ORDER FORM | HOME PAGE

 

PERSPECTIVES NEWSLETTERS (To receive my Perspectives newsletter, please send your email address to me at sgh (at) summerjoy (dot) com. [Please replace (at) with @, etc.] I send it out about once a month, usually with a short insightful channeling and sometimes with some other writings, humorous as well as serious.)

 

October 30, 2009

ACCEPTANCE AND SOLVING PROBLEMS (excerpt)

Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, from the upcoming book "Opening to Healing Energy"
(My upcoming books have been upcoming for a long time :). I don't have a publication date.--SGH)

Q. It's one thing to say, "I am perfect as I am. I love myself." It's another to feel it. How do you get the feeling?

A. The thought usually comes first. Without it, you are not likely to have the feeling. Then you can bring your other thoughts in line with it. Suppose that you repeat the affirmation, "I am perfect as I am." Then five minutes later, you stub your toe and say, "I'm a stupid idiot for stubbing my toe." Your second affirmation is obviously in conflict with the first, and neutralizes it. As you bring all your thoughts in line with the positive affirmation, you can imprint it into your consciousness. This takes being awake and noticing your thoughts. For example, if you hear yourself calling yourself stupid, you can remind yourself that it is all right to stub your toe sometimes, and that you are perfect as you are. As you act toward yourself in a conscious, loving way, you become more aware of emotions not in agreement with your new thoughts, such as feelings of inadequacy, of not being lovable, and so forth, and you can begin to release them. New feelings of being worthy of love take hold.

Incidentally, positive feelings are already present in everyone. There is a part of you that already knows that you are perfect as you are and that you are worthy of love. If your whole self agreed that you are imperfect and not worthy of love, there would be no inner conflict, and therefore no impetus in you to change that belief; it would be an open-and-shut case. You would deem your unworthiness an absolute truth and would have no motivation to change your thoughts and feelings. The purpose of spiritual work is not to impose something new and foreign on yourself; it is simply to acknowledge the truth you already know in some part of yourself and allow it to expand. You might say that it is a seedling being choked by weeds; you are pulling out the weeds from around it so that it can grow into a beautiful plant.

A good way to reach nonjudgmental neutrality about yourself is to list facts about yourself. For example: "I sometimes interrupt people." "I'm very good at shopping." "I am angry at my mother." "I like watching reruns of 'I Love Lucy.'" "I wear size 8 shoes." And so forth. Loving yourself does not imply that you ignore the facts about yourself. However, when you love yourself, you are not making those facts wrong, although you may choose to change them if they can be changed. You certainly cannot change them if you do not know about them. In self-judgment, you try to change them because you think that you are a bad person and that you will become a good person if you change them. When you love yourself, you change them simply because doing so seems like the best choice.

You probably will not have much success changing your shoe size, but you can practice not interrupting others if you wish. You might find that not interrupting others makes your conversations more pleasant and helps you feel more peaceful. That is a good reason to change this habit.

However you feel is perfect as it is. You may feel happy; you may feel sad. You may feel sick; you may feel healthy. There is no right way to be a human being. By accepting the way something is for you at the moment, you are not necessarily putting much emphasis on it. If your body is sick, your acceptance of that fact does not glorify it—it is not making it more important than it is. It may be very important; it may not be. If you are neutral about it, you can see how important it really is and how much of your attention it requires. If you give unnecessary attention to a particular fact, you are taking energy away from other facts that might also benefit from your attention.

If you are not feeling very accepting, accept that you are not feeling accepting--you have to start where you are. If you are feeling unaccepting and then remember that you are "supposed" to be accepting, putting yourself down for not being accepting is missing the point. Whatever you experience is acceptable.

If you create karma by violating another person, you will pay the price for that. Of course, it is more pleasant if you do not create karma, but if you do, that, too, is acceptable--that is one way you learn on the physical plane. Virtually no one passes through the physical plane without creating and repaying karmas. Virtually no one passes through a single day without making mistakes, miscalculations, or whatever. Again, that is part of how you learn. That is acceptable. You are completely acceptable, exactly the way you are.

***

June 18, 2009

LIMITATIONS

Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin
May 3, 2009, BlogTalkRadio chat
Transcribed by Gloria Constantin

Whenever a sentient soul incarnates into any sort of physical form, it is choosing to experience significantly greater limitations than those that are the norm in the discarnate state on the astral plane. Many spiritual teachers emphasize overcoming limitations. There is much merit to this teaching; however, a certain amount of limitations comes with the territory. You are not entirely unlimited as a soul to begin with--the core of you, which is what we have called the spark of the Tao, is unlimited in one sense, in that it is entirely beyond time and space. However, you chose to experience time and space, which are limited, as a means to an end.

There is no experience without limitations. In an entirely unlimited state, you are simply being; you are part of All That Is. Limitations allow the Tao to expand by having more experience, so limitations themselves are not necessarily negative. When spiritual teachers speak about transcending limitations, perhaps it would be useful to more narrowly define limitations here as unnecessary, overly restrictive, largely self-imposed limitations. You cannot grow without some limitations, but too many or unnecessary limitations also thwart growth.

Many creative people say that they find that a certain amount of limitations spur their creativity. For example, writing a song for particular characters or circumstances gives you some grist for the mill, something to work with. It is actually easier than simply trying to address a general topic. If you just set off to write a song about love, for example, you might come up with something so general and trite that people can't relate to it; it may end up as just a series of platitudes. However, if you write about a specific situation, it can bring your writing to life, and paradoxically, help you create something that many people relate to.

In a similar way, you as a soul are exploring the energies of love, truth, and beauty. Were you to somehow just sit on a cloud and contemplate these grand energies, you would not get very far. Therefore, you take on limitations by becoming a specific person in specific situations, exploring how these great energies apply to your particular circumstances.

For instance, what does love look like when something is taken away? This is not something you are able to explore when your focus is entirely on the All That Is, because nothing can be taken away from that--you have to set up a controlled environment. If you are still able to embody the great energy of love in that limited environment, you learn more about how love behaves; love has a new experience. The same, of course, applies to truth and beauty.

There are many forms of limitation that you take for granted. The very fact of having a physical body is a limitation. If your skin did not provide a limitation, your insides would spill out. Therefore, as a rule, people do not complain about the limitation imposed by having skin. When the physical body is healthy, there are usually few complaints about having a body. Of course, people do judge the shape, color, and so forth of bodies, but the fact of having a body does not seem like a big problem to most people. However, when the body is functioning less than optimally, the idea of limitations comes into play.

There are many things that even a healthy body cannot do. In science fiction, people fantasize about having super powers, but most people do not expect their physical body to fly or walk through walls. However, you do expect your body to be able to walk, run, and otherwise move in the fashion that is considered normal for human beings. When limitations are increased from their usual levels, people understandably complain. Similarly, people usually complain when they do not have enough food, which also limits the body. Bodies are designed to register pain when their needs are not met; if this were not the case, many people would forget to eat.

However, the soul looks on all limitations in much the same way. Simply having a physical body is a challenge for the soul. If your body is hungry or ill, the difference, you could say, is only one of degree--now it is more limited, but it's not as if you were unlimited before the hunger or disease. The soul approaches all limitations with curiosity: What can I learn from this? How can I manifest the great concepts of truth, beauty, and love in increased situations of limitation?

The stories that people most love are those in which characters overcome unusual limitations. You probably haven't seen any good movies about how someone overcame the simple limitation of having a body. No one writes stories about a poor person who was saddled with having a human body, although, in fact, that might be quite interesting, even a bestseller, on the astral plane, especially among beings who haven't done it! For them, that could be radical. However, for you, the stories have to be more specific, and the more specific they are, the more interesting they are.

Once in a while, you find yourself in a situation that seems to be beyond your ability to overcome. Your growth can then come from simply enduring the situation and not suffering too much damage. If you do suffer damage--let's say emotional trauma from a limitation that is more than you can figure out what to do with; for example, being tortured--that experience will provide you with a lot of grist for the mill, in future lifetimes if not in this one.

This is why we so often state that no experience is ultimately wasted, although you can choose to waste an experience up to a point. You can resist and resist and try hard not to learn anything from a situation you don't want. However, that then turns out to be a lesson, ultimately, about resistance; perhaps it is not the most efficient way to have a lesson, but it is an experience, nevertheless, one that is more productive toward expanding the All That Is than no experience at all.

In some religions, there is the idea that the more you suffer on the physical plane, the greater your reward will be in heaven, so some people go out of their way to suffer a little more. The opposite of that is a belief held by many in the New Age movement that you should have all your rewards here and now, such as being rich, healthy and being in your dream love affair all at once. In both cases, the soul has a different point of view than the personality: As a soul, your strategy is to make the best of whatever you've got. If you can manage to create heaven on earth with what you've got, then that's terrific. However, you've probably noticed that most people haven't yet accomplished that, if they ever will, and that doesn't bother the soul; that is not your expectation in incarnating. The soul simply likes to see the personality making an effort to deal with whatever is on its plate in the most creative and constructive positive way possible. When people who have a severely limited body still find a way to create art or science, or just connect with the joy of being, that is very satisfying to the soul.

If every person in every lifetime were able to have everything be just the way he or she wants, that would be a little bit like staying in the All That Is, without experiencing differentiation. For example, if you always had a sexual partner who behaved according to your fantasies, you would not be confronted with conundrums that require you to make choices, and therefore seek new facets of love, truth, and beauty. When everything is going completely smoothly, there is not much growth to be had. If you are fortunate enough to have a sexual partner who comes pretty close to your ideal--most people do not--it probably reveals that your soul is getting its lessons elsewhere, and this love relationship provides a platform for having your challenges in different departments of your life.

Human beings have a tendency to compare their own situations to those of others, and to think that just about everyone else has it better than they do. Part of the problem here is that you may not know that much about other people's lives; the public version may be airbrushed. You may not know the problems that couples idealized in the media are really having. You know what your own challenges are, but you don't know theirs, so you assume they have it better than you do.

Most people feel that, no matter how much they have, they do not have enough, so almost everyone can compare themselves to someone richer and feel envy. Of course, it is wonderful to have enough resources so that you don't have to continually struggle to get your needs met. However, it is worth noting that those who are considered poor in one country may look rich in another.

Obviously, some people have much more money than others, but most human beings feel some financial stress; there is rarely so much money (or mastery of it) that people don't worry about it. Being ultra-rich once in a while might be a nice change of pace for the soul, but a lack of challenges in any facet of life can lead to boredom, which itself can then become the limitation to overcome.

In some Eastern religions, the differences in people's bank accounts are explained in terms of karma, that if you were "bad" in past lives, you will be poor in this one, and that if you are rich in this lifetime, you behaved yourself previously. That is not the way it works.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, whether you judge it to be good or bad, it is not an indication of your worth, and it is not necessarily a reflection of your past behavior. You had good reasons for choosing whatever circumstances you were born into, and karma is only one factor. Not everything that happens in your life is something that you chose--everyone has free will, and there are people making random choices all the time, some of which affect you. However, you most certainly chose your basic birth situation: your parents' circumstances at the time of your birth, the kind of body you were taking on, the social environment, and so on. You deemed it an appropriate combination of limitations for what you wanted to achieve.

As a soul, you do not generally seek "perfect" genes, rich and enlightened parents, an ideal soul mate, and so forth. For one thing, souls could wait a long time to find such circumstances! Instead, you seek what will help you develop, and sometimes you take on severe limitations in order to challenge yourself to overcome something that has been particularly difficult for you in past lives.

You are probably familiar with vinyl long playing records (LPs). Sometimes, they develop a skip, and you have to push the needle to make it get past it. Similarly, souls sometimes get into ruts where they keep repeating the same mistakes. With the advice of their guides, they may decide to take on a difficult situation that could help them break through to a higher level of experience.

It can be interesting to get specifics about why you chose the life circumstances that you did. You can obtain that information through channeling or through your own reflection, including in meditation. It can be a relief to more clearly understand that there were good reasons, that your circumstances do not reflect some intrinsic defect in you but are simply your curriculum. However, whether you know the specifics or not, know that whatever is on your plate right now is your opportunity to grow. By making the best of it, you are fulfilling your destiny. It is really that simple. And if you feel a strong impulse in a certain direction, that may be your curriculum calling you.

No matter how successful you are at making the best of the limitations in your life, it is unlikely that your life will ever conform to some idealized conception of how it should be; in other words, you probably won't get everything you want. If you did, there's a good chance you would become restless and start wanting new things; people need at least some challenges to feel alive. The problems of your life are the raw materials of your spirit. Achieving perfection in form is to become spiritually unemployed; that is why it does not happen.

If you are a card-carrying New Ager and have been beating yourself up for not yet having attained the perfect life, perhaps the more productive approach would be to see the perfection in your life as it is--it is a perfect opportunity to exercise your creativity and make the best of the raw material you have at hand.

Every person can find joy in life as it is. You may never have the waistline that you believe would be ideal for you, and certainly everything in the physical universe is aging. We were saying at the beginning that you, as a spark of the Tao, chose to experience time and space, and, as they say, time marches on. If you think that the perfect body is twenty years old, and if you are older than twenty, then you are out of luck--you will never have that illusion of perfection again. However, if you are making the best of what you have right now, to the best of your current ability, then that is perfect, in the sense that it is exactly what you are here to do.

Many people have less money now than they did a few years ago. By some definitions, the world has become farther away from perfection. Yet, from the soul's point of view, there are many new lessons available in what has been occurring. Much emphasis has been on blaming the government and Wall Street, yet people are also looking at their own illusions and unwise choices. And now there are whole new sets of choices to be made in light of changed circumstances. There can be joy even in this. There can be joy in all things, including in some places you would not expect to find it.

If finances are much in your consciousness, it may be your path to learn how to overcome financial limitations and see how truth, love, and beauty manifest in your financial circumstances. If you feel forlorn because you do not have the mate relationship you want, that may be your path of growth--solving your problem may entail becoming more creative, changing some of your energies, or putting yourself in situations that you otherwise wouldn't. What you lack can be a catalyst to awaken in new ways.

MEDITATION:

Ask your inner self to show you a challenge that you have in your life that you have seen as a problem you wish would just go away. Ask yourself to think of one new thing you could do to either make the best of this situation or overcome it, and thereby grow.

Q. Every time I think of a creative solution to any problem I have, I am happy. It's all about that.

Q. I can imagine many solutions to my problems; the problem is applying them.

A. That's a good point. For example, if you have some health challenges, you can probably imagine changes to your diet and an exercise regimen that may be a challenge to carry out because your habits pull you in different directions. Our suggestion is not to expect perfection of yourself, but to narrow your focus to perhaps one or two actions at a time that you feel you can maintain. If you try to change too many habits at once, you will not be successful, and then you will tend to beat yourself up for your failure. A good technique is to plan before you go to bed at night one thing, or one series of simple steps, you will do the next day to make the best of your situation or improve it. Then remind yourself of it when you wake up.

It is the effort you make to do your best that counts more than the absolute result. You are not going to get any kind of conceptual perfection on the physical plane. No matter what you do, your body is going to grow older and die at some point, even with the most ideal diet and exercise regimen. However, your focus on identifying your challenges and choosing a way to make the best of them will bring growth, and it will be satisfying--your soul is fed by such choices.

Q. If one's talent is limited, is it still worthy of pursuit, or is that just stroking the ego?

A. There are many mediocre talents in all fields, and relatively few sterling ones. However, you can become more skilled through making the best of the talent you have.

It is a cliché but true that it is wise to follow your heart. The fact that you are drawn to something suggests that your soul is interested in pursuing it and it has some worth to you. If that's the case, you will probably have the motivation to become at least a little better at it; that will then likely show up as having more talent for it in future lifetimes. If you don't have the motivation, it may just be a fantasy.

In a person's Michael Reading chart, astrological chart, and so forth, you can see proclivities. For example, sage souls have a proclivity for the performing arts. That is not to say that every sage has great talent, but there is often a fundamental interest in the performing arts and probably a certain comfort level in them.

Doing something that you are not very talented or skillful at may still be providing useful experiences. The point may not actually be what you're doing, but, for example, the relationships you are having while doing it that you wouldn't otherwise have.

The soul is not as invested as the personality in the accolades of others. If you demonstrate great talent for something, you may impress other people, but it might be something you already accomplished in other lifetimes; therefore, it may become less interesting after a while. On the other hand, if you are not quite at the top in terms of skill and are struggling to get better, that might hold your interest to a greater extent.

We don't want to generalize too much about this because circumstances vary. However, the personality tends to think that being good at something is the most important thing, whereas, for the soul, being good itself is not as important as what it took to get you to that point; being good is more a result than a cause. Of course, you can always get better at something no matter how good you are at it, but the soul may feel at a certain point that it is treading water and needs to go get better at something entirely different before it can go further again in this field.

Q. Isn't the intent to manifest the soul as fully as possible?

A. What you manifest of your soul through a body that, for example, is healthy and mentally acute is different from what you manifest in more limited circumstances. The effort to manifest as much as possible within whatever limitations you have will make the best of that circumstance and will take it further than it is. The effort to overcome greater limitations can be thrilling to the soul even if it does not result in as an impressive display of talent as might manifest through a more capable body and circumstance.

At the beginning of tonight's talk, we pointed out that every physical body is limited. Therefore, there is never a full display of the soul's capabilities in physical form. How limited is a matter of degree.

Q. You seem to be implying a high degree of separation between the soul and personality.

A. Anyone can awaken to soul awareness, no matter the limitations of form. When one becomes more spiritually conscious, the goals of soul and personality become more aligned. However, although they are different aspects of the one self, their agendas are not identical. In true personality, you balance the needs of both.

Q. There sometimes seems to be a disparity between what is intended in your life plan and what actually plays out.

A. Yes, the soul may envision a better result than what proves to be possible in the life, yet there can be surprising gifts in lifetimes that don't go according to plan when there is still an effort to make the best of the circumstances.

Q. You said that if you feel a strong impulse in a certain direction, maybe that's your curriculum calling to you. What if you don't feel a strong pull--why don't you?

A. Not feeling a strong pull may suggest that it is not high on your soul's agenda. However, if it is something that you need to deal with--for example, making a living at a job that would not be your first choice but that is your best option for now--your making the best of that is also spiritual practice.

Let's make an analogy to meditation: Many people find meditation to be uncomfortable. Your mind wanders and your body aches. Basically, meditation is an artificial circumstance; however, in making the best of it, eventually you have more stillness and focus.

Similarly, if you are in a job that is not very much in essence for you--it doesn't display your strengths--yet it seems necessary, then by going to work every day with the most positive possible attitude and finding good things in it, that becomes your spiritual practice. It is like meditation in that is it a somewhat artificial construct for you--it is not up your alley, but by being in it with as much gratitude and joy as possible, by overcoming the challenges that make it less pleasant for you, you have turned it into a worthwhile spiritual practice. At the same time, you might also research some other options that, in the long term, might be more in alignment for you.

MEDITATION:

Experience yourself as an eternal soul delightedly taking on a limited body. Feel the contrast between you as a highly expansive soul and you as a physical person who is not as expansive but still somewhat so. Remember your delight in all the opportunities of coming here, of being a person. Whatever problems you have that you have not yet figured out how to make the best of, know that as long as you are alive, you will have more opportunities to figure that out. Feel the joy of being who you are, where you are, with the specific combination of challenges that you have taken on and that have come to you. As the saying goes, "It's all good."

***

May 2, 2009

SELF-UNDERSTANDING

Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, in the upcoming book "Growing Through Joy"

There is no substitute for conscious self-examination on a regular basis. There are many people in spiritual circles who intellectually are quite knowledgeable but who have not applied much of what they have learned to their own lives. To make an analogy, if you read every book there is on how to golf, but you never swing a club, you are not a golfer. To be truly spiritual, it is necessary to look in the mirror honestly and frequently to see what your actual experience is. This does not mean that you should be self-recriminatory--the essence of spirituality is unconditional love and acceptance, for yourself as well as others--but if you do not even know yourself, how can you love and accept yourself? You do not know what you are accepting. There is little conscious growth without self-examination and complete self-honesty, being humbly willing to acknowledge your shortcomings. If you do not do this, you will still grow, but you will grow the hard way; you will be knocked around. Eventually, you will understand the meaning of your experiences, but it may be several lifetimes down the road. It is much preferable to be awake and know what you are doing now.

***

February 22, 2009

VALUE

Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin
January 4, 2009, BlogTalkRadio chat
Transcribed by Kathryn Schwenger

Intellect corresponds with the universal force of truth; your intellect frames your experiences. There is currently a strong desire to frame what you are experiencing during these challenging times in a more sophisticated manner and find a greater depth of understanding. You are looking for new tools for dealing with stresses that are not perhaps the greatest in intensity but certainly the greatest in complexity that you have run into for quite some time.

