The Little Light Project nonprofit shut down officially in 2015, but we keep the website up in order to share important information on how to help highly intuitive children.
Why I founded The Little Light Project
The Little Light Project (LLP) came out of personal experiences and experiences of those around me. As Iyanla Vanzant says, “People can talk you in and out of philosophy and theory but they can’t talk you out of your experience.” Believe me, the decision to found LLP did not come lightly or easily because it required me to honor my life experiences and truly look inward to the "place" I've come to learn is my life compass – my intuition.
As a child growing up, I was very sensitive on all fronts. I quickly learned that my sensitivities (which were more than emotional and physical sensitivities) crossed into the land of stuff people don’t consider normal. Out of fear and fear of ridicule, I’m assuming I pretty much shut down that intuitive side around age nine and wiped my memory of it. Fast forward to adulthood, up until 2009, I was really good at making things happen outside of me but hadn’t taken time to really go inward. Sure, I believed in a higher power and had an innate drive to do good for people but still, something felt off. There was a piece missing despite having a wonderful family, a growing business and great friends. I couldn’t shake it. Couple that with our prior struggles with our awakening that our beautiful son, who was diagnosed with anxiety disorder in second grade and put on medication, wasn’t “disordered” at all. In fact, it was the opposite. His nervous system was overwhelmed by all he felt/saw/heard in our seen and unseen world so it overcompensated by creating coping mechanisms such as stuttering. After a year, we finally figured out that drugs weren’t helping, in fact, they were hurting him and our real job was to not label him with a disorder but to figure out how to help him manage his heightened sensitivity and intuitive gifts. I'm a firm believer that medication does help in some cases, but in his, it did not. Thankfully, we weren’t the only ones trying to help our highly sensitive child in a world not set up or even ready for the influx of these amazingly gifted kids. A new friend suggested we see an alternative medicine practitioner who specializes in energy balancing and herbal support. At the same time, I was introduced to Reiki Healing (like acupuncture but without the needles) as a way to help our son through energy balancing. The Midwesterner in me was skeptical but did it anyways. I became a Reiki Practitioner and saw how it affected our son’s energetic body, which in turned helped calm his nervous system. I was noticing differences in myself as well. Big ones. In 2010, I started to notice things I hadn’t noticed before. I would hear a child’s voice say “mom” but remember no one was home. I’d see flashes of what looked to be children and adults in our house. As quick as they came, they vanished. Again, like any “normal” person, I started questioning my sanity. Had I spent too much time inhaling polyurethane from my furniture business? Was I losing my mind or could this be my new reality? Shortly thereafter, I started receiving intuitive messages and visions (hearing/seeing,/feeling) about others and for myself. I would read a Facebook post about a person who had passed on and all of the sudden I was getting messages about them. I started writing down their very specific messages. For those I knew and had a connection to, I was being encouraged by my intuition to reach out to them, which scared me to death. How in the world do you say, “I know we haven’t seen each other for twenty years but I saw your post on Facebook and I’m so sorry about your loss. Also, your son in spirit says your other son’s girlfriend is cheating on him? I know this sounds crazy but this is what I am being pushed to share.” I did it more than once, always with overwhelming fear before hitting the SEND button. And much to my surprise, the feedback I was getting was “OMG how in the world did you know that??!! No one knows that!” and “This is exactly what I’m going through right now, thank you!” I was blown away. And thankful I wasn't carted off to the psych ward by friends and family! The floodgates started to open and I was suddenly getting all kinds of messages (images/voices/etc) regarding kids and adults who had passed on – some I knew, some I didn’t. Especially kids. And many of those kids talked of sexual abuse they endured which stuck out as a common theme but I didn’t know why. I noticed the theme but didn’t connect the dots other than many had committed suicide because of said abuse coupled with high sensitivity. Essentially, these kids feel things on a very deep level that most don’t. In order to cope, many turned to drugs and alcohol to numb what they were feeling and sometimes even that isn’t enough to make the hurt and pain go away. When I was trying to make sense of all these messages about sexual abuse, I sought out guidance from intuitive counselors, spiritual leaders and mental health professionals. One intuitive counselor told me the messages regarding the children who were sexually abused were coming to help me as much as I was helping them. I had gone from a working mom with a growing business and kids, scheduling dentist appointments and Target trips to a working mom who still does all of that but now knows things about people who are no longer with us and who finally understood why I was getting messages regarding sexual abuse. Turns out, I was a survivor myself who was just starting to remember the abuse that happened between the ages of three and six. My analytical side was still having a very tough time processing it all but in my soul, it felt right. Terrified to share what was now my reality with family and friends, I kept it hidden for quite awhile. When I started to step fully into it, I lost friends. It was painful but again, it all happens for a reason. I worried about coming out publicly with the fact that I somehow was being able to not only hear my own intuitive voice but messages about others that had passed on. I didn’t want it to affect my furniture business in a negative way but I was being guided to launch a non-profit that helped highly intuitive kids. We miraculously had the surprisingly large amount of money it would require to legally start LLP but I worried so much that one job loss and we’d need that money just to survive. Faith was all I really had to hang my hat on but by this time, I knew if I trusted my intuition, it would work out. I pushed fear aside and did what I felt I was being guided to do, with the support of my husband. This required “coming out” to the world about my ramped up intuitive gifts in September 2012 and much to my surprise, it was met with lots of support and love. People I NEVER thought would be supportive were coming out in droves sharing stories of experiences they’ve had but can’t explain. I was relieved. If I follow my intuition, I’m on the right path. I founded Little Light Project because there needs to be a place families can go to get support of all kinds – a blend of Western and Eastern philosophies – in a safe, loving, heart-centered environment. Every child should be made to feel they are truly the creators of their world and their intuition is their road map. Parents helping their beautiful kids should be able to see all of the options -- traditional, alternative, spiritual - from the get go. Thank you for taking time to read why I founded LLP. As Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Now is the time to stand up for what we’ve known for thousands of years. We are powerful human beings and our intuition is one of our greatest gifts. Kiersten Parsons Hathcock Founder of The Little Light Project CEO of Mod Mom Furniture Author, Little Voices |