Shampoo Series – Spiritual Enlightenment – What If?

What if . . .

Think of the things you complain about, dread and dislike in your life. Make a list.

Now, what if your happiness, your peace, your “spiritual enlightenment,” depended on having exactly those things in your life?

We have this idea that if we achieve these concepts of happiness, peace and spiritual enlightenment everything will be some kind of “All Bliss, All the Time.”

Well, check.

I was at the Gathering for the Work of Byron Katie, when someone said that she couldn’t follow her spiritual calling unless she had the freedom to move out of state, something she cannot do with her child, by divorce decree.

Steven looked at her and asked, “Nelson Mandela was in prison for how long?”

We all laughed.

“And the Christian saints and martyrs? They were free to move and travel about all the time, right?”

Er…

I added, “and Ghandi got around really well while he was fasting.”

No, he could barely lay on his pallet sometimes he was so weak from fasting from what I have heard.

For myself, incest in my childhood, the exciting and exhilarating journey from grief to gratitude, were all part of following my spiritual calling. The story is in this blog.

So, the next time you have a complaint or some stress you think is keeping you from . . . anything . . . check. It might be merely the next step in following your spiritual calling.

Love, Ann

Shampoo Series – Green Eggs and Ham Re-Pairing the Universe

(If you followed a Tag and didn’t find what you were looking for, please write a comment, so I know what you were looking for when you got here.) 

First, my mother’s wisdom on the subject:

“Ping or pong – it’s still the same game.”

Mother re-paired the universe there. So, did the little guy in Green Eggs & Ham. All he had to do was to try them. I have a friend in Texas, Kurt, who says, “Always try it twice- it might be an acquired taste.”

Ping – I know Paul and I could make a fabulous couple, enjoying life and doing things together in the world.

Pong – Marriage after 3 visits? Essentially 3 dates? Well, no wonder I balk at that. I’m willing to commit to moving in that direction, certainly.

Paul said “I feel pressured.” He also turned it around and noticed that “I am pressuring you.”

Clarity reigns.

He has been attracted to me for 35 years. I thought he was a nice guy, a good friend, but since he is like neither my father, nor my mother, I did not have the instinctive chemistry that we all have when we meet someone who is the same familiar Higher Alignment archetype as our parents.

I am extremely attracted to Paul’s conversation, goals, values and the way he opens to reality and truth in a heartbeat (especially when I challenge the Southern Baptist Conventions).

My attraction is different. Sexual attraction is learnable. I know that. I am even trained in how to create it. Might take some practice. That’s okay. Sometimes I look at him and think he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever had.

We keep doing The Work of Byron Katie together, the IAM meditations from Steven Sashen, especially Goal-Free Goal Setting, Re-Pairing Opposites and Releasing Contractions.

I’m enjoying the greatest game on Earth – two people dancing their lives together.

Your serve, Paul!

Love, Ann

Shampoo Series – “In my defenselessness my safety lies.” Lesson 153, A Course in Miracles

There is no incompatibility between me and Paul that total defenselessness wouldn’t solve. That may be true with everyone, of course. There is only One of us here.

“Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you. Perhaps you will recall the text maintains that choice is always made between Christ’s strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him. Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants.

Defensiveness is weakness. It proclaims you have denied the Christ and come to fear His Father’s anger. What can save you now from your delusion of an angry god, whose fearful image you believe you see at work in all the evils of the world? What but illusions could defend you now, when it is but illusions that you fight?”

The full text of this lesson is found here:

 http://miraclevision.com/acim/wbk/pc/workbook153-1.html

 The terminology of A Course in Miracles is very Christian. I like that.

Katie says, “Defense is the first attack.” 

Can you find that?

Think of 3 ways you can prove that thought from your own experience and understanding.

Love, Ann

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”

                                               – Ann O’Johnson

5 Minutes to Deep Peace on Thursday 9/13

You will be entertained at the very least and enlightenment is an option.

http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310

Thursday, 9/13, there is a teleconference call where you can learn more about this. There will be sample meditations and a chance at a free gift worth $400.

http://advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?Clk=2095310 

Trust me. You want to try this. The IAM Meditations are the product of the fertile mind of Steven Sashen who is also responsible for much of the Shampoo Method we talk about here every day.

It’s completely safe. I’d trust this guy with my life.

This feeling, this is what we have all been looking for our whole lives. It’s like coming home.

Love, Ann  

Relationship Break Ups – A Guide to New Relationships?

One of my favorite questions to ask someone I’m considering dating is this:

Tell me about how your last few relationships broke up.

No, I’m not really interested in the story itself. What I’m interested in is what it tells me about the person telling the story.

It is amazing how much information you get about a person this way. You find out something about how they blame or take responsibility. You may find out whether they are vindictive. You may find out how considerate they are of others.

Let me spell it out for you:

If you get a story where every sentence begins “He (or she) blah blah blah” and then goes into everything he or she did wrong, well, you’ve got a lot of blame there. Are you interested in a relationship with someone who continually blames the other person? I’m not.

If you get a story all about how “I showed them. I showed up for the divorce hearing in my wedding dress.” Well, you’ve got a bitter and vindictive person, someone who can’t let go when someone else says they are done. Do you want that? I don’t.

“We went for counseling, but nothing worked.” Hmm, I’d need more information. Okay, they tried counseling. Tell me more?

You may hear how they refused to return belongings or how the other person refused to return theirs. You may hear about disagreements over children and property. Pay attention. You’re learning something about how this person handles shared property and the lives of children.

Maybe they tell you they don’t go to certain parties or clubs anymore because their ex goes there. Details may tell you they’re honoring a request for no contact for a certain period of time for healing. I wouldn’t mind that one.

Or maybe they are still in so much pain that they can’t stand to see their ex out having fun? If so, they’re still deeply in their healing process, on the rebound, as they say, and not ready for a new relationship at all.

I love the stories where they say, “Well, we didn’t live well together, but we make great friends now.” or “Our lives were going in different directions, but we still stay in touch.” or “I see him for lunch when he’s in town.”

That’s maturity. That’s responsibility. That is likely to be someone who would be able to have a good relationship, recognize when things aren’t working, and part as friends.

“We were right for each other at the time.” That’s great. They recognize that we do our best and that some things aren’t meant to be forever.

Do you know my favorite story about how someone I was dating broke up with their previous girlfriend?

“We just looked at each other and I said, ‘Are we done?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I think we’re done.”

Beautiful! Let’s do it like that!

Love, Ann

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

                                              – Marcus Aurelius

Someone can hurt me. (a belief)

Is it true?

                                             – Byron Katie

Shampoo Series – Pavlov

Hi guys,

I was just looking at Steven Sashen’s latest Anti-Guru Blog and was enjoying the current one so much, that I scrolled back to read another, and another, and another.

I was glad I did because I got to re-read this one:

http://sashen.com/blog/26/look-ma-no-brains/

It was a relief to remember that some of the reactions I have are simple conditioning.

You know, some guy tells me he will love me forever, has been looking for me for 32 years, wants to spoil me – and my brain just shuts off, while I go padding after those carrots with my tongue hanging out. Sure, all of that may be true, but then again, who knows? One of us could get hit by a truck today.

I’m paying attention to noticing the part where my brain shuts off.

I just love the honesty of this guy, Sashen.

Yeah, I know sometimes Sashen sounds like a total asshole, but trust me, he’s not. He is just possessed of an extremely acerbic wit. I tend to laugh my ass off around him. He has been known to say, “I don’t play well with others.”  

Neither do I, sometimes.

I do a lot of temp jobs right now to pay the rent.

It’s essentially mindless work – answer a few phones, type something, file something. And it pays enough that I can often get by with a few weeks of it and then take a few weeks off. I like that a lot, a whole lot.

When that happens, I get to sit down of a morning and write these letters to you. I enjoy the hell out of that. (Hmm, that’s the title of Ramone Yaciuk’s book, Enjoy the Hell Out of Your Life. Saw his author talk last night at Borders. Good job, Ramone! www.mycommunicationworks.com )

Anyway, so here I am experiencing brain shut-down on a daily basis and wondering what to do next.

Ah… needing a Next Step. I know how to find those!

So, I get out my Goal-Free Goal Setting meditation.

(Umm, if you want one, go through http://www.advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?af=570391 and get the whole IAM CD set. It is well worth it and there’s a lifetime guarantee and free samples. )

Did the meditation, got the . . . hmm . . . I should get a t-shirt, but that’s another of Sashen’s sites – www.delightenment.com

I haven’t found the exact one I want yet. Actually, I want “Fighting for Peace is Like Fucking for Virginity” in a lovely white script on a pink T-shirt. I just don’t know if I’d actually wear it, so I’ve been hesitating on creating it.

