Tag Archives: as within so without

Chuck’s Place: Gathering Within And Slowing It Down

Go within and slow it down…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

In the late 19th century, the deeply insightful ophthalmologist, William H. Bates, discovered that the best method to improve all errors in vision was to simply relax. The demands of the then ‘modern civilization’, such as being asked to read print in its smallest font, crammed upon a page, invited the reader to strain and squint, as the eyes stressed to read outside their normal, fully relaxed receptive mode of seeing.

What became known as the Bates Method is a series of practices that restores the eyes to the autonomy of complete relaxation with the consequent effect of improved vision. Bates suggested that if we try to see anything, we are in error.

The speed and demands of our current modern civilization, as it wrestles with its pressing shadow of annihilation, is one of constant bombardment of the nervous system, with its deeply arousing thoughts and consequent emotions of anxiety, fear and fretful anticipation. Beyond the eyes, all the organs and structures of the physical body are subject to disease and dysfunction in this stressed mental atmosphere of turmoil.

Meditation is a practice which restores relaxation to the mind. When the mind is at ease thoughts are few, and largely ones of choice, versus the typical state of free association, driving a non-stop train of thought. We are hardly exempt from intrusive thought when meditating, but we do learn to calmly and definitely withdraw our attention from the unwanted thought invitations that confiscate our focus and tax our central nervous system.

When we meditate, we gather in our power of intent. Intent is the power of thought, as exercised, for instance, in the power of autosuggestion to the subconscious mind. We increase the power and effectiveness of intent through retrieving and re-channeling the energy wasted in attention to fragmented thoughts that siphon our vital energy and deliver mixed messages to the subconscious mind.

We live in a universe of thought. From without, our plugged-in generation is incessantly deluged with the thoughts of others, both human and AI generated. At the subtle level of what the shamans call inorganic life—beings or souls with mental powers but not a physical form—we are also telepathically surrounded by the thoughts of others seeking to influence our beliefs, actions and emotions.

We do have the power of intent to cast off these parasitic thoughts, but we must first purify our intent. Here, we must face our own attraction to the excitement that thoughts bring us, yes, even by religiously following the behaviors of those we find obnoxious and absurd. Like does attract like. If we want excitement, excitement will definitely find its way to us.

If we exercise our intent to detach our attention from that which excites and drains our vital energy, it slowly but definitely releases us, as the emotional food of calm that we produce is tasteless to its desire. As with the Bates Method, we are here not trying to do anything, but instead releasing ourselves from programs of thought that disrupt our true state of calm.

As we gather in our intent and power of controlled thought our nervous system slows down. Freed of activating thought impressions it releases the tensions locked in the body from the play of old thoughts, or those of others, that take up residence in the drone of our internal dialogue.

We may be naturally drawn to deepen our breath as our bodies open naturally to the oxygen and subtle prana that feed our minds and bodies. This attention to the breath takes us deeper into alpha and theta brain wave states, where, with intent, we might obtain guidance from our Higher Self, or other higher beings whose wisdom we are open and available to.

When we gather within and slow it down, all things are possible.

Intend it all,
Chuck 

Soulbyte for Monday May 12, 2025

-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Your personal energy matters. How you go about your day matters. Are you angry today? Are you sad, pensive, regretful? Are you consumed by worry? All of these emotions affect your energy, both within yourself and in the world outside of you. Those you meet today will feel your energy. How do you wish to be perceived? Even if someone doesn’t immediately sense your emotional state it will affect them so that they may not be fully available to you and you will not be fully present and available to them either. Begin the day with a little prayer for peace and calmness within, saying something simple to yourself to readjust your inner emotional state so that you are more ready for your day, both within yourself and as you prepare to interact with others.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Wednesday April 30, 2025

-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

When issues arise in your life, whether they are personal issues, universal issues, or issues involving others in your life, they are showing you that something needs attendance, that something needs to change, that something is in need of new energy, new life or new direction. Let what comes to guide you become the most important issue for the time being. The world outside of you will present you with plenty to focus on, but the most important thing to focus on is within the self. What is going on inside of you that needs attendance? What are you being asked to address, to solve, or to resolve? What needs to change? In turning eyes inward even the most complicated of outer issues will soon resolve as well, for all that is outside is also inside.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: The Highest Level Of Spirit Influence

Sculpt a life of love and positivity…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Many years ago, my sister, while working as a nurse in a hospital, had an encounter with a man, who may be described as the current, most powerful person in the world. She described him, in that encounter, as both gentle and gracious. This description is quite at variance with his current emphasis, one seemingly dominated with hatred and rage.

The experience of the full range of positive and negative emotions and thoughts is central to the human journey. When our spirit chose to enter a life in Earth School, the intent was to address a specific issue via a human life that would allow for the full enactment and resolution of that core issue.

Naturally, we begin that human journey with our core issue in the crudest of form, like the sculptor who begins their opus with a pile of clay or a solid hunk of marble. We master that core issue, from its crudest of form, into the most refined delicacy of love, toward self and all others, through the working art of a human lifetime. This is the mastery our spirit requires to further its journey in the ever-deepening mystery of infinity.

Spirit, then, is capable of acting both from the higher emotions of love to the crudest emotion of hatred. Thus both good and evil exist in spirit form. Our thoughts and feelings are emissaries of our spirit. When we think positive thoughts and feelings about someone, they experience, on some level, the energetic intention of our positive spirit toward them.

The feeling and behavior of kindness brings people together, regardless of their differences. Expressions of hate and rage generate fear and more rage, as well as divide people in accordance with their differences. Many people today are deeply concerned with the fate of the world under the strain of this polarization, which is rapidly impacting life at all levels.

Many feel compelled to protest, in a variety of ways, the exercise of power as it is currently being deployed on the world stage. I approach the challenge through the suggestion of positive influence, emitted from the highest level of spirit.

This may take the form of a telepathic message for the greater good that we send off, in thought and feeling, to someone we know. That person may experience an unexpected thought about us as the message is delivered. However, the force of the message may not reach the level of their conscious awareness, and act instead as a hidden suggestion to their subconscious mind.

The relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds is the most powerful force we have access to in human form. Thoughts and feelings that issue from the mind, or spirit, act as suggestions to the subconscious mind that then engages its ability to manifest on the physical plane, the intents and desires that issue from the mental plane.

We impact the lives of others by the thoughts and feelings we have about them. If we feel hatred towards someone, their subconscious mind will be influenced by this suggestion to generate more hatred. Our own preoccupation with hatred also directly impacts our own subconscious mind, which will then draw experiences toward us which further those dark feelings and thoughts.

The most effective way to influence another person at the highest level of spirit is to encourage, in thought, that they reach a highly refined resolution of their own core issues. This suggestion is imbued with love and compassion and encourages the same feelings in the recipient.

Every time I think of the powerful man I opened this blog with, I imagine the experience my sister once had with him. I appeal to the kindness I know he has inside him. I suggest that he open to that side of himself and take full advantage of his ability to advance the greater good of the world on a grand scale. I know, with certainty, that this possibility exists within him, as well as within all others.

I suggest that many people, in their thoughts and intentions, send off the same message. This collective intent for the greater good generates a high level of spirit influence, the true motor behind our expressions of physical life.

Whatever form of protest or influence one might choose to engage in, always be sure to refine both thoughts and feelings beyond hatred and rage so as to deliver a current of energy that awakens love and a focus on the greater good of all.

Anything is possible,
Chuck