Tag Archives: vibration

A Day in a Life: Good Vibrations

Such a tangled mess our thoughts do make! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Such a tangled mess our thoughts do make!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I decide to pursue an empty mind. Thoughts become the target. There are, I notice, different kinds of thoughts. One kind is worry. Worry tends to take over, spinning, attacking, and defeating even the most intentional of counterattacks. Another kind of thought comes suddenly. I notice a tiny bump on my little toe.

“Uh oh,” is my first thought. “What’s that bump?”

“Calm down,” another voice interjects, “check out the other little toe.” And so I do and I see that I have another similar bump on the other little toe.

“Oh, that’s funny,” I say to myself, “how easily I jump to a conclusion, how I immediately think something is wrong.” Just to prove that nothing is wrong, I check out both little bumps simultaneously, judging them to be exactly the same size and shape, nothing more than the structure of the bones of my toes. And then I laugh at myself for even this need to check as I let the whole thing go, but not before I take note of that other voice that spoke and told me to calm down.

“Don’t obsess!” I tell myself, “you just create a situation that doesn’t exist in reality, but you sure could create it in your mind. Empty the mind!”

And so, I’ve become aware of my thoughts. There are, however, thoughts, and then there are another kind of thoughts. The kind of thoughts that don’t belong in an empty mind are usually pretty recognizable, such as the ones described above, worry, fear, etc. I also notice how even seemingly good thoughts are not so good. They imply that something is wrong, that I need to insert positive thoughts when in reality all I need is to spend my energy on emptying my mind of all thoughts because they are all intrusive, inserted intentionally or coming as a result of issues or circumstances arising in life.

The other kind of thoughts that come are non-intrusive, like the voice that told me to calm down. These thoughts come from the higher mind, from the higher self, and they come in a different way. They come from the observer self who knows all, who is present with us while we live our lives and struggle with our thoughts, our obsessions, our desires, our truths, our fears and our memories.

Such thoughts have a completely different feel from the intrusive thoughts of worry and obsession. They speak to us very calmly, very soberly. Devoid of emotion and feeling, they deliver us messages that we know, deep down inside of us, are so right. The place where these thoughts come from, the higher self, is the place we want to connect with and be guided by more often. This is the place where we yearn to reside. We can consciously choose to listen only to this voice to deepen our connection with this higher self.

We learn to trust the thoughts of this higher self as we test it, letting it into our lives, asking it to help us. It tells us to be calm, to step back and wait a second, to not get all riled up, to not act out or lash out, but to simply pull our energy inward and maintain our equilibrium. Depending on our circumstances, how in-tune with this other producer of thoughts we are, we might hear this voice often or only rarely.

Our heart always recognizes the calming voice of the higher self... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Our heart always recognizes the calming voice of the higher self…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

As we work with it, we soon find that this higher self tells us everything we need to know. We get to a place where worry comes only occasionally, where obsession hardly at all. We may not have empty mind all the time, but it becomes easier to get there the more we train ourselves to recognize the types of thoughts we entertain. We quickly discern between welcome thoughts and unwelcome ones and get pretty good at getting rid of the unwanted ones.

Thoughts are entities. They are looking for a nice juicy unguarded mind to enter and feed off. They are looking for the unaware, the inattentive. They are looking to sneak in and plant themselves and get as much energy as possible. They circle around the universe, the same thoughts endlessly seeking sustenance. We can consciously decide whether or not we want them inside us. They are no better than a disease. An aware mind recognizes them and gets rid of them, refusing them immediately.

One day, author Doug Boyd was gathering herbs with Rolling Thunder and his son Spotted Eagle. Doug was assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes. Rolling Thunder and his son were not interfered with at all, but Doug suffered unrelenting attacks, being bitten and then itching like crazy. It wasn’t until evening that Rolling Thunder said to Doug, “Maintain your good feelings.”

He meant, maintain his good feelings inside so that his energy outside would be calm and he would not give off smells, senses, and vibrations that normally attract mosquitoes. The mosquitos are like thoughts, entities that want what they want; in the case of the mosquito, as much blood as they can get. The way to get rid of the mosquitos, Doug learned, was to maintain calmness and good inner energy, to calm the mind, the body, the senses, so that the vibrations of the body would be calm as well.

As we change our vibrations we become unattractive to things like pesky mosquitos and meandering thoughts. By maintaining inner calmness and good feelings about ourselves, we learn that rogue thoughts have no use for us. We offer them nothing and so they leave us alone. In this lesson, we learn that we have the power to control what happens to us outside by how we maintain our inner state, and it works in reverse too.