Let's say that you had just one major source of stress; for example, hunger. Coping with hunger obviously taxes you. Your survival instincts are roused. Certainly it is, at best, quite unpleasant, but it is relatively simple. Modern life often consists of many lesser stresses that can challenge your ability to prioritize. If you are hungry you know what to do: look for food. However, when there are several stresses pulling at you at once, you may be frozen into inaction. Some take refuge in distractions, perhaps addictions that then create more stresses ultimately.

At the moment, there is less intensity of stress than there was prior to the U.S. Presidential election, but for a while, many people prioritized around the election. Now that that is completed, the complexity of all the background stresses, greater and lesser, emerges more evidently. Of course, the financial situation now is center stage in the media, but many other challenges also vie for attention, such as the environment, health care, and "security." On a personal level, you likely have still more concerns.

One thing that often helps when you are dealing with competing stresses is to define them, perhaps in writing. You might divide those you care about into ones that are affecting you directly and personally, and those that you are concerned about for others. The latter may include those who are close to you, and also the problems that you hear about through the media. For each, you could list ideas about what actions you might take. There's usually some action one can take, although when the stress concerns others or the problems in the news, the actions available are probably going to be in a supporting role--you cannot, of course, make choices for others; you can only make choices for yourself. Perhaps you are already taking some actions; making note of what you are already doing to address problems may comfort you.

In public affairs, you can participate in discussions, perhaps helping to inform others and suggesting solutions. For example, you can write to the media or your representatives. Part of the benefit of these kinds of actions is that they can help change the energy around a problem, more for you but also in the collective.

Where there is a lot of communal concern over certain issues of the moment, there is often relatively little clear thinking being done about them. It's true that thoughts are things; therefore, bringing some lucid thinking to bear can be disproportionately powerful. One clear set of thoughts on a communal problem may be more powerful than a hundred that are going around in circles. There is much to recommend involvement with a public discourse, even if your overt influence is not what you might like. Contributing something positive is never a waste.

The same approach can be valuable relative to your own personal challenges. Wherever you are able to step out of circular thinking about your own life and bring some fresh thought, this can be quite helpful.

People often make New Year's resolutions. One reason they are often quickly forgotten is that people don't tend to take them far enough. Breaking them down into more specific steps is often helpful. Even more helpful is gaining a deeper understanding of the patterns you are looking to change.

Most of you are probably familiar with the gear-shifting mechanism of manual transmission automobiles. If you are in first gear and wish to change into second, you must fully shift into neutral gear first. If you do not, your car will make a lot of noise and you will perhaps damage the gears. In order to change the patterns of your life, either personally or in the larger whole, there needs to be a moving into the neutral zone from time to time to get a clear look at what has been creating the problems and what some new solutions might be.

Relative to the collective financial crisis, there has not yet been much discussion or understanding of the underlying causes. Most would cite inadequate regulations or enforcement of rules in the larger sector, but "as above, so below," and "as below, so above." It would be very useful to consider the various beliefs that people are operating from that have helped bring these extremes.

One area of examination that would shine a lot of light here is that of value. When it comes to money, some people are more frugal and some are more spendthrift. Both extremes create imbalances and unpleasant side effects. Both tend to be thoughtless: the frugal person must always spend as little as possible, and the spendthrift gets a sort of high off of throwing money to the wind. Both approaches are unconscious and addictive. Sometimes, both are present in the same individual. Currently, your culture as a whole is swinging from spendthrift to frugal without much thought being given to either.

A more conscious approach is to consider both how much money you have and the value that could be received for how you might spend it. For one person, buying a house of a particular size and expense offers great value, yet for another, the same house would be more a burden than of value. The first might find much of use and joy, and even if it requires a lot of debt and hard work to pay for it, it might be worth it. The other person may actually have more means, yet find that it isn't worth it because it doesn't return something that she would make good use of.

Because of this inability to accurately judge value, there is much hoarding and waste. If the economy were more efficient, because each member of it were more aware of the value that things do and do not have for them personally, it would tend to free up resources to better provide for everyone. In the current crisis, it has come to light that many at the top of the pecking order have been particularly reckless, yet the same inability to recognize value is at work. Whether it is a company buying another company, or you shopping for clothing, it is the same principle. All the necessary elements are present to have prosperity for everyone, except the consciousness, including an accurate perception of value.

If, for example, everything that could be reused were reused, everything that could be recycled were recycled, food were not thrown away that could be enjoyed by someone, and so forth, there would be a finer balance of resources and less extremes.

There has been talk of irrational exuberance in markets. The opposite of that is depression, and, of course, when there is a very bad financial situation, you call that a depression. When people are depressed, they are certainly lacking in exuberance, irrational or rational.

People often do grow by going to extremes. However, the higher, more refined levels of growth involve harvesting the understanding gained from going to extremes so that you don't have to go to extremes anymore. If society had learned from both the Roaring Twenties and the Depression of the Thirties--if it had understood enough about those extremes so that it could avoid them, allowing the economy to be on a more even keel--it would not have to repeat them. This is also true in your own individual experiences. The goal is to get closer and closer to the center of the seesaw where the fluctuations are less.

You do not generally find the highest form of clear thinking in governmental representatives or the mainstream news media. Instead, the media tend to represent the average consciousness, and representatives tend to be below average in clarity, bringing up the rear. On the other hand, those who are interested in spirituality tend to be more on the leading edge; therefore, your giving deeper thought to these matters, although they may not show up immediately in politics or the mainstream media, can help lead the way.

Assessing value implies that you are conscious of what you are choosing. Your choices are important; individual choices add up to the whole. There are no right or wrong choices, but there are those that are more or less intelligent. What happens after you make a choice teaches you a lot about whether or not it was intelligent, although, of course, you can't always predict what will happen from a choice. When your choices accurately reflect what you truly value, there is congruity in your life.

Some of what has been happening in the economy would not have been too hard to predict if people had been paying more attention. Of course, some did predict. The good news is that it is never too late to start paying attention and to think creatively about the choices you are now making. The new Presidential administration is full of hope and idealism, and there are many who are capable of thinking at least a little differently about solving problems. However, when the collective consciousness is so weighed down with sludge, it can be hard for those in charge to find a place of buoyancy that allows clarity. It behooves them to create a space apart from the noise of the world. However, you help make that easier when you chose to remove yourself from thought patterns that go around in circles, and approach the problems about which you have choices with some inventiveness and freshness.

MEDITATION

Imagine that as you look out from your particular point of awareness, the murkiness of the world is receding, and others are influencing you less. Sunshine is streaming through, and you are able to see things in a new way. Find your old reactions relaxing. Release any struggling you have done from being too close to your problems. Notice that you can breathe more freely now that you are not caught up in the same kind of consciousness that was present at the creation of the problems.

When you exercise, your muscles need to both tense and relax; if a muscle stays tense, it will just wear out rather than growing stronger. The same is true of your mental muscles. Feel them relaxing, along with your physical brain.

Recall one problem that you would like to have a fresh thought about. It could be a personal problem or a collective one. Place it into this clear, relaxed space. Notice that there is distance, and you are able to allow the problem to reveal something new about itself. Feel yourself smiling inwardly as you gaze on it. Take a moment now and just see what happens.

The fresh thought may not come to you now--you may be setting it up so that it can occur to you tomorrow or the next day. Just notice what it is like to approach the solving of a problem in a friendlier way.

Feel the spaciousness to experience a different way of approaching problems. Notice that you are becoming more conscious, less automatic; engaging rather than reacting. Observe how strong the habit is to go along with the herd; however, solutions are generally not found in the herd. Feel your sense of ease and space growing.

If you frame the news more personally, it will be less discouraging. For instance, "I'm part of the economy; I am improving it by becoming more conscious of how I spend my money." To feel more empowered about the tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis, think about your own sometimes-challenging relationships with family, friends, or coworkers. You have your own foreign relations--people in your life who feel foreign to you and are difficult to get along with. The choices you make in dealing with a neighbor who seems like a terrorist, for example, can model a new thoughtfulness in approach that can help shift what countries do.

Q. Is this economic downturn teaching us to reduce waste?

A. When the economy contracts, people are frightened and spend less, so there is automatically less waste. However, if they have not become more conscious, then when the economy expands again, it will just go back to what it was before. If there is more consciousness, there is a desire individually and collectively to make good use of all the gifts that the earth bestows. Reducing waste is seen as a positive, joyful thing, and there is a more organic reduction of waste that lasts.

The point isn't ultimately to reduce waste but to increase consciousness, which automatically reduces waste but also seeks a useful place for everything. Ultimately, spiritual growth is about finding a useful place for everything.

As an individual, you may have a lot of wasted thoughts and feelings--for instance, old discarded anger just sitting there, like electronics in landfills. As you evolve, you harvest the useful energy from your anger and fully release the form of it, analogous to properly recycling electronics that might otherwise be toxic. The world that humans create reflects their consciousness, including such things as landfills.

Q. What attitudes should we take when managing our spending habits?

A. We know of no better attitude to bring to life than one of blessing: in this case, the intention that whatever you spend be the greatest possible blessing for all. For example, what you spend for food would ideally bring maximum benefit nutritionally to your body and others you are feeding, as well as blessing the farmers and those who made those goods available to you, and the earth itself.

If you are not able to buy organic food, an attitude of blessing is still appropriate. Thank the market for providing you with what it has thus far been able to. Ask that the food bring as much nutritional value as possible, even if it is not ideal. If you have been able to save money, that is another kind of value to be thankful for, helping you with your budget and rewarding the efficient delivery of goods. However, if you spend more for something that has more value to you, you can be grateful for the value and worth it provides. Bless it all.

Q. Is there a more specific technique for clearing stress when looking for work and being under the gun financially?

A. We suggested making lists of specific problems and possible solutions and actions. This approach is highly useful when you are in particularly difficult straits, because the stress is compounded when you feel powerless. When you are taking concrete actions and have ideas for other actions to take, you can channel the stress into something more constructive.

Also, take breaks from things that concern you and immerse yourself into things that replenish you: the beauty of nature, music, entertainment, meditation, and so forth. It is especially important to go to sleep at night with a positive approach to your problems. Take a few minutes to let go of tension. If you are at a loss as to what to do next, ask your inner self to come up with something that you may then realize through a dream or after you wake up.

Q. I'm a big George Carlin fan--could you tell me about him: his purpose in life and effect on society?

A. That is an inspired question for this topic because he was an excellent example of someone who routinely stepped outside of conventional thinking on all sorts of topics and shone light on them. He did not have much hope for the human race overtly. He had a rather dark point of view, yet his whole creativity of thought suggests an underlying hope that fueled him. He would not have been able to be so marvelously prolific and creative if he did not come from a foundation of belief that things could be improved.

He demonstrated hope because he was able to transcend the usual thinking himself and in that demonstration he showed that others could do it. That so many loved him and laughed with him suggests that humans can transcend the problems that come from the usual sorts of thinking that people do.

When you are highly stressed, there is often a perception that the problems of the world are bearing down upon you; that they are large and you are small. Coming into a clear space, you feel instead that you are one with everything, so all there is is you, and the stresses are simply opportunities for you to grow in your ability to create solutions. Feel your largeness, power, and creativity, and trust that you have the resources to make a positive impact on life.

Love and blessings to you.

***

February 5, 2009

EXPERIMENTING WITH COOPERATION

--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin
November 5, 2008, Tucson, Arizona
Transcribed by Gloria Constantin

MEDITATION:

Feel yourself merging into a larger sense of self: the you who feels connected with nature; beauty; all the stars in the sky, including those that cannot be seen with the eye; and the universal forces of truth, love, and beauty. Feel your physical body uniting with your soul as you awaken to the awareness that everything is connected.

MICHAEL:

You are, collectively, at the beginning of a new cycle. This has to do with the U.S. Presidential election, but it is not so much that the election is the cause, as much as it is a reflection of something happening at a deeper level.

There has been a lengthy cycle in human experience that has been, you might say, an experiment with the use of force over others. You might compare it to a phase that children often go through:

Babies are helpless--they cannot do too much to change their environment. They cry and hope that those who do have the power to do something will understand and act.

Then, as children are able to walk and have some basic manual dexterity, they are likely to experiment with using force over others. Of course, some children do this more than others. In any case, it is not subtle. This phase is, in part, a reaction to the previous feeling of helplessness. At some point, most children gain new skills allowing them to cooperate more.

Humanity as a whole has been weaving back and forth between the experiment with using force over others and the experiment with using cooperation more. World War II was the apex of using force over others, although there have been various aftershocks since then. In thinking about World War II, most people identify "good guys" and "bad guys." However, both sides were experimenting with using force over others--one was more on the offense, and the other was more on the defense.

The Bush administration banged that drum loudly, branding itself as good vs evil. Nothing happens in a vacuum: that government represented many people who were not yet done with the experiment with power over others; a part of humanity was trying to wring the last drops of experience out of that paradigm. The idea of cooperation had been gaining adherents, but there were still sizeable numbers of people exploring the previous paradigm of power over others. There still are, and there are also still people who feel helpless, like infants. However, the underlying change now is that enough people have decided that they are done with the experiment with power over others that your society as a whole feels ready to begin to leave that behind.

This will take a long time. There will be, no doubt, moments in which some backtrack, saying that this cooperation thing doesn't work. However, many more can look back on recent history, particularly since World War II, and realize that power over others has not been working out very well for anyone. When more people agreed on the experiment with power over others, wars were more straightforward matters. One army fought another: one side won and the other gave up--that was all agreed upon. That hasn't been happening much in recent years. Instead, there have been eruptions--wars have been far more localized, and it is becoming clear what has, in fact, always been the case: that not much is accomplished. Wars are about individual or nationalistic egos getting out of control, pitting self against others.

The early stages of the experiment with cooperation tend to be confusing. It takes a while to build up trust in the process. We suspect that each of you will be more overtly confronting the challenges of cooperation in the coming months and years.

You will particularly see this in the legal realm. It has been valuable, where there is a strong rule of law, that people have been able to experiment with force over others through a legal system rather than with lethal weapons. However, it has still largely been about wielding power over others. Lawsuits are mostly about power over others, whether your side is more selfish and destructive or whether it's more positive. It's not really about positive or negative--it's about the whole approach that is being used. You will increasingly see people trying to work things out more cooperatively, as well as a desire for the laws themselves to be more sensitive to the needs of individuals, less heavy-handed and less about imposing one's will or beliefs over others.

MEDITATION:

Ask your inner self to help you think of one situation in your life where there has been a paradigm of power over others, whether you've been on the giving or receiving end of that. Now ask your inner self to bring the spirit of trust, openness, compassion, and understanding into your heart around this situation.

Think about the other side of this conflict, and ask that it also be gently bathed in these qualities. Note you're not imposing them: if the other side does not want to experience them, it won't, since you are not using any sort of power over them; you are simply using your heart to create a more loving environment.

Now ask your inner self to suggest one thing you might do or say that might shift this conflict to a more cooperative approach. Perhaps it is simply indicating to the other side that you are listening, respectful, open to ideas, or willing to talk. Now ask that all the old feelings of helplessness that led to this polarization into power over others be healed in you. Just the fact of your having considered some options might make you feel more internally powerful and less helpless in the situation.

Ask yourself if you are ready to end your personal experiment in power over others, and to experiment more with the power of cooperation. If you are not ready to make that change, that is okay. Just see what is true for you.

Notice now what you feel in general. Would anyone like to share what you experienced?

Q. When we did the meditation, what came to mind was the bad relations between me and my family. I feel that I can let go of this. In my case, it's about fear, lack of trust, and the need to protect myself. There's a lot of work to be done.

A. What this is finally about is your own healing. Infants are, in fact, helpless; they rely on others, and others don’t always do their best by the helpless ones, so if they feel victimized, it is not merely an attitude of victimhood at work--it's the reality. However, as you naturally mature and have more fully developed capabilities, you are no longer, in fact, helpless. However, you may not have updated your "software," your beliefs, about that and still feel that you are helpless, so you maintain you defenses.

It is widely understood that bullies are insecure people. They have found a coarse way of having power over others because they don't feel that they have other tools to use. As you heal, you take stock of the tools that are at your disposal, and you get better at using them. Therefore, you don't need coarser tools that don't feel as good to you as more sophisticated tools.

Healing your family issues does not necessarily imply that you will choose to have relationships with them. However, that is a choice you will now be better able to make, based on a realistic appraisal of the facts and intuition as to what's really possible there. In any case, you can now be freer of the energy drain of keeping them away. Instead, there can just be peace, and then a choice.

Considering the fact that there are still a lot of bullies in the world who are not able to be reached through more cooperative means, there is still a need for some occasional military shows of strength against those who would violate others. However, as there is more maturity, this will be used increasingly sparingly, only when it is absolutely necessary.

This could also be said to be true in your own life. We're not suggesting that you should never sue anyone, for example, but as you increasingly feel your toolbox being activated and don't have to prove anything, you have a lot more options, including letting go when that is your highest good.

The greatest fear in letting go of an excessive attachment to using power over others is the fear that others will use power over you. This is most obviously represented in the political consciousness today by fear about terrorists. It's similar to the days of fear of communism, where there was concern that there was a "red under every bed" and that anyone could be a communist. There were all sorts of accusations flying, mostly unfairly. Even in your recent political campaign, there were frightened, insecure people accusing the other side of being terrorists. This demonstrates what it is like to be a very vulnerable and young child who does not have a safe environment. Maybe you can think back to your earliest days in this lifetime when you had nightmares and a light had to be left on. You saw shadows, and thought maybe they were the boogeyman.

Sometimes there are, in fact, prowlers in the house--but not very often. That is the point. When you start to feel more secure, you can evaluate what the real situation is, and then you start to feel better. You're not on red alert all the time, just when you need to be.

We're not suggesting being naive to real dangers. Pretending that everything is always wonderful is just the flip side of the fear that everything is terrible; both are based on fear of confronting dangers. You have a survival instinct for a good reason. However, those who are still heavily experimenting with power over others figured out a long time ago that they could have it by pushing the buttons of people's fears when they are not warranted, so beware of having your fears manipulated.

When he was leaving office, President Eisenhower warned about the encroaching military-industrial complex. It has long been the case that there are people who profit from war and similar manifestations; they have a vested interest in increasing fear. That can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because when two sides are polarized in fear, it's often just a matter of time before one of them does something that makes the other side feel justified in fighting back.

A cooperative approach can also be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Putting out to others kindness and openness makes it more possible that they will do the same. At Christmas every year, people say, "Peace on earth; good will toward men," but there have been many who really don't want peace on earth, because they believe they stand to profit from conflict, in one way or another. In addition, many people enjoy the drama and excitement of it.

The best way that you personally can contribute to peace on earth is to realize that you no longer feel much of a payoff from conflict, and that there are other means of resolving issues. This is where you are now, collectively: there is a slight, subtle, but meaningful shift in your society that says, in effect, "Okay, we don't really understand this cooperation thing very well, and we're not sure how to do it, but we're kind of sick and tired of the way that we've been trying to solve things for quite some time. So we will grudgingly stick our toe in the water of approaching others in a more respectful and open-hearted way when we find ourselves on opposite sides of an issue."

We do not know how long it will take to get from this grudging acceptance to the point where a lot of people are saying, "Hey this is really great; I like this a lot better. Let's get rid of this war business and its cousins, such as extreme litigiousness--all us-vs.-them framing of events." However, it *could* move from here to there pretty quickly. The reason we think that is that you've been lingering in the old experiment for a very long time. It need not have gone on so long, or have been so destructive. So you might say there is a pent-up demand for peace. Additionally, with the current financial situation, a lot of people might wake up to the fact that war is very expensive, so that could be a silver lining to what is happening in that regard.

What you do in your own heart can be contagious. As you feel that you would like to support this new experiment, that can help foster more widespread adoption. As you see that you are having a positive impact on others, you start to feel more powerful and less helpless even when bad things are happening. The more powerful you feel, the less need you feel to try to control others, and you help this new experiment pick up speed by modeling more cooperative actions.

What is inside people has to come out one way or another. What has been going on politically over the last years has been a regression, but it has also been useful, because it has allowed some old remaining fears to take center stage where everyone could get a good, hard look at them. These continue to be unresolved in some people; there's an opportunity to reach out to them and reassure them that things are okay. That is what people really want to know--that things are okay.

