Category Archives: Chuck’s Blog

Welcome to Chuck’s Place! This is where Chuck Ketchel, LCSW-R, expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Currently, Chuck posts an essay once a week, currently on Tuesdays, along the lines of inner work, psychotherapy, Jungian thought and analysis, shamanism, alchemy, politics, or any theme that makes itself known to him as the most important topic of the week. Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy page.

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Chuck’s Place: The Divine Power Of The Human Mind

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Ask the High Self for help…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

When humanity acquired consciousness it gained the divine prerogative  to tell the subconscious mind what to do. The subconscious mind has the divine capacity to create whatever is suggested to it. Both the conscious and subconscious minds have divine attributes. Words, in the form of suggestions from the conscious mind, become flesh, as they are outwardly manifested by the divine power of the subconscious mind.

Back in the days before Prometheus stole the fire of consciousness from the gods, and Adam and Eve from the Tree of Knowledge, human beings had no choices; they religiously obeyed the divine laws of instinct. Instinct is housed in the subconscious mind, which essentially ruled human life in a consistent way until the birth of human consciousness.

With consciousness as the new absolute ruler, suggestions are able to be delivered that can override instinctive programs with new programs that  create and  destroy with abandon.

There are a couple of checks to this absolute power. Most powerful has been the rational mind, which dismisses divine power outright. With its material bias, it limits people’s belief in their latent divine powers. If you don’t believe you have an ability you won’t exercise it.

Furthermore, you won’t arouse the emotional enthusiasm needed to attract the subconscious mind’s attention to a new suggestion. In this scenario the subconscious will nonetheless continue to exercise its divine power by manifesting life scenarios that fulfill the conscious mind’s limited views of itself. 

The other major check on these divine powers is the nearly absolute power of socialization, saturated with limiting negative thoughts, which becomes internalized as an incessant internal dialogue, that then creates the shadowy reality envisaged by such suggestions. Such is the great mirror of this time on the world stage.

Suggestions are everywhere. Besides the billions spent to influence people’s minds at every turn are the thoughts of humanity, and dimensions beyond, that telepathically impinge upon the subconscious mind. The seduction of social media opens the floodgates to intense emotion and powerful suggestions.

Some form of meditation practice, as well as a strong suggestion to the subconscious to block the messaging of outside influences, can greatly protect one’s mind space and the ability to think and feel for oneself.

Consciousness itself must also assume responsibility for the suggestions it chooses to expose itself to. The suggestions we impress upon the subconscious are expressed in our physical reality. Suggestion is destiny. We become what we feel and believe to be true.

Our ego consciousness is largely centered in three-dimensional reality, hence it tends to be more narcissistically concerned about its own survival. This isn’t a judgement, it’s a fact. However, ego has the capacity to turn to its High Self, at the meeting place of the heart center, and ask for guidance.

The High Self lives in the subtle plane of fourth-dimensional reality. From its perspective of refined love and infinity it will tell the ego the truth, what is truly right. Of course, it remains for the ego to acquiesce or continue to operate in feigned ignorance as it struggles to evolve. The High Self never insists; it knows the ego must mature into adulthood and truly assume responsibility in its current plane of existence.

Nonetheless, the High Self feels nothing but unconditional love for the ego self. Actually, the ego, in its three-dimensional life, is the dream of the High Self. Nothing but love and truth is felt and offered to this child of the dream.

When the ego approaches the subconscious mind, with its divine capacity to create, it’s critical to be sure of the greater rightness of that which it asks for. The subconscious will not challenge or question a suggestion—that is rightly the job of consciousness.

If the intent and emotion is strong enough the subconscious will manifest the suggestion into reality. It is equally capable of manifesting good or evil. The ego is responsible for assuring the greater good of all with its suggestions. The divine in the subconscious mind allows the ego total freedom of choice. The ego will ultimately grow by experiencing the full effect of its manifested suggestions. These are divine lessons.

When requesting healing from the subconscious mind it is wise to consult with the High Self as to the true etiology of one’s symptoms. In general, all physical manifestations, including illness, issue first from the subtle mental plane, as suggestions that then physically manifest.

These are the kinds of questions to ask the High Self, with true receptivity to exploring the answers one receives:

“What is the cause of the symptom I bear?”
“From whence and where has this suggestion originated?”
“Am I being shown the negative effects of a suggestion I insisted upon manifesting?”
“Is the cause of my symptoms a reflection of error in my intentions?” 

Of course, we must address issues of our physical reality with physical interventions, but getting to the true subtle mental root of an issue can mitigate a recurrence of that physical issue. Relief of symptoms is welcome, but no guarantee of cure.

Sometimes merely aligning one’s resolve with one’s deepest truth provides instant cure. Oftentimes, however, a greater process of discovery and transformation will unfold. 

The key to the responsible use of the divine power of the human mind is to obtain the truth and guidance from the High Self. We are clearly in the early adolescence of our divine power maturation.

Be humble, be honest with self. Assume responsibility. Be in awe, be in love.

The divine is always helping us,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: No Blame

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Power lies in going inward…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The energy of now mirrors lessons in power. In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Elizabeth Gilbert, of Eat, Pray, Love fame, reveals that she has been celibate and closed to intimate relationship for the past five years. She had come to the realization that her pattern of always blaming partners had overshadowed her entire life. She decided to seek the source of blame within herself alone.

When we discover our projections as unknown or disowned parts of ourselves, we are empowered to know and influence positively the holographic reality we all share equally in.

The power in blame is the comfort of self-righteousness exercised in the creation of a faulty, other than, self. In the truth of the hologram, self contains all others. There simply is no cause for blame; the buck stops here, within the self.

Actually, life in three-dimensional reality predisposes us to need to differentiate in order to establish an identity. If we were to remain in a herd identity, we would not develop a consciousness of self that allows for independent action. However, this separation creates a cloudy reality. When we shine a light upon an object, a shadow is created that allows us to see and define the object. As P. P. Quimby points out, this shadow also leads to error, or opinion, as the fuller interconnected truth is separated and lost in the shadow.

It is natural for us to listen to someone’s presentation and find ourselves thinking of exceptions to that which they propose. This is the action of the analytic mind differentiating what it hears. Many a hurt feeling and quarrel result from this ‘misunderstanding’ in dialogue, whose true roots lie in an automatic differentiating mental process.  

Of course, as valuable as the knowledge of differentiation is, it favors such a materialist worldview of separate objects that it loses connection to the intimacy of the interdependent oneness we all share in. When we open the door to our fourth-dimensionally interconnected selves, ordinarily screened out by our physical senses and internal dialogue, higher truth and knowledge is revealed, the deepest source of our innate healing power.

Quimby would sit and get en rapport with his ailing patient until, in this sympathetic oneness, it was revealed to him the true cause of their discomfort. His patient in turn opened their heart to the faith in the possibility that they could be healed; what medical science calls today the placebo effect.

Quimby never touched a patient or prescribed any medicinal remedy. He merely revealed the true cause of the complaint, as revealed to him. The obvious changes necessitated by that knowledge were for his patient to undertake, for the power to heal lies with the patient’s understanding of and alignment with the truth.

The power to heal and transform lies latently available in one’s connection to, and communication with, one’s higher fourth-dimensional self. Access to that higher self is gained through meditation and the practice of reaching the subconscious mind through the power of thoughtful intent.

In the eleventh, bonus episode, of the Telepathy Tapes, we meet Dan, an adult volunteer working with autistic non-speakers. We discover that Dan has so opened his heart, and practiced deep meditation, that he gains access to what autistic non-speakers call, The Hill, a consensual reality meeting place in the fourth-dimensional astral plane. Here,  autistic people, in their energy body soul states, regularly commune. These visits by Dan are verified by participants from The Hill, as they later recount these fourth-dimensional interactions when back in their third-dimensional physical bodies. 

We also learn that Dan had been diagnosed with fourth stage lymphoma that went into remission over the course of several months, his only course of treatment being his deep meditations, deep breathing, and healing intent. He credits the power of thought with his success.

Our world is clearly in the throes of  a vitriolic breakdown as it transitions into a new paradigm of human potential and power. We witness daily dramatic displays of power. These are opportunities for us all, like Elizabeth Gilbert, to circumvent blame, go inward, and assume responsibility for our own use, abuse, or nonuse of power.

Like the shamans of old, it truly is time for us to create our own Tales of Power.

New Thoughts on Power,
Chuck 

Inspirations for this blog: very dense reading, not necessarily recommended.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Tim Ferris Podcast
PP Quimby Very dense reading, not necessarily recommended.
Telepath Tapes Episode 11

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Chuck’s Place: New Thoughtfulness

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Harnessing the innate divine power within…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

The heart of the New Thought movement, the backdrop of  modern spirituality, is the acknowledgment of divine power within all human beings.

Biblical stories provide guidance to access these divine capabilities, which are latent in the human soul. For instance, one’s faith in one’s innate ability to heal is highlighted, over reliance upon outside remedy.  

These powers have been concretely catalogued in The Telepathy Tapes podcasts, particularly episodes 8, 9, and 10 , where both autistic children and adults share their experiences in the ‘heavenly’ astral realm, concurrent with physical life. How ironic that those considered at the lowest level of human cognitive ability are, in fact, demonstrating the next step in human evolution.

In effect, limitations in fine motor access in the physical body of autistic people has been compensated for by powerful access to their soul body, with its highly evolved telepathic communication capabilities, as well as remote viewing, out-of-body exploration, and connections with beings in the finer dimensions of infinity.

The New Thought movement has capitalized on the mind-to-mind ability to project thought to the subconscious mind of self, and other, for the purpose of healing and manifestation. Beyond the obvious destruction of the outer world, that we all bear witness to now, is the demonstration of the enormous capability of one mind to project thoughts into many minds, whereby creating a new reality.

We all have access to that same power, through the use of self-hypnosis, where one’s conscious mind suspends its analytic mind and directly suggests, to the mother of creation—the subconscious mind—its intentions for change.

The New Thought movement has been criticized for its emphasis on ego  desires for material gain, which it is fully capable of realizing. However, one can never escape the cause and effect outcomes of one’s intentions. Material gain at the expense of others will likely result in a nervous disorder of constantly needing more, or an obsession with defending what one continually accumulates.

The father of the New Thought movement, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866), came to the clarity that, yes, telepathically, we are all floating in an ocean of energized thoughts. Our beliefs are the rudder with which we navigate these tidal waves of influential thought, as well as the fish we catch and consume in that ocean of thought. We become what we believe.

We frequently exercise our divine right of manifestation through an internal dialogue that limits our magical being. We unconsciously internalize the beliefs we are fed and unknowingly generate them into physical reality.

We can exercise our divinity at the level of pure sensual delights, or inflate to high levels of self-importance. We can choose personal gain that excludes the needs of others. We can care for others to the extreme neglect of ourselves. We can emphasize our spiritual capabilities to the neglect of our physical lives. We are free to choose and create any of these possibilities. Everything is divinely possible and is a valid part of all that is.

Quimby realized that these divine prerogatives also include access to divine truth. His predilection was to sit with a patient until he arrived at the divine truth of why a patient was in the predicament they were in and then to help them grasp their issue at that formative level. From there, the patient had full access to the changes they needed to make to solve their malady and be in alignment with their divine purpose. The healing balm is alignment with the truth rather than with a  false belief.

Following Quimby’s lead, our present evolution asks us to emphasize New Thoughtfulness. Joe Dispenza emphasizes intense meditation in his healing workshops that provides a path to the divine truth of the pathogenesis of an ailment. This is an expression of deep thoughtfulness readily opening to divine cure.

When we focus on heart-centered breathing, with the intent of caring for our interdependent wholeness, both within and without, we arrive at a deeply thoughtful place of refined love and compassion for all.

When we ask our high soul-self to provide us with guidance from divine intelligence, through intuition and interaction, we extend the range of our thoughtfulness to embrace the divine wisdom within and without. This is the New Thoughtfulness needed to align with the greater good for all, NOW!

Thoughtfully,
Chuck

Inspirations for this blog:

The Quimby Manuscripts by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
The Telepathy Tapes podcast
Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Exercising The Hidden Power In The Hologram

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Refinement…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

Quantum physicist, David Bohm, came to the realization that the underlying fundamental truth of the universe is that we are all one interconnected energetic whole, as expressed in the qualities of a hologram. If you shine a laser on any individual part of a hologram, the whole hologram will appear. Shine the light of consciousness on any one of us, and the entire world will appear. As within, so without.

At the solid level of physical life we experience ourselves and our world as separate objects that function according to the Newtonian laws of classical physics. However, as the nagual, don Juan Matus, put it, yes, we are a world of solid objects, but beneath that we are a world of energy. We are both particle and wave. In particle form we are simply concentrated configurations of our underlying energetic essence.

The current state of the world is actually a war between these two dimensions of self. One dimension sees reality exclusively as a solid world of separate beings where the competition for the riches and resources needed for survival and pleasure are the primary goals of life. The other dimension sees the world as an interconnected whole, best served by the mental processes of reason and intuition.

This same opposition is reflected in the individual, in the relationship between the human physical body and its underlying energy body. The connection points between these two bodies are at the nerve plexus/chakra centers where these bodies connect and innervate each other.

The lower three chakras, located at the perineum, pelvis and solar plexus, house the primal, instinctual functions of our physical animal selves. They address issues of basic safety in rootedness, as well as sexuality, digestion, elimination and our experience of personal power.

For many humans, their world view reflects the survival imperatives governed by these centers. Intense passions and emotions such as anger, aggression, fear and desire can dominate life at this level.

As a consequence of this emphasis, the energy at these centers can tend to coagulate and solidify, which actually can result in excess weight concentrating at these centers. Life focused at these levels keeps one in vigilant states of anxiety and fear, with basic survival needs front and center in daily life.

At the higher centers of the physical body, such as the heart, throat, third eye and crown of the head, the world view broadens beyond the self, with emphasis on the mental functions of the rational mind and higher mind of intuition. The heart center, for instance, has the capacity to expand beyond the needs of self, focused at the solar plexus, to include the needs of others, beyond one’s self.

Sometimes people can be so focused on the upper energy centers that they lose touch with their physical bodies, get lost in thought, and struggle with a myriad of physical issues while the true needs of the body are neglected. Ideally, all energy centers are firing and flowing in a coherent, integrated rhythm.

To stimulate this kind of coordinated flow among all the energy centers, one can focus on mechanically initiating such a rhythm by literally squeezing the lower energy centers, with the intent of raising their stuck energy to flow into the upper chakra centers, where it is progressively refined to a higher energetic charge, which it then brings back down to, and revitalizes, the lower chakra centers.

For example, one could perform a Kegel exercise where the perineum is squeezed and held, while mentally calling for the energy at that center to rise to the crown chakra at the very top of the head. While holding the contracted perineum, one feels energy collect at the crown for as long as one feels comfortable.

Upon releasing the contracted muscle, the breath passively releases, as well as the transformed energy at the crown, naturally flowing down and dispersing through the entire body. The sensation is quite vibratory and relaxing, like the gentle flow of water downward from the top to the bottom of a fountain. Emotionally, one might experience that the prior heaviness and intensity of fear and anger has transformed into the lightness of joy, humor and love.

One can also include in that squeezing effort the  pelvis, stomach and all the glands and organs in the abdominal cavity. As these centers are contracted, focus on raising the energy from below to be refined and accumulate at the crown of the head. Upon release, allow that gentle waterfall of vibratory energy to descend and spread throughout the entire body.

These bodily movements and intentions perform an alchemical operation. The body serves as the sealed retort that allows no leakage of energy. The coagulated energy from below is transformed into a higher frequency of charged energy, which accumulates at the crown before it disperses, enriching the entire being.

Sometimes the intensity of energy might be such that one might decide to direct the energy accumulating at the crown to release through the opening of the door, at the crown, to the outside world. This release of accumulated tension might serve a better balance before sealing that door and doing the movements in a closed system, that transforms rather than simply releases the energy.

For those who listen to Joe Dispenza’s Morning Meditation, he utilizes inhalation to accompany this drawing up of energy to the crown chakra. I do encourage that one do a full exhalation that contracts the lower chakras in advance of the inhalation that brings energy to the crown.

One can experience this flow of energy as well by simply imagining the organs to be held in contraction, with the intent to rise to the crown and then be released downward.

Achieving this kind of energy flow within the body integrates body and spirit in a very balanced way. Spirit refines bodily emotions and appetites as body provides the fuel and instinctive energies to power the higher centers of the mind.

This kind of rebalancing, within one individual, cannot help but create shifts in the hologram of the self, which is also the hologram of the world. This is the hidden power of the hologram. Rebalance the self; rebalance the world.

Ultimately, Gaia, as the hologram of our world, is rising from her own fixation at the solar plexus to her heart chakra, which will land our collective hologram on solid footing for all. Empower yourself to join in this colossal shift of rebalancing the self, and the world.

Yes, we are the world. Be sure to see the outer world as a mirror of the self.  Seal off the alchemical self as you perform the movements and change the balance within the self, which is indeed the hologram of the world.

All in the hologram,
Chuck

Inspirations for this blog:
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot
Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza
The Complete Illustrated Book Of Yoga by Swami Vishnudevananda

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Chuck’s Place: The Shattering Shamanic Journey Of Now

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From shattering and rising to the infinite…
-Artwork © 2025 Jan Ketchel

A shamanic journey is a journey into the unknown of the self, and beyond the self, into the quantum field of infinite possibility. The gateway between the known and the unknown is heavily guarded and must be shattered if we are to create the space needed to accommodate the ever-active growth imperative of our being. Now is the time of that shattering on a collective scale.

The works of Carlos Castaneda have been my spiritual mainstay for the past fifty years. My journey in that world reflects the journey our entire world is currently embarking upon.

When Carlos broke with the secrecy of all shamanic traditions in the early 1990’s, by coming out of hiding and giving away all of his hidden and protected ancient knowledge, my wife Jeanne and I jumped in and became saturated in the shattering practices of his shamanic line.

The threat of death hovered over Jeanne and me, as well as over Carlos and his shamanic line at that time. Jeanne was challenged with breast cancer, Carlos with severe diabetes, and his unique Toltec shamanic line with facing its end, as Carlos’s impending departure loomed. Shamans credit death as one’s true advisor and one’s supreme motivator in this life in human form.

Carlos had been told by his mentor, the nagual don Juan Matus, that his energetic configuration was only capable of endings, not continuation. However, Spirit had also shown don Juan that the world was on the precipice of a major shift and that it was time to hand over the wisdom of his shamanic line to the coming “age of information”, where it could inform and transform in new, modern ways.

Carlos’s teaching methods were radical and completely shattering of the social order. Many people gave up their careers, relationships, and even their names to make available space in their lives to dedicate themselves to the practices that prepared them to journey into infinity on demand.

If we want to grow, we must make space for growth. We must release, rather than hoard, old attachments to withered beliefs and lifestyles that preclude living life in the freedom of innocence and new possibility.

Jeanne and I were on this shamanic journey of preparation for infinity, as well as on a simultaneous journey for healing that would keep her in this world. Ultimately, it was her definitive journey into infinity that won out. She launched in her energy body in 2001, as her physical body gave way to death. Our preparation for this launch, through the shaman’s world, has led to a stupendous, ever-unfolding collaboration between worlds, continuing to this day.

Carlos himself left this world in 1998, and, though his students continued the trainings, in the organization he had established to disseminate his knowledge, that effort has largely lost momentum. In leaving this world, Carlos successfully closed the door on that old modality of transmission, much as don Juan had anticipated. The many thousands of practitioners who had participated in his trainings took their points of illumination forward into their own lives, evolving his line in unique and novel ways.

Personally, I took the shamanic practice of recapitulation into the consulting room, combining it with EMDR. Coming straight out of the shaman’s world, I worked with Jan, for three years, on her journey of recapitulation, which led to her complete healing from complex PTSD.

Jan detailed her journey of soul retrieval from sixteen years of sexual abuse in her five-volume Recapitulation Diaries series, gifting the world a detailed accounting of a shattering journey of total healing but also the realization of a comfortable access to life in infinity. Twenty-three years ago, Jan established regular communication with Jeanne, which she continues to document and publish on our website, as daily Soulbytes, or guidance from infinity.

Our new United States president, like Carlos Castaneda, resembles the trickster shaman, whose job it is to shatter the social order of the world. He was chosen by the majority.

I know that Gaia is a sentient being, quite capable of flicking from her skin anything that does not serve her own evolution. Gaia, as the Earth, is no victim. The current intent of the new government in some way is leading to her advancement.

It seems counterintuitive to have a male-dominated, oligarchical and materialist orientation dominating the world, and supposedly leading to positive evolution, but Gaia, like the subconscious mind, has her own path of heart, though it may come, at this stage of shattering, as the path of heartbreak.

I know that progress ultimately requires that this domination of the masculine ego, at the solar plexus chakra, must be shattered and rise to the heart center. I have confidence that the ways of Gaia will ultimately get us there.

Furthermore, I know that humanity’s next evolutionary step will incorporate greater access to, and integration with, infinity, the fourth dimension. As I learned in the shaman’s world, the refinement of materialism into spirit life, while still in human form, has the potential to vastly shift humankind’s relationship with the Earth, both through lightness of communication and travel. Telepathy and out-of-body travel require no fossil fuels.

Our collective shamanic journey of now is indeed at the stage of heightened shattering of all that we have known, but it is truly just clearing the way for a new foundation for our continued path of heart.

Hold this broader view as we fasten our seatbelts. And, finally, know that life never ends, it only changes vehicles.

With total optimistic innocence,
Chuck

Inspirational interviews that informed this blog:

David Whyte on the Tim Ferris Podcast

Nyei Murez, one of my former teachers in Carlos Castaneda’s world, on Guru Viking:
Episode 50: Scribe of Carlos Castaneda
Episode 54: The Art of Dreaming

Ky Dickens: Telepathy Tapes