Dimensional Traveling, Part I

I was combing through some old meditation notes and chanced upon the transcript of a meditation from June 2009 that, when reviewing it, I came to realize it was one of the wildest experiences I have ever had. In these next two blogs, I am going to present the full meditative event. In part 1, as a reader you will get a glimpse as to what happens when I usually meditate and begin a coversation with my Guides. However, on this particular date, things went beyond that. After re-reading the report, it reminded me a lot of what I have read from people who have had out of body experiences ... Is that what happened to me? I can't say. But it was a remarkable, and I haven't had quite the same experience since.

Here's the transcript:

It is not unusual for me to reach an altered state of consciousness in meditation; heck, that’s the point. During the process, I can feel – quite literally – my consciousness alter during the quiet-phase of the meditation. I will sit and concentrate on my breathing. Well, maybe not necessarily concentrate, but make sure I am breathing in a rhythmic pattern that is more or less even (6 second breath in, hold, 6-8 second breath out). Over the course of a few minutes this allows my body to let go and relax. I notice what muscles are tense and then release that tension. I feel the “buzziness” of my energy (or the cells of my body, not sure which), and work on clearing my mind. There are so many sounds, voices, occasionally music. These are nothing more than random transmissions occurring on the surface, which I have accumulated throughout the course of the day or through the night's dreaming (if I'm meditating in the morning). It is also not uncommon for me to replay incidents that happened to me earlier in the days or that week. Sometimes it’s a struggle to clear these bleed-throughs – like static on a radio as you’re turning the knob to find a station. The trick is to focus on the NOW, as in that Now is the present point of power, and the reality that such voices, music, and clutter is not occurring.

After a few minutes of letting go of the mental noise and feeling the tension of the muscles release and the reality that I am focused consciously in the present moment, this is when my consciousness shifts. Literally, I can feel myself “dip,” as if diving into an ocean. The energy of my whole body changes and my mind clears, as if coming out of some thick fog cloud bank. And there’s a sensation of motion in this dip. Like when you’re in a car driving over a hilly landscape and you take that slope that leaves you feeling “whoo.” That’s a fairly good analogy for it.

Once the mind clears the cloud, then it’s another moment of just waiting. No anticipation. Just sitting there, being present. This is when the Guides approach. Sometimes they will speak to me prior to reaching the “dip,” but real communication happens once I come through the cloud bank – clearer reception makes for better conversation. Their voices are first preceded by the feeling of their presence. Each one has a signature “feel” to their energy, which is natural. Every personality, even in the physical world, has this same distinction. A co-worker’s personality feels different than say a spouse, or a brother. So when the Guides come forward, I know who it is before they start speaking just by the feel of their personality. Sometimes I try to anticipate what their initial first message will be (because they’re always hitting on thoughts I had been running around in my head all day). This process is also good “skepticism” for me, because I’m always testing my clarity of connection – though ultimately this is always foolish, but I do believe in healthy skepticism. What happens is, the Guides will respond in a way I could never anticipate, with wisdom or instructions my conscious mind could never have perceived. This is how I know that such communication is not merely my own mind playing with itself (if the feeling of their personal energy wasn’t enough to convince me).

Now, as will sometimes happen in communication with my Guides, I will sometimes see them. This is not normally the case when I’m doing mediumship readings – that is, I don’t normally see an image of the dead person I’m getting information from. But then again, I’m not in the same meditative state when doing readings as I am when talking to my Guides. At any rate, their visual appearance is always refreshing and gives me another point of reference other than just their words or feeling of their personality. On several occasions we will go to the “garden,” which is a place all of us have created in which we can sit and talk. Now this garden is just as three dimensional as the room I am meditating in. The reality of the Guides when I sit with them is just as real as any person in conversation I would sit with during a dinner party. The garden is lined with gold cobblestone paths, highlighted by trees, flowers, and shrubs. There’s even a brook nearby. I usually sit at a bench, one of the Guides sits next to me, and a couple of the others remain standing on the path. When we decide to talk “on a common ground,” this is the location we have chosen.

Now, this place has a reality all its own. However, we know it is a manufactured reality, or at least one that is “close” to this realm which doesn’t require much “travel” and is utilized really for our purposes.

This is different than another universal dimensional reality, however.

On Friday, June 12, 2009, after speaking with my Guides, I had allowed myself to relax even deeper. I almost fell asleep. My mind had wandered. I knew I was getting close to a dream state and decided to pull myself back to the present moment. At the point of that decision, I noticed through the feel of my inner senses that I was surrounded by several people who weren’t my Guides. It had occurred to me that when my mind drifted, my consciousness had exited my body and was somewhere other than the room or the garden I would normally be in. This was a fascinating realization. There was an older man with a beard who immediately caught my attention. On either side of him were several other people – some young, some old, some female. I noticed my consciousness had taken on another feel, versus how it feels after going through the “dip.” Knowing that this other reality was the result of a shift in consciousness, I decided to see where else I might go, or what else might happen, by relaxing even deeper.

My consciousness suddenly expanded. Literally. It felt as though my whole Self was being stretched across the cosmos. And indeed, there was a sense of movement. You know this sense of movement just by moving your arm away from your body -- you can feel the air surround your limb and your hand stretching away from your center. Similar, too, was the sensation of myself being stretched. I could feel every electron of my Being extending across the universe. There was no space I did not occupy; there was no time in history where I was not present. I felt like the liquid filling a cup. Everything (and I literally mean everything) rushed through me, and I through it. All I had to do was make a minor shift in concentration to hone in to various portions of this vast universe. Again, there was this sense of motion, like being on the fastest rollercoaster every made, zipping through the cosmos. I could sense, and at times even see, brilliant dots of energy erupting all about me.

I decided to find out what they were. I simply concentrated on “what’s the dot.”

To be continued next week ...

Memories in the Mind or Psychic Awareness?

In previous blogs I have talked about my love for predicting which elevator door would open for me at City Hall prior to arriving at the location. The City Hall elevator bay is a series of three doors, and the City Hall building has ten floors. Depending on how many packages I have to deliver, I could have as many as four floors to predict that day (one for each stop), or as few as two (the original lobby door, and then what bay would open for the return flight down). When I first started this experiment, I would wait until I was standing directly in front of the doors. After getting a sufficient run of successful “hits,” I decided to predict from the street outside, usually when I was in the cross-walk, just a few yards from the entrance. There were times when the visuals in my head made me feel like I had traversed time and space and were standing directly at the bay and witnessing the door as it opened; there was no doubt. When that “style” of vividness came, it was always correct.

These days, I try to predict which door before I leave my office cubicle. I work a mile away, with six stop lights to traverse (one of them being the busy intersection of Broadway and Pacific, downtown Everett), pedestrian cross-traffic, and the lack of decent parking (which sometimes forces me to go around the block one or two times). It always amazes me how the answer somehow takes into account the time wasted in dealing with these obstacles; it just goes to show what an amazing orchestration life really has to it.

However, lately I have started to take note of how doing an experiment over and over actually creates what scientists in the field of psi research have called “the decline effect.” This is when a participant has done so many trials that the participant is no longer stimulated enough to try to be accurate; their intensity of concentration has declined, and hence the results as well. This means fewer “hits” and more “misses.” Now, since I still love the “elevator test” as I affectionately call it, I haven’t been in a decline effect in terms of results, but I have been struggling to successfully predict which door would open when I arrived. When I was first given my opportunity for a test this week, I noticed how my mind was swimming to get the information. Am I being shown Door 3, or Door 1? What about Door 2? Why isn’t it just blasting in my face like it used to? What’s going on here?

It suddenly occurred to me what was happening.

After having done several tests over the course of a year or more, I had amassed enough trials in my consciousness that nowadays my mind gets caught up in the memories of previous trials, and thus clouding my ability to effectively see the current test before me. These days, when given the opportunity to go to City Hall, my mind recalls a previous trial, as if to say “Remember how cool that was? How you got the answer of which door would open before you got there? Remember how it was Door 3?” At which point, when I remember it was Door 3, I would wonder if the memory was suggesting Door 3 for this day’s test. Inevitably, other memories of previous tests flood in, to where it was not only remembering Door 3, but also don’t forget Door 1 – you know, the one you had to sit through two stop lights for, and go around the block three times, and you still got it? Yes, the memories flood and I stand there wondering – “Okay, what is it going to be for today?”

