Spriritual Awakening Symptons

The Spiritual Awakening Symptoms

1. Body aches and pains, especially in the neck, shoulder and back. This is the result of intense changes at your DNA level as the "Christ seed" awakens within. More important, your Merkabah, energetic transportal Body, has/is being upgraded and made new. This will be explained and understood more fully as you progress. Suffice to say, ageing, dis-ease, and limitations are freed with-in this New Experiencing Device.

2. Feeling of deep inner sadness for no apparent reason. You are releasing your past (this lifetime and others) and this causes the feeling of sadness. Literally... pieces, parts... "aspects" of YOU are being seen and released/transmuted appropriately. Although, many may not seem difficult to release, others are comfortable personalities that must be reconciled. Say, "good bye," I love you. You have served me well. I no longer need you."

3. Crying for no apparent reason. Similar to #2 above. It's good and healthy to let the tears flow. It helps to release the old energy within. There's a multitude of emotional energies within you now... try not to focus on the "why" and just feel, allow..

4. Sudden change in job or career. A very common symptom. As you change, things around you will change as well. Don't worry about finding the "perfect" job or career right now. You're in transition and you may make several job changes before you settle into one that fits your passion.

5. Withdrawal from family relationships. You are connected to your biological family via old karma. When you get off the karmic cycle, the bonds of the old relationships are released. After a period of time, you may develop a new relationship with them if it is appropriate. However, the relationship will be based in the new energy. This period is often times referred to as "The Fall," or "The Separation." Do not worry, as there is no separation that is valid. Only the "feeling,seeming, illusion" of such.

6. Unusual sleep patterns. It's likely that you'll awaken many nights between 2:00 and 4:00 AM. There's a lot of work going on within you, and it often causes you to wake up for a "breather." Not to worry. If you can't go back to sleep, get up and do something rather than lay in bed and worry about humanly things. This is also due to the New Body being acclimated to its new environment, which requires no sleep (meditation) and little to no nourishment.

7. Intense dreams. These might include war and battle dreams, chase dreams or monster dreams. You are literally releasing the old energy within. Plus, you are remembering and connecting with past lives, memories, experiences and knowledge. These dreams, if "scarey" in nature, cannot harm you. Although, they may be pleasant in nature, as well. If so, enjoy, and either way, don't worry or over-analyze.

8. Physical disorientation. At times you'll feel very ungrounded. You'll be "spatially challenged" with the feeling like you can't put two feet on the ground, or that you're walking between two worlds. As your consciousness transitions into the new energy, you body sometimes lags behind. Spend more time in nature to help ground the new energy within.

9. Increased "self talk." You'll find yourself talking to your Self more often. You'll suddenly realize you've been chattering away with yourself for the past 30 minutes. There is a new level of communication taking place within your being, and you're experiencing the tip of the iceberg with the self talk. The conversations will increase, and they will become more fluid, more coherent and more insightful. You're not going crazy, you're just Shaumbra moving into the new energy.

10. Feelings of loneliness, even when in the company of others. You may feel alone and removed from others. You may feel the desire to "flee" groups and crowds. As Shaumbra, you are walking a sacred and lonely path. As much as the feelings of loneliness cause you anxiety, it is difficult to relate to others at this time. And, others may find much difficulty in their relation to you, mostly due to your over-powering energetic force. The void within will be filled with the love and energy of your own Christ consciousness.

11. Loss of passion. You may feel totally dis-impassioned, with little or no desire to do anything. That's OK, and it's just part of the process. Take this time to "do no-thing." Don't fight yourself on this. It's similar to rebooting a computer. You need to shut down for a brief period of time in order to load the sophisticated new software, or in this case, the new Christ-seed energy.

12. A deep longing to go Home. This is perhaps the most difficult and challenging of any of the conditions. You may experience a deep and overwhelming desire to leave the planet and return to Home. This is not a "suicidal" feeling. It is not based in anger or frustration. You don't want to make a big deal of it or cause drama for yourself or other. There is a quiet part of you that wants to go Home. The root cause for this is quite simple......You are ready to begin a new lifetime while still in this physical body.

During this transition process, you have an inner remembrance of what it is like to be on the other side. Are you ready to take on the challenges of moving into the New Energy?

Yes, indeed you could go Home right now. But you've come this far, and after many, many lifetimes it would be a shame to leave before the end of the movie.

Besides, Spirit needs you here to help others transition into the new energy. They will need a human guide, just like you, who has taken the journey from the old energy into the new. The path you're walking right now provides the experiences to enable you to become a Teacher of the New Divine Human.

As lonely and dark as your journey can be at times, remember that you are never alone.

http://www.cedar-rivers.com/articles/consciousness-spirituality/70-ascension-symptoms-experiencing-the-higher-realms.html

Can Astral Projection Be Dangerous?

We have looked at astral projection from a number of different points of view. We have seen what happens when the astral body separates momentarily from the physical body; we have traveled around the world, into other realms with it; we have followed it to the moment of death and beyond. 

But now let’s go back to the beginning and ask a question that probably everyone who hears of astral projection must wonder about—namely: Can the practice be dangerous? 

Sylvan Muldoon, whose considerable experience with astral projection surely qualifies him as an expert on this subject, says the dangers are very slight. Some people fear that while their astral bodies are off somewhere else, an evil entity of some sort—an earthbound spirit or a demon—will take possession of their bodies, and when the astral body returns, it will find that its "home" has been occupied in its absence. 

Muldoon says this fear is demonstrably unfounded. Every night many thousands of persons leave their bodies (often while they are sleeping and frequently while they remain unaware of what is happening to them) and there is absolutely no reason to believe these people are taken over and are endangered in any way. Whereas astral projection is a very common occurrence, possession is an extremely rare phenomenon—and in any case it practically never has anything to do with the victim’s out-of-body experiences (if in fact he has had any to begin with). 

It is true that in a small minority of instances people have reported negative experiences in the astral realm. A few have encountered sinister forms and some even claim to have engaged in psychic combat with them. "No sooner had this unseen force lifted me a few feet than it suddenly hurled me back into myself and I came to," Robert A. Reese wrote of his experience in Fate magazine. "It seemed that something hideous was trying to overpower me." 

Perhaps the key word here is trying. All it succeeded in doing, in fact, was in giving Reese a bad scare. Apparently he had strayed too close to the lowest, grossest regions of the astral and encountered one of the unpleasant—but basically powerless—beings that dwell in that place. In the end he was none the worse for wear. 

Fear of Projection 

We generally agree that dreams are a positive experience. They teach us, entertain us, free us momentarily from the confines of the world. Once in a while, of course, we may have a nightmare. It will shake us and upset us for a short time, but we quickly recognize it as a harmless experience, if an uncomfortable one. 

Astral projection, it need hardly be said at this point, is not a "dream," but for the purposes of us who have yet to shed the physical body, it can serve some of the same functions for us. Like the dream, it teaches, entertains and frees us. Bad astral projection experiences are considerably rarer than nightmares, but they are just about as harmless. 

Many unpleasant astral experiences really have nothing to do with the experience itself but with the projectors’ attitude toward it. Most people don’t know that out-of-body travel is even possible, and when suddenly it happens to them, they can be devastated. They may think that they have lost their minds, or they may be afraid that they have died. Gripped with these kinds of elemental fears, they are in no position to take an objective view, which would tell them that separation from the body is an enormously pleasurable sensation. 

Exaggerated fears aside, one concern seems worth heeding. We really don’t know if people with heart problems could die from the shock of astral projection, but a cautious view suggests that such persons are better off keeping their astral and physical bodies in the same place. 

Oliver Fox, an astral traveler himself, has warned that outsiders coming upon the unconscious physical body of someone who is having an OBE might conclude that the person is dead and have him buried prematurely! Can Fox be serious? It seems as likely that a merely sleeping person could end up prematurely buried; after all, the vital functions of sleepers and astral travelers don’t stop just because the bodies happen to be motionless. 

In a more reasonable moment, though, Fox concedes, "Very likely these experiments are no more dangerous than motoring." In point of fact, they are safer—astral bodies don’t get maimed and crushed in collisions with physical objects. One more benefit: astral traveling is cheaper than driving! 
http://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/219

How To Develop A Sound Mind

There are a number of diverse issues that could alter our wellbeing / contentment — entailing aliment, standard of living, workout routines, anxiety, family, and line of business et al. However, the principal aspect that frequently gets ignored is the strength of the mind. Sound mind is the gateway to form / sustain an active and cheerful life.

Your beliefs are exceptionally influential and can direct all phases of your life comprising your health. Most of us are only to some extent conscious of the reasonings that run through our mind. To truly concentrate and have knowledge of all ideas that you sense can be draining and not to point out, kind of intimidating too.

Thoughts can develop into routine and many people have been disciplined from early days to have unconstructive ways of thinking / making certain assumptions. Those harmful thought patterns get trapped within the subliminal intellect and can actually outline who you are and how you respond to your situation. But there is nothing to fear of and such patterns are meant to be weakened, and it is very likely to conquer your thoughts and forge them help you.

Here are 5 vital headways that have established to assist transform your ways of thinking, develop a sound mind besides trigger a more poised and optimistic view on being.

1. Be purposeful and make a commitment

Modifying downbeat and making room for new constructive routines is a straightforward but not an effortless procedure and requires a solid dedication from you. It is essential that you put together the resolution and be obvious about your intent to actualize transition. Believe it and put it down in writing(either on a notebook/piece of paper or on a computer text file  or on whichever thing you can see) as well as declare it aloud to yourself. Thus, you are making an assurance to yourself to accomplish what it calls for to get your goal done and develop a sound mind condition.

2. Your thoughts shape your life

As revealed earlier, thoughts are chronic and it can be rather tricky initially to intentionally know about every ideas / visuals that crosses your mind. Before you adjust them for the good, you ought to be alert of precisely what you are conceiving. Make it a precedence to concentrate on what reflections traverse within as your day progresses. Pay attention to the intuitions arise as you are managing with contrasting    individuals and circumstances. Be cautious not to evaluate your thoughts, for the time being just acknowledge them.

3. Initiate the U-turn

Now that you are responsive of your thinking patterns, you can then proceed to transform them to your favor and you have the control to switch a gloomy thought into a well-convinced one.

When you perceive a disconfirming thought in your mind deliberately, choose to take U-turn at it. Don’t be anxious if initially you don’t trust your new positive thought, as eventually that will reverse. By changing your colorless thought to an affirmative one, you will ultimately build new thought patterns and customs. You will also be establishing a positive force contained by yourself as pitted to an unenthusiastic.

This process is clear-cut yet not effortless, but it influences just fine. It is an issue of fusing with your beliefs all the time. After a phase, your contradictory thought patterns will no longer have the command shape or restrict any outlook of your life implicating your feelings. These positive thought patterns will unleash a unique energy and develop a more confident way of being which will sequentially draw more such awesome power in your life.

In due course with sheer sense of pursuing, you will observe that when a weak thought creeps up you will consistently toggle it instantly to a positive. Then by the time you recognize it, the disapproval will be vanished and it will be swapped with a genuine and self-asserting consciousness, a definitive path to have a sound mind..

4. Enhance mind power

All right, so far we saw — how to be purpose-driven and make commitment to achieve the goals, importance of thought patterns, and how to spring up positive thoughts. Now to keep on doing this, we need to enhance our mind power. Here are some simple / effective / practical methods to do so.

a. Deep breathing: More air intake means more oxygen in the bloodstream and so in the brain.

b. Meditation: Nothing fancier close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Relax your muscles. When your mind roams, just get your awareness back to your breath. 5-10 minutes of this will be enough and commonly unwind you, unclutter your mind, and prepare you for any rational chore.

c. Solve a problem – use 5 Whys technique: Take a problem that has been bugging you for a long time and ask “why?” and “what is the cause of this problem?” which will lead to another why and so on. You’ll probably figure out the solution within few whys. The 5 ways technique is a straightforward method that can assist you rapidly get to the cause of a problem. Make problem solving a habit and no problems will bother you! At least, your mind is tuned to think so. By the way, Sudoku / crossword puzzles brainteasers will be of some great help too.

d. Learn a new language / culture. As you learn fresh things a lot, your mind will be in top shape.

e. Writing: Don’t just store your thoughts. Write it out. Whether it’s a poem / story / short idea / blog post inspiration or whatever, write it on appropriate medium to boost your mindpower And don’t be shy to show it to your friends.

f. Sleeping: Give your brain required rest. Don’t stress yourself to work. Minimum 6 to maximum 8 hours of sleeping is required for optimal brain functioning. To enhance it further take a 10 minutes power nap in the afternoon. Never average out your sleeping hours. Say for example, 20 hours workdays and sleeping 20 hours on weekends won’t do it!

g. Simple workouts: such as brisk walking, aerobic exercises skipping/roping, swimming, riding a bicycle will improve both your physical and mental health. Pick at least one and do it daily. Can’t you allocate 10-20 minutes/day for such fruitful activities?

h.Food For Thought: You’re what you eat. Avoid junk food, alcohol, and smoking. Drink plenty of water, milk. Moderate intake of coffee is O.K. Add spinach, blueberries, nuts and seeds, tuna, salmon, avocados, whole-grain products, dark chocolate, dry fruits — to supercharge your brain.

And there are plenty of other ways exist to enhance your  mind power which deserves another separate article itself. So watch this space!

5. Visualize what you need/want

Visualizing what you need / want, consequently turning your life’s forthcoming events into your favor is a remarkable workout to develop a sound mind.

Thoughts, if influential enough are asserted by our subliminal mind, which then transforms our attitude as a result with our inclinations and deeds, and this puts us across into get in touch with new people / circumstances we would have never believed possible before.

Positive mental picture (aka vizualising) is an exceptionally rewarding and trouble-free means of quickening the course of action by tricking the intuitive into conceiving that you have, by now, through something before you have. Certainly this in and of itself will not roll you into an overnight success, you do truly have to work hard at it, implement the visuals on top, but in the end it will prop you achieve something more promptly. All you require to do to be thriving at this is to picture yourself doing something incredible, as you would need / want to do it. Is it sound like some heavy matter? Sincerely, not at all if youmake your mindup for it.

Beliefs are empowered with an innovative power that shapes our life and captivates what you sense. Thoughts pass through from one consciousness to another, and if they are firm enough, they can be reflexively discovered by people who are in a viewpoint to guide you reach your needs and ambitions.

