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.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: ‘Tis Divine To Err

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Always keep the Divine Child within alert and curious…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

One of the truths that will leave its permanent mark upon the human mind, as the Aquarian Age we are currently in matures, is that divinity is an inside job.

We all possess a divine directive conscious mind that wields the power of suggestion, as well as a divine receptive subconscious mind that exercises the power of physical creation itself. The conceptive intercourse between this divine couple, more than any other factor, will determine the course of the life we manifest.

The divine conscious mind, given the name ego, is hardly aware of its royal heritage and power, yet it nonetheless exercises its divine prerogative of free will in the expression of its thoughts, beliefs and desires. In response, the divine subconscious mind dutifully manifests these suggestions while independently managing the operations necessary for the survival and growth of the human body.

From the place of transcendent truth, the state of our personal lives, as well as the current state of the world, is wholly the result of ego suggestions to the subconscious mind, both individually and collectively. From the knowing of transcendent wisdom, these suggestions are largely in error, as they threaten absolute destruction of self and all.

Why then, would our divine progenitors, our inner divine parents, allow such dangerous choices? Furthermore, why would these divine parents fund—that is, provide the energy for—such errant decisions?!

In the recent George Clooney movie, Jay Kelly, on Netflix, Timothy, the child therapist character, makes the tragic point about parenting that, “We are only successful once we’ve made ourselves irrelevant.” In order to become irrelevant to our children, they must truly not need us, even if, from a wisdom perspective, they still do.

To not need us means they are assuming full responsibility for their lives. It truly matters not what their choices are, good or bad; it matters that they learn to assume responsibility for them.

How could any of us learn to think and grow if we simply obeyed all the rules? The rules, great and small, are all products of the habitual mind passed down from others’ experiences. They don’t truly become meaningful until they become alive as a consequence of our personal experiences.

Parents do well to defer to the ultimate parent of all, the Law of Cause and Effect or the Karma of our actions. All decisions, good or bad, have their consequences. We grow by suffering the consequences of our decisions.

Our divine progenitors are interested in us becoming truly mature. Hence, they remain present but dormant, unless earnestly consulted by our student ego, at which time they will tell us the truth, from their perspective. They always allow us the full freedom of our choices and the consequences of those choices.

Even in a Near Death Experience (NDE), many souls are, at the ego level of consciousness, asked to assume responsibility for their choice to continue in their current human life or to move into life beyond the human form. Sometimes it is Karma that commandeers that decision.

We are the judge and jury of our own lives. We are not punished for our actions. Karma is simply the natural consequence of our decisions. Of course, if we solicit the guidance and feedback from our inner divine parents, they will respond with their thoughtful wisdom. However, they will not assume responsibility for our own answers to life’s challenges—this is an impossibility.

As Kahlil Gibran, the Persian mystic, clarifies in The Prophet, regarding our children: “For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.” [p. 21]

To be sure, our children must forge the virgin territory of their future with support, but, ultimately, on their own. And we must let them go, even to let them suffer the inevitable woundings of life.

Truthfully, we are all forever divine children. And if we abandon the innocence of curious openness to the unknown, our journey ends. And then we must live in the boring prison of “knowing it all”, until we are ready to resume the hero’s journey of new discovery, now, and beyond this life.

All journeys involve woundings, those of our children and our own as well, but those woundings are the doors through which we change and grow, allowing us to mature into our full potential.

The challenge, through our repetition of our many errors, is to comfortably retire our illusions, and allow our ego to become the mature child that lives its innocence while it also serves the truth of the Divine Self, which funds all its whims, that it may more fully awaken to the splendor of the truth of its divinity.

 No shame for any and all sins. They are all divine errors, way stations on our definitive journey. And there is no one, or nothing, to forgive, except perhaps the ego, for all its divine errors. Our ultimate challenge is to assume responsibility, with equanimity, for it all.

All aboard,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Growing Out Of The Beliefs That Rule Us

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Shattering old  beliefs…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Our time will surely be remembered as one of a rapid shift in ruling beliefs. The shamans of ancient Mexico characterized civilization as a fixation point of assembled beliefs that are agreed upon by the collective human race and hence deliver us to the consensual reality we live in.

At present, that fixation point has been dislodged, as the world currently reflects The Tower card of the Tarot deck, where an all-consuming fire burns away all previously established order. As we live through this time of great transition, we are shown daily how rapidly new beliefs can materialize into physical reality.

Beliefs are the prime movers and building blocks of reality. Tremendous efforts are evident in social media to fixate our attention upon new beliefs that support living in a new reality. Television stations incessantly present points of view that justify their version of a new reality. All these influences upon the mind of the consumer seek to enlist its divine power of creation to build and fixate upon this new proposed reality.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a healer in Maine during the 1860s, came to the understanding that humans were gifted with the godly power of creation in the thoughts they attach to as core beliefs, which then, from the center of the magical subconscious mind, materialize into physical reality.

Quimby never questioned the truth of a patient’s symptoms or physical ailments. Belief does generate physical reality. Nonetheless, he realized that one could potentially become dislodged from a belief that generated ill health, and become attached to a new belief of health, that would, in turn, generate a cure. This is evident in the power of the placebo effect.

Quimby once worked with a soldier, who suffered from the phantom pain of an injured arm despite it being amputated. When the soldier was cured of his disbelief that he had lost his arm, the phantom pain disappeared. His initial belief that he still had his arm required the very real experience of its continued physical pain. Once in acceptance of the loss of his arm, he was freed from the need to create the pain that had accompanied the injured arm.

Our core beliefs are formed in early childhood, where we are largely socialized by our family units. Although, as we enter adolescence we begin a powerful period of individuation, defining ourselves as individuals separate from our families, many earlier beliefs about ourselves, lodged in the subconscious mind, become foundational and influence us throughout life, despite our later maturity.

The other day, I was assigned the task of dismantling a kid’s Hot Wheel’s Track. I was left completely alone to complete the task and then join up for other activity. Within a very short period of time, I was recapitulating my young self, feeling abandoned, overwhelmed, and frustrated by a monumental task I felt inadequate to perform.

These beliefs generated an anxiety and sadness that overshadowed my effort, though my present self was quite present to the struggle and determined to have a different experience of mastery. Then I broke a piece of the structure, which nearly sent me into a familiar childhood depression. Nonetheless, I stayed present, with patience and persistence.

Eventually, Jan appeared and I shared my experience. Sure that she would know immediately how to dismantle it, she in fact became more befuddled than myself and suggested we just throw out the cheap piece of sh..! We then went on to Google the problem, only to discover that dismantling that track was a major human challenge!

This experience brought to the surface a childhood belief of inadequacy with regard to physical reality, which was suddenly challenged in a big way. In fact, I had managed, with my own intelligence, to successfully separate several difficult pieces.

While recognizing a lack of early childhood parental support and collaboration, I nonetheless am able to dislodge an earlier belief of inadequacy. In fact, a new belief has emerged. Though my expertise is in the science of the soul, and not one of a physical engineer, I nonetheless have basic competency in figuring out the basics of physical life.

I was fascinated and grateful for this opportunity to further grow out of a long-buried limiting belief. Often, we are treated with opportunities for recapitulation that bring to consciousness the power of old beliefs in generating our present physical reality.

Many people struggle with manifesting their dreams, despite ardent efforts at positive suggestions to the subconscious mind. I suggest trusting that the subconscious mind will provide synchronistic guideposts and triggers to the elixir of transformation, recapitulation of fixations in negative beliefs from past life. Be okay with them and use them to your advantage. It’s all part of the journey!

Growing up,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: With Gratitude

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I give thanks to the power of words to heal.

I give thanks to the power of belief to create.

I give thanks to the power of thought to hone.

I give thanks to the power of speech to express.

I give thanks to the power of telepathy to connect.

I give thanks to the power of heart to know truth and love.

I intend that the Greater Good for All manifest.

In Spirit it already has.

In Solidarity,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Power Of The Stated Intent To Recapitulate

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The Road of Recapitulation is the Road of Soul Retrieval…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

“Use your words,” is the instruction we give the frustrated child. Words are magic, they make things happen.

