Tag: Conversations with God

Total Eclipse of the Soul

Total Eclipse of the Soul

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I’ve seen videos and read blog posts about the spiritual significance of a solar eclipse. And this eclipse that happened back on April 8th did indeed provide some insight into my own spiritual journey, in ways I had never imagined. In a way, the incidents of April 8th forced me to look at my own darkness eclipsing my inner light and casting a shadow over my soul. I had been looking forward for years now to seeing a total solar eclipse in person. And was worried when the forecast for Southern Ontario called for overcast. I had been divided on whether or not to head down to South Central Ontario (Niagara Falls or Port Dover) or out to Eastern Ontario (both of which were in the path of totality). I chose Eastern Ontario because first it was closer to my home and I was hoping that since I’d be driving home in rush hour I’d face less traffic since I’d be heading back into the city, rather than coming home from Niagara Falls and driving through Toronto in rush hour. Second, I wanted to avoid Niagara Falls because I knew it would be swarming with visitors coming to see the eclipse and I’ve never been comfortable in large crowds. Needless to say, I was disappointed to find the overcast prevented me from seeing the eclipse (and to rub salt in the wounds, learning upon getting home that evening that the clouds cleared slightly at Niagara Falls thus I probably would have seen it had I gone there instead). Third, the day of the eclipse was my mother’s birthday and we decided to go to a bar called “Jake’s on Main” (Main St. Unionville) and I figured I’d never make it back on time had I gone to Niagara Falls. After dinner there was discussion on who got the bill for the restaurant. I admit that I was slightly annoyed at being asked to help pay for dinner, considering I had just paid off my credit card debts and am in the process of rebuilding my bank account, thus have been trying to watch my finances/expenses. Fourth, upon getting home, I had some messages on my Social media pages about paying others to help boost my number of followers and get more reviews. I admit I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable, thus it was hard to respond to my messages when all I was really thinking was “Stop bothering me and leave me alone! I’m not in the mood for idle chit chat!”

As I was lying in bed meditating, trying to deal with my turbulent emotions and epiphany hit me, it was all about ego. I was blaming others for my feeling cheated out of seeing the eclipse. My angels for not guiding me to the right location, my brother for not suggesting we go to Niagara Falls or Hamilton instead of out East (though I probably wouldn’t have listened even if he had), my family for making me rush home to join them for dinner. God/nature for the cloudy weather spoiling the view. The people on social media asking me for money to help promote my work and so on. I realized that was simply an excuse to justify my feelings. Conversations with God has often said to live life without expectations is true freedom, yet giving up expectations about my life and my literary career is something I still haven’t mastered. I now understand the first two noble truths of the Buddha:

  1. In existence there is suffering
  2. The cause of suffering is selfish desire

My desire to see the eclipse on my own, and make it back in time to join my family for dinner (as they say, I wanted to have my cake and eat it too), my desire for my books to be best sellers and get plenty of reviews, my fears about my finances and refusal to spend my money (or my being a cheapskate I guess would be more accurate) have been my selfish desires, which in turn caused my suffering for the day. In addition to that, this blog is ironically the same thing while simultaneously being therapeutic. My ego driven fear of being judged by others upon reading this is another selfish desire. After all fear of the judgment of others is ego driven; imagining others looking down upon me for my behaviour and my ego making up excuses to try and justify it (if only to myself). This in turn also contributed to what caused my suffering for the day.

“I still have a long way to go, but I’m already so far from where I used to be, and I’m proud of that.” ~Unknown (quote posted on “tinybuddha.com”)

I admit, I’ve still got along way to go in terms of spiritual growth. In fact I had forgotten about a post I read online https://tinybuddha.com/blog/5-mistakes-people-make-spiritual-journey/ particularly the part about “Thinking I am above those who are ‘unenlightened’”. I admit, I still tend to think of myself as “more enlightened” than most people. I’ve come to realize today that despite how much I’ve grown as a spiritual being and how far I’ve come from the man I was even just 10 years ago, I still have so far to go. As someone once said, “Those who think themselves wise are usually foolish. Those who admit to being foolish are on the path to wisdom.” I know nothing. The solar eclipse of April 8th 2024 was indeed a significant spiritual moment in my life, in ways I had not expected. As the fifth mistake from the “tinybuddha.com” blog says, “I used to believe that if I were spiritually awakened, no bad things would ever happen to me again. I would never feel sad, only be surrounded by nice people, and from there on life would always feel positive. I could not be more wrong. Spirituality is not about suppressing or diminishing your dark side. Spirituality is about raising your mindfulness to a level where you can always make the conscious choice to do the right thing, in spite of what happens and what you’re feeling.”

Both Conversations with God and Friendship with God says that when things are not serving you, you should bless them and let them go. The “bless them” part is something I’m still having trouble working on. Yet these things that I can’t bless, that I still may curse/blame have indeed served me by teaching me valuable lessons. Or as Conversations would say, they have served me by reminding me that we all are beings of pure light and love since we’re not hear to learn anything but to remember who we truly are. May this blog post help you in the same way with whatever may have triggered you in life in a similar manner. By reminding you of this, I am in turn helping to remind myself. For as Friendship says, the best way to help yourself is by helping others. If you wish to feel joy, bring joy to others. If you wish to remind yourself to let go of ego and bless even those events that you may have cursed before, help others do the same. They say “God helps those who help themselves” and since we are all one with God by helping others we help ourselves.

Also, upon further reflection, had I gone to Niagara Falls or Port Dover, I probably would have seen the eclipse and thus wouldn’t have felt the way I did and missed out on some very important spiritual growth that day. Also upon waking up the following morning I felt strange, slightly uncomfortable. I remember reading somewhere that feelings of comfort come from the ego, from recognizing familiarity. When you experience something familiar, it provides comfort because we remember it feels good. When we experience something new, we have no memories to draw upon for reference. Thus we feel uncomfortable because we’re truly facing the unknown. Yet as Conversations again stated, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

In closing I would like to add that I now realize that missing out on witnessing the eclipse was actually a blessing in disguise. While seeing the beauty of totality would have been awesome and given me some pleasant memories, the spiritual growth I gained from missing out will prove much more helpful in my ultimate spiritual evolution. Namaste!

Feelings are the language of the soul

Feelings are the language of the soul

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Yesterday I used the money from my mutual funds to pay off my credit card bills in full. I had around $6000 in credit card debt. Naturally as a result, when I looked at my monthly budget I had a deficit. After this the usual fears came back about “How can I continue my writing?” “Will I be forced to give up my dreams? Stop publishing Mystical Force and Liberator: The People’s Guard simply because I can’t afford it?” As always whenever these problems arise, I turn to my angels for guidance and to release my fears. As I was lying on my bed meditating, I felt something strange. It almost felt like a presence in my room (even though no one else was there), though even this isn’t entirely accurate. I apologize for not being able to describe it better, the truth is I honestly don’t know how to describe what I felt. I suppose it’s like trying to describe what a near death experience feels like. Try to explain it to someone who’s never had one, and they probably won’t be able to understand because they have no frame of reference to compare it to. And if you have had one, then you already know what it’s like so no explanation is necessary.

Having recently read “Godtalk” by Neale Donald Walsch, it mentioned his words from his first book “Conversations with God”, which stated that God speaks to us through feelings because “feelings are the language of the soul”. After I was finished and I went down to the kitchen to get a bite to eat, I began recalling the stories contributed by various people in “Godtalk” about their own experiences/encounters with God, their angels or whatever divine/higher power you believe in. I didn’t so much recall a specific story from the book, it was more an overall impression of the various stories combined. Stories of people who had traumatic experiences in their lives (going through cancer, losing a loved one to some illness and so on) and it dawned on me. These people have gone through much worse than I have. I’ve never had cancer (and I hope to keep it that way). I’ve never been in such dire financial straights that I’ve been forced to live homeless on the street, begging for food or even just enough money to buy some fries at McDonalds and have that be my meal for the day. While I have lost loved ones in my life (pets, my grandparents, a cousin younger than me) even those have never left me so distraught that I began to lose faith or think God turned his back on me. And yet, despite such traumatic experiences that befell others, things turned around for them.

As this dawned on me, I realized that my problems were nothing compared to what happen to some of the people in “Godtalk”. It put things into perspective and made me realize that my fears and concerns were for nothing. My angel numbers (according to the website I often visit: Sacred Scribes) have often told me that I’m manifesting material rewards of following my soul mission – my writing, as I one did a hypnotherapy session, and asked my angels “Why am I here?” (as in why did I choose this specific life right now). A voice in my head answered, “To create”. Which is what I’m doing through my writing. The truth is I’ve been very fortunate in my life: I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my refrigerator, and I do have a full time warehouse job that allows me to pay room and board to my parents (yes I still live with them since I can’t afford a place of my own, though honestly that whole the kids move out when they turn 18 is more of a North American thing, my parents raised me more European, where it’s not uncommon for multiple generations to still live under the same roof).

The truth is I AM quite blessed in my life and I AM grateful for these things. Once I realized that I suddenly felt much better. My worries were gone, and I felt happier than I’ve felt in the past few days, possibly past few weeks. This just further proves what was said in “Conversations with God”, how God speaks to us through our feelings, which are the language of the soul. Having just read “Godtalk” I’ve begun meditating in silence, no music, no sounds, just lying in my room with only the ambient noise, trying to empty my mind and focus either on my breathing or the black void I see when I close my eyelids. As Neale said in “Godtalk” God speaks to us in the silence between our thoughts. To paraphrase Qui-Gon Jinn’s words to Anakin in Phantom Menace “When you learn to quite your mind, you’ll hear [God] speaking to you.”

It’s better to give than to receive

It’s better to give than to receive

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The other day I was on Facebook when I got a notification that someone liked a video I reposted a while back. It was an interview with Neale Donald Walsh author of “Conversations with God”. Honestly I had completely forgotten about it until I clicked on the link and rewatched the video. What struck me was the part where Neale told of how God spoke to him about thinking about your universal or cosmic self. Basically, the point was to think of yourself by thinking of others. If you want to feel joy in your life, bring joy into the lives of others. If you want to stop feeling depressed or angry, help others out of their depression/anger. Too often in life, we approach things with the attitude of “What can I get out of this?” Rather than “What do I have to give?” I admit as an author I’ve often fallen into this trap. “What can I do to get more reviews? How can I boost sales and make more money off of my work? How do I get more followers on social media?” The problem with this mentality it you’re coming from a mindset of lacking. What you’re really saying is “I don’t have enough sales! I’m not making enough money!” As the law of attraction states, when this is your sponsoring thought, God/the universe (whatever higher power you believe in) responds, “Yes, this is true,” and thus sends you more feelings of lacking, of not having enough. As I’ve often said, the problem with this is that it becomes easy for greed to set in. Eventually, it doesn’t matter how many sales you’ve made, or how many followers you have, it’s always “NEVER ENOUGH!” The key is to not concern yourself with sales, or followers. I’ve learned this the hard way (and still am). When I began posting videos on Tik Tok and YouTube I checked my analytics and found most people stopped watching after 30 seconds. I’ve looked up various things on how to create more engaging videos, how to get more followers and so on. I realized that most of what they were suggesting, such as following the latest trends in videos wasn’t something I was interested in. Much like my writing, I could just forego crafting an interesting narrative and simply churn out some piece of fluff based on the latest fad du jour, but that’s not who I am. I read an article a while back about people (like myself) who are “old souls”(here’s the link to the article in case you’re interested) and one of the things it said was that “You’d rather talk about dreams, ideas, or even the meaning of life instead of what’s trendy right now. For an old soul, deep conversations are like a breath of fresh air. They help you connect with people on a real level…But it might also make some people think you’re too serious or hard to talk to… it could also scare some folks away if they’re not ready to dive in so deep.”

I acknowledge this, as it would explain the lack of engagement I’ve gotten, also why I don’t blog or post online as much as others. I’m the type of guy who’d rather wait until I find something meaningful to say rather than simply post/blog away about nothing simply for likes, clicks and follows. It might gain me more followers but the person they’d be following wouldn’t be the real me. I’d be forcing myself to live a lie. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say for the moment, plus I needed to fill my monthly blog quota (I don’t actually have a quota, I try to post something at least once a month but as I said above, I don’t post just for the sake of posting). Either way I…. honestly can’t think of anything more to say, or how to end this post, so I’ll just end with…

Namaste!

What do we know about humanity?

What do we know about humanity?

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DISCLAIMER: IF YOU’RE OFFENDED BY WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ, THEN YOU’RE PROBABLY ONE OF THEM…

I received this email which I just had to share. It makes a very profound point:

What do we know about humanity?

That humanity can take literally anything and ruin it.

Take modern day American evangelical Christianity, for example.

They managed to take Jesus-a wine drinking, peace loving hippie who loved the poor and preached about loving your neighbor-and made him into a symbol of hate. They took Jesus and made him a symbol for transphobia, homophobia, and islamaphobia, not to mention not liking immigrants, poor people and being against free healthcare. Which is absolutely insane, considering:

1.Jesus never preached against being trans.

2.Jesus literally never once condemned homosexuality and never taught that gay couples went to hell.

3.Jesus was literally an immigrant himself.

4.Jesus was poor. In fact, he was at times borderline homeless.

5.Jesus literally gave out free healthcare. He never charged for his healing services, not once.

Modern day evangelical conservative Christianity is one big fat lie. It resembles nothing like the true teachings of Jesus, and if Jesus were here today, he would be ashamed and shocked that these people even call themselves Christian.

Jesus preached love, not hate. Remember that.

