1.29.2009

The Human Condition

You know why we humans struggle so much? It's because we actually think we are human!

... when instead, we are Spirit, Source Energy, God .. whatever term you use to describe that larger part of ourselves that you know with absolute certainty would not behave as you do if it was truly Source energy.

Face the facts my friend, we aren't humans. We are Source Energy having a human experience. That's a wholly different thing, isn't it? Think about it for a minute. Human trying to have a spiritual experience .. or Spirit having a human experience? Which one feels better? Which one feels more powerful? Which one feels the most like freedom?

I was reminded of this fact when I was reading a passage from Steve Rother's The group. Here is what they had to say in kind of a nutshell:
"Each one of you has a condition you are dealing with that has caused you great difficulties throughout your entire stay on this planet. It is a challenge for every one of you to see yourselves the way you really are. That is because of a deeply embedded belief system that each and every one of you carries. It was necessary to carry from the very beginning of the connection because it was the part that activated everything for you. But you have a strong case of what we call 'the human condition'. The human condition is a very serious ailment of the spirit.

When a spirit enters a bubble of biology and activates a veil to keep them from re-membering, they still have memories of Home. Over time, if these memories are not reinforced, the memories fade to the back of consciousness. Sometimes they are only left in the cellular memories which are your soul’s imprint on the physical body. It is at this point that a soul starts to actually believe that they are a human.
This is a serious ailment of the soul that we call the human condition.

That is what you are dealing with every day. Everywhere you look in your daily life there are people who all try to get you to buy into the human condition so that you can be like them. People walking around truly believing that they are the human body they inhabit has caused more difficulties for humanity in general than you could ever imagine.
"

They went on to say that things are changing. And they are. For the better.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that things are changing for the better. But sometimes you have to break a structure down in order to build a new one.

My husband works in construction. Sometimes he builds structures that are brand new, but he also does a lot of remodeling. Sometimes, if the old structure is sound, he builds the new parts that are wanted and adds them to the old structure. Sometimes the old structure is very un-sound, and he has to tear it completely down to start anew. I think he actually has a lot of fun tearing down. He wears his grubbiest clothing, he expends a lot of energy in ripping stuff to shreds, he gets all dusty and dirty and even gets cut and he doesn't even know it!, he's so caught up in the game of tear-down. Then he removes all the old stuff and has a wonderful 'clean' space to start building the new stuff.

The same thing is going on not only globally, but in our personal lives. There are amazing and wonderful things on the horizon, but in order to have them, old structures have to be torn down. It's a natural process. Ecologists have long realized that forest fires actually aid in the health of the forest. Old timber burns and falls and disintegrates and gets reabsorbed into the soil. That destruction eventually becomes the fertile soil upon which new, far more healthy growth appears. It's a cycle. And while we may, and do, lament the loss when it happens, years later we see that that loss, while temporarily hurtful, was important to the overall health of the forest.

So if you're tempted to be overly concerned about the state of health of our planet, our creatures, and our selves, remember the bigger picture. Remember that sometimes things have to break down before they can be fixed, and torn down before they can be rebuilt. Remember that you aren't human trying to have a spiritual experience, you're spirit having a human experience. That's a whole different thing!

It doesn't mean you need to stop doing whatever you're doing to continue to aid the planet, our creatures and our selves. Now is not the time to stop working for something better. Now is the time to remember that sometimes things need to be torn down so something more miraculous can be put up in their place.

So when you find yourself all caught up in the drama and the upset, stop a moment and simply take a deep breath. Think about the ailment of the human condition. Remember that you aren't really human, what you really are is Spirit having a human experience. And so is everyone else.

1.28.2009

My Thoughts on Abraham

I have to admit that I really like listening to Abraham. They offer amazing answers to really hard questions.

I've listened to a great number of Esther Hicks channels (note that Esther doesn't refer to what she does as channeling, she calls it 'receiving blocks of thought' from a group of non-physical entities which she 'translates on an unconscious level'). Esther Hicks is, in my mind, one incredible lady. She is to be commended for her ability and willingness to channel this powerful group, and to do it in such an engaging and understandable way.

Maybe you're someone who doesn't believe in channeling, or for whatever reason don't resonate with the information from Abraham, and that's perfectly fine. Not all teachers resonate with all students, that's the beauty of diversity. I just happen to like Abraham, and since I will undoubtedly quote them from time to time, I thought I'd be clear about my feelings, and even tell you why I feel the way I do.

I'm continually in awe of how Abraham can meet with hundreds and thousands of people, field questions that are all over the map, and yet never waver in their message. They can't be knocked off guard. They can't be boxed into a corner. They don't waffle and they don't apologize for what they say. They don't get angry. Sometimes I've sensed a little bit of what sounds to me like minor irritation coming through, but it's fleeting. I've wondered if even that isn't part of the process to get us to see something that we aren't being able to see. I'm also open to the possibility that what I'm interpreting might be my own personal bias. Listening to Esther and Abraham, watching them work, is a thing to behold.

What I'm most amazed about though, is how I can listen to them over and over and over again, firmly believe in what they say, work on using their guidance, and still not have life exactly the way I want it. Then again, I doubt I ever will have life exactly like I want it. Life isn't supposed to be perfect.

Even so, my life is pretty darn good. It's been pretty darn good, but it's only been the last couple years that I could say that. Or more truthfully, it's only been the last couple years that I would say that. I've changed an awful lot in a relatively short period of time. I used to be pretty darn good at making my misery every one else's fault. I can still do that. I do still do that occasionally. I admit I fall into that more often than I wish I did. But there's a difference. It's far easier for me now to catch myself and get myself back on track.

Not so long ago I used to be like a lit fuse, ready to explode in a tirade of anger at any moment. My family never knew what would set me off, and neither did I. I didn't want to be that way. It hurt me to spew venom at anyone, and I hated myself when I did it. So I worked really really hard around people to 'keep it together' so people wouldn't have to suffer my temper, so they wouldn't hate me or shun me. There are many people who would never believe that I had that kind of anger seething inside me, because I never let them see it. My family wasn't so lucky. I didn't 'maintain' very well at home no matter how hard I tried. In fact, because I spent so much energy keeping it together around others, I didn't have many reserves left when I was around my family. It's a credit to my husband and my kids that they still talk to me, after the tirades they've endured. But, luckily for me, they do.

Because I hated so much who I was being, I spent a lot of time by myself. I also spent a lot of time by myself because in doing so I didn't have to deal with all the things that would set me off. When I was alone I could control my environment in a way that I couldn't control it when others were around, or when I was around others. I always joked that, left to my own devices, I'd have become a hermit. It's hard to be a hermit with a family, but I came pretty darn close. About as close as you can get and still have a family.

Things are different now. Astoundingly different. I'm not nearly as quick to anger as I used to be, though as I said, I do blow up now and again. The difference is that when I do blow up, I come down from it pretty quickly. I move myself down from it, with conscious intent and mental action, so it generally passes quickly.

I don't think it's a bad thing to be angry, angry is just an emotion. Uncontrollable rage is the far end of anger, and it's what happens when anger isn't expressed before it builds into rage. So what's different is I get angry, but I no longer get enraged. I don't have to work at keeping myself in check anymore. That might not sound like a big deal to you, but it means the world to me and everyone else in my vicinity!

How is that so? What has changed that I'm so much more mellow these days? You'd think, with the downturn in the global economy, with the whole world in turmoil and upset, with the global financial problems and terrorism and natural disasters and man-made disasters and wars and diseases and all the horrible things going on, you'd think I'd be an emotional wreck! You'd think I'd be far worse off than I was 'back when'. But I'm not. I have a completely different take on everything, and that's a pretty amazing thing.

My new way of being isn't solely a result of learning from Abraham, a lot of other study and practice has melded together to allow me to be who I am. But the base, the platform that I've been growing from recently, was built from what I learned from Abraham.

The first thing I learned was: Life is supposed to be fun.

I didn't know that. Fifty-plus years of living on this planet and I never knew that. I never knew that life was supposed to be fun.

I can't tell you exactly what I thought the point of life was, but it certainly wasn't fun. Fun was a reward that you got after you worked really hard, invested well, and then retired. We worked really hard, but we didn't invest so well. That meant we were going to have to keep working hard. For a long time. My husband and I, we aren't real enamored of working hard. We kind of prefer to be free to do what we want. So fun wasn't something we figured we were entitled to.

Don't get me wrong, we certainly had, and have, fun. We just didn't think we were entitled to have fun. That's a whole different feeling. There's a great deal of guilt and personal dislike of self in allowing yourself to have fun when you don't think you deserve it. That's a whole different thing than what Abraham was talking about. Given how I felt about people who have fun but aren't working hard to 'earn' it, I guess it's not surprising that I was so angry all the time.

So along comes this Abraham collective saying that life is supposed to be fun. I had to sit with that one for awhile. At first I couldn't believe it. Frankly, I didn't want to believe it. It put everything I had ever thought, everything that I believed, into a blender and liquified it. That's how mixed up I felt. I didn't know what to think.

So I sat with it for awhile. I pondered that statement, that life is supposed to be fun. I put it together with other things they were saying, like about how we are all already deserving. Like how we are already entitled. That we are extensions of Source energy, capable of creating our personal reality. They talked about how Source becomes what we want, and its our job to get into vibrational resonance with that in order to manifest it in this reality. They said that our emotions are our indicator, letting us know in any and every moment, whether we are heading toward what we want or away from it.

I looked at a lot of different experiences in my life, both what I considered to be positive experiences and what I considered to be negative experiences, and I began to see some truth in what they were saying. I could see, in my own life, how focusing on what I didn't want brought me more of what I didn't want, how the worse things were the worse they got. I saw the other side too, how the already good things in my life kept getting better. I spent a lot of time looking at how my thoughts correlated with what was happening to me and around me.

