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Chuck’s Place: Fire From Within

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The transformational fire from within…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

In a dream, Jan was given valuable, museum-quality antiques. They were in a white box truck, parked by our orange barn. We were preparing to bring them to a climate controlled storage unit.

Suddenly, though the engine was turned off, sparks shot up from the engine and the truck exploded, destroying its contents completely. The fire trucks arrived, but all was lost. From an indifferent mindset, Jan wondered if insurance might cover the loss.

The fire was ignited by a spontaneous combustion from within the engine itself. Shamans from Carlos Castaneda’s lineage typically, or metaphorically, left this world, at death, through what they called the burning of the fire from within. As their physical body ignited into nothingness, their energy body, or soul, launched into infinity.

In the shaman’s world, this burning from within marked the culmination of the life of an impeccable warrior, one whom had risen above the dualism of this world and was fully prepared to continue the adventure of truth in the next plane of existence.

Our inner fire is generated by our mind’s intent. Though mind is invisible,  its thoughts, beliefs, emotions and karmic threads ignite the subconscious mind to transform our lives. It remains for our conscious ego to take command of and direct the subconscious mind to align with the truth of its High Self.

The white color of the truck that contained the antiques suggests purity, innocence and new beginnings. The orange color of the barn foreshadowed the unavoidable fire. These symbols suggest the alchemical operation of calcination where the substance, or prima materia one is seeking to transform, is broken down by fire, leaving behind a purified residue.

The prima materia of a human life is comprised of the karmic threads, desires, beliefs and emotions that bind and define one’s life and obscure access to resolution beyond the fray of the polarities, which dominate earthly life. This dream fire was not a fire of neglect. This fire was a necessary stage in the realization of an intent to grow.

The actual fire consumed the physical form of the treasured antiques, transforming them into spirit movement, as the gasses were released into the air. The risen spirits of these antiques were released from encasement in their solid matter to become active energy forces, made available to address the issues of now.

Antiques may be equated with ancient habits or beliefs that have shaped our attitudes and controlled our lives. Antiques might also reflect the values we admire and strive to live by. However, as antiques, these reflections of spirit remain outside of the self, possessed superficially as owned material objects. To bring them into life, we must take them on as parts of our own self, bringing them inward, reckoning with them, and allowing them to finally be calcined by the flames of our own inner fire, our desire for new life. No longer solid projections, their energy is liberated for other usage.

Tibetan meditation of the Bön Buddhism tradition asks us to neither suppress nor repress the inner fire of our triggers, with their powerful negative emotions. We are asked to remain with the thoughts, emotions and sensations in our mind and body, such as that which is contained in the white truck in Jan’s dream, with the goal of reaching compassion for self and other. Compassion, when reached, causes the energized emotion to fly off like a freed bird, leaving behind full acceptance and neutrality.

Compassion is achieved as we disengage from being possessed by the flame of blame and judgment of self and other. As we burn with the polarities that feed our inner fires, we learn to see all behaviors as part of All That Is. We recognize and own our shadow, as projected onto our neighbor. We now know that we share all the traits of our neighbors and are thus able, as Christ suggested, to “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. We become detached, compassionate beings.

As we enter the fiery month of Leo, in the midst of Mercury in Retrograde, our container is the Earth itself, stuck in the grip of a heat dome of smoldering negative emotions and actions. The threads of the karma of a holocaust are completing in the generation of another human holocaust. On a more comprehensive level, the karma of humankind’s predilection for materialism, with its ever-growing attempt to possess and enslave the Earth, is reaching its own karmic balance in the holocaust to all life on the planet. This manifestation of powerfully destructive forces is being brought to bear upon the antiquated pillars of a civilization that has controlled and defined us for centuries.

We are being shown that the progressive forces that might have been empowered to take us in a positive direction have been denied, because they too would likely become unwitting partners to the antiquated ways of yesteryear. Cosmic Karma is insisting upon a major conflagration of total breakdown before releasing the buds of new life. To arrive at this, it is time to rise above the prejudices of polarity into the clear view of Oneness. We are being delivered to the necessity of a new spiritual attitude to take us forward into new life.

I am convinced that this new spiritual attitude centers on our valuation of, and exercise of, the power of the subconscious mind. Our greatest powers, individually and collectively, are the suggestions we imagine and state, filled with the emotions and passions we deliver to the subconscious mind. Humankind is finding its way to the positive use of this inner power, largely because of the inevitable conflagration of the Earth itself by humankind, already underway, that will require inspired and responsible spiritual leadership to transcend.

The antiques of materialism and narrow rational thinking must now be calcined, as the Age of Aquarius ushers in the power of the imagination and advancing spirit to manifest and direct new life.

Jan’s dream ended with total detachment from the loss of the valuable antiques. Furthermore, there was no attachment to the thought of possible reimbursement from the loss.

We are entitled only to the reactions to our actions, our karmic threads. If incinerated antiques are transformed into money, or available energy, so be it, but no attachment to the outcome.

In the dream, all was purified and fully released to new life. This is the spiritual prize of submitting to the burning of the fire from within: Our purified non-dualistic selves become capable of delivering, to the subconscious mind, the suggestion for new life, led by truth.

In the fire,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: The Truth About Error

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You ARE all that is…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

As I have many times referenced, the Nagual, don Juan Matus, explained to his apprentice, Carlos Castaneda, that indeed, the world of solid objects that we live in, is real. However, he pointed out that a greater world of infinite, undifferentiated energy underlies this solid world, the world of all that is. Though challenging to reach, we all have access to the energy of the oneness of all that is, always.

Don Juan explained that our everyday world is but one potential interpretation of the energy of that infinitely vaster underlying world of energy. Our interpretation is our mental blueprint, formed by our belief, desire and demand, as envisioned in our imagination, and then assembled, by this intent, into solid physical reality.

We intend both the creation of our lives and the world we live in.  What we believe, we are. However, what we are, is relative. Changing a belief can completely change who we are, though it does not ultimately free us from the karma of the experiences and actions of the characters we have been.

Nonetheless, even with scores to settle with the personality we have been, we can be freed to fully stalk a new life and come back later, with an enriched perspective, to complete that which must be completed from a former belief state.

Our beliefs fixate our energy into a solid world that is definitely real. However, it would be an error to say that it is the only reality. For instance, life in the finite world of the Earth suggests a world of definite limits. The notion of scant resource and how it should be distributed is a driving concern upon the Earth plane at present.

The rightness of prosperity in the midst of limited resource and overwhelming need is a legitimate concern. There is no error in this truth. However, if one opens to accessing the ocean of infinite energy that exists beyond one’s interpretation of everyday life, through the intent of autosuggestion, one can tap that infinite resource of all that is and receive a prosperous life, without depleting any resource upon the finite plane of Earth.

Thus, though scarcity is a truth, it is also an error from the point of view of infinite possibility, latently accessible through conscious intent presented to the subconscious mind. What we place our intent upon can generate a separate reality, such as a physical healing, actualized by a healing affirmation.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, the healer who healed Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, discovered that fixated beliefs can actually generate disease. When he worked with patients, he educated them as to how their thinking, though true from the premises issued from their interpretation of physical reality, also limited their access to a greater Truth; that at an energetic level anything is possible.

The error, or limitation in their thinking, generated the real outcome of disease but veiled their access to an alternative healing belief. If his patient was able to see the error, or limitation in their thinking, and open to the power of energetic Truth, they healed. Such is the potential power of suggestion to the subconscious mind.

Carl Jung grappled with the dilemma of error and truth by designating two centers in the personality, the ego and the Self. The ego is the center of the conscious personality that is informed largely by the five physical senses and the rational mind. The Self includes the ego but opens, through the subconscious portal, to the vastness of the collective unconscious and all that is. The Self also brings intuition and psychic powers to the personality, though the ego’s fixation on rationality can often dismiss its access to them.

Thus, the ego is real and part of the Self,  but due to its limited skills and purview it is frequently in error in its assessments, which blocks its access to deeper Truth. Fortunately, as ego matures and becomes humbled by the greater knowledge and capacity of its Self, it raises its vibration and can develop a working relationship with the Self.

The Self operates at a finer energetic vibration than dense matter, and so the ego must learn to reach alpha and theta brainwave states to open the portal of direct communication with the Self.

Robert Monroe created the storage box metaphor, where one could deposit into the storage box one’s denser, thinking, beta brainwave mind, and thus be freed, with the assistance of higher brainwave entrainment, to explore deeper Truths and possibilities in infinity. Regardless of knowledge and fluidity gained in these journeys, one must ultimately re-associate with the contents of one’s storage box. In so doing, karma is neutralized and no longer a hindrance to radical change.

The point of the time we all spend in Earth School is for the ego to mature and gain support from the Self as it navigates the journey of resolving karma and the challenges it chose, at the level of Self, to fully explore in this lifetime.

The ego can begin a more definite relationship with the Self through its suggestions to the subconscious mind. One begins by shifting the energy state of the physical body through statements of relaxation, starting with the feet and progressing to the head, as the whole body is progressively relaxed, saying, for instance:

“My feet are relaxed, my calf muscles are relaxed, my thighs are relaxed, etc.”

Next, an autosuggestion is repeated several times to the subconscious mind. Here is an example of such an autosuggestion, but you can make up your own:

“I express deep gratitude to my subconscious mind for its unflinching support for the intentions I present to it. My subconscious mind is linked to Infinite Intelligence and Divine Love and has access to my High Self. I ask that my High Self guide me in ways I will recognize, with the ultimate goal being to achieve fulfillment and enlightenment in the lifetime I am in. I trust my subconscious mind to bring forth this connection.”

Relaxing one’s body to reach a higher vibration, then stating this affirmation several times a day, will reach the Truth of the Self. Breathe deeply as you relax and say your affirmation, releasing all fears and doubts. Be patient and know that your request will be answered. Instruct the ego to suspend the judgments that keep it locked exclusively in error.

The truth about error is that errors are truths, but lower case truths. Capitalized Truths are far more comprehensive and magical because they issue from the more expansive Truth of the Self.

To life ever increasingly beyond error,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: How To Be Empowered Now

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Begin the empowerment process within…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The ancient Hermetic principle, as within, so without, is the formula to access the power of the subconscious mind. The thoughts, feelings, beliefs and psychological complexes we house and incubate, through our mental preoccupation, become our as within. The subconscious mind is the creative matrix that then molds and materializes this inner state into the so without of our physical lives.

Could it be that simple? Yes! The utter simplicity of this powerful ancient formula is largely responsible for its underutilization, at least with conscious awareness and intent.  The subconscious mind has actually been running the show for all of life on earth, since its inception, under the direction of the instincts and archetypes of the collective unconscious.

It took the evolutionary advance of the birth of ego consciousness for humanity to become willfully capable of overriding instinct, thereby becoming empowered to take charge of its own destiny. With this advance, humans accessed their potential to direct the subconscious mind. The old powerhouses of instinct and archetype still exert a mighty influence upon the subconscious mind, but the ego can intentionally override these laws, even if it’s not in its best interest.

The subconscious mind engages that which most impresses it. To impress the subconscious mind, the conscious mind must truly believe in the power of the subconscious mind to manifest its suggestions. Thus, the subconscious must be approached with firm confidence.

Without this level of conviction, the ego’s desires are too watered down, mixed with too many thoughts and feelings that weaken its attractive power. When this happens, the subconscious becomes far more attracted to select the established, habitual patterns it keeps in storage, as opposed to going with a novel new suggestion that may, as of yet, lack the potency of the old.

For centuries, this latent ability to direct the subconscious mind through conscious intent has remained largely hidden from the masses of humanity. Arguably, the power of the subconscious mind in the hands of an immature or unscrupulous person could spell catastrophe for that individual, as well as the world at large.

Religious institutions have barred their flock from owning this divine power by socializing their congregants to live and judge themselves by strict moral dogma, with a stern warning to remain obedient to divine law rather than thinking independently for themselves.

All religious traditions place a premium on modesty, with folk traditions instructing one to knock on wood to placate the evil eye, or ken ayn hora, the wrath of an Almighty toward one who assumes Its power.  But what if we are actually the arm of that power, living and expanding the full experience of all that is?

Economic and political powers scooped up the discoveries of modern psychological science and autosuggestion to control people’s beliefs and behaviors through the advertising industry. This major outer influencer has largely taken over the direction of modern life, as its suggestions are internalized as one’s own, becoming the stuff of one’s incessant internal dialogue, or default autosuggestions.

The current state of the human mind has also been dominated by rational thinking, which actually parted ways with spiritual traditions a long time ago and installed reason as its sole godhead, casting a huge shadow of doubt over supposed mystical powers.

Even the thought of truly being able to manifest one’s life through suggestion to the subconscious mind is largely doubted and dismissed by the vast majority of humanity. Such has been the hegemony of pure reason.

State of the art modern neuroscience informed treatment of mental illness, for all its contributions, has anchored the mind in the materialism of the brain and the central nervous system. Science dismisses the energetic world of the soul,  and with it the power of the subconscious mind to manifest dramatic change. “Just a placebo effect” is its assessment of that which it can’t materially pin down.

The current state of the world is the true backdrop for the coming of age of one’s latent power to intentionally and mindfully create both one’s inner and outer world. The mind’s domineering fixation upon rationality is rapidly devolving into a chaos of near collective madness, bringing sanity itself to the brink of dissolution.

Frightful as this existential reality is, it’s the price for the pushing upward of new life. The pushing up of new life from beneath the earth is driven by its yearning for the sun, but does require a powerful effort of the will to prevail. The sun is the light of consciousness.  If we employ our energy in the direction of higher consciousness, we can discover our power to create our personal and collective worlds. Create within, create without.

First, we must make the monumental effort to discover and befriend our psychological complexes. Carl Jung coined this term to represent clusters of emotionally charged ideas, feelings, and memories that can operate outside of conscious awareness and significantly impact a person’s behavior. When unresolved, these hidden complexes keep us stuck in the automatic repetition of our habitual thoughts, behaviors and beliefs.

To begin the process of resolution of these hidden complexes, ask, with passion, that your subconscious mind connect you to the guidance of your High Self. Ask it to lead you through a journey of self-discovery that uncovers fully the complexes you harbor.

Such a recapitulation journey reveals these hidden parts of the self and asks you to bring them into unity with the personality, through the total knowing and accepting of their existence and experiences. This inner discovery process follows its own unique yellow brick road, as every day a magical dream or synchronicity of some kind reaches out to your conscious awareness and asks for exploration.

We must trust the way of the subconscious mind as we are led through this journey. This unification, or individuation, of personality results ultimately in the conscious mind being able to make a decisive suggestion to the subconscious mind, freed of the sabotaging effect of old, hidden parts.

With this new unification of personality and conscious intent, the ego is freed to fully and passionately imagine its wildest fantasies fulfilled, often in movies it generates in the mind. The subconscious then utilizes the substance of the energetic, subtle dimension of life to create the prototype that will gather in energy and density as it moves the dream forward to full physical realization.

Thus, at the subtle dimension is a new substantial reality that invites us to be patient as the next stage is realized, and as we express gratitude to the infinite intelligence of the subconscious mind for the realization of our dream. Once we have envisioned it, that dream is already a reality at the subtle level. For this reason we may state its completion as fact, even before its full physical manifestation.

As often as is right, dream your dream. Feel the joy and gratitude of its completion. State, clearly, your intention, with unbending intent. Relax. It is done. This is how to be empowered now.

Go discover the magical gift waiting for you today!
Chuck 

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Inexhaustible Wealth Of The Subconscious Mind

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We reap what we sow, so watch the words you put into your head…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

I have been a serious student of the psyche for the past 50 years. By my early 20’s I had amassed a substantial portion of Jung’s Collected Works, some of which I’ve yet to fully read!

I’ve spent an equivalent amount of time immersed in the shamanic world of Carlos Castaneda, which provided me the tools and knowhow to explore the energy body, what religious traditions have called the Soul.

Both Freud and Jung explored the therapeutic utility of hypnosis, which accesses the power of the subconscious mind. Ultimately, they both abandoned hypnosis in favor of more reliable outcomes obtainable through their new discipline of psychotherapy.

Ancient knowledge of the power of trance and suggestion can be found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Hindu literature is filled with warnings about the power of suggestion to control and manipulate human behavior. One is coached to choose one’s guru wisely.

Beyond these concerns about the potential limitations or abuses raised about hypnosis, the more fundamental truth that hypnosis reveals is that the human mind operates largely through the power of suggestion. What we tell ourselves and truly believe is what we become. Our lives are run by autosuggestions that we deliver, or take in from others, to our subconscious minds

Joe Dispenza’s book, You Are The Placebo, is a testament to the power of belief and autosuggestion to heal. The placebo effect is what truly heals. If you truly believe something can happen, it will. Mainstream scientific experiment emphasizes placebo as evidence that something didn’t work, rather than absolutely marveling at, and delving into, the power of the mind to make something happen.

Healers and philosophers of  the 19th and 20th century New Thought Movement in America believed that Christ was a teacher who emphasized the divine in all individuals versus a divinity unique to himself. They culled the secret to his healing power in biblical stories: an individual must believe within themselves that they can be healed, and only then shall it come to pass. The secret: the placebo effect.

As surmised by New Thought practitioners, the power of this simple truth so threatened religious institutions that they withdrew the notion of divine power from humans and instituted the reigning power of dogma, with dependence upon institutions outside the self being the only way to be guided in wisdom and healing.

We are currently living through a time of unraveling, where core beliefs that have sustained the human race for centuries are being replaced with new beliefs, suggesting a whole new world. The role of the thought police, in controlling what can be stated, written and talked about, is increasingly evident. Suspending all judgment, it is truly a remarkable example of how suggestion and belief create a world.

The subconscious mind has the absolute power to manifest a physical reality, for better or for worse. Although it is largely suggested to by the accumulated wisdom of the instincts and the archetypes, the subconscious is powerfully impressed upon by the beliefs and desires of the conscious mind. Thus, the inexhaustible wealth of the subconscious mind is best accessed through a mature conscious mind.

The ultimate check on how we exercise our power of suggestion is karma. The divine power of the subconscious mind will acquiesce to any belief impressed upon it, but it does not control the outcomes of these effects. We reap what we sow, for better or for worse.

The subconscious mind records and stores every bit of experience we have had in this life, as well as in past lives, and, at the deepest levels, the entire history of the universe and beyond. Edgar Cayce provided diagnoses and healing prescriptions for thousands of  unknown patients while in trance. Everything is accessible if one believes it to be possible.

In shamanic recapitulation one can access all the details of a forgotten life, as one intends a healing journey and trusts the guidance and promptings of the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is our greatest means of invisible support. If we approach it with faith and gratitude for all that it does for our physical and mental bodies, we are surely to be supported in the changes we seek.

Never to be underestimated is the power of the conscious mind, which is solely responsible for the life it suggests and manifests through its suggestions to the subconscious mind.

Please note that my affirming always the suggestion of the greater good is hardly the shallowness levied at positive affirmations somewhat in vogue now as expressed in the phrase toxic positivity. What I have outlined here is a paradigm shift in the understanding of the structure and dynamics of the psyche which highlights the power of divine action taken by the subconscious mind in response to human desire and true belief. That action is undeniably real and with it comes the divine responsibility to be in alignment with the truth.

Intend always the greater good, for self and other,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: The Real War Of Now Is Within

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Let the reconciliation begin…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Opposition within our human mind is being reflected, and physically enacted, in all the destructive events currently unfolding on the human playing field. Thought is the prime cause of physical reality. What we believe is what comes to be.

This opposition in mind is rooted in two rival attitudes within the conscious mind. In one corner is the rational mind that holds that seeing is believing. Logic is law, and observable reality is the only fundamental truth.

In the other corner is a conscious attitude that believes in supernatural powers inherent and programmable in the subconscious mind. This attitude does not dismiss the value of the rational mind but broadens it to include a conscious relationship with the spiritual dimension of the subconscious mind.

A conscious attitude that embraces the existence and power of a subconscious mind is the enemy of rationality. Nietzsche expressed simply the truest belief of the rational mind: “God is dead.” Reason has no place for unseen powers and spirituality. Reason lives in a material world—period. Beyond physical life is lights out.

Everyone is challenged with these two attitudes. Who doesn’t turn to material solution when confronted with a physical issue? Who can state, with certainty, that unseen spiritual forces exist and can change physical life? These conflicting attitudes are in a war without compromise. As reflected outwardly, we see no war on the current human stage  amenable to compromise.

Perhaps the greatest institution of rational thought and scientific discovery in the modern world is Harvard University. Look at the current full-throttle attack on Harvard, as well as all similarly established institutions of higher learning.

Of course, we can point to actual personalities causing this standoff, but at the deepest level this struggle is the physical expression of the battle raging within the human psyche for control and exercise of the human mind. The irrational is deeply challenging the rational at the university level.

Pure reason’s arch rival is called the power of suggestion, which holds that through the employment of conscious suggestion to the subconscious mind, physical reality is impacted. In this paradigm, the subconscious mind is imbued with divine power and is in divine obligation to manifest the word, or intent, impressed upon it by the conscious mind.

This warring backdrop of mind is actually an evolutionary struggle in a developmental process of maturity of our collective mind. At the early stages of human evolution the subconscious mind was the only mind that directed life, through manifesting instinctive suggestions impressed upon it. This level of control still largely runs the systems of the human body.

With the advent of consciousness came the rational mind with its ability to override the automatic instincts lodged in the subconscious mind. Reason gradually took dominance over decision making, which, through its unknown power of suggestion upon the subconscious mind, generated our current world of dominant rational belief. This dominance of the world’s mind by reason is now flagrantly being challenged upon the world stage, and we are all experiencing it.

The developmental stage we are currently embroiled in insists that the power of reason and spiritual potential be reconciled. Many a journeyer into the deeper realms of the collective unconscious has been overwhelmed by encounters with non-ordinary reality at the subtle energy dimensions of our being.

I personally, as a young boy, was terrified nightly by the disintegrative impact of such encounters. Had I not my rational mind’s ability to create a structure that allowed me to navigate the vastness of infinity, my fragile ego would have surely disintegrated into nothingness.

Paranoid schizophrenics are telling the truth when they say that television characters are speaking directly to them, as they are experiencing the synchronous interconnectedness of all things. Unfortunately, the impact of such a broader view overwhelms their narrow ego foothold upon reality and they succumb to psychosis, flitting about in infinity without a captain at the wheel of their floundering ship.

Without reason we are severely handicapped at the spiritual dimensions of our being. With only reason, we can never know and experience the fullness of all that we are.

We also need conscious reasoning to assume responsible control for the suggestions we submit to our subconscious mind. The world at present is experiencing the effect of impulsive suggestions controlling the world’s subconscious mind, manifesting incessant changing realities on a minute-to-minute basis. The power of the subconscious mind is available to deliver both balance or chaos.

The developmental challenge at the moment is for the rational mind to choose right action in its directives to the subconscious mind. This is bringing truth to power. We are all challenged to choose the greater good over the equal potential of choosing all for self-interest only.

Be empowered to realize that the outer state of things has its roots in the inner state of things. We all have the ability to solve the state of the outer world by solving the state of the world within. And as you explore your inner powers be like a true alchemist, share your findings with no-one. When we share our beliefs and experiences we invite the thought police.

Just as the world of journalism is losing its ability to express free speech, when we share our experiences we invite the reactionary beliefs of someone else’s conscious and subconscious minds, which then impacts our own subconscious. We are then barraged telepathically, as well as outright verbally, with beliefs that instill doubt or burden us with the hostility of others.

When engaging the power of your own subconscious mind, tell your rational mind to suspend judgment. Allow that mind to release its grip as you relax the body and become groggy. Then state your suggestion and allow your imagination and emotion to impress your subconscious with its desire.

Note your results privately over time. As you discover the validity of the process via your results, your rational mind will step up to the plate and embrace the greater truth of its former rival attitude. This is how these two attitudes are reconciled. Ask your growingly confident rational mind to stay suggestive only to the intent for the greater good for all.

This reconciliation of warring attitudes within will ultimately reflect in a changed world without, as we evolve consciousness to further include all that we truly are.

To reason and beyond,
Chuck