Remind yourself often as you go through the day to return to balance, to inner peace and calm. You can even speak the words—peace and calm—to yourself and immediately feel their effect. Even just thinking those two words will have an effect because there is power in words and in thoughts. May you experience peace and calm today, and every day.
All our love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne
I mentioned to Jan that I was reading Castaneda again, a man whose works have had a profound impact upon me.
She handed me a book. “You should read this,” she said.
The book surprised me. It was a book I’d avoided reading for years: A Magical Journey With Carlos Castaneda by Margaret Runyan Castaneda, once Carlos’ wife.
Carlos and Margaret got together in the mid 1950’s, married on January 27, 1960 and divorced in 1973. In all actuality, they lived together for less than a year, as Carlos was quite preoccupied with visits to Mexico and his apprenticeship with don Juan Matus. I add here the trickster caveat that, as with all things Castaneda, there is no real documentation of anything.
Most striking to me in Margaret’s book was the discovery that Margaret’s guru was Neville Goddard, a prominent New Thought teacher, whom though aware of, I had never immersed myself in.
Particularly striking to me was the discovery that both Neville Goddard and Joseph Murphy were prominent students of a learned man, named Abdullah, a black rabbi in New York City, originally from Ethiopia.
There are several unknowns about the true origin of Abdullah, a bit of a mysterious character it seems, much like Carlos Castaneda and don Juan Matus, but he had a profound impact on both Murphy and Goddard.
I have extolled the virtues of Joseph Murphy’s The Power Of The Subconscious Mind in numerous blogs, and am now exploring the work of Neville Goddard.
What I never knew was that Carlos Castaneda was directly exposed to the New Thought lineage through Margaret, as she frequently spoke to him about the impact Goddard’s teachings had upon her, and she personally brought him to a Neville Goddard lecture.
For me, this unexpected knowledge brings the teachings of the shamans of ancient Mexico, in accessing the divine power of the subconscious mind, full circle into alignment with the New Thought lineage.
Rather than expound more upon the curious interconnectedness of what has preoccupied me most of my spiritual life, I share the following inks:
A magical Neville Goddard lecture
And a written interview with Joseph Murphy
For all who are interested, I invite you to have your own direct experience. In the final analysis, it’s all about INTENT.
See what happens!
Chuck
Beliefs are thoughts that become living things. There is an energy of intent in a belief that attracts matter to it to express its realness in physical form. Even when beliefs are disproven or go out of fashion they nonetheless remain subtle energetic entities, capable of a comeback at any time. Be mindful of your intent.
The time we now live in is filled with old beliefs finding new playing time on the world stage. Inwardly, we are subject to all the ancient beliefs of humankind that lie dormant in the depths of what Jung called the collective unconscious.
Our subconscious mind has access to all these beliefs in the depths of the unconscious. In fact many of these beliefs have become instinctual habits during the course of human evolution. Thus, for instance, if our life were to be threatened, the instinct of self-preservation would likely override our thinking mind and have us act instinctively to save our life.
Some instinctual habits may actually threaten life. Racism can be seen, at least in part, as issuing from a primitive self-preservation instinct that categorizes people as part of an in-group with similarities, or an-out group with many differences. The out-group is seen as dangerous and becomes subject to racist treatment.
Within our psyche we are subject to many old beliefs from our evolutionary history, as well as family history and post-birth socialization. There are consensus beliefs that form a consensus reality. The notion of old age, and illnesses associated with aging, is a strong consensus reality.
What we believe does become our physical reality, even if we don’t know that we believe it. How often do we check in with our age and understand our physical condition to be ‘normal’ for our age. With this thought, we then affirm to our subconscious mind that we are in agreement with the ancient program for bodily conditions in aging.
The wonder of the subconscious is that although, like AI, it has access to all knowledge, it gives absolute preference to the beliefs of the conscious mind in directing its actions, unless an unconscious powerful belief upstages its conscious intent. Know thyself, deeply. This does place an awesome responsibility upon the conscious mind to truly be a man or woman of knowledge.
Don Juan Matus distinguished two kinds of shamans in ancient Mexico: men and women of knowledge, and sorcerers. Though both groups had mastery of the powers of the subconscious mind, sorcerers acted from self-importance and exploitation. People of knowledge acted from the heart, in alignment with Spirit.
To act from the heart one must do an honest inventory of the beliefs one houses in the hidden depths of the self. One must be willing to go it alone if one’s heart is not in agreement with conventional wisdom.
As I experience it, all objective reality is relative. Everything that we believe becomes a reality. If I hear someone sneeze and believe I have been infected, I will likely begin to sneeze and manifest a cold. And that cold is absolutely real! So of course, who could deny its validity?
On the other hand, if we are able to detach from all the hidden beliefs, agreements that were made without our conscious consent, we are freed to introduce beliefs to the subconscious mind that may construct a reality of our choosing. The greater the concentration, the greater the success.
The subconscious mind attaches to the premise most powerfully presented to it. Hence, repetitive affirmations expressed with powerful emotion and supportive mental imagery attract the subconscious to accept its intent as its premise for manifestation.
Our current world leaders are exercising the powers of the subconscious mind through sorcery. We all have the power to free ourselves from the influences of sorcery by becoming men and women of knowledge, believing and acting for the greater good for all.
Be confident and responsible in all belief,
Chuck
I once had a professor hand me back a paper and say, “Yeah, you can write, but don’t get a fat head.” He was a weathered Irish alcoholic, a seasoned veteran of many a late night lecture at the pub.
He would write two sentences on the board from the current New York Times, then spend the entire class breaking it down, demonstrating countless violations in grammar, printed in this ‘revered’ newspaper.
He taught me to stay humble and play by the rules. I’ve never written anything since where I haven’t had his critical eye challenging my every word.
Christianity holds humility as a foundational virtue. “Pride goeth before the fall,” counsels King Solomon in Proverbs.
Certainly, the guidance to avoid ego inflation is central to psychological health. Its danger, in Narcissistic Personality Disorder, couldn’t be more evident than on today’s world stage.
Its prominence in Schizophrenia is also evident, where ego is often swallowed by the grander personality of a Napoleon or a Joan of Arc.
The struggle in Bipolar Disorder is often to take the elixir that renders one to the ordinariness of everyday life, surrendering a dip into the mania of infinite possibility, or a retreat into the utter inertia of depression.
This well-armed war on specialness requires us to knock on wood, to not tempt fate after making a boast. So great is the penalty for assuming even a hint of divine identification.
In fact, this overarching law to refuse all specialness has insisted that humankind disown and project any hint of supernatural power onto an outside entity, be it God, Goddess, or the Universe, as it fully embraces its unworthiness.
As they pray at the Catholic Mass, just prior to receiving Holy Communion, with its human ingestion of the Divine: “Lord I am not worthy, speak but the word and my soul will be healed.”
This preponderance of caution around assuming human specialness is not simply a conspiratorial effort to control the masses and create dependency upon manipulative prophets. To enter into one’s true specialness one must first defeat any attachment to self-importance.
Ego must be honed to handle the enormity of self found in the breadth of the subconscious mind. For much of life ego enjoys the falsehood of its self-importance. Its true task is to grow up and assume responsibility for directing its own inner divinity, the subconscious mind, to exercise its power for the greater good.
Rationality, the greatest achievement of the conscious mind, must be freed from its know-it-all fixation of ego certitude, to its necessary role of producing appropriate suggestions for the subconscious mind’s creation.
In this role, ego surrenders its self-importance to authentically serve the greater Truth. The truth is that we are beings with a dual mind. The conscious mind is assigned the role of leadership; the subconscious mind is the creator.
The subconscious mind can “heal your body and mind of all disease,” states Joseph Murphy in his epic, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. However, to tap into such power the ego must lose its obsession with its own specialness and fully embrace its actual superpower of suggestion, responsibly.
The ego must also exercise its powers of reflection to arrive at truth, then deliver its suggestions faithfully to the subconscious mind.
To believe in the power of the subconscious mind is to know its power through direct experience. The road to that knowing requires ego’s dedication to exercising this power of intent, without attachment to the outcome.
The power of the subconscious mind can be used for healing, manifesting, change, creativity, inspiration, intuition, telepathic communication, a whole host of positive intentions.
Simply, or not so simply, closing the door to distraction, and incessantly repeating one’s intent through suggestion, initiates the journey of cooperative wholeness between the dual mind in the service of the greater good. A more special relationship there could not be.
Continue to be well,
Chuck
The conscious mind is the father. Thoughts that the mind entertains are like sperm cells. The subconscious mind is the mother whose eggs become fertilized by these thoughts in the form of the suggestions she is attracted to, and, hence, opens to conceive.
This resulting pregnancy in the subconscious mind is the creative process of transforming thought into material reality. As matter is gathered and ordered according to the thought blueprint, an idea is born into a physical life. Thus a child of the mind is born.
This might involve the arrangement of events or encounters in the flow of everyday life that fulfill the requirements to materialize one’s intent. Here, you see the law of attraction operating upon physical reality to create, in the flesh, the original thought, belief, suggestion or intention of the conscious mind. This is a step-by-step process, often with many building blocks assembling over time.
Children of the mind can assume many forms. The child of a gratitude practice is the inner experience of a lightness of being and joy of being. As we express gratitude from the conscious mind, the subconscious mind receives this compassionate intent and instructs the body to release deeply calming hormones that bathe the body and mind in utter tranquility.
Should the conscious mind harbor negative thoughts, the subconscious mind will dutifully produce children of distress, as the physical body will be taxed with having to house the energy of negativity. This might result in an inner hormonally produced bad mood, low level depression, or a state of anxiety.
Sometimes people experience a pervasive state of anxiety seemingly not attached to thought. Often this is connected to trauma, where life was frozen in the thought of the constant need for defense, unable to resolve in the delivery of processing its experience.
This frozen state of vigilance becomes a forestalled birthing process, housed in the body, that awaits the conscious mind, in the form of a midwife, to be present to its experience and help deliver it to resolved new life.
Often, outside thoughts enter the conscious mind seeking to influence our beliefs and behaviors. These might result in illegitimate pregnancies, especially if we attach to these thoughts without soulful vetting.
Cautionary guidance here is to remain in a passive mode when excited by a passion-induced thought. This passive state is actually a receptive state where one allows oneself greater access to the broader picture, which might expose the one-sidedness of the outside influence.
Additionally, when we are in the receptive state, we are opened to the greater wisdom of our interconnected reality. Synchronicities come that punctuate and affirm thoughts that present.
In this process, ego, or conscious self, receives the guidance of higher wisdom, which points the way to appropriate action for the greater good of self. With this clarity, passivity gives way to activity, as vetted suggestion is presented to the subconscious mind.
All people are parents and children of their own minds. Claim ownership of these creative possibilities and lead life into greater fulfillment for self and all.
With conscious intention and subconscious joy,
Chuck