tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37254094532691423492024-02-18T23:52:28.478-08:00A Questioning SpiritMy personal awakenings and how they've led me to discoveries in healing, spirituality and magic.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.comBlogger226125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-5541404220146641592019-09-05T12:31:00.000-07:002019-09-05T12:31:49.181-07:00Question on the Afterlife<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
I was recently asked this question: <b>What are your thoughts on using the afterlife as a fix for problems occurring in the present life?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlgAOKQm36uuLZrt6J7AE10t51uBDvrG_Sf7SjRAzEq0tAI0gqEIUdGBhCYXyVbzGZRzxKFoUPnCPypkWOSKKnZdxleTr9h__ThnIz42-vJG5uew7wLOrzm-lA7II9U21QbSTmYfoevE/s1600/eyXIx4GbShKxgoJgERUY2w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlgAOKQm36uuLZrt6J7AE10t51uBDvrG_Sf7SjRAzEq0tAI0gqEIUdGBhCYXyVbzGZRzxKFoUPnCPypkWOSKKnZdxleTr9h__ThnIz42-vJG5uew7wLOrzm-lA7II9U21QbSTmYfoevE/s320/eyXIx4GbShKxgoJgERUY2w.jpg" width="320" /></a>I decide to speak to this because it raises some interesting points from a unique perspective. Most spiritual questions I get come from clearly defined camps, each with their own tropes. This question doesn’t fit any of those tropes, <i>and </i>it requires some effort to come up with a thoughtful response, so I’m not surprised that only one trollish type threw out a dismissive answer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This question seemed very confusing to me at first, then I realized that it’s coming from a materialist point of view, that the whole concept of an afterlife was invented to make people more content with their lot in life, especially if it’s not a good one. There’s a ton of information on all of this on the web, so if you’re truly curious, you need to spend some serious time with Google. I’m just going to skim the surface, starting with the easy part first: <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/rel-poli/">Religion and politics</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Religion and politics have been joined at the hip, basically, forever, with religion being used and shaped for political purposes. You don’t have to squint too hard to see Christianity as instrument of white, European culture, actively used to justify eradication indigenous cultures, and teaching the people who survived to “turn the other cheek,” be humble, pious, be thankful for your lot, and get your reward in heaven. This led to the creation, in the nineteenth century, of a particularly heinous form of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S. deep south that put whites on top and black people in chains, in a hierarchy <i>ordained by God</i>, and which survives to this day:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Whereas an earlier generation of evangelical preachers had opposed slavery in the South during the early nineteenth century, Protestant clergymen began to defend the institution, invoking a Christian hierarchy in which slaves were bound to obey their masters. For many slaveholders, this outlook not only made evangelical Christianity more palatable, but also provided a strong argument for converting slaves and establishing biracial churches.<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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-<a href="https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/history2.html">The Slave Experience: Religion</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
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That said, there’s a deeper question: Was the very concept of an afterlife <i>invented</i>at all, or has it always existed? In one sense, every concept was “invented” at some point: Food, water, birth, death, alone, together, language. Every human goes from not having any of these concepts to knowing them, as they grow, and somebody must have been the very first, among the whole species, to do so. But, of course, the afterlife is an abstract concept that doesn’t exist in the real world…or does it? Philosophers and theologians have been arguing this point for thousands of years, but now, through science, we’re beginning to see that the mind is not the brain, that the brain does not create the mind, and that information and/or personality somehow can exist outside of the physical/temporal framework we call physical reality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What science? The five decades of research by the <a href="https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/">Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine</a>:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Through their careful study, the DOPS researchers objectively document and analyze the empirical data collected regarding human experiences suggestive of post-mortem survival of consciousness. Rigorous evaluation of considerable empirical evidence collected over fifty years of research, suggests that consciousness may indeed survive bodily death and that mind and brain appear to be distinct and separable.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s the studies supported and collected by <a href="https://iands.org/research/nde-research.html">IANDS (International Association for Near Death Studies)</a>, which also suggests there is much more going on in NDEs (Near Death Experiences) than just illusion, delusion, hallucination or fraud. I could go on, for there is much more scientifically validated information out there, but, if you are interested, there is Google, if you’re not, then nothing I say will matter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nothing known to date <i>proves </i>the existence of an afterlife, but it does make clear that there is a lot more going on in the world than a materialist viewpoint can explain. Neither does the evidence <i>prove </i></div>
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the existence of any god or gods or any particular religion. But it does suggest a basis for some of the foundational commonalities of all religions. In the end, it probably won’t make much difference in your life, so you pays your money, takes your choice, and believe what you want. <o:p></o:p><br />
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One closing note: There are people on Wall street using paranormal techniques to make money. They have exactly zero interest in telling or convincing anyone that what they do, works. Why? Because less interest means less competition and less competition means more profit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Take care.<o:p></o:p></div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-38323609064426372392019-08-31T13:54:00.000-07:002019-08-31T13:54:22.868-07:00A Question on Reincarnation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A question I was asked:<br />
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<b>In regards to reincarnation, if something becomes something else (i.e. a different personality as a different person), then in what way is it the same? If it’s still in some manner what it used to be, how is this reincarnation (coming back as another)?</b><br />
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I don’t usually answer questions about reincarnation, but I am moved to address this one. Reading through the existing answers, I see ones that are enlightened, judgmental, esoteric and angry, in about equal measure. I know that those reading them will pick the ones that fit their worldview and dismiss the rest. In my years with this subject, I thought I had seen it all, but one answer contains a clever bit of arrogant judgmentalism that I haven’t seen before! Human beings are nothing if not endlessly creative!<br />
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I lean toward the actor analogy: That the “you” that you are now is a part you are playing, and that there is a greater and more fundamental “you” that is the actor playing the part of “you” in this lifetime.<br />
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Most of the questions and misconceptions in the idea of reincarnation come from human centrism, the idea the humans are the measure of all things. That each person’s personal experience of being at the center of the universe extends to all things, material and spiritual. That whatever your experience, whatever you believe, that is the one and only way to experience and believe. Flat Earthers are a perfect example of this. While it is easy to find things in the physical world that can be explained by the idea “the world is a sphere,” they choose to come up with complex and often nonsensical explanations of why the world looks round, but isn’t. The key point here is we choose to believe something, then tailor our perceptions to match that belief. This goes for culture, religion, hobbies, pretty much any endeavor that humans engage in.<br />
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This question assumes that the personality that you have now, with all its personality, memories and quirks, is the only real, authentic, “you,” and if you remove any of those elements, you would not be “you” anymore. Also, that who you are now is the most important you, and must be preserved for “you” to continue on. But, what if there was a “you” independent of all that? What if you were more than just a collection of memories and feelings? What was the “you” that existed before you were born, in the womb? Before you had memories? Ideas? Thoughts? A personality? Are you your thoughts, your memories, your personality? Or are they just something you have?<br />
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There are more versions of reincarnation than you can shake a stick at. The one that I find most consistent with the research at <a href="https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/who-we-are/">University of Virginia</a>, the work of <a href="http://www.brianweiss.com/">Dr. Brian Weiss</a> and the recall of people who have <a href="https://iands.org/ndes/about-ndes.html">Near Death Experiences</a>, to site a few sources, is that there is a greater “you” that exists outside of time and space, as we commonly know them, that extends itself into our reality to become a soul of a child and experience life as a human in our 3-D reality. This soul forms the basis of your personality and your ethics, and sometimes exposes memories of other lifetimes and other realities. These souls come here of their own free will, with agendas that have little to do human values and religions, especially those that teach exclusion, hate and fear.<br />
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You will, of course, take from this what you will. Jesus said to let those with eyes, see, and ears, hear; you will take from this what you are ready for. Good luck and take care.<br />
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rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-8355829118785673272018-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:002018-06-08T12:28:01.318-07:00Science vs. Faith & Psi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzwe7WnUqAw70xZ5KPU57ycLZMbxlVea4mDt8pkmmTbec1UpOYLyzJQ7DPiZCXhDlS-Ox5GIRosjRJDYzC4IBPPKSDBjV5qUvNtZUYjUWdFzTcPh1MRd_JZswHayoWQDswYO84ALv0YZA/s1600/IMG_2471+copy_edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="McMenamin's Hotel Oregon" border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="1467" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzwe7WnUqAw70xZ5KPU57ycLZMbxlVea4mDt8pkmmTbec1UpOYLyzJQ7DPiZCXhDlS-Ox5GIRosjRJDYzC4IBPPKSDBjV5qUvNtZUYjUWdFzTcPh1MRd_JZswHayoWQDswYO84ALv0YZA/s400/IMG_2471+copy_edited.jpg" title="McMenamin's Hotel Oregon" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McMenamins Hotel Oregon</td></tr>
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I just returned from this year’s UFO Fest in McMinnville OR. I went with my daughter, who flew in for the Fest. I don’t get to see her much these days, so it was good to have several days together, to talk and work to connect more as equals and adults. She left this morning, and now it’s time to confront some truths. I’ve been happy to sit on the fence and not take a stand on whether or not the events I hear described did, in fact, happen. Perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at myself and get off the fence.<br />
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This year, the main topics were the <a href="http://johnemackinstitute.org/2008/01/ariel-phenomenon/">Ariel school incident</a>, and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-do-ufos-love-this-utah-ranch-so-much">Skinwalker Ranch</a>. Both are pretty well documented with many witness, and physical evidence in the case of Skinwalker. My current thoughts are summed up by this quote from Dr John Mack, Harvard psychiatrist, “If this is real, what does it mean?”<br />
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At the heart of this question is always the tension between faith and science. I don’t think there really is any conflict between the two, and, as far as I can tell, the majority of scientists and theologians throughout history seem to agree with me. The only problem seems to be a relatively small number of extremely vocal extremists on both sides, who believe that their views are the only correct ones, and that any deviance from their worldview will result in the <a href="http://www.ejst.tuiasi.ro/Files/30/Bilgili(4).pdf">downfall of civilization</a> or the <a href="https://peteenns.com/inerrancy-historical-criticism-and-the-slippery-slope/">slippery slope to eternal damnation</a>, depending you which side they happen to be on. Extremists are, at best, misguided, and in this case especially so, because in their vigorous defense of their respective positions, they great violence to the very ideas they claim to be protecting.<br />
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This is nothing new on the religious side of the debate. Fringe beliefs have been around for ever, and even mainstream religions have been used to justify everything from slavery to genocide. Christianity has splintered into a bewildering veriaty of sects with more philosophical, and nocturnal differences than you can shake a stick at. Some even within the same physical church! But, the one thing they all are supposed to agree on, that faith is “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/faith">firm belief in something for which there is no proof</a>,” is trashed by those that insist that they must have physical proof to believe. These are the bible literalists that say the the Bible is 100% literally true, and if you see anything that contradicts their interpretation of The Word, you are wrong. They behave like Groucho Marx when he said, “Who you gonna believe, me, or your own eyes?”<br />
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The “scientific” extremist are no better. If there is one thing that is absolutely critical to the success of science, it’s the principle that everything in science is provisional, that evidence trumps belief, every time. But, once you start saying that some ideas cannot be questioned and certain evidence must be ignored, science becomes dogma based on faith, and contrary ideas, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njh7ShZXb-w">taboo</a>. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TerTgDEgUE&t=14s">Banned TED Talk: The Science Delusion - Rupert Sheldrake at TEDx</a>), where the free exchange of ideas and data is slaughtered by explicit threats to a persons' reputation and livelihood. <br />
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You know that something’s up when you hear the phrase “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_standard">Extraordinary claim require extraordinary evidence</a>,” widely attributed to Carl Sagan. Science extremists love to trot this one out whenever they are faced with evidence they can’t refute or deny. It’s simply an authoritative way of saying: No matter how good your evidence, it’s just not good enough. The problem here is that there is no objective measure for “extraordinary,” any claim the skeptic doesn’t like is “extraordinary,” and no evidence is “extraordinary” enough to support it. Wonderful “Get Out of Jail Free” card, isn’t it? Science extremists have a whole bevy of tricks they use to <a href="https://www.skeptic.org.uk/magazine/onlinearticles/stupid-sceptic-tricks/">protect their positions</a>, and every last one of them would be loudly called out and denounced, if used by the other side. It’s a sad state of affairs when the very tools of science are twisted and used to undermine the very foundations of science and the objective inquiry it depends on.<br />
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Extremists on both sides suffer from the same assumption, unquestioned by pretty much everyone. The assumption that This Is It. That We Are It. They we humans are the pinnacle of development, of evolution, of science, that there are no new fundamental discoveries to be made, no new theological insights to be gained. The our knowledge, philosophy, and worldview is the best there ever was, or will be. Because, if they are not, then we can expect that every argument put forward by either side would likely be rendered moot by new discoveries in science, philosophy or theology, as has happened many times in the past. The problem with extremism is that it paints you into a corner, and you have no way out when the world changes and your “firm foundation” turns to dust.<br />
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I seem to have wandered off-topic here, but maybe not. Where do I sit? I’m never going accept any of the mainstream religious views, because none of them are compatible with reality, as I know it. I know, I tried. Neither do I align with the foolishness of the Richard Dawkins of the world and their strict materialist thinking. There is clearly more going on here than can be accounted for by science as we know it. The evidence for Psi and consciousness out side of the brain is steadily piling up, despite vigorous opposition by powerful parties. But the, frankly crazy, stuff at the Skinwalker ranch, do I buy that? <br />