Q. (An audience member shared about his house once having been broken into.)

A. There's nothing wrong with taking sensible precautions: good locks, an alarm system if you feel it's warranted where you live, that sort of thing, and you don't necessarily act out of fear to do that; it could just be common sense. On the other hand, sometimes things happening to you are an outpicturing of your psychic drama inside; making the connection between what you see and what you are is very useful. So someone breaking into your house may or may not represent some fear that you have. Sometimes you have to have that experience and then survive it in order to flush it out from your consciousness. It's always worth looking at, to see if maybe that is the case. However, sometimes things like that happen just by chance or bad luck, so you don't want to overgeneralize in that regard. The very fact that you are sensible enough to take responsible precautions is part of your toolkit so that you don't have to be in fear. You know that you are taking care of yourself the best that you can.

Everyone is growing, slowly or quickly, even those who appear to be backtracking: they are collecting experiences that will ultimately contribute to their growth. Today, people have far more access to knowledge than ever before. Of course, the internet is good for that, along with television and the other media. There's a lot of bad information being put out, but there's a lot of good stuff, too. People are starting to be attracted to the idea that growth does not have to be so tedious, that there are ways to become more conscious and have less wear and tear, and are finding knowledge that supports that.

In the Michael teachings, we delineate the five soul ages that are commonly experienced by humans and other ensouled species on the physical plane. We each start out as what we always are in our core: an eternal soul who comes to a particular planet to inhabit a particular species. In your case, that is obviously the human species. You have a series of lifetimes in order to evolve and expand your horizons. Your progress over many lifetimes is roughly equivalent to what you experience as an individual within each lifetime. That is, your soul starts out as an infant, where your experiences are quite simple. Then, you move to the baby or toddler soul stage where you are working with a basic structure, similar to the way that toddlers learn about "yes" and "no."

Then there is a young soul phase when you are gaining a lot of energy relative to acting in the world, like youngsters playing. Humanity in general and the United States in particular have been focused at the late end of the young soul cycle, so there's a lot of energy there. On the negative side, there can be bullying and fascination with things like building a big military because it's something that is easy to understand at that stage in development, just as a lot of kids play with action figures.

Next comes the mature soul cycle, which is equivalent in human development to the adolescent phase. Adolescents have a lot of confusing new impulses, wanting to relate to other people in a deeper way as well as wanting to get to know themselves and their own feelings more. This is what humanity is just beginning to move into.

Although this is a bit of an oversimplification, we would say that the Bush administration was, for the United States, the last hurrah of the young soul cycle, with a negative twist to it. It's not always negative; it can be quite wonderful and exhilarating in many ways. The Obama administration represents a turn to the mature cycle, which values emotions and connecting with others more intimately. Of course, young souls have relationships too, so it's not like suddenly there are relationships where there were none. However, there is a different emphasis: there is less taking of relationships for granted and more of a desire to explore them, to see what they are all about.

Cooperation is much more a hallmark of the mature cycle than the young cycle, although certainly, young souls can cooperate and can see that as a positive way of experiencing their vitality in the world. On the other hand, mature souls can use power over others and be manipulative, sometimes more psychologically, but there can still be an experiment with power over others in the mature cycle. So experimenting with cooperation is a specific decision being made, regardless of soul age: "We have experimented enough with more negative, destructive approaches to resolving issues with others. Maybe we don't have to do this the hard way anymore. We can find more positive ways of figuring this out together." Even people who are currently in the infant or baby soul cycle can have an experience that is more cooperative.

(Someone asked about election results restricting gay marriage.)

Individuals and collectives do not evolve at the same pace in every department. People have more fear around sex than just about anything else. We don't mean just what is classified as sex, but everything that would come under that overall classification, which is the power of your energy to impact and explode with others who are creating with you. That's truly what sex is. Even if you are not having physical sexual relations, you still have this potentially explosive energy in interacting with others, and with the cosmos as a whole. Although people are afraid of being powerless, they are also afraid of being powerful, because there is not a lot of experience of harnessing that. Therefore, a lot of baggage is dumped onto the idea of sex, and any form of it that is a little foreign reminds people of their generalized fear of the power within themselves.

Much in evolution is two steps forward and one step back. Eventually, things get there. There are always those who are out in front of everyone else trying to get everyone else to catch up. However, many people are not as eager to move forward because that means facing more things within themselves. It is not easy to grow. Both presidential candidates spoke about change--it’s a vague enough term that they could safely do that--but all change suggests overcoming a certain resistance in yourself because it's a certainty that change is going to bring up uncomfortable things in yourself.

No matter what they say, some people will not accept change until staying where they are becomes more uncomfortable than what they're going to have to face in the change. Furthermore, a lot of human beings are so stubbornly resistant to change that the only way that the societies they're in will change is for them to die. Then, they will reincarnate into a new set of assumptions that pushes them a little bit beyond where they were holding onto previously.

The pace of change today is much faster in than in most historical time periods, and having a longer life span helps with that, except for those who are stuck. They feel more pressure; they don't like it because they're living longer, and things are changing underneath them.

You really don't want things to change too fast because you become disoriented; but if they are too slow, you feel less alive. So there is a sweet spot to go for there.

Q. Are we going to experience rapid progress relative to race relations because of the power of having the symbol of a black president?

A. It's going to take a while before people are widely completely neutral about race. Although there has been a lot of progress, some people will hold onto their racism to the grave. Again, society just has to wait for a certain part of the population to die off for this to change. However, younger people are impressively free of a lot of prejudices that their elders have, and a lot of that has to do with the media; when you grow up seeing media stars you identify with who are of different races, you tend not to take on so much of your parents' or grandparents' racism. You're probably not going to get rid of all blatant prejudice over the next 50 years, but it will gradually become less and less accepted.

Q. With a more progressive President, it is more likely that some fear-based, stuck person is going to come out of the woodwork and try to assassinate him. Would Michael speak about the probability of Obama finishing his term in health and well-being?

A. One of the positives about the fact that many people have brought this up is that humanity, particularly in the United States, has had a chance to collectively mull it over. A lot of people on an unconscious level have been pondering, "Is this how we want to go? Do we need to have a beloved President be martyred in order to progress, or could we keep him around and have progress without people needing to be heartbroken?" There can be a lot of growth through being heartbroken, because many will not grow unless something gets broken first; otherwise, it's just too easy not to grow.

However, our sense is that the collective leaning is towards, "We've had enough drama. Maybe we could just see what this guy might do for us." We would not say that it is a firm collective decision, but as long as there's a strong leaning that way, there's a likelihood of safety. Of course, security is very strong around him, as it needs to be.

The way to approach this is to affirm your ability to grow through joy in your own life: that you are flexible and fluid, willing to solve problems creatively, and don’t have to be broken to grow; then, visualize the collective also being able to do that.

Q. Would you speak about humanity cooperating with the planet's ecology in the next couple of decades?

A. The potential here is very good. Humanity's raping of the environment has been a perfect example of the power-over-others paradigm. As with war, many people are recognizing that that it is not working, so there is more widespread desire to figure out a way to cooperate with nature.

However, there are still a lot of people who believe that ecological harmony is a luxury, not a necessity. That needs to change, but also, as the technologies become better and less expensive, that also will become less of an issue. It's a tricky thing because people are afraid that they will lose their conveniences; however, if changes are not made, they may lose them anyway. Therefore, it behooves people to adopt changes by choice.

We have said, not that long ago, that because of the destruction of the environment, we had no certainty that humanity would survive what it has done to the earth. We thought it was, roughly, in the 50/50 range. It's looking better now. The best way to promote wider acceptance of ecological sensitivity is to demonstrate in graphic ways how it can actually save people money. One of the big fear areas for people is money, right up there with sex. Showing others how being "green" is to their advantage financially is a useful approach.

The industrialization of the world has been rapid and not very elegant or efficient; there's been a great deal of waste. You see this both in individuals and collectives who, when they have money, waste it on things that they need, and then suddenly they don't have enough money for the things that they do need. Among other things, the production of energy has not been very efficient, and it really hasn't needed to be, but now it does need to be. So even in countries with a relatively high amount of oil, they are finding that they need to be efficient, too, that they need to use their oil for things that they don't have substitutes for; this is emerging out of necessity for everyone.

Q. I'm very concerned about species dying out. We're all interconnected; therefore, for every species (including insects) that dies out, a part of us also dies.

A. There has already been a substantial loss of plant and animal species on earth, and more are dying out every day. This is not optimal, but we think that in about 50 years that will stabilize, and some of the diversity will start to come back. There are some species that may have appeared to die out but didn't, and given the right circumstances, will re-emerge. We think that things will be okay in that regard, but it is not ideal. It is better to have more diversity.

CLOSING MEDITATION

Feel the goodness emerging from your heart. Notice all the resources that you already have. Feel all fear releasing from you.

Notice the power of self. It is independent of the choices that others make.


Being human will always be somewhat challenging. However, reminding yourself of the increased tools you have as you awaken spiritually for dealing with the world, it becomes easier. That is really why you take the spiritual path. It is in your enlightened self-interest to get better at playing this game so that it isn't quite so difficult. Human relationships will always offer challenges, and that is not a bad thing because they show you where you have opportunities to grow, but approaching them more cooperatively will make your way easier. So it is a worthwhile experiment.

Love and blessings to you all.

***

November 18, 2008

EXALTATION OF SELF IN SERVICE

There has been a lot of stress in recent times. Stress is a form of energy. It is possible to use accumulated stress to advantage: for example, to focus it back on the blocks that are creating it in order to help release those very blocks. You are probably familiar with the idea in some martial arts that the proficient practitioner can redirect the attacking energy of an opponent to defeat the opponent. Another analogy is how a skilled sailor can make use of unfavorable winds that might be more problematic for a less-skilled sailor. In the political world, there are many lies spoken, but these too can be used to advantage--to shine a light on what is actually true. Those trained to be actors are instructed to use every experience they have had in order to make their characters more real. There is a saying that a rock can either be a stumbling block or a stepping stone. No experience is ultimately wasted.

Part of the spiritual path is becoming more adept at choosing the experiences you actually want to have, presumably more pleasing experiences. However, as the poet said, "no man is an island," and you will not be able to choose all of your experiences no matter how adept you become. There is a simultaneous set of truths: on the one hand, do your best to chose the most positive possible experiences; on the other hand, it makes sense to take advantage of whatever you end up with. You need not let stress simply act on you; instead you can let it, you might say, defeat itself.

Whenever one is dealing with powerful energies, it is helpful to step out of the way, just as the skilled martial artist lets the energy of opposition pass her by and then gently redirects it: become more translucent, more in your higher centers and less in the mundane personality, more open to universal forces.

It is like successfully performing in front of a large audience: there is a need to be fully present, but not so much in personality. If you are to perform well, whether you are the star or in the background, you release your more mundane concerns in the service of the music you are performing, the play you are acting, or the speech you are making, in a desire to be a vessel of benefit for all who are participating, both your fellow performers and the audience. Even some who are not particularly religious have suggested that performing can be a holy experience--in other words, one of essence (soul) contact.

To have this experience does not mean obliterating your personality. In fact, it takes someone with a secure personality to be able, at times, to put it aside a bit for the greater good. It is those who are more insecure, who have a weaker experience of self, who are most afraid to set it aside for a larger experience. The ultimate experience of being an awakened human is to live continually balancing the apparent opposites of a strong, secure self-awareness with a devotion to a larger good. These are not contradictory elements, because collective good is also the individual good; they are not at odds. If one is self-sacrificing, this sweet spot of balance has not been yet found.

Opening yourself to the larger universal forces is not in any way a denial of self, but, in fact, an exaltation of self. However, it does necessitate putting aside chief features and negative poles, because if one insists on bringing them into the larger energy, there will be discomfort. A rule of thumb is that the higher the consciousness, the less work it is.

Q. What is the relationship between Krishna and Jesus?

A. Of course, both were vessels for the Infinite Soul, and were, therefore, subject to a lot of mythology. The reason this inevitably occurs is that people tend to become bogged down in the lower centers; throughout history, most people have been sufficiently worried about their own survival that there hasn't seemed to be a lot of space left over for contemplating higher realities. Suddenly, then, it seems that the Infinite Soul, the Transcendental Soul, or, indeed, any relatively enlightened teacher, comes along and brings part of the puzzle that the human psyche has made little room for. People generally don't know what to make of it, so they impose explanations to try to make sense of what they are witnessing. Often, people are a little lazy in just grabbing whatever explanation seems to be convenient. Some of these legends are the ancient equivalent of sound bites.

The souls who turn over their well-honed personalities to the Infinite Soul, the Transcendental Soul, or other high teachers all know one another. Of course, we are speaking here of astral (nonphysical) connection. They all work together with many others. This is not a secret society, but a loose, informal association of souls who have dedicated themselves for quite a long time to the larger evolutionary issues of human souls. Your view of them as humans may be worshipful, but their view of one another, and the general view of them on the astral plane, might be more comparable to how people view respected diplomats. Being a diplomat requires a certain set of skills. In their professional capacity, they have to set aside much of their own personality--their personal desires become subsumed by the larger good for which they are working. We are not here speaking of diplomats who are more self-centered and concerned only about their own country and the advantages they can win for it, but those who are widely acknowledged as wanting to help.

If you were to sit in on a gathering of some of these souls on the astral plane (which you are able to do--they are not closed gatherings--just as you can turn on your television and watch Congress convening, although it may not be very interesting all the time), you would see souls who are similar in their dedication to helping provide an optimal environment for the growth of all humans. Another analogy for them would be the faculty of a fine university and how they might come together for panels across their disciplines, and be respected for their knowledge and teaching abilities. We don't think that any of these great souls are all that impressed with themselves. It really is true that the more you know, the more you know that you don't know. They do not see themselves as objects of worship but simply as dedicated public servants.

There are not that many souls who are cut out for that sort of thing. Part of the reason that the host for the Infinite and Transcendental Souls are late-level old is that it is not until then that it is even appropriate to subsume the personality. It is a little bit like an elderly person who is able to say "I have lived my life, it has been full and good, and I don't need to focus so much on my own personal relationships now; therefore, I could run for the school board." That is a different point of view than of someone who has his own children in the school system. In the real world, of course, you can have both on school boards, but for the purposes of this analogy, the point is that it is not appropriate for most souls to divert their attention to the non-personal prematurely. It is also a truism that teaching is one of the most educational experiences one can have. Therefore, those who devote themselves in this way benefit themselves. It is like those who channel--there are not a lot of people for whom such a vocation is appropriate; it is similarly a subsumation of the personality, yet the channel is privileged to be part of an educational process, so when it is appropriate, it is not a sacrifice.

The soul who was known as Krishna had a long history on the physical plane of helping people get along with each other. Because human beings are a relatively aggressive species, it is helpful when there are some persuasive diplomats around who are good at convincing people to pause before going to war, and this soul was superb at convincing people to put the brakes on in that regard. He was an expert in understanding how groups behave. There are some souls who are expert in the reverse of this–of exciting people to war; it is a similar skill, but turned inside out.

The soul who was Jesus has been more interested in individual transformations. Performing healings on people is really about showing them the power that they have within them. These are complementary skills, one more focused on the individual as it relates to the group, the other more on the group as it relates to the individual.

Q. Is it true that the Infinite Soul always displaces a 7th-level old king, and the Transcendental Soul displaces a 7th-level old priest, or is that too absolute? Were Krishna and Jesus both kings?

A. Yes, both were kings. We do not think it would always have to be in this configuration, but it does make a lot of sense to do it that way. Considering the demands of the Infinite Soul, a personality conditioned by the presence of a powerful king would be the least likely to fall apart with the demands of the Infinite Soul.

--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, November 2, 2008

Transcribed by Kathryn Schwenger

***

November 1, 2008

A NEW WORLDVIEW

As voters in the United States are on the cusp of many points of decision, so are all humans making many larger choices about the future. You share a reality. Many things you share, such as movies and television entertainment, have long been based on certain premises. People are so used to them that it might be hard to imagine them being different. However, on many fronts, premises are being called into question. People are tired of the status quo. The change being spoken of so much is usually assumed to be one of policy, but the real change that is possible now is one of premises, of the foundational beliefs about what life looks like.

For example, much entertainment is based on the belief in good guys vs. bad guys. Over the years, the depiction of this has become less simplistic, with more shades of gray, but the basic premise has remained. You, collectively, could now choose to shift to a worldview more based on cooperation.

--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, November 1, 2008

***

October 2, 2008

VIEWING POLITICS FROM QUIETUDE

SHEPHERD:

Feel the weariness of all the world tensions and those in your own life dissolving away as you reawaken to the eternal.

MICHAEL:

Greetings. There is a particular concentration of intellectual energy among human beings right now. This has been increasing over the last several days, and is probably coming to a climax about now. It is not an unpleasant energy particularly, but it is a little out of balance. When you think of intellect you do not usually associate that with faith, and yet there is in this current moment of consciousness a good deal of faith that intellect can, all by itself pretty much, get clear on what is true. Therefore, you have, for example, a good deal of back-and-forth surface intellectual noise, almost, relative to politics. Most of that is not real thinking; it is reaction added to previous reactions. It is a bit like scratching an itch, and then it becomes more irritated, so you scratch it some more.

This is not as big an issue among those who have worked on observing their thoughts and not identifying with them, which is an important lesson for those who wish to grow in a more conscious way. You see thoughts cross your mind, but you do not automatically assume they are correct just because you thought them. It is equally beneficial to observe your emotions and choose not to assume that they represent a greater truth other than what you happen to be feeling at the moment, which could derive from all sorts of sources. For example, if you aren't feeling well physically, you might be more prone to negative emotions, yet they do not necessarily represent a personal truth beyond the fact that you are not feeling well physically.

Most people attach great importance to the thoughts and feelings that waft across their consciousness. This is one reason it is impossible to accurately and consistently predict future events--something does not have to make any sense whatsoever for large numbers of people to identify with it. For that reason, there is a great deal of chaos in human affairs, and this is true among people who consider themselves to be intellectuals as well as those who identify as being more emotional.

Intellectual stimulation, even when it looks dry and reasonable to the beholder, is not necessarily any more reasonable than emotions. Deeper emotions are more reasonable than surface thought, and deeper thought is more reasonable than surface emotion. The deeper the thought, the more it is aligned with genuine emotion. Therefore, as you go deeper into self, there is less and less conflict between thoughts and feelings. When you reach the core of self, there is no conflict between them whatsoever. For that reason, the amount of static, either emotionally or intellectually, and the amount of conflict between thought and emotion, are indications of how far one is from being at the core of self.

It is not really so difficult to live from the core of yourself at any given moment. All it takes is awakening to the quietude of the moment, and there you are--at self. It is challenging to *maintain* that knowledge of quietude, because both emotions and intellect tend to be habitually lacking in grace.

In any moment, such as now, when you are aware of the stillness of who you are, you begin to exert some calming influence on both your intellect and your emotions, and you can see more clearly. It is not the case that you suddenly know everything or feel great; but this stillness is the best foundation for moving forward both to clearer thought and more comfortable, loving emotions. When you are caught up in the noise of either, you are giving energy to the irritation of the surface.

A person can have a powerful, skilled intellect and/or emotional capability, yet live entirely from the surface. The more a person lives from the surface, the more self-righteous the person tends to be, and the more polarized the person will tend to be either towards emotion or intellect. In some people who are gifted in both departments there may be a veering back and forth, but seldom is there integration between the two. More often, people pride themselves on their shiny intellect or emotional fervency. Many others have fairly dormant emotional and intellectual faculties and live from the surface of bodily excitation; their hungers and other sensations tend to be where they live. In the last few days, more people have been living from the surface of intellect; with that, there tends to be a certain pride: "Look how smart I am." "Look how right I am, intellectually."

One cannot know the universal force called truth from the surface of intellect, emotion, or body. Truth may manifest through intellectual form, but truth is not fundamentally an intellectual form; it is an emanation of the Tao. It is simply what is. When it manifests through intellectual form with reasonable accuracy (which will always have its limitations), it is uncluttered; it is not confusing. To anyone who understands the language of the form and is living more from the quietude of self, the truth seen in an intellectual form will appear to be self-evident.

In the founding of the United States, these words were written: "We hold these truths to be self-evident" because truths are, more or less, self-evident. That is not to say that they will always be understood intellectually. People have obviously varying intellectual capabilities, and language can be an issue--do you speak the language of that particular thought form? However, when you live with authenticity from your self, you can recognize when others are doing likewise.

There are those who pride themselves on having a good "bullshit detector." Sometimes this comes with the overleaf (attitude) of skeptic or cynic--a person who tends not to take things at face value, and so more often tests or questions things. Yet, as with any overleaf, this can be experienced either more on the surface in a knee-jerk fashion or from a deeper knowing. If it is more from the surface, the perceptions will often be tinged with an excess of anger or mistrust, just as a more surface experience of the attitude of idealist or spiritualist might be tinged with naiveté.

We have said that, with spiritual awakening, there can be an obsolescence of the overleaves, but only in the sense that they lose their distorting factors when the real person uses them. An idealist will not be naïve; a cynic will not be caustic. They will still have different personalities and different strengths, but these traits will not be running amok on their own, on automatic pilot; they will be used as part of the toolset of the ensouled essence.

