Category: Spiritual Growth


Getting Ready for Psychic Development

Filed Under: Intuitive Development, Psychic Ability, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Getting Ready for Psychic Development

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC.  All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have been getting readings from a gifted psychic for years. I recently tried to sign up for her psychic development course, but she told me that I wasn’t ready yet, which left me feeling rejected. When I asked her what made me not ready, she pointed out my dependence on prescription medication for a mental health problem, and some deep issues I have been struggling to get past in my own life for a number of years. She also mentioned that I often fail to take the advice given in readings, and said that this indicates a lack of readiness for new lessons. I’m really upset by all of this, and I’m wondering if she was offended or something because I didn’t follow her advice. I also regret telling her about the mental health issue. Does someone have to be “perfect” to be ready for psychic development? Would you ever refuse a student as not ready like this?
– G.

Dear G.:

My sense is that your teacher is wisely trying to guide you to the safest path for you, for psychic development without a strong spiritual foundation is always a foolish undertaking.

There is a definite relationship between spiritual awakening (which includes the natural development of psychic abilities) and “madness.” If we are reckless with this powerful process, we risk temporary insanity, by which I mean the ability to cope with life on a psychological level. (This is not to be confused with the very normal experience of awakening and wondering if we’re losing our minds. If we’re suddenly seeing things others can’t and having all kinds of far out experiences, wondering if we could be nuts is a very healthy sign.)

Interest in psychic phenomena often develops naturally in the early stages of spiritual awakening, for that is when folks usually have their first psychic experiences. However, awakening and immediately leaping into psychic development is sort of like being born on Earth and as an infant, being thrust out into the hustle and bustle of worldly affairs. We’re fragile and thin-skinned and we know nothing about this strange new realm. We need time to grow and get used to our new bodies and this new dimension of experience before we go exploring its strangest corners.

Many awakening people in the process of getting acclimated are overwhelmed by everyday life. This is because they are now “hypersensitive.” On a physical level, stimuli that others consider normal or tolerable may be literally painful to them. Psychologically and emotionally, they are deeply affected by everything around them, and may care so much it hurts. At the same time, they frequently experience surges of kundalini (life force energy) that they have no creative outlets for.

Modern Western culture has no real knowledge of this spiritual awakening process and no established course for navigating its unique challenges, so early awakening is often a time of profound struggle, and many people develop addictions as coping mechanisms. Alcohol is a very quick remedy for hypersensitivity, for it brings temporary relief by dulling the senses. Compulsive eating, drug use, sexual addiction – anything that may feel comforting or offer an outlet for overwhelming energy may become an addiction at this point.

Conversely, a person may cope by “shutting down” into depression and withdrawing from life in general. They may also seek help from “experts” who tell them what is “wrong” with them and give them a magic pill like Prozac to help them limp by. I am not saying any of these things are “wrong,” mind you – sometimes, they are the only way an individual can cope given the spiritual ignorance of the modern world. They are all crutches, however, and to be ready for big spiritual adventures, we must be able to stand on our own two feet. When one has a sprained ankle, the crutches are not the problem; they are a sign that there is a problem, and that undertaking a big journey now would probably prove dangerous or painful.

Just as a baby learns and grows and gets acclimated, all of this will eventually work itself out. Part of getting comfortable at this new vibration involves honestly facing and healing fears and wounds. When our shadows and self-deceptions have been burned off through the fire of spiritual growth, we will rise from our own ashes into new personal power and understanding. This doesn’t happen just once of course; it’s an endless spiraling process of personal evolution.

As the lower self/ego resists its demise, it will try to defend itself with all kinds of tactics designed to distract us from our spiritual path. These may be frightening experiences, addictions, cyclic problems and dramas, physical pain, romantic/ sexual addictions, unusual habits or obsessions, etc. The more these things hold our attention and energy, the more the lower self is in control.

Some of the things you mentioned, such as the dependence on psychiatric drugs and your failure to move past recurring personal problems, suggest that you’re having trouble rising above the lower self and coping with everyday life. Again, there is nothing “wrong” with this. I know few people who don’t have trouble coping now and then, myself included. However, if we can’t manage to get up in the morning and handle the tasks of the day, or we can’t deal with normal people and normal situations without medication, then we’ve got no business galloping off into strange new realms. This is not just my opinion; many teachers and healers report that certain psychoactive drugs, including commonly prescribed medications, can profoundly aggravate spiritual emergencies.

Folks in the fragile state of early awakening don’t need new spiritual challenges; they need help with getting comfortable in their new skin. Before we start seeking greater powers, we must learn how to handle the power we’ve already acquired.

As a student, I used to think warnings about being ready before exploring psi experiences were just plain paranoid, but as a teacher, I’ve learned how important it is for students to be strong, capable and grounded. Now before I’d teach someone struggling with “normal life” how to explore subtle realms of experience, I’d help them learn how to cope with their hypersensitivity, face their own inner shadows, heal buried wounds, and find their way to a place of new strength, well-being and discernment. I’d insist my students be healthy in body and mind and free from addictions and other “coping” mechanisms. While they might have “problems” or issues like anyone else, they could not be dependent on psychiatric drugs in order to cope with everyday life.

While I’m all for taking the path of least resistance, spiritual development does require discipline and character. The popular New Age attachment to doing only whatever most pleases us in the moment often traps those with strong egos in endless loops of temporal avoidance and gratification. There’s nothing wrong with wanting pleasure all the time, but NEEDING it is a sign that the lower self is steering the ship. To prepare to develop higher powers, we must master the drives of the lower self, such as our endless hunger for emotional comfort and pleasure.

Cultivating self-awareness and stretching yourself into ever greater competency with your normal life will naturally ready you for conscious spiritual development. When you feel grounded, comfortable, and capable of standing on your own two feet in everyday situations, you will be ready for extraordinary new spiritual adventures.

– Soul Arcanum

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How Can She Pick Herself Up and Turn Her Whole Life Around?

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Healing, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on How Can She Pick Herself Up and Turn Her Whole Life Around?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I am 23-year-old woman who is currently pregnant. I don’t have a steady boyfriend at present; the man who fathered my baby is good for nothing. I do have a sweet little girl whom I love very much. Her father is taking care of her even though she is staying with my mother. I’m living a very low life. I have too many friends I cannot trust, and I love drinking alcohol. Part of me wants to change to become a better person, but the other part still wants to live this loose life. I don’t know how I am going to change. Every time I enter a new relationship, job, make new friends, etc., everything seems to go awry. I feel like I’m doomed. I was involved in a car crash in January of 1997, and my boyfriend at that time did not even come to the hospital. He didn’t care if I was alive or dead! Every man seems to just not care after they get what they want, which is to take me to bed. I have done many things I am not proud of. Is it normal that at the tender age of 23, I have slept with more than 250 men? Soul Arcanum, I really need your help. Can you give me advice on how to turn my life around?
T.

Dear T.:

While I’m going to focus this column on helping YOU, I have to say a word here about your innocent little girl and unborn child. Unless you want your children to grow up and be just like you and suffer the same way you’re suffering, you need to get a grip on yourself NOW. The part of you that wants something better than this is going to have to SLAY that part of you that wants to continue living a “loose life,” as you put it. You would protect your daughter with your very life, so lay down the life of that foolish, misguided teenager inside you, and step with all of your being toward the strong, wise mother you know you can be.

