A Response to Message #523

Hi Jan/Jeanne:

Thank you both for the energy you put forth to communicate with me. (Message #523) I also found today’s message about death particularly meaningful to me. I am realizing that I cannot know everything before I experience it and that, yes, it would be very limiting (and quite a feat!) if I could. A framework can be grounding but also limiting. It is good to know I haven’t missed anything and that I don’t need to rush.

I am also glad to be reminded that mental knowledge isn’t so important. I need to be ready to accept what I experience in order for it to mean anything. I think what you are saying is that I am energy, I contain all knowledge, and my awakening will happen when I am ready to experience this? No external description will help me grow because my experience will be utterly unique. I guess I get caught up in the idea of knowing things in this life so as to enable future evolution. However, you didn’t fully know you were energy and that you contained all knowledge while you were Jeanne Marie Ketchel, did you? You awoke through the death process and then your awakening continued and you were completed after you left your human form.

I have been working with Chuck for several months and I mentioned to him that I felt you were putting a lot of pressure on us to evolve and that you had very specific ideas about how we should go about this. He disagreed with my perception of your intent and is helping me to see that it is my own pressure. My spirit wants to catapult me, but my ego needs to slow down. I don’t know how to bring the two to an agreement.

I was exposed to many ideas and experiences as a child and they traumatized me, so I rejected my spiritual self until recently. I needed to ground myself and undo the damage that was done to me by these early experiences. If I hadn’t grounded myself, I would have felt lost while suspended in nothingness. Now I need to integrate these experiences and face my fear of nothingness, and my adult self needs to manage my spirit during this process. If one’s spirit is cultivated before one’s ego has a chance to solidify then that can be very terrifying. Does this make sense? I just don’t want to go back to sleep but, at the same time, I do, as you say, need to temper my pursuit of all things…

Imagining a life without limitations and endless possibility makes sense to me but, at the same time, I am struggling with concrete problems (as we all are) and I need to stay grounded and focused in this life. I don’t understand how I can truly live in my energy body when I am in my human form. Do you mean that I must cultivate out of body experiences, or am I being too concrete and dualistic?

It is comforting to know that my own energy is unique to me. I guess it’s uniqueness remains, regardless of what form it takes. I may reincarnate or I may live as pure energy and I may no longer have my (or at least not only) my identity; but me, as energy, is still unique.

I like that life is unending and I accept evolution AS purpose. I think that in this life I am meant to learn to trust myself, to be in my body, to balance freedom and responsibility, and to heal myself and others. I accept too that death is evolutionary as well and that I will have choices to make then too. I can accept that there exists a reality that I don’t know yet and that the reality I do know is always changing and is not fully real. It is fully real and should be experienced, but that is only one aspect or facet. I can let go and detatch and what is helpful, as I struggle to do this, is the notion that if I choose to take that plunge when I die and keep my awareness and evolve, I do not have to throw away all of the Me’s I have been — I can integrate them into one, and the common thread has always been, and will always be, my unique energy.

I think I am at once afraid of merging with another and of being abandoned. It is helfpul to think that whether I am merged or alone, I am still unique energy that cannot be destroyed, and so I am fluid and there is nothing to fear…of course, but right now I am still afraid, but I can come back to this knowledge and sit in the stillness of this truth when I need to recharge for the journey…I will remind myself too that terror arises from the jolt of new reality becoming available–I would love to hear any reactions to this that may come…I apologize for how convoluted and disjointed this may read…

Best,
Anonymous

#524 Death: The Great Transformational Energy

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Although the energy of late has been quite flowing and useful I sense an underlying darkness; that death is present as a sudden, abrupt energy, not negative in its darkness, but definitely shifting and jolting. Can you talk about this intuition of the energy? Is this a correct analysis of it?

You must remember, My Dear One, that death is always present. It is always an underlying energy, yet is it also a transformational energy and this is what you are sensing. Although it may jolt and abruptly disrupt the complacency of life, its mission is to serve in an evolutionary capacity.

I know I do not need to remind you that death is ever-present, waiting for the moment of delivery, when the time is right, when the time for your particular transformation arrives. Each one of you must keep in mind, at all times, that death is the ultimate journey and is not to be feared or abhorred. It is to be used now as a learning tool.

