Solar Wind

Speak Up About It

2012-02-10T10:19:46Z

“Most people in this world are not mean horrible bullies who go out of their way to make another person's life miserable. Most of the time the people who who have hurt or offended us don't even realize they have crushed us. One great way of removing resentment and hatred towards a person is to TELL THEM they hurt us and ask them to apologize.” ~S. Warren

It is true that the really mean and hateful people in the world actually account for only a small percent of the mean and hateful things that happen. Much of the mean and hateful things that are said or done come not out of meanness or hatred, but a simple lack of attention. People don't stop to think about the consequences of the things they say or do. Because of that, they do things that unintentionally hurt others.

They don't stop to think that when they tell a joke about gays to a group of friends they assume to be straight, one might be gay and afraid to admit it when he has friends telling gay jokes. Or maybe a gay teenager standing nearby will hear the hurtful joke. Or one of those friend will repeat the joke in front of a gay person.

One of the most annoying thing people have to put up with here in the Washington DC area is the people who, during the horrendous afternoon rush hour, will push their way into the front of the line on a highway exit ramp at the last second cutting off the dozens who pulled over onto the ramp when they were supposed to. Yes, some of them are horrid people, but most are not. They simply don't think about anyone else. Inform them that a mother in one of those cars they cut off is trying to get a sick child to the doctors office, and they may change their attitude. A few years ago, there was a rash of road-rage in this area (and others) due to this type of behavior.

So why have people become so oblivious? So indifferent to the needs of others and the idea that they have to share the world? There are several reasons, but the two major ones are: (1) the ME attitude, and (2) corrective feedback.

The ME attitude is obvious. Many have grown up spoiled. There parents, who both had to work ten hour days most of the time, have spoiled them by giving them almost anything they want. Add to that schools that must give the kids lots of self-esteem, even the ones who have accomplished nothing, and we have a recipe for spoiled brats who think it is all about making them happy.

That is bad enough, but then the rest of us add to it by going along with the program. We are afraid to stop and tell that person to stop telling offensive jokes in a public place for fear him and his friends will beat us up (while others film it on their cell phones to post on youtube), or maybe he will just pull out a concealed gun and shoot you. While there are times when this fear is justified, there are also times when we know it is safe to say something, but we don't. And when we don't say anything, the offender never learns that he is being offensive.

There was a time when any adult would yell at a kid he say walking down a public street smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer, or picking on a smaller kid. We need to get back to that with kids and adults.

Don't get angry and start yelling, just politely tell the person that behavior is not acceptable. A few will just laugh and say, “So!', but the majority will be shocked that someone has actually said something about it and may actually listen.

Greed and Lovers of Money (by Steve Childers)

2012-02-09T10:20:50Z

Another article from a guest author.

Greed and Lovers of Money

By: Steve Childers

In many of our churches today, our leaders are teaching how we can become rich by practicing various principles in the Bible. They will teach if you give 10% to the church you will be blessed financially many times over, as if God was the spiritual version of a Wall Street executive. However, you need to be very careful when you hear these things, because they are false teachings to the maximum degree. There is no financial blue print in the Bible on how to obtain possessions, regardless of what some will say. However, God is like the perfect parent to us just as we strive to be good parents to our children. He desires to give us great blessings and even earthly comforts because He dearly loves us, just as we want to give to our own children. However, as we well know, always giving our children everything they want is not always the best for them. Just like our children, sometimes the more we have, the more we want and God knows best when to bless us.

The Bible is the foundation of all Christian faith and is full of examples of God bestowing great riches and blessings on His people. He does not want us to live in poverty, but He does want us to become more like Christ as we mature in faith. Greed and the desires for earthly possessions can very easily distract us from what God wants us to strive for. God knows our intentions as we tithe or give to others and He knows if it is done out of love or if we are just looking for a return on our investment.

We must always be on guard that the desire to live comfortably does not cross the line to greed, as it very easily can. It all comes down to where our desires are and where we put our efforts. Obviously many very good people work hard and become successful, but how they conduct business determines what their status is in God’s eyes. A person who is greedy or whose primary focus is on making money will not care how their actions affect those around them. They feel like their own importance trumps all others and will always make decisions based on their own desire to gain more. It all comes down to our attitude and the desires of our heart.

As stated above, money or possessions in itself is not bad and can often be a reward from God. Remember, God wants to reward us and give us blessings. These blessing may often be in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and self-control which we are told are the fruits of the Spirit, but it can also be in form of earthly comforts. It can also be a test from the Lord to see how we handle ourselves once earthly riches are bestowed upon us. When money and greed become the focus of the choices we make on a daily basis, that is when it becomes a sin. Greed and love of money is listed many times in the Bible as something the Lord calls sin. If the Lord has blessed you with earthly blessings, be thankful and understand it is from the Lord, even though you may have worked very hard. It comes down to your attitude and the focus of your life whether it is on love, humility and service to others or is it based on greed and the love of money.

