Category Archives: Chuck’s Blog

Welcome to Chuck’s Place! This is where Chuck Ketchel, LCSW-R, expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Currently, Chuck posts an essay once a week, currently on Tuesdays, along the lines of inner work, psychotherapy, Jungian thought and analysis, shamanism, alchemy, politics, or any theme that makes itself known to him as the most important topic of the week. Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy page.

Meditations for the Holidays

-Photo by Jan Ketchel

We wish everyone, and our entire world, a happy Solstice, a beautiful and peaceful Holiday Season and a most prosperous New Year. May we all carry the light of gratitude and love within us as we enter into the season of joy and giving, festivities and celebration, and renewal. And may we all walk into the New Year full of hope and promise each day, still carrying that light within, eager and grateful to embrace new life to come. We share some calming practices below and will return to our normal weekly postings on Monday January 6, 2025.

Sending you love,
Jan & Chuck

MEDITATIONS
For Setting Intentions

Wake up to each new day (or any time) to an enlivening meditation with Dr. Joe Dispenza.

Most Powerful Morning Meditation – 35 minutes
You are the Placebo Meditation – 58 Minutes

LABYRINTH WALKS
For Grounding and Centering

Virtually walk around Jan’s Quartz Crystal Labyrinth in the woods on our property. Turn the volume up so you can hear nature in all its glory, in summer, the cicadas and crickets and in winter the crackling of leaves.

Walk the Labyrinth Summer-12 minutes 
Walk the Labyrinth Winter-9 minutes

Note: If you want to watch the videos on your phone you will have to get the Dropbox App. Once you sign in just skip through all the prompts and then come back to this page and click the link and it should open in Dropbox. If you watch on a computer or tablet it should open immediately in Dropbox.

MUSIC
For Peace and Healing

Listen to some Tibetan Chanting, Healing Handpan music or a medley of meditation music from the Monroe Institute.

Lama Gyurme-Rain of Blessings
Seeds of Growth (1111Hz) handpan music by Malte Marten
Healing Frequency (1111 Hz) by Malte Marten & Lynxk
Meditation Music from the Monroe Institute

MANTRAS
For Manifestation
(Originally published in Soulbytes December 9 – 13, 2024)

Monday Mantra: I am whole and perfect, strong and powerful, kind and loving, harmonious and happy, prosperous and successful in everything I do.

Tuesday Mantra: I embrace my fearless beauty, my stunning intelligence, my wild creativity, and my open heartedness. I am safe in my beauty. I am safe in myself.

Wednesday Mantra: I am no longer willing to be comfortable in my discomforts. I am changing my mind, my body, and my life. As I change my thoughts and ideas about myself, I face my fears. I am now fearless in my new approach to life.

Thursday Mantra: I am beautiful. I am in tiptop shape from head to toe. My body is energized, synchronized and harmonized to a new level of energy that is healing and radiant, radical and brilliant, whole and perfect.

Friday Mantra: I step into my splendidly beautiful self and radiate beautiful energy throughout the day. I am whole and perfect, strong and powerful, kind and loving, harmonious and happy, prosperous and successful in everything I do. I am fearlessly beautiful, stunningly intelligent, brilliantly creative, and my heart is open to this stupendous adventure that is my new life.

Chuck’s Place: The Golden Opportunity Of Now

Infinite relaxation…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

I completely daydreamed through grammar school. One day, a quantum thought presented itself to my consciousness. It started with the notion of a finite line, perhaps an inch in length.

I reasoned that if I were to keep cutting that line in half, though I might not have the instruments to do so, that that halving process would go on for infinity. As long as there was a thing, there could always be a half of it. With this realization, I discovered infinity in a finite 1-inch line.

Today, I find infinity in my finite physical body. If I tell my body to relax, I can feel it halve its level of tension in my musculature. Often I’ll do this in accompaniment with an exhalation. I then pause, no breath, and notice the newly reduced level of tension in my body. I then tell my body to hold that level as I inhale and further release upon exhalation, taking the tension level down another notch.

I find that there is no end to a deepening level of relaxation. In fact, at a certain level, the experience is no longer that of physicality but one of pure vibrant energy. Even at that level the deepening relaxation is endless, with a sound frequency that continues to rise in pitch as physicality continues to diminish.

At a certain level, we are all fundamentally infinite quantum-energy beings. When we reach that quantum energy level of our being, with consciousness, we are no longer limited by a mindset of physicality. We are now in an undefined state of pure fluid energy. Here, consciousness of the particle state of physical life shifts to its complementary wave state of pure energy.

Joe Dispenza defines this wave state as our fifth-dimensional realm of existence, the gateway to quantum opportunity. When we are freed from the confines of our defined physical being, we open to the infinite state of possibilities that are all simultaneously present in the quantum realm.

If with conscious intent, while in that realm, we imagine what we want, we set in motion its physical realization at the particle level of our existence, the realm of waking life. As John’s Gospel aptly begins: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh.” Our consciousness at the quantum level is the creator. The words we utter and the scenes we imagine are the suggestions that the subconscious mind will fashion into the flesh.

What typically interferes with this process is the entrenched hardwired beliefs that resist relinquishing their particle formulations in the mind and heart. Transmuting these solid holdouts is exemplified by the destructive action of The Tower card in the Tarot.

As the Tower card suggests, all new construction requires the complete breakdown and clearing of prior construction before a new building can be constructed. In our current world, even the appropriateness of the polio vaccine is being seriously challenged.  All the basic tenets of science and civilization are currently on the potential chopping block.

We are entering a science fiction novel, with characters from a Gotham-like city assuming control. I say this without judgment. This cartoon-like version of reality, with all its superpowers, is indeed forming into a solid reality. A quantum possibility is manifesting before our eyes.

What made this possible was the destruction of reigning beliefs about the nature of reality, coupled with the incessant repetition of words suggesting a potential new reality.

This incessant, destructive action upon the analytical mind is the entry point for all shamanic journeys into quantum reality. The golden opportunity of now is to employ this current collective energy of outer uncertainty inwardly, asking ourselves to suspend judgment as to what is possible, as we allow ourselves the largess to imagine a new life, freed of the limitation of prior habit.

I encourage saturation in listening to Joe Dispenza’s lengthy meditations as a practical path to quantum access. Repetition alone is extremely powerful, as modeled by the incoming president of the United States. Repetition can eradicate old beliefs and install new beliefs. As always, I suggest the intent in repetition be for the greater good.

I also suggest the practice of infinite relaxation to reach the quantum realm. The ability to relax is the smoothest exit strategy from the womb at birth.

The ability to completely relax is the smoothest transition attitude when it’s time to let go of physical life.

The ability to relax allows us the confidence and fluidity to become quantum creators of a fulfilled life.

Can we allow ourselves the divine freedom to create a new life, just as we are seeing mirrored before us in outer reality?

The year 2025 is the year of a quantum leap. Take advantage within the self to discover that everything and anything is indeed possible! Let there be no doubt.

With gratitude to all,
Chuck

Joe Dispenza Meditations:
Most PowerfulMorning Meditation – 35 minutes
You are the Placebo Meditation – 58 Minutes

Chuck’s Place: The Power In The Mirror

Find heart in the mirror…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

The shamans of ancient Mexico emphatically prohibited the use of a mirror, literally fearing the trapping of a Narcissus-like obsession with self-reflection and self-importance. That trapping is reflected in current world leadership and governance, which strongly favors the needs of the self at the expense of the other.

The “Mirror, mirror on the wall” of the evil queen in Snow White speaks to the possibility of discovering the truth of oneself, if one looks beyond the outer persona and false beliefs, and faces the self in deep, soulful self-reflection.

The human brain and central nervous system (CNS) is full of nerve cells called mirror neurons that are proven to fire in imitation of what we see and imagine. Our behavior, and the behavior of others, forms neural networks in the brains of those who observe us. The influence of these impressions upon the brain creates the foundation for echoing or imitating these same behaviors, for better or worse.

The United States, as the world’s leading superpower, has had a powerful mirroring effect on the behaviors of many nations. The policies, fashions, and values of the United States have greatly influenced world behaviors, in their effort to become fulfilled, like a Hollywood version of America. America’s current emphasis upon self-interest and entitlement is indeed being powerfully mirrored in wars and collapsing governments around the world.

On an intrapsychic level, the power of autosuggestion is greatly enhanced by the use of the imagination to mirror to the subconscious a subtle version, or building plan, of the changes one seeks to substantially manifest in one’s life.

When we imagine something, the brain treats our thoughts and images the same way it reacts to observing outer events. These imaginings are mirrored by firing neurons that replicate and encode these behaviors into neuronal circuits. These circuits prepare the subconscious mind and brain to advance in creating these very changes in physical reality.

If our intentions in our autosuggestions embrace the greater good of the self, and the world, we will manifest healthy changes within the self and the environment. Additionally, our attitudes and behaviors will activate the mirror neurons in others, which will create similar potentials in the thoughts and behaviors of others.

This responsible use of autosuggestion can powerfully evolve the self, and powerfully influence the world, through mirroring. This is a powerful tool for those who are feeling disempowered by the current status and direction of the world.

The key here is not to try to convince or manipulate anyone, but instead to become a more evolved self that mirrors a different possibility, by simply, truly being it. In other words, become the change you seek.

Be empowered to imagine the health and evolution you seek.
Be respectful of the power of the imagination to generate what you think.
Thoughts matter. Thoughts become matter.
Matter in motion is mirrored to all.
Make your loving thoughts matter.
That’s the power in the mirror.

Imagine,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: How Splendid Is The Adventure!

Thoth Tarot Moon Card

Now is the time for honest reflection. The disavowed shadow of America  has come home to roost. The shadow is transparent now, and has knowingly been chosen to rule. Such is the inevitable karma for a high-minded nation’s persona that denies its self-serving underbelly. To truly arrive at the place of equanimous love we must first square with the needs and demands of our shadow.

The I Ching portended to me, just prior to the election, that the time of stagnation was ending and that the right ruler would be chosen. Indeed, the sweeping, one-sided victories of the election will end the stagnation that has plagued governance for decades. However, true success requires leadership that addresses the true needs of the whole.

We are in the time of the waning moon. DuQuette states, “The moonlight of Atu XVIII (Tarot Moon major arcana card) is that which illuminates the phantasmagoric nightmares of all of us who cannot acknowledge the dark horrors of our own fears. The Moon card shows a path through and beyond this nightmare, but it is not an easy path, and the myths of all ages and cultures prove that this journey through “the poisoned darkness” is an obligatory chapter in every hero’s quest.” (Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, p. 147)

DuQuette quotes Aleister Crowley’s suggested correct attitude in such a time as ours: “Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: “How splendid is the Adventure!” (ibid p.147) That is true equanimity.

The journey, so seemingly outer, actually reflects the inner fixation upon survival that currently plagues the human species. Survival threats, real or imagined, cause the subconscious to select the instinctual operating system that outwardly blames and attacks rather than inwardly assuming responsibility.

The hero’s journey requires a consciousness that seeks only the truth, regardless of how tainted it renders the soul. Christianity may have stalked altruistic love, but the human race has hardly budged beyond the reach of narcissism. The hero cannot skip over the needs of self, but is easily defeated if motivated by the needs of self alone. The keys to the kingdom are generally awarded to random acts of kindness.

The hero expands their vision by owning their nightmares. The culprit may be reflected outwardly but resides within. The hero calms the central nervous system with gratitude for all the truth that has been revealed. The hero programs the subconscious to override old unnecessary survival programs. The hero finds joy in the equanimity of the adventure, at every stage of its never-ending story.

The truth of now is that we are individually, and collectively, upon the journey of the dark night of the soul. That journey traverses the span between the solar plexus and the heart, from the narcissism of the ego to the refined love of the altruistic self.

The waning moon takes us through the shadow of our hidden truths. Beyond that necessary stage is the waxing toward wholeness, that which is to come.

How splendid is the Adventure!
Chuck

Meditations for Thanksgiving

Jan’s Quartz Crystal Labyrinth

Here are some useful practices to engage in for the coming week. We wish everyone, and our entire world, a beautiful peaceful Thanksgiving and beyond. We will return to our normal weekly postings on Monday December 2, 2024.

First, take a calming walk (12 mins.) around Jan’s Quartz Crystal Labyrinth in the woods on our property. Turn the volume up so you can hear nature in all its glory. Walk the Labyrinth Note: If you want to watch the video on your phone you will have to get the Dropbox App. Once you sign in just skip through all the prompts and then come back to this page and click the link and it should open in Dropbox. If you watch on a computer or tablet it should open immediately in Dropbox.

Listen to some healing handpan meditation music. Definitely soothing! Healing Frequency (1111 Hz) by Malte Marten & Lynxk

Wake up to each new day (or at anytime) with an enlivening 35 minute Morning Meditation with Joe Dispenza

Listen to a playlist from the Monroe Institute of Meditation Music.

Practice Jack Schwarz’s Autogenic Breathing practices to achieve different brainwave states and control your central nervous system by breath alone:
*Beta: Breath in and out normally.  Do not hold air.
**Alpha: Inhale for 8, hold for 8, exhale for 8, hold for 4.
***Alpha-Theta: Inhale for 4, hold for 8, exhale for 8, hold for 4.
****Theta: Inhale for 4, hold for 8, exhale for 16, hold for 4.
*****Delta: Inhale for 4, hold for 8, exhale for 32, hold for 4.