Some fear that if you have to step back and objectively examine every thought and feeling, you will become paralyzed--you won't be able to do anything. It is true that human beings and all ensouled species have to rely a certain amount on habit. You obviously would not wish to halt constantly to analyze the way that you're walking or breathing. A lot of your mundane thinking and feeling is better left to habit, because you are not capable of being aware of every thought, emotion, or sensation all at once--it would be too much. A good place to start, however, is to observe particular thoughts, emotions or sensations that stand out as not feeling quite right. An example is those make you feel self-righteous but don't make you feel good.

As you get in the habit of observing those particular aspects of your personality, you run them by your deeper sense of what love, truth, and beauty are like. Perhaps you reflect on prior moments when you were in your higher centers--when you felt exalted by beautiful music or great art, or were moved by an act of great selflessness and compassion. Or you saw or experienced a movement that was exquisite, or you felt related to nature. These experiences become the high water mark that you use to measure your mundane feelings, thoughts, and sensations.

You probably have a sense of what great kindness is like from your own experience or from those you have observed. If so, you can ask yourself, "Is my attitude here kind, according to my best understanding of it?" If it isn't, then you can observe where it is coming from. The simple act of observing it, of comparing the high water mark to the lower water mark of the moment, sets up a creative tension that can help you release whatever has been holding you in the lesser experience of self. It may or may not help you to parse it; it may or may not help you to explore factors in your past that contributed. Sometimes doing so helps you get more objective and release your grip on it. Other times, it may make you more stuck in the past. Simply holding your higher vision in the presence of what doesn't feel as good to you will move you towards a higher consciousness, one way or another. There are all sorts of useful techniques and tools for releasing specific imprints in your personality. It does not have to be all that difficult, although at first it is often terrifying because you are asking yourself to let go of some habits that your ego is quite certain have saved you.

So there is a leap of faith to say to yourself, "Okay, I'm ready to try something different." It is admitting that, although what you have been doing has gotten you to this point, it is not all that satisfying. However, as you move away from the old defense mechanisms, at first you may feel that you are going from the frying pan into the fire. You don't have the same sense of solid ground that self-righteousness gave you. You have to find a new footing, and that takes time. Whether you do this consciously and deliberately, or whether you come to this because the events of your life have undermined the old seemingly solid foundation, there will likely be a dark night of the soul if self-awareness is new.

The personality is clearly not fond of any sort of upheaval, even when essence knows that it is ultimately leading towards joy. Personality can get quite vicious towards anything or anyone that upsets its apple cart. It might co-opt the language of self-awareness. It might say, "Oh, this doesn't feel good to me," and the fact that it doesn't feel good might seem to imply some truth. However, personality on its own--on the surface, in other words--is not a very perceptive judge of anything. All it knows is its limited idea of self-preservation.

This brings us back to our initial comments about politics: that in the political world right now, there is intellectual activity on the surface. A lot of it is self-referential, meaning that one surface thought refers to other surface thoughts that have been bouncing around out there, whether or not they have roots in something real. So it gets to be like an echo chamber. Any leader, political or otherwise, who bluntly calls people to go beyond their own surfaces is sure to be hated by many personalities. There aren't too many of those who were later thought to be prophets who were popular in their day. Of course, they had their followers, but there has also been a tendency to shoot them down, literally or figuratively. The truth is not very popular in any of its forms.

On the other hand, those who are sure they have the truth and that others don't are generally operating at the surface. When there is self-righteousness, there is not the integration of love and truth. On the surface, you may have a piece of one or the other, but generally not both. If a leader of any kind is living from a deeper place in him- or herself, he or she will lead first by example and will carefully say and do things that might gently lead people towards living from a greater depth. True leaders know better than to try to take a sledgehammer to false personality; that only provokes severe reactions. Anyone that you see using a sledgehammer is likely living on the surface.

In the United States, you have a political election coming up. You could not possibly have a leader who truly and consistently tells it like it is from depth; such a person would not win any elections. However, you can elect leaders who have a good idea of what's what and, at the same time, a sense of what people are able to hear at this time, what changes they might be able to accommodate. They cannot say everything that they know and understand, but if you are living from more of your own depth, you are able to recognize when someone else is as well. Maybe his or her politics do not immediately go for what you feel would be ideal. Although these better candidates might not be able to wave a magic wand and radically change government overnight, the best that anyone could hope for would be someone with vision and heart who will not get in the way of changes, and who will facilitate those that people are at least close to being ready for.

Some of you are familiar with chiropractic adjustments. The goal is to align the spine. There are those who do this in a rougher manner, perhaps leaving muscles sore. There are others who have more skill, who can coax the body into alignment, arousing fewer of its resistances. A similar analogy is massage: some therapists find a tight muscle and just pound on it, while others know how to more gently get it to let go.

Throughout history there have been many violent revolutions, and they seldom really changed anything. They may have gone from one extreme to the other, and then the state of affairs ended up looking very much like it did in the first place. There's no substitute for evolution. People have to grow into the kind of world that they want to live in.

In the United States, it appears that many aspects of public policy have gone backwards; at a certain level, that is the case. Overall, however, consciousness has not really gone backwards. It's that consciousness never really grew enough to be able to hold some of the more progressive ideas, so the remaining blind spots inevitably came to the surface, with politicians ready to champion them.

Another factor here is that educational standards have dipped, though we don't mean to oversimplify the problem here. However, even if educational standards had grown, a well-educated populace is not the same as an evolved populace. There have been some well-educated societies that brought forth rampant brutality. Once again, there is no shortcut for evolution.

Furthermore, most things cannot be fixed politically first. Political leaders are valuable because they represent something to people, and they can set an example--people see them all the time. However, the most enlightened political leaders cannot make the bad things of the world go away when leading a population that is not done with them. People get carried away with excitement over political candidates without stopping to reflect on the last time they did that and the time before, and the time before that--they don't see the discrepancies between their naïve excitement and the results.

However, one cannot be too hard on the politicians, either, because it takes a great deal of depth and mastery to lead people forward without losing them, or the politicians losing their jobs.

If you want to help bring about a more conscious and compassionate government and world, the very best thing you can do is be willing yourself to live from a deeper place and endure the discomfort of aligning your surface with that deeper place. The fact is that after some rough patches, life feels a lot better. And being genuine yourself, you add to the collective consciousness the possibility of greater change. What you do in your own life is not divorced from elections.

There is nothing at all "wrong" with any kind of political activism that you feel drawn to do. In fact, as citizens, it makes a lot of sense to exercise your citizenry; it is part of choice. You live in a representative democracy, so why not exercise your right to make your preferences heard? We're not suggesting that it's futile and that you should, instead of voting, stay home and meditate--you could do both.

However, know that you are also voting in every moment of your life as you choose whether or not to live from the quietude of self or from the surface. Your vote and the votes of all your fellow citizens add together, and that is the real election. Choosing to live more from your depth is voting for evolving in a more joyful manner--not that it will ever be easy, but it is an *easier* way of evolving. Reacting to surfaces with your own surface is voting for the old, slow painful way of evolving.

This particular election has importance; we do not minimize it. The best way that you can participate in it, in addition to the obvious steps you could take, is to live from the quietude of self as much as you know how. As you practice this day by day, you will get better at it.

Q. How does soul age relate to the Republican/Democratic divide?

A. Both the major political parties include a wide range of soul ages. Party affiliation has more to do with imprinting than with any factor on the Michael chart--both family and cultural imprinting.

There is a slight tendency for those who are politically conservative to be, or have strong influence from, the solid roles of warrior, king and scholar. There is a slight tendency for the more liberal, progressive people to be the fluid roles--server, priest, artisan, and sage.

There is a slight tendency, though we don't want to make too much of this, for the Republican Party to be a bit younger in soul age, but again, there is a wide range. There are some extremes there; there are both some very old and very young souls who like the idea of minimal government. So probably the mean soul age is younger with the Republicans, but there is a wider range. The philosophy of the Democratic Party has more of a mature soul flavor to it, yet people's party affiliation has a lot more to do with their cultural and familial imprinting than what they really believe. There are a lot of Democrats who are, in fact, quite conservative, although it might not be immediately evident.

The proclaimed divide between Republicans and Democrats is really calculated to build brand loyalty. It's like the difference between Pepsi and Coke; they are far more similar than they are different. However, it's hard to get people excited about brands if they don't differentiate themselves. There is a lot of maya that reinforces the cultural and familial imprinting, when the parties are not really so different from each other in a mundane way.

Of course, the politicians of one party tend to vote differently than the politicians of the other because of how they perceive their brand and what they think the voters want from them. However, it's different on the level of individuals who habitually vote for one party or the other. When they talk theory, as people mostly do during election cycles, they sound like the politicians. However, what they really think and would like to see--when you get down to the sort of world that people want to have--many times there is more ambiguity between the parties.

It is good work to release the charged energy around political parties and to instead get down to cases, meaning discussing issues in a more specific, grounded way, looking for common ground. There is more of it than the brand loyalties of the two major political American parties would suggest. We are not saying that there are no differences between them--there are different emphases, but a lot of it is more in the philosophy than in the day-to-day workings. Also, over history there has been flip-flopping between them on certain issues despite their current identification with particular stances.

Q. Can a baby soul live from a deeper place and be conscious? If so, what would that look like?

A. Emphatically, yes. Any soul age can find quietude and live from a deeper place. There is no limitation on this whatsoever. If you are a baby soul, being conscious looks a little different than if you are young, mature, or old, just as a child who is highly self-aware looks different from a self-aware teen or someone in his twenties, thirties, and so on. However, what is shared in common among those who are self-aware, living from depth, is much more significant than what is shared in common by those of the same soul age who are not. So if you are old and living more from depth, you have more in common with someone who is young living from depth than you have with someone who is old but living from the surface.

Q. What roles are the most popular politicians?

A. Clearly Barack Obama is a priest; John McCain is sage with a lot of warrior secondary influence. Sarah Palin is also a priest, and here you see the importance of cultural imprinting, which she has absorbed without much examination. In soul age, she is actually a little older than Barack Obama, yet in consciousness, she is much more on automatic pilot. This points out some maya (illusion) among Michael students about soul age: age is age, but it is not consciousness. We would say that she is using her overleaves in a much more knee-jerk manner, whereas Barack Obama has put forth a lot more effort towards knowing himself.