*Title picture credit: stock photo © unknown.

Conclusion:

It’s hard to make up your bed while you’re still sleeping in it.  Hard to make up your mind for the same reason.  – Robert Brault

Concisely, to develop a sound mind, you should practice these steps: Set a goal and commit to achieve it — Make your thoughts count — Turn the negative thoughts to positive ones – Exercise your mind muscles to keep growing — Visualize the success, or whatever thing you need / want.

Developing and always keep on working to have a sound mind is very crucial and it can be beneficial to improve many aspects of our life, can make a positive impact.

http://arkarthick.com/2012/02/22/develop-sound-mind/

Wake Up You Can Change The World

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”

-Marianne Williamson 

Greatness is not what you think. It's yours for the taking — really.

After numerous articles on narcissism, I’ve decided to leave phoniness aside and focus on the greatness each of us has within. It's not narcissistic to want greatness in your life. Human beings are on this planet for a very short time. And, many of us yearn to be important in some specific way.

So, how is it done, if you’re not rich or famous?

The Celebrity Route to Greatness: We look at celebrities and see specialness. As in Tom Cruise must live an interesting life. Do Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood really understand politics more than you? We look at all these stars, read about their loves, losses, children and more. They become a proxy for greatness.

The Sporting Route to Greatness: Nowhere are people admired more than in sports. We may love a recording artist or a movie star, but the All Star in baseball, basketball or football is our ticket to greatness – by proxy. For instance, Morgan Freeman does not “belong” to Boston, but Tom Brady certainly does. That's why cheating is so problematic. We need sports clean so we can idealize. Like the great A-Rod, once they cheat, the most admired athlete falls.

The Money Route to Greatness: America is the land of capitalism, and we do admire (and resent) people with money. The big house, the expensive car, the leisurely vacations, the way they are treated in public and at charity events; all this adds to their “greatness.” It's probably why colleges have produced too many finance majors in the past fifteen years. But, make no mistake, you may want more money in your pocket, but remember - the rich have problems and worries too.

This Greatness by Proxy is Malarkey: Enjoy a good athlete, or a great performance, but keep greatness as a project unique to you. Each of us can be great. It is deeply human to find that path. It's a crazy and confusing world. There are five billion people here and we are all, ultimately, wisps of protoplasm passing from birth to death. How can any of us achieve greatness? What does it mean and why does it matter?

The human drive for dignity – for greatness – is sidetracked when we idealize others like celebrities, or when we feel special for dysfunctional reasons. Let’s look at how you or someone you love can discover their greatness.

We Don't Need to Idealize: One of great psychoanalytic thinkers of the last century was Heinz Kohut, an Austrian Jew who barely escaped Hitler’s rise to power.

Kohut tells us that all small children naturally idealize their parents. After all, they are small and helpless – and their mom and dad are huge and capable. Soon, they feel comforted in the “greatness” of mom and dad. Healthy children idealize their parents and feel bigger and safer by proxy.

Soon, they grow into school age children. They gain strength from the continued idealization of their mother and father. When this gets stymied, like in abuse or neglect, development can be injured. In adolescence, the teenager begins to see the cracks in his or her parents and criticizes. But, he or she has already internalized a sense of specialness through proxy. Parents are that important.

For better, and often for worse, we take that need to idealize into adult life.

We project it onto our mentors, our coaches, our athletes, our artists and our politicians. While it’s natural to look up to someone, we also are devalued when we do so. It is two sides of a coin. They are great/We are not so great. We gain a sense of greatness by proxy by admiring them.

For Kohut and the world, this process went tragically awry when a great industrial country – Germany – chose to idealize evil. I often wonder if his interest in idealization had it's source in this trauma.

Greatness Redesigned: Greatness is not synonymous with fame. That is an ancient and false equation. Yes, there were great leaders like Churchill, Lincoln, Jefferson, Ben Gurion, Mandela, Walesa and others. While their greatness was defined in the public arena, most heroic acts are infinately more private. They're found in small lives that are elevated out of the human will to do better. It is true nobility.

The religious traditions may make your eye roll. There’s too much idealization and exploitation in these institutions. But, the religious impulse came not from empire building, but rather from the discovery of human greatness.

• The Bible tells us to take care of the poor and the widow. It pushes us to reach out to those outside our kin and take care of those in need. That’s revolutionary.

• The Buddha tells us to center our minds – and that so much pain is a result of our own creation.

• And, the ancient teaching of the Kabbalah claims that the world is a broken place, filled with fragments of Divine presence. According to this teaching, it’s up to each of us – each moment – to heal this place we inhabit.

Find Greatness in Your Life: Unfortunately, religion often misses out on its potential by encouraging us to idealize its institutions as if we’re children. We need to be adults, with the spiritual goal of being a better person tomorrow than we are today. Our priests and rabbis; our athletes and statesmen; our actors and ourselves – each person has their own challenges.

