2022-HealingvCuringBlog-1

Healing vs. Curing

by Be Your Own ShamanFeatured

One of the most important questions you will deal with in your quest to walk the path of the shaman has to do with who gets healed versus who gets cured. And it’s not an easy one, as it can derail your faith in yourself.

While wandering through the woods in the winter of 1858, a shepherd girl named Marie-Bernarde Soubirous saw a beautiful lady in a flowing white robe near a small grotto along the banks of the river Gave de Pau in France. The daughter of devout Christian peasants, the 14-year-old known as Bernadette eventually saw the lady a total of 18 times. The woman told the young girl to advise her village priest to construct a chapel on the site of the encounter. On March 25, 1858, on the occasion of the 16th visitation, the lady revealed herself to be none other than the Blessed Virgin. In an ecstatic trance, Bernadette rose from her knees, walked a few steps, and fell back to the earth, where she began to scrape the ground until a small rivulet of water formed a puddle in the dirt. In the days that followed, the puddle formed a sacred spring and pool that is now the famous healing shrine at Lourdes.

Although Mary told Bernadette that the waters would heal people, the spring did not cure this sickly girl, who suffered from debilitating asthma until her death at an early age. And yet, for 30  years after she passed, Bernadette’s corpse did not decay. To this day, Lourdes is the most visited shrine in all of Christendom, with some six million people making the pilgrimage each year. Within the first 50 years, roughly 4,000 miracle healings were recorded.

Of the 10,000 people who visit the spring at Lourdes each day, why do some dance away from the sacred waters while others depart still dependent on crutches? Why is one woman relieved of alcoholism, never to drink again, while another person who also attends her 12-step group religiously and stays sober for many years suddenly falls off the wagon, stays drunk, and ultimately dies of liver failure? Why do some people get the message, grace, miraculous reprieve, or spontaneous remission . . . and others do not?

As shamans and healers, we make a distinction between a cure —physical recovery and elimination of a disease condition—and a healing, which can occur on spiritual and emotional levels and may not involve a correlating physical resolution. Ideally, both will take place.

The Mystery School I attended taught that the higher self or soul of an individual ultimately makes the choice as to whether or not someone will physically heal. To an extent, I believe this is true. However, I saw that students often took the low road when a physical cure didn’t manifest. Many of them would step back and accept too readily that a tangible result had not occurred, rather than work diligently on raising their own vibratory ability to bring more juice—a stronger connection to Source with a higher potential for healing—to their work. The explanation provided in that environment was: “Your client’s higher self knows best and will decide whether or not to be cured. You, the healer, are not responsible for the choice of the client’s soul.”

I have given this a great deal of thought over the years, and I am bothered when the explanation serves as an easy way out for the healer when a cure doesn’t take place. For a period of time, it was convenient for me to excuse my own failures to effect a cure based on the idea that the client had decided at a soul level not to accept the help. But some part of me remained unconvinced, and I continued to grapple with the issue.

What I’ve come to believe, after working on many tens of thousands of people, is that it is uncommon for someone who is seeking to be cured of a physical condition to be at the point where his or her soul has said, “Time’s up—I need to leave.” So I’ve swung back to my original training: I believe that it’s the healer’s job to make it happen. In my early apprenticeship with Christian healers, I was deeply impressed by the work of Agnes Sanford. In her book The Healing Light,  she explains: “Let us understand then that if our [healing] experiment fails, it is not due to a lack in God, but to a natural and understandable lack in ourselves.” This puts responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the healer.

Suppose I decide to try firewalking and several people in front of me make it across the burning surface without so much as a blister, but my attempt forces me to jump off the red-hot coals with third-degree burns. Are the coals at fault? Self-responsibility requires that I look at my state of mind and heart at the moment I took my first step.

Invariably, in the world of healing there are many individuals who are not physically cured even though they might be emotionally and spiritually healed, and I am constantly humbled by these failures. Fortunately, thanks to those who have successfully walked across the coals ahead of me—Mary Baker Eddy, Agnes Sanford, and Kathyrn Kuhlman, for example—I’m reminded that miraculous healings are indeed possible. This brings me back again and again to focus on my responsibility to forge a stronger and more reliable connection with Divine power.

Reprinted with permission. Excerpt from pages 165-167 of Be Your Own Shaman by Deborah King, published by Hay House Books. ©2011 by Hay House Books.

Mediumship

EDGAR CAYCE & MEDIUMSHIP

by CelebritiesEnergy MedicineFeatured
Mediumship

So, let’s talk about mediumship, Edgar Cayce, and contacting our love ones on the other side, a very fun subject! Connecting to “the other side,” or what’s commonly called “mediumship,” is the practice of communicating with the dead. During a typical reading, the medium conveys messages from the deceased to the living. There are two types of sessions with a medium: in the mental type, the spirit supposedly takes over and controls the speech of the medium. In the physical type, the communication may claim to include voices, rapping on walls and tables, and movement of objects. Wild for sure! The practice can be traced back to early times when shamans in our communities provided guidance to the tribe by talking to the spirit world. The heyday of mediumship was back in the late 1800’s, when spiritualism, a movement that focused on mediumship, was in vogue. They didn’t have TV or internet back then, so this was evidently their form of entertainment. Mediumship is generally frowned upon by most modern religions but is mentioned in the Old Testament. Mediumship has seen a real rise in popularity recently, that’s why I want to address it today.

Mediumship

So, the question is – why talk to the dead, is it helpful, and is it safe? I can assure you that when someone on the other side weighs in during one of my healing sessions with a client, to offer insight or direction, I pay attention, so yes, it can be helpful. However, I teach that guidance from the other side be allowed to come to you, the practitioner, naturally, in the course of the session with the client, as opposed to you, willy-nilly, reaching out to the other side. Further, I believe that any information received should be used solely for the purpose of helping that individual heal. Here’s why:

  1. A common problem I have seen with individuals who make a practice of regularly reaching out for information from the dead, is that individual medium’s third and sixth chakras, that is, their power center and their third eye, get blown all out of proportion by doing this work, to their ultimate detriment. You don’t want to have that kind of imbalance in your energy field as it can affect your body, mind, and spirit, in negative ways. Again, I distinguish the limited practice of occasionally receiving information or advice from a loved one who reaches out to you, the practitioner, during a healing session, to aid their loved one back here on earth. When these fairly rare occasions occur, you, the healer, quietly, and with no fanfare, gently guide your client based on the information received. That way, you don’t fall into the old ego trap, and try to impress with your abilities.
  1. Another problem I’ve seen over a lifetime of practicing and teaching energy medicine, is that spending too much time in the areas beyond this realm in order to connect to someone on “the other side” is a risky endeavor: it’s not uncommon to pick up undesirable connections “out there;” some of these connections may be just minor annoyances that a qualified practitioner can later clear for you, but other connections I have seen can be as serious as outright possession. My experience is that it takes a lot of skill and self-awareness to know when you are “out there,” when you are safe, and when you are not. It seems like it never fails that when someone tells me they feel like they have “picked up” some dark energy, they will also volunteer they have worked with a medium. Even more problematic, I’ve found, when I’m asked for help by a medium, is that they are often quite bound up with negative energy and spirits they’ve accidentally encountered.
Mediumship

Now that I’ve laid out the dangers of mediumship, whether practicing it or receiving it, I want to distinguish the time-honored and valid practice of you personally connecting, whether alone or under the umbrella of a trusted teacher, to your ancestors, to animal guides, to ascended masters, and to the divine, which I do daily, and encourage you to do also. We can all benefit from continuity beyond this earthly realm, and that continuity can help heal ourselves, or someone who has requested our help. At the same time, however, we want to accept the wisdom that spirits beyond the veil can impart in a state of humility and quiet devotion – never use it to impress. 

So now, with all those provisos, I want to tell you about the life and legacy of a man with the most amazing abilities in the area of obtaining really valid guidance from beyond this realm. I’m talking about Edgar Cayce, of course. I discovered him when I was in my 20’s and devoured everything I could read by him and about him. I was ultimately invited many years ago to his campus in Virginia Beach, to his Center for Research and Enlightenment, to teach there.

When Edgar was a young man, he totally lost his voice; he couldn’t speak at all for a whole year. Desperate for a cure, he let a traveling hypnotist, and hypnotism was very big back then, put him in a trance, and, for as long as he remained in the trance, he could speak, but as soon as the trance ended, he couldn’t talk again.

After that, another hypnotist offered to help him, but when Cayce got hypnotized by him, he was able to diagnosed himself and found he was suffering from a psychological paralysis and then suggested to himself a treatment that worked. That’s when the local hypnotist said that Cayce should offer trance healing to the public, that clearly, he had a gift. A secretary recorded Cayce’s readings after he had already done about 8000 of them; eventually some 14,000 of them were memorialized in writing. I have read many of them. They are available online and today I’ll share a thumbnail version of some of his most profound insights.

Mediumship

Cayce said he got all his information for the requested readings from the Akashic Records, a term he coined, by the way. His subjects didn’t have to be present for him to do his work. My experience in this field has been the same: you can see from my work with guests who call into my Facebook Live show on Tuesdays that the call-in need not be physically present for me to get the information I need to help them. I’m getting the info from the same place that Cayce did, that is, the Akashic Records. And I can train you to get information from the Akashic Records too, in a safe way.

When Cayce was asked to explain the Akashic Records, and I just talked about them at length on a recent show on FaceBook and YouTube, he said they were “the record which each individual writes upon the thread of time and space.” Cayce said that, after our death, each of us is presented with our personal Akashic Record, an accounting of our karma. Cayce’s readings indicate that we each write our own life story with what we think, what we do, and how we interact with everyone and everything. Just as an aside, my own experiences with Near Death Experiences, which I talked about a few Facebook shows back, along with all the studies I’ve done on the NDE’s of others, establishes that we do often go through a life review during the NDE.

Cayce usually couldn’t recall later what he said to a client during the trance state, and when I’m in the slightly altered state that occurs when I’m getting information for you and helping you, I can’t usually recall much of it later either. It’s as if the information just flows through you, but doesn’t stay in your consciousness, and Cayce’s experience was the same. Nevertheless, I am 100% present when the info comes in, which is an important distinction: One of the things I want to be sure to mention is how dangerous it was for Cayce to not be conscious and present during his readings; another man, John of God, by the way, also followed that risky practice of not being conscious. When I worked with John of God in Brazil some 20 years ago, I saw with my own eyes just how dangerous it was to have another consciousness take over your mind and body. And we all know how sadly John of God’s life has turned out, my heart goes out to him, despite the horrific nature of his crimes. But we’ll talk about John of God another day. The important thing to know is that you need to be fully awake, aware, and present whenever you’re working to help heal someone or in contact with the Akashic Records or souls beyond the veil for someone else. I am always fully conscious of myself and my guest, and what I’m saying and doing during every reading and healing. That old style of reading and healing where the practitioner allowed their consciousness to leave their body is dangerous because negative entities can enter your body, mind, and spirit, and take over. 

Another classic mistake that Cayce made was that he overworked, and consequently died young at 67, as do others who can’t seem to say “no” to the needs of others. When I see that personality attribute, I recognize it as a need for approval that isn’t healthy; it means the healer is out of balance. Been there, done that. In case the shoe fits ☺

Edgar Cayce’s immense library of readings has been grouped into six categories: (1) health; (2) philosophy and reincarnation; (3) dreams; (4) ESP and psychic phenomena; (5) oneness; and (6) spiritual growth, meditation, and prayer. In the decades since his death in 1945, many terms that he invented — including Akashic Records, spiritual growth, auras, soul mates, and holistic health—have become an integral part of our language.

