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 Place: Self-Psychokinesis

Energy in motion…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Psyche is the mind, a producer of thought. Kinetic energy is energy in motion. Psychokinesis is the intentional use of thought to influence physical matter.

When we have a thought, our mind entertains it as a solid unit. When that thought is imbued with the intention of emotional energy, it assumes a wavelength form, that flows beyond the mind and body and is sent out to the universe-at-large, or to a specific person or object, who may be impacted by its energetic charge.

What we commonly call a synchronicity—thinking of someone just prior to them calling, for instance—is actually an example of unintentional psychokinesis. That person’s thought of contacting us assumed its wavelength form, with its energy reaching our attention before it fully materialized in the actual call.

When the emotion of intention is applied to thought, its wavelength impact can be quite impressive, as is evident in intended remote healings and casino winnings. Recognizing the power of collective intent, many organizations, such as The Monroe Institute, organize virtual gatherings for individuals to join their healing intent for the greater good of the world.

The power to influence the material world via mental intent extends to one’s own physical body. The body is governed by complex evolutionary programs garnered over the vast past of human history. These programs operate autonomously, through the subconscious mind, with little need for conscious input to function.

So evident and uniform are the unfolding of these programs that few question their unalterable validity, nor their inability to be impacted by conscious intent. Thus, for instance, most people assume that the diseases and physical challenges typical of old age are inevitable facts. These beliefs become reinforcing thoughts to the unchecked tendency of these physical programs to automatically unfold throughout the life cycle.

These beliefs are further reinforced by the institutions that support human life, such as the medical system that predicts and diagnoses, based upon the uniform findings of science, which bases its knowledge upon the study of the inherent programs in nature. Conscious intent is not seriously considered as a factor capable of influencing the natural programs in the human body.

However, as the placebo effect aptly attests to, what we believe—that is, our thought in wavelength energetic form—can vastly change the condition of the matter, the physical stuff, of our body. However, to achieve actual results, we must truly believe that anything is possible.

If we can accept the hypothesis that something is possible until proven otherwise, we can allow our thoughts, imbued with the kinetic energy of intention, to target a change in our physical body. Thus, freed of limiting beliefs, our thoughts assume their energetic wavelength form, that can solicit a potential resonant body program, to activate and effect the desired bodily change.

The program activated would be a potential for a change in the body that would not have automatically happened without the suggestive impact of the psychokinetic intent. Evolutionary programs, though capable of innovation, are slow to change. The impact of consciousness upon these programs speeds up adaptive change.

The crux of believing is the ability to suspend judgment. Judgments merely mimic the collective consensus, which is derived from nature’s automatic programs. By suspending judgment, the true scientist puts these natural prejudices on the shelf and finds out what actually might be possible. We can all be that scientist in relation to our own bodies via the thoughts we intend for it.

What can undermine these psychokinetic intentions are pre-existing hidden intentions that, in fact, remain attached to current body conditions for defensive purposes. For instance, if one moved beyond a body limitation, one might be challenged to enter a life one longed for but was also terrified of approaching.

This hidden intention cancels the energy of the conscious positive wavelength intention, and the result is that nothing changes. What’s more, one’s conscious ego can become demoralized in feelings of powerlessness and failure, further reinforcing blocking beliefs. One must find the courage to acknowledge the existence and function of these blocking intentions to successfully mitigate their resistance to change.

Sometimes, blocking intentions result from punishment for felt transgressions to immediate or remote ancestry. To move beyond the limitations of one’s family history can feel like disloyalty or survival guilt. In these instances, reframing one’s intentions, as healing to one’s ancestral line, can aid in the release of ancestral limitation, dysfunction and disease.

Once one has cleared oneself of hidden blocking beliefs, one is freed to practice self-psychokinesis with conscious intent.

Allow oneself to visualize intended change, aided by clearly worded description. Access the kinetic energy of self love, and combine it with one’s intention for change. This energized wavelength of energy is freed to do its magic. See what happens! But again, no attachment to the outcome. Suspend judgment and let the games begin!

Intending the greater good, within and without,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Remembering Is Everything

Time to take a stroll down memory lane?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

In a separate reality, I was in a new school, small and simple. It was the first day of school. Another student and I were called to stand in the front of the class. We were being recognized for the papers we had written from a summer assignment. I was amazed, as the topic was science or engineering, something I hardly felt knowledgeable in.

