Here is a new conversation between Chuck, Jan, Jeanne and Saleph, all present and participating. If you haven’t read Jan’s most recent blog, found here, we suggest you take a look at it as some of our personal process in advancing this channeling work is explained in detail. We are very excited about the unfolding of this process that we are engaged in with all of you—we hope you enjoy the results! Once again Jan did not hear the questions ahead of time nor was she privy to who the questioner was.
In addition, if you haven’t been keeping up with us lately, our daily Soulbytes are now posted on the website, offering, we hope, insight into the energy of each day.
Thanks for listening and being a part of this most exciting time in all of our lives!
Having taken a few months off from my book writing, I’ve had time to explore and try out some new channeling methods. I’d become very comfortable picking up my pen and notebook and writing whatever came through. I’d then type it up and pass it on to you, our readers. A few months ago, I decided I’d like to try speaking the channeled messages we post on Mondays. I found a nice little MP3 recording device and a new process was born. I didn’t hesitate but stepped up to the mic and gave it a whirl and I have enjoyed not only the challenge but the shorter amount of time I need to dedicate to getting that Monday message out!
We had done some experimentation with my speaking a few years ago, but I reverted back into my comfort zone and I have to say that I am still most comfortable writing, yet I have continued to challenge myself to let Jeanne’s thoughts, words, and messages of guidance come through my vocal chords. Over the past two weeks we’ve recorded a couple of conversations that we’ve been posting as Random Acts of Guidance, which you can find under the Categories listing on the lower left sidebar. I’ve noticed that my trance state deepens the longer we talk and that pretty soon I’m in the familiar deep trance that I normally achieve quite quickly when I write the channeled messages.
When writing there is rarely a pause. I write quickly in a large scrawl. I’m not aware of anything in this world, except maybe my pen writing, but sometimes not even that as I am more taken up with sorting through the pictures that appear. Out of those pictures I must grasp, as quickly as possible, the portion of the message that is coming through most strongly and get it down in words that make sense. I say “a portion” of the message because in the second that it takes me to view the picture I am given a multitude of messages, which I seem to be able to grasp on a deep intuitive level, on a knowing level. Somehow the perfect words always appear to describe the content of the picture/message.
As I write about in the introduction to my last book, Into The Vast Nothingness, I am a synesthete and seeing things in pictures is pretty normal for me. In fact, I see pictures all the time; it’s how I interpret, examine, and view the world. If I hear a word or if someone asks me a question a picture appears in my mind. Words and numbers are not abstract to me but visual. If I say the word “bed” to myself I immediately see the bed I had when I was a child, tucked into one corner of my tiny bedroom. I see it clearly. I see the dresser next to it and its twin on the other side of the dresser. The room was tiny and that was all that could fit into it. There was a closet behind the door and one window. Beneath the window there was a forced air heating vent through which I could hear my parents talking in their room which was right next to mine.
Filtering through to what is most important… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Basically everything filters through me in a similar manner. I usually see more than is needed and so I have had to learn how to hone in on what I’m looking for. For instance, if someone asks me a question and several visual options appear I have to pick out the option that best answers the question. It can sometimes be frustrating for the questioner when I don’t answer straightforwardly, but often I just don’t have a plain and simple answer. I am sent too much information!
I believe that this ability to sift through a visual bombardment has aided me in my channeling process. Often as I’m channeling, however, I feel that some of the messages that get pushed aside during this sifting process are important and that the rest of you will miss out, but Jeanne has always urged me not to worry, that they will come through again at another time.
When speaking during a channeling I have the sense of speaking quickly, but am astonished by how the words seem to come from such a long way away, as if I’m talking from the end of a long tunnel. I am always astonished, however, that full sentences that make perfect sense appear!
I’m working on finding a way to bring Jeanne’s voice closer, more into the room, getting my throat into an open and relaxed place, doing ujjayi breathing beforehand if it’s a planned session. But more often that not we just decide to do a channeling. Or Chuck will ask: How about doing a channeling? And then I gulp, a little frightened, and say “Okay.” The fear is a normal reaction to what I’m challenging myself to do. It’s not like I haven’t done it before, but I’m challenging myself to just open up and let the words flow.
All of this brings me now to the name thing. Is she Jeanne or is she Saleph? Well, she’s both and although she never said we should call her Saleph she did indicate that she would leave it up to Chuck to decide what name she should now be known by. When I channeled a recent message regarding her name, a great welling of emotion passed through me, as I sensed her love and appreciation for all Chuck does and continues to do in this triangular relationship that has totally changed our lives and how we live in the world. I knew she knew that she was challenging him to release her in a new way, on a deeper level, with no entitlement, no sense of ownership whatsoever really. She was challenging herself too and I sensed this as that wave of emotion went through me. It was love and sadness intertwined, not sadness of loss but recognition that there is always sadness in partings, even if the partings are the beginnings of phenomenal new life.
Chuck made the decision to call Jeanne “Saleph” now, and so we ask all of you to embrace this new name as we take this process forward into phenomenal new life too. I still think of her as Jeanne, but more often than not when we speak of her now we use her soul name, Saleph, the name that encompasses all of her many lifetimes, her previous lifetimes on earth and whatever she may be called as she ventures onward. We knew her as Jeanne, but I suspect she was known by other names even when we knew her as Jeanne. Ah, the mysteries of life!
Are we ready to contemplate who else we might be? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
The other day I caught a few minutes of an episode of Radiolab as I was driving, synchronistically aligned with my thoughts of Saleph’s statement about her all-encompassing name. In the episode, a woman who had a death experience returns to life to tell the story of how when she died she found herself not in heaven or having gone through a white light but as an old man, a vegetable farmer in Vietnam.
What other lives are we living now? I hope to ask Saleph some more questions regarding all of this, and more, as we continue our conversations.
I hope you’ll tune in!
Jan
Here is the Radiolab show:Who am I? The segment I am referring to starts 14:45 minutes into the broadcast—you can scroll ahead—and lasts until the 23 minute mark.
Why are there so many blue jays in my yard? I ask this question because it’s true; the jays have taken over! I study them as they come to feed on the seeds I’ve put out. If I don’t get there early enough they knock impatiently on the window, suggesting that I hurry up and feed them! Their coloring is a combination of blue, gray, white and black. They have come to teach me something, I surmise.
Along with the usual New Year’s resolution to do more yoga and meditation, to eat healthier, to cut back on what I know is not good for me, I have set the intent to become a better dreamer, to train myself to be aware while I dream, and to discover what the shamans and Buddhists, and many others mean when they say that all worlds are one, whether we are awake or dreaming. I’ve had plenty of experiences of this concept, but I’m interested in going more deeply into the true meaning of reality while I’m asleep and my energy body is active. So far, I’ve had some pretty cool dreaming experiences, which I won’t go into here, but suffice it to say, my intent is working.
If I am to use my dreams to evolve beyond this reality, as is my underlying intent, I must learn how to remain fully aware as I dream. This is all in preparation for the time of my death when I intend to seamlessly pass through the bardos and achieve life beyond human form. At least that’s my intent. As far as I know, this is what we are all challenged with, to find a means of not having to reincarnate in human form more than we absolutely have to. If I can do this, I feel that I will have not only accomplished my own personal soul intent, but that I will free up space on earth for others to live more comfortably. We all know that the earth is overpopulated and overtaxed. I don’t really want to come back again, knowing that I could possibly have done more to free myself of this realm, and this realm of me! Now, back to the blue jays.
While they sit and scarf down the seeds I’ve put out, I study their coloring and the way their wings lie enfolded across their backs. When in repose, an intricate pattern appears, so beautiful that I am reminded of stained glass windows. As soon as they spread their wings and fly, solid bars of color appear and the intricate pattern disappears. Okay, this, I see, is what I am being shown, what I must learn something from.
Ted Andrews, in his book Animal Speak, says that the blue jay “has the ability to link the heavens and earth, to access each for greater power.” The jay represents both heaven and earth, the white of the heavens and the dark of the earth separated by the blue of the sky. The gray perhaps represents the veils that keep us from fully knowing and experiencing our full potential, to be both of the heavens and the earth, aware in dreaming and while awake. The colors also represent our light and dark sides, what we show about ourselves and what we keep hidden, to both ourselves and others. Andrews also notes that the jay is a little tricky in that it can be a bit of a dabbler. It shows us our potential, but if we are to gain mastery and fully utilize all that we are capable of we must grapple with this side of ourselves. I see how my New Year’s resolution, to train my dreaming intent could be a challenge if I don’t stick with it, but I have no intent of dabbling.
I notice that when in repose—in dreaming, as I see it—the blue jay’s colors are all present, though the pattern of them is quite different from when they are actively flying—going about in their everyday reality, as I see it. We all wear certain stripes and patterns. We are perceived and perceive of ourselves in a certain way. But in actuality, all that we are is present in us at any given moment. When we dream, I surmise, everything that we are in waking life is also present. Likewise, in waking reality, all that we are when we dream is present as well.
Will I remain aware when I enter the bardos? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
It’s easy to assign to our dreaming selves some of our more challenging possibilities; the ability to fly or shape shift, to instantaneously be in one place or a thousand miles away. But, if we keep in mind that all that we are, all of our potential, is present in us at all times—like the colors of the blue jay—we might just be able to appreciate what our dreaming self is trying to teach us about the oneness of worlds, the fluidity of our energetic selves, and the fact that all realities, dreaming and awake, are equal and the same, just formatted a little differently. Whether we are in stained glass pattern or striped pattern, it doesn’t matter, we’re all composed of the same substance, and that is energy.
I watch the blue jays fly back and forth, feeding on the seeds and then flying into the trees or off to have an adventure in the world. They drop to the earth with ease; they fly to the heavens with ease. This is what we are challenged to do in our lives, to be fully energetically present in our daily lives, finding the means to realize our fullest potential at all times, all parts of us assimilated and in alignment with the fact that we too can fly. At night when we spread our wings, disrupting the usual patterns of who we are on a daily basis, we earn our energetic stripes as we fly through our dreams.
And so, if we can just remember that we are energetic beings all the time and not only while we dream, we are well on the way to achieving what the Buddhists call enlightenment, freedom from samsara, the suffering of being in human form. With intent, we can gain mastery to fly seamlessly, and with awareness, between heaven and earth, just like the blue jay!
Those who have returned from near-death experiences report that upon leaving their bodies and entering into an out-of-body state, their entire lives flash before them in a single instant. Every nook and cranny of life lived is relived and reviewed. This is the ultimate recapitulation experience that we will all encounter, an essential component of transitioning from this life to the next.
The Buddhists are particularly cognizant of this experience at death and spend a lifetime honing skills of detachment so they will not get caught in the trappings of fear, regret, or longing for life lived in this world. Lack of preparation for this encounter upon dying is a major karmic variable for future incarnations, according to Buddhist tradition, as one’s future life is influenced by enduring attachment or non-resolution of life lived in this world as one travels through this moment of recapitulation.
Though the Buddhists spend a lifetime preparing for recapitulation at the moment of death, within Carlos Castaneda’s lineage, shamans discovered that recapitulation could be consciously and volitionally performed while still in this world. These shamans discovered that by recapitulating before dying we not only enhance our options upon death, but vastly change our experience of life in this world. Through beginning an early recapitulation we are afforded the opportunity to make ourselves whole, and with our full energy available to us now, achieve fulfillment in this life.
As a clinician, I returned from my journey into the shamanic world of Carlos Castaneda with the knowledge that recapitulation was a tool for total healing. Regardless of the shattering impact of the most horrific trauma, recapitulation enables us to retrieve our fragmented selves and energies, as well as disentangle ourselves from the binding energies of others that have compromised our growth and fuller potential in this life.
Recapitulation is an inevitability. We will all recapitulate our lives when we die. If we can’t face and know the full truth of who we are and the life we’ve lived now, will we be able to do that at the moment of death? Will we be so overcome with fear, regret, and longing that we will have to return to relive it all again?
Excavating and sculpting the self…
The shaman’s gift of early recapitulation offers us the opportunity for deep fulfillment in this life, as well as the evolutionary advantage to advance beyond reincarnation upon completion of life in this world. Furthermore, recapitulation is a magical pass. Magical passes have been performed for centuries in the shaman’s world. Magical passes are imbued with the intent of all those shamans, and anyone who undertakes a recapitulation is supported by the vastly helpful intent set by those shamans.