This can be real a challenge.

When you have a storm of memories recalling past successes (or even past failures), you feel like you are being pushed and pulled in multiple ways; it messes not only with your mind, but also with your emotions. Like any test you’ve done in life (whether psychic or academic), you don’t want to choose the wrong answer, and so you get a chaotic storm of both positive and negative vibes assaulting your system.

How do you determine what the outcome of today’s test is going to be?

I really put that question to the forefront of my mind this week, as it really was stifling my connection to getting some sort of an answer – right or wrong. Finally, at one point, I was directed to pay attention to how conditions in other parts of my body felt. When that bit of advice came, my mind was still cascading with images of Door 3 and Door 1 simultaneously. (Incidentally, doesn’t that aggravate you, how your mind can be thinking of multiple things at once? Sheesh.) So when it came to discerning other parts of my body, I had to ignore the mental imagery flashing inside my head at a billion miles an hour and just go with the other sources. In this case, I noticed my right leg felt more rooted to the ground – heavier – than my left leg. The sensation clearly said to me, the correct door will be the one in accordance with the right side of my body, or rather not the left side. Since I had no weight or sense of my left leg, I concluded that it wasn’t going to be Door 3 (which, if you were to be standing in front of the elevator bay, Door 3 would be the one furthest left).

Then I had to determine, “Okay, if it’s my right leg that’s giving me the clue and it is not Door 3, does that mean it is Door 2 or Door 1?” Again, not wanting to obtain the wrong answer, I placed Door 2 and Door 1 in my mind (they were both viable options, I thought) and again paid attention to what other sensations came over my body. Here again, my right leg came to my awareness. It was heavy, and feeling somewhat “insistent,” as if to say “far right,” meaning Door 1. Right then, I accepted Door 1 as the choice. No turning back now. Right or wrong.

What was curious was an additional feeling and “cloudiness” to the image that filled my mind. Intuitively I was getting a notion that, yes, it would be Door 1, but there was going to be an unusual aspect to the moment. What? I wondered. When I asked the question, I noticed something shift in my consciousness – an act of perception that gave me a clue as to the decline effect and the nature of psychic functioning and the filter of the subconscious and conscious mind. In asking “what was the anomaly” I was no longer thinking about which door was going to open, but something entirely new and different. In essence, a new kind of “test” was being presented beyond the usual “which door will it be?” test. And in that moment I noticed a unique set of conditions:

The memories of previous trials ended and I clearly put my mind in the Now moment – the Now where I always state access to the past and the future reside together. This new variable, because it had never come up before, didn’t give my chattering imagination something to recall from the past, freeing my inner senses from getting clogged with residual minutiae of former trials. Not only that, I noticed how the rest of my body “clicked in” to try and access the information.

I suddenly realized: Perhaps the decline effect is not necessarily a lack of interest in the experiment, but getting too caught up in the memories of past successes and failures to be open and clear enough to receive new data input. Moreover, when memories come to the mind, they block access to the Now moment, and also the cues being given the physical body. When my mind was racing for which door and replaying memories of the past, my body wasn’t giving me a heavy right leg, it was just emotionally and mentally getting tugged based on the memories. It was only when I “shut off” my focus on the memories and got rooted into the Now moment existing elsewhere inside my body did I notice what my leg was suggesting for the solution.

It was then that I came upon a theoretical position in regards to receiving psychic information: Are you getting caught up in memories of previous trials, whether successes or failures, or are you really rooted in the Eternal Now moment and perceiving the outcome? And how do you determine which is which? For me, it was noticing other parts of my body. When I’m zipping around my head with memories, the effects on the physical body are negligible. When I’m zipping around my head for a psychic solution, an energy-intensity also corresponds somewhere else inside my physical frame. At that point, my mind and body are working together. Therefore, when it comes to receiving psychic information, the trick is to:

Stay rooted in the Now moment – ignore the pull of the past and don’t engage your imagination for what is to come in the future. Instead, let the future come into your imagination *and body* spontaneously.

In your mind, you know when you’re reaching for answer; there’s that undeniable sense of groping, clawing at the wall. When you detach and let go, ignore your ego and ignore your own consciousness, things will appear and take their places. This is when the insights come. When you are able to let go of the past, let go of an egoic attachment to the future, let go of your own sense of self and just be, that which is your intention for a psychic answer will make its way to you, and will affect you more intimately than just inside your head.

Psychic information, I have learned, has to go through many layers of our beings – we filter out so much of reality via our belief systems, our focus of consciousness, our subconscious and energy systems going on inside the body – it’s really amazing we get anything at all. But we do. And we can. And that’s pretty powerful. All it requires is diligence, paying attention, and being open to reception without being rooted to other attachments that would block the transmission. Sometimes, indeed, there will be “distortions” which keep us from getting a completely clear transmission, probably due to any combinations of factors mentioned in the latter sentence. But that doesn’t mean the psi function is any less viable or valuable. Something amazing is still happening.

So what was the “cloudiness” that I experienced in foreseeing Door 1? The feeling inside my body was “something wrong with the environment, at that moment at the door.” I also wondered if there were going to be two other people in the elevator.

Finally, after two stoplights and circling the block for a parking space, I reached the bay and hit the button to go up … the light above Door 1 never lit up, nor did it sing its usual “DING.” I had to wait for the door to actually open before knowing which door it was. Both those things – no light, no ding – had never happened before. It was unusual, and definitely something my consciousness would have perceived “wrong” with the environment. But it was Door 1 – the answer and it’s notation of “something wrong” were both correct.

What about running into two people?

It didn’t happen on the ride up, so I initially logged the psychic interpretation in my memory as a “miss.” However, up on the tenth floor, I predicted Door 3 for my return to the lobby (I was correct), and when I stepped out, I saw two people departing from Door 1. Was it then a “hit” or a “miss”? You decide.

In the end, for any kind of psychic test (especially those run over and over), I think I’ve discovered that in order to curb and address the decline effect, check to see if you’re just running things around in your mind. Are you clearly in the Now moment? Is both your mind and body engaged in the moment to allow the information to fill all your senses?

Let go. And just be aware.

Til next time …

Riding the Light

In the 1970’s, a German physicist named Fritz Albert Popp discovered something quite extraordinary: even in the darkest recesses of our bodies, we are still emitting miniscule bursts of light. Called biophotons, his research suggests that cells interact and communicate data between each other through these bursts of illumination. After studying the phenomena for decades, he came to believe it was possible to predict another human’s state of health based on how bright or how dim these biophotons glowed. Similarly, Semyon Kirlian discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a source of voltage, a type of corona discharge would appear in a resulting photograph. After years of experiments and studies, like Popp, he came to believe it was possible to predict in advance of a person getting ill, based on how “fuzzy” or “smeared” the discharge would appear. Kirlian believed his photography captured the aura, and today you can find people advertising “auric photos” using modern-day equipment based on Kirlian’s designs.

What all this suggests is a confirmation of what we’ve been told for centuries: we are made of light. As Yoda instructed Luke in the marshes of Dagobah “Luminous beings are we – not this crude matter.” It appears through the research of both Popp and Kirlian, we can absorb and emit light concurrently, and that by observing this luminescence we may be able to predict possible health risks before they become physically manifested. Barbara Brennan in her book “Hands of Light” also makes this declaration, as she purports to be able to see a person’s aura.

As fascinating as it is to me that we can predict physical ailments ahead of time based on auric light emissions, it made me consider something else that our own light emissions provide: access to the eternal.

Huh?

In doing some basic research on photons and light, I discovered that photons do not have a rest mass, and therefore can communicate across vast distances and are always on the move. When you gather many photons together, they create magnetic fields and visible light (as well as laser beams). The other interesting property to photons is that they behave as either a wave or a particle, and to date, this behavior has a lot to do with the effect of an observer when it comes to quantum systems. When you get down to the nitty gritty of trying “capture” the photon, the entire properties of space and time break down. And guess what: this is going on inside you!

Since light never comes to rest and pervades everything, when a hypothetical ship travels at near light-speed, we are told that its mass becomes too huge and could never, theoretically, reach absolute light speed. And that no matter how fast or slow this ship would be travelling, the speed of light outside its hull would remain a constant 186,282 miles per second. That is, even though the ship may be traveling at 186,281 miles per second, the light outside would not be travelling 1 mile more per second, but still 186,282 miles per second, relative to the object. Pretty crazy, huh? This is one of the weird things Einstein predicted was characteristic of light.

There are so many amazing and mystifying things attached to photons and light, it could make your head spin. But consider for a moment that we give off light from our beings every moment, which means the associated mysticism must also apply to us.

You could theorize that the biophotons of your being, since they have no mass and are considered elementary particles (meaning they also defy the constructs of Time in addition to Space), are essentially a gateway to eternity. At that point, you must reckon with the notion that since your body is producing such phenomena, then you and your body at the quantum level is everywhere and everywhen, an eternal being at its very base. Of course, this is at the quantum level, and when you build-up, things start to turn into more coherent patterns. Photons collect into packets, which then create electromagnetic properties, radiation, and into the visible light spectrum and beyond. Is it any wonder, then, that certain people can predict physical health before it happens, based on light?

Photons, being without mass and not subject to the standard whims of time, mean that there are portions of your being also not associated with mass and time. As you give off photons, those properties, in a way, become the very properties of your own dynamic Self.

Contemplate that for awhile. Meditate on that prospect. You are a being of light, and the properties of light defy time and space at the quantum level. Somewhere within your being, you are intertwined with that sense of eternity and, hence, are experiencing it.

Like anything, just because something amazing and miraculous is happening doesn’t mean you are at all aware of it, at least consciously. How many things are going on in your body right now that you aren’t consciously aware of? Quite literally, more than you could count! However, once you can calm your mind, focus, and go inward, entire galaxies can open up for you. Once you quiet the mind, let go of the outcome, and completely detach from your ego and just be with the energies of your body, the realization of suppressed forces begins rising to the surface. Allowing the experience to unfold naturally invites you to experience the deep recesses of your being; don’t judge or think about the experience, just let it happen. Once you detach from your sense of egoic mind and self, you free your consciousness from a psychological platform of how it perceives and filters the experience of life. At that moment, you have taken a dive into the pool of eternity and are able to acknowledge your union with that power which, as Yoda says, “surrounds us and binds us.”

By going inward and detaching from your egoic self, you allow that which you would typically perceive as small and imperceptible to become the superstar in the reigning Now moment of your experience. You will feel the tingling of life throughout your cells; you may even feel a pulse of energy vibrating like a fantastic engine up and down the length of your spine, and suggestive of something so much greater than your usual sense of physical being.

Once there, you can focus even deeper, going right into the reality of those photons. With the impulse of thought “into the light” or “space inside cells,” you can direct your awareness into that eternal space. As a consequence, the boundless universe expands within you and becomes your environment; you can sense its fantastic magnificence as having no end and no beginning; you can feel Time itself spread out and lose its moment-by-moment nature. This zone, this eternal void, is the womb of your creation, where you rise up and dive back into of every moment – though you consciously filter it out in order to have the types of experience you do on a more macro-conscious-perception level. However, this deeper recess is the fountain of creation, where you and all others are birthed and linked. At this level, there is no separation and all things are One. Here, you witness the power backing all of creation – and that you are a part of it. When you abandon your egoic self and swim within the ocean of eternity, you are engaged with the choir of the angels and the sculptor of the universe; you are linked with All That Is, and it is something which (at that moment) you are fully aware you are experiencing.

With a mere whim, you can traverse galaxies and experience all corners of the universe. You can experience Time swirling about you, and all you need is a mental reach to grasp moments of epochs past or dimensions forthcoming. It is effortless; far less energy than what it takes to think a single word.

When you return back to normal consciousness, the layers of reality build upon you again like clothes in winter. Your individuality awakens –not like a child from a dream, but rather like the sun being freed from morning clouds; radiant and inspiring. You are undoubtedly transformed. Once you realize that eternity is accessible through your own divine being, faith in the power of existence and your unity with it is no longer required. You can discard faith with experiential knowledge that this is, in fact, the literal truth. Then, perhaps with a little focus, you may be able to consciously reach in, light up, and enhance your day-to-day world.

