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Chuck’s Place: The Inter-dimensional Evolution of Love

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Indeed, Love All!

We often think of souls, who leave human form upon physical death, as evolved beings. Indeed, life in a lighter soul body, in a more transparent energetic state of being, provides new opportunities for growth. But, simply transforming into this atmosphere upon dying hardly guarantees spiritual growth.

Spiritual evolution requires an ever-deepening capacity for love. A discarnate human spirit is tasked with full acceptance and completion of a life just lived. For this, one must have love for self as one encounters all the hidden or suppressed truths accrued in one’s prior life. Only with such loving acceptance can a spirit advance into true wholeness.

A discarnate spirit must also come to full acceptance of others they may have cut off, rejected, hated or loved, as they find their way to release the binding emotions of incompletion and victimhood. To accomplish this, love must advance a quantum leap—in loving all that was and is.

Discarnate spirits might engage humans still in human form to aid in the completion of their prior lives. As well, discarnate spirits teach and guide those still in human form through channeling, telepathy, dream, and synchronicity.

Jung discovered, in his own inter-dimensional interaction with discarnate souls, as documented in The Red Book, that they sought answers that required relationships with incarnate spirits, as boots on the ground of planet Earth, to provide deeper answers to the mysteries they still struggled with.

Jung’s exhaustive works on ancient alchemy were his own attempts to advance the work of these esoteric practitioners. Jung grew the seed of alchemy into its rightful place, as the foundation of modern depth psychotherapy. What the alchemists had unknowingly projected onto matter, Jung clarified as the inner workings of the psyche, with all its alchemically active energetic processes.

When my first wife, Jeanne, left this world, she sent me a message to say a little prayer for her, that is, to use some of my energy to intend her own advancement (as described in The Book of Us*). Ironically, this has required my own personal evolution in order to address my deepest truths and wisely guide and release the fruits of our joint karma, our children.

My evolution serves Jeanne’s, just as her’s serves many. Jeanne has provided a vast amount of spiritual guidance on the evolution of love. This exchange between us is hardly a mercantile transaction; it’s a transaction of evolving love.

Evolving love must accept the relativity of any special relationship. We are more than a single lifetime. All of our loves from all of our lifetimes are equal parts of our wholeness. Isn’t God the ultimate oneness of everything? To prepare for that ultimate union, nothing that is can be denied equal love. Evolving love is the path of equanimity.

Our physical world is home to communication and interaction between many spiritual dimensions, replete with both incarnate and discarnate souls. Unresolved problems of former generations appear and reappear upon the human stage to further refine their prior tentative conclusions.

Currently, the world is facing the march of totalitarianism as the autonomy and integrity of nations are threatened. This is the energetic resurgence of a spiritual conflict unseen on this scale since WWII. The world is being challenged to reach beyond nationalist and isolationist attitudes and come together in actions of truth and loving compassion.

Our ancestors did the best they could in their time, but they are asking us now to advance love toward real solution. For this, we must rise to the heart, a step above our fixation upon our competitive solar plexus.

To come together, to face the truth, and to be willing to sacrifice our comforts for the greater good of the world is love’s collective challenge to us all now.

Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love thy enemy as thyself. The evil currently enacted before us is our greatest teacher. To placate was an old solution, which merely planted the seed of our present karma. Our teacher dares us to reach new heights of love now, or once again leave for tomorrow what could have been done today.

Though we are largely the boots on the ground of our multidimensional universe, we have the backing of our spirit companions and guides. As we advance the cause of love in our solid dimension, love is advanced in all dimensions of our interconnected, interdependent oneness.

Love All,

Chuck

* The Book of Us: A Story of Relationship in Life, Death, and the Afterlife

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Chuck’s Place: Refusal To Feel*

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Capture your wholeness and don’t let it go…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Despite all the manipulations of public thought, driven by master political hypnotists and well-endowed special interests, the root cause of the Tao of Now is the refusal to feel. At a global level, the collective will insists upon unlimited more, refusing to feel the impact of its actions, as the world heats up and overflows daily, and all of its people with it .

The fallout of such a one-sided refusal to feel and act upon emotional knowing is a transmogrified fervor of eruptive passions, gathering in the streets of Ottawa, as well as on the borders of Ukraine. On an individual level, the ego finds its fragile boundaries on guard against the tsunamis of dreams and its inner terrors projected fearfully and aggressively upon others.

