Pay attention to what your physical body tells you about your habits, decisions and choices. Is it telling you that you are overdoing something, or that you are not taking care of yourself? Your body is your place of residence for your spirit and your completeness for this lifetime. It houses your wholeness, that which you once were and all that you presently are. Honor it, and with gratitude prepare it well for each day so that it is well balanced, satisfied, and kept in good condition. Your creativity requires a physical body that is in good shape in order to blossom. Your spirit respects a body that is flowing and unrestricted by judgments and criticism, while at the same time is held to certain standards so that it functions beautifully. Take time to consider what it really means to be in good shape. It might surprise you to learn what that really means. Be honest, but don’t be so hard on yourself. Go with the flow.
Pay attention to your body. Get to know it. It will tell you what it needs and what it doesn’t need, when it needs to eat, sleep and move, when it wants quiet and when it wants activity. Stop ignoring it. Attune to it so that it will remain viable and capable for far longer than you can imagine. Create new words of guidance, wisdom and intent for it rather than parroting what everyone else says. You are in charge.
Seek freedom from the web of human bondage… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Jan, in a recent communication with Jeanne, received this essential download: “You and Chuck have learned things about the relationship between the mind and the body that I had not learned while still in human form. I focused more on healing from without and not on the importance of thought and belief within. Had I known that then, my outcome may have been very different. Now, I do know that.”
This blog is dedicated to passing on what we have learned, that those seeking such guidance might profoundly change their lives and the direction of the world.
Animal magnetism is a term coined by Franz Mesmer to explain the mental influence exerted upon a body to shape it and attract to it the object of its intent. Animal has its root in the word anima, which implies a soul body that breathes, thus a sentient being that has life. Animal, then, designates a living, breathing physical body.
Magnetism is an energetic force that influences the structure and organization of a body through the power of what it attracts to it. That power emanates from the mind. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh,” begins John’s gospel. The mind produces the Word, which attracts to it the matter that creates the flesh it inhabits.
We become what we think. Our thoughts and beliefs are the primary suggestions delivered to the subconscious mind, the part of the soul body where the blueprint of mental suggestion is transformed into physical reality.
The shamans of ancient Mexico called this meeting place of mind and matter theassemblage point, where energy is molded into specific forms. Thus, the human form is a solid physical configuration of energy, an energetic alternative, among others, for human beings.
Don Juan Matus called human beings Magical Beings, due to their innate ability to exist simultaneously as both physical beings and energetic beings. Unfortunately, most human beings have forgotten and lost access to their energetic potential. They only know themselves as beings frozen in their ways, creatures of habit. As Carlos Castaneda put it, “Our wings have been clipped.”
This loss of freedom is human bondage. Human represents our classification as people in a physical body. Bondage has its root in bond, which means to confine, to dwell in a fixed state. Human bondage is thus a fixed confinement of our energetic potential into a solid physical mold, with limited awareness of options beyond its current fixation. Fixation represents the beliefs we attach to, which become molded into how we know ourselves and the world we live in.
What maintains this fixation of the assemblage point, in its generation of our rigid selves and the physical world we know, is the power of intent. Intent is energetically comprised of our thoughts and beliefs, the words we tell ourselves that become the automatic internal dialogue that suggests constantly to the subconscious the very definitions of what we are and how we are to manifest.
I am and become what I believe. The words I use to know and describe myself are the instructions delivered to the subconscious to fashion my existence. Typically, those instructions come from unchecked default programs unconsciously transmitted through genetics, instincts, and the humanly nuanced archetypes of the collective unconscious. Nobody has to think to breathe, the subconscious automatically runs that program.
Other programs are derived from suggestions internalized through socialization and the course of human development. Jeanne realized that from the first moment she received her cancer diagnosis, she believed she was going to die. Despite her heroic cancer journey, as detailed in The Book of Us*, she never fully overturned this strong suggestion to her subconscious mind. As mentioned in the opening paragraph of this blog, she has since learned the vital importance of reprograming and reshaping our ingrained beliefs if we are to change our lives.
Though extreme in her dogma, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, suggested that human beings cannot be ill, as a physical body is merely an illusion. Like the shamans of ancient Mexico, she encouraged people to return to their energetic essence.
To apply animal magnetism to the state of our human bondage is to assume conscious control of our intent. The materialistic dominance of our consensus reality is what gives rise to our sense of helplessness in the face of our current planetary apocalypse. This condition is aptly diagnosed by the title of a book that Jung wrote long ago: Modern Man in Search of a Soul.
To retrieve the Soul one needn’t take a hallucinatory shamanic journey. To retrieve the Soul one need merely take back the power of the mind, which is held in the prison of limiting materialistic beliefs. “Yes!” Don Juan Matus emphasized to Carlos Castaneda, “We are solid physical beings, but we are energetic beings first.”
Physical reality exists. Modern medicine can offer a cure. But beyond our human form is the mind of the Soul, whose energetic intent, expressed in words and beliefs, can work miracles. This is the power of placebo, and the power of thousands of faith healings at Lourdes.
As mothers often say to their children, “Use your words!” In a state of true faith—a hypothesis without prejudice—use your words to suggest to the subconscious that which you would become. Use your animal magnetism to overcome human bondage. See what happens!
INTENT,
Chuck
*A new version of The Book of Us, on the 20th anniversary of Jeanne’s entry into the afterlife, is scheduled for release in December 2021.
Advancement… seeking ever higher… – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Memorial Day invites our attention to connect with those who have passed beyond physical life into pure spirit existence. In fact, we are all currently in spirit existence, for the soul that will someday pass on from physical life is alive and operational now, deeply attached to the physical body, at this very moment.
Those souls that have released from the physical body awaken to discover that their soul body, though lighter and brighter than their former physical body, is its exact replica or blueprint, the reason shamans have always called it the double. The desire of the soul body to sojourn for a life on the physical plane attracted to it the dense matter that clothed its soul during its earthly life, in the form of a physical garment.
Souls beyond physical life are often shocked to discover that nothing has changed. The soul and character that they lived in mortal life is the exact same soul and character they arrive with in the afterlife. The first great task in the afterlife is to fully recapitulate the life just lived, in the fullness of truth. Deeds and misdeeds must be acknowledged and reconciled before the soul can truly advance into the subtler possibilities of life in the afterlife.
What separates souls in this evolved position, from most people still in physical habitation, is the lightness of being and higher vibration of soul states beyond the sensory spectrum of the physical body. Nonetheless, these souls innervate our world and readily communicate through the medium of synchronicity, dream visitations, and, for those whose psychic channels have opened, clairvoyance and clairaudience. The spontaneous thoughts that arrive to us daily, through song or creative inspiration, are often the suggestions of guiding souls.
Those who reside in the higher vibrational dimensions, concentric with our Earth, are frequently dedicated to lives of service, the key to advancement on all planes of existence. Life on the Earth plane is socialized, from early on, to accumulate material wealth as its most important goal. The byproduct of this emphasis is a narrow narcissistic worldview that veils over our more fundamental interdependent whole.
The transparency of interconnectedness prevails in the afterlife, where everyone is confronted with the shadow of their former earthly life. That which remains unfulfilled must be completed. The burden of wrongs accumulated must be righted. Advancement demands completion and restitution. This is the law of compensation, cause and effect, and karma that prevails in all dimensions. This is not about being judged by anyone; it’s about living the necessary balance required by the truth of life lived.
Service at the soul-body level, delivered to the greater good for all, is both a means to give back that which was wrongfully taken and, more importantly, to refine one’s relationship to love, the most crucial factor to advancement on all levels of being.
Those of us still in human form do well to listen to the promptings of our own spirit, as well as to the suggestions offered to us through the spirit channels of those we memorialize, who live across the bridge we will all someday cross.
Granted, not all spirits have awakened to their greater potential and some may even seek human accomplice to their cravings. We must be careful how we interact, and so it is good to exercise keen judgment and assume full conscious responsibility for all our thoughts and actions.
