Dreamtime

Dreams, Dreamtime and Spirit Journeys are ALL visitations to the Spirit Realm of Reality. The Spirit Realm is as much a part of our Reality as this Physical Realm is, however, it is often seen that this Spirit Realm is not REAL.

Dreams:

We ALL Dream each and every night, if we realize it or not. It is interesting to look into what a DREAM really is. To look more deeply into DREAMS we must also look into sleep. When we think of sleep we think of rest, resting our body and our mind from the daily activities.

When we are asleep our body is not as shut down as we often think, our Heart still beats and continues to circulate our blood throughout our body, our Lungs still breath and our body’s cells still exchanges waste gases for oxygen and our cells are still busy working. This is all going on while we are sound asleep and without our awareness. When we are aware of this it does not seem like we are getting any rest, specially our body’s cells. Our body’s rest comes from our body being free of our CONSCIOUSNESS, when we are asleep our CONSCIOUSNESS drifts away from our physical body. When we are asleep we are not even CONSCIOUS of our body or even that we are in a bed.

What really rests during our sleep is our Logical Mind. It is when our Mind is too active that we have problems getting to sleep. We can be tossing and turning in our bed to try and get to sleep and our thoughts can keep us awake. In order to sleep our Mind and our Thoughts need to calm down and come to a state of REST. It is when our Mind shuts down that our CONSCIOUSNESS is free to drift away from our physical body. The question is – where does our CONSCIOUSNESS go?

Our CONSCIOUSNESS is more than our body and mind; it is our sense of SELF and is our SOUL. Our SPIRIT resides in the Spirit Realm much like our Physical Body resides here in the Physical Realm, our CONSCIOUSNESS (SOUL) travels to our SPIRIT when our BODY is asleep, and when we awake our CONSCIOUSNESS returns to our BODY.

Our Logical Mind is focused on this Physical Realm and the parameters that govern this Physical Realm. The Spirit Realm has a completely different set of parameters that govern the world of our SPIRIT. In our Dreams we can FLY, and water can flow UPHILL, we can talk to ANIMALS, or visit with ANGELS, and many other strange things that our Logical Mind has a difficult time grasping and logically we call this as being UNREAL. This is why we often forget our DREAMS almost immediately upon awakening; our Logical Mind sees no value in such UNREAL experiences.

There have been experiments concerning our DREAMS and how our DREAMS affect us. When we DREAM our brains reach a certain state. In these experiments subjects have been observed sleeping and when their brains reach the dream state the subject is awaken. This happens every time they reach the DREAM state to see what happens if we do not DREAM. After 4 or 5 nights of NOT DREAMING the subjects start to hallucinate and have trouble decipher what is REAL and UNREAL. The lack of DREAMING directly affects how our Logical Mind can function in this Physical Realm. We need to DREAM in order for our Logical Mind to function properly here in the Physical Realm.

What REAL value do our DREAMS have? In order to answer this we need to start to REMEMBER more of our actual DREAMS. Remembering our DREAMS can be a real challenge as often our DREAM will quickly fade away as we become more awake. Remembering our DREAM in order to share it on www.dreamcatcher.net can be a powerful tool in remembering our DREAMS, it gives us a REASON to remember.

Dreamtime:

The Australian aboriginal tradition DREAMTIME is when one travels to our SPIRIT while awake, in other aboriginal traditions it is often referred to as Spirit Journeys. Here I will refer to both as DREAMTIME. The process is much the same as when we sleep and dream; except we do not sleep we are awake. We need to relax the BODY as much as we can, and to quiet the MIND as much as we can, much like meditation practices do. Before the process is started one needs to set one’s INTENTION for the journey to the Spirit Realm. The INTENTION is very important and the more precise the INTENTION the more productive the journey is.

When we travel to the Spirit Realm in a more CONSCIOUS state (awake) as opposed to an UNCONSCIOUS state (asleep) we are more able to interact with the Spirit Realm in a more rational manner. When we are asleep we experience the Spirit Realm in what seems to be fragments and we seem to be more reacting to the dream rather than really participating in the dream. When we are awake and visit the Spirit Realm it is much more fluid and we can actual participate as opposed to simple reaction.

When we return from the Spirit Realm we can remember every detail of our visit. I do recommend that one use a journal to record their visits, as often over time the memory fades. Aboriginal cultures around the world have practiced these visitations to the Spirit Realm while awake for centuries and their visits helped to heal the individual and many others. One can do these visits for one self or on behalf of others.

Conclusion:

When we do the DREAMTIME and visit the Spirit Realm awake, we start to see the connection to our DREAMS when we are asleep. We start to remember our DREAMS much more in detail and we also have a better understanding of their meaning and the benefits of our DREAMS.

Love & Fear

Love & Fear are our 2 Emotions that govern our State of Mind. It is from our State of Mind that we experience the many different types of Feelings that we have. It is common to confuse our Feelings with our Emotions and we often use these two terms interchangeably.

The first thing to understand is the difference between Emotions & Feelings. When we confuse these two we often see them belonging to our Hearts as opposed to our Mind. This is not accurate, our Feelings belong to our Heart, but it is our Mind that experiences the feelings. Our Emotions sets the parameters in order to experience our Feelings. Our Emotions belongs to our Mind and it is the Emotions that sets our State of Mind in order to experience our FEELINGS. How we experience our FEELINGS tells us the STATE OF OUR MIND (FEAR OR LOVE).

With only 2 Emotions – Love & Fear – it would seem to be a very easy thing to get a handle on, except there are many, many, different levels to these two emotions.

Love:

There are many different levels to Love – Unconditional Love, Conditional Love, Caring for another, Brotherly Love, Motherly Love, Hard Love, Physical Love and as many different levels of Love as we can imagine. The question is what does it all boil down too?

In many Spiritual Traditions the state of Unconditional Love is the state that is desirable. When asked to explain this state, it is often replied with, it is a state that cannot be communicated but must be experienced, and it is a state of bliss. It is the same traditions that tell us that in order to reach this state we must denounce our Ego. This I understand but do not agree with. The Ego I will get to later.

Love is the state of UNION WITH THE WHOLE. It is when we truly feel this state of being a part of the wholeness of everything that is the state of Love. That there is no separation! That there is a lack of the INDIVIDUAL (Ego). It is this state of COMPLETENESS and experiencing the WHOLE and the LOSS OF THE INDIVIDUAL that is a form of BLISS. This is TRUE, but it is not the DESIRED STATE – IT IS A STATE.

In our day-to-day life and in our society as a whole we are all searching for this LOVE. It is a search for BELONGING, ACCEPTANCE, VALUE, CARING, PARTICIPATING and being a part of...

We go about this search for LOVE as if it is a state from outside of ourselves. As if someone else will give it to us, or that we can find it somewhere out there...

We are searching from a STATE OF SEPARATION, from a STATE OF FEAR. It is really difficult to find our CONNECTION TO THE WHOLE from this state of SEPARATION. This is why many Spiritual Traditions teach us to denounce the Ego, to denounce the Individual, the separation.

Fear:

Fear is the Emotional State of SEPARATION, of the INDIVIDUAL. This state too has many different levels attached – Stress, Worry, Loneliness, Victim-hood, Anxiety, Death, Disease, Accidence, Abandonment, and all the worries of our Physical Life. These many levels of FEAR can range from very mild discomfort to paralyzing FEAR for our very Life; they all come from a state of SEPARATION – IT IS A STATE.

We ALL live our Life in this STATE OF FEAR. It you look at our society we are always worried about our SAFETY – seat-belts, helmets, air-bags, smoke alarms, CO2 alarms, even protection from the SUN is a concern and worry. This doesn’t even touch the issue of diseases – Cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer, and many others. This does not include how we are always COMPETING with each other and with our ENVIRONMENT (pollutants, pests, virus, etc).

It is from this STATE OF FEAR that we are desperately searching for the STATE OF LOVE. At times this seems like a contradiction in STATES – How can we find the STATE OF LOVE when we are in a STATE OF FEAR? It is this contradiction that causes some Spiritual Traditions to denounce our INDIVIDUALITY (EGO) in order to obtain the STATE OF LOVE. Removing the INDIVIDUAL or EGO removes the STATE OF FEAR and reaching the STATE OF LOVE is much easier to be obtained. This has a very LIMITED RESULT, as if ONE state is better than the other, or that it is necessary to make a choice between the two and obtaining both is not obtainable.

Challenge:

The true challenge is to obtain a balance of these two states (Love & Fear). Many will say that this is not possible, or that balancing the two means that you do not fully appreciate either. I disagree. In fact the two are made to be balanced!

As an example, let’s take the feeling of being ALONE.  When we experience being ALONE from a STATE OF FEAR, we SUFFER from LONELINESS, from a STATE OF LOVE we can APPRECIATE our SOLITUDE. We even have different words to describe being ALONE depending on the STATE OF OUR MIND (Emotion).

The difficulty is that we are looking for the STATE OF LOVE, from a STATE OF FEAR. We need to change our position – we need to look for our STATE OF FEAR from a STATE OF LOVE. It is the STATE OF LOVE that we find our COURAGE to find our STATE OF FEAR.

How we change our PARADIGM:

In our search for LOVE from our position of FEAR is due to our CONSCIOUSNESS being focused on this Physical Realm that we define as our Life. In the last few hundred years we have focused our CONSCIOUSNESS on this Physical Realm and we call it REALITY. Science has forced us to tightly focus our CONSCIOUSNESS here in order to more fully understand how our Physical Environment reacts to each other. This has lead to great advancements in Technology and in our understanding of this Physical Realm and in many ways has EXPANDED our CONSCIOUSNESS of this PHYSICAL REALM. This has come at a PRICE.

Note: Classical Science and Organized Religion started to separate our CONSCIOUSNESS into 2 narrowly focused states (Physical & Spiritual) that we now see as being CIVILIZED. It is the time that these two disciplines became primary that we really moved into this current time of the STATE OF FEAR. For the sake of this article I will refer to the time before Science and Religion as simply “UNCIVILIZED”.

Prior to becoming CIVILIZED we were in a much more UNION with our ENVIRONMENT and with EACH OTHER. We saw ourselves as being a PART of LIFE and that there was much more to LIFE than just the Physical Realm.  In the UNCIVILIZED time the REALITY OF LIFE was seen to consist of 3 REALMS – PHYSICAL, ENERGY AND SPIRIT.  In the ancient time Shamans would communicate with the Spirit of the Plants to learn how best to utilize their properties, today we BELIEVE it was done with” trial & error” but it was not, it was done through SPIRIT. In the ancient times “Curses”, “Charms” and “Protective Amulets” were used and this utilized the ENERGY REALM. Today we think of these things as superstition. With our understanding of this PHYSICAL REALM we need to once again expand our CONSCIOUSNESS to incorporate the ENERGY AND SPIRIT REALMS of REALITY. In the ancient time our BELIEF was much more understood in what connected (LOVE) us to LIFE, and a lot less on the INDIVIDUAL (FEAR). We understood our connection with the WHOLE and the INDIVIDUAL relationship to the WHOLE. THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE LOST!

The NEW SCIENCE is beginning to explore the ENERGY REALM that is often referred to as the FABRIC OF LIFE. In the way of Science we have reached the limit of our expanding CONSCIOUSNESS of this PHYSICAL REALM and are once again expanding our CONSCIOUSNESS to incorporate the ENERGY REALM and at some point the SPIRIT REALM. It is the SPIRIT REALM that WEAVES the FABRIC OF LIFE.

When we truly believe and understand that we are an intricate PART OF THE WHOLENESS OF LIFE, we have found our STATE OF LOVE. It is from this state of LOVE that we can start to explore our INDIVIDUAL role in this LIFE. The state of LOVE gives us the COURAGE to face our FEAR. WE CAN BALANCE THE TWO EMOTIONS OF LOVE & FEAR and truly become WHOLE with BOTH of these STATES.

Evolver

Last Sunday (Feb. 20) I attended an event with a friend hosted by Evolver and the local spore group that had a discussion on the lack of "Rite of Passage" ceremony in our modern society. I found it very INTERESTING but I found it to go around the MAIN POINT. We talked about addictions, death, adolescence, menstruation, menopause, and a lot of the different stages of LIFE. We talked about COMMUNITY about SUPPORT and about how SOME get stuck in the different STAGES OF LIFE.

There is nothing that I heard during the event that I would disagree with or even to do differently. In ALL of the discussion I never heard any mention of SPIRIT. I do not mean RELIGION or any similar topic, but the realization that LIFE is more than the PHYSICAL. We did mention SHAMANISM and the use of PLANT MEDICINES, but without some anchor in the SPIRIT part of LIFE it is very LIMITING in the benefits.

I believe we need to approach LIFE with a broader understanding than just the PHYSICAL. We can go through these Physical Passages with extreme difficulty when we are only focused on the Physical. In some aboriginal cultures when one comes of age, they are no longer children of the adults that raised them. At this time Father Sky and Mother Earth adopt them, in this way they are never alone. Today we would see this as very SYMBOLIC and of very little real value. In the ancient ways this was more than symbolic, there was a much more REAL relationship with Father Sky and Mother Earth.

It is this RELATIONSHIP that we have lost. We lost this relationship when we abandoned our BELIEF and replaced it with PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE. For the last 200 years or more we have followed the adage “Knowledge is Power” and this knowledge has replaced our BELIEF. In our haste for knowledge we have demoted our BELIEF to religion and/or superstition. I have been told “Facts are more REAL than Belief”. Do you find it interesting that you can have a number of labeled “Specialists” debating over the interpretation of FACTS? Does this not signify that our FACTS are not as absolute as we may BELIEVE they are?

It is not a matter of one or the other (Knowledge or Belief) both has a critical part to play in our Life, one does not trump another. There is a good example where both have a place to play;

A California medical doctor was in a skiing accident and broke his lower spinal cord. The prognosis was that he would be paralyzed from his waist down, for the rest of his life. He was a medical doctor and knew the medical science and the knowledge that the spinal cord does not heal itself. It was over two years later when the doctor was interviewed on the NEWS because he was actually walking around his doctor’s office visiting his patients. In the interview he was asked how he explained his incredible recovery. The doctor responded “Life always overcomes difficulties” he went on to say “He kept sending the message from his head to his legs ‘to move’ and that LIFE would find a way to connect the message to his legs.” He continued sending the message for 2 years before he had any sign the message was getting through.

What is so amazing with the story of the Doctor is that his BELIEF in LIFE took him beyond the FACTS and the KNOWLEDGE that SCIENCE is consumed with. He knew the SCIENCE and it was his BELIEF that took him beyond that KNOWLEDGE. He kept his BELIEF in spite of the KNOWLEDGE and even with everyone (physiotherapist, other paralyzed patients, friends and co-workers) around him BELIEVING he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his Life. To keep his BELIEF up even with no sign of him walking again for 2 years, it is truly incredible.

We know that Medical Science has immense value, but when we put all of our BELIEF into this KNOWLEDGE we can only go so far. When we can respect Science for what it can do and we put our BELIEF in LIFE we can do the IMPOSSIBLE. The doctor KNEW the knowledge of medical science and KNEW the limitation of this knowledge, he also had a RELATIONSHIP with LIFE and this RELATIONSHIP was his BELIEF that LIFE always overcomes difficulties.

What has this to do with “Rites of Passage”? When we go through the many different phases of our Life in a strictly PHYSICAL aspect it becomes a lot more difficult. We NEED to have a very fundamental RELATIONSHIP with LIFE and then we can truly appreciate the many different PHASES LIFE has for us, to enjoy. Without this relationship we become fearful of what we are losing and what is ahead. We see our self in isolation and more vulnerable to being a VICTIM OF LIFE, and not a intricate part of LIFE.

It is this RELATIONSHIP WITH LIFE that I found to be missing in the discussion on Sunday (Feb. 20).

WHY we do what we do:

What are our Intentions?

On the surface our Intentions are - why we do what we do. We act according to our Values (Oct. 12 post) / Belief systems (Sept. 8 post) and we set our INTENTIONS accordingly. We are often unaware of our Intentions, this is especially true when we act out of habit. Other times we act out of expectations and we are unaware of our Intentions.

Our Intentions are not as easily defined as one may believe. Mother Teresa knew this when she said "She would never attend a Anti-War rally, but she would attend a Peace rally". She understood that in a "Anti-War" rally our INTENTION is still focused on WAR. The issue of being "Pro" or "Anti" are judgment calls, the focus of both is still on WAR. However, in a PEACE rally the focus is on PEACE and not WAR, our INTENTION is now focused on PEACE.

We need to have CLEAR AND FOCUSED Intention. In the Anti-War example the Intention is focused on what WE DO NOT WANT (WAR). In the Peace rally the Intention is focused on what WE WANT (PEACE). We need to be clear in what - WE WANT, and to stay away from what - WE DO NOT WANT. When we are focused on WHAT WE DO NOT WANT, we often get what WE DO NOT WANT.  Another example of this is the Anti-Poverty groups with their INTENTION on POVERTY, would do better if they changed their INTENTION from POVERTY to ABUNDANCE.

This issue of what - WE WANT verses WE DO NOT WANT - complicates using our Intentions to our potential. We are a society that is very judgmental and we are usually very CLEAR in what WE DO NOT WANT, but not so clear in what WE WANT. I know for myself that I know exactly what I DO NOT WANT, but find myself much more unfocused on EXACTLY what I WANT.
 

WE NEED TO HAVE CLEAR AND PRECISE INTENTIONS!

Another challenge we have with our Intentions is how they align with our Beliefs. If our Intentions conflict with what we believe we have the energy working against each other.

An example of this type of conflict was in the movie "What the Bleep do we know?" and they were talking about how our body's cells respond to our Beliefs. They stated that if we believe our self to be "Fat" that there is some evidence that our cells will prioritize the storage of calories. That if there is a choice of burning the calories or storing the calories the cells will store the calories. If this is true and we go on a diet to reduce our weight and our intention is to reduce weight, but our cells are still storing the calories (because we believe we are fat), we are defeating our own intention. This conflict between believing our self to be fat, and our intention to reduce our weight can create considerable frustration.

In healing our self, this conflict between Belief and Intention is also evident. If our Intention is to heal our body, then we need to believe in our body to heal itself. Doctors and Healers can assist the person in their healing, but it is the body itself that needs to heal.

As an example of the body healing itself; With my clients I often use the example of having a broken bone, the doctor sets the bone and immobilizes the bone so the body can heal the broken bone. It is the body that is the true healer, and we need to believe in our body in order to heal. It is our INTENTION that directs the body to heal itself.


Doctors, medicines and Healers have a limited part to play in the healing process. We can have partial success with our intention to heal when our BELIEF is with the Doctors, Medicines and Healers - The Placebo Effect. We have much better healing results when we have the proper respect for the Doctors and Healers and the BELIEF in our own body to heal.

However if our Belief is in our body being a victim of the dangers of LIFE, then our INTENTION to heal is going to be a long and suffering process.

We need to be AWARE of both our Beliefs and our Intentions and to keep these two in alignment with each other, and to have clear and concise INTENTIONS of what we WANT.

---

Patience & Persistence:

In our INSTANT society we have lost our PATIENCE. When we do not see instant results, we lose our focus and try something else. We are quick to judge something as not working and to change our focus to something else. LIFE does not work in this instantaneous  process.

A great example of the proper alignment of Belief with Intention and the practice of Patience & Persistence:

A California medical doctor broke his lower back in an accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. The prognoses was that he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his Life.

To make a long story short, the doctor was walking again after 2 years of being in a wheelchair. When asked to explain his MIRACULOUS healing. The doctor commented "He knew that LIFE can always overcome difficult situations, and if he continued to send the message from his brain to his legs to move, that LIFE  would find a way to connect the message to his legs." It took the doctor 2 years of sending the message from his brain to his legs before he saw any sign of the message getting through.

The doctor's Belief in LIFE and his Intention to walk again is admirable, however, his show of Patience & Persistence was truly AWESOME in this modern time of INSTANT GRATIFICATION.  To continue to send the message from his brain to his legs for 2 years before he saw any sign of the message getting through is unusual. This is especially true considering his medical training told him that it was IMPOSSIBLE to heal the spine.

HIS BELIEF TOOK HIM BEYOND HIS KNOWLEDGE.

---

Our INTENTIONS are the movers of the Universal Life-Force Energy (Chi) that creates the WEB OF OUR Life. Like our Feelings working with our Thoughts, our Intentions work with our Beliefs. Intentions & Beliefs work closely together and they are both powerful Chi movers and shapers! If we have limiting Beliefs then our Intentions will be similarly limited. If our Beliefs are empowering then our Intentions will be limitless.

---

Our Intentions are a powerful tool in shaping our lives. When we have clear Intentions we can move mountains.

Core Values

Individuals act and behave according to their VALUES. These values are personal and individualistic and are neither good or bad, they are simply values. These values are judged to be good or bad based on some form of morality.


Our society, culture and family will often impose values onto the individual and these are seen as what we are expected to value or what we should value. What we are expected or should value is what I call our adopted values. Adopted values are not good enough to guide our actions, they often create conflicts between what is expected of us and what we truly value.


We often see this CONFLICT with young teenagers going through what is often described as the "rebellious" years. They are looking to discover their OWN VALUES and are confronted with what is expected of them. We need to own our values, it is not good enough to act on what is expected. These 'rebellious' years are individuals finding their OWN values.


When we judge values as being good or bad, we are judging the values based on a sense of MORALITY. Morality is itself a set of values that is often forced on the individual. Morals only have worth when the individual can truly OWN the set of values that compose the morals. Morals are worthless when they are forced onto the individual.


CONFLICT - SHOULD VALUE VS TRUE VALUE


It is when we see the hypocritical actions from adults and authority figures that individuals searching for VALUES become lost. Look at all the ABUSE from individuals that are in a position of authority - priests, doctors, teachers, judges, police, parents and every other sector of society. This doesn't include the adults that say one thing and does another.


When you are a young person looking for your own values and you observe how everyone says they value one thing, but acts in another way, what kind of conclusion can one draw?


The conclusion that is often reached is that VALUES ARE WORTHLESS! Without our own values we have no way of steering our Life. We only value what is immediately good to the self. We often turn to drugs, alcohol, sex and other immediate satisfaction to our self or at the least acceptance from others in our immediate group. WE BECOME LOST!


FINDING OUR TRUE VALUES


I believe that at our Soul/Spirit level we all have a set of Values that we support and want to live by. Finding these TRUE values takes some work of 'Soul Searching'. To find these values we need to put aside what is expected or what we should value. In order to find this we need to ask - WHAT DO I VALUE? This means we need to put to work our EGO, in a productive manner.


I know that some will disagree with the use of EGO and the centering of the self but it is a necessary and productive step. Without establishing what "I" value nothing else really matters. It is only when we have established what I value that we can properly incorporate our 'Social values', 'Cultural values' and even 'Family values'. Without the I value these other values have no worth.


When we have established our I values and incorporate the other values we can start to set our Life on the course we want our Life to take (our Life Path).

WHY we have Feelings:

In order to discuss our Feelings we need to agree on the meaning of "Feelings"; at least for this post. Feelings can have many different meanings - "I feel cold", "You hurt my feelings", "Did you feel that?", "How do you feel today?". I have also been told that LOVE is a FEELING. I think the best way  to define what this post is about is to call it our "Emotional Feelings" - "You hurt my feelings." In a earlier post I talked about our Feelings originate from one of two Emotions - Love or Fear (August 26 post). It is these Emotional-Feelings that this post is about.

---

Our Life does not come with an instruction book or manual on how to deal with these Feelings. Our many feelings can change quickly or can persist for a length of time. Our Feelings can be our biggest challenge to understand and to utilize in a productive manner. Why do we Feel bad? Why do we feel good? What is the purpose of our FEELINGS?


Classical Science:

Science tells us that it is our Brain that produces and releases different chemicals into our body that produces our many different feelings. I believe that these chemicals are a byproduct of our Feelings, it is our Feelings that cause the production and release of these chemicals. The reason why I say this is that science has yet to actually reproduce these Feelings. The chemical industry tries to control our Feelings with what we call "Uppers & Downers" and the best they can do is to mask our Feelings with an artificial Feeling. When the "Upper or Downer" wears off, our original feeling returns, and we try to cover over with more chemicals.

The original Feeling remains! 

The artificial chemicals produces a artificial feeling that is a residue of the FEELING that would normally produce the actual chemical. This is why I think it is the FEELING that produces the chemical and not the chemical producing the FEELING.

---

Our FEELINGS are how we experience the moment or what some call the NOW!

 It is through our Feelings that we experience LIFE and our own Life. Without our Feelings we would live our Life robotically and we would actually experience little if anything. It is our Feelings that is the unknown factor in this mechanical physical reality. Classical Science has a difficult time incorporating Feelings into the calculations of our world. Science has been working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for some time trying to create intelligence, they are not working on Artificial Feelings. Even Data in the Star Trek show had trouble with his Emotional Chip.

Our Feelings are the connection between this Physical realm that is our body and the Spiritual realm that is our soul!

Our Feelings do not work in isolation or on their own. We need to consider what drives our feelings. Our  Feelings and our Thoughts are closely connected - a thought will trigger a feeling and a feeling will trigger a thought. This connection between our Feelings and our Thoughts can be a clue as to how our Feelings work. Without getting into what triggers what, we need to look past both Feelings and Thoughts to see what triggers both. Can this be our "STATE OF MIND" that triggers both out Feelings and our Thoughts?

---

STATE OF MIND:


What do I mean by our "state of mind"? I believe this is where our two emotions come into the picture - Love & Fear. We often interpret these two emotions in their extreme states - Love is often seen as a blissful state of union, Fear is often seen as the classic fight or flight setting. Both of these emotions have many times many different degrees to them. ANY state of caring or discernment is a degree of Love, ANY state of vulnerability or judgment is a degree of Fear. Love is the state that connects us to the state of ONENESS, Fear is the state that connects us to the state of SEPARATION.

Our state of mind is when we are in a mental state of Love (union) or Fear (separation). With these two states being so different it is easy to see how the state can affect our Thoughts and our FEELINGS.

Our FEELINGS are telling us is what STATE OUR MIND IS IN.

This means we can change our FEELINGS by changing the STATE OF OUR MIND. We do not need to be slaves to our FEELINGS.
Before I leave the issue of our two emotions, I want to make it perfectly clear that both Love & Fear are valuable and a critical part of our BEING. We need both Love and Fear to fulfil our potential. We all desire Love and avoid Fear;

 We need to learn how to work with our Fear!

---

Whatever triggers our FEELINGS we need to recognize them for what they are - "Our experience of the moment." We need to experience our Feelings in order to fully experience the MOMENT. If we deny our Feelings or hold onto to them we are not going to be able to experience the PRESENT MOMENT. When we try to deny our Feelings the Feeling will continue to surface and will affect how we experience the present. This is also the affect we have when we hold onto our Feelings. Our Feelings need to be EXPERIENCED and then let-go of them, so we can experience the next moment. We cannot experience the PRESENT if we are still experience a Feeling of the PAST.


A good example of this letting-go of our Feelings can be seen in young children. A child can be crying and screaming up a storm over something, then given an ice-cream and faster than the speed of light we have all smiles, with the last of the tears still dripping down the cheeks. Whatever caused the tantrum was immediately gone at the sight of the ice-cream. It is almost like a light switch that is switched on and off.


I have been told that it is easy for children because they have no history to complicate things. To me this confirms the issue of our Feelings. It is not our Feelings that are difficult to deal with, it is our ISSUES that we attach to them that complicates things.

It is this process that people often tell others - "Let it go" or "Get over it". These are easy to say, but is difficult to do without understanding what our FEELINGS are AND why we feel what we feel.

---

Expectations:

I already discussed our "State of Mind" influence on our FEELINGS but there is one other important influence on our FEELINGS that needs to be discussed - EXPECTATIONS.

We put expectations on our self and on others around us. When these expectations are achieved we feel "Happy" and to some extent "Proud". When these expectations are not achieved we feel "Disappointed or Bad". This is a simplification and our expectations can have many different degrees, much like the emotions of Love and Fear.

How we handle our EXPECTATIONS will  affect how we handle our FEELINGS. Expectations are a form of goals that we want to achieve, and on this level we can see the benefit of having expectations. It is a matter of HOW WE HANDLE our Feelings and our expectations.

How we achieve our goals (expectations) is not always a straight line or achieved in one step. When we have fallen short of our expectations we need to appreciate our step closer to our goal, and not to be disappointed for not reaching our goal. There is an old saying - "It is the journey that is more beneficial than the destination.".

When we remember that we do not have complete control how life will unfold, we need to know that LIFE will have some input into the Life that we experience. This means that our expectations are not always in our complete control, we do the best we can. We need to work towards our expectations without getting overly emotional.

---

Universal Life-Force (Chi):

The page - Wholeness of LIFE  - I commented about how we are affected by the ENERGY around us and about how we contribute our ENERGY to our environment. Our FEELINGS have a energy signature to them and we put this ENERGY to our surroundings.

This is especially true with our emotions (Love & Fear). It is often said that animals can smell 'Fear', it is not a smell or scent but a ENERGY that the animals can sense.

We can also pick-up Feelings and Emotions from those around us. This is how we can change from having a good day to a day that may not be so good. As an example; We can be Feeling good about our day as we enter our favourite Coffee Shop. At the counter some customer is having a disagreement with the cashier. When we leave the shop with our coffee we may not Feel quiet as good as we did when we entered the shop. We can pick-up some of the ENERGY from the two with the disagreement, and it has affected our Feelings.

---

Our FEELINGS are how we experience our Life and LIFE around us. What we FEEL is affected by both our "State of Mind" and our "Expectations".

The next post will be on - OUR INTENTIONS.

Core Beliefs

Next to the power of LIFE, BELIEF is the power that materializes how our Life unfolds. Most see Belief as something that is whimsical, fantasy or wishful thinking. This is not the BELIEF I am referring to here. We seldom ever question our BELIEFS, because we see them as TRUTHS and not necessarily as BELIEFS. We would not believe in something that is not TRUE, therefore we see our beliefs as truths. Even individuals that swear that there is a difference between KNOWING the truth, and that this knowing is beyond their BELIEFS - their Belief is in their KNOWING. One needs to believe that they are able to know something. This level of Belief is very fundamental of our psychic makeup, there is a difference between - "What I Believe" and "What I want to Believe". The whimsical beliefs that we all have originates from "What I want to Believe", but what we truly Believe is how our Life unfolds.




The question is how we move from what "I want to believe" to what "I believe"?


We all believe in the law of "cause and effect" that our science is based on. If we want to get physically stronger we go to the gym and exercise with the BELIEF that we will become physically stronger. The "cause" is the physical exercise and the "effect" is that we become physically stronger. This is TRUE.


What if I could show you a way of becoming physically stronger without any physical exercise? There was an experiment done at a major university in the US that wanted to explore the idea of "Mind over Matter". They had a group of volunteers, they first measured every one's finger strength, then broke them into three groups. The first group was given a finger exercise to do every day for 20 minutes for 2 weeks. It was a simple exercise of just straightening the finger and curling the finger in - repeated for 20 minutes. This first group was to do this exercise physically. The second group was told to only do the same exercise in their MINDS, no physical exercise. The third group was told not to do any exercise at all.


After the 2 weeks every one's finger strength was again measured. The first group that did the physical exercise recorded a 33% increase in their finger strength. The second group that did the exercise only in their mind recorded a surprising 20% increase in their finger strength. The third group that did no exercise showed no increase in their finger strength. What does this say about "cause & effect" Belief? - That it is not absolute!


Is it our BELIEF in "cause & effect" that creates the 13% difference between the first and second group results? If our BELIEF in "cause & effect" was not so strong would both groups have a 20% increase in their finger's strength? I can be fairly certain that the majority in the second group did not believe that their mental exercise would produce the physical results it did. I can be almost as certain that the first group believed their physical exercise would have a physical result.

---

How does our BELIEF about ourselves and about LIFE affect how our Life unfolds? What we see about our self as being TRUE(BELIEF) creates this truth. If we see our self as being stupid (because we have always been told that we are stupid) then we have no real choice but to act stupidly. We act stupidly, not because we are stupid but because we believe we are stupid, we see it as a FACT & TRUE.


There is a part in the movie "What the Bleep do we Know?" that talks about the cells in our body. The scientists talk about the issue of individuals that are fat. They state that there is some evidence that the cells in the body respond to our Beliefs - that if we believe that we are fat, then the cells have a tendency to store more calories instead of burning the calories. Our body's cells are acting to make our BELIEF true.


There is also the PLACEBO effect too. Where someone BELIEVES they are receiving a medication for their health issue and is cured - in fact they only received a "Sugar-pill". It is their BELIEF that cures them not the medication.


This CORE LEVEL OF BELIEF controls our physical world more than we think. There are no GOOD OR BAD BELIEFS, there are only EMPOWERING AND LIMITING BELIEFS. We need to ask our self if our BELIEFS empower us or limits us?


For more reading and information about BELIEF I recommend the following books;


The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden


Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton Ph.D.

Acceptance

Acceptance is where we are trying to get to, it is our destination. The issue of ACCEPTANCE is tricky and is a issue of BALANCE. If there was a better word I would use it, but acceptance is the only word that describes what I am talking about here.

1. We need to agree on the use of "ACCEPTANCE". When I am talking about our need to accept some issue we are dealing with, I do not mean that the issue is "okay or acceptable". I do mean that we need to accept the issue for what it is - be it acceptable or not. We can accept it as being unacceptable.
2. The issue of BALANCE is a issue of WHAT we are accepting. The best way to describe this is with an example. A medical doctor broke his lower back in an accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. He knew the prognoses as being in a wheelchair for the rest of his Life. The doctor accepted the fact his back was broken - he did not accept the fact that he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his Life. His belief in LIFE overcoming difficult situations meant that he believed that if he kept sending the message from his brain to his legs to move, that LIFE would find a way to get the message through. It took him 2 years of sending the message, but he was walking again. This is the BALANCE I am referring to - accepting his situation, not accepting his limited future.

The issue of acceptance is important when we are struggling with an issue or dealing with our suffering. When we are struggling with a issue or an experience we are having, we often have difficulty coming to terms with what we are experiencing. The struggle often results from our denial or judgments of the experience we are having. It is these denials and judgments that we attach to our experiences that causes our struggles and our suffering.


Often this process of ACCEPTING OUR ISSUES is seen as succumbing to fate or some other way of passively accepting what happens to us, with little or no control over our Lives. This is the farthest from the truth, acceptance gives us our power back to us - we are not controlled by our experiences. When we accept our issues for WHAT THEY ARE, we are much more able to deal with them in a productive manner and we are free to have new experiences.


Why ACCEPTANCE is important:


When we are struggling with our issues, we are living in our past, as we are struggling with issues that we have already experienced. These issues affect our present as we are too focused on them that we project them onto our present experiences, this limits our experiences of the present - this we call suffering.


When we accept our issues for what they are and we deal with them appropriately we become FREE from them. This freedom allows us to experience the present for what it has to offer, without clouding it with our past.

The past is done,

The future is yet to be,

The present is the real gift, that is why it is call the "present".

I recommend the book - Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach Ph.D. for more reading and information concerning the power of ACCEPTANCE.

Suffering

What is SUFFERING?


Human suffering can be many things that we are faced with. These can include - hunger, survival, pain (physical & emotional), denial, loss, self-esteem, judgments and other afflictions.


What we call suffering is a form of LEARNING. When we are dealing with these above afflictions we are SUFFERING until we have learned what the afflictions mean and how to deal with them and to accept them into our lives.


Why we SUFFER?


Life does not come with a book of instructions. We have so much to learn and to process - feelings, defining our self, defining our environment, understanding LIFE and other important issues of who "I am" and "My Life". These are things that each individual needs to learn and is not easily taught. We need to LEARN these issue through LIVING and EXPERIENCING, not through another. Others may assist and support us, but it is the individual that needs to experience LIFE.


There are different levels of suffering, from a very mild form to a very serve form. The mild form we may not even see as "suffering", when we learn and accept issues easily and quickly, to issues that we struggle with. The more we struggle the more we suffer.


Why we STRUGGLE?


When we are struggling we are in the process of assimilating different afflictions that we are experiencing - feelings, health, loss, desires and other similar issues. We struggle with them because we are in a state of DENIAL or because we are having a difficult time understanding them and HOW to assimilate (accept) them.


Denial is a big reason why we struggle and suffer over our ISSUES. We often deny our issues, when the issue we are experiencing does not align with our 'belief system". Denial is our attempt not to ACCEPT the experience we are having. Sometimes we are having a challenge in understanding what we are experiencing and why. Understanding our experiences can also cause us to hang-on to these issues, sometimes we need to just ACCEPT them for what they are - the meaning may come to us later. It is this hanging-on to issues that the often used Spiritual saying "let it go" comes from. SOMETIMES when we 'let go' the meaning and the why is revealed to us.

---

ACCEPTANCE is a big tool for us to use in reducing the level of SUFFERING that we experience. This ACCEPTANCE can be a complicated sense of BALANCE that we need to maintain.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is finding the BALANCE between the two extremes of LOVE and FEAR. Where we can actually CREATE the Life we have come here to experience.

Most spiritual teachings define ENLIGHTENMENT as returning to the LIGHT or the ONE. In this objective it is appropriate to denounce the EGO, as there is no place for the EGO in the ONE. The EGO is a part of this physical realm of the TWO - the individual (EGO).

Why do we see ENLIGHTENMENT as denouncing this Physical Realm and to center our AWARENESS on the Spiritual Realm? We are CREATORS IN OUR OWN RIGHT, we create here in the Physical. It is here in the Physical that the ONENESS is expressed in the WHOLENESS OF LIFE.

Instead of focusing our AWARENESS on either the Spiritual or Physical we need to understand the importance and relevancy of both the Spiritual and Physical. It is only when we have a BALANCED approach to both of these Realms that we can start to CREATE the Life we want to create here in the Physical.

---

The first step in reaching this BALANCE is to understand that we are a intricate PART of this Physical Life, that we are not as separate as we think we are. This understanding is reinforced when we start to work with the Universal Life-Force or Chi energy. When we become sensitive to our Energy Body and the energy around us, we start to feel the CONNECTION to everything.

WE ARE CREATORS IN OUR OWN RIGHT - we create our DAY every day, how we interact with our environment will dictate how our DAY will be created.

Love & Fear

In the Spiritual Community we often talk about LOVE and that LOVE is the light and that we need to be in the place of LOVE. I have often asked what do we really mean by this and what is LOVE. I don't always get an answer to my question - often I am told that "if I have to ask then I am missing something". To me this tells me that the person either does not know what LOVE is or is unable to express it. Some tell me - "LOVE is a FEELING and if I do not FEEL LOVE then I have lots of spiritual work to do".

To me LOVE is more than a FEELING, LOVE is one of only 2 EMOTIONS that ALL of our many FEELINGS originates from. 

LOVE is the emotion of ONENESS - all of our many good and positive FEELINGS originates when we are connected to the ONENESS of LIFE.

FEAR is the emotion of SEPARATION - all of our many bad and negative FEELINGS originates when we feel SEPARATE from LIFE.

LOVE only represents half of our FEELINGS, what are we to do with the other half? Are we suppose to ignore or disown all of our negative feelings? If this is true why do we even have them? Are we given negative feelings to complicate our Lives, to learn to discard them?