Healing Intro

What is Healing?

Healing is a completely natural process. It is thought to be a flow of beneficial energy between the Healer and the recipient that deals with the "dis-ease" at its deepest level and frees your natural resources to work in the most effective way for you.

What happens during a Healing session?

Healers work with their hands at a short distance from your body, or sometimes with a light touch, inviting you to relax and close your eyes if you wish. Usually patients are aware that something is happening. Most experience a variety of sensations, perhaps warmth or coolness, tingling and pressure, or pain coming to the surface (and often dispersing) as the energy goes to work. Some clients experience little more than warmth but the process is no less effective.

What can Healing do for me?

Healing can be helpful with a wide range of conditions, sometimes to a remarkable degree. It is a process of revitalisation, relaxation and release at a profound level, which helps your body to adjust and heal spontaneously at its own pace and in its own way. Healing seeks out the underlying cause as well as the "presenting symptom". This can mean that the outcome of a Healing session maybe beneficial in an unexpected way and not necessarily immediately: for example you may feel a sudden benefit days later or gradual improvement over a period of time. There may be times when you experience some kind of emotional release as part of the Healing process. Sometimes the process is obvious, sometimes more subtle.

How often do I need to go for Healing?

One session may be sufficient, but it is more usual that several sessions are needed. If you are experiencing Healing for the first time it may take you two or three sessions to relax into the process and enjoy the full benefit. You can always discuss progress with your Healer.

Do I need to be ill to receive Healing?

No. Healing is about restoring balance to your life and in your relationships with others, about expressing feelings, about change and the need for it. It often helps bring a sense of proportion and perspective and a greater feeling of "feet on the ground", of regaining control, irrespective of whether you are ill or not. On the other hand, it can be especially helpful in crisis situations and with terminal illness. It can stand alone as a therapy, has no harmful side effects and works well with any other therapy. It is a process, above all, to help you to help yourself.

Do I need faith?

No. Healers work from a wide range of philosophies and many simply see their ability as a natural resource. Nothing special is expected of the patient, however, except perhaps openness to anything that happens and a degree of trust in the healer.

Healing and my doctor

It is important to maintain contact with your doctor if you have a condition that requires conventional medical support or treatment. Healing complements the treatments your doctor is giving you so do tell her/him that you are receiving healing, and about any positive benefits you experience. Your doctor may be interested in finding out more.

Is my Healer qualified?

In common with other professional therapists, all Healing Trust members carry insurance and subscribe to a strict code of conduct. All Healing Trust Healers have followed a 2 year course of training and personal development.

Could I become a Healer?

Yes. If you are interested in training to be a Healer please Contact Us.

Does it work?

Anything from just one session up to a series of 5/6 regular sessions would be sufficient to convince you beyond doubt that improvements have occurred since your first visit. You might also feel lighter and brighter, more positive in attitude and notice happy coincidences occurring in your life. Local success stories include patients who have recovered from physical problems, depression and stress.

How does it work?

Healing is a natural therapy where Healing energy is channelled by the Healer through to the patient. When our energy is unbalanced or depleted (resulting in illness or stress) the Healer acts as a gentle set of jump leads and the energy is then drawn to where it is most needed. The same is true when we eat food - the goodness goes to where it is most needed without us having to think about it. For this reason, the Healer does not need to know your problem for Healing to take place, but you are free to talk about it if you wish.

Can Healing do any harm?

Healing is gentle so can do no harm. On the rare occasion, someone might feel worse for a few days before improving, but this is part of the Healing process where deep stress is being released. If this happens, rest up and relax to allow the process to work. Should you feel any concern, contact your Healer.

What will happen on my first appointment?

A Healer will explain to you what to expect and answer any questions that you may have. Then you simply sit in a chair or lie on a couch in relaxing surroundings whilst the Healer works around you, either with a light touch or none at all - it is your choice. It is quite normal to feel tingling, heat, coolness or even discomfort coming to the surface to be released as the Healing energy works. Or you might feel nothing at all - it makes no difference to the outcome. Your job is to relax as much as you can during the session and allow it all to happen. The majority of our patients feel very relaxed afterwards, which is an outward sign of inner improvement.

Read More

Keep a sleep diary

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

You’ve probably heard the standard advice that adults need on average 7 to 9 hours sleep per night.

But the reality is more complex than that because everybody is different.

There are many factors that can affect how much sleep you need from one day to the next.

And it can vary throughout your life depending on your circumstances.

Here are just a few things which will determine how much sleep you might need:

• Your age
• Your health
• How physically and mentally active you are
• Your diet and other lifestyle choices
• Your genetics

When trying to work out the magic number of exactly how many hours you need, you may have to ask a different question.

“How much sleep do I need to function at my best and not feel sleepy the next day?”

The point being that it is going to be up to you to work out how much sleep you need to go through life happily.

How much sleep you need according to your age

Despite the vagueness of the information so far, luckily scientists do generally agree on one thing. That there are standard average amounts of sleep that people need based on their age.

You can see this in the table below, and it gives you a starting point to work out more accurately how much is right for you.

Age	Hours needed
New borns (0-2 months)	12-18
Infants (3-11 Months)	14-15
Toddlers (1-3 years)	12-14
Preschoolers (3-5 years)	11-13
School-age (5-10 years)	10-11
Older children and teens (10-17 years)	8.5 - 9.25
Adults (18+ years)	7-9

Some people don’t seem to need much sleep at all though…

You can see from the table that adults should be aiming for between 7 and 9 hours.

However, scientists argue that most adults need at least 7.5 hours sleep to avoid the risk of sleep deprivation.

So why is it then that some lucky people seem to do fine on 6 hours sleep a night, or even less?

The answer is that is depends on your genetics.

Unfortunately though the gene which allows this miraculous sleep habit is only present in around 3% of people.

So the chances are you are in the 97% that need an average of 7 hours per night.

So how do you work out exactly how much sleep you need?

First of all you need to decide which of two questions you want to answer:

1. How much sleep do you need to get by?
2. How much sleep do you need need to function optimally and be happiest?

The answer to these two questions might be quite different. For example, you may think that you can scrape through the day if you’ve had 6 hours sleep.

But is 6 hours enough to enjoy your day, and to function to a high standard all day long? Or does 6 hours turn you into a coffee fiend? Does it have you looking forward to going back to bed from the minute you wake up?

Keep a sleep diary

The way to work out how much sleep you need then is to evaluate how you feel during the day, and to do this over a couple of weeks.

It may help to keep a sleep diary for 2 or more weeks. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but during the morning or night you should fill in these key points:

• What time you went to bed and got up
• How much sleep you think you actually had
• How you felt during the day

Then after a couple of weeks have a look back through your diary and do some analysis.

If you felt alert, energized and able to do things well all day long, then you probably got the right amount of sleep of those days.

But if you start feeling symptoms of sleep deprivation, you may be not be getting enough sleep the night or two before.

Sleep deprivation symptoms to watch out for:

It’s possible to experience sleep deprivation without even being aware of it.

So have a look at the following checklist and see if any apply to you when you are filling in your sleep diary:

• Always needing an alarm clock to wake up
• Using the snooze button a lot
• Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning
• Feeling sleepy in meetings, lectures, classes or warm environments
• Feeling particularly tired after a heavy meal, in the afternoons or even when driving
• Being grumpy or irritable
• Having difficulty concentrating or remembering things
• Noticing a change in appetite or experience weight gain
• Finding it hard to make decisions
• Having blurred vision
• It only takes you a couple of minutes to fall asleep at night
• Susceptible to colds and infections
• Stressful things are difficult to cope with
• Finding it hard to motivate yourself to do things
• Your reaction times are reduced

There may of course be other explanations as to why you experience some of these. But in the context of experimenting to see how many hours sleep you need, you should note them down.

Look back over your diary to see if you experience several of these on days when you have less sleep, but not when you have more sleep. That will then be a good indicator that you are not getting enough sleep on those days.

After a couple of weeks you should be able to work out how many hours you need to only be writing ‘felt fine all day’ in the diary.

Don’t panic if you’re not getting the amount of sleep you need

It’s important to understand that even though these guidelines exist, you shouldn’t panic if you don’t always get that optimum amount.

If you’ve worked out that your golden number of hours sleep is exactly 8, then the temptation will be to start worrying when you only get 7.

The reality though is that most people generally do manage to get by just fine on less sleep from time to time.

If you have one of those nights when you just can’t seem to get to sleep easily, try not to start worrying that the next day will be awful. This will only keep you awake longer.

If this sounds like the kind of worry you might have, you may find it helpful to read this article explaining what to do if you can’t fall asleep quickly.

Read More

Techniques For Sleep

Relaxation Techniques For Sleep

How often do you lie awake at night with your head full of random thoughts?

Do you find yourself worrying about things like the future, work, family, relationships, health and finances?

And perhaps worst of all, do you find yourself stressing about whether you’ll ever fall asleep?

If this sounds familiar, then it might be time to have a go at some specific relaxation exercises for sleep.

Finding ways to calm your over-active mind and unwind from a busy day can be an effective way of overcoming insomnia for many people.

And fortunately there are plenty of ways you can try to quieten your mind and relax you body. In this article you’ll learn about these popular techniques:

1. Guided visualization meditation

2. Progressive muscle relaxation

3. Deep breathing exercises

4. Mindfulness exercises

5. Additional relaxation techniques

1. Guided visualization meditation:

There are many different forms of meditation that you could do at any time during the day to help reduce stress and calm an overactive mind.

But you may find it particularly useful to practice meditation during the period of time just before going to sleep. It is a perfect addition to a bedtime routine.

An easy and effective relaxation technique for sleep is guided visualization meditation. This is where you listen to an audio track of someone talking you through a meditation. The following video gives you an example of this:

You can also find recordings which combine guided meditation with simple hypnosis for relaxation. The idea being that you listen to a soothing voice rather than have to do the relaxation process in your head. This is something I’ve personally found very helpful in the past. Have a look on Youtube and you’ll find plenty for free.

2. Progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation works well because it helps relieve tension in the muscles, and the mind relaxes better when the body feels good.

It also helps distract the mind from unsettling or repetitive thoughts because you have to focus your attention on your body and not on your mind.

You can do progressive muscle relaxation exercises for sleep as part of a bedtime routine. And you can even do them while lying in bed at night.

A basic progressive muscle relaxation exercise you can try for yourself:

• Take a deep breath and tense your toes and feet for a few seconds (3-4 seconds is fine), then exhale slowly and release the tension
• Take a deep breath and tense your lower legs, hold for a few seconds and then relax again with the exhale of breath
• Breathe in and tense your upper legs, hold and relax
• Breathe in and tense your abdomen and lower back, hold for a few seconds and then breathe out whilst slowly relaxing
• Repeat with your chest and upper back
• Do the same with your hands, lower arms, then upper arms, shoulders and neck
• Then you can tense your face – screwing it up may help to tense it properly
• Finally you can tense your whole body, hold for a few seconds and slowly exhale whilst ensuring your whole body relaxes from the tension
• You can repeat the final part where you tense your whole body 3 times if you like

3. Deep breathing exercises:

Deep breathing is calming to do either on its own or along with other relaxation techniques for sleep. In fact most meditations will encourage you to focus on your breathing at some point.

You can also draw on deep breathing techniques at any point during the day or night to help you calm down.

Next time you feel yourself getting stressed, upset or angry, try doing some deep breathing and you should find it helps surprisingly quickly.

Deep breathing has 2 main components to it: learning to breathe into your abdomen rather than just the chest, and breathing at a controlled and slow rate. You’ll learn both of these in the exercise below.

A basic deep breathing exercise you can do straight away:

A) You can do this exercise wherever you like. Sitting in a chair, lying in bed or even standing up.

B) Take a minute or two to try and relax and release tension from your muscles.

C) Close your eyes, and focus your attention on your breathing

D) Place one hand on your stomach and one on your chest. See if they both rise when you breathe in, or just one of them rises. You do not need to try to do anything in particular at this time; just see which hand is rising and pay attention to it. This will tell you if you naturally breathe with your abdomen, chest or both

E) Breathe in slowly through your nose for the count of 4 seconds if you can. Try to breathe in such a way that the hand on your stomach rises, and the hand on your chest only rises a little. This is called abdominal breathing, and what you should ideally try to do. You may find it trick at first, but stick with it if you can

F) Once you breathe in, hold your breath for 4 seconds, and then breathe out for 4. If 4 seconds if too much or too little, then you can adjust the time to suit you. Continue with this cycle. Counting 4 – 4 – 4 in your head as your breathe in and out.

G) Once you have learned how to breathe with your belly, you can remove your hands and place them down by your sides, and continue breathing slowly and deeply

H) You can set yourself a goal to practice this deep breathing exercise for 5 or 10 minutes. You could also just keep doing it while you try to fall asleep if you find it helpful. And once you have learned how to breathe like this, you can add it to any other form of meditation you might do

Deep breathing is one of the most effective relaxation techniques for sleep for several reasons:

• It relax your muscles
• It can help slow your heart rate
• It can help slow your rate of breath
• It centers you in the moment instead of thinking about past or future problems
• By focusing your attention on your breathing you will reduce the quantity of thoughts on your mind

4. Mindfulness exercises

Mindfulness techniques are gaining popularity as a Psychological intervention as well as being a great self-help practice.

It is well regarded as being an effective way of treating stress, anxiety, depression, pain and importantly – an over-active mind.

Mindfulness exercises are based on certain Buddhist principles, such as living in the moment and the acceptance of how things are.

The good thing though is that you don’t have to be religious, spiritual or philosophical to practice mindfulness exercises. They are practical and work effectively without needing to attach any spiritual meaning to them.

Mindfulness techniques work well because they help center you back in the moment. So if you are lying awake at night worrying about the past or future, it will help you to stop doing that.

If you are being over-run by your own thoughts, then it will help you to learn to calm your mind. And most importantly in some ways, if you are worrying about the very fact that you are thinking to much, then it will even help with that!

It’s beyond the scope of this article to teach you mindfulness. But if the idea appeals to you, have a look at Mindfulness: an eight week plan for finding peace in a frantic world which is an excellent practical workbook and CD.

5. Other relaxation techniques for sleep

Hopefully nobody will ever read this far, having found a useful relaxation technique already!

However, if nothing has appealed so far then there are one or two other things you could try.

Firstly, don’t forget the importance of having a regular and peaceful bedtime routine to help you mark an end to the busy day. You can include one or more of the techniques described above in this routine.

Some people find that yoga is also a good practice to do before going to bed – it can be a powerful way to unwind and relax.

You may find that for you, simply spending time with family, a pet or a good book is relaxation enough. But whatever you choose to do in the period before bed, just make sure it is relaxing and not stimulating.

If you are a busy person that has a lot of worries in life you may find it helpful to write down on paper a list of things you need to do tomorrow or in the future.

It may not seem like a great relaxation technique to help you sleep, but the point is to remove worries and thoughts from your mind before you try to sleep. Putting them down on paper may help keep them from buzzing around your head.

And for those who have literally tried everything, then my final suggestion is the rather unusual acupressure mat. This is a fairly new concept in the world of relaxation, but is proving very popular because of its ability to promote relaxation and sleep. And they have the bonus of being great for relieving muscle tension and back pain.

Check out the acupressure mat review >>

Your ideas!

Do you have any interesting techniques for relaxation that may help other readers? And even if you’re just struggling with your busy mind and want someone to listen for a moment, feel free to talk about it in the comments below and I’ll see if I can help out.

Read More

Karma

The Complexities of Karma

Karma is a highly complex issue and one in which the devotee of spiritual development ought to be well versed. Karma is most commonly defined as the law of cause and effect. This basically means that everything you send out eventually returns to you. Karma constitutes action, action to teach us lessons in life. This definition is quite true, but until we associate this action with the universal law of cause and effect, it will prove difficult to truly understand what this action implies and what type of lessons we are supposed to learn. Just as there are physical laws which govern our Earthly life, there are spiritual, or universal laws, as well. Universal laws are those of morality that govern our behavior. We will take a deeper look into the law of cause and effect shortly, but first let us examine this action to provide us with a better perspective. We want to see exactly what comprises this action.

Karma in and of itself is energy in motion, or energy in action. It is the energy associated with our physical existence and that which we direct into our life experience. Delving into this complex matter more deeply, it is necessary for us to reflect back upon our classroom on God and reexamine what comprises this energy that makes up our being. Our being is composed of a highly complex collection of atoms, cells, molecules, and all those other microscopic particles we learned about in science class. It should be understood that these are the material elements which comprise our being. Science has certainly verified the existence of these particles under the microscope and for the most part has concluded that the particles exist and create power in and of themselves. There is, however, an energy, a great governing power behind the millions of particles which comprise our being. It is a force of energy that is invisible to the naked eye, yet very real. It is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God governs not only us, but the entire universe of both seen and unseen worlds. The Holy Spirit is the essence, the guiding principal of all life. Science has not as yet verified the existence of this power, and it is doubtful that science will. For one thing, it is impossible to verify the existence of spiritual forces with manmade, or material, instruments. For another, it is a great unseen science that must be verified through faith and inner knowing. To look upon it another way, everything in the world is a reflection of spirit, and we are a manifestation of spirit.

Delving into this complex matter even further, we are instilled with a piece of this great invisible force of spirit. This piece is our own individual inner sun, and we will commonly refer to this piece as our soul. Our soul is an extension of God. You might say that the Holy Spirit is the body of God and our inner spirit is a part, a mere molecule, within that infinite body. We carry around with us our very own spiritual energy field. This energy field is more commonly known as our aura. Just as our individual soul is an extension of God, our auric energy field is an extension, or projection, of our soul, while our body is the physical manifestation of that auric make-up. Our spiritual energy field is actually a miniature piece, our piece of the Holy Spirit, governed by our soul. It is our individual solar system, and our soul is the heart of our system. Our soul and individualized spirit make us who we are. Our soul and spiritual energy field are given to us by God. This is His greatest gift to us. It is the gift of life. We might also add that when God created us, He created us with a clean slate, meaning our energy field was pure and consisted of nothing but the pure, Holy Spirit of love. Our energy field contains all of the elements which comprise the characteristics of our personality, such as our thoughts, awareness, feelings, etc. Our aura is our own individual blueprint that has recorded our experiences since our soul’s inception. You could say it is like a movie camera containing an infinite supply of film. The camera, with its infinite supply of film, continues to roll indefinitely. Our inner camera records our experiences in various realms of life, though for the sake of clarity we will focus our attention upon the physical existence for now. Wherever we go and whatever we do, the experience is recorded within our aura in the form of energy. This energy encompasses our being and extends outward on average of a few feet from our bodies. The aura is invisible, yet very real. You may not realize it, but you experience the auras of all with whom you come in close proximity. You may sense certain feelings and other characteristics about a person as you come into their energy field, and they may sense the same about you. Oftentimes you can sense certain things about a person from even further distances. The energy composing the auric field is invisible and governed by spiritual law in which distance does not interfere with the perception of the aura.

Through our physical existence we direct our energy into countless ideas and activities in order for us to exist and meet whatever goals and objectives we set for ourselves. Our entire life experience is determined by how we focus our energy to satisfy our desires. We are meant to direct our energies for the purposes of doing good, both for ourselves and for our fellow brothers and sisters. The problem begins to arise when we act or speak in an inappropriate manner and do harm to ourselves and others. We should understand that karma in and of itself is neither bad nor good. Karma is merely energy set into motion.

It is the misappropriation of this energy that
causes it to accumulate negatively and darkly.

This misappropriated energy can also be referred to as misused, misdirected, or misqualified energy. You see, we are meant to express love toward ourselves and our fellow human beings, but it certainly doesn’t end there. We are meant to express love to animals, to the Earth, and to all of life. When we express love, we express goodness. When we express goodness, we express God. When we express God, the energy is friendly, harmonious, and positive. Our being is a vehicle for expressing the Holy Spirit. When the energy of the Holy Spirit flows through us, it is in its natural form of love. It is clean, pure and untainted. It is up to us whether we choose to allow that golden spirit to continue flowing and be expressed as love, or if we will muddy up that energy with negativity. Our aura continually records this process. If we choose to allow spirit to simply flow through us in harmonious fashion and then, in turn, express love, our aura records love and no damage is done. If we express something other than love, the energy becomes clouded and distorted and is recorded accordingly. We could say it is recorded negatively, and for purposes of clarity we will say that anything other than love is negativity of a sort. As we mentioned, God created us with a clean and pure slate, and when we express our energy inappropriately, our auras become tainted, dirty, and impure. Sooner or later payback time will come and we will re-experience whatever negative word or action we gave out, for it is recorded and becomes a permanent part of our auric record. It is also important for us to understand that this process is nothing personal. This is God’s law which keeps order throughout the universe. This law constitutes the universal principle of cause and effect, or giving and receiving. The law makes perfect sense when you really stop to think about it. If you send out love, love will be reflected back to you. If you send out hate, anger, fear, and negativity, that is what will be reflected back to you. Always remember the following words:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

They are some of the wisest words ever spoken! We can also expand the phrase to: speak unto others as you would have them speak to you. Accept the fact that this is a universal principle that keeps not only us, but all of life, in line with love! It is also wise to accept the fact that there is no way of getting around or usurping this law.

We can see that our auric field constitutes our own individual life record; therefore, karma is not external to us, but internal. This also means that we are our own judge. Let us take a look at just how we judge ourselves according to how we direct our energies through our words and actions.

The Spoken Word

There is much power in the words we speak. The words we speak should promote love toward others. We are vehicles designed to inspire and send light to each other and not darkness and negativity. Unfortunately, we have all experienced both the positive and negative effects of the words we speak. At one time or another, we have all been involved in an argument where voices were raised and unpleasant conversation took place. We have been each a sender and a receiver of angry words. The turmoil we experienced created an atmosphere laced with tension and animosity. For example, if you argue with your brother, John, and you are the primary sender of the hostility, John will experience the negative vibes which will cause him to cringe and retreat into darkness. Whether you consciously realize it or not, these negative vibes are also recorded and experienced within you, the sender. Considering that the average person is simply not going to sit there and take it, John further stimulates the negative energy of the argument by releasing all his pent-up frustration back at you. As he angrily shouts at you, you feel your inner self cringe and experience an array of negative emotions. What you are really feeling is a result of John’s negative energy being hurled in your direction. You feel injured because your own energy is being attacked. This produces a painful experience that leaves you in a state of mental distress. The cells which compose your physical make-up become filled with anger and fear, generating an impulse to escape from the body. They say, “Yikes, we're outta here!” The energy of our cells is highly sensitive.

What has happened? You have just misused energy and incurred negative karma. This event has not only been recorded by your aura, but the Holy Spirit of God knows and has recorded this event in the universal archive of records (Akashic) which includes your life. In that great storage bank of records is a book with your name on it, and this event comprises one chapter in your book of life. A Book of Life consists of all of the experiences of an individual since their initial incarnation into the material world. At some point or another in either your current or future life, you will undergo a similar experience involving the same or comparable negative energies. In other words, you will experience in equal measure what you gave out. Lest we not forget that the experience has also been recorded in John’s aura, and all the details which we have shared about your aura apply to his aura. Multiply this exchange of energy for about seven billion people on planet Earth and you will have a pretty good idea of the magnitude of negative energy to which we are all exposed.

Not only do the words we speak create negativity, but our intentions behind the words serve to intensify and distort the event. If you had intended to go off on John before you even arrived, in other words if you planned it, the karma you incurred would be somewhat worse than if an argument just happened to ensue. Angry words, in many cases, often just spring forth; however, the intentions within an individual can largely affect the outcome. Loving and compassionate intentions flow from the heart. Unkind intentions arise from animosity, hostility, deception, and a stream of uncontrolled thoughts and emotions centered in fear rather than love. These stem from the ego and are always self-centered in fear. If the intention of the individual is to deceive, mislead, cheat, or hurt another, and that intention is followed by corresponding words of malintent, that person will eventually experience, or suffer what they have given out. If a person uses words in an abusive, vindictive, or otherwise controlling manner, that energy will eventually come back to him or her. A person who is a habitual liar will have difficulty finding the truth. To put it another way, a seeker of truth who has a history of lying is venturing down a rough road because they will have to sort through all the lies they have dished out before finding the truth. This principle holds true on all levels, making the process more difficult than it might otherwise be for the individual. The process all boils down to one thing: as you sow, so shall you reap.

Negative Actions

Just as the negative use of the spoken word can be initially damaging to the receiver and sometime later for the sender when that energy returns, negative action intensifies a karmic situation. Oftentimes a verbal argument leads to physical action, such as striking another with fists, body, or any number of objects. This situation results not only in the misuse of energy in the form of words, but from physical action, as well, and the consequences are equally severe. If you are struck and don’t strike back you will not incur any karma. This may be difficult to refrain from, as it is a natural reaction to both return words of anger as well as strike back. This is a test of how well-disciplined our minds are. Mahatma Gandhi was beaten several times and did not strike back at his adversaries either physically or verbally. His ability to refrain from violent retaliation required an enormous amount of inner strength and self-discipline.

I often wonder how much energy is being misused in contact sports, such as football and hockey. Professional boxing has to take the cake, the entire environment being fueled by wild fans. Reminds me of the joke, “I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.” This tendency toward violence in fans demonstrates the nature of the society we live in.
For More Click Here

Read More

Wisdom

Spiritual Wisdom

Another one of our goals in presenting this course is to create an awareness of the importance of wisdom. Wisdom evokes a variety of connotations. It can be defined as the difference between knowledge and experience. The more experience an individual has with a certain activity, the better the person is able to perform that activity, and the more the person can speak and relate the specifics of that activity from an experiential viewpoint. Reading and studying spiritual texts may provide you with intellectual knowledge, but without actual experience to accompany the knowledge, wisdom is lacking. Wisdom acquired through experience is genuine because once you have gained experience, you “know” what you are speaking about. Wisdom can be equated with experiential proficiency. We as potential disciples seek wisdom. We want to know what makes us tick. Remember the questions we just addressed? Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? If we want answers to these questions, we should be willing to make the deepest commitment to do whatever it takes to get them. In making such a commitment and striving to learn what life is really all about, we seek what is referred to as spiritual wisdom.

Wisdom of spiritual matters can also be referred to as esoteric knowledge. The general connotation of esoteric is ‘knowledge of reality.’ Esoteric knowledge, while deeply rooted in metaphysical concepts and hard to initially grasp, is no different than any other knowledge. Esoteric knowledge stimulates action within the soul and may crack open a few doors of your prospective new home. It is you, however, who must engage in the process of opening those doors all the way and facing whatever lies on the other side. This is accomplished by dispensing with all of the books, preconceived ideas, and intellectual wisdom you have and venturing into the maze of your mind empty-handed, carrying only the lighted torch within your heart to illuminate the way. In short, you must go beyond knowledge and gain the wisdom of experience.

While wisdom is commonly defined as the difference between knowledge and experience, for purposes of our course in self-mastery, we seek spiritual wisdom, for it stands as the highest form of wisdom. We seek experiential proficiency and knowing of the truth of God. We want to know who we are. These are aspects of wisdom that we will continue to learn throughout these texts and, more importantly, strive to bring to the surface of our being the wisdom that God has instilled within us. We previously addressed a few aspects of wisdom in Volume One of our course, such as the wisdom of silence, confidentiality, and the attainment of wisdom. Building further on these qualities, we have compiled a short discourse on spiritual wisdom that we will share with you now.

Spiritual wisdom, when developed in true fashion, is knowledge acquired through internal experience. Spiritual development in true fashion means that the individual desiring divine truth, or “truth that stands above all else,” must seek this knowledge through what we would call a direct connection with it. Remember that the universal life force is intelligent. Direct connection means that the seeker aligns his or her individual consciousness with the greater life force or universal blanket of consciousness. The individual receives whatever information he or she is capable of receiving and then proceeds with the long and sometimes arduous process of assimilation and deciphering the information in order to make sense of it. Accessing this infinite library of knowledge constitutes spiritual wisdom in true fashion. Reading about spiritually related matters is certainly beneficial and highly encouraged, but this activity is only a first step in the spiritual development process and a distant second in attaining true spiritual wisdom. This is so because reading about spiritual matters or, for that matter, any subject material, produces understanding that is, for the most part, limited to intellectual perspective. For example, reading about scuba diving does not give you valid experience because you have never submerged yourself beneath the waves.

Tapping into the universal library of knowledge for purposes of information, while exciting and inspiring, is just the tip of the iceberg. Information, regardless of its relative importance or in what way it is received, is oftentimes overrated. Though the universal library is an infinite bank of informational knowledge, its source is not the biggest computer you could imagine, nor is it a vast array of books hidden somewhere on the other side of Jupiter. The basic essence of informational knowledge is a glorious and unfathomable system of invisible light energy. This energy carries a multitude of varying vibrational frequencies. The goal in developing our individual spirit is to align our consciousness with the highest frequencies with which we are able to invoke the deepest and most inspirational aspects of our creativity. The high energies have the innate ability to provide us not only with knowledge, but stimulate and enhance attributes within our personage that have been lying dormant within us. Through the combined efforts of open-minded receptive awareness, silent communion, music, affirmations, and other spiritually related exercises, we can effectively enhance our levels of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-responsibility, maturity, creativity, and trust in ourselves (to name just a few of the self-improvement initiatives we can foster).

The cultivation of spiritual wisdom means that you begin to understand the intricacies of how and why everything in life works the way it does. This process begins with understanding how the most important thing in your life works... you. You understand why you feel the way you do, why you think the way you do, why you love, why you dislike, why you hurt, and why you suffer. You will learn and accept who you have been in years and incarnations past. You will learn what characters you have played and certain circumstances you faced while playing those roles. In short, you will attain answers to all those questions you ask yourself about the most important issues of life experience.

Since the intricacies of life and death are understood from an entirely new and awakened perspective, one finds him or herself in a very realistic position of conquering death, the greatest mystery and experience of fear that we must confront. The previously held notion of immortality changes from being something that is unheard of and literally impossible to something possible and attainable. Understanding or conscious awareness makes a world of difference.

The good news is that you already have the potential to actually realize, bring forth, and live these aspects of spiritual wisdom. You are a spiritual being. You just may not realize it. Your spirit yearns to come up from the basement of your new home and help you experience your greater potential. The first step in attaining spiritual wisdom is accepting the fact that you are a spiritual being and that you have the innate ability to access your spirit through meditation and an open-minded awareness of the greater potential of our soul. Our soul is an individualized piece of energy within us. The energy of the soul is an extension of God. God is that power which is generated and exhilarated by our own thought action.

Discovering our individual spirituality is realizing that what we are looking for we already have. It is remembering who we really are, or finding something we did not realize we had. For example, you lose your job and find yourself increasingly filled with despair and hopelessness. You want to distract your worried mind, so you decide to put a new floor in a room that you have wanted to renovate. After tearing out the old floor, you discover a small chest covered with layers of dust which has been hidden under the floorboards. Opening the chest, you make an even grander discovery. You find a million dollars in cash! Finders keepers? Oh, yes!

You have a treasure chest within you, filled not with money, but with a wealth of spirit. The treasure chest within you is also covered with layers of dust that must be cleansed. The key to the chest is your desire to know God and yourself more fully. The more diligently and sincerely you pursue your desire, the more the key turns, slowly unlocking your chest of treasures. You will find yourself regularly visiting the universal library of light energy, and knowledge will flood your awareness. This spiritual energy has been lying dormant within you for eons, and it is time to bring it to the surface and reactivate it.

Read More

Karma

The Complexities of Karma

Karma is a highly complex issue and one in which the devotee of spiritual development ought to be well versed. Karma is most commonly defined as the law of cause and effect. This basically means that everything you send out eventually returns to you. Karma constitutes action, action to teach us lessons in life. This definition is quite true, but until we associate this action with the universal law of cause and effect, it will prove difficult to truly understand what this action implies and what type of lessons we are supposed to learn. Just as there are physical laws which govern our Earthly life, there are spiritual, or universal laws, as well. Universal laws are those of morality that govern our behavior. We will take a deeper look into the law of cause and effect shortly, but first let us examine this action to provide us with a better perspective. We want to see exactly what comprises this action.

Karma in and of itself is energy in motion, or energy in action. It is the energy associated with our physical existence and that which we direct into our life experience. Delving into this complex matter more deeply, it is necessary for us to reflect back upon our classroom on God and reexamine what comprises this energy that makes up our being. Our being is composed of a highly complex collection of atoms, cells, molecules, and all those other microscopic particles we learned about in science class. It should be understood that these are the material elements which comprise our being. Science has certainly verified the existence of these particles under the microscope and for the most part has concluded that the particles exist and create power in and of themselves. There is, however, an energy, a great governing power behind the millions of particles which comprise our being. It is a force of energy that is invisible to the naked eye, yet very real. It is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God governs not only us, but the entire universe of both seen and unseen worlds. The Holy Spirit is the essence, the guiding principal of all life. Science has not as yet verified the existence of this power, and it is doubtful that science will. For one thing, it is impossible to verify the existence of spiritual forces with manmade, or material, instruments. For another, it is a great unseen science that must be verified through faith and inner knowing. To look upon it another way, everything in the world is a reflection of spirit, and we are a manifestation of spirit.

Delving into this complex matter even further, we are instilled with a piece of this great invisible force of spirit. This piece is our own individual inner sun, and we will commonly refer to this piece as our soul. Our soul is an extension of God. You might say that the Holy Spirit is the body of God and our inner spirit is a part, a mere molecule, within that infinite body. We carry around with us our very own spiritual energy field. This energy field is more commonly known as our aura. Just as our individual soul is an extension of God, our auric energy field is an extension, or projection, of our soul, while our body is the physical manifestation of that auric make-up. Our spiritual energy field is actually a miniature piece, our piece of the Holy Spirit, governed by our soul. It is our individual solar system, and our soul is the heart of our system. Our soul and individualized spirit make us who we are. Our soul and spiritual energy field are given to us by God. This is His greatest gift to us. It is the gift of life. We might also add that when God created us, He created us with a clean slate, meaning our energy field was pure and consisted of nothing but the pure, Holy Spirit of love. Our energy field contains all of the elements which comprise the characteristics of our personality, such as our thoughts, awareness, feelings, etc. Our aura is our own individual blueprint that has recorded our experiences since our soul’s inception. You could say it is like a movie camera containing an infinite supply of film. The camera, with its infinite supply of film, continues to roll indefinitely. Our inner camera records our experiences in various realms of life, though for the sake of clarity we will focus our attention upon the physical existence for now. Wherever we go and whatever we do, the experience is recorded within our aura in the form of energy. This energy encompasses our being and extends outward on average of a few feet from our bodies. The aura is invisible, yet very real. You may not realize it, but you experience the auras of all with whom you come in close proximity. You may sense certain feelings and other characteristics about a person as you come into their energy field, and they may sense the same about you. Oftentimes you can sense certain things about a person from even further distances. The energy composing the auric field is invisible and governed by spiritual law in which distance does not interfere with the perception of the aura.

Through our physical existence we direct our energy into countless ideas and activities in order for us to exist and meet whatever goals and objectives we set for ourselves. Our entire life experience is determined by how we focus our energy to satisfy our desires. We are meant to direct our energies for the purposes of doing good, both for ourselves and for our fellow brothers and sisters. The problem begins to arise when we act or speak in an inappropriate manner and do harm to ourselves and others. We should understand that karma in and of itself is neither bad nor good. Karma is merely energy set into motion.

It is the misappropriation of this energy that
causes it to accumulate negatively and darkly.

This misappropriated energy can also be referred to as misused, misdirected, or misqualified energy. You see, we are meant to express love toward ourselves and our fellow human beings, but it certainly doesn’t end there. We are meant to express love to animals, to the Earth, and to all of life. When we express love, we express goodness. When we express goodness, we express God. When we express God, the energy is friendly, harmonious, and positive. Our being is a vehicle for expressing the Holy Spirit. When the energy of the Holy Spirit flows through us, it is in its natural form of love. It is clean, pure and untainted. It is up to us whether we choose to allow that golden spirit to continue flowing and be expressed as love, or if we will muddy up that energy with negativity. Our aura continually records this process. If we choose to allow spirit to simply flow through us in harmonious fashion and then, in turn, express love, our aura records love and no damage is done. If we express something other than love, the energy becomes clouded and distorted and is recorded accordingly. We could say it is recorded negatively, and for purposes of clarity we will say that anything other than love is negativity of a sort. As we mentioned, God created us with a clean and pure slate, and when we express our energy inappropriately, our auras become tainted, dirty, and impure. Sooner or later payback time will come and we will re-experience whatever negative word or action we gave out, for it is recorded and becomes a permanent part of our auric record. It is also important for us to understand that this process is nothing personal. This is God’s law which keeps order throughout the universe. This law constitutes the universal principle of cause and effect, or giving and receiving. The law makes perfect sense when you really stop to think about it. If you send out love, love will be reflected back to you. If you send out hate, anger, fear, and negativity, that is what will be reflected back to you. Always remember the following words:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

They are some of the wisest words ever spoken! We can also expand the phrase to: speak unto others as you would have them speak to you. Accept the fact that this is a universal principle that keeps not only us, but all of life, in line with love! It is also wise to accept the fact that there is no way of getting around or usurping this law.

We can see that our auric field constitutes our own individual life record; therefore, karma is not external to us, but internal. This also means that we are our own judge. Let us take a look at just how we judge ourselves according to how we direct our energies through our words and actions.

The Spoken Word

There is much power in the words we speak. The words we speak should promote love toward others. We are vehicles designed to inspire and send light to each other and not darkness and negativity. Unfortunately, we have all experienced both the positive and negative effects of the words we speak. At one time or another, we have all been involved in an argument where voices were raised and unpleasant conversation took place. We have been each a sender and a receiver of angry words. The turmoil we experienced created an atmosphere laced with tension and animosity. For example, if you argue with your brother, John, and you are the primary sender of the hostility, John will experience the negative vibes which will cause him to cringe and retreat into darkness. Whether you consciously realize it or not, these negative vibes are also recorded and experienced within you, the sender. Considering that the average person is simply not going to sit there and take it, John further stimulates the negative energy of the argument by releasing all his pent-up frustration back at you. As he angrily shouts at you, you feel your inner self cringe and experience an array of negative emotions. What you are really feeling is a result of John’s negative energy being hurled in your direction. You feel injured because your own energy is being attacked. This produces a painful experience that leaves you in a state of mental distress. The cells which compose your physical make-up become filled with anger and fear, generating an impulse to escape from the body. They say, “Yikes, we're outta here!” The energy of our cells is highly sensitive.

What has happened? You have just misused energy and incurred negative karma. This event has not only been recorded by your aura, but the Holy Spirit of God knows and has recorded this event in the universal archive of records (Akashic) which includes your life. In that great storage bank of records is a book with your name on it, and this event comprises one chapter in your book of life. A Book of Life consists of all of the experiences of an individual since their initial incarnation into the material world. At some point or another in either your current or future life, you will undergo a similar experience involving the same or comparable negative energies. In other words, you will experience in equal measure what you gave out. Lest we not forget that the experience has also been recorded in John’s aura, and all the details which we have shared about your aura apply to his aura. Multiply this exchange of energy for about seven billion people on planet Earth and you will have a pretty good idea of the magnitude of negative energy to which we are all exposed.

Not only do the words we speak create negativity, but our intentions behind the words serve to intensify and distort the event. If you had intended to go off on John before you even arrived, in other words if you planned it, the karma you incurred would be somewhat worse than if an argument just happened to ensue. Angry words, in many cases, often just spring forth; however, the intentions within an individual can largely affect the outcome. Loving and compassionate intentions flow from the heart. Unkind intentions arise from animosity, hostility, deception, and a stream of uncontrolled thoughts and emotions centered in fear rather than love. These stem from the ego and are always self-centered in fear. If the intention of the individual is to deceive, mislead, cheat, or hurt another, and that intention is followed by corresponding words of malintent, that person will eventually experience, or suffer what they have given out. If a person uses words in an abusive, vindictive, or otherwise controlling manner, that energy will eventually come back to him or her. A person who is a habitual liar will have difficulty finding the truth. To put it another way, a seeker of truth who has a history of lying is venturing down a rough road because they will have to sort through all the lies they have dished out before finding the truth. This principle holds true on all levels, making the process more difficult than it might otherwise be for the individual. The process all boils down to one thing: as you sow, so shall you reap.

Negative Actions

Just as the negative use of the spoken word can be initially damaging to the receiver and sometime later for the sender when that energy returns, negative action intensifies a karmic situation. Oftentimes a verbal argument leads to physical action, such as striking another with fists, body, or any number of objects. This situation results not only in the misuse of energy in the form of words, but from physical action, as well, and the consequences are equally severe. If you are struck and don’t strike back you will not incur any karma. This may be difficult to refrain from, as it is a natural reaction to both return words of anger as well as strike back. This is a test of how well-disciplined our minds are. Mahatma Gandhi was beaten several times and did not strike back at his adversaries either physically or verbally. His ability to refrain from violent retaliation required an enormous amount of inner strength and self-discipline.

I often wonder how much energy is being misused in contact sports, such as football and hockey. Professional boxing has to take the cake, the entire environment being fueled by wild fans. Reminds me of the joke, “I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.” This tendency toward violence in fans demonstrates the nature of the society we live in.
For More Click Here

Read More