Read: the announcement for the GATE2 event on February 4

John Raatz

Called a modern-day Renaissance man, John Raatz seemingly does it all. He’s an experienced communicator, strategist, administrator, musician, teacher and entrepreneur. He has been a personal manager in the entertainment industry, representing both high-profile celebrity actors and musicians. He’s been a successful stockbroker, a major executive at a public relations agency, a professional blues/rock guitarist, a pilot, a publisher of a leading-edge newsletter and the administrator of one of Southern California’s most forward-looking holistic health clinics.

Founder and CEO of The Visioneering Group, a marketing and public relations firm, Raatz’s company has represented many of the foremost authors, books, films and musical projects in the alternative/transformational movement, including What the Bleep Do We Know!?, The 11th Hour, Youth Without Youth, Peaceful Warrior, Baraka, Mindwalk, A Brief History of Time, Fritjof Capra, Peter Russell, Chellis Glendinning, Dead Can Dance, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Madonna and Donovan.

He’s also the man behind GATE — the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment — an effort that began two years ago to bring together people who are committed to a new level of ethical and spiritual expression.

Raatz spoke with The Edge by phone from his office in Los Angeles about GATE and the challenges of transforming the entertainment and media industry.

What originally inspired this idea?
John Raatz: I don’t know if there was a particular moment, or a particular circumstance, that inspired it. My life’s work has revolved around entertainment, around media. So I think it was a natural outgrowth of my interests. But I think it was the universe that planted the seed idea that came to me. When I started looking at, I realized, “Yeah, the time is ripe, the time is now, for this.” I don’t recall when the idea came to me, but it was many, many years ago.

In 2008 I was talking with Eckhart Tolle, with whom I was working at the time. I mentioned the idea to him, and asked if I should do it. He said, “Yes.” And I asked if he would host an event with me, and he said, “Yes.” Then I went to Jim Carrey, and I asked him if he would co-host the event with me, and he said, “Yes.” So I knew we had a show.”

But I want to mention that probably back in 1979, I was working with actor Ned Beatty. Ned and I had started an organization with some others called the Council for the Enlightenment of the Entertainment Industry. The purpose of it was to teach meditation to people in entertainment and media businesses, which we did. It was 30 years later, to the date, when we had our inaugural meeting on the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment (GATE) in 2009.

The letter “T” in GATE stands for Transformational. From what, and to what, are you seeking transformation?
JR: I think probably everybody, lay people and professionals, understand that the entertainment and media businesses have a major impact on, and in, our lives. I think everybody would also agree that the news and entertainment content cater to a rather narrow band of topics and considerations. I think many people would also concur that entertainment and media have a role — and a responsibility — to help facilitate personal, social and global transformation.

We’re not asking the industry to change, to become something that it’s not. Rather, we’re asking them to begin giving people options and alternatives, to give them a type of content, which we call transformational, that speaks to who we are, who we’ve become, and perhaps more importantly, to who we want to become in the world. That type of transformation is already taking place. Many people refer to it as “The Shift.” We know that there is a shift occurring, and we know there are certain universal, archetypal, holistic, humanistic values that are coming more into the foreground to help guide many people’s lives and even businesses and institutions. Look at the spirituality in business movement. There’s a much greater emphasis on environmental and ecological concerns now. More and more people are meditating and are pursuing healthy lifestyles and diets. I believe all of this is indicative of a shift in values.

I was blown away when I saw Tom Shadyac’s film, I Am, but almost every national review I read panned it.
JR: There was national media that loved it, also. Tom was on Oprah’s show and she really loved the film. The thing about this kind of content is, if it’s not a part of who you are now, if it’s not a part of your life experience, you don’t understand it and you don’t properly know how to evaluate it. If that’s the case, you’re actually better off not commenting on it, because you don’t know what you’re talking about if you try to review a film when you’re simply not familiar with the subject matter.

With all of the films I have ever been involved with, certainly there are critics who panned them. The way I’ve learned to understand it is that, unfortunately, when critics review something that they truly do not understand, they’re really displaying their ignorance more than their critical abilities.

Let’s talk about what GATE hopes to do within the film industry. What do you hope to do initially to promote this transformation?
JR: First I’d like to say that GATE is a non-profit, membership trade association. It is an association for professionals in entertainment and media businesses who themselves are transformationally oriented or resonant.

We have three missions with GATE: education, connection and collaboration, and advocacy. For people who already are transformationally oriented, we want to continue to introduce them to ideas and thought leaders who can help them deepen into their experience. We also want to provide education for those people who are transformationally oriented, but may not be as adept creatively and technically. We want to help them improve those skills to become better filmmakers, better storytellers, etc. We want to bring these people together to foster connections and collaboration. We want these folks to come together and develop projects that are of a transformational character. Ultimately, what we want is more content that is transformational in nature.

With the third mission, advocacy, we are advocating a genre called transformation. Just like you have drama, romantic comedy, etc., we would like to see a category called transformation, or transformational. To that end, we’ve created a seal — like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval — but in our case, the GATE Seal will be awarded to transformational content, the best in various categories. We’ve also created an award — the GATE Imaginal Award — similar to an Oscar Award or Grammy Award. It will be awarded to the best transformational content.

When we talk about entertainment and media, we’re not referring only to film or television programming. It could be a website. It could be a book. It could be fine art. It could be dance. It could be poetry. It could be music. Any arts and entertainment products.

That certainly expands the scope of GATE.
JR: Absolutely. One of the things I want to mention is that one of GATE’s initiatives is to help the “Hollywood” entertainment media community understand that there is an audience for this type of content. One of the names that has been given to this audience is the Cultural Creative. At one point, the number of Cultural Creatives was approximately 50 million in the United States, representing 26 percent of the adult population. In 2008, the person who conducted that research, Paul Ray, revisited the study and determined that the number had risen from 26 percent to 35 percent. I think we sense this, in terms of “The Shift” that I referred to earlier.

One of our jobs at GATE is to help the entertainment and business communities understand that there truly is an audience and that this audience is economically viable. There is business here for them if they would simply pay more attention to it. Part of our job is to mobilize that audience, and in that regard, we’ve undertaken a campaign called, “The Audience is Ready.” We hope to develop a database of one million signatures of people who resonate with, and support the idea of, transformational entertainment and media. When we achieve our one million signatures, we’re going to show those signatures and a bunch of other goodies to people in Hollywood who develop and produce content. We will be saying, “Look, there is an audience that wants this kind of content, and they will pay for it. Please free up some more dollars so that we can create more content like this so we can share it with that audience. You will see that it works.”

How willing do you think the people who have money to create films in Hollywood are to follow your lead?
JR: Well, I think there are some who won’t, for sure, but I think there are some who could. I think what will make it compelling is if we can demonstrate to them that there is money here to be made, first and foremost. But, so as to not brand them exclusively as being only interested in money, no doubt they do have a social conscience. I’m sure a great many of them practice personal philanthropy. What’s important here is to appeal to their sense of philanthropy in terms of where we are in the world today and what the world needs. It’s important to let them know that there’s an opportunity here for them to make money, and at the same time, fulfill a social mission.

We’re not asking them to change. We’re not asking them to support exclusively a social mission. We want them to make money. We want them to prosper. But we also want the category to be seen and experienced as an economically viable one. We’re not blind to the fact that what drives Hollywood is money. But we also believe that the entertainment and media business does have a role — and, indeed, a responsibility — to help foster personal, social and global transformation — especially in this moment in time.

I don’t think the situations around the world are lost on anybody right now. We’re exposed to them on a daily basis. This is why, when we talk about this, we talk in terms of entertainment and media. Right now we believe the definition of news by the print media, electronic media, etc., is very narrow. It tends to center around conflict, controversy, celebrity, novelty and so forth — not values that really define who we are as humans. We’re suggesting that it’s important to expand the definition of news to universal, archetypal, holistic, humanistic values. There is so much of a positive nature happening in the world right now that simply goes unreported, because the media believes nobody is interested in that. That’s not true. There are some good stories reported, sure. But by and large, the media spoonfeeds our culture with stories that cater to the lowest-common denominator. As a result, we miss out on so much that is beautiful, so much that is sacred, in life because of this rather limited definition of what constitutes a news story. Part of GATE’s mission is the renovation of that definition, too.

That could be the most challenging part of your mission.
JR: It could be, but there is a saving grace — you! The Edge and others like it around the country, who publish print media and run websites, are already doing what we are advocating. There are 200 or 300 such publications as yours around the country. You are a pioneer, you have been a pioneer, and we can point to this. You’ve been around for quite a long time, and you’ve been sustaining yourself for a long time economically. But we believe there’s more to be done in that regard.

Tell me about actor Jim Carrey and the role he will plan with his peers in promoting transformation?
JR: Jim naturally lives in this space now. Whomever he talks with, this is a topic of conversation. He’s not an evangelist, but he cannot help but express who he is. This is who he is.

I met Jim when he came to a screening of Peaceful Warrior when we were promoting it in 2006. I met Jim at that time and ever since then, we’ve been friends. Jim’s influence is palpable and powerful when people hear his ideas and learn about his experiences with spirituality. It moves people. When he spoke at our inaugural event for GATE in June 2009, people were floored. They had no idea that Jim was interested in this space. They also were so impressed with how eloquently he spoke of it. How he moved and touched people. His experience is deep. He’s working on a book that I think will surprise people with the depth of his wisdom. Everyone can certainly attest to the depth of his creativity, but soon they’re going to experience the wisdom side of Jim Carrey.

Share with me a few words about those who will receive the debut GATE Imaginal Awards on February 4.
JR: First we have the creators of the film Mindwalk, Bernt and Fritjof Capra. Many people know of Fritjof for his book, The Tao of Physics, which was the first book to really explore the relationship between science and spirituality, and his subsequent books The Turning Point, The Web of Life, and others. Bernt Capra is a prominent production artist for the film business. He directed the film, Mindwalk.

The next recipient is David Lynch. I think almost everybody knows of his extensive body of work, but David will be receiving the GATE Imaginal Award for his humanitarian efforts. Not as many people are aware of the work he has been doing in that arena. The David Lynch Foundation has enabled more than 150,000 children to learn meditation, to get off drugs, to get off the street. He has facilitated this remarkable work.

Michael and Justine Toms will receive the GATE Imaginal Award for their pioneering effort in media and communication. Their radio program, New Dimensions Radio, is heard around the country on hundreds of stations, as well as online. Over the course of 30 or 40 years, they have interviewed everybody. You can use their interviews as a graph to chart the growth of the human potential movement.

Do you find the GATE project to be a part of your personal mission in this lifetime.
JR: It seems to be. I certainly love doing this work. I must confess that I have a dark night of the soul periodically, wondering if it’s having any kind of impact, if it’s actually doing anything. I occasionally doubt that. But I would say 95 percent of the time, I am thrilled to be able to work with the people that I am working with, to be pursuing this vision and mission in the world, and it integrates very well with what we do at the Visioneering Group, our marketing and public relations firm.

I can see how, if you focus on the people who want to be a part of this and don’t worry about the naysayers, you’re going to do great things.
JR: Absolutely. That’s a good insight, Tim. I’m 56 years old this month and, looking back now, I can say that no matter what you do in this life, there are going to be naysayers. You just decide, “Do I want to put my attention there? No. Do I want to interact with that particular energy. No.” I’m just going to keep it where it is, because that’s where it thrives. That’s where there is incredible growth and joy and don’t worry about what other people have to say about it. Just follow your vision. Follow your mission. I think it brings tremendous success in every way possible.

How can the GATE project change the world that we know now?
JR: My personal belief — and I emphasize the word, personal — is that the answers to the vast majority of the world’s problems already exist. They don’t have to be created or thought of. What we are lacking, though, is awareness of those solutions. Visibility for those solutions. Channels through which those solutions can flow. The will on the part of existing gatekeepers – and the openness on the part of existing gatekeepers – to engage with those solutions because of self-interest. What we want to do is call more and more attention to the fact that there are solutions out there – solutions based on universal, holistic wisdom. We need to find the will to pursue those solutions. We need to get out of our own way, because we are in our own way. We need to drop the ego play and come into alignment and start functioning more as a collective whole.

LINK: Read the interview with John Raatz

Nearly three thousand seats will be filled with professionals from the entertainment, media and arts communities, and others on February 4, when GATE – the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment – presents GATE 2 and the GATE transformational Story Conference in Los Angeles.

GATE is a new, non-profit membership trade association founded by transformational marketing pioneer John Raatz, and two honorary co-founders, internationally bestselling author and teacher Eckhart Tolle and actor/activist Jim Carrey.

“We are living in extraordinarily transformational times,” Raatz says. “Everywhere you look, you see countries, governments, companies, organizations and individuals in dramatic transition. For many people, this reflects a shift in values and world views, underlined by a deep fundamental questioning about the direction we are headed as human beings.

“GATE was formed to support people in the entertainment and media industries who are, themselves, asking these deeper questions and wanting to contribute to the solutions that will become the new structure, the new paradigm, of a sustainable world. GATE sees the role and responsibility that entertainment, media, and the arts play in creating and illuminating this global transformation, and in supporting how each of us can contribute to a successful outcome for everyone and the planet.”

GATE 2 will be a celebration of the emerging genre of transformational entertainment, media and arts, featuring a lineup of top-level presenters, performers, and content developers. These include Carrey, Tolle and Raatz, plus scholar/philosopher Jean Houston, visionary/educator Barbara Marx Hubbard, actor/activist Edward James Olmos, author/researcher Paul H. Ray, internationally bestselling author/teacher don Miguel Ruiz, filmmaker/iconic photographer Norman Seeff, internationally bestselling author/teacher Marianne Williamson, physicist/author Fred Alan Wolf aka Dr. Quantum, and others.

At the event, GATE will present its first Imaginal Awards to honor the best works in the transformational entertainment, media and arts field. Since the competition does not begin until 2012, these first awards are being presented to pioneers in the field, including Bernt and Fritjof Capra, creators of the seminal film, Mindwalk; filmmaker David Lynch, for his worldwide humanitarian efforts; and Justine and Michael Toms, for their iconic radio series New Dimensions.

The GATE Transformational Story Conference will take place that morning and afternoon at the same location. GATE StoryCon will examine the role of story in promoting personal, social and global transformation. Story will explored from a variety of perspectives, with special emphasis on the human transformational journey — the Transformational Arc of life-death-life. Many of the GATE 2 presenters will also deliver programs at GATE StoryCon, plus writer/story consultant James Bonnet, writer/teacher Catherine Ann Jones, author/script consultant Dara Marks, memoirist Mark Matousek, writer/producer Marta Mobley, award-wining documentary filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg, and others.

Tickets to the two events and more information can be found at www.GATEcommunity.org. Proceeds from both events will help fund GATE’s operating expenses for the coming year.

Beginning in 2012, GATE will be awarding its GATE Seal to exemplary works in the field, bringing greater awareness of the genre to audiences worldwide. Recipients of the Seal will automatically be entered in the Imaginal Awards competition, with presentation of the first competitive awards scheduled for early-2013.

The impact of the GATE vision/mission is already resonating worldwide.

“People from over 70 countries have connected with GATE regarding membership,” Raatz says. “The impulse to engage with and spread transformational content is a global phenomenon. For more than 20 years, people have asked why isn’t there more content of this type. I respond by saying transformational content has always existed. A great example is the classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life. More recent examples are Tom Shadyac’s I Am and the hugely successful, The Blindside. We simply want to expand these kinds of offerings because we know there is a massive, global audience ready for them, and they will make a positive impact on society at large.”

William Gladstone and Jack Canfield

Picture Jack Canfield, the charismatic co-author of the Chicken Soup For the Soul book series and “America’s #1 Success Coach,” vroom-vrooming through the cosmos on a solid gold Harley… accompanied by a Gang of spiritual soul mates. Then… picture yourself joining the Gang. It’s hard not to smile, or at least raise an eyebrow.

But it’s more than just a whimsical image. It’s the inspiration for Canfield’s new book, a mostly factual, adventure-filled account of his personal spiritual journey and subsequent awakening to his life’s purpose.

Partnering with fellow Gang members such as William Gladstone and Barbara Marx Hubbard, Canfield uses the book to set the stage for the ride of a lifetime — the one we’re all invited to participate in, the one that ushers in a new age of global consciousness and Universal Humanity.

Your new book, The Golden Motorcycle Gang, is set to release this month. What inspired you to write this book at this time?
Jack Canfield: When I was in graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, we had a guest lecturer who led us through a guided visualization to take us back to when we had chosen to become a teacher. Well, I went back to before I was born, which kind of shocked me. And [in the visualization] there were a bunch of us, “souls” I guess, on summer vacation, floating through the universe and having a good time driving down the road on Harley Davidsons. (That’s where the book title comes from.) We looked down on Earth and there was a war going on. It was 1944, which is the year I was born, and I just had this sense that I had to go down and help.
So I chose to be born and help out, and that’s been my life’s work.

Afterwards I thought, wow, I’m not just a school teacher; I’m a teacher at a higher level and I have a bigger destiny to fulfill. Then I kind of forgot about it until 10-15 years later when I started meeting people that I had this certain vibrational resonance with. I realized they were doing the same work I was doing; they were here with that same purpose. Maybe they’re part of that “Golden Motorcycle Gang” and we’re reconnecting, I thought.

I was having a beer one night with Bill Gladstone, a literary agent (and the co-author of the book) maybe 10 years ago, and I told that story to him.

He said, “That should be a book.”

And I said, “That’s ridiculous, no one wants to hear that,” but he kept hounding me. Finally I said, “Bill, I just don’t have time.”

“What if I were to interview you two hours every day for a week or two,” he says, “and get all the stories. Then I’ll do the first draft and you can clean it up and make sure it’s accurate, fix the writing, or whatever.”

That’s how the book came into being.

The image of spiritual beings belonging to a motorcycle gang makes me grin a little, but also piques my curiosity. Guides, angels, ascended masters and others are more often portrayed as introspective beings wearing long white robes. Why do you think you’re getting visions of a “hog” Heaven?”
JC: (laughing) I’ve never been drawn to a community where we all wear white and bow down to a certain guru. I’ve studied with many and I’ve sat at the feet of many, but there’s always been this sense of independence in me.

When 15 guys on Harleys go by wearing their Hell’s Angels jackets, I admire that sense of “we are who we are and we don’t care what you think about it.” Not that these are guys I’d necessarily want to go have a beer with, because I don’t really know how safe I’d feel! But that’s the kind of feeling I had during that visualization. We were just a bunch of men and women flying through space on motorcycles. They’re golden because it’s spiritual.

In the book, you had more than one encounter with other people who had seen that same image of being in a gang of motorcyclists. Why do you think that same metaphor keeps showing up?
JC: It’s hard to know what gets planted in consciousness. There’s a book by Dick Sutphen called, You Were Born Again to Be Together. In that book, he talks about groups of people who travel through time together like a family — it’s the idea that certain souls agree to go through eternity together and have different experiences. I think people in my “tribe” if you will, saw similar images. But I don’t know why.

It seems like there are many people who have had transformative spiritual experiences of one type or another, but are hesitant to talk about it. Have you noticed this?
JC: I see it all the time. When I do my groups, we talk about these things and people come out of the woodwork. I see bank presidents, corporate leaders, military people and policemen who’ve had near-death experiences, visitations from angels, intercessions from higher powers and awakenings. But they’re afraid to talk about it because they don’t want to be seen as “woo woo.”

But someone has to go first. A lot of people don’t know this side of me. I think I’m seen as kind of a famous person because of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Now they can see, here’s this normal guy who’s had these experiences. Maybe it will give them the courage to admit they have too.

You founded the Transformational Leadership Council; its members are listed in the book. What is the purpose of this group and how has it influenced change?
JC: It was founded out of my need to have a support group of people doing similar work. There were different associations, but there was no group for people who own transformational training companies. So I threw a three-day event at my house, and for three days we had a discussion about whether or not we wanted to create a support group with each other. Well, 32 people were invited; 30 came; 29 people said yes. Now we’re at about 125 members. It’s morphed into also including transformational coaching company owners, transformational authors that we all read, transformational media people, and so on. The purpose is simply to support each other in becoming more conscious and sharing our techniques with each other.

Did you feel like the 30 people in this original group were part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang?
JC: I would say that 80 percent of them were. Yeah, I could feel that vibration.

How do we know if we belong to The Gang?
JC: If you feel you have a calling, a destiny to contribute to the transformation of the world into a more cooperative, loving, positive, socially just, environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling world, you’re probably part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang. I might have been in one “local chapter,” but it’s clear to me that there are more members than me and the little group I hang out with. I meet people who are locally well known but not on the national scene and I say, yeah, you’re part of the gang. I think it’s become a metaphor for anyone who wants to become a midwife to the evolution that wants to be occurring right now.

What does this evolution look like to you?
JC: What I get is that there’s something bigger than us that’s evolving. We can tune into it through meditation, visualization, and so on. If you tune into it, you can cooperate with it and you do your part.

I think that so many people who are out there doing counseling, coaching, teaching meditation, doing yoga classes, NLP, EFT… are doing this work. Some people are very conscious about it because they’ve tapped into that calling, that awakening. Other people are more unconsciously doing it, but it’s a quickening I see all over the planet.

In the book, Barbara Marx Hubbard presents you with five questions we can all ask ourselves to determine whether or not we’re part of the Golden Motorcycle Gang. Can you share those with us?
JC: Barbara had an experience [during a full-life regression] of going to the Elysian Fields where in Greek mythology the Gods and demigods hung out. There she found Aristotle and Plato and people like that (probably in white robes!) and was asked these five questions:

• What do you know of the original plan? Are you aware there’s some destiny unfolding that you’re a part of? A lot of people will tell you they are.
• Do you have any memory of having volunteered to go to Earth at this particular time? I volunteered to come down here. I think a lot of people did. I read Life Before Life by Jim B. Tucker where he did 2000 questionnaires and a bunch of interviews with people who had, under hypnosis, direct memory of choosing to be born, what gender to be, what race to be, what kind of parents they wanted to have — coming in with a purpose. They’d met with a board of advisors — guides who helped them clarify that purpose so that when they came down, they could fulfill it.
• The third question is, if so, do you remember your contract? Do you remember what you agreed to do? For example, I agreed to help bring about a world that was more peaceful and harmonious and where people were living their highest vision rather than living their lowest vision out of fear.
• What do you do best in the world that only you can do? What we’re all being called to do right now is authentically be ourselves, not Tony Robbins because he made a lot of money the way he did it, or Barbara Marx Hubbard, or some guru. But to really ask, what is it that I do that’s unique to me? For example, I call my wife a day maker — she makes people’s day. She leaves a message on your cell phone and it makes your day. She walks in to the salon to get her hair done and everybody walks out of there happier because she was there. That’s her purpose. I have this belief that we’re all like cells in a body. Maybe you’re a brain cell and someone else is a pineal gland cell, and someone else is a liver cell, and someone else is a heart cell, and if we each fully be that, then all the body’s functions will work, and we’ll live. If you try to do something different, you end up being a cancer cell.
• What are you supposed to do now, and what tools and resources do you need to do it? We really have to tune in every day and say, what am I to do now? Today? This period of life? This month? This cycle? This season? And then go and find the tools, the resources and the people to be able to do that work. We should all be supporting each other in that.

Can you talk a little about the Birth 2012 event on Dec. 22 that you’re helping to organize: how you plan to participate, how the rest of us can also take part?
JC: There are a lot of events being created and maybe I’ll be on a stage somewhere, but I will definitely be participating. Through the Transformational Leadership Council, we have a combined mailing list of over 12 million people and we’ll be promoting it, encouraging people to really participate in a day of celebration, a day of intention, a day of how do we want to create this next chapter of our life? That day will be an ongoing day of celebrations and concerts and TV shows and such. Conscious evolution means evolution by choice, not chance.

For more information on The Golden Motorcycle Gang or Birth 2012, visit www.GoldenMotorcycleGang.com and www.Birth2012.com.

Author Ruth Montgomery was one of the first to coin the phrase “Walk-In”  in her book, Strangers Among Us, referring to a soul transformation. Walk-Ins are souls who enter a body when the original soul has either completed its task or development or has suffered a traumatic experience and is ready to move on.

It is believed that many Walk-Ins are now in body on Earth to assist the planet with its vibrational shift. Marilyn Harper and Adironnda & Company, through their collective guidance, are being directed to gather walk-ins, their family and friends together October 7-9 in Phoenix, AZ, for the debut Walk-Ins Welcome Conference.

Anyone attracted to the terms “walk-in,” “soul transformation” or “galactic being” are invited to this event that will educate, support and connect the walk-in experience. The conference will take place at Embassy Suites Phoenix North, and registration is at Adironndaspiritualhealer/walk-ins/ Special discounts on hotel rooms are available until September 7.

Those connected with the Walk-In experience say many such souls enter the body without conscious memory, and the adjustment can be jarring and detrimental for the person as well as family and friends. The Walk-ins Welcome Conference offers support to make the transition smoother.

Guest speakers will include:

• Lenedra Carroll – Author of The Architecture of All Abundance, Lenedra is an artist, poet, author, entrepreneur, singer and philanthropist. She has also managed the career of her daughter, singer/songwriter Jewel.
• bj King – World renowned mystic and artist, and intergalactic channel
• Rev. Kari Chapman – Channel for the Archangel Michael, owner of Namaste Wisconsin
• Leandra Murray – International Psychic, Opening to the Animal Oracle and the Symbols of Siddhi
• David K. Miller – Founder of the Group of Forty, as directed by the Arcturians. He channels spiritual masters such as Sananda, Vywamus, the Arcturians, and the energies of the Archangels.
• John Schulte – Channel, Exposing the Masters Within, Gateway 2011-2012 Activations and The Pass Process
• Marilyn Harper of Adironnda & Company – Clear channel, award-wining speaker, integrational facilitator of spiritual healing
• Kathleen Farrell and Chuck Cunningham – SoulTones, an experience of a vibrational, integrational concert utilizing crystal and Tibetan singing bowls

For more information, visit adironndaspiritualhealer.com/walk-ins/walk-ins-welcome-conference/

Circumstances have overtaken man. His old languages are not sufficient to describe what is happening, and what is about to happen. To think in terms of a millennium or such tame concepts as “the eleventh hour” is ridiculous. Better that he should realize that he is in an era which might be more accurately described as the “eighth day of the week.” – Idries Shah

For the spiritual traveler, we are living in a complex and unique age – one of tremendous upheaval and great opportunity to solve problems. Turn on the television set and listen to the reports coming in from all across the world: religious wars, effects of global warming, famine, new strains of disease, drug wars, overweight children, advances in technology and people beginning to work together to solve problems of housing, job loss and keeping their family together. This combination of factors has been called the “eighth day of the week” and the beginning of a new era; clearly, until many of these problems are resolved, if that is possible, the amount of unsettledness, fear, anxiety and personal worry for many will continue to grow.

For increasing numbers of people, the personal balancing factor to this stress and chaos, is spiritual development. It must be added to the mix and used with our other capacities to find solutions. Higher knowledge will not replace common sense, experience, hard work or economic imperative. That is not its function. It is an added capacity which integrates and works alongside others.

The present discussion will examine some basic thoughts about being spiritual – and how spiritual capacity can help the traveler deal with this period of chaos and change.

What does it mean to be spiritual?
What does the term spiritual mean? Spiritual is not an easy word to define, because there is an experiential aspect to it, with many levels and dimensions. It’s like love, which is a sublime experience and occurs in many forms; poets and songwriters proclaim its virtues and sorrows, yet, no matter how fine the words, they are only an approximation.

Typical definitions include phrases such as: Spiritual means…of the spirit. This type of definition defines itself using the same word, yet, surprisingly is reasonably accurate. Spiritual does mean of the spirit.

For the spiritual traveler, the soul is comprised of a spiritual energy fabric – the source of life that powers our body, five senses, emotions and consciousness. To the soul, there is a higher and lower aspect, which correspond to different parts of our functioning (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual); to further complicate things, in some discussions soul/spirit are used interchangeably.

• The goal of spiritual paths, or being spiritual, is to add a measure of conscious spiritual awareness to the traveler’s individual life and day; this knowledge or awareness serves as an enriching, enabling element, so the traveler can complete daily and higher functions.
• For the most part, everyday activity, work and worry block the inner (spiritual) awareness from coming forward.
• All life operates through consciousness, which is awareness and energy on multiple physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. Through our soul, which is comprised of this spiritual energy fabric, we create our multiple levels of reality, every moment of the day.
• Each one of us is a creator of reality. We are souls that have taken on a physical form to create our lives and participate in the higher design. In order to do this, we must follow a spiritual path and lead a balanced life.
• A full life is a life where we express all the parts of self and participate in something higher.
• Increased spiritual capacity helps the traveler know what is going on around them; this knowledge helps them on a daily basis.

Characteristics of a spiritual person
Another way to help define spiritual is to examine personality traits of spiritual people. These characteristics help us get a better understanding of what it means to be spiritual in daily life. However, there are problems here, as well. While these traits are accurate, they also can be said to exist in non-spiritual people:

• Spiritual people have a sense of humor and are not “stuffy old farts” – and enjoy laughing.
• Spiritual people are involved in their community and may work/raise a family.
• Spiritual people seek to help others as much as themselves.
• They are free with their time and energy; they volunteer their efforts.
• A spiritual person demonstrates continual striving to get better.
• A spiritual person lives by their conscience.
• They try to live a life that is free of expectation and comparison to others.
• They try to look at different issues from a broad framework and entertain/respect the ideas of others.
• They are not on a power trip or trying to control the ideas/lives of others;.
• Spiritual values are long held and they are genuinely humble.

While the spiritual traveler acknowledges problems in definition and realizes they are seeking an illusive essence, there is another part of the consciousness that offers: “Do not worry – you will know it, when you find it.” Like love, spiritual defines itself – and by adding this capacity to your life, your life will be fuller, more complete and you will be better able to face life’s ups and downs.

Routine change or the end?
Through increased information that is available via television and the internet, the average person viewing the unrest in our world cannot help but wonder: What is going on? Conversely, scientists and philosophers tell us that chaos and order are simply opposite ends of a continuum. Both are natural to life and necessary to the physical order. And so the spiritual traveler wonders: Is this era simply a routine period of unrest, soon to be followed by a period of relative calm?

Consider the following themes and ideas, and how each contributes to our fear and growing anxiety level. Each of which can be found either in your religious/spiritual belief system or on your local television programs, nightly and weekly.

• Many religious and spiritual paths discuss a destruction/ending of sorts, of which many scenarios seem to coincide with this time period. Is this the end of the world? Also, current scientifically based television shows describe “end of world” natural disasters, questioning: Will the world shift on its axis? Will a large meteor hit the earth? Through global warming, will we send the earth into another ice age? When will the next super volcano erupt? Often these shows include prophetic references: Are these events the earth changes that Cayce and other prophets have described?
• Some belief systems hold that previously there have been four destructions of the earth. The Mayan Calendar ends in year 2012. According to Sufi Tradition, the Stream of Life has died and will be replaced with the new Stream of Life. Destruction and rebirth: Are they natural cycles that have occurred many times?
• Recently, across the world, there has been a failure of government and large corporations to solve economic problems in a timely reaction to natural disasters. Also, for the average person, these institutions appear to have been at the center of many of the ills that affect us. As a result, gradually, many are turning away from reliance upon authoritarian-based models to individual-based structures. Slowly, we are collectively realizing that governments/corporations/religion alone cannot save us. We must all work to make the world better and begin this effort with ourselves.
• More people are solving problems locally and are gradually realizing that the world is made better one person at a time. This is the person-centered approach. Additionally, there is growing interest in spiritual paths that emphasize personal development. Better individuals make a better world.
• Personal, corporate and governmental greed, along with religious fanaticism, increasingly are threats to our way of life.
• Honoring the Earth Mother or destruction of the environment: How will it end? Will we pull together or destroy the planet?
• Information explosion: Boon or curse? How do “others” manipulate us.

Understanding Emotion: Love and Fear
By nature, we are emotional – and our reactions to life, through multiple feelings, contribute to a richer, full experience. When something happens in daily life that is painful, we all have a reaction to it. We are multi-level beings and our emotions bring us both great joy and sadness. That is the way we are hardwired and for good health, must honor our feelings.

One model, suggests that all emotions arise from the two basic feelings of love and fear. According to Frank Sant’Agata, all emotions can be traced back to these primary feelings:

“Love and fear are the only emotions we as human entities are able to express. All the others are just sub-categorical emotions. For example, on love’s side there is joy, peacefulness, happiness, forgiveness, and a host of others. On the other hand, fear reflects: hate, depression, guilt, inadequacy, discontentment, prejudice, anger, attack, and so on.

Love and fear can not coexist. Where one is, the other can’t be also. The one will leave immediately, should the other enter its presence. If you find yourself in a situation where you are experiencing great joy, and are suddenly overtaken by fear, the joy is gone! But it works the other way too: If you are terrorized, frightened, or otherwise threatened in any way, all you need to do is turn to the love within and the fears disappears.”

Next time you are watching TV talk shows and the host is trying to convince you of something, evaluate their presentation using the following criteria: Is this a manipulation of the fear-and-reward stick. Do as I say and good things will happen; if not, bad things will happen. Most often, the media, politicians, some forms of religion, and corporations continually use this manipulation. Unless you see the manipulation, it is very difficult to understand and disarm, particularly, when you are up against a formidable societal power structure.

From a spiritual standpoint, we want to become masters of our emotions, so we can temporarily get beyond them. When we are emotionally charged, most often, the quiet, spiritual part of ourselves will not come forward. It will not operate under these conditions.

Daily Practices to Counter Fear
Now that you have me totally paranoid, and frightened about the end of the world, what am I supposed to do about all of this? Here are a few suggestions, from my personal toolbox on life, to help you conquer your fear reaction, and more easily access that quiet part of yourself, which is more peaceful and serene.

• Honor your Fear. Express it in healthy ways – pray, kiss your children, and be grateful for what you have. Ask the Universe/God to help you go beyond your fear and live a full life. Offer up a prayer of gratitude/thankfulness for what you do have and not what will be taken; turn to love and gratefulness. Ordinarily, the mind is so constructed that it can only keep one thought in it at a time.
• Scenarios of the world ending are just that – scenarios or potentials. Unless we collectively change and live according to the Golden Rule, this is one potential. Remember, you can only control yourself and work to make your world/life better.
• Lead a full Life. Participate in the world; try to make it a better place. Travel to the different parts of yourself and follow one of the great spiritual paths to completion.
• Live in the moment. All you have is this moment; try to make it work and be joyous for you.
• Happiness Calendar. Every day do something small that makes you happy. Laugh, tell a joke; make a telephone call to your friends. Research tells us that happy people have many small things they look forward to each day.
• News Vacation. Take a vacation from your computer, the television set and reporting of the bad things on the news. Sit quietly or go for a walk; try to listen to that quiet part of yourself that knows where it is going.
• Pray. Make each moment a celebration to life and offer up a song of gratitude for the opportunity to be here.
• Think Happy Thoughts. And when you find yourself becoming sad, angry or confused, remember that from confusion comes order. One moment we are happy and the next sad. We have the capacity to create our own reality, and a happy traveler thinks happy thoughts. Tell jokes, laugh or watch a funny movie.
• Avoid making comparisons between yourself and others, particularly what they have and you do not have.
• Monitor your expectations about life and people. Often, expectations are a trap that robs us of our happiness and peace of mind (i.e., I expected by this point in my life…or if I followed this spiritual path, I would be free of pain).
• Life can be glorious, but remember it’s a full-contact sport. Chaos and order co-exist and are part of the Cosmic Plan.
• Be with positive people. Be selective with the people you hang around and what they speak/talk about. Positive/loving people are good medicine.
• Avoid alcohol and other recreational drugs. Most are depressants and can affect your mood.
• Balanced living. Keep all things in moderation and strive to lead a complete, multi-level balanced life.
• Replaying old tapes. Avoid going over and over, troubling things that have happened. Some of this is necessary, but most often, we replay it too much.

Conclusions
The more we practice controlling our consciousness and awareness, and seeing the fear/reward manipulation about us, the easier it will become to think more tranquil thoughts. Then, one day we will experience what lies beyond emotions; and the higher consciousness will emerge.

Often for many events in life, we cannot control harmful outcomes; when something painful or chaotic occurs, we must feel and honor the pain. Yet, experience teaches with a little hard work, we can limit fear and worry about potentials; all of us must learn to separate out what is a possibility, and learn to use the tools in our personal toolbox to move past potentials and reach happier, more tranquil states.

In 1969, it was during a BBC interview that Mrs. Beryl Worth, when questioned about her positive personal adjustment to a recent potentially fatal diagnosis of cancer, answered in the following way.

“I think it was St. Ignatius who was sweeping the corridor and his novices came and said to him, ‘If you knew the world was going to come to an end in 10 minutes, what would you do? And he said, ‘Go on sweeping the corridor.’ And that is just what I’m going to do.”

In every moment, life is ending and beginning; life is joy and pain, chaos and peace. With every moment, after we have experienced what we need to experience; we must learn and remember to go on doing our work, and “continue sweeping the corridor.”

“There is no journey as exciting as the journey that leads to your own awakening and the blossoming of your intuitive abilities, for these lead to wisdom and personal power.” – Penny Kelly

Over a two-year period in the early 1980s, a group of little men in brown robes appeared to Penny Kelly, asking if she would be willing to “look at some pictures.” At first reluctant, she eventually agreed, and during a series of visits she was shown a number of living scenes of the future encompassing the years from 2000 to 2413. The scenes of the future were accompanied by a number of explanations and commentaries by the “Robes” themselves.

In 1991, they returned and asked her to write down what they had shown her, and the book Robes — A Book of Coming Changes was the result.

Penny Kelly

Penny Kelly is a writer, teacher, consultant, speaker, publisher, and Naturopathic physician. She is the owner of Lily Hill Farm and Learning Center in southwest Michigan where she teaches courses in Developing the Gift of Intuition, Getting Well Again Naturally, and Organic Gardening. Penny has been researching and exploring consciousness, cognition, perception and intelligence for more than 30 years, and works with Dr. William Levengood of Pinelandia Laboratory near Ann Arbor, MI.

She is deeply involved in Community Gardening efforts and the development of a regional food system in southwest Michigan, and she is working with the Kellogg Foundation in this regard. She has a small publishing company, Kelly Networks LLC, that publishes books on the subjects of spirituality and health, and she is one of the founding members of the Tipping Point Network, which is currently working to move sustainability from 2 to 10 percent of global market share.

This mother of four children has co-written and edited 23 books with others, and five books of her own: The Evolving Human, The Elves of Lily Hill Farm, Robes — A Book of Coming Changes, Getting Well Again, Naturally — From The Soil To The Stomach, and Consciousness and Energy, Vol. 1 — Multidimensionality and A Theory of Consciousness. She is now writing Consciousness and Energy, Vol. 2 — New Worlds of Energy.

Penny Kelly will present an evening lecture and weekend workshop in the Twin Cities on July 22-24. On Friday evening she will present the lecture “The New Earth — Living in Harmony,” an overview of what she learned while with the Robes. On Saturday and Sunday, she will present “Developing the Gift of Consciousness,” a guide about the reality we live in and a deeper understanding of awareness and intuition. For complete details, visit Edgelife.net.

The author and healer spoke with me about her experience with the Robes and about what she will present in July during her first visit to Minnesota.

Penny, I was introduced to your book Robes — A Book of Coming Changes and every aspect of the book resonated with me. When did your journey begin with these little men in brown robes?
Penny Kelly: The journey began in 1980 when the “Robes,” as I called them, began appearing in my kitchen or my living room, asking if I would be willing to “look at their pictures.” I was not very receptive the first couple of times they appeared, but then I had the thought, “Okay, I guess I can look at their pictures for a minute.” I didn’t realize it was going to end up being a whole series of visits and pictures that would occur on and off for almost two years.

What did you feel when you were taken into the future by the “Robes.”
PK: I think the overriding feeling at that time was “overwhelm.” The pictures and scenes they showed me introduced a whole range of thoughts, ideas, perspectives and possibilities that I had never even considered. They took me into times and places that revealed the major events and coming changes happening between 2000 and 2025, then in 2080, and in 2413. Through it all, they talked about the rise of what they called the “global network” and how important this was to our ongoing development as humans.

Back then, the internet did not really exist in society, and I often wondered what they were talking about, but now it’s obvious they were talking about the web!

When they took you into the future, what did you see? Tell us about the visions they showed you.
PK: There were about 16 or 18 visits altogether, and each visit focused on a different aspect of our life in this world. The first one dealt with the need to reconnect with the Earth and to reconsider things like building high dams and nuclear reactors in earthquake zones.

The next few visits focused on our legal and political structures, as well as our misunderstanding of leadership. They pointed out why governmental institutions weren’t working, and said that our government would eventually go bankrupt. In another visit, they went into deep and powerful explanations about sexuality, birth and educating children. We went on a tour of how people were living, their communities, homes, even their bathrooms and bedrooms. We spent one visit on food, how famine would develop in our first world countries, and looking at the frequencies food offers us.

In still others, they examined technologies, trade, the abilities we could develop as humans, and the fact that we were approaching what they called “the great fork in the road,” which was whether to align ourselves with creation or destruction.

What do we have to do to prepare ourselves to be in balance with the present shift in consciousness?
PK: There were two things the Robes emphasized. One was the need to reconnect with the Earth. They said, “You must reconnect to the Earth or you will not survive…and we very definitely want you to survive.” The other thing was the need to begin developing ourselves and our built-in potentials. They insisted we were responsible for what we created, and that it was time to begin creating deliberately and wisely.

You have an organic farm In Michigan, you’re involved with community gardening, and you’re also a great proponent of sustainability. Did the “Robes” have a major effect on your present interests and your life purpose?
PK: I did not think they had much effect on me at the time they were present in my life, and when they stopped coming around, I was relieved. It was only later that I began to see that everything they showed me was happening and my whole life had been affected by them. Unconsciously, I had worried about getting caught with nothing — no skills, no equipment, no knowledge, no relationships, no connection to the earth or the capacity to sustain a decent way of life. I think this unacknowledged worry drove me to make many of the choices that I made.

In brief words, tell us what we need to do to become better citizens of the world?
PK: Mmmm, that’s a big subject. I think we need to move away from thinking that the government should be responsible for our lives. I think we need to recover our inner authority and make decisions about how we will live instead of waiting to see what is handed to us. I think we need to stop searching for heroes and take on the challenge of being heroic in our own lives.

I think we should stop idolizing politicians or media stars and start stepping into roles that call us to become servant leaders. I would like to see each city and town take responsibility for feeding itself. I would love to see the clothing business go “local.” I think education should start with teaching children about the body/mind system and how to survive in Nature. When they can do that, then introduce reading, writing, and arithmetic! I could go on and on….

From all indications, your Friday lecture and weekend workshop will prepare us to transform not only ourselves, but also the world. Can you expand on this?
PK: On Friday, I will be talking about developing our built-in abilities as humans, about what it means to reconnect to the Earth in today’s world, and the process of reaching enlightenment. The weekend workshop focuses on where we are going as a civilization, what living in balance means — in terms of people, plants and animals, and I will present a number of experiential exercises that deepen and expand consciousness.

Thank you Penny for an enlightening and informative interview. I am looking forward to your visit to the Cities with great anticipation. I am sure many readers will feel the same way, after reading your message.
PK: I’m also looking forward to visiting Minnesota. It should be a fun and exhilarating experience.

Ozark Mountain Publishing will host its sixth annual Awakening to Higher Consciousness Transformation Conference 2011 on June 10-12 at the John Q. Hammond Center in Rogers, Ark. The event features: noted regressive hypnotherapist, psychic researcher and author Dolores Cannon; author, teacher, dancer and actress Dee Wallace; Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, star and consulting producer of “Ancient Aliens the Series”; Maureen McGill and Nola Davis, authors of the book Live From the Other Side; and many others who focus on the raising of human consciousness.

The event is $165 in advance, $190 at the door, with options to purchase tickets for each day separately. For registration or more information, call 1.800.935.0045, email info@ozarkmt.com or visit www.OzarkMt.com.

Noted author and speaker will focus on healing and transformation

Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park will welcome prolific author and scientist Deepak Chopra at 7 p.m. Monday, April 11, as he discusses how “Healing, Transformation and Higher Consciousness” can enhance our collective commitment to global health, awareness, love and peace.

Deepak Chopra is the founder and chairman of the Chopra Foundation, and founder and co-chairman of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, CA. Acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest leaders in the field of mind-body medicine, Chopra continues to transform our understanding of the meaning of health.

Chopra is known as a prolific author of more than 55 books, with 16 New York Times bestsellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality and peace. A global force in the field of human empowerment, Chopra’s books have been published in more than 35 languages in both fiction and non-fiction. His New York Times bestseller Peace is the Way won the Quill Awards and The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of your Life was awarded the grand prize at the 2005 Nautilus Book Award. His latest bestseller, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You, was released in October 2009.

Chopra’s Wellness Radio airs weekly on Sirius/XM Stars, Channels 102 and 155, and focuses on the areas of success, love, sexuality and relationships, well-being and spirituality. He is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post on faith and contributes regularly to Oprah.com, Intent.com and Huffington Post.

For tickets to hear the man described by Time Magazine as “the poet prophet of alternative medicine” or to attend the private reception with Deepak preceding the program, visit www.bethelsynagogue.org/deepak or call 952.920.3512.

For information about placing an ad in the event program or becoming a sponsor of Deepak Chopra’s presentation, contact Danelle Cunningham at 952.873.7307.

Trio of Light, promoting conscious awareness through educational forums, will present the “2011 and 2012 Global Transformation Event” on Saturday, March 26, to reveal what to expect, how to prepare and what tools will be of assistance during upcoming “life-changing transformations.”

The event, sponsored by Edge magazine, will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Unity South Church, 7950 1st Ave. S., in Bloomington.

The “2011 and 2012 Global Transformation Event” features Edge Astrologer D.K. Brainard, who will offer an in-depth look at upcoming life-altering global events. He will demonstrate how emotional intelligence is the key to thriving in this upcoming era and reveal forecasts by shamans for post-2012 and what to expect.

Designed to provide clarity and proactive methods to make a positive healing difference, the event was created by Trio of Light’s Psychic Healers Jenny Canfield and J.J. Norman. Channeling healing messages from ascended masters, they will provide insight in preparation for future change.

Joe Welch, a healer with Spring Forest Qigong, along with Andrea Sullivan, a Shiatsu and Qigong healer, will reveal transformational ways to use Qigong and Meditation to integrate emotional, spiritual and physical shifts.

For more information, go to www.triooflightforum.com.

It was a late afternoon in 2005. I sat at the office completing my presentation for a workshop I would offer the following week. I felt pleased and experienced the type of satisfaction that arrives when you know you have done a job well.

Several key concepts had fallen into place, deepening my own understanding of the information. I mused, “One actually does learn when preparing for a presentation!” The subject of the presentation was of a spiritual nature, part of the Peace & Healing Series I had been developing. My heart was full with the sense I was more frequently experiencing a universal state of gratitude and joy, and wondered what a different world this might be if we all consistently lived in this state. With thankfulness I saved my documents, shut down the computer, and prepared to leave the office.

It was my intent to drive home and head out for a walk in the woods. The weather was unusually warm and balmy, and I looked forward to feeling the sun on my skin. Somehow, however, while walking along the second floor hallway, trotting down the back hallway steps and then opening the building door to the parking lot, my level of consciousness changed forever. I would never experience the world in the same way.

Symptoms of Consciousness Shift
What I experienced that day remains in my mind as clearly as the day it happened. My reflexes and depth perception abruptly changed. My senses exploded to perceive a new world. I suddenly was in a profound meditative state. Yet, my eyes were open and my body was moving through space. The ego experienced these symptoms with fear. I was emotionally paralyzed.

Gradually over several weeks, I learned to adapt and to let go of the ego’s response of fear to the change. To this day the experience continues and expands. In A Course in Miracles, it is written about this state of being, “I am at home. Fear is the stranger here,” a contemplation that kept me sane during the transition. Although my sudden powerful shift was dramatic with profound physical and emotional manifestations, thankfully, not all of us experience such a sudden change. We evolve more gradually.

Yet, even when not profound, a mild but sudden shift can occur, leading us to experience fatigue, challenges in ability to concentrate and motivate and, for some, dizziness with mild nausea. These shifts can reoccur on one’s journey. The symptoms are usually manageable, although with responsibilities of career or those associated with raising young children, they can be challenging. Fortunately we are also rewarded with more profound moments of Love, Gratitude and Peace.

The Quickening
Over the past three years the universal rate of deepening of consciousness has appeared to speed up or quicken. This has increased the magnitude of challenging mental/emotional and physical responses, especially if there is ego resistance. Some of these can be severe. As a clinician, I have experienced profound blockages in individuals requiring clinical support. These blockages can lead to endocrine dysfunctions, neurological pain and other uncomfortable manifestations.

Maintaining Our Balance — 9 Habits
Here are 9 habits that we can practice that I have found helpful for maintaining energetic balance in the midst of this spiritual quickening:

• Practice Love and Gratitude. Consider on-the-hour contemplations said silently in the mind. Follow Rhonda Byrne’s recommendation in her book, The Power, to achieve a “tipping” point of love, at least 51 percent of the time.
• Practice daily meditation/prayer. Meditative movement — such as Qigong, Tai Chi, Yoga, The 5 Rites or other — can help us maintain physical, mental and emotional balance, as well.
• Allow yourself a more relaxed schedule and get more sleep during times of rapid shift. Let the ego’s fear dissipate in the knowledge that you are going through a beautiful but profound transition from Homo Sapiens to Homo Spiritus and that you will arrive at a new, comfortable level.
• Learn a self-assessment tool like Muscle Response Testing. These tools can help you understand what factors are causing uncomfortable symptoms.
• Honor the body by learning to breathe deeply; eat a balanced, low sugar, whole food diet and drink pure water.
• Gently exercise daily if you are able.
• Know and practice being your authentic self. Not being authentic results from reactive emotional patterns and can lead to illness.
• Identify your current level of consciousness relative to your potential level of consciousness. Knowing your journey decreases ego anxiety.
• Seek support from a practitioner experienced in both spiritual development and functional medicine if you are experiencing uncomfortable symptoms or are feeling anxiety. Your condition can be accurately assessed, supported and corrected in a loving environment through natural therapies, supplements, therapeutic essential oils and consciousness consultation.

It was summer, a couple of years ago, when I first heard her story. I listened for hours to the heartbreak and the sadness, of a drug-using, alcoholic father who taught his own children to steal from department stores. The mother whose strictness drove her daughter to tune out in front of the television set, mindlessly eating to feel good about herself. And then, many hours later, I learned about the transformational joy and bliss that has risen like a phoenix out of a highly dysfunctional childhood.

Twin Cities psychic Deborah Lynn11, once an aimless pawn pushed back and forth between two parents who were ill-equipped to parent at all, is now sharing her very personal story of how her devotion to spirituality has helped her to overcome all of that — and much more — in her book Murphy’s Law No More, which will debut at the Twin Cities Psychic Symposium on Feb. 26 at Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center, MN.

“My story is a journey from dysfunction to wellness,” the preface to her book reads. “What I will share with you is one woman’s story, but it also is yours. No matter how hard the challenges in your life seem to be, you can overcome them. And in doing so, you will be a much stronger person.”

I spoke with Deborah Lynn11 about her personal transformation.

Deborah, your early story is one of great family dysfunction. Can you give our readers a taste of what life was like for you as a young girl?
Deborah Lynn11: I was in a world of two different places. My father taught me to be streetwise and do everything I was not supposed to do, and my mom was the opposite. It was a world where I had what I thought was a fun Dad. He was the one I felt I should cozy up to, because he let me do whatever I wanted. In my eyes, Dad was the one who really loved me. He let me play and do the things that he thought were fun.

I thought of my mother as a Hitler, a dictator, and someone who I felt hated me because she was so strict. I was never allowed to go and do anything with my friends. I could never go to movies and do things with the other kids. It was all work, work, work — torture.

What was the result of this young girl who had one parent with very strict guidelines and the other parent with no guidelines? What kind of young adult did it create?
DL: It caused me to run away at a young age, because I was torn. Oh my God, what am I doing here? What do I do? I felt like I had to get away from the situation, because I was going crazy. It caused me to have really dysfunctional habits.

And how did your relationships play out?
DL: I was comfortable with dysfunction.

What was the turning point in your personal transformation?
DL: I was realizing that my bad habits were hurting me and my daughter.

Ultimately, how were you able to extract yourself from the energy of the past and move forward in a new direction?
DL: I totally removed myself from the past. I moved to Minnesota and totally removed myself from all the dysfunction, the unhealthy habits that I had acquired since I was a child. By losing all of my family, I was forced to look at myself. I lost my Dad in 1987 and my Mom and husband in 1993, and then my older sister in 1998. I had no one else to turn to but myself. When you have nobody else in your life, you’re forced to look at yourself. And I realized, “Oh my God, what have I done?” You learn a lot about self-awareness when you are in solitude.

Are tendencies from the past still within you, and if so, what is the secret to not going back and reliving old patterns?
DL: Yes, I do have habits from the past that still plague me. One is food, because food represents my fun, the way that I love myself. The way I avoid those habits is to get out of myself and realize that thinking is dangerous. If you sit around and think about the things you need to do, they won’t get done. Just do what needs to be done. It is important for me to motivate myself to get up and do things.

What role did your intuitive gifts play in finding a new direction?
DL: I’ve always been intrigued by the metaphysical world and what it entailed and how it worked. How did people become psychic? I’ve always had a craving to learn that. The key is to follow your passion, and that’s what I did.

Following my passion was instrumental in helping me move forward, away from the dysfunction I had grown up with. I learned that nothing is by mistake. When I focused on the spiritual world, I realized that everything that I was handed was in perfect order. We come here to planet Earth to learn lessons. Life is about choices. I realized I could choose to live in a world of fear and negativity, or I could choose to live in a world of love and protection. To be in the world and not of it. That involves raising your level of consciousness and realizing that there is love and protection around us at all times, even though we cannot see it. You are never alone.

Why did you choose to write Murphy’s Law No More?
DL: A couple of years ago a psychic told me, “You have an idea for a book.” And I said, “You’re right. I’ve been putting it off.” And he told me I needed to get more serious about writing this book. When I moved from Southern California to Minnesota, I knew I needed to write a book about the perils I had experienced in my life, because by sharing them I could help the world.

Who is your intended audience for Murphy’s Law No More?
DL: This book is for women from the ages of mid-20s on up, especially those who feel persecuted and damned because of what has happened to them in their lives.

What do you hope to leave your readers with when they finish your book?
DL: I want to leave them feeling inspired and uplifted. I want to help them realize that we’re on this planet to learn lessons and that we can choose to live in the spiritual realm while here in these bodies. I want them to know that life is a miracle and that it is important to face your fears.

What was the gift for you in going back into the past so you could share it with us?
DL: I learned how much I have really grown and transformed spiritually. It has been a total metamorphosis.

Would you suggest that our readers do the same, go back and explore the gifts they received in their upbringing?
DL: Yes. It is not an easy process, however. Make sure you have a confidante, someone with whom you can express your fears and pain. Someone who will listen and give you the nurturing that you need. Compassion. It may not be a parent or a sibling, but a friend who loves and supports you.

At the beginning of our talk, you shared what life was like for you as a young girl. Please give us a sense of what it is like for you now.
DL: I’m living life here on Earth, as it is in my heaven, in total peace and tranquility. I’m comfortable with my space. I’m responsible, having removed all of my unhealthy habits — except for the food. I have a beautiful home of my home in Stillwater. I was fated to be here. In moving to Minnesota, and coming over the St. Croix River bridge, I heard a very loud psychic message that said, “Welcome home.” For years I had a yearning within to visit St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. I kept thinking, “I need to go to St. Croix.” I had never realized there also was a St. Croix River.

When I heard the message, “Welcome Home,” booming as I crossed the river, I had a déjà vu experience. I saw myself on the St. Croix River as a Native American Indian, standing up in a canoe fishing with a spear. I knew intuitively that it was me, and that I was, indeed, home.

What do you say to the woman who is impressed with what you’ve done in your life, but she doesn’t see any way out of her situation?
DL: If you keep saying you won’t, then you won’t. Have an open mind that if you really want to do something, you will. When there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s a mindset. It’s the universal law of attraction: “As you think, so shall it be.”

Because you are a psychic, I must ask, do your guides have any specific messages to our readers right now?
DL: The “11″ in 2011 is about balancing. The scales are balancing and the world is rejuvenating. We’re going back to the land of plenty. Toss all fear aside.

Finally, what message do you want to leave our readers with, pertaining to your new book, Murphy’s Law No More?
DL: Don’t judge yourself so harshly. We’re all human. We all make mistakes. Forgive yourself. Learn that the more you forgive yourself for your mistakes, the closer you are to the Light, to God. The more you can really love yourself, the closer you are to God.

The first time I encountered Christine Day was as a guest on my radio show in New Mexico. I host an independent GLBT radio show and periodically have on “spiritual folks.” Christine was bright, articulate and had a distinct point-of-view. She was open about her past and did not shy away from difficult questions. Her words charged me with energy.

I was so inspired that I became somewhat light headed. I was talking to a person who directly channeled wisdom from the Pleiadians and had inspired a new way of being for countless people around the world. It had been a long time since I had heard anything that moved me the way Christine did.

During the interview, she told me that she would be giving a three-day Pleiadian Seminar in Minneapolis at the end of July. Something inside of me knew that I had to attend. It had been years since I had taken a workshop and I knew that this was the time. The radio interview was in December and I would have to wait seven long months to find out more.

I arrived in Minneapolis early so I could rest up and be revitalized for the Event. I had purchased her book [Pleiadian Initiations of Light, 2010] and listened to the two CDs that were included. Each chapter builds upon the next, bringing me into a new understanding of myself, my ongoing situations, and feelings about my life. “The CDs build in energy, chapter by chapter, as the reader opens to the process. They have an unlimited amount of different experiences available on them, depending on where the reader is in the process. Each journey on every CD is unique, so there are new levels of initiation each time you listen.”

The seminar was filled with people. About a third of the attendees were men, which really surprised me. In the early days, there were very few men at any consciousness-raising events. The seminar started promptly at 9 a.m. and Christine was a firm lieutenant with instructions on how the seminar would work. The three days were filled with toning, experiential work and structured activities. There was time for questions and feedback. Overall, the event passed quickly, perhaps too quickly.

One of the more memorable experiential exercises was focused on letting go. Christine was filled with joy when she announced that she would be transmitting energy to us to help us let go. She suggested we let go of our daily woes, our fears and problems – all things that consume our energy. As she began toning and moving her arms, I felt like I was at a sporting event, someplace where whole sections of the crowd were doing “the wave.” Although Christine’s rendition of the wave was energetic, I could feel a sense of peace and envelopment by the warmth and energy of her work. She repeated the letting-go exercise several times, and with each successive repetition the energy and release became more pronounced. I knew I was in the right place at the right time.

Sound is also an integral part of Christine’s work. Toning and other sacred sounds filled the room. It is an amazing experience to be a part of a group whose intention is to harmonize feelings. By day three, the sound was vibrant, alive and transformational.

Christine was always available and “hands on” with her participants. During breaks, or at lunch, Christine would always be walking around and checking in with people. She is not the kind of person who hides out or surrounds herself with an elite few. She did have five assistants, who accomplished tasks as simple as getting a microphone to a person with a question or as difficult as supporting someone through an exercise.

Christine teaches all over the world. Sometimes she draws crowds as large as 5,000 people who attend her events or transmissions. The three-day Pleiadian event is just one of her offerings and has no prerequisites, and you may meet people who have studied with Christine for years. Her work is layered, so the novice gains a level of understanding and integration not found with other people’s work.

Two things really stand out from my own personal experience with the Pleiadian workshop. First, I greatly reinforced my feelings for and respect of the third-dimensional world that we live in. Simple things like getting up and seeing the clouds or the morning sky are a tremendous gift for me, and my experience at the workshop somehow enhanced that. Secondly, it helped me open up and trust. I am ready for whatever is next in my life; albeit richer or poorer, sickness or health.

I am opening my heart and making myself available for the human experience, the Angelic experience and the Pleiadian experience, such as it is…all wonderful.

There’s nothing new I can tell you, perhaps only reminders of things you already know. You and I know more than we are aware, and still, we seem to know next to nothing in the great scheme of it all.

Sometimes I feel like we are all participants of a huge reality show called “Life on Earth.” The objective is to make it from the starting line to the finishing line, alive. The challenge is to overcome self-imposed obstacles [insert yours here] while at the same time surviving ones that the show’s producers throw in just to entertain the viewing audience [earthquakes and other natural disasters, the boss firing you unexpectedly, the bank taking away your home, a devastating car crash, diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, insert others here].

As children, we grow up not knowing we are part of a game, then we mature and become aware of the game. Most of us grow old accepting that the game’s just life. Some people, who were bitterly angry when they learned about the game, live out their lives growing more and more resentful.

Others cannot come to terms with the game, so they resist. They do everything they can to live outside of the rules, often finding themselves constantly on the run, trying to stay off the grid, undetected.

Surrender to the flow
And then you have the people who see the game for what it is. Instead of pushing themselves into survivor mode, they do just the opposite. They do nothing. They choose not to compete. They surrender to the flow. They are the Bartlebys of the world, the odd ducks who don’t try to fit in, scorned by everyone around them, misinterpreted as misfits.

In reality, they are as free as any being that has ever lived.

These ones, I am convinced, are the wayshowers. These fearless mystics navigate the darkness as well as the light, but they do not proselytize. They keep to themselves, speak only when spoken to, and have the ability to vanish when any outside intruder forces their hand.

I have known some of these mystics in this lifetime, and perhaps you have, too. Stay close and listen to what they say, more through their actions than their words. Be observant, for they move like the wind. They speak in riddles and verse, and they think in circles rather than straight lines. They attract followers like a bright light induces summer bugs to swarm in bliss, not aware of how close they are to flying into the sun.

Their message is always the same, these fearless mystics: Simplicity. No arcane formulas and charts to memorize. No grandiose vision outlined in thirty dusty, hardcover volumes. Just the simple truth.

We hear that and our attention wanes. We look to our left and we look to our right for the next big secret, the next big ticket, where the shiny book is not only spellbinding, but the movie is out of this world.

Game changer
What’s unique now, with the game growing old for souls who came onto the planet to bust up paradigms, is that people are intentionally stepping into uncharted waters. They not only are walking off the edge of the flat Earth, but they are returning to tell us something that has never been heard by so many people at the same time: The Game is Optional.

These 21st century pioneers are telling us that the incredible change we see all around us is mirroring the change taking place within us.

The chrysalis. The butterfly. Our evolution as a conscious process of creation.

The transformers, the wayshowers, have been whispering all along, quietly seeing and embracing and feeling a new field of energy that is shifting the way we operate as conscious beings. Now, more voices are coming forward to translate what it means to live outside of the game, where power lies within the individual. People are stepping into this field of energy and they are sharing ways in which they are  consciously creating their way forward.

And they are encouraging each of us to listen within for this impulse of metamorphosis. Do you feel it? Do you want to?

Of course, sometimes this talk of conscious creation appears to be theoretical, even mumbo jumbo. But one day soon, it will be a part of each of us, a silent upgrade enacted on our operating systems. No big announcement. Just a new way of being.

Last of a seven-part series

My intent is that parts one through six in this seven-part article series: spoke to important aspects of the pervasive spiritual hunger in our world; initiated a useful examination of the design and framework of our current earth reality; offered stimulating avenues for assuaging that ache; and outlined viable steps to take toward psycho-spiritual freedom, authentic sacredness and profound connection.

In part two, we explored the pervasive spiritual hunger in our world by making a case for the necessity of unveiling fundamental truths about the design and framework of our current Earth existence. In that installment I proposed the importance of investigating how it might feel relatively easy to accept that a matrix fiercely and dutifully governs the design and framework of Earth’s political and social systems, economic, educational and cultural constructs, religious structures and most New Age spiritual systems, but somewhat more challenging and confronting to acknowledge that this matrix governs the larger context of existence.

As a way of uncovering the veiled truths and obtaining answers to such questions as, “Is there something wrong with the way in which current Earth existence is designed?” in part two we worked with the film, The Matrix, as a modern myth. In the film, as part of an invitation to extract Neo from his enslaved existence, Morpheus offers Neo two options: the “red pill” or the “blue pill,” with the choice of pills illustrating our right to choose between truth and illusion or ignorance. The red pill will answer the question, “What is the matrix?” – a question that can be answered only by removing Neo from it. On the contrary, the blue pill will ensure that his life or illusion of life will go on as before.

Part three proceeded from the vantage point of having taken the “red pill” and explores the design and framework of our current Earth existence with an emphasis on the various ways many of us experience this matrix in the undercurrent of our lives.

Experiences of truth
In part four, we reviewed the risky consequences of the “unexamined life” and its relatedness to our craving for a clear, resounding experience of truth and a palpable, profound connection to our authentic selves and all of creation.

Part five contained an exploration of our inherent divinity, the existence of various concepts of creation and sacred text distortions, and the identity and agenda of the creators and keepers of the matrix-like reality prevalent on Earth at this time. As I also previously shared, the Source – the creative wellspring at the center of all that is – needs us to examine the condition of our current Earth reality and accept that we are living in a matrix, and to confront the degree to which the human race and reality is manipulated by those who control world events and how these factors affect the global awakening.

Part six of this series contained powerful suggestions for dismantling the matrix and living a life of self-sovereignty, spiritual freedom and glory.

In this, part seven, I offer my interpretive insights and impressions about the theories, prophecies and predictions associated with Dec. 21, 2012. It is important to keep in mind that it is from within the framework and design of our current earth reality that all theories, prophecies and predictions emerge. Let’s take great care to consider all prophecies from a spiritual adulthood platform, sifting through what is being offered via the various prophetic sources and doing our part to discern what resonates as revelation and what smacks of propaganda.

Therefore, these insights are offered from a perspective that is, to the best of my ability, outside the influence of the matrix-like framework. In addition, this endeavor includes intuitively interpreting the hidden meaning contained in the encoded symbols and metaphors of the prophetic texts.

Prophetic texts
When I began the process of re-visiting the various prophetic texts of the Mayans, Egyptians, Hopi, Cherokee, Essenes, Kabbalists, Dogon tribe, Aborigines, as well as Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus, it became apparent that due to the scope of the topic, I would need to condense my responses and insights. My examination in this installment is by no means an attempt to tackle the vast and somewhat unwieldy library of knowledge on these topics. Rather, my intent is to attend to certain central tenets that will empower each of us to discern the underlying purpose of prophecy.

While in the process of combing through a quotient of the prophetic texts referenced above, I realized that many authors and interpreters use the term apocalypse and Armageddon interchangeably. According to Merriam-Webster, apocalypse is something viewed as a “prophetic revelation.” According to Dictionary.com, the Greek apokaluptein means “to uncover.” Someone with whom I dialogued about this topic maintains that the Aramaic origin of the word translates as “knowledge revealed during a time of mass awakening of consciousness.” Consequently, the word apocalypse seems to me to signify a time when knowledge pertaining to the awakening of consciousness is being and will continue to be uncovered and revealed.

Firstly, I feel it is important to acknowledge the tendency to rebuff the validity of prophetic messages particularly when highly publicized critical sources broadcast how many previously predicted “calamitous” events have not come to pass. However, that is not the highest manner in which to measure the accuracy of prophecy. Prophecy is not an exact science of event prediction and a prophet’s purpose is not just to issue warnings, forecast cataclysm or propose rescue plans. There is a universal principle operating within all prophecies which asserts that what might happen and can happen depend a great deal on the thoughts, feelings and actions of the co-creative participants.

Because of our co-creative participation, nothing is a foregone conclusion. Therefore, if what has been or is being prophesied did not or does not occur, it is because the reality changing participants (us) changed the probability lines. Consequently, we have no grounds upon which to deem the prophecy or the prophet false. This is reinforced by the words of St. Germaine: “…Prophecy is not set in stone…if we respond to the Prophets’ warnings and apply the spiritual solutions placed before us, calamity can be averted.”

Distortions of truth
So much has been prophesied about the date 12/21/2012 by so many cultures and individual prophets or seers that it seems evident that the time to consider prophesies is most definitely at hand. However, just as there are distortions of truth currently being perpetuated in many secular and spiritual belief systems, these distortions can most certainly be found in various prophetic texts.

In fact, to my way of interpreting it, some of the texts that prophesise these events – natural catastrophes, chemical annihilation, unprecedented terrorist assaults, consummate economic collapse, alien invasions, a pole shift and the complete disintegration of Earth’s third dimension and/or the significant alteration of life on the planet that forces most, if not all, survivors to contend with a future of hardship and horror – are deliberately encoded to trigger layers of fear, dread, panic and aggression to gain more and more compliance and control over the masses.

Likewise, the prophetic texts that describe 12/21/2012 as the moment when we will experience the instantaneous emergence of a spiritually renewed utopian world circumvents our free will contributions, our co-creative participation in the evolutionary process.

In addition, we ought to consider, as just one example, that Nostradamus was the product of the religious fanaticism of 500 years ago and, consequently, devised methods of obscuring the insights in his prophetic writings. Therefore, comprehending his messages requires a great deal of mystical skill to decipher the hidden meaning. Many prophetic texts contain symbols and metaphors that require intuitive interpretation.

Whether a prophetic text contains data like the instability of the Middle East, pervasive terrorism, a precarious world economy, calamitous weather changes or a pole shift, we are encouraged to consider prophetic texts from the platform of our individual spiritual adulthood so that we can sift through what is being offered and discern what resonates as revelation and what resonates as propaganda.

The core concern
Therefore, it seems that the core concern surrounding the date 12/21/2012 is whether life on this planet will be somewhat altered, significantly changed or come to a complete halt. Let’s explore the significance of the date 12/21/2012, considering just a sliver of the prophetic, esoteric, astronomical and astrological information available.

The ancients devised prophecies about the emergence of a new world through their intimate and impressive observation of the planetary bodies. In their experience, the rotation and orbit of the planets operated as a celestial clock that charts changes and transitions, with changes in the heavenly bodies functioning as a mirror of change to all of existence.

The winter solstice, also known as the first day of winter, is the time when the northern hemisphere is farthest away from the sun, making it the shortest day and longest night of the year. On the winter solstice of 12/21/2012 at 11:11 a.m. Universal time, our sun will intersect with the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

It seems there is a vast hole in the center of the Milky Way. This hole was considered by many ancients to be the womb of our galaxy. Likewise, many contemporary astronomers believe that this vast hole or center is the place from which many of our galaxy’s stars were created. Given the particular intersection of our sun with the center of the galaxy, some feel that whatever energy is available to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will be disrupted at that time, while others maintain that this alignment will enhance the available energy.

Additionally, some ancients, ostensibly including Plato, regarded the Milky Way galaxy as a keeper of particular time cycles that typically end in catastrophic change. With this, it seems important to consider that according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word catastrophe is derived from the Greek word katastrephein, meaning “to overturn,” and that in 1540 it became associated with the “reversal of what is expected.”

Harmonic Convergence
Furthermore, according to some mystical, esoteric, prophetic and astrological sources, there are two significant alignments to consider. This first energetic alignment occurred on our planet in August 1987 at the Harmonic Convergence and will reach a zenith on 12/21/2012. Apparently, on August 1987 the plane of our solar system became synchronized, and our solar system began moving toward an anticipated intersection with the center of our Milky Way Galaxy (at 27 degrees Sagittarius), which will take place on 12/21/2012. Therefore, it seems that in 1987 we reached synchronization and in 2012 we will reach the intersection point.

Some describe this intersection of our solar system with the center of our Milky Way Galaxy as something that hasn’t occurred for 250 million years, while others purport that this alignment took place as recently as 26,000 years ago.

The ending of the Mayan Calendar’s Great Cycle on 12/12/2012 is mirrored by numerous other prophecies (Hopi, Egyptian, Cherokee, Ethiopian, and the works of Nostradamus and Cayce, to name a few). One of the components these sources have in common is their assertion that the Winter Solstice 2012 heralds change. I concur with those who maintain this paradigm shift is monumental and contains threshold after threshold for personal, planetary and even galactic transformation.

From my perspective, the first movement in August 1987 heralded an energetic shift in consciousness that has, at its core, an invitation for each of us to wake up and be prepared for our graduation from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood. This invitation included a summons to spiritual seekers:

• To cast aside outmoded and limiting beliefs.
• To reclaim our essence identity as co-creators.
• To embrace our profound and significant purpose as participants.

This is a time of simultaneous dismantling and the co-creative birth of a new way of being.

Spiritual adulthood
The second movement, which I sense will occur on 12/21/2012, has to do with completing our graduation from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood – crossing that threshold, utilizing the energy available to us to walk through the 2012 gateway and continuing our co-creation of a profoundly awakened, empowered and fulfilling personal, planetary and galactic reality.

The insights and perspectives contained in prophecies (whether they pertain to the nature of divinity, possible purposes for our existence, and/or to probable future events and occurrences) are invitations that stir us to awaken, to open our hearts, to expand our consciousness, adjust our compasses and risk change.

Prophecies are a summons to action. It is up to each of us to determine whether the actions we take bring fleeting change or become the seeds of unequivocal new beginnings, because what we do with the spiritual information we amass matters very much. The vital question to ask is whether we acquire spiritual data and allow it to remain mostly information OR allow the information to activate our knowingness so that we actually change…we actually live (vibrate, think, feel, behave, appear) differently after assimilating the informational insights.

As we consider the various theories, prophecies and predictions associated with 12/21/2012, let’s keep in mind that it is from within the framework and design of our current earth reality that all theories, prophecies and predictions emerge. I therefore champion each of us to take great care to consider all prophecies from a spiritual adulthood platform, sifting through what is being offered via the various prophetic sources and doing our part to discern what resonates as revelation and what smacks of propaganda.

Most importantly, let’s not abandon our posts as co-creative participants in this shift. Let’s heed the words of Ranier Maria Rilke who reminds us “The future is not something that will happen or even must happen…it is not engraved or pre-destined…rather the future enters into us in order to transform itself in us long before it happens.”

Today I was given a gift. When my husband Dyke brought a caterpillar to our home a few weeks ago, I thought it would be a fun science lesson for the kids. It turns out, it was a gift for me. As I write, I know that words cannot fully express how I feel now after my experience with the butterfly, but I will do my best to try and share with you what is happening within me because of it.

Butterflies are symbols of many things. They remind us of angels, with their beautiful delicate wings of an artist’s pallet of color. They are in art, given as gifts, signs of springtime, rebirth and hope. Symbols of life.

Today, I was invited in to the deepest place of nature’s beauty, the process when life is renewed, when the gentle green cocoon with a light golden spiral on it transformed into a sheer white curtain flowing from a window on a breezy day. The now-beautiful monarch butterfly clung to it. Its only reference of its identity. It held tight to its past, the shell that it rested in as it patiently waited its transformation. Was it fear? Was it lack of confidence in its ability? Did it know it even had wings? Was it aware of the process, the plan for its life? So many questions to ponder. He, the bold stripe on his inner wing gave way to his gender.

The Monarch sat hanging in its temporary home, seemingly waiting for something. Maybe it was trying to understand what had happened in the cocoon or maybe it needed time to let these big life changes sync in. Maybe it cannot see itself; maybe it cannot believe what he has turned into. What if caterpillars don’t know what they are destined to become? What if there is not an innate knowing within them that offers the promise of a beauty that takes our breath away, and the capacity to fly with freedom. What if they don’t know that their work as a caterpillar is to eat and survive to make a cocoon, the work to shed their old skin for the chance to become something magnificent?

It begs the question: What if we don’t know what we are capable of either? It reminded me of the many people I talk with in my work and how there are so many of us that have these moments of doubt, insecurity and questioning our ability and our capacity. Times when we walk around with wings on our backs that we have no idea are there.

I was invited to watch this transformation and to celebrate as the monarch discovered it had changed…for the better. The change was worth the risk. I watched for some time to see if he would take flight. I realized that even if I was not there the moment he discovered his wings, it didn’t mean that he would not fly. In his own time, he would gain strength and understanding for his capacity and choose to fly.

During the time I sat in the grass watching, waiting for him to take flight, I felt so peaceful. It was like meditations I have experienced before. I felt so calm, unhurried and patient – all qualities I have been missing in my life as of late. I enjoyed the stillness for as long as I could, and then went back into the house. I heard an intuitive whisper that shared with me the reminder of how this too was a process. It takes time – and it is as simple as that. No need to worry, no need for action. Just trust the natural intention. After all, no matter how hard you try to force things to happen, they will only do so in their own time. Ah yes, I have heard this message before many times. So without worry or the need to be there for his special moment, I left all expectations to God and I went inside with a feeling of hope and trust in the process of the butterfly.

I went outside every so often to check on him. At one point I bent down to take some photos, and his wings spread open. He had moved upward on the tall branch upon which he had been hanging. His brilliant, colorful, orange-and-black wings flapped a few times and before I could snap a great shot, he flew! Up and out above the rolling acres of the land at our home in the countryside. He flew quite high and came swooping back toward me as if he was showing off his excitement. Within me I celebrated for him – and for me. I smiled so wide and deeply that my soul opened up completely. My heart beamed with love and awe as I witnessed this everyday miracle. He swirled about for just a few seconds and landed deep in the wildflowers of our unmowed yard. He perched high on the tallest of plants and there he rested. I was able to see him and take some photos of him once again. I felt like a proud mother when your child rides a bike for the first time. You celebrate their independence and new found freedom. I felt the freedom and the joy of that moment when the Monarch trusted its natural ability to fly, accepted who he was intended to be and embraced his capacity in all its glory.

Tonight while cleaning up the kitchen, the sun peaking through the evening clouds caught my eye. It shone through the pattern of clouds across the sky and reached down towards us. I stopped. I rarely do, but I stopped for a moment, went closer for a better look and there I stood. Taking in the beauty that is all around us. Too busy to see, too busy to experience, and even to notice. And I felt for a moment just a glimmer of the same joy I did with the butterfly. And I heard through the sunbeam over the rolling acres of land: “You have a good life. Do you really know what you have. Don’t let it pass you by.”

I remembered the modest Monarch butterfly pin that appeared above the doorway outside my Grandpa’s hospital room the morning he died. In the hospice wing, they use the butterfly as a gentle and graceful symbol that someone has crossed over into heaven. I kept it as a reminder of my experience that night as my sister and I took turns sitting with Grandma, as Grandpa spent his last night on earth. As I write this, I am hearing the message, “Endings and beginnings are one in the same,” and that life is a cycle, a process wherein sometimes we are required to set aside our need to save one another or change the course of events or control the outcome in a way that is palatable to us, but regardless of these desires we are at times needed to just be observers. And through that part we may actually learn and grow the most.

I wiped the tears as they flowed down the edges of my face, those sneaky ones that just appear at the corners of my eyes when I am connected to the divine power of God. In that moment, I was truly grateful. I don’t know that I have ever before felt that much thankfulness. Looking back on the day, it was unusually peaceful throughout. All four kids were stuck inside with us all day, given the heat and humidity of an August Minnesota day, yet a peacefulness lingers with me. Maybe I, too, have changed. And now I am waiting to embrace my capacity. I wonder what color my wings will be?

What if we all have wings and are waiting for the moment we realize we can use them. Maybe that is when our life truly begins. Perhaps our finest moment is when we realize we can.

Question: Do you feel that it’s important, particularly at this point in the paradigm shift, to regularly gather in groups with whom we feel a resonance?
Answer: Absolutely. The phenomenon of group strength is well known. At this point in the paradigm shift it requires a great deal of energy to continue moving forward in a spiritual evolutionary process. Even with the waves of consciousness expansion and awakenings, particularly over the past two decades, my experience is that there is still a great deal of contraction, resistance, withholding and downward spiraling on Earth. This is due, in part, to the formidable numbers, both on the planet and inter-dimensionally, whose ambition is to suppress awakening, misrepresent the evolutionary process and nullify transformation.

It is often difficult to overcome restrictions of consciousness ourselves, but working with energies in the group format can provide ways to compensate for the constrictions and densities currently prevalent on Earth. The power of the group can often accelerate leaps in consciousness that might otherwise take months or years to accomplish. Furthermore, bringing our individual consciousness into the group process exponentially multiplies the intent of the group activity.

Group energy also increases awareness, enhances receptivity and provides a sense of belonging – a kind of safe harbor – as well as an incentive to continue the journey. In addition, the support and encouragement garnered in groups enables the participants to take their expanded awareness, enhanced receptivity and clearer vibratory frequency away with them. What we take away affects all those with whom we come into contact. In fact, just our presence in any physical area will have a potentially profound effect on the consciousness of others. As we each do that, we generate a critical mass of awakened and reclaimed truth and freedom, which ripples out into the world mind.

Approximately a year or so ago, the Hopi Elders sent out a message, which was forwarded to me as follows:

“There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel that they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has a destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river and keep our eyes open and our heads above water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate!

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

The Elders verify that the river of evolution, the river of the shift, “is flowing very fast now,” and they ask us “to see who is there with us and to celebrate.” They also reference that “the time of the lone wolf is over.” The time for doing things on our own, as lone wolves, is over. They encourage us to “gather ourselves.” These words validate the phenomenon of group strength and reinforce the tremendous benefit of gathering in groups with whom we feel a resonance.

Question: I’ve heard spiritual teachers and facilitators promote a practice for those on a path of spiritual growth and development that involves us realizing that we are “in the world, but not of it.” I would appreciate more clarity on these concepts.
Answer: Because the cycle during which our divinity was denied and our spiritual adulthood forestalled is ending, it is vital that we remain committed to not only occupying a perspective, but also behaving in a way that exemplifies that we are in the 3D Earth reality but not of it. In my experience, there are steps to take to achieve this that involve:

1. Taking responsibility for our divinity by embracing and aligning with our identity as co-creative emanations of Source.
2. Separating restrictive beliefs from the living truth; sifting through the beliefs we’ve embraced as truths, allowing for the possibility that some, if not many, of the truths we’ve been holding are now holding us.
3. Exposing distortions currently being perpetuated in many secular and spiritual belief systems.
4. Casting aside all outmoded notions and detaching from restricted beliefs that do not contribute to our destiny of transformation.
5. Embodying the living truths we remember and recognize.

From the perspective these steps afford, we can continually release attachments to any form of blind submission to information that comes to us from external sources and rely more and more on our inner promptings. This leads us in the direction of remembering, reclaiming and embodying the living truth.

Truth is so powerful that it can re-organize every aspect of our being and qualitatively changes our lives. However, recognizing and reclaiming living truths, whether these emerge from within us or are presented to us by another, can have an effect similar to regaining one’s memory after a protracted period of amnesia.

Touchstone practices that take us to our sacred center (the center point of consciousness within us) can both assist us in overcoming the effects of amnesia, as well as fortify the establishment and maintenance of our spiritual adulthood platform. I refer to our sacred center as the Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber, because our hearts are the guardians of our intuition. Our intuition is our profound inner knowing, our instinctual inner acuity, and it is a permanent plug into truth, understanding, knowledge and wisdom that is hardwired from the heart through the soul to our Macrocosmic or Essence Self (aka/Higher Self or Oversoul). It is through intuition that our Macrocosmic Self speaks to us, with our soul functioning as a translator or interpretive bridge.

Furthermore, connecting with our intuition is the key to unlocking the truths encoded within us, and we effortlessly rouse and consciously connect with our intuitive knowing from this center point of consciousness. And these encoded truths are our Holy Grail. The more we remember, reclaim and embody these truths, the more we experience ourselves as being “in this 3D reality but not of it.”

I have previously written about the end of Duality, how judgment creates perceptual splits within that system, and made observations about the nature of the New Living Field. The New Living Field is what I call the new matrix of consciousness into which we are now making the “shift of the ages.” This matrix is where Light and Life, the spiritual and the material, have merged into a unified field along with all other polarities.

I often say we are installing a new operating system. The implication is that differences exist between the old and the new, and like our experience with computers we may find that many changes are required in us to accommodate the new system. To continue this metaphor, our bodies are the hardware and the new matrix is the software, and both are being upgraded. The challenge for most of us is that no user manual exists for the new system, and some of us feel we are writing it as we go. In this case, the act of writing is literal – and I’d like to expand on one emerging feature of the New Living Field.

Last month I listed mutuality as a quality of the New Living Field. By mutual, I mean that energy always moves in ways that do not create imbalance. In Duality, we had numerous experiences where energy imbalances were created by non-mutual exchanges. We had winners and losers, and takers and givers. Once we became entranced with money as a substitute for Life, we concocted endless ways to manipulate people for its acquisition. As Duality breathes its final breath, we see maximum polarization in that old field and gain clarity about the mechanisms that have extracted energy from the body of humanity, and most of us are happy to be moving beyond such a life-diminishing experience.

Mutuality might be thought of as the outcome of perfect synchronicity. Consciousness within the New Living Field orchestrates the movement and interconnections of all parties to the synchronicity. The field has been created to fulfill the authentic soul or heart desires of all participants, and to do so seamlessly and without effort. This quality of orchestration is why most of the training about using the mind to direct energy is now irrelevant. In the New Field there is no hierarchy, no necessary manipulation of energy and no dominance of mind.

A personal experience illustrates the gifts of mutuality in action. Last spring my partner Michele and I decided to buy a house after renting for several years. Our lease would end in August, so we began a search by monitoring MLS listings for anything of interest. We had our list of desired home features, including distance from work, price points and certain geographic boundaries. Months went by in frustration as we found nothing that seemed to fit.

Finally, at a recent dental appointment the hygienist asked Michele what was new, and she explained we were looking for a house. Suddenly, a sequence of events went into motion as the hygienist spoke of a very nice home near her own, and very motivated sellers being relocated out of state. We were unexpectedly led to a home perfect for us in an area we weren’t looking and at a price that had fallen from a number we wouldn’t have considered. The sellers were thrilled to get buyers who would love the home as they had, and the closing date matched up with the end of our lease.

Then, our landlady asked me to show the rental home to a person who not only was perfect for the house, but who needed furniture and bought everything we didn’t want to take with us. I could write pages about what aligned in this process, but I can only say that the numbers of mutually supportive events were profound. In the end, we were delayed in buying a home until perfect timing arranged a 15 percent drop in price, a reduced interest rate and a series of personal connections that were surprisingly satisfying as well.

Everybody involved received an experience beyond what they were expecting, which is a hallmark of mutuality in the New Living Field. You do have to initiate the process of engaging what you wish to create, but if you can relax beyond expectation, you will receive beyond imagined limitation. Whatever the struggle to release from Duality, I promise you it’s worth the effort.

Sixth of a seven-part series

In this installment of the seven-part series, I will offer suggestions about how to dismantle the matrix and live a life of self-sovereignty, spiritual freedom and glory, and in part seven I will offer my interpretive insights and impressions about the theories, prophecies and predictions associated with 12/21/2012.

In a previous installment, we explored how it might feel relatively easy to accept that the matrix fiercely and dutifully governs the design and framework of Earth’s political and social systems, economic, educational and cultural constructs, religious structures and most New Age spiritual systems. However, somewhat more challenging and confronting to acknowledge is that the matrix governs the larger context of existence.

If you have stayed with this series this far, you are without doubt willing not only to entertain these concepts, but take the steps necessary to dismantle the matrix at its core. As I also proposed in a previous installment, the Source – the creative wellspring at the center of all that is – needs us to examine the condition of our current Earth reality and accept that we are living in a matrix. The Source also desires us to confront, as author David Icke and others have bravely done, the degree to which the human race and reality is manipulated by those who control world events and how these factors affect the global awakening. I propose that it is an honor for us to join with these other brave renegades in rising from our knees so we might as, Mr. Icke proclaims, “take back the world from the sinister network of [global elite/secret government] families and non-human entities that covertly control us from cradle to grave.”

Spiritual adulthood
The current paradigm shift requires several things of us. At the heart of this paradigm shift is spiritual adulthood and freedom, and the completion of this shift is dependent upon our graduation from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood. The most vitally productive way to participate in this paradigm shift is by becoming spiritual adults.

Indeed, becoming a spiritual adult is necessary to dismantle the matrix. The most essential step in this endeavor summons us to reclaim our essence by embracing and embodying our cosmic identity as divine emanations of the Source.

In light of this, let’s recap something we explored in previous installments. We enter the physical world in the third dimension having forgotten our true divine identity. Remember how we previously examined the fables passed down that speak of the time in our mother’s wombs when the veil doesn’t exist and during which we remember all the wisdom of the universe. But many of these tales end by narrating that at birth our Guardian Angel gives us a sharp blow that causes us to forget everything we’ve learned! Isn’t it interesting that we arrive in an incarnational experience programmed to forget the truth about our celestial origin and clueless about what we came here to do? After eons of forgetting, we believe it is our nature to forget. We forget to the extent that we forget that we’ve forgotten.

Nevertheless, although oppositional forces sew doubt, restrict our receptivity and confound our remembering, I believe that our soulfire burns brightly and is the conduit for our re-membering, that we are designed to remember that we are made of the same essence as the Source, and that this, and nothing less than this, is our honorable divine lineage. In her book, Change We Must, Nana Veary shares, “…in Divine Providence, salvation is unnecessary, but self-discovery is essential. We do not save that which is lost; we merely discover that which is always there – our divinity.”

Four passkeys
After reclaiming our essence, there are, in my experience, four passkeys to crossing the spiritual adulthood threshold that function as a foundation upon which we can extricate ourselves from any and all prisons. As part of this exploration, we’ll examine three of the four.

• Personal authenticity – Authenticity is the highest spiritual principle and the cornerstone of our humanity. When we are authentic, we are genuine, true, sincere, trustworthy and reliable. Also, being authentically who we are at any given moment restores us to wholeness and re-establishes our sovereignty.
• Self-examination – Self-examination is the main ingredient of enlightenment. Regardless of the many definitions of enlightenment floating around that contain instructions for attaining this state that include remaining present in the moment, striving for humility, radiating unconditional love and serenity and/or aligning only with experiences and expressions of “positive” emotions, enlightenment is the process of bringing the light of awareness to darkness and illumination to denial. Carl Jung describes this process quite superbly, “Enlightenment doesn’t occur from sitting around visualizing images of light, but from integrating the darker aspects of the self into the conscious personality.”
• Separating belief from truth – It is essential that we examine the truths that we’ve been holding to ascertain to what degree these truths are now holding us. In his book, Becoming Like God, Michael Berg fearlessly addresses the third passkey by declaring “our lives are a war zone, a ceaseless battle against a negative force that operates inside our skin, our brain, ourselves, and consigns us to a robotic existence and kills us as a reward.”

Dismantling the matrix’s influence over our lives involves awakening to the truth that the matrix swindles us into serving our egos and thrives not only on us succumbing to indecisive lemming-hood, but also on engendering doubt, confusion, annoyance and suspicion. Even now, it opposes our awakening and the reclamation of our self-sovereignty by taunting us to deny that which resonates as truth. It wants us to acquiesce to both our incredulousness and our numbing comfort so as to validate that uncovering shrouded truths is at best annoying.

Our comfort zones
This brings us to an essential step in dismantling the matrix’s influence that involves our comfort zones. As part of this step, we must be willing to confront the degree to which we define comfort as the absence of extreme pain.

The comfort zone of the oppositional energies – our individual ego and the world mind mental matrix – is formidable. We are told, as part of the illusion, that if we seek comfort we will have ease. However, it is only when we seek truth and freedom that deep and lasting ease can envelope us. When we move out of the comfort zone, the opponents become aware of their diminishing hold on us. The way to our power is through responsibility. If we negate new concepts because they collide with the acceptable structure of our current beliefs, we might be resigning not only ourselves but also others who will benefit from our courage to remain within the grip of the incomplete and inaccurate belief paradigms enforced by most religious dogma as well as assorted psycho-spiritual suppositions.

Consequently, it is essential that we utilize the first spiritual adulthood passkey of personal authenticity and, in so doing, recognize and own how and when we become anxious and rigid in the face of change and, therefore, tend to hold onto familiar beliefs. Familiar beliefs reinforce the repetition of patterns, and this paradigm shift assures us that we cannot afford to remain stuck in repetitious patterns. When we acknowledge the truth of our current emotional, psycho-spiritual state, then we can move forward into expansive receptivity.

Recognize truth
This brings us to a point of great magnitude: There is a profound connection between authenticity and our ability to recognize truth. To access and embrace the larger truths of life, we must be willing to acknowledge the truth about our everyday lives, including the state of our spiritual evolution.

In the same vein, it is also of great consequence that we take a courageous moment to employ the second spiritual adulthood passkey of self-examination, to the light of truth to the fact that most, if not all Earth inhabitants, experience bewilderment, fear, struggle, endurance, and suffering, decay and death as the main ingredients of their experience of 3-D. We all know individuals who function like intoxicated robots on a treadmill of illusion, convinced that they’re getting somewhere. We also know individuals who are devoted to complacency. Some of us feel relieved that we’re not one of them.

However, all Earth inhabitants struggle to maintain an awakened state. Many meditate regularly, read spiritual books, go on sacred pilgrimages, donate to charities, participate in spiritual programs and have profound, illuminating experiences that temporarily change their lives. But these experiences often dwindle or are diminished by subsequent feelings of uncertainty, superiority, fear, restlessness or envy, with only a few translating into actual transformation. We don’t have a lasting sense of having transformed because we don’t yet believe it is possible. We don’t believe it’s possible, because we have not yet owned the truths we recognize and remember.

Liberating ourselves
A further next step revolves around each of us liberating ourselves from all constraints associated with our identities inclusive of our name, gender, job title, our allegiance to our roles in relationships and groups, as well as from our addiction to approval. I recommend that we explore how in our daily thoughts and actions, the matrix holds us prisoner using the ego aspect of our minds to hypnotize us.

The ego aspect of our minds is where the matrix plugs into and operates from, because our egos function in survival mode from a place of fear. Therefore, to counter this, all aspects of our earthly/ego mind must serve the heart, because through the portal of the heart not only are we intimately connected to our intuitive knowing, but we also have access to the far-reaching wisdom of cosmic mind. I further propose that we observe how often we find ourselves thinking the thoughts we have been trained to think and accepting the pathways we have been trained to accept. Next, I champion us to open to discover new, perhaps even astonishing ways of thinking and acting, noticing when these discoveries are accompanied by thrilling, life-enhancing sensations.

Our current Earth reality is not only an illusionary dream world, it is a perversion of what we are entitled to experience as life, and that the matrix not only generates this dream world, but its primary purpose is to keep us oblivious to its existence and purpose. We have been conditioned to scoff at the notion that there might actually be another way of being.

Our cosmic heart
Nevertheless, each of us has a window in our cosmic heart through which we can catch a vision of what can be. Our cosmic heart is our most beloved and formidable ally. Therefore, another step must take us to this sacred center, deep in the core of our being, which I refer to as our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber. This sacred center is a point of consciousness, which, with the assistance of our imaginations as architects, is easily envisioned as a familiar place with which we can deeply resonate.

Our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber may remain inactive simply because we’ve been taught to concentrate on our third-eye area as the meditative focal point. In my experience, meditation, in which we still our minds, focus on our breathing and/or repeat a mantra, is useful for achieving levels of tranquility and equilibrium. However, if we’re seeking to kindle inner knowing, to receive insight and guidance and to achieve clarity that moves us forward on our journey, meditative journeys that are akin to vision quests may prove more effective.

We enter the chamber of our Cosmic Heart through the doorway of the heart, because not only is the heart the center point in the overall energy system, it is the guardian of our intuition. Intuition is our profound inner knowing, our instinctual inner acuity and is sometimes referred to as a “hunch” at the level of instinct. It is a permanent plug into truth, understanding, knowledge and wisdom that is hardwired from the heart through the soul to our Macrocosmic Self (referred to in other traditions as the Higher Self, Oversoul and/or Essence Self) and is commonly called ESP (extrasensory perception) or sixth sense. It is through intuition that our Macrocosmic Self speaks to us, with our soul functioning as a translator or interpretive bridge.

Furthermore, connecting with our intuition is the key to unlocking the truths encoded within us, and these encoded truths are our Holy Grail. This is why it is imperative that our earthly/ego mind must serve the heart. Our cosmic heart is the doorway to the far-reaching wisdom of cosmic mind, and consequently, when we’re in our hearts, our consciousness is expanded and our receptivity is enhanced. It is from this point of consciousness that we know that life is not as it should be, and that the Source’s original hope and intent has gone awry.

Multi-dimensional beings
A crucial and enormously self-affirming step involves accepting that there are multi-dimensional beings who designed and maintain both the matrix prevalent in 3-D Earth, as well the larger or more universal matrix and whose intent is to keep us ignorant, distracted and divided as a way of hindering both our individual and collective spiritual evolution. Remember, even though the Source has never been imprinted with any notions of separation or non-deservedness, because it is part of every atom of everything created from its essence, it experiences the reverberation of all that transpires from all those who issued forth from Its ocean.

One of the long-range effects of the misperception of “the fall” was that it disrupted the conscious flow of exchange between creator and creation, with some of the offspring trusting inner direction less and less and therefore seeking direction more and more from without. The disruption in the exchange didn’t just impact the offspring but the Source, as well. Therefore, the dissonance we experience in our current earth incarnation – either consistently or intermittently, and have likely experienced for eons – is a reflection of dissonance experienced by the Source. Whatever occurs in one realm is a reflection of what is occurring in all other realms. Any rifts existing between the Source and any of its offspring or between any of the waves of offspring or factions within those waves perpetuate the dissonance.

Consequently, for a long, long time we’ve all been impacted by labels, imprints, overlays, distortions and entanglements, and these have fueled many rifts. We can contribute to mending these rifts by activating our encoded knowledge of our cosmic origins, the nature of divinity and the origins of earth life so that all the threads in the tapestry of truth can be illuminated. Indeed it is time, after eons of forgetting and believing it is our nature to forget, to halt this pattern by remembering and in so doing reclaim our sovereignty. As we do this, we realize that there are no beings possessing an empirical right to evaluate our behavior that have authority to issue disapproving retribution or merciful grace. There are no deities who maintain hierarchical authority over us to whom we must submit for guidance, defer to for connection or into whose hands we must surrender our destiny.

Therefore, I propose that we wholeheartedly thank all beings on whom we have depended – Gods and Goddesses, Spirit Guides, Ascended Masters, Hosts of Heaven, Lords of Karma, Ancestors – for their service, discharge them from their stations and posts, require that the covenant with them be dissolved and proclaim that all (us and them) are free to revise perspectives, to release previously ensconced beliefs and to throw off the shackles of what has become a prison for all.

Activating and reclaiming
Let’s proclaim our commitment to the ongoing process of activating and reclaiming the truth about the nature of our divinity and cosmic origins so that all the threads in the tapestry of truth can be woven and illuminated. Let’s broadcast that we are taking a quantum leap into spiritual adulthood and that our dream of self-governing, co-creative spiritual freedom is becoming a living reality.

As we uncover and reclaim the empowering threads of truths and weave these illumined threads together, our perspectives are revised, we release previously ensconced beliefs, throw off the shackles of what has become a prison, discharge ourselves and others from stations and posts taken up eons ago and realign our trajectory in such a way that genuinely and powerfully transforms all that is. This is an important aspect of the threshold of spiritual adulthood, and the Source wants us to cross that threshold, to walk out of all prisons into the warm embrace of truth and reclaim our rightful heritage.

Now that we have discharged others and ourselves from stations and posts taken up eons ago, let’s discuss convening with I refer to as our Celestial Council. To convene with our Celestial Council it is recommended that we first journey into our Cosmic Heart Communion Chamber, for our sacred center of communion does not recognize wounds of unworthiness and is untouched by maladies of untruth.

Next, it is vital that we align with our Macrocosmic Self and, from that point of consciousness, send out an invitational telepathic beam that reverberates with the truth of our cosmic origins, that proclaims that we are a drop from the Great Wellspring embracing the principles of non-interference, unconditional regard and do-no-harm, and that affirms our Macrocosmic Self as the facilitator of this gathering.

Our Celestial Council is comprised of Beings from various dimensions within this and other frequency bands that resonate with co-creative equality, integration, and revelation of truth as well as the full reclamation of our essential self-sovereignty. Our Celestial Council will always gather in a Circle because the Circle does not recognize hierarchies. The Circle honors our uniqueness while highlighting our points of connection, affirming all participants as both teacher and student, with each upholding his/her areas of expertise and inherent wisdom. The wisdom flowing through our Celestial Council, with our Macro Selves as the facilitators is not merely information but a power unit, a direct transmission of empowering, clear, illuminating, revelatory energy.

Freedom
We often do not experience freedom and/or transform because we believe we cannot. We must leave this prison, and doing so requires taking an unremitting stand for truth, coupled with a relentless refusal to settle for anything less than total freedom. Entertaining ideas and information will not suffice, and good intentions can only take us so far because they leave an opening through which the insidious force of doubt and fear can permeate.

Furthermore, wanting to believe is not the same as being certain. Being certain requires a deep, core commitment. We must embrace this commitment with every fiber of our being and the force of our innermost destiny.

In Becoming Like God, Michael Berg tells a story about a famous Kabbalist who experienced great pain and despair seeing people who had begun their journey but failed to complete it. It caused this individual even greater despair than his awareness of all those millions who never embarked on the journey in the first place. Mr. Berg further submits that “This journey will not fit into our schedules…will not be convenient…and that is important, if not crucial, to realize that our souls hang in the balance.” Allowing ourselves to be distracted is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or, as Mr. Berg states “watching television while our house burns down.” In addition, Mr. Berg illustrates that “we can tap gently on the board for 100 years and not break it. But if we focus all of our force in a single, wholehearted blow, the board will shatter.” Neale Donald Walsch, in his book, Tomorrow’s God, urges us to consider that it’s “not a question of whether you have what it takes, but whether you take what you have and use it.”

A trailblazer, by nature, yearns to explore uncommon knowledge. Therefore, I implore each of us to have faith in ourselves as spiritual trailblazers and independent thinking renegades. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “renegade,” from the Spanish renegado, means to deny or disagree with, and along with that there is a reference to the word apostate. And, “apostate” from the Latin aspostata and the Greek apostasia means to stand off or away from; to depart from, leave or discard one’s beliefs. Because “apostate” felt very much like apostle to me, I investigated further. And, indeed, according to the same source, “apostle” from the Latin apostolus and the Greek apostolos means messenger; a person sent forth to deliver an epistle; the chief advocate of a new principle or system. We have the right and privilege to be renegade, spiritual trailblazing messengers that advocate a new way of being.

We have a choice
We are encoded to graduate spiritually and this encoding pre-dates all personal, social, cultural, and religious grids. Moreover, we are not now nor have we ever been condemned to wander in a bewildering maze of mystery and domination. We have a choice. We have always had a choice, but now we are vividly aware that we have a choice, and it is a profound choice.

Having activated our cosmic heart communion chamber, encountered and embraced our authentic selves, reclaimed our essence identity, undergone self-examination and separated restrictive beliefs from the living truth, we are ready to continue taking steps that contribute to us radiating our spiritual significance. I entreat all of us to accept that any resistance to radiating our spiritual significance is not because we are seeking to steer clear of our fear-driven ego agenda, but rather because we are feeling challenged by the awesome prospect of our co-creative power and responsibility.

I cannot stress vehemently enough the importance of our conscious participation, and therefore ardently encourage each of us to allow any chains that have bound us to dissolve so that our dreams of self-governing spiritual freedom will dominate our every waking moment.

In closing part six, I leave us with a Message From the Hopi Elders:

“There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel that they are being torn apart
and they will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has a destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river
and keep our eyes open and our heads above water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate!

The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

July was an interesting month for me to take a break from writing this column. I found it fascinating to see how swiftly reality is shifting, and I realized how important it is to stay focused on what is coming into creation rather than what is going away. Mainstream media, in all its forms, uses drama and fear to present almost anything. It is easy to be emotionally drawn into observing an event, deciding what the outcome should be, and concluding who is right and who is wrong. The process of judgment occurs so effortlessly that we consider it normal, but it is only normal within the limited awareness fostered by Duality.

A key attribute of Duality is to compartmentalize and reject parts of the whole, and with every such judgment comes a splintering within consciousness. The reign of Duality is drawing to a close, and it’s no surprise that our primary healing work has been to recover lost aspects of self in order to restore wholeness. Living in the now, conscious convergence and “oneness” are popular subjects to readers of this magazine, but those are states of being, not goals, and are reached naturally by the process of restoring personal wholeness. We don’t just decide to be whole; we transform what is creating the splits, and that process completes over time.

What we now realize is that mind has held dominance over life and other levels of awareness, and declared itself the arbiter of truth. The end of Duality is also the end of the dominance of mind. Those who hold to strong beliefs or attempts to manipulate life through mental focus are finding themselves quite challenged, since the underlying structure supporting mental posturing is dissolving. A teaching once arose informing us to “judge not.” Why? Because judgment creates splits and feeds Duality. Judgments, separations and Duality are all interwoven and are sharing the same death.

I wrote the above to set the stage for this: Duality has been a painful experience full of distortions, and most of us are happy to see it go. But, it may be difficult to perceive where we are headed. Musing on what will happen in 2012 might be entertaining, but nobody actually knows. I have no idea what will happen tomorrow. The folly of waiting for something magical to happen in 2012 is that you are probably missing what’s here right now. The “blink of an eye” is already occurring, but know that it’s a huge eye and takes several years to blink.

The New Living Field is already present and accessible to everyone, although it takes a process to shift into it and we’re all arriving at slightly different times. In these early stages of transition I can only offer some rudimentary perceptions on life in what is variously called the New Earth, New Reality, New Consciousness, New Field, or New Matrix. There will be plenty of newness to explore for a very long time and my personal experience with the New Field is pretty basic, but I will share these initial observations:

• The New Living Field is mutual – Energy is always balanced in any exchange, so there are no concepts such as giving or receiving.
• The New Living Field responds in every moment – “Now” is the only experience, so what is needed arrives as needed, and not before. There is no thought of projecting a future based on the past.
• The New Living Field is responsive to Heart and Soul - Creation within the New Matrix is organized around fulfillment of real needs and soul desires. Authentic feeling becomes conscious, is acknowledged and open to response.
• There is no fear in the New Living Field – Fear is not real. It has no substance of its own.
• We are being rewired to interface with the New Field - Currently there are 4 new nodes augmenting the chakras and coming online in the human body/energy system.
• Beliefs have no place in the New Field - Multi-dimensional awareness and access replaces systems of thought. Mind is a processor, not a storehouse or director.
• Calmness prevails in the New Living Field – This is the peace that passes understanding. Drama ceases.

It appears that much of 2010 has a focus of dismantling how much the mind has been dominant in creating our experiences. As the grip of mind relaxes and we release further from Duality, our awareness shifts and the new operating system begins to seem more natural. This is the process of transition as old perceptions melt away. I’ll bet many of you already feel a distance between yourself and the world that used to seem so real. We’re done, done, done with that old system. It is fading. Say your goodbyes.

In the first part of this interview, Christine Day, author of the new book Pleiadian Initiations of Light (New Page Books) spoke with The Edge about her experience in first meeting the spiritually advanced beings known as the Pleiadians. It was a traumatic experience, to say the least, but it was an experience that has led her to this moment as a teacher and healer who is helping humanity during this time of earth changes and vibrational transformation.

In this second part of the interview, Christine spoke with us more about the Pleiadians, her book, about why she is now living in Minnesota and how off-planet beings relate to the human race.

Do Pleiadians exist in physical form on the planet, appearing to others on the planet?
Day: Since I took on my role consciously, a lot of human beings who have a Pleiadian aspect to them have been drawn to me and the work and have come into an awakening themselves, different from me, but in a way that they have started to understand and connect to the Pleiadians in a very deep, personal way. Now, many students, probably 80 percent of my students in the world, have learned how to work with the Pleiadians and form personal relationships with them. So the Pleiadians are working with them in their healing work and their personal awakening.

Now they have opened it up through the book so that everybody who wants to read the book and is willing to connect to the Pleiadians can do so. The Pleiadians committed to open up a personal relationship with all human beings that are willing to do that.

They say that it is not the time to appear to the human masses, because what they see is a lot of fear on the earth plane. Fear is a very strong component with a lot of human beings at this time, and they said there is so much fear on the planet that they don’t intend to add to that fear by just appearing to the masses yet. There will be a time when they will be our conscious neighbors as the shifts take place, but the fear level that is running here on the planet at this time is really very strong.

Fear is one of our greatest illusions here as a human being, and they don’t wish to add to that, so they are coming towards the humans who are ready to receive them on a personal level. Many of the students do see the Pleiadians in physical form, and some of them in just thought transference and direct contact through healing as they are assisted in their awakening. It varies from person to person.

Is there an integration time that is important as we move through the chapters and initiations contained within your book?
Day: You are absolutely right. There is absolutely an integration time, and it is important not to move forward until you get a sense, “Okay, I am ready for the next one.” Because you are going through an awakening on different levels, you need a full integration to fully appreciate the next chapter and the next track on the CD. Move through at your own pace, allowing your gradual awakening. They accelerate as you move through the book, and by chapter 3 or 4, you have the first opportunity to sit with the Pleiadians and work with them and begin to align with them and awaken yourself. They will sit with you and you can develop a personal relationship with them. The book is designed for you to go through your initiations and develop a person connection with the Pleiadians.

Some people are afraid and they don’t want that personal connection to the Pleiadians, so the book also is designed for those people who choose not to have that personal connection with them. You can work with other spiritual energies. This book allows you to work with a sacred geometry that allows you to move out of third-dimensional reality into the fourth- and fifth-dimensional reality. As you align in those dimensions, it allows the spiritual realms – the angels, the light beings and the masters – to come in and work with you on a very strong level. You meet them more on their level, away from the illusion of the third dimension.

My energies also can work if they call me forward, so everyone has opportunities to align with me on a personal level energetically, or with the spiritual realm, or with the Pleiadians, or with all of us. My energies have transformed to the point where I work with thousands of people at once throughout this earth plane. It is just part of my gift that I have been able to unfold into, so I can also be present with anybody who is reading the book energetically, who calls on my higher level of my consciousness.

The book is here to support people in their unfoldment and awakening of themselves. To me, the Pleiadians have created really something very beautiful and they have this ability to design initiations that are perfect for us as human beings for our unfoldment, and I am really grateful for that.

You are a native of Australia. What led you to come to America and, specifically, why are you now here in Minnesota?
Day: I was told I had to anchor this work in America, so I was told I had to leave Australia. I had to leave my kids, and I was told to come here and bring one suitcase. That was 22 years ago, and I didn’t know anyone in America. They told me it was my next step, that the work was to be fully anchored here and that from here it would go worldwide.

I came to this country not knowing anyone and not having any idea of what I was to do. I was told to book my ticket to San Francisco, and that was all the guidance I was given. Just before I was to come to San Francisco, I heard of a three-month course that was being offered, starting two days after I was supposed to arrive in San Francisco, so I thought, “I’ll book into this course,” because I had nowhere to go. It was a starting point.

It happened to be in Mount Shasta, which I thought was a suburb of San Francisco at the time, and of course it isn’t, but that’s what I thought. Of course, Mount Shasta was an amazing place to start my journey here. The person who was running the course said, “I will come and pick you up.” So, she met me at the airport and took me straight up to Mount Shasta. That is where my journey began, and it was very powerful for me.

I spent my first year in America in Mount Shasta and then went from there to somewhere else. I was in California for my first 13 or 14 years, and then I was told that I had to move to to Minneapolis, because the Minnesota area would be the least affected by the earth changes. They wanted me here, so I moved here nearly five years ago. I’m very, very happy here.

Minnesota, to me, has a very powerful energy. The natural forces are very strong here. I feel like it’s the place for me to live, and it is a wonderful place for me to come home to after I work. It’s highly regenerative, and I feel also that there are some very powerful vortexes here. The Pleiadians are anchoring very strong gridlines from this place and out through the country.

Do you know if other off-planet beings are offering other initiations for people at this time?
Day: I’m absolutely sure they are. I’m not connected to those. When I say not connected, I’m not involved in those. I am involved in the Pleiadian energies, but it is not that they are separate. There are many, many different energies working here on the earth plane and they are all working in alignment with each other. There is a mutual alignment talking place for these Earth changes. The whole universe is supporting the Earth right now.

People ask, “Well, what are they getting out of this? Why on earth are they taking all this interest?” The fact is, we are all part of the Oneness, and for us to evolve right now has impact on the universal consciousness. The Pleiadians give me a picture of this huge, jeweled mandala, and each one of us as human beings are a jewel in that mandala, and each of us is required. And as we awaken, we can take our place and activate that jewel that we are, that unique essence that we are. As we do that, the universal consciousness can be more complete, this jeweled mandala can be more complete.

Everyone does have an interest in us awakening, and so I find it a beautiful orchestration, like a symphony that is taking place – a sacred symphony that is taking place as we go through this awakening. That’s why the Pleiadians are saying they don’t want us to be afraid. They want us to consciously work. It’s hard work. Any birth is hard, but we are all going to be going through this birthing time, and it is something very sacred and divine that is taking place, not something that is horrific and terrifying.

What is a Pleiadian’s perspective of us as human beings? When they think of us, how do they describe us?
Day: You know, Tim, that is a very good question, and it is a very important point. They see us as human beings as very courageous, and one of their biggest messages for us right now is for us as human beings to start turning back towards ourselves and holding ourselves with love and compassion for our humanness.

We need to honor ourselves as human beings and know that we are perfectly imperfect, that we were always meant to be imperfect in what we do, because we learn through our mistakes. They say that part of our awakening process is to honor ourselves in our imperfection and to hold ourselves with love and compassion and patience as we have our human experience here. That is part of what we have come here to do, to have this experience of our imperfection and learn and let go of our mistakes and resurrect ourselves.

As human beings, we have condemned ourselves for the things we have not done or the things we should have said or the things that we feel we have done incorrectly in our lives. But each choice has brought us to who we are in this moment – all the ways we have lived, all the mistakes we have made.

One of the biggest messages they are giving us is that we have come here to resurrect ourselves and to hold ourselves in that compassion, in that loving embrace. That’s what they want us to do right now as part of these changing times. Turn back towards ourselves and hold ourselves with love. It is part of our resurrection. It is part of our awakening, and we can’t birth ourselves back into our spiritual natures until we do this, until we are willing to really hold ourselves in a state of forgiveness for everything we have done during our lifetime up to this point. Part of the fourth-dimensional energy is self-love, and it involves us moving back into this self-loving aspect.

The Pleiadians see us as perfectly imperfect, playing an incredible role, honoring our incredible courage. They really honor each one of us in our lives and what we have lived up to this point, and they want us to see ourselves in that vein also. Many of us do not, that’s for sure.

From a soul perspective, are there many humans who have seeded or have origins from star systems in off-planet locations?
Day: Yes, there are many of us here who have a Pleiadian aspect or alien origin, and we have come here because when we have these origins and when we start to awaken to them, it allows us to hold a different energetic space here during these changes that are here for all of us. So we have come here with a mission.

All of us on the planet right now, regardless of our origins, have a mission. We have a mission to awaken. Some of us have a mission to awaken added gifts that we have in holding the energetic grid lines and to maybe channel in some of the energies to assist the human beings here. I have a human aspect, that is for sure. I still have my humanness that I have to work with, but I also have my Pleiadian aspect that allows me to assist on a deeper level at this time. There are many of us like that, and there are many of us now at this time who are awakening to the different aspects that we have.

We have come here to have the human experience and also to work with our other aspects to assist on another level with the anchoring of the dimensional spaces.

Is the entire process that we are going through on this planet something that our space brothers and sisters are excited about, rejoicing the fact that we are choosing to go through this process?
Day: Absolutely! It is an incredible excitement through the universe. It is a celebration, and in that celebration they are committed to trying to assist us in moving through it, in navigating these changes in a smooth way. It does not have to be fear filled. They are trying to educate and bring us into an awareness, a conscious awareness of how we can move through this transition without the trauma and drama.

As a human race, we are very much into drama, and what they are trying to help us with is to let go of the drama and to consciously take our places within the transition. You know, you can either be dragged or you can stand up and walk through it. That’s what they are trying to help us to understand at this time – to learn how to stand up and walk through it. They can’t do it for us, but they can educate us in how to move through it in the easiest way possible.

We know that birth is traumatic. Any birth is a deep process. It is going to change us in a physical way. It is not going to be a piece of cake. We are going to go through an intensity, because birth is intense. The birth of a child is an intense process. It is such a joyous thing, but there is intensity, and it creates physical change in the body. But with knowledge and understanding, we can learn to breathe and we can learn to consciously open to our birth so that we are birthing ourselves – and receiving and opening to that alignment with the earth change consciously, and that makes all the difference.

What about those people who are not conscious of what is going on and are not consciously choosing to change?
Day: Okay, so the Pleiadians talk about this very clearly. They say we have all chosen to be here. With these earth changes that are coming, we are all going to take our next step. Some people’s next step will be leaving this earth plane, and they will just move on to their next step, because there is no such thing as death. Those of us who stay here will be taking our next step on this earth plane.

They talk about it very matter of factly. Because there is no death, we will all be taking our next step. Those who are not ready to stay here will leave to take their next step somewhere else. Those of us who are ready to stay and transition will transition here and take our next steps. They say it is that simple.

So, we all take the next step that is right for us?
Day: Exactly. They are very matter of fact. You know, I just love the Pleiadians. They are very clear. They are here, so committed to us and so prepared to be with us and assist us in any way they can during this transition. And they are very practical. I think because I have a personal relationship with them over these years, they have really learned about our humanness and how to speak with us as a human race to really work with us in such a simple way and put things in a way that I can understand – and we can understand – and I am very grateful for that.

Will some people stay unconscious to the process and yet go through these changes and transform into who they are going to become?
Day: I believe so. There are many of us who are spiritually awake, people who are consciously working towards that. There are other people with very pure hearts, who are not. But they are ready and they will move through the transition.

I see the people who are into war, who are into what I call more of a dark element, who are into hate and aggression and live and feed off that, who are actively participating in misuse of power. They are the types of people who are not ready for the change. They are not going to suddenly transform. They are the type of people who are going to leave the planet and move on to their next step elsewhere.

The answer to your question is yes. There are so many good people out there that are not spiritually awake, but they have good hearts, good intentions. Those sort of people will also be part of this transition.

One would never had given any hope for Christine Day, a young child who was born into a family of satanic cultists in Australia, used by the cult for their own purposes until she became a teen and was no longer considered innocent enough for cult activities.

It is no wonder, then, that she never considered Australia her home. It was a traumatic childhood, and a traumatic adulthood – diagnosed with systemic lupus and given a short time to live – that were her memories there. She found herself backed up against a door with nowhere to turn, except to herself. And that is what she did. She took control of her destiny. She began to utilize bodywork and nutritional counseling, and then she began to meditate.

Guided by what she describes as “a peaceful presence,” she was led to heal herself with a complete healing process that came to her in just seconds. “It was as though a whole new part of me had been born in those two to three seconds,” she writes in her new book, Pleiadian Initiations of Light (New Page Books). “I sat stunned for some time, feeling me and this new part of me. I would describe it as energy and love, and something good, wholesome, and very, very real.”

And then her life completely changed. She healed her young son who suffered from complex health problems. Her marriage crumbled as she became a new person. And then she came face to face with alien beings who hail from the star system Pleiades and, while initially stunned, she integrated their messages, was reminded of her own Pleiadian heritage and never looked back.

The following is the first of a two-part interview with Christine Day, who spoke with The Edge about her personal transformation, the challenge of transition that faces each of us, and her three-day Pleiadian Seminar that will be launched in Minneapolis at the end of July.

My first connection with the Pleiadians came in 1992 with Barbara Marciniak’s book, Bringers of the Dawn. Can you give us a kind of an idea of what role the Pleiadians have been doing on earth since then?
Christine Day: Yes, absolutely. The main work they are doing right now is to assist us with working with the dimensional shifts that are happening here on the planet. They are really here to help with the Earth’s transition, from a third-dimensional planet to one that is of the fourth and fifth dimension, that is taking place. We have been talking about these dimensional shifts coming, but they have actually begun.

So the Pleiadians are opening up and anchoring grid lines on the Earth to assist with the transition, but most importantly they have anchored what they call the self-healing prophecy energy onto the planet to assist us in the transition, in our personal transition from moving from a third dimensional reality into a fourth, fifth dimensional reality with the planet. We are birthing with the Earth. This self-healing prophecy energy is lifting the veils and opening up a grace period for us to awaken at an accelerated rate, really being able to let go of the illusions on this planet, the illusions about ourselves, and assisting us in birthing ourselves more completely into an expanded awareness.

It is said that we create our own reality, so collectively are the human beings and the Earth creating this for ourselves?
Day: Absolutely! We all agreed to be here on the planet at this time to go through this shift together and to move into more of a collective consciousness, not only with each other as human beings, but with the spiritual realms and the universal consciousness. We have committed ourselves to evolve and go through this shift of consciousness.

For those who are unaware, who are the Pleiadians? How did you first connect with them? What do they look like and what dimension they are operating from?
Day: They operate from a fifth dimensional space, which is an unconditional loving space, so they have evolved as a race.

I had my first conscious contact with them around 1996. They had been working with me before that time, but I don’t think I was personally ready or evolved enough to be able to deal with the direct contact until then, and so they waited until I was ready to be able to process a direct contact with them.

What happened at that time was that I had just been walking in nature and I turned a corner into an open meadow and there was this huge ship. They came out of the ship and gathered around me energetically, for me to have a direct remembrance of my commitment to work with them as a part of my mission here on this earth plane in this lifetime, a reminder that I have a Pleiadian aspect to myself.

I came into full remembrance of that at that time, and they spent a long time with me talking about my mission and what they were here to do. I was to act as an ambassador for them on this planet, helping them understand the human aspect and also helping human beings to understand their aspect, so I work with them. They bring in initiations for human beings. Many of my students throughout the world work with them directly. There is a gathering of them with us, the human race. They work with us – through me in my humanness – and they have learned what we need as human beings for them to be able to work effectively with us in these initiations, so they appeared to me.

They are human in form on one level, but they vibrate at a rate making them appear as a brilliant light form, very tall and thin, but in a kind of human form.

My connection with them since that time of my first connection has been on a daily basis, so I am very connected with them, very linked up with them on a permanent basis since that time, very consciously.

Primarily from a telepathic standpoint?
Day: Always telepathic, but very much physically, as well. There is the constant connection where they have been initiating me very strongly over the years, and I have come into a very high level of awakening from that. I have actually aligned with my own Pleiadian aspect in this physical body. It took six years for me to integrate that fully. They continue to feed me understanding and knowledge, so I have really birthed back into a lot of my own aspect of myself, my higher level of myself. So it is a very deep personal connection that I have with them, as well as the working relationship that I have with them.

I’m guessing that your first experience with them was a pretty powerful one. What were you feeling at the time?
Day: It was pretty shocking, to be honest. What had happened was that I had been diagnosed with systemic lupus and was given a very short time to live. At that time, I had what I call a spiritual awakening. I thought it was God and Spirit that had healed me. Up to the time of meeting the Pleiadians, I was working with God. I felt this incredible loving energy that was working with me and through me.

At the time of meeting the Pleiadians I did not believe in aliens or space ships. It was something I really just did not believe in. So when I was faced with this truth – and this direct experience with them, which was so intense and so full on that I could not deny it – I was really put into a spiral of high distress, because I was filled with such a light that I don’t even remember getting home that day after being with them. I found myself lying in bed, and for two months I was just filled with this harsh, brilliant light. I had no sense of myself, no sense of my physical form. I couldn’t feel the sun on me, the wind on me. I was in this energetic space, and at the same time I was very distressed trying to come to terms with this Pleiadian connection and my mission and God and Spirit.

I really didn’t want it, but there it was. It was about six weeks into that that I was visited by this group of angels that actually spoke to me and shared with me that the Pleiadians are part of the Oneness, the loving aspect, the collective consciousness, and there was no separation between God and Spirit and them and me. I was given this understanding of a Oneness, and that put me to rest and help me go through an adjustment period where I could actually start opening up to the truth of that. It helped a lot. Once I moved out of this whole energy spiral that I was in, this brilliance, this light, I came back to more of a normal aspect of myself where I could walk in the world and feel my body again and become Christine and come to terms with the truth of what I had been given. Gradually, I moved into the awakening process in a much more relaxed way, but it was very distressing and difficult to begin with.

I’m guessing that that high level of fear that we see on the planet now is to be expected during this time of transition from the third dimension to the fifth?
Day: Absolutely! It is something that comes in hand. But what the Pleiadians with whom I working – and a lot of the messages in the channeled work that I am doing – say is that they want us to understand how fear works through us as a human being and how to transfer our knee-jerk reaction to fear, how to change the way we meet fear, and to utilize it more in a positive way. They are asking us to change, to look at the perception of what fear is for us in our world, and how to shift our reactions to fear. They want us to see that it is just a feeling, that it cannot hurt us to learn to feel the fear, but keep moving forward and working with fear in a different way. It can serve us rather than stop us and hold us in a contracted way.

With fear, we contract our hearts, and much of the work they are doing now involves asking us to learn not to contract our hearts as we feel the fear, but to open our hearts towards the fear and learn that it really cannot hurt us. They say we can live differently with that fear by working with it to come to a different place with the fear. I think that is a very important part of the transition that is coming, and they are bringing a new understanding of this transition.

You see, there have been a lot of messages around this change that is coming, and a lot of the messages are very fear based. The Pleiadians are seeing this not as something that we have to be afraid of, but something that we have to move with as we go along. I love the level of understanding they are bringing around this shift that is coming, around the changing times.

It is a birth and a transition, but it does not have to be anything to be afraid of. This deeper understanding that they are bringing helps people understand the full picture of the transition itself. People can then feel more knowing that the fear can drop away, that they can personally start taking – not control – but part in that transition. Your personal transition can be something that you work with in an alignment with the Earth, not in a fear-based way.

2012 has been described as a significant time period in terms of this transition. Can you describe in kind of a bigger way what is taking place within the planet right now?
Day: Yes, I actually can. The Pleiadians have just recently given me more of an understanding so I am able to put this into words to pass onto everybody here. First of all, it involves all of the earthquakes we have been having, as well as the volcanic activity up in Iceland.

I don’t see anyone connecting all of these earthquakes together.
Day: Many of them don’t understand what is going on, which is fine, but the Pleiadians talk about it as the beginning of the changes. We have talked about the earth changes coming. They are here, and this is the beginning of the earth shifts.

With every earthquake we have had, there is a dimensional shift taking place. The Pleiadians gave me a picture, as they sometimes do to describe things because it helps us as a human race to have a picture. The picture related to earthquakes is this: If you liken it to a sunrise, then every time there is an earthquake anywhere on this earth plane – or volcanic activity – it is like the sun rises and there is a ray of light or a dimensional opening that is taking place within our earth.

This is the beginning of the changing times, the dimensional shift, for us from a third-dimensional planet to a fourth-dimensional planet. So when we have an earthquake, that shift takes place. It’s like the sun rises a little more and another ray of light comes onto our earth plane. That ray of light brings an element of the fourth dimension and anchors it onto our planet. When that happens, it is also affecting us in our physical bodies. It is creating an energetic shift through our energetic bodies. It affects our emotional body and our mental body. Our whole spiritual energy begins to change, affecting us down to the cells inside our bodies.

The Earth is birthing. As the Earth shifts, from a third dimensional to a fourth dimensional energy in a slight way from each earthquake, we are also birthing in our own bodies – and that is creating quite a lot of upheaval inside ourselves. It is shaking up what is going on in our cells. Emotions are in our cells, and so too are the denser emotions, like fear and everything we have held in our bodies, for lifetimes actually.

Every time we feel like something it is too much, we hold our breath, we don’t deal with it, and it locks in our our organs and in our bodies. So as this dimensional shift opens and it hits our cells every time there is an earthquake, every time there is volcanic activity, it is like we start to shake inside. It is like things begin to get loosened. These denser emotions that are in our bodies start to shake.

What it is creating for everybody is an increase in the fear that is locked in our bodies, an increase in not being able to think straight. We feel like something is happening, but we don’t know what it is. Perhaps we feel anxiety, so we don’t perceive things the same way. It’s all part of the dimensional shift that is starting to occur here.

The Pleiadians have created, and they have transmitted through me, what I call transmissions – energetic transmissions that I recorded and have posted free online so people can listen to them. These energetic transmissions help the physical body to align with the dimensional shift that is taking place. Every time there is an earthquake, we have the continued birthing of the Earth – and the birthing of cells is part of this transition. The transmissions on the website help the cells integrate that shift so they start to align with this new dimensional energy that is birthing on our planet.

This is the beginning of what is taking place. This is going to increase through to the end of 2012, and by the end of 2012, the first phase of the dimensional shift will be completed. With these dimensional shifts that have been taking place, there is going to be more earthquake activity and more volcanic activity. We are going to go through a quickening phase of this transition from third dimension to fourth dimension so that the veil will be lifted. The way it is going to transform is that we are going to transform in our consciousness. There will be no more fear. We will start to open up and be connected, interconnected, not only with each other as a human race, but within the universal consciousness.

This is how the Pleiadians have described the changes to me, and part of their role here is to anchor these transmissions so we can start to open up to them, start to align with the birth and navigate through this transition much more smoothly. For those of us who are willing to be part of that and do it in a conscious way,  the fear will not be there. Each one of us can say, “Okay, I’m going to be part of this change. I am going to listen to these transmissions. I am going to take a conscious part in my change, in my transformation,” And, as we do that, consciously we are going to be more connected to the earth, to the natural forces, and align with these changes in a much more conscious way.

That is part of what the Pleiadians are showing me. They are giving me these transmissions, and they are saying there will be more of them that come to assist human being so we can be a conscious part of these earth changes.

In the audio CDs that come with your book, there is some language that sounds familiar to what I have heard from other channelers. Is that Pleiadian language, and what effect does our hearing that language and the toning on the CDs have on our transformation?
Day: It has a very big effect. The tones themselves help break up the blocks we have in our bodies, where we have our ego/mind barriers in our bodies. It helps to break that up and assist us in our awakening. The language itself speaks directly to the soul essence of each one of us and helps bring that soul essence forward so we start to begin to align to our sacredness, to our natural spiritual nature, our divine essence.

How do the initiations in the book relate to your three-day seminar that you will be offering at the end of July here in Minnesota?
Day: The Pleiadian seminar is actually the first time that I open up the crystal vortexes. I spend four to five months a year in Brazil, so we have these 90-pound crystals that are set up in a geometrical form. The Pleiadians move through me and actually move the crystals, opening up dimensional spaces for people to begin to align with these higher level, these higher dimensional aspects of their own light, where they begin to awaken and align to themselves. This process accelerates their awakening process.

So in the seminar we are going to be working with these crystal vortexes. We are also going to be working with the sacred geometrical forms, allowing people to reconnect to aspects of their personal power that they are ready to open up to. There will be a collective experience involving those at the seminar, but also a very individual awakening experience – so it is very powerful.

There will be energetic gridlines with the Pleiadians. We have to come in and work very closely with people who decide to come to the seminar, but the grid also allows for the spiritual realms. I work very closely with Mary and Jesus and a lot of the other light beings and the angels, and these angelic realms and the spiritual realms will be able to come in and work very closely with people in the room.

It is going to be a very beautiful process. I will also be channeling with the Pleiadians and answering questions for people who want to know more, so personal questions will be answered. So there will be dialogue time from the Pleiadians, and there will also be initiations that we will be working with through the vortexes in this three-day Pleiadian seminar. I find it very exciting, because it is the very first one that we are doing. The Pleiadians say that we are ready. It is a good sign that we, as a general public, are ready for them to offer this crystal vortex energy to anyone who feels ready to receive it. It is going to be very beautiful.

Not everybody is going to pick up your book and go through these initiations.
Day: No, of course not. And, there are many ways of transitioning. There is never one path, Tim, never one road for awakening. I believe this is one way, and the Pleiadians are here to call people who have an opening towards them, but there are many masters. I work with Jesus a lot, and I work with Him and He has transformed me. He has played a huge role in my transformation, and he brings in a lot of information also for people to awaken, ready for the earth changes. And the same with Mother Mary. I have many conscious experiences with her and she has taught me so much about love and understanding, and I pass those things on to my students. I do large group transitions where there may be 2,000 to 3,000 people and yes, I bring in the transmissions from the Pleiadians, but I also bring in the words of Mary and Jesus, and it touches many people. So there is never one way.

You can look at a flower unfolding in the sun and be awakened. The natural forces are awakening us, and with the Earth changes, our connection to the natural forces are going to expand. We are going to become more connected to the spiritual energies of the trees and the sun and the wind. The wind can awaken anyone at any moment. There are so many energies and opportunities out there for us to awaken and be touched, you know?

And these interactions with each other, you and I in this moment, we can connect and we can awaken and connect with each other. So it is beautiful what is happening. I see that, I feel it. It is not just the Pleiadians. It is everywhere, and with everyone we have an opportunity in a moment to touch and be with another person and really meet each other in one moment. They are the awakenings. As the Earth shifts when the earthquake happens, and as the dimensional shift happens, we have an opportunity to connect deeply to any one of those elements – and we awaken.

Our heart begins to awaken, and that’s what I see happening.

I have always been intrigued by various aspects of spirituality — ESP, psychics, spirit communication. I found each of these totally fascinating, but I had absolutely no personal experience with any of them.

Everything changed on September 20, 2003 when my 20-year old daughter, Elizabeth, died of smoke inhalation from a fire in her duplex just a few blocks from the University of Minnesota, where she had just begun her sophomore year.

That day my life was turned upside down. My journey began and still continues today. My daughter’s death was painful and totally unexpected — however, I immediately knew she was fine and that, in time, my family and I would be fine, as well.

Within the first week of her death she sent signs to me, to her father, to her grandmother and to one of her closest high school friends. Each sign was completely different — yet, so appropriate for that person.

Two months after her death, she led me to Kathryn Harwig and my journey with spirit communication really began. Through Kathryn I learned that Liz’s strong personality was still very much intact, and she was very happy to be in spirit.

“Yes, I died, she said — but so what!” I had to smile — it sounded exactly like something my wild and crazy daughter would say!

In 2005 I began Kathryn’s Intuitive Mastery classes. I signed up not knowing what would happen or what I would learn. Could I learn to communicate with Liz on my own?

Not only did I learn to communicate with her, but, much to my amazement and surprise, I learned I could get intuitive information for other people, and even communicate with those on the other side. It took some time for me to fully embrace this ability, but now I use it at every opportunity. Not only is my life better, but being able to help others brings a peace and joy I never anticipated. As hard as it is to accept at times, I truly believe that the death of my daughter led me to my life’s purpose.

Today, I have retired after 35 years in the business world, and am a writer and speaker. Liz’s death has truly been my journey of tragedy to transformation, and I embrace my new life with Liz by my side in love and laughter — but most of all in joy!

Five years ago I began the process of selling a home. My partner and I had purchased a building for our business and we needed proceeds from the sale to cover temporary financing of the new property. Days went by, then weeks passed with little buyer interest. We grew concerned as weeks became months and it became apparent that the housing market was heading downward. We let our listing expire, made some cosmetic changes to the home and eventually re-listed it with a different agent.

Again, response was so minimal that I wondered if style, quality and location really mattered since I thought we had them all, and still we waited. All together, the better part of a year passed before we received news of an offer. The offer was some distance from our asking price, but we were finally able to negotiate an agreement. Ten months for sale, one serious buyer. Still, one was all we needed.

I tell this story because of what we recognized in hindsight. The building we purchased needed more work than we expected, taking months to remodel. Our business operated out of our home and needed to continue until the building was ready. In our heads we had our plans mapped out, but rather than trusting the cues life provided, we were driven more by a nervous urgency based in money fears and “what-ifs.” Eventually we were able to see that we had been fully supported all along and that everything arranged as needed when it best served us.

We on this planet are experiencing rapid transformation of almost everything. Sometimes we explore esoteric material and think we know what is taking place, yet I expect we are seeing only a tiny part of a very large story. We might act as if we know what needs to happen, but are we really able to plan our lives or those of anyone else? Perhaps a better option is to be present as life unfolds in the moment without insisting on a clue as to where we’re headed. If we can’t see the big picture, it seems counter-productive to try controlling outcomes. I understand the fear of not knowing and the desire to control outcomes, but I’m not sure that control ever worked – and it certainly doesn’t in the new consciousness. Life is in charge, life knows the whole story and life provides what is needed in optimal timing.

Relaxing into a different way of navigating the flow seems to be the practice of the day. The new consciousness requires receptivity, not control. At first it may seem like trust, but it’s really more of a conscious relationship with creation. This new living field is responsive to needs for soul fulfillment, and the field knows what they are. Becoming receptive opens the pathways for attraction and the guidance for any action needed. The feminine first asks us to listen deeply and be receptive before proceeding into the more active steps, which seems to be a perfectly logical approach, but it has been mostly ignored in duality as forms grew out of fear and excessive needs to control outcomes.

Those of us evolving out of duality have had much to undo before moving on to our next experience. Perhaps like many of you, I have grown tired of all the processing and a bit impatient to get on with things. My human self is still challenged at times, learning to breathe its way through the changes. At least I’m now aware that I’m not in charge of the timing, because I know there is a larger story and a larger timing of which I am a part. That realization does help me to know that all is well and that I can relax out of years of feeling hyper-responsible for my experience and that of others.

Now I come full circle from the selling process that began five years ago. We are settled in our building, and have rented a house for the last four years. We are now feeling the impulse to purchase our own home and began the search several weeks ago. Our process has taught us a lot about who we are and what we need, which guides our discernment when looking at properties. I never thought that finding just the right place would be such a challenge, but you can bet I’m staying receptive even as I scour the real estate websites looking for the perfect match. I can feel Life preparing to deliver, and I’ll let you know when we need a hand with the boxes.

In the past three weeks, I’ve been speaking and listening and feeling a shift in the field, as women increasingly want to be involved in contributing their way to seeing and doing as solutions to bigger problems. I returned yesterday from Mobile, AL, where I keynoted the WomenSpeak 2010 conference on “Women in Circles Changing the World.” I had come to Mobile directly from New York City, where I participated in events centered around the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. I was there as the leading advocate for a UN 5th World Conference on Women (and Girls).

Since writing The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World and Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, I have been seeding circles with a spiritual center and have taken on the role as a message carrier. There was an extraordinary response to what I had to say in Alabama and a shift in receptivity at events at the UN. The online petition “Support a UN 5th World Conference on Women” (go to www.jeanbolen.com, click the GoPetition logo) is another sign (went from 2,000 signatures to 8,000 in a month.

I am looking forward to coming to Plymouth, MN, to keynote and give a workshop at the Alive Aware Awake! Women’s Gathering. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has been at the leading edge of social responsibility and citizen activism. The largest group of girls (ages 10 to 17) to the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was organized in Minneapolis.

If grassroots activism influences the UN through their governments to have a 5th world conference, the first since the internet and the 21st century, it may very well be the tipping point. Only when a critical number of women become involved in making decisions that affect us all, will the planet be a safe and good place for all children.

When women come together and make a commitment to each other to be in a circle with a spiritual center, they are creating a vessel of healing and transformation for themselves, and a vehicle for change in their world. These are circles of compassion that can become incubators for personal and political change.

An egalitarian circle with a spiritual center is a model most easily created by women, but is a form not limited to women. Circles with a sacred center are the means through which a third wave of feminism, based upon spiritual equality and compassion, can bring about an evolutionary change in human society which would end the conditions that foster terrorism. The premise: A world that is safe for children will not breed terrorists; a world that is safe for women is a world where children are safe. For this to come about, the principles of circle and hierarchy must come into balance, otherwise the acquisition of power over others prevails and no one can be safe.

Holding hands to form a circle immediately connects us, one to another. Touch comforts, the clasp of hands forms an unbroken circle – a non-verbal statement that we are together. When silence for reflection, meditation or prayer is added, it is also an experiential introduction to the archetype of the circle with a spiritual center, which I have been seeding as an idea through lectures, workshops and my most recent books, including Goddesses in Older Women.

When I describe how to form and maintain circles, the analytic vessel and Jungian concepts of the psyche provide the structure and spirit through which a circle can become a vessel of healing and transformation. Further, if the collective unconscious and the morphic field are actually the same, circles become vessels for the transformation of culture, as well. An alchemy or reciprocal effect that changes both, occurs between the individual circle and the archetype of the circle. (In essence, this is an application of theoretical biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s thinking to Jungian psychology; humanity’s morphic field is Jung’s collective unconscious.)

A proliferation of circles has the potential to become a force for social justice by bringing feminine values of relationship and interdependency into a culture of hierarchy and dominance through power. Women as a gender use conversation to bond which makes the circle a natural medium and form.

Women in small groups became the Women’s Suffragette’s movement, gaining women the right to vote in 1920. Women in small consciousness-raising groups led to the Women’s movement of the 1970s. As a result, what was once unthinkable for women to do became usual and incorporated into cultural values. If women’s circles with a spiritual center become the source of a third wave of feminism, the effect in Jungian terms would be to bring feminine and masculine principles into balance within collective consciousness.

I recently watched a recording of 60 minutes, the CBS news program, digitally preserved for my convenience by Tivo. What caught my attention during viewing was not the content of the two stories, but my reaction to them. The topics could not have been more different, yet in both cases my eyes teared, my body relaxed and my heart experienced gratitude.

One story focused on certain discussions of the current financial collapse, and the other was about a musical savant. Both segments presented interviews with people who left me feeling moved. The commonality was the clarity and authenticity felt when in the presence of a defining moment, when the energy felt matches the words spoken. There is recognition beyond the mind when someone speaks what your body knows to be real.

We witness daily the lack of simplicity and clarity in the words of politics, business and almost any public discourse. Long-winded and excessive explanations only seem to obfuscate and misdirect, and meaningful discussion too often gives way to positioning and establishment of authority. Almost none of it feels real because the speakers are more interested in manipulating perceptions than expressing from their essence. I now find it curious to watch as entire systems in our culture struggle to function as they once did, including those connected with any kind of spirituality.

Many of us left traditional religions because we felt no resonance with what was being spoken. We became “seekers,” searching for something with a whiff of real. Yet despite all possible options, we still found ourselves within the larger framework of Duality, with choices and interpretations influenced by that matrix. This peculiar structure of consciousness generates a perception that there is something outside of ourselves that we must find, accept or believe in. We are in denial of our own natures and literally become split personalities attempting to discover what is already present but partitioned off from our awareness.

Some would say that this dualistic nature is an inherent quality of creation. You might also hear that our journey is to move beyond the density of the physical. On both points I disagree.

It is my view that the matrix of Duality is dissolving, and everything bound by that old structure is being released. Included in this dissolution are experiences of separateness and the need for beliefs. I also see a new matrix growing that is inclusive of both the physical and spiritual in a fused experience of greater embodiment. In other words, we’re not trying to get out of our bodies, we’re trying to get into them more deeply. Our bodies are changing in the process, both releasing distortions born of Duality and evolving at the cellular and DNA levels to better accommodate the greater infusion of light that deeper embodiment implies.

Most of us in this community of transformers sense the potential for significant change this year, with shoots starting to break through as early as this month. The change is not something only outside ourselves, for we are the primary vehicles of the transformation as we change from within.

Our initial task may have been healing, but soon we will step into another role intimately entwined with creation. Spiritual seeking will become non-existent as the separations dissolve and dogma loses its grip. What is real will be revealed, in schools of spirituality as well as in all other facets of our experience. Don’t expect that only the dominant religions will be challenged. Any teacher or teaching that binds those who participate may find consequence in creating attachment.

I would ask if you feel freer and less bound while following some list of rules for spiritual practice? Do you find yourself eating, dressing or acting a certain way because of a dogma that resists questioning? Do you sometimes accept explanations that sound rational but feel horrible? My suggestion is to shift attention to your feelings for guidance. Bodies know what is real in a way that minds cannot. With awareness you can notice if anyone or anything brings you ease and expansion, or tension and contraction.

I will also mention that these words are being heard by this writer. An oft-used saying is that we teach what we most need to learn. If trusting feelings is my practice for the month, I happily receive the reminder.

For me, the more we move through this process of transformation, the less easy it is to talk about it. That circumstance does provide challenge to a writer, but if words exist, I will persist.

It’s the reference that keeps shifting around, like trying to define smoke. Years ago, our reference was to things external. Addiction was a problem with a substance, a bad relationship was a problem with a person, and one’s spirituality was defined by which religion was chosen. Educational structures created a cultural mold, institutions of health care dictated the fixes for our bodies, and monetary systems defined our value to society. We were told who we were, and we lived according to whatever story we bought into. Beliefs, after all, cover a lot more territory than just discussions about God.

Our visions for a different future surfaced in the 1960s when consciousness began opening after a brutal series of 20th century wars that culminated in a blast radiating the planet. The seeds of a new field were planted, but we still made our issues about “the man” – a dualistic term used to describe whatever we thought held power over us. It took us until the 1980s to realize that we were the man as we finally began to include ourselves in the equation of our experiences.

That’s when many of us in the transformer generation began the challenging tasks of disassembling structures in consciousness that were no longer to hold power over our lives. Most of us didn’t understand that’s what we were doing, of course. Mostly we found ourselves in some form of crisis or therapy, unraveling the bindings of co-dependencies and other distortions grown in duality. It was in those disassembling processes that we began the transformative shift in earnest, and I will admit to being quite dang happy to have made it out the other side. My body grew tired, but my soul feels less bound than ever.

Still, all that personal work was only a phase of a bigger story – and now we move on.

During this past decade we have gone even deeper into the core of our beings, now realizing that this is a profound moment in the journey of consciousness. What I speak of is not about a person becoming conscious, but a momentous turning-point in the evolution of consciousness, itself. What I speak of is the matrix within which we exist and our existence within it, the whole of which is rapidly morphing into something not previously known in creation. I acknowledge the assumption in that last sentence, but I sense that the Universe doesn’t do repeats.

The current focus and our on-going process for 2010 is an alchemical fusion, merging the material and the spiritual into a new form. So, how do we describe the beings born of fusion and without separation of spirit and matter? I don’t know, but since it’s happening within our experience, I expect we’ll come up with something. Then again, “God” is merging within us to experience creation, so don’t expect much in the way of definition. If we can’t define ourselves now, I’m not expecting to have words for an expanded version of same.

Writers and teachers often use a metaphor to communicate what is beyond words to describe. Metaphors work because they reference a common experience to which we can relate. They’re like shortcuts to a level of knowing. At other times, we just repeat a belief or somebody else’s explanation when it has become presented so often that it is accepted as truth. Both techniques have limitations going forward. A lack of common experience can make metaphors ineffective, and repeating something previously repeated carries no assurance of authenticity. Plus, I am weary of platitudes and I prefer to stay as current as I can in sharing my views.

As our bodies and the earth continue to shift, events of de-creation will likely get more press than those of re-creation. My focus, however, is on our current process of fusion and eventual emergence as creator within creation.

The story is quickly growing larger, feelings are going deeper and I’m becoming convinced there are not enough superlatives in the English vocabulary to add appropriate flourish to the discussion. So, I am left with continual re-arrangement of common words to articulate what I can. Or, perhaps we need to create some new vocabulary. Our attempts may not become as ubiquitous as Google or as curious as mouse potato or soul patch, but there could be satisfaction in adding to the English lexicon before language finally goes completely out of style.

I’m open to confabulation.

Embracing stillness, we commune with the divine light of love and peace that is so pure and natural for us. Here is where we gain our clarity and creative insights — and realize our mission and service in the world.

At the OASIS Center for Conscious Living, the guiding principles for Conscious Living are described within the acronym for O.A.S.I.S. — Oneness, Awakening, Stillness, Inspiration and Simplicity. The goal of the “OASIS Experience” process is to become whole, happy and free.

Our wholeness, or holiness, comes with our recognition of Oneness, our divine relationship with God/Spirit/Source. Knowing that all of our accomplishments, dramas, losses and relationships are co-creatively orchestrated by our Oneness with the Divine, we finally feel whole. We feel connected at a soul level to other beings, to nature, and to all that is.

Our happiness awakens from the Stillness within as we come to know our deep connection to the Divine, our true Self, and our relationship with the world. Our communion with the Divine creates a desire for communication, and the joy of joining in community. We awaken beyond the limitations of our tribal and egoic minds and realize our spiritual mission of service.

We feel freedom in the world when we live in Simplicity. We no longer see the world as holding anything we want or need. When we feel free, we are in true relationship with this world. We release the “craziness” of attachments, those heavy belief systems of how we define success, how we criticize our body and other bodies, and our judgments of right and wrong. We are inspired to feel the simplicity of timeless wisdom, love and compassion, and we relate to the world with patience, tolerance and unity.

Now, more than ever, we are called to surrender into trust. Once we embrace the power of Stillness, we realize there is nothing more than this very present moment. Our total surrender into the moment will inspire us to live in alignment with our divine function.

We are ready to search our soul and say “Yes” to our journey, to step into a new earth of spiritual evolution and personal transformation. We choose to be whole, happy and free. Be still, and choose to live consciously, fulfilling your mission as the divine, creative expression of humanity. By embracing your past, welcoming your future, you live in this vital present.

Your next step is an open book, and the world is waiting for the pages of your chapter to unfold.

This morning I found myself reflecting on personal experiences lived over the past 30 years. Or so. I can now say that fully half my life has been spent actively engaging in the large-scale change of consciousness I agreed to assist before I arrived.

A large group of baby boomers came in as transforming agents, and I dutifully took on my part and those structures within consciousness that were mine to transmute. I didn’t always know I was doing such work, of course, but I can finally see the effects we have had within the whole of humanity. It would appear that breakdowns of long-established institutions of manipulation and control are now gaining momentum, and I give my compatriots a collective high-five for a job well done. However, I’m still holding off on scheduling the big party because we have a teensy way to go before our full intentions have been realized.

Each of us in this group of change agents had our own chunk of the grand distortions to work with and appropriate triggers to kick-start us into the process. The part within consciousness that I chose to heal (transform) expressed itself through a debilitating chronic fatigue and depression so heavy that only a persistent will could effect any movement. I found myself engaged in psychotherapy, channeling, alternative healing modalities, whole-food cooking classes, psychic development, a men’s group, hands-on-healing training, various explorations in consciousness and more reading and discussion sessions than I’ve had before or since. I would expect that some of these activities ring familiar to many other boomers, and I also expect you are as happy as I am about completing those legs of the journey. While immersed in our processes, we thought we just had to get through our painful little somethings so we could get back to our “normal” life. Ha ha. Nope.

As I progressed through the various stages of healing, my manifest reality also began to shift, bringing a painful process of divorce, a complete job change, physically moving several times and ultimately landing in a life where my more apparent work, as it were, is all about change, healing and transformation. This time around I’m more conscious about what I’m really up to, and that feels like a calming relief in whatever process I find myself.

After all this time I can finally grasp that transforming means to change form, and that the biggest challenge at any point along the path has been clinging to a known factor out of a fear that the unknown will bring suffering or death. Now, if something is so uncomfortable in life that one is manifesting depression and debilitating physical experiences, wouldn’t one usually want to change things as quickly as possible? I’m tempted to say “duh,” but I’m writing about myself and I’ve learned that logic is not always guiding the choice.

Fear sucks. Literally. It sucks the Life from our lives for no purpose other than to maintain its own existence. It is an energetic leech that is totally made up of nothing. Fear seems all powerful when we’re in its spin, yet fear has no essential nature. It is not real. The sages have said so, but minds develop strong beliefs that create contractions we name fear and are reluctant to release when faced with emotions, feelings and anything else that can’t be neatly defined, categorized or compartmentalized.

Mind has refused to value things it considers intangible, claiming they are not of substance. What if believing that perspective has been one of our largest bindings? I suspect we are about to entertain a realization that beliefs are actually the intangible items of no substance and what is real are things often discounted as unimportant or even detrimental to life.

We have faced many challenges on our journeys of transformation, but the next round may be the most challenging: surrendering the belief that mind is superior to matter. Getting thrown off that horse may prove to be a painful experience, but it doesn’t have to be. We have already learned from a lifetime of making changes that giving fear any power only prolongs the agony. This time, take a moment to remember the truth about fear when you are challenged to let go of your need to dictate how you think your personal life should function.

Life and the new Living Field are present to help you manifest the deepest desires of your heart and soul, even if you are unable to name them. 2010 is purported to be a year of shifting out of mental dominance and going deeper within to re-establish connection with Living Wisdom. Trust the substantial nature of Life to guide you through the changes and bring full support and everything you need for fulfillment. Once you move past trust into natural receptivity I sense that you will discover the real meaning of freedom. And by you, I mean me, too.

Then, we can party.

A decade ago we were concerned about Y2K and the end of the world as we knew it. Perhaps we were right about the outcome, even though Y2K itself turned out to be a minor event for most people. Still, that possibility of radical change did ignite an awareness of our global interconnectedness and the possibility that our lives could experience significant shift in a short period of time.

However, instead of a global meltdown at that time, we actually experienced 24 hours of collective joy. Do you remember watching television as we transitioned from 1999 into the year 2000? Fireworks displays and millennium events cascaded past our eyes as people in each time zone celebrated the midnight hour and the beginning of a new cycle.

Often the significant story can be missed when we are focused on the popular one. Y2K made for months of speculative drama while the new year’s celebrations were over in 24 hours. Which story do you remember getting the most press? I’m going with Y2K. Yet, which experience was more significant for you personally? I’ll bet it was the millennial celebration. Y2K was based in fear, while the grand, planetary new year’s experience was a joyful party shared by billions. In terms of the evolution of consciousness, that moment of shared joy did more than most people realized to lay the groundwork for a new earth experience. Why? Because the sustained joy lifted the collective frequencies long enough for the new template to stabilize. That stability meant that we could accelerate our transformation process without the same intensity of highs and lows as before. And, accelerate we did as the matrix of time further collapsed in each succeeding year.

2010 is slated to bring us another bump on the scale of significance. A decade after Y2K we find ourselves enveloped by a new phase of our transformation, and once again the authors in the mainstream are likely to focus on the superficial while never seeing the greater story. The greater story is our reconnection to the deep wisdom of the feminine, including the dismantling of what has kept us from making that connection. This next phase is where more of the old reality comes apart. Structures within consciousness that have dominated and suppressed the feminine are up for dissolution, and without them we can more easily find our way to go within to listen at the level now required.

The operating system of consciousness is changing. There are teachings galore created by minds that have told us that we only need to believe something, or repeat something, or attempt to steer energy around with our mind to create our reality. I see such teachings as being generated from and intended for the old system that is dying, and I find those teachings generally irrelevant, if not downright misleading in the context of the world that is birthing. Creation in the old world may have been perceived to be a case of mind over matter, but that dominance does not exist in the non-dual world.

Creation within the new consciousness fused of Spirit and Matter is produced by Life as it brings into experience the soul’s deepest desires. This is a wordy way of saying that creating in the new reality begins with deep listening to the feminine, or mystery, which is why we will now move into a time of learning how to do that. The footings for what is to be created next will be found by reaching down and in, not up and out.

Revisiting the experiences of that Y2K year reminded me that we are creative beings capable of changing our experiences when needed, and that sometimes we allow our attention to be misdirected by drama and the angst that drives it. Unlike ten years ago, we have now established the foundation of a new world in which we can choose to consciously create who we are in form.

We can enter at any time, but we will have to check all fears and beliefs at the door. Don’t worry, you won’t need them back, and the management will gladly recycle them for you.

A radically different way of life and of being is calling us, with every breath. If you listen deep inside, you can sense its voice. As a flower blooms and a baby matures, as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so we as human beings are now metamorphosing into something new. Something radically different is beckoning us. It is the unknown.

I invite you to realize that this opportunity is here now. It’s time has come. Whether or not you individually embark upon this journey is not in itself important. It will happen anyway. For our species has reached the point where it must transform. It has no choice.

Universal consciousness is able to taste the great diversity of our experience through the billions of human beings that compose its very cells. For although we may think of ourselves as individuals, we are making a collective journey as a species and as an integral part of the greater universe. We have provided the greater universe with a unique opportunity to enjoy this entire adventure, to witness it all, through our eyes.

Until now, as our species continued to grow in a state of immaturity, we have been left free to destroy ourselves and our home, the planet earth. We have been left alone to indulge in wars, power, possessions, injustice and many other traits that are foreign to much of the cosmos. Now we are being gently asked for something else – that we take full responsibility for our own creation, and that we become conscious in a new way — fully aware of who we are among the myriad life forms that inhabit universal space. To live in peace, without hostility, aggression or territory. To know at every moment that we are interconnected to everything in the universe, and that whatever harm we appear to do, we do to ourselves.

Remember that there has likely not been a single day in your life when you have lived outside of the agreed upon frames of reference of your society, your prior conditioning, your religious upbringing, and your countless and mostly unconscious habits and routines. Understandably, this is all you have ever known. It is difficult to conceive of how limiting this has been. Of all the infinite number of ways you could have lived, you have been locked into repeating this same basic patterning again and again. Even if you have spent considerable time in examining and trying to change these patterns, this has likely occurred within the context of the general mindset and customs of your society. This implies a prevalent way of thinking, a dependency on the mind, a fear of potential problems or calamities, a fixation on controlling yourself and your environment, and innumerable other attributes which have become ingrained in your behavior. Even if you are aware of and have consciously resisted these influences, the resistance itself cannot change them.

None of this is necessary. It is simply a natural consequence of how your family life or society or past life experiences have developed and imprinted themselves upon you. And while you might have had a very different and far less mind-dominated experience if you had grown up in an indigenous society, the influences of that society would in their own way be just as limiting.

What if you could just leave all of this behind you, in its entirety?

It can only exist within you with your approval. You sustain it in each moment through consciously and unconsciously supporting the multiple habits and patterns that you have learned from billions of ongoing sense impressions. These have imprinted your brain much as data fills a computer, and it is gradually deleted, along with the entire programs that process it. You will find that the past itself is recreated as you witness and hold your life from a very different place, and you will clearly recognize that much of what you consider to be yourself, including your thoughts, beliefs and emotions, has little to do with who you really are.

Focus on seeing your journey from as wide a place as possible and you will see that who you are is an eternal being. Your prior way of seeing the world gradually recedes.

For as you do so, your relationship to the entire universe changes radically. You no longer process information or see the world through the distorted lens of the ego-mind or the collective eye of your family or society. As your brain becomes free of its past programming, you become consciously aware of yourself as an integral part of the greater universe. From this new experience, you realize that nothing has gone wrong. Everything simply is.

And in each moment, another potential presents itself out of the unknown, which you now experience with a sense of wonder and gratefulness.

It is now three years until December of 2012, and no matter your beliefs about that date you are probably feeling the acceleration of change. I would have written exhilaration, but that may not be how you see it, given the wild ride these past months.

If you consider yourself a person who is moving into the new experience on earth, you’re already familiar with the challenges of re-making your life during this transition. Unknown to most people is the extra thrust of attention we’ve been receiving from those in Spirit who are assisting the transformation. At Lightsmith, we learned in September that the coming years are now expected to bring more intensity than was originally hoped for by the masters guiding the plan. Much of humanity has been unwilling to release from numerous illusions, so a little extra assistance is on the way. I suppose it’s like those times in my life when I haven’t taken either the first, second or third hint, so I receive a boot to the rear to get my attention.

People who are more consciously making the move out of the matrix of Duality have been nudged along at a quickening pace for several weeks. Why? Because it’s easier to make the shift now in a time of relative stability, and a larger group is needed to stabilize and grow the new field while the old structures continue their collapse. Also needed during the larger transition are oases of calm, understanding and guidance for what is taking place. What has been learned about making this transition will soon be a welcomed resource by the next wave of people who find their world changing in sudden and unexpected ways.

What will be of great value are people who are able to stay out of drama, who can maintain clarity amid chaos, and who understand that love knows the way. Some of those who will exhibit such qualities are the people now being prompted into greater personal alignment and deeper embodiment of self. It is difficult to be a guide if you haven’t made the trip yourself.

Right now the energies are calling people into alignment, a process of bringing your self to yourself. Alignment means discerning on deep levels what fits for you going forward and what doesn’t. Alignment is acting on what you know is true for yourself, not what others proclaim is true for you. Alignment prompts you to deal with things in your life that don’t work and have been avoided. Alignment is a prerequisite for greater embodiment, because more of you can not enter this experience when you are not authentic. Coming into alignment means dropping the lifeless and choosing life, which has its challenges when we’ve had so much practice listening to everybody but ourselves.

The challenges to humanity are about to increase in magnitude, because now is the time of choosing to move into alignment – or not. Hints one, two and three have already been given, and you know what comes next. While seemingly harsh, I invite you to draw upon your own memory of what it took to move you out of your conditioned comfort zone and onto a new path. Did you make your needed changes willingly or were you confronted with circumstances that ultimately gave you few pleasant options? Our conditioning by fear has been long, strong and deep, and prompting the process of fundamental change large scale may take some large-scale jolts.

I see ahead of us the liberation of spirit we have been working toward all along. The transition is challenging, but the outcome is worth it all. You may have noticed that I don’t write in flowery prose about our future, but that doesn’t mean I am not in awe at what is taking place.

We are becoming that which we have envisioned, although the process may be different than we imagined. I’m betting that the future is also quite different than we have imagined, so I offer no pictures of what we may find there. All I know is that for right now it is important to stay in one’s own process of coming into alignment while the larger process of dissolving melts the illusion around us. Now you see it, now you don’t. Or is it the other way around?

I’m wondering what goes through the mind of a caterpillar as it turns to mush in the chrysalis. No longer a caterpillar, not yet a butterfly. I don’t mean to overwork a cliché, but the metaphor is apt as I sit on the cusp of my 61st year and my second life this time around.

From the outside my days appear to continue as before, but on the inside I have surely entered a state even I don’t recognize. The contrast in experience between my previous six decades and this moment is striking as my mind continues to surrender what it cannot grasp. We have been talking about transforming for so long that it’s easy to forget we’re actually doing so. Perhaps the difference between us and a caterpillar is that we can observe our own process, although I’m wondering if perhaps our emergence doesn’t come until we stop doing so.

Dissolve, Re-group, Re-birth. That is our cycle, and we now engage the process on a large scale as well as individually. We are changing not only our personal structures but also the very fabric in which we perceive our existence. The fabric is the web, the matrix within which we hold all thought, form and experience. It is the field of consciousness that informs our lives and determines how energy flows. The New Matrix is the one we awaken into when we emerge transformed after the dissolution of Duality and the reordering of the cells.

Some spiritual systems teach of the necessity of leaving a material experience to be liberated, claiming our true nature is spirit. Other teachings offer a similar theme of finding our home in heaven after a life of sacrifice and suffering. At the same time, we are taught that the universe has a dual nature – that somewhere out there is a God that decides our experiences. Observe, however, that virtually all of our spiritual teachings have arisen from within the matrix of consciousness we named Duality. It is the defining qualities of the Duality field to split awareness and polarize the energies, so from within that system we may deduce that this is the way of the universe. If perceptions of reality are influenced by the matrix in which we are immersed, then from within Duality we determine that we must move beyond a material existence to experience a non-dual state. But, what if that is not so?

Perhaps a big challenge of this transformation process is releasing old structures that limit experiences of transition. Minds struggle in these times because they became convinced of the superiority of their well-reasoned beliefs, ignoring input they cannot process. If all experience must pass through the mind to be valid, then a large percentage of experience is ignored. So much for feelings, intuition, psychic awareness, emotions or any other level of direct communication. Minds like data, and most everything else does not compute. This realization presents a choice of either relaxing the mind or further closing it. Each choice has consequence, which seems appropriate given the concept of free will.

With the dissolution of Duality comes the release of almost all things born of that reality. Most every crisis and breakdown observed today can be seen as energy exiting from institutions, governments, systems, religions, beliefs, and all structures within consciousness that were built upon the framework of the old story. In contrast, a New Matrix is present with the promise of different structures and experiences. The New Matrix is non-dual. Energies don’t polarize, fear is not real, and Wholeness is a defining quality of the experience. And, you don’t have to physically die to transition, although there is certainly a death to an old reality.

The mind holds the key to making the transition. The catch is that the mind has to release its hold on what it perceives is real and relax into the flow of a process much larger than itself. Information and analysis may take you to the threshold of the new earth experience, but knowledge does not open the door.

At this point there may be a crisis of mind, a choice to surrender to the bigger story in motion and an opportunity to voluntarily enter the chrysalis. My mind is definitely going to goo. I don’t know how it will re-form, but I can feel plenty of activity behind the scenes. I anticipate my own emergence out the other side, and I definitely look forward to watching all of us bursting out of our old shells, creating a whole new living experience of who we are.

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” - Albert Einstein

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” - Original advertisement placed by Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, 1914

We present to you now a potential blueprint for the disappearance and extinction of human beings as we know them – the species we call “Homo sapiens.” This likely includes you, unless you are willing to embark on a radical transformation into a very different type of organism, one which will contradict much of what you have thought yourself to be – to enter a reality in which no rules apply and all bets are off the table. This world will no longer focus around the status and survival of you as an individual – in fact, individual consciousness will have far less meaning.

While Western societies have witnessed numerous attempts at designing new or experimental societies, almost all of these have sprung from our prevalent societal consciousness. But what if we could create an entirely different human race based upon a very different way of being?

However much we might like to believe otherwise, humans are not an end unto themselves. Our current species has confined itself within an extremely limited band of consciousness – often manifesting in selfishness, greed, violence, short-sightedness and self-deception. This does not appear to be the result of some great experiment or evolutionary leap. It would seem that a wiser and more conscious species would have focused on its collective well-being by addressing climatic change, food shortages and disease, environmental catastrophes and massive poverty, rather than the ongoing accumulation and justification of wealth, territory and power.

It’s obvious that the vast majority of our customs, mores, thought processes and conditioning have not been designed in optimal or even purposeful ways. They have usually sprung from: societal prejudices; habits; concerns about territory and saving face; domination over other sexes, religions, or “others” perceived as different; concerns about survival; and the passing along of long-accepted traditions and superstitions from one generation to the next, regardless of their merit. Because we have operated without a written manual and remain unaware of our ultimate design function, for the most part we proceed as we always have. Our behavior remains governed by our fundamental and almost complete dependence on our minds, on survival-based thinking, on largely meaningless thoughts, and on the defense of our identities and personal stories.

Thus, our natural tendency is to view a potential species transformation within the context of our current societal consciousness, which remains addicted to cause-and-effect, linear thinking. Yet, this species transformation must spring from a very different consciousness and space/time continuum. For Homo sapiens are likely a portal, a stargate or wormhole to a more highly evolved state of being – one that is difficult for us to imagine (just like any species would have difficulty imagining its successor). In fact, most humans have lived as if nothing will ever change within their current beliefs and assumptions, remaining unaware that a greater transformation is even possible. Others clearly see that the underpinnings of our current reality appear to be collapsing and that we could now become mature equals with other planetary species, but lack the vision or will to bring such a change about.

How could a species transformation take place? For starters, we will have to refocus our attention on what is possible and away from what we may perceive as wrong and unjust (just as we tend to habitually put our attention on those areas of our body which are in pain instead of those which are not). It is possible to fully awaken from our former ways of seeing the world. It has been done! This journey occurs through a conscious and systematic peeling away of all that we have formerly been and a careful and inner attunement to that universal energy which has graciously guided us on our journey so far.

Moving Beyond Your Mind
This emerging species will not be dependent on our minds or use the mind as our principal means to interface with the greater universe. It will instead possess a true knowingness that flows from itself and an ongoing attunement to other dimensions and realities.

Relatively few humans are aware of the extent to which they have become dependent on and prisoners of their minds, and instead view themselves not only through but AS their minds. Their minds have taken over their lives through grabbing all attention through an endless array of thoughts, emotions, conditioning, habits and beliefs, from which only a relatively few beings have been able to emerge. This is a prison within which we have given ourselves, as prisoners, a life sentence. And it has not been a very fun or enlightening way to live.

The mechanism of our minds automatically filters all incoming information and options to ensure that our individual identity, position, and standing in society can never be confronted with real or imagined threats. Almost everyone has constructed an inner fortress that keeps all that may threaten their past decisions or imagined fears from impinging on their reality.

The species transformation we are speaking of involves permanently emerging from this fortress by recognizing it for what it is – as a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, which had held its former prototype, a caterpillar.

We don’t know exactly how this transformation will take place, as we are collectively co-creating it in every moment. And HOW is a mind-generated, linear and Western concept. It assumes rational, explainable outcomes and processes. And while our minds may try to define, understand and control what it will look like, we can never create this new world from our old vantage point. We will have to move with all of ourselves to a very different state of being.

For this writer, today is 09-09-09, and I just returned from a much-appreciated vacation away from the routines connected with running one’s own business. For many in the New Age community, today was purported to represent another major moment in our grand adventure of personal and planetary transformation. Perhaps the numbers representing this date do mean something beyond a poetic interpretation of our times, but as planetary work goes I guess I’m still on vacation since I have felt no impulse of energy moving me beyond my routine. In fact, I’m surprised at the stillness given the amount of astrological and channeled material speaking to the significance of this configuration of digits.

Today I’m feeling like my life is rather normal, whatever that is, instead of being immersed in a process only certain compatriots might understand. The intensity of deep, personal transformative work seems to have waned, and some part of me feels done. I’m feeling ready for a personal shift with the mystery yet to be revealed. My recent days spent far away from home altered my daily rhythm and served to pull me out of a habitual way of seeing only through the lens of being part of the change I want to see, or any other pithy aphorism that comes to mind.

I have finally achieved peacefulness from the eons-long process I have undertaken to arrive at this moment. The experience to date has been large, taxing, full and painful at times, and I’m sensing that beyond this resting point I will begin feeling the urge to move on. If we are all players on a stage, I have closed the last show of an old story and I’m taking a breather before diving in to a new production. I’m counting on the playwright to come up with an interesting plot and to give me some good lines. Oh, wait, the playwright is me. I hope I know what I’m doing.

Even reflecting on just this one life brings amazement at how much I have been through and managed to transform. I am finally able to appreciate the need for the experiences I have had, and I can see what a stunning amount of transformation has been accomplished by all of us who have been participants in the story. I won’t say I feel abundant gratitude for the full depth of struggle endured, but I do hold a sense of appreciation for the process of soul growth bringing us to this moment. The birthing of a new reality is bringing new challenges, but certainly not the kind we have learned to negotiate.

If you are a Baby Boomer like me, you have spent your entire life healing and shifting structures of consciousness on behalf of yourself and the whole. We were the transformers, dismantling the old to make way for the new. Perhaps the current challenge is not one of more healing and transmuting but re-learning how to be a creator. The skill set we grew for dismantling and working our way through the darkest of times is likely to be of less benefit going forward.

This moment in our evolution offers a special opportunity for those who choose it. We can die to a previous life and re-enter another without leaving the body. If you have been feeling an undefinable grief you may be in the process of making the transition. Saying goodbye to what has been familiar and meaningful brings emotion, even when saying goodbye to something that has been painful. We have long been in a phase of our journey marked by forgetfulness. We forgot that we have been through many experiences of life, some lived in joy, flow and endless creation with others offering heavy challenges. The descent into density may have been necessary, but it hasn’t been fun.

A new story now debuts and it brings experiences of fresh creation and wonder. The promise of a life without struggle doesn’t mean we won’t be active; it just means we can drop our old sense of drudgery and efforting. Such a shift may take some adjustment for this old Baby Boomer, but I’m certainly willing to give it a go. I’ll be ready any time now, but forgive me if first I spend just a little more time pausing to reflect.

Transformation and change will be a featured theme in the upcoming Minneapolis Edge Life Expo, taking place November 14-15 at The Hyatt Regency, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. More than 150 exhibitors will attend, including intuitive readers, medical intuitives, integrative healing practitioners and those offering books and products to support holistic life. Highly acclaimed international, national and local authors and lecturers will speak each day for a nominal fee.

The following is a conversation with five of the featured speakers on change taking place now on our planet. They include local intuitive and author Kathryn Harwig, local channeler and healer Insiah Beckman, authors Kathryn and Dannion Brinkley, and hypnotherapist and author Dolores Cannon.

The Maya referred to this as the end of a phase of Creation that will lead those who are prepared into greater cosmic understanding and spiritual maturity. - Kathryn & Dannion Brinkley

We hear the word “change” so often right now, but hasn’t life on this planet always been in a state of flux? What makes this particular moment in history so important that we need to begin paying attention?
Kathryn & Dannion Brinkley: Roughly, every 26,000 years our galaxy travels through the Precession of the Equinox, which means that our planet enters a new age of growth through a process of transformation. During this shift (transformation), we will be subject to mass revelations from the higher frequencies. This is definitely a time for all of us to pay our undivided attention to everything going on around us. There are no such things as coincidences, and each occurrence in our lives has spiritual significance.

Kathryn Harwig: Life on this planet has always been in flux. What is different now more than at any time in known history is that no one on the planet is separated by physical boundaries any longer. Because of television, cell phones and, most importantly, the internet, what happens anywhere on the planet can be felt, seen and experienced by everyone within minutes. One hundred years ago (actually even 20 years ago) one person could reach enlightenment or perform a miracle and only a handful of people would observe it. Now, it would be on YouTube in a matter of minutes. Perhaps the seers and prophets who foretold the changes coming in 2011 and 2012 knew that by the time those years arrived, we would all be as interconnected as we now are. It is this very connectedness to each other that makes our planet ripe for instantaneous change.

Insiah Beckman: We are at the end of the Kali Yuga, the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Golden Age. With the massive influx of light surging onto the planet, everything is in a state of a huge shift. The economy, Mother Earth, humanity and all life on this planet. Mother Earth, a sentient being, is going through her evolutionary cycle and so is all life on this planet. We are all part of her body – there is no separation, we are all one, what happens to one happens to all. In every moment and every second, consciousness is changing. You are not the same person you were yesterday. We are in a time of massive changes in our evolution as a species. Changes have really speeded up in the last few years and will culminate with the planetary alignment of the Winter Solstice in 2012. One should remember to stay out of fear – especially with all the negative predictions. Nothing is set in stone. Humanity has the capacity and the power to change any dire prediction to a more positive conclusion. Lightworkers all around the globe are working together with light beings to facilitate an easy and joyous transition.

Dolores Cannon: What people need to realize is that we are undergoing a great change in the world, and it’s the first time that it has ever happened in the history of the universe. An entire planet is going to be moving into another dimension. This started about 2003, when its effects became the most noticeable, and it will continue until 2012 and beyond. 2012 is not the end of the world. It’s the end of things as we know them right now. The Earth is changing its frequencies to ascend into this new vibration. This is something people are beginning to notice, because it affects the physical body. In order for us to shift dimension with the Earth, our bodies also have to change frequency and vibration. A lot of people are feeling physical discomfort due to this. People know something is going on, but they don’t know what it is. They go to the doctor, but doctors say nothing is wrong with them and put them on pills anyway. Some of the most noticeable physical effects are high blood pressure, heart palpitations, dizziness, disorientation, depression, and muscle aches and pains. Older people are feeling this the most, because their bodies have a harder time adapting to the change. Children and teens are having the easiest time, because they have come into their bodies with changes in their DNA already in place. Those in the middle, between the teens and the seniors, are having less severe symptoms but need to know what is happening. Such a massive change in vibration must be done gradually, in steps, or else the body would be destroyed. Your vibration or frequency will increase, and then it will level off and the symptoms will go away. And then it will do it again in a few months, and the symptoms will return. If people understand what is happening, it won’t be so hard on them.

We are poised on the brink of a massive evolutionary leap of the human species. - Kathryn Harwig

What is actually happening: Is the frequency of everything on Earth quickening? Are we moving from the 3rd to 5th Dimension? Are these the End Times as the Bible says, or is this the beginning of a New Age – and what does that really mean?
Kathryn & Dannion Brinkley: Yes, all of that is happening now. We are definitely moving into higher frequencies. We look at it as the end of one era, and the beginning of another. The Maya referred to this as the end of a phase of Creation that will lead those who are prepared into greater cosmic understanding and spiritual maturity.

Kathryn Harwig: These are end times and beginning times. Our old way of doing things doesn’t work anymore. We are seeing that demonstrated right now by way of our economic changes, with far more changes on the way. We are poised on the brink of a massive evolutionary leap of the human species. Primarily, it will be an intuitive leap, with telepathy becoming accepted and ultimately embraced. While that sounds positive, it will cause a certain amount of fear when people realize they are no longer separate from one another. Lying will be non-productive. Killing will be killing yourself. It will take some time for our species to settle into this new way of relating to each other and to our planet. Miracles will quit being miracles and just be a way of life. This will not happen overnight or in one year, but, it will happen very quickly compared to other evolutionary leaps. This is because we are all so connected to one another. Once a core group of people begin the shift, the rest will either follow or get out of the way.

Insiah Beckman: The frequency of the planet is definitely quickening and moving from 3rd density to 4th and subsequently to the 5th. Time as you know it does not exist. As Mother Earth experiences this shift, so is all humanity and all life on this planet. This is the ascension that has been prophesied in religious scriptures throughout the ages. Ascension does not mean “Rapture” as taught in some teachings. Ascension really means Humanity’s ascension, or rather, an awakening to a higher level of consciousness based on divine love and compassion. This also means changes in the DNA to more of a crystalline structure, where your molecules change from a dense level to more of an expanded level, with more space between them and, in time, to Oneness. It is time to reclaim our divine birthright as children of God and time to awaken to our truth of who we are! We are multidimensional beings having a human experience in this limited 3rd dimensional reality. It is now time to integrate all aspects of ourselves so that we are more in alignment with the energies of the New Earth. These are definitely not the End Times. Prophecies are probabilities. This is the beginning of the new and the end of the old paradigm.

Dolores Cannon: We’re just moving into another dimension, a higher frequency of vibration. Earth is the densest and slowest in the whole solar system, probably in the whole universe. Now, everyone is not going to go with this change. You can’t just change your frequency overnight. It has to be done gradually. Those who are steeped in negativity and karma are going to be held back. They will stay with the old Earth, with what they have created, because that’s all they know. And they will be hung up in karma where they can’t progress. If you’re interested in these changes taking place, then it’s a guarantee that you’re going to go to the new Earth. In my book, I say don’t worry about the ones who think like you do. They’re definitely going to go. And don’t worry about the ones who are deep in negativity, because you’re not going to be able to reach them. They’re going to have to do it on their own. It’s the ones in the middle who have to be told that something is happening, so they’ll understand what is going on right now. A lot of people don’t realize anything is going on. They don’t understand that there is a big change happening here. These are not the End Times. I’ve heard all of this and I’ve been interviewed on all of these documentaries where people think it’s the end of the world. No, it’s not. It’s all in your attitude, really. If you understand a wonderful time is coming, then you can adapt to it.

Kathryn Harwig: Many of us are seeing and will see these “unseen” witnesses. Primarily, they are observing what is happening on our planet. Those who wish to help are giving us information. Some, who wish to “mine” the fear that the changes are prompting, are encouraging us to feel fear. My guides, the Light Collective, are part of the group that is observing and cheerleading and supporting us by way of knowledge. They are urging us to stay away from fear-based emotions during this time. I am told that other than emotional support, knowledge and “cheerleading,” the “good guys” in the spirit realm are staying out of it. We live in a free will universe and what we do in these next few years is our choice. We aren’t likely to be rescued or aided in a physical sense. We will be aided, though, with information and emotional support and love.

Insiah Beckman: All of them – light beings, ascended masters, angels, our space family and many others – are assisting humanity and Mother Earth in every conceivable way to facilitate an easy and smooth transition to its ascension. As we are One, what happens to us affects all of creation. There are other planets that are ascending at the same time. You could say all creation is on an “alert” mode – keeping watch, assisting where they can without interfering with Humanity’s free will choices.

Dolores Cannon: They are watching. This is all up to us. It’s always been up to us. Earth is a planet that was created with free will. They’re here to help, but they cannot interfere. The angels have always been here to help, if we ask. But they can’t interfere. This is the biggest show in the universe. Everybody in outer space and in other dimensions is watching to see if we will be able to pull this off. It’s absolutely essential that we do this. In my lecture I will go into a lot more information about the big plan that they have to help us make this happen.

Make time for yourselves to allow these wonderful energies and frequencies to permeate your being. - Insiah Beckman

What does the average person really need to do consciously in response to what is taking place? Or do we need to just be present in the moment – awake and consciously aware as possible?
Kathryn & Dannion Brinkley: Certainly, staying in the moment – awake and consciously aware – is a great place to start! Our definition of being conscious means that we live in a perpetual state of love and gratitude. This is the time for each and every one of us to look for ways to be of service to one another and to Divine Spirit. Being alive at this point and time, in the history of the world, is a tremendous opportunity for personal growth and enlightenment.

Kathryn Harwig: The most important thing that any of us can do is to consciously choose to stay out of a fear state. There will be things happening that will seem frightening and concerning. “Staying out of fear” is easy to say and hard to do, but it is possible, at least most of the time. Staying conscious and present in the moment is important. Learning to quiet your mind so that your intuitive voice and your guides can speak is critical. Releasing judgment whenever possible will help a lot. Things will be happening that will be tempting to judge. But, we will not have all the information to even decide if something is good or bad. Learning to go with the flow would be a good habit to develop. A sense of humor will help a lot in these times, too.

Insiah Beckman: One has to be aware and be more conscious of these energies that have been coming through more intensely in the last few years. People are feeling the intensity of the bombardments of light on this planet and are experiencing all kinds of aches, pains and a lack of energy. This is all due to releasing the old and integrating these new frequencies as Humanity transforms into Beings of Light and Love. Make time for yourselves to allow these wonderful energies and frequencies to permeate your being. When you are feeling out of sorts, take a few moments, spend time in your favorite sanctuary, listen to your heart, meditate or go for a walk in nature. Nature is a great healer. Allow and be with the flow. Just be!

Dolores Cannon: Yes, there are two definite things people must do before they can move into the new Earth. First, they must get rid of karma. Karma will hold you to the old Earth. A lot of it comes from family issues. I tell people in my hypnotherapy work that they must forgive and let go. People say, “How can I forgive them? You don’t know what they did to me.” But by holding onto it, you are holding onto karma, and you are only hurting yourself. You’re not hurting the other person. Forgive them, release them and let them go – with love. When you do that, you are free and you can move into the new Earth. Secondly, people need to get rid of fear. Fear is the strongest emotion a human has. Fear is paralyzing, debilitating, and it holds you back. Don’t get caught up in fear, with what’s on TV, the newspapers and the doom and gloom. Think for yourself, make up your own mind and release fear.

Don't get caught up in fear, with what's on TV, the newspapers and the doom and gloom. Think for yourself, make up your own mind and release fear. - Dolores Cannon

What message are you being given now, or have received recently, about momentous changes that will take place on this planet in the next four years?
Kathryn & Dannion Brinkley: The potential for climate changes and catastrophic events remains very real. Everyone needs to take the necessary precautions to protect their families during these chaotic times. A shift in the present paradigm could result in a magnetic shift of the Earth. So, a three-month supply of water, food, medicine and basic fuel is an excellent idea right now. However, collective human consciousness can exhibit a vastly stabilizing affect on the state of the Earth. Each random act of kindness and spiritual activism will serve to secure our future. As greater numbers of us begin the quest for spiritual awakening, the greater our chance will be for a calm and successful transition into the next phase of Creation, one that promises us an expanded reality of ourselves as spiritual beings in physical form.

Kathryn Harwig: The most momentous changes will be inside of us, not outside of us. Of course, there will be earthquakes and fires and floods, but no more than we always have had. The huge changes will be in our power to create and our ability to be intuitive. With those powers will come challenges as our society evolves into a society of telepaths. Do not think that it will be a peaceful, easy, ride. Many people will strongly resist these changes, make fun of and then even persecute the wayshowers. In the next four years, I am told the economy will continue to create havoc and more jobs will be lost. We are being urged to find ways of supporting ourselves that do not necessarily look to anyone else, including the government. I am also told there are huge advances in medicine and in the way our bodies respond to medicine that will increase the average life expectancy dramatically. This, too, will have social consequences as our society has to decide how to deal with a larger population or decrease the number of children being born. Many souls will decide not to come to this planet during this time, and some, who do not wish to ride out this wave, will decide to leave in unusual ways.

Insiah Beckman: The message that I have been given is not to fear any changes, but to allow and honor the transition. Yes, changes are all around us. It is difficult in the human experience to be detached. The important thing is to be aware and check yourself. The next four years could either be tumultuous for some and easy for others, depending entirely on how one adopts and engages the change. If one is in a state of denial, union with Self and Oneness will be a constant battle. Those who are in a state of acceptance and surrender will experience an easier time with the transition.

Dolores Cannon: My information says that it looks like there is hope, that this shift to a higher dimension will take place. For a while, they thought it looked like we were going to end up destroying the Earth. They were very unhappy and sad about what they were seeing. They were really worried about it, but finally it looks like there will be a chance that we will make it. What I will be talking about in my lecture is how we are going to do it. I constantly ask for more information about the shifting to the new Earth, and they tell me, “We can’t tell you, because we don’t even know. We don’t have the answers, because this has never happened before.” They do say that it’s vital that we do make this shift in order to survive. It’s going to be quite wonderful. People don’t realize how wonderful it’s going to be. The old Earth will be where all of the wars and catastrophe and negativity will be left.

Kathryn Harwig: I have been given the ability to hear Guides and Spirits and allow my guides to speak through me. I must admit I am not sure that is a mission. Some of the time I am not even sure it is a gift. But, their information has been beneficial to me and, I believe, to many who have heard them speak. So, I continue to channel the Light Collective and allow them to give their information to people. My other “mission” is to feel and express joy as much as possible. I hope by doing so, I model a different way of living and being. And, my passion for travel is to learn what all the world looks and feels like. I am not sure if that benefits anyone but me, but, it certainly gives me joy.

Insiah Beckman: I had a visitation by a very well known light being to share and assist people who are ready for their expansion and integration of self, who are ready to take their power back and reclaim the fullness of their being. In other words: “Union with self and with Oneness.”

Dolores Cannon: I am now traveling all over the world to share this message. In addition, I’m still doing hypnotherapy. And I’m doing a lot with healing, because the technique I’ve developed with my hypnosis is not like any other hypnosis technique out there. We have instantaneous healings. We’re having miracles happen everywhere I go with this. So my mission is to teach the healing technique of my hypnosis method, and also along the way to deliver the information they told me to deliver. People all over the world are responding wonderfully. I just returned from my first trip to South Africa, and the response was tremendous. Everyone wants to think of hope. We’re all one. Everywhere I go, the people are the same. There are no differences at all. They all want to care for their families, have a good job and have a nice place to live. Nobody wants war. They don’t want the negativity. Everybody is alike. There is no difference in us. I always tell people, “If you traveled more, there wouldn’t be wars. There wouldn’t be violence. We’d find out that we’re all the same. We all want the same thing.”

Kathryn Harwig: I will be channeling my guides, The Light Collective, who have asked to speak on their eight principles for inner peace and joyful living. These principles, which are very simple and yet extremely profound, can, if incorporated into a person’s life, transform not only that person but the world around them. In these upcoming times, it is more crucial than ever before to have a type of plan for joyful living. As the Light Collective has said, “If you measure your worth by what you own, perhaps you will be disappointed. If you measure your worth by how your life is going, then perhaps you will be joyful. Perhaps it is not the value of your homes that you measure your worth by, but the value of your life. A question to ask would be, “Are you happier when you make more money, or when your house is worth more?” If not, perhaps you would look at joy as a commodity, and invest In joy.

Insiah Beckman: The title of my talk is “Reconnect with your Divine Self.” I will be providing channeled information on the coming energy shift leading up to 2012 and will respond to questions from the audience. Many souls are lost in a myriad of life’s challenges. They will be provided with the tools to reconnect with their divine selves and learn to handle the chaos that most of humanity is presently experiencing. It is time to reclaim your power and your true nature of loving self and others.

Dolores Cannon: I will be speaking about the New Earth. This is the same thing that is written about in the Bible, in Revelation, about the new Heaven and the old Earth. I’ve been all around the world talking about this. I’m heading now to England for a conference there, and then I will be going to Russia. I’ve been to Russia four times this past year. I’m doing a lot of work there with doctors, teaching my technique. Then I’ll be back for a talk in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and then I’ll be going to Istanbul for a huge conference on 2012.

Sondra Ray, known as one of the most eclectic spiritual leaders of the day, blends ancient wisdom with practical training to transform relationships to a more divine level. Recognized as a spiritual teacher, author, rebirther, lecturer and healer, she and her husband Mark, a healer and poet, will visit the Twin Cities August 20-22 with classes that encompass much of what she presents throughout the world:

• On Thursday, Aug. 20, they will present the Ho O pono pono prayers, ancient Hawaiian wisdom that is a process to right all errors, create balance, make right any stressful relationships or situations and strengthens through spiritual cleansing, releasing, transmuting and understanding.
• On Friday, Aug. 21, they will present a spiritual healing class in which “The Ultimate Truth Process” is taught. Sondra is a devoted student of the Master Avatar Babaji, and she will teach how to clear yourself of ailments and apply spiritual healing techniques to your life.
• On Saturday, Aug. 22, they will present “The Spiritual Laws of Money,” a seminar that will help you clear beliefs, patterns and thoughts that block you from receiving. Prayers and processes will help you connect to the Divine and to your own innate abundance.
• On Sunday, Aug. 23, the focus is on “Miracle Consciousness.” Sondra and Mark will discuss the meaning of A Course in Miracles, Babaji and the Divine Mother.

Sondra Ray was launched into international acclaim in the 1970s as one of the pioneers of the Rebirthing experience. She has trained thousands of people all over the world and is considered one of the foremost experts on how the birth trauma affects one’s body, relationships, career and life. As she puts it, “this breathing process produces extraordinary results because as one takes in the light, all else is revealed and let go of – thus one’s heart is open to receive love, peace and joy.” She has a B.S. degree in Nursing from the University of Florida College of Nursing and a Masters Degree in Public Health and Family Sociology from the University of Arizona. She was trained as a Nurse Practitioner in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Early on she worked in the Peace Corps and was stationed in Peru. Sondra has a private healing practice in Marina Del Rey, CA.

While teaching abroad, she conducted an interview with The Edge about her mission in life.

Sondra, one of your stated goals is to always try to bring about a higher consciousness. Please describe your insight on the evolution of human consciousness during the past nine years, and specifically, what is taking place now.
There has been an influx of light coming in more and more over these years and this is raising the vibration and frequency of the whole planet and each person open to it. The male and female energies also are becoming more balanced, which is a great thing.

All this, however, has caused a purging of anything unlike itself. The economic crisis is a cleansing of the old paradigm. We need new paradigms in society and relationships, and I have been teaching about new paradigms in relationships and the new frequency.

It is an exciting time to be alive. On the negative side, there could be more earth changes. On the positive side, one can make thousands of years of spiritual progress each year now.

Why are you motivated to change the paradigm in relationships around the world? What shift are you inspired to create?
If the planet is ascending, we have to ascend also. Relationships have gone about as far as they can go in the old paradigm. If you want to know what the old paradigm is, just look at your parents’ relationships and the soap operas. People all over the world need help with this shift.

The new paradigm is about having a spiritual partnership where you are together for the evolution of your souls and each person in the relationship takes responsibility for their results coming from their own thoughts. This is a relationship that is holy and one of peace. There is no anger, no fighting, no conflicts. At least that is the goal.  This can be learned.

What is your take on the indigenous prophecies surrounding the year 2012 and how do the seemingly massive changes taking place now in our lives relate to that?
Most people know that 2012 is a turning point. The reason the Mayan calender ends then is that the great Mayan “seers” could not “see” anything past 2012. That is because the planet will have ascended to the new dimension and they could not see that dimension. All the changes we are seeing ARE related to that. We are shifting from the old 3rd dimension to the 5th dimension.

You are known as a pioneer of the Rebirthing Experience. Describe this process for those who are unaware of it, and how has this experience been updated and refined over the years?
Rebirthing is a spiritual purification process made possible by breathing in a certain way. It is connecting the inhale and the exhale in a relaxed intuitive rhythm. It is a safe and gentle process that releases accumulated negativity back to and including birth. Through this process, unwanted behavior patterns are revealed and released and the heart opens so that you can receive more love, peace and abundance. Rebirthing is a powerful healing tool on mental , emotional, spiritual and physical levels. The purpose, in my opinion, ultimately is to help produce enlightenment when one replaces the ego’s thought system with the Holy Spirit’s thought system.

My work with the Rebirthing Experience is becoming more and more spiritual in nature. I am integrating the power of the Divine Mother in my work now.

You are known as a healer. Is there a common cause of pain in the human experience? How does spirituality affect that underlying cause?
Spirituality heals the cause of pain. We say that all pain is the effort involved in clinging to a negative thought. It is my job to help the client locate the thoughts that are causing the pain and help them release them. We rebirthers are trained especially to find out what is hidden in the subconscious. This is the culprit.  One needs a method to see the subconscious negative thoughts that are hanging one up! Rebirthing is one way to bring the subconscious to the conscious safely. Then you can change it.

What spiritual master or guide informs your life, and can you share a personal sacred experience you have had with this master or guide?
I like this question because I love to talk about my Master Babaji. He is actually a maha avatar, which means he was not born of a woman. He materialized his body. He can also dematerialize, so he can come and go. Yogananda talked about him in the Autobiography of a Yogi. I once experienced him bi-locating.  He appeared to me in the flesh in Mt. Shasta, CA, while he was at the same time in India at his ashram called Herakhan. I take people every year with me to India to his ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Ammachi is my female teacher. She is the real Divine Mother and everyone should try to see her. Go to her website [amma.org] and look at her tour schedule. She is the hugging saint and has been known to hug thousands of people in one sitting without even getting up!

My other master is Jesus, the source of A Course In Miracles, which, in my opinion, is the most important work in 2,000 years. It is a correction of religion, and the sooner you start it the better. Why postpone enlightenment? All the answers to all questions are in there.

What are you most hopeful about with regard to our collective future we are now creating?
Peace and harmony and a world that works for everyone.

Please share your insight on a daily tip or ritual that can help each of us remain in balance during these changing times.
I do the following rituals every day with my husband – and they work. We get up at 6 a.m. and walk for an hour while doing mantras on our mala beads. We say OmNamahaShivaya while walking. This is the highest thought in the universe, according to Babaji. We also do other private mantras given to us by Babaji and Ammachi. Then we come home and bathe and then we do Ho O Pono Pono, a Hawaiian ritual that we will teach at this Minnesota event. Then we read A Course in Miracles out loud.  I highly recommend all of this.

For details on the Sondra Ray event in Minnesota Aug. 20-23, contact Lee Beaty at 612.721.7108 or email leebeaty@visi.com. For more information on Sondra Ray, visit www.sondraray.com.

Holy moly, welcome to August already and the on-going, ever-morphing energies of 2009. The late spring and early summer energies were pushy, demanding, relentless, unequivocal and challenging on multiple levels. I hesitate to say were, since plenty of challenges remain, but at least I’m starting to feel like things are moving into my life again. I would say that I’m finally having an energetic thaw in terms of feeling enough energy moving to get me off my recliner, but now that I’m up I tend to space off almost everything as soon as I get distracted by the next loud noise or pretty color.

This is progress? Perhaps the upside is I also space off any memory of the screw-up from the previous spacing off, so at least I have that going for me. I also have noticed that I focus most easily on fun and interesting things (and pretty colors and loud noises), and everything else has reached a new level of drudgery.

As I write this we have only finished one week of July, but our move into summer brings a new phase of our transformation, and we are definitely engaged in the process. One hallmark of the spring phase was a lack of interest in almost anything. Maybe we did what we had to do, but enthusiasm and focus was hard to come by for many of us. A quality of this new phase is feeling like we’re somewhere between worlds with not so much attachment to the old ways, but not much clarity about where we’re headed.

The geek in me would say that we’re installing the beta version of the new operating system, and I’m sure we’ll feel better when the first version is officially is released. Then again, where we’re headed is consciously creative not unconsciously reactive, so we have no need to reference anything beyond the infamous moment. So, time goes away. You may have noticed its recession.

People in the vanguard of this transition continue to do deep work accompanied by some major rewiring. At Lightsmith we’re using the word fusion to describe how various parts are coming together to create new forms. As one example, we see changes and fusion in the chakra system creating new nodes that are part of an operating system “upgrade.” Who knows what is next or what the merged hu-man is to fully become.

In my view, the intention within consciousness has always been to evolve a body in which a more full presence of soul could be merged. This is the essence of metaphors such as the creation of heaven on earth. It has never been about something happening outside us, but is about what we are becoming. I see that merger as the core activity of these times, which leads to our numerous processes of releasing what doesn’t compute in the new system.

We can’t take with us into our new experience anything not belonging to us or not of Essence. All our healing work has been clearing the way for something new to be. As soul and body fuse more deeply, our physical self rises to meet spirit. Some call it ascension, but soul embodiment works as well, since there is also a descending of spirit into form.

I see two realities on earth right now with different operating systems running. One is old and disassembling (just watch the news) and one is new and growing in presence every day, though less visible on the surface. The choice is which one to live within. I have been “politely” told more than once that it is good to have a vision of what can be, but that I must deal with reality. I am dealing with reality, which for me is choosing to participate in the world that is birthing, not the one that is dying. As I see it, the new operating system is established, real and accessible and available for all who choose it. This is The Edge, and that is where we now find ourselves.

Behind the house on the cul-de-sac, two children used to play on their swingset and run around in their fenced yard first with their beagle, and then with the new beagle pup. And then one day, the family and their pets were gone. No moving truck. No big farewell to their modest suburban home. They just packed up their car and drove away. And now the dandelions are dog high, just one more snapshot in a national album. Title this one, “The Great 21st Century Transformation, or “The Collapse of the American Dream.”

This is here in the suburbs, a scene I witness every day as I walk my dog at lunchtime. Look around your neighborhood, because the “change” is affecting all of us. My wife’s job was eliminated more than two years ago at a major corporation that decided to downsize and let employees go the day after they returned from Thanksgiving holiday. They’ve since eliminated large groups of other household providers who now scramble to put food on the table. A former colleague in Missouri, the top writer on the daily newspaper’s editorial staff, was suddenly axed from the payroll. And everywhere you look, mid- to high-level managers and executives are now sitting at home filling out job applications and reading craigslist daily for any new opportunity.

And don’t forget the Motor City. Detroit’s unemployment rate is triple the national average, and the crisis has spread like wildfire to outlying communities. Less than 90 miles away, Saginaw’s downtown is boarded up, its homeless population out of control, and those who live there say it reminds them of the Great Depression.

These difficult images are part of a growing national tapestry of despair. We’ve all been touched by the seemingly instantaneous transformation of corporate America. And if a doctor were to take our collective pulse, the diagnosis would be high anxiety; the prescription – pills to numb us and sedate us and help us escape the pain of reality.

That’s where the holistic community – typically a highly emphatic group of people who must be feeling an unusually high level of stress at this time – can make a difference. This is what we  have come to this planet to do. And you may not want to hear it but I must repeat this sentiment – uttered by the President of the United States, no less, perhaps originating from Hopi elders, or author Alice Walker, I cannot say for sure: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We are the ones who have been working on ourselves, seminar after seminar, workshop after workshop, transmuting and releasing, preparing our bodies to accept high levels of spiritual energy so that others who are in pain can be healed. We are the ones who have communed with angels and the fairy devas and other out-of-body entities – despite the general public’s perception of us as wacky or engaging in “woo-woo” stuff – and now have instant sources of information and guidance to share with those who need it. And we are the ones who have the ability to heal on an energetic level – an ability medical science is only beginning to acknowledge, albeit reluctantly – and assist those who may not be medically ill, but transformationally challenged.

Now is the time to step forward. Regardless of what your family or neighbors or community may think. Regardless of whether or not you perceive yourself as having any ability to help out when the going is tough. Now is the time for healing centers, metaphysical groups, spiritual healing circles and individuals to band together to provide volunteer care for those who need it most.

Cathy and I at The Edge have begun discussing ways in which we can help link volunteer healers and life coaches and psychics and the wide array of people who make up the holistic community with those who can benefit from the talents already in place. I urge your group to do the same. Together, we can make a difference in people’s lives.

Personal transformation is the process of changing an aspect of ourselves to a more desirable state. People may encounter many difficulties when creating change, and each person’s experience is unique. Outlined below are 10 of the most common roadblocks I have observed.

1. “Therapy” is a four letter word. There is a real stigma around the word therapy. Whether it’s session work, a conversation with a good friend or communing with nature, therapy goes by many names and is really about finding ways to fully experience life.

2. Big issues require big resources to transform. People sometimes struggle with issues for months, years or even lifetimes before they are ready to make a change. It’s easy to think that since the issue is a long-standing one, then the process to transform it will involve a huge amount of time, effort and money. This is usually not the case. Simply put, personal transformation can be relatively quick and easy, and even fun.

3. Trying to change a habit or behavior instead of the underlying cause. Sometimes we try to stop a behavior cold turkey or substitute a different behavior. This approach ignores the thought patterns and processes that are creating the behavior in the first place, and as a result, the behavior is usually very difficult to permanently change.

4. Forgetting to set an outcome or goal. Since we know that a behavior will change much more easily if we address the patterns that create it, then we need to make sure we have a desirable outcome to accompany the rearranged pattern. If we only set a goal to move away from a certain state of being, then we tend to revisit that state cyclically until we give ourselves a different one to move toward.

5. Asking “why.” “Why can’t I stop this habit?” “Why do I keep getting myself into this position?” The answers to these types of questions may provide useful information, but most often they do not. When we ask “why,” it tends to anchor the issue even more solidly, reinforcing the very thing we want to change. It is important to acknowledge the fact that you are here now, and that there was an event at some point that helped get you here. Reliving that event or digging up all the details is usually not helpful. Ask “how” you want things to be different and “how” they can be changed.

6. Blaming ourselves and/or others for our situation. When we blame, we place judgment on whomever or whatever we’re blaming. Doing so lowers our energy, keeps us looking backwards and prevents us from seeing options and possibilities right now. Our best option is forgiveness. By forgiving, we release restrictive patterns and free up energy that can then be used for something else. Then we can come back to experiencing this current moment.

7. Giving away personal power. Often we give up our own power and responsibility and let external factors take control of our existence. As long as we do so, we get pushed through life and don’t allow ourselves to move and live from the essence of our being. We need to free our “trapped” energy, accept responsibility for ourselves and regain authorship of our life story.

8. Over-analyzing the situation. We spend a lot of time thinking with our heads when we’d be better off feeling what’s in our hearts. The trick is to be curious about what’s happening. If we stay curious, we can allow things to flow and manifest easily and naturally in the moment.

9. Forgetting to be grateful for the benefits of every situation. Every situation, no matter how distasteful, has a beneficial aspect to it. This may be one of the hardest concepts of change to employ, but there is always something in there that has been helpful in some large or small way. Gratitude is easy to forget in difficult times.

10. We feel stuck and unable to change. When we find ourselves frequently thinking about something we’d like to change about our existence, there is a good chance that we’re ready to make a transformation. Unfortunately, we believe that we can’t move, we don’t have the ability to change, or what we want isn’t ever going to become reality. Good news! There are always options. Once you open to that idea, you’ve already begun the transformation process.