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Chuck’s Place: The Intent of Recapitulation

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The gateway to recapitulation is focused intent…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My first encounter with the shamanic practice of Recapitulation was at The Westwood Seminar in Los Angeles in 1997, that year’s annual summer intensive for Tensegrity practitioners. Carlos Castaneda stressed the seriousness of this ancient shamanic Magical Pass, which required a complete reliving of one’s life in preparation for the freedom to fly free, into infinity, at the time of the death of one’s human form.

For Jeanne and I, our ancient Catholic foundation was stirred, as we feared the equivalent of going to Hell if we did not complete our recapitulation before death! Well, I know that Jeanne did indeed make the cut when she left her human form, though she did have to touch back briefly to clear up some unfinished business with her birth mother before she could fully move on. (See the final chapter in The Book of Us for a recount of this unfinished business.)

When Jan and I discovered that recapitulation could actually serve as a total healing tool for complex PTSD, we realized that recapitulation had vast application beyond the shamanic preparation for one’s definitive journey.

In addition, I was synchronistically drawn to EMDR at the same time I was introduced to Recapitulation. I realized that recapitulation and EMDR shared a bilateral feature as their processing mechanism. I also realized that REM sleep shared this same bilateral mechanism, the processing function of ordinary dreaming.

I have capitalized on the innate biological mechanism of bilateral processing in much of my clinical work, but I have also come to discover that intent itself is really at the crux of everything.

When an individual sets the intent to recapitulate, that is, to fully retrieve energy that is sidelined or frozen, by incomplete processing or resolution of prior or inherent experience, something takes over and turns the totality of current life into experiences of what needs to be recapitulated.

Many clients, who are recapitulating traumatic events of which they have no current memory but which form the etiology of their complex PTSD, have discovered that memories begin to appear in no apparent order, haphazardly and from many different periods of their lives, which absolutely insist upon being processed.

Memories may be triggered by bodily pains, dreams, current interactions, smells, sounds—almost anything serves as a projective screen for a memory to reveal itself. Once fully recapitulated, another memory begins to flesh out, of its own non-conscious accord, often from a totally different time and circumstance, perhaps skipping over many other traumas that occurred in between.

The point here is that the intent of recapitulation itself, once engaged, becomes the director of the actual remembering, determining the sequence, frequency, and unique presentation of new memories and how they are brought to consciousness. I have come to trust intent’s illusive logic in directing an unfolding recapitulation, because the necessary healing appears to require its own idiosyncratic, sequential building blocks, constructed through the order of one’s personal unfolding memory triggers and encounters.

Though I hardly suggest that anyone embark upon the journey of traumatic recapitulation without a seasoned guide, I cannot deny anyone the knowledge of their birthright, their own access to the intent of recapitulation, the ultimate soul retrieval journey. To fully retrieve one’s energy is to be fully present to facing oncoming time.

Finally, when I learned the magical passes for intent in the shaman’s world, we practiced yelling the word, “Intent!” very loudly and firmly. And so, I simply recommend firmly stating, out loud, one’s intent to recapitulate, thus affirming one’s conscious decision to partner with the intent of recapitulation, a most worthy higher power.

Wishing you good luck on your journey.

Intent!

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Injured Maybe, Offended Never

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Never get offended…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

When it really matters, when we are really threatened, something in us seizes control and acts. Awareness of the acts we perform in this heightened state of awareness may instantly be lost to memory as we shift back to our ordinary state of awareness, like when an intense dream is immediately forgotten upon awakening.

Immediately upon shifting out of these non-ordinary states of reality our internal dialogue takes charge, filling our minds to the brim with the affairs of everyday life, as our just moments ago extraordinary adventures fade into oblivion. In psychoanalytic language, our internal dialogue delivers us to a full blown neurosis. A caricature of how it operates would be a Woody Allen/Doubting Thomas character whose mind incessantly ruminates, doubts, and judges both self and others.

The salient feature of this obsessive thinking is its fixation upon feeling offended by the actions of others or blaming the self for the way things are; in effect, feeling offended by one’s own actions and limitations.

That we all have an internal dialogue is a necessary fact of life. In fact, as the Shamans of Ancient Mexico point out, its incessant defining and judging functions allow us to interpret and navigate the solid world we live in. However, the debilitating side of this nonstop chatter in our minds is that it distracts us from our capacity to live a richer life in a state of heightened awareness.

Indeed, we can be injured by the intentional actions of others, but to attach to the constant  promptings of the internal dialogue, to be offended by the behavior of other or self, is to relegate the lion’s share of one’s energy to inconsequential, emotional self-defeat. Put bluntly, it’s a major waste of energy.

We needn’t obsess to address real occasions of injury, for as previously stated, when needed, something within us will spring forth and act without the necessity of lengthy deliberation. Even the action of freezing, or leaving one’s body under the impact of violent attack, reflects instinctive knowing of how best to survive. The internal dialogue is of no value when it really counts.

Shamans recommend freeing oneself from spending one’s energy on feeling offended. The energetic savings accrued by this allows one to gain greater access to living in a richer state of heightened awareness, where one enjoys, and is fully present to, all that is possible in life.

Don Juan Matus calls this state the mood of the warrior, where one is fully energetically alive in each moment in a state of inner silence. Pragmatically, this entails refusing the promptings of the internal dialogue to attach to any interpretations of being offended, and responding instead to the actual presenting needs of each moment.

The thinking mind might have a role in deliberating a decision, but silence allows the truth of the heart to spark spontaneous right action. This is living in the Tao of heightened awareness.

The best guidance for freeing oneself from the energy drain and limiting perspective of the internal dialogue is to allow it to just be, to not engage it, to not argue with or fight against it. Rather than be offended by life, particularly in this time of great offensive talk, respond like a warrior who acts from the place of what is truly needed to survive and prevail, in the best interest of all.

Yes, acknowledge that the acts of others can injure you, and do take decisive action to protect the self whenever necessary, but don’t waste any energy on being offended by the acts of others, as the internal dialogue would have you do.

Finally, place no attachment on the outcome of your decisive actions; fulfillment is already achieved in the purity of the warrior’s decisive act.

Without offense,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Assume Responsibility for Being Here in this Marvelous Time

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Let your ego-Soul rise to its heart’s SOUL!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

It’s not often, in the modern world, that the Divine Right of royalty can actually have an impact on our present world drama. Once upon a time, God’s royal blood poured through the arteries of kings and queens who ruled the Earth by divine right. Today, though royal doings and marriages fascinate the imagination, the rule of nations has largely given way to those elected democratically by the proletariat, the common citizen.

Last week, however, the Queen of England, was asked by her prime minister to suspend Parliament. Her decision would have a significant impact on the momentous Brexit process, a major transition point for the future of England. The Queen elected to oblige her prime minister. And with that the Gods have spoken: “let human nature play itself out now, without divine interference.”

Why have the gods taken this stance, particularly the Mother God embodied by the Queen? Could it be that Mother Nature has chosen to decree that it’s time for human nature to solve the riddles of its own storms?

The implication for our current Earth Crisis is that we will not be rescued through some deus ex machina, some godly savior from beyond. It is left instead in the hands of humanity to forge a sustainable path for the survival of its species upon the planet. It is indeed time to assume responsibility for being here in this marvelous time.

In the structure of the human psyche, royalty equates with the High SOUL spirit center, far removed from the doings of everyday life. Like the Queen of England, it does not take responsibility for human decision making. This, for better or for worse, is the province of the human ego-Soul.

We see before us now great examples of the mind of ego-Soul changing the substance, in structure and action, of the outside world. What lies behind all manifest creation is idea. Mind shapes substance. The consumer awaits a changed world of prices, as tariffs takes effect. Whole industries will change course, as an idea from a president becomes manifest in solid reality.

What ideas, what beliefs—all spirits in the mind—shape our bodies and our world. We are being given great examples, in this momentous time, of how quickly and formidably the world can be reshaped. If we assume full responsibility for our thoughts and our intent, great changes in our lives await.

The question emerges as to where we will place our intent. We do well to study the preponderance of our realized culture of narcissism, that Christopher Lasch so aptly captured in his 1979 bestseller, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. If we truly lean into the narcissism that surrounds us, we will discover its grip upon us all.

Survival and self-interest are the dominant ideas of our time. Our political leaders mirror this for us. Let us not project all responsibility upon the foolhardy and miss the gift they offer us. We are at an evolutionary turning point, and even the Queen insists that we, the common people, assume responsibility for the fate of our lives.

If we continue to fixate our intent at the rudimentary level of satisfying our narcissistic needs at the expense of the greater needs of the body, the Soul, and the world, the outcome is obvious.

If our intent can rise to the level of the heart, where the SOUL tells us the truth, our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs will be blessed with pure love. From that spirit state, our lives will manifest, in substance, all that is needed, all that is wanted for our deepest fulfillment.

And that fulfillment will extend to all living beings, as love in its highest form includes everything. That is the key to love at the heart center. Since love adheres to the truth that, energetically, we are all connected, nothing is left untouched by its care.

Narcissism is indeed its own form of love; it simply hasn’t grown beyond its own reflection. Accept that we are all narcissists at some level, but to grow one’s reflection to include the whole world is to rise to the heart of the matter.

The opportunity of this marvelous time we live in, is to assume personal responsibility through divine right to raise our beings to the heart center. The Queen herself has passed on this insinuation. Truly become your royal self.

With love,

Chuck

News and Notes

Dorian

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No Soulbyte or Channeling today, as Jan is taking a little break from the routine. Instead we contemplate Dorian, of unisex etymology, Doros or Doris. The roots are either Doros, which translates to gift, as in Theodore, gift of God, or Dorios, child of the sea. Which will it be? Or both?

In either case, be safe.

Sending waves of love,

Chuck and Jan

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Shield for our Time

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Hold the light within…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

When I was a young child, I was confronted many times with what I came to call the buzz, an intense vibratory experience I’d abruptly awaken to in the night. Generally, my body was paralyzed and, as the frequency and rapidity of the vibrations intensified, it took all I had to hold onto life as I felt my consciousness begin to disintegrate and be swallowed up by this all-pervasive energy.

Eventually, I learned to visualize myself in a race car with no brakes, as I gripped and turned the steering wheel around a circular race course to match the speed of the high-frequency vibrations I was experiencing. These images and actions provided me with a shield to preserve a cohesive sense of self, as I waited for the vibrations to pass and my body to reconstitute into solid physical form. Never again could I rest only in the security of everyday life. I knew there was more.

The outer world, in this time we live in, is in obvious energetic free fall. All are confronted with the disintegrating impact of, as the band R.E.M. once put it, “the end of the world as we know it.” The world itself is not ending, but the solidity of the predictable world we once knew is being shattered at an exponential rate. This is indeed a deeper energetic encounter that requires a shield to maintain cohesion and to safely navigate this cosmic maelstrom. Our world is on a journey beyond the known, as we venture deeper into human possibility.

Don Juan Matus recommended that warriors fashion a shield from their path of heart, to hold together in such uncertain times of evolutionary change. By path of heart, he refers to one’s deepest values, that which lends spirited meaning to one’s life. Regardless of the calamity of events that befall one from the outer world, one can always find respite and sanctuary where ego-Soul meets with High SOUL on one’s path of heart.

Aurobindo’s spiritual partner, The Mother, goes so far as to suggest that if one’s ego-Soul is truly aligned with one’s High SOUL, on one’s path of heart, one will remain completely unscathed, regardless of the calamities one must traverse through. This was certainly the message of the final scene in The Matrix, where bullets themselves could not penetrate the enlightened Neo.

Immediately following the most recent US presidential election, I consulted the I Ching for guidance. The message was clear. Keep the candle burning in the inner cavern of one’s path of heart. Nothing can forestall the coming breakdown of the world as we know it, but keep the focus on that inner light, kindle it, and wait patiently for the time when it will serve to re-enlighten the world.

This time of waiting is not one of idleness, nor ruminating upon the losses and breakdown of all that one holds sacred. To the contrary, one must keep the focus on one’s path of heart, with every thought and action one takes each day. To drown in bad news is energetic wastefulness. In fact, bad news is purposely orchestrated to sap the energy from one’s deeply convicted path of heart.

Victor Frankl gave us the legacy of keeping focused on one’s path of heart when all else has been robbed from us, with the guidance that nothing can take away the attitude that one will take toward one’s life. That attitude is the touch of the spirit of one’s High SOUL upon one’s ego-Soul, invigorating every moment with meaning, regardless of circumstance. Nothing can take away one’s free exercise of imagination, a viable channel to the spirit of the High SOUL.

Michael Talbot, in his short life, gave us the gift of The Holographic Universe that reassures us that all of the universe is within us, and, therefore, our own ability to remain steady on our path of heart deeply contributes to the world finding its own way to its path of heart. When outer influence is denied, stay the course within; it matters deeply to the ultimate course without.

Finally, there is Jung’s Rainmaker story; of the Taoist priest who resolved a drought by sitting alone in deep meditation in an isolated hut, restoring himself to the Tao. It takes but one heart to restore the Tao.  As within, so without.

Embrace the shield of your own path of heart, as we all journey on this rollercoaster time of great transition. All will be well when this era is done. But live this era with the gusto of one’s true path of heart, filled to the brim with love.

On that path to love in the heart,

Chuck