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.

Ask Mags: Vibrational Alignment And Unexpected Negative Manifestations

I have become quite good at using the Law Of Attraction to manifest things and experiences. But every now and then, something unexpected and negative crops up. The latest was an unexpected bill. I didn’t intend for this, so why did it manifest into my experience?! I get quite upset when this happens – what am I doing wrong?

The physical manifestations in our lives reflect the balance of positive and negative vibrations that we put out. Even those of us who are more practised at maintaining a state of conscious presence, thinking positively, and focusing our thoughts and feelings on specific intentions don’t always manage to keep this up 100% of the time.

Since we have a mixture of vibrations, we get a mixture of experiences back. I tend to think of it as a kind of interference pattern :). For example, say the balance of your vibrations is 95% positive and 5% negative… your life will reflect this in that things will go incredibly well for 95% of the time, yet every now and then something negative will crop up. I refer to the ones that happen in my life as “glitches in the Matrix” :). They’re not hugely negative experiences in the grand scheme of things (on the level of administrative-type things, like my bank messing up an application and me having to redo it). Obviously, I’d prefer for the glitches not to happen, but I’d rather redo a bank application than have my house fall into a sink-hole!

The glitches that you experience may not be anything that you have specifically intended. Things and experiences manifest into our lives that match the general level and tone of our vibrations – becoming more present, for example, with its attendant vibrational energy of joy and peace, will attract joyful and peaceful experiences into your life. You can further focus your energy on specific intentions, but it is important to realise that this is not necessary in order for experiences to start coming into your life. The same principle applies to more negatively toned vibrations – sending out a general anxiety-type vibration will tend to attract physical manifestations of that. We may therefore not intend specifically for an unexpected bill, but it arrives nonetheless because we are a vibrational match for it.

I understand your experience of getting upset with the unexpected manifestations! I experienced this as well a while back. I was quite frustrated, almost angry, with the glitches – my thoughts went along the lines of, I’m positive and good with the Law Of Attraction and energy stuff… how can this be happening to me?! When your life is largely positive, even a small negative thing can seem major because it is so different from the rest of your experience. But as I started to understand more about how we attract what we’re a vibrational match for, and the balance of positive and negative energy, I realised that instead of beating myself up every time a glitch happened, I should actually be congratulating myself… having glitches rather than major catastrophes is evidence that I am pretty good at manifesting positive things and experiences into my life!

For now, then, while I’m still learning about the Law Of Attraction, I’ve decided to relax about my glitches. Instead of focusing on them and how terrible they are compared to the rest of my life, I accept them when they happen, and use them as an opportunity to learn even more about the Law Of Attraction. Then I take my focus off them and look instead at the things that are going well, sending out deep gratitude for the wonderful parts of my life.

Ask Mags: Can Dreams Predict The Future?

I had a dream about a week ago, and I think it came true… a few days after the dream a related event happened in my life. It was somewhat similar to my dream, but not exactly the same – different place, different people, but the same general topic. Did I predict the future?

I think that some people do experience prophetic dreams, in which they see an event occurring as it then later unfolds in the physical world. In these cases, the match between the dream and later physical reality is pretty much exact. I’m not sure how and why such dreams occur. One of my theories here is that because time doesn’t exist on the non-physical plane, the dreamer is able to “remember” the future in much the same way as we can remember the past.

However, I think that most dreams that people assume to be prophetic actually aren’t. We exist on different levels – in simple terms these are body, mind and soul. Our body (and our extended physical environment) acts as a mirror, reflecting back to us what is happening at the level of our minds (thoughts). In turn, our mind acts as a mirror, reflecting back to us what is happening at the level of our soul. Because energy is denser on the physical plane, it takes longer for our soul level to be reflected in the physical than it does in the mental plane. These reflections are useful to us when we are working through an issue of some kind in our soul’s development. As our thoughts are accessible to us and effects on our bodies and environment are visible, we can use these reflections to help us see what actions we need to take at soul level to resolve the issue and grow further. As we change and grow on a soul level, so too do our minds and life circumstances change accordingly to reflect the new soul reality. Those of you who have studied The Law Of Attraction and are applying it in your lives, will recognise the principles of those teachings here: thoughts become things, and in turn thoughts reflect our level of conscious awareness and alignment to Divine Energy (such as Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, Divine Power and Divine Abundance).

So, how does this all relate to dreams? Well, since our soul level is first and foremost reflected in the mind, and this is the level at which dreams take place, it stands to reason that our dreams can provide clues regarding what is happening for us at soul level. When we are out of alignment with Divine Energy, dreams can act as “early warning systems” – if we can pick up on what our dreams are telling us and change our thought patterns, we are likely to resolve our soul level issues at this point. If we ignore our dreams, however, and don’t change our thought patterns, then things and experiences manifest into the physical level that are a vibrational match for us at a soul level. For example, our bodies will get ill, or we will experience negative events in our environment. Of course, if we are in alignment with Divine Energy at a soul level, our dreams and physical reality will also reflect this. For example, alignment with the energy of Divine Abundance is mirrored in an abundant mindset and ultimately results in bodily health and material wealth on the physical plane.

As a result of this, my feeling is that dreams that match a later physical event in terms of broad subject matter only (in other words, the physical event is not a step-by-step and word-for-word reproduction of the dream) are not prophetic. We assume that they are because the dream happened before the physical event, but it is probably more accurate to say that the two are simply effects of the same spiritual cause, one seemingly occurring before the other purely as a result of the fact that it takes longer to manifest things on the denser physical plane.

I'd be interested to hear others' take on the subject - let me know what you think!

Got A Question? Ask Mags!

Do you have a question that you'd like to see answered on this blog? Ask Mags by sending an email to: woowoowisdom[at]gmail[dot]com

I look forward to hearing from you!