what is a mystic? and can you have spiritual gifts without practicing any religion at all?

courtney, known as sisi in brasil, says yes, and she has the strangers' stories to back it up. recorded live from her patio in bahia, brazil, with the ocean breeze coming through the window, she describes what it actually feels like to live mystic. "my everyday reality feels like i'm moving in and out of different levels of different realms," she says, "and into people's energetic spheres and portals that are often unseen, sometimes felt."

she does not get there through ceremony or substance. she gets there through repetition. sanding wood. working in the yard. anything that lets her hands move while her mind goes somewhere else. master craftsmen talk about the same thing, she says, that quiet drop into another place.

then ...