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:
In existence there is suffering
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!
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.”
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…
You’ve all heard the term ‘Mystical Force’, but what exactly does it mean?
“All beings radiate a life force, but some have an additional ‘Mystical Force’. Mystical Forces are divided into three main categories: Magical Essence, Demonic Aura and Spiritual Powers. Though on the surface these powers seem identical and indistinguishable there are subtle differences between them.
Magical Essence:
Is the generic term for beings with magic powers (called mages), regardless of what type of magic it is. The characters of Mystic and Noonien are two examples of characters with Magical Essence as their Mystical Force. Magic powers may be hereditary, natural to the species/race or from other/artificial means (magic potions, objects, and so on) Depending on the exact nature of the powers it may be necessary to recite incantations to engage specific spells. However, if one is powerful enough in their magic skills, they need only to think of the desired effect to make it happen, such as Mystic or Noonien simply casting a spell with a wave of their hand, rather than performing an elaborate ritual, or even saying a specific magic phrase for different actions to be taken.
Demonic Aura:
The generic term used to describe the powers demons have. Demonic Aura, like Magical Essence, can be natural to the race/species but is also hereditary and is passed down from one or more of the parents. Thus a human with a demon for an ancestor can inherit Demonic Aura via it being passed down through the generations, though in that case their Demonic Aura is generally weaker and may even not be noticeable (the individual may not even be aware that they have it). Unlike magic, the powers of Demonic Aura are less direct. Demons generally use their powers to enhance their abilities (strength, speed, stamina, healing). In some cases it may allow the user to change their appearance and or form (gaining claws/wings and so on) Any other powers/abilities their Demonic Aura gives them are more general in nature and unlike Magical Essence they don’t require spells or incantations to work. Tokijin is an example of a character with Demonic Aura as his Mystical Force. Despite the name, individuals with Demonic Aura don’t get their powers from the Devil, as the Order of the Cross claims, it would be more accurate to describe their abilities as natural traits of their race/species. Demons are simply another species living on Earth. Despite their appearance and abilities, they’re not much different than humans. Like humans, some are kind and compassionate, some are malevolent and hostile and most simply want to live normal lives. It is simple prejudice for being different from humans that makes people fear and hate them.
Spiritual Powers:
Is the generic term used to describe the third main type of Mystical Force. Characters like Shi-ria, Sister Rose and the other members of the Order of the Cross are examples of characters with Spiritual Powers as their Mystical Force. Spiritual Powers are more vague than the other two and are the most difficult to achieve. Unlike Magical Essence or Demonic Aura, Spiritual Powers take years of training and discipline to master. Most people who have these powers usually have strong spiritual/religious beliefs. They also tend to be monks or nuns (though this isn’t necessarily a requirement) and they tend to live simplistic non-materialistic lives in order to strengthen their spiritual beliefs and powers. Like Demonic Aura, Spiritual Powers are used to enhance one’s abilities (strength, speed, stamina, healing) as well as providing a form of ESP (such as visions of the future, a warning or ‘feeling’ of danger and so on). Some (like Shi-ria) believe that these powers lie dormant in everyone and with proper training and practice, anyone can learn to harness these powers. Others (like the Order of the Cross) believe this power only appears in certain people chosen by God and by extension, those who aren’t ‘chosen’ by God who have similar powers must have gotten them from the devil. While Spiritual Powers are developed through training, the time it takes one to develop such powers and their skill level may vary based on the individuals. Some have to train long and hard to master Spiritual Powers while others are just naturally gifted.
It should also be noted that these three categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, if a mage and a demon were to conceive and child then that child could theoretically have both Magical Essence and Demonic Aura. So which would choose? What’s your Mystical Force?
Chiyoko felt her insides churning. She was overcome with sadness, hurt, anger, and betrayal. Even though she should have known this, remembering what Akuma told her earlier, It’s everyone for themselves. If ya git caught, it’s ya own fault for not being fast or strong enough. Deep down, she knew this would have happened but somehow hoped she’d be wrong. She couldn’t help but feel foolish for thinking otherwise. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that now, for another feeling was smothering all others; the icy hand of fear and its cold grip on her heart. Just like her family, she had been abandoned by uncaring people. She was left all alone to fend for herself. At least, that’s what she thought.
“LEAVE HER ALONE!” a familiar female voice shouted. Everyone turned to face the door where the survivors had escaped just a few minutes ago. Now another person was standing at the door. It was Shi-ria.
The leader of the cult members turned to face her. He could sense Shi-ria’s powers. “You’re the one the prophecy spoke of,” he deduced. “The one who is not of this world.”
Thanks to her Taman senses, she realized this strange cult was tied into the prophecy about her seeking out the true light within the darkness. “I assume you’re familiar with the prophecy then.”
The cult leader nodded, “‘The descendant of the darkness will cause the shadows to rise, and darkness will envelop the world. Then the one who is not of this world will seek out the true light within the darkness, and the shadows will open the gates to the netherworld,’” he recited. “You intend to stop the Kage Dai Yokai from cleansing this world of the human filth that defiles it. We cannot allow that.”
“What is this Kage Dai Yokai?” Shi-ria asked. She recalled Tokijin once telling her it meant Great Shadow Spectre, but beyond that, she knew very little of it.
“The one who will destroy all humans on this planet so that it may be reborn,” the cult leader explained.
“Why does this Kage Dai Yokai wish to do that?” she asked.
“Because humans are nothing more than ignorant, violent, primitive savages. It was their inner darkness that gave birth to the Kage Dai Yokai in the first place,” he continued. “Hundreds of years ago, in the feudal era, various feudal lords fought each other for control over this land. Hundreds of people fell in battle. The souls of all the dead formed a creature from the darkness of the human heart—the Kage Dai Yokai. He seeks to destroy all humans because that is what humanity seeks—to destroy, maim, and kill. Look at the state of the world: war, poverty, discrimination, crime, disease, famine, climate change, and no one cares. Humans look upon the suffering of others and the destruction they bring upon the planet, and their only thought is, ‘how can I profit from this?’ They willingly destroy their world because the accumulation of currency is more important to them. There is only one true pandemic that is ravaging the world; a disease called the human race! Humans are a cancer infecting this land! A plague to be wiped out!”
Shi-ria was tempted to point out that not all humans were like this; many were trying to save the planet and help solve the world’s problems. However, she felt her words would fall on deaf ears. But more than that, she noticed one glaring flaw in their beliefs, one she was surprised they failed to realize themselves. “You know that since all of you are humans, that means that if your mission succeeds and the Kage Dai Yokai is resurrected, you will be eliminated as well. Are you not, as you put it, the very ‘cancerous tumours’ that are also destroying this planet?”
“Those the Kage Dai Yokai deems worthy will survive to build a new world,” the cult leader boasted.
“Somehow, I highly doubt this Kage Dai Yokai will find you worthy,” Shi-ria countered.
“SILENCE!” the cult leader barked. “You will not interfere in our mission!” The cult members drew their daggers and moved toward Shi-ria. Using her Taman alchemy, she conjured up her sword. She dismissed using this same power to disarm her opponents since there were too many of them. To use her Taman alchemy to break down each of their weapons atom by atom would take too long. Besides, having to dodge multiple attacks would make it even harder for her to concentrate. Thus, as they lunged at her, she let the Taman guide her movements instead. She effortlessly dodged their attacks while using her weapon to deflect theirs. Relying on her kudai chenmol, or “air form,” Shi-ria twisted, spun, jumped, and dodged her attackers like air currents. Unaccustomed to this, her attackers grew more desperate. They began swinging their blades wildly, desperately trying to land a blow on her. As they grew more exasperated, their movements became wild and clumsy. Taking advantage of this, Shi-ria switched from defensive to offensive. Using her sword, she swung at them, striking their blades, forearms, and hands, forcing them to drop their weapons. Then she spun and kicked them, knocking them to the ground.
Chiyoko stood there watching with shock. Shi-ria appeared to also have whatever power Chiyoko had that warned her of danger. Not only that, Chiyoko couldn’t believe that Shi-ria managed to conjure up a weapon out of thin air. Now she was effortlessly evading the assault of multiple attackers. Chiyoko recalled having visions of Shi-ria. Could this be another one of her gifts? Was she predestined to meet this strange woman? Something deep down inside Chiyoko kept insisting that Shi-ria’s coming to save her wasn’t just a coincidence. Suddenly, another feeling arose inside her—a warning of danger. Chiyoko had been so focused on Shi-ria’s battle with this strange shadow cult that she forgot that they still wanted to kill her for “polluting” her demonic lineage with “human filth.” Thus, one cult member turned back to her. She lunged her dagger directly at Chiyoko. Fortunately, Chiyoko sidestepped her attacker. Reaching out with her right hand, Chiyoko grabbed this woman’s arm and twisted it, then pushed it back, resulting in the woman stabbing herself just below her right shoulder. Raising her free left hand, Chiyoko punched her in the face. Another cult member, this one male, turned and began slashing at her. Once again, Chiyoko dodged his swings, instinctively knowing where his blade would be and where to move to avoid it. It was the same power Shi-ria had. Chiyoko wasn’t sure how or why she knew this; she just knew it to be true. Thus, with their strange gift, the two women managed to take down these cultists. In the end, some of the cultists had fled, while most were sprawled on the floor. Chiyoko wanted to leave, figuring that the police would arrive soon.
Shi-ria seemed to sense this as well. She turned to Chiyoko, “Come with me.”
“Why?” Chiyoko asked.
“So we can talk.”
“About what?”
“About your future.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I turn you over to Shinjo, and he arrests you for your crimes.”
Chiyoko looked Shi-ria directly into her eyes, which she found difficult since Shi-ria had two pupils per eye. Having never seen such a thing before, Chiyoko found it unsettling. But what was even more unsettling was the fact that she had a feeling Shi-ria wasn’t joking. Ordinarily, Chiyoko would have run, but something compelled her to stay. Was she afraid that if she tried to run, Shi-ria would catch her? Was she afraid that if she tried to fight off Shi-ria, Shi-ria could take her down? Or was she afraid she might run into more of these cult members and wanted to stick with Shi-ria in hopes that she’d protect her? Actually, the more Chiyoko thought about it, it wasn’t fear that kept her from running, but hope. Deep down inside, she felt that what Shi-ria had to offer was something better than a lighter prison sentence. Chiyoko couldn’t explain it, but she felt that meeting Shi-ria would set her life on a new path. Where that path led, she had no idea, but she was more than curious to find out.
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:
The Bible was written hundreds of years after Jesus died, the people who wrote the new testament never actually met Jesus.
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.”
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.
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’.
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?