I remembered to remember that my task was to remember. Remember people’s names, remember the layout of the school, how to get to the lunchroom, where to sit, the protocols around being served and eating. I was painfully shy, not wanting to stand out by making mistakes. The imperative was clear—remember everything so that you can smoothly fit in and navigate the school.

The evening before this dream journey I was back at The Training for Living Institute, remembering being hired as a promising prospect, though still a teenager. The layout began to materialize, the large pop art rendition of the TFL logo painted on the wall, encircled in bright colors. The spacious outer reception area with modern, comfortable chairs.

Amazingly, the names of my colleagues began to materialize as my focus opened the Akashic record of this earlier lifescape. My school dream was validating the importance of remembering, the key to retrieving all of what we are. What really is the challenge of remembering? And why do we ‘forget’ to begin with?

Children often remember their families from a prior life. Parents must quickly talk them out of it, lest they be identified for medication assessment. The truth is, however, that children do go on to forget because the main attraction is the life they are currently in, not past lives lived.

Remembering a past life is as valuable as an astrological chart. It explains  the influence of indelible prior experiences and predicts future possibilities, but ultimately the action is in the free will choices of the current life.

We do not continue a prior life; we take up the issue of a prior life in a totally new context. We will meet incomplete challenges, which we might complete in this life. Future life will pick it up from there. Perhaps a life is an opportunity to pay forward the evolution of a greater life. And so, we forget past lives so that they don’t interfere with our current opportunities.

Of course, from the perspective of our greater wholeness in infinity, indeed, we must ultimately claim all of our lives. We must be able to handle the emotion of that integration as we bring together all of our varied adventures in infinity. This level of Enlightenment is generally the challenge upon leaving this life.

When the challenge is at this level of consolidation of our wholeness, we must be capable of radical acceptance of everything. This can only be accomplished with the most refined level of love for everyone and everything—with total equanimity. Until we are ready to love at this level, many memories must be anesthetized.

In trauma, the contents of an experience are separated from consciousness to protect the stability of the personality. These ‘forgotten’ experiences nonetheless include a portion of our vital energy. Thus, loss of memory, in this case, is loss of self.

Reliving a forgotten memory through recapitulation is a soul retrieval process that restores one’s lost vital energy. Key to this restoration is the ability to experience, release, and neutralize the emotions bound to the memory. The complete acceptance of self and other, as well as the circumstances of the memory, requires achieving the refined love of equanimity. If we can’t love every experience we have ever had, we are rejecting a part of our truth.

Morality has no value in acceptance. All that happened is valid because it happened. If we remain judgmental, we are not fully accepting of a part of ourselves and a part of our history. Our future lives will continue to reflect future attempts to reach total acceptance, as we relive new permutations of our unaccepted themes.

Thus, in the context of a current life, remembering the fullness of this life is essential to fully achieving the goal of the life one is in—to resolve the major theme and core issue of this life.

From the context of our greater Soul, in infinity, wholeness requires the remembering of all the lives, all the characters, all the partners and parents, all the loves, all the losses, all the supposed sins—all with total radical acceptance and total loving equanimity.

At the greater Soul level of acceptance, we must be ready for the big bang encounter with our fuller operating system, our multi-lived selves, at the time of transition into infinity. This might require extended time in purgatory bardos, as we slowly complete our cosmic recapitulation, resolving all of our lives and all of our issues. Remembering is the ticket to consolidation of our greater wholeness.

The order of challenge is to first remember and accept everything from the life we are in. With the wholeness of our current life achieved, it’s far easier, in infinity, to remember and accept every life lived. With this consolidation of cosmic Self, perhaps we approach the ultimate memory of oneness, with Source, the single being of everything and from which we all come.

Remembering to remember,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Gasp, Then Segue

Ahhh…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

The gushing river, hammered with thunderous rain, topples the restraining power of its dikes, flooding the lands it borders. We gasp at the breakthrough of this violent release.

As the I Ching points out, in the hexagram of Breakthrough (#43), this release is the consequence of a long period of accumulated tension, such as in that of a cloudburst that results from an extended accumulation of condensation in a cloud that can no longer bear the weight of the water it holds.

