Moving Beyond Divisiveness

 

Recently a favorite cousin of mine was pushing hard to have me change my perspective on a topic of contemporary interest.  We found that we were both standing on opposite sides of the issue.  She wanted me to embrace her viewpoint and she was quite fervent and persistent about it.  This was something that I had already suffered for years, in conversations with other close family members, regarding their political views.  I realized that I almost had post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms from those continuous attempts at trying to get me to, 'Pray with them at the altar of their beliefs.' 

These earlier conversations were always stressful, trying, and definitely not fun for me.  I was made to feel inferior and was ridiculed.  It got so bad that I chose to no longer speak with them for more than just a few minutes.  Though I do try to always be patient and kind with everyone whom I encounter, in general, I prefer to be with people who are positive and uplifting, rather than allow myself to become bogged down by negative thinking.  This is because I do think that we are able to accomplish our best work in life when we are in a happy and loving environment.  So, with my dear cousin, who I really resonate with on so many other topics, I was inspired to take a different tack and find a way through it, rather than simply avoiding it, as I had done in the past.

It is my belief that everyone is doing the very best that they can, given the experiences and information that they have encountered thus far in life, and that with few exceptions, we are all basically honorable and trying to create a better world.  So, I began by letting my cousin know that I was familiar with the many points of her position.  I explained that though I respected her perspective, I wouldn't be true to myself if I was to agree with her when I really didn't think or believe that way.  I also said that I thought that it was okay for us to have differing points of view.  We live in the world of duality, with light and dark, day and night, up and down.  We humans have lots of opposite beliefs, along with all of the shades of gray in between.  I think that our varying perspectives add color to our lives.  And though I found her differing views of interest, I didn't want to be forced to embrace them and so I asked for what I wanted, which was to continue to meet in harmony on the topics that we both love.  I also shared a few more points with my cousin, all of which seemed to help.

While I was in college, I studied statistics.  I only did so for about a week or two, before I dropped the class.  But the one thing that I learned during my brief time in that course, was that you can statistically prove anything.  Anything.  There will always be the 'facts' to fully back up and support any point of view.  Then, years ago, while gardening, I had a rather astounding epiphany.  I realized that what is right for a cat, may or may not be right for a dog.  And what is right for a dog, may or may not be right for a cat.  This shows that...   Diversity Negates Right and Wrong.  And thank goodness it does.  Furthermore, no two snow flakes are exactly alike, nor are any two roses.  We are all beautifully distinctive individuals, with our own brightness, and we each shine in our own unique way.  

Over the years, I've noticed, that with couples, one may have certain traits that are quite different from the other's.  Their differences are part of the attraction.  He might want to be more spontaneous and she might wish that she could be more organized.  The trouble starts when each trys to make the other behave more like themselves,  unable to understand how their partner could continue to think or be that other way.  When we loose our appreciation for our uniqueness, and no longer see or appreciate the other's shine, we can fall into an adversarial relationship.  And that's not fun for anyone.  

One of my mentors, Peace Pilgrim, used to say, "We are all cells in the body of humanity."  And there are many different types of cells in a body.  Embryology teaches us that after an egg is fertilized, the cells begin to divide.  At first most of the cells look the same, but then some begin to differentiate into the precursor cells for the various organs and parts of the body.  They were once all the same, but then they become differentiated.  There are liver cells, muscle cells, bone cells, etc.  Each one is different, yet every one is precious and all are a part of the same person.    My baby finger is different from my thumb, yet both are a part of my hand.  My nose is different from my ear, each one has different reactions and priorities, yet both are a part of my face.  And all of it is a part of me and they all serve the one, me.  Most all of the world's spiritual traditions teach that "We are all one."  We may be different but we are not separate.  So, learning how to appreciate and accept one another is a good idea.  

As I look at humanity's collective psyche, it seems to me that we are leaving an old paradigm of separation, and moving into one of acceptance with an acknowledgment of our interconnection.  Our former way of being, the way that my closest family members approached me with regard to my different points of view, involved a lot of shame and blame and guilt, predominately directed at me.  (Of course, finger pointers are typically most critical of their own selves.  They are their own worst judge and so to bring themselves some relief, they find fault with others.)  In that paradigm of separation, we find isolation, loneliness, competition along with struggling against life and each other as the norm.  And, when we see ourselves as separate, we can imagine ourselves as better than others.  Herein lie the roots of war.  Our new way of becoming, the way that I was able to bridge the gap with my dear cousin, harbingers a time of allowance, of respect and of love.  Togetherness and collaboration, with each uniquely contributing to the whole, is the way that I think we are headed.  It is how we become when we see ourselves as one.

It is good to remember that we are a relatively young species here on earth.  I've heard it said that if all of life on earth was equivalent to one year, homo sapiens would have only arisen on the scene in the last 15 minutes or so.  We are just starting to learn how to live life and about how life works.  It is like we are barely at the tricycle stage when there are years of beautiful skills and exceptional mountain bikes to come.  We are just beginning to be able to understand how wondrous life can be.

So, how might we navigate the waters to this new end?  Well, we can try to imagine how the world appears from the other's perspective.  We can try on their reality as if it were a coat.  Put it on, look around, take it off and hand it back.  We can be supportive, in each moment, respecting the other and encouraging them to be who they already are.  In situations like these, where someone has a perspective that is different from my own, I often ask myself, "I wonder what it is like to be them?  How does their interaction with me feel?  How can I help them to know that they are seen, loved and respected by me, all the while remaining true to myself?"  Rumi said, "Love is the bridge between you and everything."  That is the key, being kind and compassionate.  And it is love, at this level, that helps us to mid-wife a new human consciousness into being.

What do you love about being alive?

 

If any one of us was suddenly confronted with death, we most likely would find ourselves desperately scrambling to stay alive.  One might ask, "Why?"  The drive for survival seems to be innate.  It is our ego's primary job after all.  But aside from that, what is it that holds us to life?  What is it that we love about being alive?

Starting from the ground up, do you remember running barefoot as a child on the good clean earth, or squishing mud between your toes?  I do.  And it was such a great feeling.  Now I enjoy massaging my feet with a whisper of local olive oil, thanking them for all their good work, carrying me, before tucking them in between the covers of my bed each night.

Our knees and legs gave us cartwheels and skipping in our youth.  And what fun that was.  Now my legs bend and leap with dancing.  They kick me through the water when I swim.  They move me through my day with scarcely a thought and I am so grateful.  

In our still somewhat sexually repressed society, it almost seems scandalous to bring up sex, but who isn't grateful for the juicy and life giving pleasures of our sexual organs?  When I was a teenager, the mother of one of my friends used to speak of the three great pleasures in life: defecation, mastication and fornication.  Two of these happen in the area of our root chakra and aren't we grateful for both?!

Moving up the torso, our internal organs go about the business of life, day in and day out, cleaning our blood, distributing nutrients, pulling air into our bodies to fuel us on our way.  Our heart and gut tend to both the physical and the emotional side of life.  They bless us with inner knowing, self-protection and best of all, love.  Be it love for our families, our children, our friends, or cats and dogs, or nature herself, 'Isn't love grand?'  It brings such sweetness to life.  

Then there are our hands and arms with which we can hug others, write books and letters, sculpt in clay and prepare beautiful meals.  How blessed we are to have our hands and arms.

With our throats, our voices, or mouths, we can sing, 'whisper sweet nothings,' and eat delicious foods.  And our eyes let us take it all in, every delectable spectacle, from the colors of the rainbow or butterflies in flight, to the foods we eat or puffy white clouds floating overhead in the big blue sky.

Then we have our minds, fleet as starlings.  They flit over the details of our lives, processing and categorizing them, bringing forth insights and inspirations from on high.  Our minds let us engage in conscious awareness and bring to us our sense of oneness.  Thus they let us imagine the Easter bunny delighting children in late spring, or allow us to know just what it is like to be a rabbit dashing on swift feet into a safe little burrow, or a hawk soaring overhead, eager for the next meal.

From here, it is easy to step into our crown chakras, our inter-connectedness with everything, our part of the vast creation of life, of the sacred, of the spirit, of the Divine.  We have come in all of our creative glory, arising as it were, from this vast celebration of being into our own unique selves.  And I stand here now, in Gratitude, for every bit of my life, every step of the way.

© Josephine Laing 2019
 

The One Thing There Is

 

We are all one.  Or so say the majority of the spiritual teachers who have walked this planet.  But, what does this really mean?  If we are all one, how come we feel so separate from each other? 

I think the answer to this question lies in several areas: 
First, we have been acculturated to dwell predominately in the left hemisphere of our brains with our thought processes.  Here we are analytical and separate, we base our assumptions on information from the past and speculations about the future.  This is the area of our thinking that is constantly trying to evaluate who we are, what we have done and what we should do next.  It is a place of separation and individuation.

Second, we have been conditioned to be less aware of the thought processes that are common to the right hemisphere of our brains.  This is the seat of our oneness, our commonality, our unity consciousness.  And though we are less aware on the surface of this aspect of ourselves, it is clearly at the core of who we are.  When someone calls for help, we don't run away, we run toward them and try to help.  At the deepest level of our beings, we understand that to let the other suffer or die would be to let a part of ourselves suffer or die.

Third, when we all saw that image of earth, taken from space in the 1960's, we opened our eyes as if for the first time and began to see that there were no dividing lines for nations or governments.  Instead we began to see ourselves as very lucky to be alive, all of us, thriving together, on this little blue green marble, floating in the vastness of outer space.  From this perspective, we began to see the earth as one organism, miraculously supporting us all.

And while it is true that we are each unique and different, we now see that we are a part of the whole.  Just like our nose is different from our eyes, we understand that both are a part of our face.  As my mentor Peace Pilgrim puts it, "We are all cells in the body of humanity."   We may each be different, but we are not separate.  And it is our oneness that is at the core of who we are.

But why stop there?  If our individual selves are a part of humanity, and if humanity is a part of life on earth, why not go even further and try on the thought of all of life, either on earth or beyond, as being a part of the vast consciousness that pervades the Universe.

So now, with this thought in mind.  How do you think each aspect of life, or awareness, would like to be treated?  How would your nose like to be cared for?  Certainly not as separate.  That would leave it hanging out there all on it's lonesome.  The same can be said for one another.  How would each of us like to be treated?  

Ah, in steps The Golden Rule.  'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'  There is some version of this teaching found in every major religion on the planet.  

But what about beyond?  As we move our attention on out into the galaxy, it doesn't take too much more looking for us to begin to see the Universe as a whole?  Awareness arises, dances in one form or another, passes back into compost or spinning galaxies and arises again.  As we start to appreciate the depth of the beauty that we find there, we begin to learn how to embrace the one thing there is.  We find that we can celebrate not only our individuality, but also our unity consciousness, living, loving, caring for and embracing each and every aspect of the whole.   

A very Happy New Year to you all.

© Josephine Laing 2018 

Prebiotics, Probiotics, Compost and Consciousness. How we really are what we eat.

Nearly all of us have heard how our bodies are made up of more than 30 trillion cells.  What we may not know is that our bodies are home to nearly ten times that amount of microorganisms.  These are non-human entities, sometimes referred to as our 'microbiome,' and they consist primarily of viruses, yeasts, fungi and bacteria.  Though some may be pathogenic, we could not survive without the vast majority of them.  They are a part of who we are, with most of them being bacteria.  They live on our skin and in our intestines and are responsible for breaking down our food so we can assimilate it.  Known as probiotics they are considered "helpful," because they keep us healthy.  I've heard our gut tracts likened to a jungle, full of a wide variety of life forms all acting together in harmony to create the whole.

I have a little jungle in my backyard too.  We have thirty different types of trees growing around our home.  Years ago because of the sheer quantity of leaves, I learned from a friend how to make compost from them using the Rudolf Steiner method.  To do this you first gather quite a few very specific types of plant material including: white oak leaves, chamomile plants, valerian roots, mustard stalks, pine needles, sea weed, oat straw, yarrow leaves, dandelion leaves, and wood ash.  Apparently, each of these breaks down into varying strains of bacteria, fungus, yeasts and molds when layered onto the heap with some native soil and cow or horse manure.  These microbes will then quickly convert all of your garden waste into rich soil full of nutrients that will support plant growth.  

Once you've created this original compost, it becomes a great way to process garden debris because you don't have to stir or turn it.  Instead you just place your varying garden leaves in layers, scattering a few shovelfuls of your original compost in between each layer.  Then spray it with a little water, cover it, and within two or three months it has completely broken down and is ready to use.  It will look just like a pile of leaves on top, but if you dig into it, 'voila,' rich new compost awaits you.  And, your new compost now contains all of the bacteria that was present in your old compost and it can now be used to "seed" all subsequent compost piles.  Scattering this compost on your flower beds or around your trees is just like giving your garden a healthy dose of probiotics.  

Probiotics do for our digestion the same thing that my compost does for my garden leaves.  These bacteria help us to break down our food into rich nutrition that we can easily assimilate.  Referred to as "friendly bacteria," they are found naturally occurring in a variety of fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, pickles, kefir and yogurt.  There is a reason why so many native cultures enjoy these "weird-tasting" fermented foods.  They keep our digestive tracts happy.

Prebiotics are the fibers from plant based foods that we are unable to digest, but that feed the "friendly bacteria" in our intestines.  As our bacteria break them down, the end products nourish our colon cells creating better health in our systems.  Some of these prebiotics break down into fatty acids that improve our metabolic health.  Commonly recommended prebiotic foods include: dandelion greens, oats, seaweed, chicory root, burdock root, apples, green bananas, nectarines, flax seeds, barley grass, asparagus, onions, leeks and garlic, some of which are the same plants that I used in creating my compost for the garden.

Our beneficial bacteria is originally transferred to us while we are growing in our mother's womb.  We swallow them and we also take them in through our mouths during natural childbirth.  Breast feeding further transfers even more beneficial bacteria into our systems.  They then make their homes in our digestive tracts and in various other areas of our bodies.  These bacteria are a natural part of who we are and we have shared our lives with them since the dawn of humanity.  Just like we can't live without them, they can't live without us.  And once we've got them, they can thrive in our intestines for a long, long time, hopefully from birth to death, busy at their friendly little jobs of tending to our health and breaking down our food for us so we can absorb it as nutrition.

However, a problem arises when we take large amounts of antibiotics or use them repeatedly, or consume them regularly in the flesh foods of animals that are routinely treated with antibiotics, such as restaurant meats, farmed fish, or commercial eggs and dairy products.  Typically, a single course of antibiotics won't destroy entirely the whole scope of our variety of friendly bacteria, but because they are non-selective in killing bacteria, even small amounts of antibiotics taken over time can seriously compromise our intestinal flora leaving our internal jungle like one that has been clear-cut.  When this happens we start to see all of those very serious digestive problems, like irritable bowel, colitis and Crohn's disease, where people can have a very hard time taking in nutrition.  This is why a strictly raw vegan diet has such a huge success rate for healing these disturbances.  The variety of whole, fresh, raw plant foods, fermenting in our intestines helps us to repopulate the jungle.  

Some time ago, I had the very good fortune to travel to New Zealand.  New Zealand is a beautiful country that sustains itself in the world economy by exporting goods.  One of the products that New Zealand supplies is lumber.  While visiting there I saw many acres of pine trees, all planted in rows.  Though these looked like fairly healthy forests, they were not at all like the forests that nature creates.  A natural forest is teaming with wildlife and though there may be a predominance of one type of tree, there are many other types of plants and even other trees all growing together, creating a vast cacophony of wildness.  This is not the case in a mono-crop of trees planted for timber harvest.  The soil with mono-cropped forestry can only sustain two or three harvests of trees before it becomes completely devoid of nutrients and the trees are unable to survive there.  And though there may be a few varieties of birds living in a mono-crop forest and perhaps a couple of different species of animals, mono-culture is unable to sustain a wide variety of life. 

Sadly the same thing can happen in our gut tracts.  I've heard it said and I think it's true, that we Americans tend to eat the same ten or fifteen foods over and over again.  And, the food chemists, who are hired by most of the manufacturers of processed foods, know exactly which foods or combinations of food-like chemicals or additives will trigger our addictions with the result that we come back for them again and again.  They include these substances in their recipes so we will regularly crave them and become the good 'consumers' that these manufacturers would like us to be.  The sad thing is that many of these ingredients can erode our good health because they are not only wholly deficient in pre and probiotics, but they also lack much of the nutrition that we need to regenerate our tissues.  And they tend to pack on the pounds, which slow us down, not only physically, but mentally as well.

Most would agree that preventing disease is easier than reversing it and when we suffer from a diet deficient in nutrition and characterized by "junk foods," we tend to die very slowly, with a long spiral down into poor health where we become heavily dependent on medical treatments and drugs.  Whereas, when we have a good diet, rich with nutrition and living foods, we are caring for our health and we become less likely to succumb to the management of disease.  The difference between these two is what we call "quality of life."

When I was in my early twenties, I would often go to visit some very good friends of mine.  They had a little daughter and lived together in a small, high desert town.  Every day, at 3:30pm, they'd all three walk down to the corner market to pick up what they wanted for dinner along with their groceries for the following day.  This always included a little bit of chocolate which they enjoyed together for desert after dinner.  Their little girl would be with them as they circumambulated around the store.  They'd start in the produce section, come round past the dairy, slip down an isle or two, pass by the meats and then progress to the check out counter.  This was where the fireworks would begin, right there at the candy counter.  Their little girl would start with begging and progress quickly to whining and crying.  Then, she'd dramatically throw herself down on the floor, right on her belly and start kicking and screaming and pounding her fists into the floor.  It was such a regular scene that everyone just let her have her tantrum, went about their business and paid for their groceries.  Then her parents would patiently scoop her up and carry her home.

As their daughter matured, those tantrums passed, but I often remembered that raw demonstration of craving in action, over the subsequent years, as my own desires for the candies at the check-out counter would routinely rise up to my awareness.  It almost felt to me like there were hundreds, if not billions, of tiny little voices that were inside of me saying, "Wait a minute, we're starving in here and we NEED that chocolate!  Don't you dare leave this store without giving us our sugar fix."  And guess what, that was exactly what was happening.  

We can cultivate all kinds of bacteria in our gut tracts, the good, the bad and the ugly.  The friendly flora, the healthy bacteria, helps us to digest our good nutrient rich foods, like fruits and vegetables.  The bad bacteria thrives on refined carbohydrates like sugar, and white flour, candies, pasta, meats, eggs, dairy products and the likes.  When these bacterial and yeast populations become overly large, they cry out to be fed, regularly.  Do you remember that old childhood chant, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream?"  I do, and that is exactly what is happening.  And we think it's us, our human cells and conscious awareness that are screaming.  But, really, it's the conscious awareness of the unhealthy bacteria that is influencing our minds and demanding to be fed.  This can happen with intestinal parasites too.  They all want to be fed and they can't thrive on kale.  

So, this brings us to the topic of consciousness and the infamous "Twinkie Defense."  Perhaps you recall the terrible murder of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White in San Francisco in 1978.   During the following trial Dan White's defense attorney successfully argued that his client was mentally impaired, just short of insanity, and was thus compelled into a murderous state, due to his over-consumption of sugar laden Twinkies.  Grant it, this is a very extreme case, but I think my point can be taken.  Because, not only our health, but our moods and emotions are absolutely affected by what we eat.  Our actions and behaviors are affected too.

Sometime ago, I wrote a blog here that I called, "No Food Cravings.  Wow!"  At the time I had started eating a small amount of homemade Kimchi every day with my husband  After about a week of this we were both astounded by how we could walk into a grocery store and pass by the fresh baked crusty french breads, the wine, the cookies and cakes, even the pizza rich with gooey melted cheese, And, Not, Even, Notice, It.  Instead, absolute peace of mind prevailed.  We felt no pull, no addictive tendencies at all.  In fact we didn't even notice it until we were out of the store.  And that is one of the surest symptoms of beautiful health, isn't it?  You don't even notice it when you have it.  Your mind is clear and you are free to be who you are and do what you love.  

So there's the truth of it all.  We really are what we eat.


© Josephine Laing 2017



As a Clairvoyant Healer, Spiritual Counselor and Intuition Instructor, I share many tips for leading a healthy and fulfilling life.  Please be advised that I am not a doctor. Nor am I licensed in any healing modality. However, I have had years of experience in alternative and complementary health and healing. All healing programs, including standard western medical protocols in addition to natural therapies, can cause harm rather than the benefit that you may be searching for. After all some people can have a strong reaction to something as seemingly innocent as peanuts or strawberries. Therefore, anything that I may recommend in these blogs and videos could be dangerous for you to try. So, it is important that you Ask Your Doctor First before trying any natural healing protocol. However, most medical doctors have little experience regarding natural healing programs and herbal medicine. So please understand if your doctor is unfamiliar with these ideas.

Consciousness

We use the word consciousness in two different ways, but it is mostly recognized to mean just one thing, awareness.  The dictionary meaning of the word is to be aware of something, to be cognizant of it, to be able to hold it in your conscious awareness.  But we do use the word in another way too.  We often speak of a greater consciousness, as in a group mind, world mind or universal consciousness.  I often like to speak of the fundamental consciousness that pervades everything.  This broader context certainly holds the first definition within it. 

Perhaps the interesting thing of note here is that when we hold something in our consciousness, thinking about it, noticing it, bringing it to our awareness, it then enters a realm where it is possible for it to come into the awareness of our group mind.  If several of us notice something, it might have a greater chance of entering our group awareness than if only one of us paid it our attention.

Here might be an example.  Back in the 1969, the Cuyahoga River became so polluted with petrochemicals floating on its surface that it caught fire.  This certainly came to a lot of people's attention.  When attempts to put out the fire using the customary fire hose of water failed, it entered the awareness of not only the residents of Cleveland, Ohio, but it also entered the awareness of the citizens of our nation.

Back then someone who noted the situation coined the term, 'water pollution,'  and that idea entered into our world consciousness.  We all now have a global understanding about what water pollution means.  And I think this degree of understanding goes even further than that.

Since consciousness seems to be able to increase exponentially from the level of an individual awareness, through group consciousness, to that of a much more extensive global perspective, why would it not go beyond?  

Surely the animals who swim in our seas or live in our lakes and streams are aware of changes in their environments.  The trees and plants that process the molecules of air and water arising off the land would also on some level of their physiological processes be in awareness of the changes required by the shift in the chemical matrix.  All of the systems of life and even what we consider inanimate processes like evaporation or the hydrologic cycle of rain would, "notice" a change.  Clouds that have been "seeded" respond.  

What if we had a solar dimension to this where the processes of living things and non-living things responded and shifted according to changes in the field.  Would we call that consciousness?  I think we might.  Changes in the solar winds are certainly registered by our earth's protective magnetic field, the magnetosphere.  And we all become aware of this when the Aurora Borealis or the Aurora Australis vary from their normal parameters.

We also speak of a sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious mind.  The sub-conscious being that which we are typically not aware of in our day-to-day reality, but can access if we try.  Herein lie deep-seated beliefs, habits and family or group patterns that often guide our lives.  We may think that we are making all of our choices consciously, from our conscious mind's awareness, but often it is our old patterns that are running the show.  Then there is the super-conscious, where our inspirations and true guidance lie.  This is often thought of as our God-self or the part of us that is one with everything.  If we bring all three of these, our inspirations, our day-to-day awareness and our habit mind into alignment, we become a unified force of awareness.  As we do, we enter a very congruent and relatively rare Gamma brain wave state.  Some refer to this as mastery.  

As we come into a similar alignment, on a group level, like what happened with the Cuyohoga River, a large sector of the population got all parts of themselves on board to try to address the problem.  When this happens big changes can occur.  The situation is felt.  On some level, it is perceived.  It ripples through the larger field of awareness.  Then insights and answers come into play and join in with our immediate reactions and our ability to choose.

Taking this back out to the global level and beyond into our solar system, whose streams of electrons and massive solar winds reverberate against our earth's magnetosphere, what if shifts and events in our group mind or global consciousness could be felt out there?  As above, so below.  

If I get a "bug" in my gut, that part of me that I am typically unaware of, suddenly rises to a place of great awareness in my mind.  If a nuclear blast, the size of Hiroshima or a release of radioactive pollution the size of Fukushima's entering the ocean were to be likened to a bug in my digestive tract, how could that type of event not be 'felt' on a global or even solar dimension.

Similarly, as I take action to address a bacterial infection and start moving some charcoal through my system, perhaps the sun with its recent proclivity for huge solar flares might choose a knock-out blow that could seriously affect humanity.  The coronal mass ejection following such an event could take out all of our missile systems, food inventories, communications and computing power in an instant.  But the sun doesn't do this.  It hasn't.  

Despite all of the 'off-the-charts' solar flares in the past decade, our earth has remained relatively unscathed.  The soar flares sent their subsequent massive streams of plasma and magnetic fields flying into the solar winds and out from the sun in other directions.  But not toward us.  Why is that do you suppose? 

It could be simply luck.  But I think that it is because we are all trying to find our balance, the good bugs, the bad bugs, all of it.  Just like a father letting his progeny work things out amongst themselves, maybe our solar system is consciously waiting to see if we can find our balance from within. 

But our sun is just one tiny little star in a distant "arm" of our galaxy, the Milky Way.  What if the imbalances on earth are being registered by the consciousness of our galaxy, like a small hangnail on her baby finger as she dances across the Universe.  Perhaps she is similarly in full awareness of every star filled muscle and sinew as she moves with momentum through space and time.