It made a lot of sense to me. I have a whole library full of self-help books, I've done uncountable numbers of personal growth seminars, I've studied psychology and metaphysics and spirituality and the nature of being. All of that was helpful, all worth doing. It still is. I don't regret the things I've learned, and I know there's a lot more there to be learned. But none of it, not even all of it added together, had the impact on my life that the simple statement "Life is supposed to be fun" had. Abraham said it in such a way that I believed it. Or maybe I was just ready. In any case, for me, that statement was key. I began wanting it to be true, and then I began to believe that it could be true.

Once I started to believe it, to believe that despite what I'd done in my life—or not done—that I was entitled to be happy, well .. that opened the door for everything to change. I figured if Abraham could convince me that my whole life of believing that life is hard, that life is inherently unfair, that you have to work hard to be deserving, that you have to earn what you get, that if you don't earn you don't deserve to get .. if they could convince me that in all those beliefs I had been wrong, well gee! if they could do that, they might actually know how I could go about changing it.

As I continued reading I learned that you could actually create a life that was fun, even if you'd spent a half-century going in the other direction (toward misery).

So the second most important thing that I learned was: Focus on what you want and not on what you don't want.

That's such an incredibly simple concept that I found it hard to accept. How could it be so easy? Surely there's a catch! Every book I'd ever read, every class I'd ever taken, every 'expert' I'd ever listened to, had a system that was touted as simple and easy. My experience had told me that the systems that were simple and easy didn't work. The ones that were hard and complicated were too hard and complicated for me to want to follow them. That dichotomy is why, I believed, I was still mired in all the problems that my life was still mired in.

So I was kinda stuck. Either I believe that, finally, after all this time, someone had an easy system that worked, or I had to believe their system was more complicated than it sounded. I had no experience of something simple working, and I wanted this system to work, so I set about trying to make it complicated.

I spun my wheels for a good long while trying to make this system complicated. But it wasn't. In thousands of pages and hundreds of thousands of hours of tapes, CDs, and DVDs, the bottom line of all the messages from Abraham is the same: Focus on what you want and not on what you don't want. Similar to a compass that tells you if you're moving in the right direction or not, the indicator to whether you're focused correctly is your emotions. And that's really simple too: if you feel good, you're on track with what you want, if you feel bad you're off the track. All there is to do is get back on track, in whatever way you can.

The third thing then, that I learned from Abraham, was: Emotions are an indicator. If you feel bad, work to feel better. Work to feel relief. Care more about how you feel than anything else.

Armed with those three concepts: • Life is supposed to be fun, • Focus on what you want and not what you don't want, and • Be aware of how you feel—if you feel bad, do whatever it takes to consciously work with your thoughts until you feel relief, I was able, in a very short period of time, to move rage completely out of my life.

I wasn't trying to move rage out of my life, I was just trying to feel better when I felt bad. Not to say that I don't still get angry, I do. But even that is loosening its hold—it doesn't occur as often and its expression isn't as strong. I put effort into feeling better when I feel bad, but it isn't hard work, and the more I do it the easier it gets. Best of all, I continually and immediately see results for my efforts. I think it's worth doing—feeling good is way more fun than feeling bad!

An interesting side benefit to moving rage out of my life is that I can far more easily handle other people's rage. Used to be I'd get enraged myself when I was around someone flying off into rage. Now I either don't, or I pretty quickly become aware that I'm getting heated up and can talk myself down from it. Sometimes I just remove myself from the area. Getting up and leaving doesn't necessarily meet with a lot of approval, but I'm not real interested in getting someone's approval, especially when they're all fired up. I'm far more about not going to that rage place with them. So I've become a lot better at staying calm in the storm of someone else's rage, and I simply leave if I find myself getting 'sucked in'. That's a new feeling for me, and a wonderful one. It's very freeing not to be swept along in other peoples' rage.

Have I achieved personal perfection yet? Hardly. Not even close! But that's not what's important. What's important is that I have easy-to-use tools to help me get wherever I want to be, and that's a pretty cool thing.

Ask God ... Abraham Answers

During an Abraham-Hicks seminar, Jerry Hicks had the following conversation with Abraham. I was intrigued by the answers and thought you might be too.

If God Would Answer, What Would You Ask?
Jerry: A newspaper this morning had a survey of what adults would ask of God, or a Supreme Being, if they could get a direct and immediate answer. And so I thought I'd ask you the questions:


• What Is My Purpose?
Jerry: For 35% of them, this was their question: "What is my purpose here?"

Abraham: To know that you are God.

Jerry: Could you embellish that a little?

Abraham: What is my purpose, as a physical being, coming forth into a physical time/space reality? Your purpose is to chew on the contrast for the purpose of giving birth to a unique new desire in this moment that will summon Life Force or Energy toward it.

Contrast exists. You don't get brownie points or anything for that. And you don't get any for the desire that is born out of the contrast, because that's the natural process. And so, once the contrast has produced desire within you, and the desire is summoning Life Force unto it, your work is to align with that Energy.

Your objective is to seek joy. Your objective is to find appreciation or pleasure or positive thought from wherever you stand, no matter how you got there. And when you align with that Energy, you are fulfilling your purpose. And then the twists and turns that your experience will take are dependent upon your willingness to allow yourself exposure to contrast. In other words, you cannot get it wrong.

• Life After Death?
Jerry: And 19% of them asked, "Will I have life after death?"

Abraham: Yes, because life is eternal, of course. There is no ending to any of that. And even if, from your physical perspective, you do not know that or understand that, in the moment you make your transition back into Nonphysical, you will know it fully.

It's not life after death, because there is no death. It's just life, life, life, life, always life—different perspectives of it.

• Why Does Bad Happen?
Jerry: And then, 16% of them would ask God, if God could answer right back, "Why do bad things happen?"

Abraham: There is no source of that which you consider to be bad. It is just that sometimes you get into a vibrational place where you disallow the good you deserve, that would be there otherwise.

Everything comes to you by your attention to it. So if something comes to you that you say is a bad thing, it is only because you have somehow achieved vibrational harmony with it. You achieve vibrational harmony with a feeling of unworthiness a little bit at a time. But in time, you can begin to feel unworthy of good things....

Bad things happen only because you, as a vibrating being, are disallowing the good things that are natural to you.

There is a Source of pure positive Energy coming to you. It is the Energy that created you to begin with. It is the Energy that sustains you and supports you. This Energy is always flowing to you, but sometimes you achieve an attitude or a mood or a personality that does not allow the goodness that is flowing to you. And so, it is as if you have created a shadow.

You say, "Well, why is there a shadow?" We say, it could be any number of things, but mostly it is not understanding that the light is there for you, and you are worthy of it. It is a by-product of comparing yourselves to so many others, trying to sort out the manifestations, rather than understanding the Energy Stream to begin with.

So why do so-called "bad things" happen? Because people come to expect less than good.

• Other Intelligent Life?
Jerry: 7% would have asked: "Is there intelligent life elsewhere, other than on this planet?"

Abraham: The Universe is abundant with Intelligence. All is Intelligence. But it is interesting, for as you stand in your physical platform, you would not revere any Intelligence that you did not understand fully. It's tricky, isn't it? Haven't you noticed that people who are not on your wavelength don't seem very smart? Or it is the other way around.

Are there other places like here? Yes, there are many physical dimensions. Physical is leading edge.

There are more physical dimensions than you have ability to calculate with your most sophisticated of computers. It's a very big Universe, with very much consciousness.

• How Long Will I Live?
Jerry: And 6% would have asked: "How long will I live?"

Abraham: You will live forever. You are eternal beings who have no ending.

You will remain in this body as long as contrast is producing desire within you that summon life that is not being thwarted by your contradictory attitudes.

The longest of experiences come from those who are stimulated to lots of new thought, who are in a place of not getting into strong resistance and who are allowing the Life Force they are summoning through their desire.

The shorter lives are those who have strong desire and strong resistance. And so, there's a big tug-of-war going on inside which sort of blows them up in one way or another. Or it may be those who have come to the place where their desires have been uncomfortable, because they haven't figured out how to bring their beliefs in alignment with their desires, so the struggle is unpleasant. And so, little by little, they release their desire, until they have very little summoning. Those are evidences of shorter lives. But not to worry, because there is not death. In other words, you cannot get it wrong.

• The Final Question
Jerry: 6% were other than that, and the other 12% weren't sure they had a question. So that's it.

Abraham: They were not sure it was worth asking, because they do not believe that there is anyone who knows the answer.

1.27.2009

Where Did Earth Come From?

Where did this Earth come from? How do you think you all got here? How do you think your bodies are formed? How do you think this podium is created? How do you think the earth exists? What did it come from? Is it an illusion? It's not an illusion, it's a reality! A reality that exists because lots of thinkers, somewhere, sat and thought about what they wanted to see. Someone envisioned.

Before there was matter that is tangible and discernible by your physical sensors, there was a thinker, in this case many thinkers, that envisioned and imagined and knew and found it familiar—before the manifestation occurred.

You, out here on the leading edge of thought, continuing the experience of your physical life, are not different from the Non-physical creators that set your earth into motion to begin with. You, at another level of your being, are that creator. And here you are in this body, continuing that process. You are creators, you see? You have access to the Energy that creates worlds! We think you can create that thing that you want.

Excerpted from the Abraham workshop in Phoenix, AZ on Sunday, March 21st, 1999

The Uniqueness of You

In all the universe, in all of creation, whether you believe we are all gods, whether you believe that a single God created us or that multiple gods created us, it doesn’t matter. How we came to be (as fascinating as I personally find that discussion to be) really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you come to understand that in all the world, in all the universe, in all of creation, each of us is unique. You are unique. Whether you believe in reincarnation, as I do, or whether you don’t, it doesn’t matter, because in all that ever was, in all that is, in all that ever will be, there will never be a another you.

Do you realize how special that makes you? In all of the world, in all the universe, in all of creation, there will never be another you. Even if you believe, as I do, that we are all connected, or whether you don’t, you are still uniquely who you are. You’re it. You’re the one. You are you. You can’t be someone else, you can only be you. Someone else can’t be you, they can only be them.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it? So obvious that you might wonder why I would even bring it up, let alone put so much emphasis on it. But knowing that means something. It means that you know you like no one knows you. It means that you know you like no one can know you.

And that means that only you can know what is right for you. Only you can know what feels good to you. Only you can know what you should do or how you should respond in any given moment. You are uniquely individual and no one - no one - can take that away from you. Nor should you let them.

That’s a hard one to get our mind around, isn’t it? Because if we accept that belief, that we are unique in all creation, then we have to accept that everyone else is unique also! And if everyone is unique, why on earth would we, why on earth do we, try so hard to make everyone the same?

There are close to 7 billion human beings on the planet at this time. Who are you going to listen to? Of those multiple billions of human beings, who knows you the best? Who grew up in your skin? Who experienced the experiences that you experienced? Who made the decisions you made? Who - exposed to the experiences you were exposed to - made the choices you made? 

The answers are obvious: You did. You were the perfect one to make those choices for yourself. You are the perfect one to make choices for yourself. 

You are unique. Ponder that for a moment. You bring something to All That Is that no one will ever bring again. You, with your absolutely unique experiences. You, with your absolutely unique history. I think that's amazing. And wonderful! Personally, I cannot imagine a world filled with everyone just like me. How boring that would be!

Celebrate the fact that you are unique, and celebrate the fact that everyone else is too. We don’t all have to agree, in order to get along. We don’t all have to agree, to enjoy life. Even if not one other single person agrees with you, if you feel good about you, that’s all that matters. You are entitled to feel good about you. It’s what you came here to do.

———

From Quado, as received by Carrie Hart

No one else defines you. You define you. Do not allow society to label you as good or bad, fat or skinny, rich or poor, old or young. These are fashions that come and go, parts of your society that mirror you in ways that would not be true in another time or another society. They are relative, not absolute.

And so, you can choose not to acknowledge them. You can choose not to give them credence and not to accept their judgment in your life.

You can choose freedom and power, a power that comes from all that you are, a power that comes from the fuel of your experience, your love, joy and laughter, your tears, your anger, your fears and doubts. All of it is fuel for your power. All of it is a part of the unique individual that you are. All of it is what creates the creative spark of youness, shining out in the world.

You are loved. You are love. You are one with all that is. You have all the power, all the love, just as you are, right now.

1.26.2009

A Game and A Gift

My first conscious connection with the idea that life is a game came when I was in high school. I was fascinated by a poem about life that included the lines “Life is a game, play it” and “Life is a gift, give it away.” 

The poem was similar to a poem by Mother Theresa, but mine wasn’t that poem. It was similar enough that whoever wrote it might have spun off from the Mother Theresa one, or they might have simply been inspired to write it. I can’t say, as the poem I’m referring to was credited to ‘Anonymous.’

In any case, those two lines struck a chord with me. There are any number of references that could be drawn from them, and I pondered many of those ideas. But there was something else about the combination of those two lines that bothered me in a way that I couldn’t put my finger on. They seemed to convey opposite meanings. A game is something you play by choice, a gift is something that’s given to you. It seemed like a paradox. I couldn’t figure out why these thoughts confused me so much, why my mind insisted on connecting them and what they ultimately meant, but the idea that life is both a game and a gift has stayed with me. It hung around in the dark corners of my mind, nibbled at me from time to time, teased me with the possibility that I might someday come to understand what it meant.

I can’t say that I made a lot of progress toward understanding the connection between those two phrases over time, but in the deep recesses of my mind I must have been working it out. Because one day I happened upon the story that I used to open up this blog, “The Game of Hide and Seek” (reproduced in my first post) from Steve Rother’s book “Re-member: A Handbook for Human Evolution.” 

Inside that simple story was, for me, a true understanding of life as both a game and a gift. I realized, finally and fully, that our lives have meaning and purpose. That our planet has meaning and purpose. That life isn’t some accidental occurrence in some accidental universe. I suddenly fully understood that our universe and our world and indeed humanity, were all purposefully designed, purposefully engaged, purposefully executed.

But I came to understand something even more profound than that. 

Over those many years when I pondered life as a game and a gift, I spent my off hours (no, not all of them! :p) learning about the nature of reality, about the nature of being, about the cosmos, about non-physical entities, about psychology and sociology, and eventually, as the world of science progressed in its own exploration and study, about the spiritual connection between consciousness and quantum physics. I went to seminars, I read books. I learned about thoughts and beliefs, and about the difference between motivation and inspiration.

Being practical and wanting what I learned to mean something, I tried to apply some of what I was learning at work, and so did some of my collegues. Despite our best efforts, not a lot seemed to change. People still treated each other badly, those in authority still tried to impose their wishes - forcefully - on those who weren’t. The unspoken war between the haves and the have-nots persisted. Neither side of any disagreement seemed to want to budge. 

All of this frustrated me. There was information to be had about how to make money while respecting and honoring one another, about how to live harmoniously with each other and the planet while still getting what you want, but I wasn’t seeing a lot of it being put to practical use. Admittedly progress was happening along these lines in some places, I just wasn’t seeing much of it from where I stood. I kept searching.

All throughout this time I was putting some of what I’d learned, or better said, what I came to accept as true, to work in my own life. In doing that I experienced a degree of success. I continued to read, to study, to learn. Life went on. My library grew and grew. The amount of information I pawed through was both staggering and diverse. I tried to apply discernment to everything I read. That is, I didn’t believe things because someone said them, no matter who that someone was. I believed something only if it rang true for me. If something pegged my ‘believability meter’ even a little bit I tried to find out more. If it didn’t, I passed it by. 

Sometimes what didn’t peg my believability meter at one time did peg it later when, by what seemed like sheer accident at the time, I chanced upon the same information later. Other things, things that I believed strongly at some time or another, ended up falling by the wayside. I always thought it was kind of funny, how some ideas that sounded ludicrous to me at one time could all of a sudden, some time later, resound with such truth. And vice versa. It was a process. It still is. It always is.

The Creator and The Created

Eventually I came to understand that not only was our universe and our world purposefully created, it was purposefully created by us. Us - human beings all - had a hand in our own creation. How was that possible? How is that possible?

Religious leaders throughout recorded history have said that there was ‘God’ and there was ‘us’. God clearly was not us. We clearly were not God. God clearly was ‘the creator’ and we clearly were ‘the created.’ A creator cannot also be his, or her, creation. 

Or can (s)he?

That was the key that began turning in the lock that led to what I can only refer to as my current understanding. ‘Current’ meaning that every possibility exists that I might some day understand it differently, but this is how I understand it now. It would be so much easier if I could say, with absolute certainty, that I understand it correctly. But I can’t. No one can. Such understanding is a moving target because that which we are trying to understand is always evolving, always moving.

It seemed like an impossible concept. How could one be both the creator and the thing created? It would be like being a painter, yet also the paining. The painter would have to be able to come alive inside the painting, to experience being not only that which creates the painting, but experience being as the painting. At the same time. Eventually I came to accept that concept not as a concept, but as a truth. I came to accept it as true, as a knowing, because I experienced it. I experienced both creating and living my creation. I experienced me as Me, the eternal, ever evolving, never ending, part of God that each of us—each of us!—is.

Inside that knowing was the key to my mystery of the game and the gift. If we were both the creator and the created, then life could easily be a game and a gift - a game we designed for ourselves to play, and a gift we gave to ourselves, and therefore to all of creation.

Everyone has experienced being both the creator and that which they created, even if they aren’t aware that they have. That’s a whole topic unto itself, and one that I’ll address at some point. For now, if this is a new concept for you, I would ask you to simply sit with the possibility that it might be true. What would life be like if that were true? What would life be like if we - simple human beings that we appear to be - and not some god being outside of ourselves, were the true creators of ourselves, our world, our lives? What would life look like and what the world look like? What could life look like, and what could the world look like?

So all the while I was learning and considering, even though I didn't realize it, my key of understanding was turning in the lock. When I read “The Game of Hide and Seek”, the lock finally opened. Many have had such an experience, and almost invariably we each come to it in different ways, at different times. For me, it was as if I’d found the last piece of a puzzle, the one that makes all the other pieces fall magically into place. I now had a complete picture that I could look at as a whole, rather than looking at each piece individually as I had been before. 

It was a magical realization. I realized, not with my mind but with my heart, not only that life was a game, but that it was a game that we created. That realization brought with it thoughts about what might be possible if everyone either understood that, or at least behaved as if it were true.

Once I had made that leap, that we are playing a game and that we created the game, the next logical question became: if we created earth and ourselves upon it, and created it as a game, and if the definition of a game includes the assumption that it should be fun to play, which I believe it does .. then why isn’t life fun? Why aren’t all the players enjoying living here?

Why does joy, when it does come, seem so fleeting? Why would powerful creators create a game for themselves to play that isn’t fun? Or isn’t fun all the time? If we have this amazing ability (and I believe that we do), why would we create a game, a world, that includes inhumanity and grief and pain and suffering and upset, and even worse, things like terrorism and atrocities? If we are capable of creating an amazing thing like life on planet earth, why would we create it like that? Why indeed.

1.25.2009

What Is Channeling?

Since I talk about 'channeled' material frequently, I thought it would make sense to talk about what channeling is. There are so many misconceptions, and even fears, around this very normal practice that really, it’s time to put those misconceptions and fears to rest.

The following explanation is a clear, general explanation of channeling. It comes from Geoff Hoppe, an accomplished and respected channeler of the Crimson Council (including but not limited to Tobias, Adamas Saint-Germain, and Kuthumi).

Channeling is a natural form of communication between humans and angelic beings, nature spirits, non-physical entities or even animals and pets. A channeler is very similar to a translator or interpreter. They allow themselves to feel or sense the communication from the other being. The channeler then attaches human words to the communications for the understanding by themselves or other humans.

A channeler can choose who or what they want to channel. As long as the other party has an interest in communicating, the link is made and the channeling can begin. For instance, many people channel Archangel Michael. If he agrees to communicate with the channeler, the flow of non-verbal information begins.

The channeler receives the information at an intuitive or feeling level, and then their mind converts the raw information into words. Contrary to popular belief, entities do not generally use human languages because it is considered awkward and clumsy. The richer essence of their message is conveyed through an elegant series of sensory feelings.

Another popular misconception is that a channeler must go into a deep trance state, or surrender their body and/or mind to the entity. But channeling is very similar to any other form of communication, whether verbal, body language, smell or art. They all communicate a message, and the message is subject to the receiver’s understanding. Most well-known channelers today, such as Lee Carroll (Kryon), Steve Rother (The group) and Ronna Herman (Archangel Michael) are conscious channelers. They are aware of themselves and activities going on in the room. They focus their senses and attention on the entity they are channeling, and then interpret the message. Contenporary channels do not generally leave their bodies or surrender their minds during the communication process.

Channeling pets is one of the easiest forms of this art. Pets, of course, do not use human language but they have a strong desire to communicate with humans. Simply release the concept that you’ll hear words, and allow yourself to “feel” your pet. As you open yourself to the feelings, the mind will naturally begin to place simple words or phrases to the feelings so that your human consciousness will have a greater understanding of the communications. If you want to communicate back to your pet, let go of the need to use words. Instead, allow your feelings to open and flow to your pet. In the early stages of working with this type of communication, it may be helpful to imagine pictures or visuals when communicating with your pet. As you become more confident and proficient in channeling with your pet, the information will flow quickly and easily, and you won’t have the desire to even use pictures or images.

Some people fear channeling because they don’t understand the process, or they think that a negative or dark entity can come in. But the channeler always has the choice of who or what they want to channel, just like they have the choice of who they want as friends or business associates. The channeler can insist on knowing the name and origins of any entity or angelic being who wants to communicate with them. Experienced channelers understand that just because an entity wants to communicate doesn’t mean the entity is necessarily enlightened. The channel should discern for themselves the level of enlightenment of the entity, and the value of their information. Some entities just like to chat; others can have an agenda; and there are also many entities who have a desire to provide enlightened guidance and counsel.

With thanks to Geoff Hoppe, Crimson Circle, creator of Shaumbra Inspired™ logo.

Based on what you might have heard in the past it might be hard to believe, but everyone channels. Artists channel. Dancers channel. Authors channel. Professional sports players and athletes of all sorts channel. I channel. You channel. Not all the time, and generally not with conscious awareness, but everyone channels.

• Why do they call it ‘channeling’?

It comes from the idea of ‘tuning in’ to a frequency. Perhaps you’ve heard that human beings vibrate, and that it’s this vibration that attracts to you that which you focus upon (Law of Attraction). More can be said about that, but it happens to be true that we are more vibration than we are flesh and bone. Since Source (spirit, higher self, inner being, non-physical, angels, or however you refer to that which is not incarnate on earth in a physical experience) is also vibration, in order to channel one has to ‘tune into’ the appropriate frequency. Typically this is done by quieting the mind and achieving a 'feeling tone' or sensation of connection with the desired source.

Just like any radio station or TV channel, human ‘channels’ can experience interference. Things that can interfere with the channeling process include the channeler’s mental processes, anxiety, feelings, emotions or beliefs. This is why some channels are considered to be ‘clear’ channels - they have, either through practice, innate ability or both, achieved a level of expertise that allows them to receive messages with a minimum of interference.

• What did you mean when you said  “you channel”. I most certainly do not, I don’t even believe in channeling!

Did you ever pick up the phone and call someone, only to have them say “I was just thinking about you!”? Did you ever pick up the phone and ‘just know’ who was on the other end? Did you ever stop and get dinner on the way home from work, then when you walk in the door at home have your roommate or partner tell you they’d been thinking about that very thing for dinner? Have you ever been in a meeting and suddenly you said something, without a clue where you got the idea, but you say it and it’s so profound, so perfectly right for the situation that your friends or associates can’t even believe you said it - and neither can you? In each of these situations, where did the information come from? Was it chance? What happened is, you ‘tuned in’ to information and you weren’t even aware you were doing it. It just happened, as natural as you please. You ‘tuned into it’ … in other words, you channeled it.

Athletes do it frequently. The term is ‘in the zone’, a period of time through which they can’t seem to do anything wrong. Their actions are smooth and fluid, effortless, and no matter what they do it all goes perfectly. Things go better in fact, than they could even hope or wish for. Often they are blown away by what they accomplished and how easily they did it. They feel like they were experiencing something magical. And in fact they were: channeling. During that period they were ‘tuned in’ to information, body motions, and actions that no amount of figuring out could accomplish. There’s a feeling to the state of being in the zone that can’t be explained away as luck or practice. If you’ve ever experienced it, you know that it’s a state that begs to be experienced again and again.

Channeling is as natural to human beings as breathing. It’s how we receive information from non-physical, from animals, and from each other, without physically speaking. We all do it, it’s just that some do it consciously in order to receive information, while most of us do it completely unaware that we are.

If you’re interested in learning how to consciously channel, many teachers are available via books and on the internet. I personally recommend Story Waters and Lee Harris at limitlessness.com and/or Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer at orindaben.com.

1.24.2009

The Game

There's only one way for me to start this blog, and that is by sharing with you a story that has had the most profound impact on my life of anything I've read, seen, or heard in the last 20 years.


The Game of Hide and Seek

What follows is a description of life on planet Earth. This story is from a collective of loving entities simply known as "The group" channeled by Steve Rother
. This was the base of all the information that followed from The group in the messages contained in their Beacons of Light over the last 12 years. It appeared verbatim in the first book from Steve and The group called 'Re-member'.

This was the group's answer to Steve’s question: "Why are we here?"


Let us take you on a journey...

All of us here are gathered in a meadow at the base of a mountain. We are home and we are all playing together in perfect love. A dear brother approaches and says, "Would anyone here like to play a new Game?"

"What kind of Game?" You ask. "Is it like the ones we play now?"

"No," he replies. "It is like nothing we have ever done before. It will be an elaborate Game with many props and disguises. We will wear veils so that we can no longer see or re-member our true nature, and even the veil will be hidden from view. Then we will start the Game and begin to re-member.

This veil will be so effective that you will forget not only who you are; you will even forget home. Even as we pass each other on our paths, we will look into each other's eyes and not recognize one another. The veil will be so effective that many will look around at the props and disguises and truly believe that is all there is. You will retain all of your powers, yet you will not re-member how to use them or that they are even there.

"The Game will be played in phases, and before we start each phase of the Game we may place as many reminders in our path as we wish, to help us re-member. Be advised to place many reminders, for most of you will rationalize them away easily. We will choose the time and place of our entrances and exits on the Gameboard. We will also set up circumstances and lessons we wish to complete while we are under the veil. A tally will be kept and points will accumulate from one phase to the next. This point system will only be used by you to determine what will be included in your next phase. You will not be able to remember from one phase to the next, yet, once mastered, certain attributes may be carried forward into the next phase. You will always carry your core essence and personality, yet you will not re-member that it passes with you through the veil into every phase.

"Humor will always be a reminder that passes unchecked through the veil, and if we find you getting too serious we will tickle your funny bone as a reminder that this is only a Game. There will also be many masters available along the way to help us if we wander too far from the path. Oh yes, I almost forgot an important part of the Game... at all times there will be Free Choice. You have complete choice in all matters, you may even choose not to play the Game, or to call in a substitute. You may choose to hide, or you may choose to seek, it is entirely up to you.

"On the Gameboard there will be polarity. This has to do with the mechanics of the Gameboard itself, and will be a necessary component as it provides the contrast needed. However, polarity will taint your vision. Through eyes tainted with polarity, you perceive things as Up or Down, Light or Dark, Good or Bad, Love or Fear and Right or Wrong. Do not let this fool you, it is only illusion.

"We will all leave our higher aspects of ourselves in a special place for the duration of the Game, otherwise the Game would be much too easy. Your higher self will be available to you at all times. Your challenge will be to learn to access it, and to re-member that it exists as part of yourself. You may choose special loved ones to ride on your shoulder to advise you during the Game. Again, re-membering that they even exist will be a big part of the Game itself.

"The goal of the Game will be to see how many can re-member who they are, where they are from, and what powers of creation they have. Once you re-member, then you may re-merge with your higher self and re-create home on the other side of the veil to demonstrate that you have fully re-membered.

"So who wants to play?"

The above is from the book "Re-member" by Steve Rother
Lightworker.com

I’m reminded also of one of my favorite quotes from the group of loving but spunky entities known as Abraham as channeled by Esther Hicks. When asked why they never talk about God, Abraham’s response was “we speak of nothing but”.

That pretty much sums up this blog. This blog is about life, and therefore about God. You won't often see the word ‘God’ here though. Not because I don’t revere god, I do. It's just that I believe that we are all connected, all sparks of the One, birthed into being with purpose and intent, all gods. The idea that we showed up here accidentally, the random product of some primordial soup, doesn't appeal to me. Nor does the idea that the Universe is just so much random action. What also doesn't appeal to me is the idea that god is something that is outside of us, beyond us, not us. You are welcome to believe what you like, but if these latter ideas appeal to you, you probably won't find much of interest here. :)

I believe that we are all a part of the great All That Is, conscious creators, equal in our spirit, yet completely and uniquely individual in our humanity. I believe that joy, abundance, and love are our birthrights. Do I believe that I Am god? I do. The even better news is .. I believe that You Are God Also, and I honor you as such. If you believe the same, or have even the slightest opening of possibility that this might be so, that we are all gods playing together in this amazing game called Life on Planet Earth, I invite you to kick off your metaphorical shoes, toss ideas around, question beliefs, and share experiences with me here in my little cosmic sandbox.

If this sort of dialog or conversation doesn’t appeal to you, feel free to move along to dialogs and conversations that do. 

If anything that is posted or responded to here does not ‘resonate’ with you, that is, if it doesn’t touch your heart, if it doesn't have a ring of truth to it for you, simply let it be. You don’t have to agree with or like what is said here. In fact, since what will land here is likely to be either my personal opinion or someone else’s, I’d be shocked if even part of it resonates with anyone, let alone everyone. As the saying goes ...

“If any information doesn’t resonate with you let it be, for it was simply put there for another.”