We can gain control over everything. Sometimes it may feel appropriate to be upset and to react to something happening in the world outside of us. But if we step back from those feelings for a moment, empty ourselves of them, and get back to our good feelings about ourselves, we might find that they are actually not as important or appropriate as we first thought. We find we can let them go.

On another day, Doug Boyd was alone with Rolling Thunder’s son Spotted Eagle. Once again they were going out to gather herbs. They came upon a man in a remote area, standing next to his pickup truck, obviously angry about something. He yelled about all kinds of things, on the verge of a racist rant it almost seemed. Spotted Eagle quickly assessed the situation. He did not speak but simply got back into the car. Doug did the same and they calmly drove back out the way they had come. Spotted Eagle, a Medicine Man in training, knew it was not going to be worth an encounter.

Always on the quest for empty mind... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Always on the quest for empty mind…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

We too must learn to trust that our higher self knows what is really important and where we should be spending our energy. More often than not anger or confrontation are not appropriate reactions. Our higher self will always guide us to a reaction in alignment with a greater calling, if we care to listen, and then it’s up to us to take the advice and see what happens.

Perhaps nothing is more important than maintaining our good feelings about ourselves, and our empty mind. If our good vibrations can have an effect on our thoughts, on our physical bodies, and even on how mosquitos react to us, imagine what else could happen if we all gained and maintained only good feelings about ourselves all the time. The world would surely be a changed place.

Keeping an empty mind and sending good vibrations,
Jan

Excerpted stories come from Doug Boyd’s book Rolling Thunder, 1974.

Message from Jeanne: Creating A New Reality

Is this squash really as vibrationally significant as we are? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Is this squash really as vibrationally significant as we are?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Here is a channeled message for the week. May it offer insight into how to live in our changing world. The clicking sounds in the background of the recording are from the wood stove—hope they are not too disturbing! I am using an unsophisticated handheld device without capacity to edit, so you get whatever is happening in the environment I am sitting in.

We will be posting links to additional information later in the day regarding the recent messages that have been coming through, especially as we experience what is happening in the world around us, as we see resonance, and as feels appropriate to pass along. This feels right, as our way of participating in the time of gathering that Jeanne spoke of in this morning’s Soulbyte, passing along what comes to our attention. Feel free to share.

Offered in service to the expansion of our greater consciousness,
Jan

A Day in a Life: The 70 Percent Self

Vibration is all around us... affecting us in some way... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Vibration is all around us…
affecting us in some way…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

We are 70% water. With so much water making up who we physically are it’s no wonder that we vibrate when something from outside shocks or startles us. Notice how a sudden loud sound sends reverberations through the body. Notice how terrible news sends shockwaves through us. Notice how affected we are by beautiful sounds, beautiful thoughts, beautiful sights, as beauty too sends chills through us.

Water is rarely still. Even a sedentary bowl or glass of water is in constant motion, sound waves constantly rumbling through it, shaking its molecules, though this may not be visible to the naked eye. Think of the oceans in constant motion, water flowing deep inside the earth, magnetic forces and the earth’s shifts vibrating the waters of the world. Even water that is stagnant, if shaken up has the possibility of changing its molecular structure from a putrid state to a healthy state. Vibration alone is enough to change water, but the quality of that vibration makes all the difference.

Masaru Emoto, in his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, showed how negative vibration and positive vibration impact water. In other books he continues his explorations of the subject, concluding in The True Power of Water that: “Since the quality of water improves or deteriorates depending on the information given to it, the corollary for humans, who are made up primarily of water, is to take in good information. When we do, our mind and body can become healthier. Conversely, when we take in negative information, we can get sick.”

Fascinated by the work of Emoto for several years now, I have turned once again to reading his studies, pondering our watery selves and the current health of humankind, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The more I remain aware of myself as 70% water, the more I notice vibrations around me and how they impact me personally.

I remember myself as a child swimming all summer long, safely embraced by and at ease in the water of the swimming pool. How buoyant, how light I became! Almost as if I had lost my human form, I became one with the water. All troubles washed away in the water. In its vibration my own vibration found resonance.

