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Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Talk To Your Avatar

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You are loved…
-Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Theoretical physicist Tom Campbell likened the relationship between mind and body to that of a video game where mind is the gamer with the controller and the body is its chosen avatar on the screen. This analogy accomplishes two points: 1) Mind exists beyond the brain of the physical body and 2) Mind, at some level, is completely in control of its physical body.

In spiritual terms, mind is Soul, that which exists in its own energy body and lives on after the death of the physical body. The Soul is ever-present  and interactive with its physical avatar yet lives simultaneously in transpersonal dimensions beyond the physical world.

The Soul contains what we identify in psychology as psyche, which includes the ego as the center of the conscious personality, the subconscious mind, which houses the programs that essentially run the physical body, and the unconscious, which includes personal and collective dimensions.

The physical body is so linked to the operations of the subconscious mind  that the two have been identified as synonymous. One need only observe the physical materialization of hypnotic suggestion by a subject in trance to see how powerfully the subconscious controls the body.

Of course, the precise manipulations of a surgeon will greatly shift the movement of the physical body, as will pharmaceutical interventions that alter chemical balance and affect healing of a disease. But, at the most subtle energetic level, where thought meets matter, the subconscious can completely transform the condition of its avatar, the physical body.

This is completely evident in the placebo effect. If we believe a sugar pill will cure us, it will. Belief is a strong suggestion presented to the subconscious mind that produces the expected change. Discovery of this positive effect having been caused by a placebo will often cancel the suggestion to the subconscious and reverses its miraculous effect.

Belief systems restrict the subconscious to stick to pathways that conform to their rules. For this reason, though I am driven to learn and experience, I personally try desperately to avoid any system that insists on its set of facts as the one and only unchanging reality. Infinity is, as I experience it, an endless adventure into ever-deepening paradigm shifts. Best to follow the shaman’s dictum, Suspend Judgment, when approaching any new learning.

Nonetheless, we can operate within the state of our present knowledge, as long as we understand that our facts will ultimately be washed away by future discoveries. Nothing is sacred; nothing is permanent. Hence, we can talk to our avatar and see what happens.

When we do some form of progressive relaxation, we suggest to each body part that it release and let go. As we deepen this practice, we will notice the body lighten to a state of pure energetic relaxation. If we visualize our hands being penetrated by the sun, we will experience our hands getting warmer. In both cases, our suggestions and imagination instruct the subconscious to change the condition in the body.

If we state a healing intent to the body with calm but enduring perseverance, the subconscious may eventually be persuaded to enact the called for change. Again, suspend judgment. Limiting beliefs may impact the flow of our intent, but don’t argue with them; simply let them go. Simply persevere, without attachment to the outcome.

Talk to your avatar in a state of loving kindness. This magnificent vehicle we are granted for our physical lifetime should be loved and cherished. Be accepting of the state of the body, at all times, even if great changes are desired. The subconscious has programs that can compensate for, and override, errant programs. Instruct it with love and clear intent.

Loving the Avatar,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: I Am More Than My Ego Identity

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Time for transformation…
– Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

In a dream, my son is my friend. I have no memory of him as my son. Upon awakening I am fascinated at this absolute lapse in memory of such a prominent waking life relationship. This is a glimpse of life beyond the veil.

“What veil?” you might ask. The veil of ego identity. Ego is the part of our soul identified with waking life in the physical body. Ego is the main player in the waking life drama we are fully engaged in. The ego’s veil is its narcissism, though not necessarily pathologically so. It simply only knows itself as all that it is.

The ego is also quite prejudiced with material bias. The physical world is its oyster and all that really exists. This in-body perspective has been critical to keep the focus on the intent, the fated karma of this current life adventure. However, as is more than evident in current world events, Mother Earth is in labor. Her water has broken and full-on contractions have begun.

Birthing is our first rite of passage in this life. The journey into life is a solo voyage fraught with breathlessness, volcanic eruption, violent collision and claustrophobic containment. Arriving into our separateness, at birth, requires surviving the perils of these initiation challenges as we push out into new life. Currently, Earth’s initiation challenge requires us to navigate her violent changes as, once again, we find our way to new life.