About The Author:

Steve Childers is the author of Catholic or Protestant: What our Churches Should Be Teaching. Visit http://www.CatholicOrProtestant.com to register for FREE articles sent weekly. This book is the perfect guide for your Bible study topics as you seek the full truth of God’s Word.

Article Source: www.isnare.com

The Creativity of Spiritual Energy

2012-02-08T10:23:52Z

“Many people are now starting to experience a new energy filtering down through the density of mass consciousness. This energy stirs your spirit to find freedom of expression and amplifies the voice within the heart.” ~Doc Childre

There has been a huge increase in the past decade of people engaging in creative activities. Technology has generally been given credit for most--if not all--of it. Being able to make a short movie with a portable video camera and then posting in on youtube has turned thousands into amateur actors and directors, some good, some not. The same is true of singers. Writers and poets can post stories on web sites, blogs, or in ebooks. Almost anyone can publish there own ebook. But the availability of this technology does not totally explain why there is such an increase in the desire to be creative.

The other reason for it is that spiritual energy that is flowing from the Sun to the Earth and the rest of the solar system. That energy affects all of us, whether we want it to or not, and one of the effects is a desire to be more creative.

Why would spiritual energy make us more creative? It's because spirit is all about creation. It is the spiritual energy from God that created the spiritual universe and everything in it. It is that same spiritual energy that the fallen angels used to create the material universe, or material dimensions. Creating is one of the main functions of this energy, so as we receive more of it, we become more creative.

We also become more spiritual, but that seems to be a less passive result. While nearly everyone is starting to become more spiritual, even those who don't believe in such things, those who are actively trying to develop spiritually will get even more spiritual energy and get better results from the proper use of that energy, especially if they are being helped by a good spiritual teacher or spiritual school. It is something like dialing your radio to the right channel to get the music you want to listen to. If you simply have your radio randomly scanning all frequencies, you will occasionally hit the right one just by accident and, for a few seconds, hear what you want to hear, but then the scan will continue and the signal is lost. But if you lock the radio on the correct frequency, you will get what you want to hear all the time, or at least a lot more often and for longer periods of time. That is why it is important to make a real effort to develop spiritually rather than just waiting for it to happen.

And it prepares us to be an active part of God's Plan, a co-creator of the new world.

Fix Problems With Solution, not Blame

2012-02-07T10:23:13Z

“We are at the point the Cherokees call the hour of tsu du go ta nv, the place where we decide who is to sit at forefront of our lives to guide the way. The hardest part is to stop thinking dilemma and start thinking and talking solutions. There is no room in problem solving for self-pity, not even revenge.” ~Joyce Sequichie

Many years ago, when I was in the army stationed in Heidelburg, Germany, I put up a sign on our office door with the label “Scape Goat of the Day” and each day someone's name would go on it and, in theory, that person would be blamed for everything that went wrong that day. It was a joke, but it made a very real point. Every time something went wrong, instead of concentrating all our efforts on fixing the problem, some people, particularly officers/managers, went to great lengths to find out who caused the problem. Who made a coding error that caused a program to fail. Who set an option in the JCL (Job Control Language) that told the operator to erase a tape that still had needed data on it.

It makes sense that if the same person or persons are making mistakes often, that person needs to be talked to, given some remedial training, or fired, but the most important thing is to solve the problem. If it isn't, then it probably wasn't much of a problem to begin with, so not worth rushing to fix it or rushing to find someone to blame. And I'm sure that much the same thing happens in just about every type of business or endeavor.

The strangest one is when we berate ourselves for our shortcomings. It is true that it is important to take a look at ourselves regularly and try to understand why we did things we shouldn't have, or failed to do something that we should have, but not form the point of view of blame and telling ourselves we are no good, wee will never get it right, etc. Those thing simply become self-fulfilling instructions to our subconscious.

We examine ourselves, our actions, our thoughts, our motivations with the idea of planning how to improve in the future, not how to chastise ourselves for the past. The past is over, prepare for the future instead. Whether the issues be physical or spiritual, we should always be trying to improve for the future, and avoid being trapped by past mistakes.

The Importance of Self-Control

2012-02-06T10:17:23Z

“By Patience the animal spirits can be disciplined. By self-control one can unify the character. By close attention to the will, compelling gentleness, one can become like a little child. By purifying the subconscious one may be without fault.” ~Laotzu

Why is Laotzu (or Lao Tzu, I have seen it both ways) so concerned about the spirits of animals? Shouldn't he be more concerned with humans? Well, he is if you understand what he is saying.

When Laotzu talks here about animal spirits, he is not talking about the spirits inside cats, dogs, or even bears. He is talking about the animal spirit that is within all humans.

We have a duel nature. We have our material, physical, animal body with it's material brain and mind and animal spirit. We also have a non-material divine body, mind and spirit. We need to remember that when we say we are going to develop our spirit. Which one are we referring to? Hopefully, it is the divine spirit and divine soul that we are trying to develop.

Where it gets difficult is that the animal spirit and mind (ego) wants to dominate. By it's nature, it can't truly understand anything that is beyond the physical realm, so it tries to keep you from exploring that side of your reality and the reality of the universe.

So to develop your true spirit, your Divine Spirit and Soul, you need to have discipline. You need to have self-control. Obviously, the person who spends every night drinking and partying is not going to become enlightened spiritually, but it goes beyond that. Many people who want to develop their spiritual side and start to do so, end up quiting far short of the mark because material concerns pull them away. Their job is requiring them to work long hours. Their family situation is going through difficulties. Their health problems are interfering with them practicing spiritual techniques and disciplines. And it always will. If you let those material problems take you away from developing your spiritual side, you give them added strength and they will continue to pull you away until they win the tug-of-war and you give up completely any idea of spiritual development.

So as soon as you make the decision that you are ready to start the process of awakening your soul and becoming enlightened, you have to also make the decision to develop self-control over your more mundane concerns. Keep reminding yourself that your physical body is temporary, your job is temporary, your health problems are temporary, etc. Only your Divine Spirit and Soul are permanent, so don't loose them by letting your ego tell you to cling to the temporary.

Random Thoughts 2-5-2012

2012-02-05T11:09:00Z

In 1989, British Scientists said Mad Cow couldn't spread to humans so go ahead and eat your burger. Many listened and some died of Mad Cow disease. A group of Italian scientists is currently being sued for telling people not to worry about an earthquake in the area a few days before one happened in 2009. Now NASA scientists are telling us all the dire warnings about 2012 are complete nonsense and nothing unusual is going to happen. Go ahead and listen to them, if you wish.

It always amazes me how bigots and homophobes will talk about the Bible condemning homosexuality as a reason for them picketing against gay marriage, or gay rights in general. Why are they not picketing the butcher shop or super market for selling ham, shrimp, lobster and crabs which are also labeled “abomination” in the Bible? Why are they not protesting Walmart selling multi-colored clothing and makeup, also condemned in the Bible? It seems like they are rather selective in their protesting, perhaps because it has more to do with personal prejudice than what the Bible says.

I heard that teenagers and young adults are leaving Facebook for Twitter. This is not because of any changes Facebook has made, or is planning to make, but because their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and school teachers are on Facebook. This is generally considered bad for a business because these young folks are, they tell us, the ones with the most disposable income. The truth is, they are the ones most easily tricked into buying junk they don't need by slick advertising because they don't have enough experience to have a healthy skepticism regarding advertising.

My latest ebook is now available exclusively on Amazon. This volume contains posts from the fourth year of this blog.

“Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same. Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade, but do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy.” ~Rumi

I have compassion for all people, animals, plants and things because we are all part of The One.

Scripture: The Pali Canon AN 2

2012-02-05T10:28:37Z

When insight is developed, what benefit does one experience? Wisdom is developed.
When wisdom is developed, what benefit does one experience? All ignorance is abandoned.
A mind defiled by lust is not liberated; and wisdom defiled by ignorance is not developed.

I think this is very self-explanatory, but the most important point that many seem to miss is that insight or enlightenment must be developed, it must be worked at. It doesn't just happen. One other point: lust is not just about sex, it can be lust for any material pleasures, or just attachment to material objects.

Cleaning Out the Mental Cobwebs

2012-02-04T10:18:43Z

“What we know in our heads is not always workable until we get it down in our hearts. The heart is the very core of us—the spirit, the vital u li sgo li yv. Some call it the subconscious, the file room of our experiences and beliefs—the substance of who we are. Sometimes we file things in this inner-storage that are not to our benefit—fear for the most part. And fear is the subtle of the human spirit. But there are other things there as well, some of it information we neither remember nor even know we have recorder. Like old files, it needs to be cleaned out.” ~Joyce Sequechie

Every so often we have to clean out the refrigerator and get rid of those forgotten leftovers that are turning green and purple. Once or twice a year we clean out the closets and get rid of the clothes that no longer fit or have gone so far out of style that we don't dare to wear them anymore. We clean out the shed and the cupboard periodically. But when do we clean out our own subconscious? For most of us, the answer is never. Yet for nearly all of us there are things in there that are holding us back. Do you have a fear of spiders or snakes? Perhaps it's fire, or water that bothers you. Fear of flying? Fear of clowns? There are many different kinds of fears and many of them are called “phobias” because they are supposedly irrational. In most cases though, it isn't so much that they are irrational as it is that we don't know why we have these fears.

And fears are not the only problem. We also have beliefs in the subconscious that often limit out ability to deal with the actual reality of what is around us. Perhaps we were raised by people who were part of an irrational and fanatic religious group and that has left us with the belief that all religion is nonsense. Perhaps we grew up with very pragmatic people who drilled into us that nothing was real unless we had actual physical proof of it which prevents you from believing in anything spiritual because it is nearly impossible to prove the spiritual with the physical. Perhaps you were accidentally dropped down a flight of stairs when you were a baby which, luckily, caused no serious physical harm, but left you with an unexplainable fear of heights.

