Tag Archive for: Spiritual Growth

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Freedom and Truth – a Perception Shift Away

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Many months ago, I wrote an article for The Edge Magazine, a valuable resource for anyone on a journey of personal and spiritual growth and evolution. Last December’s topic of the month was on living without fear with trust in the divine. Since that seemed quite relevant to these Covid-19 times, and helping people do that is often what my work is about, I felt it appropriate to share that article here….please enjoy!

“All Suffering is due to wrong identification.” – The Buddha

The process of dissolving my deeply rooted fears probably began when I was backpacking around India as an impressionable 24 year old. I decided to work at one of Mother Theresa’s homes for the destitute and dying in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The experience of sitting with people as they died seeded a belief in me that we are not our bodies, and that our consciousness transcends this dense earth realm.

This belief eventually sprouted into an inner knowing as I encountered experiences that reinforced this truth. For example, when my girlfriend died of breast cancer 13 years ago, an evidence-based medium was able to tell me things no one would know but us. Also, as I became fascinated with past life memories, I researched numerous verified past life memories of children as well as adults who recalled past lives through hypnotic regression.

In their book, A Lawyer Presents the Evidence For the Afterlife, Victor and Wendy Zammit argue that if all of the evidence for the afterlife were put in a court of law, it would win easily and unanimously. Evidence of the afterlife reveals that we are eternal, indestructible soul beings. Although we one day will lose our body, we can never separate ourselves from the energy and consciousness that animates our body. Thus, a key premise in releasing fears is to know that you can never be harmed. From the vantage point of the body, that sounds absurd, and it is, because the body gets hurt, sick and dies. But truth is relative, and from the “more relatively true” vantage point of your “more permanent self”, you ultimately cannot be harmed, because you are energy and consciousness that comes from Oneness, and how can Oneness be harmed? The more Truth can become embedded in the belief system of the ego, which is based on the illusion of separateness and identification with our body, the more our fears begin to melt away, being replaced with a calm, inner assurance that all is well and always has been and will be.

Fears are built into the human experience. Fears come with a body that can get hurt and die. Messages of fear also come in when we’re young and we are completely dependent on outside caregivers for a sense of love, value and security. When it doesn’t happen, because and our parents are humans operating from their own issues and beliefs, subconscious fears can take root such as not being loveable, being judged as “less than”, or fear of failing, etc. We get conditioned early on to look for our sense of self through outside sources like family and friends rather than from within.

Thus, a big key in releasing subconscious fears is to identify more with the aspect of you that cannot be harmed. Freedom comes with an identity shift. When I help clients release limiting fears, I initially guide them on a deep inner journey within to connect with their Higher Self and Source energy. This is possible because no one can be separated from their Higher Self and Source energy…it simply gets covered up in the human experience. Thus hypnotherapy can be used to help de-hypnotize yourself from the source of all suffering — ego identification. From the vantage point of Source, all fears stem from false beliefs of the ego self. They feel true from the ego’s mindset, and may have become embedded into our subconscious mind’s operating system at a young age, but these beliefs are not actually true from the standpoint of a higher dimension of yourself and of Truth.

As we begin our spiritual journey of awakening out of ego identification, there becomes a trickle-down effect of releasing subtle fears that are not in alignment with our Higher Self. We as souls are challenging ourselves to allow our body/mind systems to be clear vessels for the brilliance of our true selves to shine through. As we operate and live less from our false fears and outdated programming, and more from our true selves, we are naturally guided by our own passions, gifts and strengths. We become the beings of freedom and love that we always have been and always will be.

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The Key to Unconditional Love in Relationships

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Several months ago, I wrote an article for The Edge Magazine. The Edge is a valuable resource for anyone on their journey of personal and spiritual growth and expansion. As souls, we are all on this journey. However, as humans, we are seldom conscious of it. When we finally become conscious that we are here mostly to learn and grow towards awakening to the unconditional love that we already are, we have reached a milestone in our soul’s development. It may happen early or late in life, or not at all in this lifetime. But it’s probably a good sign that you’re on your way if you’re reading this blog.

Each month, The Edge Magazine features a new topic. This month (July, 2019) is about: The Present Moment — Maintaining This State of Being. Last March, The Edge’s featured topic was about how to move toward unconditional love. Below is my article….please enjoy!

In their 1974 song “Already Gone,” The Eagles sang, “So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.”

I don’t know whether or not The Eagles meant it, but it perfectly fits to interpret the “chains” to be the identification with our ego. The ego is based in separation and individuation. Think of the ego as our body/mind self, which contains all of our programming from early on in life. Limiting thoughts, feelings, beliefs and fears are based in the ego.

Our lives can become imprisoned and unconsciously governed by limiting ego beliefs such as “not good enough” or “fear of failure” or “it’s too scary and painful to open up and fully receive love.” The ego works overtime to protect us from possible emotional pain, yet it is also striving hard to find love, joy, peace and security, mostly outside of ourselves.

When we incarnate here, the dance of the ego begins with the trauma of separation. We are dependent on our caregivers for love, security and a sense of well-being. We become conditioned to search for unconditional love outside ourselves, and if we don’t find it, limiting beliefs about our self can form and we can develop a tendency to guard our hearts.

Yet, we are multidimensional beings. There’s another part of us — the soul. The soul comes from Source. Like drops of water which form the wave that belongs to the ocean, we are a human, a soul and we also belong to the one creator Source. In other words, we are not separate from Source energy — and we are not separate from the love, security, peace and joy that we are searching for outside of ourselves.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Not only does love lie within us, but we are unconditional love. As Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, once said, “We come from love, we go back to love, and we are love.”

Going back to The Eagles’ song, telling us that we live our life in chains, never even knowing we have the key, “the key” is a mere perception shift. Adyashanti, another spiritual teacher, equates human life to “the greatest slight-of-hand card trick.” He says, “Enlightenment is really just a radical shift in identity.” He means that spiritual awakening is about identifying primarily with the pure light, energy and consciousness that animates all of life, the part of us that can never be harmed or die.” Another name for this level of consciousness is Christ consciousness or Oneness consciousness.

When you operate from Oneness consciousness, you see yourself in others. You see through other people’s ego state of consciousness, which is unconsciously striving for love and connection or else protecting itself from love and connection, and instead view all beings with love and compassion. It is automatic. “Oneness” needs nothing from another, and instead is motivated and fueled by giving and being love.

Experiencing this level of love is a subtraction process. As we quiet our thinking minds and go within through meditation or an inner journey, or by simply becoming fully present, we can experience peace and love within ourselves. When we let go of the mind’s filters and programs and are truly present, we can feel a reservoir of deep peace beneath our fears.

Another way of experiencing ourselves as love is to practice what Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversation With God series, suggests: “If you want more joy in your life, be the source of joy for another. If you want more love in your life, cause another to feel loved.” Experiment with it. Relationships go much smoother, he says, when we view them not as a cookie tray to grab something from, but rather as a container to pour something into.

Here’s another experiment: Adyashanti writes, “When the divine part of you silently acknowledges the divine part of another, their divine self knows that it’s being acknowledged and it will feel good being in your presence. They may not even know why.” To be the unconditional love that we already are requires a perception shift out of our ego consciousness. Practice identifying as the love that you are, and then begin to view others as that same love behind their human form and their ego consciousness. It’s like a muscle that you exercise. Over time, it becomes your natural state, mainly because it is your natural state!

Measuring Your Spiritual Growth

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One of my favorite Spiritual teachers is Adyashanti. He said a measure of how advanced you are on your spiritual journey, or your level of spiritual “awakeness”, is how you treat others that don’t agree with you – especially spiritually or politically. Do you overtly or silently judge them? Or do you allow other people to have their own beliefs and opinions with the understanding that everyone is on their own soul journey of growth and development?

God/Source/Life is a large enough container for all beliefs…and we are a microcosm of that Source. As humans, we are meant to carve out our experience with our own learned perspectives and beliefs, and hopefully they change, evolve and expand over time if we allow ourselves to be open, curious and driven to grow. It is natural for us to do so. The human ego self has its own personality, quirks and beliefs. But simultaneously, there’s a part of you that does not change…a part of you that is in the eternal now because it is the Eternal Now. We are multi-dimensional. Which part of you are you going to identify with? Spiritual awakening is about identifying more with the higher, more permanent part of you that is ok with all beliefs. It doesn’t mean that your ego self doesn’t have its opinions and may even feel drawn to go to an anti-Trump or a pro-Trump rally. But while you do that, can you do it with the awareness of Oneness, rather than “us vs them” mentality? If you can, you’ll find that your efforts yield better results than if you simply contribute to the ongoing dance of polarity.

The higher consciousness of The Collective (see August’s Blog for an introduction to The Collective) explains that we are in the 3rd dimension, moving towards the 5th. The 3rd Dimension is a lower vibration frequency of duality and contrasts…good/bad, black/white, happy/sad, love/loss, love/fear, ignorance/wisdom, restlessness/peace, acceptance/judgment, right/wrong, right/left, etc. It is a plane of existence to provide contrasts for us to decide who we want to be and what we want to create in this place of polarity and contrasts. Earth is a spiritual playground of role plays that appear very real for the purpose of challenging ourselves to decide and create who we choose to be…do you wish to be a person who operates primarily from love or fear? You’ll create or burn karma depending on how you respond in this plane of contrasts.

The 5th Dimension, on the other hand, is a higher frequency plane with fewer contrasts. There is a natural letting go of the judgments of right and wrong, being replaced with an understanding that people either operate with a clear sensing/knowing of their Oneness/Source nature or else they operate with ignorance of that Truth. When you are aware of your own divinity and connection to all life, you are aware that what you do to another you actually do to yourself, and there will be a natural love, compassion and acceptance that replaces all judgment. Compassion and an explainable love for others (even those who are very different than you in beliefs or culturally) is simply a by-product of spiritually awakening. You don’t have to try to cultivate it, it simply is natural when you begin to identify your self with your Higher Self that has Oneness consciousness.

The 5th Dimension is more about moving towards what you want, what sparks your passion and enthusiasm, with an acceptance that others don’t have to want what you want. When you operate with Christ consciousness or Oneness consciousness, your passions naturally tend to be less self-serving and more others-serving or life-serving.

In closing, here are some inspiring words from The Collective: “When you incarnated, your intention was to bring the greatest measure of your divinity to your experience as a human, to recognize what you are while in this dense physical dimension of forgetfulness. Always increase your recognition of what you are capable of as divine beings. Dwell in a lower frequency while mastering living as the divine Being and master Creator that you are.”

May we recognize this challenging life as a role play to help us grow and evolve in awareness of our true divine nature.

Uncovering and Healing the Roots of Anxiety and Depression

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I recently wrote an article for the Edge Magazine. It’s relevant these days as many people’s subconscious issues are coming to the surface while the consciousness of the planet shifts and raises. This happens for the purpose of releasing what no longer serves you from your body/mind system and integrating the learning of it into the fullness of your being. Freedom calls anything to the surface that is not free. Please enjoy these words:

Anxiety and depression can be physiologically, spiritually and/or mental/emotionally based. But since the body, mind and soul are all interconnected, they overlap. Often anxiety or depression has to do with the past affecting you, and this can be uncovered and healed because you are far more than your past. If we put anxiety and depression under a microscope, we see that it is typically made up of a myriad of negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs that began somewhere in the past, occasionally even a past life. The good news is that although the past can have a strong grip on you, it no longer exists except as a memory, which is a combination of thoughts, feelings and corresponding beliefs that get formed, otherwise known as “thought-form energy”. Yet there is a larger, higher, “more real” part of you that transcends the thought-form energy from the past. When you connect to that part, you can uncover and release the roots of the past that limit you.

Einstein said that you can’t solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that created the problem, but you can at a higher level. Your soul isn’t anxious or depressed — and you are that soul more than you are the ego personality that is anxious and depressed — because one part of you lives on, the other doesn’t. In fact, you couldn’t escape that whole, complete part of you if you tried, it just gets covered up with false beliefs from the human experience. Using hypnotherapy, you can connect to and identify with your wiser soul self that is forever anchored in the here and now, and that part of you can help heal your ego-based body/mind self. You then experience what the Buddha meant when he said the thinking mind is the source of all suffering.

Here are some examples: A woman (I’ll call her Linda) came to me recently feeling very depressed. Underneath her depression were feelings and beliefs of shame, unworthiness, and “not good enough” due to growing up with abuse and neglect. These heavy feelings made life feel as if she was trying to run a marathon with armor on. Using hypnotherapy, she envisioned her consciousness moving up above her body, above and beyond the earth, and into Source energy where she melted into it and felt and compared various qualities of Source such as peace, joy, love and security. This can only be done if you’re not in your thinking mind. From this highest dimension of your being, there is a knowing that nothing in the Universe can harm you, and it is a perfect place to heal the ego part of you that feels stuck.

From this high vantage point, feeling connected to Source, Linda looked down at a timeline of her life — specifically above the 2-month old version of herself. I asked, “Should your infant self, like all infants, ideally be made to feel loved, wanted, valued, safe and secure?” “Is your infant self worthy of love?” The truth is yes, all infants are worthy of love, so it became evident to Linda that unworthiness is not inherent to her being. Shame and unworthiness are messages that feel true, but are not, and Linda could see that she picked up these perspectives early on from her parents. Since it didn’t belong to her, she envisioned and actually felt that heavy thought form energy going back to her parents, who in turn passed it down to where they got it from, their parents, and then down through the generations and into a fire pit to be incinerated into Source energy. She then got back the part of her that was lost when took on the feelings of “not good enough”, feeling the sensations of love, empowerment and joy come back to her. She then sent this energy down to her 5-year old self, Jr. High self, and all the other times that she needed it in her life. Four weeks later, Linda emailed me to say that she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted since the session, and that she had propelled far onto her path of growth and healing.

In another example, a man with high anxiety did a past life regression and saw himself as a young Viking whose beloved grandfather was murdered by a group of three men. He was consumed with anger, hatred and revenge, and he died with this rage. These heavy feelings kept a sliver of his soul consciousness stuck around the earth plane, unable to move up into the higher realms after death. We did a soul retrieval and thus healed and re-integrated this lost soul aspect of himself. Six weeks later he reported that since the session he felt much less anxious, and things which would previously cause him much stress and worry no longer affected him.

It is indeed profound and helpful to connect to a higher part of yourself that already is whole and complete, that you can never really escape from, in order to heal the part of you that feels stuck. Then it becomes clear that happiness is actually a perception shift away.

Introducing The Collective

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In the past 16 years of facilitating past life regressions, I’ve experienced many fascinating cases, far too many to count. However, there are a few sessions that continue to stand out. Two years ago, a woman named Kelly came to do a past life regression. Even though it was very strange and new territory for her, she felt intuitively drawn to experience a past life regression. Recently, she encouraged me to share her story because of the far-reaching impact of that session.

Her journey began during the part of the session when the past life is over and the soul goes into the soul realm. Kelly began speaking in a male voice. This voice imparted wisdom and information about the many changes happening on our planet today. When the session was over, I told Kelly, “You were channeling.”

She replied, “What’s that?” Metaphysics was new to her. In fact, she had only recently been a committed Christian teaching adult bible study in a local church. Curious, she began to study some well known people who channel spiritual beings, such as Lee Carroll, Ester Hicks and Jane Roberts.

Not long after the session, Kelly and her husband Rick travelled to Sedona. While there, on three separate occasions, each psychic told her pretty much the same thing: “Do you know that you are a channel for a collective of star nations?” After the third time she heard that, Kelly, still a bit skeptical, said, “I need some confirmation of that.” The third psychic said that she would soon receive that confirmation on her way home.

Driving to the airport, Kelly was startled to see a UFO in front of their car keeping pace with them. She screamed, “Rick! Do you see that UFO?” He could not. She witnessed several UFO’s the next few days near her home in Wisconsin while no one else could. She was concerned she might be going a bit crazy until two weeks later when Rick also began seeing them. In fact, they would sit outside on their lawn chairs together and watch UFO’s, noticing that no one else could see them.

Even though Kelly continued to receive messages from the discarnate beings wanting to speak through her, she still felt uncomfortable, as anyone would. She wanted to see them and talk with them directly to get further proof before she agreed to channel their messages. They suggested that she come to see me again for a Life-Between-Lives session. That was just over a year ago. At that session, Kelly not only saw them but communicated with them directly, receiving the confirmation she was looking for. During that session, the beings (whom Kelly named The Collective) began talking to me. They told me I would soon speak to various organizations. I thought to myself, “That would be nice since it’s been over two years since I spoke to a group.” Within two weeks, I had invitations to speak to four different organizations.

After that confirmation, I became more interested in the wisdom and advice The Collective wants to share with humanity as we go through the many transformative changes on this planet. One of the messages they share is that we need to raise our vibration by identifying ourselves as the divine beings we are rather than believing any thoughts of “not good enough” from our human experience.

Since Kelly’s last session on July 3, 2017, she has begun channeling messages from The Collective regularly. She and Rick have made several trips to the Twin Cities from their home in Appleton, Wisconsin to channel The Collective’s messages for interested groups, the next one being September 15th at the DoubleTree in Minneapolis. The messages have been mind-expansive, providing a clearer view of a larger reality beyond this physical realm of earth. The Collective can also answer any question you may have regarding earth changes, the spirit realm, personal issues, or anything you can think of. They describe themselves as a collection of beings from the 5th dimension to the twelfth and beyond, some of them arch-angels.

The consciousness expansion that comes once you embark on the spiritual path never ends. Not only do you accumulate more wisdom, but also many experiences that often lie beyond your previous belief system.

For more information about Kelly’s channeled messages, visit KellyThebo.com. And a favorite message of mine from The Collective is called, “Relationships – Why Are They So Challenging?”

The Awakened Way

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This earth life offers each of us precise opportunities to grow and evolve to our next level. It is happening whether we are awake to it or not. All the while, there is one master soul lesson, and that is to awaken to our truest and highest nature. One can find many people who are awakening these days if you look for them (hint: check out www.batgap.com). It reminds me of a quote by one enlightened woman, Neelam: “First things first…first awaken to who and what you are, then see if your problems still make any sense.”  Awakening is simply realizing and identifying with the part of you that never comes and goes, that’s always here and now, no matter what spiritual dimension you are on or physical life you are in. One of my favorite teachers of awakening, Adyashanti, says that this realization begins first in the head, then drops into the heart, and finally the gut and you fully know it because you are it. I am sharing with you an answer that was posed to Adyashanti about awakening. Please enjoy reading his response:

What is it like to live an awakened life?

“While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is engaged in the same, you’re not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to “get there,” trying to be worthy, you’re not. While everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for you it’s not. While everybody is running from this life right now, in this moment, to try to get there, you’re not. Where everybody has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with themselves, you don’t. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come when something is different than it is now, you know that it won’t. When everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it, you’re not.

When everybody around you has a whole host of ideas and beliefs about a whole variety of things, you don’t. Everyone on the path is getting there; you haven’t gotten anywhere. Everyone is climbing the mountain; you’re selling hiking boots and picks at the foot in the hope that if they climb it and come back down, they may be too exhausted to do it again. When everybody else is looking to the next book, to the next teacher, to the next guru to be told what’s real, to be given the secret key to an awakened life, you’re not. You don’t have a key because there’s not a lock to put it in.

When you’re living what you are in an awakened way, being simply what you’ve always been, you’re actually very simple. You basically sit around wondering what all the fuss is about.

When everyone is sitting around saying, “I hope that happens to me,” you remember when you did that. You remember that you didn’t find a solution to that. You remember that the whole idea that there was a problem created all of that.

When you’re being what you are, when you’re living the awakened life, there’s nobody to forgive, because there’s no resentment held, no matter what.

The truth of your being doesn’t crave happiness; it could actually care less. It doesn’t crave love, not because you are so full of love, but because it just doesn’t crave love. It’s very simple. It doesn’t seek to be known, regarded highly, or understood. When you’re living what you are in an awakened way, there’s no ideal for you anymore. You’ve stepped off the entire cycle of suffering, of becoming; you’re not interested.

It’s a curious life you find yourself in. You find yourself… where you are. Not where I am, where you are. Where you really are. Where we really are. It’s a curious place to be (especially in the beginning) not to be driven by anything—pleasure or displeasure, helping or hurting, loving or hating. The only thing that will move you (and I don’t mean to be too poetic about this) is the same thing that moves a leaf hanging from a tree. It’s simply because the breeze blows that way. So you always know what to do: The breeze blows that way, and that’s the way you go. You don’t ask questions anymore. You don’t evaluate why the breeze is blowing that way because you know that you don’t know why. And you know you can’t know why. There’s never been a leaf anywhere that knows why the wind blows that way on that day at that moment. That breeze changes the orientation of your life, moment to moment to moment, simply because that’s the way life’s moving. And when you’re living in your awakened self you have no argument with the way it’s moving because it is the same as you are.

And you know that the breeze was always there, from the very beginning, and that it wasn’t reserved for special people. If you didn’t notice it at some point in your life, you know it was because you weren’t listening, or because you thought you had to figure something out before you could listen, or because you thought there had to be some conclusion before you could just listen so deeply, so without agenda, so without hope of a better future that you would feel the movement.

Many of you know what I’m speaking of.

Truth never explains why it’s moving that way at that moment. And if you ask, it won’t give any information. It would be like a leaf asking the wind, “Why are you moving that way right now?” The question doesn’t make any sense to the wind.

But your argument with the way the truth would move—whatever that way is—is no longer there for you. You’re no longer arguing with it. You’re no longer trying to figure it out. Mother Mary didn’t figure it out. Buddha didn’t figure it out. Ramana didn’t figure it out. None of them figured it out. They just became That. Simple. Ordinary—in the same way a leaf is ordinary.

When you’re living in your awakened being and living in an awakened way, power on any level is not an issue for you. It’s not interesting. The power to control another human being is not interesting. Intellectual power is not interesting. The power to control yourself is not interesting. The power that people want to give you is not interesting to you—not because it shouldn’t be; it’s just not. What would you want to do with it? You see that there’s nothing you want to do with it.

You realize, in the truth of your being, that you are the totality itself, but you have no interest whatsoever in doing anything with that knowledge, with using that knowledge.

Finally, you realize that you really don’t want to change anybody, not because you shouldn’t want to change them, because you just don’t. You might not want to be around everyone, but still you don’t want to change them.

None of this is an ideal—it’s the end of ideals. None of this is holiness; it’s the end of holiness. It’s the beginning of wholeness. None of this is something to achieve, because it’s not achievable. It’s simply what is in the truth of your being. It’s just what is. You can’t attain what’s naturally so. And nobody anywhere can ever tell you when or why, or to what degree you’ll let go of untruth; you will let go when you let go, usually when nothing else works.

When you’re living in the awakened way, in the awakened being that you are, you’re alone, and you’re finally comfortable with it. You’re alone, but you’re not lonely at all, because the only one who was ever supposed to meet you where you are—the only one who ever could meet you where you are one hundred percent—was you. Nobody else could ever fully meet you where you are—maybe ninety percent, maybe ninety-five. Nobody can meet you fully but you. When you finally do, then you don’t need anybody else to do it for you. Then you’re alone, more alone than you could ever imagine. And strangely—very strangely—you are more connected, more intimate, more at one with everything. More. And you would have never thought that those two could in any way be together: total aloneness and total oneness. You would have never guessed that that’s the way it would end up. But it does, and it always has.

And finally, when you’re just living in the awakened way that you really are, you’ll never form an image again of what it’s like. Even as it’s happening, you won’t form an image because you’ll know they’re all images, dust. The way it was yesterday won’t be the way it is today.”

Past Life Regression: An Effective Tool to Expand Consciousness

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A few months ago, the Edge Magazine was looking for articles on the topic “Expanding Consciousness.” I immediately began writing about past life regression, almost as if I had no choice, because what many people don’t realize is that past life regression is a process that does exactly that…it automatically brings you to a higher level of awareness. This happens towards the end of the session when you are resting in the higher dimension of the soul level, and tuning into a higher aspect of yourself. I’m sharing that article here. Please enjoy!

How can you effortlessly get to a level of awareness that makes your everyday waking consciousness, the one you’re at right now as you read this, feel like you are asleep? You may want to explore taking a trip deep within your own multi-dimensional self.

Past life regression offers a systematic way to do this, thus enabling you to experience what it’s like to live from a higher level of consciousness. Let me share several reasons why it is an effective technique.

First, during the step-by-step method of the regression process itself, one’s continual stream of mind chatter becomes increasingly quiet, revealing the pure presence that lies beneath it. This awareness forms the backdrop to the logical, analytical mind.

Secondly, images of another life will begin to appear independent of the conscious mind. In fact, these impressions cannot appear if you are in “thinking mode,” only when you are anchored in the present moment, or in “feeling mode.”

This reveals a third aspect to past life regression: At this point in the process, you have set aside the body/mind identity of your present self and now take on a different body/mind personality. Regardless of whether these images are interpreted as a historical past life or a symbolic metaphor, the past life story that comes through you is from your higher mind, and it is precisely designed to help you move forward, heal and grow in some way.

The reason for this can be best summed up by the words of one of my client’s guides: “Just as the body’s instinct is to breathe, the soul’s instinct is to evolve.” Past life regression often shines a spotlight on any unconscious thoughts, emotional patterns or beliefs that unknowingly hold you back in life, and then allows you to experience what it will be like to be completely free of any programming or conditioning that limits you. It may also show you the source of a physical, mental or emotional ailment so you can release it from your body/mind system. Ultimately, it reveals to you what you most need in order to thrive in this life.

Here are some case examples: A client’s chronic migraine headaches disappeared after discovering and healing the source of them from a past life when she experienced the early years of electric shock therapy. Another client felt a huge weight of unresolved grief and sadness lift after discovering and healing a past life where she committed suicide. She had carried over the heavy feelings and beliefs of hopelessness that she died with over to this life, and it explained why her twin sister in this life had none of these same feelings.

Another woman came to a session feeling stuck and anxious around new relationships. Rather than seeing a challenging life, she saw herself as a servant who lived completely from her heart. She had such a strong, conscious connection to “God” in that life that even an abusive employer was humbled and shifted by her loving presence. She merged the energies of the past life with her present one and she later revealed that she was able to maintain a stronger awareness of her connection to Source and, thus, a higher level of consciousness after the session, with greatly diminished anxiety.

Past life regressions ultimately enable you to tune into your soul self. After the past life is over, clients are guided to move up into a higher dimension in which they “disidentify” from both their past and present lives, and view these lives from the expanded awareness of their higher self, free of all ego identifications. When ego identification is seen through and set aside, a natural love-based clarity and wisdom reveals itself to be who and what you really are.

One of my favorite quotes of Paramahansa Yogananda is, “When you heal yourself, you do your part in healing the world.” I’m beginning to really understand what he means. We, as humans, are interconnected like a gigantic tapestry. As our consciousness raises, our unresolved past may surface for the purpose of being healed. When we heal, we are no longer negatively triggered by others outside of us, and they, in turn, are no longer triggered by us. The ripple effect that emanates from us is harmonious and love-based, and that impacts those around us far more than we could ever know.

We have so much more of an effect on this world that we are aware of. So here’s to raising our consciousness!

Each Person’s Uniquely Tailored Path of Growth and Awakening

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Ever notice how you read a book that subtly yet profoundly changes your life perspective in a positive way, and then when you enthusiastically share it with others, some may love it while others either don’t care or have a negative response to the book? I remember that happened to me 20 years ago after reading Conversations With God, Book 1 by Neile Donald Walsch. Some of my friends loved it, while others brushed it aside, one friend even saying, “that author is a liar, how could he talk with God?” It didn’t matter when I explained that he could interpret it as fiction if he wanted, it was profoundly insightful either way.

As I reflect back now, that was a great lesson in how each person’s life path is unique. In one way, we’re all on a similar path in that we’re all here to grow, evolve and awaken to our true, higher self which is steeped in the wisdom of interconnected Oneness which carries an automatic love, appreciation and compassion for all unique expressions of the same One life. Yet we’re all at different stages of this journey. Many of us are at the part where we are learning soul lessons as a means of moving forward. Sometimes these lessons involve overcoming adversity to uncover a dormant strength and gift within. Each person’s life/soul path is uniquely tailor fit for themselves. An example of this is with my wife, Maggie. In many ways we are like the same person with the same values, priorities and directions in life, both of us into growing, evolving and awakening. Yet for the most part, we each have our own unique books or teachings that really inspire us and open us up. While she may be more into nutrition as a path of growth, I’m into spiritual books.

That brings me to two books I’ve read recently that have been shifting and inspiring to me. They were each written by Jurgen Ziewe. Multi-Dimensional Man and Vistas of Infinity: How to Enjoy Life When You are Dead. I first heard of Jurgen Ziewe through an interview he did on Batgap.com, a website that solely contains interviews with people that have had spiritual awakening experiences. Although I’m interested mainly in the awakening aspect of what these people say, Jurgen was unique in that he shared his experiences of nearly 400 out-of-body travels where he visited countless dimensions of life after earth life in full waking consciousness, usually with a higher level of clarity than even our physical life, interviewing the souls of those in other non-physical dimensions to gather information about the afterlife…a topic which has always fascinated me. Jurgen offers a similar, yet in many ways a unique perspective about the afterlife than anything I’ve ever read before.

Some of my very brief takeaways from his books are: 1) the widely varied dimensions and environments that we can go to after death…each one perfectly suited for our own growth and development. 2) Since there is no disease, dying or need for money, we usually spend our time dealing with our own limiting beliefs or allowing our creative interests and passions to be expressed. 3) Our mindset helps to determine our environment after we die. It’s like the law of attraction where we can attract different people and situations that mirror our inner vibration, only on a much more immediate and obvious level. A simple example might be flowers that wilt to match a downcast mood, or brighten to match an elevated mood, or strengthen to match an empowered mood. 4) Most of the sharing of his experiences he precludes by stressing the difficulty in trying to put language to what has no language…experiencing an object with all the senses simultaneously, or being in an environment where you experience a dozen different and new senses than what we are accustomed to on earth.

Jurgen shares some of his observations of the afterlife: “Where we are now, emotionally and spiritually, can determine where we spend the next part of our infinite future. What’s in our subconscious becomes our new external reality when we die. Problems, if not dealt with in this present physical life, will influence the quality of our afterlife, because in our afterlife our unconscious can manifest our external environment.” He shares his discussion with his departed brother-in-law, who was skeptical about the afterlife while on earth, in which he says: “I didn’t imagine it would be so brutally real, not airy-fairy.”

Jurgen shares the best way to prepare for afterlife: “Practice living from our inner stillness, which is here and now in our present. This becomes our instant link to our infinite source. Live a life where each moment counts, being mindful and aware of our thoughts, feelings and actions, informed by kindness and a loving heart.” He says you can easily enhance your environment in the afterlife by shifting to a perspective of gratitude, compassion and love. I’ll conclude with some of Jurgen’s thoughts: “Mankind’s core beauty often gets overlooked by the negative aspects, given exposure in the media. Our shadows are brought on by ignorance, struggle and extreme hardship. Beyond them we can see we’re imbued with radiant inner beauty. What a great privilege to have been chosen to live life as a human being. You are infinite!”

 

 

The Challenge and Rewards of Ascension

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Here’s a short article I submitted to the Edge magazine regarding the topic of Ascension. Please enjoy!

While meditating, a vision appeared to me: a multitude of people were climbing up the terraced steps of a pyramid-shaped mountain, covering all sides of it. They represented humanity on different levels and places in their evolutionary growth. Some were being helped up while others were turning around and pulling up someone below them as they made their way to the top. I realized this vision symbolized what we are striving to accomplish as human beings on earth…we are moving from the sleep of ignorance to the dawn of awakening of who and what we really are…our journey toward Self Realization. It could also be framed as path leading from suffering to bliss. This is a journey that we are all on whether we are aware of it or not. At this point in our human evolution, most of us are not aware in this moment that we are actually brilliantly free spiritual beings having a human experience, although that is rapidly changing along with so many other things these days.

As I journey on my own path of awakening, guiding some while being supported by others, ascension for me means becoming more fully present here and now in the body, feeling the richness of emotions as well as the myriad expressions of the senses. However, this is impossible to do for long periods of time because our thinking mind mostly operates from the past and pulls us into the future. Overcoming this dilemma of trying to maintain full presence then becomes a matter of proper identification – no longer identifying with our fluctuating emotions and thoughts, but rather with that which never goes away, the deeper sense of life and ‘beingness’ that is hidden within each one of us. Being fully present goes hand in hand with becoming more aware of who and what is always present in the body – our spiritual self.

When we only identify with our human self and the thoughts and feelings that rise and fall within us, we unconsciously operate from the conditioning and programming of our past. Frequently, painful emotions are avoided. However, the act of avoidance locks them in a repeating pattern within the body/mind system, while permitting them to be fully felt allows that emotional energy to pass through. When you know and identify yourself as the life that animates the body, when you know that as a soul you are role playing here and can never ultimately be harmed, then even painful emotions can be fully felt and understood not only as a different vibration in the body, but also as part of the rich human experience. By embracing all of our negative or painful emotions and releasing them in a healthy manner, we no longer are unconsciously influenced by them in a limiting way, and thus a filter falls away as we become clearer and lighter vessels for our soul to shine through. This process is one avenue or by-product of ascension.

After my vision, I wanted to commit it to canvas, but my artistic abilities stop at anything beyond a stick person. However, at a Christmas party, I met Laura Ungs who specializes in painting the concepts that people have in their minds. That beautiful painting now hangs in my office, a fitting place because my therapy practice focuses on guiding my clients to release and heal their limiting beliefs and emotions that were planted in the past, but continue to affect their present. Once the old programs are released or seen through, clients are no longer unconsciously governed by their limiting emotional patterns and they become freer beings. This healing then creates a ripple effect through the interactions of all their relationships.

This reminds me of a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda: “When you heal yourself, you do your part in healing the world.” As we become clearer and clearer vessels, no longer operating from our limited past programming and conditioning, the light within us, our true self, shines through our interactions with others in many ways. Ironically, the further we ascend the more beautiful and safe it becomes to be fully here and now. When we awaken and identify with our higher dimension that transcends space and time, we realize it has always been with us every step of the way…and ultimately it is who we are!

An Eloquent Description of Experiences with Past Life

An Eloquent Description of Past Life Regression

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Recently a client shared with me her narrative of her past life regression experience. I am sharing it with you because it such an articulate description of how past life regression can work. Describing your experience can be quite a challenge. One of the first things people notice after a session is the lack of words there are to describe the experience. There is a reason for this…words and language belong to the thinking mind in this physical dimension, and the entire past life regression experience can only be done when this conscious thinking mind is a silent, uninvolved witness. Therefore, information drops into you as a “download” of intuitive inner knowings and feelings along with some visual impressions, like a strong intuitive hunch. Words can only describe the tip of the iceberg of your experience. In fact, describing what is happening during your regression can feel a lot like multi-tasking. But the most important part is that as the conscious thinking mind gives up control of the process, an entirely new information flow is accessible….the same information flow that might give you a strong intuitive knowing about something. And it gives you precisely what will be of most benefit to you, even if you cannot fully articulate beforehand what that is. This narrative provides an example of this. Enjoy!

Past Life Regression

As a preacher’s kid, and pretty mainstream thinker all my life, I was surprised at 49 to discover a new fascination with the concept of reincarnation and past-lives. I was experiencing some pretty major changes in my life and was not handling them gracefully, so I decided to see if a past life regression would help.  I seriously didn’t expect it to be life changing, and before the appointment, prepared myself to walk away believing that in fact it was a hoax.  I could not have been more wrong.

I did three regressions and a life between lives session over the course of a year, and as time went on, I began to see patterns.  While I generally had specific things I wanted to know, the most valuable insights I received had nothing to do with my questions, but everything to do with what was deep in my heart.  The questions I didn’t know how to ask became the topic of the story.

There were many similarities between the different lives that I found are also themes in my current life.  In three of the four lives, there was a big kitchen table that kept showing up, and significant things kept happening around it.  Even today, I love to cook and feed people. That same big table sits in the center of our home, and life still happens around it.  My current husband was also my husband in two of my lives, and my current sister was my wife in one.  In all the lives, I lived in rural areas, and spent a lot of time outdoors, often gardening, which is also true in this life.

I expected that if this whole past lives thing turned out to be legit, I would find some kind of dramatic wisdom, but in fact, most of the wisdom had an elegant simplicity to it.  In one life, there was an epidemic of some kind in our village, and we had to move.  The major scene in that life was the conflict between my husband and me as we dealt with my fear of change.  By the end of the life, we had happily settled in a new place and raised our family, and I died very happy.  The lesson?  Change is ok.  Relax and go with it.  That lesson is not an earthshaking revelation, but at that moment in time, in this life, accepting change was exactly what I was struggling with, and had been unable to see clearly through my fear.  Experiencing the regression and seeing myself successfully navigate a similar situation allowed me to handle the changes that were occurring in this life.  I found a peace that had been out of my reach before the regression.

The regression that had the greatest impact on me was a life where I was a man who was unable to connect with people.  Because of my self-imposed isolation, when I needed my community to help me save my land, they were not there for me. I lost everything, became a bitter mean man, and finally died alone and depressed. To those around me, I looked like a cranky old man, but inside, I was lonely and in pain, with no clue what was causing it or how to ease the pain.  The heaviness of the depression I felt in the latter part of that life was something I will never forget.

Initially I thought the lesson was about the value of connecting with people and learning to work in teams, which I still believe it was, but there was more.  In the weeks following the regression, another theme also began to emerge.  Visiting that life enlarged my understanding of what compassion really is, beyond sympathy for the poor and downtrodden.  Since the regression, when negative behavior is directed at me, instead of feeling attacked, I see pain and fear.  Having lived that pain, I have a different perspective, and tend to feel compassion rather than anger and resentment.  I can’t change people’s behavior, but I can change my own, and find a healthier and more compassionate way to respond.  It has made a huge difference in how I work with people!

By far the most comforting result of these regressions is that I have lost my fear of dying.  Do I want to die now?  No.  But I have experienced death four times, and I can confidently say that it is not the end; it is just the beginning of another season in the eternal life of my soul.  Death, from the soul’s perspective, is neither difficult nor the end, and the place we return to, whatever you choose to call it, is a place of love.