Anyway, I did the Goal-Free Goal Setting for like 40 days on the idea of getting married. Then this guy, Paul, shows up. I have done the meditation once or twice in the last month since he showed up. Today, I did it again and then wondered whether Steven had blogged lately. He has. They are a ton of fun.

I have been feeling embarrassed at myself and how easily I am falling for this sweet talking man while still having some serious reservations about whether we have a life-companion kind of thing here or not.

Then I read Sashen’s blog and remember how much of this is conditioning. I mean, if it took Sashen (who by the way has studied a lot of psychology from a very skeptical point of view) anyway, if it took Sashen 3 hours to shake off a simple, “if you qualify, I can try to get my manager’s approval and show you how you can join us for free,” then I suppose I won’t be too surprised when it take me 3 weeks or 3 months or even 3 years to turn my brain back on when a man showers me with praise and adoration and promises.

And I have promised myself not to act until I’m clear. And if I do?

Lather, rinse, repeat.

*sigh of relief*

And I thought I was slipping.

Love, Ann

“Personalities don’t love. They want something.”

              – Byron Katie in I Need Your Love – Is That True?

http://www.advancedmeditation.com/cmd.php?af=570391

Shampoo Series – Peace

Good morning,

Thank you for the vacation.

There’s a theme today in the emails I’ve replied to from friends, and in my response to one of Eric Francis’ articles on dioxin contamination in New Paltz, on his web site. 

             http://planetwavesweekly.com/dadatemp/1267134807.html

We live in a world where we focus on our seeming separation.

Separation from what?

Call it whatever you like, but I call it God, peace, all-that-is, solutions, etc.

The other day Russ wrote to thank me for the “effort” I put in to “slow down and meet him at his Pacing.”

(Pacing is described in the link to the right under Pages called “Compatibility Factors.”) 

Russ and I spent several hours together Monday afternoon and evening. Up till now, he always felt exhausted after he saw me. He wrote to tell me it was the best time he had ever spent with me.

I had no conscious thought of “slowing down to meet his Pacing.”  

I wrote him back and suggested that possibly the difference in our time together, in fact, any difference in any experience that any human being ever has, lies inside, in our own thoughts, not in anything external.

He can think I did something different, and give me credit, but that only continues the illusion that we’re separate. If I let him think that I am responsible for his feeling good about our time together it perpetuates the lie that we are separate, the lie that I can “make” him feel anything, the lie that he is a victim, the list goes on and on.

Notice it’s just as true when he’s feeling “good” as when he is feeling “bad.”

That may sound tricky, but it’s not. All you do is check inside and find what’s true. That is what the entire Shampoo Series is about.

We find peace when we love the truth, especially when the truth conflicts with the lies we are constantly telling ourselves. What a relief!

I noticed some of those same themes when I read Eric Francis’ article linked above.

I love Eric dearly. He is the best astrologer I have ever read or consulted. See www.planetwaves.net if you want to treat yourself to this man’s writings and thoughts.

On the link above, Eric writes about his involvement in exposing a dioxin hazard in New Paltz, NY.

“My life is often thrust into chaos as a result of getting re-involved. My business typically suffers, my energy runs low, and along the way, I have to face my own fears and inner demons.”

Eric says he gets involved, “not entirely voluntarily.”

As wise as Eric is, on this issue, he seems to believe that he is a victim helping other victims.

Eric is a fellow student of A Course in Miracles. I invite you, Eric, and you, my blog readers, to consider that “there is another way of looking at this.” Just as students of ACIM find the inner peace that enables us to do the outer work in a clear, relaxed, guided and far more effective way, I suggest there is a more powerful way of thinking that can be engaged here, one that has no victims – not Eric, not the students, no victims at all.

Yes, of course, there are actions to take, people to talk to, clean up to do and Reality to face. We can act from clarity in a way that isn’t exhausting, that is completely voluntary and guided from within.

How do we know what Reality is?

Well, we inquire.

We ask inside.

Is it true? Can I absolutely know this thought is true?

How do I react or live when I believe this thought?

Who would I be without this thought, this story?

Then we Turn It Around and check all the opposite thoughts to see if they are as true or truer than the original thought.

Usually, the original thought hurts.

In Question #3, “How do I react or live when I believe this thought?” we discover exactly how it hurts, how much it hurts, how ineffective we are, how stressful the thought is.

In Question #4, we do a thought experiment.

“Who would I be without this story?”

Generally, Question #3 shows us our stress. Question #4 shows us our peace.

Don’t believe a word I say. Check.

Find out if  Katie’s statement “Reality is kinder than your thinking,” is true or not.

One of the reasons I took a break last week is that Paul, a man I knew from 7th grade to 10th grade, got in touch with me recently. I had no idea that he had a crush on me back then. I certainly did not imagine that he had been looking for me all these years, and that he is still interested in me.

Paul flew me to visit him and to attend his son’s graduation from high school.

Paul is worshipping me. He has many years of Romantic Mythology (see Compatibility Factors again) built up about who I am and what it would be like to be my lover, even my husband. There is no way I will ever be the person he has built up in his mind.

Byron Katie says, “No two people have ever met.”

Think for 2 seconds and you will realize she is right. All we ever meet is our ideas and thoughts about other people. We don’t meet them.

Paul wants to let Reality in, see who we are now and go from there. So do I.

I introduced him to Katie’s work through her introductory CD on her first book, Loving What Is. I pointed him to her web page. He couldn’t sleep last night and he watched all of her videos.

Wow.

I wonder what is next.

I have not told Paul something, and the first time he will hear this will be in this blog. For about 40 days I did Steven Sashen’s Goal-Free Goal Setting Mediation, which includes The Work and several other ways to move from the lies to the truth and from stress into peace, on the idea of getting married again.

I wrote Steven to tell him that it doesn’t matter one bit whether I ever get married again or not. That’s a place of clarity, wholeness, acceptance from which our Next Step naturally emerges. I call it Spontaneous Right Action.

It doesn’t matter one iota what happens next. Yes and no are the same answer.

I’m doing the Goal-Free Goal Setting now on my income and career. No telling what may arise from that. Steven Sashen is the creator of the Quantum Wealth course. He says it helps us to “do the inner work that leads to the outer work that leads to the inner work.” I think I got that right.

Details on Steven’s class are at http://www.quantumwealth.com/ 

Love, Ann

“Peace in our minds and in our lives is a cause-effect relationship.”

                                                               – Ann O’Johnson

Today’s Blog is Short Because Reality is Kinder Than My Thinking!

… and later than usual, because the Universe decided once again to prove to me that “Reality is kinder than my thinking – but only always.”

I just spent the whole afternoon and part of the evening with Cricket. I am so blissed out (and blessed). How many times can you fall in love with the same man? Over and over and over, I promise you. And several of them, it seems.

A couple of months ago, I was really bummed because he wasn’t calling and when I did see him, he was bushed, exhausted, in no mood to be any kind of fun to be with. The last time I saw him, he admitted he had been depressed. He and I both do a very perky kind of depression that most people would not recognize as depression, except that it isn’t how we usually are.

Since then, he has quit the day job, and has more hours in which to sleep and go to school full time. There’s still some depression, but he’s perking up to his normal full throttle.

*giggle*

And in so many ways!

Last time he and I talked, we agreed that I would just call him when I want to. Every time I do call, he wants to see me, and we do get together and enjoy so many things. Oh, okay. I really prefer for boys to be boys and for them to call me, but often they are slower paced and have a far different time sense than I do. That gets very weird.

This seems to be working, this me calling him thing. I wouldn’t do it with everyone, but it’s honest and clear and clean with Cricket.

Reality seems to be that this is what works for us.

I had been telling myself all kinds of ugly stories about how he didn’t care, didn’t want to see me, had too many girlfriends (3), but not one word of it was true. His primary love language is touch, and I don’t always recognize it. Mine is words. A full time relationship between us would be more work than either of us wants to put in. Yes, he’s been in some depression, but all I have to do is notice Reality!

So, once I got into the Reality groove today, I figured out something else. Something major.

One of the reasons he and I stopped living together is that I was crying a lot, and unhappy. I would often cry after sex. It got to be too much for both of us.

Well, now I know why!

I was telling myself this story that he and I could not stay together, and that someday I would have to let him go and wouldn’t see him, wouldn’t be able to have the passionate and ravishing sex we have when we’re together, etc. etc.

Did it dawn on my little pea-brain that he could easily win some kind of “Man Least Likely To Hook Up With a Jealous Woman” award?

Well, no.

It turns out that it is much easier to see from here – 3 years later – that in fact, I can see him when I want to, his primary girlfriend is fine with it and the other secondary certainly doesn’t care. I have 3 years of evidence to prove it.

When I Turn It Around, I find it far more likely that I, being the monogamous one, will stop having sex with him when some day I commit my heart to another likeminded man.

I’ve been laughing all day about these little revelations.

And it means I can see him, enjoy him without all those tears! I may have found a “No More Tears” formula, or at least the beginnings of one.

Thank God!

“Reality is kinder than my thinking – but only always.” Katie, of course, says that.

Now I wonder what other realities I have been missing. They tend to show up in droves when I take the blinders of about one thing, another 6 or more are right behind that.

There was another revelation, too, that I find hard to put into words. Somehow my addiction to having information because I think it will make me feel connected to someone totally denies some very real and delicious connections I have.

That’s the nutshell version. I may blog on that, too.

I have the most amazing life, amazing friends, amazing lovers, roommate, family, clients, students…. and on and on.

Jesus, it’s sweet!

(Oh, okay, it wasn’t really short… but it is still SWEET!!!)

Love, Ann

The moment I let go of it
was the moment I got more than I could handle.
The moment I jumped off of it
was the moment that I touched down.

– Alanis Morrissette
Thank U India

“This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.”

– Douglas Adams
Long May He Live
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Evolovution – Homo Caelestis, Homo Illuminatus?

An epoch will come when people disclaim kinship with us as we disclaim
kinship with the monkeys.

 -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist
(1883-1931)

 

I find that very reassuring.

Yesterday, we talked a little about Kurt Vonnegut’s vision of the future from Sirens of Titan.

Today, let’s talk about Spider Robinson, Arjuna Ardagh, Tom Robbins, Douglas Adams and others who weave their vision into their fiction and nonfiction writings, waking us all up a little bit at a time.

Yes, today I’m skipping obvious works on human illumination, such as A Course in Miracles, Starseed Transmissions, The Door to Everything, Celestine Prophecy, and Illusions.

Those books are obviously spiritual texts and people with spiritual inclinations read them. That’s fantastic. I’ve read all of them at least 5 to 10 times each. The experience of bliss and connection that comes with reading them is worth many repetitions.

And yes, if I start including epic fantasy & science fiction, especially films, there is a whole ‘nother list of works begging to be included, and rightly so. (Mental Note: be sure I have the reading & film lists on a Page here.)

The ones I’m writing about are almost mainstream. Most of them are fiction. And anyone might read them. That’s what I hope this blog is, and what the book written from it becomes.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR NEARLY EVERY BOOK LISTED

But what do the following books have in common with the first list? And what is different? 

The StarDancer trilogy, MindKiller, Time Pressure, DeathKiller, The Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series, Translucent Revolution, Jitterbug Perfume, Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

All but Translucent Revoluition are fiction, right?

Well, yes, if you say so.

And Translucent Revolution is just kind of a documentary about enlightened companies and their work, right?

Sure, if you say so.

Look deeper.

Spider Robinson, Arjuna Ardagh, Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams, though I confess I’m stretching a little on including him, postulate not just a better world, but evoloved* humans. People taking some kind of evolutionary leap.

Well, then why am I not writing about the immortal Robert A. Heinlein today, also?

Honestly, because my mind boggles at the task. 

Blogging about the evolutionary perspectives of the inestimable Robert Anson Heinlein deserves a few blogs devoted solely to him.  Heinlein heavily influenced Spider Robinson.

Still, for me, somehow, Robinson is the one who took the evolution leap about things most clearly. Yes, Stranger in a Strange Land and others included some enlightened sexuality & telepathy. Grok would not even be a word if it weren’t for Heinlein, but Robinson does it a little differently. I somehow feel his worlds are a little more healed, a little clearer. And he often includes the story of a rape victim who benefits from a different perspective.

But let’s start with Douglas Adams.

Why?

Because Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy starts with the demolition of Earth.

For things to really change, something must die. We have to clear the clutter of the old before there is room for something new. Death and rebirth are twins.

Arthur Dent is understandably upset that there is a yellow bulldozer advancing down his garden path bent on destroying his home. The beauty of it is that at the same time, the Vogon constructor fleet is advancing across the solar system to demolish the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

As above, so below.

I recently learned that there is a home in England that the owner refused to surrender to make way for a bypass (highway). I have to wonder if this is part of the inspiration for the story, and whether Ian Anderson’s song about a farm on the freeway was similarly inspired.  

Dent is in his bathrobe, bleary-eyed from a night at the pub railing against the lack of notice and injustice of the proposed demolition. I have to tell you that this is what I read when I am depressed.

My depression, like Cricket’s, is downright perky. Most people wouldn’t notice that I was depressed, usually. But when it happens, I can’t get past the part where:

 “”Yellow,” he thought. The word yellow wandered through his mind in search of something to connect with.

Fifteen seconds later he (Arthur Dent) was out of the house and lying in front of a big yellow bulldozer that was advancing up his garden path.”

I giggle just inserting that here.

(There is a God. The whole thing seems to be on the net now. See http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Hitchhikers/00000012.htm)

I could write a book on H2G2. But my purpose is to point out that Adams writing points to human evolution. In fact, in the very next paragraph:

“Mr L Prosser was, as they say, only human. In other words he was a carbon-based life form descended from an ape. More specifically he was forty, fat and shabby and worked for the local council. Curiously enough, though he didn’t know it, he was also a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, though intervening generations and racial mixing had so juggled his genes that he had no discernible Mongoloid characteristics, and the only vestiges left in Mr L Prosser of his mighty ancestry were a pronounced stoutness about the tum and a predilection for little fur hats.”

That’s about how much homo caelestis (Spider Robinson’s term) and homo illuminatus (Arjuna Ardagh’s term) are likely to relate to us. It’s pretty much a matter of perspective. Or, as Douglas Adams wrote:

“Ford Prefect knew that it didn’t matter a pair of dingo’s kidneys whether Arthur’s house got knocked down or not now. “

 

“What the caterpiller calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

 – Richard Bach, Illusions

 

The reason I hesitated to include Adams, is that his version of what is next is more of the same world we know, but on a galactic scale. But then, that is one way to get started thinking about humanity’s Next Step.

Adams talks about evolution this way:

“The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question “How can we eat?” the second by the question “Why do we eat?” and the third by the question “Where shall we have lunch?” 

Hence, the third book is called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. 

 

Tom Robbins’  Jitterbug Perfume is about immortality.

Mmm hmm. Just that.

However, he still has us in these same bodies. They can just do more.  

It is very clear that Robbins is a student of rebirthing breathwork, specifically the sort evoloved by Leonard Orr. Orr taught, still teaches, four element purification – earth, the body; air, the breath; fire, sex; and water, the emotions. Wiggs Dannyboy pontificates on each in the book. It’s pure Orr. I’ve studied him. Leonard Orr wrote Physical Immortality. Good topic for a Scorpio man.

Alobar and Kudra follow practices that are meant to clear the body, mind and spirit for rebirth.

The book begins with Alobar finding a grey hair in his beard. In his pre-Christian kingdom, as soon as the king shows signs of age, he is killed and a new, young king is chosen. At Beltane, by the way.

Alobar rebels against tradition and escapes with the help of his concubine, Kudra. I haven’t read this one in a while, though I’ve read it through many times. Somewhere along the line, he mates with Wren, as well. (Polyamory, yes.)

Eventually, Alobar and Kudra learn to dematerialize and show up somewhere else. Robbins describes how they kind of fade from one place and into another. Pan, the god of the rut, the goat god, the God that Christianity blasphemously turned into our modern day devil, has done the same, but for different reasons. No one believes in him any more. All the nature spirits are dying because we’ve ignored them.

No wonder we have sexual issues in our culture! But don’t get me started. Read Robbins. Read Heinlein. Read Robinson. That’s a whole ‘nother book. Read other blogs for more on this.

Immortality may not be the immortality of this particular body that we seem to currently be in. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s not. But all of these authors point to some kind of trancendence, something beyond the body and a way of continuing our awareness and evolving – that death is not something to be feared. It’s just the Next Step. That’s one of the things I love  about Steven’s IAM Meditation, Zooming in on Death.

