Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

What does it really entail to fully release another person of responsibility for one’s fate? Energetically, it involves fully claiming your own energy and investing it totally in your own journey. To fully claim your journey you must withdraw the projections, remove the distractions, and confront the fears, in order to achieve balance as a solitary being and take the adventure into the unknowable.

The shamans suggest that we erase our personal history. Ultimately, what they mean is to allow ourselves to live outside the energetic binds of a known life. This does not mean escape. There is no escape from fully knowing our personal history, with all of its energetic compromises and entanglements, if we want to fully reclaim and consolidate our energy for the journey. This is the purpose of recapitulation, to fully know everything we have experienced, to reclaim the energy encased in forgotten traumas and unmet needs. We must leave no stone unturned, facing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, physically, cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually.

In recapitulation our bodies tell us exactly what happened. Our minds show us the fuller picture from a perspective we have never seen before, as the adult self joins our younger self in the process. Our feelings reveal our lost innocence. Our spirit shows us the meaning of the events in our life in the context of our journey; why in fact our soul chose the life it did, and what refinements were needed to continue the evolutionary journey. With a completed recapitulation we fully assume responsibility for the life we are in, and realize there is nothing to forgive.

As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

Imagine going to a movie and staring at a blank screen. How can we know and experience a movie without a projector projecting a story? It is through the projection of our own story onto the screen of characters and elements of this world that we discover who we are and our reason for being here.

When Buddha attained enlightenment he learned how to turn off the projector. No easy task, as anyone who has attempted meditation knows. He discovered why we suffer. We suffer because we project. We cognitively and emotionally completely invest, or attach, to our stories as real and eternal. Ironically, we absolutely must do this in order to fully experience the story. Naturally, however, though we all deny it, in the final analysis, we must all retire our attachment to the story of our life, through old age, sickness, and death.

Of course, the paradox for Buddha was, in order to reach enlightenment, he first had to experience the deep sensuality of life in this world, illusion or not. It is the proving ground for advancement. If you try, as he did, to skip over the experience of sensuality, like the acetic, you simply attach to another illusion of life, feeling special and entitled to, though not worthy of, enlightenment.

The upshot: if you are in this world, you are here to live it fully before you can turn off the projector and advance. The great archetypes within us provide the story lines and energy for much of our lives. Despite the impersonal nature of the archetypes, we are driven to experience them personally before we can retire them or detach from being controlled by them. How many times are we driven to find nirvana in a romance, at any age? Perhaps it is necessary to spend countless lifetimes in pursuit of the “one,” finally experiencing the ecstatic bliss of merger with one’s soul mate before we are ready to truly retire that illusion.

And what does retirement mean? It means, fully realizing one’s own wholeness, bringing home the gold, standing comfortably, a solitary being, calm, fulfilled, ready for the next adventure, this time, beyond the illusion of eternal sameness, or the attachment to but one story.

The paradox remains. We must project to fully discover ourselves in projected form. Then we must, fully, bring home the gold. This is the crucifixion stage, as we contain the compulsion to project and give away our gold and truth, by shunning all the enticing movies presented for our delight and security. This is the path portrayed in two of my favorite movies, The Matrix and Little Buddha. (Non-projector that I am!)

As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

When I was a young boy I wrestled deeply with believing in the existence of God. I tried diligently to be perfect, walking only in straight lines, like a soldier, making perfect right angle turns. The nuns insisted that I memorize the catechism word for word; that was all that was required to receive the sacrament to commune directly with God. I was a miserable failure at both straight lines and memorization, but the deeper problem for me was the shameful fact that I had no faith; I simply couldn’t accept that God existed based on belief alone. I recall the shame and anxiety I felt revealing this “sin” to my younger sister, whom I swore to secrecy; surely I was damned. Everyone believes, why can’t I? My deepest truth was revealed to my young self: I am not a believer! I am a failed Christian.

Finally, I decided to confront God, if there was one, directly. Looking back, I see my younger self discovering scientific method. I set up my hypothesis: if God could show me tangible evidence that he existed then I could believe in him. For my experiment I chose Good Friday, an established holy day where something big supposedly happened, that is, Christ’s crucifixion. I proposed to God that if it were true that Christ died on this day that he send me a sign to verify the exact moment of Christ’s death. I left the specific sign in God’s hands, only requiring that it be abundantly noticeable to me. With that proposition established, I prepared for sleep, incessantly repeating the Hail Mary, with the intent that my request be granted.

