Tag Archives: dreaming

Just a Bag of Bones

What is this body that we are so attached to but a mere bag of bones. When the life force leaves a body, what is left is just that, a bag of bones. Yet we spend our lives and our energy totally attached to the bag of bones that we identify as “Me.”

We are, in reality, so much more than that. As Robert Monroe has taught so many explorers of higher consciousness: “You are more than your physical body.”

Our life force, our spirit energy, though it resides inside our bag of bones finds ways to also leave it, to go beyond it and explore. Exploits outside of our bag of bones happen most naturally and most familiarly at night, when we dream. We all dream, even if we can’t remember doing so. Thus, we’ve all had experiences of our selves as spirit energy alone, sans bag of bones.

So many things can hold us back from uninhibitedly experiencing our spirit energy. To fully appreciate such experiences, to be able to engage in them with our full awareness, we need to be freed of our fears, our incessant internal dialogue, our traumas, our sexual abuse, our judgments, and anything else that might hold us back from further exploration of the many and varied spiritual possibilities we all hold within us.

Recapitulation is one means by which to rid ourselves of the things that hold us back from greater enjoyment of life, from spiritual exploration, and from understanding the knowledge and wisdom that our spirit might present us with.

During recapitulation, our spirit helps us to recall and relive past events while simultaneously keeping us grounded in our bodies, that bag of bones that we love so much, or hate so much, or just can’t seem to reconcile with.

As we recapitulate, old beliefs about ourselves are stripped away. Our energy is freed from where it has been stuck; in memories, in all those old beliefs about ourselves, in entanglements with the energy of others, in pains, regrets, resentments, self-pity, judgments, etc.; the list is endless.

In the process we learn to trust our spirit, that part of ourselves that is so eager to explore beyond the physical body, that just can’t wait to show us what we are really made of—energy! Our own spirit then becomes our greatest teacher and guide, and we come into our wholeness.

As we lose our fears and discover that we are really energetic beings, we become fluid and fearless explorers, in-body and out-of-body. But best of all, we become loving beings, fully happy in our bag of bones.

Sending you love,

J. E. Ketchel, Author of The Recapitulation Diaries

Published simultaneously on The Recapitulation Diaries Facebook page.

Soulbyte for Friday December 6, 2019

Find resolution in knowing that your life’s journey is one of transformation and that change is natural, that aging, loss, and eventual death of the human form are the normal road to transcendence. And yet also remember that the spirit is eternal, always young, always alive, and so keep in mind that to lose the human form again and again in nightly dreaming is practice for how to use the eternal spirit effectively; it is preparation for using it in life as well as preparation for the definitive journey all must eventually take. Prepare the human self for a sturdy life, accepting the minor changes that present each day in physical life, but prepare the spirit for the great change at the end of life by learning what it is fully capable of now. Ask it to show you its secrets, to guide you to full awareness of its capabilities, to show you all that you are. With loving kindness and compassion, ask it to guide you, day and night, so that you may experience its fullness and its eternal beauty all the time.

Sending you love,

The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: Spirit More

Spirit comes down to earth…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In addition to the petty tyrants that all people are impacted by—in their outer lives in the everyday world—is the tyrant within, the one that has us do what our more enlightened self would have us not do. Who is that mysterious other that upends our clearest, most grounded rational intentions, in a heartbeat?

That mysterious other is indeed a spirit, recognizable by its insatiable appetite for more. Rightly situated, that hunger for freedom is what propels the energy body to explore the universe, also in a heartbeat. Command of that spirit in dreaming is the goal of all spiritual seekers, as they prove for themselves the fuller capabilities of all that we are.

However, when that same spirit more projects itself upon the object world of everyday life it fixates on substances, objects, behaviors and people to quench its insatiable appetite for more. This is the obvious basis of all addictions: Our insatiable spiritual appetite entwined with the concrete objects of this world.

Being an insatiable spirit, it stands to reason that enough will never be enough. When spirit more attaches, obsession without end—its version of infinity—is its marching orders. Once spirit more takes up residence in ego spirit’s domain (the world of everyday life), ego is easily mesmerized by the promise of ecstatic fulfillment.

The problem with spirit more’s perspective of everyday life is that it acts there the way it acts in its pure energy body state. In that spiritual state anything is possible and time is largely nonexistent. Spirit more does not have to face the aging and dying of the human body, it lives in infinity.

The human body, in contrast, has its definite limits and fixed duration of life. When driven and controlled by spirit more, it is subject to illness and injury, as well as the distorted idea that it will live forever. It can cause many to delay their growth because they believe they have forever.

Of course, a touch of spirit more sprinkled lightly upon the affairs of everyday life is extremely helpful and energizing. Spirit more is a source of magic in everyday life. However, its proper domain is the energetic world of dreaming, where its true ambitions can be realized. When left to roam freely in the playing field of everyday life it wreaks havoc.

This is the heart of the opioid crisis. This is at the heart of the greed currently controlling the world. Spirit more can act as a tyrant when it infiltrates the psyche of a leader. We do well to view it as a misplaced spiritual drive, rather than our manifest destiny to entitlement.

In the world of everyday life, we are spirit beings in finite bodies. In the world of spirit, we are infinite beings, currently engaged in an enriching time-limited human form adventure. To integrate our spirit longings with our physical limitations is our deepest challenge in this life.

Honor spirit more by allowing its touch in everyday life, but be sure that ego spirit remains effectively in control at the heart center. In return, intend to journey with spirit more in its infinite playing field through the gateway of the dream.

Find fulfillment in both realms, but never confuse who should be in charge in their respective domains.

On the adventure,

Chuck

Soulbyte for Monday April 15, 2019

May your dreams remind you that everything is possible, that though you may live in the everyday mundane world, the magical is equally real. What you see every day is only part of the truth, for on the other side, where dreams are made, is another reality. Those realities intersect and interweave all the time. And when you are aware of this you may think you are dreaming, but it’s really just another true reality. Seek to make your dreams come true so that you may experience true reality, and then you will know that everything IS possible, in all realities. Find a way to make your dreams come true. No dream is an impossible dream.

-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Thursday January 24, 2019

Even as you expand your consciousness, even as you dream and explore other realms and other possibilities, stay grounded in reality, in the real world you live in. For all the dreaming and exploring will do you no good if you do not bring the lessons you learn back to earth and put them to practical use in your everyday life. Make your lessons work for you in positive ways so that all that you experience, awake and asleep, may be brought together in harmony, so that life as a spiritual being and life as a physical being will not be two separate experiences but one united experience of wholeness. Do stay grounded and yet also keep dreaming. The possibilities in both worlds are endless, but your experiences will only really matter if you can bring them together, into life in a real way. You may learn of love, but you must also practice being loving for it to truly be a lesson learned. Experience all that you are inside your wholeness, in containment of Self, with feet firmly planted, breathing the life-giving air of the real world. And with love for all and for all that you are, carry on.

-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne