Nasty Behavior

I am in awe and wonder at the genius and intelligence of Mother Nature. As our region succumbed to some rather noxious air quality conditions in this recent month of July (due to numerous uncontrolled wildfires burning upwind from us in Canada), I noticed the Morning Glory plants adorning our neighbor's house stayed closed shut tightly instead of opening up with their usual expression of joy and color (and photosynthetic programming). I have just learned that this is due to an internal survival skill known as "nastic movement" which comes from the scientific terms of photonasty, thermonasty, and hydronasty. The plants somehow knew that it would be dangerous, unprofitable, and, therefore, pointless to open for business on those particular days--under those kinds of conditions. 

And they say plants aren't intelligent! 

Define Your Terms

 When entering upon a discussion with another human being, wouldn't it be helpful if you could know that all parties involved were speaking the same language? It might feel obvious when you're all using the same language, such as "English," in speaking with one another, but what if your version, your understanding, your definition of key words that you're both using are different than each other's? For example, when a child comes to you telling you that they "can't" do something, perhaps a helpful reset exercise would be to stop the conversation and ask your companion what it is they mean or intend when using the word "can't":

I'd like to stop our conversation to ask you to please define one of the terms I hear you using. I'm sure you can appreciate how our conversation might take a negative or confusing direction were we to be each using words that we have, for whatever reasons, learned to attach totally different meanings or perspectives to. 

     If you don't mind, I'd like to hear your definition of the term "can't" as I heard you say "I can't" at the beginning of your speech. I get the sense, however, that you might be using the word in a way--with an intended meaning--that might be quite different from the way I understand or would use it. 

There may be many, many terms you and your conversation partners use regularly for which you harbor excessively different definitions. Imagine the easier time you might have--for all parties involved in the conversation--were you to all be able to use terms for which you share common, agreed-upon definitions and meanings.

Commonly used terms in modern society to which individuals (and groups) often apply quite different meanings to include: "god," "liberal," "conservative," "democracy," "freedom," "government," and even "my" and "our."

Panic Attacks

 Human behavior is dictated by patterns developed by the tactics in our bag of survival instincts (and modeled behaviors) which seem to provide something that works to alleviate our fragilities and insecurities such as fear, pain, worries, etc. Survival instincts only occur due to a fear of pain and death which are the result of inhibited soul life, that is, a loss of connection and/or contact with our spiritual nature and spiritual histories. 

The behavior that we have come to call "a panic attack" seems to be the result of a need to A) get perceived "needs" for sympathy or attention, B) to get the conscious mind or "ego" to take a break or shut down so that it can have a chance to reset, to reconnect with the realities of life and the laws of existence. I say this having witnessed and heard stories of said events enough to have noticed a pattern: that they usually happen in close proximity to "loved ones" or people who might understand them; that they rarely happen in the locus of strangers; that they often lead to a peaceful, embarrassing and/or humbling state of re-attachment to the patterns that bring one healing and reduced pain and anxiety. Why we let perceptions of anxiety rise to such levels as to require such extreme actions is something that any person who has learned "panic attacks" as a successful coping mechanism can learn to determine for themselves. My point is that it takes the learning of self-care skills and habits, self-responsibility, and the meeting and regulation of addictions and other deleterious habits to disarm and abandon such "extreme" and infantile habits. (I call them infantile because they are quite like the tantrums, meltdowns, and/or "fits" that we labeled such behaviors in children--which feeds my theory of picking up and/or trying out behaviors we've had modeled to us that seem to work for the role models in our lives.)

    

Human Singularities

 A singularity is what scientists refer to when speaking about that which we call "black holes." A human singularity is what I'm referring to as a human black hole, or what street vernacular of the 1990s developed as an energy vampire: someone who sucks all of the joy, light, and energy out of the surroundings of the immediate space that they happen to occupy. They are takers, self-deluded about their own greatness, their own intelligence, their own importance; they are not only the true centers of their own universes but all that exists around them they see as theirs: their food, their sustenance, their fodder, theirs to do what they want with. An element of the potential of homo sapiens sapiens has been nurtured to allow it to often see themselves as the destined master of all it purveys, as "God's gift" to the universe. This what Daniel Quinn referred to when he coined the terms "taker" in his transformative book, Ishmael.

The rise of the phenomenon known as "narcissism" seems a natural progression to have arisen out of the "me-generation" mentality that the captains of capitalism have pushed upon us--just as the "borderline nation" of sociopathic behavior is a natural (and desired) product (objective) of narcissistic resistance to to the unrelenting oppression of systematic brainwashing (acculturation). It should come as no surprise that the effect of insidious fear-mongered would produce a population of paranoid, neurotic isolationists--both individually and collectively--of which narcissism should only be recognized as the natural expression of one of the most extreme versions of "me-generation" individualism: human singularity spun out of control. 

Great Movies Void of Guns, Killing, Bullying, Violence, and Horror

Here is a list of films in which Joy, Beauty, Love, Altruism, Selflessness, and the Transcendence of the Human Spirit reign supreme:

Off the Map

Joyeux Noël

The Danish Girl

Enchanted April

Love, Actually

The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man

About Time

Harold and Maude

Being There

My Neighbor Totoro

Jésus de Montréal

Local Hero

Roman Holiday

A Home at the End of the World

The Apartment

Meet Joe Black

In America

La cage aux folles

This Is Spinal Tap

Sleeper

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Dad

Amélie

Mostly Martha

The American President

Michael

Finding Neverland

The Coca-Cola Kid

Rikki & Pete

Florence Foster Jenkins

Babe

The Straight Story

Mrs. Harris Goes to Washington

Cinema Paradiso

A Room with a View

What about Bob?

Conclave

Kiki's Delivery Service

Past Lives

Lost in Translation

Lady Bird (?)

Claendar Girls

Cool Runnings

Stop Making Sense

Arthur the King

When Harry Met Sally

Definitely, Maybe

About Time

The Big Year

5 to 7

Adoration

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Roger Woolger

Roger Woolger was the second author authority on past lives and past life therapy that I discovered. His book Other Lives, Other Selves came along in my life at a perfect time (in 1983) as I was spiritually very hungry, had a lot of time on my hand, and was still too immature and ignorant to comprehend/understand Carl Jung. As a matter of fact, Other Lives, Other Selves was quite possibly my introduction into the world of Jungian thought as I remember how Roger was quite open about discussing the possibility that 'past life information' was quite possibly information that was accessed and available to us through a collective consciousness rather than as independent stories available exclusively to the individuals who experienced them.
     Recent excursions into Roger's world have lead me into two particularly fine thought-provoking ideas. One comes from a video that Roger made very near to the end of his life with regards to whether or not he believed that past lives were truly a phenomenon exclusive to individual 'souls,' that is, whether or not the individual soul exists. His explanation used an anecdote from Tibetan Buddhist monk Chunguyu Rinphche. When asked during a public Q & A how Tibetan Buddhists could adhere to a doctrine or belief in reincarnation and bardo when they do not believe in the concept or existence of "souls" the monk responded that they believed that the information that lives on, that seeks new vessels for life experience, are "our neuroses" that is, the stuck, unfinished, untransmuted energies of our lives. Were we to process and transform all of our energy into perfect, unfettered flow, we would be done: we would be ego-less and our energy would be free to flow into and dissipate within as it merges with the Unified Field of the great Universal Life Force.
     The second bit of Roger wisdom/insight that causes me food for thought has to do with Roger's look at the viability of any and all information accessible through the physical bodymind's link to memory or fantasy as equally relevant and helpful in processing and clearing stuck energy. I liken this to Neils Bohr's and Albert Einstein's valuation of imagination as a key element of creativity, creation, and a fuller human life. Thus, aspects of the human experience such as childhood, memory, imagination, fantasy, story, dream, intuition, artistic manifestation, even thought patterns can offer insights into oneself that can help one see oneself and his/her patterns--especially his/her stuck places and their origins. Creative expression (which, one could argue, encapsulates all human expression) is a means to both calcification and eradication of our patterns. Though it is always our choice whether or not we want to "like" or "dislike" our own patterns, assessment and expression would seem to give us the means to change (a process that some might call "grow").

Everything Is Metaphor: The Soul and the Soul Plan

The entity that we in the West have become comfortable referring to as the "soul" is rather nebulous in its definition and coverage. For the purposes of the information I am trying to disseminate, the soul is given a separate assignment than that of the spiritual entity existent in the contextual field that sits "behind" (or in-between or within) the "reality" we call the Earth-based human experience. This entity of individual identity existent in the Spirit worlds we choose to call the "Monad" for the sake of honoring its presence as evidence of the voluntarily individuated aspect of the Universal Mind (God) that has made the sacrifice of entering the contextual fields (games) associated with "Creation." (This process of individuation is considered a sacrifice for two main reasons. One is the of allowing one to undergo the sheathing of the veils of Ignorance when one commits to playing within the rules and laws of the Illusions--especially the Illusion of Separation [i.e. separation from God--a feat and fact that is and can never be true]. The other is the sacrifice of "making sacred" all that is undergoing the perspective shift from that of Universal Oneness to those of separation and independence.) While the thought of the "soul" as a field or force of energy or consciousness that commits to and embodies (or animates or ensouls) a human being is not far off, we like to use the term "Causal Body" to give this intermediary repository of information (the house of "The Plan" of hopes and goals that the Monad and its team of other collaborating Monads have come up with for the newly incarnating vehicle of Earthly interaction). The Causal Body is the filtration point between the Ego and the Monad, the site/vehicle through which all information is passed in a two-way channel, while also existing as the constant reminder of the Plan that your Monad had created for you for this human incarnation.