Some time in the middle of the night I was awoken, my body completely paralyzed, I couldn’t even open my eyes. My ears were filled with the buzzing sound of a million crickets as I experienced myself transforming into pure vibration. The intensity deepened to the point that I was sure my consciousness, my very self, would soon disintegrate and I would be completely swallowed up in the vibrations. I steadied myself, trying desperately to hold on to awareness, as I felt myself slipping away. Suddenly, it dawned on me: God has spoken! This was the moment of Christ’s death. Gradually my awareness returned to my body as the vibrations subsided. I knew that if I opened my eyes and looked at the clock I would know the exact time of Christ’s death. I was far too terrified to even blink an eye or move a muscle. I was simply thankful that I was alive, that I hadn’t disintegrated into sheer energy. This was my awakening; I discovered that direct experience was my one true religion. Christianity was simply the metaphor that opened the door to direct energetic experience of infinity. Through the years, I have discovered many useful metaphors and many useful methods.

This experiment became my first experience of life beyond the human form, the rational world of solid objects. No wonder we cling so tightly to that world, where everything is solid and knowable, relegating the proposition of spirit to believing or not believing. Entering the world of energetic experience brings us into a new world where nothing is solid and knowable, and we must learn how to steady ourselves to explore this new reality. It amazes me how simple it is to enter the experience of the greater reality of who we are and what we are capable of. It is our birthright, our innate potential to experience ourselves as energy and explore infinity now, as energetic beings. All we need to do is set that intent and ask for it, sincerely and innocently. Truthfully, what we need most is a little daring, and nerves of steel, to step out into the unknown.

The impact of our habitual patterns, accumulated through the years, creates a thick bark around our energetic selves, which can be challenging to penetrate. Herein lies the value of establishing some kind of practice to reach our energy bodies. My younger self discovered the value of repetitive prayer, coupled with intent. Dreaming is a natural time when we slip into our energy bodies. Again, using our intent, we can cultivate our dreaming attention to explore the world out of body. In the shaman’s world, practices such as Tensegrity break through the crust of habitual patterns to redistribute vital energy, improving physical prowess and the ability to reach the energy body. Practices such as yoga and meditation also open the pathway to one’s energetic essence.

It is important to remember that the method itself is really not that important, they are all equal, it’s simply a matter of finding the right fit, or what personally resonates. The ability to reach one’s energy body is innate. All you need to do is intend it, innocently, and hold that intent with gentle persistence. All the methods to aid this process, discovered by spiritual masters and codified through various spiritual traditions, can be helpful to aid one in cutting through the thick bark, which shrouds the energetic essence. However, attachment to a master or a tradition can just as easily contribute to the bark, if one is not careful. Once a practice becomes a habit, a must-do, the execution of which determines our judgment of ourselves, it gets absorbed by and reinforces our cognitive structure of everyday rational life, rather than helping us cut through it. If the method we choose becomes “the method,” again, it simply thickens the bark as we become trapped in the competitiveness of everyday life. If we project our sought after energetic potential onto our teachers, or spiritual traditions, we become trapped in hierarchy and hero worship, further alienating ourselves from our innate potential.

It’s challenging to not take our habits with us as we embark on a spiritual path to reach our energetic selves. Remember, everything you need you already have. You needn’t look outside for the answer, or the way. I suggest simply intending to discover your energetic self. See what happens!

As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Although I did not return to the discussion of projection, as promised, I will most likely pick up where I left off in next week’s blog, discussing positive projection. Unless something else comes to my attention.

Until we meet again,
Chuck

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

How challenging it is to truly embrace one’s gold. Dysfunctional families, dysfunctional relationships, dysfunctional marriages, etc, etc.; the concept of dysfunction is the current buzzword to account for out inability to embrace our gold, which is actually a direct connection to our archetypal inheritance; or in energetic terms, our feminine energy. Lacking a solid archetypal foundation, we struggle with low self-esteem.

As I look around this spring, I don’t notice inertia, hesitation, stagnation, or depression in the birds, the squirrels, or the peepers. Spring energies course through our human veins, yet often get caught in paralysis, hyperactivity, or failure. Apparently, when we left the Garden and chose consciousness, chose to take charge of directing that which had flowed so smoothly with unfailing precision, we were sentenced to sail the ship without a guidebook. We have been haphazardly crashing on the rocks and reefs, finding our way, ever since.

Our sentence, upon leaving the Garden, also included poor self-esteem. At the foundation of every individual germ of consciousness (the ego) is the fact of inadequacy. The ego is no match for the archetypes. The archetypes got it down pat through eons of experience; they know what works. They know how to direct nature’s energies and make things flow smoothly. Human egos, thrilled with their “advanced science,” marvel at their ability to create pharmaceuticals to correct what they judge to be nature’s inherent flaws. I simply can’t figure out how those birds manage to sleep through the night without their ambien or breathe without their nasonex! Do humans ever consider that their inherent flaws are inherent mishaps, created through the hubris and ignorance of haphazardly sailing the ship?

Now, to be fair, someone had to take the wheel, figure some things out, make some rules, and create order amidst the “chaos.” Have some compassion for the male God, it’s the best that alienated beings, with little to go on, could do, as they trudged, thirstily, through the desert outside the Garden. The egos invented the male God, complete with new guidebooks. Some of these guidebooks come close to the wisdom of the archetypes; some are seriously flawed. The latest reigning edition is the Book of Science, with google providing quick access and wikipedia providing up-to-the-moment certainty.

So what are the qualities of the male God? He knows, he is powerful, he is definite, completely certain, and competent. He is the antidote to the human dilemma of core self doubt and lack of self-esteem. Why wouldn’t we worship such a God? Why wouldn’t we gobble up the self-help commandments, which promise us a connection to such qualities? Why wouldn’t we overtly, covertly, or unconsciously, seek to emulate or unite with those in the world who reflect these desirable qualities? If only I could be so knowledgeable, calm, collected, definite, and powerful, as he or she!

So where is the flaw here? I see these strivings as compensations for a lonely, inadequate ego, completely ill equipped for life. That is the true state of our “conscious” beings, alienated from our archetypal core. Stated in another way, this is masculine energy alienated from feminine energy, which has been the energetic predicament of humanity since the birth of consciousness. It is true that many egos before us have made great discoveries about the “nature” of things. Unfortunately, many of these egos, or demigods, behaved like little Neros, so enthralled with themselves and needing to play with their powers that they created many aberrant natures. Often, they made it particularly important to eliminate, at all costs, any sign of strong feminine energy. Thank God for pharmaceuticals to correct the balance! The problem, as I see it, is that the male God, devoid of feminine energy, is an alienated god. Essentially, it represents the ultimate enshrined ego. That God has no need for archetypal wisdom; he simply can do a better job.

The question arises, should we have left the Garden to begin with? What is the value of consciousness when we view, honestly, the job it has done in steering the ship? Personally, I think it was our evolutionary imperative to leave the Garden, just as now it is our evolutionary imperative to discover ourselves as energy. However, even if the Garden is an illusion, because ultimately it’s simply energy, we don’t have the right to leave the Garden in this condition. The challenge is to reconcile the relationship between masculine and feminine energy. How can we solve this?

First, we must find our way back to the Garden. This brings us into direct contact with archetypal wisdom. Feminine energy never lost its connection to archetypal wisdom; the connection is automatic. But how does feminine energy grapple with consciousness? Feminine energy is direct knowing. Consciousness knows nothing a priori. First, it must discover, preferably through science, facts; then it knows. How does that which just knows (feminine energy) reconcile with that which has to figure everything out (masculine energy)?

The way this challenge has unfolded, to date, has been for masculine energy to become dominant, despite its ignorance, and completely subjugate and devalue the feminine. Of course, the feminine is inherently insecure in the light of consciousness because it really does not know why it knows what it knows, it just knows. This “just knowing” is pitiful from the perspective of consciousness alone, which must discover and label all the building blocks of the world it dismantles.

The reconciliation of these two energies, which desperately need each other, is in a new relationship of co-existence and partnership, without either dominating the other. Masculine energy needs to drop its god complex, ego inflation, and become pure awareness. Feminine energy needs to trust that it knows, dropping its ego deflation. Both energies, devoid of judgments, are free to see all the truths, consciousness and knowing in alignment. This alignment insures right action.

Masculine and feminine energy in alignment will allow restoration of the Garden and freedom to venture beyond, with awareness, into pure energy.

As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

I was just carried away this week by spring’s awakening and do intend to return to the discussion of projection next week. Until we meet again,
Chuck

Welcome to Chuck’s Place, where Chuck Ketchel expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences!

My intention this week is to continue the explanation and exploration of the psychological dynamic of projection. My rational syllabus had been to broaden into the non-defensive dimension of projection, where the psyche shows us many parts of our unknown selves as they are reflected upon the screen of our relationships in the world. However, my appreciation of the non-rational phenomena I encounter, in this case a preponderance of synchronistic material, prompts me to focus instead on grappling with the power of projection, which can be so disruptive to our lives. No amount of intellectual knowledge can stem the energetic impact of projection, which ranges emotionally from bliss to terror. We must have tools to reign ourselves in from the dangers of such extremes. Furthermore, our ability to process or gain perspective on what is happening to us when we are caught in a projection is undermined, and of little value, while under the influence of such emotional intensity.

A couple of days ago, I heard a report on NPR about the current state of scientific knowledge regarding the value of releasing anger. With John Lennon’s primal screams in the background, this piece went on to challenge the value of cathartic emotional release. Evidence seems to suggest that the effects of cathartic release are temporary and, in fact, feed the fire, leading to greater emotional intensity; it is a bottomless pit. Despite my utter love for John Lennon and his Plastic Ono Band album, (my favorite album of all time!) I agree, in general, with this research. While it is necessary to empower an individual to have and express feelings that may have been repressed completely, or overly controlled, throughout life, release of feelings is not an end in itself. Release does not guarantee resolution. Resolution requires resolved detachment, as opposed to holding onto justified anger, for instance, which requires ongoing maintenance and essentially keeps one caught in victimhood, remaining oppressed. This continued attachment can also lead to opening the door to archetypal energies and states of possession, which I have explored elsewhere, in Message #456, Healing or Possession.

If the ego becomes debilitated by emotional intensity there can be no mastery and resolution. So, rule number one, in gaining such mastery and resolution over projective energy, is: stay an adult; maintain the integrity of the mature ego. Do not allow the intensity of emotions, such as love, rage, jealousy, or fear, to unseat your ability to remain in adult control of your self. If emotion is going to overwhelm your adult self, it is not time to release the emotion. Of course, the next question is, what to do with intense emotion that is welling up inside?

Intense emotion is fire! If you add wood to the fire it intensifies. Rule number two is, shut down the mind; do not add fuel to the fire! Thoughts provide plenty of dry kindling for a fire; firing rapidly they intensify an emotion. Thoughts might also add pressure to engage in behaviors to uncover more “evidence” of wrongdoing, which can, indeed, further fuel the fire. Allowing intuition, in its negative form, to run amok, like in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, Suspicion, where projection is allowed to build a story that is totally untrue leading to dire circumstances, provides more fuel for the fire. So, how do we shut this process down?

Rule number three: don’t attach! This is the mantra to say, incessantly, to the self. It states an intent and attracts the energy of intent to support it. Inwardly, it draws a powerful circle around the self, shutting down the projector, keeping the energy of the self, and all its parts, safely contained within. Repeating the mantra, don’t attach, don’t attach, don’t attach, takes attention away from projected objects, and focuses, instead, on finding inner balance. It promotes letting go of thought, a major culprit in projective fire. There will come a time, a time of calm, when meaning and clarity can be applied to the time of intense emotional projective fire. That time is not now, during the encounter with intense emotion. Now is the time of turning inward, holding onto the full integrity of the self, and bringing all of the projected parts home, which removes the threat of loss of self. With this action we can restore balance and calm within.

I find myself turning to the active meditative exercise Jeanne proposed for this weekend, as an excellent tool for dousing the projective fire, in Message #473. Walk through your day with awareness focused on your own liquid gold in a bowl in your hands. Keep your focus steady; maintain calm and balance. You don’t want to spill one drop of your precious gold. Don’t allow your mind to wander, or the bowl might tip. Keep returning your attention to your golden focus. All that is precious, all that is you, is safely contained and balanced in your steady hands.

As always, I am open to discussion or comment. Should anyone wish to write, I can be reached via email at: chuck@riverwalkerpress.com

Until we meet again,
Chuck