That tension was released, on the one side, by those who felt it their patriotic duty to storm the Capital. From the other side, the release took the form of vindication: yes, they had indeed been living under the tyranny of a despot. Those tense energies have climaxed simultaneously, as we approach the end of one era and the dawn of a new. We are now in the time of Segue.

As Bob Monroe wrote in his book, Far Journeys:

“…’segue‘  is defined as a proper interlude of musical melodies and harmonies that moves from the conclusion of one composition to the introduction of another. ‘Proper’ infers a transition that smoothly loses that previous theme or mood and sets the stage for what is to come.” (p. 63)

How now will we compose our segue?

The I Ching states that the facts must be announced truthfully. There is danger, but it does not favor one to take up arms. Nonetheless, the I Ching states:  “Even if only one inferior man is occupying a ruling position in a city, he is able to oppress superior men.”

That kind of power must be checked.

On an individual level we are guided to address any passion still lurking in the heart that would obscure reason. Passion and reason cannot coexist, therefore the true fight is to unseat the passion so that good might prevail. If we allow ourselves to indulge in the fires of rage, from any side, we risk devolving a peaceful segue into total conflagration.

There is no compromise with evil; it must be openly discredited. This includes an objective assessment of our own passions and shortcomings. Nonetheless, it is not wise to fight evil with proactive aggression, as this would only enflame its impulse and likely infect the good with evil, as it regresses into rageful reaction.

Perhaps the best segue the I Ching can offer, from the time of Breakthrough, is to shift the composition to one of making energetic progress in the good. The flames of evil require the kindling of negativity to continue to burn. A positive, loving attitude that embraces the opportunity for energetic progress in the good can unify a nation, and a world, that the common good may finally prevail.

Segue to love,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Body Follows the Mind

Even the Earth manifests healing intent…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The body is formed and functions according to a hardwired set of autonomous rules that don’t involve consciousness. At the subconscious level of the mind these rules are activated and employed to support the daily activities of life with little conscious awareness or input.

The belief that our genetics will basically control our physical destiny is an assumption that underlies modern attitudes toward the body. This is supported by the fact that the genetic makeup of an individual is in fact preprogrammed and if left to its own devices will predictably evolve along the lines of its innate algorithms.   

Consciousness has the power to break ranks with these powerfully controlling inner laws. At a simple level, a body predisposed to diabetes may have some control over the manifestation of that disease through the exercise of certain food choices. This same principle applies to many potential diseases that may not activate due to preventative behavioral choices.

At a higher more subtle mental level is the influence of belief on physical conditions. This is dramatically demonstrated with the placebo effect, where mental belief alone might cure or cause a disease. Thus, ascertaining one’s core beliefs, assessing the power of their influence, and considering suspending those beliefs in the service of manifesting a new possibility is a good practice to deepen one’s influence upon the body.

At an even more subtle dimension of the mind is the fact that thought is an energetic entity. Thoughts, in fact, have the possibility to randomly fly out of the head and enter the headspace of another person. The power of directed thought to manifest an action on the physical plane is demonstrated by the healing intent being transferred in a Reiki or Therapeutic Touch session.

At an even deeper subtle mental dimension is the fact that while in human form, that is, alive in a human body, the body serves the evolution of consciousness. Thus, if our growth requires changes in our body to support our spiritual growth, our consciousness might be able to rewrite or take charge of the rules that typically govern our physical functioning.

This level of potential change requires that we are in full acceptance of our body as is, that we can truly say we love it. If we are at war with our body we will have difficulty transcending its limitations, as the energy of change is the energy of love. Our process of change at this stage will require much attention to deep, loving acceptance of what is. The potential of what might be can only be built upon this loving foundation.

With the exercise of free will in choices, in suspending limiting beliefs, in sending positive healing thoughts and love to the body, in evolving overall consciousness, anything is possible. At least until proven otherwise!

Love and blessings,

Chuck 

Chuck’s Place: The Path to Heart

Wherever your path to heart may lead…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Often, what is experienced as traumatic in the moment becomes the seed of great growth and liberation when viewed from a deeper perspective at a future time.

Maya, a central concept in Hindu cosmology, is considered illusion at the level of everyday life, as events in the moment veil the fuller picture beyond the container of space and time. Yet, at the fully transparent level of the highest spiritual plane, Maya radiates as ultimate truth. The key to accessing ultimate truth is to revisit experience from the fullest and deepest perspective.

Thus, everything that challenges us, no matter how terrifying or painful, ultimately has the potential to lead us into deeper truth as we trod upon our path to heart. However, to benefit from this gift we must allow ourselves to review what we have already lived, by viewing it with a ruthlessly open and conscious mind and heart.

In viewing from a different perspective, we can release the emotions that have protectively shielded us and view the deeper truth that lies beyond our limiting beliefs. With this, the protective chaff falls away, as we now have direct access to the seed of our fuller knowing and future possibility.

One great antagonist in 2020 is Covid-19. At the level of everyday human life, its impact upon the world has been devastating. As a world, we hope to neutralize its impact upon us, even as I write. Many lives have been lost at the physical level, and many livelihoods and life plans have been radically changed through the lethal invasion of this virus.

Beyond personal impact, however, is the interruption it is causing to the energetic flow of the planet. Travel is severely limited. Gatherings of humanity, even the smallest of nuclear families, are suspended in physical space and consigned to connection only at the vibrational level of virtual reality.

The next higher vibrational dimension of humanity, the soul level, operates via thought and feeling, in its energy body, independent of the physical body. Though the virtual reality experience during the pandemic has largely been dependent upon human technology, it has also challenged the physical human being to find mental and emotional connection in non-physical contact. This has been a tremendous crash course on spiritual contact beyond the human body.

Of course, we all crave physical contact, as we also exist in human form. However, we are being ushered, via virtual reality, into another dimension of our human potential. When this potential is more inwardly developed, via the discovery and practice of innate psychic powers—such as intuition, conscious dreaming, and telepathy—the door is opened to unlimited possibility for travel and connection beyond physical reality.

Within the physical dimension, the quality of connection is spiritually enhanced to include greater movement to the heart, in a deeper experience of abstract love; that is, love beyond strictly physical attachment. The legacy of Covid-19 has launched us forever into a greater world of energetic possibility to satisfy our deeper mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Donald Trump has certainly presented as both central protagonist or antagonist, depending upon your perspective, in 2020. In fact, as I write this blog, it remains unclear what is actually going to happen at the completion of his current term.

Regardless of one’s perspective, Donald Trump has championed the fact that reality is truly relative. He has shown us that it is consensus of agreement that actually generates a reality. What we believe is true is more powerful than objective reality.

This is most powerfully demonstrated via the placebo effect in scientific medical trials. Many a person has actually been cured of a disease because they wholeheartedly believed they were being administered the curing agent, even if it was actually a placebo sugar pill. Though medicine may dismiss the change as mere placebo, cure is cure! The power of belief can concretely transfigure physical reality.

The power of the subconscious to change our mental and physical conditions is the essence of hypnosis. What we tell ourselves, often via forgotten or unknown subconscious programs, is what we manifest.

Donald Trump, as master hypnotist, has demonstrated the power of repetitive speech to determine one’s belief system. The use of affirmations, mantra, prayer, and suggestion to shift belief and behavior is extremely powerful. The collective massing of such efforts, when attuned to the common good, can spiritually advance the planet.

Donald Trump has also embodied the ego at its me-first zenith, which is a reflection of the collective planetary ego of our time. Every individual human must face that the dominance of the ego within their own personality is their greatest resistance to desired spiritual growth.

On a planetary level, it is the collective human ego that puts the wants and desires of itself above the true needs of the whole planet, presenting the greatest blockade to needed planetary change. Donald Trump has impeccably embodied this attitude of resistance, reflecting humanity’s struggle with its own massive ego entrenchment.

For the planet to arrive at the heart center, the needed perspective for planetary survival, the ego must acquiesce to the needs of the greater planetary whole. It is inevitable that we will get there, but we don’t know how far planetary disruption will go before we arrive at the heart center consensus.

To arrive at the position of unconditional love for all that is, is where we are headed. Begin to practice it now in full unconditional love for self. To love every aspect of self, from lowest to highest, will end the need for projection of one’s personal evil upon other.

To love other as self is indeed the path to heart. May we all take giant steps upon it this coming year.

Love to all,

Chuck