Tuesday, March 25, 2008

What About My Wife?

Here's an email I got today:

I've enjoyed reading your sites. But I am curious if your husband supports your efforts of channeling? I am interested in doing the same, but I think my wife would think I'm nuts or something. I've been reading and reading about the subject but have not really shared my interest with my wife. She is more religious than I am and I'm afraid that I would offend her all the while feeling like she would think I'm nuts or something. Just curious of your view point?

Here's my answer: By all means tell your wife what you want to do and why. Try to include her in what you are doing. And, you do want her support.

The road to channeling of reading and meditation and thoughtful introspective thinking can help everyone whether they actually channel or not. It's the idea of getting more in tune with your inner self, having more confidence in what you do and in what you think that are the benefits that come from the path to channeling. Also, there is the desire to be more on your own path of spiritual development.

And, then there are the nuts.

What also happens is that people have expectations of what channeling is and that's where the nutty ideas come in. I can certainly see how a spouse, especially one who is religious would be alarmed at what her husband was doing.

If you think that the channeling will not take away from anybody's, yours or your spouse's faith and can convince her of it too then I would think things would be okay.

It's in the early days of channeling where the odd things happen. That's when I advise people to sort of keep their mouths shut and try real hard to keep one foot on the curb of rational thought. That's when God comes to you to say there is a fantastic sale down at the local hardware store and if you jump in the car RIGHT THEN you will be able to have the buy of the century. Those are just the early warped days of channeling. It's not true. It is your guide speaking to you, but it is also you with a whole boat load of preconceived expectations and ideas of what the channeling process SHOULD be. It's once you get accustomed to the new energies, to the new talking, address your own psychological growth issues (and everybody, absolutely everybody has them) then, things begin to settle down.

But, it's not just a simple thing of, "This week I'm going to learn how to channel". It's a life changing experience. And, you could alienate your wife in the process. You do not want that to happen. Once you make contact with Spirit there is no going back and unmaking contact with your guide.

There's also a stage (and I went through this too) of where you get all sorts of helpful advice from the guides for everybody and you feel you must share. Folks tend to not like that. You'll learn caution and when to keep your mouth shut. This cautionary note would hold for anybody whether they are married or not. Can you imagine going to your boss to say, "You know, my guides said if you were to stop dragging your dog around the lake with you every time you go out to jog the dog would be a lot happier." Right. See what I mean?

I wouldn't say the various religions are so keen on having parishioners going about channeling. That's what the priests, ministers and rabbis are there for: to interpret God's laws. Not you. They just don't seem to like it. There is a place for it, but I haven't tried real hard to find it. (One of the guides just said that's when you go make your own church.) I did know a priest once who I told about my channeling experience. As he and I talked over time I remember once he said to me that I sounded like his spiritual advisor. That's as close as I've come to any sort of acceptance by a member of the clergy. It was brief and now I've lost touch with that priest. I've never sought out another one. But, that brief interchange did much to give my confidence a boost.

My husband is supportive of my efforts now. He was a little anxious in the beginning. There was a real tense moment once early on when he said I had to chose between him or my guide. I stood my ground and said I was going to have them both. Even then I realized that there was no way I could unmake the connection to Spirit and there was no way I could live the rest of my married life under a cover of silence from Spirit.

So, I learned a little discretionary caution. Everybody is going to have a different experience. It's been 15 years that I've been channeling. Even though it was strange trying to find a place for the new me in my married life I did. And, I'm glad for it. I'm more outgoing now. I'm a little bolder. I've had to do my own psychological work, which, by the way does not stop. You work on it a little...a year or so goes by and then you work on it some more. This is an absolute must for anybody doing channeling. You don't want to end up like some nut mowing down innocent civilians in a misguided effort to save the world. So, your own psychological health is an area of constant observation. My relationship with my husband is solid. It weathered my journey into channeling. It wasn't always easy, but we came out the other end of it even happier together, more accepting of each other than before.

What you could do, if after all that I've told you if you decide the upheaval in your marriage isn't worth the trouble of learning how to channel move into the introspective writing mode where you begin to meditate a bit, where you pray, where you balance your life with useful and healthy activities (jogging, gardening, exercise, yoga maybe, stuff like that), where you begin keeping a journal for writing whatever you want to write about and where you do a self evaluation to see if there is anything along the lines of psychological healthy making things you can do to help yourself, including your wife in these activities too. Check out Byron Katie. Google her and you will see her website and books, "Loving What Is". Terrific book. Absolutely terrific. It's not channeling. It's supporting spiritual and healthy life for yourself and your wife. I hope this helps.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

How to Develop Your Psychic Self - Vision

Pretend. I know it doesn’t sound very grown up, but pretending is actually a good tool to use in whatever endeavor you are undertaking. You envision something enough, it gets burned into your brain cells and then the actual doing of the thing is easier the next time you do it. Works with dancing and golf swings. Why wouldn’t it work with psychic stuff?

So, what could you envision? Well, envision vision. Close your eyes and imagine that you are seeing a flower. A daisy with white petals. Don’t see it? Get a real one or a picture of a daisy and have it in front of you. Actually, anything would work. Use your coffee cup if that’s handy. Or a pen or whatever is in front of you. In the kitchen? Use the toaster. Anything. Stare at the object for a few seconds. Close your eyes and picture it in your mind’s eye.

I actually have a hard time with this exercise. When I close my eyes I just see red, the light filtering in through my closed lids. But, there’s a difference between just closing your eyes and moving into the psychic seeing part of your mind where you can picture things. For me, it’s sort of like closing my eyes and moving into a meditative sort of state. Well, semi-meditative.

This was actually one of the first exercises to do when I was learning how to channel. I sucked at it then and I suck at it now. But, doing it was important. And, even though I’ve never quite gotten the knack of it I have experienced psychic sight. For me it’s easier if my guide holds the object in question. As he moves in my mind’s eye I see him and I see the object he is holding. It’s a really quick flash of vision that doesn’t last more than a second or two. Maybe with time I’ll get better at it. But, for now that’s mostly what works for me.

Also what’s important for me to imagine seeing things psychically is that meditative state of mind. I do have to close my eyes to get there. I do need a relatively quiet area to work in. I really don’t need people talking to me. And, how I do it is that I envision the person I’m interested in doing a psychic reading for. I might not be able to see them in the flesh. I might only have had an email from them asking me some question. But, that slight contact is enough for me to reach out psychically and make a connection with that individual.

The information that comes to me about that individual comes in several different ways. I experience a knowingness about the situation. I can see spots on their body. Like I might see a dark circle on a knee or on their mid-section. Sometimes it is a word that sort of floats out of nowhere that I hear. Betrayal. Confusion. Anxiety. Stuff like that. Sometimes I am transported to some place. Like once I was focusing in on a missing girl presumed to be dead. Zam…I’m off seeing a dirt floor and a bunch of tumbleweeds. Where that was I have no idea other than I think it was where she died.

Many times the information does not make sense to me at all. I just report what I am seeing or hearing to the person. Lots of times it doesn’t make sense to them. But, later on maybe it might.

I think I do my best work, though, through my guides. I surrender to the moment and allow what they have to say to come through me. Seeing as how I’m a channel that’s the best way I work. Anyway, I’m sort of sucky lately at verbal channeling, but I’m better at the typewritten channeling. I just let it flow and they talk.

If I’m not too anxious or worried about stuff their information comes through in a clearer manner. If I’m off balance about something some times they come up with some really off the wall stuff. Like if suddenly in the middle of a channeling session somebody starts talking about the Marx brothers or Tarzan or something that has absolutely nothing to do with the point of whatever we were talking about then I know I need to settle down and do a little bit of psychological work to center myself again.

And how do I re-tune myself psychologically you might ask? Well, I close my eyes, go into that semi-meditative state of mind and ask myself the question, “What’s bothering me right now?” I allow whatever is foremost on my mind to float up and be there. I’ll sort of zero in on the idea of whatever it is and make a connection with whatever it is and my inner child. Something somewhere back when I was a little girl didn’t get done right and now it’s risen its ugly head to bother me as a 52 year old woman. So, I deal with it. Takes 10 minutes and I’m good to go until the next weird thing happens.

Like if I close my eyes now and do the same thing it has to do with me as a little girl not expressing myself as much as I’d like to have done. Quiet little girl. Invisible little girl. Needs to shout and run and play and have fun. So, in my mind’s eye I encourage that little girl to do all of those things. For a few seconds I see her skipping and running. Hell, I see her do cart wheels. I never, ever did things like that when I was a girl. Ah, she’s caught a ball. I couldn’t do that either. Just a really active little girl. Moving. Running. Skipping. Fast. And happy. Very, very happy to be doing all of those things. I think I’m done.

And, somehow doing this started with closing my eyes and trying to see a flower.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Hair Cut

As a note before you begin reading this post, it is a very mundane example of a conversation the guides and I had. It's not earth shaking revelations. It's just me and the guides. This one about hair cuts. I've put their parts in italics.

I just love Saturday mornings. One thing about the guides is they are always there with handy suggestions and this morning is no exception. I’ve been dithering around about getting my hair cut for some time. I have yet to find somebody who I really, really want to return to for a second cut. I’ve been to Nancy where I work several times and haven’t ever been all that happy with the cuts I get there. She’s nice and asks about DeeDude who does get his hair cut with her, but if her assistant is the one to do the cutting she tends to do what she wants and not what I talked to her about. The last time I was there I was absolutely shocked at how short my hair got. Nancy even said examining the cut with a critical eye, “I think it is a bit too short”. Whether her assistant is there any longer is up for grabs, but I think I’ll steer clear of her place.

The next place is a chain operation down at South Shore Plaza in Alameda. I’ve gotten cuts there twice and they were both okay. Not fabulous, but I suppose what you’re working with has to be pretty good too. My orange hennaed hair has mostly grown out. I’m no longer brown, but a mix of black and white. DeeDude said to me, “It’s gray”. So, that place is a possibility. It’s just that I’d like to combine it with another errand because it is a bit of a jog down there. Not far, but I am using gas and gas hereabouts is going for $3.55 a gallon.

The third place is across the street. Somewhere I have the lady’s card. And, I suppose the telling point in all of this is that the last time I got my hair cut I did like what she’d done. However, after a bit it tended to stick out all over the place. I’m not accustomed to getting a cut every month, so I want something that is going to last.

Dear, if we might interject here?

Sure.

When you opt for a shorter hair style the very idea of having it be short and styled is that you maintain it. And, you have to do that every month or 6 weeks. It just grows out and that was the every which way you spoke of.

Oh.

Well, it does appear to be one of those “no-brainer” sorts of situations as you refer to them, but you are unaccustomed, as you said, to shorter styles. Longer hair does not require as much maintenance as a shorter style.

The question is do you wish to maintain a shorter style for awhile? If you do just settle on getting it cut more often. The woman across the street is convenient. You do not need to spend money on gasoline and she could use the business. And, by your own admission you cannot do as good a job cutting your own hair when it is short.

The idea is to take care of yourself. Having a fabulous hair cut is not going to change the fact that you have health issues and that your back hurts. What it will do is to boost your spirits somewhat and that in combination with the other things you do to ensure better all around health will only serve to create a rosier picture of your own creation.

PS---I ended up getting a nice haircut from a place I hadn't been to before just a few doors away from where I go to Curves. I'll probably go back there for my next one. And, that's a load off of my mind.