Now that I’ve said that, I can offer you my compassion. It’s clear to me that you’re carrying a lot of baggage from your childhood and even before that (from past lives). I’m shown that you have been an alcoholic in several past lives, and a prostitute in at least one lifetime. In that life, you did it to survive, but in this life, you have so many more choices. So while it may not seem “normal” to be so promiscuous, for you it hasn’t necessarily been strange. Unless you want to keep this up for all eternity, however, you’re going to have to consciously choose to change. Acknowledge that you have done the best you could, forgive yourself for those things you’re not proud of, then move on! Forget about the past and focus everything you have on who you want to be and how you want to live.

The main thing you must learn is how to say NO to things that will destroy your well-being and happiness. You have thus far said yes to everything and everyone that comes your way. Someone offers you alcohol/drugs? Yes! Someone asks you to go to bed with them? Yes!

The reason you say yes is because you’re desperate for love. You keep trying to be what you think others want you to be in order to fill that empty, achy, lonely feeling in your heart, but you’re waking up to the truth that what you’ve been getting by taking this approach is not love at all, and only leaves you feeling worse in the end. Disrespecting yourself as you have will only lead others to use you, for if you don’t respect yourself, why should they? There are all sorts of users and abusers in the world, and you have become a magnet for them. You thus far have just not loved yourself enough to protect yourself and to demand more and better from life and people.

As you do love your daughter that much, she is actually going to help you change your life. Through mothering your daughter, you have come to know the sort of love you need to feel for yourself. Now you can go back and parent yourself into feeling like you deserve more than what you’ve been putting up with. I want you to start treating yourself the way you’d want your daughter to be treated by herself and by others. If some stranger wanted to use her and take her to bed, what would you want her to do? If you saw her throwing away her mind, body and spirit on alcohol, junkie friends and unsafe sex, what would you want her to do? (That is what you should do!)

Find a minister or an energy healer and get some help with reconnecting with the Divine,  reclaiming your personal power, and detoxing on every level. (A church is probably best, as it would be a good source of free or inexpensive help.) I also want you to start attending church so that you can meet a higher quality of people. Start befriending older WOMEN there; reach out for help from women who are solid and strong and won’t let you make excuses when that weaker side of you wants to go on ruining your life. I’m sure there are also social service agencies where you can get connected with other women who are sincerely trying to improve their lives as well. You need true friends now. You need to ask for help and start helping others too. There are lots of young single mothers out there – reach out and work together!

I know your heart is aching for someone to truly care for you, and that this is driving much of your self-destructive behavior. What you need to get from this column is that your relationships with others will mirror your relationship to yourself. If you are self-destructive in your thinking and habits, others will be abusive toward you. If you respect yourself and take great care of yourself, others will respect you and want to take care of you similarly. Respecting yourself here means taking good care of your body (not abusing drugs or alcohol and not giving yourself sexually to any guy who smiles at you). It means getting rid of the people in your life who are behaving in ways you neither admire nor want to emulate. It means cleaning up your act and putting your heart and soul into becoming the kind of woman and mother you most want to be. The harder you work at it, the more you will respect yourself, and the better your life will get.

You can initiate this personal transformation by detoxing on a physical level immediately. I know you’re pregnant, so I don’t want you to do anything drastic like fasting or taking unusual supplements, etc. Just cut out all the garbage: no alcohol, no drugs, no junk food. Eat fruit and vegetables. Look to natural foods for nourishment. Given what you’re putting into your body, it’s no wonder you’re miserable. (If you need help with addiction, GET IT! There is so much free help available out there.)

Then you’ll feel strong enough to detox on an emotional and mental level by getting rid of those users and abusers and doing whatever else you need to do to move forward with your life. You should also take some time to thank the dickens out of your mom and anyone else who has really been there for you. She can and will help you if you are sincere in your efforts to change your life. She has been waiting for you to wake up. You have broken her heart time and time again; it’s time for you to actively begin to try to undo all that hurt you’ve caused. She’s on your side!

You have a loving mother, a sweet child, and a new baby on the way. You have so much to turn your life around for. Think of your children and set a good example, for they are learning how to be in the world by watching you.

In a nutshell: demand more of yourself and the people you let into your world, and you will turn your life around. The time is NOW my friend; I’m sending prayers for strength your way.

– Soul Arcanum

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Further Healing Old Emotional Wounds

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Healing, Karma, Relationships, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Further Healing Old Emotional Wounds

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I need some advice on a situation that doesn’t seem to want to finish. I had a short but cataclysmic relationship with a young man a few months back. We were both in places in our lives at the time that drew us to one another very quickly and intensely. Things progressed rapidly then suddenly blew up. It was devastating to me, but I’ve done a lot of work around this and have come to a pretty good place. I finally allowed myself to be angry with him, and then I forgave him and it felt wonderful. Since he teaches at my daughter’s school, I see him in the mornings, but the kicker was getting an email from him telling me that he is looking at an apartment in my building. I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of the Universe, yet the old wounds began to open up. Part of me isn’t the slightest bit surprised that he is marching back into my life, for I’ve always believed we had more stuff to work through. I try to feel loving toward him as I know he is going through some challenges himself, yet I need to resist getting sucked into the cycle of putting his needs above my own. How do I gracefully accept the possibility that he can be my neighbor as if nothing ever happened between us? I want to tell him to get lost and go live somewhere else, yet I wonder why he is coming back (or being sent back) into my life. What do you think?
Loretta

Dear Loretta:

Before we delve into your personal spiritual lessons in this situation, I think it’s important to contemplate the possibility that he is missing you and was either feeling you out by telling you he was thinking about moving closer to you, or is indeed planning on moving into your building because he hopes that with time and effort, he may be able to rekindle your romance. (If he was as anxious to put your relationship in the past as you seem to be, instead of emailing you, he would most likely either look elsewhere for an apartment or at the very least, avoid telling you about his plans.)

This possibility aside, let’s explore the deeper spiritual issues at play here. Your reaction to this situation indicates that you do indeed have more healing and growth to accomplish. This is something of a spiritual test of your healing status. Given your panicked reaction, I think you’d be wise to view this situation as a wonderful opportunity for you to heal more completely from this very intense emotional experience. (If this process was complete, hearing from him and seeing him wouldn’t faze you any longer.)

Your situation illustrates one of the strange but beautiful things about the Universe: anything left unfinished naturally comes back up for us time after time until we master it. It may not seem like the time is right for you to deal with this yet, but these things also tend to happen when we’re ready to take our learning and growing to the next level.

Further, our feelings are very clear road markers regarding where we are vibrationally in relationship to other people, relationships, issues and experiences. When someone from the past comes back into our lives and we’re overjoyed, then clearly, there is nothing troublesome that was buried under the carpet that needs to be brought out into the open and cleaned up. When someone shows back up and we feel wary, anxious, angry, upset, etc., it’s a sign that there is great potential for further personal growth via this situation.

This doesn’t mean that we have to welcome everyone we’ve ever been involved with back into our lives with open arms. In fact, I often read for people whose lesson is to love themselves enough to learn to say no. Being confronted by people to whom they’ve given their power away in the past tests their resolve to create something better in their lives, and until they find the strength and self-love to choose what is really good for them, those people will keep coming back. So though we naturally want to run away from people who have broken our hearts in the past, they are often our greatest teachers.

Of course, people keep coming back into our experience in order for karma to be worked out as well. It’s my understanding that this doesn’t happen due to some grand elaborate plan. Instead, the force behind it is more like gravity: our intense emotional connections to people are like elastic bands, so whether we love them or hate them, when people evoke strong emotions in us, they will keep coming back into our experiences time after time, lifetime after lifetime.

Sometimes, even after we’ve personally made peace with the past, people come back into our experience because they still have karma or issues to work out. I don’t feel that this is the case for you, however, because if you were fully at peace with this whole experience, you wouldn’t be afraid of getting sucked back into things with him.

You mention being afraid of putting his needs before your own, and it sounds like this may be the big lesson in all of this for you. What better way to learn (and practice) honoring your own needs than by being in a situation that challenges you to remember? We don’t learn anything by avoiding challenges, which is no doubt why we subconsciously create and recreate the perfect situations in which to master whatever we need to learn.

As for trying to be neighbors as though nothing ever happened, I don’t see the point. Why pretend that nothing ever happened when it did? The more real you can be with your own true feelings and the truth of the situation, the faster and more directly you will be able to get to the heart of things where you can unravel anything that is tangled and move on to create the love, peace and happiness you long for.

I assure you that your situation holds nothing to fear and lots of blessings for you. Even if you do get sucked back into some sort of relationship with this guy, it will no doubt lead you either to the fulfillment of some desire or greater peace and clarity, after which you will be more empowered to create what you want in your life. If you strive to approach this situation with love and wisdom, it will also improve the karma between the two of you, which means the next time you reconnect, instead of feeling anxious, you may feel delighted and go on to enjoy all the love and harmony you’ve cultivated between you.

My advice on how to make the most of this situation can be summed up in one line: attitude is everything. This is true with spiritual lessons and with all of life’s challenges, for that matter. When we sink into fear and resist whatever comes our way, we make everything so much harder for ourselves. When instead, we stretch to be our very best selves, and we relax and choose to trust that one way or another, everything will work out fine, life begins to just flow. In fact, it does better than flow: it grows brighter and more beautiful every step of the way.

How you approach this will absolutely determine the quality of your experiences. If you can embody love and trust and let yourself shine, this situation may not affect you one bit as you sail forward to your dreams. If you really pour your best self into it, you may even be able to cultivate a deeply beautiful, rewarding experience for all involved.

– Soul Arcanum

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Shaktipat: Can Psychic Ability Be Transferred from One Person to Another?

Filed Under: Intuitive Development, Psychic Ability, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Shaktipat: Can Psychic Ability Be Transferred from One Person to Another?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved.
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I recently saw an advertisement from a woman who says she can “transfer” her psychic abilities to others. This is supposedly done in three day-long sessions, and the total cost is several thousand dollars. She claims that this is worth it because one can skip many years of psychic development. Is this possible? What do you think of this idea? Also, is it possible that just being in the presence of a “guru” can cause spiritual enlightenment?
– Jan

Dear Jan:

It is never wise to try to cut spiritual corners in order to access various spiritual “powers.” Psychic abilities unfold as a natural consequence of spiritual development; if we simply focus on spiritual growth, psychic and other spiritual abilities will develop of their own accord. It is foolish to put the powers first and the awakening second. I would thus be very suspicious of a spiritual teacher who was promoting instant psychic ability or suggesting that it’s possible to “sell” enlightenment!

There are good reasons that spiritual practices like meditation and yoga have been prescribed for millennia. When we devote ourselves to lifelong spiritual development via regular spiritual practice, we enjoy a smooth journey where one state of being naturally flows into the next.

Big problems may occur when this natural order isn’t followed. For example, sometimes people have “kundalini experiences” when kundalini (life force energy) is awakened suddenly or “accidentally.” This may happen as a result of a fall or blow to the tail bone, a near death experience, or the use of psychedelic drugs. When awakening occurs like this, one may go through quite an uncomfortable period or experience what some call a “spiritual emergency.”

To me it seems only prudent to listen to the teachings of spiritual masters, and to devote oneself to the work involved in achieving our aims. Trying to become psychic in a weekend is like putting on a black belt after a few days of karate training, or someone with an honorary degree trying to practice law or medicine. You might look the part, but would you really want to be put to the test? You can imagine all the problems that might erupt from such an approach.

Now, all of these matters aside, is it possible for a teacher to transfer spiritual powers to a student? Supposedly, this is one of the greatest blessings of having a “guru.” This gift of spiritual awakening is most commonly called shaktipat. It’s sort of an initiation wherein a master awakens a student into higher levels of consciousness.

Sadly, the sort of guru who can bestow shaktipat is probably very rare, but even if your spiritual teacher can’t enlighten you instantly with a touch or a look, you may still gain great blessings from such a relationship.

For obvious reasons, it is very helpful to have someone who has been where you want to go show you around. Great spiritual teachers can save you tons of time by teaching you what they have mastered themselves. They can help you remain motivated and hold you accountable to your own personal goals. They can help you over stumbling blocks, provide specific answers and personal guidance, and lend you support and understanding when no one else in your life has a clue what you’re going through. The further “out there” we get, the more refreshing and reassuring it is to find someone who truly understands our strange spiritual experiences because they have been through that twilight zone themselves.

Further, just being in the presence of some people can instantly alter our own vibration. I’ve been in lectures and classes with some great spiritual teachers, and felt everyone present move into synch with that teacher’s energy. It is said that one who is connected to the stream of pure positive energy is more powerful than thousands who are not, and this can be directly experienced in such situations.

Ram Dass and Deepak Chopra are two such teachers who come to mind. Deepak’s aura was the biggest I’ve ever seen; it extended beyond the walls of the huge auditorium he spoke in. This was very surprising to me, as I had some prejudices about him beforehand that I realized were totally unwarranted. Similarly, when I went to a lecture by Ram Dass many years ago, I was in an altered state of consciousness the entire time. I have no recollection of anything he said, in fact, but I was blissed out for days following this experience.

When in the presence of such a person, we may feel like we’ve been hypnotized, but I believe this is not a matter of brainwashing – we’re just “under the influence” of this master’s energy. It only makes sense that the more time we spend with such a person, the more our own vibration will entrain to theirs.

It is thus wise to spend time with people you admire, people who embody qualities you are trying to develop or who have already learned the knowledge and skills you wish to make your own. At the same time, however, it is NOT wise to deify human beings or to see them as somehow superior to us. This is disempowering to ourselves, and it’s a pretty heavy trip to lay on the teacher. Remember: we can not see in another anything we do not possess ourselves, so we might say that a “guru” is simply embodying some part of ourselves that we are in the process of discovering and developing.

So if you find yourself in the presence of some great spiritual teacher, know that it is because you are in harmony with their energy and with moving in this direction yourself. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. In time, you may outgrow this teacher and move on to a new one – someone who can guide you further along your path. This doesn’t mean each one of our teachers will be somehow better than the last, however – just that whatever we need at the time is what we will attract.

Even when people find themselves caught up with ‘false gurus’ to whom they have given away their personal power, it seems to me that they’ve attracted just what they needed. What a powerful lesson! Through this experience, they are learning not to deify human beings, but rather, to value their own inner truth and wisdom above all.

In summary, if you’re longing for a guru, make sure you’re not trying to skip over some of the work you see before you. When we try to take spiritual “short-cuts,” we often end up lost and far off course. Also, make sure you’re not looking for something outside of yourself that can only be found within. The ultimate guru (teacher) is within you, and can be accessed at any time by honoring your own inner knowing as your ultimate connection to divine wisdom. If you’re satisfied that neither of these is the case, then longing for a guru may in fact be a sign that you are being led to a new teacher.

If and when you do find a wonderful spiritual teacher, question everything and be very careful not to worship this individual. Remember that your “guru” is no more divine than you are, and is not infallible. Do not expect your teacher to be a living saint, either; just because someone knows more than we do about something, that doesn’t make them perfect. Gratefully accept from spiritual teachers the lessons, knowledge and experiences that resonate with you as true and useful, and leave the rest behind.

Remember too that this is not a one-way relationship, and even spiritual teachers must earn a living. Offer your teacher the same courtesy, kindness and understanding you would to anyone else, and make sure you are giving back in equal measure to what you receive, whether you do that by paying for your lessons, volunteering your time and energy, or expressing your heartfelt gratitude.

– Soul Arcanum

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Exploring New Psychic Territory

Filed Under: Afterlife, Psychic Ability, Spirit Communication, Spirits, Spiritual Growth, Strange Phenomena by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Exploring New Psychic Territory

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve read many of your articles, and you seem to have seen and done it all when it comes to psychic matters. Do you think that’s true? Are you ever surprised by your experiences?
– Ron

Dear Ron:

Like everyone else on a conscious spiritual path, I go through periods when nothing really new is happening, and periods when all sorts of crazy stuff is going on. Recently I’ve had a number of experiences that rocked my spiritual belief system.

It seems this new phase began when my father passed away about nine months ago. I had some profound spiritual experiences at that time, but they were nothing all that unusual for me, given my work as a medium. Following his death, however, things got more interesting.

I should first explain that I expected far more from his spirit than I got. My father and I were close, and he loved his family with gusto. Though we didn’t share the same spiritual beliefs, I still expected that if anyone would make a grand effort to reach out to me from Spirit, it would be him.

I was therefore surprised and disappointed when he didn’t appear to me in a blaze of divine glory with elaborate tales of the afterlife. While I did receive some subtle impressions from him, I was afraid this was wishful thinking on my part, and when I did go looking for him in Spirit, I couldn’t find him! It may be important to note that while my dad was a very intelligent, kind, successful man, he also had some serious food addiction issues. Since I know that addictions tend to cause spirits to become earthbound, I began to worry.

About three weeks after he died, I finally had a dream encounter with him that seemed to confirm my concerns. (Please note that a dream encounter is not a typical dream; it’s clearly an actual interaction with a spirit in the astral.)

In the dream encounter, my dad was glued to my brother’s side like a Siamese twin. (My brother also has serious food addiction issues, and this made me worry that Dad was trying to feed his addictions through my brother.) In this encounter my dad was barely conscious, but he was trying to tell me something. I had to lean very close to hear him, for his voice was just a raspy whisper. I had the impression that he didn’t know how to communicate telepathically – like this was the first time he had ever attempted this from Spirit.

I could only hear one sentence, but what he said was definitely something my dad would say. He said, “Thank you so much for trying so hard to reach out to me from the other side.” His main concern was to make me feel appreciated!

Following this experience, I began to be awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the doorbell. This is a classic way spirits get our attention: we’re awakened by the phone or doorbell, but there is no one there. Sometimes we believe the phone or doorbell truly rang, and other times (as in my case), as soon as we awaken, we realize that we only “thought” we heard the doorbell ring. (At the same time, however, it is more “real” than imagining it.)

While I had heard about such phenomena, I never expected this to happen to me. I assumed I would be far beyond such crude attempts to get my attention – after all, I’m a professional medium – I should be able to just dial Dad up any time I want!

Each time I heard this doorbell sound in the middle of the night, I would half wake up and then become aware of my father’s presence. When I roused myself completely and opened my eyes to physically look for him, however, I saw nothing. I learned that if I stayed in that half asleep mode, I would be able to feel him there. Again, this was really surprising, since I’ve had much clearer connections with other loved ones in Spirit in the past, not to mention hundreds of communications from virtual strangers in Spirit. I figured that my dad didn’t really know how to reach through from the other side, but he was trying hard.

I had several dream encounters with him over the following months. Recently, I’ve begun to meet with him nearly every night, and we have had some surprising exchanges. For example, a few weeks ago I dreamed that I was walking in a crowded hallway when I noticed him. This place felt like a nursing home or a hospital, and there were lots of “patients” milling around. When I noticed my dad, I turned to whoever was with me and said, “Oh my gosh! That’s my dad! I have to go talk to him!”

I went to him and hugged him, and I noticed that he didn’t look well. This really surprised me, and I realized that I had assumed that when we depart this world, we leave behind all illness and become radiantly healthy. I began to cry and express how much I miss him, when he quieted me and said, “Oh now, you know that this is not how to do it!” I knew that he meant that grief and sorrow are not appropriate for prolonged periods after a loved one dies, for they continue on, and we will see them again.

Some may argue that these are anxiety dreams I’m having, but I know they are not. I know the difference between a typical dream and an astral encounter, and these are definitely astral encounters. They have a different visual quality, they feel real, and we have literal, meaningful conversations. They also pack a lot of punch: I wake up moved by these dreams. I know I have been with my father, and we have truly communicated.

When I ask Spirit why my dad doesn’t seem healthy again, I hear that life (including the afterlife) is a journey of learning, growing, healing and evolving. If our illnesses and disabilities are limited to the physical, we shed them when we move on, but if they exist on a metaphysical level – if they’re part of our hearts, minds, and/or spirits – then they come with us, and we must heal them eventually.

As for other recent phenomena, I sometimes have striking spontaneous out of body experiences, which are always fascinating. I also frequently experience incredible “coincidences.” Many of these arise through my internet-based work. A number of times I’ve experienced something really strange and then read a story contest submission for Soul Arcanum that matched my experience, or which referred to specific names or other details in my experience. These “coincidences” are not born of looking for angels in the architecture: they’re of a striking and sometimes even a mind blowing nature.

For example, a couple of days ago I read an article that had been submitted as a possible future feature. In it, author Janis Amatuzio, MD, describes the events surrounding her father’s passing, and how a few days after he died, he sent her a sign through a song on the radio. The song arrived at just the right time, and it really moved her. The song was “In My Daughter’s Eyes” by Martina McBride.

I was bawling as I finished reading this article, because I had the EXACT same experience with my own father. Though I never listen to country music, when my father died, I was driving and crying and I asked him to send me a sign through the radio. I pushed the radio on, and that is the song that had just begun to play. The last lines are: “When I’m gone I hope you see how happy she made me, for I’ll be there in my daughter’s eyes.”

How did that particular article find its way to me? Did my father orchestrate all of this? Is it possible that somehow, the song I was sent was chosen because I would later receive this article, which would further validate this sign? Though my life is full of mind blowing serendipitous events, they never cease to amaze me.

Thanks for your great question, Ron. I certainly hope I will continue to explore new psychic territory for the rest of my life, and pray that your own world is rich with fascinating spiritual discoveries.

– Soul Arcanum

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Conquering Fear with Faith

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Energy/Vibration, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Conquering Fear with Faith

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

I want to be less fearful. I have big fears of the unknown, such as if this bill can get paid, if I can make enough to pay for what we need and so on. These fears take me over at times. I want to work with the law of attraction to create what I want in my life, and I know that fear is a big stumbling block for me. I keep telling myself I am okay and this seems to help. Do you have any advice for me?
-T.

Dear T.:

On a practical level, there is a lot you can do to align a smooth, carefree journey through life. There are some key differences between folks who always seem to be stressed and those who are usually calm and carefree. For example, people who rarely get anxious tend to plan ahead, stay organized, and create cushions in their lives so they don’t have to worry.

Financially, a cushion may be a savings account or a sum of money in your checking account that you only dip into when there’s an emergency. If you regularly have to meet work or school deadlines, you can develop the habit of moving them up on yourself so if something comes up, you won’t have to stress because you’ll have a buffer period to handle whatever has to be done. The more you create cushions throughout your life, the easier everything will seem.

Spiritually speaking, faith is something that each person must develop on their own. However, I can tell you how I changed from being just as anxiety-ridden as you are to having unshakable faith, and I can point you toward some metaphysical habits that will help you to conquer your own fears.

Some twenty years ago when my psychic doors blew open with my first pregnancy, I was a metaphysical mess! I was depressed, disempowered and riddled with anxieties. I was so anxious I developed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

My vibration was very low because I was so miserable and anxious, so when my psychic senses suddenly turned on, I attracted encounters with low level astral entities, which naturally just scared me even more. I’ve since learned that everyone who has a low vibration due to fear, anger or other negative emotions is a magnet for low level astral entities; most just don’t know it because they’re not psychically sensitive enough to perceive them.

Needless to say, I was very motivated to find a way to “protect” myself and leave those dark experiences behind. That’s when I learned about the power and wisdom of turning up our inner light. This is the first step in shifting to a higher level of experience whether we want to escape something scary or painful or we want to empower ourselves to manifest positive changes in our lives.

To turn up your inner light, you have to focus upon, cultivate and exude the qualities of your higher self. This will lift you above the fears and desires of the ego and connect you with a sense of faith and peace. You have to make a conscious choice to foster feelings of love, peace, compassion and understanding, and to flow those feelings out to other beings in this world and beyond.

When we do this, our bright inner light erases any shadows around us just like the darkness in a room disappears when we flip on a light switch. This is the ultimate in terms of psychic protection, personal healing and empowerment, for once we have a high vibration, we naturally attract people and situations of a higher nature, and can manifest whatever we want in our lives with relative ease.

As my vibration rose, my energy became a match for learning about the law of attraction, and from there things just got better and better. In studying the law of attraction and consciously experimenting with it, I received all sorts of signs, synchronicities and other evidence that we do indeed create our own realities.

This knowing is hugely comforting, for it means that we are not at the mercy of the whims of fate: we have control over what we manifest! Further, since what we focus upon expands in our lives, worrying about the future is foolish and counter-productive. This is a huge key to conquering fear with faith. Once you realize you have control, you just need to exercise it.

It’s also natural to become less anxious as we learn and grow, for with experience comes wisdom. If you look back on your own past, some truths should leap out at you. First, even though some bad things happened, given enough time they always worked out. No matter what you went through, you did eventually figure it out, make it happen, handle it, find a way through, heal, forgive, get over it, survive, go on to something better, etc. Guess what? That isn’t going to change – things will keep working out in the future just as they did in the past. Time will continue to heal all wounds.

Second, you’ll realize how self-defeating it is to worry about what might happen in the future because you desire to be happy, for in choosing to worry right now about what may or may not happen later, you are sacrificing your happiness up front. Further, you’re disempowering yourself from creating what you want in your life.

I know that understanding this doesn’t mean it will be easy to shed an entrenched worry habit, but part of our spiritual journey includes developing the wisdom and self-discipline to control our thoughts. Worrying is like poking a stick in an open wound: it hurts you in the moment and creates more pain and problems the more you do it. You may have a long standing habit of unconsciously poking at that wound, but the only way to change your course of experience is to get more conscious of your habits and summon the resolve to CHANGE.

Since what we focus upon expands in our lives, it doesn’t do any good to focus on quitting something or giving it up, so I’m going to offer you things you can do INSTEAD of worrying. Whenever you feel anxiety creeping in, get this list out and get busy!

*First, take whatever practical steps you can to align with what you want, especially creating those cushions I mentioned above.

*Read spiritual books and articles. Reading about the law of attraction will remind you of your personal power to create what you want in your life and shift you into a higher vibration. A few pages every day can make a huge difference. Also, put what you learn to good use by experimenting, for the more amazing things you manifest, the deeper your faith will be in your own power to create what you desire.

*Reading about other spiritual subjects like near-death experiences and reincarnation will reinforce your understanding that everything happens for a good reason. It will also soften your worst fears. For example, most likely the worst thing you can imagine is your own death or the death of a loved one. When you truly know and believe that death isn’t terrible at all – that it’s just a temporal change of state – your anxiety will dissipate.

*Resolve to surround yourself with positive people, experiences and energies. Create a soothing environment for yourself. If someone or something makes you anxious, distance yourself and focus on situations that feel good. Seek out uplifting people, positive films and TV shows, beautiful art, uplifting stories, etc.

The more you consciously cultivate faith, the better your life will get, for your vibration will rise and empower you to manifest all sorts of wonderful blessings, changes and opportunities.

 

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Is Marijuana Harmful to Your Astral Body?

Filed Under: Chakras/Auras, Energy/Vibration, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Is Marijuana Harmful to Your Astral Body?


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I use marijuana quite often when meditating but I have heard that drugs can harm my astral body. “Drugs” is a very broad term and I am not sure if marijuana falls under this category in terms of its effects on the astral body. What is your opinion?

Jacob

Dear Jacob:

Cannabis can be found all over the world. According to some historians and archeologists, marijuana has been used for various purposes for some 10,000 years. In addition to the many practical uses for hemp, marijuana was also used to enhance spiritual pursuits and awareness and for many medicinal purposes. I mention this because even when we are conscious of our social conditioning, it’s difficult for most people raised in the United States to think about marijuana without being influenced by our culture’s extreme bias against it.

There are spiritual schools of thought that carry strong warnings about the use of intoxicants. Buddhism has five main precepts, and not taking intoxicants is one of them. However, I believe these warnings were based on alcohol and intoxicants that tend to cause people to be careless and break their spiritual vows. Marijuana has a very different effect than alcohol; since marijuana tends to make people very peaceful and meditative, it may be a great spiritual tool. While no one knows for sure what the Buddha really did, many historians claim that for years, he ate hemp seeds every day when he was searching for enlightenment, so I doubt any Buddhist warnings about marijuana in particular came from the big guy himself.

Some Hindus also believe that drugs can damage one’s astral body and this can lead to future lives in which the body is physically or mentally malformed. In this school of thought, the worst thing you can for your astral body is to indulge in negative feelings like fear, anger and envy, for these also damage the astral body and lead to miserable future lives. It seems to me that we can drive ourselves crazy worrying about the damage we may be doing to our astral bodies simply by living, and that worrying in itself may also damage our astral bodies. Further, if experiencing negative emotions is the worst thing for our astral bodies, and getting <q>high</q> encourages positive feelings, then even those people who smoke marijuana to avoid dealing with negative feelings should benefit. (The problem, of course, is if you need drugs to feel better, then when you aren’t getting high, your vibration will plummet again.)

There are also Hindu teachers and mystics of a different opinion altogether. There is a rich tradition of using marijuana as a sacrament in the worship of Shiva, the god of power and ecstasy. In fact, in ancient Vedic texts, marijuana is referred to as “the Sacred Grass” and was one of the five sacred plants of India. There are many interesting books written on the subject of sacred plants. If you’re interested, here’s a link to one to get you started: Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers.

Clearly, if we look to religious traditions for the answer, we get a huge range of ideas from smoking marijuana being one of the worst things we could do to it being one of the most powerful ways to achieve a spiritual breakthrough. Though we’ve been conditioned to view illegal drug use as harmful and irresponsible, there are some who believe that “the gods” gifted humankind with plants like marijuana to help us spiritually, and if we work with spirits of such plants in a conscious way, they can bless us with great wisdom regarding the nature of reality.

As for more modern views, many clairvoyants say that drug use leads to a mucky, yucky energy field. In my experience, this is because most people use mind-altering substances to avoid dealing with difficult feelings. This causes those nasty feelings to get stuck in the aura, which is what causes the muckiness. While it’s true that drugs affect our auras, this is true of Tylenol, cough remedies, and allergy medications as much as alcohol, marijuana and other drugs.

Our auras are in a constant state of change. Just as we are constantly experiencing new things, changing, and healing, so are our auras. When people leave this life, they also leave behind the physical problems that troubled them when they were alive. For example, the blind can see, the deaf can hear, and cripples have no problem with mobility. Given all of that, I find it hard to believe that smoking marijuana would permanently harm your astral body.

Of course, if you smoke marijuana and feel fearful or guilty about it, it will affect your aura. Further, these days, most marijuana is grown in a state of fear and distributed by individuals who are far from being full of love and light. You might ask yourself if you would eat food prepared by all of the people who have handled the marijuana you may be smoking; do you want to align with their energy? I imagine the energy of cultivated marijuana is very different from what grows in the wild.

Regarding why there is such a broad range of views, I believe it’s because the way marijuana affects one individual may be very different from how it affects another. If you are smoking marijuana to suppress your feelings or avoid dealing with something, it will create sludge in your aura, disconnect you from your personal power, and make you vulnerable to negative entities. The negative feelings you are avoiding will linger in your aura; then when you smoke, your psychic defenses will drop and any negative entities that are attracted to those negative feelings can move in. This sort of use is spiritually harmful and psychically damaging.

If you smoke marijuana in a conscious, respectful way in order to open your awareness to other realities or achieve some sort of spiritual breakthrough, its effects will probably prove positive. I say probably because it is also important that you are prepared for such shifts. The risk lies in going too high, too fast. If your lower bodies (physical, etheric and astral) are not ready for the sudden influx of light and energy that getting “high” (aligning with a higher body experience) entails, you can damage those lower bodies. This is why your reason for using a drug is so important. Also, while taking a mind-altering substance will open your aura to outside psychic influence, if you are in a high vibration and radiating peace and love, you will attract wise, loving entities who match your vibration.

In my view, there is no one correct answer. If you use fire carelessly, you may get burned; if you use it carefully and consciously, it can keep you warm and cook your food. The same is true of all that nature has given us. In such matters, we have to allow our own inner guidance to direct us. To determine if something is good for you, you must approach it in a conscious way and be very honest with yourself. Ask yourself why you are considering doing something, what you hope to gain from it, and how doing so tends to affect you. If something brings you peace and bliss and makes you feel closer to God, I would trust those feelings more than I would trust what other people have to say about the matter.

Soul Arcanum :)

Soul Arcanum

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How Can We Hear Spirit Guides Better?

Filed Under: Psychic Ability, Spirit Communication, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on How Can We Hear Spirit Guides Better?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

Why is it that when I ask my spirit guides for help, they don’t respond? Or maybe I should ask: What can I do to hear them better?
Thanks!
– Sydney

Dear Sydney:

First I want you to know that as you ask, Spirit IS answering. It’s like you’re emailing Spirit, and Spirit is shooting back an answer instantly, but your SPAM filter is filtering out this guidance along with a lot of other stuff you really want, but aren’t programmed to receive. You’re waiting for the answer, and the whole time it’s there in another file.

So throw out any idea or feeling you may have developed that someone in Spirit is letting you down and doesn’t care about helping you, or that you are somehow unworthy of receiving answers. Every one of us has guides on duty all the time, and those guides very much want to help us. We have only to ask and then know how to listen.

There is one basic reason behind all struggles with conscious communication with Spirit: mismatched frequency. We are abiding at a lower vibration than that of spirit guides. If we are water, our guides are steam – so we have to “speed up” to almost boiling while they have to “slow down” and start to condense in order to meet in the middle. This is of course just a metaphor for what is happening energetically. We have to move vibrationally into love and light in order to consciously connect with beings of love and light.

People are usually motivated to first connect with Spirit when they’re feeling very lost and confused. While this may seem natural, it’s generally a recipe for disappointment and frustration, which can become disillusionment, which just makes things even harder. These emotional patterns of experience then become negative beliefs that build big, thick walls between our conscious minds and input from Spirit.

So I recommend that anyone seeking contact with spirit guides only do so when they are in a very peaceful, uplifted inner space. Set yourself up for success! Classes and workshops are often the locations for such breakthroughs because the teachers of those classes know how to lead everyone into an altered state of consciousness, and how to raise their vibrations via methods such as guided meditations that are uplifting, healing and inspiring in content.

Once people have success with this and learn how to raise their own vibration at will, then guidance can be sought on “problems.” They still have to raise their consciousness to connect, however. So what you really want to know how to do is raise your own vibration. One reason that meditation is so universally prescribed for all spiritual goals is because when we RELAX, our vibration naturally rises.

People schedule readings with me when they’re having problems. They’re stuck in negative emotion, so they can’t consciously connect with their own inner guidance. The most common reasons I see for people not being able to consciously connect include: negative thinking, attachment, fear, doubt/skepticism and laziness.

I see negative thinking in folks who are focused on solving problems instead of creating what they want in their lives. As we focus on the problems, our vibration sinks, and we can’t see a better way.

I see attachment in those people who want happiness, but insist it must come through a certain person or channel. When we’re attached to details like this, we’re basically asking Spirit questions that are impossible to answer. (“How can I find happiness with Billy Bob?” The answer may be: “You can’t! If you want happiness, let go of Billy Bob!”)

I see fear in folks who hope they can talk to spirit guides but who are afraid that this is evil or will expose them to evil influences. They are telling the Universe: “Tell me! Don’t tell me! Tell me! Don’t come too close, you’re freaking me out!”

I see doubt/skepticism in folks who need to have evidence in order to suspend active disbelief, or who are so caught up in understanding things intellectually that they can’t hear/feel what Spirit is whispering in their hearts.

I see laziness in people who want Spirit to speak to them pronto, and don’t want to have to do anything for this to happen. Imagine that you speak English, and you’re trying to create a close relationship with someone who speaks Spanish. If you only call this person up when you’re desperate, you’re not going to be able to understand what they are saying to you. If, however, you talk to this person every day, then when you really need something, you can call up and really communicate. Learning how to consciously communicate inter-dimensionally is a great deal like learning another language. It takes some time, effort and devotion.

Once these hurdles have been cleared away, then we must remember that spirit communication is a subtle art. We have to watch for and notice subtle cues, interpret them, and trust them enough to act on them.

How those subtle answers will come through for you will depend on your primary modes of perception. Let’s say you decide to try meditation for communicating with your spirit guides. If you are visual, you may have visions in your mind of your spirit guides, or may be “shown the answers” on your mental screen. If you are auditory, you may “hear” answers in your head.

If you are kinesthetic, you may feel like you’re missing something. Kinesthetic folks tend to have the hardest time with recognizing conscious communication from Spirit. While others are seeing and hearing things, you may not see or hear anything, but you could actually FEEL a guide “touching” your aura, or just KNOW in your gut what you should do. This is valid communication, and should be recognized and trusted.

So as you’re meditating, I recommend you tell your Spirit guides: “Please show yourself to me.” If you don’t get anything clear, then say, “Please tell me that you’re there.” If you don’t “hear” anything in your mind, then say, “Please touch me in some way.”

You have to trust what you get. It’s normal to think you’re making it all up at first. Our spirit guides have been with us since we were born, so we have been receiving their guidance our entire lives. Sometimes we call that guidance our “intuition.” Sometimes we just know something, and we don’t know how we know. Many of the “little voices” in our heads and our “gut feelings” have been our spirit guides talking to us all along – we just thought they were a part of us.

Additionally, Spirit can and will guide us through mundane sources, especially if we are open to taking inspired action. For example, if you pray for guidance about your marriage, you may have an impulse to go to a certain movie or pick up and read a certain book, and find the answers you’re seeking embedded in the content. You may be talking to someone and hear them speak the answers you’ve been praying for. They don’t have to be conscious that they are channeling Spirit for this to happen. There are infinite ways for Spirit to answer us.

There are many great methods for communicating with your spirit guides. You can buy a guided meditation CD, take a class/seminar, try different divination tools, explore automatic writing, pray/meditate yourself, etc. I believe that ANY of these methods will work for you if you sincerely follow all of these basic steps:

*Tell Spirit you want clear answers/signs, and demonstrate that you REALLY want this by devoting yourself to the development of this communication on a regular basis.
*Raise your vibration by healing negative feelings and issues and centering yourself in faith, love, gratitude and joy.
*Pay attention to subtle signs and messages from all sources.
*Act on your impulses.
*Believe!

– Soul Arcanum

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He’s Angered by Others’ Lack of Enlightenment

Filed Under: Relationships, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on He’s Angered by Others’ Lack of Enlightenment


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’m 19 years old and I feel like the luckiest person in my community, for I’ve been blessed with the power of peace and love. It’s never been this way for me before. I struggled to graduate from high school because I wasn’t in harmony with today’s materialistic focus and crazy ideas about what really matters in life. To overcome insomnia, I started experimenting with marijuana 16 months ago, and I’m still using it while attending a local college. It is obvious to me that marijuana is what enlightened me. I now feel compelled to share these thoughts of love and awareness with the spiritually blind people around me, including my mom. Here’s my question: how do I INFLICT others with the same insights I’ve received? I do educate my peers on human nature and how it’s not right to hate anything or anyone, from spiders to other races. This sort of ignorance stirs up great anger inside of me.

Kamron

Dear Kamron:

While I understand where you’re coming from, it’s important for you to understand that you are caught up in ego just as much as the people around you. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t experience negative emotions like anger about the way other people think. Negative emotions are of a low vibration, so when we feel angry, sad, depressed, or frustrated, our vibration is too low to be in harmony with our higher selves, which means we must be viewing things through the ego. Similarly, positive feelings like love, peace, joy and appreciation are of a high vibration and in harmony with the higher self. It is only when we are feeling positive emotions that we are able to view other people with divine wisdom, compassion and understanding.

There are many, many people who believe that they have found the one spiritual truth and feel driven to save others from themselves by persuading them to adopt their views. This is the path of the missionary and the Evangelist, not the path of the mystic, healer and spiritual teacher. Here’s the rub: in viewing others to be “wrong,” “lost” or “inadequate,” they reveal themselves to be just as snared by ego as the people they are trying to save – perhaps even more so.

This is not to say you are “wrong.” You are absolutely NOT wrong – but neither is anyone else. When one first begins to seek and find spiritual answers, it’s natural to pass through the phase you are currently in. There are higher levels of understanding beyond this, however. At those levels, one no longer feels compelled to change anyone or anything around them, for one can see that all is well and everyone is just where they need to be and thinking and just what they need to think and do in order to learn whatever they need to learn and fulfill their own destiny.

To become angry with people for their “ignorant” views is a bit like a senior in high school getting frustrated with kindergarteners because they just can’t seem to grasp Calculus. What the senior fails to realize is that there are higher levels of understanding beyond what they have attained. Teachers and college professors see no problem, for they know that everyone is progressing according to their own path, their own ability, and their own pace. Instead of focusing on what the younger students fail to grasp, one should look ahead and try to personally develop further.

The problem then is not the way the world or the people around you think and behave but what is causing you to judge the world as inadequate and the anger this brings up within you. To begin to work through this, I recommend you study the great spiritual teachers throughout history. Imagine what it may have been like to fully embody love and see all in creation as perfect, and then to have to put up with the rest of us as we squabble like children over the Earth’s resources and various abstract ideas. Fortunately, I’m sure Jesus, the Buddha, and our other true mystics saw all of this as perfect too, for they knew what we are all in the process of learning – that everyone is just where they need to be and all is well. I also recommend you undertake spiritual practice beyond smoking marijuana. (Meditating free of intoxicants would be a great place to start to cultivate peace, understanding and equanimity.)

As I read your question, the term “indigo child” popped into my mind. The term indigo child is based on the idea that starting in the mid 70s, a large number of children began to be born with indigo auras. Supposedly these children came in with a strong agenda: to eradicate war and teach people to better respect the planet and each other. As you did, many indigo children have a hard time in school; as they extraordinarily self-referencing, they question everything and refuse to conform to a systemn that they view to be pointless or flawed. These children are often diagnosed with ADD or ADHD because they simply refuse to give their attention to endeavors they deem to be pointless. (Most have an amazing capacity to pay attention to matters they do value or enjoy, however.) These children also show an extraordinary interest in spiritual matters; given their non-conformity, intelligence, and questioning minds, they tend to be anti-religion but ardent spiritual seekers.

The pattern of experiency you describe is very common these days, for as the planet evolves, the children being born are more spiritually evolved than their parents, teachers, governments and cultural mores. It is the young who shake up the old: as each new generation has sparked further social evolution, slavery has been abolished; women have gained the right to vote; bigotry has become highly unacceptable and all sorts of other moral progress has been made.

Of course, whenever you lecture others on how they “should” be, you just evoke their own fears and egos and turn them off. Even your greatest wisdom will then fall on deaf ears. If instead, you look for the beauty in them and you radiate love and peace yourself, you will draw people to you like moths to a flame. I recommend you look ahead of you toward what you need to learn next and cultivate inner love and peace through personal spiritual practice. Allow your own divine light to shine, for this will brighten the world around you and naturally draw those who are ready for your wisdom to you with open hearts and minds.

Can you love the people around you who don’t share your passionate ideals as much as you love spiders and other races? The key to rising in peace and awareness is to look for the beauty in everyone you meet and to keep in mind that each person is doing their best according to their unique history and destiny.


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God’s Will and the Law of Attraction

Filed Under: Destiny/Higher Plan, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on God’s Will and the Law of Attraction


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have been studying the Law of Attraction for a few years now. The more I read about the LOA, however, the more confused I get about how to relate to God and Spirit. Can I talk directly to God to help guide me using prayer? Or is manifesting more about having faith in my own divine creative power? Is it just ego (which is false) that desires things, so manifesting separates us from God, which would explain why we may manifest trials and tribulations? Should I just completely trust in God that I am where I’m supposed to be and not use ego to ask for anything? There are so many conflicting ideas out there! I have gone down strange karmic paths that didn’t prove helpful, but now I’ve come full circle. After losing my last job (which was a blessing and something I asked for and manifested), I applied for and was offered a perfect position in my field with a great salary, etc. Is it just ego that is asking for abundance and security, or did God intervene and offer me what I needed? Do I really know what I want and need anyway?

Sharon

Dear Sharon:

These are all wonderfully thought-provoking questions. I have to begin with my usual disclaimer, which is that no one can explain such profound matters with any certainty; I can only offer you my current perspective based on my own knowledge and experience.

To begin, I don’t view God as some patriarchal figure in the clouds who is carefully watching our every move. I view God as more like “the force” – that from which life and love and all that feels good to us flows. Just as everything in the physical Universe is constantly expanding and evolving, we are all on a journey that is carrying us into ever higher levels of wisdom and personal power. It’s like God was a tremendous fruit full of seeds of unfathomable potential that exploded and gave birth to all sorts of new life, thus creating the Universe, our souls – All That Is.

I like to view individual souls as cells in the body of God: we are all connected on this journey, and all part of something much greater than our individual selves. Scientists are beginning to realize that every cell in our bodies is in communication with every other cell, and that cells even hold memories. Like cells in a body, we are all separate and yet connected to each other. Cells have life spans, and they can divide to create new cells; similarly, our physical bodies have life spans and we can create new life. Like cells, we all hold both conscious personal awareness and subconscious wholistic awareness of God and the entire history of existence.

I view each one of us as a microscopic, mini-God. We were created “in God’s image” in that we have free will and the divine creative power to create as God created. We create new life, we create new art, and we create new worlds with the power of our minds. I believe that we do this for the sheer pleasure of it – that creating is to the human soul as imaginative play is to children.

When we take physical form here on Earth, we become enmeshed in physicality. Those of us currently incarnate in the physical are much like astronauts on a very long space exploration mission. In the beginning of the adventure (when we’re infants), we remember <q>home</q> and retain some of the awareness we had before we left. (This is why children often remember their past lives and the nature of the spirit world, and are more naturally psychic than most adults.) The longer we’re in space and the more we explore other planets, the harder it gets to remember what home was like. Many of us forget about home altogether, and are left with nothing more than a vague feeling-memory of a beautiful planet and how right and wonderful it felt on Earth. I view physical life as a big adventure we undertake for the sheer adventure and in the name of progress. Returning “home” is part of the journey, of course. Since God is LOVE, the more we align with divine love, the closer we grow toward reunion with Source.

Given the views I outline above, I don’t believe that “God” wants anything for us in particular, and I certainly don’t believe that God is going to anticipate our every need and desire or lay out a careful path for us to follow. I do, however, believe that our higher selves remain at “home” when we’re exploring, and that we are in constant communication with this source of guidance much like astronauts are in constant communication with mission control.

Our goals in life are to have big adventures, make important discoveries, and, as we learn from those experiences, to eventually find our way home to God. We are guided in all of this by our higher selves and helpful beings like spirit guides, which I collectively call “Spirit.” Spirit speaks to us through our hearts: we are directed to go in a certain direction through feelings of desire, interest, curiosity, longing, passion, etc.

At last we come to the answer to your questions: we are MEANT to follow our hearts! What we long to do is what we “should” do. It is by following our hearts that we end up finding the people we need to meet and experiencing whatever will be most powerful and meaningful for us. Our hearts are our GPS for the great adventure of life.

You brought up ego. Let’s say that what you think you want is to be rich and famous, so you exercise the law of attraction to manifest that, only to discover that it’s not all you expected it to be. This is how we all learn and evolve into greater wisdom: it is by getting what we think we want and not having it be wholly fulfilling that we refine our values and our ideas about what is truly meaningful and important in life. This means that it’s okay to want whatever we want and to use natural spiritual law to get it. If it doesn’t turn out to be as great as we hoped, then we will be the wiser for it and will go on to pursue experiences that are more fulfilling. There are no true mistakes here, for those experiences that are the hardest to bear also bless us with the greatest new wisdom.

As we evolve, it does seem like “ego” plays less of a role in what we manifest. This is because, as we evolve, we move into greater harmony with our higher selves and are better able to communicate with “mission control.” Once we have successfully manifested the things we onced longed for – the money, the house, the job, the relationship – we no longer feel the need explore those worlds of experience. At this point in our journey, we begin to yearn for experiences of Spirit/home, like love, peace, knowledge, wisdom, and the power to help others. We develop the wisdom to reach for these deeper, more fulfilling experiences not by denying ourselves what we think we want, but by getting what we think we want and thus satiating that desire and learning from that experience.

We all have as many lifetimes as we need to fulfill all of our desires and learn all we need to learn and have all the adventures we can imagine, so there is no rush to evolve. We can take our time, follow our hearts, and enjoy a circuitous, delightful, fun-filled journey back home. Since you’re already deep into this mission, you might as well happily explore all the worlds of experience that call to you. Just follow your heart: it knows just where you need to go next, and it will bring you safely back home when the time is right.

– Soul Arcanum


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