I mentioned the constant and nurturing "reminder-beacon" pulsing from the Causal Body into the Ego/bodymind and cellular and even subatomic components of your host human's bioenergy field, but did not mention the fact that the din of the every day, every moment dross of "chattering" information bombarding the Ego can drown out the gentle hum of the Plan's reminder. And yet, in those quiet moments, in the sleep, meditative, and/or daydream events and experiences that might somehow sneak by the din of choatic noise, the ever-present and ever-pulsing beacon has the chance to be detected, to spike some curiosity, to perhaps even be heard. This is the beacon's purpose: to always be there to remind the busy and self-obsessed Ego that there was a Higher Purpose programmed into the being--into the contractual commitment your Monad made when it invested a chunk of its energy into your human existence. Many humans fail to ever realize any of the Monad's goals it had predetermined before your birth; some Monads get to experience the address and realization of several of the hopes or goals registered in The Plan. One of the problems the current community of Monads using the Earth School for its experiential learning and "testing" lies in the deep and complex levels and variables of interactive and cumulative emotional, mental, and physical "muck" one can get mired into in the current Homo sapiens sapiens model of the human hosts made available for use. The devices of delusion and deprivation are so deep, and so thick and complex, that the majority of current users (the eight billion Monads currently invested in the Earth School experience) are either too overwhelmed or just plain ill-equipped to be able to recognize any spiritual presence much less spiritual perspective from within the tools available to their human host. Addiction, war and depravity, hierarchy, religious, nationalistic, and technological indoctrination, environmental causes of disease and congenital syndromes and issues, the mental and psychological stresses of having to deal with the latest traps and convections presented by the Illusions of Need, Separation (Disunity), Failure, Insufficiency, Requirement, Condemnation, Conditionality, Superiority, and Ignorance. 

Everything Is Metaphor: The Mental Body

Most humans reading this will have trouble untangling a Mental Body from an emotional one as we are pretty well conditioned to lump the two together in the category we call "psychology." However, there is an intellectual domain in which thoughts, beliefs, values, and systems of these are created and destroyed, replaced over time by way of incoming information that, when processed, becomes more favored or favorable to the individual's current perception and interpretation of their circumstances. This intellectual domain is part of what can be called the "Mental Body" and, when looked at from the higher, more spiritually-reflective aspects of the individual, the "Manasic Body" (or "sheath"). All thoughts, dreams, imaginings, logical conclusions, and not-so-logical meanderings of the individual mind take place through the filters of the Mental Body, Causal Body, and Manasic Body. Any and every thought, belief, value, memory, or imagining is the reflection of something your Monad has either planned for your Earth-based human experience (in order to experience growth toward, and expansion of, Spiritual Self-Awareness) or has attracted to you (both consciously and unconsciously) in order to prompt or provoke heightened vigilance in order to lead you toward more opportunities for reflection and, (hopefully), expanded consciousness. When one does not give the appropriate attention and deep reflection to events, thoughts, dreams, and coincidences that keep occurring and recurring in your life, then the Causal Body will trigger a less-than-healthy response: a "spilling over" of the unattended issue into the emotional and/or physical aspects of being a human being. These are the occasions in which one will eventually have to pay attention to the issue(s) or else suffer discord, pain, disease, and, possibly, death (of the host physical body).
     The aspect of the above revelation that involves giving attention (and credit) to dreams and imagination (symbolism and creativity) as well as likes and dislikes, may seem far-fetched or hokey to the properly conditioned (brainwashed), socialized, and indoctrinated human, but this more holistic perspective of the human experience takes into account information that occupies, for some, somewhere between 10 and 40 percent of one's conscious awareness. There are whole approaches to psychology and medicine that involve giving very serious attention to these matters: approaches that have been far more prevalent and rehearsed for far longer than our own sciences of "psychology" and allopathic medicine. In fact, there are cultures and even sciences that spend far more time paying attention to, sharing, and discussing dreams, imaginings, symbolism, and (changing) individual preferences than our own mainstream society. Noted Swiss psychologist Carl Jung spent a lifetime collecting and practicing the treatment of the human psyche through interpretation (and repeated revisitation for further (re-)interpretation) of significant, often repetitive, highly- (emotionally)-charged events, visions, and dreams.
     The practice of shamanism was developed, used, and valued as an important health tool in almost all societies over the past 20,000 years. Even art, oral tradition of storytelling, "history" (and mythology and its politicized offspring, religion), and sophisticated systems of astronomy and astrology were developed and used for applications of individual and group "health and healing." All of these numinous human creations find their strength and regulation through the mental bodies of the human form. Every thought, idea, interpretation, belief, value, dream, vision, and preference has its role as a reflection of (a metaphor for) an area or issue whose attention would serve you in your task of trying to unveil the layers of Ignorance that you have immersed yourselves into (through culture, society, family, media, and Ego construction) in order to have some chance at "returning" to Spiritual awareness, Self-awareness, Self-actualization, and even Self-Realization (which would be the reunification of Ego perspective with that of Spiritual or Monadic perspective--though true and ultimate Self-Realization would entail full and ever-lasting reunion with the Oneness consciousness of The All, the Great Cosmic Creator).

Everything Is Metaphor: The Ego/Personality

The Ego is the perspective that identifies with the human bodymind. So long as we remain convinced first and foremost that our surroundings, body, senses, feelings, thoughts, and beliefs are "real" and are what define us, then we are under the dominant leadership of the Ego. With gradual and increasing awareness of (and identification with) our non-human qualities, we begin to loosen the grip of control that Ego likes to have over our world- and self-definitions.

     The Personality is the artificial, temporary, and constantly-morphing (and often multi-dimensional and selectively interchangeable) construct of that which we present to the world (and to ourselves). The Ego and its personae and personalities represent tools we can--and do--use for the negotiation of our way throughout the matrix of the four-dimensional Earth School environment.

     The Ego is available as a survival tool so long as we believe that the Earth and the human bodymind that we are using to travel throughout the Earth School experience is "real": so long as we give our power (and trust) to the perceptions of our senses, feelings, and thoughts. But the Soul (or, more accurately, the Causal Body) is programmed to send a constantly pulsing beacon, or signal, to the Ego-driven bodymind, a signal whose purpose is to provide a constant and unwavering reminder that there is more: that there are other, different, more-expanded perspectives from which we can see, experience, and learn from our Earth-based human experience. Intuition, empathy, intellectual curiosity, dream, imagination, coincidence, inspiration, even preferences can offer us glimpses of these "bigger" awarenesses, these "alternate" perspectives. Intuition, empathy, curiosity, dreams, imagination, awareness of coincidences, unexpected inspirations and/or preferences are not the friends of the Ego and its stable of "reality"-dependent personalities. Intuition, empathy, curiosity, dreams, imagination, awareness of coincidences, unexpected inspirations and/or preferences are disruptors: provocateurs that cause the Ego to consider things outside its comfortable box of control. While the Ego is flexible and adaptive to new "expansive" information, it is not as comfortable with, or accommodating of, sudden and "large" disruptors--and definitely less so the longer it has been allowed to reign over the human bodymind with its own beliefs, values, and personalities. Once the Ego has been allowed to get set in its ways, it becomes very difficult to open its mind much less unseat it.

     In an interesting little aside: when the Ego/Personality is misaligned--or in outright conflict--with the Soul/Causal Body (Spirit's "Plan" and goals for our Earth School experience), there can result the phenomenon known as the "headache." Getting the Ego/Personality in line with one's spiritual objectives can effect the disappearance of the discomfort of the headache--even reverse the pattern created that causes the headaches. It is here important to remember that when a symptom of pain or discomfort reveals itself in the physical body, that is the Soul/Causal Bodies "last ditch" effort to gain the Ego's attention in order to (finally) deal with a disharmonizing or imbalancing issue or pattern within your core being. Giving the proper attention to resolve the issue (usually founded in some sort of immature or mistaken perception, (ignorance) or in a rather severe attachment to one [or several] of the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation) the physical, emotional, or mental "crisis" can be reversed. However, being a "last ditch" method to raise awareness and garner attention, the symptoms of dis-ease can make full functioning of the physical vehicle that we are using for our Earth-based experience rather uncomfortable, sometimes untenable (which may lead to the demise and eventual uninhabitability of the host vehicle).

Everything Is Metaphor: The Bioenergy Field

The bioenergy field is a term that we can use to name the concept of the organized contextual matrix that exists within and bears support to the rules and events of that which we can call "Creation" (i.e. "The Big Game"). Every thing, physical or otherwise, has a bioenergy field--including subatomic particles, dark matter and dark energy, light, gravity, time, thought, and images, and even dreams and delusions, "real" or imagination. If we can conceptualize it, then, yes, it has it's own bioenergy field. And, yes: every bioenergy field has its own existence and identity--as well as being, in and of itself, its own life form.

