​"Apparently there is an After-Life" ~ Raymond Moody
Have you noticed how many people are talking about, writing about, and interviewing others about, Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) lately? Interest in the subject has got to be at an all-time high; of all my talks on YouTube, the one I did for the Florence Unitarians on this subject back in 2017 is the most viewed (LINK).
Is it just that the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Brian Weiss, Raymond Moody, and half a dozen other psychotherapists made this topic acceptable - or are many more people, in fact, experiencing another plane of existence?
Yesterday, in my Course In Miracles class, we read again the words in Chapter Two: “'Heaven and Earth shall pass away' means that they will not always exist as separate states." Wow. Not destruction but union! No more separation! Is it possible? Placed in context, it's clear that the narrator of the Course, who identifies as Jesus Christ, is telling us that what we call Heaven is our natural state of being and what we call Earth is the experience we have been projecting around us as our minds have become culturally conditioned to think that we are separated from the Source of our life and wellbeing. In short, they are not 2 different life spaces, but rather 2 different ways of experiencing life.
So that means that what we call NDEs are not the journeys of our souls into another set of dimensions of space-time, but are rather experiences of our true life, our actual state of being, from which we are generating this dream we call birth, life, and death on Earth.
The folks who describe their NDEs tell us that, in the life which we call Heaven, unconditional love and acceptance, and an intensity of life without decay, light without darkness, and blissful joy, are the norm. There is no duality, no contrast, no conflict, no sense of "not okay" when they are in that state of being, that state of awareness.
They tell us that there is a sense of "travelling to" that state, often through the darkness of deep space, but only a few describe an equivalent journey back "into" their Earthly body. Usually it's a sudden "thump" and they're opening their eyes in the Earth world they had "left."
In the Vedic tradition of Hindus and Buddhists, there is a concept, satchitananda, which can be loosely translated as "love-bliss-consciousness". People in that tradition are encouraged to find that state of being and live in it and from it as much as possible. Entering into the meditative state of samadhi is a way get there. And, not too surprisingly, the people who achieve it often describe their experience as one of unconditional love, joyful bliss, and an intensity of life and light everywhere, with no sense of duality or conflict among the various aspects of being.
Is there a connection?
Is it possible that who we are is, truly, "not human beings but spiritual beings having a human experience" (to quote Wayne Dyer)? Is it true that when we are "awake" and active in this body we are actually in a dream-state in our heavenly bodies, generating this life experience? 

Wow. Hanging in the balance... we're like Shrodinger's Cat, a metaphor the quantum theorist came up with to explain how things work at a quantum level: if a cat were in a box with 2 things, one of which will kill it, you don't know if it's alive or dead until you open the box - and in a quantum universe both things are true until you look. More importantly for us, though, both things are true until we believe one of them is. 

So what's that got to do with this election? Everything!  As long as it hangs in the balance we have the opportunity to think, feel, and KNOW the truth about it. And when we truly do, we will see the results.

I heard a man tell a story about how he got a phone call at work saying that his family had been in a skiing accident a couple hundred miles away. He had been going to join them the next day, but of course he immediately left work and began to drive up to be with them. The whole way he chose, over and over again, to focus on images of their happy, healthy, playful selves, not allowing himself to consider any possibilities of injury. He filled his mind with memories and possibilities of hugs and good times. When he arrived, the hospital workers expressed some puzzlement: his wife and kids had been in a really awful accident, but there were only minor scratches an bruises and they were ready to go home.

This is what is possible for all of us, here, now, today, and always - in all situations!

Here's the talk I gave to the Florence Unitarian Universalists, recorded Friday, Nov 6:

A high wind blew from the NE across Oregon the other night, carrying smoke from dozens of wildfires with it. The next morning, this is what a friend's view of her yard and the ocean beyond looked like. Really. No filters on the camera - and no fire within miles!

Today it's better here. Looks like a smoggy day in 1970s LA with the sun an orange disk through the haze. The power was back on this morning so I've vacuumed the first layer of ash that blew through the cracks with the 70+ mph winds the other night, but everything feels gritty and I wear a mask outside to filter our the ash, breathing in thru the nose behind the mask and out thru an uncovered mouth - much easier on the lungs when walking. But friends and family are now being evacuated from the fires that the wind started - all over the state.
  And, of course, I'm looking at the meaning behind the experience. What's really going on here? What in our consciousness is being made manifest in our experience?
  And, again, there are so many levels!

•   First level of possible explanation - every other region of the continent has had major disasters this year and now it's time for the Pacific Northwest to get its share. Ouch! Don't like that one much! But it is part of our belief system, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were at least part of what's happening here.
•   Second level, additional possibility - there's been a huge immigration to Oregon of Californians running away from wildfires. - and guess what! What we resist (or run away from) persists, and they brought what they were avoiding with them. We Oregonians bought into their distress and to some extent are now experiencing the effects of that. Don't like this one much either, but it is how things work: we get what we accept as real and get more of what we have emotions around.
•   Third level - as the veil is thinning between dreams and reality, people's fears are becoming their experience immediately and in spades. With the media focusing on all the fires in California, as well as the fires in the "riots" happening in cities when protesters, police, and inciters clash, it's not too surprising that such things are in peoples' minds, and must therefore become their experience. 

  All of these possible explanations are based on the fact that we experience what we believe and focus on. And that is, I'm sure, a big contributor to the level of distress being experienced.
  But there's something more, something even deeper, happening here. As I was cleaning up the ash that covered the surfaces of my little house, and looked out the window at the smoke-filled air this morning, I felt a flashback to times when I've been "cleansed by smoke" and thought of the cleansing effect of fire. Perhaps that's what's really happening in all this. If we could but see it and understand it, we might be able to take this whole experience to a new level.

  The cover of my latest ebook reflects this. It's a picture a friend took at a "fire puja" a cleansing ceremony, a time of release and renewal. The light and the heat and the intensity of the experience are all part of the process of letting go of attachments to things of the past and beginning to create - or become - something that's more fully who we are capable of being. 
   What if all this fire and ash, and all the smoke in the air is just that?
   What if we are being cleansed?
  What if we are being prepared to become something more than we've allowed ourselves to be thus far?
    What if ...?
   I'm certain that this is the time when all of us are being called to live and love and see life at a whole new level of being. Knowing that I accept the gift of this smoke and receive the cleansing and opening to new possibility that it offers. 

May the light and love and cleansing Spirit of Life fill you and your world, lifting all of us to new heights of being in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

​Recently there’s been a flood of descriptions of dreams, visions, and Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) in which Jesus is telling people to pray for Trump and Barr to turn around a potential disaster that is expected this fall: a new wave of distress and with it, a heavy-handed military presence eliminating our freedoms – going beyond the methods that were tested and proven effective this past spring.
I’ve been listening very carefully to what’s being said for they hold a kernel of a much deeper process going on, and hold clues to my own development.
Both religious and non-religious (but spiritual) people are getting these messages, in various countries. They’re all being told in multiple ways that another wave of distress is coming this fall, and it could be worse than what we’ve been through. Many are being encouraged to deepen their spiritual practice and stock up on supplies to minimize its effects. Bible-based Christians are getting a very clear political message as well:

• They’re being told that Donald Trump’s election stopped a political and economic plan that is designed to enslave all Americans in a dark future that will enable a very few powerful people to live well and free.
• They’re being told that we’ve been through one, but more waves of distress are coming (some say a third one is on the way; some say 2 more); with the radical shift in political and social expression, with the 2018 election being the 1st wave of disruption; the CoVid-19 pandemic a second wave, and the oncoming flu season with possibly a new strain could be another, as could violent reactions to the elections being met with military force.
• They’re being told “Trump is turning people to God” and needs their prayers to continue to do this important work.
• They’re being told to earnestly pray for Trump and his Attorney General, Bill Barr, to put an end to the evil and corruption that has, for years, been everywhere in the media and government.
• They’re being told that undoing Roe v. Wade will return America to its blessed state.
• They’re being told that the passionate action of Jesus’ Church is the only thing between humanity’s glory and its degradation into slavery.

 To address all this they’re being encouraged in these visions to do four things:

1. Pray for the current leaders of the nation;
2. Let go of any tendencies to turn away from Jesus’ teachings, including the belief that individuals can do anything without divine support;
3. Stock up on essentials to help those who will be in need as the next wave of distress hits;
4. Vote in the November election for the people who they know will do the right thing, which for the “religious right” means will undo Roe v. Wade, which they’ve believed since 9/11 has put a curse on the US because the government is supporting the killing of innocent beings.

 And they have accepted these images and instructions at face value and are sharing them with the world.

I’ve spent the better part of the last couple months digesting all of this: listening, observing, noting consistencies and differences, comparing what I’ve perceived with other sources of information and, finally, going inside to find my own spiritual guidance. It hasn’t been easy, and some of it hasn’t been pleasant, but I think I’m beginning to get the deeper understanding that can guide us all. There are, of course, multiple levels of interpretation of these visions, and I’m outlining them in a new book about Apocalypse, which I hope to complete by the end of the month.
There are also multiple levels of interpretation for the instructions received, the primary one being: use the power you have to bring Heaven (a state of being in which beauty, love, and harmony are the norm) and Earth (a state of being in which attachment to material things is a constant source of distress) together. ​

In these changing times, with uncertainties in the job market, the stock market, and the climate, many people are focusing their fears on money, as if money were the source of their wellbeing. Totally understandable. We’ve been taught in many ways that our survival, much less our ability to have nice things and go nice places, is a function of how much money we receive and can spend.
On top of that it’s built into the culture that we live in to think that only if we’re working hard can have (do we deserve) the funds that allow us to live well. Otherwise we’ll suffer – and, worse, be dependent on others.
Well, there’s much more to our relationship with money than that. When I teach my “Money Workshop” I offer the following chart and explain the whats and whys and wherefores of each box. 

I won’t do that here, but you may find it useful to explore it and see where you are – and have been – and where the folks who advise you are, as well. I think you will hear what they have to say in a very different way when you understand the age/stage they’re operating from when they’re sharing their current wisdom.
And, if you’re on the journey from Middle Years to Elder, you may also find the following piece from Eric Butterworth’s Spiritual Economics useful:

• I am secure, for I know who I am: a richly endowed extension/expression of the Source of All that is.
• I am secure in all I do for I know my oneness with the divine process.’
• I am secure in all I have, for I know my treasure is in my mind, not in my things.
• I live my life from day to day as if the divine supportive substance were as exhaustless and dependable as the air I breathe, which it most certainly is.

Blessings of Peaceful Prosperity be upon us all! ​

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...

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...
​
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.  

I'm leading a new group through the 12 lessons of Emma Curtis Hopkins, using the workbook edition of my book, Unveiling Your Hidden Power; Emma Curtis Hopkins' Metaphysics for the 21st Century.  
Several people have asked to have the classes recorded and someone offered to do so. The plan is to upload each of the recordings on Youtube. 

CLICK HERE for audio versions of me reading highlights of the lessons, with commentary and explanations.

I recently had an opportunity to go back into a book I had created some years ago - a book with a title I've never liked, but whose message is a powerful one for all of us.
 
The original text was by a man with the unfortunate name of Wallace Wattles. His book launched a whole body of material that has been called "the masculine arm of New Thought": books and lectures on how to create a prosperous life. It was also the book referred to in the film The Secret, as having turned Rhonda Byrne's life around at a particularly dark time.

I've understood and applied the principles he teaches for many years now, but it wasn't until I read (and rewrote) his first few paragraphs that I really got the fundamental basis he was working from
.
Here's what Wattles has to say:

• No one is kept in poverty by limits in the supply of riches; there’s more than enough for all. …In truth, the visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible…
• Nature is an unlimited storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short… 
• The formless substance responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let humanity be without any good thing… 
• Nature exists for the advancement of life, and its primary impulse is the increase of life. Because of this, everything that can possibly enhance life is bountifully provided.

The book he wrote is called The Science of Getting Rich. The book I created (at the request of and with the wonderful folk at Beyond Words Publishing) includes his text along with an updated version, with simpler language and exercises.