Review: Journey Through the World of Spirit (Trade Paperback)

Title: Journey Through the World of Spirit / God, Gaia and Guardian Angels
Author: David L. Oakford
Media: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Reality Press
Date: 2007

This review originally appeared at Earthpages.org as a voice-over video on December 28, 2007. When recording I had no notes other than the memory of what I’d just read. As such, there’s a certain live quality to this review that I hoped to preserve in this transcript.

The soundtrack was spontaneously composed and recorded just before I made the review. The book was inspiring and plain text just wasn’t enough.

In editing the transcript some extraneous material (e.g. “ahh” “sort of”) was removed.

So here’s the original voice-over review and its much overdue and slightly edited transcript.

Original Introduction

I had a choice… spend hours trying to get something representative down in writing or have some fun doing a video review. I chose to do a video review.

This is my first video review and it’s been a while since I was a DJ but I think it gets the message across: “This is a great book…”

Transcript

This is a great book! I really enjoyed this book. I read it during the hustle and bustle of the pre-Christmas shopping period. And I just found it was a wonderful way to be reminded of things I already believed in. But I think I needed a little refresher course–and this book was it.

It starts off with David’s very honest and frank account of teenage angst and disillusionment. He’s planning on ditching out on his parents at about age 19 to go find himself. He’s going to, I think, live in a tent and travel around and live on the cheap and find a deeper meaning that he couldn’t find in his teenage years.

But before he plans to leave he wants to say farewell to all his friends. So he goes to a party, a farewell party, and one of his buddies comes up to him and gives him some pretty dangerous drugs. The buddy warns David not to take the drugs until he’s instructed on how to use them but David doesn’t listen and proceeds to slip into a coma. At that point he starts to have some pretty interesting experiences.

He starts off by seeing his friends – if I remember right, they’re in a car – but his friends can’t see him. Then he’s back in the house, looking at his motionless body; and he’s still fully awake and alive, moving about the house, sort of hovering like a spirit.

He notes that he can’t move objects. His hand goes through the faucet. And Jim Morrison and the Doors are playing and the music is very irritating to David, which I found interesting because I’ve always liked the Doors — as it deals with otherworldly themes — but it all just sounded like noise when he was in this refined consciousness.

He then proceeds to bigger and better things. A spirit guide comes to help him, one of several otherworldly beings whom David claims to meet in this account. And the spirit guide, whom David calls “Bob” – [laughs] it’s just so much like this book; it’s so unpretentious and straightforward and incredibly well-written, to boot. Anyhow, the spirit guide shows David a scene of the pyramids in Egypt, how they stand today and how they stood around the time of their construction.

One thing I found very interesting about this is that David claims the past and the present interact in some kind of mysterious way, like interacting, overlapping fields.

I think that’s fascinating. To read that in a book… that kind of thing is quite rare. You find it a bit in the Jane Roberts books, the Seth Books, and you find it I believe in Emmanuel’s Books if I remember right (I haven’t looked at those for a few years).

But it’s a fascinating idea that time is interactive, and I found that present in this book. I also found the idea that the heavens are interactive with our Earthly reality. David saw, as a matter of fact (after the Egyptian experience)… his guide took him up to a spiritual city. And this spiritual city apparently interacts with our Earth, and life on Earth, in ways we don’t fully understand.

The bottom line is the spiritual beings (and David outlines quite a few of them)… their basic message is that we should love one another. And I really can’t find any fault with that message whatsoever.

On page 74 David writes:

The unvarnished truth is that I went to heaven, or at least one of them, that is connected to Earth and brought back the simple message to love one another.

You know, I find there’s no conflict here with my Catholic faith. Some of you may know that I, myself, converted to Catholicism in 2001 and some Catholics might not like this book. There are a few swipes at organized religion and I understand that perspective. I used to be like that when I was a kid, actually.

I never went to Church or anything like that. If I didn’t have spiritual experiences within the Catholic Church I wouldn’t go. The whole reason I converted is because I do have spiritual experiences. But for those who don’t have spiritual experiences in the Church I understand how they can just see it as seemingly wooden and formulaic—it’s not, it’s not just that.

And I think this is one point I would disagree on but other than that, I mean… hey, Earthpages is about dialogue so I try to look for the interesting and the good and if I disagree with something I just say so.

I would highly recommend this book. I think it’s incredibly well-written, honest and there’s such a complexity to the account that it really makes one feel that it’s not just a hallucination. Some materialist psychiatrists will say that all near death experiences are just the brain’s way of trying to make you feel good before you die but, I don’t know, I just think that this book… the complexity, detail and duration of the near death experience really tends to make one think there’s something to it.

–MC

Remote viewing and more in documentary film ‘Something Unknown’

psychic reader: vistavision

By Steve Hammons

The new movie The Men Who Stare at Goats is bringing expanded awareness to the general public about unconventional and anomalous topics involving human consciousness and the nature of “reality.”

Another film, this one a documentary, is doing the same.

Dutch filmmaker Renée Scheltema’s film Something Unknown is Doing Something We Don’t Know What, like the “Goats” movie, looks at discoveries in modern physics and psychology, remote viewing, telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, unconventional healing, therapeutic touch, psychic detective work and related subjects.

Scheltema has a background in Dutch TV and has created other documentaries. After her bachelor’s degree in law, she also earned advanced degrees in journalism and criminology.

INTEGRATIVE RESEARCH

In the film, various scientists and researchers give their views about the possibility or probability that unconventional and unusual forces are at work in the Universe and Nature – or at least they seem unusual to many of us.

Some of the people featured in the film include former Apollo astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, former Project STAR GATE researcher Dr. Harold (Hal) Puthoff, University of Arizona professor of psychology Dr. Gary Schwartz, University of California professor emeritus of psychology Charles Tart, parapsychologist Dr. Dean Radin and several other prominent scientists and investigators.

Something Unknown explores reports of phenomena and aspects of human consciousness that seem to defy logic and our general understanding of ourselves and our environments.

Yet, much research into topics like near-death experiences, remote viewing, ESP and other subjects seems to indicate that something truly is going on that should be thoroughly investigated. In addition to any understanding of these phenomena that can be attained, the film serves as a vehicle to communicate to and educate us about these discoveries.

As the title of the film seems to indicate, there is “something” in the Universe and Nature, or perhaps many “somethings,” that are behaving in ways that are unique, puzzling and at times, amazing.

Physicists, psychologists, biologists and other investigators are changing their views of how things work around us and within us – and the interesting connections between the two.

Are these unconventional phenomena really “paranormal” or simply normal and natural?

GETTING UP TO SPEED

Different human cultures certainly approach human consciousness, dreams, visions, the afterlife, Nature and other common experiences in different ways. The modern scientific approaches of Western civilization have often created and reflected a different view of how things work and how Nature operates.

In addition, the divide between “science” and “spirituality” seems, at times, to define a separation that may not really be present at all.

The trends and trajectory of our understanding about human consciousness, biological systems, quantum physics and a wide swath of other studies seem to be moving toward a new way of looking at things – at the “something” and what it is doing.

The general public is now being exposed to more kinds of films, TV programs, books and other information that are getting all of us up to speed on the discoveries and developments in these fields that affects each and every one of us.

These communications efforts, like Something Unknown, seem to be part of the process to inform us, deepen our understanding, enhance our consciousness and … well, “we don’t know what.”

Something Unknown will be shown at the Santa Fe Film Festival on Dec. 3 and 5. The film is also available on DVD. For more information and to view the movie trailer, go to SomethingUnknown.com.

Steve Hammons writes on many topics. For more information, visit these websites: Joint Recon Study Group, Transcendent TV & Media and American Chronicle.

The Power of Divine Feminine and the Great Awakening

Shekinah: Mystic Lens / Sadiq Alam

By: Kiernan Antares

Are you hearing talk of 2012 and wondering what all the hype is about? Are we on the verge of Armageddon as doomsday sayers are spouting? 2012 movies are starting to come out and many of them will support this theory to strike fear in the hearts of many or just for the sensationalism to attract people’s attention and dollars.

When I started to write my book Phoenix Star in 2004, I was struggling to understand what I believed surrounding the prophecies of 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar. My research had revealed that there is a rare astronomical alignment known as the ‘Dark Rift’ that is predicted to occur on December 21, 2012 but the logical part of my brain couldn’t seem to grasp its meaning. What exactly is going to happen?

Did it mean the planet would implode or explode? Would humans as a race simply disappear as the planet travelled through the Milky Way Galaxy? Or would some, who had attained a certain level of enlightenment, survive and then exist on a higher plane?

Inspiration led me to craft a story weaving in elements of transformation, divine spirit, and magical gifts that culminated in a moment of time that stood still on the planet. When I completed writing the final scene something extraordinary happened to me. Something more mystical and divine than my imagination could conjure up.

I experienced an awakening of light and sound and spirit radiating throughout my entire being. I experienced the power of the Divine Feminine.

The sound of angels singing within, through, and around me was almost deafening.

It left me sobbing, shaking, and vibrating with intense divine love.

There were and are no words to describe this experience that I still remember as vividly as when it happened in 2006.

Since being touched with this power of the Divine Feminine my life has changed irrevocably. The process of transformation has been deep at work, awakening and healing my heart to what feels like back to the source of my creation.

Spirit gifted me with inspiration and a vision for all that could be that is being validated with each passing day, in my life and the world at large.

Getting back to December 21, 2012 for a moment, let’s contemplate what the ‘Dark Rift’ is and what I believe it may mean. The Mayan long calendar ends on this date, marking the end of a period of 5,200 years and it also happens to align with a rare astrological alignment that only occurs once every 26,000 years.

The scientific community has concluded that our planet, sun and our entire solar system originated in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. They are also now convinced that at the center of the Galaxy is a massive black hole. The ancient Maya believed that this black hole is the ‘birthing place’ for all life and the bulge in the center of the Galaxy was termed the Cosmic Womb. Within the center of this womb there appears to be a dark corridor and it is this place that has been named the ‘Dark Rift’.

The December Solstice Sun of 2012 is expected to align with and arise out of the back side of the ‘Dark Rift’, passing through the Galactic Equator as if it is being birthed anew. This period marks the end of the Fifth Mayan Sun and the dawning of the Sixth; a New Galactic Cycle and the transformation of our world or what I call the Phoenix Star.

What is not widely known, however, is according to recent astrological calculations the Solstice Meridian began aligning with the Galactic Equator between 1998 and 1999. The Sun because of its size moves very slowly and will not fully cross the Equator and emerge onto the other side until 2018?a full 20-year cycle.

Meaning, that we are already smack in the middle of this birthing process and need not wait until 2012 to see that the world is changing and urging us to let the power of the Divine Feminine energies of love transform our lives.

2012?will it be death or the midway moment of our journey through the Center of the Cosmic Womb?

I believe it is the latter and I believe we have the power, strength, and fortitude to ride the waves of labor pains and raise our collective consciousness to witness the birth of a New World, if we embrace the power of the Divine Feminine now and let it reawaken our hearts.

Whether or not you believe this is real, something is going on. Millions of people around the world are meditating, participating in world peace initiatives, turning to healers, coaches, spiritual teachers and holistic or alternative modalities to help them find greater health, more meaning and purpose to their lives?an awakening is occurring on a global scale.

We are living in these times to experience and master what is known as the Hero’s Journey?or rites of passage, something every single one of us must endure, in one form or another.

Some of the elements of the Hero’s Journey include experiencing and transforming:

• Lack of self-worth and self-love
• Lack of courage and focus
• Pain and patterns of illusion and programs from past lives
• Overwhelming guilt and shame that suppresses our gifts
• Taking responsibility for one’s life and actions
• Healing our wounds
• The Dark Night of the Soul
• Finding our ‘voice’ and purpose
• Reclaiming and standing in our power

As we clear the layers of the past we become open and receptive to heart and soul activations which translate into feeling great love for ourselves and humanity. We are able to experience true freedom, become leaders, and step into our divinity that is waiting for us as our birthright.

This may seem overwhelming, but if you have the desire and invite the Divine Feminine into your life miracles can and will happen.

Watch for signs, listen and act on inner guidance and you will be shown the way. Pay attention to what you are resisting because this is often the very thing you need to do to master the next step on your path. Explore new avenues previously feared or ignored.

No one knows for certain what is really going to happen but I’d rather live each day as if it was my last and treasure each moment in the eternal bliss of my heart.

SAY YES! To life and let the Divine Feminine awaken, bless and activate your heart and soul.

About the Author:

Kiernan Antares is an author, healer and spiritual teacher dedicated to awakening the hearts of humanity. Whether through the written and spoken word or through her healing touch this modern day mystic and visionary is becoming widely known as a pure source of Divine Love. She has an uncanny ability to get to the core essence of any matter and transform it into an expression of infinite love, beauty and wisdom. Contact:
Email: kiernan@kiernanantares.com
Website: www.kiernanantares.com
Website: www.divineblessings.ca

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The Power of Divine Feminine and the Great Awakening

Review: Elementary My Dear Watson: The Man Behind Sherlock Holmes (DVD)

Reality Films

I came to this video knowing precious little about Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, other than the fact that Holmes is an antiquated supersleuth with a famous sidekick, Dr. Watson.

So Philip Gardiner and Brian Allen’s Elementary My Dear Watson: The Man Behind Sherlock Holmes was a learning experience, to be sure. And a most enjoyable one.

The film includes a good deal of b&w movie clips from the early days of cinema. It even shows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself, talking about his craft and personal convictions.

It seems that Doyle became interested in spiritualism after the death of his wife in 1906, a personal tragedy followed by several others around the time of WW-I.

Doyle became so interested in parapsychology and the afterlife that he went public with his views, this sometimes bringing him into conflict with those around him, including his personal friend, the skeptical magician and notorious escape artist Harry Houdini.

But Elementary My Dear Watson fleshes out far more than this. In fact, it outlines the whole inner and outer world that played on Doyle’s creative imagination, from his early days as a hesitant Catholic student right up to his interest in gnosticism, alchemy and his humiliation for endorsing Victorian-era fairy photos that proved to be hoaxes.

Such is the plight of many great innovators willing to think out of the box and take risks. Their stunning successes are just as visible as their perhaps unavoidable stumbles and falls.

The DVD also includes a substantial bonus feature, The Madness of Sherlock Holmes, giving an alternate take on the main feature. Serious fans will definitely want to watch both segments to get the whole picture on Doyle.

And what a fascinating picture it is. Spiritually inclined viewers will gain compelling insights from this film’s journey into the past, as will laypersons, students and experts interested in the wily and whimsical world of Victorian history and culture.

–MC

Review – The Trickster and the Paranormal (Hardcover Book)

Title: The Trickster and the Paranormal
Author: George P. Hansen
Media: Hardcover Book
Publisher: Xlibris (564 pp. with endnotes and index)
Date: 2001

George P. Hansen’s The Trickster and the Paranormal offers a variety of paranormal considerations around the psychological, anthropological and literary image of the trickster. Hansen’s exposition of Max Weber and Claude Lévi-Strauss is competent while reflections on Emile Durkheim are thought-provoking.¹

The Trickster provides a clear account of some of the main trends in semiotics and critiques classical notions of so-called primitive and advanced religion. It also looks at contemporary cross-currents in psi and psi research. Considerable focus is given to the American psi scene but not at the expense of the rest of the globe. References made to leading international figures, particularly European, are usually accompanied with brief but telling biographical sketches.

My main reservation with The Trickster is its reliance on the structuralist notion of binary opposition. In fairness, Hansen provides reasons for using binary opposition as the methodological backbone of The Trickster. He says a structuralist approach stimulates thought in areas which otherwise might be ignored. And he rightly notes the need for structure and limitation in any inquiry and exposition. The issue, I suppose, is what type and degree of structure is best.

It seems reasonable to accept a binary opposition of good and evil.² But a master opposition in ethics doesn’t justify generalizing the notion of binary opposites to every modality of “our current Western worldview.”³ Hansen does say that the trickster mediates and collapses binaries, and that this process involves numinosity. But, again, he seems to firmly believe that Western culture is predicated on binaries (pp. 31, 62).

Another analytical consideration emerges when Hansen acknowledges uncertainties arising from the so-called emic/etic debate yet applies anthropological data in support of the trickster theory as if the debate were fully resolved. This is one aspect of the The Trickster that just doesn’t make sense. Hansen periodically upholds the trickster as if it weren’t a device designed – or constructed as Foucault said – to stimulate thought. Instead of insisting on universal binaries and a mediating/collapsing trickster, wouldn’t it be simpler to just say that the numinous compels us to reevaluate our current assumptions and opinions?

With regard to ethics, Hansen says the Godhead contains both good and evil, and seems to advocate a type of pantheism where the dyads of creator/creation and good/evil are respectively taken as one and the same—perhaps something like the “warp and the woof” of the Upanisads. Not much mention is given to monotheistic theologies where an entirely benevolent creator/God endows human beings with free will and thus permits evil for a greater good. A discussion of St. Anselm’s faith-based view, “I believe in order to understand,” along with the propositional statement, “reason follows revelation,” might have been useful in rounding out The Trickster.

This leads to another aspect of The Trickster that I found dissatisfying. Different mystics from various world traditions are presented as if they experience the same type of numinosity, when in fact we can’t be sure^.4 Freud’s so-called ‘backward-looking’ theories and Rudolf Otto’s rather basic distinctions regarding the numinous are treated in some detail, but The Trickster doesn’t probe too far beyond these standard reference points for numinosity.

To its credit, however, The Trickster questions current thinking on mysticism. Mysticism may overlap, Hansen says, with other paranormal abilities.⁵ Other positive aspects of the The Trickster can be found in the discussion of UFOs, frauds and hoaxes. Hansen’s treatment of lab research on psi and its practical implications is useful except, perhaps, where he notes confounding variables with retroactive PK yet proceeds to suggest certain research directions as if these indeterminable factors are “not too severe.”⁶

The section on literature and literary criticism offers some pointed observations on French rationalists. Thoughtful and mature reflection can be found on the oft diffuse relations among imagination, reality, paranoia, mythology, ontological boundaries, space, time, life, afterlife and the self. Still, and at the risk of sounding like an old-school theologian, I didn’t see too much on the idea of a created self, humbly existing in an “I – Thou” relationship with an omnipotent yet perfectly loving Creator.⁷

On the whole, The Trickster is an engaging and intelligent book. And it would be entirely unreasonable to expect a bona fide innovator like Hansen to create a slick, seamless work in largely uncharted areas. The Trickster should help readers to better understand psi in relation to the socio-political world of the 21st-century. As cutting-edge material, one might encounter a few bumps along the road. But for its considerable scope and heuristic value The Trickster and the Paranormal is certainly worthwhile.

Notes

1. For instance, Hansen argues that Durkheim has been largely misunderstood by sociologists. For Hansen, Durkheim does not reduce the idea of the numinous to non-mystical origins. This is an interesting if debatable claim. Consider, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Joseph Ward Swain (London: Allen & Unwin, 1964), pp. 218-22, 427, 439-440, 442-443, 444.

2. I would suggest that heaven and hell exist independently of whatever relativistic language games we might play with the terms ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ When viewed from the perspective of everlasting life, this is supremely practical.

3. (a) See p. 62. Among other things, Hansen notes the binary code used in computing; but are human beings computers?

4. See p. 78. Along these lines, William James, Evelyn Underhill, Joseph Campbell, C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, John Milton, Sri Aurobino and St. Teresa of Avila each suggest that numinous experience may exhibit radically different qualities and textures.

5. We must ask whether paranormal abilities are in every case equivalent to divine gifts.

6. See p. 330, 342-43. It is assumed that visible subjects (or “social groups” consisting of human beings) and not some invisible external agent largely influenced pre-recorded trials. The latter possibility would still involve a reevaluation of space and time. However, it is conceivable that if a destructive supernatural power did exist, it could dupe people into believing they’re producing a retroactive PK effect when they’re not. See my discussion on discernment in ETs, UFOs and the Psychology of Belief.

7. Granted, brief mention is given to the idea of ‘heaven’ and the ‘mystical marriage,’ and Otto runs throughout the book. But with regard to the latter, I felt that I was mostly reading Hansen’s Otto instead of Otto’s Otto.

–MC

Review – Nick Pope: The Man Who Left the MOD

Title: Nick Pope: The Man Who Left the MOD
Interviewer: Michael Bourne
Director: Philip Gardiner
Media: DVD
Producer: Reality Films, 2008
Total time: 69:32

Nick Pope isn’t exactly a household name. But among UFO investigators and devotees he’s become a controversial figure.

In The Man Who Left the MOD we learn that Pope joined the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 1985.

By 1991 the MOD wanted to assess any potential threats that UFOs might pose to national security. Ready for a change, Pope took a position in the MOD’s new UFO Project.

That’s just the background. The Man Who Left the MOD probes far deeper into the history and experiences of this articulate figure in the area of UFO lore.

Some may not like the use of the term lore. But it seems appropriate as the ‘U’ in UFO stands for unidentified, and Pope is the first to uphold a question mark rather than make absolute statements about extraterrestrials and UFOs.

Indeed, Pope remains scientific throughout the interview, saying we can’t rule out ET explanations for some phenomena but also that there’s “no hard proof.”

The DVD covers a wide range of group and alleged personal sightings in the UK, US, Belgium and the former Soviet Union. Pope’s account seems to ring true with a credibility often missing in other paranormal videos. And he provides some great insider information about the technological side of the RAF, especially with regard to the pros and cons of radar.

