A few days ago the LightPath Center in Bend, Oregon posted a presentation I did for them on how we can respond to what's going on today in a way that leads to thriving, not merely surviving...

On a Personal Note:
Well, the wheel of life has turned full circle and, after 3 months elsewhere, I was able to visit with people on the Oregon Coast this week. The immediate crisis that called me away is over and I am now living in a cottage on the Alsea River, between the coast and Corvallis.

Apart from the moving process, most of my time these last weeks has been focused on my spiritual work, through writing and various forms of being in the Silence. My time with others and with family has been very limited, so I was able to spend long hours going deep into the inner world. I was also able to complete a few writing/editing projects – for myself and for others. 
 
Looking at the World:
It’s a wild world out there right now, as the regime that has been slowly but steadily eroding the rights and privileges of US citizens and visitors for decades is being challenged at its very roots. Those of you who have attended my classes and workshops know that I see these times as a shift from one way of being in the world to another, and that my work has always been to help make the transition as easy as possible.
But we have not, as a population, chosen the smooth path. We have clung to the ways of fear and control and allowed others to define our lives for us. Now, after years of feeling less and less empowered and weeks of being closeted away, deprived of direct human contact, and – for too many – of our livelihood, the high level of energy that has always driven Americans has erupted. The people are saying “no more!” And the all-too-visible evidence of the bigotry and racism that has underlain all empire cultures for the past 6000 years is the spark that lit the fire.
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• All this is the reason that I pushed to get another book out, right NOW.
• It’s called Discovering A New Way and it’s about how humanity has lived before and alongside these empires that have been taking over the world for the past few millennia. It’s also about how Americans have chosen to live. And it offers a possible project that, by its very immensity, could begin to offer us a path out of the exploitative empire pattern and toward a new one.
• The book is at the printer now, and is available on Amazon, or, if you use the coupon on this link, you can get a signed copy and a discounted price.   CLICK HERE to get your signed copy.

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At the same time that all these things are happening, however, a whole new level of understanding is truly emerging – and many of you are experiencing it.
On the internet and in the stores, I’m hearing people talking about life and what’s important in different ways. They’re awakening from the hypnotic trance that the media – and an impossible schedule – has kept them in all these years. They’re discovering and sharing different kinds of concerns and possibilities for their lives and the world… all of which, of course, I find very exciting!  I’m sure you’ve noticed it, too. And I’m sure we’ll all see much more as the next weeks and months unfold.

It will be a mixed bag, of course. People will make up stories to explain what they don’t understand and then operate as if those stories are the reality we’re all experiencing. We don’t have to buy into the stories, however, and we don’t have to judge the people who invent them. We simply need to apply our principles, recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of each being we encounter and accepting them as they are, recognizing they’re on their own spiritual and emotional journey. We may be able to assist, if asked, but otherwise we just surround them with the light of love and go our own way.

The next few years may be pretty rocky for a lot of folks, but they don’t have to be. If we live simply and work together in our communities, taking care of ourselves and each other; if we focus our thoughts on how humanity is in an evolutionary process and what it will look like on the other side; if we fill our days with awareness of the many blessings we constantly receive; these ways of being will make the transition much smoother for us and for all those we care for.

I look forward to the opportunities ahead of us, to the ways we will be creating the kind of world our great-grandchildren (or great-grandnieces and nephews) will be raising their children and grandchildren in. Every time we choose our principles over fear, our appreciation for what we’re experiencing over doubt about what people tell us, our inner awareness over what “they” say, and use our talents and gifts in creating our lives – then we are building the best world for them that we can.
Blessings on the journey….
   R

As I turned on my laptop this morning, the screen came up with a big blue box telling me all the things I could learn about Windows (as if I hadn’t been using Windows for a couple decades, now, and Windows 10 since the week it came out – sigh!). My first reaction was “really?” My next was to scan the screen to find a way to shut it down.

I did. I clicked on “skip for now” (oh dear, will have to deal with it again some day) and the big blue box went away to reveal my own beloved desktop wallpaper. Yay!
Then my eyes took in the words I’ve pasted onto that wallpaper: “I am living in a universe designed to heal the apparent separation…”  It’s from the Course In Miracles, which I’ve been slowly but steadily “translating” into modern, easy-to-read-and-understand, American usage.

It woke me up – here Windows was offering me all kinds of ways to be interconnected – with my phone and other devices, with other computers, with the broad base of servers that make up “the Cloud” – and my first and only reaction was to shut it down… I wanted to remain separate!

And I thought about all the people, right now, fighting and protesting and in despair because of the deep separation among us called racism.
At that point, the insight came:
 
Humanity is committed to feeling separated, even though, every day, in every area of life, we’re being offered opportunities to overcome that illusion and feel the interconnectedness, the oneness.
 
For years I’ve been studying and teaching how this universe is one interconnected whole, of which we are all part. Its laws and processes are designed to help us experience – and benefit from – our interconnectedness. This earth is a special place where we get to bring into form what we imagine. Humanity’s fundamental longing is to overcome the sense of feeling separate from our Source, our Supply, and each other.

So the folks at Microsoft, seeking to heal the sense of separation and being focused on computers, imagine the healing as a complex interconnection of computers and other devices in one whole “Cloud” of easily accessed and utilized data bits.

Others, equally driven to undo this sense of separation, think that can only happen when we are all the SAME. Uniforms, fashions, skin color, school curricula – these are all expressions of that misguided understanding.

And yet, clearly, I, who have taught these principles for decades, now, still choose to live alone (and not put my data on the Cloud), demonstrating a need to maintain a sense of separation.

But “I live in a universe designed to heal the apparent separation.” Every moment is an opportunity to overcome this fundamental error in our thinking. We are not separate!

Every time the world erupts in racial violence – or any other sort. Every time we recognize ourselves judging another. Every time we realize that we have chosen away from resting in our oneness with the higher power, we are being moved one more step closer to experiencing the only Reality: our Oneness.

And that Reality is not homogeneous!  That’s what we need to understand to overcome our fear. We get to be our individual selves – indeed we must be! – for the Oneness to function as a whole. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, our uniqueness is essential for the whole picture to be formed.
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I doubt that I will soon take Windows up on their offer to integrate all the devices I use into one, complete, interactive network. But, today, I saw the “good” in what appears to be an awful mess “out there.” And that is...
   We are all feeling drawn into the Oneness of our common humanity, the Oneness of our common home on this planet Earth, the Oneness that is our nature and our destiny.
 
Today, I accepted at a new level the Truth of our being. All that I see “out there” is showing me what’s going on “in here.” My own beliefs, choices, and actions, are constantly being reflected back to me – not to punish me or “teach” me a lesson, but so I can simply observe them and make a different choice.

Today, I choose to reach out, from my heart, and embrace all of “them”. All those “others” who do and say things I can’t imagine anyone doing or saying… (ah, but I must be able to! Because they are, and they reflect what’s inside me! Sigh!)… so here, now, once again I choose. I embrace them, and, in doing so, I feel the dissolving, the eradication of the possibility – in me, or in them – of such violent things being done or said. We are one – many facets of the same diamond, many pieces of the same puzzle, many colors of the same rainbow. We are one – in our humanity and in our divinity. And we are free – free to choose our individual ways of being and doing and relating in Love and Joy and Peace.
 
And so it is. And, realizing that this has become a prayer, I say AMEN.
 

​One more note about this virus…
 
In the science of mental healing practiced within the New Thought tradition it’s been found that every physical condition is reflective of, and a useful pointer to, a psycho-emotional condition. Looking at the SARScorona-2 virus from this perspective provides some possibly useful insights:

1. Virus infections in general tend to indicate issues around boundaries, letting another’s will override our own –
   • This virus in particular attaches to cells on boundaries that protect tissue.
   • In today’s world most people spend most of their time in work situations where they feel they must set aside their own intentions and preferences in favor of the manager’s or owner’s.
2. Respiratory illnesses in general, have to do with expression of ideas, opinions and emotions – the more difficult it is to breathe the more likely the issue is suppression of unexpressed thoughts and feelings –
   • This virus is most likely to affect the respiratory system
   • In today’s world, even though there are many ways to communicate, the expectation, both at work and in social situations, is that only certain kinds of things may be said or talked about
3. Illnesses associated with the heart generally have to do with ongoing fear – particularly of loss
   • The people most likely to deal with intense symptoms with this virus are those dealing with heart issues
   • In today’s world, the role of most media has become to point out all the reasons to be afraid, to the point where strangers are to be avoided and what was normal for people growing up even one generation ago seems irresponsibly reckless to most parents today.

Being aware of these correlations helps us understand why this particular experience is so widespread at this point in the history of our culture – which is, today, worldwide.

Continuing to explore the ideas in my last post, I had the realization that when the Unity of Spirit is thought of as the 3 aspects of the trinity, which are usually illustrated as 3 overlapping circles, there are actually 7 segments...

Recognizing that a 2-dimensional image doesn't even begin to portray the reality, it nonetheless begins to provide a framework for the experience and teachings of spiritually adept beings over the millennia - and hopefully gives us a way to make sense of the many terms and concepts that are floating around in different religions.
[NOTE: This and any other image on my site may be downloaded by right-clicking and copying. If you share it with others, please let them know where it came from. Thanks!]

Thoughts on Good Friday during the Corona Virus shutdown...
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There is only one beingness, showing up in its own nature in, through, and as all that is, everywhere. That beingness, is-ness, essence, extends itself infinitely in all directions and as it does so, aspects of its fundamental nature cause some of what is being extended to be attracted to each other. In our universe Fermions (named after Enrico Fermi, the first person to split an atom) are the aspect of the one that tend to extend outward, and Bosons (named after Chandra Bose, the person who, along with Albert Einstein, discovered that some compounds cannot by taken apart) the aspects that tend to coalesce.
Complexity
As the fundamental beingness continues to extend, the tendency to coalesce shows up as nodes within it, and as they attract more Bosons and increase their patterns of attraction and extension in complexity, they reinforce the experience and expression of the nature of the beingness.
So, for example, the elements of our universe exhibit more and more tendency to extend themselves as they are more and more complex. Hydrogen, the simplest, is constantly attracting and coalescing with other atoms to maintain itself. The more complex elements, uranium and “heavy metals,” constantly radiate aspects of themselves outward. The galaxies, stars, and planets made up of these elements can be seen to extend these qualities still further
The compound chemicals these elements form in the galactic clouds and planets exhibit the same pattern. Simple sugars bind together; complex proteins constantly form and reform, working with other proteins to make still more complex molecules.
The simple life forms, like protozoa and bacteria, consume to form colonies and grow until they can consume no more and it’s impossible to get to the resources needed to maintain the cells within the colony. The fundamental beingness of all-that-is attracts and coalesces within them, but the pattern of interaction between coalescing and extension is too simple to do more. It’s more complex in multi-celled life forms, which are typically more mobile, and the shift from reproducing oneself to merging with another to reproduce makes the pattern even more complex.
Which then leads to the ever-increasing complexity observed in the evolution of life forms.  As each minute set of interactions occurs, attracting and extending at the molecular and cellular levels, layer upon layer of complexity can be seen to develop. The human brain, with its ganglionic bundle, on which is built a reptilian base, then a mammalian function, then a primate’s capacity to choose, and finally the integrative function connecting all of them with and in mutual support with one another, is a prime example of this process.
And with each layer of complexity comes an increased activity of the fundamental beingness, an increased capacity to choose to function in the same way.
Infinite Creation
So the question becomes: what is the functioning of the fundamental beingness, besides to extend itself and coalesce aspects of its extension? At the simplest level it is to continue to extend and coalesce in increasingly complex patterns. However, there is the fact of self-maintenance to consider. The beingness must maintain itself to continue to extend itself, which means there is a primal urge to benefit all aspects of being, to maintain the well-being of all within the whole.
So we are part of a creative process of extension and attraction, constantly working for the benefit of all the parts within the whole – all of which are continually creating through the same extension and attraction.
And since the whole process is extending out infinitely, it must therefore include infinite possibilities of nodes and structures. And each choice point, each time something coalesces or not, leads to another set of possibilities – and other universes.
In our universe, these possibilities have occurred within the framework of Fermions, Bosons, the elements they form, and the chemical compounds they form, leading to the various forms of life that have evolved over the millennia.
In other universes, though, this fundamental beingness may not be extending as the matter and energy that we see here. Fermions and Bosons may have their parallel in other forms besides matter and energy, so beingness may be extending as aspects of information, or patterns of connectivity, without the material base we’re used to. Or it may be extending as something we can’t even imagine.
A Second Universe
In fact, there are some universes that certain people have explored mentally where the tendency to extend and the tendency to attract seem to be exhibited as more like thought forms than the matter-energy forms of our universe. And across traditions and generations, around the world, thousands of people have described a realm in which people like us exist but without material form. Some call it the Astral plane; others say the “underworld” or the “overworld,” “dreamtime,” or simply another dimension of existence.  

It's been  a month since the US began to experience this new phenomenon and apply the WHO guidelines regarding the new strain of corona virus. I continue to look at the process from 4 overlapping perspectives: an environmental scientist, a futurist, a Unitarian-Universalist minister, and a New Thought metaphysician. 
The following talk, taped on Mar 20 for the Mar 22 Sunday service in Florence, offers some of my thinking on the subject (the talk begins 14 minutes into the service): 

A few days ago a friend called in to a church I work with to cancel speaking there today. She had good reason, needing to care for her partner with a severely hampered immune system. I happened to be there and agreed to talk in my friend's place, and the subject was what everyone, everywhere is talking about: the current global reaction to the new corona virus. 

As usual, my goal was to integrate the science and the spirituality that are the two legs of my work, in a way that informs and inspires.

At the church's request, I've put the video on my YouTube channel. I hope you'll find it as useful as they say they did...
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p.s. My apologies to Joe Dispenza: his research shows 10 minutes of gratitude 3 times/day boosts the immune system for several days.

As I was preparing to talk about the Winter Solstice holy days (running from the beginning of Advent through the Lunar New Year) I noticed that they all have rituals and stories that parallel the process of Alchemy - transforming consciousness by moving through material processes. Here's one version of the process that I'm using in my presentations on Transformational Consciousness.

​Recently, a copy of the famous Chief Seattle speech, "How Can You Buy or Sell the Earth?" was put in front of me. Although I've seen it many times, this time I was able to explain how it is that Americans have come to think we can buy land.
 
For hundreds of thousands of years, people have wandered around large areas of land, finding food as they could, often not even aware there were other people on the planet. They relied on observation and intuition to guide them from place to place, food source to food source. Anyone who could intuitively access information about what they needed was elevated in stature, as were those who could carry large loads or accurately use a spear or stone knife.
 
As climates changed, people were pushed into smaller and smaller habitable areas and had to find new ways to live. They began to nourish certain "wild" supplies of food and manage forests and range lands, and they learned to rely on a new kind of guidance in the process - one which understood what a plant or tree needed in order to flourish, and how to maintain balance among a group of people living in close proximity.
 
Early villages grew out of this process. Located along waterways, they were fixed and stable. Houses and gardens were built and animals were brought in to the village rather than hunted in the wilderness. Now decisions had to be made about who would live and work where - and a new kind of guidance was needed to make it work for everyone for the long term. Wise men and women were honored who could access that wisdom and persuade others to follow it. Older women, especially, who had seen life, had learned to read people's hearts, how to nourish plants and babies, and how the climate shifted and changed over the years, were honored and appreciated - as the Neolithic "Venus" figurines attest.
 
The village gardening life thrived with few hardships and virtually no violence for several thousand years, until a new climate shift caused mass migrations into the river valleys.
 
Apparently an asteroid hit the planet and caused much desertification. The great plains of northern Africa became the Sahara desert. Much of Central Asia dried up, and areas of the Caucasus became uninhabitable. Many people moved into the river valleys.
 
Bringing more people into the villages was difficult, but doable, with the existing processes and systems. The land was reapportioned, forests were cut down, reeds planted to replace the fuel, food, and fiber that the trees had provided, and new villages were built where the forests had been.
 
But along the Tigris and Euphrates and their tributaries, things happened very differently. Large blonde men, riding horses and herding large numbers of cattle, moved down from the Caucasus seeking new pastures. They had little use for gardens and let their herds trample them. In some cases, whole villages were demolished, flattened. These men had no respect for women, seeing them as a bull sees cows, and used them roughly - often stealing them and hiding them so no one could steal them back. And they were rougher, faster, and stronger than most of the valley men they encountered.
 
By 3200 b.c.e., enough waves of Caucasians had moved into many river valleys that they had changed the culture. From the Indus to the Nile the city-state was now established. Civilization (also known as urbanization) had begun. The foundation for a new kind of culture, based on taking and expanding, was laid.
 
Under this regime, the land belonged to the emperor-king, who, using the basic idea from the old gardening culture, that the land was sacred to the divine Power, claimed it by divine right: the Divinity (God or Goddess) had given him all the land as long as he could control it. Therefore anyone else could only use it with his permission. If he liked someone or they had done a great service for him, he would give them the right to use the land - either for their lifetime or for some or all succeeding generations.
 
Up 'til this moment in time, no one had ever thought of "owning" a piece of land. But a mindset that says "I want it and I shall have it" was built into this new kind of leader. Taking over what others are using is normal to that way of thinking - and converting men into herds to trample over other lands (and people) was the way to do that. So armies were born, and the idea of battle.
 
Taking control of the rich proceeds of new land was the great hunger of this new, Empire culture. From father to son the ambition was passed down: grow! expand! acquire more!
 
This was the way of Empire culture for over four thousand years: choose a piece of land, take an army there to take it over, and then take as much of the proceeds as possible home, handing out rights to use the land to a few, select individuals. Even through the 1500s and into the 1600s European empires continued to grow by treating the whole world this way. Chinese, Russian, and Islamic empires fought back and forth across Asia, as well.
 
But then, something new began. The emperors were actually losing wealth by fighting these battles. More and more, the proceeds from the lands were barely enough to cover the cost of acquiring them. Large armies needed supplies. Navies needed to be built and maintained. And even with all the gold and riches of Africa and the Americas, the emperors were falling behind.
 
This was when the idea of selling land came into the picture. First, emperors sold the right to occupy land to individuals for a period of time: a “leasehold” for a period of years. Soon, in desperation, they actually sold their rights to own and occupy certain pieces of land to individuals. Land grants became a sort of payment for services – especially land in far-away places like the Americas - during those years. 
 
The next step was to grant (or sell) lands to companies. And it was this that made it possible for many to settle North America. The Puritans, for example, contracted with a company to get them to North America based on a promise that they would send back part of their produce in return for the right to live on that land. 
 
Sadly it became clear that people who haven't grown up sharing things in common don't know how to maintain commons or use only their share. The American colonists were not rural villagers with such a history, so they found another way: buy the company's interest in the land and then sell it to the individual residents for their own use.
 
And so it was that the American Way was established: gather (earn, borrow, inherit, or steal) enough funds to buy enough land for your own home and garden and live the good life for evermore. No divine Power to seek guidance from, no other person;s needs to be bothered by, just me and "my land" to do with as I wish.
 
So, "how can we buy or sell the Earth?" We do it by ignoring what Chief Seattle pointed out, that what we are buying is part of an interconnected web that we all share in common. We do it by convincing ourselves that, even though we pay the city and county a fee for the right to occupy the piece of land we have title to, and even though we may have one or two mortgages on it that say the lender gets that title as soon as we miss a few payments, and even though someone else owns the rights to any minerals (or in some places, water) that are buried under the surface, somehow we, like the emperors of old, "own" this piece of earth and are entitled to all the produce thereof.
 
I wonder how long we can maintain that fiction?