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Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Ego’s Journey To Discover Its Divinity

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From our ego center we design our own destiny…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

With the acquisition of consciousness the human species evolved beyond its instinctually bound animal compatriots. Consciousness provides us with the divine prerogative to design and manifest our own destiny.

The ego is the center of consciousness in a human being. With its powers of thought and free will, the ego is our sovereign leader who directs the course of our lives.

The ego is of divine origin. Its parents are the masculine and feminine sides of its immortal soul that sent it off to live a finite life, attached to a human form. World mythology, fairytales, and actual human history are replete with stories of orphaned royal infants raised by humble citizens or protective animals. Unaware of their royal origin, these children ultimately mature into adults who discover and exercise their innate divine powers.

Examples include, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, King Arthur, Oedipus, Romulus and Remus, Superman, Moses and Jesus. The same archetypal theme of the hero’s journey pervades all of these stories.

The journey is one of taking on the adventure of a human life, with all its trials and tribulations, and ultimately entering the abyss of the unknown self, where they retrieve their true royal birthright and come into conscious possession of their divine powers.

This archetypal theme of the hero’s journey of self-discovery, in its life in human form, is shared by all human beings. We are all born in a blank slate mental state, surrounded by a wall of amnesia that blocks out knowledge of our true divine inheritance.

Were we to have known of our actual immortal status, we would have been deprived of the ability to truly experience a finite human life. Souls attracted to Earth School to further their growth enter a finite life in space and time, where they are unknowingly raised and socialized by their mortal adoptive parents.

The ego secretly always harbors an underlying feeling of inadequacy, rooted in being forced to live and master a life in an alien form, in an alien world. Is it any wonder that the ego becomes obsessed with the need for attention and validation of its self-importance, as a central pursuit in this life? Self-importance is the natural compensation for a deep sense of inadequacy, the true mental status of all of humanity.

Ironically, the ego’s obsession with self-importance, that steals the lion’s share of its energy and attention throughout its life, unknowingly engages its innate divine powers in perpetuating a life of inadequacy. The thoughts and beliefs we emphasize create the circumstances within our lives that reflect those thoughts.

The conscious mind of the ego is the architect that engages the infinite intelligence and divine building substance of the subconscious mind to manifest its will. There is no such thing as predetermination. What we emphasize in our thoughts is our destiny.

What we tell ourselves we are is what we magically become. These are our divine powers: thought and the ability to physically manifest those thoughts. Our current eon is challenging us to wake up to our unconscious use of these powers and to shift to consciously choosing  thoughts of right action.

Regardless of our values, it is the thoughts we are drawn to and emphasize that are manifested. Thus, if we are preoccupied with fascination and rage toward political figures, we are in fact inadvertently pledging our energy toward the realization of their dream.

Waking up to our innate royal privilege also requires that we become responsible rulers. If we saturate our minds with thoughts and feelings of love, compassion, right action, forgiveness, and abundance we are certain to manifest these physical conditions in our lives, individually and globally.

The ego of our time must die to its obsession with self-importance, as it assumes, with divine confidence, its ability to manifest a positively evolved self and world. The current eon requires us to claim our divine powers and exercise them in the service of truth.

What we give our attention to, consciously or unconsciously, is our real vote.

Attend wisely and responsibly, 
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: A Vibrant Synchronicity

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Exhale…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

The blog I intended to write this week is not this one. This blog is the result of a profound synchronicity that Jan and I experienced and that I feel is my responsibility to share. My intent is to present it as it occurred, leaving all interpretations to the mind and heart of the reader.

In recent months, someone had sent me the book, Breath, by James Nestor. Jan started to read it alone and then informed me that we should read it together because, as she said, “it is a book that will change our lives.” That suggestion caught my attention!

We read the book eagerly over a couple of week’s time. One chapter was particularly challenging, dealing with the potential health benefits of carbon dioxide retention via slow exhalation. Though I regularly practice breath retention, as prescribed by ancient pranayama techniques, as well as practices suggested by Jack Schwarz, I never connected its benefits as stemming from the retention of carbon dioxide in the body.

