| Colette Baron-Reid | |
| Birth Place: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation: | Author and public speaker |
| Period: | 1986–present |
| Subject: | Spirituality |
Colette Baron-Reid (born 1958) is a Canadian writer, public speaker, and self-proclaimed spiritual medium and oracle expert.
Baron-Reid was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1] [2] Her mother was a French, German, and Polish homemaker, and her Serbian father was a wealthy Toronto land developer and engineer.[3]
Baron-Reid attended Havergal College for women in Toronto. She claimed to have her first experience with clairvoyance at three years old and continued to have similar experiences, in the form of dreams or glimpses of the past or future, as she got older.
Baron-Reid ran away from her home when she was 18 years old, first joining a disco band and then moving on to various other bands. She received various deals for records or management, which all ultimately failed.[4] At 28 years old, she eventually "bottomed out" after ten years performing in bars and nightclubs, and she began going to a women's treatment centre for an alcohol and cocaine addiction. After becoming sober, she began practicing aromatherapy and seeing clients to speak about visions she claimed to have experienced about them. In 1998, she published a tape on meditation, Journey Through The Chakra, which was reviewed by the Toronto Star; around this time, she described feeling as if there were no more opportunities for her as a musician.[5]
Baron-Reid was asked to appear in a documentary on spiritualists in the late 1990s, which led her to meet record producer Eric Rosse, who was the film's composer. She then met with the record label EMI to ask to work with Rosse. She released two records with EMI: Magdalene's Garden (2001), produced by Rosse,[6] and I Am/Grace. The first album was described by the Calgary Herald as an "ambitious soft-pop album inspired by the likes of Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, and Annie Lennox and incorporating a potpourri of musical styles."
In 2006, her contract was terminated, after which she decided to pursue a career as an author and public speaker. She authored her first book, Remembering The Future (2006), on her experience dealing with substance addiction. Her next novel was The Map (2010). She published a dieting book, Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much, in 2013; by this time she had made appearances on the talk shows Dr. Phil, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and The Dr. Oz Show; was an opening act for shows by her publisher, Hay House; and was working as a columnist and blogger for Zoomer magazine. In a 2015 Fortune magazine article, Toronto realtor Gillian Oxley, who was quoted as earning around $100 million in yearly sales, attributed her success to her coaching sessions with Baron-Reid since 2013.[7]
In 2015, Baron-Reid's sold-out show at the University of Alberta was met with protestors from the Society of Edmonton Atheists, who said that communication with the dead is impossible and urged patrons to be more skeptical of these claims.[8]
Speaking with author Amal Awad about cultural appropriation in the New Age industry for Awad's 2021 book, Baron-Reid stated: "I faced my own biases and came to realise how I was participating in a harmful system".[9] She said she had hired two coaches specialising in diversity, inclusivity, and anti-racism, and also examined her own influences, leading her to address Native American imagery in current and future publications and request her publisher, Hay House, to amend the publications.
Baron-Reid was living with her husband in New Hampshire by 2013. Her husband has helped manage her business ventures.