Developing A Relationship With Your Spirit Guides (Part 1)

On my visits to various online forums, I regularly come across questions related to developing a relationship with one’s spirit guides. This article is geared towards those of you who are wanting to start communicating consciously with your guides, by looking at some of the common questions that arise along the way.

When I started writing this article, it flowed… to the tune of over three single-spaced pages in MS Word! And I don’t think I’m quite finished yet! As a result, I’ve decided to split the article into two more manageable chunks (the next one will be published on Monday). After reading these, please let me know if you have any further questions that you’d like me to cover.

Do I have a spirit guide?
Yes, you do. Everyone does. In fact, far from only having one guide, you have a team of spiritual helpers who guide and support you. Some of these guides have been with you since birth, and their role is to provide guidance to help you follow your highest path and purpose. Others join the team on a temporary basis to assist with particular life circumstances and projects as they occur.

How do I initiate contact with my guides?
Communicating with your guides is similar in some respects to communicating with people in the physical world, in that you can talk to them or write to them. I would recommend starting with the form of communication (verbal or written) that you find easiest in the physical world. For me, this is writing, specifically on the computer – my fingers are able to keep up with my brain far better than my mouth can, and so information flows better for me this way! As a result, I started communicating with my guides by journalling, typing my questions into an MS Word document and writing down whatever popped into my brain as the answer. My first tentative opening line was “Hello? Are you there?” :).

Once I had developed a relationship with my guides, I started working on communicating with them when I was away from my computer. For me, it’s a very similar communication process, in that I ask a question and receive an answer in my head. The only difference is that rather than writing down the questions and responses, I am having a verbal conversation with my guides. At this point, you may be picturing me walking down the street looking mad as I have a seemingly one-way conversation with myself :). In reality, if you walked past me on the street or sat next to me on the bus, you probably wouldn’t even realise that I was deep in conversation with my guides! I “talk” to my guides in my head, much in the same way that I think other thoughts. When I’m alone at home, though, I have been known to talk out loud (at least for my part of the conversation!)… my cat thinks it’s funny, but then she seems to like my guides – she starts purring while staring at the spot where I can feel my guides’ energy to be!

Although verbal communication has the advantage of being able to occur wherever and whenever, it may be worth your while to keep a written record of as many of your conversations with your guides as possible. This is an invaluable resource that you can look back on when you need to remind yourself of what you’ve discussed.

If my verbal or written conversations with my guides sound like my own thoughts, how do I know that I’m not just making it all up?
When you start communicating with your guides and all you can hear in your head is your own voice, it is very easy to doubt that you have actually gotten in touch with a more evolved spiritual being! And I’m probably not going to help when I tell you that you are actually imagining it all! What you need to understand is that your mind acts as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds – as a result, your guides use your mental faculties (your thoughts, your imagination) as a way to communicate with you. When you start tuning in to your guides using this same mental faculty, it feels exactly like what you’ve always been doing when you’ve used your imagination for other things like visualising or daydreaming or creating – there are no sudden big booming voices from the sky! Remember also that some of your guides have been with you since birth and you are therefore so familiar with their communication that you have probably assumed that their contributions to your thought processes are your own (don’t worry, they don’t mind that you’ve “stolen” some of their ideas along the way!).

As you progress with developing a relationship with your guides, you will be able to discern their “voices” from yours. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will start hearing voices! I still just hear “my” voice in my head, but, just like people in the physical world have different speech patterns and cadences, my own thoughts differ from my guides.

What language do guides speak?
Well, mine “speak” English because I’m English! Yours will “speak” whatever language you speak.

The “language” of the universe is one of intent or state, rather than a language in the sense that we know it here on earth. Essentially, therefore, what your brain is doing when you communicate with your guides is translating their spiritual language into an earthly one. There is no need for you to worry about the actual “translation” process as this is all handled for you – it will appear to you as if you and your guides are having a conversation in the same language. In fact, the translation process happens so seamlessly and smoothly that communication from guides is usually very flowing and easy to read or listen to, with excellent grammar and vocabulary. I like to think I write well, but my guides are far more erudite than I am!