A major collaborator of James Nestor in the exploration of breath is the Swedish researcher, Anders Olsson. Both have spent more than ten years researching the effects of breathing on the human body.

Independent of my knowing, Jan researched Olsson’s website and discovered and purchased a pair of breathing devices called the Relaxator. She presented me with one. It looked like a plastic whistle or pacifier, and it cost $35! Needless to say, I was not impressed. Jan said, for the second time, “it’s going to change our lives!”

In spite of my doubts, I began to experiment with its protocol, which is to place the Relaxator in the mouth, breathe in deeply through the nose and then exhale slowly through the Relaxator, which constricts the breath and elongates the exhalation.

After the first 15-minute session I was deeply calmed and, yes, hooked! Jan and I have been deepening our practice ever since. During our last shared breathing session, I had the thought that when we finished we’d reread the chapter in Breath that dealt with carbon dioxide, to further grasp its action in the body, and then move on to an unrelated spiritual book, entitled Letters From The Afterlife, which we had been reading.

To backtrack a little, when we had previously finished reading Breath and pondered what to read next, Jan quickly breezed through our library and knew that Letters was the book we should read. She plucked it off the shelf and declared that we hadn’t read it yet. It’s part of our modest collection of Spiritualist books from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

Letters is a channelled book by Elsa Barker, published in 1915. The character she channelled was the prominent judge, spiritual seeker and noted author, James Patterson Hatch, whom Elsa had known while he was alive in human form. From his place on the other side of the veil, he made contact with Elsa and asked her to write Letters, which documents his discoveries of life after death, which he desired to share with humanity.

So, when Jan and I had completed our breathing session, instead of picking  up Breath, as previously planned, I unthinkingly picked up Letters and opened to the next chapter to be read: Letter 31, A Change Of Focus. In this chapter, Judge Hatch quite abruptly describes a methodology to heighten one’s psychic powers by raising one’s vibration through the practice of breath retention! This discussion was completely out of context from all the letters we had previously read.

Judge Hatch states that he has met with yogis in India in meditation who are aware that the retention of the breath causes a buildup of a poison (obviously carbon dioxide) that acts upon one’s psychic nature, raising one’s vibration and psychic powers. He suggested that at the level of gross matter—the physical body—many illnesses are cured as well. Judge Hatch mused that for all the volumes published on Yoga, none of them had described the physiological roots of the retention practice.

Well, as I realized that I had picked up a book written in 1915 that out of nowhere answered the question I intended to receive from one published in 2020, I knew, in that moment, that Judge Hatch is a teacher still! Though living in the astral dimension beyond this world, he continues to be very much focused on supporting spiritual evolution in the modern world, through the use of an extremely practical method—the retention of breath, the very method that I had recently been learning about myself. I further realized that a trickster spirit had crafted an amazing set of circumstances to captivate my attention!

I feel a deeply grounded imperative to pass on Judge Hatch’s synchronistic affirmation of Anders Olsson’s research. Of course my intent here is not to prescribe or recommend the Relaxator. My intent is to share a most vibrant synchronicity and, for me, a clear interaction with a spirit seeking to benefit humankind.

Links are provided below to the works cited, in case one is interested in taking the journey of this synchronous happening for one’s self.

Synchronicity provides a meeting place for different soul dimensions, both within and outside the self. Anyone who might choose to engage in a practice with breathing should consult with their medical practitioners to obtain medical clearance. This blog is simply informational, not prescriptive.

Gratitude for the gift of Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art. Love for all the souls engaged in this fantastic voyage of ever-evolving consciousness.

Vibrantly,
Chuck

Elsa Barker: Letters from the Afterlife
James Nestor: Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art
Anders Olsson’s website: Conscious Breathing
The Relaxator

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Our Promethean Debt

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The power of One…
-Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Prometheus stole fire from the gods, delivering to humanity the gift of consciousness and the ability to chart its own course. For his transgression, Zeus condemned Prometheus to eternal torment. Human beings must also suffer nature’s torments, as she evens the score for transgressions to nature, within and without.

At the deepest transpersonal dimension of our psyche we all share the same roots and laws that govern our being. These are the instincts and archetypes of the collective unconscious. When the decisions we make deviate too widely from those archetypal roots, our Promethean debt must be paid and, as Jung put it, “from time to time with hideous consequences.”*

This is the usual course of human history with its eternal torment of wars. Outwardly, the conservative laws of the instincts are diametrically opposed to the decisions and directions of detached consciousness. Instinct and reason are fighting for supremacy. The lines are drawn, with no interest in reconciliation.

Inwardly, the consequences of one-sided attitudes are the torments of restlessness, anxiety, terror, and depression. Resolution of these painful states is to be found on the path of individuation, where we reconcile and live the fullness of our wholeness. To travel this path brings benefit, both within and without. It takes but one rainmaker to bring rain to an entire village. As within, so without.

Every one of us is a fragment of the same hologram. Though outwardly we appear unique, at the transpersonal, quantum level of our being we are all all that is. Look no further than yourself to confront the same dynamics being played out, at this very moment, upon the world stage.

Individuation requires that we suffer the opposites of our wholeness. All beings are actually bipolar beings. Wholeness cannot be found in one-sided dissociation. We must suffer full ownership of our shadow, all the parts of us that we reject or simply don’t know about.

It is not enough for consciousness to shine its light into the darkness, it must accept and bring into life all of itself. Sometimes, for example, you must speak the truth, however painful the consequences. As a result, a rejected part of the psyche that had turned aggressive might feel reconciled with consciousness for its willingness to take such heartfelt action.

Those deep truths, though they may appear transactional, and require outer action, actually originate within the interplay of dynamics within the self. Outer truths merely mirror inner facts. Be sure to always bring it home, not leaving a projected part of the self in the person and behavior of an other. Take full responsibility for owning, suffering the torments of, and living your wholeness.

We, each individual, are the world. Every character upon the world stage is within us. The energetics without are the energetics within.

The playing field for our Promethean debt is the structure and dynamics of our inner world. Find the balance within; advance the world without.

In so doing, perhaps the usual course of history might be averted. Grab the opportunity to truly make a difference.

Going for it,
Chuck

*Essays On A Science Of Mythology, C. G. Jung and C. Kerenyi, p. 82.

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Friday August 12, 2022

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Remember that you are more than physical matter, that you are also spirit, energy, and consciousness. These three things are your super powers. They allow you to transcend the mundane. They allow you insight and knowledge far beyond the norm. Keep in mind that these super powers are what make life meaningful and the exploration of them is what will set you free and prepare you for a future that is uniquely adventurous. So yes, your body is important but you are so much more than your body. You have super powers to tap into, to hone, and to enjoy.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Energy of Consciousness

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What are you radiating?
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

“Consciousness is energy,” asserts Mark Certo, longtime friend of and sound engineer for Robert Monroe and host of the the Monroe Institute’s recent inaugural podcast, Expanding On Consciousness.

I would add to this definition that the energy of consciousness has awareness and volition that can reflect inwardly upon itself, as well as direct its attention outwardly. Shamans define this active state of consciousness as intent, the energy of focused consciousness.

Healers send the intent of healing energy to a patient, often at great physical distance. This focused consciousness travels to its intended destination on the wings of intent. Frequently, we suddenly think of someone who is about to call us from a great distance. This telepathic transmission and reception is fueled by the energy of focused consciousness.

Shamans, such as Carlos Castaneda, hide their true identities, to an extreme, to avoid the impact of outer consciousness being focused upon them. No one really knows Carlos’ real date of birth, name, country of origin, or actual date or cause of death.

These indeterminate facts so infuriated historians that Carlos was written off as a charlatan and is basically forgotten some 25 years after his transition from this world. Carlos, however, is free to travel in infinity unburdened of the energetic impact of the public’s attention.

Toward the end of his time in this world, Carlos emerged from seclusion and launched Tensegrity. This was the time I was privileged to experience him. His reversing of classic shamanic secrecy was an attempt to responsibly prepare the world for greater transparency, the prerequisite for greater mastery of consciousness and evolutionary advancement.

Critical to this advancement is to avoid the trapping of self-importance. This trapping is currently expressed in the insatiable hunger for attention that social media has unleashed within the human species. The energetic impact of such a tide of attention, both coming and going, devours people’s energy, strongly impacts their mood, identity and mental status, and frequently infiltrates their core beliefs about themselves and others.

The sudden conversion into one-sided beliefs, which divides friends and family in our currently polarized world, reflects the impact of targeted messages impacting the consciousness of those receiving them. Repetitive suggestions from political leaders entrance citizens, as they commandeer the subconscious minds and critical thinking abilities of those impacted. When we lose control of our own minds we are no longer in charge, and when we are no longer in charge we lose connection to, and mastery of, true consciousness.

Robert Monroe, a true American shaman (though I’m certain he’d reject that designation!), devised tools to protect the integrity of self from the energetic impact of the focused consciousness of others upon the self. First and foremost, he stated an intent to only interact with beings who could be authentic and helpful, rejecting interactions with nefarious and self-serving, manipulative beings.

That intent was then embodied in a resonant, subtle energy state that he called a REBAL, a resonant energy balloon, as he journeyed in infinity. Everyone can benefit from stating their intent to interact with positive, helpful people, using their imagination and breath to protect their body, physical and subtle, from the intrusion of non-resonant energy that attempts to penetrate their minds.

Intent has its own powerful energy of focused consciousness to fend off the unwanted impact of outside thoughts. In fact, the energy of intent can be turned to the protection and healing of one’s own physical body. However, if one’s belief system rejects such a possibility, it will not be possible to benefit from such an intent. Intent requires unbending focused consciousness to deliver its action.

Disbelief and doubt fragment the energy of intent. The placebo effect demonstrates the power of intent to impact the physical body when one is convinced of its benefits. The benefits of the placebo effect are often immediately erased when the subject discovers they were not given the “real” drug.

If one can suspend the judgment of disbelief and open to the legitimate possibility that an intent can be realized, one might indeed discover the true power of consciousness. Thus, stating an intent, without doubt or attachment to the outcome, is an opportunity to discover its true impact.

Hypnosis demonstrates the power of intent via the focused energy of suggestion. The best use of hypnosis is self-hypnosis, where the conscious mind, though relaxed and peripheral, embraces the suggestion presented to the subconscious. Self-hypnosis preserves the authority to direct one’s life collaboratively, within the confines of the various dimensions of self.

These dimensions of self coexist and yet often remain unknown to each other in the fuller consciousness that holds them together. Thus, a meeting with another at a soul level, in a dream or in waking life, may quickly be lost to memory. Mastery of consciousness requires a remembering that includes encounters we typically forget, like dreams lost upon awakening. Only through training ourselves to remember can we achieve a fuller conscious presence now.

The energy of consciousness is deeply impactful and it behooves us all to assume full responsibility for our thoughts and where we put our attention, keeping in mind the direct impact they have upon the self and the world.

We are currently experiencing an accelerated world war of nuclear thoughts, each day bombarded with new toxic ideas and decisions. Our ability to both protect ourselves from non-resonant toxic thought, as well as to project outwardly the energy of compassionate intent, is our best opportunity to stabilize the world and advance its evolution.

Our choices, rooted in the responsible intent for our energy of consciousness to grow in the direction of love, compassion and kindness, will change the world.

Exercising the free will of consciousness for the greater good,

Chuck

NOTE: Expanding on Consciousness podcast is available wherever you normally get your podcasts. New episodes are dropped every Tuesday.

ALSO: Chuck has written a blog this week packed with plenty of ideas to assimilate and work on, plenty to consider while he takes a break from blogging over the next few weeks. His next blog will appear on Tuesday July 19, 2022.