The Illusion of Pain: Exploring Consciousness Within

I was thinking a lot over the holidays having a lot of time to just relax and do absolutely nothing (which is rare for me).  I was thinking specifically about emotional pain.  Having a strong interest in helping others understand and come to terms with pain, I was toying with an idea.  I’ve written in my books about the concept of malware.  Malware as I’ve used it is very much like a computer virus that get’s in and infiltrates your computer’s operating system.  I see pain not at all differently.  It becomes like an emotional virus that infiltrates and infects our mental human operating system.  Once resident (and there is something resident in all of us), it results in pain deep within us that causes our perspectives to be jaded, skewed and well, often, completely inaccurate.  It causes us to lose our ability to see the truth in our human interactions.  There is much we can do once we realize that we have something within us that needs our attention.  We can learn to find out what it is, understand it and then learn to see things differently thus minimizing the effect of the “malware.” 

A interesting thought I had was whether pain ever truly healed or not.  I mean, it seems that once we have been emotionally wounded, those wounds never seem to go away. At least not entirely (if they did, how come we keep being triggered?). We go through our lives reacting, wincing, transferring and projecting the pain that we’ve suffered to and through others as we interact with each other. I think malware stems from beliefs we have created around emotional wounds. For some, the malware is mostly benign and so there is no real or dramatic harm done. But for others, this malware becomes an epic roadblock to our ability to have and maintain healthy human relationships.  What do we do then?  Is there no hope?  Is there no cure?  I think that the pain caused by malware (and that term should be read as a hidden belief held with a pain charged memory) cannot ever be healed.  Yes.  You read that right.  Pain suffered emotionally cannot be healed.  It remains resident like the RAM resident programs in your computer’s operating system (e.g., programs that take up memory continually while your computer is running – draining and dragging on your computer’s performance).  This malware in the human mental operating system does the same thing.  It runs in the background taking up precious energy, clouding our memories, our vision and our experience and there it remains, mostly undetected by us consciously.  Oh, others may see it and even draw it to our attention but in so doing, it just results in poking the wound causing us to react.

I have proposed that pain cannot be healed.  That once you have formed a belief with an emotionally charged memory, the pain is there and remains forever resident in our mental operating system.  Well, that is until you can find the precise belief that is at the true core of the malware and seek to understand it.  Now, that understanding part is like climbing Mount Everest and just like climbing said mountain, you’ll need a guide.  You truly need someone to help you navigate unfamiliar terrain, to help guide you around the cervices, canyons and steep slippery slopes.  It isn’t easy.  But, once you have engaged in the climb and endeavored to find and root out those beliefs that formed emotionally charged memories that resulted in malware running in the background of your conscious existence, you can begin to understand.  Once you come to understand the belief at the core of the pain, you don’t really heal it or make it go away but you come to understand it.  Once you come to understand it, you start removing the energetic charge of emotion.  With the highest level of understanding possible, you could completely transform the malware through understanding and then the whole belief and its perceived emotional harm can be transformed as if it where a fog being dissipated by the sun’s light.  We don’t remove it completely in this regard but we understand it.  Through awareness, we can understand our own behavior and eliminate reactions to certain situations that trigger the original pain from the belief.  Once you can get to this plateau, you can walk a little taller, with more confidence and less of the malware filters your experiences.  You learn to react differently.

Now, how do you know if you have something infecting your human mental operating system?  There are many ways to tell.  What are you afraid of?  What causes you the most pain?  What do you dislike the most in others?  What do you dislike in yourself?  What have been the sticking points in current or past relationships?  Did you know that you are so amazing that you will actually attract to you the very specific kinds of people you need to interact with that will help bring the original belief to light?  Did you know this isn’t limited to personal relationships and that it can happen on the job, during shopping trips or even while driving?  We even invite certain situations to us that will brush up against that belief and cause us to wince a little bit not as punishment but as a reminder that something is resident in the psyche that maybe shouldn’t be.  If you can find it, and I do not by any stretch of the imagination mean to suggest that it is a simple and easy process, but you can dissipate the malware through understanding.  When you can do this, your perceptions and perspectives are automatically transformed and your old behaviors and desires for interactions are also transformed bringing you new and hopefully healthier experiences.