For Part 2 of this series, click here.

Ask Mags: The Spiritual Life Or The Simple Life?

I am very taken with teachings such as Eckhart Tolle’s and I want to live a life of presence – a spiritual life. But does this mean that I have to give up my possessions and live a simple and austere life? Is it possible to be both spiritually and materially wealthy?

The answer to both of these questions is Yes – yes, you do have to give up your possessions, and yes, it is possible to be both spiritually and materially wealthy. And before you ask, the answer to your next question is No – no, my previous answers are not completely contradictory! Let me explain….

The key to understanding this subject lies in getting clear on the intent behind the decision to create on the physical plane.

When the ego is in charge of our lives, it creates experiences and things for the purpose of definition and identity – in other words, the ego uses the things of the physical plane to define who you are and to give you an identity separate from others. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this type of “creating” is not really creating at all. Instead, this process is more accurately termed “getting” or “collecting”, as the ego gathers to itself all those experiences and things that can tell a story about who you are. The ego likes to have an answer for the ubiquitous cocktail party question regarding what we do: I am a writer, I am successful, I am a wife/mother/daughter (insert appropriate role here).... It doesn’t matter to the ego whether the identity is positive or negative. I am a successful writer may be a more positive identity than I am a loser and victim of circumstance, but it is an identity nevertheless and the ego will therefore defend it and continue to promote it. Because the ego is so heavily invested in the identity that it has “created”, it suffers when it loses any of the things that go into supporting this identity and to which it is therefore attached.

In a state of presence, however, we are aligned with Source energy. This is the state of I am. This is the state of pure creation. Whereas the ego has to work hard to get everything that it wants, creating from a state of presence is effortless. It flows. The intent behind creation is to experience the physical manifestation of our highest path and purpose. We create because we can – I am, and therefore I choose to create the experience of being a successful writer. Unlike an ego-based life, in a state of presence there is no attachment to anything we create. If something is taken away from us, we do not suffer – after all, we can create the same thing (or even something different) again tomorrow.

To return, then, to your original question: Yes, you do have to give up your possessions, although this “giving up” is not necessarily a physical act of relinquishing all that you currently have in favour of an ascetic life. Rather, to live a life of presence means to give up your egoic attachment to those things that have previously defined you. The ego will rebel against this perceived diminishing of who you are. However, far from making you less than you are, awakening to a state of presence allows the fullness of your being to emerge. When we live in the state of I am, we know that we are already all that we want to be: we are already abundant, we are already joyful, we are already peaceful. This is our natural state and it is ours now. Access to these ways of being are never taken away from us, although we may sometimes not allow them into our lives. We can be both spiritually and materially wealthy. It is our choice.

The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

The new Indiana Jones movie comes out today. Are you excited?! Huh?! Huh?! Are you?! Are you?! (Can you tell that I am?!). Indy’s adventures may be cheesy, but they’re a whole lot of fun!

Like previous Indy movies, the plot of this one centres around a mysterious object. In this case, the object in question is a crystal skull. As I only had a vague idea of the facts and fictions surrounding crystal skulls, I decided to read up more on the topic prior to going to see the movie.

According to legend, thirteen skulls, sculpted from quartz crystal, were originally made to act as repositories of knowledge regarding humankind’s origin, purpose on earth and future. These skulls are also said to be invested with powerful psychic energy, and can therefore be utilised for healing and divination purposes. Just who made these skulls is up for debate, however, with theories putting forth candidates ranging from the ancient civilisations of Atlantis and Lemuria, to alien civilisations, to the Aztecs or Mayans. Regardless of where these skulls originated, the legend prophesies that these skulls will be found and reunited precisely at a time when humanity needs them the most. At this point in the future, humanity will be facing an unspecified crisis for survival, yet will have finally developed a sufficient level of consciousness to enable understanding of the messages that the crystal skulls will bring.

To date, various crystal skulls have been discovered, although the full number remains elusive. All but three of the skulls are in the hands of private owners.

Probably the most famous and controversial crystal skull is one referred to as the Mitchell-Hedges skull. Unlike the other skulls that have been located, which are quite stylised in appearance, the Mitchell-Hedges skull has the distinction of having a detachable and movable lower jaw. The skull is named after the person who allegedly discovered it – Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of British adventurer, FA Mitchell-Hedges. According to the story told by Anna and her father, she found the skull in a Mayan temple while they were on expedition in Belize (then the British Honduras) in 1926.

Later evidence, however, appears to discredit this story. While the expedition certainly took place, no record exists of Anna’s presence on the expedition. Similarly, while the discovery of other artefacts was logged, no such record of the skull’s discovery exists. In addition, possibly the most damning evidence comes from records kept by the British Museum relating to their purchases at auction, which include this statement, dated in 1943: “Bid at Sotheby's sale, lot 54 [crystal skull], 15 x 43 up to 340 [pounds] (Fairfax). Brought in by Burney. Sold subsequently by Mr. Burney to Mr. Mitchell-Hedges for 400 [pounds].” Sydney Burney, a London art dealer, was also reported as the owner of the skull in a 1936 article in the British anthropological journal Man. Anna and her father disputed the allegations that they had never found the skull on expedition but instead purchased it at auction nearly twenty years later. Mr Mitchell-Hedges claimed that he had left the skull with Mr Burney as collateral for a loan, and that, upon finding out at the last minute that Mr Burney was trying to sell it at auction and unable to persuade the auction house to cancel the sale, the only recourse left to him was to purchase the skull back for himself.

During the 1970s, Anna Mitchell-Hedges gave permission for the skull to be tested at the Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, while the skull was in the temporary custody of Frank Dorland, a freelance art restorer. These tests revealed that the skull was made from a single quartz crystal, and that contrary to accepted methods, it had been carved against the crystal’s natural axis. By rights, a crystal carved in this way should have shattered during subsequent detailing and finishing. Although Dorland found evidence of mechanical grinding on the skull’s teeth, and a later report by Norman Hammond, an archaeologist specialising in Mayan artefacts, stated that the holes made to support the skull’s jaw were drilled using a metal bit, no other carving from metal instruments was found. Dorland’s concluding hypothesis was that the skull had initially been roughly shaped using diamonds and then shaped and polished by hand, an effort that would have required 300 years worth of work to get the skull into its present condition. Anna Mitchell-Hedges (and since her death, her widower) consistently refused for the skull to undergo any subsequent testing after this. This lack of access to the skull has raised questions regarding its authenticity as well as fuelled rumours of its mystical properties.

Two of the skulls owned by museums (in Britain and France) have, however, been tested extensively. These tests demonstrated that the etched lines of the skulls’ teeth were made by a rotary jewellers’ tool, while the surface of the skulls show straight evenly spaced marking such as those made by a modern polishing wheel. Hand-polished artefacts, in comparison, display haphazard tiny scratches on their surfaces. As a result of these tests, it has been concluded that the skulls were not Aztec in origin as had previously been claimed by those who had allegedly discovered them in the 1800s. Instead, it is felt that the skulls were manufactured in Germany in the 19th century, at a time when trade in fake Aztec and Mayan artefacts was at its height.

At the end of the day, it seems impossible to separate out fact from fiction with respect to these skulls. The scientific tests indicate that the skulls were made with sophisticated machinery – this may rule out the Aztecs, but does it necessarily preclude other ancient or alien civilisations with access to tools beyond what we currently know? Or are the skulls currently in possession definitely fakes? And if so, does this mean that the crystal skulls of legend don’t exist? Or that they do and just haven’t been discovered yet?

Ultimately, we have a Ripley situation… Believe it? Or not? Let me know what you think!

Tim Brownson: Don’t Ask Stupid Questions

I recently read through the e-book version of Don’t Ask Stupid Questions (There Are No Stupid Questions) by Tim Brownson. Tim is a Life Coach and has a blog called The Discomfort Zone, which I’ve been a fan of for a while now.

Like Tim’s blog, Don’t Ask Stupid Questions made me laugh at least once each page. I love Tim’s sense of humour - it’s off-the-wall and yet spot-on! Our lives are obviously important, but that doesn’t mean we have to be serious and sombre all the time. We can have some fun with personal development, and Tim’s approach encourages us to do just that. Laughter and results can happily co-exist!

Using humour and examples from Tim’s own life and common challenges that his coaching clients experience, the book presents a series of questions that we can ask ourselves to help us step out of our comfort zones and create a life that we love. Each chapter is dedicated to one question and is one or two pages in length, allowing us to stop after each bite-size chunk and mull over the question presented. It is obviously up to you how you approach a book like this; I tend to read through books containing questions and/or exercises (without stopping to do each exercise as it arises) to get the overall framework in my mind before going back and spending time delving into the details. I did this with some of Tim’s book, although I did find myself pausing after many of the chapters and reflecting on the questions presented. In the introduction to the book, Tim also mentions that the chapters can be worked through in any order – I read through the book in the order in which it was presented, although second pass through the book has taken a more scenic detour depending on which questions feel more relevant to me at this time.

Whichever way you choose to read this book, please do not skip the introspection and action asked of you by the questions. These are certainly challenging questions, but they are also most certainly questions that can help you change you life for the better if you allow them to. Tim’s questions made me think right from the get-go. For example, I read the second chapter, Who is the most important person in the world to you?, confident that I knew the answer: me! And indeed, that is the answer… I have so much more to offer the world when I look after myself first. This is not a selfish position in the way we traditionally have used the word selfish, because such kindness to oneself is not done at any expense, least of all at the expense of others. Rather it is a position that acknowledges the priority of one’s own emotional, mental and spiritual health in order to help others reach that state too. I know this, and I practice it, or at least I thought I did, for when I got to the end of the chapter and considered the question (“If you accept that you are the most important person in the world, what can you do differently to demonstrate that belief?”), I realised that I had been neglecting myself and not honouring those things that are important to me. I’ve since starting living up to being my own BFF* and have noticed a significant energy shift in my life for the better.

Don’t Ask Stupid Questions is a practical book that would suit people with fairly analytic minds who are used to the principles of goal-setting and want to become more effective at this. However, Tim has also introduced some more esoteric concepts, like manifesting, into the book, presented in a way that makes them understandable and palatable to people who may never have encountered such concepts. For those of us who are comfortable with both the physical and metaphysical, Tim’s book is a good blend of both.

Don’t Ask Stupid Questions is currently available via Tim’s website in hard copy and e-book format. He is also currently giving away his latest e-book, Know Yourself, Change Yourself, free of charge and you can download this via the link above as well.

[*BFF = Best Friend Forever]

The Fifth Dimension Is Love

Years ago, long before I’d ever heard of the Law Of Attraction in any way, shape or form, I had a dream about the underlying energy structure of the universe. My dreams generally fall into three categories, each of which has a completely different feel to it – Processing dreams (just the brain tidying up, filing away all the many things it has seen and heard), Symbolic dreams (sleep-time therapy, using a mixture of standard dream symbols and personal imagery that I know how to interpret to find the meaning of the dream sequences), and lastly, Instructional dreams (teachings and messages from spiritual beings, usually one on one). My dream about the energy structure of the universe fell into this third category.

I found myself in a dark space. It felt like a classroom, in that I knew its purpose was a place for teaching and learning, but it didn’t look like an earthly classroom. No walls, no doors, no blackboards. Just a vast dark space. I couldn’t see anyone, least of all myself. I was an awareness without a body. At no point did I feel any fear.

Then I started seeing imagery of the world, but at an energy level, with each person’s current vibrational frequency represented by numbers. Probably the best way of describing what this looked like to me was something similar to the restaurant scene in The Matrix Reloaded, in which Neo, Trinity and Morpheus see everything in that greenish Matrix code. Seeing that made me wonder if the Wachowski brothers ever had a similar instructional dream to mine! As the imagery was presented to me, I came to understand that each person could change their vibrational frequency and that this would have an effect on their physical experiences.

While this understanding seemed to just “download” into my brain, without any words being spoken, there was a spiritual being with me who was speaking to me at the same time. I never saw the being, just heard its voice. The being was androgynous, in that the voice didn’t seem to be clearly male or female. It was, however, far from robotic, and was instead rich, powerful and loving. As the imagery flashed before me, the spiritual being kept on asking me, “Do you understand? Do you understand now?” I can still hear that voice clearly in my head!

As I watched the images, again the understanding was “downloaded” into my head that this energy level was the fourth dimension to the universe, underlying both space and time. As I started to pull away and wake up, I realised that I hadn’t yet asked the next logical question. It popped into my head: “If this is the fourth dimension, then what is the fifth?”

As I woke up, I heard the spiritual being’s voice echoing in my head: “The fifth dimension is love.”

Are You A Bonsai Tree?

I had an epiphany yesterday. I like having epiphanies. Except I prefer it when they don’t come with tears, like yesterday’s did. The tears themselves aren’t so bad – very cathartic, and cathartic is good (it’s even a fun word to say, much like epiphany!). But when the wailing and gnashing of teeth are all over and done with, what I’m left with is one very scary-looking blotchy-faced woman squinting at me from the mirror through puffy eyes and hazy contact lenses. It wasn’t pretty, I tell ya, but it was worth it.

My big epiphany was that, in a few areas of my life, I’m a bonsai tree. Figuratively, that is (although after my lenses had clouded over in protest at the amount of salt water they had to cope with, it was kind of hard to tell from my reflection whether I was animal, vegetable or mineral anymore).

I’m a bonsai tree because I’m keeping myself small when I really want to be a big mighty oak. The irony is that I am already one. The only difference between me and the giants of the forest is that of scale, not of type. I am already that which I want to be.

Why stay small? Why limit my natural propensity for growth? Here are a few reasons of my own:

Space issues
Everyone can find space in their lives somewhere for a bonsai. When you’re small, you fit in anywhere. You don’t dwarf anyone, and you don’t threaten anyone. But, it’s kind of different when you’re a mighty oak. Suddenly, you don’t fit in where you used to. You stand out. You may be a gentle giant, but you’re a giant nevertheless, and giants need space for both their branches and their roots to grow. Other people may not understand. They may think you’re being selfish. They may feel entitled to the space that you claim for yourself. You may feel guilty. You may decide that it’s just easier to stay small to keep the peace.

But… staying small to keep the peace hurts you and ultimately hurts others as well. The world needs mighty oak trees. You are serving the world and Spirit best when you are being the very essence of your oakness.

Care and attention
Bonsais receive a lot of attention to keep them small. Mighty oaks don’t get the same kind of dedicated attention. You know such attention stunts your growth, yet you are scared to want something different. You may have seen what happened to those who did. Those who suddenly became persona non grata, even with members of their own family. Those who couldn’t be controlled by guilt. Those who are now spoken of with a bitterness verging on hate.

But… genuine love isn’t conditional, especially not on you staying small just to make others feel comfortable about their own smallness. And maybe, when you venture out to find your space to grow into a mighty oak, rather than it being lonesome, you discover tree-huggers who love you for your size and strength.

Are you a bonsai tree? Are there any areas in your life where you are keeping yourself small?

Deal? Or No Deal?

I love the TV show Deal Or No Deal. I’m pretty sure that it’s available in various countries, but just in case you haven’t ever seen it, you can find a summary of the game here.

Although the contestant pool for the game is constantly changing, this happens slowly as only one person leaves per game to be replaced the next day by a new contestant. As a result, players remain in the game for an average of about 25 shows, and are fairly well known to the audience by the time their turn to play comes around. The show is therefore personal. And yet… it’s not.

It’s personal because we get to know the players’ stories – from people who’ve overcome major life challenges, to those wanting to take their children on the holiday of a lifetime, to students needing to pay off student loans, to couples getting married and buying houses, to retired folk who want to be able to treat their grandchildren and also live comfortably in their old age… every one of them is special. They are good people. We want them to win big. We want them to have the money. We feel that they deserve it. Then they go home with a small amount of money, and we feel disappointed and gutted. It seems so unfair that the Universe should treat them this way after all they’ve been through. It seems so unfair that good people are not rewarded as they should be.

And yet… it’s impersonal because, at the end of the day, it’s all about energy, and energy just is. Each player has a particular energy vibration. The Universe is not out to “get them”, or reward them. The Universe simply matches the vibration of each person’s energy field. Each player’s reality conforms to their energetic alignment. A friendly, caring contestant may leave the show with very little money, not because they are being punished, but simply because they may be energetically aligned with a scarcity mentality. In a game of money, beliefs related to abundance and scarcity are paramount.

This phenomenon is not confined to a show like Deal Or No Deal. It plays out in every aspect of our lives. The reality of our relationships, career, health and financial circumstances simply matches our energetic frequency.

Does the impersonal nature of energy mean that the Universe doesn’t care about us? No – on the contrary, the Universe is loving and supportive. But it doesn’t make decisions related to worthiness or deservingness. God, the angels and our spirit guides want the best for us. They can guide us along our paths, but ultimately we have free will and they cannot make our choices regarding thoughts, beliefs and actions for us.

What this does mean, is that we are empowered to create a life of abundance in every form. Love, happiness, health, wealth – all are choices that we can make freely and hence all are within our reach. The Universe is abundant, and this abundance is available to all of us all of the time, but it is our decision whether to allow that abundance into our reality. The Universe doesn’t withhold its treasure, but sometimes we turn our backs on it.

When the Universe offers you abundance, what will you say? Deal? Or no deal? It's up to you.

GTA4 And Violence In The Media

Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4) has just been released, much to the delight of gamers. It is, without a doubt, a violent game, and as a result, it has also prompted the usual television panel discussions and newspaper editorials regarding whether or not violent games and movies lead to violent acts being committed in society.

Gamers vehemently deny any such link, most of them making the point that it is “just a game” and that it would never prompt them to go out into the world to perpetrate, copy-cat style, the violent acts that they see during gameplay. On the other hand, cases exist of people seemingly doing just that – for example, after spending hundreds of hours playing a previous release of Grand Theft Auto in 2003, 18 year old Devin Moore Thompson gunned down three men (two police officers and a 911 dispatcher) in the town of Fayette, Alabama. For every Devin, however, there are millions of other gamers who have never (and would never) follow through on what they do during a game. And so the argument continues, round and round in circles.

Because of cases like Devin’s, it is often assumed that any link between violence portrayed in a game or movie and violent acts committed in real life will be a direct one. In other words, people assume that the gamer or viewer themselves will be the perpetrator of any violence, acting out what they have practiced or seen in the virtual world. While I think it is perfectly possible that this is a plausible scenario, I also think that the situation is a bit more complex than this.

At an energy level, what we think about creates our reality – including changing our physical brains. For someone like Devin, with a troubled history, anger was already a predominant way of interacting with the world. Playing a violent video game would have further entrenched these thoughts in his mind. Given that the “wiring” of the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s impulse control centre which allows us to think ahead to the potential consequences of our actions) is not fully completed until one’s early 20s, Devin would have been continually reinforcing neural connections during his teens that supported angry and violent patterns of behaviour. In a situation perceived as threatening, Devin’s actions merely corresponded to what he had trained his brain to do.

So why don’t more gamers duplicate the violent acts that their avatars perpetrate during a game? At an energy level, I think there are various contributory factors. For example, gamers who, prior to even engaging with a game, are already aligned with a more positive energy frequency, will have differently wired brains. Playing a violent game will not be enough to significantly alter physical brain structure, or permanently change their predominant thought patterns away from the game. Another factor to consider in this regard is how easily gamers are able to detach from the energy of the game after ending their gaming session. The more someone ruminates on the violent scenarios contained in a game like Grand Theft Auto after playing it, the more their thought patterns and hence their physical reality will be affected. Both of these factors just mentioned assume that the gamer is engrossed in the game, and hence aligned with the energy of violence, while playing it. However, it is also possible that some gamers can remain detached from the game in an energy sense, even during game play – they will still enjoy the game for what it is, but their level of conscious awareness is sufficiently high that they can maintain an objectivity towards the violence, maintain present moment awareness rather than getting lost in the game, and consequently remain at a high positive energy level throughout, For such gamers, the game may not change their vibrational alignment at all.

I think the number of gamers falling into the latter category are, however, small, and that the vast majority fall into the other groups, in which their vibrational alignment shifts temporarily while playing the game. As a result, even though these gamers would not commit violent acts themselves, I do think their playing of violent games contributes to the level of violence in the world – at an energy level, the effect of millions of gamers changing their vibrational alignments, albeit temporarily, to ones of anger and violence, affects the collective consciousness, and consequently reality mirrors this negative energy level in the world. I think this indirect link is often ignored during discussions of the effect of games like GTA4 on the world, yet I think it is far more insidious.

I’m not suggesting that we start getting all controlling and rush about censoring all violent games (and movies). I would far rather see the small group of gamers who are able to remain detached from the energy of such games increase. There is evidence that humanity’s collective consciousness is changing – many more people than before are starting to consider spiritual issues (the number of people tuning in to Oprah’s webcasts with Eckhart Tolle is an example of this). As this continues to grow, it is possible that we will see an increase in conscious gamers. It is interesting to consider that, although this group may continue to play violent games for a while, as their and humanity’s consciousness increases, it is likely that the nature of gaming will change too as the content of such games changes to reflect the new reality of a higher level of consciousness.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject – please leave a comment and share!

Esther And Jerry Hicks: The Law Of Attraction

The Law Of Attraction is one of the later books written by Jerry and Esther Hicks containing the teachings of Abraham, a group of non-physical entities channelled by Esther. It is, however, a book that focuses on the basics of the teachings, and for that reason I’d suggest reading this one first if you are new to Abraham-Hicks’ material.

If you have already read other books written by the Hicks, like The Amazing Power Of Deliberate Intent and Ask And It Is Given, you may find much of the information in The Law Of Attraction repetitive, especially that contained in Part I which focuses on the Hicks’ journey to channelling Abraham. Although Part II (The Law Of Attraction), Part III (The Science Of Deliberate Creation), Part IV (The Art Of Allowing), and Part V (Segment Intending) were largely familiar to me, I still found much of value in them. Through a series of questions and answers, these sections did clarify quite a few aspects of the material for me and also gave a very thorough overview of Abraham’s teachings.

The Law Of Attraction has often received criticism from those who have only watched The Secret and concluded that it is all about magical thinking and how to attract more material possessions into your life. If you want a good introduction to how the Law Of Attraction is so much more than this, and a more spiritual take on the principles, I would recommend that you start with The Law Of Attraction as well as look into other books published by the Hicks.