We all send energy vibrations out from our core... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
We all send energy vibrations out from our core…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Our human form allows us to feel our inner vibratory selves most keenly in the presence of sound. We can put a glass of water in front of a speaker, turn up the music, and see how the sound vibration from the speaker affects the water. It affects us too. The fact that we are 70% water further clarifies for me the concept of resonance. When we feel resonance with someone or something we are basically feeling the effects of resonant sound waves. Sound waves, as I’ve been discovering through my own experimentations, affect the human body quite profoundly. Emoto would agree that the sounds we expose ourselves to can leave us feeling happy, healthy, calm and balanced, or they can leave us feeling depleted, moody, and negative. He exposed water to ugly words and then to beautiful words and observed the difference. In crystal form, the water that had been exposed to beautiful words produced beautiful crystals while the water that had been exposed to ugly words produced equally ugly shapes.

Certain music turns me right off. I feel hatred and anger coming on its sound vibrations and I do not want to listen to it. It comes at me with assaultive dissonance and my inner vibration gets uncomfortably revved by it. I feel my water molecules jumping around and getting heated up, making me feel agitated. My 70% water tells me it doesn’t like it at all! Other music moves me with sound vibrations that, though revving, are also happy and joyous, with good feelings, and once again I float in happy buoyancy similar to the swimming pool water of my childhood. The water that I am made up of seeks positive water in return—vibrations that resonate.

When I turn to nature, I notice how my watery self likes the sound of the wind, though gusts send it shaking. It prefers calm winds and the sound of water gently babbling, though I am fully aware that big winds of change and massive tidal waves are often welcome as well, that they shake me awake, out of my complacency and negativity. And so, even though I seek resonance in my life, I’m fully aware of the potency of dissonance, that it has a purpose, and so I welcome it when it comes. I use it to look for what in my life, and in my body self, needs shaking up. I thank it for making me aware of the need for change and use it to my advantage. After all, I want to keep myself as vibratory as the waters of the world, for I do not want to become stagnant!

But I’ve gotten to a point in my life where like-resonance is most important. If it’s lacking my watery self will not stop for long; it moves on quickly now, though I might, at one time, have felt obligation or duty more strongly than resonance. Now I choose resonance over the proclamations of old voices or inhibiting social constructs that once controlled my feeling self. I now give myself permission to bow out and away from dissonance with no regrets or bad feelings if nothing fruitful is offered in return. I walk away from negative energy rather than be assaulted by it. If someone is punching me in the gut, would I stick around to keep getting punched? No thank you! Sometimes a negative situation is just negative and it’s simply most healthy and appropriate to move on to more positive energy.

In peaceful co-existence... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
In peaceful co-existence…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In resonance we find deep satisfaction and calmness, the flow of all life resonant with ours, and in resonance life will flow with us, naturally bringing us its bounty. If we open ourselves to good vibrations, we will receive that which is good, and our vibratory 70% water selves will thank us!

Our deepest selves, I believe, all vibrate at the same rate. We are all beautiful music at our core, the same vibratory energy of the earth, the same sound waves of nature. Sometimes we are calm and sometimes we are agitated, but at our deepest core we all vibrate to the same sound. Perhaps we will all, one day, tune into the same music and hum the same tune.

Tuning in, sending you good vibrations,
Jan

A Day in a Life: Three Ring Circus

I'd been swimming along when I decided to stop and look around. All of a sudden I noticed that things had changed! - Art by Jan Ketchel
I’d been swimming along when I decided to stop and look around. All of a sudden I noticed that things had changed!
– Art by Jan Ketchel

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog called Silent Meditation, about my experiences in the presence of a female guru. I had gone to the silent retreat seeking to jolt my yoga and meditation practice to a new level. Now, two months later, I am beginning to string together the unfolding of that intent, coming in many forms of support—in dreams, in continued practice, and in the never-ending experiences of life.

The female guru was known not only for her teachings but also for her singing of the sacred mantras of India. From the time she was a young child she had been recognized for her unique ability. During the meditation session at the retreat, she put on some music and instructed us to focus on the vibration as we silently chanted our mantras and sought inner silence. She hoped that we would find her voice pleasing.

I have always meditated in silence, so it struck me that we would be listening to music. But as I thought about it, I realized that in my weekly yoga class there is always music. There is even a specific vibration in one song that rattles my bones, or at least that is how I experience it. Every time I hear it, the sound vibration seems to enter my body and go right into my teeth and bones and before I know it I’m vibrating. It’s not unpleasant at all, though it has always felt a little strong to me.

The music of the female guru was beautiful, the vibration extremely pleasant, and I found that I could connect to it. Unlike the sound vibration of the music of the yoga class that I also connect with in a different way, her music melodically flowed right into my physical body. I noticed how my muscles and skin responded by going completely relaxed.

