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: Energetic Freedom

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Painting by Jan entitled "String Theory 1" Notice the cords of attachment dragging down the energy, blocking what lies behind... - Art by Jan Ketchel
Painting by Jan entitled “String Theory 1”
Notice the cords of attachment dragging down the energy, blocking what lies behind…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

Freedom is the ability to journey onward, no strings attached. Strings are projections of our energy that intertwine and attach to outside energy, whereby limiting a portion of our energetic essence’s independent movement. There is no negative judgment about attachment and commitment intended here, it’s simply a statement of energetic fact.

In an ultimate sense, freedom to not reincarnate requires the cutting of all energetic cords to attachments in this world. It’s the only way we can feely move beyond this world as a whole energetic being, releasing all outside attachments and retrieving our full energetic essence to journey freely.

Life in this world insists upon energetic attachment. The human playing field requires energetic attachment outside the self for survival and fulfillment. Refusal to attach while in human form is its own seed of reincarnation. We must have fulfillment in attachment in this world to be freed of our need for that human attachment, the prerequisite to end reincarnation.

The challenge throughout life is to take conscious responsibility, to keep inventory on our energetic attachments. Decisions must be made about the efficiency and value of our energetic investments.

We must examine the contents of our attics and cupboards, where we store our projected energy in the densest and heaviest form—in objects. As we sift through our accumulation of things, we must ask ourselves, why am I holding onto this? Do I ever use it? Do I ever look at it? Do I need it? Where did it come from? What outside energy is attached to it? What would it mean for me to get rid of it?

As we take the journey with these questions we are led into recapitulation. We experience the energetic history intertwined with our own energy, once projected into these dense objects. If indeed the object has no value to our current journey, it may be time to shed the weight of this attachment and free our energy that remains bound to it as long as it remains in our possession, hidden in the attic or otherwise. It’s not enough to simply find a new safe home for an object either. We must release our energy from it, truly let it go if we are to recapture our energy from it.

Do I really need all these things gathering dust and cobwebs? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Do I really need all these things gathering dust and cobwebs?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

If we give away an object that we are still attached to we are merely transferring the care of our energy to another caretaker. To release an object fully is to have no attachment to the fate of its outcome once we send it off. We will know that we have truly recapitulated when we can honestly walk away in lightness, granting the object full freedom to take its own continuing journey.

In more subtle form, we must take inventory of our digital energetic commitments too. It is rare that I see a dog being walked or a car being driven where eyes are not cast intermittently downward at incoming digital information. Facebook has become the largest human marketplace, or mall, where energetic strings of attention are deeply embedded.

Where is the freedom to move about fully in this world for 5 minutes unencumbered by the ping of the prison walls of an incoming text or posting that demands immediate attention and energetic commitment? How are we ever to discover and develop to the fullest potential our own energetic capacities of telepathy, clairvoyance, intuition, out-of-body exploration if our energy is completely captivated by digital dependence and servitude? Where is the freedom in such technological advancement if it binds the lion’s share of our energetic attention?

If our intent is energetic freedom, we must be frugal in our energetic attachments. If an object or energetic device binds our energy and evokes fear in us at the thought of letting go or being without, we must face the true condition of our servitude and release any illusion of freedom that the device purports to deliver.

Finally, in the area of relationship, we must be ruthlessly honest with ourselves as we inventory our commitments. Are those we journey with truly traveling companions, also energetically intent upon freedom? Are we holding onto sentimental relics or obligations that bind our energy and refuse to allow us to change and evolve? Have we met our archetypal obligations as parents and caretakers? Do we bind our energy to past roles that no longer really exist, and in so doing hinder the resumption of our own journeys to freedom? Do we need to challenge ourselves to go into the world and experience deep emotional commitment, a requirement to fulfillment? Only if we face these energetic facts squarely can we plot our energetic course to fulfillment and ultimate freedom.

In "String Theory 2" release is happening and the way is clearing... - Art by Jan Ketchel
In “String Theory 2” release is happening and the way is clearing…
– Art by Jan Ketchel

As we journey through this life we must attach. Recapitulation allows us to disentangle our energy from attachments that have completed their course and now require deep release for completion. Having our vital energy recouped in recapitulation, we can then apply it toward fulfillment of our potential and, when the time is right, for releasing all the strings as we journey deeper into the unfolding mystery, fully energetically present for what comes next!

Releasing strings,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Portal Of Disorientation

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Where am I? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Where am I?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Many times I woke in the night. I couldn’t orient myself to time or space. Each time, I’d ask myself, “Is it time to get up?” Finally locating the clock, I discovered that only 15 minutes had elapsed. Meanwhile, I’d been in many intense dreams. The night became an endless tide of vividly clear dreams, confused awakenings, the inability to find the clock, locate the window or the table with the water glass upon it. Nonetheless, I entered the day filled with energy, refusing any definitions of a restless night.

I left on my drive to work. As I descended a hill, a tidal wave of energy washed through me from head to toe. I felt leveled, nearly breathless. The after currents continued as I focused on steering the car with mindful presence. I refused all inner promptings to format my experience as dangerous. “A wave of energy had simply gone through me,” I told myself.

Carlos Castaneda taught how we build our reality through chains of associations that then define the world we perceive, creating the structures and habits we live by. These habits are actions generated by thoughts rationally paired that define “reality” and dictate behavioral responses.

I might have defined my experience as a consequence of my lack of sleep, the humidity and poor oxygen intake. I might have associated it with prodromal symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. I might have driven myself directly to the hospital if I’d settled on that set of associations to define my reality. Had I given it that definition, perhaps my body would have heard that intent and generated a series of more disturbing symptoms requiring immediate medical attention.

Seth, in Jane Robert’s channeling, spoke similarly of the sequencing of time, a proclivity of the intellect or the narrowing of the intellect into its rational mode to structure a world of cause and effect, with its sequencing of the day into logical components.

From this perspective, night is for sleeping. If I don’t sleep I will not rejuvenate; I will be tired and testy the next day. The other night I slept, by this logical definition, “poorly.” Yet, I resist this definition. I resist the instruction to my body to be groggy and unfocused.

The known world distorted... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The known world distorted…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I realize that I was treated to a journey outside time and space the other night. With each awakening I had the sensation of much time having passed, yet it hadn’t in “real time.” Despite my lucidity in dreaming, each time I awoke I could not orient myself in my room, regardless of my rational knowing of the layout. I was fully awake, but not in the room of my rational knowing. It was fascinating to walk about in such a “known” space with no sense of orientation. How relative reality really is!

I seek out disorientation; I intend it. Disorientation releases us from all the familiar places of our well-worn world where we have deposited the lion’s share of our energy to generate a known, definite world. The more I enter the portal of disorientation, the more I recover energy I once invested in living comfortably in a solid world. I find each time that I pick up increased freedom to journey beyond the narrow compound of reason.

Seth remarks that the intellect has far greater capacity than its logical reason. When the intellect is narrowed to logic, it cuts itself off from all the natural portals of information available to it from the multidimensional self, such as intuition that peers beyond the senses, to telepathy that reads the interconnected energy all around us, to clairvoyance that has access to information that can inform the present with future knowledge.

The shamanic key to these portals of experience is disorientation: the interruption of the typical flow of energy that defines our reality and suppresses our fuller potential.

The world is in free fall now, ever since the election of Obama. Obama’s rise to power interrupted the flow of world energy at the seat of world power—The White House—forever. It matters not that his ability to effectively govern has been so ridiculously undercut. Most important is the rupture to white power dominating the world. It’s like the rupture of the Catholic world with a retiring Pope. It just doesn’t happen that way!

Through the portal into the unknown! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Through the portal into the unknown!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Who could have imagined gay marriage becoming the law of the land at this time? Who could have imagined the legalization of marijuana either, rapidly advancing through the land at this time? The wars rage throughout the world as the energy of change exhausts in destruction. Disorientation does destabilize, but it also opens the door to a more inclusive world, seeking now to find its way to new balance.

What a joy to be alive and participating in such an adventure of freedom and change as we traverse this portal of disorientation!

Breathe, stay calm and focused as you grip the wheel,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: There Are No Bad Dreams

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I'm so afraid! - Art by Jan Ketchel
I’m so afraid!
– Art by Jan Ketchel

The ego is quick to categorize the terrifying experience of a nightmare as a bad dream, best to be forgotten. The ego would be wise, however, to suspend that automatic protective judgment and ask the question: What was the function or purpose of the disturbing dream?

Behind the dream and the dreamer—our consciousness in dreams—lies the dream maker. The dream maker is the Self, the higher self that has made all the major survival decisions through the course of our life.

It is the Self in our tender years of youth who brings us fairytales to secretly live by as we encounter the harshness and brutality of actual reality that fails to safely usher us into secure psychological life. This compensatory secret life is the very one needed to nurture and tend to our fledgling ego’s fragile hold on life.

It is the Self as well that decides to fragment our overwhelming experiences in that harsh reality, burying for safekeeping our true spirit until a more opportune time to be born arises. This same Self chooses where we will be taken, what we will be shown and, most importantly, what we will emotionally experience in our nightly dreams, the intent being to better position our waking consciousness to take forward the quest for wholeness and individuation.

An encounter with a terrifying character in a dream might signal the Self’s urging to take up the task of integrating a traumatic experience, perhaps something long held in storage that left a delicate, vulnerable part of the spirit encrusted for decades. The Self might be suggesting to the ego self that the time is ripe to pick up a sword and not only face this ancient encounter, but cut through the encrustment to free this vital part of the self.

A series of frustrating, anxiety-producing mundane dreams might set the waking mood of frustration as the Self seeks to energize the waking self to break through its repetitive fixation on a habit that dominates life but imprisons the developmental needs of the self.

A sleepless night might be the Self’s decision to weaken the ego’s daytime hegemony over life so that it might raise to consciousness disturbing truths normally held in check. This may be the very thing needed to compel the ego to pay attention to its inner reality versus its usual focus on the events of the outer world and its position in it.

At the deepest level, what does the spider really mean? - Art by Jan Ketchel
At the deepest level, what does the spider really mean?
– Art by Jan Ketchel

There may be many varied developmental motives in the Self’s spinning of its nightly dream encounters. If the waking ego dismisses these experiences upon awakening, it not only misses the gift and deeper meaning of the Self’s intent, but it further alienates itself from the Self’s goal of individuation, likely triggering even more severe attempts by the Self to get the ego on board. This can take the form of repetitive and deepening nightmares or the breakthrough of the dream projectively into daytime life, in the form of phobias or even hallucinations.

We do well to value and appreciate the Self’s intent to lead us deeper into our wholeness, valuing all of our dreams—fairytales and nightmares alike—diligently seeking out their deeper purpose. With that fearless approach we become allies with the Self as it leads us ever deeper on our journey to wholeness.

Appreciating the dream,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: A Divided Mind

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A divided mind is food for thought. The choice? Feed the entities or dip into a pot of serenity? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
A divided mind is food for thought. The choice? Feed the entities or dip into a pot of serenity?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico were definitive in their designation of the mind as an outside entity that has become a permanent member of the human being. In modern biological terms we might view the mind as a symbiotic partner that both preys upon and contributes to our human experience.

The parasitic quality of the mind is most evident in the experience of worry. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico observed how the mind generates empty concerns that are fueled by the fires of obsessive worry. This fiery fury excites the central nervous system and generates an energetic intensity that actually serves as the food for the parasitic entity.

Earlier this week Jan’s dream of the loud knocks on the door reminded me of living on West 86th Street in New York City in my early twenties. I’d lie in bed at night and toss and turn, terrified that someone was going to attempt to break in. We lived in a very secure 24-hour doorman building, yet my fears culminated in my getting up and barricading the double-locked and chained front door with several chairs.

In the light of day those nightly terrors would easily be forgotten or dismissed, but the residue agitation in the central nervous system could lead to attaching to many daytime concerns. The truth is, however, that worry is a product of the mind. Its conjurings impact the body’s central nervous system to generate an excited energy for its own consumption. This action by the mind is similar to a cancer cell that seeks to enter and feed off the energy of the cells around it with little concern for the well being of the host it is destroying.

Interestingly, another function of the mind, rationality, actually provides the necessary tool to counter and overcome the deleterious impact of worry. From an existential here and now place, the rational mind can take responsibility for where we place our attention. In the face of the extraordinary pull to fixate on the conjuring creation, the rational mind is free to decide to shift its attention, i.e.: “I can choose where I put my attention.”

I can sit and gaze at the clouds... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
I can sit and gaze at the clouds…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I can choose to place my attention on my breath. I can choose to place my attention on a chakra, to tune into the state of sensation in my heart. I am free to breathe into and expand my heart center, my solar plexus, my throat, my head. I am free to say the words of a prayer. I am free to repeat a mantra. No one and nothing can take away my right to place my attention where I want it. And with that I can effect a shift in my central nervous system. I can restore the calm that the predator seeks to disrupt. This may take continuous effort, but if I am persevering the predator gives up.

And so, like most challenges that we encounter, there is a valuable polarity to our divided mind that offers excellent and immediate opportunity for evolutionary advancement. The predator instigates trouble through its worrisome conjuring, yet simultaneously it offers us the awareness of freedom of choice through the rational mind. If we use this tool of choice to subdue the predator we reclaim our power of attention, and a calm central nervous system to boot. Longterm results are increased consciousness and control. With this powerful mindset firmly in place we are prepared for deeper journeys into the ever unfolding mysteries of life, and beyond.

With mind set on infinity,
Chuck