I think that we run into these situations on purpose.  I think it is part of our life or lesson plan to take on certain things to over come.  That doesn’t mean we have to stay stuck in the class.  See my article on A Class in Life for some additional food for thought.  I believe that we were not put here to suffer for our sins (or past beliefs that formed emotionally charged painful memories).  I believe that we were put here to learn and transform the things we hold within our egoic selves or little “c” consciousness that prevent us from knowing fully the truth about us.  Once you can find a way to dig deep beneath the layers of the accumulated beliefs that have truly caused you nothing but pain and a compromised human mental operating system, you can live a more meaningful life with a sense of greater well-being.  Anything is possible when you make up your beautiful mind and take action.  As the Tao Te Ching says, even a 1,000-mile journey begins with a single step.  So too, does the journey of healing begin.  Although healing is a funny word, when you get to the true essence of it, healing isn’t really about finding an emotional wound and treating it.  It is removing the idea of something you think exists through understanding the truth from a 360-degree perspective. When you can get there, all illusions fall away.  Pain never just heals on its own with time.  It is a filter we carry with us to protect certain wounds we believe that we have accumulated.  And, well, we do have them as long as we choose to run certain programs (read:  View certain experiences in a specific way to protect yourself from pain).  Sometimes just acknowledging something exists and going through the pain helps you to release it.  However, when you can come to a state of true understanding, the original wound in the mind is eliminated through the transformation by understanding it.  The pain is gone, we heal and learn to live with our experience as well as learn to integrate the emotions and all of the reinforcements of it that we’ve carried all of these years.  That does take time but it is worth it to explore I think.  A life lived in emotional pain is a tough life to live.  If you find yourself there mentally, physically or spiritually, please do seek out the right kind of assistance for yourself.  You have so many options from self-help books, counselors in psychology, metaphysics or spiritual…all can be of assistance if you want it.

My theory is just that, a theory.  I write about this often and have touched on these subjects in a number of my books written specifically to bring light to these concepts.  ChangingPerspectives:  The Journey is theDestination, ExpandingHorizons:  Growth and Beyond, So, It’s Over.  Now What?, Awakening from the Dream and Solving for X all carry this theme as does my online training course, Exploring the Conscious Self (see Training tab).  We all carry what we carry for very good reasons and through the experience of carrying wounds, we learn.  This means that an emotional wound is not a death sentence but an opportunity or challenge, if you are to take up the challenge you actually presented for yourself to overcome.  That is the metaphysical or spiritual twist to all of this, I suppose.  As a metaphysical practitioner, I cannot help but look to all sources for understanding.  Through being resourceful and tenacious, I find there is nothing I cannot overcome. The only failure one can ever truly achieve is never trying.  But even in that, we have a choice.  We can endeavor to grow with intention or continue to unconsciously.  Life truly is amazing.  With my theory, I have intended to paint a picture of understanding because I have discovered that this simple act of understanding or being open to understanding or seeking understanding has become the key that has unlocked so very many doors for me.  I hope understanding opens doors for you as well.

As you go into the New Year, I challenge you to consider “understanding” in all that you do.  I challenge you to become very curious about your lives and the multiple meanings every single interaction and event holds.  Enjoy your time here in every way that you possibly can.  I wish you great blessings of love, light and understanding.

 

© 2014, J.L. Harter (photo and words)

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, Teacher,  Spiritual Counselor and Founder/Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

Allowing the Forces to Work

My friend Shonda*, at one time, was committed to journaling, and meditating. Shonda tells me she has of late experienced a strong sense of negative feelings such as misplaced anger as well as the inability to transform negative energy into positive energy. She mentioned feeling “out of balance.” This was a sign that Shonda needed to reconnect with her Higher Self.
 

Lately, Shonda has gone about her day making several failed attempts at dealing with mainstream earthlings (e.g., banking, shopping, other trans-actions, and inter-actions). Shonda puts off communing with Spirit Energy resulting in the progressive degeneration of poise, and self-confidence.
 

My friend denies ever experiencing such intense, negative erratic cogency. For example although Shonda is an affable woman she seems to have lost her inside compass, putting it another way Shonda is off center, attracting into her sphere more dis-ease.
 

Shonda lives in a New York City, west side apartment and states hearing loud noises coming from her neighbor’s apartment; she actually went to her neighbor’s door expressing concern as to whether or not her neighbor was safe as the noises did seem as though they could be coming from the neighbor’s apartment. Shonda felt relieved by her neighbor’s reports that this was not the case.
 

The intermittent unexplained noises, she assured me, are not imagined to include irritability. Where was this energy coming from? Although Shonda finds solace engaging in a Full Moon Ritual she reports being “too busy” to be active in the ceremony this month. Shonda was usually observed journaling, praying, burning oil or incense, affirmations, burning candles as part of her daily sacred grooming process for many years. When I inquired about her spiritual grooming regiment Shonda admitted that it had not been a priority for quite some time. Based upon everything Shonda was describing it seemed as though she was experiencing spiritual depletion.
 

Simply put spiritual depletion is when we feel despondent, alone, agitated, and a disconnection from self. This happens as a result of failure to seek, obtain and maintain on some level a connection with our Higher Self or a Power or Force which we feel is Greater than ourselves. This disconnection leaves us nothing to feed from, nothing to sooth as a balm for our soul. Therefore a lack of spiritual sustenance results in spiritual depletion of which Shonda was experiencing. Shonda’s soul was in S.O.S. mode crying out for help. She began to experience what she called “strong instinctual feelings” accompanied by thoughts of her maternal aboriginal Cherokee roots. 

The Evocation, Intercession, Invocation Process




During Shonda’s childhood and teen years her mother made every attempt and used every opportunity to ensure Shonda was aware of her aboriginal Cherokee roots to include the practicing of rituals and ceremonies. Shonda grew up in a Cherokee matrilineal kinship system. In a matrilineal kinship system, a person is related only to people on their mother’s side. Her relatives are those who can be traced through a woman.
 

“Early Cherokee culture the family unit was traced through the wives and not the husbands. The major members in each family were the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, brothers, and uncles, not fathers.” (Cited source http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-twoworlds/1882 )
 

Shonda stated that, “Lately, there seems to be a negative force so strong there is no way to escape it.” Shonda may have avoided such an uncomfortable experience had she continued her daily ritual of sacred spiritual grooming.
 

The invitation from her ancestral roots became progressively stronger as she hesitated engaging in the invocation or summoning process. I wondered just how far her ancestors traveled to reach my friend. I reflected upon what was or is the reason for her predecessors’ journey? What, if at all, is their message to her? If this is the case there is a lot to be said about the help Shonda can receive, the messages she can obtain if she is open and receptive. The availability of assistance was accessible and therefore not the issue, The Force(s) required her permission to intercede. The Greater Power(s), call it whatever we want, came to help Shonda in her time of need.
 

Shonda instinctively gravitated towards initiating the practices of her aboriginal Cherokee roots. She allowed me to be part of a cleansing ritual.

White Sage and Lemongrass Oil
 

Shondra engaged in what she termed as “smudging.” She stated that, “The intention is to drive out bad influences.” I’d heard of smudging but now I was allowed the privilege of participating in the ritual. She lit aflame two small white sage leaves, no more than two inches long, extinguished the fire, fanning the smoke by using a feather she began to smudge herself from head to toe very slowly, ensuring the heart/chest area was smudged. She continued slowly smudging the floors, slowly moving upwards to the ceiling as far as she could reach. Room to room, doorways, thresholds, windows, closets and myself again. When Shondra completed the ritual she extinguished the sage smoke via placing the remnants of the two small leaves into a small bowl of sand.
 

Afterwards we journaled what may have been received messages. There seemed to be a sense of release, and calmness about Shondra. I was happy for her as well as myself.

The Lemongrass
 

I asked her what the significance of Lemongrass was within this ritual. She responded with, “For me it helps to improve digestive problems, detoxifies my entire system, chase away sluggishness, stimulates the central nervous system, to develop a sense of self-esteem, confidence, hope, mental strength, and it uplifts spirits and fights depression.” She thusly placed a drop in the palm of her hand, rubbed her hands together then inhaled softly for 30 seconds, the scent in her hands.
 

She began to talk about envisioning successes with her career goals, personal life, a sense of security and wellbeing. Shonda made a decision to get out of her way, allowed a connection with Higher Forces, resulting in tranquility. In witnessing her transformation it was conclusive for me that her faith in the ritual ceremony, and connection to her matrilineal kinship ancestral roots, reestablished Shondra's connection with her Higher Self.


*Real name changed for reasons of personal privacy.

© 2014 Rev. Barbara Williams, M.Msc.
 

Rev. Barbara Williams provides services in the areas of premarital counseling, facilitating addiction workshops aimed at the progressive benefits of holistic counseling, officiating of weddings or civil ceremonies, christenings, baptism’s, baby naming interpretations, home blessings, transitional or home going ceremonies also known as funeral services and the reading of the Tarot. Rev. Barbara Williams currently resides in Poughkeepsie, New York. See the Bio section for more information.

A Class in Life

Consider something way far outside of the lines for a moment.  Clear your mind of all preconceived notions, perceptions and beliefs.  Go back into the imaginary part of your being like that of childhood where imagination was plentiful and so much fun.  Imagine a moment; a time before this life.  Imagine that lives were like a catalog of classes that you wished to take to learn.  So, you visit the grand library in a crystal city far far away outside of time and space and you have your guidance counselors with you knowing your history, the levels of the learning you have achieved so far.  Imagine vast catalogs of potential life classes that you could choose to take.  Imagine selecting one and studying it, spending time contemplating your spirit and your soul and where it needs strength or more experience.  Imagine now selecting a life plan that presents you with all sorts of possibilities to support the life lesson (or class) you wished to choose for incarnation in this realm.

You carefully consider and discuss with your guides the life you have chosen.  You converse with your soul family and decide upon a most opportune course of study in the realm of Earth in this Third-Dimensional existence.  You prepare for the life as you would a college course.  You brush up on the knowledge you’ll need to take with you.  You might study a bit of some of the similar courses you’ve taken (e.g., other lives) that call to you in full remembrance the other lives in which you have previously learned things that might help you in the next class like taking and completing all lower level math classes before ascending into algebra, calculus and then trig.  You brush up and ready yourself to incarnate here on Earth in this dimension through concentrated conscious projection.

The thing about the life or class that you choose is that there must be a premise from which you operate or handicaps of various kinds that will set up for you the most perfect opportunity to truly learn.  Maybe you have to take a life you might from this life consider as difficult as calculus or something like it but although you’ve studied all other forms of math, this time, you don’t get to take your notes or your calculator.  The design of the program you set up with your guides and soul family creates an ample opportunity for you to learn and slowly over time your memories of prior learnings will become reinforced as you live the next life.  Knowing this, you gladly leave those memories behind or the calculator even because you know these things are ingrained within the memories within the archives of your soul.  At the right time and with the right study, the lessons previously learned will represent themselves in new places, faces or times.  So, you come (project your consciousness into Earth) and you grow with a family that helps reinforce the premise or handicap.  I have called this malware but it is not some victimizing thing at all but rather the very thing that helps you learn and reinforce all prior learning when you incarnate.

While projecting your consciousness here in this frame, you remain connected to your spirit back home, your guides and the idea or concept of the lesson plan chosen.  You also carry with you the latent memories within your soul that you can, at the right time, access.  You grow into your life incarnate on Earth and have many experiences that reinforce your learning.  Whatever it is you set out to learn, your life is perfectly designed to bring to you the most opportune events and people to assist you in your learning.  There will be those who share similar lessons or the opposite aspect of what you are learning in terms of other Soul Family who incarnated here with you and together you learn and together you grow.  You continue in this fashion until your spirit has gained all of the knowledge you wished and then it begins to fade its projection in the Third-Dimensional reality.  The vital essence of the body begins to subside, the fullness of your body’s experience appears to deteriorate and you turn gray and begin aging all in perfect time holding all of the new and beautiful lessons you have had the opportunity to learn.  The final day comes and you let go of this projection here and then with a final breath in the manner of your planning and choosing comes and you allow the projection to be turned off. 

You find yourself now in the space between and eventually make your way back to the place you truly started from, Elsewhere.  When you arrive back home you are greeted by guides and loved ones so happy to see you return and so eager to hear how your journey of life went and you celebrate together the things that you learned and you receive encouragement for your efforts and you debrief from the lesson or class just completed.  You rest and recuperate glad you got through it, grateful for the opportunity to learn and then you sit and take it all in with all the other things that you’ve learned.  If more learning is what you most need, you know the way back to the Grand library and can strike out again and may wish to retake portions of your last lesson because you could have done it better or you may wish to assist one of your soul family members who wanted to retest his or her abilities in form.

In contemplating all of the various levels humanity seems to exist within, this idea, this imaginary idea seems to speak to the reason why there are all manner of experiences here…some good and some bad but what if every class isn’t your favorite class?  Sometimes we must take classes we’re not very good at and look around you, some people are not very good at this thing called life and that is really and truly okay because by the very act of them being present here, they learn and as they learn, they expand the collective of knowledge.  Each spirit that projects here to learn adds to the seasoning of the dish or the color of the artwork that is the Whole of our shared Consciousness.  If we can contemplate this view if even for a moment, we can find greater compassion for others here learning instead of raw toxic judgment.  What do you think?

© 2014 JL Harter (photo Google - aetherforce.com)

 Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

Moving to the Post-New Age Paradigm of Consciousness

After running across an article about the New Age Movement, I had to give some serious thought to the broader concepts expressed.  In the article, the author expressed understandable frustration with some factions of the New Age Movement for some of its darker lessons.  These frustrations have been expressed by many related to the New Age Movement, primarily, the over-stated ego of the professed ego-less, money for nothing and abundance of the monetary focus only.  I took in the article and focused not on the words used but the feeling behind it and I have to say, I get the frustration.  As a qualified practitioner in the discipline of Metaphysics, I work in the realm of what the New Age has brought us.  As I continue to look within the realms of my own discipline, the New Age Movement, The Secret pushers and Law of Attraction for Mansions and Sports Cars Success Promoters, one does have to scratch her head for a moment and think, “Wait a minute.  Abundance is good but when you use spiritual principals for egotistical gains only, what is the point and how will that bring you the kind of growth you leave here with?"  Okay, that’s my own ego talking and on the ego, there’s more.

In my book, The Ego is the Veil, I explained the concept of the ego as that point where consciousness meets physical reality. This is not a new concept.  It is one written about by Sigmund Freud.  I take the point in a bit of a different direction in that while we have a conscious focus in the Third-Dimensional reality, we must understand that the ego is here because we are physically here.  I posit that we cannot exist here in 3-D without the ego.  The arguments of frustration expressed in the article I ran across sort of proves my point in a way.  You see, so many of us consider those in the enlightened New Age Movement to be above ego.  Some may even profess it.  Then, as we get closer to these folks and see that they too have within them the little “c” egoic consciousness just like we do, we are instantly disenchanted and likely very disappointed.  Is the problem with the New Age Movement and its proponents and practitioners having an ego or is it the misconception held by those seeking services from those in the New Age movement being ego-less that is the problem?  I do not intend to blame any victims here. There are those who claim to be egoless and are out to gather followers and the money of those followers.  There are also those truly beautiful souls with great integrity just interested in helping humanity by providing a service.  Neither faction is without ego.  If those seeking services or guidance understood this point, perhaps they could make more educated decisions about how they follow and financially support others.

In reality, there are just bad apples in every movement whether you are observing a political, religious or other movement.  Those bad apples are just human beings trying to find a way to deal with the Malware they unconsciously hold and get by. They may do things judged unsavory by others but those who judge and judge harshly merely perpetuate their own Malware in psychological transference and projection.  So, where does that leave any of us who feel a higher calling, a call to help, a call to educate or those seeking help and education from the purportedly educated?  Well, for starters you have to level-set your understanding.  There is no conscious human being here that does not have an ego.  The ego represents our physical focus here in 3-D.  Everyone has an ego and those that tell you the loudest that they are egoless are quite honestly proving my point that they are in fact, not egoless.  I don’t discount the fact that there may very well be Avatars among us who seem real but are not.  I’ve had some rather interesting experiences as have many others.  The Avatars or those appearing here but are not really here may be the only one’s not possessing an ego.  But they are projecting here ethereally and not physically and, therefore, they can escape the need for ego, perhaps? They remain more closely tied to the Cosmic Consciousness and the void of creation or no-thing which is truly Everything.

If you are seeking to expand your consciousness, I suggest that you find someone that you work well with.  Don’t worry so much about the path you take or calling all trees bad because one had some bad apples.  Instead, use your energy for greater conscious knowledge and understanding.  We all have an ego.  We are all here to learn and grow.  Look for a teacher that is more in line with your personality, your morals, your goals and your beliefs--never mind which path they hold onto.  It is truly time to embrace the Post-New Age Movement where dogma is not needed to embrace our own consciousness and better understand the true self that remains always and ever connected to the Source Consciousness of All That Is.  This world is an amazing place of dichotomy for us to learn from. There are good apples and there are bad apples.  The New Age Movement, as any other, has brought us some amazing light and it has also brought us some darkness.  How perfect is that for humanity that some times learns best by stark contrast?!  Reach for deeper meaning within your own being and you will learn what is in resonance with you and your purpose here.  Those who don’t resonate with you are just those who don’t resonate with you.  Those paths that don’t resonate with you are not paths that you must choose or destroy.  There are plenty of folks who will sell you snake oil with huge promises of false returns.  They exist in every facet of humanity.  We all have egos and most are infected with all manner of Malware.  I also wrote in my book, Exploring the Conscious Self that we are all subject to Malware which is the frame work from which we engage in our learning while living here.  No path is a bad path and no one’s Malware is worse than another’s.  Each is different and serves no lesser or greater purpose.

When we can let go of the paradigm of rigid, limited and dogmatic thinking, let go of blame and finger pointing and seek that which moves us most from the center of the core of the true heart of our being, we will find enlightenment…enlightenment of our own path.  We’re all unique in terms of what we are learning and how we will learn.  Be an aware consumer of those things you choose to consume.  Embrace your conscious journey with hope, stamina, determination and so much love for the beauty of the journey.  That’s all that matters.

© 2014, J.L. Harter

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

The Senses Re-Defined

We think of our senses as existing merely in the physical but there are many more for you to explore within your consciousness.  I present to you a few new concepts, some you may already be familiar with.  Explore your consciousness and come to your senses!

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.

Dream Interpretation with Rory

 “I am watching a girl and boy. The girl looks really happy and the boy is sad.  She goes up to him and tells him to take off his sad pants and put on happy pants like her.  The boy doesn’t want to at first, but the girl doesn’t stop pestering him.  He finally stops being grumpy and gets his own happy pants and they start dancing together.”  Female, 25

Well now, this is a great dream! The dreamer should pat herself on the back, or more appropriately for her personality, she should do a little dance to celebrate a shift in her consciousness. Yes, as silly as this dream sounds, it is a spiritual dream (I don't have to tell you that since you already sense this, but for all the naysayers, let them (obviously you said “em” on purpose and that’s fine, this is just a suggestion;) know this dream shows the power of positive thinking that some attribute to naivety). In any case, this dream is significant. Why? Well, first off, the kids represent parts of one’s self that are developing and growing. In fact, one part of her feels so good about being herself she wears happy pants, or expresses a bubbly personality that can spread like wildfire.

In the dream, another more grumpy part of herself is reluctant at first, but follows suit soon enough by essentially choosing to enjoy life! And what is greater than that? Perhaps what happens next is --harmony and expression – which manifests itself within the dream as dancing. 

To the dreamer, I say keep it up, continue on this path and remember to keep spreading happiness. The next dance dream should have the whole world dancing, and then you'll know you're at one of the most beautiful levels of happiness -- the level when it has spread to your whole self.  I would suggest maybe starting at a dance party with a few hundred people and then from there, grow organically to the whole world. Or, maybe just shoot for the stars and land on the moon.  I know most people say it the other way, but let’s be real -- the moon is a lot closer than the closest star!  Keep dreaming Ms. Happy.

Repetitive Frustration

“There is this theme in my dreams.  I am trying to get something done but all these ridiculous, impossible obstacles get in my way and I never complete the task.  I am sweaty and extremely frustrated in the last part of the dream.  What do you think about that?”   Female, 40

Ah, yes, almost all of us can relate with you here! This dream indicates that there is a deeper part of the mind, an unconscious part that is essentially sabotaging your objectives, causing frustration.  Does that make sense?  If so, then I have a few suggestions.  

            First off, start doing a concentration exercise.  With most of the students I teach, I suggest that they concentrate daily for ten minutes, building a stronger control over their mind.  Those who do this tend to "uncover" different layers of their mind being active.  They basically become conscious of an unconscious thought pattern.  Secondly, I recommend breathing consciously anytime your mind starts to tell you why something “can't be done."  The conscious breathing will short circuit the ego-talk. Third, I want to let you know that having a mentor in this pursuit tends to be a "make or break" movement, so I am here for you if you would like me to help you in this transition from self-sabotage to self-empowerment.

To submit a dream please submit it to innerhealthtoday@gmail.com

Rory reserves the right to publish any or all of the dream.  Rory cannot guarantee a submitted dream is interpreted as this fluctuates on the number of submissions.

Names will be confidential, and if your dream is selected for this column you will get an email notification.

 

© 2014 Rory Colgan

Rory Colgan is a dream interpreter, metaphysics teacher, writer, speaker, and a spiritual, mental, and emotional balancing teacher.  Rory is a graduate of the School of Metaphysics.  He lives South of Corydon, Indiana, and teaches people in the Louisville area and throughout the United States and the world via phone and skype.  Visit Rory at innerhealthtoday.com and dreamprograms.com

Divine Authority

This spiritual topic is about our potential, our spiritual gifts, and how to obtain what we want by simply focusing on our Spiritual Authority. We, all of us, have several innate gifts one of which is Divine Authority. This Divine Authority is a spiritual innate, infinite, Force that no bodily muscle can reckon with.

I will make an attempt to break down the term Divine Authority. Divine, examples may be Wonderful, Great, Blissful, and Lovely. Thus far no religion is inferred right? Synonyms for Authority may include Power, Conviction, Confidence, and Authorization. Therefore I am a Wonderful and Powerful expression of… of what?

There lay a great void or abyss to be filled with respective beliefs. One such belief I grew up with was… “Someone died for my sins and I am a sinner headed for hell.”

The Principle of Divine Authority is the spiritual practice of communing with our innate, infinite, Force that no bodily muscle can reckon with.

Therefore the question I propose is “What would be your spiritual vibratory outcome if you practiced the principle of Divine Authority?

When I was a child I attended Sunday school. I was taught that although I had yet to commit a “sin” someone gave their life for me and just in case I, in the future, commit a “sin” someone already “paid a price.” Being a child I had no concept of what “sin” was. I had no idea that it was to include – something I might do that may be so horrendous that someone had to die for me.

I remember asking the Sunday school teachers questions pertaining to the lessons counting on answers and yet I found that I was usually belittled by the Sunday school teachers, and more often than not cited as “being fresh at the mouth,” (a cultural colloquialism which translated to“stay in your place Barbara Jene you are a child”). Simply put, my unanswered inquiries often resulted in feelings of hollowness. Therefore, the opportunity for spiritual self-esteem building was lost, and the void was filled with fear and guilt because someone died for something I, as a child, knew nothing about.

Every Sunday there were three teachers and approximately thirty or more of the same students in our class ages 6-10 years old. My friend Beverly, at 8 years old would say to me “stop asking so many questions it only makes them (the teachers) mad.” “Do you see anyone else asking questions?” At that point embarrassment became entrenched in my being as I found I was unable to reduce my prying. To my recollection, there was never a mention of harnessing our Greatness with the use of our spiritual gifts. There was neither an overture towards nor a broaching of the concept of us students possessing any Divine Authority. There was never as much as an inference or a mention that we even had spiritual gifts.

For years the weekly ritual facilitated by the instructors with students as a captive audience left every one of us learning the “truth” that we were “shaped in iniquity.” I researched the word “iniquity,” which means evil, wickedness and nastiness to name a few. The bottom line so it seems is that we were told by reliable sources (our teachers) that we children were resolutely molded as evil and unworthy and that some one important to humanity was executed for us and our sins.

Given that I had neither a concept of spiritual affluence nor was I offered a rational understanding of a ‘how to’ map or coloring book for the purpose of learning prosperity principles or better yet what is a Principle? My continually experienced barrenness was filled with a fear-based, egotistical, self-centered pride. This attitude by no means captured the authenticity of Blissful Confidence.

It was not until many years later into my adulthood that exposure to spiritual concepts, self-help books, listening to self-help audio, reading inspirational empowerment workbooks, and taking classes that these tools placed me firmly on my path to enlightenment.

I became open to respecting offered suggestions that were in my best interest, understanding how to establish together with maintaining a sense of empowerment, which offers a realization of Divine Authority.

Introducing the concept of Divine Authority to children may be one of many possible alternatives to elevate the spiritual esteem of youths with an intention of teaching them to be accepting of their uniqueness and giving themselves permission to begin exerting their muscles of Divine Authority.

It is part of the human growth and developmental schematic process that the imprint of their role, can and will influence the quality of their participation in the grander design of life.

When we are, at best, introduced to the paradigm or concept of our vastness at a younger age this may establish the groundwork of knowing that within us all lays the nucleuses of Divine Authority.

© 2014 Rev. Barbara Williams, M.Msc.

Rev. Barbara Williams provides services in the areas of premarital counseling, facilitating addiction workshops aimed at the progressive benefits of holistic counseling, officiating of weddings or civil ceremonies, christenings, baptism’s, baby naming interpretations, home blessings, transitional or home going ceremonies also known as funeral services and the reading of the Tarot. Rev. Barbara Williams currently resides in Poughkeepsie, New York.  See the Bio section for more information.

Experiential Reality

 

What precisely is the basis of your experiential reality?  Do you know? As I consider my own experiential reality, I have to consider what comprises its component parts:

The 5 Physical Senses:  What I see, hear, smell, touch and taste.

    The 6^th Partially Physical Sense:  What I instinctively know (auto-biological, genetic and intuition).

    The 7^th Sense:  This is really a refined aspect of 1. And 2. Above but it comprises the less tangible but no less important concepts of sensing energy and vibration.

The 8^th Sense:  This is a further refinement of all of the above but can be compartmentalized in alternate states of consciousness and is more dimensionally oriented and not necessarily just in the physical.  I consider this sense more in tune with the level of the Spirit which is closer to the One Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness (or 9^th Sense and there are more).

