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Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: To Not Be Offended

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Don’t let obstructions get in your way, just let it flow…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The ruling intent of this time is to offend. Energetically, it’s a brilliant system to galvanize and employ human energy to achieve its goals. Indeed, it’s as Machiavellian as the human battery pods of The Matrix. How do we not give away our energy by becoming offended?

There is a distinction between being impacted and being offended. Offensive words generate deeds that definitely impact. The reality of impact should be acknowledged to the self and trusted others.

However, to be offended by a malicious act is a one-way ticket to the black hole of defeatism. In defeatism we lose our vital energy to the oppressor. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico observed that the greatest tyrant of them all had taken up residence in the human psyche.

Carol Tiggs, the Nagual Woman of Carlos Castaneda’s lineage, called that tyrant Bobby the Flyer. Bobby is the self-condemning voice in every human being that sentences us to that black hole of utter defeat. Bobby uses our incessant internal dialogue to keep us unworthy, stuck in our internal prison of inadequacy.

How many times a day do we hear the following words, inside our heads: “I’m bad.” “I’m inadequate.” “I’ll never be able to…”  Or, “I don’t deserve.” The internal dialogue’s commentary on outer events is equally incessantly judging: “They treat me unfairly.” “I don’t matter.” Or “they look better, younger, thinner, more stylish, or, they’re more articulate…than me.”

Thus, outer offense mirrors the inner offense of Bobby the Flyer. Internally, the impact of attaching to offense is to define the boundary of the self with the belief that nothing will ever change. This overarching negative belief keeps our spirit in check.

To free the spirit we must free it from offense. A preponderance of offensive words are being personally intended now. How can we then say that it isn’t personal, when it clearly is? Everything is designed to personally impact and it does; it hurts. Hurt is hurt, but it’s not offense.

Offense is an abstract, subjective interpretation. When Victor Frankl was denied his most basic of human rights, he chose not to be offended by his oppressors. Instead he chose to save his energy, to place his attention on positive thoughts and memories that could sustain him. And he survived where many died, depleted of their vital energy by the black hole of defeatism.

In the martial art of Aikido, much attention is placed on the imbalanced energy of the oncoming attacker and how to strategically receive it. No attention is wasted on being offended by one’s attacker. To be offended is to lose focus, which could be fatal. Martial artists and shamans alike know the value of losing any attachment to self-importance if one is to hone abilities and preserve energy.

Self-importance should not be confused with self-worthiness. Unseat Bobby the Flyer. With meditation or magical passes learn to silence the internal dialogue. Assert your basic worthiness to the self, but don’t get caught in needing others to validate it. That’s a sure ticket to the black hole of defeatism.

Ironically, the biggest petty tyrant of our times is daring us to not be offended by him; it may be the only way to actually defeat him! Beyond that, he offers us the exercise of truly learning to preserve our energy for the deeply challenging times now unfolding upon this planet.

May we all have compassion for all beings.

Without offense,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Changing the Past

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The inspiration for this blog comes from our neighbor Joseph McMoneagle’s book,  The Ultimate Time Machine. His reflections on the relativity of the past, as a “reality” largely based upon interpretation, coincides neatly with the Shamans of Ancient Mexico’s experience of the Wheel of Time.

Changing the past allows completion of the labyrinth…

Recapitulation is an ancient shamanic practice that enables one to change the past. As McMoneagle points out, the past is largely defined by our interpretation system, which is mostly determined by our socialization by significant others since the moment of our birth. Thus, memory is largely colored by a feeling tone and cognitive understanding based on socialization.

When we recapitulate we relive the actual experience of the past with the consciousness of fresh eyes, or a point of awareness from the future, now, that affords a different view. From that new perspective, the past indeed changes. Yes, certain events happened that are the focus of the recapitulation, however, the interpretation of those facts is wide open to change.

Beyond actual interpretation is the feeling experience of the object of recapitulation. A traumatic event of violent proportion may at first be experienced as more physically and emotionally intense than actually previously remembered. This in and of itself changes the past because one is allowed, perhaps for the first time, a fuller experience of what actually happened.

The intensity of sensation and emotion emanating from a past event frequently shifts in recapitulation, to the point that remembering the event actually results in a neutral reaction. This is not the result of suppression or dissociation. The formerly traumatic event truly becomes a content of personal history that no longer casts a trigger shadow over present life. In fact, some horrific experiences in life can actually become transformed into objects of humor.

These are genuine examples of changing the past. The change is in having a much broader experience in all that happened in a way not possible when we first experienced it. We were limited by the level of our abilities at that stage of our development, as well as by the defenses our body and higher self brought into play, such as fragmentation and amnesia, as we simply were not ready to take in and make sense of the event as we experienced it. Now we are freed to know it and be with the past in a whole new way.

Recapitulation, then, is a valid technology to change the past, resulting in a fuller energetic presence in life now. In shamanic terms: we retrieve fragmented energy, parts of ourselves previously frozen in a “past” not fully known. This energetic retrieval is possible, as the past can now release it from the bondage of incompletion. The past is changed and the present is enlivened through this change in the past.

So, yes, change in the past can definitely change the present. Practice recapitulation, see what happens!

Recapitulating,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Magic of the Internal Dialogue

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At the dawning of each new day allow a new internal dialogue to light the way…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The internal dialogue is the Energizer Bunny that never quits. Where would we be in these unraveling times without the incessant voice within that constantly reminds us of who we are, as it judges and organizes how we see and feel about everything, especially ourselves. For better or for worse, this voice provides us with a consistent sense of self, and other, that gives us a secure basis upon which to hold together as we approach every new day in this life.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico acknowledged the magic of the internal dialogue. They saw it as the core technology that generated a consensual reality, which in fact our world really is. On a collective level we all share in an agreed upon interpretation of energy that molds that energy into the physical world we live in. Without such agreement, as dictated by the internal dialogue, our world would lose its cohesion and disintegrate into energy without definition.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico also pointed out that the single most limiting factor in our accessing the full breadth of our inherent potential is the internal dialogue. It fixates us in a narrowly defined closed system that restricts exploration of our fuller potential. This was why Carlos Castaneda repeated endlessly, and taught, the technology for expanded awareness: Suspend Judgment.

The internal dialogue then, like everything else in our world, has dualistic properties. On the one hand, it shapes and protects our world. On the other hand, it locks us in, keeping us from the freedom to explore our fullest potential.

The fiery energy that sweeps the globe presently is the byproduct of the splitting apart of agreement upon the basic tenets of our consensual reality. For centuries humanity stalked the heart center as its moral guide. The technology that supported this was reflected in Christianity’s technology of sacrifice. The animal in humanity was restrained for the sake of its rising spirit. As today’s newspapers once again report—this time in parishes in PA—the shadow of this technology, sexual abuse, has been acted out widely, with impunity, upon the young and innocent.

Politically, we find ourselves in Gotham City, surrounded by archetypal characters of all persuasions freed to express themselves and enact policies that fly in the face of a heart-centered consciousness. The primal energies of sex and power are freed, with impunity, in a governing elite that has lost its moral compass. The external dialogue of leaders is governing the internal dialogue of many whom are reveling in the possibility of generating a new world more to their liking.

In actuality, evolution has required that we take stock of the illusion we have been living; it’s wearing too thin to house all that we are. We are sexual beings. We are power driven beings. We are spiritual beings. We are energetic beings. The splitting apart we are now undergoing reflects all these released energies acting out in disconnected ways. This disintegration was inevitable. No blame. Every time we lock into a definition, we live in illusion. They may be necessary illusions for a time, but ones that must give way if we are to evolve.

On an individual level, it’s time to examine the myth we have personally lived by. A common example: “I am unworthy of love.” For many people this is the deepest tenet of the internal dialogue. It  molds the perceptions of self and other to fit its definition. It delivers a consistent sense of self and protects the self from the potential dangers inherent in stepping out of that reality, thus generating a self-fulfilling reality.

Accessing Carlos Castaneda’s tool, to suspend judgment, we suspend the internal dialogue’s judgment of unworthiness. We study it and appreciate its protective functions to deliver us a consistently reliable sense of self, protecting us from rejection and being hurt.

We acknowledge the true self, held in restraint for so long as it upheld that limiting illusion. We allow ourselves to gently stray beyond the boundaries of that familiar unworthy self. We feel love for the being we are, for the life we are in. We allow ourselves to validate our right to be in this world. We allow ourselves to take in nature, in its myriad of forms, speaking to us, validating our existence.

We allow ourselves to become sexual, powerful, spiritual, and energetic beings, whose new internal dialogue brings all these parts together in a balanced way. This is the internal dialogue of our future consensual reality, one that allows a fuller expression of all that we really are, in a truly balanced way.

Take up the challenge on an individual basis, the tallest of orders indeed. Let this time of disintegration serve your personal individuation by daring yourself to step beyond the limiting beliefs of your familiar internal dialogue. Bring in a truer dialogue. Be empowered; love yourself. See what happens as your new internal dialogue remolds your old consensual reality into a far more fulfilling life.

I am worthy,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Shaman Meets Science

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Our new pathway on the mountain…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Jan and I have been called to the mountain, specifically Robert’s Mountain, home of the Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia. Seemed as if it was a choice, but in retrospect, the prompts were so obvious we now see our “choice” as actually acquiescing to the inevitable. Specifically, we realize that we are our future selves fully recapitulating this stage of our lives now.

Carl Jung, in his major out-of-body journey in 1944, encountered a Yogi in deep meditation in a temple. He saw in that moment that his life was that Yogi’s dream. We are our future self’s dream.

Jan and I must experience the fullness of this momentous transition and make decisions and take actions that took place long ago because we are living them now. That is the essence of recapitulation: fully reliving and fully living an experience.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico called this practice moving the assemblage point, like a stylus that hovers over the wheel of time and lands on a previously recorded life experience and plays that tune over again. Rather than just listening to an old recording we are transported to the recording studio where we live our actual first recording.

The people on Robert’s Mountain call it remote viewing, a process of tapping into the matrix of all experience and honing in on a specific target. Remote viewers tap into the hologram of all interconnected reality, what brain science is beginning to realize is accessible to all through the right brain. For Jan and I, our target in that vast Akashic matrix is this time of great transition to the mountain. For those we are connected to this is a leap into greater energetic connection as well, as we are all challenged now to connect in new energetic ways.

As I look back on my time in the shaman’s world I recall the moment William Buhlman’s Adventure’s Beyond the Body crossed my path. It marked my first introduction to Robert Monroe, whose mountain we will settle upon. I now see how even then I was being awoken to a juxtaposition of worlds, shaman and science, that would be meaningful in the future. (As I wrote this reference to Buhlman’s book I took a break and shared with Jan this memory. She stood before me with a paper in hand, something she had just found. It was Jeanne’s receipt from ordering Buhlman’s book! Incidentally, we recently discovered that Buhlman just moved to the mountain too.)

Don Juan Matus’s final conclusion for humanity was that we must evolve our full energetic potential for our species to survive. Robert Monroe, in his out-of-body adventures, verified that life in the energy body is the future of mankind. We will survive as human energy beings fluidly capable of life in the physical as well as the energy body.

This exploration of physical and energetic body relationship and capabilities was undertaken by Lieutenant Skip Atwater in the U.S. Army’s Stargate program for remote viewing.  Here it was scientifically validated that it is possible for human consciousness to travel anywhere in the universe in present, past, and future time. Jan and I have purchased the home he built and lived in for many years on Robert’s Mountain. He was Research Director of The Monroe Institute for many years and later its president.

Though we are all presently experiencing a physical world fixated on its material gains and losses, our future development must focus on honing the power of intent at an energetic as well as physical level. In fact, it appears that Jan and I were called, at an energetic level, to the mountain to participate in this evolving necessity.

See you in the energy body, if not before…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Shaman has met science. When Carlos Castaneda insisted we suspend judgment he was the shaman insisting upon scientific method devoid of limiting beliefs. When science uses its technology to relax the left brain to approach the interconnected all-knowing of the right brain, it too is subduing the overarching order of logic and cause and effect that can prejudice our deeper knowing of objective reality.

Let us view the greater world trauma of now as the energy thrusting us all into our greater energetic potential. All trauma has the side effect of opening us to our greater energetic potential, but we must recapitulate first to truly hone those psychic abilities. That’s where shaman meets science, a brave new world indeed!

Living the dream,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Will & Intent

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The Shamans of Ancient Mexico make an important distinction between will and intent. Will is automatic, intent requires consciousness. Will issues from the land of participation mystique, where individuals or whole nations unconsciously follow the leader. With intent, consciousness taps into that same underlying energy as will, but assumes control of its manifestation.

Intend with the consciousness of a yogi…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

A concrete example of the distinction between will and intent is a Yogi who is capable of assuming conscious control of the autonomic or involuntary nervous system. Thus, bodily functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestion—generally controlled by the ‘will’ of the body—can be co-opted to function according to the conscious ‘intent’ of the yogi.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered that the underlying energy and power of manifestation of both will and intent come from the same source, the greater energy of intent in the universe that manifests all things. The only difference between them is simply who is in charge: nature’s archetypes or consciousness? Like the yogi, the shaman cultivates the power of intent at a fully conscious level, assuming control of what ordinarily happens when we function at the level of participation mystique.

The greatest obstacle to mastering intent, according to don Juan Matus, is limiting beliefs. We simply do not believe that we can manifest simply through intending a change. Abraham, as channeled through Esther Hicks, taught the law of attraction. Simply put, what we think is what we manifest. Thus, if we intend a change but constantly doubt our ability to manifest it the energy of our intent receives an ambiguous message: “change but don’t change, because I can’t change!” This compromised intent manifests a stalemate, no change.

The simplicity of simply stating an intent, of holding an intent as an agent of change, just seems too darned simple to our modern rational sensibility. We either argue about its impossibility, defeat it in doubt, or too meekly state it for it to be heard by the greater intent of the universe, which we personally tap into when we intend.

To not assume conscious responsibility for intent is to largely leave the direction of our lives in the default position of will, where we mystically participate in the rule of the archetypes. These archetypes are then projected upon the outer world where they organize perceptions and mental judgements, in essence manifesting the world we live in.

The incessant voice of ongoing commentary within the mind, what the shamans call the internal dialogue, essentially reinforces the will of the archetypes, which becomes how we experience life. Thus, when the world leader presents his view of the world in a state of the union address, world citizens are unconsciously drawn to project the archetype of the king upon him and assimilate his words as their personal intent or worldview.

The phenomenon of hypnotism illustrates the power of a message to manifest an outside intent. Suggestions from outside of us, like the suggestions we give ourselves, unawarely through our internal dialogue, become the commands we automatically manifest in our beliefs and actions.

Intent itself is impervious to morality. Intent is a pool of energy awaiting a command, a direction to manifest. Thus, for instance, there are ‘good’ shamans and ‘bad’ shamans, as Star Wars so eloquently demonstrates. If the force is equated with intent, the crucial question is, who will command the force, the light or the dark side? Intent can manifest either way, for purposes of good or evil.

It rests with the individual to decide the fate of intent, in fact, the fate of the world. Consciousness itself is the first rupture with the automatic adherence of the individual to the will of the archetypes. The Pope recently pointed to the apple in Eden as the first example of fake news. From this perspective he acknowledges that the intent of consciousness ‘sins’ against the will of the archetypes, or perhaps what he would call the will of God, as the individual is freed to engage in the  ‘fake news’  of consciousness and offered the opportunity to act with intent. His concern is duly noted given the current state of affairs in the world.

With freedom comes responsibility, what the world is faced with assuming right now. It begins within the individual. How will I use my personal power of intent? Many entities have a powerful interest in commandeering my intent for their own ambitions. As malevolent as this might sound and be, simply watch nature; watch the birds. All life feeds upon life. The dark side is part of life.

Nonetheless, with consciousness we are freed to intend balance within ourselves and balance within our world. Balance, like the Tao, finds a place to incorporate all that is, light and dark. Of course, consciousness can equally choose to align itself solely with the dark side, thereby delivering to the light side a great challenge for growth. Here we see the value and necessity of the dark side.

Intent is the message you choose to deliver to the greater pool of energetic intent to manifest in your life and your world. Keep it simple, repeat it often. Grapple with your ambivalence, face the shadow of your intent, incorporate its truth into your intent. When doubt seeks to sell you its wares acknowledge it then shift to stating your intent, incessantly. Don’t attach to outcome, free intent to set the course of the journey, wherever it takes you. Suspend judgement of the current state of manifestation of your intent. Remain persevering. Hold your intent with the lightness of a feather as you gently send it off on the wings of intent.

Peace,

Chuck