These fears, beliefs, and filters in your subconscious result in you having a very inaccurate view of the world around you. This is especially true of your view of anything spiritual. You can find dozens, if not hundreds, of very different descriptions of angels because people with different beliefs will force the image in their brain to conform to those beliefs.

In order to become fully enlightened, we have to be able to get around that and see things as they really are. Psychiatrists and psychologists make a lot of money helping people dig out these subconscious fears and beliefs and getting rid of them, but that isn't always necessary. Just as you don't really need to know what is clogging a drain in order to clean it out, you don't really need to know what false beliefs are in your subconscious. You simply have to replace them with more accurate ones. Even if you don't know why you fear flying, you can send images of yourself calmly enjoying a flight to your subconscious. Repeated enough times, that image will replace the old one. You can also practice opening up a somewhat closed mind by trying new things, going to new places, talking to people from other countries and from other faiths. Anything that helps to remove those filters is worth trying.

A Changing Universe

2012-02-03T10:23:16Z

“The physical, three-dimensional world we think of as reality id beginning to respond to an influx of high-frequency energy...The forth dimension, the next level of awareness that's just beyond you, is making itself known. Some say this is the result of distant cosmic events or a “plasma field” of cosmic energy passing through our part of the Milky Way. Whatever the cause, as the higher energy of this more spiritual dimension drops 'down' in frequency and begins to permeate your world, you stir and respond.” ~Penney Peirce

In Cosolargy, we would say that this spiritual energy is coming from the fifth dimension rather than the forth (the forth being the home of the fallen angels/demons), but otherwise agree. This change though may be effecting a lot more than our corner of the Milky Way, it may be operating on the entire material universe.

In any case, various methods of measuring the presence and frequencies of spiritual energy indicate that the overall frequency on Earth is rising and the amount of spiritual energy is increasing. This is good news to those seeking spiritual growth and enlightenment since the greater the spiritual energy available, the easier it is for each of us to increase our spiritual level and frequency.

As far as cosmic events go, there are some that have occurred which are considered signs that this change in the world is coming, but the only one that is really significant to us is the arrival of the Sun of Righteousness as prophesied by Malachi and others.

Many people find it strange to thing of the spirit of the sun as a source of spiritual enlightenment, and that is understandable. The sun really isn't the source, God is, but that spiritual energy is sent through the stars just as most physical energy comes from the stars, and Sol, better known to most of us simply as “the sun”, is the star closest to us and the transmitter of more than 90% of the energy on earth.

Some will argue that turning to the spiritual sun for spiritual energy is sun worship. That is simply not true. We get energy from the sun to power many things these days. Is that sun worship? Of course not. No one is saying the sun is God, only that the Light from God come to us through the sun or, more specifically, through the spiritual sun or the Sun of Righteousness. To refuse to accept that energy and use it makes about as much sense as sitting in a car that is out of gas and doing nothing about it when a fuel tanker truck full of gas is stopped behind you.

God has given us many tools to help us achieve enlightenment including crystals, incense, music, etc. But the most powerful is the Sun of Righteousness so, with the guidance of a good spiritual teacher, make use of that tool.

More on Matter & Spirit

2012-02-02T10:24:54Z

“Therefore not to desire the things of sense is to know the freedom of spirituality; and to desire is to learn the limitation of matter. These two things spirit and matter, so different in nature, have the same origin. This unity of origin is the mystery of mysteries, but it is the gateway to spirituality.” ~Laotzu

Sometimes people get the impression that spiritual teachers hate matter. It is understandable how they may come to that conclusion, but it is not true. Since matter is made from spirit, you cannot love spirit and hate matter. That just wouldn't make sense. That would be like saying, “I love my new pair of shoes! Except for the left one.” Or more precisely, it would be like saying, “I love my twin children—except for the sick one.” You wouldn't love one child more than the other because one is sick, the same is true with matter.

Matter is spirit, or at least was spirit, before the actions of the fallen angels altered it, slowed it down, made it denser and subject to such things as aging and gravity. This makes matter sick in a sense, but not evil. But, just as you would want to make that sick child well if you could, spiritual people want to make the sick spirit called matter well. We do not want to destroy it, we want to heal it. We want it to be healthy again so it will not spread it's sickness to others.

For that reason, we tell people to value spirit over matter and material possessions. Wanting material possessions is like embracing illness, asking cancer to come into our lives. When we cling to material things we prevent them from being cured and becoming spirit again. When we cling to matter, we prevent ourselves from becoming as fully spirit as we can be.

A SCUBA diver wears lead weights around her waist to help her easily sink into the water. That is fine if you want to sink, but if you want to float to the surface, those weights slow you down. The SCUBA diver will counter the effect of the weights by putting air into their flotation vest. But, in an emergency, they will also release the weight belt to make it easier to surface.

Clinging to matter keeps us at the bottom. When we are ready to rise to the surface, we need to release as much of the weight holding us down as we can and that means letting go of material possessions and materialistic attitudes. Only then can we rise all the way.

Know Who You Follow

2012-02-01T10:20:15Z

“Innocent people tend to fall in line behind a person with the magical quality of arousing devotion—even when they do not see the ultimate destination. They simply follow. Their glee in being in a parade make it seem to bystanders that they are left out if they do not follow too...How sad if we thought we were in the line to get freedom and discovered we were in the slavery line.” ~Joyce Sequichie

When I was a child, I often played games like Simon Says, Giant steps and Follow the Leader with friends. They are fun games to play as children, but usually not wise as an adult behavior. Not that is is wrong to have leaders to follow, but we have to be sure they are leading us where we want to go. And this is not just in the area of politics. We like to be led in religion, in business, even in having fun.

We join a health club and want a personal trainer to tell us what to do. There is nothing wrong with that provided that personal trainer is competent and qualified to provide such instruction to someone our age, our state of health, and our fitness level. Many of them are, but there are others who only know how to get high school jocks to do a great workout, but have no idea how to deal with an older person, or some one with a chronic illness that limits their physicality.

We blindly take advice from a “business leader” because he has a best selling book, and then find out that he is actually a Fundamentalist Christian preacher and his book sold well because everyone in his mega-church bought it, not because it actually provides good business advice (although it is possible that it does both).

We spent $399 on a sure plan to get rich in real estate speculation that has us buying up houses and Miami condos just before the real estate bubble popped.

We buy expensive genetically engineered seeds and plant hundreds of acres of crops with them, then find out before the crops come in that the country that usually buys most of our yield has banned genetically engineered food (and rightly so!).

So who can we listen to? What leaders can we follow?

First, learn to develop and trust your instinct and you are less likely to get talked into following a phony, or following a line of human lemmings off a cliff. Second, start listening to God and His angels. They may not care about providing you with financial advice or the winning lottery numbers, but they will help guide your spiritual life in the right direction.

Humans & Aliens

2012-01-31T10:25:46Z

I was watching the goofy, but entertaining movie Cowboys & Aliens and I started to wonder what would aliens think of us if they had visited our planet during the wild west period and in that part of the country.

Many books have been written and many movies made about aliens visiting earth and what we would thing of them. In some, aliens are assumed, usually incorrectly, to be violent and dangerous and here to conquer us or kill us. In others, we Earthlings are depicted as stupid people who assume, to our ultimate regret, that the aliens are nice, friendly folk come to cure cancer and end poverty. It all makes for great entertainment, whether realistic or not. What I haven't seen though is a book or movie devoted to the impression we give aliens about Earth and it's people.

If aliens had visited us during the wild west period, there impression of us would have been of a primitive and barbaric people who can't resist fighting with each other and killing each other. Suppose those aliens gave us the benefit of the doubt and decided to come back at a later time to see if things had improved. So they return during WWI when pretty much all of the people in the “civilized” parts of the world are engaged in trying to kill each other. The aliens leave vowing to return again at a future time. They return during WWII and we are at it again. So what impression do they have of Earthlings now?

But what if they didn't visit during those times. What if they came between major wars, would the results have been different, the impression we made any better? Probably not. In the past 150 years or so there has hardly been a day when a war wasn't going on somewhere in the world. Besides the wars, we have criminals preying on others, teenagers attacking, sometimes even killing, other teens to get there jackets or shoes. Shoes and jackets that are not one-of-a-kind, but can be purchased as the stores by anyone willing to earn them with work. We have drug pushers willing to kill people by the hundreds for profit, even if those people are their customers, and now they are joined by the big corporations selling cigarettes and genetically modified crops that have not been proven safe.

No, I don't thing the aliens, if there really were such things, would get a great impression of the people of Earth. And would they decide to exterminate us, as almost happened in the classic science fiction movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, or would they figure if they just leave us alone a while longer, we will do it to ourselves? And if they come back twenty years from now, will they find that we have finally succeeded in our continuing efforts to destroy ourselves?

And now for the real question: do you think God and His angels are getting a better impression of us than those aliens? I don't see much reason to think that they are. But with Judgment Day staring us in the face, we have very little time left to correct that impression.

Focusing and Concentrating

2012-01-30T10:19:25Z

Learning to concentrate on what we're doing and focusing on what we are looking at is something we are taught to do from a very early age. This narrow focusing is considered a good thing, and few people question it. Now look at the following video BEFORE reading any more of this article. Do not cheat and look ahead.

If you followed the instruction, here and in the video, there is a good chance that you never saw the gorilla. If so, then you probably watched the video again and you can't understand how you missed it the first time. If you did see the gorilla the first time, you probably pay better attention to your surrounding than most (or you are familiar with these tricks and were expecting something).

So what is the point? The point is that, as the old saying goes, we miss the forest for the trees. By that I mean that when we concentrate on one thing and focus very strongly on one thing in our vision, we often miss other things that are happening around it. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual things.

The spiritual world is not always entirely invisible, entirely hidden, as many believe. We may not be able to look directly at it like we look at material things, but it is possible to see some of it, or at least some of it's effects that are not yet material. A good example is those people who can see auras (or energy bodies, if you prefer). It doesn't work for everyone, but if you want to see auras, you can't focus your eyes on the material object. That is how you block out everything else. Instead, look toward the person, dog, tree, or whatever life form you are trying to view, but do not focus your eyes on them. Let your vision become unfocused, and look around the edges. You may not see colors as some psychics do, but you will probably be able to see a kind of field around the life form. It will probably be clear, but somehow lighter than the surrounding area. You can even do this with supposedly non-living things like airplanes or cars. I've noticed, for example, that both airplanes and birds in flight seem to be surrounded by an egg-shaped field.

Whether it be physical or spiritual though, the fact is we miss many things when we insist on constantly concentrating and focusing on one thing. Don't focus when you don't need to. Relax your eyes and let them become unfocused. Not only will you start noticing things you didn't see before, you will also be relieving eye strain by doing this.

Random Thoughts 1-29-2012

2012-01-29T11:10:00Z

An interesting fact that upsets a lot of skeptics: the percentage of people with a high school diploma or college education who believe that at least some people have psychic abilities is higher than the percent with a less than high school education. The skeptics wished to believe that it was ignorant and uneducated people who believed in such nonsense, but the survey found otherwise. The survey also found that the percent who believe in psychic phenomena is increasing each year.

Politics, advertising and crime: the only fields I can think of where the biggest liars get the best jobs.

A recent study found that fried foods may not be quite as bad as some thought. The study found that people in Spain who ate fried foods were, on average, not fatter or less healthy than those who didn't. Some though were quick to point out, and rightfully so, that there is a big difference between a Mediterranean meal of fish fried in olive oil served with a fresh salad and a meal of French fries, cheese burger, and a fried twinky.

A Harvard Business Review article advises companies to move their best workers onto the most boring jobs. Then, the theory is, they will make those boring jobs better somehow. This is the kind of wacky nonsense that has resulted in the messed up corporate environment we have today. Don't reward the best workers by giving them the most challenging and interesting work, give them the boring stuff so they will loose interest and either leave the company or become as mediocre as the other workers.

I read that Julian Assange, the well known founder of wikileaks, is getting his own show on Russian television. A reward, I guess, for the great job he has done of revealing U. S. and other western countries secrets to Russia, China and Iran helping them immensely.

“Hear from the heart wordless mysteries!
Understand what cannot be understood!
In man's stone-dark heart there burns a fire
That burns all veils to their root and foundation.
When the veils are burned away, the heart will understand completely.” ~Rumi

Scripture: Isaiah 30:26

2012-01-29T10:35:36Z

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the of the sun and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stoke of their wound.

Isaiah is talking about the same thing as Malachi: The Sun of Righteousness which will come in the end times (Now!) to destroy evil and return Light to this world.

Natural Healing: Oregon Grape

2012-01-28T10:24:13Z

Wild Oregon Grape is a herb that was not used that often in the recent past, but is getting used more these days because it makes a good substitute for the related herb Goldenseal, which is becoming rare. Both plants contain berberine which fights infections from bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Oregon Grape was popular in Europe as a blood purifier. It is said to improve liver function and aid many liver problems including jaundice and hepatitis. It is also used for skin problems including eczema and psoriasis. Because it stimulates bile flow, it helps regulate the bowels and prevent some types of constipation. It helps prevent gallbladder problems and hemorrhoids.

Oregon grape is antibiotic and some studies indicate it is useful in treating some cancers. It protects the bone marrow from damage during chemotherapy. It fights many microbes including giardia, candida, and cholera. It also fights viral diarrhea. It reduces headaches caused by liver or digestive problems. It is used to eliminate intestinal parasites. It can be used to treat eye infections.

Oregon grape also contains tannins which fight itching, inflammation and irritation of the skin and digestive tract. It fights sore throat and sinus infections also. It can treat stomach problems such as ulcers and heartburn and kidney problems. It helps treat syphilis and herpes. It aids in lowering blood pressure.

WARNINGS: Not recommended for pregnant woman or people who have major bowel problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Excessive use or very high doses can cause diarrhea and stupor or dizziness. It should not be used for periods longer than two weeks.

A Place of Serenity

2012-01-27T10:26:06Z

“Few sounds in nature are harsh. Even the rolling thunder that rumbles across the sky has solemn beauty. The wind makes whistles in the treetops and wild birds warble like rivulets of water that makes harps among the shallows. The frenzied crash and blare comes from man...If the bird wants a tranquil place—how much more we need it.” ~Joyce Sequichie

We all need a place of serenity, probably more than one. One place of serenity should be a location in our house or apartment we can go to get away from disturbances as much as possible. A room, or just a corner of our room where none of the things that disturb us or cause stress are allowed.

Another should be an outdoor location. A quiet bench in a garden. A small clearing in a forest. A quiet corner in a park.

And the final place of serenity is internal. We can learn, with practice and guidance, to create a place within ourselves where there is no thought of our jobs, no worries about paying bills, no concerns about our health, etc. If you have ever listened to a hypnotic tape, you probably have an idea of what is needed. In these hypnosis CDs or Apps, you will often be told to visualize yourself in a quiet place, a peaceful place, a place that makes you feel very relaxed. It could be an imaginary place, but is more likely to be a real place, or at least as real as you remember it, that you may have visited, gone to on vacation, or lived in as a child. In my case, when I am told in a hypnosis tape to go to my relaxing place, I visualize myself back on the island in the Bahamas that is now called “Blue Lagoon” after the movie made there. I see myself laying on one of the hammocks off to the side of the beach, surrounded by palm trees and listening to the waves hitting the shore and the birds chirping or a steel drum group playing in the background.

Whatever your serenity places are, go to one of them when you are feeling stressed out, angry, negative, or overwhelmed with your problems. Take a few deep breaths, and let yourself relax. The benefits will be many. You will have better physical and mental health. You will thing more clearly. And you will allow your intuition to work and send you solutions to your problems.

Doors of Perception (by Cherokee Billie)

2012-01-26T10:20:36Z

Here is another Guest Author article by Cherokee Billie.

Doors of Perception

By: Cherokee Billie

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.” William Blake from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”

"There are things known, and there are things unknown and in between are the doors" William Blake. 1757-1827

“The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one’s own ignorance concerning one’s self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one’s self.” Aldous Huxley 1894-1963

There are many doors in our minds and we’re continually opening and closing them. If you are emotionally hurt in a love relationship you can close the door to love and block love from coming into your life from any source. The same is to be said if you live from of standpoint of opening yourself to all positive possibilities, you will receive back the same.

I have been greatly influenced in my life by the poetry of Jim Morrison. Many of you may remember him from being in the rock group The Doors. They took their name from the previous quotation by William Blake and from the teaching of Aldous Huxley, “The Doors of Perception.” There was far more to Jim Morrison then just being a rock superstar. Let me show you what I mean.

At a young age he was exposed to shamanism and throughout his life realized he was a spiritual teacher. To many he did not come across as such, but when you read his writings and study his life you realize this man saw spiritual truths and tried to convey them through his music, poetry, and performance.

According to Jim Morrison, one of the most important events of his life occurred when he was a child in 1949, during a family road trip in New Mexico, when he and his parents and grandmother came across the scene of an accident in the desert. Jim realized the Native Americans were bleeding to death and was afraid. He came to believe that the souls of the newly-dead Indians were running around, "freaked out," and that one had leaped into him. This experience greatly influenced the content of his songs, poems, and interviews.

As Jim Morrison said of poetry:
"Real poetry doesn't say anything, it just ticks off the possibilities... opens all doors you can walk through any one that suits you. If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel."

Greatness was thrust upon him at an early age; he was a superstar by 22. Despite this he never had the trappings of the newly rich. He never owned a car or a house. He lived in $10.00 a night motel rooms and only owned a few clothes and books. He lived a simplistic lifestyle, because it was enough being a superstar. The other members of The Doors at this time all had homes and cars.

The pressures of being a rock star was overwhelming for Jim Morrison and ultimately he used excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs to kill the pain of not living the life he really wanted, which was to be a simple poet. He died at the age of 27 in 1971.

Sometimes we get trapped by our life and don’t know how to undo the web’s that surround us.

I have learned to open all doors presented to me and walk through any one that I feel led to. This has taken me to places I never would have dreamed of when I was a child. I call this true faith. I do not live my life in a constant state of fear. I trust that no matter what I will be taken care of. And I have jumped off of many cliffs, figuratively, and have always been able to build my wings as I go down and I have never hit bottom.

Opening up the doors of your perception can often be scary. Society does not teach us to think outside of the box. We’re supposed to follow the normal and not step outside of that boundary. The people who achieve greatness in this world are the ones who dare to live life to its fullest.

We truly are infinite and our body is only the house for our soul. When you can truly accept this you will not be afraid of anything and you will be able to live a happier existence and not be pressured by friends, family, society, or the media. Open the Doors of Your Mind! Break on Through to the Other Side!

About The Author:

Psychic Cherokee Billie has been working as a Clairvoyant advisor for over 25 years. She receives messages that will change your life! She helps her clients to connect with their Soul's Path, bringing peace and joy into their daily lives.

Fast - Straightforward Answers and the Plain Truth! http://www.cherokeebillie.com

Article Source: www.isnare.com

Village Pudding

2012-01-25T10:50:09Z

A woman who lived in a small village received an unusual gift. A distant relative sent her a very large cooking pot. The relative said it came from a foreign land and was jokingly called a cannibal pot, but was really used for cooking rice for great festivals. Why the relative would send her such an odd thing the woman didn't know, but she felt she should try to make some use of it. When her next door neighbor and best friend came over for coffee, she showed her the pot, and they both laughed over it, but agreed that they shouldn't let it go to waste (in a village, noting is allowed to go to waste). They then got to discussing pudding recipes as they had their coffee and both seemed to hit on the same idea at the same time: why not use the pot to make a great pudding. Of course, there would be way too much pudding for just the two families, so the ladies decided they would have to get others involved. They each talked to some friends and soon had a total of seven who would help to make the great pudding that would be shared by the entire village. Agnes and her husband would supply some of their eggs from their prize-winning hens. Jane and Harvey would supply milk since all agreed that their cows produced the best. Sally Ann and her husband Joe would provide spices from her collection known to be the finest in town. All the other ladies pledged ingredients for which they were renowned, or at least well qualified to supply.

So the day came and the pot was set up in the center of the village and a fire built under it. The ladies, and even some men added their ingredients. Others in the village came out to see what was going on and, when they found out, many ran home to get additional ingredients to add. Soon, nearly all the people of the village waited as the pudding finished cooking, then cooled. Then the pudding was served, with a bit of apprehension as no one was sure exactly what was in it. There was some concern that too many cooks had spoiled it, but that was not the case at all. Everyone agreed that is was the finest pudding they had ever had.

This tale is an interesting fable, but it is really not far at all from the way villages did function at one time, and can again if the human race has any chance of survival. When people lived in small villages, they had to rely on one another to meet basic needs. The farmer did his best to produce good vegetables because he knew he was feeding friends and relatives, not customers he was trying to make a buck from. The tailor did his best to make good clothes for the same reason. The cobbler made good shoes because he wanted his children and his friends and their children to have comfortable footwear that would last. In short, the people of the village each contributed as best as he or she could to the well being of the village and, in doing so, contributed to their own well being better than if they greedily tried to provide inferior products or services for maximum profits, but at a cost to the village as a whole. And when someone in the village ran into problems, you didn't descend on them like a flock of vultures to buy their house and car and clothes at a big discount, you did what you could to help them out.

As some villages became cities, that concept changed. No longer were the customers your neighbors and friends, most were strangers, and greed soon took over. In time, it spread from the cities into the smaller towns and villages because people living in the small towns often bought things from the factories of the cities instead of from their neighbors.

The time has come for us to again live like those villages. We may not know everyone we deal with in person, but we have to start treating them as if they are our brothers, our sisters, our friends, because the age of materialism is ending, thank God.

Trust Your Visions and Insights

2012-01-24T10:26:14Z

“Vision doesn't usually come as a lightning bolt. Rather it comes as a slow crystallization of life challenges that we one day recognize as a beautiful diamond with great value to ourselves and others.” ~Dr. Michael Norwood

Many people are unwilling to trust their intuition, their dreams, their “gut feelings” when it comes to making a decision. “It is so unscientific.”, “It is unproven.”, are just some of the reasons they give. Even worse, when you refuse for a period of time to pay attention to dreams, visions, or other sources of information beyond the physical world, you will get those insights less and less until they don't happen at all.

Sometimes, people reject these visions and gut feelings because they conflict with what they want to do, or with what the scientific evidence tells them to do. And, lets be honest, sometimes we reject those intuitive suggestions because they frighten us. When those visions or insights suggest that we should leave our well-paying job and go to another company or that we should give up the profession we have worked in and trained in for decades, and do something new, it is frightening, and we resist. But there is plenty of evidence that listening to dreams, visions, gut feelings, and other forms of psychic insight can in fact lead us on the correct path, even when we don't really know what that path is.

Thomas Edison was well known for his use of naps to solve problems. When a particular problem seemed unsolvable, he would leave the lab, take a nap, and often wake up with a solution in his head. He didn't reject those spooky solutions that came to him while napping, he embraced them and they were of great help to him. George Washington was another great person who was sometimes guided by dreams or psychic visions. There are many others.

In my own personal case, twelve or thirteen years ago the project I was working on was shrinking and I was one of many told to find a new project within the company to go work for. My intuition though told me that, after being there for seventeen years, it was time to leave the company and get a job somewhere else, which I did. I listened to my psychic insight. Less than a year later, the company I was working for got bought out and many people were laid off and were scrambling to find new jobs (a few that I knew called me and asked me to put in a good word for them with my current employer, that's why I know about it). A little over a year ago, something similar happened with my project at the new company and, once again I was told, along with many others, to find a new project to go to. But due to the economy, and particularly to cutbacks in government spending, the number of people looking for new positions in the company far exceeded the available openings. And being over 60 years old, and having skills that some considered outdated (although I had continued to attend classes and learn the new stuff), it became clear that I wasn't going to find a new job soon, so I retired. The good thing is, if I had stayed with that company I had worked for for seventeen years, and had been pushed into a similar early retirement, I would have been much worse off because that company had no pension plan, just a 401k, while the new company that I worked for for eleven years had both. That is just one example, probably the biggest one, of how I have used intuition or insight to help me make good decisions.

Of course, the most important thing, as I emphasize frequently, is the development of our spirit and soul. When I looked at the advertisements in a magazine for spiritual schools and spiritual development programs, one grabbed my eye, I don't know why, but it did, and that is now the spiritual school I belong too, the one that is prepared to lead us into the new Age of Enlightenment.

So don't reject your dreams, visions, and gut feelings. They can lead you to something better.