Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today, I would like to know: is there another step in detachment that would be helpful for us to learn at this time?

My Dearest Jan, and all of My Readers, do not doubt that there are many steps in achieving balanced detachment so that you may live a life of compassion for self and others severed from the issues that now attach to and attack you. However, the steps thus far imparted are the most crucial every day steps that one must not only learn, but also embed in the psyche, so that they become active participants in your lives. I stress that awareness of the self as an evolving being is of utmost importance as you continue to work on the self.

Inner and outer awareness combined are essential aspects of growth. I do not wish to command or contend too much at this point. It is far better that you work with what you now have at your fingertips, keeping aware of the self as desirous of change that will free you from the repetitive doldrums of life. Keep in mind that in order to truly change one must offer the self useful tools, but one must also push the self to utilize them.

I understand that it is often the case that the tools are readily understood, found extremely useful, but the difficult part comes in maintaining a practice. This must be your daily concern, My Dears. Once you daily remind your self of the process of learning detachment in Not Doing, Knowing of Purpose, and the third step of accessing the greater Responsible Energies of the Self then it is time to put them to use, in actions. This involves learning to care about the self, learning to trust the process of your life as it unfolds, and disciplining the self to truly allow for change, without fear and without sadness.

This process of enacting change is based in awakening the creative self, offering the self creative energies that may lie dormant, latent, or already quite active. Is it not far better to tap into the creative self rather than allow the big baby to rule? The big baby loves the creative self, and if you contemplate what this means you will find that your big baby will automatically sit in awe of the creative, troubling you less with its hungers and desires, its needs and its issues. The big baby is in need of some entertainment. It asks for something from you and although you may think it wants the usual, it is, in fact, asking you to notice that it needs something different; otherwise it would not be bothering you.

If your big baby were satisfied it would not rise up and make outlandish demands at the most inappropriate times or at its scheduled appointed times. You have trained your big baby to alert you, much as an alarm clock alerts you to wake up. It is not really asking for the same thing that your mind and body immediately revert to, simply because you have created a habit that easily quiets the big baby. No, your big baby is asking you to change. It is quite bored after all these years of the same thing and would like a change. Offer it some creative energies. Offer it something that has nothing to do with satisfying the human hungers, but offer it something that satisfies the spiritual hungers that it is alerting you to.

By practicing the first three steps in detachment you will gain insight into just what your big baby is truly yearning for. This is what I suggest is the next part of your process of change. Utilize what you are learning by taking it innerly and enacting it outerly. To gain a better understanding of how you truly operate ask the self to slow down, to listen very closely to the small voice inside, and just suppose that it is saying something you have never heard because you were too busy shushing it. What would that be?

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
We have been discussing the process of learning what it means to be detached yet compassionate. So far you have taught us that learning detachment requires practicing Not Doing and Knowing Our Purpose in Life. Last night I dreamed something about the importance of understanding attachment though I failed to write it down. I wonder if this has something to do with the process of learning detachment. What is the third step?

As I spoke of earlier, one must know what one is detaching from so, obviously, attachments must be fully understood for how they affect and direct a life. Detachment requires knowing the self fully, as an evolving being, and this requires quite a bit of self-knowing with the understanding that one is seeking release from the conventional, the expected, and preconceived notions of how life should be lived.

Detachment requires a rejection of the norms, but only after they have been fully explored, for one cannot truthfully say that one has lived if one has indeed not done so. Detachment requires having experiences to fully understand and know the self and others. This you already know. In order to fully understand anything one must experience it.

As one seeks to learn about the self, one must do so in the environment one lives in. You are in the perfect environment for you to learn what you must learn about the self in this lifetime. The next step in the practice of learning detachment is to slow down and reconcile with the gifts you are given by your environment, your choices made regarding relationships, jobs, life situations, and acts of God. Stop asking why and find out what you are meant to learn about the self in your current situation in life. Accept responsibility for it. This is the third step: to accept full responsibility for the self, for the life you live, and everything that it entails. No one is to blame for where you find your self, and no one is to blame for where others find themselves. You see, you must take total responsibility for your life, and you are not to blame for the choices others have made in their lives. Though you may be quite entangled with others, and they with you, what is the deeper meaning of that entanglement?

In untangling the mysteries of your outer environment you will begin to understand what it means to detach the self from the conventional and pre-laid expectations of the world around you. Are your experiences in life thus far limited to the rules as laid out by others? Are there rules you can break that do no harm, nor go against the legal systems? Are there rules of the self, imposed by the self that keep you limited, unadventuresome, and confined to a life of little or no exploration? Can you change your routine, even slightly, to offer the self the opportunity to have a new experience in life? Can you shift the self in some small way today that expresses this next step in learning detachment? Can you do something that places you in the position of having to take full responsibility for your actions and know it, fully experiencing what this means, out of your normal routine? Do something different today and, in so doing, experience the fullness of taking responsibility and feeling what it means to have an experience out of the ordinary.

If you are normally constrained, do something generous. If you are normally effusive, do something for the self. If you are often judgmental, be thoughtful of the feelings and issues of others, even while you clearly see that they are responsible for their own place in life. If you are unable to shift your self out of your current malaise, find someone else in a similar situation and spur each other to do something new. Seek a shift in experience by taking responsibility for the self, gaining insight into what it means to be fully responsible for the self, no matter what your experiences in life have dealt you. Learn to detach your experiences from conventional forms of explanation. Look at life differently each day now, breaking your normal perceptions, offering your self a new outlook, so that your next step may take you more fully into understanding how you are fully responsible for everything you do, think, act upon, engage in, and entice towards you.

Life will begin to appear differently if you begin to understand that you are loaded with the power of full responsibility. What a gift this is! What are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it? Responsibly? In a new way, or in an old way? Which way will give you more energy, more insight, more clarity on your life and that of others? Which way offers something new?

Take responsibility for the self and the life you live. You will only understand what detachment means by doing so, fully, and in alignment with your spirit’s intent. Today’s mantra: I am fully responsible for my self!

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today my question is twofold. Lately, I have re-read the accounts of the shamanic journeys of Florinda Donner* and Taisha Abelar** as they encountered the sorceresses of don Juan’s group. Each night before sleeping I state a dream intent. Since these sorceresses were dreamers I have asked them to teach me something of importance while I dream. Over a period of several weeks I have channeled, while dreaming, ten steps for developing a shamanic practice, which I will relate at another time. As I have channeled the energy of these specific sorceresses I have felt a kinship with your energy, a familiar type of energy, though I do not perceive your specific energy. My first question is: Are you in alignment with or working within this group of sorcerers while I am dreaming?

My second question today has to do with the channeling from the other day regarding detachment. I sense that there may be other steps to detachment that might be helpful for us to learn and utilize. What comes next after Not Doing? Over the past few nights I dreamed about the two selves, the rational everyday, worldly self and the spirit self. I got this message: Align with spirit. Is this the next step in learning detachment?

My Dearest One, when you dream you allow the self access to all-knowing, yet does the self not easily claim this right. When dreaming with intent you give the self permission to claim this right. In channeling, your intent is to connect through our channel and thus a sense of familiarity and continuity are established, nurtured, and practiced. By intending to channel in dreaming you leave your self wide open to that which you intend and, though you may feel a familiarity in your dream channeling, I must state that you are not tapping into my energy, though your channel, honed by our work together is operating as you have trained it. You see? You are using a familiar process, thus it is the process that is familiar and recognizable, but you are connecting elsewhere, as is your intent. So, to answer your question, you are not channeling me or my energy during your dreaming process, you are channeling where you direct your self. I wish to point out that you are in control by placing your intent, stating your desires, and asking for information from these specific sorcerers. Continue to hone this skill of dreaming intent, for it is very useful.

Thank you. Okay, so what about detachment? Is alignment with spirit another step?

