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Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Self-Hypnosis for Change

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All hypnosis is self-hypnosis is a phrase commonly uttered among hypnotists. And what does that mean, you might ask, because, if that is true, why do we need hypnotists at all? In truth, we have been hypnotized our whole lives and continue to be so by the things that are presented to us from outside of ourselves, often quite blatantly, but also from inside our own psyches, perhaps in unawareness. From our earliest years, we learn about life from our families, teachers, and our social and religious circumstances. As we grow and enter the world we are increasingly bombarded with new information presented to us by the “experts,” such as in the media, in politics, in marketing, in the medical community, the drug companies, the food companies, by important figures in our lives, etc., essentially by anyone telling us, repeatedly, that something is true. And, in fact, the simple act of repetitively internalizing thoughts about ourselves implants beliefs that we are a certain way, so that, eventually, we take on the task of living out these beliefs, whether they are true or not. A skilled hypnotist, to contrast, knows exactly what new words, used in the right manner, can break through the old beliefs and truisms about the self, bypassing the long ago embedded ideas and the protective layers of ego that hold so tightly to those old beliefs, to implant new ideas deeply in the psyche so that change can happen. It is also true that even the most skilled of hypnotists will not succeed in truly hypnotizing someone if the ego is not ready and willing to participate in the process. Thus it is true that all hypnosis is, in fact, self-hypnosis, because the entire self must be involved in the decision to change. The ego must be ready to allow the deeper self to access new information that may bring about a true shift in habits, in behaviors, in beliefs, allowing for a new self to be fully embraced.

The reason I am bringing this up is that in her message on Monday, regarding a process of going into a deep part of the self to reach a place of shift, Jeanne is really outlining a process of self-hypnosis. In fact, my channeling process is a practice of self-hypnosis, of going into trance, a hypnotic state, and allowing my ego to back off while I access a place beyond myself. That being said, meditation could also be termed self-hypnosis. When I had finished with the channeling on Monday, which I do with pen in hand, and was typing it up on the website, it dawned on me that Jeanne was actually offering quite a nice step-by-step practice of doing self-hypnosis. And the key to learning anything is practice. The things we learned as children were taught to us over and over again. We learned to walk, to speak, to read, to write, etc. by doing them repeatedly. In order to become a good artist, to be able to draw and paint what I was actually seeing or imagining in the way that I wanted to express it, no matter how naturally talented, I had to practice and learn by doing repeatedly. It is the same thing with learning to play a musical instrument or play a sport, or even learn to drive. To do anything well, to reach a sense of accomplishment we must practice, and it is the same thing with self-hypnosis. In order to truly change, we must practice repeating our new truths, by asking for shift to happen, by constantly giving ourselves a new view, and by offering ourselves a new perspective. If we wish to achieve change we must participate in making it happen.

The four steps that Jeanne offered begins with the practice of saying a mantra, of repeating something over and over again, reminding ourselves that this is important to us, that we want this. This is doing self-hypnosis. By repeating an affirmation, a prayer, an intent over and over again, we are doing self-hypnosis. This practice allows us to enter a new state of awareness, to go into trance, however light, so that we can take the next step, which Jeanne outlines as breathing innerly and allowing ourselves to feel our energy as a calm pool. She then asks us, in the third step, to go deeper into trance and into self-hypnosis and look at ourselves from outside of our normal means of viewing. She asks us to change our perspective, which is one of the main tools that a hypnotist uses, offering, through acceptable, personal suggestion, the means of seeing what we have been missing about ourselves, something that we have not allowed integration into our conscious awareness. She then asks us, in the fourth step, to take a look at how we have been affected by the outer world all our lives, to see even that world from this detached new perspective and gain clarity on just how the things we believed about ourselves may not really be compatible with our inner truths or our inner energy. Have we been compromising our energy in order to uphold an outer world that we do not truly believe is right for us? Have we been playing a game, simply because it was the only game that we knew? Are we caught in the outer energy because we are not aware that we have our own energy inside of us that has very personal ideas of what we should be doing with our energy, and with our lives?

