Today we’d like to introduce you to Lora Nakamura.
Lora, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As a child, I never thought, “I want to be a psychic when I grow up.” I wanted to work at McDonald’s because I loved their french fries. And later when I passed my french fries phase and got a little older, I actually had secret dreams of being a jewelry designer. But artistic careers were a pipe dream in my family and culture. And although I never considered the metaphysical field as a career choice back then, I did know that I had psychic abilities as a child. I would later discover that we all do, but the degree to which we are psychic is directly related to the degree to which fear, trauma and dysfunction have blocked our access to our intuition. So by the time I was in high school, my fear, trauma and dysfunctions had blocked me from my inner wisdom. However, I was always curious about psychic phenomena. I never trusted psychics with the neon signs or the psychics or psychic lines I saw on tv, but I did want answers. By the time I was an adult, I had gotten two graduate degrees and was working as an MSW/social worker. I was depressed and unfulfilled, and eventually crossed paths with a QiGong master healer. He was kind to me and told me to visit with a western MD who was also psychic. I found it so fascinating that a doctor would be psychic. When I went to see him, he told me that in a past life I had been a master jeweler, working with beautiful stones. I had never told anyone that I wanted to be a jewelry designer, but his communication was my truth, and the reason I am still fascinated with beautiful jewelry today. The spirit to spirit communication was a huge validation and opened me up again to my spirit. It was a first step, but I did not start my metaphysical training yet. I would experience several traumatic life events before my discomfort and pain propelled me back on track and on my intended life path. After several years of accessing and honing my psychic skills to better my own life, I decided to open The Bonsai Babes Empowerment Center in DTLA to offer empowerment based spirit to spirit psychic communication. Within a few months, the space shifted to include psychic development empowerment classes in different areas of L.A. And now we have moved from a physical location to a predominantly online space to offer psychic communication and classes to those anywhere in the world.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. In fact, the sole reason for The Bonsai Babes Empowerment Center was the life struggle I had experienced. With experiences ranging from domestic abuse, traumatic loss and depression, my story is a story of most human beings in the world. I know suffering, and I’ve experienced the journey from victim to empowered spirit. It was a very torturous one, but one I’m glad I took because I am still alive and I’m well. And there’s still so much to accomplish, the fun is just starting!
Once I had taken care of my personal well-being and realized that my gift of self-healing and self-discovery could also be used to benefit others, I decided that I would open the center. Although The Bonsai Babes brand was created in 2013 when I wrote and illustrated a children’s book for adults, The Bonsai Babes: A Love Story, the new addition of The Bonsai Babes Empowerment Center was only recently opened in February of 2017. So the secondary struggle around the business was using the word “psychic”. When I had my book, my art work, my physical products, the word “psychic” was not associated with my business. So when I “came out”, there was definitely a lot of judgment because there is a stigma around psychics and the psychic profession.
Unfortunately, there are those who claim to be psychic and take advantage of people who are vulnerable. But the word itself, “psychic”, does not mean fraudulent. It is a word to describe our connection to our spirit and soul. We are all psychic, just most don’t know or acknowledge it.
The Bonsai Babes Empowerment Center – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I dated a man several years ago, before all of my metaphysical training, and he asked me, “Lora, do you know what your gift is?” “No,” I said, “tell me.” He then answered, “You crack people open.” I will never forget that because he hit a truth. He flipped something I perceived as insignificant to something very positive, and it is the reason I have the empowerment center today. He helped me to acknowledge a gift. And that is what empowerment based spirit to spirit communication does. It reflects back the big picture buried within a person, brings them to the surface to be dealt with. I specialize in getting to your core, the bigger pictures, and patterns of behavior that block you from your joy.
Currently, we offer various services and products: psychic readings, psychic development empowerment classes (intuition building, clearing, self-healing), psychic circles, crystals/crystal jewelry, and most recently a new podcast. The podcast is very different from the other offerings because it is very much focused on our human experience. It has a strong storytelling element, and although it offers metaphysical insights along with the stories, it is much more an offering of validation for our struggles and our strengths as people.
The thing that sets me apart is my humanity and clear communication. A good psychic must be able to do three things: see images clearly, interpret those images, and clearly communicate them in a way that is understandable and relatable to the person. All good psychics can do the first two, but one of my gifts is my verbal communication to clients in a very relatable and useful way. And as for the humanity, sometimes within the psychic world, communication can be very robotic, as neutrality is needed. I believe we can be neutral, but still allow for compassion. As an Asian American female, I am one of the few psychics and probably the only one focusing on empowerment based psychic communication. I have had many people from minority communities: Asian, Latino, African American who have had first time readings with me because they can relate to me. I’m a normal person, I’m not perfect, and I feel and experience the same as every other person.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment of my career would have to be my most recent accomplishment: my podcast, “Lora Looking for Love.” It’s about a recently “outed” psychic (me), single and entering her 40’s, who’s looking for love, but in the most unexpected places. Not only was it exciting to come up with an angle that would combine human emotional experience with spirit wisdom, but it was a huge step to allow for such vulnerability and exposure. Also, figuring out how to record, edit, and do all of the technical producing myself was a major feat. I’m just happy it’s up and I look forward to creating new content every week.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheBonsaiBabes.com
- Phone: 626-667-4769
- Email: info@thebonsaibabes.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebonsaibabes
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebonsaibabes
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/thebonsaibabes
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-bonsai-babes-empowerment-center-los-angeles-7\
Image Credit:
Kathryn Zdan
Jose Antonio Lucero
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