I must say that your perceptions are correct, that, yes, alignment with spirit is an aspect of detachment. It is, in fact, the overall intent of detachment to remain in spirit alignment. Detachment cannot be perceived or achieved without knowledge of spirit self. Alignment with spirit self is a given in the process; it is the overall awareness factor, so I am not going to include it, per se, as a step, though I include it in each step. Alignment with inner self, with spirit intent, with spirit purpose must be accepted in order to begin a practice of detachment, otherwise the idea of detachment will seem anathema to life upon that earth.

So what is the second step in detachment?

The next step to take is the step toward Knowing of Purpose. This may take some time, it may take a whole life in fact, to discover your purpose in that lifetime. In Knowing of Purpose, your focus of self, of energy, of greater good, in alignment with inner spirit self, allows for attention to be placed where it is needed, yearned for, and required for your evolutionary growth. In order to determine your purpose in life you must pay attention to your spirit, your heart-centered knowing, and the true words spoken to you throughout your life. These true words, though they are often pushed aside for ego intent, will lead you to discovering your greater spirit’s intent, your purpose in life.

Purpose in life may be innerly centered or it may be outerly centered. By this I mean that many of you will find that your purpose is directly attached to your inner process and many others will discover that their true purpose is related to their place in the outer world. There are introverts and extroverts among you, as has been described by many thinkers. What type you are will aid you in discovering your true purpose in life and it would not be a bad idea to more thoroughly research the self in order to discover where your strengths really lie. Many who believe themselves to be introverts may, in fact, find that their true purpose is in becoming extroverted and vice versa. True purpose must therefore be related to ego in alignment with spirit. These are the questions I pose in response to your question regarding the second step in detachment: Who are you really, and what is your purpose? No one can answer these questions except each one of you personally, My Dear Readers. You must explore the self, uninhibitedly, openly and unafraid, with intent to discover your true purpose. Put that into your dreaming intent and see what happens!

*Being-in-Dreaming, An Initiation into the Sorcerers’ World, Donner, Florinda. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
**The Sorcerers’ Crossing, A Woman’s Journey, Abelar, Taisha. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Both of these books are available through our Store.

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Last night, while dreaming, I accessed a place of utter calmness, detachment, and clarity. In this place of peacefulness, I fully understood what it meant to be loving and compassionate toward the self and others, while at the same time totally detached and in a state of perfect inner calm balance. I yearned to stay there and I wanted to wake up in the morning and find myself still there. In this state I realized that I did not have to think about anything because the answers to all of life’s mysteries were totally accessible, simply by being open and receptive to them. There was no sense of fear or worry and everything was available because I had no interfering earthly attachments. I failed to write down what I was experiencing. At the same time that I struggled to alert my dreaming self to pick up the pen and write in the notebook I keep beside me while I sleep, I also struggled to alert myself to the importance of holding onto this experience so I could carry it over into my waking state. Eventually, I did pick up the pen and wrote only the following, knowing that it was not capturing the experience: “Rely on the self, the inner knowing.” When I woke up this morning I was disappointed when I read what I had written because I knew it did not express the feeling of detachment that I had achieved. The calmness felt very connected to a sense of complete detachment from everything that is present in normal waking life. I knew that it was very important to find a means to carry this detachment into my day. My question is regarding this sense of utter detachment. How do we understand what detachment means and how do we maintain it? In my dream it felt so natural, yet upon awakening I know that the challenge is to actualize it without attaching to worries and fears that I may be doing something wrong. Can you explain what detachment means?

Detachment, in an evolutionary sense, is a total release from life upon that earth, a release from human emotions, attachments, and cares, but also a total release from all that binds one to that plane and makes one return to it numerous times for fulfillment of human challenges. In order to learn what detachment means one must fully understand what attachment means.

Attachment, in an evolutionary sense, means to use the challenges that life upon that earth presents during a lifetime, to fully explore what it means to be human. To be human to excess or human to detriment are both aspects of attachment. To be utterly controlling of self and others, to be utterly controlled by self and others, and to be absolutely uncontrollable, are all aspects of attachment to life upon that earth as a human being. Such challenges must be met, accepted, and experienced in order for true evolution and detachment to take place. To attach is to learn what it means to be human. To attach to all that life offers, whether in a few lifetimes or in one (though this is highly unlikely) is necessary in order to achieve compassionate detachment, fully loaded with love for all beings, including the self, without attachment.

So you see, though you may find your self caught in your humanness, I suggest that you take your issues seriously as progressive lessons in evolutionary growth. You must learn what it means to be attached to all that life offers in order to take the steps toward detachment that will eventually lead to your calm and peaceful place of all-knowing.

Those who elect to pay attention to the self, as well as the outer world, are doing themselves a favor. In order to evolve, the deeper mysteries of the self must be addressed; the deeper problems, you might call them. The challenges are, in fact, necessary. So, I ask that you first accept your challenges; accept the fact that you are a human being. You are there to experience being human and I suggest that you do it impeccably. Then, by your own intent to grow, I suggest that you ask the self to gradually shift to a place of interest beyond humanness. This intent to shift beyond experiences of humanness will open the door to experiences of spirit, which will, in turn, lead to understanding detachment.

To understand detachment one must understand what you are detaching from. Each personal life is attached in personal ways. Within the context of your own life you must seek to find what these attachments are. Where are your greatest attachments and where are your lesser attachments? Where can you begin a systematic detachment from those attachments?

Imagine saying no, or refusing the normal controlling routines. Imagine pushing aside the desires and needs of the human body and sitting with the utter emptiness of Not Doing. Not Doing must become a new device, a new tool, a new habit, to learn about and experience detachment.

For today, I urge Not Doing as an act of detachment, simply Not Doing something that is normal, routine, habitual, thoughtless, oblivious, whether it be a spoken statement that slips out because of habitual judgments, or whether it is an automatic behavior that you have controlled or has been controlling you for years. Do not substitute this Not Doing activity with anything. Do not put anything in its place. Do not reward the self for Not Doing. Simply experience Not Doing.

This is the first step of learning detachment. This is enough for one day. Today is a day of Not Doing and sitting with the energy of Not Doing, fully experiencing it, disciplining the self to stay in Not Doing, and seeing what happens!

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
In my practice as a hypnotist and psychic channel I often ask you for information about a specific person, often completely unknown to me. Armed only with a name and a date of birth I ask you to answer questions from a client or about a client. More often than not these questions are related to a need and desire to grow, or to more fully understand a relationship or life experience. When I begin a channeling session I experience the sensation (which is multi-sensory, i.e. physical, visual, intuitive, etc.) of rushing down a tunnel along which are thousands of pieces of information that I must quickly assess, in a split second, and form into words. Often I catch a glimpse of something, experience a complete knowing of it, but am unable to get it down before I am whisked away to the next important piece of information. I have noticed that you tend to stick to the questions being asked and although I might glimpse something outside of the specific request I am not given enough time to formulate it into words, as if you are directing me away from it.

My question today is to ask you to describe your experiences when I ask you to give someone a reading. How do you hone in on a specific person, alive or dead, and gather information about them? How do you then transmit that information through me? The channeling process, from my end, though it can often take several hours, seems like no time at all has passed, as I completely engage in our work together. How do we accomplish so much in what feels like the blink of an eye? For that is indeed what it feels like on my end.

My Dear Jan, first of all, our alignment of energy is perfect for what we do. In addition, you are gifted with certain skills of assessment and composition that, as a trained artist, you have utilized quite expertly for many years. Your writing skills and insistence on perfection are not bad assets either. These qualities and many others have allowed us to have the kind of relationship that has blossomed over the past eight years. I do not mean to imply that all channels must possess such qualities, for anyone can do what you do, but for our purposes, and our specific alignment, your background, your past life experiences, as well as your inner work, are allowing us to bring this connection forth in a manner that is progressing toward a fruitful professionalism that will aid many.

I sometimes still doubt and worry that I am not going to be able to give anyone meaningful words, that I will fail in my attempts to channel you.

Your doubt and worry are good cleansing processes and are necessary in order to push you forward. Personally, that will be your challenge for a long time to come, but as you listen to my words coming through you, you are forever grounding your self in a new world each time we connect. I know you do not have doubts about that!

