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.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Establish A New Major Premise Of Being

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Any day is a good day to start anew…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

The subconscious totally accepts and manifests the beliefs of the conscious mind. If we believe we are a good person, the subconscious manifests that belief in the positive emotions we feel toward ourselves and the kinds of people and positive opportunities that are drawn to us in daily life.

Carlos Castaneda lamented the impact of negative conditioning upon the vulnerable psyche of the child, who absorbs, without any available means to fend off, the words and beliefs of its caretakers. According to the shamans of ancient Mexico, these internalized elemental beliefs are assembled and fixated at a point of consciousness, aptly called the assemblage point, that orients our perception and interpretation of ourselves in both inner and outer reality.

Internalizing the theme of being bad in childhood can pervasively fixate our assemblage point upon this belief, such that it serves as our basic premise of self throughout all of life.

The fixation of the assemblage point is so rigid that shamans have for centuries used psychedelics to allow their habitual fixation of the assemblage point to be temporarily suspended, freeing up their ability to journey deeper into their human potential.

This form of soul exploration, or retrieval, is not without its risks, as the shattering of ego consciousness by a psychedelic can lead to difficulty in fully returning to the consciousness of everyday life, or hamper the integration of  knowledge gained in heightened awareness with ordinary reality.

Carlos Castaneda recommended alternative methods of exploration that allow the grounding and reasoning abilities of the ego to support deeper exploration and positive integration, enabling one to establish a new, positive position of the assemblage point.

Intentional autosuggestion provides a powerful interaction with the creative powers of the subconscious mind that can greatly enhance the realization of our innate potential. By consciously establishing a new basic premise as a suggestion to the subconscious mind, we can fundamentally shift our experience of self and world.

Though the subconscious does not engage in rational thinking, it powerfully accepts a basic premise presented to it by the conscious reasoning mind as fact, and rationally goes about demonstrating the truth of that premise in its manifestations based upon it. The premise is the seed planted in the fertile soil of the subconscious.

The action, or law of attraction, exercised by the subconscious, is to draw to it from the soil the vital nutrients needed for it to grow into physical beingness, as solid proof of the validity of the major premise planted in its soil. This fertile soil is the divine energy and infinite intelligence the subconscious attracts as it fashions, in physical form, the intent of consciousness.

Thus, if your new major premise states that “by day and by night the infinite intelligence of my subconscious mind guides, directs and prospers me spiritually, mentally, physically and materially,” abundant change, in accordance with this suggestion, will begin to materialize in your life.

Notice that this intention does not try to engage, overturn, or argue with a negative habitual premise, such as, “I am bad and unworthy.” Any such thought activity places attention upon the older habitual position of the assemblage point, which draws the subconscious back to that fixation, and, hence, to that old state of being.

To the contrary, recitation of this new basic premise causes the soul, through the attractive power of the subconscious, to pave new neuropathways in the brain, releasing hormones and neurotransmitters that generate the emotions and sense of self intended by the autosuggestion.

This divine intelligence also draws people, circumstances and opportunities into our life that further its manifestation in the material reality of life. We begin to notice these changes in mood and energy level, as well as in events that occur in the physical self, in career and social life. As we take notice of these changes, our faith in the power of the subconscious deepens, which in turn intensifies the realization of the autosuggestion on all levels of being.

Though we may occasionally (or often!) find ourselves suddenly shifting to an older habitual position of the assemblage point, the trick is to not engage it but to quickly state our new basic premise. The word truly does become the flesh.

Remember, we arrived at our early basic premise of self through the constant repetition of words spoken to us. To shift to a new basic premise of self, we must constantly saturate ourselves with the words of our new basic premise.

As always, no attachment to the outcome. Only the subconscious mind knows how to truly attract what is needed. Just keep reminding it of your new basic premise. State it, let go, and let the magic materialize.

By day and by night, prosperity,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Mind Is Privy To Divine Power

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Bring your dreams to Earth…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

The mind is privy to Divine Power. Here’s how to exercise it:

1. Relax. Release. Let Go. Quiet Now. Enter into grogginess. Body asleep, mind awake.

Trance is the optimal state to be in to reach the subconscious, the organ of divine connection. A whole body relaxation accompanied by calm breath disengages the dominance of the thinking mind. Additionally, the subconscious, which is responsible for the operation of the physical body, is freed up to make contact with a stated suggestion as the physical body progresses into an inert state.

2. State your intention, suggesting it many times to the subconscious mind.

Rote repetition with mindful presence is best. Be declarative, direct and commanding. Vague wishes and hopes don’t register. The subconscious does not think rationally, it fulfills clear and definite orders. If a suggestion is filled with qualifiers, it’s too confusing. Avoid the use of any negatives. State what you want in positive form, not what you don’t want. Be certain that your intention is for the greater good of self and world.

3. Imagine the manifestation of your intent. Direct it as a mental movie. Embellish it with detail. See it, feel it, touch it! Feel the joy of your suggestion’s realization.

The conscious mind raises the vibrational level of its intention through the use of the imagination and emotion. The subconscious is drawn to this heightened energy state. Once impressed by the suggestion, the subconscious transmutes this energetic state into a magnetic force that attracts divine substance to create its physical equivalent. Thought becomes matter.

4. Express deep gratitude and love to the infinite intelligence for its response to your request.

Strengthen and broaden this channel to the divine through genuine appreciation. A deepened relationship between conscious and subconscious facilitates rapid guidance through intuition, synchronicity and resonance. The channel to total memory and ancient knowledge is enhanced through this ever deepening connection.

5. Have faith that the seed of your suggestion is fruitfully planted in the fertile soil of the subconscious. The law of the subconscious is growth; your intention is already a subtle fact. Be patient. If tempted by doubt, incessantly state your intention. Let go, let divine.

Your suggestion is a fact, a magnetic mold on a subtle plane attracting physical reality to it as it coagulates into human form. This is an act of creation that follows its own path. Leave rational thinking out of it, its job was completed when it generated its suggestion. No attachment to outcome, either with time or space demands.

Know that your intention is in the act of fulfillment at all times. Watch for the signs. Respond to the requests for decisions and actions placed before you that are mysteriously honing the realization of your intent. Hold your intention in the sealed alchemical womb of your subconscious mind. Best to keep the door sealed by not telling others of your creative process while it germinates.

Can’t stop the magic,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Royal Spheres Of The One Mind

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The Royal Couple…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

The mind is a subtle body that creates, runs, and maintains the physical body. A cord, similar to an umbilical cord, connects these two bodies while we are physically alive. When that cord eventually breaks, the physical body dies, while the mind, in its soul body, moves off to life in a  subtle dimension of reality.

The mind is a singular organ with two significant spheres, one conscious and the other subconscious. The conscious sphere is the King who chooses the blueprint for life in this world. The King is a ruling dominant of the mind, as reflected in the attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts one imbues one’s attention with and that determine the course of one’s life.

The subconscious sphere is the Queen, who creates life through her access to divine substance and intelligence, in accordance with the dictates of heredity and consciousness, which constantly provide her with guiding suggestions. The Queen is the ruling dominant of the mind that manifests new life.

The conscious sphere works with the subconscious sphere when it is awake. The subconscious never sleeps. When the conscious sphere  sleeps, the subconscious continues to monitor and address the needs of the physical body. These two spheres of the mind, though distinct, are deeply intertwined royal partners.

The physical brain, with its nervous system, provides the conscious sphere with the sensory data gathered through its five physical senses, allowing it  to choose behaviors that address its physical needs. Thus, if one senses cold through the sense of touch, they may decide to put on a sweater.

The subconscious sphere of mind also receives sensory data from the brain, which it automatically responds to via the association of sensory experience with reactive suggestions from innate instincts of survival and growth. Instincts are powerful programs of habitual response to address sensory activation and mental thought. If, for example, one hears a noise and imagines an intruder, a fear response and mobilization for physical action and survival will result.

The conscious sphere of mind constantly presents its own suggestions to the subconscious, who then manifests them through its total control of the physical body. Thus, if one tells the heart to reduce its rate of heartbeat, the subconscious slows it down.

Suggestions from both the conscious sphere of mind and the instincts, stored in the subconscious, influence the actions of the subconscious in accordance with the law of attraction. That law operates via like attracting like. The subconscious attracts divine substance to it as it fashions, in physical form, the energetic intent of consciousness.

The shamans of ancient Mexico called this divine substance and intelligence the energy of intent. This independent magical energy permeates the universe and is the energy behind all of creation. The subconscious mind has access to this divine energy of intent, which it calls upon to both run the body and manifest, in physical form, the suggestions it accepts.

The conscious mind has its own relationship with intent through its ability to intend its intentions to the subconscious mind via suggestion.  Like the subconscious mind, the energy of intent neither reasons nor moralizes, it creates what it intends to create.

The subconscious, with its access to the energy of intent, can thus create a reality that serves the whims of narcissism as equally as intentions presented for the greater good. A heartfelt conscious master of intent would thus choose to exercise their divine freedom of will for the intent of the greater good of self and other.

Consciousness also has the Knightly duty to protect its Queen, the subconscious sphere of the mind. Concretely, this can mean choosing to not expose itself to the content of the negativity influencers on social media, who seek to implant their suggestions into the subconscious minds of listeners and readers.

The subconscious does not rationally reflect upon the rightness of the suggestions presented to it, it is solely the irrational center of creation. The subconscious depends completely upon the conscious sphere to discern right action.

The conscious sphere of mind is also charged to face its own fears and negative beliefs which might be secretly undermining its own intentions for change in accordance with the greater good. For example, a hidden fear of scarcity might result in the subconscious being attracted to purchase less healthy but cheaper food to save money, whereby compromising its intent for perfect health.

Consciousness must monitor its use of words, as it is words that become the flesh. I’ll never be able to have that, is a powerful suggestion to the subconscious that will be manifested as scarcity and poverty. The antidote: immediately change all negatives into positives. In this instance, never have that becomes a definite, I have that!

The declarative, I have that, rests upon the conviction of the conscious sphere that it has successfully planted the seed of its intent into the fertile soil of subconscious substance. The law of growth insists that that seed will physically manifest through the energy of intent in the subconscious sphere of the mind. The conscious sphere waters its seed through its certainty that the full maturation of its seed of intent is a physical fact, in definite progress.

During the watering of the seed of intent, the affirmation, I have that, is repeated often in the conscious mind, together with a powerful exercise of the imagination that visualizes that in one’s possession, as one passionately feels one’s desire and joy at its realization. The conscious sphere must choose to engage in this practice frequently, to both impress the subconscious with its intent, as well as to become a habit of mind and, eventually, a new reality.

Consciousness, with its royal prerogative to choose, must also acquiesce to the divine prerogative of the subconscious to attract the necessary events to realize the given intent, in accordance with its own methods, and in its own time.

The mind is ultimately a royal partnership, of interdependence and deep love and respect, between the conscious and subconscious spheres of the mind. Without the conscious mind’s reasoning powers and discernment of right action, the subconscious mind is prey to create all manner of unsavory suggestions. Likewise, without a positive working relationship with the subconscious, the conscious sphere cannot realize the fulfillment of its true desires, and potential, while in physical form.

As with all intimate relationships, the relationship between the conscious and subconscious spheres of mind requires focused attention, appreciation, and mutual respect, to grow and become all that one unified mind can be while attached to life in physical form.

Mindfully,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Subconscious Mind Is The Crown Of Creation

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Divine crown of creation…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

Freud briefly used the term subconscious to denote activity of the mind that occurs outside the purview of consciousness. He quickly replaced this term with a vaster term, the unconscious mind. In everyday usage the subconscious is often used to designate the home of one’s nefarious shadow with its hidden impulses, passions and repressed memories.

Additionally, the subconscious is often associated with the part of the mind that stores longterm memory that has been emptied from the conscious mind to make room for new experiences, which is retained, briefly, as short term memory.  The subconscious is also designated as the part of the mind that stores habits, modes of behavior that automatically spring into action without conscious initiation.

The subconscious mind is most prominently at home in the field of hypnosis where it has been designated as the highly creative center of the mind, as well as the gateway to infinity. The subconscious is thus a functional entity that creates and has access to the deepest levels of the collective unconscious with its infinite riches and intelligence of mind.

The crown of creation has been associated with the mythical Eve of Genesis, who, in union with her consort, Adam, are the parent creators of humanity. The feminine and masculine principles reside in all of us, and interact on a daily basis. The subconscious is indeed the feminine principle in the human psyche that can create anything and make anything happen. The masculine principle is the conscious mind whose active suggestions stir the receptive crown of creation, the subconscious mind, to manifest its requests. For example, a creative idea is just a thought until it is acted upon; it is the act of creating it that brings it to life, such as a dance, a painting, a musical score.

The term, crown of creation, has been used to designate humanity as superior, formed in the image and likeness of God. God could be understood as humankind’s ever-changing outer projection of the all-powerful function of creativity. By withdrawing that outer projection and assuming positive inner control of the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds, we might truly discover our access to divinity.

Ironically, we all exercise our divinity in everyday life, regardless of how mundane life is experienced. Thoughts and beliefs become suggestions to the subconscious mind that then materialize in moods and events that reflect our thoughts. For instance, if we tell ourselves that we are unworthy of the things we desire, we are delivered to a divine depression, as the subconscious mind pairs our beliefs with emotions that manifest that belief. In other words, our thoughts create our reality.

Although hypnotists can put the conscious mind of a client to sleep, thereby replacing its usual suggestive activity with the hypnotist’s directives, most hypnotists would agree that true empowerment rests in the client’s exercise of autosuggestion. With autosuggestion, we consciously and directly present our intentions to our subconscious crown of creation. Autosuggestion is the real jewel in the crown of creation, allowing for consistent redirection and manifestation.

The key is to wake up and take charge of the automatic activity of the divine couple within the psyche. As we notice the incessant dialogue of unworthiness in our thoughts, we can change the dialogue, quite passionately, to, “I am worthy.” Say it enough times and the crown of creation within will generate a mood of hope and optimism. The power of the subconscious mind is incredible; it truly can do anything.

The greatest challenge is to not attach to the outcome. Leave it up to the Universe. That means letting go to the subconscious mind’s deeply intelligent path to achieving the desired outcome. Be aware that infinite intelligence might first attract events into our lives that cause us to confront traumatic events stored in our shadow, which must be mastered to free up the ability to believe we are worthy.

Infinite intelligence might next attract people into our life that make us feel unworthy. The challenge here might be to recognize how our habitual negative beliefs attract people to reinforce that belief in social interactions. With this insight, we are freed to move away from these relationships, sending them off with compassion and gratitude for helping us grow.

The infinite intelligence of the subconscious mind might next generate themes that have plagued our ancestry with beliefs of unworthiness. Learning about these struggles and addressing them in the context of our current life might then free stuck energy at the collective unconscious level of the psyche, as the channel of creative energy is further cleared to manifest a deep sense of worthiness.

The journey to manifestation might take any of an infinite variety of paths, nuanced by infinite intelligence, to meet our specific requests. We must trust the crown of creation to guide us through the necessary steps of ultimate manifestation. Let go, and let the crown of creation do its job.

Sometimes the crown of creation presents guidance immediately. For instance, I took a break from writing this blog and went outside to cut up a fallen tree. As the chainsaw cut through a propped up horizontal log, I had a flash image of knowing that the cut log would fall on my foot. I didn’t respond to the guidance, and now wish that I had put on my steel toe boots! The infinite intelligence of the subconscious mind requires the participation of the conscious mind to meet its challenges and act upon its guidance.

Faith in the infinite intelligence of the subconscious mind, patience with its chosen path, and gratitude for its gifts will lead to the physical manifestation of our dreams.

May all your autosuggestions reflect the greater good of self, and all, as you connect with the crown of creation and fulfill your life.

You are the crown of creation,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: It’s All In What You Emphasize

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The nagual shaman, don Juan Matus, explained to his apprentice, Carlos Castaneda, that yes, the solid object reality we live in is indeed real, but, it is energy first. Our thoughts, which are interpretations of energy, manifest our physical reality.

What we manifest is real, but the broader truth is that all manifested realities are but an interpretation of infinite energy. Like the Hindu image of the cosmic ocean, the wave is but the manifested surface that appears, and then disappears, back into its underlying cosmic oneness.

From the Thoth Tarot deck of Aliester Crowley

Aleister Crowley, in discussing the Three of Swords, in his Thoth tarot deck, states that the extreme sorrow of this card can be likened to the Buddha’s initial stage of enlightenment when he encountered the pure potential of unmanifested reality: no forms, no reason.

Despite the bliss of this pure clarity, there is the necessary sorrow of releasing attachment to the familiar. Here, one is challenged to surrender to a  consciousness greater than one’s current manifestation.

It all begins in the mind. Outer reflects inner. It’s all in what one chooses to emphasize. Negative thought is certainly an option; it’s just as real an option as a positive thought—divinity includes everything.

Everything is possible, but the paradox is that to realize this truth we must be willing to let go of our cherished beliefs, which are fixations of energy that block the natural flow of energy needed to manifest desired change. The struggle is indeed one of submitting to enlightened sorrow, the necessary crossroad that accompanies moving beyond the familiar habitual self.

Take for instance a desired physical change in the body. One may state a healing intent of change but is constantly assaulted by the feedback of sensory evidence that contradicts one’s stated suggestion to their subconscious mind. This sensory feedback loop becomes its own internal dialogue that presents a more powerful counter-intention to the subconscious mind.

The technology of change, through the use of autosuggestion, insists that one emphasize repeatedly that their desired change is already accomplished. The seed has been planted in the divine substance of the subconscious mind and its full manifestation cannot be stopped, despite the presence of a solid sensory artifact, rooted in a prior interpretation of energy.

I suggest resting the body so that the subconscious mind, relieved of its physical oversight responsibilities, might clearly receive its new directive and move toward manifestation. With presence and passion, repeat the stated intention. Be bold, no hesitation, thy will is done.

At other times, be willing to suffer those moments of fear and sorrow when one glimpses the real possibility of letting go of the cherished limited self. Yes, you are chosen; you have chosen to emphasize the red pill: the life-changing, often painful truth beyond the current fixation of solid energy.

From the Thoth Tarot deck of Aliester Crowley

Of course, when the gig is up, the gig is up. In another card of Crowley’s Thoth tarot deck, the Three of Cups, we find the near perfect realization of the manifested intent of abundance. The presence of pomegranate seeds in the cups, though symbolic of abundance, also recall Persephone’s required stay in the underworld for six months of the year with her husband Pluto, god of the dead.

We cannot escape the expiration date located in the small print of every manifestation. Life insists upon growth, which always requires the letting go of the known.

This recalls the Buddha’s suggestion that life is suffering. Everything that we attach to ultimately limits our growth. But that sorrow can be sweet when we embrace love for all in this adventure of forever. One always has the choice to emphasize love and let it fully manifest.

With love,
Chuck