Since that silent retreat, I have listened to music during my own practice of yoga and meditation. I’ve tried a few different types of music—drumming, chanting, and melodious singing, as well as other styles. I have settled on the chanting of a Buddhist monk, a man, who like the female guru, was recognized in his youth as being especially gifted in the singing of the sacred music. The vibration of his music strikes in yet another place, right in my heart chakra, matching the energetic vibration of my own heart. His vibratory energy soars right through my organs and then takes me with it, out of my body and into other worlds.

As I look back on these three experiences of musical vibration, I am struck by the three responses I experienced within my own body self. First, there is the skeletal vibration, which I experience each week during yoga class, representing the core of the physical body, the strengthening of which ensures physical stability. Secondly, there is the vibration of the female voice, much like a mother’s soothing touch that my muscles so responded to. The training of the muscles enables physical prowess and fluidity in this world. Thirdly, I find the vibration of the male voice, the Buddhist monk, so deeply penetrating that my heart and emotions immediately respond. Here, in the organs of the body, are the other aspects of the physical self that require honing if a spiritual practice is to be deeply meaningful, fulfilling, and freeing.

As I study these three experiences that have so aligned with my intent to strengthen and deepen my spiritual practice, I am reminded of dreams unfolding simultaneously. One Sunday night, a few weeks ago, I dreamed of a tall man in tails and top hat, the Master of Ceremonies at a three ring circus.

The first night I dreamed of him, I asked for advice. He told me that the first order of business in achieving a balanced spiritual practice was to get the physical body in tiptop shape. This I see as aligning with the yogic vibration of physical prowess. He also encouraged good eating habits and moderation in everything.

The second time I dreamed of him, exactly one week later, also on a Sunday night, he instructed me in establishing a firm spiritual practice and sticking with it. This I see as the meditation practice as encouraged by the female guru, which I have been deepening.

The third time I dreamed of the Master of Ceremonies, last night, I asked for more advice. “Teach me something,” I said. I dreamed of a woman I had known a long time ago. She told me that her mother had died, but that she was always with her, that they connected all the time. This I see as the awakening of the heart chakra to the truth of our vibratory existence, the kind of experience that I have every time I meditate with my chanting Buddhist monk. He takes me soaring. I am one with the vibration, the vibration is one with me, I am one with the energy of the universe.

There are many roads to the sublime... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
There are many roads to the sublime…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

When I woke up this morning, I knew that the Master of Ceremonies had shown me the third ring in the three ring circus of this life, as we endeavor to reconcile our human/spiritual dilemma. The third ring of a balanced spiritual practice is to recognize that we are all comprised of energy and, as such, we are fully capable of existing in many realms simultaneously. It is our job to strengthen our awareness of this and open up to it. It is what the Shamans of Ancient Mexico teach as well, that we are primarily beings comprised of energy. We come from energy and we will return to energy. In the meantime, however, we must bear the tension of navigating life in the physical bodies that we inhabit.

Our job is to become aware of our energetic abilities and find a practice that will train us in the use of all that we truly are comprised of. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico offer the Magical Passes. I have always found yoga and mediation to fit my inner vibration most compatibly. There is music, there is art, there is dance, there are sports, and all kinds of other activities that can lead us to experience the transcendent. Joseph Campbell speaks of running track when in college and twice having experiences of the sublime, when he achieved complete and total alignment with the energy of the universe that he just happened to be flowing in at the time. We can enter the flow of such energetic alignment by happenstance, or we can train ourselves to enter it volitionally, as I work to achieve in my own spiritual practice.

As my vibratory experiences with three types of music point out, if we are seekers, if we are open and aware, we will eventually discover just what strikes the right chord with our own vibration. And then the universe will join in our endeavors and help us out in a myriad of ways. It may take some time to discover just what the right vibratory chord is. I stumbled upon what I needed by opening to some new ideas and challenging myself to have some new experiences.

By setting the intent to find our way to our energetic selves, we open the door to going beyond the three ring circus of life to vibratory experiences in other worlds. In fact, it was what the female guru was suggesting as we listened to her music. She was asking us to connect to the truth of our energetic reality. It is the key to everything, to the mystical and the mysterious, the awareness that we are first and foremost energetic beings, vibratory beings. Whether we exist in the here and now, or whether we have passed on into other dimensions, our connection to everything is energetic.

I thank the people who teach me, my dream teachers, the people that have intersected my life, the seekers who teach about another reality beyond this so solid one. I am thankful for all that comes to me, for all that I experience, energetically and otherwise!

Thank you too!
Jan