Here is an excerpt from Jan’s upcoming book, On the Edge of the Abyss, the second year of her recapitulation series in which she experiences this intent: “It’s eerily apparent that no matter what arises in the unfolding of this process, in which Chuck and I are but a small part, there is a sense of everything fitting together. We both remarked on that yesterday, as if we had been thinking the same thoughts. In some way, my dreams always show me where to go next—deeper truths revealed while my conscious self is out of the way—while the memories come in such a way as to suggest that everything is orchestrated. And I sense that whatever or whoever is helping me is worried about my energy. I sense that it wants to keep me whole and safe, deeply caring that I arrive at a place of total healing.”
When we recapitulate we must encounter the full truthful impact of life lived. How could it be otherwise? If we skip over that, we haven’t truly retrieved and mastered our real selves and our real experiences. However, we must keep in mind that we are protected and guided by a power greater than ourselves, by the ancient intent of recapitulation. That intent is that we fully revamp our lives, that we fully sculpt our energetic selves, and that we fully release all the burdens of extraneous energies formerly bound to the experiences of the unknown self. With this now fully-known and energetically-replenished self in charge, we are freed to live life to the fullest and to fully love the life we are living.
Written by Jan Ketchel with a channeled message from Jeanne Ketchel.
I feast on the first light of the morning sun as I sit and meditate, connect with Jeanne, and ask for guidance for this day, this week, and this new month of August. What guidance do you offer us, Jeanne? I ask. This is what she replies:
I offer you awareness of the world as comprised of interconnected energy and you are part of it! Each one of you is connected by energetic filaments, unseen and for the most part unknown. Trust me on this, you are all energetic beings comprised of energy that is seeking recognition and desirous of being put to better use.
Learn to feel the self as energy in the same way you perceive electrical current to be energy. You too are of similar makeup. You too are capable of transmitting your personal energy, both to the self within your body and outside the self to others and the world around you.
You have the ability to heal the self of damage to body and soul. You have the ability to aid in the healing of others. By your awareness and your intent, you have the ability to change yourself and your world. However, it takes work!
Today, I challenge all of you, My Dear Readers, to begin taking yourselves more seriously; to more deeply consider that each one of you has untapped powers of healing. Consider that there are processes of change at your core that have gone untapped and uninvestigated for far too long.
Why are you alive? Why do you exist at all? What higher purpose does your life serve? Who are you anyway? Can you imagine finding out the answers to these questions? Can you be open to the possibility that you are there to discover your own potential as an energetic being? What does that really mean?
In the context of many lifetimes, it means that perhaps you are ready to consider the truth of this idea. Perhaps, since you are a seeker of spiritual knowledge, you are ready to accept some new ideas about life upon that earth.
Energy Beings
Perhaps you wonder how I can communicate and pass on these words and ideas, seemingly coming out of thin air, because I do not in fact exist in your world. But I exist nonetheless and each one of you also exists, at this very moment, in the same energetic form as I. The only difference is that for the moment you inhabit a human form. I have been released from human form, as you will be one day as well. Until that time you might find it helpful to take into consideration that you are an energetic being inhabiting a human form.
You may not feel that you chose the form you are in, the person you are today, but, in fact, you did! Can you accept this? Can you appreciate your choice? Can you find your energy self and fully know that this journey you are on is vitally important? Can you find your energetic self more often as a result of these concepts and explore the ideas I propose?
If you are the same as me, an energetic being, then your abilities are unlimited. But, as I said, it takes work to discover those abilities, trust them, utilize them properly, and evolve beyond the world of personal attachments. I too have had to learn how to use them and how to evolve. I suggest that a wonderful exercise for this day, this week, and this new month is a daily process of acceptance of the self as a being of energy.
As often as possible state, out loud or too the self: I am a being comprised of energy! I am a being comprised of energy! I am a being comprised of energy!
Say this when you are waking in the morning and when you are going to sleep at night. Say this when you are preparing for your day—when walking, running, sitting, meditating, driving, working, playing, loving—let it be a constant mantra, replacing all the old mantras that keep you stuck and unhappy. Allow this phrase to be on your every breath and see what nuances of reality show themselves to you. Seek to envision the self as this energetic being in order to truly change how you view the world, how you relate to the world, and how you understand your personal life as an energy being in human form.
You all know this about the self already, you’ve just forgotten. You just need to dredge up this knowledge and remind the self of its truth on a daily basis. I am a being comprised of energy! Remember?
Thank you Jeanne! I, and my fellow energy beings, thank you for reminding us of this truth! I am a being comprised of energy! I am an energy being in human form!
