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Chuck’s Place: In And Out Of Changing Times

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Who is dreaming whom?
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

Why do we gain so much benefit from a brief moment of rest? When we close our eyes to the outside world and drop into daydream we enter what Seth, whom Jane Roberts channelled, called, psychological time.

Psychological time demonstrates Einstein’s theory of relativity par excellence, as, in but a moment of measured physical time, a whole lifetime can be lived, in dream time.

At one time in my life I practiced extreme dream recall. I would awaken after a few minutes of sleep and record my dreams, which could take an hour or more to record. After a few nights I had to abandon this practice, as I’d experience little restorative sleep while I produced volumes of dreams from such brief blocks of physical sleep time.

What I did discover from this experiment was, indeed, the relativity of time. Our favored construct of living life according to outer time is actually a very slow playing field for our ego’s waking existence. When located on the fuller spectrum of our inner energetic life, waking life moves at the speed of molasses as contrasted with the rapid river-speed of the dream plane of psychological time.

Have you ever noticed upon drifting into daydream that you are casually engaged in conversation with unknown people, in unfamiliar life dramas? Who are you and who are those beings? Actually, you have opened the door to your fuller self, who lives life in many time zones or on other planes of existence.

The closest plane of existence to the solid physical plane of waking life has been called the astral plane, where souls, both still living in physical bodies, as well as what we call departed souls, commingle and interact, either consciously or in deeply entranced states.

The astral plane has many levels. Initially it serves as a greeting station for souls who have completed life in a physical body. During this initial adjustment period, souls recapitulate their just-completed lives.

Some souls remain in a state of purgatory as they reckon with desires, regrets, resentments, losses and unfulfilled needs. Some souls enter bardo states of deeply creative dreaming where they seek resolution and completion of unresolved issues from human life. Some souls remain so deeply attached to their prior life in physical form that they spend extensive time fixated upon life on Earth.

When souls are fulfilled, having evolved emotion and attachment into the purity of refined love, they may then advance to the higher rungs of the astral plane. At its most advanced levels, the astral plane is the launching pad for life beyond illusion.

Souls, like us, who have not yet left life in physical form are visitors in the astral plane during dreaming. Much of waking life is actually the physical reliving of life already lived in dreams on other planes of our existence. Often, what we recall as dreams, reflect interactions on the astral plane, though most of these encounters are lost to waking consciousness.

When we experience a deja vu moment, or a synchronicity, in waking life, it’s actually an awakening moment to an interaction already lived in dreaming that is now crossing over to be lived in waking life.

Our subconscious mind for our present life in human form has a full-time job operating the systems of the physical body while our consciousness is mentally engaged in its pursuits for waking life. In sleep, that subconscious mind, or energy body, is freed to rejuvenate itself and journey into the astral realm, which is more akin to its faster energetic speed of existence.

In these journeys in infinity, the energy body might encounter departed souls struggling to accept their changed energetic condition and living circumstance. Sometimes we are able to help them move on from their confused state into their new energetic life. Sometimes we encounter loved ones who have departed human form and are able to share intimate moments of connection and communication with them.

Sometimes we may encounter souls with whom we have travelled in prior incarnations, discovering lives and themes which lend clarity to   our circumstances and goals for our present life. Sometimes these astral encounters reveal to us unborn potentials, ready for birth in our daily lives. These might be new careers, relationships, and hidden talents seeking fulfillment.

It is my hypothesis that human evolution is moving toward greater integration with the astral realm. When I see the rapidly unfolding dramas on the Earth plane, I see collective movements, problems, and political structures from prior times in human history that gravitated into the astral realm and have now returned.

Have not the holocaust, the current status of Israel, leanings toward a dissolution of democracy in America, and in much of the world, and stirrings toward the restoration of monarchy in Russia—all issues from prior generations—reappeared and quickened at a frenetic pace on the current world playing field? Hard to not conclude that there is an infiltration of old unresolved astral issues seeking resolution in current human life.

Human life is at a monumental crossroads in terms of how it chooses to reconcile these pervasive states of polarization. We are being asked to relive and resolve ancient struggles in the light of a new day. The solution of repression is no longer available to us. We must reconcile with our wholeness, which is both rational and irrational.

And so, in these changing times, we must all bring integrity into the daytime and into the night sea journeys of our dreams. We must be receptive to guidance that resonates the truth. We must provide guidance to, and set limitation upon, that which would seek to overrun our conscience, our balance, and our health.

Human responsibility and choice are critical to celestial solution. Changing times call for greater consciousness, greater conscience and greater love for ALL.

And remember that love leads, but is not dismissive of, hate.

In and outside of time,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: From The Impossible to The Astral to The Inevitable Dream Of Now

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Peace will come…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

As a child, I figured out how to play The Impossible Dream on the piano. It  moved me deeply and I played it for years. In retrospect, I see my young self reaching for my Soul, as expressed in its lyrics: “This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far…”

That Aquarian star first landed for me when the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. On that Sunday evening I caught the disease of the love generation, a disease I’ve never been cured of. Like Melanie, who just left us, I still believe, “there’s a chance peace will come in your life…”

The impossible dream actually  preceded the 1960’s, in the idealistic post WW2  decisions to create a just world. The creation of the state of Israel was one such decision. Ultimately, as don Juan Matus pointed out to Carlos Castaneda, the White House became “the site of power of today’s world, the center of all our endeavors, hopes, fears…”*

The impossibility of all these dreams is their underappreciation of their shadows. For the Middle East, there has always been the shadow of the displaced Palestinians. For America, despite its stated heart-centered spiritual values, its bulging shadow of greed and self-interest has fully broken through its polished veneer, unabashedly threatening to bring down civilization itself.

Beyond the ego and the shadow of the individual, and civilization itself, lies the power of the astral world, the subtle plane that first houses souls who have shifted out of physical life. In the recapitulation of their physical lives, from that plane, many souls seek interaction with the living to satisfy the unanswered, unredeemed and unresolved issues of their lives. Those unrealized dreams from the astral plane interact with, and influence, current life on the physical plane.

Jung, in his soul retrieval journey, as documented in The Red Book, was forced into interaction with departed souls seeking answers. Jung opens his First Sermon to The Dead with these words: “The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they found not what they sought. They prayed me let them in and besought my word, and thus I began my teaching.”**

The heightened clinical interest today in Family Constellations, as developed by Mark Hellinger, has its roots in tapping the living connection between those in human form with ancestors living in the astral planes and beyond.

The focus of these constellations addresses both receiving support and guidance from the ancestors, through channeled group experiences, as well as healing of ancestral trauma by those in the lineage still extant in human form. Current humanly-experienced diseases might have their origin in ancestral trauma needing resolution on the human playing field.

Collective ancestral trauma, like that experienced during the Holocaust, moves en masse into the astral plane, where it casts a huge shadow upon  human interaction and unsettledness. The ideologies defeated in WW2 also took up residence in the astral plane, where they too continue to seek expression and redemption on the human playing field.

Despite the positive intent of impossible dreams to bring balance, healing and wholeness to the world, the shadow of self-interest, over the needs of all others, haunts human resolution. This, coupled with the impact of deeper unresolved issues of human ancestry, leads us to our present, inevitable dream of now.

Cherokee commentator, Joyce Sequichie Hifler, observes: “Peace at any price is not peace. Sooner or later those who have no honor will find another way to break the treaty.”*** How obvious this became in the attempts to appease Hitler’s expansionist dreams, before and during WW2. Consider the influences of these astral forces on the expansionist impulses in the inevitable dream active on the present world stage.

The evidence of astral influence is apparent in the trancelike state of many humans, seemingly controlled by hypnotic suggestion of illusions that defy obvious factual truth. With regard to interactions with those such afflicted, Hifler goes on to suggest: “Tread water when necessary, avoid confrontation with those who love turmoil, and never be so self- sufficient as to not be able to say an honest prayer when needed. Cultivate peace, but do not give in to darkness.”*

The inevitable dream is the combined constellation of present human and astral turmoil. It is our responsibility to self, other, and ancestor to resolve, head-on, the questions put before us. Can we, as a species, advance to the heart chakra, where we will inhabit the truth, and honor the rights and needs of all? Or will we choose to remain on the cutthroat battlefield of competitive self-interest, where winner takes all?

The uniqueness of now is the inevitability of this dream to play itself out with maximum drama and consequence. The opportunity of now is to humanly choose an outcome that defies the catharsis of conflagration and instead advances the greater good. Human history and human evolution have gifted us the ability to choose. It’s our evolutionary moment to choose wisely.

Don Juan Matus stated that what we believe to be choice is really ego acquiescing to Spirit; that is, doing the right thing. All things must be lived, but all things must  pass.

Yes, Melanie, I honor your impossible dream that peace will come in your life. That dream becomes possible as we seek conscious solution to our inevitably constellated dream of now. Let’s complete it and, regardless of outcome, be of good cheer.