In offering this four-step process Jeanne is offering us a practice of self-hypnosis so that we can be our own catalysts to change, without having to wait for the world outside of us to force us into having to accept a shift. We are offered the opportunity to do it on our own terms, with our own full participation, ego and psyche in gentle alignment. If we practice these steps of self-hypnosis as Jeanne outlines them, eventually we can affect change within, simply by the fact that we are intending change. By our practice of these steps, by repeatedly introducing new outlooks, new views of ourselves, both innerly and outerly, we offer ourselves new energy, based on truth and resonance of inner spirit. As short and subtle as these visits to our inner energy are, eventually we will be ready to take longer and deeper visits, offering ourselves the opportunity to envision and enact even greater changes.

Any new idea we wish to offer the self can be introduced in the manner that Jeanne outlines. If we wish to be better at something, more focused, if we wish to lose weight, eat right, sleep better, change a habit, be happier, be more daring, be loving, be aware, etc., —for ourselves or others— we can use these steps, beginning with simply stating our new intent in the mantra of step number one. By going through the process Jeanne offers us, by looking carefully, gently and compassionately at ourselves, and by sticking with the practice for as long as it takes to achieve change, without giving up for all the old reasons and by allowing the ego to sit idly by, we can truly change. We can achieve what we desire. And, in alignment with spirit, you might be surprised at what you discover about the self that you did not understand or even know about before you began the process. Try it and see what happens!

I am reminded that even before I knew anything about hypnosis or even thought about becoming a hypnotist I certainly utilized a lot of self-hypnosis, not because I knew what it was, but because it was such a natural habit, one that we all do all the time. That might be another thing to notice. How often do you hypnotize yourself each day? You might be surprised that it really is quite often.

Enjoy the nice spring weather! And keep practicing!
Love,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#666 Take a Personal Energy Day

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today is the ides of March and to quote Shakespeare in Julius Caesar: “Beware the ides of March.” I have always felt this to be a high energy day and today is no exception. Sometimes it has felt like a day of dangerous energy and other times, like today, it feels like if you could tap into the energy that you could really use it as a catalyst and go far. I am writing this early in the morning. It is still dark and quiet outside; even the birds have not begun to stir. What would you like to talk about today, Jeanne, this energy that I feel? Or is there something else that you feel will be helpful to your many readers as we begin this new day and this new week?

Do not forget, as you go about your day and get involved in the progression of life upon that earth that you are absolutely available to not only feel the energy outside of you, but to tap into it as well. Today, I speak of this ability in relationship to the energy outside of you, felt so deeply inside of you; though even this may not be noticed as you, My Many Readers, jump into a new busy workweek.

It is possible, with a little anchoring, to redirect your attention throughout your day to how you are feeling inside the self. And by this, I mean deeply inside the self. For this is where you have the ability to notice, to perceive, and even to utilize the energy that is indeed quite available for your use, that is quite helpful and that, if you can tap into it, may reveal just what you need to know at this time in your life.

This is a time of shift, as Jan perceives, but this is also a time of dubious energy, for shift comes in many forms. Shift can come in tidal waves that overtake and swallow one up in unwanted energy. Shift can come in soft and gentle breezes that stir the unconscious awake and assert that prospects are good. Shift can come during sleep so that you wake up feeling different yet unaware of how such a change occurred, for your conscious self did slumber through the time of shift.

Shift can also come when you least expect it and when you are only half prepared for it. Consider, however, that no matter how shift occurs, and in what form it comes to you, that you are ready for it, though you may protest quite heartily at such an idea. I will always contend that you are indeed ready for what comes to you, for what happens to you without your controls and desires coming into play. For you pull toward you, energetically, exactly what you need so that your life will proceed in a direction of growth and awakening.

Whether or not you want to wake up, though, is truly up to you. You are the only one who can decide whether or not you are going to perceive the events in your life as meaningful awakenings. And then, you are the only one in your life who makes the choice to accept these awakenings as either happy challenges or as devastating calamities. You may see them as both good and dangerously necessary events, or you may see them as bad occurrences yet as most precipitous and meaningful as well. How you accept what comes to you in your life will largely depend on where you are, how much inner work you have done, and what you have been able to hold onto as you have learned about the self, the journey you are on, and about how energy works.