“Name your Good!” would exclaim Emma Curtis Hopkins of New Thought fame. Your good is what you truly want, the Truth of your Spirit. To boldly state it is to fully claim it.

State your intent loudly, even in your dreams, counseled the shamans of ancient Mexico, and the word will truly become the flesh.

One method of achieving your dreams and your good is to recapitulate your life thus far lived, to bring to consciousness all the things that stand in the way of achieving your dreams and settling them once and for all. Perhaps these things entail repressed memories that inhibit fully living life, or old fears from childhood, or some trauma—physical, mental, spiritual or emotional—that intercepted the unfolding of life.

To state the intent to recapitulate your life activates the subconscious mind to initiate your very personal soul retrieval journey. First of all, with all due respect to Bessel van der Kolk, it is the subconscious mind that keeps the score. The subconscious mind stores one’s full personal history in the compartments it creates within the physical body, some of them, like a simple breath, quite constricting.

Although the subconscious mind stores all the minutia of every moment of life, it also stores and denies consciousness access to experiences that have traumatized, and therefore threatened, the overall growth of our being at different stages of our lives. Some of these truths remain secrets to the self until the life review at the completion of human life.

Under the powerful influence of the survival instinct, the subconscious mind dissociates us from knowing and integrating the threatening experiences it secretly stores, and thus we lose access to parts of our soul, often to the point of complete amnesia of them.

When we state the suggestion to the subconscious mind to recapitulate, however, we are overriding the influence of the survival instinct to keep us in the dark about our darkest hours. We now claim conscious responsibility to manage our wholeness.

To assume that responsibility we must fully know, and thus fully experience, the wholeness of our soul’s journey in this life and, sometimes, even beyond it. Once the suggestion to recapitulate has been accepted by the subconscious mind as its working premise, it will bring forth to consciousness the opportunity for retrieval of lost experiences in the most necessary and effectual order.

Thus, the order of memory retrieval is not within conscious control; it rests with the judgment of the subconscious mind. This judgment is not analytic. It is in full keeping with achieving its accepted operating premise, to recapitulate. What is under conscious control is to fully show up for the journey, even if it is unpleasant and doesn’t proceed in the orderly fashion that the ego would prefer.

The shamans of ancient Mexico recommended bilateral breathing, as one ventures into encounters with one’s unknown soul experiences, to steady the presence of the conscious mind as it relives and integrates its forsaken experiences. EMDR utilizes the same bilateral grounding and integrating mechanism.

In addition to the practice of recapitulation of memory, is the actual usurpation of all current life experience by the subconscious mind as its playing field, in an effort to lead consciousness to the experiences which must be retrieved. Be forewarned, to state the intent to recapitulate activates a soul journey that shows up in all arenas of life.

Several advantages of the impact of recapitulation upon the concurrent events in our lives is that we learn to read energy; synchronicities abound that attract our attention; interactions reveal necessary encounters; physical symptoms take on new meaning. Our whole world opens up and we are offered a myriad of experiences we might otherwise never encounter. Everything is used to further guide us to knowledge and experiences that are crucial to full soul retrieval.

As powerful as these intrusions may be, consciousness does have the prerogative to insist upon a break. State the intention to take a break, with the clear agreement that you will return to the work shortly. Be sure to follow through on your end of the bargain. The subconscious can be quite a task master. It insists upon a responsible adult partner.

Often, people state firmly to the subconscious mind their Good—their deepest heartfelt desire—not realizing that they are also initiating the intent to recapitulate, as in order to fulfill their desire they must first retrieve their soul. We cannot have fulfillment with half our soul lost to us.

The subconscious necessarily plots a course, which first enables us to retrieve the necessary parts of ourselves and to then be able to materialize our sought after dream. Many people become quite discouraged with the physical results of their stated suggestions and must be awakened to the deeper process of soul retrieval fundamental to their stated intent.

Soul retrieval neutralizes the old defenses that were once necessary to protect fragility. Until retrieved, dissociated parts construct their own lives with the core premise that they remain in hiding. The disabling effects of these parts upon conscious integration makes it critical that they be known and integrated as foundational to the desired growth of the conscious mind.

