ye are gods

Read why in THE SECOND COMING OF HUMANITY! Now in Print and Kindle Editions.

THE SECOND COMING OF HUMANITY

The Second Coming of Humanity is Book III of the WAKING GOD TRILOGY; Book I is titled The Journey Begins and Book II, The Sacred Rota. The series has been called "epic in scope," and New York Times bestselling author Piers Anthony says, "It will make you think." Focusing on 'worn out religious dogma' as one of the leading causes of human strife, the Trilogy turns the mythical world of good vs. evil on its head. Mantrella, a.k.a. Lucifer, is the champion of humanity, while the Archangel Michael fights to suppress human evolution by preventing the physical birth of the biblical Adam. Mantrella's basic view is summed up when he says, "It is not about saving humanity, it never has been." Human destiny is placed squarely on the shoulders of where it belongs: choice; our thoughts create our reality.

The Second Coming picks up after the 'end of the world' in 2012. It shows how humanity has brought itself to the precipice where it must decide whether it survives or becomes a part of the current '6th great extinction.' Further evidence and guidance of the ancient Tarot Code is revealed as the characters find themselves on their final journey to Jerusalem. Eli knows that the Battle of Armageddon has already begun, but not the one religion portrays as the End Times. Yet the trip must be made in order for the pieces of the Apocalypse to be revealed. Can Michael stop the physical birth of Adam? Do the forces of good and evil battle it out for humanity's soul? Is Lucifer really the 'great deceiver' or is he humanity's guardian? Who can truly save humanity, if indeed it needs saving? In The Second Coming of Humanity all that is hidden is revealed between the lines and beyond the words. Will the 'dreamer' awaken? You must decide! In these times of economic, political, social and religious upheaval, the TRILOGY is required reading, now more than ever!

And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones

As a part of her blog tour I asked if Susan would share some insights about her new book.In her memoir, And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones, Susan Avitzour uses narrative, poetry, and a journal to grapple with the profound personal, philosophical, and spiritual questions raised by her eighteen-year-old daughter’s illness and death from leukemia. Ultimately, she faces the challenge many of us must confront in the course of our own lives: How to affirm faith and love in an unpredictable, often cruel, universe.

My daughter, Timora, was diagnosed with leukemia just after her twelfth birthday, and left this world shortly after her eighteenth. Those years took her on a remarkable spiritual journey, which I’d like to share with you today.
Timora’s spirituality combined a relationship with the God she’d been brought up to believe in with a more universal connection to the divine cosmic energy that sustains all life. The memoir I’ve written, And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones, tells how she came to me one day with a thoughtful look:
“‘You know, Eema,’ she said, ‘I used to be really angry with God. I couldn’t understand why He seemed to be ignoring my prayers.’
I put down the book I’d been reading, and moved a little closer.
‘Last year, on [the Jewish holiday of] Shavuot, I got so mad that I started screaming at Him. I said that He was stingy and mean, that He wasn’t helping me even though He could.’
I remembered that time well. She’d been weak and depressed, hurting all over. Sores burned her mouth every time she tried to eat, and made every bite taste revolting. She was sleeping even worse than usual, and was haunted by bizarre, obsessive dreams.
I put my hand on hers. What could I say?
‘... You know what happened then?’
I shook my head, still mute.
‘I lay down, and suddenly I started to feel a wave of new strength filling me, flowing into my blood. I told God I’d make a deal with Him. He’d go easier on me, and I’d stop being so angry at Him. That night I was able to get out of bed and say to myself, I won’t sink into this cesspool. I can be strong, I do have someone to give me the strength to live like a person. And I will, and that’s that.’”
Timora later discovered Reiki, a Japanese healing art that teaches its practitioners to become vessels through which spiritual energy flows into people who are suffering. It helped her so much that she eventually became a practitioner herself, laying hands both on herself and on other people, whose discomfort she delighted in alleviating.
Timora departed this world much as she had dwelled in it, in deep connection with the spiritual forces that animate it. As I relate in my memoir, her Reiki teacher visited her in the hospital a few days before she died.
“As Edna touched Timora and the energy flowed between them, Edna felt, through her fingertips and deep inside herself, that part of Timora’s soul was already on the way to the next world. Another part of her spirit was lingering behind – hesitating to leave us because she was worried about us, not wanting to cause us pain – but at the same time longing to be released.
As the energy between them intensified, Edna experienced herself as being together with Timora, in a corridor suffused with light unlike any she’d ever seen or sensed. The corridor led toward an even stronger, more beautiful light, which could not then – and cannot now – be depicted in words, but seemed to be the source, expression and richness of everything that is Good.
When Edna removed her hands and said her last farewell to Timora’s earthly form, she was left with a feeling she can only describe as a kind of completeness, a fullness. This feeling, she says, has not entirely left her to this day. Timora gave her an incomparable gift: Having experienced those few minutes of light together with Timora’s spirit, Edna now knows in the deepest sense possible that she has nothing to fear from the other side.
After her release (Edna tells me) Timora’s spirit did not stay away for long, and soon returned to become a kind of spiritual guide and teacher. Every so often, she comes to Edna during Reiki sessions, and Edna sometimes asks her for help and guidance. When she comes, she adds her own spiritual energy to the currents of Reiki moving through Edna’s hands, making them that much more powerful as agents of healing.”
I believe that God provides us with a well of strength that we can draw upon to go on, even to help others, despite life’s – and death’s – trials and tragedies. We may draw from this well through prayer, or receive it in the form of the energy that Reiki teaches us to harness or, doubtless, in other ways I haven’t discovered. This strength, this continually replenished energy, is none other than God’s healing presence in our hearts.

To learn more about Susan Avitzour, author of And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones, we invite you to visit her site - http://www.fiveyearslater.blogspot.com. For the full virtual tour schedule, visit http://bookpromotionservices.com/2011/01/06/twice-the-marrow-virtual-tour/

How Frank Lloyd Wright Got Into My Head

I had the pleasure of interviewing Sandy Sims about his new book: How Frank Lloyd Wright Got Into My Head, Under My Skin And Changed The Way I Think About Thinking, A Creative Thinking Blue Print For the 21st Century. I thin you will all enjoy the interview and enjoy the book even more!


"As we approach the much talked about 2012, humanity as a whole is confronted by a climate of fear that may very well create/manifest all that is least desired in the misinterpreted prophecies of the likes of Nostradamus, the Hopi and the Mayans."

What is the role of the individual in either creating a negative/positive environment for themselves and others?

(Sandy)I feel it is all about individuals first taking care of themselves so that they can assist others. Learning what to think about and how is the critical issue. There is a saying that the quality of our lives is determined by the questions we ask. Asking questions with intent sets the process in motion. For example: “What are my gifts? How can I best use these? How can I be happy? The answers may not appear immediately, but they do come, and when they do one must summon the determination to act.

The real challenge occurs when people become overwhelmed with circumstances that they lose this focus and begin blaming their personal condition on the environment. They lose l contact with their personal power.


Will an environment of social, economic, political and religious turmoil increase the likelihood of more societal problems?

(Sandy)I feel we really don’t have a good grasp on this. The immediate surface answer would be yes. There will be those that resist changing, and there will be those promoting it. This dynamic tension will most likely always exist. Yet if we see more conscious awareness developing, then the over all movement will be to improve society.

I believe the Dalai Lama was once asked how he viewed the 20th century with all of the wars and bloodshed. He answered by saying that on balance it had been the best century when you look at number of lives, the standard of which, had improved worldwide.  It is the nature of the challenge now that is important. We seem to be facing structural changes as opposed to just cyclical ones: that is the thinking and structures in place to deal with economics, politics, education, global interdependence, etc. are all in search of new models.

If society does not view its problems holistically and fails to understand that you cannot separate economics from such things as climate change, human rights, environmental protection, etc. is there any hope that humanity will keep its position as the dominant species?

(Sandy) If you accept the idea that the human species has immense personal power potential and that we are connected as Rupert Sheldrake surmises through the morphogenetic field or collective unconscious, then we might say that all is possible, that we can change our consciousness. The issue at stake is how far we go towards the brink of some environmental disaster through nature or nuclear war that we cannot reverse. Then all bets would be off.  But I would venture to say that as long as man is on the planet with the knowledge gained so far, that even with an enormous set back, a wiser generation would emerge.

Humanity is facing a crisis; what can one person do?

(Sandy) I had the good fortune once to spend time with Eileen Caddy the co-founder of The Findhorn Community in Scotland, years ago addressing this very same question. Her comment was that each person is responsible for taking care of one person, themselves. If enough people can rise to that level of awareness they will be able to assist the less fortunate, disabled, sick, etc. In this regard she was referring to each person becoming aware of their own personal power through the proper use of their minds, which means practicing and developing their minds to accomplish the tasks in front of them.  This, of course, is the subject matter of the human potential movement.

Our 'times' are the culmination of synchronicities, is the future written or is their choice?

(Sandy) When you think about synchronicities as being meaningful coincidences it is extremely easy to imagine your connection with these synchronicities as messages from other consciousnesses. I like to think about these events as perhaps communication from your invisible partners. If this is indeed a reality then the future might not so much be written but explored jointly between ourselves and these partners. 




For more information about Sandy Sims and How Frank Lloyd Wright Got Into My Head, Under My Skin And Changed The Way I Think About Thinking, A Creative Thinking Blue Print For the 21st Century, visit http://creativethinkingbook.com/ and visit this page to get the Amazon links http://creativethinkingbook.com/buy-your-copy/.  


Why I Wrote – How Frank Lloyd Wright Got Into My Head, Under My Skin And Changed The Way I Think About Thinking, A Creative Thinking Blue Print For the 21st Century – Comments from Sandy Sims
Originally I knew this would be a story of interest to people who follow architecture. After reading Wright’s autobiography I had been struck by the idea that not only was he famous but his drawings at the time were selling at auction for the same price as those of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  He had designed over 1,000 designs but some 500 remained unbuilt. In an “a ha” flash I imagined that a collection of Wright’s unrealized designs built in Hawaii would be stunning.
The pursuit of this idea was so compelling, that I innocently and naively began the journey, and what a journey it was. I was cordially invited into many of Wright’s private homes, to meet their owners, and to hear their stories.  I became friends with those in the Taliesin Fellowship, some of whom were the earliest apprentices to Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a rich journey. While in the beginning I was attracted to the financial rewards that might have accrued, I later became fascinated by the idea of what it would be like to live inside of the space created by both a mystic and a genius. I found out


Sandy Sims Bio –

Sandy Sims was raised and educated in the South.  After serving as Naval Officer and finishing graduate business school, he followed a dream to live in Honolulu where he built one of Hawaii's most successful advertising  agencies.

The crisis of personal health and business setbacks opened the way to larger spiritual dimensions including a long association with the Caddy family, founders of the Findhorn Spiritual Community in Scotland His book,”How Frank Lloyd Wright Got Into My Head, Under My Skin And Changed The Way I Think About Thinking, A Creative Thinking Blue Print For the 21st Century,” is a memoir of his journey culminating in a 20 year project with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

He has collaborated with Psychiatrist, Kerry Monick MD, and authored Creative Thinking For The 21st Century, An Experiential Guidebook. Accepting the science that our intention does indeed affect the material world, it addresses what to be thinking about, how to shape these thoughts, and what might be the best way to avoid unintended consequences.

When not travelling, Sandy resides in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where you can find him writing, playing tennis, poking around with his camera and embracing a new culture.

JAMES REDFIELD INTERVIEW PART II

PHIL: There’s no question there’s a lot going on in the world to give us pause. The fourth insight is The Struggle for Power. “Too often humans cut themselves off from the greater source of this energy, and so feel weak and insecure. To gain energy we tend to manipulate or force others to give us attention and thus energy. When we successfully dominate others in this way, we feel more powerful, but they are left weakened but often fight back. Competition for scarce human energy is the cause of all conflict between people.” Can you explain that a little?

JAMES: The more inwardly connected we are spiritually, the more security we feel. The less connected we are the more insecure we feel. So if you take the world right now, the majority of it is filled with the relatively insecure, because there’s only one security and that’s spiritual security. That’s the nirvana within that can be felt, the bliss within that can be found. So right now, what happens is that people too often want to feel stronger by acquiring someone else’s energy, rather than build their own from within. And, if you look at every argument, every conflict around the world, between governments and families and work places, its all around people wanting to control others, and dominate others from a kind of “I’m the smartest one, I’m the one you should pay attention too, I’ll lead you in the right way, listen to what I say, I don’t want to have to listen to what you say.” These are just all experiences about the competition of energy, every argument every competition is a power trip for energy. Now the fourth insight is one that everybody can see, all you have to do is open your eyes and have a clue. And you see people vying for power. And what that really means is, they don’t have enough of their own, and they would like to be the smartest one in the crowd so everybody will give them some attention and thus energy. And the only reason conflicts aren’t immediately resolved is because someone’s holding on to the need to be dominant in the situation. And, you know, that sort of corrupts all of the truth telling interaction that could be happening within humans around the world. It’s just corrupted by the need for security, energy that they can grab from other people.

PHIL: When one person takes the power away, he dominates somebody else. He who lost it, or he or she who lost their power, isn’t that really just a perception? If we live in a universe of unlimited power then technically, I can’t take anything away from you that you can’t immediately replenish, if you so desired to do so.

JAMES: Yeah, but that’s the hard part, desiring to do so and having an inner experience of being filled with an unlimited amount of energy. That’s not something that we are trained to do in school. Your trained just the opposite. In school you’re trained how to win arguments and control and dominate people in school. And you know, the reason that we are all discovering this spiritual journey, and the reason that we know that it is something we want for our lives, is we have this, this inner connection. It’s one that all the mystics of every religion and every tradition have all talked about, but it’s always been too mental. It’s always been, we can talk about the Yogis and give you there history and theories and that’s the same as being enlightened. Well its not, we’ve got to have that inner breakthrough ourselves, personally and its something that feels intentional, it feels better than anything else. It comes, and all we have to do is set that intention and no matter where we are on the scale of being able to open up and feel secure within, we can find that magic moment that fills people. That’s why everybody is on the spiritual search out there. But they don’t want any more talk about spirituality. What they want is the real juice, so when I talk about integrating all the spiritual quests and this awakening that we’re having out there, we are seeking it for ourselves, not to talk about, not to understand mentally but to really have it. That is the challenge has great urgency out there, and great ramifications should we not make it in time. Enough of us have to find this spiritual flow within in order to then be able to resolve these fourth insight conflicts that we still see out there. It’s one thing to see them happening, it’s another thing to be able to deal with them in a way that we stay above the power struggles in our live and we, we rely on this inner connection for security. So we can’t be insulted, be drained of energy, because as you say, then we are tapping into that connection where you can’t steal my energy because I’ll give it to you first; I have an unlimited amount to give to you.

PHIL: Yeah, have all you want, take it, it doesn’t matter I have unlimited energy in me. If you need it you know, go for it.
JAMES: That’s right and so you know the models, there are people out there, that can do that and we see them. And those are the models that attract our attention. It has to be a spiritual breakthrough that we have and that’s why, that’s why more and more people are going, are settling into a real individualized search for an inner experience of spirituality. And you know back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, there were probably more people talking about it, but now there are a lot more people actually doing it and they’re doing it within. They may not know all the names, and they may not know who Arbindo or any of the other Indian gurus are, or Abraham Maslow or anybody else, they don’t know those names, but in their little church somewhere they are finding those moments, and that’s what counts.

PHIL: Absolutely. The fifth insight, “the message of the mystic,- insecurities and violence ends when we experience an inner connection with divine energy within. A connection described by mystics of all traditions, lightness, buoyancy, along with the constant sensation of love that are measures this connection.” If these measures are present, the connection is real. If not, it is only pretended. I mean there is no question, if you’re going through life feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders you’re not feeling particularly light and buoyant.

JAMES: That’s right, and the thing about it, this awakening is beneficial no matter where you are, no matter how many problems you have, no matter whether you have an education or you don’t. That’s the important thing that we all understand. We aren’t talking about something that only the elite who operate in an ivory tower can do, we’re talking about something everybody can do. We’re talking about every level of affluence, every level of education, and it’s something that can happen anywhere and it always makes life better. You’ve got to feel the energy that lifts your consciousness. And it lifts your energy, you feel lighter on your feet, you know?

PHIL: Oh absolutely.

JAMES: You’ve got to move you get to feel the energy. That’s why fitness is such a big deal right now, and so many people are addicted to fitness, because you can do nothing but just start right and exercising and you’ll start to feel that kind of lightness that’s transpersonal. I mean, its that spiritual juice that we are talking about, you can go, you can find it through that avenue of fitness, you can go and find it through any other way too, music, love, you can just practice love, Nothing but just practice love. You know, in the east they have all the yoga’s and yoga is a path, a way, you can meditate on any attribute of this consciousness and get in the higher consciousness that way, and suddenly get the whole thing. And so the fifth insight is knowing that that’s available, but believing it enough to set the intention for it, and watch for the fruits. And that’s the sixth insight. The things that start to happen once we really start to focus on forming our life with this influx of spiritual energy.

PHIL: The sixth insight is called “clearing the path.” The sixth insight; “the more we stay connected, the more we are acutely aware of those times when we lose connection, usually when we are under stress, we can see our own particular ways of stealing energy from others. Once manipulations are bought to personal awareness, our connection becomes more constant and we discover our own growth path in life, and our spiritual mission - the personal way we can contribute to the world.

JAMES: Well the sixth insight is so important because you know if you’re working on your own spiritual life, and you realize if you ask for divine energy to come into you and if you want to feel that connection with the world and that purpose of the world, it starts to come in. The energy brings a sense of well being no matter what’s happening in your life. But it also brings in an intuition about who you really are, if you’re not this biographical person, if you’re not just that, living in a material world pretending that you don’t like it, if you’re not that then who are you? And we’re souls are awakening, and what we are awakening to is a truth that we came here to tell. And that could be anything, a breakthrough computer program, a new cool procedure, a way to teach other people.

STAY TUNED FOR PART III

ONE ON ONE WITH JAMES REDFIELD

Several years ago I conducted a fairly lengthy inter with author James Redfield of Celestine Prophecy fame. Our discussion went through each of his INSIGHTS as they led up to his soon to be released book, THE TWELFTH INSIGHT. Our conversation borders on prophecy, when you consider that the interview was conducted in 2008. I will post the interview in parts as it was fairly lengthy.



PHIL: The Celestine Prophecy, I remember reading it a number of years back, and a number of the follow ups, jeez what do you have now, twelve, fifteen books? You’ve got the Celestine Prophecy, you have Ten of Insights, Shambala, Celestine Vision, you have a book out with Murphy, God’s Evolving Universe.
JAMES: Well, there are three books in the Celestine series, I’m working on the fourth and last book there so, you know that’s what’s occupying my time now, and it’s very exciting. I’m chronicling what I call insights, but I really think of them as sort of grand “ahahs,” big steps in a kind of archetypal awakening of humanity, and I believe there are twelve of them, and the twelfth one is out there now so. And it’s as you might imagine, the integration fully, of all the insights in to something we can live everyday.
PHIL: Oh absolutely, and anybody who wants to check this out, go to www.celestinevision.com. What I want to do is to go through the insights. I mean we could probably talk all evening and into the night, just on one alone, but I’d like to try to go through the eleven, at least to refresh people’s memories as to what they are. I’m sure since you first wrote them, even in your own mind, there’s been a little bit of an evolution between the first book and where you are now. The first insight is called A Critical Mass, “a new spiritual awakening is occurring in human culture. An awakening brought about by a critical math of individuals who’ve experienced their lives as a spiritual unfolding. A journey in which we are led forward but mysterious coincidences.” Why do you feel at this point that we are at the height of a spiritual awakening, for humanity as a whole?
JAMES: If you look at all the polls, forget the news headlines and if you look at all the polls what you see is in greater and greater numbers are people awakening to a spirituality that’s personal. That’s what they say they’re discovering in polls and it’s crossing all religious persuasions. It’s happening everywhere. You know, there’s a kind of very negative news chatter right now about this war and big polarizations we’re having in terms of religion that are seeking to impose themselves on everybody. But you know that’s just a hurdle, one of the hurdles. And that’s really what the twelfth insight is about, getting over, getting past that challenge, as we proceed with our spiritual evolution.
PHIL: Do you think there is any kind of correlation between the number of people who are leaving the church and the rise in a more personal spiritual endeavor?
JAMES: You know, I don’t, I don’t really think so, I mean there are movements everywhere now, it used to be everybody leaving organized religion, then there’s big waves, some years, and people going back to the more structured spiritual path within one of the religious traditions. But I mean, I believe it’s just happening everywhere, it’s not what you might classify as new age thoughts, but if you look for general expression, a positive expression of the search for an individual and experiential spirituality. That’s continuing to occur out there. And you know, it’s inevitable, and the reason the first insight is such a great reminder is it’s a place where it all began. Because once you realize, once you tune in to the fact that there is a mechanism in the world that brings opportunities to us, brings great adventures to us; once you see and experience that, then your mind can’t get afraid and go back to those mysterious and meaningful coincidences and say they aren’t real. Once that kernel pops, there’s no way you go back to thinking that life is about a kind of materialistic routine that you thought before. And yeah we’ve had that critical mass, the first insight’s critical mass has already happened. Even the people that swear to be materialists, and atheists, and see no meaning to the universe, even they know there is something missing in their lives, and they keep trying to fill it with you know, games and toys, but it just doesn’t work. Until you really start to acknowledge the flow fully, and start to get into the journey of it you know you’re not satisfied in life.
PHIL: I think there’s no doubt that there’s a lot more questioning going on than there has been in a while. And until we start asking questions and demanding answers, it’s hard to put a lid on that, it takes on a life of its own.
JAMES: Absolutely, and that’s been going on for some time now and you know, forget politics, forget the trends that the news and media talk about, that’s not the important trend that’s happening out there.
PHIL: The second insight is The Longer Now. “This awakening represents the creation of a new, more complete world view, which replaces a 500 year-old preoccupation with secular survival and comfort”. Now interestingly enough, I’m sure detractors out there would be saying whoa, whoa wait a minute, people taking a larger world view? Everything that’s happening and all these little hot spots around the world, everybody is just getting more selfish, nationalism is on the rise, look at the Balkans, Tibet, the Middle East and everybody wants a little piece of the pie. How do you figure that, there’s a growing world view out there?
JAMES: Well because what you just described is the result of the need for something more. People are becoming more selfish because they can’t accept the ordinary life any more. People are wanting to find meaning in nationalism because they are seeking something new and energized and you know, these trends go back and forth, and round and round. But what’s important is that more and more people understand that there is a deeper spiritual consciousness available and if, if you really look at it, and you really get the second insight, you realize that it’s a matter of historical inevitability. In other words, we are evolving our consciousness, we realize we have been asleep in some kind of scientific materialism, and we are now breaking through to something more complete. You know, there’s nothing the rational life was important and we had to establish that. We had to train our minds to think more rationally, but now that rationality is not grounded anymore, because what we really want to rationalize is how to live the spiritual life more fully.
We are turning those powers on so we are investigating scientifically, and thinking logically about how to live this greater spiritual flow, this synchronistic flow that is inevitable. The second insight is important to keep in mind because it’s one of the steps to staying conscious; you have to realize where we are in long term history, in the history of thought. We’re breaking through a very confined rationality, and now we are looking at deeper phenomena out there, the spiritual life that we can apply, this sort of consensus building, and rational consensus so that we can institute it in the world, which is where we are now.
PHIL: What is phenomenal, is, with respect to the age of technology and communication we have going on, is that I can sit here in Summerville, Maine and be talking to a person in China as to what’s going on in their life and what they’re doing. So the ability to become aware of what is occurring around the world is almost instantaneous. It’s incredible.
JAMES: No doubt about that. And you know, it’s contagious, the whole thing, consciousness, a higher consciousness is contagious. And you can kind of stay half asleep until you run in to some who’s not. Then what you see is this greater consciousness that becomes a model of exactly what it is you know in your heart is missing. So you know nothing can be better than that that sort of intermingling consciousness in the world.
PHIL: The third insight deals with matter and energy. “We are now experiencing that we live not in a material universe, but in a universe of dynamic energy. Everything extant is a field of sacred energy that we can sense and intuit. Moreover, we humans can project our energy by focusing our attention in the desired direction... where attention goes, energy flow… influencing other energy systems, and increasing the case of coincidences in our lives.” I would have to say, James that there is no question what is happening in the field of physics; all those people that say, “Well prove it, prove it, prove it,” and in a way it’s all coming out now. There is a basis, there is a scientific basis to all of this that’s going on and the whole quantum physics thing to me is just mind blowing.
JAMES: Well I think it is and you know, what it really feels like, and the way we’re experiencing it, is that we are tuned in to this universe that we are in. What we think is material is beautiful, if we look at the tree it’s beautiful, and it’s hard when we touch it but it’s really just an energy field. And the more energy that we can find within ourselves, the more energy that we can apply in this world, and give into this universe, the more we give in, more we get back. You know what I mean? That is the law of attraction. You know the more we give energy and attention, the more we get back from the universe in the direction that we’re trying to unhitch from its point.
PHIL: You constantly see new reports and new studies saying hey you know it’s what you think that counts.
JAMES: I was just going to say that that’s the third insight phenomena, when we see all these books on physics and how the universe really does respond, that’s part of the working out of this insight’s awakening that’s still churning out there.
PHIL: Absolutely, and like I said, it’s absolutely phenomenal what is being discovered. Science is getting so close to coming up with their unified theory, and I think they’re almost afraid to make the next quantum leap. Where they will have to go with some of this information is hard to say, but I guess they will have to wrestle with their own consciousness to see where they take all this.
JAMES: Yeah, well at the end of the show we can talk about science. You know unfortunately, parts of science and parts of the news media and politicians in general are going to be the last to get it, they are going to wait until the people have instituted it in their mind. And, once we get it, then the politicians and the news people, and the scientists will start to study it and talk about it.
PHIL: Oh there’s no question that the institutions, whether it be the medical associations, or religious organizations, they are so entrenched and they are so concerned with maintaining their own validity in the world that they will certainly resist. But, what I like in the world is the voices that are cropping up with the direction. And you know, I think you’re seeing more and more people, more books and things like that from people who have the credentials and they are saying, “Hey, this whole energy thing, there’s really something to it, the universe is all energy we are all interconnected, the mind does have power, there is power behind thought, the way you feel, your health and so forth, is effected by this.” I mean it’s becoming main stream, and it’s just nice to see that.
JAMES: I think so but it’s certainly not main stream. I mean it’s in the process of becoming main stream now; the twelfth insight is integrating in to everything. And you know, this kind of constriction of economics you see around the world, beginning around the world right now, is just kind of going to give us enough pause so that that institutionalization can happen, you know?

STAY TUNED FOR PART II

SAM HARRIS-YOU'RE WRONG!

There is no such thing as objective science. If physics has taught us anything, it is that the observer and the observed are one. The idea that science can find an objective morality is, by its very nature, an oxymoron. Science is based upon "knowledge,knowledge requires a learner and a learner cannot be objective. Sam Harris would like us to believe that science can lead us to the promise land of well-being. That, while religion and all of its worn out dogma has failed to do so, a new religion of science will show us how to create a land of milk and honey. While I agree with his assessment of religion, his solution is just as inappropriate. In a response to his critics, Sam Harris tried to clarify his position. What follows are parts of his response as posted on his site and my comments are in bold.

Last month, I had the privilege of speaking at the 2010 TED conference for exactly 18 minutes. I was not suggesting that science can give us an evolutionary or neurobiological account of what people do in the name of “morality.” Nor was I merely saying that science can help us get what we want out of life. Both of these would have been quite banal claims to make (unless one happens to doubt the truth of evolution or the mind’s dependency on the brain). Rather I was suggesting that science can, in principle, help us understand what we should do and should want—and, perforce, what other people should do and want in order to live the best lives possible. There is an obvious bias in the preceding statements. The notion that science can tell people what they ‘should’ do or should not do indicates simply another form of dogma that has been found not to work by religions. My claim is that there are right and wrong answers to moral questions, just as there are right and wrong answers to questions of physics, and such answers may one day fall within reach of the maturing sciences of mind. As the response to my TED talk indicates, it is taboo for a scientist to think such things, much less say them public. While there is no doubt that it is appropriate for scientists to discuss such issues, the notion that there are right and wrong answers is a matter of judgment and subjective bias. What is the difference between science telling people what is wrong and the Church, any church, telling people what is right or wrong? Actually, the notion that there is right or wrong, good and evil, flies in the face of science. There are certainly positive and negative forces. But calling hot right and cold wrong is ludicrous. Despite the influence of religion on the issue, calling murder wrong is a moral judgment.


Some of my critics got off the train before it even left the station, by defining “science” in exceedingly narrow terms. Many think that science is synonymous with mathematical modeling, or with immediate access to experimental data. However, this is to mistake science for a few of its tools. Science simply represents our best effort to understand what is going on in this universe, and the boundary between it and the rest of rational thought cannot always be drawn. There are many tools one must get in hand to think scientifically—ideas about cause and effect, respect for evidence and logical coherence, a dash of curiosity and intellectual honesty, the inclination to make falsifiable predictions, etc.—and many come long before one starts worrying about mathematical models or specific data. Clearly, from the above definition, i.e. “our best effort to understand,” is not objective. History is replete with our misunderstanding of science and the fire pits are filled with the charred memories of those who defied our ‘best efforts.”

There is also much confusion about what it means to speak with scientific “objectivity.” As the philosopher John Searle once pointed out, there are two very different senses of the terms “objective” and “subjective.” The first relates to how we know (i.e. epistemology), the second to what there is to know (i.e. ontology). When we say that we are reasoning or speaking “objectively,” we mean that we are free of obvious bias, open to counter-arguments, cognizant of the relevant facts, etc. There is no impediment to our doing this with regard to subjective (i.e. third-person) facts. It is, for instance, true to say that I am experiencing tinnitus (ringing in my ears) at this moment. This is a subjective fact about me. I am not lying about it. I have been to an otologist and had the associated hearing loss in the upper frequencies in my right ear confirmed. There is simply no question that I can speak about my tinnitus in the spirit of scientific objectivity. And, no doubt, this experience must have some objective (third-person) correlates, like damage to my cochlea. Many people seem to think that because moral facts relate entirely to our experience (and are, therefore, ontologically “subjective”), all talk of morality must be “subjective” in the epistemological sense (i.e. biased, merely personal, etc.). This is simply untrue. Sorry, Sam, but it is true. While on its face, it is easy to understand why one would claim that five birds just flew by; it is raining; I just stubbed my toe, etc. Reality is only our perceptions. And, I suppose you can also say that quantum physics is also all wrong, too, but that just makes you as dogmatic as those you criticize.

Many of my critics also fail to distinguish between there being no answers in practice and no answers in principle to certain questions about the nature of reality. Only the latter questions are “unscientific,” and there are countless facts to be known in principle that we will never know in practice. Exactly how many birds are in flight over the surface of the earth at this instant? What is their combined weight in grams? We cannot possibly answer such questions, but they have simple, numerical answers. Does our inability to gather the relevant data oblige us to respect all opinions equally? For instance, how seriously should we take the claim that there are exactly 23,000 birds in flight at this moment, and, as they are all hummingbirds weighing exactly 2 grams, their total weight is 46,000 grams? It should be obvious that this is a ridiculous assertion. We can, therefore, decisively reject answers to questions that we cannot possibly answer in practice. This is a perfectly reasonable, scientific, and often necessary thing to do. And yet, many scientists will say that moral truths do not exist, simply because certain facts about human experience cannot be readily known, or may never be known. As I hope to show, this blind spot has created tremendous confusion about the relationship between human knowledge and human values. Is it really possible for what science says is a finite mind to know and understand the infinite? Or, is it possible that we see the mind as finite because we define ourselves by it. Since it weighs x grams there is no way it can carry the infinite knowledge of the universe. Or, is it possible that we are not at limited by the size of our brain and that there is transcendent knowledge that we can know?


When I speak of there being right and wrong answers to questions of morality, I am saying that there are facts about human and animal wellbeing that we can, in principle, know—simply because wellbeing (and states of consciousness altogether) must lawfully relate to states of the brain and to states of the world. Facts are merely our ‘best understanding’ at any given moment. Many facts of the past were clearly not. Is it the states of the brain that laws relate to or something bigger? Are there even really any laws. Can we test a law an infinite number of times to see if it ever deviates? Has not quantum mechanics shown that what we have held as physical laws are not true at the sub-atomic level? And have not recent experiments shown, as mystics have known all along, that such deviations to laws can now be demonstrated at the physically observable level?

And here is where the real controversy begins: for many people strongly objected to my claim that values (and hence morality) relate to facts about the wellbeing of conscious creatures. My critics seem to think that consciousness and its states hold no special place where values are concerned, or that any state of consciousness stands the same chance of being valued as any other. While maximizing the wellbeing of conscious creatures may be what I value, other people are perfectly free to define their values differently, and there will be no rational or scientific basis to argue with them. This is perhaps the one place where Sam Harris is correct, i.e., what we value does relate to well being of consciousness. However, we should not assume a value on levels of consciousness.

Carroll appears to be confused about the foundations of human knowledge. For instance, he clearly misunderstands the relationship between scientific truth and scientific consensus. He imagines that scientific consensus signifies the existence of scientific truth (while scientific controversy just means that there is more work to be done). And yet, he takes moral controversy to mean that there is no such thing as moral truth (while moral consensus just means that people are deeply conditioned for certain preferences). This is a double standard that I pointed out in my talk, and it clearly rigs the game against moral truth. The deeper issue, however, is that truth has nothing, in principle, to do with consensus: It is, after all, quite possible for everyone to be wrong, or for one lone person to be right. Consensus is surely a guide to discovering what is going on in the world, but that is all that it is. Its presence or absence in no way constrains what may or may not be true. There seems to be confusion all around since there really is no current scientific truth.



There are many things wrong with this approach. The deepest problem is that it strikes me as patently mistaken about the nature of reality and about what we can reasonably mean by words like “good,” “bad,” “right,” and “wrong.” In fact, I believe that we can know, through reason alone, that consciousness is the only intelligible domain of value. What’s the alternative? Imagine some genius comes forward and says, “I have found a source of value/morality that has absolutely nothing to do with the (actual or potential) experience of conscious beings.” Take a moment to think about what this claim actually means. Here’s the problem: whatever this person has found cannot, by definition, be of interest to anyone (in this life or in any other). Put this thing in a box, and what you have in that box is—again, by definition—the least interesting thing in the universe. Therefore, in order to place a moral value against killing, all must kill-otherwise; the value of not killing has nothing to do with actual/potential experience. Does the value precede the experience or vice versa?

So how much time should we spend worrying about such a transcendent source of value? I think the time I will spend typing this sentence is already far too much. All other notions of value will bear some relationship to the actual or potential experience of conscious beings. So my claim that consciousness is the basis of values does not appear to me to be an arbitrary starting point.

Now that we have consciousness on the table, my further claim is that wellbeing is what we can intelligibly value—and “morality” (whatever people’s associations with this term happen to be) really relates to the intentions and behaviors that affect the wellbeing of conscious creatures. And, as I pointed out at TED, all the people who claim to have alternative sources of morality (like the Word of God) are, in every case that I am aware of, only concerned about wellbeing anyway: They just happen to believe that the universe functions in such a way as to place the really important changes in conscious experience after death (i.e. in heaven or hell). And those philosophical efforts that seek to put morality in terms of duty, fairness, justice, or some other principle that is not explicitly tied to the wellbeing of conscious creatures—are, nevertheless, parasitic on some notion of wellbeing in the end (I argue this point at greater length in my book. And yes, I’ve read Rawls, Nozick, and Parfit). The doubts that immediately erupt on this point seem to invariably depend on extremely unimaginative ideas about what the term “wellbeing” could mean, altogether, or on mistaken beliefs about what science is.

Those who assumed that any emphasis on human “wellbeing” would lead us to enslave half of humanity, or harvest the organs of the bottom ten percent, or nuke the developing world, or nurture our children a continuous drip of heroin are, it seems to me, not really thinking about these issues seriously. It seems rather obvious that fairness, justice, compassion, and a general awareness of terrestrial reality have rather a lot to do with our creating a thriving global civilization (Creating a thriving global community is not desired by all and not really a value, a goal perhaps, but not a value)—and, therefore, with the greater wellbeing of humanity. And, as I emphasized in my talk, there may be many different ways for individuals and communities to thrive—many peaks on the moral landscape—so if there is real diversity in how people can be deeply fulfilled in life, this diversity can be accounted for and honored in the context of science. As I said in my talk, the concept of “wellbeing,” like the concept of “health,” is truly open for revision and discovery. Just how happy is it possible for us to be, personally and collectively? What are the conditions—ranging from changes in the genome to changes in economic systems—that will produce such happiness? We simply do not know.

But the deeper objection raised by scientists like Carroll is that the link I have drawn between values and wellbeing seems arbitrary, or otherwise in need of justification. What if certain people insist that their “values” or “morality” have nothing to do with wellbeing? What if a man like Jefferey Dahmer says, “The only peaks on the moral landscape that interest me are ones where I get to murder young men and have sex with their corpses.” This possibility—the prospect of radically different moral preferences—seems to be at the heart of many people’s concerns. In response to one of his readers, Carroll writes:

[W]e have to distinguish between choosing a goal and choosing the best way to get there. But when we do science we all basically agree on what the goals are — we want to find a concise, powerful explanation of the empirical facts we observe. This is not true. The idyllic notion here is that all scientists are purists who only seek to discover how the universe works. It assumes no hidden or subjective agenda. While it is fine to argue that a person on a spiritual quest for meaning and truth is really just seeking new dogma to impose on humanity, this cannot be true for the scientist. Clearly, the use of science to further specific political, social, economic or religious goals can be demonstrated throughout history. Again, is there really empirical fact? Sure, someone can choose to disagree with those goals — but then they’re not doing science, they’re doing philosophy of science. Which is interesting in its own right, but not the same thing.

When it comes to morality, there is nowhere near the unanimity of goals that there is in science. That’s not a minor quibble, that’s the crucial difference! If we all agreed on the goals, we would indeed expend our intellectual effort on the well-grounded program of figuring out how best to achieve those goals. That would be great, but it’s not the world in which we live.

Again, we encounter this confusion about the significance of consensus. But we should also remember that there are trained “scientists” who are Biblical Creationists, and their scientific thinking is purposed not toward a dispassionate study of the universe, but toward interpreting the data of science to fit the Biblical account of creation. Such people claim to be doing “science,” of course—but real scientists are free, and indeed obligated, to point out that they are misusing the term. A real scientist? Does that exist? How can you base a system on an imaginary ‘real scientist’? Certainly, a person with a religious agenda cannot conduct this so called pure science. But neither can the mythical real scientist, who, unless they grew up with no human interaction, be free of any bias. Similarly, there are people who claim to be highly concerned about “morality” and “human values,” but when we see that they are more concerned about condom use than they are about child rape (e.g. the Catholic Church), we should feel free to say that they are misusing the term “morality,” or that their values are distorted. As I asked at TED, how have we convinced ourselves that on the subject of morality, all views must count equally? It is clear that Harris cannot make his arguments without reverting to moral judgment.


The very idea that a morality exists has not come from science. To say that women should not be degraded, people should not be enslaved, that there should be no war, did not stem from some scientific observation. To even say that there should be an objective morality is, of itself, a subjective moral judgment. What might nature tell us about morality. Survival of the fittest? No room for the weak? Only cooperate if your own well-being is enhanced? In nature, there are animals that herd together for mutual protection. There are also lone hunters, hives, colonies, predator and prey. Would not objective science say that it makes no sense for the genetically weak or defective to survive? In nature, the weak and deformed are left behind. Why would science make an argument for weakening the gene pool and promote the perpetuation of the "defective?" It is not science that has said that the likes of Steven Hawking should survive. Make no mistake, religion has not provided the answer, but within religion has been pearls of wisdom that form the fundamentals of a working morality. I will continue with Sam's talk on TED in Part II.

Let me leave you with some quotes from a real scientist, Albert Einstein:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

END PART I

SECOND SIGHT

Second Sight by Judith Orloff, MD (2nd Edition)

THIS IS A TIME WHEN WE COULD ALL STAND FOR SOME HEALING. LET JUDITH ORLOFF HELP YOU!

In this moving personal story Dr. Orloff recounts her "journey to become whole" by first accepting and then embracing her intuitive abilities. She tells of her childhood fear of her intuition, of her physician-parents' efforts to ignore and even deny them, and of her slow awakening to the understanding that her intuition is truly a gift. She tells of her struggle to incorporate her abilities into her practice and of the many successes she's experienced with patients ever since. Second Sight is a soulful and friendly bestseller.

Text from the back cover

As a child, her vivid dreams and intuitions were whispered about behind closed doors. As a medical student, she denied the "shameful secret" by immersing herself in the absolutes of science. Then as a psychiatrist, Dr. Judith Orloff recieved proof of the value of her gift when an intuition foretold a patient's suicide attempt. In this remarkable self-portrait, she takes you on the journey of a lifetime, one that brought her from ignorance to understanding, from loneliness to peace, from despair to hope...

NOW SHE TEACHES YOU HOW TO UNCOVER YOUR INTUITIVE GIFTS

“There is no elite to which the gift belongs--the seeds have been planted in all of us....each one of us is multifaceted, radiant, teeming with possibilities.”
As she tells you her own story, Dr. Judith Orloff will teach you how to recognize intuitive experiences in everyday life, awaken your own intuition with special mind-empowering exercises, and use meditation, prayer, and dream interpretation to broaden your possibilities. And like Dr. Orloff you'll soon be on a quest to reexamine your life, your beliefs, your future...and your own wonderous potential.
GET your copy of Second Sight ON MARCH 1st and receive 80+ GIfts from amazing teachers such as Dr. Joan Borysenko, Rev. Michael Beckwith, and Deepak Chopra, and Shirley MacLaine at http://www.drjudithorloff.com/second-sight-promotion/

Judith Orloff MD is author of the new book SECOND SIGHT: AN INTUITIVE PSYCHIATRIST TELLS HER STORY AND SHOWS YOU HOW TO TAP YOUR OWN INNER WISDOM (Three Rivers Press, 2010 updated edition). Her other bestsellers are Emotional Freedom, Positive Energy, Intuitive Healing. Dr. Orloff synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. She passionately believes that the future of medicine involves integrating all this wisdom to achieve emotional freedom and total wellness. For more inspiration and free articles visit www.drjudithorloff.com

Bridging Dogma and Atheism

Does ‘spirituality’ bridge the gap between religious dogma and atheism? Is it the golden mean between an all powerful dictatorial super being that creates good and evil, demands sacrifice and unquestioning obedience and the totally mechanistic belief of the atheist? Can the two even be reconciled?

We are all familiar with religious dogma. The Judeo-Christian, Islamic traditions have dominated religious thought for thousands of years. At the core of all three is a super deity that demands worship, punishes the unfaithful, and has no problem with each declaring the other as inferior and even evil. One has savior who died for their sins; one has a savior yet to come; and the other says live a life by the rules and you will be rewarded later. There is a basic assumption in these religions that people are sinners and are doomed to eternal punishment by an all loving god. All rather silly. It would be easy to extol the absurdity of most religions. And, it is easy to see how a rational, thinking person would have issues with religious hypocrisy and their history of blood and violence.

On the other side of the coin, we have atheism. Basically, atheists do not believe in a god or gods, shun any notion of the supernatural and place their faith in reason, science, humanism and rationality. Essentially, atheism means, ‘without god.’ But, are the options only god (s) and no gods?

The answer is that there is another option; spirituality. Yes, there is a difference between being religious and spiritual. It is important to state that spirituality has been around longer than any religion; it is as old as humanity. Rooted in ancient mysticism from Chaldea, Egypt and found in every civilization, spirituality was based in the concept of gnosis, knowing. For spirituality, there is no set doctrine, no dogma and no institution striving for self-perpetuation. Spirituality is a concept, a belief based upon personal enlightenment. What is interesting is that even though spirituality is based upon individual epiphany, it contains a common thread that can be found in the mystical teachings of all cultures; it has a universal commonality (perhaps Jung is at work here).

In analyzing the literature of mystical teachings, which all too often became perverted into religions, “some” of the common threads include: a belief in an all pervasive universal intelligence; all things are alive; all things are connected, literally; universal intelligence thinks the manifest world into existence and all higher levels of consciousness play an ongoing part in this creation; reality is an illusion and is different from actuality; we are what we think; there is no such thing as good and evil warring for humanity’s soul; there is no death; life constantly seeks to express itself and evolves into higher levels of awareness; there is no deity demanding servitude and no deity that condemns, tortures or punishes; all that ever was, is and will be, is here, now; while there are balancing forces in the universes, these forces are nether good or bad; knowledge is attainable through intuition and meditation; the universe is basically objective; all things move in cycles that spiral ever upward; and all things are possible. Despite these and other shared ideas, there is no church based upon these principles. There are groups, orders, brotherhoods and societies that have formed to teach these concepts, but none seek to dominate, condemn, proselytize, or war with others over ideology.

Much of what is believed, or rather known, by those who have embarked upon a spiritual path is, oddly enough, based in science and reasoning. Is this the bridge between dogma and atheism? It can be. Many scientists have expounded mystical/spiritual ideas. Galileo, Newton, Descartes, and Einstein had clear spiritual views on the nature of the universe. And today, the breakthroughs and discoveries in quantum physics are heading directly down the spiritual path. The circle is closing. From direct knowledge, to skepticism, to discovery and back; scientific thought is revealing as true, what mystics taught in ancient times.

So what did people like Heisenberg and Bohr and others say about the universe. The first tenet is that the material-objective universe is not real, it is an illusion. The mind brings reality into existence through observation. In actuality, the universe is an interconnected sea of energy that only takes on substance when it is observed. The subjective mind brings the objective mind into what we call reality, and yet, it has no independent existence; the observer and the observed are one. Quantum physics tells us that electrons can be in two places at once and that they are waves of energy that only take on physical existence when we look for them. Essentially, the material world has no fundamental existence. Unless we discount quantum physics as ‘hum bug,’ we have science telling us that those who base their reality on the senses are gravely in error. There is significant research and studies on this topic and if would behoove a seeker to Google the topic, ‘mysticism and quantum physics.’ This is not meant to be an in depth study of the topic, but rather a piece that raises the question for others to ponder.

If the mind brings reality into existence, the question that must be answered is what mind brought the first matter, electrons, atoms, molecules, planets, suns and galaxies into existence? Does quantum physics ascribe this to deity? I believe that the answer is, “not yet”, but it is the logical conclusion. Quantum physics dismisses the notion that our reality is the result of chance; that life was a lark that emerged from some kind of chemical soup; and, that we are the whim of natural forces that are beyond our control. The power of thought as ‘the’ force that shapes our world is growing if efficacy. We have seen the power of the mind to heal, and that thoughts do, indeed, create our lives and the way we live it. We know now that all things are energy. Thoughts are also energy that shapes the observable world. Energy cannot be destroyed. The underlying energy that forms the foundation of the universe is neutral; meaning, it is neither good nor bad, it just is. Time is also an illusion and that it may even be possible to travel into the past or observe the future. Does this not sound like, ‘all that ever was, is and will be’ is here now?

While it is easy to understand the trend in the denial of a super being in a white robe and beard calling the shots in the universe, it should also be easy to understand that science is bringing us closer to the notion that there is something, some form of higher consciousness, that is creating and exploring the infinite potential of life. It should also be clear that since we, as humans, have the power to alter reality, there is probably something that transcends our consciousness, something that, perhaps, we express in our ever day lives. The mystics are fond of the phrase, ‘as above, so below and as below, so above.’ Simply, the microcosm, the small, is merely an expression of the macrocosm, the big. The atom and the galaxy are one, and what is true of one, is true of the other.

Perhaps atheists who truly follow the emerging knowledge in science will find solace that their rational thinking has actually verified the idea that consciousness is the guiding force of the manifest universe. They are right, in my mind, that there is no single deity making day- to-day decisions about salvation, or what it will do next to alter the material world. There is no deity(ies) to be worshipped or that demand sacrifice. The question is, are they ready to understand that deity is the All and that here truly is no place where deity begins or ends. It is the sea of potential wave energy, of which we are all a part, waiting to co-create the next chapter in evolution.

I love synchronicity. When I completed this article I received an interesting email. In it, it talked of the works of Hawking, Bekenstein, Susskind and Maldacena. It’s premise was that,“The materialistic paradigm is dead and buried.” It went on to discuss the Holographic Principle as described in Michael Talbot’s book and in the introduction to the book it says, “Put another way, there is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it -- from snowflakes to maple trees to falling stars and spinning electrons -- are also only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time.” Again, the question is begged, who or what projects the Universe? As we move to a new 2012 paradigm, it is clear that the foundation of the ‘old world’ is collapsing. We are familiar with the movies that put forth the notion that magic died in ancient days because people stopped believing in it. Now we are seeing that consumer economics, old religious dogma and the materialistic concept of society are passing because, no one believes it any more. The power of the Universal mind and all of its expressions, us included, is creating a new reality; one that finds the ‘golden mean’ between the extremes. This process may seem chaotic. Witness global climate change, political disruptions, religious strife, diseases and what some are erroneously labeling the ‘end times.’ Ye of little faith! From this chaos will emerge a new reality, a new balance and a new harmony and new reconciliation.

ARE YOU IN NEED OF EMOTIONAL FREEDOM?

Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life by Dr. Judith Orloff

The economy is in the dumps, the climate is going to hell in a hand basket, your mate is about to leave you, your kids are addicted to pixels and 2012 is just around the corner. There are a lot of negative thoughts floating around and, form follows thought. With all of this negativity, no wonder the world's a mess. Perhaps the best way to show you how this book may help is to provide an excerpt.

An Excerpt from Emotional Freedom
Introduction: Emotional Freedom: The Secret of Serenity

I invite you on a remarkable journey where you can embrace more happiness, peace, and mastery over negativity than you may have ever known. You possess the ability to achieve such emotional freedom; it’s closer than you might think. No matter how stressed your life is currently, the time for positive change is now.

Our society is in the midst of an emotional meltdown. People are restless, volatile, our tempers about to blow. In the past year, Prozac was prescribed for over thirty million people. Domestic violence occurs in one out of six of households. Fifty percent of drivers who’re cut off respond with horn-honking, yelling, obscene gestures, or even road rage. Half of our marriages end in divorce.

None of this is how we want life to be. Our pressure cooker society pushes us to our emotional limits. We deserve relief from getting crucified by daily stresses. We deserve to be happier, more comfortable in our own skins, to have nurturing relationships. This book empowers you to attain this high quality of life and to handle stress artfully. I’m excited to present practical new tools for mastering your emotions because conventional coping mechanisms just aren’t sufficient in our hyper-tense world. It’s lunacy to put up with being chronically anxious, fatigued, or depressed as so many of us have. I rebel against that cheerless status quo, and hope you will too.

Emotional Freedom offers the answer to reclaiming your happiness and heart. What is emotional freedom? It means increasing your ability to love by cultivating positive emotions and being able to compassionately witness and transform negative ones, whether they’re yours or another’s. This fundamental living skill liberates you from fear and lets you navigate adversity without going on the attack, losing your cool, or being derailed by it. The result? With true emotional freedom, you can choose to react constructively rather than relinquishing your command of the situation whenever your buttons get pushed, as most people do. This lets you communicate more successfully, gain more confidence in yourself and empathy for others. Then you own the moment no matter who or what you’re facing.

Though we commonly think of freedom as uncensored speech, emancipation from slavery, the right to vote and worship as we choose, you can’t achieve total freedom until you learn to take charge of emotions, instead of them running you. This is a radical paradigm shift we all can make, regardless of our present anxieties or past hardships. If you are painfully driven by emotions, this book will show you how not to be.

Your well-being matters to me. My mission is to increase your emotional freedom. It has always been within you, but you must know how to connect with it. I consider it my great privilege to help you say farewell to anything that imprisons--that keeps you afraid, small, or disconnected. Then you won’t inexorably be locked in combat with yourself or anyone else. I want you to be more fiercely alive. I’m presenting Emotional Freedom as a life-long guide to release you from the compulsive tyranny of negative emotions such as worry and anger so you can choose more joy.

I’m compelled to write this book because, as a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice and an Assistant Clinical Professor at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), I work in a mainstream medical system where emotions are only partially understood. Even today, they don’t receive the total respect that they warrant. All too often, doctors ignore scientific data clearly linking emotions and health. During my psychiatric training at UCLA, I was Chief Resident of the Affective Disorders Clinic. We treated emotional “disorders” including depression and anxiety, as biochemical imbalances requiring medication. I’d meet with patients for fifteen minutes every few weeks, write a prescription, then send them home. Though I never saw medications as the whole solutions to their problems (despite the zeal of some of my colleagues), I did watch many patients experience at least partial “symptom relief,” an undeniable blessing and alleviation of suffering. However, in my subsequent two decades of medical practice, I’ve learned that emotional freedom is rarely just about removing a symptom. It involves much, much more.

Over years of working with patients and seminar participants, I’ve seen that emotional freedom comes from many sources, mainstream and beyond. This book gives me the opportunity to wed my fondest loves: traditional medicine, intuition, energy, and dreams--a mystical yet practical marriage. I’ve coined the term Energy Psychiatry to describe a new kind of psychotherapy I’m pioneering that synthesizes these multiple forms of knowledge. I’ll explain how I use each of them to help my patients find emotional freedom so you can find it too.

The intellect, stunningly incisive as it may be, has restricted vision when it comes to emotions. This is why bringing intuitive awareness to the feeling-realm is so liberating; it pushes beyond the limits of linear understanding. Intuition is a potent wisdom not mediated by the linear mind--a practical, smart, decision-making aid. Intuition can be a hunch, a dream, a “knowing,” specific guidance, or a warning of danger. During troubled times, intuition is a voice in the wilderness to get you through, and when things are good, it’ll help them stay that way. Contrary to what you might suppose, intuition is the antithesis of “woo-woo.” It can actually be perceived physically as a "gut feeling." Cutting-edge science associates this with a separate "brain" in the gut called the enteric nervous system, a network of neurons that learn and store information. Interestingly, Harvard researchers have linked the overall capacity for intuition to the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that informs us something’s not right and we’d better act on it.

Emotions also have an intuitive language that silently begs to be decoded in our bodies--“subtle energies” that move through us that can be sensed. These are what Chinese medicine calls “chi,” our vital life force, a growing area of scientific study. We feel emotions internally, while their energy expands beyond our bodies, affecting the world we touch, determining our affinities. Similarly, other people’s emotional energy impacts us.

Today, I am a woman who travels many worlds. My approach to emotional freedom utilizes the best of traditional and nontraditional realms to map the territory of the heart. In this book, I’ll discuss the four major components of emotions that shape your health and mood: biology, subtle energy, psychology, and spirituality. Why do I emphasize spirituality? I want to acknowledge that there’s a heightened sense of mystery to emotions. Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” To tap this, we must appreciate that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. It’s impossible to grasp how we tick emotionally without a cosmic perspective; everything about us, including our biology, is an expression of the divine. Seeing emotions as a training ground for the soul frames every victory over fear, anxiety, and resentment as a way to develop your spiritual muscles and be better able to love and cultivate goodness. Anything that keeps your from your light distances your spiritual connection too.

I’m unrelentingly dedicated to helping my patients and you combat the emotional forces of darkness that cause suffering. This has to be done. We all have suffering. When unaddressed, it ends up hurting others and ourselves. I’ve seen too frequently how the ravages of suffering can deform people. I’ll teach you how to dissipate negativity so suffering can be lifted and you can be more loving. Goodness doesn’t shy away from the dark. But achieving emotional freedom doesn’t mean becoming bland, numbing our feelings, or spewing them indiscriminately towards others. It entails striving to develop everything that is positive within us as well as being accountable for our full spectrum of feelings, mastering them, and realizing we’re so much larger than they are.

I’m also compelled to write this book as a testament to my own progress on the path towards emotional freedom. I come from a lineage of powerful, caring women who, despite their accomplishments, often grappled with fears of inadequacy that kept them from reveling in their own magnificence. My mother and my aunt, for instance, as very young physicians in Philadelphia during WW II, staffed an inner city emergency room. And my grandmother was a flamboyant seer who’d heal her neighbors with her hands during the lean years of the Great Depression. These wonderfully talented and complex women were my role models; for better and for worse, I’ve shared both their strengths and apprehensions on my own path to self-realization.

I learned much about the consequences of emotions from my mother. At seventy, with a thriving Beverly Hills practice in family medicine, her credentials in order, she nonetheless chose to take the national board exams to prove she was as “competent” as doctors fresh out of medical school. Everybody, including my father (also a physician), her other doctor friends, and me, said to her, “Why put yourself through it?” But, as usual, Mother was stubborn. Maddeningly, she still had something to prove. We were just spectators, loving her the best we could, hurting as she hurt. Preparation for the test was Herculean, requiring months of intense study. Even though she’d been an impeccably skilled, compassionate doctor, beloved by her patients for four decades, she was possessed by a sense of inadequacy. A thousand people could tell her how incredible she was, but if one person said something derogatory, she’d believe him. It was so much easier for her to be kind to others than to herself--a paradox shared by so many of us. Twenty years earlier, Mother had been diagnosed with a slow-growing type of lymphoma. It hadn’t spread, but it hadn’t gone away. Soon after the national board exam, however, the tumor changed to an aggressive form of leukemia. Though she heroically did pass her boards, she died within six months of doing so. Near the end, she told me she believed that the stress and fears that ate at her had accelerated her own death.

Witnessing my mother’s struggle with self-doubt gave me vital insights into emotional freedom. As a daughter, I saw the horrible toll negative emotions took on the person dearest to me. I ached with powerlessness as I watched her weaken. Even before she died, I experienced the cellular chill of having lost my mother. I stayed very close to her until the moment she turned bright gold and was no longer of this Earth. During those heartrending days, the mind-body connection was never more apparent. Ironically, not one iota of my mother’s being consciously wanted to die, but stress and fear don’t care about that. They beat relentlessly at her seventy-year-old immune system, already taxed by cancer, and her body broke down.

My mother, myself: Even now, at times I can’t stop my fears or inner slave driver, and it’s hell. However, one make-or-break difference is that I’m explicitly committed to not being ruled by negative emotions. I’ll fight to the finish to overcome them. This is my eternal vow, and I’m making sweet and steady progress. But Mother came from the old school where you tough things out, believe in achievement as scripture, and shy away from psychotherapy. It’s not that she didn’t want her fears to go away; during many conversations at our Saturday afternoon teas I’d listen to her yearning for inner peace. But she just wouldn’t commit the time and energy to get there, whether through contemplative introspection or with the assistance of a guide. And though she devoutly believed in Judaism, the traditional services she attended didn’t focus on the everyday spiritual meaning of emotions or help her get down to the nitty gritty of how to relieve fear. Even at the end, she lacked the tools for change. It breaks my heart that Mother, so gutsy and skilled, never fully realized her own worth. If she had, then maybe she would have lived longer and discovered another chapter of satisfaction in her life--a chapter that had nothing to do with achievement. But this is a passage that must be negotiated as you age, a grace one must seek.

My mother gave me many gifts, including the tenacity to follow my dreams and a love of learning. But from her life, I also learned the dire necessity to heal negative emotions in order to achieve my own inner peace and to help my patients do the same. The power of love is the champion of emotional freedom. We must respect the voice within that says, “Honey, be kind to yourself. You are enough. You are beautiful.” This compassion is in each of us: the ultimate answer, the one I aspire to, teach my patients, and shout from the rooftops.

In the spirit of compassion, you can use Emotional Freedom to grow joyful and strong. My book is divided into two parts. Part One, “Tapping the Power of Emotional Freedom,” introduces you to the four components of emotions. It offers a self-assessment test to help you evaluate your current level of emotional freedom so you can record its growth as you practice the principles contained in this book. I’ll also invite you into my romance with sleep and dreams, revolutionary states of consciousness that offer liberating wisdom. Everyone can access this realm, even if you’ve never been able to remember your dreams. You’ll gain relief from insomnia and learn to see nightmares and all dreams as allies and healing forces. Finally, I’ll show you how stay open without getting overwhelmed by an often-insensitive world. I take particular pleasure in sharing these solutions--including discovering your emotional type and how to optimize it--since I well know what it’s like to be a sponge absorbing the angst of people around me. I’ll also offer an “Emotional Vampire Survival Guide,” crucial tips to protect yourself from friends, family, or coworkers who emotionally suck you dry.

In Part Two, “Your Tools For Liberation,” I offer a hands-on approach for facing the seven most prevalent difficult emotions and building positive ones. Each chapter is called a “transformation” and tackles different emotions; some may be hotter issues for you than others. I present negativity as a means to an end, a form of suffering to confront and transform. It’ll periodically rise up, but you’ll learn to quickly shrink it again. I’ve paired negative and positive emotions in each chapter because freedom comes from practicing these transformations rather than getting stuck in pessimism. For instance, I’ll offer techniques to overcome fear with courage or jealousy with self-esteem. Similarly, I’ll show you ways to address loneliness, anxiety, frustration, depression, and anger to create a compassionate, vibrantly connected life. With each transformation, I’ll illustrate how the four components of emotions--their biology, spirituality, energetic power, and psychology--can help you achieve a more serene wholeness. Though misery loves company, so does inner peace. I’ll share my personal journey with each emotion, my challenges and my victories. You’ll also discover ways my patients, workshop participants, and friends have found emotional freedom so you can learn how to welcome it too.

I dedicate this book to people under emotional stress who’re overwhelmed but lack tools to implement change--those with demanding jobs, over-extended super-parents, or chronic worriers who long to master the exhale of life--and to everyone who feels lonely but yearns for a greater sense of connection. It’s aimed at those who suffer from problems labeled “psychosomatic,” such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, which are fueled by negative thoughts and feelings. You’ll also benefit from this book if you’re in a good emotional place, but want to feel better.

Let Emotional Freedom guide you through your emotional terrain. Go at your own pace. I swear by baby steps; they foster a sense of safety and comfort; they prevent you from getting overloaded. I’ve had it with epiphanies! As revelatory as these life-changing Ah-has! can feel, they’re often hard to sustain. A burning bush is miraculous, but I wouldn’t wait around for one or have your growth depend on it. I encourage you instead to make small changes with great love--then they’ll accumulate and last. Stitch by golden stitch, you’ll be sewn together, more whole. Keep it slow and simple. Use the strategies offered in each chapter. In my medical practice, I’ve seen everyone from stressed-out moms to hard-charging business executives benefit. During this process, you may move forward, then backslide a bit. Don’t worry: that’s just how it goes. A mistake is only a mistake when you don’t learn from it. Be aware that even with the best intentions, emotions can sometimes discombobulate us. They know just how to catch us off guard if we’re not centered.

Take frustration, the great tester of equanimity when obstacles, be they mundane or extreme, arise. Recently, I was running late for a dental appointment. As I pulled out of my condo, a monster U-Haul blocked the exit; I wasted precious minutes tracking down the owner to have it moved. While en route, I got a disappointing call on my cell phone informing me that a project for which I had high hopes had fallen though. Then, muddled by that frustration, I realized that my dentist had just moved his office, and I had parked in the wrong lot. So, in haste, I took a shortcut through a nearby bank, but got lost. Now I was really late. Then I lucked out. There was a security guard, decked out in a neatly pressed uniform and shiny gun, who could give me directions. I started feverishly asking him to point the way, but got no response. Suddenly, I realized he seemed awfully quiet. And then it dawned on me--I was talking to a dummy! I touched him….yep, he was stuffed. I heard someone chuckling behind me. I turned and spotted the real security guard on duty a few feet away.

“The dummy looks so real,” I said sheepishly.

“It’s okay,” he replied, “People do what you did all the time. They don’t realize he’s a work of art.”

Although I’m shamelessly amused by my own foibles, my mounting frustrations had gotten the best of me. There I was, asking directions from a dummy! A delectable, cogent reminder of how important it is to be mindful of our emotions. We don’t want to be blind to whom we’re talking, let alone follow some dummy’s advice. But if you do, be sure to get a good laugh out of it. Then immediately correct your course. Through all the emotional twists and turns of life, a sense of humor has been my salvation.
As I’m writing to you, a winter storm passes over the Pacific. An expanse of white crests dapple my beloved ocean outside my living room. The tide is receding at twilight, my favorite time. Wind is whipping, whistling hard as golden rays penetrate the steely grayness that threatens to engulf the world. I love sitting here watching. I feel like the luckiest person as I gaze upon this glorious scene. Dark, light or the infinity of shades in between: I’ve come to cherish it all. Be apprised, my native tongue is intuition, that invisible, unspoken language that peers into the poetry of things, a mode of sensing and knowing that moves me more than any linear analysis or most words. Throughout the book, I’ll bring this aesthetic to our exploration of emotions and impart it to you. Be gentle with yourself on this remarkable journey. Enjoy the ride. Though we humans have a way to go, we are luminous still.

Judith Orloff, MD
Marina del Rey, California

To purchase “Emotional Freedom” with 100 free gifts from noted transformational leaders such as Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Shirley Maclaine and more go to: http://www.drjudithorloff.com/emotional-freedom-promotion. For more information about the tour, please visit: http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/07/emotional-freedom-by-ju...

Books like Emotional Freedom, The Power of StillPoint, Transcendence and Polarizing Your Life Toward Perfection should be on your shelf in order to get through these interesting times!

BEING A BOOB?

Divinity Rose is a person that everyone should get to know! Her slant on life is not just down to earth, it is earth itself. You can tell from her writing that she has had some hard knocks. But unlike many, those knocks made her strong and made her grow. She seems to have taken all that life has thrown at her and used them as opportunities to discover who she is, and who she is not. The lessons she offers to her readers are couched in humor that is sometimes raunchy, sometimes humorous, sometimes deadly serious, and always from a point of love and caring. She is an evolved being in the guise of human experience.
In her latest e-book, “They Said I was a boob......Or did they say nice boobs?” she takes a commonly used expression and turns into spiritual life lesson. She says in the e-book, “Being a boob does not really mean you're a screw up. We've just learned to apply the meaning
“screw up” to the phrase “being a boob”. The truth is that we're not screwing up. We're busy
forging ourselves. Sometimes, during exploration of what we want to become, we look like major boobs. We flail about, trying this and that, bouncing up and down, living through highs and lows, and every now and then, we poke someone in the eye.”
Divinity goes on to say, “I took a step back and realized that when people said “nice boobs”, that's what they meant, and that anything else attached to it was my own fears being projected onto the statement. Then I realized that people can only go off of what is visible to them. If you feel there is something more to you than what people see, you have to show it to them.” It takes a unique mind to find spiritual lessons in the everyday. When you get to know Divinity, you come to understand that she really lives the “everyday,” and finds meaning and value in the mundane, the crude and the vicissitudes of daily living. Her writing is an expression of hope and light in a rather “dulling” world. For Divinity, there are no “slings and arrows” that pierce her wit, her charm and her inner understanding of the true nature of being. Read her works, visit her web sites. Divinity definitely will show you a new way to look at the world!
Divinity Rose
Dreamer with an Ink Fetish, Showgirl of Soul
divinityrose@gmail.com
http://www.divinityrose.com


Check out her blogs:
Divinity Rising - News, Updates, weekly column from/about the universe of Divinity Rose
http://www.doggeddreamcreations.com/divinityrising
Diaries of a Godling - Poetry, videos, spiritual writings, updates on comic book and video series
http://www.doggeddreamcreations.com/diariesofagodling
Louisville Speak Easy - Hearts of Art - news, updates, contests, gigs, castings, listings, technology and promotion help/suggestions, and more to empower artists
http://www.doggeddreamcreations.com/louisvilleartsandentertainmentnews


Crazy World of Social Networking:
http://twitter.com/divinityrose
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Divinity-Rose/44320341316
http://www.myspace.com/divinityrosemakesmusic



The link to purchase her mini e-book is
http://www.youpublish.com/files/14802/They-Said-I-Was-a-BoobOr-did-they-say-nice-boobs

WHAT DO PIERS ANTHONY, THE SACRED ROTA AND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION HAVE IN COMMON?

THE SACRED ROTA: WAKING GOD BOOK II is NOW in print!

In an interview with John Demartini, from THE SECRET, John said that the biggest impediment to using the LAW OF ATTRACTION, is that we give over our power to what we perceive is a "higher moral authority." This moral authority is the CHURCH and all of its dogma. You know: you are not worthy of happiness; your are all sinners; the poor shall inherit the earth; life is meant to be one of pain and suffering unless you follow our dogma.

Well, I beg to differ. Both Brian Doe and I expose a lot of this dogma in the first two books of the WAKING GOD TRILOGY: BOOK I THE JOURNEY BEGINS and now THE SACRED ROTA: BOOK II, which has just been released by LITERARY ROAD PRESS! (http://literaryroad.com/)

WAKING GOD BOOK II: THE SACRED ROTA opens doors that many would prefer stay closed. Continuing with the fast paced action of Book I, humanity is beset with growing problems reminiscent of the ancient Biblical plagues. The battle between the Archangel Michael and Mantrella (a.k.a. Lucifer) intensifies as conception of the Old Testament’s Adam becomes a certainty. The rise to power of the UN’s David Dajjal, a puppet of Michael’s, sets the stage for world domination by the Bilderberg Group. New information is revealed about the Tarot Code, the blueprint for man’s future spiritual and physical evolution, and the role of the church’s Sacred Rota in the epic conspiracy to keep humanity in ignorance and ancient institutions in power. Will the hidden god seed in our DNA be activated with Adam’s birth or will secret powers maintain their domination of our destiny?

It is within the first two books of the trilogy that religion is exposed for the demon that it is. We see the LAW OF ATTRACTION at work, but for others, not for you. Why can't you manifest your heart's desires? Perhaps it is because you have given control of your life over to those who seek to dominate and control under the guise of promises of life everlasting.

“I read Waking God II The Sacred Rota, by Brian L Doe and Philip F Harris. This is a sequel to Waking God, published in 2006, or really a continuation of a three part story. It is a science fantasy theological thriller, odd as that combination may seem to be. The final battle is developing, and while they do argue theology, there are also people getting killed wholesale as the several themes slowly integrate. I am agnostic, with no belief in the supernatural, but as before, I found portions of the discussion more interesting than the action. Here's when Lucifer harangues an Archangel: “You create demons and false hopes of redemption. You build them mighty temples and give with one hand and slaughter with the other. You have kept them separate and ignorant and give just enough to raise empty hopes. You destroy their prophets and burn their seers. If they question, you put them to the rack and crush all semblance of free thought. You give them a doctrine of poverty and offer riches in your fantasy heaven. Kill in the name of god and your treasure shall be immeasurable. You divide them and thus conquer them, and tell them they have no responsibility but to be good sheep and to follow your demented dictates.” This strikes me as an apt description of global religion. I was intrigued by the Tarot discussion, because I did some research there, thirty years ago, when writing Tarot and devising my own 100 card Animation Tarot deck, because the established decks are clearly incomplete. I conjecture that one author in this collaboration knows how to write, and the other knows his occult lore, because they clearly have done their Tarot homework. So this is a novel worth reading, but it will help to have an open mind. I fault it for developing serious characters who may then be thrown away, or suddenly having new significant characters for whom there was no prior reference. (But it turned out I had forgotten that one of those was in the prior novel. That will be clarified in the published edition of this one.) So I think it needs better overall organization, but there is nevertheless much here that you probably won't find in the tacitly expurgated traditional press.” PIERS ANTHONY

If you are totally happy and all of your life desires are manifest, do not read this book! But, if you are lacking fulfillment and are seeking to gain control over your life, THE SACRED ROTA is an eye opener.

The Sacred Rota: Waking God Book Two

Brian L. Doe & Philip F. Harris

Print ISBN 1-934037-49-2