If you are to truly embrace your evolutionary journey you must also embrace the moment of your death as your catalyst and your awakening to new life. Life exists beyond the world as you see it and live it. Life exists in energetic form. You will continue on, whether in a reincarnated physical form or in energetic form. You will reside in energetic awareness of the greater self. This is what death offers: awareness of the greater self, the complete self, yet also the self as non-individual, as part of the greater whole, able to continue to experience life though its form may be unusual and sounding, perhaps, far-fetched at this moment, while you are so vibrantly alive and struggling to piece together the meaning of your present existence.

The energy that you sense now, the underlying darkness, is but a reminder to stay anchored in awareness. Do not attach to the dark energy, simply note it; remain aware of it; prepare for its inevitable entry into life in some manner, for it will intrude. But keep in mind that death is the balancer of life. It is the negative of the positive of birth. But do not view it as negative per se. See it as new life and, no matter how quick and abruptly jolting it may be, so must you learn to accept the rightness of it, for death does not come knocking and snatching unless it is the right time. If you can turn and look at it as a most necessary teacher and guide so will you find that your awareness of life itself will shift and change as well.

All life is preparation for the entry through the door that death will one day open and guide you through. Death, the great transformational energy, will show you the direction to take toward the light, ushering you, the aware one, into the light of love. This moment, when you stand before that door, will be your transformational time, the moment of awareness that you now train so hard to develop.

I ask that during this time of awareness of death’s presence, that you offer your selves, My Dear Ones, a seat in the classroom of this energy. Accept your well-placed desk and chair and sit upon your seat with eagerness to learn where this energy is guiding you now, even while you are full of life, for it is constantly guiding you to learn the ways of energetic reality.

This is your true purpose: to learn the meaning of your own energy, to build upon your awareness of energy, and to grasp the true meaning of your evolutionary journey. Do not be afraid to confront this teacher who is knocking at your door asking you to come into the classroom to learn about not death but new life, energy, and how all things are interconnected, necessary, and growth-oriented.

Do not run and hide from your detection of this energy. Your awareness is good. You are being tested as to your latent fears of your own underlying darkness, as yet still unknown. For all of you, no matter how much work you do on the self will continue to have more excavating work to do. Your lives have been long and varied, your experiences many, and your true future is in continual recapitulation and discovery of the self as an energetic entity, much like the illusive death, the energetic entity that is present each day, asking you to be aware that transformation is a certainty. The question it poses is: What will you do at the moment of your own transformation? Will you run and hide from it, full of old fears and projections? Or will you see through those burdens, so unnecessary, to the light ahead? Will you keep your awareness?

I suggest it is a good idea to enter the classroom that is being presented now during this time of energetic flow and shift. The door to this teacher’s room is always open. Haven’t you noticed?

#523 Find the Door of Silence Within

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Today, a Reader asks a question.

Hi Jan/Jeanne,
I want to write this without over-thinking or worrying but am afraid I’ll be shot down. I want to know about the big picture and the answers to the “whys” and “hows” of our existence. I know that I probably don’t currently have the right mind or frame of reference to comprehend the answers I am seeking and I know I need to look within. I am in a process of making peace with my newfound (or againfound?) awareness that I am energy and that I will continue differently. I am definitely on a path and am awakening. I just need more of a framework for the purpose of it all. Why do I want to evolve, why should I practice being in my energy body?

If energy is neither created nor destroyed how do we exist? If we are everything and God is everything why do we need to learn anything at all, and why can’t we just remain as one awake consciousness? It’s hard to feel, if all we are doing is awakening to what we are and returning to where we came from, that this is all meaningful. And yet, I know it is. Would you tell me about the way things are in terms I might be able to sort of understand? I know when I am confused or suffering it is because of misunderstanding and I need to accept what I don’t know, but you say we should know everything, so I am asking…

Thank you (both).
Anonymous

My Dearest One, you question your very existence and that is exquisite, yet do I hear your frustration, your eagerness, and your desire to hurry up the process of learning the meaning of your life. This is not a process to push forward, but a process to sit back and slowly contemplate. I see by your questions that you may feel you have missed something and you must hurry to catch up, but this is not so.

You awaken when you are ready to awaken no matter what you have been taught or know. None of it will matter in the least until you are ready to accept it. I will address, first, your question of life’s meaning. Why indeed must you exist upon that earth if you already contain all knowledge, if you are energy, and if you are simply returning to awareness of such?