Nonetheless, the guidance to be of service, to be fair, and to be loving in this life, particularly toward the promptings of our own spirit, who seeks only our advancement, is surely the road to fulfillment in this life, and beyond.
Looking toward the heavens, and all that we are… – Photo by Chuck Ketchel
What happens to the thinking mind of ‘I‘ when the brain dies? Modern neuroscience is in its heyday as it penetrates the biology, chemistry and neurocircuitry of the brain, unraveling the material wonder of mental processing. But, if death is truly not lights out, wherein lies this mental continuity in the soul beyond physical life?
Might it be, as esoteric experience suggests, that the physical body is actually an avatar of the soul? Though the physical brain functions as a self-regulating external hard drive, could it be that the more subtle brain of the soul is the true command center of the physical body?
Elmer Green spent seven intense years working with his wife Alyce in her journey through Alzheimer’s disease. Her physical brain deteriorated to the point of her inability to recall her familial relations. At times, she could become extremely paranoid and combative with her loving husband and professional collaborator of fifty years.
Elmer hypothesized that, due to the brain’s deterioration, the subtle wiring from the physical body to the soul was compromised. This connection is critical to memory, orientation and physical functioning. In esoteric knowing, physical death occurs when the cords between the physical body and the soul snap.
Just as the cutting of the human umbilical cord launches the newborn baby into separate life, as its symbiotic tie to mother physically ends, the soul is freed into independent life at the time of physical death. When the cord between the soul and the physical body is severed at death, the soul, freed from its preoccupation with the workings of a physical body, must adjust to its new milieu and come on line, or be born, to a new orientation in a subtler dimension.
Elmer reasoned that Alyce, in Alzheimer’s, was floundering on the astral plane, as her mental processes were no longer attuned to her physical senses. We all experience this kind of mental state in sleep, as we encounter, at times, bizarre circumstances in dreaming. Lucid dreaming and out-of-body exploration present opportunities for mind to become familiar and comfortable in the subtler dimensions of life.
Dreaming is a natural time for the soul to disengage from the physical body, as it visits more subtle dimensions of reality. The difference in dreaming is that the soul remains attached to the sleeping body, which it reunites with upon awakening, to tackle another day in waking life.
Elmer incessantly grounded Alyce, reading her profoundly esoteric books to provide her with an orientation, or map, to the kinds of territories and encounters she was encountering on the astral plane. At times she was able to come out of her deep disorientation and speak quite eloquently and coherently of her experiences, as well as evidence a profound connection to their life together on earth.
Elmer experienced her soul literally moulding the clay of her brain to function at extremely high levels for brief periods of time. I once had the experience of Jan physically transmogrify into Jeanne’s physical form during a channeling session, with that same intent. Like a scene out of the movie Ghost, we communicated.
Elmer was delighted when Alyce came fully on line in her soul body before she died in her physical form. This enabled Alyce to skip over the sojourn, however brief, in Hades, that departing souls traverse as they reconcile with their life just lived and spend time in semi-conscious replenishment, before waking up and becoming oriented to new life. Alyce went directly to the light.
Perhaps, some day, nursing homes may be seen as valuable in-between stations for preparing departing souls for the definitive journey ahead in infinity. Too often, caretakers and family interpret a resident’s interactions with the dead as hallucinations, generated by a deteriorating brain, versus valid interactions with souls on the next subtle plane.
Frederick Myers, cofounder of the Society for Psychical Research in London, died in 1901 and spent the next 40 plus years communicating to several psychics of his continued exploration of the evolution of the soul in infinity. Myers confirmed that the mind is indeed located in the soul, and that it psychokinetically controls the physical body during human life. Myers went on to elucidate further refinements to the soul, as it traverses seven planes of existence on its journey to the light and beyond.
Thus, thinking, indeed, has a relationship with the physical brain, as body and soul are intimately entwined during physical life. However, who you are, and your ability to think, transcend life in the body. Indeed, we are more than our physical body.
