Hello again, fellow spiritual travelers! My wife and I just got back from taking a wonderful two week vacation down the Oregon Coast and into the redwoods of Northern California. As is typical when we go on these journeys, we don’t find much time to relax – we fill every waking moment with exploration. It seems our souls are insatiable at consuming what we can about the areas we travel to; what fun sites to see, how do people live in the area, etc. Literally at the crack of dawn we pull ourselves out of bed, grab a bite, and then are out the door. Naturally, this takes a hit on my usual routine of meditating, but that doesn’t mean I completely neglect it!
About a week before leaving for the trip, I asked my guides what they thought about where we were headed. We go to the Oregon Coast annually, so I didn’t expect much of a response. They did give me a prediction for one of the areas we were visiting that was so out of the norm, I was a bit startled when it actually happened. That seems to be my relationship with them: they tell me something, I scoff (“Yeah, right. How’s that going to happen?”), then their prediction comes true and I tell myself “You can’t argue with the guides.” Oh, well, it happens. I’m grateful they still put up with my skepticism after so many years.
One of things they did tell me was that the trip would give me a whole new objective outlook on myself. I did get the opportunity to meditate three times, and indeed received some very poignant (and personal) information that is going to guide me down some paths I haven’t traveled before, but which will nonetheless hopefully lead me to further insights that will enrich and expand my life.
During one of the meditations, information about conscious creation came up. Specifically, the guides wanted to address the use of logic. I’ll preface this by saying they were talking to how I use logic – so this is a personal assessment – and perhaps does not apply to everyone. However, I would like to share what they said. You see, when I plan and hope for the future, I always try to deduce or estimate what “the logical path” is in order to be successful. I’m one of those people that imagines, “If I take ‘A’ and add it to ‘B’, the outcome has to be ‘C’.” Of course, how many times have we thought that and things turned out in no way to be what we had planned!
Well, it appears there may be several reasons why. I could write a whole other blog on those reasons, but that’s not my mission here. Instead, the guides informed me that 1) life is usually not logical, and 2) “logic” may actually be limiting.
Let me explain.
After the meditation, I wrote down everything I could remember. At the end of the session, they gave me an affirmation to focus on, and that was “How can I ‘creatively’ ________?”
“Logic is only two-dimensional,” they told me. “To think logically invites a ‘closed’ pathway, or rather only one path. To ask ‘creatively’ engages all the senses, all the dimensions, and opens creative wells for other opportunities ‘logic’ blocks out.”
“Be happy for disappointments and setbacks, because they hint at and/or sometimes reveal the correct map.” They were showing me a car navigation system here, where you sometimes go off-course, and when you look at the map, there is a sense of relief because it reveals where you are and where you need to be. “When the map is chosen,” they continued, referencing when you can see on the navigation system the correct position and various routes on getting there, “leave the setback and disappointment – the memory of the event and its subsequent emotion – in the past in order to focus or strive toward the new light directed by its opposite.” In this case, they asked “Do you still beat yourself up at having gotten lost once the navigation map shows you where to go? Do you keep your consciousness locked onto the road you are incorrectly on – going in circles – or do you focus where the map shows you to go?” This is what they meant by letting go of the disappointment. Acknowledge it, as you would acknowledge being lost in your car, but once the map comes up that shows the possibilities of getting back on track, move your consciousness there and don’t keep it spinning on the same road of error.
Then they tried to butter me up, but what they said applies to everyone: “You are light and grand, no matter what you do or what time you exist. That light shows all possibilities and engages them. This is the act of your Soul. Thoughts and beliefs inform your relationships.”
“Relationships” was the key here. They explained that, “Happiness is a relationship between your mind and experiences. Everything is experienced inside you – thoughts, emotions, etc. Nothing is outside. It’s your inner relationships of mind (what you think you are worthy and capable of) to that of what you are going through; but how you feel is dictated through these inner channels. You define the relationship – whether consciously or unconsciously, it doesn’t matter. YOU are the one who applies the definition. It’s all inside and a relationship.”
“Instead of asking, ‘How do I logically go from ‘A’ to ‘B’?’ you could ask ‘How do I CREATIVELY go …?’ Logic has very little to play in making things multidimensional.” That was a heavy hitter, and so true when looking at things in retrospect. “Logic can’t predict others’ behavior or thoughts. Logic is a cog-and-wheel ‘cause-and-effect’ linear way of thinking, but cannot rationally predict the behaviors of others – which you need in the march to success – so LOGIC cannot LOGICALLY get you anywhere,” at least when it comes to me, I feel they were saying. “Instead of LOGIC, asking for CREATIVELY walking the path DOES take into account eccentricities, synchronicities, and possibilities of other variables and can include them in the final makeup of success.”
“Creativity goes beyond logic, because it can use the magnificence of ILLOGICAL events to bring about change and new realities.”
“Sadness, disappointments, setbacks, can be used as CREATIVE TOOLS to point to what other things might work and move you in those directions.”
“Logic uses sadness, disappointments, setbacks, as a way of labeling an event and keeping those emotions anchored in consciousness as potential deterrents to future actions.” In other words, if it didn’t logically work out the first time, why bother trying it the same way again?
In terms of how I use logic, they gave me further details.
“Logic is a tool for reverse-engineering events. It is creative in that aspect, and can give you tips and clues on what didn’t work in that particular example and why things might not possibly work the next time. (However, ‘possibly’ does not equate to ‘definitely’.) For instance, one person saying ‘no’ to a request doesn’t mean everyone will say ‘no.’ Someone could still say ‘yes.’ Extreme holders to logic would not be open to the ‘yes’ alternative,” – which I must admit, that’s me, “because they obsess over the ‘no’ reply and label it as ‘logical’ and ASSUME all others would reply in same. This is the bane of creative evolution and event causation.”
“Logic, then, can at times create boundaries when it comes to creating events and changes. To use the expression and feeling of ‘creatively’ approaching a task or goal does not. Logic oftentimes creates limiting ideas via social class (‘because I do not belong to this group, I cannot do …’), education (‘because I did not go to this school or do not have this degree …’), age (‘because I am too old or not old enough …’) and health (‘because I have this condition or symptom …’).
“’Creatively,’ on the other hand, does not allow those boundaries to exist. Creativity, because it can engage so many different levels and possibilities, can bypass those limits – but only in so much as you accept that possibility and leave ‘logic’ out of the equation.”
“Creativity, of course, can induce logic in the causal process, but it will seem like a ‘spontaneous logic’ – as an example: because this is hot, it might burn me. That would logical and correct, therefore, logic does have its place and its benefits. However, logic cannot ALWAYS predict future variables in terms of an outcome. You oftentimes try to use logic to do that, then get frustrated when such ‘personal logic’ fails.”
So one of the things I need to work on is to not limit creative possibilities simply to what I think is the logical route. Instead of asking “How do I logically achieve …” and try to predict the ‘logical’ path, they suggested the better question for me to ask would be “How do I ‘creatively’ (insert goal/task here)” and remain focused on the outcome, then pay attention to thoughts, ideas, and feelings that come up spontaneously which provide a gentle ‘nudge’ forward. Of course, this may not work for everybody, and my guides know how skeptical I am, so things will most likely proceed at a slow pace, but I felt their perception on how I use logic versus creative thinking might be useful to other left-brainers out there like myself.
Life isn’t always logical. As I oftentimes fall back to – quantum mechanics – when scientists first got into that tiny world (and still even today) they couldn’t figure out how it ‘logically’ worked. So why should we be surprised when life’s events oftentimes don’t logically fall into place as WE would like to have imagined them?
Because logic isn’t necessarily wholly CREATIVE. We are multidimensional beings, and we create using multidimensional means. Logic, it seems (at least in terms of how I use logic) is perhaps too limiting when it comes to addressing event creation. Perhaps the limitations of logic also prevent us from experiencing some greater meaning or awareness that could come out of an event, hence the reason why sometimes our events happen in illogical and spontaneous ways – our Souls know better than our left-brain minds. Just a thought.
At least, it sounds logical … heh, heh.
Until next time,
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Ghosts Are People Too
Last weekend I participated in an overnight investigation in a grand old theater that had been built in 1928. The Washington State Ghost Society had been there once before and recorded several EVPs (electronic voice phenomena). Members also reported having personal experiences, such as seeing shadows and feeling a sense of presence, and the theater owners talked of hearing voices and seeing objects move. We decided to head back and see what else we could uncover.
On the drive down, I carpooled with the Society president, Dave K. and we got talking about how interacting with spirits had become so normal and commonplace in our lives, that we had forgotten it was not a typical pastime for everyone else. It had occurred to us, rather humorously, that we take for granted our ability to dive into locations where most people fear to tread. To us, our experiences have shown that ghosts are not something to be feared, and that such encounters are really to be embraced. So we asked the question: why are people afraid?
The answer seemed quite simple, but it was worth examining. We started with the usual – Hollywood. The movie industry has done a fantastic job coloring our perception of what spirits can and can’t do. For the entertainment crowd, moviemakers would love to have us believe spirits can do ANYTHING! And that they are always out to FRIGHTEN US! This is actually further from the truth. Naturally, the other culprit in making us fear so much about ghosts is that spectre referred to as “the unknown.” Because we do not fully understand the nature of the phenomena, the missing puzzle pieces could – could (gasp!) – represent something nefarious. At least, I think that is what we sometimes tell ourselves. We as humans have this tendency to apply fear to things we do not fully understand because we assume our lack of knowledge just might lead to our downfall in connection with it. In other words, it’s hard to look out for Number One – personal self-interest – when you do not fully comprehend what you might be going up against. It’s a logical conclusion, but life rarely ever turns out to be so clean-cut.
The realizations Dave and I (and many of our investigator friends) have discovered over the years of coming face-to-face with the spirits of those who have remained behind stands in stark contrast to what we’ve been taught as a civilization over the centuries. It is in direct contradiction to what Hollywood would have you believe – and in many cases, counter to what a lot of the paranormal “investigation” television shows air. (Let’s face it, when you’re dealing with T.V., you’re dealing with RATINGS, competition, etc.). So in this blog, I would like to clear up a few things about ghosts and hauntings that I’ve learned over the years, to hopefully give people the sense that it is okay to actually NOT be afraid when you encounter a spirit.
1) Ghosts are there to frighten you. Nonsense. Only on very rare occasions are ghosts trying to deliberately scare the bejeezus out of you. 9 times out of 10, they are just trying to get your attention (and in some cases, may not even be aware of you or that their actions are affecting you). There may be any number of reasons why a ghost might want to make contact (and all of them non-threatening) – The ghost might be a relative of yours that is trying to tell you they are okay; It might be a former owner of the house you just moved into, letting you know you are welcome and watch out for the occasional leaky faucet; and believe it or not, the spirit might be trying to get your attention to warn you of danger, such as a loose floor board on the staircase. Yes, sometimes they might be wanting to make contact to see if you can help them get free of where they are at, or provide some kind of closure to their lives, or just have fun because they think you are such a cool person. Sometimes they might NOT LIKE how you’ve position a piece of furniture and are wanting to tell you that – but that doesn’t make them evil. Sometimes they just want the honorable acknowledgement. Are they really hanging out in the corner asking themselves “How can I torment this person?” No.
2) Ghosts can do anything. No, they can’t. Yes, they can move objects – but then again, so can you. But they don’t move them nearly as often and to the magnitude Hollywood shows you. The amount of energy a spirit has to gather in order to move something as light as a pencil can be quite draining. The opening of cabinet doors, the rolling of a ball, tapping you on the head, all can take place. But they can’t take place in a non-stop every-moment-of-the-day fashion. They will only happen sporadically, and at the expense of the ghost’s energy. Once they have opened that cabinet, it’s going to be a few minutes to several hours before they can do anything like that again. They certainly don’t have the energy to levitate your entire house and consume it in a ball of fire over the graveyard your home was unwittingly built over. We may not know everything about what spirits can do, but this much we can more or less agree on.
3) Because we don’t fully understand the phenomena, it could be dangerous. Yes, the phenomena could be, but that doesn’t mean it will be. I have interacted with spirits for decades, and the more I talk to them, and the more my Society investigators interact with them, the more we have come to realize they are actually more benign than they are malevolent. To me, this knee-jerk reaction of fear has got to be a result of cultural conditioning – starting from the summer campfire tales of restless spirits designed to frighten children, to the Hollywood hit designed to startle you and hopefully curl you up into a fetal position in the chair.
What most of us have forgotten is that ghosts were at one time people too. They got up in the morning, put on socks, went to a job, ate dinner, stubbed their toes, and occasionally had indigestion, then keeled over and “died”. This does not make them demonic entities bent on making your life a living hell. As ghosts, they are still those same people, albeit with a form we typically can’t see, with some occasional enhancements we in the slow-moving atomic suit don’t have. But this doesn’t make them evil, suspect, or worthy of fear. And in my experience, it isn’t the need to create fear in an unsuspecting person’s life that drives them to be ghosts. They, like us, are still searching, expressing, and living life in their own way, from the perception of their own environment. And we on occasion have moments of sharing that with them in an apparent bridge-gap between the world of spirit and the world of flesh and bone.
When it comes to interacting with spirits, we should take the same attitude and ethics as we would with our fellow neighbor: Honor and respect them. After all, that is what they are: fellow neighbors from a different time that have moved on from the physical world. If they have a message, through honor and respect, they will deliver it in a way that will not be frightening. It might startle you – only for the fact that it’s not “normal” to receive information from ghosts (The startle-effect pretty much goes away after doing it for several years though). Through honor and respect, ghosts will take an interest in answering your questions sincerely, versus an adversarial relationship oftentimes created by other ghost investigators who choose to harass – and then wonder why they walk away with little to no evidence, or a real reason to be scared. Through honor and respect, the ghosts will reciprocate your humbleness and sincerity. There have been a few occasions where I have encountered a “negative” spirit, but when I tell them I honor and respect them and are not there to “fight” or “combat” them, they will relax and a real dialogue will open up. Either that, or they simply leave me alone because they know I at least acknowledge them and won’t be frightened by them.
Honoring and respecting the spirits goes a long way, because they usually honor and respect you back. Why? Because as I said, they were once (and still are) people too.
Encountering spirits, to me and my brethren, has been an opportunity to learn more about the continuity of life. What can we expect when we leave the body? What are some the circumstances and dramas that can continue for our existence once we shed the mortal coil? These questions can’t be answered in a state of fear, they can only be addressed through genuine curiosity and honest inquiry. And to date, our answers have been astounding.
Ghost investigating isn’t about confronting demons and things that frighten people; it isn’t about going in and kicking something out and hoping to get a thrill in the process. It’s about learning more of who and what we are and gaining a better understanding of the human condition – inside and outside the body. It’s about answering questions of life, joining the hands of those that have left the body before us, and who have made their presence known to us here. And one of the questions we’ve answered in our travels is: Ghosts really aren’t scary. They’re just people. Honor and respect them as such.
P.S., And if you think you are not being respected or are otherwise harassed, give the Washington State Ghost Society a call, and we’ll try to find out why. Check us out on Facebook
On the drive down, I carpooled with the Society president, Dave K. and we got talking about how interacting with spirits had become so normal and commonplace in our lives, that we had forgotten it was not a typical pastime for everyone else. It had occurred to us, rather humorously, that we take for granted our ability to dive into locations where most people fear to tread. To us, our experiences have shown that ghosts are not something to be feared, and that such encounters are really to be embraced. So we asked the question: why are people afraid?
The answer seemed quite simple, but it was worth examining. We started with the usual – Hollywood. The movie industry has done a fantastic job coloring our perception of what spirits can and can’t do. For the entertainment crowd, moviemakers would love to have us believe spirits can do ANYTHING! And that they are always out to FRIGHTEN US! This is actually further from the truth. Naturally, the other culprit in making us fear so much about ghosts is that spectre referred to as “the unknown.” Because we do not fully understand the nature of the phenomena, the missing puzzle pieces could – could (gasp!) – represent something nefarious. At least, I think that is what we sometimes tell ourselves. We as humans have this tendency to apply fear to things we do not fully understand because we assume our lack of knowledge just might lead to our downfall in connection with it. In other words, it’s hard to look out for Number One – personal self-interest – when you do not fully comprehend what you might be going up against. It’s a logical conclusion, but life rarely ever turns out to be so clean-cut.
The realizations Dave and I (and many of our investigator friends) have discovered over the years of coming face-to-face with the spirits of those who have remained behind stands in stark contrast to what we’ve been taught as a civilization over the centuries. It is in direct contradiction to what Hollywood would have you believe – and in many cases, counter to what a lot of the paranormal “investigation” television shows air. (Let’s face it, when you’re dealing with T.V., you’re dealing with RATINGS, competition, etc.). So in this blog, I would like to clear up a few things about ghosts and hauntings that I’ve learned over the years, to hopefully give people the sense that it is okay to actually NOT be afraid when you encounter a spirit.
1) Ghosts are there to frighten you. Nonsense. Only on very rare occasions are ghosts trying to deliberately scare the bejeezus out of you. 9 times out of 10, they are just trying to get your attention (and in some cases, may not even be aware of you or that their actions are affecting you). There may be any number of reasons why a ghost might want to make contact (and all of them non-threatening) – The ghost might be a relative of yours that is trying to tell you they are okay; It might be a former owner of the house you just moved into, letting you know you are welcome and watch out for the occasional leaky faucet; and believe it or not, the spirit might be trying to get your attention to warn you of danger, such as a loose floor board on the staircase. Yes, sometimes they might be wanting to make contact to see if you can help them get free of where they are at, or provide some kind of closure to their lives, or just have fun because they think you are such a cool person. Sometimes they might NOT LIKE how you’ve position a piece of furniture and are wanting to tell you that – but that doesn’t make them evil. Sometimes they just want the honorable acknowledgement. Are they really hanging out in the corner asking themselves “How can I torment this person?” No.
2) Ghosts can do anything. No, they can’t. Yes, they can move objects – but then again, so can you. But they don’t move them nearly as often and to the magnitude Hollywood shows you. The amount of energy a spirit has to gather in order to move something as light as a pencil can be quite draining. The opening of cabinet doors, the rolling of a ball, tapping you on the head, all can take place. But they can’t take place in a non-stop every-moment-of-the-day fashion. They will only happen sporadically, and at the expense of the ghost’s energy. Once they have opened that cabinet, it’s going to be a few minutes to several hours before they can do anything like that again. They certainly don’t have the energy to levitate your entire house and consume it in a ball of fire over the graveyard your home was unwittingly built over. We may not know everything about what spirits can do, but this much we can more or less agree on.
3) Because we don’t fully understand the phenomena, it could be dangerous. Yes, the phenomena could be, but that doesn’t mean it will be. I have interacted with spirits for decades, and the more I talk to them, and the more my Society investigators interact with them, the more we have come to realize they are actually more benign than they are malevolent. To me, this knee-jerk reaction of fear has got to be a result of cultural conditioning – starting from the summer campfire tales of restless spirits designed to frighten children, to the Hollywood hit designed to startle you and hopefully curl you up into a fetal position in the chair.
What most of us have forgotten is that ghosts were at one time people too. They got up in the morning, put on socks, went to a job, ate dinner, stubbed their toes, and occasionally had indigestion, then keeled over and “died”. This does not make them demonic entities bent on making your life a living hell. As ghosts, they are still those same people, albeit with a form we typically can’t see, with some occasional enhancements we in the slow-moving atomic suit don’t have. But this doesn’t make them evil, suspect, or worthy of fear. And in my experience, it isn’t the need to create fear in an unsuspecting person’s life that drives them to be ghosts. They, like us, are still searching, expressing, and living life in their own way, from the perception of their own environment. And we on occasion have moments of sharing that with them in an apparent bridge-gap between the world of spirit and the world of flesh and bone.
When it comes to interacting with spirits, we should take the same attitude and ethics as we would with our fellow neighbor: Honor and respect them. After all, that is what they are: fellow neighbors from a different time that have moved on from the physical world. If they have a message, through honor and respect, they will deliver it in a way that will not be frightening. It might startle you – only for the fact that it’s not “normal” to receive information from ghosts (The startle-effect pretty much goes away after doing it for several years though). Through honor and respect, ghosts will take an interest in answering your questions sincerely, versus an adversarial relationship oftentimes created by other ghost investigators who choose to harass – and then wonder why they walk away with little to no evidence, or a real reason to be scared. Through honor and respect, the ghosts will reciprocate your humbleness and sincerity. There have been a few occasions where I have encountered a “negative” spirit, but when I tell them I honor and respect them and are not there to “fight” or “combat” them, they will relax and a real dialogue will open up. Either that, or they simply leave me alone because they know I at least acknowledge them and won’t be frightened by them.
Honoring and respecting the spirits goes a long way, because they usually honor and respect you back. Why? Because as I said, they were once (and still are) people too.
Encountering spirits, to me and my brethren, has been an opportunity to learn more about the continuity of life. What can we expect when we leave the body? What are some the circumstances and dramas that can continue for our existence once we shed the mortal coil? These questions can’t be answered in a state of fear, they can only be addressed through genuine curiosity and honest inquiry. And to date, our answers have been astounding.
Ghost investigating isn’t about confronting demons and things that frighten people; it isn’t about going in and kicking something out and hoping to get a thrill in the process. It’s about learning more of who and what we are and gaining a better understanding of the human condition – inside and outside the body. It’s about answering questions of life, joining the hands of those that have left the body before us, and who have made their presence known to us here. And one of the questions we’ve answered in our travels is: Ghosts really aren’t scary. They’re just people. Honor and respect them as such.
P.S., And if you think you are not being respected or are otherwise harassed, give the Washington State Ghost Society a call, and we’ll try to find out why. Check us out on Facebook
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