This statement makes a valid point, even God says so. In the book ‘Conversations with God’, God outright states:

  1. The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus died, the people who wrote the new testament never actually met Jesus.
  2. Many so-called ‘devout’ Christians wouldn’t know Jesus if they bumped into him on the street.

This is why I consider myself a spiritualist. God, again in ‘Conversations with God’, says to seek spirituality not religion. Because spirituality teaches us to look within to find the answers. It shows us that the answers we seek are already inside of us, we’ve simply forgotten them. Religion by contrast teaches us to ignore our instincts, our inner wisdom and blindly accept what others say as indisputable truth. The reason many people do this is because it’s easier that way. It means you don’t have to think for yourself.

Now I should point out that this doesn’t apply to all religious people (not just Christians). I’ve met some religious people who are perfectly descent people. People who love and accept others regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs (or lack there of), politics and/or income level. The one’s I object to are those who feel a sense of moral superiority and feel it’s their right to force their beliefs on others, ironically while using arguments of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ to justify it while simultaneously trying to deny that same ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ to anyone whose views don’t conform to theirs.

Ironically the same can be said about atheists. I’ve met some atheists who are descent people, who love and accept others and don’t care what their religious beliefs (or lack there of) are. I’ve also seen atheists who like these devout conservative evangelicals, think themselves superior for not believing in God and openly mock anyone who believes. People who can’t or simply refuse to see the difference between spirituality and religion and lump them both together. I’ve heard people debate whether atheism should be considered a religion with some arguing that it isn’t because there are no rules to follow. I find it ironic that there are those who would argue in favour of the later because of the lack of rules yet still insist that spirituality is no different that religion when there also are no rules in spirituality.

I suppose what I’m really trying to say here is it’s all about accepting others for who they are. It’s not a question of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ but ‘what serves you’. If your beliefs serves you than keep them. If they bring you happiness, then enjoy and cherish them. If your beliefs however, cause you problems or distress, then perhaps it’s time to look within and re-examine those beliefs. Also, if others have beliefs or viewpoints that you don’t agree with, that cause you distress, then may you should ask yourself, “Is it because their view is ‘wrong’ or is because I’ve chosen to label it as ‘wrong’?”

“When you see beyond yourself than you may find peace of mind is waiting there. And the time will come when you’ll see we’re all one and life flows on within you and without you.”

– Within You Without You,

The Beatles
Two profound books to read (besides my own)

Two profound books to read (besides my own)

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I received this email from my father and thought it was so profound, that I just had to post it and share it with everyone. The following words are my father’s, not mine, however I do agree with what he’s saying. My own words are the brief snippets in bold, encased in brackets “[ ]”. I wanted to share this with you for the same reason I am writing both “Mystical Force” and “Liberator: the People’s Guard” to help encourage you to think for yourself. As the “Complete Conversations with God” says, most people don’t want to think for themselves. That’s why they follow religion, people on social media and elect certain politicians because it requires no independent thought. We’ve seen it with these Trump supporters/Capitol rioters whose only defence seems to be “I was only following Trump’s orders.” When people choose not to think for themselves, it removes all responsibility from them (at least in their minds). Then they sit and wonder why their lives haven’t turned out the way they wanted. They’re left wondering “where, when, why, how did it all go so wrong?!” Again, as the “Complete Conversations with God” says, It all went wrong when you abandoned your mind, the greatest creative tool you were ever given. Now with my foreword completed, I give you the email I received, courtesy of my father:

“A Journey of Souls” A must read book for those interested in what happens when you pass over to the other side. Why am I recommending this book? Because it verifies, clarifies and explains the things my father-in-law [my maternal grandfather] told me after his visit to the other side [the afterlife/spirit world, call it whatever you like] after his heart attack. Doctors and scientists call it a “near death experience” because they can’t accept the fact that someone can die for a few minutes or 40 minutes or more and then be revived or come back because it’s not yet their time to leave the earth plain. Someone can be clinically dead for a few minutes but have spent hours, days, weeks, or even months in the spirit plain. Time has no relevance between the two realms.

After his heart attack, my wife [my mother] and I went up to visit him. My mother-in-law [my maternal grandmother] came to me and said “Dad wants to talk to you alone in the bedroom and lock the door” He was recuperating from his recent heart attack and so spent most of his time in bed. We had a nice long talk about his experience. He told me “I love my girls (he had five daughters [my mother and four aunts]) but they don’t mean anything to me. They’re not my family on the other side.” That statement intrigued me and this book explains it. There was a women in the book who when she passed over was expecting to be met by her father from this incarnation whom she loved and was very close to. Instead someone else met her and later she saw her father in the background. He eventually came up to her and greeted her, but explained that he could only stay briefly and she couldn’t follow him because she was not part of his family. Once she met her own family (soul group) and her memory of her previous lives returned to her, she understood and was happy to see all her friends and family in the spirit plain.

We had a nice long talk about how the church is all wrong and actually keeps people away from God. The Christian Bible has been rewritten so many time by various ecumenical councils to say what the Church leaders wanted in order to maintain control that it no longer has any relation to what Jesus taught 2000 years ago. For example, the Book of Joshua which is referenced in the Bible and was once part of the Bible has been removed because it told the truth and that was something the church leaders couldn’t allow. In it Joshua tells how Moses and his council (the leaders of the various tribes) decided that they needed a set of rules or laws to govern their people. They went up into the mountains and created a set of rules and decided that in order to give them some authority, they would say these were commandments from God. In “The Complete Conversations With God” (another book I recommend) God tells the author “There is no such thing as the Ten Commandments”.

AMORC (The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) traces its origin to Mystery Schools established in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III 1479 – 1425 BC. According to the Rosicrucian records after the incident at Calvary, Jesus went to the arcane school that the Essenes had at Mount Carmel and taught his wisdom to the students there. He lived a long life and when he passed, the buried him in a secret spot. Jesus did not die on the cross until some centuries after his death when Constantine had the Bible rewritten to say that Jesus died on the cross because the church needed a martyr. The current Christian Bible only has 12 disciples and they are all male. Whereas Jesus had over 120 disciples and almost half were women. The most prominent was Mary Magdalene his partner and wife. I don’t know what Constantine had against Mary or women, but he had the Bible rewritten to say that Mary was a prostitute and so the Roman Catholic churches campaign to subjugate women and relegate them to second class status and servants of man began. How is it that I’m familiar with Rosicrucian literature? I’ve been a member since 1975. [my father is a member, I am not. Also I wasn’t born until 1982].

In the “Complete Conversations with God” there are several discussions about the current bible. The author questions God about the bible, he quotes “Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord” and God replies “I never said that. One of you made that up, and you believed it”. God also discusses about how he is portrayed in the bible. He says “These behaviors are the behaviors historically demanded of their subjects by monarchs – usually ego-maniacal, insecure, tyrannical monarchs at that.” He explains that the God in the bible does not represent Him at all. He tells the author to “Return to spirituality. Forget about religion”. When the author asks why, He replies “Because it is not good for you”. And that is obvious. One only has to look at countries where religion is dominant such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Taliban in Afghanistan with their control over women. And then you have the Taliban’s Christian cousins the Roman Catholic church and the Evangelicals with their extreme conservative views on controlling women’s bodies. But everything discussed in the book matches what my father-in-law and I talked about.

These two books I recommend for your reading. Why? To make you think, to open your mind, to free your soul so that in can evolve, grow. You have free will. You can ignore this or you can read the books and make up your own mind. Either way makes no difference to me. God says to “Love everyone”, and I love everyone and wish the best for them. And some people I know who mistakenly sincerely believe that they are faithful Christians [“Conversations with God” even states that most so called Christians wouldn’t know Jesus if they bumped into him on the street, even those who wrote the Bible never met Jesus. The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus died], I wish the best for them. And the best thing that could happen to them is that they have the same beautiful life changing enlightening experience that my father-in-law had. What their reaction will be when they discover that their church has been misleading and lying to them I can’t say. But it will do them good to learn the truth.

An Amusing Little Anecdote

An Amusing Little Anecdote

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Here’s an interesting anecdote that happened to me on Wednesday Dec. 8th. I woke up having seen angel numbers, one of which told me to keep focused on positive affirmations and to be careful what I wish for. At the time I wasn’t sure what it meant, I soon found out later that day at work. First let me explain that while my career, my passion is that of an author, I currently work full time in a warehouse for a liquidation company. I always tell people, the warehouse position is my job, I do that because I get paid to. My writing is my passion, I do that because I love it. That morning someone delivered three boxes of 12 items called “Snowman kits”, along with the necessary invoice for the merchandise. While I’m not the receiver, I none the less accepted the delivery and signed for it. I left the three boxes by the shipping door and text the owner to let him know not only of the delivery, but that I left the envelope with the invoice in his inbox. Having spent most of my life catastrophizing, a bad habit I picked up from my mother, I immediately began imagining arguments ensuing between me and my employer. Him asking why I left them by the shipping door instead of putting them in a specific location, or why I didn’t give them to a specific employee, then I imagined myself giving my arguments to defend my actions: “it’s not my job/I’m not the receiver around here” and so on. What I got instead was a pleasant surprise.

When I sent the text to the owner rather than simply say “three boxes” I specifically said, “Snowman kit” (which was written on the box) and put those words in quotes. Similarly, in my text I put the word “in box” in quotes, without even thinking about it honestly. When the owner came in he told me he received my text and it gave him a laugh at my putting “Snowman kit” and “in box” in quotations. He told me he was tempted to text back “thank you” (the words in quotations as well). Had an incident like this happened to me five years ago, I probably would have been angry at him and took it as an insult, as if he were mocking me. However, thanks to my meditation and my reading, and subsequent re-reading of Conversations with God coupled with my spiritual growth, instead of getting angry I found myself laughing at the incident and thinking to myself that it actually was kind of funny.

It was after this that I realized what the message from my angels meant. It was a reminder of the law of attraction. Not only that “like attracts like” but how our thoughts radiate out into the universe, which responds in kind. Thus when we get angry, when we catastrophize and assume the worst, all we do is bring about the very things we fear are going to come true. I now see imagining the worst case scenario is just that, something we imagine, a horrible incident which plays out only in our minds. Usually what happens in reality is nothing by comparison. Fortunately I have learned enough that when I start thinking this way, I can now catch myself catastrophizing and stop that thought process.

It also showed me how much growth I’ve made as a spiritual being. As I stated above, had such an incident happened to me years ago, I probably would have taken offence to his remark, thinking it was meant as an insult, when it really wasn’t. I probably would have stewed in anger over it for several days, where as now, I can laugh it off and think nothing of it. I find now when encounter those things that still get under my skin, I might dwell on it for about half an hour or a few hours off and on before finally letting it go. As Conversations with God says, nothing in life happens by coincidence. All of our life experiences -whether we consider them ‘good’ or ‘bad’- happen in order for us to experience who we really are, who we choose to be, whom we decide to create ourselves as. This incident that happened on that morning was to show me, to remind me of how much I’ve grown as a spiritual being. To show me that events of our lives are neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ they’re simply events, it’s how we react to them, the labels we specifically apply to them which makes us define them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Anti-social media:

Anti-social media:

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One of the things I’ve been debating for a while now is whether or not to expand my presence on social media. Aside from my LinkedIn account, I have no other social media platforms that I currently use. I used to have a Facebook account years ago, long before I decided to start publishing my writings. I stopped using it because I kept getting irrelevant notifications, even after going into the settings and changing it to only show me notifications that involve me. Eventually I got rid of my Facebook account because it was becoming an annoying distraction. Ironically I considered reactivating it when I published my first book. When I went to do so, they asked for identification to prove I was who I claimed to be. When I submitted my driver’s license photo with necessary the info (blocking out the information that wasn’t necessary) I got a message back saying it wasn’t valid. So I simply replied “if you don’t want me on Facebook, then fine. I’ll go elsewhere.”

I bring this story up because of the issues the world has with social media. As an author I realize that such platforms (Facebook, Twitter and so on) are useful tools to help promote my work and build buzz around my writing, however as many articles have written social media has also brought many problems with it. As we’ve unfortunately seen, when people can hide behind the anonymity of a computer or a smart phone, it tends to bring out the worst aspects of people, causing them to say things that they probably wouldn’t in public. I remember hearing a story about how conservative social media platforms (like Parler and Frankspeech for example) haven’t been doing well because conservatives don’t want to share ideas with like minded people, but rather engage in flame wars with liberals on Twitter and other such sites.

Another problem with social media is that it’s all too easy to post misinformation without the need for fact checking. How many times (during the course of this pandemic) have we seen people spreading misinformation on the virus, vaccines and so on simply because someone else online said it and no one bothered to question it.

The reason for this is due to the fact that our society actively discourages people from thinking for themselves. And the reason for this is because most people don’t actually want to think for themselves. To quote Conversations with God, “most people don’t want to have to think. They elect leaders, they support governments, they adopt religions requiring no independent thought. ‘Make it easy for me. Tell me what to do.’… Classes in critical thinking, problem solving and logic are considered by many parents to be threatening. They want such classes out of the curriculum.” Look no further than the debates raging across America about Critical Race Theory. How many parents no nothing about it (or even what it is) yet don’t want it taught in school out of fear that it’s “bad” for children. Incidentally, how many of these people don’t even have children? Why? Because if we teach children to think for themselves, they might develop ideas and opinions that are different than ours. Even worse, they might point out the mistakes our society has made and find a new solution, one that would prove the way we’ve been doing things has been wrong. As someone, I forget who, once said, “Nothing compels a [person] to argue harder than being proven wrong.”

All of this stems from the fear-based religions that the world has had for several thousand years. These religions mistakenly teach us that God gave us free will so that we could blindly follow and obey God’s word, lest we face eternal damnation. Thus why we don’t want people to think for themselves because if we all thought critically, we’d realize that such a plan (God’s so called ‘plan’) is one where failure is the only option. How can God expect us to blindly follow his will when he gave us the ability to make our own choices? Such a plan is ultimately self defeating.

So the question then becomes, “How do I deal with social media platforms that foster division and spread misinformation?” The first step is to limit the amount of time spent on such platforms. Use them when necessary, but when your phone “pings” with a notification, don’t drop everything and rush to see what it is. Stop constantly checking to see what [Person X] posted or if they posted anything recent. If your life revolves around what others are doing/saying/thinking all the time, then arguably your not really living your own life, but trying to live someone else’s life.

Secondly, always remember to THINK FOR YOURSELF. Never blindly accept what you see online as the truth “So and so posted ‘X’ online, so it must be true!” Use your own instincts, your own judgments to decide that for yourself. Even this blog. If you agree with what I’m saying, then I thank you. If however you don’t agree with me, then I hope you find a better way, one that serves you better (and I mean that sincerely). Ultimately, the only real question we have to constantly ask ourselves in life is “Does this serve me?” If this (whatever “this” may be) serves you then believe it, use it, make it work for you. If it doesn’t then find a new “this”. One that does serve you. Remember, thinking should never be the enemy. Because again, if we weren’t meant to think critically, to question everything, why would we even have the ability to do so?

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day

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Being Father’s Day it seems only appropriate that I dedicate today’s blog entry to my father Norbert Weidhuner, for if not for him the world of Mystical Force wouldn’t exist. My father wasn’t a professional writer. I remember he once told me that when he was in university he had to write an essay on “the sex life of two ping-pong balls” (which according to him, he got an F on). But while he may not have been great at writing he was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. My father has a huge array of sci-fi and fantasy novels from various authors: Issac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon and many more whom I can’t remember at the moment. Growing up he also read a lot of comic books. Spider-man, Batman, The Phantom and many more. He was also a fan of various sci-fi movies/shows from Doctor Who to Star Trek to Star Wars and so on. Needless to say he passed on his love of sci-fi and fantasy to me when I was growing up.

It was this love of speculative fiction that would serve as my inspiration to become a writer. Like many children, I had many action figures that I used to play with as a child. Everything from DC and Marvel superheroes, to Star Trek, to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even Godzilla. Growing up, I used to make up my own mini movies in my mind with those action figures and I guess I never really grew out of it. The only difference now is that I’ve replaced those action figure characters with my own characters, that and the stories and character motivations have matured over the years. Either way, had my father not shown any interest in speculative fiction, odds are I might not have shown interest in those genres myself, or at least probably wouldn’t have come up with any of my writing. One the most exciting moments in my life was when I saw my father read the first volume of Mystical Force for the first time.

In addition to my love of science fiction and fantasy, it’s thanks to my father that I’ve grown spiritually, which in turn has also influenced Mystical Force. I remember telling me how when he was a child he went to the Church of Religious Science (no relation to Scientology, just want to get that out of the way). He told me how the priest said the Bible was divided into three parts: The first part was the ‘begats’. “So and so begat so and so. Who begat so and so. Who begat so and so.” According to the priest that part was “95% accurate”. The second part was the ‘history’, the story of Moses leading the twelve tribes to wander the desert before entering the “land of milk and honey”. According to the priest, that part was “95% hogwash”. The third part is the ‘metaphysical’. According to the priest, “you are Moses. The 12 tribes represent 12 facets of your personality and before you can enter ‘the land of milk and honey’ the parts of you that think it’s a terrible place have to die off so you can be ‘reborn’.” (I apologize if what I’m saying doesn’t make sense, it’s speaking in metaphors).

In addition to this, I remember my father telling me how when he was in university, it was still a sin to eat fish on Friday, until shortly later when the church said it was no longer a sin. Finding it odd that something that was a sin was no longer a sin, caused him to read up on religion and spirituality. He told me how after reading up on various religions he came to the conclusion that Zen Buddhism was the closet thing to the actual truth. Dad always said that God was like the force from Star Wars; “an energy field created by all living beings. It surrounds us, penetrates us. It binds the [universe] together.” The only difference, according to my father was that in reality there is no “dark side”. Having read Conversations with God, I know this to be true as the book confirms that “good” and “evil”, “right” and “wrong” are human creations. Just look at the state of the world, we can’t even agree as a society what thoughts and actions are “right” and “wrong”. Not to mention the simple fact most religions ignore: Why would God give us free will if we’re supposed to blindly follow his teachings without question?

In conclusion I just wanted to take this Father’s day to thank my father for what he taught me about life and how he influenced my tastes in media and writing. Thank you dad! I love you!

Life thoughts at an approaching birthday

Life thoughts at an approaching birthday

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This Monday, Oct. 19th is my 38th birthday, so I thought I take this opportunity to reflect on my life so far. I’ve always had a gift for creative writing and imagination ever since I was a child. Like many boys growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I had various action figures. From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Power Rangers, to various DC and Marvel characters (just to name a few), whom I’d bring together to fight and/or stop whatever villain I’d pick at random from committing whatever villainous scheme I’d come up with at the moment. I also had various Godzilla action figures which I’d make fight various dinosaur toys as well as destroy my Lego cities. I even had Star Wars and Star Trek starship toys which I’d make have various space battles. Little did I realize that these simple acts of childhood play would pave the way for my writing.

As I grew from child to adult, most of those old heroes and adventure stories gradually morphed into my fiction universe of which Mystical Force is but a part of (you didn’t think Mystical Force was the only series I created did you?) Thus I spent many years planning out various series, characters, story arcs and building a whole constructed universe for myself. I suppose it was in part a means for me to escape reality. I was never the popular kid is school as was often the target of bullying. I remember coming home from school upset by this, only for my mother to tell me “That’s life get used to it!” Thus teaching me that people are like the common cold, you try to avoid them but you can’t so you deal with them as best as you can in the hopes that sooner or later they’ll go away. I guess that’s why I had such an active imagination even to this day, it was better than the real world and real people.

The reason it took me so long to actually get off my butt and actually publish my work was simply fear. Fear of rejection, fear of being the object of scorn and hatred by those who were offended by my work. Let’s be honest here, in today’s age we’ve become so politicized, so divided, so overly sensitive, so intolerant and quick to judge that anytime someone says or does something that might possibly be even slightly offensive, we’re quick to turn online to complain and demand its cancellation. As I mention in Volume 2 of Mystical Force (which I’m currently working on) We claim to value freedom of speech, yet whenever someone says something we don’t agree with, we’re only to quick to try to silence said individual for the crime of expressing an opinion we don’t agree with.

It was this fear that held me back for many years, making me keep my opinions and ideas to myself, in the hope that I would be left alone. For many years I held firm to this mentality which eventually led to depression and anger. It was during this time that I turned to meditation to help try and calm myself and learn to let go of negative thoughts and feelings (and I’ve made much progress in this, though I still have a long way to go). I was also during this time that I read a book my father bought called Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch (which is a great book to read, if you haven’t already read it, I strongly recommend it). God, through this book, mentions that life begins outside your comfort zone and that the purpose we’re here, alive on this earth, is to create and experience our own reality. God also mentions that nothing happens by coincidence. After realizing this, it reaffirmed to me what I often thought, that writing Mystical Force was my “soul mission”, the reason I came into existence. It also happened to coincide with various real world events that have transpired around the same time: the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, Trump’s politicizing and diving of America as well as the rest of the world (indirectly) and the Coronavirus pandemic (which people have also been politicizing). One could even make the argument that “everything fell into place” and that the timing was just right for my book to come out.

Please don’t misinterpret my meaning, I’m not trying to imply that the above mentioned events were a good thing, or that they happened just for my benefit, I’m simply saying that the themes of prejudice, intolerance, self-righteousness (not simply limited to religion) which are explored in my book have become more prevalent in the past few years. While such problems have existed since the dawn of humanity, it’s only recently that they seemed to have reached a boiling point in our society. I didn’t write this book to specifically reference these events, or to capitalize on them just because I thought it would help sell my book. I had begun writing it and Tellwell was in the process of publishing it when the above mentioned events happened, thus making my book’s message all the more poignant.

If you take anything away from this, it’s as mentioned above, “life begins at the end of your comfort zone” and “don’t let fear hold you back”! Because as Conversations with God points out, there is no devil and hell is a concept we create ourselves. As Buddhism also mentions, our thoughts determine our reality. So if you give into fear, anger and negativity, you’re already living in a hell of your creation. I’ve spent many years living in a hell of my own creation, I’ve finally had enough and decided to create my own heaven. I urge all of you to live your dreams, to do what makes you happy and not let fear hold you back. Ask yourself this question:

“What do I have to gain by giving in to fear?”

For as Conversations with God states:

“All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by two emotions–fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions–only two words in the language of the soul…. Fear wraps our bodies in clothing, love allows us to stand naked…. Fear holds close, love holds dear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attacks, love amends.”

I’ve spent enough of my life giving into fear, I choose now to embrace love. I encourage all of you to do the same. Peace and love to you all.

Namaste.