I suggest that a special day of contemplation of energy is not a bad thing. A special day of listening to the inner self is not a bad thing. A special day of really allowing the self to feel the energy and find out what it personally means in your own life, at this moment in time, is not at all a bad thing to do. Today, for instance, or really any day this week would be energetically appropriate for such a task. Choose a day this week and set it aside as your personal energy day. Take a personal day, and this does not need to be a day away from your normal activities, but a day of personal intent nonetheless. A day of personal intent would look something like this:

1. You wake up and ascribe a mantra to the self, i.e.: “Today is my day of personal intent to feel the energy,” or something like that. This will be your reminder, to say throughout the day, as you go about your daily routines. You can say this as little as three times or as often as six, but do not obsess about it. Simply use it to remind yourself that you are electing to re-anchor in your feelings on this day.

2. And what will you do with yourself once you have anchored? You will calm yourself for a moment with some calming breaths —perhaps heart-centered breathing— and you will allow yourself to feel the energy that is pulsing through you, through your physical body. Describe this energy to yourself, and then take another breath and go deeper into your inner energy, and describe again those deeper feelings. Do this to three or more levels, each time going deeper, depending on how much time you can take out of your day. You may only have time to touch briefly inside the energy of the self, or you may have time to go very deep. Be assured that just the act of doing this inner check with the self will offer a shift in your treatment of the self, in your perspectives, in your feelings, and in your perception of what you are really feeling. Say that you are feeling rushed and a little stressed, but as you breathe and go deeper into the self you may find a pool of inner calm energy quite different from what you have been experiencing. Each time you drop back into that calm pool you will take a little more of that calmness out into your world with you, and this will allow you to actually experience your outer world differently.

3. The next part of the process of this personal intent to feel the inner energy of self is to take a look at your outer world from this inner place, to really see it from this deeper perspective, to look with detachment, impersonal detachment, as if it were not your world at all, but someone else’s entirely. From this impersonal perspective you may see something differently. You may even see your whole world as quite a scene, quite a play, and you may gain insight and reconciliation of issues that you have not before been able to gain clarity on.

4. As you allow yourself the pleasure of removal from your world, as you do this technique of energy removal from your outer world into your inner world, your next step is to notice just how the outer energy has been affecting your inner energy. Are you in synch with the outer energy, flowing quite easily with it? Or are you struggling with it, fighting it, or overwhelmed by it? Notice what is happening. This is a very important point to become aware of. How is your inner energy reacting to the outer energy? You may notice what is going on and feel it quite easily, or you may only feel it lightly. You may feel that your circumstances do not allow you to notice this interaction, but I contend that in momentary calm you will be able to discern how you have been reacting to the energy outside of you. If you find this difficult to figure out, take that as your answer, that you have been reacting obliviously, and that is the truth of your attention to how the outer energy affects you. And so be it.

And now you are ready to learn something about the self through this little exercise. You are ready to learn how very subtly, or even how abruptly, your personal energy is affected each day by the energy outside of you. Assume, as Jan states, that today is a high energy day. Are you going to allow it to take over and send you off on a wild goose chase, simply because if offers such wild opportunity? Or are you going to tap into its energy in a meaningful way, by studying it, balancing it with your inner place of energy, and use it to further your self on your journey, both inner and outer. Good energy is good to tap into, but with practicing how best to use it in your awakening process is a very good way to use it meaningfully.

So, a day of personal intent to use the energy to gain a new perspective in order to grow is not a bad idea at all! By studying this process within the self, by working with it, you will gain the ability to automatically tune into the energy outside of you, ascertain how it personally feels and how to personally use it. You will gain inner balance and outer balance and clarity of inner self and outer energy, so that stability may be achieved.

Growth will happen, progress will happen, change will happen, and a new perspective will be gained as you learn to utilize the energy that comes from without on such a day and such a week as this. For in this assessment that Jan makes, she is feeling the energy of change. Now comes the hard part. How is she, and how are you, going to tap into it for good personal use?

Intend it, feel it, step back and gain perspective, and then balance with it; and know that you can always do this simply by reestablishing your intent to do so. Enjoy the process!

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: The Shadow Lurks

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I seem to do a lot of my inner work in dreaming. It has always been this way. My psyche seems to like to work on issues of importance while my mind sleeps and luckily, more often than not, especially if I intend it, I wake up with good dream recall. I have also discovered that if I present a dreaming intent my psyche readily obliges, giving me just what I need. Over the past few weeks I have made some decisions, one of which, as you know, was to change my name to my married name. This is not as easy at it may sound. Any woman who has faced this prospect upon marriage knows this. Suddenly, a well-known identity is challenged and the big question of “Who am I?” arises. During my recent process of making this life changing decision I had the following dream.

I am having a funeral for Jan Hughes. I am burying her in a field on a hill, under the spreading limbs of a tall tree. As the funeral progresses I have an inner dialogue with this “old Jan,” as she is lowered into the grave, as dirt is thrown onto the casket, and as she is put to rest. I tell her that I am not abandoning her, that I am not rejecting her, but that she has done her life’s work and it is time for her to recede while a new me takes over. I am thankful for the life we had together. I thank her for accompanying me this far and for taking me on my recapitulation journey. I tell her this as her grave is covered, as a headstone is put in place, and as I walk away and leave her buried under the tree, knowing that something is not quite resolved, but I am not sure what it is yet. Even so, every day, in the dream, as I pass by the spot on the hill where she is buried I see her headstone and know that I have made the right decision.

Three days later, I have another dream related to the same theme. In this dream I am approached by a woman who I recognize from my past. When I knew her I was in awe of her and admired her for many reasons. She was beautiful. She wore her hair in a short pixie cut and I once cut my hair like hers, wanting to be like her. She was tall, not exceedingly thin, and she had perfect posture and moved with definite grace, totally in her body, while I am short and in the past tended to hunch my shoulders more than I do now, totally not in my body. She carried herself with such confidence and seemed totally relaxed with who she was, both in her work and in her personal life. In the dream, she is old, her hair is longer and very scraggly, thin, hanging in her face, her expression is withdrawn and dark, her eyes sunken and haunted looking, her skin wrinkled and her cheeks, once so plump and rosy, are cavernous. She comes very close to me and peering into my face says in a harsh whisper: “I love you. I have always loved you. I want to be with you. I want to be your lover forever. Don’t leave me.”

“Oh, yes,” I say, “I remember you came to me in a dream once before and told me the same thing, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she says, “but you wouldn’t pay attention.”

“But I’m married now,” I say. She looks devastated when I say this and I am not sure what to do with her. She looks sad, sick, lifeless, and I feel her love for me as well as her pain at being rejected. I don’t want to make her feel any worse, but I can’t figure out what to say to her. “I’ll keep it in mind,” I say, referring to her desire to love me forever. And at that she disappears and I wake up.

As I write down this dream upon awakening, I begin to see this woman as my shadow. She tells me that she loves me and is asking me to integrate her. She is my extraverted self whom I have kept hidden for so long, unloved and uncared for, as I have lived most of my life as an introvert. I chose the life of a freelance artist and writer so that I did not have to be in the world or interact in the world, except minimally. She is asking me to take her as my lover, to give her life, to be what I once projected onto her and in so doing restore her beauty. It is my personal challenge, in this life, to be extraverted. I know this. I am totally at ease in introversion, in doing inner work, it is all I have ever done, but being in the world is and always has been my challenge.

It is interesting to note here that I did recently bump into this woman from my past, several months ago, and I was struck by how much she had changed. She did in fact look quite haggard. Her hair was longer and rather thin and, I thought, rather unattractive compared to the way she looked with a shorter cut. She looked almost unhealthy, whereas ten or so years ago when I last saw her she looked beautifully ageless, with that amazing posture and self-assured presence. When I saw her recently I felt that we had almost exchanged personas. She looked the way I did ten years ago, before I did my recapitulation, before my real inner work started. Now I have long thick flowing almost white hair, I am softer and more glowing, and my hunched shoulders are pulling back, my posture exhibiting more self-confidence, and my haunted look is gone.

When she comes to me in the dream, this woman from the past is asking me to embrace her as she is now. The last time she came in a dream, I rejected her, and she mentions it. I was not ready at that time, but now I am. She, the shadow, wants me to love the old self now, to embrace the woman I have buried, but also to not reject her. I must not only love what this woman, this shadow once represented and what I projected onto her, but I must also love what she now carries, the old me. And I must do so without feeling sorry for her, but fully embrace her with compassion and love for our unfolding journey together, in real life and in dreaming life. And I must also accept her admiration of me, as I have changed and evolved, for that would complete the picture. As I take back the long ago projection, and love all these parts of myself, I am accepting the challenge.

This is the kind of stuff that the psyche presents to us, whether in dreams, in daily life, or in what happens to us. We are always, in some way, presented with our issues; in problems that arise and in the people we meet and interact with. When we are ready to make some changes and move on, embracing our evolving selves, we are given the opportunity to integrate, to take back our projections, and to embrace the totality of who we are and who we have the potential to still become. I guess I would just like to stress that, in looking to the workings of the psyche, I was able to see how these two dreams were meaningful in my own process of change, and how, as I looked deeper, I was presented with what really lurked below the surface, asking for resolution.

Even though I feel like I have done nothing but deep inner work for the past ten years, I am still being challenged to keep doing it, to go deeper and deeper, into my own shadows. You never know what or who might be lurking there!

Until next time, may your dreams take you where you need to go!
Love,
Jan

Messages from Jeanne

#664 A Biosphere of Self

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Jan Ketchel channeling Jeanne Marie Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Today we start our new channeling schedule, as I wrote about last week in A New Intent. Spring is soon upon us in the Northeast, a time for all of us to embrace new beginnings, changes, and practices. With today’s channeling, I ask that you address your readers with a message for the week ahead. What is the most important and meaningful guidance you can offer us at this time?

I suggest again, as I have in the past, that you look upon nature and take your guidance from the reality before your eyes as much as you take guidance from my words, for nature itself is doing what I suggest all of you do each day. And that is: to awaken with conscious awareness that you too are driven by energy, the same energy that drives nature and the animals, that conducts nature’s research and experimentation, each day, as the sun rises, as the darkness recedes, and life awakens to proceed on its merry way, unfolding in a process of growth and evolution.

Each one of you, in order to become part of the greater evolving energy must find your connection to it in some fashion that resonates. Find connection not only to your own inner spirit self as a most vital step in growth, but do not forget to live fully in that world as one of the creatures of nature, guided by the energy of that which lives connected, driven, and enhanced by the pure energy of life in motion. Today, as you begin a new week in your lives, stay connected to the fact that you are energy in motion too, that you are nature itself, that the world belongs to you, you to it, and that, in symbiosis, all is possible.

You live in an environment that is perfectly set up for your habitation. Everything you could possibly need exists in nature. You are provided with the air you need for breath of life, the water you need to survive, the sun and the moon to regulate your sleeping and waking states. You are provided with food; the raw ingredients for sustenance and healing are available in that which is provided by nature. You live in the perfect biosphere, the perfect balanced environment. Accept that fact. Treat the earth with respect and it too will return the favor. Find out who you are supposed to be as a natural member of that biosphere. What is your true role? What are you supposed to be contributing to its health and nurturance?

Even as you seek without what you are supposed to find for your own health and nurturance, look to the earth around you for the answers to your inner issues too. In pollution, exploitation, defilement and waste of the earth will you discover your personal issues replicated before your eyes. For all who look upon the earth and see destruction and decay, overuse and greed, and the destruction of the fine balance that is so necessary for healthy and sustained living, and wish for healing, must turn inward to the natural inner environment and seek equal purity, respect, and balance there too.

With each new spring upon that earth nature stirs in each of you. You cannot deny it. And what is it that stirs, but your ancient selves, your ancient wisdom and knowledge, and the deepest truths of the human race that are revealing that, as big and powerful as you have gotten, as large and synthetic, as wasteful and greedy, so are you nothing more than that which you feel stirring in you on a beautiful spring day after a long, cold, dark winter. And what is stirring? It is energy itself; it is life; it is nature at its rawest, the essence of life.

Return now to thinking about the self as energy.
In energetic form you are compatible with man,
with nature, with the heavens and the earth,
with the pull of the planets and the flowing of the rivers.
In energetic form you are whole, you are complete.

The challenge comes in holding onto this basic truth that you are,
first and foremost,
one with nature.
Within this truth hides many other truths.
Within this truth lies darkness and light,
the known and the unknown,
good and evil,
the highest of ideals and the lowest of instincts,
the loftiest thoughts and the thinnest of veneers of self.

For you are all that you see,
all that you perceive,
all that you love,
all that you despise,
all that you fear,
and all that you cannot yet see.
You are behind the veils and you provide the veils.
You are goodness itself,
yet are you the darkness that lurks in the shadows of life.

You are not only a natural biosphere,
but you are also an energetic biosphere,
a spiritual biosphere,
a mental biosphere,
a physical biosphere.
You are wholeness,
oneness,
complete.

This is your life challenge, you know, My Dear Readers; to find this out, to discover what it means to be complete, to discover the truths of the self, on all levels. Who are you now, this moment, as you read these words? Who will you be five minutes from now? Who will you be five hours and five days from now? You may notice that you have the ability to shift and change from moment to moment, depending on the situation you are in, that you are multi-personalities, that you act and react and determine your journey based on so many factors, all existing within as well as without. You have choice, opportunity, the option to change, at your fingertips, each day. These are the things that must be utilized. They must become your tools of nature, your tools for use in your biosphere of self.

I do stress, quite often, that it is important to remember that you are energy, that you are responsible for every action and decision in your life, that you are whole, that you are in charge of your life. Now, as change comes to you in many forms, I ask that you reconsider all of these thoughts and reapply them to your life, to your journey through that life, to both your spiritual journey and to your journey upon that earth. Look to nature for guidance. Study it in its raw state, driven by the energy to live, to evolve, to change. This is the message I leave you with today: Seek to find your true place as one, as nature.

Messages from Jeanne

#662 You Are All Bodhisattvas in Intent

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Today’s question comes from Chuck followed up by a question from Jan.

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
When you first left this world you returned briefly to Cambodia to effect the completion of your life as Jeanne Ketchel, not needing to fully reincarnate. You then returned in spirit as guide and support for Jan in her long and arduous recapitulation. Things then shifted as I was fully brought in to participate in this mystery, greatly shifting my own evolution.

Your place of compassion continues to flow though Jan and I, as we deepen our abilities to detach. At this stage, I see you functioning in the role of a Bodhisattva, one who is enlightened but chooses to remain connected to this world as a teacher with deep compassion for all. Would you agree with this characterization of you at this time?

My Dear Ones, I am one of many such connectors, trained through our own evolving to be available as teachers. So, yes, your characterization fits well the place I now inhabit, the title Bodhisattva bestowed by men who long ago learned the truths of life and meaning. These ancient knowers do not now hold back their knowledge, but half of the world does not avail themselves of such ancient knowledge. Too fearful of life itself are they to even consider that life is meant to be lived in preparation for death of the human form and entry into life and adventure beyond that human form.

As you know, I have spoken of my early times after death as my learning ground, and I have been on quite an adventure, I can tell you. Chuck, our adventures into Tensegrity were nothing compared to the instruction I have received and completed on my most recent travels due to my level of awareness now. That being said, yes, this life I now lead is quite rightly one of advanced knowledge with its purpose as teacher, its greatest and most humble task. For I do not hold reign, nor do I capitalize upon any position, for I am not ego or self, but energy itself. I can only hold what I have rightfully learned and what I have trained hard for, earning energetic intent and content of knowledge as I progress.

In my own practices I have advanced many levels since I departed that realm, since I left behind the body of Jeanne Ketchel to be dealt with by you, My Chuck. I have worked hard to grasp not only the true meaning of all that I encountered upon my transformation, but I chose this life I now lead. For the time being, I am content to be part of the process of teaching not only love and compassion, detachment and evolution, but also in giving you access to connection with us and to offer greater knowledge and awareness to those of you who reside upon that earth.

I ask that you allow yourselves to let go of fear of what I speak of, for there is no harm in exploring the possibilities that lie before you, as you will one day leave that earth. I offer what I can through the many channels that I have available to me. And by channel I do not only mean people such as Jan, who “channel,” but I also encompass in that statement the energetic means by which I have access to that realm. In energetic form one has possibility to go between worlds, to access for reasons of guidance, comfort, enlightenment, etc., and to teach, in order for those of you upon that earth to have the opportunity to grow and to resolve the issues that bind you so heavily to that realm.

In teaching, in reaching out, in presenting what I too had to learn as a student of energy, I offer you the other side of life. Your life upon that earth is but only half of what you have available to learn about. I appreciate your braveness in daring to trust my words of guidance. I humbly acknowledge your innocence and I hold it most tenderly. All of my readers and students of energy, all who look for connection and guidance, I hold you most humbly to my center of love, of compassion, and of innocence too. For in my state, I encompass all those things, while at the same time I am a being who continues to evolve, to learn, and to understand that which is available to me at this level.

You have taught us so much over the years and we continually find your teachings reflected in the works of others, both in current and past channeled works, in ancient texts, and in the writings of those who have truly explored their inner world. Many who have done the inner journey have learned what we have been learning through you. I would have to say that, although I was always innerly turned and spiritually driven, I, Jan, was not as widely read on the inner world as you and Chuck were. In your pursuit of careers as psychotherapists you did a lot of deep inner work at an earlier age. My inner journey was always based more in my experiences and my exploration of them. Now I see the journeys we all three took as equally valid and necessary, each of us learning in the way that fit us most well.

Now we have this connection, with you having gone ahead to teach from there, me as your channel, interpreting your guidance, and Chuck as the real teacher of how to take the inner journey here on earth. Our connection bridges our two worlds so that we can offer, most humbly and from our hearts’ intents, what we learn. We are able to anchor with you through the experiences we have had with you, gaining a fuller understanding of the meaning and purpose of life upon this earth. Previously, you have spoken of the three of us having been connected in past lives, and that we have rejoined now in order to do this work together. I find it amazing and yet I struggle with finding a better way to make your teachings more well known. For we often feel that you are a modern version of that very ancient knowledge you speak of.

How can those of us who are channeling and teaching what it means to take the inner journey —and trying to do so without personal gain, using only energetic intent— offer what we are learning? There are many who are in this role, with purity of intent and purpose in their hearts. Is it enough to do what we are doing now?

Those of you upon that earth in the role of channel, of having private connections, those of you who innocently and shyly have been accepting your abilities to communicate on such a level, must continue to allow your personal connections to evolve. As you practice, you begin to change the self, and that is always the first step in enacting evolutionary change on a greater level: to first dare the self to change. As you allow the self to take the inner journey and go into the unknown, as you return to your innocence and your trust in the energy of all life, you confront your fears and inner issues that block your energy from its true purpose.

In your personal inner work you will discover the many layers of self: the ego self, the big baby self, the inner child self, the fierce adult self, the hidden parent self, the masculine/feminine selves, etc. As you do your inner work the process becomes just that, a totally innerly process. It is a process of breaking down all that you suppose, know, and adhere to about the self and the world, allowing the elements to be sifted through, until they become but grains of sand in your hands. At that point you are ready to blow it all into the wind and totally accept that you are nothing of importance, except energy that is available to channel. Then you are ready to be present upon that earth without ego and attachments to the past, available to go forward without fear and to bring back what you learn, simply because it is available to you and it is right to do so.

You are not special, any of you. This you learn as you take the deeper inner journey. Once you have reduced your ego —your past, your present, your future selves— to that sand, and allow it to be taken by the wind, you will enter the world of energy more fully and you will begin to get it, to get what life is all about, and your purpose will become most clear.

I say: Stay open. Do the inner work at all times. Question your actions. Face your fears. Provide the self with opportunities to make spiritual, energetic contact that carries right resonance for you alone. Your connection awaits. You will discover, as you work with your personal guide and as you take your personal inner journey, what you alone must learn, and your purpose in the world will unfold.

So, to firmly answer your question, I say, keep doing your inner work, trust your connections, allow the self to take the journey that unfolds, and allow your innocence to guide you to what is right to do next. How will you know it is the right next step to take? As I have said many times before:

It will be the direction that challenges and frightens you the most. It will be the one that is most energetically charged. It will be no less challenging than the day you die and face what comes next. As you continue to do your inner work, My Dear Readers All, you will understand that you are all Bodhisattvas in intent. For it is that which lies at the root of all beings, and it is that which you seek: total alignment with the soul’s purpose.

Take your soul’s journey, even as you take your human journey, parallel lives that eventually merge. And when that happens you will know exactly what to do in order to teach what you too have learned. But first must you truly live it, and that is what we, your guides, are teaching you how to do. We are teaching you how to live your soul’s journey.