What makes this DVD better than most, however, is its balance of tech talk and psych talk. While not falling into psychobabble, Pope offers some valuable insights in the area of mental health and UFO reports.

Having said that, his related comments on the role of interpretation in paranormal and religious experiences were slightly less satisfying. Here Pope wonders if visions of angels, the Virgin Mary, spirits and ET’s could all stem from an amorphous subatomic ground.

While interpretation likely comes into play with most extraordinary encounters, there’s arguably a more complex discussion to be had. But viewers can make up their own minds as to whether Pope’s remarks here could be further developed.

The DVD gives much attention to the well-known Rendlesham case. Here Pope explains why he felt it was a mishandled investigation. He also provides an intelligent discussion on the alleged Men in Black phenomenon.

The best part of the DVD, however, comes when interviewer Michael Bourne candidly asks if Pope is just a disinformation stooge who never really left the MOD. Pope turns to face the camera, takes a sip of water and says…

Well, you’ll just have to watch to find out.

The Man Who Left the MOD is a fast moving and informative DVD. This is one UFO film that researchers, enthusiasts and even skeptics will definitely not want to miss.

–MC

• Read more about Nick Pope!

The Shaman’s Journey: The Value of Emotional Control

Image credit: Kok Leng Yeo

Copyright © Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls, 2009. All rights reserved.

The power of emotion is a subject that few have talked about yet it is a gift given to us of immense value. A Shaman not only realizes the value of emotion but learns to control that power to effect healing and manifestation of all good things.

After all, healing is a manifestation of health. The hunter in the forest waits for his prey patiently and with emotional control. He does not shout out when he sees a deer or moan loudly when the day is rainy. He controls his emotions to manifest food for the tribe.

“A man who is swayed by negative emotions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth.”
- Gandhi

But what is the power of emotion? Have you ever been to a football game and you really got into it and cheered and clapped and when the game was over you think that time passed really fast? Perhaps you have felt this when you have gone to a fantastic movie. Or have you ever sat in the dentist’s chair for 20 minutes and felt like it took forever? It was your emotions that caused time to speed up or slow down.

And what about your emotions? Do you ever think that you have control over your emotions? Do you know that they are just buttons on the soda dispenser machine to choose which flavor of soda you prefer? Do you realize they are about as useful as a can of Cola? Sure they nourish you, but with empty calories and they waste your time and money!

A Shaman will tell you that the only reason for emotions is to manifest what is needed for healing! Don’t waste your time feeling jealous or hurt or angry. You will just extend the length of time of the apparent hurt. And if you want to savor a beautiful thing or spend quality time with a loved one, don’t get too excited about it or it will be over in a flash.

People today run their lives by how they feel emotionally. With every single thing that happens, they judge its goodness by asking themselves, “How does this make me feel?” If you think about it you will admit that you ask yourself that question as much as one hundred times each day. But is that any way to run your life? Perhaps today taking a bath makes you feel terrible and so you do not take a bath but then next week taking a bath will make you feel good and so you take a bath. It becomes a whimsy, a folly, a willow in the wind without any reason or rhyme to run your life on your feelings. And yet, this is really how people judge everything that comes and goes in their lives! How can any decent choices be made like this?  Where did we learn this?

We learned to live based on our emotional responses when we were very little. If we wanted something we yelled and cried and carried on until we got it. We learned that expressing negative emotions would get us what we were looking for from our parents and siblings. We learned to manipulate others with our emotions to get what we thought we wanted. And what we wanted changed all the time. Every now and then we would reach a crevasse and not even know what we wanted! But it has always been “How does this make me feel? I feel good, then I keep it and get more. I feel bad then I throw it away even if it was really good for me or even if I will probably want it tomorrow.” We let emotions rule our life and they are nothing but buttons on a soda machine.

Emotions can’t gain you success, abundance, happiness, right relationships..or can they?

A Shaman says that by controlling your emotions you gain the power of emotions to manifest healing. And it’s true! By eliminating negativity in all its forms in your life you attract goodness to yourself. Positive attracts more positive. By actively controlling your emotions and seeing that each time you think a negative thought you immediately and consciously replace it with a positive happy, uplifting thought, you can completely turn your life around from losing to winning. Many of our modern gurus have written books on this subject. Read any one of them and see they are saying, control your emotions and change your life.

Be in control of your emotions don’t let them be in control of you. Because if you let emotions run your life you have given up the rudder and sails and you are floundering around going no where. If you want to heal, think healing thoughts, get excited about healing, work yourself up into a healing mode, really put yourself into it. Shamans use drumming and chanting and power songs and dancing to bring the power of emotions into their healing ceremonies. Remember that football game? Get into your intent for abundance or healing or joy. Sing, dance, and pray out loud.

With the proper intent set in place and the proper degree of emotion as well as the knowledge of the ways to accomplish it, anything can be yours, including a complete remission from cancer. I have seen this with my own eyes.

Many philosophers and psychologists have sought to do away with emotion, so that by eliminating all emotion we can be centered in mind and body. A Shaman says, embrace the power of your gift of emotion but find the knowledge to use it with wisdom in deliberate creation of goodness. Don’t get rid of anything about you. Learn all your tools and then practice with intention and emotional control.

* * *

Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls is one of America’s most loved elder teachers of Shamanism for today’s modern society. Her classes are always ongoing online and she also offers free initial counseling to anyone who wishes it. Visit her site to learn more at www.shamanelder.com

ESP, remote viewing actually ‘complementary cognition?’

Integration of Light by Hartwig HKD

By Steve Hammons

July 13, 2009

The term “anomalous cognition” has come to mean something similar to what has often been called the “sixth sense.”

These concepts are also linked with names for this phenomena such as extrasensory perception (ESP) and remote viewing.

However, is it true that certain kinds of perception are actually “anomalous,” that is, unusual or out of the ordinary?

It may be that the sixth sense is actually a very natural, normal and common kind of perception that we all experience on a regular basis. We may not recognize it as such because we filter those perceptions through our conscious and logical thinking brain.

Or, maybe we just consider these perceptions as hunches, gut feelings, instincts or intuition that we may or may not pay much attention to.

It might be more accurate and constructive to call this kind of perception “alternative cognition” or “complementary cognition.” This is similar to ideas of alternative medicine and complementary medicine.

NORMAL AND NATURAL

We might think of alternative cognition or complementary cognition as just another perceptual resource to go along with our other five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell as well as our emotions, feelings, dreams and thinking brain.

In fact, maybe we will discover that there are more than these modes of perception. Maybe we have the ability to perceive in ways that can be further identified and specified.

There are also joint perceptions that involve using more than one sense or perceptual resource simultaneously. Integrating our sixth sense with the other five and other inner experiences may also be helpful, as well as very natural and normal.

Complementary cognition is probably something all humans, and probably many animals, possess as a natural part of our awareness.

However, this does not mean that all of us utilize this kind of perception in equal measure.

For example, remote viewing refers to some specific methods developed by the U.S. military and intelligence communities in Project STARGATE during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. People were selected to be remote viewers in these efforts because they were believed to have better than average or quite good abilities in this area.

These abilities were then scientifically tested, verified, measured and explored by Project STARGATE personnel.

Are these skills based on elements like personal experiences, training and practice, genetics or psychological traits? All of these factors, and maybe more, probably play a part in the abilities of a particular person.

In addition, the purpose or importance of the alternative or complementary cognition experience might be an important factor. Is it being used as part of an important secret mission, for personal safety and survival, to find a missing child, to catch a dangerous criminal?

Would these situations somehow contribute to the availability or accuracy of complementary cognition experiences compared to a purpose that is less important?

LEADING-EDGE RESOURCE

As we continue to learn more about our sixth sense, ESP, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, alternative/complementary cognition or whatever we might choose to call it, we will probably find answers to these questions.

Scientific research during the Project STARGATE years resulted in large amounts of useful data that continues to be very helpful in our understanding of this aspect of human consciousness.

In addition to the scientific exploration and measurement of this human ability, it was applied to operational activities involved with U.S. national security, often with significantly successful results.

In fact, a Navy SEAL officer suggested in a research paper for his studies at the Marine Corps War College that remote viewing can be an example of what he called “transcendent warfare.” He suggested that using state-of-the-art and leading-edge emerging knowledge about human consciousness can be an important part of U.S. national security activities.

Subsequent concepts that built on the SEAL officer’s idea of transcendent warfare included the term “transcendent power” which is complementary to diplomatic and military soft power, hard power and what has been called smart power.

Taking the transcendent power idea further, we might discover that it and complementary cognition can be applied to a wide range of efforts and goals including economic prosperity, scientific progress, medical discoveries, human development, international peace operations, resolution of social problems, natural resources conservation and many other important current challenges.

When we begin to understand that alternative and complementary cognition is a natural part being human, we may find that we can make accelerated progress on many levels.

Steve Hammons writes on many topics. For more information, visit these websites: Joint Recon Study Group, Transcendent TV & Media and American Chronicle.

Are Spirit Guides the same as Totems?

The Shaman by Temari

Introduction by Michael W. Clark, Ph.D. » skip intro »

A good percentage of schoolchildren are taught that reality is about things we can measure and easily describe.

This tendency to study the outside world has obvious advantages. Bridges get built, science develops and economies thrive.

But a downside to our extroverted approach is that some highly introverted people suffer by virtue of being different and perhaps misunderstood. Whether these people are mentally ill (as defined by psychiatry) or just round pegs unable to fit into square holes is a serious and complicated matter that can’t be fully addressed in a brief introduction.

Suffice it to say that only a few extraordinary introverts develop inner abilities such as those recounted here by Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls. And sadly enough, some inner voyagers end up like the tragic Greek mariners of old, getting caught between Scylla and Charybdis or seduced by the sirens’ song and strewn across the rocks and shoals of their own splintered psyches.

You’ve likely seen them in the downtown streets or public square, laughing at phantoms one moment and, the next instant, vigorously cursing at the air. Of course, we can never know for sure if these people are really mad or just privy to something we don’t know about.

And then there are those who combine a strange numinous power with authoritarianism. This is another type of madness, equally as tragic, where the deranged megalomaniac tries to use unconventional powers to oppress, exploit, cheat and besmirch others.

Indeed, most cultivated people realize it’s a fine line between madness and mysticism, and many of the great mystics have, at times, questioned their own sanity.

Perhaps that very spirit of questioning marks off the sincere seeker from the mad man or woman. Passive and aggressive mad persons often share one common element: They’re always right. At least, that’s what they’ll say and no amount of reasoned argument or moral plea will shake them from their disturbing intransigence.

Because the cosmovision¹ of the shaman is, for the most part, unrecognized or devalued in the 21st century, practicing shamans tend to be cautious about sharing their inner experiences. They probably don’t want to hoard secret knowledge but, rather, have learned that Jesus Christ was right–it’s unwise to cast one’s pearls before swine.²

For that reason I initially hesitated to post this article by Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls. It digs deeper into esoteric realms than other pieces submitted by the Shaman. But hopefully this introduction will facilitate the kind of open-mindedness required to appreciate such a rare, first-hand account.

In closing, I should add one last introductory point about our view of animals.

For the most part, human beings tend to denigrate animals as if they’re somehow less than us and not of God. This arguably is a kind of anthropocentric projection where we attribute to animals our own cognitive biases, opinions and experiential limitations.

By way of contrast, countless historical cultures have envisioned God as interceding through animals–indeed, through all of creation. One only has to consider the Indian Hanuman and Ganesha for popular examples. And even in the Biblical tradition (often held accountable for mankind’s low estimation of animals) it was a dove that signaled Noah when to leave the ark and step ashore.

— MC July 10, 2009

Shaman's Dream by Bob G

Are Spirit Guides the same as Totems?

Copyright © Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls, 2009. All rights reserved

Spirit guides may or may not also be totem animals. I have a spirit guide who comes to me as a white pelican. I have an elephant who is strictly a totem and not a spirit guide.

A spirit guide is a teacher with something to teach you. A totem animal is often a protector, a mate to travel the Inner Worlds with who knows its way around and can get you in, to your destination and out again safely.

I can ride my elephant right into the Under World and he will stop at exactly the place I need to be to effect someone’s healing. When I have the healing I climb back on and he brings me right back. If anything untoward appears he can step on it with out effort and so he protects me completely. That is a totem animal.

Why an elephant? If you look up elephants you will see, Elephant: Royalty, strength, ancient wisdom, patience, careful, confident, education. No wonder I have an elephant as a totem. He represents me. Notice too that he is not a Native American animal. That means something, too.

Your totems choose you as you are aware. You meet a totem animal, usually in the Inner Planes but sometimes it is an animal you have a special affinity for or have seen a lot lately. I prefer to meet them on the Inner Planes in meditation or such because sometimes those animals you see a lot of in this world are bringing you a message and are not totems for you. It is easy to confuse the two.

Your totem animal can change during your life. As you grow and change your totem animals may change as well. You may have several totem animals at once. But one is a life totem and represents your basic self or personality, your essence.

Spirit guides are teachers. They come to guide you in your education. They teach you things. They may have lived other lives. They may be “ascended” beings. They may be the wind or Father Sky or a guardian angel. They may be your higher self. They may be God. You decide. They can be animals or plants or trees or people. Here is another wisdom nugget, everything has three emanations or faces or appearances. We do and plants do and animals do and everything does.

When I go into the Inner Worlds for a healing for someone, I encounter some being there who is responsible for the sickness. The first face it shows me is really goofy, odd or weird and I know that is not what it really is. So I dismiss that face and ask to see its true face.

The next face it shows if it is a not nice being is some ferocious, grizzly, nasty, scary being who tries to bite me or otherwise scare me. But I am not scared because I know that is not its true face. I may have to fend it off or punch it or step on it or catch it but I am not scared of it. I dismiss it and ask to see its true face for the third time.

The third time I see what it really is and if it is a not nice being it usually looks weak and small and very lacking in every department. This is the being I negotiate with.

So I know that everything has three faces. Another example is when I sit with a rock and it turns into a lily and then it becomes a butterfly and flies away. When I sit with a river and it becomes a meadow and then it is a bear walking away.

So my totem is an elephant, a white elephant and it does not change its face around me. Why? Because it represents me! It is one of my own faces! How cool! A totem is one of your own many faces. That is why some people call them “familiars”.

Can we have more than three faces? Yup! Some people have hundreds of faces. But everything has at least three. And usually the three represent a plant, an animal and a sky creature.

Your spirit guides will help teach you intent, emotional control, knowledge and impeccability if you allow them. Remember it is always your free will to learn or not to learn. But don’t travel to the Inner Worlds if you have not mastered the skills necessary to be safe there and to do your work there. And never go there just out of curiosity. There are too many discarnate beings waiting for you to come there unaware so they can get what they can get from you. They can be tricky and sly and even devious. Even one bee is enough to stay away from. It doesn’t take a pack of grizzly bears to kill you.

Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls has been a practicing Shaman for over 50 years. She recently received a dispensation to reach out to those who have a desire to learn about a Shaman’s path and now offers an online course at www.shamanelder.com. Many people on this earth have been Shamans in other lives and only need to reconnect with their lost knowledge and skills to bring shamanic healing back to Mother Earth and its peoples. This is Shaman Elder’s goal. Please visit her website at www.shamanelder.com or write her an email for a free consultation at shaman@shamanelder.com

Notes

¹ Cosmovision is a term used by David Carrasco and others for a worldview where cultural, environmental and spiritual elements exist in an integrated whole. Because cosmovision involves a connection across space and time, it includes sentiments such as “yesterday I experienced some of tomorrow.”

² ”Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6)

Alchemy, Egypt and Shamanism

Copyright © Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls, 2009. All rights reserved.

In alchemy, or the changing of one substance into another, there are seven steps.

1. Calcination – the heating of a substance in a crucible over an open flame until it is reduced to ashes.

In Shamanism we have calcination as the destruction of our ego and our attachments to the physical world. We take the challenges and experiences of life and learn humbleness as we ignite the fire of self introspection and burn away those elements that never worked for us anyway.