Individuation, what Jung defined as the spiritual goal of human life, is the achievement of conscious wholeness. Conscious wholeness first requires the full knowing of all parts of the self, no secrets in the form of projections, dissociations, or rationalizations distorting the truth of self.

If I am to recover my lost parts, I must be willing to fully feel them. I must be willing to allow them the release and expression of all their emotions, however uncomfortable, unnerving, or threatening. I must grant the truths they reveal the right to exist, regardless of their shattering impact upon my ideal of self, or my idea of other. I must accept their contributions toward the greater truth, however limited they be, due to their one-sided perspectives.

Having felt the emotions of these parts of self, and been physically reshaped by the release of them and their revealed truths, I must endeavor to bridge these parts with the greater whole of the self. Wholeness is not perfection; perfection finds wholeness through the full integration of its parts into a comprehensive  whole. The collaboration of all parts for the best balance of the greater whole is true perfection, however momentary.

Reshaping the self, like reshaping the world, requires action. Though we are capable of stillness and concentration in meditation, we really exist in this space/time plane to experience physical action and reaction. The physical world is our sandbox. I might have to take a journey into deep sadness, as I overturn the blockade to primal pain, but then I must forge new pathways of action, beyond the pre-established habits of suppression and sublimation.

This might include full breathing, where once it was only shallow. This might mean presence, where once there existed only a freeway of ceaseless thought. This might include communication, where once there was sulkiness. This might require movement, where once there was rigidity. This might include allowing the trickster to live all the cardinal sins, as it travels kundalini’s arduous path to enlightenment. This will definitely require full transparency, to self and other, combined with awakening compassion.

The destruction of now is the karma of the refusal to feel. If we look around, at self and other, we see it all around us and know this to be true. The obvious antidote is to learn to feel, compassionately.

The construction of now is the Path of Heart that is guided by transparent mind and loving kindness for all parts of self, and all parts of other, however good, however bad. Oneness, after all, requires all its parts to be whole.

Not refusing to feel,

Chuck

*Title inspired by a talk by Darryl Robert Schoon with Jeffrey Mishlove 

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Chuck’s Place: Truckin’

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When there are no blockages, all roads lead to the heart center…
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

When I look out at the world, I see reflections of the human Body and Spirit. The Taoist guidance—as within, so without—guides my perspective.  Synchronicity, the meaningful co-occurrence of events, supports the parallel interpretation of world events and events within the individual.

Oceans, rivers, and roads are the Earth’s circulatory system. Vessels and trucks are the carriers of the world’s supplies, distributing, where needed, the nutrients and material building blocks for modern civilization. These are equivalent to the red blood cell truckers of the human circulatory system.

Recent truck blockades have interfered with the normal free flow of the world’s supply chain. What might this blockage reflect in the human body and psyche?

The adrenal glands are the body’s first and primary centers of response to real or perceived threats to survival. Typically, the hormone adrenalin is secreted by the adrenal glands to increase blood circulation to the muscles in order to respond to a perceived threat via flight, fight, or freeze.

This survival response, when maintained over time in a constant state of readiness and vigilance, creates an over-concentration of blood flow to the muscles, cutting off the supply of vital nutrients to other organs and cells in the body. This blockage in the supply chain can lead to vascular collapse as the roads to these other vital centers are blocked.

The human mind is intimately implicated in this toxic predicament. The survival response itself is an inherited instinctual reflex habit stored in the subconscious. This program is triggered both in response to actual sensory stimuli that communicate real danger, as well as imagined danger that might be generated from one’s internal dialogue.

The subconscious does not discriminate between real and imagined danger; it responds equally to each. Thus, the thoughts and stories that we attach to in active thinking directly contribute to roadblocks in our circulatory system, which both overstimulate the musculature into constant rigidity and deprive the rest of the body of nutrients and avenues for waste management.

The ability of the mind to release itself from the toxicity created by negative thinking is fundamental to adrenal care and smooth sailing throughout the circulatory system. To this end, the I Ching recommends that, rather than battle negativity directly, to instead make energetic progress in the generation of positive thought and action.

Practically speaking, this could mean feeling compassion for one voicing pessimism, hatred, and blame. For myself, I seek to find within my own self the qualities of the one who so offends or threatens me outwardly. I then appreciate that internal part of myself that holds that same point of view. This defuses inner turmoil and often broadens my perspective. Outwardly, I send love to the other that they might find calm and resolution as well.

Physical action also provides a release of energy prompted by adrenalin, as well as through deep breathing, where fresh oxygen binds with adrenalin, reducing its presence in the musculature.

Listening to heartfelt music can also shift one’s emotional landscape, as feelings of love, awe, and reverence begin to circulate throughout one’s being. As well, devotional actions of mantra, prayer, and intent guide the subconscious to call off the adrenal troops and return to calm.

I appreciate the image the truckers have provided as a diagnostic x-ray of the blockage in our current human predicament. I encourage that we all find our way to the positivity of compassion, love, and gratitude that we might find ourselves, flowingly, on the road again.

Grateful,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Innocent Ignorance

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I want to take you higher…
– Artwork © 2022 by Jan Ketchel

The Garden of Eden myth imagines the birth of human consciousness.  Adam and Eve chose to break the law by eating the apple. Consciousness is the awareness of having a choice.

Nature’s laws do not require consciousness in order to be obeyed. They come in the form of archetypes, the programs that automatically determine the actions of sentient beings, and the entire cosmos, without any need for conscious deliberation in order to activate.

The archetypes are nature’s commandments, constructed through many painstaking trials of evolution, that become encoded in the genes and developmental patterns that govern a species. The introduction of the possibility of choice in the Garden, prompted by the snake offering the apple, was the birth of the ego, a center of consciousness having the power to override instinct, as it thinks and chooses for itself.

As a consequence of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were banished  from the Garden and thrown into the desert, left to fend for themselves, with their naive and inexperienced egos in charge of making decisions that would impact their survival. This predicament forced the ego to become an imposter of competence, as the responsibility for leadership fell upon an inadequate ego, which had to pretend to be competent.

Before we get too down on the ego for all its inflated pretense of ability or disability, perhaps we should have compassion for this little prince, abandoned in an unknown world. What other choice is there really but to fake it until you make it? The ego never asked to be born without knowledge; it truly is the recipient of its ancestor’s original sin of skipping over nature’s laws and acting through conscious choice instead.

Ironically, the birth of the ego, with its ability to make decisions, was actually nature’s plot to advance humanity to consciousness, an evolutionary trial to improve on nature’s decision making speed and efficiency. After all, Jung would often ask, who put the snake in the Garden?

The coldblooded snake of Eden is indeed kundalini at the root chakra of the human body, pushing itself upwards toward union with higher consciousness at the crown chakra. To be in human life is to experience the trials and tribulations of growing consciousness as it journeys back to the Garden, the crown jewel. The ego is kundalini’s plaything, companion and student on this adventuresome path called human life.

Currently, the ego has become the number one culprit in planetary mishap. The ego is currently mired in narcissism, caught in the lower chakra dramas of self-importance, possession, competition, and domination. This is mirrored in our polarized world with its charismatic leadership.

Within the individual the ego struggles with nature in the form of powerful needs and emotions, as it worries about survival. The higher spiritual chakras of refined love and interconnectedness are far from the consciousness of the needy ego at this stage, consumed as it is with the challenge of its own survival.

Nature, at this current time, is depositing new snakes in our messy garden, in the forms of viruses and climate crises, to prompt the world ego to rise to new heights, particularly to the heart center, where it can shed its narcissistic wrappings through the fire of love. The ego’s work, at the heart center, is learning to make decisions of right action that then rise to expression through word and deed at the throat chakra.

If nature’s experiment of making the conscious ego the agent of prudent decision making is to advance planetary survival, the ego must arrive at a place of humility, able to acknowledge both its innocent ignorance and its narcissistic leanings.

Fortunately, higher levels of consciousness are readily available to guide a humble seeker. Our time is replete with ethereal bodhisattvas, channelled by earth angels throughout the world, sharing their wisdom and guidance to receptive heart-centered egos.

In any moment, ego can ask spirit guides for signs and affirmations in nature, as it contemplates the right direction of a decision. This includes asking the body for guidance as well, where sensations of all kinds might suddenly respond to a thought, offering either affirmation or cause for deeper reflection.

The body also presents itself as nature, ready to evolve under enlightened leadership. An ego that has lost its self-importance, and incorporates the principles of right action, can suggest to the body new rules of functioning that both heal and lead toward deeper fulfillment.

Acknowledge not-knowing with awe versus shame. Assume full responsibility for leadership despite innocent ignorance. Humbly ask for guidance from the crown, then act in full consciousness with refined love.

