Rise Up in Song

Sometimes, you hear a great song sung well. Occasionally, you may hear such a song sung with such feeling that it moves you. And then there are those moments in life where you are astonished. Where a song brings you face to face with the divine.

On Sunday, I heard a singer who not only sung from the heart, but sung from the heart of spirit. The effect on the audience was immediate and profound. Many were deeply moved, bringing tears of joy even to men (that would admit it).

Needless to say, Denise Hagan got a standing ovation. Speaking to people afterward, many said they’d never been so moved by a singer in their life.

Clearly, she knows the effect she has on people. The words in one song tell us she was asked by a “genius” to sing her song. She gives workshops where music is used to “reach into your soul and awaken your heart”. James Twyman invited her to sing in Portland.

A CD cannot hold the same energy as in person, but it reminds me of the experience again. Perhaps it will be enough to strike a chord in you…

http://denisehagan.com/

Happily, they’re arranging for her to come and sing for us again.

I look forward to seeing her star ascend.
Davidya

Mind and Belief

This is in response to a discussion in another forum on the nature of belief.

The best way to understand the mind is that when we repeat certain actions or patterns of thought, we program the sub-conscious habit mind. This is how we learn to walk, talk, ride a bike and drive a car.

On a higher level, the same is true for the cognitive mind. We learn concepts in school through repetition, then apply current experiences and new ideas to those existing assumptions. If they match or build on what we “know” they are accepted and may be integrated. If not they are typically rejected or ignored.

The primary drivers for learning are the avoidance of pain or the desire for pleasure. Fear of pain, love of pleasure, so yes, fear is a motivator for constructs. Other motivations may be layered on top of that. A lot of it is thus quite black and white with almost no gray area. Everything is judged either/or, good/bad, etc.

This is how we process massive amounts of information every day. Habit mind runs much faster than conscious mind. It allows us to make snap judgments without consideration. Very efficient.

The problem arises when some of those conceptual assumptions are false or are generalized beyond their validity. “Man X caused pain so all men are dangerous.” Because we build on prior assumptions, falsehoods can grow into outright illusion. This is how such things as racism, sexism and various other models arise.

Coming back to your comments, another name for cognitive assumptions is belief. If you think about it, a large amount of your “knowledge” or assumptions are second hand. Someone told you the earth is round. You’ve seen pictures and models but how do you know? Have you ever tried to verify this for yourself? You may say it’s obvious, but it was equally obvious once that the earth was flat. And in fact it’s not actually round either. I’ve seen some debate over it bulging in the middle or being pear-shaped. Thus the assumption that the world is round is a belief, not a fact, at least for us as a person.

There are many such group-think, paradigm or zeitgeists that go through periodic changes. Indeed, if you have not had a paradigm shift recently, you’re probably stagnating. We go through many of them as we grow into adults. Why should it stop?

Faith is often used as a word to denote strong belief, especially of something that cannot be proven. But curiously, what many people consider points of faith, like spirit, are things that are experiencable.

This complicates such word meanings because someone who has not experienced the shape of the earth may have had a direct experience of God in some way. Which then is faith? If you ask such a person if they “Believe in God” they may say no because when it’s a direct experience, there is no need for belief. This is why many call spiritual experience paradigm changers.

In the west, we tend to think of ourselves as believers or non-believers, forgetting that “non-belief” is a form of belief as it is still a construct. As long as we have a position, we have a belief. In the same way, science is a belief system, however valid it may be at discovering the world. As long as we fail to recognize this, we can be trapped by it.

The way out is observation. Watching how we respond. When we watch rather than being caught up, we have choice. We can react from habit or choose another response. When the habits are seen, they can be dumped. We may call this having an “open mind” but don’t confuse a concept of having an open mind with having an open mind. Believing is not the same as being.
Davidya

The Leap

Last weekend, I heard a short talk by Constance Kellough. Constance was once a management consultant with a private spiritual practice. She felt that inner restlessness, then realized she wanted a group practice or sangha. And that’s a key point – the recognition that the restlessness is an inner liveliness trying to get a message through. Once we get clear, we get the message and can act.

She mentioned her wish to an associate and they suggested a new fellow. And thus she met Eckhart Tolle. She then started a publishing house, Namaste, to print the Power of Now, uncertain if there was a market for 60 or 600. They did little advertising, focusing instead on keeping the intention pure. The rest is history.

She spoke of how powerfully things move with a clear, pure intention dedicated to service. But she also spoke of the apparent lulls, when we are “tested for purity” or “stand in the fire“. When we are purified or prepared enough for the next level, then it begins. She observed how in each ensuing action cycle, the sphere of influence expands.

After her talk, Rev. Wendy Yacboski gave a short prayer, mentioning that we don’t choose to be qualified, God qualifies the chosen.

I spoke with Constance briefly afterwards. We talked about how this cycle of rest and clearing can sometimes be longer and more pronounced. She observed how this can indicate a bigger Leap.

In 2007, Constance published her own book, The Leap. Similar in subject to the film Leap!, it is sub-titled, “Are You Ready to Live a New Reality?” She talks about the Leap into waking and has a whole section on practices, noting earlier that different ones suit different people.

The book is quite grounded, touching on subjects like war and terrorism and putting them in a spiritual context. I’m only about a third of the way in but am quite enjoying it. The book seems to be focused on Self realization but I note she does have a chapter on Divine Love.

Looking forward to the rest of it.
Davidya

The Perfume of God

“Peace is the perfume of God. When God is close to you, you smell this perfume. And this perfume is exquisite.”

“Peace needs to be in everyone’s life. The peace we are looking for is within. It is in the heart, waiting to be felt. It is not the world that needs peace; it is people. When people in the world are at peace within, the world will be at peace.”
– Prem Rawat, “The Peace Ambassador”

http://www.tprf.org/

Dancing the Dream

“Consciousness expresses itself through creation.
This world we live in is the dance of the creator.
Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on.
On many an occasion, when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred.
In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists.
I become the stars and the moon.
I become the lover and the beloved.
I become the victor and the vanquished.
I become the master and the slave.
I become the singer and the song.
I become the knower and the known.
I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation.
The creator and the creation merge into one wholeness of joy.
I keep on dancing— until there is only . . . the dance.

-–Michael Jackson, Dancing the Dream, 1992

Peace Technology

I always find it interesting when research is published in peer-reviewed science journals that is paradigm-busting.

“The hypothesis definitely raised some eyebrows among our reviewers. But the statistical work is sound. The numbers are there. When you can statistically control for as many variables as these studies do, it makes the results much more convincing. This evidence indicates that we now have a new technology to generate peace in the world.”
– Raymond Russ, editor of the Journal of Mind and Behaviour.

It’s notable that there has been 50 studies of this effect, studied for almost 30 years.

“The observed changes in the Middle East included reductions in war deaths of 75%, war intensity of 45%, in crime of 12%, in fires of 30%, plus there were improvements in national mood of 27% and the stock market of 7% during the experimental period.”

Notably, the effect was 2 to 5 times stronger than conventional factors. Those “conventional factors” are political and military actions.

In Aug. 1993 in Washington, D.C., they reduced violent crime by 23% in a study evaluated by board of 27 independent scientists. They predicted doing this in advance as they’d already done it repeatedly.

The source of the effect? Large groups of meditators, meditating together. No intention to change anything. Just practicing together. And they can do it for less than 0.2% of the cost of the military. Does it hit the news? No, it’s still considered a curiosity published mostly in journals of “Exploration”.

http://www.beirut-online.net/portal/article.php?id=5050

The graph shows that when the numbers go up, the effect increases. The effect becomes more marked above the key threshold and drops markedly below it.

The group has been working to create a country-sized group in the US since 2006, partly by importing Indian pundits. They are also working to create a global-sized group in India. The major stumbling block has simply been one of funding.

I’m also aware of at least 2 other groups working on a similar plan. The next couple of years promise to be quite remarkable.
Davidya

Auras

Auras are what we might call the perception of the light bodies or purushas, their perceptual appearance to our eyes. Such perception is easily triggered through simple exercises and practice but doesn’t serve much value unless the perception is refined.

Like EEG measures the effect of brain activity, auras are the effect of prana or life energy movement. They are not the movement itself, but the glow of activity.

It’s pretty simple to understand. Subtle energy is perceived as light or felt. It is a more refined or finer value of light than our usual photo-receptors will pick up. But if we refine the physiology, the perception gets refined as well. When that energy moves, it creates field effects, just like electricity creates magnetic fields.

What we see depends on where the perception is clear. It also tends to be personalized, seen thorough our own filters. What we expect or are willing to see, for example. Some people can choose to see or not see, like shifting focus. A slight attuning ‘switches on’ and off more subtle perception or shifts through layers of it or shifts the conscious mode.