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What I an struggling with, is that I don’t yet have a worldview that all these things fit into. That isn’t a reason to reject it all, but it doesn’t make acceptance any easier. In that sense, I suppose it’s lucky that I haven’t had any dramatic experiences that would either require me to believe or question my own sanity, I have the luxury of taking my time. However, circumstances are pushing me to take a stance. I know where I’d like to stand, but I’m not really comfortable with standing there “on faith” until I figure something out. So, I’ll just have to get over it.<br />
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As always, I welcome your questions and comments.<br />
Take care.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-61435128862409442152018-05-11T17:18:00.000-07:002018-05-11T17:18:03.293-07:00I Wrote a Song<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wrote a song. Not too surprising, I’ve written many. But was one of the better ones. I know that because I was inspired by a combination of something I’d read and something I heard. What I read was a poem <i>Voices</i> by Diana DeLuca, about women’s struggles with abuse and our misogynistic, patriarchal, culture. I don’t remember what the song was, but immediately afterward I heard the first verse of a song, based on Diana’s poem, in my head. Over the next few weeks, I wrote the two verses, set them to music, then got the full text of the poem and wrote more verses, added a bridge and finished the whole thing up. That’s the way it seems to work for me, music I have to work hard on turns out forgettable, while the stuff that just “comes to me” is by far the best. <br /><br />Ah, but that’s not the whole story. You see, something about those words really got under my skin. While I was writing it, I started feeling off, but I really know something was wrong when it seemed that I couldn’t feel any emotions at all! It was like my brain was covered with a thick, white, blanket, and everything was numbed out. It was pretty weird. I knew that my emotions were there, I just couldn’t <i>feel</i> them, and that had me worried. I spent some time in meditation, trying to understand what was going on, but it wasn’t until a couple of days later that it hit me: Working and performing that song had triggered unconscious memories of my own abuse and my automatic defense mechanisms had kicked in. I had detached completely and numbed out all emotions. <br /><br />Friends tried to help me “cheer up,” but it didn’t make any difference. I wanted to care, I did! But feelings just wouldn’t come. I was torn between wanting them to just give up and go away, and a tiny fear that they actually would. The logical part of my mind knew that this was really messed up, but I didn’t know what was going on. Nothing undermines your sense of self like having your feelings betray you! I’m on the upside now, but I have a ways to go. The key seemed to be the realization, once that happened, the blanket began to lift. <br /><br />This whole episode was a real surprise, and, maybe, a gift. The process was uncomfortable and a bit frightening, but it had given me an enormous respect for how far I’ve come over the past 50+ years! My friends are fond of telling me how much I’ve changed in just the past couple of years, but that’s nothing compared to what it was like to be nearly emotionless, as I was in my twenties! At the time, of course, I had no idea what I was doing. I had shut things down so early that I had no memory of any other way to be. <br /><br />Looking back on it now, it looks like a kind of hell: A place where you can’t allow yourself to feel anything but fear, fear of being caught caring about something that could be turned against you. You can’t be passionate about anything, or anyone, and you have to watch people who might want to care for you, get frustrated and walk away, because you won’t ever respond with honest love or affection. <br /><br />This is a situation, writ large, that happens to all of us, all the time, in the small. It happens to all of us every day, and we are so used to it that we don’t even notice. We hear a snatch of song that makes us happy, or sentimental, or we see a face that makes us nervous or afraid, and we accept those feelings without a second thought. Those feelings are <i>real</i>, they are never questioned! But what if we did? What if we stopped assuming that feelings have any kind of reality to them? What if a feeling was just a feeling, and not a fact? How many times have you had a <i>feeling</i> about something that turned out to be wrong? What would our world be like, if we didn’t allow every person with a scary story, tell us who to love, who to hate, who to trust, who to betray, what to do, what to <i>think</i>? I imagine it would be a very different world, wouldn’t you?<br /><br />As always, I welcome your questions and comments. <br /><br />Take care.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-34176175744196605342018-05-04T14:17:00.000-07:002018-05-06T17:40:58.108-07:00The Soul of the Matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbIe9PAenbRiVKchqVVEUXa3gD42FqTSUXrS7uTcsmMITb1q7M5ZrKVfEMnW5oCSPqyuIE6C5Hh9Odhr9a9oliMsZaM2O3QysFSJfbxc3tiOZBLLU3wD5PNvJpFSF_BwVe8uAJNy7UQA/s1600/fullsizeoutput_5c4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbIe9PAenbRiVKchqVVEUXa3gD42FqTSUXrS7uTcsmMITb1q7M5ZrKVfEMnW5oCSPqyuIE6C5Hh9Odhr9a9oliMsZaM2O3QysFSJfbxc3tiOZBLLU3wD5PNvJpFSF_BwVe8uAJNy7UQA/s320/fullsizeoutput_5c4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
What is a Soul? The Psyche, Spirit, Awareness, Consciousness? I think all of these are the same, different words for the same experience, with each word having it’s own connotation and context. Soul and Spirit are most at home in the religious and spiritual, while Psyche, Awareness, and Consciousness are mostly used in the secular sciences. Surly it doesn’t surprise you that scientists the deal with the mind would want to have words that have as little religious and metaphysical baggage as possible? And philosophers sit somewhere in the middle, not wanting to be too objectively scientific, nor too dogmatically religious, use words from both sides.<br />
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But, what is this thing we are talking about? I was re-reading Carlos Castaneda’s first book, The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78250.The_Teachings_of_Don_Juan" target="_blank">Teachings of Don Juan</a>, and there was a passage near the end that talked about <a href="https://www.themystica.com/diablero/" target="_blank">Diableros</a> who could steal your soul and keep it imprisoned. For some reason, that gave me pause. Not because I hadn’t heard stuff like that before, but because I’ve learned and experienced a lot in the past few years and that whole idea just didn’t seem right to me. <br />
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There are a lot of Christian, and Christian-derived, traditions that share the idea that the “soul” is something indefinable that everyone gets, but can be given away, lost, sold or stolen without the person even noticing. How can a soul be so important, if you can’t even tell when you’ve lost it? (Some traditions get around that by saying that when “sell you soul” bill doesn’t come due until you die.) For this, and other reasons, I’m convinced that the soul, spirit, psyche, whatever you call it, is such a fundamental and necessary part of who you are, that it cannot be lost, stolen or given away. And that separation of the soul from the body results in sleep, coma or death, depending on how deep and long the separation is. <br />
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The concept that there is something of us that continues after death has been around, probably, as long as there have been humans who could think about it. But what that “something” is have varied a lot throughout history. You can browse through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul">Wikipedia</a>, the <a href="http://www.egyptianmyths.net/section-symbols.htm" target="_blank">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a>, and <a href="http://www.egyptianmyths.net/section-symbols.htm">EgyptianMyths.net</a> to see some of these ideas, but the takeaway here is that the Western concept of the soul, the one through which we view all others around the world and throughout history, is a relatively new invention, and it differs so dramatically from what came before that we have no words to understand them. Hence the confusion of words.<br />
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Our modern version of the soul, heaven, hell, and the devil, are pretty much an inventions of medieval Christians, and survives today most strongly in <a href="https://www.nae.net/what-is-an-evangelical/">Evangelicals</a>: <i>Your soul is the eternal part of you that is subject to eternal torment in Hell, by the Devil and his minions, unless you are 'saved' by by absolute faith in Jesus Christ.</i> If you followed that link, you won't find that wording there, for they tend to downplay obedience/punishment aspects of their faith when dealing with "outsiders." But it's so fundamental to them that the idea of doing away with hell is sparing a <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160513-theology-hell-history-christianity/">religious war.</a> <br />
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The reason for this is fairly obvious, without a single, fixed, eternal “soul” that can be “sent to Hell,” there is no need for a “savior,” and Christianity itself serves no purpose. This will probably offend some people, and it’s true that other sects are much less strident about this, but the fact is that judgment and punishment is the underlying message of every Western religion, regardless of whatever other messages are put in top of it. The only way out of this “obedience or punishment” mindset is to drop the very idea of a judgmental god altogether. </div>
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That was a long digression. I put that in to demonstrate how deeply religious and historical contexts shape our ideas, and how often those ideas can be heavily influenced by politics, and cultural, and religious, necessity and biases. Given all that, is it possible to step away from what we’ve always taken for granted and view our inner lives with fresh eyes? I think so.<br />
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What is a soul? In terms of experience, the soul is that thing that makes you, you. It’s that fundamental thing that you refer to when you say “I.” The thing that has the personality, the memories, and the feelings that are uniquely yours. It’s that awareness that is aware that it is aware. In terms of structure, the soul part of a multilayered thing that we currently have no name for, but encompasses consciousness and self-awareness, on one end, and our Higher Selves, or our connection to All That Is, on the other.<br />
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The soul is not consciousness or personalty, consciousness and personality are a result of the soul interacting with the physical world. Consciousness is like the surf upon a beach, it is the result of Awareness, (the ocean), coming into contact with physical reality, (the shore), creating the personality, (as anything from small ripples to crashing surf). Once created, this personality can exist without a physical body, though it tends to lose a lot of it’s ability to function in this reality, making it difficult to communicate with. Like trying to participate in a video game without having your own character, you can kibitz, whisper in people’s ears, and send messages, but the players will usually be too busy to pay you much mind, if they notice you at all.<br />
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Though I’ve just scratched the surface, I think that’s enough for now! These are just my ideas, and, in my mind, ideas are only as good as how useful they are in everyday life. I fully intend to explore these ideas and how they can make your life happier, more peaceful, and productive. <br />
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Take care.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-37822260035853464752018-04-27T08:00:00.000-07:002018-04-29T03:13:53.873-07:00The Finger or the Moon?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A friend of my shared this link with me to explain why she’s not ready, and my never be ready, for another relationship: <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/to-smart-women-who-keep-attracting-those-damn-narcissistic_us_57a96ff9e4b02251db40022b" target="_blank">Why Smart Women Attract Narcissistic Men</a>. Good article and the author makes several good points, but there’s something very important what she didn’t mention, so here I’m putting my two cents in.<br />
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What’s missing from this article is the fundamental reason why narcissists are so successful: Too many of us never learn what love and affection really looks and feels like. Too many of our families are emotionally detached, manipulative, dysfunctional, or just plain abusive. That’s the place we’re supposed to learn this stuff, so that’s what we learn that “love” is. Culture, popular and classical, is of no help either, because, as a rule, it only focuses only on passion, and the story ends before all the real work begins. If your family doesn’t teach you honest, unconditional affection, then it’s hard to learn it later. Not impossible, but damn difficult. I speak from experience.<br />
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Because of that, we are all to ready to accept an outward sign for proof of an inward reality. As Buddhist say, we <a href="https://essenceofbuddhism.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/what-the-finger-pointing-to-the-moon-analogy-really-means-from-zen-buddhism-the-buddha-in-the-shurangama-sutra/" target="_blank">mistake the finger for the moon</a>. It doesn’t help that we have grown up seeing endless movies and TV shows where people act convincingly like their in love, when you know, for a fact, that they are not: They’re actors! Yet we love to be deceived. As long as someone can push our emotional buttons, we are happy to believe it’s “real,” when the sad truth is that our upbringing left us vulnerable and easily manipulated. When all you’ve known in your life are cold, untrustworthy people, then a warm, trusting person feels “wrong.” You don’t know what to do around them. So you run away, either because they are too weird or boring, or your insecurities drive you. <br />
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I don’t know if I have any solutions, but I have some tips: Notice! When you are with other people, notice how couples treat each other, when they’er together and when they’re apart. When I started doing this, I was shocked at how badly people treated their partners. It didn’t matter how young or old they were or how long they were married. It wasn’t super bad, just the amount of subtle disrespect, or the way they never seemed to talk to each other, or managed to be in the same room at the same time. Think about it, does this seem normal to you?<br />
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Over time, I began to notice instances of real affection. In some cases that surprised me, for the couple hadn’t seemed all the close to me. But then I noticed little things, a touch of a hand, a solicitous comment, a small private joke, always subtle. Stuff you could easily miss, if you weren’t looking for it. You won’t find love in the grand gestures, but in the everyday. After watching, and learning, for a while, I started really thinking about what would, realistically, make me happy to have, on a day-in, day-out basis. The results were…surprising. They weren’t what I grew up with, weren’t what I initially thought they might be, will probably be different for everyone, and likely will have little to do with how things will actually be for me, when and if, I find another serious relationship.<br />
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My second tip is to take your time. I know this flies in the face of the romantic ideal, and a lot of social pressures, but there’s good reason for it. A narcissist will want to rush you into something, so making them wait a year, or more, will frustrate them into leaving or will give them time to show their true colors. Heck, just stating this intention can be enough to cause many of them to flee. This also gives you a chance to get over the initial infatuation, and be able to judge the situation more objectively. What’s really so wrong with dating for a year or two, without any commitments? I’m talking legal and financial commitments here, not that you should remain a virgin until you’re married!<br />
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Finally, be willing to walk away. All the tips and red flags in the world won’t help you if you are too emotionally invested in the narcissist’s fantasy to leave before they’ve stripped you financially and emotionally. Which is why narcissists will always be “successful,” and always have “customers.” Until we create a world where everyone has a loving, secure and safe childhood, there will always be people who are willing to risk almost anything for a fantasy of love, and people willing to supply it.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-53292212928056807342018-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:002018-04-22T00:12:20.748-07:00Welcome to the Fringe!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A friend of my texted me today. The message seemed angry. <br />
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We have been both reading <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78250.The_Teachings_of_Don_Juan" target="_blank">The teachings of Don Juan</a>, her for the first time. We both had heard a lot about it back in the 70’s, but didn’t read it at the time. I got around to it a few years ago, she decided to tackle it now and I thought I’d like to review it so we could discuss it. <br />
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After a brief test exchange, I got that it seemed that she had gotten upset about something she’d read in the book, and then had done a search on “Carlos Castaneda fraud” and, after having read some of the results, apparently concluded that she’d been taken in and was upset about that. I let the matter drop.<br />
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My first reaction to her messages was to smile, “Welcome to the Fringe!” I thought. Apparently she isn’t aware of how nasty things can get when the “skeptics” and “debunkers” come out to play. Fake news wasn’t invented in 2016 or with the internet. Hit pieces, hatchet jobs, misrepresentation, slander, yellow journalism, all have all been around for as long as there has been printing, and any controversial person is going to have nasty stuff said about them. That was just as true in the 70’s as it is now. Castaneda was an extremely controversial figure, advocating the use of hallucinogens for enlightenment, promoting a pagan spirituality, and having the hutzpah to imply that the experiences gained by these techniques might not be just not dreams or delusions. Of course the Moral Majority, the anti-drug people, the scientific and medical communities, and, especially the Christians, were all over this, wanting to discredit it in every way possible. <br />
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Nobody is immune to this, no matter what your credentials are. Here’s a case where a full professor, who is also a <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1973/index.html" target="_blank">Nobel Laureate in Physics</a>, was <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/he-didnt-see-that-coming-or-did-he/411401.article?sectioncode=26&storycode=411401&c=1" target="_blank">disinvited from a conference for having an interest in the paranormal</a>. If this can happen to someone of his stature, just imagine what might happen to a lowly MA, especially one with a foreign heritage!<br />
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My point isn’t that Castaneda is right, or wrong, a fraud, a True Believer, or a fool, but you need to have a thick skin to be involved in fringe topics like the paranormal, UFOs, and alternative spirituality. Everybody in this field has been, and continues to be smeared by elements that want them to shut up and go away, so you can’t just go with what the mainstream says. You need to read their material and make your own judgments. <br />
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Everyone I know in this field has gone through this, myself included. You first discover some topic, UFOs, ghosts & haunting, the paranormal, ancient aliens, whatever, and you’re really excited. You read all you can find about it, talk about it to your friends, and then something happens. Your friends start to diss it, or you begin to realize that some of the people you follow are just publishing crap to make money, and you feel embarrassed and ashamed to have been taken in. Next, you either blow off the whole field, or you eventually get over it, and learn to be more discerning. Read and listen carefully, stop taking everything at face value. Decide for yourself what resonates, or makes sense to you. Don’t let other people’s opinions sway you, one way or the other. This is a field with lots of strong opinions, on all sides, you have to make up your own mind. That doesn’t mean you can’t change you mind, when new evidence comes around, just don’t expect to ever see a consensus on these topics anytime soon. <br />
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In my own readings, I have found big chunks of pure fantasy, spiritual truths, myths that includes lessons and truths, and some stuff that is hard to classify, but it feels like there is some truth there, however buried it may be under the encrustations of years and of successive cultures that have interpreted and re-interpreted the ideas through their own cultural lenses. Sometimes all of this is the same book. That said, I have no problem dropping a book, or an author, if I find nothing of value there.<br />
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It’s a bit of a trope, but it’s still true, none the less: Everyone has their own spiritual truth, and we have to find it ourselves. Unfortunately, far too many of us allow our family, friends, church, or culture, tell us what what our truth <i>should</i> be. That is so sad because it creates so much of the unhappiness, discontent and anger we see around us. When you let others define what you can read, think and believe, you live in constant fear of getting caught reading of thinking the wrong thing. Give that up and you’ll be a whole lot happier. The thing is, you’re going to think and believe what you want anyway, you can’t help it! If you just admit it, then life becomes so much easier. Sure, some people won’t agree with you, but that’s going to happen regardless, so why not be true to yourself, first?<br />
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<br />rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-48165625526494697282018-04-13T18:21:00.000-07:002018-04-13T23:05:44.372-07:00Power and Control<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A little while ago, someone remarked that she’d never understood the phase “Holding space” for someone, everybody used it, but no one explained it. Another agreed, and added that “Stepping into,” as in “Stepping into your power,” left her blank as well. I get it, nobody explains this new age-y speak, you’re just supposed to get it, get with the program, don’t ask lame questions! <ironic emoji> (Not so “new” any more, since it dates from the late 70’s!) I think I’m as qualified as anyone to explain, considering that I’ve spent a few decades wallowing fairly deeply in this new age-y, self-help, world. <br /><br />Let’s start with “holding space:” You <i>hold space</i> for someone by believing in them, supporting them, and expecting them to accomplish some specific task. But it does not include pushing or driving them in any way. <br /><br /><i>I believe in you</i>, is a bit passive and abstract, while <i>I’m holding space for you</i>, can be very visual, active, and real. Imagine saving a chair for someone at dinner, or at a concert. You’re holding a place for them, and you’re expecting them to be there, sooner or later. In a general sense, you <i>hold space</i> for someone when you expect them to do something so strongly that, as far as you are concerned, it has already happened, and you’re just waiting for them to <i>arrive</i> at that conclusion themselves. The chair is already there, you just need to come and sit in it. <br /><br />Creating from the future. Some people believe that the best way to finish a difficult task is to assume that you have already done it, and now, all you have to do is figure out what you did. Authors say that the book is already written, athletes say the game is already won, and scientists say the discovery has been made. For people who are struggling, <i>holding space</i> for them places their goal within reach, gives them encouragement and expectation, without nagging or pushing, and they can move at their own speed. When done right, <i>holding space</i> creates an attraction to the goal, and a sense of welcome when you reach it.<br /><br />“Stepping into” is fully embracing a characteristic of your choosing. When you <i>step into</i>, you take on, or assume, whatever role or way of being you’re talking about. For instance, when you <i>step into your power</i>, you are assuming that your personal power exists, and you just need to put it on, like a set of clothes. Superheroes are all over this. Superman, Batman, Ironman all put on their special suit to go fight crime. <br /><br />We all play different roles in our life, child, parent, student, worker, boss, commuter, driver. Many of these roles are chosen for us, being a child, for instance, and others we choose. But there are the roles we only grudgingly accept, or actively resist, and those we with we had. With the idea of <i>stepping into</i>, we can learn to embrace roles we currently resent, but cannot change, but we can also create new, more fulfilling, ones. And, once we get that, we can always step in, or out of, any role, whenever we wish, gaining control over our lives.<br /><br />As always, feel free to comment and question. I am absolutely a work in progress.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR 97230, USA45.5507889 -122.5057403000000145.461844400000004 -122.66710180000001 45.6397334 -122.34437880000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-10276067229195058062018-04-05T12:46:00.000-07:002018-04-05T12:46:12.774-07:00I'm back: Belief Space!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello again! I haven’t posted in a long time because I have been getting my life in order. Before you ask, no, I’m not done. But I have moved into a new phase, and I’m now moved to start getting back into the world! <br /><br />I’ve set up a new <a href="http://www.aquestioningspirit.com/" target="_blank">web site</a>! It definitely was time: The site was getting pretty long in the tooth, and was just a stopgap, anyway. Another reason is that I’ve significantly changed my outlook, understanding and methods, so that the old site no longer resonated with me. My views and techniques have really evolved over the past couple of years, so a new look and message was definitely in order. Have a look!<br /><br />There is so much to cover! I don’t have room for it all here, but I will probably touch on aspects of what I’ve learned over the next several months. Today, I’m looking at something that happened recently, seemingly because of a presentation I’m writing for the local MUFON chapter, but I suspect the shift has been going for a while and this is just part of the process! <br /><br />Anyway, the trouble started when I actually sat down and started writing the presentation. I realized, after babbling on for a couple of pages, that I didn’t really know what it was I wanted to say, because I was too afraid to take a stand on anything controversial.<br /><br />I had started out with the idea of exploring the how past life regressions can be used for healing. But that quickly moved to UFOs and abductions, as they occur in regressions, which still didn’t feel right. Long story short, I’m now zeroing in on UFOs and what they tell us about the nature of reality. I’ll have to keep you in suspense because it’s not finished yet, though I’m getting there!<br /><br />But that’s not what I’m going to talk about here. Over the past couple of months have experienced an increasing amount of pain in my back, upper and lower jaws, ankles, legs, kinda all over. It’s not chronic, persistent pain, as a rule, but it feels like stiffness from overuse. I have taken on some new activities, but nothing that would explain what’s going on. I constantly have the feeling, especially in my upper back and shoulders, of being compressed or confined, and I’m constantly stretching and twisting, trying to loosen it up, but nothing works.<br /><br />I went to a Reiki circle recently, and the leader started the evening with a guided meditation. I’m now going to make a scandalous confession: In the 11 years that I have been involved in Reiki, I have never felt anything. I constantly hear about wonderful the energy feels, and how useful the energy is for everyone else, but I have never felt anything of any kind. I’ve never been 100% sure if that’s a failing on my part, or everyone else is fooling themselves. <br /><br />Well, during the meditation, I confronted this conundrum and noticed that I didn’t <i>want</i> to believe that any kind of spiritual healing works. I had a vision that, inside myself, there is this…I don’t know, call it a “container.” I remember struggling to come up with a word to describe it, but I failed. (“Container” isn’t right, but it’s all that I got, so I’m going with it.) The “container” appeared dirty white, and it represented the boundaries and limitations I have put around my spiritual, intuitive and paranormal abilities. “Thus far and not further,” I had decided what was possible for myself, and what was not and I kept those boundaries firmly in place. But the container is struggling and straining, the abilities want out! I then realized that my physical discomfort really felt like I was a lobster who had outgrown its shell. The shell was starting to come apart, but it hurt! Physically and emotionally.<br /><br />I would like to say that I have burst the container and my abilities are now in full flower, but, not so much. The container is one of belief and fear, designed to keep me safe, and it won’t be easy to let go of that. However, now I know, so I can work on it. <br /><br />In the study, <a href="http://deanradin.com/evidence/Shiah2013.pdf" target="_blank">METAPHYSICS OF THE TEA CEREMONY: A RANDOMIZED TRIAL INVESTIGATING THE ROLES OF INTENTION AND BELIEF ON MOOD WHILE DRINKING TEA</a>, Dean Radin and Yung-Jong Shiah demonstrate that <i>belief</i> is a very important component in achieving any spiritual, parapsychologal, effect. <br /><br />I learned, early on in my life, to not trust anything or anyone. I have survived by accepting everything and everyone only provisionally, and then testing for myself whether the thing or person is solid and trustworthy. This has served me well in computer science, giving me a good understanding of how things work, which is invaluable when it comes time to extrapolate what might be possible in designing new systems. Unfortunately, I am beginning to understand that it falls apart completely when it comes to the paranormal. There, belief is a necessary precondition. You must believe a spell, for example, <i>can</i> work before it <i>will</i> work. Totally opposite of the normal, scientific, approach of being skeptical until there’s enough evidence. This implies a whole new paradigm for scientific discovery and validation.<br /><br />I clearly have very specific beliefs about what is true and possible for me, around the paranormal. Despite everything I have seen around me, and have experienced personally, I still have it all in the “provisional” box. I’m just too afraid to believe everything I hear. I want some way to distinguish the “real” from the truly delusional, for I believe that distinction still exists. I don’t know how to do that yet, but I’ll keep working on it. In the meantime, I’ll be using meditation and other techniques to deconstruct my beliefs around magic and the paranormal and see where that leads me. <br /><br />As always, feel free to comment and question. I am absolutely a work in progress.<div>
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Rodney Whitehouse</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-68954369230701825442017-08-06T18:13:00.005-07:002018-04-09T19:42:15.731-07:00Herculaneum - A Tail<div style="line-height: normal;">
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As many of you know, I volunteer at a local museum, and I’ve been working a <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/pompeii" target="_blank">Pompeii</a> exhibit since it opened. It’s a great exhibit. I like to wander around, studying the artifacts and thinking about the people who made them and used them.<br />
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I’ve worked almost every job in the exhibit, but one of the most boring jobs is the VIP door: You’re there to help people who need to use the elevator to get to the second floor of the exhibit. Hours can pass where no one needs help. There’s a photo op nearby and I try and pass the time offering to take people’s pictures, but time still drags.</div>
I pass the time reading up on Pompeii, the history, the last days, anything I can find that can be read on my phone. I’ve learned a lot about everything from volcanos, to water supplies in ancient times, to proper care of archeological sites once they’ve been uncovered. My excuse is that I want to be prepared when people ask me questions, which does happen from time to time. <Wink><br />
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<a href="http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-011.html" target="_blank">Herculaneum</a> is/was a city, like Pompeii, that was also covered in the same eruption that buried Pompeii. It’s not so famous because it’s buried a lot deeper and there’s a modern city on top of it. Herculaneum is interesting for several reasons, perhaps more interesting than Pompeii. First, it apparently was a much wealthier city, with more elaborate art and treasure, and because it was buried deeper, many building are intact through the second story and above, unlike in Pompeii where only the first floors survived, for the most part. <br />
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One of the wealthy villas they have found is called the Villa of the Scrolls, because it contains a huge library of scrolls, many of which have been read, and many more are waiting for the technology that will allow us to read them. This villa was apparently owned by the uncle of the emperor Augustus. What’s exciting about these scrolls is that they are not records, but literary works of all kinds. What’s really cool is that some of the works are known to have existed, from references by other writers of the period, but no other copies had ever been found. For scholars, it’s really exciting to get your hands on an original version, not one handed down over the centuries, copied, re-copied, translated, and copied again.<br />
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My tail begins with a pain in my shoulder. It first showed up as not a big deal, but over time it got worse and worse and spread to include a stiff neck as well. At first I dismissed it, thinking that it was caused by holding and reading my phone for too long. But I do the same thing at at other positions in the exhibit without any problems. It wasn’t until last week that I connected all the dots and realized that I only got the pain when I was working in that precise place, the VIP door, and I when was reading about Herculaneum. Being who I am, I came to the conclusion that there was a connection. With enough digging, I came up with the following story.<br />
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I was a young boy in Herculaneum on that last day, August 24th, 79 CE. I had an older sister and parents. Our parents had not left with everyone else, I don’t know why, maybe they were worried about thieves. In any case, they had left earlier in the day, and had never come back. I was badly scared and wanted to leave, but my sister wouldn’t go and I couldn’t bring myself to leave on my own. I’ve sure we fought about it, but she was stubborn, a “Mom and Dad said wait here!” kind of thing. Later that night, well after dark, though with the clouds and ash, it was difficult to tell how late it was, things got seriously bad, and the part of the house I was in collapsed. A beam from the second floor hit me on the right shoulder, broke the bone and I was buried under the rubble of the second floor and roof. I have no idea where my sister was, somewhere else in our villa, I suppose. Fortunately I didn’t have to suffocate or suffer a lingering death from thirst, one of the pyroclastic flows of super heated air finished me off fairly quickly. I suppose that’s good, yes?<br />
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I can surmise that my family was pretty well off, from the fact that we had a large house, and my clothes seemed pretty nice, but a ten-year-old generally doesn’t pick up on these things. Especially when you’re a child in a society where you tend to stay with people of your own rank and station. You tend to take everything for granted without thinking about it too much. My feeling is that were servants, but they had fled early on, leaving the parents with no one to help them get their valuables out. So they went out looking or, perhaps, abandoned their children to their fate. I don’t know why they would do that, but families were probably just as “complicated” back then as they are now. I lean toward the abandon theory because, if they intended to return, the mother probably would have stayed with the kids. Just a guess. Anyway, since the vast majority of Herculaneum has not be excavated, it’s possible that my remains are still there. Interesting to speculate on, but I’m sure I’ll never know for sure. <br />
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That’s my story, accept it or not, as you like. This could explain why I’m so interested in the artifacts, the people who used them, and how they were made and used. I have no trouble imagining what it must have been like, living in those houses, and the hustle and bustle of the streets outside, and the smell! God the smell of the refuse in the streets on a hot, still summer’s day! They must have prayed for rain as much to wash the streets as for the water. There’s a reason why the wealthy people had their houses upwind of the heart of the city!<br />
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If you have time, you might want to check out the exhibit, or delve more into the history of both Pompeii and Herculaneum. There’s a cautionary tail there, as Vesuvius is still a active volcano, and millions of people now live in it’s shadow.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-81113878200684261102017-08-02T15:16:00.000-07:002017-08-02T15:16:32.859-07:00Common Knowlege Aint So Common?<br /><br />A person contacted me recently, saying that they were pretty sure that was more to reality than we'd been taught. He went on a bit, but the upshot was that wanted to buy a K2 meter and go to a graveyard on afternoon and answer the question once and for all. These sort of things come up a lot in my conversations, and I'd thought I'd publish my response as a point of general information. I tend to forget that I have been involved in this for a long time, and what I take for common knowledge really isn't that common at all. If you are going to get into the paranormal and do psychic research, you have to understand that psychic abilities don't follow the rules that we take for granted. That doesn't mean it doesn't follow rules, we just don't fully understand them yet. Just like in the early days of electricity, nobody knows what it is or how it works, so there's plenty left to be discovered, for those who have a mind to do so! Here is the letter in full, I hope you find it informative.<br /><br />Hello,<br /><br />Well, I have some good news and some bad news. But first, a little story.<br /><br />My daughter called my this past weekend. She lives in another state. She wanted my help with something that had happened: A couple of days before, she was lying in bed at around 8 in the mornings, and she heard some noise outside her door. When she looked, she thought she saw the door begin to open a crack, then she blinked and it was closed again, without a sound. Then she had a feeling that there was something in the room with her. This feeling was so strong that she was afraid to move or open her eyes. She stayed like the for about a hour, then got up and left the room. She didn't know what to make of it, and she hadn't slept in that room since because she was afraid of it coming back. The irony of this is that she has complained to me, several times, that she was mad that she had never seen a ghost or had any kind of related experience! The thing is, she has been exposed to quite a bit of paranormal stuff, even had a spirit attach to her at one point, but, as far as she was concerned, it wasn't "real," so it didn't count. I have to say that I went on a similar journey, and it's taken me over a decade to get that the "unexplained" is all around us, all the time. The catch 22 is, if you can't believe it, you can't see it.<br /><br />Ask any die-hard skeptic and you'll see that, not matter how much evidence you present, no matter how good the quality, they know that "it's fake or there's a reasonable explanation." In my daughter's case, she probably would have dismissed it as a bad dream, not too long ago. When you accept that reality is bigger than the material world, you will start to realize that it permeates our lives in ways small and large. The biggest problem turns out to be sorting the wheat from the chaff: There is so much bunk out there from people that literally seem to believe everything they read, and people that appear to deliberately spread false and misleading information for profit, that you have to develop your own inner sense of what is true for you. The good news is that you will find what you are looking for, if you can believe what you find. The bad news is that no amount of proof will be good enough, if you don't.<br /><br />I, personally, don't watch "ghost" shows, though I have been on a number of investigations. I have seen some interesting stuff, nothing dramatic, and nothing that would have convinced myself a few decades back, but a lot of it raises intriguing questions in my mind. I also find it interesting to watch how the other people on the investigations, feel, think, and react.<br /><br />If you do some more research, you will find that instruments appear to react to the person holding them. In the same situation, it will be dead as a door-nail in one person's hands, and light up like a Christmas tree in another's. In a way, this makes sense, because our instruments are designed to be as insensitive to paranormal influences as possible, otherwise they would appear to be unreliable for the purpose for which they are designed. They are not completely immune, as some people can significantly affect electronic and physical devices: You know, the people who can't wear a watch, for they simply won't work around them, or they crash computers, if they get too close. As a computer scientist, I had the opposite effect, people give me stuff that's flaky or doesn't work, then I fiddle with it for a while and it then works just fine. I've gotten a lot of free appliances and electronics that way. <br /><br />Here's the really bad news: I you want to prove it to yourself, you are going to have to put in a lot of time, one afternoon won't do it, no matter how spectacular the results. They could have been just a fluke. Any serious investigator will tell you that the "good stuff" is rare and you have to put in a lot of hours to get it. The only exception to this are the "gifted" psychics. I put gifted in quotes because it rarely seems a gift to those people. Believe me, having spirits bug you 24/7 is more of a pain-in-the-ass than anything else.<br /><br />All that said, if you want to hang out for an afternoon, I could do that. We can swap stories and try a few things to open you up, if you're interested. Do you have a place in mind? Let me know.<br /><br />Rodney Whitehouserodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-4505246477734728782017-07-04T23:11:00.000-07:002017-07-04T23:11:51.685-07:00Love Lesson LearnedAnother lesson learned today. Volunteering today at OMSI, I trained a new person for the Pompeii exhibit. She was a bit difficult, in that she gradually tried to take over the whole job we were sharing. Fortunately, I was soon offered another position and fled. The work isn’t hard and she could do it fine on her own by that time. I felt increasingly “off” the rest of the day. I left around lunch and tried to nap and meditate after I go home, but couldn’t, because I was too wrapped in anger and despair that seemed to come out of nowhere. It wasn’t long before that that I noticed I had a raw throat, like I was coming down with a cold. Then I spent a couple of hours finished up a project, and then tried again to meditate. This time was more successful, but, after a while, I discovered myself seemingly “trapped” in a golden place. Well, not really gold, more amber, but you get the idea. <br /><br />I wasn’t really trapped, it just felt like it. Like my body was asleep, I was awake, but I was in this amorphous place that was big and empty. I was floating in the center of this big empty, in fact, I was in a center of a spherical clearing, surrounded by patchy clouds, and behind them was an amber glow. The place had a sense of being hollow and echo-y. I felt very alone. <br /><br />It was odd to be there. I’ve never had this happen before. The sense of being cut off from the outside world was very strong. I wondered why for a bit, then tried to get outside or reach outside, with only limited success. I remember seeing a patch of ocean, but it was like through a dirty window, and hard to maintain the image. I tried to imagine other places or reach people, but I only had a pale shadow of success. I sent out a distress call to a dear friend to please, please send me a message, a text, to get me out of this place. A part of my mind mocked my efforts, saying that she didn’t care anyway and all this “connection” stuff was just a sick illusion, a lie that I told myself. Fortunately a text did come, within a few minutes, and the sound help me get up. <br /><br />During the meditation I had focused on my sore throat, with some success, but I couldn’t get any handle on what was going on: was I tired? Had I been talking too much over the past few days, (Volunteering usually requires a <i>lot</i> of talking to patrons!)? I <i>had</i> managed to move the pain from the back of my throat, up higher and it was much less. But, still, I felt distinctly unhappy, sad and lonely, and if that wasn’t enough, the emotions were confused and didn’t seem attached to any thoughts or things that had happened. I sent a distress text to my friend, hoping she could cheer me up a bit, but I couldn’t just sit around a wait, it was getting to dinner time and I was expecting to host a group later, so I had to get up and make something to eat. Then, I was standing over the stove, the answer occurred to me: I had picked up a “hitchhiker!” I don’t know why these things aren’t more obvious to me. Perhaps I just don’t trust my instincts enough yet, or maybe I just have so much internal “noise” that I don’t really catch external influences. Anyway, now I knew. <br /><br /><div>
It took a few minutes to get his attention. Yes, “his,” it felt male and I got the name “Bill,” which was good enough for my purposes. He wasn’t very communicative, but it didn’t take more that a few minutes to get him to notice the “light” and connect with someone he knew, who then took him on. And then he was gone, and the sadness started lifting, but there was still a residue left behind.<br /><br />My friend hadn’t replied yet, so I let her know, briefly, what had happened, and it wasn’t long before she did cheer me up. She has the ability to make me cry, laugh and feel loved, all with a few texts. And life was good again. <br /><br />All this happened in the space of one afternoon, and it showed me a few things about myself. One, I think this is the first time I have ever reached out for help when feeling down. I have always had this unspoken idea that I’m supposed to hide unhappy feelings and “be strong” for other people, or, at least, don’t “be a bother.” I’m just supposed to hide and never expect support. This episode has shown me the personal value of relationship and mutual support. <br /><br />The next thing I got was the understanding that you can’t really be much help to anyone else unless you are willing and able to accept support yourself. Until I was willing to accept support, I didn’t know how it felt or how to do it. I could say the words and go though the motions, but I didn’t know what it <i>felt</i> like to give or receive genuine support. And I’m sure the people I’ve tried to help over the years picked up on that. They knew my actions were hollow, with no real understanding or commitment. It has taken a willingness to be vulnerable, to expose my weaknesses and fears, deep fears, and allow them to be acknowledged, accepted, and soothed, to teach me what it feels like to be truly supported, warts and all. And now that I know what unconditional support feels like, I am better able to offer that to others. <br /><br />I know this didn’t just happen, all at once, but has been a gradual thing. It’s just that today, for the first time, I saw how well it can work, when I need it. And I see, for the first time, how amazing, truly supportive relationships can be. This has been a real sys-opener for me, and I hope everyone reading this has the opportunity to get beyond the fear, and the needs to hide, manipulate or dominate others, and just get to know what it’s like to accept, and be accepted, unconditionally. There’s nothing like it!</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-45520973252874449472017-05-18T12:30:00.000-07:002017-05-18T12:30:14.167-07:00Karma Is Dead, Long Live Karma!Back around 2012, there was a big hullabaloo about the End of Karma. That all seems forgotten now, but it was a big deal at the time. What does that mean to say there’s no Karma? Well, first I’ll define Karma, for there’s lots of different views of it out there. In essence, Karma is the reincarnationist’s version of sin and blessings, a metaphysical system of credits and debits that you accumulate throughout your life, which then are cashed in, for happiness, or suffering, in your next life. The main difference between sin and karma is that with sin, you get one chance to get it right, then you are judged and sentenced for eternity, but karma gives you multiple chances. <br /><br />Another difference is that, with sin, God or some god, is your judge, where with karma, either you judge yourself or it’s like a cosmic computer program where all your actions are fed in, and out spits a life, outfitted with the proper amount of suffering and reward for to your particular case. This is really just an outline, there are more variations than you can shake a stick at, but you get the idea: In both cases, of sin and karma, we are told to behave ourselves because of a cosmic system of rewards and punishments.<br /><br />The main problems with both of these systems is that what is sin, what is “good” or “bad,” is highly dependent on where your are born, who raised you, what religion you belong to, and current events. You could easily say that sin has be so overused in our cutler that it’s become meaningless. Depending on who you talk to, drinking the wrong drink, wearing the wrong clothes, being born with the wrong genes, or even thinking the wrong thought, are grievous sins requiring eternal punishment. This makes it a bit difficult to know exactly what values are “good” across all cultures. Heck, the notion of what is a sin, varies hugely among Christians in the United States alone, how’s anybody supposed to know what to do? Especially when we’re not talking about one culture, in one time, but across all eternity.<br /><br />Could we do without this whole system? The argument against is “What prevents atheists from stealing and murdering to their heart’s content?” When I hear this, I can’t help but wonder about how good and moral someone is, if the only thing that prevents them from committing all kinds of amoral acts is a threat of eternal punishment? And, since you don’t have to look don’t have to look any further than the daily newspaper to find any number of sinful acts, including mass murder, committed by professed Christians, it seems that the system doesn’t seem to work all that well. And, maybe the reason it doesn’t is that the entire thing was made up by people to control people. I suppose you could say they had good intensions, but things have gotten way out of hand, driven by those, on one side, who want loopholes to allow them to do what they want, and those on the other who want a rule for everything.<br /><br />In the end, it all boils down to one rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If we all followed that, in our behavior and in our justice system, we’d definitely have a different world. And, the thing is, in the light of eternity, what else really matters? Many religious are convinced that following arbitrary rules makes the closer to God. That’s all well and good, until the rules are hateful, hurtful and result in emotional, financial and physical harm to others. You know that vigorous proponents of racial and economic segregation would be incensed at the idea that they couldn’t live where they want, work where they want, have their children go to the schools they want. Perhaps the best justice system would be to treat people as they treat others, and that, in my view, is how karma is <i>supposed</i> to work. If you discriminate, you will be discriminated against, if you steal, what you have will be stolen, if you rape, you will be raped (regardless of sex), if you abuse, you will be abused.<br /><br />But I don’t think that is how the cosmic system works, it’s not a balance-the-scales, the-good-get-rewarded-and-the-bad-punished kind of thing. Kama is “dead” because karma never existed, and neither does sin. Both are human inventions. I find that reincarnation, as a way to gain experience in all aspects of being human, fits the world much better than other philosophies. It answers the question “Why does a good God allow so much suffering in the world?” with the answer that God has nothing to do with it, we create the world we want, with the result that we have to then live in it. Near death experiences and past life regressions both show that we are not judged, ever. We decide what kind of life we intend to have, not God or anyone or anything else. We even decide if we are going to incarnate at all. <br /><br />Some souls choose to be the Hitlers, Stalins, religious zealots, abusers and mass murders of the world for their own reasons. Perhaps to create opportunities for suffering, for acts of heroism and self sacrifice. Perhaps to gain an understanding of what it’s like to be that kind of person. Who knows? But it only takes a short look at the world to see that we all live by our own moral codes, sin and karma not withstanding, so it’s best to clean up your own “karmic” house before you set out to judge and set rules for others to live by. <br /><br />It just seems to me that the way to a peaceful life is to treat others as you want to be treated and to have compassion for those who don’t, and are victims of those who don’t. This makes things simple and avoids a lot of convoluted mental and moral juggling to aline your ideals with what is actually out in the world, and in your head. Take a moment to recognize how you <i>really</i> wish to be treated and put that out in the world every day. It will come back to you in ways small and large. rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-66383474601639276472017-04-20T11:18:00.000-07:002017-04-20T11:18:19.038-07:00The Next DemotionPoor mankind! Poor humans! We keep getting knocked down off our perch, our place in the grand scheme of things just keeps getting smaller and smaller! Once upon a time, in the good old days, we were the center of the universe and everything revolved around us. We, (especially white males) were the epitome of creation, those were the days!<br /><br />But then Galileo had the bad taste to look up in the sky and see that something revolving around another heavenly body, how impolite was that? For that gross breach of etiquette he was place under house arrest for the rest of his life. Not so long, in his case. How foolish was he for actually seeing something that contradicted what everybody knew what true?<br /><br />Not long after that, Kepler came along and showed that we weren’t the center of our solar system. In his case, he made sure he was dead before his ideas were published. Smart man! <div>
<br />It took a long time for that idea to really be accepted, but, since then, in the last two centuries, the our demotions, in the physical world have come faster and faster. We’re not the center of our solar system. Now our sun is one among countless other stars, in no way better or special, at the outskirts of our galaxy, again, not unusual or special in any way, among countless other galaxies, in a universe so vast, with numbers so large, that the mind simply can’t comprehend how insignificant we humans actually are. <br /><br />If that wasn’t enough. For a long time, it was figured that we had one of the rare, of not the only habitual planet. Turns out that planets are a common as dirt, with at least as many planets as stars, and the number of habitual planets is, again, so large as to be boggle the mind. <br /><br />Next we find that life isn’t limited to existing in the relatively narrow band of environments we were familiar with. We have found simple life forms living in space, in the deep oceans, and far underground, miles underground, far from any sunlight, in environments so hostile and toxic, in temperatures and pressures so extreme, that anything we’re familiar with would be destroyed in a matter of moments. This tells us that life <i>could</i> exist in many different places in our solar system alone, not to mention the rest of the universe. Things are not looking good for our civilization! Though many still want to cling to the belief that we are the most intelligent and advanced thing out there, that is looking less and less likely every day. It’s probably only a matter of time until we find proof that we are not alone. What a blow to our ego!<br /><br />If that wasn’t enough, a more subtle revolution is also going on. It’s funny, in a way, because it’s been going on for centuries, but most people haven’t noticed. You would think that the major world religions would be fighting this new view, but they generally have nothing to say about it. I believe the reason are that they, for the most part, don’t recognize it as a threat. Most of the faithful accept their human-centered theology so thoroughly that they can’t conceive and any other point of view. Religious leaders are so confident in their singular point of view that they only worry about threats from other religions, like them.<br /><br />In my view, the limitations of Christian theology become more and more obvious, the more you look into it, and the attempts to resolve these problems end up going down one of two paths: In one, they double- and triple-down on the basic premise of one universe and one afterlife, where you go to heaven to hell, depending on a fairly arbitrary set of rules, and where the justifications and explanations of this structure and these rules are so Byzantine in their complexity that they freely admit that no one understands them. “It’s Gods’ will,” they say with a shrug. In a way, this resembles the bizarrely complicated schemes that medieval astronomers came up with to explain the moments of the heavenly bodies, necessitated by the assumption that everything had to revolve around the earth. <br /><br />One the second path, theologians start to deviate from the simplistic assumption that our human experience is the only experience there is. One can’t step too far down this path and still be acceptable to the Church, or any religion. It seems that, at it’s heart, every religion, no matter what it says, can’t quite let go of the idea that they are the “best” or “only” way to….what, be “saved,” “enlightened?” That, I suppose, is part of human nature, to assume that whatever makes sense to you is the best and only sensible option. Despite this assumption of followers of every religion that theirs is the “best so far,” a sea-change is in the works. <br /><br />The first first sign on this change is noticing that every religion and faith is just one among many. Not first or best, just but one among many possible faiths. And that there is no objective measure, or reason of any kind, to promote one over any other, other than “This is what I believe.” This is just as hard for the faithful to swallow as the idea that the earth revolved around the sun was for medieval europeans. As I said, the battle isn’t really on yet, for most people don’t see it coming. Most people think that there is a “war” between the sacred and the secular, but that’s an illusion. What’s really going on is a blending of materialism and spirituality, resulting in a new worldview that is putting the squeeze in the millennia-old dogmatism of western religions.<br /><br />What we are starting to see, derived from <a href="https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/" target="_blank">research into reincarnatio</a>n and <a href="http://iands.org/research/nde-research.html" target="_blank">NDEs, (Near Death Experiences)</a> our human experience is just one tiny part of a much large tapestry. Far from there being one “reality” and one “afterlife,” there are an uncounted number possible realities we could be born into, and what we call “the afterlife” is much larger, richer and more varied than we are capable of imagining. Just like in the physical universe, where we have been demoted to just a single species, on a insignificant planet, drifting on the outskirts of an unremarkable galaxy, floating among uncounted billions of other galaxies, our human experience is just one among countless experiences a soul can, and does, have, and is no more important to the grand scheme of things than the life of a bacterium to the cosmos. <br /><br />That’s not to say we are unimportant, we are, just not in the ego-driven, human-centered way we want to believe. We are part of something so much greater than we can imagine, and we each contribute to this whole in our own special way. Like a small child who doesn’t understand the contribution she will one day make as President, we do not comprehend our ultimate power and destiny, once we mature. In the meantime, we would be best served by learning the lessons beyond the material, the promote the best of us, elevate the worse of us, and contribute to all those around us.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-91066780085873825842017-02-23T01:59:00.001-08:002017-02-23T01:59:42.472-08:00Re: what a gorgeous stuff!<div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Hey, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I've been looking for something on the web and have accidentally come across that gorgeous stuff, just take a look at it <a href="http://jonson.mancade.net/abaa">read more</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Take care, Sabeen<o:p></o:p></span></p><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-91290456649464434602017-02-07T15:10:00.000-08:002017-02-07T15:10:54.779-08:00Rearranging the Deck Chairs<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
I had a dream a few days ago. It didn’t mean much at the time, it just seemed silly, but the meaning became clear yesterday. I had a lot of dreams that night, but this one is the only one I remember. That seems how dreams work for me. when I wake up, I can remember snatches of many different dreams but only one is clear enough and detailed enough to recall.</div>
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This dream is set in sunny California in the early 60’s. The whole thing looked like a 60’s glam movie, with long, low convertibles, beautiful people, and bright sunshine with saturated colors. It took place in a large parking lot, mostly full, that seemed to be at the beach. I watched it all in third person, the person I take to be me was driving this blue convertible. The “me” in this dream was a “Rock Hudson” type with a pretty girlfriend, at least that’s what she seemed, she came a went throughout the scene. Everyone seemed happy, almost movie musical happy. You’ll see why that’s weird in a minute.</div>
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The whole parking lot was flooded with water. Over the doorsills in some places, a little lower in other places. Nobody seemed to care. My car was full of water that sloshed around as I drove. I didn’t look like I cared, smiling and happy. I drove around the lot for a while then found a new parking space where the water was a little less deep, actually below the doorsills. Maybe I thought that the water in the care would drain out. After I parked, the girlfriend re-appeared and I sat there, with my arms wide open, face up to sky, eyes closed, smiling like this was the best day ever. I watched this from above, like it was the ending of a great movie. Roll credits.</div>
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Yesterday it hit me, what it means. The water is the “sludge” in our lives and we spend our lives “being happy” and trying to find a place where the “sludge” is, perhaps, just a little shallower. And we celebrate if we find such a place. </div>
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I was struck by the superficiality of the whole thing. Beautiful people, fancy cars, beautiful location, nice clothes, but we all ignore the sludge, for the most part. But we do spend a lot of time “driving around the parking lot” looking for a place with less sludge. Nobody every tries to leave the parking lot. Funny, huh?</div>
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What is “sludge?” All the crap that weighs us down, fills our time, yet, ultimately, never adds anything to our lives. Worries: About money, about what people think, about things we can do nothing about. Fear and hate: About just about anything. Fear and hate are two sides of the same coin, you distrust what you fear, you’re fear what you don’t like. </div>
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We are all afraid of stuff, whether we admit it or not. (Not afraid of anything? What about “uncomfortable?” Are you uncomfortable around certain people, in certain situations, with certain subjects? “Discomfort” is mild fear, it doesn’t take a whole lot to turn “discomfort” into something far stronger.) The common way you’re supposed to deal with fear, is that you find the source of your fear and remove it from your life. Then you will “feel safe,” right? Except that doesn’t actually work. No matter how hard or how far you push your fear and discomfort away, it always finds you. I know how that works. I’ve lived in “unsafe” areas, then I get a chance to move to something better, and, for a while, I feel much better. Then, I begin to notice things, and hear things, neighbors talk, incidents on the news, and before long I feel “unsafe” again.</div>
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What are you afraid of? People different from you? Be it appearance, income, education, age, beliefs, clothes? The government? Liberals? Conservatives? The rich? The poor? Climate change? Poison, in your food, water, medicines? Look around you and you’ll have no trouble finding people who want to stoke your fears, for their own ends, and once they’ve go you hooked, truth no longer matters, facts don’t matter, all that matters is the “it” that “they” want you to fear. And it’s so easy, because the fear is always there, inside you, just waiting to be pointed at someone or something. What fear? The fear that they will all find out those things we hate about ourselves.</div>
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Ever wonder what the fear-peddelers get out of it? Think about it, they all want something and are willing to scare you into giving it to them. They want your money, time, support, or just the attention. There’s always some hidden motive, because, if they were on the up-and-up, there’d be no reason to use fear to sell you their agenda. The thing is, the world has a lot of problems, but none of them are unsolvable! We have the knowledge and technology to solve or, at least, mitigate, everyone of the world problems, and the only reason we don’t is fear: Greed is fear of not having enough. Conservatism is the fear of change, or losing what you have. The need for power comes from fear of loss of control. Bigotry, of all kinds, religious and racial, including misogyny, is fear of anyone who is different. There is enough of everything for everyone, money, food, living space, if we could only get over all the fears. </div>
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So, in my dream we were all perfectly happy, walking and driving around shin deep in sludge. We enjoyed the sunshine and our fancy cars while carefully ignoring the mess and the reality that the sludge was rotting out the cars, inside and out. We cope by vying for better parking spots, with less sludge, but nobody considers leaving the parking lot. That would require leaving behind your car, your status and the “parking place” that you have worked so hard to secure. In the real world, things aren’t so cut and dried. Getting rid of all your material things, and walking away from you responsibilities and obligations doesn’t free you from the sludge, It’s not even a necessary step. The sludge is inside and, once you start cleaning that up, what you manifest on the outside will naturally follow as a natural consequence of your new values. In all things, it doesn’t matter what you have, or what you do, it’s why you have it or do it. Intension is everything. </div>
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In my journey of a thousand miles, I have faced and expunged many hidden fears, small and large. They are usually linked to traumas, so the fears vanish when the traumatic emotions are acknowledged and released. This is difficult for us Westerners, we are taught to “forget about it,” and suppress any hurt, “get over it, nobody wants to know.” We are <i>so</i> uncomfortable with feelings. Or we dwell endlessly on how we feel about what happened, which just reinforces the trauma. Neither of these is helpful. It always comes out and haunts us, making us easy prey for any fear monger that comes along. It doesn’t matter how smart and logical we think we are, or how confident we are that our religious or other beliefs protect us, our sludge is there, effecting every decision and coloring every opinion.</div>