You are energy. You do contain all knowledge. Your awakening, however, is in order to discover this. You will not evolve, you will not complete your lifetimes upon the earth if you do not gain access to what this truly means for you alone. Each one of you, each being upon that earth, has the potential to fully experience life as an energy being, but how many people actually do? Awakening is not, in fact, gaining access to the big picture, as you suggest. Awakening is being able to move far beyond the big picture. The big picture is as much a construct of man’s as the buildings, the roadways, the cities and communities he designs and lays out.

I must say, My Dear, that to have a firm picture of life and its meaning near at hand would be quite limiting and uninviting. The true meaning of life, of existence, is learning to allow the self to truly be aware that there are no limits to the possibilities and the potential of each one of you.

Life is unending. Energy is unlimited in its potential to evolve. The process of evolution is one of awakening to your personal potential, at this time, in this life. The meaning of this life will be revealed as you allow your self to slow down, to temper your pursuit of all things, and to truly discover what it means to be energy. Your own energy is unique to you, and your access to all knowledge will be gained as you learn how to use your own energy.

In order to truly access your own energy, you must learn to trust that everything is possible and that your own process must be discovered, uniquely your own. No other person will have exactly the same process as you will have. No other life will unfold as your life will unfold. No one else will have your experiences, and no one else will learn the lessons that you will learn. Your life is uniquely yours and this is what you must take into your consciousness, into your intelligent questing for meaning. Begin with the true facts of the self. You are unique.

You are comprised of energy, but have you discovered what it feels like to be you in this form, as an energy being? It is time for you to allow your self to accept your self as an energy being, unlike any other, unlike any description or explanation you have heard or read about. It is time to have a true experience of the self as energy so that you may truly own the self as such.

This process does not belong to the bigger picture. Learning to be energy is being able to totally detach from the world as you perceive it, as you have been taught, as you have thought it to be, and to enter a new state of being. But first you must allow the self to accept the experience. You must allow the self to refuse everything you have ever been taught in order to truly be open to the experience.

Many people have experiences of energy, but they refuse to accept them. Many people prefer to put them into a known context, giving them an explanation that will placate their fears of oblivion. In truth, an experience of energy, though it may feel like death itself, is as familiar as your own body, for it is where you come from and where you go as you reincarnate. Your time of awakening is reminding you of this familiar and known aspect of self, and the jolt of fear is the moment of shift when one reality disappears and another appears.

Your existence upon that earth will not become clear, no matter what I say, until you allow your self to truly experience the self as energy. If you can, without attaching to the known familiar world, have an energy experience, in full waking consciousness, you will begin to understand that most of your questions are both meaningless and the most meaningful questions one could ask. Once you allow your self to experience your true uniqueness, as an energy being, you will find that the answers to your questions will become readily available, but you will also discover that there are many more questions that you do not even know yet.

Your awareness is burgeoning now. I see that you are eager and ready to jump into a new life, yet are you preferring to have it fully laid out and explained to you ahead of time, but I am afraid that this is impossible for me to do. You must take the first step alone, My Dear One, as we all must, and learn what it means to be the energy that you truly are.

Why do you want to evolve? I ask the same question of you. I think the answer is because life, as it now presents itself to you, does not offer enough. Life, as you live it, is not exciting enough and it does not fulfill your eager spirit self. Only by allowing the self to accept the uniqueness of the self, in energy, in experience, and in full potential, will you begin to understand what a fulfilling and meaningful life is.

To find your energy: begin to slowly allow your mind to quiet its busy chatter, its questioning pursuits, and find the door of silence within that will lead you directly to the experience of the energy body. Find it, however briefly, a little each day. Go without question or desire. Go simply for the experience. You do not need anything in order to do this; just the self, the calm self, the quiet body and quiet mind self, the inner self, unafraid, asking simply for a glimpse of the energy self.

I may not have answered your many questions because I feel that my answers will not suffice until you allow your self to get to a quiet place of inner calm and experience the self suspended in nothingness, until you see for your self that there is nothing to fear. Once you overcome your fear of nothingness you will be able to move beyond the world that is so neatly constructed around you and into a world of energy, where everything is possible, where everything is meaningful, and where everything is known. And then you will see that there is no way you will want to stay there either, because you will understand that there is so much more beyond that. As you allow your self to have experiences of energy and journey into the unknown, you will discover that there is always a new unknown to discover. To get to the place of evolution is to get to this awareness. There is always a new world to explore, just beyond the one you are in right now.