You may not reach this eternal state the first time you try going inward, but it’s there. Knowing that you are made of light, know that all space and time is lighting up with each beat of your heart. You are eternal. Miraculous. Hopefully you will reach this state and finally affirm what I believe to be the truth of you all: You are a Perfect being.

Til next time,

Following Your Bliss

Earlier this week, my wife and I plugged in a DVD set we hadn’t watched in a long time: Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth.” Most of you, I’m sure, are probably familiar with this. In a few of the episodes, Mr. Campbell talked about “following your bliss” and how, in doing so, it put you in union with the transcendent. He very much believed that the livelihood of being was supported (if not originated) by the unseen realm which exists outside space and time, and myths were a way of describing and intimating this vast, superconscious reality.

In following your bliss, he made it clear that each person will be unique in what type of journey he/she will embark on. For some, they may choose an artistic path, such as musician, painter, or actor. For others, their bliss may be more hands-on, such as constructing with tools, exercising the body through manual labor, or solving puzzles in the mind at a computer.

Of course, not all of us follow our bliss. In today’s world, we are taught from the moment we take our first breath the need to focus on economy, monetary stability, and socially “fitting in.” We were all indoctrinated to consider the same journey: go to school, college (or some form of higher education), and find ways of becoming more “marketable” in order to land that “decent job” that will sustain you for the course of your lifetime. In addition to that, you must also raise 2.5 kids, put them through college, have a white picket fence, yada yada yada.

We were told this path would lead to bliss, or is at least what bliss is about. Now, I’m sure such a life may have many great moments of joy, but does it really classify as bliss? Does it really make you feel alive and in union with the transcendent? For some, it might. And that’s fantastic. However, I suspect for most others, this isn’t the case.

In hearing Mr. Campbell talk about bliss, I quietly reflected upon myself and honestly asked – What is my bliss? If I were to take Campbell’s definition – being in union with the transcendent, feeling outside space and time, eternal, and completely alive – then what form or journey would my bliss take?

Surprisingly, the answer didn’t come right away. The question, supplied with the definition, does make one pause for consideration.

There are many things I enjoy doing, which could certainly borderline the sense of bliss, such as composing music (you can check out a few songs here on this page), drawing (which I haven’t done in years, but it used to provide such a wonderful meditative, relaxing experience), or story writing (never could keep track of time during that either). But to access what I felt was the transcendent and be knocked out of the field of space and time, I could only settle on one thing: the study of the soul, the nature of psi, those experiences that exposed the universal mysteries within the natural world and our own beings.

Funny, it was only a few days earlier that I had thought about how colorful my life really was as a result of pursuing psychic phenomena. If I didn’t have the experiences of ghosts, thought-transference, precognition, or mediumship, how incredibly flat and sepia toned my existence would be. Without having such things in my experience, everything in the world would seem flat, monochrome, and anything but bliss. Psi related phenomena, I realized, is what gives my life its vividness, turning it from a dull black-and-white world to amazing Technicolor. At times throughout my life, I have often wondered if my preoccupation with such things was a detriment rather than a benefit. Was I being too self-absorbed? Too weird? Unable to fit into the mundane “normal” world because I was not always on the predefined “path of life”? Some of you may answer “yes” towards me on all these points. But I’ve come to realize, when following your bliss, there’s something else Mr. Campbell talked about: Sacrifice.

Sometimes you must sacrifice things that were once perceived as noble or of immense worth in order to reach greater heights. There’s a saying that goes “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose site of the shore.”

In pursuing your bliss – if once you have discovered what it is – there may be some uncomfortable acts (ironic, huh?) that you will go through on the journey. Your bliss may not be applicable to higher education; it may not require raising 2.5 kids; it may have nothing to do with a white picket fence. For many, still caught in this cookie-cutter illusion, you may suffer what at first appears to be social stigma.

That’s okay. Boldness never resulted in mediocrity.

But this is not about winning friends and influencing people. Rather, it goes a bit deeper: unraveling yourself in order to experience (and ultimately give yourself permission) to engage with your bliss and land in the field of transcendence.

In defining what your bliss is, you might discover that it is something completely foreign to what you have been doing for many, many years. This is not to say your bliss may be something completely brand-new in terms of experience, but it may be an activity or experience that you’ve only done periodically without much consideration of “following it.” Then again, it may be something you’ve never done before, but often dreamed about.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, following your bliss isn’t necessarily going to be an easy path. One would think “bliss = easy.” I mean, bliss is supposed to feel good, so it should be wonderful to pursue, right? Well, no, not when you have to deal with years of programming and conditioning – not only with social society outside of you, but also with the thick matter between your own ears.

Though I consider psi and psychic phenomena “bliss” in the definition that Campbell offered, it has not been an easy road. Parts of my life, my thinking, my lifestyle, have all had to die in some way, shape, or form over the decades, piece by piece, little by little (and it’s still an ongoing process). I’ve struggled with myself in how I thought I should behave with others – being a closet psychic, more or less, and fears of being “discovered” and ridiculed within “normal” environments. There were years where, if I was not in the process of conducting a sitting, I would “close myself down” as a course of self-protection – attempting to be “right” versus “weird.” These (as well as potential others) are the battles that can wage inside your consciousness when you are not aware of your bliss, but are still following something. Even when you do declare your passion and march down the road within that awareness, these kinds of things can still pop up.

At some point on the “bliss trail” a choice will have to be made: follow what the bliss demands of you, or succumb to mediocrity. This doesn’t necessarily mean dropping everything at once, but may require you to take a better look at the road and plan for what may lie ahead, and what you may need to leave behind in order to engage it. You might need to strategize in order to gain the most from what the road of your personal bliss offers.

The tricky thing about following your bliss – there is no map. The entirety of the road is not revealed to you. However, being as that it is bliss, this piece of the puzzle is not as hard to deal with so long as you are truly enraptured with the journey and not stuck on its future-oriented outcome.

What’s the benefit of all this? In following your bliss, you will not only connect with that essence which is beyond space and time, but you will live life feeling completely Alive. You won’t be able to wake up in the morning and tell yourself “It’s going to be another drab day.” You also won’t die feeling unfulfilled. But on the journey, you may encounter stresses the push and pull you, which are still part of the journey of a blissful life.

In following your bliss, it stands to reason that you will enjoy more of your life. That enjoyment, rightly so, will emanate from you in ways you can’t imagine, to positively affect those around you – again in ways you may not perceive. Genuinely happy people, let’s face it, are just more fun to be around. And the more people who can be happy on planet earth – following their bliss and saying “to hell” with the cookie-cutter life – will undoubtedly produce more positive energy that can help this planet grow and heal versus decline and die.

So … what is your bliss?? Are you prepared and willing to follow it?

Til next time,

Happy New Year! A Perspective on the Future

The New Year has dawned, so what does this mean for us on a soul's journey? Well, it's an opportunity to reflect on the previous 12 months and consider all that has come before. We can measure and weigh whether we have accomplished much or amounted to little and how the results speak to our inner beings. It's a moment to inspect our innermost realities, to see if we are progressing and growing in the time and speed of our liking and how we've stood up to our own sense of self and standards. Were the last 12 months fruitful? Or lackluster? Was our focus on simply one thing or many? And if your energy was on one thing, how much more did that one thing develop or expand as a result of the attention? Are you better for it or worse? If you were focused on many things, how did it all pan out? Did certain items end up consuming more energy and time than others?

Once this self-absorbed reflection is over, take a moment to congratulate yourself - whether you feel the previous year was a success or not. Give yourself the kudos for living through each and every day, and experiencing every kind of moment -- the joys and the sorrows. You lived through each of them and are worthy of the small reward of personal gratitude. Recognize, if you will, the power of your own fortitude for making it through (especially during these tying times, where jobs are scarce and people are really having to scrape by). It is so very important to be grateful in honoring your strength and persistence.

This, in reality, is the Hero's journey that you are on. We are all on this path in our own unique ways. A hero is not born, but rather forged through the trials and tribulations of the journey. It is through the tests and drama of experience that mold and impress the hero to reach within and pull out of him/herself those qualities and aspects left hidden, which raise not only the soul of the hero to greater heights, but also the community s/he serves. We are all diamonds in the rough, yet it is through the course of life that the black outer crust of existence gets chiseled away and the brilliant glory of your being is brought to light.

Rejoice in the aspects of your illumined brilliance -- a result of the past year's events. You have earned the right to honor the energy you've spent, the price you have paid, and to recognize at least a sliver of your own personal heroism in getting through it all.

Of course, the New Year wouldn't be complete without accepting that it is not another go at the same wheel as 2010, but a chance to make things new. Celebrating the New Year is a chance for inspiring our spirits to open new doors; to accept that next chapter on our heroic journey of uncovering what it is that makes us a divine being and sharing it with the world. How much more of your brilliant light will be exposed in the next 12 months in comparison to where you are now? How much more do you wish to glow?

Oftentimes we start the New Year with the best of intentions -- all those resolutions and stuff -- and then for some reason let them go and return to what is comfortable and familiar. Yet, if we take stock of all the years gone by, the comfortable and familiar never really returns, in terms of our experience. If anything, it is only a feeling or mental attitude that returns, creating events and circumstances that may be quite different from ones gone by, but result in the same "feeling tone" we have grown accustomed to.

Make a resolution this year to change that "feeling tone." Little by little, that tone changes regardless of whether or not you are directing it -- this is the natural flow of the Hero's journey. Yet it is a slow change that you are hardly conscious of. But here you are, at the start of a New Year (and a "1" year at that, in a quasi-numerology point of view), so try a hand at doing something a little different: Don't wait for the adventure to come to you, why don't you go on the adventure?

You've been honed, carved, fashioned, and bread for greatness through all the prior challenges and adventures of your life, so you are by no means incapable of going on the "offensive" for change, versus feeling on the "defensive." You've gathered an immense treasure chest of skills, wisdom, and abilities through the decades and can no longer be considered an apprentice to life's missions. The third act of every dramatic play spins the hero around from being a perceived "victim of circumstances" to becoming the initiator of change. He takes what he has learned, dips into the treasure trove of his experiences, and discovers he has everything he needs to change his world in the direction of his choosing. Of course, "his world" is a personal reflection, which metaphorically (and perhaps in some cases, literally), can have ramifications for the greater masses surrounding him.

Let the New Year be an open door for you to become the Hero in the third act of your own dramatic play. There will always be challenges -- things that push and pull us in directions and invite us to grow and become different than what we were moments before. This, my friends, is inevitable. But the promise of a New Year is an invitation to engage your own creative faculties in making new choices, new decisions, and also engage in new actions to inspire the change in a direction you choose.

Keep your mind, your focus, your intention, on that new "feeling tone" of your life. A Hero, in the course of his journey (and most certainly in that third act), finds his strength by keeping his mind clearly on the goal -- sometimes to the point of saying "I won't take 'no' for an answer." And the great thing is, the universe does assist us. When you start doing things in the direction of that "feeling tone," the universe will conspire to move things in your direction, provided you keep to the task and accept these gifts when they come (hint: sometimes, they won't feel like gifts, but obstacles. Don't worry, it's a playful disguise). Commit not to return to your old ways of thinking, doing, and feeling. The mythical Hero usually burns his bridges (or rather, they are burned for him) -- meaning he's not only unwilling but unable to return to the ways of old; instead, he must construct anew. It is, quite frankly, the only way to grow.

We are always in a state of change, but change doesn't necessarily mean growth. We don't want to backslide here.

Let 2011 be the first year, the "1" year of beginning your third act in certain areas of your dramatic life. This means sacrifice -- unwilling to return to the old ways of thinking and feeling. Slay the dragon of your discontent by crying forth your belief - your faith - in not only the possibility of a better "feeling tone" (and hence life), but the fact that you will not be denied it.

At this point is when you encounter some of the wonderful hidden treasures buried deep within. Here is where the peasant farmer turns off his computer and uses the Force to destroy the Death Star; or where the gladiator removes his protective armor and shield to rely solely on his own wits, strength, and the will of the gods. There's something magical in that act. Previous experiences provide the platform -- these are not careless moments of naivety. These are moments when the Hero knows he is worthy, capably, and the possibility of failure minuscule in the face of his learned skills.

Yes, let your review of 2010 fuel you for the next act of your life in 2011. Do you wish to allow circumstances to mold and guide you through all of this coming year, or will you dare to finally enter the dragon's keep?

Happy New Year!