No, you are right. The more I work with you, the more confidence I gain.

Now, to answer your questions about my own process: First, I will say that it is not much different from your own. It is an energetic process. I am energy and, as such, I exist in a state of knowing, which I too have trained; and I have, through my own intensive process, learned to hone in on other energy as well. This has been my own learning process and my current focus. I must digress for a moment to explain that upon death and in making a choice for new life, in whatever form that may take, one is faced with challenging the self. Upon death of my physical body, in my life as Jeanne Marie Ketchel, I elected evolutionary growth in energetic form. This you know. We have talked about this process in detail. I elected to learn to communicate, as my role in this awakening process, which I now work on within my soul group; thousands of us in energetic form who are channeling information to those of you who reside upon that earth plane. In order to learn to do this, I had to go through many processes not unlike your own, though I did not nor do I suffer from the human conditions of doubt or worry. I simply do, but the doing took some work! Now, after honing the skills I now utilize in conjunction with you and your process, our alignment is quite advanced, but as you see it had been a mutual process.

Yes, I understand that.

Now, in energetic work, it is quite possible to know more than you could ever humanly imagine. With your mind shut down you enter an energetic gate of possibility. The ability to enter this gate, or a state of non-attachment to the world around you is your first challenge as a psychic. The second skill you must adopt is trust. These two abilities, to enter an energetic state and to trust the experiences of being in and of energy, are crucial. This is my experience and this has been my process to hone, as well as your own.

Within the state of being energy, one is, through the work of learning to trust, offered access to all-knowing, to everything. It is each individual’s abilities and personal preferences that, based on energetic characteristics and soul/spirit orientation, allow one to interpret energy. You and I align with many characteristics in common so that we may interpret along certain lines. There are others who align along other lines, such as medical, scientific, mathematical reasoning, and the arts, to name a few. Our connection, though we have access to all else, is focused on offering growth, awakening, and clarity of life on earth, as well as evolutionary purpose and potential. This is our forte and our future is in this work, both yours on earth for the time you remain there and mine in connection with you.

Our combined abilities allow us access to all-knowing, yet are we concerned with the requests of the individuals who so innocently and trustingly come to us. This directs our access. This enables us to energetically hone in on what is appropriate, necessary, and also challenging for that individual to receive at the time. We do not make assumptions, decisions, nor judgments, but simply see what is energetically right for the moment that our energetic alignment is posing the query for energetic information. You see?

My process is very much in alignment with yours, Jan. We put our energy into a specific energetic request and intent, and the information we receive offers us the necessary answers. As an energetic being I am capable, since I have trained to do so, of placing my energy in many places at once. I may be with you, but I may also be in other places simultaneously. This relates to a process of learning to use energy that, in my form, is possible in multitudinous simultaneous action, while in human form, by training your own energy, you are able to access one energy form at a time. For example, imagine a burst of fireworks, many lights blazing, sparking, and flying off in all directions. That is evolved energy, capable of bursting into many points of light, all energetically as great as the whole. This is my state of energy. Your state of energy is more like a firecracker, one burst, capable of quite a bang, but until formed in infinity, not whole or complete. Does that make sense?

Yes, I guess you are saying that while on earth we are still bound, though we do have access to our energy bodies, that we can have experiences, yet we must return to this concrete state.

As an energy being in a physical form, yes, you are limited until you complete your life’s program, until you achieve your true purpose for being on that planet. Once you are done with that level of evolutionary potential you may choose to evolve in energy; though, as you know, there are many who, though they have achieved complete wholeness, elect to return to earth in order to aid others. For even upon that earth, enlightened beings are necessary in order to spark awakenings. The process that I am involved in is not limited to those of us in energy form.

Now I fear that I may have digressed again. Our process of channeling is an energetic process, Jan. Much as you experience all-knowing, as you describe as rushing through a tunnel where all knowledge exists, so are we, when in alignment, able to energetically hone in on what is most pressing and most growth-oriented for your clients to learn. Whether it be about someone they knew and loved, or about themselves and their issues, problems, relationships, fears, and life questions, so will they receive information that is most growth-oriented for their current life process. I must say that my experiences are similar to yours, though I point out to you that which is most appropriate to translate.

It is never feasible to give all information. Information must be specifically asked for. So, although you may intuit and see quite a lot as you rush through your tunnel, it is not all appropriate information. Until a person asks, they are not ready to receive. All-knowing comes with quite a big responsibility. All-knowing is quite an overwhelming process and, in human form, one must be ready to have even a glimpse. One must be ready to handle the impact of it. Those of you upon that earth who are channeling now, most of you are ready to be in such a position, though some are not. Some do not handle it well. Some lose the most necessary pragmatic stability, which is essential; and many become bound in ego futility, which does not aid the awakening process.

I request all of you, Readers of My Messages, to take into consideration your own energy and to engage in a process of testing your own inner knowing, learning to trust, without ego attachment, mind attachment, or judgments. Begin to train your own energy to become as a spark of energy, ignited, and sent out in a burst to connect with good, viable, teaching energy. If you hone your skills based in innocence, and with the intent to learn about good energy in action, you will, over time, align with energy that is compatible. Your firecracker energy will eventually burn for longer and longer, as you experience the ability to access all-knowing.

In so doing, you will discover suspension of time and place, as Jan does, for this is energy; it is nothing and it is everything. Energy is being and not being. It is alive and viable, yet it is unseen and untouchable. It is so alive in every sense, yet is it not accessible until you are ready for it. It comes to you, throughout a lifetime, in many forms, alerting you to the possibilities that await with energetic awakening, but, as always, you must be ready, desiring, and unafraid to go into it. Once you decide to innocently trust your own experiences of energy you will be offered greater access to it. Then, again, it becomes your choice to go into it again, in whatever form it comes to you. Your experiences must lead you forward.

If your experiences of energy are good, if they feel right and you are energized by them, then you know you are on a path of growth. If they are fearful, depleting, uncomfortable energy encounters, then I advise that you shut them down. Ask for protection before you attempt another connection, asking always for good guidance and good energy to align with your own. You do not want to stray into darkness.

I hope I have answered your questions as regards our energetic alignment. To succinctly recap: I must say that it is through our work together, yours upon that earth, Jan, your work on the self, your learning to trust me and our process, and my learning, through our process as well, that has led to our mutual abilities. I urge all to hone their skills of communication with energy. Each of you will have different communications based on your personal characteristics and talents, and based on the energy you align with. It is, however, up to you to dare to go through the training process. It is a choice. It must be thoughtfully undertaken. Your process must be seriously considered, and you must be ready to change. Your life will change. Your inner self will be confronted with many challenges and this you must be ready for as well. It is a vast and dangerous world, the world of energy, but with the right teaching alignment you should be fine as you embark on a process of learning about energy.

I suggest, as you discover what you need to know about the self, that you do not run from it. At first, information about the self may have to pass through the ego filter, the big baby filter, the sad adult filter, as well as many more before it reaches the innocent yet pragmatic energy that sits at the core of all human beings. This is the true energy self. You will know it by its stillness, by its calm and balanced peacefulness, by its total lack of need to attach to the world. You will know it by its truthful voice that may be hard to accept until the filters of the human self are gone through. Until the knowing self is fully tapped into you may not want to believe it, but, with work on the self, this knowing is achievable. In this state of access to knowing you too will begin to understand, by experiencing it, what this process I am describing feels like, in all of its openness, in its accessibility to all knowledge, and its sensations of timeless suspension as you go out of body, out of mind, and into energy, the source of all life. It is only in the process of experiencing it that you will truly understand what I am talking about.

Know that you are all capable. You are all given opportunities to open up to it, but you must dare the innocent self to split off from the world, as you know it, if even for a second, in order to grasp the meaning of a true energy state, totally detached from everything you think you know.

NOTE: Just thought I would mention that this channeling took, in real time, one and a half hours, but in energy time it felt like nothing more than the blink of an eye! I am continually amazed by this process. -Jan