March 14, 2017

Meet Jeffrey Segal of Mystic Journey Bookstore in Venice

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey Segal.

Jeffrey, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I became an attorney in 1986. After practicing law for about 10 years, I started to become disillusioned with my career, and the path my life was taking. But the golden hand-cuffs of law kept me from escaping. The desire to leave, however, kept growing and growing. In the early 2000’s, I remember lying on the floor of my home thinking, “If I don’t get out of law soon, I am going to make myself sick.” Sure enough, I did. I got cancer. Looking back, I am convinced I actually gave myself the cancer, through my thoughts. But in doing so, I gave myself the chance to fully, and deeply re-evaluate my life. I also gave myself the chance, once again, to choose to leave the law. I had surgery, took some time off, and went back to practice part-time, still contemplating what to do with the rest of my life. In the end, this was still not enough, for upon my first follow up exam, the doctor said that there was an abnormality in my readings, and that I should undergo chemotherapy. Instantly, however, I knew this was not the right path for me. Instead, I took a full leave of absence from my law firm, and assembled a team of “natural” healers to assist me in confronting the abnormality that was found. I engaged a body worker, an acupuncturist, a pranic healer, and a therapist. After 6 months of working with this fabulous team of healers, the “abnormality” had (miraculously?) disappeared. Also during these 6 months, “knowing” that it was my last chance to get out of law, I read, painted, walked on the beach and searched my soul for what I wanted, needed to do with the rest of my life. Finally, I heard the voice inside me say to follow my passion. My passion, for decades, had been my spirituality, and from that I decided to open a spiritual bookstore, a store also offered spiritual products, hosted spiritual authors and teachers, and was a spiritual center for our community. Mystic Journey was then born in October, 2008.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
October, 2008, was month of “crash,” the start of the Great Recession. But we opened at the exact time people needed a store, a spiritual oasis, a center for guidance, just like Mystic Journey. People needed a place to come and find books, products, speakers and psychics to help them through what, for many of them, was becoming the most difficult time of their lives. We were there for them, and from that auspicious opening never looked back, seeing growth, and expanded service to our customers and community ever since.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Mystic Journey Bookstore – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Mystic Journey is one-stop spiritual center. We offer thousands of books, hundreds of spiritual products, host spiritually oriented events every day, and have intuitive psychic readers and astrologers available at our store every hour we are open. We not only have both classic and esoteric spiritual books, but we also have books on a wide range of subjects from philosophy, to yoga, to marriage and love, to self-help and more. We also offer a wide variety of incenses and oils, as well as tarot decks, candles. Journals and other spiritually oriented products. But out specialty is our crystals, we offer the finest crystals available anywhere in Southern California. We have crystals of all types and sizes, ranging from one inch to five feet, from less than a pound to hundreds of pounds. In recent years, I have developed personal relationships with the owners of the mines, and the major crystal dealers in South America, and traveled just last year to Brazil and Uruguay to see how the crystals actually come out of the earth and are transformed into the beautiful crystals we sell at Mystic Journey. I personally pick each and every crystal we sell. One by one, to ensure that we offer only the finest quality crystals that can possibly be found. The development of our crystal collection, along with the overall, continued growth of Mystic Journey is what I am most proud of about our store.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am looking to further expand our crystal business. I see Mystic Journey offering larger pieces, more unique pieces, and placing them in large spaces, such as resorts, office buildings, hospitals and private homes. I also see Mystic Journey hosting larger events, with more well-known authors and speakers.

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