      In Earth-based human beings, there is a very complex, very fluid and constantly moving (flowing) and infinitely layered and populated bioenergy field. Each human being has its own self-defining field, made up of an infinite number of other individual bioenergy fields such as thoughts, feelings, photons, subatomic "particles," atoms, molecules, cells, organs, and systems. All of these work together in some modicum of harmony under the governance of Earth School rules and laws as well as your own overseeing governing principle, the Soul, Causal Body, or "Plan."

     When looking at our selves and our sophisticated bioenergy field (and the myriad fields and systems active within that unified self-identifying field) we can break down our perspective into sub-fields: like the physical, emotional, mental, personality, soul, and spiritual bodies (or "sheaths"). It is, however, always important (and helpful) to try to remain conscious of the inseparable interdependence of each and every bioenergy field within our own "master" field. It is also helpful to be able to remain cognizant of the interdependence of all bioenergy fields: other humans, other life forms on and in the Earth, the life form that is the Earth and all of the celestial bodies, as well as the underlying matrix of light and energy beings that "power" and form this illusion of "Cosmic Creation" (our "reality").

     In terms of the form of the bioenergy field, it does present in a "map" or "anatomy" similar to (or familiar to us like) that of an electromagnetic field--with organized axial lei lines for its flow patterns. In an interesting aside, what we would call "perfect health" would present itself in the form of a chart or "video" of the bioenergy field with a symmetric and even flow of energy (electron movement), whereas dis-ease and/or disharmonious states of health would find us seeing patterns that look like "wind" patterns on a meteorological map: high and low pressure centers in the bioenergy field representing the human bodymind's pain and or disease centers. You dig?

     Since no entity existing in the plane of Creation is in perfect harmony (either with itself or within its surroundings), the disharmonious "weather map" of the bioenergy field is something that gives each individual his own separate and unique identity. The achievement of perfect harmony would constitute a perfect unity with all things and a loss of separate identity (i.e., a return to Oneness Consciousness) and, therefore, a given option to discontinue voluntary one's participation in the illusory realms created by and for the exploration of the Grand Illusions of Need, Separation (Disunity), Failure, Insufficiency, Requirement, Condemnation, Conditionality, Superiority, and Ignorance.  

Everything Is Metaphor: The Physical Body

The physical body of this Earth-bound "human" perspective that you are currently using was created for you in order for You to participate in the game we English-speaking humans can call "21st Century Earth-based Human." The physical body is no more real than the game we are playing and should be treated with exactly the same amount of attention and care that you desire to invest in playing the game. When you get bored, depressed, feeling frustrated or defeated, you might give your physical body less care and attention than is required to "play" the game with the full-realization of your character/vehicle's potentialities. I understand this for, after all, it's just a game and it's just a body: an illusory fabrication of our intelligent and very active imagination. What you may have forgotten is that it is You who signed up to play this game--and when You did sign up, You and a team of friends and confidantes put in a lot of work into the planning of what you'd like to see yourself accomplish in this round of the game. Yes, there are many, many other games--or versions of this same game--that You could have chosen, but You didn't; You chose this game, and this is the vehicle you're stuck with due to the laws of human biology and mammalian genetics that You bought into (when You signed up for this game--and committed by allowing Your Self to be invested and ensouled in your current bodymind). But remember: this physical body is also a metaphor: the information it delivers to your mammalian brain--that your human Ego processes and interprets--is meant to deliver messages in metaphor: Whatever you experience sensually, or perceptually through your human senses, is offering you information about the learning opportunities that are currently available to you. You have managed to maneuver this human vehicle through life to this point while paying attention to some informational cues and ignoring others while they all have something to offer you in terms of provoking and taking advantage of the learning and growth opportunities You came to Earth to try to take advantage of.

The metaphorical relationships between physical symptoms or conditions can be connected to generalized symptoms of conditions of spiritual distress. For example:

- A headache is often an indication of "head-to-head" conflict or misalignment between the human Ego and the Spiritual Plan (the Causal Body). If the headache has a muscular component or etiology, it is likely to be a reflection of something, some person, or some issue in you life that is irritating, what we call a "pain in the neck" if a neck pain issue or "something hard to chew" if it's a temporal-mandibular joint issue. 

- Cancer of the liver means some very serious and important issue of unprocessed and, therefore, festering anger has been left unaddressed for such a long time that your body is demanding your attention, the consequence of inaction being termination of the contract of use for the current vehicle of Earth-based human experience (death).

- A broken bone is the delivery mechanism of the message that you need to slow down, take a break from current patterns and behaviors, in order to reconsider your approaches to life and living through a human bodymind.

- A birth defect or congenital deformity or genetic is the expression of the need to reflect and make corrective action with regards to patterns carried on within the family bloodline, such as arrogance/lack of appropriate gratitude and humility. 

- A cold is your body's way of telling you to slow down, take a temporary break from normal activities in order to rethink and/or reestablish healthy(-ier) patterns for breathing, human interaction, and/or self care.

- An intestinal flu is an example of your body reflecting your being's need for complete shut down from normal activity in order to process, purge, and/or cleanse some toxic thinking or behavior patterns.

- MS (multiple sclerosis) is a resultant consequence of longterm patterns of overly-rigid, controlling beliefs, thought and behavior patterns: the loss of control of normal bodily functions is intended to teach humility and "letting go" of abnormal conflagration of control issues (control of both self and others and/or the external environment).

- Left-side issues are sending the signal that you are out of balance (weak) in terms of taking care of your self in lieu of taking care of others whereas right-sided issues , front-facial issues connote an obsession with the future; back-side issues indicate inappropriate connection and/or obsession with issues in the past.

Etc., etc. Each and every malady, disease, even the tiniest ache or most fleeting pain, offers our conscious brain and unconscious mind an opportunity to reconnect, that is, to check in and pay attention to very specific issues that our Higher Consciousness wants us to attend to. The bigger the issue, the more serious the need; the more life-threatening the issue, the more essential the need for change and correction.

     The more disabling the physical issues, the more serious the need to stop and figure out what lesson we're avoiding paying attention to. This latter part of the statement is the core essence of the way in which the physical body serves the Monad during the Earth-based human excursion: as a means to remind the human that there are non-physical issues that are being ignored or inappropriately dealt with--which is detrimental to the health of the human vehicle. As my teacher used to say: If you aren't dealing with your spiritual or psychological issues with appropriate seriousness, your body will let you know. The body is the Soul's last ditch alarm for forcing you to address--even in some small way--deeper, more long-lasting issues of the psyche or spirit. If the issues are not appropriately dealt with and resolved, the body (and mind) will continue to exhibit symptoms to force you to slow down and "take care of your self."

Everything Is Metaphor: The World "Inside" You

The mind is an active thing. In fact, the mind's activity can feel overwhelming. Or not. The important thing for you to try to remember is that the mind is just a tool for the processing of information and that information exists only for our entertainment and that, as entertainment, we have the choice, in each and every moment, to choose how to perceive (and value) our entertainment (how deeply engaged we wish to be). We also have the freedom and ability to choose whether or not we wish to continue to follow or pursue this particular form of entertainment. Like a television, we have the ability (and choice) to change the channel and choose a different stream of entertainment; like a computer, we can close a window and choose another "rabbit hole" to entertain us. Or we can turn off the medium of entertainment altogether: just get up and walk away, turn off, even throw away the medium of entertainment. Or not! The choice is yours and, ultimately, yours alone. Just try to remember: it is You who ordered the form of entertainment dominating your mind; there are (and were) reasons that caused your Higher Self to enlist the variable settings of the game your Monad and It's team of helpers and collaborators, teachers and guides, chose for you to participate in as the "you" that you currently perceive yourself to be. That active mind "inside" you that feels so full and, at times, overwhelming, is actually performing exactly the task it was intended to perform when you signed up for this Earth-based human incarnation: it is trying to distract you from the goals and objectives that You and Your Team set in motion before you took your first breath as the you that you seem convinced that you are. You may be conscious enough to know that nobody outside you sees or knows the real you--that no one could possibly understand who you are and what you are thinking--but then it only takes a certain shift in perspective--a couple of "steps back"--to realize that that you have allowed yourself to be deceived: to remember that at our most elemental state, we are all the same: we are all exactly the same: we are all sourced in (and tethered to) the same Infinite Pond of pre- (and post-) Cosmic "stuff." All the human stuff is just illusion: rules and constructs imagined into being purely for the sake of playing this voluntary game of "21st Century Earth-based Human."   

Everything Is Metaphor: The World "Outside" You

To Monadic Consciousness, all Earthly human experiences are but agents for individual growth and expanded awareness of the Truths and Mysteries of Creation; in effect, every thing is a metaphor. "You"--or, in your case, "I" is a metaphor: a vehicle for the planned accumulation and accrual of experience. You are much more than the perceptions that your human consciousness filters like a myopic telescope. That which you believe is "outside" you ("you" here being understood as the perspective of your human bodymind) is a matrix or field of information in which your illusory bodymind floats, flows, and negotiates meaning and significance. In truth, nothing exists outside you and nothing exists without you: you are a point of perspective within The All that exists by the grace of The All for the sheer experience of experiencing perspective, and the infinite variations of individuated perspective. Everything in your field of perspective is an illusion created precisely to allow the experience of experiencing perspective of all and everything Creation can possibly be; we are limited in our "view" only by how occluded (ignorant) we are in our perception of our Selves. The Earth-based human experience was created as a base for the exploration of psycho-emotional experience and to experiment with the depths of depravity one can experience while maxing out the Illusion of Separation. (The Illusion of Separation is the Illusion, you will recall, that allows us to experience the illusion of separation from our permanent state of unity with The All. If occluded from the truth of our permanent and unchanging state of unity with The All one could, of course, experience some anxiety, sense of loss, perhaps sadness, and "Divine discontent"--for the impelling desire to reclaim that which we have allowed ourselves to feel as lost.) The goal of this depraved condition of Ignorance was designed to test our personal resolve in the effort to reacquire those Original States of Universal Consciousness, that is, the All perspective of non-perspectivity, or what the Taoists call "Wu Wei," a state of perfect accordance with the natural state of Unity Consciousness.

Everything that you perceive as "outside" you has been created for your use in this quest for expanded consciousness (diminished ignorance, increasing re-awareness of our own Divinity, of the illusory nature of all Creation). The part that we forget (especially in especially deep states within the Illusion of Separation in which we find ourselves deeply mired in victimhood and depravity) is that we, Ourselves, had a very significant role in setting up the conditions in which we find our human vehicle: that we had a very active role in creating the Plan that we had for this Earth-based human adventure--with clearly defined and shared goals and objectives planned out for the "lifetime" we committed to. And more: we are in every single moment playing an active role (whether conscious or unconscious) in the manifestation of our "external" "surroundings" and the events and possibilities they offer us--all according to those learning goals and objectives that we set in motion when we signed up for this adventure ride. There is nothing real in your surroundings--unless you choose to give it the power of "being real." There is nothing in the world "outside" you that can harm the real You--nothing that can alter the fact that you are only playing at the games available to you as an individuated point of perspective in the Cosmic Illusion of "Creation," that you are--and always will be--a part of the Great Unity Consciousness, The All. The game your Monad chose to participate in (Earth-based human in a so-called "21st Century") is just a game, and like any game, you will have success if you play by the game's rules but You will have greater success if you are able to remember that these are just rules to a game, that, like any game, you can choose to play as long as you like, that you can also choose to stop playing this particular game, or you can choose to fight against the rules of the game and see what experiences that brings you. It is most important to try to remember that there is no right or wrong: that there is absolutely nothing  that you can say or do that will jeopardize the fact that you are, at day's end, always an essential part of The All--no, in fact, you ARE The All! Your choices to participate in the games of experience, using the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation, are inherently distracting and deluding you from remembering your Ultimate Divine Unity. Use the "outside" world as it was intended: for your strength, will, and expanding awareness of your own Divinity--i.e. for increased (deepening) Self-awareness and, ultimately, as fodder toward Self-Realization. Or not! You can certainly use the information bombarding you (at all times) from the "outside" to reinforce and secure your Ignorance--even to deepen your immersion into the Illusions of Deprivation, but, ultimately, it is the plan of every individuated point of perspective to hear and follow that inner beacon of "Divine discontent": the beacon that is trying to remind you, at every second of every day, that you are Complete, you are Perfect, you are not alone, you are always and forever a part of the Great Field of Unified Consciousness; the beacon that is trying to assure you that everything is going to be all right because it's all game, that all of Creation exists purely for Our entertainment--for the exploration of everything and anything that is possible.

The Living Universe

"The universe is a living entity that is unutterably vast and an intensely alive process of awesome precision and power. We are beings the universe inhabits as much as we are beings who inhabit the universe. Life exists within life. Our life is inseparable from the aliveness of the living universe. Our aliveness and consciousness extend beyond our biological bodies and into the further reaches and depths of the living universe. Our physical bodies comprise only the smallest fraction of the full scope of our being. Our bodies are biodegradable vehicles for acquiring soul-growing experiences. With renewed feelings of wonder, we can open to a larger sense of self that connects into the subtle aliveness of the living universe..."

The Purpose of Pain

If you are a sufferer of chronic pain consider that your condition may have some very real spiritual implications--that there is a very direct message being delivered by your pain. It is my understanding that physical, or psychological pain is contracted as the result of "inhibited soul life," which means that the information being broadcast from the original Soul Plan has been misconstrued, misinterpreted or outright ignored. Remember:  the Ego/Personality that family and society and our own innate biological survival instincts help us to construct during our childhood becomes quite confident and set in its ways. There are often attention-grabbing obstacles or set backs and/or tragic or euphoric events in our lives that shake up the Ego into reconsidering its posturing, its belief constructs. But sometimes even these are not enough to break the constricted thinking patterns that we have grown accustomed and reliant upon. Pain--and especially daily, quality-of-life-threatening pain--has a way of demanding, commanding, even requiring, a shift in behavior and thought. Sometimes this is what is necessary for the Ego to be broken in order to finally let the beacon-like message of the Soul Plan break through the murkiness. Remember: the Voice of the soul is always singing its song, trying to get its message across; it is the Ego, distracted by the Grand Illusions of four-dimensional emotion-based sentient experience, with its layers of survival mechanisms and pleasure and comfort patterns, that fears letting go of its patterns--patterns that it has spent years building and reinforcing and with which it has become quite comfortable and even automated. Thus, pain, in my view of things, is a powerful method that we attract into our lives in order to give us a wake up call--to inform us that something we are doing is out of line with the purpose and goals we declared when we made plans to take on this current human incarnation.
     Chronic pain, then, is similar to an air raid siren in your head that won't go off. Chronic pain changes you. It breaks down the patterns of ease, joy, and free-wheeling fun and play that we may have fallen under the spell of--patterns that, I believe, are contrary to those you had placed into the goals and objectives for growth in your Soul Plan. Chronic pain, in effect, forces us to stop the patterns we had developed and to recreate ourselves in new ways. Suffice it to say, if we find means out of our chronic pain syndromes and patterns, we have discovered insights into our True Nature that can lead us to alternative paths for living and thinking. Even drug regimens, surgeries, or more destructive forms of escape from pain (like addictions and unmanaged anger) offer us glimmers of insight into the illusory nature of our four-dimensional "reality." Ideally, of course, we would find spiritual means to change our ways, to detach from the patterns and illusions that led to our chronic pain syndromes. But We have chosen created many obstacles in the fabric of human experience that impede and distract us from finding these very easily. Remember:  The 21st Century human condition has been expressly manifest to be the most difficult, challenging, "distant" or "deepest" dive into the Illusion of Separation that we can come up with. Our journey back to spiritual consciousness--through the medium of the four-dimensional emotion-based human experience--is supposed to be difficult.

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In a survey that came out in May 2011, sufferers of chronic pain and related syndromes informed the world about how their lives have been profoundly affected by the chronic pain in their lives. This is what they had to say:

  Almost 9 in 10 respondents (approximately 87%) feel they are no longer the person they were before they started living with chronic pain;

 Nearly all respondents (92%) report their condition has had a significant impact on major life decisions, such as:
     o Including whether to initiate or remain in a relationship
     o Change jobs
     o Have children

 Of the more than 650 respondents who have children currently under the age of 18: o 95% report their pain condition affects at least one of their parenting duties, such as:
     o Taking care of daily household and childcare needs
     o Enjoying their children's milestones
     o Managing their children's activities and scheduling

 Approximately 7 in 10 survey respondents (68%) agree that pain limits their ability to care for their family;

 Nearly all respondents (approximately 98%) report they have implemented some type of adaptation to their daily routine in order to conduct activities and tasks; three-quarters of respondents have made three or more daily adjustments;

When I read this information I found myself thinking that every single bullet point had what was to me an obvious message. Let me go through them with you.

The fact that 87% of the respondents feel that they are no longer the person they were  before they started living with chronic pain makes perfect sense. Pain--and especially lasting, inescapable chronic pain--changes the way in which the brain and mind have to respond and react to everything the sensory network reveals; all sensory inputs are being distorted by filters of distraction, discomfort, and misery; all information inputs are being tainted by these "negative" hues. Nothing is being perceived in the same light as it once was.
     Again, the purpose of attracting pain into one's life is to shock the Ego into reconsidering its belief systems, its filters of interpretation, it's concept of Self. To bring chronic pain into one's life must construe far more serious messages--messages of radical annihilation of one's past/previous behavior and/or thought patterns.

92% of the survey respondents claim that their chronic pain condition has had a significant impact on major life decisions, such as whether or not to remain in or initiate new relationships; change career choices, relationship dynamics about and with children.
     I truly believe that some of the patterns that we fall into are patterns that we have become so familiar with that we allow them to perpetuate--at all costs!--in order to preserve that which is known. We fear the unknown! These pain syndromes allow us a radical change in thought and behavior so as to give us excuses to change our relationships to many other things/patterns in our lives--including family, jobs, even daily routines.

95% report that their pain affects the way in which they can parent their children (or partners or other significant life participants). I believe that the current dominant relationship dynamics practiced in "first world" societies has established patterns of eccentric dysfunction--codependent behaviors enabling and even encouraging, nurturing dependent, addictive behaviors.
     I've heard America called "the borderline nation" by psychologists for the fact that the cultural attitudes, values, mores, and behaviors exhibit all of the same symptoms on a collective scale that individuals who are diagnosed with "Borderline Personality Disorder" (BPD) exhibit--which include:

---- Extreme reactions—including panic, depression, rage, or frantic actions—to abandonment, whether real or perceived
---- A pattern of intense and stormy relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often veering from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation)
---- Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self, which can result in sudden changes in feelings, opinions, values, or plans and goals for the future (such as school or career choices)
---- Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating
---- Recurring suicidal behaviors or threats or self-harming behavior, such as cutting
---- Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days
---- Chronic feelings of emptiness and/or boredom
---- Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger
---- Having stress-related paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms, such as feeling cut off from oneself, observing oneself from outside the body, or losing touch with reality.

These symptoms are not the "normal" behavioral reactions of a healthy, centered human to "normal" and typical life circumstances and informational inputs. If we were to go back to consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we would see that something in society has gone awry; something has skewed our interpretation, perception, and reaction to reality (a reality that we had a hand in creating!) Ego/Personalities guided to create constructs based on fear, outside power, helplessness rather than our own personal strength, and, of course, Love and trust, create a psychological topography ripe for dysfunctional distortions and misinterpretations of the realities offered us here in the four-dimensional Earth School. Denied full access of any information regarding spiritual possibilities (because of the stigmas and shame and guilt we have been taught to feel or associate with such belief choices) we are left floundering in a fear-filled, "godless" world--taught to clutter our senses with as many external distractions as possible and then numb or deny any internal pangs of Unity connectivity with myriad choices of addictions.

When we get into pain syndromes that have no known or no understandable cause, it is not uncommon for people to think the pain is all "in their head" (for that is what they are often told). I would like to posit a metaphorical extension to this interpretation. I think we should consider that it is a message coming from the Higher Mind, the Soul, outside or within "the head." Remember:  all of this--even the pain!--is part of the illusory world, part of the infinitely interpretable informational options available to us through this particular contextual field that we have co-created. The message could be as simple as "Make a different choice" or "Take a different path" or as complex as "get out of there" or "stop doing the thinking, behaving that you are doing" or "Time to try on a a new belief system" or even more radically, "Time to get out of here/Time to leave this situation, pattern, relationship, or body," that is, "Time to try a different form/different contextual field."

What if you new exactly how long you have left?

What if you knew exactly how much time you had left on planet Earth--in you current human host bodymind? With this knowledge, what would you be doing differently?
     Let's say you have nine years--that you know for certain that you will be leaving your human bodymind in nine years. How will this affect the choices you make . . .  today, as well as the plans you make for your now-limited future? Would you keep up all of the patterns you have in your life currently? Would you communicate the same way you do now with a) your loved ones and b) strangers? Would you put more time, energy and focus into any other pursuits? Like travel? Reading? Religion/spirituality? Partying? Funeral/wake/memorial service planning? Would you continue spending your money on all of the same things you do now? Would you invest more time and energy into contributing to the future welfare of your loved ones or to community service projects? Would you be more interested in spending more time alone, with yourself, or in groups, socially, with others?
     The problem with the nine years issue is that it's too long for one to just spend, too long to try to go without ever paying bills and taxes (unless I want jail time to be part of the way I spend the nine years), too long to stop taking care of oneself and one's possessions (if I want them to continue working for me while I'm still here). I could resign myself to a hermetic life, sealed up in a room with books, music, Internet, paper and pens, meditation and farm-fresh food. I am ill-equipped for survival in a nomadic lifestyle, yet that is always a possibility (as it is for us all). I am not sure that I am ready to lead the life of a mendicant beggar, but that is another possibility that would attract many extraordinary experiences my way, I am sure. Leisure and travel require some kind of money or means to earming one's daily bread and nightly bed. I could figure this out. But would I enjoy it? Would I end up regretting those choices?

     How is Life meant to be lived? 

"Jean-Peyre"

Journeyman Paul has used Homo sapiens sapiens for many incarnations during the last 12,000 years. More than a few of these lives have been spent within religious orders or religiously-defined societies or vocations. Today I will present one of Paul's incarnations within pre-Reformation Europe. In this lifetime, Paul chose a French male for his host. At the time, France and all of Western Europe were very thoroughly immersed within the moral and societal structures dictated by the Roman Catholic Church. Rémy (later called Jean-Peyre) came from a typical rural communal village in Occitan or Langue d'Oc--an agricultural community called Belvézet which was located in the rugged hills above Les Seynes river, a tributary of the Gard[on], in what is the present day département of Gard, which was a western part of the Rhone River watershed in Southern France, northwest of the cities of Nîmes and Avignon.

     Born at the end of the 12th Century A.D., Rémy was his mouther's firstborn. After a series of miscarriages from his young mother, there followed the births of a series of sisters who managed to survive birth and infancy. Rémy was not, however, the first born of his father, Guillaume. He had a son from a previous marriage named Guichon. Guichon was five years older than Rémy. Guillaume was a taciturn man who was often absent from the family home for long stretches of time due to his tending to the seasonal moves of his animals (primarily sheep). The father's affection for Rémy was diminished by the boy's frailty. Rémy's older step-brother, Guichon, was also often absent as he was considered indispensable to his father. As with Rémy, Guillaume's affection and attention for his family members was tied directly into their utilitarian use to him. 

     Sickly as a child, Rémy did not grow up very strong, confident or motivated. Being disregarded by his father, Rémy became a cherished companion and helper to his mother, especially in the care of his young sisters, whom he adored (though thought of more as domesticated animals). Thus, his physique, character and traits quite naturally inclined more toward the effeminate (which caused even greater disdain and disinterest from his father).   

     At this time, it was fairly common practice for families to "unburden" themselves of male children that were viewed as probably having little to contribute to the agricultural chain of life (especially a sickly child such as Rémy). This could take the form of live-in jobs in the employ of larger local farms or apprenticeships to local trades and crafts men, but it was more common for the "sickly" boys to be given over to local religious or clerical opportunities (sometimes for a fee or service).

     In the region in which Rémy was raised there existed many local monasteries. Around the age of 11 or 12, Rémy's family found placement for him in a local monastery near Uzès. There it was planned that he would commit to the training with the goal of, hopefully, one day entering the Benedictine order. For whatever reason, Rémy was not able to satisfy the requirements necessary to rise up the steps within the Order with the other novitiates. At the age of 16, he was placed into the service of the local diocese in Aureill[h]ac-Arpaillargues where he became a junior priest-in-training where he was renamed "Jean-Peyre." 

     Jean-Peyre was not in service long before the region got swept up in the fervor of another Crusade. This crusade was different than the three previous Crusades. This time, instead of raising armies of soldiers to travel to the Holy Land and fight the Moslem "enemies of the One True Faith," the idea was to send "armies" of children, poor, and other unfortunates ("les Pauvres") to try to convert the Muslim people through their innocence and meekness. Jean-Peyre's superiors in the Church got quite caught up in the spirit of this new Crusade. They enlisted themselves to not only recruit "soldiers of Christ" to be brought to Marseilles for shipping to the Holy Land, but to accompany the precious cargo at least to Byzantium (today's Istanbul). Jean-Peyre was such a follower--he had developed so little of his own ideas and opinions on any thing--that he had no feelings one way or the other on the events that unfolded with him in the middle. Of course, he had absolutely no inkling as to the nefarious deeds that were about to unfold--to which he would become an unwitting participant and, in fact, accomplice. Instead, he was quite content--and genuinely happy and satisfied--with his assigned role of helping the individual children arriving at his church and, later, while en route to Marseilles; it was his job to find bedding, food, and some solace and care for the weak and weary "warriors" under his charge. Never questioning what these children and their caregivers had been told--or what the parents of the children--some not much younger than his 18 years--had been promised or given in return for their voluntary "donation," Jean-Peyre did what he was told, obediently went where he was ordered, and found himself totally ignorant of the bigger picture and possible political and economic games being played behind the scenes.

     The scene at the docks in Marseilles harbor was quite eye-opening for Jean-Peyre as he, himself, had never seen the Sea much less been on a cargo ship before. He was as nervous and preoccupied with the uncertainties and insecurities he felt for going out on the wavy expanse of water in a tub with sails as he was with challenges of herding the Crusaders that were under his supervision. Though he knew they were in for a long journey (to the Holy Land!), he had been told that they would be making several stops for provisions and other transactions along the way. The first leg was to be to Tripoli.
     The trip was miserable from the start. The rolling motion of the rough seas caused Jean-Peyre three days of mind-numbing sea-sickness which greatly diminished his ability to perform the duties he was there to carry out. During the night of the third day at sea, the ship was tossed and battered about by a severe storm before it finally capsized and broke apart near the rocky shores of one of Italy's islands. For Jean-Peyre it was a fairly swift death as he did not know how to swim. The visions of the receding surface of the Sea as his drowning body sank into the depths were his last impressions of that lifetime.
     In the Spirit World, Journeyman Paul was able to ascertain that no one survived the sinking of the ship that Jean-Peyre was on and that most of the children and impoverished "soldiers of Christ" on the other ships that did survive the sea voyages ended up being sold into slavery in either Tripoli or Byzantium. Not one "Crusader" ever made it to the Holy Land. This news prompted a prolonged spell of guilt and low-esteem in Paul as he found himself feeling overwhelmingly complicit in not only the ultimate deaths of the Crusaders--whose care and assauge he was charged with--but for his ignorance to the role he played in the bigger picture of intentional trafficking of innocent humans. This served him, however, and his personal growth in that it gave him the motivation to try to choose successive incarnations that were less ignorant, less meek, more engaged and aware of local and regional politics and that continued to form thoughtful opinions over a lifetime. This was also a lesson for Paul which left a somewhat sour taste for the Roman Catholic Church--which undoubtedly contributed to his choosing a few Muslim lives, a few Asiatic, and this current non-religious lifetime in me, Drew Fisher.  

