Tag Archives: energy

A Day in a Life: The 70 Percent Self

Vibration is all around us... affecting us in some way... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Vibration is all around us…
affecting us in some way…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

We are 70% water. With so much water making up who we physically are it’s no wonder that we vibrate when something from outside shocks or startles us. Notice how a sudden loud sound sends reverberations through the body. Notice how terrible news sends shockwaves through us. Notice how affected we are by beautiful sounds, beautiful thoughts, beautiful sights, as beauty too sends chills through us.

Water is rarely still. Even a sedentary bowl or glass of water is in constant motion, sound waves constantly rumbling through it, shaking its molecules, though this may not be visible to the naked eye. Think of the oceans in constant motion, water flowing deep inside the earth, magnetic forces and the earth’s shifts vibrating the waters of the world. Even water that is stagnant, if shaken up has the possibility of changing its molecular structure from a putrid state to a healthy state. Vibration alone is enough to change water, but the quality of that vibration makes all the difference.

Masaru Emoto, in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, showed how negative vibration and positive vibration impact water. In other books he continues his explorations of the subject, concluding in The True Power of Water that: “Since the quality of water improves or deteriorates depending on the information given to it, the corollary for humans, who are made up primarily of water, is to take in good information. When we do, our mind and body can become healthier. Conversely, when we take in negative information, we can get sick.”

Fascinated by the work of Emoto for several years now, I have turned once again to reading his studies, pondering our watery selves and the current health of humankind, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The more I remain aware of myself as 70% water, the more I notice vibrations around me and how they impact me personally.

I remember myself as a child swimming all summer long, safely embraced by and at ease in the water of the swimming pool. How buoyant, how light I became! Almost as if I had lost my human form, I became one with the water. All troubles washed away in the water. In its vibration my own vibration found resonance.

We all send energy vibrations out from our core... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
We all send energy vibrations out from our core…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Our human form allows us to feel our inner vibratory selves most keenly in the presence of sound. We can put a glass of water in front of a speaker, turn up the music, and see how the sound vibration from the speaker affects the water. It affects us too. The fact that we are 70% water further clarifies for me the concept of resonance. When we feel resonance with someone or something we are basically feeling the effects of resonant sound waves. Sound waves, as I’ve been discovering through my own experimentations, affect the human body quite profoundly. Emoto would agree that the sounds we expose ourselves to can leave us feeling happy, healthy, calm and balanced, or they can leave us feeling depleted, moody, and negative. He exposed water to ugly words and then to beautiful words and observed the difference. In crystal form, the water that had been exposed to beautiful words produced beautiful crystals while the water that had been exposed to ugly words produced equally ugly shapes.

Certain music turns me right off. I feel hatred and anger coming on its sound vibrations and I do not want to listen to it. It comes at me with assaultive dissonance and my inner vibration gets uncomfortably revved by it. I feel my water molecules jumping around and getting heated up, making me feel agitated. My 70% water tells me it doesn’t like it at all! Other music moves me with sound vibrations that, though revving, are also happy and joyous, with good feelings, and once again I float in happy buoyancy similar to the swimming pool water of my childhood. The water that I am made up of seeks positive water in return—vibrations that resonate.

When I turn to nature, I notice how my watery self likes the sound of the wind, though gusts send it shaking. It prefers calm winds and the sound of water gently babbling, though I am fully aware that big winds of change and massive tidal waves are often welcome as well, that they shake me awake, out of my complacency and negativity. And so, even though I seek resonance in my life, I’m fully aware of the potency of dissonance, that it has a purpose, and so I welcome it when it comes. I use it to look for what in my life, and in my body self, needs shaking up. I thank it for making me aware of the need for change and use it to my advantage. After all, I want to keep myself as vibratory as the waters of the world, for I do not want to become stagnant!

But I’ve gotten to a point in my life where like-resonance is most important. If it’s lacking my watery self will not stop for long; it moves on quickly now, though I might, at one time, have felt obligation or duty more strongly than resonance. Now I choose resonance over the proclamations of old voices or inhibiting social constructs that once controlled my feeling self. I now give myself permission to bow out and away from dissonance with no regrets or bad feelings if nothing fruitful is offered in return. I walk away from negative energy rather than be assaulted by it. If someone is punching me in the gut, would I stick around to keep getting punched? No thank you! Sometimes a negative situation is just negative and it’s simply most healthy and appropriate to move on to more positive energy.

In peaceful co-existence... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
In peaceful co-existence…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In resonance we find deep satisfaction and calmness, the flow of all life resonant with ours, and in resonance life will flow with us, naturally bringing us its bounty. If we open ourselves to good vibrations, we will receive that which is good, and our vibratory 70% water selves will thank us!

Our deepest selves, I believe, all vibrate at the same rate. We are all beautiful music at our core, the same vibratory energy of the earth, the same sound waves of nature. Sometimes we are calm and sometimes we are agitated, but at our deepest core we all vibrate to the same sound. Perhaps we will all, one day, tune into the same music and hum the same tune.

Tuning in, sending you good vibrations,
Jan

Chuck’s Place: Dream Changers

Vortexes of energy are everywhere... Art by Jan Ketchel
Vortexes of energy are everywhere…
Art by Jan Ketchel

A reader asks: “So the Tivoli residents have yet another tragedy at the entrance to the village…how do we stay present when we travel through these vortex points in our world?”

On January 31, 2014 two young women were killed as they walked along the shoulder of Route 9G just leaving the village of Tivoli, NY; Bard college students on their way to the shuttle bus stop that would take them back to the campus. On March 3, 2014 a 21 year-old man was killed as he turned to drive south along Route 9G at that same intersection.

Indeed, there are energetic vortexes, whirlpools of energy that swirl beneath the currents of energy that flow on well-travelled roads—rivers of energy. Route 9G, a stretch of highway that runs parallel to the Hudson River—a mile to the West—for a long stretch of Northern Dutchess County in New York, is no exception.

The Hudson River, for all its magnificence, is a river of powerful, hidden currents. This is not a river to swim, and it has taken the lives of many innocent, daring, inexperienced and experienced swimmers alike.

The river is a metaphor for the vast energetic reality that lies beneath the surface of our consciousness. Our cars are our vehicles of consciousness, reflecting our ability to navigate the world through our will and conscious intention. But, upon entering our cars, how quickly we are taken beyond our neat little containers of consciousness! Suddenly we find ourselves in a sea of power drives, overtaken by rages at those who negate us, pass us, pressure us from the rear. We might find ourselves embroiled in power struggles and fantasies of conquest, of winning or passive-aggressively, sadistically, causing pain as we ride the brake.

The energetic currents of the highway are as powerful as the hidden currents of the river and they catch us unawares. Often, when people leave the office I warn them to walk on the earth for a while before driving away. The phenomena of highway hypnosis is the impact of the deeper energetic currents that suddenly transport us into a recapitulation. We might find ourselves suddenly transported out of body to another place and time, perhaps into a past experience or into a coexistent other-world that takes us out of this space and time.

The other day, I opened Theodore Gaster’s abridged version of The Golden Bough to this quote: “Often the soul is conceived as a bird ready to take flight.” This is the danger of highway hypnosis. The roadways we travel are filled with energetic whirlpools, vortexes that can free that bird, sometimes as a tragic dream changer. But then, who really knows their exact appointment time with death?

We must go into the well if we are to be fulfilled... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We must go into the well if we are to be fulfilled…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In a dream the other night, Jan and I found ourselves at a mountain resort next to a powerful river. I inquired about a place to swim and was shown a section that to me looked no safer than the rest of the river. Suddenly a young man surfaced from the water and came ashore. I asked him about the current. He confirmed that it was powerful, but explained that he loved to be dragged below. It was where he experienced emotion, he said.

The deeper energetic currents are indeed the home of the powerful emotions and sensations that make us feel alive. The I Ching, in the hexagram The Well, states that life that does not go down into the deepest waters of the well is an unfulfilled life.

Young adulthood is flooded by the currents of this life energy, and many of our youth are sacrificed or sacrifice themselves to the river gods who both enliven but may also swallow the daring, the innocent, and the inexperienced.

In my dream, Jan and I left the resort only to be met by torrential rains which flooded the steep mountain roadway. We descended carefully, in low gear, gripping a handrail outside the passenger side window as we inched along. Eventually, however, we had to let go of the rail and flow with the current, with no guarantees. There are no guarantees; even with the greatest of caution, we must ultimately let go to the unknown.

The other day, amidst a computer crisis, I secured a midweek evening appointment to meet with a “Genius” at an Apple store a great distance away. I meticulously covered all my bases. I broke through the Apple firewall of computer voice-generated direction to speak with a living person who assured me that the battery I needed was in stock and could be installed at the appointment. I checked directions, highways, travel conditions, where to park, etc., to ensure arriving on time.

With time to spare, Jan and I embarked on our journey. As we entered our neighboring state of Connecticut, we both were sure we’d see the mall that neither of us had been to in years. I was certain it was exit 3, Jan thought exit 4. We saw no signs, we saw no mall, a mall we both remembered to be clearly visible from the highway. “Maybe it’s exit 5…6…7…” Well, by exit 9 we pulled off, only to discover that the river had mischievously swept us along its currents with no guideposts.

We turned around—both exits 3 and 4 were right—arriving 15 minutes late for our appointment, but that was not a problem. The Genius, as well as two ascending managers brought forth as I protested, informed us that the battery could not be changed that evening, that I’d been misinformed! Despite my angry persona, I wasn’t really angry. What mystified me was what it all meant. It came to my humble wife, Jan, to explain: “You know, we just aren’t special.” That was Jeanne’s profound realization too, as she acquiesced to her own death—she was just not special. The highway of energy delivered us to this realization.

We are beings who are going to die. Regardless of our most meticulous efforts at impeccability and warriorhood, or our most foolish surrendering to the undertow—at some unknown moment the dream will change.

The dream is constantly changing... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The dream is constantly changing…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Jan and I recently watched the movie, The Girl. A young woman, inexperienced at life, tried to bring a group of Mexicans illegally across the border. She had them cross on foot at a river’s low point, the current appearing mild. She was to meet them on the other side. A woman drowned while crossing. Her little daughter survived. Stricken with grief and guilt, the young woman takes the young girl back into Mexico, into the hills, to a remote village where her grandmother, a devout spiritual woman, lives. The young woman apologizes to the old woman for the death of her daughter. The older woman, listens to her apologies, then pauses and calmly says, “You didn’t take my daughter. The river did.”

The shamans teach us to begin each day with the statement: “I, [Your Name], am a being who is going to die.” And with that awareness, they instruct us to enter the dream of the day, conscious but unafraid, ready to flow with the dream changers we may encounter along the way.

Flowing with caution,
Chuck

A Day in a Life: A Brush With Vibrancy

In honor of one of the greatest troubadours... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
In honor of one of the greatest troubadours…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I grew up not far from Beacon, New York, the home of Pete Seeger. My dad would point out a certain road leading up the mountainside whenever we passed it. “That’s where Pete Seeger lives,” he’d say. I knew who Pete Seeger was. Somehow, I’d always known. I knew he was an activist and a pacifist, but most of all a musician.

When I got my first job at 16, working as a chambermaid, as they called it back then, at the newly constructed Holiday Inn in Fishkill, Pete Seeger was often a topic of conversation among the maids there, most of whom were from Beacon. He seemed to stir ire, and there were many times when I could not grasp how one person could stir such anger in others, nor how people could hate so vehemently someone they had never met. “But he’s a good person, he just wants fairness for all,” I’d say, in my attempts to convince the opposing side. It was my first exposure to virulent hatred for someone who was different, who saw the world in a different way and was not afraid to speak out about it. He thought for himself and acted on it and that, I knew, was good.

Beacon was also where the dentist was, Alp’s Sweet Shop, and Schoonmaker’s Department Store. There was a ferry that took you over to Newburgh on the other side of the Hudson River, which I believe has once again resumed service. We’d ride that ferry pretty often, summer and winter. My dad would take us across, just for an outing. In the winter, we’d huddle outside against the bitter wind watching the hull break through the ice, heading to the Western bank of the river to shop at a big department store I can’t remember the name of; we’d get our shoes there.

Beacon was the home of Matteawan. At the time I was growing up it was a prison for the criminally insane. We could hear the honking siren from our house 15 or so miles away, screaming out a warning of escape. It was a time to lock your doors and windows until you heard the siren again, letting you know they’d found the escapee. Beacon had been a bustling, prosperous city of hat factories, but by the 1950s it was pretty run down, a place known for its rough side, the kids at the high school notoriously unruly. Beacon was where the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., founded by Pete and Toshi Seeger, had its home and the boat would often dock there. It’s where you caught the train to go into New York City and beyond. The station is right alongside the river, overlooking a small park and the murky Hudson River.

I was standing on the crowded train platform one day, in my early twenties, heading back into the city. It was a hot summer day. A damp and smelly tunnel led under the tracks. A young woman came and stood next to me. She waved back to a small group of people standing across the parking lot, next to where the Clearwater was docked. A car drove up and a man got out. He quickly walked over to the tunnel that led to the train platform. Suddenly he was standing next to me too, a tall and lanky man with thinning hair, a big glowing smile on his face. He’d gotten there just in time to say goodbye to, I assumed, his daughter. It was Pete Seeger.

I couldn’t help but listen to their conversation. He was so loving, a concerned parent. Did she have everything, enough money, food? “Call us when you get there,” he said, the words kind of jumping out of him. The conversation was of mundane topics but the energy that the two of them exuded was anything but mundane. They vibrated! They looked directly into each other’s eyes and I felt how much they loved each other, how intensely they knew and understood each other at the deepest level, how close a family they were.

Vibrant energy is inside us all, just waiting to leap out! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Vibrant energy is inside us all,
just waiting to leap out!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The energy between the two of them vibrated so palpably that it flowed right out and filled the air around them. Standing so close I could not but feel it too. I suddenly understood what being alive meant, what loving another being felt like, what being focused and committed meant. I understood how Pete Seeger could captivate an audience and lead a march. His energy leapt out of him much like his words did and it was almost overwhelming.

I perceived Pete and his daughter as joyous people, so happy and full of life. I felt how unafraid they were to be themselves. It was invigorating and inspiring just standing in their presence, feeling their vibrancy, and yet at the same time I felt my own fears, how they controlled and ruled me. I felt how I wanted to be like them, full of so much life that I vibrated in the same fearless manner.

The train pulled into the station and we got on. Pete stood on the platform waving to his daughter as the train pulled out. I felt like he was waving to me too, like he was really waving to all of us, and so I lifted my hand and waved back. He stood there smiling big, his face aglow with the vibrancy of a spirit that had so much to give. A humble man in worn jeans and an old short-sleeved plaid shirt, no one special, just Pete Seeger.

This memory came to me as I thought about Pete Seeger when I heard of his death the other day, and in honor of his passing, I pass it along. That day on the train platform something stirred deeply within, something that would take me years to fully release. And yet, here I am feeling quite alive and glowing myself, having dared myself to think differently and act differently, to confront those fears that at one time kept me so frightened and closed, so quiet and unable to speak or act on my own behalf. It was my personal journey of healing that awakened my own energetic vibrancy, vibrancy that we all have within us.

Thank you, Pete Seeger, for 94 years of sharing your energy! It was nice to brush up against your vibrancy,
Jan

Readers of Infinity: As Ocean

Here is a channeled message from Jeanne and Jan to start off a new week!

Study what lies on your shore… - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Study what lies on your shore…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

As the waves of the ocean wash upon the shores so may you live your lives. Envision first gentle waves, the waves of childhood and youth, the waves of learning how to be in the world, the waves of knowledge and potential emerging out of the greater potential of nature from which you all come.

Sometimes the waves of the ocean are fierce and forceful, and sometimes it is appropriate for human beings to also be as forceful as nature. At times, it is necessary to barrel ahead, to push forward into life with liberty and freedom.

All must find their way through life, letting the energy of nature full expression and release. In order to progress in life one must allow nature to play its part—nature inside of you in relation to nature outside of you—if one is to evolve. Eventually new energy comes, the waves of moderation and progress, the waves of maturity.

Look upon the self as like the ocean. Study what that might mean for the self individually. Look at what lies in your deep. Look at what rides your surface. Look at what churns in your foam. Look at what crashes upon your shores. Look at what brings you to your true self.

As ocean, so are you like a force of nature, boundless yet contained, free yet controlled by other forces of nature, allowed expression and release yet also within the self complete with no need to expand too far. As ocean you are powerful, yet you are also gentle and calm. As ocean you are fruitful and bountiful, yet you must also preserve and care for that which you are.

As ocean, you are one with all of the energies of nature. You are nature itself. Remember this always: You are nature itself.

Allow the natural flow of you, as ocean and as nature itself, to guide you more fully through this phase of your life. What stage are you at now? And why must you be here? Learn from the self every day, so that you may achieve a new phase. That is what life is all about, constantly changing like the ocean. That is you!

Readers of Infinity: Energetic Communication

Today, we present the weekly channeled message, as well as a message to all who knew and loved Jeanne, as well as to those who never knew her in this life. Today is the day that Jeanne died in Heiden, Switzerland, twelve years ago.

Open the energetic lines of communication… and see what happens! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Open the energetic lines of communication…
and see what happens!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Here is the weekly channeled message first:

Let the energy of now take you forward. As your journey unfolds, stay informed of the always-changing self. Allow transformation to take place, and with awareness allow the self to change. In awareness that you are indeed a changing being, in constant flux, allow your life to take you now into new levels of consciousness.

Turn your gaze outward each day, even as you turn it inward. Notice where you life is trying to lead you. Listen to your inner self and listen to your body self. These two selves, your energetic you and your physical you, must become true partners on your journey through life. Think of your energetic self as the gas you put into your vehicle, driving your physical self, it’s trusty companion. Your mind intercepts, cutting off natural communication. Quiet the mind and let the two of them communicate once again, directly. Let your gas flow, without blockage, into your vehicle, as you simultaneously learn to accept your life as an ever-changing flow of energy, signs, synchronicities, and messages. In opening to the existence of such universal communication outside of you, you may find that the mind is not as necessary as you now think.

Thoughts often confuse, but your energetic self and your physical self seek only growth, uninhibited. Your partnership, in alignment, will result in a tiptop vehicle to drive through life in, with your energy flowing nicely within. Keep it always in good shape and it will not fail you. Find out what all of that means for you. Everyone is different; everyone must find their personal equilibrium and balance. Take one empowering step on behalf of that partnership today and every day, devoid of the mind’s trappings and old sayings. Clear the mind so that the channel of communication may always be open and flowing. And then see what new happens!

Here is the rest of the communication from Jeanne, as Jan asked her to comment on the anniversary of her death. Here is what she had to say:

Love…The only true means of communication… - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Love…The only true means of communication…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Although my absence is still felt, those who knew me and were deeply attached to me must not grieve for me, or for themselves and the loss of me in their lives. Life is death; death is life. As I have said many times before, though I do not exist on that plane, I do exist! Take that into consideration as you continue your own lives upon that earth. Sorrow is a manifestation of the mind. If you silence the mind, removing what it tells you from your thoughts, releasing those mind-thoughts from your physical body as well, you will discover your own true energetic form. This energetic self does not exist only in your physical body, but outside of it as well, in eternity. If you can experience this energetic self, even for a second or two, you will know that I exist!

Set your intent to access and experience this self and then you will know the answers to the questions that the mind cannot grasp very easily. Experiences of the energetic self are the means to understanding how I can still exist. Your physical self will grasp this as well, once the mind’s conjuring have been removed. It will “know,” as deeply as your spirit knows. You already know what I’m talking about.

Every night you dream. Begin to dream with intent now. Intend to accept your energetic self and, with awareness, practice using this self more frequently, in waking and dreaming, allowing something besides your mind, and what it thinks it knows, to guide you. Look to your heart, the true organ of communication in each of you.

Energetic communication is what I have been doing, and continue to do. I use my energetic self to communicate and work in all worlds. The practice grows as lessons are learned, as awakenings are explored and accepted. It is a viable means of communication that can be practiced anywhere, even between people upon that earth. It’s called telepathy in some circles, but I prefer to call it energetic communication.

Be open to life in a new way, to the life that lies before your eyes, My Dears. But also be open to life that you cannot so easily see with your human eyes. When doubt arises, ask the self to let it go, to stay with burgeoning awareness, simply for the heck of it. There is no harm in that! Be an explorer! It’s what I am. I explore, try things out, discover how things work, and then I use what I learn to communicate. In the beginning, it can be a challenging and even clumsy process, but over time skills are naturally honed.

I look for you all in energetic form, those I knew intimately in more than one form and those I don’t know yet. I always have been looking for you. Look for me in return. You will know me by my energy! There will be no doubt that it is I!

My love expands upon you all. It’s all that matters, you know, love and loving all beings equally, without attachment.