"Master" Paul

Some of you may be asking by now, "What will it take for our hero, Journeyman Paul, to move beyond the 'journeyman' stage of development and earn the title of 'master'"?
     The 'journeyman' assignation is given to Paul because he is still working on issues that are most appropriately brought to resolution within denser, Earth School-type of experiences. Once Paul has 'mastered' the skills of moving through and controlling his thoughts and behaviors while in emotionally dense, four-dimensional space, he will be 'graduated' on, he will be given the chance to explore work experience opportunities on different planes, if he wishes--planes that are less restrictive, that are less bogged down by the baggage that comes with emotional depth.
     The emotion-based Earth School experience is conquered, graduated from, when the Soul has learned how to break through the confining and limiting restrictions of Ego/Personality contracts, when it has been able to learn how to use the human bodymind for his own Growth and progress, as well for the benefit of spreading the Word/the Light to others. The "ladder" of progress finds the human-encased Soul using religion, using relationships, using knowledge, learning, education, seeking, and service for growth and progress, using teachers and gurus for inspiration and for awakening layer upon layer to the inner Truths hidden within the Unconscious.
     Toward the end of the journey, the evolving human is becoming quite assured of his Divinity, of the Truth of the Spirit World, of the presence of a Spiritual Plan, of a unity of all things. The human grows beyond the need of gurus or teachers because s/he discovers, believes, and learns to use his or her own Inner Wisdom--the same Inner Wisdom that each and every one of us possesses. S/he is learning to flow from his or her own Inner Wisdom, while at the same time learning how to become a conduit for the flow through of Divine Wisdom, Divine Love, and Divine Will into the world, as a gift to the world, as food for the hungry souls emerging from the murkiness of the Ego/Personality tar pits. Finally, having conquered the access and use of Knowledge, Love Wisdom, and Will Power, the Soul-in-human-form practices the natural act of honoring the Sacred in every one and every thing s/he encounters or reaches through his or her art or vocation.
    After this last stage of human use has been achieved and practiced, the Soul is offered graduation. Beyond the human Earth School-type of four-dimensional experience there are opportunities to explore and experiment with. One can work within other realms, dimensions, forms, jobs, or ideas in order to further one's evolution toward reclamation of his or her Divine Oneness. Some Souls choose to continue returning to the human/Earth plane as enlightened beings in order to help awaken and inspire Spiritual evolution in other humans. Others choose roles as Spirit guides, planetary helpers, Spiritual midwives, teachers, or counselors, even doctors and architects and other creative and imaginative pursuits which support the general and specific course of evolution of Spirit back to Divine Consciousness.
    Paul is nearing the point at which he will be allowed "options;" his work within the Earth planes has been very successful. Though not quite complete, not quite a "master" of using the four-dimensional denser vibratory realms for his advancement and for inspiring such progress in others, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Toril has completed her mastery of the human Earth plane. She has returned a few times in support of the growth and progress of others while at the same time beginning her apprenticeship in other dimensional work in support of planetary health and evolution.
     It has been a joy and a privilege working with Toril. She has been quite an inspiration to me and to so many others. I will miss working along side her but I know that, finally, I am ready to go it 'alone;' I am ready to be on my own in a capacity in which I can still continue to grow and progress. I also know that I am finally ready and able to serve the Cosmic Plan in an inspirational capacity, that is, the particular gifts and talents that Journeyman Paul's future incarnations bring to Earth will be capable of inspiring others to wake up and get moving along their own spiritual paths.
     So, the "mastery" of the four-dimensional Earth-based human experience is nearly achieved for Journeyman Paul. I feel quite certain that other Earth excursions are in store for Paul, that he still has some use of the Earth School and human illusions. Though I believe that the Earth is in the process of healing its current dis-ease (obviously Sanat Kumara, the Monad that ensouls our planet, has issues of his own)--that Gaia is creating the equivalent of a fever in order to try to kill off the current parasitic infestation of humans that threaten her own health--I also have great confidence that there will be 'future' versions of human-like forms for Souls to incarnate into. Obviously, there will be some time left in the 21st Century--and with it a limited number of human bodies/hosts will be available yet in this version of the human species. But, even so, I believe that there will be other future versions of 'human' forms available for dense vibrational experiential use. I say this because I know that there have been other human races on Earth. I know firsthand of two different "races" that existed previous to the short-term span of homo sapiens sapiens, and I have read accounts of others. I, myself, have had two incarnations revealed to me in which I was a member of ancient human civilizations here on Earth. One was within the so-called "Atlantean" civilization while the other was as member of an Andean race of "giants" many, many millennia ago. This latter civilization--a much more docile and less creative version than our own--left the Earth Plane of its own accord--in order to make way for other experiments in form and capacity. The "Atlantean" version was more like our own in that it was  more self-centered, feeling less a part of the planetary 'circle of life. Each successive version, it seems, has made the conscious commitment of exploring further the depths of the Gifts of the Illusions--especially the Illusion of Separation. The "Atlantean" version of humankind brought destruction upon itself much in the same way that our current species is doing. With its even deeper venture into the illusions of isolation and separation, homo sapiens sapiens has caused such an upset in the harmony and balance of all life support systems on our host biosphere that the existence of all biological life is threatened.
     This realization of this pattern of progression, of deep devolution, makes me wonder how much deeper into the Illusion of Separation we of the Spirit World can devise. Hopefully, the next version of intelligent, creative life to use Mother Gaia will do a better job of handling its creative powers and of respecting the interdependence of all life in the four-dimensional Earth plane. Or not. There is no right or wrong. This current host version for four-dimensional consciousness has certainly afforded many, many souls a lot of creative entertainment and growth experiences. There are currently over seven billion souls present for the "test" and adventure of why I call "The End of Days." Seven times the number of souls present for the Industrial Revolution, more than the accumulated number of homo sapiens sapiens who have walked on the planet! Surely that alone must say something about the valuable lessons and experiences being offered souls in this the "21st Century"!
     While egoism, isolation, separation, hierarchical thinking and destruction are certainly experiential choices replete with very challenging and creative test opportunities, there are other options, other choices, other paradigms to experiment with. How about a human version which uses its tremendous creative powers to support and enhance the health of its Earth Mother? Or a version that flies? Or one that upholds mutual aid over fear-based competition? Or a version that uses its sleep time to work Spirit into Form as effectively and creatively as its day time pursuits do (or don't).
     Anyway, as in all choices, there are myriad--one might even say "infinite" possibilities. And you can bet that Journeyman Paul will be ready and willing to participate in any and all of them. And, if you are reading or hearing this, it is likely that you, too, will choose to try out whatever new forms and structures that the Earth School experience evolves into. I hope to see you there!

Religion

What role, you may be wondering, does religion have in the growth and evolution of the Ego/Personality and Soul?

An interest in religion is indicative of the Soul's first 'break-through' of Light into the human Ego/Personality. Religion offers the Ego an opening introductory exposure into the thinking 'possibility' that there might be something more than the empirical, physical, emotional, four-dimensional world that the Personality has thus far negotiated through. A true interest in religion must come from inside the individual, be intrinsically motivated, for that is where the interest is coming from: the spiritual light of the Soul peaking through, hoping to (re-)gain a foothold in the human/Earth experience so that the Soul's Plan and Spiritual Evolution can become manifest. Religions offer structured, community-supported glimpses into the unprovable, unEarthly dimensions of truth and reality--glimpses that are necessary in order for the "unprovable, unearthly" Soul to have a chance to be heard. Religion that is forced upon a person or that is conditional to one's birth choice will provide the Soul with Personality/Ego constructs which it will later have to recognize for their limitations and then have to break down in order to be able to move onto a Spiritual Path.
     It is unfortunate that religion is often forced upon a young, still-forming Ego because this can cloud or even cripple the child from hearing the inner voices as well as distract it from its innate curiosities and inquisitiveness. The young child Personality is far too inexperienced, its Ego as yet too unformed, to know that the information inundating it from loving, trusted, 'wise' 'experts' could be false, limited, biased or misleading. As in the process of the construction of the Personality and Ego, years of incessant and coercive informational bombardment can so overwhelm and confuse the human mind as to be numbing, force it into passive submissive acceptance of the propaganda barrage as 'truth'--or, at least, as not worth fighting against. This usually results in the proverbial 'rebellious' stage of the adolescent or young adult as even the Ego recognizes the attempts to enslave and subjugate it to life-long conformity.
     As much as we have tried to create conditions of the deepest, darkest isolation from our God-hood in order to better test ourselves, The Voice of the Soul is never extinguished. It is always singing beneath the cacophony of outside mess. It persists because it has no choice:  it is the vivifying force supporting/underlying Life, it is the constant hum, the song of vibration of the Universal Life Force. The cacophony of the descent into four-dimensional devolution cannot persist forever. One day the Ego/Personality will be caught off guard: It will catch a faint signal of the beautiful, calming, peaceful, empowering Voice of the Soul. The more often the Personality is made re-aware of this Inner Voice of Life, Love, Truth, and Beauty, the more attention it will give it, the more it will be won over by it, the more it will listen for it and crave it--for its power and its Truth is so much more "real" and powerful than that of the Illusions we have co-created to test our Selves. Yet it does not need to yell and shout. It is in no hurry. It is infinitely patient as it knows that it has Infinity on its side. it knows that it will eventually be heard, be remembered, that the Soul will eventually re-member the Unity of its Divine Source.
     In the meantime, the forms and constructs of religion will only serve the Soul for a while--until the human host has accomplished discipline--until it has found that his or her thirst is not yet fully quenched. Usually this happens when the Personality has felt the connection with the Love-essence of others through giving and receiving, or, if s/he is more oriented to knowledge and information, the Ego/Personality may stumble upon more frequent examples of 'truth' that lay beyond the structure or systems of his chosen religion or belief system. The barely 'awakened' mind will begin to find more and more questions that his or her religion fails to answer adequately. As the Personality is starting to recognize ever-growing cracks in the forms that are human religious constructs the human host will then often be motivated to try explore other religions, philosophies and belief systems. S/he becomes curious. This is because the beacon of the Soul is strengthening, the Song is growing louder, more difficult to ignore.
     Eventually, the 'awakening' Soul will find inner strength, inner desire, inner power. It will move into the "seeker" mode--at first unwittingly and, later, fully committed. S/he will dabble in all sorts of books, partners, paths, teachers and paths until s/he will discover the one path that is all his own.
     The quest for the 'one' true source of Truth, Love, and Beauty leads the Personality to experiment with many new sources and resources. Travels and growth through a wide variety and large number of variations and versions of said "truth" may be incredibly fast. Sometimes the Ego/Personality will get comfortable or stuck within a new belief system for a while (old habits are hard to break) but, eventually, the Ego/Personality will begin to catch glimpses and hear proofs of the fact that the Truth--the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth--is available within himself--and that this has been the case the whole time. At the same time the Ego/Personality has found that religions are incomplete, flawed, and considerably distorted by and to the aims and desires of the leaders in these hierarchically driven, patriarchically-created systems. And so, the constructs of Ego, of religion, of books and teachers, of struggle and suffering, will fall away, will be discarded and left behind. The Personality finally begins paying more attention to the Soul and less and less to Ego and the 'external' barrage of information. The Personality gradually becomes the student and then the willing and, eventually, joyful servant of the Soul.
     With the Personality serving the Soul, the human vehicle becomes an instrument for the flow of the Universal Life Force, an instrument of the dispersal and effect of the Cosmic Rays, that is, an instrument of Divinely Sourced Active Intelligence, Love and Wisdom, Will and Sacrifice. The tools of the human vehicle become meditation and prayer, study and teaching, and giving service to one's fellow man. The more one pursues these endeavors, the further one opens the Personality as a vessel and conduit for the flow of the Universal Life Force, the more compliant the Personality becomes to receiving and passing on the information coming through with the Three Cosmic Rays.
     Once the Ego has been deconstructed and the Personality has become fully the joyful servant of the Soul, once usage of the Tools and Rays are mastered, the being is ready to graduate from the Earth School experience. The graduating Monad begins to look to other less devolved, less dense vibrational forms and structures for its growth and progress. We move on to other educational experiences in other dimensions, other realms, free from the confining limitations of the emotional tar pits of the human experience. Yea!
     So, Fellow Seeker, use religion as the tool it is meant to be. Religion is a version of tradition and wisdom--of 'truth'--that has been proved valuable enough by your fellow man that it has earned the honor of being preserved and passed on. But also try to keep in mind that each religion, each tradition of beliefs, morals and values, is but a system, is but a gathering of constructs, and is, therefore, full of limitations and stagnant forms. Each religion or belief system offers but one version of the truth. There are many versions of truth. Spiritual growth occurs through the recognition of the limitations of all versions of truth. Spiritual growth occurs through a continued openness to the flow of ever-expansive versions of truth--and, ultimately, to the discovery of one's own Truth. This is accomplished through the constant revisitation and revisioning of one's personal truth, through the skepticism of all systems, all structures, and all beliefs, through remaining open to any and all information. Remember:  Life is flow; it is constant change. It is not structure and stagnant form. If you learn to remain open to flow and change, you will find Life open and flowing--and ever-filled with ever-expanding versions of Joy, Beauty, Love and Truth. Just as the versions of Joy, Beauty, Love, and Truth that you recognize and appreciate today may be far different than the versions that resonate with you next year or even tomorrow, so, too, may be the version of your latest and greatest definition of your Self be different next year or even tomorrow. If you remain open. If you are able to "go with the flow."
     Unfortunately, most religions have stopped flowing or evolving. Most religions have become stagnant and restrictive. Most religions want you to stagnate and limit your flow as they have. This is not healthy for the Soul and it is not healthy for the Personality. It is not the nature of the Soul, of Spirit, of Life. Healthy Life is in constant flow, is undergoing the Joy of constant change. Fear is a Joy-killer just as it is a flow-stopper. Most human-created religions try to control other humans through fear-based ideas and systems. They attract followers through a few offerings of truth more glorious and exciting than the ones people have encountered before, but then they try to keep you, to control you, to ensure their perpetuity for the sake of stroking and supporting the Egos of its leaders. Religion offers you fresh, greater versions of Truth, Joy, Beauty, and Love than you, the seeker, has ever before encountered but it should not try to ensnare or entrap you. The seeker should be fueled by new, fresh ideas to process, discuss, share, enjoy the excitement, but then feel free and supported--even encouraged--to move on in order to continue the process, to continue the travels and adventures, to continue to explore and study other forms and systems of information. In each encounter there is the opportunity to define oneself against the new information coming in: The seeker will ask "Is this information that I have feelings about? Is this information that feels as if it is revealing more of my own Inner Truth?" Or, "Is this information that is helping me to refine what I currently feel and understand to be me or part of me?" With this in mind, I will remind you that there is no good or bad information, no better or worse experiences, no right or wrong religion or philosophy. There is only different. There is only that which resonates and that which does not. And all of it is trying to help reveal a more current, more expanded, more glorious definition or version of one's Self to your Self. Is your religion doing that for you? I hope so.

The Monad

You've heard me talk of such things as Souls, Oversouls, and Spiritual Selves, of Personalities, Egos and bodyminds, of Earth, planes, dimensions and worlds, of God, Divinity and Creative Consciousness, of Rays and Forces and chi, of Will, Power and Sacrifice, of Knowledge, Higher Mind, Active Intelligence and information, of Love and Wisdom, Beauty and Truth. I hope that you feel pretty clear in your understanding of what those concepts mean and refer to. I would now like to introduce you to a word and concept that might be new to you:  "Monad."
     The Monad is that singular yet illusory form or entity of First Individuation. That is, the Monad is the embodied consciousness that is one step removed from God-Unity. It is the first step away from God-Consciousness, the first step into the Illusion of Separation, the first commitment to the illusory world of Creation, into the idea that we or anything can be individual, independent, or separate from the Creator God. The Monad is the actual name for the True Essence of Independence that we each use for experiencing things 'outside' of God--that is, from within the Illusion of Separation, from the infinite realms of Creation. When I refer to the concept of the Soul, I am actually referring to a creative construct of the Monad. The Soul is the Monad's sub-form which is intended to host the Plan devised by the Monad and its counsellors and collaborators. The Soul is really the template or construct for carrying forth a version or portion of one's True Self--one's Monad--into another dimension or condition of experience--an experience usually of lower vibratory tone. The Soul is one and the same with "the Plan" that the Monadic Self and its team of spiritual counsellors and community members devise as a guideline of goals and commitments for an adventure into another form of dense 'reality' more deeply imbedded within the Illusion of Separation. The Monad invests a certain arbitrary and variable amount of energy and attention into the Soul and its adventure while at the same time it remains actively involved in other pursuits, experiments, and attentions within other aspects and dimensions of the Spirit World.
     Psychologist Michael Newton (http://newtoninstitute.org) has published a book entitled Destiny of Souls which is based upon his review and interpretation of thousands of tape recorded hours of Life-Between-Life sessions from his 25 year practice of hypnotherapy. In Destiny of Souls it is revealed that the Monad or Oversoul can make the mistake of investing too little energy into a Earth Plane-type of adventure. Dr. Newton's research has also revealed that the Monad can even make the commitment of investing its energy into more than one Earth soul at the same time, but that this is apparently rare and very risky because once that measurement is made and committed to it cannot be changed--and an under-energized human can get into the disappointing trouble of not accomplishing its Soul Plan.
     It is also important to note that each individual Monad is as distinctly "its own" as is every human being, every cloud or every snowflake. Each Monad chooses, gathers and accrues its own "collection" or "library" of experiences, strengths and preferences. Each Monad is the sum of all of these experiences, preferences, strengths and weaknesses. Each Monad is on its own individual course or path and is free to choose each step on that path according to its interests and desires. Of course, the level of a Monad's Conscious development will also determine what kind of experiences it might be interested in. For example, some Monad's might be interested in the challenge of "deep" immersion into the Illusion of Separation situations like that offered through the human Earth School experience, while others might desire to grow through the management of celestial bodies or other cosmological processes, while others might prefer more "behind the scenes" type of work in the Spirit World like that of a Spiritual guide, counsellor, planning facilitator or any of the infinite other systems support choices available or imaginable.
     With over seven billion humans on the planet today it is my belief that many Monads have chosen to invest in the Earth School experience at this time because of the extraordinary amount of growth available to the individual here at this time, under these particular circumstances of trauma and emotional hardship. With the overwhelming flood of information and emotional experience advancing our way in the very near future due to the life-threatening consequences of global climate change, each human present during this 'event' of the demise and extinction of the human species will be afforded much grist for processing and for testing one's Self in the face of great pain and suffering. If a Soul in human form can rise above the Ego constructs during this time of 21st Century human history then it will have achieved a great deal, to be sure. Any goals or tasks it fails to conquer this time around will, of course, be available for repetition in other forms, other adventures.
     The Monad is an entity whose form and energy change on a much slower pace than that of the Soul. A Soul just leaving a human bodymind is still rather wrapped up within the deep illusions of the human Earth-based experience and will often be slow to let go of the familiar constructs of space-time even though it is fully free within the Spirit World. The sluggishness with which each individual Soul detaches from its Earthly constructs and patterns is greatly dependent upon how deeply immersed or how Ego-dominated the self was into the Earth illusion. This is why many recently disincarnated Souls experience the vistas and other Souls within the Spirit World with such Earth-familiar forms, constructs and names. This is also why a few Souls have such trouble disengaging from the Earth Plane and unwittingly remain "behind" for some time as observers, ghosts, or disembodied spirits. As described previously, the detaching experience is a process of both shedding the weighty 'baggage' of the physical, emotional, and mental experience while also recharging the Spirit form or 'refilling' it with a full tank of its Spirit Energy. The self-imposed "limbo" or Purgatory period that a soul may create for itself is wholly dependent on how attached that Soul is to the heaviest emotional baggage from that or cumulative lifetimes. Once a Soul is able to work through its 'stuck' issues it will return to a more Light-based version of itself. Sometimes the Soul gets so 'stuck' in the emotional baggage of its Earth-like experiences that it actually uses more Earth-type experiences to try to work through the persistent or recurring issues. Some Souls find so little value or interest in the lessons available to it through the Earth-type experience that they may incarnate once and then move on. The commitment to try out the Earth School level of deep Separation is bold, brave and sacrificial--and not necessary! There are many, many Monads, Spirit entities, Souls, who never choose to make the plunge into the emotional tar pits of the Earth School experience. Again, the commitment into the physical-emotional heaviness of the human form can be quite scary:  it is one of the furthest separations or deepest immersions an Individuated Spark of the Divine can choose in which to experience the 'horrors' of the Illusion of Separation. Some might go so far as to claim that the Earth School experience is not unlike a voluntary trip into Dante's many levels of Hell. The biggest difference is that the way out, the return from the deepest depths of despair and desolation are in the power of the Self and the Soul and how well the Monad and it's Spiritual Community planned. An "unsuccessful" trip (of which there are no such things as it is all just an illusion--part of the Illusion of Separation from our Divine Source) might lead to further returns with new and, hopefully, 'improved' Plans. God, It's infinite number of "individuated" Forms, are all timeless beings and thus have "eternal patience" and infinite capacity for and interest in experience and entertainment. And remember:  even your most Highest Individuated Form, the Monad, is but an illusion--will one day recognize the illusory nature of itSelf and the Games it participates in and then perhaps re-member and/or re-join in the Unity Consciousness of the Causeless One. Until that 'time,' all Monads are trying to experience the fullness of the infinite forms and possibilities of The Great Cosmic Game of the Illusion of Separation as creatively and as diversely as they possibly can. There is no right or wrong, no good or bad, no better or worse, and definitely no hurry. There is just imagination, variety, and choice. Even Truth, Beauty, Love and Joy have infinite versions and variations. Your latest versions of Truth, Beauty, Joy, and Love are always temporary, always subject to choice and change. The only absolute is that everything--every single thing--can be perceived as true, beautiful, joyful, and loving. If you choose. It's your choice. It's always your choice--and your choice alone. Just as it is always your choice to change your mind, to choose again, to make a different choice.
     The Monad and its Community has set you up for a certain probability of experiences in the hopes that you might make some choices that lead you back to Spiritual Consciousness. It is no real "failure" if you don't achieve all of the goals the Monad has proposed in your Soul Plan--there will be plenty of other attempts, other Plans, other adventures. However, the Monad co-created this Plan with it's purest, most recent version of its Highest Understanding of Truth, Love, Joy, and Beauty and had every intention of achieving success--of being able to expand its own versions of Truth, Joy, Love, and Beauty through your Earth School experiences. So, keep the faith! You're doing great! You are doing the best that you can at this time with the knowledge and wisdom that you have. Just remember to try to remain open to your Imagination, to your Intuition, to the Voice of the Soul, to the Grand Scheme of the Cosmic Game as played out within the Great Illusions and especially the Greatest Illusion of them all:  The Illusion of Separation. YOU ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM THE DIVINE CREATOR. S/HE IS YOUR DIVINE SOURCE, THE UNIVERSAL LIFE FORCE FROM WHICH YOU CAN NEVER BE SEPARATE. All evidence to the contrary is but part of the woven veils of the illusions that you yourself have had a role in creating!
     The veils of Illusion are yours to use, yours to manipulate, or yours to discard--at any and every moment that you choose. So, use them. Have fun! But, then, occasionally try to take time to remember them for what they are:  Illusions. They are but illusions. They are not real. They are fabrications that we co-created in order to entertain and test our selves. The good news is that these are tests that you can never fail, that you can re-take as many times as you want (or need), or that they are tests that you don't even have to take! Ever! (Though as a volunteer to the Infinite Worlds of Cosmic Creation you have kind of agreed to participate. But, you can change your mind. Again and again and again.)
      

The Relationship between Ego and Soul

Some of you may be asking yourselves, "If our Soul contains a Plan for this 'lifetime' in this human body, in the four-dimensional world we call Earth, then why don't we hear it--why isn't this Plan laid out in our minds from the beginning of this life?"
     The answer is:  It is, only it's hidden; it's veiled. The Lower Mind of the human Personality has to work in order to open the curtains to reveal the information of The Plan that is stored in the Higher Mind of the Soul.

Your Spiritual Self has ensouled the bodymind you currently occupy with very defined goals for your experience and potential growth. Your Spiritual Self has also worked out commitments to or "contracts" with other souls with whom you are interacting with the intention of helping each other achieve exposure to self-prescribed experiences that can then offer learning and growth opportunities. The human form you chose comes with certain conditions and rules as does the Earth Plane in which human beings travel. One of those conditions is that as the Spirit ensouls the human form it finds itself 'veiled' from certain spiritual information. This arrangement was created partly to help one remain committed to the often overwhelming and certainly challenging rules and limitations that come with the human Earth experience. Were we to arrive in the human host with full spiritual awareness we might find ourselves unwittingly using our Higher Creative Minds to perform acts that don't really conform to or honor and respect the conditions we've all co-created for the precise kinds of experiential learning we desire.
     The freshly 'humanified' Soul is, as you might imagine, quite unused to and frustrated by the extremely confining and limited capabilities of its new human form. This is why there is the rather prolonged infancy and childhood stage of human development. It allows the Soul time to get used to the confines and limitations of the human body and the Earth Plane. It allows the Divine Life Force the opportunity of acquiring the skills necessary for survival, negotiation, and independence in its four-dimensional form.
     The first seven years in a human form are spent acclimating to the physical, emotional and mental restrictions of the Earth experience. This is the period in which we try to gain mastery of some basic skills like body control, emotional range, mental directivity, and language--or, if this is not possible, as is the case in a developmentally impaired child, to seed if we can acquire the skills necessary to convince another to take care of us--to help provide for our needs and desires for as long is possible.
     The next seven years are spent learning how to control and exploit certain specific sub-skills in order to create independence. At this time the human is learning how to purposely manipulate his or her environment according to the skills being modeled by his family, friends and society. It is also important during this period of development to learn how to maneuver successfully within relationships as well as to discover and explore the talents and strengths and likes and dislikes that are uniquely theirs. This is also a crucial period in the development of the Personality's relationship to the Soul. As the Personality begins to master some of the tricks for survival and independence on Earth--and within human society--patterns begin to form--patterns that seem to 'work.' And yet there remains a great deal of flexibility, a great agility, room for experimentation; the patterns have not become so familiar, so ingrained as to become set, solid and inflexible. The Personality's identification with familiar patterns has not become so comfortable as to become self-identifying; that is, the Ego has not yet formed, the Voice of the Soul is still clearly recognizable within the conscious mind of the developing human.
     Once the Personality becomes comfortable enough in its patterns that it begins to self-identify with those patterns it begins to construct its Ego. Self-identification with an Ego is what presents barriers to Soul information. Until about age eight, the Personality can still be quite open to Soul information. The establishment of an Ego is what causes the Personality to become more closed off to Soul information. Part of the reason that this happens is due to the 'trap' that we in the Spirit World created in order to test ourselves. The 'test' of whether or not we can recognize and learn to control the Ego is one of the major obstacles--and achievements, if accomplished--of the Earth School experience. Society and pre-established societal patterns are another part of the 'test' that we must learn to recognize for the illusion that they are and then to overcome--and learn to use for our Soul's own benefit and growth.
     The 21st century modern world does very little to support a child's openness to his or her Inner Voice, to his or her Soul information. By the time the child enters society at about age five or six (school age), the values, beliefs and mores of human society have already been exerting quite some influence on them. Earth-, anthropoid-centric and consumer-capitalist information is quite ubiquitous and relentless. Couple this with the incessant threats of isolation, separation, provisional and conditional acceptance and/or approval, and it is no wonder that the child becomes distracted and even disconnected from it's Soul's Song of Beauty, Truth, Peace, Oneness, and Love. The pressures coming from outside the individual to comply, conform, obey, fear and fit in are inexorable. With this kind of "noise" bombarding the child from all sides, at all hours, it is likely that the child will continue to build constructs of belief and behavior that deepen his or her immersion into the Illusion of Separation--which then distances that individual further from the Soul's information and Plan.
     Fortunately, if the Soul doesn't like the direction the Ego is taking, it will let you know. Over time the web of four-dimensional human life with its Ego construct can lead to a downward spiral deep into the thickest regions of the Illusion of Separation. It can even take you to a place in which you lose all sight of the fact that it is only a game, that it is only an Illusion--to a place in which you forget that you have power, that you have choice--to a place in which all patterns and tendencies seem to both reinforce and speed along despair, relinquishment, despondence, self-destruction until finally we do: we self-destruct. We either hit rock bottom or we die--both of which can serve to 'kill' or 'end' or crack the shell of Illusion and allow a remembering of the Light that is our True Self. The true test of the human experience, and the true achievement that the Soul hopes to gain from volunteering to enter into the emotional tar pit of the human Earth experience, is in being able to remain, remember, or re-gain access to the Voice of the Soul--to be able to recognize the Ego and human world for the illusions that they are--and then to re-learn how to use the human bodymind as it was intended: as a vehicle for developmentally nutritive Soul 'food.'
     Remember, the bodymind is created as a vehicle, as a tool, for the Soul. Throughout the human life span the bodymind exhibits many diverse signs to alert the human Mind to the inhibited soul life that the Ego is causing. If Soul information or the flow of Universal Life Force is being impeded or denied in any way, the bodymind will indicate this in the form of "alarms," that is, in the form of dis-ease. Each symptom of dis-ease, whether mental, emotional, or physical, is like a "check engine" light. The further you drive your vehicle before attending to the problem, the more serious the short- and long-term effects can be to the overall health and operational capacity of your vehicle. The problem is, the throw away-consumer-capitalist society in which we live no longer values or even recognizes the preventive health care measures required to maintain a healthy, openly flowing vessel of Universal Life Force. Most every habit or pattern to which we are coerced into adopting nurtures dis-ease, disintegration and Separation. A person has to work very hard--against the grain--in order to attain a strong, healthy bodymind. This is no easy task.
     Once the Personality has yielded to the numbing barrage of information bombarding it from parents, friends, social constructs, the entertainment and advertising industry, the media, schools, and from environmental hazards like EMFs, and air, water and food-borne toxins, once the Ego has been constructed and reinforced by years of incessant human song, the "song" of the Soul may be barely audible. But it is there. It is always there. It cannot be killed. When the bodymind dies, the Soul merely finds itself back in some version of the Spirit World. The Plan will be reviewed and revised for the next adventure.
     In order to survive and negotiate confidently through the Earth School experience, the Soul has to commit to "playing by the rules"--that is, playing by the rules as provided by the Earth Plane's four dimensional experience. As it learns to survive, and, later, to successfully negotiate through the first and second levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ("Physiological" and "Safety"), layers of patterns of thought and behavior form which meld together in a tapestry of layers of "constructs" or "fabric" or programs. These patterns of thought and behavior--which are unique to each individual--are displayed in the formation of the Personality and, later, the Ego.
      The Personality and Ego are necessary for survival in the human body and for success in the Earth School plane of relationship experiences. According to the Plan that your Soul and its Spirit Guides and Counsellors have helped to devise for you while on this excursion to Earth, the Personality and Ego are intended to eventually become servants of the Soul--as tools for the successful realization of the Plan. Problems arise when the Ego gets stuck or trapped into believing that the 'reality' in which it lives (the human bodymind, the four-dimensional Earth plane) is the true reality. Part of the reason this happens is that the time modern humans use in order to "achieve" independence, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency has been drawn out far longer than it was ever intended--or than is necessary. Traditionally and biologically, the average human is ready to begin taking on independent self-sufficiency skills and making valuable contributions to its society at the age of seven. In the last century we have drawn this out to about age 16 and, in a lot of cases (such as, those programmed into believing that college degrees are necessary to higher success) up to an age somewhere into the mid-twenties. That means that fully one-fourth to one-third of the human lifespan is spent imprisoned within the patterns and attitudes of 'childhood.' Is it any wonder, then, that dependencies, entitlements, lack of creativity and self-initiative, and escapist addictions are carried forward into the rest of life?
     This delay in the taking on of independent, self-reliant, and self-sufficient skills, responsibilities  and behaviors causes a layering and thickening of the weave of the tapestry of Ego/Personality. This in turn makes it much more difficult to deconstruct, to unravel, to allow the 'light' of Spirit to filter into the dark and more inaccessible depths of the Personality, for the 'voice' and energy of the Soul to make its way into the Ego consciousness. Without a strong presence of the Voice of the Soul, without the reminder of the Plan to reach the Ego/Personality, the latter is afforded even more time to continue building its form. The thicker the layers, the tighter the weave, the more the Ego becomes set in its ways, the more resistant it becomes to change. With the reduced capacity to receive and run the life-giving flow of the Universal Life Force, without an active recognition of the flow of Rays 1, 2, and 3--that is, the flow of Active Intelligence, Love and Wisdom, and Will and Power--the human bodymind becomes more susceptible to dis-ease. The flow of The Universal Life Force, of the Spiritual 'blood,' is essential for the overall health of any creation of Divinity--despite the fact that 'chi' or 'prana' is always present in some small degree, no matter the circumstances or perception. But the more the Soul devolves into the Illusion of Separation--the farther the Soul wanders into the murky muck of human and Earth illusions--the more prone it is to allow Ego to get lost, to gain ascendence, to think it is alone and on its own--to get caught in patterns of egoism, of self-pity, victimhood, depression and despair. The further the Spark of Divine Consciousness is emerged and encased in the tar of the human experience, the more difficult becomes the challenge of control and perspective much less extrication and Spiritual ascendance.
     I believe that this pattern of extended childhood was co-created expressly for the purpose of testing our Selves. The plethora of debilitating and degenerative diseases offered the Soul within the Earth School human experience in this 21st Century along with the amazing number of 'light' workers trying to help jog individuals' Inner Knowledge and Inner Wisdom have all been put in place as a kind of 'final exam' for the Earth School class of so-called homo sapiens sapiens. Have these billions of Souls who have chosen to come to the Earth Plane with such confidence and reckless abandon come with all of the tools and strength they'll need to 'pass' this exam? Did they know how much Knowledge, Love, and Will Power they were going to need in order to have a chance to rise above the trappings of this extractive, destructive, distractive, addictive society? I wonder. I hope so.
     If we allow the voices of others--if we allow all the four-dimensional information that is bombarding our human bodyminds the attention it demands, if we allow all this information to distract us, to monopolize our attention, if we allow ourselves to come under the spell and influence of these informations, we will probably end up giving our power away to them. By allowing this world to monopolize your attention, your power and your conscious mind, you have little room for the beacon of True Self, True Purpose, and Spiritual Perspective to come through. And, unfortunately, once those patterns of allowing the outside world, the outside voices and the outside powers to control you have become ingrained we tend to become even more susceptible to giving away our power and control to things like the media, domineering people in our lives, fantasy and escapism, food, sex, tobacco, television and the Internet, alcohol, drugs, illness, victimhood, unhealthy, out-of-balance relationships, and self-destructive psychoses.
     Unfortunately, the paradigms of the modern world do very little to nurture, much less support, spirituality and individualism. Were this not the case, the second period of human development, ages 8-14, would see a lot more freedoms, creativity, experimentation, imagination, and, yes, even failure. As it is, the pressures to conform and be like everyone else force children and their imaginations to walk a very 'safe' and narrow line.
     Our Spiritual Essence is not constructed this way. Quite the opposite: freedom of choice and full responsibility and consequences are unconditionally present to each and every Soul. But then, the choices we make can never threaten the immortality of our Life Force, the inseverability of our connection with our Divine Source, or our eventual dispersion of the Illusion of Separation and re-union with the Consciousness of The Oneness of our Divine Essence.
     Our Spiritual Form works with its Council of Wise Elders, our Spirit Guides and our Soul Community in planning out role playing exercises within denser, more limiting constructs of consciousness. It is through these excursions into denser vibratory realms that we test our selves. The recovery or reacquisition of Higher Mind functioning--that is, of thinking and acting from the Greatest Flow of Rays 1, 2, and 3--is quite difficult in the dense realms such as that of the Earth Plane. In order to be able to take form and function appropriate to the density of the Earth Plane we must slow down the vibratory frequencies of our Life Force to such a degree that we function from an initial state of relative ignorance and disability when compared to the expanded and free flow of our spirit forms. As we get used to the rules and conditions of our new human bodies and the Earth environment we sometimes "get used to" the ignorance and limited flow of The Universal Life Force. This can be further solidified by the trappings of patterns which reinforce the belief that the human/Earth experience is true "reality." Habits and addictions which can mesmerize and distract us from 'hearing' our inner voice and healthy longings--situations and patterns in which we get used to giving our power away to others, to what we are told, are outside influences. If you really step back and look at this paradigm you can see that our core being, our True Self, requires none of the objects, patterns, beliefs that we are told that we "need" or that we "should want" in order to "fit in" or "be successful."

     Your job is to open yourself up to the Voice of your Divine Essence, to become re-acquainted with the Spark of your Universal Life Force. It's there. It's in your intuition, in your gut reactions. It's in your highest, most loving, trusting, altruistic thoughts. It's singing to you in the Beauty of everything in and around you, in your happiest, most contended, peaceful moments.
     If "All disease is the result of inhibited Soul life" as Master Djwhal Khul said through author/medium Alice Bailey, then our job is to figure out how to live life with uninhibited Soul flow.



   
   

"Depression"

"Depression." What a lovely word we have here. A situation or place in which something is pressed down. Depression. It is a word that we formerly used to describe 'a low point' in things like map-making, meteorology, or economics. Now it seems to have been assimilated into our vernacular to describe a low point in one's psychological/emotional travels. Unfortunately, the word "depression" has become so freely used that it has now crossed over into that pool of words that people mired in victimhood mentality bandied about as if it gives the owner a "Get out of Life card." It is interesting that people somehow are allowing themselves to become convinced that the human experience is supposed to be a flat line--that highs and lows along the way are "mistakes," or "bad," or "wrong." Here's a reminder, people:  The human experience is supposed to be a roller coaster ride; there are no mistakes, bad or wrong events. Everything happens for a reason and everything that happens to you you yourself have attracted to your self for the reason of waking up to a new version of your self. The mire and tar of the human experience has been chosen for you by you for the expressed reason of its difficulty, its challenges, the 'test' provided by its deep immersion into the Illusion of Separation. Many Souls, I think, were totally unprepared for the darkly hypnotic sway of the deepest regions of the Illusion of Separation; many souls get so wrapped up in the perceived 'reality' of their human situations that they become lost and then find it exceedingly difficult to extricate themselves from the Illusion even after they've cast aside their four-dimensional human vehicle!
     Look at some examples of the trappings of the deepest regions of the Illusion of Separation--of which "depression" is one. If you're not happy because you're not always "having fun," you can get some "certified" "expert" to diagnose you as "depressed"--and even give you bodymind-altering drugs to prove that you're "sick"! And then, Yippee! You've got your get-out-of-work-free ticket--your excuse to never be fully responsible for anything you ever do, your excuse to never have to fully contribute to anything--including family, relationships, work, play, or life. The "depression" label is your excuse to be able to give up, to get out, to avoid having to do anything, whenever you want, for the rest of your life. You can just say, "I'm depressed" (as if it's your new name or identity) or "it's my depression" (as if it's your new best friend), and Wham! you're out of having to be expected to fully or effectively participate in anything you don't want to.
     What a great invention! What a great tool for the the powers-that-be who would like us to be numb, powerless, and self-defeated so that they can have their way in the world. And there are so many other words, names, labels, diseases, diagnoses, and designations that give a person that "excuse-me-from-having-to-do-that" card.
     Excuses. A human can think--can actually come to believe--that being the 'victim' of some horrible condition gives them an excuse to not have to be responsible for his or her own actions, responsibilities and life. Under the mantle of victimhood a person can deflect any blame or responsibility from them self, can walk through life blaming others entirely for all of his or her failings and shortcomings. Better still for the powers-that-be--since blaming others isolates one from them--victimhood mentality gives power away to someone or some thing outside, thus rendering the individual less powerful, more defensive, and, thus, more likely to live in relative isolation and less likely to engage in group activities (the kind of activities that are necessary for the few in power to be challenged and/or toppled).

Question: What is it about victimhood that we find so attractive?

Answer:  We've been conditioned--(which is just a nice way of saying "unknowingly brainwashed")--to feel entitled to--to be addicted to--our leisure, our entertainment, our playtime, our "me"-time--to want to try to get out of responsibility, to try to short cut work or anything that might cut into our comfort and conveniences. Victimhood allows us to passive-aggressively make "rational" excuses for not wanting to participate in some responsible act or activity. It gives us an excuse for never becoming, being or achieving what we set out to--to never realizing the power, creativity, values, morals, ethics, and behaviors that are natural to and inherent in all human beings.

The very fabric of our taker/consumer/throw-away society is dependent upon us "losing ourselves," that is, losing our center, giving our power away--permanently--to so-called "authorities," "experts" and other influences outside of ourselves. When this happens--when we have become off-centered--we are very easy to manipulate, very easy to herd around (like good sheep). The pathway for the accomplishment of this is very clever. Schools, the media, and our government have become masters of teaching us that we are not and can never be an authority, an expert, or in control of anything (unless, of course, we play their game by their rules). With our selves off-center we are no longer able to use our own natural internal compass. We become reliant, even dependent, on the external "authorities," "experts," and "powers" for our thoughts, feelings and actions--we need to be told what to do, say, think, and feel. The pain of guilt and provisional self-esteem seeks relief, release, and/or medication, thus the attraction to addictive things--substances, behaviors, thoughts, and activities.
     Depression is a natural outcome of this having to live constantly out of one's center. If one's center becomes replaced by one (or a few) things repetitiously, then we have the start of an addiction. When that repeated behavior becomes consuming of our time, attentions and thoughts--to the distraction and negation of healthy relationships with family, friends, work, health, money, routines, and self--then we have a full blown addiction. One can become addicted to victimhood, illness, athletics, electronics, television, the Internet, drugs (prescriptive or illegal), alcohol, eating, sex, fantasizing/daydreaming, planning, arguing, reading, writing, music, sleeping, meditating, arguing, being late, victimhood, or any escapist or pain-relieving/distracting pursuit.

Now you've heard me say time and time again that there is no "right" or "wrong," no "good" or "evil," no "better" or "worse," and I mean that. Using the Illusion of Separation and the Illusion of Need to their fullest are brilliant and effective ways of traveling through the Earth School experience. And there is, as I've also said many times, growth potential in the use of Pain and Suffering. But--I will caution you--growth is only possible if you're able to use Pain and Suffering as a tool in the goal of recognizing and re-connecting with your True Self, your Spiritual Essence, your God-ness. If your dive into the deepest emotional depths so clouds your 'vision' from being able to see anything Spiritual or Divine in your experience then you are less likely to make any progress in that 'place'--which, again, is fine: You'll have plenty of other chances to try again. But, again, I seriously doubt whether your Oversoul, Soul Council and Spirit Community planned for you to dive so deep and then get lost, get stuck and stay there. The Plan always revolves around how can we use this human experience to rediscover our True Divinity so that we can learn to control and manipulate our Earth circumstances, so that we can bring forth the more expanded flow of Higher Knowledge, Love, Will and Power, so that we can activate our individual Plan.
     Journeyman Paul does not want to be further restricted, confined and ignorant than he already is when 'powered down' into denser realms of experience; he wants me, Drew Fisher, to be a vehicle for success in realizing the goals of the Plan that he and his 'team' came up with before committing to another Earth School adventure.
     Every soul goes into the lower vibrational experiences with the desire to be able use these adventures to learn, grow, and progress on its journey of Return to Source, on its quest to re-member and rejoin its Divine Consciousness. Though there is no hurry or any time limit or any grade system coming from the Spirit World, there is a process of review and assessment that each soul goes through. There are discussions of 'success' and 'progress.' There are role-playing, gaming, and planning sessions for other investments in which success might be more probable. There are also, however, incarnations that we plan with the expressed purpose of being difficult because we want a challenge, we want to test ourselves, we want to see if we are capable of rising above the challenges of difficulty, we want--even feel that we need--to experience failure and/or Pain and Suffering. Sometimes this is because we feel we deserve it, that we've "earned" this as a kind of "punishment."
     In spite of the reasons that may have led to our we finding ourselves in a tar pit of suffering, victimhood, depression and hopelessness, I am here to remind you that you are always, always in choice--that you are never without the tools or rights to choose something different than what you've been choosing. No matter how small that different choice may be, it can be the one and only step that is needed to break the patterns of pain, suffering, depression, and despair that you feel are beyond your control. I will argue till my dying breath that even the most disease-riddled, despondent, downtrodden person always has the ability to choose a different choice--to break established patterns, to try another method, a different thought, to turn in a different direction, to look up instead of down, to pay attention to something different than their usual patterns--and that s/he then has that same right, privilege and ability in the next instant, and the next and the next, until new patterns can be developed to take the place of old ones. But, it takes work! It takes strength, concentration, fortitude, and will--all of which are present in each and every one of us--all of which are integral parts of our True Selves, all of which are natural to the Divine Essence from which we draw every breath, every thought, every heartbeat, every smile, every tear.

    I will also remind you that all disease is the result of inhibited soul life, that is, if your Ego/Personality has built up such strong walls and patterns that it is deaf or blind to the Voice of the Soul then your bodymind is going to begin to show this retardation and restriction of Flow. When the voice of the Soul is denied or ignored and the Ego/Personality is in rebellion, then the bodymind--the tool of both--will be the battle ground that displays the war between the two. If the Ego/Personality persists in its resistance the Flow of Spiritual Life Force will find itself further and further cut off from the atoms, molecule, cells, organs and systems of the bodymind. Eventually this inhibited or restricted flow will result in mental, emotional or even physical disease and even death. When the confining walls and structures of the stubborn Ego/Personality are broken down and the Voice of the Soul--the Flow of the Universal Life Force--is open, then the atoms, molecules, cells, organs and systems of the bodymind hum with the Joy of Unity and Love.
     Eventually even the Soul decides to shed the very limiting and taxing constructs of the bodymind in order to return to some of the freedoms and perspectives of its current Spiritual Evolution, but until that time is decided, the human bodymind can become a very effective and useful tool for the flow through and sharing of Love, Light, Joy, Beauty, Wisdom, Gratitude, laughter, and comradery. Depression is a construct of the Ego/Personality in which the Illusions of Separation and Need are taken to their darkest depths. The answers, the solutions, the healing, the "way out," the cure, the "Return," is all within you--within each and every one of us; the 'problems' are but illusions that we have co-created and bought into--that we have allowed ourselves to become familiar, comfortable and attached to--to the detriment of our Soul's Plan and the flow of Universal Life Force that is our True and Real Self. The key is to stop looking 'outside' of our selves for answers, guidance, information, even support and to turn--to-return to looking and 'listening' within for our own voice--the voice of our own Truth, our own intuition, our own Source of Infinite Wisdom. The answers are not outside us. The problems and patterns to which we've become overly attached are 'out there.' The answers come from within us, from a higher source, from our Higher Source, from the Divine Essence that is our True Self. Throw away illusions if they are not serving you! Try letting go of the Ego, the Personality, the belief systems that you've become so attached to--try stepping outside of those very limiting, very isolating systems and constructs and allow yourself to be, to become, to change, to try, to choose differently, to run, to fly, to dream, to fantasize, to allow yourself change and experiment, to fill yourself with visions and examples and versions of who you might be, of who you might become, of who you want to be--of the strong, powerful, joyful, loved and loving, activated and fulfilled, fully realized person that you think you can be--that you know you can be--that you are deep inside you. Let the real you--the one you've been hiding or repressing or ignoring--out! Let love flow! Take responsibility and then take credit! Forgive and then forget! Detach and leave it behind! Remove or resist the tendency to form expectations for expectation will only--can only--lead to disappointment and frustration. Expectations can never be met unless it is the expectation that everything unfolds exactly as it is meant to and exactly in the way that will best serve the growing potential of the people touched by that thing or event. Expectations are but rigid attempts at trying to manipulate or control the future--which we will eventually recognize is a huge waste of both energy and time.
     Let life flow. Detach. You've learned all of the skills necessary to survive and even thrive while in your human bodymind while traveling on planet Earth. It's your choice: will your travels and experiences be exciting adventures or will they be terrifying nightmares of pain and suffering, alienation and isolation, failure and loss. The choice is yours and yours alone. So choose. Now choose again. And again. . . .  

The Universal Life Force

     Throughout the 1980s I had been dabbling with various forms of Yoga, Tai Chi, QiGong and other modalities of bodymind health maintenance classes when I encountered an organization called the Yogic Science Research Foundation. This organization had been started in East Lansing, Michigan, by a man who was of Indian birth but who was now living in the USA as a chemistry professor at Michigan State University, Amar Gupta. Amar claimed to have been "a student of Mohandis Ghandi" as a child (whatever that means). Based on his Ghandian training he practiced Yoga daily in public, leading or, if you must, "teaching" all who chose to join him for free. According to Amar's understanding, Yoga came from the Universe for free and therefore should be given back for free. Amar believed that it was the individual's karmic gift--even obligation--to give back to the Universe. The classes--multiple classes, offered at multiple locations, every day of the week--were free! No money was ever exchanged. And yet they were the best Yoga classes I've ever experienced--as much for the relaxed and elastic spirit within the classroom as for the unbound patience and willingness that the teachers had for taking the time to field and thoroughly answer every question asked. And were they unable to answer a particular question they were quite willing to refer the class member to appropriate resources or they might even seek further clarification for themselves and then bring their findings back to the next class. Another interesting aspect of the Yogic Science Research Foundation Yoga classes was the kind of unspoken gift or obligation that an avid or frequent attendee of classes would someday begin a ministry of his or her own in that s/he would eventually become one of the volunteer teachers. This was never exacted as payment or forced from someone and yet the individuals who came to YSRF classes as shy, awkward, ignorant neophytes quite often and surprisingly stepped forward of their own burgeoning confidence to try out leading classes. I think it was the relaxed format and confidence-building results the students discovered with their commitment to yoga that spurred them on.
     In 1989 I took advantage of an offer to attend a Level I workshop for Reiki. Though modern Reiki practitioners would consider Reiki to be the act of passive--or, for some, an active--transmission of an increased flow of The Universal Life Force or "chi" to a recipient as directed by a practitioner, the word "Reiki" derives its meaning from two Japanese words, "rei" and "ki." The former means, "spirit, miraculous, divine" and the latter, "gas, vital energy, breath of life, consciousness." Together they are taken to mean, "mysterious atmosphere." The word seems to derive from the Chinese loanword língqì 靈氣, meaning "supernatural influence." Still, most modern practitioners will tell you that Reiki means "Universal Life Force" or "directed flow of The Universal Life Force."
     Reiki is a healing art based on the information given to the world by Japanese monk Mikao Usui (1865-1926). Dr. Usui claimed that he had received this information during meditation. He also claimed that this information was based upon writings and practices that had been known and used in the Tibetan world for centuries before he ever encountered them. He also chose to accept this information with an understanding that it was "given" to him so that he could then pass it on to others--that he was intended as a messenger not just a receptacle or repository; he viewed the "gift" as part of a sacred obligation and responsibility he had to share it with the world, sharing that he thought that he was but a conduit for this information to be passed on to the world.
     As the story goes, Dr. Usui first "received" this ancient form of spiritual healing during meditation--through his Crown Chakra. At first he practiced Reiki on others for free. He would have been happy to continue doing so because he truly believed that that which already belongs to the Universe should be given back to the Universe. But, he found that people did not value the treatments and information as much as he hoped while he was giving it away for free, and they did not seek out more treatments or practice or share the information and practices with others as he had hoped. So, he reluctantly experimented with charging payment for his services. Under this paradigm Dr. Usui found much better follow-through or compliance from his clients and students. People took the treatments and information much more seriously and were much more prone to hold the effects and lessons of the treatments as well as share their stories with others when they had to pay for it.
     My personal Reiki teacher was three generations removed from Dr. Usui. Her teacher, Virginia Samdahl, was the first Occidental Reiki Master trained by Hawayo Takata, who was the person singularly responsible for bringing Reiki to the West from the Usui School. It must be noted, however, that the form of Reiki that Dr. Takata brought to North America was a simplified, more physically-directed form than that of Dr. Usui's original much more spiritually-focused form. The more watered-down form that Dr. Takata brought to America had been developed within Dr. Usui's school, with the expressed permission of Dr. Usui, by Chujiro Hayashi (1880 - 1940), who was Dr. Takata's teacher. When I took Reiki attunements in 1989-90, it was a requirement that the Level I training workshop cost $200, Level II attunement cost $500, and Level III or Master Level training cost $10,000.
     You saw that right: $10,000. Again, these rates were established in accordance with Dr. Usui's findings that the more one had to pay for the training the better valued and more seriously used would be that information. Also, at that time the attunements and information could only be received in workshops separated by significant gaps of time with the idea that the recipient would have time to practice and get familiar with the techniques and information. Sadly, this value system has been weakened greatly as has the sacrosanctity of the forms and information passed on. Reiki Levels I through III can now be "received" in a single weekend workshop for a small fraction of the original costs. It can even be purchased online in video form for the whopping price of $97 or learned from a book for free! (neither of which I understand because of the fact that the student would then be missing the essential attunement rituals in which the teacher/master passes on the symbols of increased "access" and "flow" by imbedding them within the Unconscious).
     Why modern, westernized man requires an energy exchange on the physical, material plane may be a little bit clearer to the reader or listener of this podcast series--and, after all, material things like food or money are but denser forms of energy than services or ideas. Still, the way mankind has deepened and intensified its entrapment within the illusion of the physical/material world is something I hope to raise awareness of. The elevated levels of pain and suffering that will be offered us while on planet Earth during the next few years can be minimized or at least diminished through an increased understanding of and detachment from the illusions that come with Earth School experience. As global climate change creates an escalating number and severity of disasters in the coming years which then cause the partial and complete collapse of food systems and societal patterns, the ability to be able to step back and observe, even to laugh, will be quite healing, I assure you. The attainment of a certain spiritual perspective can enable one to grow more aware, more detached and less self-identifying with the confining rules and limitations of the illusion of physical Earth plane reality.
     The Universal Life Force, chi ki, qi, prana, the Æther, bioenergy, cosmoplasma, Love, Will, Divine Consciousness, the Higgs-Boson particle, or God--what ever you choose to call it, it is in everything, it provides form and life energy for every single thing, every single concept in the Cosmos. Even the underlying substrata supporting or in which all things float and travel, even Dark Matter and anti-matter, even feelings and abstracts are imbued with, given form by, this "substance" that is The Universal Life Force. The reason I know this, the reason I cannot believe or accept any other version of this scenario is that I know that the Divine Consciousness, the Creator Energy, God, must be everything or else S/He is limited and therefore less than everything and therefore not possibly God. God cannot be anything less than everything. Otherwise S/He could not be the Creator or creative Force, the Will and Life Force.
     To imagine or envision a Creation that is not the 'work' of a Creative Force or a Creative Will and Creative Imagination is simply inconceivable to me. And to imagine that S/He is one of a multitude of Gods only begs the question of Who or What created the Gods. Who or What is The Cause of The Cause? Or, better yet, Who is the Causeless One that existed before the Causes were created?
     What can we imagine? What are the limits of the imagination? We humans are only limited by our imaginations. The Higher Mind of our Unconscious offers a still broader realm of possibilities for the creative imagination but it, too, is still limited in that it is at least a step away from its True Source, the God Consciousness from which it came; it is limited by the veil of The Illusion of Separation that it has agreed to participate in. But I am here to remind you: the belief that you are separate from your Divine Source, that you do not have constant and immediate access to your own Divinty, is an illusion. And living within this illusion--choosing to remain loyal to this illusion--is extremely limiting to your true potential.
    If you can think it--Spark of The Divine that you are--if you can imagine it, then it can be real--then it is real--even if only on the relatively small scale of limited human comprehension or Lower Mind. Energy follows thought. You are, after all, a co-creator with God because of the God-ness in and moving through you. The same is true for everyone, and every thing, because every single thing in Creation--imagined or "real" (and from a certain perspective, I will remind you, there is no difference)--every single thing in Creation is imbued or animated by the God-Force--is only possible because of the imaginative, Loving, Force of Divine Creative Consciousness. As I said, even so-called "space"--that vacuum of supposed 'nothingness' in which all things 'float' or 'swim'--is a 'thing.' Even the barely imaginable 'substances' that are called Dark Matter, anti-matter, or quanta--which are supposedly just 'pieces' of energy or light but which neither have space, weight or location, have only 'probability'--all of these 'things' are things! Therefore, they all exist as part of Creation--of God's creation, of our Creation--just as much as we or that tree or that star or that car. We create things that fit our theories--our imagined versions of 'reality'--in order to help validate and 'prove' our latest versions. But think of how those theories or versions of 'reality' have shifted, changed, expanded over the history of human existence. And yet have any of our theories or versions of 'reality' changed one iota the spiritual backdrop to this supposed 'reality'? No. Creation is in constant change, is, in fact, unable to stay fixed or constant because of our daily inputs, because of the infinite versions, the infinite variations, and infinite possibilities coming out of the flow of Active Intelligence, Loving Guidance, and Sacred Will Power. The Universal Life Force.        

Let It Begin Here: Basic Tenets of Mine

Life is beautiful. 

At least, that's what I think--that's what I know. But "life," as I speak of it here, is not, in my experience, the birth-infancy-childhood-adolescence-career/partnering/parenting-grandparenting-aging-decline & death scenario most of you are associating with it. Human, biological life is only a small part of that which I refer. The "life" I speak of is different; it is bigger. 

Much bigger.

I have a body and five sense which I use to negotiate through "physical" space, however, I am not my body.

I have feelings and emotions which I use to negotiate within the Earthbound human experience, however, I am not my emotions.
I have a mind and an intellect which I use to try to make sense of my Earth experience, however, I am neither my thoughts or intellect.  

I am a Center of Self-consciousness, an individuated Spark of The Divine, a Wave in The Great Ocean of Cosmic Creation, The Infinite Sea of Truth, Beauty, Joy, and Love. 

I believe that, as a Center of Self-consciousness (or "soul"), I have chosen--and choose over and over in every moment--to participate--of my own free Will, while fully embracing my understanding of the Divine Plan--in the experience-oriented "games" of "Creation," "life and death," "space and time," and "physical" "reality." At the same time I am aware that all of these are, in fact, fabrications:  illusions created (with my active participation) for entertainment and the accumulation of (hopefully) awareness-expanding experience.

I believe that, as a Center of Self-consciousness, as a Spark of The Divine, as a Wave in The Great Ocean of Cosmic Creation, I am eternal and that, as an eternal part of The Divine Consciousness, I am without beginning or end, that I am never separated or separate from my Divine Source.

I believe that each and every thing, each and every human being, organ tissue, cell, molecule, atom or subatomic particle, that each and every rock, mountain, cloud, planet star, galaxy, universe or cosmos, that each and every emotion, experience and thought has its own consciousness, its own spark of The Divine which imbues, occupies, uses, coordinates, organizes, ensouls, enshrouds that entity, group or system.

I believe that the human experience in which we choose to participate on this small blue planet is akin to a classroom experience--thus you will hear me use the term "Earth School."

I believe that each of us has chosen the planetary circumstances into which we were born, that we have planned for the experiences we encounter--that we attract these people, places, events and experiences to us precisely for the purpose of yielding opportunities for the learning of Self-prescribed lessons.

I believe that in The Realm from which we come there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong," "good" or "evil," "better" or "worse," "black" or "white," "yin" or "yang," that The Realm of Divine Consciousness from which we arise is one of Oneness, of complete Unity, and, therefore, unattached to the isolating effects of naming, defining, separating, and categorization practiced in dualism.

I believe that the world of dualities is a fabrication, an illusory world that we have chosen to participate in, that we are, in fact, co-creators of this version of "reality" (for it would not/could not exist if there were not souls willing to participate in it), that a dualistic world of implicate and explicate, subjective and objective, "this" and "that" is created precisely for the experiential games associated with objectified, limited, and choice-filled "life."

I believe that when we choose to participate in the physical, emotional, or even mental planes of potential experience we also choose to play according to the rules and restrictions that we our Selves have created, ordained and agreed to but that we are never separate or separated from our True Selves, our True Nature, our True Consciousness, that we are free to, at any time, access the consciousness, awareness, and perspective of our True Selves. Or not. (There is no right or wrong way to participate in the Earth School experience.)   

I believe that we use our experiences, awarenesses and lessons from participation in "denser" realities dimensions (like the Earth Plane) to re-acquaint and re-access and re-activate the expression of our own greatest and latest versions of our highest perceptions of Truth, Beauty, Joy, and Love.

I believe that we choose and/or attract (an often unconscious level of choosing based upon  established patterns of familiarity and comfort) all of the aspects, conditions and circumstances of our Earth lives--that these actors, settings, events, and experiences have all been chosen in order to help realize a Self-prescribed path for specific and general learning, expansion and development (in that goal to become more aware and familiar with our True Nature--which is always being expressed through our latest and greatest versions of who we think we are).

I believe that after "life" (the Earth School version or otherwise) we review our previous lives, assess and critique the patterns we've accumulated, evaluate our "progress," and then plan the next "life" adventure with certain general and specific goals and objectives in mind.

I believe that our souls work with and make plans with a familiar but fluctuating group of other souls--a "family" or "class" or "team" of mutually loving, supportive and goal-oriented Self-conscious entities.

I believe that in Earth School we most typically get caught thinking that we are supposed to learn through pain and suffering but that we can, at any time, choose to learn instead through Joy and Happiness.

I believe that Love is the underlying, ever-present, in-between matrix, force, "aether" that fills all space, supports all life and consciousness, animates all Creation.

I believe that there are no coincidences, that everything--everything--happens for a reason.

I believe that no belief is final, that all beliefs are mutable, relative to one's current state of ignorance and limited understanding, ever transcendable, and that one is never finished growing or evolving.  

This doesn't change the fact that I believe Life is Beautiful.