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Chuck’s Place: What Is The Matter?

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Reach out to Lady Wisdom…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Matter comes from the Latin word materia, which means the physical substance that is born of mater, who is mother. Our physical body, our physical lives, and the life of our times is the creation of the father-of-suggestion in union with mother, the material substance of the subconscious mind.

Mother brings forth all physical life. The state of that life reflects the quality of the suggestions it has been impregnated with; are they of wisdom or are they of error? Wisdom is infused with impartial truth, error is filled with one-sided opinion.

Our current world is largely defined by the instant reactions of social media, from the White House on down, where the play and battle of opposites vie for dominance of public opinion, which serves as the ruling suggestions to the matter of our time.

Prior generations have struggled to establish union in response to this volatile battle of opposite opinions, often resorting to suppression, or to passing on to the future the insolvency of unrealized truth.

The founding fathers of America knew very well that slavery was immoral, but did not address it in the Constitution, forcing the future America, some 75 years later, into Civil War to resolve the issue. And though the outcome of that war ended slavery, the North and the South never came into real union.

The discontent over this imposed solution was suppressed and housed in the body of America, giving rise to a diseased nation, at war with itself, once again seeking solution in one-sided rule.  Such is the karma of unsettled solutions, yet to be resolved into the peace of true Wisdom.

These unsolved issues—be they the equality of the sexes and races, an equitable outcome of Zionism, the divine might-makes-right of kings in imperialist acquisition, or the racist intent of Naziism that seeks its alchemical gold through the destruction of its projected shadow—have all broken through from the body of the world’s suppressed unconscious, once again begging completion, as we prepare to receive the advanced wisdom of the Aquarian age we are now physically living in.

The stupendous overarching truth of now is that human consciousness is on the cusp of a major evolutionary leap that requires a clearing of all the errors and opinions that have formed the ruling suggestions to our subconscious minds, and created our current reality. Take for instance the power of suggestion itself. Once an individual awakens to their personal power to create their physical life, the sky is the limit.

Donald Trump, a master hypnotist, astutely aware of the power of suggestion, recently offered this guidance when asked about the limits on his own global power: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

This is indeed a fundamental truth for everyone in relation to their subconscious mind. The suggestions to the subconscious mind are all powerful. Mother subconscious will produce in matter that which is suggested to her. The question, as Donald Trump points out, is the state of one’s morality. Is it based on the wisdom of truth, or the error of opinion? Either way, those suggestions will be manifested.

The unsolved matters of prior times, currently living through us, cannot find peace until we face them squarely and submit to the truth of Wisdom. We cannot revert to old defenses or old beliefs. These unsolved matters demand truthful resolution before we can evolve.

Resolution requires that we suspend the judgment of blame. Full acceptance, of what was and what is, is the precursor to a morality that will produce suggestions to materialize our creative potential for the greater good of all.

Inwardly, we must face the isms that have ruled our sense of self and our sense of the world. Inwardly, we must ask: Is our morality narcissistically dominated by the desire of ego for its own aggrandizement, or is it serving the wisdom of what is truly right? Inwardly, we must free our beliefs from internalized false opinions about ourselves based upon the thoughts and actions of others.

I close with this matter, the guidance and support of Lady Wisdom from Proverbs 3:16-18:

“Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.”

Reach out to Lady Wisdom,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Think It Forward With New Thought

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Create some New Thoughts in the New Year…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

While both Freud and Jung dabbled with hypnosis, each ultimately abandoned it as a tool to explore and heal the human psyche. Each would go on to offer his individual gifts to psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, but their abandonment of the exploration of hypnosis closed an important door to an essential gateway to knowledge of the anatomy and dynamics of the soul.

In the mid-19th century, an informally educated American clockmaker and mesmerist from Maine, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, abstracted from his hypnotic healing work a metaphysical working model of the psyche. While practicing mesmerism, his fervently inquisitive mind discovered the role of telepathy and the power of thought in creating physical reality, particularly physical illness.

Quimby ultimately abandoned mesmerism and spent the later part of his life as a healer. He would just sit with patients, himself in semi-trance yet also consciously present, thus in two places at once. He would then connect to the subconscious mind of his patient and have revealed to him the beliefs that caused their affliction.

Invariably, Quimby would discover that the root of the problem lay in a powerful belief, which the patient was often quite unaware they held in their subconscious mind. Quimby also discovered that the subconscious mind automatically manifested that belief, both physically and psychologically, as expressed through the patient’s symptoms.

Quimby would then explain to his patient the validity of their current condition, whose etiology was the physical manifestation of their belief. Quimby was also able to show them the limitation of their current belief in defining the deeper truth of their being, which was one of health. Fully embracing this new positive belief often led to a physical healing, largely through the mysterious but definite action of mental thought upon the physical manifestation capacity of the subconscious mind.

Quimby determined that the psyche is filled with powerful beliefs either internalized from significant relationships in one’s life or generated by  conscious thinking. Thus, for example, if one believes that they should be punished or limited because of something they have done, they might experience some kind of physical paralysis. Once freed of this limiting or punishing belief one’s paralysis could be lifted.

Quimby came to believe that the power of suggestion was fundamental to the human mind, which he believed to be of divine origin. The conscious mind holds the key to creation through the power of suggestion, while the subconscious mind has the divine power to physically manifest these suggestions received from the conscious mind.

In fact, every part of human life is generated by this dynamic relationship. Though apparently wide awake, we live in a state of constant trance, manifesting physically, at every moment, what we believe to be true.

For Quimby, health was achieved by taking conscious control of suggestions, based upon the truth of one’s divine origin rather than on the errors of opinions or suggestions not in alignment with truth. Quimby emphasized the human power of free will to create either physical problems or health and success, all based upon beliefs.

Quimby discovered a core shamanic truth. For shamans, humans are energetic beings who mentally generate a physical existence through the power of intent, or the power of suggestion. Though our physical life is quite real, it would be an error to say that it is our ultimate truth. Ultimately, we are energetic beings, with unlimited possibilities of physical expression.

Shamans call our physical life an interpretation of energy. There can be many interpretations of that energy, as Quimby points out, that generate physical illnesses. We have the ability to change our belief, whereby interpreting energy in a new physical way, through the manifesting power of the subconscious mind.

Unfortunately, Quimby died young, at the age of 64, in 1866. At that time, he was treating upwards of 500 patients per year. I surmise that his early death was caused by the same technical error that uninformed shamanic healers often make in soul retrieval healings.

Often, it is the shaman that literally takes possession of their patient’s lost soul, which had been caught in the grip of an unhealthy suggestion. The shaman then takes on responsibility for reconciling the tormented part soul within themselves, which they then return to their patient, who is healed through this restoration of their wholeness by the shaman.

The side effect for the shaman, via sympathy, is to also experience the symptoms of their patient’s tormented soul, which takes its toll upon the healer’s health. Carlos Castaneda taught that, in modern shamanism, the shaman is a guide but does not assume responsibility for a patient’s troubled soul. That healing must be fully assumed by the patient’s personal process of reconciliation with their lost soul, in recapitulation, for instance.

Although Quimby died prior to the formal naming of the New Thought philosophical and spiritual tradition, his work is credited universally as the birth of that movement. The ‘new thought’ of New Thought is that human beings are an active part of divinity, evolutionarily destined to discover and exercise their own divine power, in alignment with the greater good for self and all. Thus, in the New Thought tradition, the life of Christ, and other Bodhisattvas and Old Testament prophets, is revisioned as a teacher introducing humans to their divine powers.

Our current world could be characterized as a flurry of divine errors that reflect human experimentation with the power of suggestion to the subconscious mind. These errors are having the effect of the breakdown of civilization, as we have known it.

On the other hand, new life, or new interpretations of energy, require a clearing of old beliefs that must give way for new divine possibilities to take root. The atrocities of now are real, but suggestions are coming so rapidly that nothing in this interim period of transition is likely to achieve permanence. On the other hand, our world is unlikely to ever return to the comfort of a familiar past.

The opportunity for now is for all of us to individually and collectively state suggestions that align with the greater truth and good for all. That is a sustainable interpretation of energy. That is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius that we all share in. It’s why we are here now, to assume divine responsibility for the world dream we are in the midst of dreaming forward. How momentous!

Do think this New Year forward, with New Thoughts of love, truth and wisdom.

Happy thoughts for this Happy New Year,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: What Is The Matter With Me?

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Anima Mundi, the world soul…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Spirit and Matter are inseparably One. Yang, the creative, finds its physical expression in Yin, the receptive. In this moment, as I write, a son of mine texts me that while driving his car last night the word star unthinkingly escaped his lips, and suddenly, a falling star appeared before him!

Every word we say, positive or negative, is spirit, which is then physically expressed, like my son’s falling star. The star is the radiant spirit of pure truth, expressed through the matter of the star, the anima mundi, or the soul, of the world.

Everything that happens in our lives is of divine origin, that divinity being both the mental thought and the subconscious substance that brings it to physical life. We might indeed object to the suggestion that we intend negative events in our lives. In fact, we might argue that we consciously intend only positive occurrences. Yet, we must face the fact that like attracts like, and only what we attract will materialize in our lives.

This brings us to the question, when things materialize not as we intend, “What is the matter with me?” The matter, of course, is what we physically manifest.

If we begin by suspending the judgment of blame and instead assume the innocence of Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz, we next pull back the curtain within and identify the true wizard/spirit behind our current manifestation in matter.

Very often, we may then discover that a very old thought that we have long forgotten has taken up residence in the habit section of our subconscious mind, and continues to automatically shape our physical lives according to the instructions imbedded in its belief.

This now unconscious belief acts as interference to the conscious suggestion we are currently seeking to manifest in our lives. Once we are aware of this blocking belief, we become enabled to defy it!

One approach to defiance is to engage the old belief and express gratitude to it for its necessary role in our past, when it shaped our reality to best protect us and secure our growth, however constricted. This belief is then awakened to the changed circumstances of now, where we are ready to advance beyond an old construction of self into new vistas of creative fulfillment.

This approach may neutralize the energy of the blocking belief, which now excitedly joins in the present suggestion of change to the subconscious mind. However, if it remains reticent to change, the conscious mind might aggressively flood the subconscious mind with emotionally charged positive suggestions that, once the energy accrues to the necessary level, causes the subconscious mind to abandon the old habit and manifest the new.

Beyond the issue of blocking belief, is a more basic relationship issue, what I call the Gemini Challenge, as Geminis foundationally confront  reconciling polarities, particularly the ultimate relationship between spirit and matter. This is, of course, a challenge presented to all of humankind, but for Geminis this may be the central challenge of a lifetime.

If we favor the spirit personality in the fundamental bipolar oneness of spirit and body, we tend to be dominated by mind, and can tend to live outside the body, in illusory states of inflation or, at the opposite extreme, in deflated states of mental rumination. At times this can devolve into a state of intense mental cruelty, where the spirit weeps for its supposed failures in physical form.

When identified more with the material side of the dual personality, we might be drawn into obsession with physical concerns, or imagined limitations generated by spirit thought. These, of course, are very likely to physically manifest, as body is governed by thought. The Gemini challenge is heightened by, at times, abrupt shifts to opposite perspectives that question what is real and right.

The resolution to this unsettling marital relationship between mind and body lies in mutual respect and equanimity. Spirit is not superior to body; they are full equals, reflections of each other. Matter exists and is real, even if it is ultimately but an interpretation of energy. Beneath a solid interpretation of matter is simply free-flowing energy, without definition. Divinity is dormant if it can’t be experienced in the adventure of form.

The answer to the question, “What is the matter with me?” is ultimately  the question of, “What spirit am I manifesting?” If I am under-appreciating or negative toward either my spirit or physical self, I will constellate the spirit of aggression and the matter of an inner civil war.

If I direct my spirit’s attention outwardly, toward the star, and engage my spirit for the greater good of self and other, my physical manifestations will happily reflect such love, for self and other. The matter with me is then confidence, contentment, and fulfillment in the full radiance of physical form.

Spirit Matters,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Growing Out Of The Beliefs That Rule Us

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Shattering old  beliefs…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Our time will surely be remembered as one of a rapid shift in ruling beliefs. The shamans of ancient Mexico characterized civilization as a fixation point of assembled beliefs that are agreed upon by the collective human race and hence deliver us to the consensual reality we live in.

At present, that fixation point has been dislodged, as the world currently reflects The Tower card of the Tarot deck, where an all-consuming fire burns away all previously established order. As we live through this time of great transition, we are shown daily how rapidly new beliefs can materialize into physical reality.

Beliefs are the prime movers and building blocks of reality. Tremendous efforts are evident in social media to fixate our attention upon new beliefs that support living in a new reality. Television stations incessantly present points of view that justify their version of a new reality. All these influences upon the mind of the consumer seek to enlist its divine power of creation to build and fixate upon this new proposed reality.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a healer in Maine during the 1860s, came to the understanding that humans were gifted with the godly power of creation in the thoughts they attach to as core beliefs, which then, from the center of the magical subconscious mind, materialize into physical reality.

Quimby never questioned the truth of a patient’s symptoms or physical ailments. Belief does generate physical reality. Nonetheless, he realized that one could potentially become dislodged from a belief that generated ill health, and become attached to a new belief of health, that would, in turn, generate a cure. This is evident in the power of the placebo effect.

Quimby once worked with a soldier, who suffered from the phantom pain of an injured arm despite it being amputated. When the soldier was cured of his disbelief that he had lost his arm, the phantom pain disappeared. His initial belief that he still had his arm required the very real experience of its continued physical pain. Once in acceptance of the loss of his arm, he was freed from the need to create the pain that had accompanied the injured arm.

Our core beliefs are formed in early childhood, where we are largely socialized by our family units. Although, as we enter adolescence we begin a powerful period of individuation, defining ourselves as individuals separate from our families, many earlier beliefs about ourselves, lodged in the subconscious mind, become foundational and influence us throughout life, despite our later maturity.

The other day, I was assigned the task of dismantling a kid’s Hot Wheel’s Track. I was left completely alone to complete the task and then join up for other activity. Within a very short period of time, I was recapitulating my young self, feeling abandoned, overwhelmed, and frustrated by a monumental task I felt inadequate to perform.

These beliefs generated an anxiety and sadness that overshadowed my effort, though my present self was quite present to the struggle and determined to have a different experience of mastery. Then I broke a piece of the structure, which nearly sent me into a familiar childhood depression. Nonetheless, I stayed present, with patience and persistence.

Eventually, Jan appeared and I shared my experience. Sure that she would know immediately how to dismantle it, she in fact became more befuddled than myself and suggested we just throw out the cheap piece of sh..! We then went on to Google the problem, only to discover that dismantling that track was a major human challenge!

This experience brought to the surface a childhood belief of inadequacy with regard to physical reality, which was suddenly challenged in a big way. In fact, I had managed, with my own intelligence, to successfully separate several difficult pieces.

While recognizing a lack of early childhood parental support and collaboration, I nonetheless am able to dislodge an earlier belief of inadequacy. In fact, a new belief has emerged. Though my expertise is in the science of the soul, and not one of a physical engineer, I nonetheless have basic competency in figuring out the basics of physical life.

I was fascinated and grateful for this opportunity to further grow out of a long-buried limiting belief. Often, we are treated with opportunities for recapitulation that bring to consciousness the power of old beliefs in generating our present physical reality.

Many people struggle with manifesting their dreams, despite ardent efforts at positive suggestions to the subconscious mind. I suggest trusting that the subconscious mind will provide synchronistic guideposts and triggers to the elixir of transformation, recapitulation of fixations in negative beliefs from past life. Be okay with them and use them to your advantage. It’s all part of the journey!

Growing up,
Chuck

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Monday November 10, 2025

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-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Far out in the future lies the peace you seek, the world of change you long for. Do not give up hope for this peace and this change. Stay committed to a new world in everything you do. Keep your words positive and your attitude open to this peacefulness that is to come. Envision it every day, creating it in your imagination. The more you do this the more it forms and the more it intensifies in reality. As we say often in our world, let come what may but make what comes what we want. In other words, you form your own reality, so get to work.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne