“What the world could use most right now is a DIRECT challenge to its current beliefs.”

That’s from Conversations With God, Book 3 by Neale Donald Walsch.

This statement couldn’t be more true.

But instead of writing about all the areas where our world needs help, today, I want to get much smaller.

You. Me.

I’ve wrote about this before. But it’s such an important part of my life, that I felt compelled to share again. So let’s rephrase the initial sentence…

What you could use most right now is a DIRECT challenge to your current beliefs.

Now of course, this (correctly) assumes that you’re interested in becoming better tomorrow than you are today.

But I think what is most difficult for many of us—I know this was the case for me—is that you know you want to be better than you were before, but you’re not sure how you want to be better. And you’re not sure what to do to get there.

One of the major milestones I overcame that set me on this journey was beginning to work with a life coach. One of my best friends had been pushing me to speak to one for a while. Not because I had “issues” like we typically define them.

But because my friend knew that “I could learn things that I never knew I even had a question about.”

What it boiled down to, was that I knew I wanted to be better. But at the same time, I didn’t want to change who I was, because I thought I was pretty damn awesome as it was.

I was, of course

But really it was fear holding me back. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Fear of opening up my thick walls to let anything in, worrying that something bad might sneak in as well.

Fear…is what kept me stuck in my current beliefs.

Looking back, though, I am a totally different person that when I started this part of the journey almost 2 years ago. And there was exactly one thing I did to break down all that was holding me back.

I systematically took each one of my beliefs. I pushed it to the front of my mind. And I forced myself to open my protective doors to the world. I let the light in.

Imagine the scene. I’m sure you’ve seen something like it in the movies. The young (in maturity) man has been stuck in his own darkness for a long time. He’s afraid of what’s on the outside; he’s afraid it could potentially, maybe, have a small possibility that it might hurt him.

But finally, he builds up the courage to approach the massive front door. He hasn’t touched that door in longer than he can remember.

He reaches the door. He looks back, unsure of whether he’s making the right decision. I don’t even know what’s on the outside!!

But finally, he pushes. The first bit of Sun shoots through the open crack, nearly blinding the young man. He holds one hand up to cover his eyes, and continues to push.

Finally, the door is open. He looks down, letting his eyes adjust. And as he slowly lifts his gaze, he immediately realizes. Outside is…

BEAUTIFUL.

He never knew!

So what is this an analogy for? CHALLENGE your current beliefs. Directly!

Pretend that each of your beliefs about the world in that young man. Force them to the front door. And force yourself to push open the walls you’ve constructed over the years.

Almost always, what’s outside the walls will be absolutely beautiful. And the worst possible scenario, is that what’s on the other side isn’t that great. But this is a good thing too. Because it gives you the chance to finally DEAL WITH IT.

I wish you the best in this journey. And I’d love to hear how you’ll be “shedding the light” onto yourself!

Love & Light,
Matt

P.S. A good way to tell if you have a belief that must be directly challenged is if….whenever you think about this subject, you notice yourself getting emotionally charged, positively or negatively. If there’s emotion, then shed some light on it!!

There are so many words or phrases that we say on a regular basis without even thinking about the meaning behind them. We say these words automatically. Like a robot or computer outputs certain sounds or visuals when commanded, certain things come out of our mouths and we don’t even consider their real meaning. One of these phrases:

Thank you.

What does this phrase even mean anymore? It’s so overused, and especially so unconsciously used, that it’s essentially meaningless.

So let’s consider this for a moment. And let’s consider it with the knowledge and wisdom that we’ve gained over the last several months of writing and reading together.

One thing that I talk about a lot is Oneness. Interconnectedness. We are all One.

Let’s consider Thank You from this perspective.

When you say Thank You to someone sincerely, they’ve done something that has caused you to feel better than you did a moment before. I know that’s quite general, but let’s just use that definition for now.

They say or do something that makes you feel good, and so you reply Thank You.

But as we’ve learned, the world is our mirror. So what really happened is that you learned something about yourself that has shown you a way to be a better version of yourself; a more idealized version of you.

So who are you really thanking? That person? Your Self? Or even higher; Source?

Maybe you’re simply showing appreciation for the way our world has been created; for the Truths that govern our world.

Actually…

When you are thankful for something, it has already been experienced in physical reality. But what we often don’t acknowledge, is that prior to to this present experience, we have been creating that experience in the past. We have been sending out energy-thoughts into the universe.

After we’ve sent out enough of these similar energy-thoughts, and these thoughts have begun to stick together, they become dense and manifest into matter, which then becomes the physical experience.

And when this happens, we are thankful. We are thankful to Source, to the Universe, to God, to whatever higher creative power you believe in, because in that moment, we understand that our creative thoughts have come to fruition.

We’re so happy that we’re able to do this, and so we thank Source for this gift of creative free will.

Wow!

So what does Thank You mean?

It means that we have just created reality. This is such a beautiful gift; such a beautiful power we have, that we can only know appreciation for it.

So say Thank You to another not for what they did, but because they simply were the means for your creative end. The You in Thank You is really meant for YOU ALL. It is meant for All.

Love & Light,
Matt

The Law of Attraction & Animal Suffering

In Ask and It Is Given, there is a passage discussing how it is that babies are capable of suffering, since they are technically free of negative thought:

“They (the little ones) have been exposed to vibrations that disallow the Well-Being that would have been there otherwise.”

So we could infer that animals, being pure of mind and heart but emotionally vulnerable, absorb the ill intent of the humans who use and abuse them. This is a bit of a mind bender, because although animals are not necessarily capable of complex logic, they are powerful in their ability to maintain a sort of emotional buoyancy. But apparently this is not strong enough to prevent them from being held captive, mutilated, slaughtered… I have always considered the animal consciousness to be an extension of human consciousness, and therefore the collective animal spirit allows the human will to act through them. In extension of this, one could propose the theory that, as it is human consciousness that essentially guides animal consciousness, if humanity would evolve to non-violence, these changes could in time transfer to the animal kingdom. If human nature is only human habit, then animal nature is only animal habit.

These animals are being used to test your toothpaste. Please do not buy Crest or Colgate toothpaste. Help a bunny out.

Need more rabbit empathy?

And for any suffering animals reading, the book also states:

“A sensation of pain is a wonderful indicator that help is on the way.”

The sensation of pain calls for a cellular request of healing energy.

*****

Can Those Who Cause Harm Be Enlightened?

The book says quite clearly:

“No one connected to Source Energy would ever cause harm to another.”

Now, in our current society “harm” has become convoluted. We shop at big box stores for things we need to survive that capitalize on sweat shop workers without understanding if  people in developing countries essentially suffer more or benefit more from having these jobs. And most of us are raised in families that consume animal products and are not able to put together the full story of what we are eating until we can build enough courage and curiosity to find out (at which point we are often hooked on the foods that have made us feel comfortable in the past). I know several individuals who define themselves as conscious, who go to India and meditate and volunteer and endlessly question and work on themselves without facing the violence of their dietary impact. But the truth is: no one connected to Source Energy would ever cause harm to another. (Being – animal or human, directly or indirectly.)

“They lash out in their defensiveness, or in their disconnectedness, but never in their state of connection.”

And you can substitute “lash out” for deceive, take advantage of, act blindly…

While the Law of Attraction does teach a certain selfishness – placing one’s own desires above the desires of anyone else, it strongly insinuates that one’s true desire in its purest form causes no harm to another. Therefore those who enslave people and animals are acting in discord with their ultimate source of energy and only sustaining these oppressive systems with great effort, and because their disconnected thoughts have spread among humanity like a contagious disease.

Howevs….

As we are the creators of our own destiny, we are not bound to these hurtful decisions made by others (eg. Harper’s strange attachment to the Commercial Seal Hunt, Procter & Gamble’s sick twisted animal mutilation in the name of “science”). We do not have to torture ourselves with these “realities” (as I have spent a lot of time doing in the past), because these realities are only paths chosen by others. We need not include them in our reality. This is NOT to say that we must plug our ears, it is to say that we must acknowledge these happenings only to the level that we realize they are strongly unwanted, and then we must create alternatives. We must focus on the ways that we would like these violent patterns to change.

I have spent a lot of time living in a world that I can only describe as hell, as it has seemed unbearable to live somewhere in which, while I am slipping into various states of having fun, animals of all species (including humans) are being harmed. But the more that we focus on these atrocities the more we are calling them into being, when we do have the choice for complete animal (including human) liberation.

“All those statistics that are gathered about your own experiences and about others – are only about how somebody has already flowed Energy. They are not about the hard-and-fast now reality.”

When you find a thought that provides some relief from whatever negative state you have entered, you have regained creative control of your own experience.

1) Ask

2) Answer the Asking (you can skip this step because it is not your responsibility but that of the Universe/Source)

3) Allow (prepare yourself to receive what you are asking for)

It’s the 3rd step that trips people up. Often we do get what we ask for, but are not ready or willing to receive it.

Well get ready!

Don’t you hate free-riders?

You know, those people that always get to share in the benefits, but really don’t contribute anything.

Remember in school, there was always some guy in the group where you were better off just doing his work because he actually negatively contributed. But he’d still get the good grade.

Maybe that happens in your work, too.

I’ve heard this argument plenty of time for welfare programs like food stamps or Section 8 housing. These people think they’re entitled to government payments. But they don’t contribute anything to society. In fact, that make things worse!

Well I’m writing today to tell you that you’re wrong about this.

We NEED them. We couldn’t live without these people. In fact, WE create them.

Let me explain.

I’ve written many times about relativity and contrast. The same applies to this.

Because they feel entitled without contributing; You feel entitled for contributing.

You see the contrast? If they didn’t feel entitled without contributing, there would be no such thing as feeling entitled for contributing. And vice versa.

If you didn’t feel entitled for contributing, they wouldn’t feel entitled without contributing.

Now of course, this wouldn’t work if just one of us changed our thought-pattern about this. But if we collectively did? I think you know that answer.

But of course, we think, “Well duh! If I do work, I’m entitled to some sort of compensation!”

When we create, sacrifice, contribute, or whatever, we for some reason think we deserve a reward.

This expectation, is in fact, the source of the problem.

We must stop creating in order to achieve a result; and start creating simply for the joy of creating. Simply for the experience of creation.

Is that hard to do? Only as hard as you decide to make it. The pattern can be broken in thought, feeling, or action; your choice. Start anywhere you desire.

The “goal” is to become a creator. When you become a creator, you create, simply because that is what you like to do.

When you start doing whatever it is that you do simply because you get pleasure from doing it; instead of because you want some sort of compensation—whether it be money, recognition, or whatever—only then, will these free-riders disappear.

Maybe not literally. But they will no longer be a concern of yours; they won’t enter your life, and they won’t enter your mind.

Problem solved!

Love & Light,

Matt

I had an interesting realization recently. And it has to do with our lives, and the struggles and problems that seemingly constantly unfold.

Imagine for a moment.

What would it be like, if all your problems were solved? No struggles. No issues.

How would you feel?

Probably pretty relieved initially. But would you quickly become bored?

Think about what you do on a daily basis. How much of what you do is just taking care of issues or problems that have come up? How much of what you do is just struggling through some meaningless task? Why do you even bother? To get paid a little, or a lot, of money? Is it really worth it?

What if that was all gone? Instantly. And forever.

Instantly, and forever, you stopped gossiping about your friends. And they did the same to you. You didn’t have to struggle with “working” for money; you were paid handsomely to do that which you loved, even if that’s sipping tropical drinks on a Caribbean beach. Your kids stopped needing constant help; they learned to raise themselves and they would turn out perfectly. There were no longer charities to support, everyone and everything in the world was perfect.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO!?!?

I believe that all of our problems are created by us to give ourselves something to do. All of them! The little personal problems that we don’t want to bother anyone else with. The bigger, societal problems, like health care, that seemingly never get better even though the solution seems so simple. The even bigger, humanitarian problems—environmental issues, oppression, religious conflict, war—that seem like they could never possibly be solved.

We create all of these, simply so that we have something to do. Simply so we have something to think about about. Simply to keep our minds occupied.

So why? Why would we wish these awful things against ourselves. How could we possibly want to be hit by a truck and paralyzed? Or face the potential of a nuclear war? Or be destroyed by a natural disaster?

Good question. I’m not quite sure.

But I think it has something to do with not believing in ourselves. We don’t believe we can be as powerful and as amazing as part of our imagination tells us, so we create things to prove ourselves right.

We say, “there’s no way I could heal someone with my Love,” and just to prove ourselves right, we create that exact reality.

We say, “how could there possibly be constantly beautiful weather without storms or natural disasters in every part of the world?” And then just so that we’re right, we create that reality.

We think, “there’s no way that everyone could unconditionally Love me, or that I could unconditionally Love everyone else!” And then just so that we’re right, we attract these destructive relationships.

So maybe the reason is that we someone prefer being “right” to being Awesome, Powerful, Loving, Creative, Perfect.

Perhaps we doubt perfection can exist, and so create ways to make that truth.

Perhaps it all boils down to faith. To belief.

Do you believe you are perfect? Do you believe you can be?

I argue that none of us truly do. And so we live totally imperfect lives.

Let’s change this. Starting today!

Love & Light,

Matt

Today, I want to talk about responsibility. And specifically, responsibility for the results of your Life.

I’ve mentioned before that the way our life is today, is a result of our priorities. One of the priorities that many of us have unconsciously made is that we would prefer to shift the responsibility of what happens in our life from ourselves, to someone, or something else.

Let’s talk about God, or as I call it, Source.

We all know that there are many religions that explain God in different ways. However, one of the things that unites all these religions is that their God is external. God is a separate being from Man.

I believe otherwise. I believe God is within us. And not only that, I believe that God is us.

That’s right! I AM God. You ARE God. Everything that is, everything that was, everything that ever will be is God.

For now, let’s skip the details of what this means. But what are the implications of this belief?

For starters, responsibility. Not only does this mean that everything you’ve done, everything you do, and everything you ever will do is your responsibility. But it also means that everything going on in the world today is partly attributable to you and how you live your life.

After all, the logic would follow that if you are God, then you created the world to be exactly how it is today.

Wow. That’s big.

What many of us do, however, including myself, is that we shift responsibility for our personal lives, and especially for the lives and circumstances of the rest of the world, onto someone or something else.

If we’re religious, and we believe in an external God, when something good happens, we thank God. When something bad happens, we wonder why. Why do we deserve this?

If we understood that we are God, then we would instead say, “I’m thankful I was able to create this great experience,” or “Why did I choose to experience pain and misfortune?”

If we understood that we are God, when a devastating event happened, we would look within in and ask, “How and why did I attract this to my life? What do I need to learn?”

Not, “How could we be treated this way? How did they let this happen? Please never let it happen again.”

Do you see the difference? Do you see the shift in responsibility?

If we’re not religious, we may believe our lives are controlled by some power that is greater than us. Perhaps an authority figure, such as the President. Or perhaps we believe we’re at the whim of Mother Nature. Or maybe our parents, or spouses, or our children control everything that we do.

When something good happens, we often take credit ourselves. But when something bad happens, the blame and responsibility is pushed somewhere else outside ourselves.

• “This President does nothing right; he’s single-handedly ruining this country.”
• “There’s no way my business can succeed with the Mayor raising taxes like this.”
• “It’s my parents fault I’m spoiled; they raised me that way. That’s why I waste my money on things I don’t need.”
• “If my wife wouldn’t make me be home by 6:00 to help with dinner, I’d be able to go to the gym and get back in shape.”
• “If my kids learned to do their homework by themselves, I’d have more time to start that side business I’ve always wanted.”

In all these cases, the responsibility has been shifted externally. We’ve put our Life in the hands of others.

Well it’s time to take back control. Start acknowledging that all the goods things in your life are directly attributable to you. And even more difficult, start admitting that all the bad things in your life are your fault, and only your fault. Even if it seems there’s no way you can do anything about it, assume that you can.

Instead of saying, “There’s no way I can fix this,” think, “How can I fix this?”

This will take much practice. After you get this handled, we can move to bigger things. Such as wars, political unrest, socio-economic-cultural oppression, natural disasters, and others. We can start acknowledging that we really can fix these things.

The first step is taking responsibility.

Love & Light,

Matt

This is the 3rd book in a second series about the buzzword topic  - the law of attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks.  Esther had been writing this type of information since 1986 and I learned about them in 2004. Everyone else learned about it when “the Secret” came out.

Just like I did with the earlier books, I played the CD version while following along in the book version. I don’t know if this is just a longing for someone to read to me, but I love doing it. I seem to get more out of the books and my mind stays focused on the material. The CD version was 8 CDs, each about an hour and a half long.

The book’s subtitle is “Where the Laws of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships”. The main idea of the book is that there are flawed premises most people believe in that hinder getting what they want out of life. A few examples are “If I leave an unwanted situation, I will find what I am looking for “, “To be in harmony with others, we have to believe and want the same things”, and “If I push hard again something long enough, it will go away.” They don’t read very in-depth out of context, but within the book, everything seems so profound.

I’ve read other reviews about this book that say it’s just the same thing they said in their previous books. To me, it was all brand new and brought so much clarity to what the other books where saying. Initially I was the least excited about this book coming out because I didn’t really have relationship issues, but of course, this book was the most meaningful to me. It is the ultimate book to tie all the ideas from Esther’s other books together. I really feel like I’m starting to “get” what it’s all about.

In essence the book states that when we encounter something that makes us feel negatively, we create its equal, happier counterpart in a personal ‘vortex’. When we learn to chill out and concentrate on being happy, the universe arranges ‘cooperative components’ like chance meetings, helpful people, synchronicities, and the likes that will help bring us the happier versions of the things we’ve put into our vortexes. This is an extremely simplified version of the ideas I’m still trying to fully understand after 6 years of study. And when I read the sentences out of context or someone asks me to explain it, it sounds so crazy and unbelievable. But I have so much evidence that it’s worth learning, like my brand new car.

If you’re brand new to the idea of creating your own reality and want to get started learning it, this probably isn’t the book you should start with. But then again, it might be the best. And no matter what anyone else tells you, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to learn how to make your life better.

“WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

Do you hear these questions being whispered deep within your heart and mind?  Do these questions penetrate your soul?

Absolutely! That’s my answer, at least.

I’m going out to Palms Springs, CA this week for an event that help me find these answers.  And I’ll be using this opportunity to take a computer break for a week, so no blogging until I return on the 15th.  Until then, however, I encourage you to reflect on these questions yourself:

“WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

Have a wonderful week everyone! I look forward to sharing my experiences with you when I return!

Love & Light,
Matt

P.S. If you’re struggling to find the answers to the questions above, ask yourself:  “If I un-learned everything I was taught, shed all my previous experiences, and ignored every societal norm I’ve been conditioned with, how would I choose to live my life?  If I were completely re-born tomorrow, what would I be and who would I become?” No limits!

I recently read two very profound quotes. They are:

“God is a verb” -Paulo Coelho;“Love is a verb” -Stephen Covey

At first reading, you may be thinking, “Oh, that’s cute,” not quite understanding what it means. But I want to explain to you how truly life-altering these quotes can be. As a friend said to me recently, “Sometimes I don’t really get what you’re talking about, but who wouldn’t want to live a more Loving and Enlightened life, so I’m trying to understand.” Well the summary of almost EVERYTHING I talk about revolves around these two quotes.

We’ve spoken before about the law of attraction and creating your reality before. Well the importance of these quotes relates to this understanding. To me, God and Love are the same thing, so I will talk about them interchangeably.

Have you ever been in a situation where you ask yourself, “why am I not loved?” Maybe your dating someone or in a relationship that you feel is one-sided. Or maybe you’ve been left out by a group of friends. Or maybe your dog always favors your sister and never acknowledges you. In all these situations, you likely feel a lack of love, and may wonder why.

The answer is simple: Love is a verb. And really, it’s a proactive, action verb; meaning an action that must be initiated by you!

Let’s dig into this deeper, because I know this is difficult to grasp. Creating your reality boiled down means that like attracts like. And this mainly refers to your thoughts and actions—how you live. So if you’re constantly thinking empowering thoughts, you will feel empowered and attract more power and leadership to your life. It works for negative situations too. If you constantly think that people are nickle-and-dime-ing you, chances are that you are doing the same thing to other people in your life.

And have you heard the quote “what you resist, persists”? The reason why this is true is because when you’re resisting something, you’re thinking about it; it’s at the top of your mind. And when something is continually on your mind, you attract that very same thing into your life; so it persists. This is the power of creating your reality.

So back to Love. If you want more Love in your life, you must constantly be Loving. If you want more God/enlightenment/soul in your life, you must practice being enlightened.

So how exactly do you practice Love? Luckily, this is really quite simple. But the key is, you must get over your fear of being different. When I started signing my e-mails “Love & Light,” I was very nervous for the reaction.

“Would people think I’m weird? Would married women think I was coming on to them? Would guys think I’m coming on to them?” These all were legitimate concerns of mine. And although a part of me really wants to, I haven’t started signing e-mails this way in my real estate work. I’m still too nervous and caught up in letting my Ego justify how it “won’t be appropriate” (which is complete bullshit that I just make up in my Ego-mind; real estate professionals probably need some unexpected Love & Light more than many).

So the first step to practicing Love is to get over your fear of what other people will think when you put yourself out there. Yes, you’ll be vulnerable. Yes, your Love might not be reciprocated. Yes, it may take more time than you want for you to notice the Love being attracted back to you.

But I guarantee that by practicing Love, you’ll make a small difference in at least one person’s life and that will make all the difference to you. At least one person will say “that little gesture of Love made my day. Thank you,” and you’ll understand that practicing Love is absolutely worthwhile.

Some suggestions for practicing Love:

• Approach a friend or acquaintance who you don’t normally hug, and give them a big, warm hug and tell them you truly appreciate them and Love them for being in your life.
• Send a e-mail to someone you haven’t spoke to in a while and tell them why you Love and appreciate them.
• Tell your friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, sister, brother, mother, father that you Love them, but tell them a different reason than you’ve ever said before.
• Take 5 minutes to think about all the people in your life that you don’t even know whom you have Love for. In your mind, specifically tell them you Love and appreciate them and tell them why. Tell them how they’ve impacted your life.
• Think about all the things in your life—your house, car, furniture, computers, knick-knacks, etc—that you have and tell them you Love and appreciate them. And tell these things why you Love them.
• Take moment to Love and appreciate nature.

This list is just a beginning of how you can start practicing Love. Another good way is to sign up for an account on www.gratitudelog.com. This website works like Twitter, and is a great way to start logging your Love and appreciation. Visit this site once a day and write what or who you Love and appreciate.

Please let me know if you’d like me to elaborate more on this topic. I Love and appreciate you for taking the time to read.

Love & Light,

Matt

When I was a child being reared inside the strict literal belief system of Catholicism, I was taught that Christ would return to earth one day, perhaps in my lifetime.

When I began to search out my own spiritual path in my late twenties-early thirties, I embraced the idea that every spiritual belief system holds some truth, and the there have been many high vibration energies closer to our “Source” or “God” that have incarnated to help mankind: Christ, Loa Tzu, Buddha etc. So then I began to think that another spiritual leader who inspires a shift in consciousness might come to earth in my lifetime.

When I listen now, I hear some people say that the second coming of Christ is beginning now, and that it is not one incarnate being, but rather an awakening and embracing of the piece of God within us all. In short, WE could be the second coming of Christ!

Years ago, I wrapped my mind around the idea that you and I are extensions of some incredible source energy we call “God”. That will never mean to me everything that it should in its entirely because I live here in this dimension for new. I can only begin to understand it.

But I have seen the world around me change rapidly over the years. There was a time when people would have committed Montel Williams for having Sylvia Brown on his show every week–or at least they would have laughed him out of business! But today, look at some of the things in our media…paradigm shift concepts are everywhere: Medium, Lost, Flash Forward, Ghosthunters, V etc. These ideas don’t seem insane to us as a culture anymore–they seem intriguing!

What if the second coming of Christ that had been prophesized truly was our own awakening and claiming of the magnificent God within? I think it is easier for us to wait for someone to arrive and say “Do this. This is the answer.” I think that realizing that the second coming could rest squarely on each of our own shoulders forces a bright and beautiful responsibility for things, just as learning that we create our own reality does.

I don’t have the answer yet…I still search. I do know that worthwhile things often are to be worked for. I learned to take responsibility for me awhile ago, so I kind of like the idea that things rest within us…to manifest a new world and a global shift by admitting that we are God too. It seems to make so much more sense than waiting for someone to come save us. I used to do that in my relationships too and it caused me incredible pain. Can we learn to be our own saviors? I believe we can.

Sitting here thinking about things….you know, people can’t spend their physical lives just doing what they hate for a “living” — me, I’d rather end this lifetime RIGHT NOW than be faced with spending the rest of my time working a “job” I hate, that is probably useless and boring, and does no good for society.

But some people are apparently satisfied living their lives like that.  If you are one of them, good luck, it’s something you have chosen to do.  I couldn’t do it.  But remember – NO ONE has to “do” anything.  If people simply aligned their minds with the Universe — well, let just say the world would be a hell of a different place, that is for sure….it has taken me years to stop fighting the flow of the Universe — and to start relaxing and going with it….and once I started doing that, things in my life just started coming together…..

Before all of this stuff started, I often sat around hoping I would be able to “get by” somehow until my “death”, doing something, I didn’t know what; truth be told, I didn’t know what the hell to do….I sure as hell didn’t want to spend my life hating everything I do and suffering from extreme depression….no way could I handle that…

Lots of times, I thought of “killing” myself, but ended up not doing it for the fear of crossing over after my “death”, and then discovering that my life was about to change big-time for the better the very next week, or even the next day – talk about ultimate humiliation!  I couldn’t take that chance.

But finally, events seem to be coming together to propel me and Jeremy (my best friend and business partner in this company) to new heights.

Look – all I have ever wanted is to help people – that is it…and finally my dream is coming true – my destiny is at hand……finally….

Matt

So today is Thanksgiving. And what comes to your mind when you think of Thanksgiving? Like many, your list might included:

• Food
• Family
• Friends
• Food
• Football
• Food
• Shopping
• Food

But what if we dissect the word and dig deeper into its meaning: Thanks-giving…giving thanks. Clearly, this is quite obvious. Yet, many of us, including myself, have really lost touch with what this holiday is about: Gratitude.

Now, I’m not going to preach about how “we should be celebrating the holidays the way they were meant to be celebrated.” I believe that holidays and past events in general have different meanings for different people in different generations, and only you can decide what’s meaningful for you.

But gratitude is something we could all use a little more of in our lives.  Just think about some of the most simple things you do—like reading this blog—and how many things have to be going well in your life in order to do so.

To read this blog:

• You are wealthy enough to have access to a computer and internet—much of the world isn’t.
• You have been given the opportunity to learn to read—many people are not.
• You have the mental capacity to read, comprehend, and understand—some are not.
• You have the time freedom to choose what you do—some are literally paralyzed by their commitments and cannot.
• You have to be physically well, which requires something like 7 Million physical processes to be working correctly at the same time.

You get the point. We all have plenty to be grateful for. But let’s take this a step further.

What if I were to tell you to be grateful for what you want in the future? That’s right. Be thankful for those things that you have yet to accumulate or accomplish. Sounds strange, to thank a higher power for having that dream home that is only in your dreams.

But from what we learned about creating your reality, you now understand that what you think about is attracted to your life. And what do you think is the best way to think about something you want? Thinking you’ll never get it; not thinking about it at all; or being appreciative for having it?

The answer is clear.

So later this evening, or whenever you’re reading this entry, take a moment to not only be thankful for what you do have—because after all, you do want to maintain all those things in your life—but take a moment to be thankful for those things that you want in the future. And not only for yourself, but for all humanity. Send out a prayer of gratitude for us all.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Love & Light,

Matt

life, illuminated

Originally uploaded by kamphora

“Your joy can make this whole Earth a paradise, just as your seriousness & sadness can make it a graveyard. The prophecy of the future is determined by how you live this very second.”
- Peter of Mystic Mountain

It is true – life is ALWAYS perfect.  Both of my parents are dead and life is perfect.  My first husband left me and life is perfect.  I had to sell the home of my dreams and life is perfect.  My job is not what I expected it to be and life is perfect.  My kids struggle against the monsters of their past and life is perfect.

About now you are likely thinking that either I am insane or in complete denial.  The amazing thing is – it was when I came out of denial that I learned that life really is perfect.  My friends Blair, Judy and Tessa all helped me come to this realization.  I came to understand that I was so entertwined with my ego, that I was blind to the pure poetry Spirit orchestrated in my life. 

Ego resides in the shadows.  She wears night-vision goggles that search for the dangers she believes are all around her.  Her primary language is Fear and she speaks fluent “should-ish”.

Think about it – every “should” statement has its foundation in fear.  When we are at peace and are fully aware of the perfection surrounding us, we have no use for “should”. 

My kids should study, get good grades, stay out of trouble and be promoted to the next grade.  That is Fear – what will people think of me if my kids struggle in school, don’t do the work, have to repeat grades?!  I must be a terrible mom!  How could anyone love someone that fails so absolutely?!

When I know that life is perfect, I look for the opportunity – what is Spirit trying to tell me here?, what does this tell me about how I can be present and loving in my kids’ lives?, what might this be preparing me to do better or be wiser about in the future?

Ego rarely goes quitely into that good night, though.  She often argues back that I am just being lazy, avoiding confrontation, being a push-over, looking for excuses for people to give me attention and notice my struggles.  Sometimes Ego still has control.  Sometimes I get very angry at my kids, at their schools, at the educational system, at myself.  Even this is perfect.  My anger helps wake me up and reminds me I can make a conscious choice.  Sometimes my anger gives me the motivation to consider doing something differently – and that different thing leads the kids and I to an AMAZING new place.

So, if my sister and parents were still alive, I wouldn’t have my kids and have learned so much about life, purpose, joy and family.  If my first husband had stayed, I wouldn’t have the amazing man who shares my life and is my complete partner in healing and raising these kids. 

It may not be obvious in the moment, and it may take years to see the beauty in any given life experience.  I do promise you - when you change your lens and look for it,  you will see perfection everywhere.

copyrighted 8/13/09

My last article examined human nature and argued, through reasoning and experience, that we, at core, are thought-energy-will. That is how we animate our bodies and how we move through the field of matter.

Thought-energy-will in the form of “I” is an individual, a little spark that woke up within the infinity of intelligent potential that some physicists like to call “the unified field.” We are each pieces of the Infinite, totally connected with the Infinite, yet independent as doers and experiencers. As individualized expressions of thought-energy-will, we are the way the Infinite expresses itself, the way it creates. We are the reason for creation. Our individuality is precious to the Infinite, and if we ever dissolved that, we would defeat the purpose of life.

The part of my being that makes me individual is my unique thought and will. The will is the impulse within me to do and to choose and to create. What I do, choose, and create is unique in all the universe. No other impulse of the Infinite (no other individual) will ever or can ever observe life from quite my perspective, nor will they ever do or allow or create exactly as I choose to.

Our choices and inspirations are based on our positions where we stand as an individualized sparks of infinity. When all the sparks know their nature as the Infinite and at the same time fully engage their individuality, the world will become like a symphony, with every note sounded full and sweet, harmonizing with and adding to every other note. It will become a colorful flower field, every blossom vibrant in its distinct and separate uniqueness, yet each contributing to the perfume and beauty that is all the flower field together.

Religion works against this. It tells us to surrender our will to something greater, but the Infinite actually delights in our will and its expression. Religion tells us to dissolve our ego, the author of our doing, creating, and choosing, into the cosmic ego of the whole. This is completely counter to the purpose of the Infinite. It would be like every flower in a garden surrendering itself to the garden, wilting in its self-hood instead of being the best flower it can be. The entire garden would die.

Each person is an individualized expression of thought-energy-will – like a car and driver, moving across the universe. Mind is the automobile, energy is the fuel, and will is the driver. Telling me to surrender my will is a way of taking over my thought and my energy.

The car goes nowhere without a will to drive it. If I step out of the driver’s seat of my life, merely reacting to the world  instead of initiating things in it, someone else will climb behind the wheel and direct where I go. This is especially true if I invite such an arrangement through subservient prayer or by prostrating myself before the gods in mantra meditation.

When we dissolve our will or ego,  “I” no longer exists. All that remains is the shell of what was once a person. We are left with body (energy) and mind (thoughts). The lights are on, but no one’s at home. Or rather, someone new has taken up residence, the entity to whom one has surrendered one’s ego or will. Some call this enlightenment. It’s actually possession. The will has been abdicated, that which makes us uniquely human. One becomes a vessel for the will of that to whom one has given oneself.

Decades back, when I was a girl, religion outright asked for surrender of the will. That’s back when will was talked about still in common parlance. Now, religion has evolved and asks instead for surrender of our ego. But will and ego are the same thing. By demonizing our desires, by telling us ego is arrogant and selfish, religion has made the will seem like something that must be relinquished for perfection or goodness to be attained.

In fact, when we surrender that spark, through “namah-ing”our way through years of mantras or asking Jesus to save us, the very reason for our existence is defeated. We become empty shells, sounding to the noise of that which blows through us and possesses us. That entity is not God, for True God is the Infinite which never wants to take over anything. God desires its children’s freedom, their will unfettered, so they may dance wherever and however they like, and in so doing, delight their creator.

When we truly get that we are thought-energy-will in our essential nature, that this impulse is our spirit, the eternal and infinite personhood that animates our body, then it becomes possible to command the body and control it. We understand that every physical limitation is a limitation of thought, and that thought can reverse it. If all matter, including our bodies, is made of nothing but energy, then by thinking our physical energy patterns different, they must change. We’ve accepted that we must age and die, and so we do. But if we decide to reject that thought and supplant it with a better one, we can order the body to thrive and to live forever.

This is why I went into such detail in my last article examining what we are at our core. Because unless we intuitively get that, unless it’s something we’ve reasoned to ourselves, so thoroughly and deeply that it becomes our essential reality, then the idea that we are thought-energy-will pulsing in an infinite field of potential is only a pretty concept. It must become our most fundamental experience. When our true nature becomes as clear and real to us as the ground we walk on, we can start to live from that reality, with the authority that understanding grants us. We can ordain things and they happen. We can tell the body to do what we will. We can infuse the body with the infinite energy of the unified field and never need to eat (take life from others) in order to survive. We can survive on our essential, infinite nature.

And if all beings learned to do this, if all egos understood their essential power and immortality, no one would need to feed on anyone else. We all would exist in our own self-empowerment. The basic premise on which this universe is founded would dissolve, and that premise is the need to take life from others in order to live. The universe would start to operate on a different principle, the principle of its essential unlimited potential.

Let’s look at this from another perspective. Jewish mystical texts, as well as other esoteric texts, describe the shape of the universe as a torus. A torus looks like a doughnut, a doughnut capable of turning in on itself. Think of it like a piece of vacuum cleaner tubing, taped to itself to form a circle, a doughnut shape. Imagine rotating the tubing, so the part that is the top moves toward the center, then down to the bottom, then back up to the top again. That is the description of a torus.

In this model, the universe is a black hole on one of its sides, a white hole at the other. The white hole is constantly spitting out new creations, that live, thrive, then decline as they move to the other side of the torus, where they are absorbed by the black hole on the reverse. As they move through the center of the doughnut, each creature is destroyed then recycled, emerging from the white hole as new forms. Individual bodies have been consumed, new bodies have been created. And so the cycle of creation and destruction continues.

This torus is the physical shape of the universe, according to mystic sources, and the shape resembles that of someone eating, digesting, and defecating. Food in, food processed, food out. It resembles the interior shape of human and animal bodies: mouth at one end, digestion and transmutation of food in the center, anus at the other end. And as animals defecate, their feces fertilizing the earth and becoming new plants, that which was defecated gets consumed again in the form of a new dinner. This is the pattern or shape of the torus. It is our essential shape as organic beings, as long as we are eaters, dependent on taking life to survive.

The torus also appears to be the shape of Brahman, the Indian name for the entity or consciousness that is the universe. Brahman functions in a self-destructive feedback loop. “Curving back on myself, I create again and again,” says the Bhagavad-Gita, speaking for the consciousness of the universe. Energy in, energy out. Forms created, forms dissolved. An endless cycle of creation and destruction. The universe is like a dog endlessly chasing its tail.

The ancient mystery schools depicted the reality of the universe another way, through the symbol of a snake swallowing its tail. (Picture a dot on the torus, and the path it takes as it moves from the top down the side, across the bottom, up the other side and back to its position on the top. It makes a perfect circle, which is the shape of a snake swallowing its tail.) The symbol is one of self-destruction, because a snake that devours itself will die. The universe will also someday die, because it cannot go on eating itself endlessly. In time its energy will wear out, from the endless recycling project. It will self-implode.

Brahman knows this, and it is terrified. That’s why all its children are terrified. All beings are afraid of death, and are subject to death. Because the great entity we are part of, the universe, is subject to death. Like Brahman, the great torus, we little toruses must eat to continue our existence. Or so we think. But in fact, we are no more in need of consuming others to continue existing than a dog needs to chase its tail in order to stay alive. It’s a thought we had that became a belief. It’s a thought Brahman had, that became a belief. And what we think, we manifest.

The universe is self-destructive because it thinks that way. Brahman eats its children because it thinks it has to, to survive. Brahman is an insane parent, pursuing a course that is madness, knowing no other. But healing is only a thought away. Brahman only needs to conceive of another possibility, and it can change its pattern of existence.

In fact, Brahman, like us, is an individualized expression of the unified field: pure and infinite intelligent energy. If Brahman could but remember its nature as infinite, it would stop trying to eat itself. It eats itself in an effort to consume energy. But its very nature is thought-energy-will, and the energy it expresses from is infinite. By remembering that, Brahman need no longer consume itself to stay alive. It can simply shine in its own self-effulgence. It can bask in its own infinity of energy, and dance an endless dance in the forms of its immortal children. The insanity can end, when the insane thinking ends.

We are children of Brahman, and we also ARE Brahman, as a leaf is an individual but is also the plant it grows as. If the leaves change their minds, the plant changes its mind. If we, as children of the universe, wake up to our essential nature as unlimited and undying, then Brahman must wake up to the same. If we stop needing to consume and stop agreeing to be consumed, consumption stops, not only for us, but for that of which we are a part. The universe starts to change its mind with every one of us that changes our mind.

When enough people wake up to our limitless nature, Brahman will wake up, and the torus that is the universe will morph into a new shape. The insanity will end, and the dog will stop chasing its tail. The need for anyone to devour anyone else will cease, and the lion will lie down with the lamb. It all starts with remembering what we really are, then using our wills to ordain change from that infinite, powerful place.

The definition of religion is from the root “religio,” which means “to bind back.” Think of the torus as a great firework explosion, where the sparks reach outward, then curve back to their source. Religion gives us the thinking that binds us back to the hole in the doughnut, where we must be destroyed and recycled. By seeing through the lies of religion, by refusing to surrender our wills / egos to anyone religion calls God, we free ourselves from the need to cycle around from birth to ultimate death. We immortalize ourselves, body and spirit. And when we save ourselves, we save the universe.

Bronte Baxter

© Bronte Baxter 2009

Anyone may copy or republish this article as long as they include a link back to this website at http://brontebaxter.wordpress.com/

My last article talked about that least-remembered talent we human beings possess: the power of will. I equated it with “choice” and “determination,” but will deserves some closer examination. After all, how can we draw on its power if it’s only a shadowy concept, something we’ve mentally assigned to the realm of boring philosophers and 19th Century preachers?

Yet will is the force that moves everything in the universe. It is the magnetic energy behind thought, that draws to itself whatever it dreams of. Will stirs the pot of creation, and adds new colors to the mix. It is the creative power behind thought, behind everything. By learning to use it, we can deflect any aggression, defeat any predator, and create whatever in life we wish to experience.

We need to really get this, intuitively, or it’s only an empty theory. It needs to become a deep understanding that we live from. Only then can will empower us.

So let’s think deeply for a few moments, reason things out, and consider our own experience. What evidence is there that will exists and that it is the power that moves the universe?

Well, what does the universe consist of? Stuff. Matter. Things. Where did it all come from? Unless it existed eternally, matter had a beginning: there was a time before it appeared on the scene.

Is it reasonable to think matter has always been there? That would mean matter is God, the end-all and be-all. Does that make sense? That rocks, fish, air, planets, stars have existed forever, without any beginning? It’s more reasonable to think that they came from something, something more basic than themselves. Scientists speak of a Big Bang, from which all matter appeared. What did the Big Bang come from? What was it that was exploding?

If nothing existed yet, then what exploded in the Big Bang was something immaterial, something that pre-dated matter. What could that possibly be except energy or thought? In fact, it had to be both: energetic thought, because thought is naturally energetic and energy is naturally intelligent.

Think about it. Think how energy moves in an intelligent direction. In its solid form as matter (people, animals, objects), energy moves in response to desires and intentions: a dog gets thirsty, it moves toward the water; you miss your mom, you call her on the phone. Energy moves with purpose directing it, not randomly and meaninglessly. That’s why we know energy is by nature intelligent. We see this even on the finest levels of creation, where subatomic particles display attraction and move in response to the attention of the observer.

So energy is intelligent. Is the reverse true: is intelligence energetic? If so, then energy and intelligence are one and the same thing. Energy and thought are one and the same thing. I’m using “intelligence” to mean “thought,” because thought is the active expression of intelligence.

Stay with me here. This is what I mean by thinking long thoughts. This is the kind of deep thinking we need to do to understand what we are and what we’re made of and how the universe works. Once we deeply grasp that, we grow in power. Perceiving our deeper nature, we start to operate from there. And that means finding our way out of the fix we and the rest of mankind are in.

So let’s get back to the drawing board … Is thought energetic? Obviously it is. Thoughts are what drive us to do things (to expend energy). A powerful thought (one with great energy) attracts other minds to it (examples: reading a book, buying a popular item, joining a cause). Even the random mental chatter that flows through our minds when we’re idle has a level of energy (enough to keep us awake at night if too much of it is going on).

We’ve seen for ourselves that energy is intelligent and that intelligence (thought) is energetic. So thought and energy are essentially one and the same. We also saw that energy/thought, being immaterial, must have preceded the creation of the universe. In fact, it is what the universe had to be born of, because there was nothing else.

Since energetic thought is the parent of the universe, it is also what the universe is made of. Matter (the universe) is simply congealed thought, congealed intelligent energy. And matter (creation) moves in response to our energetic thought.

This is the principle behind the Law of Attraction, the reason thoughts are magnetic. There’s very little difference between a thought of something and that thought congealed in the form of a thing. Our thoughts are creative and destructive, depending on the direction of their energy. Thinking bad things will happen, attracts energy to the thought that encourages the bad thing to occur. Intending and expecting good things to happen has the opposite effect.

So where does will come in? Will is all of it. Will is the force behind the thought (it’s the energy). Will is the intention directing the energy (it’s the intelligence). Will is the energetic thought, the directed energy, that is the source of the universe. It is the oven from which the Big Bang exploded. It is the force that moves everything in the universe. In fact, it is the only thing that ever makes anything happen. Without will, without energetic thought, everything would be static. There would be no life.

Whenever something happens, someone’s will has caused that event. Someone had an intention, a desire, strong enough (energetic enough) to move the soup of creation around in some way, or to add something new to the soup. People who live mostly on random thoughts, on their own repetitive mind chatter, have very little influence on the direction of creation, let alone the direction of their own life. Because they think from a level of low energy, not from focused intention.

The people we call the movers and shakers of the world live mostly on focused thoughts. They control what they allow in their minds, and think thoughts purposefully. Their minds are filled with plans, with intentions. The energy behind their focused thought is powerful, because focus gathers energy. Such people are the architects of the world, of “reality.” The reality that the rest of us mostly just react to and experience, because we, floating in the soup of our own random thoughts, allow others to determine our direction.

The movers and shakers are swimmers. The rest of us are floaters. And the swimmers of the world, having the game down as they do, right now are having fun pushing the floaters around the pond. Their scheme is to shove all the floaters into one little corner of the pool and keep us there, while they splash and play and enjoy all the rest of the place by themselves. It’s called the Great Conspiracy. And they’re pulling it off because we cry and moan about how mean they are, how clever they are, and how powerful they are, when in fact, the only difference between us and them is that they know how to think!

They know how to think with purpose, with will. They think with intention. They think with bad intention, but this is partly our own fault. We earn and deserve their scorn for being floaters, always reacting to life, never grabbing life with our hands and shaping it to our purpose. Our passiveness, our lack of will, has let the willful assume control of the playing field. They despise us for our weakness and stupidity and would like to see most of us exterminated (although they’ll keep a few around to do their bidding).

We have been weak and stupid, but not because the bullies are by nature stronger or smarter than we. Everyone came from the same Big Bang, the same intelligent energy. Some of us just learned the power of will while others forget that faculty existed. Those who did learn the secret conspired to keep the rest of us in forgetfulness. But the power is there within our own thoughts to take back control of our destiny. To take back our lives, personally and collectively.

It is only a matter of changing our minds, of thinking with new purpose, of determining not to self-destruct over the machinations of the bullies who are having a great laugh at our expense, as we float every which way they think to push us. It’s a matter of learning to swim.

It doesn’t matter how advanced they are in implementing their plans. When the floaters wake up and start swimming, they will create a force in the water that pushes back those trying to herd them. The bullies know that, and it is why they want to get rid of us, to destroy most of the world’s population before we get wise to the game. A cornered animal is likely to get wild, to discover its will, to assert its power. The bullies want to eliminate most of mankind before we reach that point.

The trick is for us to wake up soon enough. Not wake up in the sense the Truthers have already awakened: to knowledge of the conspiracy. We must wake up much more profoundly, to our power of will. We must decide NEVER to allow what they are orchestrating, that it will NOT happen, that we draw the line right here.

We mustn’t say “I’ll let them shoot me before I’ll go to a FEMA camp,” because then we create being shot. Then we enter the next world as a victim, still vulnerable to bullying, still pursued, still the plaything of the strong and malicious. When will it stop? When will we have enough and DECIDE it ends here? How much must we get pushed around before we catch on that when it ends depends entirely on us?

It’s our lack of will that allows their will to determine everything. It’s our lack of assertion. By remaining passive, mentally and physically, we allow them to do to us whatever they will. We are victims by choice. By default. Our will, operating in passive mode, has allowed it.

All we have to do to reverse the situation is to summon that will, to summon our passion, to understand the difference between us and them is only in the level of determination. “Victory belongs to the most committed,” goes the saying. They are more committed. They scheme, plan, and act. We bitch, moan, and hide under the bed. Not all of us, but so many of us aware of the conspiracy. So many of us feel hopeless. And it is that very hopeless attitude that will be our downfall, unless we take the bull by the horns and correct that.

It’s time to grab hold of our attitude and will ourselves to grow powerful. First by addressing everything in our personal lives that we let hold us back, every lame excuse for why we haven’t succeeded, for why we suffer, for why we cannot have what we desire. Then by addressing the Great Conspiracy itself.

All there is in the world is one essential element: thoughtful energy, energetic thought. That’s all there is. Everything material is a distillation of that, a result of that. Each of us is essentially a thought thinking itself, a thought made of energy. Energy that is eternal and infinite.

By thinking with focus, with passion, with determination, we access our unlimited energy to create or experience anything we want. There are no victims when all are infinitely powerful at their core. There is only forgetfulness of our nature, failure to access will, and a choice to let the bullies make all the decisions.

Bronte Baxter

© Bronte Baxter 2009

Anyone may copy or reprint this article as long as they include a link back to this website at http://brontebaxter.wordpress.com/