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Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Trigger, Habit or Both?

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A sting can cause a trigger; gathering pollen is a habit!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

“That really triggered me!”  Here, a sore spot, a vulnerability has been touched by someone’s comment, setting off this emotionally explosive reaction. Typically, the wounded party expects that others should know and respect this sensitivity and refrain from going near it. One often feels entitled to an apology.

A trigger is anything that can cause one to remember and feel an unprocessed emotionally charged experience. If someone tries to forget being attacked by a dog, the mere mention of its name can arouse anger and terror. Inwardly, the experience of being bitten has been pushed out of consciousness, protecting one from the discomfort of the reactivated memory.

The psyche envelops overwhelming experiences with strong defenses to keep the dreaded event far away from consciousness. Traumatic events may be so far removed from consciousness as to render one amnesic of their existence, even for decades.

Though the need for distance from a disturbing event may be necessary to function, it comes at the price of wholeness. The psyche must employ a good amount of energy to contain the disowned, unwanted or unknown parts of its experience. Furthermore, relaxed functioning may be compromised, as vigilance may be needed to avoid encounters with triggers associated with the split-off experience.

Ultimately, all events of a lifetime must be reconciled. A shamanic recapitulation, in this life, emotionally neutralizes all experience, rendering the psyche fully cohesive and able to be open to life without concern for triggers.

The life review referenced in near-death experiences, or reported by spirits in the afterlife, is required before one can advance into new life. Problems we haven’t resolved will preoccupy our lives, regardless of what subtle plane we may transition to. Recapitulation in this life both frees one for fulfillment in this life but also advances one in preparation for new life in the afterlife.

Habits are automatic beliefs, programs or pre-programmed behaviors that lie dormant in the subconscious mind. Programs are connected to genetic coding, as well as instinctive and archetypal imperatives that are specific to the nuances of the human species.

When a need or suggestion is encountered, the subconscious automatically activates the relevant program to address the situation. Thus, if one is attacked the subconscious will automatically activate fight, flight or freeze in response to the event. These reactions are not reactions to triggers, they are purely instinctive reactions to an existential threat. An instinctive habit is objective, a trigger is subjective.

The subconscious is also filled with habits that are derived from one’s subjective experience in this life. Thus, a person who has been bitten by a dog may consciously choose to always avoid dogs. This intentional behavior becomes a suggestion to the subconscious mind that molds it into an automatic, unconscious habit.

Thus, for instance, our bitten subject may unconsciously find themselves only walking certain routes that are known to be dog free. Now, if, while calmly walking one of these routes, a bark is heard, the subject may be triggered into emotional distress via encounter with the unreconciled memory of the original bite.

While triggers require a successful recapitulation if they are to be neutralized, habits, to change, require new suggestions to the subconscious mind. Thus, if one’s habit is a belief that one is unable to dance, one must first eliminate the conscious restating of this long-held belief. The subconscious will only manifest the suggestions one states.

To change a habit we must routinely state the new instruction to the subconscious mind: “I am able to dance.” This is not a discussion with the conscious mind. No reasoning or processing is required. What is required is the statement of intended fact to the subconscious, without any discussion.

To avoid conflicting suggestions to the subconscious, which virtually nullifies the formation of new habits, it is critical that one have complete faith in one’s suggestion. If one can embrace the belief that anything is possible then one can mobilize the requisite intensity of suggestion most likely to influence the subconscious.

One is often tested by the subconscious by the activation of old programs, despite one’s new intent. Old habits will reassert themselves until the new habit is established. Be calm, patient and persevering until the subconscious automatically prompts the newly established program. Simply repeat the new intent with calm assurance that it will manifest.

Trigger and habit are frequently intertwined. A new habit will be blocked from formation if a defensive habit must be retained to protect one from a potential trigger. Triggers, which represent split off experiences, must be neutralized through recapitulation before a habit, used to keep triggers at bay, can be effectively replaced.

Though both habits and triggers may be permanently altered, their pathways to change are distinctly different. Triggers must be processed at a conscious level to be neutralized; habits require rote repetition of new marching orders to the subconscious to result in a changed habit.

When triggers and habits are intertwined it is necessary to first reconcile  the triggered event to effectively free the subconscious to take in the instructions for the desired change of habit. Change itself is always possible. Remember, anything is possible!

Peace,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: May Suggestion Embrace The Current of Truth

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The current of heart centered truth…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Suggestion is the connection to the imagination of the human soul. The mere hint of a possibility seeds the foundation of a story that bursts forth, in all its particulars, from the raw materials of the subconscious mind, in concert with the logic of consciousness.

Perhaps the greatest works of art and literature, as well as scientific discoveries, have their roots in the power of suggestion, as it conjures and takes shape in the interplay between the subconscious and conscious minds.

The subconscious has access to every detail of all we have ever experienced, since conception, and even before. The subconscious, as a piece of the hologram of infinity, also stores the collective history of humankind, with all its accrued knowledge.

When Edgar Cayce, with his simple 8th grade education, gave an intuitive health reading, he had access to in-depth medical treatments from all historical times. At the same time, Cayce required, in trance, to be asked questions to give needed answers, as the subconscious requires suggestion; it is not a freethinking mind. For this, the directed thinking of consciousness is required.

The subconscious, with its unlimited ability to generate information, is the automatic mind that guided our evolutionary ancestors. The birth of ego consciousness—the hallmark of a sense of personal identity, and the ability to reason and override subconscious instinct—is a very recent human acquisition. In fact, the automatic mind of the subconscious dominates both the running of the physical body and most mental processes as well.

The shamans point out that the incessant repetition of the internal dialogue that we all experience is nothing other than the drone of the subconscious, as it generates the preprogrammed suggestions that contour our habitual sense of self. Whatever core beliefs we have about ourselves are constantly reinforced by suggestions fed to us by programs embedded in our subconscious, which we unwittingly reinforce daily at a conscious level.

Much of the cognitive and emotional distress we encounter in our lives is actually generated by suggestions we automatically give ourselves from the moment we awaken to each new day. Those suggestions generate the familiar stories we live by. If consciousness made a concerted and persevering effort to suggest a different storyline to our subconscious, we could open up to an entirely different sense of self. The key is to have faith and belief in the suggestion we embrace.

Suggestion is at the heart of marketing psychology, that which controls much of our economic behavior. Suggestion has run rampant on social media as well, as people unconsciously absorb fake news, and as they subsequently take on the polarized attitudes and stories encoded in those viral suggestions.

Once the subconscious takes in a new suggestion, that suggestion becomes its truth and it rallies all its resources around its imperative. It remains for consciousness to judge the validity of the storyline. If consciousness does not engage its reason to objectively evaluate the story, it automatically becomes the story we adopt and live by.

The current of truth is the one story that actually aligns with the truth in the world. The many currents of nature—be they the tides, the fires, the earthquakes or winds—reveal the truth of climate change. Despite this objective truth, many people still believe in subjective stories that don’t acknowledge the actual truth.

The current of truth is actually the Tao, the harmonious law of nature that validates the simple truth of cause and effect. Humans are free to embrace whatever story they wish, however, nature’s currents of truth will continue to react to human miscalculation.

Eventually, humans will embrace the suggestion to live in the current of truth, as it is the only combination that will ensure the necessary balance and harmony for survival.

The truth is, all are empowered to embrace this intent now, simply by offering new suggestions to the self to flow with the current of truth.

When consciousness embraces the truth, the subconscious will rally its potentiality around this directive, and the world will be remade in a truthful story. Now that’s a story worth embracing!

Suggesting the current of truth,

Chuck

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Thursday June 3, 2021

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When the mind begins to spin, telling you tales of worry and woe, when it speaks of disaster and intrigue, of sorrow and loss, when it tries to hook you into believing what it has to say, remind yourself that the mind in that case is but an old recording and that it does not have your best, evolutionary intentions in mind but only seeks to keep you its captive. A captive of the old mind is a lost soul. Instead of playing its old recordings switch it off and bask in the bliss of new ideas, new thoughts of positive and enchanting change, for change is good and it is what will ultimately set you free from the captivity of your old ways. And remember, use love for yourself as your fuel of change, for that too is the way to freedom.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Astralogy

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Astral & Physical in coincidence…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

I define Astralogy (‘As-tral-o-gy) as the study of all things astral. My studies in the exploration of consciousness—from shamanism, depth psychology, to spirituality—led me to the utility of this ancient Hindu knowledge in identifying the known dimensions of life beyond the physical body. The astral body is the essence of human life during its entwined sojourn with its earthly traveling companion, the physical body.

The astral dimension is the first subtle, or spirit, dimension beyond the physical dimension of everyday life. The astral body is the soul body, directly attached to the physical body, which is capable of disengaging from the physical and partaking in activity on the subtler spirit dimension of the astral plane. This is often the activity that takes place in dreaming.

When fully attached to, or in coincidence with, the physical body, the astral body aligns, through its chakras, with the nervous centers of the physical body, as it runs every aspect of human life from its mental and emotional dimensions.

The life force energy that sustains physical life has been called prana. Prana is taken into the physical body through food, breath, and the astral body, which absorbs prana more freely when in the astral plane, disengaged from the physical. This energy is then transmitted through the chakras to the physical body.

The astral body has many names, including: the double, the soul, and the dream body. The designation of double refers to its shape, the exact replica of the physical body, composed of subtler energy, appearing visually as phosphorescence or luminosity, such as appears when seeing an aura. When fully in-body, the astral and physical bodies cozy up to each other as intimate symbiotic partners.

The assignment of the designation of soul refers to the fact that at the time of physical death the cord to the physical is broken and the astral issues forth, unattached, into the astral domain. This soul body that leaves contains the mind, emotions, identity and experiences of the life just lived. Much like a crustacean sheds its limiting outer shell to expand, the human physical body is shed at death, as its companion soul launches into infinity.

The astral body functions as the dream body when we sleep, as it separates from the physical body in a process called discoincidence, often experienced as a falling sensation when drifting off to sleep. From this disengaged place, the astral body is freed from its limited function when in-body, which is to literally conform itself to running the operations of the physical body, largely through the subconscious, which is housed in the mind of the astral body.

The dream body in this discoincident state both recharges in a greater field of prana from the astral dimension and has the capacity to become conscious and project itself, through intent, to various physical locations throughout the universe, as well as to locales in the astral dimension. This is the basis of out-of-body travel, channeling, and remote viewing.

Waking experience of the astral body reflects in our thoughts and feelings. Anyone in deep concentrated thought is generally in a frozen, barely-breathing state, impervious to physical surrounding. Although this would register in certain brainwave states, with activity obvious in a brain scan, in this case, the brain is merely the hard drive for the mind, which is seated in the astral body. The absentminded professor is literally an astral body fumbling through the physical world.

Activated emotional states issue from subconscious defense or offense programs in the astral body as well, spurring the physical body to activity. Some of that ‘will to action’ is at the behest of the conscious ego, which itself is part of the astral body, however the subconscious will is the true engineer of both physical and astral movement.

What distinguishes conscious from subconscious will is its ability to tailor its suggestions to the subconscious will. The subconscious will lacks this intentional ability, it acts simply by the power of suggestion, be that originating from desire, habit or archetype. However, it is the subconscious will that turns on the body programs of action, wherever the suggestion might originate from.  All things mental and emotional, regardless of how physically experienced, originate from and are part of, the astral body.

All forms of dissociation in waking life depict slipping into the astral body, out of phase with the physical. This can happen in blunt trauma, where the astral is protected by projecting itself a distance away from the physical upload of overwhelming sensory data, observing from a detached distance.

This can happen while walking, running or driving, when the astral subconscious takes over the operation of the body, while the dream body projects into the astral territory of thought and fantasy. Just look into the eyes of someone you are talking to and ask yourself the question: Are they really listening or are they elsewhere, in astral-land, with their subconscious directing their ‘knowing’ nods?

Though many seek to explore the far ranging possibilities of discovery and encounter in astral travel, it is perhaps best to begin by getting to know the astral in its everyday presence in physical life. After all, we have all of infinity to partake in the unfolding discovery of everything, but in this moment in time and space we decided to partner, intimately, with a physical life.

That partnership deserves the fullest recognition and exploration, as the limits it offers provide extraordinary experience that we will carry with us into infinity to great advantage.

In coincidence,

Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Body Follows the Mind

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Even the Earth manifests healing intent…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The body is formed and functions according to a hardwired set of autonomous rules that don’t involve consciousness. At the subconscious level of the mind these rules are activated and employed to support the daily activities of life with little conscious awareness or input.

The belief that our genetics will basically control our physical destiny is an assumption that underlies modern attitudes toward the body. This is supported by the fact that the genetic makeup of an individual is in fact preprogrammed and if left to its own devices will predictably evolve along the lines of its innate algorithms.   

Consciousness has the power to break ranks with these powerfully controlling inner laws. At a simple level, a body predisposed to diabetes may have some control over the manifestation of that disease through the exercise of certain food choices. This same principle applies to many potential diseases that may not activate due to preventative behavioral choices.

At a higher more subtle mental level is the influence of belief on physical conditions. This is dramatically demonstrated with the placebo effect, where mental belief alone might cure or cause a disease. Thus, ascertaining one’s core beliefs, assessing the power of their influence, and considering suspending those beliefs in the service of manifesting a new possibility is a good practice to deepen one’s influence upon the body.

At an even more subtle dimension of the mind is the fact that thought is an energetic entity. Thoughts, in fact, have the possibility to randomly fly out of the head and enter the headspace of another person. The power of directed thought to manifest an action on the physical plane is demonstrated by the healing intent being transferred in a Reiki or Therapeutic Touch session.

At an even deeper subtle mental dimension is the fact that while in human form, that is, alive in a human body, the body serves the evolution of consciousness. Thus, if our growth requires changes in our body to support our spiritual growth, our consciousness might be able to rewrite or take charge of the rules that typically govern our physical functioning.

This level of potential change requires that we are in full acceptance of our body as is, that we can truly say we love it. If we are at war with our body we will have difficulty transcending its limitations, as the energy of change is the energy of love. Our process of change at this stage will require much attention to deep, loving acceptance of what is. The potential of what might be can only be built upon this loving foundation.

With the exercise of free will in choices, in suspending limiting beliefs, in sending positive healing thoughts and love to the body, in evolving overall consciousness, anything is possible. At least until proven otherwise!

Love and blessings,

Chuck