The fire of Calcination tunes the body, burns off excesses from overindulgence and creates a lean mean fighting machine. First chakra, Fire, Red.

2. Dissolution – it is the dissolving of the ashes from Calcination in water. In Shamanism is is a further breaking down of the artifical beliefs we have been given or have adopted by opening the floodgates of new energy and new concepts, new beliefs and ideas, allowing new energy to enter our systems. Dissolution can be felt as the bliss of being well used and actively engaged in creative acts without traditional prejudices, personal hangups or established hierarchy getting the way.

It is the opening up of the kundalini channels in the body to elevate every cell, second chakra, water, blue.

3. Separation – it is the isolation of the components of dissolution by filtration and removing any unworthy material.

In Shamanism this is the rediscovery of our essence and the reclaiming of dreams and visions previously rejected by imposed beliefs that this was somehow irrational. Separation is letting go of self inflicted restraints and allowing our true selves and our true experiences to shine through. Separation is controlling the inflow and the outflow, the body and the breath to give birth to new energy. Third chakra, air, orange red.

4. Conjunction – it is the recombination of the saved elements from Separation into a new substance.

In Shamanism it is the empowerment of our true selves. Walking with one foot in this world and one foot in the Inner worlds, finding ourselves in a new belief system or causal consciousness. Alchemists call this the Lesser Stone and with it the adept is able to clearly discern what needs to be done to achieve union with the Overself. Often synchronicities begin to occur showing that the path is correct. Using the body’s sexual energies for personal transformation takes place in the heart. Earth, Green, hearth chakra.

5. Fermentation – is a two stepped process that begins with the Putrefication of the “child” from the Conjunction resulting in its death and resurrection to a new level of being. In alchemy it is the growth of a ferment, (bacteria) in organic solutions such as fermenting milk to make cheese.

Egyptian alchemists created a drink called “Liquor Hepatitis” which means Liquor of the Liver. They beieved the liver was the seat of the soul. It exudes a wonderful fragrance and the alchemists made a perfume of it called “Balsam of the Soul”.

In Shamanism the fermentation process starts with the inspiration of spiritual power from Above that re-animates, energizes and enlightens the seeker. Out of the blackness of putrefication comes the yellow ferment, the golden wax flowing out of the foul matter of the soul. Its arrival is seen as a display of bright color and meaningful vision called the “Peacock’s tail”. Fermentation can be achieved through impeccability, through practice, experience with awareness. Fermentation is living inspirations from something totally beyond us and yet deep within us. Fermentation is the rousing of chi, living energy, in the body to heal and unify. It is expressed as vibratory tones and spoken truths through the fourth chakra the throat, It is the base of mystical awareness. Throat chakra, sulfur, turquoise.

6. Distillation – the boiling and condensation of the fermented solution to increase it purity, such as the distilling of wine to make brandy.

In Shamanism it is the agitation and sublimation of psychic forces that is necessary to ensure that no impurities from the ego or id, no valueless beliefs are incorporated into the next and final stage. It is using introspection to weed out any last misbeliefs, any preconceived notions, any persevering thoughtforms that are not for you. It is raising the content of your psyche to the highest level possible, from sentimentality, totally in control of your lower bodies, free from their controlling you, cut off even from one’s own personality or personal identity. It is the purification of the unborn self – all that we truly are and can be. It is raising the life force from the body into the brain, known by Oriental Alchemists as the “Circulation of Light” where it eventually becomes a solidifying light full of power. Distillation is said to culminate in the Third Eye Chakra. Mercury, deep blue.

7. Coagulation – the precipitation or sublimation of the purified ferment from distillation. Alchemists called this final product, “Powder of the Sun”.

In Shamanism, coagulation is first sensed as a new confidence that is beyond all things, a Second body, an oversoul, a permanent vehicle of consciousness that embodies the highest aspirations and evolution of mind. Coagulation incarnates and releases the Ultima Materia of the soul. The alchemists referred to this as the Philosopher’s Stone. Using this stone, alchemists believed they could exist on all levels of reality. Could this be your atmic self?

In Shamanism it is the release of intentions for healing into your body, brain and psyche. And yet it is more than intention, it is like a brain ambrosia or heavenly food that nourishes and energizes the cells without any waste products being produced. It is both physiological and psychological as a process that creates the Atmic body which emerges through the Crown or gold Chakra. It is the living wisdom in which everyone exists with the same light of evolved consciousness and knowledge of the truth. It is the return to the Garden of Eden.

According to the Emerald Tablet, “Thus you will obtain the Glory of the Whole Universe. All Obscurity will be clear to you. This is the greatest force of all powers, because it overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.” Crown chakra, salt, violet.

Write me your thoughts on alchemy and Shamanism. How do they correlate to the system of chakras as you know it? How is it that the Emerald Tablets, written over 3,500 years ago show us the same things Shamanism does? Is that just a coincidence? Can your atmic self be realized in this lifetime? What is required before you can reach your atmic self?

*****

http://www.shamanelder.com
Copyright 2008 Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls.
Write me at shaman@shamanelder.com

Re-member the old ways with a Shaman Elder. Shaman Elder Maggie Wahls offers an introductory course starting with the history of Shamanism around the world. We learn about healing herbs, finding your totem, what Shamanic ecstasy is and how to achieve it without drugs, how to meditate and many actual visualizations to help improve one’s skills. You will build a medicine wheel, meet your totem animals and spirit guides, create a place for visions, learn to interpret your dreams, learn ceremonies for celebration and healing and so much more!