 

Edgar Cayce made a number of prophecies that are of interest to us today:

Mediumship

First, he predicted, long before they occurred, the stock market crash of 1929, World War II, and a shift in the electromagnetic poles of the earth that started in the year 2000 and is still going on and is likely a major cause of us moving into the New Age.

As for the future, he also made these prophecies that have yet to occur:

When asked if human life would be extended beyond what was happening in his day, he said yes, it would be extended considerably longer.

When he was asked, “Will we discover the design for a self-fueling  machine?” Cayce said we would, which offers hope when it comes to the climate crisis and ways to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, since they are devastating our ecosystem right now.

Cayce revealed that since humanity’s consciousness has evolved and expanded over time, a New Age and a new understanding of humanity’s relationship to God would appear right about now; that each of us must work with our own soul development to resonate with this new consciousness. He also said that an ancient “Hall of Records” from Atlantis would be rediscovered that would signify the manifestation of this new level of consciousness. 

Cayce prophesied that eventually China will become the center of true spirituality. In light of what’s going on right now in the world, this is an especially interesting insight.

Mediumship

He also had plenty to say about reincarnation and karma. His readings essentially counseled those fascinated by these subjects that one’s past lives should be of considerably less concern than one’s present life. I couldn’t agree more: I’m always telling my students to focus on this lifetime, since this is the one where you can make changes. He said that although we retain skills and lessons from past lives, it’s important to understand that the value of this life is to evolve further by adding skills and lessons by living, growing, and being of service in the present. Our abilities from past lives are provided to help us fulfill our purpose in the here and now. He also said that we pre-select our surroundings before each incarnation (parents and family, location, time period, etc.) that will best help us learn the lessons we need for completeness.

Cayce stressed that prayer (talking to Source) and meditation (listening to Source) affects your consciousness and your vitality and that the survival of our planet literally hinges on those of us who view life in all its diversity as crucial elements of a sacred whole. 

And now — to answer the question that nearly everyone asks after they’ve learned that we survive death — ‘’What are our loved ones  doing on the other side?”  Edgar Cayce had this to say: “When we die, we merely change form and are very much alive. Death is only passing through God’s other door.”  I very much agree with this – so let’s make the most of ourselves while we have the advantage of a physical body!

Mediumship

If the idea of tapping into wisdom from beyond this Earthly realm is of interest to you, think about enrolling in our best-selling Astral Travel course. It will teach you to safely go beyond what we experience here in physical form, to attain knowledge and guidance that isn’t otherwise available. Click here to learn more now >>

Ayurveda diet

Eating with the Seasons

by Energy MedicineFeaturedHealth

 

Your Ayurveda guide to healthy eating for your body type

Ayurveda is an ancient energy medicine protocol based on the idea that the universe is composed of five elements — air, fire, water, earth, and ether — and so are humans, and all other life forms and matter, as living progeny of the universe.

The rishis (accomplished and enlightened seers) proclaimed that, as microcosms of nature, all five elements exist in each of us and are represented by three doshas (energies).

Ayurveda diet

VATA (air and ether) is the force that directs nerve impulses, circulation, respiration, and elimination.

PITTA (fire and water) is the force that governs digestive metabolism and organ and tissue systems.

KAPHA (water and earth) is the force responsible for growth and structure (protection and integrity of the being or element).

These three energies are where your body connects with your mind—the place where your thoughts turn into matter that affects how well balanced you are as a being. When any of these three energies  go out of whack, Ayurveda offers specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help reduce the turbulence so your body and mind can be restored to balance. In Ayurvedic terminology, a healthy person is defined as “she whose doshas are in balance, appetite is good, all tissues of the body and all natural urges are functioning properly, and mind, body, and spirit are cheerful.”

Your unique mind-body constitution is called prakruti, which means “nature”— your individual nature and body type. It is immensely helpful to learn what your mind-body nature is — which of the three energies are most prominent in your make-up — so you know how to keep them in balance.

TAKE STOCK OF YOUR MIND-BODY BASELINE

By looking closely at your tongue, face, eyes, nails, and lips over a period of  time, you can learn which of your energies need to be adjusted. Ayurvedic practitioners can also determine which of your energies are on overload by taking pulses similar to those acupuncturists consult to determine how strong, weak, flat, fast, or shallow these indicators are.

Ayurveda diet

DIET, EXERCISE, DAILY, & SEASONAL ROUTINES DETERMINE LEVELS OF WELLBEING FOR ALL THREE MIND-BODY ENERGY TYPES

If you’re principally Vata, your key to optimal wellbeing is regularity. If you’re experiencing poor digestion, if you catch colds easily, or if you develop insomnia and fatigue, you’re likely experiencing excessive oppositional energies.

If you’re quite Pitta, your key to optimal wellbeing is moderation. When you find yourself flying off the handle or experiencing inflammatory conditions, or if you’re  a super-stressed workaholic or overachiever, your energies are out of balance in this area, and need a tune up.

If you’re mostly Kapha, your key to optimal wellbeing is stimulation. When your energies are out of balance, you will most likely experience sinus congestion, poor circulation, and sluggish digestion which can lead to obesity and depression.

Ayurveda diet

Ayurveda outlines a set of seasonal guidelines known as Ritucharya. The guidelines serve as prescriptions for diet and lifestyle changes throughout the year to help  keep your mind clear, lift and fulfill your spirit, and help ensure vibrancy within your entire body.

According to Ayurveda, each year is divided into two periods, each covering three seasons:

Uttarayana, the cold months, containing the seasons Sharath, Hemanta, and Shishira

Dakshinayana, the warm months, containing the seasons Vasanta, Grishma, and Varsha.

Why eating for the season is crucial to greater wellbeing

If you’re a nature lover, as I am, you have probably noticed how differently wild ones behave and eat during the four seasons we usually think of: spring, summer, winter, and autumn. Their bodies, like our own, instinctively recognize and respond to seasonal environmental cues and conditions by processing nutrition so their bodies can prepare for the upcoming span of time that lies directly before them.

Ayurveda diet

Meat-eating mammals become voracious as the cold winter months begin to announce their arrival. The bodies of bears, raccoons, wild cats, and wild dogs in their hemispheres begin to fill out as some species ready their bodies for hibernation and other species prepare their bodies for days or weeks of starvation. It’s almost as if Nature/Source has placed a calendar in their craniums that prompts them to consume as much as they can find.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise (as Gomer Pyle would say)!  We humans have the same internal promptings.  As the cold months approach, we begin to crave foods that help calm us even as they pack on extra fat, even though you aren’t environmentally bound to seasonal deprivation, as were our ancestors, not long ago, before refrigeration and mass transportation. But our bodies are still designed to operate the way they were back then, so eating in opposition to your promptings can set you up for a compromised immune system, unhealthy weight gain or loss, less healthy and robust skin and hair, and some illnesses. So, eating with the seasons does two things: It makes you feel good and it’s a powerful way to help ensure your wellbeing physically, mentally, and emotionally.

In the West, the Ayurveda practice of Ritucharya is characterized by four seasons, unlike India where there are six. In both countries, though, the energies go through a cycle of accumulating, aggravating, and palliating during the seasons, so our goal is to keep them as balanced as possible by way of lifestyle and diet.

Ayurveda diet

In the U.S. and in Canada, Vata season runs from autumn to early winter, mid-September to January, Kapha season happens from February to May, and Pitta season goes from June to mid-September. But, depending on where you live in the U.S. or Canada, always take your cues from your natural surroundings and fellow creatures. Up against and above the 54th parallel (the border between the US and Canada), the winter season is considerably longer.

Balance your diet by way of opposing energies. What I mean by this is that,  during Pitta season, as just one example, the weather is frequently hot, dry, light, and sharp, so counter those with cool, heavy, and bland foods; avoid sour, spicy, salty, and overpowering foods.

DIETARY INSIGHTS AND INFORMATION

Meat

Beef increases Pitta and Kapha but reduces Vata. It is heavy, thick, tastes sweet and its post-digestive effect is sweet. Eating beef heats your body. Beef increases Pitta and Kapha and reduces Vata.

Chicken is moderately okay for all three mind-body types. Sweet and astringent, its post-digestive effect is pungent (stimulating). It is strengthening.

Fish increases Pitta and Kapha but reduces Vata. Eating fish heats your body.

Dairy

Unsalted butter is sweet, astringent and cooling. It promotes intestinal absorption. It increases Kapha and reduces Vata and Pitta.

Unsalted cheese is sweet and sour and cooling. It increases Pitta and Kaphs and decreases Vata.

Cow’s milk is sweet and cooling. It increases Kaph and decreases Vata and Pitta.

Eggs are sweet, astringent and heating. Post digestively, they are pungent. Eggs increase Pitta and Kapha and decrease Vata.

Ghee is sweet and cooling. Taken in excess, it increases Kapha. Taken moderately, it is good for all three energies. It promotes digestion and strengthening.

Goat’s milk is sweet, astringent, and cooling. Post digestively, it is sweet. Increases Vata, decreases Pitta and Kapha. Relieves cough and fever.

As always, consult your health care provider before you undertake any new health regime.

Ayurveda diet

It’s important that your routine, diet included, fits your doshas – the combination of three energy sources that create your unique makeup. When you don’t align with the energy that is unique to you, that is when you feel out of balance. To get started on a deeper exploration of Ayurveda and the wisdom it holds for your health and well-being, take my Dosha quiz to find out which doshas are most prominent in you >>

St Francis Assissi

St. Francis: Why We Celebrate this Early Activist

by AdvocacyCelebritiesEnergy MedicineEnvironmentalFeatured
St Francis Assissi

I want to tell you about one of my favorite people of all time and talk about the environment at the same time. If you’re an animal lover and nature lover, like I am, and you’re as worried about the state of our environment as I am, then this guy and his energy is for you. I’m talking about Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment. Francis’s journey from rich spoiled kid to one of the most amazing people who ever lived is a story worth hearing about.

As a child born into a very wealthy family in the late 1100’s – his father was a landowner and a cloth merchant and his mother was royalty from France, so an upper-class family, — Francis was far removed from the daily grind that the rest of the world had to face to survive at the time. It reminds you of Buddha’s early days, doesn’t it.

By age 13, Francis had a serious drinking problem, he was into gourmet food, and, if there were drugs back then, I’m sure he did those too. If you have ever had addiction issues, like I have, you’ll relate to him big-time. He dropped out of school at 13, a rebellious kid who ignored the city curfew and drank himself into a stupor every night. He managed to get away with this behavior because of his charm and his father’s wealth.

St Francis Assissi

As he got older, Francis became highly skilled at archery and on horseback. And although his father expected Francis to go into the textile business, he dreamed instead of becoming a knight. He clearly wanted to achieve hero worship status, which is why he honed his skills as an archer and rider. Ironically, he became a major hero for very different reasons.

Soon, a war broke out between Assisi and Perugia, and Francis leapt on that moment and joined the cavalry. However, during his first big battle, he was captured and, because his family was wealthy, held for ransom rather than killed. It took his father almost a year to pull together the enormous sum required for his release.

It was during his time in prison that Francis began having visions. After he got out of prison, he told everybody he could hear the voice of Christ, who told him to redeem the church, which was, of course, corrupt, (what’s new), give up his profligate lifestyle, and live like the poor.

The defining incident that separated Francis from his father forever was the time he stole a bolt of cloth from his father’s shop and his father’s horse to raise money to rebuild a fallen-down church. Upon discovering the theft, his father delivered him to the local bishop and reported the theft. The bishop told Francis to return his father’s money. He did so, but at the same time he also stripped off his clothes, stood there nude, and declared that God was the only father he would recognize henceforth. The bishop gave him a rough tunic to cover his nakedness, and Francis headed out of town. He was attacked almost immediately by a bunch of thieves and badly beaten, but he took it all in stride, feeling elated because he had finally been fully freed from the expectations of others. If you’re one of those people who had to fight your father or mother to become the person you really wanted to be, you’ll relate to him. After this incident, the Francis that so many of us have come to know and love, embarked wholeheartedly on the road to his true destiny.

Francis’s radical embrace of poverty wasn’t mainstream at the time (any more than it is today). The church itself was enormously rich, as were the people at its helm. This wealth didn’t sit well with Francis; he felt it diverged from the original ideals Christ had decreed. So, he went on a personal crusade to change this, visiting up to five villages every day. His charisma and the purity of his message drew thousands of adherents into his orbit. These became the very first Franciscan friars. He even preached to animals, how cool is that!

St Francis Assissi

By the time he died on October 3, 1226, at 44 years of age, many predicted he would be canonized as a saint. As his health deteriorated, he returned to Assisi to die. Knights were sent from Assisi to guard him and guide him safely home since, at the time, the body of a saint was viewed as a valuable relic that would bring glory to whichever town it rested. He was canonized as a saint on July 16, 1228, and in 2013, nearly 800 years later, the current Pope honored Saint Francis by taking his name and becoming Pope Francis.

Because of visions he had, or actions he took which were counter to the sensibilities of his times, some regarded Francis as crazy, while others considered him as close to Christ-like as they had ever encountered before. One example of his counter-cultural inclinations was his care for and kissing of lepers, whom he said were really Christ in disguise.

Clearly, Francis was an early activist. If you’re obsessed, as I am, by prejudice or unfairness or the assault on the natural world that’s happening, you will relate to Francis.

St Francis Assissi

Now another important point about Francis: Once he found his path, he was obsessed with nature and animals and the environment. He was so attuned to the animal world he could easily hear animals speak to him. If you’re totally into animals, like I am, I bet you can hear them too – I still remember the first time a horse ever spoke to me – I was on my boy, Influence’s back one hot morning, when I clearly heard him say “it’s too hot and my feet hurt.” I jumped off, looked him in the eye, and could see he was really laughing it up – horses have such a great sense of humor!

So back to Francis: his annual feast day is coming up soon, and it’s a custom in many cities to bring your dog, cat, hamster, horse, or you name it from the animal world, to the steps of a local church for a blessing. It’s a very cool ceremony, I used to ride my horse down to the local church, with the dogs following, for us all to get a blessing.

Francis totally wore himself out, fasting and living in rough conditions, in abandoned churches, without any heat. That’s why he died so young, at 44. Now, here’s a really interesting point: he got the stigmata of Jesus, that’s the wounds that Christ got on the cross, making him the first person to every have that happen. Wow, what an achievement!

So, how does Francis relate to our present-day environmental crisis?

For those of you who live in rural or suburban areas of the world, I’m sure you can remember driving in the countryside where your windshield was smeared and spattered with the massive remains of bugs that collided with you. How long has it been since you’ve encountered that? I simply can’t remember the last time it happened to me it has been so many years. That tells an ominous tale about what has been happening just during our brief lifetimes. Insects feed countless other creatures that fly, swim, crawl, and burrow. Given fewer insects, fewer species survive.

Back when I was a kid, it seemed like every few rhododendron leaves hosted a green tree frog. Not anymore! And garter snakes, salamanders, pollywogs, bullfrogs, dragonflies, and bees, not to mention rattlesnakes, were easy to find just about everywhere if you kept a sharp eye out for them.

The environmental crisis that we find ourselves in today didn’t happen overnight, but for a lot of us, it certainly has escalated enough that even we can remember multiple “before and after” scenarios that are disquieting.

For at least the past 75 years, environmentalists across the globe have been sounding the alarm about the destruction of Earth’s natural habitats.

St Francis Assissi
St Francis Assissi

You have certainly heard of some of the earliest ones: Rachel Carson, whose book “Silent Spring,” served as the first canary in the coal mine was a big wake-up call for all of us. First published in 1962, the book documented the damage that man-made pesticides were inflicting on the environment. Its publication is considered by numerous historians to be the genesis of the modern environmentalist movement in America.

Fast forward to today. Let’s visit with a few latter-day Saint Francis types from across the globe who have made saving the earth and all its inhabitants their life’s work:

Jane Goodall, the late Dian Fossey, and Dr. Mary Galdikas, have studied and worked closely with chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, and orangutans respectively in their natural habitats in Africa and Borneo, becoming the world’s foremost authorities on these great apes. They have documented each species’ social networks, amazing skillsets, intelligence, and the ever-present challenges that face them as humans continue to invade and negatively impact the places they count on to continue as viable species.

One gorilla, Koko, raised and taught sign language by Penny Patterson, made it clear to those of us who are paying attention that these magnificent beings experience pleasure, pain, sadness, and deprivation every bit as much as we do. When Koko’s pet kitten died, Koko became very sad and signed to Penny, “My heart hurts.” And when Fred Rogers of the show, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, visited Koko, she immediately took off his shoes, as she had seen him do so many times on her favorite TV program. The look they shared with each other was priceless.

St Francis Assissi
St Francis Assissi

 

On September 23, 2019, Swedish teenage environmentalist, Greta Thunberg, spoke at the United Nations about climate change, angrily and tearfully accusing world leaders of half-measures and outright inaction. If you haven’t seen her speech, I encourage you to google it. In it, she makes no bones about the fact that the environmental crises we face right now are the direct result of the powers-that-be looking the other way or placating us with inadequate half-measures, despite the fact that what whole industries are doing to the earth right now is unsustainable — and lethal not just to us, but to every creature that shares the planet with us.

I’m sure David Attenborough is familiar to you: his documentaries have been shown on TV for years. Check out his Extinction: The Facts (2020), which depicts how the world is in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, where human poaching, illegal wildlife trade, and overfishing are pushing one million out of eight million species on the planet to the very edge of extinction.

St Francis Assissi

Hans Cosmas Ngoteya: This Tanzanian conservationist has lived in the Serengeti since his childhood and has always had a passion for wildlife and the environment. But instead of becoming a ranger or tour guide, he has opted to protect the Serengeti environment and its irreplaceable wildlife.

Julia Hill: Between 1997 and 1999, Julia Hill (nicknamed Butterfly) decided to live on the branches of a 180-foot redwood tree for over 700 days to keep loggers from cutting it down. The tree in question, which Julia named Luna, was estimated to be 1500 years old.

Considered among the most fiercely committed environmental leaders, Julia Hill has continued to fight environmental shortsightedness by being involved in the writing of a number of books on saving the environment. Interestingly enough, her passion for the environment began after her near-death experience in a car crash. Ever since, she has since been a devoted advocate for the environment and natural habitats.

These are just a handful of the environmentalists whose ethics and activities recall to mind Francis’s efforts to consider all God’s creation sacred and worth preserving.

And here’s a poem that is often set to music, Make Me a Channel for Your Peace, also called the St. Francis Prayer:

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there is doubt true faith in You
Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there’s sadness ever joy
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul
Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul
Make me a channel of your peace
Where there’s despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there’s sadness ever joy

In keeping with the spirit of St. Francis, we encourage you to take the time and explore which environmental cause really speaks to you. Whether it’s animal-related, global warming, whatever it may be…research which non-profit organization you think is worthy of your support and donate. Even if it’s a small amount. If we all play our part, together, we will move the needle forward.

2022 Fall Equinox

How Will YOU Celebrate the Fall Equinox?

by Astrological EventsEnergy MedicineFeaturedLunar

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

The Celts and Buddhists know how to celebrate this annual planetary event.

Scientifically, in the northern hemisphere, the Fall Equinox is the date when sunrise begins to happen later every morning and nighttime begins to fall earlier every evening. It is the halfway point between our longest and shortest days of the year.

During the Fall Equinox, the sun appears immediately above Earth’s equator (located at 0 degrees latitude at Earth’s widest girth) and our planet in both hemispheres receives roughly equal amounts of daylight and darkness.

This is also the date when plants begin to die or go dormant and hibernating animals start heading for their wintertime dens or nests. Autumn officially begins in the Northern hemisphere on September 22nd most years and will last until December 21st this year.

2022 Fall Equinox

The Fall Equinox Affects Our Spiritual Essence

These days in both hemispheres, it’s easy to forget the inherent risk to human survival that autumn played in bygone eras. Like the rest of nature’s environment-supported beings, millions of humans had to begin preparing in advance for several months of slim pickings, keenly aware that it would be months before the first signs of spring edibles would begin to peek above the frozen ground and animals could again be seen wandering around in abundance, promising an end to months of isolation and privation.

So, it’s no surprise that most cultures honored the changing of seasons by celebrating spring and summer and by focusing their common spiritual energies on celebrating harvests, thanking their Creators, and praying for their deliverance through the far more challenging fall and winter seasons. With the ravages of global warming, we may be returning to this mind-set in the future.

This equinox was equal parts celebration and supplication in a great many cultures

Various cultures celebrated the abundance of their agricultural and hunting harvests at this time even as they prepared to survive the upcoming months-long season of wintertime darkness, deprivation, and death. They also considered this equinox a special opportunity to connect with the divine and to seek continuing providence during the forthcoming months of lack.

2022 Fall Equinox

Your Genetic Memory Hasn’t Forgotten

For many of us who are intimately in touch with our essence, the Fall Equinox stirs something elemental in the heart, mind, and spirit. What is this special time of the year communicating to you?

Following are just a few possibilities!

2022 Fall Equinox

At the Heart Level …

Tune into your unique rhythm. Slow down sufficiently to listen to your inner guidance system (your intuition).

What is your heart asking of you? Is it asking you to donate to the less fortunate, with winter just around the corner?

Is it asking you to let go of the things that you don’t value or use anymore, knowing someone else will benefit from acquiring them?

What other things is it asking you to let go of, or to recover from, by way of some action, not to benefit others, but to benefit your own heart, mind, and spirit?

There are no wrong answers here. Your heart knows what your spirit needs to boost your vibrational frequency!

At the Mind Level …

Celebrate the fruits of your labor. Make a list of the things you’ve succeeded at doing since this time last year. Acknowledge them in all their glory. Pull out all the stops. Feel the joy!

2022 Fall Equinox

During this equinox, Mother Nature begins preparing for a type of death, and you, too, may feel inclined to let things go. Is there anything right now — anything at all — that you know you will benefit from by putting it out of its (and your) misery? Regrets? Missteps? Toxic relationships?

2022 Fall Equinox

At the Spirit Level…

Consider planting your own vegetables or herbs (if you’re in a lower part of the hemisphere that will allow) for an upcoming spring harvest. Planting for renewed life during this “season of lack and death” (especially during a global pandemic) signals to the universe that you are intentional about surviving and about fostering survival, despite the multiple challenges that accompany living.

Consider building an altar, or placing pumpkins on your doorstep, or hanging an autumn wreath on your door. (Whatever works with your spirit to acknowledge and celebrate the equinox.)

Consider meditating on the equinox and how this one differs from ones you acknowledged and/or celebrated a few years ago (pre-pandemic).

Alternately, your spirit may simply direct you to release your attachment to taking any kind of action at all, or making any decision, so you can simply observe how things unfold and resolve on their own. Again, there are no wrong choices here!

Whatever you decide to do or to refrain from doing, whenever you do it with intentionality, you will gain clarity as you unite your mind with your spirit and nature.

How Other Cultures Celebrate the Fall Equinox

CELTS & NEOPAGANS

The Celts, skilled astronomical observers, recognized various points in the solar year as times of change and shifts in Earth’s productivity, considering them of immense spiritual and practical significance.

Three stalks of barley tied up with rafia represent the cutting down of John Barleycorn during Mabon, the Celtic celebration of the Fall Equinox.

The ritual of John Barleycorn is a folk tale and song evoking the sowing, growing and harvest of corn.

To the Celts, Mabon is also a time to honor the Spirit World and address their own spirits. It is when Celts stop, relax, and enjoy their personal “harvests” from whichever projects they have been working on all year long.

On this date, the Druids honor The Green Man, God of the Forest, by offering sacrifices to trees. Ciders, fertilizer, herbs, and wine are all appropriate offerings.

Mabon focuses on balance because on this date (and only one other all year long) true balance is observable in nature. Day and night are equal in length.

2022 Fall Equinox

Mabon Symbols, Colors, Foods, Herbs, Stones, Flowers Deities, and Animals

Symbols: cornucopia (horn of plenty), pinecones, seeds

Colors: brown, copper, dark green, yellow (light and dark), orange, red,

Foods: apples, beans, cider, corn, root vegetables, pomegranate, pumpkins, squash, wine

Herbs: mugwort, rosehips, rosemary, sage, yarrow

Stones: amber, aventurine, cat’s eye, citrine, jasper,  sapphire

Flowers: marigolds, sunflowers, thistle

Deities: Demeter, Green Man, Inanna,  Mabon, Morgan, Persephone, Pomona

Animals: blackbird, Owl, salmon, stag

2022 Fall Equinox

THE ROMANS

Romans held an (undocumented) Festival of Pomona, linked to the goddess Persephone in Greek mythology, during this equinox.

Despite the lack of a documented festival in her honor, Pomona was considered a wood nymph. The Goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards, she was believed to watch over and protects fruit trees and care for their cultivation.

BUDDHISTS

The origin of Higan dates from Emperor Shōmu in the 8th century. It is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated by Japanese sects for seven days; three days before and after both the Spring equinox (shunbun) and Autumnal equinox (shūbun). It is observed by nearly every Buddhist school in Japan.”

During this time, many Japanese visit the graves of their ancestors to thank them and to pray to go to the world of enlightenment after their own passing. Some Buddhist temples hold a memorial service and festival during Higan.

2022 Fall Equinox

Perhaps now is a good time to consult your spirit guides to discern what resonates with you about this equinox and how you would like to acknowledge it.

Think back as best you can about your ancestors, especially the ancient ones, and consider how they viewed this time of the year, when there was only home, hearth, and, hopefully, an amply stocked below-ground root cellar to sustain them during the upcoming dark, cold months.

Before electricity was available for refrigeration and heat, isolated in small villages or more distant farms, this was a time of thanksgiving for adequate harvests of various kinds, as well as a time to seek favor and continuing provision from unseen helpers, known and unknown, in the world and beyond it.

2022 Fall Equinox

Consider creating the story of one of your ancestors who was alive in the 1700’s or 1800’s; before radio or TV, before flight, before any of our modern conveniences (most of which we take for granted). What was cooking like? What was washing clothes like? What was hunting or gathering like? If you can get inside someone from another era and begin to see what this month’s equinox represented to them, you may be able to find ways to honor both your ancestors and their ways of coping with the next several months of early darkness, increasing coldness, and less available food except for what they’ve painstakingly gathered and stored that will keep for months on end (heavily salted jerky meat, canned and dried fruits, roots, nuts and vegetables).

An Emergency Services Manager once told me that the great earthquake that is anticipated in Southern California will take us from the Space Age to the Stone Age within minutes. Without our modern conveniences, what would the next few months of life be like for us?

It was like that for your ancestors. They survived. They even thrived well enough to have offspring, who had offspring, who resulted eventually in your existence right now.

What kind of thanks were they giving this at time of year? What kind of prayers were they saying? What were they doing, and what had they been doing, to prepare for the coming months of lack?

Meditate on how fortunate you are to be living right now, even with all that seems to be going sideways in the world right now.

Let the energies of this equinox and your own sense of balance guide you to make this year’s Fall Equinox a lasting memory!

The Autumn Equinox represents an “end” of sorts. A perfect time to say goodbye and let go of the things in your life that are holding you back. And endings make way for new beginnings. So, this Autumn Equinox makes the perfect time for you to focus on healing and letting go of past traumas, to make way for a new beginning where you step into your most powerful self. LifeForce Energy Healing is one amazing path to do this. If you are new to it, consider joining our Level I program to start getting into the basics.


LifeForce Energy Healing® I

If you are more experienced, we still have just a couple spots left for our year-long Master-in-Training program (which starts this week). It’s is the most transformational program we offer, and is truly a path towards a new beginning, a new life, and a new you. Learn more and register by clicking here >>


2022-ReclaimYourPowerBlog-1

Who’s In Charge Here? 3 Ways to Reclaim Your Personal Power

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeatured

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my own ship. ~Louisa May Alcott

How are you personally feeling right now? Stressed? Overwhelmed? With everything going on right now, reinforce by a 24-hour news cycle, no one could blame you. It’s easy to focus on the external. And you won’t be alone if you are looking around for excuses (and easily finding them).

Look for a new job? Tell my partner I want to make some changes? Devote time, energy, and resources to my own personal well-being and spiritual growth? Who, me?

If this sounds familiar, the time has come to reclaim your vital feeling of personal power.

Over time, there are many reasons why you may have let go of your personal power, your ownership of the real, authentic you. Your parents knew better about how you should live. Your teachers insisted that you think and act according to their views. You didn’t want to challenge or confront someone else’s overpowering will. Whatever caused you to let your personal power diminish, it’s time to regain the precious gift of knowing who you are and what you want.

Your body’s third chakra, the source of will, purpose, and action, is the seat of self-esteem and personal power. Located at the solar plexus midway between the navel and the sternum, the third chakra corresponds to the center of your metabolic fire—that which fuels you and gives you vitality. From this center you harness your energy and convert it into action. If your third energy center is compromised, you may feel doubtful, indecisive, and lacking in self-confidence. You might suffer from low energy, lack the ability to follow through, or always feel like a victim of circumstance, a pushover. Loss of personal power makes you unable to interact positively and powerfully in the world or even to simply show up for life each day.

When your third energy center is fit and healthy, you feel able to take action. Your intentions are clearly focused. You are able to claim your personal power with no need to demand or ruthlessly take power from someone else. Power flows to you because you know who you are and feel ready to accomplish all that you dream of.

Use these 3 steps to take to regain your personal power:

  1. Free your spirit of toxic energy.
    Let go of the old. Examine your life for anything or anyone that diminishes your personal or spiritual power. That includes old messages in your head from your parents or other authority figures, echoes of self-doubt and discouragement, beliefs that you are not worthy or undeserving of love. It includes people who put you down or “love” through control or abuse. As an energy healer and spiritual teacher, I always tell my students to protect and preserve their personal power. You need your personal power to heal yourself and the world.
  1. Decide your direction.
    After you have released all your old crippling patterns of thought and behavior, energy will flow back to you. Your inner strength and power will be replenished and ready for new direction. It’s time to set intentions for this new phase of your life. What do you truly want? Use your journaling and meditation practices along with walks in nature, proper rest, and good self-care to help you discover your hopes and goals. Give your newly regained personal power a strong focus.
  1. Begin to take action.
    Now that you have let go of all that was holding you back and decided what your soul wants to accomplish, take the necessary actions to reach your goals. You have the power, the will, and the self-awareness you need to move forward. Allow the joy of regaining your personal power, your spiritual energy and inner strength to propel you forward. You are ready to manifest your dreams.

Using your personal power in service of the light is never selfish. Any action you take will help to raise your vibration and therefore raise the vibration of the planet. When you are acting from a place of love, being your true self, and living the life you came here to live, you are putting your personal power to the highest and best use.

Bonus: Surround yourself with a community that supports you and lets you step into your most powerful self. Our year-long Master-in-Training program provides just that, along with guidance and healing that empowers you to live the life you were meant to live. Learn more by clicking here >>

Spiritual Adventure

Five Ways to Prepare for Your Next Great Spiritual Adventure

by Energy MedicineFeatured
Spiritual Adventure

“Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.” –Wayne Dyer

So how does the future look to you? With change coming toward you at an ever-faster pace, does it sometimes feel like you are standing on quicksand? Or maybe on a giant log rolling along in a turbulent river?  Is that sinking and swirling sensation part of the ride? Is it meant to feel overwhelming and scary or is it meant to feel exciting and exhilarating?  Actually, the choice is up to you!

How you choose to meet a fast-changing future is in your hands. Will you let yourself shrink with fear or grow with love? Both as a physical and spiritual being, you are already programmed to learn and grow. Just as your body and mind have matured over time, your spirit has been seeking ways to expand, to move closer to the light, to develop more understanding and awareness. Your spirit longs to keep that outward and upward movement going, to advance in knowledge, to increase your well-being, your happiness, and your power to help and contribute. Growth feels good and sends reverberations of hope and possibility into the world around you.

The excitement and joy you feel when pursuing spiritual growth is natural. When you work at expanding your awareness, bringing yourself into balance, experiencing greater peace, raising your consciousness, and connecting with the Divine, you are actually assisting every other person and creature on the planet to do the same. How you meet life’s challenges matters—with every thought and emotion you have, you’re sending out a wave of energy that makes its way into the fabric of humanity’s consciousness. By embracing growth and facing change with your best self, you contribute to the well-being of all.

Here are 5 ways you can prepare to meet whatever spiritual adventures lie ahead with courage and joy:

Spiritual Adventure
  1. Build your meditation practice — The first step is always to open and strengthen your channel to Source. Preparing the way for growth and change begins with this universal practice to still the mind; calm, cleanse, and refresh the body; and increase your connection to the infinite Source of all information, love, and light. Meditate to improve your ability to focus your consciousness. Building your ability to connect with the Divine will help you absorb and understand the knowledge you receive. Learn to meditate with an experienced teacher and build a practice that will stay with you and support all your future endeavors.
  1. Discover who you are — Will you be ready to face the future with a balanced and light-centered self? Begin at the heart of matters. Examine yourself to see if you know who you really are and what you really want. What are your beliefs and values? Your hopes and fears? What do you love to do and whom do you love? Because you are a unique being, there is much knowledge about yourself that only you can discover, much work that only you can do. Start a program of self-study that has proven helpful for others. Be open and willing to accept what you learn about yourself. Your willingness to receive information and make peace with all aspects of your being will help you use this new knowledge to move your life toward harmony and joy.
Spiritual Adventure
Spiritual Adventure
  1. Embrace prayer — You’ll find a world of healing information in the study and practice of prayer. Common to every culture and every people, prayer is about joining to the light, Source, God, or whatever name you have for the energy of unconditional love. Forms of prayer can include contemplation, affirmations, music, art, being in nature, and physical activities like dance and yoga—all used to connect to the Divine. Try forms of prayer that are new to you. Use affirmations to declare a shift into your higher-self qualities. “I am able to heal.” “I am an instrument of peace and love.” You can also connect to the Divine through creative activities you love by asking to be a channel for the divine light as you work.
  1. Record your truth in your journal — Keeping a daily journal of your thoughts and feelings can support your spiritual growth in several ways. If you haven’t kept a journal before, you’ll discover a wonderful opportunity to express yourself, explore your feelings, be authentic, and tell the truth in a safe and private setting. It takes practice to dig deep into your experience and express your authentic self openly and honestly. When you learn to be truthful on the pages of your journal, you learn to be truthful in the world. You step into a new level of self-awareness and self-trust, opening the door to future accomplishments.
Spiritual Adventure
Spiritual Adventure
  1. Join a group of like-minded friends — Taking a class or workshop with others who are seeking spiritual growth can be the ultimate learning experience. Finding out what others are working to achieve and striving to understand can help you realize your own gifts and imagine ways to develop them. You may only discover the true possibilities of your own future by seeing the example of other lives and by connecting with others in spiritual practices like meditation and prayer. When you develop a compassionate regard for yourself and others who are now experiencing life on the physical plane, your capacity to grow and serve expands. All spiritual beings having a human experience face similar challenges. Working toward spiritual growth together empowers you to meet those challenges with love, joy, and a deep feeling of unity.

Will you be ready to meet the future with an open heart, an open mind, and a joyful knowing that adventures beyond imagining lie ahead? Begin to use your spiritual resources to move away from fear and toward love today!

Right now, the doors are open for our most intimate, exclusive, and transformational program: the year-long Master-in-Training program. It will put you in the middle of a group of like-minded healers and seekers of truth and light. You will have guidance, a support group, and connection. It’s exactly the right program for the right person – the person that is ready to embark on that next great spiritual adventure and evolve by leaps and bounds over the next year. If that’s you, there are still a few spots left for the program. You can learn more here >>

 

initiate

Access Higher Realms for Guidance: Your Leadership Role Right Now (Part 2)

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedLife Coaching
initiate

Are you ready to step into your purpose as a leader — so you can LIVE your soul’s deepest desires, and help us heal our world?

In Part 1, we started exploring how you’re being called to step into leadership right now and I shared a quick, powerful practice for tapping into the guidance of your eighth chakra.

In Part 2, we’ll build off of the foundation we created together, and I guide you to tap even beyond your eighth chakra to find the unique mission of your soul — your true life purpose that’s calling you to step into action now…

We’ll start with a revisit to your 8th chakra — the epicenter of your entire chakra system. Then we’ll tap into your 9th, 10th, 11th, and we’ll even discuss the 12th chakra — the seat of all-knowing awareness.

The 8th chakra for wisdom & higher perception

In the video below, you’ll sense your 8th chakra as a light-filled orb. This is the first transpersonal chakra, associated with the origin of enlightenment and ascension.

Here you can sense that you’re connected to a large community of higher beings, because this chakra takes you beyond your singular self. The 8th chakra connects you with higher spiritual perceptions and wisdom. Here you develop a new spiritual awareness that can bring great changes to your professional and personal life as you go beyond yourself and into your desire to help heal the planet.

Your 9th chakra for tapping into your karmic blueprint

Next I introduce you to your 9th chakra, where all the abilities that are related to the Christ light energy are waiting for you, to be used in both your inner and outer worlds. This chakra is about four feet above your head — and it’s a joy-filled center that sparks the light in all the cells of your body.

The ninth chakra holds your karmic blueprint, as well as the key to the destiny of your soul. You become aware of all the knowledge and the various skills you have acquired in all your experiences and in every lifetime.

As I guide you into this chakra, you’ll take a look at three principal life blueprints: the creator, the healer, and the teacher. You’ll see which one you hold as your main blueprint — the one that you’ve developed the most throughout your lifetimes. As you’ll discover, your karmic blueprint determines your destiny!

Your 10th chakra for tapping into your deepest, highest skills

The power to manifest is within your own subtle energy body. It’s not about affirmations or visualizations — it’s about drawing Divine, Soul energy from the higher realms, into the physical realm.
Through your 10th chakra, you can start to manifest your desires and bring into the world the skills and knowledge you learned in your past incarnations.

The 10th chakra is also responsible for divine creativity — the ability to bring all facets of your life into harmony and to bring manifestation into every area of your life.

In this video practice, I guide you in a meditation to heal your 10th chakra. I show you how to release the energy blockages by dissolving fear. I also share a mantra to use for balancing the masculine and feminine within your 10th chakra and your entire energy field.

The 11th chakra for going beyond the physical world

At the level of the 11th chakra, you start to go beyond the laws of the physical world, like gravity or space/time, and start to use other siddhis—advanced powers.

This chakra contains your spiritual library — everything you need to be both human and divine. It holds all the connections you need to activate higher spiritual abilities such as teleportation, telekinesis, the instant manifestation of thought into matter, and bi-location and travel outside the limitation of time and space. Of course, this is a very advanced chara, and these gifts will not manifest until the 12th chakra begins its opening.

The 11th chakra has all the connections you need to activate the higher spiritual abilities, such as teleportation, telekinesis, the instant manifestation of thought into matter, bi-location and travel outside the limitation of time and space.

Of course, these will not manifest until the 12th chakra begins its opening. These skills are meant to prepare you for your existence after ascension. It is the new path your soul will follow in its newest form, while still in your physical body.

The 12th chakra for merging with the cosmos and all-knowing awareness

At the Monadic level of the 12th chakra, you are merged with Cosmos and all-knowing awareness. You will be thrilled by the brilliance of this 12th chakra, located about 20 feet above your crown chakra; it’s like a sun vibrating with swirling colors.

And like the sun, it burns hot and bright, since it is the source of your power and strength as well as your capability of manifesting change in both physical and nonphysical reality. All the energies of ascension reside here, which can speed up the ascension process in all the chakras below the 12th. You can also develop control over the elements when the 12th starts to open.

Here is the entrance to the vastness of the cosmos. If the 11th chakra is not wired correctly it can cause problems in the 12th chakra. And blocked energies here can cause issues with out-of-body travel, random healing skills, spontaneous inner visions in the midst of normal living, and even being able to have objects appear and disappear. This happens when the blocked energy is strong enough to bust out and pours too much energy into the 11th chakra where these skills reside.

In this video, I guide you in meditation to help balance the 12th chakra and calibrate your entire energy body at a high spiritual vibration.

If you are interested in guidance, so that you can find balance in all aspects of your life, reveal your life’s true purpose, and become your most powerful self, the doors are currently open for our exclusive Lifeforce Energy Healing® Master-in-Training Certification Course. 

initiate

How are you being called to step into leadership right now?

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeatured
initiate

With all that’s going on in the world, do you feel called to help change the world?

Do you feel called to really step into the life you were meant to live so you can bring your gifts where they’re so needed?

Maybe you have spiritual gifts awakening inside you… perhaps energy healing or telepathy or clairvoyance…

Or maybe there’s a creative project you’ve been meaning to tackle — it could be anything — perhaps a book you were meant to write that will help shift people’s thinking and change old systems that don’t support humanity or the planet…

You might feel a call to be an activist or to step deeper into activism — for women, for children, for immigrants, for endangered species…

Or a game-changing idea for addressing climate change, reducing plastic, or guiding companies on ethical practices…

People around the world are awakening to the need for change, and maybe your gift is igniting them into action, giving them hope, counseling them, or giving them guidance to grow.

Whatever you’re called to, if you’re getting little nudges, it’s no wonder…

The “global pause” has not been easy for many, but it’s certainly brought a lot of time for reflection on what needs to change.

While these times we’re living are certainly “unprecedented,” they’re transformational times…

… catalytic times, rife with potential, calling you to action to help birth a new Earth.

For all we know, we could look back on 2022 and think of it as “The Year We Seized the Chance to Make Gigantic Changes.”

Now more than ever, it’s time for you to step into leadership. Because when you achieve the life you were meant to live, you lead others by example, but you also lift as you RISE.

Are you ready to be who you’re meant to be, to become a leader in your sphere of influence?

To be an agent of powerful, positive change in the world?

To create the life you want for yourself, your family, the Earth?

One of the keys to creating this needed change — and stepping into leadership in your life, your community, and beyond — is through raising your frequency and connecting to your higher guidance.

In this 12-minute video, I will lead you through a powerful practice to raise your frequency and connect you to your higher guidance — and the unique mission of your Soul to be a leader.

Remember you have infinite power to help make the changes we need in our world.

Remain open for messages from your heart… it always has guidance for you, and may send you “nudges” in the most unexpected ways.

And stay tuned for the next part in this series where we will access the wisdom of your upper chakras and higher realms for more guidance and grounding for your leadership role.

For more information on stepping into your role as a leader in every aspect of your life, you can check out my Lifeforce Energy Healing® Master-in-Training Certification Course. 

Level Up Spirituality

Initiation: Spiritual Evolution at a Whole New Level

by Energy MedicineFeaturedMaster-in-Training
Level Up Spirituality

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. And with a wave of her magic wand, the fairy godmother transforms Cinderella, the lowly servant of her stepmother and stepsisters, into the belle of the ball and the beloved of Prince Charming. But there are rules: if you don’t get home from the ball by midnight, your gorgeous gown turns back into dirty rags and your handsome coach turns back into a pumpkin. But somehow you have managed to hold onto the glass slipper—a reminder that the “real” you is actually a sparkling star.

I’m not really promoting a Disney princess as an ideal you should be trying to emulate, but it’s interesting how fairy tales so often mimic deep spiritual truths.

Level Up Spirituality

Like Cinderella, you may have fallen on hard times. It was the death of Cinderella’s mother that brought the wicked stepmother into her life. For you, it may have been a nasty divorce, or the death of a loved one, or a difficult disease or accident, or a financial crisis that brought you to your knees. Whatever the cause, you find yourself feeling “less than” who you know yourself to be.

Did Cinderella whine and fret and complain? No, she managed to keep making lemonade out of the lemons in her life. She shared song and laughter with her animal friends. She did the chores she was handed, no matter how unfair. And her underlying goodness, her ability to rise above her circumstances, brought the fairy godmother and the power of transformation to her . . . because Cinderella was ready.

What makes you ready to transform? Doing whatever is in front of you to do, while maintaining your ability to turn obstacles into challenges and not giving in to despair (at least not too often). And if you can sing with the animals, or connect to nature in whatever way you can, that can help keep you balanced. Beyond that, you can develop a meditation practice. Learning to go inside and find the joy and peace that bubbles up from the inner silence can help you get through any pain or difficulty, as well as laying the foundation for initiation.

Level Up Spirituality

Initiation is both an experience and a process. It may be that magical moment when a master healer or spiritual teacher looks at you and “sees” initiatory energy waiting to be brought down into you. And if you are open enough, if you are ready, you may feel waves of bliss entering your body, or a powerful vibration shooting up your spine and out your fingertips, or see beautiful colors or hear angelic voices. You will be suffused in love. You’ll light up from within and radiate bliss. Of course, after the ball is over and you’re back to sweeping the hearth and doing the laundry, you will still have that glass slipper in the pocket of your apron. You will remember the experience of initiation and know that somehow your life is going to change—the prince will knock at your door, the check will arrive in the mail, you’ll find a new job that suits you so much better.

Level Up Spirituality

Because initiation goes beyond the magical moment. It is the process of reaching higher and higher levels of spiritual energy and abilities. It’s part and parcel of spiritual evolution, like going from kindergarten up through grade school and high school and then into the rarified realms of college and graduate school. Your Ph.D. will be self-realization. You may get left behind a grade if you don’t pass the tests that naturally arise—like pride in your initiations, or greed for more initiations, or jealousy of others who are having these experiences—but the process will eventually lead you to greater awareness and your ultimate transformation into an enlightened master.

Does this sound like a fairy tale? It’s not. But it is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Do you dream of being able to make the right decisions in your life by listening to your intuition? Do you have fantasies of being a powerful speaker or blogger, standing up for the rights of others? Do you wish you could do something meaningful with your life, like helping to heal others? What is your life purpose? Your destiny?

Level Up Spirituality

Become that person you’re meant to be by initiating more fully. The best place to do that is on my LifeForce Energy Healing® Master-in-Training year-long program; check it out here. And may your spiritual guides, like a trusty fairy godmother, turn that pumpkin into the handsome coach that will carry you forth into the realms of higher awareness

Supermoon Sturgeon

Three Ways to Celebrate the Sturgeon Moon (and The Bounty of Nature)

by Astrological EventsEnergy MedicineFeaturedLunar
Supermoon Sturgeon

August’s Sturgeon Moon (aka Green Corn, Fruit, Barley, Grain, and Red Moon by other tribes) is the last supermoon of 2022. It is a time for reflection and gratitude for the many ways in which nature provides all of the essentials to sustain life in all its diverse forms in every season on our home planet.

It is called a Sturgeon Moon because it was during this time of the year in eras long past when the sturgeon in the Great Lakes were plentiful enough to provide ample sustenance for indigenous people. Native tribes caught, ate, and dried sturgeon in sufficient amounts to carry them through a series of the harsh fall and winters that followed on the heels of summer. The Indigenous peoples who inhabited the Great Lakes region followed the fish, which were a major food source. Sturgeon were so plentiful that the Potawatomi and Ojibwe tribes’ legends “tell of rivers so full of sturgeon that a person could walk across the water on their backs.”

Supermoon Sturgeon

Every ounce of the sturgeon was used by Indigenous tribes. It provided fresh meat. Later, when it was dried, it tasted similar to pemmican and could be kept for years. Bones were used for spears for hunting and needles for sewing; parts were used to make paint and glue for teepees; their oil was used for healing; bags and containers were made from the skin of the fish; and the stomach lining was used as drum coverings. So critical was the lake sturgeon to the Indigenous people that they called it “Buffalo of the Water.”

The August Sturgeon Full Moon testifies to the final days of summer and signals the beginning of harvest season. This is the perfect time of year to acknowledge and celebrate the rewards of your hard work.

Indigenous peoples on all continents generally have a far healthier respect than Industrial Age cultures do for the provisions that nature provides entirely without help or management by humanity. August’s Sturgeon Moon gives us the chance to meditate on Nature’s provisions and on our responsibility as stewards of the planet to do as much as we can to maintain its ability to continue to provide for all of the beings who live here.

Now is the perfect time to harness the natural energies that surround you during the Sturgeon Moon and focus them on taking care of yourself, your family, and all the other beings who contribute to your well-being across the globe, from honey bees to blue whales.

3 Ways to Celebrate the August Sturgeon Full Moon

Soak in a relaxing, spirit-soothing herbal bath.

Use chamomile, lavender, rose, and peppermint in your bath if peace and comfort are immediate goals. Add in heather, jasmine, or lemon balm to receive an extra dose of relaxation.

Supermoon Sturgeon

Light candles and play your favorite songs. Let your mind be quiet. Rest and recuperate so the tasks ahead can be undertaken with a renewed mind and spirit.

Supermoon Sturgeon

Participate in the Feast of New Bread Ritual

The Feast of New Bread was celebrated by ancient peoples after they had harvested their grain. They were celebrating the fact that there would be a storehouse of available food during the upcoming harsh winter and early spring months.

Bake a loaf of bread like your ancestors did (over an open fire or in a clay oven, if possible) and meditate with the intention of taking yourself back to simpler times, when modern day hassles didn’t exist, and artificial stressors were few and far between. Create something from scratch in memory of them and then thank them for persevering, for without their successful navigation of natural and manmade challenges, we wouldn’t even be here today!

Erect an altar, visualize your goals

An altar space is crucial if you believe, as I do, that putting positive, loving energy into the world can help you achieve your most cherished goals. The August Sturgeon full moon is a sign of empowerment, of creating and saving nutritional stores for an adequate abundance during leaner times.

Supermoon Sturgeon

Choose a small table, a shelf, or a windowsill to transform into your altar for August and beyond. Its very existence will remind you to meditate on your gratitude for the adequate provisions that frequently arrive in your life, either “just in time,” or for a less-plentiful time in the future.

Create a dream board, or pin images of places you hope to visit on your altar. Or simply scatter onto it positive quotes to remind yourself about the happiness and inspiration that are available to you at a moment’s notice.

As long as you remember to embrace the fact that you are powerful and worthy of ample provision, you will receive everything the August Sturgeon Full Moon offers you.

If you have a big vision for your life, but know that in order to achieve that vision you must first heal and invest in self-transformation, to become the person who is worthy of that vision, our year-long Master-in-Training program provides exactly the life-changing education and support that you are looking for. You can learn more about it by clicking here >>

Near Death Experience

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES:

by Astral ProjectionEnergy MedicineFeatured
Near Death Experience

Light, Love, Levitation, Longing and Enlightenment

Today, I want to share with you what I’ve learned (and experienced myself) about Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), which profoundly change our understanding of life and death. It’s a fascinating field, well worth our time, and it can teach us a great deal about living.

I’ve lived through two Near-Death Experiences myself due to my life-long fascination with high-risk sports. After an NDE, nothing is ever perceived by the mind quite the same again. The paradigm shift following an NDE is so dramatic that even atheists have become believers in a future existence after death filled with love and light; an existence where there is no space left to entertain any of the lower emotions and opinions that confound and irritate us on this side of eternity.

Near Death Experience

Although no two NDEs are identical, the vast majority consist of the sensation of being surrounded — or flooded internally — by a bright light, levitation from the surface you are on (with an ability to watch first responders doing everything they can to “bring you back” initially, or subsequently), and sights and sounds that are reassuring, calming, and filled with a palpable sense of lovingkindness.

On far rarer occasions, NDEs carry the unlucky guy or gal to a dystopian nightmare and back. Again, these occur only rarely, the ecstatic versions of NDEs are more common. It appears that NDEs can be influenced by your religious upbringing and your take on whether the Creator is benevolent and forgiving or, not so much. But even some’s strict authoritarian beliefs about the Creator have been extinguished entirely during ecstatic NDEs.

The subject is endlessly fascinating, especially for those of us who have experienced an NDE!

MY FIRST NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

My first Near-Death Experience happened when I was a student in law school on my very first date with Eric, who was so exciting, I soon married him, and am still married to him to this day! He was a mountain climbing guide from Chamonix and in the French Special Forces, and he wanted to take me on my very first climb, even though it was February, which, I learned later, is an inauspicious time to go mountain climbing. He outfitted me in heavy climbing boots, a winter coat, and a 165-foot rope that he tied on my back. Being French, he drove like a madman up to winter snows high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and parked next to the Cosumnes River—an awesome sight as it frothed and foamed like a wild animal.

Eric started hiking very rapidly up the trail along the river and I valiantly did my best to follow. I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t have any wilderness experience and I wasn’t exactly physically fit back then, I was more of a bookworm; my obsession with mountain climbing, ski racing, and all things outdoors and dangerous came later, thanks to him. The one sport I had mastered, however, was swimming, and as I hurried alongside this mighty river, I could clearly see that it wasn’t swimmable. As we got further up the trail, the river completely disappeared under granite, sometimes for hundreds of feet, before it would reappear downstream. We passed a good-sized waterfall. At one point, Eric must have decided to cross the river as, up ahead, I could see him running across the granite. Trying to keep him in sight, I too ran across the granite but as I crossed the wet rocks, I slipped and slid into a small pothole. For a moment, my shoulders caught and I thought I was safe, but a second later, the massive current of the river pulled me under.

Near Death Experience

I was sure I was a goner as I was tossed about like a ragdoll in the underground river. I saw submerged trees and giant boulders all around me. I tried desperately to untie the climbing rope that was strapped to my back, knowing that it would catch on a limb or a rock, but it was hopeless in the freezing cold water and strong current, half the time I was upside down. I soon ran out of air and started to take in water when suddenly my extreme panic shifted to an incredible state of calm. Despite the icy water, I started to feel warm and peaceful. With quite a bit of detachment, I saw the highlights of my short life pass before me. I felt tremendous empathy for my parents and my brother, and regretted my previous unenlightened view of things. Then I heard a voice—it felt like it came from both within and without—saying, “Go back, you still have a lot to do.” I suddenly popped up into a pool just above the big waterfall. I managed to scream, and a couple of nearby climbers threw me a rope and pulled me to shore just before I went over the edge of the waterfall. Meanwhile, Eric was upstream and unable to see me, was wondering what had happened to his date and what in the world he would have to tell my mother!

In the weeks and months that followed, I noticed that life looked different somehow. I felt a lot more love for myself and for everyone I met, and I had a clearer sense of my true purpose. It wasn’t until some years later that I realized I’d had a Near-Death Experience.

 

WHAT DO PEOPLE EXPERIENCE DURING A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE?

Near Death Experience

With NDEs, we want to understand how something that is initially traumatic — a sensing of our own imminent demise — can resolve into the confirmation that there is no actual death, merely a transformation to something bigger and better than what we experience here far too often on earth: discord, disease, politics, pollution and – well, you fill in the blank!

Pre-COVID, more than 13 million Americans are believed to have had Near-Death Experiences. And the number of NDEs has escalated exponentially since the frequent use of cardiac defibrillators came on the scene during the pandemic. But other things besides heart attacks can trigger NDEs: rapid blood loss, electrocution, near drownings, traumatic injuries, and suicide attempts.

Most often during an NDE, individuals feel detached from their bodies and serenity, security, and warmth replace their fear of death. A life review may take place, and there is frequently a sensation of being inside a tunnel that is transporting you to a light or to beings of light. At the tail end of an NDE, the experiencer is told to return, or decides to return, to their life on Earth. The process is the same across the globe, except that the light beings one encounters are the ones associated with the individual’s specific culture and upbringing.

For those who experience a life review, incidents from their time on earth flash before them as if on a TV or video screen, complete with emotions, especially regrets for moments when their actions or the lack of appropriate actions caused someone else to suffer physically, mentally, or emotionally.

Near Death Experience

Some NDE experiencers meet a Being of Light, an inner guide, or a deceased loved one who kindly sends them back toward a life they’re perfectly willing to leave, now that they’ve experienced what life is like on the other side of the veil. Then, suddenly, they’ll find themselves back in their body, awestruck by the enormity of their experience and lacking the words to explain the unparalleled adventure they’ve been on.

The fascinating thing about NDEs is the way in which they reveal that consciousness continues even after the heart stops beating and brain activity has flatlined. But far more intriguing is how an NDE changes your life.

Those who return from the dead possess a renewed appreciation for their existence and an intense drive to help others. Many of us suddenly recognize, for the first time, our purpose for being alive, and we embrace the responsibility of becoming a better person and a reliable conveyor of profound wisdom. In a nutshell, an NDE brings with the same experience that people experience when they have a spiritual initiation.

I specialize in helping people have spiritual initiations, which I used to do just in person, but in the past few years, out of necessity, I’ve been doing a lot of them on Zoom. It’s uncanny how much the after-effects of an NDE are the same as an initiation. Maybe I needed to have a couple of NDE’s in order to become a better initiator!

Near Death Experience

If you take a look at The Tibetan Book of the Dead, you’ll see that the central message that Near-Death Experiencers bring back from their encounter with death is the same as that of Buddha and the bardo teachings: that the essential and most important qualities in life are love, compassion, and wisdom. In this respect, both the NDE’ers and the Tibetan Book of the Dead seem to focus not on death, but on life — on how we live our lives.

According to current research, the rate for NDEs among those who have survived a close brush with death is around 20%. That’s a very high number for shared experiences. Many experiencers of NDEs say that during the event, they felt “one” with the universe, and that they intuitively understood the “why” and the “how” of everything in it. There was no separation between them and everything else. They had a spirit body, but it didn’t appear to have a defined shape since it seemed infused into everything else.

There was a palpable sense of peace, presence, compassion, and lovingkindness. Their lower emotions were completely gone. There was no ego to sabotage them into delusion of their separation from others.

There were dead relatives in some cases, some of whom had passed before they were born, or beings of light. All communication was telepathic; knowing what was in their minds was as easy as knowing what was in your own.

Many met beloved pets who had passed away before their NDE. And not infrequently, they met their pets before they encountered people. What does that tell us about our pets!

There appeared to be no space or time but, upon returning to their bodies after their NDEs, many felt they had been away for hours, days, months, and sometimes even years, so profound had been their leave-taking.

They all agree that “dying is easy.” No matter how traumatic the experience that delivered their NDE, the moment they “died”, they were released from the trauma or pain, and they floated blissfully free of the fear or anxiety they’d experienced just milliseconds before. It is for this reason that most NDE’ers say they no longer have any fear of death.

Near Death Experience

I am firmly convinced — after having personally experienced two NDEs — that they are as real (if not more real!) than the lives we’re living right now. They appear to expand the human mind in ways that spirit-led sages have, for years, called “enlightenment” or ultimate wisdom. But instead of taking decades (or a lifetime) to become enlightened, a NDE serves as a rocket ship to the splendor of embracing our existence as the treasure and opportunity it is to become all that our hearts, minds, and souls are capable of.

 

GAIN WITH WISDOM WITHOUT THE NDE

There are, thankfully, a variety of ways to gain the same appreciation for life, love, compassion, and wisdom other than going through a near-death experience — among them meditation and doing the sutras that I teach. By the way, I am currently teaching this over at Shift Network, this week and for the next few weeks). Come join me there to get on the fast track to spiritual development.

Even the simple act of witnessing the wonder and excitement of a child as they encounter their first vein-lined leaf, green tree frog, or caterpillar turning into a butterfly, and spend long moments hunkered down examining the phenomenon, like a wee scientist completely immersed in their moment of discovery, offers a window to the adult watching this all unfold.

Near Death Experience

In fact, striving to regain our child’s-eye view of a world that we have somehow learned to take for granted is a great starting point for enlightenment! The opportunities, from that vantage point, are literally everywhere you look.

MY SECOND NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

My second NDE, again with Eric (hmmm…I should have seen a pattern there with Eric, mountains, and accidents), occurred as I was mountain climbing, in the French alps, and a rock the size of a Volkswagen came careening down from above.

As it headed right toward me, panic stricken, I leapt off the cliff, 3,000 feet up, hoping the climbing rope I was on wouldn’t get cut by the rock and that it would hold my fall. Those climbing ropes, by the way, are actually pretty theoretical, they often don’t work as intended.

I looked down and noticed that my pant leg looked oddly empty, and with a weird sense of detachment noted that my leg muscles had simply been destroyed when the rock hit. Then I must have fainted as I swung out over the abyss, suspended by the rope that should have been cut by the rock fall, but miraculously wasn’t.

But in that instant when the near disaster happened, everything seemed to slow down for me – the boulder seemed to fall very slowly, and I felt almost nothing (until later!) as it crushed my knee on its way past.

But there, swinging out into space, for just a moment, I felt completely at peace. I just knew that everything was unfolding as it should, in super slow motion so I could appreciate and remember all of it. Once we got to the top of the peak, which I managed by pulling myself up, arm over arm, we could see the ominous weather coming in from the other side, and within a few minutes, we had lightening striking all around us, lighting up the rack of metal climbing gear I had over my shoulder and the ice ax I had in my hand.

Just a tip: it’s always harder to descend a mountain than climb up it.

In this case, it took over 24 very exhilarating and exhaustive hours, as, arm over arm, I managed to get back down to the bottom. I had plenty of time as I languished in a French hospital the rest of the summer to revisit this most recent NDE in my mind, and glean from it the increase in spiritual wisdom I so craved.

During both of my NDEs, I just felt intuitively that the end of my life during this incarnation wasn’t going to reach its conclusion. I had some inner or external guidance gently reaffirming, “It isn’t your time yet. You haven’t completed your assignment here.”

I hope this information on near-death experiences reassures you that death is a fantastic doorway, not a final destination for any of us.

Although what lies beyond remains largely a mystery, the vast majority of NDEs suggest that whatever we’ve learned during this life that makes us fear death is based on misinformation or outright disinformation from authority figures.

Near Death Experience

Speculation is nearly always fear-based because we all have a primitive fear center called the amygdala in our brain that shrieks “Red Alert!” whenever we speculate about potential outcomes. Somehow, a NDE either bypasses or overrides the amygdala and shows us there is nothing to lose and much to gain as our present lives seem to be coming to a close.

 

THE STORY OF HASAN AND HIS MASTERS

Fortunately, you really don’t have to get close to death to experience the light. Each tradition has “enlightenment stories” from their masters. If you are searching for the perfect master to guide you through to enlightenment, you might consider the story of the great Sufi mystic, Hasan. When he was dying, somebody asked, “Hasan, who was your master?” He said, “I had thousands of masters.

One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village, it was very late, everything was closed. But at last, I found one man who was trying to break into a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said, ‘At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can say with me — if you can stay with a thief.’ And the man was so beautiful, I stayed for a month! And each night he would say to me, ‘Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.’ When he came back, I would ask, ‘Did you find anything to steal?’ He would say, ‘Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.’ He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy.

When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly, I would remember the thief who would say every night, ‘God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.’

Near Death Experience

And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river to get a drink of water and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there —his own image — and became afraid. He would bark and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God: we have to jump in, in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there. Joking around, I asked the boy, ‘Have you lit the candle yourself?’ He said, ‘Yes sir.’ And I asked, ‘There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?’ And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, ‘You have seen the light go. Can you tell me where it has gone? If you can tell me where it has gone, I will tell you where it came from, because it has gone to the same place. It has returned to the source.’ My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. Since then, I dropped all my need to be knowledgeable.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple — I accepted the whole of existence as my master.

I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters. I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn, to be available to learn, to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start learning to learn. The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours.

Right now, I am teaching a course at The Shift Network: you can join here and this course will reveal to you how you can uncover a whole new source of guidance that isn’t readily available to us here in this realm. You can learn from Ascended Masters, Angels and Divine Figures, Ancestral Guides, and more. This allows you to tap into the wisdom a Near-Death Experience can offer without having an NDE! If you’re interested, click here to register.

2022-WhatAreSutrasBlog-1

What are the Vedas Anyway?

by Energy MedicineFeatured

The Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East.
— Voltaire

When the sacred teachings of ancient India reached the West in the 17th century, a new path of wisdom opened for those who were ready (and waiting). Wise beings have always known that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Scholars in Europe began translating Sanskrit, the language of the ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas.

Considered the world’s oldest literature, the Vedas are a collection of hymns, poems, and writings, passed down orally for many generations before being recorded in writing between about 1500 to 1000 BCE (predating even the story of Moses).

Ancient Sanskrit Vedas Script

They contain the spiritual wisdom of ancient India. Even the supreme religious skeptic, French philosopher Voltaire, was awed by the power and the beauty of these teachings.

The Sanskrit word veda means knowledge or revelation. Like the Bible, the authorship of these sacred texts is believed to be divinely inspired. The sages who recorded the Vedas had lived the teachings and used the sacred wisdom to awaken their own connections to the Divine, the created world, and their fellow beings.

Among those Western thinkers who rejoiced in the newly available wisdom was American Transcendental philosopher, Henry David Thoreau.

He said, “Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of the sectarianism. It is of ages, climes, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I am at it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night”.

Thoreau not only understood the power of the Vedas with his mind, he saw and felt it.

Ancient Sanskrit Vedas Script

That truly describes the experience this ancient wisdom can produce. The Vedas contain universal truths that can help you understand and experience your connection to the Divine through study and practice.

Sacred study reveals the practice, and practice helps you implement the powerful spiritual truths that can transform your life.

Ancient Sanskrit Vedas Script

So where can you begin? Fast-forward with me through the century and a half since Thoreau’s time and discover the wisdom tradition of ancient India for yourself.

Whether you are interested in learning how to heal yourself and others; to advance on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels; to find your purpose in the world; or to attract more peace, joy, and abundance into your life, this powerful wisdom tradition from India holds the key to inner work that can change your life.

Are you the student who is ready? By deciding to cross the bridge to your highest spiritual potential you will learn to discover and activate the gifts you came here to give including:

  1. The power to face your fear. What stops you from living the life of your dreams? Learn to step beyond the pain and trauma of the past. As a divinely-connected spiritual being, you are here to exercise love for yourself and the world.
  1. The courage to open your heart. How does your energy feel? Is it trapped and stagnant? In awakening your heart-felt connection to Source, you set yourself free to accept, forgive, extend, and embrace the life you are here to live.
Ancient Sanskrit Vedas Script
  1. The presence to live in the moment. Are you here now? Are you living with present moment awareness and awakened intention? Imagine the good you can do in the world with a sense of the Divine creative power within you right now.
  2. The faith to accept your life purpose. Do you define yourself as weak or strong? With your focus on all that lies ahead of you and all that you can accomplish with your divinely-inspired energy, see yourself as a powerful and creative giver.
  3. The love to feel connected. Are you in touch with Spirit and living in the knowledge of that unbreakable connection? When Thoreau experienced an “unknown and unearthly light” while reading the Vedas, he was feeling the joy of possibility. Your greatest dreams are possible with the Divine connectivity you are now called to awaken.

The ancient Vedic texts contained a collection of Sutras — phrases which one could only describe as transformational; borderline magical. These Sutras are the basis for my course, Master the Secrets of the Sutras, in which I will teach you the skill of connecting to Ascended Masters and Spiritual Guides beyond this realm. If this is a skillset that you are interested in learning, click here to learn more >>>

Reaching Tough Goals

TEN TRIED & TRUE STEPS TO REACHING YOUR TOUGHEST GOALS

by Energy MedicineFeatured
Reaching Tough Goals

Today, I want to share with you ten tried-and-true steps to reaching your most far out and toughest goals. I know you have future goals. I’ve certainly had more than my share of what seemed to other people to be daunting, pie-in-the-sky goals, like deciding I was going to be a lawyer when there weren’t any women lawyers at the time, or climbing Mount Everest, or having New York Times bestselling books, or my most recent goal, forming my own band. When we reach our goals, there is absolutely no better feeling of achievement to be had. I want you to have that same feeling of awesome self-satisfaction when you reach a long sought-for goal. And because I’ve had repeated successes orchestrating my own future, I want to give you the roadmap that has worked for me, and for many others.

Reaching Tough Goals

STEP ONE

The first step is to acknowledge whether you are Comfort Zone Prone. If you are, you will need to convince yourself that your life will only change when you become more committed to your goals than you are to your comfort zone. That’s step one for so many people.

It’s all about becoming more comfortable with, well, discomfort. For you, that may mean anxiety: perhaps sweaty palms, a racing heart, and the feeling you might die at any moment. That’s how I used to feel if I thought I was, God forbid, going to have to speak in public. And you may know how much I love public speaking so I sure made that goal happen! Or you may experience discomfort as a series of internal voices (frequently not your own) that raise all kinds of red flags. They say things like, “I don’t even know where to begin to get from where I am right now to where I want to be, and I don’t know anyone who can guide me,” or “You have a ridiculously high opinion of yourself. What gives you the idea anyone will be interested in what you want to achieve or plan to offer to the world?” Or even, “Changing the world — or even one other precious life — is a tall order. What makes you think you can do it? And what will make others think you can do it well enough for you to gain followers, fans, or paying clients?”

You know those voices. The naysayers, internal and external. They can all conspire to convince you to stay in your comfort zone, to stay in your own lane, to get your head out of the clouds and your feet back on solid ground.

Here’s how to wean yourself out of your Comfort Zone and silence the negative voices in your head and life.

Change up your routine regularly. Try something new as often as you can. Go to a new theatre or church or 12-step group. Read a book by an unknown author on a new topic. Visit exotic restaurants online or in person and try new foods. Listen to new music. Call someone you barely know.

Be selfish how you spend your time. The biggest obstacle I’ve learned to reaching your personal goals is your family. You’ve probably been taught that you should be spending a sizable amount of your time doing stuff with them and feel guilty when you don’t. That is not the way to reach your goals; all your doing then is wasting time to make other people happy that you stay small and unsuccessful, so they don’t feel threatened. You absolutely must dedicate the bulk of your time to your goals, whether you’re trying to excel at tennis or master the keyboard or write a book – goal achievement takes a ton of time and you’ve got to be selfishly dedicated to make it happen.

Reaching Tough Goals

Sign up for personal and public challenges on a frequent basis: maybe a 5K run or walk, a karaoke night at a bar, or learn an unfamiliar dance step, musical instrument, language, or sport. I had to crash-learn French when I went to France the first time with my French husband and knew not one word of French.

Reaching Tough Goals

Watch consciousness-and-confidence-boosting shows, like my live show with live band, that confirm that you can be the ultimate creator of your destiny.

Taking these steps will, over time, quiet your amygdala, the part of your brain that sends out alarming red alerts so you can silence the naysayers inside your mind, until they realize they aren’t welcome or having success immobilizing you anymore. Here’s what some of the best thinkers have had to say about the importance of becoming less Comfort Zone-prone:

As C. Joybell said, “I have realized that it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am the most! That’s why I enjoy taking myself out of my own comfort zone and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it’s during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I’m like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off me! I discover a smile I didn’t know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn’t know existed in me… I see myself. I’m a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I’m more like a comet because I’m just going to keep on coming back!”

STEP TWO

The second step to reaching your farthest goal is to decide/intend/commit to changing the trajectory of your life. This may be even more daunting than stepping outside your comfort zone in the ways I just mentioned because it puts you squarely in the driver’s seat, firmly in charge of what will happen to you, and in which order.

No long-term goal can be achieved quickly. You can’t simply pole vault your way to the future you want. You have to take the steps, or at least the escalator. I am just one of many possible escalators. By this, I mean I can make the process to reaching your goals more straightforward and a little easier to get where you’re going, but you have to commit to stepping on and taking the ride to the top. For example, I have a course called Level IV in my LifeForce Energy Program where I guarantee I will personally lift you out of your comfort zone. But every one of my students has to be willing to go out on a limb because, after all, that’s where the fruit is!

Reaching Tough Goals

So, for example, if you want to move to another country or another city where you’ll be a total stranger for a while, or if you need to triage your existing friendships to determine which of them are going to encourage and support you and which are going to try to stymie your forward progress, or if you decide you have to jettison the career you have because you know that ladder is leaning against the wrong wall as far as where you want to be five years from now, you must commit to taking the steps to achieve those goals. As soon as you make your goal a commitment, an intention, and not just a “nice to have” daydream, your life will begin to change in the direction you want.

Reaching Tough Goals

STEP THREE

For Step three, before you commit to the changes, identify WHY you want to make them. Ponder them so intensely that you can see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste what your life will be life when you have achieved the goal you will be setting for yourself. When you can put that on tap to draw on at will, you will always have the encouragement and impetus you need to keep going. Your WHY will serve as your motivator.

Simon Sinek, the author of Start with Why, said, “If you want to feel an undying passion for your work, if you want to feel you are contributing to something bigger than yourself, you need to know and focus on your WHY.”

STEP FOUR

The 4th step is to define the exact changes that you want to make. Whether that’s starting a business, moving to a new place, changing your career, traveling, growing your self-confidence, or sticking to a morning routine that will carry you slowly but surely to what you want to achieve, this is when the voices in your head will get louder and more insistent. But by now you will have mastered the skill of minimizing the damage they can do because your WHY will claim dominance and your past experiences of having stepped faithfully outside your comfort zone will reassure you that, in FDR’s famous words, you have nothing to fear but fear itself. Your cherished goal is NOT stupid, unrealistic, or doomed to failure. You know that’s all nonsense, coming from the acronym F.E.A.R.: False Evidence Appearing Real. You are entirely capable of getting where you want to go next. As Madonna famously said, “No matter who you are, what you do, or where you’ve come from, you can always become a better version of yourself.” Dreaming big is the ticket to your success. So, shoot for the stars.

Reaching Tough Goals

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,” William Ernest Henley wrote at the end of his Victorian era poem, Invictus. And so are we all. We just have to name it and claim it to release its power to revolutionize our lives. I invite you to do that right now if you haven’t already.

Reaching Tough Goals

STEP FIVE

The 5th step is to identify the things that may be holding you back. Are you aware of any habits, persistent limiting thoughts, or people that threaten to derail your plans?

Here are several examples of what I’m talking about. Do you tend to procrastinate? Are you addicted to unhealthy, unhelpful food, social media, or any other useless time-consuming pursuits? Do you spend hours every day mindlessly playing games on your electronic devices, or, my personal guilty pleasure, watching Netflix? List whichever roadblocks currently steal precious hours from your waking moments and commit to doing them no more than an hour a day, so you can free up your time and your energy to focus on the future you want.

STEP SIX

The 6th step is to choose your Daily One Thing. Because changing your life is a process, very unlike flipping a light switch to get an immediate result, it’s important to keep in mind that you can’t get where you’re going by focusing on too many aspects of the change process. So, focus on a singular significant change agent at a time, like moving to a new location or changing jobs, or reducing the amount of time you spend in fruitless activity. Pick a keystone habit that needs changing, the one habit that will positively support and influence the subsequent One Thing that you will add to the mix as the days pass to eventually achieve your most cherished goals. I clearly remember cutting way back on my beloved time outside to become a New York Times bestselling writer – the fact was, I just had to put the time in, indoors, at my desk, writing, in order to make that happen. Yard by yard, life is hard. Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. On the other hand, don’t over commit, or you’ll risk exhausting yourself and giving up.

Reaching Tough Goals

One great keystone habit for you, if you aren’t already doing it, is to establish a non-negotiable exercise routine. In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes (I’m paraphrasing here) that typically, people who exercise regularly and start eating better become more productive. They smoke and drink less, do fewer recreational drugs, and show more patience. They use their credit cards less and feel less stressed. And each of these positive changes carries the person toward their ultimate personal and professional goals.

Two other keystone habits that I can wholeheartedly suggest, if you aren’t doing them already, are practicing gratitude and journaling. You can even combine these two keystone habits by writing a gratitude journal.

S.M.A.R.T. goals

STEP SEVEN

The 7th step is to create a S.M.A.R.T. goal. By this, I mean create a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

Your specific goal should have a set finish line, so you know when you’ve achieved it. That’s what practitioners of the SMART Method mean by Measurable. It should also be a goal that is realistic, given the time you’ve established to achieve it. It should be relevant, something that will enhance and further the ultimate change and goal that you want to make in your life, and it should have a deadline to make sure you keep actively working toward its achievement.

STEP EIGHT

Step 8 is Prepare for Static, Storms, and Stress-Inducing Situations.

There will be challenges ahead. Nothing truly worthwhile is ever free of hiccups. Look for ways to anticipate and mitigate against them. For example, you might want to join an online community of like-minded people who are pursuing or already enjoying the achievement of the same goal you’re heading for. If you decide to change your eating habits, eliminate from your fridge and pantry the foods most likely to sabotage your efforts to succeed and replaced them with foods that will help you reach your goal.

Reaching Tough Goals

The idea here is to create ways to ride out the challenges that will present themselves along the way until the clarity of your thoughts and your focus can return to taking the next practical step, and the one after that.

Remember, as Margaret Thatcher (former UK Prime Minister) said, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

Reaching Tough Goals

STEP NINE

Step 9 is invite the Yaysayers in your life into your tribe. Choose supportive people to talk to – people that say “yay” when they hear your goal. As soon as anyone in your tribe suggests that you might want to choose a more realistic goal, send them packing. Chances are, they’re afraid of how the achievement of your goals could alter your relationship with them, or they are jealous. Either way, time to quit that relationship.

As Joyce Rachelle advised, “You don’t have to live happily ever after with every single person in your life to live happily ever after. Some unfortunate endings are necessary.”

Some friends and family prefer the weaker, sadder version of you. Once they see that you are stronger, richer, doing well, happier, and useful, these people feel threatened.

So, yes, you may have to change your family and close friends here and there to get the tribe you need, one that will cheer and clap and offer you sustenance along the way and then shriek with delight as you cross the finish line. The people you spend significant time with are an absolute key to the achievement of your goals.

STEP TEN

The last step is Go the Distance. As co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates has said (and I’m paraphrasing here again) most people overestimate what they can do in one year and under-estimate what they can do in ten years. So, take the long view whenever you establish long-term goals.

To do this, simply focus on the process as it unfolds before you day by day and step by achievable step. Develop the muscles and the stamina that will carry you to the Mount Everest of your goals. It is the training, preparation and actual climbing that gets you where you want to go.

Reaching Tough Goals

So, there you have it: my well-researched, firmly adopted, and personal tried-and-true ten-step plan to reaching the summit of your goals. It isn’t easy, and it’s most likely outside your comfort zone much of the way, or you’d have reached your goals already, but it’s what I do, and what you can do to push aside everything that stands between you and what you want to achieve. As a member of my tribe, I am confident that you can do it. And I will be among the first to heartily applaud when you succeed, so keep me posted along your journey!

If you’d like to join a community of “yaysayers,” a group of people that will support and encourage you on your path towards achievement, consider joining our Level I course. It gives you the foundations for healing, so that you can go forward towards your goals without the extra burden, and gives you access to our Soul Family (a group of like-minded healers, seekers, and achievers). You can do so by clicking here >>

Or, if you already have access to the basics, consider going deeper. Getting more guidance and hand-holding. A getting access to a much more intimate group of support. The doors for our Master-in-Training program are open with a few more seats left. This year-long program will absolutely change your life and help set you on your path towards everything you want in life. Learn more here >>

Mystic Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich, one of England’s Most Important Mystics

by Energy MedicineFeatured
Mystic Julian of Norwich

Today, I continue my series introducing you to some very special mystics that can be a great source of guidance for us. In the first part, I introduced you to Meister Eckhart. And today, I want to introduce you to Julian of Norwich.

Julian, a woman, was born in 1343 and died in 1416. Her writings are the earliest surviving works by a woman (not counting Anonymous!). They are also the only surviving English language works by a female religious recluse.

Mystic Julian of Norwich

At age 30, Julian became so seriously ill that she believed she was on her deathbed. It was then that she received a series of visions of the Passion of Christ. Recovering from her illness, she wrote two versions of her experiences, the first of them almost immediately. The longer version, known as the Long Text, was written later. Julian lived in permanent seclusion in her cell at St Julian’s Church, Norwich.

Julian was a well-known spiritual authority within her community, where she also served as an adviser. Living in her cell, she played an important part in her community, devoting herself to a life of prayer to complement the clergy in their primary function as protectors of souls. During her confirmation ceremony, psalms from the Office of the Dead were sung for Julian (as if it were her funeral), and then she  was led to her cell door and into the room beyond. The door was then sealed, so she remained in her cell for the rest of her life.

Julian of Norwich is recognized as one of England’s most important mystics.

Despite living in tumultuous times, Julian’s theology was optimistic and spoke about God’s benevolence and love. According to Julian, God is our mother and our father. 

Among my favorite quotes of Julian of Norwich are these:

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

“He said not ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be dis-eased’; but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.”

Mystic Julian of Norwich

“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.”

Would you like to connect to this mystic (and others) for direct guidance and wisdom? It’s possible. These Ascended Masters are standing by, ready and willing to help you. You just have to learn how to open the communication channel. And that is exactly what I will be teaching you how to do during a free video event on July 14th at 5:30 PM PDT/ 8:30 PM EDT. Space is limited, so be sure to register now by clicking here >>