As soon as you state the intent to recapitulate, the journey has begun. The adult self is clearly using its words and assuming responsibility for showing up for the journey, the full journey.

The journey, though at times quite excruciating, is always magical and filled with awe. It is the journey we all will ultimately take, but we have the opportunity to take it right now! So why wait?!

Use your words, declare your Good!
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Impact Of Faith Upon The Dual Mind

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Faith & Desire fuel manifestation…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Thomson Jay Hudson’s 1893 publication of The Law Of Psychic Phenomena introduced an epochal distinction between the thinking of the conscious and subconscious minds. In a nutshell, the conscious mind is capable of a reasoning that can think outside the box whereas the subconscious mind never goes outside the box of its given, beginning premise.

Thus, for example, although all cloudy signs might suggest the coming of a rainstorm, the conscious mind might remain open to the possibility of a sunny day. In contrast, if the subconscious mind is told that the body has a cold, it will employ, without question, all its manifesting power to generate that state of illness in the body.

The subconscious mind takes, as absolute fact, what it is told—or the suggestions it is given, consciously or unconsciously—by the conscious mind. In contrast, the conscious mind is capable of seeing probabilities, but also possibilities, for outcomes that lie beyond a given premise.

Tell the subconscious mind that you are inadequate and it will package that suggestion, without contradiction, into a habit that becomes the overriding sense of self-definition that influences enduring moods, physical expression, social relationships and enduring beliefs about the self.

On the other hand, the conscious mind, while heavily under the impact of a negative belief, still has the possibility to imagine or believe that it can change, envisioning an adequate, if not thriving, sense of self. The conscious mind has the ability to exercise its will to logically create, change, or petition the subconscious mind to manifest a new possibility.

While the conscious mind has the freedom to assert life in new directions, the subconscious mind must contend with the power of the suggestions it receives from its evolutionary history, most intensely expressed through instinctive or hereditary reactions.

Despite the power of these reactions, as reflected in the archetypes of the collective unconscious, the subconscious mind does remain attuned to new suggestions issued from our conscious thoughts and intentions. The challenge for the conscious mind is to make positive suggestions for the greater good of self, and the world, rather than for the greater good of the ego, or lower desires within the self.

This is the greatest challenge for the modern world: Do I intend a world for the greater fulfillment of my own desires alone, or for the greater good of the entire world?

The dual mind reflects the human ability to both determine what is best and to fully manifest it into life. On the one side, the conscious mind has access to unlimited possibilities; on the other, the subconscious mind has access to the knowhow and substance to bring to life its accepted suggestion.

The overarching necessity for the conscious mind to deliver a successful suggestion to the subconscious mind is faith. Divorce faith, in this definition, from any spiritual association. I define faith here as acknowledging the possibility, despite all logical argument, that anything is possible.

That possibility alone is the hypothesis for any experiment. Scientific method asks us to be open to test any possibility. The methodology, in the case of suggestions to the subconscious mind, is to suspend judgment and imagine an outcome one desires. Desire is the motive power of suggestion. Desire attracts like manifestation.

If fear has been an old dominant experience in my life, my desired new outcome may be to exhibit a pervasive sense of courage. The suggestion I state is, “I Am Courage.” I visualize myself calm and confident in previously challenging circumstances. Coupled with imagination and positive feelings, I state my suggestion often, sometimes parrotlike, but always truly embodying the confidence of the intention.

As always, we must remind the conscious mind that its role is to suggest, not enact. When it delivers its suggestion to the subconscious mind, it must truly turn over control to the powers of the subconscious mind to manifest. The only job for the conscious mind is to remain persevering in its practice of the stating of its suggestion, feeling its desire, and imagining its materialization.

It often happens that the path the subconscious mind chooses brings synchronicities into our lives, which invite conscious realization and spur action toward the ultimate goal. However, the creative process and timetable of enactment are totally in the hands of the subconscious mind. Hands off!

The little bit of faith that the conscious mind requires, the faith that anything is possible, provides the legitimacy to experiment with the manifesting powers of the dual mind.

Set up your own experiments. See what happens! You won’t be disappointed.

Just a little bit of faith,
Chuck