Innocently ignorant,

Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: How to Manage the Internal Dialogue

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Watch out for Bobby the Flyer!
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The internal dialogue is that seemingly nonstop chatter in the backdrop of the mind that constantly judges everything and everyone, particularly one’s self! Carol Tiggs, Carlos Castaneda’s counterpart, as the Nagual Woman, once called it Bobby the Flyer, whose incessant lyric was: “I’m so bad!!!!”

Carol’s Bobby the Flyer issues from the shamanic mythological origin and function of the internal dialogue in humans: an extraneous predator that feeds off the negatively excited emotions generated by the voice of criticism and judgment. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico believed that this entity, whom they labeled the Flyer, influences our minds and bodies, through the internal dialogue, to ensure a steady supply of tormented emotions for its consumption.

This raises the phrase, feeding off negativity, to a whole new level. We certainly experience ourselves feeding off negativity when we find ourselves in a bad mood, as the internal dialogue assigns every perception we have with a negative thought and emotion, which can either eat away at us in depression or feed our aggression.

Carlos Castaneda taught that this Matrix-like dynamic corrupts the  true magical nature of human nature, as it becomes shrouded and frozen in negativity. Typically, humans, though entranced by the negativity of the internal dialogue, compensate with materialistic delusions of freedom and satisfaction. Carlos jokingly called us complacent chickens in a chicken coop, unaware of  the predatory nature of our true predicament.

On the positive side, this compromised energetic stalemate has generated for us a solid body and world, which offer us a great opportunity to refine our energetic essence to reach higher vibrational levels, as our minds seek liberation from this embodied negativity.

The restoration of our true magical beingness, experienced as awe, optimism, joy, and lightness of being, requires that we neutralize the impact of the internal dialogue. This begins with stating one’s intent to consciously assume control and direction of one’s mind. The realization of this intent assumes many forms.

Though I may not have control over the thoughts that pass through my mind’s eye, I can control the thoughts that I choose to look at. This is the essence of the core Buddhist imperative of non-attachment. If I don’t grasp at a thought—that is, engage a thought that automatically presents itself in a process of active thinking about it—it simply floats by without impact.

This is the essence of concentration in meditation: releasing one’s self from riding the automatic chain of associations that spring from attaching to a thought, volitionally returning one’s attention to one’s choice of focus instead, such as the breath. Not engaging the internal dialogue, with active attention, neutralizes its impact upon the subconscious mind, the law of attraction center of the human psyche.

The subconscious, when time is not taken for self-reflection, simply activates energetic programs that construct our reality and determine our emotional states. If negative self talk is delivered to the subconscious, it may result in feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, as well as fear of others, who seem so powerfully superior and threatening.

Alternatively, kind and loving messages of self-acceptance, volitionally delivered to the subconscious, may result in a positive, adventuresome outlook, as one becomes excited with the experience of living in the now. Realize that though this might be a coveted state of being, the familiar world, rendered by habitual attachment to the ever-defining drone of the internal dialogue, may be frightening to let go of. Freedom requires the awe and courage to enter new worlds of possibility.

The internal dialogue can be highly seductive. The ego might mistakingly believe it can engage in communication with it without harm. This is an ego inflation. As soon as one enters into debate with the internal dialogue, it wins. Its weapon is to grab your attention, and once it has that, it wins every time! Rationality ought to be more humble.

Beware of the reasonable offerings of the internal dialogue, which can sneak in like a Trojan horse spouting perfect logic. Better to shift attention to positive messages to the subconscious mind, than to expend one’s energy in debate that actually reinforces old programming. As the I Ching suggests, the best way to combat evil is to not engage directly in a confrontation with it but to make energetic progress in the good!

Do not attach to the idea that the internal dialogue will simply go away. It is in endless supply. We cannot control the world of thoughts we live in, which constantly seek inroads into our attention, but we can let them be. Simply don’t empower them any further by naively gifting them the energy of your attention.

If the internal dialogue generates a frantic beta brainwave state of incessant negative thought, remember the first-aid alpha brainwave breath, which will very quickly release you from its clutches. For as long as necessary do this repetitive breath: an inhalation into the belly to a count of 8, hold for 8, exhale to the count of 8, hold for the count of 4, repeat the cycle.

All attention on the count and sensation in the body. Breathe until your consciousness is free, then relish in the calm. No easy road to freedom, just keep on breathing and you’ll soon be free!

Freedom,

Chuck