This is not “I hate my body, so I’ll deny it” of some types of aceticism. This is more from love than fear. I love my life, how do I continue to enjoy it, increase my awareness of what is possible, connect more with others?

So, again, I won’t try to reproduce every enlightened thought in the book here. Read it for yourself.

Arjuna Ardagh uses the term homo illuminatus in his book Translucent Revolution to indicate human beings whose Light is shining brightly and clearly through them and into the world. You won’t believe some of the people on his list. Obviously, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and the Dalai Lama fit that, but Sam Walton? George Zimmer? Hmm.

Enlightenment in business, education, relationships and several other areas of life are the organization of Ardagh’s book. Sidebars debunk various spiritual myths that many new agers still believe, like that if you’re enlightened you don’t have health problems anymore. Hmm, ask some of the world’s most famous enlightened beings about that sometime.

Ardagh has a new book out, too. I haven’t read it yet. But I imagine I’ll be letting you know what I thought, as soon as I do.

In Translucent Revolution we have real life, current day examples of what it would look like to live from love instead of fear. To treat others as we would be treated. To understand that “other people” are really just aspects of ourselves. That this is One World, One Heart, One Mind.

If you’re looking for a job, his list is a great place to start.

So Ardagh’s book is about how some of us are sharing enlightenment now in our work, our families, our educational systems, etc. 

 

Spider Robinson, oh Spider Robinson!

You know, I have spent a lot of the last 6 or 7 years reading Spider Robinson, just amazed that I didn’t find some of them sooner. I check the copyrights and some of them have been out for 20 years. Ah well. Timing is everything and this must have been mine.

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/

I’m not going to include his latest  greatest, Variable Star in this blog. I think that’s another one that will get a blog of its own someday. And I’ve only read it once – so far. It’s written from an outline found in the estate of Robert A. Heinlein.

God seems to speak to me through my computer battery these days. Oh, I’m plugged in to a wall outlet, but the battery is blinking and the connection is being weird and I was just thinking how I should go get some salad for lunch before it gets too late.

sigh

Spider Robinson’s Callahan books, as well as DeathKiller  (a combination volume of MindKiller and Time Pressure – Time Pressure is the one that skeptics and those who are afraid that joining minds with others would be the worst thing that could ever happen will want to read.) LifeHouse, and most especially StarDancer (all 3 volumes Star Dancer, StarSeed and StarMind) all have some kind of story about human evolution that echoes ACIM’s injunciton that “A sense of separation from God is the only lack you need to correct.”

StarDance is kind of the science fiction version of the books I did not include here today (A Course in Miracles, Starseed Transmissions, The Door to Everything, Celestine Prophecy, and Illusions.) There is more moral and spiritual evolution to Robinson’s ideas.

“Forgiveness shows us that minds are joined.”

– A Course in Miracles

Yes.

Some of us can digest truth best when disguised as fiction. That’s why I am attempting to write my story as fiction, too. We’ll see how that goes. I’m more of a blog writer, an email writer,  than a storyteller.

Minds really join in StarDance. In fact, they do so to save the planet, just like they did in the Callahan series. Robinson’s version of human evolution, and you’ll see that twice in this blog I have mistyped and written “evoloved.” When I read that, I decided to leave it. I think there’s something to the idea.

Robinson has the more “evoloved idea,” as I see it. Tomorrow, I will post the Prologue to LifeHouse. It is something like the best erotica I ever wrote for myself. StarDancer is most clearly about evolovution (hmm). In DeathKiller (MindKiller & Time Pressure) the evolution has happened and humans of our ficton encounter humans from the future.

Since my computer has decided that it is lunch time, I’ll leave you to read it yourself. I’ve also blogged more about the details elsewhere.

This blog is searchable. There’s a box over there on the right. Type “Spider Robinson” or anything else you are interested in, and you can find things more easily.

Peace and long life, Ann

“We are One in the Spirit. We are One in the Lord.
We are One in the Spirit. We are One in the Lord.
And we pray that all Unity may one day be restored.
And they’ll know we are human by our Love, by our Love.
Yes, they’ll know we are human by our Love.
 

 -Learned in Chi Rho youth group in the 70’s.

Yes, they sang “Christian.” Same thing, said Pooh.