Where do we find greatness?

We do this in the nitty-gritty of living.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-intelligent-divorce/201304/wake-you-can-change-the-world

Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming (A point of View)

Astral projection (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of the out of body experience assuming the existence of a spirit.

The symptoms are much the same as an OBE: feelings of floating out of your body, meeting other entities, and experiencing the physical world from an ethereal perspective (ie, being able to float through walls and teleport instantly around the universe).

However, the expectation principle can cause the experience of astral projection to take on a highly spiritual form. Believers in the afterlifeexpect to see angels, deceased spirits and even gods - and so that is what they do see.

They may travel to different "astral planes"; layers of ethereal realities shaped by energy and light. Yet one key similarity remains: in astral projection, out of body experiences and lucid dreams, your thoughts guide the experience.

So if you imagine a friend's house, you will likely zap there in an instant. If you imagine your body back in bed, you will quickly return to it. And if you expect to see an astral chord connecting you to your body, it will materialize for you.

Is Astral Projection Real?

Scientists do not believe that astral projection is real. It is a spiritual theory, and other than first-hand accounts, we have no physical evidence of the phenomena.

While lucid dreams and OBEs are officially deemed as internally generated experiences, astral projection is the belief that the spirit literally travels outside the body, in real, externally generated spiritual realms.

That is an extraordinary claim - and therefore requires extraordinary proof. Of course, everyone can freely decide what to make of their personal experiences, but if you have not yet experienced out-of-body phenomena for yourself, I do urge you to play down any spiritual interpretation for the time being. Here's precisely why.

The Expectation Principle

For the OBE explorer, is belief in the astral world a help or hindrance?

In general, much of the dogma surrounding astral projection is positive. So-called spirit travelers claim to communicate with deceased loved ones and even entities from alien worlds. Intrepid explorers are rewarded with mind-blowing experiences that may forever convince them of life after death.

However, some astral projection experiences are portrayed as quite frightening, because of the direct implications of mingling with the spirit world. One example is from the lucid dreamer, Erin Pavlina, who described her first astral projection experience as terrifying:

Under the effect of sleep paralysis, Erin sensed three other entities in her bedroom, trying to coax her out of body. She had problems trying to breathe, scream, and free herself from the paralysis. The more she fought it, the more terrified she became, until she eventually woke up and had a nervous breakdown.

Erin believed her spirit was in a literal tug-of-war against the presences in her room (who, incidentally, she could also hear talking about her). This would be a terrifying experience for anyone! However, when we take a scientific perspective, we can rationalize what was actually happening and greatly reduce the element of the unknown - and therefore the fear involved.

What if you knew, without doubt, that your experience was just a dream (or nightmare) while it was happening? Wouldn't that empower you to clear your head and take control? That is what lucid dreamers frequently do when they encounter nightmares. Erin was already an advanced lucid dreamer by this point, yet her powerful belief in the spirit world led her to believe that this out-of-body experience was completely beyond her control.

After that, Erin had many more astral experiences and met many more negative entities in the spirit world. Eventually she learned to fight them (Buffy-The-Vampire-Slayer-style). Yet in lucid dreams, there is no need to run in fear from your nightmare figures - you can embrace and relate to them. If Erin had believed this was possible during her early astral experiences, I'm sure she would have had a lot more positive learning experiences instead of having to fight these twisted spirits.

This is one instance where belief in astral projection can seriously hold back your adventures. Once you realize it is an extension of the lucid dream state, you gain so much more freedom and confidence to explore these worlds in total safety.

Final Thoughts

For detailed journal accounts of astral projection / OBE phenomena, check out:

Journeys Out of The Body by Robert Monroe - An engaging introduction to out of body experiences, relating how Monroe began having involuntary OBEs in the 1950s and first thought he was going mad. As a doctor, he includes some shocking diary excerpts from a rational scientific perspective, even though he ended up taking a deeply spiritual perspective of his experiences beyond the body. While many now believe his experiences were internal, they were real enough for him to warrant close inspection.

http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/astral-projection.html

How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes

How do you discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.

Perhaps you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number 20 in the title of this blog entry to 40 (or 60 if you’re really stubborn). Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of investing an hour just in case?

Here’s a story about Bruce Lee which sets the stage for this little exercise. A master martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”

If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all).

So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.

Here’s what to do:

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder. To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a different source entirely.

For those who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist, after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and do it anyway.

As you go through this process, some of your answers will be very similar. You may even re-list previous answers. Then you might head off on a new tangent and generate 10-20 more answers along some other theme. And that’s fine. You can list whatever answer pops into your head as long as you just keep writing.

At some point during the process (typically after about 50-100 answers), you may want to quit and just can’t see it converging. You may feel the urge to get up and make an excuse to do something else. That’s normal. Push past this resistance, and just keep writing. The feeling of resistance will eventually pass.

You may also discover a few answers that seem to give you a mini-surge of emotion, but they don’t quite make you cry — they’re just a bit off. Highlight those answers as you go along, so you can come back to them to generate new permutations. Each reflects a piece of your purpose, but individually they aren’t complete. When you start getting these kinds of answers, it just means you’re getting warm. Keep going.

It’s important to do this alone and with no interruptions. If you’re a nihilist, then feel free to start with the answer, “I don’t have a purpose,” or “Life is meaningless,” and take it from there. If you keep at it, you’ll still eventually converge.

When I did this exercise, it took me about 25 minutes, and I reached my final answer at step 106. Partial pieces of the answer (mini-surges) appeared at steps 17, 39, and 53, and then the bulk of it fell into place and was refined through steps 100-106. I felt the feeling of resistance (wanting to get up and do something else, expecting the process to fail, feeling very impatient and even irritated) around steps 55-60. At step 80 I took a 2-minute break to close my eyes, relax, clear my mind, and to focus on the intention for the answer to come to me — this was helpful as the answers I received after this break began to have greater clarity.

Here was my final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world in peace.

When you find your own unique answer to the question of why you’re here, you will feel it resonate with you deeply. The words will seem to have a special energy to you, and you will feel that energy whenever you read them.

Discovering your purpose is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it with you on a daily basis and working on yourself to the point where you become that purpose.

If you’re inclined to ask why this little process works, just put that question aside until after you’ve successfully completed it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably have your own answer to why it works. Most likely if you ask 10 different people why this works (people who’ve successfully completed it), you’ll get 10 different answers, all filtered through their individual belief systems, and each will contain its own reflection of truth.

Obviously, this process won’t work if you quit before convergence. I’d guesstimate that 80-90% of people should achieve convergence in less than an hour. If you’re really entrenched in your beliefs and resistant to the process, maybe it will take you 5 sessions and 3 hours, but I suspect that such people will simply quit early (like within the first 15 minutes) or won’t even attempt it at all. But if you’re drawn to read this blog (and haven’t been inclined to ban it from your life yet), then it’s doubtful you fall into this group.

Give it a shot! 

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose-in-about-20-minutes/

The Law of Attraction -A point of view

The Law of Attraction simply says that you attract into your life whatever you think about.  Your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest.  But the Law of Attraction gives rise to some tough questions that don’t seem to have good answers.  I would say, however, that these problems aren’t caused by the Law of Attraction itself but rather by the Law of Attraction as applied to objective reality.

Here are some of those problematic questions (all are generalizations of ones I received via email):

• What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?
• Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?
• If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?
• If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?

These questions seem to weaken the plausibility of the Law of Attraction.  Sometimes people answer them by going pretty far out.  For example, it’s been said by LoAers that a young child experiences abuse because s/he intended it or earned it during a past life.  Well, sure… we can explain just about anything if we bring past lives into the equation, but IMO that’s a cop-out.  On the other hand, objective reality without the Law of Attraction doesn’t provide satisfactory answers either — supposedly some kids are just born unlucky.  That’s a cop-out too.

I’ve never been satisfied by others’ answers to these questions, and they’re pretty important questions if the Law of Attraction is to be believed.  Some books hint at the solution but never really nail it.  That nail, however, can be found in the concept of subjective reality.

Subjective reality is a belief system in which (1) there is only one consciousness, (2) you are that singular consciousness, and (3) everything and everyone in your reality is a projection of your thoughts.

You may not see it yet, but subjective reality neatly answers all these tricky Law of Attraction questions.  Let me ‘splain….

In subjective reality there’s only one consciousness, and it’s yours.  Consequently, there’s only one source of intentions in your universe — YOU.  While you may observe lots of walking, talking bodies in your reality, they all exist inside your consciousness.  You know this is how your dreams work, but you haven’t yet realized your waking reality is just another type of dream.  It only seems solid because you believe (intend) it is.

Since none of the other characters you encounter are conscious in a way that’s separate from you, nobody else can have intentions.  The only intentions are yours.  You’re the only thinker in this universe.

It’s important to correctly define the YOU in subjective reality.  YOU are not your physical body.  This is not the egoic you at all.  I’m not suggesting you’re a conscious body walking around in a world full of unconscious automatons.  That would be a total misunderstanding of subjective reality.  The correct viewpoint is that you’re the single consciousness in which this entire reality takes place.

Imagine you’re having a dream.  In that dream what exactly are YOU?  Are YOU the physical dream character you identify with?  No, of course not — that’s just your dream avatar.  YOU are the dreamer.  The entire dream occurs within your consciousness.  All dream characters are projections of your dream thoughts, including your avatar.  In fact, if you learn lucid dreaming, you can even switch avatars in your dream by possessing another character.  In a lucid dream, you can do anything you believe you can.

Physical reality works the same way.  This is a denser universe than what you experience in your sleeping dreams, so changes occur a bit more gradually here.  But this reality still conforms to your thoughts just like a sleeping dream.  YOU are the dreamer in which all of this is taking place.

The idea that other people have intentions is an illusion because other people are just projections.  Of course, if you strongly believe other people have intentions, then that’s the dream you’ll create for yourself.  But ultimately it’s still an illusion.

Here’s how subjective reality answers these challenging Law of Attraction questions:

What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?

Since you’re the only intender, this is entirely an internal conflict — within YOU.  You’re holding the thought (the intention) for both people to want the same position.  But you’re also thinking (intending) that only one can get it.  So you’re intending competition.  This whole situation is your creation.  You believe in competition, so that’s what you manifest.  Maybe you have some beliefs (thoughts and intentions) about who will get the promotion, in which case your expectations will manifest.  But you may have a higher order belief that life is random, unfair, uncertain, etc., so in that case you may manifest a surprise because that’s what you’re intending.

Being the only intender in your reality places a huge responsibility on your shoulders.  You can give up control of your reality by thinking (intending) randomness and uncertainty, but you can never give up responsibility.  You’re the sole creator in this universe.  If you think about war, poverty, disease, etc., that’s exactly what you’ll manifest.  If you think about peace, love, and joy, you’ll manifest that too.  Your reality is exactly what you think it is.  Whenever you think about anything, you summon its manifestation.

Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?

No.  Your own body doesn’t even put out intentions — only your consciousness does.  You’re the only one who has intentions, so what takes precedence is what YOU intend for the children, babies, and animals in your reality.  Every thought is an intention, so however you think about the other beings in your reality is what you’ll eventually manifest for them.  Keep in mind that beliefs are hierarchical, so if you have a high order belief that reality is random and unpredictable and out of your control, then that intention will trump other intentions of which you’re less certain.  It’s your entire collection of thoughts that dictates how your reality manifests.

If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?

No.  It means YOU intended it.  You intend child abuse to manifest simply by thinking about it.  The more you think about child abuse (or any other subject), the more you’ll see it expand in your reality.  Whatever you think about expands, and not just in the narrow space of your avatar but in all of physical reality.

If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?

This is another example of intending conflict.  You’re projecting one intention for your avatar and one for your spouse, so the actual unified intention is that of conflict.  Hence the result you experience, subject to the influence of your higher order beliefs, will be to experience conflict with your spouse.  If your thoughts are conflicted, your reality is conflicted.

This is why assuming responsibility for your thoughts is so important.  If you want to see peace in the world, then intend peace for EVERYTHING in your reality.  If you want to see abundance in the world, then intend it for EVERYONE.  If you want to enjoy loving relationships, then intend loving relationships for ALL.  If you intend these only for your own avatar but not for others, then you’re intending conflict, division, and separation; consequently, that’s what you’ll experience.

If you stop thinking about something entirely, does that mean it disappears?  Yes, technically it does.  But in practice it’s next to impossible to uncreate what you’ve already manifested.  You’ll continue creating the same problems just by noticing them.  But when you assume 100% responsibility for everything you’re experiencing in your reality right now — absolutely everything — then you assume the power to alter your reality by rechanneling your thoughts.

This entire reality is your creation.  Feel good about that.  Feel grateful for the richness of your world.  And then begin creating the reality you truly want by making decisions and holding intentions.  Think about what you desire, and withdraw your thoughts from what you don’t want.  The most natural, easiest way to do this is to pay attention to your emotions.  Thinking about your desires feels good, and thinking about what you don’t want makes you feel bad.  When you notice yourself feeling bad, you’ve caught yourself thinking about something you don’t want.  Turn your focus back towards what you do want, and your emotional state will improve rapidly.  As you do this repeatedly, you’ll begin to see your physical reality shift too, first in subtle ways and then in bigger leaps.

I too am just a manifestation of your consciousness.  I play the role you expect me to play.  If you expect me to be a helpful guide, I will be.  If you expect me to be profound and insightful, I will be.  If you expect me to be confused or deluded, I will be.  But of course there’s no distinct ME that is separate from YOU.  I’m just one of your many creations.  I am what you intend me to be.  But deep down you already knew that, didn’t you?

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/08/the-law-of-attraction/

The Power of Hypnosis

Studies show that hypnosis can treat everything from chronic pain to poor study habits. Chances are, it can work for you.

By Deirdre Barrett, published on January 01, 2001 - last reviewed on September 02, 2010

Nancy Jordan sat down in my office and lit a cigarette--a deadly habit, given her severe asthma and tobacco allergies. Jonathan Hunter, M.D.--my supervisor, her psychotherapist--was also in the room. He wanted to attend Nancy's first hypnotherapy session to put the shy college sophomore at ease. I knew he was also eager to observe hypnosis. "Hunter," as he was known, was supervising my graduate school psychotherapy program. Although Hunter was no hypnotist, I had taken a hypnosis course and had been practicing on volunteers for a semester. We agreed that he would direct me on general psychological aspects of Nancy's treatment, my first hypnotherapy case.

I positioned my chair at a 90-degree angle to the recliner in which my young patient sat. I asked Nancy to look up at the ceiling, where four porous tiles intersected in a neat point. (I have yet to encounter a hypnotist who uses a swinging gold pocket watch. Instead, we ask clients to gaze at a steady object to block distracting visual stimuli.)

"Stare at the point on the ceiling and let your breathing become slow and deep. Let your body begin to relax, starting with the muscles of your feet and toes. Let your thighs relax; let all tension flow out of your legs." I gradually slowed my voice as I spoke to subliminally cue her breathing to slow down. "As you continue to stare at the point on the ceiling, your eyelids become heavier, as if a weight were attached, pulling them gently down. You may notice the point starting to move or change color; that will be a sign that you are beginning to go into hypnosis. Each time you blink, it gets harder to open your eyes. Soon they will close completely, and you will sink into a peaceful, sleeplike state." Nancy looked drowsy, and her eyes began to droop.

At that point I glanced over at Hunter to see what he thought of the induction. The worst reaction my insecure imagination could conjure was mild disapproval, but what I saw was infinitely more dismaying: My big, rangy supervisor sat slumped in his chair. His eyes were closed, muscles lax, breathing barely detectable.

I stalled as I wondered what to do next. I could just proceed. But I had no idea how Hunter, a nonsmoker, would respond to my commands about Nancy's smoking. What if he woke, thinking he did smoke? I decided to bring both Nancy and Hunter out of the trance. She gradually opened her eyes as his popped open. After a moment of confusion, he quickly affected a look of exaggerated nonchalance. I made another appointment with Nancy, and she went on her way.

"You were out cold!" I announced to Hunter the instant the door closed behind her.

He looked perplexed again. "I think I dozed off. I remember you saying my eyes would close--er, I mean, her eyes would close. Maybe I was hypnotized."

Can you be hypnotized? Most people like to think that they can't. There is often the suspicion that being hypnotized could label them as being weak-willed, naive or unintelligent. But in fact, modern research shows that hypnotizability is correlated with intelligence, concentration and focus. Hypnosis is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon, but rather a continuum. Most people can be hypnotized to some degree--the only question is how far.

A hypnotic trance is not therapeutic in and of itself, but specific suggestions and images fed to clients in a trance can profoundly alter their behavior. As they rehearse the new ways they want to think and feel, they lay the groundwork for powerful changes in their future actions. For example, in hypnosis, I often tell people who are trying to quit smoking that they will go hours without even thinking of a cigarette, that if they should light up, the cigarette will taste terrible and they'll want to put it out immediately. I'll talk them through the imagery of being a nonsmoker--some combination of finding themselves breathing easier, having more energy for exercise, enjoying subtle tastes and smells again, having fresh breath and clean-smelling closing, feeling good about their health, even saving money on cigarettes or whatever motivates that person to quit. The deep relaxation of a hypnotic trance is also broadly beneficial as many illnesses, both psychological or physical, are aggravated by anxiety and muscle tension.

Research over the last 40 years shows that such hypnotic techniques are safe and effective. Furthermore, a growing number of studies show that hypnotherapy can treat headaches, ease the pain of childbirth, aid in quitting smoking, improve concentration and study habits, relieve minor phobias, and serve as anesthesia--all without drugs or side effects

 http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200101/the-power-hypnosis

Joke 5/03/13

Patient: Why did you charge me a group rate?  Psychiatrist: Youve got multiple personalities.

The Serious Need for Play

On August 1, 1966, the day psychiatrist Stuart Brown started his assistant professorship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 25-year-old Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower on the Austin campus and shot 46 people. Whitman, an engineering student and a former U.S. Marine sharpshooter, was the last person anyone expected to go on a killing spree. After Brown was assigned as the state’s consulting psychiatrist to investigate the incident and later, when he interviewed 26 convicted Texas murderers for a small pilot study, he discovered that most of the killers, including Whitman, shared two things in common: they were from abusive families, and they never played as kids.

Brown did not know which factor was more important. But in the 42 years since, he has interviewed some 6,000 people about their childhoods, and his data suggest that a lack of opportunities for unstructured, imaginative play can keep children from growing into happy, well-adjusted adults. “Free play,” as scientists call it, is critical for becoming socially adept, coping with stressand building cognitive skills such as problem solving. Research into animal behavior confirms play’s benefits and establishes its evolutionary importance: ultimately, play may provide animals (including humans) with skills that will help them survive and reproduce.

In Brief

• Childhood play is crucial for social, emotional and cognitive ­development.
• Imaginative and rambunctious “free play,” as opposed to games or structured activities, is the most essential type.
• Kids and animals that do not play when they are young may grow into anxious, socially maladjusted adults.
• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-serious-need-for-play