Good Luck with your explorations into the unknown self. The first door is already slightly ajar. Are you going to shed the old clothes that have been your protection from the unknown and go into it fully unclothed, as pure naked energy? This is what your awakening is asking of you and this is the first question to ask the self: Am I ready? Do I dare let go of everything in order to have a true experience of myself as pure energy?

#522 Chuck’s Place: Inner Silence

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Today, Chuck’s Place is graced by a guest improviser, Jan Ketchel, who will take us out of the familiar cognitive system we use to discuss and share knowledge and ideas, into the world of inner silence and direct knowledge.

Inner silence, according to don Juan, is an evolutionary possibility available to us all through which we can access direct knowledge. Direct knowledge is a unique form of knowing, which arises from a faculty completely independent of the brain and its cerebral processes. In order to reach inner silence, with its companion, direct knowledge, we must arrive at a place where we can shut down our incessant internal dialogue, which is the constant companion of our cerebral construction of the world.

The shamans of ancient Mexico maintained that every individual has a unique threshold of accrued moments of silence that must be reached before they automatically and unexpectedly stop the world of ordinary perception and cognitive functioning and, instead, see energy directly, as it flows in the universe, from their energy body state. This is achieved in full waking awareness, and from this perceptive position direct knowledge becomes accessible.

This notion of accruing moments of silence is very important. This means, literally, that every time we are able to stop the internal dialogue, even if but for a few seconds, these seconds are in the bank; they count toward reaching our individual threshold, whatever it might be, twenty seconds or two minutes. This notion of accruing time relieves us of the construct of failure based on, for instance, not achieving a successful meditation practice. Being able to shut down the internal dialogue for four seconds while walking down the street automatically accrues toward our individual threshold, regardless of the success or failure of our ongoing meditation effort. Break the attachment to that cognitive structure of success and failure. Hold, instead, the persistent intent of silencing the internal dialogue, through whatever practice or non-practice resonates or is presented in the moment; any opportunity to silence the mind.

Know that, at an unexpected moment, you will have reached your threshold and, suddenly, the world as you knew it will stop, and you will enter the world of energy and direct knowledge. Here is Jan’s example of entering inner silence and receiving direct knowledge, an energetic improvisation on reality:

I am at a family gathering, my mother’s eightieth birthday party. My sister has, for several years, taken on the tradition of writing a poem and reading it to celebrate the parents at their annual birthday events. I am in the living room, having been called there by my sister as she prepares to read. I am reluctant. I would rather stay in the other room than have to listen to another poem and experience yet another family event, a boring ritual, known and predictable. I am in the middle of my three-year recapitulation and I have been sorting through a whole host of personal issues and feelings, so this feels especially restrictive to me. I have been in the process of detaching and releasing the debris of many things. I want to refuse the repetition of a known world; I feel that I am being forced into a lifeless place that is no longer energetically engaging to me.

I pay attention to the first few lines as my sister begins to read her poem, but I refuse the familiar and resist being caught up in the communal reaction. I don’t want to be here. I stop my participation in that world. I am aware that the accolades are only half true, that underneath another meaning is true, when all of a sudden a shift occurs.

The floor at my feet suddenly becomes a river of energy, perhaps a foot or two deep of swirling, vibrant, flowing energy. My sister’s voice recedes; the laughter becomes muffled. I am so stunned I have to sit down. I sit on the step leading down into the sunken living room, my feet in the river, and watch the floor of energy. I become aware of my sister’s underlying thoughts and motives as she reads. I perceive my mother’s thoughts as she hears what is being presented to her. I see her hand pushing away the accolades, refusing them, and at the same time keeping the swirling river of energy down and away from her. I wonder: Can I hear what others are thinking? I slowly pan the room, going from one person to another, connecting to and receiving their thoughts. They just flow to me and I understand where everyone has gotten to, all these adult siblings, and how detached or attached to my mother they are at this point in their lives. I return my gaze to the river of energy at my feet, curious about it, perceiving everyone’s pain and sorrow pouring into it, flowing through the room, and my own dreamlike sense that we are all just energy and here it is lying at my feet, a thick river of it, a river of energetic perception. I want to stay here, remain open to it and hold onto it, aware. Suddenly, the reading is complete. I reluctantly let the energy go and come back to a familiar place. My brothers continue the festivities, singing songs for my mother, while I retreat to the kitchen to wash some dishes before I leave, wanting to retain as much of the experience as possible by detaching myself from the old recognizable process a little longer.

Jan and I welcome your comments. Should anyone wish to write, we can be reached via Chuck’s email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

#521 An Anchoring Prayer of Openness

Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Chuck and I have been talking about a very noticeable shift that has taken place over the past week or two. You have, specifically, been mentioning this possibility lately in your messages, and Chuck addressed it in his blog last Saturday in his article regarding Shifting the Assemblage Point. Many people have been reporting to us this week that they are having noticeable experiences of shift, of finally connecting with their inner voice, of channeling other energies, of noticing themselves as energy, of seeing the world differently, and of observing other worlds; in essence, experiencing a shift in their assemblage point. Can you offer us some means of anchoring in this new place, this new slot of the assemblage point, as Chuck calls it, so that the connections forged remain firmly present, perhaps a mantra or a prayer?

My Dear Jan and Chuck, and My Dear Readers, this is indeed an anchoring time and my messages have been offering you the means of navigating through this time of shift so that you may attain this new sense of self in the world and, in awareness, maintain this awakening self. So, yes, an anchoring mantra or prayer is certainly appropriate, but first I would like to add that, although many people have forged their way through this time by trusting their intuition, there are many others who struggle, and I do not wish to by-pass their continuation of awakening.

The awakening process is constant, so do not feel bad if your own process is still in struggle mode, still unclear, or still powerfully present in your life in some other manner. No matter where you are in your life, in your recapitulation, in your attempts to jolt or shift your self, your process is unique. It is necessarily your very own process and it will unfold according to your specific needs, lessons, desires, and proffered method of accepting your journey. In essence, your time of clarity and shift will come when the time is right for you to experience it and when the world around you is ready to offer it to you, and accept if from you as well. You will know when you are ready because you will notice that something in your perception of your world will be different. You may be faced with doubt, a slight inclination to wonder if you are making things up, or even a lack of trust, but in the end your worlds, your inner and outer worlds in cahoots, will keep you newly aware of just enough to tease you into trusting the magic of your spiritual growth and connection.

I ask that you remain open and trusting of spirit and this is the same message I offer to those of you who have experienced a shift. Continue to trust your observations, your inner voice, your sense of connection to higher realms but, mostly, trust your self. It is your innocence that is awakening and if you can hold onto your true innocence, your belief in this aspect of self as guiding, so may you more fully anchor your self in your new place of awareness.

Awareness must be cultivated and this means remaining open and inviting of experiences, without interference from the old voices that will attempt to dissuade you from your newfound trust. Trust in self is your anchoring place. This is the slot, as Chuck calls it, that you are becoming aware of now, if a definite shift has occurred in your life. The slot of self-innocence and awareness is deeply steeped in learning what it means to trust. Your anchor next becomes openness. That may sound quite the opposite of an anchor, but to ground the self in trust requires allowing the self to remain open. If you simply accept that you have shifted and lock into a new aspect of self-perception, what good will that do you if you do not remain open to what comes next? To shift is not synonymous with settling in to a new complacency. Shift requires acceptance, yet it also requires continued openness. It requires you to allow the innocent spirit self to remain vibrantly alive and present in your daily life. It requires a new ability to constantly shift and accept new ideas, new experiences, and new opportunities for furthering your budding awareness. All of this requires the ability to remain open to whatever comes to guide you on your awakening journey.

Today, I offer you, my shifting ones and my struggling ones, this prayer of openness to the energies of life and awareness, so that you may continually grow, anchoring in your truth and in your innocent awareness of the self as an energy being of good and of desire for further growth.

I remain open to my innocence.

I remain open to my own spirit.

I remain open to my abilities to see, hear, and travel in the realms of light and love.

I am an energy being who is learning the ways of true energy, to constantly shift and grow.

I remain open to receiving the lessons I need.

I remain open to receiving the guidance I desire.

I remain open to the love I deserve.

I remain open to giving as much as I receive, for I am an energy being of giving and receiving energy, energy that is positive, growth-oriented, and universally connected to all things.

I am an energy being charged with connecting my own disparate parts, reigning in my scattered desires to the one true desire of my spirit, which is my evolutionary growth.

I trust my innocence.

I trust my journey.

I trust my inner guidance.

I trust my self.

Remain open, My Dear Ones. Your journeys are just beginning. I love you all!

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR