Post No. 020 - The secret science of hugs

I recently had the compliment of a friend saying he needed one of my hugs: that's nice, and it's not the first time I've had compliments on my hugs. I've even had a couple of people who commented on my "secret" for a great hug: opening chakras (specifically, the heart chakra). 

PS - hugs, as with all physical contact, must be consensual  

If you have had much to do with psychic development work, you will know that protection is important, and that will include issues such as closing or sealing one's aura, grounding, flaming, psychic strength ... and closing chakras. Various psychic exercises will then require opening those chakras.

Each chakra is associated with a certain function: for instance, the forehead or "third eye" chakra is commonly associated with clairvoyance, the throat chakra with communication (including clairaudience, in some systems), the solar plexus chakra with emotions and will power, and the heart chakra with the various forms of love. The respective function is maximised when the chakra is "opened" (the function never completely shuts down, however: it is not as if, for instance, we are incapable of any communication whatsoever if our throat chakra is not opened - or we are utterly incapable of love if our heart chakra has been "closed" by one of the techniques that are available).

(For some group work, people try to harmonise their chakras; I'm considering whether or not using the Sephira of the Qabballah can be used as an alternative to that - watch http://qabalist.org/q-blog/ [now a dead link] for more on that :) )

Most people know of seven major chakras, but there are others - for instance, the hands and major organs of the body will typically have a (minor) chakra, and I will shortly be studying a system which seems to look at harmonics or octaves of chakras. I currently work with thirteen chakras: the only one I want to mention here is the "Earth Star" chakra (which I think I first read about in a book by Katrina Raphael about crystals that has gone walkabout: unfortunately, I can't find the two books of hers that I do have, so I'll have to post the details of that some other time). The Earth Star chakra is about 6" (15cm - we've been metric since the 70s or 80s, but some things I haven't changed over) below our feet (yes, that's right, dear reader: below our feet - after all, our aura does happen to extend beyond our body ... ), and is the chakra which connects us to Mother Earth. I personally consider the loss of common knowledge of this chakra to be part of the problem that humanity has in caring for our world. That, however, is a pet peeve for another post :) What I will add to this post (after my signature) is an edited version of an article I wrote for the Temple of La Veda (see ), which I'm not sure I actually completed and posted - it is based on some notes on chakra system (at that stage twelve chakras) that I sent to a few friends a few years ago.

When friends hug, it is the heart chakras that line up; if the people concerned are feeling fond of each other, their heart chakras will tend naturally to open up, and allow a free flow of energy between the two (I've not actually thought about this for group hugs; my initial reaction is that the heart chakras don't line up or connect, but maybe the group hug creates some sort of temporary energy centre where energies can flow through to each other).

This psychic openness is what gives a fair part of the nice feeling that goes with such a hug. It can be quite natural, and tends to happen more with people we are in harmony with, or who we like (those matters tend to be related, but aren't necessarily always related. Incidentally, when we relax, or feel comfortable, it isn't only our body language that is more at ease and "open": our auras and energy centres tend to also be more open and relaxed. (That is part of the problem when some people get drunk: their aura becomes so open that they can be partly possessed [technically, overshadowed or obsessed] and undergo a change of personality [usually to a personality far less pleasant, possibly even violent.)

If you want to give better hugs, allow your heart chakra to open. I find that quite easy, but if you don't, you may have to do some exercises (e.g., visualising doors opening, or a flower blooming, or perhaps the sound of the chakra increasing). As always, do such exercises with appropriate protection established first.

I mentioned protection: there is a risk with this openness, and that is that one may get a slug of unpleasant energy. That doesn't necessarily mean your friend is being malicious: it may simply be that, if you have more energy, they receive some of your energy, or that you are able to do some healing or clearing of negative energy. It may also simply be that there is a certain amount of incompatibility between the two of you.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing: think of two colours that clash, or two scents that don't agree, or two sounds that jar. Each on their own is fine: it is the combination that is unfortunate. Most sources I read suggest that as we all evolve, we will become more in harmony with each other. I don't necessarily agree with that: I suspect there could well still be some moments of lack of harmony (especially on this world, where so many of us are going through such vastly different expressions of our soul - different paths, if you will), but the true showing of evolved beings is that they will be able to overcome any such lack of natural harmony and be able to work together.

Going back to hugs, if you've received a slug of something unpleasant, calmly and without rancour or anger clear or dissolve it, and then go on to be brave enough to open your chakras again when you next hug someone.

I wish you good hugging :)

Love, light, HUGS and blessings

Gnwmythr

This post's photo was taken in the valley where the MacKenzies Falls are located, in Geriwerd.

Notes on chakras:
Following the recent "First Keys" workshop, I though I'd put some of my thoughts regarding chakras down. I considered the "First Keys" workshop to be excellent, and I was particularly interested in a comment along the lines of chakras and energy pathways being potential - they have to be worked with to become "actual" (my words). That rang a bell with me - particularly as I recently read an article somewhere on the net challenging the notion of chakras, and also because I work with a twelve major chakra system (I am not referring to the other chakras in the hands and at major points within the body, which I first read about in one of Lobsang Rampa's books [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsang_Rampa, and other posts where I have referred to Rampa - particularly http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/purpose.html]).

And at this point, I have to humbly make an apology, as I haven't been able to find the article challenging chakras nor the original source of the twelve chakra system (I THINK it may have been Katrina Raphael's third book on crystals [as a digression, I consider that she is the best author on crystals]), but I recall that one of the chakras, between the heart and solar plexus chakra is attributed in that source to Shirley Maclaine (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Maclaine).

I can say that the breathing exercises for the traditional seven main chakras I will write about are from "Energy Ecstasy: Your Seven Vital Chakras", by Bernhard Gunther (pub. Newcastle Publishing Co. Inc., Van Nuys, CA, USA, ISBN 0-87877-066-6).

Assuming everyone is familiar with the seven traditional chakras, I'll start describing my extra five with the lowest chakra: the "Earth Star". This chakra is located in the aura, around 6" (sorry - 150mm) below the feet, and (going from memory, as I couldn't re-find the original reference) has the function of connecting us with this physical reality - ie, Mother Earth. My personal opinion is that the lack of awareness of this is one reason that humans as a whole tend to be somewhat disconnected from Mother Earth.

Going upwards, the next extra chakra (this one is, I think, attributed to Shirley Maclaine) is between the heart and solar plexus chakras, and was described as having the function of connecting our emotions (solar plexus) with our love centre (heart chakra). From memory, this chakra was being manifested as part of a perceived trend towards a more loving, centred population (ie, emergence of New Age/Age of Pisces).

The last three extra chakras are: - Soul Star, to connect us to our Higher Self, located just outside the head but behind the crown chakra - Spirit Star, located about 6" or 150mm above the head, to connect us with the world of Spirit generally (much as the Earth Star connects us to physical reality; I see the Soul Star as a personal chakra, connecting us with our spirit personally, and the Spirit Star as connecting us with "all the spooks up there", to be a bit irreverent) - Causal Star, located about 12" or 300mm above the head, to connect us with Deity.
I'm not going to claim that this is a correct description of these extra chakras, but it's the best I can do, and reflects my personal practise fairly well.

Bernhard Gunther's book "Energy Ecstasy: Your Seven Vital Chakras", which I mentioned, describes a coordinated system of breathing and visualisation to promote good functioning of the seven traditional chakras; I've extended that in a way which suits me for the twelve chakra system, and the result is as follows.

Earth Star - I visualise the chakra as a mini-Earth, and as I breathe in (ie - visualise flowing in with my breath as I inhale) green, red and brown, and direct the energy to the Earth Star; as I breathe out, I visualise any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" flowing out of that chakra and leaving me with my breath, leaving the chakra bright, shiny and new (to be a little facetious). I may need to do this several times till I feel that the energy in that chakra is right (or, to put it another way, that the chakra is functioning properly). If I am doing this with my alternate nostril breathing, as I usually am, I aim to do this for one complete cycle of in right - out left - in left - out right, for the sake of balance. As I do this, I mentally chant either "Malkuth" or "Adonai" (which come from the Qabballah) or (since the First Keys workshop, as this practise evolves and changes as I do) "hum".

Base chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book: I visualise a rectangular, red coloured box in front of the base chakra, at the level of the base chakra; as I breathe in I visualise drawing that red energy from the box into the base chakra, and as I breathe out I visualise any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" flowing out of that chakra and leaving with my breath. Again, if I am doing this with my alternate nostril breathing, as I usually am, I aim to do this for one complete cycle of in right - out left - in left - out right. As I do this, I mentally chant "ba".

Second chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise an orange pyramid with the top cut off in front of the second chakra (which he refers to as the "spleen chakra"; I've come across other terms as well and at this stage generally just say "second chakra", even though it isn't in the system I work with: I may change that shortly), at the level of the base chakra; as I breathe in I visualise drawing that orange energy from the box into the base chakra, and as I breathe out I visualise any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" flowing out of that chakra and leaving with my breath (Bernhard Gunther has visualisations for dispersing this energy for each chakra - e.g., allowing the pyramid to collapse and direct the expelled energy in all directions in this case; I haven't used those for some time and find just generally either directing the expelled energy into a ball of light, or Mother earth for recycling, works as well for me - but that may not be the case for others). I aim to do this for one complete cycle of in right - out left - in left - out right. The mental chant is "la".

Solar plexus chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise a green cylinder completely around me; as I breathe in I visualise drawing that green energy from the cylinder into the solar plexus chakra, and as I breathe out I visualise any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy leaving the chakra with my breath. I aim to do this for one complete cycle of in right - out left - in left - out right. The mental chant is "ra".

Chakra between heart and solar plexus - I tend to light-heartedly call this Shirley Maclean's chakra, but that is only because I haven't really through of a more appropriate name for it. I visualise the earth in front of the chakra, and draw in blue and green (and exhale the disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy) while chanting - since the First Key's workshop "Hum". (Obviously, I'm not worried about using a chant twice.)

Heart chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise a gold cross (or an ankh) in front of this chakra; I breathe in the gold energy from the cross or ankh into the heart chakra, and breathe out any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy, for one complete cycle of alternate nostril breathing. The mental chant is "ya hm" (I think I've got the spelling wrong there). This is probably my favourite of these exercise: it is the one that I get the most from.

Throat chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise a light blue cup (this is actually a simplification of the symbol used by Gunther) in front of this chakra; I breathe in the blue energy, and breathe out any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy, for one complete cycle of alternate nostril breathing. The mental chant is "ha".

Third eye chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise an indigo six pointed star in front of this chakra; breathe in the indigo energy, and breathe out any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy, for one complete cycle of alternate nostril breathing. The mental chant is "ah".

Crown chakra - from Bernhard Gunther's book, I visualise a purple lotus above this chakra; breathe in the purple energy, and breathe out any disharmonious, inappropriate or "negative" energy, for one complete cycle of alternate nostril breathing (or more, if needed). The mental chant is "om".

For the top three chakras I do not visualise a flow of energy: i simply visualise the colour in the location of the chakra. I mentioned in this that I am continuing to develop this technique as I change with time, and the techniques I use for these top three are probably most fluid. I am interested in anything others find works well for these chakras.

Soul Star - visualise white light and chant either "Eheieh" (which comes from the Qabballah) or (very occasionally) my spirit name for at least one set of alternate nostril breathing

Spirit Star - visualise pure brilliance (this is meant to be something beyond any conception of being any one colour - or more colours) and chant "Kether"

Causal Star - this is a bit hard to describe (and no doubt harder to understand - sorry :) ), but I visualise almost the concept of energy. To understand this better, I would suggest reading some of the "Seth" books channelled through Jane Roberts (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Roberts), and can suggest a few in particular if anyone is interested (and given some time to check through them). I sometimes chant "Kether", sometimes don't chant and just enjoy the stillness.

Tags: chakras, Lobsang Rampa, New Age, interpersonal interactions, Seth, energy work, healing, responsibility,
First published: Thursday 4th October, 2007 

 

Post No. 019 - Tough love and inconsistency [Content Warning: harm]

This post is going to be a bit shorter than most: what I want to say is that, in the overwhelming majority of cases I've experienced or witnessed, people claiming to be using "tough love" are actually just failing to handle a situation constructively owing to their inability to think of any other way to handle it. In, as a rough estimate, over 99% of cases, the "tough love" is no different to the former apprentice who bullies the new apprentice because they were bullied: a pattern of behaviour has been experienced, and because these people are so out of touch with their own soul, or their own higher forms of guidance, that they are doomed to repeat the pattern.

This is probably most obvious to many people when they see people repeating the parenting patterns of those people's parents (which means both the strengths and the problems get blindly repeated). It also happens very strongly in workplaces, and some people I have worked for have been, effectively, office psychopaths (look that up on the Internet - there is some quite specific information available now on it; try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopath or some of the links below) - and they are that, in part, because they were treated badly by other office psychopaths. I've also seen this sort of "tough love" attitude in managers who lack management or emotional competence or a touch of imagination/creativity.

The tragedy about this is that we are NOT automatons: we do NOT have to repeat the mistakes of our forebears, or those we have experienced personally. We have the capacity to rise above issues - we may need help, but we can use our minds to at least acknowledge that something is not ideal, and therefore should be changed. This attitude has been a major driving force in my life: I dislike dragging myself down to (some) others' level, and repeating their mistakes is one such way I can make that mistake.

I will be writing a post about control in the near future: if you believe in this "tough love" rubbish, I suggest VERY strongly that you read it.

The other characteristic I mentioned in the heading is inconsistency. Now, I am very pleased that I am somewhat changeable, and felt quite complimented when a friend mentioned I always seemed to have a surprise up my sleeves (that attitude can be helpful when other people are trying to manipulate you into a corner: you can change the whole ground rules, and take the discussion to a higher plane :) ), HOWEVER ... there are principles I stick to, things like sticking to human rights and standards of decency no matter what. Sports people (and supporters) who think it is acceptable to indulge in racist or other abusive sledging in or near a sporting arena - or that that can do so, and still claim not be racist, or claim that they are "good" people - are totally, completely and utterly WRONG. People who sacrifice human rights for economic gain (especially in the name of national economics) or political expediency (which the Australian Democrats used to do when pressure was put on an issue which had gay rights linked to it) are also behaving in a way that is just as unacceptable. Another example would be people supporting human rights or spirituality in one context, but not in another: for instance, not working in accordance with their spiritual beliefs (if those are constructive!), or allowing things like personal conflicts to be an excuse for overriding a commitment to human rights.

There are some universal principles which I consider people should adhere to: universal love (in a dispassionate, i.e., not romantic, sense) is one. Acceptance of karma and conducting oneself in accordance with that is another (I make exceptions for the very, very few extremist and mostly irrelevant cases that get thrown up, such as the masochist, which have nothing whatsoever to do with life as most people experience it). Those principles should not be ditched for simple, personal (or larger) expediency.


Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr


* links relating to "office psychopaths":


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/08/26/1124563022416.html


http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1360571.htm


http://www.softpanorama.org/Social/Toxic_managers/office_stockholm_syndrome.shtml


etc

This post's photo was taken at the Werribee Open Range zoo.



Tags: personal characteristics, love


First published: Thursday 4th October, 2007

Last edited: Saturday 26th June, 2010 (fixed typo) 

 

Post No. 021 - Breathing exercises

I mentioned that I would do a post on breathing exercises. I'll start this by copying something I wrote for some friends a little while ago:

(START COPY)

BREATHING EXERCISES

My information comes from the work of the very controversial author Tuesday Lobsang Rampa (as well as http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/purpose.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsang_Rampa, see http://www.karenmutton.com/rampa/intro.htm).

Rampa claims to be a Tibetan lama who took over the body of an English plumber in the late 50s (with the permission of the plumber) in a rare for of transmigration. Critics usually deride this as an obvious absurdity, and I have heard claims that some of the description of Tibet are not actually correct, but the information in Rampa's books led me (as a teenager) to a practical involvement in Buddhism, spirituality and psychic matters.

I've forgotten exactly which book(s) the information comes from, but the breathing exercise for keeping warm is one that I have found works quite well (although it does require practise). This description is about the "alternate nostril breathing exercise" (my guess at a suitable title).

This exercise is supposed to strengthen and balance the mind. I have, at times, been concerned about using it, as I thought if I did so when I was, say, angry or upset, the exercise may strengthen the anger or upset - or that, if I was annoyed with someone else, I might inadvertently use this to strnegthen any projection of negativity towards that person. However, I have found that that is not so: my experience is that the exercise calms, balances and then strengthens the mind. Having said so, however, you need to assess the effect of this for yourselves - I can NOT guarantee that it is so for others, and I do know that crystals are helpful for some, neutral for others and harmful for a few, and keepo that possibility in mind for ALL techniques of working. If you find that the exercise is being counter productive, then you need to re-examine what is happening, whether that is due to external influences trying to stop you (I usually try harder when that happens) or the exercises not being suitable for you. I can't (and won't :) ) try to determine that for you.

Rampa sets great store by doing these exercises using what is termed the Complete Breath (also mentioned in Yogic texts). The Complete Breath certainly probably has health benefits, but I don't know that it is critical for this exercise - although I do find it tends to work more effectively if I try to use it.

A "Complete Breath": is based on using all the lungs: the idea is to use the abdomen first, then expan the ribs, then lift the shoulders. After filling the lungs this way, reverse the order: drop the shoulders, then ribs in, and finally compress the abs. Rampa sets this as an initial exercise for a period to develop some proficiency at this before working up to the next stage.
The next stage is breathing in one nostril, and then out the same nostril - to get used to the idea of breathing this way. The "Complete Breath" is supposed to be through the nose anyway (one exercise, claimed to cool the body and cleanse the liver/blood involves breathing through the mouth: that one I have found doesn't work at cooling the body, and I don't about the liver/blood). Start with around ten breaths in one nostril, then ten via the other nostril, and - according to Rampa, build up to 20 - 40 repetitions per day.

As part of this initial practice is holding the breath for a period. Rampa's "ideal" seems to be 8 seconds to breath in, hold for 32 seconds, and then breath out for 16 seconds - which is a ratio of 1:4:2. I have never, despite years of practise, been able to do this. I aim to keep the same ratio as best I can, but with a shorter overall period. In practise, what I generally do is count while I breathe in, hold my breath for a COMFORTABLE period (I don't want a tombstone that says "Here lays Kayleen, of balanced mind and blue of face"), and then breathe out taking twice as long to breathe out as I took to breathe in.

(In general, I now tend to breathe in for a count of 6, hold for a count of 24, exhale for a count of 12, pause for a count of 3 - so the ratio is all multiples of three.  9th September, 2013)

I also don't, these days, try to acheive a particular number of breaths. I usually combine this with something else, like meditation, or colour visualisations, and base the timing on that. If I want to do a minimum, I'll use three repetitions.

Having developed the nostril breathing, again according to Rampa, you can then start using the alternate pattern: - breathe in the left nostril (abdomen-ribs-shoulder), - hold (for a comfortable period, up to 8 times longer than the period taken to brteathe in), - breathe out the right nostril (shoulder-ribs-abdoment), - breathe in the right nostril (abdomen-ribs-shoulder), - hold (for a comfortable period, up to 8 times longer than the period taken to breathe in), - breathe out the left nostril (shoulder-ribs-abdoment).

Aim to do this 40 times per day - according to Rampa. I can't do this, and 40 x (8+32+16) x 2 = 8,960 seconds /day, which seems a bit excessive to me. As I said, I'll just do three as a minimum and often combine this with something else.

(END COPY)

I actually do now try to do more than 3 such breaths a day.

It's interesting to consider how this breathing could work. The theory of meridians suggests that energy flows around our body - various bracnhes of Yoga work with this to varying degrees (for instance, I read some discussion on this in the "Autobiography of a Yogi", by Paramahansa Yogananda [published in 1946; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogananda and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi - which, when I accessed it for this post, had a caution that it was writen like and advertisement). Obviously, in this case, the theory is various postures influence how the energy flows and place some pressure on blockages. I have no argument with this (particularly as I work with [basic] shiatu :) ).

The mind can influence energy flow - hence the use of visualisation in many metaphysical techniques. A number of these techniques combine breathing - either for assisting with relaxation, or to enhance the effect of the visualisation. That suggests to me that breathing has a connection with the mind, and the organ which connects us to the mind: the brain. (to pick up on the theme in my post http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/purpose.html, maybe breathing will be useful training for us to direct energies when we are existing in higher realms?)

To digress for a moment, our brains are arranged into a right and a left hemisphere, with different functions having been identified for each (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralization_of_brain_function). My training in applied kinesiology ("Touch for Health" - which I would like to learn to practitioner level one day, as I would shiatsu) indicates that functions which trigger each side alternately (e.g., cross crawling, or marching) can have beneficial effects in some cases.

Perhaps the alternate nostril technique helps to balance out the activity in the hemispheres of the brain, and thus helps with the balancing effect? I've tried to avoid using my fingers - e.g., by leaning to use an object to close each nostril, and still find the effect as powerful, but I'm still moving side to side so there may be some physical trigger involved as well; I've also found I can get a good effect by starting with the alternate nostril breathing, and then just using visualisation to direct energy in and out the relevant nostril.

In any case, the energy flows stimulated by this are, in my experience, very beneficial. If they are for you as well, please enjoy using this technique; if this technique is not for you, move on and may you find whatever technique you need (if any).

(I also consider the book "The Science of Breath", by William Walker Atkinson, writing as "Yogi Ramacharaka" in 1904, and now available at the Sacred Texts website at http://sacred-texts.com/eso/sob/index.htm, well worth a look. 9th September, 2013)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

This post's photo was taken in the Geriwerd (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grampians_National_Park) in June, 2006, as the area recovered from the fires. The photo is from the slopes of Mt William.

Tags: energy work, Lobsang Rampa, breathing, yoga

First published: Thursday 4th October, 2007 

 

Post No. 013 - Superheroes [Content Warning - bullying, harm, self harm]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to admit to having a weakness for a good superhero/ine film or book - a "superhero/ine/ix" story can be quite inspiring, I find. BUT .... I can and do recognise when they are a story that may not have much to do with the real world.

Magical book series may be quite entertaining, but they have little relevance to the magical work most witches, Wiccans, etc I know do. Casting a spell to bring calm and/or enlightenment to a political world leader may not be as spectacular as some of the things in books, but it is no less special or lacking in the right to be considered a "superhero/ine/ix" act.

Actually, some of those fictional events raise an issue I would like to touch on: "keys". Keys, in the magical sense, are - I was taught - anything which can help you to change your state of consciousness. They can be things like incense, music, moving in a ritual way (e.g., the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram [see my post at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychic-attack-energy-protection-and.html], or Tai Chi or a circle dance or some sort of physical hobby that puts you into a reflective/meditative mood [such as painting or gardening]), chanting, visualisation, wearing robes or any of the aspects of ritual work. In my case, one of the earliest things I used as a key was to build an association between a word and a thought form/visualisation.

The act I wanted help with was what is called flaming: using visualisation or similar skills to cleanse one's aura of negative or disharmonious energies (see the post I have already given a link to). In my case, I used a visualisation of bright golden light flowing from my centre outwards through my aura and flushing/burning it clear. I would meditate, using the alternate nostril breathing exercises of Lobsang Rampa (a VERY controversial person - I'll post of Rampa and the breathing exercises at some stage down the track), and also (mentally) chant the word I wanted to build the association with - in this case, the God name associated with the Qabbalistic sphere Kether, which is Eheieh.

Effectively I was creating a thought form which I could activate by (mentally) chanting Eheieh (if I had built the association with a spoken word, I would have had to speak the word - not always possible when in a stressful situation such as a confrontational meeting at work). I found it effective then, over 20 years ago, and I have continued to find it effective and it is still effective today. I have also created the same sort of thought form with objects such as crystals I wore, or perhaps a ring, which I tended to use when I wanted to work on some aspect of my personality (that's a topic for another post in the near future).

The technique worked very well for me, and it seems to also work for at least some other people (I commend it to you). In fact, as a species (or smaller groups within the species), we seem to have created such associations - and to have changed them, from time to time. As examples of this, consider the associations with the Christian cross, the pentagram (whether inverted or not) and the flag of whatever your country is: would those reactions occurred had that object been seen a century ago, a millennium ago, or ten thousand years ago?

I am going to be interested to see if any of the phrases used in popular series start to develop some potency of their own. (There is an interesting article at Witchvox, "Say the Magic Words: From Movie Magic to Personal Power" by witchdoctorjoe , at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=words&id=10815, which touches on something similar to this.)

I actually like the learning that is there in some series of books for those who look. Particularly interesting to me is the illustration of what people's actions can do to others - character arcs can be quite illustrative. (There is another excellent article on this at Witchvox, "The Peril of Solipsism in Magical Practice" by Taylor Ellwood, at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=11855, which I STRONGLY recommend you, dear reader(s), peruse.)

This issue crops up in everyday life frequently. I was recently abused by a woman walking down a street near my workplace: she was obviously being as deliberately offensive as she could, trying to hurt me enough to provoke a reaction. The simplistic reaction would have been to bite - to say something to her which was also hurtful. However, tuning in to some of the energies involved showed she was actually suffering from self loathing, and was seeking to hurt herself in as many ways as she could to punish herself (possibly out of guilt). I think she would have been, in a perverse way, happy if I'd crossed over the street and hit her.

That very real woman, and some of the fictional characters, are very good examples of how deciding people are "bad" is not as simple as it seems.

Something I learned from Buddhism, which was reinforced by my Wiccan studies, is that we all have a negative or shadow self: all the parts of ourself that either a potential weakness or are what we wouldn't like paraded around the dinner table at a family meal. Not some of us, or most of us - ALL of us. There is a parable (claimed to be American Indian) about the two wolves inside us: one good and one evil; the one that grows and is strongest is the one that is fed most.

ANY one of us, if we are not aware and alert, could potentially be driven to commit acts that we consider wrong, bad or mad. If I remember it correctly, criminals in Tibet used to be (before the Chinese invasion and occupation) locked in stocks and unable to feed themselves, but did not starve to death because other people would feed them - partly to earn "good" karma, and partly because the Tibetans recognised something similar to the sentiment of the saying "There, but for the Grace of God, go I". On this world, we are not that far away from serious errors: a moments carelessness when driving could lead to someone else's injury or even death, and that could possibly land us in jail. I get very wary of people who are smug, and see themselves as inherently different or superior to others who commit acts of great evil. If you had been in their shoes, how different would you have been? (There are people who I am confident would NOT repeat the mistakes of such people: without exception, those people are not arrogant about their difference/"superiority".) In fact, have you committed acts which you consider innocent or harmless "fun" which may actually have contributed to someone else's character being harmed?

And this leads us back, eventually, to the topic of superheroes/superheroines/superheroixes. In the world of the superhero/ine/ix, things are always fairly clearly black and white - even in the case of flawed so-called "anti-hero/ines/ixes". What I would like to see, is a superhero/ine/ix who lives in a recognisably everyday, mundane world, dealing with everyday, mundane stresses such as working to pay the bills, who uses whatever super powers they have and has to deal with the consequences, and learns from the mistakes.

As an example, perhaps they force a brash loud-mouthed yobbo at work to be quiet, and then find that this was an act to help the person to cope with being picked on, bullied or abused as a kid (if I wanted to make the story particularly poignant, perhaps the person concerned would commit suicide after the superheo/ine/ix's intervention). Or maybe they stop a boss at work being so arrogant, and as a result the company doesn't win as much work and goes bust. If I chose an environmental example, perhaps they bring rain to one part of the country which needs water, and as a result somewhere else suffers drought. (This point is emphasised in the Earthsea series; and the heroines in Kate Forsyth's excellent Witches of Eileanan series [see http://members.ozemail.com.au/~kforsyth/] are very human.)

Everything is interconnected, and everyone and everything has layers of meaning and motivation. (I read an interesting science fiction story years ago, which I think has been turned in to a film, about people who travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs which would have died just after the hunters killed them anyway; one of the hunters steps on a butterfly, and creates a sequence of events which changes - destroys - the time they came from.)

I personally would still find such a superhero/ine/ix inspiring; in fact, I may just happen to find them even more inspiring. (In fact, I found the idea so inspiring I started work on such a story some time ago :) )

May you find and manifest the superhero/ine/ix in your life, and may it be a wise, inspired and understanding manifestation.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

This posts photos are of the "Australian Standing Stones", at Glen Innes, NSW. See http://www.australianstandingstones.com/ for more information.

Tags: cross-fertilisation (ideas), cross-training, myths, symbology, keys, personal characteristics

First published: Saturday 1st September, 2007 

Post No. 014 - Colour healing (example of my early automatic writing)

We grow, develop and change with time. At the risk of EXTREME embarrassment to me (think of teenagers saying "You're embarrassing me, Mum!"), I'm going to include a few examples of my early work, and then comment of where I would differ from what is in the writing now.

To put this in context, I was studying in a New Age group with methods which - to simplify - were largely spiritualist based. We worked hard, learned a great deal, and the group and its members came up with some innovations and techniques which I still use and teach to this day. (I left partly because of the exhaustion resulting from the hard work; I don't have permission to mention the group [I haven't got around to asking yet!], so I won't mention them here.) The purpose of these writings was not to change the world: it was to practice and develop our skills at automatic writing.

That leads into my first comment on how I've changed since then. I now no longer accept that (non-physical) guides necessarily know more than incarnate people. Consider the guides of people living a materially simple life under hard circumstances in some barren area. Their (non-physical) guides would probably know a great deal about physical survival skills, but not much about complex social interactions of the type found in cities, or necessarily much about advanced metaphysics or spirituality (remember I described this situation as being a struggle to survive). Also, consider the person who is more evolved spiritually than someone else: the former may actually know more spiritually than the guides of the latter - which is not to imply that ANY are less deserving of respect. This does, however, make me far less likely to give a piece of automatic writing credence simply because it has been obtained by automatic writing: use the gift of your mind, and don't be gullible! I consider that my experience and knowledge is valuable, so make sure I contribute wherever possible and reasonable to any channelled writing I do - I now consider the quality of the end result to be more important than the method by which it was obtained (but at the time of this writing, that wasn't the case - I wanted to develop my psychic abilities, including the strength and clarity of my connection to my guides, and my ability to communicate both generally and by means of automatic writing).

So, now to the writing, which I channelled from White Waters Fall (a brother in a past life in North America [pre-white settlement] whose death I was responsible for) on 15th April, 1986.

COLOUR HEALING

It is fairly well known that colours do affect people in various ways. This is used when using mental, or absent, healing quite often, by imagining the patient surrounded in blue or green healing colours. In some places in the United States, the police are experimenting with the use of colour to reduce the strength of violent people. Several books have been written on the subject of colours - for meditation, and for healing. We wish to suggest an exercise that may be of use for those who are interested in learning more about colour for healing.

At , the visualisation of bright colours to help psychically clear rooms, and one's aura, has been talked of. Also, the use of colours to assist healing, as mentioned earlier in this article. Flaming involves imagining a bright gold light radiating from the centre of the body, often the heart chakra, to clear one's aura. A slight variation on this is to imagine that within oneself there is a point of light that grows until it fills the body, and then the aura. As this light grows, it pushes any darkness in the body out of the body, out of the aura, and to higher spiritual realms where it is dissolved.

These exercises, done frequently, have a beneficial effect on one's psychic health. They should be used as preliminaries to the exercise described, as they make it easier for one's Divine Light guides to come closer to one, and more difficult for negative forces to interfere with any Divine guidance one wishes to receive. For that reason, many people often use them before sleep also.

The books that talk of colour deal mainly with the effect that specific colours have. Unfortunately, some books do not always agree with other books, or the guidance that one gets. One should check the accuracy of the guidance as much as possible, So, to learn more about the effects of specific colours, visualise the colour around oneself and ask one's guides to assist you to feel the way you would if you had as much of that colour as you should have in your aura.

So, for example, visualising pink and asking one's guides (after asking for Divine protection and guidance, of course) to help one feel the way one would if one had the ideal amount of pink in one;'s aura would generally result in some change to the way one felt. If there is no change, one either has enough pink, or does not have the karma to know that one doesn't have enough pink, or one is being blocked. It is always a good idea to specifically ask that the maximum love and light that is for the Highest Spiritual Good of all go to all entities, incarnate and discarnate, that could cause or contribute to any blocking. This specific request increases the amount of protection one is entitled to. The best way to overcome the lack of karma is to persist with the exercise, and to assist other people in whatever way one can, and to ask for Divine Light guidance on this exercise.

With persistent practice, one would learn that, perhaps, pink increases one's sense of security and one's caring. It is important to persist with this exercise, so that pone is less likely to come to the wrong conclusion through interference, or carelessness.

By doing this exercise for a few main colours, perhaps pink, blue, green, gold, orange, white and violet, one can soon gain a better practical understanding of the effects that colours have on oneself, and which colours one needs most. Then, one can visualise the colours, or dress in the colours that one needs most until there is no deficiency, or some other colour is more important.

One important point is that the tone of the colour is very vital. A dark colour can have a negative effect , while a bright shade can have a positive effect. So, use bright pastel tones of the colours.

This exercise has benefits that are not obvious. Firstly, by being psychically brighter and healthier, one heals oneself and also the other people one comes into contact with. Secondly, by making the effort to work with one's Divine guides in this way, it is easier for one's guides to channel colours through when using channelled healing.

That brings us to the final point we wish to make. When using channelled healing, we suggest that one does not try to channel colours for specific effects unless one has had a a thorough psychic training. Simply use white, or the normal blue and green, and make the request that one's guides channel the correct colours, and change the effect of one's visualisation where appropriate. If one wishes to be of more assistance than that, then suggest this exercise - along with what you may have learned about healing - to the patient, so that they can learn to heal themselves.

White Waters Fall

OK, my comments now:

(1) there is an excellent (nigh on brilliant, actually) analysis on some of the subtle errors which can occur when working with psychic/paranormal matters - errors such as failing to consider that a medium could simply be telepathically reading what is in the sitter's mind and relaying that back and that being misconstrued as "proof" of life after death - in Stuart Holroyd's "Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth" (renamed "Prelude for the Planet Earth" in some markets). BUY AND READ IT: it is an excellent example of how not to be gullible, without being blindly and inflexibly sceptical. Publication details: Corgi 1979 (originally W.H. Allen 1977), ISBN 0 552 10997 5.

(2) I am now more open to the notion of balance between "light" and "dark", between evolution and involution - Wicca has taught me that. I now use terms like "destructive" or "disharmonious", as they more accurately reflect what I used to want to express when I or my guides referred to things like cleansing the darkness our of my aura. I've also talked to people who are members of the Church of Satan, and know that they are NOT into child sacrifice or other such rubbish: at the risk of misrepresenting those people and their views, my understanding is that they are about focusing on involution, or the "left hand path": i.e., focusing on learning about and developing the self.

(3) A bit related to the above, but I also send energy to Mother Earth for recycling, not only to higher realms for dissolution.

(4) I still am careful to specify what guides I wish to work with: there are upset, angry or downright malicious entities in both the physical world, and the realms about this world where earthbound people tend to accumulate. It can happen that people are misled by (earthbound) people who are upset and angry at being ignored by everyone else (a common experience for those who are earthbound) that they spit out an angry comment when they finally find someone who appears to be listening to them - and there can be malicious misleading. I tend not to use the term "Divine Light Force" ("DLF") as much as I used to (I may use "constructive non-physical guides"), but I am quite comfortable with the notion of light as a differentiator in astral realms (think of the colours you would send to someone who needed colour healing: would you send them a turgid, dirty green if they needed green, or a bright or rich, vibrant shade?), so I still often do use the term: it has the personal associations I want in that context.

(5) I'm also less strict about wearing bright colours in my clothing, or having bright colours about me, but that can also be a problem if I'm going through a flat spot so it isn't necessarily an improvement! Similarly, I haven't used this exercise for some time, but I do have other exercises where I work regularly with colour to cleanse and heal/boost my aura or the pl;aces I live, work and visit.

(6) I am still VERY strong in judging the effects of colours (and the energies of crystals) on a case by case basis. This could partly be the effect of having been on the receiving end of so much discrimination myself because I don't fir into other people's little boxes, but simply from working with crystals I know that one piece of rose quartz usually has a different energy and quality to another piece of rose quartz, so the guides saying that such and such stone is good for X, Y and Z don't necessarily apply to all stones. Similarly, if I ask a group to visualise the colour green, I can pretty much expect as many shades of green as there are people in the room - and everyone has a different history, so may have particular associations that can change or even reverse the effect most colours have. For instance, say someone had been tortured in a previous life in a blue room, they may find blue not restful at all, whereas quite a few (NOT ALL!!!) do. I also use more than just pastel shades now - my favourite green is an emerald or Kelly green, which can hardly be described as pastel. But the notion of trying something yourself (i.e., in the context of this post, visualising a colour round you) to see what effect it has on you is a valid one. I also still agree VERY strongly with the notion of CHECKING any guidance you receive - whether physical or psychic, and with the notion of working with adequate protection (see my post at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychic-attack-energy-protection-and.html).

(7) I still accept that one may not be entitled to know the answers to a question - whether that is a karmic limitation, or because one has to go through certain experiences, or perhaps because one simply has to work it out for oneself (perhaps to drive the lesson home more strongly than simply being given an answer). There is a way of checking whether one is being limited karmically, and I'll add that to my list of future posts.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

This post's photo is from a recent trip to Queensland to visit my ill (adoptive) mother, and was taken going into a country town in NSW (which I thought was appropriate, given the idea of developing over time, or spiritually travelling, in a sense, for this post).

Tags: spiritualism, about me, healing, colour

First published: Saturday 1st September, 2007 

 

Post No. 015 - Personality and the lack of permanence

You are not your personality.

Unsettling? I know that most of us tend to get a bit attached to our personality, and I have no fundamental problems with people HAVING personalities, but the reality is that our personalities are not fixed. We change with time and experience. For instance, I've been through an enormous amount in this lifetime, and I no longer have the same views that I used when I was born (I've got more of an Aussie relaxed attitude to some things). My last post, at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/colour-healing-example-of-my-early.html, shows some of this change. Indeed, there is a saying, which I think I came across through Buddhism, that the only permanent thing in the Universe is change.

I have to qualify this by pointing out that there can be valuable aspects of our personality or character. I know the mistakes in my last incarnation (much of which fall into trying to be popular or going along with the crowd far too much, and also with taking on too much work), and have worked at deliberately changing those mistakes (although I still tend to allow myself to get into situations at work where I have too much work - which can be a manifestation of "wanting to be popular", by not saying "no, I can't do that, so you'll have to crash and burn or find another solution like tell the client you'll be late"). I also know, however, some of the strengths of that incarnation - which relate to what tends to get called "team development" now: training or teaching, in a sense. I still enjoy facilitating the development of people, and that is one of the joys of my day job at the moment, a joy which does at times get swamped by the workload.

As another example of that, I am aware of an early Middle Ages lifetime where I had a strong sense of honour: that can be a strong motivator now to maintain my integrity, but that lifetime was also one where I was intolerant, and made the sort of mistakes I've commented on others making (things like judging others on characteristics I have no right to even have an opinion on).

In the sense of personality, my "religious" lives, such as being a priestess or a Tibetan monk, have led to major changes in my character (I apologise if you are upset by my use of personality and character interchangeably, but I honestly don't see much difference - and I do think some people get too hung up on trying to define specific shades of meaning that don't exist), and the joy at seeing others develop seems to have started with combining the effects of some of my past lives as a mother with the changes brought about by those "religious" lives (specifically, seeing all humanity as my family, rather than only my blood relatives).

In this life, my current (day job) workload is a major problem: this is one of the current challenge I am dealing with, and it will be interesting to see what sort of person I am in a year's time.

This process of change is one that you can take charge of. I was fortunate to come across Buddhism at an early age (as a teenager), and started doing things like using affirmations (there is an art to this - I'm not impressed by the "fluffy bunny" type of affirmations, but it IS possible to write an affirmation which will lead to useful change for the better in your character, and I'm as equally not impressed with those who think affirmations are rubbish - well, that part of them, at any rate).

The life you planned for yourself, combined with the guidance of your incarnate and discarnate guides, will lead you to the lessons you need to learn. Have faith and patience, but then look at yourself critically: what do you want to change? Are you aware that you are possibly changing thousands of years of habits or some overwhelming past experiences (not necessarily all in past lives), and prepared to be persistent accordingly? Are you prepared to be sensible about this - for example, common, everyday garden variety counselling may actually be your best tool for change, rather than affirmations or past life regressions or rituals or using keys (see my post at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/superheroes.html) - or a combination of these and other techniques may actually be best.

Your personality if a key part of you on the levels of this planet and the etheric and astral worlds about us: there are aspects of our personalities and other aspects of ourselves which we discover as we "find ourselves", or explore our inner essence: ALL of those are within our power to change, both for the better and for the worse.

Your decision about your next step in life may be the beginning of an enhancement of your wisdom.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

This post's photo was taken many years ago, at sunset near the entrance of Boxes Creek in the Gippsland Lakes.

Tags: personal characteristics, change

First published: Sunday 2nd September, 2007 

 

Post No. 016 - Dreams

There are lots of guides and groups around which focus on the meaning of dreams. No doubt most of those are well intentioned and, in the case where dreams are a message from one's guides/Higher Self/subconscious, appropriate (dreams could also be memories - possibly garbled - of astral travel, or simply meaningless mental "static", as well as valid messages in my experience). That's not what I want to write about in this post: what I want to cover is one's conduct in dreams.

How, in whatever category of dream you are having, do you conduct yourself as a human being? Are you open minded, patient and always conducting yourself with selfless honour, or are you, perhaps, angry, vengeful or spiteful? (This question is particularly relevant for those who do sentient dreaming.)

Dreams can indeed be a useful tool for gaining insight: one of those insights is into our innermost/"natural" character/personality, without all the shields and barriers we have in everyday life. I have to make it very clear that quite a few of those shields and barriers are good things, so I am NOT advocating for change to those in everyday life necessarily. I don't consider it a good thing to start behaving vengefully or spitefully in everyday life simply because you do that in your dreams - the appropriate, mature response is to continue behaving like a civilised adult, while doing something constructive about your inner self.

Dreams ARE indeed a potential source of information: it's high time people started paying attention to one of the most valuable of those sources, which is is what sort of person you are without social mores and constraints.

I also don't advocate simple acceptance of your "inner self" personality. As I've written before (http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/personality-and-lack-of-permanence.html), personality is a malleable construction - it may take a lot of effort to change a few hundred years of influence, but it CAN be done.

It is also important to be sensible about how you change your personality. What works well for one person won't necessarily work for another, and what works for someone in one area may not necessarily work in another area. Hence, for example, one person may find affirmations work well for changing their dream self, whereas another person may need counselling to deal with repressed issues affecting their dream self - and maybe both can use past life regressions to improve the character in the workplace. I don't consider that there are any hard and fast guides: you will have to work through the slow, tedious, often frustrating process of trial and error. One of my university lecturers used to insist we call this process "trial and correction", but it ain't so in this case - there will be lots of dead ends for most people, until eventually you find what works best for you.

There is a story about Edison's having 1,000 failures before finding how to make an incandescent light bulb; when asked about the failures, he said "I haven't failed 1,000 times, I've found 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb". That story works for some people, and it does NOT work for others. Don't worry if you're one of the one's it doesn't work for, 'cos I'm one of them too :) I've simply had to find my own ways of keeping myself in a balanced, well motivated state of being while working on this path of discovery - the things that work well for me are things like listening to music, going out bush, going sailing, and exercising. If I do enough of at least some of those, the whole issue of how I am thinking about the failures/frustrations becomes irrelevant, because I find my patience naturally increases under those circumstances.

See? Everyone's different.

Enjoy your dreams, and the journeys they lead to :)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

This post's photo was taken at Blue Rock Lake, where some stones have been set up in a scenic viewing area: on those stones are plaques telling the history of the early white settlers in the area.

Tags: dreams, personal characteristics,
First published: Friday 7th September, 2007 

 

Post No. 017 - Purpose

OK, so who came here thinking they would come across a blog about spiritual purpose? My sincere apologies (I would have expected the same, based on the title!), but it isn't. What I am interested in here is what skills and learning from the physical world have a use when we are living in Higher realms, such as the astral (for a quick explanation of the concept of the various planes of existence, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planes_of_existence and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane* - this is particularly worth doing for an explanation of some of the different meanings applied to these terms).

To illustrate this, consider food. The accounts I've read (including those of the controversial and flawed author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsang_Rampa**) suggest that eating food is something we do not need to do on the astral. Now, before you get all glib and say "Of course we don't, food is just a physical thing", keep in mind that it is possible to create a thought form of food and consume that astrally. That is, however, a waste of effort, as on the astral world one can absorb energy directly, and obtain the sustenance one needs that way.

When I discussed this with someone I knew in the 1980s, she responded along the lines "Well, what is the point of learning about things like nutrition?"

The points are, in my view:

(1) any lesson about respecting, caring for and looking after an entity (whether human or other) or object (including places as well as things) is a lesson which is never wasted, as the ATTITUDE is useful in other circumstances

(2) in this particular case, learning about taking in the "right stuff" is a principle which also applies to energy.

In actual fact, we can apply the lessons around taking in "beneficial" energy and keeping out "harmful" energy now, here, in this level of existence.

What energies are beneficial to your psychic health? Where do you find those energies? Are other energies complementary to their absorption? For instance, in much the same way that some Caltrate is sold with Vitamin D on the basis that it is beneficial, do you find, say, contact with the energy of the sea on a windy day helps you to meditate on calmness elsewhere?

My opinion is that most things we learn in this world have a direct usefulness elsewhere. Many of the lessons are of obvious use - lessons about ourselves, about the way we interact with other people, the attitudes we have towards places, animals and ideas, and so forth.

However, there may well be a more subtle level of lesson. In some cases, that subtle lesson may allow us to turn something around from being either an apparent waste of time and effort or even harmful to something which could possibly be a benefit.

As an example of that (I'll probably rewrite this as soon as I come up with something that is better!), consider the habit many people have of judging others on the basis of appearance. This is not just a case of judging people on the basis of their physical attractiveness (a fleeting matter), but also pre-judging people on the basis of characteristics such as whether they appear neat. Now, none of these approaches provides any reliable indication as to a person's character: after a few dates, most young people would probably be well aware that

(a) beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and

(b) attractive physical appearance does not necessarily mean attractive character (they can occur together, however: I've found some groups can be biased against those with an attractive appearance).

If I take the example of someone who looks dishevelled or unkempt (incidentally, if you ever want to check the meaning of any words, there is a free on-line dictionary at http://www.wiktionary.org/), what about the possibility that they were up late with a sick child (including situations where the unkempt one is male), or possibly they have a mental health problem (such as agoraphobia) and have achieved a major accomplishment in being out and about at all, and their appearance is the result of that struggle? What about the possibility that they consider people judge others by superficial matters such as appearance and they wish to have no part of such rubbish? :)

Appearance is something which I am judged by in my day job, as a professional engineer; I don't particularly like it, and I don't consider it is an accurate way for a client to decide whether ior not they're going to get professional service, but if I want clients to hire the company I work for so that I can get paid so I can pay the rent and bills and buy food and clothing, it's what I have to put up with - for now. At least I can do so with some awareness of the wrongness of it.

So ... most lessons and learning have other applications we aren't always aware of. Learning as children to keep ourselves physically clean has parallels with cleansing our aura; cleaning our house to keep it healthy (I'm excluding, in this case, cleaning for the purposes of "showing off") has parallels with keeping our psychic environment clean; learning about nutrition has lessons about energy as well. (Those who have a desire to have a children so they can create a heritage are sewing the seeds for wanting to create a spiritual heritage as they evolve further.)

In the case of this article, some of the subtle lessons and unexpected bonuses were actually the links I came across in the course of incidental research - links which led to writing this article to taking MUCH longer than it should, given it's length, links which I will now, dear reader, leave you so I can go and explore them further :)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

* When I was referring to the Wikipedia "disambiguation" page for "astral", I was surprised to see "astral plane" given a notation that it was a controversial explanation of "out of the body experiences" [i.e., astral travel]; I thought it was the most logical and sensible explanation, personally :) , although other explanations are valid in some circumstances - meaning some dreams don't necessarily have significance or meaning)

** The controversy around Lobsang Rampa is strongest in relation to his claim that the body, which was born Cyril Hoskin, was "taken over" by the spirit of a Tibetan Lama. This process is also referred to as transmigration (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmigration) or becoming a "walk in": for more on this topic, see the book "Strangers Among Us" by Ruth Montgomery [my copy is one of the books which has disappeared over the years, so I can't provide publishing details and an ISBN, but I did find copies of it [today] on the Amazon books website), and the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk-in (which, when I accessed it [on Sunday 16th September, 2007] had a note that it's neutrality was disputed). While I was doing the web search on this topic, it became there are quite a few other pages on the topic, such as http://www.greatdreams.com/walkin.htm (which I haven't looked at in any great detail, so don't consider the link an endorsement). There was a period in my early 20s when what I experienced may have been a case of someone partially "walking in", or partially taking over my body, to help me get through a time of extreme emotional distress. This could also perhaps be "overshadowing": one of my guides being in my aura and influencing me strongly, to keep me going and prevent me committing suicide until I could come to terms with some issues.

Going back to Rampa, the flaws are - in my opinion - Rampa's blatant sexism, which leads to some comments which are - again, in my opinion - not correct. The Wikipedia article contains links which detail the criticisms around Rampa, some of which relate to Tibetan culture.

Nevertheless, Rampa's books remain quite a good introduction to metaphysics and psychic matters.

This post's photo was taken in eastern Victoria, near Mallacoota.

Tags: purpose, planes of existence, astral, dreams, life lessons, mirrorology, Lobsang Rampa

First published: Sunday 16th September, 2007 

 

Post No. 018 - Channelling energy

One of the concepts I've mentioned in previous posts is psychic strength (see the list below if you want to explore those posts). I'd like to explore a particular aspect of that: one's capacity to channel energy.

I first came across this concept when learning what I call "channelled energy healing" - basically, Reiki type healing, but without the specific disciplines and initiations that go with Reiki (I want to emphasise that it is NOT Reiki, but most times I try to explain it in recent years, the people I am talking to seem to interrupt with "Oh you mean Reiki?" or "Oh something like Reiki?" If you want a reference, maybe try "Spiritual Healing - the power of the gentle touch, by Dudley Blades, Aquarian Press, 1979, ISBN 0 85030 130 0; you could also try thinking of it as the Spiritualist version of Reiki). The more we practiced, the better we became - up to a point, which seemed to be limited by how much energy we could channel. There are techniques for getting around such limitations (e.g., asking for help from other healers - both physical and non-physical), but it also raises the issue of actually how much energy one can fit through a channel or chakra (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_%28Chinese_medicine%29 if you wish to know more about this).

We would sometimes encounter people who's hands would shake when they were channelling healing energy: that was basically an indication that they were channelling as much energy as they could. It generally meant that they were channelling a significant amount of energy, but that wasn't a given: the potential exists that the quantity of energy channelled could be quite limited, even though they were clearly doing their utmost to channel energy.

This gets a bit complicated because people tend to be more in tune with certain types of energy: one healer, for instance, may be able to channel twice as much energy as another, but perhaps more mental energy than emotional or etheric - hence, the second healer could have shaking hands because they are channelling at their limit, and gets lots of positive feedback from the people around her or him, whereas the first mentioned healer is channelling just as hard, also at their limit, achieving more, but not getting the same feedback or awareness from others.

Nevertheless, the point remains: both healers could increase their capacity to channel energy.

As another example, consider mediums: one may have the skill/capacity to channel relatives, whereas another has the skill/capacity to channel great, inspirational leaders. Both could increase their ability to work by increasing their capacity to channel energy.

OK, how?

When I was learning, our emphasis was on clearing blockages created through past life "negative" karma (I'm planning on writing a critique on the failings of karma as a method of teaching in a future post). I consider that to be quite an excellent way to work (clear the energy from a lifetime where you restricted others' abilities to channel or work, and they will benefit as well as you), but there are other ways to increase one's capacity to cope with and channel energy. These include:

• having acupressure, acupuncture, shiatsu or "Touch For health" (a form of Applied Kinesiology) performed to clear specific blockages in one's channels;


• having one's chakra's balanced (see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-crystals.html);


• breathing exercises (also to be the subject of a future post, and will be based on techniques I learnt from the very controversial Lobsang Rampa who I referred to in my last post, at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/purpose.html);


• colour visualisation and other similar psychic exercises (see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/colour-healing-example-of-my-early.html and http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-past-lives-part-1-working.html); and


• looking after one's own health and energy levels.

If you're trying to heal someone, and you need healing or an energy boost yourself, there is a certain amount of energy which is going to absorbed by you, rather than get to your patient. You can use techniques to minimise this "leakage" or loss, by why not ensure you are in a better energetic state in the first place? (Don't ignore that question! You can learn a great deal about yourself, including any tendencies towards excess selflessness from genuinely considering it.)

I would like to particularly commend self administered acupressure/shiatsu, breathing exercises and colour visualisation (especially flaming oneself and one's home etc) for no other reason than that I've found them so effective for me :)

There are other techniques, and it is up to you to work out what works best for you :)

I'll leave this post at that - I have a few other matters in my life to attend to.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr

Posts which include psychic strength:
http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/08/colour-healing-example-of-my-early.html
http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/cross-training-persistence-priorities.html
http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychic-attack-energy-protection-and.html
http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-past-lives-part-2.html
http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-past-lives-part-1-working.html

http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-crystals.html

This post's photo was taken in southern NSW on a trip from Melbourne to Brisbane, in July, 2007.

Tags: energy work, Lobsang Rampa, responsibility, healing,

First published: Sunday 16th September, 2007