Soul Mates and Twin Souls

I have covered these two topics before--both separately and together--but they still come up: Is there such a thing as a "Twin Soul" or "Twin Flame"? and What is a "soul mate"?
     As previously discussed and illustrated through my blogpost entitled "Anna," a soul mate is any soul from your Soul Family, soul group, or from within the community of souls with whom you have worked closely before. You and a soul mate may have contracted to play significant roles in each other's lives--whether that contract was to participate in a single particular event of primary significance to one or the other's growth goals or whether it is to play off each other in a mirroring/sounding board dynamic in a long term relationship such as husband and wife, siblings, mother-child, father-child, mentor-student, or others. Journeyman Paul has soul mate relationships with the people that have played girl friend, three hour encounter on a train in Europe, daughter, great grandmother, college friend, brother, father, spirit guide, and current wife in Drew Fisher's life time--and those are just the ones that have been revealed to my conscious mind in this Drew Fisher vehicle. It is likely that there are many, many more people who have contributed to the growth and development of Drew Fisher in this incarnation who are members of Journeyman Paul's soul community, but that that information has not been significant enough to have been revealed to me (so far).
     So, in short, a soul mate can be one of any number of souls you might encounter while traveling in your current human vehicle. You might be in contact with or be using several of them at this very time in your life. You may also have none currently present and/or active in your life. It is important to here recognize that a soul mate might also have contractually agreed to work with you in a particular incarnation in an adversarial or violent capacity. The lessons inherent in being the recipient of an act of violence or adversity can be very powerful--and sometimes we ask close Soul Community members to step in and perform those very difficult tasks because we know that they will do so with that goal of working for the Highest Good and most Sacrificial Love for us. To perform acts of destruction, harm, crime, or even mischief require very strong souls--souls based in a strong sense of Self and Love, souls firmly entrenched in the awareness that this is all a Game, that we are only putting on masks, playing roles to afford one another experiences based within the rules and contexts of the contextual field in which we are making our selves present. Were an "immature" or "damaged" soul to take on a human bodymind that has a destructive or violent role in store for it, it may come out more damaged, more entrenched in its perception of disharmony or injury--which only means that it might take more time and therapies for its healing and wholeness to be regained.
     For example, many Monads willingly took on key or supportive roles in the Nazi regime in Germany. The hurt and suffering that they helped to inflict or submit others to during those lifetimes in the 1930s and after was offered up with an intention of creating a perspective of gratitude and appreciation for life, family, culture, freedom, and so many other things in our world which can become taken for granted. As the comforts and ease, liberties and freedoms of modern industrial human society were growing, the Spiritual Kingdom saw that there needed to be balancing "reminders" of the special gifts we were being given. Pain and suffering are, of course, the great balancers, the great "reminders," the great perspective resets for humankind.
     It is correctly rumored that many of the Monads who participated on the Nazi side of events in the 20th century are now ensouled in Jewish or Palestinian bodyminds--as a means to making amends, to balancing out the scales, as a karmic exchange for their roles in the Nazi regime. But, a problem has arisen as some of the Monads who participated in the Nazi atrocities and the Nazi mindset and way of life came to enjoy the perpetration of destruction, control, fear, hurt and pain upon others. These are the Monads or souls who were not quite fully prepared for the impact their actions could have on their Higher Mind, on their spiritual psychology. Thus, we now have a problem with current bodyminds living lives with variations on the reinforced destroyer/perpetrator mentalities that they never quite cleared their beings of from their Nazi lives; there is violence being perpetrated on other human beings by the supposed "victims" of previous crimes against humanity! The psychoses of inflicting pain and destruction upon others is not being reversed but carried forward!
     Though some former Nazis are, no doubt, making amends for their complicity in aggression and perversion, balancing the scales of karma, it may, in fact, take several lifetimes and between-lifetimes for some of the other Monads who seem stuck in aggressive, destructive behaviors to heal and re-balance their eccentric patterns.

The question of twin souls--or "twin flames" as some are want to call them--is definitely based in a contextual field that rings true to me and my recall of experiences as Journeyman Paul. I'm not sure if it was in the first phase of individuation, that is, that first shift from Unity Consciousness into the realm of the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation, but I resonate with the recollection of "being born" in an ethereal form of an "egg" in a kind of diaphanous form similar in concept to the common symbol of the Yin and Yang: curled up with my "head" or "mental point of reference" facing or entwined with the "tail" or "feet" or "grounding feature" of my "other half"--who happens to be ensouling the bodymind of Toril, my current wife in this Drew Fisher incarnation. Within that "cephalic point of conscious reference" resides the seed of all that is Toril, all that is essentially my other half--and within her is the seed of all that is me (Journeyman Paul). So, while "separate" from our previous form of ubiquitous Unity Consciousness, or God, and "separate" from my other half, the yin to my yang, I am ever reminded by that seed within--as I am by the Blue Pearl within my Heart--that all perceptions of separation are but illusory and were made up by Us for Our play in the infinite realms and variations of the Cosmic Playground. At some level, despite the degree of separation in dimensionality or time and place that Toril and I choose to focus our attentions and intentions, we are never truly separated, never truly apart--and the same goes for our relationship with God. Do you see how everything is metaphor, how everything is built layer upon layer upon the Illusion of the First Individuation?
     So, in the belief system constructed to this point with the help of my experiences as Drew Fisher, Toril and I are "twin souls." We were "born" into the Illusion of Separation, into Cosmic Creation, together, metaphoric examples of God's Taoist commitment to duality. We came from the same egg, she the yin to my yang, I the masculine half of her feminine representation (which, interestingly, plays out in the fact that neither of us has been able to access a single lifetime in which we were not representatives of those original gender orientations). This is not to say that there aren't many, many other ways in which form was--or is--"born" into contextual fields within the infinite possibilities of Cosmic Creation. I'm certain that there are. This is just the entry or "birth" that Toril and I remember--and one factor that has led to our inclination to (want to) reconnect within Game-playing fields, within multi-dimensional contextual fields.
    Twin souls may decide to work together in numerous incarnations--in the guise of many roles, including but not exclusive to that of lovers. The roles you decide to take on may include those of family members or even as adversaries. I would like to here caution you against obsessing over the quest for your Twin. This, in my opinion, is simply a waste of time. If and when you are ready, that information may present itself to you, but the soul work you accomplish is not dependent upon your pairing up or holding your hands much less even finding your Twin. Suffice it to say that you are always "holding hands" with your twin, whether you are aware of it or not.
     I am told that the Monad can or will experience the joyful "reunion" with its twin while in human form when one has reached the last initiation on the scale of human unveilings of Spiritual energy. At this point it is considered that one has "done all the work" necessary to open one's human consciousness to full awareness of the presence of the Rays (though, I can assure you, the likelihood of one's master of their potentialities is very slim). After this stage or "rung" on the ladder has been achieved, there is a bit of a plateau for rest and reflection, but then there opens up an entire new ladder of spiritual goals and learning with another vast spectrum of experiential choices from which to choose our next contextual field and appropriate forms for learning and growth. The work of spiritual growth does not end with mastery of spiritual principles through the perceptual filters of the human experience. There are many, many other forms, other dimensions, other expanded fields of conscious awareness to work within, to master, before we achieve re-union with our One True Self. Imagine the consciousness/perspective of a star! or a galaxy! or a universe! And these are just four-dimensional entities of which we are already aware. We can only begin to imagine the choices of experiential perspectives beyond the four dimensions that we humans are familiar with. And through it all, rest assured, you will be "holding hands" with your cosmic twin, working with a loving "family" and "community" of Monadic oversouls. What a wonderful, beautiful Plan we have devised!

Initiations

One of the few topics I have been avoiding from the start of these blogposts is that of initiations, that is, the spiritual "ladder" that one works along as part of the human experience. I have been avoiding this topic because the Ego has its way of treating things competitively, of wanting to extoll its own virtues and achievements. The Ego wants to "look good." It wants others to think it is special so that it can think well of itself.
     The topic of initiation always seems to provoke Ego. Ego wants to tout how far it is along the spiritual path (in order to deceive others into believing Ego is in submission to Spirit). The key here is to try to remember that there is absolutely nothing that the Ego can do to improve the spiritual progress that one achieves. As a matter of fact, it can more accurately be stated that the Ego has an agenda which is usually quite different from and often misleading to The Soul Plan that was installed by the Monad and its team of spiritual beings.
     I apologize if I am confusing you here. You see, I will remind you, the Ego is, after all, merely a fabrication that we spiritual beings have created to further challenge our selves in our adventuring into the deeper and deepest realms of Cosmic Creation, veils of Ignorance, into the murky tar pits of the human experience. And, ingenious it is, this concoction that we call "the Ego" is a side of ourselves, a point of view, that interprets the world within and around us in a way that is very different from the spiritual perspective.
     The Ego is very much a product of the physical- and emotion-based perspective of Earth World. It is fully immersed in and governed by the tremendous amount of information bombarding us from our senses and our psychological identification with our human bodies. But, again, it is a devise, a tool, that we spiritual beings installed into the fabric of human beingness in order to test our selves, in order to confuse, distract and retard our ability to focus on the True tasks at hand, which would be to learn, embrace, and use spiritual principles, to practice spiritual law while in these Earth incarnations. The emotion-based sentient human experience has been devised as one of the deepest forays into the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation, certainly one of the most overwelhming and confusing "rides" away from "home" (which is nondualistic Unity Consciousness).
     The basics of spiritual law include individual realization, use and expression of Love, Beauty, Truth, Choice, Universal Divinity, Forgiveness, Detachment, Harmony, Unity Consciousness, etc. The achievement of this ability to realize, use, and express spiritual principles while in human form comes in stages. These stages can be called "initiations." Many spiritual traditions have elucidated set or flexible numbers of stages or initiations. The scale of initiations can be defined differently but they usually correspond to the individual's ability to cast aside or see through the various layers or veils of ignorance, the Illusions. Were one to emerge into human form with full awareness and command of all of the Illusions, in full command of spiritual law, that person would probably be recognized as an "enlightened being;" the lightness one might feel (and exhibit) from being unencumbered by the tremendous weight of Ego, from being free of the Illusions and the veils of Ignorance, is truly liberating and would certainly be found to be inspiring to those who might be fortunate to find (and recognize) themselves in the presence of such an individual.
     When I began my formal studies of spiritual information I encountered goals of achievement in Buddhist traditions--the Five Precepts of The Golden Rule, the Buddhist system of basic morality. Before that, of course, there were concepts like The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule--the mastery of which claimed to ensure one a saintly or righteous life. I also encountered lists of goals from other writers who had spiritual focus, such as Deepak Chopra's Laws of Spirituality or Spiritual Laws of Success. And when I found myself a student of Esoteric Healing--which draws much from the writings of Alice Bailey and other authors of Eastern and Theosophic traditions--I was exposed to the concept of Initiations. I had come across this term before. First in a book by British author Cyril Scott entitled The Initiate: Impressions of a Great Soul, second in the pop novel of Richard Bach's entitled Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, and finally in an autobigraphical book by Swiss spiritual teacher Elisabeth Haich entitled Initiation. All three of these source books have been referenced or presented in previous Life Is Beautiful blogposts.
     The number of initiations requisite to mastery of spiritual law while in human form has been source to some interpretation and variation. I had heard of five, seven, nine and 12 stages of spiritual awakening--for that is, in effect, what each stage represents: a new level of awareness or awakeness; increased or expanded awareness of the deceits of The Grand Illusions, The Ego, the lightening of the load of Fear and Ignorance. As consciousness is expanded, raised, it is able to use its awareness to build upon and seek further information, to come to grips with that new information, and then, hopefully, put it to use.
     People will ask questions like, "How long will I have to work on this stage, this initiation level, before I can move on to the next one?" And the answer, of course, is: As long as it takes! There is no right or wrong time, no right or wrong initiation level to achieve (or not). There is no failure. Everybody will figure it out. At some point. For some it may take several lifetimes as the lures and attachments to concepts and beliefs in the four-dimensional sensory world may prove more attractive for that individual for a while. Addictions and addictive behaviors are another obstacle thrown into the human equation to make the journey more challenging, more But then, the achievement of success on the climb to spiritual awareness becomes that much more appreciated, that much more rewarding.
     Each stage or initiation can take years or lifetimes. Once focused on a spiritual path, achieving success at recognizing spiritual concepts and laws, the speed in which one travels the path may increase or accelerate. But then there is the separate topic of mastery. Just because a soul has been able to begin to recognize it's True self and the True nature of All Things does not mean that they will have achieved mastery of the use of this knowledge. Mastery may take many other incarnations--and not necessarily human or in the four-dimensional contextual field. Once one has achieved full awareness of spiritual law and the role that the Earth School experience plays in our development (toward Self-realization--which is, ultimately, of course, a return to Unity Consciousness with Our Divine Source) we feel free to use our choices to try other means and methods of working with spiritual law. There is actually a whole other "ladder" of spiritual awareness and achievement over and above that which we work with while in the human form. So, rather than set forth a specific number of initiations that we can and should seek to recognize and achieve and then outline and describe the nature and qualities of each initiation, let me instead describe some of the general tasks or themes we will encounter on the path.
     Remember, the entire journey is about gradually increasing our awareness of Self and spiritual potential. The journey usual begins with social groups--using others, using established traditions and beliefs for. Like choosing clothing, we may find ourselves mentally trying on several different religious mantles--all the while driven by that feeling of what feels right, what feels wrong, what feels like the uncovering of a part of you, a part of your beliefs, that is an internal truth--something that was always there within you but has now been allowed out of the dark, has been given light and life, has been restored to its proper place. The entire path is like this: gradual, incremental revelations of ideas, concepts, truths that were always within you, that have resided within you since before you were born, but need the "work" of seeking, the kick in the but from that ever broadcasting voice from within, the incessant beacon of the Divinity within us, the spiritual Monad.
     "Divine discontent" is an appropriate term used to describe that unsettling feeling in the gut, coming from the unconscious (from the Soul--the beacon of the Monad), that says something isn't quite right, that there is something more, something "deeper" to learn or discover. This is a feeling commonly used by many spiritual travelers to describe their impetus for seeking, for taking risks, for trying new things.
     Though our travels are always our own, the path is never exactly like any one else's, we are able to benefit from the myriad paths that others before us have taken to achieve increasing Self-awareness, an increasing sense of the presence of the energy of our Divine Origins. That is how religions and philosophies, social groups, education, art and literature, dreams and metaphor serve us: as means to revealing little bits of our selves to our selves--so that we can decide if we like and want to stay attached to this part of me or whether we are feeling that we are past that version of our selves, of our "truth," whether we have become "bigger" than that particular formerly-useful piece of information, that that piece of information is no longer useful for our current self-definition.
     It is important to remember that every piece of information you receive is useful: every piece of information that comes into your awareness can help you on your journey to continually define and re-define your self concept, your Self. A piece of information will either be found useful as a welcomed part of you or as an unwelcomed part and therefore something you'd like to change, or it will be determined as something that has no bearing, relevance, or place in our current self-concept--which then leads us to discard it but, at the same time, has helped us to re-define and reassert our current self-definition. This is why we can say that everything in your world--every single piece of information, physically, sensually, psychologically--all of it is offered to you--has been attracted to you by you--specifically for your use. What you choose to do with it is up to you. If you choose to ignore it, that's fine. You will continue to create a contextual field with variations on that same piece of information until it does lead to stimulation--until you are finally ready to receive, pay attention to, and perhaps process it. There is no hurry. There is no right or wrong. You may not even be perceiving information on a conscious level or you may not be ready to process it at the level of significance (remember: every thing is metaphor) you need it. That may take years and many many encounters with the same piece of information. (Which is one reason that Carl Jung would revisit dreams and symbols and synchronous events over and over throughout his lifetime: there could always be more layers and tie-ins with other pieces of information which can in turn reveal different forms of meaning and significance to our ever-expanding concept of Self and world.)
     Another question on people's minds is "Can I fall backwards or regress on my spiritual path?" The answer is a little complicated because it depends on your perspective:  From a spiritual perspective there is no right or wrong; we're all going to get there. And the act of taking on a human bodymind involves committing to a kind of "blank slate" wherein we start at the bottom of the ladder with each incarnation BUT it is usually a much faster climb if spiritual work has been done/accomplished in previous incarnations.
     The other answer to this question "Can I fall backwards or regress on my spiritual path?" is yes, of course! As in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we all use all of the information, all of the perspectives from the initiatory ladder. For example, once I've reached the ninth rung of the ladder of initiations I will still find myself from time to time looking at a situation from the perspective of the first or the fifth Initiation. It's all available to me; it's all a part of me. I just don't have access to the perspectives of the initiations ahead of me. Yet.
     Most of the work on the ladder of initiations has to do with getting used to the reception and effects of the presence of the energy of a particular ray from among the rainbow of Cosmic Rays. This is the true secret, the true reason for the existence of the hierarchy of initiations: there are 12 primary and secondary Cosmic Rays. To take on the effects of the presence of the full energies of all of the 12 Rays at once would be quite overwhelming for the feeble human nervous system. Thus, we devised a system by which we could slowly, gradually prepare ourselves for the flood of the presence and then use of the energies of each of the Cosmic Rays, only one at a time. And, there is an ordered sequence to which we expose ourselves. But the Rays will only begin to be fully received within our human vessel if and when we are ready--if and when our Ego allows for the hearing and opening to the Cosmic Beacon, the Voice of Our Soul Plan, once we have actively begun our conscious journey on our own spiritual path.
    Also, there are several initiations that usually prove more difficult for humans in this day and age to work through in this day and age. The first exposure to the energy of Ray 1 can be very unsettling for many and may take a long time to process in order to learn how to work with it. And the exposure to Ray 8 is also unsettling for this is when Spirit is reminding the human that you have the power, that you alone are responsible for your self and your choices and actions, that you no longer need teachers, just as you have never needed teachers because everything, every single piece of information that comes into your awareness and, eventually, into your consciousness was all co-created and attracted to you by you. Once a human recognizes and embraces this fact, one is finally free and able to handle the more refined and specific spiritual energies of the higher initiations. Before this point, the human is still fully and unconsciously connected to a perspective of duality, to the habit of wanting to treat things as "inside" you and "outside" of you, of "here" and "there," "this" and "that," "yours" and "mine," etc. "External" teachers are very important to the human before the eighth initiation. After that the road is much more solitary and yet joyfully holistic and inclusionary.
     Again, the ladders of initiation are merely informations from a variety of systems that allow us to look at our progress--as well as our obstacles--on our spiritual paths. As is the case with any information, use it as you see fit--as it serves you--and disregard that which makes no sense, or that which feels contrary to your beliefs and values. As I have said before many times:  We are all going to get there and There is no right or wrong way, no better or worse path, to the achievement of our goals. Every choice offers us a lesson, the potential for learning, and if we don't get the message the first or ninetieth time it is given to us, it's okay. The messages will keep coming and one day--when we are ready--not when somebody else wants us to be ready--we will get it. And then we will move on to the next message, the next adventure, the next perspective, the next choice.

Everything Is Metaphor: Ray 1 and the Will to be Present The Boney System

The human body’s primary commitment to physical form, that is, to the illusory structure whose concentration and density gives our Consciousness (through the sensory faculties) a foundation in four-dimensional “physicalized” reality, is the boney structure. Commensurate with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, some of the other systems “necessary” to the maintenance of the illusion of basic biological survival include the kidneys and urinary system as well as the “fight or flight” hormones produced by the adrenal glands. Collectively, these systems are organized, nourished and fueled by the human biomagnetic field's seventh energy center, the “Root,” “Base,” or “Basic” chakra—which is in turn directing the flow of Cosmic Ray 7, the ray of Order and Ritual into the human form and experience. Ray 7 is, in turn, a derivative and subsidiary of Ray 1, the Ray of Will and Power and Sacrifice. This system of layer upon layer upon layer continues to mirror the fact that information is also built layer over layer, metaphor over metaphor. The fact that the human body--and, in fact, all of physical matter--can be proven to be made up of 99.99999% space (or æther or Love, depending on your point of view) and the rest made up by "tendencies" or "probabilities" of light waves seeming to be acting as particles and, thus, taking up space is illustrative of the illusory nature of our physical, sensory "reality."

     Issues in the boney structure, urinary system, or basic survival instincts can be indicative of emotional issues over physical security and safety and are often related to the Ego/Personality’s willing ness to commit to the rules and laws of four-dimensional Earth-supported human form. Some spirits simply lack the will and courage to fully commit to being fully present and fully committed to life on Earth, life in physical form, life in a Homo sapiens sapiens vehicle. It’s a lot of work! It takes a lot of will power and sacrifice to remain fully committed to this “adventure ride.” Some people want to get off the rollercoaster while it is in progress, some are reluctant to get on in the first place and have trouble feeling comfortable much less fully committed to the project. Some cannot help but want to test the rules and boundaries that they have agreed to contractually in order to take on a Earth-based human body. Others have, of course, purposely taken on human vehicle with pre-ordained weaknesses, shortcomings or deformities in order to challenge themselves or as a sacrifice as part of a favor or an agreement play a certain role in order to help with the growth of someone else in their Soul Family or Soul Group. 

     Broken bones and dis-eases that affect the boney structure are often the Soul’s way of reminding the Ego/Personality to slow down, to pay more attention to the myriad forms of information bombarding the Conscious Mind—all of which has been created and attracted to the individual for the express purpose of giving that Conscious Mind the opportunity to learn and grow in Self-awareness and Self-realization. 

     Urinary tract issues--which are also issues of the Basic or Root Chakra, the densest realization of and commitment to the human experience--may be created as messages of more personal self-reflection—to question the mindfulness of the actions and activities we are running through (often too quickly or, contrarily, with too much self-absorption). When kidneys shut down, we die. When adrenals act, we think that we are fighting for our very lives--on a very basic level of physical illusion, for physical existence. Ray 1, the Ray of Will and Power and Sacrifice is the governing Ray of our commitment to the illusion of physical embodiment and physical "reality."

    A challenge that is quite common to souls who have chosen to incarnate into 21st Century technological society is that of sympathetic overdrive, that is, the way we have chosen to pattern our lives and our perception of “needs” and “priorities” have caused many humans to get stuck—literally—in the “fight or flight” mode of operations. That is, we go around thinking that everything, every moment, contains a high-stress, life-threatening situation which then requires us to be prepared for immediate radical response—fight or flight! The problem with this is that the human organism that we have opted into for our use is wired for about one-to-three ratio of “fight or flight” versus “relaxation” response time in terms of energy expenditure. For every 15 minutes of high energy “fight or flight” response time the body needs about 45 minutes of down time in order to rest, heal, and regenerate from the short bursts of intense output. Is this the pattern that our world has created for us? Not really. According to this formula a person working under, I assume, stressful conditions, for eight hours a day should get 16 to 24 hours of rest and relaxation to make up for the energy expenditure. Is this how your life is patterned? No wonder we have so many stress-induced and stress-related conditions and diseases. 

     Think of a dog or a cat. They may “work” intensely for a short period of time but then they lay down and take a lot of naps. (And they always stretch when they wake up.) And these animals lay and nap far more hours per day than they are active (in general; if they are a healthy, happy animal). Granted, some animals are bred and built for more up time, but these are usually and often have shorter lifetimes than the average of their species. Or else these are creatures who have an inordinate amount of Ray 1 (the Ray of Will and Power) flowing through them. The same can be true with humans. Some human souls are “constructed” to have more full flow (less issues and/or obstacles) in specific Rays—especially within the three Primary Rays (1, 2, and 3). As a gross generalization to help illustrate this point, a person who expresses a particularly domineering or indomitable will is probably fairly open and unfettered in the flow of Ray 1. A person who is very much living in his or her mind and who is exceedingly quick and willing to grow and change belief systems is probably flowing fairly strong Ray 3 (the Ray of Knowledge and Information). A person who seems immeasurable patient and detached from outcomes, is able to always "go with the flow" with grace and infectious calm is probably strongly imbued with an open flow of Ray 2, the Ray of Love and Wisdom.

     The problem with using language to describe spiritual and Cosmic traits and qualities is that our language changes. Subtly, often imperceptibly, but it changes. What meant "Love and Wisdom" or "Will, Power and Sacrifice" to writers a century or a millenium ago means something quite different today. We tend to filter our interpretations and definitions according to our societal norms and references instead of trying to consider what they may mean from a nonhuman, nonphysical perspective. Take the word "sacrifice." Our first inclination is to probably assign it a meaning associated with giving something up--such as life, a privilege, or a possession. From a spiritual perspective "sacrifice" quite literally means "to make something sacred." The power and influence of Ray 1 imbues us with the will and power to try to make everything, every moment, every thought, every perception, one of sacredness. It connotes a remembering that every thing, every moment, every thought, every perception is but a simple reminder of the Divinity or Godness that is representative, that is inherent in those things, moments, thoughts, and perceptions.
     Likewise, "Love and Wisdom" from a spiritual perspective is not meant to list the people or things we love or to judge the way in which we love them. Spiritual Love and Wisdom have to do with the embracing, accepting, and incorporating love without condition, without judgment, in every moment, in every thought, in every action, and detaching from the conditions and judgments that we have with regards to "right and wrong" "better and worse" "truth and fiction" "light and darkness," "good and evil" and all other concepts that we have created for our use in this contextual field that is Dualistic Cosmic Creation. "Love" and "wisdom" are but qualitative assignations to the effect of Cosmic Ray 2, the spiritual ray of embracing The Great Plan and all of the Lesser Plans that We individuated spiritual beings have devised to serve Our creative desires of action and adventure. Ray 1 is the designation given the energy flow that respectfully empowers The Great Plan and all of the Lesser Plans. Ray 3 is the designation given to the flowing energy of knowledge and information--or "knowledge in formation"--which we then use for the devising and carrying out of our Plans. The Plans, of course, all conform to various rules and restrictions according to the various levels of illusional "separation" from our Divine Source of Oneness that we have created in order to experience all of the Grand Illusions of Cosmic Creation. The boney system is but one illusory system devised to enable spiritual beings participation in the illusion of the human experience on the illusory world of four dimensional space and time on the illusory place we call planet Earth. Even our seemingly individuated consciousness as spiritual beings is but an illusion. We, each of "us," no matter what state or form of beingness that we associate our individual selves with, is but the temporary guise or perspective from the crest of a wave from within the Great Cosmic Ocean of Divine Unity Conscious--which is our true form and true "self." The "We" designation is perhaps more accurate than "I" though in fact there is no separation and therefore no subjective or objective, no here or there, no this or that. We are. We are all just "us." We are. The bones of the human body are constructs of the Greater Imagination that seem to serve as representations for the Will and Power and willingness to make sacred this commitment to the four-dimensional human experience. Use them as you wish. Use the human experience as you wish. Use your Higher Mind as you wish. Use anything and everything in Creation as you wish:  You helped create it!