This makes me think that it's a good idea to frequently remember to consciously choose to enter into a sense of group awareness.  We can pause anytime and embrace our state of oneness.  This happens when we come fully into the present moment.  We may notice the beauty of a flower or open our hearts in love and interconnectedness to those who are around us.  If we choose to, through our experience of oneness, we can become consciously aware of the greater consciousness of mind, the fundamental consciousness, that I believe we all share.


© Josephine Laing 2017

Manifesting Joy

When it comes to manifesting joy, the trick here is that it is not really in our hands.  The manifestation of our deepest wants and needs is the soul property of the highest good for all.  Yes, we can let our desires shine to light our path.  We can mine our sub-conscious minds to clear away any lingering obstacles, and let our sincere and heartfelt feelings guide us.  We can hold our thoughts to the positive and speak out our affirmations with confidence.  But the bottom line, when it comes to finding our joy is surrender.  It is giving ourselves over in service to something greater, something beyond our own individual aspect of consciousness.  

On the inside of my closet door, so I can see it every day, I have pinned up this quote by Mahatma Gandhi.  "God demands nothing less than complete self surrender as the price of the only real freedom worth having.  And, when we lose ourselves, we immediately find ourselves in the service of all that lives.  Such service becomes our delight and recreation.  We are a new person, never weary of spending ourselves in the service of God's creation."

Now, I realize that the word 'God' is a tricky one for many.  There has been so much self-serving and irresponsible theology in the world, leaving death, doubt and destruction in its wake.  So it can be a challenge to embrace the thought of 'God.'  Because of this, the great spiritual teacher of how to heal our lives, Louise Hay, never uses the word 'God.'  She uses 'Life,' instead.  She'll say, "Life loves me."  And I think that looking upon Divinity as 'Life' is a lovely, generative alternative to what has come before.  

I also like Joseph Campbell's definition of God.  He said, "God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being.”  What he is saying here is that trying to fathom the ineffable is simply beyond our limited human capacity.  

Peace Pilgrim, who is probably my favorite spiritual teacher and perhaps our only true American Saint, also refrains from religious associations when describing or referring to 'God.'  She speaks of her own entrance into a life-well-lived by sharing how she felt moved to walk out into the woods one night, motivated by a feeling of deep seeking for a meaningful way of life.  And after she had walked almost all night, she came upon a clearing where the moonlight was shinning down and she found herself speaking aloud and she found herself saying, "If you can use me for anything, please use me."  And she found herself feeling, "Here I am, take all of me.  Use me as I am.  I withhold nothing."  And with that she felt that she had found what she was looking for.  She experienced the complete willingness, without any reservations whatsoever, to give her life to something beyond herself.  She said that from that time on her life became meaningful, because she began to live to be of service; she began to live to give instead of to get.

This is where the journey of manifesting a life of true and lasting joy begins.  And, there is still a bit of road to travel until we actually experience the complete giving over of ourselves, the surrender of our life, to the whole.  

In her experience of it, Peace said that this aspect of the journey seemed like a struggle between two parts of herself, what some might call the ego and conscience, or what many have referred to as 'my will' and 'thy will,' or what she called the low self and the high self.  The two viewpoints are quite different.  And each one of us must reconcile this difference before we step fully into a life of harmony. 

While we are working through this stage, initially we get glimpses of our life lived in union with the whole.  And as we progress, we find ourselves there more and more frequently.  Then we start to really miss that immersion in pure love, when we find that we have slipped out of it.  Finally, as we reach harmony, and as Peace says, "You will know your way from there."  

With this, we can imagine the beautiful results that we are hoping for; and we let the way to achieve them gracefully unfold.  We strive to do all the good things that we find ourselves motivated to do, to help make the world a better place.  And we find that our life is characterized by a deep seated sense of joy; and it is that joy that unerringly guides us right onto our path before us.

I find it quite miraculous really to think that there is an energy or a force, a benevolent field that is attuned to our every thought, awaiting our alignment with the whole.  And as we give ourselves over to it, more and more completely, motivated by love, we enter into the great cosmic dance of the river of life wherein we manifest whatever we need because it is completely attuned with everything.

These are not the wants and needs of the ego, trying to get ahead of others; nor is it the part of us that holds ourselves as separate, better or less than any other.  No, this is not that analytical, critical thinking part of our self that feels 'a business plan' is the way to go here, oh no.  This is the open, benevolent, expansive lover of all, that we each hold inside our hearts.  This is the part of ourselves that unquestioningly reaches out a hand to save another, knowing that at our core essence, as Joe Campbell exclaimed, "You and the other are one!"

And from my perspective, 'The One' is vast!  It includes not only all of humanity and Gaia, our planet, but also our solar system and the massive spiral arms of our galaxy swirling out into the unending space of the Universe.  I'm talking here of the fundamental consciousness, that is not only in me and in you, but that pervades everything and beyond.  This is the flow that we must tap into, (that we are already tapped into) and align with, (that we are already aligned with,) in order to really manifest what we'd like to see in our lives.  And all of this is already fully accessible within us.  All that is needed is a little shift in our perspective.  Here we embrace everything with love, even the stinkers, and those who have not yet found their way.  Here we serve all.  And, incidentally, thereby serve ourselves.

Our good intentions, our desires, our inspirations and our feelings of deep fulfillment will all point the way.  They are the compasses that help us to align.  They are the keys that open the doors to the deeper meaning of life.  But it is our surrender to our unique service in life, to our own pathway of giving, that brings us to our knees with Joy!  And here we find that the Universe has lain the road open wide before us, bountifully bedecked with everything that we truly need.


© Josephine Laing 2017

My IONS Consciousness Cruise

For the two or three weeks leading up to the Consciousness Cruise with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), I was getting progressively nervous about my presentation.  Most of these folks are extremely well educated and they take their sciences very seriously.  Often in conversation, it's not just which college degree they have, but how many PhDs they hold.  So, speaking with my usual informality, throwing terms around like right brain and left brain, wouldn't wash well with this crowd.  After all, the two hemispheres of the brain, though distinctly different are integrally interconnected and it's really not as simple as having an analytical side vs. an intuitive side.

I was near panic a few days before our departure, flooding myself with various articles and documents about psychic ability when my sweet husband calmed all my fears with a simple statement.  He said to me, "They may be smart, really smart, but when it comes to an actual working experience of psychic ability, you are the authority here."  With those words, I realized he was right.  I calmed right down, got my ideas in order and relaxed about the whole thing.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a non-profit organization founded by Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell.  As he and his fellow astronauts returned from their trip to the moon, he saw our earth, floating in the sea of space, and realized that all of his technological education and experience had not even begun to touch upon the depth of awareness that he felt in that moment.  He had a knowing, a noetic experience, that we are all connected and that our world and the universe is conscious.  When he returned to earth, he devoted himself to the Study of Consciousness and the collective transformation of our human potential.

Since the Institute's inception in 1973, IONS has blossomed into an international organization with community groups throughout the world.  For several years now, a number of the community groups have been enjoying Consciousness Cruises, as a forum in which to share ideas that can make a positive difference in the world.  It was almost like attending a series of TED talks, while floating through the Inside Passage, those multitudinous islands off the west coast of Canada and Alaska.

As with all IONS events, there is a focus on the science behind recognizing that we are all a part of an interconnected whole.  The motivating force is to create a shift in consciousness worldwide, so that we are inspired to take action to help humanity and the planet thrive.  The researchers and support teams at IONS conduct, advance, and broaden the science of what connects us so that we can all reach new understandings about the nature of reality and our extended human capacities.  This then empowers people to apply conscious awareness in their personal lives, in healthcare, in business and in education using the real-world tools that are created from what is learned.

There were a number of presenters on the ship and all were great.  We heard from luminaries in the world of consciousness research and change like Rupert Sheldrake, Jill Purce, Peter Russell and Cassandra Vieten.  Rupert spoke of the dogmas in science that are limiting our worldview.  Jill demonstrated how our voice and working with our family patterns can free us.  Peter explored our transformation of consciousness through meditation and Cassandra gave us details of Edgar Mitchell's and IONS vision.

We also enjoyed talks about healing violence through wholeness with Douglas Bonar, embracing our wake up calls with Peter Hesse, mimicking nature's patterns for spiritual growth and evolution with Curtis Adney and implementing paradigm shifts through understanding indigenous consciousness with Milt Markewitz.  These along with a host of other brilliant presentations and healing demonstrations made for a remarkable journey.

We humans are always looking for ways to expand and improve our knowledge.  And this can come to us through the advancement of our powers of perception.  So often we are taught what to learn, not how to learn.  And just as the electron microscope helped us to understand our world better, so can our other enhanced tools of perception.  It has been my experience that the extended capacities of our human minds are vastly under explored and under appreciated.  So this is why I like to teach how to develop our psychic abilities.  As we learn more about our extra sensory perceptions, we can create more knowledge.  And knowledge helps us to evolve and grow.

We all did a survey before our departure to see which talks would likely be the most popular and thus well attended.  Fortunately mine scored very highly.  So I was given one of the prime times in the really big room on the first day, just before lunch.  It was while we were passing through a particularly beautiful part of the inland passage with snow covered peaks and glaciers reaching down to the ocean.  We did the final exercises for my talk up on deck with the cool Alaskan Air and bright blue skies punctuated with the mountain tops on either side of us.

Of course everyone had extraordinary psychic connections because we all are already psychic.  We are born that way.  We just need a little nudge to help us realize it.  And that is what I did in my talk.  I gave us lots of little nudges with colorful stories from my life, designed to open our minds.  I then punctuated these with simple little exercises that (loosely speaking) opened our right brains.  My presentation was called, "Wake Up Your Psychic Ability," and that was exactly what happened.  And everyone loved it.

With my talk all done and over with, right at the start, I was free to enjoy myself fully for the duration of the cruise.  I swam in the pool which was filled with icy cold Alaskan ocean water and got chilled to the bone every day for an hour at a time.  It was fabulous and so healing.  Nothing can jump start your health quite like really, really cold water.   Frank and I had fun on the water slides and warmed up afterward in the saunas and steam rooms.  And the food was incredible.  They had an excellent Indian chef on board and you could order whatever you wanted.  I loved the appetizers, the soups and salads, and would sometimes have two or three of them instead of choosing a main dish.

Then there were the shore excursions.  We saw Victoria by night in a horse drawn trolley.  We walked through a forest to come to a large hand hewn cedar plank tribal clan house and visited the many Tlingit totem poles there.  But the highlight of the trips for me was the dog sled ride.

The Alaskan Iditarod and other racing dogs need weight training exercise during the summer months.  Pulling a wheeled cart with four tourists and a musher on board is an excellent way for them to get in shape.  And these dogs LOVE to pull.  They can hardly wait to go.  When the hand brake is released, the cart lurches forward amidst a cacophony of yips and eager barks.  We went racing through the deep forest with the dogs bounding ahead, pulling left and then right around the turns as we whisked along the wooded trail.  Before and after our ride, we got to meet and pet the dogs who were all so sweet and welcoming.  And after our wild ride was complete we were invited to meet the puppies.  In order to help them become socialized, all of the puppies needed holding and petting.  So we were blessed with  face licking and hair biting as they expressed their affections and we all delighted in their playfulness and personalities.

We all had a truly wonderful time. And in the days that followed my talk, so many of the IONS group members came up to me and expressed their true appreciation for my presentation.  They told me that mine was their favorite and showered me with compliments.  It filled my heart with joy.  I couldn't have been happier with the outcome and I am still beaming over it all to this day.

© Josephine Laing 2016

The Quantum Mechanical World and the Nature of Consciousness

My friend and favorite scientist, Rupert Sheldrake recently gave a talk at the Royal Geological Society in London called, "Is the Sun Conscious?"  This is a wonderful topic and I hope you get a chance to listen to it.  In it he speaks about the work of Alfred North Whitehead, an English mathematician and philosopher from the last century.  Rupert explained that Whitehead proposed a "philosophy of organisms," seeing the whole universe as an organism and stars and planets as organisms, including Gaia, our own planet, as an organism.  This is of course an idea that has gained considerable popularity in our time, following the work of James Lovelock, during the 1960's. 

Rupert explained that Alfred Whitehead also saw crystals, atoms and molecules along with, of course, plants and animals as organisms.  This holistic philosophy of nature treated organisms as self organizing systems with their own goals or purposes.  This is one of the properties of consciousness, having a goal or a purpose.  Rupert went on to say that living organisms or any organism has goals and purposes.  Then he showed how Whitehead used quantum theory to point out how this might work.  I've transcribed this part of Rupert's talk and would like to share it with you now, as my blog this week, because it is such a lovely and simple primer in some of the basics of quantum theory and also of consciousness.  So, here we go.

"Whitehead then went on to point out how this might work using quantum theory, where matter is no longer just stuff, matter is a process.  An electron is a wave, everything in quantum theory is made of waves and waves take time to wave.  You can't have waves in an instant.  Think of a wave in the sea, if you take an infinitesimally thin slice of a wave, it is no longer a wave, it's impossible in terms of a wave.  This is the ultimate reason for the Uncertainty Principle in Quantum physics, because you can't localize waves in space or time.  They are spread out in both. 

Because they are spread out in time, it means that every material thing is a process, and that a material process has a past and a future, because it is spread out in time, and it has a direction in time.  And whitehead used this as a way of approaching the mind body problem.  Normally people think of the mind as the inside and the body as the outside, in the external world.  People talk of the inner life, the mind is within, using spacial metaphors. 

But Whitehead thought that the best way of thinking of mind and body was in time.  The mind is the future pole of the organism, the body is the past pole.  The future pole is concerned with possible actions.  And this is true even with electrons, the spread of the wave equation tells us all the possible things an electron could do.  And when it interacts with something is what people call "the collapse of the wave function."  Of all these possibilities, only one is actually realized.  That's a measurable observable fact, but it is immediately in the past.  It's now a physical fact, and immediately a whole new set of possibilities opens up, in the new wave equation, which are in the future, or the virtual future.  And when the electron decides, or the wave function collapses to one of these things, again, you get something in the past, a material body, like a measurable fact. 

Now, he (Whitehead) thought our minds worked the same way, our minds are principally concerned with possibilities.  Consciousness is an arena of possibility.  And the function of our consciousness is to choose among possibilities.  We all had many possibilities for this afternoon.  And we chose to come here and to be here out of all of the possible things we could have done.  We made that decision.  We brought it into actuality by coming here.  It's now a measurable fact that we are all in this room.  We can be photographed, weighed, measured etc.  And our minds are now opening to new possibilities.  

Now, our habits are generally unconscious and don't require the consideration of possibilities.  Consciousness is about consideration of possibilities in this model.  It gives us a way of thinking about consciousness and what it does."

Isn't that a lovely description?  To me, with this, Rupert harmonizes the quantum mechanical world with the material world.  And he does it through a brief peek into the world of consciousness. 


© Josephine Laing, 2016

Asking Within

There is no greater authority in our lives than our own self.  Only we know all of the various situations and circumstances that have brought us to be who we are today.  Of course, it never hurts to gather information and opinions.  It's nice to see what our loved ones have to offer when we are faced with a decision.  But when it comes to making choices in our life, we are our own best authority.

There have been times in my life when I have relied on the opinions of others, especially in my youth.  And I have certainly done my fair share of offering up my thoughts and concerns to others.  However, on some level, both of these situations are subject to illusion and projection, especially if there is emotional attachment to the ideas shared.  We often think we know what might be good for someone else.  But, really, most likely, that same advice that we'd like to share turns out to be something that would be good for us.  And unless we take the time to ask within on our own behalf, we barely know what might benefit us best.

 So, how do we ask within?  It's really quite simple.  We just need to get still and let ourselves be.  No agenda.  Just sitting somewhere, perhaps in a little personal sanctuary, or walking down a country lane, taking a momentary break from the hustle and bustle of all of our daily thoughts.  Look at a flower, or a bug for a moment or two.  Really look.  Or take a bite of something, then slowly chew it.  Let yourself thoroughly taste it.  Or listen and see if you can hear a distant sound, try to find the one that sounds the most far away.  Lend your ear to the task.  All of these simple awareness techniques let your attention come to the here and now.  Then, once you've had a few moments, just being yourself, think of something that you really love, it could be a puppy or a sunset.  This engages our heart mind, our higher self, our super-conscious mind, and it puts us in the best part of our self from which to receive.

Now go ahead and ask yourself how you feel about the question at hand.  Let your ears listen, give yourself the gift of introspection, let your eyes see using your vision center, notice how it feels in your gut.  Our gut feelings let us also check in with any body memories that may be associated with the idea.  Then settle back into your heart again.  Ask your heart how it feels about the prospect.  Listen there.  You'll likely get one clear idea, something that resonates you.  Or, maybe you will get an array of ideas. If you do make careful mental note of them all.  Take the time to let them coalesce into a plan of action and then go with that.

We don't need a middle man when finding our way in life.  We are innately born knowing what we came here to do and when we ask within we are guided on our way.  I like to call this process, "Dialing Direct." 

When we take the time to ask within and then honor what we receive with actions that are in harmony with our internal responses, our whole self comes more fully into alignment.  We find our place in the world and in the Universe as well.   Then as well, the simple act of letting ourselves 'ask within' engages the great spiritual law of asking and receiving.  The more we ask, the more we receive.  When we live our lives in accordance with spiritual laws such as this one, we find greater levels of self-fulfillment and we free ourselves to increase the joy in our lives.  So, take the time to ask.  I have found that it is a lovely practice.

© Josephine Laing, 2016

When We Were Six

When we were six, we were geniuses.  We had within us an innate ability to relate to the world around us at a very conscious and playful level.  At this tender, young age, there is an innocence and an openness and a great wisdom.  We see ourselves as a part of the whole and everything around us as a part of me.  

At the age of six, our bodies and minds are quite well developed.  We may be small, and we still have a lot of growing to do, but we can dance and sing and speak.  We know our way around our little part of the world, yet we are still very connected to the whole and we hold fast onto our little thread in the fabric of life.

They call the age of seven 'the age of individuation' because that is when we begin to separate from the very close ties that we have with our parents.  At seven, we start to come more fully into our own identity.  It's almost like coming out of a dream.  We wake up to who we are, separate and individual.

But while we are still just six, we are completely connected and it suits us well.  We see ourselves as a part of the whole.  This lets us communicate directly with our animal friends.  We can feel what they feel and know their thoughts are because we share those same thoughts with them.  And this is our genius, because indeed, it's true.  We are all one.

And now, as humanities consciousness is rising, we are waking up to this realization.  We are now beginning to see once more, as we did in our youth, that everything is a part of the same one thing.  Science shows us that we are actually all fully integrated with everything else.  We are totally interdependent.  We all share the same atoms, both in life and in death, both while we are animate or while we are inanimate.  We are a part of the same thin crust of compost that coats the surface of the earth and we rise up and dance from time to time, sometimes as a tree, sometimes as a bear, sometimes as a person, sometimes as you, sometimes as me.

So, because of this, this understanding of our oneness, I like to try and remember my six year old self, to slip back into that playful and interconnected state of consciousness as often as possible.  Here I can once more be a member of the community of everything, with all of it full of life and light.  When I do, the rocks, the trees, the water, the air are all willing and wanting to be my friends.

So, I invite you to join me, if you will, in this dance, together in harmony, in the present moment of now,  ... and now,  ... and now.

© Josephine Laing, 2016

How Energy Flows Through Our Bodies

When our energy is well tended, it rises and flows and recirculates through our bodies.  During the course of our days, we often extend our energy to others.  This can be a beautiful thing, so long as we learn how to disengage when it is appropriate to do so and thus manage our energy field wisely.  Enjoy this short video on how to maintain a healthy energetic flow.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

The Devas of Animals

Just like us, animals have over souls and spirit helpers.  Connecting with the Devas of our animal friends can bring grace and ease into all of our lives.  Please enjoy this short video on The Devas of Animals.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Step Into the Magic of Your Right Brain

We live in a left brain dominant culture.  The half of our brain that is located in the left side of our heads holds the perception of the analytical, linear, sequential and time-bound aspects of our reality.  In this part of our brain our thoughts are filled with language and numbers, worries about the past and fears of the future.  Our left brains like established routines and well-known solutions to our problems.  Whereas, the thoughts in our right brain are much wider in scope.  Our right brain thinks in terms of the whole forest rather than just the tree.  The knowledge held in our right brains is way more astute in many ways, not only socially and emotionally but also psychically, being able to see the entire context, like the whole shoreline instead of just one grain of sand.

Dropping our left brain dominance and embracing the thoughts that we hold in our right brains has great implications for our collective and global good because our right brains are so much broader in  perception.  In the right brain it is all about 'We,' rather than 'Me.'  And, when we enter into the right brain, we stop all our busy little left brain internal chatter, it just goes away, even if for only a moment and we begin to move into a consciousness that embraces more than just ourselves. We see that we are vast and a part of everything.  Our right brains also hold the consciousness of peaceful euphoria and pure love.  This is how we think while we are in the right side of our brains.

It is our right brain awareness that we are striving for and practice achieving in meditation, but this quality of awareness can also happen spontaneously whenever we are taken with the beauty of something, find love, listen to a melody or move into the present moment.  In his book, Polishing the Mirror, Ram Dass says that love is the doorway to oneness with all things, to being in harmony with the entire Universe.  He says that this is what we all long for and that once we touch this state of pure being, you can never completely forget it.  He goes on to say that 'being here now,' which is the quality of our right brain awareness, is never more than a thought away.  One of my favorite ways to access my right brain is to step outside to listen for the song of a bird,  Here we find a calm, self-assured presence from which we can access the state of oneness with everything.  It is from this inner perspective that our inner guidance arises.  As Rumi said, "Everything in the Universe is Within, Ask all from yourself."  

In her epic journey into the right side of the brain, Jill Bolte Taylor, who wrote My Stroke of Insight, found the potential for a world full of beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time.  She saw how we could all purposefully choose to step to the right side of our brains and find this beautiful peace.  This motivated her to take that long eight year journey of recovery from her stroke, so that she could share this, so that we could each see that all of us together, can embrace peace, which I personally feel is humanity's greatest desire.  

When we are in our right brains we know that 'All is Well, All of the Time.'  It is from this standpoint that we can connect with spirit.  It gives us access to our God Space or our Collective Love Consciousness.  This is how we can commune with angels and nature spirits or deceased loved ones.  It is our Higher Self, our Super conscious mind of compassion from whence we are totally interconnected with everyone and with everything through all time in the eternal moment of now.  It is this aspect of our awareness that lets us receive inspirations that bring us into harmony and joy.
When we are in our right brain consciousness, we find that we are spontaneously fulfilling all of our needs while serving The One.   This is our right brain.  And I think it is time that we all start regularly practicing the fine art of freeing ourselves to step into the magic of the right side of our brains.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

Zero Point and The God Particle

If we look at the atom, peering into the most minute elements of matter, we find that matter hardly exists at all.  In fact, at the quantum level, the level of electrons, protons and neutrons we find that the atom is comprised mostly of clear empty space.  There is as much space, in the very cells of our bodies as there is in the universe of stars overhead.  We and everything around us that we consider to be our world is made up of 99.9999999999999% clear empty space.  Isn't that amazing? 
 
Modern physics has built some of the largest machines in the world in order to study these smallest particles of matter.  These machines are known as particle separators.  In a gross oversimplification, they use magnets to zoom an atom around a gigantic track.  Then they smash it into a wall to separate it into its tiniest bits.  Then they observe what happens.  This has resulted in what has come to be known as "The God Particle" and it has boggled the minds of modern physicists because it is so elusive.

If a physicist believes this smallest element of nature is a particle, then it will behave as a particle and leave a little dent upon impact.  If another physicist believes this smallest element of nature is a wave, then it will behave as a wave and leave a little ripple upon the surface it impacts.  Now, going further round the bend, if the physicist, who believes this is a particle, sets up a camera to photograph the result, and then leaves the room, it will behave as a particle and a little dent will be captured on film.  If the other physicist, who believes it is a wave, sets up a camera to photograph the result, and then leaves the room, it will behave as a wave and a little ripple will be captured on film.  Hmmm…  This seems to indicate that what we believe affects the very nature of reality.

Now there is one more aspect to this that stretches our perceptions of everything we have come to know even further.  Physicist call it "The Zero Point."  At the most minute level of atomic reality our three dimensions of length, width and height are joined by the forth dimension of time.  We have known for some time now that time is different in outer space.  This is referred to as "time dilation" and has been confirmed by the slowing of atomic clocks aboard the Space Shuttle relative to earth bound clocks.  But here, at the quantum level, the level of 'The God Particle,' time seems to grind almost to a halt.  In fact it slows to 0.000000000 (add 40 more zeros here)% per second.  That is really, really slow.  It is so slow that all of our known time is squished together into just a few seconds.

At this level of reality, time is no longer a line.  It is more like the axle of a wheel with all time and all events accessible to us from that one center point.  From my point of view as a working psychic, herein enters a logical explanation for our ability to access our past lives and receive premonitions about the future.  And if we allow our conscious attention to ride on that clear space that is inside of us and that connects us all, one to the other, no wonder we can perceive what is going on in another person's body or in a building half a continent away.  

These discoveries from the world of quantum physics help us to understand how we can do remote viewing or experience visitations from the afterlife.  And, if matter doesn't exist and time has slowed to a halt, then what we are left with is everything happening at once and nothing existing but our beliefs.  This sheds a whole new light on the power of our thoughts and beliefs and our incredible latent creative potential.  No wonder they call it 'The God Particle.'   

© Josephine Laing, 2015