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The solution that I teach is to use a combination of tools and practices, including hypnosis, with meditation, shamanistic and other traditional and new-age concepts to discover, uncover and release the trapped emotions that keep us stuck in past events. This removes the “scales from our eyes” and allow us to see the world as it is, not as we feared it was, and the fears begin to melt away. This process takes time, and that’s good thing, for having too much change all at once would be a tremendous shock to our system, but it’s not so bad because it pays dividends all along the way. The slow progress allows you to adapt your lifestyle and values as your inner landscape changes. Many people want a new life, without, you know, actually, changing their life. They want to world to treat them differently without changing the way they view and treat the world. That, of course, never works. The simple and powerful fact is, you change yourself, you change the world. Anything else you do, from success seminars to positive affirmations, is no more that driving around the parking lot, or, as some say, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Maybe it looks good, and may even make you feel like your acomplishing something, but it's untimately fultile if you're expecting any real change in your life.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-30590672471796893272016-12-01T17:22:00.000-08:002016-11-30T21:22:35.685-08:00Jeez!<div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Hello! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I was looking for something an I've suddenly came accross that thing, jeez... you have to take a look <a href="http://market.austinirving.com/e7hcm/1">http://market.austinirving.com/e7hcm/1</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Thanks for your consideration, Rodney Whitehouse<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-88020624809542840152016-11-04T22:19:00.000-07:002016-11-06T08:33:42.659-08:00A Cowboy, and Indian, and a GiftToday I did a house clearing for a friend of mine. I’d been at over her house a few days ago to help her fix her shower. Afterwards, she fixed me a little lunch and we sat and talked. for a while. After a while, something she said made we wonder if she was being influenced by something. Maybe something in the house? So I checked, and, sure enough, I detected something in the house. It didn’t seem particularly harmful in any way, it was just <i>there</i>. At first I thought it was male, but later I got confused and just couldn’t tell much of anything about it. I mentioned this to my friend and we talked about it, but I couldn’t get anything more, so where wasn’t much to say about it.<br /><br />I contacted my friend, later, and got her permission to have a remote look-see. I wanted to find out more and see if there was anything to be done. I contacted another friend of mine who had demonstrated some talent in this area, and we set up a time today to look into it.<br /><br />Why don’t I look into it myself? Ah, I just don’t trust myself in this kind of thing. In my personal view of things, it seems to always work best if we have two people doing the work, one to be the sensitive and one to be the guide. I feel that this allows the sensitive to “be sensitive” and be with whatever they’re getting, without having to strategize about how to best help the entity we are in contact to. As an added bonus, having two people allows the session to be recorded. I didn’t record it this time, though I wish it had because it was interesting.<br /><br />This subject goes under quite easily, so I just sent her to her a “Happy place”, a real or imaginary place where she feels most comfortable and at peace. I usually ask several questions to get them completely orientated and absorbed into the sights, sounds and details of the places, as much as possible. This all went pretty much by the book, until I had the inspiration to ask: “What else is there?” For some reason, I just thought that she wasn’t alone. (I didn’t say “Who else is there,” because I didn’t want to plant any suggestions. If there was someone else there, I wanted her to come up with that on her own.) <br /><br />Right off, she described an native American woman, a Mexican woman, then she corrected that to say that she seemed to be from Guatemala. She was dressed in traditional clothes and sitting on a blanket. We called her Maria. There also seemed to be a “garden gnome” sitting some ways away. It was never clear why the gnome was there. Later it faded into a charred tree stump, whatever that means. Maybe it was just there to observe?<br /><br />It seemed that Maria was there to help with the house, but she wanted to do something first, materialize something that looked like a medicine rattle. As my friend described it, Maria held up her hand, as though there was something in it, and there appeared an outline or impression of the rattle, but it never fully formed. She apparently gave up on that after a while and we moved on to the house. Again, I told my friend as little as possible about the house, I wanted her to have no preconceived notions about what she might find there. I just gave her the first name of the owner of the house and roughly where it is located. <br /><br />My friend picked up little about the house itself, just the general placement of the kitchen and dining room in relation to the front door. The spirit seemed to be located just off the dining room, right about where I was sitting when I first noticed him. The spirit was of a man, in his forties, wearing a cowboy hat. A pleasant fellow, but he was confused. He was stuck and couldn’t find the place he was looking for, everything looked different. <br /><br />Apparently, he had lived in shack in that location in 1916 [estimated 100 years ago], had left, died, and had spent considerable time in a kind of limbo state. Not too long ago, no more than a few years, he got out of the limbo and wanted to return to the place where he felt the happiest, but he had trouble finding it since nothing looked the same. He had been stuck and confused ever since. <br /><br />My friend had the idea to show him the progression of time, from when he left this area until now, I assume to get him to understand just how much time had passed. She watched as the shack slowly deteriorated, and fell apart. At one point, people came by and wrapped up pieces for their own uses. Eventually, nothing was left and the area returned to nature for a long time, until the developers showed up, started building houses, and turned the area into a subdivision. <br /><br />Maria tried to get him to leave, with no success. I asked after people he missed, in the hope that they would lead him on to the light, and some people appeared: A native Indian woman, two children and two men. They were smiling and happy, especially the woman. He was now ready to leave the house, but first, my friend had to create a door because he refused to walk through the wall. <br /><br />Once outside, we ran into another problem. He had exited in a different direction than his friends, so he couldn’t find them. When he did join up with the others, it turned out that they weren’t “real” after all. My friend noticed that the “friends” didn’t seem to have any energy associated with them, they were just animated cutouts, so to speak. He had made them up. We where stuck again, but at least he was out of the house. Maria took some energy from my friend to lend herself more power and authority. I have no idea if that helped or not.<br /><br />My next idea was to ask him to look up for The Light. He didn’t see anything above him, but he did see something through the trees. He walked with Maria toward a glimmer in the forest, and soon came to a clearing where the light shown down brightly and his friends, the “real” ones this time, were waiting. It didn’t take much now for him to go with his friends and fade away. My friend waited for the portal to close and the light to fade. We thanked Maria for her help and ended the session.<br /><br />Afterwards, my friend told me, “I think 'Maria' is what I would call a 'rescue guide', one who spends her time coaxing people out of stuck places. No doubt she appears in different guises according to what's needed.” She also said that Maria was businesslike and professional but also compassionate. We speculated about why she appeared as someone from Guatemala: Maybe all the local, native American spirits were busy? (That’s a joke, by the way.) That’s just one of the many things about this work, we always seem to have more questions than answers.<br /><br />Before Maria left, she gave my friend a parting gift, she described it like this, “I feel very cheerful, light-hearted, peaceful and sure of myself.” Not a bad outcome for a job well done, I think.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-58878512760510192122016-10-29T13:45:00.000-07:002016-10-30T01:08:13.728-07:00spectaculous<div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Hello! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Have you seen that place already? It's just spectaculous, you've got to look at it here <a href="http://bovaserdi.wordpress-florida.com/lnwsy/214">http://bovaserdi.wordpress-florida.com/lnwsy/214</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Hope this helps, Susannah Carlson<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-15872952541189598172016-10-22T12:42:00.000-07:002016-10-22T12:42:06.690-07:00Spirit Under GlassThose who know me know that I go to a lot of MeetUps. Sometimes up to six a week. Hey, it gets me out of the house, it's generally fun, and I've now met enough people that I usually know someone wherever I go. A few months ago I made a new friend with an unusual problem and this post is about that problem. This is a cautionary tale, it ended well, but it pays to be aware that there might be "extra features" included when you buy stuff at flea markets and thrift stores.<br /><br />There is one MeetUp that I'd been meaning to go to since I first came here, and then I finally found the time to go. When I showed up, only one other person was there, aside from the host, and it seemed like the host had suffered a mild stroke or something and didn't seem functionally present, so we pretty much talked between ourselves the whole time. <br /><br />The MeetUp was a discussion group around the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fringe-ology-Tried-Explain-Unexplainable-Couldnt/dp/0061857726">Fringe-ology</a>, and the other person was a older woman who had considerably less exposure to the paranormal than I had, but was curious. She had published a novel that included past lives and she thought she might have a spirit in her house. Long story short, I visited her house to pick up a copy of the book and immediately felt the presence of a spirit there. That was very unusual for me, I have never before have I felt such a strong presence. And it was centered around the stairs that lead to the second floor. At some point, I'm not sure when, I realized that the presence was actually focused at a glass display case at the head of the stairs. <br /><br />We talked for a while and I did an exploratory session with her that established that she was a very good subject, going under quickly and with good visualization skills. We set up an appointment for a few days later to work on this entity. She was worried that it might be the spirit of her dead partner, who had died in the house, and wanted it gone. My plan was to use her as a surrogate to communicate with the entity, and find out what I needed to persuade it to move on to the light. Best laid plans and all that.<br /><br />When the day arrived she slipped easily into trance, and readily contacted the entity. The session was short, so I've included the full transcript below, along with a post-session conversation where she told the story of the "figures," set of Kachina dolls, that she had bought at a flea market in Denver, and added further information about the entity that didn't come out in the session. I like having the full transcript because it provides the flavor of the session and how the information was uncovered.<br /><br />I've cut out most of my instructions where they didn't add to the story. My words are in italics.<br /><br /><i>Start of trance session.</i><br /><br />"I think he was…he performed, or he participated, in these ceremonies. He may have been one of the figures.<br /><br />He’s not a great talker. <br /><br />He’s not showing me very much. He’s saying that the most important thing is just to be. <br /><br /><i>What is his purpose in being here?</i><br /><br />He didn’t have anywhere else to go. <br /><br /><i>Why is that?</i><br /><br />He’s been cutoff, somehow…from his life. <br /><br /><i>So, what happened?</i><br /><br />He had to leave. Something awful happened. He wasn’t thrown out, but there’s something he can’t forgive.<br /><br /><i>Where was he?</i><br /><br />Somewhere down where there’s sand, a desert. He says it’s a place where I’ve been. He’s telling me, “You know the place.” <br /><br /><i>Can he show you that place from your own memory?</i><br /><br />He says I drove onto it. Oh, it’s somewhere near Santa Fe. No, no, he says, “You drove onto the reservation.” I’m seeing the reservation houses. They’re all sandstone buildings, and there’s no landscaping around them. They don’t landscape at all. I remember driving on to that reservation. Acoma, Acoma Pueblo. <br /><br /><i>What was it like when he was there?</i><br /><br />Things don’t change.<br /><br /><i>What were the people like?</i><br /><br />He says they were already breaking apart.<br /><br /><i>In what way?</i><br /><br />They were leaving, they were going their separate ways. They weren’t coherent. Not as it had been when he was growing up. <br /><br /><i>How old was he at this point?</i><br /><br />I not seeing…he’s not showing me that. No ideas are coming into my mind. <br /><br /><i>Ok. What was he purpose at that time?</i><br /><br />He went out to catch an eagle. He was very much into the culture, and the traditions. <br /><br />Oh, it changed. It changed a great deal when Los Alamos was started. He says that’s when it started. The Los Alamos project put a lot of people…strangers…and things are not the same. I see Santa Fe, as it was, [can’t understand]. He’s showing me Santa Fe, I can see it. There’s still horse carts on the road. And there’s the hotel. And everything’s adobe, it looks very different. <br /><br /><i>What was being lost?</i><br /><br />[can’t understand], the sense of who they were. They sold out. He’s saying that they sold out. And he spoke up, in meetings. He said that they were selling out. But they wanted the money, they wanted the development. He said, “Is that who we are, sitting outside the governor’s place selling jewelry? Is that who we are?” He said, “What are you going to do next? Are you going to sell tickets to the festivals?” And so he left.<br /><br /><i>Where did he go?</i><br /><br />He took a construction job. He went to Denver. <br /><br /><i>Then what happened?</i><br /><br />I think he was killed. I think he was killed in a accident. And no one know who he was. And they took the things he had brought with him…and they were sold.<br /><br /><i>What are those things?</i><br /><br />He had ritual things. He had sacred feathers, and pottery, and sand painting. And he had the kachinas. But there were more. And he says he doesn’t want to go back.<br /><br /><div>
<i>Go back where?</i><br /><br />To where he started. He doesn’t wish to return.<br /><br /><i>His home? Where he was born?</i><br /><br />Yeah, he doesn’t want to go back to the desert where he was born.<br /><br /><i>Perhaps it’s time to return to the Source?</i><br /><br />He opening up his arms, to the sun. <br /><br /><i>Is there someone he knows and trusts, that has past on before him?</i><br /><br />He said himself, he’s made a promise to himself. He says I cannot help him.<br /><br /><i>Help who?</i><br /><br />Him. Whoever this person is. That’s why he…he says he is the wanderer.<br /><br /><i>What is his purpose?</i><br /><br />I don’t think he knows. <br /><br /><i>What is the promise he made to himself?</i><br /><br />Meaning. He’s looking for meaning. He thought he knew. He says, what he liked about me, is that I’m looking for the same thing. <br /><br /><i>Is he attached to all his old possessions?</i><br /><br />He says, some of them are long lost. Some have been destroyed. These were the only possessions that came into the hands of someone who understood them. <br /><br /><i>What do you want to do now?</i><br /><br />He wishes to do one, he says, one glorious thing. Something, that when he talks to the elders who have gone before him, something he can present to them that gives some purpose to his life. <br /><br /><i>What kind of thing might that be?</i><br /><br />He wants to teach. He wants someone to understand the old ways. Because he said they are sacred, beautiful, ways. He says I cannot help him, but I can be useful to him. <br /><br /><i>How would he do his teaching?</i><br /><br />He says he has already started.<br /><br /><i>Good. Who is he teaching?</i><br /><br />He has attracted…He’s attracted to the ceremonies. That is all he’ll tell me. He says these are the sacred mysteries. He is in this house because it is a safe, supportive place for him, while he pursues the things that give him joy and make it possible for him. He means no harm.<br /><br /><i>..., how comfortable are you having him here?</i><br />I feel rather blessed.<br /><br /><i>Is there anything he could do to make it a little more comfortable?</i><br />Tell me tales. When I sleep, tell me tales. Tell me the stories that you would have told the children. He told the stories to the children, when they sat in the kivas. I can see now, the ladder coming down. And the smoke, you climb down through the purifying smoke. And the children, sitting cross-legged around him in a circle. <br /><br />Coyote. He’s telling stories of Coyote…Coyote and the jackrabbit…"<br /><br /><i>End of trance session</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i><br />The post-session discussion starts here.<br /><br /><i>Start of recording</i><br /><br />"Do you want me to tell the story of where I got those dolls from?<br /><br /><i>Yeah.</i><br /><br />It was in an antique mall in Denver. It was a big one, the biggest one in Denver. So you can just imagine the size of it. And, I walked in and, the only way you can systematically do something that big is to just walk the aisles. And, as you go by these places, where the people have their stuff out, you just, sort of get a quick idea of what is there. You don’t have to stop at all. And I got down to this one particular place and, just something about it, it was very jumbled, and something about it sort of said, “You should come in and look.” <br /><br />And so I sauntered in and looked around, and for the most part, there was no rhyme or reason to it. Just all sorts of things thrown together. Then all of a sudden I caught a glimpse of one of these Kachinas, down in the corner. In this cabinet and to the back. And there were actually four of them, and I only took three. And, something called me very much to them. And so I had to go get the guy, the manager to come and unlock the case, so I could pull them out and look at them. <br /><br />Initially I only took two. Then when I got them home, there was sort of a sense of incompletion. So I felt very called. I had to drive clear across Denver to go back. The other two were still there, and I took the third one of them. I didn’t care as much, I didn’t feel drawn to the forth one so, it still may be up there. That’s how I got them. <br /><br />I brought them home and I cleaned them up and replaced the feathers on MudHead, and they came down from Denver and have been part of me ever since. That’s how they came into my life. But I only started realizing that there was something going on with them when I brought them here. (She currently lives in Vancouver, Washington) Particularly when [her partner] died, that was back in December, that was when I realized that there was something going on with them. They’re very much a powerful influence.<br /><br /><i>Yeah, the strongest I’ve felt, personally.</i><br /><br />And he (the spirit we call the Teacher) is not angry, he’s not upset, he’s just passionate. He’s passionate about what he believes. He’s passionate about the importance of it. And he wants to do something…what did he tell me…something…<br /><br /><i>Wonderful…?</i><br /><br />Something important. And I don’t think it really involves me, it’s more I’m hosting him, providing him a place to collect himself. <br /><br /><i>Or a platform to…if it’s…telling his stories and getting his information out there is part of the process. Perhaps when certain people see it, perhaps they might be drawn to it.</i><br />Well I think I will still see if I can send his Kachinas back. Because he is, despite his feelings, he is part of that. That pueblo. He may have left them and he may deny that he is, but he is. And if I can send them back then, perhaps, that will bring him some peace. But I think that even if I send them back, that he is going to leave. He’s found a comfortable and congenial place because I value the same things he does. And as long as he finds it meaningful, I’m not going to object too much to it. <br /><br />But I can tell him that I would like that if he is the one that showed me that cavern, with the carved figures…when I did my own… <br /><br />[<i>instructions</i>]<br /><br />Generally I’ve tried to meditation, but I have so much static, so many people coming at me, that I don’t always really get through to that place of calm. <br /><br /><i>What do you mean, so many people coming at you?</i><br /><br />I’m aware of presences, as I start to go down. I’m aware my husband’s talking to me, I’ve got my mother, I’ve got all sorts of wild things going through my mind. It’s very difficult to get beyond them. And this time that I did, I was shown the picture of a large eye. You know, the third eye?<br /><br /><i>Yeah, Ok.</i><br /><br />And that when I went through that eye, into what was beyond, I think I told you there was someone with me, who was showing me? I found myself going through the light, going into a huge cavern, where there was…it was infinite. You couldn’t see the beginning or the end or anything. And I was taken into a side room, and it was almost as if somebody had a flashlight, or something was illuminating the walls. Because I thought that if this was the Akashic records…I was expecting them to be books, and in English. And it wasn’t. <br /><br />All of the walls were intricately carved, almost like alabaster or marble, intricately carved with…it looked like Indian art. You know those three-dimensional friezes where they have all these figures? You know, east Indian, real India. You got these three-dimensional friezes of figures, often quite sensual?<br /><br /><i>Ok</i><br /><br />And the whole wall, and the ceiling…you couldn’t see the ceiling, everything was covered with these intricate carvings, and I was told, this is your soul group. This is where you belong. <br /><br />And that has always been an issue for me. Where do I belong? And so, essentially they’re telling me, “Stop worrying about where you belong, in the earth plain, this is where you belong. This is your group, so to speak. And that was very comforting. And the fellow that was with me, very reticent, very quite. I asked his name, and I got the message, “You’re not ready for this.” If that was him, then he could help me, if he wants to teach, then take me back. Show me, show me what is there. Because apparently he can also go backwards or forwards as he wishes. <br /><br /><i>End of recording</i><br /><br /><br /><br />I think it's fascinating how the spirit taught her though pictures, even though she didn't know he was there. In the end the spirit left on it's own. He left her the understanding that she wasn't the person he needed to fulfill whatever purpose he had in mind.<br /><br />This instance ended well, with the spirit comfortably gone and the dolls are now just regular dolls. It doesn't always happen that way: objects with energy or attachments of various kinds are out there and can cause significant trouble. Sometimes they can be cleared, but other times it's just better to get rid of them. One options is to send them to one of the Paranormal Museums that know how to handle and store these kind of objects in a safe manor. If you think you may have a haunted or cursed object, contact me and I'll see what I can do for you: AQuestioningSpiritTherapy@gmail.com.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-5288500541582046622016-10-18T13:39:00.003-07:002016-10-18T13:45:35.403-07:00It couldn’t get more embarrassing, could it?I started this post last week, but I finally finished it up today because it feels like I now have a context to put this in. People who know me know that I don’t like to post things like “I feel bad about this and I don’t know what to do about it.” I like to have some kind of closure around stuff before I write about it. Today I’ve reached a point where I’ve processed this enough to have some perspective on it, and I hope that what I found is helpful to you.<div>
<br />—<br /><br />I just returned from a hypnotherapy MeetUp (<a href="https://www.meetup.com/East-County-Hypnosis-and-Hypnotherapy/events/234551486/">East Country Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy</a>, for those in Portland) It’s mainly for therapists or therapists-in-training, but anyone can show up. They keep it fun, but I also find it informative and challenging. This time I had a face-palm insight that has caused me to rethink how I relate to people, in a big way.<br /><br />At this MeetUp, we usually focus on one particular topic or technique, with a short lecture, and a practice session where we pair off, taking turns being therapist and client. When I walked into this meeting for the first time, a familiar feeling came up, one that I didn’t acknowledge until tonight. I didn’t have a name for this feeling, and it’s not pleasant, but I just powered through it, as usual. The meetings take place once a month, and each time the feeling would turn on when I stepped in and disappear as soon as I left. It wasn’t until the meeting before this that I noticed how it was interfering with my ability to do the exercises: I was too busy being wrapped up in defending myself, by being glib and superficial, to access the feelings my partner needed to do her part of the exercise. I also notice how quickly that tendency disappeared once I left. <br /><br />Note to self: Context is everything. If you are on any kind of self-improvement, personal-growth path, you know what I’m talking about. Just when you think you’ve got something handled and it’s all good, then, Bam! there it is again! You can get really frustrated and upset with yourself, and feel like you’re falling backwards, but it’s not that way at all. The same issue, (or issues that are very similar) can be linked to many different contexts, and only show up <i>in that context.</i> This is really important. You may think you’ve handled your social anxiety, but if you’ve only done it for family dinners, it can come up again at work functions, school reunions, restaurants, bars, and church functions. Each time keyed to different internal and external cues. I have gotten to the point where I’m pretty confident in social situations and meeting new people, but this group throws me right back to school, when I felt sure that I was the stupidest person there, and was afraid to say anything lest I be teased or, worse, wrong. I feel I have no trouble being open in most situations, but in this situation I can feel the vail of <i>dumb</i> descend over my mind as my defenses go up. I just <i>know</i> that everyone in the room is smarter, more skilled and knows more that I do. In this case, I even hit by the sights, smells and sounds of those college classrooms where I felt so inadequate. <br /><br />This issue is really powerful, and one of it’s aspects is that I have to pretend “it’s all good,” while I’m furiously scrambling fake it, while hiding my ignorance and incompetence. Mostly by doing as little as possible until I can get out, hide, and try and figure it all out where no one can see me. Because I can’t think when anyone’s watching. <br /><br />This really caused me to drop the ball at last month’s meeting, when I was the subject and couldn’t break through my “vail of stupid” to authenticity answer the questions. What’s worse, my partner was an experienced therapist who, I’m sure, knew I was blocking and resisting, I wasn’t fooling anyone, which made it even more embarrassing. She graciously let me off the hook, but it didn’t make me feel any better.<br /><br />—<br /><br />Exploring this issue more deeply I have uncovered a surprisingly deep well of fear and self-deception. I am so afraid of not being the smarted person in the room, because that’s the only way I can feel safe. I can play analyst here and say that this clearly goes back to being bullied and endless teased as a child. My defenses were to say and do as little as possible, to deprive them of ammunition, and to be smart and have clever comebacks. Now I find I can’t really trust people I perceive as smarter than me because I can’t be sure I will be able to see the attacks coming in time to defend myself. <br /><br />Quite a pickle. The good news is that all this introspection has really turned down the volume on this stuff and I’m beginning to cut myself a little slack. What is, is. Deal with it, don’t wallow in it. It’s time to allow myself the same compassion I would easily give someone else in the same position. And, the funny thing is, now that I’ve gotten over the initial angst of making this discovery, I <i>do</i> feel better about myself, I’ve released some things in my life that didn’t serve me, and, all in all, I feel better about myself, strangely enough. And my relationships seem better as well, cleaner, purer, somehow. Maybe being less afraid allows me to show up more and just enjoy the experience.<br /><br />As usual, send contributions and comments to AQuestioningSpiritTherapy@gmail.com.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-47630600353892843872016-10-08T17:58:00.000-07:002016-10-08T17:58:16.162-07:00Shamanism 101Today I started a course in Shamanistic studies. It takes years to get the stuff down, so I consider this just an introduction. I’ve had some training in shamanic techniques before, but that just scratched the surface, and I’m sure I’ll be digging deeper into this as time goes on. It really feels like following this path is the next step in my evolution.<br /><br />This class went amazingly well. What that means for me is that I actually got what we were supposed to be doing in the journeys. If you don’t know what a journey is, think of it as a guided meditation. (That’s not really it, but you can find out more on the internet, so use it.) It wasn’t so long ago that this kind of stuff didn’t work for me. I was way too much inside my head to be able to feel, and way to self-conscious and worried about “getting it right” to let go and just let what happens, happen. It was a wonderful surprise to discover that I could <i>be</i> water, <i>be</i> air, earth and fire. Very cool. And I saw, and felt, that being air is how you fly: You become air, and just do what air does, up among the clouds.<br /><br />As a little background, I’m been working on a post about fear. I completely rewritten it four times, and It’s still not ready. Maybe because it’s just a process I need to go through, maybe what I’m actually doing is changing my relationship to fear, not getting rid of it. More on the later, as it came up in my journeys. Before I talk about my journeys, I want to talk about what happened at lunch.<br /><br />I didn’t bring any lunch, since the course paper work said that there was a place to get food “across the street.” Well, “across the street” turned out to be a mile up the road. And I was walking. It’s all good though, cause I had a good walk, once I got over the bitch’n. It was cloudy, with some sun, with an interesting wind. I was enjoying the wind when it hit me that I <i>really</i> enjoyed the wind. And this wind was saying “Hi!” It really seemed like an old friend. I have always liked wind, no matter if it’s soft and warm, or harsh and cold, or teasing and playful. I love clear air and a fresh breeze. Talking about this later in class, the instructor pointed out that air is the element associated with being in your head, and, boy, have I been in my head most of my life!<br /><br />Since I had so much time to walk, I figured it was time to wonder why my feet were so cold today. That part was easy: Fear. But fear of what? It took some time to tease out the the answer, seeing how I had to fight for each word, but I finally got it: I was afraid that I would find out the real reason why I was so selfish. Who me? Selfish? I’m still wrapping my head around that. Here I’d thought I’d made real progress in that area, but, apparently, there is still much to learn. I have a feeling that that word doesn’t mean what I think it means.<br /><br />I think we had three journeys. I can’t remember them all separately, so I’m going to tell it the way I remember. (I know, I should write things down. But I really don’t want to. I don’t have a good reason for that, I just really, really, dislike taking pen in hand and trying to write down how I feel. It’s much better to talk, next comes typing, which isn’t so bad, but writing comes dead last, in my world. I must have a lot of bad feelings wrapped around writing. From my childhood perhaps?)<br /><br />I remember starting with an exercise where we tried being each of the four elements, earth, water, fire and air. That was fun. I’m not sure if I was actually <i>being</i> each element, but I sure felt like I was full, or made of, each element. Earth felt all peaty, like soil, water, cool, crisp and weighty. Fire seemed my least successful as I just felt energetic, but air was the most fun. I felt cool and light and transparent and ready to take flight.<br /><br />Next, we went to the lower world, the land of essences, as I understand it. I went to find my “place,” and discovered a meadow of waist-high grass, along a meandering stream, inside a thick, pine forest. As I approached the stream, I found a clear area of dirt and lots of “Me”s: Many different instances of myself, all different ages and from different times, all different incarnations and realizations of the possibility that was me. Most were faint and ghosts-like, and payed no attention to me, but there was one who was solid and, lets say, mature. He was on his knees, working on something. A drum perhaps. And he seems angry or annoyed with me about something. <br /><br />My mind has a real tendency to wander off, and this time was no exception. I don’t even know where I go. It’s just that I frequently I realize that I’m suppose to be doing something, or the instructor just said something and I can’t remember what I’m doing, or what the instruction means, because I can’t remember the context. That is why my recollections are always a bunch of separate scenes, punctuated by periods of amnesia. <br /><br />Anyway, going to meet my guide: I was sitting on a log, with an ordinary-looking guy: thin, youngish, in ordinary clothes. Said his name was Allen. “Allen? Really? What’s your real name?” was my response. He just smiled a wan smile and shrugged. I didn’t get any further with that. At some point it occurred to me to return to the old guy and try and find out what he was so upset about. I had just started that conversation when the instructor called us back.<br /><br />The next journey was into the upper world. That was my favorite. We needed to find a way up, and, since you can use whatever method you like, I picked a tree. There is a pine tree near my house that is very tall and straight and, when you put your head against the trunk and look up, it seems like it goes on forever. So I rode that tree up, into the sky, through the clouds, into space and into the upper world. I’m told that it looks different for different people, but for me, it was hazy with pastel colors. Sort of like walking on clouds. I found myself a bench to sit on, overlooking the world below. I had a sense that I could look down there and see whatever I wanted: The world, my life, my past, my future, other worlds, anything. At some point, I called in “grumpy old guy” to finish our conversation. <br /><br />The conversation still didn’t get too far, but I learned a bit more. First, he was disappointed with me because of “so much fear.” It was my turn to be upset: This, after all the work I have been doing on fear? Anyway, I eventually got that there are fears that I’m so not willing to admit to myself that I don’t even feel them. I had just asked the question “How do I deal with fears that I can’t even feel?” when I ran out of time an had to come back.<br /><br />Coming back was super fun, I just stepped off the overlook and flew down through space and the clouds, slid down the tree and “poofed” my feet onto the ground. I wish I could do that all the time! I wonder if it’s possible, one of these days, that I might get so comfortable with flying that I might just step off some high place, forgetting that gravity tends to have its own way, in this world, at least. I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.<br /><br />I’m really looking forward to the next class. In the meantime I have a lot to chew and meditate on. As usual, send questions and comments to rodwhitehouse@ieee.org. Take care.rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-66986913209374129712016-09-02T13:50:00.000-07:002016-09-02T13:50:18.347-07:00And So It Begins…Last night was one of the worst in recent memory. I couldn’t sleep for my stomach was tied in a knot, which was caused by something that happened earlier in the evening. Sometimes being on a spiritual path knocks you upside the head, and this was a big knock. Things are not over yet, and I expect that it will be some time before the full meaning of this, comes clear.<br /><br />I held my MeetUp last night, at a local coffee shop. Only one other person showed up, a recent friend of mine that also happens to be a retired English professor. I had mentioned earlier that may guides had told me that I was going to write a book. I had also said that I had no idea when or what it was to be about. When I became clear that no one else was going to show up, she proposed to help me write that book, in exchange for help I had given her in handling a spirit in her house. <br /><br /><div>
We discussed the idea and she outlined how I would get started. For my part, I was resisting, but I’m not sure exactly what I was resisting. I don’t mind writing, (obviously!) But something about the situation was bringing up something, something I couldn’t put a name on, but I have felt before.<br /><br />This something first popped up when I did my first QHHT session as a client. I never really got much detail, but an enormous about of guilt and grief came to the surface. It seems that I had been someone who was responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not millions of people, and wholesale destruction as well. Despite the powerful feelings and the physical symptoms from that session, I have never been 100% convinced that I didn’t just make the whole thing up, well, to be important, and all that. Once the session was over the emotions slid back beneath the surface again, only occasionally reappearing, in brief flashes. <br /></div>
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Last night, I’m still not sure what I felt, but it seemed like I was feeling the huge swells caused by some powerful force below my awareness. Something so large that it only needed to roll over in it’s sleep to cause tidal waves on the surface of my mind. I can never leave well enough alone, so, like most boys do when they see something they don’t understand, I kept poking at it with a mental “stick.” Unfortunately that left me stuck inside it most of the night, with my stomach knotted, thoughts swirling in my head and unable to sleep.<br /><br />Let me try and explain what was going on in my head. First there was a buzzing, and anxiety, and a set of memories that kept playing, over and over. The first memory was of a “dream” or past life, take your pick, were I was a priestess, traveling on a ship. Though I was technically a priestess, I was for all practical purposes, a mid- to high-level bureaucrat. One of those faceless people who do the grunt work of managing all the details of keeping a temple complex running smoothly. I was on the ship, with a single, armed, escort, because I smuggling holy artifacts to a trading outpost to protect them from the coming disaster. I <i>really</i> didn’t want to be there, but I was ordered to by my superiors, and there was nothing I could do about it. Apparently politics were such that we were not allowed to admit that we knew what was coming, so we had to make what preparations we could in secret. I kept getting more and more details about this, as the scenes played over and over in my mind. <br /><br />The next memory was something that happened when I was about five, and playing with a neighbor girl. I was living in Massachusetts at the time, in an area that was pretty undeveloped at that time. The street we were on had houses on just one side and we were surrounded by undeveloped forest and fields. The girl and I were playing in some area away from the houses and she needed to pee, which she did, in front of me. I remember watching with mild interest. After that, we went…somewhere, and the next thing I remember is “I don’t want to feel any more.” Where about that time I disassociated so strongly from my body that it took decades of self work and a therapist to get back in, sometime in my 50’s. <br /><br />Now for the last memory, the one that turned out to be the key. This is about a girl I had a crush on, starting in the first grade, and on through the last time I saw her in school, junior collage. Despite the fact that we were in the same grade all that time, I don’t remember noticing her very often. The first memory I have of her is in the first grade. We walked to her house after school and playing “horses” in a neighbors yard. Later, as I remember it, I was attacked and bitten by a dog on the way home. After that, I never spoke to her again. I would see her at school, but I was deathly afraid to ever go near her. <br /><br />I ran into her at our twentieth high school reunion and her story of that time is quite different than mine. Apparently, she followed me around a lot, and hung out at my house enough that she knew my mother. I have no recollection of any of this. <br /><br />Back to last night. I got up, at some point, very late, to walk a bit, in the hope the my stomach pain was caused by gas and standing up would allow me to burp and release it. No such luck, but, while I was pacing, thinking about my grammar school crush, a strong need to cry came over me, and the words “I am so sorry!” Once I had let that run it’s course, I felt a feeling of release, and then went back to bed. Soon I realized that everything in my head and body had subsided enough that I could finally get to sleep. <br /><br />Today, my stomach still hurts, and it still feels a bit weird inside my head, but it feel…different, something has shifted. Something has begun and we’ll see what happens next.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-24870440472673044482016-08-11T18:12:00.000-07:002016-08-11T18:12:58.232-07:00Timey, Wimey, Meaning of Life Stuff?I recently had an exchange session with another local QHHT practitioner. It was my turn this time. Truth be told, I am not a good subject. I can’t seem to help resisting, obstructing, and otherwise getting in the way. I’m not sure if I just don’t trust others or don’t trust the process, but I find it really difficult to go with it. The resistance shows up externally and internally. At my worst, my body jerks and flails around, at times working up a real sweat, and my face and mouth going through distortions and contortions at any attempt to speak. Even my best, I still feel a marked reluctance to notice, acknowledge and share what I’m perceiving. I have noticed, recently, that the physical stuff had really tapered off. It’s still a problem, but I’ll take what I can get. The good new is, in this session, I got a possible explanation for what has been going on, but I’m not sure if I like the answer or not.<br /><br />My first life was as a WWI fighter pilot. In the first scene, he is flying his plane to his first post. He is very young, maybe 18, and is excited and idealistic. He flies through some clouds and lands on a grassy airfield. I am really struck at how bright the colors in this scene are: The blue of the sky, the clean, white, crisp clouds and fantastic green grass. He hands the plane over to a mechanic and stands on the field looking proud. I saw this life, mostly, from the outside. <br /><br />In another scene, (I’m not sure if it was the next one) he seems much older. Maybe only a short time, but he looks much older and has lost all his innocence and is deeply sad. He seems to be standing in roughly the same place as the first scene, but is now staring at a crashed and burning plane. On of his friends, I suppose, but he’s not thinking, just staring. I can’t remember if there was more to this life or not but it seems to stick here.<br /><br /><div>
While I’m looking at this life, I keep getting the image of a white room. It’s completely white and empty and the light seems to be coming from the walls. There is also a strong impression of echoing footsteps. This impressions are confusing and seems to have nothing to do with the life I’m looking at. I do my best to ignore it.<br /></div>
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Next, I’m in another life as a sort of a white, dolphin-like, creature, traveling through space in a huge, transparent, ball. The ball is clearly a spaceship of some kind: I can see it from the outside and, while it’s mostly transparent, there are mechanical structural, parts as well. There are many of us inside the ball and there is a sense of joy and happiness. In the next scene we’ve landed and disembarked on a beautiful world that is mostly water, clean and unspoiled.<br /><br />Things are getting pretty confused in my head by now, I’m getting the White Room and the WWI life at the same time. At first my impressions resolved into a “split screen” with the White Room on the left, and the WWI pilot in the right. In the White Room, there was a rather ordinary looking, guy, sitting in a plain chair, dressed in contemporary clothes, leaning forward and intently watching the WWI pilot. It didn’t feel like he was watching on a screen or through a window, it was like the room was missing the right-hand wall and he could look directly out into the past. Of course, the pilot could not see him, or know he was there.<br /><br />Once I allowed that scene to be, I realized that I was seeing it from a third vantage point, and I was seeing some kind of white, lumpy, thing in the bottom center of my view. With a little more allowing, I got that the “I” that was watching was the dolphin creature, sitting in a kind of lounge chair. The white lumpy thing in front of my was my lower body. (Frankly, that is still a little weird.) In fact, all three were (are?) me, in different…um…incarnations? Timelines? Realities? Whatever! (You have no idea how confusing it is to try and wrap my head around this experience!)<br /><br />The story so far: Creature “me” is watching both a “contemporary me” and a “past me,” while “contemporary me” is studying “past me.” Got all that? Time to call in good old Higher Self, as I have no idea what is going on. <br /><br />You might want to take a deep breath before we go on. We’re about to take a deep dive into Dr Who territory: The creation of the universe, all universes and what existed before anything and everything you can imagine. Ready? <br /><br />First, Let me say that the most dramatic of the physical actions during sessions were caused by attached entities that have since been removed, but the remaining issues are a necessary adaption for a job that I have taken on that encompasses at least three lifetimes. I haven’t really digested all of this yet, so I’m just going to just present what I know and let you draw your own conclusions. I don’t know where to start, because everything is tangled . I ask you to just follow along, as best you can, and I hope that all the pieces will come together in the end. <br /><br />As I said, my higher self has always had trouble communicating through my body. It turns out that the problem is that the “control interface” of my physical being is scrambled. During this session, I could clearly see how hard it was for my Higher Self to coordinate my body. I watched it struggling to operate and coordinate the lips, tongue, breath and vocal chords. Speech was difficult, to say the least. “I” know how to operate my physical self, of course, but nobody else does. The kicker is that this was done on purpose: I needed a specialized “system” for difficult conditions.<br /><br />Now for the timey, wimey, part. The three scenes I was watching are distinct points where space/time was distorted and the timelines were tangled and confused. These points are where artifacts of the base substrate of all realities cause dislocations and discontinuities in the fabric of reality. In a way analogous to the way flaws in the silicon crystal lattice of a semiconductor disrupt signal flow by snagging charges and holes and keep signals from getting through, timelines of different realities “snag” on these flaws and get tangled up, co-mingling time streams and confusing causation. Some time streams get locked into a defect, endlessly spinning, circulating, folding back on itself and intermingling with other trapped streams, unable to progress and evolve. It appears that these flaws have existed since the creation of the universe, but were initially submicroscopic and inconsequential. No longer, now they pose a problem to our plan for all reality. The job I appear to have taken on, along with many others throughout existence, is to help heal these defects.<br /><br />Those three instances of me were (are?) stuck (or are positioned?) on the three points where one of these artifacts intrudes into my time stream, sort of like the way that woodgrain can show through a coat of paint. How am I supposed to heal this? I have no idea. I suspect that I’m going to need a lot of help, though.<br /><br />Remember my scrambled “control interface?” Apparently, a complicated and unusual “communication protocol,” if you will, is required for an incarnations to exist in these tangled time-spaces, and still be able to stay in contact and to coordinate with each other through my, universal, higher self. <br /><br />I don’t really know what to make of all this. If it’s supposed to make me feel really important and special, it doesn’t. What I mostly feel is fear, at the job, if it’s real, and what people will think and say when they read this. I don’t want to be one of those people that live in their own crazy reality. On the other hand, maybe I just have a terrific imagination and should write Dr Who stories.<br /><br />If you have any comments or contributions, please post them, but notify me as well at aquestioningspirittherapy@gmail.com, because this site doesn’t notify me when people post comments. Take care.</div>
rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3725409453269142349.post-50514299549270170662016-08-04T12:06:00.000-07:002016-08-04T12:06:22.554-07:00Taking Care of FamilyI regularly go to a hypnotherapy MeetUp where I learn new techniques, and every time I do, I ask for volunteers to practice on. I usually get a couple of takers. This is one of those sessions.<br /><br />The new techniques are for quick inductions, like you see in hypnosis stage shows. But this client really didn’t need anything because she, as long as I have been working with her, she can go under with a single command, but I got my practice in anyway.<br /><br />The client wanted to get completion with her older sister, call her A, who had died a few years ago. In the process she ended up visiting another sister and some other people as well. The client is female, in her 70’s, and had two sister, one which was very psychic and one that was staunchly atheist/materialistic and thought all that paranormal stuff was pure bunk. <br /><br />The induction went fast, and she when directly to a beautiful place: “I found myself sitting on a stone floor in front of a stone throne that was two steps up from where I sat. Behind me was an almost life-sized Buddha figure. The room was ringed with small stained glass windows with Christian themes. The stone floor and throne setting seemed very old and had a roughish, primitive appearance. The floor, though, was very smooth and comfortable. The room seemed to me to represent various faiths that I had encountered and the idea that I had accepted parts of each one and the room illustrated that. I think I laughed out loud several times as I found the room quite delightful.”<br /><br />She did laugh, and cry, many times throughout the session.<br /><br />When she finished describing the room, I asked A to join her: “I had a very hard time not seeing her as a dead body, but gradually bits and pieces of her personality began to come through. She said to me, laughing ‘I can sparkle and (?) for you if that’s what you want, but you know we don’t really need that.’ Not her exact words, but that was the general idea, that if I needed to see her as lively and ‘lifelike’ she could do that.” <br /><br />“I had felt that I had let her down as she was dying by not impressing on her that she should look for the light, a guide, etc., but she had turned to a standard form of religion not long before she died, and I realized that I hadn’t felt right about ‘imposing’ my beliefs about the afterlife on her at that point.” <br /><br />“We ‘talked’ for a while, and she reminded me that we both knew there were no boundaries and that we could communicate without outside support. I gave her permission to ‘drop in’ whenever she felt like it.”<br /><br />The client laughed and cried during this conversation. She then said her “so longs” to A (No Good-Byes here, they would be talking again!). Something she said made me suspect there might me more to do here, so I suggested that she see if there was someone else she wanted to talk to:<br /><br />“Then I looked for my other sister. Call her B. She died a few months after A. I had felt really bad that I was unable to understand what she was saying the last time we spoke, as her voice was very rough and she was sort of mumbling. I felt worse that I had no idea whether the last words I spoke to her conveyed anything of my feelings about her. We never did address that in this session, but it didn’t seem to matter.”<br /><br />“When I first saw her in this session she was sitting in a sort of office – a small room with books, papers, a computer. She said she knew she was dead, but thought she might just as well stay in her little room as she didn’t believe there was anything else out there.” <br /><br />I was looking for a way to get B to consider leaving the room. B had said that she was writing letters, so I asked something like, would the people they were addressed to ever read them. That gave B pause, she had never considered that. Somehow in the conversation, the fact that one of her sons had died, came up. A suggested the client go with that: “I asked her if she knew that one of her sons had recently died. At this point, Rod asked me to encourage her to open the door of her room, and when she did, the son was standing there. They eventually walked off happily together.”<br /><br />Then the client switched back to A: “She more or less brushed off all my apologies, conveying to me that it wasn’t important, that what I had or hadn’t said to her didn’t impede her in any way. Our Dad came to get her, and the two of them walked off together. I just realized that it didn’t occur to me to try to speak with my Dad. He said to A that, although he had never actually said it to her, he hoped she knew that he had always loved her very much.”<br /><br />“While she and I were talking, I felt that I wanted to hug her or touch her in some way. I realized that we had never been ‘huggy’ with each other, but we did have a very strong bond. She was very lighted-hearted and laughed a lot, which was typical of her in life.”<br /><br />“Rod brought me back to the original room.” (The “Chapel”) “I felt much more peaceful that I had at the beginning.”<br /><br />I had a “Ah Ha” moment during this session. There was one point where it felt like I had lost focus, or my mind had wandered. This has happened, from time to time, and I usually just feel bad and double my efforts to stay focused. This time I got something totally different, because I realized that it had happened right after I had the client to give a suggestion to one of her sisters. What had actually happened is the that energy of the room had shifted, which I believe meant that the sister we had been talking to had had an insight and we were making progress!<br /><br />When I read this, I can’t help but think that there are some important points that are missing, but I just can’t remember them. Lesson learned: I need to start recording all my sessions. rodney whitehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04225552146997209211noreply@blogger.com0