New life on this planet is the discovery and integration of life beyond the confines of ego identity, life beyond the veil. Our materialistic focus, with its land-grab mentality, has saturated Mother’s nurturing capacity. She requires now a greater soulful human presence, a maturity beyond the childish dependency locked within the ego’s veil. To achieve this we must expand our knowing of all that we are. To achieve this we must venture into the transpersonal dimension of our being.

My amnesia of my son, as my son, was such a transpersonal journey. The more we cling solely to our relationships of familial association, as our definition of who we are and how we should live, the more we remain separated from the overall needs of the greater whole world. We are birthing into a consciousness that extends family to all, with equanimity.

To experience my son as friend, with no proprietary rights, breaks the illusion of special connection. Yes, of course there is special connection in the drama of this life. That can’t be erased. But to wake up to the greater reality, that all that is is part of that same whole, extends love to all; we are all simply inseparable. With this knowing, we are fully poised to grow beyond the limits of ego narcissism.

This journey to our transcendent selves, as we navigate the violent contractions of now, does require that we suffer the full knowing of our suppressed and repressed selves, what Jung called the shadow of the personal unconscious. This is the work of recapitulation, fully exploring the triggers of daily life, which bring forth our inconvenient truths.

We are aided in this journey by guides and by our Higher Soul, which resides in the transpersonal dimension of our being. Our ego soul becomes our left brain navigator on our voyage of recovery and discovery. Though still engaged in material life, our needs become more soulful and refined. The spirit of a gift outweighs the material gift.

Bob Monroe left us with a set of tools to discover that, yes, “I am more than my physical body.” As we traverse that non-physical reality, the ego discovers that it is part of its greater Soul. Indeed, that I am more than my ego identity. And with that we are truly birthing into new life.

I am more than my ego identity,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Soulful Times

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What does the future look like?
– Artwork © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The rapid-fire explosive energy of now leaves little doubt that great change is on the very near horizon. The path of human evolution is abundantly clear. The human soul, in the form of the energy body, has emerged as a utilitarian entity, destined to play a major role in the living of future life in human form.

Bob Monroe journeyed to a future permutation of Earth where humans lived primarily in their energy body state and kept their human bodies safely tucked away, visited once or twice a week by their owners. He experienced the Earth itself as nature completely flourishing, with no sign of human transportation systems. In this new world, the fuel for travel in the energy body was the intent of thought alone. In a world of energetic mastery, materialism—the current human obsession—had largely become a laborious anachronistic pastime.

The worldwide trauma of now is the cracking open of the defensive wall that has blocked access to the soul. The dominant rational mind’s ability to dismiss  the soul, with all its subtle power to direct human life, is on the wane. The impotence of reason itself, in the face of the irrational, is evidenced at the highest levels of governance.

Life in the energy body is life in total transparency, where non-verbal communication is the norm. In energetic reality there is no such thing as lies, as the truth is completely revealed. Hence, acquiescence to the true needs of the planet becomes the no-brainer of energetic reality. The cumbersome practice of material hoarding is retired in favor of the materialization of imagination.

The Earth and all its inhabitants are currently confronting the upsurge of civilization’s suppressed shadow. The primal human ego that seeks power and abundance for itself and its own is having its day. The hatred and rageful energy accompanying this unleashing of the suppressed is inevitable. We cannot evolve without squaring with the fullness of our wholeness. We cannot evolve without transcending the chokehold of our narcissism.

Begin with suspending judgment. Judgment is the cynical internal dialogue that devalues and doubts the integrity of everything and everyone, seeking to distract us from the positive potential of our souls. How easy it is to identify the flaws in self and other. Shift to compassion. “Forgive them father, they know not what they do” is helpful guidance.

Be guided by synchronicities, which are stirrings from the soul reaching out to awaken us to its active existence. Use recapitulation, shamanic magical passes, breathing, Hemi-sync, and dreaming to discover and journey into the true depths of the soul.

Stay positive in these most soulful of times, it truly is all good.

Perseveringly positive,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Advancement

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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.

With love,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Thinking Outside the Brain

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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.

Thinking beyond the body,

Chuck