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I got to go to New Zealand! It was an unexpected, but totally amazing experience: 2+ weeks in New Zealand in August! Click on the links below to see my travel journal... 
It was an amazing, totally unexpected experience, and I so appreciate all the folks who made it possible!
For decades I've been teaching ways to align our thinking, our perceiving, and our deeper knowing of universal processes.
Initially, using the terms I was handed, I talked about the ego as the perceiver and doer/maker, and Spirit as the knower and creator. Over time I referred to the "ego" as the "small" or "child" self and the Spirit within as the "higher" or "greater" Self. Continuing the work, it became clear that the underlying intelligence of the universe didn't have to be talked about in spiritual or religious terms any more, but that the word Mind applies. Both theory and experiment are making clear the fact that the source, or quantum field out of which all matter and energy arise, is the Akashic field, is the one Mind, underlying and manifesting all that is--all that we generally call reality. And more, that field, that Mind, is present in and through all aspects of reality, including ourselves. Understanding that, it became clear that each of us--all our cells and all the energy fields around those cells--is part of that Mind, along with everything else that exists. So we can tap into that Mind, that underlying source of all that is. It must be the same thing as the "unconscious" mind that early researchers defined. For most of my work in this field, I've used Jung's and Freud's framework of 3 aspects of mind: one in which we are aware, one of which we aren't usually aware that governs our body activities and reactions, and one of which we aren't usually aware that accesses the ideals and archetypal images of our culture, of humanity (and possibly even more). Within that framework, the subconscious mind keeps the body working, the superconscious mind accesses ideals and potentials in the larger mind, and our personal awareness, ego, or conscious mind, is the realm of perceptions, thoughts that link those perceptions, and emotions arising from those perceptions. So the separation between self and Spirt is dissolved. God, Spirit, is Mind--constantly creating all that is and everywhere present throughout all that is. That means there is one mind and my mind must be part of the whole Mind that is constantly creating all that is. (The "son of God" therefore is all aspects of reality emanating from and sustained by that Mind--which includes all beings, everywhere.) And that means I'm simply shifting the scope of my personal awareness as I enter different states of consciousness. As I access other aspects of my mind I can access the universal Mind. Our normal range of personal awareness is delineated by our perceptions: what is entering our sensory system, what our brain has been trained to pay attention to, and what connections our brain has made through repetitions of sensory input. Our emotions are a function of those connections: neurons send impulses to glands that release "molecules of emotion" to cells in the body and we feel happy, mad, sad, glad, hungry, or tired in response to what our brain has said is going on around and within our bodies. Because our Western Materialist culture teaches us to focus on external sensory inputs and analyse them with the left frontal cortex, we identify with bodies and material objects--we don't know about anything else! In other cultures, children are encouraged to develop their right brain abilities, as well. They learn to sense what is happening in their bodies, and to be aware of their dreams and deeper "feeling" states, which have been called our "inner senses". Their personal awareness, therefore, includes more of the subconscious and superconscious aspects of mind than folks in our culture usually experience. Still, many individuals in our culture have, over the centuries, been able to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of using "inner awareness" disciplines and practices. That means that each of us can extend our personal awareness into the subconscious mind and observe and modify the body's processes, including fear responses, heart rate, temperature, and more. It means we can extend our personal awareness into the superconscious mind to observe the nonsensory aspects of our experience, as well. We can remember and interpret dreams, see the relationship between our sensory experiences and our thoughts and feelings, and we can appreciate the non-material aspects of the world around us. In short, what used to be called "spiritual disciplines" no longer have to be limited to religious practice. They are life practices that make it possible for us to access information and make more useful choices about our whole selves--not just what our physical senses have told us and our previous experiences have led the brain to react to. And what have been called "supernatural experiences" or even miracles, are available to anyone who shifts their personal awareness into the subconscious or superconscious aspects of their own mind and acts accordingly. So my language about all this has changed. It is no longer the "ego" or "small self" that must be brought into alignment with "Spirit." Instead, we need to retrain, even "rewire" our brains so that we can choose which "programs" it uses in response to sensory input and so we can use the right hemisphere more fully to access the nonmaterial aspects of all-that-is, both within the body and around it. (This is the primary work of Joe Dispenza.) On May 5, the day I left home for the journey described in my last post, I received notice that my latest book had been published. This one is co-authored with Kaz Gozdz, a remarkable being who discovered, by working as a midlevel manager, that developing people is essential to developing profits, so went off to study with such luminaries as community-development leader Scott Peck, Stanford Business professor Michael Ray, Systems and Learning Organization leader Peter Senge, and more, to learn how to do so. In the process he picked up a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology and began to define a new metaphysics. So the ideas this book is based on are dear to my heart, and what Kaz has achieved is wonderful to behold. The book is written for academics and is entitled Developing Third-Generation Learning Organizations, a Heuristic Discovery Process. But, even though there are hundreds of footnotes, I think we managed to make it readable. In it, we not only outline Kaz' process (and mine) for transforming leadership processes in organizations, but we also lay out some of the fundamentals of systems thinking, culture dynamics, and the role metaphysics plays in our experience. Here's a snippet: "Humans construct their metaphysics, worldview, and mental models based on their own developmental level, which then becomes the basis for their culture and experience. "Whatever culture we grow up in, there’s both tacit and explicit assumptions about who people are and how the world works. Parents, peers, teachers, and the media all provide very definite, if not always consistent, messages about who and what we should understand ourselves to be, acceptable norms of behavior, and expectations for who and what we can become. We are enculturated to the society’s worldview. Yet, as our section on systems thinking documents, the reductionistic, mechanistic, western orthodox science, Industrial-Age view of people and the world, while it has accomplished great things for all humanity, has demonstrated itself to be limiting for individuals and destructive of the planetary environment. "At some point, some people, Kaz being an example, break away from that worldview and begin to explore other options. While traditionally the liberal arts curriculum and college environment was designed to expand and clarify a person’s worldview, a college education no longer serves this function. New kinds of experiences are needed if individuals are to be able to develop in that way." That's from the conclusions... and in some ways it's just the beginning! :) Over a 2-week period a couple students and I had the good fortune to be able to visit a number of cities and rural areas around the United Kingdom. The links below lead to the different chapters in my journey...
If you'd like to be on list to receive things like this in your emails, CLICK HERE and let me know. Thanks! May Travels 1 - Arriving in Portland Oregon & On to London May Travels 2 - Essential London & the British Museum May Travels 3 -Oxford & Brighton May Travels 4 - Great & Small in Scotland May Travels 5 - Following the Saints in Ireland The second weekend of April this year was amazing! The full moon April 6 had all kinds of astrological and Wiccan overtones regarding the end of darkness and the emergence of new light, and was also the marker for the Jewish holy days of Passover (Pesach), honoring their deliverance out of bondage in Egypt, and the holiest of Christian days called Easter, honoring the resurrection of Christ out of the darkness of death. On Saturday Buddhists honored Wesak, the awakening of Prince Gautama into the Buddha, as he succeeded in overcoming the darkness of all his demons and so was free and able to share his experience with others. And all of that is happening in the middle of the Muslim month of fasting called Ramadan, by which Arab nations have, for millennia, left behind old ways and entered into a new life, and during which the blessed prophet Mohammed experienced the revelations that became the Q'uran. Whew! Billions and billions of people, all over the world, honoring the process of coming out of darkness into the Light! That's got to be making a difference in the collective consciousness of humanity!  Before this weekend happened, though, several people shared with me that they or their loved ones have been diagnosed with a mental condition that has become known as Alzheimer's disease. Talk about darkness!
I thought I'd share with you all what I've shared with them... First, such diagnoses are always so hard... sympathizing and sad you're having to deal with that! Having said that, though, there are several levels to approach the situation. At the level of matter and the body:
In the One Mind, the Unity of all Life, all Wisdom, all Joy, all Truth, only well-being is possible. All else is a dream or nightmare and we can awaken from that nightmare by turning our attention, again and again, to the divine Light that surrounds and enfolds us now, feeling it at work in our lives. And, as we do so, the people around us begin to experience that Light, that Love, that Wisdom, and are freed from any nightmares of hopelessness, helplessness, regret, or guilt. And as we FEEL the Presence in our mind and body, they begin to feel it working within them to undo any past ideas or thought forms that were shaping their experience. As we accept the Power working in, through, and as us, we are no longer deceived by the media or the people who believe in the discord and disease of the nightmare, but are freed to experience more Light, more Love, more Well-being in our own lives. As our True Self becomes the focus and guide for our mind and body, moment-by-moment, our experience becomes more and more heavenly, and we are surrounded by people, places, and things that reflect the divinity that we truly Are. So, in this time and place, with this diagnosis, I refuse to be caught up in the nightmare of the cultural norm, and I claim and accept the Truth, that all mind is one beautifully wise, knowing and remembering mind, that all being is well-being, and that the people I know and love are well and whole and on the path of their fulfillment. For so it is, and so I say Ah-men. Copying these lines a few times, saying them aloud, and repeating the treatments in Emma Hopkins' Lessons 7 and 8 until you feel their power working through you would be very helpful right now. And this is not something that you do once. You do it until you KNOW it is handled and complete - which may take several hours, or even overnight (but you won't be drained by the process, as you'll be energized by divine Power!). And, if the symptoms remain or show up again, you do it again. Charles Fillmore used to say "Pray first, and if that doesn't take care of it, call the doctor." So, if you and your beloved are convinced that the only real way to address the symptoms is with medication, which usually is evident by not seeing a cessation of symptoms after wholeheartedly doing this work, then by all means, use the meds and whatever else feels like it can help. And keep doing the treatment, getting to the place where you KNOW without a doubt that you and your beloved are whole and well and living a full, wonderful life NOW. I trust that those who have a need will find these words and use them... It was an amazing 3+ weeks - traveling, connecting, enjoying, some teaching and discovering... and today I am in the mobile home in Waldport that is my current "home base"... resting a bit and catching up...  Fort Worth Botanical Gardens Light Show: Japanese Garden  Flying over Mt. Jefferson, Oregon  December dawn in Dufur, Oregon, from the Balch Hotel  Sunday Service at Florence Unitarian Universalist Fellowship - celebrating Chalica  Sunset at Sea Lions Cave Three weeks, 4000ish miles, all kinds of beauty and good times with loving and beloved family and friends - and a little teaching, speaking, coaching, and wandering around the edges.
Got home last night and delighted to spend the day on my own couch, catching the sunshine as it fills the room between rain showers, watching the light shift on the hills... All is, truly, well! May these weeks of holy days be filled with love and beauty for all! About 25 years ago, the man who wrote the Tao of Physics wrote an amazingly different book, called The Web of Life. He’s a physics professor at Berkeley, named Fritjof Capra. He had also written a book called The Turning Point, on where we were in history, which I had found as interesting as his physics book. About that time I was working with a woman on a systems text who had worked with him. I was asked to coordinate a conference of systems people in 1990 that was focused on the future, so I took the chance to reach out to professor Capra through her and ask him to be the keynote speaker at this conference. When he heard it was a gathering of systems people he said he didn’t think he’d fit. I said not to worry, his Turning Point and his integration of eastern and western philosophy in The Tao of Physics was perfectly in alignment with our conference theme and he’d be just fine. He finally agreed, came, did his talk, and was very well received. Of course, he received a copy of our program and our proceedings as part of our thank you. I left my career as a systems scientist for the ministry a few years later and never heard from him again.
A few years later, when The Web of Life came out I was blown away. The man had paid attention! He had integrated what we were talking about at that conference with his own understanding of how the universe works and said it in a way that any intelligent reader could make sense of! Wonderful! A few years later, I was asked to tea with one of my more “mature” former students – a retired engineer from IBM – and he said “I was participating in a class in Berkeley and one of our instructors was Fritjof Capra. When I asked him how he had come to do all this work in systems, he said “This woman in Portland called me and asked me to speak at a conference…” Needless to say I was delighted – and, once more, blown away. Capra has since come out with a number of systems-thinking books, including A Systems View of Life, for which I am truly grateful… we need as many systems thinkers in the world as possible. Now, why am I telling you this story today? Because you who believe that there is One Power, One Presence, accept that we are all part of the Web of Life. Whew! There is only One. That One is Good. Here is only One, Good. Everywhere is only One. Everything, everywhere is the One that we call God, the Good, omnipotent. So that means all beings are Good. They can’t not be! We might misunderstand them. They might be being Good in places we’d rather they were not, or ways we can’t see as Good right at the moment, but they MUST BE GOOD. Many of the people I work with are aware that our thoughts influence - even create - our experience. Some have done the processes I suggest to help undo the beliefs and ideas that no longer serve them and their world, so as to have different experiences.
Others have been confused. They think that they no longer believe in anything that might support distressing conditions, that because they tell themselves such things don't (even that they can't) exist, they have reason to expect that they won't happen to them. Sadly, though, even when we clear out the surface thoughts, there are often other layers to deal with. The mental structure that supports our circumstances and conditions is composed of several layers:
Then we will be the light - and experience only love! :) Oh my! What an amazing state our world is in right now! So many systems falling apart around us! So much confusion about what's actually happening! So many people caught up in the drama of it all - or the fear...caught up in religious fervor about politics! So many things that seem to need to be done that it's hard to know where - or if - to start! Part of that's because we really don't know what to believe about what we're being told. There's so much drama - and propaganda - filling the commercial and social media, and there seems to be no way to get clarity. So, what's really happening here and now?  Yes, there is a lot of dramatic hype going on - partly because there's really not much "bad news" to actually report (It's hard to "lead with the bleed" when there's not much bleeding happening out there (Really! the numbers tell us that most of what used to be reported regularly isn't happening any more!), so the newscasters have to go further and further from home and strettttttccccchhhhh every story out and milk it for everything it's got. Yes, there is a lot of propaganda being pushed - in every direction, with all kinds of social, political, and economic intentions: everything from "follow this leader" to "rise up and overthrow the rulers" to "buy more" to "you're going to suffer if you don't do it our way", and more. Fortunately, it is possible to distinguish between information and propaganda - it's called "checking the facts." Propaganda will always include a kernel of truth, but leave out huge parts of the story in an effort to push the viewer in a particular direction. The good news is that there are multiple "fact-checking" services out there, by which, if you scan several, you can usually determine what the facts of any story actually are. But mostly, we are nearing the end of a major historical process - one that began with the American Revolution. That was the beginning of the dissolution of empire-building monarchies, which culminated in the 1960s, when the last European colonies were let go. Now we're in the next stage of the process: the other forms of empire are dissolving - and are rapidly reaching the point where no national entity has the resources to control lands and people outside its own borders. Instead, an economic structure has been put in place to do so. It's still largely controlled by European-American men, but is steadily being eroded by men of other nationalities - and the planet itself.  In such times, many folks (raised and carefully trained to feel they have little or no control over their lives) feel lost and powerless - and great effort is made to keep them afraid of the world around them. In such times, many folks (raised with empire-culture values of acquire, accumulate and control) see opportunities to build a power base of weaker-minded people, and work to ensure they remain followers. Those folks' goal is to be powerful, and they will use any language, any means they can, to acquire that power, accumulate resources, and control the people around them. In such times, to think rationally is difficult at best, and frowned upon by the fearful and the power-hungry alike. So what can we do? I've been talking this past few months about how the current political problems cannot be solved in the way they used to be (the old Einsteinian issue: "can't solve a problem at the level that created it"). I've been offering some alternative approaches, demonstrated to be effective by some pretty good research, that have to do with.... you guessed it! CHANGING THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS FROM WHICH WE ACT "Easy to say" many of you have quipped. And you're right; it is much easier to say than to do or be. I've put together a program designed to help people find the level of consciousness that will be effective for them to work from, and begin to identify the specific actions they can take. I'll be offering this program in Florence, at the Florence Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hall, on Saturday, Sept 10, from 1-4pm. Again in Corvallis, October 23. VIDEO LINK HERE.  The program has 3 parts:
So I hope you'll join me - in Florence (let me know if you're coming in from out of town - we may be able to provide housing), Corvallis, or online. And let me know if this is something you want me to offer wherever you are - we may be able to work something out. With Gratitude, always, and Blessings for clarity and effective action, R
I got to spend several days in each area, studying the sites and the museum collections, and came to understand even better the process by which the ancient, Mother-focused, sharing, earth-oriented cultures were transformed into the male-dominated empire culture of expansion, accumulation, and control. DELPHI  250 kilometers north of Athens, on the side of Mt. Parnassas, is the site of the most famous oracle in the ancient world. Looking around, I could see how, with mountain, ocean, and rich farmland coming together, this might be seen as the center of the world. Arriving by steep trails up the mountain, pilgrims first cleansed themselves at the local spring, which, all over Europe, are dedicated to the divine feminine. Then on to the temple of Athena, the embodiment of wisdom. Then the marketplace to buy sacrifices for Apolo, and then through a series of buildings filled with the treasures people brought to the god and prophetess. The priests interviewed folks as they waited in line to ask their question, and guided the supplicants into the large temple to Apollo, at the back of which was a small, dark room (I took a picture of the location on the slab/foundation) where the virgin prophetess sat on a 3-legged stool, in a trance, and spoke syllables that the priest then interpreted for the supplicant. But in all this, there was one thing that caught my attention: the Pythia/ prophetess stopped at a large rock on her way to the temple to connect with Sybil, the very first woman in her position. I went on up to the temple and took pictures of the area in which she would sit and prophesy, but there was no energy there - no sense of presence. On the way back down, though, I stopped in front of that rock and was literally pushed backward by the energy pouring from it - as was my travelling companion, who was right behind me. Soon my mouth was forming sounds - glossalllalia. That rock, I realized, was the prophetic influence. Not any substance or gas... Needless to say, the rest of the tour meant little after that.
DELOS  The second major activity was a return trip to the island of Delos, where I had seen the famous Cycladic figures on my last trip. These are amazing: almost flat, with triangular heads, barely defined facial features and breasts, with arms invariably crossed under the breasts - always carved in white marble. I had to find out what these were about! We took the ferry from Athens and arrived on Mykonos in the evening and the next morning headed for the old port, where the boat to the island of Delos sails twice daily. Sadly, both the museum and the shop on the island were closed. So, although I hadn't planned to stay with the guided tour, there really was no other way to use the hours until the boat left the island. And I'm so glad I did! Not that I learned anything about the figures, but the information this guide shared was very different from what I had heard before, and, again, filled in gaps and made sense of pieces I've been wondering about for some time. This guide was a student of anthropology and art history, as were we, so her understanding of what she saw was much more in alignment with our interests. For one thing, the dates of things were somewhat older than I had been told on the last trip, and the influence of the Romans much less. For another, she understood the symbols worked into the structures and the evolution of the place. So I got to see how the original island, with its stream and lake (very rare in this part of the world), trees, and meadows, was a bit of a paradise, dedicated to Leto, who, when transferred into the Greek pantheon, was called the mother of Apollo and Artemis, hiding from Hera, wife of their father Zeus. Leto's temple is by the lake (which was emptied last year "because of malaria") and is the first temple one passes as one walks along the avenue of lions and enters the temple complex. Leto is also said to have been a prophetess, so it's likely that a woman lived here who was considered the embodiment of the goddess, and taught and spoke for the goddess to the residents of the many islands that form a spiral around Delos (Cycla - des).  The largest temple on the island is, of course, Apollo's, and there once was a huge statue of the god dominating the complex. (At some point in the 16th-17th century, the Portuguese thought they'd take it home with them and cut it up into pieces, but even they were too heavy for the ships, so the pieces are strewn across that part of the island.) But, up the hill that is the dominant feature of the island, near the source of the stream (which, across Europe, are typically dedicated to the goddess (or female saint, under Catholic Christianity), is another, very visible temple, dedicated to Isis, the Egyptian Mother-goddess.  Of course, the standard explanation has to do with the many cultures that overlapped on this island, but more likely, the last wave of Romans were those who honored the "dark madonna" - which they called Isis. Their images of her are scattered across Europe, and they used the name in many places where the Mother was still venerated. As for the figures - well, a local merchant selling replicas called them "primitive attempts to model the human form," at which I refrained from laughing and let him know there are many, much older, much more accurate figures all over the Mediterranean. Fortunately, I was able to learn much more on Crete. The museum in Heraklion has many such figures, and also many other figures, tools, and vessels made at the same time. What became obvious is that these people were capable of fine, accurate representations of all kinds of life forms, but that they had buried these figures with their loved ones - these abstractions of the female form. So I've come to believe that they are representations of the divine Mother, buried with them to ensure Her guidance and love in the afterworld as in this one. KNOSSOS
The site is a half-hour bus ride from the museum at Heraklion. It's beautiful in the spring: olive trees in bloom, tall cypresses around the edges, surrounded by green hills lined with stone walls and dotted with wildflowers.
CoVid has meant the closing of several spaces, so it wasn't possible to go inside rooms, but we got a good sense of the layout of the excavation, and saw much of the "restoration" undertaken by generations of archeologists and art historians over the past hundred years. And what I saw was neither a palace nor a temple, but a town, like Taos Pueblo or Catal Hayuk. A beautifully laid out and decorated set of structures with shared walls, a deep step well, a broad avenue and central atrium/square, a sewer and storm water drain system, carefully designed light wells, and shared storage facilities in the center. It's a very tall structure, at least 6 stories in many places, so it's not too surprising that they had to figure out something other than thick piles of stones covered with plaster as walls. Columns supporting the next level up and letting both light and air into the interior made perfect sense. I read all the explanations on the signs and didn't know whether to laugh or cry over the assumptions built into the interpretations - archeologists have not historically been trained in anthropology and it is so obvious here! So, while I greatly appreciate all the work that has gone into this display, it's a bit saddening to think of how it reinforces empire culture assumptions. Even the stories told by the Greeks about this place are written from and about the ways that empire works. King Minos ruling over the islands, a minotaur devouring Greek youths - totally unsupported by the cultural norms of this space at that time. We didn't make it down to the labyrinth cave, but that, too, is a reconstruction, and ignores the evidence of sacred soul journeys into the inner core of being, where we all are a mixture of human and animal, and all can be transformed into the fully human beings we were born to be. Seeing all these things in person - feeling the presence of the past - has brought my thinking into clearer focus. I'm so glad I made this journey! |
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