Consciously choosing,
Chuck

*Magical Passes, Carlos Castaneda, p. 37-38
** Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C. G. Jung, p. 78
***Quotes by Joyce Sequichie Hifler from A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II, p. 28.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Exercising The Power Of The Second Attention

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The power of the second attention…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

The shamans of ancient Mexico called the ability to access and influence reality at a subtle energetic level, the exercise of power at the level of the second attention. This is in contrast to the first attention, the province of using physical energy in the solid world of everyday life.

By simply thinking, we engage the second attention. Thought conjures the subtle energy of imagination, which generates a blueprint that then manifests as images in action, which influence the physical dimension of reality through the law of attraction.

Thought can also be directed to travel telepathically and to be subliminally received by someone whom we intend to be influenced by it. Setting a healing intent, or praying for someone, are examples of exercising this power of the second attention.

These simple examples of exercising the power of the second attention deepen as one learns of the existence of the astral dimension, where souls, in their energy body form, intermingle in what is called dreaming.

When the physical body goes into the deep regeneration of sleep, one’s energy body, or soul, is freed from its mooring within the physical body to travel, in dreaming, into the astral dimension of reality. The astral region is populated by visiting energy bodies of humans currently in physical form, as well as by those currently not in human form. Bob Monroe crafted this affirmation for astral travelers so as to ensure safety and protection:

I deeply desire the help and cooperation, the assistance, the understanding of those individuals whose wisdom, development and experience are equal to or greater than my own. I ask their guidance and protection from any influence or any source that might provide me with less than my stated desires.

The energetic modus operandi of the astral region is thought. Thus, if I intend to fly in a dream, I simply state ‘fly now’ and off I go. If my mind, however, is in its first attention perspective when dreaming, I will attempt to fly by flapping my arms and jumping up like a bird, to no avail.

Similarly, if I am in my first attention in a dream and consciously attempt to walk, as I do in waking life, I will experience tremendous weight and inertia as I stumble forward. Actually, this experience is a moment where I might be prompted to wake up to my second attention, as the thought might occur in the first attention that, “This situation is impossible. Of course it is, I’m in a dream!”

From this awakening realization I can simply command where I want to be, and be there in an instant. The trick is to stay in the astral region of dreaming and not wake up to the physical body and the first attention of Newtonian physics. To develop second attention awareness in dreaming, set the intent to wake up to it before you go off to sleep. Be patient as you seek to develop your astral prowess.

Outwardly, the world has truly woken up to, and become pervasively enthralled with, exercising the power of the second attention in daily life, the normal province of the first attention. The use of affirmations to manifest one’s desires is widespread. The caution here is to be sure that what one asks for is truly in alignment with one’s high Spirit. (See my blog: Don’t Forget To Ask If It’s Right for a fuller discussion of this point).

Our world is being challenged now with ideologies—thoughts—that state that if facts don’t support their contentions then the facts are false. The human race has become extremely polarized by thoughts that have manifested alternative realities, based on differing belief systems around the globe. The power of the second attention can be commandeered for egocentric and evil intentions, as well as for the good of the planet.

To protect oneself from the power of nefarious influencers, retreat to the sanctity of the heart, where the scales of justice will always tell the truth. Include a positive affirmation, such as Bob Monroe’s, to be fully present to observe and learn but still safe and protected from negative influences.

Intend to be personally responsible with the power of thought at the center of the second attention.

And, last but not least, intend always for the greater good, joining ranks with the evolutionary energy of love. Now that’s worthy of all our attention!

First and Second Attention on love,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: A World in Alzheimer’s

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A golden compass

Elmer Green’s greatest gift to humankind was the guidebook he left behind, The Ozawkie Book of the Dead, the ultimate navigational tool for now. Elmer and his wife Alyce took a very successful journey through the fog of Alzheimer’s disease, as Alyce ultimately merged with her high SOUL, while still present in human form.

Simply understood, one’s high SOUL is a center of being that is pure truth, wisdom and love, whose action is only right action, action based on those principles. The center of the little soul is narcissistically limited by its ego’s narrow concern for its own self, as it lacks the broadest view of the high SOUL. Spiritual maturity is arriving at one’s high SOUL, a feat generally attained after death.

Alyce’s little soul was able to advance and merge with her high SOUL while still occupying her physical body in full blown Alzheimer’s disease. The journey of little soul, once identified with its physical body, to high SOUL, is the journey of all souls who leave this world upon physical death.

Elmer defined the human personality as a unit, which included the physical body and the little soul. The little soul has many dimensions. At the level of the personality, it is the mental and emotional components that innervate life in the human body. This soul, also called the astral body, essentially runs the human body, in everyday life, through the energy channels of the chakras.

Thus, for instance, the brain is the physical hard drive of the mind, which is actually the mental component of the soul, an entity completely separate from the brain and the physical body. In Alzheimer’s, as the brain deteriorates, the mind must wake up to itself without its usual identification with, and mooring in, the physical body.

Deprived of its physical connection to the body, the mind in Alzheimer’s begins to shift its focus to the astral plane, the plane it has always visited nightly in dreaming, as the body sleeps. Anyone who has any memory of their nightly dreams has some level of familiarity with life beyond the physical body, on the astral plane.

The challenge on the astral plane is to maintain a sober and coherent sense of self, as one encounters entities and partakes in roles and dream-life scenarios with completely unfamiliar characters. And yet, nothing seems unusual about one’s presence or identity to the characters in the dream.

As well, the continuity of dreamscapes can rapidly shift into whole new environments with new characters, seamlessly flowing into new vignettes, equally unfamiliar yet naturally flowing, as if one completely belonged. One’s identity,  once rooted in physical life in the everyday waking world, is challenged by the roles one finds oneself in while dreaming, as suddenly one may find oneself in intimate relationships with unknown people, behaving in ways that violate one’s waking sensibilities.

With growing consciousness in dreaming, one may be startled with contradictions that defy one’s waking identity. In Alzheimer’s, the option to wake up to the familiar physical body becomes increasingly remote. The challenge is to stabilize in the soul’s identity, as an ethereal energy body, living on the astral plane. Memory of life in the physical body may be accessible, but returning to it is no longer the priority. What is a priority, is to learn to navigate this astral plane of dreams with intent and, ultimately, to find one’s way beyond it to the light of the high SOUL.

This astral region of dreaming is the home of what the Buddhist’s call bardos, personalized dreamscapes where souls carry on their spiritual journeys after death. Bardos are life dreams constructed to help souls work through their karma and, ultimately, advance to merge with the light of their high SOUL.

Karma is simply the state of one’s knowledge and awareness upon dying, the state of consciousness one has to work with. If one is captivated by illusions and delusions, one’s astral residence in the bardos will enable one to eventually wake up from one’s limited dreams into a higher level of knowing, whereby shedding one’s prior karma.

The world we are currently in has launched us on a similar journey into the bardos: having lost our familiar groundedness, in a world we can no longer make sense of, we must find our way to high SOUL. We must elevate ourselves, and our world, to a new spiritual level, while still tied to this world in a physical life.

The parallel of now with Alzheimer’s is that our grounded hold on our everyday physical world of reason has been shattered. If we observe carefully, we find ourselves in a world of mushrooming irrational dreams lacking any rational compass. Our world has now completely entered the astral plane, where many karmic bardos are being acted out, clashing with each other at lightning speed.

Our world’s brain, if you will, is completely deteriorating, and our minds must wake up to the world-beyond-reason we now find ourselves in. Without the familiar mooring of reason, we must navigate this astral plane of wild dreams, in search of a new world order that works for the planet and its inhabitants. For this, our little souls must journey to the light of our high SOULS, where deeper truth becomes accessible.

The high SOUL exists in a plane beyond the desire body of the astral plane. This is the plane that radiates with truth, wisdom, and love. This is the plane that holds the guidance that can raise the Earth plane from its current playing field of astral fog.

The immediate challenge is, how to navigate this astral plane we are currently in. Buddhist guidance for those traversing through the bardos after death is to not get hooked by the bardos that seek to attract their attention, and cause them to lose focus on moving toward the light.

The application of this wisdom, to now, is to not get hooked by the conspiracy theories or outrageous behaviors that vie for one’s attention and vital energy. As well, to realize that the reasonable world that one once took for granted is gone, but that one can still steady oneself, and restore one’s internal rational compass.

Reason is an essential traveling companion for the journey of the little soul through the challenges of the astral plane. Though the astral plane is replete with worlds beyond reason, reason is crucial to its safe and successful navigation.

Thus, as one confronts the multiple bardos that appear on the world stage daily, guidance emphasizes non-attachment. In practical terms, this means not spending one’s emotional energy on tantrum reactions or heated arguments. Reason can aid in deciphering one’s best options, as navigational decisions are critical in this Scylla and Charybdis of the daily waking life of now.

This forging of little soul into an energy miser, seeking only its advance to the light of its high SOUL, can find expression in a loving equanimity for all one encounters, while maintaining safe distance from other little souls covetous of its energy. Without judgment simply move on.

The mission of now is an unfettered journey of heart, to the love, wisdom, and truth of the high SOUL.

Completion of this mission will safely land the world in its new rotation, with the fog of  Alzheimer’s lifted in the light of a new day. With the radiance of the high SOUL guiding human behavior, the Earth will find itself in the right hands!

Time to dream awake, really awake…

With affection,

Chuck