Some people flick the switch accidentally and have occasional perceptions. Some simply have clearer periods for awhile. And a few people are born with an ability or siddhi. Siddhi is a word typically translated as power or special ability but in this context, it’s more like a gift. The perception itself is knowledge.

Adam the Dreamhealer, for example, was born with the ability to see auras. With training from a Qi Gong master, he learned to develop his perception and control the powerful subtle energy he had.

In his workshops, he used to have a few people come up and he would do a quick aura read, marking dark spots on a body outline on screen for the audience to see. He would then discuss these with the person. Sometimes, they marked the site of an old injury. Sometimes a developing or known health issue. Sometimes an emotional resistance that had not yet developed into a health issue.

Adam’s emphasis has been on teaching people to use their own energy and attention to heal themselves.

You may have noticed that someone with developed abilities might be able to see not just auras but the actual movement of energy, the way different pranas move in different parts of the body, and the way that movement is reflected in physical functions. They see the mechanics of the body in action. This is partly refinement of perception and partly the “third eye”, the ability of consciousness itself to perceive directly.  (remember – the senses arise from consciousness)

Because consciousness does not have physical boundaries like our eyes, it can be used to look at a distance, look inside the body, and look at other times. Perception is driven by attention and intention rather than the physical senses. Because the perception is within consciousness, it comes with it’s own knowledge. What is seen is known. The focus of this article though is refined perception with the eyes.

What is Seen

Because of the variations in both who is seeing and what they are looking at, there is a wide range of what might be seen. Energy fields are not distinct layers like a cake but rather a range of overlapping energies with certain things prominent in a given person.

Close to the physical body is a dense light that is the etheric. (electromagnetic is slightly more physical) Surrounding the body in progressively more diffuse values is the vital and mental bodies. While we may describe them as a set of layers and sub-layers, they are really just a continuum so that’s largely how they’re seen. Most visible is usually the denser emotional/vital or Pranamaya body. The effect of the active pranas.

Auras grow, shrink and shift with our energies. They blend a bit when they overlap, more so with very close contact.

There will be some general light around the body with brighter areas in some places. There will tend to be brighter splotches of various colours and areas with different general tones. Generally, bright colours are expressive and energetic, muddy colours illustrate some resistance or inertia.

At the highest edge of the mind is the gap, the vibratory edge of becoming. Here is the perception of golden bliss, the bliss body. Life itself. If you’re seeing someone with a conscious bliss body, the effect on the emotional field is more like pink effects.

Only living creatures have the prana bodies – insects, plants, and animals. But the becoming, the movement of consciousness is seen in everything. Buildings, rocks, furniture.

This movement of becoming is thus seen 2 ways. As golden glows around life forms, similar to what is illustrated in the film The Celestine Prophesy. Humans are sometimes portrayed as having halos – the head can have a stronger field and clothes can mute perception of the bodies field. All life forms have the same but a few people have very strong ones.

When the bliss deepens into love, the light of love glows in everything. The entire environment is bathed in gold.

The highest colour perceivable by the eyes is an intense white, usually in the heart (soul) or crown. White in the aura can indicate noise though.

How it Relates

Chakras are a related subject that I discuss on Understanding Your Energy System. See the part on Looks Like. As it is “inside”, it requires the perception of consciousness.

Back in Seeing with the Heart, I described 7 levels of visual perception. You may have noticed that the first 3 were values of perception of life forms (Physical, Etheric, Vital), whereas the next 4 were perception of other values of creation. (Celestial, Universal, Cosmic, Spiritual) Other “worlds” if you will. (Lokas are typically used to describe celestial worlds)

In some ways, these divide refined physical perception with the eyes from the “third eye” perception of more subtle values of existence. Some celestial stuff can be seen both ways.

These are of course arbitrary divisions. The idea here is to get a sense of it. If you try to compare chakras with purushas and the 7 levels of perception, you will find common ground and how they may align, but don’t confuse them with being the same thing. Chakras are the core energy system in life, purushas are the sheaths or layers of expression, and auras are the perception of the effects of purusha. Levels of Perception is a blend, as discussed.

Any given person may see creation but not auras or vice versa. Depends on what is open and what is refined. When our baggage and resistance falls away, we may be surprised by gifts we didn’t know we had. Not everyone will see everything as it may not be required for what is to be experienced.

The point of this post is understanding experiences that may arise. It is not to make seeing auras important. Just as any other value of perception can be a trap, so too this.

Don’t consider this an exhaustive or complete review, just a general overview. There are others with a far keener perception than I. But there is also a lot of misinformation out there.
Davidya