So, all of the above “senses” are part of my experiential reality but based on how I perceive what my senses are taking in and then further how I objectively or subjectively label or judge what I perceive what my senses are taking in, I have established my Experiential Reality.  Is everyone’s experiential reality the same, you might wonder?  Well, the way we humans sometimes act, it seems at some level we must believe that everyone’s experiential reality is in fact the same because we are very quick to attack someone who slights us in some way for not acting or behaving as kindly or thoughtfully as we do.  But, as you can begin to see (or will see shortly), the truth is we don’t all perceive everything exactly the same way because we can’t.  We can share some perceptions and observations but part of the way we experience the world comes from our senses and how we filter and store the data.  We sense or open to receiving data and then the mind runs its processes to look throughout our experience here in this lifetime (or even others) to find something similar with which it may come to know what it is sensing.  Based on a person’s very individualized experience, the sensory data that comes in will be compared to data taken in at some point in our past.  Simulations of the mind are then run as a result of the comparison processes in order to determine what something is that we have sensed in our experience.  This means that we can have the same inputs but our resulting findings based on our experience won’t always be the same.

I find this an interesting series of thought particularly in light of the conflict of human interactions.  We assume because hubby didn’t take out the trash that hubby doesn’t think very much of us.  We also might assume based on our mind’s findings post-simulation and analysis of data, memories, etc. that when Suzie doesn’t call us when we want her too, she doesn’t like us any more.  Okay, you get the basic idea here, right?  Not everyone comes to the same conclusion after taking in the same data sets.  What further complicates the comparison process from one human being to another is that our senses are different at various levels.  If you just take the first sense, sight.  Not everyone can see 20/20 or see with color.  So, how do you determine the same data taken in but different outputs in thought results?

You see, the data we take in is first filtered by our senses and then further filtered by our memories, perceptions, judgments and beliefs and then we determine the outcome of the data set, (e.g., because of “x” in my memory banks, this is what “this” is).  Now, to further my point lets take Vera, Chuck and Dave.  Vera’s hearing isn’t perfect  but her vision is 20/20.  Chuck is color blind but has exceptional hearing.  Dave is neither color blind nor hard of hearing.  All 3 are standing on the sidewalk at a parade.  Marching directly in front of them a brightly costumed float followed by a band is playing some kind of song loud enough for the crowd to hear.  Later, all 3 of my imaginary friends get together and compare notes on the marching band and parade.  An argument ensues about how loud the music was, how drab the costumes seemed, etc.  Each asserts his or her perception is right.  But, consider, who is really right and who is wrong?  Each can argue from their perspective just on the first physical sense alone.  But what if each also has another trigger-filter inside.  The last parade Vera attended, the man next to her had a heart-attack and died leaving her her a bit apprehensive of parades.  The last parade Dave was at, he was with his friends having the time of his life.  The last parade Chuck was at, someone launched a bag of popcorn that landed squarely on his head leaving him a bit annoyed.  How might these experiences further shape their perceptions of the parade and marching band?  Again, who would be right and who would be wrong in their experience?

Now, take this concept and look at life.  Through the first 5 senses and the mind’s operating processes, we’ve already run data through multiple filters, first physical and then mental.  We can argue on the labels that result from these filters but who is right and who is wrong?  How can you tell?  Well, the 6^th and 7^th senses can help if you are attuned to them but what if you are not?  How could you tell who is right and who is wrong?  What if the 8^th sense kicks in for one of the three and leaves one of them with a knowing that the whole event, parade, music, costumes, being there together watching it and then arguing it afterwards was just a way in which folks might better learn to understand how we take in information and experience this world? What if the 8^th sense, residing more at the level of the Spirit is very in tune with all that is and sees things not in terms of right and wrong but rather in what is beneficial and what is not to a particular person’s life path?

The more you dig into this and analyze it, the more questions arise for the careful and open observer.  When you dig in you start to realize the common conflicts humanity suffers is all based on the same data taken in but sensed and then filtered differently forming individuals aspects of experiential reality.  But, if our experiential reality is not the whole truth then what is the truth?  THAT is THE Million Dollar question and one worth asking, not others, but of the self and only the self.  For only in the still and quiet moments of reflection and understanding can we ever hope to comprehend that there exists a truth of reality beyond the limits of our Experiential Reality.  Arguing for the rightness of our Experiential Reality and, therefore, negating someone else’s Experiential Reality comes down to a choice of how much energy one is willing to expend on something potentially irrelevant and illusory.  On the other hand, through the sharing of the various Experiential Realities with the understanding of the various filters and perceptions, we could stand to gain much knowledge rather than belief based on perception alone.  This theme is key to awareness of our larger conscious existence.  It takes effort but is by far more worthy of our efforts to seek understanding that to fight to be right.

 

© 2014 J.L. Harter

Rev. J.L. Harter, PhD, M.Msc., B.Msc., Author, Blogger, and Spiritual Counselor, Editor of the JMCC.  See Bio section for more information.