Q. Are there more folks in the Democratic leadership living from a deeper place at this time than in the Republican leadership?

A. There's a little more depth in the higher levels of the Democratic Party than in the higher levels of the Republican Party, but there is a little more depth among the lower ranks, the more local levels, in the Republican Party than in the Democratic. However, the difference is slight and we would recommend that people not make too much of that. The lower ranks of the Democratic Party tend to consist more of people who are active because of what they personally want to get out of it. The lower ranks of the Republican Party tend to be more people who are more philosophically motivated. A problem there is that they often don’t recognize the difference between the philosophy or, as we’ve been saying tonight, the branding, and the reality. However, the lower ranks of the Democratic Party are not so concerned with that, one way or another; they are generally more narrowly focused in what their desires are.

Neither party is very elevated in consciousness. A great deal of what goes on universally in politics is at the knee-jerk surface level. There is not much vision or self-awareness anywhere in the political world. Having said this, we would add that Barack Obama is perhaps the most self-aware presidential candidate since Abraham Lincoln. This is not meant as an endorsement, to say that he’s "better"--it is the choice of those who are voting that counts.

We might add that John Kennedy was quite self-aware, and he was a young soul, illustrating that soul age is not the issue here.

Q. Would my being a liberal today mean that I was a conservative in an earlier life?

A. Not necessarily. What it is to be a liberal today is different from what it meant in other generations, and is different in different locations. However, some souls tend to be more attracted to whatever is the more progressive brand of the day, and some tend to be more attracted to the more conservative brand of the day. We spoke about the more solid roles tending to be more conservative in a certain respect; with one input, they are slower to change.

One could be a warrior or king and be a firebrand of progressive politics, so the generalizations are a little weak here. Most souls are agnostic in this regard, so the familial and cultural imprinting can have a large impact, at least at first. Later, a lot of people are strongly influenced, starting in their teenage years, by their peers. The people whom they admire who are their own age or a little older can become very significant here. Therefore, even if your family and culture are very conservative, if you go to school with someone who makes a big impact on you who is more progressive, then you might move towards that (or vice-versa). Friendship is more influential in politics than advertising. Today, there’s more segregation, so those who are more progressive tend to stick with their own, and those who are more conservative stick with theirs. However, in the schools, there is still a fairly good mix, and there is more of a chance to get people to question their imprinting at that age than there will be later.

Q. What does Michael think of the fact that at the same time, both the United States and Canada are in a political process of elections--is there any national karma present here?

A. There’s no karma. However, these two countries look to one another, and have for quite some time, to try to learn from each other. There is much to be gained from greater communication between the peoples of these two countries.

Q. How would Michael characterize the masses of young people who have galvanized behind Obama in terms of soul age and consciousness--are they a new and different class of souls?

A. There is no such thing as a new and different class of souls; there does not need to be--the garden variety of human souls is quite adequate. What you have here is a lot of youthful idealism. This is a generation that grew up knowing about things many of their elders either learned about later, or still don’t know about, such as the dangers to the environment. Therefore, at least the better educated of this generation are more aware of what is at stake. Also, they recognize the cynicism of most politics, so to have a candidate who is not cynical is hopeful to them. Although this generation is idealistic, we do not think it is naïve. It knows that there is a lot of hard work ahead. We would say also that Obama’s opposition to the war in Iraq is a large factor in his popularity with this generation.

Q. Can Michael say what they feel are the real issues in this election: for example, the war, health care, education, jobs, and so forth?

A. The unspoken, overriding issue is self-centeredness vs. altruism. That is what the election is about, fundamentally.

Q. I understand that soul age and consciousness are not synonymous, but how do you measure consciousness--what are the signs, for instance, of an advanced consciousness?

A. We do not claim that consciousness can be objectively measured. As one particular individual grows in consciousness, the emanation of light from that individual grows both in quality and quantity. However, two individuals can be conscious in different ways, and their illumination may be of different qualities. You can obviously tell the difference in the aura of one person who is highly unconscious and one who is highly conscious. However, with two people in the middle range, who are both struggling to awaken, we could not say that person A is at 67 on a scale and person B is at 68. It’s a little like comparing apples and oranges. Some people are very conscious in some areas and still asleep in others.

However, if someone is on the spiritual path, in the process of awakening, you can see that the energy is not stuck or badly blocked. There are changes happening, and the person is responsive to higher input; those who are firmly asleep are not--they do not take in light that shines from more conscious people or from spiritual guidance, at least not very much.

We would underline here what might be thought of as our mantra: all is choice. We are not encouraging you to think of unconscious and conscious as another form of "better" and "worse." In fact, the more conscious you are, the more unity you see in all things and the less you tend to judge others, even if they are at the moment stuck in unconsciousness. You recognize that they are sparks of the Tao just as you are, and that they are following their own path. So this is not a competition. It’s just that most of you are interested in being more consciously on your path, so we speak to that. Others who are not choosing that at this time are on their path, and it is their right to choose that. All you can do is choose for yourself--choose the path that you want to be on right now. Obviously, there are many people still choosing to live from the surface. That is neither good nor bad, but choosing to live from your quietude will ultimately bring you much more real joy. It is not easy at first, but it pays off in that regard.

We will conclude here with love and blessings to each of you. Good night.

--Michael Channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin for the BlogTalk Radio Michael Chat, 9/7/2008

Transcribed by Gloria Constantin

***

July 23, 2008

SEEING

The drama of human existence can be so absorbing that people stop seeing the real world around them. It's like being so caught up in a television program that one loses awareness of the room.

In order to make happier choices, it is helpful to detach from the drama so as to better place it in a true context. One way to do this is to challenge yourself to really see what is in your physical environment. A pleasurable exercise is to look for details in nature that you might tend to gloss over, such as the shape and color of leaves, the texture of bark, and so forth.

--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, July 23, 2008

***

June 13, 2008

REGENERATION

This is a period of much expansion in consciousness, and many are experiencing growing pains as a result. At the same time, there is a clear underlying sense that this is productive.

We suggest that you be particularly careful to allot time for quiet relaxation, minimizing stimulation.

--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, June 12, 2008

***

May 16, 2008

LEVELS OF SELF

By Shepherd Hoodwin, Excerpted from The Journey of Your Soul, Chapter 28

Various metaphysical and spiritual teachings describe the levels of self differently, and even when different teachings describe them in fundamentally the same way, there is no standard terminology. Words such as "soul" can mean different things.

In discussions when the distinction between them is not significant, Michael generally uses the words "soul" and "essence" interchangeably. However, technically, they are not identical. In one of the Michael books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Michael said that the essence is the intrinsic *core* of the soul. Michael through me has stated that when speaking of essence, they mainly mean the abstract aspects of self resonating with the three cardinal planes of creation. These could be called our buddhaic, messianic, and mental selves. Although the essence, as defined here, is in the dimensional universe rather than the Tao, which is undimensional, it is beyond time and space. It could be contrasted with the concrete aspects of self, those that resonate with the ordinal planes and are influenced by time. These could be called our physical, astral, and causal selves.

Our ordinal levels of self could be viewed as clothing or expressing our cardinal levels, just as our essence itself clothes our spark, and our personality and body clothe our astral self. Our astral self, which has direct contact with our body and leaves our body at death and sometimes during sleep and out-of-body experiences, could be specifically designated as our soul. It contains our reincarnational selves, including past-life memories.

This delineation is supported by the following passage from Yarbro's "Messages from Michael": "What makes the agreements is your astral self…which is mostly in essence, and the vestiges of personalities. Agreements are not made by the essence." The "vestiges of personalities" are what remain of our past-life selves after death, in their current level of reintegration with essence. Any issues not yet resolved from any lifetime remain as vestiges for upcoming incarnations to work on.

Don Kollmar, the founder of Complete Self Attunement, an approach to meditation, differentiates the words "soul" and "essence" similarly. He defines essence as the underlying truth of our being, or our pure presence, and the soul, which is created from essence, as its vehicle into the physical body. He says that the emergence of the essence transforms the personal self.

So perhaps the levels of self can be summarized and correlated with the planes with which they resonate:

LEVEL OF SELF / PLANE

Body and Personality / Physical

Soul (Astral Self) / Astral

Causal Self / Causal

Personal Akashic Records / Akashic

Essence / Mental

Essence / Messianic

Essence / Buddhaic

Spark / The Tao

The reason the terms "soul" and "essence" can usually be used interchangeably is that the soul is the part of essence (in its more general meaning as "everything that isn't personality") with which our personality has direct contact. We cannot experience the abstract levels of our essence except through our soul. It reminds me of the quote attributed to Jesus, "No one comes to the Father but by me."

From our point of view as a personality, our higher levels of self are potential rather than realized, since we have not yet lived them during this grand cycle, in the sense of focusing our consciousness in them. That will come after we cycle off the physical plane. For example, our causal self is the part of us that will be fully activated when our consciousness is focused on the causal plane. However, our progression through the planes is not a progression through physical time per se. It is linear in one sense, but it is also true that all levels of self exist simultaneously. It is the focus of our awareness that progresses.

According to my channeling of Michael, "You are now present on the other planes simultaneously with your current existence. However, they are not activated in relationship to you right now. They are just 'there.' These higher-plane aspects of self give you resonance and relationship with what is coming in your experience. To you right now, they are the unformed or potential parts of you, just as probabilities provide this function within the physical plane."

Although we experience our nonphysical levels of self as potential, they are also functional in our lives. An acorn is a potential oak tree, but the oak tree could be seen as the essence of the acorn, guiding its development into the oak tree. When a baby is born, it is a potential adult. It has all the parts that it will have as an adult. In a sense, the adult is its essence, guiding its development so that it realizes its potential. When an essence is cast from the Tao, it is unrealized potential seeking realization. It guides its realization at every step, like the potential oak tree and adult. Although it has a basic design, it doesn't know exactly what it will look like until that realization is complete.

In our normal waking state, our sense of self is usually centered in our personality. When we're asleep, our sense of self reverts to being centered in our soul. Our soul can be quite active at night and often leaves our physical body. Sometimes our dreams are the personality's memories of those excursions, but we generally only remember a fraction of what we actually do in the dream state. A technique called "lucid dreaming" allows us to be "awake" in our dreams and deliberately guide them, effectively merging our personality and soul even as our body sleeps. People often wake up tired after lucid dreaming, since the personality isn't at rest, as well as after extensive unconscious out-of-body excursions, because the body isn't receiving the soul's undivided attention; energy is being expended rather than regenerated.