Post No. 489 - Attaining mastery

I recently came across an idea that it is necessary to spend 10,000 hours practising something before one has mastered it. If I recall correctly, that was allegedly based on the hours that the Beatles spent learning music and then refining their act in Hamburg. From my point of view, if I think about driving a car, I often tell people it took until about 10 years after I got my drivers licence for me to feel comfortable driving. A lot of that time I actually didn't have a car (uni student), but when I did get a car after I graduated, I drove over 100,000 km in three years for work - sometimes up to 1,000 km in a day, and now I'm probably somewhere between 900,000 and 1,000,000 km (I was thinking per car when I wrote an earlier, lower figure), and the last accident I was involved in was when a car stopped too close behind me and, when hit by a car behind it, was thrown into my car, and that was back in the early 90s, so ... not 10,000 hours of driving to get to reasonable  'mastery' back then, but some very good experience in that time which probably helped to make what time I have useful experience (ever driven on Queensland's black soil territory, which is inland and around the middle of the State, when it's wet, trying to dodge sharp bits of timber and other construction debris at the same time ... in a two wheel drive car? I have: it's like trying to drive on ice while dodging spikes - good experience for wet conditions generally ... ).

My day job is something that I have definitely had more than 10,000 hours of experience in - at 40 hours per week, it takes around five and a half years to get that time, so the general attitude that engineers start to be more useful after around five years' experience possibly has some basis (other than the fact of observation - the time at uni doesn't count: that just gets you a licence to start learning).

In sailing we had a similar approach, but it was based on miles of sailing ... and, sad to say, I can't recall what the criteria were (they were developed during the 70s as part of an approach to introduce national consistency in teaching sailing - which didn't work because it had some phenomenally stupid things in it as a result of the bias created by flat water sailors from down south - Sydney, for instance [I was living in Queensland at the time, remember :) ] ). In any case, with sailing up to three times a week, I had a fair bit of dinghy experience - and, as most of that was in rough weather exacerbated by a six knot tidal current, that was the reason I and others at our central Queensland sailing club could safely take Heron sailing dinghies out in waves over 20' in height (and did not perform anywhere near as well in the light conditions that the Sydney people excelled in). I still emphasise, when teaching sailing, that is necessary to work gradually up to such things. Your first year sailing should be in winds between 5 and 15 knots (sailing in conditions that are too light is as bad for learning as trying to sail in winds that are too strong), and then you can slowly, gradually start extending it out until, after, say, three years at least, your safe sailing range is 1 to 30 knots of wind. (There is a similar guide for waves, but size is not necessarily the issue. Any wave going against a six knot current is going to be difficult ... square, we used to term it.)

What I would like you to consider however, is the typical person who is trying to develop their psychic ability. Let's say they do ... oh, perhaps ... two hours of a development circle per week, for maybe ... 50 weeks a year (that number is for the convenience of the maths - it is likely to be a lot fewer weeks). At that rate, they will achieved the 10,000 hours after ... 100 years ...

Finding it hard to get the results you want?

Try   practising   more ...

I mentioned an example of this from the musical world. Many non-musical people (such as myself) look at performers, think it is wonderful, and think they could grab a guitar and, a few easy lessons later, be outshining Santana, or Mark Knopfler, or Brian May, or John Williams, or Tommy Emmanuel, or - well, you get the idea. They don't know of the hundreds of hours of practise to develop and then speed up their coordination, the development of muscular strength and calloused finger tips (I once "did" [yeah, it was me and the cat listening] a version of the wonderful song Yesterday with words along the lines of "Yesterday, all my finger tips were band aid free, now I play guitar you see ..." etc - and no, I won't give up my day job :) ), learning new songs, refining coordination with other muso's  they just think that the final result looks so effortless that it must be effortless.

It's not. Not for music, and not for psychic abilities.

When I ran regression-rescue groups, I drilled my sitters on practising fundamental techniques, such as clearing links, or objects, or types of energies. Bored the hell out of them - but it is what is needed, if you are going to be serious about this.

So ... how about keeping a diary or log, and see how many hours you have to accumulate before you attain your desired level of competence?

Now, for your information, this notion of 10,000 hours comes from Malcolm Gladwell's [2] book "Outliers", which has attracted admirers and critics, so you may also wish to consider viewing:

• http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/20/10000-hours-may-not-make-a-master-after-all/, which says 10,000 hours may not be enough; 
• http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/08/psychology-ten-thousand-hour-rule-complexity.html, in which the original author of the source book for this concept provides some balance to the debate, including that chess masters have between 10,000 and 50,000 hours of experience, and that this is based on mental development, rather than physical (driving is clearly mental; sailing dinghies is both physical and mental); and
• http://www.wisdomgroup.com/blog/10000-hours-of-practice/. 

Another thought I have had about this is that parents would possibly consider that they've got 10,000 hours of parenting fairly early on, but that figure would really be for each major development stage of the child's life. So ... once you've mastered the art of being parent to a toddler, you have to master the art of parenting a small child, and then master the art of dealing with teenagers, and so on and so forth. No wonder parents get so exhausted!

The good thing is, both for these sets of skills and all others, that you can, to some extent, accelerate your learning and mastery by drawing on the experiences of others. Of course, in the case of parenting, you have to find someone who succeeded at the style of parenting [3] you feel comfortable with - if someone is a success at a different style of parenting than your style, it is pointless listening to them - it would be like a brain surgeon trying to tell a burns specialist what to do: both medical people, but vastly different approaches.

[3] On that, I had a young friend who was worrying about making a decision about whether or not to have a child as her biological clock ticked on, and to help her, I came up with the following table. I tried the table out on a few others, and the only extra suggestion I got was add in being fit during pregnancy, but others I knew disputed the importance of that. It's not a guide to parenting: it's the start of a guide to making a decision about whether or not to aim towards becoming a parent. One of the issues I consider many people in such situations need to consider, is that of parenting style.

Oh, and I quite liked the car window sticker I saw today .. "be the change you wish to see in your children"

A plan for having kid(s)

Issue	Explanation / sub-issue	Options	Comments	Conclusion
1. Lifestyle / finances
	Exactly how much money is needed?	Spend a week or two buying groceries as if have a toddler (including nappies), tot, primary school and secondary school kid? Work out budget for these cases?	Level of schooling. If want private school, need more money Some consider financial issues are given undue importance.	Do a budget, and supplement by trial shopping for a week or two if needed.
		Minor supplementary options	Government grants etc aren’t much.
2. Support	This is most commonly from a partner.
		Be single	There are exceptions to having a partner - e.g., women who are widowed after giving birth, some women who plan of raising a kid alone.	If single, a recommended action could be to use disposable nappies, for instance, but others disagree.
		Current partner	Do they want kids? If they do, and have previous kids, they are making an informed decision.	Look at other options (more “spreads the burden” of support, cuts the load down to something an occasional enjoyment for the supporter). Relationships can always end, so other options are probably prudent anyway. In other words: plan multiple back up supports for physical illness etc.
		Child’s grandparents. Need to cover: is this OK in principle first, then when how etc, and finally specifics (styles of discipline, etc )	Issues about relationship to these people? Many grandparents like grandkids.
		Others?	Friends / family / honorary “aunts/uncles” fairly common in extended families and lesbian etc communities. How would you feel about these people? Need to cover same issues as for grandparents (when can call on, any limits, etc).
3. Physical preparation (1) - the environment
	Need baby stuff and space for baby.
		Space:	Initially could be in same room as parent, but should be in a separate room as grows older.
		Getting baby stuff. Can get little bit at a time. Where store it? (See space issue above.)	Baby needs: - baby bath - bouncinette, - cot, - nappy bag, - bottles and various size/style teats (babies have their likes and dislikes too - especially the fashion conscious ones), - plastic cutlery (there is some which changes colour when gets hot) - steriliser (groceries + plastic box or similar to disinfect bottles) + bottle scrubbing brush, - clothes (op shop / friends’ cast offs for baby/toddler? - face washers / nappies (for spillages, burping, etc) - turkey baster (see item 5) and commemorative frame. Later will be more expensive as grows.) - blankets - toys - children’s books (range of ages) - school uniforms and books etc (as grows up)
4. Physical preparation (2) - the Mum To Be
	Before becoming pregnant.		Mother's physical health - comprehensive tests are needed, including Status of immunisation; if need booster for some (can't remember the specific one but I can find out) she will need to wait 6 months or so before getting pregnant
	When pregnant.		Morning sickness varies: some have severe problems, some don’t. Consider provisions if it is severe (e.g., talk to work HR officer).
4. Parenting skills
	Actual skills required.	Grandparents. Is public support through community nurses, etc.	Consider having foster kids for a while first, to see how you go.	Start by talking to own GP or a social worker.
	How is confidence? Almost no parent feels confident initially but could be a big issue.	“Trial run” by some respite care for kids / limited term fostering?		?
	Physical issues	Doctor / health care centres	Seek to have own health as good as possible before pregnancy.	Start by talking to own GP
	Interruption to sleep	Happens. How handle it? e.g. - minimise other commitments, have support networks to help share load etc (even if DO have partner).	Plan multiple back up supports for physical illness etc.
5. Parenting roles	Male role model.	Can be arranged if no male partner, either through sperm donor or other male friends.
		Sperm donors: … ah, … er, …		Talk to _ re legal issues, _ re health issues / screening
7. Purpose
	Wanting a baby is understandable, but what is going to result in feeling worthwhile / fulfilled? Healthy baby and child? Mature / competent offspring? Someone to look after in old age? How feel when arguing? What are the down times one would expect? Would one be concerned if the baby turned out to be ho-mo-sex-ual, transgender, intersexed or a politician? What about Downs, lack of interest in intellectual stuff, etc?

Main issues:

Do a budget (just like doing a business plan dearie :) ), and supplement by trial shopping for a week or two if needed.

Consider fostering as a trial.

Plan multiple back up supports for physical illness etc (child’s grandparents, Rent-A-Grandmother [RAG for short] _, etc).

Commit to a space.

Start accumulating baby and tot stuff when space commitment made.

Talk to own GP re physical care, health centres, etc.

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• One size does NOT fit all. 
• Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if  the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
• The means shape the end.  
• Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
• As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
• My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Jesus loves you.  Odin wants you to grow up. (Facebook meme, according to John Beckett)

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech) 

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that -- counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1968

Tags: attitudes, boredom, children, family, mastery, parenting, persistence, practice, skills, 

First published: Fryrsdagr, 22nd November, 2013

Last edited: Friday, 22nd November, 2013

Post No. 413 - Forms, Living in Chakras (more), fear, and some miscellaneous thoughts [Content Warning: social/group control, fear]

Forms

As I type this (well, a few days later now, as I edit it :) ), we (I, my partner, and a friend who needed a break) are in our favourite country retreat, a friend who needs a break sleeping on the fold out settee in the lounge, the sun has recently risen, and the birds haven't called for a few minutes. It's crisp outside: a late frost, and we haven't been out this way for some time (cut backs at work have seen me go back to four days a week some time ago). Still, we're very aware of the privilege we have in being able to come here at all - aware, and extremely grateful.

Like a lot (but not all!) of people who are psychic to a significant degree, I need a certain amount of solitude. The best analogy I can come up for it is the need for decompression that HSP (Highly Sensitive People) [1] need. On top of that, life has been particularly demanding for a few years, so it does my heart and soul (and psychic aura :) ) good to come out here occasionally. (Occasionally? We'd live here if we could!)

And already it has started to pay off.

This morning, I actually enjoyed doing my psychic forms for the first time in some months. Forms, you ask? Well, martial arts people talk glibly about "doing forms" (a bit like a conversation about faxes I had many years ago [Note 3] ), and what they basically mean is "PRACTISING TILL THE COWS COME HOME OR IT HURTS, WHICHEVER COMES LATER". Funny thing about practice - which is an ever so unfashionable word these days: in general, the more you do it, the better you get. When I was sailing competitively as a kid, we would go out before races and practice things like tacking, roll-tacking, rounding marks, gybing, making changes to sail settings (we evolved our own communication system, us teenagers, to overcome the issue that people often have different ideas of units, meaning sizes, so I would say "tighten the vang an inch ... now let it out about a third of that" - which meant my crew's idea of an inch was what I would call an inch and a half [the maths does work - get someone to help you, or email me]: trying to get us to both agree on what an estimated inch was, was just stupid: people have differences, accept the differences - on both sides, treat them with respect, and get on with a way of overcoming those to enable effective work together). We even, I kid you not, practiced capsizing, so we could recover from a capsize during a race quickly - and had people subsequently comment on how quickly, how "miraculously" quickly, we had recovered and kept going - possibly not even losing a place in the race.

It wasn't a miracle: it was hard bloody work.

A world champion sailor from the UK (I think it was Rodney Pattison, who was extraordinarily successful in the Flying Dutchman [1] class in the 60s) was once told by someone else that he was lucky. His response was, the more he practised, the luckier he got. When you practice like that, almost every day, you get to be able to pick the signs of wind shifts, and that is what I suspect this conversation was about. The person making the inane comment probably thought going sailing a couple of times a month earned the right to automatically know everything and be flawlessly perfect in execution.

Rubbish.

But just doing something over and over again is not effective practice. You have to actually care about it, and use all your repetitions to try and make things better. As an example, when I was training for the Gay Games [1] in Sydney, to get the crew movements in the boat right, I drew isometric sketches for each of us to study between practice sessions on the water of who moved where, when. That's something I've had a little skill (no doubt from past lives where I have PRACTISED and thereby developed this skill), and want to incorporate into a book on how to sail one day. In an case, it was something that, when we DISPASSIONATELY (means, in this context, objective, NOT uncaring) discussed what we were doing, and how to improve it, was one of the best things we came up with.

So.

Coming back to this morning.

Practicing clearing skills is one of the most important things for any person who is going to get serious about doing rescue work. Practising psychic skills seriously (which means far more than a once a week, or once an occasional week, development class) is vital for people who are trying to do spiritual work.

Practising spirituality is vital for those who wish to be more spiritual.

Think it can't be done? Have a look at what I've written about nonphysical strength, and get creative :)

So, my work this morning.

Well, one of the things I get newbies to do is to pair up, and practice have one person find a class of unit to clear - let's say a psychic cord, which I was taught to refer to as a link - and the other check independently (checking - that's another unfashionable word) that the first had found the correct number, location, etc of links to clear. Then the first person would clear the links, and the second would check that the link had been cleared properly (I NEVER cut a link - I dissolve it with light and love). Swap roles, and then repeat for energies, objects, and, if they were skilled enough, cooperative rescues or even uncooperative rescues.

It is also possible to do this on your own, doing your own checks on completion and accuracy (I usually teach people to visualise a bottle [4], and then get their BPF [1] Guides / their Higher Self to show how full it the bottle is, as a check on, for instance, how much of the clearing that is meant to be done for the Highest Spiritual Good (HSG) [5] ).

So (I promise I will get tired of that word in a week or three :) ), after my colour breathing and chakra work, I did some clearing of "negative" (spiritually destructive - which is a clumsy term I won't bother to use for the rest of this post) links, and strengthening of "positive" (spiritually constructive - which is a clumsy term I won't bother to use for the rest of this post) links, and then moved on to objects. Initially I found a jumble of units which had been constructed by links on the etheric, lower astral and lower mental levels: clearing the links made it easy to clear (meaning, "dissolve in love and light") those. It was a bit unusual, as I generally find nonphysical objects are debris from life. Amway, next, I found I had non-physically been infested with spiders. That was interesting, as I had found myself thinking I must be careful of spiders in this little cottage (I've borrowed the description of where we're staying from my partner, who hails originally from Kent), which I've never thought before when here. Getting rid of those, which were a mixture of thought forms and entities, was more challenging, and effectively came down to a mixture of uncooperative rescue and clearing - including tracing some links back to their creator. This was someone who looked (in the lower astral) to be a deformed male. The person was someone (well, more strictly correct, an aspect of someone) I had killed on a battlefield long ago - literally centuries ago, and the deformation was the emotional and mental scars created by that act. I know, as I've dealt with such deformations in myself as well - both from acts of physical violence, and those far worse caused by emotional or mental (including verbal) violence. So, I set about healing this particular person - without guilt: just a sense of responsibility and caring. Yes, I had caused that, but I am aware that the person concerned has also caused the same to others, and I've also been on the receiving end of such behaviour. Furthermore, if I was consumed by guilt or remorse, I would be incapable of objectively assessing what the person needed - which, for what it is worth, could well have included an apology from me, but it could equally well not have been constructive. For this sort of work, you need to stop having the focus on yourself that IS guilt or remorse (in my experience, most people expressing guilt or remorse are really afraid of the anger of the person they have wronged, rather than genuinely caring of the person's wellbeing6: that doesn't stop me, however, from advocating for apologies as a very good first step :) ).

So, I no longer have the desire to get out of bed and look under it for spiders.

If you're beginning on this path, and thus aren't sure what to do, just ask, from time to time, for any non-BPF units which can be cleared from you to be removed by the BPF to a golden pyramid, for clearing in sleep state. Then, when you go to sleep, your more aware astral (or higher) self (selves!) can do the necessary clearing under the guidance of your BPF Guides.

Underlying principles (I've had a reminder that I need to add these back in to my posts - apologies for having slacked off on this)

• we have more than just a physical
• the physical components (more than one!) mostly survive death (the exception is the etheric, which is a collection of energies that forms and sustains the physical body, and leads to things like Kirlian photography)
• our interactions with people can lead to linkages, including actual links ("psychic cords")
• those links survive death of the physical, and are one of the mechanisms for the return of karma
• by learning lessons (i.e. why did you make that error in the first place - GENUINELY why, not a simple "buy off teacher" platitude) and using suitable psychic techniques (largely, generating positive, loving energies and then directing them with visualisation), it is possible to dissolve those links, thereby helping to partly undo the harm you've done in the past, and thus reducing the amount of karmic return you have to experience
• the extent of benefit from this depends how genuine you are, and how good you are with the techniques
• practice makes perfect - including in psychic and spiritual matters
• you have to keep at this until the lesson is fully absorbed and integrated by you, the conscious reading this, your unconscious (which is really your parallels or soul parts, but that's a topic for another post7) and your Higher Self
• you have had many lives, and, if you're anywhere near spiritual, have made many mistakes and harmed others along the way. Ignore the easy cop-out of claiming to be some sort of incarnate light being who has not done wrong: there are such people, but they are few and far between, and you're better off looking at the large amount of work you have to do to sort yourself and what you've set into motion out, than indulging in something which gives a quick "feel-good" fix and thereby delays you taking proper responsibility for yourself and the impact you have, and have had, on the world, and people and places in it.

Note that I sometimes sign off my posts with a reference to being grumpy: it ain't entirely a joke ... :)

Living in Chakras

We have been watching the brilliant BBC TV series "Scott and Bailey" - great scripts, believable characterisation, good dramatic story lines, character development - and strong women! (On that, I am currently developing a set of cards based on the Valkyries: hmmmm, strong women and death - a double bunger of things that modern Western society is afraid of!).

There are times, however, when one of the lead characters, Rachel Bailey ... does some stupid things. I still don't have an adults only filter on this blog, so I'll use some vague euphemisms and write that, if she were male, she would be said to be ruled by a lower appendage: as a woman, she could perhaps - to be equally crude - be said to be ruled by female equivalent. She makes bad decisions because she seems to have an at times desperate need for interaction on the level of the second (which governs sexual interactions, amongst other matters) and (solar plexus self-based emotional needs) chakras - and, incidentally, I notice that many people tend to dress up these interactions as if they were all about heart chakra interactions (i.e. unconditional love), and use that dressed up facade to beat the other person around the head. That happens far less when you're in situations that are more honest, such as polyamory [1].

I'm working on my Chakra Workshop notes (due early next year), and am looking forward to maybe turning them into a small booklet. There are a whole host of other things I'm getting on this notion of "living in" chakras - such as that some people can find it traumatic, or at least scary (a translation of the "challenging" buzz word), when their focus starts to change from living in one, or one particular set of, chakra(s). That can show itself as anger, denial of the importance of the new chakra(s), over-reactions ("oh so I may as well give up < insert manifestation of the chakra(s) which will have reduced importance after the change >"), and so on. Also, if someone is out of balance (e.g., some sort of addiction, perhaps), another way of dealing with that could be to increase the activity of adjacent chakras (don't try to suppress the chakra that is being overstimulated - that just leads to conflict, resentment and suppression). This also applies, to some extent, if one's needs at a particular chakra level are not being met. Hence, for instance, if your need emotional interaction of the Solar Plexus Chakra type are not being met, then you can sustain the health of that chakra and PARTIALLY meet those needs by directing in energy from adjacent chakras (and other chakras, if you are skilled enough) by visualisation. This doesn't take away pain, or properly meet those needs, but it gives that chakra a general boost, and makes coping with the pain a bit easier. Perhaps it could be thought of as psychic pain-killer ...

Going back to Scott and Bailey, ... well, maybe I will have to think about adding that filter, and be even blunter.

Underlying principles

• we have energy centres in our bodies;
• some of these energy centres are known as chakras, and have a range of functions including connecting the physical to higher frequency levels of existence (etheric, lower and upper astral, lower and upper psychic/mental, etc) - specifically, our bodies on those levels, allowing the higher levels to sustain the physical, particularly in certain areas (such as self-focused emotional needs through the solar plexus chakra;
• as well as interacting with particular non-physical energies, the chakras CAN actually interact with each other, and I sometimes use tuning all the chakras to a particular combination of frequencies so they can work together and create an overall effect;
• the chakras can be stimulated, to some extent, but psychic development exercises, which will enhance those associated functions, and then can be desensitised back to a normal energetic state afterwards;
• a few minutes visualisation will NOT stimulate the Kundalini: the energy felt by many people during such exercises is a reflection of how much energy is not tapped by us in normal life;
• for more on chakras, see here (which includes a nice engineering style table), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Fear

One of the matters I take issue with the new Age movement is that so much of it seems to be based solely on looking at positives. I can understand that, given that life can be such a bummer at times, but the reality is, we ALL have a shadow self, a collection of bits and pieces that have to, ultimately, be looked at and come to terms with. I notice this particularly with past life regressions, where people seem to almost be paranoid about avoiding any past life which could suggest that they have done something wrong.

That is a major flaw, one capable of undermining the past life regression to the extent that it becomes, at best, useless, and at worst, misleading.

It is important to be able to look at oneself honestly - not just in past life regressions, so why don't we?

Well, I think fear is a great, unacknowledged factor here. Sure, lack of skill, poor regressionist practice, lack of objectivity, inability to take a broader perspective - all these things and others could have an influence, but I return to my point that I consider simple, common, everyday, garden variety FEAR could be a major problem.

And I don't refer to the "fear of our inner greatness" email that keeps floating round on the Internet, the one that keeps getting wrongly attributed to the Dalai Lama (it was actually Marianne Williamson - see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson). I have no great objection to that email, but there is this other aspect to fear - the fear that we might, in our innermost being, be as selfish, conceited and negative as those we and those around us disparage.

I understand that R. G. Menzies, a former Conservative Prime Minister of Australia, once said (in the 1950s, I think) words to the effect that he didn't need to ban the Communist Party, as the control exerted in the living rooms of suburbia was a far more effective limiting influence.

Don't underestimate the fear of social disapproval - even if that disapproval would be completely and utterly hypocritical. I have had people smugly put me down when I've said something about past mistakes, when I know that those same people who doing far worse than I at that time.

Of course, what this effectively relies on, is that part of our being IS aware of what we have done - some small, inner voice does know, or in some small, dark, hidden place within us that which the Water of Lethe are supposed to block seeps through, and the truth pricks us most uncomfortably.

The solution? Calmly, objectively, dispassionately, set about taking responsibility for your self. I've started reading Kerr Cuhulain's excellent book "Modern Knighthood - Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World", and there is some really good stuff in that on this topic.



For more on this topic, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

A Few Miscellaneous Points

I consider we should eat local food as part of simplifying our lives - the same as I consider furniture and houses should be arranged such that housework is easy and quick, so you don't have to take time and energy and effort away from important things (if you things otherwise, I would ask "is your life really so boring and empty?" That is, of course, an unfair question ... isn't it?). Now, foodies may not like to have to consider this, but, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. That's something that often crops up as a thought in engineering, but a lot of the food variety people take for granted today involves major transport - for instance, bringing out of season fruits from overseas - or prolonged storage at low temperatures, both of which contribute to harming the environment by consuming power/fuel (and then there is the embedded GHGs [1] in steel and insulation, etc).

Next, when we get a lift from somewhere/someone/something, we also exert a drag down on it: if you've felt better after going to a place or person, you should ALWAYS ask Deity/the Universe/your BPF Guides/your collective Higher Selves for it to be uplifted, healed and re-energised in return. An awareness of that effect is one of the reasons I aim to be as self reliant and capable (i.e., an spiritual adult) as possible.

Now, one of the sets of people who almost unfailingly annoy me are conspiracy theorists. I think they are often seeking distraction and entertainment to pass time at the expense of other people - but a comment I posted some time ago, to the effect that they're trying to impose order on what is frightening chaos, could also be applicable [8]. Recently, as I did some clearing, a thought occurred to me, that the problem is that conspiracy theorists assume people in the physical are aware and actively involved in what is being theorised - such as the "the US government did 9/11", or the idea of "economic Shock Doctrine". The truth is, such things may be happening on non-physical levels (a lot of them aren't!), but aren't at conscious level. Thus, for instance, a politician may wish on the physical level for something like a war to take voters minds off internal problems, and this tends to be latched on by negative forces on the non-physical and thus is created. This activity on non-physical levels is what Dion Fortune was working against and wrote about in "The Magical Battle of Britain" (see here).

Now, I would like to come to something that that I know some people are confused or uncertain about: lighting candles online, rather than physically. I do this quite a deal over at the nshrine site (I've just rearranged how I do this to minimise the amount of time required for this). Now, the key to lighting these effectively, JUST AS WITH ANY OTHER MAGICKAL WORK, is the mental focus and effort I put into the lighting. THAT ALSO APPLIES TO LIGHTING CANDLES IN THE PHYSICAL LEVEL. Actually, that is a misnomer, as the online candles also exist physically - true, it is basically a bunch of electrons on some of the PHYSICAL severs that run the Internet (so, when people say, it exists somewhere "out there", in the electronic aether, as if there is nothing physical about it, they are basically talking rubbish). One of the benefits of that bunch of electrons being there, so close to so many other electrons created by, and therefore linked to, other people, is that they can possibly connect more easily to those people I wish to connect to (e.g., people who can help with medical conditions) than trying to do it through the physical. So, I actually consider lighting candles via the Internet to potentially be very nearly as effective as lighting other physical candles, provided it is done with appropriate mental focus and effort - which also applies to the other physical candles. The downside is that, nothing is transformed from the physical to nonphysical state (as happens when a physical candle is burned): the idea here is that the wax which is evaporated symbolises, and thus assists, transfer from the physical to the astral, where Deities etc answer the request behind the burning. Well, in truth, all that happens there is a phase change: the wax atoms still exist in the physical realm, so perhaps the "transformation" from my keyboard to the "electronic aethers" (which, as with the atoms in the wax, is really still existing in the physical) can symbolise that - to some extent. I will grant that, overall, a proficient practitioner lighting a physical candle is slightly more effective than a proficient practitioner lighting an on-line candle, but the difference is so small that the on-line versions still do count. Also, doing it online is cheaper, and POSSIBLY more environmentally friendly ...

Finally, as I mentioned, I've started reading Kerr  Cuhulain's excellent book "Modern Knighthood - Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World" - I bought it as a PDF e-book some time ago, and have now only just started getting round to reading it. As I read it, I initially started to disagree with the comments about loss of manners in recent years (and I still do disagree that some perceived problems are a recent only phenomenon), but I've noticed a decline in some engineering standards at work - for instance, very few people now understand how wastewater treatment lagoons work (I won't bother giving you a link on those as the info out on the net is so poor). I think some of this is the downside of the changes made to the Victorian water industry in the 90s (there were some benefits as well - previous bureaucracy had made implementing changes impossible; mind you, the claimed benefits of access to funding is tied up with the moronic mind set that somehow sees community ASSETS such as roads, schools, hospitals and water and sewerage as liabilities if money is owed on them, which is particularly stupid mind set when one takes intergenerational transfer into consideration [I used to argue this in the 90s, but, sadly, I didn't have the term "intergenerational transfer" available to use - and it would have helped with the nongs I was talking to]). Anyway, the book so far is a great read. You can get it the link I have above.

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. 





[3 ]This conversation took place in the 80s, when faxes had just come out. I've seen electric typewriters come to workplaces, telexes, faxes - and even the arrival of PCs. Yes, chillun, once 'pon a time, the worlds didna hae tablets, nor even lap tops - nor e'en personal com-pu-ters. (My class at high school was the first to learn how to use a computer - not a small PC, one of the big ones you marked up cards for and then fed the cards into a card reader, and the last to learn how to use a slide rule. So, going back to the con-ver-sa-tion (sorry - got a funny story telling accent stuck in my head :) ), a Contractor and I were out in the field, and we both knew our respective bosses had been reluctant to spend all the money required to get a fax machine (which many older companies still have, and rarely use - despite the legal status [largely around uncertainty of transmission] of emails, text messages, and the like being either undefined or poorly defined), and one casually said to the other "I'll fax the details over - you've got a fax machine, haven't you?" "Of course."

[4] I used to specify a milk bottle, but very few people know what that is, these days - let lone know of the days when the milko would have a horse trundling through the street and run back and forth picking up emptied and washed bottles and replacing them with the bottles of unhomogenised milk that a note asked for ... one of my uncles used to do this, and had a few funny stories, including about horses knowing the milk delivery route better than a new milko, and trying to get the milko to go faster, for example.

[5] That doesn't necessarily mean everything is cleared. You may be MEANT to go through hard times to test yourself, or develop some aspect of yourself, or  perhaps just to pay off some karma.

[6Think of a stereotypical image of a teenager (they're most definitely NOT all like this, but the image is useful) saying sorry, which always reminds me of the days when people thought they buy forgiveness from the neo-Christian Church in the Middle Ages

[7] This can be considered similar to getting maybe eight distant, grumpy relatives to agree wholeheartedly and genuinely with you. 

[8] The quote was: 
My last quote is from Alan Moore [2], on the topic of conspiracy theories:

"Yes, there is a conspiracy, indeed there are a great number of conspiracies, all tripping each other up… the main thing that I learned about conspiracy theories is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in the conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy, or the grey aliens, or the twelve-foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control, the truth is far more frightening; no-one is in control, the world is rudderless."

 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, who has had a Grumpy Valkyrie Week
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
My "blogiography" is here. I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
The International Labour Organisation's definition of "full employment" is wrong, useless and misleading.
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." on one side, and perspicacity on the other.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living.
The only prejudice should be against prejudice. 
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]." JOHN F. KENNEDY 
One size does NOT fit all ... and don't throw the baby out with the bathwater as a result of knowing a little ... 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

 Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Tags:about me, boredom, chakras, conspiracy theory, emotions, energy work, environment, fear, practice, sensitivity, spirituality,

First published: Laugadagr, 17th November, 2012

Last edited: Saturday, 17th November, 2012