a psychic medium grandmother who came to visit every Saturday. My spirit guide told me I could tell her about the angry man and she would believe me. I did, and she said, “Welcome to my world.”
She explained our gift to me and my spiritual training began. Gram and I were very close throughout the rest of her long life as she lived to nearly 100. So, I never felt the need to hide my psychic abilities or to be validated by others by gaining acceptance for them. Everyone comes along the path of spirituality at their own pace. I am confident in who I am and where I am on that path.
Gram was also a foot reflexologist and I studied this healing modality before finding reiki in the late 1990’s. I became a reiki master in 2000 in The Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Robin Shelp of Canadensis was my reiki master teacher, and a dear friend. I built a reiki practice in Pennsylvania and taught for years before moving to Houston in January of 2009.
It was then I discovered Unity of Houston, which offers what we like to call, the religion of love. This is because, although Unity is a Christian church, they believe all religions have a place in the world and they are all respected and honored as paths to God. Unity also believes Jesus came to earth as the way-shower, giving us the living example of how to love one another. Unity also believes in reincarnation as I do, so this religion was a perfect fit for me. We even have a pyramid on campus for special events.
In 2012 I started attending the Reiki Circle at Unity which was called Discovering Joy at the time and it was run by Julie Alexander who came to be a close friend of mine. When she moved out of state in 2016 she asked me to continue the reiki circle. Over the years the circle expanded to over 500 members. Before the pandemic we had two monthly meetings on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month at 11AM central, and we treated over a hundred people monthly. We are still in operation, but the second monthly meeting is now on Zoom to continue to include the members we found online from other cities when we went on Zoom during the pandemic. And it’s a fact reiki can be sent long distance with the same level of effect.
I have taught hundreds of Reiki Masters here in Houston and we have helped thousands heal on all levels of body, mind, and soul over these last ten years. The Reiki Circle at Unity of Houston is a free event but we do ask for a love offering for the use of the space for Unity. In 2018 I asked Debbie Mack, who was a gifted reiki master student of mine, to join me in facilitating the reiki circle and we have been working happily together ever since. We are blessed to have Debbie with us as she is also in the process of becoming a Unity minister.
I am also an author of seven metaphysical novels. My first novel was published in 1991, I have four novels currently in print and available on Amazon. The Heart Trilogy, consisting of three novels: My Heart Will Find You, My Heart’s Adventure, and My Heart’s Secret Desire, – which is the fictionalized story of my present life blended with the past life story I learned of in dreams of a wild life lived in 1797 as a young girl named Jessamyn. The dreams started around 3, the same time as my earliest memories of seeing dead people, and as an adult I finally wrote these dreams into a romance novel.
Then, I went back to college for creative writing as my original major had been in Speech and Drama, and while researching the period for my professor I discovered the people I had been dreaming and writing about were real people. I had the names right and I had all the details of their journey west from Boston to Marietta, Ohio. Years later, I would travel to Marietta and see their graves, and the family home, that was preserved in a museum. I knew the layout of the house perfectly from my dreams. I also saw the historical town of Marietta and was able to walk from the river landing straight to the church I believe I was married in in 1797.
While promoting my novels in 2015 I was told by my spirit guide to go to my computer and type in spiritual radio show – which I did, and Psychic Tapestry came up. I listened to several shows in the archives and my guide told me the host, Ken Kessler, was looking for a psychic to work with on his show. The format at the time was for Ken to interview someone working in the spiritual world as a psychic, a healer, or a spiritual teacher, and then the guest would share their gifts with the live callers. Ebon told me that if I was persistent, as Ken was hard to reach, and it took months, I would have a radio show within a month of meeting him. I was skeptical and terrified, but I listened and my guide was correct as always.
On my first appearance Ken asked me if I could give readings to the live callers after the interview about my books and I had no idea if I could do that if I wasn’t face to face with the caller, but Ebon spoke in my ear and he said, “Say yes!” I questioned him, but he said, “You don’t give readings anyway, I tell you what to say. Just listen.” And I knew he was right because this is how I get my information -through my spirit guide. So I said yes, then agonized over it. But the show was a success. I gave readings to all the callers and they each found them meaningful. Ken invited me back every Saturday for a month and at the end of the month he offered me The Love Show with Ken as my co-host.
Ken Kessler, who is a music intuitive, and I worked together for over ten years, first on The Love Show, (a psychic call in show for psychic advice for love and relationships, and then on a new version of Psychic Tapestry where we gave readings to live callers after a spiritual discussion. We were on Blog/Talk/Radio for years as a radio show/podcast. Then we continued as a podcast available on all platforms.
I retired from Psychic Tapestry in 2024 to concentrate on my writing and to work full time as a psychic advisor on the Keen Psychic Reading Platform. I am blessed to be very popular and I have achieved the honor of Top Advisor. Keen is highly rated as an excellent source for psychic information.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’m a very optimistic and practical person. Earth is a school so yes, there are tons of challenges. I came for it all. As the sad times, the bad times do come, I look for the solution. I’m a fixer. And if I can make lemonade out of my lemons I will. In 2011, my daughter, Samantha passed unexpectedly from a heart condition at 39. She was exceptionally beautiful and had been a model before becoming a chef. That was the worst year of my life. Toward the end of that year, Samantha appeared to me in the dream state, but I was as awake as I am right now…it was a lucid dream visit. She showed me the work she is doing from the other side as a spirit guide helping souls on earth to find love and to empower children to avoid being sexually abused, to tell, to get help and trust they will be believed, as that was one of her causes on earth. She was also an animal rescuer.
In 2015, she came to me in my office every morning and together we wrote the novel, Friends in High Places. It’s a fictionalized account of Samantha’s Heavenly adventures and how she is doing her work here on earth. It’s on Amazon.
What’s next?
I have written a new novel, Lizzie’s Wish and I am hoping to market it to a new publisher. I love helping others through my psychic gifts and reiki master training. I love being a mom and grandma to my two living children, my seven grandchildren, and my four great-grandchildren. There are more novels in me and more family vacations to come in Destin, Florida, one of our favorite places.
My soul came to earth to participate in the shift to a kinder, gentler, more loving world. I’ve been waiting for this to happen since the 1970’s and I pray it won’t take much longer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tonidemaiobooks.com
